Saturday, September 27, 2014

Swoon for Him Saturday : Jamie Fraser


*Swoon for Him Saturday is a meme I developed to honor my favorite majestic fictional male characters*

*Warning: There are some graphic images below, please proceed at your own risk*

In honor of Outlander Day and having finished reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon a couple of weeks ago, I wrote this post and ... Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ! So many feels. Outlander is a weapon! Diana Gabaldon snuck into close, slow and steady for 200 pages then tickled me, made me get all fuzzy inside then BAM! ripped my heart out, stomped on it, put it back and made it melt. Oh Jamie .. my poor Jamie :( [*no spoilers, if you read Outlander then you will understand].


Dude, like I am in love with James Alexander Malcolm McKenzie Fraser. haha ;) Notwithstanding, his dashing good looks, Jamie Fraser is my all-time favorite fictional male character. Ever. Hands down. Down deal. New Book Husband forever!


Seriously, do you need anymore convincing to jump on the Jamie wagon?

#KiltLove



If that thoroughly majestic face above is not enough to convince you then what about his immaculate ass, huh?


Holy Hell Lord Jesus, Mary and Joseph! The flipping kilt finally freaking dropped! *swoon*



Now, I would please like a moment of silence to praise the Lord and Sam Heughan's parents for his existence!
Happy Reading!

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Review : Dare You To by Katie McGarry

*Warning: This review may contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.

PublisherHarlequin Teen
Publication date: 5/28/2013
Pages480
Source: ARC

The Story:
"I dare you…"
If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk's home life, they'd send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs—until the day her uncle swoops in, and Beth finds herself starting over at a school where no one understands her. Except for the one guy who shouldn't get her, but does.
Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock—with secrets he can't tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the skater girl who couldn't be less interested in him.
But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image is risking everything for the girl he loves, and the girl who won't let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all…. 
Barnes & Noble
 

RatingFIVE GOLD STARS!!!!!

My Review: One word: SIZZLING

Let me just say: Dare You To is my favorite book set in the Pushing the Limits world! That is all. My review is done. Five stars!

Haha, but honestly, I am not big on contemporary (even if it's my beloved YA) but Katie McGarry's work is phenomenal. She never disappoints. With every book thus far, -- Pushing the Limits, Dare You To, Crash Into You, Take Me On -- McGarry hits the mark every time.

Dare You To is without a doubt swoonworthy!

Opening Line:

I'm not interested in second place. 

Plot:

As hinted at by its title, Dare You To starts off with, guess what, a dare. Ryan Stone is the town's golden boy. Being the baseball jock he is, Ryan loves to win and is up for any dare. So, he is all in when his friends dare him to get Taco Bell Girl's number.

Unfettered by his charm and good looks, Taco Bell Girl denies Ryan victory.

Beth Risk is a grunge girl from the wrong side of the tracks. She does not take anything lying down, and her number one pet-peeve; appearing weak. And weak includes girly and interested in male attention. So when Ryan tries to get her number she gives him a dose of her harsh, slashing medicine and refuses to hand it over planning to never look back. Only she does not know that their paths were going to becoming intimately acquainted in the near future.

Abandoned by her family after living her first few years on earth in a trailer park then bouncing from one foster to the next, Beth has never known what is like to be wanted, loved and a part of a real family. So, when she is forced to live with her uncle, who is at the top of her shit list for ditching her and breaking his promise to return for her, she is less than agreeable.

To make matters worse, Beth has to transfer high schools and guess who is a fellow classmate ... Arrogant Taco Bell Boy. And he won't get a hint. Regardless that Ryan and Beth try to deny their connection at first, it is there. The sizzling tension is there. Not to mention the banter is fabulous! Not only that but McGarry throws us just enough romance to keep us hooked. Dare You To is the perfect balance between character growth, spice and romance.

Meet the Author:


Katie McGarry was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.
Katie is the author of full length YA novels, PUSHING THE LIMITS, DARE YOU TO, CRASH INTO YOU, TAKE ME ON,  BREAKING THE RULES, and NOWHERE BUT HERE and the e-novellas, CROSSING THE LINE and RED AT NIGHT. Her debut YA novel, PUSHING THE LIMITS was a 2012 Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction, a RT Magazine’s 2012 Reviewer’s Choice Awards Nominee for Young Adult Contemporary Novel, a double Rita Finalist, and a 2013 YALSA Top Ten Teen Pick. DARE YOU TO was also a Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction and won RT Magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice Best Book Award for Young Adult Contemporary fiction in 2013.
Links:

Happy Reading!

