Mary's Review: Finding It by Cora Carmack

Finding It 
(Losing It, #3)
Author: Cora Carmack
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2013
Genre: NA Romance
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Overview 

Sometimes you have to lose yourself to find where you truly belong...

Most girls would kill to spend months traveling around Europe after college graduation with no responsibility, no parents, and no-limit credit cards. Kelsey Summers is no exception. She's having the time of her life . . . or that's what she keeps telling herself.

It's a lonely business trying to find out who you are, especially when you're afraid you won't like what you discover. No amount of drinking or dancing can chase away Kelsey's loneliness, but maybe Jackson Hunt can. After a few chance meetings, he convinces her to take a journey of adventure instead of alcohol. With each new city and experience, Kelsey's mind becomes a little clearer and her heart a little less hers. Jackson helps her unravel her own dreams and desires. But the more she learns about herself, the more Kelsey realizes how little she knows about Jackson. 

Mary's Review: Faking It by Cora Carmack

Faking It
(Losing It, #2)
Author: Cora Carmack
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2013
Genre: NA Romance
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Overview 

Mackenzie “Max” Miller has a problem. Her parents have arrived in town for a surprise visit, and if they see her dyed hair, tattoos, and piercings, they just might disown her. Even worse, they’re expecting to meet a nice, wholesome boyfriend, not a guy named Mace who has a neck tattoo and plays in a band. All her lies are about to come crashing down around her, but then she meets Cade.

Cade moved to Philadelphia to act and to leave his problems behind in Texas. So far though, he’s kept the problems and had very little opportunity to take the stage. When Max approaches him in a coffee shop with a crazy request to pretend to be her boyfriend, he agrees to play the part. But when Cade plays the role a little too well, they’re forced to keep the ruse going. And the more they fake the relationship, the more real it begins to feel.

Mary's Review: Losing It by Cora Carmack

Losing It 
(Losing It, #1)
Author: Cora Carmack
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2013
Genre: NA Romance
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Overview

Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, Bliss Edwards decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible - a one-night stand. But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves a gorgeous guy alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half-a-brain would ever believe. And as if that weren't embarrassing enough, when she arrives for her first class of her last college semester, she recognizes her new theatre professor. She'd left him naked in her bed about 8 hours earlier.

Book Tour: The Right Moves by Emma Hart (Excerpt + Giveaway)

The Right Moves
(The Game #3)
Author: Emma Hart

Publication: March 27th 2014
Genres: NA Contemporary Romance

Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N

Overview 

Her past is wrought with demons.
    

His past is full of heartbreak.
   

Yet he’s the one person that can remind her what it means to live.
   

Abbi Jenkins never thought she would leave the walls of the mental institution that’s housed her for the last year. Now she has, but that doesn’t mean she’s forgotten everything Pearce put her through.
   

She knows there’s only one way to deal with the depression that claws at her mind each day, and ballet becomes more than a hobby, a dream. Ballet – and Julliard – becomes a reason to live. Something to hold on for.
   

Blake Smith left London for one reason and one reason only. Running from the heartbreak of his past was never something he wanted to do, but with constant reminders everywhere he turned, it became his only option. When he arrives in New York City, he vows he’ll keep the promise he made to his sister and get into Juilliard.
   

But he doesn’t expect to be paired with Abbi in class, the girl whose eyes show a world of pain he’s seen before. Pain he knows too well. As each hour they spend together pulls them closer, Blake can’t fight his need to save her from herself.
   

Lines blur as their pasts are wrenched into the open, and they have to ask themselves whether they’re too broken to ever to be fixed, or if they’re the healing the other needs. 

Excerpt
     

“Let me go,” she begs. “Please, Blake.”

I shake my head. “No. Not until you talk to me.”

She tries harder to throw me off her. “There’s nothing to talk about!”

“That’s bullshit, and you know it.”

“It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter anymore. None of them matter a single damn bit!”

“It matters to me.”

She stops moving. Her eyes crash into mine as she snaps her head up, and her lips purse. “Well it shouldn’t. It doesn’t matter to me anymore.”

“Then why are you hiding them?”

“Because I hate them!” She finally knocks my hands off and turns, walking a few paces before stopping. “I hate them and everything they are. Everything they mean. Everything they remind me of. I hate them.”

Her voice is thick with tears both falling and unshed and her shoulders rise and fall with each heavy breath she takes. Standing in the middle of this huge studio, she looks tiny. And with her shoulders falling forward, her head hanging and her arms tucked around her, she looks completely and utterly broken.

She looks exactly how my heart feels.

Silence lingers between us. No words are spoken, and I’m waiting for her to say something. Anything. Even if she just tells me to piss off, that’ll do, even if it’s not what I want.

“They remind me of how things were,” she whispers, her voice barely there yet seems to echo off the walls. “They’re everything my life was. Everything I don’t want it to be again. They’re hideous. They’re the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen, and I can’t believe I ever thought what caused them was beautiful. They taint my skin in the worst way, and I’m ashamed of them. If I knew I’d be stuck with them for the rest of my life I would never have done it or I would have cut even deeper.” Her voice trails off at the end.

My stomach rolls. “Don’t say that. Ever.”

“It’s true.”

I press my chest against her shuddering back, pull her into me, and rest my cheek against the side of her head. My hands take her arm and I ease the material of her leotard up to her elbows. She breathes in sharply and squeezes her eyes shut when I touch my thumb to her wrist.

The scars stretch up the inside of her arm, crossing each other and disappearing under her sleeve. I can barely believe what I’m looking at – each one of them is perfectly healed, some of them barely visible to my eyes. I know we see different things when we look at her arms.

“How many?” I whisper, my voice thick. “How many are there?”

“I don’t know. Hundreds, maybe. Everywhere. They’re everywhere.”

By day, New York Times and USA Today bestselling New Adult author Emma Hart dons a cape and calls herself Super Mum to a terrible two year old and growing bump, due September 2013. By night, she drops the cape, pours a glass of juice and writes books.
  
She likes to write about magic, kisses and whatever else she can fit into the story. Sarcastic, witty characters are a must. As are hot guys. Emma is currently working too many books to even count - including Playing for Keeps, the companion book to the New York Times and USA Today bestselling novel, The Love Game. She likes to be busy - unless busy involves doing the dishes, but that seems to when all the ideas come to life.
     

Author Links:

Website / Twitter / Goodreads

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

 

Mary's Review: Love and Cupcakes by Susan Bishop Crispell

Love and Cupcakes

Author: Susan Bishop Crispell

Publisher: Swoon Romance, 2014

Genre: Magical Realism Romance

Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N

Overview

For Jaclyn “Jack” Pace, sensing what sweets people crave is as easy as breathing. But it’s not enough to keep her cupcake bakery in the black.

So, when her estranged sister Harper comes back to town with an affinity for making art out of icing—and a past full of secrets—she reluctantly gives Harper a job and a place to crash.

As their sisterly relationship begins to thaw, the one with her business partner Graham starts to heat up. Given the legend that says Hollingsworth men will recognize their soul mates at first touch, Jack’s always been resigned to the fact that she’s not his.

But when she starts sensing desires that are decidedly not dessert-related, it’ll take all of her magic to set things right with customers and make her own desires come true.

Love Quotes in YA

~A Clockwork Romance~

I am catastrophically in love with you.

― Clockwork Princess

I love you now more desperately, this moment, than I have ever loved you before, and in an hour I will love you more than that.

― Clockwork Princess

I could not tell you if I loved you the first moment I saw you, or if it was the second or third or fourth. But I remember the first moment I looked at you walking toward me and realized that somehow the rest of the world seemed to vanish when I was with you. 

― Clockwork Prince

It’s all right to love someone who doesn’t love you back, as long as they’re worth you loving them. As long as they deserve it.
―Clockwork Angel

~Defining Love~

Love is such a wild and reckless creature. It cannot be planned or threaded. It cannot be controlled. Love can coexist with Fate, or it can undo it. Love is the only thing more powerful than Fate.
― Elixir by Jennifer L. Armentrout

“Love is like gravity?” I was still puzzling out the concept. “It sounds violent.” 

He laughed and nodded. “But in a good way.” 

― Glitch by Heather Anastasiu

Love: a single word, a wispy thing, a word no bigger or longer than an edge. That’s what it is: an edge; a razor. It draws up through the center of your life, cutting everything in two. Before and after. The rest of the world falls away on either side. 

―Delirium by Lauren Oliver

~Without you there is nothing~

I’ve spent a lifetime waiting for you. Before I saw you, I hadn’t cared for anyone for…well, for the good part of a century, and it felt like my heart had been permanently disconnected. I wasn’t even looking anymore. And without expecting anything…without any hope at all, suddenly you were here. […] Now that you are here—now that we’re together—I can’t imagine going back to the life I had before. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you now. I love you too much. 

― Until I Die by Amy Plum

“You stupid idiot!” she says, smacking me again. “I don’t want the new planet without you!”
― A Million Suns by Beth Revis

~I love ALL of you~

“It wouldn’t change how I feel. Damn it, look at me.” He wrapped his hands around my upper arms and pulled me toward him. My eyes flew open. “I love you—broken in pieces, whole, however. No matter what the future brings. No matter what was in the past.”  

― Hourglass by Myra McEntire

I love you—all of you. Your stubbornness and your prickliness and your witchery and your bravery. 

― Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood

“This thing with us is the only real thing I’ve had in a long time. You’re the only real thing.” He raised our hands and kissed my knuckles. “And I’m done pretending I don’t want you.” 

― Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins

~Too Cute~

"You are my whole heart, Scarlet. And this is breaking it."
My heart cracked open and clear dropped out of me. My mouth opened, and I looked round me and stamped my foot. “Does this look like a good time to tell me that, you damn stupid boy?”
― Scarlet by A. C. Gaughen

“I might be in love with you.” He smiles a little. “I’m waiting until I’m sure to tell you, though.” 

―Divergent by Veronica Roth

“There’s an us?”

“As far as I’m concerned…” He leaned forward, his mouth inches from mine, and my pulse spiked. “There’s nothing but us.”  

―If I Die by Rachel Vincent

Did you like the quotes? Share some of your favorites! ;)

Review: Wilde Nights in Paradise by Tonya Burrows

Wilde Nights in Paradise 
(Wilde Security 1)
Author: Tonya Burrows
Publisher: Brazen (Entangled), 2013
Genre: Adult Romance
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N

Overview 

He’ll guard her body all night long.

Former Marine Jude Wilde’s motto has always been “burn bridges and never look back,” so nobody is more surprised when Wilde Security is hired to protect assistant district attorney Libby Pruitt, the woman he loved and left. Although she makes it clear she wants nothing to do with Jude, they’re forced to fake a relationship for her safety. He can’t ignore the heat still simmering between them, and when her stalker’s threats escalate to attempted murder, he’s left with no choice but to whisk her away to a friend’s safe house in Key West, FL.

Cooped up in paradise together, Jude begins to chip away at Libby’s resolve to hate him. But even as she gives in to his proximity and her body’s demands for his, she refuses to fall for his charms again. Maybe a torrid affair in the sun is exactly what she needs to get him out of her system. But when her stalker tracks them down, can they escape the steamy Key West night without anyone getting hurt?

Review: When I'm With You by Cecilia Gray

When I’m With You
(The Jane Austen Academy Series 3)
Author: Cecilia Gray
Publisher: The Alpha Division, 2012
Genre: YA Contemporary
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N

Overview

Kat is destined to be a star and her big break has arrived at last! As the assistant to a celebrity classmate on the set of a feature film, she's going to show everyone she has what it takes. That is, until she discovers pursuing her dreams may mean forfeiting her heart. Unless she can find a way to have both...

Review: Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi

Through the Ever Night
(Under the Never Sky 2)
Author: Veronica Rossi
Publisher: Harper Collins, 2013
Genre: YA Dystopia
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Overview

It's been months since Aria last saw Perry. Months since Perry was named Blood Lord of the Tides, and Aria was charged with an impossible mission. Now, finally, they are about to be reunited. But their reunion is far from perfect. The Tides don't take kindly to Aria, a former Dweller. And with the worsening Aether storms threatening the tribe's precarious existence, Aria begins to fear that leaving Perry behind might be the only way to save them both.

Threatened by false friends, hidden enemies, and powerful temptations, Aria and Perry wonder, Can their love survive through the ever night?

Review: Crossing the Line by Katie McGarry

Crossing the Line
(Pushing the Limits 1.5)
Author: Katie McGarry
Publisher: Harlequin Teen, 2013
Genre: YA Contemporary
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N

Overview

Lila McCormick, Echo's best friend from Pushing the Limits, first met Lincoln Turner when tragedy struck both their lives. But she never expected their surprise encounter would lead to two years of exchanging letters—or that she’d fall for the boy she’s only seen once. Their relationship is a secret, but Lila feels closer to Lincoln than anyone else. Until she finds out that he lied to her about the one thing she depended on him for the most.

Hurting Lila is the last thing Lincoln wanted. For two years, her letters have been the only thing getting him through the day. Admitting his feelings would cross a line he’s never dared breach before. But Lincoln will do whatever it takes to fix his mistakes, earn Lila’s forgiveness—and finally win a chance to be with the girl he loves.

Review: The Girl with the Iron Touch by Kady Cross

The Girl with the Iron Touch 

(Steampunk Chronicles 3) 

Author: Kady Cross 

Publisher: Harlequin Teen 

Genre: YA Steampunk 

Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD  

Overview 

In 1897 London, something not quite human is about to awaken.

When mechanical genius Emily is kidnapped by rogue automatons, Finley Jayne and her fellow misfits fear the worst. What's left of their archenemy, The Machinist, hungers to be resurrected, and Emily must transplant his consciousness into one of his automatons—or forfeit her friends' lives.

With Griffin being mysteriously tormented by the Aether, the young duke's sanity is close to the breaking point. Seeking help, Finley turns to Jack Dandy, but trusting the master criminal is as dangerous as controlling her dark side. When Jack kisses her, Finley must finally confront her true feelings for him...and for Griffin.

Meanwhile, Sam is searching everywhere for Emily, from Whitechapel's desolate alleyways to Mayfair's elegant mansions. He would walk into hell for her, but the choice she must make will test them more than they could imagine.

To save those she cares about, Emily must confront The Machinist's ultimate creation—an automaton more human than machine. And if she's to have any chance at triumphing, she must summon a strength even she doesn't know she has.... 

Book Tour: Inspire by Heather Buchine (Interview)

Inspire
Author: Heather Buchine
Publication: March 31st 2013
Genre: NA Contemporary Romance
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N

Overview

18-year old Paige Rice, an exquisite beauty from East Hampton, NY, has just celebrated her high school graduation and is expecting to spend her summer living it up with all her socialite friends. But her parents have a different idea – she is being hauled away-literally- to the mountains of Vermont for the entire summer- in an RV!

Assuming she will be an outcast amongst the other teens at the campground still does not prepare her for the treatment she receives, which is far worse than she imagined. She also isn’t prepared for Travis, the campground owner’s son and the “Sexiest” guy she has ever laid eyes on. Travis is the only one who shows any interest in getting to know Paige. The only problem is that they have to explore what lies between them in secret. But once all the secrets are stripped away, the truth may be crushing.

***Intended for mature audiences due to language and sexual content***

Review: Seal of Honor by Tonya Burrows

SEAL of Honor
(HORNET 1)
Author: Tonya Burrows
Publisher: Entangled Select
Genre: Romance
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Overview

It’s a good thing Gabe Bristow lives and breathes the Navy SEAL credo, “the only easy day was yesterday,” because today, his life is unrecognizable. When his prestigious career comes to a crashing halt, he’s left with a bum leg and few prospects for employment that don’t include a desk.

That is, until he’s offered the chance to command a private hostage rescue team and free a wealthy American businessman from Colombian paramilitary rebels. It seems like a good deal—until he meets his new team: a drunk Cajun linguist, a boy-genius CIA threat analyst, an FBI negotiator with mob ties, a cowboy medic, and an EOD expert as volatile as the bombs he defuses. Oh, and who could forget the sexy, frustratingly impulsive Audrey Van Amee? She’s determined to help rescue her brother—or drive Gabe crazy. Whichever comes first.

As the death toll rises, Gabe’s team of delinquents must figure out how to work together long enough to save the day. Or, at least, not get themselves killed. Because Gabe’s finally found something worth living for, and God help him if he can’t bring her brother back alive.

Early Review: Dare You To by Katie McGarry

Dare You To
(Pushing the Limits 2)
Author: Katie McGarry
Publisher: Harlequin Teen, 2013
Genre: YA Contemporary
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Overview

If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk's home life, they'd send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom's freedom and her own happiness. That's how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn't want her and going to a school that doesn't understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn't get her, but does....

Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can't tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn't be less interested in him.

But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won't let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all....

Review: Wait for You by J.Lynn

Wait for You

Author: J. Lynn
Publisher: Self-Published, 2013
Genre: New Adult Contemporary
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N

Overview

Some things are worth waiting for…
Traveling thousands of miles from home to enter college is the only way nineteen-year-old Avery Morgansten can escape what happened at the Halloween party five years ago—an event that forever changed her life. All she needs to do is make it to her classes on time, make sure the bracelet on her left wrist stays in place, not draw any attention to herself, and maybe—please God—make a few friends, because surely that would be a nice change of pace. The one thing she didn’t need and never planned on was capturing the attention of the one guy who could shatter the precarious future she’s building for herself.

