Review: Deadly Beginnings (Deadly # 0.5) By Jaycee Clark

Deadly Beginnings

Series: Deadly # 0.5

Published: January 26, 2014

Publisher: Beyond The Page

166 Pages

Buy: Amazon Kindle

My Rating: 

Jaycee Clark is best known for her Deadly books, a series of romantic suspense novels featuring the very sexy Kinncaid brothers. But before Aiden, Ian, Brayden, Gavin, and Quinlan there was Jock Kinncaid, the charismatic patriarch to the Kinncaid family, and Kaitlyn O’Reilly, the woman who captured his heart forever. 

Kaitlyn O’Reilly, an RN, believed she’d found love with the charming and well-liked surgeon she’d met at work. Landon Goldburg was kind, attentive, and she thought they had so much in common. Now engaged, the good doctor has quickly become the man of her nightmares. As he grows more controlling and violent, Kaitlyn wants her freedom. 

Jock Kinncaid can’t stop thinking about the quietly beautiful—and engaged—redhead he met at a fund-raising gala months ago. He knows a spitfire lurks beneath the surface of this woman who’s invaded his dreams, and he knows she’s exactly what’s been missing from his otherwise ideal life. When a chance meeting throws the two of them together again, Jock swears he won’t let her get away this time. 

But even as Jock vows to protect the woman he loves and Kaitlyn struggles to trust Jock and the passion between them, the deranged doctor is bent on destroying them both, even if it means killing the only thing he loves.

About Jaycee

Once upon a time I thought...hmmm.... maybe I should write a book.  Yeah, well, who knew that would be the beginning of my insanity in a sane creation.

I enjoy playing with imaginary people in my head.  Sometimes those people are nice, sometimes they're not, but in the end, the girl gets the guy so all is well.

I live in Texas with my family who puts up with my strangeness and appreciates my weirdness--or so they claim.  We promote weirdness.  There's also the cats and the corgis who, in truth, rule the family.  When I'm not chained to my keyboard, I'm doubling as a parent, a teacher, a maid, a chef, a chauffer, a therapist, and promoting my education in human development.

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"Took you long enough!"

Jock  threw back his head and laughed. "Kaitie lass, I drove here like a soul escaping hell and thankfully didn't have a traffic accident. But you're welcome."

"He'd make it so she didn't have to worry. Now that she was back in his life, he wasn't just going to sit back and let her go."

"So many blessings, Kaitie."

"It's all just beginning, isn't it?" 

"A beginning worth waiting for."

I really liked this book and after I read it I saw all the other books that came ahead of it I'm interested in reading the complete series. This book was pretty much how it all started; it's the prequel. I hadn't read a book like this before, it's in order of how I like to read things; from where they start, but it's technically the last book in the series.

I thought that Deadly Beginnings had a really good storyline. Jock meets Kaitlyn at an event and he instantly knows that she is the woman he is going to marry, but she's engaged to another man who is certainly not good for her because he didn't treat her right. This story is told in three perspectives; Kaitlyn, Jock, and Landon. The book starts off in Landon's perspective and the more I read, the more I hated him, he was a real monster. He liked to play God and not in the doctor aspect, in his personal life. He liked to date women that weren't as socially upscale as him, he didn't like independent women, he liked to control them and make them into the perfect wife for him. He would pick what they wore, how they spoke, and managed every aspect of their lives and when they disobeyed they got punished. Talk about being in a nightmare relationship, poor Kaitlyn didn't know how to get away from him. An unexpected encounter with Jock changes everything for her and her future. I was rooting for Jock the whole time, he was so sweet, caring, affectionate, and patient. He cared for her and treated her with respect and encouraged her to go to medical school; something that Landon didn't want her to pursue, but not Jock, he wanted her to make her own choices in life, to do what made her happy.

I was so happy to learn how far Jock would go to protect Kaitlyn from Landon who was enraged when she left him and would stop at nothing to get her back. It was so good for Kaitlyn to have a normal relationship where she could be herself. I was so happy with the ending and now I have more books to read about this family.

I recommend Deadly Beginnings to all you romantics out there, you'll be happy with this one.   

Buy From Amazon

Buy the other 5 books in the series. Deadly Beginnings isn't part of this package.

