Books Read-2015 – Page 5 – Cindy's Love Of Books

Review: Dancing Through Life: Steps of Courage and Conviction

Posted on August 4, 2015June 17, 2015 by Cindy

Dancing Through Life: Steps of Courage and Conviction Format: eARC
on August 1st, 2014
Pages: 224

Candace Cameron Bure has grown up before our eyes and we've watched as she's balanced life in Hollywood with her faith for many years. But that all reached new heights when she was given the opportunity to join the cast of Dancing With the Stars. Being on the show was one of her dreams come true; and with that dream came the opportunity to display her Christian faith in front of millions of people, through an intense season of stretching beyond her limits, and to run the race God gave her with joy and perseverance.

Join Candace as she reflects on the self-discovery that came through leaping out of her comfort zone. Go behind the scenes and experience the highs and lows, the roadblocks, and the personal victories. Hear straight from her heart on tough lessons learned about grace, rejection, perfectionism, disappointment, accountability, dealing with criticism, and more. Through God’s strength, and with the help of endless support from her family and friends, see how Candace stayed true to herself and publicly lived out her faith in Christ all the way to the finale.

How do you stand with conviction in your world? Where does your courage come from when faced with challenges? How do you live out your faith on a daily basis despite opposition? Your stage probably isn't in Hollywood and the challenges you are facing may not be on live television, but they are no less real. Come along with Candace as she shares how she found the courage to stand with conviction on one of the largest platforms of her life.

Dancing Through Life is Candace Cameron Bure’s third book. Her other two are Reshaping It All: Motivation for Physical and Spiritual Fitness and Balancing It All: My Story of Juggling Priorities and Purpose.

I didn’t realize that this book was going to be at BEA until I walked by the B & H Publishing Group booth. When I saw it on the table I need I had to pick it up to read.

Dancing Through Life is all about Candace’s time on Dancing With the Stars season 18. The book offers behind the scenes stories that you might not know and her struggle throughout the course of the show to remain true to her beliefs. I have to applaud her for doing this. She has never sold herself out for ratings and stuck to her beliefs.

The book begins when Candace gets the email about being on the show which was a long life dream of hers. As she is writing the book she admits that she didn’t think she would end up in third place. As of fan of hers I was happy to see that she got as far as she did.

I really enjoyed reading this book because to watch Dancing With The Stars is one thing but to read behind the scenes is a whole other thing. So much goes on that we aren’t aware of especially in Candace’s case because she struggled every day.

I think Dancing With The Stars opened Candace’s eyes and took her out of her comfort zone on a daily bases. Every day was a struggle for her but she got through each hurdle and grew along the way. Its not easy trying to remain true to yourself and what you belief but she managed to do it with grace and dignity.

I managed to read this book in pretty much one sitting and I enjoyed reading it. I can’t wait to flip through the finished copy to see the photos that would be included in the book.

I think after reading this I have a whole new appreciation for Candace. I really think I need to pick up her previous two books to read.

Review/ Even Monsters Say Good Night

Posted on August 3, 2015June 2, 2015 by Cindy

Even Monsters Say Good Night Format: eARC
on August 1, 2015
Pages: 32

It's bedtime, and Avery hates bedtime. She is positive that there are monsters under her bed, expecially on Halloween. Where else would all of those monsters sleep? After a thorough discussion with her mom about the monster situation, Avery finally goes to her room. Does she dare check under the bed? A mix of story text and speech bubbles blend seamlessly in this humorous bedtime tale that both parents and children will relate to.

I received this book for free from publisher/pr firm in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I picked up this cute picture book at #BEA15.

Even Monsters Say Good Night is a super cute picture book. Its about a little girl named Avery and its Halloween night and she hates bed time. She knows there is monsters out there especially on Halloween night.

Avery is your typical little girl questioning all things about bed time and monsters. Her mother reassures Avery that even monsters have a bed time and that they all sleep in various places such as the mummy sleeps in a coffin, werewolves sleep in their dens, and so many more.

The illustrations are appealing and colorful. This book will appeal to kids of all ages. Even Michael liked this super quick and fun read. We had fun flipping through the pages.

Book Spotlight/ Buzz Books 2015 Young Adult Fall/Winter

Posted on July 10, 2015July 10, 2015 by Cindy

Buzz Books 2015 Young Adult Fall/Winter Series: Buzz Books #3

Format: eBook
on May 2015

This edition of Buzz Books: Young Adult provides substantial pre-publication excerpts from 20 forthcoming young adult and middle grade books. Now everyone can share the same access to the newest YA voices the publishing industry is broadcasting for the fall/winter season. Extensive publishing information, including promotion plans and publicity contacts, are included in this NetGalley version. At the end of most excerpts, you will find a link to the full galley on NetGalley!

