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BookWormInBarrie

My favourite thing to do is to get lost in a book, it can calm you down, cheer you up when you need it, spark a conversation, and you can travel around the world just by reading a book!

Currently reading

Masque of the Red Death
Bethany Griffin
The Sassy Belles
Beth Albright
Our Tragic Universe
Scarlett Thomas

Love Me: A Take a Chance Novel (Entangled: Ever After)

Love Me  - Diane Alberts Love me follows the story of Thomas Jones who is in the marketing field, and he is taken once again to Las Vegas to win his marketing company another large account. What he is not prepared for when he gets there is Brianna, they literally run in to each other outside a restaurant, and let's just say they don't get started on the right foot.Thomas is immediately attracted to Brianna, however, it is not reciprocated in the least, and that just makes him want to win her over even more. One of her hesitations is that she is in charge of the casino that he needs to get a contract signed on for the next big job. There is more reasons than that in which Brianna does not want to get involved with him, but we are not aware of these secrets until later on in the book, and they could throw a big hitch in Thomas's plans if he is not careful.I really enjoyed Thomas and Brianna's story, and watching it unfold, and seeing how Thomas reacts to Brianna's home life and how that would effect any kind of relationship he hopes to have with her.This is the second book in a series, however, it is not necessary to read the first book, they can be read like stand alone novels. In saying that, I have not read book 1, but I will be asap as I really enjoyed Diane's writing, and the two main characters from book 1 make an appearance in this book, and they seem very interesting. Overall this book gets a 4/5 from me, and I would suggest it for anyone looking for a romance book with some steam in it!

Love Me (Take a Chance, #2)

Love Me (Take a Chance, #2) - Diane Alberts Love me follows the story of Thomas Jones who is in the marketing field, and he is taken once again to Las Vegas to win his marketing company another large account. What he is not prepared for when he gets there is Brianna, they literally run in to each other outside a restaurant, and let's just say they don't get started on the right foot.Thomas is immediately attracted to Brianna, however, it is not reciprocated in the least, and that just makes him want to win her over even more. One of her hesitations is that she is in charge of the casino that he needs to get a contract signed on for the next big job. There is more reasons than that in which Brianna does not want to get involved with him, but we are not aware of these secrets until later on in the book, and they could throw a big hitch in Thomas's plans if he is not careful.I really enjoyed Thomas and Brianna's story, and watching it unfold, and seeing how Thomas reacts to Brianna's home life and how that would effect any kind of relationship he hopes to have with her.This is the second book in a series, however, it is not necessary to read the first book, they can be read like stand alone novels. In saying that, I have not read book 1, but I will be asap as I really enjoyed Diane's writing, and the two main characters from book 1 make an appearance in this book, and they seem very interesting. Overall this book gets a 4/5 from me, and I would suggest it for anyone looking for a romance book with some steam in it!

The Hazards of Skinny Dipping

The Hazrads of Skinny Dipping - Alyssa Rose Ivy Fair warning, this is going to be a gushy review! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book!!!! I have also been privileged enough to read Alyssa's Clayton Falls series, and this is my favourite book that I have read by her thus far. This story follows Juliet who is just going in to her first year of college, and before she does that, her cousin Amy gives her a secret list of 5 things that she needs to do before she gets there to try and open herself up to the new experiences that she is going to have once she is there. One of those things on the list is, you guess it, skinny dipping. She leaves this till the last minute before she has to leave to go to school. Juliet has decided to stay over one more night at her family's beach cottage once everyone else has left to give herself some alone time and to mark off this last thing on the list. What she doesn't count on is the hot next door neighbour Dylan to show up unexpectedly and catch her in her moment of nakedness. Juliet has had a crush on him for years, and what she thinks is a dream come true starts to happen to her, what she was not prepared for is the dream to come crashing down around her.Juliet knows that she will not be able to avoid Dylan when she gets to school as he is a senior at the same college that she is attending. She is not sure what to expect as far as his reaction when seeing him again, but is presently surprised by how happy he is to see her, and that he really is interested in dating her. I can relate to Juliet in more ways than one, but the first one that comes up in the book is that giddy feeling you get when you start dating someone that you have had a crush on, at the beginning it always feels like a bit of a dream come true, then reality starts to set in.Dylan always rubbed me the wrong way even from when he was introduced, and as the story goes along, it kept getting worse and worse, I just wanted to strangle him! And I love when a character is able to bring out such a strong emotion in me, good or bad. Shortly after Juliet arrives at school we meet Reed, and let me tell you, I have found a new book boyfriend! All along I kept thinking in my head "open your eyes Juliet, look at that man"!! Well, I can't really say much more without giving the rest of the book away, however, there is so much more to this story, some secrets that are revealed, a lot of growing by a few different characters, and a few other surprises along the way that I guarantee will keep you wanting more and more!I am going to say that this is obviously a 5/5 for me, and that Alyssa Rose has absolutely become my FAVOURITE contemporary author by far and I am going to go and try and find everything I can by her and read it ASAP!

