The Road to You by Alecia Whitaker

Title: The Road to You (Wildflower #2)

Author: Alecia Whitaker

Publisher: Poppy

Release Date: July 14, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

The second book in the Wildflower series—full of drama, heart, and that country music spirit.

Bright lights…Screaming fans…Cute roadies…Country music sensation Bird Barrett is officially on tour. The months flash by in an exciting whirlwind, due—in no small part—to a certain dreamy lighting tech named Kai.

After the tour wraps up, Bird makes the move to LA, finding herself at the center of a trumped-up rivalry with another country music starlet she barely knows. Meanwhile, Kai’s out on tour again with an indie rock band and growing distant, and Bird has the label breathing down her neck for a new hit song. Finding true love is supposed to be inspiring, so why does penning the next great country pop ballad suddenly feel so hard?

After reading Alecia Whitaker’s Wildlfower last summer, I was surprised to hear that it was the first in a series but I was also curious to see where the story would go. And being the sucker for contemporary stories and country music that I am, I really enjoyed reading The Road to You.

Bird Barrett is getting use to life in the spotlight. After the success of her first album, Bird is getting ready to head out on the road, joining the tour of a country music legend. She couldn’t be any more excited about it. To make things even better, there’s Kai, the cute roadie who seems to want to spend just as much time with her as she does with him. It’s the perfect summer. But once the tour is over, Bird struggles with writing for her next album, constantly fighting writer’s block. And it doesn’t help that Kai is across the country on another tour. What had felt so easy when they were on the road together now becomes a struggle. Falling in love should be inspiring Bird, but she just can’t seem to pour her heart out in a song the way she wants to.

As much as I enjoyed the story when I read Wildflower last year, I couldn’t help but think that parts of the story fell a little flat for me. So I was a little apprehensive going into The Road to You but I was curious to see where the story would go. And I was curious to see how the romance would play out since that was one of my main disappointments with the first book. Where, for me, the romance fell flat in Wildflower, I was satisfied with it in The Road to You. Though I didn’t always think that Bird was in the best relationship, I bought into the romance and it was fully fleshed out. Outside the romance, I loved getting to explore the country music world some more though Bird’s experience. Seeing her figure out the ins and outs of being a celebrity made for a story that was both fun and touching. Of course, that had a lot to do with Bird and everything she went through over the course of the story.

Bird was just as likeable in The Road to You as she was in Wildflower. She was still working on adjusting to her success and fame but she still felt like the same Bird that I met at the beginning of the first book. Granted, there were moments when, much like her parents, I kinda wanted to yell at her because some of her decisions were kind of questionable. But she’s still learning, and she seemed to have it more or less figured out by the end of the book. And then there was Kai, who I wasn’t sure whether or not he would end up being one of those questionable decisions. At first, I was all for Kai and Bird together, but then I wasn’t sure he was the best person for her. It always felt like Bird could never really be herself around him. So even though he wasn’t in this story quite as much, I’m still rooting for Adam if Bird has to be with someone. Everything just seemed easy when she was with him and he seems to really care about her. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed that something may happen with them in the next book in the series.

I really enjoyed Alecia Whitaker’s The Road to You, even more so than I did Wildflower. I look forward to seeing what the story will bring in the final book in this series. 

A Million Miles Away by Lara Avery

Title: A Million Miles Away

Author: Lara Avery

Publisher: Poppy

Release Date: July 7, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Perfect for fans of Nicholas Sparks, this breathtaking story of love and loss is guaranteed to break your heart and sweep you off your feet.

When high school Kelsey’s identical twin sister, Michelle, dies in a car crash, Kelsey is left without her other half. The only person who doesn’t know about the tragedy is Michelle’s boyfriend, Peter, recently deployed to Afghanistan. But when Kelsey finally connects with Peter online, she can’t bear to tell him the truth. Active duty has taken its toll, and Peter, thinking that Kelsey is Michelle, says that seeing her is the one thing keeping him alive. Caught up in the moment, Kelsey has no choice: She lets Peter believe that she is her sister.

As Kelsey keeps up the act, she crosses the line from pretend to real. Soon, Kelsey can’t deny that she’s falling, hard, for the one boy she shouldn’t want. 

