Friday, July 6, 2018

{Book Review} Denial by Lisa Renee Jones

Title: Denial 
Author: Lisa Renee Jones
Genre: Suspense, Romance, Romantic Suspense
Published: November 24th, 2015
Author Links: Goodreads / Website / Facebook
Book Links: Goodreads / Amazon / B&N

Ella Ferguson awakes alone in Italy, unsure of who she is, and a gorgeous man has claimed her as his own. He's tall, dark, and sexy, with money and power, the kind of man who makes a girl want to possessed. And he does possess her, whispering wicked wonderful promises to her, stealing her trust and her heart. Soon though, the past finds her, yanking her from a cocoon of passion and safety. Everything is not how it seems. The truth will shatter her world, but it can set her free, if it doesn't destroy her first.

  For starters, I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to read this damn book! Seriously! I'm a huge fan of Lisa Renee Jones and both her Inside Out and Amy Benson series, so don't ask me why I'm so behind with reading Denial. I'm an idiot for not picking it up sooner. With that being said, I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this book. From start to finish, Jones had me addicted. Addicted to her words pouring off the pages, addicted to the plot and addicted to Kayden. Holy hell.

"What could be so bad that I'd rather leave myself behind than face it?"

    DENIAL is about Ella, a woman suffering from amnesia. In a strange place, not knowing who she is, she turns to the beautiful eyed stranger, Kayden, who found her and brought her to the hospital. With only bits and pieces to go on, it seems as if she is in some kind of trouble and that Kayden is the only one who can help her...but can she trust him?
    While Kayden wants to protect Ella more than anything, Ella is afraid to face her past. If she's in trouble, if she's on the run, how bad could her past be? How bad could she be? Ella remains uncertain until fragments of her past come to her in flashbacks and it leads to her trusting in Kayden and the two of them beginning to come together to navigate a relationship, despite Kayden's past and Ella's missing memory. The feelings between them begin to intensify and the passion and trust comes across clear between these two.
    What I love about Jones' books is that she makes these intriguing, seductive worlds for her characters to live in and they lull you in, getting you addicted to her writing. There's this deeply erotic feeling to them that seduces you, but at the same time there's this plot that grabs your attention and keeps you focused on everything going on in the book. Denial was a roller coaster of emotions for me and yet I never wanted to get off the ride. A very suspenseful read, Denial will have you hooked from the very first page.
     With this being the first book in the series, of course it ended in a cliffhanger leading me to jump right into the very next one, DEMAND. If you haven't read the Inside Out series yet, I recommend starting the series there to get background on Ella.

"Sweetheart, if I tie you up, it's about pleasure,
and I'll be right there giving it to you."




     

{Monthly Goals} July 2018


      It's the start of July and there's so much I want to accomplish this month, so what better way to get down to business than to start off with a fresh set of goals. I love writing down goals because they allow me to get organized before the next month even begins and they also help me to update y'all on what's going on in my crazy life.

        1. Spend time outside. 
        It's summertime and unsurprisingly, I want to make sure that I spend as much time outside as possible. Winter seemed to last so long this year, so I've been loving the nicer weather. I'm hoping to find a good spot outdoors to work on the blog.

        2. Develop a morning routine. 
        This is something I really want to work on and find a morning routine that I can enjoy. I want to get up early, get stuff done and have some personal time in the evenings.

        3. Stay consistent on social media posting.
        I don't post on social media as much as I should. It's easy to fall behind on it when you've got a busy schedule. As a blogger, social media is one of the best ways to connect with other bloggers and share content. That being said, I'd really like to be more consistent with social media this month. Let's hope I remember!
      
        4. Write, write, and write some more.
        My mantra for July is the more blog posts I get written, the better off I am. I really want July to a be a good writing month for me. Whether it's in terms of posts published or scheduled, my goal is to get as much done as I possibly can. I think having a lot prepared will make me feel a little bit more organized and put together.

       5. Drink more water.
       I started Keto and I've cut out sugary drinks and am determined to drink nothing but water. With that being said, I need to get my ass in gear and actually drink lots of water, especially since it's the only liquid I'm consuming and I don't want to get dehydrated. Hydration is super important, especially in the hot weather so I'll be carrying a bottle of water with me wherever I go and making sure to get my eight cups of water in a day.

       6. Read books. (DUH!)
       Of course I'll be reading books, but some of the ones I'll be reading this month include: Beyond a Doubt by Colleen Coble, Rose Cliff Manor Haunting by Cheryl Bradshaw, Royal Order by Leslie North, The Prince by Jillian Dodd and The Scars I Bare by J.L. Berg.

{Friday} 56



About the Book

Brave the Heat is for you if you like:
• A scorching hot fire fighter struggling with his dark past
• A tough-as-nails heroine determined to protect her family
• A small town ready to ignite
• And a second chance at love that may just save them all

Jordan McKenna is back in town, and Fire Chief Gavin McGuire's feelings when he sees her after all these years are as raw as the day she left. Then he was just a kid wearing his heart on his sleeve. Now he spends every day trying to atone for the tragedy he couldn't prevent.

