Book Blitz Trailer and Giveaway: Carnelian by Kristin McMichael

Carnelian by B. Kristin McMichael 
(Chalcedony Chronicles #1) 
Publication date: January 10th 2014 
Genres: Time-Travel, Young Adult

Everyone has a past, but for most it isn’t so far in the past as Seth Sangre. His past is literally from thousands of years ago. Seth’s past led him to the present seeking something that might help him save his country from destruction. He has been in the present for over three years now and just found exactly what he has been looking for.

Mari had dreams of college being a fresh start, one where she would start over and not fall for the good looking player like high school. Unfortunately for her that’s exactly what ends up falling into her lap on the first day she moves into the dorms. Now she has to hold to her promise to herself and not fall for the handsome Seth. But he doesn’t plan to make it easy for her. Seth has already marked her as his next conquest. As the semester progresses, Mari learns that Seth might just have a past of his own that’s literally in the past. Suddenly Mari finds her future along with her past put into question. She’s connected to Seth far more than she ever wanted to be and maybe the player isn’t who she thought he was. If Mari can trust her heart enough to follow him, Seth will lead Mari on an adventure of a lifetime and reveal family secrets she never knew existed.

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AUTHOR BIO

Originally from Wisconsin, B. Kristin currently resides in Ohio with her husband, two small children, and three cats. When not doing the mom thing of chasing kids, baking cookies, and playing outside, she is using her PhD in biology as a scientist. In her free time she is currently hard at work on multiple novels. Every day is a new writing adventure. She is a fan of all YA/NA fantasy and science fiction.

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Month9Books 2014 Preview Trailer

Month9Books is proud to present a trailer for its 2014 list. This year's theme is Month9Books for everyone! From middle grade and young adult readers who love horror, paranormal, fantasy and whimsy, there's a Month9Books title for everyone in 2014. This video features 16 titles, 5 of which make their cover debut here. Visit www.month9books.com to learn more about our books and authors. 

Review: Bird With the Heart of a Mountain by Barbara Mariconda

Title: Bird With the Heart of a Mountain
Author: Barbara Mariconda
Source: Amazon Vine
Genre: Historical Fiction - Adult
Release Date: January 14, 2014
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

I throw back my tumble of black hair, roll one bare shoulder forward, then the other. The stack of bangles on each wrist shimmies and slides as my hands rise like birds in flight. Set during the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War, sixteen-year-old Drina yearns to dance Flamenco. When she dances, she forgets who she is. She forgets what seems to be her legacy: I am nothing. I belong nowhere. Why does her mother forbid her to dance, the very thing that makes her feel alive? She wonders about the secrets her mother holds, about the rumored life she had before Drina was born – a story that somehow still holds them both prisoner. From the wandering Gypsy campagne to the vineyard estate of a paternal grandmother she has never known and the dance halls of Seville where Flamenco reigns, Drina fights to discover who she is and where she belongs. Not quite Gypsy, not quite Spanish, she must carve out an identity all her own and discover what it means to be a bird with the heart of a mountain. Full of mystery, loss and longing, this powerful novel brilliantly captures a young girl’s yearning and her adventurous journey to discover her true home.

Spain has always had a rich and eventful past.  This book highlights a horrible part of their history during the Spanish Civil War.  But as it shows the bad, it also shows the color, light, and family that comes together.  Drina finds herself lost, unsure where her life is taking her.  She wants to dance - she needs to dance, but her mother has all but forbidden it. 

The story follows Drina as her life changes from gypsy girl to flamenco dancer, from orphan to part of a family, and from lost to finding herself.  The book is rich in character and description.  The war touches their lives in many ways, but this is not a story about the war.  It is a story about a family in Spain that happens to be living during the war.

I wish there had been  more to the story.  I wanted to see Drina's success, I wanted to see what happened next with her family, and if the war continued to follow their lives.  This was a book I didn't want to see end.

