Author Archives: Kristin

Review: The Handsome Girl and Her Beautiful Boy by B.T. Gottfred

7 December, 2018 12:05 am , 4 Comments ,

The Handsome Girl & Her Beautiful Boy
by B.T. Gottfred
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
Publication date: May 8, 2018
Genre: Young Adult
Rating:

Everyone assumes that Zee is a lesbian. Her classmates, her gym buddies, even her so-called best friend. So many people think that Zee likes girls, even Zee is starting to wonder. Could they be onto something?

Everyone assumes that Art is gay. They take one look at his nice clothes and his pretty face and think: well, obviously.

But there’s more to Zee and Art than anyone realizes. When Art first meets Zee, he knows he’s found someone special–someone magical. Zee may not be able to see that magic in herself, but Art is bound and determined to show it to her.

What develops is a powerful connection between two people who are beautiful in all the ways they’ve been told are strange. As they explore their own complexities in gender, sexuality, and identity, they fall for the complexities they find in each other. With his trademark frankness, B.T. Gottfred delves inside both characters’ heads in this story about love and living authentically.

 

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Posted in: YA Contemporary , Tagged:

Review: My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren

3 December, 2018 12:12 am , 9 Comments ,

My Favorite Half-Night Stand
by Christina Lauren
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication date: Dec. 4, 2018
Genre: Romance
Rating:

Millie Morris has always been one of the guys. A UC Santa Barbara professor, she’s a female-serial-killer expert who’s quick with a deflection joke and terrible at getting personal. And she, just like her four best guy friends and fellow professors, is perma-single.

So when a routine university function turns into a black tie gala, Mille and her circle make a pact that they’ll join an online dating service to find plus-ones for the event. There’s only one hitch: after making the pact, Millie and one of the guys, Reid Campbell, secretly spend the sexiest half-night of their lives together, but mutually decide the friendship would be better off strictly platonic.

But online dating isn’t for the faint of heart. While the guys are inundated with quality matches and potential dates, Millie’s first profile attempt garners nothing but dick pics and creepers. Enter “Catherine”—Millie’s fictional profile persona, in whose make-believe shoes she can be more vulnerable than she’s ever been in person. Soon “Catherine” and Reid strike up a digital pen-pal-ship…but Millie can’t resist temptation in real life, either. Soon, Millie will have to face her worst fear—intimacy—or risk losing her best friend, forever.

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Posted in: Romance , Tagged: ,

Review: Fury by Rachel Vincent

30 November, 2018 12:07 am , 2 Comments ,

Fury
(Menagerie #3)
by Rachel Vincent
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Publication date: Oct. 30, 2018
Genre: Fantasy
Rating:

1986: Rebecca Essig leaves a slumber party early but comes home to a massacre—committed by her own parents. Only one of her siblings has survived. But as the tragic event unfolds, she begins to realize that other than a small army of six-year-olds, she is among very few survivors of a nationwide slaughter.

The Reaping has begun.

Present day: Pregnant and on the run with a small band of compatriots, Delilah Marlow is determined to bring her baby into the world safely and secretly. But she isn’t used to sitting back while others suffer, and she’s desperate to reunite Zyanya, the cheetah shifter, with her brother and children. To find a way for Lenore the siren to see her husband. To find Rommily’s missing Oracle sisters. To unify this adopted family of fellow cryptids she came to love and rely on in captivity.

But Delilah is about to discover that her role in the human versus cryptid war is destined to be much larger—and more dangerous—than she ever could have imagined.

 

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Posted in: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy , Tagged: ,

Sneak Peek Wednesday: Scythe by Christina Bauer (GIVEAWAY)

28 November, 2018 12:10 am , 3 Comments ,

Scythe
by Christina Bauer
(Dimension Drift Worlds, #1)
Publisher: Monster House Books LLC
Publication date: April 24 2018
Genres: Dystopian, Fantasy, Young Adult

Truth time. I go to a Learning Squirrel High School. Don’t judge.

