Posts Tagged: New Adult

Monday, May 27, 2013

Review + Giveaway: Bitter Angel by Megan Hand

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Review + Giveaway: Bitter Angel by Megan HandBitter Angel by Megan Hand
on April 1st 2013
Genres: Contemporary, NA, Thriller
Source: Megan Hand
Buy on Amazon
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Torn between two realities.
A choice that will mean life or death.
But she won’t know anything… until she wakes up.

College sophomore, Lila Spencer lived Friday night twice. She doesn’t know how or why, just that she did. As if she split in half and went in two different directions.

Out clubbing with her friends, Heather and Nilah, the girls rock it out and party hard. What begins as an innocent night will lead to a deadly fight for their lives, and Lila might be their only chance for survival.

In bed with her boyfriend, Jay, Lila is safe and warm as she drifts to sleep in the arms of the man she loves. Until she is sucked into a horrifying nightmare of her friends' deaths.

As the sunlight warms her face on Saturday morning, the two scenarios collide. But there can be only one outcome. Will she wake up in her warm bed with Jay by her side, devastated and grieving for her friends? Or was she there to save them?

The answer is just the beginning.

Bitter Angel was a very mixed bag for me. The first part would easily get a 4 stars; it was intriguing and exciting, it even had my heart pounding with pure adrenaline. Unfortunately the second part left a little too much to be desired, garnering only a 2 if rated separately.

Let’s start at the beginning: After Lila decides to go out with her two best friends at a club, she never thought things would turn into a life or death situation involving gang rapes and abduction. What’s peculiar though, is she also remembers what happens if she had stayed home with her boyfriend, and that scenario was equally terrible. Although obviously not “realistic”, I found this to be very interesting. The abduction was a terrifying situation; all too real and with tons of intensity. The other reality, staying home and leaving her friends to themselves, evened this out with a sweet romantic night, but with its own consequence in the end. The action does plummet after these initial sequences, though, when Lila wakes up for her redo and the story switches gears. Mostly this next part contains exhausting inner dialogue, a lot of fidgeting, and even an instance of garbage eating.

Yes. Garbage eating. *shakes head still in disbelief* So Lila is spying on this guy, right, hiding out in a back alley, when hunger hits. It has been SO long – like, 8 hours!! – since she last ate that she can not fathom going another minute in hunger, so she jumps into the dumpster and searches through trash bags until she finds Chinese food… and eats it!

I think my barf just barfed!

“It’s smelly, but what leftover Chinese isn’t? I decide it’s fresh enough.”

Eeeh yeah no shit it’s smelly! Even if it was only a day old (which I very much doubt seeing as even the buildings on this street are rotting), it was likely amongst used condoms and dirty diapers. No one normal would resort to this unless they were seriously starving to death and trapped. Not someone who ate lunch the very same day! On the plus side, it has brought on random giggling fits for the past 2 days whenever I’m reminded of it. Though I doubt this was the intended reaction. Even ignoring the hobo habits, Lila doesn’t have the most common sense in all of this ordeal, diminishing the tension of the story greatly. It’s hard to be scared for someone who puts themselves in their own messes. It comes to no surprise that I’m not this girl’s biggest fan, however I can’t say I disliked her either. She does prove her strength and determination more than once which redeems her faults a little. Like I said: a mixed bag!

The plot itself veers away from the expected traumatic side of this story line and instead focuses on bringing justice down on sickening evil. I was both intrigued and, I admit, a little disappointed by this – I do thrive on those traumatic psychological thrillers – but it was still a refreshing change of direction for a story that could easily have been another same ol’. I was horrified yet completely immersed when we learn of what these people have been doing on a regular basis. Most of the horror takes place at the beginning of this book, but we get a great climactic ending that brings back a little of the excitement I was hoping would keep throughout.

