Chai Tea Sunday Giveaway

The lovely folks at ECW Press gave me a copy of Chia Tea Sunday to giveaway to one lucky reader!

Do you recall Chai Tea Sunday? I reviewed it back in March You can read it here, and now you can have a copy of it for yourself! Contest is open 4/26-4/30

Rainbows End

Title: Rainbow's End

Publisher:  Barbour Publishing

Pub Date:   May 1st, 2012

Author: Valerie Comer, Annalisa Daughety, Nicole O'Dell, Cara C. Putnam 

Received From: Net Galley

Unexpected Treasure in the Missouri Ozarks

It’s always an interesting group of strangers who show up for the Rainbow’s End geocache hunt each summer, and the spectacular scenery along the bluffs of the Lake of the Ozarks is just one reason. . .

Lyssa, fired up for the ministry and anxious to talk about Jesus, is startled to find her former college professor among the group. Will he upset her mission?

City girl Madison is annoyed that her sister signed her up and then bailed—but now she’s been paired with a complete stranger! Worse, he’s one of those outdoorsy types.

Reagan has always played it safe, doing everything by the book. And then she meets her brother’s frat brother, a guy who’s got his life mapped out, too.

After winning her life-long battle to get fit, Hadley can’t wait to meet men who didn’t know her “before.” But Brad is that species of guy she has no experience with: a player.

God only knows if this adventure in the woods will lead to heartache. . .or love.

This wonderful book is broken into four stories


The first one Topaz Treasure details the life of Kirk, a professor and Lyssa a teacher and former student of Kirk's. They meet again a few years after Lyssa has graduated college and while Lyssa remembers Kirk, he has no recolection of her. Their past wasn't an easy one and now they must navigate to a future together. Kirk is seeking the lord and while Lyssa has him she isn't ready to speak up and share him. This is a really sweet love story, with an ending I love and a focus on a little thing called Geo-Caching that my family loves to do! I enjoyed seeing how this story fell into place!


The second tale Beneath the Surface Is the story of Madison and her summer in her sisters house. Once her sister leaves her without a Geo Caching partner, she partners up with Grant and what a duo they make. Madison needs some time to work past what she wants in life and Grant must learn to work past his stereo type for her, but in the end when the work both mental and figurative is done what will they have?




The third Tale Welcome Home Love involves the life of Hadley, a young woman who is on a new adventure in life, living as a healthy person. Recently having lost a large amount of weight, life is new for Hadley. Swept up by the player in town, Brad.  Hadley must learn what she really wants from life and love. The Character of Noah is in my eyes her destinty, but will she see it? There is a past to see there and figuring out where they want to go from there is a great path!


The final story Love's Prize is filled with some drama, scary parts and of course romance. Garrett and his sister Reagan have slipped away from the city for the summer due to a stalker following Reagan. Colton is Garrett's soon to be college roommate. The three spend the summer looking for caches and trying to make sure there is no danger for Reagan. In the end the mystery continues and love takes over. 

Fifty Shades Freed

Title: Fifty Shades Freed

Publisher:  Vintage

Pub Date:  April 17th,  2012

Author: E.L.James

Received From: Purchased



When unworldly student Anastasia Steele first encountered the driven and dazzling young entrepreneur Christian Grey it sparked a sensual affair that changed both of their lives irrevocably. Shocked, intrigued, and, ultimately, repelled by Christian’s singular erotic tastes, Ana demands a deeper commitment. Determined to keep her, Christian agrees.
 
Now, Ana and Christian have it all—love, passion, intimacy, wealth, and a world of possibilities for their future. But Ana knows that loving her Fifty Shades will not be easy, and that being together will pose challenges that neither of them would anticipate. Ana must somehow learn to share Christian’s opulent lifestyle without sacrificing her own identity. And Christian must overcome his compulsion to control as he wrestles with the demons of a tormented past.
 
Just when it seems that their strength together will eclipse any obstacle, misfortune, malice, and fate conspire to make Ana’s deepest fears turn to reality.


If you thought  books one and two were good, welcome with open arms Fifty Shades Freed. We know all of our characters well, and this time around get to enjoy the book about a month in the future, but have no fear, flashbacks will fill you in on all the good details you have missed, and good they are. This book is the tale of settling into life for Christian and Ana. It has some drama, fear and love all rolled up into one story. I found that all of the characters stayed true to the ideals I saw in them in the beginning and that the author kept me on the edge of my seat waiting for the next piece. In this book Christian grows beyond his dark side and truly finds the man he can be, with a few hiccups along the way of course. The Epilogue is great but the Shades of Christian and Meet fifty shades sections after that just seem a bit out of place for me. While they didn't distract from the story I am not sure they added anything to it either!