Jordan's life has not exactly worked out the way she expected. A divorced mother of two with a failed acting career, Jordan's biggest concern about coming back to Old Brookfield was seeing her first love. But when a series of suspicious fires breaks out, Jordan and Gavin realize that dealing with the sparks between them may be the least dangerous of their problems.



Rules:
*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader
*Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it)
*Post it.
*Leave your link over at Freda's Voice.

High Summer #Readathon


The High Summer Read-a-Thon runs July 1st through the 31st, ending at 11:59 PM and is hosted over at Seasons Reading

My goals for this Read-a-Thon is to read as much as I can and keep this updated weekly to reflect what I read and then start in on some Christmas books beginning July 28th during the Christmas in July Read-a-Thon.

Currently Reading: Bayou Moon by C.L. Bevill and Demand by Lisa Renee Jones.


Tuesday, July 3, 2018

{Top Ten Tuesday} Books with Red, White, & Blue Covers



"Oh, say can you see..." these beautiful RED, WHITE & BLUE book covers? With the 4th of July right around the corner, today I'm sharing some of my favorite red, white & blue covers of some great books with you guys.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery - Moral allegory and spiritual autobiography, The Little Prince is the most translated book in the French language. With a timeless charm it tells the story of a little boy who leaves the safety of his own tiny planet to travel the universe, learning the vagaries of adult behaviour through a series of extraordinary encounters. His personal odyssey culminates in a voyage to Earth and further adventures. 
Beautiful Secret by Christina Lauren - When Ruby Miller's boss announces he's sending her on an extended business trip to New York City, she's shocked. As one of the best and brightest young engineers in London, she knows she's professionally up to the task. The part that's throwing her is where she'll be spending a month up close and personal working alongside -- and staying in a hotel with -- Niall Stella, her firm's top urban planning executive and The Hottest Man Alive. Despite her ongoing crush, Ruby is certain Niall barely knows she's alive...until their flirty overnight flight makes him sit up and take notice.
Not one for letting loose and breaking rules, recently divorced Niall would describe himself as hopeless when it comes to women. But even he knows outgoing California-girl Ruby is a breath of fresh air. Once she makes it her mission to help the sexy Brit loosen his tie, there's no turning back. Thousands of miles from London, it's easy for the lovers to play pretend. But when the trip is over, will the relationship they've built up fall down?

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth novel in the Harry Potter series, written by J.K. Rowling. It follows Harry Potter's struggles through his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy, including the surreptitious return of the antagonist Lord Voldemort, O.W.L. exams, and an obstructive Ministry of Magic.

Finder's Keepers by Stephen KingWake up, genius.
The genius is John Rothstein, an iconic author who created a famous character, Jimmy Gold, but who hasn't published a book for decades. Morris Bellamy is livid, not just because Rothstein has stopped providing books, but because the nonconformist Jimmy Gold has sold out for a career in advertising. Morris kills Rothstein and empties his safe of cash, yes, but the real treasure is a trove of notebooks containing at least one more more Gold novel.
Morris hides the money and the notebooks, and then he is locked away for another crime. Decades later, a boy named Pete Saubers finds the treasure, and now it is Pete and his family that Billy Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robinson must rescue from the ever-more deranged and vengeful Morris when he's released from prison after thirty-five years. 

Every Last Word by Tamra Ireland Stone -
If you could read my mind, you wouldn't be smiling. Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can't turn off. 
  Second-guessing every move, thought and word makes life a daily struggle, and it doesn't help that her lifelong friends will turn toxic at the first sign of a wrong outfit, wrong lunch, or wrong crush. Yet Sam knows she'd be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls at school. So when Sam meets Caroline, she has to keep her new friend with a refreshing sense of humor and no style a secret, right up there with Sam's weekly visits to her psychiatrist.                                                  Caroline introduces Sam to Poet's Corner, a hidden room and a tight-knit group of misfits who have been ignored by the school at large. Sam is drawn to them immediately, especially a guitar-playing guy with a talent from verse, and starts to discover a whole new side of herself. Slowly, she begins to feel more "normal" than she ever has as part of the popular crowd...until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear.


Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein -
Where the side ends, Shel Silverstein's world begins. There you'll meet a boy who turns into a TV set and a girl who eats a whale. The Unicorn and the Bloath live there, and so does Sarah Cynthia Stout who will not take the garbage out. It is a place where you wash your shadow and plant diamond gardens, a place where shoes fly, sisters are auctioned off, and crocodiles go to the dentist. 
Me Before You by JoJo Moyes - Louisa Clark is an ordinary woman living an exceedingly ordinary life - steady boyfriend, close family - who has never been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair-bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life - big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel - and now he's pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.                                                     Will is acerbic, moody, bossy - but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.    A love story for this generation, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn't have less in common - a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?   

