Review of #60 The Golden Couple (The Samantha Project #2) by Stephanie Karpinske

In this action-packed second installment of The Samantha Project series, Samantha and Erik go on a search to find a way to save themselves from the genetic time bomb ticking away in their cells. Along the way, they discover a shocking secret--one they wish they were never told! 

Although Samantha's boyfriend, Colin, is back now, her feelings for Erik are getting stronger by the minute. It isn't long before she finally learns the real reason why she can't resist Erik. But only after she's gone too far with him! So far that Colin may never forgive her. 

GlobalLife Genetics continues to pursue Samantha and they'll stop at nothing to get her. Sam still doesn't understand what GlobalLife's plan is for her but she knows it's something big. And she knows it isn't good.


My review:  =]

Hello again! I could finally post this review because the internet has been acting up lately.

First of all, Stephanie Karpinske is one my favorite authors and 'The Golden Couple' definitely blew me away!

The way she writes about the character, the flow of the story line and the chemistry between Sam + Colin and Sam + Erik and the building tension between Sam and Erik was absolutely explosive!

The second installment of The Samantha Project definitely surpasses my expectation and Stephanie Karpinske should be at the top with great authors like J.K. Rowling and Richelle Mead.

The Golden Couple actually introduced more characters into the picture as to the big players that funded The Samantha Project.

Expect awesome spy-like scenes, the jealousy and running emotions in my favorite main character, Sam, and the epic journey that Sam and friends had to go through just to stop their own ticking time bomb from shutting down their own bodies.

The Golden Couple is a thrilling ride, like a roller coaster with fantastic twist and turns that makes your stomach go, "Woohoo!".

P.S.
I know I've said this before but I'll gladly say it again. 
Stephanie...YOU'RE AWESOME!

Sincerely,
Selina.
 

Review of #57 The Coffee Shop by Lauren Hunter

Hello everyone! The internet has been a pain in the ass and there were some technical problems with everything! But now, let's rejoice and take a look at THE COFFEE SHOP!

If Derrick thought experiencing alternate timelines and glimpses into the future was strange, then he had no idea it was about to get a whole lot more strange.

When Derrick Sloane meets Annie Maddock and falls madly in love, he believes he's met the girl of his dreams. Only he then awakes to discover she is exactly that...nothing more than a dream. Disheartened, he goes to the first coffee shop he can find. There he meets Annie. She is at the same table, reading the same book, and he fast realizes his dream has shown him his own future. But when a misstep alters that perfect future he tries to fix it, every attempt only making it worse. 

Dreaming the future can be a nightmare when you see what's coming...and can't do anything to change it.

Review:

The Coffee Shop is an extremely engaging read. 

I really recommend all my blog readers to get this book because oh my... it is freaking good.

The storyline has a great flow, the characters are oh-so-romantic and I love the chemistry between Derrick and Annie.

Oh! If you love time travel, this book will be absolutely perfect for you.

In the beginning, it started out fantastic and I thought it was going to be like a normal romance novel. It was a really great start and I didn't expect the story to twist!

It was absolutely amazing how Lauren spun the story to a whole new level.
It could get really confusing at first with all the changing timelines but I love The Coffee Shop because there are different variations to the whole thing.

It was happy at one time, sad at the next, worse when Derrick changed a little of the time line and then it goes back to happy again.

It was like an emotional rollercoaster and I LOVED IT.

I really enjoyed The Coffee Shop journey and I'm re-reading it again!

Oh, thank you Lauren for the book! You're absolutely amazing!

Sincerely,
Selina.



 

#50 Enigma Black by Sara Furlong Burr

When she was just seventeen, the course of Celaine Stevens' life was permanently altered with the murders of her father, mother, and brother in one of a series of mysterious and violent explosions occurring across the country. Struggling with picking up the pieces, she's haunted by the memory of that day and her promise of retribution against those responsible for her misery. But just as she seems to be getting her life back on track, an encounter with a mysterious stranger promises her the vengeance she desires, ultimately turning the former target into the assassin.

However, as she soon learns, all choices come with consequences. And the consequence of her choice threatens to destroy the very fabric of her being.


