The Do-Over by L.E. Bross

Title: The Do-Over

Author: L.E. Bross

Publisher: Pocket Star

Release Date: March 28, 2016

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Indigo

L.E. Bross’s contemporary romance debut is a fun and sexy tale of unlikely lovers struggling to leave the past where it belongs—behind them—and embrace a bright future.

Melanie McAllister’s brand new copy of Home Improvement for Dummies doesn’t even begin to cover the DIY advice she really needs: how to put the pieces of her life back together. Her cheating ex-husband’s insider trading scandal destroyed her family’s multi-million dollar company and left Mel with nothing but the run-down oceanfront cottage she inherited from her parents. Biscay Beach, Maine, seems as good a place to start over as any.

Hot-as-hell carpenter Eli Stuart understands new beginnings. Once a rising star in the art world, the former sculptor has been secretly carving out a new existence in the small coastal town ever since the sheen on his old life turned to rust. He’s willing to bet the feisty brunette in need of major home repairs has never lifted a tool heavier than a nail file—until Mel is racing the clock to make her ramshackle home fit for winter and, facing a near-empty bank account, decides she can do it all herself.

So Eli offers Mel a deal: if she helps him with the renovations, he’ll cut the bill in half. Soon Mel and her damned home improvement book are driving Eli mad with an explosive urge to return to his studio and fire up his torch once more. His new work is crude and raw, and before long, he can’t keep his hands off Mel, either. But a muse from his past could ruin it all for the second time—if Eli and Mel can’t let go of who they used to be and trust their hearts with a do-over.

I discovered L.E. Bross late last year when I first came across her Second Chances NA duology. I stumbled on the first book, immediately read it, loved it and went looking for more by this author. And much like I loved her two NA stories, I had a fantastic time reading her contemporary romance debut, The Do-Over. 

Melanie McAllister is ready to get her life back on track after her cheating ex-husband got charged with insider trading and lost all of their money. The only thing standing between her and going back to New York to get her life back is her parents’ long forgotten cottage in Biscay Beach, Maine. To get her life back on track, Mel needs to renovate and sell the cottage. The only problem with that is she has limited funds and no clue where to even start. That’s where Eli comes in. But as Eli starts doing the work, Mel quickly realizes she won’t be able to afford everything that needs to be done. So Eli offers her a deal: she helps him with all the renovations and he’s going to but the cost in half. But in between arguing about how to best do these home improvements, Eli and Mel starts building more than just the cottage. 

Even though I’ve always loved reading love stories, until the last couple of years most of the ones I read were YA. Then I fell down the NA rabbit hole which meant I had even more options when it came to reading love stories. And then reading all that NA led to me giving contemporary romance more of a chance than I had in the past. And so far, most of the contemporary romance books I’ve read are ones written by authors who’ve also written NA books I’ve read. And that’s how I ended up reading L.E. Bross’s The Do-Over. When I read the description, I strongly suspected that this would be a fun story. I mean, a woman who knows nothing about home renovations helping her contractor do the repairs on her place? There were bound to be some amusing moments. And there were plenty. The Do-Over had me smiling so much while I was reading. But as I’m finding is often the case when I’m reading some of these contemporary romances, I was happy to see that the story went beyond just the surface of the romance. Sure, it was a fun and relatively light romance. But because of who the characters were, this story went deeper than I thought it would.

Seeing as I’m single and have never been married nor have I ever had any high-powered job, I didn’t think I would find myself relating to Mel in any way. But the more I read, the more I realized that, yes, Mel was recently-divorced and used to have a high position in the finance sector. But that’s not all she was. Mel was also trying to understand who she was outside of the way everyone else saw her. And that’s something that’s hard to do and it’s something that Mel struggled with. And I could definitely understand and relate to that, and that’s got me invested in Mel’s story. And then there was Eli. Apparently, I have a thing for guys who can do things with their hands (not *those* kinds of things, get your mind out of the gutter). But for real, I loved Eli. I loved his patience with Mel even when I knew he was getting exasperated with her. He was a genuinely good person and he was just what Mel needed, even though she wouldn’t admit it. And they just worked together. Even if they didn’t always see it. 

I really enjoyed L.E. Bross’s The Do-Over. It was a fun contemporary romance that had me smiling the whole time I was reading. I definitely look forward to reading more from this author in the future. 