 The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
 Fourteen-year-old Trixie Stone is in love for the first time. She's also the light of her father, Daniel's life -- a straight-A strudent; a pretty, popular freshman in high school; a girl who's always seen her father as a hero. That is, until her world is turned upside down with a single act of violence. Suddenly everything Trixie has believed about her family -- and herself -- seems to be a lie. Could the boyfriend who once made Trixie wild with happiness have been the one to end her childhood forever? She says that he is, and that is all it takes to make Daniel, a seemingly mild-mannered comic book artist with a secret tumultuous past he has hidden even from his family, venture to hell and back to protect his daughter.

The Elite by Kiera Cass -
The Selection began with thirty-five girls.                                                           Now with the group narrowed down to the six Elite, the competition to win Prince Maxon's heart is fiercer than ever - and America is still struggling to decide where her heart truly lies. Is is with Maxon, who could make her life a fairty tale? Or with her first love, Aspen?                                                                                     America is desperate for more time. But the rest of the Elite know exactly what they want - and America's chance to choose is about to slip away.







{Tell Me Something Tuesday} Vacation Books



  It's Tuesday and I'm linking up over at Tell Me Something Tuesday hosted by Rainy Day Ramblings. This week's question of the week features vacation reading. If you were going on vacation, what books would you pack?
   I just got home from vacation just the other day, so below is a list a books that I took with me to read as I lounged in the sun.


This Could Change Everything by Jill Mansell - 
If only Essie hadn't written that letter - the one that went viral...

On the one hand, if Essie hadn't written that letter - the one that only her best friend was meant to see - then she'd still be living like an actual proper grown-up, tucked up with Paul in his picture-perfect cottage, maybe even planning their wedding...

On the other hand (if her true feelings hadn't accidentally taken the internet by storm, that is) she wouldn't have moved into the attic flat on the square. She would never have met Conor. Or got to know Lucas...

And she wouldn't have found herself falling in love with someone she really, really shouldn't fall in love with...



Sunburn by Laura Lippman -
One is playing a long game. But which one?

They meet at a local tavern in the small town of Belleville, Delaware. Polly is set on heading west. Adam says he's also passing through.

Yet she stays and he stays - drawn to this mysterious redhead whose quiet stillness both unnerves and excites him. Over the course of a punishing summer, Polly and Adam abandon themselves to a steamy, inexorable affair. Still, each holds something back from the other - dangerous, even lethal, secrets that begin to accumulate as autumn approaches, feeding the growing doubts they conceal.

Then someone dies. Was it an accident, or part of a plan? By now, Adam and Polly are so ensnared in each other's lives and lies that neither one knows how to get away - or even if they want to. Is their love strong enough to withstand the truth, or will it ultimately destroy them?

Something - or someone - has to give.

Which one will it be?


Still Me by JoJo Moyes - 
Louisa Clark arrives in New York ready to start a new life, confident that she can embrace this new adventure and keep her relationship with Ambulance Sam alive across several thousand miles. She steps into the world of the super rich, working for Leonard Gopnik and his much younger second wife, Agnes. Lou is determined to get the most out of the experience and throws herself into her new job and New York Life.

As she begins to mix in New York high society, Lou meets Joshua Ryan, a man who brings with him a whisper of her past. Before long, Lou finds herself torn between Fifth Avenue where she works and the treasure-filled vintage clothing store where she actually feels at home. And when matters come to a head, she has to ask herself: Who is Louisa Clark? And how do you reconcile a heart that lives in two places?

Funny, romantic, and poignant, Still Me follows Lou as she navigates how to stay true to herself, while pushing to live boldly in her brave new world.






Sunday, July 1, 2018

31 Before 31


   I turned thirty in March and since then I've been thinking of all the things I dreamed of accomplishing before I turned thirty. Some of them I did, some of them I didn't. Time can go by so quickly and it was in a blink of an eye that I was no longer in my 20s, but instead the big 3-0. So before I reach my next birthday, I'm putting together a list of 31 things I want to do before I turn 31. If you could do anything before your next birthday, what would you do? Swim with the dolphins? Kiss under the Eiffel tower under the stars? Let me know!


1. Plant my own garden.
2. Begin the Keto diet.
3. Try one new recipe a month from July-March. 
4. Meditate daily.
5. Take a yoga class.
6. Organize recipes.
7. Take more photos.
8. Keep a daily gratitude journal.
9. Lose 31 pounds.
10. Write more snail mail.
11. Take a risk. Get out of my comfort zone.
12. Binge watch Doctor Who.
13. Read at least five classic novels.
14. Forgive & let go of the past.
15. Try to do something good for a stranger each day.
16. Introduce more eco-friendly and ethical practices into my life.
17. Get a new tattoo.
18. Finish my secret project.
19. Find ten new bands I love.
20. Go wine tasting.
21. Completely change my style.
22. Become one with nature.
23. Watch 31 black & white classic films.
24. Decorate and renovate.
25. Overcome a fear.
26. Have a morning routine.
27. Plant a tree.
28. Get a tan.
29. Do something unexpected for someone else.
30. Start running.
31. Blog consistently with at least three posts a week.