Excerpts include new work from established leaders in the field (James Dashner, Jennifer Donnelly, Patrick Ness, and Lauren Oliver), authors best-known for their adult books (Eleanor Herman and Cammie McGovern), and newsmaking titles such as the highly graphic History of Glitter and Blood, Illuminae, and The Thing About Jellyfish.

You will find a full range of YA titles previewed here —dystopian, romance, fantasy, sci-fi, humor, literary and more — and you will find some works for tweens and middle-grade readers. As always, many are sure to make bestseller and “best of” lists.

Four of our titles will be featured at this year’s Book Expo America convention on their own YA or Middle Grade Editors Buzz panels: Everything Everything, Nightfall, This Raging Light, and The Thing About Jellyfish. Plus, half of our 20 Buzz Books: Young Adult authors will be in attendance at BEA.

I really can’t believe that I am sitting here writing about upcoming fall/winter books when its only been a few weeks of summer.

I am always so happy when Publishers Lunch put out there Buzz Books for the upcoming seasons especially for the young adult books and that they expanded it to include more books. This is the third young adult Buzz Book and I enjoyed reading this and getting the chance to get a sneak peek into the upcoming young adult books that are coming out very soon.

The Buzz Books 2015 Young Adult Fall/Winter edition features 2o exclusive excerpts of new young adult titles. Each title includes the cover of the book, summary and a few chapters. Just enough to suck you into wanting to read the book or books asap.

Just from reading these 20 snippets I have to say that I think this Fall/Winter there is a ton of great young adult books coming out that I am pretty excited to read.

Here is the list of books that were mentioned:

This Raging Light by Estelle Laure
**Not If I See You First by Eric Lindstrom
**A Step Toward Falling by Cammie McGovern
A Story of Glitter and Blood by Hannah Moskowitz
**Dumpling Go Big or Go Home by Julie Murphy
The Rest Of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
**This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
Curiosity House The Shrunken Head by Lauren Oliver & H.C. Chester
Hello, Goodbye and Everything In Between by Jennifer E Smith
The Game of Lives by James Dashner

Here are a few of the titles that peaked my interest:
** This innovative, heartfelt debut novel tells the story of a girl who’s literally allergic to the outside world. When a new family moves in next door, she begins a complicated romance that challenges everything she’s ever known. The narrative unfolds via vignettes, diary entries, texts, charts, lists, illustrations, and more.

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.

Gabriella Mallory, AP student and perfect-daughter-in-training, stands barefoot on a public toilet for three hours while her school is on lockdown. Someone has planted a bomb and she is hiding. The bomb is defused but the would-be-bomber is still at large. And everyone at Central High School is a suspect. The school starts a top-secret crisis help line and Gabi is invited to join. When she does, she is drawn into a suspenseful game of cat and mouse with the bomber, who has unfinished business. He leaves threatening notes on campus. He makes threatening calls to the help line. And then he begins targeting Gabi directly. Is it because her father is the lead police detective on the case? Is the bomber one of her new friends. Could it be her new boyfriend with his complicated past? As the story unfolds, Gabi knows she is somehow connected to the bomber. Even worse she is part of his plan. Can Gabi reach out and stop him? Or will she be too late?

** A stunning debut about how grief can open the world in magical ways.

After her best friend dies in a drowning accident, Suzy is convinced that the true cause of the tragedy was a rare jellyfish sting. Retreating into a silent world of imagination, she crafts a plan to prove her theory–even if it means traveling the globe, alone. Suzy’s achingly heartfelt journey explores life, death, the astonishing wonder of the universe…and the potential for love and hope right next door.
From Jennifer Donnelly, the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of A Northern Light and Revolution, comes a mystery about dark secrets, dirty truths, and the lengths to which people will go for love and revenge. For fans of Elizabeth George and Libba Bray, These Shallow Graves is the story of how much a young woman is willing to risk and lose in order to find the truth.

Jo Montfort is beautiful and rich, and soon—like all the girls in her class—she’ll graduate from finishing school and be married off to a wealthy bachelor. Which is the last thing she wants. Jo dreams of becoming a writer—a newspaper reporter like the trailblazing Nellie Bly.

Wild aspirations aside, Jo’s life seems perfect until tragedy strikes: her father is found dead. Charles Montfort shot himself while cleaning his pistol. One of New York City’s wealthiest men, he owned a newspaper and was a partner in a massive shipping firm, and Jo knows he was far too smart to clean a loaded gun.

