Cover Lust, No. 49

From the internationally best selling author of BAD ROMEO, BROKEN JULIET, and WICKED HEART comes an anthology of sweet and sexy novellas featuring beloved Starcrossed characters such as Ethan and Cassie, Liam and Elissa, and Josh and Angel; as well as the gang from The Grove.

Have Yourself A Sexy Little Christmas: An Ethan and Cassie Novella

Ethan and Cassie’s first Christmas with the Holt family should be nothing but jolly. Sure, Cassie’s a mess trying to impress her future in-laws with the perfect casserole, but when an unexpected blast from Ethan’s past shows up beneath the tree, the season gets a whole lot more serious—and sexy.

The Naughty List: A Liam and Elissa Novella

After being apart for months, Liam and Elissa are making up for lost time on a secluded island, where they think they’re free to explore each other’s bodies in peace. But when it turns out their Christmas sanctuary isn’t as deserted as it first seemed, their Christmas dreams turn into a nightmare.

Happy, Horny New Year: A Josh and Angel Novella

When the gang from the Grove gets together at a lavish New Year’s Eve party, it’s like no time has passed. Except Elissa and Josh are dating Hollywood royalty, Jack and Zoe have been hooking up in secret, Connor’s new girlfriend wants to murder Cassie, and Erika’s mystery man has everyone talking. Before midnight, shocking revelations are made, industry tongues are wagging, and the poor mistletoe is ready to pass out from overuse.

No matter how you're spending the holidays, BAD ROMEO CHRISTMAS is sure to heat up your festive season this winter.

In honor of this weekend, I'm sharing this perfect holiday cover. I hope you all have a safe and Merry Christmas!

Novellas: Love Them or Hate Them?

Hey, everyone!


Today I want to talk about novellas, those shortish stories authors love adding to series. People seem to either love or hate them, so I thought it'd be interesting to talk about them.


Personally, I usually enjoy novellas. I (usually) like what they add to the story, and I'm always up to read more of a favorite series.
I've found that there's three categories novellas tend to fall into, regardless of how good the story itself was. Have you noticed this pattern?

1. Wow, that blew my mind and truly improved my reading

This is for those gorgeously rare novellas that really, truly add something to a beloved storyline. Whether it's an integral backstory that puts a character in a new light, a glimpse into the future, or an offshoot event that opens your eyes, these stories are incredible and vital. I've only read one so far!

I viewed the rest of this trilogy in a completely new way after reading this.

2. Enjoyable, but optional

These stories are enjoyable on their own, and add icing on the cake to the series.  However, it's entirely possible to read the full length novels and not miss much at all.

I really loved getting a peek inside Reyes' head!

5 star read, and well deserved for the couple. Not necessary to read, though!

3. Not worth reading

These don't add anything to the series, and you're better off rereading a full length story.

I adore both these authors and series, but I didn't really feel anything for these two stories. 

What do you think of novellas?

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking The Spine and is a fun way to see what books other bloggers just can't wait to get their hands on!

Sidebarred (The Legal Briefs, #3.5) by Emma Chase - April 24th

Join Jake & Chelsea, Stanton & Sofia, Brent & Kennedy as they navigate the hilarious and heartwarming hurdles of love, life and the law in this final addition to the Legal Briefs Series.

There was a time when Jake Becker had it all together. He was controlled, driven, ruthless—in and out of the courtroom.

Then, six irresistible orphans and their heartbreakingly beautiful aunt crashed into his perfectly ordered life. They changed everything. They changed him. Now he’s a husband, an upstanding member of society, a father figure—a family man. 
And he’s pretty damn good at it. 

Sure, he has to referee sibling smackdowns, re-learn algebra, ensure his clients stay of jail, and keep his wife happy—but it finally feels like he’s got it together again....
So, of course something has to screw it all up.

It’s huge. Life-changing. Kind of terrifying.

And it will be the most amazing, perfect thing he’ll ever do.

Oh my god, give it to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jake and Chelsea were my absolute favorite couple in this series, and Sustained is on my Best of 2016 list. I can't wait to get my hands on this. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Books I've Read So Far in 2015

Hey, guys!


Today I'm going in The Broke and The Bookish's Top Ten Tuesday. This week's topic is the best books we've read so far this year, and it's a great one. I was just thinking about it the other day, and I had a hard time narrowing it down. 2015 has been the best reading year I've ever had so far; I've found several new favorite authors, read books that completely changed my opinion on certain topics, laughed my ass off and had my heart ripped out, and accumulated quite the collection of book boyfriends. ;) I'm absolutely cheating, what with a lot of these being series, but oh well.


In no real order:

10.