Blog Tour - Walk the Edge by Katie McGarry + Excerpt

Title: Walk the Edge (Thunder Road #2)

Author: Katie McGarry

Publisher: HarlequinTEEN

Release Date: March 29, 2016

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

One moment of recklessness will change their worlds.

Smart. Responsible. That’s seventeen-year-old Breanna’s role in her large family, and heaven forbid she put a tow out of line. Until one night of shockingly un-Breanna-like behavior puts her into a vicious cyber-bully’s line of fire—and brings fellow senior Thomas “Razor” Turner into her life. 

Razor lives for the Reign of Terror motorcycle club, and good girls like Breanna just don’t belong. But when he learns she’s being blackmailed over a compromising picture of the two of them—a picture that turns one unexpected and beautiful moment into ugliness—he knows it’s time to step outside the rules. 

And so they make a pact: he’ll help her track down her blackmailer, and in return she’ll help him seek answers to the mystery that’s haunted him—one that not even his club brothers have been willing to discuss. But the more time they spend together, the more their feelings grow. And suddenly they’re both walking the edge of discovering who they really are, what they want, and where they’re going from here.

Katie McGarry is without a doubt one of my favourite authors and her books are all among my favourites. Every time I get my hands on a new Katie McGarry book, I can’t help but drop everything to read it. That’s what I did with Walk the Edge and I loved every moment of it.

Breanna has always been the reliable one, the daughter her parents could always count on to take care of her younger siblings now that all her older ones have left home. But she doesn’t just want to be the smart and reliable girl anymore. She wants to stop being invisible and finally be herself. She just never expected that doing so would bring Razor, one of the members of the local motorcycle club, into her life. Razor has always been all about the Reign of Terror motorcycle club. They’ve been there for him since his mother’s death and he would do anything for the club. But when he finds out new information about the night his mother died, Razor starts to doubt everything he’s been told by the people he calls family. The one person who can help him is Breanna, the girl who’s become the victim of a cyberbully because of a picture of the two of them together. Razor will help Breanna with her blackmailing bully if in return she helps him crack the mystery around his mother’s death. But while looking for answers, Razor and Breanna discover they need each other for more than they ever thought.

It’s no secret that Katie McGarry is one of my favourite authors and, as such, has written some of my all-time favourite books. She is, after all, the person who created Isaiah Walker. But that’s not the point right now. The point is that Katie McGarry writes some fantastic stories that are both gripping and captivating and that take you on an emotional ride. For me, there’s nothing quite like diving head first into a new Katie McGarry story. Even though every story is different, I just know going in that this is going to become a favourite. That I won’t be able to stop reading until I’m all the way through, no matter how much I might want to slow down to make the story last longer. That’s exactly how I felt with Walk the Edge. I wanted to read the story so badly, I wanted to know what would happen to these characters I came to love, but I also didn’t want the story to end. I got caught up in this story, flipping the pages (well, technically, clicking the “next page” button) until I had made it the whole way through. And there was so much that I loved about this story.  I loved all the different family dynamics, whether it was Breanna’s actual blood family or Razor’s motorcycle club family. How those family dynamics played in to the greater story. And as with any book written by Katie McGarry, the romance just worked and I bought into it right away. It wasn’t exactly hard to root for Breanna and Razor. And it really wasn’t hard to love them.

Before I even read a single word of Walk the Edge I already wanted to know more about Razor. The whole time I was reading Nowhere But Here last year, I wanted to know more about Razor. There was just something about him that caught my attention. He intrigued me and I just knew that there was a whole lot more to him than what everyone seemed to think. And I was so right. Razor is officially right up there with Isaiah when it comes to my favourite Katie McGarry boys. I loved how much he cared, sometimes to the point of extreme stubbornness. I loved his fierce protectiveness of the people he cared about, his determination to do whatever it took to keep those people safe. And I love who he was and how he was with Breanna. Breanna was such an interesting characters. I was so fascinated by the way her brain worked and the way it affected her life, especially when it came to her family life. So many times while I was reading I wanted to yell at Breanna’s family for the way they treated her. All she wanted was for someone to be there for her as opposed to being the person who’s always there for everyone else or has to wait in line behind all her siblings. So I loved that Breanna got to be herself with Razor and that Razor understood her in a way other people didn’t. They were perfect for each other and I loved reading their story. I only wish I could have kept reading their story forever.

