Jen in Bookland

An Unlikely Match (The Match Series - Book #1) Synopsis: From USA Today Bestselling Author Barbara Dunlop, a comedic, contemporary romance series featuring the high-tech antics of matchmaking senior citizens unleashed on their unsuspecting heirs.  Morgan Holbrook has a PhD in jet propulsion, a plum research position at CalTech and a sexy, new neighbor who is way out of his league. He’s got all the confidence in the world where it comes to applied physics, but he’s never been the guy who gets the girl.  Cheerleader Amelia Camden has sworn off boyfriends, focusing instead on her budding acting career. But when her nerdy, next door neighbor passes up his high school reunion, party enthusiast Amelia is determined to change his mind.  Wanting his former classmates to appreciate Morgan the way she does, as a brilliant, compassionate, engaging man, she goads him into a haircut, a great suit and a pair of contact lenses. Morgan plays along with the sexy Amel...

Beneath the Willow (Jesse & Sarah #2) Synopsis: Jesse and Sarah’s journey continues in Beneath the Willow, the sequel to the heartfelt novel, Across the Creek. For Jesse Malone, an architect in Chicago, life has been anything but easy. After losing the love of his life six years earlier, he is determined not to let love slip through his grasp once again. Sarah Ramsey, a business owner in the Windy City, is struggling to keep everything together through a difficult divorce. Her husband, a once brilliant attorney, is about to lose his career along with his marriage and is set on making Sarah’s life just as miserable as his. When Jesse and his fiancée, Kate, walk into a local floral shop to pick out the flowers for their upcoming wedding, Jesse runs into the only other woman he has ever loved, Sarah. Their brief encounter sets off a series of catastrophic events as Sarah reveals a secret that will test the foundations of their lives, leaving them with one certainty...

Across the Creek (Jesse & Sarah #1) Synopsis: Life only gives you one first kiss. And when Jesse Malone kissed Sarah Ramsey, he thought his life would change, but not in the way that it did. An unlikely childhood romance between a poor boy and a wealthy girl began the day Jesse decided to do the impossible and cross the creek. A love was born, one that would become their shelter, protecting them from the storms of their lives, until the day Jesse witnessed his mother’s murder, forcing him to leave his childhood home…and first love.  Ten years later, life has finally gotten better for Jesse. He has a loving family, a charming pet shop to run, and one semester left before graduating with a degree in architecture. Everything is great, until the day fate intervenes and his long-lost love walks into his shop and back into his life. Sarah, engaged to a budding attorney, is struggling to keep everything together. Her father, diagnosed with terminal cancer, is runn...

The Newcomer (Thunder Point) Synopsis: Single dad and Thunder Point's deputy sheriff "Mac" McCain has worked hard to keep everyone safe and happy. Now he's found his own happiness with Gina James. The longtime friends have always shared the challenges and rewards of raising their adolescent daughters. With an unexpected romance growing between them, they're feeling like teenagers themselves-suddenly they can't get enough of one another.  And just when things are really taking off, their lives are suddenly thrown into chaos. When Mac's long-lost-and not missed-ex-wife shows up in town, drama takes on a whole new meaning. They're wondering if their new feelings for each other can withstand the pressure...but they are not going down without a fight.  Review: The Newcomer is the second book in the Thunder Point series. I really enjoyed the first book, but this one was a bit more...almost too melodramatic for me. The way it was writte...

Beautiful Demons (Peachville High Demons #1) Synopsis: Harper Madison isn't like other girls. She has extraordinary powers, but her inability to control them has gotten her kicked from so many foster homes she's lost count. Shadowford Home is her last chance, and she hopes Peachville High will be the fresh start she needs. But when evidence ties her to the gruesome murder of a Demons cheerleader, Harper discovers this small town has a big secret. Review: Beautiful Demons is the second book by Sarra Cannon I have read. I didn't love the first one, The Trouble With Goodbye , but I realized I already had this book, and in some reviews for TTWG the reviewers stated they liked this series much better, so I thought I would give it a try. While I did like it better than the first book, it still wasn't amazing. I will, however, read the second book once I get through some of my library books.  Beautiful Demons starts off with Harper being sent to another f...

The Trouble With Goodbye (Fairhope #1) Synopsis: One night can change everything… Two years ago, Leigh Anne Davis shocked everyone in tiny Fairhope, Georgia when she broke up with her wealthy boyfriend to attend an Ivy League university a thousand miles away. At school, she finds a happiness and independence she’s never known. Until one terrifying night takes it all away from her. With no place else to go, Leigh Anne heads home to reclaim her old life. A life she worked so hard to escape. On the outside, she seems like the same girl everyone has always known. But deep inside, she’s hiding a terrible secret. That’s when she meets Knox Warner, a troubled newcomer to Fairhope. His eyes have the same haunted look she sees every day in the mirror, and when she’s near him, the rest of the world fades away. But being with Knox would mean disappointing everyone all over again. If she wants to save what’s left of her old life, she has no choice but to say goodbye to him...

