Carries Book Reviews

Rise
Luis Almonte
(Trifecta, #1)
Publication date: August 27th 2016
Genres: Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult

The South Haven Academy for the Gifted and Talented (SHAGT) not only houses the exceptionally intelligent, but unknown to the normal students, a number of “gifted and talented” witches attend class with them every day.

Among the student body is fifteen-year-old Alexia Wick, a witch of the white-magic-practicing Alerium coven. Like the regular students, Alexia feels the pressure to succeed and meet her parents’ expectations, albeit with slightly different conditions. Rather than fretting about finals or college placement tests, she is in an entirely different arena—that of the Annual Trials.

In this prestigious competition among the most powerful witches in the country, Alexia must prove her magic and spell-casting abilities in order to advance in her skillset and bring triumph to Alerium. Her focus is distracted when the handsome and confident Kaleb moves to town.

Preparing for battle, falling in love—yes, Alexia is just like the other students at SHAGT. But with betrayal and death on the line, do the stakes of the competition and a romance shadowed by a dark, life-threatening secret even compare to those of a normal teenager?

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Author Bio:

Almonte is an author and poet who resides in New York with his spouse and two dogs. Rise is his debut novel, and is the first installment in the Trifecta Series, a young adult trilogy that is setting the literary world on fire!

He is an alumnus of New York University, where he studied leadership and management. In his spare time he enjoys cooking, entertaining, and reading. He is also an avid poker player. He attributes much of his success to his family, and is looking forward to writing the follow-up installment in the series.

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The Right Kind of Guy by Kerri-Leigh Grady
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Kelsey Spencer is a romance writer that finds herself no longer even believing in love and cringes when fans think her books are more than just fiction. While attending the Las Vegas Romance Lovers Convention Kelsey meets one of those fans, Jasmine Grant. Even though Jas had gone through a break up she still thinks of romance as a lovely fantasy waiting to come true.

Kelsey also finds herself meeting Aaron Grant who is Jasmine’s protective brother who ends up recruiting the jaded Kelsey to try to help rope in his wild eyed sister. Kelsey and Aaron find themselves on a lot of Vegas adventures and through it all they both begin to wonder about their own feelings about romance and love.

The Right Kind of Guy by Kerri-Leigh Grady is one of those books that I thought I should be absolutely loving as I turned the pages but found it just ended up to be an OK read for me. The setting in this one is great, as they say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas so I was expecting a lot of fun there which it does have some funnier moments and I enjoyed Kelsey’s character.

But the one thing I found in here that kind of bugged me was Aaron chasing his sister around. It just to me seemed to be way too overprotective of an adult sibling. Jas of course continued to make mistakes in her life and was a bit wild but I just kept thinking you need to let her or she’s never going to learn since he seemed to have been doing it for years. As the story progressed though I found myself enjoying it a bit more overall after a rocky beginning.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

A Cotswold Christmas by Kate Hewitt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Anna Vere has been having some tough times in her life so she has decided to make an escape to the Cotswolds for Christmas. When Anna’s reserved room at a bed & breakfast is flooded though she’s not quite sure what to do until she gets an offer from sexy local carpenter Colin Heath to camp out in Willoughby Close.

What started out as merely helping someone stranded turns into a lot more as Colin and Anna grow closer the more time they spend together. Anna has a secret though that she thinks will keep Colin from wanting a relationship with her on top of the fact she is only supposed to be visiting and will need to return home.

A Cotswold Christmas by Kate Hewitt is a lovely little emotional Christmas romance. The setting seemed to be an odd one to start to have to camp for a holiday but I really began to enjoy the story as I got to know the characters and found the setting to also be quite nice in the end.

Anna had been struggling with a lot when she chose to take her trip and it was good to see her begin to overcome the things worrying her. With being a novella I had wished there had been a bit more depth and getting to know the characters but still good even with the faster pace due to being short.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Back to Me
Lindsay Paige
(Carolina Rebels #1)
Publication date: October 4th 2016
Genres: Adult, Romance, Sports

Noah Ramsey has a great hockey career, wonderful parents, and a good best friend, but what he wants most is to be with the love of his life who walked away from him years ago. When he finds her at the airport, he realizes she’s changed, and she’s struggling with things she doesn’t want to tell him about. Noah also realizes just how much she scarred him when she left.

