Waiting On Wednesday (113): After the End & Maybe Someday

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

After the End (After the End #1) by Amy Plum

Release date: May 6th 2014 

She’s searching for answers to her past. They’re hunting her to save their future. 

World War III has left the world ravaged by nuclear radiation. A lucky few escaped to the Alaskan wilderness. They've survived for the last thirty years by living off the land, being one with nature, and hiding from whoever else might still be out there. 

At least, this is what Juneau has been told her entire life.

When Juneau returns from a hunting trip to discover that everyone in her clan has vanished, she sets off to find them. Leaving the boundaries of their land for the very first time, she learns something horrifying: There never was a war. Cities were never destroyed. The world is intact. Everything was a lie.

Now Juneau is adrift in a modern-day world she never knew existed. But while she's trying to find a way to rescue her friends and family, someone else is looking for her. Someone who knows the extraordinary truth about the secrets of her past.

Why I'm Waiting?

I like post-apocalyptic novels and this one sounds really good.

Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover 

Release date: March 18th 2014

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover, a passionate tale of friendship, betrayal, and romance—and the enchanting music that inspires one young woman to put her life back together.

At twenty-two years old, aspiring musician Sydney Blake has a great life: She’s in college, working a steady job, in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Hunter, and rooming with her good friend, Tori. But everything changes when she discovers Hunter cheating on her with Tori—and she is left trying to decide what to do next.

Sydney becomes captivated by her mysterious neighbor, Ridge Lawson. She can’t take her eyes off him or stop listening to the daily guitar playing he does out on his balcony. She can feel the harmony and vibrations in his music. And there’s something about Sydney that Ridge can’t ignore, either: He seems to have finally found his muse. When their inevitable encounter happens, they soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one…

From the author of the New York Times bestsellers Slammed, Point of Retreat, Hopeless, This Girl, and Losing Hope, Maybe Someday is destined to become another bestseller and long-lasting fan favorite.

Why I'm Waiting?
Because I´ve read and loved all Colleen´s novels and can´t wait to read more of her books.

What book are you waiting this week?

Leave your WOW links 

Review: Losing Hope by Colleen Hoover

Title: Losing Hope (Hopeless #2)
Author: Colleen Hoover
Publisher: Atria Books
Release date: July 8th 2013
Reading level: Ages 18 and up
Source: Netgalley
Format: egalley

Rating: 5/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

You can read my review of Hopeless - here

In Hopeless, Sky left no secret unearthed, no feeling unshared, and no memory forgotten, but Holder’s past remained a mystery.

Still haunted by the little girl he let walk away, Holder has spent his entire life searching for her in an attempt to finally rid himself of the crushing guilt he has felt for years. But he could not have anticipated that the moment they reconnect, even greater remorse would overwhelm him…

Sometimes in life, if we wish to move forward, we must first dig deep into our past and make amends. In Losing Hope, bestselling author Colleen Hoover reveals what was going on inside Holder’s head during all those hopeless moments—and whether he can gain the peace he desperately needs.

I read Hopeless a few months ago and after reading it I immediately add Losing Hope to my must-read list, first because I loved Hopeless and couldn´t wait to read more about Holder and Sky and second because I really like the books from male point view .... and this book is from Holder´s POV!!!

Losing Hope is not the retelling of Hopeless from the point of view of Holder. The book begins thirteen months before Holder meets Sky and we got to see one of the most difficult moments of Holder´s life, how he is affected by it and how he cope with what happened to his twin. Then comes the moment where he meets Sky and I got to see that moment from his point of view. As well as many other key moments of story and part of their relationship from his point of view but there are a lot of new information in this book about him.

I really liked Holder in Hopeless but I like him more after reading Losing Hope because I understand him a little bit more and I got to see the moments that Sky got confused by the way he reacts, from his point of view, how he was struggling internally during these moments and what was he thinking. Holder is constantly feeling guilty for what happen to the two of the most important women in his life and he suffers greatly for it.

A pleasant surprise in this book were the letters he wrote to his sister and there is one in particular that is really sad. And I loved the ending! because I got to read more about what happened to them after the ending of the first book - Hopeless and there is a letter that left me speechless.

I LOVED Losing Hope!!! it´s a New Adult contemporary novel that is powerfully emotional, extremely intense,  beautifully written and heartbreaking. This book is Pure Perfection! So far I have read the 5 books  published by Colleen Hoover and this is my favorite so far. And I think that is necessary to read both books because there are many important things that happen in Hopeless that you don´t get to see in Losing Hope, so it is necessary to read Hopeless before reading this wonderful book.

Thanks to Atria Books for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

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.

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.

Waiting on Wednesday (70): This Girl

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

This Girl: A Novel (Slammed #3) by Colleen Hoover

Release date (ebook): April 30th 2013

Release date (paperback): August 13th 2013 

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.

Why I'm Waiting?

I loved Slammed and Point of Retreat, and I can´t wait to read Will´s POV!!

