This post contains affiliate links, meaning I’ll receive a small commission should you purchase using those links. All opinions expressed are my own. I receive no compensation for reviews.

VBB Weekly – 09.22.2014

Highlights

Interview with Rebecca Donovan – I had the pleasure of interviewing Rebecca Donovan yesterday evening and if you missed it, you can watch the interview below! There are no spoilers related to What If, or any of Rebecca’s books, so you can view it with ease and get the scoop on What If, the Breathing series movies and more!

Love That? Try This. – Last week, I was finally able to get a new feature that I’ve been working on for over a year. I find that many times I am searching for like-minded books that I’ve loved and so I thought this list of similar recommendations would be valuable to you too! I’ll continue to add to it, so keep checking back and I hope you find at least one fabulous book to enjoy! Click the image below.

Emotional Powerhouses – Each week I’ll try and highlight one of the VBB Recommendation categories, and this week it’s all about Emotional Powerhouses. Check out this list for books that promise to draw every emotion out of you, many times bringing you to tears before that hard-earned happy ending!

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Currently Reading

Currently Listening To

Up Next

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

New Releases

(Click cover to order)

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Releasing This Week

Closer to the Edge (#4, Playing with Fire) by Tara Sivec (Available Now)

The fourth and final book in the best selling Playing With Fire series from Tara Sivec.

Cole Vargas has battled the demons that have plagued his nightmares, but winning the heart of the woman he destroyed is going to be the fight of his life.

When Cole returns home wounded from his latest mission, his only thoughts are of the woman who still owns his heart and getting strong enough to stand on his own two feet in front of her, to beg for her forgiveness.

Olivia Lafierre had her own nightmares to deal with since Cole said good-bye to her. Broken and alone, she lost everything the day Cole left and is still paying the price for loving him.

When the two are thrown together before either are ready, secrets will be revealed, friends will become enemies and past mistakes will push them…closer to the edge.

This is the final book of the Playing With Fire series, but each can be read as a standalone.

Reading Order: A Beautiful Lie | Because of You | Worn Me Down | Closer to the Edge

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

The Rental by Rebecca Berto (Available Now) – Read an excerpt

At first, Rick Delaney watched Vee Wyland with the hungry eyes of a fox as if she were a rabbit … his rabbit. But one day, he slunk away without notice.

Months away from graduating high school, Vee’s life is on the verge of crumbling. At home, dire finances and long hours test her family. Her boyfriend hardly pays attention to her. And she can’t shake her feelings for his older brother, Rick.

Then, all in one night, tragedy tears her teetering life into shreds.

When Rick and Vee reunite, the sparks fly. However, she unwittingly signs away a future for both of them. In his world, a place called The Rental, she becomes Victoria and Rick becomes Rhett. One part of her watches with fascination, while the other unfurls and embraces her sexual awakening. It began as a game, but the consequences are real.

Following their heart’s desire is forbidden, but walking away could strip their hope for a future.

The Rental is an erotic romance that explores how sex isn’t purely physical; sometimes, it’s a gateway to your soul.

Reading Order: Masquerade (FREE prequel) | The Rental

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Summer of Seventeen by Jane Harvey-Berrick (Sep 22)

It was supposed to be the endless summer of sand, sea, and surf.

Supposed to be.

But Nick Andrews life is crashing out of control. His girlfriend and his best friend have declared war, his sister’s constant interference in his life is driving him insane, and there are money problems that won’t go away.

Being seventeen isn’t supposed to be this hard.

When cool surfer Marcus arrives in town, Nick sees that there are easier ways to live. But with his life falling to pieces around him, it’s hard to know who to trust.

As the scorching heat of summer grows, events begin to unravel, reaching a shattering conclusion—and a summer he’ll never forget.

This book can be read as a standalone novel.

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Stay With Me (#3, Wait for You) by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Sep 23)

At 21, Calla hasn’t done a lot of things. She’s never been kissed, never seen the ocean, never gone to an amusement park. But growing up, she witnessed some things no child ever should. She still carries the physical and emotional scars of living with a strung-out mother, Mona—secrets she keeps from everyone, including her close circle of college friends.

But the safe cocoon Calla has carefully built is shattered when she discovers her mom has stolen her college money and run up a huge credit card debt in her name. Now, Calla has to go back to the small town she thought shed left behind and clean up her mom’s mess again. Of course, when she arrives at her mother’s bar, Mona is nowhere to be found. Instead, six feet of hotness named Jackson James is pouring drinks and keeping the place humming.

