Friday, February 28, 2014

Review of The Summer Series by C.J. Duggan





The Boys of Summer - Book #1

Blurb:

It seemed only natural to nickname them the ‘Onslow Boys’. Every time they swaggered in the front door of the Onslow Hotel after a hard week’s work, their laughter was loud and genuine as they settled onto their bar stools. I peeked through the restaurant partition, a flimsy divider between my world and theirs. I couldn’t help but smile whenever I saw them, saw him ... Toby Morrison.

Quiet seventeen-year-old Tess doesn’t relish the thought of a summertime job. She wants nothing more than to forget the past haunts of high school and have fun with her best friends before the dreaded Year Twelve begins.

To Tess, summer is when everything happens: riding bikes down to the lake, watching the fireworks at the Onslow Show and water bomb fights at the sweltering Sunday markets.

How did she let her friends talk her into working?

After first-shift disasters, rude, wealthy tourists and a taunting ex-boyfriend, Tess is convinced nothing good can come of working her summer away. However, Tess finds unlikely allies in a group of locals dubbed ‘The Onslow Boys’, who are old enough to drive cars, drink beer and not worry about curfews. Tess’s summer of working expands her world with a series of first times with new friends, forbidden love and heartbreaking chaos.

All with the one boy she has never been able to forget.

It will be a summer she will always remember.

Warning: sexual references, and occasional coarse language.

**My thoughts** 

I love Tess. She is a complete disaster area as she is growing into herself, much like most girls in their mid-teens. She hasn't been very successful in love, has no idea how to make a cappuccino, and has a horrific nickname taunting her. She is still trying to figure out boys, the difficulty compounded when trying to understand those who are five years her senior. When her parents make her get a job for the summer, she finds a new set of friends and an inner strength that she never knew she had.

I thought Tess' voice came through as authentic throughout the book. I actually saw a lot of myself in her and reminisced about my own days at that age. I did find it a little odd that men of the age of 22 would want to spend so much time with 17 year-olds, yet at the same time could see the attraction between all of them.

I appreciated the throwback to the mid-1990s, as I was the same age at that time. What made me absolutely crazy in this book was the fact it was taking place in about 1996, but the teenagers were constantly texting each other on their cell phones. Modern readers in this age group are going to relate to that aspect of the relationships, but it would be better served in having the setting pushed forward a decade. In 1996, most college students and teens did not have cell phones. Even if they did, they were definitely not texting. In fact, I was the only one in my group who did, and it was just for emergencies or very limited use, as you were still being charged by the minute after only a few. Ignore that aspect of the book, or tell yourself that these kids just really enjoy reminiscing about the 1990s, and it will be easier to get past that part. 

It is a fun read about first love, first jobs, and first times.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AOA4VMO/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00AOA4VMO&linkCode=as2&tag=andsboorev-20


An Endless Summer - Book #2

Blurb:

Sean looked out over the lake, squinting against the sunlight. He turned to me, his expression sobering as his eyes flicked over my face in silent study.
“Come on, Amy, I saved you once, I’ll save you again.”
I met his stare unflinchingly. “I don’t need saving.”
A wicked grin formed slowly on his face. “Don’t you?”


After a rebellious summer night that almost claimed her life, Amy Henderson – the Onslow publican’s only daughter – is sent away to suffer a fate far worse than any other punishment:

Boarding School.

Three years on, a now nineteen-year-old Amy returns to Onslow for the summer. What once was a cauldron of activity with live bands, hot meals and cold beers, the Onslow Hotel now lies dark, deserted and depressing. All fond childhood memories of loitering on the hotel stairs and eavesdropping on customers’ colourful conversations are in the distant past.

How had her dad let it come to this?

With the new threat of putting the Onslow up for sale, Amy reluctantly turns to a local tradesman for help: Sean Murphy, the very same Onslow boy who saved her life all those years ago. With his help and that of some old friends, the task is clear: spend the summer building the hotel back up to its former glory or lose it for good.

In an endless summer, Amy soon realises that sometimes in order to save your future, you have to face your past, even if it’s in the form of a smug, gorgeous Onslow boy.

**My thoughts**

The Onslow boys are still hot, even three years later. Now in their mid-20s, they have come into their own and are successful at everything they do. They still are a tight-knit group, even though they have been separated for a while. They're still hilarious to read and a group of boys you want to seek out and hang with during your own summer adventures.

