Monthly Wrap Up: February

Hey Everyone! Can you believe it will be March already? I don’t know what it is about February but it’s always been a great reading month for me and this one didn’t disappoint! So let’s check out how things went for me reading wise.

Books Read

5. It Happens All the Time by Amy Hatvany

6. Forever Interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid

7. The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood

8. Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

9. This Love Story Will Self Destruct by Leslie Cohen

10. On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

11. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

12. If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

13. Sugar by Bernice L. McFadden

14. Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson

Reading Stats

5 Stars - 5

4 Stars - 5

3 Stars - 0

2 Stars - 0

1 Stars - 0

DNF - 0

Genres

Mystery/Thrillers - 1

Fiction - 8

YA - 1

Pages Read - 3,129

Books via Publisher

A Beautiful Corpse by Christi Daugherty

One Night at the Lake by Bethany Chase

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Gravis Graves

Her Daughter’s Mother by Daniela Petrova

Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey

The Southern Side of Paradise by Kristy Woodson Harvey

Thank you to G.P.Putnam’s Son, St. Martin’s Press, Berkley, Gallery, Ballantine, Scribner and Minotaur for all the great books!

ARC’s via NetGalley/Edelweiss

The Arrangement by Robyn Harding

A Stranger on the Beach by Michele Campbell

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

Because You’re Mine by Rea Fey

The Farm by Joanne Ramos

The Friends We Keep by Jane Green

Sunset Beach by Mary Kay Andrews

Girls on the Verge by Sharon Biggs Waller

Meet Cute by Helena Huntington

Layover by David Bell

The Night Before by Wendy Walker

That’s it for my February wrap up please feel free to share your wrap up I love to check out all things bookish!!

Review: Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson

Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson

Expected Publication: March 5, 2019

Publisher: William Morrow

Format: via NetGalley

Rating: 4.5/5    

Synopsis

Hen and her husband Lloyd have settled into a quiet life in a new house outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Hen (short for Henrietta) is an illustrator and works out of a studio nearby, and has found the right meds to control her bipolar disorder. Finally, she’s found some stability and peace.

But when they meet the neighbors next door, that calm begins to erode as she spots a familiar object displayed on the husband’s office shelf. The sports trophy looks exactly like one that went missing from the home of a young man who was killed two years ago. Hen knows because she’s long had a fascination with this unsolved murder—an obsession she doesn’t talk about anymore, but can’t fully shake either.

Could her neighbor, Matthew, be a killer? Or is this the beginning of another psychotic episode like the one she suffered back in college when she became so consumed with proving a fellow student guilty that she ended up hurting a classmate?

The more Hen observes Matthew, the more she suspects he’s planning something truly terrifying. Yet no one will believe her. Then one night, when she comes face to face with Matthew in a dark parking lot, she realizes that he knows she’s been watching him, that she’s really on to him. And that this is the beginning of a horrifying nightmare she may not live to escape.

My Thoughts

I’ve become a huge Peter Swanson fan recently and I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on so when I heard he had a new book coming out I couldn't wait to read it. It seems like his books just get better and when I finished his latest read… WOW is all I could say… this one blew my mind!

In Before She Knew Him we met Hen and Lloyd who recently have moved out to the suburbs and decide one night to join the neighborhood block party to be nice and be neighborly but soon they become friends with the only other couple who don't have kids, Matthew and Mira and realize they are actually next door neighbors. They soon have dinner together and while having a tour of the house something in Matthews office soon catches Hen's eye a simple trophy that makes something click in her head. She soon becomes obsessed with this trophy and remembers it from the newspapers a few years back connected to a murder. She then becomes convinced that Matthew is a murderer and makes it her mission to prove it. She starts to follow and spies on him trying to get any evidence to prove that she is right and not having another manic episode like she has in the past.

