Beckoning Light got me excited about reading again. I have been so busy lately, and the past few review books that I have picked up have been kind of eh for me. Not that they were bad, but they just didn't get me excited like truly awesome books do. I was in kind of a reading slump. But boy did that change when I picked up Beckoning Light. I knew when I was only 6 pages in, and I got super annoyed that my mom tried interrupted my reading with a silly question, that I was really going to love this book. From the moment I picked up Beckoning Light, I could not stop reading. I was hooked.

Charlotte is a girl after my own heart. Shy to the core, and such a good person. Those are the kind of people, and characters, that I like. Some people may find them a bit boring, but not me! Plus, she has some spunky in her. You can be a good person and still be sassy. :) There are a bunch of guys that like Charlotte, but I only had eyes for Liam. He is a loyal guy- my favorite kind.

James was funny in his own way. I appreciate how straight forward he is. He doesn't even try to play mind games, he just lays all his cards out on the table. In an obvious, yet sneaky way. I know that sounds strange but you will know what I mean after you meet him. And Calvin, well I just see him as weak. I like him and I think everything that surrounds him is fascinating but I am not completely sold on him yet.

I loved seeing how strong and confident Charlotte has become. She is a smart, level headed girl and I am totally rooting for her! I can't wait to see what is going to happen next. I am so tempted to start reading book 2 right now, even though I have to be up early for work tomorrow morning. I'm also keeping all my fingers and toes crossed for some Liam/Charlotte action in the next book. This is one of my favorite books that I have read this year.

**You can see this full review and more at Book Briefs: http://bookbriefs.net** 

I have said it before, and I will say it again...I love Alyssa Rose Ivy. She is one of those authors that I know is so consistently good, that I can pick up any of her books and I will enjoy them. I love her hazards series, and this third book, The Hazards of Sex on the Beach is no different. It is fun, romantic, and an all around great read. I love that the series follows a group of friends. The Hazards of Sex on the Beach is Cara's story.

The book starts out much like all the books in the Hazards series do, with the very act that the title says. There is something comforting in that. I pick up the book, knowing how it will start and then I get to enjoy the ride from there. Cara just  broke up with her jerk of an ex boyfriend after she found out that she was cheating on her basically during their whole relationship. Can you believe that? She is at a party and she meets Chase, and after a few drinks they end up on the beach. We late find out that this night was pretty uncharacteristic of both of them. Cara basically runs away after without giving her number or last name.

I loved when she ran into Chase a few weeks later at a show. It was so cute how he wouldn't even let her out of his sight because he was scared she was going to run again. And it was there that there romance really started. I loved Cara and Chase. Chase is such an awesome guy. And while Cara obviously has some very fresh trust issues, she really does try her best. Chase is off on tour, and honestly I think it was perfect for Cara because she got a chance to explore some new things at college. I liked watching Cara hang out with new people and get involved in new things almost as much as I loved the romance between her and Chase. I loved what Cara ended up doing! I thought it was such a cool idea. And their time apart really allowed them to talk and videochat and get to know each other well.

Each of the books in the Hazard series are sexy fun with a rockin' romance. All of the guys are swoonworthy, and we get to check in on the past couples as well. Each book can be read as a standalone but I love Juliet and Reed, and Mallory and Colton so much that I would suggest reading them all. The girls are all sorority sisters and they are all such great friends. I can't wait to see who the next book is about. My vote is for it to be about Jane. She is just a sweetheart.

 This review was originally posted on Book Briefs

This story surprised me. I thought I had it figured out but the ending took me completely by surprise. The romance was rocky and bumpy, but it was one heck of a journey. These characters were flawed and oh so real. There were things that annoyed me about them and things that I loved about them. No Mary-sues here!

Maddy is super cute. When the book started, I honestly had no idea what direction it was going to take as far as the romance. Maddy ends up going out with a couple of different guys and I changed my opinions on all of them more than once. I loved how Maddy tried to read people by figuring out what their perfect drink was. It was a cute recurring theme throughout the story.

Neither Maddy nor Colin were perfect, and I had my ups and downs with both of them individually as well as a couple. But Colin won me over in the end. Maddy did as well. This book took me all over the place. It was cute. It was sexy. It was frustrating. It was surprising. Overall, it was a very enjoyable read. Much like I was thrown in the dating trenches all over again. I had a blast reading it. One of my favorite characters from this book was Colin's sister, Carly. So I know I am going to really enjoy the next book, which is her story. This is a fun new adult series centered around an oceanfront town.

