The Royal We by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan

Title: The Royal We

Author: Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Release Date: April 7, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

“I might be Cinderella today, but I dread who they’ll think I am tomorrow. I guess it depends on what I do next.”

American Rebecca Porter was never one for fairy tales. Her twin sister, Lacey, has always been the romantic who fantasized about glamour and royalty, fame and fortune. Yet it’s Bex who seeks adventure at Oxford and finds herself living down the hall from Prince Nicholas, Great Britain’s future king. And when Bex can’t resist falling for Nick, the person behind the prince, it propels her into a world she did not expect to inhabit, under a spotlight she is not prepared to face.

Dating Nick immerses Bex in ritzy society, dazzling ski trips, and dinners at Kensington Palace with him and his charming, troublesome brother, Freddie. But the relationship also comes with unimaginable baggage: hysterical tabloids, Nick’s sparkling and far more suitable ex-girlfriends, and a royal family whose private life is much thornier an more tragic than anyone on the outside knows. The pressures are almost too much to bear, as Bex struggles to reconcile the man she loves with the monarch he’s fated to become. 

Which is how she gets into trouble.

Now, on the even of the wedding of the century, Bex is faced with whether everything she’s sacrificed for love—her career, her home, her family, maybe even herself—will have been for nothing.

I’m not going to lie, I basically didn’t know about The Royal We until I was offered a chance to review it. I might have seen it here and there, but it was never a book that I paid attention to. But once I read the description, it sounded like it could be a lot of fun. What I didn’t expect, was how much I absolutely loved this book.

The last thing Rebecca Porter expected when she decided to study abroad at Oxford was to fall in love. In going to Britain, she was looking for adventure, for new experiences. Not romance. The one thing she was definitely not looking for was living down the hall from Britain’s next king, the prince she just so happens to fall in love with. But after spending time with Nick, Bex can’t help but fall for him. But being with a prince also means being thrown into a world Bex never thought she would be a part of. Dating Nick isn’t simple. As much as she just wants to spend time with Nick, Bex also has to share him with the rest of the world. A world that doesn’t exactly think she’s what’s best for the future king of Britain. Together, Bex and Nick find a way to make it work, but on the day before they are set to get married, things are about to fall apart as Bex starts questioning everything she’s had to sacrifice to be with the person she loves.

I’m kind of a sucker for anything involving royalty of any kind. I blame it on the fact that I spent most of my middle and high school years reading Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries series (to this day, it’s still one of my favourite series of all time). But despite my love of all things royal in books, I hadn’t really heard about Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan’s The Royal We. When I did finally hear about it, I thought it had the potential to be a book that would be right up my alley. So I gave it shot. I started reading. and the next thing I new I just couldn’t stop. I knew I was very likely to enjoy the story, I just didn’t expect to love it as much as I did and to get so caught up in it. I was having trouble resisting the urge to just read it while I was sitting at my desk at work, trying not to count down the minutes until I would be able to read it again. This was just such a fun story. I loved the way it was set up, how it was spread out over the course of seven years and I got to see Nick and Bex’s entire relationship, the ups and the downs and everything in between. It made me that much more invested in their story, made me want to root for them that much more. But the other great thing about the story was just how fun it was. So many times while I was reading, I would find myself laughing at the situation the characters were in, at something Bex would say, or at Freddie’s antics. I just had a good time while reading The Royal We.

Be was seriously the best. I loved reading this story from her perspective. She just came across as very genuine. When the story starts, she’s just a girl looking for adventure while studying abroad. And then she met a prince and things got infinitely more interesting. But the thing that I loved about Bex was that she wasn’t in love with Prince Nicholas, she was just in love with Nick, the guy who lived down the hall from her and who she watched horrible supernatural soaps with. Granted as the story moved forward she had to accept that being in love with Nick also meant being in love with Prince Nicholas. And Nick, well he was a prince, so there’s that. But really, I loved Nick when he was just being Nick as opposed to forced to be Prince Nicholas. And he and Bex were just great together. I loved seeing them together and seeing their relationship develop, even though it wasn’t without it’s ups and downs. But as much as I loved Bex and Nick, the character who stole the show was Nick’s brother Freddie. Any time Freddie was in the story, a smile just broke out on my face, I couldn’t help it. He was easily my favourite character in the story, and honestly I want him to have his own book. I would love to see everything that goes on behind the fun and goofy facade he puts on for the world. Any time I got a glimpse of what was behind that facade, I loved him even more. So Freddie needs his own book, simple as that.

Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan’s The Royal We was unexpected. It’s the book that I didn’t see coming and took me completely by surprise. I enjoyed every single page of this story and if you’re looking for what has got to be one of the most adorable love stories I’ve read recently, than give The Royal We a try. Odds are, you’ll have the best time reading it.

Kissing Ted Callahan (and Other Guys) by Amy Spalding

Title: Kissing Ted Callahan (and Other Guys)

Author: Amy Spalding

Publisher: Poppy

Release Date: April 7, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist meets Easy A in this hilariously realistic story of sneaking out, making out, and playing in a band.

After catching their bandmates in a compromising position, sixteen-year-old Los Angelenos Riley and Reid become painfully aware of the romance missing from their own lives. And so a pact is formed: they’ll both try to make something happen with their respective crushes and document the experiences in a shared notebook.

While Reid struggles with the moral dilemma of adopting a dog to win over someone’s heart, Riley tries to make progress with Ted Callahan, who she’s been obsessed with forever—His floppy hair! His undeniable intelligence! But suddenly cute guys are popping up everywhere. How did she never notice them before?! With their love lives going from 0 to 60 in the blink of an eye, Riley and Reid realize the results of their pact may be more than they bargained for.

Cute romances that get compared to Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and Easy A automatically get added to my TBR. Ad to that a blurb by Stephanie Perkins and I am sold. And that’s how Amy Spalding’s Kissing Ted Callahan (and Other Guys) found itself on my radar.

Until Riley and Reid caught their bandmates in a compromising positions, neither one of them thought much about their lack of experience when it comes romance. Now, both of them decide that it’s time to do something about it. Together, Riley and Reid make a decision: they are both going to put themselves out there and document the results in a shared notebook, that way they can both learn from the experience. But things don’t exactly go as planned. Reid ends up with a new dog while Riley is struggling to make progress with longtime crush Ted Callahan. Instead she finds herself with two other prospects. And before either one knows what’s happening, Riley and Reid’s love life take off in a way they never planned.

I remembered when I first heard about Amy Spalding’s Kissing Ted Callahan (and Other Guys) and immediately wanting to read it. Fast-forward a few months when people start reading it, and all the reviews coming in were just making me want to read the book that much more. So I was excited when I finally got a copy for the book. And I had certain expectations when I started reading. And I’ll be honest and say that those expectations weren’t fully met. I definitely got a really fun story. I got sucked in right away, curious to see where their plan would lead Reid and Riley and what kinds of situations they would get into. I also really enjoyed the way the story itself was told, split between chapters from Riley’s perspectives and excerpts from the notebook they shared their experiences in. Most of the time, those notebook excerpts were from Reid’s perspective so it was really great to get some insight into his character as well. What I wasn’t completely sold on, was the romance, which makes me a little sad because that’s a part of the story I had definitely been looking forward to. By the end of the story, I was a little more on board with it, but there was a large portion of the book I wasn’t sure what to make of it.

As much as I might have had my issues with the romance throughout the story, I really liked Riley. Her voice was great. I loved reading about her slight neuroses when it came to figuring out what exactly was happening (or not happening) in her love life. She was just a really fun character to read about and she was the perfect voice for this story. It was fun to see her with the different guys she went out with, and her passion when it came to music. The one aspect of Riley’s character I struggled with for a while was her feelings for Ted Callahan. For a while, I just didn’t really get it. I mean, Ted seemed like a nice enough guy, but compared to the way Riley would talk about Milo and Garrett, the other two guys she ended up going out with, I just couldn’t seem to understand the obsession with Ted. And maybe that was sort of the point? That it started out more as an obsession than feelings based on actual interactions with the person. The more I read, I the more I got on board with the relationship between Riley and Ted because I could see her realizing that she was going from being “obsessed” with someone form afar and actually liking them from who they are. But even by the end of the book, I still felt like I was only just getting a handle on who Ted was and I would have wanted to find out more about him. And maybe that’s it, I feel like I didn’t get to know Ted enough for me to really fall for him the way Riley does.

