Saturday, June 28, 2014

FF: My Fave Mugs


This weekly link-up is hosted by Parajunkee & Alison Can Read!

Please follow me on Bloglovin' & I'll follow you!
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Question of the Week: Post a photo of your favorite coffee mug (or mugs if you can’t choose just one).

I must admit that I have 2 that I use when drinking tea or coffee at work or while I read. Both mugs are representative of my relationship with my friends.

My friends and I are slightly obsessed with The Golden Girls and like buying each other presents on that theme. My friend Jen is a Rose, Emma is a Dorothy, and Nan is a Blanche (although not in the slutty sense), which leaves me being Sophia. I am the most sarcastic of the lot, so I'll be Sophia. For this past Christmas, I bought us a set of mugs - 1 for each of us. Mine is the Sophia one, of course. :)


My 2nd mug has a pic of Jen on it, smiling, in a turtleneck . . . in the ocean. As a teacher, she gets yearly photos, and a few years ago, we thought it would be funny to buy mugs with her pic on them. Apparently you can now put your child's school photo on any number of things like a mouse pad, So, here's my Jen mug:


Wednesday, June 18, 2014

TTT: Top Ten Books on My TBR List for the Summer

From the Broke & the Bookish

I'm a new book blogger, so please follow me!
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PLEASE DO ME A FAVOR!! I am going to a HUGE $1/$2 overflow booksale at the end of June. I'm interested in anything you liked that is YA or NA out within the past 5 years (thru 2013) EXCEPT sci-fi, fantasy or dystopian society books. Please stop by THIS POST and comment with your fave MUST-READ books from 2008 - 2013 so that I can get my list ready!!

Top Ten Books on My TBR List for the Summer

1. Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

2. Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay

3. Fall of Night: The Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine

4. The Disappearing Girl by Heather Topham Wood

5. Love Show by Audrey Bell

6. Waiting in the Wings by Melissa Brayden

7. Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy Book 1) by Sarah Rees Brennan

8. The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet by Bernie Su & Kate Rorick

9. Be with Me: A Novel (Wait for You) by J Lynn

10. Golden by Jessi Kirby

Monday, June 16, 2014

The Possibility of Us by Lisa Burstein

The Possibility of Us
by Lisa Burstein

Add to Goodreads | Purchase on Amazon
Published by: Entangled Publishing LLC on June 13, 2014
Genres: New Adult, Drugs
Source: ARC from Publisher
Rating: 2 Stars

NOTICE: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

One weekend together could change everything…

When her friend called to tell her about the funeral, Cassie wanted to say no. She had enough to handle with her own hollow existence. But she knew she should pay her respects to her old camp counselor…as long as her ex, Ben, wouldn’t be there.

Except Ben is there. Still gorgeous, still angry, and still able to penetrate her defenses with one intense stare. All the reasons they left each other in a flurry of heartache start to fall away over one long, snowy weekend.

But tough Cassie can’t truly open up to Ben when she knows confessing her secrets will leave her raw, defenseless. And the possibility of forever might not be enough to gamble on all the impossibilities of now.


I was excited to read this book, because I like books about camp romances and rekindling those romances. What I did not expect to find was that the camp in question was a wilderness camp for troubled youth. Everyone who attended it was either a drug addict, an alcoholic or someone involved in crime. That's not really my scene. The F-word was thrown around in every other sentence, and that's not my thing either. I don't mind the use of it if it's used sparingly and properly, but not as normal conversation. To say the characters were rough around the edges is an understatement.

If this book were marketed correctly, I think it would have an audience, but in this case, it was marketed falsely and I did not enjoy it one bit.

Friday, June 13, 2014

What It Was Like by Peter Seth

What It Was Like
by Peter Seth

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Published by: The Story Plant on September 2, 2014
Genres: Drama, First Love, Obsession, Sociopaths
Source: ARC from Publisher
Rating: 4 Stars

NOTICE: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

“It’s really a very simple story. What happened was this: I met this girl and did a very stupid thing. I fell in love. Hard. I know that to some people that makes me an idiot and a loser. What can I say? They’re right. I did some extremely foolish things; I’m the first to say it. And they’ve left me in jail and alone.”

It is the summer of 1968 and a young man takes a job at a camp in upstate New York before starting his first semester at Columbia University. There, he meets Rachel Price, a fellow counselor who is as beautiful as she is haunted. Their romance will burn with a passion neither of them has ever known before…a passion with the power to destroy.

I love to watch the Investigation Discovery Channel and all of the deadly couples it features. I was eager to read this book as it sounded like something I would enjoy. I also like reading things in diary form, and this story was presented in that style, with the main character behind bars, telling the real story of what happened during his tragic love affair with Rachel Price.

The story kept me on my toes and was an interesting read. The author did a wonderful job of giving the little details the reader needed in order to formulate their own minds about the main characters and where the story would ultimately go. I highly recommend this if you like first-person accounts, young but troubled love, and crime . . .

FF - Armchair Travel



This weekly link-up is hosted by Parajunkee & Alison Can Read!

Please follow me on Bloglovin' & I'll follow you!
Follow on Bloglovin

ALSO: If YOU would stop by THIS POST & list a fave book or two of yours from 2008-2013, I'd be grateful. I'm going to a HUGE booksale at the end of June!

Armchair Travel! Tell us about your favorite book in a setting you’d like to visit (a real place for this question).

I'm going to go with I See London & London Falling by Chanel Cleeton. Check out my book blitz for info on London Falling, the sequel!

Maggie Carpenter is ready for a change—and to leave her ordinary life in South Carolina behind. But when she accepts a scholarship to the International School in London, a university attended by the privileged offspring of diplomats and world leaders, Maggie might get more than she bargained for.

Half French, half Lebanese and ridiculously wealthy, Samir Khouri has made it clear he doesn't do relationships. He's the opposite of everything Maggie thought she wanted…and he's everything she can't resist. Torn between her dream guy and the boy haunting her dreams, Maggie has to fight for her own happy ending. In a city like London, you never know where you stand, and everything can change in the blink of an eye.


London Falling Book Blitz Day 5!

LONDON FALLING by Chanel Cleeton
I See London, book #2
July 7th, 2014
Harlequin HQN (Digital First)
New Adult Contemporary Romance

Read my review here!

We weren't a relationship, we were a ticking time bomb...

Maggie Carpenter walked away from the hottest encounter of her life when she left the seductive glitz of England for summer break in her South Carolina hometown. Now that she’s returned to the International School in London—and sexy, privileged Samir Khouri is once again close enough to touch—she can’t help but remember the attraction, the drama … the heartbreak.

She can’t help but want him even more.

Samir can’t afford to fall for someone so far removed from his world, not when his time in London is running out. It's his senior year—his last chance at freedom before he returns home to Lebanon. There, he’ll be expected to follow in his father’s footsteps—not follow his heart to Maggie. But when a scorching secret hookup becomes a temptation neither can resist, they’ll both have to fight to survive the consequences … and find a future together.

Don’t miss this explosive sequel to I See London, and the riveting conclusion to Maggie and Samir’s story. This is a New Adult romance recommended for readers 17 and up.






For a limited time, I SEE LONDON (the first book in the series) is just .99 cents!Click below to buy & read before this fabulous sequel comes out! They are truly the best books I've read in 2014!! See my review of I SEE LONDON here!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FNJVRYQ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00FNJVRYQ&linkCode=as2&tag=shebecabut-20&linkId=RJIQTM2GG5WN2RZD


WIN A $10 AMAZON GIFT CARD (2 WINNERS):

a Rafflecopter giveaway



AUTHOR BIO:
Originally a Florida girl, at seventeen Chanel moved to London to attend an international university. In the four years that followed, she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, learned how to dance, travelled through Europe, and made lifelong friendships. Chanel fell in love with London and planned to stay there forever. But fate intervened on a Caribbean cruise, when an American fighter pilot with smooth dance moves, swept her off her feet.

Now, a happily ever after later, Chanel is living her next adventure in South Korea. An avid reader and hopeless romantic, she is happiest curled up with a book. She has a weakness for handbags, puppy cuddles, and her fighter pilot husband. Chanel writes New Adult contemporary romances and Young Adult thrillers. Her New Adult debut, I SEE LONDON, will be released by Harlequin (HQN) on February 3, 2014, followed by a sequel, LONDON FALLING, later in the year.

AUTHOR LINKS:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Just a Dream by Heather Boyd

Just a Dream
by Heather Boyd

Add to Goodreads | Purchase on Amazon
Published by: LLD Press on June 9, 2014
Genres: LGBT, Regency Romance
Source: ARC from Publisher
Rating: 3.5 Stars

NOTICE: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

On the surface, Raphael has everything he needs: good friends, a title, and membership to the decadent Hunt Club where forbidden pleasure can be had at a moments notice. Pretending is not what he wants. Expectations by family and friends keep his feelings for Lord Claymore at bay. When his best friend returns to London in a black mood, Rafe sets out to cheer him up and make Claymore’s upcoming birthday an event to remember.

