This Girl by Colleen Hoover

Title: This Girl (Slammed #3)
Author: Colleen Hoover 
Publisher: Atria Books
Release date: April 30th 2013 (ebook)
                     August 13th 2013 (paperback)
Source: Netgalley
Format: egalley
Reading level: Ages 18 and up

Rating: 4 / 5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

You can read my review of Slammed - here & Point of Retreat - here

There are two sides to every love story. Now hear Will’s.

Colleen Hoover’s New York Times bestselling Slammed series has brought countless readers to their knees with a whirlwind of love, passion, and heartache.

Layken and Will’s love has managed to withstand the toughest of circumstances and the young lovers, now married, are beginning to feel safe and secure in their union. As much as Layken relishes their new life together, she finds herself wanting to know everything there is to know about her husband, even though Will makes it clear he prefers to keep the painful memories of the past where they belong. Still, he can’t resist his wife’s pleas and so he begins to untangle his side of the story, revealing for the first time his most intimate feelings and thoughts, retelling both the good and bad moments, and sharing a few shocking confessions of his own from the time when they first met.

In This Girl, Will tells the story of their complicated relationship from his point of view. Their future rests on how well they deal with the past in this final installment of the beloved Slammed series.

This Girl starts off exactly right where Point of Retreat left off, Will and Layken have overcome the drama, misunderstandings and doubts, so now they are finally together, Layken wants to reminiscent their firsts, the first time they meet, their first date, their first kiss and part of the drama that happened in the first few months after they learned that they could not be together because of Will´s work. Most of the book is about what happened in Slammed told from Will´s POV, So that the plot alternates between past and present.

I read Slammed in September last year and I didn´t remember all the details, I really like to relive the key moments of the first book in this trilogy and also find out some things that happened at that time and Layken didn´t know... There were also sad times in which Will remembers his parents (I don´t remember if this was on Slammed).

The only thing that can break the unbreakable is the unthinkable.

And hilarious moments involving Kel and Caulder (Layken´s and Will´s little brothers respectively), especially Kel, this boy is so funny... and also there is a particularly funny moment with Kiersten, this girl is just so blunt. My only problem is that I wanted to read more about this lovable characters.

This Girl is a book that I really loved, It isn´t as repetitive as I though it would be, because there were many new moments, that I didn´t  read on Slammed and that allowed me to see what Will was thinking and felt since the first moment he meet Layken and also there are new slam poems. And what I loved the most is the epilogue, is a perfect ending to this wonderful trilogy; that is among my favorites.

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher in exchange of an honest review.

Cover Reveal: Darker Days by Jus Accardo

Darker Days (Darker Agency #1) by Jus Accardo

Release date: August 2013

Synopsis

Jessie Darker goes to high school during the day, but at night she helps with the family investigation business. Cheating husbands and stolen inheritances? They’re your girls—but their specialty is a bit darker. Zombie in your garage? Pesky Poltergeist living in your pool? They’ll have the problem solved in a magical minute. For a nominal fee, of course...

When gorgeous new client, Lukas Scott, saunters into the office requesting their help to find a stolen box, it sounds like a simple case—until the truth comes out. The box is full of Sin.

Seven deadly ones, in fact.

They’ve got five days to recapture the Sins before they're recalled by the box, taking seven hijacked human bodies with them. Easy peasy—except for one thing...

There’s a spell that will allow the Sins to remain free, causing chaos forever. When the key ingredient threatens the life of someone she knows, Jessie must make the ultimate choice between love and family—or lose everything. 

Excerpt

“So not your biggest fan at the moment,” I said, closing the office door behind me. The runofffrom my jeans had soaked my sneakers pretty good. With each step, I gave a slight squishing noise accompanied by an annoying squeak against the old tile floor.

