Uncharted (On the Island #1.5) by Tracey Garvis-Graves

Tracey Garvis Graves - and Anna and T.J. - return in this companion novella to the New York Times bestseller On the Island

When twenty-three-year-old dot-com millionaire Owen Sparks walked away from his charmed life, he had one goal in mind: get as far away as possible from the people who resented his success, or had their hand out for a piece of it. A remote uncharted island halfway around the world seemed like a perfectly logical place to get away from it all.

Calia Reed wasn't part of Owen's plans. The beautiful British girl - on holiday in the Maldives with her brother, James - made Owen wonder if getting away from it all might be a lot more enjoyable with a carefree girl who didn't know anything about the life he left behind.

But Owen had no idea how much his carefully detailed plans would go awry. Nor did he realize that a decision he made would have such a catastrophic effect on two passengers who boarded a plane in Chicago.

And when Owen shows up at Anna and T.J.'s door with an incredible story to tell, everyone involved will learn just how much their lives are intertwined.

Uncharted includes an early look at Covet, coming September 2013.

• Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Survival, Drama
• Age: New adult
• Source: owned ebook 
• Read from July 09 to 10, 2013
• Buddy read with my darlings Nab & Jerry aka 9 3/4 and Monisha (click on names to see their reviews)

FINAL RATING: ★★★/★★★★★

On the Island (On the Island #1) by Tracey Garvis-Graves

When thirty-year-old English teacher Anna Emerson is offered a job tutoring T.J. Callahan at his family's summer rental in the Maldives, she accepts without hesitation; a working vacation on a tropical island trumps the library any day.

T.J. Callahan has no desire to leave town, not that anyone asked him. He's almost seventeen and if having cancer wasn't bad enough, now he has to spend his first summer in remission with his family - and a stack of overdue assignments - instead of his friends.

Anna and T.J. are en route to join T.J.'s family in the Maldives when the pilot of their seaplane suffers a fatal heart attack and crash-lands in the Indian Ocean. Adrift in shark-infested waters, their life jackets keep them afloat until they make it to the shore of an uninhabited island. Now Anna and T.J. just want to survive and they must work together to obtain water, food, fire, and shelter.

Their basic needs might be met but as the days turn to weeks, and then months, the castaways encounter plenty of other obstacles, including violent tropical storms, the many dangers lurking in the sea, and the possibility that T.J.'s cancer could return. As T.J. celebrates yet another birthday on the island, Anna begins to wonder if the biggest challenge of all might be living with a boy who is gradually becoming a man.

• Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Survival, Drama
• Age: New adult
• Source: owned ebook 
• Read from July 09 to 10, 2013
• Buddy read with my darlings Nab & Basuhi & Pavlina, Jerry aka 9 3/4 and Monisha (click on names to see their reviews)

FINAL RATING: ★★★★/★★★★★

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach ...

Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing and debating his mysterious character.

For Gatsby - young, handsome, fabulously rich - always seems alone in the crowd, watching and waiting, though no one knows what for.

Beneath the shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled. And soon this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel.

• Genre: Romance, Drama, Historical
• Age: Mature Young adult
• Source: owned ebook and borrowed translated hardcover
• Read from July 06 to 07, 2013

FINAL RATING: ★★★☆/★★★★★

Fallen Too Far (Too Far, #1) by Abbi Glines

To want what you’re not supposed to have…

She is only nineteen.

She is his new stepfather’s daughter.

She is still naïve and innocent due to spending the last three years taking care of her sick mother.

But for twenty-four year old Rush Finlay, she is the only thing that has ever been off limits. His famous father’s guilt money, his mother’s desperation to win his love, and his charm are the three reasons he has never been told no.

Blaire Wynn left her small farmhouse in Alabama, after her mother passed away, to move in with her father and his new wife in their sprawling beach house along the Florida gulf coast. She isn’t prepared for the lifestyle change and she knows she’ll never fit into this world. Then there is her sexy stepbrother who her father leaves her with for the summer while he runs off to Paris with his wife. Rush is as spoiled as he is gorgeous. He is also getting under her skin. She knows he is anything but good for her and that he’ll never be faithful to anyone. He is jaded and has secrets Blaire knows she may never uncover but even knowing all of that…

Blaire just may have fallen too far.

• Genre: Romance, Drama
• Age: New adult / Mature Young adult
• Source: owned ebook 
• Read from April 11 to 12, 2013

FINAL RATING: ★★★★/★★★★★

Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn

When you’ve been kept caged in the dark, it’s impossible to see the forest for the trees. It’s impossible to see anything, really. Not without bars . . .

