definitely, possibly, maybe

i loved and adored the black bird of the gallows  and this short novella lets us see some of the action from reece's point of view. we see reece witness the fatal car crash and his horror when he realizes that angie has been following him. his horror that she knows that he is something different. his pain that she doesn't remember him the way he remembers her when they were children. we see reece meet with his fellow harbingers and the decision they make to allow reece and angie to get closer. they knew there was danger in that. but they also had to let things play out. and we meet michael and learn of dresden. and those small things will come into play in keeper of bees. and i seriously can't wait to tell you all about how i'm in love with that book too. mostly i was just excited to inhabit this world again. ** i received an advance reader copy of cleaner of bones as a newsletter subscriber. 

the third book in the fated series, seeking fate , finds the fate changer, daisy layne, looking for the last of the van burens. his fate is tied to hers. his death will lead to hers. so she makes a trek across europe evading the thorns, a crazed religious sect out to kill fate changers, with her internet friend/european guide/love interest, andrei. andrei knows what daisy is. and even though it can be dangerous to be close to her, he is already half in love with her when they first meet. too bad they both feel awkward without the safety of a computer monitor between them. it takes a while for them to figure out how to be with one another in person. that they are on this crazy journey only adds to that. this book was enjoyable, but the big twist is given away too early. i'm pretty sure most readers figure out at the same moment i did who the last van buren heir really is. and then there was the unrealistic way these two kids traveled across europe. not just...

to be fair, i haven't read the previous two books in this series, so perhaps i would have found ariel a bit more charming in the opening pages of kiss the girl  if i had those books under my belt. she's kind of horrid and is yelling at literally everyone for no good reason at the start. and it's not that i don't appreciate a heroine who has balls and attitude, but like screaming at your friends for calling you on the phone doesn't seem like the best way to keep people in your life. but this does allow us to see her growth. she's still loudmouthed and crazy and somewhat inappropriate, but she also has a heart and the moments where she's vulnerable are absolutely precious. although to be honest my actual favorite moments are every time eric opens his mouth and says the exact right thing. like oh my god, there has never been a character better at saying exactly the right thing that makes you want to swoon at the fact that he's dreamy and sweet and kind ...

we first met matt cannon and sabrina cross in hot asset , and even then there was something between them. it was chemistry but also more. it was maybe hate but it was tinged with love. the bickering and the eyerolling clearly meant something that neither of them wanted to admit.  in hard sell  matt needs a girlfriend when a reporter catches him behaving semi-badly at a bachelor party and the perception is worse than reality in this case. but the only women he could remotely tolerate spending time together as a pretend girlfriend is sabrina. she's the only woman he can trust to not want more with him. because they hate each other, right? but the truth is that hate covers up a whole host of emotions. it's anger, pain, heartache. it's wanting to protect their hearts from feeling more for the one person they know is capable of breaking down all their walls. being forced to spend all the time together takes down those defenses and soon it is clear that matt and ...

the self-titled the earl of london , logan steele meets his match in his feisty next-door neighbor, darcy westbury. she's connected to louise bay's other novels, and those characters do pop up here, but you don't need the full backstory in order to enjoy this. i think my first impressions of logan and darcy weren't great. i loved the scene where they met on the grounds of logan's newly purchased estate and kind of wish the book had started there. the man-whore who treats women like crap alpha hero is so not my jam. and the thing is, for the most part, logan isn't that. and the root of darcy and logan's conflict isn't that he was a man-whore, it's that he's a weekender who doesn't truly respect locals. darcy wants to build up her small village. she wants it to thrive, and more weekenders who spend their lives away from the village is the last thing she wants. on the one hand, it's a noble goal. on the other hand, she's so frea...

here's the thing, i loved this book. alex and bailey are 100% perfect for each other, and a huge part of that is their incredible friendship. their problem is that they keep too much to themselves. the failure to communicate in love and other secrets  is spectacular. it's so frustrating. because they keep talking at cross-purposes and assuming the wrong thing, and i blame this a little more on bailey than alex who is a stupid boy in love with his best friend and as a stupid boy already starts with a handicap when it comes to communicating. but bailey keeps assuming she knows what he's going to say and says the worst possible thing all the time. honestly, it's a wonder these two get past it because the all the cross-talk is seriously super stressful. but they are such great characters. so even though alex is a completely stupid boy and bailey is a crazy insecure girl they absolutely belong together and when they get it right it's so delightful. also, alex's...

when josh im first meets hazel camille bradford he is propositioned and puked on. it's college and their encounters don't get any less embarrassing. he walks in on her having sex with his roommate. she sends him a drug-addled message after wisdom tooth removal asking for an extension on a paper for the class he's the ta for. and then years go by and she doesn't see him until she'd at her friend emily's house for a party and is shocked to realize that josh is emily's brother. josh is a little down because his long-term relationship isn't quite working out. so hazel decides to cheer him up and become his best friend. when it's revealed that his girlfriend had been cheating on him, hazel decides that what they need to do is set each other up with blind double dates. hazel knows she's quirky and a lot to take but she figures it's time to start dating again and this is the perfect excuse. as each date goes comically, horrifically wrong, it...

ruin of stars concludes the story of sal, the gender fluid pickpocket that began in mask of shadows . the series needs to be read in order or it won't make much sense. there's a lot of characters and a lot of world-building mythology and at times i found it confusing. but sal as a character is so compelling. you can't help rooting for them as they set about avenging their family. the relationship between sal and elise continues to grow and deepen. there are still plenty of twists and turns, but where things end is pretty much exactly where they should. i recommend binge-reading this series because the two books are so closely linked. but it's enjoyable and the characters are wonderful. you can't help rooting for them. **ruin of stars will publish on august 28, 2018. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/sourcebooks fire in exchange for my honest review.

the truth about lies  is a gritty, emotional love story featuring two people who have lost everything and never expected to find hope and a second chance in each other. both cora and penn have secrets. secrets they hold close to the chest because the revelations can destroy everything they've begun to build together. cora plays a game call truth or lie? where you can ask a question and respond in a lie. but you have to acknowledge it as such. but there are questions that are never asked, lies that are never spoken. and the truth behind all of that can blow everything up. the truth about lies builds up a house of cards, just to tumble it all down. it's the necessary backstory to the story that will reveal all, the truth about us. and luckily we only have to wait two weeks for that. **the truth about lies will publish on august 23, 2018. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/inkslinger pr in exchange for my honest review. keep reading for more...

i was like 30% in when i realized this book was the second book in a series and that i knew a bunch of these characters from the first book , which i read and enjoyed. part of the issue was, that quite a bit of time has passed from the events of the first book to the second. the lead hero was a sixteen-year-old, and now he is a man, a real cowboy. brice harper is kind of amazing. he's immediately all-in with the heroine, naomi walker, who is only back in town to visit her mom and best friend, whitney. from the first night of her visit, it's clear that things are not right. whitney is tense and afraid, and when she's attacked by a man who comes from the shadows and then proceeds to attach naomi, it's obvious that she knows more than she is letting on. brice steps in to save naomi, and from that moment their fates are entangled. as the attacks become more dangerous, whitney reveals the extent of evil happening behind the scenes at the rodeo. naomi and brice ...