Add to Goodreads

New adult, romantic mystery, with some seriously screwed up themes

My name is Calla Price. I'm eighteen years old, and I'm one half of a whole. My other half—my twin brother, my Finn—is crazy. I love him. More than life, more than anything. And even though I'm terrified he'll suck me down with him, no one can save him but me. I'm doing all I can to stay afloat in a sea of insanity, but I'm drowning more and more each day. So I reach out for a lifeline. Dare DuBray. He's my savior and my anti-Christ. His arms are where I feel safe, where I'm afraid, where I belong, where I'm lost. He will heal me, break me, love me and hate me. He has the power to destroy me. Maybe that's ok. Because I can't seem to save Finn and love Dare without everyone getting hurt. Why? Because of a secret. A secret I'm so busy trying to figure out, that I never see it coming. You won't either.

This book was a complete mindfuck. I loved it! It was eh for about 100 pages, but that really just lulled me into a false sense of security. Then it was just WHAM, what the actual fuck is going on here? Book 1 in a trilogy. Final book is scheduled for an August release.

9.

Add to Goodreads

New adult, romantic horror, paranormal-ish (neither main character is a paranormal, which is refreshing). Book one of nine.

There’s always been something a bit off about Perry Palomino. Though she’s been dealing with a quarter-life crisis and post-college syndrome like any other twentysomething, she’s still not what you would call “ordinary.” For one thing, there’s her past which she likes to pretend never happened, and then there’s the fact that she sees ghosts. Luckily for her, that all comes in handy when she stumbles across Dex Foray, an eccentric producer for an upcoming webcast on ghost hunters. Even though the show’s budget is non-existent and Dex himself is a maddening enigma, Perry is instantly drawn into a world that both threatens her life and seduces her with a sense of importance. Her uncle’s haunted lighthouse provides the perfect catalyst and backdrop for a horrific mystery that unravels the threads of Perry’s fragile sanity and causes her to fall for a man, who, like the most dangerous of ghosts, may not be all that he seems. 

While I wouldn't count this book specifically as one of my top 10, the series as a whole is incredible. Don't judge until after you've read the second book. I didn't care for the first, and nearly didn't pick up the second. What a world I would've missed! Sexy, smart, hilarious, terrifying, strangely vulnerable, very intense reads.

8.

Add to Goodreads

New adult, contemporary romance

Sound is an abstract concept for most people. We spend our lives blocking out the static in order to focus on what we believe is important. But what if, when the clarity fades into silence, it's the obscure background noise that you would give anything to hold on to?

I've always been a fighter. With parents who barely managed to stay out of jail and two little brothers who narrowly avoided foster care, I became skilled at dodging the punches life threw at me. Growing up, I didn’t have anything I could call my own, but from the moment I met Eliza Reynolds, she was always mine. I became utterly addicted to her and the escape from reality we provided each other. Throughout the years, she had boyfriends and I had girlfriends, but there wasn't a single night that I didn’t hear her voice.

You see, meeting the love of my life at age thirteen was never part of my plan. However, neither was gradually going deaf at the age of twenty-one.

They both happened anyway.

Now, I'm on the ropes during the toughest battles of my life.
Fighting for my career.
Fighting the impending silence.
Fighting for her.

Every night, just before falling asleep, she sighs as a final conscious breath leaves her.

I think that's the sound I'll miss the most.


This book was amazing. The character development, the idea of coping with impending deafness at such a young age, huge responsibility, an incredible friends to lovers romance, the character's passion for what he does, all of it just blew me away.

7.

Add to Goodreads

New adult/young adult (though it does not read like it, and deals with some very intense subject matter), contemporary romance, a bit dark. Well, a lot dark.

She is pretty and talented - sweet sixteen and never been kissed. He is seventeen; gorgeous and on the brink of a bright future. And now they have fallen in love. But... they are brother and sister.

Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. Together they have stepped in for their alcoholic, wayward mother to take care of their three younger siblings. As defacto parents to the little ones, Lochan and Maya have had to grow up fast. And the stress of their lives—and the way they understand each other so completely—has also also brought them closer than two siblings would ordinarily be. So close, in fact, that they have fallen in love. Their clandestine romance quickly blooms into deep, desperate love. They know their relationship is wrong and cannot possibly continue. And yet, they cannot stop what feels so incredibly right. As the novel careens toward an explosive and shocking finale, only one thing is certain: a love this devastating has no happy ending. 

