Title: Falling from the Sky (Gravity #1)
Author: Sarina Bowen
Genre: Contemporary romance, sports
Release Date: 2 Feb 2015

Author's links:
Website / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads

My rating: 3.5 Stars
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Synopsis 

Review

I liked Hank and his journey from a superstar snowboarder to a person bound on wheelchair. His struggles to come to terms with happened to him and to move on and build a new life for himself were interesting to read.

The heroine, Callie, who is a doctor, was shy, focused on her work and really missing have someone in her life. Her attraction to Hank was pretty clear and even after his injure she saw him as desirable, someone she wanted to be. She acted somewhat childish and immature which I found annoying.

I felt the story lacked some depth, it dealt with serious issues (disability, professional ethics, etc.) but I wished we were given more insight into them instead of focusing mostly on Hank's attempts to get together with Callie and her fears and distrust.

The romance was slowgoing and felt real and intimate. There was some quietness and bit of predictablity to it but overall, it felt me feeling happy for the couple. 

The story had an easy flow to it, nice and pleasant but nothing really stood out. The conflict wasn't very strong and overall things were rather tame. I wanted more tension, a bit more raw emotion. I'd have loved to see Hank at  his darkest/lowest moments after the injury and the way he dealt with the irrevocable  changes in his life.

Still, it's a nice, uplifting story without being too sweet or too gritty, keeping a middle ground. I can recommend it to fans of sport romances. I'm curious about the other characters and plan on continuing with this series.

Purchase links: Amazon / B&N / iBooks / Kobo

My reviews of other books by Sarina Bowen:
The Year We Fell Down (The Ivy Years #1) - 4.5 Stars
The Year We Hid Away (The Ivy Years #2) - 4 Stars
The Understatement of the Year (The Ivy Years #3) - 4 Stars

Waiting on Wednesday is a book meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and it features books that we are eagerly awaiting to be released.

Title: Sweet (Counturs of the Heart #3) 
Author: Tammara Webber
Genre/Themes: Romance, New Adult
Release Date: 27 April 2015

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Pre-order links: Amazon / iBooks




He’s the love of her life, but he doesn’t know it.

She’s his one moment of sacrifice in a lifetime of survival.

He was damaged and wild, but resilient.

She’s always been obedient. Now she’s restless.

Home for the summer between college and med school, Pearl Torres Frank knows two things: Boyce Wynn is the embodiment of everything she should run from, and everything she wants to run to. Rebellious and loud. Unconcerned with society’s opinion of him. Passionate. Strong. Dangerous.

And one more trait he hides from everyone but her. Sweet.



Why am I waiting for this? - Easy is one of my favourite NA romances and it's companion novel, Breakable (my review), was a great read was well. We meet Boyce and Pearl int he second book and he got me intrigued right then and there. I can't wait to see how things between him and Pearl work out in the end.

Title: Waiting for the Flood

Author: Alexis Hall

Genre/Themes: Contemproary romance, m/m, novella

Release Date: 23 February 2015

Synopsis

People come as well as go.

Twelve years ago, Edwin Tully came to Oxford and fell in love with a boy named Marius. He was brilliant. An artist. It was going to be forever.

Two years ago, it ended.

Now Edwin lives alone in the house they used to share. He tends to damaged books and faded memories, trying to a build a future from the fragments of the past.

Then the weather turns, and the river spills into Edwin’s quiet world, bringing with it Adam Dacre from the Environment Agency. An unlikely knight, this stranger with roughened hands and worn wellingtons, but he offers Edwin the hope of something he thought he would never have again.

As the two men grow closer in their struggle against the rising waters, Edwin learns he can’t protect himself from everything—and sometimes he doesn't need to try.

Review

This is a sweet, truly romantic love story written in the amazingly intimate, touching style of Mr. Hall. I loved every word of this rather short book and very much felt like highlighting all of it on my Kindle.

It's a quiet, understated attraction (which might grown into love or not) that happens to two ordinary people. The story is told from the POV of Edwin and I liked his journey to finding his voice, accepting it as it was and finally moving on with his life/love. 

