*Grabby Hands* Blog Tour & Review - The Good Girl's Guide to Being Bad by Cookie O'Gorman

Image and blurb from Goodreads

Title: The Good Girl's Guide to Being Bad 

Author: Cookie O'Gorman

Publication date: April 25th, 2019

Category/Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Romance

Seventeen-year-old Sadie is tired of being a good girl.

Her Career Aptitude Test results say she's ideally suited for a career in the clergy (aka a nun), and on top of that, she receives yet another rejection. An aspiring dancer/choreographer, Sadie dreams of being featured on Dancer's Edge—but they say she's too sweet, needs more life experience. Her BFF, Kyle, and her oldest friend, 79-year-old Betty, agree: Sadie is in desperate need of a life makeover.

But she'll need a coach.

Sadie doesn't lie, cheat or steal--heck she doesn't even curse (part of the reason she hasn't checked off anything on her "Carpe Diem List"). Sadie doesn't know the first thing about being bad. But Kyle's twin brother, Colton, does. And he's willing to teach Sadie on one condition: she has to do everything he says for the next month.

A dazzling first kiss, two smokin' hot brothers and a bet that changes everything. In this enemies-to-more YA romance, Sadie learns:

Breaking the rules can be fun—especially when it leads to happily-ever-after.

Goodreads

Buy Links: Amazon 

4.5 “Carpe freaking Diem” Stars

ARC provided by the author

Thank you!!!

Cookie O’Gorman’s fourth YA romance was the absolute perfect choice for my long bus drive. It was everything I needed and more swoony than I expected. It was damn hot, too.

This author first made my go-to list when she released Adorkable back in 2016. If you haven’t read that book yet, I don’t know what you’re doing with your life, but you should definitely fix this problem and grab your copy.

Now, four books later (I still need to read her third), I got all the same feels reading The Good Girl's Guide to Being Bad as I did  when I first read her debut. I’m one happy and highly satisfied reader, because this story made me laugh, swoon and fan myself countless times. This means Cookie O’Gorman’s magic is still very much alive!

While she gave me best friends falling in love in Adorkable, now we get enemies to haters with identical twins involved and those elements alone were enough to make me want to devour this book. That’s exactly what I did. The moment I was comfortable in my seat, I started reading and only stopped when I got my HEA.

The Good Girl's Guide to Being Bad is full of famous YA romance tropes: bucket lists that are actually called Carpe Diem lists (or Naught List); nemesis falling in love; hot identical twins; good girls wanting to be a little bad and enlisting a bad boy’s help. But that’s not a problem at all, because in the hands of talented writers, a story full of tropes can still be unputdownable. This one was.

I’m so in love with both Sadie and Colton. Their chemistry was exactly what I look for in romance books; their banter made me laugh and smile so hard; and the way they slowly fell in love filled my slow-burned heart.

Sadie was a likable goody two-shoes, because despite being almost too nice (so much so that she gets a little annoyed with it and decides to add a little more edge and excitement to her life), she was funny, loyal and lovable. It was such a delight to read about a teenage girl who wasn’t embarrassed to have a healthy relationship with her mother, based on honesty, freedom and trust. There’s this scene where she calls her mother to tell her about something “bad” she did, and it made me laugh so hard, but also made me fall in love with her all the way.

I was also 100% into how her best friends where two ladies who were old enough to be her grandmother. Their encounters were always funny, full of love and wisdom that you only get when talking with people who have lived full lives.

For his turn, Colton was the bad boy with a heart of gold. The way he stood up for his twin brother was proof enough that he was one of the nice ways, despite the bad boy image he tried to keep. He had the makings of a great love interest from the start and he didn’t disappoint me.

I feel like I'm already talking too much and I don't want to spoil anything because there's nothing like reading a great book for the first time, right? But be warned that the slow burn and the intensity of Colton and Sadie's attraction might set things on fire (like your reading device), so proceed with caution.

Joking aside, I highly recommend The Good Girl's Guide to Being Bad (and the author's other books) to everyone who loves YA romance. If you're already a fan of Cookie O'Gorman, then keep an eye out for your favorites because there's a scene in this book that will make you want to go back and reread her previous stories immediately.

Cookie O’Gorman writes stories filled with humor and heart for the nerd in all of us. Fiery
first kisses, snappy dialogue, smart girls, swoonworthy boys, and unbreakable friendships are featured in each of her books.

Cookie is a hopeless romantic, a Harry Potter aficionado, and a supporter of all things dork.
Chocolate, Chinese food, and Asian dramas are her kryptonite. Above all, she believes that real life has enough sorrow and despair—which is why she always tries to give her characters a happy ending. She is the author of Adorkable, Ninja Girl, The Unbelievable, Inconceivable,

Unforeseeable Truth About Ethan Wilder and The Good Girl's Guide to Being Bad.