Kissing the Maid of Honor: A Secret Wishes Novel (Entangled: Bliss)

Kissing the Maid of Honor  - Robin Bielman I really enjoyed this book, I was able to connect with the characters a little more than I have been able to in the last couple of romance novels that I have read. This is a story about Sela and Luke, they have agreed to be the maid of honour and best man at Luke's sister Vanessa's wedding. Now normally this would not be a big deal at all, however, there is a history between these two as Sela has been Vanessa's best friend since they were young, and there was an embarrassing episode that Sela has still not forgiven Luke for.Throughout the book we see them try and work together to make Vanessa's day perfect for her, and try to keep their distance otherwise until the wedding is over, so that they can both try and keep their sanity. Well, that does not seem to be the plan that the "fates" have in store for them, which really is bothering Sela because there is a famous wishing well in town, and when Vanessa's wish came true, she put a lot of faith in it, and made her own wish for Luke to stay away from her, and the exact opposite is happening.I really liked the flow of this book, and the way that you see their relationship start to repair, and then move on from there. I found it to be very realistic, and because there was the previous history between the two main characters, I did not get that insta-love feeling, and I thought that it was very well written, I would highly recommend this one for a nice summer beach read as it can definitely be read in one day while lazing by the water, overall rating is a 4/5.

Real Men Don't Quit (Real Men, #2)

Real Men Don't Quit (Real Men, #2) - Coleen Kwan This book is about a famous author named Luke Maguire who has decided to retreat to a small town in Australia to try and focus on his writing as he has been suffering writers block in the house that he has been trying to write his next novel in. What he does not expect when he gets to that small town is the fiery redhead next door named Tyler.He tries his best to stay out of her life, however, he finds himself being pulled in again and again. One thing that he finds himself drawn to is her adorable 3 year old daughter Chloe, she makes quite the impression on him the first time that they meet. Tyler strives herself on being independent and not needing help from anyone as this is how she has had to be for as long as she can remember. She is unprepared for the events that keep coming up where she does find herself in need of help from someone, and that someone keep turning up to be the gorgeous next door neighbour Luke.There were a few obstacles thrown in the plot to make me keep reading, and this was not a bad book by any means, however, it was not a great book for me either. It is another heart warming romance that I have come to expect from Entangled, the writing is always great. 3/5 overall.

Piece of My Heart

Piece of My Heart - Lynn Maddalena Menna Review coming closer to publication date.

Desire by Design (Entangled: Bliss)

Desire by Design - Paula Altenburg This novel follows the story of Eve, she has landed her dream job of being a project manager for the new city hall building, and she also did the final draft of the building. Just as she beings to think that everything is going her way, it is interrupted by the famous architect Matt Brison shows up and tells her that he has been hired to design the final look of the building.There was a lot of back and forth in this book between Eve and Matt as she felt that she was doing the project justice by keeping to the traditional look of the town, where Matt wanted to do something a little more modern, and it did not help that he had the schooling behind him, and she did not. Also he has some connections that she does not that she is not aware of at the beginning.There is a twist to the plot line involving something or someone from Eve's past, and this was really the only part of the book that I found slightly interesting that gave the book a little something extra that I can't really discuss in a review without it being a spoiler.This book overall unfortunately for me was just okay, there was nothing spectacular about it that I remembered or even really kept me wanting to read to the end, though I did. I think it is for someone just looking for a nice light romance book that just takes 1 sitting to get through. This book gets a 3/5 from me.

