Friday, October 2, 2015

Hello, everyone!!! I've missed you!!! It's been quite awhile hasn't it? *sheepish grin* Life is busy and crazy wonderful but I've missed this community and outlet in my life. But I'm back today for a very special reason! One of my favorite authors, and someone I'm honored to call a friend, Shannen Crane Camp has brought me something exciting to share with you all: the cover to Keeping June, the 4th and final book in her June series!!!!!

My heart is a bundle of mixed emotions at this reveal. I am very excited to be so close to getting my hands on the final installment of this wonderful series....


....but as many of you know...along with that comes the pain and sadness at having to say goodbye..


...but despite if all, we are not here to cry, but celebrate this exciting release! And those of you who are already familiar with the June series know that Shannen has been blessed by the cover gods. Well let me tell you that Keeping June is no exception. :) So without further ado (because let's be honest, you'll just scroll through all the information if I delayed..) I present, in all her vintage, romantic beauty.........Keeping June!!









Isn't it beautiful?! *swoons from the happy feels* Now, for a little refresher & a special sneek peek!

The June books is a YA/LDS fiction series that follows June Laurie, actress and vintage romantic, in her journeys navigating life, acting and love. Filled with humor and romance these books explore what it means to find yourself and standards in a crazy world.

**for more detailed summaries, follow the Goodreads link for access to each individual book.

Shannen Crane Camp was born and raised in Southern California, where she developed a love of reading, writing, and anything having to do with film. After high school, she moved to Utah to attend Brigham Young University, where she received a degree in Media Arts and found herself a husband in fellow California native Josh Camp. The two now live in Utah with their miniature schnauzer Hemingway. Shannen's true love is Young Adult Fiction though she often dabbles in New Adult, Paranormal, and Mystery. She takes any opportunity to include her love of film and video games in her writing and you might just find a nerdy Easter Egg or two hidden in her works.

And now for even more excitement....a snippet of Keeping June that I got begged and pleaded Shannen to share. I hope you love it just as much as I do!!

        
     
     My fingers were all prune-y from the amount of time I’d spent being sprayed by water on set that day. Even though it was a five minute scene, I’d ended up getting soaked for nearly three hours, and now my skin was rebelling by refusing to look normal. I sighed at the impossibility of ever looking normal after a day of shooting.
  
      My cheeks were always bright red from scrubbing makeup off, my hair was usually a hard shell of over-hairsprayed 1950s curls, and my feet killed from walking around in heels on set all day. Luckily, everyone else looked about the same.
   
     Stepping out of my trailer with a purse slung over my shoulder, I walked through the nearly dark studio lot to where Joseph would pick me up. Gran had finally given me the vintage red car of hers that I’d always wanted since I was officially getting married and she’d wanted it to be a wedding present. I’d offered to pay her for it a million times, but she absolutely refused. As a compromise, I told her I’d buy her a car, but she countered by saying that would defeat the purpose of a gift.

      Still, in the end, we’d come to the understanding that I’d pay for at least half of the car so I wouldn’t feel so terrible about just taking it. And now the beautiful vehicle was mine. But the problem with an old car, was that is was an old car, which meant it broke down more than I’d like to admit. So while it was in the shop, Joseph was shuttling me around.

     Looking down at my phone and sending Joseph a quick text to let him know I was on my way, my concentration was broken by Ryan, who had exited his own trailer at the same time as me,

     “Please don’t be a text-walker,” Ryan joked with a little smile.

     Things were definitely still weird between us, but I was glad that he at least made an effort to forget about all the drama that had happened in the past.

     “For you, I’ll change my ways,” I promised, sticking my phone back in my purse and continuing the walk to the front of the studio.

     Ryan walked with me in silence for a few minutes. I wasn’t sure if it was an awkward silence or not. I guess it all depended on what Ryan was thinking. Either way, I didn’t like it and felt like it needed to be broken up.

     “So, did you get our wedding invitation in the mail?” I asked, realizing too late that I was breaking up a potentially awkward silence with definitely awkward conversation.

     “Yeah, it was nice,” he said, looking at his feet as he walked and sticking his hands in his jacket pockets.

