Carries Book Reviews

Conspiracy Boy by Cecily White
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Conspiracy Boy is the second book in the Angel Academy series by Cecily White. After thinking she had saved the world and beat the prophecy, Amelie Bennett has learned the worst thing you can possibly think is things just can’t get any worse. Thinking things could get back to normal other than that pesky engagement to Luc while still being in love with Jack, Amelie now finds that the prophecy was never finished and she is still expected to become a killer.

As with Prophecy Girl I found Conspiracy Boy a fun read along the lines of books like the Mortal Insturment series by Cassandra Clare. Our main character is attending a school to learn to defeat demons and defend humans against attacks with a plot mixed in with vampires and werewolves being involved.

Amelie is still her normal sarcastically humorous self that often has me laughing out loud. Jackson, the serious hunk that keeps Amelie grounded and now Luc, Jack’s vampire cousin is “engaged” to Amelie after saving her life with his blood so a bit of a love triangle without the love between Amelie and Luc as they barely tolerate each other for the most part which often added to the laughs.

With the prophecy unfulfilled and Amelie still being kept in the dark about some things, Conspiracy Boy takes the group on another action packed adventure where Amelie is determined to not become the killer everyone thought she should be and save everyone instead.

Overall, a fun, light hearted but adventurous YA fantasy paranormal series.

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

Prophecy Girl by Cecily White
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Amelie Bennett attends Angel Academy which is not your normal high school. You see the students all have angel blood and are studying to become demon hunters after they graduate. The girls are what are known as channelers being able to cast spells and the boys are paired up to become their watchers to draw power from and protect. With everyone else pairing up Amelie is beginning to worry about finding her bondmate since the one date she had been on hadn’t gone well.

Stumbling upon the new substitute teacher, Jackson Smith-Hailey who is only a three years older, Amelie finds that when the two touch sparks actually fly between them making Amelie think they are destined to be bonded. Shortly after their first meeting demons attack the school and much to Jack’s dismay Amelie stays to fight by his side and find together they are more powerful than she believed possible. Now they find themselves tossed into solving an ancient prophecy and saving the world.

Reminding me a lot of The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare mixed with a bit of the Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead I found this a fun read. The students are studying to be demon hunters and interact with vampires and werewolves much like in the MI series. And Amelie is much like Rose of the VA series with her flippant attitude toward studying but yet strong when she needs to be.

The one thing I would have changed though is Amelie needed a bit more maturity throughout the story. She was quite funny with her sarcastic comebacks and rebel nature but sometimes a bit too immature for my tastes, especially trying to pursue a romantic interest a few years older than she is with Jack being serious and mature it took a while to picture it at all.

Otherwise, a fun read with an interesting save the world plot. 3.5 stars for this first installment of the Angel Academy series for me.

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

Billionaires in Disguise: Rae
Blair Babylon
Publication date: May 7th 2015
Genres: New Adult, Romance

How could one wild quickie with a hot guy against a wall at a party change everything so fast?

All Rae wanted was to open a clinic for autistic kids. To do a little good in this world. To help some kids who were trapped in darkness and fear.

But a statistics class tripped her up. She is losing her scholarship, which means that she’s leaving college to go back to her poverty-stricken hometown. It’s too late for grants. Too late for loans. No job exists that can pay for college tuition. She’s finished, and she has to go back to her family and their repressive beliefs that she thought she was better than she ought to be for trying to go to college, anyway.

She has three weeks of freedom left. Her friends tell her that there is a job that could help her, the place where they work, where she might be able to make enough cash for tuition because they do.

So they take her to an upscale party to meet the guy who runs it, and they tell her all about their boss: his cold, calculating gaze, how he can see through anyone, how no one even knows his real name, and how he might be a psychopath.

But Rae doesn’t meet their mysterious boss. She meets The Blond Hottie who tells her that his name is Wulf. He’s even taller than Rae, probably six feet-four, with a strong jaw and dark sapphire blue eyes, and an athlete’s build.

If you had three weeks of college freedom left before you went home to your fundamentalist family, what would you do?

Rae shoves The Blond Hottie up against a wall in dark bedroom, and then all Hell does break loose.

This Complete Boxed Set of Billionaires in Disguise: Rae contains all nine original episodes.

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EXCERPT:

The Blond Hottie’s hand dropped down to the small of Rae’s back and pressed, tilting her pelvis in toward his. She let him.

She let him. She was just letting things happen again. Just like falling into her major and flunking out of school, she was drifting instead of making decisions.

Being seduced was letting things happen to her, not doing things.

The Blond Hottie nodded toward the couple, who were leaning on the wall, spent. He whispered, “Would you ever do something like that?”

Rae was going back to dust-choked Pirtleville in three and half weeks.

Three and half stupid weeks.

Screwing The Blond Hottie against a wall would be doing something.

“Yeah,” she said, “but not out here.” She had seen couples slip through a door and then emerge later, disheveled, but hadn’t really made the connection. “Back there.”

The Blond Hottie smiled again, and this time, the toothiness verged on wolfiness. “You want to be against a wall?”

“No.” Rae tossed her head and looked straight into his deep blue, hungry eyes. “You’re going to be the one against the wall.”

