Tag Archives: Young Adult

The Accidentals

By Sarina Bowen

Synopsis

Never ask a question unless you’re sure you want the truth.

I’ve been listening to my father sing for my whole life. I carry him in my pocket on my mp3 player. It’s just that we’ve never met face to face.

My mother would never tell me how I came to be, or why my rock star father and I have never met. I thought it was her only secret. I was wrong.

When she dies, he finally appears. Suddenly I have a first class ticket into my father’s exclusive world. A world I don’t want any part of – not at this cost.

Only three things keep me going: my a cappella singing group, a swoony blue-eyed boy named Jake, and the burning questions in my soul. 

There’s a secret shame that comes from being an unwanted child. It drags me down, and puts distance between me and the boy I love.

My father is the only one alive who knows my history. I need the truth, even if it scares me.

Review

THE ACCIDENTALS is the first young adult novel by Sarina Bowen, and while I don’t usually read young adult, I’ll read anything written by Ms Bowen. Told only in Rachel’s POV, we follow her as she mourns the death of her mother, moves to a different state, goes to a new school, makes new friends, loses old friends, and struggles with intimacy, all while she navigates a relationship with her father, who she knew about but had never met prior to her mother’s death.

Going by the blurb, I thought the relationship between Rachel and her father, Frederick, would be the primary focus of the story, but it wasn’t. There was a lot of other stuff going on, which for me was too much and detracted from what I was really hoping to read: a story about a teen-aged girl and her previously absent father. Rachel and Frederick barely spent any time together, and when they finally had their heart-to-heart, it was done so at the 93% mark and only lasted seven pages. This was where I was expecting to have my heart broken for Rachel. Instead I felt nothing for a scene that felt incomplete and left me wanting.

Overall, I did enjoy this story, but I didn’t love it, and I think that’s because I had expectations that this would be an emotional read, and for me, it wasn’t one. I also felt that some threads were left hanging and when the book ended, it was very sudden and again, felt incomplete.

I’m a huge fan of Sarina Bowen, so it pains me when I (very rarely) give her a not-so-glowing review. I think a lot of readers out there will enjoy THE ACCIDENTALS, but sadly it just wasn’t for me.

The Accidentals

My Rating:

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Ryan’s Bed

By Tijan

Synopsis

I crawled into Ryan Jensen’s bed that first night by accident.

I barely knew him. I thought it was his sister’s bed—her room. It took seconds to realize my error, and I should’ve left…

I didn’t.
I didn’t jump out.
I didn’t get embarrassed.
I relaxed.
And that night, in that moment, it was the only thing I craved.

I asked to stay. He let me, and I slept.

The truth? I never wanted to leave his bed. If I could’ve stayed forever, I would have.
He became my sanctuary.

Because—four hours earlier—my twin sister killed herself.

Review

The cover of Ryan’s Bed is simply beautiful and visually expresses the fragility that is Mackenzie.

Admittedly, I couldn’t put this story down, it was gripping and at particular moments had great depth and maturity. Drama surrounding the girls at her new school was not needed in my opinion for this highly sensitive story.

Mackenzie was an interesting character, so closed off with grief and her inner banter with her sister helped to cement their connection. Their moments left many questions as I continued through the story. Over the 12 month period, the author built the relationship between Ryan and Mackenzie realistically.

Her mother and father’s part in this story confused me at times and made me very angry. The way they just left their teenage daughter to fend for herself made me sad and confused. Two favourite moments for me in the book are Mackenzie standing up to her parents and showing them she is alive and relevant. Her brother was a wonderful character and the love between sister and brother mended my heart and gave hope.

Most of all, upon turning the last page, I was shocked but also disappointed because this alarming fact could have made this story so much more.

Left to wonder should I read this again to see if I pick up any clues. The counselor and her sessions are making me question her words. There are moments between Mackenzie and her parents which start to make sense upon the conclusion.

I have too many questions at the end to feel 5 stars satisfied

Quote: I was coming together even as I was falling apart

Ryan’s Bed

My Rating:

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Team Player: A Sports Romance Anthology

Synopsis

Hot jocks. We love them all.

Sexy baseball players. Intense footballers. Sweaty MMA fighters, and sizzling hockey hotties. Score!

The good news? Eleven bestselling authors have gathered to give you a set of stories focused on the men we love most—sports heroes. We bet you’ll love this thick…book.

The bad news? The men in these novellas don’t actually exist.

