Deep - Review

Deep (Stage Dive, # 4)

By: Kylie Scott

Published: March 31st 2015 by St. Martin's Griffin

288 pages

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

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*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--Don't miss a beat with the fourth and final novel in the USA Today bestselling Stage Dive series from Kylie Scott.

Positive. With two little lines on a pregnancy test, everything in Lizzy Rollins' ordinary life is about to change forever. And all because of one big mistake in Vegas with Ben Nicholson, the irresistibly sexy bass player for Stage Dive. So what if Ben's the only man she's ever met who can make her feel completely safe, cherished, and out of control with desire at the same time? Lizzy knows the gorgeous rock star isn't looking for anything more permanent than a good time, no matter how much she wishes differently.

Ben knows Lizzy is off limits. Completely and utterly. She's his best friend's little sister now, and no matter how hot the chemistry is between them, no matter how sweet and sexy she is, he's not going to go there. But when Ben is forced to keep the one girl he's always had a weakness for out of trouble in Sin City, he quickly learns that what happens in Vegas, doesn't always stay there. Now he and Lizzie are connected in the deepest way possible...but will it lead to a connection of the heart?

I have to admit that I’m a little frustrated and disappointed with Deep. I can’t say I loved Lead, and I’d definitely say that the first two books in the Stage Dive series were the best of the series yet they still had issues. I might not have been as critical about Deep if I’d given more time in between Lead and Deep but that’s just not the case. Both of these books had leading female characters that developed an unrequited insta-lust attraction to the leading male characters. These males have no intentions of being in a relationship and don’t seem the least bit inclined toward these particular females in any specific way. Let me get more specific to Deep only.

Lizzy is Anne’s little sister. I barely remember her being present some in Play, but her interest in Ben was obvious in Lead. Either way, when Deep starts Lizzy is all about some Ben. He’s attractive and she basically goes into stalker, crazy, needy girl mode immediately. Despite the numerous times Ben tries to steer her in another direction she continues to come back for more. More ending up being a night in Las Vegas. Surprised at Ben’s casualness toward their moment together Lizzy tries to move on, but she really doesn’t try too hard. Especially after she finds out that she’s pregnant.

Ben is up front from the very beginning with Lizzy about not wanting a relationship or a commitment and even specifically saying that he can’t date her. Granted his excuses usually revolved around Mal not being happy about it. But still. At some point, I was like “take a hint child!” And of course, Ben is thrown for a loop when he finds out that Lizzy is pregnant. Even then he doesn’t try to pursue a relationship with her. Yet Lizzy continuously gets her hopes up for more.

Deep is the classic story about a needy girl developing an attraction for the player guy. They sleep together one time with no intentions of moving forward and bam needy girl gets pregnant. Player guy freaks and runs for the hills, all the while being pursued by needy girl. Yet in this series player guy does a turn around and becomes “you had me from day one.” Yeah. I don’t buy it. I’m not a huge feminist and I don’t get my panties in a wad over a guy going caveman, but I really did feel like Lizzy was taking our gender back a good 50 years in this book with her behavior. I wanted to jump inside her head and force her to stop being so ridiculous. Aside from the neediness of chasing Ben around, Lizzy also seemed to have no willpower over her body and thought with her physical needs well above her emotional ones which is typically much more common to men than to women. The f-bombs abound and there were more than necessary sexual scenes considering the relationship that these two characters had.

I had no favorite quotes. As a matter of fact, the only highlights I had were for errors—misspellings, missing words, etc. But since I was reading a galley, I don't hold that against the book. I do think I can officially say that Mal is my favorite guy from the series. He’s funny and I actually did enjoy his bits in both Deep and Lead recently. If there was anything I’d want to quote, it probably would have come from Mal.

Deep was my least favorite story in the Stage Dive series. The characters annoyed me. I found a lot of it either unbelievable or what was believable was still annoying as all get out. Deep for me was a bit on the cliché side of things which is always a letdown for me. I understand that writing something completely original is beyond difficult though. Deep gets 2.5 Stars from me. I didn’t hate it. But I didn’t find much that I really enjoyed about it either. Have you read Deep? What did you think? Let me know!

