I read the first book and I although I didn’t; love it, I was intrigued enough to continue on with the second because I thought, “Hey this has to get better right?” WRONG!.

Honor Thy teacher is Honor Student told from William or Mr.Honor’s POV, and the reason I wanted to read this one was to better understand the first. I want to fist clarify that this book is NOT like any book that I have ever come across and not because of the BDSM. This book did nothing but make me think that the main character Will, was effing nuts.

The story that is portrayed from Williams side is much darker and more on a manic side, with him going to great and crazy lengths to keep Emma, than him hiding his secrets from her. And trust me when I say these are not just small and minor secrets.  I thought this book was bordering on WTF-crazy! There were several times, like in the first book where I was left wondering what the eff just happened.

The things that happen in the book that I knew where coming, but just hearing them from his side was like, wow. He was displaying some stalker qualities that ordinarily would be cute but had he not kept arbitrarily spouting the word “Mine” it would have been a little less creepy.

I found it confusing because I didn’t know if he was saying the things he said to ‘keep’ her or if he meant it until the very end.  The book was laid out the same as Honor student with the same event, some new as this was Williams story, and he mentioned on more than one occasion that he would kill someone for , over, or because of Emma. I’m all for love really I am, but I’m not as cray cray as home boy was. I found it very disturbing on some levels and I’m not a faint at heart type of person!  The masochist in me will finish the third and final installment just to finish out the series, and while Teresa Mummert’s other books are great this series fell short for me.

2 out of 5 stars

Admin- Vonetta

Imagine working at the National Archives. Your job is working with the most important documents of the U.S. Government. You have to be  the keeper of the stories and the treasures and secrets of history. But what happens when you become a part of the story and you happen to stumble across a secret that even you should not know.

The Darkest Secret .. of the us presidency…….. is about to be revealed!

This is what happens in The Inner Circle By Brad Meltzer. We find Beecher White, a young archivist doing his job and staying out of trouble, well that is  until we open this book and mess his world up.  Beecher meets his old childhood crush Clementine Kaye after years of not talking to her. She shows up at his job and ask for help to track down her father. Both of them living without a father figure and with Beecher still having his crush on her he tries to impress her by showing her one of the secret vaults where the President of the United States privately reviews classified document. CAN YOU SAY BAD IDEA! HELLO THE PRESIDENT READS HIS CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS PRIVATELY. This was a disaster waiting to happen.

While they are in the secret vault they accidentally comes  upon a two-hundred-year-old-dictionary that once belonged to George Washington that was hidden underneath a desk chair. (HELLO IT WAS HIDDEN FOR A REASON). Of course he have to read it right?  So he and Clementine read it, thus putting themselves in one of the biggest webs of  deception, conspiracy and murder ever! They say the truth will set you free, well in this case the truth can get you KILLED. They find themselves running from EVERYONE. Not knowing how far this goes up they don’t  even know who to trust anymore . The only thing Beecher is sure of is that he has to figure out what is in this book that is worth killing for? Thus he embarks on the mission of his life that will test his loyalty, bravery, and fortitude.  Oh SNAP, shit just got REAL!

HOLY SHITAKI MUSHROOMS.  Can you say roller coaster RIDE! Brad Meltzer had me reading this book all day and all night. I felt like I was in one of the National Treasure or the  Indiana Jones movies. This fast paced book was filled with some great historical details about the government that I found myself googling some of the things to see if it was actually true, it was so real. This novel was thrilling and a great page turner ( No pun intended) I loved his twist with the presidents having secret societies and groups it was great. I am definitely going to look for another Brad Meltzer book.

 4 out of 5 stars. Soto out!

Editor-Josh

Previously I posted that we would be hosting the Keeping Her preview package and today is the day!

Below is the preview for Keeping Her ( A Losing It novella) and also Cora is hosting a live Faking It chat along with Jay Crownover  on Goodreads on 6/26 at 3-4pm EDT where you can ask her all your burning questions about Faking it and maybe even Keeping Her!

GOODREADS CHAT

And…… If you follow Cora’s blog’s then you know she is a huge fan of suing Gif’s. So are we and this Gif is for you Cora, as well because we are super excited for Keeping Her!

Keeping Her preview

You can follow Cora on Facebook here

And Pre-Order Keeping here

BookBesties

I have been a fan of Cora Carmack ever since Losing It, and ever since I found out that the one of the side characters was getting his own story I couldn’t wait! Faking It didn’t disappoint.

