Blackmail Boyfriend by Chris Cannon #BookReview #Giveaway

Blackmail Boyfriend
by Chris Cannon
Release Date: 08/11/15
Entangled Teen: Crush

Summary from Goodreads:
Sometimes, blackmail is the only weapon a girl has…

Haley Patterson has had a crush on golden boy Bryce Colton for ages. But then when she hears a rumor—Bryce is telling everyone that he hooked up with her. With Haley’s reputation taking a nosedive, she gives Bryce him a choice: be her boyfriend for a month for a month or face the angry, cage-fighting boyfriend of the girl he actually did hook up withto show other guys that she’s dateable—despite her overprotective and very intimidating brothers.—or deal with the angry, cage-fighting boyfriend of the girl he actually did hook up with.

Bryce didn’t know the other Haley even had a boyfriend. He was just trying to get his ex off his back. And now doesn't know what's more unbelievable, not only is—that he's he being blackmailed, or that he's being blackmailed by an honor student. His little “hook up” was supposed to end his problems with girls, not create new ones. Not only that, but his new “girlfriend” has two overprotective brothers, three-legged dogs, her father mows grass at the country club, and she's…well, difficult. And different.

Besides, everyone knows that perfect boys never fall for imperfect girls…Sometimes, giving in is all a boy can do…Can something so fake turn into something real?

    

Blackmail Boyfriend by Chris Cannon takes on of my favorite plots and turns it into a fun and adorable read.

The romance had kind of slow burn mostly on Bryce side. I love the fake relationship trope, it’s one of my absolute favorite plot lines. What I liked about this one is that Bryce really didn’t fall for Haley very easily. He was pissed she was blackmailing him, which of course makes perfect sense. Plus he is this straight laced guy and Haley comes stomping in like a piranha on a sugar high. She doesn’t keep any feelings in and let’s him know exactly what she thinks he should be doing. Bryce is thrown off by her being that he is used to dating for looks and status, not girls that would challenge him. They are able to learn from one another.

Haley comes from a family where she is the youngest with two older brothers. Having three older brothers myself I can relate. You learn to not have much a filter and eat abnormally fast. Haley can sometimes overreact but the great thing about her is that she also says what she’s thinking. So even though things impulsively come out of her mouth, it’s easier to clear the air with her.

Bryce is a bit emotionally closed down. He’s not used to having an outpour of emotions from his family members so he’s in a way trained to keep them in. He also has some ocd tendencies where he likes things a certain way. So he struggles a little with the whole relationship idea.

I loved the side characters of Jane and Nathan. Honestly they were pretty adorable. Especially with their daily cupcake date. Which also made me hungry by the way. I want Jane to bake me some cupcakes too. :)

I also really enjoyed when they went to Nathan’s house. I remember I hung out with this kid in high school and he was a goth guy no big deal. We went to his house one day and were like where are we going. Houses kept getting bigger and bigger. We were blown away, the entire basement was his room. It was funny.

This book was a cute and fun read. I read it in a day because it has an easy flow to it. It’s a nice book when you are looking for something less on the intense side.

Chris Cannon lives in Southern Illinois with her husband and her three dogs, Pete the shih tzu who sleeps on her desk while she writes, Molly the ever-shedding yellow lab, and Tyson the sandwich-stealing German Shepherd Beagle. She believes coffee is the Elixir of Life. Most evenings after work, you can find her sucking down caffeine and writing fire-breathing paranormal adventures or snarky romantic comedies.

   

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Boiling Point by Tessa Bailey #CoverReveal

Get ready for Boiling Point! The next installment in Tessa Bailey's thrilling Crossing the Line series. We hope you love the cover as much as we do!

Release date: January 26, 2016

Falling for a con man is the most dangerous game of all...

Con artist Austin Shaw's been in disguise so long he's not sure where his fake identities end and he begins. Now that he's been strong-armed into working for a specialized undercover unit working with the Chicago police—criminals with unique “skills”—the last thing he needs is to risk his iron control. Especially when it comes to a certain stunningly sexy hacker who tempts him with every look of disdain.

Polly Banks will never, ever trust a con man. On the trail of a ruthless crook who destroyed the only family she's ever known, Polly is unnerved by the shadow who follows her every move. The one who makes her pulse pound and breath short with lust. Austin. He's infuriating, enigmatic, and pure sex appeal, and she's determined to resist him.

But an untrustworthy man of disguise can become anyone he wants...including a man that Polly must trust if she's to escape their dangerous game alive.

  

Tessa Bailey is originally from Carlsbad, California. The day after high school graduation, she packed her yearbook, ripped jeans and laptop, driving cross-country to New York City in under four days.

Her most valuable life experiences were learned thereafter while waitressing at K-Dees, a Manhattan pub owned by her uncle. Inside those four walls, she met her husband, best friend and discovered the magic of classic rock, managing to put herself through Kingsborough Community College and the English program at Pace University at the same time. Several stunted attempts to enter the work force as a journalist followed, but romance writing continued to demand her attention.

She now lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband of seven years and three-year-old daughter. Although she is severely sleep-deprived, she is incredibly happy to be living her dream of writing about people falling in love.