Years ago Hen began having manic episodes and it got so bad she was asked to leave school after an altercation with a fellow student. She soon became consumed with all things murder related and when a few murders happen nearby she studied them as if it was her job. However, with the help of family and Lloyd she balanced her meds and got her issues under controlled but after meeting Matthew and connecting things about him she now thinks he is the one behind everything.

Matthew sees himself as a savior of sorts. He had a horrible childhood, to say the least, and we learn in time his past has a huge play in everything that has happened. He survived his upbringing and now is a loving husband to Mira but he has some dark secrets that he has kept to himself...that is until Hen came around. Ironically he isn't scared of Hen because he thinks they are kindred spirits of sorts, after seeing her dark and disturbing art and learning of her obsession with crime and murder. They soon strike up a sort of understanding of and he begins to tell her things he has never told anyone before. We learn why he does what he does, he tries to make excuses for his actions and no matter how he wants to validate these things they are criminal, disturbing and simply horrifying. To get into the mind of this man who can do such unbearable things and then lay in bed with his wife and teach kids the next day is so bizarre, how he can compartmentalize his actions is beyond words.

This book had me from the very beginning. We get to two souls who seem so different but in time we see how they connect in a way we never saw coming. I found it dark, creepy and at some points horrifying but all in a great way. The story was fascinating and with its twist and turns especially the plot twist towards the end there are some amazing jaw-dropping moments. I would call this my favorite Peter Swanson by far and I highly recommend this sinister of a novel.

Release Day Blitz: Sunkissed Days by Samantha Chase

We are so excited about the release of SUNKISSED DAYS by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Samantha Chase. 

SUNKISSED DAYS kicks of the brand new Magnolia Sound series and it's a story you don't want to miss!

 About SUNKISSED DAYS

Mallory Westbrook is ready to make her move on Jake Summerford, the boy – now man – she’s been crushing on for years. Coming back to Magnolia Sound to celebrate her great-grandfather’s birthday provides the perfect opportunity to show Jake that she’s no longer a child.

The last thing Jake expected to do at his mentor’s birthday party was to find himself kissing Mallory under the moonlight. Though he’s known her for years, the thought of kissing her never crossed his mind. But the shy tomboy he once knew is gone, and in her place is a woman he can’t resist. They have one summer before they go their separate ways. Insecurity wars with the possibility of a future together, but it could all come to an end before it even has a chance to start.

Add SUNKISSED DAYS to your Goodreads TBR!

Get your copy of SUNKISSED DAYS today! 

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Don't miss all the Magnolia Sound stories coming in 2019!

Sunkissed Days | Remind Me | A Girl Like You | In Case You Didn't Know

 

About SAMANTHA CHASE

Samantha Chase is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller of contemporary romance. She released her debut novel in 2011 and currently has more than forty titles under her belt! When she’s not working on a new story, she spends her time reading romances, playing way too many games of Scrabble or Solitaire on Facebook, wearing a tiara while playing with her sassy pug Maylene…oh, and spending time with her husband of 25 years and their two sons in North Carolina.

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Review: On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

Published: February 5, 2019

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Format: via audiobook

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least make it out of her neighborhood one day. As the daughter of an underground rap legend who died before he hit big, Bri’s got big shoes to fill. But now that her mom has unexpectedly lost her job, food banks and shutoff notices are as much a part of Bri’s life as beats and rhymes. With bills piling up and homelessness staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it—she has to make it.

On the Come Up is Angie Thomas’s homage to hip-hop, the art that sparked her passion for storytelling and continues to inspire her to this day. It is the story of fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you; of the struggle to become who you are and not who everyone expects you to be of the desperate realities of poor and working-class black families.

My Thoughts

On the Come Up centers around Bri and her ambition to become the next big rapper. She has the passion and talent for it not to mention it's in her blood, seriously her father is a local legend. However she has many things against her, her mother is a recovering addict and her brother quit school to help the family out not to mention the gangs and drugs that are consent in her daily life. And while having a father who was a legend in the rap game is a major plus living in his shadow is something that Bri doesn't want, she knows she has what it takes to make it.