Meredith Quick has always planned everything out. She chose her tennis career over love in order to better succeed, but her plan dissolves when an injury threatens her career and her fiancé leaves her. Struggling through pain and the uncertainty of her future, she realizes her first misstep was walking away from Noah. She impulsively decides to go back to him while she attempts to put her life back together.

Reacquainting isn’t easy when Noah doesn’t quite trust Meredith to stay and Meredith struggles with overcoming the pain she’s endured without him. Can they work through their issues and move forward, or will their past ruin things between them forever?

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EXCERPT:

“Tell me about you.”

He tilts his head back to lean against the seat. I’m not sure what it means that he’s not looking at me as he speaks. “Well, I love playing as a pro. It’s been a bit frustrating

at times, but I wouldn’t trade it. My teammates are great, too. Maybe you can meet one or two of them while you’re here.”

“I’d like that. What about your family?”

“You already know Ashley had a baby. She’s been married to Oliver for about a year now. She met him in college and he proposed the day after they graduated. Mom and Dad are doing well, too. Dad spends his time on the golf course while Mom makes quilts and does whatever it is she does with her friends. Not much has changed with them. I would ask about your family, but I already know. And since you don’t want to talk about you, I’m not sure if I should ask how you’ve been.”

He does know how they are because according to my parents, he talks to them almost as often as he talks to his own parents. He’s right, too. I don’t want him to ask how I’ve been because if I start talking, I might become a crazy, blubbering mess. “Tell me what you know about my life instead.” Then, I’ll find out how much he knows about Vance. How much he knows about my disastrous life. I’m not sure what he talks about with my parents or how much information my mom provides about me.

“I know you’ve hated dealing with your injury, you’re worried you’ll be forced to leave the game early, and you don’t talk about it if you can help it. From what I hear, you also refuse to talk about your engagement and why it ended. Your parents are worried about you, too. That’s all I know, Mere. You mom only gives me brief updates. She knows I want to know how you’re doing, but she doesn’t want to say too much either, out of respect to you.” He pauses as a flight attendant checks on us and then focuses his attention on me again. “Am I crazy for hoping you’ll talk to me about those things?”

“Yes.” I don’t want to, not yet. Just like I want to find out if he has a girlfriend, but I’m too scared to ask right now.

Noah nods, not looking surprised at all. He leans his head against the seat again, facing forward. “I’ve missed you, Meredith.” Four quietly spoken words that echo loudly in my heart as if he just shouted them.

I glance away, deciding the cloud-filled sky is a more preferable view than this handsome man next to me. “I’ve missed you, too,” I whisper. More than he could ever imagine.

Author Bio:

Lindsay Paige is the author of multiple Young Adult, New Adult, and Sports romances. She also coauthored sports romances with Mary Smith. Along with writing, she loves reading, watching hockey, especially the Pittsburgh Penguins, and finding funny terrible puns and recipes on Pinterest. All the while, she is also focused on completing college.

Lindsay resides in North Carolina and is inspired by the world around her and the people in it. She is currently working on numerous solo works. Visit her website: lindsaypaige.com

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Hooked on Love by Jennie Marts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Avery Oliver is every bit the city girl from Chicago wanting nothing more than to explore the world and experience new things. When Avery travels to the Colorado Mountains to follow a story to jumpstart her journalism career she finds herself teamed up with sexy guide Sullivan Reed.

Sullivan is a country boy through and through, all he needs is his fly rod and the rushing water of a river and he’s happy so becoming a guide for Avery who is his exact opposite isn’t at the top of his to do list. Soon the two strike a deal though, Avery will help Sullivan with deflect an overly flirtatious neighbor and he will help her with her story.

Hooked on love is a cute little whirlwind romance between two completely opposite types of people. Avery and Sullivan couldn’t have been more different between the city girl and mountain man but somehow in this story they just make all of it work between them getting close while spending so much time together.

Overall, a nice little quick read romance with a lot of funnier moments throughout.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.