A Love for the Pages, from Joy Penny

Hi, there! Welcome to my first of many reviews for the day! ❤ It’s a pleasure to say that all my book reviews today were very pleasant reads that warmed my heart ❤

Our first star is a book I received from the author herself in exchange for an honest review: A Love for the Pages, from adorable Joy Penny! Thanks so much for trusting me with your work, darling! I loved your book so much ❤

from my Instagram ❤

The Story

June Eyermann is back to her small town life after her fist year at college and she couldn’t be more disappointed. Her best friend, Deana, doesn’t speak with her for months, her classes and subjects suck hard, she had to deal with the fact that her ex-sort-of-boyfriend is her younger brother best friend. Oh, and on top of all that? June better get a job real soon or she’ll be stuck with her stepdad in his company all summer as an internee.

But June is okay with all that because there is one place where no crap can reach her: the romantic classic world. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights are her favorite books ever and always manage to make her feel better about anything.

That is, until she meets Everett Rockford, the oh-so-rich and desirable heir of the Rockford family, that runs everything in June’s small town. The guys seems like a walking Darcy Rochester Heathcliff version of her favorite novels… For good and bad: All the good looks, all the bad traits. Too prideful, too blunt, too full of himself. The perfect jerk.

Only that June refuses to really fall for a guy like that. It’s one thing to read about it; it’s another entirely different to live it and feel his detachment on her own skin.

June just wants to walk away from this dream-turned-nightmare. She would hate to find out if the guy also keeps a wife locked up on his attic.

The problem is Rockford is not going anywhere but after her.

The Analysis

Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂

I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH! I knew it would be a blast since Joy’s first e-mailed me, but it was way better than I anticipated! I’m not a great fan of first person narrated books or contemporary romances, but this book touched me. It was too close to home, in a good way. I’ve never lived any kind of romance, but I could relate and understand June. Also, I liked her and the rest is history lol If I met a guy like Everett, I’d run like crazy too. And that’s the catch of this book: is mister perfect really perfect? I had such deep reflections upon this story that I often stopped reading and stared to my bedroom’s wall in pure epiphany, haha! I couldn’t give it any less than 5 stars ❤

The whole story is told by June’s perspective and this surprisingly worked very well for A Love for the Pages. As Rockford is supposed to be a walking mystery (and he is), the fact that the reader is kept in the dark along June makes us want to devour the book and understand what the hell is Rockford’s deal. Once again, I have to take my hat off for this narrative style, haha!

me for Joy, haha!

The plot was simple, but full of little mysteries. Small town girl meets very rich boy, doesn’t really like him, spends time with him, starts to like him without realizing and they fall in love. No biggie, nothing complex, but oh-so delightful! I was in a small reading slump before grabbing A Love for the Pages. Now I need more! Lucky me I just found out that Joy wrote a prequel for this book on Wattpad, called A Love for the Mistletoe ❤ Reading this tonight for sure, haha!

Anyway, I lost my track of thought. Point is, anything that Joy writes from now on, I’ll be certain to read. To the characters!

I loved every single character on this book – especially June and Rockford. June is a cute enough girl that seems younger than she really is, with a practical side fighting her romantic dreams. I related so hard to her that it hurt, haha! She was also small, just like me, oops! She loved the classics and was so clever, but so dutiful. And completely clueless on the right things. I think I’m too besotted with her as a protagonist and my newest bookish bff to judge her, haha!

The same can be said of Rockford. He was perfect on his flaws and he had to back down on the classic heroes catch to have June.

Also, there were just so many funny quotes involving him. June really will be a wonderful professional on her career, haha! Instead of going on and on about how good the most-generous-Rockford is, I’ll allow June the honors:

“It’s you, isn’t it?” he [Rockford] asks, like I could possibly not be me and confirm my non-existence.

~*~

I haven’t seen a Rockford at the library so far as I know since I nearly killed one.

