Is it better to be safe or loved?

Title: Can’t Forget
Series: Solum Series #2
Author: Colleen S. Myers
Publisher: Champagne Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy Romance
Release Date: June 6, 2016

Blurb: Is it better to be safe or loved?

Four months have passed since the E’mani destroyed the Earth and scooped up the remains. Elizabeth “Beta” Camden was one of those taken. With the help of their enemies, the Fost, she escapes and confronts her prior captors successfully. Though she knows she should remain vigilant toward the E’mani, she follows her heart instead and falls in love with Marin, the sexy Fost warrior.

She should have trusted her first instinct.

This time the E’mani don’t come in force–they slip in silently. And any hope Beta had of a peaceful life is lost. She leaves in the dead of night to find the E’mani stronghold and end them once and for all. But love is a tricky bitch.  It takes a threat to Marin’s safety to make Beta realize, if she can’t forget her past, she won’t have a future.

Excerpt:
The snowball hit the back of my head dead-on. Bam.

I stumbled forward from the force of the blow. The flakes created a halo of white powder around my head in the cool, crisp air then settled all over my face and neck.

What the…oh no he didn’t. A growl rose in my throat. I turned to confront my foe. I creased my eyebrows and I glared at him, mean-like.

With a smug expression on his face, Marin stared back, tossing another snowball between his hands.

“Elizabeth, you appeared distracted. I wanted to help.” His voice was smooth, deep like aged rum, and echoed in the unique way of his people, the Fost, almost like he was being dubbed. The sound got me every time causing me to shiver, or maybe it was the snow dripping down my back.

“That was helping?” My ass.

“Yes, you were about to walk into a tree,” he said dryly, dropping his ammunition.

I whipped around. Sure enough, a tree loomed in front of me. Dark-gray bark, feathery fronds interspersed with lethal spikes, blue moss climbing its trunk. Yep, that was a tree. Well for here anyway, not like on Earth.

I glanced back at Marin, who stood so trustingly under the boughs of another nearby tree laden with snow. A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. See, I could help too. He looked hot, literally and figuratively.

“Okay, thanks.”

With a thought, my power twisted deep inside, and I sent out a burst of air through the branches. They shuddered in response and unloaded their cold, wet contents on Marin’s head with nary a sound.

Inked
Chris Ledbetter
(Terra Sempre Saga, #2)
Published by: Evernight Teen
Publication date: July 1st 2016
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

You’re Not Truly Alive Until You Know What You Would Die For…

Cameron Shade and Farrah Spangled survived a near-death experience together. Now, their us-against-the-world relationship thrives despite pressure from their families, as well as cultural and social obstacles. That is, until Farrah’s father ships her off to private boarding school in Virginia.

Driven by unbearable aches of absence and longing, Cameron and Farrah are lured back inside the cursed sketchbook and the perilous Terra Sempre that siphoned their souls and almost cost them their lives.

Undeterred by a gathering storm of threats and complications, Cameron and Farrah find unlikely allies in both realms, but what Cameron discovers in Terra Sempre might make him want to stay there forever.

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Author Bio:

Chris Ledbetter grew up in Durham, NC before moving to Charlottesville, VA in 11th grade. After high school, he attended Hampton University where he promptly “walked-on” to the best drum line in the CIAA. And, without any prior percussion experience. He carried the bass drum for four years, something his back is not very happy about now.

After a change of heart and major, he enrolled in Old Dominion University and earned his degree in Business Administration. He’s worked in various managerial and marketing capacities throughout his life. While teaching high school for six years in Culpeper, Virginia, I taught business management, business law, marketing, and sports marketing. I also coached football.

As a self-described, young reluctant reader, he writes young adult stories specifically to reach other reluctant readers. As a participant in the prestigious Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program, he was blessed to be mentored by Suzanne Morgan Williams, 2012 SCBWI member of the year.

He now lives in Wilmington, NC with his family, including three cats.

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Elemental Secrets
Elle Middaugh
(The Essential Elements, #1)
Publication date: February 27th 2016
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Valerie Moore was a beautiful, headstrong girl with below-average social skills and above-average anxiety (including a flair for over-analyzing).

With her mother long deceased, and her father recently deployed, she ends up being sent to live with her eccentric aunt in a tiny town nestled in the mountains of Pennsylvania. But, being a Navy brat had made her into a bit of a loner, and making friends certainly wasn’t her strongest suit. As if the life of a typical teen wasn’t hard enough.

But Valerie soon discovers she’s not a typical teenager. Not by a long shot.

SECRETS are revealed…

…About her family, about her newfound friends and relationships, and about her whole world… Things that have been kept from her for her entire life…

But the biggest secret of all is revealed when Valerie discovers that she has Elemental powers, and a chain of inexplicable and irrevocable events unleashes throughout the little town…

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EXCERPT:

Cade leaned against the wall just inside the doorway, eyeing us silently and intently. The warring emotions that blurred in his eyes were like the chaotic flashing of lights. I tried to pin down a few of them, but I wasn’t sure if I actually succeeded.

Curiosity. Suspicion. Disdain. Jealousy?