Cover Reveal! Balance Broken by Hilary Thompson


Hey Bookies! Get this, last week I was invited by Hilary Thompson to participate in the cover reveal of Balance Broken! Now, if you Bookies have snooped around you will know that this is the first time I was approached by an author to do a cover reveal... Which is pretty darn neat. So, here we go . . .


Publication date: October 2014
Pages: 268
Pre-order: Amazon









The Story:
SYNOPSIS VIA GOODREADS:
Balance Broken is the second in the Starbright series. In the first book, Justice Buried, Astrea fights to remain independent in a world which demands she submit to an ancient prophecy. In Balance Broken, she learns that independence means little when the world is depending on her.

The world cries for Order, but she’s igniting a revolution.
One hundred years before, the Great Sickness reduced the world to three cities. Now, Asphodel no longer lingers underground, and the Starbright Maiden of Justice has returned.
Everyone has faith in Astrea’s ability to save the world - but only she knows the dark truth about her powers.
Astrea teams with Stian, Lexan, and Zarea to enlist the help of Lord Hadeon of Tartarus. They hope Hadeon will aid in attacking Asphodel’s First Leader Keirna, but the Destroyer usually takes lives, not sides.
As Astrea discovers life outside of Asphodel, she begins to wonder whether the remaining world is too broken to save - especially since the price of freedom just might be her own life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Hilary Thompson was born to parents who made a habit of taking roads less traveled. But she was also a first child, and an independent, willful child, so she has made a habit of taking a few roads on her own.
After trying on hats made for artists, architects, restaurant and retail workers, landscape designers, legal secretaries, and professional students, she retreated back to her first loves of education and writing.
Hilary now teaches high school full time, writes whenever and wherever she can, and reads as much as her eyes can handle. She also tries not to spoil her own independent, willful children or neglect her wonderful soul-mate of a husband too much. She tends to ignore laundry baskets and dirty dishes.

And now, the moment you have all been waiting for! Are you ready? The cover of Balance Broken . . .
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+

Pretty cover, is it not? If you judge books by their covers as I am guilty of doing, check out the Starbright series. What will it hurt?
If you are still not convinced, check out the exerpt below:

Balance Broken 

The burn of rage in my chest starts to spread, searching for an outlet. My palms are no longer sweaty but warm, and then hot. Lexan sucks in a breath as the heat grows, but he just squeezes my hands tighter, trapping the power in our fingers. A bit of wind swirls around us, lifting the heat from our palms, and I grin at this feeling of subtle power, turning my cheeks up toward the sun’s orange light, trapping it behind my closed eyelids.
A sudden crackle behind me breaks my focus and I twist to see a figure step from behind a tree.
“What are you doing with him?” Stian asks in a dangerous voice.
“It…nothing! How…what did you see?” I stammer. I rip my hands from Lexan’s and step toward Stian, guilt and dread coursing through me.
He glares at Lexan, then stalks back into the trees without another word. My stomach is churning with nerves. I thought we’d been so careful: finding an isolated spot to practice our silly games, telling Stian we were going to train, taking our bows and knives.
“Do you think he suspects anything?” I whisper to Lexan, remembering how Stian had already gone through the passage when the power of Justice finally slipped into my hands. He really shouldn’t know any of this. Could he have felt the heat in the air?
Lexan looks down at me, his eyes thoughtful. “I believe he thinks we were kissing.”
What?”” My stomach drops into nothingness as I recreate the scene in my mind, from Stian’s viewpoint: joined hands, smiles, my upturned face and closed eyes. A hot flush creeps into my cheeks.
“Because I’m pretty sure I was thinking about it,” he adds with a slow smile, catching my elbow as I try to turn after Stian. His fingers slide down to my wrist.
“Just because you think something at me doesn’t mean I have to let it in,” I answer, jerking my hand from his. I’ve glimpsed a few of Lexan’s ideas throughout our training this morning, and an uncontrollable ferocity washes over me.
“I trust you to be a friend, Lexan – not try to sabotage my shot at happiness!” I yell, yanking away again as he tries to grip my fingers.
“Trea, just wait a minute! I’m sorry – I’ll talk to him.”
“Just stay out of it! Out of everything!” I stumble backwards as a fierce wind pulls my curls across my face. I throw my hands up to block the swirl of dust and leaves when suddenly a burst of flame shoots into the air, buoyed upwards by the cool gust.
It burns out as quickly as it appeared, leaving me gaping up at the trees. Sunlight streams in a thick shaft through a neat, new hole in the canopy, and wisps of smoke swirl lazily around us.
“About time,” Lexan smiles halfway, his hands propped on his narrow hips. Suddenly he looks just like his brother Aitan, standing triumphantly in the classroom after tricking me to get what he wanted. Everything is too clear, and I feel ill.