Check out the book trailer for a more complete synopsis:
youtube.com/watch?v=2Yrt2ENZW6E  

#46 Wish You Were Here by Catherine Chant

She's out of place.

He's out of time.

In 1956, Joey Tempo was the biggest sensation to hit Memphis since Elvis Presley. Within twelve months he was gone--killed in a transatlantic plane crash.

Half a century later, Callie Reinard is headed for college and her dream career in radio broadcasting. When she discovers Joey’s iconic first album, she’s mysteriously drawn to his tragic story. A profound desire to change his fate invokes a mystical force that sends her back to 1957 to “make things right.”

What Callie doesn’t expect is her meddling to make everything worse…much worse. Joey may be glad to be alive, but not everyone welcomes her presence. Especially not Joey’s glamorous fiancée, who has her own plans for his future.

Every second Callie spends in the past she’s altering much more than Joey’s fate. She’s changing the lives of everyone around her. And she’s growing closer to Joey by the minute.

If Callie can’t find a way back to her own time soon, she may lose more than a college education and the career she’s always wanted. She may lose her heart to a boy she can’t have.
 

#44 The Samantha Project (#1) by Stephanie Karpinske

Samantha was seventeen when she finally learned the truth about herself; that she’s part of a corporation’s top secret genetic enhancement project. They told her she was the only one who survived the experiments. But then she meets Erik. He was raised in a lab until a scientist took him and hid him so nobody would ever find him. But Samantha and Erik somehow found each other. They share a indescribable connection that neither one of them can explain.

Their enhanced genes give them special abilities, like the ability to read minds and communicate with their thoughts. Even with their powers, they’re not safe. The people who are after them will never stop looking. But the more imminent danger is something that lies deep within their cells. It’s just one of many secrets they have yet to discover about themselves.
 

#39 Daimones (Daimones Trilogy #1) by Massimo Marino

Winner of the 2012 PRG Reviewers' Choice Award in Science Fiction
Awarded the Awesome Indies Seal of Approval


Dan Amenta woke up one morning to discover the world had changed...the Apocalypse had arrived.

Death, destruction, and disaster were wreaking havoc across the globe. Yet Dan and his family remained untouched and he sensed some sort of supernatural power had left them the only three people alive on Earth. They were not.

The efforts to survive and find others brought Dan to discover the disturbing truth about the human extermination. He met Laura, who brought revelations about the catastrophe, and her presence - a young, sexy, disruptive girl - raised questions about what was moral and ethical in the new reality. Other survivors reported what they had seen, forcing Dan to seek explanations from his own past.

Ancient hallucinations strike Dan with the force of a sledgehammer and bring him face-to-face with his new role in a scenario with roots millions-of-years old. Planet Earth was now in the hands of an older power but not the one Dan had ever envisioned.

------
"Even with the best of intentions, cruelty is just around the corner."
 

#35 The Phantom Squadron Series by Don A. Martinez

There are no synopsis available for the first book. Sorry!

Over the course of history, a team of four supernatural agents has been assembled for a Black Ops team unlike any other.
The Guardsman : ageless paladin knight.
Cyrus Salem: immortal shrinking wizard.
Kitty Lazarus: woman warrior in a cat's body.
Ariel Vibria: modern dragon with a tortured soul.
Both separately and together, these agents will face down an enemy of immense evil, with the fate of the world itself possibly in the balance, rising above their differences and individual traumas and coming together to face Sheol, a demonic matriarch hiding within one of the holiest sites in Europe.
Each agent has his own concerns. Is being the Guardsman worth the sacrifice of childhood Ken Sharpe made to be the paladin? Will Cyrus continue to shrink throughout history? What purpose does the Hindu god Durga have for Kitty? What will happen if the secretive government project that produced Ariel comes to search for their missing experiment?
Do they have a chance against Sheol?

The United States is no more. The New Empire of America holds power now.

The people of the former U.S.A now live in the "glory" of President-for-Life Carleton Regent, his wife and Vice President Jennifer, and the immensely powerful Supernatural Suppression Agency.

Their goal: eliminate all supernaturals!

