5 Smooches

Synopsis

She’s about to make a deal with the college bad boy…

Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns her on. But while she might be confident in every other area of her life, she’s carting around a full set of baggage when it comes to sex and seduction. If she wants to get her crush’s attention, she’ll have to step out of her comfort zone and make him take notice…even if it means tutoring the annoying, childish, cocky captain of the hockey team in exchange for a pretend date.

…and it’s going to be oh so good.

All Garrett Graham has ever wanted is to play professional hockey after graduation, but his plummeting GPA is threatening everything he’s worked so hard for. If helping a sarcastic brunette make another guy jealous will help him secure his position on the team, he’s all for it. But when one unexpected kiss leads to the wildest sex of both their lives, it doesn’t take long for Garrett to realize that pretend isn’t going to cut it. Now he just has to convince Hannah that the man she wants looks a lot like him.

Review

“I’m not asking you to take your clothes off, baby. I just want to peek at your midterm.” “Baby? Goodbye forward, hello presumptuous.”

When I saw the blurb for this book I knew I had to read it. It encompassed three things I love in books, it was a New Adult book (my favorite genre), it had a sports theme (I am in a serious relationship with sports books right now, and it look hilarious. I HAD to have it, so to say I got a little excited when it showed up on my kindle would be a vast understatement. I had never read anything by Elle Kennedy before but I just knew that this book would be amazing.

“Just out of curiosity, after you wake up in the morning, do you admire yourself in the mirror for one hour or two?” “Two,” “Do you high five yourself?” “Of course not. I kiss each of my biceps and then point to the ceiling and thank the big man upstairs for creating such a perfect male specimen.”

The book begins right after a mid-term in which Hannah has beaten the odds (over half the class has failed) and gotten an A, while resisdent hockey superstar Garrett has failed. But there is hope in the form of a makeup exam and he has just a few short weeks to get the grade he needs to be able to still play on the team. After catching a glimpse at Hannah’s grade he decides she must tutor him . . .one problem  . . . she says no, more like hell no, and seems to be the only female at the school immune to his charm.

Garrett fails at getting Hannah to tutor him until he finds her Achilles’ heel in the form of a football player named Justin. Garrett makes a deal with her to help get his attention if she tutors him till the make up exam. What neither of them expect is that they will quickly become friends and even depend on each other when times are tough. Both have some intense emotional baggage and as friends they find that they can help heal each a bit. How long can these two go on being friends when it is clear to everyone around them that they mean so more to each other than they let on.

“Oh my God. are you kidding me?” “What’s wrong?” “Are you taking human growth hormones or something? There’s no way that huge man monster is fitting inside me?”

What can I say about this book that is stronger than I LOVED IT! I really did, it was funny yet emotional. After reading one especially steamy scene I was surprised to find that I (a person who never cries when reading) was tearing up. How can one scene be so funny and sexy and also so rooted in emotion that I had to stop reading and message the author telling her how I feel. Normally, I talk to my book friends but no one I knew had read it yet and I NEEDED to talk about it. To me that is the mark of a great book and author, one that sparks so much emotion that one NEEDS to talk about it.

“Hannah is cool. She is also beautiful and smart and funny. And she’s not broken.”

I hope everyone takes time and read this amazing book. In my opinion, this book is worth every penny and both NA lovers and even those who don’t normally read it will love this incredibly well written story!

~miranda

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I burst into the locker room and — Penises! Sweet Jesus. Penises everywhere. Horror slams into me as I register what I’m seeing. Oh God. I’ve stumbled onto a penis convention. Big penises and small penises and fat penises and penis-shaped penises. It doesn’t matter which direction I move my head because everywhere I look I see penises.

5 Smooches!

Synopsis

Sound is an abstract concept for most people. We spend our lives blocking out the static in order to focus on what we believe is important. But what if, when the clarity fades into silence, it’s the obscure background noise that you would give anything to hold on to?

I’ve always been a fighter. With parents who barely managed to stay out of jail and two little brothers who narrowly avoided foster care, I became skilled at dodging the punches life threw at me. Growing up, I didn’t have anything I could call my own, but from the moment I met Eliza Reynolds, she was always mine. I became utterly addicted to her and the escape from reality we provided each other. Throughout the years, she had boyfriends and I had girlfriends, but there wasn’t a single night that I didn’t hear her voice.

You see, meeting the love of my life at age thirteen was never part of my plan. However, neither was gradually going deaf at the age of twenty-one.

They both happened anyway.

Now, I’m on the ropes during the toughest battles of my life.
Fighting for my career.
Fighting the impending silence.
Fighting for her.

Every night, just before falling asleep, she sighs as a final conscious breath leaves her.

I think that’s the sound I’ll miss the most.

