When I was a boy, I met a girl.
She didn’t know it then, but…
She changed me.

Now…..I am a man.
A man who is broken by the stories of the women who come to me.
They are my birds with broken wings.
I help them heal, help them to make them strong, so they can fly free.
Lark changed me. Loved Me. Made Me Strong.
With her, I am free.

I write…
To the girl of the past.
To the girl of my present.
And, the girl of my future.

Dear Dish….

Excerpt

Review

This was my first book by J.B. Hartnett, so I went in with zero expectations and I gotta say I was pleasantly surprised. This was very different from many of the books I’ve read lately, but in a refreshing way. The pacing was different. The progression was different…in a unique way. So let me explain

Reading that book blurb probably doesn’t tell you much, yet it also tells you quite a bit at the same time…confused yet? Let me try to explain. The book begins in 2006 and slowly progresses into the present with flashbacks to Nico’s youth.

When Nico was a child, his parent ran a shelter for battered women. And this was when he met her, the girl that changed everything for him. In an attempt to bring the traumatized girl comfort, seven year old Nico held her hand while she slept. The one specific thing he remembers of this night? It was the first night he didn’t wake up with a nightmare, nor has he had one since then.

But that day is now ingrained in him and it changed him forever. Now Nico is a tattoo artist. He also helps women heal with his tattoos. In his years, he witness so many forms of abuse he loses count. But seeing the healing and purging effects that his tattoos bring these women does help. Unfortunately what it also does, is bring back his nightmares. Now Nico himself is the broken one after taking their pain. He medicates with booze and pussy, the only 2 things that help mute the grief of their stories.

Other Books in The Leaves Series

Inky (Book One)

Anika “Inky” Redding has it all: a great fiancé and a job that allows her to follow her passion of painting and considering her history, that’s plenty.

Cole (Book Two)

Cole Carlyle, successful hotelier, has lived his life on his own terms.

Burned by a gold digging ex-wife, he never expected to find his soul mate in Anika “Inky” Redding.

Anika Redding, talented artist, overcame her past to live her life free of shame.

Betrayed by people she thought she could trust, the last thing she expected was to find true love in Cole Carlyle.

Their love for each other has helped them overcome their demons before, but now faced with an unimaginable challenge, Cole must turn to the last person he wants involved in his life, and hope that those demons don’t once again try to swallow them whole.

Inky and Cole’s romance and passion ignite and in the sequel to “Inky” we follow their journey to overcome their pasts once and for all, while building their love into something everlasting.

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This Much Is True by Katherine Owen 

Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance

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Fate brings them together
Fame & lies keep them apart
One truth remains…

She’s become the Paly High girl with the most tragic story…
At 17, Tally Landon just wants to graduate and leave for New York to pursue ballet. Her best friend Marla convinces her to attend one last party—a college party—where she can be among strangers and evade the whisperings about her heartbreaking loss of her twin that follows her everywhere she goes. She meets Lincoln Presley, Stanford’s famous baseball wonder and has a little fun at his expense—when she lies about her age and who she really is—intent on being someone else for the night and escaping her tragic story.

His only focus is baseball, but he can’t forget the girl he saved on Valentine’s Day…
At 22, Lincoln Presley’s star is on the rise—about to finish at Stanford and expected to be taken early in Major League Baseball’s upcoming draft—his cousin’s party serves as a welcome distraction. But then, he sees the girl from Valentine’s Day that he saved from that horrific car accident and can’t quite hide his disappointment when she appears to look right through him and not remember him at all. He vows to learn her name at least before he leaves. What’s the harm in getting to know this girl? What’s the worst that can happen?

They share this incredible connection, but fate soon tests these star-crossed lovers in all kinds of ways…
And yet, despite the lies being told to protect the other, and the trappings of fame that continually separate them, and in lieu of the deception by those they’ve come to trust the most; one truth remains.

This much is true.

Review

4 Devastating, Gut Wrenching, What in the holy masochistic hell possessed me to read this stars!

She seems to have taken my soul. I’m going to have to figure out a way to get it back.

Sweet mother of fucking feels! I mean what in the effing fuck did I just read?!!! I feel like I’ve been run over by the angst bus, which then backed up and ran me over again for good measure. Then when I was lying there all helpless, the Feels truck ran me the fuck over and left me a whimpering, blubbering, emotional fucking mess in dire need of hard alcohol! I mean OH. MY. GAWD.

