definitely, possibly, maybe

when estranged husband and wife, mark and nicole, make a devil's bargain, they both will pay a price. the thing is the price of reuniting, even if it's for duty's sake (on his part) and for a baby (on hers), might be worth paying. in a duke like no other , mark and nicole need to learn who they've each become in the ten years since their disastrous marriage. they're older, wiser, and still as in love with each other as ever. as much as they try to deny this or willfully not see what is right in front of them. i enjoyed their reunion, i liked both mark and nicole as characters. i was also so frustrated by the misunderstandings that lay between them. i struggle with these second-chance stories because i often find the reasons for the original falling out to be so stupid that i can't understand how the characters let it harm their relationship so irrevocably. it probably has to do with the fact that i consider holding grudges a waste of energy. and like sure ...

l. penelope's song of blood and stone  is an epic fantasy filled with poetry, danger, magic, betrayal and a love so powerful it overcomes every obstacle. when jasminda meets jack she believes he's out of his mind. but when he risks his life to keep her safe, something no one has ever done for her, she returns the favor. trapped in the middle of a burgeoning war, jack and jasminda escape one set of dangerous circumstances for another. and when the truth of jack's identity is revealed, the feelings that have developed between these two are even more complicated than the differences in the color of their skin and their ability to use magic. as the politics and danger surrounding them grows, so does the depth of their feelings for each other. and having it all means risking it all. but the reward could mean everything. there is so much i loved about this book. i love the relationship between jasminda and jack. i love the themes of racism, of identity, of otherness tha...

we met aerialist trix lane in pretty face , where she had a terrible boyfriend who affected her relationships with everything, including her self-esteem. she'd dumped him by the end of that novel, but the impact of his manipulative behavior still affects trix in making up . when she's suddenly bumped up to the lead role after the lead has a terrible accident during a performance and the original understudy leaves for australia, trix isn't sure she'll be able to perform. even worse lee magasiva rolls back into town and into her life taking a makeup artist job on the crew and a room in the company quarters she's currently housing in. once lee and trix get past the misunderstandings that put them at odds when they were younger, they just need to overcome trix's anxities, not just related to her job, but also her relationships. lee's also figuring out his next steps career-wise and the relationship that blooms between him and trix impacts where he wants to...

merrilee campbell has long been convinced that her book boyfriends are better than the real thing. but now that she's starting the school year at a co-ed school, she's not opposed to trying out the real boyfriend thing. but figuring out what romance is and what is real in bookish boyfriends   is trickier than she thinks. so is fitting into a school where the headmaster and some students seem to have it out for her. following merrilee's travails is the stuff pure entertainment is made of. whether she's convinced her life is romeo and juliet  reincarnated or pride and prejudice   book allusions and callbacks abound, and as a recovering english lit major i loved them. **bookish boyfriends will publish on may 1, 2018. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/abrams kids (amulet books) in exchange for my honest review.

part three follows the jump...

it's totally fitting that riverdale  takes on carrie: the musical. and the musical parts are the most enjoyable parts of the show this week. maybe i miss glee.  because there's also a lot of stuff i dislike. well anything with hal cooper and chic. and also the black hood. and mama blossom. i dislike these characters intensely. and while i'm glad we get a break from archie's godfather storyline, i'm not excited about the return of the black hood threat. like not at all. with the a plot focused on the musical, there was still some good incremental progress made in all the main storylines. but not enough for this to not feel a bit like treading water. archie continues to bounce between his father and hiram lodge. cheryl's family life is still awful. alice continues to bounce between hal and f.p. i don't know. it feels like these storylines take two step forward and one step back and it's a little frustrating. is it bad that i'm hoping that...

while iron princess doesn't exactly pick up where we left off in savage prince , there's a very good reason for this. we finally get to meet our hero, whose name i will not reveal because what's the fun in that. and what we learn? well, he's just as *bad* as mount. the kind of bad boy who has this unique moral compass who you can root for. even when they do bad things. temperance is up to the challenge. she goes toe to toe with this man. she's not afraid to fight for the people she loves. she will fight mount. she will fight this man. and she will also fight for him. and that might be the most terrifying and exhilarating thing of all. for me, getting to really know our hero made a world of difference in how i feel about the series. i need to be able to connect with the characters to really root for them. so having to be at arm's length from one of the leads for the entirety of the first book was really hard for me and definitely lessened my enjoyment of...

