Review: No Attachments by Tiffany King

Title: No Attachments
Author: Tiffany King
Series: Woodfalls Girls #1
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: October 22, 2013
Source: Purchased
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

** Recommended for ages 17+ due to sexual situations, language and mature subject matter **

Ashton Garrison walked away from a privileged life in order to hide from the one thing she's not willing to face. She knows she left behind a trail of pain, but in the long run, her betrayal will hurt less than the truth. She now has one goal: Live life to the fullest with no regrets and no attachments. She has high hopes that a move to new surroundings will provide the escape she desires, but what Ashton doesn't count on is how fate always seems to find a way to screw up any good plan. Sometimes, when love comes knocking, the pull is too strong not to answer. Suddenly, what she thought she wanted to escape from is what Ashton now wants more than anything.

Nathan Lockton has one mission: find his target and complete the task he was hired to do—no attachments and no emotion necessary. He's done it over and over again. What he thought was a typical lost-and-found job has turned into a life examining moment as Nathan is forced to deal with something he has always ignored--his feelings. Now faced with a decision, Nathan must choose to either follow his heart or complete the job.

Love can come when you least expect it. The question is: If the odds are stacked against you, how far are you willing to go for the one you love?

New adult is a scary thing guys, and I’m always so hesitant to pick one up. I've read some of Tiffany Kings YA titles, and they were really good, so I felt comfortable giving this one a shot. I really enjoyed it.

Ashton walks away from her privileged life and hides out in a small town. She has her reasons and they are legit. I kind of want to kick myself for not realizing what they were until later on. Nathan was hired to find her, but he didn’t count on developing feelings for her in the process. Told from both point of views, it’s rather entertaining to watch them try for a no attachments relationship when it’s so obvious they are falling for each other.

My favorite thing about No Attachment, hands down, is the relationship Ashton has with her two friends. They are hilarious, and the banter between then often reminds me of how I talk with my friends. I had quite a few laugh out loud moments.

As far as New Adult goes, I think it’s a winner. You have the sexy times, but they don’t over power the story. And there is some build up between the two! Sexual tension instead of... Wham bam “I’m too much of a dick to” thank you ma’am. Imagine that!

Both Ashton and Nathan have gone through some rough stuff in their lives, and they are both scarred from it to an extent. There are some sad moments, but No Attachments didn’t make me sob or anything. King has a way of writing about those tough subjects, while keeping it positive and light. It’s one of the things I like the most about her books, and I’ve come to know it as part of her style. I don’t always want to bawl my eyes out when I pick a book containing upsetting things. Her stories are always so full of hope, I think that’s what it is. It’s the brighter side of bad.

I’m pretty excited to pick up Misunderstandings, the sequel, because it follows one of Ashton’s friends that I loved so much. If you are looking to try a New Adult that’s not shitty, I’d recommend giving No Attachments a try.

About the author:



USA Today Bestselling author Tiffany King is a lifelong reading fanatic who is now living her
dream as a writer, weaving Young Adult and New Adult romance tales for others to enjoy. She has a loving husband and two wonderful kids. (Five, if you count her three spoiled cats). Her addictions include: Her iphone and ipad, chocolate, Diet Coke, chocolate, Harry Potter, chocolate, zombies and her favorite TV shows. Want to know what they are? Just ask.

Find Tiffany:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Read More

Labels: Berkley, new adult, No Attachments, penguin, reviews, Tiffany King, Woodfalls Girls

Stacking The Shelves #10

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and is a way to share with everyone all the goodies you've received through out the week. 

Just click the covers to be taken to their goodreads pages. 

For Review

Thank you Bloomsbury, Macmillan, & Blackstone Audio

I'm a little unsure about Searching for Sky, but the description intrigued me. The Body in the Woods sounds different from what I usually read, gotta mix it up! Wish you were Italian will probably be a little fluff piece but they are a guilty pleasure of mine and The Wells End is my first Audio book for review. I've heard some good things about that one!

Freebies


I read Exiled a really long time ago, but a friend lent me her copy. I really liked it, and I'm not sure why it's taken me this long to get myself a copy. :) Everwild, well, I just couldn't resist this ones cover.

I didn't purchase anything this week!!!! Yay!!! Success. I'm holding on to that whole 73 cent credit from the amazon lawsuit thing. Saving it up for something good. lol. I hope you all had a great week!