     These were the classic Ryan-feels-awkward signs. I knew him well enough to know when he was uncomfortable.

     “You can bring Dez,” I said, hoping this would be a nice olive branch for our friendship. There was no reason we couldn’t go back to being friends, no matter how cliché it sounded.

     Ryan squinted his eyes for a moment, as if figuring out how to respond.

     “Yeah,” he began slowly, sighing before continuing on. “I don’t think I’ll be going.”

     “Oh,” I replied, deflated by this revelation.

     “It’s nothing personal, it’s just… you know… a little weird still.”

    Which made it personal. Not that I would point that out.

    “Of course,” I agreed, trying to act like this didn’t hurt my feelings a little. “I just wanted you to know you were invited.”

     “I appreciate it,” he said, looking up then over at me. “I think your ride is here.”

     Following his line of sight I saw Joseph Cleveland, my childhood sweetheart and soon-to-be husband standing beside his old VW Bug and giving me the sideways smile that always made his brown eyes crinkle in the corners. As sad as I was that Ryan and I wouldn’t be best friends any time soon, somehow, seeing Joseph put my worries at ease.

     I tried not to smile too much when I saw him. I didn’t need Joseph getting a big head or Ryan thinking I was trying to make things weird. Instead I just winked at him so that Ryan wouldn’t see.

     It was difficult worrying about the feelings of your on-screen husband and your soon-to-be husband all the time.

     “Hey Ryan,” Joseph said with a nod at the man who used to be his friend and was now… whatever they were.

     “Good to see you,” Ryan responded. “Bye, June.”

     And with that he was gone.

     I waited for him to walk around the corner before I let the smile I’d been holding back break over my face.

     “Joseph Cleveland, how gallant of you to come and rescue me when I was stranded without a car,” I said, trying to sound as dramatic as possible.

     Joseph smiled and slid an arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him.

     “I must be pretty gallant then, because you never seem to have a working car.”

     He leaned closer to me, touching my nose to his.

     “I’m starting to think you sabotage all of my transportation just to prove that you’re a gentleman.”

    “That wouldn’t be very gentlemanly,” he said, touching his lips to mine in a slow kiss.

     I wished I could say that kissing Joseph was old hat by now and didn’t faze me in the slightest. But that would be a lie. It always felt like my stomach was dropping out from under me when he kissed me.

     “You’re a gentleman,” I promised him as I pulled away with a ridiculous smile on my face.

     He smiled back before shaking his head.

     “I was about two seconds away from saying “Hey, thanks for being paid to kiss my fiancé all day, because that’s not awkward at all,” when I saw Ryan,” Joseph began. “Before I realized that nothing about that joke would be funny. It would just get really weird really fast and everyone would think I was secretly plotting to kill your TV husband.”

     I made a face at this idea.

     “Yeah, I’m glad your brain stopped that particular “joke” before it had the chance to escape,” I agreed. “It would just be like all the times Candice jokes about killing Lucas Leighton. We think she’s being funny but no one’s really sure.”

      “I don’t think anyone is really unsure on that front. I think her hate for Lucas Leighton is pretty obvious.”

     Shrugging my shoulders at the truthfulness of his statement, we got into the car and headed back toward Simi Valley, to the street we’d both grown up on our whole lives. The VW Bug, however, that usually smelled faintly of gasoline, now smelled like blueberries and my stomach growled at the warm sugary scent.

     “What is that glorious smell?” I asked Joseph, closing my eyes and breathing in deeply.

     “Oh, right,” he exclaimed, reaching behind him as he drove and producing a small round object from the back seat. “It’s a cup pie.”
I studied the small blueberry pie that fit in his palm and wondered if it was too cute to eat, or if my growling stomach would ignore its aesthetic appeal in favor of how amazing it smelled.

     “Where did you get this?” I asked, taking the cup pie from him and inhaling the scent once more.

     “I made it,” he answered, obviously proud of his accomplishment.

     “Since when do you know how to make regular pies, let alone cup pies?”

     “Since today, when my mom taught me after my classes.”

     I looked over at my fiancé who always seemed to know that the way to my heart was through food and romantic gestures that often went hand in hand, and let out a small laugh.

     “You just thought, “Hey, today is a good day to learn to bake pies”, did you?”

     “We’re getting married soon, which means we’ll need to actually feed ourselves and if I’m only able to cook one meal for the rest of my life, I want it to be pie,” he explained.

     “While I totally agree with the idea of eating pie forever, why are you the one who’s learning to cook. I’m the wife. Shouldn’t I be working on that particular aspect of our forthcoming domestication?”

     Joseph nodded his head slowly, as if considering my words carefully.

     “You’re right. I should probably go to my classes for six hours each day, then come home and sit around until you get home from a twelve hour work day, and then force you to cook me dinner, so that we can eat by midnight.”

     “See, I know you’re being sweet right now, but I can see right through you,” I told him, taking a bite out of the cup pie, which actually turned out to be just as delicious as it looked. “You do get brownie points… or pie points, for wanting to make dinner since I work so late and not wanting me to be overwhelmed, but I know the real reason you want to cook, is because you don’t think I could learn to cook even if I wanted to.”

     I was expecting Joseph to lie about his faith in my nonexistent cooking abilities, or at least to think about it for a minute, but he didn’t skip a beat in answering.

     “I love you more than any boy has ever loved any girl,” he began sincerely. “But we’ll both be dead in a month if we try to eat your cooking.”

***************************************

And there you go! So cute. So wonderful. All the happy happy feels!! :) Thanks to Shannen for sharing that gem along with the gorgeous cover! The book is going to be fantastic. :) And now last but not least, here is the official synopsis for Keeping June. Make sure you all go check Shannen and her books out! 


June Laurie has spent the better part of her young adult years in the Hollywood world of fame, envy, and rumors, and has managed to come out of it mostly unscathed. Now that she’s finally followed her heart and married her true love, she knows she’s found the perfect end to her story. But at twenty-two years old, it turns out her story is only beginning — and marriage, it seems, is more of an opening act than a finale. When fans of June’s television show start spreading online rumors about her faithfulness to her new husband and fabricating an off-set romance between her and her costar, she learns that even marriage offers no immunity from the gossip that always seems to haunt her. With complications in her personal and professional lives threatening to topple them both, will June be able to hold to her beliefs and her newfound happiness, even as what she thought was her perfect ending transforms into the challenges of reality that lurk beyond the fairytale?

Have a marvelous day!


Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Hi from the Monticello Gardens!
It's been over two months since my last post. TWO MONTHS! And besides that I've only posted 18 times this year, and twice in the last 6 months. This is just sad. I even missed my Blogoversary in May and my birthday later in August! Things have been crazy and I just had to pop in for an update and to say hi! And also that 2015 is going to  be the year I get back into blogging (if only part-time)! But more on that in a minute. I figure I owe all of you a bit of a life update beyond any Tweets you may have seen.

I think I've mentioned back in January that school has been a priority and on the side I've just been enjoying life (back in January, sheesh!) That is still true! I started doing concurrent enrollment at the community college nearby in August and had a great semester. Partly because I was taking an Italian class, which is something I've wanted to learn for a long time, and it is just SO MUCH fun! I'm loving it, and had such an awesome teacher. Ciao!

Gettysburg!
So my fall has been filled with midterms, enjoying the World Series (yay Giants!), as well as trips to the East Coast(pictured above & to the left) and Disneyland! Recently in December I've been swamped with Christmas choir performances, finals, sickness and then Wisdom Teeth this week! But despite it all blogging has never been far from my mind. Especially when my favorite blog friends remind me how much they miss me. (Love you guys!!!) And that's why with 2015 and New Years Resolutions around the corner  I'm going to get my blogging back on track!

My goal at the moment is just to post once a week at minimum. I've been reading so much great stuff this past week over break and even the past few months that I want to tell you guys what I've been reading and discuss things with you guys! So you can expect one post each week! I don't know if posts will be limited to one day or anything like that yet, but we'll see where this goes. I'm just going to focus on posting what I want and reviewing what I love! No more tours or obligations for a while, just books! If there's anything you want to see from me(discussions, opinions, tags, etc) let me know guys! I'm down for fun discussions and topics as well as reviews and book love. Anything you've read that you want to recommend? I'd love to see those as well! 

