It's Magic Time! Harry Potter Book Tag

I found this tag over on We Live and Breathe Books, and although it seems everyone was doing this back in August, I thought it would be fun to save for when I was doing my Blog Ahead Challenge to have some posts pre-made for November and December.  And really, HP is always good at Christmas time since there is a Christmas scene in every book.  There wasn't a set button I could find, so I made one with my picture from meeting the Weasley twins back in the spring at our local Comic-Con.  This tag was created by Book Roast.



EXPECTO PATRONUM: A childhood book connected to good memories?

 I loved this book so much I did a book report where my mom helped me make a Bunnicula puppet that I still own to this day.  In fact, shortly after I began teaching, the author visited the students at the school where I worked.  I had to meet him and show him my puppet, which he was really impressed with.


EXPELLIARMUS: A book that took you by surprise?

   I didn't ever think this was something I would like.  But I had just begun working at B. Dalton Bookstore, and we were able to strip the cover off of paperbacks that we had to send back when the publisher requested. At the time, there were only 3 or 4 in the series out.  The other employees encouraged me to take the first one home and give it a try.  Needless to say, I was immediately hooked and now am a lifelong HP fan, proud Hufflepuff all the way!


PRIOR INCANTATO: The last book you read?

I actually completed this post back in October, so it was hard to put a book down for this spell. What I ended up going with was what is listed on my blogging calendar for being reviewed right before this post will go up.  I've been reading and loving all the books in the SmartyPants Romance series, and so you'll have to go back to yesterday's blog posts to see how much I might have enjoyed this one!  Now if this isn't the last one I read, it was probably another one in the series.



ALOHAMORA: A book that introduced you to a genre you'd never considered before?

  Okay, so it's probably not a genre exactly, but up until about 10 or less years ago, I was always only into very clean-cut guys.  This is the series that maybe got me reading about tattooed boys with piercings.



RIDDIKULUS: A funny book you've read?

 So, pretty much every book by Emma Hart cracks me up so much!  But, this one was probably one of my favorites, due to its connections to one of my all time favorite tv shows, The Big Bang Theory.



SONORUS: A book you think everyone should know about?

 This is a book that my last school district made a theme for everyone to read one year, and it is short and sweet, and really made me think.  I realized that I do things like when I'm in a bad mood, I take it out on someone without even realizing it.  While I'm still working on not doing these things myself, it has also helped me to realize that someone else may be just doing the same thing and not actually being mean to me on purpose, and that helps just by itself.



OBLIVIATE: A book or spoiler you would like to forget you ever read?

 So if you liked this book,  you probably don't want to read what I have to say about it.  This became a really big seller in the Barnes and Noble where I work for a while, and as it was a print on demand book at the time, we had a lot of people requesting, but it wasn't something we could just get to have on the shelf.  I noticed it was mostly teenagers asking for it, so I decided to get a set of the series for my school library.  Another librarian in the district wondered why I'd ordered them, because they were supposedly erotica.  Um, no.  It's not, yes, there is some sexual stuff in it, but it's not erotica.  I read it because of the other librarian bringing this to my attention.  And wow, it was boring and stupid, and I have no idea why any teen would want to read this book about a middle-aged man, one that isn't even cool in any way shape or form!  So I wish I'd never read it, but I'm glad I did, to know.



IMPERIO: A book you had to read for school?

 I don't feel like I read as many books in school as others had to read, but this is one that I remember reading.


CRUCIO: A book that was painful to read?

 I love dogs.  And this book made me cry so much it hurt at the end!  And even knowing what was going to happen, I went and saw the movie.  It is a book I can never read again and I'll never watch the movie again either.  I just cannot stand reading or thinking about dogs dying. Having had to twice make the decision to put my own dogs down as an adult breaks me to still think about.



AVADA KEDAVRA: A book that could kill (interpret as you will)?

 Left to interpret this one how I would, I am going with the fact that reading and holding this very large, over 400 page book, almost killed my arms.

I don't usually tag people on these, I figure if you want to do this you will.  If you decide to join in, I'd love to have you stop back by and drop me a link to your post so I can check it out.  If you just want to share what your choice for one of these would be, please feel free to leave me a comment with that as well!