A victim of the SSA's purges is Alanna Sharpe, now missing her supernatural parents Ariel and Cole. Summoned by her parents' former ally Gabe Francis, she takes the burden of her Sharpe birthright ... the Sword of the Guardsman.

Gabe presents Alanna with a quest. To save her parents, she must bring down the New Empire of America!

Alanna pushes forth against the SSA and its field commander, General Tyrelius Scolar. But will Alanna be prepared for the haunting secret behind the rise of Scolar, the SSA, and the New Empire?

Alanna Sharpe is going to Hell …

In hiding for half a year after discovering her father Cole Sharpe has become General Tyrelius Scolar, her feared enemy, she is brought back into the fold of the insurgency against the New Empire of America by Gabe Francis … a man she distrusts because of his habit of holding back vital information.

Her friends still support her in her mission to reunite her family, but that mission takes an unexpected turn when the insurgents capture Scolar. Gabe reveals to Alanna that Scolar is indeed Cole, but is also simply a body lacking its original soul, that of her father.

In a quiet moment, alone with the comatose body, Alanna catches snippets of a message.

“Find me …”

The search for her father’s soul will cross over many planes of existence, from the world of the living to the mystical realm of Avalon, ultimately leading into the Inferno of Hell. Led through the many circles of damnation by a former family enemy-turned-guide, Alanna must now endure all of Hell’s torments and follow her father’s path if she ever wants to be reunited with him.

To have any chance of reuniting her family, Alanna must bring her father back from damnation’s grasp.




 

#34 Out by Laura Preble

In a society where “perpendiculars,” opposite-sex couples, are forbidden, persecuted, freakish...Chris Bryant, a preacher’s son, finds himself in love...with a girl.

Chris has always been faithful to his Anglicant religion – even though he’s never felt like everyone else, never felt...parallel. And then it happens: he meets her. Carmen. Daughter of one of the leading Perpendicular prosecutors...the girl he knows he can’t live without.

Carmen has always thought the treatment of Perps is barbaric – but to actually be one? To fall in love with Chris and openly admit to it is suicide.

Their only chance to be together is the Underground, a secret society Chris’s sister introduces him to that is determined to mount an attack against the social restrictions of the Anglicant church.

They want to make an example of Chris and Carmen, two Perps from high social families, to become the catalyst for an uprising that will threaten the traditions of their society’s families and church.

But the cost of involvement just might be death for them both.
 

#28 Blue Hearts of Mars by Nicole Grotepas

Hello!!
Its been awhile. Things were pretty crazy with my grandma's funeral and the ups and downs of the internet were a huge big suck.

I'm proud to present....
Blue Hearts of Mars!!!

Seriously, I love the cover. *swoon and sighs*
Because of the hot bod. *wiggles eyebrows* XD
Check out the synopsis of the book below!


Seventeen-year-old Retta Heikkinen is in love with a boy--a thoroughly gorgeous, captivating, and mysterious boy known as Hemingway. The situation is rather ideal: he likes her, she likes him. There's just one little problem.

He's a blue heart, an android.

Being in a relationship is its own complicated mess, but how long can a forbidden love last? Soon Retta discovers a secret that could destroy the uneasy truce between the blue hearts and humans, which makes life under the domes on Mars possible. Would exposing what she knows make things better or worse? And how can she know for certain without exposing the secret?  

#27 Echo by Alicia Wright Brewster

The countdown clock reads ten days until the end of the world. The citizens are organized. Everyone's been notified and assigned a duty. The problem is . . . no one knows for sure how it will end.

Energy-hungry Mages are the most likely culprit. They travel toward a single location from every corner of the continent. Fueled by the two suns, each Mage holds the power of an element: air, earth, fire, metal, water, or ether. They harness their powers to draw energy from the most readily available resource: humans.

Ashara has been assigned to the Ethereal task force, made up of human ether manipulators and directed by Loken, a young man with whom she has a complicated past. Loken and Ashara bond over a common goal: to stop the Mages from occupying their home and gaining more energy than they can contain. But soon, they begin to suspect that the future of the world may depend on Ashara's death.
 

#22 The Torturer's Daughter by Zoe Cannon

Wow! Its been awhile since I've blogged. ;)
But here it is!

