Jen in Bookland

Available on Amazon.com * Amazon.de * Goodreads Synopsis: They say Callum Jackson's a savage. No home. No prospects. No self-restraint. He's red-flagged on my system, a grade-1 aggression risk, totally off limits for a woman like me. But the rules don't allow for my dangerous games; they don't bend for my twisted desires. Callum Jackson is the most beautiful beast.  A beast I can't stop thinking about, can't stop wanting, can't stop hunting... ...I just pray to God this beast bites. Sophia Harding runs a tight ship. She may work in the dregs of housing association slums, but her patch is on the way up.  Anti-social behaviour is down, employment is on the rise, and she's even been shortlisted for estate manager of the year. It's looking good. Really good. Until Callum Jackson completes his jail time and lands right back on her doorstep. She could do without a guy like him on her books: a failure of the system and a pa...

Available on Amazon.com * Amazon.de * Goodreads Synopsis: The first book in a humorous contemporary romance from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Denise Grover Swank.  Megan Vandemeer meant to tell her parents about her broken engagement, but a month and a half later she finds herself boarding a plane home to her wedding. Having stretched avoidance to its limits, it's time to come clean--a terrifying prospect since her mother is sure to blame her rather than her cheating, emotionally frigid ex. A couple of drinks and two Dramamine later, Megan finds herself spilling her sob story to the tall, dark, and handsome stranger in the seat next to her.  With only one week left to save his business, Josh McMillan boards a plane to Kansas City in a last-ditch effort, leaving the details to chance. An unexpected answer is delivered in the form of the beautiful brunette beside him. Though she’s completely loopy, her honesty, openness, and humor char...

Available on Amazon.com * Amazon.de * Goodreads Synopsis: Look, but don’t touch…she might as well wear a neon sign that says it. It just makes me want her more. She might be above me in every way, but I still want her under me. I’ve got no business touching her rich-girl skin, but that won’t stop me from stealing a taste. Because rules were meant to be broken—especially when the prize is so fine. In a world where nothing is as it seems, what's buried beneath these lies?  Review: I have really enjoyed reading this Beneath series. All of the characters are so much fun to get to know. I remember first meeting Rix earlier in the series, but I never thought we would get a book with him as a main character! I loved it! Valentina has had a lot of not so good things happen to her in her life. She has had her share to deal with, but she is trying to move on. She has her art gallery and she paints on the side (though she doesn't want anyone to know this...

Day 19: Favorite book adaptations? Book adaptations are always hard. With a book you can get so much detail, so many thoughts and feelings, that are simply hard to get across in a movie or tv show or whatever. It is a different format, visual vs making up pictures in your head, and often times it doesn't work. Because you can get so much more from a book. Or at least I can. I always think I should watch a movie based on a book before I read the book, but then I usually read the book because I don't want it to be spoiled by the movie. Then the movie is rarely as good and yeah.  For a while I only had a few book and movies that I like equally as well. One was Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr. I love love love dark depressing stuff and Hubert Selby Jr is about as depressing as you can get. I loved the book and the movie as they were the same, but different. They were both great.  I also loved The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides. I remember hearing t...

Available on Amazon.com * Amazon.de * Goodreads Synopsis: “Marry me.” “What?” I stared back at him, unblinking. He moved closer, taking my face in his hands. “I love you, Evie. I look into the future, and the only thing I see clearly is you. Marry me.” What’s an eighteen-year-old girl who was madly in love with her nineteen-year-old boyfriend say?  Of course, I said yes. Twenty-four hours later, I married Adam Gunner at a Vegas chapel to the sounds of “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi. Not the best omen. I get that now. Then, exactly one week later, I left him. I walked out, leaving behind my wedding ring, annulment papers, and my heart, and he never knew why.  I haven’t seen him since. Not in ten long years. Now, he’s here, standing before me. Looking at me with nothing but hurt and hatred in his eyes, he wants answers.  Answers I can’t give. Review: I had high hopes for When I Was Yours as I read another book by thi...

Wow. So I started off this month thinking this would be great, I will have a different prompt to write about every day, no problems! Then things kind of derailed fairly quickly. The elections last week in the States played a big part in that. I'm still angry about that, about the fact that Trump will be president, and the need to try and do something and protest and have my voice be heard has been really strong. This is the first time I have ever felt the need to get out there and do something. To not just sit back and let things happen. It is the first time since I moved to Germany that I wish I were still living in the states. So it has kind of consumed my life. Though I think I am starting to get a handle on it and trying to do some constructive things to try and help. So I am going to try and get this all up to date and back on track for the rest of the month. We shall see how it goes. Day 12: #SwoonWorthySaturday – What character are you swooning over? Instead of lis...

Available on Amazon.com * Amazon.de * Goodreads Synopsis: One life-changing summer.  One boy. The boy. The boy who offered me safe touches and heart-stopping smiles - smiles he shared with his son. We filled our days with porch-step kisses,  filled our ears with laughter,  filled our hearts with love.  Deep, soul-aching, desperate love. But love is misleading. It's an invisible, fleeting moment. Somewhere between false adoration and pure hatred comes an emotion, a vulnerable need, a single desire. It lives within the ones who miss it, who crave it,  who know better than to expect it. Love is relentless. Even when that love turns to hate, turns to loathing,  turns to pain.  Love should heal you.  But it can also break you.  Believe me, I know... Because I'm Becca Owens - a broken girl... ...And he's Josh Warden - the boy who broke me. Review: *Note: This is the second part of a continuous...