What book are you waiting this week?

Leave your WOW links.

Point of Retreat by Colleen Hoover

Title: Point of Retreat (Slammed #2)
Author: Colleen Hoover
Publisher: Atria Books
Release date: September 18th 2012
Source: Netgalley
Format: egalley

Rating: 5/5

Buy it at: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

Hardships and heartache brought them together…now it will tear them apart.

Layken and Will have proved their love can get them through anything; until someone from Will’s past re-emerges, leaving Layken questioning the very foundation on which their relationship was built. Will is forced to face the ultimate challenge…how to prove his love for a girl who refuses to stop ‘carving pumpkins.’

Point of Retreat takes place few weeks after Slammed and everything is going well in the romance between Layken and Will, they´re in love and they help each other and share the responsibility of raising their respective brothers. Then someone comes along and plant the seed of doubt about their relationship on Layken´s mind and she begins to doubt his feelings for her, so Will must convince Layken that his love for her is real and they must be together.

Point of Retreat is told from Will´s POV, which I loved because he´s a great character, his voice is so real and made me love his character even more. Will Cooper is the mature one on the relationship and trying to be the voice of reason. Layken meanwhile is more immature, she throws tantrum but her doubts are reasonable doubts.

In Point of Retreat the amazing secondary characters that I loved on Slammed are back, Eddie, Gavin, Caulder and Kel, but this book also introduces new characters: Sherry and her daughter Kiersten..they´re amazing and it is the latter that steals the spotlight. Kiersten is a 11 year old girl, she´s friend of Kel and Caulder, she is a mini-adult and she speaks her mind about everything. My favorite characters in this book are Will Cooper (swoon) and Kiersten.

Point of Retreat is a amazing contemporary novel!, is poignant, intense, heartbreaking, is also funny and with a twist that I honestly did not see it coming, ..... the last 6 or 7 chapters of the book had me crying (a lot), this book is a emotional roller coaster. And I also loved the poetry Slam. Colleen Hoover is a wonderful writer and I cannot wait to read This Girl third and final book in the trilogy Slammed.

I highly recommend this book if you like intense and poignant contemporary novels.

I want to thank Atria Books and Netgalley for this review copy.

Slammed by Colleen Hoover

Title: Slammed (Slammed #1)
Author: Colleen Hoover
Publisher: Atria Books
Release date: September 18th 2012
Source: Netgalley
Format: egalley

Rating: 4.5 / 5

Buy it at: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

Read excerpt here.

Falling in love can feel like poetry. Or it can feel like a slam to the heart.

Colleen Hoover’s romantic, emotion-packed debut novel unforgettably captures all the magic and confusion of first love, as two young people forge an unlikely bond before discovering that fate has other plans for them.

Following the unexpected death of her father, eighteen-year-old Layken becomes the rock for both her mother and younger brother. She appears resilient and tenacious, but inside, she's losing hope. Then she meets her new neighbor Will, a handsome twenty-one-year-old whose mere presence leaves her flustered and whose passion for poetry slams thrills her.

Not long after a heart-stopping first date during which each recognizes something profound and familiar in the other, they are slammed to the core when a shocking discovery brings their new relationship to a sudden halt. Daily interactions become impossibly painful as they struggle to find a balance between the feelings that pull them together and the forces that tear them apart. Only through the poetry they share are they able to speak the truth that is in their hearts and imagine a future where love is cause for celebration, not regret.

Layken along with her mother and younger brother move from Texas to Michigan shortly after the death of her father and in this new city is where she meets her new neighbor Will Cooper, the attraction between them is undeniable and they have an intense first date, they feel a strong connection as if they were destined for each other (yes, it's love at first sight), but later something happens, an event that stands between them so they can´t keep seeing each other in romantic way even when they have strong feelings for each other. Although the initial romance between Layken and Will is a bit like instant love, in this book it works, is believable and intense.

Slammed is told from the point of view of Layken, she is a good daughter and a good sister, helps a lot at home and in the care of her younger brother Kel, she sometimes behaves mature, but sometimes she will throws tantrums and slam doors (many doors). Will is a very mature, levelheaded and reasonable for his age, he´s romantic, intense and with a passion for slam poetry.

The secondary characters are great, Layken's best friend Eddie, Eddie´s boyfriend Gavin, Layken mom & brother Julia and Kel, Will´s younger brother Caulder  my favorite of them all and I feel is Eddie,she´s a character full of life and wonderful.

Slammed is a contemporary novel, very emotional, intense, heartbreaking, but also has its funny parts, unexpected twists and a lot slam poetry which is an important part of the book (I really did not know what it was, but now such a fan of slam poetry, I LOVE IT!!!). Slammed hooked me right from the start, this book made me cry a lot but it made me laugh too, and I was so hooked and couldn't put it down that I end up reading it all at 4 am.

This is a must read if you like intense contemporary novels.

I want to thank Atria Books and Netgalley for this review copy.