Carries Book Reviews

Hidden Agendas
Andrea Bills
Publication date: June 12th 2017
Genres: Adult, Romance, Suspense

Have you ever known your life was about to change? That feeling when you know things are going to start to get better? Ava Thorne knew that was exactly what was going to happen when she finally landed her ideal career working for the biggest construction company in the Big Easy. Her first week gets off to a slow start, but when she finally lays eyes on her boss she fears more than her career about to change.

Brian Simmons is all sex appeal with his white t-shirt and his tool belt hung low on his waist. Their attraction is enough to burn down the office building. Ava is determined to meet his domineering nature head on, and resist his flirtatious comments. Before she’s had much of a chance to adjust to it all her apartment and office are broken into and trashed.

Brian’s convinced he knows whose behind it all, and that he’s the reason she’s in danger at all. He’s protective and controlling which both annoys and exhilarates Ava.

They’re in a race against time, and bullets in this romantic suspense that will keep you hooked. Will Ava and Brian crash and burn or collide and ignite?

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EXCERPT:

“How did you end up here tonight?”

“You were at my bar earlier. I noticed you from the security footage, but by the time I made my way down to say hello you were gone. I tried the diner on a whim, and they said a woman matching your description had in fact been dining there just moments ago. They said you all took off looking frightened so I was curious. I had a guy ping your phone location, and ta-da.”

Ava’s mouth was hanging open by the time he finished his story. There was so much that she wanted to ask, but she just stood there in a stupor instead.

“Why do you own a bar?”

“Because I can, Ava. Calvin, please place Ms. Thorne’s things in my car downstairs.” Brian never took his eyes off of Ava while he spoke to Calvin. Ava fumed with how rude he was being to everybody.

“Brian, this makes absolutely zero sense. I’m just going to go home with Tayler. I’ll be safe there, and I won’t have to impose on you.”

“Ava, you’re pushing my patience. You’re coming with me.”

“Will I lose my job if I don’t go with you?” The muscle in his jaw clenched which she should have found a bit scary, but she just found it sexy. Which then infuriated her even more because she was supposed to be pissed as hell at him, not ogling him. She crossed her arms and waited for his answer.

“No, but you’ll damn well earn a spanking. Now get in the damn car Ava!”

Author Bio:

Andrea spends her time while she’s not dreaming up friends and villains alike chasing after her two kids and husband at their home in rural West Virginia.

Her guilty pleasure once the kids are asleep is to read. She reads everything she can get her hands on and then she reads it over and over and over again. Her all time favorite book is secretly tucked away under her bed looking very war battered from the hundreds of reads.

The Power Series is her breakthrough series as an indie author. She attributes her writing skills to her overactive imagination, and her husbands wacky dreams.

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Hearts Are Like Balloons by Candace Robinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

May Falkner is just turning seventeen when her family gets horrible news after a trip to the hospital, May’s father has terminal cancer. After returning home to go under hospice care with the family reeling from the news May’s father commits suicide sending their world spinning once again.

After her father’s passing May vows to make things easier on her mother while she’s coping with her loss by trying to find a part time job. A friend gets May an interview at a small bookstore where May meets Nico Evitts who becomes more to May than she ever could have imagined.

Hearts are Like Balloons by Candace Robinson is a young adult contemporary read that spans over several years time within the book. There’s a lot of emotion built into the story with love and loss really oozing from each turn of a page. For me I felt I could connect with a lot of the story even being past my young adult years myself so I did find the story quite touching at times.

The one thing I could say I would have liked to see with this book to make it a bit more of a five star read for myself would have been a bit more depth in places during the story. The author did cover a ton of ground spanning the book over a few years time and covering a lot of big events in the characters lives but a few times I felt as I got invested the story moved on a bit too quickly. Otherwise this one was a really good emotion filled read.

I received a free copy of this book from the author.

No Exit by Taylor Adams
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Darby Thorne is a college student who just received the worst news of her life getting a phone call at school that her mother had been diagnosed with cancer. Fearing the worst Darby rushes off to return home hoping to make things right with her mother before it becomes too late. However what Darby didn’t count on was a blizzard hitting the area that she needs to drive through to make it home.

Darby unequipped for the weather finds herself slipping and sliding her way along the highway when her windshield wiper breaks heaping one more issue onto her perilous journey. Having no choice but to seek shelter and wait out the storm Darby spots a sign for a rest area ahead and makes her way to the building.

After arriving at the rest area Darby finds a few other stranded travelers also seeking shelter from the storm inside the building. Taking the advice of one of the travelers Darby tries to go back outside to find cell service to check on her mother but when passing a van in the lot Darby thinks she sees something inside. Was that really a child or was it her imagination? Just what should Darby do in the middle of nowhere with no way to get help?

I can easily give my first warning when it comes to reading No Exit by Taylor Adams…do not pick this book up thinking I’m just going to read a few chapters before bed just to check it out. Once starting this story I just could not put it down, call it engrossing, engaging, intriguing or whatever you’d like it truly turned into one of those reads that I couldn’t break away from and today I really need a nap.

No Exit asks that question of what would you do if you saw something wrong and Darby becomes the heroine in this story that you hope exists in all of you’re fellow humans. Not knowing who to trust or if help would ever come Darby’s night becomes a true nail biter after she gets that first glimpse of a little girl in trouble.