Waiting on The Boy Most Likely To

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

The Boy Most Likely To (My Life Next Door, # 2)

By: Huntley Fitzpatrick

Expected Publication: August 18th 2015 by Dial Books

432 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

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*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--A surprising, utterly romantic companion to My Life Next Door—great for fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han

Tim Mason was The Boy Most Likely To find the liquor cabinet blindfolded, need a liver transplant, and drive his car into a house

Alice Garrett was The Girl Most Likely To . . . well, not date her little brother’s baggage-burdened best friend, for starters.

For Tim, it wouldn’t be smart to fall for Alice. For Alice, nothing could be scarier than falling for Tim. But Tim has never been known for making the smart choice, and Alice is starting to wonder if the “smart” choice is always the right one. When these two crash into each other, they crash hard.

Then the unexpected consequences of Tim’s wild days come back to shock him. He finds himself in a situation that isn’t all it appears to be, that he never could have predicted . . . but maybe should have.

And Alice is caught in the middle.

Told in Tim’s and Alice’s distinctive, disarming, entirely compelling voices, this novel is for readers of The Spectacular Now, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and Paper Towns.

I've got a hold on My Life Next Door at the library, but I haven't actually read it yet. I'm looking forward to it and The Boy Most Likely To which I believe can be read as a standalone. What are you waiting on this week? Let me know!

Top Ten Book Nerd Characters

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Top Ten Book Nerd Characters.

1. Katy (Lux) by Jennifer L Armentrout – I mean she’s a book blogger! Come on…she’s got to make the list!
2. Catherine (Northanger Abbey) by Jane Austen – Most of Jane Austen’s main female characters read, but Catherine was way into the mysteries.
3. Hazel Grace (The Fault in Our Stars) by John Green – Do I really have to elaborate?
4. Sydney (Vampire Academy & Bloodlines) by Richelle Mead – Granted Sydney was just kind of a nerd in general.
5. Cath (Fangirl) by Rainbow Rowell – The girl wrote fanfiction based off a book series. She has to make the list too.
6. Grace (Wolves of Mercy Falls) by Maggie Stiefvater – She used to hang out at the bookstore where Sam worked. Sam’s a book nerd too, but since he was more into poetry, I chose Grace.
7. Hermione (Harry Potter) by JK Rowling – If everyone doesn’t have her on their lists….
8. Lisbeth (Millennium) by Stieg Larsson – Photographic memory. Plus in book 2 she's all up in a math book.
9. Park (Eleanor & Park) by Rainbow Rowell – Comic book nerd.
10. Allyson (Just One Day) by Gayle Forman – Shakespeare buff.

This topic was harder than I thought. I remember a lot of books mentioning that the characters like to read, but it was hard to find books where that was prominent enough for me to remember specifically. What do you think? Which book nerd characters are your favorites? Let me know!

Beautiful Sacrifice - Review

Beautiful Sacrifice (The Maddox Brothers, # 3)

By: Jamie McGuire

Published: May 31st 2015 by Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

284 pages

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary

Source: Personal Kindle Library

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*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--Falyn Fairchild can walk away from anything. Having already left her car, her education, and even her parents, the daughter of the next governor of Colorado is back in her hometown, broke and waiting tables for the Bucksaw Café. After every shift, Falyn adds to her shoebox of cash, hoping to one day save enough to buy her a plane ticket to the only place she can find forgiveness: Eakins, Illinois.

The moment Taylor Maddox is seated in Falyn’s section at the Bucksaw, she knows he’s trouble. Taylor is charming, breaks promises, and gorgeous even when covered in filth—making him everything Falyn believes a hotshot firefighter to be. Falyn isn’t interested in becoming another statistic, and for a Maddox boy, a disinterested girl is the ultimate challenge.

Once Falyn learns where Taylor calls home, everything changes. In the end, Maddox persistence is met with Falyn’s talent for leaving, and for the first time, Taylor may be the one to get burned.

One of my favorite things about The Maddox Brothers series has been how each book has been so intertwined within the others. I love that little pieces of the puzzle fit in all over the place making one complete picture. However, this is also kind of a complaint. Because it seems highly unlikely that 4 brothers will find the love of their lives all around the same time period as each other. Along with a few other coincidences that are just too big to really be believable. It’s a little on the cheesy side. But hey…I like cheesy (up to a point).

Unlike the previous two books in the series, Beautiful Sacrifice was written from Falyn’s perspective entirely. I liked the change of pace, but if we end up getting a version of Beautiful Sacrifice but from Taylor’s perspective I might just scream. We briefly met Falyn in the previous books, but I didn’t really know much about her. Because of the interconnected nature of all the books in this series so far, I’m really going to have to go back and re-read them all once I have all of the pieces of the puzzle in place.

Falyn waits tables at a restaurant in Colorado. She came from a life of wealth but has turned her back on it all. She doesn’t want anything to do with her parents because of the past, and she doesn’t want anything to do with the life they tried to give her—the clothes, her car, a cellphone, ivy league college, becoming a doctor, table manners. No. She’s perfectly happy with thrift store buys, walking if need be, no cellphone, working at the restaurant that she happens to be renting a room above, and being rude and mean whenever she feels like it. Falyn has all the family she needs in the owners of the restaurant. They know her history, and they look out for her whenever they can. Needless to say, Falyn does NOT have time for a fling that’s just passing through.

Taylor now lives in Colorado working for the Forest Service working to put out forest fires. He works in one area of Colorado but often gets called to help out in other areas when needed. That’s how he meets Falyn. Despite being almost immediately interested in her and Falyn not wanting to give him the time of day, Taylor kind of tricks Falyn into going out with him as a means to get back at her parents. It just so happens that Taylor grew up in Eakins, Illinois…the one place where Falyn’s been saving her money to try to go.

Taylor and Falyn have a typical Maddox brother relationship. Feisty girl meets determined boy. They enter into a friendship type relationship because fiesty girl is adamant about not dating determined guy. But of course things can’t just stay platonic. And as is typical with these boys, when things get tough they respond with stupidity and alcohol rather than clear headedness. I felt like the biggest conflict between Falyn and Taylor was one of those too easy fixes, but I didn’t let that bother me too much. Also, while there is a large chunk of language in this book, I really appreciate Jamie McGuire keeping the sexual content to the level that she did. Events take place, but they aren't described in the detail that she’s been known to do in other books. I personally like my books a bit on the tame side.

Beautiful Sacrifice was better than I expected it to be and yet had a few coincidences that were really hard to believe. I love how the books in this series are all interconnected in ways that I’d never expect or imagine. And I can’t wait to go back and re-read the series once I know all of the facts. I can’t even imagine how Tyler and Ellison’s puzzle pieces are going to fit in. I wouldn’t assume that they would except for all of the previous books have so far. Even though language ran high, sexual content did not. I appreciate that. Beautiful Sacrifice gets 4 Stars from me. Have you read Beautiful Sacrifice? What did you think? Let me know!

Sunday Post - 158

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ The Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~this meme was inspired in part by ~ In My Mailbox~ It's a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

Tuesday, my sister and I drove to Mobile to see my grandfather in the hospital. They actually did surgery Friday night which he seems to be recovering from better than expected. So thankful for that. Friday, I had another doctor's appointment and the dreaded glucose test. Everything looks good and next week I'll officially be in the third trimester. I really can't believe how close it is to the day our lives are going to change forever. I've been working on my registries which is fun and we've got a few showers being planned which is exciting too. Friday night, the Hubs and I went window shopping for chairs/gliders to go in the baby's room. We found one we liked a lot, but we need to do some measurements to make sure it'll fit. I was also on call for work this week and ended up getting two calls Friday night that had me logged in and working on issues for about 3 hours. Hey...at least I made up the time it took me to go to the doctor (and then some). No new books this week.

THIS PAST WEEK:

Monday: Review of Lead (Stage Dive, # 3) by Kylie Scott (3 Stars)
Tuesday: Top Ten Books That Don't Celebrate Diversity
Wednesday: Waiting on Riders by Veronica Rossi
Thursday: Review of What If by Rebecca Donovan (4 Stars)
Saturday:2015 Series Enders Reading Challenge - July Wrap Up

UPCOMING THIS WEEK:

Monday: Review of Beautiful Sacrifice (The Maddox Brothers, # 3) by Jamie McGuire
Tuesday: Top Ten Book Nerd Characters
Wednesday: Waiting on Wednesday
Thursday: Review of Deep (Stage Dive, # 4) by Kylie Scott
Saturday: July EOM Wrap Up

Don’t forget to sign up for the 2015 Series Enders Reading Challenge! You have until December 15, 2015 to sign up. Each month there will be a giveaway for those participating with an end of the year giveaway too! Click on the picture below or the link above to find out more!

