Carries Book Reviews

Today is the cover reveal for Hearts are Like Balloons by Candace Robinson. This cover reveal is organized by Lola’s Blog Tours. The cover is designed by Jenny Zemanek from Seedlings Online.

Hearts are Like Balloons
By Candace Robinson
Genre: Contemporary
Age category: upper Young Adult
Release Date: June 30, 2017

Blurb:
May Falkner’s past two years have been a rough road. When her father suddenly passes away, May needs to find a job to help out her mom and regain some control over her life. Working at the bookstore helps her heal, laugh, and hope again. It also leads her to cross paths with Nico Evitts, who begins as just a co-worker, but becomes so much more

When it all becomes perfect, because there is no perfect, life steps in to prove once again that it all can crash down harder than before. This is a story about finding yourself, love, and the things in life that are still here.

Hearts are like balloons. Sometimes they inflate… Sometimes they deflate…

You can find Hearts are Like Balloons on Goodreads

Pre-order your copy of Hearts are Like Balloons for only $0.99 on Amazon

About the Author:
Candace Robinson is just your average hemiplegic migraine sufferer. Her days are spent writing, book reviewing and traveling through books. She live just outside of Houston, Texas, where it feels like the hottest place on Earth with the crazy weather. No, seriously, one day it’s 30 degrees and the next it’s 70 degrees! She resides with her husband and daughter.

You can find and contact Candace here:
– Website
– Facebook
– Twitter
– Goodreads
– Amazon
– Instagram

Giveaway
There is a cover reveal wide giveaway for the cover reveal of Hearts are Like Balloons. One winner will win a $5 amazon gift card.

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K-Love
Alice Cornwall & Devon Atwood
(Korean Drama Series, #1)
Published by: May 4th 2017
Publication date: New Adult, Romance
Genres: Action, Adventure, New Adult, Romance, Science Fiction

Chase has been set up. She finds herself on a blind date with a Korean hottie, and all because her mom obsessively loves Korean romance dramas. It turns out that Daniel Bak is actually really dreamy, but things take a turn for the worse when Chase happens upon stolen research on her university professor’s laptop. It throws her into the arms of wealthy corporate heir Hyun Tae, who also happens to be Daniel’s best friend.

Caught between both men, and hunted down by a vengeful CEO, Chase must rely on Hyun Tae’s protection. But when the drama settles, where will her heart land?

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

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EXCERPT:

The lunch lady ladled the soup into a bowl and placed a Styrofoam plate with the grilled cheese next to the bowl on her tray. “Anything else?”

“That’s it, thanks.” Chase smiled.

The Asian kid behind her asked for a salad. She caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye as he got his plate of food. He was wearing white skinny jeans, navy sneakers, and a sort of silky gray T-shirt that definitely looked designer. They shuffled along in line until finally it was her turn to pay. Chase handed the thin student cashier her card. He looked at the debit card briefly before handing it back to her. “You need your student card.”

Chase took the card, suddenly nervous. “My what?”

The student had dark blond hair and kind features, but his look of exasperation told her he was thoroughly fed up with answering this question. “Your student ID card. You pay for lunch with it. You can’t get lunch any other way.”

“What, seriously?” Chase looked down at her tray. Her stomach gurgled. “So I have to get my card and then come back?”

“Sorry.”

She swallowed. “My mom didn’t say anything about a student ID card.” The cashier gave her a blank look of disbelief, so she added, “She works in registration.”

“Okay. Well, sorry, but you need a student ID.”

Someone sighed behind her. She was holding up the line.

“Excuse me,” a low voice said from behind her. Chase looked over her shoulder and found the guy with the designer shirt leaning toward her. He held out a student ID card, and reaching over her, handed it to the cashier. “Just pay for both.”

Chase turned to face him, her eyes widening. “Oh . . . ah, wait . . .”

The cashier hesitated.

“No, don’t do that,” Chase insisted. No, no, no! Don’t do that! I don’t like owing a complete stranger, thanks very much.

The guy gave the cashier a nod so full of confidence, Chase was pretty sure anyone would have obeyed an order from him. The cashier swiped the card.

Chase realized she was staring. For one thing, this guy was otherworldly beautiful. He had high cheekbones and warm brown eyes that tilted up at an exotic angle. His chin sloped down to a square point from his razor-like jawline. She almost couldn’t find words to respond to him. And besides that, he held himself like he owned the school.

His eyes flitted to her. “You can go now.”

“Oh.” Direct. And people thought she was made of stone. “Thanks. Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” He had an accent, but it was barely detectable.

She scurried forward with her tray, her face hot and her calm ruffled.

She whirled around to face him but miscalculated the motion by a mile. She collided with the generous stranger, her tray flying off to the side. Tomato soup splattered all over the floor, washing over both their shoes in a torrent of scalding liquid.

The guy jumped back and then looked up from his shoes to her face, his scowl a mixture of incredulity and shock.

The racket in the cafeteria quieted almost instantly. All eyes turned to them. Chase stood there like an idiot with tomato soup trickling down her leg and seeping between her toes. She couldn’t seem to find her voice with the entire cafeteria staring at her.

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Hello Readers! Welcome to the Release Week Blitz for

Why I Loathe Sterling Lane

by Ingrid Paulson!

If you haven’t checked out this series yet,

what are you waiting for? Grab your copy today!

Congratulations Ingrid!

Per her 537 rules, Harper Campbell keeps her life tidy—academically and socially. But the moment Sterling Lane transfers into her tiny boarding school, her twin brother gets swept up in Sterling’s pranks and schemes and nearly gets expelled. Harper knows it’s Sterling’s fault, and to protect her brother, she vows to take him down. As she exposes his endless school violations, he keeps striking back, framing her for his own infractions. Worst of all, he’s charmed the administration into thinking he’s harmless, and only Harper sees him for the troublemaker he absolutely is.

