Carries Book Reviews

Welcome to the cover reveal for

Safe With You by Sophie Lira

presented by Swoon Romance!

Be on the look out for this upcoming New Adult title!

Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

Olivia Simon is starting over in the Big Easy. Her new job as a yoga instructor means she gets to pursue her passion, while giving her the motivation she needs to get back on track. But she’s scared. Really scared. Scared her abusive ex-boyfriend will find her. Scared of all things that go bump in the night… and day. She knows her ex will have a claim on her future happiness unless she can find her own peace. Which starts with Kyle.

Kyle Avery, a former college baseball player on the brink of going pro, is also starting over. His dream since Little League was shattered when a jealous rival went too far in a pre-season game. After a few surgeries, all Kyle is left with are a few rods in his leg, a rebuilt knee, and no idea who he is without baseball. But when he trades center field for a yoga mat, he finds solace in a way he never imagined. Kyle knows there’s something about Olivia. Something he needs to move forward.

But Olivia loves to run, and it’s too soon for her to be playing house. Olivia and Kyle want to invest in each other, but the secrets they’ve kept take a dangerous turn when Olivia’s past returns with a vengeance. Devastated and helpless, Olivia wonders who she can really trust, and Kyle questions if he was ever able to keep her safe.

Safe with You by Sophie Lira

Publication Date: April 26, 2016

Publisher: Swoon Romance

Available for Pre-order:

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New Adult aspiring author from the East Coast. Lover of coffee, huskies, traveling, music, yoga, sports, & craft beer.

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#Rev
Cambria Hebert
(GearShark #2)
Publication date: April 1st 2016
Genres: LGBTQ+, New Adult, Romance

Trent Mask puts the REV in revolution.

A line has been drawn.

Indie vs Pro

Here at GearShark, we’re straddling that line to bring you exclusive coverage of what some have dubbed the war of racing.

Every war starts with a spark and ends in revolution.

Drew Forrester was the spark,

but his second-in-command is the REVolution.

What does it take to stand brave in the face of opposition?

resolve of steel…

Stubborn will…

And a heart that refuses to give up.

It isn’t just the drivers in this war.

The revolution is about more than just racing.

It’s about shattering labels and taking risks.

So we asked Trent Mask: Truth or Dare?

His answer?

Both.

Check out the full feature article inside…

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EXCERPT:

Copyright by Cambria Hebert

This is unedited.

Drew

I was no quitter.

I refused to quit Trent.

So angry. I was so goddamned angry.

He was pushing me away when all I wanted to do was pull him close. It was almost laughable he tried to break up with me. I felt the laughter bubbling up inside me, ready to explode. It was like I was so incredibly infuriated I couldn’t yell, I couldn’t cry, I couldn’t even speak.

But I wanted to laugh. The kind of laugh only villains in movies did. The kind that bespoke of internal madness.

That’s what tonight was. Madness.

He was jumped. Beaten. He told me he loved me. Then he laid out intent to withhold that love.

Trent was trying to protect me, in his mind he wasn’t keeping the love he felt from me, rather showing it in the best way he knew how. I respected that. I did.

But I wouldn’t have it.

We’d gotten one week together, I wanted more.

I suppose thinking we could keep our relationship a secret was naive. Merely wishful thinking. When you loved someone the way we loved each other it was impossible to hide. It showed in every way.

Not just in the way we looked at each other. Or the way we spent every spare moment together. It showed in ways I never wanted to see until now. Ways I thought no one else would notice.

I’d been fooling myself.

It was the way he put ketchup on his plate so I could eat his fries. The way I automatically pulled the tomatoes off my burgers and slid them on to his plate. It was the fact I went to him first whenever something happened I wanted to share. And the way we made each other’s coffee, exactly as we drank it.

Love is in the details. It is in the every day. It is the way you treat someone when they aren’t even looking and the way they fill your head when you’re apart.

Of course people were going to see it. Joey saw it almost from day one. Braeden and Ivy already knew. The reporter from GearShark knew from just one conversation…

Hiding our relationship was almost not an option.

Dissolving it wasn’t either.

My hand throbbed and my knuckles were slick with blood when I slammed out of the room. I was so intensely frustrated I couldn’t look at him another minute.

