R&R Review Monday: Numbers Game by Rebecca Rode

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Numbers Game #1

Goodreads Blurb:

"Treena is nervous for Rating Day. A single number will brand her forever—a valuable citizen, or a pathetic waste of space. Her top-Rated boyfriend is confident their scores will coincide so they can attend the academy together. But when the big day arrives, her true number shocks everyone.

To get her life and boyfriend back, she must go undercover and expose a military spy. Doesn’t sound too hard, except that someone wants her dead. And then there’s Vance, the mysterious soldier with a haunted past and beautiful brown eyes. Together, they discover a dark numbers conspiracy, one that shatters the nation’s future. Treena must join up with Vance if she is to survive the dangerous game of numbers—and the terrible war that rages within her heart."

R&R Review Sunday: Touched by Elisa S. Amore

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Touched Saga #1

Goodreads Blurb:

"Based on a Norwegian legend
A Sealed Fate
An Angel of Death
A Forbidden Love

What are you willing to sacrifice when the only person who can save you is the same one who has to kill you?

After vampires and werewolves, after wizards and fallen angels, a new breed of Angels is here to usher you into their dark world. An ancient, deadly, inescapable race.
No one can see them. They’re shadows of destiny. They’re knights of death. They’re the Subterraneans and they’re here to claim our lives.
Commanded by a mysterious congregation called the Màsala, the Angels of Death ensure that each man’s destiny takes its due course on Earth.
But what happens when love intervenes?
Can an Angel of Death deny his own nature and challenge destiny?
Can love rebel against fate?

When Gemma’s eyes first meet the dark, piercing gaze of Evan James, an ominous shadow creeps into her life, ultimately leading her to face her destiny. She doesn't realize Evan is one of Death's soldiers and that Death is summoning her.
Her time is up: Gemma must die . . . and Evan has been sent to kill her.
But what if she’s the only one who can truly see him?

Against every rule. Against fate itself. Against everything and everyone. A story of forbidden love and star-crossed destinies.

Dark. Romantic. Dangerous.

Touched combines devastating passion and unconfessable secrets, heartrending decisions and deep emotions, giving life to a love story as intense as the feelings that unite Evan and Gemma, as inescapable as the destiny that looms over them . . ."

50/50 Friday (21): Most/Least Intricately Built World

50/50 Friday is a meme hosted by Carrie @The Butterfly Reads and I and focuses on the opposite sides of books (best/worst, differing opinions, etc).  Every week will have a new topic and several advance topics will be listed in the tab labeled 50/50 Friday!

Today's Topic: Most/Least Intricately Built World

R&R Review Wednesday: The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak

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Stand alone to date

Goodreads Blurb:

"A dazzling debut novel—at once a charming romance and a moving coming-of-age story—about what happens when a fourteen-year old boy pretends to seduce a girl to steal a copy of Playboy but then discovers she is his computer-loving soulmate.

Billy Marvin’s first love was a computer. Then he met Mary Zelinsky.

Do you remember your first love?

The Impossible Fortress begins with a magazine…The year is 1987 and Playboy has just published scandalous photographs of Vanna White, from the popular TV game show Wheel of Fortune. For three teenage boys—Billy, Alf, and Clark—who are desperately uneducated in the ways of women, the magazine is somewhat of a Holy Grail: priceless beyond measure and impossible to attain. So, they hatch a plan to steal it.

The heist will be fraught with peril: a locked building, intrepid police officers, rusty fire escapes, leaps across rooftops, electronic alarm systems, and a hyperactive Shih Tzu named Arnold Schwarzenegger. Failed attempt after failed attempt leads them to a genius master plan—they’ll swipe the security code to Zelinsky’s convenience store by seducing the owner’s daughter, Mary Zelinsky. It becomes Billy’s mission to befriend her and get the information by any means necessary. But Mary isn’t your average teenage girl. She’s a computer loving, expert coder, already strides ahead of Billy in ability, with a wry sense of humor and a hidden, big heart. But what starts as a game to win Mary’s affection leaves Billy with a gut-wrenching choice: deceive the girl who may well be his first love or break a promise to his best friends.

At its heart, The Impossible Fortress is a tender exploration of young love, true friends, and the confusing realities of male adolescence—with a dash of old school computer programming.

Bonus content: Play the "The Impossible Fortress" video game at http://www.jasonrekulak.com/game/"

Review Sunday: A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis

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Stand-alone to date

Goodreads Blurb:

"Grace Mae knows madness.