Sometimes, you read the synopsis for a book and you’re intrigued by the premise. You’re curious about what the story is about, but at the same time you aren’t exactly sure how it’s going to work out or how the author is going to be able to pull it off. That’s exactly how I felt about Lara Avery’s A Million Miles Away, but for me, it totally worked.

Despite being identical twins, Kelsey and Michelle couldn’t be more different. But they have always been two halves of a whole. When Michelle dies in a car accident, Kelsey isn’t sure who she’s supposed to be anymore. The one thing she knows is that she has to tell Peter, her sister’s recently deployed boyfriend, that Michelle is dead. But when she finds herself face to face with Peter on Skype and he mistakes her for Michelle, she can’t bring herself to do it. To tell Peter that Michelle is dead would mean really losing her sister for good. So she pretends to be her sister because she doesn’t know what else to do. Before she knows it, Kelsey is falling for Peter, for the one person she shouldn’t. But she can’t help it. With everything else happening, he’s the one person who can make her feel like herself.

The thing about Lara Avery’s A Million Miles Away is that I wasn’t entirely sure how the story was going to work out. I’m all in favour of stories with cases of mistaken identity, but not when it gets to the point where one person’s feelings are getting seriously hurt or one person is getting duped. All that to say that I was a little curious about how it would all play out in A Million Miles Away. I mean, for much of the book, half of the couple doesn’t know the real identity of the person he’s with. Because that’s not a recipe for disaster. But the thing is, the more I read, the more I bought into the romance, the more I was hoping for Kelsey to find a way to make this work without completely breaking Peter’s heart and have everything fall apart. And that’s because as much as the story was about the romance between Peter and Kelsey, it was also very much about Kelsey finding herself. And for me, while I was reading, that allowed me to better understand Kelsey’s motivations when it came to misleading Peter about her identity. The one part of the story I wasn’t as big a fan of was the ending. Yes, I was happy about the way things turned out as far as the romance went, but it felt kind of precipitated. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s something I can live with.

Kelsey was an interesting character to read about. I say that because when I first met her at the beginning of the story, I kind of made assumptions about her. But then I kept reading and everything happened with Michelle and the car accident and it felt like Kelsey became a whole other person. The more I read though, the more it felt like the person Kelsey was changing into was actually who she really was. Losing her sister, the person who had defined everything she wasn’t her whole life, made it so she had to figure out who she really was. And it was interesting to see that transformation happen, to see Kelsey find herself and come into her own. And a lot of that had to do with Peter. And I loved Peter. I wish I could have seen more of him. Every time he was part of the story, it felt like it was never for long enough. And in a way, that was kind of representative of his situation, of the fact that being deployed and in a war zone meant that he never seemed to get enough time to talk to the people he cared about. But what I saw of him I loved. And I already said it and I’ll say it again, I was so hoping that he and Kelsey would find a way to make everything work out.

I really enjoyed reading Lara Avery’s A Million Miles Away. The story was emotional and hit the right notes to pull at my heartstrings. It’s not your typical romance, but it worked.

Mini Reviews - Dirty Thoughts by Megan Erickson & Last First Kiss by Lia Riley

Title: Dirty Thoughts (Mechanics of Love #1)

Author: Megan Erickson

Publisher: Avon Impulse

Release Date: June 16, 2015

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Some things are sexier the second time around.

Cal Payton has gruff and grumbly down to an art…all the better for keeping people away. And it usually works. Until Jenna MacMillan—his biggest mistake—walks into Payton and Sons mechanic shop all grown up, looking like sunshine, and inspiring more than a few dirty thoughts.

Jenna was sure she was long over the boy she’d once loved with reckless abandon, but one look at the steel-eyed Cal Payton has her falling apart all over again. Ten years may have passed, but the pull is stronger than ever…and this Cal is all man.

Cal may have no intention of letting Janna in, but she’s always been his light, and it’s getting harder to stay all alone in the dark. When a surprise from the past changes everything, Cal and Jenna must decide if their connection should be left alone or if it’s exactly what they need for the future of their dreams.

I absolutely love Megan Erickson’s New Adult books and Make It Right continues to be one of my favourites. One of the reasons for that was the Payton brothers. There seemed to be so much more going on with them than met the eye. So a spin-off series about them? I was all over that. Which led me to read Dirty Thoughts all in one sitting.

