Karenschoice books

Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner Series: Cannie Shapiro, #1 Source: Bought Publisher: Washington Square Press Publication Date: April 2, 2002 For twenty-eight years, things have been tripping along nicely for Cannie Shapiro. Sure, her mother has come charging out of the closet, and her father has long since dropped out of her world. But she loves her friends, her rat terrier, Nifkin, and her job as pop culture reporter for The Philadelphia Examiner. She's even made a tenuous peace with her plus-size body. But the day she opens up a national women's magazine and sees the words "Loving a Larger Woman" above her ex-boyfriend's byline, Cannie is plunged into misery...and the most amazing year of her life. From Philadelphia to Hollywood and back home again, she charts a new course for herself: mourning her losses, facing her past, and figuring out who she is and who she can become. I'm going to start off by saying that I've been in a chick lit mood lately - and ...

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley Series: Not announced Source: Bought Publisher: HarperCollins Publication Date: April 28, 2015 Aza Ray is drowning in thin air. Since she was a baby, Aza has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak—to live. So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn't think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name. Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who’s always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world—and found, by another. Magonia. Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can breathe for the first time. Better, she has immense power—and as she navigates her new life, she discovers...

Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton Series:  Angelfire, #1 Source: Bought Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books Publication Date: February 15, 2011 First there are nightmares. Every night Ellie is haunted by terrifying dreams of monstrous creatures that are hunting her, killing her. Then come the memories. When Ellie meets Will, she feels on the verge of remembering something just beyond her grasp. His attention is intense and romantic, and Ellie feels like her soul has known him for centuries. On her seventeenth birthday, on a dark street at midnight, Will awakens Ellie's power, and she knows that she can fight the creatures that stalk her in the grim darkness. Only Will holds the key to Ellie's memories, whole lifetimes of them, and when she looks at him, she can no longer pretend anything was just a dream. Now she must hunt. Ellie has power that no one can match, and her role is to hunt and kill the reapers that prey on human souls. But in order to survive the dangerous and an...

Love by Lacey Weatherford Series:   Crush #3 Source:  bought Kindle Publisher:  Moonstruck Media Publication Date:  April 12, 2014 Age Genre: New Adult (not explicit) Challenges: Prequel-Sequel Challenges: Contemporary Challenges: TBR - Paid For Find on Leafmarks!  Living happily ever after has always been part of the plan for Cami and Dylan, but when strange things begin happening around the Wilcock household, Cami simply believes she’s becoming forgetful. However, when the incidents begin to escalate, both are left feeling vulnerable. Unable to figure out what’s going on, Dylan delves deeper into the mysterious happenings. But when the truth comes out, he finds himself faced with the biggest decision of his life—how far will he go to protect the one he loves? *To see spoilers, mark them with your mouse* Love is the final book in the Cami x Dylan chronicles. We've watched these two since high-school (sort of), battling maniac after maniac, surviving and bein...

YOU CAN FIND AN UPDATED VERSION OF THIS REVIEW ON MY NEW BLOG, AFTERWORDS!  Destiny Binds   by  Tammy Blackwell Series: The Timber Wolves Trilgoy #1 Source: bought kindle boxset Publisher: Indie Age Genre: Young Adult Originally published:  Feb 4, 2013 Challenges: Re-Read Scout Donovan is a girl who believes in rules, logic, and her lifelong love of Charlie Hagan. Alex Cole believes in destiny, magic, and Scout. When Alex introduces Scout to the world of Shifters, men who change into wolves or coyotes during the full moon and Seers, women who can see your most private thoughts and emotions with a mere touch, the knowledge changes everything and everyone Scout thought she knew. . For this week's Oldie, I'm bringing back one of my favorite shifter series ever , after recently re-reading it. It's also one of the most underrated books and series out there. I mean, seriously. You don't need to read this review - go read the book instead. That's time better sp...

Relatively Famous by Heather Leigh  Series:   Famous #1 Source:  Free Kindle Copy Publisher:  Shelbyville Publishing Publication Date:  June 7, 2014 Age Genre: Adult Relatively Famous on Leafmarks This is NOT your average Hollywood romance. There are no virgins falling in love with hot actors. There isn't a famous guy falling for the normal girl next door. What there IS in this book, is a fragile, damaged girl and the sexy alpha who rescues her. Sydney Allen is trying to be your average 24 year old New Yorker. It’s hard to be average though when your mother is Evangeline Allen, an Oscar winning actress known as “America’s Sweetheart” to moviegoers across the globe. It’s even harder to be average when your dad is Reid Tannen, Hollywood Bad Boy and one of the highest paid actors in the world. Their divorce when Sydney was 12 years old was set off by a series of haunting incidents that left Sydney scarred mentally and physically. Hollywood destroyed her parents’ m...

So, today I want to discuss with you contemporary   romance series , and share what types I read and what type I don't on the most basic level. As a rule, I don't read those kind of series that deal with the same couple throughout all the books . I cannot get enough of standalone series, and I enjoy them immensely but once I see the couple's story is not finished in that first installment... I'm put off. It's has stopped me from one clicking a freebie more than one time.  Why? Because it means said couple just has to go through a TON OF DRAMA to hold more than one book. There are always going to be annoying issues, or misunderstandings, or popping secrets (or exes) or suddenly one will decide he's not good enough for the other after three books of being together just to sustain the interest of the reader... I can't stand that. I rather know the HEA is going to be coming at the end of the book , and not a massive cliffhanger or a new pile of issues. In fan...

