Valentine's Day 2020: Our Favorite Rom-Coms and Romances!

Happy Valentines day! Today we have a post about our favorite books with a swoon-worthy romance or books that simply make our hearts melt into puddles. We hope everyone is getting to spend their day cuddled up with their significant other or a good books and tons of chocolate! 

An open message to our book boyfriends: Will you be our valentine? 

                 

Those are just a few of our favorite swoon-worthy reads...what are yours? Comment down below to let us know! Happy Valentine's Day!

Blog Tour: Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin

Hi there, everyone! Today on the blog, we're lucky enough to be participating in the blog tour for FOUL IS FAIR by Hannah Capin -- and we have an awesome excerpt to show you as well! So without further ado, let's get into it!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Foul is Fair

Author: Hannah Capin

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Publication Date: February 18th, 2020

Summary: Elle and her friends Mads, Jenny, and Summer rule their glittering LA circle. Untouchable, they have the kind of power other girls only dream of. Every party is theirs and the world is at their feet. Until the night of Elle’s sweet sixteen, when they crash a St. Andrew’s Prep party. The night the golden boys choose Elle as their next target. They picked the wrong girl. Sworn to vengeance, Elle transfers to St. Andrew’s. She plots to destroy each boy, one by one. She’ll take their power, their lives, and their control of the prep school’s hierarchy. And she and her coven have the perfect way in: a boy named Mack, whose ambition could turn deadly. Foul is Fair is a bloody, thrilling revenge fantasy for the girls who have had enough. Golden boys beware: something wicked this way comes.

EXCERPT

Sweet sixteen is when the claws come out.

We’re all flash tonight. Jenny and Summer and Mads and me. Vodka and heels we could never quite walk in before, but tonight we can. Short skirts—the shortest. Glitter and high- light. Matte and shine. Long hair and whitest-white teeth.

I’ve never been blond before but tonight my hair is plati- num. Mads bleached it too fast but I don’t care because tonight’s the only night that matters. And my eyes are jade-green to- night instead of brown, and Summer swears the contacts Jenny bought are going to melt into my eyes and I’ll never see again, but I don’t care about that, either.

Tonight I’m sixteen.

Tonight Jenny and Summer and Mads and me, we’re four sirens, like the ones in those stories. The ones who sing and make men die.

Tonight we’re walking up the driveway to our best party ever. Not the parties like we always go to, with the dull-duller- dullest Hancock Park girls we’ve always known and the dull-duller-dullest wine coolers we always drink and the same bad choice in boys.

Tonight we’re going to a St Andrew’s Prep party. Crashing it, technically.

But nobody turns away girls like us.

We smile at the door. They let us in. Our teeth flash. Our claws glimmer. Mads laughs so shrill-bright it’s almost a scream. Everyone looks. We all grab hands and laugh together and then everyone, every charmed St Andrew’s Prepper is cheering for us and I know they see it—for just a second—our fangs and our claws.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hannah Capin lives in Tidewater Virginia. She ​holds degrees from the Indiana University School of Music and Columbia University. When she isn't working on her next book, you'll find her sailing, singing, or scheming with her friends. She is the author of THE DEAD QUEENS CLUB and FOUL IS FAIR (2020).

Keep up with Hannah: Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Instagram

We'd like to once again thank the amazing team at Wednesday Books for including us in this blog tour! If FOUL IS FAIR sounds like the kind of book you'd be interested in, make sure to scroll up and hit that Goodreads button so you can add it to your TBR! :-)

Waiting On Wednesday: All Your Twisted Secrets by Diana Urban

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking The Spine where we highlight some of the upcoming books we can't wait to read! 

Title: All Your Twisted Secrets
Author: Diana Urban
Genre: YA Mystery/Thriller
Publisher: HarperTeen  
Publication Date: March 17th, 2020

Summary: Welcome to dinner, and again, congratulations on being selected. Now you must do the selecting.
What do the queen bee, star athlete, valedictorian, stoner, loner, and music geek all have in common? They were all invited to a scholarship dinner, only to discover it’s a trap. Someone has locked them into a room with a bomb, a syringe filled with poison, and a note saying they have an hour to pick someone to kill … or else everyone dies.
Amber Prescott is determined to get her classmates and herself out of the room alive, but that might be easier said than done. No one knows how they’re all connected or who would want them dead. As they retrace the events over the past year that might have triggered their captor’s ultimatum, it becomes clear that everyone is hiding something. And with the clock ticking down, confusion turns into fear, and fear morphs into panic as they race to answer the biggest question: Who will they choose to die?

Talk about creepy! This thriller is reminding me of a twisted version of an escape room where you end up dead instead of escaping. I'm very intrigued to find out the details behind the reason for this game and the nod to the Breakfast Club. Can't wait to get my hands on this!

