{Book Blitz + Giveaway} If Only We by Jessica Sankiewicz

If Only We

by Jessica Sankiewicz

Release Date: 10/27/13

Summary from Goodreads:

They say all it takes is one wrong move and you lose the game. One false step and you’re trapped. One slip-up in your choice of words and you ruin a friendship forever. That is what they say. They say I lost.

I do not believe them.

At the end of the summer after graduation, Adrienne wonders what happened to cause her life to be in ruins. She isn’t getting along with her mom, her stepsister isn’t talking to her, and, to top it off, the boy she’s been in love with doesn’t want anything to do with her. She believes the turning point was a choice she made at graduation. When she wakes up the next day, she has been transported back three months to that moment, the one where everything started to fall apart.

Adrienne realizes she has been given a second chance—and this time she doesn’t want to mess anything up. Reliving the entire summer, though, turns out to be a lot harder than she thought. As the same days and weeks go by, she starts to see how simple decisions can make a huge impact on the world around her. Despite knowing some of what lies ahead, there are some things she didn’t anticipate. She thought she knew what mistake led her to where she ended up the first time. She was wrong.

And by the time summer is over, she discovers what was really at stake.

Available from:

  

{Excerpt}

I'm about to give up hope.

Upon opening my eyes Saturday, I have zero motivation to do anything. I can’t work on my project. I can’t go to the store for material until tomorrow. I lay on my bed browsing through fashion magazines. At least I can work on ideas.

It’s mid afternoon when the doorbell rings. Since no one else is home, I have to get up to answer it. Why does this have to happen when I’m comfortable? I trudge down the stairs to the door.

I'm not prepared to find Chevy standing on the other side.

After a week of wondering where he was, here he stands in front of me.

I must have been staring for a while because he raises his eyebrows and says, “Adrienne, are you going to let me in?”

I blink a few times, shaking myself out of the shock. “Of course,” I say, holding the door open so he can step in. “I’m just surprised to see you here.”

“I could imagine,” he says. “Could we go somewhere and talk?”

This takes me aback, but I nod. “Sure,” I say as I lead him upstairs to my room. On the way up, I wonder what it is that he wants to say. His presence after being away is creating a new kind of nervousness inside of me. I pick up the mess of magazines strewn out to make room for us to sit on my bed.

Once he sits, I ask, “What is it that you want to talk about?”

He is quiet for a moment. “I guess, first of all, I’m sorry I didn’t call you back. If I could have called, I would have. I’ve been grounded.”

“Grounded? What happened?”

He lets out a sigh. “To put it plainly, I was irresponsible. I spent an extra day in New York and, instead of calling my parents to let them know, I just showed up a day later. I didn’t think anything of it. I mean, it was only one day, right? When I got home, I was reamed out. My mom was worried and my dad was pissed because he needed me to work. ” He holds out his hand and touches his index finger. “They took away my phone.” Then he touches his middle finger. “They took away my car.” Then he touches his ring finger. “And I wasn’t allowed to leave the house unless it was for work.”

“That’s no good.”

“I know. They lifted the grounding this morning. I have my phone back, and obviously, I can go places again. But I don’t have my car since my dad has the keys and he’s not home.”

Doesn’t have his car? Then that means... “Wait…did you walk here?”

“Yeah.”

He could have just called. He could have even sent a text. “You didn’t have to come all the way over here to tell me this.”

About the Author

Jessica is the 28-year-old author of IF ONLY WE, a YA contemporary. You can often find her either reading or marathon watching TV on DVD, her favorites being Castle and Veronica Mars. She frequently mismatches her clothes and giggles uncontrollably. She knows almost every Billy Joel song by heart. She collects books and toys, and she has an intense love of cats and lemurs. Currently in the midst of her quarter-life-crisis, she is still takin' names and getting very close to reaching an epiphany.

Author Links:

    

GIVEAWAY:

One print copy of If Only We (INT)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Blitz Organized by:

Waiting on Wednesday (30) River Road by Jayne Ann Krentz

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, created by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week I'm waiting on: 

River Road by Jayne Ann Krentz

It’s been thirteen years since Lucy Sheridan was in Summer River. The last time she visited her aunt Sara there, as a teenager, she’d been sent home suddenly after being dragged out of a wild party—by the guy she had a crush on, just to make it more embarrassing. Obviously Mason Fletcher—only a few years older but somehow a lot more of a grown-up—was the overprotective type who thought he had to come to her rescue.

