Carries Book Reviews

Illusionary
Desiree Williams
Publication date: April 4th 2017
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult

Dorothy got sucked into a tornado.

Alice fell down a hole.

Wendy flew to Neverland.

Kamryn? She tripped down the stairs.

Now, Kamryn Kensington finds herself in a strange new world. Within minutes of her arrival, she dodges an archer’s arrow and avoids getting sliced up by a cosplay reject holding a dagger to her throat. And that’s before the storyteller’s breath brings stories to life.

Home is the mission—to return to her family and pursue her life’s dream of art and travel. Yet the longer she’s in the Land of Ur, the harder it is not to feel for the people she meets. Even her artistic side can’t help but breathe in the beautiful wonder and magic of this new world. So when the Oracle hands her a different quest, she takes it on the condition he sends her home afterward.

No one thought to warn her of a jealous queen and her dragon minions. Or that, by helping her, the cute storyteller would go crazy. Or that her heart would rip in two when she left. Those would’ve been great facts to know ahead of time.

Considering that nothing in Ur is what it seems, the mission proves to be more than she ever imagined. But more than her own future will be in jeopardy if Kamryn doesn’t succeed.

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Author Bio:

Desiree Williams is a dreamer by day and chocoholic by night. She lives in the beautiful state of Kentucky with her husband and daughter, where she juggles life as a wannabe supermom. Desiree is a lover of food and avoider of dirty dishes. She delights in making people laugh and strives to bring hope and love with her wherever she goes.

You can find out more about Desiree and her books at http://www.desireewilliamsbooks.com

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Off the Ice by Julie Cross
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Claire O’Connor didn’t think she would be back in her home town so soon but after only a year away at college she’s had to return to help take care of her ailing father and the family business. With the bills piling up Claire struggles to keep her family afloat and hopes her dreams of returning to school don’t slip out of her grasp.

Claire soon finds herself crossing paths with Tate Tanley again after returning home. Tate is slightly younger than Claire but the two grew up together and before Claire had left she found herself in the middle of a secret with Tate when his father abused him. After the year away Claire finds that the boy she once knew has now grown into a man and she finds herself drawn to him.

Off the Ice is a young adult contemporary romance read that for me seemed to just be a bit too slow paced for my taste. The story had a lot of different things going on in the read that seemed to take away from the romance but with so many things such as Claire and Tate both struggling with their families, Tate’s hockey career, previous relationships etc this all seemed to bog down the story and each get a bit lost here and there.

Also, while reading this one with so much going on in the story and the book being a bit lengthy in my opinion for this type of read I struggled with believing these characters would even come together. Tate was said to be a year younger than Claire but only in his junior year of high school I believe so I find it odd that Claire returning from college would be interested. Of course I also argued they did have somewhat of a past so maybe it was possible. In the end though I’d say this one was simply an OK read overall.

I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Hold Me Down
Sara Taylor Woods
Publication date: March 28th 2017
Genres: New Adult, Romance

Talia Benson has always been independent, unafraid to go after what she wants, regardless of setback, injury, or failure. But between her father’s conditional tuition payments and her mother’s nagging concern over her emotional state, Talia’s suffocating.

So when Talia meets doctoral student Sean Poole, she can’t figure out why she wants him to control her. Why she wants him to boss her around. Why she wants him to hurt her.

Talia learns the hard way that not all control is created equal, and sometimes submitting is the most empowering thing in the world.

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Author Bio:

Sara writes erotic romance and dark contemporary fantasy. Her stories have been included in romance, erotica, and horror anthologies. When she’s not writing, she’s wrangling her two bouncing dogs, mainlining coffee, or working out. She lives in South Carolina with her husband.

Sara is represented by Lana Popović of Chalberg & Sussman.

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Two Good Dogs by Susan Wilson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After Skye Mitchell’s husband was murdered she chooses to move herself and her fourteen year old daughter, Cody, to a smaller town and try to make a go of it running their own hotel. Little does Skye know that her daughter witnessed the murder and is now scared to death that the killer will return so she has shut her mother out and gotten involved in all the wrong things.

Adam March finds himself looking for a place to stay one night with his pit bull Chance when he comes across Skye’s place of business during a horrible storm. Pleading to not turn him away due to his dog being with him he convinces Skye to let him stay the night and in turn becomes a regular customer of the hotel.

Adam one night has Cody take Chance for a walk and when the pit bull gets away from Cody she finds herself coming across a young man who overdosed with his dog left alone. Luckily Cody is quick thinking and immediately takes action calling for help for Mingo and with Adam taking Mingo’s dog Cody becomes determined to see the pair reunited.

Two Good Dogs is told from multiple points of view during the story from Adam, Skye, Cody and even the pit bull Chance tells his story. I actually thought involving Chance was a rather cute idea and enjoyed that part of the read but as for the rest of the characters I didn’t really find them overly exciting. Skye and Adam seemed to just lack any personality that stood out to make them extremely likable and Cody seemed more the normal teenage angst and testing her mother even if that’s explained as her witnessing a murder.

I was also sort of expecting some type of thriller or cozy mystery type of read with this story but was left wanting more in that area of the read. There is a lot of personal drama being dealt with all the characters that could be a bit entertaining so that I didn’t completely dislike this read but I also felt myself wanting a bit more to pull me into it other than some teenage angst being dealt with which is why I’d wished there was more of a mystery/thriller edge to it.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.