As she breaks rule after precious rule in her battle of wits against Sterling and tension between them hits a boiling point, she’s horrified to discover that perhaps the two of them aren’t so different. And maybe she doesn’t entirely hate him after all. Teaming up with Sterling to save her brother might be the only way to keep from breaking the most important rule—protecting Cole.

Why I Loathe Sterling Lane by Ingrid Paulson

Publication Date: June 6, 2017

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Google Play | BAM | Chapters | Indies | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | TBD | iBooks

Ingrid Paulson does not, in fact, loathe anyone. Although the snarky sense of humor and verbal barbs in Why I Loathe Sterling Lane might suggest otherwise (and shock those who think they know her best).

Ingrid lives in San Francisco with her husband and children and enjoys long-distance running, eavesdropping, and watching science documentaries. She has always loved books and writing short stories, but was surprised one day to discover the story she was working on wasn’t so short any more. Valkyrie Rising, a paranormal girl power story was Ingrid’s first novel. Expect another humorous contemporary romance to join the list soon.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Pinterest

The Good Widow by Liz Fenton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jacqueline “Jacks” Morales is a school teacher who while she didn’t think she had a perfect marriage she did think it was stable and comfortable that is until the day two police officers showed up on her doorstep. Jacks is told that her husband had been involved in an accident while driving the road to Hana in Hawaii. Now since her husband was supposed to be on a business trip in Kansas Jack’s is completely confused as to what happened.

Not only did Jacks get the information that her husband is gone but shortly after that she finds that he may not have been alone in the car when he died, there was a mystery woman with Jacks’ husband and it seems he may have been having an affair. As Jacks is trying to wrap her head around the death and affair a man shows up at her door claiming to be the ex-fiancee of the mystery woman and makes the proposal that the two of them travel to Hawaii to investigate the last days of their partners.

The Good Widow is a book that I would have a hard time putting an exact label on in terms of what genre this best fit. I felt while reading about the first 75% of so of the story it felt a bit more along the lines of a drama than a thriller read which wasn’t a bad thing though as I did get completely interested in Jacks and her story and how things got to the point that her husband was lying to her and on a trip with another woman.

However, while the first big portion of the story felt more like a drama read once you get towards the end the twists are certainly quite evident within the story and then comes the edge of your seat thriller section. At this point in the story I had a bit of an ah-ha moment on things that came earlier and definitely wanted to know the outcome. Since I like a wide variety of books I ended up really enjoying this one even though the beginning didn’t have that thriller edge to the story so I would warn of the slow start.

I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Fate of the Stars
Arwen Paris
Publication date: September 1st 2017
Genres: Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult

When the fate of the world rests upon you…

Allison Delaney wants to spend her senior year healing from the loss of her father, to leave the shadows of his death and her junior year break-down behind. A Labor Day beach party seems like a good place to start…but there’s more danger lurking than anyone could imagine. Death is coming to Earth if the pods of infectious creatures aren’t stopped. But only one human can help…

To live or die is no longer a choice.

Eenoki is a protector of life but must have a sentient host to fight the invasion. A teenage girl would not be the best choice, but out of desperation Eenoki invades Allison’s mind and body, granting her unnatural abilities and strengths – and helping her escape certain death when the first wave of pods land.

As destruction rains down on Earth’s population, Allison realizes to save everyone, she must make the ultimate choice: Reject her human side and bond with Eenoki to become the Earth’s Priestess – or be killed along with the rest of humanity.

Add to Goodreads / Pre-order

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EXCERPT:

Why would they come out here?

I stagger back, shaking as I remember my narrow escape from town, and the aliens’ hissing reaction to sound. I hobble to the pilothouse. “Pete!” I shout, twisting the handle. It refuses to turn. “Shut off the engines.” I beat on the door.

“What the hell this yellin’ about?” he shouts, throwing the door open at me. The other passengers scream. Pete turns toward the shore. “Oh my God.” He runs inside. Revving the motor, he swings us back out into the bay. A loud screech jabs my eardrums as metal grinds on metal, and the engines come to an abrupt stop.

“No. No!” Pete shouts, turning the key. There’s no reaction at all.

Over the wind and waves, an odd clicking sound makes my flesh crawl. We all stand motionless trying to identify it. The clicks grow louder, overlapping until they become shrill. Something strikes the hull with a heavy thud, and everyone jumps. Then another pound on the boat, and another. I can’t decide whether to search for the source of the noise or hide below. But I have to know, so I follow the sound to the rear of the ship. Bobbing on the waves is a human, his face streaked with a black oily residue that’s oozing from his nose and mouth. It resembles the oily residue I saw on the back of Bob’s neck. His eyes are opaque and dead. Nausea rises in my gut.

They didn’t die. I’m not sure what they are now, but they’re no longer human.

I’ve put everyone here in danger with my selfish request to go to shore, attracting their attention. I grow limp and drop my head back, staring up at the sky.

So close, a thin voice says, seemingly right in my ear. It’s the voice that warned me to run. Clenching my jaw, I lash out through my mind at the voice. So close to what, dying?

Discordant memories churn in my head. I close my eyes to still the illusions. A glow illuminates the back of my eyelids and warmth spreads through me.

You must see, Allison. The only way left to explain in time.

Author Bio:

Arwen Paris is the author of young adult fiction. Her debut YA Sci-fi Urban Fantasy novel FATE OF THE STARS releases September 1, 2017. The actions packed pages of her novels are filled with characters that are forced to face fears they never expected. When she’s not writing, you can see posts of her (too many) vacations that keep her sane. Arwen lives in Washington, has a big crazy family & after the day job, she writes Fiction For the Fearless – #F3Fanatic

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

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