Bookworm
Cookie O’Gorman
Publication date: April 20th 2023
Genres: Romance, Young Adult

Bookworm (buk-werm): Someone who loves books, reading, and/or studying. For reference, see Charlotte Kent.

Seventeen-year-old Charlotte Kent likes happy endings. Not that she’s looking for one herself. Awkward, never been kissed, and bookish to the core, Lottie would rather read about love than experience it.

But she enjoys helping others find their HEA in books.

Lottie loves working at the library…even if it means running into Bo Stryker.

Broody, athletic, and unfairly attractive when he frowns, Bo works at the flower shop across the street. Lottie is about to get rejected…when surprisingly, Bo steps in, pretends to be her boyfriend, and steals her first kiss.

One viral video later, everyone thinks they’re together.

Bo wants to keep pretending. Lottie wants to make amends—long story short: she was on a ladder; he startled her; the book slap was an accident.

A fake relationship may be the solution. But as they grow closer, Lottie can’t help falling for Bo—which is a disaster because grumpy sunshine only works in fiction…right?

This book features two opposites with undeniable chemistry, one lovable librarian, so many stolen kisses and answers the question:

What happens when a nerd falls for the grump-next-door?

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Author Bio:

Cookie O’Gorman writes YA & NA romance to give readers a taste of happily-ever-after. Small towns, quirky characters, and the awkward yet beautiful moments in life make up her books. Cookie also has a soft spot for nerds and ninjas. Her novels ADORKABLE, NINJA GIRL, The Unbelievable, Inconceivable, Unforeseeable Truth About Ethan Wilder, The Good Girl’s Guide to Being Bad, WALLFLOWER, CUPCAKE, and FAUXMANCE are out now! She is also the author of NA sports romances, The Best Mistake, The Perfect Play, and The Sweetest Game.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Bookbub / Newsletter

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Broken Dreams
Abbie Roads
(Beautiful Nightmare, #2)
Publication date: May 9th 2023
Genres: Adult, Dark Romance, Romance

A stalker. A killer. A v!rg!n hero who will sacrifice himself to save the woman he loves.

FBI Special Skills Consultant Lathan Montgomery has a genetic anomaly that he uses to solve cold cases, but it forces him to live in seclusion. When he saves a woman from a roadside attack, instead of her presence causing him to lose control, she soothes him. For the first time in his life, he experiences love.

But someone is watching them and planning to make them both suffer.

Broken Dreams is the second book in Abbie Roads’ Beautiful Nightmare Series of dark romantic thrillers. It features a v!rg!n hero who never thought he’d find love. If you devour true crime and romance novels then you’ll love a series that combines both in a roller-coaster ride of danger, mind games, and swoon worthy love.

Buy this dangerously dark romance today!

Trigger warning: Depictions of SA and violence.

Previously published under the title Hunt the Dawn

Add to Goodreads / Pre-order

Author Bio:

Abbie Roads is the best-selling author of the Fatal Dreams Series and the Fatal Truth Series. Her novels have been finalists in many prestigious contests including The Golden Heart, The Greater Detroit Booksellers Best, The Oklahoma National Readers’ Choice Award, The Write Touch, The Strut Your Stuff Contest, The Aspen Gold Contest, The Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, The Heart of Excellence Readers’ Choice Award, The Midnight Sun, The Kathryn Hayes Contest, The Chanticleer, The Daphne du Maurier, The National Readers’ Choice Award, The New England Readers’ Choice Contest, The Beverly Award, and The Maggie Award. Her debut novel Race the Darkness was Publishers Weekly Top 10 Pick for Fall and Never Let Me Fall is an Amazon Editor’s Pick.

By day Abbie Roads is a mental health counselor always focusing on the bright side. By night she writes on the dark side, putting her characters through the wringer before she gives them their happily-ever-after. She loves a good inspirational quote and is a fan of true crime.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

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I Will Find You Again by Sarah Lyu
Genre: Young Adult Mystery Thriller
Publishing Date: March 14, 2023

Synopsis:
All the Bright Places meets Ace of Spades in this smart, twisty teen thriller about a girl who can’t stop pushing herself to be the best—even after losing her best friend and the love of her life.