*I received this book in exchange for an honest review*

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Cover Reveal: Captivate Me by S.J. Pierce

Captivate Me by S.J. Pierce 
Publication date: April 1, 2014
Genres: Paranormal Romance, Young Adult
Designed by Brittany Bowman

“My mom had always told me – when you meet “the one”, you’ll know; they’ll captivate your heart the moment you lay eyes on them. I had always wondered, though, if my mom’s words of wisdom were finite – if they applied to everyone. Maybe those who had found their one great love were the lucky few, and maybe the rest of us would have to settle for less than earth-shattering.”

Seventeen-year-old Kat Walsh is a Gifted – a human with paranormal abilities. With her mom a former Angel and her dad a dream prophet, it’s always been in her genetic make-up to be extraordinary. Unfortunately for her, the world can’t handle the strange or unusual. So when she slips up and uses her powers at her high school in Ireland, the entire student body treats her like a freak – even the ones she thought were her closest friends.

Broken, but hopeful for a fresh start, she allows her parents to enroll her in a boarding school buried deep within the forests of a small Colorado town. At Midland Pines, School for the Gifted, she feels as though she can finally be herself; she makes new friends and even has the attention of the most popular guy in school – Levi. Everything feels normal again… or does it?

Not long after her arrival, weird dreams of an alluring boy whom she’s never met surface during the night, and the eerie, shadowy trees encircling their school seem to call to her. As these disturbing, yet enticing developments intensify, other bizarre occurrences happen – students and staff turn up missing, and mystery visitors leave gifts while she sleeps. With all of these other things vying for her attention, a desperate Levi has to fight even harder to keep her interest. But with the dreams of the attractive boy slowly captivating her heart, Kat has to make a choice – will she settle for ‘great’ Levi, or will she search for her elusive dream visitor, possibly stumbling across ‘amazing?’

From the author of the Alyx Rayer Chronicles, comes a refreshingly different Young Adult series with plenty of love, suspense, and a new take on the Paranormal.

Recommended for readers 16 and up due to mature content.

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AUTHOR BIO

Susan James Pierce has a degree in Marketing Management, works for a Fortune 500 company in Atlanta, Georgia, and devotes her precious, spare time to writing Fantasy and Sci-fi novels. 

Even though her full-time career has nothing to do with books at all, she has always enjoyed complex storytelling with fascinating characters, and has had a penchant for the written word since grade school. As a matter of fact, her first publishing credit was a poem she wrote at the age of twelve. Why her love for writing never translated into a career, she can only attribute to 'life happens', but her wish is that she can redirect her career path into something that satisfies her creative inner-self.

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Review: Advent by James Treadwell

Title: Advent (Advent Trilogy #1)
Author: James Treadwell
Source: FirstReads
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Release Date: February 2, 2012
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

"A drowning, a magician's curse, and a centuries-old secret. "1537. A man hurries through city streets in a gathering snowstorm, clutching a box in one hand. He is Johann Faust, the greatest magician of his age. The box he carries contains a mirror safeguarding a portion of his soul and a small ring containing all the magic in the world. Together, they comprise something unimaginably dangerous.

London, the present day. Fifteen-year-old Gavin Stokes is boarding a train to the countryside to live with his aunt. His school and his parents can't cope with him and the things he sees, things they tell him don't really exist. At Pendurra, Gavin finds people who are like him, who see things too. They all make the same strange claim: magic exists, it's leaking back into our world, and it's bringing something terrible with it.

First in an astonishingly imaginative fantasy trilogy, "Advent "describes how magic was lost to humanity, and how a fifteen-year-old boy discovers that its return is his inheritance. It begins in a world recognizably our own, and ends an extraordinarily long way from where it started--somewhere much bigger, stranger, and richer.

The story opens with the tale of a magician and how he captured and lost magic.  We revisit his story in segments (in reverse) throughout the story.  While he plays an important part in the tale, the story doesn't concentrate on this strange figure.  Instead we follow Gavin Stokes - a strange little boy that sees strange things.  One of theses strange things is a woman he names Mrs. Gray.  When Gavin is sent to stay with his aunt at an old, old estate called Pendurra while his parents are on vacation, this Mrs. Gray is the catalyst to a whole new life for Gavin.