Review: Leveled (Saints of Denver #0.5) by Jay Crownover

Book info:
Title:  Leveled  
Author:  Jay Crownover
Series:  Saints of Denver #0.5  
Genre:  New Adult Gay Romance 
Published: December 8th, 2015
Source:  I purchased the book

Okay, I have to admit that is my first romance between two men novel.  I've read stories with gay characters before.  But most of the time they were side characters, or it was not this type of a romance.  What I mean about "this type" of romance is a story with the sex scenes included, not just the romance.  No, it is not my usual read, but it is by a current favorite author of mine.  And, the characters are ones that I knew from other books in her other series, and they were characters that I had gotten to know enough that I wanted them to have their own happy endings.  And WARNING!!!! I might have a spoiler or two for some of the books in the Marked Men series in this review.  Starting with the very first paragraph!

As with all of Crownover's books, we get both sides of the story with alternating chapters.  First we have Orlando.  We met Lando back in the very first book in the Marked Men series, Rule.  Lando was Rule's twin brother Remy's boyfriend.   Remy's boyfriend that no one except for Shaw, his best friend at the time, now Rule's wife, knew about.  Lando has had a hard time trying to move on to another serious relationship after losing Remy.  Since Remy died in a car wreck the same night the two of them had an argument, Lando has always felt kind of guilty about it.  Lando is a physical therapist who helps athletes, military vets, and other big cases. 

Dominic is our love interest.  Dom was Royal's partner. Royal is who we really got to meet in the book I reviewed earlier this week, Asa.  If you read that book, you know that Dom was injured in a police incident, so bad that he needed major therapy if he was going to be able to get back to work on the force.  Dom has always been a cop, always wanted to be to take after his father, who died in the line of work as a police officer.  He meets Lando when he goes for physical therapy.  Of course the two of them are attracted to each other.  But both have their own issues that keep them apart. 

After losing Remy the way he did, Lando doesn't want to fall in love with Dom, because Dom's job is dangerous, and he could also die, and Lando doesn't know if he can handle another loss like that.  When the two of them give into the attraction, it is Dom's insistence on getting back into his police work that keeps the rift between them.  In the end, both of them have to decide if the other one is worth overcoming their past fears and hold ups.

It was definitely a romance, even with it being between two guys.  But of course there were things that were weird for me as a heterosexual female.  Just the thought processes to start with.  Also, I definitely learned about the actual sex between two men.  Things that I didn't realize.  I have friends who are gay men, but obviously I don't ask them or talk about their sex life in detail.  So I always just assumed sex for two men consisted of about one position, and then maybe oral sex?  If you don't want to or are uncomfortable reading about sex that isn't your norm, this is not the book for you.  Although I guess you could skip those parts when it gets into the detail and move on, and still get to enjoy the romance of the story. 

A good story, not sure if I'll read a lot more of gay romance like this, but I did find it very informative, and it didn't bother me at all, just opened my mind to some things I'd not thought about.

NA Audiobook Review: Jet (Marked Men #2) by Jay Crownover

This was my next audiobook download from the library.  While I didn't love it as much as I loved Rule, I'm still really in love with this whole series, and getting even more excited to get to meet the author at the NOLA Story Con in September!  For the most part, all of my problems, which I'll list at the end, have to do with the narrators, and not the story itself. 

One thing I love about this author, and a trend in books I'm growing to like quite a bit, is having both of the main characters narrating alternate chapters.  In this book we get half from Ayden's point of view, and half from Jet's point of view.  Ayden was Shaw's roommate in the first book, and this book is her story.  There was a point in the first book, when Shaw went home with Rule, but Ayden was very much interested in Jet, so she stayed and got a ride home with him.  We learn  more in this book about how Ayden had invited Jet back to her apartment on that night, but he'd turned her down, in what he thought was a nice way, he told her she was too good, too sweet, too pure for him.  Jet, like Rule and most of their friends, was pretty much a man-whore.  Which makes sense, I mean Jet is the lead singer of a band.  Now, it's a heavy metal band, which for me isn't a turn on, but I understand how it is for many other people.  And his picture on the book isn't bad, not to mention that he really is supposed to have a great voice, and anyone who has heard him sing other songs, wonders why in the world he doesn't do something different and become the huge star that he could be. 