From across the room, Mom stared. “What happened to you?”
            “It attacked me.” Tossing my bag on the couch, I sank into her chair and made sure to grind my butt into the cushion. Got it nice and wet. I was all about sharing the love—and right now, the love was soggy.
            She laughed, waving a folder in my direction. “Surely you’re overreacting. It was one little zombie. They don’t attack people.”
            “I’m serious, Ma. It tried to drown me. And the client assaulted me with ugly footwear. As far as punishments go, I’d say we’re probably square. I’ve learned my lesson.”
            “You’re serious?” Amused expression now replaced by concern, she crossed the room and leaned over her desk to get a better look at me.
            “As a coronary.” Once I was sure the chair had sponged up all it could, I stood and huffed past her. Pulling at my favorite T-shirt—the word Fate inside a blood red heart, is a four letter word on the back—I said, “Child welfare would not be happy to hear you tried to feed your only child to a walking corpse…”
“But why would it attack? Did you provoke it?” Folding her arms, she frowned. “Insult it, perhaps?”
            I winked at her. “Provoke it? Sure. I went and wiggled my ass in front of it yelling lunch just to see what’d happen.” I’d called it Stinky, but that didn’t count as an insult. Something couldn’t be considered an insult if it was true, right?
            Right eyebrow twitching, she fought against a smile. “But you’re okay, right? No bites, broken bones, head injuries, possessions…?”
I smiled and did a little twirl. “All in one piece and still me.”
Mom had a checklist she went through at the end of each job. I was known for taking almost as much damage as I inflicted.
“Oh, and you’re probably going to get a call from the client. I sorta smashed her fence in the process.”
            Mom groaned. “I told you to be more careful.”
            “It’s not like I tried to break anything.”
            “Something tells me you didn’t try hard enough not to break anything, either.”
            “In my defense, it wasn’t a simple trap and slap…”
            “We can’t afford this.” She reached down and pulled a white envelope out from under a stack of papers. “This is the bill for that Mercedes you smashed.”
            “Oh! So not my fault. How was I supposed to know that Spring Heel was gonna land on the car? If it makes you feel any better, I think he was aiming for my head…”
            “If you keep this up, we won’t even be able to afford the rent.”
            She was right, of course, and it made me feel horrible. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m a wrecking ball wrapped in blue jeans. Take my cut of this job and put it toward the repairs. Keep my paycheck for the next month, too.” A good start, but it didn’t feel like enough. Sure, it would cover the damages—I hoped—but I felt guilty about upsetting her. The bills that were piling up kept her awake at night. This was only going to make things worse. We got a fair amount of business, but the overhead in our line of work was sky high.
As much as I hated the idea, I knew what would cheer her up. “I’ll even throw in pet possessions for the next month.”

About Jus Accardo
JUS ACCARDO spent her childhood reading and learning to cook. Determined to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps as a chef, she applied and was accepted to the Culinary Institute of America. At the last minute, she realized her path lay with fiction, not food, and passed on the spot to pursue writing. Jus is the bestselling author the popular Denazen series from Entangled publishing and is currently working on the first book in a new adult series due out summer 2013. A native New Yorker, she lives in the middle of nowhere with her husband, three dogs, and sometimes guard bear, Oswald.

Find Jus Accardo : Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook

WOW (77): These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

The book I´m waiting this week is

These Broken Stars (Starbound #1) by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

Release date: December 10th 2013

It's a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone.

Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they’re worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help.

Then, against all odds, Lilac and Tarver find a strange blessing in the tragedy that has thrown them into each other’s arms. Without the hope of a future together in their own world, they begin to wonder—would they be better off staying here forever?

Everything changes when they uncover the truth behind the chilling whispers that haunt their every step. Lilac and Tarver may find a way off this planet. But they won’t be the same people who landed on it.

The first in a sweeping science fiction trilogy, These Broken Stars is a timeless love story about hope and survival in the face of unthinkable odds.

Why I'm Waiting?

This book sounds really good and I love the book cover.

What book are you waiting this week?

Leave your WOW links

Don´t forget to enter to my current giveaway:

May New Release Giveaway Hop (INTL) - HERE.

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

Title: Hopeless (Hopeless #1)
Author: Colleen Hoover 
Publisher: Self-published
Release date: December 19th 2012
Reading level: Ages 18 and up

Rating: 5/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than believing the lies…

That’s what seventeen-year-old Sky realizes after she meets Dean Holder. A guy with a reputation that rivals her own and an uncanny ability to invoke feelings in her she’s never had before. He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried.

Sky struggles to keep him at a distance knowing he’s nothing but trouble, but Holder insists on learning everything about her. After finally caving to his unwavering pursuit, Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life will change forever.

After reading Slammed, Point of Retreat and now Hopeless, which are among my favorites NA novels. I've become a big fan of Colleen Hoover, she´s an excellent writer and I love her books. And the title of this book is perfect.

Hopeless is a wonderful, extraordinary, beautiful, sad, intense, it broke my heart more than once, it left me stunned at other times, this book is an emotional rollercoaster. After reading the synopsis you can have an idea about where the story goes and to some extent predict it, but I was completely wrong in several of my predictions and on more of one occasion I could not believe what I was reading and I was in shock. With this book I laugh, cry and it literally left me speechless.