Amy Spalding’s Kissing Ted Callahan (and Other Guys) was a fun and quick read. Though it wasn’t quite the story I hoped it was going to be, I still found myself enjoying the story as I was reading it. 

Blog Tour - Play On by Michelle Smith + Giveaway

Title: Play On

Author: Michelle Smith

Publisher: Spencer Hill Contemporary

Release Date: April 21, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / B&N / IndieBound

In the small town of Lewis Creek, baseball is everything. Especially of all-star pitcher Austin Braxton, who has a one-way ticket out of town with his scholarship to a top university. All that stands between him and a new start is one final season. But when Austin starts flunking Chemistry, his picture-perfect future is in jeopardy. A failing grade means zero playing time, and zero playing time means no scholarship.

Enter Marisa Marlowe, the new girl in town who gets a job at his momma’s flower shop. Not only is Marisa some home-schooled super-genius; she’s also a baseball fanatic and more than willing to help Austin study. As the two grow closer, there’s something about Marisa that makes Austin want more than just baseball out and out of Lewis Creek—he wants a future with her. But Marisa has a past that still haunts her, one that she ran all the way to South Carolina to escape.

As Austin starts to peel back the layers of Marisa’s pain, it forces him to look beyond the façade of himself and everyone he thought he knew in his town. What he sees instead is that in a small town like Lewis Creek, maybe baseball isn’t everything—maybe it is just the thing that ties them all together. 

I am a complete and total sucker for any book that involves sports. I will read pretty much any and all books that someone recommends if they feature sports in some way. I wish that were an overstatement, but it really isn’t. So Michelle Smith’s Play On? Totally up my alley.

Baseball has always been a part of Austin’s life and he knows it’s the only way he’s ever going to get out of Lewis Creek. He has it all planned out, so long as he gets through this final season, his scholarship is guaranteed. But with his chemistry grade dropping, Austin’s baseball future might not be as sure a thing as he thought. Falling chemistry would mean spending the baseball on the bench. And just when Austin is starting to get desperate, he meets Marisa, the new employee at his mom’s flower shop and chemistry genius. What starts out as simple tutoring, quickly becomes more as Marisa and Austin spend more time together. And much to his surprise, Austin quickly realizes he might want more than to just leave Lewis Creek and play baseball. With Marisa, he can see a future he never considered before. And that future is the one he wants.

I thought I knew what I was going to get when I first started reading Play On. I was totally expecting a cute romance story with baseball. And I was all over that. Because, hello, romance AND sports? This book had my name written all over it. So I started reading and I was getting all the adorableness I had come to expect from the description. And then I got to finding out about Marisa’s past as hinted at in the synopsis. And that’s when I went from liking Play On  to full on loving it. What you will not guess from reading the synopsis is that Play On deals with mental health in a way that felt completely realistic and organic. As a reader, I wasn’t hit over the head with the mental health aspect of the story. Instead, it was woven in throughout the story. As hard to read as some parts were, it just felt natural in the greater context of the story. Yes, there were some serious subject matters being dealt with, but never idd it make the story feel heavy. And that’s why I loved this story so much. Not only was the romance and adorableness completely on point, it dealt with mental illness in a completely realistic way.

How do I even begin to explain how much I loved Austin. I mean, he’s a baseball-playing, Southern momma’s boy. What was there not to like? It took absolutely no time at all for me to fall for his charm. He was basically the embodiment of all my weaknesses when it comes to book boyfriends (and real boys, if I’m being completely honest). So basically I loved Austin and I loved his voice. Reading his story, he just felt so completely genuine. And sweet. And goofy. And adorable. And kind. And considerate. And supportive. Austin was basically all I wan in a book boyfriend. Which I’ve said already, but that’s the point. Austin was great. And that was especially true when I saw him interacting with Marisa. These two were just so completely adorable together. Reading about them, I just had this big goofy smile on my face, I just couldn’t help it. Even in the more serious moments, I loved the way Austin and Marisa were together. They did their best and were there for each other as best as they could. Basically, they are one of my new favourite couples. I should also mentioned that I loved so many of the secondary characters. Even if they weren’t as big a part of the story, they all felt fully fleshed out. Would it be getting my hopes up to ask for a story about Jay and Brett? Because I would so totally read that. Or one about Eric. 