What are you waiting on this week? Leave your links so we can stop back!

                                              -Emily

Book Blitz: Off Balance by Aileen Erin!

Off Balance
Aileen Erin
(Aunare Chronicles #2)
Published by: Ink Monster LLC
Publication date: February 11th 2020
Genres: Dystopian, Young Adult

From USA Today Bestselling Author Aileen Erin comes the second book in the Aunare Chronicles.
Broken, beaten-down, and plagued by nightmares, Amihanna di Aetes is surrounded by the Aunare race that makes up the other half of her heritage, but she feels alien amongst them. She’s not sure which is worse: SpaceTech’s overt hatred of Aunare or the Aunare’s covert hatred of halfers. She hears their whispers whenever she enters a room and sees her death reflected in their eyes. Amihanna doesn’t know who to trust anymore, but she hasn’t survived this long by ignoring the warning signs all around her, especially when her instincts are screaming that a familiar choice is coming: flee or fight.
Her parents assure her everything is okay—that there won’t be any reason for her to fight, let alone flee—but with Amihanna’s sudden return, questions arise among the Aunare: who should be blamed for the start of a full-scale war with SpaceTech, how much danger will the war bring, and is Amihanna truly fit to be the next high queen?
Honestly, Amihanna wants to forget all the politics, her betrothal to Lorne, and the possibility of being queen. Her needs are much more basic. All she wants is a solid night’s sleep where she doesn’t wake up screaming with the phantom pain of her skin burning. All she needs is to live without fear of a mob tearing her away from her family. All she hopes for is a chance to dream of a future instead of constantly fighting for her right to live.
And yet, somehow, everything she does leads her back to Lorne. He always seems to know when she’s about to break under the pressures of her new life. His quiet patience is wearing Amihanna’s protective walls down, and she’s terrified of what will happen if they fall.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo / Google Play

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EXCERPT:

“Let’s get this one thing straight—I’m not breaking our betrothal contract.” He stalked back to me. “Not now. Not ever. If you want to break it, then we’ll discuss it. They’ve talked a lot about our contract on the news, so I’m sure you have it in your head that I’m planning on breaking it. But I’m not. I haven’t brought it up because you’ve been dealing with enough. I was giving you time, but I’d marry you tomorrow if I thought you’d agree.”
Tomorrow? I had zero clue before this moment that he was completely insane. He couldn’t marry me, especially not tomorrow. I couldn’t be queen.
“What if I want to break our betrothal?” I wasn’t sure I did, but I wasn’t sure I didn’t either.
He strode quickly to me, knelt in front of my chair. I hugged my legs tighter to my chest, but he grabbed my ankles. “Look at me.”
I looked everywhere but him.
“Look at me, please.” He squeezed my ankles and let go. “Please.”
I blew out a breath and rested my chin on my knees so that I could meet his gaze. It was hard to really look at him. Every time I did, I wanted him more and more, and I wasn’t sure how much more I could want him without becoming completely addicted. It took everything in me not to wrap my arms around his neck and pull him to me.
He let go of one ankle and cupped my cheek. “Do you want to marry me?” He was using his low voice, the one that set my skin on fire.
My skin was so bright and my stomach fluttered and flipped and I forced myself to choke down my first immediate response. The dumb one that wanted to slide past my lips effortlessly. I couldn’t answer his question because I didn’t trust myself to give him the right answer. The one that made sense.
All signs of anger melted away from him. His back straightened, he held his head high, his fao’ana stopped flashing, and his skin dimmed a little.
But it was his smile that told me he knew exactly what I’d been thinking.
“This is where being your shalshasa comes into play. I’m as sensitive to frequencies as you are, but even more attuned to yours. I can feel your frequencies as your moods shift. Your immediate answer was going to be yes before you got scared.” He rose just a little, cupping my face with both his hands, and all I could see were his aquamarine eyes.
The color I associated with calm and safety. The color I’d painted the walls in my room on Earth so that I could feel more at home. The color I wanted to get lost in forever.
He brushed a soft kiss on my lips. It was quick, too quick, and it left me wanting more.
“Until you can say no—honestly and without stress—I’m going to assume your answer is yes, and that you just need more time. I don’t want fear to be a part of your decision. Okay?”
He leaned in for another kiss, and I wanted. I wanted it more than anything. But I made myself lean back in the chair, pulling my face from his hands.
“I can’t do this.” The words were shaky, but I’d said them. I had to stop it before this went too far.
“Why?”
“Because…” There were too many reasons.
Because he needed a queen.
Because I didn’t want that much responsibility.
“Because you deserve someone not broken.” That wasn’t the one I meant to go with, but words slipping out of me seemed to be the theme for our little chat.
“You’re not broken. If anything, you’re confused. Which is totally understandable. You’ve been through a very rough thirteen years, and memories that would help you readjust to being home aren’t there. So, you need some time to heal. Which is what I’ve been giving you. I think you’d feel less fragile if you got a decent night’s sleep. If you ate more. If you took a moment to take care of yourself instead of spending twenty hours a day in the gym. Declan and his mission are going to kill you.”

Author Bio:
Aileen Erin is half-Irish, half-Mexican, and 100% nerd–from Star Wars (prequels don’t count) to Star Trek (TNG FTW), she reads Quenya and some Sindarin, and has a severe fascination with the supernatural. Aileen has a BS in Radio-TV-Film from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She lives with her husband in Los Angeles, and spends her days doing her favorite things: reading books, creating worlds, and kicking ass.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

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We'd like to thank the awesome team over at Xpresso Book Tours for once again allowing us to participate in a book blitz -- hopefully you all loved hearing about this book just as much as we did!

ARC Review: Girls with Razor Hearts by Suzanne Young

Title: Girls with Razor Hearts
(Girls with Sharp Sticks #2)
Author: Suzanne Young 
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia
Source: ARC via Simon Pulse
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: March 17th 2020

Summary: 

It’s time to fight back in this second novel in a thrilling, subversive near future series from New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Young about a girls-only private high school that is far more than it appears to be. Make me a girl with a razor heart… It’s been weeks since Mena and the other girls of Innovations Academy escaped their elite boarding school. Although traumatized by the violence and experimentations that occurred there, Mena quickly discovers that the outside world can be just as unwelcoming and cruel. With no one else to turn to, the girls only have each other—and the revenge-fueled desire to shut down the corporation that imprisoned them. The girls enroll in Stoneridge Prep, a private school with suspect connections to Innovations, to identify the son of an investor and take down the corporation from the inside. But with pressure from Leandra, who revealed herself to be a double-agent, and Winston Weeks, an academy investor gone rogue, Mena wonders if she and her friends are simply trading one form of control for another. Not to mention the woman who is quite literally invading Mena’s thoughts—a woman with extreme ideas that both frighten and intrigue Mena. And as the girls fight for freedom from their past—and freedom for the girls still at Innovations—they must also face new questions about their existence…and what it means to be girls with razor hearts.

I adored Girls With Sharp Sticks, it was the one book that I read in 2019 that I couldn’t stop talking about. So, when a copy of Girls With Razor Hearts appeared in my mailbox I had to dive into it right away. It’s been a couple of days but all I can say is: wow. Girls With Razor Hearts was a thrill ride from page one and did not let up till the last page. Speaking of the last page: WHAT. THE. HECK. How can Suzanne leave us like that?!

Girls With Razor Hearts starts right where Girls With Sharp Sticks ended. Mena and the girls are fleeing from Innovations Academy after learning a devastating secret: they aren’t human. Coming to terms with the fact that they are AI, created by men to be controlled and dominated, they are devastated and shell shocked. But underneath the devastation they are desperate to get the other girls out of Innovations Academy. Leandra, the head master's wife appears to be a double agent and tells the girls to track down Winston Weeks, an investors in the academy. If Mena and the girls can identify the heads of the corporations they could shut down innovations for good. Their first lead is that a member is laundering money through Stoneridge academy, a private school in which their son attends. The goal is simple: get close to the investor’s son, get him to spill and get his father out of the way. Only, things aren’t that simple.

I talked about in my Girls With Sharp Sticks review that if a book doesn’t make you angry, then it isn’t doing it’s job. Girls With Sharp Sticks did that for me and now I am adding Girls With Razor Hearts. It makes me angry in a sense that some of the examples in Girls With Razor Hearts is something we see day to day, whether in real life or on the news. The dystopian setting or this novel is very close to our current world and as a woman that is unsettling.

Viewing not only how Mena and the other girls who escaped Innovations Academy but the girls who attend Stoneridge are treated is appalling. Mena is witnessing sexism and racism first hand for the first time and where many woman in this society have learned to back down and keep their heads down, she refuses too. Essentially, she escaped the Academy to be in another dangerous game.

The twists and turns that this book takes doesn’t slow down for a second. Every time I thought my heart was going to stop racing and things were going to calm down Suzanne threw another plot twist in to keep her readers on their toes. A lot of my questions from Girls With Sharp Sticks were answered but this book left me with so many more that I can’t wait to see answered in the next book.

Overall I really enjoyed Girls With Razor Hearts and I am eagerly awaiting news on the next book. I highly recommend this book to all sci-fi fans but also people who want to read about girls standing up for themselves and not taking anymore shit from the men who try to control them.