There is a lot going on in this story and you really need to sit down and read it either all at once or in large chunks or you may miss some important connection.  Several different pantheons seem to collide when magic begins to stir again at Pendurra.  The descriptions of these creatures and people are fantastic.  The scenes really come to life and the world is incredibly well developed.  These are all things that I absolutely love in a fantasy or paranormal story.  As a character, Gavin is not necessarily likable at the beginning but as he learns to trust in the things only he can see he and embraces his destiny he becomes a great hero and lovable character.  Most of the characters are written in a way that they fit there roles perfectly, but I'm still not sure what Horace's place is going to be in the grand scheme of things.  He seems to play more of his role in book two perhaps.

The downside of this book is that it is written very well - almost too well and too much detail for most young adult readers.  I fear that many would give up on the story before it got the point that it really gets started.

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*

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Cover Reveal and Giveaway: Losing Enough by Helen Boswell

Losing Enough by Helen Boswell 
Publication date: March 2014
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance

When Alexis Lin heads to Sin City for the summer, she wants nothing more than to dive into the clubs, spas, and concerts – the benefits of her father’s high roller lifestyle. Most of all, she wants to forget about her ex-boyfriend and the fact that he won’t be waiting for her back home. On her first night in the city, Alexis gets into a bad scene but walks away from it with the help of Connor Vincent. Private security guard to the top gamblers, Connor puts all of his wits and charm into his relationships with the high rollers, but he’s the anti-Prince Charming when it comes to women.

Faced with a sudden tragedy and loss, Alexis is forced to turn to Connor one more time for help. But if Connor does what she wants, he risks losing everything he’s worked for. Together, they each have to figure out how much they’re willing to gamble and ultimately, how prepared they are to face the past.

Sometimes risking your heart is the biggest gamble of all.

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AUTHOR BIO

Helen Boswell loved to get lost in the pages of a story from the time she could sound out the words. Originally from upstate New York, Helen spent much of her early adult life tromping around in Buffalo, NYC, Toronto, and Las Vegas, those cities now serving as inspiration for the dark and gritty urban backdrops of her stories. An author of both urban fantasy and contemporary romance, she loves to read and write characters that come to life with their beauty, flaws, and all.

Helen dedicates her time to raising her family of two boys, teaching college students, and of course, writing.

Find out more about Helen at www.helenboswell.com.

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Cover Reveal: Of Sea and Stone by Kate Avery Ellison

Of Sea and Stone by Kate Avery Ellison 
Publication date: February 2014 
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Designed by the author

All her life, clever Aemi has been a slave in the Village of the Rocks, a place where the sea and sky meet. She’s heard the stories about the fabled People of the Sea, a people who possess unimaginable technology who live below the waves in the dark, secret places of the ocean. But she never dreamed those stories were true.

When a ship emerges from the ocean and men burn her village, Aemi is captured, and enslaved below the waves in Itlantis, a world filled with ancient cities of glass and metal, floating gardens, and wondrous devices that seem to work magic. To make matters worse, her village nemesis, the stuck-up mayor’s son Nol, was captured with her, and they are made servants in the same household beneath the sea.

Desperate to be free, Aemi plots her escape, even going so far as to work with Nol. But the sea holds more secrets than she realizes, and escape might not be as simple as leaving…

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AUTHOR BIO

I've been making up stories since I was five years old, and now I'm thrilled to be able to do it as a full-time job. I have an obsession with dark fantasy, dystopian futures, and Pride and Prejudice-style love stories full of witty banter and sizzling, unspoken feelings. When I'm not writing, I'm creating digital art, reading funny blogs, or watching my favorite shows (which include TVD and BSG). I live with my geeky husband and our two bad cats in Atlanta, GA.

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Book Blitz Excerpt and Giveaway: Secrets and Lies by Amity Hope

Secrets and Lies (Truths and Dares #2) by Amity Hope

Genre: YA Romance

Release date: January 19th, 2014

Publisher: Self published

Out of necessity, Seth grew up hiding behind secrets and lies. The weight of it all sometimes so heavy, he thought it would bury him. Until one night, everything comes crashing down in a way he never imagined.

Harper wanted nothing more than to pull Seth out of the darkness that surrounded his life. One huge mistake nearly cost Seth everything.

