Publication Date: June 4, 2013
Publisher: Gallery Books




He didn’t need to know that until I discovered Frizz-Ease as a fourteen-year-old, I also had Bellatrix Lestrange’s hair, only blond.

I was a lot of things, but naïve wasn’t one of the. Within twenty minutes, Ty would be named pastry chef at another top restaurant, but I wasn’t kidding about my not being able to “work in this town again.” A vegan chef who cheated to make the food more irresistible to a non-vegan critic? Through. Done. Over.

I realized I wasn’t all clenched and miserable the way I’d been for the past twenty-four hours. I might be blackballed in L.A. with barely any money, but I had a plan.


Clementine Cooper was raised on a fully organic farm, by her parents, and as a result of that she has full appreciation for vegan food and keeping your body clean. In this novel we follow Clementine as she gets fired from an elite chef position at the popular restaurant, Fresh, and then pursues her lifelong dream of opening her own restaurant, Clementine’s No Crap Café. At first she panics at the idea of being without a job, but with the help of her friends she realizes that there are other things she can do to put her cooking talents to use. But when a new restaurant moves in right across the street from her apartment, the place where she planned to open her own business, she becomes furious. Not to mention the name of this new restaurant is called, The Silver Steer, and will be serving the types of food that she has sworn off for life.

Clementine’s life story was actually what got me so interested in reading this book. She was raised on an organic farm where her father and mother taught her and her siblings how to farm, garden, and eat the right way! Her sister’s name is Apple and her brother’s name is Kale. I just found this all to be extremely interesting. She talks about the times on the farm/garden with her father, and her bond with him really comes out through their amazing passion for vegan foods. I have never tried to be a vegetarian or to eat vegan, but this book really put that lifestyle in perspective. I could tell that the author may have been writing from her own point of view at some points because of the many references to the fact that yes, vegans do get enough vitamins and nutrients from their diets.

The romance in this book was nice, sweet, and fast-paced as you expect any summer read to be. Zach Jeffries wasn’t my favorite male character lately, but he did have his good points. I especially liked his attraction and persistence towards Clementine because I felt that she was an awesome character!

Lastly, I really enjoyed Clementine’s friends probably more so than I enjoyed reading about her love life. Sara and Ty were excellent components to this story, and were both amazing characters and friends to Clementine when she needed them the most. I loved Clementine’s cooking classes where we got to meet a few new people and hear Clementine go on about her amazing meals some more! Do not read this book when you are hungry! Clementine makes even going vegan sound good!

***A copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Gallery Books in exchange for my honest review***

Publication Date: June 4, 2013
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Series: Watersong # 3




“We’re not done yet, Daniel!” Penn shouted, but he just kept walking.

Penn had this awful way of staring at passersby the way a lion stares at a gazelle.

That was when Gemma turned off the television. His face haunted her nightmares enough that she didn’t need to be reminded of it while she was awake.

When she went awhile without swimming or got too far away from the sirens, the ocean would call to her. It was like music in her mind, but the stronger it became, the more obnoxious and even painful it could become. The watersong had given her horrible migraines when she first became a siren and was refusing to swim.

But it was for the same reason that Gemma was trying to convince her to go that Harper didn’t want to go – she loved her sister too much to stand by and let her destroy her life.


I was more intrigued with the sirens in this book, and I think that has to do with the fact that Gemma is trying to fight off her inner siren so bad. I was hoping that the sirens would be a little more vicious in this book, and I felt that the second book in this series, Lullaby, was where we started to see their true, evil nature. I think that Amanda Hocking really explored the idea of what it means to be a siren. They are supposed to be breathtakingly gorgeous creatures, and her descriptions throughout the book really establish this. They are also irresistible and that is what makes some of the intimate scenes so great.

I am still a huge fan of the relationship between Harper and Gemma. They have a true sisterly bond, and I think it is awesome how Hocking played on their bond versus the bond that the “siren sisters” have as well. I really enjoyed Daniel’s part in this story, even if I absolutely hate Penn and the scenes that she and Daniel shared. I am in love with Daniel’s character and I must say that Hocking does a wonderful job of making him seem just as irresistible as Penn acts like he is.

***A copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at St. Martin’s Griffin in exchange for my honest review***

Publication Date: June 4, 2013
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux



The devil himself whispers in her ear, I’d wager.

Dear Mr. Wedgewood,





For the second time since this horrible trial began, I laughed. What else could be done? She was as mad as the legends warned.


Owen Wedgewood is a world-renowned chef whose life changing abruptly when he meets Mad Hannah Mabbot on the high seas. He is taken captive on her ship called The Flying Rose, and in order to stay alive Mad Mabbot bargains with him. She tells him that he has to cook for her, and her alone, every Sunday. Not only must he prepare the finest meals he knows, they must all be different. Not to mention he is in the middle of the deep, blue sea and his pillage is limited. Owen obliges and accepts the deal in order to save his own skin. He has no idea just how this will play out, but he hopes to have a plan of escape concocted before too long. Mad Mabbot is not quite your average pirate, however, and Owen begins to learn more about her than he cares to know.

A lady pirate! Let me repeat that….A LADY PIRATE! Yes, a fierce, passionate, totally amazing lady pirate. I was so in awe at the premise of this book, and I never wanted it to end. I was so sad when my travels with Mad Mabbot and Owen were over. We, as the readers, only ever see Hannah through Owen’s eyes because the story is told from his journals. Hannah is fierce and the type of character that makes movies. I literally got chills up my spine when they first sat down to a Sunday meal together. Mad Mabbot questions Owen who has no idea how to react, but figures he should probably speak and save his limbs. The times when these two were together were some of my favorites! Go get this book now!

The food was to die for. It is no secret why Hannah wants Owen aboard her ship in the first place; he is the best chef on the high seas. The way he describes the dishes he creates for her is so passionate and articulate. He really takes his time preparing these meals and in those moments I almost forgot he was being held captive on board the Flying Rose. Warning: do not read this book when you are hungry!

***A copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in exchange for my honest review***

Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Series: The Au Pairs # 1





“Ah, de Hamptons, berry, berry rich people there,” the bearded cabdriver told Mara when she told him where she was headed.

Thank God for Hollywood diva crises.

Still, it didn’t keep the hordes of up-and-coming Hollywood stars, Grammy Award winners, sitcom royalty, rap impresarios, literary lions, and assorted social-climbing aspirants from calling the place home-away-from home three months out of the year. After all, a forty-mile stretch of beach only four hours’ drive from Manhattan (make that two if you sped on Route 27 after dinner and The Sopranos on Sundays) was a total godsend.

Eliza fought her way to the front armed with the magic words: I’m on the list!

Melissa de la Cruz has always been a favorite of mine, and she does not disappoint with this amazing summer series! This story follows three friends, Eliza Thompson, Mara Walters, and Jacqui Velasco, as they accept positions to be au pairs for an extremely wealthy family that lives in the Hamptons and their journey through one crazy, amazing summer. They embrace the Hamptons social scene, enter new relationships, and try to maintain their friendships with one another. This is shaping up to be the summer they never dreamed of, or prepared for!

This really is the perfect summer read. I spent the entire day by the pool yesterday and finished this book in one sitting. I connected with these characters and their friendships with one another. They were each very different and had extremely different agendas, but this is what always sells me when looking at starting a new book. I must say that Eliza and Mara were my favorite characters and I had a hard time choosing between the two of them. De la Cruz writes such quirky, spunky characters that it is hard to have only one favorite.

The best part of this book, however, was being thrown into the life of the rich and powerful while spending a short time at the Hamptons and on their social scene. This was an element that I really enjoyed while reading. Not all authors take advantage of the setting that they choose to write about, but I felt that De le Cruz incorporated the social scene and lives of the Hamptons and the people that vacation there. It is amazing to watch the girls interact with their surroundings!

***A copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Simon & Schuster BFYR in exchange for my honest review***

Author: Anton DiSclafani
Publication Date: June 4, 2013
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover

A lush, sexy, evocative debut novel of family secrets and girls’-school rituals, set in the 1930s South.

It is 1930, the midst of the Great Depression. After her mysterious role in a family tragedy, passionate, strong-willed Thea Atwell, age fifteen, has been cast out of her Florida home, exiled to an equestrienne boarding school for Southern debutantes. High in the Blue Ridge Mountains, with its complex social strata ordered by money, beauty, and girls’ friendships, the Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls is a far remove from the free-roaming, dreamlike childhood Thea shared with her twin brother on their family’s citrus farm—a world now partially shattered. As Thea grapples with her responsibility for the events of the past year that led her here, she finds herself enmeshed in a new order, one that will change her sense of what is possible for herself, her family, her country.

Weaving provocatively between home and school, the narrative powerfully unfurls the true story behind Thea’s expulsion from her family, but it isn’t long before the mystery of her past is rivaled by the question of how it will shape her future. Part scandalous love story, part heartbreaking family drama, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls is an immersive, transporting page-turner—a vivid, propulsive novel about sex, love, family, money, class, home, and horses, all set against the ominous threat of the Depression—and the major debut of an important new writer.

I thought about the future weeks, when we would know and understand each other, and I was nearly lifted out of the saddle in anticipation. Sometimes anticipation affected me in this way, as if I could feel it coursing through my veins. I suppose it was a girlish habit.

There was no history of twins in our family. When we were born, our family was cautious, especially of me. I had either sapped Sam’s strength and was the stronger twin, or Sam had enfeebled me. I was either a selfish or useless girl. My father tried to dispel these notions, said there was no evidence. But even he was worried, a boy and a girl born together, contrary to the order of things.

I wanted to be alive. I wanted to live. I was not weak. And in order to do that, I would make a home here. I would make a home without my family.

“Be good,” she called from behind me, a phrase uttered so often it meant nothing.


At the age of fifteen, Thea Atwell is sent off to a summer camp in the mountains of North Carolina. However, readers do not find out why until the story starts to unravel. The camp is called Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls and it is an equestrienne boarding school for Southern debutantes. The story is set in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which is very close to my childhood home. The book is set in 1930 and the Great Depression is taking its effect on Thea’s family, but as she travels to the rural mountains of North Carolina readers will understand that something else has uprooted Thea’s family roots, something that Thea may have had a hand in. What did she do? Why did she deserve banishment to this remote summer school? You have to follow alongside Thea as she tells you her story to find out!

I would definitely call this a mature coming of age story. Most coming of age stories give us a younger character who is slightly immature and annoying at times, or at least make terrible decisions. While some of Thea’s decisions are terrible, she is still a mature character with a grasping voice and point of view. This book is written from her perspective and allows readers to dive into her life at the riding camp while slowly learning what happened that put Thea so far away from home. I enjoyed the flashbacks/look into Thea’s family and past and I felt that it was better experienced this way instead of if it were happening right in front of my eyes.

This book deals with a lot of sexual tension, issues, and experiences. Most of them are of course Thea’s. Thea really learns a lot about herself while she is away at summer camp. She has time to reflect on what she did that hurt her family and got her sent there in the first place. This book is not to be taken lightly because of all the sexual undertones. This is a teenager’s first experience of freedom and coming alive. I enjoyed see Thea grow and learn how to control herself and best of all, follow her heart.

***A copy of this book was sent to me by the publishers at Riverhead Books in exchange for my honest review***

Publication Date: May 28, 2013
Publisher: Kensington







How sad could a person feel before their heart just stopped? She faced every day feeling weak, wrung out, wondering why she was here. Why she was anywhere.

Gladdie mumbled skeptically, but Alabama was too appalled by her own thoughts to agree or disagree. My God. For a moment there I almost liked her.

At the funeral home, she’d bent down and kissed her mom, crying into her mouth as their lips touched. If only it had been a fairy tale, like one of the stories her mother had read to her over and over when she was little, the one where a kiss restored life. It happened in the movies, too. You’d think someone was gone, and then eyelids fluttered open, music swelled, and miraculous reunions happened.

Bev Putterman never reconciled with her estranged sister before her death, and now Diana has left Alabama, her fourteen-year-old daughter in Bev’s hands. Bev has enough on her plate already while trying to maintain her love life and hold down a teacher career, she feels that she has no place for an unruly teenager. However, Alabama goes to live with her Aunt Bev and only knows what she has heard her mother say. Alabama doesn’t have a nice opinion of her Aunt Bev conjured up in her head, but Alabama soon learns what tore them apart and what could have made them whole again.

I wish this book would have had a bit more happiness, seeing as how it is part of the title. The tone was very dreary and although I understand why, I just wish I would have gained more of a positive reaction after reading it. I felt that Bass, the author, captured the emotions of a fourteen-year-old very well. Alabama displayed a lot of mixed emotions, angst, and of course some good pent up teenage attitude. I loved seeing Alabama mature and learn to make decisions and form opinions of her own, not based on what she knew from her mother.

I loved Bev’s character. At first I was wondering which sister I wasn’t going to care for, and I learned quickly that the sister I didn’t care for was Diana. Her character was very destructive and only caused problems wherever she went. I did love watching their story develop in front of my eyes and Alabama’s. Readers will be taken on a personal journey through Bev’s and Diana’s life as sisters. The theme of this book, in my opinion, was forgiveness. I felt a tear roll down my face at one point, and I really wish that I would have had more positive feelings towards the end of the book.

***A copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Kensington in exchange for my honest review***

Publication Date: June 4, 2013
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Series: Death & Taxes # 5



Nothing like a baseball bat to the head to ruin a girl’s faith in herself.

Yep, I’d recently let my guard down, assumed a mild-mannered granny posed no threat to me. Unfortunately, when I informed the woman she’d violated federal law by unwittingly helping terrorists funnel money overseas, she’d panicked. Even more unfortunately, an official major league baseball bat signed by none other than Texas Ranger Josh Hamilton had been in close reach behind the counter of her pawnshop. She’d grabbed the bat, swung for the seats, and – Crack! Lights out for me.

The place gave me the total creeps. “Let’s get out of here.” Before the devil steals our souls.

Eddie glanced over at me. “Aren’t you a Baptist?” “Yeah,” I said, “but it can’t hurt.”

Tara Holloway and I are best friends. I am serious. If she were a real character, we would be the best of friends. Diane Kelly is a phenomenal writer and I agree with many other reviews I have read in saying that this is the best book in the series yet. Diane writes this fast-paced lifestyle and these characters that all feel real. I have never been so interested in tax evasion before this series! The only thing that I always hate about her books is that I am left wanting more, and in this case I am stuck waiting until October of this year for the next book in this series. Again, this book is filled with filthy bad guys trying to evade taxes, and a spunky Tara Holloway who is right on their trail.

Diane Kelly can put readers in some pretty unpredictable, filthy scenarios full of drugs, strippers, prostitutes, you name it and while all this is going on I am loving every minute of it. Diane really knows how to draw readers into a scene. I always know what is going on and it’s almost as if I am a tiny camera sitting on Tara’s shoulder. Diane makes readers a part of the story and really allows them to connect with other characters in the same way that Tara does. She gives them each crazy, funny, quirky personalities in order to make them stand out.

These books just keep getting better and better. I swear I do not know how she does it! Diane Kelly is one of my favorite authors because of her Tara Holloway series. Tara becomes more of a pistol with each book, and to be honest I will so sad to ever see this story end. Her sex scenes are steamy, her action scenes have me on the edge of my seat, and the moments when you think you know for sure what is going to happen next she comes in and sets off fireworks!

***A copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at St. Martin’s Paperbacks in exchange for my honest review***