Once again, Katie McGarry blew me away with Walk the Edge. This book is most definitely a new favourite even if it has left me absolutely desperate for more. And I cannot even begin to explain how much I am looking forward to reading Violet and Chevy’s story in the third Thunder Road book.

Excerpt

     Her face is white against her raven hair. Ghost white. I’d bet my left ball she hasn’t breathed since I spoke. Her hand is outstretched toward the busted cell on the ground, but her wide hazel eyes are cemented on me. I turn my head and I’m greeted by the amused faces of my brothers from the Reign of Terror who stand next to their bikes in the parking lot. They’ll be harassing me on this for weeks. Fuck me for trying to be chivalrous.

     “You okay?” It’s a variation of the question I asked a few seconds ago, but this one she seems to understand as her body trembles to life.

     “Um…” she stutters. We’ve been at the same schools since elementary age, otherwise I’d wonder if she was a foreign exchange student with limited English. “I only have twenty dollars.”

     The muscles in the back of my neck tense. “I’m not going to jack you for your money.” 

     She quits breathing again.

     “Nice to know your current bank account status,” I bit. “But I asked you if you were okay.”

     Color returns to her cheeks as I pin her with my gaze. She accused me of trying to rob her. I know it, she knows it, and she’s now informed I’m not the asshole in this scenario.

     “Yes,” she finally answers. “I’m okay. I mean no…I mean…I broke my phone.”

     She did and that sucks for her.

     Her eyes flicker between me and the phone like she wants to retrieve it, yet she’s too paralyzed. Saving us from his torture, I swipe the pieces of the cell and lean against the wall.

     The distance between us relaxes and that gulp of air was audible as she tucks herself tight in the corner fattest from me. This reaction isn’t new. I’ve seen it since I was a child whenever my father or anyone from the Terror entered a room full of civilians. To everyone outside of the club, we’re the evil motorcycle gang bent on blowing the house down.

     People and their hellish nightmare folklore involving us piss me off. I don’t know why I told the guys to give me a minute. I’m late for plans I made with Chevy and some girls, plus I’m on call in case the board chooses to meet sooner rather than later to discuss Detective Jake Barlow.

     But something about how this chick appeared alone and frightened messed me up. It reminded me…The thought stalls and the emotional speed bump causes a flash of pain in my chest. Screw it, her expression reminded me of Mom the last time I saw her—the night she died.

     My mom. I shake my head to expel her ghost. One visit from one bastard trying to use me and I’m being haunted by a past I can’t change. That’s what the detective was salivating over—to use me for info on the club. He’s one of too many who believes our club is the devil’s prodigy.

     What he doesn’t see is that we’re a family—the type of family that comes when called. Obviously not like this girl’s family.

     “Is it yes or no?” It’s damn difficult to shove the battery in now that the frame is bent.

     “Yes or no what?” her long black hair sweeps past her shoulders. She has the type of hair that would have to be pulled up if she rode on the back of my bike. Gotta admit, I like her hair, especially how it shines under the lights of the school’s overhang.

     “If you’re okay.” I survey the mostly empty area to prove a point. “If we leave, you’ll be alone, and I don’t care of that. There’s some real psychos out there.”

This Is Where the World Ends by Amy Zhang

Title: This Is Where the World Ends

Author: Amy Zhang

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Release Date: March 22, 2016

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

A heart-wrenching novel about best friends on a collision course with the real world from Amy Zhang, the critically acclaimed Indies Introduce and Indie Next author of Falling Into Place.

Janie and Micah, Micah and Janie. That’s how it’s been ever since elementary school, when Janie Vivien moved next door. Janie says Micah is everything she is not. Where Micah is shy, Janie is outgoing. Where Micah loves music, Janie loves art. It’s the perfect friendship—as long as no one finds out about it. But then Janie goes missing and everything Micah thought he knew about his best friends is colored with doubt.

Using a nonlinear writing style and dual narrators, Amy Zhang masterfully reveals the circumstances surrounding Janie’s disappearance in an astonishing second novel that will appeal to fans of Lauren Oliver and Jay Asher. 