Some things are worth experiencing…
Cameron Hamilton is six feet and three inches of swoon-worthy hotness, complete with a pair of striking blue eyes and a remarkable ability to make her want things she believed were irrevocably stolen from her. She knows she needs to stay away from him, but Cam is freaking everywhere, with his charm, his witty banter, and that damn dimple that’s just so… so lickable. Getting involved with him is dangerous, but when ignoring the simmering tension that sparks whenever they are around each other becomes impossible, he brings out a side of her she never knew existed.

Some things should never be kept quiet…
But when Avery starts receiving threatening emails and phone calls forcing her to face a past she wants silenced, she has no other choice but to acknowledge that someone is refusing to allow her to let go of that night when everything changed. When the devastating truth comes out, will she resurface this time with one less scar? And can Cam be there to help her or will he be dragged down with her?

And some things are worth fighting for…

Review: Awakening by Karen Sandler

Awakening

(Tankborn 2)

Author: Karen Sandler

Publisher: Lee & Low Books, 2013

Genre: YA Scifi

Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Overview

Once a GEN (genetically engineered nonhuman) girl terrified of her first Assignment, Kayla is now a member of the Kinship, a secret organization of GENs, lowborns, and trueborns. Kayla travels on Kinship business, collecting information to further the cause of GEN freedom.

Despite Kayla’s relative freedom, she is still a slave to the trueborn ruling class. She rarely sees trueborn Devak, and any relationship between them is still strictly forbidden.

Kayla longs to be truly free, but other priorities have gotten in the way. A paradoxically deadly new virus has swept through GEN sectors—a disease only GENs catch. And GEN warrens and warehouses are being bombed, with only a scrawled clue: F.H.E. Freedom, Humanity, Equality.

With the virus and the bombings decimating the GEN community, freedom and love are put on the back burner as Kayla and her friends find a way to stop the killing . . . before it’s too late.

Review: The Goddess Inheritance by Aimee Carter

The Goddess Legacy
(Goddess Test 3)
Author: Aimee Carter

Publisher: Harlequin Teen, 2013

Genre: YA Mythology

Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Overview

Love or life.

Henry or their child.The end of her family or the end of the world.
Kate must choose.

During nine months of captivity, Kate Winters has survived a jealous goddess, a vengeful Titan and a pregnancy she never asked for. Now the Queen of the Gods wants her unborn child, and Kate can't stop her--until Cronus offers a deal.

In exchange for her loyalty and devotion, the King of the Titans will spare humanity and let Kate keep her child. Yet even if Kate agrees, he'll destroy Henry, her mother and the rest of the council. And if she refuses, Cronus will tear the world apart until every last god and mortal is dead.

With the fate of everyone she loves resting on her shoulders, Kate must do the impossible: find a way to defeat the most powerful being in existence, even if it costs her everything.

Even if it costs her eternity.

Review: The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg

The Catastrophic History of You and Me

Author: Jess Rothenberg

Publisher: Dial Books (Penguin), 2012

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Overview

BRIE'S LIFE ENDS AT SIXTEEN: Her boyfriend tells her he doesn't love her, and the news breaks her heart—literally.
 

But now that she's D&G (dead and gone), Brie is about to discover that love is way more complicated than she ever imagined. Back in Half Moon Bay, her family has begun to unravel. Her best friend has been keeping a secret about Jacob, the boy she loved and lost—and the truth behind his shattering betrayal. And then there's Patrick, Brie's mysterious new guide and resident Lost Soul . . . who just might hold the key to her forever after.
  

With Patrick's help, Brie will have to pass through the five stages of grief before she's ready to move on. But how do you begin again, when your heart is still in pieces?

Valentine's Day and YA Crushes

Happy Valentine's Day! 

I hope everyone will have a wonderful day filled with love, hearts, joy, and goodness! In this day of love and romance, I couldn't help but think that YA fictional boyfriends are everywhere. There are those that make you smile, those that make you want to slap and then kiss them at the same time, and those that make you swoon and reach for the nearest fan. These are my top 5 YA crushes EVER.

Adrian Ivashkov from Bloodlines

Tod Hudson from Soul Screamers

Daemon Black from the Lux Series

Tristan Archer from The Archers of Avalon

Jace Wayland from The Mortal Instruments

Special Non-YA Mention~

R from Warm Bodies 

Who is your top YA crush? :)

YA Books That Make Me SWOON

In the spirit of the upcoming Valentine's Day, here is my list of YA books that make me swoon. Click the covers to go to their Goodreads page and add them to your TBR list! ;)

Which YA books make YOU swoon?