ARC review: Right Where You Are (Second Chances, #1) by L.E. Bross

3 stars! ***

Author: L.E. Bross

Title: Right Where You Are (Second Chances, #1)
 

Avery Melrose is used to having it all. So when her boyfriend cheats on her, she reacts like any spoiled rich girl-she freaks out and vandalizes his new truck, Carrie Underwood style. Now she's stuck with 300 hours of community service doing road-side garbage duty.

Seth Hunter just got out of prison, and after a few hundred hours picking up litter on the side of the highway, he can finally put his mistakes behind him. If he can string together some kind of existence, maybe it'll be enough to get his sister away from their stepfather, the man who sent Seth to prison in the first place.

A romance between these two is doomed from the start. Girls like Avery want castles and white horses, and Seth is no prince charming.

But sometimes, being around Avery makes Seth think he could make something of himself. Maybe even be worthy of a girl like her. It's just too bad real life gets in the way first, tearing these two apart before they have any chance of getting to Happily Ever After.

Review: Near and Far (Lost and Found, #2) by Nicole Williams

4.5 stars! ****

Author: Nicole Williams

Title: Near and Far (Lost and Found, #2) 
 

There’s optimistic. And there’s Jesse Walker.

If he wasn’t so charming, his sunny disposition and incessant grin would get old. Fast.

Falling in love with the broken girl who had at first seemed immune to anything resembling love was the best thing to happen to Jesse since the Walkers adopted him when he was five.

As Jesse’s life continues at the ranch and Rowen begins making her mark in the Seattle art community, they wonder where the middle ground is. Or if there even is one.

As push comes to shove, they’re forced to make choices neither are eager to make, and Jesse and Rowen have to face what their lives might look like without the other.

Can two people with such tragic pasts and different presents expect a promising future together? Whatever the answer, they’ll need a lot more than love to make it.

Review: Lost and Found (Lost and Found, #1) by Nicole Williams

5 stars! *****

Author: Nicole Williams

Title: Lost and Found (Lost and Found, #1)
 

There’s complicated. And there’s Rowen Sterling.

After numbing pain for the past five years with boys, alcohol, and all-around apathy, she finds herself on a Greyhound bus to nowhere Montana the summer after she graduates high school. Her mom agreed to front the bill to Rowen’s dream art school only if Rowen proves she can work hard and stay out of trouble at Willow Springs Ranch. Cooking breakfast at the crack of dawn for a couple dozen ranch hands and mucking out horse stalls are the last things in the world Rowen wants to spend her summer doing.

Until Jesse Walker saunters into her life wearing a pair of painted-on jeans, a cowboy hat, and a grin that makes something in her chest she’d thought was frozen go boom-boom. Jesse’s like no one else, and certainly nothing like her. He’s the bright and shiny to her dark and jaded.

Rowen knows there’s no happily-ever-after for the golden boy and the rebel girl—happily-right-now is a stretch—so she tries to forget and ignore the boy who makes her feel things she’s not sure she’s ready to feel. But the more she pushes him away, the closer he seems to get. The more she convinces herself she doesn’t care, the harder she falls.

When her dark secrets refuse to stay locked behind the walls she’s kept up for years, Rowen realizes it’s not just everyone else she needs to be honest with. It’s herself.

Review: The Friend Zone (Game On, #2) by Kristen Callihan

3 stars! ***

Author: Kristen Callihan

Title: The Friend Zone (Game On, #2)
 

Gray doesn’t make friends with women. He has sex with them. Until Ivy.

The last thing star tight-end Gray Grayson wants to do is drive his agent’s daughter’s bubblegum pink car. But he needs the wheels and she’s studying abroad. Something he explains when she sends him an irate text to let him know exactly how much pain she’ll put him in if he crashes her beloved ride. Before he knows it, Ivy Mackenzie has become his best texting bud. But then Ivy comes home and everything goes haywire. Because the only thing Gray can think of is being with Ivy.

Ivy doesn’t have sex with friends. Especially not with a certain football player. No matter how hot he makes her…

Gray drives Ivy crazy. He’s irreverent, sex on a stick, and completely off limits. Because, Ivy has one golden rule: never get involved with one of her father’s clients. A rule that’s proving harder to keep now that Gray is doing his best to seduce her. Her best friend is fast becoming the most irresistible guy she’s ever met.

Which means Gray is going to have to use all his skills to get himself out of the friend zone and into Ivy’s heart. Game on.

Review: The Hook Up (Game On, #1) by Kristen Callihan

4 stars! ****

Author: Kristen Callihan

Title: The Hook Up (Game On, #1)
 

The rules: no kissing on the mouth, no staying the night, no telling anyone, and above all… No falling in love.

Anna Jones just wants to finish college and figure out her life. Falling for star quarterback Drew Baylor is certainly not on her to do list. Confident and charming, he lives in the limelight and is way too gorgeous for his own good. If only she could ignore his heated stares and stop thinking about doing hot and dirty things with him. Easy right?

Too bad he’s committed to making her break every rule…

Football has been good to Drew. It’s given him recognition, two National Championships, and the Heisman. But what he really craves is sexy yet prickly Anna Jones. Her cutting humor and blatant disregard for his fame turns him on like nothing else. But there’s one problem: she's shut him down. Completely.

That is until a chance encounter leads to the hottest sex of their lives, along with the possibility of something great. Unfortunately, Anna wants it to remain a hook up. Now it’s up to Drew to tempt her with more: more sex, more satisfaction, more time with him. Until she’s truly hooked. It's a good thing Drew knows all about winning.

All’s fair in love and football…Game on.

ARC review: The Last One (The One, #1) by Tawdra Kandle

4 stars! ****

Author: Tawdra Kandle

Title: The Last One (The One, #1)
 

Meghan Hawthorne is restless. The last year has been a roller coaster: her widowed mother just married a long-time family friend. Her younger brother unexpectedly became a father and a husband. Everyone's life is changing. . .except for hers. As she begins her final summer of college, Meghan's looking for excitement and maybe a little romance. Nothing serious; this girl just wants to have fun.

But the only man for Meghan turns out to be the last one she expects.

Sam Reynolds doesn't need excitement, and he doesn't want romance. Fun is out of the question. He's been the steady, responsible one since his parents were killed, and serious is his way of life.

When Sam rescues Meghan alongside a dark Georgia backroad, she falls hard for his deep brown eyes and slow drawl. But making him see her as more than just a party girl won't be easy. Sam's tempted by the fiery young artist, even as he realizes that giving into his feelings will mean radical change. . .maybe more than he can handle.

Nobody ever said love was simple.

ARC review: Accelerate (Hotwired, #1) by Tracy Wolff

5 stars! *****

Author: Tracy Wolff

Title: Accelerate (Hotwired, #1)
 

Once the brains behind a car-boosting ring, Nic Medina has spent the last three years playing it straight. Now drag racers flock to his L.A. auto shop, Hotwired, for a shot at going head-to-head with the man himself. But when a crooked cop gives Nic a treacherous ultimatum—steal ten high-end cars or watch his nephew disappear into the system—he makes the only choice he can, one that puts the life he’s worked so hard for at risk. No sooner does Nic agree than he spots some nasty competition—and a gorgeous bystander in harm’s way.

A small-town girl with Hollywood dreams, Jordan Bass never expected to be swept up in a real-life drama. But that’s exactly what happens when she witnesses a violent crime. And when a smoldering stranger takes the wheel and practically kidnaps her in a desperate bid to keep her safe, she’s not sure whether to scream . . . or kiss him. Nic’s bad news—but the real bad guys aren’t above silencing a witness. On a collision course with danger, Jordan finds herself falling for the man whose street smarts are keeping her alive . . . and whose touch puts her in high gear.

