✯BOOK BLITZ:✯ Caught in Us by Layla Hagen {EXCERPT + GIVEAWAY!}

Caught in Us by Layla Hagen

Release Date: August 3rd 2015

Series: Lost #3

Genres: New Adult, Romance

Dani Cohen knows Damon is trouble the second he walks in during senior year. He has bad boy written all over him. . .from his arrogant smirk to his perfectly toned abs. He is arrogant, intense, rebellious.

Dani has her future all planned out. She’s not the type to fall for a bad boy, no matter how panty-melting his grin is or how shamelessly he flirts. But something about Damon draws her in, awakening a desire she’s never felt. Slowly, she uncovers the secrets Damon hides: underneath his arrogance lies a tortured soul, his flirting smile masks despair.

Damon arrives in Dani’s life against his will. Carrying the scars of a dark past and facing an uncertain future, he knows he should stay away from her, but can’t. Her innocence consumes him, as does the desire to indulge in the passion igniting deep inside her. 

An all-consuming bond blooms into a reckless love. But when mistakes from the past threaten their already fragile future, can their love survive? 

A steamy and emotional full-length, standalone love story from the USA Today Bestselling author of Withering Hope.

Purchase: Amazon, Apple, Kobo

{EXCERPT}

"You're not all that bad for a rich girl," he says.

This snaps me out of my daydreaming. Or, well, lip-dreaming. "You say it like I should take it as a compliment."

"It is a compliment. You're a breath of fresh air." He shifts on his side, facing me.

"So are you. You're different from everyone I know."

"Is it because I'm devastatingly good-looking?" he says mischievously.

I roll my eyes at him. "It's because you are extremely modest. We should go back. You know, hanging around with me is going to ruin your reputation."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You didn’t notice the way people looked at us last Friday? Or today in the cafeteria?"

"So what?" His eyes widen, and he grins. "You're ashamed people might see you with me?"

I gasp slightly. "That's not true."

"You're afraid they'll think we were secretly making out," he teases.

"They will not think that." Heat surges in my cheeks.

"Hazel seems to think exactly that."

I can't be blushing. I can't be blushing. Damon eyes one of my cheeks and then the other. His grin widens. Of course, I'm blushing.

"You'd like to make out with me? You just have to say it. I assure you I'm a perfectly good kisser." He leans into me, his eyes scanning me playfully. Does he know what he's doing to me with his dark green eyes and his annoyingly beautiful lips? He, who must have touched tens of other lips with his, and toyed with as many hearts? My heart beats so fast I legitimately fear I might faint. He's just joking, Dani.

"Not every female around wants to kiss you." How I muster the wits to say the next words, I'll never know. "You're not as good-looking as you think."

"But you admit I'm good-looking?"

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't deny it," he says.

"Please go work your charm on someone else who is more experienced with these games. I'm not."

He pulls back. "What do you mean?"

"We have to go." I take my plate and jump to my feet. He catches up with me on the stairs, grabbing my arm.

"You've never been kissed?" he asks.

I debate lying for a second, but I've never been any good at it. "No, I haven't. Go ahead. Laugh."

He's not laughing. "Why?" he seems genuinely confused, and I almost laugh. He reminds me so much of James right now, who is always completely bewildered by the fact that no guy is into me.

"I don't think I'm anyone's type here at school," I explain.

"Figures. I knew most here are idiots; I didn't realize just how much."

The implication in his words fills me with warmth and relief: that there is something wrong with them. Not with me.

"So no one was lucky enough to taste your lips," he says, and then does something that petrifies me. He runs his thumb over my upper lip, then my lower one. My thighs involuntarily press themselves together as heat billows between them. A whiff of breath rushes through my lips.

"We should go to class," I murmur.

"Sure." A smile plays on his lips all the way to the class. We attract stares, just as I predicted. This time, he does notice them. Leaning into me, Damon says, "You were right. They are looking at us, but I was right too."

"What do you mean?"

"They are convinced we spent the entire break making out. And if you continue to blush so deliciously, I'll wish we had."

AUTHOR BIO:

My name is Layla Hagen and I am a New Adult Contemporary Romance author.
I fell in love with books when I was nine years old, and my love affair with stories continues even now, many years later. I write romantic stories and can’t wait to share them with the world.
And I drink coffee. Lots of it, in case the photo didn’t make it obvious enough. 

