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Reader Question – What are some of the best, unputdownable books you all have read lately and would recommend?

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Today’s reader question day will feature specific reader requests for genre recommendations. Let’s make lists!! 😀

Okay, Debbie asks:

Hi all I have been so busy I have not been able to read for a while and every time I do pick up a book I lose interest quickly. Seems like the same plots just different characters. I am going on vacation and I want a book that is unputdownable 😉

Like the old days, Bones and Cat, Slammed, Thoughtless those are just a few that popped in my head. I have read so many great books!
I just want to get my love for reading back and take a break from the real world. What are some of the best books you all have read lately and would recommend. read more

Book Review – My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan

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My Oxford Year: A Novel
OMG BEST BOOK EVER. Seriously I’m crying as I write this, but I am so absolutely in love with this love story, and I can’t believe my luck that I was able to experience it.

I chose it but vacillated. Suspecting – due to comments – that it was “one of those” books, hearing words like “ugly cry”, “sobbing” and all the warnings that come with “one of those” books – and I was second guessing myself. Was I up for all of that intensity and emotion? But I can promise you, I couldn’t be more delighted. I devoured this one. DE. VOURED.

Michele: This book was a 5 star fave for me!! It is one of “those” books but I thought it was done very well! So worth reading!!

Jennifer: So good!

Kari: This ended up being a book where “that thing that happens” was nowhere on my radar!!! It totally changed the story and made it so so good!

Andrea: Just finished this book. It was epic and amazing and I want more from this author! …I loved this book!

Amy: My Oxford Year (teacher-student drama!)… Oh, you KNOW My Oxford Year was an immediate click for me. I had seen buzz for it before it was released, but the price made me a bit hesitant. But as soon as I saw it was on sale…CLICK! 😀

Cheryl: My Oxford Year scares me; to be compared to Jo Jo Moyes and Nicholas Sparks and a “heartbreaking story.” Think I’ll wait for someone else to guinea pig it and let me know. *whispers I think it’s one of “those” books*

Maryse: That just makes me want to read it more. 😉 read more

Book Review – Cuffed by K. Bromberg

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Cuffed (Everyday Heroes Series Book 1)
The best of both “contemporary romance-book” worlds in this one! Childhood best friends, and it’s a second chance romance to boot! Also, the cop-in-uniform hero didn’t hurt one bit.

That cover? *waggles eyebrows* I know right? He was pretty easy to imagine.

BUT for those that aren’t as taken by an overtly sexy book cover, don’t let it scare you. While this book was steamy and at times, hilarious (ohhhhhh that police escort to the drug store had me laughing out loud), 😛

Tell you what, Em, if it’s such an emergency that you were willing to risk life and limb to get there, I think I should give you a police escort.”

“No! That’s okay—I—”

“Lights and sirens. The whole shebang all the way to . . . CVS, or is it Rite Aid? Which store has the brand you prefer?”

“A police escort, Grant? Really?” Irritation mixes with disbelief.

“Now that you’re a resident of Sunnyville, I’m at your service. Here to protect and to serve.” He flashes a grin that tells me he knows exactly what I’m doing and plans to make me pay for it. read more

Eden Butler’s Top 5 Swoony Books To Read Over and Over + we’re celebrating her latest book release!!

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<— It’s Eden Butler’s book birthday today (she just released her latest, Roughing the Kicker (Saints and Sinners Book 1) – a sports romance featuring the NFL’s first female kicker.”)…

“…The NFL. A pro career. All eyes on the league’s new kicker. Millions of people expecting her to fail.

But Reese wasn’t a novelty and the spot she landed on the New Orleans Steamers was one she planned to keep. With her teammates giving her hell and the world doubting her every move, Reese will have to fight harder than anyone else to make her dream a reality.

Even if that means following the lead of Quarterback Ryder Glenn —the only man who brought her to the edge of ecstasy and the depths of heartbreak…”

…and to celebrate, she’s sponsoring this week’s newsletter and is guest posting today on the site. OMG this is my FAVORITE kind of guest post.

When an author lets us into her own very favorites reads!! YAY US. :D!!!
These are her absolute favorites and I’m right there with her. So many of these are my favorites, too. I have no doubt those who have read these will agree, and if you haven’t, these are MUST READS. Every. Single. One.

Eden Butler’s Top 5 Swoony Books To Read Over and Over

“We all have our favorites, right? Favorite beer, favorite movies, favorite fictional boyfriend whose name we love to scribble with hearts and arrows right across our Trapper Keepers. (Yep. I’m THAT old). That favorite preference is most true, in my not so humble opinion, when we’re discussing books. Some books just resonate with us. Some take complete possession of us and refuse to let go. Some books go bone deep and become as intrinsic to our lives as the color of our eyes and the tone of our voice.

