Warcross (Warcross #1) by Marie Lu

🌟🌟🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Synopsis:

For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. Needing to make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.

Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire. 

This first book in the Warcross series is  a classic world and story builder but there is still quite a bit of action in it. The action is probably not in the way that readers will expect because it is happening within the game of Warcross. There are also thrilling scenes that take place outside of Warcross but they are more tense rather than action packed. 
It took me some time to acclimate into the the world the story took place in. I didn't understand exactly why the world looked the way that it did with bounty hunters and so much advanced technology at first. I had to be immersed in the environment of the book for a quarter of the book before I felt as if i understood the world I found myself in within the book. The author did a great job of creating the world. The descriptions painted such a vivid picture that it was easy to fall into. I found myself wanting to know more and more about that world, the culture, and the characters in the book. 
I loved the main charactersI They had such depth and complexity to them. Marie Lu delivered well as far as her characters were concerned. With every page I read, she showed another layer to Emi and Hideo. Emi was scraping by to stay alive. There was a level of desperation to her as well as determination and pride. She was very intelligent and able to see solutions to problems in a way that was uniquely hers. Hideo seemed as if he was always calm and in control but that is just one of the many faces he wore. He was extremely intelligent on a genius level and yet he had a creative, romantic side to him as well. He seemed like a lost little boy to me that was hiding behind a protective shell of intelligence and anger. 
I didn't suspect the things that took place as the story went on but they all made perfect sense. I thought that the villain had depth and his mission made sense in such a way that it was almost hard to disagree with his vision. I was able to guess the identity of Zero easily and quickly but I don't feel that it took away from the story because he himself is still a bit of a mystery after finishing the book. His background has not been explained which leaves something for the author to explore in the second book. 

Crowned by Hate (Crowned #1) by Amo Jones

🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Synopsis:

Some would say I have a privileged life. Daughter of the current President of the United States, wealthy, famous, and all things that some girls wish they had.
Only I'd dream of having a simple life. A life where I wasn't marrying the scariest man I have ever met. Well, I thought I had just met him, but it turns out, there's so much I don't know about myself. That's all thanks to a past so twisted, so warped, that no amount of money, or presidential status could wipe it clean.
I'm the rebel child. Or as some may see it, the disappointment. I’ve never cared about expensive wedding gowns, or how much someone paid for a tailored suit. I don’t care if your wedding dress is from Walmart, or if it’s from some fancy, upscale designer line.
So why am I marrying the devil dressed in a thousand-dollar suit?
I'm about to find out how I got here. To marrying one of the most powerful men in the country. The road to finding out, though, is paved with darkness, painted with the blood of innocents, and it leads my ass straight to hell. Only this hell is a multi-million-dollar penthouse suite in New York City where Bryant Saint Royal, sits on his throne.

^{*Received an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review*}
I love a good dark romance and this book definitely had some darkness to it. The issue is the darkness felt off somehow. I think that the problem was that I didn't really believe it. Bryant wasn't a believable "bad guy" to me. He flip flopped too much too soon for me to believe that he was forceful or that he hated Isa. He seemed like a sheep in wolves clothing...no I didn't get the saying backwards. That is the only way that I can explain it. Isa was okay but she seemed like she couldn't decide if she had a backbone or not. Both of the characters left me feeling confused as to who they truly were and if they even knew.
After reading this book all I can say is that I am confused. I have absolutely no idea what is going on or what happened over the course of the book. I thought I had some idea from the beginning to the middle of the book but then the crap hit the fan in a way I didn't expect and the result was confusion. I just have no idea...I know there is a second book coming but this one just seemed so all over the place that I'm not sure that another book could even untangle the web that the author weaved.

GOODREADS LINK: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34021996-crowned-by-hate

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AUTHOR BIO
Amo is a full-time writer from New Zealand who loves long romantic walks to the wine cellar. 
She loves to write like how she lives, hanging on the edge of insanity with a wine glass in one hand and her morals-or lack thereof- in the other.
Those are not my monkeys, I swear....
Oh those hellhounds? Yeah, those are mine.
 
AUTHOR LINKS
Website: http://www.amojonesbooks.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amojonesauthor
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Perfect Match (Lucky in Love Book 5) by Lila Monroe

🌟🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

BLURB

I have sixty days to make this maverick billionaire fall in love… with somebody else!

Jack Callahan has the hottest smile in tech. And as for his ass…ets - well, there’s a reason he’s the biggest playboy in town. But thanks to douche-bro investors and my snake of a college nemesis (don’t ask), he’s also my last shot to take my new dating app from kick-ass idea to world-conquering, million-dollar reality.

There’s just one problem: he doesn’t believe you can make a program for love. 

With my future on the line, I set him a challenge: if I can use the app to find his soulmate, he’ll invest in my company. Simple, right?

Wrong.

It turns out, Jack’s cocky attitude pushes my buttons - in all the sexiest, most infuriating ways. My research tells me he’s the absolute worst guy in the world for me… so why can’t I keep my hands off him?

And with my deadline approaching fast, how will I choose between my big break - or a broken heart?

Find out in the latest laugh-out-loud romantic comedy from Lila Monroe!

Lucky in Love series:
1. Get Lucky (free!)
2. Bet Me
3. Lovestruck
4. Mr Right Now
5. Perfect Match
6. Christmas with the Billionaire (coming November 30)

GOODREADS LINK: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36276714-perfect-match

 

^{*Received an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review*} 

The story was predictable and something that I had seen before but I liked the characters and story enough that I didn't mind that much. It was a more lighthearted version of a story that focused more on the characters than drama which I appreciated. I enjoyed how this story wasn't focused on some deep tortured past of one or both of the characters. This book felt like a breath of fresh air in that regard. It was a more simplistic story about how romance can be found in the most unlikely of places. It may not be with the person that you envisioned or at the time that you planned.
I enjoyed how the two main characters come into contact with each other as well as the progression of their relationship. The author did a good job of writing their interactions in such a way that their personalities shined through and the chemistry felt natural. There were moments in the book that felt forced but that had more to do with the drama/conflict in the story. It felt as if the author wanted there to be a conflict between the characters but didn't know exactly how to go about it. The drama was ejected into the book and then it lasted for a bit but then was resolved very quickly with very little communication on either of the characters parts. I thought that the author did a good job of establishing who the characters were. I loved how McKenna was spunky and determined to accomplish her goals. She refused to give up no matter how many times investors told her no or made sexist remarks. I appreciated the fact that she wanted to help people through launching her app rather than just making money. I kind of hated Jack at first and wanted someone to kick him in the balls. He seemed so self important and cocky. He eventually grew on me once I realized that there was more to him than met the eye. I was able to understand that his first impression in the book was only his business persona and that he didn't usually let people see his more casual side.

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AUTHOR BIO
Combining her love of writing, sex and well-fitted suits, Lila Monroe wrote The Billionaire Bargain. Lila enjoys writing, as it gives her a flexible schedule to spend time with her kids and a wonderful excuse to avoid them. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, who strips out of his well-fitted suits nightly.
 
AUTHOR LINKS
Website: http://www.lilamonroebooks.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lilamonroebooks
Newsletter: http://www.lilamonroebooks.com/newsletter/

Breakaway: A friends to lovers romance. by Heather M. Orgeron

🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Synopsis:

I fell in love with my best friend but he didn't love me back.
Sounds like a cheesy line from a country song, right? Too bad it's the story of my life.
I thought that I’d moved on, swore he was the one.
But that facade began to fade in the flash of a half-carat diamond ring.
Now years later, here I am, running back to the boy who broke my adolescent heart, hoping that just maybe, he’ll be the one to piece it back together.
....
I fell in love with my best friend while she fell in love with him.
Ironically, it was my own damn fault. I practically served her up on a silver platter.
So I turned to my second love, basketball, moving across the country to escape.
For years, I’ve been sitting on the sidelines watching, waiting.

Now it's time to make my move.
No more fouling out.
This time, I'm going to score.I fell in love with my best friend but he didn't love me back.
Sounds like a cheesy line from a country song, right? Too bad it's the story of my life.
I thought that I’d moved on, swore he was the one.
But that facade began to fade in the flash of a half-carat diamond ring.
Now years later, here I am, running back to the boy who broke my adolescent heart, hoping that just maybe, he’ll be the one to piece it back together.
....
I fell in love with my best friend while she fell in love with him.
Ironically, it was my own damn fault. I practically served her up on a silver platter.
So I turned to my second love, basketball, moving across the country to escape.
For years, I’ve been sitting on the sidelines watching, waiting.

Now it's time to make my move.
No more fouling out.
This time, I'm going to score.

GOODREADS LINK: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36199841-breakaway
 
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Free in Kindle Unlimited

^{*Received an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review*}

I love a good friends to lovers romance! I guess it is because it reminds me of my husband and how we were friends first. It gives a good foundation to a relationship where you understand the other person and have that deeper connection than just attraction. The author did a great job of establishing that friendship in this book. She may have done too well on that front though. There were points where the chemistry felt all wrong...like they really were just friends or even siblings. Then the next thing you know the chemistry type completely changes. It was a bit disorienting to say the least. 
I had a hard time with the characters. They did a lot of stupid things throughout the book. I found that I was extremely frustrated while I was reading it. Apparently, Colt and Alex don't understand how communication works because they seem incapable of doing do until the end of the book.

AUTHOR BIO
Heather M. Orgeron is a Cajun girl with a big heart and a passion for romance. She married her high school sweetheart two months after graduation and her life has been a fairytale ever since. She’s the queen of her castle, reigning over five sons and one bossy little princess who has made it her mission in life to steal her Momma’s throne. When she’s not writing, you will find her hidden beneath mounds of laundry and piles of dirty dishes or locked in her tower(aka the bathroom) soaking in the tub with a good book. She’s always been an avid reader and has recently discovered a love for cultivating romantic stories of her own.
 
AUTHOR LINKS
Website: http://www.heathermorgeron.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorHeatherMOrgeron
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1738663433047683/
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Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/cAaZv9

 

His Heart by Claire Kingsley

🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Synopsis:
Brooke Summerlin’s life is like a Cinderella story. Raised by an abusive, drug addicted mother, she desperately hides the truth about where she comes from. But Prince Charming arrives in the form of Liam, the most popular guy at school. He sweeps into her life and carries her away to what is supposed to be a happily ever after.

Until it isn’t.

Sebastian McKinney is the son of an Iowa state champion wrestler, and that’s what he’s going to be. Wrestling is his life. He’s focused. Determined. Nothing will stand in his way.

Except a silent illness that almost kills him.

Brooke’s greatest tragedy becomes Sebastian’s second chance at life. Four years later, he’s moving forward, his body healthy, while she is left to sink in grief that threatens to drown her. Haunted by a past she can’t escape.

But sometimes love transcends the boundaries of life and death—between what is known and what cannot be explained. The heart that loved Brooke continues to beat, and even now, it still beats for her.

^{*Received an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review*}

This kind of story has been told numerous times and in numerous ways before. When I began reading this, I thought that it would be another rehash of this particular type of story where a guy gets the heart of girl's deceased fiance/boyfriend then feels the same things and/or enjoys the same types of things as said deceased guy. There was a bit of that but it was clear that the author tried to change things up. I can appreciate the effort that she put into it but I don't think that it worked out very well. I just don't think that the story or the characters really worked all that well for me. I liked Sebastian. He was driven and knew what he wanted out of life. He was playing it safe after the transplant but who wouldn't do that after almost dying. I found myself extremely frustrated with Brooke. She seemed flighty and self destructive. I had trouble sympathizing with her situation because she chose to use destructive methods to cope. She had seen how that path turned out for another person in her life and yet she still chose it. I also disliked her friend Olivia because I felt that she actually wasn't a very good friend at all. She seemed to be self-centered to me, only seeing what situations were like for her. It seemed like everyone in the story was so back and forth that it made everything so much more complicated than it needed to be. I was getting whiplash from the story. 
 
GOODREADS LINK: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36263841-his-heart
 

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Free in Kindle Unlimited

 

AUTHOR BIO
Claire Kingsley writes smart, sexy romances. She's in love with love, and finds inspiration in the stories of broken people who find love and healing together—with a generous dose of steam. 
She can't imagine life without coffee, her Kindle, and the sexy heroes who inhabit her imagination. She's living out her own happily ever after in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and three kids. 

AUTHOR LINKS
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/clairekingsleybooks
Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/AlphaEverAfter
Website: http://www.clairekingsleybooks.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15487051.Claire_Kingsley
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Claire-Kingsley/e/B01IJRE9Z2/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/clairekingsley1

The Temptation of Adam by Dave Connis

🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Synopsis:
Adam Hawthorne is fine.

Yeah, his mother left, his older sister went with her, and his dad would rather read Nicholas Sparks novels than talk to him. And yeah, he spends his nights watching self-curated porn video playlists.

But Adam is fine.

When a family friend discovers Adam’s porn addiction, he’s forced to join an addiction support group: the self-proclaimed Knights of Vice. He goes because he has to, but the honesty of the Knights starts to slip past his defenses. Combine that with his sister’s out-of-the-blue return and the attention of a girl he meets in an AA meeting, and all the work Adam has put into being fine begins to unravel.

Now Adam has to face the causes and effects of his addiction, before he loses his new friends, his prodigal sister, and his almost semi-sort-of girlfriend. 

^{*I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*}

I appreciate the fact that the author attempted to write a story surrounding the topic of addiction particularly porn addiction. This is not a topic that I have seen done in the YA world and I was interested to see what direction the author would take it in. I would like to see this topic and other difficult topics like it written about in Young Adult books because it is something that some of them struggle with. 
It felt like the author beat around the bush with the topic at hand which was addiction to porn. I think that is why this book just didn't work for me. Addiction isn't something that you can pussy foot around and expect readers to take something away from it. I'm not saying that I wanted descriptions of what Adam was watching in detail but it would have been nice if the author would have went deeper other than feeling guilty that it happened again.
I wish that I would have been able to feel the struggle within Adam more so throughout the story. He was a bit of a meh character for me. He seemed to be in denial about a lot of things for the majority of the book. I also didn't like the relationship between him and Dez. I felt that it was toxic for him and I wanted him to kick her to the curb. The only character that I can say that I liked was Mr. Cratcher. He was caring and straightforward about his own flaws. He genuinely wanted to help others especially Adam.
I wanted the story to focus on Adam and what he was going through but it focused quite a bit on the backstory of Cratcher as well as other characters and their issues (Dez). I liked Cratcher but the book was supposed to be about Adam and I wasn't sure why the author took that direction. It didn't seem like anything was really resolved with the characters in the end with the exception of Cratcher. It felt like the author was forcing conclusions for each of them in such a way that it didn't feel realistic but rather rushed instead.
I think the book was trying too hard to be different by adding certain elements like Adam's formulas and the pixie manic dream girl crap (Dez). I know that I have been beating the author up about her but she annoyed me with her "I'm so unique" and "I don't really have ONE problem like the rest of you".

Alone by Cyn Balog

🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Synopsis:
When her mom inherits an old, crumbling mansion, Seda’s almost excited to spend the summer there. The grounds are beautiful and it’s fun to explore the sprawling house with its creepy rooms and secret passages. Except now her mom wants to renovate, rather than sell the estate—which means they're not going back to the city…or Seda's friends and school.

As the days grow shorter, Seda is filled with dread. They’re about to be cut off from the outside world, and she’s not sure she can handle the solitude or the darkness it brings out in her.

Then a group of teens get stranded near the mansion during a blizzard. Seda has no choice but to offer them shelter, even though she knows danger lurks in the dilapidated mansion—and in herself. And as the snow continues to fall, what Seda fears most is about to become her reality…

^{*I received this copy from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*}

I loved how powerful the first sentences of the book were. How could I not continuing reading when the first sentence was "sometimes I dream that I am drowning". The first few pages were filled with powerful, attention grabbing internal monologue that I loved. I think that it will easily draw readers into the story and make them want to read more.
My issues with the book began fairly early on within the book. I didn't understand what the author was trying to convey or where she was going with things. I assumed that Seda was going to end up doing something bad or that the author was trying to make readers think that when in reality someone else is the villain. Things got more confusing when the group of teens show up in the book because Seda began acting odd and the teens were acting odd as well. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to think. I also found Seda's mother odd. I'm not sure if this was the author's intention or not but all of the characters seemed a bit awkward to me. It seemed to turn into a typical horror movie with the typical characters that break down on the side of the road and come upon a creepy house thinking that everything is fine when all of the sudden they start getting picked off one by one. All that I will say concerning this plot point is that all is not what it seems. I did appreciate the fact that the author attempted to do something different but she also attempted to keep a thriller-esque vibe with a twist ending. The issue that i have with that is there was no enough background or hints in order to take the book in that particular direction. It didn't make a lot of sense. Frankly, the explanation behind another one of the twists in the story didn't really sit well with me either. There were subtle hints that something wasn't quite right but other than that there is nothing to go off of.