Cover Reveal: The Upside of Falling and The Downside of Love by Meghan Quinn

     

The Upside of Falling synopsis:

Tucked away at the base of the Rocky Mountains lived a little boy with one singular dream: leave this broken and battered home and become someone. 

Be somebody’s hero. 

That boy was me—Colby Brooks. Except I’m not that same little boy anymore. 

My dreams might still be the same, but my reality isn’t. 

I’m smarter. Stronger. A man. 

And I learned a long damn time ago, the only way to achieve my dreams was to avoid distractions—at any cost. 

Focus. Resolve. Determination. 

But all it took was one single night. 

One night and my entire life…changed. One night had me colliding head first with the biggest distraction of my life; Rory Oaks. 

Smart. Charming. Beautiful. 

Rory changed everything. 

Quickly, my one-track mind started to bend. 

Each kiss faded decade-long dreams. 

And with one single incident, I fly off course.   

GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40193273-the-upside-of-falling 

        

THE DOWNSIDE OF LOVE – July 5^th  

   

Blurb to come after the release of THE UPSIDE OF FALLING  

   

GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40193307-the-downside-of-love   

            

About the Author:

Born in New York and raised in Southern California, Meghan has grown into a sassy, peanut butter eating, blonde haired swearing, animal hoarding lady. She is known to bust out and dance if “It’s Raining Men” starts beating through the air and heaven forbid you get a margarita in her, protect your legs because they may be humped. 

Once she started commuting for an hour and twenty minutes every day to work for three years, she began to have conversations play in her head, real life, The deep male voices and dainty lady coos kind of conversations. Perturbed and confused, she decided to either see a therapist about the hot and steamy voices running through her head or start writing them down. She decided to go with the cheaper option and started writing… enter her first novel, Caught Looking. 

Now you can find the spicy, most definitely on the border of lunacy, kind of crazy lady residing in Colorado with the love of her life and her five, furry four legged children, hiking a trail or hiding behind shelves at grocery stores, wondering what kind of lube the nervous stranger will bring home to his wife. Oh and she loves a good boob squeeze! 

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Audiobook Review: Rome (Marked Men #3) by Jay Crownover

Book info:
Title:  Rome
Author:  Jay Crownover
Series:  Marked Men
Genre:  NA Contemporary Romance
Published:  January 7th, 2014
Format:  Audiobook downloaded from library

Right now I have to say I am so glad that I decided to go to the NOLA Story Con in September.  I might never have picked up a book by this author if she hadn't been on the list for the authors that would be there.  And that, that would have been a tragedy, because I am so in love with this series, and these guys!  This story sounded perfect from the start.  Rome is Rule's older brother, and he is an ex-military guy.  I have been a fan of military guys for some time, especially after going to college in a town that was near to an Air Force base, meaning I met those guys at the bars in town when I went out with my friends.  So I was excited for Rome's story.  And other than the ridiculous mispronunciation of the name Asa by the narrators, I loved this audiobook!  If you haven't read the first two books in the series, you should click on their titles here to read my reviews, book 1 - Rule, and book 2 - Jet.   Now, on with this story's review.

Rome has returned from being over with the military in the middle East.  But he's come back a different guy than when he left.  He was honorably discharged from the army because of his injuries, he was unable to meet the qualifications to stay.  He lost a lot of his soldiers in the very event that caused his injuries, and he wakes up in the night from horrible nightmares of what happened.  These nightmares, along with not knowing how he fits in with his family now, have made him grumpy, and as Cora likes to call him, Captain No-Fun.  Cora is the woman who kind of runs the tattoo shop's front desk for the guys. And it is  her house that Jet and Ayden live in, along with Ayden's brother Asa.  We kind of join the story at a 4th of July party at Rule and Shaw's new house.  Now that Rome's brother Rule has become a home-owner, also finally being in a real relationship with Shaw, Rome feels maybe his brother doesn't need him anymore.  When Cora gets tired of Rome's attitude at the cookout, she dumps a beer on him, and Rome takes off.  He ends up in a bar run by another ex-military guy.  Unfortunately for Rome, who is a stereotypical big tough-looking military guy, there is a guy who is trying to get into a biker gang that picks Rome to try to start a fight with in order to get initiated.  Rome wins the fight, but not without a lot of damage to the bar and his own injuries.  He feels bad for the guy who runs the bar, and offers to pay him back, but the guy wants Rome to help him out by fixing the things that were broken, as well as helping him fix up other things around the bar.  