To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t even sure how to rate this book. I equal parts loved it and hated it at the same time. What an emotional roller coaster. Actually, scratch that. This book is like a horrific train wreck, you just know what you find will be brutal as hell but you can’t seem to stop yourself from looking anyway. It is 400+ pages of angst, hearbreak, drama, and gutwrenching moments. I remember hoping, praying, almost promising the devil my soul for just ONE FUCKING HAPPY MOMENT! And you know what? Didn’t get it. Nope.

What I did get was a brilliantly written, emotionally gripping and poignant story.

LIFE CAN CHANGE in as little of fifteen seconds. I know this.
Fifteen seconds.
An SUV clips my car, kills my sister, and changes me and my life forever.

Thirty seconds.
The time it takes for a stranger to lift me up and carry me away and save me from the burning wreckage.
Thirty seconds.

One night.
The time it takes to fall in love with Lincoln Presley and forge promises that neither of us can keep.
One night.

Thirty seconds.
In thirty seconds, a heart can break.

You do not get eased in to the story. Not even close. It starts with a tragedy and grips you from the very beginning, refusing to let go of your heart and emotions until the very end. I was’t even sure if I would survive the whole book.

Valentine’s Day may be a happy day for most people, but for Tally all that day signifies is loss. It is the day her life forever changed when she lost her twin sister in a horrific car accident. Tally always saw her twin, Holly, as the better half, the sun to her moon. And now that she’s gone, there’s no more sun in her life. So she focuses on the one constant in her life, ballet

But fate has a different plan when Tally meets the handsome rising baseball star, Lincoln Presley, and everything changes.

I will not give you a sum up, because what you need to know the book synopsis gives you. Anything else would be a spoiler, and this is a book that needs to be experienced fully. What I can tell you is prepare yourself for one gutwrenching, emotional, devastating, tear filled and painful read…

The amount of devastating circumstances and events that Tally experiences it’s a wonder to me how she even functions. Just when you think that’s it, it can’t possibly get any worse…BAM! Some more shit happens.

The story is told through several years starting from when Tally is 17 and spanning to her at 21. It’s a story of poor circumstances, unlucky timing, and bad decisions. But beyond all the doom and gloom there’s also a story of a one-in-a-lifetime love.

This is not a book for everyone. It was depressing as hell for over 90%. I was equal parts unable to put it down and kicking my own ass for even reading it.

I wouldn’t label this as a YA book (Not really sure why it’s tagged that way on some sites). The only thing YA about it is Tally’s age when it starts. If you’re expecting a steamy NA book, well you can take that expectation and shove it where the sun don’t shine because you will not be getting that either. And for a self-proclaimed smut addict like me, that was one tough pill to swallow. However, the story itself was enough to keep me turning the pages.

I want to tell you that I absolutely loved it, and a part of me did. But then there’s another part of me that was screaming ENOUGH ALREADY! How much more shit can happen to this poor girl? It was almost too much.

If you enjoy emotional and poignant reads that are smut light but will stay with you for a long while, definitely give this book a shot. The writing was some of the best I’ve read. But is this a book I see myself ever going back to? Hell NO! As a matter of fact, I plan on submersing myself in mindless smut just to try and get my feels right again. And when smut won’t do? There’s always my other fix all

About the Author

Dark. Edgy. Contemporary. Romantic. Were we describing me? Or my fiction? Sorry. I drink too much…coffee, not enough water. I swear too much for God and my mother, and I slip these into my fiction. Sorry. I’m impatient, a perfectionist, a wordsmith, a dreamer, which ends up being good and bad. I’m a workaholic; ask my fam-dam-ily. I’ve written four novels in as many years: SEEING JULIA, NOT TO US, & WHEN I SEE YOU, as well as my latest release THIS MUCH IS TRUE. If you love angsty, unpredictable love stories, I’m yours. ♥   

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Review

Holy shit. I mean HOLY SHIT! I did not see this book coming. Let me warn you now

The thing about lines? They stop being dangerous the moment you cross them; they stop mattering too. And instead of admitting that, you just set another limit, raise the stakes, draw another boundary for your sins, and find a way to justify your actions.

Jesse Chance used to be a fighter back in high school days, and a damn good one, making pretty good money in illegal fights out of the local farm his friend’s parents own. But that was before he promised his dying mother that he will make something better of himself. Before he left his small town, girlfriend, and everything of his life behind to start new. Now he’s in college, he has new friends, a new girl, and his fighting days are behind them. That is until a visit from his father flips his life upside down.