The more Jo hears about her father’s death, the more something feels wrong. Suicide is the only logical explanation, and of course people have started talking, but Jo’s father would never have resorted to that. And then she meets Eddie—a young, smart, infuriatingly handsome reporter at her father’s newspaper—and it becomes all too clear how much she stands to lose if she keeps searching for the truth. But now it might be too late to stop.

The past never stays buried forever. Life is dirtier than Jo Montfort could ever have imagined, and this time the truth is the dirtiest part of all.
** Three royal houses ruling three interplanetary systems are on the brink of collapse, and they must either ally together or tear each other apart in order for their people to survive.

Asa is the youngest daughter of the house of Fane, which has been fighting a devastating food and energy crisis for far too long. She thinks she can save her family’s livelihood by posing as her oldest sister in an arranged marriage with Eagle, the heir to the throne of the house of Westlet. The appearance of her mother, a traitor who defected to the house of Galton, adds fuel to the fire, while Asa also tries to save her sister Wren’s life . . . possibly from the hands of their own father.

But as Asa and Eagle forge a genuine bond, will secrets from the past and the urgent needs of their people in the present keep them divided?

Author Tessa Elwood’s debut series is an epic romance at heart, set against a mine field of political machinations, space adventure, and deep-seeded family loyalties.
For fans of We Were Liars and How I Live Now comes a haunting, sexy, magically realistic debut about a famiy caught between a violent history, a taboo romance, and the mysteries lurking in their own backyard.

Every October Cara and her family become inexplicably and unavoidably accident-prone. Some years it’s bad, like the season when her father died, and some years it’s just a lot of cuts and scrapes. This accident season–when Cara, her ex-stepbrother, Sam, and her best friend, Bea, are 17–is going to be a bad one. But not for the reasons they think.

Cara is about to learn that not all the scars left by the accident season are physical: There’s a long-hidden family secret underneath the bumps and bruises. This is the year Cara will finally fall desperately in love, when she’ll start discovering the painful truth about the adults in her life, and when she’ll uncover the dark o
A story where edge-of-your-seat horror meets post-apocalyptic thriller, perfect for fans of Lois Lowry and The Mazerunner

On Marin’s island, sunrise doesn’t come every twenty-four hours—it comes every twenty-eightyears. Now the sun is just a sliver of light on the horizon. The weather is turning cold and the shadows are growing long.

Because sunset triggers the tide to roll out hundreds of miles, the islanders are frantically preparing to sail south, where they will wait out the long Night.

Marin and her twin brother, Kana, help their anxious parents ready the house for departure. Locks must be taken off doors. Furniture must be arranged. Tables must be set. The rituals are puzzling—bizarre, even—but none of the adults in town will discuss why it has to be done this way.

Just as the ships are about to sail, a teenage boy goes missing—the twins’ friend Line. Marin and Kana are the only ones who know the truth about where Line’s gone, and the only way to rescue him is by doing it themselves. But Night is falling. Their island is changing.

And it may already be too late.
** Critically acclaimed memoirist Aaron Hartzler, author of Rapture Practice, takes an unflinching look at what happens to a small town when some of its residents commit a terrible crime. This honest, authentic debut novel—inspired by the events in the Steubenville rape case—will resonate with readers who’ve ever walked that razor-thin line between guilt and innocence that so often gets blurred, one hundred and forty characters at a time.

The party at John Doone’s last Saturday night is a bit of a blur. Kate Weston can piece together most of the details: Stacey Stallard handing her shots, Ben Cody taking her keys and getting her home early. . . . But when a picture of Stacey passed out over Deacon Mills’s shoulder appears online the next morning, Kate suspects she doesn’t have all the details. When Stacey levels charges against four of Kate’s classmates, the whole town erupts into controversy. Facts that can’t be ignored begin to surface, and every answer Kate finds leads back to the same questions: Who witnessed what happened to Stacey? And what responsibility do they have to speak up about what they saw?

** Imagine a time when the gods turn a blind eye to the agony of men, when the last of the hellions roam the plains, and evil stirs beyond the edges of the map. A time when cities burn, and in their ashes, empires rise.

Alexander, Macedon’s sixteen-year-old heir, is on the brink of discovering his fated role in conquering the known world, but finds himself drawn to a newcomer…

Katerina must navigate the dark secrets of court life while keeping hidden her own mission: kill the queen. But she doesn’t account for her first love…

Jacob will go to unthinkable lengths to win Katerina, even if it means having to compete withHephaestion, a murderer sheltered by the prince.

