Good Boy by Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy

Title: Good Boy (WAGS #1)

Author: Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy

Publisher: Self-Published

Release Date: January 31, 2017

Source: ARC from Publicist

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Indigo

Hosting her brother’s wedding for an MVP guest list is the challenge of Jess Canning’s life. Already the family screw-up, she can’t afford to fail. And nobody (nobody!) can learn of the colossal mistake she made with the best man during a weak moment last spring. It was wrong, and there will not e a repeat. Absolutely not. Even if he is the sexiest thing on two legs.

Blake Riley sees the wedding as fate’s gift to him. Jess is the maid of honor and he’s the best man? Let the games begin. So what if he’s facing a little (fine, a lot) of resistance? He just needs to convince the stubborn blonde that he’s really a good boy with a bad rap. Luckily, every professional hockey player knows that you’ve got to make an effort if you want to score.

But Jess has more pressing issues to deal with than sexy-times with a giant man-child. Such as: Will the ceremony start on time, even though someone go grandma drunk? Does glitter ever belong at a wedding? And is it wrong to murder the best man?

Caution: May cause accidental aspiration of tea or coffee. Do not read in a public place where loud laughter is inappropriate. Contains hot but hilarious hockey players, puppy cuddling and a snarky pear of underwear.

Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy are easily some of my favourite authors, especially when they join forces. I've loved their past collaborations, and after reading Good Boy I've established I'll read just about anything that has both their names on it.

If you know me, then it's not a secret that I love both Sarina Bowen's and Elle Kennedy's books. In fact they're some of my absolute favourites when it comes to New Adult and romance. It's also not a secret that I absolutely LOVE their collaborations. Him and Us are some of my all-time favourite books. When they announced that there would be more stories set in that world, I was absolutely ecstatic. Especially when I learned who the first book in this new series was going to be about. I mean, right when I finished Us I said that a book about Blake and Jess would make for one hell of a story and it turns out I was totally right. I LOVED Good Boy. Once I started reading, I just refused to put it down because I was that into the story (much to the dismay of the family members I was supposed to be spending time with, what with it being the holidays and all. But Blake and Jess took priority). I just got sucked into their story, into their slightly over-the-top antics that had me laughing out loud (and getting weird looks from my grandparents) while reading. It's pretty much impossible to read this book and not smile at the very least. 

Good Boy was a fantastic story on its own, but what made it truly a stand out for me was Blake and Jess. Both are characters that stole the show when they made appearances in both Him and Us, and getting to read a book all about them made me love them even more. In a way, Jess and Blake are two people you wouldn't quite think fit together but somehow they make it work and make you root for them. Reading, I quickly realized that there was a whole lot more to both of them than their goofiness. In fact, it felt like they often used to goofiness as a front to hide some of the bigger stuff going on in their lives. When they stopped hiding behind that goofiness is when some of my favourite parts of the story happened--those small, more serious moments are what really made me care about Jess and Blake and made me want to see them be happy and get what they wanted. It's what made me go from loving amusing characters to really caring about the two people whose story I was reading.

The synopsis isn't lying, don't read this book when it says this book shouldn't be read in a public place where loud laughter is frowned upon. Seriously, I dare you to read this book and not burst out laughing at least once. It's pretty much impossible. But Good Boy isn't just about the laughs. It's those small, sweet moments that, when combined with the humour, make this story a fantastic read.

Release Tour - Safe Bet by Monica Murphy

Title: Safe Bet (The Rules #4)

Author: Monica Murphy

Publisher: Self-Published

Release Date: January 10, 2017

Source: ARC from Publicist

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / iBooks

Sydney Walker’s new job is perfect. As the live-in nanny to the most famous quarterback in the NFL and his beautiful wife, she couldn’t have it any better. Their kids are adorable. Her bosses are more than generous. Plus, there are hot football players at the house all the time. Life can’t get much better than this. 

Until her life turns into an absolute nightmare .The media is abuzz with rumors that she and her boss Drew Callahan are having a torrid affair. Everyone knows the truth—except the public. So Drew’s wife Fable comes up with the perfect idea.

She creates a fake relationship between Sydney and one of the rookie players on Drew’s team. Wade Knox is forever indebted to Drew and Fable and readily agrees to the set up. Pretending to be in a romantic relationship with the hot nanny for a week—how hard can it be?

Crazy how it only takes one week for two people to fall head over heals in love…

(This mash-up new adult romance features characters from both the One Week Girlfriend series and The Rules series.)