Website, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter

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✫BOOK BLITZ✫: Silverwood by Betsy Streeter {EXCERPT + BOOK TRAILER + GIVEAWAY!}

Silverwood by Betsy Streeter

Release Date: March 15th 2015 by Light Messages Publishing

Series: Silverwood #1

Pages: 320

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult

A story of finding where you belong, even if it involves time travel, shape shifting, and hacking.Helen Silverwood, fourteen, is sick of life on the run with her mom and her younger brother. Nothing makes sense. She doesn’t understand why she has recurring dreams of shape-shifting creatures, why her mother is always disappearing, and how her brother can draw things that haven’t happened yet. Most of all, Helen longs to know what happened to her dad—is he imprisoned, a fugitive, or gone forever?When someone blows up the apartment where Helen lives, the stories of the ancient Silverwood clan—and her role in it—begin to unravel. All Helen wants is to feel like there’s someplace she belongs—but getting there will prove very, very complicated.

Purchase: Amazon, B&N, iBooks, KOBO

{EXCERPT}

HELEN SILVERWOOD 

(This is the opening of the book)

Helen Silverwood, fourteen, sits dangling her legs from the roof of a twenty-story brick apartment building. Her boot heels bounce off the wall in rhythm as she swings her feet.

The noise of the city echoes from below. Helen’s straight black hair flies across her face in the wind. She peels it off and pulls it back behind her ear with one hand.

With her other hand, Helen carves a symbol into the brick with a folding knife. It’s a circle, with a square in the middle, and a spiral that goes from one corner of the square out to the edge of the circle. Once it’s done, Helen admires her work.

She folds the knife’s blade into its handle. The knife was a gift from Helen’s father, Gabriel. It’s really much than a knife; the handle sports a variety of buttons and a tiny screen. One of the buttons, when pressed, lights up red and blinks on and off. This is the button that Helen uses to record her journal.

Helen recorded her latest journal entry a few minutes ago on this roof:

RECORDING

Hi Dad, It’s Helen.

Sorry it’s been a while, we were moving. Again. And I didn’t have a roof to get some privacy so we could talk.

Currently, I'm sitting on top of our lovely apartment building in this, our latest greatest home. It's grimy and wet up here, and you have to avoid the puddles. I'm going to do the customary carving of my little symbol up here somewhere, like I do everyplace we stay. I like the way it says: Helen was here. Helen was somewhere. Since I’m sure I’ll be gone again soon. I’m not from anywhere.

When I woke up this morning, I thought the bio reader in the handle of my knife was lit up and I almost fell out of bed. You know, the reader that’s supposed to go on when you come near. Well, the light from the window hit it, I think, and for a split second it looked lit up. But it wasn’t. It’s never lit up.

Mom has been gone every night this week, every night since we moved here. She seems really edgy. The kid brother Henry says so too.

I wish I knew what mom was doing at night. All she ever says is, she has to go to work. And that her job is to keep us safe, and that’s why she does what she does. When she comes home in the morning she looks pretty rough, like she’s been fighting. I’m sure you know all about it, but since this is strictly a one-way conversation, I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me much. Mom is going to have to tell us herself. That is, if we don’t figure it out first.

I have my theories. Theory one: She’s a bodyguard for some mob boss or musician and they tour around and we have to follow. Theory two, which is better: She’s a repo-woman. You know, a person who goes out and takes people’s cars back when they haven’t paid for them and if they fight she kicks their butts and takes the car anyway. Whatever she does, it involves combat skills I’m pretty sure.

Henry has theories too, but his approach is to interrogate mom which doesn’t get very far. He’s only nine, so you have to excuse him, but he’s as smart as any grownup. I think that bothers the grownups.

I’ve got to talk to mom about Henry. He’s having a really hard time. I mean he’s always had a tough time with all this moving around, and he cries every time we pack up and leave. It makes my stomach hurt when I hear him cry.

At his last school Henry got in a lot of fights. And now he’s really quiet. I don’t know, something gives me the feeling he might try and run away. I’m worried about him. And he’s making more drawings of stuff that looks… bad. That’s all I can think of to say.