Welcome to Meadowlark, Long Island—expensive homes and good schools, ambition and loneliness. Meet Chase Ohara and Lia Vestiano: the driven overachiever and the impulsive wanderer, the future CEO and the free spirit. Best friends for years—weekend trips to Montauk, sleepovers on a yacht—and then, first love. True love.

But when Lia disappears, Chase’s life turns into a series of grim snapshots. Anger. Grief. Running. Pink pills in an Altoids tin. A cheating ring at school. Heartbreak and lies. A catastrophic secret.

And the shocking truth that will change everything about the way Chase sees Lia—and herself.
Content Warning: drug use

Before I begin my review I quickly have to thank TBR and Beyond Tours for graciously providing me with an eArc of the book and for allowing me to be a part of the blog tour for the book.

I have to admit that I don’t know what kind of review I will be leaving because I have so much to say that I don’t want to give any spoilers. I will say that I absolutely loved the book and had a hard time putting it down.

When I first got the email about the book I read the synopsis that was provided and it was enough to entice me to want to read the book. I have to admit that after that first time reading it I forgot what it was about.  I think that is one of the good things about ebooks because you just can’t flip the book over to read the synopsis. I personally love going into a book blindly and I am so happy that I did that with this one.

Please be advised that there is trigger warnings for drugs, anxiety, depression, and thoughts of suicide.

The main character is Chase who is a young Asian girl who lives in Meadowlark which is a town on Long Island. When you look at Chase from the outside she is a girl who is perfect and is at the top of her class and you know she is going to go places but what you don’t see is that behind closed doors she is anything but perfect. She is taking pills to just hold it all together because the pressure is getting to her.

Things only get worse for Chase when something happens to Lia her best friend/girlfriend. Chase is struggling to deal with it all and begins to retraces her steps and go back over all the memories to see if there was something she missed while struggling to grip if this was something that happened on purpose. Will she every find out what happens?

If you’re looking for a really good book that will hit you with all kinds of feelings I have to highly recommend this one. Like I said go into this book blindly. Please read it and pass it on to the teen in your life. There is great representation in the book and Sarah is not afraid to tackle the hard topics. I definitely will be reading more of Sarah’s work in the future. I know I will be picking up her debut The Best Lies very soon.

Book Links:
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61272816-i-will-find-you-again
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1534465154/
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/i-will-find-you-again-sarah-lyu/1141652299
Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/I-Will-Find-You-Again-Sarah-Lyu/9781534465152
IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781534465152

About the Author:

Sarah Lyu grew up outside of Atlanta, GA, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. She loves a good hike and can often be found with a paintbrush in one hand and a cup of milky tea in the other. She is the author of I Will Find You Again and The Best Lies. You can visit her at sarahlyu.com.

Author Links:
Website: https://www.sarahlyu.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sarahlyu
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahlyu7/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15365178.Sarah_Lyu
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100068910032765
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sarah.lyu

Tour Schedule:
https://tbrandbeyondtours.com/2023/01/30/tour-schedule-i-will-find-you-again-by-sarah-lyu/

The Rebirth
V.P. Evans
Publication date: March 16th 2023
Genres: Adult, Suspense, Thriller

A traumatized father seeks justice for his son’s death.

A fallen man seeks atonement for his mistakes.

A cryptic path hides all the answers.

And so much more …

For the past decade, Mark has been living like an alcoholic druggy, loathing himself for not having the power to protect his son from the hands of these goddamn monsters.

For the past decade, Jason has been living a reclusive life, doomed by his enemies to spend the rest of his bland days in isolation till the illness seizes his last breath.

For the past decade, Mark and Jason haven’t seen each other.

But everything is about to change …

A murder brings them together tonight, trapped among the streets of Chicago in the search for redemption by following a mystical path that could unlock the darkest scandal in history. As the path unrolls secrets buried in works like these of Nietzsche, Plato, and Aristotle, the shadiest aspects of the human soul come to the surface, and soon both men realize that those who are hunting them, closing by with each passing minute, are equally dangerous with the ghosts of the past …

Goodreads / Amazon

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EXCERPT:

PROLOGUE

Thursday, March 16, 2023

10:49 p.m.