My only small complaint leaving me to rate this book at 4.5 stars instead of a full five came with I paid a bit too much attention to detail in the beginning and the first twist was expected when it came to me. However that didn’t bring the story down in the least as there was plenty of action and intensity to come in the following pages that I would definitely recommend checking this book out.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

 

 

 

THE COWBOY AND THE CITY GIRL

Sophie London hates Texas. The longhorns freak her out and the wide-open spaces are more unnerving than a Chicago alleyway at night. But Sophie wouldn’t miss her cousin’s wedding for the world—even if it means returning to Maverick Junction . . . and to the dangerously irresistible Ty Rawlins.

A single father of rambunctious triplet boys, Ty knows trouble when he sees it—and Sophie’s got it written all over her. Yet he’s never been able to stop thinking about her, after their one brief meeting. Maybe fate is giving him a second chance. But if Ty wants Sophie to swap her stilettos for cowgirl boots, they’ll each have to face the past—together.

“Ty Rawlins has posted a no trespassing sign. My guess is he’s still in love with his dead wife.”

“There is that possibility.”

“Yes, there is.” Sophie swung open the door and marched out, straight into Ty.

He put his hands on her arms to steady her.

“Sorry,” she mumbled.

“Don’t be. My fault. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“Ask the girl to dance, Ty.” Annelise stood behind them in the narrow hallway.

“I—” He raised his hands.

“That’s okay.” Sophie moved to skirt around him.

“No.” He reached out, caught her hand. The jolt was instantaneous, and she knew he felt it, too, when he momentarily broke contact.

“It’s all right. I don’t need to be entertained.” She heard the snap of temper in her voice but couldn’t control it.

“Understood.” Ty nodded toward the jukebox. “But here’s the thing. Cash fed the machine enough coins to fill a good-size swimming pool. All those quarters. All that music. Why waste it?”

He held out a hand; heat flooded her face.

No way to avoid it. If she refused, she’d come off as a prickly snob. He had to think the worst of her anyway. Whatever social graces her mother’d drummed into her seemed to have flown out the window.

She had no idea why he’d want to dance with an idiot, but who was she to deny him that dubious honor?

“In that case, I’d love to.” She smiled, took his hand, and they walked together to the small center square reserved for dancing. She refused to so much as look at her cousin. Refused, for that matter, to meet any of the eyes in the restaurant watching them speculatively.

A slow number came on and Ty turned her to him, put his other arm around her waist, and drew her in.

“‘The Keeper of the Stars,’” he said quietly. “Quite a song.”

Her heart hammered as Ty very skillfully swept her along to the music. It was different from any dance she’d ever experienced. Night and day from the one she’d shared with Brawley. He’d been fun. Ty? Intense was the only word she could come up with to define the aura surrounding him.

Totally unfamiliar with country songs, she listened to the words over the beating of her heart. “It was no accident me finding you…” Her temperature spiked ten degrees. He was right. The words were captivating. Intense, just like him. And, oh, so romantic.

His hand holding hers was callused and strong, the one at her waist firm. Hot.

Ty did not, in any way, make her think brotherly thoughts. Instead, heat pooled low. Yearnings stirred. Thoughts and desires she’d doubted she’d ever feel.

The man was dangerous. She’d do well to remember that. But for now, she’d simply enjoy the moment. The dance drifted into a second, then a third. Sophie vaguely registered others on the dance floor with them, smiled when Annelise and Cash brushed past.

Ty stood over a foot taller than her five-three, and her head rested on the strapping cowboy’s chest. She heard the steady beating of his heart and surprised herself by wishing the song could go on forever.

She was deathly afraid she wouldn’t say no if this man wanted to park his cowboy boots beneath her bed. For one night, of course.

“Sophie?” Ty’s voice whispered against her ear.

“Hmmm?”

“The music’s stopped.”

 

 

 

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Off Planet
Aileen Erin
Published by: Ink Monster LLC
Publication date: November 28th 2017
Genres: Dystopian, Young Adult

From USA Today Bestselling Author Aileen Erin

Maite Martinez has always yearned for more than waitressing in a greasy diner on the polluted ruins of planet Earth. Hiding her special abilities is a full-time job on its own, even with the government distracted by the mysterious alien race – the Aunare.

When a SpaceTech officer gets handsy with her, she reacts without thinking. Breaking his nose might not have been her smartest move. Now she’s faced with a choice: serious jail time working in a chain gang on a volcano planet or join the corporate army to fight against the impending war with the Aunare. It’s really no choice at all.

As with everything in her life, Maite quickly realizes that the war with the Aurnare isn’t what it seems. And Lorne, the Aunare prince, keeps popping up everywhere she goes. Being seen with him could get her in even deeper trouble with her commanders, but he’s the first person who sees through the wall she’s built around herself and she can’t bring herself to send him away.

When the situation between SpaceTech and the Aunare escalates, Maite has a way to end the war before it even begins. There’s only one question: Can she stop the total annihilation of humanity without getting herself killed in the process?

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Author Bio:

Aileen Erin is half-Irish, half-Mexican, and 100% nerd–from Star Wars (prequels don’t count) to Star Trek (TNG FTW), she reads Quenya and some Sindarin, and has a severe fascination with the supernatural. Aileen has a BS in Radio-TV-Film from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She lives with her husband in Los Angeles, and spends her days doing her favorite things: reading books, creating worlds, and kicking ass.

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