Review Accidents & Incidents By Riley Graham

Published: December 11, 2013

Publisher: Createspace

Source: Netgalley for Review

My Rating: 

Sometimes finding love means taking the scenic route ... Living with her faultfinding mother has taught Leslie not to ask for much. Just watch your step, stay on the sidelines, and take what you can get. But she wants a mom who thanks her for cleaning the kitchen instead of yelling at her for missing a spot, and a boyfriend who does more than score her a seat at the popular table-someone who actually notices her sitting there. So when Cain, the school heartbreaker, turns his Carolina blue eyes her way, Leslie can't help but be tempted, even if he's her boyfriend's best friend. Things get even more complicated when Leslie strikes up unlikely friendships with Meredith, Cain's girlfriend, and Dennis, a boy addicted to cigarettes and solitude. Despite his tough exterior, Dennis seems to understand Leslie in a way that no one ever has, and to need her as much as she needs him. For the first time in her life, Leslie feels like she could belong. She's just not sure where.

About Riley

Riley Graham lives in North Carolina with her husband, two dogs, two cats, and an embarrassing number of dust bunnies. She likes to think of them as her muses--the dust bunnies, that is. The dogs and cats keep her sane when they're not driving her insane, and the husband . . . well, that's classified information.

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This book reminds me of the movie Crash; a bunch of characters thrown together to make a whole. It's something I don't particularly like. This book is in Leslie's perspective but there isn't much happening to her just everyone around her. I just didn't see where the story was going so I couldn't finish it. I was at 91% and thinking when was Leslie going to be happy. I would have liked to read about any other character in the book other than her. I think all the other characters had more depth to them, Leslie was just plain and didn't have real problems like the others. This book had a really good synopsis but that's about it. Once I started getting into the story then I figured something good was going to happen like a good romance, but it didn't happened. When I read a book I'm looking for a good romance, this book's blurb says clearly that Leslie finds love, but if I have to wait until 91% or more for a romance to happen, it's not worth it to me. What type of romance can you have/create with only 10% of the book? 

So if you're the kind of person that liked the movie Crash and like books that have more important and life changing things happening to other characters and not the main character then this book is for you, but it's not for me. I think the book would have worked better the book was in the other characters' perspectives as well and that somehow they found a happy ending, but up until I read everything was unresolved for everyone and I don't get how all that can get resolved in 10% of the book unless it was rushed.  

Wrecked By Priscilla West On Sale

To celebrate the release of Rescued (Wrecked 2), Wrecked will be on sale for $0.99 from February 23-25. 

My Review For Wrecked
My Review For Rescued - Wrecked 2

My Rating 

“There would be no happy ending for us. He was too damaged. I was too broken.”

Two years ago, Lorrie’s mother was murdered. But that wasn’t the end of it. Reeling from the tragedy, Lorrie’s father spiraled into alcohol, depression, and finally suicide.

The two most important people in Lorrie’s life are both gone but she’s still alive.

Trying to recover from the tragedy, Lorrie returns to campus, ready to pick up the pieces of her life. All Lorrie wants is to get back to “normal.”

Then she meets Hunter. The man, the legend, “the Hammer.”

Hunter is a cage fighter who takes on every fight like he’s got nothing to lose. His life is a tangled mess of girls, booze, and fist fights. And while it may seem like he’s got a devil-may-care attitude, he’s fighting a private cage-match with a monster he can’t defeat.

Lorrie knows that Hunter is the exact type of guy she should stay away from, especially in her fragile state, but Hunter has other ideas.

As Hunter and Lorrie grow closer together, will they be able to overcome their pain and heal each other? Or will they both end up wrecked?

My Rating 

“There would be no happy ending for us. He was too damaged. I was too broken.”

The conclusion to USA Today bestselling author Priscilla West’s New Adult Novel Wrecked.

Wrecked should be read before this book.

Lorrie’s semester started off hopeful but ended in disaster. Now, she’s even more lost and confused than she was at the beginning of the year. As Lorrie flees to the only family she has left, she has to come to terms with how things ended with Hunter.

Hunter has fought for so long to keep the truth from Lorrie in an effort to protect her, but that has only caused more heartache and pain.

Realizing his mistake, Hunter has made a vow to get Lorrie back, but is it too late?

Will Hunter be able to overcome his own demons and help Lorrie through her pain, or are they destined to keep hurting each other?

About Priscilla

Priscilla West is the author of the Sandstone Affair and the Surrender series. She likes to write stories with sassy heroines and strong but flawed heroes.

