REVIEW | Serenity

Series: the Shelby Alexander Thriller #1
Author: Craig A. Hart
Genre: adult, mystery, thriller
Published: October 14, 2016
Purchase: Amazon

Do You Love Thrillers? The New Shelby Alexander Thriller Series Is Here! Don't Forget To Breathe... 

A woman dies in his arms...a drug dealer offers him $10,000...a gunman is determined to kill him. And then everything goes to hell. 

Shelby Alexander is an aging ex-boxer and retired fixer, whose activities often flirted with the wrong side of the law. Looking for a little peace and a slower pace of life, he moved to Serenity, the small Michigan town where he grew up. But trouble follows men like Shelby, and he finds himself embroiled in an underworld of drugs and violence that may prove to be his undoing. The first book in the new Shelby Alexander Thriller Series, Serenity is an action-packed read with a lovingly rendered cast, witty dialogue, and a main character who doesn't know when to quit. 

If You Love These Authors, You'll Love the Shelby Alexander Series: Nick Stephenson Mark Dawson David Archer John Hemmings Christopher Greyson 

REVIEW | The Masterminds

Series: Masterful #2
Author: Olivia Wildenstein
Genre: young adult, contemporary, thriller, romance
Published: October 12, 2016
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

From prisons and reality TV to mansions and safe houses, THE MASTERMINDS revisits THE MASTERPIECERS and closes the twins’ story. It is a tale of imperfect love and imperfect people. 

The only downside to Joshua Cooper’s investigation of a mob runner is not being able to discuss it with his two best friends, nineteen-year-old twins, Aster and Ivy Redd. However, when Ivy sells one of her quilts to the mob runner, and Aster hits him with her car in a motel parking lot, they become entangled in his investigation. The FBI even believes the twins could knowingly be involved with the mob. Joshua will do everything he can to disprove their suspicion and nail the true criminal. 

Brook Jackson is a judge on the Masterpiecers’s art competition. That is his official job; his unofficial job is running questionable errands against easy cash. But a ripped quilt and the girl who sewed it will make Brook’s life and heart spiral out of control. 

Accused of money laundering, Brook becomes the fall guy. After three weeks of imprisonment, he cuts a deal with Joshua: his freedom for the real felons and a meeting with Ivy. Although eager to clear his name, Brook wants to win Ivy’s forgiveness—and if she’s willing to give it to him—her love. 

REVIEW | The Reaper

Series: Children of Wisdom #2 
Author: Stephanie Erickson
Genre: contemporary, fantasy, mythology
Publish: March 5, 2016
Publisher: Pickles Press
Purchase: Amazon

"The Thread of life is a delicate thing. It is so easily broken..."  

My name is Michaela, and I'm a Reaper. I help the humans transition from their home on Earth after they die. Up until a short time ago, things were going well. But then, one of our best Fates was banished to Earth, people started dying before their time, and things went rapidly downhill from there.  

Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, I found seven misplaced souls trapped in the depths of hell. It didn't matter to me who had put them there, or even why they had. All I knew was I had to get them out. I couldn't just leave them there to suffer.  

Who knew trying to find out and fix what had gone so horribly wrong would end with me surrounded by misfit Fates while racing through the depths of hell? Trying to save not only the seven trapped souls, but also the entire human race, is not exactly in my job description...  

REVIEW | Zero

Series: Zero #1
Author: Morgan Dark
Genre: young adult, contemporary, mystery, thriller, fantasy
Publish: June 28, 2016 (first published May 4, 2015)
Publisher: Rubiños 1860
Purchase: Amazon | B&N

A baffling robber. 

A mystery hidden for years. 

And an elite boarding school where no one is who they say they are. 

Kyle Bradford is the envy of Drayton College, but everything takes a turn when a dangerous shadow, hidden in the darkness, starts to stalk him. From then on, his life falls apart. Unjustly accused of being the main suspect behind the robberies terrifying high society, he is forced to prove his innocence. And to do so, he has to find the real culprit: Zero, an infallible criminal who keeps his identity hidden under a silver mask. What Kyle does not know is that his enemy is keeping a secret. A secret he would sacrifice everything for. 

A dizzying, heart-stopping thriller you won’t be able to put down.

BLOG TOUR | My Name is Milena Rokva

full tour schedule can be found at: The Fantastic Flying Book Club

Series: Alexandra Gastone #2
Author: T.A. Maclagan
Genre: young adult, contemporary, thriller, espionage, romance
Publish: July 12, 2016
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Kobo

After seven years living as Alexandra Gastone, Milena Rokva is now free to be her true self, if only she knew who that was or had time to find out. Milena is in a race against time to bring down Perun, the very organization that trained her as a spy. Perun is no longer content to use their network of sleeper agents to protect her homeland and is maneuvered to take control of the world’s energy markets, sending the globe into chaos. 

