Review: ON THE LINE by Jen McLaughlin

ON THE LINE

An Out of Line Novel

by Jen McLaughlin

Publication Date: November 28, 2017

Pages: 200

Source: Author

Add to Goodreads

Purchase Amazon | B&N

Synopsis

Coming home…
I’ve hated Ben Rollins ever since he broke my heart in high school. I’ve never fully recovered from it…even though I ran away as far as I could. Now I’ve returned home, fleeing something worse than I could have ever imagined. When our Captain partners us up together, I’m forced to realize that what I feel for him isn’t hate at all. It’s far worse.

Second chances…
Sarah’s the one who got away. She never really explained her abrupt departure from my life, but to be honest, I no longer give a damn. What we’d once had was dead, and now I’m stuck with her at my side permanently, no matter how I feel about it. But when the truth comes out, and old secrets are unburied, being thrown together becomes so much more than a second chance…it becomes life or death.

And we have no intention of losing.

My Thoughts

I keep coming back to books by Jen McLaughlin and there definitely is a reason why. I love the chemistry between her characters. It is easy to root for them no matter how much they want to torture each other with denying their love. But there isn't much denial in ON THE LINE. It's there initially, but they get over that really fast! (Thank goodness!) The love between these characters and the heat is off the charts!  I'm so glad that they don't fight it and even joke about their inability to "keep it professional".

Sarah returns to town with secrets that are deep and painful. Her history and the life she had after she left Ben drive the main storyline, but it was her relationship with her mother really touched home. It's something that my family is dealing with now with my grandmother. 

And Ben - his protective instinct was made him most desirable and his constant love for Sarah. He exudes it. I love this side of his character.

I wouldn't have minded to know more about their relationship as teenagers. Sarah carelessly threw what they had away. Some flashbacks to who they were and what they had would have helped develop more of that part of the story.

Favorite Quote:

"What we have between us . . . it's real. This isn't just me f**king around, or having a fling. For me? It's you. It's always been you."  - Just another reason to love Ben.

I really liked ON THE LINE. Like any good book, I wish it was longer. Or maybe I just read it too fast. It's a book that I'll most definitely read again, share with my friends, and recommend to readers who like drama and intense passion. Like really intense. 😉

Disclaimer:  I received this e-ARC from the author in exchange for my honest review.  I was not compensated in any way other than the e-ARC provided. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

Cyber Monday Sale: LOVE IN THE FRIEND ZONE by Molly E. Lee

ONE DAY ONLY! Cyber Monday sale on Amazon! 
Love in the Friend Zone is only $0.99!

PURCHASE HERE--> http://amzn.to/2vBYGrY

LOVE IN THE FREINDZONE

YA Contemporary Romance

The only thing worse than not being able to tell your best friend you’re head over heels in love with him? Having to smile and nod when he enlists your help to ensnare the girl of his dreams.

Braylen didn’t even want to go to Lennon Pryor’s epic graduation-night party, but when Fynn begs her to be his “wingwoman,” she can’t deny him. Talking up her BFF—how he’s magic behind a camera, with a killer sense of humor and eyelashes that frame the most gorgeous blue eyes in the history of forever—is easy. Supporting his efforts to woo someone so completely wrong for him? Not so much.

Fynn knows that grad night is his last shot before leaving for college to find true love. And thanks to Bray, he gets his chance with the beautiful Katy Evans. But over the course of the coolest party of their high school careers, he starts to see that perhaps what he really wants has been in front of him all along. Bray’s been his best friend since kindergarten, though, and he’d rather have her in his life as a friend than not at all.

Disclaimer: This Entangled Teen Crush book contains one epic party, complete with every high-schoolers-gone-bad shenanigan, and two best friends whose sexual chemistry is off the charts...if only they’d succumb to it.

About the Author:

Molly E. Lee is an author best known for her debut novel EDGE OF CHAOS, and as a fourth year mentor at Pitch Wars - a program which connects promising writers to established authors in the community. Molly writes New Adult and Young Adult Contemporary featuring strong female heroines who are unafraid to challenge their male counterparts, yet still vulnerable enough to have love sneak up on them. In addition to being a military spouse and mother of two + one stubborn English Bulldog, Molly loves watching storms from her back porch at her Midwest home, and digging for treasures in antique stores.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram 

Amazon

Release Day Review: I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS by Jen McLaughlin

I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

by Jen McLaughlin

Publication Date: November 21, 2017

Pages: 85

Source: Author

Add to Goodreads

Purchase  Amazon | B&N | i-Tunes | Kobo

Synopsis

Nothing could make me leave my family alone for Christmas—except maybe my father-in-law. I swore to Carrie I’d make it home in time, and I’m keeping that promise. One way or another…

I’ll be home for Christmas.