And far across the sea, Zofia, a Persian princess and Alexander’s unmet betrothed, wants to alter her destiny by seeking the famed and deadly Spirit Eaters.

Weaving fantasy with the shocking details of real history, New York Times bestselling author ofSex with Kings Eleanor Herman reimagines the greatest emperor the world has ever known, Alexander the Great, in the first book of the Blood of Gods and Royals series.
** For fans of Marie Lu and James Dashner comes the first book in an epic new series.

“Brace yourself. You’re about to be immersed in a mindscape that you’ll never want to leave.”
—Marie Lu, New York Times bestselling author of the Legend trilogy

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.

This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto one of the evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it’s clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

The books that are marked like this ** are titles that I have that I was able to pick them up at BEA and I will be reading and reviewing them on the blog in the next few months. I a

Do any of these books interest you? What would be your first book to read from the list?

Book Spotlight/ St Martin’s First Spring-Summer 2015 Sampler

Posted on June 18, 2015June 16, 2015 by Cindy

St Martin's Spring-Summer 2015 Sampler Format: eBook
on July 31st, 2015

I believe this is the second time St. Martin’s has put together a sampler of its debut titles for the spring and summer of 2015.

I love when publishers do this because it allows us the reader to get a snippet of what new and exciting books are coming out plus it gives you the chance to read a bit to peek your interest. For me this is a great way to discover a new author that I might normally pass up when your at the bookstore plus it allows me to perhaps dig into a book that I might not normally pick up otherwise.

This was the case with this sampler. I have discovered a few hidden gems that I think I would have missed out on otherwise. There is fifteen debut books talked about in this sampler.

Here is the books that were in the sampler:

Make Your Way HOme Among Strangers by Jennine Capo Crucet
Murder at Barclay Meadow by Wendy Sand Eckel
Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey
The Devils Making by Sean Haldane
The Evidence Room by Cameron Harvey
The Casualties by Nick Holdstock
The Secrets of Lake Road by Karen Katchur
Between The Tides by Susannah Marren
Fishbowl by Bradley Somer
Hangman’s Game by Bill Syken
Three Rivers by Tiffany Quay Tyson
The Art of Baking Blind by Sarah Vaughan

Here is the books that peeked my interest and have been added to my wishlist of books to get.

I am actually excited because I got to pick this up at #BEA15.

“A masterful tale of social climbing and entrenched class distinctions, as seen through the eyes of an outsider who desperately wants in. Tense, hilarious, and bursting with gorgeous language. Stephanie Clifford is a 21st-century Edith Wharton.” -J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of The Engagements

It’s 2006 in the Manhattan of the young and glamorous. Money and class are colliding in a city that is about to go over a financial precipice and take much of the country with it. At 26, bright, funny and socially anxious Evelyn Beegan is determined to carve her own path in life and free herself from the influence of her social-climbing mother, who propelled her through prep school and onto the Upper East Side. Evelyn has long felt like an outsider to her privileged peers, but when she gets a job at a social network aimed at the elite, she’s forced to embrace them.

Recruiting new members for the site, Evelyn steps into a promised land of Adirondack camps, Newport cottages and Southampton clubs thick with socialites and Wall Streeters. Despite herself, Evelyn finds the lure of belonging intoxicating, and starts trying to pass as old money herself. When her father, a crusading class-action lawyer, is indicted for bribery, Evelyn must contend with her own family’s downfall as she keeps up appearances in her new life, grasping with increasing desperation as the ground underneath her begins to give way.

Bracing, hilarious and often poignant, Stephanie Clifford’s debut offers a thoroughly modern take on classic American themes – money, ambition, family, friendship – and on the universal longing to fit in.

When Walter Stahl was five-years-old, his mother drove away in the family’s blue Volvo and never came back. Now seventeen, living in the dregs of Las Vegas, taking care of his ailing father and marking time in a dead-end job along the Strip, Walter’s life so far has been defined by her absence. He doesn’t remember what she looks like; he’s never so much as seen a photograph but, still, he looks for her among the groups of tourists he runs into every day, allowing himself the dim hope that she might still be out there, somewhere.

But when Walter meets Chrysto and Acacia, a brother and sister working as living statues at the Venetian Hotel, his world cracks wide open. With them he discovers a Las Vegas he never knew existed and, as feelings for Chrysto develop, a side of himself he never knew he had. At the same time, clues behind his mother’s disappearance finally start to reveal themselves, and Walter is confronted with not only the truth about himself, but also that of his family history.