With that quick note, I will see you all next week, if not later this week, with a review or something fun. I hope you have all had an AMAZING holiday season spent with family and friends! Let me know what you guys have been up to and reading lately! Let's talk it up on Twitter or down below!

Love you all!

Friday, October 3, 2014
Hey everyone! Long time no blog! I've been busy lately with school and life, so I haven't much time to blog! But I have been reading, and I'm back today to talk about one of those books in particular: The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander, which is celebrating it's 50th Anniversary! How cool is that? (So cool!) I was lucky enough to get to be a part of this Blog Tour as a new fan and tell you all about it! 

A Note From The Publisher:
Puchase 50th edition at Barnes & Nobles

Henry Holt Books for Young Readers is proud to publish this 50th Anniversary Edition of Lloyd Alexander's classic The Book of Three, the first book in the Chronicles of Prydain, with a new introduction by Newbery Honor–winner Shannon Hale. This anniversary edition is filled with bonus materials, including an interview with Lloyd Alexander, a Prydain short story, the first chapter of the next Prydain book (The Black Cauldron, a Newbery Honor book)an author's note (Shannon Hale), and a pronunciation guide.
The Book of Three
by Lloyd Alexander
Published: August 1964
Source: Publisher (Thank you!)

Taran wanted to be a hero, and looking after a pig wasn't exactly heroic, even though Hen Wen was an oracular pig. But the day that Hen Wen vanished, Taran was led into an enchanting and perilous world. With his band of followers, he confronted the Horned King and his terrible Cauldron-Born. These were the forces of evil, and only Hen Wen knew the secret of keeping the kingdom of Prydain safe from them. But who would find her first?
It's been a long time since I've been so charmed by a book, as The Book of Three charmed me! There's a special magic to middle grade books that you can't find in YA literature, and I loved rediscovering that through this book. It brought back so many nostalgic feeling of all the fantasy books I devoured as a kid. Oddly enough though, The Book of Three was never one of them, so I'm so happy to finally have it in my repertoire!

Short and sweet, this book holds all the elements you could possibly want in a childrens book; everything from a king who wears antlers, to an enchanted pig! And who doesn't love the fact that the protagonist is the Assistant Pig-Keeper for the magical pig? That's a win right there.

From the get-go, Lloyd Alexander takes us on a well-narrated ride that flows as fast as the Great Avren itself as with our hero Taran we are thrust into a world of danger and adventure that doesn't seem to let up for one minute. We experience rivers, dungeons and battles oh my, mysterious and ridiculous creatures, dangerous enemies and plenty of laughs along the way. And while Taran may be a bumbling idiot that lost Hen Wen you can't help embrace him for his lovable and true heart. Speaking of Hen Wen, who knew pigs could be such a boss?

This book is a ride that will delight and captivate you as you experience the adventures of Taran, Gwydion, and yes, even Gurgi. Children, teens and adults will enjoy this all-around magical tale of one Assistant Pig-Keeper who had the journey of a lifetime. I am definitely glad I finally got around to reading this book, I haven't had so much pure fun reading in a while. Here's to 50 more years of Pyrdain!
Thanks for reading! Before you go enter the giveaway for your own 50th anniversary edition, check out the previous reviews on the tour! There are some awesome bloggers participating, both old and new fans of the book spreading the love!

Monday September 22 - YA Bibliophile 
Tuesday September 23 - Maria’s Melange 
Wednesday September 24 - The Book Wars 
Thursday September 25 - Bunbury in the Stacks 
Friday September 26 - Manga Maniac Café
Monday September 29 - Read Now Sleep Later
Tuesday September 30 - The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia
Wednesday October 1 - Word Spelunking
Thursday October 2 - Proud Book Nerd
Friday October 3 (Today!) - Book Haven Extraordinaire
It's now your turn to enter to win a beautiful 50th anniversary edition of this beloved classic! (pictured above). The contest will run until October 14th, and is open to US residents only. Thanks to Macmillan for sponsoring this giveaway!
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Thanks for visiting! Happy Friday! XOXO,
Tuesday, August 12, 2014


Welcome to Day 2 of the Beat the Heat Read-a-thon hosted by my pals Jessi of Novel Heartbeat and Reanna from Phantasmic Reads! I hope the reading so getting going for you all! My Day 1 was super packed but I'm ready to read and I'm super excited to be hosting a super fun challenge for you guys to add to the fun of it all.

To kick things off we're going an Unscramble that Book Title challenge! *imagine flashing lights and a booming announcer voice*

How The Challenge Works:
-There are ten different book titles that have been scrambled.
-These books range from classic to YA to popular fiction so there really is no hint of genre I can give you.  They will be well known though, so stick to that knowledge.
-If there are multiple words, the letters will not be scrambled by word.
-To enter the challenge fill out the form with your answers and submit.

Other Details You May Want To Know:
-This challenge will run from August 12 - August 18th.
Participating in this challenge will give you an extra entry for the readathon giveaway hosted by Jessi and Reanna.
-I am not hosting my own giveaway for this challenge individually.
-I will post the complete list of answers on August 19th here on my blog, as well as some honorable mentions of those who did exceptionally well in the challenge.
-If you have any more questions, ask in the comments below.

THE CHALLENGE!!!!!!

1. oLre fR hdn tisog
2. mhe gGHern sueTa
3. oGli nGer
4. ammVier epyAcda
5. didrP nej aciuerPde
6. gDiretnev
7. G mara oh rfTeson
8. keh oToB hefiT
9. raryH rPetto
10. driCne

Now unscramble the titles and submit your answers in the form below! Good luck!!


Thanks for stopping by guys! Don't miss the schedule of other challenges that can be found on either Jessi or Reanna's blog! Good luck and happy reading! :D


Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Hey everyone! Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for The Treatment my Suzanne Young! The Program, was one of my favorites of last year and I'm so excited to share this sequel with you!

The Treatment
by Suzanne Young
Published: 4.29.14
Pages: 352

Can Sloane and James survive the lies and secrets surrounding them, or will The Program claim them in the end? Find out in this sequel to The Program, which Publishers Weekly called “chilling and suspenseful.”How do you stop an epidemic?Sloane and James are on the run after barely surviving the suicide epidemic and The Program. But they’re not out of danger. Huge pieces of their memories are still missing, and although Sloane and James have found their way back to each other, The Program isn’t ready to let them go.Escaping with a group of troubled rebels, Sloane and James will have to figure out who they can trust, and how to take down The Program. But for as far as they’ve come, there’s still a lot Sloane and James can’t remember. The key to unlocking their past lies with the Treatment—a pill that can bring back forgotten memories, but at a high cost. And there’s only one dose.Ultimately when the stakes are at their highest, can Sloane and James survive the many lies and secrets surrounding them, or will The Program claim them in the end?

For information about book one, The Program, see here. 


About The Author
Originally from New York, Suzanne Young moved to Arizona to pursue her dream of not freezing to death. She currently resides in Tempe, where she teaches high school English. When not writing obsessively, Suzanne can be found searching her own tragic memories for inspiration.

Suzanne is the author of several books for teens, including THE PROGRAM, A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL, and A WANT SO WICKED. 

Now that we've got the info out of the way, it's time for something really fun! I got the awesome privilege of interviewing Suzanne about her and her Progam duology, and here's that she has to say! Enjoy!

The romance between James and Sloane is a huge part of the books. What is the first thing you do in building up a strong romance? 
Dialogue. The way a couple talks to each other and interacts says a lot about who they are and their relationship. I sometimes write pages of dialogue before anything else. The best part of Sloane and James’s relationship was their humor, their inside jokes. It helps that they have a long history together, so there was a built-in trust and mutual respect.