The bar work reminds me of The Karate Kid, because it is helping Rome work through his problems.  Until one day he gets a call from a friend in his unit that is still over there in battle, and in the call he learns that more are dead.  Rome feels guilty, as if he was still there, he could have kept those young soldiers from dying.  And he goes to the bar and starts drinking again.  When he needs a ride home because he's too drunk, the number that gets called from his phone is the tattoo shop where Rule works.  Unfortunately Cora is the only one left, but she decides to help Rome instead of bothering Rule, because of all the brotherly issues they've been having.  So Cora drags him to her house and puts him in her bed to sober up.  When she goes in to grab her things so she can sleep on the couch, Rome grabs her in his sleep and pulls her onto the bed and underneath him.  At first he just goes back to sleep.  But later on, he wakes up, and things happen, sex happens.  Everything on Rome matches exactly with what you'd expect a big guy like him to be packing.  And it's cute how Cora deals with the situation at first.  

Now, Cora has her own issues.  An ex-boyfriend who she found out was sleeping around on her with someone from the tattoo shop, and the sad thing was that everyone at the shop knew, but didn't tell her.  That's how she ended up at the tattoo shop with these guys.  The other guys at the shop tell Rome he needs to be careful, they don't want her getting hurt, and some of the guys even warn Cora that Rome isn't the "perfect" guy she has said she is now waiting for. But the two of them decide to try things out anyway.  Being with Cora helps Rome with some of the stress he's been going through, helps him to calm down.  But of course things won't be all smooth going from now on.  Remember the guy that tried to beat up Rome?  Well he's not done.  And that surprise night when Cora took Rome back to her house?  Well let's just say they weren't thinking about consequences and protection in that situation.  Rome seems to really be enjoying being in charge of the bar the more authority he gets.  He even ends up hiring Asa as a bartender when the bar starts getting busier.  What else could go wrong?  How about Cora's ex coming back into the picture?

Through all of this Cora and Rome must decide how much they love each other, how much they are willing to share with each other, and if they can make it through all the obstacles put in their way.  And I loved it.

Now, this is probably a spoiler, but it's something I have to say.  I honest to god LOVE that when Cora found out she was pregnant, not once did she mention having an abortion.  Not once was that an option.  I'm not sure how realistic that is, but I love that it is how the story goes.  I'm pro-life, although I don't have as much of a problem with abortions that early in a pregnancy.  But I love that the people in this book don't even think of that as an option.  These are my kind of people.  Sorry for the spoiler on that, but I had to point out how much that stood out to me.

Also, pretty sure I'm going to need to buy one of these t-shirts to wear when I go to meet the author!  The Captain No Fun stuck in my head so much that I called my brother "Daddy No-Fun" when he wouldn't let my niece do things on our vacation over Memorial Day weekend.

 

Audiobook Review: Taking Chances by Molly McAdams

This is a book that I decided to listen to when I was searching for new digital audiobooks on my library website while I waited for others to be available.  I'd heard a lot of good things about it, and it sounded like a really good story.  Overall it was a pretty good story, especially the first three-quarters of the book.  After that, well, it kind of got boring.  Really I guess that shows me that you have got to have some kind of turmoil or obstacle to keep the story interesting.  Although honestly, the majority of the people and relationships in the book were kind of good ones.  The kinds of relationships that I know I would have with my family, and would hope to have with any guy I really dated or ended up with.  And really, a story about my life would be pretty boring.  However, the first part kept me wanting to get back in the car and listen some more, or spend extra time at the gym so I could keep listening.  And even the end, when I was a little bored, knowing that there had to be at least one more conflict coming, even though I was kind of sure of what it would be, and I was right, that kept me reading.

