Cover Reveal: Us by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy!

Us (Him #2)

Author(s): Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy

Publication Date: March 8, 2016

Can your favorite hockey players finish their first season together undefeated?

Five months in, NHL forward Ryan Wesley is having a record-breaking rookie season. He's living his dream of playing pro hockey and coming home every night to the man he loves–Jamie Canning, his longtime best friend turned boyfriend. There's just one problem: the most important relationship of his life is one he needs to keep hidden, or else face a media storm that will eclipse his success on the ice.

Jamie loves Wes. He really, truly does. But hiding sucks. It's not the life Jamie envisioned for himself, and the strain of keeping their secret is taking its toll. It doesn't help that his new job isn't going as smoothly as he'd hoped, but he knows he can power through it as long as he has Wes. At least apartment 10B is their retreat, where they can always be themselves.

Or can they? When Wes's noisiest teammate moves in upstairs, the threads of their carefully woven lie begin to unravel. With the outside world determined to take its best shot at them, can Wes and Jamie develop major-league relationship skills on the fly?

Warning: contains sexual situations, a vibrating chair, long-distance sexytimes, and proof that hockey players look hot in any shade of green.

I AM SUPER EXCITED FOR THIS ONE! The cover is gorgeous!!!

Welcome our part-time Lazies! (@Lisey978 & @frostbitsky)

Hi all! This isn't really a discussion but I didn't have a header for this. And what this is, is we have upgraded two of our regular guest reviewers into part-time lazy girls!

Elisa and Stephanie are now going to be part-time bloggers here on the site. What that means is that they will continue to review but sometimes they may participate in some of our memes.

Now's lets get to know the new lazies a bit better with a few questions.

Describe yourself in 5 words.
Faithful, caring, loving, funny, nurturing

Who is your current book crush?
Book crush? I don't have just one, there are too many to list.

What's your TV guilty pleasure when you're not reading?
Vampire Diaries

Who would play you in the movie version of your life?
Melissa McCarthy

If you could trade places with anyone in the world for one day, who would it be?
Trade places with Blake Lively so I can spend a day with Ryan Reynolds

What's your favorite website?
Amazon

What's the last song you listened to on your iPod?
iPod broke, last CD I listened to was Adele's 25

What's the last book you bought?
Clubwhore by Kim Jones

Describe yourself in 5 words.

I'm organized, petitie, funny, artistic, and geeky. 

Who is your current book crush?
My current book crush is Sevro au Barca from the Red Rising trilogy. He is completely mad but so entertaining. He has some of the best lines in the story. 

What's your TV guilty pleasure when you're not reading?
I watch a lot of TV - I'll go with Nashville. It's such a cheesy soap opera but it has country music, so I like it. 

Who would play you in the movie version of your life?
Everyone says I look like Heather Matarazzo. 

If you could trade places with anyone in the world for one day, who would it be?
I'd trade places with J.K. Rowling. Then I can see all her Harry Potter journals. 

What's your favorite website?
Fanforum.com. I have been posting on that message board since 2000 and used to be a moderator for 3 of their boards: Star Wars, Ewan McGregor, and Hayden Christensen. 

What's the last song you listened to on your iPod?
"Satellite of Love" - Lou Reed. Because David Bowie died I was listening to the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack. 

What's the last book you bought?
Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story by Jewel. I did just preorder the ebook version of Morning Star by Pierce Brown.

Look out for more of their reviews and other things they'll bring to the blog. You can follow both of them on Twitter and Goodreads! Elisa is @Lisey978/Goodreads and Stephanie is @frostbitsky/Goodreads

Give them both a follow and warm welcome!

Book Review: The Score by Elle Kennedy! (@ElleKennedy)

The Score (Off-Campus #3)
Author: Elle Kennedy
Publication Date: January 11, 2016
Published: Self-Published

My Rating:

He knows how to score, on and off the ice

Allie Hayes is in crisis mode. With graduation looming, she still doesn’t have the first clue about what she's going to do after college. To make matters worse, she’s nursing a broken heart thanks to the end of her longtime relationship. Wild rebound sex is definitely not the solution to her problems, but gorgeous hockey star Dean Di-Laurentis is impossible to resist. Just once, though, because even if her future is uncertain, it sure as heck won’t include the king of one-night stands.

It’ll take more than flashy moves to win her over

Dean always gets what he wants. Girls, grades, girls, recognition, girls…he’s a ladies man, all right, and he’s yet to meet a woman who’s immune to his charms. Until Allie. For one night, the feisty blonde rocked his entire world—and now she wants to be friends? Nope. It’s not over until he says it’s over. Dean is in full-on pursuit, but when life-rocking changes strike, he starts to wonder if maybe it’s time to stop focusing on scoring…and shoot for love.

There is probably a good and rational reason why I didn’t give this book 5 stars. Currently, I don’t remember that reason. ANYWAY….

The Score was a total hit! A touchdown, slam dunk, homerun, goal, and any other sports euphemism that I missed. This was filled with humor, sexy times, heart wrenching sadness and uplifting hope. I don’t know how Elle Kennedy manages to keep this series fresh but when I think it is going to be a repeat of the last, she changes it up.