~*~

Maybe at least his dog will be happy to see me.

~*~

Oh, maybe I should clarify that Rockford wasn’t being sexist or anything. Just anti-human.

~*~

Making sure Rockford has moved out of the way so I don’t have to add “manslaughter of most generous Rockfrod” to my CV, I put the car in reverse.

~*~

He [Rockford] slides his phone into his pocket. “This is a coincidence.” I was thinking more like a cosmic joke, but okay.

~*~

Countless hours spent reading and watching my favorite romance stories, and I just can’t deal with it in real life.

~*~

And now, the mercy punch:

Rockford raises his eyebrows and rolls over, picking up his tablet. “Note to self,” he says, typing something on the screen. “Buy June more books.” I slap the book hard on the ground and tackle him, pinning him beneath me.

and this is how you get the girl!

Needless to say that Rockford made it to My Bookish Boyfriend list, right?

What I liked about Penny’s characters is that they were all so real. Not even the most generous Rockford was forced. They were natural, funny, boring… Always exactly what they were supposed to be. I just wish I had spent more time with Blake. What a man…

I think another book deserves to have him as a star. #sutilwish #please

Oh, I admit that there are some loose ends on this book, but nothing that bothered me. And you know what this means.

I really fell hard for this one.

Anyway, if you are a Jane Austen or Brontë fan, you just need to read this book. YOU HAVE TO.

That’s it! Thanks so much for reading and, once again, thanks so much to Joy, for warming my heart with a lovely and perfect book ❤

Playing Defense, from Cate Cameron (Corrigan Falls Raiders #2)

Hi, there! Welcome to a very special book review – and I’m not saying this only because our book star today is on blog tour, hosted by Chapter by Chapter. No, this is a soul-touching and warm book that definitely was one of my best young adult contemporary romances of all time! I’m talking about Playing Defense, second standalone book for Corrigan Falls Raiders series, from marvelous and brilliant Cate Cameron! ❤

from my Instagram 🙂

The Story

Claudia is the kind of girl that has no time to fool around. She has a target and its name is Waterloo University; in order to go studying Engineering there, she must give her best on high school. And give her best didn’t include tutoring one of the stars of the local town hockey team, Chris Winslow.

But it happened. Because life isn’t fair.

Chris isn’t your typical gorilla hockey player. He’s relaxed, funny and easy-going, a real peace and love spirit in flesh. His dream is to become a professional hockey player, but one must be prepared for anything that life may reserve – that’s why he needs tutoring. Chris is failing at chemistry and functions and the only way to stay on his team and have a shot at an university instead of a community college is to have better marks.

But he couldn’t have know just how much fun chemistry and functions were when on Claudia’s hands.

When Claudia and Chris’ worlds collide, there’s no telling what may happen. The only certain that they got is that their tutoring deal definitely was one of the best deals of the world.

The Analysis

Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂

I don’t have the words to start this review. When I signed up to participate in this blog tour, the possibility of being swept off my feet for this book didn’t even cross my mind. I was in for a cute and light high school romance and I’ve received so much more. This book is awesomeness in its purest form, a gift to the YA contemporary romance – a genre that I usually avoid at all costs. But not Playing Defense. This book had everything that I adore on a book: a powerful female (even if she doesn’t know it on the beginning; actions speak way more than words lol), a goofy and hot male (without being stupid or a jerk, may I add), switching point of views in the story, wonderful dialogues and real characters. Oh, and a cliffhanger plot! How could I want more? Also, there was a book reader character named Annalise and she sounds just like me in high school, for good and bad. Cameron warmed my heart and gave me a metaphorical hug with this book, so how could I rate it any less than 5 stars? If I could, I would give it all the stars in the world! (Damn Goodreads for not having a “Galaxy’s stars” rating after the 5^th one!)

