Book Review - Yours To Keep by Shannon Stacey

Title: Yours To Keep
Author: Shannon Stacey
Publisher: Carina Press
Publish Date: June 6, 2011
201 Pages

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I was looking for a nice, happy read after the past couple of books I have read were a bit on the freak-me-out side. This one was sitting in my Nook and I thought I'd give it a go. I am not sure why, but my first thoughts were this book would be fun, but not great. Maybe it is feeling that romance tend to be good, but not great. Who knows. I honestly didn't expect to be laughing out loud throughout this whole book! I seriously laughed and laughed and laughed. Shannon Stacey did so good with the banter and fun loving a real couple experiences.

I did not realize this was book #3 in the Kowalski series, so of course . . . now I have to go track down the first two if they are anything like the joy I had reading this one.

Summary -
Sean Kowalski no sooner leaves the army than he’s recruited by Emma Shaw to be her fake fiancé. Emma needs to produce a husband-to-be for her grandmother’s upcoming visit, and, though Sean doesn’t like the deception, he could use the landscaping job Emma’s offering while he decides what to do with his civilian life. And, despite his attraction to Emma, there’s no chance he’ll fall for a woman with deep roots in a town he’s not planning to call home.

Emma’s not interested in a real relationship either; not with a man whose idea of home is wherever he drops his duffel bag. No matter how amazing his “pretend” kisses are…

Book Review - The First Victim by JB Lynn

Title: The First Victim
Author: JB Lynn
Publisher: Carina Press
Publish Date: June 13, 2011
EBook

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Amazon ($3.99)

What a fantastic nail bitter. I literally had my Nook gripped with white knuckles. This book was like a train wreck. It was so scary and so horrible, yet I could not look away.

I do not generally like books that contain negative thoughts, especially those that include the thoughts of serial killers. I do not need anymore negativity in my head. I have the imagination of a 4 year old. I can freak myself out without any help. BUT this book was so good I could not put it down.

Seriously I loved this book!!

Emily is a woman who has moved away from her childhood home because she was taken, abused and got away from her kidnapper. When her father experiences an accident, she must come home to take care of her younger sister and face her fears. I cannot imagine the fear one must feel to come back to the place your worst nightmare has come true - as a KID, but Lynn did a spectacular job detailing the horror of the child and as an adult reliving it all over again. As Emily tries to get comfortable for her sister's benefit, a body shows up and notes start appearing letting everyone know that the serial killer is back. Come to find out it is a serial killer the FBI has been trying to catch . . . since Emily was a child. She may have been the first victim, but they won't know if they do not catch him.

It was such a wonderfully done book. I could not get over how much I loved Emily and could feel the scare, the vulnerability and the need to survive. I also hated the serial killer chapters, but they were so right on what I would think a maniac would think and feel. It just made my skin crawl. I really liked the connection between Bailey, Emily's friend she left home after a kiss gone wrong. There was also Evan, who found Emily escaping from her kidnapper ages ago. The dynamic to try and figure out who don it, was really fun.

Seriously, GO BUY THIS BOOK!

Summary -
She was like all the other victims. Naked, flawed, helpless...

Fifteen years ago, Emily Wright barely escaped from a serial killer dubbed the Baby Doll Strangler. She wants nothing to do with the small town where she was abducted, but when her father is hospitalized she reluctantly returns home to care for her teenage sister.

When her sister's friend is killed and left in front of Emily's house, Emily begins to relive the nightmare she endured long ago. Soon she realizes that her sister, too, is in danger from the killer—and the only person who can help is the man Emily left behind: Deputy Bailey O'Neil. Together, Emily and Bailey must discover the killer's identity before he claims his next victim...

JB Lynn did an incredible job of one chapter with Emily and the opposite chpaters with the serial killer.

In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is a meme courtesy of The Story Siren which if you haven't seen her vlog of this yet, go visit her blog.



GoodReads -
The Mistress's Revenge by Tamar Cohen

Bought -
I have been wanting to read Still Missing for ages and since we received the ARC of Never Knowing, I felt it was time.
Still Missing by Chevy Stevens
Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens

For Review -
The Twisted Thread by Charlotte Bacon
Miss Timmis' School for Girls by Nayana Currimbhoy

On My Wish List

On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where I list all the books I desperately want but haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming. It's also an event that you can join in with too - Mr Linky is always at the ready for you to link your own 'On My Wishlist' post. If you want to know more click here.

Between Shades of Gray

Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously—and at great risk—documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.

Divergent
In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the YA scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

I know it's gonna be a rough day when . . .

I am getting ready for work, step out the shower and am putting on lotion when I realize only one of my legs is shaved and I cannot for the life of me, remember if I shaved one leg twice or just completely missed it all together.

Review - The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

Title: The Lying Game
The Lying Game Series #1
Author: Sara Shepard
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publish Date: Dec 7, 2010
Hardcover, 307 pages

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This is the first book I have read of Sara Shepard's and gotta say, I am so impressed. For a teen book, this really takes the cake. I can't give away the end, but she leaves more than a few things unresolved which normally would tick me off, but I was so enamored by this book that I really don't care. I can't wait to read Never Have I Ever.

Sara Shepard did such a phenomenal job getting into the head of Emma, her sister and their mean friends. I could not get over how truly fun this book was, though I couldn't believe how horribly mean these girls were. The pranks they pulled are disgusting and they're going to grow up to be criminals no doubt.

Emma is a character I would love to meet and be friends with. She is kind, smart, considerate, honest and has not had an easy life moving from foster home to foster home. She is in a home where the boy who lives there is incredibly fond of her and to get her in trouble (and himself out of trouble) he shows his mother a youtube video of Emma being strangled. Emma finds out she has a long lost twin sister. She goes off to find her and ends up becoming her in order to figure out what is going on.

And that is all I want to tell you because seriously, this book was oh so yummy!!

I wouldn't have even probably picked it up if it wasn't for IHeartMonster's read-along. I am so sorry. I tried to wait and read the chapters as you laid out, but I suck. I couldn't wait to finish it. This book was oh so fantastic!! But without IHeartMonster, I would have missed this great book. So go visit her blog and tell her I said hello!!

Summary -

I had a life anyone would kill for.

Then someone did.

The worst part of being dead is that there’s nothing left to live for. No more kisses. No more secrets. No more gossip. It’s enough to kill a girl all over again. But I’m about to get something no one else does—an encore performance, thanks to Emma, the long-lost twin sister I never even got to meet.

Now Emma’s desperate to know what happened to me. And the only way to figure it out is to be me—to slip into my old life and piece it all together. But can she laugh at inside jokes with my best friends? Convince my boyfriend she’s the girl he fell in love with? Pretend to be a happy, carefree daughter when she hugs my parents good night? And can she keep up the charade, even after she realizes my murderer is watching her every move?

From Sara Shepard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars books, comes a riveting new series about secrets, lies, and killer consequences.

Let the lying game begin.

Wordless Wednesday - Yarn for Sale

Farmers Market

Wordless Wednesday