Jesse wants nothing to do with his father, it’s not like he’s been a resounding presence in his life. Being the bastard son in a small town never got him anything but grief. But in order to prevent a tragedy, Jesse agrees to help the one man he hoped never to have to see again. Forced to go back to the town he used to call home and back to his old way, Jesse knows that nothing good can come of this, but he does know that his fists will earn him the cash that he so desperately needs.

All I’ve ever done is carve out a space for you inside me, Jesse. And I’m afraid it’s gotten so big, it’s going to eat me alive one day.”

This book takes the reader into the dark and violent world of underground fighting. There’s no rules, no safety net, and anything goes. There were moments that even I found myself cringing. Intense is an understatement.

This is not a sunshine, rainbows and butterflies book. It’s grungy, it’s gritty, and holy fuck does the author not hold back on the details. In the middle of the chaos that is the main story, we also get the love story of Drew and Jesse. I have to admit that me and my puny brain struggled a bit with the names at first. I mean, Jesse I can get used to, but when the heroine has a masculine name while the hero has a female sounding one…well…it took some getting used to.

I devoured this book from beginning to end. I had to know what happens. There were so many twists and turns I thought I’d get whiplash. It’s not light reading when the Spanish Cartel is involved. Then the twist at the end…HOLY FUCKING SHIT! I didn’t see that coming at all. I was flabbergasted.  I couldn’t believe what was happening. I’m pretty sure I was sitting there with my jaw hanging open, catching flies for a good 10 minutes staring at my kindle.

About the Author

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I didn’t plan to become a stripper who performs live sex shows. 
But that’s what happened. It’s what I do, and I’m good at it. 


I was going to go on and do something with my life. I was going to be something more than just a piece of ass.
But that’s not how it worked it out. 


Men don’t control me. Not anymore. Not until my best friend left and hecame into my life.


I don’t want lose myself and drown in another man. But I’m afraid it’s already too late.


**This book is intended for mature audiences only due to graphic depictions of sex and bad language.
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First, let’s have a moment of silence for my poor ovaries, please. They put up a good fight, but somewhere around the 16% they spontaneously cumbusted.

Needless to say this book was HOT. But I think you already got that, so let’s move on.

That poor vibrating and over-caffeinated pussy in the gif? That would be me, because I stayed up until the butt crack of dawn to finish this book. So let me warn you now, this is one of those books you will want to finish in one sitting. Which is exactly what I did…only to have it end with a cliffy. Now I’m not going to lie, there was bitching, cussing, and maybe even some crying involved when I realized that I will have to wait until Fall of 2014 to get the second book. Was the cliffhanger bad? Not as bad as some of the others I’ve read, but still I feel it fair to warn you.

Julia/Jewel is not your typical heroine. She’s no blushing, virginal ingenue. She’s a stripper that performs life sex shows for money, swears like a sailor, has fake boobs, and is the type to revenge fuck her ex-boyfriend’s best friend. She doesn’t really have much qualms in admitting she’s only good at two things; shaking her ass and fucking.

But when her best friend and partner in the live shows leaves for New York for a new job, Jewel is left to dance by herself. Until her manager partners her up with him…the man only knows as The Ripper.

I don’t want to give anything away, so I won’t give you much more detail than that. You really need to read it to experience it for yourself. What I can tell you is that the sexual chemistry between Jewel and The Ripper was utterly explosive. Their first performance together

I was sucked in. The mystery behind who Cole “The Ripper” was, why he acted the way he did, and knew the things that he did kept me turning the pages well into the night. I just had to know. Of course the smoking hot sex scenes didn’t hurt.

But here is where I am a whole lot conflicted in my rating. When we finally find out the truth about Cole…

I had a hard time connecting with it. Now I may be completely on my own here, but it came off almost creepy and stalkerish to me. Not sexy. Then for him to (view spoiler)[throw out the I Love You card (hide spoiler)] when he did…I don’t even know how I felt about that. It was like he went from one extreme to the other, and it threw me off.

That being said, as conflicted as I was with the ending, it didn’t manage to take away from my enjoyment of the book. I still enjoyed it thoroughly.

My only BIG problem? THE WAIT UNTIL BOOK 2! Fall? Really?!

***ARC courtesy of author in exchange for an honest review***

In this New Adult debut by Robin York, a college student is attacked online and must restore her name—and stay clear of a guy who’s wrong for her, but feels so right.
 
