Under the Lights by Dahlia Adler #BookReview #Playlist #Giveaway

 
Under the Lights (Daylight Falls #2)
by Dahlia Adler
Publisher: Spencer Hill Contemporary
Release Date: June 30th 2015
Genre: GLBT, Young Adult/New Adult, Contemporary

Josh Chester loves being a Hollywood bad boy, coasting on his good looks, his parties, his parents' wealth, and the occasional modeling gig. But his laid-back lifestyle is about to change. To help out his best friend, Liam, he joins his hit teen TV show, Daylight Falls...opposite Vanessa Park, the one actor immune to his charms. (Not that he's trying to charm her, of course.) Meanwhile, his drama-queen mother blackmails him into a new family reality TV show, with Josh in the starring role. Now that he's in the spotlight—on everyone's terms but his own—Josh has to decide whether a life as a superstar is the one he really wants.

Vanessa Park has always been certain about her path as an actor, despite her parents' disapproval. But with all her relationships currently in upheaval, she's painfully uncertain about everything else. When she meets her new career handler, Brianna, Van is relieved to have found someone she can rely on, now that her BFF, Ally, is at college across the country. But as feelings unexpectedly evolve beyond friendship, Van's life reaches a whole new level of confusing. And she'll have to choose between the one thing she's always loved...and the person she never imagined she could.

    
Under the Lights is a great story about love winning and finding your place in the world. We get to live life through the perspectives of Vanessa and Josh as they deal with being a part of Hollywood.

It’s hard to explain my relationship with Josh. I didn’t like him, his annoying vulgarness felt like he was trying too hard. If I met him in real life I would call him out on it. He’s the guy that I would roll my eyes at if I met him at a party. I don’t hate him either though. Which is weird. The thing about Josh is that he is what he is. Take it or leave it he doesn’t care. As the book progresses and he forms a stronger bond with Vanessa, my opinion of him changes. By the end of I actually end up liking him.

I loved Vanessa. She is sassy and snarky but still a little vulnerable. I liked how even though she spends some time confused she doesn’t really lead people on. Sometimes she gets sucked into what other people want for her and starts following along a track but once she takes hold of her life. She makes good decisions.

Vanessa and Brianna are such a great couple. They have chemistry right from the get go and we get so see how things develop from them. To be honest as much as I thought Van and Bri are perfect for eachother I almost wanted to rip Van in half so that Josh also could be with her. I don’t if I have ever liked both love interest so much. When Van picks one over the other it’s not heartbreaking or terrible. She still has a great friendship.

There is so much a love about this plot. I mean Dahlia Alder’s writing is perfect first of all but get to see Hollywood through the eyes of a minority. That is definitely something different. Van brings up many good points. She might be a star of a major network tv show but how many Asian-American’s do you see holding the lead in a movie? Every time she made a point about that and why she felt she needed to do what people said it made sense. I felt sorry for her and realized it seems ridiculous that it’s even the case. So we have two things that Van is struggling with, that she might be gay and how that will affect her job and the fact that she is asian and how will that affect her job in the future. The way it’s laid out is great. Also we have Josh’s side of things where he is more struggling with the fact that maybe he isn’t so sure what wants to do and have a Hollywood starlet for a mother might have influenced is life more than he even realized.

I really enjoyed this book and now I need to go back and read the first one. Which you don’t need to read in order to read Under the Lights, but I want to know more about how Ally and Liam got together. I loved the plot and the writing and I hope we are not completely done with Daylight Falls.



I'm an Associate Editor of Mathematics by day, a Copy Editor by night, and I blog at The Daily Dahlia, YA Misfits, and the Barnes & Noble book blog. I also write contemporary YA (The Daylight Falls duology) and NA (The Radleigh University series). Rec-ing books is approximately my favorite thing in the universe, with macarons being a close second. Come say hi on Twitter, where I'm @MissDahlELama!
     





Unboxing my June @Owlcrate Box!

Today seemed like the perfect day to share my Owlcrate box because June's theme was
DIVERSITY!

So cool things came in the box. First off Dumbledore is no fool
This is a little scroll hanger thing. Very cool

Then I got some cool accessories

Read More - Diverse Books earrings
Then the Wings you put on your shoes.

The book choice for the month is....
More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

I've heard people rav about how awesome this book is. I know there was big buzz at BEA15 so I'm excited to read it. 

There was also a poster included in the box. Sorry for the awful picture, I'm not great with poster picture taking apparently.

One of these days I'll get all my posters hung up. 

So yay for the Owlcrate box. What a perfect theme for this month!






The Forgotten Mountain by Heather Lyons Release Day! #Excerpt #Giveaway

I'm very excited to be sharing this release with you today. I love both Heather and Alice in Wonderland, so with her mad writing skills we have an excellent series.

After years spent in Wonderland, Alice Reeve learned the impossible was quite possible after all. She thought she left such fantastical realities behind when she finally returned to England.