Now, returning after her aunt’s fatal car accident, Lucy is learning there was more to the story than she realized at the time. Mason had saved her from a very nasty crime that night—and soon afterward, Tristan, the cold-blooded rich kid who’d targeted her, disappeared mysteriously, his body never found.

A lot has changed in thirteen years. Lucy now works for a private investigation firm as a forensic genealogist, while Mason has quit the police force to run a successful security firm with his brother—though he still knows his way around a wrench when he fills in at his uncle’s local hardware store. Even Summer River has changed, from a sleepy farm town into a trendy upscale spot in California’s wine country. But Mason is still a protector at heart, a serious (and seriously attractive) man. And when he and Lucy make a shocking discovery inside Sara’s house, and some of Tristan’s old friends start acting suspicious, Mason’s quietly fierce instincts kick into gear. He saved Lucy once, and he’ll save her again. But this time, she insists on playing a role in her own rescue . . .(Blurb via Goodreads)

Expected publication: January 7, 2014

What are you waiting on?

{Cover Reveal} Donners of the Dead by Karina Halle

Donners of the Dead by Karina Halle
Publication date: January 2014
Genres: Horror, Romance

***A Standalone Horror Romance coming February 24, 2014***

Jake McGraw was unlike anyone I’d ever known. He was brash, rude, unapologetic and arrogant; chauvinistic, close-minded, and terribly stubborn. He was built like a tree, tall with a hard chest and wide shoulders and hands that looked like they could wrestle a bear. He was a cigar-chomping, scruffy-faced, beast of a man. I was pretty sure I hated him. And I know he hated me. But among the flesh-eating monsters in these snow-capped mountains, he was the only thing keeping me alive

The year is 1851 and pioneers in search of California gold are still afraid to travel on the same route as the tragic Donner party did years before. When the last wagon train to go into the Sierra Nevada mountains fails to arrive at their destination, Eve Smith, an 18-year old half-native girl with immense tracking skills is brought along with the search party, headed by an enigmatic former Texas Ranger, Jake McGraw.

What they find deep in the dangerous snow-covered terrain is a terrifying consequence of cannibalism, giving new meaning to the term “monster.” While the search party is slowly picked off, one by one, Eve must learn to trust Jake, who harbors more than a few secrets of his own, in order to survive and prevent the monstrosities from reaching civilization.

***This is NOT New Adult***

AUTHOR BIO

The daughter of a Norwegian Viking and a Finnish Moomin, Karina Halle grew up in Vancouver, Canada with trolls and eternal darkness on the brain. This soon turned into a love of all things that go bump in the night and a rather sadistic appreciation for freaking people out. Like many of the flawed characters she writes, Karina never knew where to find herself and has dabbled in acting, make-up artistry, film production, screenwriting, photography, travel writing and music journalism. She eventually found herself in the pages of the very novels she wrote (if only she had looked there to begin with).

Karina holds a screenwriting degree from Vancouver Film School and a Bachelor of Journalism from TRU. Her travel writing, music reviews/interviews and photography have appeared in publications such as Consequence of Sound, Mxdwn and GoNomad Travel Guides. She currently lives on an island on the coast of British Columbia where she's preparing for the zombie apocalypse with her fiance and rescue pup.

Author Links:

Website: http://experimentinterror.com/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4785031.Karina_Halle

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Karina-Halle/140649372629593?ref=ts&fref=ts

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetalBlonde

 

Teaser Tuesday (30) Curtsies & Conspiracies & Shrouded

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read(s)
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) -- or less or more -- “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

"I wonder if I should warn him about Preshea. She does so desperately want to murder her first husband."

page 66, Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger

"Don't worry," she said. "If we see him again, I'll help you tear his worthless heart out."

location 2198, Shrouded by Francis Pauli

{NA Review} Broken At Love by Lyla Payne

{NA Review} Broken At Love by Lyla Payne

When a knee injury ends twenty-year-old Quinn Rowland’s pro tennis career, he’s not only dumped by his hot Russian girlfriend but ordered to attend college by his disinterested billionaire father. A rich kid who’s not used to being disappointed by life, Quinn and his sociopathic half-brother Sebastian create a frat house game intended to treat girls how they see them—as simple game pieces to be manipulated for their pleasure.

