Carries Book Reviews

Chasing Eveline
Leslie Hauser
Published by: Pen Name Publishing
Publication date: July 11th 2017
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult

Sixteen-year-old Ivy Higgins is the only student at Carmel Heights High School who listens to cassettes. And her binder is the only one decorated with album artwork by 80s band Chasing Eveline. Despite being broken-up since 1989, this rock band out of Ireland means everything to Ivy. They’re a reminder of her mom, who abandoned Ivy and her dad two years ago. Now the music of her mom’s favorite band is the only connection she has left.

Even though Ivy wavers between anger and a yearning to reconnect, she’s one-hundred percent certain she’s not ready to lose her mom forever. But the only surefire way to locate her would be at a Chasing Eveline concert. So with help from her lone friend Matt—an equally abandoned soul and indie music enthusiast—Ivy hatches a plan to reunite the band.

The road to Ireland won’t be easy, though. And not just because there is no road. Along the way they’ll have to win over their Lady Gaga-loving peers, tangle with some frisky meerkats, and oh yeah, somehow find and persuade the four members to play a reunion gig. It’s a near-impossible task, but Ivy has to try. If she can’t let go of the past, she’ll never be able to find joy in the present.

Goodreads / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Author Bio:

Leslie Hauser is a YA writer and middle school teacher. She has a B.A. in English from UCLA and a Master’s degree in Educational Administration. She was born in

Cincinnati, Ohio, and currently resides in Los Angeles, California, with her dog Mr. Darcy.

When Leslie is not living in fictional worlds inside her head, she runs all sorts of distances, tortures her body at CrossFit, and DVRs entirely too many television shows. She dreams of one day returning to the Midwest to live on a farm. Or perhaps owning a cookie delivery service.

Her debut novel Chasing Eveline releases 2017 from Pen Name Publishing

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

Torn
Sky Corgan
Publication date: March 29th 2017
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

He’s a beautiful bastard, and he seems determined to make my life a living hell. I can’t decide if I’d rather kick him in the dick or screw him, but I know what he wants to do to me. All of the deliciously sinful things that I crave.

We met by chance at a club, and the chemistry between us was undeniable. Then I started working for his mother, and he suddenly found me unworthy. Now he’s doing everything in his power to make me quit or get fired. I’m not the kind of woman to let a man walk all over her, though.

He presses all of my buttons, both intimately and emotionally. I’m torn between the need to resist him and the desire to give into his demands. If I let him have his way, though, I’ll lose everything.

Add to Goodreads

Author Bio:

Sky Corgan is a USA Today Best-Selling author. When she’s not typing away at the next steamy romance series, she’s busy planning for future vacations.

You can get a FREE Sky Corgan book and stay up to date on her latest releases by signing up for her newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/v0PwX

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

White Sand, Blue Sea: A St. Barts Love Story by Anita Hughes
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Olivia Miller is vacationing with her mother and step father in their villa in St. Barts where they plan on celebrating Olivia’s twenty fifth birthday. When a man shows up at the door Olivia thinks it’s someone her mother has invited to the party and welcomes him in but is shocked to find out it’s her biological father, Sebastian, that she hasn’t seen in twenty years.

A globe trotting artist Sebastian claims to have come to celebrate Olivia’s big day and since she is excited to finally know her father everyone tries to be welcoming. However things heat up when Sebastian tries to invite Olivia to travel with him thus spoiling her boyfriend’s surprise engagement and wedding plans.

When picking up White Sand, Blue Sea I was quite under the impression that this was supposed to be a romance read however the one thing the book is seriously lacking is any sort of romance to the story. This is really where my rating of 2.5 stars comes into play with this one, the story is all a rich family drama and really more of the problems brought by the runaway father’s return.

The small bit of relationship involvement comes when Olivia and her boyfriend have a bit of a fight over her returning father and then a bit with Olivia’s mother and her relationship. In my opionion though the author dropped the ball with not letting readers even know what was going on with Olivia’s mother and stepfather until the very end so I wasn’t even engaged in something there either.

Overall, 2.5 stars for this one. It had a beautiful setting being in St. Barts but that was the only saving grace for me as far as the story went, would have been much nicer to have a romantic story in this setting.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

The Sisters of Blue Mountain by Karen Katchur
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Linnet grew up in the small town of Mountain Springs, Pennsylvania where she now lives with her husband and continues to run the family bed and breakfast. Linnet’s father was always known as the bird man around town since he spent his life studying birds as a ornithology professor. Now retired and starting to suffer from dementia Linnet’s father still lives in the guest house with Linnet caring for him.

One day they awaken to find that hundreds of geese have fallen from the sky and the town turns to the former professor to help solve the mystery of why they died. A current professor is sent out to collect samples and run tests but is found on the property dead the next morning and Linnet’s father is suddenly a suspect having been the last to see the man.

With reporters circling and police investigating Linnet calls in her sister Myna to come visit. The sisters however have somewhat of a strained relationship due to family secrets that have been buried for years but now it’s time for them to come together for the sake of their father.

The Sisters of Blue Mountain by Karen Katchur is a bit of an emotional suspense read. There is a lot of family issues between the sisters along with some buried secrets to uncover all the while dealing with the mystery of the dead geese and then the mystery of what had happened to the young professor that had been brought in to help.

This one was quite touching to me having dealt with dementia with my own grandmother I immediately became attached to Linnet’s father as he had his good times and bad during the story. With so much going on in this story it never became dull and always had my attention as the characters grew on me more and more. Both the past and present mysteries were not too terribly hard to figure out but the answers still somewhat crept up on me as I was also involved in the characters lives and emotions.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

The Cutaway by Christina Kovac
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Virginia Knightly is the producer of the television news but when a new boss decides to demote her Virginia decides to go back to the basics of reporting and follow up on the disappearance of a beautiful young attorney. Virginia is sure that there is more to the story of the disappearance and even if it means putting her own life on the line she is determined to get to the bottom of the story.

The Cutaway wasn’t a bad read but it also didn’t grab me the way I would have liked for this type of story. I started off thinking I was really going to enjoy this one, a mystery being solved from the point of view of a reporter but unfortunately it didn’t take long for the excitement to slow down in this one for me.

It often seemed like the mystery aspect to the story was put on hold over the other happenings with Virginia and her job which made this somewhat of a slow paced read to me. I often questioned why have so much going on with the job and other relationships and not just let the character focus on finding clues and solving the crime. In the end I found this one was just an OK read overall.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.