The narrative was first person styled and switched points of view between Claudia and Chris restoring my faith on this kind of narrative. I was enchanted by both characters during the whole book, so it worked for me while reading Playing Defense to have both POVs to compare. Chris for sure is the best male narrator of all times and he did made it to My Bookish Boyfriends list. And, for the first time in a very long while, I wished I could meet someone in real life that had his type of personality. But we’ll get there.

Now I must comment on Cameron’s writing style.

Seriously, Cameron managed to turn an intense and a somehow dramatic novel into something light and funny without being silly or useless, you know? You get punched in your gut with all the emotions but you don’t mind, because Chris is so funny and Claudia is so awesome. Their minds are so distinct and yet so connected, they are random and stupid at times… They are teenagers with strong minds. Not overly mature, not whiny. PERFECT. And only a brilliant writing style can transmit all of that on first person narrated books.

me and this book

The plot was simple, but of the anything-can-happen type, so I braced myself for all kinds of ends and twists. Good that I did that, haha! Playing Defense is not here to play [haha], it really gets to the readers and steals their hearts. Mine is missing still and I don’t know when it will return. The book had a tiny loose end, but nothing that bothered me terribly.

The characters were awesome. And the high irony in this is that they are actually working in the book to make themselves more awesome by trying to smooth their flaws as a group: the Sisterhood of Awesomeness, which has two sister boys. What can I say, it’s a very open minded group 😉 And honestly? I wish I could be part of it just to hear Chris say that he wants to be a sister because it makes him feel pretty.

This is the spirit of the sisterhood lol

Seriously, I laughed so hard reading this book that I had to wipe my eyes off several times, to catch my breath and see if more oxygen was already available in the room. I didn’t felt this way since Carry On.

I’ll start with Claudia, as her POV starts the book: I didn’t expect to like her. I have a really hard time liking YA female protagonists because they tend to be too self-centered, whiny or simply dense, but I liked Claudia since page one. I should have seem what was coming, but I didn’t. She was immature in so many ways, but you could tell how hard she worked for anything in her life, how she cared about being a better person and not for the sake of others, but for her own. She grew up a lot in the book and she was scared because of that. Not once she stopped. Not even when she thought she had stopped. She hadn’t. I found myself a new bookish best friend to hang around with Integrity and I couldn’t be happier!

As for Chris, he is simply the best male narrator ever. He was an example of the perfect flawed guy, as he is so not perfect and still manages to look like he is without even trying. He had a great sense of humor, goofed around, was very smart [not as much intelligent, but definitely smart] and a prejudice kicker guy. I knew I was going to fall hard for him in the moment he insisted he was going to be a sister of the Sisterhood of Awesomeness and then I did fall hard for him when he told Oliver that no one would mess up with his boyfriend [Oliver] and get away with it. Oh, did I mention that he has an inner princess? He does.

To be honest, I fell in love with all Claudia and Chris’ friends: Karen, Dawn, Tyler, Oliver, Annalise [yes, I was in the book #kidding], Karen’s sisters, their poetry teacher… Awesome people. Annalise, Claudia’s best friend, was the portrait of my high school self, for good and evil. I didn’t agree with some of her actions and I wouldn’t have done them, but her personality and her way to face the world was exactly how I behaved and felt on high school: always with my nose on books, living in other realities and really not minding the real world, as it sucked hard. I wish I could hug Annalise and tell her how much better our lives get when we start college/university life.

The strongest point in this book, however, is the dialogical construction. Hm, maybe it’s a tie between Chris and the dialogical construction, but I took the liberty of selecting some of my favorite quotes and dialogues to illustrate my point:

“It was kind of scary, telling other people what words have power over you” – Claudia

~*~

Claudia: “We probably need more members, too.”

Chris: “Can I play?”

Claudia: “Did you catch the Sisterhood part?”