In short, I loved everything in this book, the story is itself is rather simple and straightforward but the way it was told makes it unforgettable for me. There is so much warmth and sincerity in the writing. 

There are not grand gestures or drama in this book, it’s just two people meeting by chance and taking tentative steps toward each other, getting to know each other, sharing their dreams and hopes, their fears and insecurities. It felt so real, often I thought of Edwin’s messy emotions "Oh, I've felt this way. I still feel this way sometimes." 

For me, this ordinary contemporary love story carried the same magic and passion in it, as Mr Hall's paranormal stories (Sand and Gold and Ruin, in particular). Perhaps it’s his way of rendering human emotions into words on the page that makes the everyday life magical, turning it into a story of life, love and the human soul.

Edwin is my kind of guy in everything. I loved his personal quirks, weaknesses and strengths and I felt the happy, optimistic ending holding a promise for the future was perfect for him (and Adam, of course). 

This is a recommended read for me. If you haven’t read Alexis before, this novella is a great opportunity to get familiar with his style (and to fall in love with his writing).

Pre-order: Riptide 

My reviews of other books by Alexis Hall:

Glitterland - 5 Stars

Prosperity - 5 Stars

Liberty and Other Stories - 5 Stars

There will be Phlogiston - 5 Stars

Sand and Ruin and Gold - 5 Stars

Title: Meatworks 
Author: Jordan Castillo Price
Genre/Themes: Dystopia / MM romance
Release Date: 3 July 2014

Author's links:
Website / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads
My rating: 4 Stars

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Desmond Poole is damaged in more ways than one. If he was an underachiever before, he’s entirely useless now that he’s lost his right hand. He spends his time drowning his sorrows in vodka while he deliberately blows off the training that would help him master his new prosthetic. Social Services seems determined to try and stop him from wallowing in his own filth, so he’s forced to attend an amputee support group. He expects nothing more than stale cookies, tepid decaf and a bunch of self-pitying sob stories, so he’s blindsided when a fellow amputee catches his eye.

Corey Steiner is a hot young rudeboy who works his robotic limb like an extension of his own body, and he’s smitten by Desmond’s crusty punk rock charm from the get-go. Unfortunately, Desmond hasn’t quite severed ties with his ex-boyfriend, and Corey isn’t known for his maturity or patience.

Meatworks is set in a bleak near-future where cell phone and personal computer technologies never developed. In their place, robotics flourished. Now robots run everything from cars to coffee pots. Taking the guesswork out of menial tasks was intended to create leisure time, but instead robots have made society dependent and passive.

Desmond loathes robots and goes out of his way to avoid them. But can he survive without the robotic arm strapped to the end of his stump?

Most of my GR friends and people whose opinion on books I value highly raved about this book so I decided to try it. Furthermore, I was intrigued by the dyspotian setting and the character(s) with disabilities.

It's an engaging, thought-provoking read, skillfully written, leaving a very memorable impression. Told from the first-person POV of Desmond is his tale of finding his place in a cruel/emotionless dyspotian world where robots serve the people as much as control them. 

It started rather bleak and gloomy, too depressing for me. The world building was great and the future world portrayed was really distrubing. it's a story about Desmond's life with all his ups and downs, mistakes and the very, very few good things that happened to him. There is romance in the story but it's not the fantasy, all-chamging, saving tupe of love, rather this was raw and real, love-is-messy kind of story. None of the characters has it easy, even Jim, and consequently their feelings for each other were all over the place - love, lust, hatred, distrust, honesty, hope and desperation. 

Desmond is not a nice person, yet the author did manage to make me care deeplty for him, to want him to find his happiness. His journey, his growth didn't erase his past mistakes but they did make him a better person.

Corey and Jim are sort of Desmond's past and his future. I liked the intricacies of the relationships between the three of them, they felt real. There is no magic way to deal with disabilitity, with disillusionment, with life (the good, the bad and all in between).