When Caroline Piasecki’s ex-boyfriend posts their sex pictures on the Internet, it destroys her reputation as a nice college girl. Suddenly her once-promising future doesn’t look so bright. Caroline tries to make the pictures disappear, hoping time will bury her shame. Then a guy she barely knows rises to her defense and punches her ex to the ground.
 
West Leavitt is the last person Caroline needs in her life. Everyone knows he’s shady. Still, Caroline is drawn to his confidence and swagger—even after promising her dad she’ll keep her distance. On late, sleepless nights, Caroline starts wandering into the bakery where West works.
 
They hang out, they talk, they listen. Though Caroline and West tell each other they’re “just friends,” their feelings intensify until it becomes impossible to pretend. The more complicated her relationship with West gets, the harder Caroline has to struggle to discover what she wants for herself—and the easier it becomes to find the courage she needs to fight back against the people who would judge her.
 
When all seems lost, sometimes the only place to go is deeper.

Advance praise for DEEPER:
 
“The perfect new adult story . . . West will make you swoon!”—New York Times bestselling author Monica Murphy
 
“Beautifully written and full of swoony tender moments, toe-curling chemistry, and delicious, twisty angst . . . Stop whatever you’re doing and read this book.”—Christina Lauren, author of the Beautiful Bastard series

Review

I have been on a long and well deserved hiatus from the NA genre. While there’s been a handful of NA books that I had absolutely loved, recently most NA books I’ve read had been filled with overdone drama, unnecessary angst, and a giant headache at the end of it for me. But when I saw that Ruthie Knox plans on releasing a NA novel under the pen name of Robin York, I didn’t even bother reading the synopsis. I jumped on the chance to read this. And you know what?

Caroline Piasecki is a good girl. She has her life organized, planned…ordinary. Until the day that everything changes, when her plain and ordinary life gets shattered all with one click on the internet. She knew she shouldn’t have let her boyfriend take those intimate pictures, but she loved him, she trusted him. The last thing she expects when she breaks up with him is for those very pictures to appear on the internet.

How does a young woman in college with her entire life ahead of her deal with this incredible breach of trust and intimacy? She becomes a shell of herself. How can you even sleep when all you hear when you close your eyes are the vulgar words of all the strange men that have seen you at your most vulnerable?

West Leavitt is a bad boy. He’s not afraid to throw a punch, he deals weed, and his past and family are not exactly picture card perfect. But yet something draws these two broken people together. Although they each have every reason to stay away from each other, they find that they’re the only ones that bring comfort to one another. But what happens when something you want is not something you need or can have?

This book is slow paced, and it might be off putting to some. I for one devoured every word. I absolutely adored the writing style and the fact that it was written in dual POVs

You know when you pick up a book and start reading, and all of a sudden the words blur on the page and simply become a film that is continuously streaming through your mind? Well Deeper was that book for me.
I was sitting in pervy anticipation waiting, just waiting until that moment when West and Caroline will finally give into the sexual tension current that ran between them.

Robin York wrote a poignant, emotional, and incredible story about 2 broken characters. In 400 pages she took them through an emotional, yet entirely relatable journey. I loved watching Caroline grow stronger and stronger and finally come into her own at the very end. You can’t help but cheer for her. She’s just one of those characters that is perfectly imperfect.

West. Now what can I tell you about West? I fell head over heels in love with him in a manner of one chapter. my heart broke for him with every new details of his past being revealed. He was this perfect combination of vulnerable and strong.

As for the ending…
I’m not a fan of unnecessarily drawn out series. As a matter of fact I hate them. And at first I thought to myself 400 pages and no HEA? Yea

But then the more I read, the more I could tell that I simply couldn’t evision it ending any other way for now. It’s not a cliffy cliffy, per say. Let’s say that even for a cliffy avoider like me, I am not going crazy after reading it. What I am, is anticipating the next book like crazy. I can’t wait to see the conclusion for West and Caroline’s story (And dare I hope for Krishna and Bridget next?)

About the Author

Robin York grew up at a college, went to college, signed on for some more college, and then married a university professor. She still isn’t sure why it didn’t occur to her to write New Adult sooner. Writing as Ruthie Knox, she is a USA TODAY bestselling author of contemporary romance, including RITA-finalists About Last Night and Room at the Inn. She moonlights as a mother, makes killer salted caramels, and sorts out thorny plot problems while running, hiking, or riding her bike.

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