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cookieowrites

Author website: http://cookieogorman.com/

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Release & Review - Over Us, Over You by Whitney G.

Image and blurb from Goodreads

Title: Over Us, Over You
Author: Whitney G.
Release Date: December 7th, 2017

Age Category/ Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

From New York Times bestselling author Whitney G. comes a falling for my older brother’s best friend romance.

Subject: Delete this message after you read it...

Dear Hayley,

I'm assuming you're still hungover, so I'll make this brief.

Last night, you slipped under my sheets (without my permission), and we almost had sex. I got the hell out of the bed once I realized it was you, and I took you home.

That's the story.

The end.

Period. 

Just in case you've forgotten, you're my best friend's little sister. We will never be anything more. (We can't be anything more.) Our previous friendship is still unresolved--or "over" in your terms, so I'd prefer if we worked on becoming 'just friends' again since you're in town.

Nonetheless, I'm not a man who leaves questions unanswered--even the drunken ones, so to properly close our inappropriate conversation:

1) Yes, I liked the way your lips felt against mine when you were on top of me.
2) Yes, I do "prefer" rough sex, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't rough with you.
3) No, I had no idea you were still a virgin...

This message never happened,
Corey

Goodreads

Buy Links: Amazon

2 “What happened?” Stars

Even though I think I haven’t reviewed them, I’ve read a few novels and novellas by this author, and I’ve enjoyed them. But this book was a complete mess. I can barely believe this was written by the same author as Sincerely, Carter, which I really liked.

I first heard about Over Us, Over You a few weeks ago during the cover reveal tour, and I was so excited to see it was a “falling for my best friend’s little sister” romance. I patiently waited for its release, but it disappointed me beyond words.

First, Hayley is one of the most irritating, unlikable, immature main characters I’ve read about in a while. She’s supposed to be in her mid-twenties (I think), but she sounds like a spoiled fifteen-year-old.

I was initially okay with her despite the fact that she took the money her brother sent to pay college tuition and invested in a small café business that didn’t survive a few months. It was a little silly and immature, but okay, I was willing to overlook that because she made it sound like she’d worked hard to make it work, but had been unlucky. I was wrong. After getting to know Hayley a bit better, I realized she was simply lazy and not all that smart.

Hayley really got on my nerve when, after losing her business and getting thrown out of her apartment, she decided to go back to San Francisco and ask her brother for help. Her big brother, who also happened to be super overprotective and a self-made millionaire. Oh, that’s when Hayley shows her true colors. Her brother doesn’t hesitate to get her on a private plane, get her  freaking huge house and create a position for her at his company. A company he built from nothing. What does Hayley do? Refuse to move into the house until her friend and former business partner comes to town—a friend who’ll also be getting a job at Hayley’s brother’s company simply because Hayley asked for it. There’s some excuse about how Hayley has problems sleeping so she doesn’t want to be alone in the house, but honestly, none of it is explained in a way that makes much sense. Hayley obviously doesn’t care that she’s creating a problem for her brother and instead of trying to fix her situation, she waits for him to do so, which leads him to ask his best friend (the love interest) to take Hayley in.

Does Hayley seem grateful for that? Not really. Does she go on and respect that rules Corey, the best friend who let her stay with him, set for her to live in his house? Not really, either. Were these rules pretty absurd? Sure, but I don’t know about you, but if someone was letting me stay at their place for free, I wouldn’t be wearing their clothes without permission or playing music at night just because I couldn’t sleep. *rolls eyes*

But that wasn’t even my biggest problem with Hayley. Her behavior at work was. Dude! Dude! The woman couldn’t be bothered to get to work on time or do anything useful even when her brother had practically created a position for her so she wouldn’t be sitting home doing nothing. A little appreciation wouldn’t hurt, woman! Just get there on time and do a decent job, at least. Try to show him you’re grateful he’s buying you a house and giving you a car! I can’t understand what the author was thinking when she wrote Hayley the way she did. Between her brother giving her anything she wanted and Corey taking her on private planes for short vacations around the world, she didn’t have to work for anything and she couldn’t even bother to be grateful?! No. I can’t get behind that. A lack of work ethic is something I simply can’t forgive in a protagonist. No one likes leeches.

Corey wasn’t that much better. He had some big jerk moments for no reason, but at least he seemed to have worked hard for his money. And I was honestly too pissed at Hayley to really pay much attention to Corey. On the plus side, I thought the story had a lot of potential judging for their backstory. With the right vision, those two could’ve had a really touching love story.