Where did the idea for The Program/Treatment come from? Or when, did it really start to take shape in your mind?
I’d been writing a contemporary novel about suicide, but it was hitting a little too close to home. I caught a commercial for an anti-depressant where suicide, especially in young adults, was a side effect. I started researching and learned about suicide clusters. From there, the idea of an epidemic formed. I then thought about a cure and found a treatment for PTSD that used memory manipulation. The Program was very much based on real life situations and solutions. 

What is your favorite thing about writing for a YA audience?
The emotions. As an adult, I’m jaded and cynical sometimes. I love the thrill of experiencing something for the first time, actually experiencing it without comparison. It’s fun and enlightening to write situations with that mindset.

Are you a daytime or nighttime writer?
I’m a morning writer. I’m basically useless after lunch.

What inspires you to keep writing when it gets tough? 
It’s always tough. I’m also a high school English teacher, and I consider myself lucky. When writing gets me down, I have another outlet for my creativity and an audience. I get to come to work every day and inspire teens—and really, it’s a pretty awesome feeling to get people to love reading.

Are you the kind of writer to snack while she writes/reads? If so, what's your ideal "writing snack?" 
I love Cheez-its or pretzels. I also eat candy corn. Rarely chocolate though. Sorry… 
That was so much fun! Thanks Suzanne! Glad to see we share a mutual love of Cheez-its! Hope you enjoyed that, and now it's time for the Giveaway! 

Open to US/CAN, one lucky winner will receive a set of the complete duology! Exciting right? Enter away! Good luck! May the force be with you! (what can I say, I just watched Star Wars)
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Thanks for visiting! Leave some comment love to Suzanne, and happy last day of April!! XOXO,


Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Hey everyone! Welcome to the hashtag 16 Things I Thought Were True tour! I get to blurb this book for you today and get you excited about it! So read on, whet your appetites and then enter the giveaway down below!

#16ThingsIThoughtWereTrue
by Janet Gurtler
Published: 3.4.14
Pages: 283

Heart attacks happen to other people #thingsIthoughtweretrue
When Morgan’s mom gets sick, it’s hard not to panic. Without her mother, she would have no one—until she finds out the dad who walked out on her as a baby isn’t as far away as she thought…
Adam is a stuck-up, uptight jerk #thingsIthoughtweretrue
Now that they have a summer job together, Morgan’s getting to know the real Adam, and he’s actually pretty sweet…in a nerdy-hot kind of way. He even offers to go with her to find her dad. Road trip, anyone?
5000 Twitter followers are all the friends I need #thingsIthoughtweretrue
With Adam in the back seat, a hyper chatterbox named Amy behind the wheel, and plenty of Cheetos to fuel their trip, Morgan feels ready for anything. She’s not expecting a flat tire, a missed ferry, a fake girlfriend…and that these two people she barely knew before the summer started will become the people she can’t imagine living without.

Any Twitter-loving peeps out there? This might be the book for you! Lots of hashtag and twitter going on! Here's a little bit about the Janet, the mastermind behind the book.


About the Author
Janet lives near the Canadian Rockies with her husband and son and a little dog named Bruce. She does not live in an Igloo or play hockey, but she does love maple syrup and says “eh” a lot. 
Janet only gives 5 stars to the books she reviews because she is an author herself and knows that no book can appeal to everyone, but like a child, it is very special to the creator.
I'M NOT HER was published by Sourcebooks Teen Fire in May 2011. 
IF I TELL released Oct 1, 2011 from Sourcebooks Teen Fire.
WHO I KISSED Sourcebooks Fire 2012.
Janet's work will also appear in the THE FIRST TIME anthology, DEAR TEEN ME anthology and WHO DONE IT anthology.

If you're feeling in a contemporary mood, Janet is for sure a go-to author with a variety of awesome books under her wing!! Summer's coming guys! Check them out!
Interest picquet yet? Enter to win this fun tour giveaway! And make sure to check out the book links above for info on where to get the book!
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Thanks to Book Nerd Tours for organizing this fun! Check out the full schedule of reviews and fun posts HERE! My review is still to come so keep your eyes peeled in the next couple weeks. Have a great day guys! XOXO,


Wednesday, March 12, 2014
 You guys I am so pumped and honored to be on the Starling blog tour!!! Have been a big fan of this trilogy from the start and sadly missing the chance to get on the Venom and Belladonna tours I'm so excited to finally get the chance to "officially" spam you all with my love for this series, and possibly my favorite of the books! If you're a historical fiction lover and not on this bandwagon yet, now is a GREAT time to do so. Why? You'll find all the possible reasons down below! Enjoy!