Author Bio:

Blair Babylon often releases ebooks at a special release-day price of 99c.

To never miss a sale, CLICK HERE: http://smarturl.it/Babylon-Email

Blair Babylon is the nom de plume of an award-winning, USA Today-bestselling author who used to publish literary fiction. Because professional reviews of her other fiction usually included the caveat that there was too much deviant sex and too much interesting plot, she decided to abandon all literary pretensions, let her freak flag fly, and write hot, sexy, erotic romance, plus wild, suspenseful thrillers, science fiction, and urban fantasy using the super-secret pen name Blair C. Babylon.

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All that Jazz
Natasha Boyd
(A Butler Cove Novel)
Publication date: March 22nd 2016
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance

There’s something totally inconvenient about falling for your best friend’s brother. Especially when he’s turned into a pompous, arrogant, albeit annoyingly sexy a-hole that you’d like to punch or kiss to death at any given moment.

The summer she turned eighteen, Jazz Frazer accidentally lost her heart to Joey Butler, after a favor that blurred the lines from friends to lovers.

For three years they’ve pretended there’s nothing between them anymore. Jazz is finally ready to move on with the rest of her life. She’s looking forward to the end of college and fulfilling her dream of travelling the world. She’s determined that experiences and relationships will be fun, casual and easy. After all, she learned the hard way that men just don’t stick around anyway. But when her best friend gets herself into a relationship with a celebrity, Jazz has to do the one thing she never thought she’d do, call Joey and ask for help.

Repeatedly thrown together, Jazz tries everything she can to protect her heart and not fall back in love with Joey. But when Joey finally admits that Jazz is the one he’s always wanted, all bets are off.

Contemporary, friends to lovers, second chance romance. 17+ for strong language and sexual situations.

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EXCERPT:

The Summer I turned 18

“And you won’t fall in love with any of them and want to get married?”

“Nope.” I shrugged. “That would impede my career plans.”

Joey snorted, then wheezed. “Right.”

I wanted to shove the dishtowel he was holding down his damn throat.

“Right, what?” I snapped.

“Right, I believe you,” he added with barely concealed sarcasm. His eyebrows raised.

“It’s true. I don’t see what the big emotional deal is with sex anyway.”

“Because you’ve had so much of it?”

I glanced away. That was way more information than he needed.

“So the almost eighteen year old virgin is going to try and tell me she understands what sex without emotion is like?”

“Not for much longer,” I said with a haughty tone, irritated he just assumed I was a virgin, and clasped my hands in front of me on the table. “I plan on getting rid of that status as soon as possible.”

Joey yanked his chair back out and sat down opposite me, his glare intense, the blue of his eyes darkened to grey.

I pulled back at his abrupt move and his hand reached out and snared mine, pinning it to the table. “What?” I managed after a few beats of uncomfortable silence where my hand was burned alive.

Conflicting thoughts seemed to flit over his face for what seemed like long minutes instead of the few seconds it probably was. Then he let out a long breath.

“You’re playing a very dangerous game, putting so little importance on sex.”

I scowled. “What does that even mean?”

“It means …” He swallowed. “You should respect yourself enough not to give it away to just anybody.”

My face throbbed with heat as my temper rose. “I respect myself just fine. Big brother,” I hissed.

“Good,” he growled. “Because if you don’t, nobody else will.”

I yanked my hand from his. “I don’t understand you. So you’re allowed to have meaningless sex, but I’m not? Again with your double standards, Joseph. It’s unbecoming, you should watch that.”

He shrugged. “You said it. You’re like a little sister to me. I care that you don’t get hurt. And for God’s sake don’t be roping Keri Ann into your stupid quest. I’m just warning you to be careful.”

“Of what exactly?” I said through my clenched teeth. Because seriously, I was completely angry and humiliated by this stupid argument.

“You don’t even know yourself, do you?” He laughed, his strong jaw tilting back to reveal his tanned throat. “You, Jazzy Bear,” he rested his blue eyes back on me, “will fall madly in love with the first boy you sleep with.”

“I will not. And for the love of cheese grits, please don’t call me Jazzy Bear again.”

“You will. It’s written all over you. And,” he sobered as he looked at me unflinchingly, “he will break your heart. I’m sorry. In advance.”

Author Bio:

Natasha Boyd is an internationally bestselling and award-winning author of contemporary romantic southern fiction. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, and has a background in marketing and public relations. Eversea, her debut novel, was a finalist for Contemporary Romance in the 2013 Winter Rose Contest, won the 2014 Digital Book Award for Adult Fiction and is a LIBRARY JOURNAL self-e selection 2015. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, Georgia Romance Writers and Island Writer’s Network in coastal South Carolina where she has been a featured speaker on book marketing. She lives with her husband, two sons and the cast of characters in her head.

Natasha grew up in South Africa, Belgium and England. She now lives and writes full-time in the USA.

Her work is available in English, Italian, Turkish, German, and Indonesian.

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Relevance
Sonya Loveday
(The Six #2.5)
Publication date: March 21st 2016
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult

Relevance

The noun form of the adjective “relevant”.