Shaken and uneasy of his growing attraction to men, James has reached an uncomfortable crossroads in his well-ordered, respectable life. Plans to end his torment on his birthday are mere days away. However, his intention to explore forbidden passion just once comes unstuck. Can James follow through with his well-reasoned, sensible decision when a man who knows what he wants, needs him too?


I love Regency and romance, and this was an interesting read. I've never read an LGBT version and I liked what I read. Rafe and "Jimmy" have been best friends forever, neither knowing that the other was gay nor that the other was interested in them as more than friends. This book follows their discovery into genuine love and the problem of hiding their "forbidden" love from society.

Rafe has frequented the Hunt Club for years, a place where he can safely be with men. James has harbored those feelings, but did not know of a way or place he could go and really be himself. As Rafe helps James discover the pleasures of men with men, James finds himself happier than ever, something he didn't think possible at the beginning of the book.

My major problem with the book is that at the end, James is invited to join the Hunt Club, but expresses feelings of apprehension at other members knowing his secret. Instead of delving into what happens when James goes to the club, the book abruptly ends. I felt like I needed more of the story to feel satisfied. I also would have liked to see how Caitlin and Ian's romance played out.

London Falling Book Blitz Day 4!

LONDON FALLING by Chanel Cleeton
I See London, book #2
July 7th, 2014
Harlequin HQN (Digital First)
New Adult Contemporary Romance

Read my review here!

We weren't a relationship, we were a ticking time bomb...

Maggie Carpenter walked away from the hottest encounter of her life when she left the seductive glitz of England for summer break in her South Carolina hometown. Now that she’s returned to the International School in London—and sexy, privileged Samir Khouri is once again close enough to touch—she can’t help but remember the attraction, the drama … the heartbreak.

She can’t help but want him even more.

Samir can’t afford to fall for someone so far removed from his world, not when his time in London is running out. It's his senior year—his last chance at freedom before he returns home to Lebanon. There, he’ll be expected to follow in his father’s footsteps—not follow his heart to Maggie. But when a scorching secret hookup becomes a temptation neither can resist, they’ll both have to fight to survive the consequences … and find a future together.

Don’t miss this explosive sequel to I See London, and the riveting conclusion to Maggie and Samir’s story. This is a New Adult romance recommended for readers 17 and up.




For a limited time, I SEE LONDON (the first book in the series) is just .99 cents!Click below to buy & read before this fabulous sequel comes out! They are truly the best books I've read in 2014!! See my review of I SEE LONDON here!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FNJVRYQ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00FNJVRYQ&linkCode=as2&tag=shebecabut-20&linkId=RJIQTM2GG5WN2RZD


WIN A $10 AMAZON GIFT CARD (2 WINNERS):

a Rafflecopter giveaway



AUTHOR BIO:
Originally a Florida girl, at seventeen Chanel moved to London to attend an international university. In the four years that followed, she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, learned how to dance, travelled through Europe, and made lifelong friendships. Chanel fell in love with London and planned to stay there forever. But fate intervened on a Caribbean cruise, when an American fighter pilot with smooth dance moves, swept her off her feet.

Now, a happily ever after later, Chanel is living her next adventure in South Korea. An avid reader and hopeless romantic, she is happiest curled up with a book. She has a weakness for handbags, puppy cuddles, and her fighter pilot husband. Chanel writes New Adult contemporary romances and Young Adult thrillers. Her New Adult debut, I SEE LONDON, will be released by Harlequin (HQN) on February 3, 2014, followed by a sequel, LONDON FALLING, later in the year.

AUTHOR LINKS:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads

Something True by Malia Mallory

Something True
by Malia Mallry

Add to Goodreads | Purchase on Amazon
Published by: Fido Publishing on May 24, 2014
Genres: New Adult, Romance, Music
Source: ARC from Publisher
Rating: 2 Stars

NOTICE: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Successful children's musician Shelley Taylor sings for all kids, but especially the sick ones. After her little sister died in childhood, Shelley founded the music charity KC's Kidz to entertain hospitalized children.

She didn't sign up to babysit a rockstar.

Irish bad boy superstar Liam Smith is in trouble with the law--again--and needs to perform community service. KC's Kidz seems like the perfect fit, especially since Shelley's as curvy as his favorite guitar and he wants to play her.

Liam's deep green eyes strike a chord in Shelley, and she makes him want to sing a different tune. But Liam lives in a spotlight so white hot it might burn them both before they discover the true music inside their hearts.


