Book Review: Off Campus (Bend or Break Book 1) by Amy Jo Cousins @_AJCousins

 

Off Campus 

(Bend or Break Book 1)

By Amy Jo Cousins 

• Publisher : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (27 May 2017)

Everyone’s got secrets. Some are just harder to hide.

With his father’s ponzi scheme assets frozen, Tom Worthington believes finishing college is impossible unless he can pay his own way. After months sleeping in his car and gypsy-cabbing for cash, he’s ready to do just that.

But his new, older-student housing comes with an unapologetically gay roommate. Tom doesn’t ask why Reese Anders has been separated from the rest of the student population. He’s just happy to be sleeping in a bed.

Reese isn’t about to share his brutal story with his gruff new roommate. You’ve seen one homophobic jock, you’ve seen ’em all. He plans to drag every twink on campus into his bed until Tom moves out. But soon it becomes clear Tom isn’t budging.

Tom isn’t going to let some late-night sex noise scare him off, especially when it’s turning him on. But he doesn’t want any drama either. He’ll keep his hands, if not his eyes, to himself. Boundaries have a way of blurring when you start sharing truths, though. And if Tom and Reese cross too many lines, they may need to find out just how far they can bend…before they break.

Warning: This book contains cranky roommates who vacillate between lashing out and licking, some male/male voyeurism, emotional baggage that neither guy wants to unpack, and the definitive proof that sound carries in college housing.

Book Rating:b

📚📚📚📚📚 = I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend.

📚📚📚📚 = A really great read.

📚📚📚 = It was enjoyable.

📚📚 = It was okay.

📚 = Um...! 😕

My Review 

Off Campus 

📚📚📚📚 

This is a really beautiful romance between Tom and Reese. Both have gone through a tremendous ordeal. Tom's dad is in prison because of a scandalous business deal where a lot of people lost a lot of money, and it has left Tom out on the streets. And although Tom desperately wants to finish college, he will have to pay for it himself and the last thing on his mind is romance. Especially with his rather promiscuous roommate. Reese, who seems to bring a different guy back to their room every night. But Reese is in fact using theses encounters as a way of gaining back some control of his life after a horrific rape.

This story had me in tears, especially when I found out what happened to Reese. But also because of how much the two of them go through. This is a very sensual book, but I though this gave their story credibility.

I have only rated this novel four books because there are several editing errors that need to be looked at. Apart from that it is a fantastic novel from beginning to end.

You can find it over on Amazon 

Amy Jo Cousins writes contemporary romance and erotica about smart people finding their own best kind of smexy. She lives in Chicago with her son, where she tweets too much, sometimes runs really far, and waits for the Cubs to win the World Series. She loves to hear from readers at amyjocousins.com!

Book Review: A Secret Between Friends (Between the Sheets Book 1) by Serenity Woods

 

A Secret Between Friends

(Between the Sheets Book 1)

By Serenity Woods 

 A wounded soldier needs her own hero...

When Lieutenant Genie Sharpe’s best friend Ciara dies in the bomb blast that blew up their Army truck, Genie comes home to the Bay of Islands to rest her wounded knee. To honor Ciara, Genie decides to carry out her friend’s Bucket List, and she’s more than happy when Ciara’s gorgeous big brother Niall offers to join in.

The attraction that has always simmered between them soon turns sizzling hot. But Niall’s mother Sinead blames Genie for her daughter’s death, and Ciara made her feelings clear on them dating long ago, so they agree to keep their relationship secret.

The final wish on Ciara’s Bucket List brings everything to a head. Genie knows she has to end the fling. But the heart wants what the heart wants, and besides, Niall has other ideas…

Book Rating:

📚📚📚📚📚 = I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend.

📚📚📚📚 = A really great read.

📚📚📚 = It was enjoyable.

📚📚 = It was okay.

📚 = Um...! 😕

My Review 

A Secret Between Friends

📚📚📚📚📚

Oh, my!! What an amazing romance novel. This is the kind of story that I could happily read again and again and again and never grow tired of it. 

First off, we have Genie who came home from the war when her best-friend, who was more like a sister, did not. Ciara parents  blame Genie for her death - but they have absolutely no idea about how hard Genie had tried to save her.