We see Bri at local rap battles and how she kills it every time but no one thinks a girl rapper could seriously make it without using her body and Bri isn't about that life. She writes her own rhymes and only speaks of what she knows so when a label wants her to use their songs and “act the part” of someone who is running with gangs, using drugs and being sexual she is torn. She knows this isn't who she is but she wants to make it and support her family, her mother lost her job and Bri is scared this could set her back to drugs and she really doesn't want that. She also knows all of this shouldn't fall on her brother’s back, he should be back in college not working trying to make ends meet.

What makes this book so good is that this could be anyone's story. This is life for so many people, trying to make it day by day, living in areas that aren't safe with local gangs running things and drugs hurting and killing those around her. We see the double standard that Bri tries to overcome in trying to make her dreams come true. It’s hard to make it in entertainment in general but being female and black is even harder. Even her own mother tells her that her brother should follow his dreams of finishing college are way more important than Bri’s. Why is that? No dream should be shot down simply because you're a female, all dreams are of equal importance. I felt this story had a ton of topics that it touched upon that are very relevant: race, gender, and sexuality to name a few and they addressed them pretty well. This was an entertaining and relevant story that’s another winner from Angie Thomas.

Review: Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Published: March 5, 2019

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Format: via NetGalley

Rating: 5 /5

Synopsis

Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now. Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road. Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.

My Thoughts

Growing up music has always been an important part of my life. I remember listening to music with my mom and aunt so Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, and all those '70s rock groups have always had a place in my heart. So when I heard Taylor Jenkins Reid was coming out with a new book about a rock group in the ’70s my heart was happy and I couldn't wait to read it.

We meet Daisy Jones who was known to hang out within the rock scene. She was the IT girl when it came to that, she was a rich girl who didn't matter to her parents so she found her family with the rock stars who gave her attention if it was only for one night or to party. She soon discovers she wants more and thinks she has a gift when it came to singing and writing songs and in time she puts her energy in that.

The Six is a band on the rise lead by Billy who is the Six, he writes all the music and decides everything when it comes to them. He soon meets the love of his life in Camilla a headstrong girl who sees Billy’s potential and will do anything for Billy to make it there. She wants him to do what she knows he can and when she ends up pregnant and he turns into an alcoholic she makes him chose...it’s either her or the booze...he chooses her. She knows life on the road is hard and temptations are everywhere but Billy keeps his word and stays clear of the alcohol and the women but his biggest test is when he meets Daisy.

Its a thing of fate that brings Daisy and Billy together their hatred of each is so strong you know there is definitely something more there. While they fight and bicker when they come together and make music it's... magical. Daisy is soon asked to be a part of The Six and that's when the real story begins, while Daisy and Billy fight more the songs that come out of them makes the best album of that era. You see this passion between them but Billy made a promise to his wife and he is determined to keep it and that just makes Daisy fall deeper into her vices. Billy sees her potential but steers clear of her because he knows if he doesn't Daisy will be his downfall in more ways than one.

I loved how this story was told in an interview formed. You get everyone’s side of the story and as the saying goes there are three sides to every story, yours mines, and the truth. So to hear how everyone could see things entirely differently is interesting, to say the least. I especially enjoyed the chemistry between Billy and Daisy, they have this love/hate relationship but you know there are so many more layers to them. You see this push and pull between them that you want them together but you also want Billy to stay true to his wife but at the same time, you also want to cheer for Daisy. Daisy is someone you root for you want her to be happy and get help because all she wants is love. A true love, someone who wants her simply for her and not for who she is and Billy could be that guy. Plus Daisy gave me serious Stevie Nicks vibes whom I LOVE! This is another winner from TJR who constantly give us great characters and storylines we get consumed by. She hits a high note with this one, and the fact she made me believe this was an actual group blows my mind. Plus the little twist in the end as to who was the interviewer is was a great touch. So do yourself a favor and dive into the musical journey of Daisy Jones and The Six where the real story starts when the music ends.