Review: The Girl I Was Before (Falling, #3) by Ginger Scott

3.5 stars! ****

Author: Ginger Scott

Title: The Girl I Was Before (Falling, #3)

I’m the selfish one. I suppose that’s the nicest thing people say about me. I’ve heard the other things, too. “Paige Owens is a pretty girl with nothing else to offer. She’s just a good time at a party. She’s stupid, heartless, cold and useless. All she cares about is getting a guy to look at her. Why would anyone want to be her friend?”

Some of those things are true. Others were true. They’re all hurtful.

None of it matters.

I’m ready to make the hard choices. I’m ready to face the consequences. I’m ready to be the girl I was before, and I’m done being the one who lost her way.

I’m ready to become the girl Houston Orr sees when he looks at me.

Houston isn’t a star athlete. He doesn’t play in a band. He’s never going to be president, and his life is so far away from simple and easy it isn’t even funny.
He wasn’t part of my plan. But I’m starting to think plans are overrated, and maybe our stories are what we make them. And mine depends entirely on me, and the choices I make…starting now.

Houston is my fairytale. He’s perfectly imperfect. He’s poetry and life. He’s truth and heartbreak, all rolled up in a tall body with dark hair, broad shoulders and green eyes that lull me into submission. He’s nothing I ever thought I wanted, but the very thing I need. He’s the only guy I’ve ever really loved, and he thinks I’m a princess. I fell into him, and now I’m holding on.

But sometimes life takes away our ability to choose. Sometimes…things aren’t in your control. Sometimes, it hurts to be selfless. My only hope is that when it comes time to choose, I get it right.

Welcome to my once upon a time and wish for happily ever after.

Review: You and Everything After (Falling, #2) by Ginger Scott

3 stars! ***

Author: Ginger Scott

Title: You and Everything After (Falling, #2)

I’m that teenaged girl who has MS. You haven’t met me, but you’ve seen me around. You probably know my sister. We’re twins, and she’s the pretty one. Maybe you’ve heard about my reputation, how much I like to hook up at parties—how easy it is to get me in bed, get what you want, and forget about me after.

Forget what you think you know. I’m leaving that girl behind.

College is all about new beginnings. So from now on—I’m just Cass. And the rest…it isn’t written yet. And no one else gets to write my story for me.

--------

“Tyson Preeter doesn’t do can’t.”

That’s exactly what I want people to think when they see me. I am strong, invincible, confident, intelligent—arrogant. I’m the man who always finds a way around, over and through—until there’s nothing left. Since losing my ability to walk six years ago, I’ve relearned life. I don’t need sympathy. I don’t want charity. And I don’t do love.

It’s better this way, saves my disappointments for me, and me alone, and it saves my strength for everything I want.

But Cass Owens is about to wreck everything. She’s about to steal all of my strength away from me, because she needs it more. She’s about to break all of my rules, and break down all of my walls. She’s about to own me…completely.

And I’m about to let her.

* This is the second book in the Falling Series, and it is scheduled to release Dec. 5. Book 1, This Is Falling, is out now. Each book can be read as a standalone and will focus on a different couple.

Review: This is Falling (Falling, #1) by Ginger Scott

4 stars! ****

Author: Ginger Scott

Title: This is Falling (Falling, #1)

First, I had to remember how to breathe. Then, I had to learn how to survive. Two years, three months and sixteen days had passed since I was the Rowe Stanton from before, since tragedy stole my youth and my heart went along with it.

When I left for college, I put a thousand miles between my future and my past. I’d made a choice—I was going to cross back to the other side, to live with the living. I just didn’t know how.

And then I met Nate Preeter.

An All-American baseball player, Nate wasn’t supposed to notice a ghost-of-a-girl like me. But he did. He shouldn’t want to know my name. But he did. And when he learned my secret and saw the scars it left behind, he was supposed to run. But he didn’t.

My heart was dead, and I was never supposed to belong to anyone. But Nate Preeter had me feeling, and he made me want to be his. He showed me everything I was missing.

And then he showed me how to fall.

