Review: Red At Night by Katie McGarry

Book Title: Red At Night

Author: Katie McGarry

Release Date: April 1st, 2014

Publisher: Harlequin Special Releases

Genre: YA/Contemporary

Standalone (e-novella)

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Link: Amazon

Synopsis from Goodreads:

In Red at Night, Stella and Jonah are total opposites. She’s the girl with purple hair from the wrong part of town. He’s a high school senior who hangs with the cool crowd. Until a car accident leaves him haunted by guilt, and Jonah starts spending time at Stella’s favorite refuge…the local cemetery.

Stella knows she should keep her distance—after all, she spent her girlhood being bullied by Jonah’s friends. Once he’s sorted out his tangled emotions, Jonah won’t have time for her anymore. Too bad she’s already fallen for him.

Disclaimer: This book was a freebie from Amazon.

Review:

So I’ll read anything this woman writes. Oh my goodness, I never would have thought that so much emotion could be in a e-novella that was only 87 pages. Clearly I underestimated McGarry’s talents in condensing the story but not allowing the emotion to suffer. This book wrecked me nearly on the same level as Pushing The Limits did.

My heart ached so badly for Stella. She didn’t think there was any hope for her in life. She was resigned to her fate to work a full time job with no college since she couldn’t afford it and she didn’t have the type of family support she deserved. She had long ago learned that hoping doesn’t change the facts and that it was useless to hope for more. She had learned to be realistic and that dreams were just that, dreams.

“If I don’t hope for more, then it can’t hurt as bad.” -Stella

See, what did I tell you? Feels aplenty.

Then we had Jonah, who had the family Stella deserved but he couldn’t get past watching a complete stranger die on the road one night. He hated all the press that came with it. He hated being called a hero, because he wasn’t. He was just there at the right time and did what any decent person would do.

“His last words to me and on this earth were that he lived his life wrong.”-Jonah

I think everyone has that fear. That fear, that you’ll get to the end of your life and you’ll realize that you made some mistakes and maybe even lived your life wrong. Dying with regrets has got to be one of the worst feelings in the world because you can’t change it.

I loved Jonah and Stella’s relationship. I loved that he was willing to tell off his best friend, Cooper for making fun of her. I loved that he sided with her and was willing to defend her no matter what. The chemistry leapt off the page and it made me smile a lot.

“I know who I want to be and I want you by my side as I become that person.”

That quote is one of the most beautiful quotes I’ve ever read in a book. Oh my goodness, just reading it again, gets me all choked up. To have someone feel that way about you, has got to be one of the best feelings in the world.

This book packed an emotional punch from the very beginning and did not let go. I absolutely ADORED this book, and like I said before, I’ll read anything this woman writes. She’s that fabulous and her books are amazing, full of emotion and always, ALWAYS have amazing, and well written characters. 5 stars to this book that made me think of life, love and the choices we make in this world.

Blog Tour: Stripped Without You by Brooklyn Skye

Release date: November 30th 2013

Self-Published

Purchase: Amazon

Book Link: Goodreads

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

STRIPPED (a novel) 

College freshman Quinn Montgomery will do anything to avoid the mistake her sister made—killing herself over a boy. But when she is forced into nude modeling at a local college to support her family after a bankruptcy, she begins to crack, just enough to let Torrin, the university’s top varsity oarsman, see that the real Quinn is not as feisty and unapproachable as she wants everyone to think. But letting someone in comes at a steep cost and, it turns out, Torrin is connected to Quinn’s family in more ways than she could ever imagine.

WITHOUT YOU (a novella)

She was broken when I met her, shattered from the death of her sister and running from love. Not to sound like an egotistical douche or anything, but I fixed her. Put her back together, filled in the cracks, and made her whole. A true fairytale in her eyes. 

But now real life is getting in the way: school, jobs, and the unexpected opportunity to travel the world under a legendary photographer. This internship will open doors not even my father’s influence could. It’s something I’ve been waiting all my life for. But so is Quinn, and accepting this internship will mean leaving her. 

And breaking her all over again.

Review:

This sounded like something that I would absolutely love so I was excited to read it despite my recent vow to eliminate 90% participation in book tours. The premise looked good and unique so I suspected that it would be good.

It wasn’t great but it also wasn’t terrible. I had heard that Quinn was a feisty character which I was excited about but I didn’t connect with her at all and that’s a huge thing for me. If I can connect with a character, chances are good that I’ll enjoy the book.Normally I really like damaged characters but Quinn just didn’t work for me.

Yet in contrast, Torrin did. He was sexy and the best thing was that he wasn’t a doormat. He called Quinn on her crap, which was great to see. He was also kind to her which I don’t think Quinn was really used to.

I really loved that the novella was told from Torrin’s point of view. Very rarely do we get a romantic love story from the male perspective. It’s nearly always from the female perspective so that was a really great treat.