Sexy and intense, Jax is in Calla’s business from they moment they meet, giving her a job and helping her search for Mona. And the way he looks at her makes it clear he wants to get horizontal . . . and maybe something more. Before Calla can let him get close, though, she’s got to deal with the pain of the past—and some very bad guys out to mess her up if she doesn’t give them her mom.

This book can be read as a standalone novel.

Read my review on USA Today HEA blog | Read my review

Reading Order: Wait For You | Trust In Me (novella) | Be With Me | Stay With Me

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Deacon (#4, Unfinished Hero) by Kristen Ashley (Sep 23)

Deacon has an ugly history, a history that broke him, leaving him a ghost of a man. Out of necessity, he left the normal world to descend into the criminal world and found he fit. So he stayed. Cold as ice and living off the grid, Deacon has no intention to connect, not with anyone.

Then he returns to some remote cabins in the Colorado Mountains and finds they have new owners. One of them is Cassidy Swallow, a young woman willing to work hard to live her quiet dream in a house by a river surrounded by aspen and pine.

Suddenly, Deacon finds he’s at war. Cassidy’s pull for him to connect is strong. He fights it, but he loses, always coming back for more. But when he does, he gives her nothing.

From the first time she sees him, Cassidy knows Deacon is dead inside. She knows he’s the kind of man who could destroy a woman. But one night when Deacon’s control slips, Cassidy takes a chance.

He might break her. He also might be her dream come true.

Reading Order: Knight ($0.99) | Creed ($0.99) | Raid ($0.99) | Deacon

My Reviews: Knight | Creed | Raid | Deacon

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Rooms by Lauren Oliver (Sep 23)

In the tradition of The Lovely Bones, Her Fearful Symmetry, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane—this is a tale of family, ghosts, secrets, and mystery, in which the lives of the living and the dead intersect in shocking, surprising, and moving ways.

Wealthy Richard Walker has just died, leaving behind his country house full of rooms packed with the detritus of a lifetime. His estranged family—bitter ex-wife Caroline, troubled teenage son Trenton, and unforgiving daughter Minna—have arrived for their inheritance.

But the Walkers are not alone. Prim Alice and the cynical Sandra, long dead former residents bound to the house, linger within its claustrophobic walls. Jostling for space, memory, and supremacy, they observe the family, trading barbs and reminiscences about their past lives. Though their voices cannot be heard, Alice and Sandra speak through the house itself—in the hiss of the radiator, a creak in the stairs, the dimming of a light bulb.

The living and dead are each haunted by painful truths that will soon surface with explosive force. When a new ghost appears, and Trenton begins to communicate with her, the spirit and human worlds collide—with cataclysmic results.

Elegantly constructed and brilliantly paced, Rooms is an enticing and imaginative ghost story and a searing family drama that is as haunting as it is resonant.

This is a standalone novel and Lauren Oliver’s adult debut.

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Almost Lover by Steph Campbell and Liz Reinhardt (Sep 23)

All he was looking for was a fresh start.

Enzo Rodriguez left behind the waves, his family, and Silver Strand–the only place he’d ever called home–for a move to Napa Valley and a chance for a total do-over.

A girl wasn’t part of the plan. And this girl definitely wasn’t.

The only thing that could screw up his new life is the one thing he’s powerless to stop. Like it or not, he’s falling hard and fast for off-limits Jordan Caletti.

But when your fresh start is based around a lie, how long before it all comes crashing down?

And when you can’t run again, how do you avoid taking the one you love down with you?

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Scarlett Red by PT Michelle (Sep 23)

Mister Black swept in and out of my life like a tornado, leaving me twisted up and forever changed in his wake.

And now that my life is finally back on track, I need to move on, despite the many reminders of our time together.

But our pasts are only as far away as the shadows we hide behind, and sometimes those shadows grow darker, converging on the present in the most insidious way.

He is Black: a stealthy hunter and rainbow master.

I am Red: a truth seeker and desire keeper.

Together we are obsession. Passionate colors destined to be drawn together.

This book is meant for readers 18+ due to mature content. This is part 2 of the In The Shadows serial.