The Summer I Became a Nerd

The Summer I Became a Nerd - Leah Rae Miller This book was exactly what I needed to get out of a reading slump! It was the perfect light hearted quick read that I was looking for. Even though this book touches on a serious topic like trying to be someone you are not just to "fit in" at school, it does it in such a fun way that you really don't feel like it is being shoved down your throat or anything. At the beginning of the book we learn about the incident a few years back at school where Maddie felt that she was so embarrassed at school that she was never going to fit in again, so from that day forward she was determined to fit in and keep all of her "geeky interests" like comics, sci-fi shows etc to herself for fear of being made fun of again.She has been ordering her comic books online for years so there is no evidence of them in her room when her friends come over, and she keeps a comic book journal that she thinks no one knows about hidden in her closet, however, she starts to run in to trouble when her favourite comic book series has decided to only offer the very last book in the series in print form, so she cannot view it online. She finds that she is forced to go in to the local comic book store called The Pheonix to pick up her copy, so she decides she is going to, but she is afraid of someone seeing her, so she goes incognito or so she thinks. I love where the story goes from there, Maddie starts to realize that the life that she is living to keep up appearances, is not what she wants. Like having the popular football player boyfriend, and pretending to like a country music artist that she really can't stand. She starts to make small changes to have things the way that she really wants them, like hanging out with the guy in her class Logan, who's parents own The Pheonix, but she is not fooling him, and soon things come to a boiling point, and she is forced to chose to go all the way and acknowledge what she really wants, or hurt the people that have come to mean so much to her.This is the absolute perfect book to get you started on your light contemporary reading for summer! If you like books with characters blossoming in to whom they are really supposed to be with a sprinkle of romance, this one is for you, it gets a 5/5 from me.

Wrecked

Wrecked - Alyssa Rose Ivy This is the 3rd book in the Clayton Falls series, so I knew a little about Jake, but it was nothing compared to what we learnt about him in this book. The book starts off with a bang, and I loved that it did not stop right until the very end. Jake has made some choices in life that are not the greatest of decisions, and one major one is revealed at the beginning of this book, and that is when all the drama starts.When he is in the hospital we are introduced to his nurse Emily, who is on the night shift when he is brought in, and because of situations that have occurred in her past, she is very much put off by Jake and what has happened, however, she feels drawn to him at the same time, and she is confused and not happy that this is happening. Jake seems determined to make an impression on Emily and have her go out on a date with him, and he can be very charismatic when he needs to be. We see them start to date and everything seems to be going okay, however, we know that Emily is hiding something, and we do not find out till later what that something is. I really enjoyed how Alyssa did this and kept us wondering on who or what this is because it gave us even more reason to keep reading. During the duration of this novel, we see both of the main characters step put of their comfort zone in big ways, and we were able to see them grow together in a very realistic non fairytale way, and this is one of the things that I love about Alyssa's work, she is able to see that there are going to be bumps in the road that people have to work through, and instead of jumping right over them, she attacks them head on and is able to show that sometimes life is not perfect, and it shouldn't be because everything that is important to you should be worth fighting for and working through those bumps.I have been privileged enough to read the three Clayton Falls novels, and I have loved every single one of them, Alyssa is able to pull at my heart strings just enough to make me feel empathy for the characters, but at the same time I am not put in to a "book depression" reading her work, it is the absolute perfect amount of drama and love for me, and she has become the go to author for me for when I am in need of these kinds of novels, even over Nora Roberts who was my go to, so in my eyes that is a HUGE accomplishment, and I want to thank her for her work, and I cannot wait to read more, and I wish her all the success in the world, and will do what I can to make sure more people are reading her work.

SEAL of Honor (Hornet)

SEAL of Honor - Tonya Burrows Review to come on May 28th.

White Lines

White Lines - Jennifer Banash White lines is a story about a girl named Cat who is a 17 year old club kid in 1980's New York. This book engrossed me from the very beginning, and I could not put it down. We find out at the beginning that due to different circumstances in her past she finds herself living alone at her young age, and she is trying to manage going to school and also being a club promoter.The way Jennifer was able to detail everything down to the last detail was tremendous, especially when it came to the "white lines", I have never done that myself, but I feel like I don't need (or want) to now after reading this. She was able to describe the sensation of the high and the side effects from it in such a way that I felt like I was there with her, and I think that is something that is not easy to do.I felt connected to Cat on some levels and I could understand why she was doing what she was doing even if I didn't agree with her, or would not make the same choices in her situation. Her Mother is probably one of my most hated characters in a fictional novel, and once you read this book, I would guarantee that you will agree with me, I cannot understand her at all, and there were many times during the book that I wanted to choke her for her actions, and I love when I get emotional like that while reading.As far as the club kid scene goes, I loved the different kids for all different reasons, but one of my favourite parts was the outfits! Did that ever take me back to the 80's, oh how I do not miss the neon (even though apparently it is coming back?), and she got them bang on too, who remembers wearing a lot of tulle and lace, oh and the spandex with the elastic at the bottom to go under your feet? I do! This is not a book that I will forget any time soon, there are so many different and serious topics covered that I think it should be a mandatory read for teenagers (starting in grade 9). The first one that comes to mind is the fact that I think way too many kids are having to grow up way to soon and have their teenage years and what should be "normal" teenage experiences taken away from them, and the serious consequences that it can have. The next is drug abuse and how a lot of people think that the "have it under control", and it is not by any means, the drugs are the ones in control.I liked this book from front to back, and even the ending is not the "hollywood happy ever after" that can sometimes happen, I think it is a very realistic ending and I am so grateful that Jennifer wrote it that way. If you are looking for a more serious novel about what some kids are going through around the world on a daily basis, this is it! Fantastic 5/5 from me!

Chasing Mrs. Right (Come Undone, #2)

Chasing Mrs. Right (Come Undone, #2) - Katee Robert This was the second in Katee's Come Undone series, however, I did not read the first one, and it did not take away from this book at all, it is not a series that you have to necessarily read in order, although I will be trying to get a hold of book 1 as I really enjoyed this one.The story starts off with us meeting Ian who has just returned home from his second tour in Afghanistan and instead of being able to go home and sleep and try to relax, his sister has arranged a coming home party for him. It turns out that he needs to leave early as there are too many people and different noises for him as he seems to be suffering from a form of PTSD, and just trying to get use to a "normal" life back at home after being in a war environment I would imagine is extremely difficult. When he leaves the party he literally runs in to Roxanne and knocks her over, this is how they first meet. Neither of them realise at the beginning that they are connected by someone that they both care about, and their chance meeting is supposed to be one night of bliss before they both move on. I really liked the characters in this book, Roxanne has a great personality, but she seems to have a lock on her heart because of situations in her past, and things that her Mother has tried to ingrain in her, even if they are not right. Ian has his issues for sure, but he is also brutally honest in what he wants, and really puts Roxanne to the test in trying to get it.The thing that I love about these books is that they put real life situations in with the romance and steaminess. It just makes you connect with the story a little more, to make it an enjoyable experience. We see the characters in this book struggle with their own issues, but also try to support each other at the same time with what the other is going through, and the relationship is not perfect, but we do see it grow and I am happy with how it turned out at the end.I have a feeling I am going to really enjoy the Entangled Brazen collection if it is going to be carrying authors like Katee as this was a perfect Sunday night with a coffee read! I give it a 4/5.

Belong To You: A Cole Novel, Book One: 1

Belong to You - Vi Keeland This is the first in a new series from Vi and I am really looking forward to the rest in the series if they are going to be anything like this one. The story is based around Sydney and her friend Sienna going on Sydney's honeymoon as the trip had already been paid for, but the engagement was broken off a couple months before because of her ex-fiance cheating. Sydney and Sienna have known each other for almost all of their lives, and are best friends, I really enjoyed their personalities and they had me laughing out loud a few times.When they get to their destination they are having dinner together and they are sent drinks from a gentleman that they do not know, who is with a group of his friends, and that is when we meet Jack, and he is the perfect specimen of a man! We come to know that he is there with his friends for a bachelor party, and that works out well because it turns out that Sienna is interested in Jack's friend Tyler, and I am hoping that their story is next!It is not long before we see Sydney and Jack off together and you can feel the chemistry between them right from the beginning, and it is hot! The only other books I have read in this genre were the office romance kind of ones, so for me it was really refreshing to read something outside the office, with the beaches, and nice hotel rooms. I was captivated by this story, and read it straight through in one sitting, and was sad when it ended because I wanted more, I did not see that ending coming so soon.Jack is the kind of man that when you are dating him he wants everyone to know it, and is on the possessive side when seeing you talking to other guys. Also he has some issues with his father from his past, and the story goes a little in depth with that as well, and there is a twist where Sydney is put in the middle of it. Overall I really enjoyed this book for everything it had in it, the storyline, characters, romance, steamy scenes, I would definitely recommend this if you are looking for a weekend read, a 4/5 in my books.