Threading through this coming-of-age story are beautiful, heart-wrenching graphic illustration, which reveal the journey of Walter’s mother Emily: how she left everything to chase a vision of Liberace across the country; and how Walter’s father Owen went searching for her amongst the gondolas of the Venetian Hotel.

In James Sie’s debut novel, Still Life Las Vegas, the magical collides with the mundane; memory, sexual awakening and familial ties all lead to a place where everything is illuminated, and nothing is real.

Grace Wilde is running-from the multi-million dollar mansion her record producer father bought, the famous older brother who’s topped the country music charts five years in a row, and the mother who blames her for her brother’s breakdown. Grace escapes to the farthest place from home she can think of, a boarding school in Korea, hoping for a fresh start.

She wants nothing to do with music, but when her roommate Sophie’s twin brother Jason turns out to be the newest Korean pop music superstar, Grace is thrust back into the world of fame. She can’t stand Jason, whose celebrity status is only outmatched by his oversized ego, but they form a tenuous alliance for the sake of her friendship with Sophie. As the months go by and Grace adjusts to her new life in Korea, even she can’t deny the sparks flying between her and the KPOP idol.

Soon, Grace realizes that her feelings for Jason threaten her promise to herself that she’ll leave behind the music industry that destroyed her family. But can Grace ignore her attraction to Jason and her undeniable pull of the music she was born to write? Sweet, fun, and romantic, Katie M. Stout’s Hello, I Love You explores what it means to experience first love and discover who you really are in the process.

“Dazzling…[a] quirky, raucous, and bewitching family saga.” –Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants

Simon Watson, a young librarian, lives alone in a house that is slowly crumbling toward the Long Island Sound. His parents are long dead. His mother, a circus mermaid who made her living by holding her breath, drowned in the very water his house overlooks. His younger sister, Enola, ran off six years ago and now reads tarot cards for a traveling carnival.

One June day, an old book arrives on Simon’s doorstep, sent by an antiquarian bookseller who purchased it on speculation. Fragile and water damaged, the book is a log from the owner of a traveling carnival in the 1700s, who reports strange and magical things, including the drowning death of a circus mermaid. Since then, generations of “mermaids” in Simon’s family have drowned–always on July 24, which is only weeks away.

As his friend Alice looks on with alarm, Simon becomes increasingly worried about his sister. Could there be a curse on Simon’s family? What does it have to do with the book, and can he get to the heart of the mystery in time to save Enola?

In the tradition of Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, and Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian, The Book of Speculation–with two-color illustrations by the author–is Erika Swyler’s moving debut novel about the power of books, family, and magic.

Most of these books are released and are available to purchase.

Its looking like this summer will be great for reading. Do any of these books interest you?

I am excited to pick up a few of these titles to read.

Book Spotlight/ Sneak Peeks

Posted on June 16, 2015June 15, 2015 by Cindy

THIS IS A SAMPLER containing 2-chapter excerpts from 6 books.

From the complex web of a twenty-year friendship, to the chillingly realistic look at the next world war, to the dark world of Fight Club meetsBridget Jones – this sneak peek sampler includes a bit of everything. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt brings you a compelling ebook sampler containing excerpts of new and diverse fiction.

Sneak Peaks includes a two-chapter excerpt from each of the following ebooks: How to Start a Fire, Dietland, Ghost Fleet, Maud’s Line, Girl Waits With Gun, and The Zig Zag Girl. Click the link at the end of each excerpt to buy the full ebook.

I love when publishers do this because it allows the reader to get a snippet of what new and exciting books are coming out plus it gives you the chance to read a bit to peek your interest. For me this is a great way to discover a new author(s) that I might normally pass up when I am at the bookstore plus it allows me to perhaps dig into a book that I might not normally pick up otherwise.

I wish more publishers would follow this and put out these kinds of samplers. Do you like samplers?

This was the case with this sampler. I have discovered a few hidden gems that I think I would have missed out on otherwise. Here is the books that were in the sampler:

How To Start a Fire by Lisa Lutz
Ghost Fleet by P.W Singer & August Cole
Maud’s Line by Margaret Verble
Girls Wait With Gun by Amy Stewart
The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths

I believe that most of these books are out now.

I had so much fun reading this little snippets of the above books and a few of these titles have made it to my wishlist of books. I love how each book is different from the previous one. I think there is a book in this sampler for everyone who loves to read.