She keeps it locked away, along with her voice, trapped deep inside a brilliant mind that cannot forget horrific family secrets. Those secrets, along with the bulge in her belly, land her in a Boston insane asylum.

When her voice returns in a burst of violence, Grace is banished to the dark cellars, where her mind is discovered by a visiting doctor who dabbles in the new study of criminal psychology. With her keen eyes and sharp memory, Grace will make the perfect assistant at crime scenes. Escaping from Boston to the safety of an ethical Ohio asylum, Grace finds friendship and hope, hints of a life she should have had. But gruesome nights bring Grace and the doctor into the circle of a killer who stalks young women. Grace, continuing to operate under the cloak of madness, must hunt a murderer while she confronts the demons in her own past.

In this beautifully twisted historical thriller, Mindy McGinnis, acclaimed author of Not a Drop to Drink and In a Handful of Dust, explores the fine line between sanity and insanity, good and evil—and the madness that exists in all of us."

50/50 Friday (20): Character Most/Least Likely to be a World Traveler

50/50 Friday is a meme hosted by Carrie @The Butterfly Reads and I and focuses on the opposite sides of books (best/worst, differing opinions, etc).  Every week will have a new topic and several advance topics will be listed in the tab labeled 50/50 Friday!

Today's Topic: Character Most/Least Likely to be a World Traveler

R&R Review Wednesday: Lessons on St. Barts by Emme Cross

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St. Barts #2 (see the review for the first book in the series, Love on St. Barts, HERE)

Goodreads Blurb:

"Sunny’s happiness with Sven is threatened by a murderous stalker
Sunny O’Hara thought everything was going smoothly with her sexy movie-star boyfriend Sven. He initiates in her all the ways of love and seems to have stopped sleeping around. But everything is threatened by a vicious stalker who wants her out the picture.

Will Sunny survive, and if she does, can her relationship with Sven last?

This is the second book in the St. Barts Romance series by Emme Cross. Set on the island of St. Barts, eight square miles of gourmet restaurants, designer shops, yachts . . . and sultry secrets."

Music Monday (5)

Music Monday is a weekly event hosted by Lauren over at Always Me.  Every Monday, you share one or two of your favorite songs you've been enjoying that week to help other people discover new music!  Here are my picks for this week:

R&R Review Sunday: Love on St. Barts by Emme Cross

Amazon  Goodreads

St. Barts #1

Goodreads Blurb:

"Everyone says he's wrong for her, but she doesn't care
Sunny O’Hara young, pretty, and terribly innocent returns to her childhood home of St. Barts, an idyllic island in the West Indies. She meets Sven Larson, a movie star with a bad reputation for breaking women’s hearts. She falls in love with him and begins a journey of emotional and physical discovery. But has Sven really changed? Can a good woman redeem a very bad boy?

This is the first book in the St. Barts Romance series by Emme Cross. Set on the island of St. Barts, eight square miles of gourmet restaurants, designer shops, yachts . . . and secrets."

50/50 Friday (19): Character Most/Least Changed By Their Hero's Journey

50/50 Friday is a meme hosted by Carrie @The Butterfly Reads and I and focuses on the opposite sides of books (best/worst, differing opinions, etc).  Every week will have a new topic and several advance topics will be listed in the tab labeled 50/50 Friday!

Today's Topic: Character Most/Least Changed By Their Hero's Journey

Review Wednesday: Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

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Under the Never Sky #1

Goodreads Blurb:

"WORLDS KEPT THEM APART.

DESTINY BROUGHT THEM TOGETHER.

Aria has lived her whole life in the protected dome of Reverie. Her entire world confined to its spaces, she's never thought to dream of what lies beyond its doors. So when her mother goes missing, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland long enough to find her are slim.

Then Aria meets an outsider named Perry. He's searching for someone too. He's also wild - a savage - but might be her best hope at staying alive.

If they can survive, they are each other's best hope for finding answers."

January Wrap-Up

It's the end of January already!  Can you believe it??  While I was pretty productive this month in some areas, I wasn't so much in other areas.  Let's explore what happened this month, shall we?

50/50 Friday (18): Best/Worst Book Read in January

50/50 Friday is a meme hosted by Carrie @The Butterfly Reads and I and focuses on the opposite sides of books (best/worst, differing opinions, etc).  Every week will have a new topic and several advance topics will be listed in the tab labeled 50/50 Friday!

Today's Topic: Best/Worst Book Read in January

This is meant to be a sort of wrap-up (useful for people like me who never remember to do wrap-ups) and a look back on your month!  Pick the best book and the worst book you read this month!