Stalk Me by Jillian Dodd

This is the first book in the Keatyn Chronicles and it is pretty interesting. I am very back and forth on if I love Keatyn or hate her. 

Basically, everything in Keatyn's life is perfectly fake. Her mother is a movie star and she lives in Malibu. She is left alone a lot and is able to come and go as she pleases. Everyone thinks that she has the perfect life...perfect boyfriend and great best friends. Everything is not as it appears...her relationship is not as hot and heavy as it appears and Sander is constantly getting drunk and Keatyn has to take care of her. Her best friend is blackmailing her in order to keep their status in the school.  Keatyn feels like everything is falling apart. Her mom's stalker has become angry with her. Keatyn finally decides that she should do what makes her happy and tries to make her life her own. 

Keatyn kind of has multiple personalities. She has the glam Barbie doll, the surfer chick and the soccer chick.  There are hot boys of course that all love her. She is only 16 and I think that Jillian Dodd did a great job of looking at life as a 16 year old. She made Keatyn seem older in a lot of ways but she also had her make her choices as a 16 year old would. Even though Keatyn is mature and does a lot of great things you understand that she is young. I did get really mad at her as I was reading and wanted to shake her. I am looking forward to reading Kiss Me-the next book in the series. I am giving this book 4 stars.

Sunny

The Vincent Brothers by Abbi Glines

I finally have read both The Vincent books. I read the Vincent Boys about a month ago. However to have a tendency to skip around books. This book is now from Sawyer's view. I was not sure about this book since I loved Beau so much. But Sawyer is pretty awesome too. The book started from six months after his break up with Ash. He still is heartbroken and can't seem to let it go. And Ash and Beau love to show off their public affection(putting it lightly). After Sawyer almost got into it with Beau about Ash at a party, he goes to a place to eat and runs into Ash's cousin, Lana. And wow, she has grown up. He takes notice of it as well. Lana always had a crush on Sawyer and thought Ash was dumb for breaking it off with him. But now she has this one chance to see if she can get his attention before they all take off to college. No one ever took notice of her before. But now she has a new wardrobe, new hair and has all her assets have grown. Unfortunately, Sawyer is stuck on if he does date Lana, does he want to be with her for all the right reasons. Not just to make Ash jealous. Now that she is here, he is acting like a whole new person than what he was before. And taken note by everyone else. He does ask her to go waterboarding and was finding no problem making it known he was interested. Later that night he says something to his friend that made it official he didn't think anything of Lana in compared to Ash. And it just so happens Lana heard the whole rant. Sawyer puts his foot in his mouth several times in this book. It was just a matter of when he decided that Ash was not his first priority anymore. Would he be too late? After Lana hears that Sawyer was to Ash's rescue yet again, she left her Aunts and thanks Ash with a letter. Sawyer finds out she left and read the letter that would mean so much to him. This is the last summer before they all move on to college. One last summer in that town and they all went there separate ways. Will Sawyer move on from the hurt of his and Ash's breakup? Does he mend his relationship with Beau? Does Saywer sees there is more than what he had with Ash? I can't tell you that of course! But as I always need in a book, I got that happy ending. I am rating this a 4.5 Get your Read On! Darra

