Corrupt by Penelope Douglas

                                        🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 stars

Summary:
 Erika

I was told that dreams were our heart’s desires. My nightmares, however, became my obsession.

His name is Michael Crist.

My boyfriend’s older brother is like that scary movie that you peek through your hand to watch. He is handsome, strong, and completely terrifying. The star of his college’s basketball team and now gone pro, he’s more concerned with the dirt on his shoe than me.

But I noticed him.

I saw him. I heard him. The things that he did, and the deeds that he hid…For years, I bit my nails, unable to look away.
Now, I’ve graduated high school and moved on to college, but I haven’t stopped watching Michael. He’s bad, and the dirt I’ve seen isn’t content to stay in my head anymore.
Because he’s finally noticed me.

Michael
Her name is Erika Fane, but everyone calls her Rika.

My brother’s girlfriend grew up hanging around my house and is always at our dinner table. She looks down when I enter a room and stills when I am close. I can always feel the fear rolling off of her, and while I haven’t had her body, I know that I have her mind. That’s all I really want anyway.

Until my brother leaves for the military, and I find Rika alone at college.
In my city.
Unprotected.

The opportunity is too good to be true as well as the timing. Because you see, three years ago she put a few of my high school friends in prison, and now they’re out.
We’ve waited. We’ve been patient. And now every last one of her nightmares will come true. 

She has done it again! Penelope Douglas, you genius!!! I can't say enough good things about this book!!
This book had everything! It was so tantalizingly dark but also romantic and thriller-like  (which had me questioning my sanity for even thinking of romance). I couldn't stop reading because I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. It started out with a bang and it ended with one as well. The characters in the book were all so twisted and the more I read the more I uncovered about why they were that way. I wanted to jump inside their heads and uncover their secrets. I won't go into who but certain characters are so deliciously despicable that as a reader you can't help but love the part that they play in the book as well. 
I thought that Erika and Michael were made for each other. They each had flaws, Michael more so than Erika in my opinion, but together they seemed whole. She made him question himself and the actions that he was taking. He made her fight for the things that she wanted in order to make her stronger.
Everything in the book served a purpose toward building to the climax. The flashbacks to the past only added to the intrigue and made the story more interesting and tense. I honestly had no idea what was going to happen in the book while I was reading it. I can usually guess fairly easily what will happen in any given book but this one kept me on my toes. 
 

Sins in the Night by S. H. Timmins

                                          🌟🌟🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 stars

Summary:
The stains on one's soul can only be purged through pain… and blood.

With the looks of an angel, he hides the deadly demon lurking inside. The broken woman I've become knows that he’s twisted and depraved, but the darkest and most disturbing parts of me, are drawn to his deadly flame.
A killer and a psychopath. A man without emotion, or a conscience. He excels at one thing - death.

When your name's on the list, it’s not the devil who’ll come for you… but far worse.

He’s come for me, and as I shiver with a desperate desire to caress his tainted soul, I wait for his sinister touch of evil.

I started reading this book because it was recommended to me for reading Pretty Stolen Dolls by Ker Dukey. I haven't read a lot of dark fiction but I have to say that this book wowed me! 

I loved the characters! They were exactly what I was looking for. They showed strength but also moments of vulnerability. Debbie was someone who wasn't really living after what she had to endure in her life. She had a fire within her that caused her to fight against her captor but was also an intelligence that kept her from acting rashly. 

I also enjoyed Loki. He was a perfect anti-hero! He had such a darkness about him that made him both intriguing and terrifying. I never knew what side of him I was going to see while reading this book. I wanted to know what made him tick. 

I loved this book! It was well executed and it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time! 

Tainted by Crazy by Abby McCarthy

                                              🌟🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 stars

Summary: 
What do you do when your boyfriend of five years is sleeping with your best friend and you’re in a dead-end job, breaking your back for mere pennies? I’ll tell you what I did. I did the one thing I’ve been dreading for the last thirteen years, I finally went home. I needed to get back on my feet and I needed my Grams. As much as I wanted to pretend life was working for me, it wasn’t.

The problem with home though is that everywhere I turn, her ghosts were haunting me.
Crazy, crazy, crazy, just like her, just like my momma.
I wanted to pretend that crazy didn't exist, but it was all around me, trying to do its best to pull me under.

There’s one problem with that, Keenan Rys. He’s determined not to let it. And I’m determined to keep him away.

I can honestly say that I've never read a book quite like this. If you read the comments from the author at the back of the book, the realism of the book makes more sense. She had gone through things similar to the main character in the book. It added a depth of emotion to the book that I don't think would have otherwise been there had she not been able to pull from her own memories. 

 This book really makes you think about what a person with mental illness and addiction go through as well as the people in their families go through. My favorites parts of this book were when Maple is remembering her mother. 

I would have rated the book higher if it would have focused more on Maple and her family. I had a hard time connecting with the other parts of the book. It seemed like the other things that were going on in the book weren't necessary. I'm not sure why the book dwelled on how one of the characters cheated on Maple and it destroyed her friendship with someone else. It wasn't pertinent to the story. 

Midnight Rose by Dani Hart

                                            🌟🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 stars

Summary: 
 My grandfather had once told me that life was an unpredictable beast—one moment calm with a full belly and heavy eyes, and the next, digging its paws in the dirt, snarling just before it took down its next victim. Until recently, I would argue with that notion, listing all the reasons why my life was as predictable as the tides coming and going. While I listened, I was young and never put much thought into a lot of the things my grandfather told me, but all that changed when the Hunters moved back to Sandpoint. More specifically, Wes Hunter. That was when the impossible became possible and the predictable became unpredictable.

As Abigail Rose looked down on her new world, she couldn’t deny the things she had seen and all the things she had learned. There were days she wished she could go back to her old life, but she had changed. Evolved. She was no longer a love-struck seventeen year old. She was a chosen leader and her path was undeniable. The black and white was fading to gray, and the only thing between mortals and immortals was her.

This book had a slow burn to it but if you stuck with it, it picked up in the end. It did take a while for the author to explain certain things. We were introduced to the main character and learned that something had happened to her years ago but did not learn exactly what it was until almost halfway through the book.

Abby was a very dramatic character at first thinking that her world was ending because of a boy. Originally I had thought that they had dated which was why she was so hurt over everything but that was not the case. She matured a bit as the book progressed which helped me to enjoy her as a character more.

I thought that the dreams and flashbacks of memories that Abby had were tense and kept me on the edge of my seat. They easily kept my attention and most of the time I wanted them to keep going because they were exciting especially the nightmare where she is running through the forest.

Even though it took a while to build up steam it was a good first book in the series to place the groundwork for the story. I can't wait to get my hands on the next book! I have a feeling that things in the story are really going to pick up since the setting has changed, we will learn more about certain characters that up until this point have been mysterious, and Abby is going through her training.

Forgotten Treasures by D. Hart

                                         🌟🌟🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 stars
Summary:
*** Inspired by a community tragedy ***
(Characters and other events are a work of fiction)

In the aftermath of destruction, hearts were destroyed, strengths were stripped, and vulnerabilities were exposed.

A community was ripped apart after a tragic accident, and the loss hit one family particularly hard as it claimed the lives of three, leaving only one surviving member to pick up the pieces and move forward.

Baylor’s life was wiped clean in the blink of an eye. No family, no home, no name. That is, until she met Brandt. He took a chance, giving her hope and a reason to start over. A reason to rebuild a life full of forgotten memories. A reason to trust. A reason to love.

Finding love in all the right places should be easy, but when truths are revealed, it's anything but. Brandt will help her rediscover the true meaning of unconditional eternal love that will prove painful, life altering, and redeeming.

Together, they will try to face the future and will use each others strengths to learn how to live again. Can they rewrite history, or in the end, will the tragedies of their pasts be too much?


I loved how this book began. I truly felt the main character's fear and confusion of waking up in the hospital. I can't say that I would react any differently than she did. The descriptions that the author put forth really transported me into the story. 

Baylor actually reminded me of myself which drew me into the story even more. She said the most random things at times and seemed to be awkward with the opposite sex. It was both endearing and cringe-worthy because it reminded me of situations where I reacted similarly. All of the characters were wonderful and each one added a needed element to the story. It is just that Baylor stood out to me the most.

I thought that this book was well thought out, making it realistic and heart wrenching. I thought that the progression of the story was very fluid. Everything that happened did so at a good pace in my opinion. I thought that the flashbacks added much needed information to the story to give it even more depth than it already had. 

This story is heart-breaking so bring your tissues if you read it. I highly recommend it! You won't regret reading this book!

The Story of Us by D. Nichole King

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Summary:
Moments.

Every life is made of thousands of them, each one strung together with the next. Some are yellow and happy, some are blue and sad, and some…

Some wipe out color altogether.

“I love you,” is what I should have told Maverick.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m still fighting.”

Instead I just watched him leave.

Now my husband, my everything is battling for each breath, and all I can do is stare at the machines as the clock ticks off precious minutes.

The doctors said the first twenty-four hours are critical—but every moment is critical.

You never know which will be your last.

This is our story, and I’m not ready for it to end.


I had a lot of trouble connecting with the characters in this story. I'm not sure why but I couldn't really feel the chemistry between Alieya and Maverick. I didn't really care for Maverick for a majority of the book. I took Alieya's side when it came to him because I thought that he could have tried harder to be there for her. 

The plot was well thought out and I thought that some of the flashbacks added to the story appropriately. I did have an issue with how long the flashbacks centered around their spring break from school. I'm not sure why there was so much focus on that and not more after the fact.

I found the fact that Alieya used colors to express emotions in her life and her drawings. I love when authors use alternative means to explain emotions of the characters that are more creative. 

Overall, this was a good book but I felt the sadness in it was overwhelming. I would have wanted a better balance between the character's issues and the times that they were happy. 

 

Learning to Live by Kira Adams

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Summary:
Ciera
All I wanted was to be able to make it through my senior year. I didn’t need the stares, the jokes, or the bullies. I thought I could do it all on my own, but I was wrong. He filled my veins like a poison, the kind you can’t run from. Harsh and uncaring, he was broken, but somewhere along the way he seeped into my pores. There was no way out, so that left me with one choice: to open his eyes to the beauty around him. To help him live.

Topher
She wasn’t on my agenda; it was fate’s cruel way of telling me I needed to get my shit together. To be fair, my head was so far up my ass, I’m not sure how we extracted it. I knew the power I held over my peers, I exuded it daily. I could have any girl I wanted at the snap of my fingers, and yet I found myself fantasizing about her-someone so far off my radar it wasn’t even funny. She helped me understand that sometimes you need to let go to really live. Sometimes being alive means taking risks.

I feel like from the beginning of this book I was thrown into the thick of things. No one could ever call this book boring. I think that the book should have been a bit longer. I would have liked to have more information in certain areas of the book. It just felt as if the book moved on from topic to topic more quickly than I would have liked.

I will say that I felt depressed the entire way through. I don't think that there was enough happiness to offset the sadness in this book. There were so many things that Ciera has to deal with in this book and I was tempted to side with her when she would say "it's not fair". It felt like the character was being tortured.