Book Spotlight/ CRAVE The Atria Indie Author Sampler

Posted on June 15, 2015June 16, 2015 by Cindy

CRAVE The Atria Indie Author Sampler Format: eBook
on April 28th, 2015

Description

Turn up the heat with this free e-sampler featuring seven irresistibly sexy and utterly enticing selections by some of the biggest names in contemporary romance and new adult fiction. Lose yourself in these stories and spread the love by sharing with your friends.Here’s a taste of:After the Rain by Renée Carlino
When You’re Back by Abbi Glines
Where Sea Meets Sky by Karina Halle
Confess by Colleen Hoover
Amber to Ashes by Gail McHugh
Black Iris Leah Raeder
Chasing River by K.A. Tucker

Find out more about your favorite authors at
Facebook.com/AtriaIndieAuthors
Twitter.com/AtriaBooks

I am a huge fan of reading these samplers because its a great way to discover a new book or perhaps a book you heard about that you would like to read. I was recently on Netgally I spotted this sampler so I quickly went ahead and downloaded it. I am always on the hunt for a new book to read and these are perfect.

In this sampler there is seven samplers to read which makes this for a pretty quick read. The samplers that are:

From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a deeply emotional contemporary romance about the second chances waiting beyond the shattered dreams of youth.

When eighteen-year-old Avelina Belo meets a charismatic cowboy the summer before her senior year of high school, she doesn’t know that accepting his invitation to dinner will lead to a whirlwind marriage three months later and an exciting new life on a Montana ranch. She also doesn’t know that, in a few short years, fate will send everything crashing down around her.

A thousand miles away and fresh out of medical school, Nate Meyers is poised to become UCLA’s next superstar heart surgeon. His laser focus is the key to his success, but it’s also his greatest liability. When a routine surgery ends in disaster, derailing his career, he’s confronted with the hard truth: there’s no one waiting for him at home, no one to help him pick up the pieces.

Regrouping on his uncle’s Montana ranch, Nate meets Avelina, a beautiful but mysterious young woman who keeps to herself and barely speaks a word. As he discovers the details of her devastating past, Avelina teaches him more about matters of the heart than he ever knew before. But can they trust each other enough to put everything on the line?

This is book 12 in the series. From #1 New York Times bestselling author Abbi Glines comes the next new adult novel in her beloved Rosemary Beach series, which continues the story of Mase and Reese from When I’m Gone.

She was where my home would always be. It was time I took the next step and proved to her I was all in. Forever.

A chance meeting in Rosemary Beach has turned into a fairy-tale romance as Reese prepares to move in with Mase on his family ranch in Texas. With the loving support of the Colts, and her recent discovery that she has family of her own, Reese can finally move on from the dark horrors of her past and into a bright future.

But Aida isn’t going to let that happen. The beautiful blonde has been raised to think of Mase as her cousin, but it’s clear to Reese that Aida doesn’t love Mase like a cousin should.

And then there’s Captain, the inescapable stranger who has connections in Dallas and Rosemary Beach—and who conveniently shows up wherever Reese happens to be. Hot, mysterious, and plain-speaking, Captain isn’t afraid to tell Reese what he thinks about Mase—and how he feels about her.

As the competition for Mase and Reese’s hearts heats up, Reese’s past begins to unravel, illuminating shocking truths that will forever change the lives of the happy couple—and set the final stories of Rosemary Beach in motion.

I think this is one book I really want to read since it takes place in Vancouver, Canada and she is a Canadian author.

A new adult novel that perfectly captures the existential angst of your early twenties with raw wit, fresh insight, and true feeling from a critically adored USA TODAY bestselling author.

Joshua Miles has spent his early twenties spinning his wheels. Working dead-end jobs and living at home has left him exhausted and uninspired, with little energy to pursue his passion for graphic art. Until he meets Gemma Henare, a vivacious out-of-towner from New Zealand. What begins as a one-night stand soon becomes a turning point for Josh. He can’t get Gemma out of his head, even after she has left for home, and finds himself throwing caution to the wind for the first time in his life.

It’s not long before Josh is headed to New Zealand with only a backpack, some cash, and Gemma’s name to go on. But when he finally tracks her down, he finds his adventure is only just beginning. Equally infatuated, Gemma leads him on a whirlwind tour across the beautiful country, opening Josh up to life, lust, love, and all the messy heartache in between. Because, when love drags you somewhere, it might never let go—even when you know you have to say goodbye.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover, a new novel about risking everything for love—and finding your heart somewhere between the truth and lies.

At age twenty-one, Auburn Reed has already lost everything important to her. In her fight to rebuild her shattered life, she has her goals in sight and there is no room for mistakes. But when she walks into a Dallas art studio in search of a job, she doesn’t expect to find a deep attraction to the enigmatic artist who works there, Owen Gentry.