Read More

The Weekend Update - 3.29.14

So, since my end-of-the-week post isn't just about what I got in my mailbox or on my Kindle each week -- though that is a big part of it, I won't lie -- I decided to change up the title and intro a bit.  I might tweak the format a bit over the next few weeks, but for the most part, it'll contain the same stuff:  stuff I got, stuff I did, and stuff that's coming up on the blog.  Plus, I get to use the awesome GIF you see here and blow kisses to all the people who sent me lovely books and bookish things.  Oh, and I've started linking up to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews since I'm not using a specific meme title anymore.  April's also doing her own Stacking the Shelves posts on Sundays.  Stop by and say hi!  =)

I was a bad, bad girl this week. Being on a book-buying ban will do that to you, though. It's not like I'm afraid I'll run out of things to read, but nevertheless, I still want all the books. And even if it looks like I'm not, I am being choosier in which titles I request, download, and accept for review. Out of all the new titles I got this week, there was only one that I actually had to add to my TBR. I'm sooooo excited for all my new reads...I almost don't know which one to read first. ;0)

I'm also excited for spring-like whether this weekend. I hope it finally decides to stick around. Plan on doing some muddin' on the 4-wheeler at the deer lease this afternoon and planting our garden tomorrow. And I'm sure there'll be some patio reading in there somewhere. =)

Anyway, here's what I scored this week:

For Review:

physical ARCs:

Between the Spark and the Burn by April Genevieve Tucholke - author (!!!!!!!!!!!)
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart - publisher

from Netgalley & Edelweiss:

Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick - Edelweiss
The Lost by Sarah Beth Durst - Netgalley
Compulsion by Martina Boone - Edelweiss

And then there're all the Harper titles that were just added to Edelweiss -- I managed to contain myself...sort of:



In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis (!!!!!!!!!!)
Don't Touch by Rachel M. Wilson
The Swap by Megan Shull
Boomerang by Noelle August

Purchased:

Paper Towns by John Green (audio) - Audible Daily Deal - woot woot!

Library:

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker (audio)
Her Dark Curiosity by Megan Shepherd (audio)

Gifted:

Team Jeri swag (pictured above):
This Side of Salvation bookmarks - signed
Shade series bookmarks - signed
Team Jeri logo card

So, that's my haul. I went a little overboard, huh? How about you? What did you get this week?

The Week in Review:

Reviews:

• Better Off Friends (April)
• Maybe Someday - audio (Jen)
• Veronica Mars - movie (Jen)
• Storm Warning (April)
• Salvage (April)
• See Me (Jen)
• Uninvited - audio (Jen)
• The Naturals - audio (Jen)

Current Giveaways:  All giveaways have ended. Check back soon for more!

Promotional/Discussion Posts:  Our Bookish Bucket List, stop by on Tuesday for the Plus One Blog Tour!!!

Jen's Currently Reading/Listening To:

I needed a cute, fluffy read, so I decided to pick this one up. Sounds like Shut Out -- which I liked -- but even better. I enjoyed the Secrets of the Eternal Rose series written under Stokes' pseudonym, so this should be fun. =)

This audiobook is loooooong but good. Not as fantastical as I was expecting, but the writing and world-building is stellar.

Upcoming Reviews:

Like honest reviews & giveaways?  Be sure to follow us on Bloglovin' so you never miss out!

Read More

Labels: in my mailbox (imm), stacking the shelves, the weekend update

{Audiobook} Review: The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Title: The Naturals
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Narrator(s): Amber Faith
Series: The Naturals, book #1
Length: 7 hrs 28 mins
Publisher: Listening Library
Publication Date: November 5, 2013
Source: from publisher for review via Netgalley/audio from library
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible

Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But it’s not a skill that she’s ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they’ve begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie.

What Cassie doesn’t realize is that there’s more at risk than a few unsolved homicides—especially when she’s sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own. Sarcastic, privileged Michael has a knack for reading emotions, which he uses to get inside Cassie’s head—and under her skin. Brooding Dean shares Cassie’s gift for profiling, but keeps her at arm’s length.

Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms closer than Cassie could ever have imagined. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive.

Serial killer books are rather hit or miss for me, what with the mystery often falling flat or the gore being over-the-top, but I'd read a couple of Barnes' books before and enjoyed them, so I thought I'd give her attempt at a serial killer mystery a try. And I wasn't disappointed. This might actually be my favorite JLB book yet.