The writing was really good though. From the beginning it seemed to flow well and there no issues from an editing standpoint. The dialogue flowed well and was not stiff which was great to see.All in all, I didn’t love these two books (well novel + novella) but I didn’t hate them either. So I’ll be giving them 3 stars.

Author Bio:

Brooklyn Skye grew up in a small town where she quickly realized writing was an escape from small town life. Really, she’s just your average awkward girl who’s obsessed with words. Stripped is her debut novel.

Connect with the Author:

Website

Twitter

Review: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Marie Landry

Book Title: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Author: Marie Landry

Release Date: November 5th, 2013

Publisher: Marie Landry

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Standalone

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Link: Amazon

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, right? At least that’s what twenty-year-old Ginny Bailey’s grandmother always told her, and Ginny believed it until Grama died. She even put on a brave face the following two Christmases, carrying on Grama’s traditions and decorating her house and café with Grama’s favorite decorations.

But Ginny can’t pretend any longer. When she finds out she’s going to be alone for the holidays this year, her Christmas spirit goes out the window, along with her luck. Everything that can go wrong does, and Ginny just wants to spend the holidays hiding under the covers…until Dean Riley comes back into her life. With their shared past, old feelings begin to resurface almost immediately, and Ginny thinks Dean might just be the Christmas miracle she’s been waiting for to help her remember why Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year.

Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review.

Review:

The holiday season is my favorite time of the year so I was so excited to get a Christmas themed e-ARC from one of my favorite authors. I had read her last book Waiting for the Storm several months ago and had loved it so I had high hopes for this one. 

Boy I was not disappointed. Not in the slightest. It was an adorable book that made me swoon and giggle and yes, even cry.Ginny is desperately missing her Grama as Christmas was her Grama’s favorite time of the year. It really doesn’t help that Ginny has a rather distant relationship with her parents and her best friend will be spending the holidays with her boyfriend. So now Ginny is forced to spend Christmas all alone. Her first Christmas alone since Grama died.

All of that changes when swoony Dean walks back into Ginny’s life. Without meaning to, Dean once again weaves his way back into Ginny’s life. It’s seamless and he is sexy. Neither of them expected a holiday romance, but that was exactly what they got. Dean “gets” Ginny in a way that no other guy ever has. And when that happens, it’s too good to let go of.

Perfect, perfect, perfect. The feels were there despite the fact that this book was technically classified as a novella.Sometimes it’s hard to capture the appropriate range of emotions in a novella but Marie totally did it and I am SO excited for her next project.I was already looking forward to Christmas but this definitely ramps up the Christmas excitement. An easy 5 stars to this book.

Review: Broken Beauty (Broken Beauty #1) by Chloe Adams

Book Title: Broken Beauty (Broken Beauty #1)

Author: Chloe Adams (real name Lizzy Ford)

Published Date: September 22nd, 2013

Publisher: Indie Inked

Genre: YA/Contemporary

Series: Book 1 in a 6 book series

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Link: Amazon

Synopsis from Goodreads:

**Contains graphic content and the sensitive topic of rape and its aftermath. Not intended for teens under the age of 18.**

Sometimes bad things happen to beautiful people.

When socialite party girl Mia Abbott-Renou wakes up in a garden she has little recall of the previous night — except that she is naked…hurt…terrified. Not only has she been raped, but she knows one of her assailants: the son of a wealthy politician who happens to be her own father’s political ally.

Mia wants and needs justice. Except this privileged boy has an alibi and her father forbids her from going to the police. It’s a critical election year, one that his party might lose if his image as a doting father is soured due to Mia being labeled a lush or worse, promiscuous.

Devastated at not having the support of her family, Mia finds herself in a tug-of-war with her conscience over what to do, especially since she can’t remember exactly what happened that night. Worse, the men who attacked her have hurt several other girls, and Mia may be the key to stopping them.

Mia tries to forget, until the unthinkable happens, and she’s left reeling once again, faced with a new challenge that will force her to take more control of her life.

Originally published in October 2012 as “No Way Back” by Chloe Adams.

Disclaimer: I received this e-book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Review:

When I first started this book I had no idea that it was part one of a six part novella that had initially been one whole book.I only found that out after I finished reading it and was formatting this post.This book was horrifying and heartbreaking but it did send a very strong message,that no matter what,rape victims are strong and they are fighters. No matter what.Even if, like Mia, they have no family support.

That to me was really the most heartbreaking part. She had a politically minded family but they couldn’t put aside their politics to help her. That was awful and I cried SO much. The only people she seemed to be able to rely on are her best friend Ari and Dom, who was one of the detectives assigned to her case.The only family member that seemed to care about her at all was her uncle Chris.Very rarely are incles featured so prominently in books.This book or novella as it’s referred to,was different.

Normally I don’t like novellas all that much but this one was different. In 85 pages it brought out the feels in me so much. I was angry,heartbroken,happy and hopeful. It’s rare to have all of those feelings in such a short book which is why I am giving it five stars. I eagerly await the next installment of this series.