But among those old reliables, even the ones we love to read, again and again, there are still favorites…call them favorites within favorites, especially those of the swoony variety.

My personal favorites are my personal favorites for good reason. They sink their nails in and leave a mark. When I’m in a given mood or want to reread in the hopes that a particular emotion will be invoked, these are the special favorites I go back to because they never disappoint.

While I still claim American Gods and The Night Circus among my all-time favorites, these books are the ones that always leave me with a swoony, love-struck hangover.

So here goes, guys…my Top 5 Swoony Books To Read Over and Over. I’d love to hear about yours in the comments below!”

1. Outlander: A Novel (Outlander, Book 1) by Diana Gabaldon
The Outlander series is a personal favorite for so many people that its inclusion on my personal favorite list shouldn’t be surprising. But there are probably two books, and two major scenes that really make me swoony: the “Lavender Scene” between Jamie and Claire in book one and, of course, the print shop scene in Voyager. Gabaldon set the bar for all writers looking to insert a little breathtaking swooning in their stories and I doubt any of us will ever reach it.

2. Hard Time by Cara McKenna
Oh, Cara McKenna. Thanks to the flattering mention by our own Maryse about Hard Time, I fell hard for Ms. McKenna. (Sidebar: I’ve found that Maryse’s recommendations match perfectly with my own. This lady has exceptional taste). Annie is a librarian worn down by life and an abusive ex, hiding in the dreary northern landscape far from her South Carolina home. She’s the tutor at Cousin’s Correctional Facility, a scary place housing men who take no crap, and Annie holds her own. But when she discovers a connection with one of her convict pupils, the gorgeous Eric, Annie discovers not every prisoner’s story is the same. Through sensaual, erotic and the epitome of swoon-worthy letters, Annie and Eric fall in love.

It’s those letters and ultimate connection they share that make me go back to Hard Time again and again. This book is a lesson in great love letter writing and makes me miss the process, but it’s Eric, that beautifully flawed man, and how attentive, how eager he is to live and be and breath for Annie that keeps me swooning.

3. Shadowfever: Fever Series Book 5 by Karen Marie Moning read more

Book Review – Someone Else’s Ocean by Kate Stewart

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Someone Else’s Ocean
Kate Stewart’s latest JUST WENT LIVE and I had the pleasure of reading an early copy over the weekend!!
It was gentler on us than some of her past super-angsty books that had us in a frenzy, but it sure had it’s share of pull-pull, kindle-throwing moments, and of course… a seriously angsty moment that had my heart in my throat.

So what’s it about?

Koti has been living life on an island renting beautiful vacation houses to tourists, and loving her uncomplicated, and very single life. Having run from her high stress, demanding world, she’s finally found a semblance of peace living on the beach, and helping make visitors happy… even if for just a few weeks. That is, until Ian (her childhood friend that she hasn’t seen in ages) shows up in the vacation home right next door to hers, kicking up a storm.

At one point in time, I thought she was the most beautiful woman alive. At one point in time, I couldn’t imagine a life without her. At one point in time, I would’ve taken a bullet for her, no questions asked. She was my life. She was my purpose, my meaning, my everything. Seething, I fisted my hands at my sides and tried to hold my bite, but it was impossible.

Devastated, furious, brooding and absolutely uninterested in being friendly, he rudely rebuffs her every attempt at trying to connect with him. She has no idea why he’s so upset, but he’s locked himself into his own closed-off world, and she has no idea how to help… or even if she should (despite the promises she’s made his mom to keep an eye on him).

“Why are you concerned about me?”

I could have told him I was paid to be worried about him. But that wasn’t the truth. I was paid to keep an eye on him, but that was the extent of it. My concern stemmed from somewhere else. A place I recognized, a place

I felt like Ian was drowning in.

The lump I tried to speak around kept me quiet for a few moments. And then I gave him exactly what he asked for – honesty.

“Before I came here, I had a really sh!tty thing happen, the kind of thing that breaks people. I think you’re familiar with that.” He slowly nodded.

“Well, I was alone – alone in a way no human should ever be – and I needed just one person to ask me that question. I was surrounded by thousands of people, but I just needed one. And I decided I wanted to be that person for you. Because I do want to know. Because I am worried for you and about you. Because you deserve to have that question asked. So Ian, are you okay?

He didn’t hesitate a second.

“No.”

Tense moments passed as we stared at each other. “And what will you do with that answer, Koti?”

“I’ll keep it in confidence. I’ll respect your need for privacy and I’ll ask you until you say you are, or you could be, or you might be someday.” read more

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