so my favorite thing about say you'll remember me , there's no motorcycle club to be seen. hooray! you must wonder why i kept reading them if i hated the theme so much. it's because i love her characters. i love reading her stories because i really care about the characters who inhabit them. and this time hendrix and ellison (drix and ellie) are perfection.  she's the governor's daughter. the good girl who believes in what her father stands for. she believes that politics is all about making things better for those who need it. she's not jaded. he is a juvenile delinquent who was just released from a special program after pleading guilty to a violent crime. a crime he did not commit. the experience has profoundly changed him. before he used sex and drugs and music to avoid his problems. now he's trying to stay on the straight and narrow.  and part of that is to be the governor's poster boy for his rehabilitation program. from the moment ellie a...

ash princess is definitely the kind of young adult fantasy. theo has been tortured and abused since her mother's death and the new regime took power. but when they take things a step too far, theo finally loses it. this is a story of the girl who never rocked the boat suddenly realizing that she has nothing left to lose. and she's going to get her power back. but this involves making hard choices. dark choices. there's action and some adventure. a little romance but nothing that overpowers the story. there's a sequel so things do not end here. the pacing starts off a little slow, mainly because there is a lot of worldbuilding, but once the action really picks up this isn't a problem. **ash princess will publish on april 24, 2018. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/random house publishing group.(delacorte) in exchange for my honest review. 

the latest her majesty's most secret service novel, when a lady desires a wicked lord , turns its focus on egyptology. alexandra quinn is renowned for her skill in decoding hieroglyphs. the last thing she expects is for the work to turn dangerous when word gets out that she is in possession of a map that will lead to a cavern filled with egyptian treasure. when her ex-love, fellow egyptologist benedict weston, viscount marlsbrook, saves her from a ruffian's attack. he explains their mentor has been killed and that alex holds both the object he ws killed for, and the ability to decode the clues left behind in one of the murders. but alex isn't willing to trust benedict so easily. they parted ways years ago when he decided that money was a more powerful motivator than love. he has his reasons, and it never feels like he explains them properly to her, but in the end, all's well that ends well. finding himself in alex's presence again and r...

when gabriel, duke of langford crosses paths with miss amanda waverly in a devil of a duke   he barely registers what he sees. later he will remember this moment and know that even then she pulled at him. but it's the second time they encounter each other that is truly memorable. it's part manipulation, part desire. the way they connect and come together is all flame and moths and out of control chemistry. amanda has secrets. getting entangled with gabriel is not conducive to her end goal. but she finds she can't stay away. even when she wants to. and soon enough he is embroiled in her schemes and it's all so complicated. except for that chemistry. i really loved gabriel and amanda's relationship. i loved how he treats her as an equal. how he loves her without regard to her social status. she challenges him. she makes him better. it's just a delight to spend time with these two. **a devil of a duke will publish on april 24, 2018. i received an advance...

and the story continues...

well, we learn right away that cheryl's been sent away for some brainwashing. and then toni and veronica step up to save her after nana rose gives them a major clue about where she ended up. and then toni and cheryl kiss. and it's perfection. meanwhile the student council battle has a ridiculous town hall debate with alice cooper moderating.  also the whole chic situation blows up and he finally moves out. and is it just me but are we really sure he's alice's kid? i'm not. but there are so many layers upon layers of lies on this show that it's hard to tell. all i really know is that i want more f.p.  oh and stuff happened with the lodges and archie becomes like a mafioso and recreates the red circle as the dark circle and blows up a car. i don't know this subplot is getting too stupid for words. and archie is not a convincing capo. 