Cade, fresh from having just got his heart-broken by his best friend he had wanted be more is used to acting. Acting like every time he sees Bliss and her new love (that’s not him) that it doesn’t tear him up inside. So when he is approached in a coffee shop by a frantic Max “Mackenzie” asking him to pretend to be her straight-laced boyfriend for a few minutes, he agrees so he can get his mind off all things Bliss, what’s the worse that can happen?

Max is living two different lives, one of a cool tattooed tough chick that sings in a band and works as a dancer in a club with a slew of bad for her boyfriends to last a life time.Then there is Mackenzie, the straight-laced ‘good girl’ non-tattooed respectful girl who has been dating the perfect guy  that her parents think she is. Normally she can juggle the two since her parents live in a separate state  from her, until they show up for a surprised unannounced visit wanting to meet her perfect boyfriend. Enter Cade. Everything is perfect until Cade does his job a title to good and gets an invitation to the family thanksgiving. Now they have to keep up this façade for a little while longer. I loved Max, she had the perfect amount of snark that kept me Laughing out loud.

“My pretend boyfriend turned to my father and shook his hand, “You’ve raised an amazing daughter.”

My father shook his hand and said , “Really?”

REALLY. He said really.

No, “Thank you” or “I know.”

I loved seeing Max’s outer shell crack little by little as the story progressed and finally stop living the lie, although her journey there was not an easy one. As much as this story was about Cade it was more about Max, I felt she had more to overcome than he did, as she finds a way to be more comfortable with herself and stop living a double life, she also has to come to terms with a grief that has been plaguing her and her family for nine years.  I  also liked the little cameo Bliss and Garrick make in the book a few times.

I love Cora’s use of adjectives  to paint such a visual picture, it was what drew me to Losing It, and what kept me coming back.

“My personal bubble was popped like a frat boys collar.”

How funny is that?! Cora has such a way with words, the analogies she used were awesome! I loved the book and can’t wait for more from her.

4 out of 5 stars

Admin-Vonetta

Ok imagine a world where there is  no hate? No crime? World peace? No famine?  Sounds too good to be true right? I mean when I heard about it I was like sure!  But what they did not tell you is that there is only ONE emotion FEAR! Now I was thinking about some of the great horror movies about fear but just to only have that one emotion. HMMMNNNNNNNN, just not sure I could give up my laughter!

This brings us to this book. Forbidden (The Books of Mortals 1)

Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee takes us to a world that is in total world peace! Really, world peace? Not buying it. We all know there is something shady going on in order for some world peace. I am just saying! Well  we find that in this world there is only one emotion! Fear! I mean if I feared everything I could see how there is world peace.

Now realizing that the maker did not remove the emotions from the world but the government did and they are behind the world only having one emotion. The vial only has enough for 5 people. Rom chooses his friends to bring back to life. Now he finds himself on a mission to over throw the government and trying to bring the world back to life with his friends. Rom must find another keeper  since they seem to know everything about what happened and how to help out with his current situation. Now Rom is not the only one who has found out about the emotions and the vial!  Some of the government and Men in power have tasted the blood and instead of focusing on Love they focus of  hatred, greed and lust and power! They will do everything in their power to make sure the keepers are kept silent and that world stays in its current state .Rom with his trusted friends find another sovereign who was born but put in the shadows since he was deformed but it looks as if this boy has all his emotions? How is this possible? Can they  awaken humanity to the transforming power of true life and love?

Now the chase is on! Rom has is now being hunted and now has emotions! Imagine the first time you laughed, first time you cried, first time you felt angry!

Well he has all of these emotions slapping him in the face and he has got to run! Rom figures he can’t be the only one in the world with emotions and he shares the blood with some of his friends. Each one handles the overflow of emotions differently. Well while Rom and his friends are getting accustomed to their new emotions we find the government people who already knew about the vile and want it back! One of the government officials has already taken the blood and has come across his new love for RAGE! Since the death of the first keeper  all the other keepers are put in jail by him. This guy is all about keeping his world the way it is. If the people of world find out that they are actually walking  zombies with no emotions this could ruin everything! ( Told you to good to be true) So it is soooooo ON! Rom and his crew got to find away to overthrow the government and let the world know about love and other emotions.  While trying to stay alive and bring on a new ruler to govern the world! Phew!