Wallbanger

Did the name peek your interest? This is by Alice Clayton. I was looking for you. Again, don't know how I found this one. As you may see, this is NOT a YA book. Only for us adults. Caroline has just moved into her new place and absolutley loves it. The first night she is awakened by her next door neighbor having sex with some lady shouting his name over and over, Simon. Turns out the walls are paper thin. The next night rolls along. Same thing, but she notices it is not the same woman. She meows! Now Caroline is intrigued with him and what he looks like. She is renting the apartment from her boss, who she loves working for. She is a house designer and is great at it. Caroline can't help but talk about the Wallbanger that lives next to her. Having to hear Simon and his harem every night has got Caroline all worked up. Finally one night she is fed up of always waking up tired. She walks over to her new neighbor to give him a piece of her mind. Once he finally answers, she is staring at a hot, shirtless, six pack and a V(ladies-I am sure you know about the cut). Only covered up by a blanket with one hell of a hard on. It all becomes all awkward and she forgot she was wearing her VS pink nightie. This caused one hell of a conversation with her bf's, Sophia and Mimi. Jillian, her boss and her husband, Benjamin are having a house warming party. Caroline along with her friends go to "mingle". Both her friends eye potential boyfriends and walking up next to them is Simon. She is fuming that she is met by his friends and is known by the name of "Pink Nightie Girl". While her friends point out Simon is the "Wallbanger". The party comes to the end and both her friends leave her with Simon to drive her home. They decide they will call a truce and live next to each other as friends. Of course time goes by and they seem to enjoy each other's company. And there is non stop sexual banter between the two. It makes it enjoyable to read with the whitty conversations. Caroline's friend has her family's home in Tahoe available for a weekend. All of them meet there and things take a turn in the opposite direction. Did I also tell you that Simon is an international photographer? And takes Caroline on one of his shoots, Spain. The rest I am going to leave out. The book has the trifecta: Hot, funny and love. These books are my FAVORITE. I like to read and actual laugh more than once. Keeps me reading. I read this within 14 hours. And that is also including sleep, movie and kid taking up the time. I would have read all in one night if I could! GET THE BOOK! My rating would be a 4.6. Here is the authors info. Check it out. Darra

Damon (The Protector Series)

I have not read any good vampire books lately. I just so happen to be following an author that name dropped Teresa Gabelman and said to check her out. The book look interesting. So here I am. BTW, I must have a thing for Damon's! Okay, enough about me. Nicole loves her job as a CPS worker and takes prides in helping overs. She has a deep connection to all the children she has on file. Especially since she had went through the same thing as being a foster child and never been loved by a real family. The twist to this is that humans and vampires live together equally. The new problem is children are being turned into vampires. So Nicole is placing not only human children but vampire children too. She has to be wary about all foster homes. As of lately, their blood is being sold for money so humans can get high off of it. She is now in danger when she finds the foster parent pumping the blood out his foster child for money. She now needs to find better ways to protect herself. Her boss has brought in a few vampire warriors to get them into shape. Automatically, she is drawn to Damon. He has a hot body and golden eyes. He has black, long hair. Okay, I get that most vampires have long hair, but do they really? I dont dig long hair. Please cut the hair! Both Damon and Nicole are drawn to each other but Damon has his reasons tries his best to not get close to her. But all he wants is to Protect her. Nicole has been targeted to kill and it is Damon job to find out who. Then they catch up to her. She is determined to keep all the people she loves out of harms way. Even if that means she ends up dead. What would do if you had a choice if your love one lives knowing they will never be the same or death? It is up to you. You will love Nicole, Damon & Jared. Great characters! And the series continues! The next one is of Jared's life. It should be good! It is next on my reading list. Worth the read! Rating: 4.4 Http//www.teresagabelman.com DARRA

Kicking Eternity by Ann Lee Miller

So I am going to cheat a little on this blog :) Ann was nice enough to send me the synopsis for this book. This is her debut novel and it was really good. I will say that I feel like it is not for everyone.

Stuck in sleepy New Smyrna Beach one last summer, Raine socks away her camp pay checks, worries about her druggy brother, and ignores trouble: Cal Koomer. She’s a plane ticket away from teaching orphans in Africa, and not even Cal’s surfer six-pack and the chinks she spies in his rebel armor will derail her.

The artist in Cal begs to paint Raine’s ivory skin, high cheek bones, and internal sparklers behind her eyes, but falling for her would caterwaul him into his parents’ life. No thanks. The girl was self-righteous waiting to happen. Mom served sanctimony like vegetables, three servings a day, and he had a gut full.

Rec Director Drew taunts her with “Rainey” and calls her an enabler. He is so infernally there like a horsefly—till he buzzes back to his ex.

Raine’s brother tweaks. Her dream of Africa dies small deaths. Will she figure out what to fight for and what to free before it’s too late?

For anyone who’s ever wrestled with her dreams.