Some promises can’t be kept, and sometimes things just don’t work out. Finn is my world, my life. But when my worst nightmares come true, I’m faced with the impossible truth. Without him…

I'm lost.

My Thoughts

I first discovered Jen McLaughlin's writing with her Out of Line series and immediately was drawn to the characters Carrie and Finn and their forbidden romance. This couple went through many highs and lows, and experienced danger along the way to their happily ever after. When the author announced we would get more of Carrie and Finn, I was all over this novella! And it is Christmas themed and it is more Carrie and Finn!! (Yes, I was that excited it is worth repeating).

I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS brings us back into the world of Carrie and Finn, Noelle and Riley, and their friends and colleagues. We get to learn what they've been up to since we last read about them and find out how their friendships as couples have grown. When Finn is called away by his father-in-law, for a quick trip and security detail, it is obvious that there won't be anything quick about it.

We get some girl time with Carrie, Noelle, and Marie - I love all of the girl talk and revealing of secrets because it lets me get to know these characters a little bit better.

I really liked reading this book and it's a great lead-in into the new book of the series - ON THE LINE. I'm thrilled that I only have to wait a week for that one!

Disclaimer:  I received this e-ARC from the author in exchange for my honest review.  I was not compensated in any way other than the e-ARC provided. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

About the Author

Jen McLaughlin is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of sexy books with Penguin Random House. Under her pen name, Diane Alberts, she is also a USA TODAY bestselling author of Contemporary Romance with Entangled Publishing. Her first release as Jen McLaughlin, Out of Line, hit the New York Times, USA TODAY and Wall Street Journal lists. She was mentioned in Forbes alongside E. L. James as one of the breakout independent authors to dominate the bestselling lists. She is represented by Louise Fury at The Bent Agency.

Though she lives in the mountains, she really wishes she was surrounded by a hot, sunny beach with crystal-clear water. She lives in Northeast Pennsylvania with her four kids, a husband, a schnauzer mutt, and four cats. Her goal is to write so many well-crafted romance books that even a non-romance reader will know her name.

I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

NOT NOW, NOT EVER by Lily Anderson - Read an Excerpt

NOT NOW, NOT EVER: A Novel

By Lily Anderson

Published by Wednesday Books

Publication Date: November 21, 2017

320 pages

About the book:

The sequel to The Only Thing Worse than Me Is You, inspired by The Importance of Being Earnest.

Elliot Gabaroche is very clear on what she isn't going to do this summer.

1. She isn't going to stay home in Sacramento, where she'd have to sit through her stepmother's sixth community theater production of The Importance of Being Earnest.
2. She isn't going to mock trial camp at UCLA.
3. And she certainly isn't going to the Air Force summer program on her mother's base in Colorado Springs. As cool as it would be to live-action-role-play Ender's Game, Ellie's seen three generations of her family go through USAF boot camp up close, and she knows that it's much less Luke/Yoda/"feel the force," and much more one hundred push-ups on three days of no sleep. And that just isn't appealing, no matter how many Xenomorphs from Alien she'd be able to defeat afterwards.

What she is going to do is pack up her attitude, her favorite Octavia Butler novels, and her Jordans, and go to summer camp. Specifically, a cutthroat academic-decathlon-like competition for a full scholarship to Rayevich College, the only college with a Science Fiction Literature program. And she's going to start over as Ever Lawrence, on her own terms, without the shadow of all her family’s expectations. Because why do what’s expected of you when you can fight other genius nerds to the death for a shot at the dream you’re sure your family will consider a complete waste of time?

This summer's going to be great.