This only member of Ciara's family that goes out of his way to speak to Genie is Niall, Ciara's brother. Genie has been in love with Niall since she was a young teen, although she has always tried her best not to show it. Now, he is helping her complete Ciara's bucket-list and the more time she spends with him, the more her love grows.

Likewise, Niall has always secretly longed for Genie and the buck-list challenge gives him a chance to get really close with her.

This novel is sensual, but the love scenes are beautifully portrayed. Likewise, the emotional turmoil, the regret, the guilt and the desperate longing is also played out between the pages of this remarkable book.

This novel has a big thumbs up from me because it is truly brilliant. 

You can find it over on Amazon

USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance, writing sexy Kiwi billionaires with a heart. 

Book Review: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

 The Book Thief

By Markus Zusak

It is 1939. In Nazi Germany, the country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier - and will become busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed forever when she picks up a single object, abandoned in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, and this is her first act of book thievery. So begins Liesel's love affair with books and words, and soon she is stealing from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library . . . wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times, and when Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, nothing will ever be the same again.

Book Rating:

📚📚📚📚📚 = I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend.

📚📚📚📚 = A really great read.

📚📚📚 = It was enjoyable.

📚📚 = It was okay.

📚 = Um...! 😕

My Review 

The Book Thief

📚📚 

I really wanted to like this book, and I really did try. The writing is flawless, the delivery is brilliant, but and the one thing I found really uncomfortable while reading this book is that death is the narrator. I know that sounds crazy, but I just could not get my head around it and I found it really creepy. 

There was also a lack of  I don't know, tension. There was a sort of tension but it was easily resolved, and there were beautifully written scenes but they did not compel me to carry on reading. I don't like not finishing a book, but I really had a difficult time with this one.

You can find it over on Amazon

Markus Zusak is the author of five books, including the international bestseller, The Book Thief , which spent more than a decade on the New York Times bestseller list, and is translated into more than forty languages – establishing Zusak as one of the most successful authors to come out of Australia.

Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green @realjohngreen

 

The Fault in Our Stars 

By John Green

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars brilliantly explores the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

 Book Rating:

📚📚📚📚📚 = I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend.

📚📚📚📚 = A really great read.

📚📚📚 = It was enjoyable.

📚📚 = It was okay.

📚 = Um...! 😕

My Review 

The Fault in Our Stars 

📚📚📚📚📚

Now I know what all the fuss was about. This book is deserving of all the acclaim it has received. It was simply brilliant from beginning to end. 

You will need a box of tissues by you side when you read this novel because it is desperately  sad. It is one of the most emotional books that I think I have ever read. It is also the kind of book that one only needs to read the once, for I do not think I can put myself through so much heartache again.

This is a wonderful novel, I really cannot praise it enough. If it isn't on your to-read list then it jolly well should be!

You can find it over on Amazon

John Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award presented by the American Library Association. His second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, was a 2007 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His next novel, Paper Towns, is a New York Times bestseller and won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best YA Mystery. In January 2012, his most recent novel, The Fault in Our Stars, was met with wide critical acclaim, unprecedented in Green's career. The praise included rave reviews in Time Magazine and The New York Times, on NPR, and from award-winning author Markus Zusak. The book also topped the New York Times Children's Paperback Bestseller list for several weeks. Green has also coauthored a book with David Levithan called Will Grayson, Will Grayson, published in 2010. The film rights for all his books, with the exception of Will Grayson Will Grayson, have been optioned to major Hollywood Studios.

In 2007, John and his brother Hank were the hosts of a popular internet blog, "Brotherhood 2.0," where they discussed their lives, books and current events every day for a year except for weekends and holidays. They still keep a video blog, now called "The Vlog Brothers," which can be found on the Nerdfighters website, or a direct link here.

Book Review: Lady Ashby's Major Scandal by Myretta Robens

 Lady Ashby's Major Scandal

By Myretta Robens 

Lady Ashby has a pressing problem

Widowed at a young age, Isabel Ashby, yearns to marry again—this time to a young, handsome, titled husband—and live a nice, quiet life with two or three cherubic children. Having limited choices among the gentlemen of her acquaintance, Isabel decides to orchestrate a compromising position for herself to entrap the Earl of Caenby into marriage. But it all goes dreadfully wrong when she ends up unwittingly catching Major Sidney Chamberlayne instead.