Happy Reading!

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Cover Reveal! Katie McGarry's Breaking the Rules

Hey Bookies! Get this, last week I was invited by Katie McGarry to check out the cover reveal of Breaking the Rules on Goodreads! Now, if you Bookies have been paying any attention at all you know how I feel about McGarry's books. Generally, I don't go for Contemporary but after I read Pushing the Limits I was a goner for the series . . . And slowly opening up to other Contemporary works. Anywho, when I saw the invite for the cover reveal and an idea began to form . . . Alas, here we are :)
PublisherHarlequin Teen
Publication date: 12/8/2014
Pages: 304
Pre-order: Barnes & NobleAmazon
The Story:
A summer road trip changes everything in this unforgettable new tale from acclaimed author Katie McGarry 
For new high school graduate Echo Emerson, a summer road trip out west with her boyfriend means getting away and forgetting what makes her so…different. It means seeing cool sights while selling her art at galleries along the way. And most of all, it means almost three months alone with Noah Hutchins, the hot, smart, soul-battered guy who's never judged her. Echo and Noah share everything—except the one thing Echo's just not ready for. 
But when the reason behind Echo's constant nightmares comes back into her life, she has to make some tough decisions about what she really wants—even as foster kid Noah's search for his last remaining relatives forces them both to confront some serious truths about life, love and themselves. 
Now, with one week left before college orientation, jobs and real life, Echo must decide if Noah's more than the bad-boy fling everyone warned her he'd be. And the last leg of an amazing road trip will turn…seriously epic.
- via Barnes & Noble

And now, the moment you have all been waiting for! Are you ready? The cover of Breaking the Rules . . .
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+

Happy Reading!

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Review : Take Me On by Katie McGarry


*Warning: This review may contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.

PublisherHarlequin Teen
Publication date: 5/27/2014
Pages: 527
Source: Own

The Story:
Acclaimed author Katie McGarry returns with the knockout new story of two high school seniors who are about to learn what winning really means
Champion kickboxer Haley swore she'd never set foot in the ring again after one tragic night. But then the guy she can't stop thinking about accepts a mixed martial arts fight in her honor. Suddenly, Haley has to train West Young. All attitude, West is everything Haley promised herself she'd stay away from. Yet he won't last five seconds in the ring without her help.
West is keeping a big secret from Haley. About who he really is. But helping her—fighting for her—is a shot at redemption. Especially since it's his fault his family is falling apart. He can't change the past, but maybe he can change Haley's future.
Haley and West have agreed to keep their relationship strictly in the ring. But as an unexpected bond forms between them and attraction mocks their best intentions, they'll face their darkest fears and discover love is worth fighting for.
Barnes & Noble
 

RatingFOUR GOLD STARS!!!!

My Review: One word: KICKASS

I love all of Katie McGarry's books and Take Me On did not disappoint!

Opening Line: 

A door squeaks open at the far end of the barren hallway and the clicking of high heels echoes off the row of metal post-office boxes.

Plot:

To begin, I enjoyed the premise of this book. Haley, a girl, is a kickboxing champion. Girl power! Haley is a badass, kickass character who is into something most girls aren't and that is what I loved to read. Take put the cherry on top, because of how good she is, Haley is the one who is chosen to train a guy in a sport that many people believe is a "man's sport". From the wrong side of the tracks, all Haley wants is to forget about her past and kickboxing. Then comes West. Not at all the sort of guy she needs to get involved with. But fate has other plans...

West is the privileged badboy with a troubled past. Before I started this book I wasn't sure if I'd like West (not my type of fictional boyfriend material) but he won me over. From the right side of the tracks, West has anger management issues. And he is hiding a secret from Haley.

Readers are faced with suspense and flashing questions. Will they be able to keep their relationship strictly in the gym? Will Haley stop running from her past? Will Haley let West in and will he gain the redemption he seeks?