The main character is a girl named Harper.  Harper was raised by a single dad, a very strict military dad.  So she has lived her whole life surrounded by Marines.  When she gets to college, things are going to change.  And she wants them to, that's one reason she chose to go to college so far away from her father.  She ends up with an awesome roommate, really, so awesome I was a bit worried and had flashbacks of Steph in the After series at first, I may be scarred because of that series.  Her roommate knows a "house" of guys, not sure if it is a fraternity?  One of the guys is her roommate's brother.  Since Harper is ready to kind of go crazy and get wild, she starts by going to a party at their house.  Most of the guys are really friendly, but there is this one guy, one of the hottest guys she's ever seen, who she sees with a different girl almost every time she sees him.  But he's kind of an arrogant ass to her at first.  Soon she finds out this is her roommate's brother, Chase.  Of course all the guys find out when her drunk roommate lets it slip that she is a virgin.  A virgin in every way, not even having ever been kissed.

While there is a definite attraction between Chase and Harper, she also meets another guy who lives in the house named Brandon.  She and Brandon also have an almost instant attraction, and hit it off right away.  Brandon seems to be extremely infatuated with her right away, and really is the perfect gentleman in all ways.  There is a bit of a competition/rivalry between Chase and Brandon, but Harper knows that she really likes Brandon.  So the romance between Brandon and Harper takes off.  Every once in awhile though, Chase sneaks into her thoughts and even tries to get her to show she is attracted to him as well.  One slip up between Chase and Harper leads to a major change and things between Harper and Brandon will come to a screeching halt, while she will have to look at how she really feels about Chase, and if he can be a good part of her life.  Later on the loss of one of the guys will lead us to find out just how perfect both of these guys are, when the one who is left is happy to be back in her life, no matter what happened before, and will accept her no matter what, because all they ever wanted is for her to be happy because they loved her.

Honestly, the guys were perfect, possibly a little too perfect.  But hey, after people criticizing so many dysfunctional relationships in books as being a bad example for younger readers, then maybe the guys in these books that are so perfect and loving and would never hurt Harper are the ones they should read about?  The "real" and "modern" Prince Charmings?  I'm not complaining.  When I like to kind of sit and fantasize in my head, on long road trips, boring meetings, whatever, I often prefer to have the guys be this perfect in those stories.  And maybe after the crazy back and forth, up and down relationship between Tessa and Hardin in the After series, this was a little bit of a break.  I do have to warn that if you didn't already get it from my review, there is a love triangle, and actually even a 3rd guy in there at one point, does that make a love square?

I would say this is a sweet read, maybe a tad bit boring towards the end, and the perfect guys definitely a bit unbelievable, but if you can overlook that, and can at least enjoy the boring parts for being more like every day life could be, then you might enjoy this book.

Review: Lois Lane: Cloudy with a Chance of Destruction by Gwenda Bond

This was a VERY short novella to go with the book about Lois Lane by Gwenda Bond that comes out this month.  I was very excited to see this on Netgalley and immediately downloaded it thanks to Capstone Publishing.  Of course then I was disappointed to find it was just a short story.  It is still a good one, one that makes me very eager to read the book.

It's about Lois Lane as a teen, she's just moved with  her father who is in the military.  She's used to being new and not having a lot of friends right away.  But in Chemistry class she is at a table right near a couple that is bickering. And in order to get his girlfriend back, the boy brings a box from his dad who is a scientist at the nuclear facility.  A box that turns out to be something that could be the solution to cold fusion.  And he sets it off in class.  So Lois has to figure out a way to stop it and save the class, and the school.

It's short, sweet, and to the point.  She is talking to SmallvilleGuy online as a friend.  Doesn't know who he is, even though she talks to him and asks him every day.  They met through an online board that was about unexplained happenings like UFOs, or similar.

Very excited to read the full length book, Lois Lane:  Fallout.  I have loved this authors other stories, so am really even more eager after this teaser.