In case you couldn’t tell, I totally LOVED Michelle Smith’s Play On. This story was absolutely perfect. It was a mix of adorable, heart-warming romance and just the right amount of serious. I really couldn’t have asked for a better story. And I want more, plain and simple. 

About the author:

Michelle Smith was born and raised in North Caroline, where she developed a healthy appreciation for college football, sweet tea, front porches, and a well-placed “y’all.” She’s a lover of all things happy, laughs way too much, and fully believes that a little bit of kindness goes a long way.

Michelle lives near the Carolina coast with her family

Website / Twitter / Facebook / Tumblr

Giveaway!

Do you want to read Michelle Smith's Play On? Then enter the giveaway for your chance to win a paperback copy using the Rafflecopter form below. US only.

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Finding Mr. Brightside by Jay Clark

Title: Finding Mr. Brightside

Author: Jay Clark

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

Release Date: March 24, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Abram and Juliette know each other. They’ve lived down the street from each other their whole lives. But they don’t really know each other—at least, not until Juliette’s mom and Abram’s dad have a torrid affair that culminates in a deadly car crash. Sharing the same subdivision is uncomfortable, to say the least. They don’t speak.

Fast-forward to the neighborhood pharmacy, a few months later. Abram decides to say hello. Then he decides to invite her to Taco Bell. To her surprise as well as his, she agrees. And there real love story begins.

It doesn’t usually take much for me to read a book. Well, for me to be interested in reading any given book. If it has a premise that sounds like something I would enjoy, there’s a pretty good chance I’ll end up reading the book. Most of the time, I come out the other end having read an enjoyable story, and that’s exactly what happened with Jay Clark’s Finding Mr. Brightside.

Abram and Juliette have lived on the same street their whole lives, but that’s the only thing linking them together. That’s until her mom and his dad have an affair that ends with both of them killed in a terrible car crash. That was almost a year ago, and Juliette and Abram have avoided each other since. How do you talk to the person who related to the person who ruined your family? But one night, Abram decides to strike up a conversation with Juliette when they cross paths at their local pharmacy. An unlikely friendship is struck that night. And before Abram and Juliette know it, that friendship is becoming something else entirely.

The thing about Jay Clark’s Finding Mr. Brightside is that it’s really short. Like barely over 200 pages short. So when I first got the book, I was kind of curious as to how this story was going to work. How everything the synopsis promised was going to be able to take place in such a short span of time. I was even a little afraid that everything would feel rush and that the romance between Juliette and Abram wouldn’t feel genuine because of it. In the end, though, I shouldn’t have worried too much because everything worked out just how it was supposed to and the story didn’t feel rushed in the least. Yes, it was fast-paced, but it worked nicely in the greater context. And I really liked the fast-pace of the story, the constant switching back and forth between Juliette and Abram’s perspectives. It kept me guessing and kept me flipping the pages to see how their story would turn out. And it was just really fun to read how these two people came together in the face of the tragedy that connected them.

Abram and Juliette could not have been more different from one another. Where Juliette is all about following the rules and structure in her life, Abram much prefers just going with the flow and seeing what happens. Really the only thing they have in common is the fact that their parents had an affair together, and that’s not really sometime you want linking you to something else. But they became friends in spite of it all and I loved seeing that relationship develop, how each of them had a positive influence on the other, getting them out of the sort of funk both of them had been in since their parents’ deaths. Abram and Juliette complemented each other. They just worked and I was so happy when they both realized it as well. Even if they weren’t always willing to admit it to themselves and each other. And at the end of the day, they were just kind of adorable together.

Jay Clark’s Finding Mr. Brightside was a fun and lighthearted story. Though it was fast-paced, it didn’t take away from the story’s heart and the romance was right on point. If you’re in the mood for something short and fun, this is the book for you.

Cover Reveal - Chasing River by K.A. Tucker

We have been dying to share this Cover Reveal for K.A. Tucker's CHASING RIVER with you all! CHASING RIVER is a New Adult Romantic Suspense novel, and the third novel in K.A. Tucker’s Burying Water Series, published by Atria books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster. CHASING RIVER is set to be released July 7, 2015! If you haven't had a chance to check out this series yet now is the time!

