YA Blog Tour #Review: The A Word @joypreble

Book Title: The A Word (Sweet Dead Life #2)
Author: Joy Preble |Website| Twitter| Facebook|

Publisher: SOHO Teen
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Series/Standalone: Series
Format: paperback

Cost: $17.99

Pages: 272

How I got it: Publisher

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Publisher
Publication Date: May 2014
Add To Goodreads
Synopsis:

Jenna Samuels is about to turn fifteen. It's been almost a year since her stoner brother, Casey, bit the dust. Almost a year since he returned as her guardian angel, along with his "angel boss," Amber Velasco, the hot twenty-something former EMT. Almost a year since Casey and Amber used up their one-time-only angel power of flight to save Jenna from the evil Dr. Renfroe, swooping down to catch her as she tumbled off the balcony at the Houston Galleria. In short, a lot of A-word shenanigans and a mostly happy ending. Except now Casey's begun to wonder why he's still hanging around—not that he minds protecting Jenna. She's a handful, but there's got to be a bigger picture, right? Something to distract him from his on again/off again, doomed relationship with cheerleader Lanie Phelps, who has no idea her boyfriend is, well, dead. After all, he can't use his angel wings anymore. Neither can Amber. Enter Bo Shivers, Amber's "angel boss"—a mysterious A-word guy Jenna and Casey didn't even know existed. Whiskey-guzzling. Handsome in a grizzled way. Unpredictable. Okay, make that crazy. Bo lost his angel wings in an earthly flight a long, long, long time back—and he's been a thorn in Angel Management's side ever since. But Bo knows something is coming. Something big. Something that was worth forfeiting wings for Jenna... something that might just change everything for everyone.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

 ★★★☆☆

Happy Reading

#Review: The Real Thing (Westmoreland Series) @AuthorBJackson @HarlequinBooks

Book Title: The Real Thing (Westmorelands #28)
Author: Brenda Jackson |Website| Twitter| Facebook|

Publisher: Harlequin Desire
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series/Standalone: Series
Format: ebook, Mass Market Paperback

Cost: $5.25

Pages: 192

How I got it: NetGalley 

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Publisher
Publication Date: March 4, 2014
Add To Goodreads
Synopsis:

What happens when a pretend boyfriend wants more than make-believe? Find out in this Westmoreland novel from New York Times bestselling author Brenda Jackson! No red-blooded man turns down the chance to escort gorgeous Trinity Matthews—and Adrian Westmoreland is definitely red-blooded. For her, he'll pretend to be her man. But keeping his hands to himself? That is impossible. A Westmoreland always keeps his word, but how long before Adrian turns this fake affair into something real?

OMGawd, my loves, why have I waited so long to dive into this?!!! I love Brenda's writing and I foolishly put this book aside after getting it, I'm now kicking myself, but I can't wait until September to get Aiden's story. Ok let's back up a bit.

I loved this story, first of all the characters are African American who are successful and affluent. YAYAY for diversity!!!  We meet Trinity who is the sibling of Tara a recent Westmoreland addition,  Trinity moved to Denver because of her residency and she's super excited to making serious headway into her dream career. Except she's working in an hostile environment, she's being sexual harassed by a mentor and is desperate for a way to turn him off; her sister Tara had a brilliant plan to have a Westmoreland, Adrian to be exact help her out.  They decide to pretend to be lovers in hopes of turning the asshat Dr away.  Now considering I have been in several hospitals myself, I can't lie and say this isn't a realistic look sometimes, it always takes someone with brassier balls than the offending party to get them to back off.  Which is effing sad as hell.

While I was pissed on Trinity's behalf, I totally got why she made the choices she did and I don't blame her for it.  While working on finding a way around Dr. Asshat (that's what I'm calling him from now on),  Trinity and Adrian find themselves connecting more than they expected. Adrian pushes Trinity to try new things, to look beyond what she always saw for herself and to embrace the changes that came with seeing beyond those dreams. Of course I won't lie, the sex?? Girl dayuum it's hot!!