Andrew Winston Winters is at war with himself.

He’s part Win, the lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy. The guy who shuts all his classmates out, no matter the cost.

He’s part Drew, the angry young boy with violent impulses that control him. The boy who spent a fateful, long-ago summer with his brother and teenage cousins, only to endure a secret so monstrous it led three children to do the unthinkable.

Over the course of one night, while stuck at a party deep in the New England woods, Andrew battles both the pain of his past and the isolation of his present.

Before the sun rises, he’ll either surrender his sanity to the wild darkness inside his mind or make peace with the most elemental of truths—that choosing to live can mean so much more than not dying.

• Genre: Mystery, Paranormal, Contemporary, Drama, Dark
• Creatures:  werewolves
• Age: mature young adult
• Source: owned ebook
• Read from June 29 to 30, 2013

  Buddy read with Nab & Vilda ♥

FINAL RATING: ★★★★☆/★★★★★

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.

• Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Drama
• Age: adult
• Source: paperback & ebook
• Read from June 18 to 21, 2013

FINAL RATING: ★★★★★/★★★★★

Sins & Needles (The Artists Trilogy #1) by Karina Halle

Ellie Watt is used to starting over. The daughter of a grifting team, Ellie spent her childhood being used as a pawn in her parents' latest scam. Now she’s much older, wiser and ready to give her con artist life a rest. But returning to the dry desert town of Palm Valley, California means one more temptation than she bargained for – Camden McQueen. Once known as the high school weirdo, Camden is bigger and badder than the boy he used to be and a talented tattoo artist with his own thriving business. Ellie’s counting on Camden still being in love with her but what she’s not counting on is how easily unrequited love can turn into obsession over time. When Camden discovers Ellie’s plan to con him, he makes her a deal she doesn’t dare refuse, but her freedom comes with a price and it’s one that takes both Ellie and Camden down a dangerous road.

• Genre: Romance, Mystery, Suspense
• Age: adult
• Source: owned ebook 
• Read from January 29 to February 01, 2013

FINAL RATING: ★★★★★★/★★★★★

On Every Street (The Artists Trilogy #0.5) by Karina Halle

When young con artist Ellie Watt decides to call herself Eden White and go after the drug lord who ruined her as a child, she never expects to fall for one of his henchmen. But Javier Bernal is no ordinary man. Subtly dangerous and overwhelmingly seductive, Eden finds herself passionately in love with Javier, the very person she's set-up to betray. With her body and heart in a heated battle against her deep need for revenge, no one will walk away from this con a winner.

This 50K word (100+ pages) novella takes place six years before Sins & Needles. It can be read before or after Sins & Needles and may also be read as a standalone.

• Genre: Romance, Mystery, Suspense
• Age: mature young adult / adult
• Source: ARC for review
• Read from March 06 to 07, 2013

FINAL RATING: ★★★★★/★★★★★

Sempre (Forever, #1) by J.M. Darhower

Haven Antonelli and Carmine DeMarco had vastly different childhoods. Haven, a second-generation slave, grew up isolated in the middle of the desert, her days full of hard work and terrifying abuse.

Carmine, born into a wealthy Mafia family, lived a life of privilege, never having to answer for anything he did.

Both now seventeen, a twist of fate causes their worlds to collide, making them question everything they ever believed.

Entangled in a web of secrets and lies, they learn that while different on the surface, they have more in common than anyone would think.

• Genre: Contemporary, Drama, Suspense, Dark, Romance
• Age: new adult
• Source: owned ebook
• Read from May 26 to 28, 2013

FINAL RATING: ★★★★★/★★★★★

Stolen by Lucy Christopher

It happened like this. I was stolen from an airport. Taken from everything I knew, everything I was used to. Taken to sand and heat, dirt and danger. And he expected me to love him.

This is my story.

A letter from nowhere.

Sixteen year old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back?

The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don't exist - almost.

• Genre: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Drama, Art, Suspense
• Age: young adult
• Source: owned ebook 
• Read from May 23 to 25, 2013

FINAL RATING: ★★★★★/★★★★★

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

 

After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

M. L. Stedman’s mesmerizing, beautifully written novel seduces us into accommodating Isabel’s decision to keep this “gift from God.” And we are swept into a story about extraordinarily compelling characters seeking to find their North Star in a world where there is no right answer, where justice for one person is another’s tragic loss.