This book is told from the point-of-view of Amy. When we met her in the first book, she was a snarky teenager, who never seemed to have a nice thing to say about anyone. Now, she is older and definitely more mature, but still has that edge about her. She's fiesty and determined, which serves her well as she strives to bring her family's business back from the brink of destruction. She is also extremely stubborn and doesn't want to admit she needs help. Good thing Sean is also very stubborn and forces himself into her situation to help. I really like her.

The age difference between Amy and Sean bugged me a bit at first, as he was hanging out at her father's bar when he was 22 and she was only about 15. I would feel better about it had they not known each other when she was so young, but the heart wants what the heart wants. People grow up and change, and sometimes that bond from those earlier years can provide a much stronger foundation. Besides, the chemistry between Amy and Sean is enough to help you get over it.

It's fun to know the history of the Onslow boys and the relationships behind these characters by having read the first book. However, it can definitely stand on its own. If you read this one first, you are going to want to go back to the first book, anyway.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DW5S0A2/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00DW5S0A2&linkCode=as2&tag=andsboorev-20

That One Summer - Book #3

Blurb:

Loving Chris Henderson would be wrong. Diabolically disastrous. I mean, what is there about him to love? He’s moody, bossy, brooding, a control freak, and that’s on a good day … but there was one achingly obvious fact that haunted my every thought, every minute of every day …

He sure could kiss.

As the countdown to the new millennium begins, there is one thing everyone agrees on: no one wants to be in Onslow for New Year’s Eve.

So that can only mean one thing: road trip!

No longer the mousey, invisible, shy girl from years ago, Tammy Maskala is finally making up for all those lost summers. A new year with new friends, which astoundingly includes the bossy boy behind the bar, Chris Henderson. She likes her new friends (at least most of them), so why does she secretly feel so out of place?

After chickening out on the trip, a last-minute change of heart sees Tammy racing to the Onslow Hotel, fearing she’s missed her chance for a ride. The last thing she expected to meet was a less-than-happy Onslow Boy leaning against his black panel van.

Now the countdown begins to reach the others at Point Shank before the party is over and the new year has begun. Alone in a car with only the infuriating Chris Henderson, Tammy can’t help but feel this is a disastrous start to what could have been a great adventure. But when the awkward road trip takes an unexpected turn, Tammy soon discovers that the way her traitorous heart feels about Chris is the biggest disaster of all.

Fogged up windows, moonlight swimming, bad karaoke and unearthed secrets; after this one summer nothing will ever be the same again.

**My thoughts**

I felt like we really didn't know much about Tammy before this book. She appeared in the second book, as she had been Amy's best friend before Amy was sent away to boarding school. When everyone converged on the Onslow and she ran into Amy again, she started to join their group. She had missed out on many of their earlier shenanigans, so she feels a bit left out. I feel like she has also physically made some huge changes, but hasn't quite emotionally caught up to her outer appearance. 

Chris has always been a part of the group, but his very attitude has kept him a little bit off to the side, as well. He tends to be more of the father figure, in charge of everyone and being bossy, yet tries to also provide some good times. 

The awkward relationship that each of them has with the Onslow group gives them a bit of a common ground. They are opposites in enough ways to compliment each other. And being shoved together, or cleverly manipulated to be alone together, is definitely beneficial in them discovering each other on a whole new steamy level.

Yet again, the Onslow boys are entertaining and swoon-worthy. I love seeing favorites from the previous two books and the characters feel real. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HBRNRXM/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00HBRNRXM&linkCode=as2&tag=andsboorev-20

Summer Series purchase links and newsletter subscription

Coming soon ...

Ringer and Forever Summer

Click on a book cover to preorder!



About the Author

C.J Duggan is a Number One Best Selling Australian Author who lives with her husband in a rural border town of New South Wales, Australia. When she isn’t writing books about swoony boys and 90’s pop culture you will find her renovating her hundred-year-old Victorian homestead or annoying her local travel agent for a quote to escape the chaos.

The Boys of Summer is Book One in her highly successful Mature Young Adult Romance Series.