Major Chamberlyane has a stoic solution

Sidney Chamberlyane is a second son, a military man of honor who is far more comfortable on the back of a horse than in a ballroom flirting with ladies of the ton. But when Sidney is caught in a passionate kiss with the delectable Lady Ashby, he can do nothing less than marry her.

With their marriage off to a stormy start, both Isabel and Sidney wade through the murky waters of mistrust. But as they begin to recognize the changes in their feelings, will the winds of scandal and gossip drag them down into dangerous depths, or will truth and love guide them home?

Book Rating:

📚📚📚📚📚 = I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend.

📚📚📚📚 = A really great read.

📚📚📚 = It was enjoyable.

📚📚 = It was okay.

📚 = Um...! 😕

My Review 

Lady Ashby's Major Scandal

📚📚📚

This was a tough one for me to rate, it wasn't a two book rating, but neither did I think it worthy of a three. It is a well written story but I just could not connect with the characters and the story was predictable.

This is a very sensual novel, and I thought these scenes were beautifully written it was just the characters themselves.  I don't know. I guess this novel was just not my cup of tea.

Myretta Robens has lived in Regency England since she was old enough to read Jane Austen. As no eligible peers presented themselves and she never could get vouchers for Almack's, she was forced to make her way by going into trade. She spent more years than she cares to count working in the field of information technology. It was rewarding in its own way but she never abandoned her first love. In 1997, She found an interesting way to insinuate the 19th century into the world of technology when she joined a friend in creating a Jane Austen web site. She still manages The Republic of Pemberley and invites you to visit if your obsession runs to Jane Austen.

When Myretta is not in the Regency, she lives outside Boston with her Australian Cattle Dog and a varying number of cats.

Book Review: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng @pronounced_ing

 Little Fires Everywhere

By Celeste Ng 

Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down.

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned - from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren - an enigmatic artist and single mother- who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town - and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating cost . . .

 Book Rating:

📚📚📚📚📚 = I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend.

📚📚📚📚 = A really great read.

📚📚📚 = It was enjoyable.

📚📚 = It was okay.

📚 = Um...! 😕

My Review

Little Fires Everywhere

📚📚📚📚  

This was a fun read, although at times it was a little on the slow side and there are many characters to get to grips with, but the prose is gripping and the story is wonderful.

It is, without a doubt, an intriguing drama, and one that once I got into I found very difficult t turn away from.

I like this novel very much!

You can find it over on Amazon

Celeste Ng grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Shaker Heights, Ohio.
She attended Harvard University and earned an MFA from the University of
Michigan. Her debut novel, Everything I Never Told You, won the Hopwood Award, the
Massachusetts Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature and the
ALA's Alex Award and is a 2016 NEA fellow. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Book Review: American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins @jeaninecummins

 

American Dirt

By Jeanine Cummins 

FEAR KEEPS THEM RUNNING. HOPE KEEPS THEM ALIVE.

Vivid, visceral, utterly compelling, AMERICAN DIRT is an unforgettable story of a mother and son's attempt to cross the US-Mexico border. Described as 'impossible to put down' (Saturday Review) and 'essential reading' (Tracy Chevalier), it is a story that will leave you utterly changed.

Yesterday, Lydia had a bookshop.

Yesterday, Lydia was married to a journalist.

Yesterday, she was with everyone she loved most in the world.

Today, her eight-year-old son Luca is all she has left.

For him, she will carry a machete strapped to her leg.

For him, she will leap onto the roof of a high speed train.

For him, she will find the strength to keep running.

Book Rating:

📚📚📚📚📚 = I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend.

📚📚📚📚 = A really great read.

📚📚📚 = It was enjoyable.

📚📚 = It was okay.

📚 = Um...! 😕

My Review 

American Dirt

📚📚📚📚📚

If I could give this book more than a five star book rating then I would. This is a breathtakingly brilliant novel that grabbed me from that opening chapter and did not let go of me. This is, at times, a tough read, but I thought it is one of those books that really challenges you and makes you think. 

The poor reviews this book has received are not at all deserved, this book is one that should not be overlooked. Read this book!

You can find it over on Amazon

Jeanine Cummins is the author of four books: the bestselling memoir A Rip in Heaven, and the novels The Outside Boy, The Crooked Branch, and American Dirt. She lives in New York with her husband and two children.