I loved Trinity as a character, I loved Adrian and his family. I loved the fact that they had great relationships with their siblings, and their families. I loved reading their interactions as a couple and with their family. I loved the unfurling of each characters' characteristics and their raw intensity with each other.  I will say I laughed a little at the beginning when they first got together because of the language used in the romance, not because of them, it's funny because i read raunchy erotica, and this was tame for the first few chapters then BAM it got good and raunchy too.  Never let be said that romance can't have a little kick with those nice flowers.

While their romance blooms, we have tension mounting at the workplace, and we are left wondering how will it work itself out.  As we progress, moves are made, gmae changing steps taken and man oh man does Adrian show up for Trinity!! I love this book and the family??!! Where do I sign up to marry into this??

I really loved coming back to the Westmoreland Clan and I can't wait to catch up completely and of course I'm now dying to read the Secret Affair which comes out September.

 ★★★★☆

Have you read any Brenda Jackson??  Or do you have another author like her you think I should check out?? Share down in the comment section and I will gladly look into them. Thanks for stopping by and of course,
Happy Reading

Blog Tour #Review: The Witch's Salvation (Book 1 in The Witch's Trilogy) @FrancaPelaccia

Book Title: The Witch's Salvation (Book 1)
Author:  Francesca Pelaccia |Website| Twitter| Facebook|

Publisher: Author
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Series/Standalone: Series Book 1
Format: ebook, paperback

Cost: $0.99, $12.99

Pages: 388

How I got it: Blog Tour

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble |
Publication Date: April 27th, 2013
Add To Goodreads
Synopsis:

A witch who demands humanity. The immortal families who denied her of it. Two mortals commanded to right the wrong. That is the fate of the urban princess Anasztasia and the renegade prince Matthias, born shockingly mortal to two immortal families. If they go back in time and restore the witch’s humanity, she will grant them immortality. She will also break a 550 year-old curse that imprisons Matthias’s family in their ancestral homeland and exiles Anasztasia’s family from it. But to make their lives their own, the heirs must return to the most dangerous day in their families’ past, Easter Sunday, 1457, the day Vlad III, aka Dracula, massacred nobles. How can they change the day when their families will not speak of their wrongs? How can they refuse when the witch owns their lives

Freaking amazeballs. When I was sent this galley I was afraid that it wouldn't be ok, because sometimes debut authors mean well but don't quite execute what they planned. I needed had worried, I was glued to this book from the very beginning.  The author writes about history, time travel, family honor, Knights and adventure. Who doesn't want that???  I was addicted and even gushed about the book to my sister and i was only like 150 pages in. I was loving it!!

The build up to the adventure our young princess and prince was facing was very well done.  I found myself desperately reading as fast as possible to see what was on the next page  Would they do what they were supposed to?? Would they fight for themselves?? How was this going to pan out??  I can't go into detail without spoiling it for you because it moves so quickly into the tale that anything could give more than I mean to.

The rich history used as the back drop, the myths, the love of the violin & music; oh my gosh there are even Knights, Saxon merchants, nobles, and Gypsies (Otherwise known as the Roma).  I found myself completely drawn in especially because she was talking about the Carpathian Mountains.  I found myself stopping a few moments to google some of the things she talked about so I could picture the men of the Teutonic Knights better, looking at maps so I could view the landscape better in my mind I was deeply entranced by this story and cannot wait until the second one comes out.

I have so many questions about friend the Knight, who is he, what does his symbols mean. Is he who I think he is???  OMGosh, this story just flew by and I can't quite explain how much I found myself enjoying it.  The sense of adventure, the lore, the fast paced sword fights, the love of family, of duty, of honor. The horror of Vlad the Third, the killing fields, the feast. I was just so lost in the story ( In a good way).  And of course the mysteries, why did her Grandfather not tell the whole story, who was the Witch?? What happened back then, I just wanted the mystery to unfold and of course pieces were given that made the story richer, and feed us just enough to keep you glued.  I loved the unfolding and how we got answers yet were left with so many more questions.

