She speaks from my mind ... ^_^

source: from here

Match Me by Liz Appel

Match Me

Bonnie wasn't the kind of girl to crash a wedding. She thought it was her responsibility, not as Chase's ex-girlfriend but as one of his best friends, to protect him. To make him see he was making a mistake. To make him see they weren't meant to be. To tell him she know, without a doubt, that they'd be divorced before the end of the year.

Bonnie kept finding herself in trouble. And every time she's saved by Paul, Chase's best friend and one of the groomsmen. He'd helped her at the wedding. At the grocery store. At the restaurant. At the drug store. At her apartment.

The book kept it so simple that we don't even get to know the main character's last names! (Not that I mind.)

License to Thrill (a romantic mystery)

License to Thrill

Yup, a romantic mystery. That's exactly what this book is.  
James Donovan is a retired British agent. He's hot. And love isn't in his vocabulary.
Kat McKray is a museum curator. She has become a suspect when the burglar broke in and stole the authentic King's love letter from the museum. 
I love the pace of the book. Fast. Mysterious. Practically everyone, everybody could become a suspect, including Kat and James themselves. The plot was good. And the romance, super! :)


Stephenie Bond combines suspense and romance really well. I'll sure dig into more of her books.

Any Other Night

Any Other Night

Any other night, Ryan Mills would have driven his best friend, Michael, to Emily's sweet sixteen party at the Breakers Club. Instead, determined to win over the birthday girl, he goes to the party early and alone, setting off a chain of events that ends with Michael's death in a car accident.

Ryan blames himself for what happened to Michael. As far as he's concerned, he doesn't deserve to have love or be happy ever again. Then he learns Michael left a secret behind. Ryan feels compelled to take on his friend's unfinished business, and in the process, changes his life forever and becomes a man.

This book was published in October 2011 under the title Loving Emily. It was reissued in May 2012, with the content unchanged, as Any Other Night.

A NOTE ABOUT CONTENT: The characters in this book occasionally engage in nonexplicit sexual activities and, in several instances, use profanity and illegal drugs.

September - great read

September has been a great reading month so far.

I started the month with Stalk Me by Jillian Dodd.
Then I found CLASH by Nicole Willians was released.
Then after I read CLASH, Maryse posted about On Dublin Street by Samantha Young.
And after On Dublin Street, Annie Nicholas, the author announced that CATCH was available on Amazon.
And my latest, awesome read, Taking Chances by Molly McAdams.
I mean, all the right timing. Books after books. Just grabbed new books all the time. Didn't have to go over books that were hanging around on my kindle at all.

Now besides October which Reflected in You: A Crossfire Novel by Sylvia Day will be released on the 2nd, I'm most looking forward to December. Dirty Red  by Tarryn Fisher is scheduled for Dec 28th. Kiss me (The Keatyn Chronicles) by Jillian Dodd will be released in December. And Hyde book 2 will also be there.

USPSTF - Ovarian Cancer Screening

http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/uspsovar.htm

D—Not Recommended: The USPSTF recommends against routinely providing [the service] to asymptomatic patients. The USPSTF found at least fair evidence that [the service] is ineffective or that harms outweigh benefits.

Taking Chances

Taking Chances

This book is really l-o-n-g.
My mind kept flashing back to Beautiful Disaster at the beginning of the book. Ah.. But this book doesn't have only one hero. There are two. So yeah, there is a love triangle. And lucky me, my last love triangle read has turned my hot vampires into being bisexual. This one does something even more terrible. Ugh... Can't say it without spoiling the detail. 

I liked the pace at the beginning. And the emotion it makes. That. Was good. But after the half? I kept looking at the bar and wonder how far the story will go. And man, at the end, I wasn't sure anymore what kind of book I was reading. It went everywhere. Pregnancy, baby, giving birth, family gathering, bringing everyone together, not one lose end. Unbelievably HEA.

Sounds like I complain more about the book than the part I liked but that's not true. Because I liked the book a lot (for some part of it) but then there were parts I told you I had to look and see how far I was and when it would end. Huh... I had to go to Maryse and see if her review would help. But .. If you checked her page out, you'll see. I'm not the only one in this frustration. -_-

Most awesome part? There is a discussion forum where you can relive the book, laid your emotion/confusion and try to move on. :)

Hyde

Hyde

Hyde? 

Yeah. Hyde.
Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll from Robert Louis Stevenson to be exact.
And again, old habits die hard. 

I didn't read any excerpt before jumping into the book.
Hyde was on Maryse's suggestion list. 

And she mentioned that the author was the one she interviewed just a day before. 

Oh yeah, the book has got to be good, right? 

Right my @ss. 

My normal read would have been romance. Any kind of romance. 

But, gothic. Oh please, at least give me a vampire.

