The Never Have I Ever Club, by Mary Jayne Baker

Format: e-ARC, 326 pages

Publisher: Aria

Published: 18 June 2020

ISBN: 9781789546149

Genre: Romance, Women’s Fiction

Back cover blurb: Robyn Bloom thought Ash Barnes was the love of her life – until one day he announced he was leaving her to fly halfway across the world.

Months later, Robyn is struggling to move on – but then she has a brainwave: The Never Have I Ever Club. Her handsome next-door neighbour Will helps her bring their fellow Yorkshire villagers together for some carpe-diem-inspired fun.

From burlesque dancing to Swedish massages, everyone has plenty of bucket-list activities to try, but it doesn’t take long for Robyn to realise what – or who – her heart truly desires: Will.

There’s just one problem: he’s Ash’s twin brother.

Make that two problems: Ash is moving home… and he wants Robyn back.

My review: This was a wee delight, just what I needed as the weather grows darker and colder in my part of the world. Baker is a new author for me, but I will be seeking out her other work because she can write great characters, favours showing over telling, and the humour shines through. I started off thinking this might have been a bit of a light version of Marian Keyes’ “The Break”, but Ash running off to Australia to find himself was only really a minor subplot. I loved the club and all its characters, and Will was adorable. Any book that references the “My Lovely Horse” episode of Father Ted is okay by me.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 5/5

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Thunder Rolls (Rising Storm #8), by Dee Davis

Format: e-ARC, 90 pages

Publisher: Evil Eye Concepts, Inc

Published: November 12, 2015

ASIN: B014XJKGEI

Genre: Romance

Back cover blurb: Secrets, Sex and Scandals …

Welcome to Storm, Texas, where passion runs hot, desire runs deep, and secrets have the power to destroy… Get ready. The storm is coming.

As Hannah Grossman grapples with the very real possibility that she is dating one Johnson brother while secretly in love with another, the entire town prepares for Founders Day. The building tempest threatens not just Hannah’s relationship with Tucker and Tate, but everyone in Storm as dire revelations threaten to tear the town apart.   

My review: Great ending to the serial, with the proverbial hitting the fan courtesy of mean girl Dakota. We also have some major love triangle drama with Tate, Tucker and Hannah which goes off with a bang. The next season should be a cracker! 

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via InkSlinger PR in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 4.5/5

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Dance in the Wind (Rising Storm #4), by Jennifer Probst

Format: e-ARC, 93 pages

Publisher: Evil Eye Concepts, Inc

Published: October 15, 2015

ASIN: B014XJKFJE

Genre: Romance

Back cover blurb: Secrets, Sex and Scandals …

Welcome to Storm, Texas, where passion runs hot, desire runs deep, and secrets have the power to destroy… Get ready. The storm is coming.

During his time in Afghanistan, Logan Murphy has endured the unthinkable, but reentering civilian life in Storm is harder than he imagined. But when he is reacquainted with Ginny Moreno, a woman who has survived terrors of her own, he feels the first stirrings of hope. 

My review: More happens here than with the previous installment, and we reconnect with what seems like all the families in Storm. Key to the drama this time is Logan Murphy, newly returned soldier, who takes a shine to pregnant Ginny Moreno. The already established storylines continue, and there is a new love triangle developing involving the town vet. Of course, as with the last book, this episode ends in typical soap opera fashion. Looking forward to the next one!

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via InkSlinger PR in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 4.5/5

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Rogue, by Julie Kagawa

Format: e-ARC, 460 pages

Publisher: Harlequin Teen (Australia)

Published: May 1, 2015

ISBN: 9781743690888

Genre: YA paranormal

Back cover blurb:

“There are a dozen St. George soldiers hiding in that maze,” my trainer said. “All hunting you. All looking to kill you. Welcone to Phase Two of your training, hatchling.”

Ember Hill left the dragon organization Talon to take her chances with rebel dragon Cobalt and his crew of rogues. But Ember can’t forget the sacrifice made for her by the human boy who could have killed her—Garret Xavier Sebastian, a soldier of the dragonslaying Order of St. George, the boy who saved her from a Talon assassin, knowing that by doing so, he’d signed his own death warrant.

Determined to save Garret from execution, Ember must convince Cobalt to help her break into the Order’s headquarters. With assassins after them and Ember’s own brother helping Talon with the hunt, the rogues find an unexpected ally in Garret and a new perspective on the underground battle between Talon and St. George.

A reckoning is brewing and the secrets hidden by both sides are shocking and deadly. Soon Ember must decide: Should she retreat to fight another day…or start an all-out war?

My review: The blue cover was the first giveaway that this would be more about Cobalt/Riley, and in this book we find out a lot more about his past and his role in Talon 12 years earlier, as well as his position as the current rogue leader. As Ember also discovers, Cobalt is far from the carefree slacker she assumed him to be when they first met, and even though I’m still fiercely Team Garret, I grew to like Cobalt much more. 

This book is far more action-packed throughout than the first book, and the romance element is moved to the back-burner. That’s not to say there aren’t some swoony moments, but everyone is in peril too much for those moments to be prolonged. I admit I was a bit saddened by that – I loved the UST of the first book and missed it here.

Kagawa has written some epic twists, and the ending just broke my heart. I have hope for the next book – it’s called Soldier so must be about Garret and the Order – but according to Goodreads I have to wait until 2017 for it! Nooo! #TeamGarret  

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 4/5

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Inescapable, by Amy A. Bartol

Format: Kindle edition, 368 pages

Publisher: Createspace

Published: August 29, 2011

ASIN: B005JZTP16

Genre: YA paranormal

Back cover blurb: My name is Evie Claremont and this was to be the making of me–my freshman year of college. I’d been hoping that once I’d arrived on Crestwood’s campus, the nightmare that I’ve been having would go away. It hasn’t.

I may be an inexperienced seventeen-year-old, but I’m grounded…sane. I look for rational explanations to even the strangest circumstances. Since meeting sophomore Reed Wellington, however, nothing makes any sense. Whenever he’s near, I feel an attraction to him–a magnetic kind of force pulling me towards him. I know what you’re thinking…that sounds fairly awesome. Yeah, it would be…if he liked me, but Reed acts as if I’m the worst thing that has ever happened to Crestwood…or him. But get this, for some reason every time I turn around he’s there, barging into my life.

What is the secret that he’s keeping from me? I’m hoping that it’s anything but what I suspect: that he’s not exactly normal…and neither am I. So, maybe Crestwood won’t be the making of me, but it could be the breaking of me. I’ve been left to wonder if the dark future my dream is foretelling is…inescapable.

My review: Having loved Ms Bartol’s Kricket series so far, I thought it was about time I started her earlier work, given how much my friends had raved about it. Yes, at times it reminded me a lot of Twilight, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’m not sure I entirely warmed to Reed, but I loved all the other secondary characters and Evie was a plucky heroine. The ending came as a complete surprise and I will certainly be reading the next book.

My rating: 4/5

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Talon, by Julie Kagawa

Format: audiobook, 12 hours and 32 minutes, narrated by Caitlin Davies, MacLeod Andrews and Chris Patton

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Published: October 28, 2014

ISBN: 9781483024776

Genre: YA paranormal

Back cover blurb: Long ago, dragons were hunted to near extinction by the Order of St. George, a legendary society of dragon slayers. Hiding in human form and growing their numbers in secret, the dragons of Talon have become strong and cunning, and they’re positioned to take over the world with humans none the wiser.

Ember and Dante Hill are the only sister and brother known to dragonkind. Trained to infiltrate society, Ember wants to live the teen experience and enjoy a summer of freedom before taking her destined place in Talon. But destiny is a matter of perspective, and a rogue dragon will soon challenge everything Ember has been taught. As Ember struggles to accept her future, she and her brother are hunted by the Order of St. George.

Soldier Garret Xavier Sebastian has a mission to seek and destroy all dragons, and Talon’s newest recruits in particular. But he cannot kill unless he is certain he has found his prey: and nothing is certain about Ember Hill. Faced with Ember’s bravery, confidence and all-too-human desires, Garret begins to question everything that the Order has ingrained in him: and what he might be willing to give up to find the truth about dragons.

My review: I may have been one of the few people who didn’t much like Kagawa’s Iron Fey, mainly because I’m not a big fan of fairies, but dragons are another matter entirely. I really liked this, even though there was the usual YA love triangle and Ember seems more human than dragon most of the time. I’m definitely Team Garret and cannot wait until the next book is released next week.

My rating: 4/5

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Locked, by Parker Witter

Format: e-book, 96 pages

Publisher: Poppy Books

Published: August 19, 2014

ISBN: 9780316366496

Genre: YA fiction

Back cover blurb: “It had always been the three of us, and then it was the two of us – Ed and August. There was not, nor had there ever been a chance of a Noah and August. And that was fine. Because the truth was I had known Noah forever but I still had no idea who he really was. Especially not now. ”

In this sizzling novella, one girl must choose between loyalty and love.

August had the two best guy friends a girl could ask for in Noah and Ed. Then Ed confessed he felt more for her – and their new relationship changed everything. She had hoped it would be Noah that she’d end up with someday, but it’s clearer than ever that Noah’s just not interested in being a one-girl guy.

When the small seaplane the three of them are on crashes, August finds herself injured and marooned on an island with … Noah. Unsure of what’s become of Ed, August and Noah do their best to not lose hope as they fight to survive on an island that is not as deserted as they first believed. But fighting the elements – and their attraction to each other – becomes a losing battle.

Soon, a secret from Noah’s past that could bind them to the island forever is revealed, and August must choose between giving into her feelings for him, or struggling to make it back home.

My review: This wasn’t what I was expecting. Locked is the book upon which the movie in Rebecca Serle’s Famous is based, and which the author also decided to write under a pseudonym. I met her at a book event last October and got a signed copy of Famous, so I figured I would read this one first so I knew what the movie would be about. What I wasn’t expecting were the paranormal elements of the story, which seemed to come out of left field and be accepted as perfectly normal.

Maybe it was the short length of the book, but everything seemed quite rushed. I liked Noah and August (strange name for a girl), even though she was a terrible girlfriend to Ed, and the suddenness of the ending left me wanting more. I will read Famous now and hope this story gets developed more.

My rating: 3/5

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The Selection, by Kiera Cass

Format: Audiobook, 8 hours 7 minutes, narrated by Amy Rubinate

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Published: April 24, 2012

ISBN: 9780062132659

Genre: YA fiction, romance

Back cover blurb: For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon.

But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn’t want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she’s made for herself—and realizes that the life she’s always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.

My review: This is definitely The Hunger Games meets The Bachelor, and while the character names were cringeworthy – King Clarkson? Really? – the story wasn’t too bad and suits a YA readership level. The prince is swoony and I’m rooting for him to get the girl, even though she’s a bit flaky at times and might not really deserve him. Sure, I’ll read the next book – the covers are very pretty.

My rating: 3/5

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