Jen in Bookland

Available on Amazon.com  *  Amazon.de  *  Goodreads Synopsis: KINGDOMS WILL RISE AND FALL FOR HER... BUT NOT IF SHE CAN HELP IT Catalia "Cat" Fisa lives disguised as a soothsayer in a traveling circus. She is perfectly content avoiding the danger and destiny the Gods-and her homicidal mother-have saddled her with. That is, until Griffin, an ambitious warlord from the magic-deprived south, fixes her with his steely gaze and upsets her illusion of safety forever. Griffin knows Cat is the Kingmaker, the woman who divines the truth through lies. He wants her as a powerful weapon for his newly conquered realm-until he realizes he wants her for much more than her magic. Cat fights him at every turn, but Griffin's fairness, loyalty, and smoldering advances make him increasingly hard to resist and leave her wondering if life really does have to be short, and lived alone. Review: Okay. A Promise of Fire . What can I say about this book? Well...I have a l...

Available on Amazon.com  *  Amazon.de  *  Goodreads Synopsis: The biggest story of her life is the one he wants to hide. I’m homeless by choice. I have no intention of returning to my former life after what I’ve done. This—living among the filth and discarded remnants of others—is what I deserve. As atonement for my sins, I give back; I help those who cannot help themselves. But it’s always under the guise of anonymity. Newspaper headlines throughout the city are clamoring to discover my identity. Including the beautiful woman who manages to see through my “armor.” She has the capability to put my entire life at risk. Review: *Warning: Spoilers ahead Everything I have read from this author I have absolutely loved so when I saw she had a new book coming out I was super excited to start reading. Only...the story wasn't as good as I had hoped. Really there is this other author whose first book I enjoyed so I tried some more of her work and I really d...

Now available on Amazon.com  *  Amazon.de  *  Goodreads Synopsis: I’ve got it all, they say. I’m the starting quarterback for the best NFL team in the league. I’m rich. I’m famous. I can have any woman I want, any time I want. Yeah, I’ve got everything—except for the one who got away. How do you move on from loving the same girl since you were in the seventh grade? She promised me forever until forever got too hard and at nineteen, she dumped me. By text message. Now she’s walked back into my life. Just as beautiful. Just as sweet. Just as smart. More grown up and incredibly sexy… We’re older now. Supposedly wiser. This time, I’m going to fight for what I want, no matter how hard it gets. This time, I’m going to make her mine. Forever. Review: *Note: spoilers ahead I was excited to start reading You Promised Me Forever because it had been a while since I read this author and I remember really enjoying her stories. So I thought I was in for a tre...

Available on Amazon.com  *  Amazon.de  *  Goodreads Synopsis: I was born with wealth, athletic ability, and looks that could melt the panties off a nun. I had a clear path to success. Until fate dealt me a cruel blow, leaving me empty and in need of purpose. My only focus now is to become part of The Elite—a secret society in one of the most prestigious colleges in the world. But everything comes at a price, and with The Elite, you have to earn your place. Lucky for me, being sinful is in my DNA. The only obstacle to full initiation is my task: seduce the un-seducible, the forbidden, and lure her with the sins of the flesh. Easy for a man like me…in theory. She started as my task, but what happens when the lines between lust and love blur, and the need for power rages war with the need for her? Accept your sin wisely, for the tasks given to earn your place are not for the weak—they’re for The Elite. This is my life, my chance, my legacy. I am Rhet...

Available on Amazon.com  *  Amazon.de  *  Goodreads Synopsis: Can there be any greater challenge to London’s Ambitious Mamas than an unmarried duke? —Lady Whistledown’s Society Papers, April 1813 By all accounts, Simon Basset is on the verge of proposing to his best friend’s sister, the lovely—and almost-on-the-shelf—Daphne Bridgerton. But the two of them know the truth—it’s all an elaborate plan to keep Simon free from marriage-minded society mothers. And as for Daphne, surely she will attract some worthy suitors now that it seems a duke has declared her desirable. But as Daphne waltzes across ballroom after ballroom with Simon, it’s hard to remember that their courtship is a complete sham. Maybe it’s his devilish smile, certainly it’s the way his eyes seem to burn every time he looks at her… but somehow Daphne is falling for the dashing duke… for real! And now she must do the impossible and convince the handsome rogue that their clever little scheme ...