The story reminded me in a way of Alexis Hall's Glitterland, though the setting couldn't be more different. It's a story of love/life gone compeltely and irreversibly wrong, before finally going right. A trial by error journey for Desmond (and Corey, to some extend).

It's capativating story, not for the faint of heart. It's about the ugly and raw in life, the people who have lost themselves, yet they still have feelings and hopes and dreams and they deserve to be happy as much as anyone else. 

Purchase links: Amazon / B&N / Smashwords / iTunes

I discovered Sarina Bowen last year through her Ivy Years series which I restored my faith in the New Adult college romance and which I absolutely loved. Now Ms Bowen is re-releasing another romantic series - adult sport romances, the Gravity series. Check out the beatiful new covers and get ready for a snowy adventure!

Purchase links: Amazon / B&N / Kobo / iTunes

Synopsis

She's the woman he doesn't remember. He's the man she can't forget.

Bad boy Hank “Hazardous” Lazarus used to have everything: a gorgeous girlfriend, a career as a freestyle snowboarder and a spot on the US Olympic team. Nine months ago, after a bad crash in the half pipe, he woke up in the hospital, unable to move his legs. Now he’s landed there again, but gravity is not the culprit. With his family pressuring him to try a groundbreaking treatment, Hank self-medicates with too much tequila instead.

Doctor Callie Anders has the courage to restart a patient’s heart with a thousand volts of electricity, yet she’s afraid to risk her own. So she doesn’t confess to the clinic’s newest patient that they met just before the accident, an encounter that he doesn’t remember. Even as their friendship develops, she won’t admit she regrets turning down his dinner invitation, or that her heart stutters every time those inked shoulders roll through the door of the therapy department.

With another Vermont winter coming again, Hank needs a hand out from under the avalanche of his disappointments. If only Callie were brave enough to take the job.

“Hi,” Callie said softly. “I’m Doctor Anders. Or Callie, if you wish.”

“Callie,” he cleared his throat. “You look really familiar.”

That wasn’t what she had expected him to say. It would have been as good a time as any to mention that they’d met about ten minutes before his accident, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Who would want to be reminded of that afternoon? “I’ve been here all week,” she said instead. “But we don’t expect you to keep track of the dozens of people who prod you all day.”

“And all night,” he added.

She sat down on a stool next to his bed. “That’s my fault. I need to know that they’re looking at your vitals every three hours. It helps me sleep.” She winked, and was rewarded with half a smile. “Now, quick—before the room is invaded again by nurses’ assistants—how’s your pain? Is there anything you need?”

Hank lifted one hand to his face, and Callie was glad to see it. If his injury had happened farther up his spine, he wouldn’t have been able to do that. With his palm, Hank rubbed several days’ worth of whiskers, which only served to make him look more rugged, while he considered her question. “Let’s see…I need a full rack of Curtis’ ribs, with spicy sauce and a baked potato. And I need to get the hell out of this hospital.”

She nodded obligingly, even though she couldn’t fulfill any of those requests. But if he was talking about food and getting out of here, those were both good signs. “You’ll be transferring to a rehab facility soon.”

“Yeah,” he sighed. His gaze wandered again, his eyes aiming at the window.

“The rehab place will let you sleep through the night,” she said, keeping her voice light. “And you’ll have your own clothes. I hear the food is better, too.”

“Couldn’t really be worse,” he said, turning to face Callie again. His dark eyes locked onto hers, and Callie felt the moment stretch and take hold. He didn’t say anything more, but he didn’t have to. Silently, an understanding passed between them. It didn’t matter if the food got better. Hank Lazarus was in for a shitty time, truly the shittiest time of his life. The distance he’d come these past five days was a descent from the highest high to the lowest low. And there wasn’t a damned thing either of them could do about it.

“Hang in there,” Callie whispered. “This right here is the very worst part.”

He didn’t break their staring contest. “You promise?” he rumbled, his voice pure whiskey and smoke.

*** *** ***