Each book in this series can be read as a standalone.

Review

I have had the pleasure of reading all of Aly Martinez’s books.  I knew after reading her Wrecked and Ruined Series that I would love anything her imagination could conjure up.  I wasn’t prepared for Fighting Silence though.  It was a whole new ballpark and believe it or not I loved this book even more than her others.

In an alpha book world where billionaires, stepbrothers, and dark MC books tend to be dominating the romance genre, comes Till Page.  He is a new breed of alpha hero.  Till will make you hot in all the delicious book boyfriend ways that we have come to love and in the next breath, you will want to hold him and care for him; protect him from his present and shield him from his future.  Your heart will break for him and your soul will root for his happily-ever-after:  Eliza.

Fighting Silence is Eliza and Till’s journey from the tender age of 13 when all they have is a condemned apartment, dirty clothes, and each other.

“That window she crawled into is magic.”

“Nu-uh,”

“I’m serious.  It’s a magical portal that takes you to a fantasy world.  There are no parents or teachers.  Everything is nice and clean, and the pantry is always stocked.  The best part, though, is that she’s always there.”

“Is she magic too?”

“Absolutely.”

Their story spans years and their friendship grows.  All the while you are falling more and more in love with these two beautiful people.  All the while you are dying for them to finally come together.  But Till never plans to have Eliza the way he truly wants her.  That would ruin his fantasy because the truth is he needs the fantasy.  The fantasy is what is keeping the present away and the future from looking so grim.  Till would rather have Eliza’s friendship than nothing at all.   It is the nothing at all that really terrifies him.

“I can’t have you without claiming you for forever.”

“Then claim me. I’ll claim you too.”

“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of, Eliza.”

Eliza and Till have a fight on their hands.  There story isn’t an easy one.  They will fight for each other.

“There is nothing in this world that was ever more mine than you,”

 Fight for Till’s little brothers, Flint and Quarry. (who you also grow to love)  Fight the poverty that they were born into and fight the silence that eventually Till will have to live with.

Get ready for an action packed story; windows, doors, doodles, impending silence, and hopes of becoming the heavy weight boxing champ of the world will enrapture you.   These Two poor kids with big dreams and even bigger obstacles will capture your heart forever.  This is not a book I’ll likely ever forget and one I’ll read again and again.  I cannot wait for the next book in this series.  It is Flint’s story and I have a feeling I might love him even more than Till.

“It was Flint’s turn to fight.”

~Amie

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4 Smooches!

Synopsis

The Five Stages of Falling in Love is a Contemporary Romance. 
Elizabeth Carlson is living in the pits of hell- also known as grief.

Her husband of eight years, the father of her four children and the love of her life, died from cancer. Grady’s prognosis was grim, even from the start, but Liz never gave up hope he would survive. How could she, when he was everything to her?

Six months later, she is trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered life and get the kids to school on time. Both seem impossible. Everything seems impossible these days.

When Ben Tyler moves in next door, she is drowning in sorrow and pain, her children are acting out, and the house is falling apart. She has no time for curious new friends or unwanted help, but Ben gives her both. And he doesn’t just want to help her with yard work or cleaning the gutters. Ben wants more from Liz. More than she’s capable of ever giving again.

As Liz mourns her dead husband and works her way through the five stages of grief, she finds there’s more of her heart to give than she thought possible. And as new love takes hold, she peels away the guilt and heartache, and discovers there’s more to life than death.

Review

Liz Carlson is the mother of four children and a recent widow. And when a new neighbor moves in, changes happen. Liz is having to learn how to accept help from others and allow herself time to breathe. I could feel the heartache and the daily struggles that Liz had to face. After a crazy encounter that leads her to her neighbor’s house, she begins to feel something very different. Ben Tyler is a lawyer and recently moved next door. He finds something intriguing about Liz. And even though there was the preconceived notion that all men shy away from kids from my personal experience, Ben Tyler was not that. Super sweet and swoon-worthy, Ben was a character the reader was rooting for. I kept talking to my kindle and coaching Ben at every chance I could.  Every emotion that was felt with Liz, I could feel. I loved the idea that Liz could get her opportunity for second chance love. Characters were beautifully written. Aside from feeling the emotions from Liz, I especially felt the emotions of the children. Adults can come to terms with death, and well children, after losing a parent, just have a difficult time. The journey the reader embarks is one of heartache, sorrow, mourning of a spouse and also the beauty that can come from a tragedy. The author did a superb job and felt very real to me. I couldn’t get enough of the story and the cover is gorgeous! Romance readers will fall in love with their story and will never look at a pop-tart the same way again. 4 smooches for The Five Stages of Falling in Love by Rachel Higginson.

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