I rarely listen to an audiobook from start to finish in a single day, but I did with The Naturals. It was an average length audiobook, so it wasn't that it was short or anything. I just felt compelled to finish, to find out who the killer was and what their underlying motiviation was. It also helps that this newbie narrator was perfect for the role of Cassie. I've never heard anything narrated by Amber Faith before, and upon searching her history on Audible, I found that this was the only title listed. If this truly was her first audiobook, then she was very well cast. And I hope she'll be back for the sequel!

The serial killer aspect of this novel was intriguing and well-done, keeping me guessing till nearly the very end, but it was the characters that made this story as incredible as it was for me. They were so diverse, each with their own skill set and idiosyncrasies. There's Cassie, of course, who can sense what a person is like, what their intentions are, before they ever utter a word. Michael, the boy who helped lure her into the world of the Naturals, can sense emotions, tells, and scrutinizes your every facial expression to determine what you're thinking. Sloane is a statistician, mathematician, a number guru, and her blunt, to-the-point demeanor reminded me so much of Amy from The Big Bang Theory. Lia, who might have the most handy gift, is a human lie detector. And Dean, like Cassie, is a natural profiler...a brooding one. The game of Truth or Dare these kids play is all the more fun because of each of their special abilities.

The story is fraught with tension, between the Naturals all living in one house, between the Naturals and the figures of authority training them in their abilities, and because the serial killer is stepping up their game. I appreciated that we got a background story on most of the kids and that there wasn't a lot of info-dumping involved where the cases were concerned. The author took her time, weaving an intricate story, but the book reads fast and even a bit chaotic toward the end, leaving me wanting to re-listen for any details I might have missed in my rush to know all the things. And getting inside the killer's head -- like, actual portions that the killer narrated -- just upped the creepy-factor.

Adding to the tension in the house is the fact that both Michael and Dean have an interest in Cassie. And she shows mutual interest in both boys, for different reasons. As much as I liked the group dynamic in the house, I liked what was going on with these three so much more, and not just because of the romantic aspect. I don't love or hate romantic entanglements of a triangular nature; I just like to see a romance done right. And the way Cassie's feelings developed for each boy, and not just in a physical sense, was perfect. First and foremost, her goal is to find her mother's killer, so she tries to remain professional and only learn about each boy in a professional capacity, but in doing so, she grows to care about both boys and vice versa. Though both guys acted as rivals toward each other, the progression of the love triangle was natural and in the end, I found their responses and reactions to each other to be rather mature. I guess being gunned down by a psychopath will do that to you.

You know, the more I think about this novel, the more I find myself liking it. It had everything I'm looking for in a great read: action, suspense, romance, great characters, snarky dialogue. And it left me wanting more. I don't want to wait until November to catch up with the Naturals again!

GIF it to me straight:

I'm doing my happy dance because this book was even more awesome than I expected!

About the author:

Jennifer Lynn Barnes (who mostly goes by Jen) was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She has been, in turn, a competitive cheerleader, a volleyball player, a dancer, a debutante, a primate cognition researcher, a teen model, a comic book geek, and a lemur aficionado. She's been writing for as long as she can remember, finished her first full book (which she now refers to as a "practice book" and which none of you will ever see) when she was still in high school, and then wrote Golden the summer after her freshman year in college, when she was nineteen.

Jen graduated high school in 2002, and from Yale University with a degree in cognitive science (the study of the brain and thought) in May of 2006. She was awarded a Fulbright to do post-graduate work at Cambridge, and then returned to the states, where she is hard at work on her PhD.

Find Jen:

Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Tumblr

Read More

Labels: audiobooks, disney hyperion, favorites, jennifer lynn barnes, murder mystery, psychological thriller, reviews, the naturals

{Audiobook} Review: Uninvited by Sophie Jordan

Title: Uninvited
Author: Sophie Jordan
Narrator(s):  Rebecca Gibel
Series: Uninvited, book #1
Length:  9 hrs 54 mins
Publisher: Harper Audio
Publication Date: January 28, 2014
Source: from publisher for review via Edelweiss/audio from library
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible

The Scarlet Letter meets Minority Report in bestselling author Sophie Jordan's chilling new novel about a teenage girl who is ostracized when her genetic test proves she's destined to become a murderer.