She enjoys: cuddles, men in suits, eskimo kisses, life-sized teddy bears, and eggs over medium.

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These books are really good and it was really great working with Priscilla. I hope you check them out.

Review: Mustang Sassy By Daire St. Denis

Mustang Sassy

By Daire St. Denis

Contemporary Romance

Source: ARC From Netgalley
Publisher: Entangled: Edge
Published: February 24, 2014

Goodreads

Buy: Amazon Kindle Edition

My Rating: 

When Sass Hogan catches her boyfriend slow-dancing and doing the tongue-tango with Tori Double-D-Cup Hunter, she pays him back the only way she knows how—by taking a tire iron to his beloved ’67 Mustang Fastback. There’s only one problem. She’s destroyed the wrong car.
 
Jordan Michaels wants his car fixed, now, and he wants Sass’s auto body shop to do it.  But the handsome blond has a secret−he’s really Jordan Carlyle of Carlyle’s Classics, Hogan’s biggest competitor, and he’s determined to prove himself to his family. 

As Sass and Jordan get to know each other, the depth of the attraction has them falling in love. But a relationship based on lies will only leave them primed for the worst wreck of their lives. 

Contemporary romance author, adventure seeker, seasonal hermit and wine lover...

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"I'm scared too, you know. I think love is supposed to be scary. Kind of like driving fast."

"When you drive fast, so fast you're on the verge of losing control," Jordan kept talking and kissing. "There's nothing like it..." 

"It's exhilarating-- " 

"Yet dangerous."

"That's love, Sass"

"Is that how you feel?"

"You better believe it." Jordan said.

"Dammit Sass," Jordan whispered. "I suspect loving you will be the best ride of my life."

I had to fight with this book to keep my attention. Sassy rebuilt cars in a shop owned by her father so there was a lot of mechanic talk that I didn't get. I'm guessing Sass would be the dream girl of a guy that loved cars cause she did as well. She's very spunky and doesn't take crap from nobody. Yet it still didn't keep my attention, I can't really put my finger on it. For one thing, I think the book is too long. I also liked Jordan's character better than Sass; he was on a mission. He had to impress his family and make them believe that he wasn't a screw up. I feel like Jordan's character was more well rounded and more believable. So much happened to Sass and if I were her, I would have freaked out in a very bad way and then had a nervous breakdown, so the fact that she didn't wasn't working for me and I didn't get how she could be semi-fine with everything. She wasn't a character I could have related to, not her job or her personality.

My favorite parts of this book were the cover and the ending. Which turns out that Jordan is pretty sweet, I got a gleam of that the first time Sass and him were together where he wanted her to spend the night to actually be with her but all she wanted was a 'wam-bam, thank you ma'am' sort of deal. 

I do however recommend this book to those of you out there that like antique cars or that know anything about cars. Jordan sketches cars and in one he describes it as the sketch that is based on the past, present, and the future. So Jordan is also an artist, so those who like art might enjoy this as well.

Feature Follow # 11

Feature Follow is a weekly blog hop. For more information and to join go to Parajunkee'sblog or Alison Can Read's Blog This weekly feature is all about meeting new bloggers and making new friends. Post a comment on this post saying that you're a follower and I will follow back.

Question of the Week: What was the last book that made you cry?

The last time for me was a few months ago while I was finishing Stealing Harper by Molly McAdams My Review. I felt so confused, pissed off, sad, emotional, and all emotions balled into one except happiness. I love the beginning and middle of the book, it was one of the best ones I've read but the ending killed it for me (in a quite literal sense.) Days after reading it I was still balling my eyes out cause I was so freaking confused as to what the efff.... happened.

It was the second book in a series & I didn't know that at the time, so when I read the first book I was even more pissed off and till this day I haven't finished reading it. Nothing about the first books makes me happy. 

There's also the book Holding on And Letting Go (The Ties That Bind Us # 1 ). My Review
Omg this book was really sad, it's about a sixteen year old girl dealing with her little brother's death. This book is so raw with emotion that if you haven't been through a loss it puts you right there with the character, and if you have experienced that you feel an instant connection to the character and know that what she's going through is heartbreaking, intense, soul shattering. It was a really great book and I think it's better than The Fault In Our Stars. People say that it was so sad, but I read it after I read Holding On And Letting Go and The Fault In Our Stars had nothing on it. I just thought that TFIOS was lacking emotion, although that book made me cry as well, it was just more overwhelming with the other book.