I'm going to stop gushing now and let you take a gander yourselves.  IF you had a chance to read it, share what you think down below, I'm off to stalk the author's goodreads page to see when the second book in the trilogy comes out.

Excerpt:

 In a cave shaped by five centuries of the earth’s temper, the wind’s hand, and the sky’s will, a witch stirs from beneath the dry leaves and twigs that make up her resting place. She pushes herself through, then brushes the blanket of brittle leaves from her furrowed face and shriveled limbs. But after five centuries of sleeping and waking in a bed of earth, she does not recognize foliage from skin. She plants her emaciated feet on rough stones and drags herself across the cave to the aged branches of her door, her steps shaky like those of an infant learning to walk. The door grinds as it opens with one silent command. The world outside her hovel is as it is inside—dark, dank, musty, the bottom layers of centuries of overgrowth and the absence of human vanity. Yet she hears everything, worms burrowing, insects feeding, foliage breathing. They have been her companions and teachers through the ages as much as they have been her nourishment. Her bones slipping against the shell of her body, she stumbles toward the ragged stump of an ancient beech. Over five centuries ago, she snapped the sapling from its roots, nurturing its swell to remind herself of the passage of the years, the turn of the centuries, and the approach of salvation. It is as old and as dead in life as she is, but it has kept her will strong and focus sharp. Instead of resting her frail body on it, or sipping from the water trickling over one of its gnarled roots and collecting in a hollow at its base, she climbs onto it. She crawls to the middle, appearing no bigger than a rodent on a master’s grand table. Her pupils are dull and worn away, but she finds the first ring with her fingertips and begins to count. One, two, three, four, five…It is slow and meticulous work for one taught only the basics of language and numbers by those she once served. But her voice is strong, her need to count a hunger, her focus unrelenting. Once she had magnificent eyes. Dark, almost black, alert and alive, eager to see the world, to touch it and to know it. Her hair matched the black of her eyes. Long and thick, it shone brighter than those nobles with marigold hair. Once, she was a young woman, until the nobles of the two warring families tore her from her family, wrenched her life from her body and her soul from her flesh, turning her into what she is now. Once, she had a name, a lovely, rhythmic name. But that was robbed from her, too, and she inherited another name. Strigoaic. Witch. A witch who was once a girl. A girl who once had a life. A life now trapped in death.

PrologueThe Strigoaic counts the rings without stopping, her voice moaning through the clearing and the dense trees around it. She stops when her fingers grasp a ring larger and more pronounced than the others. Her heart begins to thump as it did when she first discovered it, as it did in her human life. Slipping over the edge of the stump, her fingers never leaving that ring of hope, she begins to count again, but from one, to two, to three, all the way to eighteen. She lowers her head, a drop of blood falling from her eyes. Crawling back onto the stump, she lies on it, the pulse of the ancient tree pounding against her palms and heating her chilled skin. The time has come. After centuries of waiting, the time has come to summon those two nobles who robbed her of her humanity. But it is not them she wants. She has already punished them. She imprisoned one noble and his family in the boundaries of the earth once known as their homeland of Wallachia, while the other noble and his family she exiled from it. Unwise about her sorcery, however, she imprisoned and exiled them for eternity to an immortal life. That will right itself in time, too. Now she wants—no, needs—the last born of each family. She decreed them, and she will have them. Clawing her fingers through the flesh of the stump, she lets a shrill break from her lips that shakes birds and trees and mountains. The time has come to get her name back.