READ AN EXCERPT

When we perfect commercial time travel, everyone in the past is going to be pissed at us. It’s not only that their quiet, sepia-toned lives will be inundated with loud-mouthed giants. And it’s not even the issue that language is a living organism, so all communication will be way more problematic than anyone ever thinks about.
     It’s jet packs.
     At some point, someone is going to ask about jet packs, and no amount of bragging about clean water and vaccines and free Wi-Fi will be able to distract them. Even if you went back before the In- dustrial Revolution, someone is going to want to know if we’ve all made ourselves pairs of Icarus wings.
     Defrost Walt Disney and he’ll ask to be put back in the fridge until Tomorrowland is real. Go back to the eighties and everyone’s going to want to know about hoverboards.
     Hell, go back to yesterday, find your own best friend, and they’d still ask, “Tomorrow’s the day we get flying cars, right?”
     People want miracles. They want magic. They want to freak- ing fly.
     Unrelated: Did you know that crossing state lines on a train is pretty much the most boring and uncomfortable thing ever?
     Despite sounding vaguely poetic, the midnight train to Oregon wasn’t much for scenery. Unfortunately, running away tends to work best in the middle of the night, especially when one’s cousins have a curfew to make and can’t wait on the platform with you.
     Twelve hours, two protein bars, and one sunrise later, the view was rolling brown fields that turned into dilapidated houses with collapsing fences and sun-bleached Fisher Price play sets. Appar- ently, the whole “wrong side of the tracks” thing wasn’t a myth. Everything the train passed was a real bummer.
     One should always have something sensational to read on the train, whispered Oscar Wilde, sounding remarkably like my stepmom. With my headphones drowning out the screech of the tracks, I reached into my backpack, pushing past the heavy stack of books and ziplock bags of half-eaten snacks, to the bottom. Tucked be- tween the yellowed pages of my battered copy of Starship Troopers was a folded square of white printer paper. I tried to smooth it over my leg, but it snapped back into its heavy creases.

     Dear Ever,

     On behalf of Rayevich College and our sister school, the Messina Academy for the Gifted, it is my great pleasure to offer you a place at Camp Onward. At Onward, you will spend three weeks learning alongside forty-seven other accomplished high school students from all over the West Coast as you prepare for the annual Tarrasch Melee. The winners of the Melee will be granted a four-year, full-tuition scholarship to Rayevich College . . .

     The page was starting to wear thin in the corners from my fin- gers digging into it whenever it stopped feeling real enough. The packing list that had once been stapled to it was even worse off, high- lighted and checkmarked and underlined. I’d had to put that one inside of an N. K. Jemisin hardcover so that the extra weight could smash it flat.
     I ran my thumb over the salutation again. Dear Ever.
     I shivered, remembering how my hands had trembled as I’d read those words for the first time, stamped to the front of an envelope with the Rayevich seal in the corner. It meant that everything had worked. It meant that freedom was as simple as a checked box on an Internet application.
     The train lurched to a stop. I shoved the note back inside of Star- ship Troopers and popped out my headphones just in time to hear the conductor’s garbled voice say, “Eugene station.”
     I staggered down to the platform, my laptop case and my back- pack weighing me down like uneven scales. I sucked in fresh air, not even caring that it tasted like cement and train exhaust. It was cooler here than it was back home. California asphalt held in heat and let it off in dry, tar-scented bursts.
     Oregon had a breeze. And pine trees. Towering evergreens that could have bullied a Christmas tree into giving up its lunch money. We didn’t get evergreens like that at home. My neighborhood was lined in decorative suburban foliage. By the time I got back, our oak tree would be starting to think about shedding its sticky leaves on the windshield of my car.
     As a new wave of passengers stomped onto the train, I retrieved the massive rolling suitcase that Beth had ordered off of the Inter- net for me. It was big enough to hold a small person, as my brother had discovered when he’d decided to use it to sled down the stairs.
     I’d miss that little bug.
     There were clusters of people scattered across the platform, some shouting to each other over the dull roar of the engine. I watched an old woman press two small children into her bosom and a hipster couple start groping each other’s cardigans.
     In the shade of the ticket building, a light-skinned black guy had his head bowed over his cell phone. His hair was shorn down to his scalp, leaving a dappling of curl seedlings perfectly edged around his warm brown temples. He was older than I was, definitely college age. He had that finished look, like he’d grown into his shoulders and gotten cozy with them. A yellow lanyard was swinging across the big green D emblazoned on his T-shirt.
     “Hey,” I called to him, rolling my suitcase behind me. My laptop case swayed across my stomach in tandem with my backpack scrap- ing over my spine, making it hard not to waddle. “Are you from Rayevich?”
     The guy looked up, startled, and shoved his phone into the pocket of his jeans. He swept forward, remembering to smile a minute too late. All of his white teeth gleamed in the sunshine.
     “Are you Ever?” His smile didn’t waver, but I could feel him processing my appearance. Big, natural hair, baggy Warriors T-shirt, cutoff shorts, clean Jordans. Taller than him by at least two inches.
     “Yeah,” I said. And then, to take some of the pressure off, “You were looking for a white girl, right?”
     His smile went dimply in the corners, too sincere to be pervy. “I’m happy to be wrong.”
     “Ever Lawrence,” I said, hoping that I’d practiced it enough that it didn’t clunk out of my mouth. It was strange having so few sylla- bles to get through. Elliot Gabaroche was always a lot to dump on another human being.
     “Cornell Aaron,” the college boy said, sticking his hand out. He had fingers like my father’s, tapered, with clean, round nails. I spent the firm two-pump handshake wondering if he also got no-polish manicures. “I’ll be one of your counselors at Onward. It’s a quick drive from here.”
     He took the handle of my suitcase without preamble and led the way toward the parking lot. I followed, my pulse leaping in the same two syllables that had wriggled between the folds of my brain and stamped out of my shoes and pumped through my veins for months.
     Bunbury.
     It was a stupid thing to drive you crazy, but here I was: running away from home in the name of Oscar Wilde.