                  

Review: Rescued - Wrecked 2 By Priscilla West

Rescued - Wrecked 2

Author: Priscilla West

Source: Received an ARC From Author For Review 

Published: February 24, 2014

Goodreads
Buy: Amazon Paperback

My Rating: 

My Review For Wrecked 1 

“There would be no happy ending for us. He was too damaged. I was too broken.”

The conclusion to USA Today bestselling author Priscilla West’s New Adult Novel Wrecked.

Wrecked should be read before this book.

Lorrie’s semester started off hopeful but ended in disaster. Now, she’s even more lost and confused than she was at the beginning of the year. As Lorrie flees to the only family she has left, she has to come to terms with how things ended with Hunter.

Hunter has fought for so long to keep the truth from Lorrie in an effort to protect her, but that has only caused more heartache and pain.

Realizing his mistake, Hunter has made a vow to get Lorrie back, but is it too late?

Will Hunter be able to overcome his own demons and help Lorrie through her pain, or are they destined to keep hurting each other?

Priscilla West is the author of the Sandstone Affair and the Surrender series. She likes to write stories with sassy heroines and strong but flawed heroes.

She enjoys: cuddles, men in suits, eskimo kisses, life-sized teddy bears, and eggs over medium.

Contact Info:

Website

Goodreads

"If it wasn't for you, I'd still be hiding in bed, afraid of the world, afraid of everything. Every time I fell, it was your strength that picked me up off the floor so don't you dare say you're weak. You're the strongest person I've ever met!" She said.

"You still think I'm strong? he asked, "Even after you've seen how scared I am?"  

"There's nothing wrong with being scared. I'm scared too. Maybe I'm even more scared that you, but someone I love once told me that 'when you're in a fight being afraid of getting hit is worse than the hit itself ' "

This story was filled with heartbreaking, raw emotions. In the first book Wrecked, we learned about Lorrie and what she was going through, In Rescued we learn about Hunter and what he's dealing with. We also get to see how they come together and deal with their problems together. 

Rescued started off where Wrecked left off; Lorrie went home to her aunt and cousins. She left school because she had to get her head together and couldn't concentrate on her classes. Hunter came to look for her and her aunt insisted that he stayed at their house. This is where the story takes off as Hunter and Lorrie learn to deal with their problems together. I can't help but feel for these characters. They're dealing with total opposite issues but they're at a stand-still non the less. Lorrie is dealing with loss and Hunter is dealing with the uncertainty of his feature. Each story on it's own would be emotional enough but put them together and OMG that is the feels on overload. I am glad that they have each other because what one lacks the other has plenty of so they're well balanced. 

I think for me it was harder to read Hunter's parts because of everything he was going through. Seeing things from his perspective was a real eye opener, I learned quite a bit. I hated that he would beat himself up because of what was happening to him, but when he got over that then they really started to heal each other. 

I really enjoyed this book, even though it was hard to read at times because of the subject matter in both Lorrie and Hunters cases, this book was really good. It felt real to me, everything came together really well and often times I was so lost in the story I forgot I was reading. I was very happy with the ending because seriously Hunter had me nervous from the middle to the end. I was sitting at the edge of my seat waiting to see if my deepest fear for this character would come true; I wouldn't know how Lorrie would deal with it, and I would hope she wouldn't do what her father did. So, when I read the ending I was extremely happy for myself as well as Lorrie and Hunter.

It was such a pleasure working with Priscilla, she's so great. I wish her the best and I know Rescued is going to be another big hit.

Spotlight: Conspirators of the Lost Sock Army and the Loose Change Collection Agency By Dan O'Brien

You’re never too old to have one more adventure. Brought to life by Steve Ferchaud’s vibrant drawings, this story for all ages by Dan O’Brien lets us know that it is never too late to have one more adventure.

Purchase it on Amazon

Some images from the book:

About the Author:

Dan O’Brien, founder and editor-in-chief of Amalgam Publishing, has written 15 novels (all before the age of 30) including the bestselling Bitten, which was featured on Conversations Book Club’s Top 100 novels of 2012. Before starting Amalgam, he was the senior editor and marketing director for an international magazine. In addition, he has spent over a decade in the publishing industry as a freelance editor. You can learn more about his literary and publishing consulting business by visiting his website at: www.amalgamconsulting.com. Contact him today to order copies of the book or have them stocked at your local bookstore. Email

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