Another thing that felt extremely off about this story was the dialogue. It was so unrealistic, I can’t even explain how bad it was. There were so many scenes that caused me to roll my eyes and go “I can’t believe this is happening”. I honestly don’t understand what happened here.

I had high hopes for Over Us, Over You, but unfortunately this book didn’t work for me at all.

*If you liked this review (or not), if you read the book (or not), come say hello and leave your comments bellow.

Release & Review - Boomerang Boyfriend (Boyfriend Chronicles #3) by Chris Cannon

Image and blurb from Goodreads

Title: Boomerang Boyfriend
(Boyfriend Chronicles #3)
Author: Chris Cannon
Release Date: September 11th, 2017

Age Category/ Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Entangled Teen (Crush)

Working with her best friend’s brother at Betty’s Burgers, free-spirited Delia starts to see Jack in a new light. Not only has Jack-the-Jerk turned into a hottie, he’s even acting like a niceguy, who rescues dogs and knows how she likes her coffee. But if Jack is into her, then why is he keeping her a secret? Of course, if her best friend doesn’t approve, Delia could lose the only family she’s ever known.

Seeing Delia in her retro waitress uniform throws Jack’s world out of whack. She’s always been just another pain in the butt little sister...not a datable female. But she’s rockin’ the Pie Princess tiara, and even her hot-pink striped hair is sexy. What’s that about? He needs to get his head on straight, because artsy, funky Delia and her nonconformist ways don’t fit in his safe and ordered world.

Disclaimer: This Entangled Teen Crush book contains kisses that make the world fall away and snarky humor that may cause you to LOL in public places.

Goodreads

Buy Links: Amazon


2.5 “Almost Book Boyfriend” Stars

ARC via NetGalley

Thank you, Entangled Teen (Crush)

I try not to get mad at books, but I have to say I’m pretty mad at this one, because I was so close to finding a new book boyfriend and he practically got ripped out of my hands last minute.

Like I mentioned in my last review of an Entangled Teen (Crush) title, I can often count on them to bring me sweet and cute YA romance stories. This started out like that. Boomerang Boyfriend attracted my attention with the “falling in love with my best friend’s older brother” trope, and kept it when I first met Jack.

Jack-the-Jerk, like the MC Delia called him, wasn’t a jerk at all (not until the 85% mark, at least). Sure he had the brooding teen thing going on, but I love that, so I didn’t mind. But most of all, Jack was a dog person. A true dog person. His actions and thoughts when around Rocky, his best friend’s dog, was just too adorable. Right from the beginning I saw Jack was a boy after my heart.

I squatted down and rubbed Rocky’s ears. “I bet you were framed, huh, buddy?” He leaned into the ear rub and sighed. “I bet it was the cat, wasn’t it?” He sighed again like he was agreeing with me.

Then came the whole story with his grandfather and his father, and the way he thought he was losing his mother, too, and I was ready to hug him because my heart hurt for him.

Up until the 85% mark, I was in love with Jack. So in love with him that I found it easy to ignore how unlikable Delia, the other main character was. I was in it for Jack and nothing mattered. But, then…the jealousy/pettiness plot kicked in and Jack lost major points with me. Worst of all, it felt so out of character. He hadn’t come across as the kind of guy that would throw a hissy fit over something so small as Delia refusing to share a secret that wasn’t even hers with him. I honestly thought the whole thing felt contrived and ruined his character, which was a shame.

I still like Jack, but it’s disappointing to go from love to like here because of something so silly.

As for Delia, I can’t say I felt as bad for my change of heart. I thought she was an interesting character in the beginning, because she had the “I don’t care what other people thing” attitude and she even made it sound genuine. But then she turned into a little monster early on, and she completely lost me.

I went from annoyed to mad with Delia pretty fast. She came across as selfish and immature when she poorly dealt with the situation with Aiden. The guy was sharing a huge secret with her, and explained why it was a secret, and instead of being a friend, she was only worried about herself. Besides, it wasn’t as if she had been so in love with him that his rejection really hurt her. It was just a crush. So get over it already, girl! Maybe I could’ve forgiven her if she had shown Aiden a little more support as the story progressed, but in all honesty she only got worst.

In fact, I was way more into Jack’s chapters and his interactions with his best friend and the dogs (plural, because he adopted one for himself) than anything about his relationship with Delia. It simply didn’t work for me, because I had no sympathy for Delia at all.

