Carries Book Reviews

Sweet Summer Love
Sierra Hill
(The Sweetest Thing #3)
Publication date: February 7th 2017
Genres: New Adult, Romance, Sports

Logan

Everyone’s had a summer crush. One that’s etched into your memories so hard that it leaves an indelible mark, like a scar on your heart. For me, that crush is my first love, Carver Edwards. I met him at fifteen at summer camp, and for three perfect summers, he was mine. Until the blazing heat of the summer sun faded and reality crashed in. Carver went off to college, leaving me trapped in my small farming town, with no way of reaching him and a problem I needed solving.

Carver

As the senior captain of my college basketball team, all I’ve been focused on the past four years has been playing, school, getting drafted in the NBA, and steering clear of relationships. I didn’t want them. I had nothing to give another girl. I’d given it already. So, I built my rep as a player, and honed my natural ability to charm the pants off girls. It’s what I did. Who I was. Who I am.

Until March, when a lay-up during a tournament landed me in an emergency room, under the care of Logan Shaw – my first love. Of all the people I could run into, why did it have to be her? Not only did my face get split wide open, but so did the locks that held the pain I’d attempted to bury for so many years.

Now that she’s back in my life, we must face the truth and the consequences of our actions – even if it could destroy us. We must uncover the truths that have kept us shackled from moving forward. That could possibly set us free.

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Author Bio:

Since writing and publishing her first book in 2014, Sierra Hill has found her creative passion in writing about the fictional characters that live in her brain, who are constantly shouting for their own love stories to be told.

Sierra frequently indulges in what some might consider to be an unhealthy dose of reading, dark chocolate candy, and way too much coffee. She hates cold weather, and frequently finds herself traveling around the country to see her favorite live musicians in concert.

Sierra resides in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of twenty years and her long-haired, German Shepherd. She is currently working on her next book.

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#Blur
Cambria Hebert
(GearShark, #4)
Publication date: January 10th 2017
Genres: M/M Contemporary Romance

Nothing but a #blur…

There’s a new kid in town, and he’s hell on wheels.

From what we’ve heard, it may be because

he knows exactly what hell’s like.

Lonely.

Scorching.

Unforgiving.

You may know his brother, the NRR hotshot

(and former GearShark cover model)

Lorhaven.

It’s only natural a driver with his background and family connections

has sped his racecar into the newest, hottest division.

But that’s not all.

Arrow may be following in big bro’s tread marks,

but he doesn’t plan to stay there.

He’s swerving onto the road less traveled…

and a lot more controversial.

He’s opening up about his private struggles with sexuality

to tell a story that’s gone unheard until now.

One thing’s for sure; Arrow may have a painful past,

but his foot is heavy on the accelerator.

With speed like this, he’s bound to leave everything behind in

nothing but a #blur.

Check out the full feature article inside…

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Author Bio:

Cambria Hebert is an award winning, bestselling novelist of more than twenty books. She went to college for a bachelor’s degree, couldn’t pick a major, and ended up with a degree in cosmetology. So rest assured her characters will always have good hair.

Besides writing, Cambria loves a caramel latte, staying up late, sleeping in, and watching movies. She considers math human torture and has an irrational fear of chickens (yes, chickens). You can often find her running on the treadmill (she’d rather be eating a donut), painting her toenails (because she bites her fingernails), or walking her chorkie (the real boss of the house).

Cambria has written within the young adult and new adult genres, penning many paranormal and contemporary titles. Her favorite genre to read and write is romantic suspense. A few of her most recognized titles are: The Hashtag Series, Text, Torch, and Tattoo.

Cambria Hebert owns and operates Cambria Hebert Books, LLC.

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Gilded Cage by Sherry D. Ficklin
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Masie has been attending boarding school which for her has been an escape from her crazy family. Her father, Dutch Schultz, is a notorious boot-legger and quite controlling of his family. When Masie receives a phone call at school that something has happened to her mother she immediately rushes back home to find out what’s wrong.

After arriving home and finding her mother has been hospitalized and has now become yet another family secret. Masie finds that her time away has protected her from her father’s torment as his business may be failing. Her brother is right in the middle of the business while the boy she’d had a crush on has become the family enforcer and has a much darker side than she remembers much like her father.

Gilded Cage is a prequel novella in a new series, the Canary Club, by Sherry D. Ficklin. While the story is a short one it certainly gives a great look into the setting and characters that had this reader wanting to know more and continue on reading. A somewhat mob-like family it didn’t take long to get hooked onto wanting to know what was going on and what would happen next.