I eagerly wanted to read this book, because I believe strongly in advocating for kids with cancer and because this had a romantic twist. While I loved the premise, I found the book very amateurly written. The spelling was fine. The arc was fine. The problem was the immaturity of the writing. There was no build-up. One minute the Shelley and Liam are at an art viewing, then next Shelley is begging to go home with Liam when there was no indication of anything sexy going on between them. Honestly, I felt like I was reading a story I would've written in early high school minus the sexual content. It was a short, easy read, otherwise, but wholly unsatisfying.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Frenched by Melanie Harlow

Frenched
by Melanie Harlow

Add to Goodreads / Buy at AmazonPublished: March 16, 2014
Genres: New Adult, Romance, 17+ Scenes
Source: ARC from Publisher
Rating: 4 Stars

When Tucker Branch, playboy heir to Branch Bolt and Screw, screws and bolts a week before their wedding, Mia Devine wants nothing more than to crawl under her newly monogrammed sheets and plan a funeral for her dignity. But her friends convince her that bitter tastes better when it’s drowned in Bordeaux, so Mia grits her teeth and packs her bags, determined to make the best of her luxurious Paris honeymoon—alone.

She never planned on meeting Lucas Fournier.

The easygoing bartender’s scruffy good looks and less-than-sympathetic ear annoy her at first, but when she takes him up on his offer to show her around the city, she discovers that the romance of Paris isn’t just a myth.

Nor is the simultaneous O.

The last thing Mia needs is another doomed love affair, but since she only has a week, she figures she might as well enjoy la vie en O with Lucas while she can. But each day—and night—with Lucas is better than the last, and suddenly her heart is telling her this is more than a rebound fling.

Is it just the seduction of Paris…or could this be the real thing?


I was intrigued by the story of a woman who goes on her would-be honeymoon by herself after getting dumped a week before her wedding . . . via text. I've personally been broken up by text after a year and a half relationship, so I could relate. :)

The book is packed with hotness when Mia meets Lucas on her first day in Paris. Under the guise of showing her around the city, Lucas shows Mia the sites as well as other things . . . Pretty soon the line between lust and love is blurred and what was only supposed to last for a week might be something real.

I highly suggest this if you like new adult with hot sex scenes.

London Falling Book Blitz Day 3!

LONDON FALLING by Chanel Cleeton
I See London, book #2
July 7th, 2014
Harlequin HQN (Digital First)
New Adult Contemporary Romance

Read my review here!

We weren't a relationship, we were a ticking time bomb...

Maggie Carpenter walked away from the hottest encounter of her life when she left the seductive glitz of England for summer break in her South Carolina hometown. Now that she’s returned to the International School in London—and sexy, privileged Samir Khouri is once again close enough to touch—she can’t help but remember the attraction, the drama … the heartbreak.

She can’t help but want him even more.

Samir can’t afford to fall for someone so far removed from his world, not when his time in London is running out. It's his senior year—his last chance at freedom before he returns home to Lebanon. There, he’ll be expected to follow in his father’s footsteps—not follow his heart to Maggie. But when a scorching secret hookup becomes a temptation neither can resist, they’ll both have to fight to survive the consequences … and find a future together.

Don’t miss this explosive sequel to I See London, and the riveting conclusion to Maggie and Samir’s story. This is a New Adult romance recommended for readers 17 and up.




For a limited time, I SEE LONDON (the first book in the series) is just .99 cents!Click below to buy & read before this fabulous sequel comes out! They are truly the best books I've read in 2014!! See my review of I SEE LONDON here!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FNJVRYQ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00FNJVRYQ&linkCode=as2&tag=shebecabut-20&linkId=RJIQTM2GG5WN2RZD


WIN A $10 AMAZON GIFT CARD (2 WINNERS):

a Rafflecopter giveaway



AUTHOR BIO:
Originally a Florida girl, at seventeen Chanel moved to London to attend an international university. In the four years that followed, she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, learned how to dance, travelled through Europe, and made lifelong friendships. Chanel fell in love with London and planned to stay there forever. But fate intervened on a Caribbean cruise, when an American fighter pilot with smooth dance moves, swept her off her feet.

Now, a happily ever after later, Chanel is living her next adventure in South Korea. An avid reader and hopeless romantic, she is happiest curled up with a book. She has a weakness for handbags, puppy cuddles, and her fighter pilot husband. Chanel writes New Adult contemporary romances and Young Adult thrillers. Her New Adult debut, I SEE LONDON, will be released by Harlequin (HQN) on February 3, 2014, followed by a sequel, LONDON FALLING, later in the year.

