I am so glad that June is over and we are finally halfway done with this year. I had never understood when people said that they can’t wait for a year to end because it had been such a rough year. I now know what they mean because I am so over this year and if I get sick one more time this year I am going to lose it. Anyway, that is enough complaining let’s get into the reviews that I have coming up this month.
Those are all of the book reviews that I have for July. As always if I find a book that I want to read I may add it to this list. I hope everyone has a great weekend and I will see you all back next week.
Title: Broken Little Melodies Author: Jennifer Ann Genre: Contemporary Rockstar Romance Release Date: June 26, 2017
Star-crossed lovers…
Deep among the Jeffrey Pines of Lake Tahoe, Isabelle Martin and Roman Stone find comfort in each other at a summer camp for musically gifted teens where their love grows stronger every year. But they couldn’t be more different. She’s an orphan from the West Coast running with the wild crowd, and he’s a rich kid from New York hiding the scars of an abusive home. When their worlds finally collide, the future they planned comes crashing down around them and Belle is forced to cut Roman from her life without any explanation.
Five years later…
Roman’s on top of the world. His successful rock band is preparing for their first headlining tour, but when he unexpectedly runs into Belle, old feelings for her come rushing back, and his new found bravado fails him.
Belle has learned that some things in life have the power to break your spirit, and trying to forget Roman has made her bitter—she’s merely a waitress headlining a bar-band, and he’s had everything handed to him on a silver platter. Seeing him again makes her question whether time can mend a broken heart.
Their struggles brought them together, and their differences tore them apart, but now that they’re together again, can they repair the broken pieces and get a second chance at love?
About The Author
Jennifer Ann is the author of ten contemporary romance novels with complex love stories. Like her characters, she’s in love with the city of New York, trips on airplanes or the back of her husband’s Harley, and everything rock and roll. Sometimes you can catch her driving a tractor alongside her husband in southern Minnesota while trying to keep up with the madness of their four active children.
There may be two sides to every story, but sometimes there’s only one way to set things right…
Music is Elijah’s life. His band plays loud and hard, and he’ll do anything to get them a big break. He needs that success to help take care of his sister, who has special needs. So he’d rather be practicing when his friends drag him to a musical in the next town…until the lead starts to sing.
Kristen dreams of a career on stage like her grandmother’s. She knows she needs an edge to get into a competitive theater program–and being the star in her high school musical isn’t going to cut it. The applause and the attention only encourage her to work harder.
Elijah can’t take his eyes off of Kristen’s performance, and snaps a photo of her in costume that he posts online with a comment that everybody misunderstands. It goes viral. Suddenly, Elijah and Kristen are in a new spotlight as the online backlash spins out of control. And the consequences are bigger than they both could have ever imagined because these threats don’t stay online…they follow them into real life.
“Blount writes authentically; both protagonists’ voices are distinct. The author explores the rapidly consuming world of social media and how it affects relationships online and in real life. A relevant read and must-have for all YA collections.” – School Library Journal
“THE WAY IT HURTS draws our attention to the joy, heartache and confusing contradictions that arise as we try to find our place in the real world and the virtual one.” – Kimberly Sabatini
“Elijah and Kristen’s personal evolutions through the novel, along with their chemistry, feel as authentic as the conflicts they face. A genuine plot filled with steady tension that will keep readers hooked.”–RT Book Reviews
“This book sensitively covers topics such as sexism, handicapping conditions, communication, and ageism. Agency is also shown when Kristen says she wants to pursue studying in a conservatory rather than continue in the band and the three young men acknowledge her wish. Talking about what bothers us rather than trying to guess another person’s feelings is demonstrated through the actions of the characters. The characters’ issues are eventually resolved through hard work and understanding, making this an interesting and informative read.” –School Library Connection
About Patty Blount
Native New Yorker Patty Blount is the award-winning author of several critically acclaimed internet issues novels for teens as well as a few adult contemporary romances. She is inspired to write by such greats as Judy Blume, JK Rowling, and Gayle Forman. In fact, Judy Blume is the reason Patty elected to write under her real name…so she’d appear on shelves next to her idol. Patty adores writing; she’s written everything from technical manuals to song lyrics (see THE WAY IT HURTS, coming August 2017). Patty wants you to know she loves chocolate…really, really loves chocolate.
When not crushing on actors Gilles Marini or Sam Heughan, Patty can be found sitting in traffic somewhere on the Long Island Expressway, listening to audio books or talking wildly to herself about plots and characters. Prone to falling madly in love with fictional characters, Patty suffers frequent broken hearts when they all invariably prefer the heroine to her… go figure. When she’s not writing, Patty loves to watch bad sci-fi movies and live tweet the hilarity, and scour Pinterest for ideas on awesome bookcases. Patty lives on Long Island with her family in a house that, sadly, lacks bookcases.
I shifted in my broken seat, wondering how many more minutes of the hell that was Bear River High School North’s production of Cats I’d have to endure. My fingers itched for my guitar and notepad. Melodies played in my head, begging to be put down on paper, and there were a dozen other things we should have been doing to promote Ride Out so we could get the band some notice.
The music rose. Beside me, Nick sucked in a breath. I didn’t know Leah. Nick met her at a concert a few months back, and they’d been hanging out whenever they could because, Nick claimed, Leah was the One.
I hid half a laugh and shook my head. I didn’t get the whole concept of the One, but I’d help Nick get what he wanted.
Leah raised her face. When she opened her mouth, I sat up a little straighter. Her voice… Jesus, it was astounding. Clear. Strong. Powerful but sweet. I watched and listened, the audience around me fading away. Her voice swelled, and she attacked the high notes without hesitating, making goose bumps jump out of my skin. What was the top note of her range? She glided across the stage; she never struggled or stumbled. The audience waited for the crescendo, and when she reached it, holy God, it was like a…a promise kept. She blew me away. The notes faded out, and the rest of the production was a blur. I had no idea Leah could sing like that and couldn’t take my eyes off—
My best friend’s girl. Shit.
The lights came up, and everybody got to their feet, applauding like mad. Nick held up this lame poster board sign he’d made. I used that time to get my hormones under control and put Leah and her amazing voice out of my head. The rest of the cast assembled on the stage for their curtain call, and I locked eyes with one of the actors— the White Cat. She was incredibly hot—a solid body with an impressive rack. Her solo dance was the best part of the show up until Leah’s song. She looked amazing in that white cat suit. So freakin’ hot.
“Ladies and gentlemen, a moment please.” A teacher walked to the right of the stage and waved her hands. “Thank you all for attending our opening night performance! I am so proud of these kids. They made all their own costumes and designed the set themselves. And tonight, I want to share with you an amazing last-minute change-up to our program. Grizabella, played by Leah Russo, is ill and was unable to sing this evening. Her songs were actually sung by our White Cat, played by Kristen Cartwright.”
The teacher’s hand swung to my favorite cat, and my jaw dropped. That awesome voice was hers? Whoa. I stuck two fingers in my mouth and let loose with a shrill whistle while the audience roared their approval. The white cat’s eyes met mine, and I started to picture her in different clothes…maybe some black leather, studded bands on her wrists, hair long and wild down her back, strutting across a stage while I shredded the hell out of the guitar. If she could sing Broadway songs without breaking a sweat, what could she do with a hard metal rock track? I wondered—again—what her range was. Could she get low with some Halestorm or full-on mean with a Slipknot metal scream? I should put her in Ride Out right now. I grinned like a maniac because I knew that would really twist BroadwayBaby17 into a knot.
A brilliant idea struck. I pulled out my phone, snapped a photo of the white cat, and from the band’s Twitter account, posted this:
Ride_Out: This cat’s HAWT! And damn, can she sing.
It needed a hashtag. I tapped out “#CatCall.” Oh, this was awesome. My phone buzzed a minute later with a reply from a fan calling himself JJStix88.
FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Providence Book Promotions in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.
Practicing Normal by Cara Sue Achterberg was a great book at first, but after I was about halfway through the book, I was super annoyed with most of the characters in the book. I say that because I have very little patience for people when they act like Kate does. I also couldn’t stand her husband Everett because he is just a straight up jerk and I also don’t like people or characters like him either. I felt awful for JT & Jenna because going up in a situation like they did isn’t a good thing. As you can tell the author did a great job of making you think that the characters are real people and I was able to get so wrapped up in the story that even though I was annoyed I didn’t want to stop reading it because I had to know how it all worked out. I would love to read more books by this author in the future, and I think pretty much everyone would enjoy this book.
About The Book
Book Details
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Published by: The Story Plant
Publication Date: June 6th, 2017
Number of Pages: 336
ISBN: 1611882443 (ISBN13: 9781611882445)
The houses in Pine Estates are beautiful McMansions filled with high-achieving parents, children on the fast track to top colleges, all of the comforts of modern living, and the best security systems money can buy. Welcome to normal upper-middle-class suburbia.
The Turners know in their hearts that they’re anything but normal. Jenna is a high-schooler dressed in black who is fascinated with breaking into her neighbors’ homes, security systems be damned. Everett genuinely believes he loves his wife . . . he just loves having a continuing stream of mistresses more. JT is a genius kid with Asperger’s who moves from one obsession to the next. And Kate tries to manage her family, manage her mother (who lives down the street), and avoid wondering why her life is passing her by.
And now everything is changing for them. Jenna suddenly finds herself in a boy-next-door romance she never could have predicted. Everett’s secrets are beginning to unravel on him. JT is getting his first taste of success at navigating the world. And Kate is facing truths about her husband, her mother, and her father that she might have preferred not to face.
Life on Pine Road has never been more challenging for the Turners. That’s what happens when you’re practicing normal.
Combining her trademark combination of wit, insight, and tremendous empathy for her characters, Cara Sue Achterberg has written a novel that is at once familiar and startlingly fresh.
About The Author
Cara Sue Achterberg is a writer and blogger who lives in New Freedom, PA with her family and an embarrassing number of animals. Her first novel, I’m Not Her, was a national bestseller, as was her second, Girls’ Weekend. Cara’s nonfiction book, Live Intentionally, is a guide to the organic life filled with ideas, recipes, and inspiration for liv- ing a more intentional life. Cara is a prolific blogger, occasional cowgirl, and busy mom whose essays and articles have been published in numerous anthologies, magazines, and websites. Links to her blogs, news about upcoming publications, and pictures of her foster dogs can be found at CaraWrites.com.
FTC: I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.
Never Forget by Richard Davis was a good book. This is the second book in the series, but in my opinion, you don’t need to read the books to know what is happening. I did understand the backstory of the main character which I always like but you don’t need the information while reading this book. I was as drawn into this story as I was when I read False Prophet but I still did enjoy this book. I also loved that I got to see Saul again because I love following along with characters because that makes them feel even more like real people. Parts of this book remind me of the Jack Reacher books which I love, but I also am tired of the series because he should be dead by now.
Anyway, let’s get back to my thoughts on this book. I really do enjoy this author writing, and I love that he includes some British slang in his books. When that happened, it always made me smile because I am so used to hearing the words on YouTube and they always make me happy. If you love mystery books, I would for sure recommend this book to you.
About The Book
Saul Marshall is on the run.
As a wave of seemingly random assassinations engulfs California, Marshall finds himself drawn into a situation spiraling out of control.
He soon discovers some of the webs’ most secure protocols have been compromised by a rogue team of former Chinese agents. When Marshall realizes what they plan, the stakes are raised…
And that’s before the Secretary of State gets involved. Can Marshall unravel the deceit and tricks before it’s too late? Can he stop the carnage, or will he become part of it? One thing is for certain: either way his enemies will never forget.