Chis: “Yeah, but…whatever. I figure I’m high enough on the ‘awesome’ to make up for being low on the ‘sister’.” (…)

Karen: “You’re a small-town hockey player, Chris! You’re supposed to just grunt and talk about ‘scoring’ with as many different subtexts as you can find. You should go get in a fight with someone, not sit here talking like you’re auditioning to replace Oprah.”

Chris: “When we’re speaking as sisters, I’d prefer it if you called me Topher.”

~*~

“It was Chris. Goofy, lazy Chris who was afraid of his mom and liked being a member of the sisterhood because it made him feel pretty.” – Claudia

~*~

Chris: Most people like me, you know. I’m likeable. That’s just a fact. So statistically, your mom will probably like me, too.”

Claudia: You can’t really use statistics like that. You can’t pretend we’re dealing with completely random variables.

Chris: Well, you lost me on that, but I think I can use statistics any way I want to. Who’s going to stop me?

Claudia: Reality.

Chris: Statistically unlikely.

~*~

Claudia: I really missed you.

Chris: I got that. I missed you, too.

Claudia: If you died, I’d be sorry we hadn’t had sex.

Chris: Wow. That’s… I can’t decide if I should tell you to stop thinking about me dying, or just keep my mouth shut and let you talk yourself into having sex with me.

Claudia: I don’t think I’m going to talk myself into it.

~*~

Seriously, just stop standing here and go grab this book to fangirl about it with me!! I’ll even leave the buying links bellow, so just GO. You need this book in your life.

Thank you for reading my review! Here you can learn more about where to buy Playing Defense, who is Cate Cameron, the Great, and what does the first book in the Corrigan Falls Raiders series talks about:

Purchase Links

 Playing Defense (Corrigan Falls Raiders #2)

Amazon | B&N | iBooks |Kobo | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.ca | Entangled Publishing

About Cate Cameron, the Great

Cate Cameron grew up in the city but moved to the country in her mid-twenties and isn’t looking back. Most of her writing deals with people living and loving in small towns or right out in the sticks—when there aren’t entertainment options on every corner, other people get a lot more interesting!

She likes to write stories about real people struggling with real issues. YA, NA, or contemporary romance, her books are connected by their emphasis on subtle humor and characters who are trying to do the right thing, even when it would be a lot easier to do something wrong.

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads 

About Center Ice, first book in the Corrigan Falls Raiders series

This Entangled Teen Crush book contains adult language, underage drinking, sexual situations, and crazy squirrels. It may cause you to become a fan of hockey – or at least hot hockey players.

The hometown hockey hero won’t know what hit him…

Karen Webber is in small-town hell. After her mother’s death, she moved to Corrigan Falls to live with strangers—her dad and his perfect, shiny new family—and there doesn’t seem to be room for a city girl with a chip on her shoulder. The only person who makes her feel like a real human being is Tyler MacDonald.

But Karen isn’t interested in starting something with a player. And that’s all she keeps hearing about Tyler.

Corrigan Falls is a hockey town, and Tyler’s the star player. But the viselike pressure from his father and his agent are sending him dangerously close to the edge. All people see is hockey—except Karen. Now they’ve managed to find something in each other that they both desperately need. And for the first time, Tyler is playing for keeps…

Purchase Links

 Amazon |B&N | iBooks | Kobo | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.ca | Entangled Publishing

That’s it! Thanks for reaching this far on the post and, once again, thanks so much to Chapter by Chapters by the opportunity of meeting such a fabulous book ❤

Darkness Fair, from Rachel A. Marks (The Dark Cycle #2)

Hi, there! Good night 😀 With a day of delay because my weekend was insane, I bring you the review for the second book in The Dark Cycle series, from amazing Rachel A. Marks: Darkness Fair! 😀 Just as it happened with Darkness Brutal, the first book, I received this from YA Bound Book Tours in exchange for an honest review within their book review tour! Thanks again ❤

from my Instagram 😀

The Story

Aidan can’t complain much about life. He has a roof over his head, food on his belly, a beautiful girlfriend that he deeply loves and deeply loves him back, a legal tutor that isn’t completely nuts and real friends for the first time in his life.