3.5/5

Dusk is the second book in the Dire Wolves Trilogy. Dusk was a very quick read, at about 222 pages, it flowed by in a single afternoon of reading. It also helped that I knew all the players since the stage was set in the first book. Dusk picks up right where Dire ended off, with Gage being turned into a Dire to save his life. While I was reading the first book, I found myself more torn between Hunter and Gage than I thought I would have been. And in Dusk, it was even more confusing. I felt myself getting mad at Mary Ann that she wasn't giving Hunter more of a chance. Give Hunter a chance in the next book Mary Ann!

The Dire Wolves Chronicles is a very cool trilogy because it is set in the world of the Petrons and the Society from two of Alyssa's other series. And in this book we even get to see Levi and Allie. That was nice, and it looks like we are going to be even more involved with the society in the next book, so I am looking forward to that. Even though it might not be on the best of terms, but it will certainly be exciting and action packed.

Like I said earlier, I want Mary Ann to give Hunter a chance. It is not that I disliked Gage. I don't. At all. But Hunter just seems so patient and kind with Mary Ann. I really believe that he cares for her, and I just feel so bad that she keeps shunning him over and over again. And because of that, this book was very light on the romance. But I have a feeling that the next one will not be. Now who the guy is, I have no idea. But there will be romance. Fans of Alyssa Rose Ivy's paranromal series will want to add the Dire Wolves Chronicles to their TBR list.

3.5

**You can see this full review and more at Book Briefs: http://bookbriefs.net**Lure is the first full length novel in the Allure Chronicles, a new adult paranormal romance series. There is also a prequel novella out that is FREE on amazon, called Seduction's Kiss that is a great introduction to the series. I would 100% recommend reading Seduction's Kiss first. Now, a note on the name. This makes the book sound way crazier than it is. Seduction's Kiss is a magic lotion that was given to the main character and it is much better explained in Lure, but the name is a bit misleading until you get to the first book.

The Allure Chronicles is Owen's story. It is set in the same paranormal world of The Society that Alyssa Rose Ivy writes so well. I love the idea of multiple series existing alongside each other in the same world. And they each have different paranormals that drift in and out of the books in varying degrees. If you are new to Alyssa Rose Ivy's paranormal series, I think the Allure Chronicles is a great one to start with. You don't need to read the other series in order to understand what is going on. The main characters from the Crescent Chronicles and the Empire Chronicles are in the book, but their roles in the story are fully explained. (Of course, I would recommend reading all the series as they are each fantastic) In the Allure chronicles we get to learn all about the mysterious allures. It turns out that the paste the witch (in Seduction's Kiss) gave Daisy had some Allure essence in it and it is having some interesting side effects on Daisy. I do love that Owen isn't affected by it. It makes their intense crushes on each other all the more wonderful.

And the two of them are wonderful. I couldn't read the pages fast enough. I wanted more, more MORE. I think this may be my favorite series of Alyssa Rose Ivy yet. I have enjoyed all of her books, but there is just something about Daisy and Owen. And something about the Allues. I found them completely fascinating. I have so many questions about them! The end of the book nearly broke my heart. I can't wait to see what is going to happen in the next book. Alyssa Rose Ivy does such a fantastic job with paranormal romances. She is one of my very favorite New Adult authors, and is at the top of my auto buy list.This review was originally posted on Book Briefs

**You can see this full review and more at Book Briefs: http://bookbriefs.net**

Alyssa Rose Ivy had done it again! Seduction's Kiss is a prequel novella to the Allure Chronicles. Which is a new adult paranormal romance series set in her awesome world of New Orleans with all the paranormals we know and love from her. This is a companion series to both the Crescent Chronicles and the Empire Chronicles. (and kind of the Dire series as well) I love that they are all set in the same universe because we gets lots of cross over. Seduction's Kiss is a lovely little set up to the series, and best of all, it is FREE on amazon. So you have no excuse to not go out and grab a copy ASAP. And Lure, the first full length book in the series, released earlier this week. I can't wait to read it myself, especially after having my appetite whetted from Seduction's Kiss.

Seduction's Kiss and the Allure Chronicles follow Daisy ( a non- paranormal) and Owen, a character from previous books. Daisy is dragged to New Orleans for a weekend with one of her sorority sisters so her friend can reconnect with an old flame. And let's just say that Daisy doesn't have the best weekend. She runs into all sorts of problems, but the interesting part about this novella is that it starts out with a flash forward, where Daisy is all swoony about this amazing kiss that she had. So even in the midst of all this awful stuff she keeps attracting, you just know that this great kiss is somewhere around the corner for her. It made me fly through the pages, because I wanted to find out what these kiss circumstances where.