Somehow, they need to find their way out of the secrets and lies that continue to pile up around them. If they don’t, they’ll be lost to each other forever.

Author Bio:

Amity lives in beautiful northern Minnesota with her two sons, two cats and their Rottweiler. She has a degree in elementary education and workedunnamed in that field for ten years before deciding to self-publish. Her first self-published novel, Twisted, was listed by Amazon as a Top 100 Kids & Teens Kindle Book of 2012.

If she’s not writing, or spending time with her boys, she’s most likely reading.

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Excerpt:

“Do you remember once, when I told you if I had one wish, it would be that I was in control of my own life?”

I nodded because I remembered it well. We had just watched the Northern Lights. We had been talking about when we were younger, when we’d wished on stars. I’d asked him if he had one wish, what it would be. That was the answer that he’d given me: He wished he was in control of his own life.

“Yes,” I said quietly. “I remember.”

He pulled me closer, keeping one hand pressed against my back. His gaze drifted over my face, stopping on my lips as his other hand came up, brushing across my cheek this time.

“This,” he said quietly, “is me, taking control of my life.”

He moved in slowly, as if maybe he was afraid that too much time had passed. Or maybe his head was filled with all of the same questions as mine.  My eyes fluttered closed as I gripped his shoulders in my hands. He pressed a kiss to my forehead, then my temple, followed by a soft kiss directly over the small scar from childhood that rested on my cheekbone. His lips moved down, lingering at the corner of my mouth. His breath danced across my cheek. An impatient whimper floated out of me. I couldn’t bear to wait a single heartbeat longer. I tilted my head just a fraction of an inch, forcing his lips to graze against mine.

When he kissed me, it didn’t feel like a question. It felt like every answer I’d been waiting for.

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Review: Say Forever by Tara West

Title: Say Forever (Something More #3)
Author: Tara West
Source: Author Request
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Release Date: December 19, 2013
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

Christina
I love Andrés so much, more than anyone I’ve ever loved before, yet there are days when I don’t know if I want to scream, swear, or fall to pieces. We’re trying to plan a future together, but our families won’t leave us alone. What’s worse is I can see Andrés is not happy.

They say love trumps all hurdles, but some days I wonder will “our” love trump “our” hurdles? Then I look into Andrés’s sensual smile and passionate gaze and I fall in love all over again.

Andrés
When I told Christina I would love her forever, I meant every word. The nightmares are back, and I don’t know how to stop them, but I have to be strong for her. This pressure from my family and my job feels like a noose around my neck, but I will do whatever it takes to give Christina the life she deserves. She’s everything to me, and I won’t lose her.

Book One Review: Say When

Book Two Review: Say Yes

Say Forever wraps up the story of Christina and Andres in a fantastic way.  They have had quite a few ups and downs throughout the series, but this may be their biggest trial yet.  When pregnancy and wedding planning collide with two very opinionated families (with different opinions).  I still love both of these characters, but there were times they tried my patience in the book.  Throughout their ordeals they both learn to stand up for what they really want in life and look for what will make them happy.

All the characters from their lives play a role in causing their problems and helping to find a solution - some more than others.  While the book does end in a great happily every after, there is a fair share of tragendy along the way.  Just like like.  This is a great series and one I'm glad I read.

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Book Blitz Excerpt, Trailer and Giveaway: TAUT by J.A. Huss

TAUT: The Ford Book by JA Huss
(Rook and Ronin Spin-off)
Published: January 20 2014

Contemporary, Erotic Romance, New-ish Adult

TAUT IS A STANDALONE NOVEL - you do NOT have to read any of the Rook and Ronin books first.

Ford Aston is known for many things. Being an emotionless, messed up bastard, a freakishly smart social outcast, and a cold, domineering master who keeps "pets" instead of girlfriends.

And after Rook broke his heart, he plans to keep it that way.

Ashleigh is known for nothing, and that's exactly what she's got going for her. She's broke, stranded in the mountains with a three month old baby, and Ford Aston is screwing with her head.

Big. Time.

And she plans to mess with his right back.