The Light Between Oceans is exquisite and unforgettable, a deeply moving novel.

• Genre: Contemporary romance, Drama
• Age: Adult
• Source: owned paperback
• Read from May 05 to 08, 2013

 FINAL RATING: ★★★★★/★★★★★

Ten Tiny Breaths (Ten Tiny Breaths, #1) by K.A. Tucker

Kacey Cleary’s whole life imploded four years ago in a drunk-driving accident. Now she’s working hard to bury the pieces left behind—all but one. Her little sister, Livie. Kacey can swallow the constant disapproval from her born-again aunt Darla over her self-destructive lifestyle; she can stop herself from going kick-boxer crazy on Uncle Raymond when he loses the girls’ college funds at a blackjack table. She just needs to keep it together until Livie is no longer a minor, and then they can get the hell out of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

But when Uncle Raymond slides into bed next to Livie one night, Kacey decides it’s time to run. Armed with two bus tickets and dreams of living near the coast, Kacey and Livie start their new lives in a Miami apartment complex, complete with a grumpy landlord, a pervert upstairs, and a neighbor with a stage name perfectly matched to her chosen “profession.”

But Kacey’s not worried. She can handle all of them. What she can’t handle is Trent Emerson in apartment 1D.

Kacey doesn’t want to feel. She doesn’t. It’s safer that way. For everyone. But sexy Trent finds a way into her numb heart, reigniting her ability to love again. She starts to believe that maybe she can leave the past where it belongs and start over. Maybe she’s not beyond repair.

But Kacey isn’t the only one who’s broken. Seemingly perfect Trent has an unforgiveable past of his own; one that, when discovered, will shatter Kacey’s newly constructed life and send her back into suffocating darkness.

• Genre: Contemporary romance, Drama, Death
• Age: New Adult
• Source: owned ebook 
• Read from March 06 to 08, 2013

FINAL RATING: ★★★★☆/★★★★★

Light in the Shadows (Find You in the Dark, #2) by A. Meredith Walters

How do you keep going when you feel like your life is over?

Maggie never thought she’d see Clay again. So, she attempts to put her life back together after her heart has been shattered to pieces. Moving on and moving forward, just as Clay wanted her to.

Clay never stopped thinking of Maggie. Even after ripping their lives apart and leaving her behind to get the help he so desperately needed. He is healing...slowly. But his heart still belongs to the girl who tried to save him.

When a sudden tragedy brings Maggie and Clay face to face again, nothing is the same. Yet some things never change. Can the darkness that threatened to consume them be transformed into something else and finally give them what they always wanted? And can two people who fought so hard to be together, finally find their happiness? Or will their demons and fear drive them apart for good?

The thing about love, is even when it destroys you, it has a way of mending what is broken. And in the shadows, you can still see the light.

• Genre: Contemporary romance, Dark, Drama
• Age: new adult / high school
• Source: owned ebook 
• Read from April 15 to 16, 2013

FINAL RATING: ★★★★★/★★★★★

Find You in the Dark (Find You in the Dark #1) by A. Meredith Walters

 

Maggie Young had the market on normal. Normal friends, normal parents, normal grades...normal life. 

Until him.
Clayton Reed was running from his past and an army of personal demons that threatened to take him down. He never thought he had a chance at happiness.

Until her.
Maggie thought their love could overcome anything. Clay thought she was all he needed to fix his messy life.
That together, they could face the world.
But the darkness is always waiting. 

Sometimes the greatest obstacle to true love is within yourself.

• Genre: Contemporary romance, Dark, Drama
• Age: new adult / high school
• Source: owned ebook 
• Read from April 14 to 15, 2013

FINAL RATING: ★★★★★/★★★★★

Light in the Shadows (Find You in the Dark, #2) by A. Meredith Walters

How do you keep going when you feel like your life is over?

Maggie never thought she’d see Clay again. So, she attempts to put her life back together after her heart has been shattered to pieces. Moving on and moving forward, just as Clay wanted her to.

Clay never stopped thinking of Maggie. Even after ripping their lives apart and leaving her behind to get the help he so desperately needed. He is healing...slowly. But his heart still belongs to the girl who tried to save him.

When a sudden tragedy brings Maggie and Clay face to face again, nothing is the same. Yet some things never change. Can the darkness that threatened to consume them be transformed into something else and finally give them what they always wanted? And can two people who fought so hard to be together, finally find their happiness? Or will their demons and fear drive them apart for good?