While, Take Me On is probably my least favorites of the series, it is still a good read. Take Me On is easy to get into and definitely enjoyable.

Meet the Author:


Katie McGarry was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.
Katie is the author of full length YA novels, PUSHING THE LIMITS, DARE YOU TO, CRASH INTO YOU, TAKE ME ON,  BREAKING THE RULES, and NOWHERE BUT HERE and the e-novellas, CROSSING THE LINE and RED AT NIGHT. Her debut YA novel, PUSHING THE LIMITS was a 2012 Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction, a RT Magazine’s 2012 Reviewer’s Choice Awards Nominee for Young Adult Contemporary Novel, a double Rita Finalist, and a 2013 YALSA Top Ten Teen Pick. DARE YOU TO was also a Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction and won RT Magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice Best Book Award for Young Adult Contemporary fiction in 2013.
Links:


Happy Reading!
Monday, September 15, 2014

Review : Ice by Sarah Beth Durst


*Warning: This review may contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.


Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Publication date: 10.6.2009

Pages: 320

Source: Own

The Story:

When Cassie was a little girl, her grandmother told her a fairy tale about her mother, who made a deal with the Polar Bear King and was swept away to the ends of the earth. Now that Cassie is older, she knows the story was a nice way of saying her mother had died. Cassie lives with her father at an Arctic research station, is determined to become a scientist, and has no time for make-believe.

Then, on her eighteenth birthday, Cassie comes face-to-face with a polar bear who speaks to her. He tells her that her mother is alive, imprisoned at the ends of the earth. And he can bring her back — if Cassie will agree to be his bride.

That is the beginning of Cassie's own real-life fairy tale, one that sends her on an unbelievable journey across the brutal Arctic, through the Canadian boreal forest, and on the back of the North Wind to the land east of the sun and west of the moon. Before it is over, the world she knows will be swept away, and everything she holds dear will be taken from her — until she discovers the true meaning of love and family in the magical realm of Ice.

via -- Barnes & Noble

RatingFOUR Gold Stars!!!

My Review: One word: MAGICAL

Next to story involving werewolves/wolf-shifters, I love retellings of fairy tales. And Ice is a retelling of one of my favorites, The Polar Bear King. Sarah Beth Durst's writing is enticing and sucks you in while being able to maintain the fairy tale with a new twist.

I love it!

Cassandra "Cassie" Dasent lives in a Arctic research station with her father, head scientist, and remembers the fairy tale about the Polar Bear King that her grandmother would tell her. But being of scientific mind, she doesn't believe or have time to play make-believe. Until, her 18th birthday hits and everything changes.


"Once upon a time, the North Wind said to the Polar Bear King, 'Steal me a daughter, and when she grows, she will be your bride'" [page ix].

Then again, that will happen when you start having conversations with a polar bear. Who speaks back. And knows who she is.

All along Cassie has believed her mother to be dead until the polar bear informs her of otherwise. He tells Cassie that he can bring her mother back, on one condition: Cassie must agree to leave her family behind to live one mile north of the North Pole and be the Polar Bear King's wife.

"I am the polar bear," he said, "and you are my bride" [page 30].

With an escape plan in place, Cassie agrees to marry the Polar Bear King so that she may bring her mother home and run off at first chance. Only, after spending time in Bear's castle, her means to an end becomes a months-long stay. Cassie never expected it to be so comfortable and easy with Bear. She never expected all the wonders of his world to be so enticing.

As the days turn into weeks, weeks into months, Cassie finds it increasingly easier to find excuses not to return back to the research station where her father and the mother - she did not even know and for whom she risked her freedom - wait for her. For starters, Cassie is still pissed at her father for the deception around what actually happened to her mother.

Settling into the Bear's breathtaking ice castle seems easy at first, until Cassie begins to question everything. Everything she thought she knew, everything she thought she wanted. Restless and lacking purpose, Cassie's resolve to return to her family strengthened -- running home where she thinks all the answers are. But leaving Bear behind is not as simple a task as she thought it would be.

After deciding to leave home once again, Cassie returns to the ice castle and gives Bear another chance. Maybe together as a team, she can find the purpose she needs to stay. But even with the most well-laid plans, inevitable hitches can set them off track.