Unlike some, I didn't start reading Monica Murphy's books until her Rules series was partially underway. I'd seen her name floating around, but had never picked up any of her books. But once I started on that series I was hooked. So much so that I decided to go back and read some of her older books while I was waiting for the third book in the series to release. That's how I started reading the One Week Girlfriend series. And I got just as hooked on that series as I did on The Rules. So those two series coming together in Safe Bet? I was all over that.

And guys? Safe Bet was awesome. It was the first book I read in 2017 and it was an absolutely fantastic way to kick off the year. This story was just good old fashioned fun with zero angst. Don't get me wrong, I love my angsty characters and my angsty stories, but sometimes it's just nice to read a story where everything works out and everyone comes out happy with no new scars, physical or otherwise. I loved reading Sydney and Wade's story and the way it threw back to threw back to One Week Girlfriend, what with the fake relationship that turns into something real. I mean, that trope is a fun one for a reason and personally I love seeing two people realize that what they thought was just pretend is actually a whole lot more real than they think it is. Obviously I knew right from the start that Sydney and Wade would end up in a real relationship (it's a romance, so duh), but that didn't stop me from really loving getting to watch it all happen.

The other part of this story I loved? Getting a lot of Drew and Fable again. I loved getting to read their original stories in One Week Girlfriend and Second Chance Boyfriend, and then getting glimpses of them again in Four Years Later (which I finally read right before reading Safe Bet). It was awesome to see that they were still together and that they were still the same people, just grown up. And it was also awesome to get to see some of the other characters from both the One Week Girlfriend series and the Rules series. And I loved that because I'm that person who always wants to check in on characters, just to make sure that they're still happy and together and okay. I'm just curious like that (or nosy, I guess, depending on how you look at it).

If you've read either Monica Murphy's One Week Girlfriend series or her Rules series (or both!) then you'll want to check out Safe Bet, It's a fun story that lets you peak in on characters you love all while giving you a new angst-free romance that's sure to make you feel all warm and fuzzy. 

Cover Reveal - Anything You Can Do by R.S. Grey

Title: Anything You Can Do
Author: R.S. Grey
Release Date: February 1, 2017
Add it on Goodreads!

Lucas Thatcher has always been my enemy.

It’s been a decade since I’ve seen him, but our years on opposite coasts were less of a lasting peace and more of a temporary cease-fire. Now that we’re both back in our small town, I know Lucas expects the same old war, but I’ve changed since high school—and from the looks of it, so has he.

The arrogant boy who was my teenage rival is now a chiseled doctor armed with intimidating good looks. He is Lucas Thatcher 2.0, the new and improved version I’ll be competing with in the workplace instead of the schoolyard.

I’m not worried; I’m a doctor now too, board-certified and sexy in a white coat. It almost feels like winning will be too easy—until Lucas unveils a tactic neither of us has ever used before: sexual warfare.

The days he pushes me up against the wall and presses his lips to mine, I can’t help but wonder if he’s filling me with passion or poison. Every fleeting touch is perfect torture. With every stolen kiss, my walls crumble a little more. After all this time, Lucas knows exactly how to strip me of my defenses, but I’m in no hurry to surrender.

Knowing thy enemy has never felt so good.

About the Author

I am a lover of books, chocolate, reality TV, black labs, and cold weather. Seriously, if I had it my way I would be curled up on the couch with all of those things…everyday.

I live in Texas where I spend my free time writing and reading. My favorite authors are Mindy Kaling & Jonathan Safran Foer. I’m a comedy geek and love all things “funny”. Women like Tina Few, Amy Poehler, and Mindy Kaling are definitely the biggest inspirations for my writing, though I think my work tends to skew smuttier than theirs.

 

Throwing My Life Away by Liz Czukas

Title: Throwing My Life Away

Author: Liz Czukas

Publisher: Self-Published

Release Date: December 20, 2016

Source: ARC from Author

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / iBooks / Kobo

7 photographs, 2 weeks, an entire life to get back. No problem, right?

After her stepfather accidentally throws away her high school mementos, sentimental Mariska is pretty sure the world is over. That is, until she comes up with a plan. She’s going to recreate her past, with a little help from her friends.

It’s not easy to rally everyone into helping, especially Caine, who couldn’t be less sentimental about anything if he were a park bench. But from a guerrilla kite festival to convincing her ex-boyfriend to recreate her lost prom picture, Mariska is willing to do what it takes.