Author Links:

http://www.cjdugganbooks.com/

https://twitter.com/CJ_Duggan

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cj-Duggan-Author/207724915934429

C.J’s Street Team: http://www.cjdugganbooks.com/street-team.html


***GIVEAWAY***
1 winner will get ebooks of Book 1-3 of the Summer series (INT)

RULES AND RESTRICTIONS: 

Contest is void where prohibited. Entrants must be 13 or else have parent or guardian’s permission to enter. Winners will be notified via email and will have 48 hours to respond or another winner’s name will be selected. Winning entries will be verified for authenticity.
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'See' by Jamie Magee

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See - PROMO Blitz
By Jamie Magee
YA/NA Crossover Paranormal
Date Published:  May 2012



Forgetting who you are, your ambitions, your lover is crippling. Remembering, embracing your purpose with a new sense of determination is more than empowering. It's soul seizing. Charlie Myers is embarking on a life-altering path that will cause the damned to humble in silence…

One night, just a few friends how could it go so wrong? That was the question Charlie was asking herself when she awoke in the ER. Outwardly nothing was wrong with Charlie, she was a vision of perfect health, but Charlie knew something else was wrong, wickedly wrong. That fearful notion became even more gripping when her mind began to parade haunting visions of entrancing emerald green eyes, laced in black, before her. When she felt a hole in her heart, when the music she drowned her fears in began to amplify the ache in her soul, and caused her to crave an embrace she thought she never knew.

Charlie knew then that part of her was stolen. She was missing memories. Those memories were sacred. They held the key to her sanity. They told her that the sinister whispers, and the shadows that came to life before her, were not as ominous as she felt they were. They caused her to forget the one talent that allowed her to face the darkness that haunted her every waking hour. They also masked a much deeper bond, the face of the one that had stolen her heart, long before that tragically blinding night.

Charlie wanted to stay in NY, fight her demons where she found them, and ensure that her true home remained a sanctuary. Fate had a different plan in mind. Against her will, Charlie was sent to Salem to live with her sister. Within that small town Charlie found her memories…and so much more.
Her story begins now.


EXCERPT
“What’s going on?” I asked nervously, hitting ‘Pause’ on my phone as I watched him push the seat back so his legs could have more room. 
“I told you I’d tell you how to get back,” he said, smiling faintly. 
Every part of me was tingling. Yet, I was frozen in place. I had no idea how I was going to focus well enough to drive. 
What would I do if I had to fight these shadows in front of him? I was horrified. 
“Yeah, but I thought you meant follow you,” I said, trying to take in a breath after I said the words. 
“I wanted to ride with you,” he said, pulling his belt on. 
As he leaned closer to me to fasten it, I could smell the addictive aroma of his cologne. I knew that scent. My mind was firing off images of him at warp speed. His scent, his eyes, his energy, every ounce of him was magnifying fantasies I could not comprehend in the state I was in. 
“Just for the record, you’re only my second passenger. Third, if you count my teacher,” I said, putting the car in drive. 
“Duly noted.” 
I caught myself staring into his enchanting eyes. His dark lashes framed the most alluring color I’d ever seen. It was like they were intended to be black, but a shade of the most perfect green had shattered the black canvas that they were. 
Eyes that had haunted me for days... 
He stared back at me with almost the same wonder, then he quirked a slight grin. “That way,” he said, pointing to the left. 
Obviously I was alone in my fascination. Surely if we were anything like my minds eye was telling me we were in some forgotten past he would have said something. 
Unless. Unless it was a bad past. 
The tinge of pain in my heart let that dark thought enter my mind. 
I felt my cheeks flush with embarrassment. I tried to smile through it as I turned the wheel. I crept down the gravel driveway, fighting the glare of the headlights coming from his Hummer. Just before I reached the road, he reached up and moved my rearview mirror, taking the torture of the lights away. He then gently grasped my ear buds and pulled them out. His warm fingertips brushed against my skin, and it took everything I had not to faint. I thought I heard him sigh, just after he took in a deep breath. Those long fingertips of his lingered a little longer, more than likely a second or two, but it felt like hours, then they slid down my neck taking the cords from my ear buds with them. 
 I angled my eyes at him to see if I had the same effect on him that he clearly had on me. 
 “You have to be able to see and hear if you’re going to get us home,” he explained, relaxing into his seat. He bit his bottom lip as he bathed me in his smoldering gaze. We said a thousand words at that moment. Words I could not hear, but wanted to.



 photo 252327_469060119774642_1944695764_n_zps847d0203.jpgJamie Magee

I'm an obsessive daydreamer. Lover of loud alternative music. Addicted to Red Bull. I love to laugh until it hurts. Fall is my favorite season. Black is my favorite 'shade.' Strong believer in the saying: there is a reason for everything, therefore I search for 'marked moments' every moment of everyday...and I find them. Life is beautiful!