After breaking a promise to the Polar Bear King, Cassie's world is once again turn on its head. Alone and not knowing who she can trust, she must find a way to make amends. Brave and persistent, Cassie must embark on a hard going trek across the Canadian forest and on the back of the North Wind against conniving creatures and wicked, yearning trolls ... while she must also take a journey of growth, test of will and to get back what she has lost. Pushed to the limits Cassie will stop at nothing to make things right.

Easily, Ice has made my Fave List. If you are a fan of fairy tales or a story with some magic, Ice is for you.

***Check out Sarah Beth Durst's website for more information about her and the Ice: HERE

Happy Reading!

Friday, September 12, 2014

Feature Friday ARC Review : Made For You by Melissa Marr


*Feature Friday is a meme I came up with to feature YA books that have not yet been released by reviewing them on The Tattered Page.*


*Warning: This review may contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.

PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
Release Date: 9.16.2014
Pages: 368
Source: ARC

The Story:
When Eva Tilling wakes up in the hospital, she's confused—who in her sleepy little North Carolina town could have hit her with their car? And why?
It seems impossible that anyone would have it out for the town darling. Thanks to her family's distinguished history and her own unassailable reputation in old-money Jessup, Eva is universally liked. But she has little time to consider the question when she finds that she's awoken with a strange new skill: the ability to foresee people's deaths when they touch her.
Eva is struggling to understand just what these visions mean when a slew of murders takes place back home. The victims, all classmates, are discovered alongside eerie messages that tie the incidents to her. There is a killer on the loose, and he is after Eva.
While she is recovering from the hit-and-run, Nate, an old friend, reappears. The two traverse their rocky past as they figure out how to use Eva's power to keep her friends—and themselves—alive. But while Eva and Nate grow closer, the determined killer grows increasingly frantic in his attempt to get to Eva.
Chilling twists, unrequited obsession, and high-stakes romance drive Melissa Marr's racy thriller—a story of small-town oppression and salvation.
via -- Barnes and Noble

RatingTHREE Gold Stars!!!!

My Review: One word: EDGY

I think must start off by saying that Made For You is the first book I have read by Melissa Marr and my first thought is: Not bad. While I am not totally in love with it, Made For You is a book worth reading if you have the time. Do not get me wrong, I loved the storyline and the fact that there were chapters written from the killer-stalker's point of view (which was totally fun) but I felt the story lacked imagery. I don't know ... maybe I got stuck under Diana Gabaldon's weight of imagery that I am being unreasonable?

Anywho, Eva Tilling, as the main character and the character of obsession, I liked. She did not annoy me and she felt real -- like she could exist in the tangible world -- and that is always a plus. Though, I did felt bad for the way her parents neglected her but I think that added to the story. Not to mention, do I see a possible redemption in the making? *hint, hint*

Moving on, although Eva is the It Girl of the town who has to follow the southern social status rules of malarkey, she wants to break away from the mold. Not surprising is it then that her best friend, Grace Yeung, is a newbie to town who does not give a crap about the stiff, anal retentive way things are done in the south and Eva's childhood crush happens to be Nate Bouchet, "Jessup's Man-Slut."

"Hush." Offering him my most innocent look, I say, "I'm going to sleep. You're here. Ergo, sleeping with the man-slut."

"Jesus, Eva. You can't say things like that."

I put my hand over his mouth. "Shh. Sleeping now. I'll let you know if you live up to your reputation, although so far, I'm not seeing what all the fuss was about."  [page 101]

As for "Judge" -- as he so calls himself --, the killer-stalker who is obsessed with Eva, he was definitely believable. As I read his chapters, I honestly felt like the dude was off his rocker. But not to the point that Judge seemed fake. While there is no logic to crazy, there still seems to be some sort of system in place and Melissa Marr did a fabulous job and portraying that; Marr did not just throw a bunch of crazy bullshit into mix and hope for the best. If that makes any sense at all?

All in all, Made For You is a decent read if you have the time. What I absolutely appreciate the most about the book is that it is not abundantly easy to determine who the killer-stalker is. It sucks when you know who it is right away. Yes, the killer-stalker was a High Priority on my List of Suspects (out of 3) but it is not a dead giveaway. Made For You is a nicely spun tale of obsession, murder and unlikely love with a dash of suffocating southern charm. Nice job, Melissa Marr.

Also, I want to say thanks to HarperTeen for handing out copies of Made For You at BEA 2014!

*** Check out Melissa Marr's website for more information about her and Made For YouHERE

Happy Reading!