I truly enjoyed all of Jack’s scenes with Trevor, Rocky and Buddy (the puppy), and I wish the book had been about those two best friends and their amazing dogs being adorable together. Someone write me this book:

If it had been, and if Jack hadn’t been ruined at the end, I wouldn’t rated this book higher (even though the writing was too simplistic for my taste) and added Jack to my book boyfriend list. 

*If you liked this review (or not), if you read the book (or not), come say hello and leave your comments bellow.

Blog Tour & Review with Giveaway - Crazy For You (Risking It All #2) by Rachel Lacey

Title: Crazy For you

(Risking It All #2)

Author: Rachel Lacey

Publication Date: March 28th, 2016
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Forever

“Rachel Lacey is a sure-fire star." --- Lori Wilde, New York Times bestselling author

SHE'S TAKING A WALK ON HIS WILD SIDE

Emma Rush can't remember a time when she didn't have a thing for Ryan Blake. Haven's resident bad boy is just so freakin' hot-with tattoos, a motorcycle, and enough rough-around-the-edges sexiness to melt all her self-control. Now that Emma's over being a "good girl," she needs a little help being naughty . . . and she knows just where to start.

Before Emma's brother enlisted in the military, he made Ryan promise that he would protect her from everything--including himself. When her brother doesn't come home, Ryan needs to turn his screwed-up life around to honor his pledge. But he knows he's still not the right kind of guy for someone as sweet as Emma. Only he can't stop wanting to be with her. Wanting her. Falling in love with a good girl may be the craziest risk this bad boy can take . . . 

3.5 “Motorcycles & Flowers” Stars

ARC via NetGalley.

Thank you, Forever!

In Crazy For You, Rachel Lacey brings you another sweet, small town romance packed with tons of chemistry.

The second title in the Risking It All series that follows three friends who started a new business called Off-The-Grid Adventures and the love of their lives focuses on Ryan and Emma.

We got to see a little bit of them in the first book, and I remember saying I was super excited to read their story because it featured one of my favorite romance tropes, the “brother’s BFF” or “BFF’s sister”.

Ryan and Emma go way back, since Ryan was best friends with Emma’s brother. Before he went to war, Emma’s brother asked Ryan to take care of Emma, and made him promise to not go after her, which made sense at the time because Ryan was a “bad boy”. But that was many years ago, and since her brother never came back from the war, Ryan could never let go of that promise. The trouble is Emma isn’t the innocent girl he wanted to protect back then. She’s grown up and looking for trouble.

Tired of being the good girl who goes for safe guys, Emma is looking to shake things up. In fact, she’s looking to act upon her long-time crush on her brother’s BFF. Ryan is sexy and used to be trouble, but now he’s kind of a reformed bad boy who still intrigues her. After her friends dare her to have some fun, Emma flirts with Ryan and things escalate from there.

The story is really, really low on drama. The main thing keeping them apart is Ryan’s hesitation to hook up with someone he wasn’t supposed to touch, but since Emma is willing to give the whole “friends with benefits” a try, we don’t spend a lot of that on Ryan’s hesitation. They quickly move into more-than-friends territory, which means we spend most of the book seeing those two fall in love. They’re adorable together and their chemistry is just as hot as I’ve come to expect from this author. Rachel Lacey knows how to write cute, but hot romances, that’s for sure. Her sexy scenes never disappoint. Add a motorcycle and a tattooed, former bad boy love interest in the mix and you have all the fire you’re looking for.

Despite being a “good girl”, Emma brings a lot of fire on her own. She’s curious about how different her life could be if she turns just a little bad, and that reflects in all her sexy scenes with Ryan.

For those who read the first book, we also get to see Gabby and Ethan again. Mark and Jess (the spa lady) also make an appearance, and I’m guessing their love story will be more drama-heavy than this one.

I’d recommend this book (this series, in fact) to readers who want to enjoy a sweet romance with likable characters, low drama and a fair amount of sexy scenes.

Rachel Lacey is a contemporary romance author and semi-reformed travel junkie. She's been climbed by a monkey on a mountain in Japan, gone scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, and camped out overnight in New York City for a chance to be an extra in a movie. These days, the majority of her adventures take place on the pages of the books she writes. She lives in warm and sunny North Carolina with her husband, son, and a variety of rescue pets.

Don't miss any of the Risking It All Romances!

                                          

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Release & Review - Off the Ice (Juniper Falls, #1) by Julie Cross

Image and blurb from Goodreads

Title: Off the Ice
(Juniper Falls #1)

Author: Julie Cross

Release Date: February 28th, 2017

Age Category/ Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Publisher: Entangled (Teen)

All is fair in love and hockey…

Claire O’Connor is back in Juniper Falls, but that doesn’t mean she wants to be. One semester off, that’s what she promised herself. Just long enough to take care of her father and keep the family business—a hockey bar beside the ice rink—afloat. After that, she’s getting the hell out. Again.