It's a coy game at first, filled with flirting, and innuendo--but Ford soon realizes something is not quite right with Ashleigh. In fact, something is seriously, seriously wrong and the closer they get to their final destination, the closer Ford gets to the truth.

One night of devastation, self-loathing, and emptiness turns into the best thing that ever happened to Ford Aston. But one day of in-your-face reality threatens Ashleigh's whole existence.

******
Since A LOT of people have been asking here is the scoop on how this book fits in with my Rook & Ronin series: 

Ford first appears in Rook and Ronin #2, Manic. He has a bigger role in Panic, R&R #3, and then he has a novella, called SLACK. This TAUT book is only FORD. It's not really part of the R&R series, as that plot has all been sidelined for this one romance book.

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AUTHOR BIO

J. A. Huss likes to write new adult books that make you think and keep you guessing. Her favorite genre to read is space opera, but since practically no one reads those books, she writes new adult science fiction, paranormal romance, contemporary romance, urban fantasy, and books about Junco (who refuses to be saddled with a label).

She has an undergraduate degree in horses, (yes, really–Thank you, Colorado State University) and a master’s degree in forensic toxicology from the University of Florida. She used to have a job driving around Colorado doing pretty much nothing but shooting the breeze with farmers, but now she just writes, runs the New Adult Addiction and Clean Teen Reads Book Blogs, and runs an online science classroom for homeschoolers.

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Excerpt:

Luck. We are not on speaking terms, luck and I. Because my name is not Ronin Flynn. Luck loves him. Shit, if Ronin was in this predicament, he’d have broken down across from the Four Seasons, they’d tell him they only had the penthouse available, and he could have it for half price since it was sitting empty anyway. They’d send up complimentary fruit baskets and give him free spa passes to ease his worried brow.

I laugh. The sad thing is that it’s closer to the truth than I’d like to admit. Ronin is like… walking magic when it comes to life. Everything he wants, he gets. People love him immediately. They don’t scowl at him because he conjures up memories of almost blowing people up on the golf course or electrocuting boys in the skate park bathroom, or for being the town freak who read every book in the library, even the dictionary and the encyclopedias.

I have had my share of women, albeit on my own very strict no-touching terms. But Ronin has women throwing themselves at him everywhere he goes.

It’s… it’s infuriating. He’s literally a professional liar, for fuck’s sake, and all they see is sweet perfection. But when they look at me they see freak.

I’m a goddamned movie producer. I know famous people. I have a mountain home in Vail, a luxury condo in Denver, and a five-million-dollar monstrosity on Mulholland Drive in Bel Air. I take care of myself, I’m well educated, I’m not bad-looking. I’m sorta hot, actually. I know this,

I have no trouble finding sex when I want it.

And yet I get sluts. I swear. Sluts who don’t even blink when I tell them they can’t touch me.

And Ronin? He gets Rook.

She does not give one fancy fuck what Ronin’s part in our business is. Her exact words. Not one fancy fuck. She loves him, no matter what. Unconditionally. She rode a thousand miles on a motorcycle back to the place where the most horrific things happened to her, stole secret files, and almost got her legs burned off in a house fire to save his professionally lying ass.

And I get no-name pets who want me to bend them over a couch and smack their pussy to make them come.

It’s just… what the fuck? Why? It’s like I have a sign on my fucking head that says I like the weird ones.

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Cover Reveal: Losing Logan by Sherry D. Ficklin

Losing Logan by Sherry D. Ficklin
Publication Date: May 6, 2014
Genres: YA, Romance, Suspense, Paranormal

Normally finding a hot guy in her bedroom wouldn’t irritate Zoe so badly, but finding her childhood friend Logan there is a big problem. Mostly because he’s dead.
As the only person he can make contact with, he convinces Zoe to help him put together the pieces surrounding his mysterious death so he can move on. Thrust into his world of ultra popular rich kids, Zoe is out of her element and caught in the cross-hairs of Logan’s suspicious ex-girlfriend and the friends he left behind, each of whom had a reason to want him dead. The deeper they dig to find the truth, the closer Zoe gets to a killer who would do anything to protect his secrets. And that’s just the start of her problems because Zoe is falling for a dead guy.