Boy was I enticed by this book. Dekker and Lee had me mesmerized in the idea of walking non emotion people. They were like zombies and did not even know it. I loved the in dept view we got when they took the blood (the cure) for the first time. I wish I could go back in time and remember the first time I felt love!  I found myself having a hard time putting this book down I was yearning for the next chapter after I finished one.I am definitely interested in this book series and can’t wait to see what these two authors have for me in the next installment of this series.

 4 out of 5 stars

Editor-Josh

We here at BookBesties are HUGE Jennifer L. Armentrout (JLA) fans are super excited to be a part of exciting news surrounding her upcoming new release FRIGID. Today is an exciting day – we have FOUR HUGE SURPRISES for you! JLA (writing as J. Lynn) FRIGID is set to release on e-book at the end of July. If you’re anything like us, you’re probably on pins and needles and just cannot wait to get your hands on a copy of this book.

FRIGID has already been given the honor of being named a Romantic Times Top Pick and we’re super excited for you to be able to read it as well! Well, there’s good news! Are you ready for those four awesome surprises? Here we go!

1. Due to all the excitement surrounding FRIGID, we have decided to run a special e-book pre-order promotion. We have worked out a deal with the distributor to release FRIGID a full two weeks early — on JULY 15th!!! — if we meet our e-book pre-order goal. EEEEP! That’s right, if you are like the rest of us and want to be able to read FRIGID in its entirety before its original release date, all you have to do is PRE-ORDER THE E-BOOK NOW! What are you waiting for? GO! Pre-order it!

 Pre-Order Links: Barnes & Noble / Amazon

 2. Need something to hold you over until FRIGID releases? Well, starting right now, you can read the first three chapters of FRIGID for free! Just read below!

3. Can’t get enough of the hot FRIGID cover? Want to see some behind the scenes photos that are sure to make you swoon? You’re in luck! Below you can watch a slideshow of all the behind the scenes photos from the photo shoot! Go on and watch it. We’ll wait, because there is still one more great surprise!

4. And last but not least, if you live near Philadelphia, PA, you’re in for a very special treat — Jennifer will be in Philly in November signing not only FRIGID but also the last book in her immensely popular COVENANT series, SENTINEL! But that’s not all, Adam, the super hot cover model from FRIGID will be there as well! So, yes, you’ll get to meet Jennifer and Adam! Plus, there will be other great prizes that you seriously won’t want to miss out on (dinner with the author and model, perhaps?)! Stay tuned for more details to come!

We hope you’re as excited as we are! So now….Go pre-order FRIGID! Go read those chapters! Go watch that slideshow! And Enjoy!

Yay! As part of the Selling Scarlett Blog Tour I was pleased to have an interview with Ella. I love another interviews because it always gives you a chance to see into their world, plus I was really curious about if she did any..ahem.. hands on research as far as the accuracy of the brothel life, and what her name would be if she worked at Love Inc. Read on to find out her answer and more, you can also enter for your chance to win a signed copy of Selling Scarlett!

What inspired you most in writing this book prostitution or sex slavery, as I noticed the major underlying theme was the selling of bodies.

I think both are really interesting, especially the question of whether it’s moral for a woman to choose to sell her body. Also whether it’s possible for a woman to make a “sound” decision to sell her body and not end up either trapped or degraded by the experience of doing so. Is it ever possible for a completely empowered, non-desperate woman to decide to sell her body, just because she needs money and doesn’t mind sex with strangers? I don’t know…but I think since we live in a country where prostitution is legal, at least in some places, it’s worth thinking about. I think sex slavery came into the picture because it’s the exact opposite of willful prostitution. A sex slave makes no choices and has no rights. Sex slavery will play a bigger part in the second book in the Love Inc. series, the one about Cross Carlson, Elizabeth DeVille’s friend.

Did you have to do extensive research (i.e visit) any actual brothels or was it all purely based on a wonderful imagination?

Well, wonderful or not, it was based on my imagination. 😉 I’ve actually never been to Vegas – only driven through on a road trip. I tried to imagine the utopia of brothels and write it, just to see if I could create a place where woman had choices and were partial stakeholders in the brothel, and the prostitution didn’t seem quite as dirty as people usually think it is. I loved seeing feedback from readers in Amazon reviews. I’ve seen everything from “I want to be a prostitute at Love Inc.” to “it’s not realistic”.

Will we see more of Hunter and Libby in the next Love Inc. book?

