Sunday, 16 November 2014

April and Britney Recommend New Adult!

My best friend Britney and I just did a video on our top picks from the New Adult genre so here's a recap! 

We had 5 joint recommendations and 5 individual recommendations each, so here we go!

THE JOINT RECOMMENDATIONS:

Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover
At twenty-two years old, aspiring musician Sydney Blake has a great life: She’s in college, working a steady job, in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Hunter, and rooming with her good friend, Tori. But everything changes when she discovers Hunter cheating on her with Tori—and she is left trying to decide what to do next.
Sydney becomes captivated by her mysterious neighbor, Ridge Lawson. She can’t take her eyes off him or stop listening to the daily guitar playing he does out on his balcony. She can feel the harmony and vibrations in his music. And there’s something about Sydney that Ridge can’t ignore, either: He seems to have finally found his muse. When their inevitable encounter happens, they soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one…
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover, a passionate tale of friendship, betrayal, and romance—and the enchanting music that inspires one young woman to put her life back together.
Includes a free original soundtrack by musician Griffin Peterson.

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover
Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than believing the lies…
That’s what seventeen-year-old Sky realizes after she meets Dean Holder. A guy with a reputation that rivals her own and an uncanny ability to invoke feelings in her she’s never had before. He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried.
Sky struggles to keep him at a distance knowing he’s nothing but trouble, but Holder insists on learning everything about her. After finally caving to his unwavering pursuit, Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life will change forever.

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she doesn't think it's love at first sight. They wouldn't even go so far as to consider themselves friends. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. Once their desires are out in the open, they realize they have the perfect set-up. He doesn't want love, she doesn't have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her.
Never ask about the past. 
Don't expect a future.
They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can't handle it at all.
Hearts get infiltrated. 
Promises get broken. 
Rules get shattered.
Love gets ugly.

On the Island 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.

Making Faces by Amy Harmon
Ambrose Young was beautiful. He was tall and muscular, with hair that touched his shoulders and eyes that burned right through you. The kind of beautiful that graced the covers of romance novels, and Fern Taylor would know. She'd been reading them since she was thirteen. But maybe because he was so beautiful he was never someone Fern thought she could have...until he wasn't beautiful anymore.
Making Faces is the story of a small town where five young men go off to war, and only one comes back. It is the story of loss. Collective loss, individual loss, loss of beauty, loss of life, loss of identity. It is the tale of one girl's love for a broken boy, and a wounded warrior's love for an unremarkable girl. This is a story of friendship that overcomes heartache, heroism that defies the common definitions, and a modern tale of Beauty and the Beast, where we discover that there is a little beauty and a little beast in all of us.

Britney's Recommendations:

Slammed by Colleen Hoover
Layken's father died suddenly, leaving her to gather every ounce of strength to be a pillar for her family, in order to prevent their world from falling apart. Now her life is taking another unexpected turn...
Layken's mother gets a job which leads to an unwanted move across the country. However, a new home means new neighbours... and Layken's new neighbour is the very attractive Will Cooper.
Will has an intriguing passion for slam poetry, and a matching passion for life. The two feel an irresistible attraction but are rocked to the core when a shocking revelation brings their romance to a screeching halt. Layken and Will must find a way to fight the forces that threaten to tear them apart...or learn to live without each other.

Losing It by Cora Carmack
Bliss Edwards is about to graduate from college and still has hers. Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, she decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible-- a one-night stand. But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves a gorgeous guy alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half-a-brain would ever believe. And as if that weren’t embarrassing enough, when she arrives for her first class of her last college semester, she recognizes her new theatre professor. She’d left him naked in her bed about 8 hours earlier.

Six of Hearts by L.H. Cosway
Step right up and meet Jay Fields: Illusionist. Mentalist. Trickster.
I think in triangles. You think in straight lines.
I show you a table and make you believe it’s a chair.
Smoke and mirrors, sleight of hand, misdirection. I trick and deceive.
But most of all, I put on a good show.
The world thinks I killed a man, but I didn’t. Bear with me. It’s all a part of the plan.
Revenge is what I want. I want it for me and I want it for her.
I want it for all six of us.
She doesn’t remember me, but she’s the reason for everything. She’ll be my prize at the end of all this – if I can hold onto my willpower, that is. Maybe I’ll slip up a little, have a taste, just a small one.
So go ahead and pick a card. Come inside and see the show. Look at my hands, look so closely that you can’t see what’s happening while you’re so focused on looking. I’ll be destroying your world from right here in the spotlight.
You’ll never see me coming until it’s too late.
I’ve only got one heart, and after I’ve pulled off my grand deception I’ll hand it right to her.
So, sit back, relax, and let my girl tell you our story. You’re in for one hell of a ride.

Taking Chances by Molly McAdams
Her first year away is turning out to be nearly perfect, but one weekend of giving in to heated passion will change everything.
Eighteen-year-old Harper has grown up under the thumb of her career marine father. Ready to live life her own way and to experience things she's only ever heard of from the jarheads in her father's unit, she's on her way to college at San Diego State University.
Thanks to her new roommate, Harper is introduced to a world of parties, gorgeous guys, family, and emotions. She finds herself being torn in two as she quickly falls in love with both her new boyfriend, Brandon, and her roommate's brother, Chase. Despite their dangerous looks and histories, both men adore Harper and would do anything for her, including taking a step back if it would mean she'd be happy.