New Release Blog Tour: Crashing Into Her [Love on Cue] by Mia Sosa

“Mia Sosa delivers wish fulfillment with off-the-charts sparks.”—Entertainment Weekly

Relationships are a thing of the past for Eva Montgomery. Her current motto? You can’t spell “manipulative” without man. But Eva has needs, and a one-night-stand at her best friend’s wedding is the perfect way to kick off her new approach to singledom. Then a job opportunity puts her in the same city with the guy she can’t forget . . .

Anthony Castillo is a perpetual bachelor—no strings, just flings—a status he maintains by being honest about his intentions and never looking back. So why is he still thinking about the firecracker of a woman who rocked his world at his cousin’s wedding? It’s a question he refuses to answer, until she comes crashing back into his life, taking his emotional walls down with her.

When her father doubts her ability to make it in LA, Eva vows to go big and prove him wrong. With her athletic background, she’s an ideal candidate for stunt work. But first she’ll need training, and the instructor is none other than her former hookup, Anthony Castillo. Except he’s not as cocky as she remembers and he’s definitely still sexy as sin. The only problem is . . . Anthony doesn’t want her anywhere near his stunt school—or his heart.

Crashing Into Her by Mia Sosa

Series: Love on Cue Series

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Avon Impulse

Publication Date: February 19, 2019

Purchase Your Copy Today!

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Tour Wide Giveaway

To celebrate the release of CRASHING INTO HER by Mia Sosa, we’re giving away three paperback copies of the book!

GIVEAWAY TERMS & CONDITIONS:  Open to US shipping addresses only. Three winners will each receive a paperback copy of Crashing Into Her by Mia Sosa.  This giveaway is administered by Pure Textuality PR on behalf of Avon Romance. Giveaway ends 3/3/2019 @ 11:59pm EST. Avon Romance will send the winning copies out to the winner directly. Limit one entry per reader and mailing address.  Duplicates will be deleted. CLICK HERE TO ENTER!

About Mia Sosa

MIA SOSA was born and raised in New York City. She attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Communications and met her own romance hero (spoiler alert: she married him). Mia once dreamed of being a professional singer, but practical considerations (read: the need to generate income) led her to take the law school admissions test instead.

A graduate of Yale Law School, Mia practiced First Amendment and media law in the nation’s capital for ten years before returning to her creative roots. Now she spends most of her days writing contemporary romances about smart women and the complicated men who love them. Mia lives in Maryland with her husband and two daughters and will forever be on the hunt for the perfect karaoke bar.

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This promotion is brought to you by Pure Textuality PR.

Release Day Promo: Boyfriend for Hire by Kendall Ryan

     

I’m the guy you calour ex. Yeah, I’m a male escort, but not just any escort, I’m the escort. The one with a mile-long waiting list and a pristine reputation that’s very well-deserved. I’m the guy who’ll make you feel beautiful, desired, and worshipped . . . all for a steep price. I’m hired to make you shine, and I always deliver. I’ll be whatever you want me to be for one night—except my true self. This is just a job, a role I play to earn a paycheck. But I’m not the guy who falls for a client. Not once in six years. And then I meet Elle. Her friend has hired me to escort her to a wedding, but Elle doesn’t know we’re just pretending. There’s a fire between us I never expected. A connection I haven’t felt in so long. One kiss and I’m losing all control. But what will happen when she finds out who I really am? 

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A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of more than three dozen titles, Kendall Ryan has sold over 2.5 million books and her books have been translated into several languages in countries around the world. Her books have also appeared on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists more than 70 times. Ryan has been featured in such publications as USA Today, Newsweek, and InTouch Magazine. She lives in Texas with her husband and two sons. 

Visit her at: www.kendallryanbooks.com for the latest book news, and fun extras 

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