AUTHOR LINKS:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads


Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Sneak Peek: Isla & the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

Isla and the Happily Ever After
by Stephanie Perkins

Add to Goodreads
Published by: Penguin Young Readers Group on August 14, 2014
Genres: YA, Romance,
Source: Sneak Peek ARC from Publisher

Love ignites in the City That Never Sleeps, but can it last?

Hopeless romantic Isla has had a crush on introspective cartoonist Josh since their first year at the School of America in Paris. And after a chance encounter in Manhattan over the summer, romance might be closer than Isla imagined. But as they begin their senior year back in France, Isla and Josh are forced to confront the challenges every young couple must face, including family drama, uncertainty about their college futures, and the very real possibility of being apart.

Featuring cameos from fan-favorites Anna, Étienne, Lola, and Cricket, this sweet and sexy story of true love—set against the stunning backdrops of New York City, Paris, and Barcelona—is a swoonworthy conclusion to Stephanie Perkins’s beloved series.

London Falling Book Blitz Day 2!

LONDON FALLING by Chanel Cleeton
I See London, book #2
July 7th, 2014
Harlequin HQN (Digital First)
New Adult Contemporary Romance

Read my review here!

We weren't a relationship, we were a ticking time bomb...

Maggie Carpenter walked away from the hottest encounter of her life when she left the seductive glitz of England for summer break in her South Carolina hometown. Now that she’s returned to the International School in London—and sexy, privileged Samir Khouri is once again close enough to touch—she can’t help but remember the attraction, the drama … the heartbreak.

She can’t help but want him even more.

Samir can’t afford to fall for someone so far removed from his world, not when his time in London is running out. It's his senior year—his last chance at freedom before he returns home to Lebanon. There, he’ll be expected to follow in his father’s footsteps—not follow his heart to Maggie. But when a scorching secret hookup becomes a temptation neither can resist, they’ll both have to fight to survive the consequences … and find a future together.

Don’t miss this explosive sequel to I See London, and the riveting conclusion to Maggie and Samir’s story. This is a New Adult romance recommended for readers 17 and up.






For a limited time, I SEE LONDON (the first book in the series) is just .99 cents!Click below to buy & read before this fabulous sequel comes out! They are truly the best books I've read in 2014!! See my review of I SEE LONDON here!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FNJVRYQ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00FNJVRYQ&linkCode=as2&tag=shebecabut-20&linkId=RJIQTM2GG5WN2RZD


WIN A $10 AMAZON GIFT CARD (2 WINNERS):

a Rafflecopter giveaway



AUTHOR BIO:
Originally a Florida girl, at seventeen Chanel moved to London to attend an international university. In the four years that followed, she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, learned how to dance, travelled through Europe, and made lifelong friendships. Chanel fell in love with London and planned to stay there forever. But fate intervened on a Caribbean cruise, when an American fighter pilot with smooth dance moves, swept her off her feet.

Now, a happily ever after later, Chanel is living her next adventure in South Korea. An avid reader and hopeless romantic, she is happiest curled up with a book. She has a weakness for handbags, puppy cuddles, and her fighter pilot husband. Chanel writes New Adult contemporary romances and Young Adult thrillers. Her New Adult debut, I SEE LONDON, will be released by Harlequin (HQN) on February 3, 2014, followed by a sequel, LONDON FALLING, later in the year.

AUTHOR LINKS:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads


TTT: Ten Books I've Read So Far This Year

From the Broke & the Bookish

I'm a new book blogger, so please follow me!
Follow on Bloglovin

PLEASE DO ME A FAVOR!! I am going to a HUGE $1/$2 overflow booksale at the end of June. I'm interested in anything you liked that is YA or NA out within the past 5 years (thru 2013) EXCEPT sci-fi, fantasy or dystopian society books. Please stop by THIS POST and comment with your fave MUST-READ books from 2008 - 2013 so that I can get my list ready!!

Top Ten Books I've Read So Far This Year

1. I See London by Chanel Cleeton - Please read my review! Half French, half Lebanese and ridiculously wealthy, Samir Khouri has made it clear he doesn't do relationships. He's the opposite of everything Maggie thought she wanted…and he's everything she can't resist. Torn between her dream guy and the boy haunting her dreams, Maggie has to fight for her own happy ending. In a city like London, you never know where you stand, and everything can change in the blink of an eye.