Enter Tate Tanley. What happened between them the night before she left town resurfaces the second they lay eyes on each other. But the guy she remembers has been replaced by a total hottie. When Tate is unexpectedly called in to take over for the hockey team’s star goalie, suddenly he’s in the spotlight and on his way to becoming just another egotistical varsity hockey player. And Claire’s sworn off Juniper Falls hockey players for good.

It’s the absolute worst time to fall in love.

For Tate and Claire, hockey isn’t just a game. And they both might not survive a body check to the heart.

Goodreads

Buy Links: Amazon 

3 “Hockey & Family” Stars

ARC via NetGalley

Thank you, Entangled Teen.

First thing I’ll say about this book is, if you love Hockey books, you’ll probably love this one because a lot of the story revolved around this sport. The two themes here were definitely hockey and family.

We started the book in Tate’s POV with a prologue set a year before the story was supposed to start. Tate is attending a farewell party to Claire, his sister’s friend who’s leaving Juniper Falls to go to college and pursue her music/theater dreams. From moment on we already get little hints (and then bigger ones) that Tate had always had a crush on Claire, but she only sees him as her friend’s little brother. Then something big happen with Tate and his father and that gives him the opportunity to have a meaningful conversation with Claire, who’d just had her heart broken by some hockey player jerk. In that conversation, Claire asks Tate not to change—she wants him to continue to be this sweet, innocent guy.

Yeah… that’s not gonna happen.

One year later, Claire is back in town to take care of her sick father and help her struggling family with their business. And Tate… well, Tate has managed to change while still staying the same. He’s no longer someone’s little brother. He’s his own person and he’s tall, strong and handsome. Tate is also the new hockey team’s star goalie, and Claire can’t seem to not notice him whatever he goes. That works fine for Tate, who’s single and very much interested, since he’s never gotten over his crush for his sister’s friend.

It seems like the right time for these two to get together, right? Wrong. Claire’s life is a disaster, and Tate’s isn’t that much better.

This is where the two elements I mentioned earlier come into play.

Claire’s biggest arc involves her family and her dreams for her future. With her father sick and her family drowning in debts, Claire has to focus all her attention on helping them and making sure her family doesn’t fall apart. That leaves little time for romance and her own dreams. I really connected with this storyline. Watching Claire feel guilty for wanting to be happy when her parents were struggling made me like her immediately. She came across as a responsible young lady who loved her family very much and was willing to sacrifice a lot for them. And that’s exactly what she needed to show in order to make her arc believable.

Tate, on the other hand, was dealing with his own problems that mostly involved his passion for hockey and his relationship with his father. Let’s just say his father makes it extremely easy to hate him. The man was just obnoxious and evil—maybe a little bit too evil, since I didn’t get why he was acting the way he did. I’m guessing greed and pride had a lot to do with it, besides the alcohol he was a fan of, but I still would’ve liked to know more. Anyway, now that he’s the star goalie, Tate is thrust into the spotlight and he doesn’t really know what to do with it. Tate’s struggle to fit in, do his best and earn his place is interesting to watch, especially when he’s been pressured by his dad to do things that don’t feel right to him.

With both of them so preoccupied with all that was happening in their lives, Claire and Tate’s romance suffered a bit. Despite enjoying how those problems made them complex as characters, I would’ve been a little happier if the story had had more swoon-worthy, sweet moments between them. At times it felt a lot heavier than it needed—or than I expected.

I also think the story could’ve benefited from less side characters. Hailey got a lot of screen time, but her storyline didn’t really go anywhere for me. Maybe she’ll be the star of the next book? I don’t really know, but while I thought she was an interesting character, the whole drama involving her pursue of popularity and her manipulation of Tate felt undeveloped. Same goes for the star goalie before Tate, who also had a promising storyline. As side characters go, I liked Leo and also think he deserves his own story.

Another issue I had was with the voices and POVs. I really couldn’t tell Tate and Claire apart based solely on their voices. There were more than a few opportunities where I had to go back and check the chapter title to see who this was supposed to be. That surprised me a lot since I read another book by Julie Cross last year and thought she’d done a great job with that main character’s voice.

My experience with this book was mostly positive, though. I enjoyed the theme and how well-developed the characters were, and while I wish the romance had been sweeter, it still had some pretty cute moments (and some hot ones, too, since this would fall better in the upper-YA category). If you’re looking for a sports romance with a more serious tone, I think you’ll enjoy this one.

 

*If you liked this review (or not), if you read the book (or not), come say hello and leave your comments bellow.