Seraphina by  Rachel Hartman Series:   Seraphina #1 Source:  Bought hardcover Publisher:  Random House Age Genre: Young Adult Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high. Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discove...

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen Series:   The Ascendance Trilogy #1 Source:  bought paperback Publisher:  Scholastic Publication Date:  Feb 1st, 2013 Age Genre: Young Adult Choose to lie...or choose to die. Four boys, one treacherous plan, an entire kingdom to fool... In a faraway land, civil war is brewing. To unify his kingdoms' divided people, a nobleman named Conner devises a cunning plan to place an impersonator of the king's long-lost son on the throne. Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant and clever boy named Sage. Sage knows that Conner's motives are more than questionable, yet his life balances on a sword's point -- he must be chosen to play the prince or he will certainly be killed. As Sage moves from a rundown orphanage to Conner's sumptuous palace, layer upon layer of duplicity and deceit unfold, until finally, a truth is revealed that may very well prove more dangerous than all of the lies taken together. When ...

Pieces by Janine Infante Bosco Series:   The Riverdale #1 Source:  Kindle edition Publisher:  indie Publication Date: April 6th, 2014 Age Group:  Adult Jake Lanza is one of Riverdale New York’s favorite sons. He owns a tattoo parlor in the small upstate town and prides himself on being a fun-loving, live by the seat of your pants type of guy. He has everything he wants in life, a thriving business, a great family and a best friend with whom he could never live without. Cara Sloane weaved her way into Jake’s life when they were fifteen years old. After her life fell apart at such a young age, Jake helped her heal, and began to pick up the pieces of her fallen life. His unconventional ways slowly had him becoming the anchor in her life. Now fourteen years later Jake begins to see Cara in a new light. The things he thought he never wanted, he suddenly began to yearn for. The only problem was they were both too frightened to lose the greatest love either of them has ever...

Last Breath by Rachel Caine Series:   The Morganville Vampires #11 Source:  Bought paperback Publisher:  Allison & Busby Publication Date:  Oct 28, 2011 Age Genre: Young Adult Claire Danvers is concerned when three vampires vanish from Morganville without a trace. The last person seen with them is someone new to town - a mysterious individual named Magnus. Claire is convinced creepy Magnus isn't human... but is he a vampire, or something else entirely? Claire's hunt for answers leads her to solving another mystery that's long been puzzling her: why do vampires live so far out in a sunny desert when they're sensitive to sunlight? The answer has nothing to do with sunlight, but with water - and an ancient enemy who has finally found a way to invade the vampires' landlocked community. Vampires aren't the top predotor on earth. There's something worse that preys on them... something much worse. Which means if Claire, and Morganville, wants to live, they will...

Adventures of a Graveyard Girl by Milda Harris Series:   Funeral Crushing #2 Source:  Bought kindle copy Publisher:  indie Publication Date:  April 23rd, 2012 Age Group: Young Adult Kait Lenox is back! It's Homecoming Dance time and Kait is excited. It's her first dance with a date and that date is none other than one of the hottest, most popular guys in her school, Ethan Ripley! For once Kait doesn't feel like a funeral crashing weird girl and it's the most perfect romantic evening ever...at least until a girl gets murdered in the high school bathroom. Rumors fly, panic ensues, and Kait can't help herself, she assigns herself to the case! DNF Wow, a third DNF review in so many weeks. I know this makes me look bad, I do , but I swear things are not as bad as they seem. I only have thirteen books marked a DNF on Goodreads. I probably have a few more I didn't mark, but no more than twenty, twenty five - in three years of over 470 books. That's a pretty good p...

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch Series:   Gentleman Bastard #1 Source:  bought paperback Publisher:  Gollancz Publication Date: 2007 Age Group: Adult due to character's ages and language The Thorn of Camorr is said to be an unbeatable swordsman, a master thief, a friend to the poor, a ghost that walks through walls. Slightly built and barely competent with a sword, Locke Lamora is, much to his annoyance, the fabled Thorn. And while Locke does indeed steal from the rich (who else would be worth stealing from?), the poor never see a penny. All of Locke's gains are strictly for himself and his tight-knit band of thieves. The Gentleman Bastards. The capricious, colourful underworld of the ancient city of Camorr is the only home they have ever known. But now a clandestine war is threatening to tear it apart. Caught up in a murderous game, Locke and his friends are suddenly struggling just to stay alive... DNF The Lies of Locke Lamora sounded like the perfect book fo...

Take Me On by Katie McGarry Series: Pushing the Limits, #4 Source: Bought Publisher: Harlequin Teen Publication Date:  May 27, 2014 Acclaimed author Katie McGarry returns with the knockout new story of two high school seniors who are about to learn what winning really means. Champion kickboxer Haley swore she'd never set foot in the ring again after one tragic night. But then the guy she can't stop thinking about accepts a mixed martial arts fight in her honor. Suddenly, Haley has to train West Young. All attitude, West is everything Haley promised herself she'd stay away from. Yet he won't last five seconds in the ring without her help. West is keeping a big secret from Haley. About who he really is. But helping her-fighting for her-is a shot at redemption. Especially since it's his fault his family is falling apart. He can't change the past, but maybe he can change Haley's future. Hayley and West have agreed to keep their relationship strictly in the ring...