I say to Henry, someday we’re going to stop moving around, and we’ll have a real home, and dad will come live with us. And we’ll have friends. And a real bed, not just some stuff on the floor. Someday, we will be from somewhere.

I don’t want to be too dreary, so I’ll end on a positive note. Mom always tells me, say something positive. She says she got that from you.

So here it is: At least when we move, I get a break from the dream I always have about the big ugly Tromindox creatures. You know, the ones with the black scales and the tentacles. They look like if I could smell in my dreams, they would smell really bad.

The Tromindox dreams don’t show up for a few days after we move to a new place. Not that it’s all that bad. The dream is the same every time – this slimy thing shows up, and I turn it into a person, and they say thank you about a thousand times and then they leave. That’s it. It’s not a terrible dream, it just happens over and over. I get tired of it, even though the people are different. It’s nice to have a break when we move.

That’s my positive thought for today. No dreams. Maybe instead I can dream about flying for once. Until the Tromindox catch up with me again.

That’s it from the roof, and Dad if you ever get this, I hope I see you soon. We miss you.”

END RECORDING

{BOOK TRAILER}

AUTHOR BIO:

Betsy Streeter grew up on a steady diet of Star Trek, The Muppet Show, Atari, and musical rehearsals in her family's living room. Her habits of making up stories and drawing and painting on everything within reach eventually led to degrees in art and communication from Stanford University. She has worked in film and video production, design, and video games, and has served as president of a community theatre. She and her family are voracious consumers of books, music, movies, art, action figures, and musical instruments, resulting in inadequate storage space. Betsy has published single-panel cartoons, comics, art, and short fiction in paper, digital, graffiti, and tattoo form. She lives in Northern California with her husband, son, daughter, two peculiar and disruptive cats, and a mellow but hungry tarantula. 

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REVIEW: The Princess and the Player by Kat Cantrell

The Princess and the Player 
by Kat Cantrell
Release Date: August 4th 2015 by Harlequin
Series: Dynasties: The Montoros #4
Pages: 194
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Author's Links: Goodreads, Website, Twitter, Facebook
View/Purchase: Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Harlequin, KOBO, Google

In this arranged marriage, falling for the wrong brother leads to a royal romance!

Now that her family will rule Alma, Bella Montoro is a candidate for a royal wedding. But the Miami-born free spirit won't be a pawn in her father's power plays. Though he matches her with an oil baron's son, the princess has a preference for his twin brother, James Rowling.

Long the Rowling black sheep, James is notorious for his way with the ladies. Could it be that the soccer star has met his match in Bella? Or will his reputation--and a little surprise--stand in the way of a happy future together?

(Synopsis taken from Goodreads)

My Review:

The Princess and the Player is yet another book by Kat Cantrell that did not disappoint at all. Her books are page-turners and fascinating. In this particular book we meet two strangers whose destinies collide by pure chance and whose polar opposite personalities has brought them together

For many years the Miami-born free spirited Bella Montoro has lived a somewhat private life. But when your family is royalty in another country, she has had her fair share of being in the spotlight. When she gets the news that her family will rule Alma, her father is determined to bring two powerful families together, and to do that he is willing to marry her daughter of to the Rowling family. Being Bella, her loyalty will always be towards her family and she is willing to marry someone she doesn't love to please her father. Little did she know that meeting her fiance's twin was going to turn her world upside down and completely change the course of her life.

James Rowling has been through a lot, after being a major soccer star, his life changes when he is let go and soon his notorious life as a playboy starts to take off. He has always been known as the black sheep of the family, after all his brother is the one that is going to take over the Rowling business. But when he sees his brother's finace he can't help but to feel the instant chemistry between them, and soon things start to take off from there. With their pasts and future at stake, both of them will have to learn to deal with their pasts in order to move on.

I really enjoyed reading the book, it was a page-turner from the very beginning. From the story plot to the twists and turns, Cantrell does a good job describing what the characters go through in order to find themselves. The characters are likable, both are outgoing and they are willing to risk anything to protect their families. Although James had some issues at the beginning, things slowly progressed throughout the book. We get to fully understand what happened in his past to make him the way he is, and it all tied nicely at the end. Overall if you're looking for a good romance story that will have a fairy tale ending then this story is worth checking out. I highly recommend it along with any other story by the author. ;)

***ARC provided the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.***

My Rating: 

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