Cover Crazy: UNKNOWN by Wendy Higgins Cover Reveal

UNKNOWN (Unknown #1)

Author: Wendy Higgins

Expected Publication: August 16, 2016

Genre: Apocalyptic Sci-Fi NA Romance

Amber Tate believes the worst thing she’ll suffer in life is dealing with the unrequited love she feels for her brother’s best friend, Rylen Fite. She also believes war is something unfortunate that happens places far, far away from her rural Nevada town. She’s wrong on both counts.

When an unknown organization meticulously bombs major cities in the United States and across the globe, a trickle-down effect spreads to remaining towns at an alarming speed—everything from food and water sources to technological communications are compromised. Without leadership, the nation is split between paralysis and panic, but Amber isn’t one to hide or watch helplessly. She’s determined to put her nursing skills to use, despite the danger, even if it means working alongside the man she can never have.

In this first installment of NY Times bestselling author, Wendy Higgins’s debut New Adult series, a frighteningly realistic apocalyptic America is brought to life, entwined with searing romantic tension that will leave you eager for more.

LOVE BOOK #02: F*ck Love

It's the time again to feature my February "Love Book" Reading Challenge. Here's a link to my previous post fully explaining the challenge. On this challenge, I'll read as many books as I can with the word "Love" in the title. Aside from that, I will also feature some "Love books" I've already read (or I've been meaning to read), like this next book.

F*CK LOVE

Author: Tarryn Fisher

Number of Pages: 257

Date Published: December 31, 2015

Genre: New Adult Romance

Goodreads:

Helena Conway has fallen in love.

Unwillingly. Unwittingly.
But not unprovoked.
Kit Isley is everything she’s not—unstructured, untethered, and not even a little bit careful.
It could all be so beautiful … if he wasn’t dating her best friend.
Helena must defy her heart, do the right thing, and think of others.
Until she doesn’t.

***

My thoughts:

You could not get much out of the synopsis provided, for it was short and vague. That's probably one of the reasons why I read it - out of curiosity and the need to know more how the story will unfold. Also, a I've been seeing the book a lot on Instagram, Twitter and Goodreads when it was released and there were many good reviews about it.

F*ck Love is about Helena, a girl who has fallen in love with her best friend's boyfriend.

COVER CRAZY: Ugly Love

UGLY LOVE

Colleen Hoover

Expected Publication: Aug. 5, 2014
Publisher: Atria Books

Goodreads Summary:

When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she knows it isn't love at first sight. They wouldn't even go so far as to consider themselves friends. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. Once their desires are out in the open, they realize they have the perfect set-up. He doesn't want love; she doesn't have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her.

Never ask about the past.
Don’t expect a future.

They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all.

Hearts get infiltrated.
Promises get broken.
Rules get shattered.
Love gets ugly.

And finally, the cover of Ugly Love (which you probably saw already)... Drum roll, please.

BOOK BLURB: Be with Me (Wait for You #2)

BE WITH ME
Author: J. Lynn

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

Number of Pages: 387

Date Published: February 4, 2014

Genre: New Adult Contemporary

Goodreads:

Teresa Hamilton is having a rough year—she’s in love with her big brother’s best friend, but he hasn’t spoken to her since they shared a truly amazing, mind-blowing, change-your-life kiss. She got out of a terrible relationship. And now an injury is threatening to end her dance career for good. It’s time for Plan B – college. And maybe a chance to convince Jase that what they have together is real.

Jase Winstead has a huge secret that he’s not telling anyone. Especially not his best friend’s incredibly beautiful sister. Even though he and Teresa shared the hottest kiss of his life, he knows that his responsibilities must take priority. He certainly doesn’t have time for a relationship. But it doesn’t help that all he can think about kissing the one girl who could ruin everything for him.

As they’re thrown together more and more, Jase and Tess can’t keep denying their feelings for each other. But a familiar danger looms and tragedy strikes. As the campus recovers, the star-crossed couple must decide what they’re willing to risk to be together, and what they’re willing to lose if they’re not…

BOOK BLURB: Losing It (Losing It #1)

Losing It

Author: Cora Carmack

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
 Number of Pages: 289
Date Published: December 5, 2012
Genre: New Adult Romance

Goodreads:

Virginity.

Bliss Edwards is about to graduate from college and still has hers. Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, she 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.

***

My Thoughts:

I was having doubts if I should really read this book or just leave it unread. Why? First of all, when you read the synopsis, the first thing that comes to your mind is sex. A lot of steamy moments and everything that minors should take caution reading; A story all about sex and losing one’s virginity, and who would want that? Second, it’s another student-teacher relationship story and I have read a few already. Do I really need to read another one?