This book is about incest, and I almost didn't read it. I found the topic disgusting, and was gearing up for a retelling of Flowers in The Attic. That's not what happened. It was...incredible. It changed my view on the topic slightly; while I still find it a bit appalling, and I don't think any children should ever come from such a relationship....is it really, truly my place to tell two consenting people who they can or can't love? How is what they're doing effecting me in the grand scheme of things? My mind was going in circles when I was done with this.
I have never in my life read a book that hurt me as much as this book did. I was full on ugly crying during the last half of the book, and I was gutted by the end. I don't think I've ever had such a reaction to a book. I remember closing the book and just sitting there for a good ten minutes trying to absorb what I read. A beautifully written, brutally honest, agonizing book. Fair warning: it is not a happy ending.

6.

Add to Goodreads

Adult, darkish contemporary romance

Ellie Watt is used to starting over. The daughter of a grifting team, Ellie spent her childhood being used as a pawn in her parents' latest scam. Now she’s much older, wiser and ready to give her con artist life a rest. But returning to the dry desert town of Palm Valley, California means one more temptation than she bargained for – Camden McQueen. Once known as the high school weirdo, Camden is bigger and badder than the boy he used to be and a talented tattoo artist with his own thriving business. Ellie’s counting on Camden still being in love with her but what she’s not counting on is how easily unrequited love can turn into obsession over time. When Camden discovers Ellie’s plan to con him, he makes her a deal she doesn’t dare refuse, but her freedom comes with a price and it’s one that takes both Ellie and Camden down a dangerous road.

Karina Halle has quickly made her way to the top of my favorite authors list this year, and this is the book that started it all. First in a trilogy. One of my very few 6 star reads! I loved how Halle took characters that weren't likable and were really screwed up, and made me feel so much for them. My review for the first book, Sins and Needles, can be found here.

5. 

Add to Goodreads

Adult, contemporary romance

The first night after Caroline moves into her fantastic new San Francisco apartment, she realizes she's gaining an intimate knowledge of her new neighbor's nocturnal adventures. Thanks to paper-thin walls and the guy's athletic prowess, she can hear not just his bed banging against the wall but the ecstatic response of what seems (as loud night after loud night goes by) like an endless parade of women. And since Caroline is currently on a self-imposed dating hiatus, and her neighbor is clearly lethally attractive to women, she finds her fantasies keep her awake even longer than the noise. So when the wallbanging threatens to literally bounce her out of bed, Caroline, clad in sexual frustration and a pink baby-doll nightie, confronts Simon Parker, her heard-but-never-seen neighbor. The tension between them is as thick as the walls are thin, and the results just as mixed. Suddenly, Caroline is finding she may have discovered a whole new definition of neighborly...

In a delicious mix of silly and steamy, Alice Clayton dishes out a hot and hilarious tale of exasperation at first sight... 


This is the perfect light, fluffy, hilarious read. I laughed my ass off all the way through this, and the hero is a man after my own heart (I tell you, there is nothing sexier than a man with a camera. Nothing.). Very quick read and easy read.

4.

Add to Goodreads

New/young adult, contemporary mystery romance

Best friends since they could walk. In love since the age of fourteen. 
Complete strangers since this morning. 
He'll do anything to remember. She'll do anything to forget. 

This is book one of a three part novellas series. Second book is out, third is rumored to be out this summer but does not yet have a release date. Awful cliffhangers but so, so interesting and engaging. They're very short books (150 pages?), and they have a lot of information in them, but I never once felt they were rushed. I'm a big Colleen Hoover fan, but I didn't realize just how much talent she had until I read this.

3. 

Add to Goodreads

New adult, contemporary romance


She’s addicted to sex. He’s addicted to booze…the only way out is rock bottom.

No one would suspect shy Lily Calloway’s biggest secret. While everyone is dancing at college bars, Lily stays in the bathroom. To get laid. Her compulsion leads her to one-night stands, steamy hookups and events she shamefully regrets. The only person who knows her secret happens to have one of his own.

Loren Hale’s best friend is his bottle of bourbon. Lily comes at a close second. For three years, they’ve pretended to be in a real relationship, hiding their addictions from their families. They’ve mastered the art of concealing flasks and random guys that filter in and out of their apartment.

But as they sink beneath the weight of their addictions, they cling harder to their destructive relationship and wonder if a life together, for real, is better than a lie. Strangers and family begin to infiltrate their guarded lives, and with new challenges, they realize they may not just be addicted to alcohol and sex.
Their real vice may be each other. 


This is another book that really opened my eyes and made me think about an uncomfortable topic. I've never given addiction much though, and the Ritchie twins really made me think about the issue. The way they showcased the controversial topic of sex addiction was so enlightening, and showed that it truly is an addiction. This is the first book in the series. 

2.

Add to Goodreads

New adult (I think? May be adult; it's such a weird genre to pin down), contemporary romance

When Bree Prescott arrives in the sleepy, lakeside town of Pelion, Maine, she hopes against hope that this is the place where she will finally find the peace she so desperately seeks. On her first day there, her life collides with Archer Hale, an isolated man who holds a secret agony of his own. A man no one else sees.