Chicago, Illinois

His time was up. He knew it. The bullet to his stomach had already soaked his pants with blood, and he could feel the warmth of it running into his shoes.

He staggered among the tall trees, pressing a hand over the hole, but that only pushed the blood out faster between his fingers. He managed a few more steps, as though his body still believed it could survive—but he collapsed. His cheek scraped against the wet grass. Damp leaves froze his face. A bug jumped out of the ground, tickling his nostrils.

His gaze climbed up the thick, naked tree branches. Far to the north, along Lake Michigan’s shoreline, vibrant lights fought to master the night sky, and eminent towers of steel and glass waved from the Loop.

Thrusting with his legs, he lugged his body toward the lake’s edge. Less than ten feet away.

Wet muck soaked his white shirt. His arms shoveled the ground, spoiling the blanket of green with deep, muddled brown lines. His hands sank into the soil, molding balls of dirt and grass in each fist.

A muffled chuckle echoed from behind. The man who’d shot him stepped closer.

Dermot Walsh always knew it would end like this—a lifetime of countless crimes had inscribed his name on a great number of bullets, but each had missed him.

Till now.

Maybe this disturbing feeling wasn’t exactly fear, but a sick curiosity about the person who’d end his days.

He tried to roll his body over. The bullet burned, twisting in his gut. But the pain couldn’t hold him back. He had to see his executioner. He pushed his body up and finally turned.

Pitch darkness consumed Burnham Park. Scattered pale lamps barely lit the hulking hitman who was approaching slowly, gun raking in his left hand. His chest suffocated in the tightly fitted suit—the buttons ready to hurl and his buff arms almost tearing the fabric apart.

“Who are you?” Walsh tried to ask. The blood had filled his throat, and he coughed some of it over his chin.

The hitman kneeled over him. His face lacked color, and hair including eyebrows or a beard. He was just a soulless, fey, creepy figure shrouded in the shadows.

“Mr. Walsh.” The ghost’s voice was clear, steady. “We gave you everything, but you wanted more. For years we’ve waited to repay your vanity.”

What? Those words … how could they be true? In his thoughts, a single name popped up—Jason.

Something happened. The hitman raised his head, then scurried off, somewhere into the park.

Walsh’s bleary vision offered nothing more than faint images: his BMW parked nearby. Through the half-opened, smashed rear door, the last member of his personal security detail was hanging, attempting to grab the gun in front of him. The other two were already corpses.

Who was he? Walsh wondered. Harry? Jorge? It was impossible to recognize the man under the mask of dripping blood.

“Ha, ha, naughty little piggy,” the bald hitman snickered, marching over to the bloody-faced man.

Confused about what he’d just heard, Walsh thrust a hand into his jacket pocket, searching for his cell phone.

He grasped it. He tried to—ugh, he didn’t have the strength. Unable to pull it completely from his pocket, he struggled to type the message. The screen was barely visible. His eyes were burning. All he could see was a white fog.

He touched the screen with his fingers, but he couldn’t feel anything. He couldn’t even say if he was typing or if this whole attempt was just an illusion of his frigging mind.

He strived to focus, but with each passing second, his senses surrendered to the cold hug of death.

He had to make it. This was his only shot at naming his murderers.

The mouth of the hitman’s gun made a dull sound as he pulled the trigger, taking the life of the bloody-faced man.

Walsh didn’t have any more time. He hoped he’d keyed and sent the drafted message, though he feared he hadn’t.

Steps gouged the ground as the hitman was pacing toward him.

Walsh directed his eyes toward the lake. Its special beauty had always been a comfort to him, and now its peaceful waters were calling him with their serene song of silence. Gritting his teeth, he funneled every scintilla of his remaining strength into moving his damn hand. He couldn’t flex it, so he stretched it all the way to the right till it touched the cold water. He felt the need to groan, but air refused to enter his lungs. He plunged his hand into the water and opened his palm wide, praying that the cell phone had actually reached the lake, carrying the faith that the night wouldn’t end with his death. Instead, his death would be the beginning … Jason.

The hitman stood before him, winking and aiming his gun mockingly.