ReAwakened (Angel Creek, #2)

ReAwakened (Angel Creek, #2) - Ada Adams I was very kindly sent this book from the author for review, and I could not be happier as I had also received Revamped as well and that left off on such a cliff hanger, that I was dying to know what happened, and where Dawn's story would go next. As a fair warning, if you have not read Revamped, you are going to want to stop reading right....about.....now! (This review may contain spoilers to the first in the series)It left off not long after Revamped ended and the action started pretty much right away and did not end until exactly on the last sentence, and I LOVED every page, every word, just everything! The same characters that were in the first book were in the second, and there were a few new characters introduced as well, like Razor, he is now one of my favourite funny fictional characters ever, he had me laughing through most of the book as his sarcastic humour is very much like my own.I thought that there were a lot of twists and turns in the first book, that was nothing compared to this one. Looking back now, finding out that she was cloned seemed to be one of the lesser worries in Reawakened, there is just SO much else going on that her and the team need to help with that it took a backseat for a bit. Even when it did pop up again, somehow Ada managed to put a twist on a twist in a story, how fantastic is that! There is always two sides to a story right? Just when I thought I had something figured out and I knew where it was going to go, nope, Ada throws another wrench in and adds something MORE to an already action packed book.I have just loved this series so far and I am chomping at the bit for the third in the series already! Oh, and might I add that Ada if you are reading this, you are an evil evil woman and I hate you very much!!! (But in the most respectful way of course because you are a true master of the cliffhanger)

Walking Disaster

Walking Disaster - Jamie McGuire Full review coming soon!

Velveteen

Velveteen - Daniel Marks Let me just start off saying that I am incredibly thankful that I was able to read this book, I LOVED IT! From beginning to end, I stayed up all night reading it, could not put it down. Once I have read a book I don't typically read any reviews on it until I have written my own as I don't want anyone else's opinion in my head at all, however, for some reason with this one I did read some, and I was surprised at what I read in some of them. I know everyone has their own opinion and that is awesome, but I thought I would do this review a little differently and put in some of what I read on other reviews, and what I thought about it.So it sounds like some people were looking for more "grit and gore", but for me it was perfect, I am not a fan of horror at all, I can never sleep after for days! But Daniel gave me just enough of the creep factor that I cringed a few times while reading it, but I was still able to sleep and not dream about Bonesaw and what he could possibly do to me. The other thing I noticed is some were not happy with the take that he had on purgatory because it did not seem "realistic" enough, to me that just does not sound right as who really knows what purgatory looks like, or how it is operated? I love when an author will take something that we think we know about and twist it and make me believe that it could totally be something different.I have heard a lot of other bloggers talk lately about how some books in the YA section are getting "watered down" because it seems to be the same story over and over, or at least the same kind of plot line, and I am so happy to say that this is not the case in Velveteen by any means. I love Velvet, and I think I would want to be just like her if I were in the same situation, she was kidnapped and murderer by the psycho named Bonesaw, and instead of going fully to "the other side" she gets stuck in purgatory, and rather than feel sorry for herself, she seeks revenge on Bonesaw any way that she can. She crosses back and forth between our world and purgatory and terrorises him as much as she can, and I would have to say that these were some of my favourite parts to read because it is hilarious what she does.I also loved meeting all the other characters in the book, even the ones that annoyed me to no end, they each brought something to the book to give it colour for sure. I think that is what a book should have, when you are reading, you want it to effect you and make you think and feel, and this book did all that for me. If you are looking for a book to give you the creeps but also a great story, this one is for you, I highly recommend it!