We weren’t over. No way in hell.

But I needed a minute.

My mind was so clouded with anger I didn’t see him. I didn’t notice him at all until he cleared his throat. My body jerked to a stop and my head whipped around to see Romeo leaning against the wall, like he was resolved to be there a while.

I’m sure he heard everything.

Me and Trent had been yelling. And the sound of my hand going through the wall hadn’t exactly been silent.

“Guess I don’t need to ask how he is.” Romeo said, straightening off the wall.

“You agree with him?” I challenged, my hand flexed. It was already fucked up from going through a wall, but I’d use it again if I had to.

“I understand why he thinks he’s doing what’s right.”

At first his words didn’t sink in. They just pissed me off even more. All I heard was Romeo understood Trent. I growled low and stepped forward in an aggressive movement.

Romeo’s every narrowed, watching me close but other than that his body language didn’t change.

That’s when I realized he was no threat to me. That’s when I realized he was on my side.

“We’re in a relationship.” I said, point blank. I kind of wanted to shock him. I wanted someone other than me to feel the sting of words tonight.

I also wanted a fight.

Just not with Trent.

Never with Trent.

“I know.”

The amusement in his tone took a little heat out of my oven.

“You can’t keep secrets like that from family. Family who really loves you.”

I tilted my head to the side and regarded him. Was he saying he knew before he walked into this house a little bit ago?

Was he saying he didn’t care?

“You should probably get that hand cleaned up. You’re bleeding on the floor.”

I glanced down at the blood dripping off my knuckles.

“I’ll talk to Trent.” He went on. Romeo stepped off the wall and toward the bedroom door. I moved fast, silently snatching his arm and turning him around. He didn’t pull away or act like my roughness was a threat, but his muscles tensed beneath my arm and I felt tension coil in his limbs.

“He cares what you think.” I said low. “Your opinion matters. So if you aren’t sure how you feel about our relationship or the fact there are two gay guys in your family walk away, walk away right now.”

Romeo stared at me level, his blue eyes bouncing between mine.

“He’s already fucked up enough right now. If you can’t offer him the brother he needs tonight I won’t let you in that room.”

Romeo smiled. His lips curved up into a knowing, almost pleased expression. “He pissed you off so bad you put your hand through a wall and he’s pushing you away, but yet here you are, standing guard at the door protecting him.”

“That wasn’t an answer,” I growled.

Romeo laughed beneath his breath. And then he answered.

Not with words.

In seconds his arm was out of my grasp and he was hugging me. I hesitated, shocked that he would just reach out and hug me like this.

“Family takes care of family.” his voice was low. “I’m not sure if there is anything that could make me turn my back on family, but if there is, it isn’t this.”

When he pulled back I looked him in the eye.

He meant it.

“Congratulations on finding a love worth fighting for.”

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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Sleep Sister by Laura Elliot
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF @ 41%

Unfortunately Sleep Sister just wasn’t for me. The story starts off with Beth as a child with a horrific thing happening to her but quickly jumps ahead a few years to her father leaving then again when she’s old enough to leave home. After four more years Beth returns and finds she shares her secret with her younger sister that she had left behind. But instead of the story sticking there for any length it jumps yet again another twenty six years I believe it was. So in the matter of the first third of the book we had jumped a good forty or more years. With so many characters and situations thrown in my head was spinning and I almost felt I needed to start taking notes.

Now, not only had the story jumped so far so quickly without spending much time on any details or character building but once we got so far ahead it starts to add in flashbacks along with what is happening in the current. With the dark subject matter at hand with this book I really wanted to care about these characters but I just didn’t with so much jumping around. There were a lot of secondary characters I really didn’t know at all but the main characters really didn’t stand out much better while trying to keep up with where, when and with who everything was taking place.

Overall, just not one that I enjoyed, after several days of putting it to the side I decided not to finish, I’m sure others will enjoy it but was just not a fan of the execution of the story.

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

Sun and Moon
Desiree Williams
Publication date: April 28th 2016
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

There is nothing in life that eighteen year old Zara craves more than her freedom. Stolen from her home in Cadrebia at the age of eight, Zara has spent more years than she cared to admit as a slave to the Tankadesh courts. Her days are filled with protecting the princess, while she spends nights entertaining the king and his officials with her mastery of weapons. Any spare moment in between, she plots escape.