The thing about love, is even when it destroys you, it has a way of mending what is broken. And in the shadows, you can still see the light.

• Genre: Contemporary romance, Dark, Drama
• Age: new adult / high school
• Source: owned ebook 
• Read on April 10 to 13, 2013

FINAL RATING: ★★★★★/★★★★★

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

• Genre: Contemporary Romance, Realistic Fiction,  Death, Humor, Drama
• Age: mature young adult
• Source: owned ebook
• Read on February 19, 2013

FINAL RATING: ★★★★★★/★★★★★

Cloud Walking (Find You in the Dark #1.5) by A. Meredith Walters

 While Clay and Maggie were falling apart...

Daniel and Rachel were falling in love.

Rachel Bradfield has loved Daniel Lowe for most of her life. She has had to sit quietly by while he throws his feelings away on a girl who doesn’t deserve them. Rachel knows she can be everything he needs.

Daniel has always known Rachel was special. She is one of his best friends. But what Daniel doesn’t realize is that the girl he has known forever might just be the one he really wants.

Love pulls two people together, while tearing two others apart. As Daniel and Rachel discover the beauty of first love their best friend loses her heart to the deepest darkness. Unable to hold Maggie together, Rachel and Daniel find out that love doesn’t have to hurt and that it can change your life.

• Genre: Contemporary romance, Dark, Drama
• Age: new adult / high school
• Source: owned ebook 
• Read on April 10, 2013

FINAL RATING: ★★★/★★★★★

Looking for Alaska by John Green

 

 A deeply affecting coming-of-age story, Looking for Alaska traces the journey of Miles Halter, a misfit Florida teenager who leaves the safety of home for a boarding school in Alabama and a chance to explore the "Great Perhaps." Debut novelist and NPR commentator Green perfectly captures the intensity of feeling and despair that defines adolescence in this hip, shocking, and emotionally charged work of fiction.

Miles has a quirky interest in famous people's last words, especially François Rabelais's final statement, "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." Determined not to wait for death to begin a similar quest, Miles convinces his parents to let him leave home. Once settled at Culver Creek Preparatory School, he befriends a couple of equally gifted outcasts: his roommate Chip―commonly known as the Colonel—who has a predilection for memorizing long, alphabetical lists for fun; and the beautiful and unpredictable Alaska, whom Miles comes to adore.

The kids grow closer as they make their way through a school year filled with contraband, tests, pranks, breakups, and revelations about family and life. But as the story hurtles toward its shattering climax, chapter headings like "forty-six days before" and "the last day" portend a tragic event―one that will change Miles forever and lead him to new conclusions about the value of his cherished "Great Perhaps."

• Genre: Contemporary romance, Coming of Age, Realistic fiction, Death, Drama
• Age: mature young adult
• Source: owned ebook & paperback
• Read on April 06 to 10, 2013 
  BUDDY READ WITH MORGAN!

FINAL RATING: ★★★★☆/★★★★★

Find You in the Dark (Find You in the Dark #1) by A. Meredith Walters

Maggie Young had the market on normal. Normal friends, normal parents, normal grades...normal life. 

Until him.
Clayton Reed was running from his past and an army of personal demons that threatened to take him down. He never thought he had a chance at happiness.

Until her.
Maggie thought their love could overcome anything. Clay thought she was all he needed to fix his messy life.
That together, they could face the world.
But the darkness is always waiting. 

Sometimes the greatest obstacle to true love is within yourself.

• Genre: Contemporary romance, Dark, Drama
• Age: new adult / high school
• Source: owned ebook 
• Read on April 08 to 09, 2013

FINAL RATING: ★★★★★/★★★★★

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Senior year is over, and Lucy has the perfect way to celebrate: tonight, she's going to find Shadow, the mysterious graffiti artist whose work appears all over the city. 

He's out there somewhere—spraying color, spraying birds and blue sky on the night—and Lucy knows a guy who paints like Shadow is someone she could fall for. Really fall for. 

Instead, Lucy's stuck at a party with Ed, the guy she's managed to avoid since the most awkward date of her life. But when Ed tells her he knows where to find Shadow, they're suddenly on an all-night search around the city.

 And what Lucy can't see is the one thing that's right before her eyes.

• Genre: Contemporary romance, Realistic Fiction, Drama, Art, Chick Lit
• Age: young adult
• Source: owned ebook 
• Read from October 03 to 04, 2012

FINAL RATING: ★★★★★/★★★★★