For Nick Synopsis: Zachary Drake had love in his life--and tragically lost it. He knows it won't come his way again. Andie Parker would do anything for the love of her life.  Even marry a total stranger.  In spite of the unorthodox manner in which Zach and Andie come together, there is no denying that things are unexpectedly good between them, taking them both by surprise. However, when secrets come between them--and trust does not--Andie soon finds herself vowing to never make the same mistake again. But, she'd do it again in a heartbeat and she knows it. She'd marry a hundred strangers if it helped Nick.  She'd do anything for Nick . . . anything. Review: Man I really wasn't expecting to be so drawn in by For Nick . I wasn't expecting to be so emotional over the story. I was looking for just a light, easy read in between library books, but this was...I finished it yesterday and I still can't get over the story. The synopsis made m...

The Hypnotist: A Novel (Detective Inspector Joona Linna) Synopsis: In the frigid clime of Tumba, Sweden, a gruesome triple homicide attracts the interest of Detective Inspector Joona Linna, who demands to investigate the murders. The killer is still at large, and there’s only one surviving witness—the boy whose family was killed before his eyes. Whoever committed the crimes wanted this boy to die: he’s suffered more than one hundred knife wounds and lapsed into a state of shock. Desperate for information, Linna sees only one option: hypnotism. He enlists Dr. Erik Maria Bark to mesmerize the boy, hoping to discover the killer through his eyes. It’s the sort of work that Bark has sworn he would never do again—ethically dubious and psychically scarring. When he breaks his promise and hypnotizes the victim, a long and terrifying chain of events begins to unfurl. An international sensation, The Hypnotist is set to appear in thirty-seven countries, and it has landed at th...

Finding Cinderella: A Novella Synopsis: This novella is a companion novel to the Hopeless series, but can be read as a standalone.   A chance encounter in the dark leads eighteen-year-old Daniel and the girl who stumbles across him to profess their love for each other. But this love comes with conditions: they agree it will only last one hour and it will only be make-believe. When their hour is up and the girl rushes off like Cinderella, Daniel tries to convince himself that what happened between them only seemed perfect because they were pretending it was perfect. Moments like that with girls like her don’t happen outside of fairytales. One year and one bad relationship later, his disbelief in insta-love is stripped away the day he meets Six: a girl with a strange name and an even stranger personality. Daniel soon realizes the way he pretended to feel about Cinderella and the way he really feels about Six may not be so different after all. Especially when the ...

Indulge: The Prequel (Harmony Series) Synopsis: Logan West’s life is anything but ideal. Mindless sex, tedious business ventures, and the occasional poker game keep him occupied, but he only lives for one thing: fatherhood. Oliver, Logan’s three-year-old son, is his entire world. Raising him alone, Logan finds his only joy in spending time giving Oliver the childhood he deserves. But every other weekend, he allows himself the chance to live as a man—a man with deeper desires. Logan knows what he likes, what he wants, and what he needs. He has no interest in dating and believes there’s no risk worth taking for romance, but his casual sexual escapes rarely leave him satisfied. It takes an unexpected decision from his sister Julia and a road trip to the small town of Harmony with his best friend, Caleb, to open Logan’s eyes to new opportunities outside his programmed world. Its not what he expects, but Logan’s always looking to indulge. This can be read as the first...

Undertow      Synopsis: How far does a girl have to run to escape a lifetime of pain and loss at the hands of Alaska's notoriously unforgiving Bering Sea? Twenty-seven-year-old Aesa Fredriksen thought landlocked Columbus, Ohio would suffice, and it does until the fear of regret drives her to return to Dutch Harbor in a final attempt to make amends with her nearly-estranged father. Intent on salvaging the wreckage of their relationship, she reluctantly agrees to join him—the only family she has left—as he heads out to fish for king crab, forcing her to brave the very waters that pulled him away from her as a child. The waters that stole her mother's life. When the day finally arrives for the Norwegian Queen to sail off into an uncertain future, Aesa can't help but fear the worst. Beyond the violent swells and impending storms, there is far more than death and danger awaiting her on her journey: love awaits her too. Decker, a young but seasoned member of her f...