Okay, maybe he is allowed to complain about his lack of a sister, who he failed to save from the demons that haunted her. Or about being dead and resurrected. Or even about having astronomically strong super powers that he can barely understand, imagine controlling. Also, he could say a thing or two about the crappy job that he has, killing demons, exorcising ghosts and stuff. Did I mention the fact that his supposed soul mate, decided by Fate, isn’t his current girlfriend?

Maybe Aidan O’Linn does have many reasons to complain.

The Analysis

Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂

THIS BOOK WAS A BLAST! It was way better than the first and I actually hugged my e-reader a few times that I sat to read it, haha! Also, I’ve read it on two days and I’m a slow reader. So yeah, it was THAT amazing. FIVE FULL STARS! And I can’t wait to read the next one ❤

The narrative style was kept in first person on this sequel, but there was a significantly change: Aidan isn’t the only narrator anymore! Now we also have Rebecca’s point of view, omg! I’m so glad that my wish of the past review for seeing more of her on this book turned into reality! ❤ I’m still stunned to see how well Marks worked with this narrative style, it is FLAWLESS! Seriously, this woman’s writing touches the heart. I couldn’t let go of this for the life of me!

my two days with Darkness Fair lol

The plot was just as complex as the last one, as now Aidan had to save Ava on a whole new level. Also, we get to interact more with Rebecca’s side, so more people for us to worry about, haha! I was caught by surprise so many times that it is pointless to count. Seriously, this book was so good…

Now, the characters. I already loved Aidan and Rebecca and really wanted to see them together – I still hate Kara, by the way – but something changed on Darkness Fair. Suddenly I loved Connor and he seemed way cooler for Rebecca and now I think Aidan would be awesome with Raul… MIND-BLOWING!

Seriously, Marks made me change my mind on how to pair my couples. That had NEVER EVER happened before! EVER!

I’m still trying to figure out how she did this to me, so let’s keep going. I love how I still suspect so many characters after knowing them for two whole books. I still don’t trust Sid or Holly or Jax or even Ava! GOSH!

A huge strong point for me on this book was Aidan and Kara’s sex scenes. Do you want to know why? Because I didn’t see them. Yes, you read it correctly. Marks didn’t throw a sex scene on my face just because it was the natural course of the evolution of their relationship. Why, do you ask? Because it wasn’t relevant! MARKS, I LOVE YOU!

Okay, I’m as normal as I can get again.

Overall, I can’t believe the third book is not out yet BECAUSE I NEED TO READ IT! And if you enjoy ghosts, demons, hot males with super powers, complex plots and beautiful writing, you should grab Darkness Brutal and Darkness Fair and jump on my boat, haha!

That’s it, thank you for reading! And, of course, thank you again to YA Bound Book Tours team for sending me those wonderful books and thank you, Rachel, for writing as you do ❤

 

Convincing the Secretary, from Ava March (London Legal #3)

Good night! I know, the blog is on fire, haha! And it is about to burn all the way up because the reviewed book of the evening is HOT HOT HOT!

Ahem, do you remember when I did this mega post talking about the release of Convincing the Secretary, third book in the London Legal series, from Ava March? So, Ava sent me a copy two days ago as an early Christmas gift and allowed me to open and read it on the spot! 😀 ❤ Thanks so so so much, again!

from my Instagram!

 

I finished the book on the same day, but Ava plays so hard with my emotions that I needed to breathe before posting this review, haha!

Ok, I’m in control again. Without any more giber jabber, let’s do this and THANKS AGAIN, I LOVE YOU, AVA! ❤

The Story

Edward Fenton has always fantasized about a lasting relationship with someone that he truly loved and that felt the same way towards him. At first, his boss Arthur Barrington sounded like the perfect choice for his dream to come true. Except that the man is already way taken by his lover, Leopold Thornton. One can’t win them all.

