Saturday 29 June 2019

πŸ’œ Jay McLean πŸ’œ HEARTACHE AND HOPE πŸ’œ #HeartacheDuet1 πŸ’œ

© Bianca Janeane
   



• 28 June 2019 
Heartache Duet #1
• YA/NA

★★★★
5 Stars
Ava Diaz needs saving.
She just doesn’t know it yet.
Just like she doesn’t know a thing about the boy
she sits next to on the first day of senior year.
He thinks she’s a brat.
She thinks he’s entitled.
Maybe first impressions don’t always last
Because Connor Ledger’s about to save her.
He just doesn’t know why.




OK - I'll write a longer review later - scroll down for that - but for anyone who doesn't want to get spoilered AT ALL ... I will just say this:
HEARTACHE AND HOPE was ... just that. It was so full of emotion and love and pain and family and loss and hope and the future and sport and the past and growing up and fighting to just ... be happy.
It was a beautiful young adult love story with a bit of heartbreaking drama and a bit of an unsure future for our two darlings.
I LOVED IT. Adored it. And I can't wait to read the 2nd book - there might have been a tiny little Cliffy. (OK, it was a lottle Cliffy!) ☺
NUFF SAID!
Now here comes my 'bigger' review. It doesn't spoil anything really, but it tells you a bit about the background and what's happening exactly.

_________________________________________


Connor just moved to North Carolina with his dad. He needs to make the best of the Basketball scholarship at this rich-kids school if he wants to have a chance at professional sports.

Ava is also starting her senior year at that school.
Her homelife is not what you might call easy.
Her stepdad left them a while back and now she and her stepbrother have to take care of everything. Food, money, school, work ... and ... her mom.
She's been badly hurt in Afghanistan and it's not easy living with her. It's not something a 17 year old kid should have to do on her own.

The only happy moments Ava has these days are when she's with Connor. The new kid at school. He's beautiful and sweet and funny and he likes her - when the whole town talks badly about her family.
But nothing can ever happen between them. Her mom has to be her priority .... and his priority has to be Basketball.
Right?

What will happen with Ava & Connor?
Will there be a HEA?
READ THE BOOK TO FIND OUT!
 







Well, that was so effing heartbreaking and adorable!

You immediately fall in love with Ava and Connor. You just want to grab them and hug them and promise them everything will be okay.
Their lives have been very hard. In different kinds of ways, but still hard.
Ava had the perfect teenager life until her mom came back home broken.
And Connor's life started hard and he and his dad have been fighting to be where they are now ever since.

Ugh - it's all so very sad and hopeless. But of course we hope that all their dreams will come true and that they both get their happily ever after together. But we have a long way to go until we might get that.
This is book #1 of 2! But the second book will be with us in two weeks - I CAN'T WAIT!

There were some tiny little moments where I wanted to hit some people over the head - but you have to keep in mind that they're only 17 years old. I still adored the story! ☺

HEARTACHE AND HOPE was such an adorable & heartbreaking young adult sports dramanceRun to your nearest amazon asap for your own Connor - he'll be sold out in no time !!!




ARC received for an honest review

Image

So, this old bird rarely reads YA these days (I am soooo far away from their ages that it is often hard for me to connect with the characters), however the minute that Jay McLean announces she is releasing a new book, I am counting down the seconds until it arrives on my Kindle.

This book has it all in the title - it is full of heartache and hope.  You can't help but fall in love with Ava and Connor and all the complexities of their lives

Gah, there is so much I want to tell you about this book, however I can't as you need to devour this one and all it's emotions, going in blind to get the full effect.

I have had a run of meh and good books lately, and it was great to get into a story that just just had that extra "wow" factor.

I mean, being a duet, we know there is gonna be a cliffy of some sort, and as soon as I finished reading, I was looking at my Kindle for the second part of the duet.

I know it is only a couple of weeks away, but if Ms McLean could see fit to release it earlier, I won't complain.  ThxnOK





♥ GIVEAWAY ♥

$100 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway http://bit.ly/2YdxgH9  

♥ EXCERPT ♥

They look like fireflies. The way the water falls from the sky, illuminated only by the streetlamps. I stand in the middle of the road, barefoot and barely breathing, my arms out, face to the sky. I don’t know how I got here. When I climbed out of my window, the sun was just setting and now… now I’m surrounded by dark skies and false hope. […] I know I should go home. That I should face my fears and tackle them head-on. My mind travels the right roads at the right time to get me there, but my heart… My heart takes me to Connor. Outside his bedroom window, mud seeps between my toes, and the frigid air creates goosebumps along my skin. I raise my fist and tap, tap, tap on the glass. A moment later, a light turns on. And then nothing. I tap again, my heart racing. The blind lifts and Connor appears, his eyes squinting. It’s clear he’d been asleep, or close to it. Hair a mess, he’s shirtless, the obvious beginnings of bruises mar parts of his torso, and I look down, shame filling every part of me. I bite down on my lip as he slides the window up. “Jesus Christ, Ava. What the hell are you doing?” His warm palms meet my soaking wet elbows, and then his entire body is cocooning mine, lifting me off my feet and into his bedroom. My feet land on his soft carpet, and I look down at the mess I’ve made. “I’m dirty,” I tell him. Inside and out. Dirty, dazed and damaged.