With some authors, you just know when you pick up their books that you’re about to read an emotional and heart-wrenching story. But knowing that is what makes you want to read their books. That’s how I feel about Amy Zhang. And her latest, This Is Where the World Ends, was the emotional and heartbreaking read I knew it would be.

Even though no one knows it, Janie and Micah have been best friends since elementary school. They’ve always been Janie and Micah. Micah and Janie. They’re everything the other is not and together they have the perfect friendship. When Micah wakes up in the hospital with no memory of how he got there and discovers that Janie has disappeared, he becomes desperate to find out what happened to his best friend. But the more he finds out, the more he questions everything he thought he knew about Janie and their friendship. 

Amy Zhang wrote one of my favourite books of 2014, Falling Into Place, and I’ve been looking forward to reading more from this young author ever since. As you might have guessed, I was definitely excited about reading her latest, This Is Where the World Ends. But I also know that Amy Zhang’s books tend to be ones that are from light and easy to read. They deal with subject matter that we often would rather not think about even though we should be thinking and talking about those subjects. The way Amy Zhang handles these topics is what makes her stories such powerful and captivating reads. On the surface, This Is Where the World Ends may not look like the story it ends up being. In fact, based on the synopsis alone, I couldn’t have guessed that it was going to be the story I read. But that’s a good thing. Had I known going in everything this story had going on, it wouldn’t have packed the same punch. As a reader, I wouldn’t have gone on the same journey while reading the story. I’m realizing now, as I’m writing this, that it’s actually really hard to talk about This Is Where the World Ends without revealing everything. Because though this might not be some action-packed story filled to the brim with unexpected twists and turns, it’s one that shouldn’t be spoiled. If you knew beforehand what was to come, it wouldn’t be the emotional read this was for me. And for this story to be as powerful as it can be, it needs to be an emotional read.

At its core, This Is Where the World Ends is a story about friendship. The kind of friendship that is messy, complicated and far from perfect. A friendship that is based on shared secrets, midnight adventures and inside jokes. It might have been flawed and imperfect, but this friendship worked for Micah and Janie. Even if they were the only ones that understood it, there was a bond that connected them and that bond between the two of them really came through in the story. In the way they were always aware of each other when they weren’t close, in the way they were able to communicate with just one look, the way they always though about how their actions would appear to the other. All these little things added up to show the strength of the connection between Micah and Janie. Even if their friendship was at times a complete mess, it jumped off the page while I was reading.  It’s what made so many aspects of this story so heartbreaking and made it so the story packed such an emotional punch. 

Amy Zhang’s This Is Where the World Ends was a heartbreaking story about imperfect and all consuming friendships. This was a beautifully written and emotional story that left me completely heartbroken.

I need your recommendations!

If you've been paying attention to what I've been reading lately (which honestly, I doubt that many of you have) then you may have noticed that I've been reading a whole lot more romance than YA lately. I blame new adult for that. A few years ago, I jumped on board the NA train and I still have yet to jump off. But reading all this NA has also led to me reading more romance in general. 

And I'm loving it. Which is why I need some help.

I've come to the conclusion that contemporary romance is what I love (which really shouldn't surprise anyone who knows me), and as much as I want to read more, there's just so much out there that I'm not entirely sure where to start. So far, the only romance books I've read are by authors who have also written NA books (think people like Megan Erickson, Lia Riley, Kelly Siskind, etc). But I want to expand my horizons. 

If you read contemporary romance give me ALL your recommendations. I have a few books on my shelves that I'm excited about checking out but I want more to choose from (because I don't have enough books on my TBR yet). I have a particular fondness for sports romance, anything that involves music, friends to lovers, second chance romance and sibling's best friend are my favourite tropes. 

So if you have any recommendations that fit that, give them to me and I will happily go check out the books!

Right of First Refusal by Dahlia Adler

Title: Right of First Refusal (Radleigh University #2)

Author: Dahlia Adler

Publisher: Self-Published

Release Date: March 15, 2016

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Indigo

On the lacrosse field, Cait Johannssen gets what she wants. Off the field is another story. Because what she wants is the school’s hot new basketball student-coach, Lawrence Mason, who also happens to be the guy who broke her heart in sports camp two years earlier. 

But it’s Cait’s new roommate who’s got him.