Ayden on the other hand, isn't the pure, innocent good girl that she comes across as in this book.  In her past life, before she came to Denver to go to college, she had a rough life. She grew up in a trailer home with a mom who was too busy with whatever guy she was in love with at the moment to take care of her or her older brother, Asa.  Asa was bad news himself.  He could sweet talk anyone into doing anything he wanted, not to mention that he was into lots of bad things. Drugs and other criminal activities.  When Ayden moved away from her home, Asa had been in jail.  So she was able to reinvent herself in Denver, where no one knew what her past had been.  She's attracted to Jet, but the part that is attracted to him reminds her too much of how she used to be, and she doesn't want that girl to come back out. 

In the main part of the book, Ayden now lives in a house with Jet and Cora.  Every night Jet has a different girl come home with him. And every morning Cora and Ayden rate the girl as she walks out.  They base it on looks, how blown away by the sex she looks, and how cool and collected she might be, versus how mad and pissed off about being sent home she might be. 

Of course it turns out that actually Jet is attracted to Ayden.  And everyone around them can see just how attracted to each other they are.  When Ayden decides that they should give in and just be friends with benefits, things start to change.  But Ayden is wary of falling in love or letting it get to be anything more.  She has goals, she is going to be a doctor, and is not going to end up like her mother, and Jet's "career" as a lead singer of a rock band, is not the kind of future she wants.  What she doesn't realize though, is that Jet is more than that.  He owns a studio where he helps other people record albums, and he will produce them.  Jet has his own problems in life though.  His father is not a good person, and treats Jet's mother like crap.  Yet she refuses to leave him, because she loves him.  So Jet won't go away on tour, because he is afraid what his father might do, follow through on threats he has made, if Jet is not there to protect his mother. 

Things will not stay good between the two forever.  When Jet doesn't help his father get a spot going on tour with a band that is going to Europe, his father takes it out on his mother.  Jet goes to try to help, and before he can even get in the house, things go bad between him and his dad.  Then there is a disaster at the recording studio, right before Jet is thinking that maybe he should go on the European tour that he has been invited on. All of this comes to a head when Ayden's brother Asa shows up, and someone also tries to invade their house when Cora is home alone. 

Ayden will pull back from Jet, partly because she knows he is not what she has envisioned for the change in her future, and partly because she is afraid what happened to Jet's studio is her brother's fault, and she doesn't want Asa to cause any more trouble.  In the end Ayden will have to learn to let others into her past, to ask for help when she needs it, and decide just what it is she really thinks her life will be that will also make her happy.  Jet will have to deal with his family issues, and figure out where he is going with the problems at the studio. 

Again, I just loved this book, and am continuing to love this series.  There were great back stories, we got to know a lot more about Cora, which I'm sure is setting her up for the next book in the series.  Yay!!!  Which I can't wait for.  We met Asa, who I know is the main character in I think the last book in the series.  While I'm not a fan of Asa because of what he's done in this book, I'm sure the author will be able to bring me around with his story. 

There's a part where Jet is describing the style of each of the guys at the tattoo shop, and I was left wishing that I could go to either Nash or Rowdy for the next tattoo that I want.  Preferably Rowdy, as it sounds like he is great about figuring out exactly what his customers want.  I'm also left missing the days when I hung out with a group of guys. There is just something different about hanging out with a bunch of guys, dating one or not, that is a totally different type of experience than when you hang out with a group of girls.  Don't get me wrong, I love my sorority sisters, but I miss the guys I spent about a year in college hanging out with all the time.

And as in the first book, the sex steams are as steamy as you could want, leaving you wanting what Ayden has just experienced with Jet.  At least they did for me. Although once again there was a piercing that I'm still not quite sure how I feel about a guy with that.  You'll have to read it for yourself and make your own mind up.

Next will be Cora and Rome's story.  Rome is Rule's brother who is in the  military.  I'm looking forward to his story, although the way he treated Shaw at the end of her book, and still seems to be treating her has made me a little upset with him. 