Willing Captive by Belle Aurora
Delilah “Lily” Flynn is used to her drab existence. Lily’s been living it for twenty two years. 
Her boring life is suddenly turned on its head when she’s rudely kidnapped from her bedroom.
Or so she thinks.
Nox Taylor is far too high up in his field to be assigned a babysitting job. 
There’s nothing more he wants than to complete his mission so he can be rid of the smartass tomboy, Lily.
Day after day, Nox watches Lily and her strange ways. She’s unlike any woman he’s ever met. 
Getting close to the girl is purely for her own protection…right?
Lily never imagined she’d make her first real friends in captivity. 
What lengths would she go through to keep them?

My Recommendations:

Everything Between Us by Mila Ferrera
Daniel’s got everything figured out. He makes a good living as an artist ... mostly through offering "private shows" to the wives of local wealthy businessmen. He never stops playing the game and never lets anyone touch his heart. But when his current fling offers him a few hundred an hour for art lessons for her reclusive, college-dropout daughter, Daniel finds himself forgetting his own rules. The girl is rude. Insulting. Incredible.
And she sees straight through him.
Stella is hiding from the world, not because she wants to, but because crippling panic attacks await her every time she tries to live a normal life. She's determined to push everyone--including her handsome new art teacher—away. But Daniel makes it utterly impossible. The guy is irritating. Mocking. Magnetic.
And makes her want things she knows she can never have.
What starts as a battle of wills turns into passion, where giving in means facing the things that scare them most.

Fallen Too Far by Abbi Glines
The wealthy son of a rocker. A tough farm girl from Alabama. Two step-siblings from different worlds. One summer in Rosemary Beach.
The last thing Blaire Wynn wants is to move in with her father's new family in Rosemary Beach, Florida. She has no choice. Blaire’s mother has passed away after a long illness, leaving behind a mountain of medical debts and no way for Blaire to keep their small Alabama farmhouse.
Driving into the wealthy resort town in a pickup truck with a pistol under her seat, Blaire knows she'll never fit in. She's even more disappointed to discover that her father has left for Paris, leaving her with her new stepbrother, Rush Finlay. The cynical, condescending, and unapologetic son of an infamous rock star, Rush is as spoiled as he is gorgeous and he immediately gets under Blaire's skin.
But as the summer goes by, Blaire begins to see a side of Rush she never expected, and the chemistry between them becomes impossible to ignore. Unknown to her, Rush has a secret that could destroy Blaire's entire world. Will she find out what he's hiding before she falls too far?
 

Wait for you by J. Lynn (Jennifer L. Armentrout)
Some things are worth waiting for.
Traveling thousands of miles from home to enter college is the only way nineteen-year-old Avery Morgansten can escape what happened at the Halloween party five years ago--an event that forever changed her life. All she needs to do is make it to her classes on time, make sure the bracelet on her left wrist stays in place, not draw any attention to herself, and maybe--please God--make a few friends, because surely that would be a nice change of pace. The one thing she didn't need and never planned on was capturing the attention of the one guy who could shatter the precarious future she's building for herself.
Some things are worth experiencing.
Cameron Hamilton is six feet and three inches of swoon-worthy hotness, complete with a pair of striking blue eyes and a remarkable ability to make her want things she believed were irrevocably stolen from her. She knows she needs to stay away from him, but Cam is freaking everywhere, with his charm, his witty banter, and that damn dimple that's just so... so lickable. Getting involved with him is dangerous, but when ignoring the simmering tension that sparks whenever they are around each other becomes impossible, he brings out a side of her she never knew existed.
Some things should never be kept quiet.
But when Avery starts receiving threatening emails and phone calls forcing her to face a past she wants silenced, she's has no other choice but to acknowledge that someone is refusing to allow her to let go of that night when everything changed. When the devastating truth comes out, will she resurface this time with one less scar? And can Cam be there to help her or will he be dragged down with her?
And some things are worth fighting for.

Sweet Thing by Renee Carlino
Mia Kelly thinks she has it all figured out. She's an Ivy League graduate, a classically trained pianist, and the beloved daughter of a sensible mother and offbeat father. Yet Mia has been stalling since graduation, torn between putting her business degree to use and exploring music, her true love.
When her father unexpectedly dies, she decides to pick up the threads of his life while she figures out her own. Uprooting herself from Ann Arbor to New York City, Mia takes over her father's café, a treasured neighborhood institution that plays host to undiscovered musicians and artists. She's denied herself the thrilling and unpredictable life of a musician, but a chance encounter with Will, a sweet, gorgeous, and charming guitarist, offers her a glimpse of what could be. When Will becomes her friend and then her roommate, she does everything in her power to suppress her passions-for him, for music-but her father's legacy slowly opens her heart to the possibility of something more.