the eleanor ames series closes out with hiding lies , picking up several weeks after the events in chasing truth , miles and ellie are self-defense training and hoping to continue to avoid the bad guys. but when ellie's mother is sentenced to prison time, miles mia and the fbi giving her another chance to act as an informant to catch her dad, ellie finds herself on a school trip to new york ready to pull the biggest con of her life. the problem is, everybody ellie knows is a double agent. even her con artist family can be described as double agents. so many different agendas and goals are enough to make anyone crazy. even miles isn't being completely honest when he does reappear. there's too many twists and turns in the plot to give away, but what is so great about ellie ames as a character is how she has this great ability to read people and to make connections with them. it's so very endearing. and also i just love her and miles together. **hiding ...

when hunter brayze meets riley mcmahon in leading the witness , he's totally taken with her, but knows it won't go anywhere because she is married. as a family law expert who has handled many a divorce case, it's a line he won't cross. so he flirts, and he teases, but he knows it won't go anywhere. she is married. when his friend calls in a favor to ask him to represent some guy who has heard that hunter is the best there is and he finds himself sitting across the table from riley. horrified because he is now in the unenviable position of representing riley's douchebag ex, he's also horrifically conflicted because now he knows. riley is available. but first they need to get through this divorce. riley didn't want to bother her lawyer friends/best clients at her pub for advice. she didn't want people to know about her divorce. and it blows up in her face spectacularly. now they can't help her out. in fact they need to actively work against...

today i'm helping reveal the cover for without promises by indie author, delancey stewart. in this story a sexy, millionaire firefighter meets a risk-averse struggling med student, sounds like kismet to me. can't wait to grab this on on may 21, 2018. keep reading for all the pretty...

his beauty is another beauty and the beast retelling, which i've gone on the record as not being my favorite fairy tale, and well, this isn't the retelling that's going to change my mind. in some ways i feel like this version hews too closely to the disney movie in terms of the major characters, that it's even less nuanced than other retellings that stick to the darker beaumont narrative. anyway, if you know the plot of beauty and the beast , you know the plot here. it's the characters that should make you want to stay. lily and grayson are perfectly fine, but i didn't really feel their connection, and i guess this is the heart of my struggle with this story. **his beauty will publish on may 8, 2018. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/grand central publishing (forever) in exchange for my honest review. 

i had thought the one night on south beach series was over once all the hernandez siblings got their happy endings. but there's a cousin and plenty of meddling from tia lola to entertain us in before daylight , a welcome return to the south beach world. when laura delgado learns that she'd secretly married charlie laughlin she's horrified. not only is he a known misogynist and playboy, getting married interferes with her life plans. she's reaching the pinnacle of her dance career. she's still hungry for more. dancing with the new york city ballet is her dream. but word getting out that she's married could nip that all in the bud. when she confronts charlie and learns that he has no idea what she's talking about she's not really mollified. and the thing about charlie is that he wants to get married. he actually wouldn't mind exploring marriage with laura. laura is full of sharp edges and flip-flopping behavior. she thinks she ...

leo zimmerman has had a crush on kylie jenkins since forever. so when she decides to break free of her good girl shell and needs a friend to go along with it, he decides that he's the right man for the job. not that leo is a bad boy. the rules of rebellion  are written by two good kids.  he's actually more dreamy artist than rebel without a cause. but he is more tuned into what high schoolers do given that his parents offer little to no supervision. as leo and kylie spend more time together, attraction blooms. only when leo realizes exactly who kylie's family is and how they are all connected, he starts keeping a very big secret.  he has his reasons. but it does also make a big thing a very big bad thing . because there are two things instead of just the one. but leo is so afraid to lose it all, because being with kylie is the culmination of every dream come true.  but it's not unforgiveable. they have a way ...

and hem michael came into the frame....

sorry you guys, i fell behind on my riverdale  viewing. but luckily the show gave me a mini-break to catch up. so this week's recap is three weeks old, and next week's will be the same, and then i'll be back to my one-week-old recapping schedule. so hermoine is running for mayor. part of me feels like the show forgot the twist reveal that she's the mastermind? i mean, the lodges are providing a united front. and archie has clearly made his choice in terms of becoming part of the family. it's a quid pro quo thing he's got going on with hiram. i'm not sure it's going to end well for our all-american boy. kj apa is never going to be an actor with a lot of nuance or gravitas, he's too pretty and he lacks emotional depth. but pairing him with the lodges is actually the best thing for him. they make him interesting, the conflicts between his past life and the future they offer him is something real. meanwhile, veronica is the face of he...