That's it for my shelves and recaps of my past and upcoming week. What did you add to your shelves this week? Any bookish news you want to talk about? Let me know!

2015 Series Enders Reading Challenge - July Wrap Up

Can you believe it's time for our seventh Monthly Wrap Up for the 2015 Series Enders Reading Challenge hosted by Sandy @ Somewhere Only We Know and Holly @ Words Fueled by Love!

Since posting the 2015 Series Enders Reading Challenge - June Wrap Up, I finished two series enders: Deep (Stage Dive, # 4) by Kylie Scott and PS I Still Love You (To All the Boys I've Loved Before, # 2) by Jenny Han. Holly also finished two series enders this month: The Ruin of the World (The World Without End, # 4) by Nazarea Andrews and Crystal Kingdom (The Kanin Chronicles, # 3) by Amanda Hocking.

Which series enders did you finish? Link the up below. Don't forget to include the title, your name, & your blog name (Ex: Requiem - Sandy @ Somewhere Only We Know) Also, the July giveaway runs from July 25th - August 25th. On August 25th we will use random.org and the linky entries to pull a winner.

What If - Review

What If

By: Rebecca Donovan

Published: September 16th 2014 by Forever

352 pages

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary, Mystery

Source: Personal Kindle Library

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository )

*Note: The above links to Amazon and the Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--A new novel by the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Breathing Series . . .

What if you had a second chance to meet someone for the first time? Cal Logan is shocked to see Nicole Bentley sitting across from him at a coffee shop thousands of miles from their hometown. After all, no one has seen or heard from her since they graduated over a year ago.

Except this girl isn't Nicole.

She looks exactly like Cal's shy childhood crush, but her name is Nyelle Preston and she has no idea who he is. This girl is impulsive and daring, her passion for life infectious. The complete opposite of Nicole. Cal finds himself utterly fascinated-and falling hard. But Nyelle is also extremely secretive. And the closer he comes to finding out what she's hiding, the less he wants to know.

When the secrets from the past and present collide, one thing becomes clear: Nothing is what it seems.

I’ve been putting off What If because, even though I enjoyed the Breathing Series by Rebecca Donovan, I ended each book in that series feeling emotionally exhausted. I wasn’t sure that I was ready for emotionally exhausted again, but something told me to at least give What If a try. I figured I could always put it down and pick up something else if it didn’t hook me, but it did. And this is especially meaningful considering the slump I’ve been in over the last three months (or was in at the time of writing this review).

I just got done complaining about Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver jumping around chronologically when I picked up What If and wouldn’t you know that What If has flashbacks as well? And get this, on top of the chronology jumps What If also swaps narration during the flashbacks. This was yet another thing that I was complaining about with Vanishing Girls also. AND Vanishing Girls has a mystery surrounding an accident that happened to two sisters…well guess what…What If has a mystery around what happened to one character. At this point I thought, “Great. I just DNF’d one book just to turn around and pick up its twin.” But that’s not the case at all!

In each of the situations where I was frustrated with Vanishing Girls, What If didn’t have me frustrated at all. Rebecca Donovan kept the flashbacks fairly short each time so I knew I was going to get back to the main storyline that I was more interested and invested in fairly quickly. Plus in each flashback how the events related to what was happening within the current story events was fairly obvious. The narrations swaps didn’t bother me because I had no trouble connecting with any of the characters. Even when I could see the conflict coming between Richelle and Nicole having a crush on the same boy, I didn’t feel the friction or tension between them to the point of swaying me to dislike any single character. Then there’s the mystery. Something has obviously happened to or is going on with Nicole, but the book didn’t make me feel like this mystery was being used as a tool. It was. But I didn’t feel like it was. I did figure out the mystery fairly early on, but there was always a part of me that wondered if I was wrong.

Cal was great. He realizes that the girl he had a crush on years ago is all of a sudden in the same town as the college he attends. He’s wondered about her over the past several years when she inexplicably stopped being friends with him and his best friend Rae, but his curiosity increases even more so when he realizes that she didn’t come home during summer break and no one has heard from her since graduation. So he’s determined to figure out what’s going on. But the girl he’s slowly allowed to spend time with is so different from the girl he remembers. Is it possible that she’s not the same girl? And what happens when he begins to develop feelings for who she is now? What if finding out what happened to her changes her again?

Favorite quotes:

-“I’m looking for the girl I’ll regret if I let her go.”

-“You can’t love a person you don’t really know,” she responds.

-…if I’m going to fight for her, she needs to fight for herself too, whoever she is.

What If was a pleasant surprise. Even though it shared a lot of traits as Vanishing Girls (which I didn’t enjoy), What If did them in a way that I was able to enjoy. Considering I’ve had trouble connecting lately, I thoroughly enjoyed getting hooked pretty quickly and wondering what in the world is going on with Nicole/Nyelle. What If gets 4 Stars. Have you read What If? What did you think? Let me know!

Waiting on Riders

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Riders (Riders, # 1)

By: Veronica Rossi

Expected Publication: February 16th 2016 by Tor Teen

384 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository )

*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--For eighteen-year-old Gideon Blake, nothing but death can keep him from achieving his goal of becoming a U.S. Army Ranger. As it turns out, it does.

Recovering from the accident that most definitely killed him, Gideon finds himself with strange new powers and a bizarre cuff he can’t remove. His death has brought to life his real destiny. He has become War, one of the legendary four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Over the coming weeks, he and the other horsemen—Conquest, Famine and Death—are brought together by a beautiful but frustratingly secretive girl to help save humanity from an ancient evil on the emergence.

They fail.

Now—bound, bloodied, and drugged—Gideon is interrogated by the authorities about his role in a battle that has become an international incident. If he stands any chance of saving his friends and the girl he’s fallen for—not to mention all of humankind—he needs to convince the skeptical government officials the world is in imminent danger.

But will anyone believe him?

I've been waiting for another publication by Veronica Rossi. What are you waiting on this week? Let me know!

Top Ten Books That Don't Celebrate Diversity

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Top Ten Books/Characters That Celebrate Diversity.

Diversity has become a huge topic FOR SOME REASON in the book world. Granted, no one really wants to read the same book over and over again. But this topic seems like it’s getting pushed on us all the time. I’ve always had a rebellious streak in me, and I’ve never enjoyed reading a book that was forced on me. I read what I want to read when I want to read it. Occasionally I’ll find a book that’s outside of my normal reading preferences that I enjoy, but I never just read for the sake of diversity. That’s not how I roll. You can read a more in depth post about why this is for me because Armchair BEA picked Diversity for the theme for 2015.

That being said…I’m picking ten totally awesome books that I enjoyed that have nothing to do with diversity. Yet really can’t you say every book SOMEHOW has something to do with diversity???

1. Forbidden (Forbidden, # 1) by Kimberley Griffiths Little (review coming soon)
2. Chasing River (Burying Water, # 3) by KA Tucker
3. Catching Jordan (Hundred Oaks, # 1) by Miranda Kenneally
4. That One Summer (Summer, # 3) by CJ Duggan
5. Red Rising (Red Rising Trilogy, # 1) by Pierce Brown
6. The Secrets of Attraction by Robin Costantine
7. Finding Mr. Brightside by Jay Clark
8. Push (Push, # 1) by Claire Wallis
9. The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave, # 1) by Rick Yancey
10. Blood of My Blood (Jasper Dent, # 3) by Barry Lyga

These books have nothing in common. They’re about dessert landscapes, Irish pubs, girls who play football, Australian summers, war games, falling in love, drug addicts, serial killers, aliens, and hunting serial killers. See…all very different. All by different authors. Some male, some female. Some narrated by females, some by males, some by both. I have no idea the nationalities of the authors (nor do I care), but I know of at least 10 or 11 (probably more) different nationalities/races/classes within these books. We cover fantasy, historical fiction, mystery, thriller, contemporary, sports, romance, science fiction, dystopian, and post-apocalyptic. And this is all within the scope of books that I wanted to read just because and not because they’re diverse. These all have characters that I fell in love with because they feel real and come alive off the page…not because they’re different…from me, from each other, from the “norm” (whatever that is). So see…books are diverse by nature. These are ten books that I really enjoyed that don’t celebrate diversity.

What books have you love that have NOTHING to do with diversity? Let me know!

Lead - Review

Lead (Stage Dive, # 3)

By: Kylie Scott

Published: July 29th 2014 by St. Martin's Griffin

288 pages

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary

Source:

( Goodreads | Book Depository )

*Note: The above link to Book Depository is an affiliate link. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--The lead singer of Stage Dive, Jimmy is used to getting whatever he wants, whenever he wants it whether it's booze or women. However, when a PR disaster serves as a wake-up call about his life and lands him in rehab, he finds himself stuck with a new assistant hired by the record company to keep him out of trouble. He doesn't need or want a babysitter. Especially one that looks like Lena.

Lena's not willing to take any shit from the sexy rocker she's been hired to assist and is determined to keep their relationship completely professional, despite the sizzling chemistry that sparks between them every time they're in the same room. But when Jimmy pushes her too far and Lena leaves, he realizes that he may just have lost the best thing to ever happen to him. Readers won't want to miss the third book in this New Adult series about ordinary young women who fall in love with rock stars.

I’ve enjoyed the Stage Dive series so far. Yet I was expecting for Jimmy’s story to be my favorite so far due to his troubled background. We know that Jimmy has a history with addiction—drugs and alcohol. He’s done multiple stints in rehab, and keeping him sober is essential to keeping the band alive. He hasn’t taken to any of the assistants or sober companions that he’s been assigned in the past, but maybe just maybe Lena will be different. Lena has an almost instant physical attraction to Jimmy. And overtime she feels as if Jimmy is misunderstood. His good qualities aren’t always seen by others. But as with most people in Jimmy’s shoes, the worst part is that he doesn’t see his good qualities either.

Lena and Jimmy have a relationship that’s semi-antagonistic. It’s not so much that they set out to argue and banter back and forth so much as Jimmy is just really hard to deal with. I liked that their relationship really took a lot of effort and they didn’t just jump into anything, even after Lena threatens to leave. I appreciated her thought process there. She knows she has feelings for Jimmy and her personal feelings can and likely will influence their professional relationship and so she needs to do what’s best for her and remove herself from a situation where it seems like she can only lose. Yet it didn’t take too terribly much to persuade her to stay.

Most of the book was free from any graphic situations. Although, language was definitely present and heavy. The graphic scenes picked up about the 70% mark and were fairly frequent throughout the rest of the book.

As the book progressed, I wasn’t seeing the progress in Jimmy and Lena’s relationship that I was expecting. He still fought it and her up until the bitter end. I found the ending to be way too quick and pretty. *highlight for spoiler* Jimmy tells Lena that he can’t love her, that he doesn’t know how. But then he proceeds to tell her how he does feel about her. Lena in turn tells him that’s exactly what love is, and Jimmy’s basically “oh well then I guess I do love you.” I just didn’t buy it. I think it would have been more fitting for Lena to accept within herself that the way Jimmy describes his feelings for her as being love but realizes that convincing him of that will take longer than the work of a few sentences and decided to fight that battle another day confident that he does actually feel the way he says. *end spoiler* I don’t think you have to have a cookie cutter ending for it to still be a happy one.

Another small complaint was that I found at least two grammatical errors/typos. This was in the completed edition that I actually bought for my kindle and not an advanced reader copy. One is too many, but sometimes happens, two is just not cool for a traditionally published book. I really don’t blame this on the author at this point. It’s more of an editor issue. But an annoyance nonetheless.

And as usual, Lead provided the set up for Deep (Ben & Lizzy’s sotry). I have to say that I’m not sure how I feel about what direction that seemed to be heading based off the clues dropped. We shall see.

Lead was a book that I read quickly. I had been looking forward to Jimmy’s story because of his troubled past, but I didn’t love how cookie cutter and rushed the very end happened to be. You can have a happily ever after without it being a “perfect” ending. As a matter of fact, too much perfection leads to unbelievability. I liked that Jimmy and Lena didn’t have a physical relationship for a large part of the book, but when they did things got graphic and combined with the language wasn’t my personal preference, but you come to expect that with this genre as well. Lead gets 3 Stars. Have you read Lead? What did you think? Let me know!

Sunday Post - 157 & Stacking the Shelves - 113

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ The Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~this meme was inspired in part by ~ In My Mailbox~ It's a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

This week was definitely better than the last two weeks. However, my grandfather did end up going back to the hospital. He's still in ICU.

THIS PAST WEEK:

Monday: Review of Things I Can't Forget (Hundred Oaks, # 3) by Miranda Kenneally (2.5 Stars)
Tuesday: Last Ten Books I Received
Wednesday: Waiting on Surviving Ice (Burying Water, # 4) by KA Tucker
Thursday: Review of Champion (Legend, # 3) by Marie Lu (4 Stars)

UPCOMING THIS WEEK:

Monday: Review of Lead (Stage Dive, # 3) by Kylie Scott
Tuesday: Top Ten Tuesday
Wednesday: Waiting on Wednesday
Thursday: Review of What If by Rebecca Donovan

Don’t forget to sign up for the 2015 Series Enders Reading Challenge! You have until December 15, 2015 to sign up. Each month there will be a giveaway for those participating with an end of the year giveaway too! Click on the picture below or the link above to find out more!

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

All Played Out (Rusk University, # 3)

By: Cora Carmack

Published: May 12th 2015 by William Morrow & Company

320 pages

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary, Sports

Source: Personal Kindle Library

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository )

*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--First person in her family to go to college? CHECK.
Straight A’s? CHECK.
On track to graduate early? CHECK.
Social life? …..yeah, about that….

With just a few weeks until she graduates, Antonella DeLuca’s beginning to worry that maybe she hasn’t had the full college experience. (Okay... Scratch that. She knows she hasn't had the full college experience).

So Nell does what a smart, dedicated girl like herself does best. She makes a "to do" list of normal college activities.

Item #1? Hook up with a jock.

Rusk University wide receiver Mateo Torres practically wrote the playbook for normal college living. When he’s not on the field, he excels at partying, girls, and more partying. As long as he keeps things light and easy, it's impossible to get hurt... again. But something about the quiet, shy, sexy-as-hell Nell gets under his skin, and when he learns about her list, he makes it his mission to help her complete it.

Torres is the definition of confident (And sexy. And wild), and he opens up a side of Nell that she's never known. But as they begin to check off each crazy, exciting, normal item, Nell finds that her frivolous list leads to something more serious than she bargained for. And while Torres is used to taking risks on the field, he has to decide if he's willing to take the chance when it's more than just a game.

Together they will have to decide if what they have is just part of the experiment or a chance at something real.

That's it for my shelves and recaps of my past and upcoming week. What did you add to your shelves this week? Any bookish news you want to talk about? Let me know!

Champion - Review

Champion (Legend, # 3)

By: Marie Lu

Published: November 5th 2013 by Putnam Juvenile (first published January 1st 2013)

369 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopian

Source: Borrowed from library

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository )

*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--He is a Legend.

She is a Prodigy.

Who will be Champion?

June and Day have sacrificed so much for the people of the Republic—and each other—and now their country is on the brink of a new existence. June is back in the good graces of the Republic, working within the government’s elite circles as Princeps-Elect, while Day has been assigned a high-level military position.

But neither could have predicted the circumstances that will reunite them: just when a peace treaty is imminent, a plague outbreak causes panic in the Colonies, and war threatens the Republic’s border cities. This new strain of plague is deadlier than ever, and June is the only one who knows the key to her country’s defense. But saving the lives of thousands will mean asking the one she loves to give up everything.

With heart-pounding action and suspense, Marie Lu’s bestselling trilogy draws to a stunning conclusion.

Prodigy left me in a place where I wasn’t really happy. Day’s recently received a medical diagnosis that he doesn’t share with June. And June’s accepted a political position that puts her close to Andon and not really close to Day. To make matters worse, Day pulls the card about how June was involved in the death of his mother and brother which is the one thing that June feels the most guilt over. It feels like one of those “sacrificing for your good”/self-sabotage things that get on my nerves. But there was something about the whole thing that kept me from getting too annoyed. But that’s basically where we pick up with Champion. June and Day aren’t spending any time together. They both have cares and concerns that draw them away from each other even when they both still care deeply for the other.

As with several other series similar to this one (The Hunger Games, Divergent, Under the Never Sky, etc), Champion has a very political aspect to it that drives some of the plot along. Granted this isn’t as unexpected with Champion as it was for the above mentioned series enders because the Legend series has been more politically driven and less character driven all along. The Republic is trying its hardest to form a peace treaty with the Colonies. Andon is fighting to undo all the damage that his father did. But as the description says, there’s a different plague outbreak in the Colonies that is being blamed on the Republic. The Republic’s allies won’t step in and help until there’s proof that the Republic either didn’t spread the plague or is providing an antidote to the Colonies. However, the problem is…this isn’t a product of the Republic’s making. But hope can be found in Day’s brother Eden.

I don’t remember how long Day and June were physically apart, but I don’t think it was as long as I was afraid of; however, they still weren’t together emotionally. This wasn’t easy to read because I was rooting for them. They both wanted to be with the other, but there were so many things keeping them apart. There’s the appearance of a love triangle (or love square really) in the series, but have no fear, it’s not really anything to worry about. Over the entire series, I have enjoyed Day and June’s relationship. Things have never really been easy for them. They’ve faced so much. They don’t always agree. But their feelings and their faith is pretty constant despite whatever circumstances surround them.

The ending…well I’m torn on the ending. On the one hand, it wasn’t very satisfying. With everything that Prodigy puts the reader through and then add to that the events of Champion, it was more emotional than I was expecting. I will say that if I didn’t have the added hormones of pregnancy then I likely wouldn’t have gotten teary eyed, but alas I did. And at the same time, the ending was satisfying too. How that’s even possible is a bit of a mystery. I didn’t love it, but the ending wasn’t as bad as I was expecting either. Just be prepared to be put through the ringer.

In the end, I did enjoy Champion. It wasn’t the typical happy-go-lucky American way, but it wasn’t an all-out disappointment either. I enjoy when a book or series doesn’t just seek to make the reader happy and I think that Marie Lu got that right here. Because I did find myself emotional at the end, I’m going to give Champion 4 Stars, but this could have easily been 3.5 had it not had been for a redeeming aspect. Have you read Champion? What did you think? Let me know!

Waiting on Surviving Ice

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Surviving Ice (Burying Water, # 4)

By: KA Tucker

Expected Publication: October 13th 2015 by Atria Books

320 pages

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary

( Goodreads | Amazon )

*Note: The above link to Amazon is an affiliate link. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--The USA TODAY bestselling author of the Ten Tiny Breaths series and Burying Water—which Kirkus Reviews called “a sexy, romantic, gangster-tinged page-turner”—returns with a new novel packed with romance, plot twists, and psychological suspense.

Ivy, a talented tattoo artist who spent the early part of her twenties on the move, is finally looking for a place to call home. She thinks she might have found it in San Francisco, but all that changes when she witnesses a terrible crime. She’s ready to pack up her things yet again, when a random encounter with a stranger keeps her in the city, giving her reason to stay after all.

That is, until Ivy discovers that their encounter wasn’t random. Not at all…

Love KA Tucker, and I've enjoyed this series so far. Can't wait to read the next installment. What are you waiting on this week? Let me know!

Last Ten Books I Received

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Last Ten Books I Received.

1. Lead (Stage Dive, # 3) by Kylie Scott
2. Chasing Impossible (Pushing the Limits, # 5) by Katie McGarry
3. The Selection (The Selection, # 1) by Kiera Cass
4. Beautiful Sacrifice (The Maddox Brothers, # 3) by Jamie McGuire
5. PS I Still Love You (To All the Boys I've Loved Before, # 2) by Jenny Han
6. Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between by Jennifer E Smith
7. Stealing Third by Marta Brown
8. The Elite (The Selection, # 2) by Kiera Cass
9. Velvet Undercover by Teri Brown
10. The Lies About Truth by Courtney C Stevens

What about you? What are the last ten books that you received? Let me know!