We will. They are not the focal point of the story – Cross and his heroine are –  but Libby shows up at Cross’s bike shop in the first 25 or so pages and of course, Libby and Hunter are getting married, so yeah…we’ll definitely see more of them. In fact, Libby has a big secret she’s keeping! You’ll find out. 😉 If you follow my whole blog tour, it’s revealed (or strongly hinted at) in another Q&A. 

I absolutely loved Loveless, any chance she or any of the other girls inside the Love Inc. house will get their own book as well?

There IS a chance. 🙂 Right now I’ve only planned three books, but I could see myself maybe writing more. I’m trying to keep my schedule flexible.

And just for kicks, if you worked at Love Inc., what would be YOUR  Love Inc. name?

Hmmm… I think I may use the old cat + mother’s maiden name and go with Cinnamon Dalon. I think it works!

Cinnamon Dalon, I LOOOVE IT! Thank you so much and I really enjoyed this book. You can read the review I did yesterday here.

About the Book

Elizabeth DeVille doesn’t belong at a party like this—one where the gowns cost more than her Camry and cigars run higher than her grad school utility bills. Dragged out of seclusion by her best friend Suri, Elizabeth is merely playing dress-up, rubbing elbows with a crowd that banished her troubled family years ago.

Hunter West is tired. Tired of parties, tired of pretending, and tired of trying to right a wrong that haunts him every day. Bourbon heir and professional poker player by day, by night Hunter is gambling with his life in a high-stakes game of crime and blackmail.

When Elizabeth stumbles into Hunter’s den of vices, she’s a light in the darkness, a flame in the void. And, just like everything he touches, Hunter mars her in a record time. To rectify the damage done, Elizabeth needs money she doesn’t have, and she’s come up with a foolproof way to get it.

Follow Elizabeth—code-named Scarlett—to the lush Nevada brothel where she’ll auction her virginity and risk the only thing that’s not for sale: her heart. The highest bidder is a familiar face, with wicked hands and the devil’s mouth. And a secret so dark that it could cost her life.

***RECOMMENDED FOR READERS 17+ DUE TO SEXUALITY AND MATURE LANGUAGE.***

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About Ella 

I’m a 20-something sci-fi nerd with a journalism degree and a serious York Peppermint Pattie addiction. I spend my days baby-wrangling and dog-chasing and my nights tapping on my laptop and hanging out with my writer/editor husband. A fun day for me involves lots of writing, running, and researching topped off with some quality Kindle time. My life’s goal is to find an empty cottage in an enchanted forest, install a solar panel for my laptop, and move in – never to be seen again, except in sweatpants.

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SIGNED COPY GIVEAWAY

Follow the rest of the tour!

June 13: The Book CellarX AND My Crazy Book Obsession

June 14: Romancing Rakes AND Book Besties

June 15: Hesperia Loves Books AND Book Addicted AA

June 16: Alphas Authors & Books AND Roxy Kade

June 17: Globug and Hootie AND Brianna Lee Reviews

June 18: Book Bitches Blog AND Tiffany Talks Books

June 19: TalkSupe AND Sizzle & Swoon

June 20: A Good Addiction AND Angie’s Dreamy Reads

June 21: The Book Enthusiast AND Cocktails and Books

June 22: A Dream Within A Dream AND Moosubi Reviews

June 23: Pink Fluffy Hearts AND Krista’s Dust Jacket

June 24: The Bookish Babes AND Bridger Bitches Book Blog

June 25: BookCrush AND WTF Are You Reading

June 26: My Secret Romance AND SM&I Book Club AND NA Addiction

I first saw this book on the Amazon $.99 cent list and read the description and thought it sounded interesting. Then I found out they were having a blog tour for it and I was that much more excited to read it.

Selling Scarlett surprised me because it wasn’t what I expected, but in a good way. Elizabeth Deville is the bottled water princess who is broke. The ‘poor girl’ among her friends after years of her mom going in and out of rehab or ‘spa’s’ and her dad remarrying and leaving her to fend for herself, Elizabeth (Libby) is just trying to make it. She lives with her best friend Suri in her mansion and lets her other best friend Cross live in her old house that her and her family once shared. Libby is average, in the glitzy world she lives in most people know her or her name. Libby has harbored a crush on the most unattainable person she can think of, professional poker player and son of the Secretary of State; Hunter West. After having a very spontaneous and WTF just-happened moment with Hunter at a party Libby thinks maybe her crush is both sided. That is until she catches him with local porn star Priscilla Heat, and the things they were doing just, well… Libby wouldn’t know about those things because she still holds her V-card,  and rather shamefully too.