For once, Auburn takes a chance and puts her heart in control, only to discover that Owen is keeping a major secret from coming out. The magnitude of his past threatens to destroy everything important to Auburn, and the only way to get her life back on track is to cut Owen out of it.

To save their relationship, all Owen needs to do is confess. But in this case, the confession could be much more destructive than the actual sin.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Collide and Pulse comes a gritty new novel about a shattered young woman who unexpectedly falls for two best friends.

They were a storm I never saw coming, an unforeseen heartbreak on the edge of a dangerous cliff.

Amber Moretti’s life changes in the span of minutes. An orphaned outsider, she is desperate to start fresh the moment she walks onto campus. In the time it takes to cross the university’s dining hall, she meets two men who bring color, air, and light to her darkened world.

They became my addiction, each a needle to my next hit, my high.

Brock Cunningham’s appeal is dizzying, a potent force Amber can’t deny. A green-eyed smooth talker, he instantly attracts Amber. It doesn’t take long for him to consume her every thought, her every breath.

Ryder Ashcroft, a blue-eyed, tattooed, and pierced bad boy, turns Amber off immediately—that is, until he kisses her, stealing a piece of her heart, her soul.

They were as opposite as fire and ice, yet I ached for them equally.

Never knowing she could be broken down in so many unexpectedly beautiful yet petrifying ways, Amber finds herself falling for both men.

Immoral? Maybe. I say undeniable. Uncontained.

But one devastating event changes everything, shattering each of their lives…and Amber isn’t sure she can recover from it.
The next dark and sexy romantic suspense novel from the USA TODAY bestselling author ofUnteachable, which was praised for its “lush, haunting prose, deft storytelling, and scorching sensuality” (M. Pierce, bestselling author of the Night Owl trilogy), and called “one of the best forbidden romances” (Lauren Blakely, New York Times bestselling author).

“Love is not a thing that we create. It’s an undoing.”

It only took one moment of weakness for Laney Keating’s world to fall apart. One stupid gesture for a hopeless crush. Then the rumors began. Slut, they called her. Queer. Psycho. Mentally ill, messed up, so messed up even her own mother decided she wasn’t worth sticking around for.

If Laney could erase that whole year, she would. College is her chance to start with a clean slate.

She’s not looking for new friends, but they find her: charming, handsome Armin, the only guy patient enough to work through her thorny defenses—and fiery, filterless Blythe, the bad girl and partner in crime who has thorns of her own.

But Laney knows nothing good ever lasts. When a ghost from her past resurfaces—the bully who broke her down completely—she decides it’s time to live up to her own legend. And Armin and Blythe are going to help.

Which was the plan all along.

Because the rumors are true. Every single one. And Laney is going to show them just how true.

She’s going to show them all.

Another book I am excited to read and she is a Canadian author to.

A suspense-driven New Adult romance novel from the USA TODAY bestselling author of Ten Tiny Breaths and Burying Water.

Luke Boone doesn’t know exactly what his uncle Rust is involved in but he wants in on it—the cars, the money, the women. And it looks like he’s finally getting his wish. When Rust hands him the managerial keys to the garage, they come with a second set—one that opens up the door to tons of cash and opportunity. Though it’s not exactly legal, Luke’s never been one to worry about that sort of thing. Especially when it puts him behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 and onto the radar of gorgeous socialite named Rain.

Clara Bertelli is at the top of her game—at only twenty-six years old, she’s one of the most successful undercover officers in the Washington, DC, major crime unit, and she’s just been handed a case that could catapult her career and expose one of the West coast’s most notorious car theft rings. But, in order to do it, she’ll need to go deep undercover as Rain Martines. Her target? The twenty-four-year-old nephew of a key player who appears ready to follow in his uncle’s footsteps.

As Clara drifts deeper into the luxurious lifestyle of Rain, and further into the arms of her very attractive and charming target, the lines between right and wrong start to blur, making her wonder if she’ll be able to leave it all behind. Or if she’ll even want to.

I should let you know that all these books are available to purchase in your local bookstore.

All these books sound so good that I have added them all to my wishlist of books.

Does any of these books interest you? Have you read any of these books?

I know I will be on the look out for these books. I know Becoming Rain and Where Sea Meets Sky is definitely on my radar because I love books that are set in Canada and I love supporting Canadian authors.

These books are definitely my kind of books that I would read.

Thanks Atria for putting together this sampler of titles. I wish more publishers would do this kind of thing although that could be a bad thing for a complusive book buyer like myself.

Do you like samplers?

Review/ Prodigal & Riven

Posted on June 11, 2015 by Cindy

Prodigal & Riven Series: The Lost Imperials #2 & #3

Format: Paperback
on May 5th, 2015
Pages: 157 & 197

Prodigal Book 2:

Two journeys. One inescapable outcome. No time to lose.

