Carries Book Reviews

#Kissing
Ellie Brixton
Publication date: June 14th 2016
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance

I was always the good girl.

Then when the pressure became too much, I took off and found me a bad boy.

Niko. The hot, British rock star and frontman of the Halos.

He took my angel wings and gave me a lot of things, well, everything but the Big O.

And fidelity.

So with my #fail in hand, I did the worst thing imaginable.

I went home. The insta-nagging, criticism, and impossible expectations reminded me why my life #sucked—the reason I left in the first place.

Well, everything was the same except for JQ, my high school crush. With a snug T-shirt and jeans that fit in all of the right places, it looks like he became man and maybe it was time for me to become a woman.

#Kissing is a sexy, rock star romance for new adult, college, and contemporary romance readers who enjoy love stories with an HEA.

Goodreads / Amazon

Author Bio:

Ellie Brixton is a unicorn by day and an author by night. She’s a firm believer in eating dessert first and fancies herself a cookie connoisseur. Although she runs five miles every day, she wishes for a 1959 Cadillac convertible, in pink of course. This is her first novel.

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The Heart’s Journey Home: A Layover in Doppelganger-Ville
Nikki Jackson
(The Heart’s Journey Home, #2)
Publication date: April 30th 2016
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult

Picking up where The Heart’s Journey Home: California Blend Summer Vacation leaves off, book two in the series follows seventeen-year-old Tori Logan as she and her best friends, AJ and Kalea, accompany Tori’s archeologist father to Israel.

Tori Logan is used to her life looking a little different from the lives of other girls her age. She’s also used to having plenty of adventures, so when she and her best friends see an excavated quarry in one of Jerusalem’s most famous archeological sites, they waste no time checking it out for themselves. Adventurous and fiercely independent, Tori leads her friends into the quarry where they happen upon what appears to be a secret passageway. As the trio laughs and jokes, small rumblings turn into big quakes and the walls start to crumble around them. Kalea and AJ escape, but the site collapses before Tori can find her way out.

When she comes regains consciousness, Tori realizes she’s traveled back in time to ancient Jerusalem. With her quick wit and drive to survive, she concocts a story about why she, a foreigner, is there and finds shelter with a widow woman named Judith – who looks exactly like her father’s live-in girlfriend, Rachel.

As Tori encounters other people who are spitting images of loved ones back at home, she must reconcile truths about herself with the hard realities about the situation in which she finds herself. But will these lessons last once she’s back at home?

Will she even make it home?

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Guest post by Nikki Jackson

My Weird Fascination….

I have a weird fascination and its scary movies.

I have sworn off them more times than I can remember because I actually find them so terrifying but like a little chocolate addict my hand finds its way back to the box. I can only blame it on a mildly warped fascination with the fact that that someone wrote, out of their own imagination, something that could cause such physical, emotional and psychological reactions in the reader (or if it’s a movie – the viewer).

I remember back in the day when the movie The Exorcist debuted. It was 1973 and no movie like it had ever really be made and it was the scariest thing in town. To this very day I’ve never seen that movie. I read the reviews and watched the news spots and that was more than enough to keep me away from it. There were reports of moviegoers crying, fainting and throwing up (especially during the head spinning around part), all because they’d been so affected by what was going on with the little demon possessed girl.

The scariest movie I’ve ever seen in life to date was The Ring. I got caught up in the premise: watch the video, get the phone call, dead in seven days. The curious side of my brain just knew there was a safe, logical way out of this and I wanted to see how the latest victim would beat the curse. I still don’t know how the movie ended. When that little kid came out of that well I started screaming.

I was screaming at the guy watching this play out on his TV to turn it off and get out of there. He didn’t hear me. He just sat there spellbound while that kid came out of that well and was moving, like some weird stop-action closer and closer, and then shocks of shocks….when that kid climbed through the TV set….I’m surprised the neighbors didn’t call the police, I was a hot screaming mess. It was like she’d climbed through my TV set and into my living room. That’s the last thing I remember.

I turned on every light in the house (why did I watch it at night, alone?), made sure all the doors and windows were locked (twice) and I spent the night on the sofa with a blanket over my head praying to still be alive with the new day’s dawn.

Here’s what’s so intriguing – that hot mess of a movie was first a writer’s creation. Somebody sat down and imagined it and then wrote it down. As traumatizing as that movie was to me, the thought that a writer wrote it is fantastic. Don’t you see? I was scared and traumatized and ready to throw-up and pee all at the same time – I was physically and emotionally and yes, psychologically effected and caught up and spent and I didn’t even last the whole movie!

As a writer I don’t want to scare the bejeezus out of anyone, but I want to take the reader on an exhilarating, crazy wild rollercoaster ride. I want the reader to be giddy, shocked, angry, moved, excited, teased, floored, bowled over – and happily spent when they finish reading a book of mine. I want to pull the reader out of their present setting and take them on the journey of a story with me and my characters. I want to give the reader a break from life as they know it and I want them to eagerly join me on an imagined adventure.

Sure, I’d like to make a million bucks writing, but when I really think about it? I’d rather prefer making a million friends.

Author Bio:

Nikki Jackson considers herself to be an Indie Writer, Journeyman and Traveler. She’s camped out in the Grand Canyon just to see the sunrise over a stupendous backdrop and she yet dreams to travel to Mount Everest, not to climb any part of it but to simply stand at the North Base Camp and take it all in, in person. Nikki’s love of adventure was inspired at an early age at the local library where she spent summers reading about young travelers going cross-country and around the world. She loved the adventures that took her out of the bottom bunk of her bed (her favorite reading spot) and had her soaring across the clouds to lands filled with wonderful and diverse people. It was then and there Nikki decided she wanted to be a writer – she wanted to have the same effect on people reading books had on her. The Heart’s Journey Home is the beginning of the adventure.

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Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As a child Evan Smoak was recruited into an off the books program the called Orphan. The program was designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence assets. The children were raised and trained being given the skills to become assassins.

Evan used his skills to escape the program and is now a legendary figure known as the Nowhere Man. Now despite disappearing from his past someone is out there that knows Evan was Orphan X and a part of the program. Using his work to help people as the Nowhere Man against him his enemy is getting closer and closer.

Orphan X is the first book in the new Evan Smoak series by Gregg Hurwitz. The book is a high intensity non-stop thrill ride from start to finish. With multiple angels to the story with the hero trying to help people but yet someone out to get him this was definitely a page turner from beginning to end.

I really enjoyed getting to know Evan in this first installment. One of those off the books heroes that puts their life on the line to help others. Plenty of twists and turns along the line to keep a reader engaged in this story.

Overall, a fast paced, action packed great start to this new series.

I won this book from Goodreads First Reads.

Serial Killer Confessions: Just Friends by Martyn Martello
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

James Martin has a wonderful life with his wife who was the love of his life until one horrible day when his wife’s jealousy went to far. Being involved in amateur theater James was around younger co-eds all the time and befriended one such young girl who was having relationship problems. When her life was threatened she ran to James and in the process of trying to save her his wife mistook the situation and stormed off only to be killed in a car accident.

Being lost without his beloved wife James was at a loss with how to proceed with his life. He went through the motions but nothing was bringing him joy. James tried dating but it really didn’t satisfy him at all. Soon James came up with a plan to lure a young woman to his home, the idea of having a life in his hands being the first to make him feel alive since his wife’s death.

Serial Killer Confessions: Just Friends is one of those books that maybe should have included a warning about the sex, language and violence involved. I was a bit hesitant to give this one a read seeing a lot of negative reviews but they seem to be centered around that content although I’m not sure what everyone was expecting with a book about a serial killer.

For me I think this was quite the creepy look into what would send an unassuming man over the edge and obtain the desire to kill. James was a rather creepy guy to follow in his mind. On the outside he’s the trusty older man that no one would ever suspect but inside is another story.

The book did start to drag a bit for me in the middle of the read. I think maybe it’s just getting over the shock factor involved in how easy it was it became a little repetitive with the situations. But otherwise the twisted tale that I expected it to be.

Overall, 3.5 stars, violence, sex and language involved, a twisted read inside the mind of a killer.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Maybe Never
Ella Miles
(Maybe #2)
Publication date: May 26th 2016
Genres: New Adult, Romance, Suspense

Will one mistake destroy her life? Will one secret? One lie?