This story is told entirely from the point of view of Sky, a girl who is about to turn 18 year-old and is for the first time attending public school because she used to be homeschooled. And she has never been attracted to guys or girls (the check both just in case), that is until she meets Holder, he makes her feel lust and desire for the first time, something she had never felt with any of the guys she has kissed (which have been many). But Holder not just make her feel desire he also make her feel afraid, so at the beginning she doesn´t know how to react to him, but Holder is a very persistent guy, so something do happen between them. Holder is weird  sometimes and sometimes he is just to lovable and occasionally he drifts off, this because he has a secret that affects them both.

Both as Sky and Holder are very lovable characters, I liked them very much, although there was a time I did not know what was happening in Holder´s mind, but after the big reveal, I LOVE him!

I highly recommend this book for adults, since some of the topics are unsuitable for younger readers. I'm dying to read Losing Hope, which will be told from the point of view of Holder.

Top Ten Tuesday (9):Top Ten Favorite Book Covers Of Books I've Read

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.

Top Ten Favorite Book Covers Of Books I've Read
(in no particular order)

1. Die for Me (Die for Me #1) by Amy Plum 

2. Stormdancer (The Lotus War #1) by Jay Kristoff 

3. Everneath (Everneath #1) by Brodi Ashton

4. Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin #1) by Robin LaFevers 

5. Drink, Slay, Love by Sarah Beth Durst 

6. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #1) by Michelle Hodkin 

7. Nightshade (Nightshade #1) by Andrea Cremer

8. Unraveling (Unraveling #1) by Elizabeth Norris

9. Tempest (Tempest #1) by Julie Cross

10. Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices #2) by Cassandra Clare

What are you favorite book cover of books you´ve read? 

Leave me your links!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted by Book Journey.

Each week we spotlight the books we are reading, planning on reading or just finished reading.

Click on the image to look description in Goodreads.

Finished reading

Currently reading

What I´m going to read next? 

What are you reading today? 

Leave me your links!

Have a great week! 

On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves

Title: On the Island (On the Island #1)
Author: Tracey Garvis Graves
Publisher: Plume
Release date: June 7th 2012
Reading level: Ages 18 and up

Rating: 5/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

When thirty-year-old English teacher Anna Emerson is offered a job tutoring T.J. Callahan at his family's summer rental in the Maldives, she accepts without hesitation; a working vacation on a tropical island trumps the library any day.

T.J. Callahan has no desire to leave town, not that anyone asked him. He's almost seventeen and if having cancer wasn't bad enough, now he has to spend his first summer in remission with his family - and a stack of overdue assignments - instead of his friends.

Anna and T.J. are en route to join T.J.'s family in the Maldives when the pilot of their seaplane suffers a fatal heart attack and crash-lands in the Indian Ocean. Adrift in shark-infested waters, their life jackets keep them afloat until they make it to the shore of an uninhabited island. Now Anna and T.J. just want to survive and they must work together to obtain water, food, fire, and shelter.

Their basic needs might be met but as the days turn to weeks, and then months, the castaways encounter plenty of other obstacles, including violent tropical storms, the many dangers lurking in the sea, and the possibility that T.J.'s cancer could return. As T.J. celebrates yet another birthday on the island, Anna begins to wonder if the biggest challenge of all might be living with a boy who is gradually becoming a man.

This book reminds me of the movies Cast Away with Tom Hanks and Blue Lagoon with Brooke Shields, it has romance and adventure in the style of these films.

On the Island tells the story of Anna a teacher that agreed to tutor T.J. a sixteen years-old boy on her summer vacation that because he was sick with cancer and he needs to catch up in class to not fail the year. And what can be better that tutor a boy on the island Maldives, so that´s a win-win situation for her.

Anna and T.J. didn´t known each other before these vacations/tutorials and they end up making the trip to the island together, since T.J.´s  family traveled days before. And is during that trip that their seaplane crashes into the ocean and they end up on a deserted island, there they must learn to survive the day to day.

Something I did not see how it would work it was the romance, as there is a difference of thirteen years between them and T.J. was a minor at the beginning of the book. But the romance was not instantaneous and neither was something like "because we are the only man and woman on this island ......" in fact the romance takes time to come, as they first became very good friends and spend the time necessary for T.J. ceases to be a minor, also they come to rely heavily on each other and although T.J. attraction toward Anna develops before, Anna takes a little longer to see T.J. as more than a friend, because she was very aware of the age difference. Also very important is that she was aware that the romance could only be possible on the island, but what would happen to them if one day they were rescued and they returned to their old lives..