When her best friend Heather calls in the middle of the night, Becca assumes it's the usual drama. Wrong. Heather's parents have been arrested as dissidents - and Becca's mother, the dystopian regime's most infamous torturer, has already executed them for their crimes against the state.

To stop Heather from getting herself killed trying to prove her parents' innocence, Becca hunts for proof of their guilt. She doesn't expect to find evidence that leaves her questioning everything she thought she knew about the dissidents... and about her mother.

When she risks her life to save a dissident, she learns her mother isn't the only one with secrets - and the plot she uncovers will threaten the lives of the people she loves most. For Becca, it's no longer just a choice between risking execution and ignoring the regime's crimes; she has to decide whose life to save and whose to sacrifice.

It's easy to be a hero when you can save the world, but what about when all you can do is choose how you live in it? THE TORTURER'S DAUGHTER is a story about ordinary teenage life amidst the realities of living under an oppressive regime... and the extraordinary courage it takes to do what's right in a world gone wrong.
 

#18 The Crush (Book 1) by Denise Mathew

Another book from Denise Mathew. Do check it out. :D
The cover is SUPER COOL.

For more years than Spark has been alive, the Crush has claimed lives, and now it might be ready to claim his life too.

It’s been thirty-five years since North America was decimated by a plastic eating Vapour that destroyed all technology, and life as anyone knew it. Deep in the country, far away from the old world cities, two clans now exist, Crystals who make the rules, and Pickers who follow them or die for their disobedience.

Born into the Crystal clan, sixteen-year-old Lilith has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight, a talent that has assured her a spot in the Castigates, the elite killers and leaders of her clan.

Sixteen-year-old, Spark, a Picker from the village of Candle, knows that salvaging Glass, the new currency, from Pile 3 of the Crush—mountains of landfill that the old world once used to dispose of garbage—is not only forbidden, it’s deadly, yet desperation makes him ignore the rules.

Captured by Crystals for trespassing, Spark’s fate and death are already written. But when Lilith lays eyes on Spark, she is struck by his uncanny resemblance to a boy that she once loved. With no thought for the consequences, Lilith, in an act that instantly brands her a traitor, saves Spark from certain death at the hands of her people.

And just like that, Spark and Lilith’s old lives unravel and their new lives are rewoven into something that neither of them expects. With no safe place to go, and no one to trust but each other, the sworn enemies and pariahs to their people, must look beyond all they have been taught to believe, and learn for themselves that love, acceptance and hope for a better life can be found in people and places no one would ever expect.

In the ultimate game of cat and mouse the most unlikely of allies have a chance to search beyond the lies that have shaped their whole existence, to find the truth that they can build their future upon.

 

#6 Sunset Rising by S.M.McEachern

Just received Sunset Rising from S.M.McEachern a few minutes ago.
Excited!!
Check out the cover of the book and the synopsis. :D

February 2024: World War III has begun. Military vehicles are seen disappearing into a mountainside. Desperate to find refuge from the nuclear storm, a group of civilians discovers a secret government Bio-Dome. Greeted by a hail of bullets and told turn back, the frantic refugees stand their ground and are eventually permitted entry. But the price of admission is high…

283 years later… Born a slave in the Pit, seventeen-year-old Sunny O’Donnell has reached a breaking point in her life. If trying to keep her father alive while still pleasing her demanding fiancé isn’t stressful enough, now food and water rations are being reduced and workplace beatings are occurring more frequently. Although life in the Pit had never been easy, lately it was getting intolerable.
Then a chance meeting with Leisel Holt, daughter of the Dome’s insane President, gives Sunny a spark of hope for the future of the Pit. In an effort to fan that spark into a flame, she agrees to pose as the bride at Leisel’s wedding to Jack Kenner in order to save the bride from an assassination plot. But instead of saving Leisel, Sunny unknowingly plays into her political game and ends up marrying Jack Kenner herself. Now on the run as a traitor, Sunny escapes to the Pit with her new husband in tow only to find that her marriage has ignited a rebellion. 
“Sunset Rising” is the first book of a series. It is the tale of how a love story can revive the human spirit to rise up and fight the bonds of oppression.