Then a thick cloud enveloped Walsh’s body.

Author Bio:

Wandering around small towns and cozy villages in faraway lands, V.P. Evans tastes the manifold flavors of this planet and, somewhere down the road, finds himself charmed by the few who live passionately or disappointed as darkness surrounds societies and people. He then sits down and starts to write.

Website / Goodreads / Bookbub

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Royal Blood (Royal Blood #1) by Aimee Carter
Genre: Young Adult Mystery
Publishing Date: March 7, 2023

Synopsis:
An American girl becomes the British Monarchy’s greatest nightmare in this thrilling new series where royal scandals just got deadlier.

As the King of England’s illegitimate daughter, 17-year-old Evan Bright knows a thing or two about keeping secrets.
But when she’s forced to spend the summer in London with her father and the royal family, who aren’t exactly thrilled she exists, her identity is mysteriously revealed, and suddenly the world is dying to know every juicy lie the press prints about her.

After a fun night turns deadly and Evan becomes the primary suspect in a murder investigation, the escalating rumors and fallout threaten to tear her life apart. As she fights to uncover the truth about what happened, she discovers royal secrets that are even more scandalous than she imagined – secrets that could change the monarchy forever.
And her own may be next.

Content Warning: attempted sexual assault, use of the date rape drug

Before I begin my review I quickly have to thank TBR and Beyond Tours for letting me be a part of the blog tour for Aimee Carter’s newest release, Royal Blood. This is the first book in a upcoming trilogy.

As I sat down to write my review I realized that this is my first Aimee Carter book. I have no idea why I haven’t read her previous books, I know I have quite a few on my TBR shelves. Perhaps now is the time to take them out and read.

I have to admit that once I started to read Royal Blood I pretty much devoured it in one weekend. I was instantly hooked from the beginning and at times I had a hard time to put it down. To me that is a sign of a really amazing book and an amazing author. I will definitely continue with the series and I will definitely read more of Aimee’s books.

As I was reading this I couldn’t help but think that this would make a perfect tv adaption. Hopefully that will happen.

Evangeline (Evan) is not your typical 17 year old girl American girl, she is in fact the King of England’s illegitmate daughter. She is just about to be kicked out of her 9th boarding school and she is about to be the British Monarch worst nightmare.

Evan has no choice but to spend the summer in London with her father and the royal family. No one is exactly happy and a little shocked when she arrives. They are not happy about this situation because up until now no one knew about Evan and she was kept a secret from everyone. Will shebe able to remain like this or will her secret be revealed to the world? What will the world think when they find out about Evan?

As I mentioned previously Evan is just about to be kicked out of her 9th boarding school and this time it serious. She is in a lot of trouble and its not a slap on the hand kind of offense, she literally set a classroom on fire. Just when things couldn’t get worse a mysterious man, Jenkins, who just happens to be the Kings right hand man, steps in to fix the situation hence why is now forced to spend the summer in London.

Things aren’t looking up for Evan and things only get worse for her. How will she get out of this situation?

I have always had an interest is stories that involve royality. I loved how Aimee made this one different from other royal stories. There is enough twist and turns to keep you hooked.

I have to say that I felt for Evan and how she didn’t exactly have the ideal life. She was her own worst enemy many times throughout the book. I am curious to see where this will go and definitely will keep reading the series to find out.

Book Links:
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57679013-royal-blood
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B531W2Y9/
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/royal-blood-aim-e-carter/1141693715
Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Royal-Blood-Aimee-Carter/9780593485897
IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780593485897

About the Author:
Aimée Carter is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the award-winning author of more than a dozen books, including The Goddess Test series, the Blackcoat Rebellion series, and the Simon Thorn series for middle grade readers, now a #1 international bestselling series under the title Animox and Die Erben der Animox. Her newest middle grade book, Curse of the Phoenix, will be released in June from Margaret K. McElderry Books.

Author Links:
Website: https://aimeecarter.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aimee_carter
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aimeemoc/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/767317.Aimee_Carter
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aimeecarterbooks/

Tour Schedule:
https://tbrandbeyondtours.com/2023/01/25/tour-schedule-royal-blood-royal-blood-1-by-aimee-carter/