Review: Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

6 January, 2016 3:17 am , 3 Comments ,

23480844Firsts
By: Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Published: Jan. 5, 2016
Genre: YA
Rating:
PhotobucketPhotobucket

Goodreads

Seventeen-year-old Mercedes Ayres has an open-door policy when it comes to her bedroom, but only if the guy fulfills a specific criteria: he has to be a virgin. Mercedes lets the boys get their awkward, fumbling first times over with, and all she asks in return is that they give their girlfriends the perfect first time- the kind Mercedes never had herself.

Keeping what goes on in her bedroom a secret has been easy- so far. Her absentee mother isn’t home nearly enough to know about Mercedes’ extracurricular activities, and her uber-religious best friend, Angela, won’t even say the word “sex” until she gets married. But Mercedes doesn’t bank on Angela’s boyfriend finding out about her services and wanting a turn- or on Zach, who likes her for who she is instead of what she can do in bed.

When Mercedes’ perfect system falls apart, she has to find a way to salvage her reputation and figure out where her heart really belongs in the process. Funny, smart, and true-to-life, FIRSTS is a one-of-a-kind young adult novel about growing up.

 

Read More →

Posted in: YA Contemporary , Tagged: ,

Review: This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

4 January, 2016 3:15 am , 5 Comments ,

EndsThis is Where it Ends
By: Marieke Nijkamp
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Release Date: Jan. 5, 2016
Genre: YA
Rating:
PhotobucketPhotobucket

Goodreads

10:00 a.m.
The principal of Opportunity, Alabama’s high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.

10:02 a.m.
The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.

10:03
The auditorium doors won’t open.

10:05
Someone starts shooting.

Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student’s calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.

 

Read More →

Posted in: YA Contemporary , Tagged: ,

Sunday Wrap-Up #45

3 January, 2016 10:00 am , 7 Comments ,

Sunday Wrap-Up is all about sharing the books and book related items that I’ve picked up recently. I also recap what went on last week and let you in on what’s coming up. I link up my post to Sunday Post, and Stacking the Shelves.

 

This week on BSA:
This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp (Review)
Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn (Review)
The Rock by Monica McCarty (Review)

 

 

My bad on not doing a 2015 wrap-up post. I told you I wouldn’t be on much because of the holidays. However, what I didn’t expect was my father being admitted into the hospital the day after Christmas. Unfortunately, he’s still there and they aren’t sure what’s wrong. Every time they think they have it figured out, something happens and he ends up back in the ICU again. Needless to say, this past week has been stressful and reading has been the last thing on my mind.

Onto bookish related things. I didn’t reach my Goodreads goal for the year. Waah Waaaaah. I did get really close though. I set out to read 175 books and made it to 169 by the new year. I think what brought me down was all the holiday things I was doing, and probably the disappointing books I was reading. There were times where I was ready to throw in the towel and take a break from reading because I just wasn’t liking anything I read. I have yet to set a goal for next year. I’m thinking I will do a smaller number considering I was trying to crash read the last couple of weeks of the challenge. I just don’t want to put that kind of pressure on myself.

This year I’m still going to stick to reading more of my neglected books than ARCs. Obviously that doesn’t mean that I won’t be reading the latest upcoming books, but they just won’t be my main focus. I will also be hosting a lot of giveaways soon to help clear out my shelves of books that I’ve collected over the years. A lot of them are signed and brand new. I’ll be giving away books both on the blog,  Twitter, and Facebook. So, if you have accounts on those network sites keep an eye out for the giveaways. I figured I’d make it a little more interesting for those who follow me on the other channels. 😉

 

Read More →

Posted in: meme

Happy Holidays

24 December, 2015 8:43 am , 9 Comments ,

ramblings12

 

Oooweee. I don’t know about you guys but the holidays this year were insane for me and they aren’t even over. I feel like once I came home from my uncle’s wedding at the beginning of November, I hit the ground running at an insane pace and I haven’t stopped since. I mean, there was Thanksgiving where I had to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for two different days (one for the Mister’s work and one for us), and then bake pies for a Friendsgiving we were going to. Right after Thanksgiving was over I had to get my head on straight for gift-giving for Christmas because I had the fun idea to make homemade gifts for everyone this year.

P1050432

At least my fingerprints look like frost, right?

Yeah… let’s just say that it was a lot easier looking at the photos on Pinterest than it was actually making them. There may or may not have been a moment where I superglued my hand to a wine glass while trying to turn it into a snow globe. >.<

However, given my hair-pulling tenancies over the last few weeks, I still stand behind giving homemade gifts. I think they are just cooler and mean more to the people involved. Which means I will probably be doing this again next year. 😛

 

Anyways, my bad for not being on much this week. I had a friend visiting from out of town for a couple of days and there was a lot of catching up going on and not a whole heck of a lot of reading/blogging happening. I promise to be back up and running at full force once the holidays are over.  I will still be around but I just may not be posting as often as I normally do.