Lazy Discussions: Reviews! Does size really matter?

It's been almost a month and a discussion still hasn't happened. I apologize for that. A few weeks ago, my mother passed away, it was extremely sudden, so our focus on the blog had shifted. 

However, I've come to love this blog as if it was a child and I don't want to abandon it. So, let's discuss something that's been bothering me from day one of blogging.

This topic has been bugging me almost every day it seems. I'm a lover of Goodreads. Sometimes, I would even call myself a Goodreads snob. If a book has a rating below a 3.7, I probably won't check it out. But that's not what has been bothering me. 

What bothers me is when I go to look at reviews and I'll come across some that are pages long. Now, I'm not saying they are bad. Some of them are hilarious and really insightful. When I read these long reviews, it makes me look at my own reviews and start to question; Am I reviewing wrong? Are my reviews too short and repetitive? 

The old question comes to mind when I think about this, does size matter?

This topic has probably been brought up many times before but regardless of that, it's something I deal with every day when I go on GR or when it's time to sit down and write a review of my own. 

When I write my reviews, I try to use the outline of what one of my professors gave us when we had to write readers responses to classmates. First start off giving a brief explanation of the story. What happened? Then, write down some things you liked about it and maybe a few things you didn't think worked. Finally, we had to give suggestions on what we thought would work better. When it comes to reviews, I skip that step and go straight into my final thoughts. 

I thought this was a good idea. But then I read the goodreads reviews...

So my question(s) are, are longer reviews better? Does it change your opinion on the book if the review is filled with details upon details? And what do you look for in a review?

Guess that's where I'll leave this first discussion!

Waiting On Wednesday #39

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Title: Seven Ways We Lie
Author: Riley Redgate
Release: March 8, 2016

Paloma High School is ordinary by anyone’s standards. It’s got the same cliques, the same prejudices, the same suspect cafeteria food. And like every high school, every student has something to hide—whether it’s Kat, the thespian who conceals her trust issues onstage; or Valentine, the neurotic genius who’s planted the seed of a school scandal.
When that scandal bubbles over, and rumors of a teacher-student affair surface, everyone starts hunting for someone to blame. For the unlikely allies at the heart of it all, the collision of their seven ordinary-seeming lives results in extraordinary change.

I have a slight obsession with the sins. I blame Brad Pitt and his sexy face. Even though this doesn't seem to be directly linked to them, the cover drew me in. And then the hopes of a scandal has me waiting on pins and needles.

Top Ten Tuesday! Books That Became My Favorite Movies

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish

Today's a freebie day. Love things when their free. I also love movies. This list has probably already been done before but because I love movies, I want to do it. I could have picked favorite books that became movies but I wanted to give love to the movies that I loved even if I haven't read the book.

A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks 

 This is one of my favorites because it's super romantic and of course Shane West. The book was different from the movie but the heart of it was still there.

 Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

I've never read the book but the movie moves me to tears every time I watch it. I love the story and it quickly became one of my go to films.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Another sad one. The book and movie had me laughing and crying. Sometimes I thought the book was better but in others, the movie showed emotion where the book didn't reach.

 Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts

No matter how cheesy this movie is, I love it to pieces. It's so sweet and uplifting. The book 

 Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

This has been on my TBR list for ages. The movie is one of my all time favorites and I could sit and watch it anytime. The relationships are great and I love the flashbacks. 

 Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

I adore Sandra Bullock. However, I loved the movie more than the book but that could just be me.

 Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

Brad Pitt. That is all.

 Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

I know that some people don't really like the movie but I loved the realness and the dark side of being an adult.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

This was my first introduction to the genius that was Michael Crichton. Dinosaurs and awesome theme park that can kill you. Sweet!

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

This was one of my mother and I's favorite movies. Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes.  

Book Review: Pucked Over by Helena Hunting!

Pucked Over (Pucked #3)
Author: Helena Hunting
Publication Date: January 22, 2016
Published: Self-Published

My Rating:

Lily LeBlanc isn’t versed in the art of casual sex, but after seven years in an on-again, off-again relationship, she’s definitely willing to give it a shot. And who better to try it with than her best friend’s boyfriend’s best friend? What could possibly go wrong? Nothing at all.

NHL player, Randy Ballistic, lives up to his last name on the ice and in the bedroom. His best friend and teammate has recently given up the puck bunnies and traded them in for a real girlfriend. And she just happens to have a seriously feisty, extra-hot best friend on the rebound. Randy’s more than happy to be Lily’s spring board back into the dating scene.

Casual sex is only casual until those pesky things called emotions get involved. Once that happens, someone’s bound to gets pucked over.

PURCHASE

Amazon US | CA | UK | AU | iTunes | Nook | Kobo | Google Play

I was a little disappointed by this one. I was hoping for some more conversation between the characters. A lot of this book was what they were thinking. Though I could appreciate that, it was a little over kill and not what I was expecting from a Pucked book. 

Although the sex scenes were great as usual with this series. Though there wasn't enough dialogue for me, the things Randy and Lily would say to each other were scorching.