BOOK BLURB: Game. Set. Match. (Outerbanks Tennis Academy #1)

Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Game. Set. Match Author: Jennifer Iacopelli Publisher: Coliloquy, LLC Number of Pages: -- Date Published: April 29, 2013 Genre: New Adult Romance   Goodreads:

Nestled along the North Carolina coast, the Outer Banks Tennis Academy is the world's most elite training facility. In this pressure-cooker environment, futures are forged in blood and sweat, and dreams are shattered in an instant.
Penny Harrison, a rising female star, is determined to win the French Open and beat her archrival, Zina Lutrova. But when her coach imports British bad boy Alex Russell as her new training partner, will Penny be able to keep her laser-like focus?
 
Tennis is all Jasmine Randazzo has ever known. The daughter of two Grand Slam champions, she's hell-bent on extending her family’s legacy and writing her own happily-ever-after...until her chosen Prince Charming gives her the just-friends speech, right before the biggest junior tournament of the year, the Outer Banks Classic.  
With a powerful serve and killer forehand, newcomer Indiana Gaffney is turning heads. She’s thrilled by all of the attention, especially from Jack Harrison, Penny’s agent and hot older brother, except he keeps backing off every time things start heating up.
With so much at stake, dreams—and hearts—are bound to break.

BOOK BLURB: Hopeless

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Goodreads:

Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than believing the lies…

That’s what seventeen-year-old Sky realizes after she meets Dean Holder. A guy with a reputation that rivals her own and an uncanny ability to invoke feelings in her she’s never had before. He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried.

Sky struggles to keep him at a distance knowing he’s nothing but trouble, but Holder insists on learning everything about her. After finally caving to his unwavering pursuit, Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life will change forever.

***

Date Read: February 9, 2013
Rating: 4 Stars

Good… but I there were some low moments that I really did not enjoy reading.

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover is a story about finding the courage to face the past and embrace what you have become because of it. It is a story of love, of loss, of grief and of coping with everything in between. It is a story of bravery, sacrifice, selflessness and forgiveness. But most of all it is a story of finding “Hope.”

Colleen Hoover does not disappoint. She brought out great characters with interesting stories to tell. It’s the kind of story that wholly revolves around the two main characters. So it is understandable that readers only get to experience a few chapters with Six and Breckin. Sky and Holder’s relationship was also explained well.

The subtle mix of unexpectedness and predictability in the plot made Hopeless very satisfying to read. Once you start reading and it gets you thinking what’s wrong with them or what happened back in the past, there’s a sense of satisfaction when you know you guessed correctly. There is still also that element of surprise that most readers are looking for.

Though it was a nice book, there were moments while reading it that I felt like the story is a bit too much. There came a point when it was honestly too depressing to read more. It’s just too much sometimes. And since I already read quite a handful of books with the same line of plot as Hopeless has, I can't really find it affecting me that much. But thankfully, the story ended well.

View all my reviews

BOOK BLURB: Beautiful Disaster (Beautiful #1)

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Goodreads:

INTENSE. DANGEROUS. ADDICTIVE.

Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand.

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby wants—and needs—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

***

Date Read: January 23, 2013
Rating: 2.5

Beautiful Disaster is one confusing book. It is interesting and it really catches a reader's attention, yet sometimes it gets frustratingly annoying. It is a page-turner, but sometimes you just want the whole thing to blow up and end. The romance gets intense and sweet, but somehow you'll eventually tire yourself of the love/hate relationship. That's how beautifully disastrous my reading experience has been.

I liked how the Abby's voice doesn't constantly remind readers that she had a bad past or that she's a troubled teenager. It was brought up quite a few times, but not to the point that everything revolves around or depends upon her past. The main focus of the book was Abby and Travis' love/hate relationship. They started off as friends, got to know each other better, then became best friends. But you can definitely sense the attraction between them. It was fast-paced, and I can safely say that the story started well.

The annoying thing was the "getting together" part. Both of them got very confusing and the rest of their relationship almost always had complications that just seem to [I guess] insignificantly lengthen the book. Honestly, the story of their relationship felt a bit dragged because so many things are happening. There were so many problems tossed in one book. For instance, Parker, the Vegas thing, the trust issue and a lot more minor dilemmas.

Also, I don't get Abby's personality. It's like Abby and Pidge are really two different people. The first one was a simple math geek who wears a pair glasses and cardigans. The other one was like a party girl who wears heels and drinks a lot. Travis wasn't as appealing as the book described him. Though he had his respectably sweet moments, he's actually quite irritating, especially when he instantly loses his temper and goes berserk.

I was not really very satisfied with the ending. It wasn't convincing. But I guess it was okay. Just okay...

View all my reviews

BOOK BLURB: The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden (The Coincidence #1)

The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Goodreads:

There are those who don’t get luck handed to them on a shiny platter, who end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, who don’t get saved.