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and a happy and safe new year!

kRISTIN

Posted in: Ramblings

Review: Blood Kiss by J.R. Ward

22 December, 2015 11:57 am , 4 Comments ,

bloodkissBlood Kiss
(Black Dagger Legacy, #1)
By: J.R. Ward
Publisher: Signet
Published: Dec. 1, 2015
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Rating:
PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucket

Goodreads

Paradise, blooded daughter of the king’s First Advisor, is ready to break free from the restrictive life of an aristocratic female. Her strategy? Join the Black Dagger Brotherhood’s training center program and learn to fight for herself, think for herself…be herself. It’s a good plan, until everything goes wrong. The schooling is unfathomably difficult, the other recruits feel more like enemies than allies, and it’s very clear that the Brother in charge, Butch O’Neal, a.k.a. the Dhestroyer, is having serious problems in his own life.

And that’s before she falls in love with a fellow classmate. Craeg, a common civilian, is nothing her father would ever want for her, but everything she could ask for in a male. As an act of violence threatens to tear apart the entire program, and the erotic pull between them grows irresistible, Paradise is tested in ways she never anticipated—and left wondering whether she’s strong enough to claim her own power…on the field, and off.

 

Read More →

Posted in: Paranormal Romance , Tagged: ,

Review: Never Never by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher

18 December, 2015 3:41 am , 10 Comments ,

neverNever Never
(Never Never, #1)
By: Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher
Publisher: Self-published
Published: Jan. 7, 2015
Genre: YA Romance
Rating:
PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucket

Goodreads

Best friends since they could walk. In love since the age of fourteen.

Complete strangers since this morning.

He’ll do anything to remember. She’ll do anything to forget.

 

Read More →

Posted in: YA Romance , Tagged: ,

Review: First Drop of Crimson by Jeaniene Frost

16 December, 2015 3:50 am , 4 Comments ,

FDoCFirst Drop of Crimson
(Night Huntress World #1)
By: Jeaniene Frost
Publisher: Avon
Published: Feb. 9, 2010
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Rating:

Goodreads

The night is not safe for mortals.

Denise MacGregor knows all too well what lurks in the shadows – her best friend is half-vampire Cat Crawfield – and she has already lost more than the average human could bear. But her family’s dark past is wrapped in secrets and shrouded in darkness – and a demon shapeshifter has marked Denise as prey. Now her survival depends on an immortal who craves a taste of her.

He is Spade, a powerful, mysterious vampire who has walked the earth for centuries and is now duty-bound to protect this endangered, alluring human – even if it means destroying his own kind. Denise may arouse his deepest hungers, but Spade knows he must fight his urge to have her as they face the demon nightmare together…

Because once the first drop of crimson falls, they will both be lost.

 

Read More →

Posted in: Paranormal Romance , Tagged: ,

Review: More than Once by Elizabeth Briggs

14 December, 2015 3:42 am , 8 Comments ,

MTOMore Than Once
(Chasing the Dream, #4)
By: Elizabeth Briggs
Publisher: Self-Published
Published: Dec. 1, 2015
Genre: New Adult Romance
Rating:
PhotobucketPhotobucket

Goodreads

She’s trying to be good. He loves it when she’s bad.

Andrew West is done being the nice guy. After a marriage proposal gone wrong, he’s started over in a new city and he’s never risking his heart again.

Becca Collins is done being the bad girl. After quitting the band she played bass for, she’s going to prove to her family that she’s really changed.

When Becca’s dumped by her boyfriend and fired from her job on Christmas Eve, all seems lost, until she runs into a former one night stand—Andrew. To impress her parents, Becca convinces him to pretend to be her perfect boyfriend for their holiday dinner.

After Andrew shows Becca he’s all bad boy in the bedroom, neither wants to pretend anymore. But when Becca’s invited to rejoin her band for a show and Andrew’s forced to face his ex, they both wonder if they’re ready to take a leap again—or if they’re doomed to fail in life and love a second time.

 

Read More →

Posted in: NA Romance , Tagged:

Review: Make Me Stay by Jaci Burton

11 December, 2015 8:59 am , 10 Comments ,

makemestayMake Me Stay
(Hope, #5)
By: Jaci Burton
Publisher: Berkley
Published: Dec. 1, 2015
Genre: Romance
Rating:
PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucket

Goodreads

Reid McCormack is back in Hope to renovate the old mercantile. Then he plans to go back to Boston, where he’s built a successful career. But beautiful florist Samantha Reasor is a distraction Reid hadn’t counted on. Samantha intends to convince Reid that Hope is where his heart has always been, and coming home might be the best choice he could ever make.

 

 

Read More →

Posted in: Romance , Tagged: ,

Review: Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

9 December, 2015 3:30 am , 9 Comments ,

QoSQueen of Shadows
(Throne of Glass, #4)
By: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: Sept. 1, 2015
Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating:
PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucket

Goodreads

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she’s at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past…

She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight.

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen’s triumphant return.

 

Read More →

Posted in: YA Fantasy , Tagged: ,