Stein has been with the Hollows for as long as she can remember. Taken as a child, she has no memories of her past—and that's always been fine by her. Until the day she stumbles across a hidden journal containing the devastating truth about her paternity. Now everything she thought she knew—and everyone she thought she could trust—has changed. The truth about who she is and where she came from is a secret so deep, it will rock the Hollows and the Tesla Institute alike.
During a test to verify her bloodlines, Stein makes a terrible discovery. She is carrying a rare genetic mutation that is slowly killing her. Unsure who to turn to and running out of time, she has no choice but to turn to Tesla—her most hated enemy—for help. But can she trust the man who she's been fighting against her whole life, or will she end up another piece in his deadly game of cat and mouse with the people who betrayed her so long ago?

Riven Book 3:

Two journeys. One inescapable outcome. No time to lose.

What should be a routine mission leaves Ethan with a serious problem. He's fractured—a break between mind and body that leaves him at the mercy of his Rifter abilities, which are quickly tearing him apart. He will have to trust the only person who might know how to fix him, a mysterious Rifter named Stewart Stills, who seems to have a special connection with the time stream.

Forced to face his dark past and a decision he may never forgive himself for, he will be trained unlike any of the others, to become a true guardian for time. If he accepts, it will mean leaving everyone he loves behind. If he refuses, time itself could unravel. After a glimpse of the dark future awaiting them all, he will have to choose between destiny and desire. Will he rise up and take his place as a defender of the natural order, or will he watch as all of time burns at the hands of the girl he loves?
Welcome to the time war.

I am so thrilled that I was able to stop by the Clean Teen booth to pick up a signed copy of Prodigal & Riven by two of my favorite authors Sherry Ficklin and Tyler Jolley and I was lucky enough to get to spend some time with them. They are two of the most awesome authors out there.

As per BEA tradition this was the book I packed with me to read on the train ride home. If you recall from my previous BEA (2013) I was lucky enough to have met Sherry and Tyler at a breakfast their publisher had put on for selected bloggers. I was lucky enough to have sat near them and they spoke about their first book, Extracted and I’m not going to lying this wasn’t a genre I have read or had an interest in but listening to them both speak about the book I knew I had to read it and I don’t regret it. I read this book on the train ride back to Montreal and I loved it.

Prodigal and Riven were on my top ten list of books that I must get at BEA or die trying to get. Thankfully I was able to get a copy but it was so hard to hold off on reading this while I was in NYC because I really wanted to dive in and see what was happening.

I won’t get into to much of a review because I don’t want to give it all away since this is book 2 and 3 in the series.

Prodigal picks up right where Extracted ended. Stein discovered a journal from Tesla on her last mission. She probably wouldn’t have paid much attention to it had it not been for the emblem on the front of it. Its the same emblem she has on her navel. Curious about it she grabs it. She begins to question her past. With a simple blood test it will uncover who she really is. Will this provide her the answer she needs or wants to know?

I love how Prodigal was more about Stein because she was a favorite of mine from Extracted. She is this feisty nothing is going to stand in my way kind of character. She is that strong girl you want to me.

I was so happy that this was actually a flip book because Prodigal ended in a cliff hanger and I couldn’t imagine having to wait for Riven to come out. I probably would have ~~stalked~~ written Sherry and Tyler and begged them for book 3.

Thankfully having Riven on hand I was able to dig right into book 3 because other wise I might have gone ballistic on the train which would not have been good since there was already at least one wack a doodle on the train.

Riven is the extension of Prodigal and it tells Ethan’s side of the story of the events that have just happened. It was nice to discover more about Ethan since not alot of information about him was given. I really like Ethan. He is probably the kind of guy I could see my crushing over. I loved learning about his past and I think it made him who is today.

Riven gives a little bit more information about the time stream and how important is was.

I loved the friendship between Stein, Ethan, Ember, Lex, Nobel, Stills and Sissen. They stuck together and they had each other’s back which is my definition of a true friend. I can’t wait to discover more about these characters because they all have a story to tell.

I don’t know how I am ever going to wait for book 4 to come out. The suspense is killing me.

I loved both of these books and they were so much fun to read. I had to hold myself back from just breezing through the book because I know I could have but I wanted to savour the story and I didn’t want it to end.

If you are a fan of steampunk and/or futuristic then you would probably enjoy these books. I can’t recommend these two authors enough. You will fall in love with their writing style, characters or world. As I was reading this I could only imagine the world they had created.