With the arrival of a new solicitor in Barrington’s office, Edward is relocated as his secretary. Lord Grayson is the perfect definition of tall, black and handsome and sends Edward’s imagination to depths that he never knew himself capable of. But can a relationship with such a powerful man work out the way Edward dreams of?

Gray, in the other hand, knows he found the perfect match in the moment he understands Edward’s interests on him, but how to convince the young man that he is Mr. Perfect?

The Analysis

Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂

Ava always catches my heart unguarded. I was completely okay with life, minding my own business, when I opened my e-mail and saw her gift. As the book isn’t going to be published until March of 2016, I was trying to lead a mental healthy life without being too much of a goner and counting the minutes for the pre-ordering to start on Amazon. But the heart attack was so worthy! This book was awesome! It is a short book (my copy had 100 pages), but the romance is so intense that you are breathless for the whole time! (Or maybe I was, because it was a gift from my favorite author and a book that I already knew about for quite a while.)

I’ll try to be professional now, but I won’t promise that I’ll be impartial, because that’s impossible when working with perfect books. #justsaying

I really love March’s narrative style. Third person, alternating points of views between the couple present in the book ❤ Both Edward and Gray had their own minds and you could see who was doing the thinking very clearly. Once again, March showed how important is communication in a relationship, as words unspoken do the damage in both men’s feelings.

The plot was simple, but not obvious, not for me. I mean, okay, boy meets boy in the 19^th century, boy is not sure if other boy likes boys as well, both give the relationship a try and things go wrong. To explain why I wasn’t very sure of the outcome of this particular work of March, I’ll have to talk about the characters, so hold that thought. Back to the plot, we get to see Arthur and Leopold again, which was awesomely cool (I always like to see my boys again; those two are the heroes of the first books in the series, Convincing Arthur and Convincing Leopold, respectively). There were no loose ends; it would have been nice to know a little more about Edward’s and Gray’s past, but no information was lacking inside of the proposition of the book.

The characters are the best part. You see, in a regular March novel, you’d have two individuals that really need to find true love, that feel incomplete and don’t know what they need until they meet their soul mates, for say. On this book, it was different. Both Edward and Gray are pinning for a happily ever after, but not necessarily with each other. Gray realizes faster that he needs Edward, that Edward is the one, but Edward was more down on the earth. He felt the need of having Gray around, but could (cof and did cof) survive a break up with him without dying the emotional death of break-ups, you know? Honestly, Edward impressed me. He made a cameo appearance previously in the series and I never paid much attention to him, he was so… Bleak? Haha! But being inside of his head, it all made sense and oh boy, he grows up SO MUCH! He is officially one of my favorite males from March now ❤

I always like her males, for God’s sake…

And, dealing with a book written by March, I can’t treat sex scenes as a bonus point, because they are always there and she never EVER disappoint her readers. Did I mention that NEVER happens? Okay, haha! Since the beggining, the bed roles between Edward and Gray are pretty clear and I was waiting for them to have a kind of Oliver and Vincent relationship behind closed doors. Once again, I was wrong! =O I mean, none of them gets to really submit and I thought that AWESOME. Neither was the “fragile” part, always so equal even inside of the bedchamber. AVA, YOU ROCKED HARD!

Bonus point: oh, this cover. Do I need to say more?

also from my Instagram! 😀

Overall, I knew I would love this book since Ava told me she was beginning to write it and I did, a lot. Ava, Thanks again for sending me this, it was the best Christmas present EVER! 😀

That’s it! Thanks for reading and humoring me as I once again talked about Ava March’s work 😉 I bet you all can’t wait until next year, when I’ll do a big re-reading and reviewing of ALL OF HER BOOKS, MWAHAHA MWAHAHA.

 

 

Ps: don’t worry, there will be Harry Potter and The Vampire Diaries reviews too, haha!