Fifty Shades Darker

Title: Fifty Shades Darker

Publisher:  Vintage

Pub Date:  April 17th, 2012

Author: E.L.James

Received From: Purchased


Daunted by the singular tastes and dark secrets of the beautiful, tormented young entrepreneur Christian Grey, Anastasia Steele has broken off their relationship to start a new career with a Seattle publishing house. 
 
But desire for Christian still dominates her every waking thought, and when he proposes a new arrangement, Anastasia cannot resist. They rekindle their searing sensual affair, and Anastasia learns more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven and demanding Fifty Shades.
 
While Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront the anger and envy of the women who came before her, and make the most important decision of her life.




Love is never easy or quite what you expect it to be. When we left off at the end of Fifty Shades of Grey Ana had begun to realize this and her relationship with Christian was on the rocks so to speak. The chance she takes on him allows her to begin in this book to know what Christians life was like and what in his past made him the way he is. I think the title of the book paved the way for me to know that yes in fact we are heading into the dark. Aside from the lives of Ana and Christian this time around we are introduced to a woman from Christians past, Leila. Unfortunately Leila isn't walking around with the best intentions towards Christian and Ana and we turn from a tale with love and romance and sizzling passion to a bit of a scare. There is also another force that we aren't quite aware of adding to the game. What a tangled web we weave describes all the pieces I found in this book. I continue to love Christian Grey and his relationship with Ana. 

Fifty Shades of Grey

Over the next few days I'll be publishing reviews for each of the three books in this series. Today I bring you the first book!

Title: Fifty Shades of Grey

Publisher:  Vintage

Pub Date:  April 3rd, 2012

Author: E.L.James

Received From: Purchased



When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.
 
Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.

I heard many things about this book before I dived in. While I admit I was a bit scared of the Erotic Romance tag on the back I figured it was worth a shot. I am really glad I gave it a chance. Yes there is some mature content, but nothing that rocked my mind or shocked me to the core. Instead I found the romance more dominant in the book! 
You quickly meet Anastasia Steele, Ana and are thrown into the excitement of life as a soon to be college graduate. What a great time in ones life of joining the real world, and little did Ana know she would be joining a bigger world than she had imagined! Ana is about to be courted in the most unconventional way by Mr. Christian Grey. A world beyond what she imagined is opened up to her and how she reacts to it is nothing short of making me proud! 
I found the character development to be amazing in this book. At times I loved Christian and I times I wanted to cower and fear him. The slow steady delving into his life was a great way to really build him as a character to love! But will Ana love him, and what will their relationship be? The only way to know is to read the story for yourself and lose yourself in a good book!

Feature and Follow Friday (6)

Greetings, this is one of the bright spots in my Fridays! 


I always love to check out new blogs!


This week's question is ...

Q:

Fight! Fight! If you could have two fictional characters battle it out (preferably from books), who would they be and who do you think would win?

A: Oh I would love to see Archer Cross from The Hex Hall Series battle it out with Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter. Archer would win of course because he has some good in him!










So play along with me, be sure to follow the lovely hosts, (Parajunkee & Alison Can Read) and the two awesome feature blogs! 

Spell Bound

Title: Spell Bound

Publisher:  Hyperion

Pub Date:  March 13th, 2012

Author: Rachel Hawkins

Received From: Library

Just as Sophie Mercer has come to accept her extraordinary magical powers as a demon, the Prodigium Council strips them away. Now Sophie is defenseless, alone, and at the mercy of her sworn enemies—the Brannicks, a family of warrior women who hunt down the Prodigium.  Or at least that’s what Sophie thinks, until she makes a surprising discovery. The Brannicks know an epic war is coming, and they believe Sophie is the only one powerful enough to stop the world from ending. But without her magic, Sophie isn’t as confident.

Sophie’s bound for one hell of a ride—can she get her powers back before it’s too late?

I was pleased to find that Spell Bound picked up right where Demon Glass left off. I didn't want to miss even one moment in the life of Sophie Mercer. Spell Bound added some real and interesting elements to the story. It's always drawn on my mind that Sophie didn't know her fathers side of the family at all and now we find out she didn't know her mothers so well either, a very interesting twist here I think! I found I wanted to nickname Hex Hall, Hex Hell as we found out what was going on there in this stage of the story. 

 I was thrilled to see all of the characters together again. The hidden heat between Cal and Sophie intrigues me so and while many might say Archer is the guy for her I am on team Cal. Finishing out this book was a bit of devastation for me, I hate to see something I love so come to an end! 

If you haven't read this book yet, run for the nearest bookstore and dive in!