More Than This by Jay McLean
*Mikayla*
In one night my fairytale ended. Or it may have begun. This is my story of friendship and love, heartbreak and desire, and the strength to show weakness.
*Jake*
One night I met a girl. A sad and broken girl, but one more beautiful than any other. She laughed through her sadness, while I loved through her heartbreak.
*This is our story of a maybe ever after.*
He was right. It made no difference whether it was 6 months or 6 years. 
I couldn’t undo what had been done. I couldn’t change the future.
I couldn’t even predict it. 
It was one night.
One night when everything changed.
It was so much more than just the betrayal.
It was the Tragedy. 
The Deaths. 
The Murders.
But it was also that feeling.
The feeling of falling.

Video will be linked when it's up!

Friday, 14 November 2014

Book Review | Everything Between Us by Mila Ferrera

Title: Everything Between Us
Author: Mila Ferrera
Series: Book 2 in a companion duology
Publisher: Mila Ferrera Books
Format: ebook
Source: Amazon AU
Genre: New Adult Romance
Goodreads

All of my reviews are spoiler free (unless stated otherwise) so you can go ahead and read my review!

Blurb:
Daniel’s got everything figured out. He makes a good living as an artist ... mostly through offering "private shows" to the wives of local wealthy businessmen. He never stops playing the game and never lets anyone touch his heart. But when his current fling offers him a few hundred an hour for art lessons for her reclusive, college-dropout daughter, Daniel finds himself forgetting his own rules. The girl is rude. Insulting. Incredible.
And she sees straight through him.
Stella is hiding from the world, not because she wants to, but because crippling panic attacks await her every time she tries to live a normal life. She's determined to push everyone--including her handsome new art teacher—away. But Daniel makes it utterly impossible. The guy is irritating. Mocking. Magnetic.
And makes her want things she knows she can never have.
What starts as a battle of wills turns into passion, where giving in means facing the things that scare them most.

Plot: ★★★★★
Everything Between Us follows a girl named Stella who has come home from College because of her crippling anxiety and panic attacks. Her family is extremely dysfunctional and her rich parents just don’t understand what she’s going through. Her mother hires an artist (a man she’s currently sleeping with) to provide art therapy lessons for Stella but little do they know they’re about to fall for each other hard and help each other through so much.
I personally can really relate to Stella as a character with her chronic anxiety and so I loved how one of the main focuses of the story was her going to therapy and taking control over her life again and facing her fears. I thought it was really inspiring to read about. The romance was also brilliant and you learn so much more about the characters. Because Stella’s storyline was one I could really relate to, I loved the plot of this story. Everything else was just a bonus!

Characters: ★★★★★
Such interesting and deep characters that have so much more to them than meets the eye, especially Daniel, the love interest. I loved them so much together, but I also loved how both of them learned to love themselves as well.

Writing:
★★★★.5
There was nothing overly different about the writing that made the book amazing, but it was captivating and I couldn’t put it down! I felt like everything she wrote was meaningful to the story.

Romance/Feels: ★★★★★
Obviously, because this is a new adult book, there was a lot of romance, and when I say romance, I also mean a lot of sex. Usually when I read new adult books with a lot of sex it feels like the author was just putting it in there for the heck of it, but with this book, it really felt like the sex was in there because the characters had real feelings for each other and it was beautiful.

Ending:
★★★★★
I am so happy with the ending of this book. It made me feel so happy and positive about life and it was just fantastic.

Overall Enjoyment:
★★★★★
I am obsessed with this book if you can’t tell already, so I recommend you go and read this beautiful book if you’re old enough so we can discuss!

Rereadability: YES YES YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU.


Final Rating: 4.92 stars to be precise!

Book Review | Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang

Title: Falling into Place
Author: Amy Zhang
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Harper Collins Australia
Format: eARC
Source: ARC from NetGalley
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Goodreads

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Harper Collins Australia for providing me with a review copy!

Plot: ★★★★★
This story is told from a mysterious unknown perspective that outlines in a non-linear fashion, the main characters life up until the moment she decides to drive her car off the icy motorway. Even though the story was told in a non-linear way, I couldn’t put this book down. It was so extraordinarily beautiful in the way the story was told and I think this book has such value in regards to its content. What an important and poignant story!

Characters: ★★★★★
I loved reading about Liz Emerson and her life. All of the characters were so flawed and realistic and it just goes to show that in real life people suffer with so many issues and I loved how the characters went through so much such as mental illness, drug abuse, pregnancy, family issues, etc.

Writing:
★★★★★
The way it was written blew me away. I didn’t expect the non-linear aspect to work so well for the story but it really did.

Romance/Feels: ★★★★★
I was in tears at the end of the book because I had so many feelings! I was just so attached to the story and the characters that I felt everything they did.

Ending:
★★★★★
Absolutely perfect. I won’t say any more but just know that I was tearing up!

Overall Enjoyment:
★★★★★
Such a beautiful story that I recommend for mature YA readers. It’s so insightful and important that these issues are addressed in the Young Adult genre and I will forever cherish this book. I enjoyed it so much that halfway through reading my eARC, I purchased the physical book so I could own it on my shelf forever.

Rereadability: Definitely!


Final Rating: 5 stars!