ADD TO GOODREADS

About the author:

LILY ANDERSON is an elementary school librarian and Melvil Dewey fangirl with an ever-growing collection of musical theater tattoos and Harry Potter ephemera. She lives in Northern California. She is also the author of The Only Thing Worse than Me Is You.

New Release: A STEEL HEART by Amie Knight - Read an Excerpt

A Steel Heart, an all-new sexy and emotional standalone from Amie Knight is available now.

A Steel Heart by Amie Knight

Publication Date: November 9th, 2017
Genre: Contemporary Romance

 

Five seconds.

A deafening blast. Pain. Silence.

That was all it took for an IED to end my life as I knew it. The man I was shattered in a hard wave of sound and debris that rained down on me like death itself.

And six months later, after waking up to an inescapable hell, I found myself wishing that death had found me.

Until her.

Miranda Jacobs swept into my life like a cool breeze on a smoldering day.

With her smart mouth and her ridiculous jokes, she brought me back to life one minute at a time.

Turned out time wasn’t on our side.

Five seconds.

Screams. Twisted metal. Silence.

And I’d lost it all again—only this time, I had no one to blame but myself.

Read an Excerpt:

“What are you doing today?” my friend Ainsley asked through the cell phone that was pressed to my ear with my shoulder. My hands were busy holding open a piece of the blinds so I could look out the front window.

           I gave her a distracted answer. “You know, the usual. Edits and whatnot.” I tilted my head to the side to get a better view out the window and almost dropped the phone. Holy hotness.

           “Why do you sound like that?”

           “Like what?”

           “Distracted.” Ainsley sucked in a breath. “Oh my God. It’s nine a.m. Are you neighbor stalking again?”

           I snapped the blinds closed and backed away from the window. “No. Of course not. Why would I do that?”

           “You told me you weren’t going to do that anymore.”

I thought we’d already established I was a liar.

           I stepped back toward the window because I couldn’t help myself, obviously a glutton for freaking punishment. But this was the only time of day I saw him besides when he left in his big, black truck at three in the afternoon on the dot, and I didn’t want to miss a thing. I cradled the phone with my shoulder again, pushed the blinds apart with my hands, and pressed my face to the windowpane like the creepy stalker I was. And there he was. Every gorgeous inch of him.

           He walked toward my building from across the busy downtown street like a tall glass of water on a hot day. All swagger and supreme male beauty. The kind of beauty that made a girl’s breath catch and heart pitter-patter. He pushed his dark hair off his tan forehead and the big muscles in his arms bunched.

Goosebumps broke out on my skin and I may have whispered, “Christ on a cracker.” I didn’t know his name, but I knew his schedule like the back of my hand. That wasn’t weird at all.

           “You’re a terrible liar.” She giggled. “What’s he wearing today?”

I barely heard Ainsley. Every morning when I watched this man walk down the street and toward our building, it was like just he and I existed. Slow motion. Our own sexy theme music. Nameless, ridiculously hot man and Miranda. He didn’t know it, but there was a world of our own and it was the absolute best part of my day.