Luck was not on Callie’s side the day of her twelfth birthday when everything was stolen from her. After it’s all over, she locks up her feelings and vows never to tell anyone what happened. Six years later her painful past consumes her life and most days it’s a struggle just to breathe.

For as long as Kayden can remember, suffering in silence was the only way to survive life. As long as he did what he was told, everything was okay. One night, after making a terrible mistake, it seems like his life might be over. Luck was on his side, though, when Callie coincidentally is in the right place at the right time and saves him.

Now he can’t stop thinking about the girl he saw at school, but never really knew. When he ends up at the same college as Callie, he does everything he can to try to get to know her. But Callie is reserved and closed off. The more he tries to be part of her life, the more he realizes Callie might need to be saved.

***

Date Read: January 12, 2013
Rating: 3.5 stars

It seems to me that there are a lot of books nowadays revolving around two messed up people who’s lives, coincidence or not, intertwine - they share their secrets, they become close, they try to fix each others lives and eventually, they fall in love. The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden falls within the walls of that story, and honestly, it went pretty well.

The story began immediately with a hint of the revelations of both Callie and Kayden’s lives. As you read on through each chapter, the pieces of the past gets revealed bit by bit as Callie and Kayden gets to know each other better. My only issue with the story is the first half of the book. I did not really enjoy the attraction of both of the characters with one another, and the way they’re relationship began. Having recently read a book with a similar story, it is easy to compare the development of the relationship of the characters from this book to the other one. And honestly, I prefer the other one.

The second half of the book, on the other hand, was better. I really liked it when secrets starts to resurface and the their pasts are revealed. Even their relationship became better and sweeter than before.

So in total, I liked the book. I would have given it 4 if it weren't for some minor issues I've had with the book. :) The ending was unexpectedly unexpected - cliffhanger!!! I really thought this was a stand-alone book. I guess I was wrong. I am definitely reading the second book. ;)

The cover is gorgeous, by the way. :)

View all my reviews

BOOK BLURB: The Edge of Never

The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Goodreads:

Twenty-year-old Camryn Bennett had always been one to think out-of-the-box, who knew she wanted something more in life than following the same repetitive patterns and growing old with the same repetitive life story. And she thought that her life was going in the right direction until everything fell apart.

Determined not to dwell on the negative and push forward, Camryn is set to move in with her best friend and plans to start a new job. But after an unexpected night at the hottest club in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, she makes the ultimate decision to leave the only life she’s ever known, far behind.

With a purse, a cell phone and a small bag with a few necessities, Camryn, with absolutely no direction or purpose boards a Greyhound bus alone and sets out to find herself. What she finds is a guy named Andrew Parrish, someone not so very different from her and who harbors his own dark secrets. But Camryn swore never to let down her walls again. And she vowed never to fall in love.

But with Andrew, Camryn finds herself doing a lot of things she never thought she’d do. He shows her what it’s really like to live out-of-the-box and to give in to her deepest, darkest desires. On their sporadic road-trip he becomes the center of her exciting and daring new life, pulling love and lust and emotion out of her in ways she never imagined possible. But will Andrew’s dark secret push them inseparably together, or tear them completely apart?

* Due to sexual content and language, this book is recommended for 17+ – Adult Contemporary Women’s – New Adult Fiction 

***

Date Read: January 6, 2013
Rating: 4 stars

I think I can’t really say much without giving away any significant part of the book. But here goes nothing...

So basically, it’s the “messed-up-girl-who-meets-a-handsome-guy-and-helps-her-feel-again-but-turns-out-to-have-secrets-too” story. I have read quite a number book synopses with a plot like that. Although the reasons, the experiences and the turn of events are different, it all boils down to the general plot, which was mentioned earlier. Well, I actually kind of like these kinds of books. They are extremely emotional and usually have this sizzling yet sweet romance. Then, lessons are learned about life, love and one’s self.

This book is not far from that. It was actually a great story, with a strong and nice beginning. I really liked it. The moment Camryn leaves was the mark of the books awesomeness! I loved everything from there up until the point when... *secret, no spoilers* Camryn and Andrew’s coincidental or destined bus ride was great. Andrew’s playful attitude and Cam’s cranky and wild responses was very fun to read. Even after the terminal incident, it went nice. I just love the first half of the book.

The weak point that let me down a bit was when they had their first intimate physical attachment. I was really disappointed with that. It was just.. ugggh!! The only nice thing I can think about when that happened was it was nice of Andrew to consider the fact that Cam must first know what she really wants and ... before they really do it. And it continues after that. It never really picked up the awesomeness it had before. So, bummer!

The ending was okay... just okay. Not great. Not awesome. Not strong. I would have wanted it to play out differently. Maybe a more sorrowful ending. (Yes, I like sad stories.)

Overall, 4 stars :)

View all my reviews