Working with her surrogate grandfather, Albert Gastone, his CIA friend Brad and her old handler, Varos, Milena finds herself embroiled in an epic spy game teamed with friends whose endgames do not necessarily align with her own. The only person Milena can truly trust is herself. 

Can Milena take down Perun, protect her fellow cadets and make a life for herself with her boyfriend, Grant, as well as the friends and family she’s come to love as Alexandra Gastone? Buckle in for a wild ride as the Alexandra Gastone duology comes to a close.

REVIEW | Under My Skin

Series: N/A
Author: Laura Diamond
Genre: young adult, contemporary, romance, realistic fiction
Publish: April 12, 2016
Publisher: Swoon Romance
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

Bookish Brit Adam Gibson is one wonky heartbeat away from a fatal arrhythmia. He's torn between wanting to live and knowing that someone else must die in order for him to do so. He needs a new heart.  

Adam stops talking to his friends, refuses to meet kids at his new school, and shuts his parents out entirely. His days are spent wondering if can cope with having a dead man's heart beating inside his chest, or if he should surrender to the thoughts of suicide swirling around in his head.  

And then a donor is found.  

Outspoken artist Darby Fox rarely lets anything stand in her way of achieving her goals. She also happens to be the twin sister to a perfect brother with good looks, good grades, manners, and the approval of their parents - something Darby has never had.  

Darby's always had bad timing. She picks the worst time to argue with her brother Daniel. In a car with bald tires, on an icy road in the freezing cold, the unthinkable happens. In a split-second, everything changes forever.  

When life forces Adam and Darby together, undeniable sparks fly, and a deep connection is made. But the secret inside of Adam may be the thing that pushes them apart forever.

BLOG TOUR | Caught Bread Handed

full tour schedule can be found at CBB Book Promotions

Series: A Bakeshop Mystery #4
Author: Ellie Alexander
Genre: adult, contemporary, mystery
Published: June 28, 2016
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository | Vintage Books

Welcome to Torte—a friendly, small-town family bake shop where the oven is heating up as high as the body count… 

Jules Capshaw is still chewing over her husband Carlos’s return to Ashland, Oregon. Could there be too many cooks in the kitchen? Whatever is stirring between those two will have to wait. Despite the Oregon Shakespeare Festival being dark for the winter, the bakeshop is bustling, the dough is rolling, and there’s no rest for the weary…especially when murder is thrown into the mix. 

When Mindy Nolan, the owner of a new restaurant in town, turns up dead, the batter at hand thickens. Jules knows that there was bad blood between Mindy and others in town, and tracking down the killer could prove to be an unwelcome treat. And to top it all off, there’s Carlos, who is pleading—with those delicious dark eyes and sexy Spanish accent—for Jules to take him back. Is home where the heart is or will she make a fresh start…and risk getting burned?

REVIEW | The Masterpiecers

Series: Masterful #1
Author: Olivia Wildenstein
Genre: young adult, contemporary, mystery, romance
Publish: April 15, 2016
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

Nineteen-year-old Ivy Redd’s talent with a needle and thread has earned her a spot on a coveted reality TV art competition set in New York’s Metropolitan Museum. The prize: a significant amount of money and instant acceptance into the Masterpiecers, the school that ensures new artists fame and fortune. Her talent has also thrust her and her twin sister, Aster, into the spotlight.  

Not that Aster needed help with becoming a media favorite. She managed that on her own by running over a wanted mobster. She told the police it was self-defense, because she couldn’t tell them the truth—the truth would make her sister look bad. 

Locked in an Indiana jail to await her trial, Aster watches Ivy on the small TV hanging in the dayroom. It’s the highlight of her day, until she finds out what her sister truly thinks of her. Then, observing her sister becomes a punishment far crueler than imprisonment.

REVIEW | Gifted

Series: The Hayven #1
Author: J.A. George
Genre: young adult, contemporary, fantasy, romance
Publish: April 13, 2016 (first published May 10, 2015)
Purchase: Amazon

There is no chosen one in this story. 

Avery Gray was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and happened to make a decision that altered her future forever. It happens to us every day.

Avery is a size twelve university student with a penchant for dry humour, and she's as normal as they come. One rainy afternoon, Avery had to make a choice: go through the alleyway or around it. Two possible options. One would have had her future continue on as planned., the other would ensure that her future never remained the same again. She unknowingly went with the latter. 

Change can be good. It can bring new opportunities, new friends and a life you never thought possible. Change can be bad. It can bring you people determined to burn your city to the ground. 

It all depends on the decisions you make.