in maybe someone like you ,   katie isn't sure why she's so drawn to the kickboxing gym. or the guy with tattoos all over his arms who offers to show her around and be her trainer. ryan brincatt is too hot, too rough-around-the-edges, too much of a bad boy to be interested in a straight-laced good girl like katie. but even as katie doubts his interest in her, her interest in him is undeniable. at first she works hard to prove herself as he trains her. but then they spend time together outside of the gym. and she enjoys his company. so when he pushes her away she's hurt and doesn't understand it. the problem is that katie has abandonment issues and deep-seated insecurities as a circumstance of being the daughter of two eminently successful parents. it's not that she doesn't measure up, she really does. but she's so hard on herself and forgets to give herself enough credit in all things. this story is as much about katie's emotional growth and becomi...

then she was gone is a darker book than i usually like to read. sometimes i try to branch out from romance and happy endings. and sometimes i enjoy a good thriller. but maybe it's because i'm a mom. but missing kids. dead kids aren't really something i enjoy reading about. this book is like gone girl meets the lovely bones , and if you like those books you will probably like this. it's just not the right book for me. some of the twists in this book i technically figured out from the description, and i didn't love how telegraphed certain things were. in the end, there's a reason i stay in my comfort zone. i'm not into being disturbed by the books i read, even if i'm drawn to them by the pretty covers. **then she was gone  will publish on april 17, 2018. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/atria books in exchange for my honest review. 

sometimes i judge books by their titles. and sometimes i judge books by their covers. and the best thing is when all my goodwill is rewarded by an incredible story. under a storm-swept sky  is the story of two strangers who are carrying around guilt and grief and who have mountains to scale and miles to walk before they find peace.  but on the isle of skye, hiking the skye trail, it's actually within reach. rory and amelia are on edge with each other from the first, and every moment between them is fraught because they are so hyper-aware of each other and because they keep assuming the worst. once they get past these misconceptions and give into the intense chemistry between them it's so good. it's too good, actually. because amelia isn't in a place where she believes she is deserving. and rory knows exactly why he has to let her go.  their biggest obstacle is distance, but sometimes all it takes is a little help, and a solution is within reac...

hot target , an alpha security novella, has the ever-charming logan  callahan finally hooking up with survivor rachel kline. rachel has mostly recovered from her time held hostage by a honduran drug lord. but when her fellow survivor and friend carly goes missing in vegas after leaving a mysterious message, rachel will risk everything to make sure her friend is safe. waking up alone after an intense night only to discover that the woman he shared it with had run off to vegas is the kind of thing that has easy-going logan gritting his teeth. but when he realizes the danger she is in, he knows that he will do anything and everything to keep her safe. even if that means promising to marry her in an elvis chapel. they might really only be in there to hide out and grab a disguise, but the promise is something he intends to keep. once he and rachel have it out and acknowledge that the chemistry between them is something real. for a novella, the em...

mason mcnally might be a bit of a stalker. maybe. when he meets hannah daniels at the laundromat in just one spark   and tries to hit on her, he forgets that he's wearing a wedding band as part of an experiment his academic brother is conducting. hannah shuts him down and tries to forget about the latest married creeper trying to hit on her. but mason is the kind of guy who grew up listening to fairy tales, his parents got married after three days of knowing each other. and mason, knows that hannah is the one for him. now he just has to convince her. this won't be an easy task. hannah has been burned badly. and she's always wanted more for herself than marriage and kids. she has career goals and relationships don't figure into that. but mason is strong and steadfast in his conviction. if he takes it slow enough to not scare her, he might just be able to convince her to take the chance. loving someone comes with a risk and no guarantees. all hannah needs to do is...