About the Author:

Sherry D. Ficklin is a full time writer from Colorado where she lives with her husband, four kids, two dogs, and a fluctuating number of chickens and house guests. A former military brat, she loves to travel and meet new people. She can often be found browsing her local bookstore with a large white hot chocolate in one hand and a towering stack of books in the other. That is, unless she’s on deadline at which time she, like the Loch Ness monster, is only seen in blurry photographs.

She is the author of The Gods of Fate Trilogy now available from Dragonfly Publishing. Her previously self-published novel After Burn: Military Brats has been acquired by Harlequin and will be released in 2015 with a second book in that series to follow. Her newest YA steampunk novel, EXTRACTED: The Lost Imperials book 1, co-written with Tyler H. Jolley is now available everywhere books are sold and her newest YA novel, Losing Logan, is due for release in 2014 from Clean Teen Publishing.

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Book Blitz Excerpt and Giveaway: Cup of Life by Juliana Haygert

Cup of Life by Juliana Haygert 
(Everlast #2.5) 
Publication date: January 20, 2014
Genres: Fantasy, New Adult, Paranormal Romance

His existence would mean nothing without her.

**New Adult Fantasy Novella**
**Novella between book #2 and #3, told on Micah’s POV**

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AUTHOR BIO

While Juliana Haygert dreams of being Wonder Woman, Buffy, or a blood elf shadow priest, she settles for the less exciting—but equally gratifying—life of a wife, mother, and author. Thousands of miles away from her former home in Brazil, she now resides in Connecticut and spends her days writing about kick-ass heroines and the heroes who drive them crazy.

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Excerpt:

I finished the beer, considered going back to bed, but decided Zelen would keep snoring, and I could use another drink. I threw the empty bottle in the trash and opened the fridge.

I closed it when I heard mumbling.

I kept still, paying attention to it. The mumbling sounded louder this time, and I followed it. I ended up facing the first bedroom’s door. Nadine’s.

“No,” I heard her voice through the door. “Oh, God, please, no!”

Knowing exactly what was going on, I swung the door open and entered the bedroom.

“Nicole,” she whimpered, thrashing in her bed. “No, no!”

I closed the door behind me and rushed to her side. “Nadine,” I called her, touching her shoulder. “Wake up, Nadine.”

“Oh, God, Morgan.” Then she screamed.

I grabbed her upper arms and shook her, not too hard, but not too gentle either. “Nadine!”

Her scream died out and her eyes flew open.

“It was just a nightmare,” I said. Her lips quavered before she hid her face behind her hands. “It’s okay, darling, you’re safe.”

She shook her head. “But they aren’t,” she said, her voice breaking.

For a moment, I was undecided about what to do. Just pat her arm, tell her she was okay, and leave? That would be the right action. I had to keep my distance from her.

I groaned. Who was I kidding? I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and for once, I did it. I pulled back her comforter and slipped under it with her.

She peeked at me through her fingers, and I held back a chuckle.

I lay in her bed and opened my arms for her. “Come here.” Her hands slipped away from her face, and she stared at me with teary eyes. “I’ll take care of you. Come here.”

She scooted closer, turning her back to my chest and fitting her tight little ass on my hips.

I took a hard inhale. By the Everlast.

What the hell? This was paradise and I was going to enjoy it. I passed my arms around her waist, placed my head on the crook of her neck, and inhaled deeply again, savoring her sweet wild rose scent, and her perfect, warm body—clad in a skimpy tank top and shorts—pressed to mine.

She sniffed and I tried snapping out of it.

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Review: The Second Sign Series by Elizabeth Arroyo

Title: The Second Sign (The Second Sign #1)
Author: Elizabeth Arroyo
Source: Xpresso Book Tours
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Release Date: February 7, 2013
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

Bred to believe in the war between angels and demons, Gabby has come to the conclusion that love is responsible for war, jealousy, and all the other deadly sins she can think of. So when she’s exiled to the middle of nowhere for getting kicked out of her fifth school for fighting, she doesn't expect to meet Jake. Much less fall in love. But Jake is quickly drawn to the eerie beauty of her violet eyes while Gabby is unsettled by their undeniable connection.

