This past week in Atlanta, I attended my fourth RT Convention. It was early-morning-to-late-night intense chaos of the best kind: non-stop talking, smiling, laughing and fangirling as I was surrounded by so many of my favorite authors and friends. I was also able to meet new authors whose books I’m now excited to read, and came back to Austin re-energized to keep on blogging, keep on supporting a community who has been supporting me right back for over four years. That being said, I didn’t crack open a book or laptop once, so I catching up this week on all things! To check out pics, head on over to my Instagram!
WHAT I’M READING
Reading Now: | Listening To: | Reading Next: |
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NEW REVIEW & RECOMMENDATION
NEW RELEASES
Confessions of a Former Puck Bunny by Cindi Madsen (Available Now)
Confession #1: I used to be a puck bunny, but after a hockey player broke my heart, I gave up all things hockey. Now I’m just focused on finding a way to pass my math class so I can graduate college.
Confession #2: Ryder “Ox” Maddox’s deep, sexy voice sends fuzzy tingles through my entire body, and I’m powerless to stop it. Which is a big problem since the hot, surprisingly funny hockey player is my new math tutor.
Confession #3: I can’t stop thinking about how ripped Ryder is from all his hockey training, and how fun it’d be to cross lines with him.
Confession #4: I kissed a hockey player and I liked it.
Confession #5: If I’m not careful, I might relapse and fall for Ryder, and then I’ll be totally pucked.
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Public Relations by Katie Heaney and Arianna Rebolini (May 09) – Read my review
Recommended romance
“Cinderella for the modern age.” —Kirkus
Young PR star Rose Reed is thrown into the big leagues when her boss leaves town the day of the firm’s meeting with Archie Fox, a young, hot, internationally famous British singer-songwriter. The meeting is going badly until Rose suggests a staged romance with up-and-coming, young indie star Raya. He’ll do it, but only if Rose becomes his publicist.
As the faux-mance between Archie and Raya begins to rehabilitate Archie’s faltering career, Rose finds his herself having unexpected, inconvenient and definitely unprofessional feelings for the crooner. But do late night texts and impromptu burrito binges mean he feels the same? In the end, Rose will have to decide whether to let her fantasy crush go, or to risk her reputation to be with the charming, handsome, scoundrel-y but sweet pop star she’s grown to love.
With a razor-sharp voice full of wry humor, Public Relations is a fun-filled glimpse behind the curtain of the PR machines that create our favorite celebrities.
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Real Dirty by Meghan March (May 09)
Country music’s bad boy, Boone Thrasher, takes center stage in USA Today bestselling author Meghan March’s brand new stand alone Real Dirty Duet!
I have everything a guy could want—a new single burning up the charts, more money than a simple country boy could spend, and a woman I’m planning to marry.
Until she doesn’t show up for my proposal.
The life I thought was so perfect, isn’t.
The guy who thought he had everything, doesn’t.
I’ve got my heart on lockdown, but life sends me straight into the path of a mouthy bartender who puts me in my place.
Now the only place I want to put her is under me.
I thought I was done with love, but maybe I’m just getting started.
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Badd to the Bone by Jasinda Wilder (May 09)
Brock Badd is everything except bad. He’s sexy, sweet, strong, and every other good thing I never thought I wanted in a man. I always thought I needed the real bad boys, the ones that screw you senseless and pull your hair and aren’t there to talk about it in the morning.
I’ve always been a one-night stand kind of girl, and sometimes I wouldn’t even stick around for a full night. Brock was supposed to be a one-night stand—that’s how it started out, at least. Only, what was supposed to be a fun one-time-only hookup with a hot local guy ended up with me discovering Brock’s potency six different ways by breakfast.
That was all it took. One night with Brock, and I was hooked. But hooked doesn’t mean ready for a relationship.
That’s what he wants. And deep down, I’m starting to fear that’s what I want too.
I’m just not sure I’m ready for it.
I mean, he’s the literal epitome of tall, dark, and handsome, plus he’s a pilot…with a six-pack and perfect hair and a smile to melt me from the inside out. How’s a girl supposed to resist that? I couldn’t. I can’t. I’ve tried, but I keep going back for more.
I’ve got it bad, real BADD.
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The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo (May 09)
Lucy is faced with a life-altering choice. But before she can make her decision, she must start her story—their story—at the very beginning.
Lucy and Gabe meet as seniors at Columbia University on a day that changes both of their lives forever. Together, they decide they want their lives to mean something, to matter. When they meet again a year later, it seems fated—perhaps they’ll find life’s meaning in each other. But then Gabe becomes a photojournalist assigned to the Middle East and Lucy pursues a career in New York. What follows is a thirteen-year journey of dreams, desires, jealousies, betrayals, and, ultimately, of love. Was it fate that brought them together? Is it choice that has kept them away? Their journey takes Lucy and Gabe continents apart, but never out of each other’s hearts.
Me Before You meets One Day in this devastatingly romantic debut novel about the enduring power of first love, with a shocking, unforgettable ending. A Love Story for a new generation.
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The Thirst by Jo Nesbø (May 09)
In this electrifying new thriller from the author of Police and The Snowman, Inspector Harry Hole hunts down a serial murderer who targets his victims . . . on Tinder.
The murder victim, a self-declared Tinder addict. The one solid clue—fragments of rust and paint in her wounds—leaves the investigating team baffled.
Two days later, there’s a second murder: a woman of the same age, a Tinder user, an eerily similar scene.
The chief of police knows there’s only one man for this case. But Harry Hole is no longer with the force. He promised the woman he loves, and he promised himself, that he’d never go back: not after his last case, which put the people closest to him in grave danger.
But there’s something about these murders that catches his attention, something in the details that the investigators have missed. For Harry, it’s like hearing “the voice of a man he was trying not to remember.” Now, despite his promises, despite everything he risks, Harry throws himself back into the hunt for a figure who haunts him, the monster who got away.
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Going In Deep by Carly Phillips (May 09)
Julian Dane thought he’d hit rock bottom — until he met a woman (isn’t that what they all say?). He used her and broke her heart. Now he wants to turn things around but the damage he dealt stands in his way.
Kendall Parker’s unique issues have made it hard to live a normal life. Very few people understand her and she trusts even less … but she believed in Julian once, and he only betrayed her.
Now Julian is back — a new man — and determined to win Kendall’s heart. But this reformed bad boy just might find that Going in Deep is harder than it looks.
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The Queen and the Cure by Amy Harmon (May 09)
There will be a battle, and you will need to protect your heart.
Kjell of Jeru had always known who he was. He’d never envied his brother or wanted to be king. He was the bastard son of the late King Zoltev and a servant girl, and the ignominy of his birth had never bothered him.
But there is more to a man than his parentage. More to a man than his blade, his size, or his skills, and all that Kjell once knew has shifted and changed. He is no longer simply Kjell of Jeru, a warrior defending the crown. Now he is a healer, one of the Gifted, and a man completely at odds with his power.
Called upon to rid the country of the last vestiges of the Volgar, Kjell stumbles upon a woman who has troubling glimpses of the future and no memory of the past. Armed with his unwanted gift and haunted by regret, Kjell becomes a reluctant savior, beset by old enemies and new expectations. With the woman by his side, Kjell embarks upon a journey where the greatest test may be finding the man she believes him to be.
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Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane (May 09)
Since We Fell follows Rachel Childs, a former journalist who, after an on-air mental breakdown, now lives as a virtual shut-in. In all other respects, however, she enjoys an ideal life with an ideal husband. Until a chance encounter on a rainy afternoon causes that ideal life to fray.
As does Rachel’s marriage.
As does Rachel herself.
Sucked into a conspiracy thick with deception, violence, and possibly madness, Rachel must find the strength within herself to conquer unimaginable fears and mind-altering truths. By turns heart- breaking, suspenseful, romantic, and sophisticated, Since We Fell is a novel of profound psychological insight and tension. It is Dennis Lehane at his very best.
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Tangled (1001 Dark Nights) by Rebecca Zanetti (May 09)
From New York Times bestselling author, Rebecca Zanetti, comes a new Dark Protectors—Reese Family Novella.
Now that her mask has finally slipped…
Ginny O’Toole has spent a lifetime repaying her family’s debt, and she’s finally at the end of her servitude with one last job. Of course, it couldn’t be easy. After stealing the computer files that will free her once and for all, she finds herself on the run from a pissed off vampire who has never fallen for her helpless act. A deadly predator too sexy for his own good. If he doesn’t knock it off, he’s going to see just how powerful she can really be.
He won’t be satisfied until she’s completely bare.
Theo Reese had been more than irritated at the beautiful yet helpless witch he’d known a century ago, thinking she was just useless fluff who enjoyed messing with men’s heads. The second he discovers she’s a ruthless thief determined to bring down his family, his blood burns and his interest peaks, sending his true nature into hunting mode. When he finds her, and he will, she’ll understand the real meaning of helpless.
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Worship Me by Chelle Bliss (May 09)
James Caldo needs to control everything in his life, even his wife, Izzy Gallo. But she’s headstrong and has a need to test her husband’s limits as much as he pushes hers.