NA Audiobook Review: Rule (Marked Men #1) by Jay Crownover

Another audiobook that I downloaded from my public library, again because it is an author that I am going to get to meet at the NOLA Story Con in September.  I have to say that I seem to be falling in love with bad boys more often. And that is not usually me.  I've always been into the preppy, boy next door, good guy.  Now honestly, I have been looking at guys with tattoos more since I got my first tattoo several years ago.  But this book really, really made me want the bad boy, the tattooed, pierced, you name it, bad boy.  And other than the characters rooting for my city's biggest rival football team because they live in Denver, I'm pretty sure I'll be reading all of this author's book.

The name of the book is the name of one of the two main characters.  Rule is the bad boy, tattooed, pierced face, pierced other parts of his body, and also a one night stand with every girl he sees if he can help it.  Shaw is the other main character. Shaw is a good girl, she's pre-med, comes from a wealthy family, and is the girl next door in other words.  Shaw and Rule are friends because of Rule's twin brother, Remy.  Remy died a few years ago in a car accident, and Shaw has been working to try to keep Rule going and seeing his parents every Sunday.  Shaw and Rule aren't really friends though, they argue all the time, and don't see each other any time except on the Sundays when Shaw comes and drags Rule out of his bed, drunk, sometimes not alone in bed, and drives him back to their hometown.

Now Shaw has always actually had a crush on Rule. Even though all of Remy's family always thought she was with Remy, it was never like that for those two. They were just friends, and Remy even knew the whole time how she felt about Rule.  But Remy took Shaw under his wing, and brought her home and made her part of their family, especially since her own family was not one to write home about.  Her parents basically used her for their own status, a daughter going to med school.  Other than that, they don't really spend any time with her.  All they want from her now is for her to keep dating the perfect boy, Gabe, who is the son of a well known judge.  But this guy is not as great as her parents think.  When Shaw breaks up with him because she doesn't like him, he kind of goes stalkerish.  This all kind of comes to a head on the night that Rule ends up running into Shaw at her job.  She works in a sports bar, and the night he sees her there, she is wearing a "sexy referee" costume.  Rule has never seen Shaw in this light before.  He's never thought of her as a girl he might be attracted to.  But now, now he almost can't stop thinking about her.  And when her ex-boyfriend Gabe shows up at the bar and tries to threaten her, Rule and his buddies meet him outside and tell him he'd better leave her alone or he'll have hell to pay.

Things kind of go back to the same way until the night of Shaw's 20th birthday.  Her roommate and best friend takes her out, gets her a fake ID, and they go to a bar, and of course get drunk.  Rule runs into her again, and this time, he ends up taking her back to his apartment, not far from the bar, because of how drunk she is.  In her drunken state, Shaw gets brave.  And she basically throws herself at Rule, and he catches her.  She doesn't regret it in the morning, but she still sneaks out, not wanting Rule to know that she likes him in any other way, knowing how he is with girls.  But Rule can't seem to stop thinking about her.  And he decides that maybe he and Shaw should give it a try.

It won't be an easy road for the two of them.  Rule has never been in a relationship, and has no idea what he's doing, not to mention serious issues with getting close to people, partly because of how his parents have always treated him.  Of course they've never approved of the tattoos and all of that, but his mother blames him for the death of his brother.  Shaw is still having to deal with her stalker ex-boyfriend, and also refuses to let Rule turn her into one of his floozies.

This book had so many good emotions and so many good back stories.  We get introduced to so many awesome characters.  It looks like all of Rule's "boys" are going to get their own books in the rest of this Marked Men series. And I'm so excited to read about all of them.  But I fell in love with Rule.  I want my own tall, dark haired, lean yet muscular, tattooed, pierced boy.  And I love that Rule was a tattoo artist himself.  I'm definitely intrigued with some of the piercings he had as well.  I have no idea why in the world Shaw wants to get the piercing she wants, I cringed every time they talked about it.  But hey, to each their own, right?  It was also a pretty steamy book, which I enjoyed how that worked in perfectly along with the rest of the story.

I loved the book and will have to buy my own copy just to get signed when I go to meet the author in September.