When a demon guardian comes to collect her soul, she refuses to give it up. She’s not a demon. She can’t be. Her father and twin brother are angels. The demon gives Gabby twenty-four hours to decide her allegiance, and then starts killing her short list of friends, leaving a message behind: She is the Second Sign.

As Gabby and Jake begin to unravel the mystery behind the Second Sign, she learns Jake may be the key to saving her soul. But it means a sacrifice has to be made that will change their lives forever.

The Second Sign is an interesting story about demons and angels and what they are capable of.  Gabby isn't sure what she's supposed to be.  The second twin that wasn't supposed to live, she's a loner with a temper.  When her latest fight gets her banished to the lake house she meets Jake - and something unexpected happens - which leads to a lot more unexpected things happening. She finds she has a very important part to play in upcoming events, but she's not sure it's the part she wants.

All of the main characters in this book were so easy to fall in love with.  Gabby especially as she seems to be getting the short end of the stick over and over again.  You can't help but root for her to come out on top.  The world building for the angels and demons was great.  They came to life and had you wondering if they really were here all along and we just don't know it.  A very eventful story there was lots going on.  At the end it got to be a little too much and it was a little hard to follow all the resolutions and such as they came one after the other.  It was quite the climactic ending.

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*

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Title: The Second Shadow (The Second Sign #2)

Author: Elizabeth Arroyo

Source: Expresso Book Tours

Genre: Young Adult Paranormal

Release Date: September 5, 2013

Reviewed by: Jasmyn

Jake thought being demon meant a shredded humanity, stripped of all human emotion. Chaos and self-preservation dominates a demon’s instincts. But Jake feels every ounce of pain and despair around him. 

And it’s driving him deeper into Hell.

Gabby’s choice to save him last summer left a fissure in Hell’s gate that released a malevolent evil. When Jake’s given a mission by the demons to shadow a human girl who may know the whereabouts of an ethereal weapon, he doesn’t expect to see Gabby. But Fate has her own agenda.

When Jake and Gabby are thrown together on a camping trip with a group of delinquent teens, Jake begins to grapple with the haunting choices he made in the past. When the evil finds them, the group begins to battle for their lives, alliances are made, and truths revealed. 

As the evil begins to influence Jake, he questions his link to the demons, his purpose, and his love for Gabby. 

But the answers to those questions are only found in Hell. And it may cost him his soul.

Book two in The Second Sign series picks up shortly after book one's crazy ending.  There are so many reveals and resolutions that just cause more questions and problems to come up.  Gabby is trying to figure out what she has become and is sent to a new high school for troubled teens.  Of course, Jake turns up there as well.  With a whole new cast of characters, this one made it a little easier to keep them all straight, and not all of them need to be remembered.  

The group is sent on a camping trip that turns into a trip to hell with something stalking the campers.  Now I know this sounds like a bad horror flick - but it really isn't.  This is all about Jake and Gabby facing what they have become and trying to decide what they are going to do about it all.  (Although the bugs did seriously creep me out.)  Again we have a lot of information that is wrapped up very well, but somewhat fast at the end.  I had to read it a couple times to make sure I kept it all straight.  This is a fantastic series so far.

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*

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Cover Reveal: In Pursuit by Olivia Luck

In Pursuit by Olivia Luck 
Publication date: February 2014
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance

Designed by Cover It! Designs

Eddie Neff needs space. Not the type that country stars croon about, but physical distance from her emotionally distant father and the tatters of a broken relationship. So when the opportunity to relocate her life and interior design business arises, the answer comes easily.

Adjusting to life with Claire, her gregarious new roommate, is more than simply testing comfort limits. With just one meeting, Eddie finds herself unable to resist the draw of Harris Grant, Claire’s brooding and overprotective older brother.

Harris doesn’t fit her idea of a safe relationship. He pushes Eddie to face her deepest insecurities and fears of abandonment. And Harris holds on to his own painful loss, unable to overcome personal demons.

Eddie and Harris must learn to conquer their internal struggles. But as they navigate their new love, outside forces fight to drive them apart.

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