On second thought, judge away. Learning Squirrel is one step above attending class in a junkyard. But what do you expect? Everything’s made out of garbage these days. At least, I have my freelance work to keep Mom and me housed, clothed, and fed. How? I’m your regular high school science geek for hire, except my work manipulates space-time. The good news is that these gigs pay really well; the bad news is that the government likes to kill people like me. Whatever. I’m not worried; hiding from their detection systems is easy for me.

Then I screw up one of my illegal projects. Badly.

In fact, things go so sideways that my house slips into two-dimensional space-time. The shift only lasts for a few seconds, but that’s long enough to set off a dozen government alarms. If those goons track me down, Mom and I are as good as dead. Long story short, I need to pay someone off, hide the evidence, and keep us safe.

Unfortunately, that means asking the Scythe for help. He runs the local underground crime scene and has absolutely no conscience…Or at least, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t. It’s hard to think straight when a guy’s that hot in an ‘evil Mafioso kingpin’ kind of way. Most importantly, the Scythe is a crime lord who can conceal my slip-up with a few clicks on his minion’s computer keyboards. But the man has his price. In this case, the Scythe wants me to finish a certain dimensional prototype for him in twenty-four hours. I can do it, but it might mean Learning Squirrel High gets blown up in the process. Oh yes, and there’s also my new hot classmate who may or may not be an alien…and he says he’ll do anything to help me.

This job won’t be easy, but I’ve gotten out of worse scrapes. Maybe.

 

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Posted in: Excerpt, YA Fantasy , Tagged:

Review: Adventures in Online Dating by Julie Particka

26 November, 2018 10:28 am , 5 Comments ,

Adventures in Online Dating
by Julie Particka
Publisher: Entangled: August
Publication date: Nov. 12, 2018
Genre: Romance
Rating:

For Alexa, the answer to everything comes down to numbers. Three sons. One divorce. One great life…except her boys are getting older and they really need a man in their lives. Enter the number twenty, as in after twenty minutes with someone she knows whether or not she wants them in her life. So, she hatches a plan to meet any man who even remotely strikes her interest—for a twenty-minute date at her favorite coffee shop. It’s the perfect plan to find her perfect match in the most efficient way possible.

Too bad coffee shop owner Marshall isn’t keen on the idea. He doesn’t want his shop to be her speed dating zone—especially since she’s made it clear he’s too young to be a contender. But Alexa finds herself drawn to Marshall in ways she can’t quantify. There’s no easy answer, and once the kids become involved, her well-ordered world threatens to fall apart—twenty minutes at a time.

 

 

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Posted in: Romance , Tagged: ,

Sneak Peek Wednesday: Perfect Odds by LaShanta Charles (Giveaway)

21 November, 2018 12:17 am , 5 Comments ,

Perfect Odds
by LaShanta Charles
Publisher: Imani Ink
Publication date: Nov. 6, 2018
Genre: Romance

Calista Brenner refuses to let go of her past. She had her entire life figured out…except, maybe that was only in her mind. Being stood up for her own wedding should be a clue. Regardless, she’s determined to fix this. She just needs a plan and if there’s one thing she’s good at, it’s planning. It doesn’t matter that she’s a whirlwind of clumsy chaos. All she has to do is stay away from the gorgeously irritating Jayce Cranston and her wedding-her life-will be back on track. That’s exactly what she wants. Right?

Jayce Cranston has somehow let himself be bamboozled. One minute he’s enjoying his quiet existence in his home in the outskirts of Buffalo, NY and the next he’s dealing with a beautiful alcoholic and her penchant for trouble. And with business manager out of the office, he has to actually . . . deal with people. Surprisingly, the little ball of clumsiness is making that task so much easier to handle.

Neither of them could have guessed that Calista’s past would decide it wants to be her future and will stop at nothing to make that a reality. Could she accept that maybe her carefully laid plans weren’t as careful as she thought? Will Jayce be able to show her that he’s worth a chance and, together, their oddities can be perfect?

