TBT #53 - Review: Blurred Lines by Lauren Layne

★TBT #53★

On this week’s #ThrowbackThursday we bring to you yet another Lauren Layne creation #BlurredLines. With LL’s touch of magic and beautiful flow of the story, Blurred lines is packed with full of love laughter and complete heart-warming moments. At this point I can outright say that Lauren can never go wrong with her writing *winks

Title: Blurred Lines
Author: Lauren Layne
Series: Love unexpectedly #1
Genre: new adult, contemporary romance

In a novel that's perfect for fans of Abbi Glines and Jessica Sorensen, USA Today bestselling author Lauren Layne delivers a sexy take on the timeless question: Can a guy and a girl really be “just friends”?

When Parker Blanton meets Ben Olsen during her freshman year of college, the connection is immediate—and platonic. Six years later, they're still best friends, sharing an apartment in Portland's trendy Northwest District as they happily settle into adult life. But when Parker's boyfriend dumps her out of the blue, she starts to wonder about Ben's no-strings-attached approach to dating. The trouble is, even with Ben as her wingman, Parker can't seem to get the hang of casual sex—until she tries it with him.

The arrangement works perfectly . . . at first. The sex is mind-blowing, and their friendship remains as solid as ever, without any of the usual messy romantic entanglements. But when Parker's ex decides he wants her back, Ben is shocked by a fierce stab of possessiveness. And when Ben starts seeing a girl from work, Parker finds herself plagued by unfamiliar jealousy. With their friendship on the rocks for the first time, Parker and Ben face an alarming truth: Maybe they can't go back. And maybe, deep down, they never want to.

Amazon US | Amazon UK

TBT #42 - Review: Fighting Silence (On the Ropes #1) by Aly Martinez

★TBT #42★

Aly Martinez 's Fighting Silence (On the Ropes #1) is on this week's ‪#ThrowbackThrusday. It's is one of the best, friends to lover’s premises I’ve read to this date. It didn’t just spoke volumes of friendship but it truly brought all the aspect of love, life, sacrifice, and struggle to light.

Title: Fighting Silence
Author: Aly Martinez
Series: On the Ropes #1
Genre: new adult, romance

Sound is an abstract concept for most people. We spend our lives blocking out the static in order to focus on what we believe is important. But what if, when the clarity fades into silence, it's the obscure background noise that you would give anything to hold on to?

I've always been a fighter. With parents who barely managed to stay out of jail and two little brothers who narrowly avoided foster care, I became skilled at dodging the punches life threw at me. Growing up, I didn’t have anything I could call my own, but from the moment I met Eliza Reynolds, she was always mine. I became utterly addicted to her and the escape from reality we provided each other. Throughout the years, she had boyfriends and I had girlfriends, but there wasn't a single night that I didn’t hear her voice.

You see, meeting the love of my life at age thirteen was never part of my plan. However, neither was gradually going deaf at the age of twenty-one.

They both happened anyway.

Now, I'm on the ropes during the toughest battles of my life. Fighting for my career. Fighting the impending silence. Fighting for her.

Every night, just before falling asleep, she sighs as a final conscious breath leaves her.

I think that's the sound I'll miss the most.

Each book in this series can be read as a standalone.

Amazon US | Amazon UK

Review: Leo by Mia Sheridan

Title: Leo
Author: Mia Sheridan
Series: A Sign of Love Novel
Genre: contemporary romance, second chance, new adult

A USA Today bestselling book. Leo is a full-length, standalone romance.

Evie and Leo met in foster care as children and formed a bond of friendship. As they grew, their bond turned to love, and they vowed to make a life together when they turned 18 and were no longer a part of the system.

When Leo unexpectedly gets adopted as a teen and moves to another city, he promises Evie that he will contact her as soon as he gets there and come back for her in a few short years. She never hears from him again.

Now eight years later, in spite of the odds, Evie has made a life for herself. She has a job. She has friends. She's content. Then a man shows up out of the blue, claiming that her long lost love, Leo, sent him to check up on her. The attraction between them is undeniable. But, should she trust this sexy stranger? Or is he keeping a secret about what his connection to Leo is really all about and why Leo disappeared all those years ago?