*This anthology does not contain calories, just eleven original, never-before-seen stories by the following authors: Adriana Locke, Mandi Beck, Charleigh Rose, Kennedy Ryan, LJ Shen, Meghan Quinn, Rochelle Paige, Ella Fox, Kate Stewart, Emma Scott, and Sara Ney. We aren’t responsible for melted devices.

Team Player:
Adriana Locke (Cross)
Charleigh Rose (Yard Sale)
Ella Fox (Out of Formation)
Emma Scott (One Good Man)
Kate Stewart (Sweeping the Series)
Kennedy Ryan (Full Court Press)
L.J. Shen (The End Zone)
Mandi Beck (Sin Bin)
Meghan Quinn (Back in the Game)
Rochelle Paige (Slapped Into Love)
Sara Ney (Switch Hitter)

Review

Team Player is full of hot short romance stories. My favourite of this book was The End Zone by L J Shen.

My thoughts on The End Zone in particular.

Story flows well with quick introduction to two main characters Sage and Jolie meeting as neighbours. We are then taken to college and their friendship. Being a Novella it is a fast and solid build-up to the magic moment.

Jolie was very easy to connect with and her feelings for Sage were extremely heartfelt. As a reader, I definitely became invested in them connecting in a physical and emotional manner. Sage had humour and also great alpha characteristics.

We are given drama from other characters that keep you entertained and I loved the ending, tied up perfectly. I actually could read a whole book on these characters.

Quote: “One pulls, the other pushes. One wants, the other gives. One loves, the other hurts.”

Team Player: A Sports Romance Anthology

My Rating:

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The Curse (The Butterfly Effect #2)

By Margaret McHeyzer

Synopsis

It’s been the butterfly effect.
I changed the course of my life because I warned a man.
I thought what I had was a gift, but it’s quickly turning into my curse.
Now I realize I’m much more than a girl with an ability.
Because now… I’m becoming a weapon.

Review

I am so glad that we did not have to wait long for book 2 in this series. The Curse picks up right where The Gift left off. I love the idea that someone can change the course of the future but there will be consequences.

Alexa is so strong after her life is torn apart. I really liked her as a character. She is smart and loyal to the people around her. But the thing I liked most about her is that she never gives up.

I wanted to hate Jude in the beginning of The Gift but quickly came to love him in The Curse. The only thing that wish was that we could have found out more about his past and the reason he is the way he is.

The Curse was fast paced and always had something going on. It had some great twists in it, one I didn’t expect. I can’t go into any details without giving spoilers away but I will say that I really got into this series.

The Curse

My Rating:

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The Gift (The Butterfly Effect #1)

By Margaret McHeyzer

Synopsis

I have something people want. I have something they cannot take or steal. I have something they’d kill for.
The something I have, isn’t a possession, it’s more.
Much, much more.
It’s a gift.
It’s part of me.

Review

The Gift is the first book in The Butterfly Effect series. I love this idea of cause and effect and what happens to the person that changes the course of another person’s life.

Something has happened to Lexi when she had an emergency appendectomy. She is not the same girl that she was when she went in. When people touch her she is seeing into their life.

I really liked Lexi, She is almost 17 when she has that emergency and comes away with The Gift. Lexi handles all the changes in life after that the way most of us would. With a lot of confusion. She manages to formulate a plan, if she could just keep to it she would be alright.

I really liked this book even though it is not a romance. The main character is only seventeen. There was a lot of suspense and Lexi was thrown into a new world that she had to navigate. I don’t want to give anything more away because it was so good. Be warned though, there is a cliffhanger. I am on the edge of my seat waiting for book two.

The Gift

My Rating:

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Logan Kade

By Tijan

Synopsis

You think you know me?
Player. Partier. Fighter.

You know what? You’re right. I’m all those things. F*ck with mine and I’ll f*ck you ten times harder. Suspensions. Arrests. You think I care?
So yeah, I may fit the bad boy image, but there’s so much more you don’t know.
I’m loyal to a damned fault. I’ll never leave your side. The real Logan Kade isn’t a manwhore. When I love, I love hard and completely.
Taylor saw that side of me. Inside of me. She saw my darkness and pain, and the second she did, she owned me.

You may think you know me…
…but she’s the only one who sees me.

**Full-length standalone

Review

** Please read Fallen Crest High Series 1 to 5 before reading Logan’s story **

I am on team #Logan all the way, ever since I picked up Fallen Crest High, I love Mason & Sam and their love story but Logan’s humour and live life to the fullest always drew me in. If you have not read Fallen Crest Series, please do, so many characters in here are in that series and although this is a standalone so many of his mannerisms may not make sense.