Alyssa Rose Ivy is a master at setting the stage for a kick-ass story. I love her set up and lead up, and all the details in between. I know that the title of the book seems pretty steamy, but it really isn't (yet, at least) it was a voodoo thing that Daisy got while exploring New Orleans. But I can already tell that Daisy and Owen are going to be a couple that I just fall in love with. Seduction's Kiss was the perfect start up to the allure chronicles. It certainly did its' job. I am allured with the books already. I can't wait to start Lure.This review was originally posted on Book Briefs

**You can see this full review and more at Book Briefs: http://bookbriefs.net** 

Between Now and Never is a standalone contemporary/realistic fiction romance story. I loved Laura Johnston's first novel, Rewind to You and I really loved it. It was a super sweet and light romance. I am going to tell you up front that Between Now and Never has a very different feel to it than Rewind to You did. It is not as sugary sweet, certainly not as light. I didn't love it as much as Rewind to You, but it was still a good story. (What can I say, I am just more of a happy and fluffy kind of gal.) Between Now and Never had kind of a forbidden romance, Montague and Capulet feuding family feel to it.

Julianna and Cody come from very different families and you can tell that it has impacted the way they grow up. Julianna's family is poor and her brother uses/deals drugs and because of that has money problems. To try and help, their mom committed a crime at her job and got sent to jail. Cody's dad is the FBI agent that sent her there. So you can see where there would be issues.

I ended up really liking and rooting for Cody and Julianna but it didn't start out that way. Cody is a really nice guy, but for some reason whenever he got around Julianna for the first couple of times, he acted like a cocky jerk. I have no idea but he wasn't like that in any other scenes or when she wasn't around. It was like he was putting on a very bad show for her. Not that it worked to impress her. It only turned her more off to him. And then there was Julianna. I get that she has had it rough, but it is a pet peeve of mine that when people get a tough break, that they act overly bitter and entitled to everyone and everything around them. Even the people that are being nice and did nothing wrong. They see the worst in everyone and think everyone is giving them the short end of the stick for no reason. Julianna grated on my nerves at the start and I had no idea how her and Cody were ever going to get a shot at working out.

But that is what kept me reading. I just had to see where the heck this story was going to go from the humdinger of a start that it had. Julianna was a little brat and Cody was involved in something so incredibly dangerous and awful. He was thrown into it. I felt so bad for him because he clearly didn't want to be in that situation but he wasn't given any choice. But Laura Johnston's writing is kind of magic. Even with my character annoyances, she made invested in their story. She made me like them. Which is incredible! When I don't initially like a character it is hard for me to come back from that. But I did.

Between Now and Never was different than my average read. But I liked that about it. It is good to step outside of your comfort zone every now and again. The character growth in Between Now and Then is the most impressive part. For these two star crossed individuals, I can guarantee you won't be able to predict their journey from the first page. Between Now and Never is a good read. Give it a try if you like your contemporaries with a little more drama and grit, and don't mind some darker issues thrown in.

 This review was originally posted on Book Briefs

**You can see this full review and more at Book Briefs: http://bookbriefs.net** 

I loved Awakening. It's a young adult dystopian. I don't read too many dystopians anymore, and I am pretty picky when it comes to choosing which ones to read. I heard that Darian was going to be a swoon worthy guy, and I liked the technology aspect of Awakening, so I decided to give it a try. And I am very glad that I did. This was a dystopian that worked really well for me. I loved the romance in it and I thought the world was very well done. The idea of the dreamscape seemed half invasive and scary but a pretty big part of me wanted to try it out, especially since you get to see who your mate was revealed in the dreams. I thought that was a really cool idea, and for the most part people seemed to love it and the relationships seemed genuine and good fits for so much of the society. And then there is the terrorscape, which seemed just as terrifying as the name implies. However, I was left with lots of little questions, while reading the first half of the book. Click to view spoiler for some examples of the questions I had.

All of these thoughts were running through my head when started reading the book. Like why would the days of the week link up with how long you would have to live? And why did they start killing off the ones so young? they only get to live until 25? Doesn't the society need workers for longer than that? And also, why was Darian able to use other people's dreamscape machines while he was on the run? They sound super high tech, and everyone is chipped under the skin, so why couldn't the machines pick up on who the user was? And i'm not talking about the mixer that he used, that scrambles the brainwaves that the machine can read. But why doesn't the machine pick up on the id info from the users chip. That seemed like an oversight on this controlling government's part.