REVIEW | The Fate

Series: Children of Wisdom #1
Author: Stephanie Erickson
Genre: contemporary, mythology,
Published: November 22, 2015
Publisher: Pickle Press
Purchase: Amazon

The thread of life is a delicate thing. It is so easily broken…  

My name is Penn, and I’m a spinner. As one of the three Fates, it’s easy for me to know the plans for the lives of the humans. Mine, on the other hand, is a bit foggier. I guess things started to get out of control when I spun her—Kismet. My focus shifted, one thing led to another, and I wound up banished to Earth.  

You’d think it’d be pretty hard to surprise me, but after my banishment, they just kept hitting me like a one-two knockout punch. When the people around me started dying before their time, I knew something was very wrong and I had to do whatever I could to set it right. The one thing I didn’t know was…what is the true fate of a Fate?

REVIEW | The Manifesto on How to be Interesting

Series: N/A
Author: Holly Bourne
Genre: young adult, contemporary, realistic fiction, romance
Published: August 1, 2014
Publisher: Usborne Publishing
Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

Apparently I'm boring. A nobody. But that's all about to change. Because I am starting a project. here. Now. For myself. And if you want to come along for the ride then you're very welcome.

Bree is by no means popular. Most of the time, she hates her life, her school, her never-there parents. So she writes. 

But when Bree is told she needs to stop shutting the world out and start living a life worth writing about, The Manifesto on How to be Interesting is born. A manifesto that will change everything... 

...but the question is at what cost?

Summer 2016 Review Train | Vanishing Girls

full review train stops can be found at Space Between the Spines

Hello,

Welcome to my Summer 2016 Review Train stop hosted by Brittany from Space Between the Spines. I hope you guys dropped by and read the reviews for the previous stops: The Unexpected Everything @ Ready, Set, Read, Future Shock @ Always Me, The Summer I Turned Pretty @ Blue Eye Books, and Even If the Sky Falls @ Tsundoku Books.

Series: N/A
Author: Lauren Oliver
Genre: young adult, contemporary, mystery, thriller
Published: March 10, 2015
Publisher: HarperCollins
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver delivers a gripping story perfect for fans of We Were Liars and I Was Here, about two sisters inexorably altered by a terrible accident. 

Dara and Nick used to be inseparable, but that was before the accident that left Dara's beautiful face scarred and the two sisters totally estranged. 

When Dara vanishes on her birthday, Nick thinks Dara is just playing around. But another girl, nine-year-old Madeline Snow, has vanished, too, and Nick becomes increasingly convinced that the two disappearances are linked. Now Nick has to find her sister, before it's too late. 

In this edgy and compelling novel, Lauren Oliver creates a world of intrigue, loss, and suspicion as two sisters search to find themselves, and each other.

REVIEW | Every Exquisite Thing

Series: N/A
Author: Matthew Quick
Genre: young adult, contemporary
Publish: May 31, 2016
Publisher: Headline
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

From Matthew Quick, bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook, comes a heartfelt, unconventional and moving novel for readers who love John Green and Annabel Pitcher.

Nanette O'Hare is an unassuming teen who has played the role of dutiful daughter, hard-working student, and star athlete for as long as she can remember. But when a beloved teacher gives her his worn copy of The Bubblegum Reaper - the mysterious, out-of-print cult-classic - the rebel within Nanette awakens.

As she befriends the reclusive author, falls in love with a young but troubled poet, and attempts to insert her true self into the world with wild abandon, Nanette learns the hard way that sometimes rebellion comes at a high price.

A celebration of the self and the formidable power of story, Every Exquisite Thing is Matthew Quick at his finest.

BLOG TOUR | The Society

full tour schedule can be found at YA Bound Book Tours

Series: N/A
Author: Jodie Andrefski
Genre: young adult, contemporary, romance
Published: May 3, 2016
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository | Kobo

Welcome to Trinity Academy’s best-kept secret.
The Society.
You’ve been handpicked by the elite of the elite to become a member. But first you’ll have to prove your worth by making it through Hell Week.
Do you have what it takes?
It’s time to find out.

Samantha Evans knows she’d never get an invite to rush the Society—not after her dad went to jail for insider trading. But after years of relentless bullying at the hands of the Society’s queen bee, Jessica, she’s ready to take down Jessica and the Society one peg at a time from the inside out.

All it’ll take is a bit of computer hacking, a few fake invitations, some eager rushees…and Sam will get her revenge.

Let the games begin.

[REVIEW] The Art of Not Breathing

Series: N/A
Author: Sarah Alexander
Genre: young adult, contemporary, mystery
Published: April 26, 2016
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Purchase: Amazon, B&N, Book Depository

Since her twin brother, Eddie, drowned five years ago, sixteen-year-old Elsie Main has tried to remember what really happened that fateful day on the beach. One minute Eddie was there, and the next he was gone. Seventeen-year-old Tay McKenzie is a cute and mysterious boy that Elsie meets in her favorite boathouse hangout. When Tay introduces Elsie to the world of freediving, she vows to find the answers she seeks at the bottom of the sea.