Starling
by Fiona Paul
Publishing: 3.20.14
Pages: 336
Source: Thanks to FIONA for the copy! *hugs*

In the final book in the trilogy, Cass and Luca are back in Venice trying to find the Book of the Eternal Rose to clear Luca's name and keep them both out of prison. But the hunters become the hunted when the Order of the Eternal Rose figures out their plan. Filled with twists and turns, danger and torrid romances, this novel brings the Secrets of the Eternal Rose novels to a thrilling, heart-pounding, sexy conclusion.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Fiona Paul lives in the Midwest but travels a lot since she can’t breathe if she spends too much time away from the ocean. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a major in psychology and spent a year teaching English in Seoul, Korea while she was deciding what she wanted to be when she grew up. Answer: everything. In addition to being a teacher and writer, she’s also worked as a saute cook, sporting goods manager, veterinary assistant, and registered nurse. When she’s not working, you can usually find her kayaking, reading, or helping turtles cross the road. Her future goals include diving with great white sharks and writing more books, not necessarily in that order. Venom is her first novel.

Guys...when an author wants to dive with Great Whites...you know she's awesome! Make sure to check her out on social media! She's the bomb! (Also read her books, that's important too. =)
Before I begin I just want to say, that I am disappointed my vote didn't win and this book wasn't called Falco instead, but I think that we can all agree once reading this book that Starling was in actuality the perfect name for this book. And this book, this trilogy is not going to be one I forget for a long time. 

Venom set the stage with a bang, a chilling and dark mystery in a very real historical time period. Belladonna got better and continued the mystery with a smart and fast ride that hooked you in and left you gasping in shock with the revelations and the surprises loaded in the book. And Starling, the end has finally come and it could not have ended better. This book hit me in the feels, it hit me in the everywhere else as well.

It’s hard to know what I can say about this book without spoiling anything in the first two. So many feelings are present in this book, and from page one I was hooked in their grasp, racing along to the finish line with these characters that I had grown to love. I was so very curious, no I was DESPERATE to see how it ended for them all.

Espescially in regards to that quite distinct love triangle. Falco versus Luca. The dark and wild artist against the strong and steady friend. We’ve all seen if before in books, but this triangle is different. It’s set up in a way that by the end of Belladonna I was questioning the feels of my feels. I had no idea what to expect and I was just desperate for the end.  I’m not going to imply or suggest anything that would spoil the ending to such a wildly discussed and intricate romance. But I will say that what did happen was something so right for this book, and this story and these characters, that I wouldn’t have changed it.

That’s a good story.

What makes these books stand out from other historical fiction is the dark mystery aspects that are prevalent. They are not supernatural, but they are mysterious and quite often creepy. Half of the time I found myself immersed and confused at the same time. But it’s so interesting and well told that you just can’t stop, even if it makes no sense at parts. It’s a very unique aspect and in a way I really liked that dark element.

I literally have nothing else to say. With Starling, Fiona has delivered and spell-binding conclusion that will keep you glued to your chair until the last page when all you have left to do is cry and laugh and feel a LOT of feels. 

Thumbs up Fiona. You’ve done yourself proud. Cass, Falco and Luca have forever earned a spot in my heart, and I’ll probably never think of Italy in the same way again. So by all means, hop on this bandwagon (er, gondola) if you haven’t yet! There’s a steady current ready to take you downriver to Venice.

There are my feels everyone. I hope you find this book filled with as much awesome as I did! For more reviews and goodies on this beauteous book check out the full tour schedule here! Now onto the giveaway!
I love this book and I want you to have a chance to win a copy for yourself! Open till March 24th!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks so much for stopping by! Spread some comment love for Fiona (& Falco) in the comments! XOXO,


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