College sophomore Emilie Swanson knows Quinn’s reputation—after all, he did send one of her sorority sisters into therapy earlier in the semester—but the game and his charm bring them closer together and soon she starts to believe there’s more to Quinn than people think.

But what if the more is something darker than a game of toying with emotions and breaking hearts?

Quinn and Emilie might be falling for each other, but there are secrets he’s not ready to tell—and lifestyle changes he’s reluctant to make. She willingly stepped on the court, but if Emilie finds out she started out as nothing as a pawn in Quinn and Sebastian’s twisted game, she might never forgive him.

To his surprise, Quinn finds that he might finally care about someone more than he cares about himself…even if that means letting Emilie walk away for good. (Blurb via Goodreads)

{Details} Paperback, 338 pages. Published March 12th 2013 by Createspace (first published March 8th 2013) 

{Rating}  4/5 - I really liked it!

{Review}  

"And Alexandria Ikanova, the eighteen-year-old from Russia, takes her fourth-round match in straight sets, knocking off the reigning U.S. Open champ." (page 1, line 1)

Quinn is the stereotypical NA guy. He's rich, a playboy, on the top of the social heap, everybody wants to be him, etc. He's also hard to like. We see the worst of him right off the bat. He's arrogant, destructive, self-destructive and an ass. He has a troubled past, a history of horrible decision making and has absolutely no interest in falling in love so of course he does. And he fights it every step of the way. But when he finally figures it out ... Quinn has become the kind of guy who will fight to stay in love.

Emilie is not the stereotypical NA girl. She knows the score. She's not a victim. She's not a helpless little girl looking for someone to rescue her. Though I questioned her common sense a few times I liked her and was rooting for her.

I liked the storyline, watching as Quinn and Emilie both faced parental pressure and expectations, Quinn faced the past and the mistakes he's made and finding and fighting for a happy ending.

"Maybe neither of us should feel worthy. That means we'll always work hard." location 2963

{Book Blitz} Counting Shadows by Olivia Rivers

Counting Shadows by Olivia Rivers

(Duplicity #1)

Publication date: June 30th 2013

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Two hearts, one kiss…

…Nothing left.

Faye’s soul-mate is everything she should hate—an Angel, an outcast, an enemy. Ashe is just one more imperfection in her life that somehow makes everything… perfect.

Until he’s murdered.

With the only person she loves ripped away, Faye sets out to avenge Ashe’s death. The task seems impossible, until she finds Lor—an Angel who looks nearly identical to Ashe’s killer. Arrogant and hot-headed, Lor is everything Ashe wasn’t. But Lor is connected to her soul-mate’s past, and Faye needs him to find the killer—even if Lor is potentially deadly.

But when Faye discovers that Ashe’s past isn’t as black and white as she thought, she faces an impossible choice: Give up the hunt, and risk the lives of others. Or continue pursuing Ashe’s murderer, and forfeit the lives of everyone in her family—including herself.

 

Purchase:

—Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Counting-Shadows-Duplicity-Olivia-Rivers-ebook/dp/B00DQIBZLQ

{Excerpt}

I face a dark cell, one far from any window and trapped in shadows. I take a step toward it, and then back, unable to see anyone in the darkness.

Then a figure steps forward into a faint patch of light, and I let out a choked sound.

It’s him.

Young, about my own age. Tanned skin. Muscular and well-built, but taller than any Irradorian. Sharp facial features, strong jaw, and the scar that runs from his right eyebrow down to his bottom lip—

The scar. It’s not there. I frantically scan the man’s face another time, but the scar is still missing.

The man in front of me raises an eyebrow and leans against the bars of his cell. “You like something you see?”

“No,” I blurt out.

