Cover Reveal: Finding Haven by T.A. Foster

And the fabulous cover to T.A. Foster's Finding Haven is...

Summary:

Power. Money. Control. Love.

He has all but one.

When movie star, Evan Carlson, discovers his girlfriend’s picture with another man splashed on the cover of gossip magazines, he decides he’s had enough of his fishbowl life and attempts to outrun the media frenzy his relationships have become. Driving until the road stops, he ends up on the remote and quaint Perry Island, where a heartthrob can blend in like the locals and be a beach bum as long as he wants. All that changes when Evan meets Haven Owen, aspiring songwriter and the girl he just can’t get enough of. A summer romance turns into something much deeper and Evan gets tangled in his own web of lies to keep Haven in his life. But when his ex tracks him down, Evan learns there are some things you just can’t outrun.

Is the cost of love, losing all control?

GOODREADS LINK:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21567619-finding-haven

Full Jacket:

 A Little Teaser Picture!

Author Bio: T.A. Foster once spent a monthlong spring break on South Padre Island, where she soaked in the Texas sun, beach, and learned what real Texas country music is. Sometimes fiction does spring from reality.

She grew up catching rays and chasing waves along the North Carolina Outer Banks and now resides in the state with her adventurous pilot husband, two children, and two canine kiddos. 

T.A. has an undergraduate degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a graduate degree in Educational Psychology from Texas A&M University. When she’s not chasing her two-legged and four-legged children or trying to escape for date night, you can find her reading, writing, or planning her next beach trip.

Author Links:

Blog: http://www.tafosterauthor.com/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/tafosterwriter

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TAFosterauthor

Author Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7164289.T_A_Foster

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Teaser Tuesday - 4/22/14

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I'm currently read Magnolia by Kristi Cook and I'm seriously in love with the story! It's been so good so far and like I said - I'm in love!!! So my teaser is coming from it today although it's pretty short. It's actually the opening lines and I was literally hooked from the start! Happy Reading!!

"Glancing out my window, I hold up my finger and thumb, creating a little frame around Ryder Marsden, who stands outside on the lawn. I close one eye to get the illusion just right and then pretend to squash him."

Summary: In Magnolia Branch, Mississippi, the Cafferty and Marsden families are southern royalty. Neighbors since the Civil War, the families have shared vacations, holidays, backyard barbecues, and the overwhelming desire to unite their two clans by marriage. So when a baby boy and girl were born to the families at the same time, the perfect opportunity seemed to have finally arrived.

Jemma Cafferty and Ryder Marsden have no intention of giving in to their parents’ wishes. They’re only seventeen, for goodness’ sake, not to mention that one little problem: They hate each other! Jemma can’t stand Ryder’s nauseating golden-boy persona, and Ryder would like nothing better than to pretend stubborn Jemma doesn’t exist.

But when a violent storm ravages Magnolia Branch, it unearths Jemma’s and Ryder’s true feelings for each other as the two discover that the line between love and hate may be thin enough to risk crossing over.

Monday Recs. - 4/21/14

So I'm in a very romancy mood for books so today I decided to show four books that I think fit in this category and are good reads! So this week's Monday Recommendations are... Falling by Design by Valia Lind, Forever & Always by Jasinda Wilder, I'll Be There by Autumn Doughton, and lastly Breathe by Abbi Glines (<<< this one is just so cute I love it!!). It looks like you have a list now to choose from in the future! I must also add that my Song of the Week that completely fits with this theme is called Don't Deserve You by Plumb (I have songs of the week that I like and somehow find a way to make it fit with books...)! Happy Reading!!

 Summary: Brooklynn Summers has a plan for her life: graduate from high school, get into a top fashion school, prove to her family that she’s not a failure. She wishes someone in her life understood her need to create because her parents sure don’t support her dreams, her sister hates her, and the deadlines are soon approaching. 

Enter Grayson Banks. 

There are a few things in life Brooklynn can’t stand: mismatched patterns, cheap polyester, and Grayson. No boy has ever publicly humiliated Brooklynn like Grayson has. When he suddenly moved away in eighth grade, Brooklynn happily wished him good riddance. But on the first day of senior year, Grayson comes back, with his piercing blue eyes and a smile that melts icebergs, he is not exactly the boy Brooklynn remembers. She quickly realizes that Grayson’s intentions have completely shifted, but she’s not sure if she can put their past behind her.

Grayson understands Brooklynn’s creative ambitions and he devises a plan to showcase her work to the world. When the two agree to work together, suddenly, there is more than just fabric paint that’s having a chemical reaction to its environment. Brooklynn cannot help but feel pulled into Grayson’s arms, but memories and misunderstandings surface, putting in danger whatever small comradeship these two childhood enemies have constructed. 

Can Brooklynn overcome her own insecurities, finally making her dreams come true? Even a dream she didn’t know she had.

This is a story about a girl with big dreams and a boy who helps her achieve them.

Summary: Ever,

These letters are often all that get me through week to week. Even if it’s just random stuff, nothing important, they’re important to me. Gramps is great, and I love working on the ranch. But…I’m lonely. I feel disconnected, like I’m no one, like I don’t belong anywhere. Like I’m just here until something else happens. I don’t even know what I want with my future. But your letters, they make me feel connected to something, to someone. I had a crush on you, when we first met. I thought you were beautiful. So beautiful. It was hard to think of anything else. Then camp ended and we never got together, and now all I have of you is these letters. S**t. I just told you I have a crush on you. HAD. Had a crush. Not sure what is anymore. A letter-crush? A literary love? That’s stupid. Sorry. I just have this rule with myself that I never throw away what I write and I always send it, so hopefully this doesn’t weird you out too much. I had a dream about you too. Same kind of thing. Us, in the darkness, together. Just us. And it was like you said, a memory turned into a dream, but a memory of something that’s never happened, but in the dream it felt so real, and it was more, I don’t even know, more RIGHT than anything I’ve ever felt, in life or in dreams. I wonder what it means that we both had the same dream about each other. Maybe nothing, maybe everything. You tell me.

Cade
~ ~ ~ ~

Cade,

We’re pen pals. Maybe that’s all we’ll ever be. I don’t know. If we met IRL (in real life, in case you’re not familiar with the term) what would happen? And just FYI, the term you used, a literary love? It was beautiful. So beautiful. That term means something, between us now. We are literary loves. Lovers? I do love you, in some strange way. Knowing about you, in these letters, knowing your hurt and your joys, it means something so important to me, that I just can’t describe. I need your art, and your letters, and your literary love. If we never have anything else between us, I need this. I do. Maybe this letter will only complicate things, but like you I have a rule that I never erase or throw away what I’ve written and I always send it, no matter what I write in the letter. 

Your literary love,

Ever

Summary: For the past two years, Willow James has been building the perfect life--a life that centers around Dustin Rant, her dimpled, sports-car-driving, cologne-wearing boyfriend. Willow and Dustin have lots of plans. Plans for college, prom, tonight actually. So, when the unthinkable happens, and Dustin breaks up with Willow over a plate of cheese fries at a steak house, she is left stunned and heartbroken. 

With less than two months until graduation, Willow has to start a new life from scratch. She'll have to revisit old wrongs along the way and make the most important decision of all: who does she want to be? She’s going to have help from her wacky ex-best friend, her bohemian mother, and an old flame that is suddenly and somewhat inconveniently back in her life.

 Summary: Sadie White’s summer job is at the beach, but she won’t be working as a lifeguard. Since her mom is pregnant and refuses to work, Sadie will be taking over as a domestic servant for a wealthy family on a nearby island.

When the family arrives at their summer getaway, Sadie is surprised to learn that the owner of the house is Jax Stone, one of the hottest teen rockers in the world. If Sadie were normal—if she hadn’t spent her life raising her mother and taking care of the house—maybe she’d be excited about working for a rock star. But she’s not.

Even though Sadie isn’t impressed by Jax’s fame, he is drawn to her. Everything about Sadie fascinates Jax, but he fights his attraction: Relationships never work in his world, and as badly as he wants Sadie, he believes she deserves more. Yet as the summer stretches on, Jax’s passion leaves him breathless—and Sadie feels like the only source of oxygen.

Can their love overcome the disparity in their lifestyles? One breath at a time, they’re going to find out…

Review: Don't Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Summary: Samantha is a stranger in her own life. Until the night she disappeared with her best friend, Cassie, everyone said Sam had it all-popularity, wealth, and a dream boyfriend. 

Sam has resurfaced, but she has no recollection of who she was or what happened to her that night. As she tries to piece together her life from before, she realizes it's one she no longer wants any part of. The old Sam took "mean girl" to a whole new level, and it's clear she and Cassie were more like best enemies. Sam is pretty sure that losing her memories is like winning the lottery. She's getting a second chance at being a better daughter, sister, and friend, and she's falling hard for Carson Ortiz, a boy who has always looked out for her-even if the old Sam treated him like trash.

But Cassie is still missing, and the facts about what happened to her that night isn't just buried deep inside of Sam's memory-someone else knows, someone who wants to make sure Sam stays quiet. All Sam wants is the truth, and if she can unlock her clouded memories of that fateful night, she can finally move on. But what if not remembering is the only thing keeping Sam alive?

***

Initial Thoughts: This book had it all. It was a cross between contemporary/romance/suspense/ mystery/thriller and I had so much fun reading it and not getting any sleep! This book was definitely different from other Armentrout books but it was still really good!

The Characters: Sam has no memory about who she was when the book starts off and she finds out through a lot of people that, for lack of a better word, she was a b****. She was definitely a mean girl and ruined other people's lives by being mean to them, making fun of them, and again just being mean! I kept thinking two things the whole time - 1. why/how is she so mean and 2. are people seriously that mean of people that they make it their lives to crush other people (apparently it can be true which I've heard from actual people) but seriously why are people so mean?!?! Well anyways Sam tries to figure it out herself about how she became so mean and why as well as figuring out the night she and her friend, Cassie, disappeared. 

But back to the point, when Sam lost her memory, she became a different person. She isn't mean or snarky, she is less confident in herself because she didn't even know who she is. She is definitely more humble of a person and I really like her. I also liked her twin brother Scott just because I can. I also liked Carson, or Car, who is sorta the forbidden love interest because Sam actually has a boyfriend yet she doesn't remember anything about their relationship - which I think is completely weird but I have no idea what I'd do in that situation. Her boyfriend was a jerk though, so ya know whatever in that department!

The Story: It starts off with Sam walking around covered in blood and bruises and has no idea who she is, where she is, why she's there, what day of the week etc. A cop car finds her and after going to the hospital and such her family comes but she has no idea who they are. Doesn't matter though because they take her home (did I mention that her family is rich??) and from there everything weird starts to happen. Sam keeps getting weird notes saying things like "don't look back, you won't like what you find" and drawings with her and Cassie on rocks with blood all over the place. She'll sometimes hear Cassie saying things to her or she'll see Cassie next to her. Sometimes she'll look in the mirror and her reflection will talk to her even though she doesn't say anything. All very weird and creepy and she has no idea what's going on and thinks she's going crazy or something. Important note: Cassie is dead and all of this is happening anyways. Another important note: Sam is the prime suspect for Cassie's murder. As I have said and must repeat - this is all very weird and I'm going to pee my pants scary because I'm reading this in my basement all alone at 2 am (please don't read this at night unless you want to be extra scared!). 

The Romance: In between the whole world falling apart for Sam, she actually manages to start falling for Carson because he is really understanding, caring, and has a motorcycle <<<all perfectly good reasons to break up with her jerk boyfriend over I think! Which she does end up doing and thank goodness! He was lying to her and I just didn't like him. But Carson and Sam's relationship felt genuine. They had actually grown up together as friends but after Sam started being all mean girl (which actually all started with Cassie), they really weren't friends anymore. But Sam is a changed girl and I was happy with how their relationship developed over the book.

End Thoughts: I freaked out a lot throughout the book and seriously had no idea who was behind Cassie's murder and Sam's disappearance. When I did find out, I was like "Oh my gosh! holy crap! how could anyone have guessed that! What!". So in the end, this book was absolutely amazing and fun to read and I loved it and would recommend it if you want to read it!!! 5 stars!

Review: Every Shattered Thing by Elora Ramirez

Summary: Stephanie fights reality every day. The voices inside, the ones declaring her worth, deem her broken, used and dirty. She is an object. A toy. Something to be tossed aside when bored. Who will believe her if she whispers the truth about her wrecking ball of a family? Eventually, her secret explodes and the person who means the most to her knows just how shattered she is and why she's so afraid. But rescue is closer than she realizes. Hidden in plain sight, her horror hasn’t been ignored by everyone. Racing against the truth of what she faces, forces are joining together and developing a plan to free her from the hell in her own backyard. And while she’s at her lowest point, she’s hit with the beauty of love at any cost - redemption in the face of ruin. Will it be enough?

***

Initial Thoughts: I don't even know how to start this review off. The book was such an emotional read. The writing and story was beautiful and heartbreaking. My emotions were all over the place. I would not read this if you don't like dark/heavy topics because this one is about sex trafficking, but the book was - and I can't say it enough - beautiful, heartbreaking, raw, and powerful.

The Characters & Story: Stephanie, or Steph, lives in a really abusive family not to mention her father is the head of the sex trafficking which makes matters worse. She doesn't have a very good view of herself but she is the kindest person there is. She loves her little brother Pacey and would do anything for him. Now for Kevin. He is her boyfriend but really these two are soul mates. Kevin knows mostly about Steph and her home life (not about being traded until later though) but he loves her so deeply you can feel it. He is always taking care of her and helping her forget and be happy and you can see and feel the love so strongly throughout the whole story. They are so perfect together, I love them so much. Steph also has Emma and Jude as her parents-not-really-parents who love her and take care of her because they are just that kind whenever she visits them. So Steph really has this whole family who loves her even though they aren't her biological one.

Her home life is bad but the people who love her make her life better. But Steph doesn't think she'll ever be able to get out of the life she has for fear of her little brother and the fact that if she leaves, will her father try and find her or just fill her place? She has no idea what to do or who to turn to. She knows that she has people who love her but doesn't think they can do anything because Steph finds out that the whole situation is bigger than just her and involves tons of people. She feels so hopeless and helpless and shattered that just wants out but knows she can't.

End Thoughts: The emotions that flow throughout the book are so deep and griping, you can't help but feel like you are really there. The writing was beautiful and heartbreaking and the topic was handled very well. Now it depends on whether or not you can handle this type of material but if you can I really would recommend it. 5 stars.

Friday Favorites - 4/18/14

This week I have two Friday Favorites. Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles and Hopeless by Colleen Hoover. I loved both of them and y'all should definitely read them sometime!!

Summary: When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created 'perfect' life is about to unravel before her eyes. She's forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, and he is about to threaten everything she's worked so hard for: her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend, and the secret that her home life is anything but perfect. 

Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So when he makes a bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks nothing of it. But soon Alex realizes Brittany is a real person with real problems, and suddenly the bet he made in arrogance turns into something much more.

In a passionate story about looking beneath the surface, Simone Elkeles breaks through the stereotypes and barriers that threaten to keep Brittany and Alex apart.

Summary: Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than believing the lies…

That’s what seventeen-year-old Sky realizes after she meets Dean Holder. A guy with a reputation that rivals her own and an uncanny ability to invoke feelings in her she’s never had before. He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried.

Sky struggles to keep him at a distance knowing he’s nothing but trouble, but Holder insists on learning everything about her. After finally caving to his unwavering pursuit, Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life will change forever.

Books to Movies: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Okay so I had to share this news with y'all as I really love this book. The movie trailer for If I Stay by Gayle Forman came out today and I'm so excited to see the movie! The book was amazing! and the trailer looks amazing too. SO I have the trailer and the book below to show you and I hope you check out both if you haven't done either at all!

The Book:

Summary: On a day that started like any other,

Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, admiring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. In an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the only decision she has left. It is the most important decision she'll ever make.

Simultaneously tragic and hopeful, this is a romantic, riveting, and ultimately uplifting story about memory, music, living, dying, loving.

           The Trailer: