Category: blogging

Influenced Love (Black Beauty in Love #1)
By Shellee Marie
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age category: Adult
Release Date: 22 February 2022

Blurb:
A beauty influencer polls her followers to pick her date and ends up fake dating a fellow influencer, but real sparks fly when she begins to fall for the man behind his image.

After a scandal threatens her reputation, popular beauty influencer, Alivia Fae, attempts to distract her followers by polling them to pick her date. When they pair her up with a fellow influencer, Moe Gava, he takes notice and asks her out. Unfortunately, she soon realizes he’s not as desirable as he seems online.

Despite her disinterest, when it’s suggested that she and Moe start a fake dating relationship, to keep up engagement with their fan
s, she begrudgingly agrees. As the plan unfolds, she begins to grow closer to his low-key assistant, Travis. Leading her to re-evaluate what she truly wants to influence her life—love.

Links:
– Goodreads

Before I begin my review I quickly have to say thank you to Lola’s Blog Tour for allowing me to be a part of this book tour and for the eArc for me to read for my stop today.

This is Shellee Marie’s debut novel and the first book in the Black Beauty in Love series. I really enjoyed reading this and am excited to continue with the series. I should mention that this is currently free to read on Kindle Unlimited in both Canada and the US.

Our main character is Alivia and she is a beauty influencer and entrepreneur who is making her own line of hair care products.

The book begins with Alivia being the best woman at her best friend Dan’s wedding. They have known each other since they were in school together. Now, this is not just any simple wedding with friends and family, no it also includes Dan’s teammates (he is a baseball player) and the media.

With any wedding day, you hope it goes off without a hitch right? Well for Alivia it all falls apart from the get-go. Then one thing leads to another and it’s reported that Dan and Alivia are romantically involved. I guess looking in from the outside you could see that. This doesn’t make Dan’s new wife, Donna very happy and she begins to think that something is going on between the two besties.

Alivia tries to do damage control amidst the negativity so she comes up with a plan. She polls her followers asking who her next date should be and it just happens to be Moe who is a fitness influencer. When the fake dating trope was announced I knew that this wouldn’t go well because what Alivia doesn’t know is Moe’s assistant Travis is helping him out and she can almost spot the difference between the two when it comes to messages. Can they pull this off or will it be another thing for the media to discuss?

Although behind the scenes Alivia and Travis are always together and I loved their interactions. As you read you can’t help but wonder if there is more to this “friendship” than meets the eye. I know as I was reading I was rooting for Alivia and Travis. The chemistry was there instantly. The whole time I was reading I was really surprised they weren’t exposed sooner for as much as they were out in public together.

Will Alivia admit her true feelings to her followers?

I really enjoyed this and definitely can’t wait to continue the series.

About the Author:
Shellee holds a Master of Arts degree in Political Science from Ball State University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication from Purdue University. She also has two minors, in Women’s Studies and Political Science, and is a member of the Independent Book Publishers Association.

Shellee is an avid reader, and in her spare time, she can frequently be found curled up with a good book. She loves a wide variety of formats and genres. She also enjoys spending time with her brilliant daughter, Trinity, and her favorite pups, Myla and Chino. Shellee currently resides in southern Maryland, where she grew up.

Author links:
– Website
– Instagram
– TikTok

This is my post during the blog tour for You Won’t Know Her Name by Shanti Hershenson. You Won’t Know Her Name is written by a fourteen year old author and is based on a true story.

This blog tour is organized by Lola’s Blog Tours and the tour runs from 21 February till 6 March. You can see the tour schedule here.

You Won’t Know Her Name
By Shanti Hershenson
Genre: Contemporary
Age category: Young Adult
Release Date: July 27, 2021

Blurb:
“I thought they were my best friend…”

There lives a little girl whom you will never know the name of, and for her, a terrible storm is coming. She is going to a new, public middle school knowing no one but her sister, and the horrors are absolutely endless.

But she doesn’t expect what is to come.

In her first few months of school, terrible and unspeakable things begin to happen, that go beyond what is considered “normal”. Finding the courage to get away from the wrong people is a difficult thing, but when a horrific incident occurs, she finds herself running from who she once thought to be friends.

Now lost and alone, The Girl turns to one thing to help her get through her darkest moments. Writing poetry is the one way she can express her anger, and when her school announces that they will be hosting an open-mic night, she knows she has to enter. But entering means that she will have to face her demons, and it could be her worst nightmare…

From a teenaged author, You Won’t Know Her Name shines a light on a heartbreaking reality that often goes unspoken about – the issue that is bullying in middle school. From hateful comments to real, shocking violence, this book shares what cannot be ignored.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

About the Author:
Shanti Hershenson’s first two novellas were published when she was in the sixth grade, although her writing journey started long before then. Ever since she could hold a pencil, marker, or crayon, she was creating stories. They started from pictures, mere scribbles, and eventually, turned into captivating tales.

Author links:
– Website
– Twitter
– Instagram
– Tiktok

Before I begin my review I quickly have to say thank you to Lola’s Blog Tour for allowing me to be a part of this book tour and for the ebook to read for my stop today.

I have to mention right away that You Won’t Know Her Name is told in verse format and it’s a format that I want to read more of this year. I have read a few books in this format over the years. I also have to mention that Shanti mentions right from the beginning that this has a lot of trigger warnings. Each new poem lists the trigger warnings so you will know beforehand what it will discuss. Some of them include verbal abuse, bullying, and assault.

This was a quick but heavy read. Our main character is a young girl who is attending a new school with her sister. Not long into the school year, it begins. At first, it’s little things but then it quickly escalates. She knows she needs to find a new group of friends to hang out with because this is trouble but yet she can’t.

Before long a person she thought was her friend decided to take it to the next level. She knows what this person did is wrong and is brave enough to speak up. To cope with all this our character takes to writing poems. It’s a place she feels comfortable expressing herself. When the school announces they will be hosting an open mic she decides to take part. She knows it will be tough but she is determined to face it head-on.

This definitely hit home for me. It was only when I hit junior high that I started to get bullied. There was making fun and name-calling and no one spoke up or defended me. They always said something when no teacher was around. It was stuff that I had no control over. I always wondered how can kids be so mean to someone. I tried not to let them get to me but it was hard. I didn’t fit in. I felt like a little fish in this huge pond. I never told anyone what was going on because I thought no adult would believe me and they would bully me more if they knew I told someone.

It’s heartbreaking that in this day and age that adults ie teachers/principles/adults still don’t believe a child when they tell them what is going on and if they do they don’t protect the victim.

This is definitely a must-read. I plan on picking up a physical copy of the book very soon.

Giveaway
There is a tour-wide giveaway for the blog tour of You Won’t Know Her Name. 5 winners will win a paperback copy of You Won’t Know Her name by Shanti Hershenson (US Only).

For a chance to win, enter the rafflecopter below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

I can’t recall how I stumbled upon the Owl Diaries series because it’s been quite a few years now but I must have spotted it on a shelf at Chapters and flipped through it and instantly fell in love with our main character Eva. These books are an automatic buy and read for me.

Eva is just your typical little owl trying to make it through her day-to-day life and even though she is just an owl she struggles with things and situations like most kids do but with the help of her friends, she manages to get through it.

I know I am not the demographic age for this series since it’s geared towards 1st and 2nd graders but this series is too cute not to pass up and read. The illustrations are bright and colorful in each and every book and they draw you into the story. With its easy to read text with speech bubbles even. The storylines move at a good pace and you always walk away with a little message at the end of each book. Plus an added bonus is at the end of the book there are a few questions that are asked to see how much you remember from reading it and I think that is great because it forces you to remember what you just read. It can also be a conversation starter if a parent is reading the book to a child.

You don’t have to read these in order as each can be read on its own and I highly recommend this series to new readers. I even managed to get a dad who was looking for books for his daughter to pick up a few books in the series as I am sure she will love it.

I personally can’t pick out a favorite because I truly enjoyed them all. Eva is just the cutest owl is she not? To date, there are 16 books in the series (the newest one is called Get Well, Eva) and as of posting this, I should say I don’t see a book 17 yet.

Here are just a few of the books in the series.