Five years after the drowning of her twin brother, Scottish teenager Elsie Main confronts the tempestuous sea—and her family's tragic past—in a young adult debut that will appeal to fans of the mystery of E. Lockhart's We Were Liars and the family drama of Jandy Nelson's I'll Give You the Sun.  

[REVIEW] Finding Hope

Series: N/A
Author: Colleen Nelson
Genre: young adult, contemporary
Published: March19, 2016
Publisher: Dundurn
Purchase: Amazon | B&N

Hope leaves her small town for a fresh start, but her plans are derailed by an online romance and the appearance of her brother. 

Hope lives in a small town with nothing to do and nowhere to go. With a drug addict for a brother, she focuses on the only thing that keeps her sane, writing poetry. To escape, she jumps at the chance to attend Ravenhurst Academy as a boarding student. She’ll even put up with the clique-ish Ravens if it means making a fresh start. 

At first, Ravenhurst is better than Hope could have dreamed. She has a boyfriend and a cool roommate, and she might finally have found a place she can fit in. But can she trust her online boyfriend? And what can she do after her brother shows up at the school gates, desperate for help, and the Ravens turn on her? Trapped and unsure, Hope realizes that if she wants to save her brother, she has to save herself first.

[BOOK BLITZ] Under My Skin

Series: N/A
Author: Laura Diamond
Genre: young adult, contemporary romance
Publisher: Swoon Romance
Published: April 12, 2016
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBookstore

Bookish Brit Adam Gibson is one wonky heartbeat away from a fatal arrhythmia. But staying alive requires Adam to become keenly focused on both his pulse and the many different daily medications he must take in exactly the right dosages. Adam’s torn between wanting to live and knowing that someone else must die in order for him to do so. He needs a new heart. 

The pressure is getting to him. Adam stops talking to his friends back home, refuses to meet kids at his new school, and shuts his parents out entirely. His days are spent wondering if can cope with having a dead man’s heart beating inside his chest, or if he should surrender to the thoughts of suicide swirling around in his head.

And then a donor is found… 

Outspoken artist Darby Fox rarely lets anything stand in her way of achieving her goals . Whether it’s painting, ignoring her homework (dyslexia makes a mess out of words anyway), kissing a hot boy she doesn’t even know, or taking the head cheerleader down a peg , no one has ever accused Darby of being a shy. She also happens to be the twin sister to a perfect brother with good looks, good grades, manners, and the approval of their parents – something Darby has never had. 

Darby’s always had bad timing . She picks the worst time to argue with her brother Daniel. In a car with bald tires, on an icy road in the freezing cold, the unthinkable happens. In a split-second, everything changes forever. 

[REVIEW] Everything, Everything

Series: N/A
Author: Nicola Yoon
Genre: young adult, contemporary, romance, realistic fiction
Published: September 1, 2015
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

My Disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I'm allergic to the world. I don't leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.

But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He's tall, lean, and wearing all black - black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly. 

Maybe we can't predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It's almost certainly going to be a disaster. 

[REVIEW] How (Not) to Find a Boyfriend

Series: N/A
Author: Allyson Valentine
Genre: young adult, contemporary, romance, realistic fiction, chick lit, humor
Published: June 12, 2014 (first published June 6th, 2013)
Publisher: Speak
Purchase: Amazon

With the perfect plan to get the guy, what could possibly go wrong? 

Nora Fulbright is the most talented new cheerleader at Riverbend High. She may have been a friendless overachiever in the past, but this year Nora is determined to transform from social larva to full-blown butterfly. Even if it means dumbing herself down. But when Adam moves to town and steals Nora's heart with his ultra-smarts, she devises a plan to wow him with her intellect. Every move she makes getting closer to Adam is move complicated, and she quickly loses control of her strategy. Can Nora prove that she's not a complete airhead while keeping her image in check? 

[REVIEW] The Standout

Series: A Robin Bricker Novel
Author: Laurel Osterkamp
Genre: adult, mystery, contemporary
Published: November 10, 2015
Publisher: Kindle Press
Purchase: Amazon

First Robin gets the email with its simple demand: dump your fiancé or else. Then someone puts up the slanderous Rotten Robin Website that threatens to crush her chances to win The Standout, a ballet-themed, fashion reality show. Surrounded by backstabbing co-contestants and haunted by mysterious ghosts from her past, Robin can't trust anyone, including herself. Her only allies are Zelda, a ballerina and model, and her older brother Ted, both of whom have ghosts and secrets of their own.

The Standout is a psychological thriller about love and betrayal, life and death, tall buildings, and finding the courage to jump.