Author Links
Facebook | Twitter | Blog


Buy Links
Amazon | Barnes and Noble


Giveaway


This Blitz is brought to you by Reading Addiction Book Tours

Thursday, February 27, 2014

'Insight' by Jamie Magee

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Insight - PROMO Blitz
By Jamie Magee

YA/NA Crossover Paranormal
Date Published:  June 2010



BOOK ONE INSIGHT SERIES

Willow Haywood has always been trapped between the worlds of the Light and the Dark. Her waking hours are plagued by her ability to feel the emotions of those around her. No matter how inward she draws, she cannot shut out the feelings of others. Sometimes she will see images - echoes of other people and places - that she can enter to influence the emotions of people she has never met.

By night, Willow experiences her only escape from this terrible insight - entering into the world of dreams. Most of these dreams are shared in blissful silence with a stunning blue-eyed boy. But every new moon she lives through something much darker: a horrific nightmare shared by another mysterious boy who is always shrouded by shadows.

One night, this shadowy figure invades her dreams outside of his appointed time. In this new nightmare, Willow is marked; a mark which follows her into the waking world and sets her on a momentous path through light and darkness, through fragmented myth and half-truths, through past lives and disturbing family secrets, all in the face of the ever-dominant Zodiac. What she finds will endanger the lives of those closest to her and will force her to make a decision that will change her world forever.

EXCERPT

I felt a blanket of peaceful love with a sense of urgency. The night air in front of me began to move; it looked like a wave gently swaying with a current. A thin light began to emerge then Landen stepped through the wave. I felt the air leave my lungs and adrenaline rush through every part of my body as my heart violently hammered in my chest. 
“Landen…” I breathed. 
In the darkness, I could see his haunting blue eyes widen, we were both soaked in the emotion of disbelief, along with the fear that this wasn’t real. 
In that beat of my heart he’d reached my side. His hands were trembling ever so slightly as they cradled my face, and his thumbs graze the flesh of my cheekbones. He was staring at me like I was a forbidden fruit, like I was every sin in the book, desire washed over that lasting look as he leaned in and let his lips frame mine. When we melded the flesh of our lips together, his hands fell from my face and slowly waved down my body, embracing my flesh, I was doing the same to him. He was warm, he was on fire, I could hear his breaths, hear the sweet sound of our kiss, the way our clothes were moving under our touch. He was real. He was in my arms, and he was driving me wild. That first kiss was nothing compared to this, that was a dream, it was fleeting, it was something that could end at any second, this—this touch, this emotion, this pulsing of my soul was eternal. 
He pressed our bodies together and held me with more strength than he had ever displayed. We both sought air more than once, but the other moved closer as soon as that gasp was taken. His warm tongue was uninhabited yet sensual as it danced with mine. I was devouring every sensation he was giving me and wanting more, so much more. 
I was trembling with passion, I think he misunderstood that, he slowed our kiss, as one arm went around me and the other cradled my face. His thumb reached to my lips just as his kiss ended, he tenderly caressed the moist, swollen flesh he found there. 
 “I found you,” he said with the lips of an angel. His voice was deep and entrancing, those three simple words sounded like poetry as he spoke them.
 His eyes danced over my image, “I love you.” he said as he leaned in and kissed me once more, this was a sweet kiss, only lips, only warm sensual lips.


 photo 252327_469060119774642_1944695764_n_zps847d0203.jpgJamie Magee

I'm an obsessive daydreamer. Lover of loud alternative music. Addicted to Red Bull. I love to laugh until it hurts. Fall is my favorite season. Black is my favorite 'shade.' Strong believer in the saying: there is a reason for everything, therefore I search for 'marked moments' every moment of everyday...and I find them. Life is beautiful!


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This Blitz is brought to you by Reading Addiction Book Tours

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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Read an exclusive excerpt from 'The Legend of Eve (The Chosen Ones)' by Toni Edge


The Legend of Eve
by Toni Edge

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

Seventeen-year-old high school transfer student Eve Carson is the genetic cure-all for droolworthy Teluosian alien King, Adam Plain.

As Adam tries to convince Eve he wants her and not just her DNA, Eve discovers a hidden world of interstellar traders, human "genetic cows," and teen abductions by a government that will do anything to control the Teluosians on Earth.