While I have obvious complaints about this novel, I can’t ignore the fact that I was holding my breath during the first part, drowning in Lila’s fear and truly feeling her heart breaking in guilt and grief. Megan clearly excels at writing suspense and I will be watching for more from her!

three-stars
3 Hot Espressos

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Review: Easy by Tammara Webber

Review: Easy by Tammara Webber

Posted by on 05/07/2013 • 30 Comments

An amazing story involving first loves and true loves, Easy by Tammara Webber is highly emotional as it involves the topic of rape and a dark past, but in the end it remains a very heartwarming love story.

In a story like this the characters–their development and likeable qualities–are the most important, and this is where Tammara excels. As much as Jacqueline is created with tons of layers and a personality you can’t help but adore, Lucas’ character, with his tattoos, his Harley, and an extremely kind soul, is not neglected with his development one bit. These two characters become real, breathing, living beings that are effortless in getting us to care for them. Even though the chemistry between them is a character in and of itself, with palpable electricity…

Review: Game. Set. Match. by Jennifer Iacopelli

Review: Game. Set. Match. by Jennifer Iacopelli

Posted by on 05/03/2013 • 34 Comments

It’s funny how I can not sit through any sports game and stay awake to save my life, but movies and books on the subject, I love! Game Set Match is the perfect example of why; ultimately about sports,  the story is really about the characters, the dynamics between players, romances that bloom (what’s better than 1 romance? 3 of them! ;), and feeling the excitement of the game by wanting these characters to win so much.

Not into Tennis? Honestly, don’t let that deter you at all for one second. No one can be as clueless as me when it comes to how that game is played, but never did I feel overwhelmed, confused, or bored by it at all. On the contrary, I found myself enjoying the tennis…

Review: If You Stay by Courtney Cole

Posted by on 04/29/2013 • 33 Comments

If You StayCourtney Cole Series: Beautifully Broken #1Genre: NA Contemporary Publication date: February 5th 2013by  Lakehouse Press

24-year old Pax Tate is an asshole.

Seriously.

He’s a tattooed, rock-hard bad-boy with a bad attitude to match. But he’s got his reasons.

His mother died when Pax was seven, leaving a hole in his heart filled with guilt although he doesn’t understand why. What he does know is that he and his dad are left alone and with more issues than they can count.

As Pax grew up, he tried to be the kid his father always wanted; the perfect golden boy, but it didn’t work. His dad couldn’t overcome his grief long enough to notice and Pax couldn’t keep up the impossible perfect façade….

Review: Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

Review: Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

Posted by on 04/23/2013 • 30 Comments

Wow where do I start? At the amazing characters? At the sky rocketing chemistry? At the scenes that are so powerfully emotional that you want to curl into a ball and cry for days? I have nothing but praise for this gem that Colleen has created. This book rocked my world, and then it broke it in two.

Before we get down and heavy into the depths, let’s talk about what started it all, and that is the characters. Sky is our protagonist and she could not have been a more enjoyable character for me. She does not have an ounce of superficiality on her body. This girl is honest, so honest that she blurts out the most random and embarrassing things because she doesn’t want to play games or…

Review: The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

Posted by on 01/28/2013 • 32 Comments

The Sea of Tranquility Katja Millay Genre: NA ContemporaryPublication date: November 13th 2012by Atria Books

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…

Review: Awaited by Lynn Rush

Posted by on 05/15/2012 • 19 Comments

AwaitedLynn RushSeries: Wasteland, #2Release date: May 1st, 2012by Crescent Moon Press

Goodreads / Purchase

The voice is a powerful thing…

Russell Leonard is a centuries-old Guardian who’s lost faith in his purpose. So when he’s charged with procuring the first female Guardian in over two centuries, he can only hope it’s the red-headed beauty who’s been haunting his dreams for months. And if it is, he intends to claim her as his. But when he finds his dream woman, Annabelle is mute and bears no Guardian’s Mark.

He soon realizes she’s been tainted by an ancient evil. Russell must somehow release the secrets trapped within this delicate soul to help her tap into the only weapon powerful enough to silence a millennia-old demon—her voice.

*A copy was provided by Lynn…