Review: There You'll Find Me

There You'll Find Me
By: Jenny B. Jones
Release Date: October 4, 2011

Description:
Grief brought Finley to Ireland. Love will lead her home.

Finley Sinclair is not your typical eighteen-year-old. She's witty, tough, and driven. With an upcoming interview at the Manhattan music conservatory, Finley needs to compose her audition piece. But her creativity disappeared with the death of her older brother, Will.
She decides to study abroad in Ireland so she can...more Grief brought Finley to Ireland. Love will lead her home.

Finley Sinclair is not your typical eighteen-year-old. She's witty, tough, and driven. With an upcoming interview at the Manhattan music conservatory, Finley needs to compose her audition piece. But her creativity disappeared with the death of her older brother, Will.

She decides to study abroad in Ireland so she can follow Will's travel journal. It's the place he felt closest to God, and she's hopeful being there will help her make peace over losing him. So she agrees to an exchange program and boards the plane.

Beckett Rush, teen heartthrob and Hollywood bad boy, is flying to Ireland to finish filming his latest vampire movie. On the flight, he meets Finley. She's the one girl who seems immune to his charm. Undeterred, Beckett convinces her to be his assistant in exchange for his help as a tour guide.

Once in Ireland, Finley starts to break down. The loss of her brother and the pressure of school, her audition, and whatever it is that is happening between her and Beckett, leads her to a new and dangerous vice. When is God going to show up for her in this emerald paradise?

Then she experiences something that radically changes her perspective on life. Could it be God convincing her that everything she's been looking for has been with her all along?

Review:
So first let me say how much I love that I read this book and it's all thanks to Random Reads. If it wasn't for that random generator I probably wouldn't have picked this book up ever and what a Shame it would have been. This book was really heartfelt and addicting. My heart definitely wept for the main character and all the things she was going through. I especially loved that this book took place in a foreign county, those are always more exciting for some reason. Especially a place like Ireland with so much history and presence.


We meet Finley as she is starting a new school in Abbeyglen, Ireland for a year. She's still pretty much broken about her brother who passed away in a bombing, she doesn’t feel the same and believes that if she takes this trip it will bring him closer as well as helping her find God. She doesn't hear him anymore and that makes her even more scared. During this new adventure of hers she has her brother’s journal and is trying to retrace his steps by visiting each location he wrote about, after all he was a very faithful person and said he could hear God speaking to him at each location. This made her want to go even more especially since she was writing an audition piece for the NY Conservatory dedicated to Will.

During this adventure abroad she gets stuck having to help an older woman in a hospital by being her friend. But of course she gets partnered with someone who is dying which is even harder for her. But throughout he book she learns to listen and understand people better, even if they are dying it’s not a bad thing if you get attached to them. After all you are a product of all the lessons you have learned in life.

She also meets a famous actor and befriends him. She sees right through him believing and not believing that he is the person portrayed in the tabloids. They form a bond and he helps bring her to all the different locations. Again more lessons learned with this relationship and sometimes you notice how much everyone has a little baggage in their lives. It’s hard for everyone just in their own special way.

There is a lot of talk about God in this book, and don’t get me wrong I’m not very religions but it really fit the book well. I enjoyed reading this and meeting all the characters and even hearing the little Irish accents when they were talking to one another. It was very peaceful and emotional at the same time, especially the ending, tears just streamed down my face. It was a beautifully written book and I’m really glad I had a chance to read it.

Teaser Tuesday: Exhale

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by 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!

Here's my teaser for the week:

"He’s gonna feel like crap when he realizes that you’ve picked Derek over him.” She laughed then and I wanted to dump the bowl of popcorn sitting in my lap over her head. “Especially, since they’re freaking identical twins!”


Exhale By Jennifer Snyder (Kindle Locations 469-471)  

Blog Tour: Kiss Me by Jillian Dodd - Review/Giveaway/Excerpt

Kiss Me
By Jillian Dodd
Release Date: November 28, 2012
Series: Keatyn Chronicles #2

Description:
I've always written scripts for my perfect life.

But no way could I have ever scripted this.
My life is so far from perfect, it’s not even funny.
All because of a stalker.

I’m at a boarding school where I have to lie about who I am.
I can’t see my family.
I’m tutoring a Hottie God that tortures me with his smile.
The most popular girl already hates me.
But there’s this boy.
This hot, sweet, sexy boy.
So I’m going to stop trying to script my life and just live it.
Because who knows how long I have left.

GoodReads | Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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Review:
We are back in the wonderful chaotic and fast paced world of Keatyn “Monroe”. If you haven’t read the first book you should really get on that. Last we left Keatyn she was being chased by stalker and forced to go into hiding across the country at a boarding school. Here she is surrounded by beautiful people and she starts to fit right in, sure there are some who don’t like here but they are just jealous I’m sure.