Logan’s story in this book really opened up him to the reader on a new level, you saw his hurt and learnt more about him and Mason and their younger life and those key moments that changed them.

I enjoyed the dual POV, I really liked how we had more of Taylor’s perspective as I needed to know she was the girl for him and that she deserved Logan. As a reader you get so invested in the character and I simply needed to know she was good enough.

It is funny that both Sam and Taylor are “Coaches daughters” and their mannerisms are really quite similar in that they do not need a large posse around them, they are very strong and independent young woman who deserve two men such as Mason & Logan that would walk through fire for them.

It was interesting to see Nate in this story and I now would love to see him find the girl of his dreams. I would have liked perhaps a chapter on Sam, Nate and Mason when Taylor and Logan had their one month break to tie in the obvious conclusions they had come to with Logan falling in love.

The ending was brilliant and I cannot wait to see the big event, which we will obviously read about in Fallen Crest 6 or 7.

Quote: “Mama Malinda’s rules: Go big or go home”

Logan Kade

My Rating:

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Tyed

By L J Shen

Synopsis

Rock bottom has built way more champions than privilege has.

Blaire, an underachieving college student with zero prospects and a ton of issues (hey, being the less-successful twin of a gorgeous supermodel would totally do that to you) needs something from Ty.

Mixed Martial artist Ty, a soon-to-be Welterweight champion of the Xtreme Warrior League and the hottest guy in the Bay Area, wants something from Blaire.

But Ty has a secret.

And Blaire can barely even handle his truths.

Life is about to throw a few knockout punches at both of them. Can they handle the pain?

Tyed is a standalone novel.

Review

Ty is definitely one dynamic and hot champion and owns the pages who kept me reading this even when I found Blaire for the first half of the book a bit annoying and a bit blah. She came into her own but my god her sister annoyed me no end and I felt frustrated by their relationship as she was a very self centred character. I wanted to throttle Blaire’s parents and I just would have liked the family dynamic explored just a little more as they were thrown in at parts and glossed over in others, especially when Blaire graduates. Blaire had such low self confidence and seeing how her parents and sister walked all over her, well no wonder. The whole scene at Las Vegas with the wedding just felt weird one day all drama then next at the wedding chapel.

I liked the second half of this book more, it does not slow down and works you up to a ending that is simply perfect and gives you your HEA. I loved seeing the characters find their own way back to each other and I did not pick Ty’s secret until all was revealed so that was great writing.

Cameron was a great character to introduce when Blaire needed someone and I must say that Shane also created drama and more questions and I enjoyed him.

This is my second book by this author, I have read Sparrow (two times) still one of my favourites from this year.

Tyed

My Rating:

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Anti Stepbrother

By Tijan

Synopsis

He told me to ‘settle, girl.’
He asked if ‘something was wrong with me?’
He said I was an ‘easy target.’
That was within minutes when I first met Caden Banks.
I labeled him an *sshole, but he was more than that. Arrogant. Smug. Alpha.

He was also to-die-for gorgeous, and my stepbrother’s fraternity brother.

Okay, yes I was a little naive, a tad bit socially awkward, and the smallest amount of stalker-ish, but if Caden Banks thought he could tell me what to do, he had another thing coming.

I came to college with daydreams about being with my stepbrother, but what if I fell for the anti-stepbrother instead?

Standalone.

Review

I simply could not put this down and is it wrong that I want to pick this up and read again – like all my other Tijan books on my bookshelf I will probably read once a year just to say hi to the characters again as they are in my heart and fed my soul.

Loved Summer and her humour and verbal diarrhoea, she cracked me up, one minute laughing with her and then the next minute my heart shattering at her social awkwardness.
I simply fell in love with this girl from the first chapter and I think Caden did too. This story is about the building a friendship into a relationship, of two people not seeing what all their friends could see from the beginning.

The relationship with her step brother and her family were entwined with her romance story with Caden at the right moments for me.

Avery was a friendship character that was really integral to this story for me and I found her so enjoyable. She along with Marcus were two characters I was so glad were included right up to the end of this story, I was happy to see how Marcus and Summer’s friendship progressed throughout the book.

The resolution of Summer’s family loss and her ability to move forward was placed within the story at the right moment and Caden and his family secrets provided another layer of emotions – you knew he had a story at the start and we are given full disclosure by the end.