When I read Make It Right last year, I was totally charmed by the Payton brothers, so matter how gruff they came across. They just seemed like they had their own story to tell and that that would be a story that I would enjoy reading very much. So when Megan Erickson announced that she was writing a spin-off series about Max’s older brothers I was ecstatic. I was so excited to read Dirty Thoughts and find out more about Cal. And Cal and Jenna made for some fantastic company on the flight I was on at the time. I got drawn in to the story, by the fact that these two people seemed to have a lot of unresolved history. And for a good chunk of the book, wanting to find out what that history was is what kept me reading. I’m a curious person, what can I say? And once that was revealed, I had just grown attached to Cal and Jenna and to the idea of a relationship between them. I was rooting for them so much, but there always seemed to be something that got in their way. But beyond the romance, one of the things I loved about Dirty Thoughts was seeing all the family dynamics that were at play in the story, both for Cal and for Jenna. I’m a sucker for satires with sibling relationships and I definitely got that here and I loved it.

I loved Megan Erickson’s Dirty Thoughts and I can’t wait to read more about the Payton family and their garage. As it is, I needed Brent’s story, Dirty Talk, like yesterday. September can’t come soon enough!

Title: Last First Kiss (Brightwater #1)

Author: Lia Riley

Publisher: Avon Impulse

Release Date: June 23, 2015

Source: Purchased 

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

A kiss is only the beginning…

Pinterest Perfect. Or so Annie Carson’s life appears on her popular blog. Reality is…messier. Especially when it lands her back in one-cow town, Brightwater, California, and back in the path of the gorgeous six-foot-four reason she left. Sawyer Kane may fill out those wranglers, but she won’t be distracted from her task. Annie just needs the summer to spruce up and sell her family’s farm so she and her young son can start a new life in the big city. Simple, easy, perfect.

Sawyer has always regretted letting the first girl he loved slip away. He won’t make the same mistake twice, but can he convince beautiful, wary Annie to trust her heart again when she’s been given every reason not to? And as a single kiss turns to so much more, can Annie give up her idea of perfect for a forever that’s blissfully real.

I really enjoyed Lia Riley’s Off the Map NA series so I was looking forward to reading more from her. So even though most of the romance I read tends to be YA or NA, I was still curious about her Brightwater series. I mean, it has cowboys, how could I say no to that? And after reading Last First Kiss, I am completely sold on this series.

As much as I’ve always been hesitant to read contemporary romance that wasn’t YA or NA in the past, I should just stop because I seem to enjoy every traditional contemporary romance I read. Let’s be real, if the story has kissing and adorable romance, I will read it. So since it had both those elements Lia Riley’s Last First Kiss was a great read for me. I loved the fact that Annie and Sawyer had a history and that that history was affecting their present relationship. I loved the way Sawyer treated Annie compared to how everyone else in their small town treated her. And I loved how despite all that, Annie didn’t let other people dictate who she was, well at least she didn’t in person, sometimes she kind of put up a front on her blog. And there was just adorableness all over the place when Annie and Sawyer were together. It should go without saying that I was absolutely rooting for them. As much I loved the romance in Last First Kiss, there person who totally stole the show for me was Atticus, Annie’s five-year-old son. He was absolutely adorable and I loved him. And from what I saw while I was reading, I’m not the only one whose heart he stole. It was just hard to resist him and all his sweet little kid charm. I dare you not to completely love Atticus. Hopefully there are small glimpses of him in future books.

If you hadn’t guessed it, I loved Lia Riley’s Last First Kiss. There was romance, there was an adorable child, there was laughter and there were moments that pulled at my heartstrings. What was there not to love? I can’t wait to reading the next one, Right Wrong Guy.

Armada by Ernest Cline

Title: Armada

Author: Ernest Cline

Publisher: Crown Publishing

Release Date: July 14, 2015

Source: From Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Zack Lightman has spent his life dreaming. Dreaming that the real world could be a little more like he countless science-fiction books, movies, and videogames he’s spent his life consuming. Dreaming that one day, some fantastic, world-altering event will shatter the monotony of his humdrum existence and whisk him off on some grand space-faring adventure.

But hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little escapism, right? After all, Zack tells himself, he knows the different between fantasy and reality. He knows that here in the real world, aimless teenage gamers with anger issues don’t get chosen to save the universe.