 LINKS TO THE BOOKs & AUTHOR 
  



Book #2 will be out in 2 weeks!




Jay McLean is an international best-selling author and full-time reader, writer of New Adult and Young Adult romance, and skilled procrastinator. When she’s not doing any of those things, she can be found running after her three little boys, investing way too much time on True Crime Documentaries and binge-watching reality TV.
She writes what she loves to read, which are books that can make her laugh, make her hurt and make her feel.

Jay lives in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, in her dream home where music is loud and laughter is louder.

For publishing rights (Foreign & Domestic) Film or television, please contact her agent Erica Spellman-Silverman, at Trident Media Group.


Tuesday 25 June 2019

★ Sarina Bowen πŸ’ SUPERFAN πŸ’ Brooklyn #3 / Bruisers #6 ★

© Bianca Janeane
   


• 25 June 2019
• Standalone

Brooklyn Bruisers Hockey Series #6
Brooklyn Series #3
★★★★★
4.75 Stars
Sometimes lady luck shakes your hand, and sometimes she smacks your face. Sometimes she does both on the same day.

Three years ago I met the most amazing woman. We were both down on our luck. Then I got that callthe one that tells you to get your buns on a plane to go meet your destiny.
But the girl was left behind. I didn’t have her phone number, and she didn’t know my real name.
While I became a professional hockey player, she became a superstar, with platinum records and legions of fans. And a slick, music producer boyfriend who treated her badly.
But fate wasn’t done with us yet. When Delilah turns up at a hockey game, I can’t resist making contact. The internet swoons when I ask her out on a date.
She might not remember me. But her jerkface ex does. He’ll do anything to keep us apart.
Good thing athletes never give up. This time I’m playing for keeps.



ARC received for an honest review

I love love love the Brooklyn Bruisers series, and I was absolutely thrilled to get an early copy of Superfan.

If you have read the previous books in this series, you will remeber Silas and how all the other Bruisers guys tease our goalie mercilessly about being Delilah Spark's superfan

But boy was there more to that story than we knew - I was pleasantly surprised as to how their story began.


Silas and Delilah's story is at times fun and flirty, and at times sad and a little heartbreaking.  Both have moved onwards and upwards in their careers, however neither have been really fulfilled emotionally.

I loved getting more of those Brooklyn guys and their gals, and I love how they have become more of a family than blood.

I laughed out loud at times, particularly with the Bruisers family - oh how I love them all.

There were characters that I was unsure of for a while, who I was not sure if I should trust or not.  Oh, and there were also some that I didn't just hate - I loved hating them, and they deserved every sh!t thing that was tossed their way haha

The things that I like about series about hockey players - there are always trades, there are always retirements, there are always changes in the team.  And that means that Ms Bowen has to keep writing these books to infinity and beyond for me - yay!!!

I can't wait to see where we are taken next.





Finally Silas!
We've already heard about his Delilah addiction in the last book!
And now we hear all about how he met her three years ago - when he was jobbing as a bar tender in California. And Delilah was an ΓΌber-talented girl about to hit it big in the music business. At least that's what Silas promised her. What he didn't tell her was his real name! And his profession! She thinks he's a Cali surfer bar guy named Ralph! LOL!
And now they're in contact again - via twitter! Only Delilah - a superstar now - doesn't know anyone named Silas! Yet.

LET THE FUN TIMES BEGIN!!!!! ☺




Such an adorable story!
I'm not the biggest hockey romance fan - but I just adore the boys and girls in this series - and anything Sarina writes is amazing anyway!

Silas and Delilah. Adorable and a bit sad and heartbreaking. Both haven't had the easiest time with their lives and careers. But they're finally both where they always wanted to be.
Now they just need to get that romantic happily ever after - with each other. Which won't be easy. She's living in California and he's in Brooklyn. Plus her idiot ex is trying to sabotage her love life and her career.
But the reader adores every single second of their journey to that happy end!

SUPERFAN was adorable, funny, sad, heartbreaking, sweet, hockey-ish, music-ish, Brooklyn-ish ... and so much more! Silas is just ΓΌber-adorable!

I loved it!

SUPERFAN was an adorable + fun + sweet + heartbreaking Hockey/Music Romance!!! Run to your nearest amazon for your own Silas - this one is MINE!




 LINKS TO THE BOOK & AUTHOR 
  





  




🍎🍏🍎 Sarina's True North Series πŸŽπŸπŸŽ

BOOK #1



YA Rockstar Romance-ish

   


US


Good Boy





Sarina Bowen writes steamy, angsty Contemporary Romance and New Adult fiction from the wilds of Vermont.

She is the author of The Ivy Years, an award-winning series set amid the hockey team at an elite Connecticut college.

Waiting for more Ivy Years? You can read more about upcoming volumes in the four book series at http://www.sarinabowen.com/theivyyears

Also, the Gravity series.

Sarina enjoys skiing, espresso drinks and the occasional margarita. She lives with her family, eight chickens and more ski gear and hockey equipment than seems necessary.

To be kept abreast of new releases, please feel free to sign up for the mailing list at http://www.sarinabowen.com/contact.

Or visit the her Facebook page, or tweet her @sarinabowen.