Now Alice has become a member of the clandestine Collectors’ Society, and the impossible has found her again in the form of an elusive villain set on erasing entire worlds. As she and the rest of the Society race to bring this mysterious murderer to justice, the fight becomes painfully personal.

Lives are being lost. Loved ones are shattered or irrevocably altered. Each step closer Alice gets to the shadowy man she hunts, the more secrets she unravels, only to reveal chilling truths. If she wants to win this war and save millions of lives, Alice must once more embrace the impossible and make the unimaginable, imaginable.

Sometimes, the rabbit hole leads to terrifying places.



   


Click on the Titles for My Reviews of Previous Titles
 
THE COLLECTORS’ SOCIETY

THE HIDDEN LIBRARY


The van door behind us slides shut. A click signals Marianne’s adherence to my wishes, and then we three descend upon the front door, the crunch of dead leaves and twigs beneath our feet cutting through the uneasy silence the gloom sunrise has brought. In a surprising show of gentlemanly manners, the A.D. moves to open the door. When the handle does not depress, a half smile curves his lips. “It’s locked. But no worries. I can have it picked open in no time.”
“There is no need.”
Darkish-blonde brows scrunch together. “But—”
“Stand to the side, please.”
When he fails to move at my thinly veiled order, Mary not so gently yanks our companion away.
The door before us is thick. The handle is ornate. It is a beautiful door, no doubt chosen specifically to adorn a building as fine as Bücherei. It takes me three strong, measured swings of my war hammer against the handle and its surrounding area to break it apart and permanently scar its beauty. Picking a lock is kind, respectful even. A picked lock can be relocked. I do not wish this door to close behind me. I do not wish to be respectful of Bücherei.
The time for genteel manners is gone.
The A.D. is in danger of catching flies with his mouth as he ogles the door’s remnants. For someone who professes to be so clever, he certainly underestimates ladies far too often.
Stale darkness, oppressive and opaque all at once, looms before us. I am unafraid, though. I am not even taken aback. I believe in the impossible, after all. I have seen, lived the impossible.
I step past the wreckage into the house.











Heather Lyons writes epic, heartfelt love stories and has always had a thing for words. In addition to writing, she’s also been an archaeologist and a teacher. She and her husband and children live in sunny Southern California and are currently working their way through every cupcakery she can find.

   





Tangled Webs by Lee Bross #GuestPost #Giveaway

Title: TANGLED WEBS
Author: Lee Bross
Pub. Date: June 23, 2015
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Pages: 323
Formats: Hardcover, eBook

London, 1725. Everybody has a secret. Lady A will keep yours—for a price. This sumptuous, scandalous YA novel is wickedly addictive.

Lady A is the most notorious blackmailer in the city. With just a mask and a gown to disguise her, she sweeps into lavish balls and exclusive events collecting the most valuable currency in 1725 London—secrets.

But leading a double life isn't easy. By day Lady A is just a sixteen-year-old girl named Arista who lives in fear of her abusive master, Bones, and passes herself off as a boy to move safely through the squalor of London's slums. When Bones attempts to dispose of his pawn forever, Arista is rescued by the last person she expects: Jonathan Wild, the infamous Thief Taker General who moves seamlessly between the city's criminal underworld and its most elite upper circles. Arista partners with Wild on her own terms in the hopes of saving enough money to buy passage out of London.

Everything changes when she meets Graeden Sinclair, the son of a wealthy merchant. Grae has traveled the world, has seen the exotic lands Arista has longed to escape to her whole life, and he loves Arista for who she is—not for what she can do for him. Being with Grae gives something Arista something precious that she swore off long ago: hope. He has promised to help Arista escape the life of crime that has claimed her since she was a child. But can you ever truly escape the past?

   

WRITING SPACE

 

 
 My Office / The Library


When I need a quiet place to shut out the world (Hey, I have kids and a husband and dogs and a cat!) this is where I go. I put on some good music, grab my laptop and I’m good to go! Most of the time, I work at my standing desk where I am reminded to WRITE. (Not pictured are the snacks, usually something chocolate in nature!)




Lee writes YA for Delacorte as @laniebross and for Hyperion as @lee_bross. She also writes NA under L.E. Bross. Repped by Mandy Hubbard.

   






Tour Schedule:
Week One:
6/15/2015- The Bibliophile ChroniclesInterview
6/16/2015- Addicted ReadersReview
6/17/2015- FiktshunGuest Post
6/18/2015- Please Feed The BookwormReview
6/19/2015- Two Chicks on BooksInterview 

Week Two:
6/22/2015- Jump Into BooksReview
6/23/2015- Library of a Book WitchGuest Post
6/24/2015- She Dreams in FictionReview
6/25/2015- Reading with ABCInterview
6/26/2015- BookCrushinGuest Post