Now don't get me wrong, I thought the world building was great, and I am sure that some of these questions will be answered and explained later on, but when I was initially reading, all of this stuff was running through my head. I have come to the conclusion that right now the dystopians that work the best for me are ones that center around technology. Something about them makes me feel like it could be possible for the world to end up like that, which makes it all the more interesting and terrifying to me. Does that make me weird? haha

I really loved Darian. I think he is such an easy guy to root for, even if he is noncompliant and thinks everyone else in the society are "sheep." He's not wrong, by the way. What surprises me the most is that anyone is capable of thinking that this guy could be a murderer. He is such a decent, stand up guy. And his lifetime crush on Desiree was adorable. Awakening starts off at a brisk pace and honestly only picks up in speed as the story goes on. I loved that, there is honestly not a boring moment in Awakening. I read this book in a single sitting and I didn't even realize how much time had passed when I finally looked up when I was done. That is a feeling I will never get sick of, because it means I was transported to the author's world and I was totally immersed in it. I can't wait to continue this series. Awakening is great for fans of YA dystopian and I would even encourage people who might be burnt out or new dystopians to try Awakening. I think it will be a series tons of people will love! I smell a hit all over this one and I can't wait for more.

 This review was originally posted on Book Briefs

**You can see this full review and more at Book Briefs: http://bookbriefs.net** 

I used to love R.L. Stine so much as a kid. I read the books, I watched the shows. I just loved it. So when I found out that his Fear Street series was being re-launched I was super excited. What actually started my love of R.L. Stine was the tv show, "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" with the midnight society. I loved that show so much that I started looking for things like it, and I discovered the creepy magic that was R.L. Stine. Don't Stay Up Late is actually the second book in the Fear Street series, but I never read the first book and I was fine. They are each a different scary story. I liked Don't Stay Up Late. It transported me back to my childhood. It was a bit on the younger side for YA, so I think MG readers will enjoy it as well. It will be a great scary book for younger readers, and for YA readers looking for some new R.L. Stine to enjoy.

It was certainly not the scariest young adult book that I have read, but it did feel like his other books, which is honestly what I was looking for. I was looking for that Classic 90s fear street/midnight society sitting around the campfire and telling scary stories feeling. Don't stay up Late is the story of Lisa and a babysitting gig gone terribly wrong. I liked the babysitting aspect because again it added to the throwback feel of the stories.  The writing is different than I am used to. It feels slightly more disjointed, but most of that I attributed to the main character Lisa and everything she was going through. She was jumping back and forth between personal tragedies, and therapists and then everything that was going on with Harry and in his house.

My hope is with this book that younger kids will get introduced to his work and go back to some of the original goosebump and fear street novels and read them. I think they will still have appeal today with the younger crowd. So while this book did scary me too much, I can see it being a fun and spooky hit read for some MG readers. I liked it for it's throwback feeling, and it really made me want to watch some Are You Afraid of the Dark?

 This review was originally posted on Book Briefs

**You can see this full review and more at Book Briefs: http://bookbriefs.net** 
3.5/5

Whoa! That is honestly the thought that keeps running through my head. I just finished Push by Claire Wallis and my head is still spinning. This book is so totally messed up and crazy. And I don't care if it makes me messed up and crazy too, but I liked every send of this dysfunctional and dark thriller romance. The book is told in Emma and Davids point of view, and it alternates back and forth between the past and the present. But each chapter is clearly labeled, so I had no problem following the flow of the story. The book starts out with a chapter from each Emma and David's point of view describing the same event, and you are like "HOLY COW! Is what I think's about to happen, really about to happen??" And that sentence right there, should set the tone of the book. There will be a lot of Holy cow moments while reading Push.

You need to know right off the bat that Emma and David are messed up characters. They are. Know that and be ok with that because if you are a reader that can't handle dysfuntion, this is not the book for you. But if you like that kind of thing or if you are intrigued like I was, you should totally give Push a try because this will take you on one heck of an emotional and jaw dropping ride. And all I can say is you better hold on tight. Claire Wallis, I bow down to you. You totally messed with my head until I didn't know which way was up.

David has had 6 ex girlfriends that have all disappeared. And Emma acts like she has to prove to the world how strong she is, so when David comes into her like as a total creeper she doesn't immediately push him out. He is the apartment complex's handyman and when he comes in and immediately destroys her kitchen, I had another WTF moment. They are forced to spend time together and he rebuilds her kitchen and thus the crazy convoluted relationship they share glows into something kinda fascinating, kinda scary, and totally addictive. I won't even tell you how many times, I thought I had a theory about the crazy David, and how many times I was wrong. Well played Ms. Wallis. Well played.

Another thing I really liked about Push was that each of David's 6 ex girlfriends got a chapter spread out throughout Push so that you could get a glimpse into her story. And I have to tell you, each story delved a little bit into the madman that is David. I thought it really completed the picture that Claire Wallis so creepily and beautifully depicted. Push is a great read. Totally messed up, and totally different than anything else I have read in a long time. There is the mother of all cliffhangers though, so be prepared. Expect the unexpected.

 This review was originally posted on Book Briefs