Available on Amazon.com  *  Amazon.de  *  Goodreads Synopsis: “Are you happy with your life?” Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.” In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible. Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles ...

Available on Amazon.com  * Amazon.de *  Goodreads Synopsis: A sharply intelligent novel about two college students and the strange, unexpected connection they forge with a married couple. Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed, and darkly observant. A college student and aspiring writer, she devotes herself to a life of the mind--and to the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi, her best friend and comrade-in-arms. Lovers at school, the two young women now perform spoken-word poetry together in Dublin, where a journalist named Melissa spots their potential. Drawn into Melissa's orbit, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman's sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband. Private property, Frances believes, is a cultural evil--and Nick, a bored actor who never quite lived up to his potential, looks like patriarchy made flesh. But however amusing their flirtation seems at first, it gives way to a strange intimacy neither of them expect.As Franc...

Available on Amazon.com *  Amazon.de *  Goodreads Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Leah Grant has given up on being normal. She’d settle for stopping the voices in her head, intrusive visions of the future, and better odds of making it to her seventeenth birthday. That’s the thing about pretending to be human in a world where magic used to exist – at any moment, her cover could be blown and she’ll be burned to death like the rest of the witches. Everything changes when she loses control of her powers and flees the orphanage she grew up in. She desperately wants to be invisible but finds her face plastered on every news channel as humans panic over the possible resurgence of her kind. And now the hunters won’t give up until they find her. Making friends for the first time in her life and falling in love with one of them drives her to discover why she is unlike any being she’s ever met – human or otherwise. The dangerous powers inside of her that would repel Nathan, h...

Available on Amazon.com *  Amazon.de *  Goodreads Synopsis: Shepard Montgomery loves the feel of a needle in his hands, the ink that he lays on another, and the thrill he gets when his art is finished, appreciated, and loved. At least that’s the way it used to be. Now he’s struggling to figure out why he’s a tattoo artist at all as he wades through the college frat boys and tourists who just want a thrill, not a permanent reminder of their trip. Once he sees the Ice Princess walk through Midnight Ink’s doors though, he knows he might just have found the inspiration he needs. Shea Little has spent her life listening to her family’s desires. She went to the best schools, participated in the most proper of social events, and almost married the man her family wanted for her. When she ran from that and found a job she actually likes, she thought she’d rebelled enough. Now though, she wants one more thing—only Shepard stands in the way. She’ll not only have to let him l...

Available on Amazon.com  *  Amazon.de  *  Goodreads Synopsis: CAUGHT IN THE BACKWASH, THEY HAVE LOST CONTROL OF THEIR LIVES… For fans of Megan Abbott and Chris Bohjalian comes a novel of moral complexity about friends who must choose between self-preservation and doing the right thing in the wake of a fatal boating accident. Set in the moody off-season of Martha’s Vineyard, Everything That Follows is a plunge into the dark waters of secrets and flexible morals. The truth becomes whatever we say it is… Around midnight, three friends take their partying from bar to boat on a misty fall evening. Just as the weather deteriorates, one of them suddenly and confusingly goes overboard. Is it an accident? The result of an unwanted advance? His body disappears quickly, silently, into the dark water. The circumstances are murky, but what is clear is that the other two need to notify the authorities. Minutes become hours become days as they hesitate, caught up in th...

