Room on the Shelf

Unbound, the first book in The Guardian Legacies series by Emily Goodwin is the introduction to teenage medium Anora Benson. Though she’s always known she is a medium, Anora soon discovers a whole world of beings she never knew existed and powers she didn’t know she had.  Read on for my review! I was torn on the rating for this one. On the one hand, it had beautiful cover art and an amazing story concept. I even found it hard to put down for about the first quarter of the book. But then, as much as I wanted to credit the positive qualities of the story, a few negative aspects began to weigh me down. From the start, I was frustrated that I couldn’t get a good feel for what this book wanted to be, and honestly, I began to suspect that the author wasn’t quite sure either. At times, the innocence of characters and blatantly sophomoric dialogue (like when Ethan asks Anora, “Do you want to be my girlfriend?”) spoke for this book as an innocent YA Paranormal love story.  However, the open discussion of sex, drugs, and alcohol, and the fact that, by the end of the story, Ethan and…

Hanover House by Brenda Novak is the thrilling prequel novella to the author’s new Hanover House chronicles, Book 1 of which releases in September 2016.  It gives us the history of Hanover House’s founding psychiatrist, Dr. Evelyn Talbot, and sets the stage for the opening of the new facility (which will house the United States’ worst psychopaths and serial killers) in a remote town in Alaska.Read on for my review! After 3 days of torture, Jasper Moore had slit her throat and left her for dead–and it wasn’t as if he’d been a mere stranger. He was her high school boyfriend, someone she’d trusted enough to give her virginity. While I’m not normally a huge fan of novellas and prequels, I found Hanover House to be an enjoyable read. It was quick (I read it in one sitting), and actually managed to both effectively set up the world of the Hanover House chronicles and delve fairly deeply into both the history of Dr. Evelyn Talbot and the mindset of a psychopath. But, oddly enough, even when he was angry he didn’t look overtly dangerous, didn’t look much different than the middle school teacher he’d once been–before his wife stumbled upon the body he’d…

It’s release week for the latest in the Chasing the Dream series from Elizabeth Briggs, and I’m helping her celebrate! (If you haven’t read my review yet, you can do so here.)Now, read on for an intro to More Than Fashion, as well as a giveaway! More Than Fashion by Elizabeth Briggs Chasing the Dream #3 Publication Date: July 30, 2015 Genres: Contemporary, Romance Buy it now: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks Google Play | Kobo | All Romance Smashwords | Order A Signed Copy They’re enemies who will do anything to win…including each other. When pre-med student Julie Hong wins a spot on a fashion design reality TV show, she celebrates by picking up a hot English guy in a hotel bar. But too many drinks leads to a night of embarrassment and a major hangover, and wow is she glad she’ll never see him again. Until the show starts, and he’s on it too. Julie quickly realizes she’s out of her league among the other designers, and Gavin Bennett, with his cocky grin and sexy accent, is her biggest competition. Julie can’t decide if she wants to kiss him or kill him. Or both. After she’s almost…

  He Found Me:    When I was seventeen, I disappeared. I walked out the door of my apartment with a backpack and never looked back. I left the life of Cora Mitchell behind, seeking freedom from my real-life nightmare. But my freedom came with a cost. I lived a fictitious life for the next six years, never letting anyone close enough to see underneath the facade that was Andra Walker. I was content with my simple little life. Until I met Julian. And the moment I started allowing myself to open up, allowing someone to see through the superficial, was the very same moment the Monster from my past would return to find me. He Saved Me:    Julian I’ve come to understand that I’ll always find her. She’s my north star, my sense of direction. In her, I’ve found my home. She tells me I saved her. But the truth is, she saved me.   But nothing good can ever last. Andra’s keeping secrets. She’s holding something back. I’m trying, desperately, to anchor her. To let me in, to let me help.   But will all my efforts end up with a ghost of a girl I love?…

Julie Hong is a pre-med student at UCLA with a dream and a plan–albeit, a dream and a plan that don’t necessarily mesh with what her family envisions for her future. After a hot almost fling with the sexy Gavin Bennett (who she soon finds is one of her competitor’s on the fashion reality show Behind the Seams),  her limits are tested. And she learns about a lot more than fashion. He laughed and it set my panties on fire. His voice was like butter, and I wanted it spread all over me. That didn’t even make sense, but it was true. From the minute Julie sees Gavin across the bar, the heat practically singes the pages. I’ll admit, the tats and British accent were a huge appeal to me. Throw in the fact that he’s a gentleman, has an architect’s mind AND is creative? Well, ladies…he’s the whole damn package. I’m honestly a bit jealous of Julie. In Gavin, Elizabeth Briggs manages to create a man who fits beautifully into the fashion world, while being neither gay nor particularly metrosexual. BUT, any romance gets a bit boring without some tension, and boy do Julie and Gavin have tension in spades….

Untold Press is excited to present the cover reveal of HOPE’S DECEIT, book two of The Fated by Angela McPherson! Hope’s Deceit is the second book in this heart-pumping Young Adult, Paranormal Romance series. You can find the first book, Hope’s Decree, as well as other exciting reads by Angela McPherson at Untold Press. Synopsis   Everything has changed—people, my life—no one and nothing is as it seems. With each new threat, the idea of normal slips farther beyond my reach. A relationship with Blain is everything Trinity has ever wished for—even before she realized she wanted it, but after the near fatal attack with Melia, something changes. The connection that binds them shifts, and a dark force threatens to wedge the two apart. Trinity’s only hope for the life she craves is stopping Melia and her immortal Rogues. But fate always has an ulterior plan. As Trinity’s eighteenth birthday draws near, more abilities manifest. But controlling them is a problem. During an emergency Watcher meeting, some question if Trinity is strong enough to carry out the task she is fated to uphold. Secrets are revealed, and lives are lost. Melia has plans to awaken an ancient god whose wrath—if…

Truth & Temptation is the long awaited story of Teagan, the bitchy friend from the previous Summer Love books Rock & Release and Surf & Surrender. You know, the one who makes us wonder, “What the hell is HER problem?!”. Well, today, July 23rd, we finally get into Teagan’s mind–and what a fascinatingly broken and beautiful place it is! We’ve all wondered about the seemingly irrational bursts of anger that make Teagan explode at the drop of a hat. At least, I know I’ve certainly been intrigued. In my experience, very few people are that blindly and startlingly furious without some sort of back story. Turns out? Teagan is actually quite cognizant of her anger management issues. “My jokes about my sex life might kill Cassidy, but this? This cycle of meaningless anger I can’t find my way out of is what’s killing me.” Curiouser and curiouser. The question remains (even, it would seem, in Teagan’s own mind): WHY is Teagan so disturbed? We know Teagan’s grandparents, with whom she has lived her entire life, are raging assholes. And, obviously, that could cause some emotional issues (I know it’d make me a bit bitchy and unstable to be treated like she is on…

I’m an avid reader of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance, so when I say this story is uniquely and beautifully crafted, you can rest assured that you won’t be reading it identifying aspects of other popular Urban Fantasy series. Read on for my review! I can’t think of a single thing I didn’t like about this series.  The protagonist, Piper, is a wonderful mix of strong, ass-kicking femme fatale and flawed, human damsel in distress.  Trouble seems to follow Piper around, and although she’s perfectly capable of handling herself in a fistfight, there is much about the daemon world that she does not, in the beginning, yet comprehend. Our leading men, Ash and Lyre, are amazing foils to one another.  Ash is the tall, dark, handsome “bad boy” who stoically handles the shit-storms of life, seemingly without breaking a sweat.  And Lyre is the flirtatiously sexy friend who, on more than one occasion, leaves you wondering, “what if”? I sped through this first installation of Steel & Stone, Chase the Dark, and immediately one-clicked the second book. Where Chase the Dark was a beautifully crafted introduction to the world of the Steel & Stone series, Bind the Soul takes us deeper, into the…

  He Found Me:    When I was seventeen, I disappeared. I walked out the door of my apartment with a backpack and never looked back. I left the life of Cora Mitchell behind, seeking freedom from my real-life nightmare. But my freedom came with a cost. I lived a fictitious life for the next six years, never letting anyone close enough to see underneath the facade that was Andra Walker. I was content with my simple little life. Until I met Julian. And the moment I started allowing myself to open up, allowing someone to see through the superficial, was the very same moment the Monster from my past would return to find me. He Saved Me:    Julian I’ve come to understand that I’ll always find her. She’s my north star, my sense of direction. In her, I’ve found my home. She tells me I saved her. But the truth is, she saved me.   But nothing good can ever last. Andra’s keeping secrets. She’s holding something back. I’m trying, desperately, to anchor her. To let me in, to let me help.   But will all my efforts end up with a ghost of a girl I love?…

Geeky women everywhere, rejoice!  I’ve found an author who manages steam, humor AND Firefly references all between the covers of one book!  (I know, right?!)  Want to know more? Of course you do… If you’ve ever despaired of finding a book with a heroine who knows Malcom Reynolds from The Doctor and can manage troll agro in an MMORPG, fear not!  Brenna Aubrey has got your back with book 1 of her Gaming the System series, At Any Price.Mia Strong, a well-known gaming blogger with a ton of debt and medical bills, decides to auction of her virginity to “make a statement” about women’s control over their own bodies and futures…and also to stay afloat and pay for medical school.  She is not prepared for Adam Drake, software prodigy and gaming company CEO, or the loophole he finds in her auction rules. In Mia, Aubrey has created an amazing balance of independent woman, geek, and hot heroine, and her character execution is flawless.  There are just enough (properly used!) techno/gaming terms and geek references for a natural and believable girl gamer without going over the top.  Computers get Mia almost as hot as Adam does, which is as it should be for…