2. London Falling by Chanel Cleeton - The 2nd book in the London series! Read the HOTT conclusion to Maggie & Samir!

3. Then and Always: A Novel by Dani Atkins - Read my review! - Rachel Wiltshire has everything she’s ever wanted: a close group of friends, a handsome boyfriend, and acceptance to the journalism program at her top-choice college. But one fateful evening, tragedy tears her world apart.

Five years later, Rachel returns home for the first time to celebrate her best friend’s wedding. Still coping with her grief, she can’t stop thinking about the bright future she almost had, if only that one night had gone differently. But when a sudden fall lands her in the hospital, Rachel wakes to find that her life has completely changed. Now the people she loves most are not the way she remembers them. Unable to trust her own recollections, Rachel tries to piece together what really happened, and not even she can predict the astonishing truth.


4. The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu - Read my review! - Everyone knows Alice slept with two guys at one party. When Healy High star quarterback, Brandon Fitzsimmons, dies in a car crash, it was because he was sexting with Alice. Ask anybody.

Rumor has it Alice Franklin is a slut. It's written all over the "slut stall" in the girls' bathroom: "Alice had sex in exchange for math test answers" and "Alice got an abortion last semester." After Brandon dies, the rumors start to spiral out of control. In this remarkable debut novel, four Healy High students tell all they "know" about Alice--and in doing so reveal their own secrets and motivations, painting a raw look at the realities of teen life. But in this novel from Jennifer Mathieu, exactly what is the truth about Alice? In the end there's only one person to ask: Alice herself.


5. Love, in English by Karina Halle - He’s thirty-eight. I’m twenty-three. He speaks Spanish. I speak English. He lives in Spain. I live in Canada. He dresses in thousand-dollar suits. I’m covered in tattoos. He’s married and has a five-year old daughter. I’m single and can’t commit to anyone or anything. Until now. Because when they say you can’t choose who you fall in love with, boy ain’t that the damn truth.

6 & 7. Austenland & Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale - Read my review! - I'm a HUGE Austen fan and loved the movie and the 2nd book! Jane is a young New York woman who can never seem to find the right man-perhaps because of her secret obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Predjudice. When a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-obsessed women, however, Jane's fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become more real than she ever could have imagined. Is this total immersion in a fake Austenland enough to make Jane kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?

8. The Bitches of Brooklyn by Rosemary Harris - Read my review! - Are they really bitches? That depends who you ask...Rachel, Clare, Tina and Jane are four friends awaiting the arrival of a fifth at a secluded Cape Cod bungalow where they spend an all-girls weekend every year since reconnecting at a reunion. But the fifth woman doesn't show. Instead she sends a note that reads - "I've run off with one of your men."

9. If Only by AJ Pine - Read my review! - It's been two years since twenty-year-old Jordan had a boyfriend—which means it's been forever since she, well, you know. But now she’s off to spend her junior year in Aberdeen, Scotland, the perfect place to stop waiting for Mr. Right and just enjoy Mr. Right Now.

Sexy, sweet (and possible player) Griffin may be her perfect, no-strings-attached match. He’s fun, gorgeous, and makes her laugh. So why can’t she stop thinking about Noah who, minutes after being trapped together outside the train’s loo, kisses Jordan like she’s never been kissed before? Never mind his impossible blue eyes, his weathered, annotated copy of The Great Gatsby (total English-major porn)…oh, and his girlfriend.

Jordan knows everything this year has an expiration date. Aberdeen is supposed to be about fun rather than waiting for life to happen. But E. M. Forster, Shakespeare, and mistletoe on Valentine’s Day make her reconsider what love is and how far she’s willing to go for the right guy.


10. You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sarra Manning - Sweet, bookish Neve Slater always plays by the rules. And the number one rule is that good-natured fat girls like her don’t get guys like gorgeous, handsome William, heir to Neve’s heart since university. But William’s been in LA for three years, and Neve’s been slimming down and re-inventing herself so that when he returns, he’ll fall head over heels in love with the new, improved her.

So she’s not that interested in other men. Until her sister Celia points out that if Neve wants William to think she’s an experienced love-goddess and not the fumbling, awkward girl he left behind, then she’d better get some, well, experience.

What Neve needs is someone to show her the ropes, someone like Celia’s colleague Max. Wicked, shallow, sexy Max. And since he’s such a man-slut, and so not Neve’s type, she certainly won’t fall for him. Because William is the man for her… right?

Somewhere between losing weight and losing her inhibitions, Neve’s lost her heart – but to who?