So right now she’s loving Aiden but Dawson is making a really hard play for her. But she’s not sure because she thinks he’s still in love with Whitney who is the one who doesn’t like her. This book is still so very much Gossip Girl, with a twist of Sex and the City and that’s what I love about this book. Not to mention that it is very fast paced. Once it starts hitting that stride you just cant’ stop reading because it is just that good.

Being away from her family is still hard on Keatyn though and even though she fills her times with boys and drama she still doesn’t like the fact that she had to leave them and now fears for everyone’s safety. Vincent is still out there and he does make an appearance in this book but it’s just so creepy it even made me cringe. It just goes to show you how really unsafe you are out in this world. Face book is just bad all around because anyone can find you, or try to find you at least.

I don’t want to give too much of the book away because if I start giving all the gossip it will reveal everything. Let’s just say I’m totally team Aiden, even if the book is Dawson based there’s just something about him that has me intrigued. Sometimes it’s good and healthy to fight with other people, it can’t always be perfect, and those are the relationships that have the most trouble. And I’m really digging on Dallas he is very mysterious in his ways. Seriously, how does he know absolutely everything, makes you wonder?

Well I can’t wait to read the next book and find out exactly who Keatyn is going to start dating, if she even decides to date anyone and will Vincent find her location? Really interesting book and I love the covers of this series because it’s just flat out simple, and sometimes not everything can be simple, so it works.  Also it looks like a progression of maturity for Keatyn as well.  Please look at all the covers below, she looks young then more mature and then the last one more serious.  I like it, they even zoom in more to her as the series progresses. Great thinking there.

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About the Author:

Jillian Dodd grew up on a farm in Nebraska, where she developed a love for Midwestern boys and Nebraska football. She has drank from a keg in a cornfield, attended the University of Nebraska, got to pass her candle, and did have a boy ask her to marry him in a bar. She met her own prince in college, and they have two amazing children, a Maltese named Sugar Bear, and two Labrador puppies named Camber Lacy and Cali Lucy.

She is the author of the That Boy Trilogy and The Keatyn Chronicles Series.

Jillian Dodd | Facebook | Twitter| Pinterest | Goodreads | Amazon

Keatyn Chronicles fan page | Keatyn Chronicles on Twitter

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Excerpt:

My hair is up in a high ponytail today and Aiden moves his face in close to my neck.

“You have a pretty neck.”

“What? No. It’s too long,” I scoff.

“Naw, it’s almost regal,” he says, as his lips move closer.

“Maybe for the Queen of Giraffes,” I joke.

“I've never kissed your neck.” He puts his hand on the side of my head and pushes it slightly. “Tilt your head.”

I do as he asks. I know I shouldn’t. I should run away. But it’s impossible to resist an order from a god.

He takes the tip of his finger and glides it from just underneath my earlobe to my collarbone. He blinks lazily and then puts his lips like our almost kisses. He is as close as he can possibly get to my neck without actually touching it.

And even though his lips don't touch, occasionally, he accidentally—or on purpose, maybe; who knows a god’s train of thought on this—touches it with his cheek.

I can feel some stubble on his cheek. He hasn’t shaved in a few days and the hair is so light it’s barely visible, but just that little bit of scruff looks so sexy on him. It changes his perfect face from a work of art to something of museum quality. It makes his beautiful face look more angular and masculine. And even though scruff usually scratches my face, his feels soft against my neck.

Have you ever rubbed a balloon across your hair and made it stick straight up? That's how my whole body feels. All my nerve endings, or synapses—really, I don’t even know what a synapse is exactly; I think it’s in the nerve family . . . Whatever, they are all sticking straight up like balloon-rubbed hair.

He’s still at my neck when he says, “Too bad I'm not a vampire. I’d bite you. Make you mine.”

“Trust me. You don't want me. Dawson tried to give me the key to his heart. I wouldn’t take it.”

“Is that why he’s wearing that key necklace?”

“Yeah, he’s wearing it until I change my mind. And I don’t know why I keep waiting. I didn’t wait for anything else.”

I hope to piss him off with my reference to sex with Dawson, so he will move his powerful lips away from me.

Instead he whispers, “Just because sex is good with someone, doesn't mean you’re destined to be with them. Imagine what it will be like with the guy you’re really supposed to be with. Your true love.”

When he speaks, his lips graze my neck a few times.

“You’re touching my neck. With your lips,” I say raggedly. I can barely breathe when he’s this close to me.

“I’m talking. Not kissing. It doesn’t count.”

And I don't know where this comes from—not from rational thought, obviously—but I make a little breathless moan and say, “Talk some more.”

I feel his mouth form a smile on my neck.

“Remember what I told you? In French. Your lips are my bliss?”

Then he speaks it in French. His lips grazing my neck with each syllable.

I forget who I am.

I forget where I am.

I have but one solitary thought.

Those lips must be on me.

“Aiden, come here.”

“I'm here.”