This book didn't have any vampire in it. 

And no, no werewolf either. 

It had Mitch and Hyde. And Eden and Chasity. 

I didn't even know what they really were even after finishing the book. 

Heck, I didn't even know it's going to continue in book 2!? 

Hello? Déjà vu?

Well, though Hyde's obviously not my type of book, I don't regret it at all. I'd probably grab it and read it anyway. Yeah, the book was that good. 

And worst of all? I'm definitely looking forward to book 2.
Second book is expected in December. 

  

"To survive, they must embrace what they most despise . . . in themselves and each other.

Mitch Turner is everything women want most in a man—charismatic, successful, drop-dead gorgeous. Except he’s not a man—he’s a monster.

The only way Mitch can protect others from his monstrous side is to stop them from getting too close…that and a 7x7 foot cage. Isolated by his genetic curse, he spends his life hurting people emotionally, driving them away before Hyde can harm them physically. But, after a night of the best sex Mitch has ever had, he realizes that might be impossible. Except the woman he wakes up with claims she doesn’t remember any of it.

Eden Colfax is everything men want most, men other than Mitch, that is. She’s kind, honest to a fault and sickeningly sweet. To rid herself of the monsters that haunted her broken childhood, Eden doesn’t lie, doesn’t curse, and definitely never wakes up naked in strangers’ beds…until the day she does.

Then the flashbacks start—places she’s never been, people she’s never met, blood she’s never spilled. She discovers she’s split into two parts—the woman she thought she knew and another who is capable of anything. And the only person with any answers is the one man she never wants to see again.

What neither of them know is that someone is watching them both, manipulating them, determined to see just how evil the two of them really are. And when the truth begins to seep through the cracks, leaving them nowhere to turn but each other, they will be forced into a partnership neither had expected.

Because in life, who you trust is as important as who you are. And when you can’t even trust yourself, sometimes the only person you can rely on is the last person on Earth you should be falling for."

*** This novel is intended for adults only, as it includes lots of cursing, descriptive sex, biting sarcasm, and themes similar to those in Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, from which this story was inspired

CATCH by Annie Nicholas

CATCH

O M G. I can't believe it. 

I thought it was quite cruel knowing that the book was there but wasn't available in kindle version earlier. 

So, when the author did announce its availability? 

I didn't wait a second to grab it.

But, as soon as I read the blurb... 

my oh my, did my heart sank to the ground.
" In the middle of a power struggle, Connie fights to keep her lover, but didn't plan on Tane slipping into her heart." 

What?! She can't do that to Rurik, can she?

Times after times, she keeps hiding her secrets from Rurik.

Is she really in love with him?

I remember myself yelling 

"Connie is such a b*tch.
She so doesn't deserve my Rurik!!"

With my own disappointment, putting the book down was tempting.
But it was Rurik who kept me reading. 

And then somewhere near the very end, 

I realized, if the book can get me that emotionally involved, 

the book can't be bad, can it?

One last thought.
I can't believe I stayed up until 2 a.m. to find out that my vampires love triangle was solved by turning them into bisexual

Oh. My. Goodness!
Annie! If your goal for this book is to put readers in agony, 

you've so achieved it!
I truly doubt if that was the case though.
Lol.

>.<

Stalk me. (The Keatyn Chronicles)

Stalk Me

Gossip Girl meets Hollywood in this steamy new series by That Boy author, Jillian Dodd.
Keatyn has everything she ever dreamed. Her life is following the script she wrote for the perfect high school experience. She's popular, goes to the best parties, dates the hottest guy, and sits at the most-coveted lunch table.

She's just not sure she wants it anymore.

Because, really, things aren't all that perfect.
Her best friend is threatening to tell everyone her perfect relationship is a scam.
Her perfect boyfriend gets drunk at every party they go to.
It's exhausting always trying to look and act perfect.
And, deep down, she isn't sure if she has any true friends.

To add to the drama, her movie star mom has a creepy stalker.
A hot, older man flirts with her and tells her they should make a movie together.
And she's crushing on an adorable surfer. Dating him would mean committing social suicide.

So she writes a new script. One where all the pieces of her life will come together in perfect harmony.
But little does she know, there's someone who will do anything to make sure that doesn't happen.

Jillian keeps her style. Diary like. One person POV. You have to read every word and every lines because things happen unexpectedly all the time. 

CRASH - CLASH

Crash

Crash started with Lucy on the beach just a couple of weeks before her senior year at  new school started. It's also when this eye candy "Prince Hot Damn" arrived with one whole mess of guys, tossing a football back and forth.

"The name's Jude Ryder, since I know you're all but salivating like a rabid dog to know, and I don't do girlfriends, relationships, flowers, or regular phone calls. If that works for you, I think we could work out something special."