With a little nudging from Caine, Mariska starts to realize she can’t actually get her past back. And maybe that’s okay. Because while she’s so focused on the past, she’s missing out on the present, where her friends are busy having the summer of their lives. And where funny, quiet Cain might just be the future she never knew she wanted.

As someone who reads a lot I know that there are some books that will stick with me more than others, it's just what happens. But those books that stick with me, they do so for a reason. Sometimes it's because they resonated with me in a particular way, in other cases it's because it was a particularly good story. I don't know exactly what it was about Liz Czukas's Throwing My Life Away, but I know that also two months later, I'm still thinking about it.

Despite having her books on my shelves, I haven't actually read any of Liz Czukas's books. Well, that's not entirely true; I've read the New Adult titles she's written as Ellie Cahill and I absolutely loved them. So when she approached me to see if I would be interested in reading Throwing My Life Away I jumped at the opportunity. And I'm glad I did because I loved reading this story. Right from the start, it made me nostalgic for that time between high school and college where I was ready to move forward and see what the future had to offer while also wanting to hold on to all the memories of the past (granted I'm someone who actually liked high school and have lots of good memories from it). While reading, I could understand Mariska's sadness and anger at losing all her pictures because it felt like she was losing all her memories. But as much as it sucked, if that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have had a story to read and that would have sucked just as much. 

As much as I enjoyed reading all about Mariska and her friends recreating her memories (or at least doing their best to recreate something close to her memories), my favourite part of the story was Mariska's relationship with Caine. At first, I honestly didn't think their relationship would be anything beyond friendship and that it would just be some side plot that wouldn't really get explored. And I was immediately disappointed because there was something about the way they interacted with each other that made me want to know and see more. And then Caine started popping up all the time and before long I was rooting for Mariska and Caine. They so clearly made sense together even if it took forever for the both of them to figure it out. And even when they figured it out, I still wasn't quite sure they were going to happen. But they did and it was perfect. 

There's a lot about Liz Czukas's Throwing My Life Away: the nostalgia it brought on, the photo quest, the yearbook battle, the slow build of the romance. It was so many things I love all in one book. To make a long story short, this is a story you definitely don't want to miss.

Cover Reveal - Throwing My Life Away by Liz Czukas

Title: Throwing My Life Away

Author: Liz Czukas

Publisher: Self-Published

Release Date: December 20, 2016

Add on Goodreads!

7 photographs, 2 weeks, an entire life to get back. No problem, right?

After her stepfather accidentally throws away her high school mementos, sentimental Mariska is pretty sure the world is over. That is, until she comes up with a plan. She’s going to recreate her past, with a little help from her friends.

It’s not easy to rally everyone into helping, especially Caine, who couldn’t be less sentimental about anything if he were a park bench. But from a guerrilla kit festival to convincing her ex-boyfriend to recreate her lost prom picture, Mariska is willing to do what it takes.

With a little nudging from Caine, Mariska starts to realize she can’t actually get her past back. And maybe that’s okay. Because while she’s so focused on the past, she’s missing out on the present, where her friends are busy having the summer of their lives. And where funny, quiet Caine might just be the future she never knew she wanted.

Isn't this cover absolutely gorgeous? I've been lucky enough to read Throwing My Life Away already and let me just say that it's a story you don't want to miss--look out for a full review next week!

Here's what Liz had to say about her beautiful new cover:

I am so excited to share this cover with you all! I am seriously in love with it. Sarah from Okay Creations did such an amazing job! I can’t wait for you all to read the book so you can see exactly how perfect each one of the images she chose is. Seriously when I saw it, I was almost spooked by how utterly perfect they were.

It’s completely surreal to be sharing this cover so close to the release! In only 5 days, Throwing My Life Away will be up on all digital platforms and also available in paperback. Such a chance from the usual way, where we have to wait months just drooling over a gorgeous cover image before we get to see it in person. 

And you guys, seriously, the paperback is possibly even more gorgeous. I’ll post pics as soon as I can.

Thank you Sarah, for the bee-you-ti-ful cover! I’m proud to have it among my covers. And a huge huge hank you to all the awesome bloggers who have helped to spread this cover far and wide. The suppose of the book blogging community is one of my absolute favorite parts of being an author.

Now for the giveaway! You could win one of three paperback copies of Throwing My Life Away! If the winner is in the US, I can send a signed copy, but that doesn’t mean you international peeps can’t enter! You’ll get a paperback copy shipped to you, and I’d be happy to drop a signed bookplate in the mail to go with it!

That giveaway she mentioned? Just go here to enter!