To celebrate, BURYING WATER, with an excerpt of CHASING RIVER, is just $1.99 for the month of April!!
Grab BURYING WATER and BECOMING RAIN while you wait for CHASING RIVER!

About Chasing River

Add CHASING RIVER on Goodreads!

Armed with two years’ worth of savings and the need to experience life outside the bubble of her Oregon small town, twenty-five-year-old Amber Welles is prepared for anything. Except dying in Dublin. Had it not been for the bravery of a stranger, she might have. But he takes off before she has the chance to offer her gratitude.

Twenty-four-year-old River Delaney is rattled. No one was supposed to get hurt. But then that American tourist showed up. He couldn’t let her die, but he also couldn’t risk being identified at the scene—so, he ran. Back to his everyday life of running his family’s pub. Only, everyday life is getting more and more complicated, thanks to his brother, Aengus, and his criminal associations. When the American girl tracks River down, he quickly realizes how much he likes her, how wrong she is for him. And how dangerous it is to have her around. Chasing her off would be the smart move.

Maybe it’s because he saved her life, or maybe it’s because he’s completely different from everything she’s left behind, but Amber finds herself chasing after River Delaney. Amber isn’t the kind of girl to chase after anyone.

And River isn’t the kind of guy she’s want to catch.

Pre-Order CHASING RIVER today!

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And don’t forget BURYING WATER and BECOMING RAIN, the first two books in this thrilling series…

About BURYING WATER

The top-selling, beloved indie author of Ten Tiny Breaths returns with a new romance about a young woman who loses her memory—and the man who knows that the only way to protect her is to stay away.

Left for dead in the field of rural Oregon, a young woman defies all odds and survives—but she awakens with no idea who she is, or what happened to her. Refusing to answer to “Jane Doe” for another day, the woman renames herself “Water” for the tiny, hidden marking on her body—the only clue to her past. Taken in by old Ginny Fitzgerald, a crochet but kind lady living on a nearby horse farm, Water slowly begins building a new life. But as she attempts to piece together the fleeting slivers of her memory, more questions emerge: Who is the next-door neighbor, quietly toiling under the hood of his Barracuda? Why won’t Ginny let him step foot on her property? And why does Water feel she recognizes him?

Twenty-four-year-old Jesse Welles doesn’t know how long it will be before Water gets her memory back. For her sake, Jesse hopes the answer is never. He knows that she’ll stay so much safer—and happier—that way. And that’s why, as hard as it is, he needs to keep his distance. Because getting too close could flood her with realities better left buried.

The trouble is, water always seems to find its way to the surface.

BURYING WATER is just $1.99 for the month of April!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo | IndieBound

About BECOMING RAIN

Luke Boone doesn’t know exactly what his uncle Rust is involved in but he wants in on it—the cars, the money, the women. And it looks like he’s finally getting his wish. When Rust hands him the managerial keys to the garage, they come with a second set—one that opens up the door to tons of cash and opportunity. Though it’s not exactly legal, Luke’s never been one to worry about that sort of thing. Especially when it puts him behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 and onto the radar of a gorgeous socialite named Rain.

Clara Bertelli is at the top of her game—at only twenty-six years old, she’s one of the most successful undercover officers in the Washington, DC major crime unity, and she’s just been handed a case that could catapult her career and expose one of the West Coast’s most notorious cart theft rings. But, in order to do it, she’ll need to go deep undercover as Rain Martines. Her target? The twenty-four-year-old nephew of a key player who appears ready to follow in his uncle’s footsteps.

As Clara drifts deeper into the luxurious lifestyle of Rain, and further into the arms of her very attractive and charming target, the lines between right and wrong start to blur, making her wonder if she’ll be able to leave it all behind. Or if she’ll even want to. 

Get your copy of BECOMING RAIN today!

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About K.A. Tucker

Born in small-town Ontario, Kathleen published her first book at the age of six with the help of her elementary school librarian and a box of crayons. She is a voracious reader and the farthest thing from a genre-snob, loving everything from High Fantasy to Chick Lit. Kathleen currently resides in a quaint small town outside of Toronto with her husband, two beautiful girls, and an exhausting brood of four-legged creatures.

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