           “Sunglasses. White, tight, sleeveless T-shirt. Black running pants with three white stripes down the sides. Black tennis shoes,” I said breathlessly into the phone. I left out all the good bits. Like the scowl he was wearing. It was perpetual. I’d never seen the man smile in the month he’d been living next door to me and for some reason that made me all the hotter for him. He owned that scowl. He freaking rocked it. His jaw was square and clean-shaven. His mouth flat. He was a giant of a man. Well over six feet. His chest was wide, his arms thick and imposing. Dog tags jangled from a silver necklace around his neck, letting me know he was military of some sort. I’d never seen his eyes, but I knew they were going to be stunning. Everything about him was. Not even the slight limp in his gait as he made his way across the street took away from his godlike beauty. I could’ve eaten him with a spoon.

 

Read Today!!!

(Free in Kindle Unlimited)

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2ygSqH3

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2zmZdmD

Add to GoodReads: http://bit.ly/2yrxA7H

About Amie Knight:

Amie Knight has been a reader for as long as she could remember and a romance lover since she could get her hands on her momma's books. A dedicated wife and mother with a love of music and makeup, she won’t ever be seen leaving the house without her eyebrows and eyelashes done just right. When she isn't reading and writing, you can catch her jamming out in the car with her two kids to '90s R&B, country, and showtunes. Amie draws inspiration from her childhood in Columbia, South Carolina, and can't imagine living anywhere other than the South. 

 

Connect with Amie Knight:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authoramieknight/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/authoramieknigh

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amie_knight/

https://www.authoramieknight.com/

Stay up to date with Amie Knight by signing up for her mailing list:

http://bit.ly/2xR67xb

Review: SAVING IT by Monica Murphy

SAVING IT

by Monica Murphy

Publication Date: November 6, 2017

Published by Entangled Publishing

Pages: 276

Source: Publisher | Netgalley

Add to Goodreads

Purchase Amazon | B&N

Synopsis

Eden: Josh Evans and I have been best friends forever. He knows all my secrets, and I know all of his. So when he randomly asks me to help him lose his virginity, I sort of flip out. That’s a question that sends your mind to places you’ve seriously never considered before. Like, you know. Having sex. With your best friend. Except Josh doesn’t want to have sex with me—he wants me to help him find a girl. A nice girl who’s funny and smart and cute. Except he already knows a girl just like that…

Josh: Eden Sumner is my best friend. So of course she’d be the person to help me find my perfect match, so I can drop my V card before I head off to college. Except the more we search, the more I realize that maybe the right girl has been by my side all along. I don’t need Eden’s help in finding me a girl to love. I’m pretty sure I’m already in love with Eden. But now she thinks I’m only after one thing…with anyone but her.

My Thoughts

I read a lot of friends to more books. It is one of my favorite tropes. Check out my reading list if you don’t believe me. That’s why I wanted to read SAVING IT and it is one of the reasons that I liked it. I loved the friendship between Eden and Josh - their easiness, their familiarity with each other. Like their best friends and family, and practically anyone who was around them, I wondered when they were going to figure out.

I do have say that Josh’s reasoning for wanting to lose his virginity irritated me.

Why does Josh worry so much about having sex? Why does he worry what his friends think? Just because he can’t talk about his experiences with his friends, and he feels left out, he wants to have sex. I didn’t buy it. And the more we get to know about him, his words didn’t reflect his actions. He was the relationship kind of guy. He was about more than just the casual hook up. He just needed to figure that out.

Overall, I liked SAVING IT. I liked how the author portrayed the friendships, the relationships, and even the jealousy of friends how beginning to see what was right in front of them all along. I’m glad that Eden and Josh were able to finally figure it out. They might not have been each other’s first love, but they did experience some other firsts together - and it was sweet and authentic and awkward and real.

Disclaimer:  I received this e-ARC from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.  I was not compensated in any way other than the e-ARC provided. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

About the Author:

Monica Murphy is the New York Times, USA Today and #1 international bestselling author of the One Week Girlfriend series, the Billionaire Bachelors and The Rules series. Her books have been translated in almost a dozen languages and has sold over one million copies worldwide. She is both self-published and published by Random House/Bantam and Harper Collins/Avon. She writes new adult, young adult and contemporary romance. 

She is a wife and a mother of three who lives in central California on fourteen acres in the middle of nowhere along with their one dog and too many cats. A self-confessed workaholic, when she's not writing, she's reading or hanging out with her husband and kids. She's a firm believer in happy endings, though she will admit to putting her characters through angst-filled moments before they finally get that hard won HEA. 

Connect with Monica:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MonicaMurphyauthor/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5934418.Monica_Murphy

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1YUl0Vm

Website: http://monicamurphyauthor.com

Newsletter: http://bit.ly/IW5U0y