Review: Gabriel's Redemption (Gabriel's Inferno, #3) by Sylvain Reynard

2 stars! **

Author: Sylvain Reynard
Title: Gabriel's Redemption (Gabriel's Inferno #3)

Professor Gabriel Emerson has left his position at the University of Toronto to embark on a new life with his beloved Julianne. Together, he’s confident that they can face any challenge. And he’s eager to become a father.

But Julianne’s graduate program threatens Gabriel’s plans, as the pressures of being a student become all consuming. When she is given the honor of presenting an academic lecture at Oxford, Gabriel is forced to confront her about the subject of her presentation – research that conflicts with his own. And in Oxford, several individuals from their past appear, including an old nemesis intent on humiliating Julia and exposing one of Gabriel’s darkest secrets.

In an effort to confront his remaining demons, Gabriel begins a quest to discover more about his biological parents, beginning a chain of events that has startling repercussions for himself, Julianne, and his hope of having a family.

Review: Gabriel's Rapture (Gabriel's Inferno, #2) by Sylvain Reynard

2.5 stars! ***

Author: Sylvain Reynard

Title: Gabriel's Rapture (Gabriel's Inferno #2)

Professor Gabriel Emerson has embarked on a passionate, yet clandestine affair with his former student, Julia Mitchell. Sequestered on a romantic holiday in Italy, he tutors her in the sensual delights of the body and the raptures of sex. But when they return, their happiness is threatened by conspiring students, academic politics, and a jealous ex-lover. When Gabriel is confronted by the university administration, will he succumb to Dante's fate? Or will he fight to keep Julia, his Beatrice, forever? In Gabriel's Rapture, the brilliant sequel to the wildly successful debut novel, Gabriel's Inferno, Sylvain Reynard weaves an exquisite love story that will touch the reader's mind, body, and soul, forever.

Review: Gabriel's Inferno (Gabriel's Inferno, #1) by Sylvain Reynard

3.5 stars! ****

Author: Sylvain Reynard

Title: Gabriel's Inferno (Gabriel's Inferno #1)

Enigmatic and sexy, Professor Gabriel Emerson is a well respected Dante specialist by day, but by night he devotes himself to an uninhibited life of pleasure. He uses his notorious good looks and sophisticated charm to gratify his every whim, but is secretly tortured by his dark past and consumed by the profound belief that he is beyond all hope of redemption.

When the sweet and innocent Julia Mitchell enrolls as his graduate student, his attraction and mysterious connection to her not only jeopardizes his career, but sends him on a journey in which his past and his present collide.

An intriguing and sinful exploration of seduction, forbidden love and redemption, "Gabriel's Inferno" is a captivating and wildly passionate tale of one man's escape from his own personal hell as he tries to earn the impossible...forgiveness and love.

ARC review: That One Night (That One Series, #1) by Josie Wright

4.5 stars! *****

Author: Josie Wright

Title: That One Night (That One Series #1)

All it takes is just one moment to change the course of your life. For me, it was one perfect night.
I have always had a thing for my brother’s best friend, Ben. When I found him on my parents’ couch, drowning his sorrows in a whiskey bottle, my attempts to comfort him quickly turned into a night of raw and intense passion.
My foolish heart hoped he might feel the same way I do.
But Ben wasn’t there to stay and I woke up the next morning alone with a broken heart.
I attempted to forget the guy with a smile to die for and a touch that sets me on fire.
I thought I was over him.
I thought he was gone forever.
Until, eighteen months later Ben returns and learns my secret. Now, he is hell-bent on winning me back.
He plays dirty.
And he won’t stop until he gets what he wants—me.

But he has secrets of his own.
Secrets that could destroy everything we might have and everything we are.

Review: Falling Away (Fall Away, #3) by Penelope Douglas

4 stars! ****

Author: Penelope Douglas

Title: Falling Away (Fall Away, #3)

Jaxon is the guy she’s supposed to avoid.

K.C. is the girl he won’t let get away....

K.C. Carter has always followed the rules—until this year, when a mistake leaves her the talk of her college campus and her carefully arranged life comes crashing to a halt. Now she’s stuck in her small hometown for the summer to complete her court-ordered community service, and to make matters worse, trouble is living right next door.