Title: Another Sunset Author: etoile1 aka Eva Disclaimer: Roswell isn't mine, obviously! Email: etoileone@hotmail.com Rating: PG to NC-17 Summary: After Liz is in a car accident her life will never be the same. Author's Note: There is no Tess. There are no aliens. Alex is alive and is Liz's brother, he is 20 and dates Maria. Amy and Jim are married, so Kyle and Maria are stepbrother and sister. Kyle is 21 and Maria is 17. Kyle and Isabel are dating. Isabel is 20. She and Max are siblings. Max is 18. He is currently dating Liz, who is 17. But things will change soon enough.

the third book in the wherever you go series, too hard to resist , has elliot and madison finally hooking up, but it's complicated by the fact that elliot has become her boss. when she accepted a temp-to-hire job she never imagined that her boss would be the guy she couldn't stop noticing. and elliot is just as screwed, because while he finds madison hot, he also values her intelligence and the fact that she's the best assistant he's ever had. and on top of that, the office has a strict no-fraternization policy and both their jobs are on the line. things run so hot between them though. it's only a matter of time before they give in. and it's complicated by madison's insecurities—courtesy of the evil ex from the first book—and elliot's inability to say exactly what he means. it's all good when they finally get on the same page. these two are basically meant for each other from the start, and once they get their baggage out of the way, they are p...

the conclusion to the perfected series, unraveled  puts our beloved characters through the wringer, and not everyone makes it out alive. there are real stakes here. and ella and penn have to make difficult choices. and sometimes doing the right thing comes at a great cost. i don't really follow this author on social media, so i don't know the full story about why there is such a big delay between books two and three. the second part published in 2015 and part of me wonders if the events of 2016 affected the story here. because this book doesn't shy away from addressing political issues. and so much of it is relevant to what is happening today. if you've read perfected and tarnished , of course, you are going to pick up unraveled. if you haven't i recommend starting at the very beginning, the series makes the most sense that way. **unraveled will publish on april 3, 2018. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/entangled publishing (entangled t...

it's always hardest to review book 2s in trilogies, because they are the middle of a story, and you can't spend too much time on plot because spoilers. in tarnished  ella continues to fight the pet program and tries to find her way back to penn. we meet another pet missy, technically we met her in book 1, but we spend more time with her here. we see ella grow as a person. she realizes her own agency. she questions things and tries to save others from having to experience her same hardships. something that isn't easy to do. this book does a lot more world-building and explains the mechanics of the pet program more fully, something that might have been slightly lacking in book one. but this makes sense because we are made aware of things alongside ella. this is ultimately her journey. and we'll see where it ends up tomorrow. **tarnished published on december 1, 2015. i  received a digital copy courtesy of netgalley/entangled publishing (entangled te...

the world of perfected echoes the world of the handmaid's tale , where young women are kept subservient and are trained to do the bidding of others. in perfected  the girls are bred to be pets. the more elite the family, the higher pedigree they want. ella is raised to be a pet. to not question. to serve. but ella is something more. her humanity, her basic curiosity, her thirst for freedom is all there, beneath the surface. spending time with penn, the son of the family she's been adopted into awakens things in her she didn't know were possible. but their relationship is forbidden. and the closer they get the more awakened ella is to her circumstances. to the injustice. to the fact that there is something sinister about all of this. things will need to change, and ella will need to take a chance. and given that this is book one in a series, don't expect everything to work out. **perfected published on july 1, 2014. i received a digital copy courtesy of netgal...

in the cold hard truth,   both emmie and max have faced incredible amounts of emotional trauma for their age. emmie lost pieces of herself as a consequence of her mother's addictions and the psychological hold her manipulative drug dealer had on emmie. narcing on him proved to be an escape, but it also led her back to another kind of prison. her time isn't entirely her own. and she has to be careful who she lets in. when she runs headlong into max her first day back in school, she dismissed him as a jock. she doesn't realize his story. the more time she spends with him, the more she realizes there are hidden depths. and he finds that being with emmie allows him to keep the anger at bay. it's also grief and guilt, but it manifests itself as anger. being together keeps some of the demons at bay, gives them a chance to heal. and the way they find their way together is emotional and deep and heavy and sweet. i really enjoyed their story. it was rough at times, they bo...