"I also knew you wouldn't stop your staring until you learned the cold, hard truth. So, consider yourself warned. I might not be the kind of guy that reads textbooks at the beach, but I'm smart enough to know girls like you should stay away from guys like me. So stay away."

It looked interesting at the beginning but I have to admit that around 18% of the book I started to doubt if this bad boy is too bad and the story too heavy for me. They burned her dog. They burned her hair and doused her with gasoline!
I'm glad I didn't put the book down and continued reading it anyway. It's Jude's love that made the story so beautiful.

"My Mom left when I was thirteen. My dad's serving a life sentence for killing a young kid. I spent the last five years in a boy's home being bullied, beat, and abused by the kids, the staff, and even the goddamn dog. I sold drugs. I did drugs. I got arrested. A lot. I screwed a lot of faceless woman. And when I met one whose face I couldn't forget. I fell in love with her. I hurt her because I fell in love with her and was afraid she was going to leave me the way everyone else had. I still love her."

Clash

Clash followed only a little more than a month apart. >.<

The only easy thing about Jude and Lucy’s relationship is their love for one another. Everything else is hard. That's when Lucy started to believe that love just isn't  enough sometimes.

"Love is like a seed.You've got to plant it to grow. But that's not all. You need to water it. The sun needs to shine just enough, but not too much. The roots have to take hold.  You can't plant a seed and hope it will grow on its own."

"Love is what brings you together, Lucy. But it's the blood, sweat, and tears of hard work that keeps you together."

Just like what her roommate confirmed to her. "Jude was the hand you were dealt, and that man is no carousel, Lucy. That man is the super-duper- looper, Six Flags, knee-trembling roller coaster extraordinaire." Lucy started to doubt if they're supposed to be together. And when she figured it all out. She grabbed the microphone and walked to the fifty yards line.

"We rode this roller coaster. Up, down, and around and around, and just as soon as I was sure it was coming to a stop and we could get off of it once and for all, we repeated the same ride all over again. I didn't think I wanted to be a passenger on that ride anymore, so I got off, leaving him to ride it alone."

"But then this morning, over a sleepless night a pot of coffee, someone knocked some sense into me. I realized I'd never really gotten off that roller coaster, we were just riding it different cars. My life is a roller coaster whether or not I am sitting next to this boy, and I'd rather share this crazy journey through life with him at my side. I'm done leaving. I'm done questioning if we can do this thing, Jude. "

"I love you, Jude Ryder. I'm done letting that scare me. I'm not going anywhere."  But the security guards didn't think so because one of them said to her. "Yes, ma'am. I'm afraid you are." Lol.

As the guards were leading her through the tunnel, the familiar voice rose through the stadium. 

"Lucy Larson? Could you come back out here? I need to ask you something."

Ahem. >.<I guess you can imagine what happened next and how the story beautifully ends. 

Books I read in August 2012

1. Crash by Nicole Williams
Jude Ryder and Lucy Larson.
He's a bad boy and she's a dancer. Real bad bad bad boy who totally loves her and willing to be better.

 "caring for someone is scary because you both know how it feels to lose someone in the span of a heartbeat. But you can't let fear dictate your life... Don't let the fear of losing them keep you from loving them." - Lucy's Dad.

2. Star-Crossed by Kele Moon
Second book from the Battered Hearts series
Aldo Moretti, head of the largest crime family in NY. Heavyweight UFC fighter. Mafiaso. Shooting. Genius with photographic memory. Romeo and Juliet.

3. Wraith by Edie Claire

4. Maybe Baby by Lani Diane Rich
Dana Wiley is having a very, very bad day.It starts when she realizes she never should have let her deep-seated fear of marriage cause her to leave the love of her life, Nick Maybe, at the altar. Then, she discovers that her old nemesis, Melanie Biggs, is after her winery. To save her business, she’s forced to go to Manhattan to ask her eccentric mother, Babs Wiley McGregor, for help. When she gets there, she discovers that Nick moonlights for Babs, doing odd favors for her rich friends. Then Babs is kidnapped, and a rare, valuable, stinky and flightless green Kakapo parrot is the ransom.

5. Lust and Honor by Harriet Schultz
This is too short to be a book. It's more like a prologue to "Legacy of the Highlands."
It's good enough for you to taste her writing and decide of you'd like to continue reading. Oh well, she had me. And I bought "Legacy of the Highlands" as soon as I finished this "too short" Lust and Honor. :)

6. Legacy of the Highlands by Harriet Schultz
Young, good-looking, successful and wealthy. Will and Alexandra Cameron had it all until the night he went out to buy ice cream after an evening of passionate sex and never returned. When his body is discovered in a nearby Boston alley, the only clue to his murder is a Scottish dagger left beside it. Will's grieving widow finds refuge in the Miami villa of his best friend Diego Navarro, who has the means, power and temperament to solve the puzzle and to avenge his friend's murder. The sinfully handsome and charming womanizer's feelings for Alexandra run deep, and he becomes equally determined to win the devastated widow's heart. The attraction between them grows as they follow leads from Miami to Buenos Aires and Scotland, unraveling the Cameron family's centuries-old secrets.