Yet her hopes for freedom come to a crashing halt when a stranger arrives bearing the mark of her assigned lifemate, and he threatens war if she isn’t turned over into his care. But a lifemate is not part of the plan. Her dreams, of choosing her own path and being the master of her own will, weaken as her Moon seeks to claim his Sun.

Is it possible that this stranger, with gentle blue eyes and a ready smile, didn’t come to be her new master? That there could be more to his tale?

Zara soon finds that neither her captivity nor her parents’ deaths were mere random attacks. And by returning to Cadrebia, she may have put the future of the royal line—and her Moon—in jeopardy. While Zara breathes in her first taste of freedom, her enemies move in, seeking to rob Cadrebia of its blessed prophecy.

To keep what she holds dear, Zara must rise above the pain and uncertainty to claim the lifemate assigned to her, or more than her freedom will be stolen this time.

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EXCERPT:

“What’s going on here?” Dareh dismounted from his horse and with long purposeful strides worked his way toward them. His green eyes blazed. His jaw was set. Zara would hear about this later, but for now she would welcome his rescue.

The captain of the guard surveyed the scene. He closed his eyes briefly—probably praying for patience not to strangle her—and clamped a hand on her shoulder.

“I swear, Zara,” Dareh whispered low into her ear. “You attract trouble like a siren.”

She opened her mouth with a rebuttal, but Dareh narrowed his eyes, silencing her on the spot.

“Get to the palace before you’re recognized by my men. If Melchior learns you’ve been outside the palace walls you’ll spend the night in the flogging yard. Go. Take Essie with you. I’ll sort things out here.”

Zara opened her mouth once more, but a prickling over her palm stopped the words from flowing. Heat traced the lines of her mark. Goosebumps dotted her flesh. She shivered despite the heat from the desert sun. Oh, no. Please, no.

“May I be of some assistance?”

She jerked at the rich baritone that came from behind her. The world fell away in that moment. The merchants cursing over their loss were gone. Dareh’s men waving or shouting at the crowd gathered around them—gone. Even poor Essie, standing with her jaw dangling like a loon, faded.

Zara’s senses zoned in on the man behind her. She curled her fingers to close over the crescent shaped mark that had begun to throb. Her mind screamed for her to run. Her heart was all but having a seizure. But her feet somehow managed to turn her stunned body.

Pale blue eyes were the first thing she noticed. They reminded her of the moon with a ring of dark night around them. Sun-kissed skin followed with a splash of scruff along a strong jaw. Deep brown locks fell over his forehead and touched the tips of his ears.

“Hello, my Sun.” Full lips curved into a smile, revealing perfect teeth. And just like that, all their hopeful plans for escape blew away like grains of sand on the desert floor.

Her heart crumpled.

Would she ever be free?

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.blogspot.com

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Welcome to the cover reveal for

Polaris by Beth Bowland

presented by Tantrum Books!

Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

Be on the look out for this fun upcoming MG title from Tantrum Books!

Bixie, Montana is in the middle of nowhere, not connected to any place, and not needed to get to any destination. But one snowy evening, a lone visitor walking down an old country road changes thirteen-year-old Aaron Martin’s life forever. Aaron thinks he’s being a Good Samaritan by inviting the nearly-frozen visitor into his home, but he’s unwittingly initiated “The Game.”

A group of Elders, known as the Council of the Legend, come together from time to time to enjoy a rousing event they playfully call “The Game.” Now, Aaron’s town is the playing board and he and his fellow townspeople are the players.

The rules are simple. Win. Because if Aaron loses, he won’t just lose his family. He’ll lose his very identity.

Polaris by Beth Bowland

Publication Date: August 16, 2016

Publisher: Tantrum Books

Available for Pre-Order:

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Beth Bowland, a native Ohioan, has always enjoyed reading and creating stories of her own. As a child she devoured every book she could get her hands on and spent numerous hours at the library each week. She loves writing stories for tweens and young teens and her characters are often described as quirky and fun, but always relatable. When she’s not writing, she loves watching HGTV. She has one daughter and resides in Arlington, Texas with her husband, Phillip.

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