“What’s up, Cade,” Holden said, tossing out a calloused greeting.

He shook his dirty blond head. “Just waiting for my lab table to open up.”

His emerald eyes locked onto mine, slowing me, maybe slowing time itself, until I was barely creeping on my way to the door. I so desperately craved for him to talk to me, and jaw taut, lips pursed, he looked like he was fighting the urge to do just that.

But he didn’t. He just watched with a frustrated expression as I tiptoed out of the room.

My lime green sandals had barely touched the old checkered tiles of the hallway when I felt it. The whole school began to shake. It sent palpable vibrations up my legs and dust falling from the ceiling like mini waterfalls. Balance and gravity completely eluded me and I dropped to the floor like a dizzy drunk. A siren screamed at the top of its lungs as the already dim lights flickered off and on under the strain of the trembling.

“This is not a drill!” Principal Bauer bellowed quickly over the intercom. “Use earthquake protocol; drop and take cover immediately! I repeat, this is not a drill! Drop and take cover immediately!”

All fifty states were at some risk for earthquakes, I knew, but Pennsylvania virtually never had them. It was completely uncharacteristic and absolutely terrifying.

The lights took their last breath then, plummeting the school into a thicket of shadows.

I crawled haphazardly on the tiled floor, the ground rumbling violently beneath me, until I reached the classroom across the hall. Most of the desks were unoccupied, so I slid under one in the front and waited. The quaking was subsiding, but the hammering in my chest was as jarring as ever. Each rapid breath I took only prolonged the anxiety as I waited for the aftershock.

Other students crouched under desks, too, silent with fear, eyes wide and disoriented. Dust hovered like a chalky fog and had a number of kids sneezing, coughing, and gagging. I coughed, then glanced at my hands. My palms were scuffed and stinging, but luckily that was all.

Lightning flashed blindingly through the windows and across our faces as a violent downpour suddenly unleashed from the sky.

And holy shit, global warming might have been happening after all. I wasn’t sure how else to describe the phenomena erupting all around me, but pinning a name to the destruction was the least of my worries right then; I just wanted to get the hell out of there in one piece.

Author Bio:

Elle Middaugh is a newly published author, born in the sticks outside of Clearfield, Pennsylvania. After moving around the east coast a number of times, she now lives in her hometown with her husband and three children.

Reading has been a favorite past time since Elementary School and choose-your-own-adventure books. Writing has been her dream since Middle School when she first began penning her own material. Being published is the most awesome achievement in

her writing career so far, but she hopes for more exciting landmarks and stepping stones in the future!

She’s a proud Navy wife; a frazzle-brained mother; a homebody who dislikes cleaning; a fan of tennis, and fitness in general; a lover of hot tea, mountain dew, and all things fiction; and she’s a bigger My Little Pony fan than her children.

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Sunstone’s Fire by Lia Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nate Wilson just wanted to get away from it all so he decided to take a week and go to the Oregon Coast. Unfortunately on a stormy night Nate ends up in an accident when a ghostly figure appears in the road in front of him. Lucky for Nate though he ended up right in front of a bed and breakfast and the owner invites him to stay.

Haylee Clark is a witch and she owns the bed and breakfast that is usually frequented by ghost hunters being that it is across from a cemetery and known for paranormal activity. Haylee herself believes she’s cursed or at least all the women in her family have been and their husbands die tragically. Haylee tries to keep her distance from Nate and her attraction to him but the two end up stumbling upon a hidden room where they they unknowingly unleash a dark entity.

Sunstone’s Fire is the first in the Cursed in Stone series. At novella length this little read is certainly full of action and romance. With ghosts, witches, magic, curses and a few other fun things I won’t mention and along with a steamy relationship developing there was never a dull moment.

Great characters and writing I’d certainly be interested in continuing on with the series and finding out where the overall plot ties in. Being the first in a series the ending does leave an opening for the next book but this story was resolved well enough in this one.

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

The Sea Witch by S.J. Valfroy
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Serena is not ordinary mermaid, like her mother Serena is a sea witch with magical powers. Unlike her mother though Serena wants to use her magic for good whereas Moira is an evil witch. Working in the palace as a maid Serena meets Prince Triton and develops a crush upon him. His mother Queen Amphitrite though makes it very clear that her son will not be marrying a palace maid leading to Serena launching a plot to obtain her own dreams.

The Sea Witch is a pretty good fantasy/fairy tale adventure. It did seem a tad bit predictable with the whole good versus evil story line which I did take a bit off my rating for but still a somewhat fun read. I enjoyed the writing style and the characters, even those you love to hate.

I do believe the other part of my rating drop may very well be due to my own jaded nature. You know fairly early on in the read that “true love” is going to play a part in this story but what I really didn’t like was it took so long to come about thus seeming like giving the male character the thumbs up for cheating. Not a fan of cheating and I understand it being worked in due to the nature of the plot but wasn’t a fan really of the amount of time that had went by and the happenings between it just didn’t sit well with me.

Overwise, I do think most would enjoy this little fairy tale read and if interest I would say give this one a try.

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.