Cait and Mase agree it’s best to keep their past a secret, but she doesn’t expect him to completely ignore their history…or how much it’ll hurt when he does. So when a friend on the basketball team asks her to pose as his girlfriend for a night, Cait can’t turn down the opportunity for distraction. (Okay, and a little spite.) But what starts as an evening of fun turns into a fake relationship with more lies than the usually drama-free Cait can handle, and it’s only keeping her from the one truth that’s nagged at her for years: Why did Mase cut her out of his life to begin with?

And is it really too late to get him back?

Dahlia Adler’s Last Will and Testament was one of my favourite books of 2014 and today is still one of my all-time favourite books. I have basically been dying for more Radleigh University books since the moment I finished it. So when Right of First Refusal landed on my Kindle, I dropped everything to read it right away. And of course, I loved it.

When it comes to lacrosse, Cait knows exactly who she is and what she wants. And she knows exactly what to do to get it. Her personal life is a whole other story. Especially when she meets her new roommate and discovers that said roommate’s boyfriend is the boy she fell in love with and who broke her heart at sports camp years earlier. And apparently Cait’s not as over it as she thought. Yeah, that’s not awkward at all. What started out as Cait looking for a distraction from all the drama in her life, somehow turns into pretending to be a friend’s girlfriend and navigating a complicated web of lies. But no matter how much she tries to put him out her mind and move on, Cait soon realizes that she’s not over Mase and she’s ready to get him back.

I was so beyond excited when I woke up on Tuesday and Right of First Refusal was on my Kindle. I feel like I have been waiting for this book for forever and I was so freaking excited to finally be able to read it. So of course I jumped in right away. Well, as much as I could considering I was working that day. But any moment I wasn’t working, I was reading Right of First Refusal. And needless to say that I absolutely ADORED this book. I mean, it’s written by one of my go-to authors, it has a strong sports theme, it’s a second chance romance, and there’s awesome female friendship. What is there not to love about all that? For real, though, this story was fantastic for so many reasons and I could go on all day about how much I loved it. The thing Dahlia Adler does best is write all kinds of relationships that feel completely real. And there were so many great ones in this story. There was the friendships between Cait, Lizzie and Frankie that made me wish I could be part of their trio (which I guess would make us a foursome, but I digress). The camaraderie between Cait and all her teammates on the lacrosse team. The complicated dynamics of Cait’s relationship with her father as he’s starting a new part of his life. Cait’s tricky relationship with her new roommate. Even Cait’s relationship with lacrosse, the sport that got her through the toughest parts of her life. All those relationship felt so real and complex, and the way they were all woven together added so much to the story. But the most important of all was the whole “you-were-my-first-love-until-you-broke-my-heart-and-now-you’re-my-new-roommate’s-boyfriend” situation between Cait and Mase. To say it was complicated would be an understatement. But it made for a compelling read, that’s for sure.

Let me just start off by saying (well, repeating, actually) that I want to be best friends with Cait, Lizzie and Frankie. Their friendship and their love for each other completely leaps off the page and makes me want so badly to be a part of it. On the surface, the three of them don’t really look like they have much in common, but that doesn’t really matter to them and that’s what makes their friendship so great. They love each other and are always ready to be there for each other, no questions asked and without judgement. At its core, Right of First Refusal may be a romance, but Dahlia Adler does a fantastic job also making this a story about friendship. Speaking of the romance, it was also pretty freaking great. I’m a sucker for any kind of second chance romance and that’s exactly what I got here. It was interesting seeing Cait work through everything as she was trying to figure out her feelings about Mase while also coming to terms with who she was herself. Her confusion over her feelings felt real and made her story that much more of a compelling read. And I could more than understand why she wanted to be with Mase because she made him sound pretty great. I loved getting to see the different sides of his personality, the way he would go from being hard and closed-off to the way he would be with the kids he coached basketball. It’s really no wonder that Cait fell for him. Twice. I mean, I had totally fallen for him by the time I got to the end of the story. Which speaking of the end of the story, can I just have Frankie and Samara’s story now? Because I really, absolutely cannot wait to read it in Out on Good Behavior.

If you made it through this ramble-y mess, I love you. Almost, but not quite as much I loved Dahlia Adler’s Right of First Refusal. I could keep going on all day about everything I loved about this story. But I won’t. Go read it and find out for yourself just how awesome it is. While you do that, I’ll be right here counting down the days until I can read Out on Good Behavior.