THIS IS A STANDALONE SIGN OF LOVE NOVEL, INSPIRED BY LEO. New Adult Contemporary Romance: Due to strong language and sexual content, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18.

Amazon US | Amazon UK

ARC Review: That Thing Between Eli & Gwen by J.J. McAvoy

Title: That Thing Between Eli & Gwen
Author: J.J. McAvoy
Series: none
Genre: contemporary romance, new adult
Release Date: April 21st, 2016

When Eli's bride runs off with Gwen's fiancé on his wedding day...

Amazon US | Amazon UK

Review: Kulti by Mariana Zapata

Title: Kulti
Author: Mariana Zapata
Series: none
Genre: new adult, sports

“Trust me, I’ve wanted to punch you in the face a time or five.”

When the man you worshipped as a kid becomes your coach, it’s supposed to be the greatest thing in the world. Keywords: supposed to.

It didn’t take a week for twenty-seven-year-old Sal Casillas to wonder what she’d seen in the international soccer icon—why she’d ever had his posters on her wall, or ever envisioned marrying him and having super-playing soccer babies.

Sal had long ago gotten over the worst non-break-up in the history of imaginary relationships with a man that hadn’t known she’d existed. So she isn’t prepared for this version of Reiner Kulti who shows up to her team’s season: a quiet, reclusive, shadow of the explosive, passionate man he’d once been.

Nothing could have prepared her for the man she got to know.

Or the murderous urges he brought out in her.

“Sal, please don’t make me visit you in jail. Orange isn’t your color.”

This was going to be the longest season of her life.

Amazon US | Amazon UK

TBT #16 - Review: Flat Out Love by Jessica Park

 Making its way to this weeks #TBT is FLAT OUT LOVE by Author Jessica Park, It was smart, romantic, sweet, sad, angsty and extremely FUNNY.

Title: Flat Out Love
Author: Jessica Park
Series: Flat Out Love #1
Genre: romance, young adult

Flat-Out Love is a warm and witty novel of family love and dysfunction, deep heartache and raw vulnerability, with a bit of mystery and one whopping, knock-you-to-your-knees romance.

It's not what you know—or when you see—that matters. It's about a journey.

Something is seriously off in the Watkins home. And Julie Seagle, college freshman, small-town Ohio transplant, and the newest resident of this Boston house, is determined to get to the bottom of it. When Julie's off-campus housing falls through, her mother's old college roommate, Erin Watkins, invites her to move in. The parents, Erin and Roger, are welcoming, but emotionally distant and academically driven to eccentric extremes. The middle child, Matt, is an MIT tech geek with a sweet side... and the social skills of a spool of USB cable. The youngest, Celeste, is a frighteningly bright but freakishly fastidious 13-year-old who hauls around a life-sized cardboard cutout of her oldest brother almost everywhere she goes.

And there's that oldest brother, Finn: funny, gorgeous, smart, sensitive, almost emotionally available. Geographically? Definitely unavailable. That's because Finn is traveling the world and surfacing only for random Facebook chats, e-mails, and status updates. Before long, through late-night exchanges of disembodied text, he begins to stir something tender and silly and maybe even a little bit sexy in Julie's suddenly lonesome soul.

To Julie, the emotionally scrambled members of the Watkins family add up to something that ... well... doesn't quite add up. Not until she forces a buried secret to the surface, eliciting a dramatic confrontation that threatens to tear the fragile Watkins family apart, does she get her answer.

Flat-Out Love comes complete with emails, Facebook status updates, and instant messages.

Amazon US | Amazon UK

TBT #12 - Review: The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski

Featuring on this weeks #ThrowbackThrusday, a new adult series which celebrates love and life, yes! I'm talking about J.A. Redmerski's emotional yet inspiring "The Edge of Never" series.

Title: The Edge of Never
Author: J.A. Redmerski
Series: The Edge of Never #1
Genre: Contemporary romance, new adult

Twenty-year-old Camryn Bennett had always been one to think out-of-the-box, who knew she wanted something more in life than following the same repetitive patterns and growing old with the same repetitive life story. And she thought that her life was going in the right direction until everything fell apart.