Archer's Voice is the story of a woman chained to the memory of one horrifying night and the man whose love is the key to her freedom. It is the story of a silent man who lives with an excruciating wound and the woman who helps him find his voice. It is the story of suffering, fate, and the transformative power of love.


Oh, Archer. I just adored him. I cried so much during this book. So sweet and heartfelt, great character development, and holy chemistry!

1.

Add to Goodreads

New adult (from what I'm understanding, it's *this close* to being adult), contemporary romance

He’s thirty-eight. I’m twenty-three.

He speaks Spanish. I speak English.

He lives in Spain. I live in Canada.

He dresses in thousand-dollar suits. I’m covered in tattoos.

He’s married and has a five-year old daughter.

I’m single and can’t commit to anyone or anything.

Until now.


Yet another one that made me stop and think. I love all books, but the ones that can get me to really examine my views are my favorites. This one got me thinking about age gaps and cheating, and I loved that it wasn't a perfect, happily ever after for the two of them. It was so realistic and beyond refreshing. In Halle's usual style, it was so easy to read. I read it in a day!

There we have it! What books make your list?

- The Bibliophile Babe 

The Bibliophile Babe Reviews Never Never, Part 1 - Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher

Hey, everyone! Good to have y'all here this morning. :) Today I'm reviewing Never Never: Part 1 by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher. I was not paid, perked or given a book in exchange for a review; I'm reviewing my own copy and all opinions are my own.

Colleen Hoover is one of my favorite authors. She's written Confess, Ugly Love, Slammed, and Maybe Someday. She has a uniquely absorbing writing style, and writes some of the best male protagonists. So many of her male characters are on my book boyfriend list.

I haven't yet read anything by Tarryn Fisher, but she is on my To Be Read shelf! She's the author of Marrow, Mud Vein  and the Love Me With Lies series.

Never Never is a three part collaborative novella series between Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher. It's a new adult contemporary romantic suspense with elements of paranormal (I think).  While the main characters are still in senior year of high school, it does not read like a Young Adult book.

Like I said, this is a novella trilogy, and the second book came out last Sunday (5/17). The third book does not yet have a release date, but the authors are hopeful to debut it this summer.

Here is Never Never's intriguing (and brief!) description:

"Best friends since they could walk. In love since the age of fourteen. 
Complete strangers since this morning. 
He'll do anything to remember. She'll do anything to forget. "

They definitely don't tell you much with that, huh? The book is so short that I'd almost rather you didn't know more than that, and just went in blind. I did, and I couldn't be happier for it!

For those of you that prefer to be a little more knowledgable, I'll give you the gist and then you can pick it up (because serious, you need to read this).

Never Never follows two 18 year old high school seniors, Silas and Charlie (it's used as a girl's name here). They've been in love since they were kids, and have been dating since they were 14. One day they wake up with no memory of themselves, each other, or their families. Oddly enough, they can remember song lyrics, how to drive, and various things they enjoy doing. 

They both decide to pretend as if all is normal, even as they try desperately to remember. As they learn more about themselves and their lives, some ugly realities start to surface. Major conflict between Charlie and Silas's families have made relationships with their parents extremely strained, Charlie's mother is an alcoholic, they're alienated from their siblings, and it turns out they aren't exactly the golden couple they're made out to be. 

That's really all I can say without giving it away!

Even though Never Never is only around 130 pages, it felt like a full length novel due to the amount of information you learn. Despite that, I never once felt like it was rushed or cramped. The writing flowed beautifully, the pace was fast and engaging, and I was utterly captivated by the characters and their situation. It has a unique and refreshing storyline, and the collaboration was flawless. 

I found myself getting so wrapped up in the characters, and I felt an instant connection with Silas. His point of view was fascinating, and the way he thought about things made me so curious. I liked Charlie as well, though I didn't quite "get" her the way I got Silas. 

I had a new question forming in my head with practically every page turn, and by the end of the book I was buzzing with excitement and anticipation for the second installment. My only complaint is that it ends with a killer cliffhanger, but now that book two is out you don't need to endure the same frustration! 

I just love this cover!

STATS:

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Genre: New adult contemporary romantic suspense, possibly with paranormal elements

Point of View: Alternating 1st person

Steam/Sexual Content: Some hot steam, mild sexual content

HEA: Not sure yet!

Cliffhanger: YES!

Warnings: None aside from the cliffy

Length: Novella/159 (according to Amazon)

Series: Never Never 
Publisher: Hoover Ink

So that's what we have for Never Never! Have you read this book yet? What did you think? 

- The Bibliophile Babe