When Davy Hamilton's tests come back positive for Homicidal Tendency Syndrome (HTS)-aka the kill gene-she loses everything. Her boyfriend ditches her, her parents are scared of her, and she can forget about her bright future at Juilliard. Davy doesn't feel any different, but genes don't lie. One day she will kill someone.

Only Sean, a fellow HTS carrier, can relate to her new life. Davy wants to trust him; maybe he's not as dangerous as he seems. Or maybe Davy is just as deadly.

The first in a two-book series, Uninvited tackles intriguing questions about free will, identity, and human nature. Steeped in New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan's trademark mix of gripping action and breathless romance, this suspenseful tale is perfect for fans of James Patterson, Michelle Hodkin, and Lisa McMann.

I'm just gonna say it...this book totally reminded me of Article 5, only slightly better written. I really should have known better because I'm all but over the dystopian trend, but the hype surrounding this book gave me pause. I own all of Jordan's Firelight series, but I've yet to read it. And my curiosity being what it is, I requested Uninvited for review and then promptly forgot about it. Then the audio became available at my library, so I decided to go that route.

The audio was probably the book's saving grace, at least for me. I think I might have DNF'd it otherwise. Even if the narrator did make Davy sound whiny and rather pathetic. It made sense, though, because Davy's inner monologue and actions make her seem whiny and pathetic. She was such a disappointing protagonist: weak, in constant need of saving, and all around annoying. I enjoyed Rebecca Gibel's narration of the Splintered series, but there was nothing she could do to make me find Davy likable.

Okay, okay...I sort of understand how Davy could turn out to be such a miserable heroine: she's just had her whole world turned upside down because she tested positive for Homicidal Tendency Syndrome, which means there's a likelihood that she'll one day become a killer. Her friends have abandoned her. Her boyfriend dumped her. Her parents are afraid of her. And now she's been taken from them to some type of government training facility to turn her into a weapon.

So, yeah, her dreams of Julliard are gone. Her status as a musical prodigy means next to nothing. But on the bright side, the dreamy but dangerous Sean O'Roarke is there with her. He keeps Davy at a distance for as long as he can, but it's obvious she's incapable of keeping herself out of trouble. In the short time since she tested positive, she's been sexually harassed by a teacher, become the target of a bully, and managed to piss off the cruelest of the other HTS kids at the training camp. Davy is not the girl I'd pick for Sean, but some guys just love a damsel in distress.

Like I mentioned earlier, besides the annoying protagonist, the premise also reminded me a lot of Article 5, in which the government can determine one's morality and punish accordingly. In Uninvited, Davy's basically "uninvited" from all aspects of normal life because of the "kill gene" present in her DNA. I suppose both of these worlds are plausible, but I feel like the DNA testing is a more probable reality, especially if it were determined that this type of behavior really could be explained away by a genetic predisposition toward it. However, it did seem as if the public at large in this story was a little too easily accepting of the forced testing, that they were all too ready to write those people off who tested positive. I expect the second book in this duology will focus more on the rebellion against the testing and treatment of people with HTS.

I know this review sounds incredibly negative, but I didn't hate Uninvited. I actually found it riveting at times and the fast pace and action sequences compelled me to keep listening. And I liked that the author didn't shy away from violence in her novel, that she made the fear in this world palpable. However, a little less focus on the romance and a stronger main character would have made this book so much better for me. I'll likely pick up the second book, but I'll probably play a drinking game while I read it, taking a shot for every time Sean has to save Davy's ass. Should be fun, plus it might serve the dual purpose of helping me find Davy slightly less annoying.

GIF it to me straight:

We'll see how the next one goes before ultimate judgment.

About the author:

Sophie Jordan grew up in the Texas hill country where she wove fantasies of dragons, warriors, and princesses. A former high school English teacher, she's also the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Avon historical romances. She now lives in Houston with her family. When she's not writing, she spends her time overloading on caffeine (lattes and Diet Cherry Coke preferred), talking plotlines with anyone who will listen (including her kids), and cramming her DVR with true-crime and reality-TV shows. Sophie also writes paranormal romances under the name Sharie Kohler.

Find Sophie:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Read More

Labels: audiobooks, book trailers, dystopian, harper-collins, reviews, sophie jordan, tx authors, uninvited