Kinsley Felton thought she had found a solution to her problems. She thought she had convinced her family that she is strong enough to run the company, if not on her own, then with help. She thought she had won when she decided not to marry Killian and instead just date him. But everything she thought was wrong.

Killian isn’t who she thought he was. Now she is sitting in a jail cell for something she didn’t do because of him. But maybe she deserves to sit in jail anyway to pay for her past mistakes. All she knows is she needs to stay far away from Killian no matter how much her heart aches for him.

Will Kinsley let herself get lost in the deceit or will she save herself and take another chance at love?

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—

EXCERPT:

Kinsley bites her lip. “I used to hate you but now I realize who I should be hating.”

I stick my hands in my pocket to keep me from doing something stupid. “And now?”

“Now I sorta love you.”

I grin and do something stupid – despite trying as hard as I can to keep my hands firmly in my pockets, they fly out and grab Kinsley. One hand tangles in her newly cut hair that is still wet from being out in the rain too long. The other wraps around her waist where I can see her skin through the see-through portion of her dress in the middle, but I can’t touch her skin. And my lips touch her soft lips while my tongue tangles with hers in

a desperate kiss.

A kiss that I was afraid I would never get again. I thought she would still hate me. I thought she wouldn’t believe me, but somehow she did. Now I just have to protect her from the truth I just discovered. A truth that is a million times more hideous then what either of us knew to be true.

But before I figure out how to protect her I have to have her. I can’t stand that I left her when she wasn’t safe. I can’t stand that I left her feeling like I didn’t love her. I can’t stand that I hurt her and I can’t stand that my cock isn’t already buried inside her within a minute of seeing her because I need to feel close to her. I need to forget what I just learned. I need to forget that if I choose to be with her past tonight I’m jeopardizing a career that I’ve worked my ass off for over ten years.

“Excuse me ma’am. Would you like another glass of the Bordeaux you were drinking?” the cocktail waitress asks Kinsley.

Kinsley reluctantly pulls her lips away from me. “No thanks.”

“Sir?”

I smile seeing that Kinsley ordered the first drink I ever got her.

“No. I’m good.”

Kinsley grabs her glass of wine behind her and finishes the last sip off before handing the empty glass to the waitress. “Thank you,” she says her eyes trained on my lips.

Before the waitress even leaves, her soft plump lips are on mine, torturing me, knowing that I can kiss, but I can’t get what I want right now no matter how hard I get for her. I press my cock against her stomach to show her how much I need her. Her eyes open and are filled with her own need. She needs me. Now.

I pull away so my lips are just resting on her. “Fuck, that look is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

She grins. “You haven’t seen sexy yet.”

She grabs my hand and then we are walking instead of kissing. I let her lead me a few feet when I tug hard on her hand until she is spinning back toward me. I grab hold of her neck and kiss her again. She gives into the kiss as I sweep my tongue into her mouth. She moans just a little and then pushes me away laughing.

“You have to stop that if you want more than just a kiss.”

“What?” my eyes widen at her words.

She leans forward until her mouth is at my neck. “If you want to fuck me, you have to stop kissing me so I can take you somewhere that is not swarming with people.” And then she sucks my neck before pulling away. I’ve taught her well.

She grabs my hand again and then she’s leading me off the casino floor. I frown though when she doesn’t lead me to the lobby to get a room. “Where are we going? Shouldn’t we head to the lobby to get a room?”

She bites her lip as she flashes me a wicked grin. “I can’t wait that long. Can you?” she cocks her head to the side and I realize I was wrong. This is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.

She pulls on my hand again and we are walking faster down a long hallway and then another. I have no idea how she knows where she is going, but she does. She slows when she gets to the end of a hallway and then is pushing me into a bathroom.

I grin. “You naughty girl.”

Her tongue slips inside my mouth as her arms go around my neck hungrily. It’s the most desperate kiss I’ve ever felt from her and I match her hunger kiss for kiss.

“God, I want you.”

“Then take me.”

Author Bio:

Ella Miles writes sexy romance with strong females that could kick your butt if you piss them off, which they often do to the men that fall for them. She’s currently living her own happily ever after near the Rocky Mountains with her high school sweetheart husband. Her heart is also taken by her goofy two year old black lab that is scared of everything, including her own shadow. Ella is the author of the Aligned series. Get a free book by visiting her website. Or by stalking her on Twitter or Facebook.

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