I LOVED On the Island! love it, love it!, This is a beautiful story that I will definitely read more than once. This book has adventure, survival, suspense (there were several scenes that include a shark...i was a nervous wreck), romance (I loved the romance), all very balanced and most importantly it has a happy ending. On the Island is an epic love story.

Book Cover Battle #44: Ashfall by Mike Mullin

This section or meme is call Book Cover Battle, the first time I saw it was at Books Passion for Life as UK vs US  and  Bookaholics book club as UK vs The World but because I don´t live in the UK, I can´t name it that way, so for now is Book Cover Battle .

This week book cover battle is

Ashfall by Mike Mullin

Click on the image to go to Goodreads

US (hardback)                        US (paperback)

Spain

Of the three books, if they were side by side in a bookstore my first choice would be the US harcover, I really liked it! it has an apocalyptic vibe.

The second would be the spanish cover because I like books with red covers.

And finally, I'm not sure if I would pick the US paperback cover.

What do you think? Which is your favorite? 

The Calling by Kelley Armstrong

Title: The Calling (Darkness Rising #2)
Author: Kelley Armstrong 
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release date: April 10th 2012

Rating: 4/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

You can read my review of The Gathering - here

Maya Delaney's paw-print birthmark is the mark of what she truly is -a skin-walker. She can run faster, climb higher, and see better than nearly everyone else. Experiencing intense connections with the animals that roam the woods outside her home, Maya knows it's only a matter of time before she's able to Shift and become one of them. And she believes there may be others in her small town with surprising talents.

Now Maya and her friends have been forced to flee from their homes during a forest fire they suspect was deliberately set. Then they're kidnapped, and after a chilling helicopter crash, they find themselves in the Vancouver Island wilderness with nothing but their extraordinary abilities to help them get back home.

In THE CALLING, the sizzling second book in the Darkness Rising trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong pumps up the romance, danger, and suspense that left readers of THE GATHERING clamoring for more.

I really loved this book but not as much as The Gathering, in this book there is more action, a bit of suspense and romance, but I felt a huge deja vu comparing it against The Awakening, the second book in the Darkest Powers series, although there are several things that are different, I could not help but compare them.

The book begins moments after the events in The Gathering, Maya and some of her friends are in a helicopter in route to meet with their families, when the blessed helicopter crashes leaving them in an uninhabited part of the island of Vancouver, filled with predators and certain people trying to catch them. So most of the book is them trying to stay safe while returning home. What I really liked was that I was able to see more interaction between Maya and her best friend Daniel, seeing how well they understood and trust in each other.

This is a very good second book, but it left me with more questions than in the previous book. The Calling has a cliffhanger ending that left me wanting to read The Rising, the last book in the trilogy and I can´t wait to see Derek, because is hinted that in The Rising, there could be a cameo of my beloved characters from Darkest Powers trilogy.

Book trailer

Waiting on Wednesday (76): Alienated by Melissa Landers

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

The book I´m waiting this week is

Alienated (Alienated #1) by Melissa Landers 

Release date: February 4th 2014

Interplanetary relations have never been more exciting! The first in a funny, romantic YA sci-fi series.

Two years ago, the aliens made contact. Now Cara Sweeney is going to be sharing a bathroom with one of them.

Handpicked to host the first-ever L’eihr exchange student, Cara thinks her future is set. Not only does she get a free ride to her dream college, she’ll have inside information about the mysterious L’eihrs that every journalist would kill for. Cara’s blog following is about to skyrocket.

Still, Cara isn’t sure what to think when she meets Aelyx. Humans and L’eihrs have nearly identical DNA, but cold, infuriatingly brilliant Aelyx couldn’t seem more alien. She’s certain about one thing, though: no human boy is this good-looking.

But when Cara's classmates get swept up by anti-L'eihr paranoia, Midtown High School suddenly isn't safe anymore. Threatening notes appear in Cara's locker, and a police officer has to escort her and Aelyx to class.

Cara finds support in the last person she expected. She realizes that Aelyx isn’t just her only friend; she's fallen hard for him. But Aelyx has been hiding the truth about the purpose of his exchange, and its potentially deadly consequences. Soon Cara will be in for the fight of her life—not just for herself and the boy she loves, but for the future of her planet.

Why I'm Waiting?

This just sounds really good and I like YA sci-fi books.

What book are you waiting this week?

Leave your WOW links