And then he sees the flying saucer.

Even stranger, the alien ship he’s staring at is straight out of the videogame he plays every night, a hugely popular online flight simulator called Armada—in which gamers just happen to be protecting the earth from alien invaders.

No, Zack hasn’t lost his mind. As impossible as it seems, what he’s seeing is all too real. And his skills—as well as those of millions of gamers across the world—are going to be needed to save the earth from what’s about to befall it.

It’s Zack’s chance, at last, to play the hero. But even through the terror and exhilaration, he can’t help thinking back to all those science-fiction stories he grew up with, and wondering: Doesn’t something about this scenario seem a little…familiar?

At once gleefully embracing and brilliantly subverting science-fiction conventions as only Ernest Cline could, Armada is a rollicking, surprising thriller, a classic coming of age adventure, and an alien invasion tale like nothing you’ve ever read before—one whose every page is infused with the pop-culture savvy has helped make Ready Player One a phenomenon.

Over the last few years, I’ve heard a lot great things about Ernest Cline and his book Ready Player One but I hadn’t picked it up for myself. When I heard about his latest, Armada, I was intrigued and wanted to know more. As it was, Armada was a story filled with action and pop culture references that made the nerd in me happy.

Zack has spent all his life so far preferring the world of science fiction to the one he lives in. He spends his days dreaming of adventure, of something that will make his life more exciting and more interesting. He knows that it isn’t likely to happen in his small Oregon town, but he can always hope. And now there’s a flying saucer just outside the window of his classroom. Zack thinks he has to be dreaming, especially since the ship looks just like the ones he spends his free time shooting down in his favourite video game. But as unlikely as it seems, what Zack is seeing is real: aliens are preparing to attack Earth and gamers everywhere are needed to help protect the planet. What used to only be real in video games is now reality. But in the middle of it all, Zack can’t help but think that everything seems a little to familiar, it seems a little too much like everything he’s seen in science fiction.

In my reading, just like in my TV and movie viewing habits, I try to be balanced and read a little from every genre. Sure, there are genres that I will gravitate to more than others, but I try to read a bit of everything. But science-fiction tends to be a genre I don’t get to as much. For that reason alone, reading Ernest Cline’s Armada was an interesting experience. I’m not going to lie. For the first part of the book it felt like I was getting sci-fi pop culture whiplash. There were so many references being dropped left, right and centre and as many as I knew and recognized, there was an equal number that went over my head. For a while, I kind of pulled me out of the story, but I was able to quickly move past it and for much of the rest of the book, the references would make me smile. And it made the story that much more fun to read, because both eh author and his characters are as huge geeks as the people who will be reading Armada. 

Beyond the pop culture geekiness, Armada was an engaging story, one that drew me in. And once the action started, I was having trouble putting the book down. I wanted to find out how everything would go down. Would the aliens really attack? Would gamers all over the world be the ones to save earth? Is all our science fiction actually fiction? There were so many questions that I needed answers to. And those questions were more than answered, with me often being able to clearly picture those answers. And that’s because Ernest Cline is a very visual writer. While reading, I could definitely tell that he was a screenwriter before being a novelist. There were so many vivid  descriptions of what was happening that made it really easy to understand everything that was happening in the story. And made me think that Armada will make one hell of a movie.

Zack was a pretty great hero, especially since he didn’t really feel like a hero while I was reading. I mean, yes he was looking for more adventure in his life and was a top notch pilot in the Armada video game, but when things got a little dicey (to put it mildly), he was kind of a reluctant hero. Zack didn’t want his loved ones to die and he wanted to protect them, but it didn’t necessarily feel like he wanted to be responsible for saving all of humanity. So it made Zack a really interesting character, especially since the story was told from his perspectives. As a reader, it sometimes felt more like Zack didn’t want to believe what was happening was actually happening. Or that what was motivating him was getting answers about what really happened to his father. And on that topic there’s so much I want to say, but I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone. So to make a long story short, I really liked Zack. How he wasn’t your “typical” action hero. He was just someone who was REALLY good at one particular video game and that turned out to be what was needed to save humanity. No big deal.

Though Ernest Cline’s Armada isn’t necessarily something I would pick up on my own, I found myself really enjoying the story. The plot and the characters both drew me in and the action kept me on the edge of my seat while I was reading. And now I need to go read Ready Player One.