Wednesday, May 14

Book Featured at Sweeping Me

Thursday, May 15

Book Featured at Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews

Friday, May 16

Interview at As the Page Turns

Monday, May 19

Interview at The Book Connection

Tuesday, May 20

Book Featured at Literarily Speaking

Wednesday, May 21

Book Featured at Literary Winner

Thursday, May 22

Book Featured at Bibliotica

Guest Blogging at Lori’s Reading Corner

Friday, May 23

Book Featured at The Literary Nook

Monday, May 26

Guest Blogging at I Heart Reading

Tuesday, May 27

Book Review & Guest Blogging at The True Book Addict

Wednesday, May 28

Interview at Angie’s Diary

Thursday, May 29

Book Featured at Booklover Sue

Friday, May 30

Interview at Virginia Beach Publishing Examiner

 ★★★★★

Happy Reading

May Challenge: Clean Sweep & Bout of Books 10.0

Clean Sweep ARC Challenge Hosted by Kimba@ Kimba's Caffienated Book Reviewer
May 1 through May 31 
 Rules 

• Link-up and add button to your blog Arc must be read between May 1st and May 31st, 2014 
• Challenge starts and ends at midnight in your local time zone 
• All ARCS/finished copies that were provided by publisher/author are eligible. They can be in any format (eBook, physical, audio) Post start up post with goals.(can be posted during event) 
• Tweet using hashtag #CleanSweepARC 
• You do not have to post review on blog during the month of May. Just provide a link to Goodreads showing read May 1 to 31st with a two sentence review. 
• Twitter Party Wednesday May 14th 7pm (EST) #CleanSweepARC Participate in challenges 
• The Participant Giveaway will include entries for each linked book read, posting about challenge, start up/results post (can be combined), having button on your sidebar, participation in Twitter party, entering challenges and for following hosts. 
• Grand Prize- One winner will receive a new release of their choice (can be audible credit, novel or gift card) valued at up to 20.00 US dollars. Open internationally. 
• Challenge Schedule and entry form will post on May 1st and participant giveaway will close on June 3 at 11:59 (CST) 
• Sounds like fun right? So come on grab the button, link up and get ready to make a clean sweep. Angie and I will be here to cheer you on and motivate you!

I'm signing up for this, I'm hoping to complete at least 25 books.  I have so many books I need to clean off of my TBR list, Sweet Goddess am I behind and so many good books come out this month!! So here's my list of books to clean up this month.

1. Robyn Carr: The Newcomer, The Wanderer, The Chance, The Promise, Four Friends
2. The Witch's Salvation 4/12
3. Thorn Jack
4. 3rd Degree
5. Counting to D
6. Mystic River
7. A Perfect Hostage
8. Undone He Comes
9. The Burning
10. Night of Pleasure
11. The Adventure of Julian
12. Immortal Rules Julie Kagawa
13. Eternity Cure Julie Kagawa
14. Forever Song Julie Kagawa
15. The Broken
16. The Word Exchange
17. Kate Douglas duet
18. love's paradox
19. the body in the woods
20. Blossom St. Birds
21. Searching for perfect
22. Honoring Grief
23. Born Confused
24. We are the Goldens
25. No One Needs to Know
26. Hot Secrets 
27. The Temptation of Anna Jacobs
28. Awakening The Warriors
29. Templeton Twins Have an Idea (book 1), Make a Scene(book 2) by Ellis Weiner

I'm also signing up for the Bout of Books 10.0 which starts on May 12th. I will be doing most of my updates via the YT channel. (my channel). I'm not sure what I'll want to read, I'll definitely try to finish these though because they need to go back to the library.

1. Rogue Gina Damico
2. If I were You Lisa Renee Jones
3. Fathomless by Jackson Pearce
4. The Rake's Redemption Regina Scott
5. Who I kissed Janet Gurtler
6. You Found Me Jane Lark

Or I might just grab anything that catches my eye. But I really want these off my TBR Pile!!

What are you going to be reading this month?!!  Share down below and I'll come cheer you on!! Happy Reading and good luck!!