7. With a View by Alana Coca
Ashley Meyers is an architect. And Mason Gregory hired her to renovate his master bedroom.

It was short. But it was good. We all know it's only 50 pages long. But we didn't know how good it is. It's fast paced. And it's over my expectation for something 50 pages could do. The whole story. Five stars for every line. :)

8. Meandros
9. Doctors know best
My cheeks were filled with warmth the whole time. At the beginning until half from humiliation. Poor Eve. Then after the humiliation it was just heat.

No love mentioned in the story. Just pure sex.
10. Connection
Lonely Cathy, college dropout, works in a grocery store and makes completely random phone calls to strangers just to make a human connection. When a strange coincidence forces her to actually speak to the person on the other end of the phone, she's suddenly thrust back into the world, with all its vulnerability.

Seth is very kind and caring. It's because he cares enough to ask "is this a cry for help?" that's how he reaches her.

The story was good. The tone, the plot, the story telling was perfect. It's the end that was abrupt and hanging. It's like it was just cut off. It would be nice to know if there is a complete book waiting for us somewhere.


11. Bait by Annie Nicholas
It was these fierce blue eyes on the cover and 4.5 stars from 33 reviews that got me to read this book and man, it didn't disappoint. Rurik is my favorite vampire of the month. :)

12. Pride and Pleasure by Sylvia Day
I bought this book because I read Sylvia Day's Bared to You.
I first skimmed through it and only stop where it caught my interest. After about 40% of the book, I had to start reading it from the beginning again. I couldn't waste knowing I have skipped any word, any line, any part of the characters encounters and smart mouth remarks. I like the language. Historical Romance. Ah.. timeless >.<

Jasper Bond was a handsome thief-taker. He's what Eliza needed. Miss Eliza Martin, a wealthy, smart, independent young lady needed protection, investigation, and a suitor. With some twists at the end of the book. Entertaining. :)

13. The New Deputy in Town

14. Married by Mistake by Abby Gaines

Do not adjust your set. That really was Casey Greene being jilted by her fiancé on live TV! And that really was Memphis's most eligible bachelor who stepped in to marry her instead.
Millionaire businessman Adam Carmichael wanted only to help Casey save face. He isn't prepared for the news that their "fake" wedding is legal and binding.
While they secretly wait for an annulment, media and family scrutiny forces them to put on their best loving-couple act. Except by now, neither one is quite sure who's acting....

15. Tricked Truths
The sex was HOT!
And the story line was great!
Unexpected combination. The story was intense from the start and carried on its intensity through out the book.

Grace Jamison held so many secrets. And once they're revealed, Trick became ashamed of his harsh words and actions.

16. Honeymoon bite (Golden Vampire Legacy)
Interesting theory about golden vampires. The tracing, fating, oh and how they can have normal children who can choose whether to become vampire or stay human at puberty.
I felt like there was sex all over the book, almost the main thing they do. Strong secondary characters. Everyone got their fair share. The book gets very intense at the end, like, last two chapters. I didn't expect to cry in this book but I did. It's beautiful. :)

17. The Mighty Storm by Samantha Towle

My new favorite book of the year :)

18. Christmas Cash by Maggie Casper
It was tense but it was short. It lacks the background.
If you're looking for something short and all sex, here you have it.
But nothing really more to it.


19. The Handsome Bastard
Part of the Ancient Blood series.Cyprian Augustus, a blood-drinker of irresistible charm and deadly cunning, has eluded hunters from the purist group We Who Serve Humanity for centuries. Now he's pitted against their most dangerous warrior. Beautiful and heartless, Leotine has destroyed every blood-drinker she has been sent to kill. Cyprian and Leotine begin a perilous game of seduction and lies. In their attempt to outsmart each other, they might just lose themselves to the all-consuming passion burning between them.

20. The Dom of My Dreams by M.F. Sinclair
Marjorie Fordham is just itching to sign up the hottest author in the world into her quaint little publishing house. Well, she’s also itching for other things, to be honest. So what if she finds the author attractive? And so what if he makes an offer she cannot refuse? So what if she accepts? And so what if David J. Seton is everything she has ever wanted in a man? He is a Dominant male with some ulterior motives up his sleeve, something that both terrifies and excites our feisty, independent, love-is-for-needy-chicks-and-not-for-me heroine. She has entered a world of Domination and submission, one she cannot free herself from, no matter how hard she tries to fight it.