 I grab his face. “No, like, do that to my lips. The not-kissing-kiss.”

“It won’t be enough. You want to kiss me, don’t you?”

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Giveaway:

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TGIF - Ramblings

This morning I hated my alarm clock .... because it woke me up.  How dare it wake me up the way it did.  5:00am, I'm really tired of getting up at that time ... so in conclusion I have my alarm clock, because it did it's job.

.....

You ever wonder how it would feel to be a character in a book.  Think like toy story when toys come to life when we aren't looking.  Well what if books came to life when no one was around.  (When a tree falls and no one is around does it still make a sound?) Any who imagine all the characters are out there living their worlds, and for them it's a reality.  Imagine that.  How strange would that be.  I think I would like to be .... Harry Potter for a day a good day of course, not a bad one.  Or even to flip it around a little, Mr. Darcy just to see how he really thinks and functions on the inside.  Then maybe I'll jump on another adventure and be Juliet from Romeo and Juliet before the tragedy of course.  Wouldn't it be fun to actually live and breathe the time and place of what you are reading.  Right now I'm reading a book and she wants to be an actress so bad, she's on the set of a movie place and honestly I don't think I want her spot the way things are going but wouldn't that be something.  I know we all probably do that anyway imagine the way it is in our minds but imagine it coming to life. 

I'm rambling again I know but I'm bored and I just really felt like being in a sharing mood today.  Anyone out there feel the same way?

Random Reads (1)

Random Reads is a meme where we pick a random book from our shelf to read within the month hosted by imlovingbooks.com.

 

It’s easy to play along…

• If you’re on Goodreads enable sorting to your to-read shelf (you should see numbers next to each book now).
• Go to Random.org and type in the Min as 1 and the Max as how many ever books are on your to-read shelf.
• Scroll down to the book matching the number Random.org picks.
• Link up to your Random Reads post (below).
• Read and be merry.

This I have to say is one Brilliant idea I never thought of, and when I saw it today on Books Like Stars I new I had a new feature and one that is just too smart not to choose.  I always have a hard time choosing the next book to read.  And it's a monthly meme not a weekly so it's even better!  This is definitely a way to get those books off your to read list, the ever growing TBR!

 

Without further adieu here is my book for this month:

 

Drumrolls please .......

 

 

Waiting on Wednesday

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

This week I'm "Waiting on":

The Summer I Became a Nerd
by Leah Rae Miller
Release Date: May 7, 2013

On the outside, seventeen-year-old Madelyne Summers looks like your typical blond cheerleader—perky, popular, and dating the star quarterback. But inside, Maddie spends more time agonizing over what will happen in the next issue of her favorite comic book than planning pep rallies with her squad. That she’s a nerd hiding in a popular girl's body isn’t just unknown, it's an...more On the outside, seventeen-year-old Madelyne Summers looks like your typical blond cheerleader—perky, popular, and dating the star quarterback. But inside, Maddie spends more time agonizing over what will happen in the next issue of her favorite comic book than planning pep rallies with her squad. That she’s a nerd hiding in a popular girl's body isn’t just unknown, it's anti-known. And she needs to keep it that way.

Summer is the only time Maddie lets her real self out to play, but when she slips up and the adorkable guy behind the local comic shop’s counter uncovers her secret, she’s busted. Before she can shake a pom-pom, Maddie’s whisked into Logan’s world of comic conventions, live-action role-playing, and first-person-shooter video games. And she loves it. But the more she denies who she really is, the deeper her lies become…and the more she risks losing Logan forever.

Cover Reveal: Unbroken by Melody Grace

Expected publication: March 12th 2013

"Mom always told me there are two kinds of love in this world: the steady breeze, and the hurricane. Emerson Ray was my hurricane…"

Juliet McKenzie was an innocent eighteen-year old when she spent the summer in Cedar Cove—and fell head over heels in love with Emerson. Complicated, intense Emerson, the local bad boy. His blue eyes hid dark secrets, and just one touch could set Juliet ablaze. Their love was demanding and all-consuming, but when summer ended, tragedy tore them apart. Juliet swore she’d never go back, and she’s kept that promise… Until now.

Four years later, Juliet’s done her best to rebuild the wreckage of her shattered life. She’s got a great boyfriend, and a steady job planned after she graduates. Returning to Cedar Cove to pack up her family’s beach house to prepare it for sale, Juliet is determined that nothing will stand in the way of her future. But one look from Emerson, and all her old desire comes flooding back. He let her go once, but this time, he’s not giving up without a fight. And Emerson fights dirty.

A heartbreaking history. An unstoppable passion. Torn between her past and future, Juliet struggles to separate love from desire. But will they find a way to overcome their tragic secrets—together? And after so much damage has been done, can a love remain unbroken?

*This book contains adult situations and explicit content.*

Make sure to follow author Melody Grace! She will be revealing a sneak peek soon!

Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/melodygrace and http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17342189-unbroken

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