Perfect for fans of Lee Child, Michael Connelly or J.B. Turner, this is a compulsive and page-turning thriller that won’t let you go.
About The Author
Richard Davis was born in 1990 and grew up in north London. In 2011 he graduated from UCL and Cambridge University. His fascination with America stems from a series of childhood holidays there, which saw him tour both the east and west coasts. After returning to the States a number of times since, and, developing an intense interest in American-style thrillers, he made the decision to write one himself.
FTC: I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.
Three On A Match: Eleven Stories by Gino B. Bardi was an okay book. I enjoyed that this book was filled with short stories because it makes reading them easy. I was able to read one or two stories and then take a break or do other things without forgetting what was going on in the story. There were quite a few of the stories that left me scratching my head and wondering what the entire story was about but it was never in a bad way. For example the first story the little boy wants a bird and long story short he ends up buying the bird, but I didn’t get the point of the story. It was well written, and I loved that they are short stories so I could get through them quickly and move on to another story. If you love short stories than I would recommend this book to you and it would also be a fun read for the summertime.
About The Book
Three on a Match is a collection of tales ranging from funny to touching, from thought provoking to outrageous, and heart-warming to heart-wrenching. They share one common trait: each examine relationships from a unique, sometimes quirky, angle. Some are laugh-out-loud hilarious, some twist and turn and then end up just the way you thought they would. Others deliver an “I didn’t see THAT coming!” conclusion. Nothing is exempt from scrutiny. Some highlights:
In A Very Special Bird, a young child obtains a coveted pet parakeet in a daring ethically-challenged maneuver—then must face his mother, eye-to-eye.
In Twins, two unrelated strangers meet in an airport and discover they have identical birthdays. One is an unemployed newlywed, the other is a radiantly beautiful actress. They have nothing in common but time to kill before their flight. What starts out as an innocent hookup gets serious with the speed of a jetliner taking off.
In Blue Belle, we meet a hardworking rural man of limited means, who can’t resist a bargain on a used luxury car. Soon, it becomes more than just transportation…but cars don’t last forever…
The protagonist of No Good Deed finds a large, injured seabird on a Florida roadway, and makes choices that he immediately regrets, and can’t undo. He quickly plunges into a one-sided relationship he must ride out until the end, for good or bad.
Three on a Match tells the story of a middle-aged man, with a predictable marriage and a life-sapping everyday existence, who forms an unlikely alliance with two homeless men, who sleep in a tent, hunt, fish, drink beer and fire automatic weapons for kicks. An evening of beer and camaraderie produces some life-changing decisions.
This is a quick, easy read which will leave you smiling, thinking, and hungry for more. Gino Bardi is the author of three-time award-winning The Cow in the Doorway and he claims that all of this actually happened, but no one believes him.
About The Author
Gino B. Bardi was born in New York City in 1950 and lived on the South Shore of Long Island until he attended Cornell University in 1968, during the tumultuous era of Vietnam War protests. Armed with a degree in English/Creative Writing, he diligently sought work in his field and soon wound up doing everything but. For the next forty-four years, he cranked out advertising copy, magazine articles, loan pitches and short stories while running a commercial printing company in Upstate New York. Along the way, he married his college girlfriend, became a father to three lovely daughters and decided that winter was an unnecessary evil. In 2008 he sold the printing business, retired, and now writes humorous fiction in his home on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Two signs hang above his desk: “Bad decisions make good stories,” and Mel Brooks’ advice that “You only need to exaggerate a LITTLE BIT.”
The Cow in the Doorway is his first full-length novel and won the statewide Royal Palm Literary Award for best unpublished New Adult novel for 2015.
Three on a Match is part one of a short story anthology. All the stories have some basis in fact…but only ‘some,’ and range from laugh-out-loud funny to moving and thought provoking. Eleven stories in part one explore relationships- with people, people, and animals, appliances, nothing is safe.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017 Margaret Margaret