In the end I wanted to give this one a full five stars just by how quickly I flew through reading and was left with the feeling of wanting to know what would happen next which is what you hope when picking up a new series. But there was one issue I had with reading this ARC copy and that was that there were a lot of typos involved. Hopefully these will be resolved by publication but it was a tad annoying and hard to overlook and call this one perfect so for now I’d give this read 4.5 stars.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

You Don’t Know My Name
Kristen Orlando
(The Black Angel Chronicles #1)
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: January 10th 2017
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult

Fighter, Faker, Student, Spy.

Seventeen-year-old Reagan Elizabeth Hillis is used to changing identities overnight, lying to every friend she’s ever had, and pushing away anyone who gets too close. Trained in mortal combat and weaponry her entire life, Reagan is expected to follow in her parents’ footsteps and join the ranks of the most powerful top-secret agency in the world, the Black Angels. Falling in love with the boy next door was never part of the plan.

Now Reagan has to decide: Will she use her incredible talents and lead the dangerous life she was born into, or throw it all away to follow her heart and embrace the normal life she’s always wanted? And does she even have a choice at all?

Find out if you are ready to join the Black Angels in the captivating and emotional page-turner, You Don’t Know My Name, from debut novelist Kristen Orlando!

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EXCERPT:

I love Malika and Harper. They make me happy. They really do. But there’s something about being with them that makes me feel lonely too. I can never really be myself with them. I can’t really be myself with anybody. It’s ingrained in me to lie, to stick to the cover story and blend in no matter what. And I feel guilty about that. Because they think they know me so well. They think because they can finish my sentences they know everything about

me. But they only know Reagan MacMillan; the quick-talking, tough girl I created. Sometimes I wonder which parts of my personality are really me and which ones belong to the pretender.

But with Luke, it’s different. There’s nothing forced or strategic about our friendship. He’s gotten to see glimpses of the real Reagan. And that scares the shit out of me. Because I know how quickly it could all be torn away from me. How quickly I could be torn away from him. There’s no such thing as a happy ending for a girl like me.

“Come on, Reagan,” Harper says quietly, glancing over her shoulder to make sure Luke is still out of earshot. “You guys are so cute together. He broke up with Hannah months ago. I don’t know what you’re waiting for. I can just tell by the way he looks at you he—”

“Harper,” I interrupt as her words compress my lungs, making each breath labored and painful. I don’t want to hear this. “He doesn’t look at me like anything. I don’t want to ruin our friendship.”

“You know some things are worth ruining,” Harper replies, reaching out to touch my arm with her fingertips, her nails painted darker than my gray cardigan. “You can’t tell me you haven’t at least thought of starting a relationship with him or maybe—”

“There is no relationship,” I cut her off again, pulling my arm away a little faster than I meant to. I snap new gloves onto my hands, pick up the scalpel, and slice into the frog’s heart. “Next stomach.”

“Next stomach?” Harper repeats, scrunching her forehead.

“Next subject.”

Author Bio:

Writing is one of the great loves of Kristen Orlando’s life and she has been lucky enough to make it her living, first as a television producer, then as a marketer and now as a novelist. Kristen graduated with a B.A. in English literature from Kenyon College. She lives in Columbus, Ohio with the other great love of her life, Michael. You Don’t Know My Name is her debut novel.

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RoseBlood by A.G. Howard
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Rune Germaine has always had a beautiful voice but feels a pull towards singing that she doesn’t quite understand and can even feel sick or drained at the end of a performance. Now Rune’s mother has talked Rune’s aunt into pulling a few strings to get Rune bumped to the front of the line to attend Roseblood, a boarding school outside of Paris at an opera house that’s been turned into a music conservatory.

Rune knows the history of the opera house and shortly after arriving she sees a mystery boy that vanishes as quickly as he appears which has her questioning whether the stories are real or not. But Rune doesn’t have time to dwell on whether something otherworldly is in play quite yet when her pull to sing interrupts auditions being held much to the dismay of others.

RoseBlood by A.G. Howard is a young adult fantasy retelling of the Phantom of the Opera. First with the good about this book, I really felt that the author did a wonderful job taking the well known story of the Phantom and incorporating it into a young adult fantasy read. The story moved along quite nicely and while there were some of the normal young adult tropes involved I think it go creative enough with a well known story as the basis to make the story interesting.

But there were a couple of things with the book that brought my rating down a bit to finally setting on giving this one 3.5 stars. First, not really a big deal but something that bugged me while reading was the use of O.G., now this probably wouldn’t stand out but I had just had to explain that O.G. stood for original gangster no more than a week before reading this so every use had me thinking that version in my head. Also, hopefully without saying anything spoilery here I’ll just say that for me I think the explaining what was going on in the story as far as the fantasy/paranormal explanation felt a bit off with the wording being used.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.