Determined not to dwell on the negative and push forward, Camryn is set to move in with her best friend and plans to start a new job. But after an unexpected night at the hottest club in downtown North Carolina, she makes the ultimate decision to leave the only life she's ever known, far behind.

With a purse, a cell phone and a small bag with a few necessities, Camryn, with absolutely no direction or purpose boards a Greyhound bus alone and sets out to find herself. What she finds is a guy named Andrew Parrish, someone not so very different from her and who harbors his own dark secrets. But Camryn swore never to let down her walls again. And she vowed never to fall in love.

But with Andrew, Camryn finds herself doing a lot of things she never thought she'd do. He shows her what it's really like to live out-of-the-box and to give in to her deepest, darkest desires. On their sporadic road-trip he becomes the center of her exciting and daring new life, pulling love and lust and emotion out of her in ways she never imagined possible. But will Andrew's dark secret push them inseparably together, or tear them completely apart?

Amazon US | Amazon UK

ARC Review: Not The One by Amy Daws

Title: Not The One
Author: Amy Daws
Series: London Lovers #4
Genre: contemporary romance, new adult

My name is Reyna Miracle. Even though a part of my name is Miracle, there’s nothing miraculous about me. My body portrays the tales of my life. Every feeling, every heartbreak, every emotion. Marked. Inked. Stained. A walking canvas of my messed up truth. But there’s one confession I can’t put in a tattoo. A confession that will kill me to tell, but my best friend died before I had the chance. Now I’m left with him. The only one who can hold me in the night and squeeze that spot on my neck that feels like my lifeline between sanity and chaos. But we don’t work together. We’re absolute poison for each other. We’re a stifling, suffocating, sickness of darkness. But I feel safe...because I’ve made an art of pushing people away. Now he’s pushing back… And making me believe... Making me wonder... Maybe, just maybe... I could be the one.

Amazon US | Amazon UK

TBT#10 - Review: The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

Featuring on this week's ‪#‎ThrowbackThrusday‬, Katja Millay's The Sea of Tranquility. One of my Epic reads, equally gut wrenching and emotionally soothing. A story of lost souls, friendship and love.

Title: The Sea of Tranquility
Author: Katja Millay
Series: none
Genre: young adult, contemporary romance

I live in a world without magic or miracles. A place where there are no clairvoyants or shapeshifters, no angels or superhuman boys to save you. A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck. I am pressed so hard against the earth by the weight of reality that some days I wonder how I am still able to lift my feet to walk.

Former piano prodigy Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone learning about her past and to make the boy who took everything from her—her identity, her spirit, her will to live—pay.

Josh Bennett’s story is no secret: every person he loves has been taken from his life until, at seventeen years old, there is no one left. Now all he wants is be left alone and people allow it because when your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.

Everyone except Nastya, the mysterious new girl at school who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. But the more he gets to know her, the more of an enigma she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he will ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding—or if he even wants to.

The Sea of Tranquility is a rich, intense, and brilliantly imagined story about a lonely boy, an emotionally fragile girl, and the miracle of second chances.

Amazon US | Amazon UK

TBT#9 - Review: My Skylar by Penelope Ward

Featuring on this weeks ‪#‎ThrowbackThrusday‬ is My Skylar by Penelope Ward. This was one of those books I thought I needed a therapy to get over it! This was most ANGST and POWERFUL LOVE STORY I have read in a long time, making my heart cry in that process. 'Loving someone too much causes insufferable pain’ should have been the tag line for this book that’s how it was for Mitch and Skylar-Best friends, confidant, strong lovers, centre of their universe and mostly soulmates but they still saw their relationship falling apart.

Title: My Skylar
Author: Penelope Ward
Series: none
Genre: young adult, new adult, contemporary romance

From the author of the #1 bestselling romance, Jake Undone, comes a friends-to-lovers story of longing, passion, betrayal and redemption…with a twist that will rip your heart out.

Skylar was my best friend, but I secretly pined for her. One thing after another kept us apart, and I’ve spent the last decade in fear of losing her forever.

First, it was the cancer, but she survived only to face the unthinkable at my hands. Because of me, she left town. For years, I thought I’d never see her again.

But now she’s back…and living with him.

I don’t deserve her after everything I’ve put her through, but I can’t live without her. This is my last chance because she’s about to make the biggest mistake of her life. I can see it her eyes: she doesn’t love him. She still loves me...which is why I have to stop her before it’s too late.

My Skylar is a STANDALONE story of 99,000 words and a companion to the novel, Jake Undone. It does NOT need to be read in conjunction with any other book.

Amazon US | Amazon UK

Review: Before Jamaica Lane (On Dublin Street #3) by Samantha Young

Title: Before Jamaice Lane
Author: Samantha Young
Series: On Dublin Street #3
Genre: contemporary romance, new adult

One simple lesson in seduction between two friends can turn into so much more…

Despite her outgoing demeanor, Olivia is painfully insecure around the opposite sex—usually, she can’t get up the nerve to approach guys she’s interested in. But moving to Edinburgh has given her a new start, and, after she develops a crush on a sexy postgrad, she decides it’s time to push past her fears and go after what she wants.

Nate Sawyer is a gorgeous player who never commits, but to his close friends, he’s as loyal as they come. So when Olivia turns to him with her relationship woes, he offers to instruct her in the art of flirting and to help her become more sexually confident.

The friendly education in seduction soon grows into an intense and hot romance. But then Nate’s past and commitment issues rear their ugly heads, and Olivia is left broken-hearted. When Nate realizes he’s made the biggest mistake of his life, he will have to work harder than he ever has before to entice his best friend into falling back in love with him—or he may lose her forever…

Amazon US | Amazon UK

TBT#5 - Review: Come to Me Softly by A.L. Jackson

On this week of #ThrowbackThrusday I bring to you an emotional story of broken man (Jared Holt) consumed by an enormous guilt for ruining his family and his journey towards forgiving himself, accepting and moving on all because of an beautiful angel (Aleena Moore) in his life, who loved him ever since they were kids.

Title: Come to Me Softly
Author: A.L. Jackson
Series:Closer to you #2
Genre: new adult, contemporary romace

From the New York Times bestselling author of Come to Me Quietly comes a scorching new adult romance in the Closer to You series.

A second chance at life...
A second chance at love...

Jared Holt never thought he deserved either—until he found both in the arms of Aly Moore. Aly has loved Jared for as long as she can remember, and she’s more than ready for the future they’re making together. But Jared can’t help remembering his own family. And he’ll never forgive himself for what happened to them. How can he allow himself the very happiness he once destroyed?

To live a life worthy of Aly, Jared knows he has to stop running and finally put his past to rest. But when he decides to face his demons head on, he encounters more than he bargained for: a dangerous mix of jealousy, lies, and dishonest intentions. When those intentions threaten Aly, Jared loses all control, giving into the rage that earned him his bad boy reputation years before. And he’ll fight to protect her no matter what it costs…even if he destroys himself in the process

Amazon US | Amazon UK

TBT#2 - Review: Walking Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Hey everyone, Sandy here!! Finally #Throwback Thursdays here.... Whoohoo!! (In case you've forgotten or if you are new to our blog-this is the day I post my old reviews!!) So this week it's going to be Beautiful series. Doesn't ring any bell? wait for it...."Shake in your boots,boys,and drop your panties,ladies! I give you : Travis 'Mad Dog' Maddox!" Remember Travis and his insanely obsessive love for his Pigeon aka Abby????

Title: Walking Disaster
Author: Jamie McGuire
Series: Beautiful #2
Genre: new adult, College

Can you love someone too much?

Travis Maddox learned two things from his mother before she died: Love hard. Fight harder.

In Walking Disaster; the life of Travis is full of fast women, underground gambling, and violence. But just when he thinks he is invincible, Abby Abernathy brings him to his knees.

Every story has two sides. In Beautiful Disaster, Abby had her say. Now it’s time to see the story through Travis’s eyes.

Amazon US | Amazon UK

TBT#2 - Review: Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Hey everyone, Sandy here!! Finally #Throwback Thursdays here.... Whoohoo!! (In case you've forgotten or if you are new to our blog-this is the day I post my old reviews!!) So this week it's going to be Beautiful series. Doesn't ring any bell? wait for it...."Shake in your boots,boys,and drop your panties,ladies! I give you : Travis 'Mad Dog' Maddox!" Remember Travis and his insanely obsessive love for his Pigeon aka Abby????

Title: Beautiful Disaster
Author: Jamie McGuire
Series: Beautiful #1
Genre: new adult, college

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University's Walking One-Night Stand.

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs—and wants—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

Amazon US | Amazon UK

Review: Friends Without Benefits (Knitting in the City #2) by Penny Reid

Title: Friends Without Benefits
Author: Penny Reid
Series: Knitting in the City #2
Genre: new adult, contemporary romance, chick-flick

Friends Without Benefits can be read as a standalone, is a full length 120k word novel, and is book#2 in the Knitting in the City Series.

There are three things you need to know about Elizabeth Finney: 1) She suffers from severe sarcastic syndrome, especially when she's unnerved, 2) No one unnerves her like Nico Manganiello, and 3) She knows how to knit.

Elizabeth Finney is almost always right about everything: the musical merits of boy bands are undervalued by society, “benefits” with human Ken dolls are better without friendship, and the sun has set on her once-in-a-lifetime chance for true love. But when Elizabeth’s plans for benefits without friendship are disarmed by the irritatingly charismatic and chauvinistic Nico Manganiello- her former nemesis- she finds herself struggling to maintain the electric fence around her heart while avoiding electrocution or, worse, falling in love.

Amazon US | Amazon UK

Blog Tour {ARC Review + Giveaway}: Irresistibly Yours by Lauren Layne

Title: Irresistibly Yours
Author: Lauren Layne
Series: Oxford #1
Genre: contemporary romance, humor, chick-lit

Meet the men of Oxford magazine! In the first captivating spin-off of Lauren Layne’s Sex, Love & Stiletto series, a not-so-friendly battle of the sexes turns into a scorching office romance.

Hotshot sports editor Cole Sharpe has been freelancing for Oxford for years, so when he hears about a staff position opening up, he figures he’s got the inside track. Then his boss drops a bombshell: Cole has competition. Female competition, in the form of a fresh-faced tomboy who can hang with the dudes—and write circles around them, too. Cole usually likes his women flirty and curvy, but he takes a special interest in his skinny, sassy rival, if only to keep an eye on her. And soon, he can’t take his eyes off her.

Penelope Pope knows all too well that she comes off as just one of the guys. Since she’s learned that wanting more usually leads to disappointment, Penelope’s resigned to sitting on the sidelines when it comes to love. So why does Cole make her want to get back in the game? The man is as arrogant as he is handsome. He probably sees her as nothing more than a barrier to his dream job. But when an unexpected kiss turns into a night of irresistible passion, Penelope has to figure out whether they’re just fooling around—or starting something real.

Amazon | B & N | iTunes | Kobo

Review: Fighting Silence by Aly Martinez

Title: Fighting Silence
Author: Aly Martinez
Series: On the Ropes #1
Genre: contemporary romance, new adult, sports

Sound is an abstract concept for most people. We spend our lives blocking out the static in order to focus on what we believe is important. But what if, when the clarity fades into silence, it's the obscure background noise that you would give anything to hold on to?

I've always been a fighter. With parents who barely managed to stay out of jail and two little brothers who narrowly avoided foster care, I became skilled at dodging the punches life threw at me. Growing up, I didn’t have anything I could call my own, but from the moment I met Eliza Reynolds, she was always mine. I became utterly addicted to her and the escape from reality we provided each other. Throughout the years, she had boyfriends and I had girlfriends, but there wasn't a single night that I didn’t hear her voice.

You see, meeting the love of my life at age thirteen was never part of my plan. However, neither was gradually going deaf at the age of twenty-one.

They both happened anyway.

Now, I'm on the ropes during the toughest battles of my life.
Fighting for my career.
Fighting the impending silence.
Fighting for her.

Every night, just before falling asleep, she sighs as a final conscious breath leaves her.

I think that's the sound I'll miss the most.

Each book in this series can be read as a standalone.

Amazon US | Amazon UK