Wallbanger Synopsis: The first night after Caroline moves into her fantastic new San Francisco apartment, she realizes she's gaining an intimate knowledge of her new neighbor's nocturnal adventures. Thanks to paper-thin walls and the guy's athletic prowess, she can hear not just his bed banging against the wall but the ecstatic response of what seems (as loud night after loud night goes by) like an endless parade of women. And since Caroline is currently on a self-imposed dating hiatus, and her neighbor is clearly lethally attractive to women, she finds her fantasies keep her awake even longer than the noise. So when the wallbanging threatens to literally bounce her out of bed, Caroline, clad in sexual frustration and a pink baby-doll nightie, confronts Simon Parker, her heard-but-never-seen neighbor. The tension between them is as thick as the walls are thin, and the results just as mixed. Suddenly, Caroline is finding she may have discovered a whole new definitio...

The Missing Synopsis: John Simmons is en route to London with his girlfriend, Jennie Michaels, whom he intends to propose to that evening. He pulls into the London Gateway Services, leaving Jennie in the car. But when he returns, she has disappeared. Frantic with worry, he turns to the police for help. The police doubt that Jennie exists: there is no trace that she ever existed. John, convinced Jennie was not a figment of his imagination, sets out in a desperate attempt to find the woman he fell in love with. He has the help of Detective Sergeant Kate Nielsen, herself haunted by a botched undercover operation that led to her being raped four years earlier. Everything he can remember of Jennie – where she worked, where she lived – turns out to be untrue. Nielsen, following John as he lurches from one lead to another, begins to wonder if Jennie could be the eleventh victim of a serial killer. Their investigation becomes increasingly urgent and threatens to bring back dark...

A Little Too Far Synopsis: Have you ever gone just a little too far? Lexie Banks has. Yep. She just had mind-blowing sex with her stepbrother. In her defense, she was on the rebound, and it’s more of a my-dad-happened-to-marry-a-woman-with-a-super-hot-son situation. But still, he’s been her best friend and confidant for the better part of the last few years … and is so off limits. It’s a good thing she’s leaving in two days for a year abroad in Rome. But even thousands of miles away, Lexie can’t seem to escape trouble. Raised Catholic, she goes to confession in hopes of alleviating some of her guilt … and maybe not burning in hell. Instead, she stumbles out of the confessional and right into Alessandro Moretti, a young and very easy-on-the-eyes deacon … only eight months away from becoming a priest. Lexie and Alessandro grow closer, and when Alessandro’s signals start changing despite his vow of celibacy, she doesn’t know what to think. She’s torn between fallin...

Archer's Voice (Sign of Love, Sagittarius) Synopsis: When Bree Prescott arrives in the sleepy, lakeside town of Pelion, Maine, she hopes against hope that this is the place where she will finally find the peace she so desperately seeks. On her first day there, her life collides with Archer Hale, an isolated man who holds a secret agony of his own. A man no one else sees. Archer's Voice is the story of a woman chained to the memory of one horrifying night and the man whose love is the key to her freedom. It is the story of a silent man who lives with an excruciating wound and the woman who helps him find his voice. It is the story of suffering, fate, and the transformative power of love. Review: Wow. I'm not sure what I was expecting from Archer's Voice seeing as how I didn't read the synopsis (it was a recommendation so I just downloaded it and read it), but it wasn't this incredibly sweet, innocent, beautiful, heart wrenching story I receiv...

Saving Ben Synopsis: A boy, his sister, and her psychopathic roommate.  When Katherine Langley’s roommate, Emma, disappears from a house party on New Year’s Day, the only evidence left is a single set of footprints in the snow leading down to a deserted dock.  Flashback sixteen months to Katherine’s first day at the University of Virginia when life is sweet. She is finally free from the drama of her parents’ dysfunctional marriage and ready to focus on studying to become a nurse. Her brother, Ben, belongs to the hottest fraternity on campus, and her new roommate, Emma, is beautiful and charming, a party girl whose answer for a hangover is happy hour. She is also a psychopath. When Katherine’s obsessive-compulsive overprotective brother succumbs to Emma’s charms and falls dangerously off-track, Katherine must save Ben from himself.  From the University of Virginia campus to a cozy cottage on Carter’s Creek, Saving Ben is a haunting tale of love and ...

Sharp Objects: A Novel Synopsis: WICKED above her hipbone, GIRL across her heart  Words are like a road map to reporter Camille Preaker’s troubled past. Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, Camille’s first assignment from the second-rate daily paper where she works brings her reluctantly back to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. NASTY on her kneecap, BABYDOLL on her leg  Since she left town eight years ago, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed again in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille is haunted by the childhood tragedy she has spent her whole life trying to cut from her memory. HARMFUL on her wrist, WHORE on her ankle  As Camille works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, she finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Clues keep l...