Caden may have knocked off Carter Reed from my favourite Tijan men, or perhaps I can have two favourite Tijan men?

Anti Stepbrother

My Rating:

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Rounding Third

By Michelle Lynn

Synopsis

I was destined for stardom.
From the age of seven, I was an all-star.
Parents praised me, coaches worshipped me.
As I got older, girls begged for me.
I was Beltline’s baseball God, guaranteed to put this small town on the map.

Then, after one night, that future vanished.

The legend was laid to rest.
I gave up my scholarship.
I fled from Beltline.
I left the girl behind.

Now, I’m back.

Review

ROUNDING THIRD was the first novel I’ve read from Michelle Lynn, and I’m sad to say I didn’t enjoy it. I didn’t realise this was going to be a college/young adult romance when I read the synopsis, and for me, college romances can be really hit and miss. I did finish the story, but I struggled to get into it for a few reasons. I often found the behaviour of the characters to be a bit childish and petty; there was a lot of drama, a lot of pushing and pulling, catfights over boys, bitchiness between teammates, and games played by Crosby and Ella to make the other jealous. Sometimes I couldn’t make sense of the conversations and sometimes I felt the conversations were choppy. The details about “that night” aren’t explained until the 44% mark, but up until then it felt like it was alluded to in every second thought Crosby and Ella had, and that became annoying pretty fast. Finally, I was quite disturbed by the scene where the baseball team uses a cutout of a naked woman, throwing balls at her breasts and vagina to settle bets. I could be wrong, but I just can’t see a coach or team getting away with that kind of thing in this day and age.

ROUNDING THIRD is told in dual POVs and appears to be a stand-alone, although I do feel that the story was left open for some of Crosby’s teammates to get their own stories. The story is a second-chance romance that finished with forgiveness and a HEA for Crosby and Ella.

Rounding Third

My Rating:

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Filthy Foreign Exchange # 2

By S.E. Hall & Angela Graham

Synopsis

The conclusion to Echo and Kingston’s story.

When Echo Kelly is invited on a backpacking trip throughout the UK, she jumps at the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, refusing to let one fleeting past exchange stop her.

At least, that’s what she’s convinced herself of, until the moment she sees him again. It’s not the one-time “run-in” she was expecting, and therefore prepared to handle.

Instead, it’s an announcement she never saw coming…he’s the tour guide.

She’s got no backup plan for that.

Kingston knew what it meant the moment Echo accepted the offer. And when he lays eyes on her, standing in his childhood home, her fate is sealed forever. There’s not a damn thing that will stop him from finally claiming what’s always been his.

Her.

Not everyone gets a second chance—and Kingston Hawthorne sure as hell isn’t going to let his slip away.

Review

I bought FILTHY FOREIGN EXCHANGE # 2 as soon as I finished book 1, because it ended in a cliffhanger and I wanted to see how Kingston & Echo’s story ended. Why was Kingston framed? Why did he leave so suddenly? Why didn’t he defend himself? I thought I’d get answers to those questions in this book, so I was disappointed to get to the end and realise that no, I wouldn’t be getting those answers. We never found out why Kingston was framed or if the real perpetrators were ever punished, and I hate loose threads like that. Instead, the book starts about a year later with Echo on her way to the UK for a backpacking adventure provided by Kingston’s mother’s charitable foundation. Echo is still hung up on Kingston, but she denies it to herself and anyone that will listen, and Kingston is determined to win her back, but she’s angry and refuses to listen to anything he has to say. This is what makes up most of the story.

While I was able to read this in pretty much one sitting, I found I didn’t enjoy it as much as the previous book. I can’t really describe it, but it’s like there was a huge switch between books 1 and 2, and I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. When Kingston fled the US, Echo’s parents hated him, but flash forward a year and they seem to like him, but they’ve never explained their change of feelings to Echo. In book 1, Kingston’s father is made out to be a mean SOB, but when we meet him here, he’s really very nice and clearly loves his son. Echo seemed very mature for her age in book 1, but acts a little childish in this book. As I said, I can’t really explain it, but it’s almost like nothing was the same, if that makes sense. The story isn’t terrible, but this was not the conclusion I was looking for, although it does come with a HEA. This is book 2 in a duet about Kingston and Echo, so it can’t be read as a stand-alone. I think Echo’s brother might get his own book, but I don’t think I’ll be reading it.