Reading Order: Mister Black ($0.99) | Scarlett Red ($0.99)

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Temper for You (#3, For You) by Gena Rulon (Sep 24)

Meg Adeio has led a life of isolation—not by choice, by necessity—until one act of heroism forces her out of seclusion. Despite a past shrouded in mystery, Meg is “adopted” by an eclectic group of friends that become the family she never had. Life was good for the first time in…ever.

Or it was until Westly Black reappeared on her doorstep. She knew he was the last man any woman should give her time to—only good for one thing—yet a temptation no woman could deny. Wes might make her life messy, but Meg’s eyes were wide open and she had it under control. At least she thought she did.

When past and present collide, loyalties are tested, forcing Meg to sacrifice her future to protect those she loves.

Temper For You is a gripping story of regret, deception, and redemption – filled with raw emotion, sarcastic wit, intrigue, and love’s propensity to forgive.

Reading Order: Only For You (Review) | Pieces For You | Temper For You

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

You by Caroline Kepnes (Sep 25)

You by Caroline Kepnes

Gone Girl meets Fatal Attraction in Caroline Kepnes’ You, a chilling account of the twisted psychology behind unrelenting passion.

When aspiring writer Guinevere Beck strides into the bookstore where Joe works he is instantly smitten. Beck is everything Joe has ever wanted: tough, razor-smart and sexier than his wildest dreams. He’d kill to have her.

Soon Beck can’t resist her feelings for a guy who seems custom made for her. When a string of macabre incidents tears her world apart there is only one person she can turn to. But there’s more to Joe than Beck realises and much more to Beck than her perfect facade. The obsessive relationship quickly spirals into a whirlwind of deadly consequences…

A chilling account of unrelenting, terrifying deceit, Caroline Kepnes’ You is a thriller more perversely clever and dangerously twisted than any YOU have ever read.

This is a standalone novel.

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Pre-Orders

(Click images to buy or for more info)

Sep-30	Oct-06	Oct-07	Oct-07
Oct-07	Oct-07	Oct-07	Oct-07
Oct-21	Oct-21	Oct-21	Oct-21
Oct-21	Oct-28	Oct-28	Nov-04
Nov-04	Nov-04	Nov-04	Nov-11
Nov-18	Nov-18	Nov-18	Nov-18

★ Visit THIS PAGE for the full list of releases! ★

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Must Reads of the Week

The Girl of Fire and Thorns series by Rae Carson

I am LOVING these books, which I’m devouring via Audible. Written by the talented Rae Carson and performed by my favorite narrator, Jennifer Ikeda, these books have completely consumed me. The series chronicle a young girl’s journey of self-discovery as she learns more about her power, her destiny, and what she must do to rule a kingdom in chaos while avoiding being killed at every turn. Our heroine starts off so relatable, a pudgy, but intelligent girl who feels she is the lesser of two sisters, but through impossible situations, she finds courage, strength, power and love. These are YA fantasy, adventure books, but I cannot recommend them enough! I highly encourage you to try them out. You’ll be sucked in before you know it!

Girl of Fire and Thorns | Crown of Embers | Bitter Kingdom

★ Fore more VBB Book Recommendations, click here ★

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

New Reviews

Deacon (#4, Unfinished Hero) by Kristen Ashley
What If by Rebecca Donovan
Stay With Me (#3, Wait for You) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Book News

Cover Reveal: Until the End by Abbi Glines
Cover Reveal + Excerpt: Love In Spanish by Karina Halle
New to Pre-order: Breaking the Rules by Katie McGarry
New Kindle Voyage: Coming in October and available for pre-order
Pre-order: Confess by Colleen Hoover (now coming March 10th)

Giveaway

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Here’s a current list of sales for Amazon U.S. Click on the image to purchase.

(Click images to buy or for more info)

$0.99	$0.99 – Review	$0.99 – Review	$0.99
$0.99 SET – Review	$0.99	$0.99	$0.99
$0.99	$0.99	$0.99	$0.99
$0.99	$0.99	$0.99	$0.99
$0.99	$0.99	$0.99	FREE
$1.99	$0.99	$0.99	$0.99
FREE – Review	FREE	FREE	FREE
FREE – Review	FREE – Review	FREE	FREE – Review
$0.99 – Review	$0.99	$0.99 – Review	$0.99 – Review
$1.99 – Review	$2.99	$1.99 – Review	$1.99 – Review
$0.99	$1.99	$1.99	$1.99 – Review
$0.99 – Review	$0.99	$2.99	$2.99 – Review