Meaning “important to the matter at hand”.

Secretly located in the tunnels under Chicago’s city streets, Cole Enterprise is home to a group of trained soldiers. Jake Aceton is their newest acquisition. Recruited from boot camp before graduation after being handpicked by Grant Jackson, Jake is plunged into the mysterious underground world, forever changing his life.

Regardless of his relevance to Cole Enterprise, Jake has a hard time looking past all he has to give up. Can he learn to live in his own shadow in order to protect those he loves?

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EXCERPT:

Nothing fit right anymore, but it didn’t matter. I could close my eyes and see myself standing at the cabin watching the Six banter back and forth over fishing or swimming. Home. I smelled like home.

The serenity of the moment shattered when Riley burst through the door, swearing a blue streak until she realized she wasn’t alone. “Ace. What are you doing in here?”

She didn’t even bat an eye at what I was wearing. Had she been anyone else, I’d have had my ass ripped for being in civilian clothing. “Oliver just took me to get my clothes.”

She noticed then. “Oh!”

I put my hand out, and she stepped into my arms with a heavy sigh. “What’s wrong, Riley?” I asked, gathering her close and kissing the top of her head. Dread ran through me. I had a feeling I already knew.

She tucked her head under my chin and slid her hands down my back until her thumbs found my belt loops. “Nothing.”

I snorted at her lame-ass attempt to cover up how she felt. “You can’t bullshit a bullshitter, Riles. I know you’re not happy with any of this.”

She dropped her hands and took a step back, squaring her shoulders. “I’m fine. It’s just been an adjustment. Nothing I can’t handle.” She pulled out all the stops and managed a smile.

I caught her face in my hands and leaned down to place a kiss between her brows. Right on the spot that pulled together, telling me she was anything but happy. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I’m gonna prove it every day for the rest of my life. I know you’re miserable. I know this isn’t what you wanted.”

“Once we find the leak and figure out what Nicco is up to, we’ll talk with Nadia and Grant and come up with something. Maybe they’ll even want us to transfer to Scotland.”

A real smile broke through that time. “Okay.”

One word was all it took to make the knot in my chest unravel.

I didn’t want to leave Riley, but Oliver was waiting for me in the cafeteria. “I have to go meet with Oliver. Are you staying in here for a little while?”

She shook her head. “I need to meet with Oliver too. I guess we better get going then.”

Riley made it to the door and had it open before I could cross the room.

“Why do you have to meet with Oliver?” I asked, closing the door behind us.

Her hair spilled over her shoulder, hiding her face from me. It wasn’t often Riley had her hair down, so the missing presence of her ponytail seemed odd. Truth be told, seeing Riley with her hair down was like seeing her naked, as weird as that sounded. Maybe it was because the only way I really saw her hair down was when we were… “Oof.” My side ached and my hand went to the offended spot immediately. “What the hell?”

Riley scowled. “Did you hear anything I just said?”

“Um…” She’d been talking to me and I’d tuned her out as I fantasized about her hair being down. “Sorry, I was uh…” Mentally stripping you and watching the way your hair falls over your…

She snapped her fingers in front of my face. “My eyes are up here, Ace.”

I jerked my gaze up to hers, feeling my cheeks blaze. “I know.”

She rolled her eyes and pushed past me into the cafeteria where Oliver waited at one of the tables.

He looked up from the file he had opened in front of him. When he looked between the two of us, he swore. “Please tell me you two aren’t in the middle of some sort of lover’s quarrel.”

Riley flipped him off and then sat opposite of him. I kept the urge to say something smart-ass back at him locked up tight, choosing to sit down instead.

Oliver looked between us again and then back to the file. “Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do.”

My spine snapped ramrod straight. “We? What we? Because I know you don’t mean Riley too.”

Oliver leaned his elbows on the table as he crossed his arms and looked directly at Riley. “You didn’t tell him?”

“Yes, I did. He wasn’t listening though.”

“What do you mean he wasn’t listening?”

I forced myself to listen instead of drift off as I’d done earlier. Damn her hair. She needed to pull it up and get it out of my thoughts!

“…just like that,” she said, waving her hand in front of my face. “Do you think it’s a flashback?” The fear in her voice startled me.

“I’m not having a flashback,” I answered, shifting myself on the bench seat so I straddled it.

“Then what the hell is wrong with you?” Oliver demanded.

My lip curled as I swung my gaze to him. “I’m dead, so, technically, it could either be classified as everything or nothing.”

Oliver shook his head, tapping the folder in front of him. “Do you think you can keep your corporeal form focused for a minute while we go over tonight’s recon mission?”

—

Author Bio:

Sonya Loveday, first and foremost is a reader, an avid one. It is of that love that brought her to the realization that this was the answer to the nagging persistent feeling that ‘there’s got to be something more’.

The dream came alive in 2009 when she purchased her laptop and began the tedious step of becoming a published author.

When she’s not reading, she’s writing. When she’s not writing, she’s reading. And when she’s not doing either of those things she’s sleeping, shuttling her children back and forth to school, letting the dogs and cats in and out of the house for the umpteenth time in the last hour and dreaming of a clean house.

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