Truth & Temptation by Riley Edgewood

Title: Truth & Temptation (Summer Love Series #3)

Author: Riley Edgewood

Publisher: Self-Published

Release Date: July 23, 2015

Source: ARC from Author

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Kobo

She’s a liar. He knows the truth.

Teagan Walker gets around. Ask anyone—hell, ask her. She’ll own it with a smile. But beneath that smile is a girl whose parents didn’t want her. Whose grandparents raised her without affection. Whose struggle with a burning anger threatens to consume her, though she’d rather punch someone in the face than talk about it. With a new job looming, she’s determined to work her way into a better life. When she meets the sexiest guy she’s ever seen, she decides to kick it off with a bang. And she makes her move.

But he’s got moves of his own, and before the night is out, he strips her of way more than she means to reveal—without removing a single piece of clothing. That comes, too, of course. He’s gotten under skin like nobody before him, and what’s the harm in one night with a sexy stranger? Exposed or not, she never has to see him again.

Except she does.

On Monday morning, they come face-to-face. He’s the son of her new CEO—and he threatens to bring her entire world crashing down, making her face every lie she’s ever told.

There are some stories it feels like I’ve waited such a long time to read, even when in reality, it hasn’t actually been that long. That was the case with Teagan’s story in Riley Edgewood’s Truth & Temptation. And after the wait, this story totally delivered.

Teagan has a reputation. Everyone will tell you so, herself included. But just because she has a reputation and she’s not afraid to admit it doesn’t mean that she’s happy with who she is. In fact, Teagan hates how angry she gets, how big of a bitch she can be even when she doesn’t mean to. But she’s determined to do better, especially now that she’s starting a new job. Out celebrating with her friends, Teagan meets the sexiest guy she’s ever seen and decides to just go for it. But the night doesn’t go quite as planned when Teagan starts to spill all her secrets. But it’s okay, it’s not like Teagan is ever going to see him again. Until she walks in to her new job on Monday morning and comes face-to-face with her new boss. Who just happens to be the guy from a few nights earlier. And he’s ready to call her out on everything she told him.

It feels like I had been waiting for Truth & Temptation, or at least Teagan’s story, since I first met her right at the beginning of Riley Edgewood’s debut, Rock & Release. I knew that she had her own story to tell and I couldn’t wait to read it. So to say I was excited about Truth & Temptation would be a bit of an understatement. I was so freaking excited to read this book, and just like with Riley Edgewood’s previous books, it was so completely addicting. I got sucked into the story, wanting to see where the night would take Teagan and her mysterious sexy man. And once that night was over, I wanted to know everything that happened, everything that Teagan had told Alec. And of course, I wanted to see everything that would come after that. Because if nothing else, I have come to expect from pretty fantastic romance from Riley Edgewood. Needless to say that Truth & Temptation delivered on the romance front. Just like it delivered when it comes to emotional punches. Because there were plenty of those too thanks to Teagan.

I knew from the moment I met her two book ago that Teagan had a lot going on. It was clear that she was dealing with a lot of stuff, and I wanted to know what it all was, especially since it kept being alluded to by Teagan herself and by her best friend. Getting to read her story, I now know that there was so much more to Teagan than I ever thought. And so much of it hit a chord with me, because half of it I could relate to and the other half I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Tegan just deserved something good in her life, more than I can even possibly begin to explain. So Teagan completely broke my heart more than once, and so many times I just wanted to give her a hug. And cue Alec. Alec wasn’t who I expected. Kind of like Teagan, I made certain assumptions about him that turned out to be completely wrong. Alec was a good guy, plain and simple. But he was also so much more than that.  Like Teagan, he had his own set of issues he needed to deal with. And while dealing with those, he was the perfect person for Teagan. He was the person who finally showed her that she was worthy and that she wasn’t doomed to become her mother. He loved her and he wanted her and that’s really all Teagan was asking for. So Alec Chambers was pretty freaking incredible. And I may love him.  And I would also like to take this moment to lay claim to Alec Chambers. Because reasons.

Riley Edgewood’s Truth & Temptation was so much more than the story I had hoped it would be. More than being a story about romance, it was a story about finding yourself and accepting yourself for who you are, regardless of who that is or where you come from. And that’s a pretty damn important message.