Available on Amazon.com *  Amazon.de *  Goodreads Synopsis: Welcome to Battleschool. Growing up is never easy. But try living on the mean streets as a child begging for food and fighting like a dog with ruthless gangs of starving kids who wouldn't hesitate to pound your skull into pulp for a scrap of apple. If Bean has learned anything on the streets, it's how to survive. And not with fists—He is way too small for that—But with brains. Bean is a genius with a magician's ability to zero in on his enemy and exploit his weakness. What better quality for a future general to lead the Earth in a final climactic battle against a hostile alien race, known as Buggers. At Battleschool Bean meets and befriends another future commander—Ender Wiggins—perhaps his only true rival. Only one problem: for Bean and Ender, the future is now. Review: When I saw that there was a book that would take place during the same time as Ender's Game , the first sci-fi books I ...

Available on Amazon.com * Amazon.de * Goodreads Synopsis: Running a dating agency can be a killer… Shelley Linley is sick of sickos. Yet another prankster has applied to her dating agency. This one says he’s a vampire and he wants Shelley to help him find a wife. Meeting him for a second interview against all her better judgement, Shelley discovers that he has no clue about women. A shame because he’s super-hot, amusing, and has a lot of single friends he could recommend her struggling business to, even if he does say they’re werewolves and demons. She has to help him, even if he’s crazy. If she can ignore his delusions, she’s sure she can help him meet someone. But when death threats start arriving on her doorstep, Shelley’s not sure she’s cut out for the job…then her dating algorithm states she’s his ideal partner. Now she’s not sure if she should take the risk for love, or run like hell. Welcome to Withernsea and the Supernatural Dating Agency, for readers of Mich...

Available on Amazon.com *  Amazon.de *  Goodreads Synopsis: Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his “World’s Fair Hotel” just west of the fairgrounds — a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium. Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic ...

Available on Amazon.com *  Amazon.de *  Goodreads Synopsis: The Handmaid's Tale is not only a radical and brilliant departure for Margaret Atwood, it is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was once the United States, now called the Republic of Gilead, a monotheocracy that has reacted to social unrest and a sharply declining birthrate by reverting to, and going beyond, the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans. The regime takes the Book of Genesis absolutely at its word, with bizarre consequences for the women and men of its population. The story is told through the eyes of Offred, one of the unfortunate Handmaids under the new social order. In condensed but eloquent prose, by turns cool-eyed, tender, despairing, passionate, and wry, she reveals to us the dark corners behind the establishment's calm facade, as certain tendencies now in existence are car...

Available on Amazon.com *  Amazon.de *  Goodreads Synopsis: A shocking discovery on a honeymoon in paradise changes the lives of a picture-perfect couple in this taut psychological thriller debut--for readers of Ruth Ware, Paula Hawkins, and Shari Lapena. If you could make one simple choice that would change your life forever, would you? Erin is a documentary filmmaker on the brink of a professional breakthrough, Mark a handsome investment banker with big plans. Passionately in love, they embark on a dream honeymoon to the tropical island of Bora Bora, where they enjoy the sun, the sand, and each other. Then, while scuba diving in the crystal blue sea, they find something in the water. . . . Could the life of your dreams be the stuff of nightmares? Suddenly the newlyweds must make a dangerous choice: to speak out or to protect their secret. After all, if no one else knows, who would be hurt? Their decision will trigger a devastating chain of events. . . . ...

Available on Amazon.com  * Amazon.de *  Goodreads Synopsis: Cassandra Miller doesn’t have time for men. She’s far too busy trying to open a cupcake shop with her silent partner and best friend, not to mention catering her brother’s wedding. And let’s face it, it’s not like Prince Charming is going to stroll into the bakery and sweep her off her feet. Henry has been a prince his entire life but for one wild wedding he wants to be nothing more than an “Average Joe”, or in this instance, “Average Hank”. However, when a case of mistaken identity and a batch of burned cupcakes ends in a night of passion, Cassie and Hank must decide if theirs is a recipe for disaster or the makings of true romance. Review: Icing on the Cake was not for me. I found the main characters meh and the story was dull.  Cassandra is opening up her own cupcake shop so she is super busy. She doesn't have time for a man even if one were to walk into her shop and sweep her off her fe...