My thoughts on this book:

At first I was like no way am I going to make it through this book. I am comfortable with my own thoughts on religion but have never done well with people that are overly outspoken on it. I have always said I will read just about anything and I can't think of very many books that I have not finished. So I continued on and I am really glad that I did. I loved that the book was written from all the main characters POVs. I love getting to see their thoughts and feelings. I was not a big fan of Raine at first but at the end I really liked her and I wanted her to be able to make her dreams come true. I will be reading the next book from Ann Miller and I give this book 3.9 stars.

A Little Bit About The Author:

Ann Lee Miller earned a BA in creative writing from Ashland (OH) University and writes full-time in Phoenix, but left her heart in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, where she grew up. She loves speaking to young adults and guest lectures on writing at several Arizona colleges. When she isn't writing or muddling through some crisis--real or imagined--you'll find her hiking in the Superstition Mountains with her husband, meddling in her kids' lives or at AnnLeeMiller.com.

Sunny

That Boy & That Wedding by Jillian Dodd

That Boy

So I apologize for taking so long before writing this review...Darra forgot to mention I was out with a migraine! Anyways, I think that Jillian Dodd did an awesome job with this book. 

This book is focused on a girl, JJ and her 2 best friends, Phillip and Danny.  The story starts as JJ is a child and she lives across the street from Phillip. Their parents are best friends and so of course JJ & Phillip are raised together. There are the obligatory naked baby pics of them together and everything!  Danny and his family move in next door to JJ and he tries to steal Phillip away. So being totally awesome, JJ punches Danny in the face and he accepts her as one of the guys.  The 3 of them stay best friends from childhood, junior high, high school, college and into REAL life.  There are some definite ups and downs...such as the first kiss, the first spin the bottle, the first make-out session...through it all the 3 are there together, but at the end of the day there is only That Boy.

I really love this book. I think that Jillian Dodd did a great job making you fall in love with all 3 characters. I like seeing a girl that is not a total moron and JJ is not. Don't get me wrong...she is a little slow sometimes but hey, remember what you were like in high school!  I mean who can't get on board with living on the same street as your 2 best friends that happen to grow up into 2 of the hottest guys in town! I mean we have Danny the super hot QB and Phillip the sweet and quietly hot receiver. Seriously, why didn't this happen to me?  Anyways, you get to grow up with them and I personally wasn't a 100% who I wanted That Boy to be but I can't lie...I was so happy when I found out who he is!  And yes I cried...I really hate admitting that I am a wuss but there you go...NO JUDGING!

Obviously I will not be telling you who That Boy was because it will ruin the story so I am going to be totally generic in this review.  I liked this book but I do like the first one better. 

In this one, they are planning That Wedding!  You get to see JJ deal with some issues that are lingering from her childhood that she has not dealt with. You get to see how she freaks out and how That Boy continues to help her and makes her see that she is a strong person and he is 100% there for her. The other boy is still in her life and you get to see how her relationship with him continues to grow.  Some old flames show up as well to go ahead and throw a wrench in the wedding planning. 

I think I will give That Boy 4.5 stars (PS look for the rating system to change)  and That Wedding gets 4 stars.  If you are looking for a book that will give you warm fuzzies, make you laugh, make you cry and of course make you sigh then read these books. I mean Phillip is one of the dreamiest guys I have read about and again all I can say about Danny is QB!  

Sunny

That Boy!

Hola,


We haven't been updating nearly as much as we should. Too busy reading! Sunny and I read That Boy. Since she is so slow and read it two days ago, I will blog about it. Such a sweet book. I liked the fact that it has it from JJ's life going from just a little girl to an adult. JJ is the main character and her next door neighbor is her best friend(Phillip) since childhood and continues on the rest of her life. Another boy comes and moves in on their road, Danny.
Of course, she was jealous at first, but then they are become the three of the closest friends. The story goes thru Junior high into high school, college into their adult career's. As you can imagine, there are the up's and downs of their life's.
But they remain all together. You will fall in love with all three of them. In the end, all girls will be going aaahhhh, love it! But there is more!
 That Wedding is the next book after That Boy. Sunny can tell you her POV about both these books. I haven't read That Wedding yet. But I heard from a source that it is good as well.
 We are such girls and cried. If you have a heart, you would too.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/that-boy-jillian-dodd/1100045839?ean=9780985008628

Let us know if you turned into a crying girl. I don't think you could help it!

Darra