I don’t like this. I hate this. This man looks exactly like Ashe’s killer, but… he’s not. As I look over him a second time, I notice a few more subtle differences; this man is a little taller than Ashe’s killer, a little younger, and he has a tattoo on his collarbone. I can only see a portion of the black ink, but it’s enough to prove this isn’t who I’m looking for. Ashe’s killer didn’t have any tattoos.

But maybe he just got the tattoo after he killed Ashe. Maybe… No. He could gain a tattoo, but he could never lose a scar.

This isn’t the man I’ve been searching for.

The man in the cell hisses in a breath, reminding me that I said something offensive. “Ouch.” The way he speaks reminds me of Farren’s sarcastic drawl, only this man’s is much more practiced. He has a slight accent that somehow manages to make his husky voice sound elegant, but it just makes me shudder. His voice sounds so much like Ashe’s killer’s. “That hurts, sweetheart. Like an arrow through the heart. Words can kill, you know.”

My chest constricts, knowing how right he is. Knowing he knows how right he is. It was words that killed Ashe, just a few whispers in the ear of Father. And, somehow, this man is tied to that. 

I glare at him, doing my best to look intimidating, despite the shivers crawling over my skin. “What’s your name?”

He bows deeply, the motion even more sarcastic than his words. “My name is Lor. At your service, sweetheart.” He looks up and winks. “Any service.”

“I’m not here to play games with you,” I growl.

“Too bad.”

“I want to know right now. What part are you playing in this? How do you know my Guardian’s killer? What did you have to gain from his death?” I gasp in air, suddenly out of breath.

Lor tilts his head and stares at me for a long moment, his eyebrows raised in amusement. “You know,” he says, his voice softening to a tone that’s darkly patronizing. “Where I come from, it’s considered rather rude to come barging into someone’s prison cell and accuse them of murder. That’s usually done before the whole incarceration thing.”

AUTHOR BIO:

Olivia Rivers is the author of five novels, ranging in genres from Epic Fantasy to Contemporary Romance. Along with being a writer, she’s a freelance digital artist, a literary agent assistant, and a high school student. She’s a nerd at heart, and is a hopeless fan-girl for Doctor Who and Pokémon. Olivia lives in California with a dog who thinks he’s a cat, a cat who thinks he’s a dog, and a kitten who is just generally confused. 

Author Links:

Website: http://oliviarivers.blogspot.ca/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6548741.Olivia_Rivers

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiversOlivia

{Cover Reveal} Meant for Me by L.P. Dover

Meant for Me by L.P. Dover
(Second Chances #3)
Publication date: December 30th 2013
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance

After a night of raw passion with the man Claire O’Briene had been secretly admiring for years, she thought their time together had come once and for all. Fate had finally brought them back to each other, but unfortunately nothing had changed. He was still the same man who ran away from relationships. Against his better judgment, Mason Bradley gave in to the temptation and allowed himself one night with the one woman he’d been too afraid to want … too afraid to need.

Six months after leaving Claire and regretting every minute of it, Mason gets called in for an undercover mission that’s not only dangerous, but brings back a past he spent years trying to forget. A past of fighting … of getting in the ring and using his fists to get what he wanted: money, women, and drugs. Now there are fighters turning up dead, and it’s Mason’s job to find out the truth.

Knowing he might not come out of the mission alive, Mason seeks out Claire to tell her how he truly feels, only to find another man competing for her love as well. Fighting is what he’s good at, and for once he will be fighting not only for justice … but for love.

AUTHOR BIO

I am an avid reader that loves my collection of books. Writing has always been a passion of mine and now I am glad that I get to share my passion with the world. I live in North Carolina and I absolutely love being a southern girl. I spent several years in college starting out with a major in Psychology and then switching to dental. I worked in the dental field for eight years and then decided to stay home with my two beautiful girls. I spent the beginning of my reading years reading suspense thrillers, but now I can't get away from the paranormal/fantasy books. I knew ever since then that if I wrote anything it would be in a paranormal aspect. Now that I have started on my passion and began writing, you will not see me go anywhere without a notebook and pen.

Author Links:

http://authorlpdoverbooks.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/LP-Dover/318455714919114?fref=ts

https://twitter.com/LPDover

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6526309.L_P_Dover