When a case at ALFA Private Investigation takes a dark turn, James is forced to get Izzy involved in an undercover sting, and the assignment will test her sexual boundaries as well as the very foundation of their relationship.
Can Izzy hold her tongue long enough to keep them both safe? Or will her unwillingness to fully submit draw the eye of the very man they’re after?
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Until Sage by Aurora Rose Reynolds (May 09)
Sage Mayson had Kimberly Cullen once, and the memory of that brief encounter has tortured him since the moment he pushed her away. He should have followed his gut, but he didn’t, and now he’s left watching the woman he wants more than anything from afar.
Kimberly vowed to protect her heart from Sage, but when her sister is murdered and her world starts to fall apart, he’s the one person she finds herself leaning on.
Getting a second chance is something Sage knows is rare. He’s not going to squander the one he’s been given, and he won’t take no for an answer when it comes to making Kim his.
But what Sage doesn’t know is Kim has a secret that could leave them both devastated and heartbroken.
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Tease by Ella Frank (May 09)
Tease – verb: to tantalize especially by arousing desire or curiosity often without intending to satisfy it….unless your name is Tate Morrison.
It’s been four years since Logan Mitchell walked into Tate’s life and irrevocably changed it. Four years since the sexy as sin lawyer dared him to try, and four years since Tate won his love.
Now, as they approach the next chapter of their lives Logan is determined they won’t end up like many of their friends. Settled. Domestic. Boring. However, that’s easier said than done. With busy careers and working odd hours, finding time for one another is becoming increasingly difficult.
But that sh*t isn’t going to fly with Logan or Tate.
The two of them are determined to compromise to get what it is they want, and what they want is each other.
Tease is the sexy, tantalizing continuation of the two men who stole your heart… and popped your cherry.
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The Best is Yet to Come by Bella Andre (May 10)
Sullivan fans met Calvin Vaughn at Summer Lake in “Now That I’ve Found You” (New York Sullivans #1) and “Since I Fell For You” (New York Sullivans #2). Now get ready for Calvin’s emotional, sexy, and heartwarming second-chance love story in THE BEST IS YET TO COME.
Best friends. High school sweethearts. Passionate lovers. Once upon a time, Sarah Bartow and Calvin Vaughn were everything to each other. Until big dreams—and an even bigger tragedy—tore them apart.
Ten years after good-bye, they’re finally together again at Summer Lake in the Adirondacks…and the sparks between them are hotter than ever. Soon one kiss is turning into so much more. Not only breathtaking, sizzling lovemaking—but also deep, honest emotions that can’t be denied.
Calvin refuses to let the ambitions and disasters that separated them a decade ago wreck them this time. Not when he knows for sure that Sarah is his one—his only—true love. He let her get away once. He won’t make the same mistake again. Even if it means risking his entire heart, and every last piece of his soul, to show her they belong together now…and forever.
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Love Me in the Dark by Mia Asher (May 10)
Two strangers in Paris …
One passionate, earth-shattering kiss.
He was the artist upstairs
with the tantalizing smile and laughing eyes.
He was the devil inviting me to sin,
seducing me to dance in the bright moonlight.
He was desire and need.
When he touched me, my body sang.
My soul came alive.
But I belonged to another man,
and he didn’t want to let me go.
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Riptide by Skye Jordan (May 12)
When pro surfer Zach Ellis isn’t traveling the world-wide competition circuit, he works as a Renegade stunt double for the hit TV series, Hawaiian Heat. After years of tangling with the ocean, his body has paid the price. So when he gets a shot at a star roll on the show, Zach’s all in. He celebrates the career opportunity by taking a chance on a woman who’s not his usual island-girl type, only to discover he can’t bear to let her go.
Tessa Drake belongs mired in legislation battles in Washington DC, not standing on the sidelines of a filming set in Maui like a wannabe starlet. But even more important than her law career, Tessa needs Zach Ellis’s signature on legal papers. Papers that relinquish his parental rights so Tessa can adopt the girl who already calls her mommy. When she discovers Zach has slipped out of town before she makes contact, Tessa takes solace in the sexy star of Hawaiian Heat. A man whose warmth and dazzling grin makes her Mensa-level IQ vanish into thin air.
After an electrifying night together, Tessa is horrified to discover just who rocked her world. Zach is stunned to learn he’s a father. And both find themselves caught in a riptide pulling them in the opposite direction of their dreams.
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UPCOMING RELEASES
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♥ indicates books I’ve already read and loved.)
ONGOING RECOMMENDATIONS
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