Jaxon Trent is the worst kind of temptation and exactly what K.C. was supposed to stay away from in high school. But he never forgot her. She was the one girl who wouldn’t give him the time of day and the only one to ever say no. Fate has brought K.C. back into his life—except what he thought was a great twist of luck turns out to be too close for comfort. As the bond between them grows, he discovers that convincing K.C. to get out from her mother’s shadow is hard, but revealing the darkest parts of his soul is nearly impossible.…

Review: Rival (Fall Away, #2) by Penelope Douglas

3 stars! ***

Author: Penelope Douglas

Title: Rival (Fall Away, #2)

Madoc and Fallon. Two estranged teenagers playing games that push the boundaries between love and war…

She’s back.

For the two years she’s been away at boarding school, there was no word from her. Back when we lived in the same house, she used to cut me down during the day and then leave her door open for me at night.

I was stupid then, but now I’m ready to beat her at her own game…

I’m back.

Two years and I can tell he still wants me, even if he acts like he’s better than me.

But I won’t be scared away. Or pushed down. I’ll call his bluff and fight back. That’s what he wants, right? As long as I keep my guard up, he’ll never know how much he affects me….

Review: Seductive Secrecy (Shadows, #2) by Marni Mann

2 stars! **

Author: Marni Mann

Title: Seductive Secrecy (Shadows, #2)




The conclusion to the Shadows series was weak. I thought that when there won't be any of Charlie's whoring it will be a lot better. It wasn't.

Charlie is now officialy in relationship with Cameron, but they are still barriers between them. The case concerning the mansion is still open, her father in hiding and Victoria - the woman who recruited her was missing. Her paintings are selling more than ever. Her future is looking bright.

Everything should be close to perfect. But it is still as far away as before. Her past hunts her and eventually she can't ran away from it anymore.

Cameron's brother Ryder comes back from his backpacking tour in Asia and who would have guessed.. He used to be one of Charlie's "customers". And Cameron doesn't handle it well. At all. He ignores her for couple of weeks and after catching him painting a nude painting of his ex Charlie moves out.

The ending was bittersweet and there were still things that I expected to be FINALLY resolved. For example Charlie's relationship with Emma's family. If Charlie wasn't thinking about sex, masturbating, having sex, wasn't feeling guilty about having sex for money she thought about them. A lot. So one would think that when something appears in the book ALL the fucki*g time it will have some ending. But nooo. Nothing.

I'm so relieved this isn't trilogy I don't think I would have survived that.




*ARC courtesy of publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

Review: Seductive Shadows (Shadows, #1) by Marni Mann

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Review: Deal Breakers by Laura Lee

3.5 stars! ***

Author: Laura Lee

Title: Deal Breakers (Dealing With Love #1)




Devyn and Riley has been friends for a couple of years. The met the first year at university and has been unseparable ever since. They bonded over sports and beer. And while they do feel atracted to each other they don't pursue it.

Riley is a man-whore but at least he keeps one girl around for a couple of weeks before he bores of her and dumps her.

Devyn (I really don't think this is supposed to be a girl's name) is a gorgeous blond, she loves football (the american one) and drinks beer better than most of the men.

They hook up before moving to different parts of the US. Riley who's been attracted to Devyn from the very beginning stars to ignore her after that.

Fast forward five years they meet again and Devyn's not alone. She's got a four year old who's the spitting image of his daddy.

It was on the shorter side but it felt alright. It wasn't rushed (at all! it took them ten years after all). Sometimes I felt a bit of deja-vu because a lot of scenes were about the same thing, in the same place.

I loved the little Nathan. He's the cutest of kids I've read about until now. Or at least his in the top 10. But he's definitely the funniest. Yep, he's asked his mother why his weenie gets big when he plays with it. For real.

But Devyn's and Riley's chemistry was off the charts! Steamy smoking hot!




*ARC courtesy of publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*