 

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Posted in: Excerpt, Romance , Tagged:

Review: Spectacle by Rachel Vincent

19 November, 2018 7:49 am , 3 Comments ,

Spectacle
(Menagerie #2)
by Rachel Vincent
Publisher: Mira
Publication date: May 30, 2017
Genre: Fantasy
Rating:

When their coup of Metzger’s Menagerie is discovered, Delilah and her fellow cryptids find their newly won freedom brutally stripped away as they are sold into The Savage Spectacle, a private collection of “exotic wildlife.” Specializing in ruthless cryptid cage matches, safari-style creature hunts and living party favors, the Spectacle’s owner, Willem Vandekamp, caters to the forbidden fetishes of the wealthy and powerful. At the Spectacle, any wish can be granted—for the right price.

But Vandekamp’s closely guarded client list isn’t the only secret being kept at the Spectacle. Beneath the beauty and brutality of life in the collection lie much darker truths, and no one is more determined than Delilah to strip the masks from the human monsters and drag all dark things into the light.

 

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Posted in: Fantasy , Tagged: ,

Review: Pirate’s Passion by Lisa Kessler

16 November, 2018 12:45 am , 4 Comments ,

Pirate’s Passion
(Sentinels of Savannah #2)
by Lisa Kessler
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Publication date: Nov. 12, 2018
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Rating:

Samuel Keegan used to man the wheel of the Sea Dog over 200 years ago, but these days he’s the front man of a southern rock band. Rum and women are plentiful, but his world is changing rapidly now that his crew is back together searching for the Holy Grail to break their curse. But the quest leads him to a historian with raven hair and a wicked smile. She holds all the answers, but she could also spell death for them all.

Dr. Charlotte Sinclair works for the Maritime Museum in Savannah, an expert on ancient pirate wrecks. When a government agent requests her help in a top-secret investigation, she discovers not only is the Holy Grail real, but the lead singer of her favorite band is actually the immortal pilot of the Sea Dog crew.

The search for the Grail opens some dark secrets better left hidden, and Charlotte’s life might depend on one Pirate’s Passion…

 

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Posted in: Paranormal Romance , Tagged: ,

Review: Knocked-Up Cinderella by Julie Hammerle

12 November, 2018 10:23 am , 11 Comments ,

Knocked-Up Cinderella
by Julie Hammerle
Publisher: Entangled: August
Publication date: Nov. 12, 2018
Genre: Romance
Rating:

I’m a walking contradiction.
School principal who liberally drops the F bomb.
Fiercely independent yet willing to auction myself off for charity.
Serial monogamist who’s down for a no-strings one-night stand.

Except now I’ve gone from one-working-ovary to co-parent in the time it took a stick to turn blue.

F. Bomb.

Ian Donovan may be a richer-than-hell venture capitalist, but he’s no Prince Charming ready to sweep me off my feet. Good thing I don’t need him. I’ve been doing fine on my own for forty years, and I’m not about to start changing that now.

Ultrasounds, swollen feet, midnight cravings? Bring. It. On.

But why is it when you finally swear off men, you meet one who’s too sexy—and determined we can make it work?

F. Bomb.

 

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Posted in: Romance

Review: The Lying Woods by Ashley Elston

9 November, 2018 12:18 am , 4 Comments ,

The Lying Woods
by Ashley Elston
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Publication date: Nov. 13, 2018
Genre: Young Adult Mystery
Rating:

Owen Foster has never wanted for anything. Then his mother shows up at his elite New Orleans boarding school cradling a bombshell: his privileged life has been funded by stolen money. After using the family business, the single largest employer in his small Louisiana town, to embezzle millions and drain the employees’ retirement accounts, Owen’s father vanished without a trace, leaving Owen and his mother to deal with the fallout.

Owen returns to Lake Cane to finish his senior year, where people he can barely remember despise him for his father’s crimes. It’s bad enough dealing with muttered insults and glares, but when Owen and his mother receive increasingly frightening threats from someone out for revenge, he knows he must get to the bottom of what really happened at Louisiana Frac–and the cryptic note his father sent him at his boarding school days before disappearing.

Owen’s only refuge is the sprawling, isolated pecan orchard he works at after school, owned by a man named Gus who has his own secrets–and in some ways seems to know Owen better than he knows himself. As Owen uncovers a terrible injustice that looms over the same Preacher Woods he’s claimed as his own, he must face a shocking truth about his own past–and write a better future.

 

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Posted in: YA Suspense , Tagged: ,