When Eve's mom is kidnapped, loyalties are tested. Is Eve Adam's true love or his next "genetic cow?"

Read an exclusive excerpt:
"It is different here, Eve. Make sure you're careful about who you make friends with. Because you're new."

I moved the carrots around on my plate. This lunch was starting to feel like a setup or the final blow that I had been waiting for. "I just got here. The only friend I've met is Lily."

I heard his intake of breath. "Adam's sister. He moves quick."

Then I looked up from my plate. The carrots and meat loaf had looked tasty before but now were forgotten. "What? You think Adam sent his sister to be friends with me because he's my mentor?"

Lando shrugged. "I don't know. I'm just saying that Adam and his sister don't socialize with the crowd normally. So, if I were you I'd be a little careful. You're new, Eve. Join some clubs. I'm sure being here at Stavrett will be a big change for you and I don't want you to miss out on any new opportunities." 
"That sounded like some brochure the school would give my mom. If you have something to say, then say it."

"Adam and his sister are…different."

Buy links


AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Toni Edge is a former juvenile delinquent and honorary member of the truancy club. Now, she likes to teach teens who remind her of herself. She also likes to read everything, a habit she picked up during her truancy days. For all the rest of her free time she likes to write young adult paranormal/science fiction stories that would have made her teen years so much clearer, if the stories had been true.

Website: http://www.toniedge.com/



Toni will be awarding a Grand Prize of a $25 Starbucks GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour, a $15 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour and a $10 iTunes GC to another randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Follow the tour for more chances to win!

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Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Cover Reveal! 'Perfectly Messy' by Lizzy Charles

Perfectly Messy
Release Date: May 2014




Summary from Goodreads:

Popularity isn't everything it's cracked up to be. Justin Marshall knows this better than most. For the captain of the basketball team, small business owner, and son of Minnesota's next governor, life can get pretty overwhelming. But Justin can handle anything as long as he has Lucy, the girl who fell for the man he’s trying to be.



But for Justin and Lucy, finding time together proves challenging. Stolen kisses and whispered promises just aren't enough. That is, until scandalous photos of the couple are leaked to a press intent on creating a juicy scandal during Justin's dad's gubernatorial campaign. And when Lucy becomes fair play for the tabloids and gossip pages, Justin does the only thing he can to protect her: he breaks her heart.


For Lucy, junior year is everything she hoped it would be: new friends, second chances, and a boyfriend she can’t stop kissing. That is, until the boy she’s pretty sure she loves chooses the life his family wants for him, over her.

Now it’s up to Lucy to teach him what it really means to have everything. Because for Justin, being who everyone needs him to be just might cost him the one person he can’t live without.




Book One:
(linked to Amazon)



About the Author

When Lizzy Charles isn’t scrambling to raise her two spunky toddlers or caring for premature and sick babies as a neonatal intensive care nurse, she’s in a quiet corner writing or snuggled up with a novel and a few squares of dark chocolate. Black tea keeps her constant and she loves guacamole. She married her high school sweetheart, a heart-melting musician, so it’s no surprise she’s fallen in love with writing contemporary YA romance novels.

Author Links:
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Cover Reveal Organized by:

Cover Reveal! 'Desire (Brightest Kind of Darkness #4)' by P.T. Michelle

Release Date: 04/01/14



Summary from Goodreads:

Now that Nara and Ethan are working together to uncover the Corvus’ secrets, they’re confident nothing can stop them.

But while they’ve learned to anticipate dark, outside forces gunning for them, neither is prepared for the insidious evil that slithers its way into their lives, nor the new challenges that surface so close to home.

Despite all the chaos and turmoil around them, the one constant they can depend on is their devotion and loyalty to each other. But as their relationship moves into deeper territory, sometimes the toughest battles are the ones waged within.

While the hunt for answers unravels more layers in the Corvus world, Ethan and Nara uncover new truths about themselves and their intricate connection to the powerful raven spirit.

When boundaries are suddenly redrawn and control shifts, Ethan and Nara will be forced to make choices that could bring them closer together or rip them apart forever.






Books in this series:
(covers linked to Amazon)

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About the Author

P.T. Michelle is the young adult and new adult pseudonym of Patrice Michelle, author of fifteen romance novels and novellas. When P.T. isn’t writing, she can usually be found reading or taking pictures of landscapes, sunsets and anything beautiful or odd in nature.

Author Links:

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Cover Reveal Organized by: