ARC Review- A Very Merry Hockey Holiday (Assassins #5.5) by Toni Aleo

Title:  A Very Merry Hockey Holiday (Assassins #5.5)  

Author:  Toni Aleo

Publication Date: December 10th 2014

 

Plot:   NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BEST SELLING AUTHOR TONI ALEO PRESENTS THE NEXT INSTALLMENT IN THE ASSASSINS SERIES…

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas – with eight stories featuring your most beloved characters and their families – it’s time to get comfy with a cup of hot cocoa and take a sneak peek at the holidays, Assassins’ style.

Join Lucas and Fallon along with Tate and Audrey as they await life-changing gifts; Erik and Piper, and Phillip and Reece who have decisions to make that could lead to exciting developments ahead in their lives; and Claire as she makes a Christmas wish and choices for her future. Spend Christmas morning with the Adler family and see what the New Year has in store for Karson and Lacey, as well as Kacey King. The King family faces significant changes and resolutions that will leave readers alternately cheering and maybe a little heavy-hearted…all wrapped up in a big bow.

☆✮ My Review ✮☆

☆ I received an ARC via Good Choice Reading in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ☆

#This was a super cute novella!

Author Toni Aleo really does know how to give fans one a hell of a Christmas treat by giving us readers this yummy and heartwarming treat!

We get to re-visit all of our favorite Assassins couples and see their progresses and latest updates, as well as witness BABIES, BABIES galore!! *woohoo!*

Yep, babies coming left to right, I tell ya! *cheshire grin*

I LOVE, LOVED this eight-part story treat!!! Was just what I needed to start my holidays and get a peak into ElliXPiperXReese's, my favorite characters, and their lives!

Can't wait for Kacey's story!  I'm off to re-read my Assassins collection on my lovely kindle!!

My Rating:

-Overall : 9

-Plot : 8

-Writing : 8

-Characters : 8

-Cover : 8

☆✮ About the Author ✮☆

Toni Aleo is the author of the Nasvhille Assassins series: Taking Shots, Trying to Score, Empty Net, Falling for the Backup, and Blue Lines.

When not rooting for her beloved Nashville Predators, she’s probably going to her husband’s and son’s hockey games and her daughter’s dance competitions, taking pictures, scrapbooking, or reading the latest romance novel.

She lives in the Nashville area with her husband, two children, and a bulldog. Read more about Toni here.

Author's Links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads  

☆✮ Pre-Order Buy Links ✮☆

ARC Review- Last Will and Testament (Radleigh University #1) by Dahlia Adler

Title:  Last Will and Testament (Radleigh University #1)
Author:   Dahlia Adler
Publication Date: December 9th 2014

Plot:   Savage is book #3 in the Healer series. Before reading Savage it is strongly recommended that you read Healer and Hybrid first. 

A savage is barbaric. 

It attacks without restraint or pity. 

It is fierce, merciless, and brutal. 

Aldo has let that part of herself take over, drive her actions. I thought saving her from Bridge was my biggest problem.

I was wrong. 

Something happened while she was missing. And it has altered her in a way that she is almost unrecognizable. 

But she won’t tell me anything.

Instead, I’m forced to watch the young and naïve woman I’ve fallen in love with transition into everything I knew she could be; strong, fearless, and unstoppable. The problem is, she’s cut off her humanity, and coupled with those things, she’s a loose cannon.

She’s a savage.

My name is Daniel O’Sullivan and I’m in love with a broken woman. I will bring her back and remind her of who she really is no matter what it takes.

Even if it kills me.

☆✮ My Review ✮☆

☆ I received an ARC via the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ☆

Dahlia Adler’s upcoming New Adult Romance was genuine, honest, and realistic…BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, it had heart!!

Last Will and Testament dwindled a delicate balance between life, family, love, and obligation.

For college wild-child, Lizzie Brandt, What happens when your life is spiraled upside down and you suddenly become the sole custodian and provider for two adolescent boys?

Faced with these obscurities while being a full time student, Lizzie, has to change her tune and get her act together before she not only flunks out of school, BUT, loses those most important to her—her brothers.

With the help of her handsome TA and a whole lot of growing up in the process, Last Will and Testament  was a heart-gripping, heart-rendering, and all around touching read that tugged at my heartstrings and admire Lizzie’s character for persevering during this grievous period (in her life) and push forward for the sake of her and her brothers’ futures.

I will definitely be keeping an ear and eye out for this author and her works, as well, as bk2 of this series!! Can’t wait!!

My Rating:

-Overall : 8.5

-Plot : 8.5

-Writing : 8.5

-Characters : 8.5

-Cover : 8

☆✮ Excerpt ✮☆

It’s not like I haven’t thought about that night a million times before, but the realization of just how many things have changed since then brings me to my knees right there in the grass surrounding the parking lot, hidden only by a couple of trees. It’s dark out, a beautiful, starry night interrupted by the faint sounds of TVs coming from the apartments above me and the crickets around me. And I have to go ahead and fuck up the near-silence with the sound of my crying.

Once it starts, I can’t stop. I’m in a sitting fetal position, my arms grasping my knees to my chest, my face buried in my knees, and I’m soaking my skin and probably making a racket but I can’t shut it off. I can’t make it stop. I can’t. Undo. Anything.

And then, “Elizabeth?”

Oh, shit. I swipe at my eyes, my nose, everything. Push back and look up, bracing myself on my palms in the grass. “What are you doing back here, Connor?”

            He settles next to me on the grass and pushes tear-soaked hair out of my eyes. “I never went anywhere,” he says quietly, handing me a tissue.

            “You’ve just been sitting in your fucking car?”

He shrugs. “It’s a nice night.”

“It was,” I say bitterly. “Go home, Mr. Lawson.”

His hands leave my face, dig into the grass, pull at the blades at his sides. “Don’t you think if I could have, I would have?” 

My eyelids flutter closed, and I take one last halfhearted swipe at my nose with the tissue. “I told you, I can’t play this game with you. What do you want from me?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well then I definitely can’t help you.”

He huffs out a sigh, and I open my eyes. He might be annoyed, and as tired as I am, but he’s settled back against the trees now, and he’s obviously not going anywhere. “What do you want from me, Lizzie? Because I’m pretty sure what you need is more than I can give.”

“Pretty sure, huh?” I don’t mean to sound flirty, but the thing is, even tired, and angry, and infuriating, Connor Lawson, in his stupid professorly attire, is still the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. Especially in the moonlight. Especially when he’s sitting in the moonlight, next to me, because he actually gives a shit about who I am and what I need.

His lips curve up in a smile despite himself and he shakes his head. “You are so…you.”

My fingers find the soft, smooth back of his hand, trace it with their tips, slide into his in perfect interlocking formation. He doesn’t pull away. “Who else would I be?”

For the first time since he got out of his car and found me in the grass, Connor looks up at me, into my eyes, and I can’t help wondering what it is he sees. “You’re incredible, you know that?”

It’s a rare compliment from him, and I’m not great at those. “I’m an asshole, Connor. You just came to check on me because I was crying over my dead parents and I’m sort of hitting on you.”

He smiles softly, squeezes my fingers. “There’s no right way to grieve, Lizzie. You are who you are, and you feel how you feel. As long as you’re getting through the day, that’s all that matters.”

“What if I’m not?”

“You are,” he says firmly. “You’re here. Your brothers are fed. They’re in your apartment. They’re safe. Your parents couldn’t have asked for better care.”

“I’m not talking about my brothers right now.”

“I know,” he says. “But if I talk about you I am going to say some things I really shouldn’t say.”

“I can’t tell if that’s promising or threatening. Like?”

He laughs wearily. “Sacrament. You’re going to be the end of me, Elizabeth Brandt.”

“That sounds closer to promising.” And then, because he’s making me smile, because he’s making me forget, because his holy French-Canadian swear words are so cute, because he’s making me feel things that aren’t pain and death and despair and failure, I kiss him. His lips are soft and warm and yield to mine like they’ve been waiting all night for exactly this.

☆✮ About the Author ✮☆

I’m an Associate Editor of mathematics by day, a Copy Editor by night, and a YA/NA author and blogger (here, at YA Misfits, and at Barnes & Noble Book Blog) every spare moment in between. I’m also on a quest to make the perfect French macaron, and enjoying all the flawed ones along the way. (Except the ones I accidentally made with garbanzo bean flour. Those were gross.)

I live in New York City with my husband, who makes seriously good challah and mostly doesn’t mind when I yell at the TV. My debut YA novel is called BEHIND THE SCENES, and you might like it. For info on my upcoming books, click here.

More often than not, I’m on Twitter as @MissDahlELama – come say hi!

Author's Links:

Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook

☆✮ Pre-Order Buy Links ✮☆

ARC Review- Slammed by Skyla Madi

Title:  Slammed 
Author:  Skyla Madi
Publication Date:  December 2nd 2014 (first published December 2014)

Plot:  Once upon a time, Selena Graham met a boy named Jackson Quinn… 

This isn’t your typical fairytale, no. This one is twisted and the role of prince charming is filled by one man too set in his ways, haunted by the demons of his past. 

Jackson wants to live his life free of the tribulations the woman in his past put him through and nothing makes you appreciate what you have quite like the reappearance of someone you thought was long gone.

Selena knows he’s too much for her, but he’s the only person besides her best friend who accepts her for who she really is—out of control and desperate for attention. She knows she deserves more, but how can she quit the one thing that makes her feel accepted?

While both struggle to find balance, can Jackson keep his past where it belongs? Can Selena hold on long enough for Jackson to realize what’s good for him? And can he relinquish control and finally let love take over?

☆✮ My Review ✮☆


☆ I received an ARC via the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you SO MUCH Skyla!! ☆

#Woah, talk about unexpected! Author Skyla Madi definitely set the tone for this dramatic spin off from the Consumed Series as she really threw me through quite a spin!

Slammed was a whole lot of baffling for me. I just did not expect for things to go down the way it did whatsoever.

I always knew that there was something weighing on this couple but, man, was this story not what I expected at all!

It was fiery, it was explosive, but most of all it was riveting, unfiltered, and plagued with mystery and shattering suspense and revelations that threaten to tear everything apart.

Jackson and Selena are quite the enigmatic couple and have their work seriously cut out for them-- both as individuals and as a couple. Each have so many stakes going for and against them that it's hard to tell where the next step of their relationship is going to lead. Anyone's guess is as good as mine.

NOT TO MENTION, with the unprecedented unforeseen twists, turns, and arrival of a disgruntled third party that presages to disembowel and consume all that Jackson and Selena have worked for, it is quite questionable where the end game is starting to look for this troubled duo.

Can Jackson confront his tumultuous past? Can Selena find the stability and acceptance she so desperately craves and be the pillar that Jackson needs to pit him out of his unrelenting darkness?

Will this couple be able to let go of the past before they can move on to their future? Or was their love destined to fail after all?

#I NEED BOOK TWO LIKE YESTERDAY!!!!#

My Rating:

-Overall : 8.75

-Plot : 8.75

-Writing : 8.75

-Characters : 8

-Cover : 8.5

☆✮ About the Author ✮☆

…and my teachers said daydreaming wouldn’t get me through life.

I’ve been writing since 17 and at 21 I’m a professional daydreamer and giver of both real and fictional life.

Aquarian, lover of the written word and author of the #1 BESTSELLING sports fiction novels Consumed and Too Consumed.

I write like I live my life — fast and carefree — and I have no specific genre. I hop from YA to NA to Erotica to Contemporary romance almost as often as I change shoes.

I have written 6 novels with 26 novels still planned out, they’re just waiting for me to pick up my pen and write their story.

Author's Links:

Website | Goodreads | Facebook  | Twitter

☆✮ Pre-Order Buy Link ✮☆

ARC Review- Laces and Lace (Assassins #6) by Toni Aleo

Title:  Laces and Lace (Assassins, #6) 

Author:  Toni Aleo

Publication Date: November 24th 2014 (first published November 10th 2014)

 

Plot:   Nine years ago, things were perfect. Lacey and Karson had found their happily ever after in each other…or so they thought. How do two people who were meant to be move on from that once-in-a-lifetime love?

Lacey has a strength inside her that comes alive with the things she’s most passionate about. She’s a fighter, a survivor, and has everything she’s ever wanted but the one thing that matters most—love.

Karson is doing the one thing he loves most—playing hockey for the Assassins, yet he knows regret. He knows his life has been missing the one thing he walked away from so many years ago—Lacey.

Nine years later, and neither has been able to succeed in moving on from what was, what could have been, and who each of their hearts still beats for. When a chance encounter during a fateful night has their paths crossing again, will the tether still attaching their souls allow them to face the past, present, and a possible future?

Can two people with fate on their side find a way back to each other? Overcome all the obstacles in their way to finally live life together to the fullest?

Or will they let those around them and the circumstances they face, along with questions and doubt, ruin a second chance at the life they both deserve?

☆✮ My Review ✮☆

☆ I received an ARC via Good Choice Reading in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ☆

Don't get me wrong, I liked this one...I did.

Karson was AWESOME and I loved everything about him.

BUT! Lacey did have me at a lovehate relationship due to her unstable antics and insecurities.

And don't even get me started on her best friend, Rachel! Seriously, what the heck?! How is she and Lacey even friends in the first place?!

#So over all? I'm quite at a toss up with this read. It's not terrible or anything, but, I just did not get it at times. So I guess we can agree to disagree on it.

THE END.

My Rating:

-Overall : 7.5-8

-Plot : 7.5-8

-Writing : 7.5

-Characters : 7.5

-Cover : 8

☆✮ About the Author ✮☆

Toni Aleo is the author of the Nasvhille Assassins series: Taking Shots, Trying to Score, Empty Net, Falling for the Backup, and Blue Lines.

When not rooting for her beloved Nashville Predators, she’s probably going to her husband’s and son’s hockey games and her daughter’s dance competitions, taking pictures, scrapbooking, or reading the latest romance novel.

She lives in the Nashville area with her husband, two children, and a bulldog. Read more about Toni here.

Author's Links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads  

☆✮ Buy Links ✮☆

Release Blitz & ARC Review- Leo Maddox by Sarah Darlington

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Title:  Leo Maddox  
Author:  Sarah Darlington
Genre: New Adult Romance
Publication Date:  November 25th 2014

Plot:  The one. The only. Leo Maddox.

Leo’s cocky. He’s mean. He’s gorgeous. He’s never learned the meaning of the word no. He’s the twenty-one-year-old, billionaire grandson of a hotel mogul. He has vacation homes he’s never been to and cars he doesn’t drive. Women. Fashion. Alcohol. There’s nothing he can’t get. Well…almost nothing.

He can’t have her. The girl he loves. The girl he’s loved his entire life. She hates him. Until one morning when Leo wakes up and decides enough is enough. He’s going to get the only girl he’s ever wanted. So what if she has a new boyfriend. So what if she loathes his very existence. Clara belongs with him and he’s going to prove it to her by winning her heart.

This New Adult Romance is told entirely from Leo Maddox’s POV. It can be read before, after, or in place of He Belongs With Me. Recommended for readers 18+ due to strong language and sexy scenes.

☆✮ My Review ✮☆

☆ I received an ARC via the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ☆

Leo Maddox follows rich billionaire hotel mogul, Leo Maddox, and his quest to catching the eye of his affection, Clara Ryder-- twin sister to his BFF Maggie, and the arch nemesis who hates his guts.

Leo has always been in love with Clara, but due to facades and misunderstandings, their relationship never furthers farther than disgruntled spats and bickering.

Deciding to finally claim what’s his, Leo finally decides to make his move, and for those of you who have read He Belongs With Me, you already know how Leo and Clara’s road to love takes flight. ONLY… inLeo Maddox, you see everything from Leo’s POV and what’s really going on in that head of his.

*fangirls*

#So over all, a cute and enlightening tale that precedes that saying that, “there is a fine line between love and hate.” This is the quota that entails Clara and Leo, only in this particular case, Leo has always secretly held a buried torch for Clara.

Their tale to finally succumb and admit to their feelings was tedious, yet, very sweet and adorable!

HOWEVER! I do wish though, that aside from their romance, that we as readers could have seen an update on Maggie and her beau’s status and what’s next up or new for them. While I do get that this story is focused on Leo's "operation get the girl," I hoped the story would expand somewhere along the sidlelines about Maggie as well.

Otherwise, cute story that left me a happy gal!

*P.S- Those wondering about the parentage of Valerie?  Read HBWM and you'll get your answers!*


I'm out!

My Rating:

-Overall : 8

-Plot : 8

-Writing : 8

-Characters : 8

-Cover : 9

☆✮ Teasers ✮☆

☆✮ Character Bios ✮☆

☆✮ About the Author ✮☆



Sarah Darlington lives in Virginia with her husband and amazing two-year-old son. She's a former flight attendant, navy brat, constant day-dreamer, wannabe photographer, and an avid scrapbooker. She loves to travel and is working on visiting all 50 states.

Author's Links:

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

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