Hunter West, he has more money than he know’s what to do with and his best  friend runs the most successful brothel in Vegas, Love Inc. But Hunter, like every rich hot guy, has secrets and trouble  that  starts with a capital P. As in Priscilla Heat. Talk about things that make you cringe. If you look at her she makes you feel like you have to take a shower for a year.

After Libby makes a bold decision concerning one of her friends, she has to now come up with money in a big way. Thinking of nothing else she has of value, Libby decides to auction off the one thing that most men would pay greatly for, her virginity.

Libby thinks it’s no big deal, the reason behind why she is doing it is no big deal, she’s doesn’t need it and secretly she thinks it will help her get over her unrealistic crush with Hunter West and move on, it’s just Sex, right?  Guess who is the highest bidder? Yup Mr. West, whom better to give her virginity to than her secret crush right? As long as her heart doesn’t get involved. With so many secrets and lies and whips(yea, you read right) Libby may not even get the chance to actually lose her virginity.

I liked that the book was in dual POV’s because I liked being in Hunter’s head and seeing why he was the way he was, I would have liked more of his side though on certain scenes.  Ella did a great job in having me really hate the characters that needed to be hated and also making the ‘Escorts’ likable. She painted a picture of , ‘sure we sleep with people for money, but we are classy with it’ picture.

I loved the interactions at Love Inc, and I was sad to see that their part of the book was coming to an end. I thought the book had it all, it defiantly had the mystery/drama of it down as well as the romance, the sex scenes we racy but not over the top, I mean there was a chunk of this book that took place in a brothel for crying out loud, it could have gone there. The ending felt a little rushed for me and I would have liked there to have been an epilogue, but there is another Love Inc. book so maybe my questions will be answered in that one. I still really enjoyed the book and now have the strange urge to visit a brothel.

4 out of 5 star

Admin-Vonetta

After first reading the story of Rush and Blair I, like most was hooked from the moment Blair pulled a gun on Grant.  So when Never Too Far came out I, like most was left frustrated and wanting more because it seemed to lack that HEA feel and too many open-ended questions. Well let it never be said that the authors don’t listen to the readers because we the readers pretty much begged Abbi to finish the story of Rush and Blair, and thus Forever Too Far….

If you have not read the previous two books STOP RIGHT NOW, while their review does not contain spoilers for this actual book it does contain some from the previous two.  I was super excited to see how this story was going to play out, was Blair still going to be pregnant, where they already going to be married? Who would be causing them hell this time around? So I was  happy when I found that Blair was still pregnant and the book really picks up a few weeks after the last left off. Rush and Blair are still not married yet, but yay! That means a wedding! I loved this book because to ME, it was all about the romance and less about the sex. There is sex but it wasn’t as focused on as the romance which gets me every time.

I loved how you saw the slight changes in Rush and Blair from the first book to this one where they are engaged and starting a family. I loved the interactions with Dean, Rush’s father and the whole Slacker Demon’s rock star life? Dean and Kiro need to have their own reality T.V show! Kiro alone is a piece of work. I loved that Blair’s gun still made an appearance, letting us not forget where she came from.

“”Cause right now you’re looking at a women with a loaded gun who can hit a moving target. So please…bring. It. On.”

But the one who takes the cake and is STILL trying to steal everyone’s thunder is the evil bitch sister NAN! The things she pulls in this book, I can’t believe no-one has formed together to take this bitch down! All for attention and love? I had a sliver of hope for her (silly me) that she would change towards the end but nope. A zebra can’t change its strips. She was probably my least favorite part of the book.There was one other part that I felt could have been left out as it didn’t really have a point or anything to do with the plot other than to move it on, unless it’s meant to come up again in another Sea Breeze series which it may.

The parts that I abso-fraeking-loutley loved and screamed like a teenager over?

The ‘special appearances’ made by Della,  Woods and Grant. Obviously Grant would be in the book , he is Rush’s brother, but I was so stoked when Della and Woods from Twisted Perfection where in it because aside from the Too Far series, TP is my favorite Abbi G book. I also LOVED that Abbi did a song tie in with the book, we all know that there is a wedding, there is also a song that goes with it. I listened to it at the same time it showed up in the book (totally recommend). You can buy it on iTunes for $0.99 here.

The book  totally had its’ “awww , that’s so sweet” moments and also some moments that were more like

I felt this book was the perfect ending for this series and this couple.

4 out of 5 stars

Admin-Vonetta