   

Playing the Player by Lisa Brown Roberts #BookReview #Playlist #Giveaway

Title: Playing the Player
Author: Lisa Brown Roberts
Release date: September 14th 2015
Publisher: Entangled Teen

The Good Girl Vs. The Player

Round one begins...

Trina Clemons needed the money. Why else would she - the most organized, prepared student in school - spend the summer as a nanny and partner with the biggest slacker ever? Now she's ready to tackle nannyhood with her big binder of research and schedules. Just don't ask her about the secret job of "fixing" the bad habits of a certain high school player...

Slade Edmunds prefers easy hook-ups, and Trina is definitely not his type. She's all structure and rules, while Slade wants to just have fun. Fortunately, Trina has no idea about the bet Slade made with his best friend that he can totally get her to unwind by the end of summer...

Then the weirdest thing happens. There's chemistry. A lot of it.

But nothing gets between a boy and a girl like a big, fat secret...

  

Playing the Player takes the fun of having a summer job and falling in love and squishes it into one adorable book.

At first I didn’t like Trina or Slade. Well Slade a little better than Trina. I got really worried that I might not ever like them. The story was still interesting though and I wanted to know what would happen. Then an unfortunate incident with a paper shredder occurs and things take a turn. I found myself.

I have to say one of my favorite things that Slade does is make a comment to Trina about the fact that just because you are not an Honor student doesn’t mean you don’t have to ability to be one. That right there Slade, high five. I’m pretty sure it endeared him to me after that. Plus although he could be into himself quite a bit, you could tell he has a good heart. Plus he’s good with kids, who doesn't like a guy who is good with kids.

As their relationship changes from enemies, frenemies, friends to romantic interest it was cute to see how the two of them combat that. Especially Slade, I loved the when he was falling for Trina. He wasn’t necessarily second guessing himself like Trina but it was more like do I want this. The back and forth between almosts was adorable to read.

Secrets and lies, secret and lies. You’ve always got to have some of those. I actually expected some things to come to light sooner but they both had a bit of an over reaction to them. I felt like there was more focus on how to win someone back as there was the slow burn up to the romance.

Overall the book is really cute and I liked how Trina and Slade kind of develop together. It’s just a very cute romance.

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Lisa Brown Roberts still hasn't recovered from the teenage trauma of nearly tweezing off her eyebrows and penciling them in for an entire school year. This and other painful memories inspire her to write books in which girls big on wit and heart earn happy endings with swoony guys...eventually.
Her almost forever home is Colorado, though she occasionally pines for the days when she lived within walking distance of the Pacific Ocean. Her house is full of books, boys, four-­legged prima donnas, and lots of laughter.

   

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Blackmail Boyfriend by Chris Cannon Release Day! #Excerpt #Giveaway

I'm excited to share the release day for Blackmail Boyfriend with you. I've already read it and it's adorable. My review will be on the blog August 18th for the Blog Tour

Blackmail Boyfriend
by Chris Cannon
Release Date: 08/11/15
Entangled Teen: Crush

Summary from Goodreads:
Sometimes, blackmail is the only weapon a girl has…

Haley Patterson has had a crush on golden boy Bryce Colton for ages. But then when she hears a rumor—Bryce is telling everyone that he hooked up with her. With Haley’s reputation taking a nosedive, she gives Bryce him a choice: be her boyfriend for a month for a month or face the angry, cage-fighting boyfriend of the girl he actually did hook up withto show other guys that she’s dateable—despite her overprotective and very intimidating brothers.—or deal with the angry, cage-fighting boyfriend of the girl he actually did hook up with.

Bryce didn’t know the other Haley even had a boyfriend. He was just trying to get his ex off his back. And now doesn't know what's more unbelievable, not only is—that he's he being blackmailed, or that he's being blackmailed by an honor student. His little “hook up” was supposed to end his problems with girls, not create new ones. Not only that, but his new “girlfriend” has two overprotective brothers, three-legged dogs, her father mows grass at the country club, and she's…well, difficult. And different.

Besides, everyone knows that perfect boys never fall for imperfect girls…Sometimes, giving in is all a boy can do…Can something so fake turn into something real?

    

“We need to talk.” Bryce gave an exaggerated sigh.

“Okay.” I opened my bag of chips.

“I’m sorry, but there’s someone else.”

He wanted to break up with me in the cafeteria? Fat chance. I leaned toward him and touched his arm in a girlfriend sort of way. “If you planned to stage a public breakup with me, you can forget it.”

Amusement showed in his hazel eyes. “Think you can stop me?”

“Yes. First, I’m going to appeal to your sense of decency. I’m not a hook-up kind of girl. Thanks to you, the entire school thinks I am.”

He snagged a chip and popped it in his mouth. “Do you even date?”

Ouch. It’s hard to have an active social life when you have two older brothers who chase everyone away, which is why I need you to stick around and stop that cycle.”

“Sucks to be you.” He stole another chip.

“If you don’t go along with Operation Boyfriend Bait, I’ll go with plan B.”

His brows came together. “Ratting me out to Denny?”

“After he pummels you into the ground, people will definitely believe you slept with his Haley and not me, so doesn’t it make more sense to play this my way? We both win.”

Jane came back and took her seat. “What did I miss?”

“He’s trying to break up with me. I gave him two options.”

“You or dismemberment by Denny?” she guessed.

“Exactly.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “What will it be?”

“I pretend to be your boyfriend for a week, and you keep your mouth shut.”

“Two months,” Jane chimed in.

Bryce grabbed another chip. “One week and you can keep the Homecoming tickets.”

“Five weeks and you can have the Homecoming tickets back,” I countered.

“Two weeks,” he said. “And I don’t want the Homecoming tickets.”

“Four weeks.” He reached for another chip and I smacked his hand.

His mouth dropped open, and then he laughed. “That was not good girlfriend behavior.”

I pulled the bag of chips closer. “Landing me in detention was not good boyfriend behavior.”

He grinned all-knowingly. “You didn’t mind at the time.”

My face heated. “Whatever. I want four weeks, the Homecoming tickets, and a double date with Jane and Nathan.”

“Thank you.” Jane bounced in her chair.

“Thought I’d share the wealth.” I smiled at Bryce. “And this should go without saying, but I expect you to play my monogamous boyfriend. When this is over, we’ll do a mutual breakup with no one to blame.”

He sat back and seemed to weigh his options. “Three weeks, keep the tickets, one double date, and a no-fault breakup. Deal?”

Chris Cannon lives in Southern Illinois with her husband and her three dogs, Pete the shih tzu who sleeps on her desk while she writes, Molly the ever-shedding yellow lab, and Tyson the sandwich-stealing German Shepherd Beagle. She believes coffee is the Elixir of Life. Most evenings after work, you can find her sucking down caffeine and writing fire-breathing paranormal adventures or snarky romantic comedies.

   

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The Nightmare Charade by Mindee Arnett #BookReview #Playlist #Giveaway

Title: The Nightmare Charade
Author: Mindee Arnett
Series: Arkwell Academy #3
Release date: August 4th 2015
Publisher: Tor Teen

The final installment in a thrilling fantastical mystery series.

Sixteen-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she’s a criminal. No, she’s a Nightmare. Literally. Dusty is a magical being who feeds on human dreams.

Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother’s infamy is hard enough, not to mention the crazy events of the past year. Dusty may have saved the day, but there are many days left in the year, and with an old foe back to seek revenge, she'll need all her strength to defeat him and save her friends.

Mindee Arnett thrills again in this stunning final installment in the Arkwell Academy series.

The Nightmare Charade is the final book in Mindee Arnett’s Arkwell Academy series and it’s been a fun ride. I’ve kind of thought of this as being a wizarding world, paranormal, scooby-doo mashup. Where Marrow shakes his fist and goes, those pesky kids. I love boarding school stories like this, there is something that I really enjoy about them.

I loved from the beginning the unique take on the paranormal aspect. There are Fairies warlocks and Mermaids (not called mermaids, I always forget their name) but then there are the Nightmares. Mindee’s creation of this nearly extinct paranormal creature is what sold me on this series in the first place. Dusty (Destiny) and her mom, Moira, are such cool characters. Both headstrong and defiant. They are forces to be reckoned with and the fact that they feed off people’s dreams is even cooler. Imagine being able to walk through someone’s dream and see what’s in their subconscious or in Dusty’s case as a dream seerer be able to relive events.

We have been leading up to The Nightmare Charade in the last two books. Although Dusty defeated Marrow they knew he wasn’t gone for good. The only problem was they didn’t know when or how he would come back. Plus it’s difficult to trust people when you are never sure what side anyone could be on. I have really enjoyed the mystery and even though I did figure out things fairly quickly, I think it has to do with my own skeptical mind with trust issues, I still found the book enjoyable. Just because you know what all the puzzle pieces look like you don’t always know exactly how they are going to all fit together. The clues were pretty strong so I felt like it was going for leading to you to the ending so that even though parts are surprising it doesn’t come out of nowhere.

I think boarding school gives you more freedom as fair as parental involvement but there is plenty of adult supervision. It’s why Dusty and Eli can’t seem to catch a break, being that the curse is hanging over their heads. Dusty and her mom definitely have a unique relationship being that her mom kind of flits in and out but it’s really strengthened since the start of the series. It’s really one of the major character changes we see.

Dusty, Eli, Selene and Lance were all still lovable to me. We have seen them change and grow. Especially Dusty and Lance and even though the series has ended. Who knows maybe we will see the dream team again.

The Midnight Charade was a great third book for the series. I think if you are a fan of boarding school novels. Then you will definitely enjoy this one.

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YA Author of THE NIGHTMARE AFFAIR, a contemporary fantasy coming March 5, 2013 from Tor Teen (Macmillan) and AVALON, a YA sci-fi thriller coming Winter 2014 from Balzer+Bray (HarperCollins). Represented by the fabulous Suzie Townsend of New Leaf Literary. Addicted to jumping horses and telling tales of magic, the macabre, and outer space.
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