Available on Amazon.com * Amazon.de * Goodreads Synopsis: I’m the guy you love to hate.  In every story in my life, I seem to end up playing the villain—and I’ve got the scars to prove it. That role works fine for me, because I’m sure as hell not anyone’s hero.  I run my life and my empire with an iron fist—until she knocks my tightly controlled world off its axis. She’s nobody’s damsel in distress, but I can’t help but want to save her anyway. I guess we’re about to find out if there’s a hero buried … beneath these scars. Review: Lucas is a good guy who always tries to act like a bad guy. People don't like him much because of this, but deep down he cares about people. If you can get past his defenses he would do anything to keep you safe.  Yve has a past. A past that she doesn't want anything to do with. Her family is made up of women who are mistresses and her ex-husband...well he is not a good guy. He finally made a mista...

Day 11: What is the most romantic line you have read? Todays prompt is a hard one for me. I read a lot of romantic books, but I wouldn't say I am a really romantic person. I know that might seem odd, but it is true. I don't really get grand romantic gestures and stuff. I don't know. I am weird. I read romance novels, but I don't like them really sappy and romantical and everything. Does that make sense? I can't do them when they are over the top romantic. Except for one of my all time favorite books,  Beauty & the Mustache  by Penny Reid, which is that super romantic story, but I love it. The author is an evil genius who managed to turn something I usually don't like into something I love more than anything. It is amazing. Now what does this have to do with the most romantic line I have read? Well since I am not really super romantic...I don't have one. I have some lines that while reading I thought were super sweet, but that is more about the...

Now Available on Amazon.com  *  Amazon.de  *  Goodreads Synopsis: Allies, once inseparable, splinter until they break apart. An insidiousness carves its way through Wonderland, challenging the land’s very existence. Battle lines will be drawn as pages, long languishing in darkness, are finally illuminated. Swords will clash, blood will be spilled, and lives will be lost. For what is written can still be erased. Review: Oh The Lost Codex. I feel like I have been waiting for this book forever, and I only starting reading this series just as The Forgotten Mountain came out. As a side note you should have read the prior three books before this one. These are not stand alone stories. This is the continuation of the last book and picks up right where that one left off. One of my favorite things about this series is Alice. I heart Alice so so much. She is by far my favorite female I have read. She is everything. She is so strong, such an amazing fighte...

Day 9: How do you feel about annotating books? My opinion on annotating books has changed back and forth over the years. Growing up of course I couldn't write in all my library books and I honestly never even considered writing in any I owned. It wasn't until high school when I had a teacher who strongly encouraged us to write notes in the margins of books. To underline passages. To write all over them. Then I really got into it. It was like the floodgates had opened and I wrote notes in my books as I read. We used the same books year after year and I loved seeing what prior students had written in the margins. It was fun.  Then I got to college and didn't have much time for pleasure reading. A few years of reading books for class, textbooks, etc, which I never wrote in so that I could sell them back at the end of the semester. I slipped back into the non-habit. Then it was back to all the library books and so I never really made notes in my books again.  ...

Available on Amazon.com * Amazon.de * Goodreads Synopsis: It’s Christmastime again in Silver Bell Falls and the whole town is getting in the spirit to help ballet teacher Abby Foster achieve her dream of opening her own dance studio! Dancing has been Abby’s dream for her entire life – but more than anything, she wanted that dream in her beloved hometown of Silver Bell Falls. Teaching ballet to children at the community center is fine, but she’ hoping for so much more – her own studio, her own business…not to mention maybe meeting Mr. Right and having a family of her own. For almost a year, she’s been picturing Dean Hughes in that role and if he wasn’t such a darn recluse, maybe she’d have a chance. Solitude and Dean Hughes have always gone hand-in-hand. It wasn’t by choice, but because of circumstances beyond his control. And once again, things are out of his control when he finds himself being named permanent guardian for his five year old niece just in time for the holid...

Day 8: What are your book peeves? Book pet peeves are hard for me. What don't I like? The biggest one is probably people who are too stupid to live. I can't stand that. Not everyone has to be a rocket scientist, but it is usually the girls who are just sooooo stupid and I can't stand it. It is not good. I also can't stand super descriptive writing. When I could draw you a picture of the entire room that the characters walk through quickly, what they are all wearing at every moment, what they have eaten for every meal since the start of the book, etc it is too much. That is all I can think of right now. I am a bit behind as life intervened, but I m trying to catch up and get back on track once again. 

Available on Amazon.com  *  Amazon.de  *  Goodreads Synopsis: My marriage seemed perfect from the outside looking in. People envied me. They wanted my life, wanted to be me. Mrs Alejandra Gambino. Wife of Dino Gambino. Daughter of Eduardo Castillo. Respected. Loved. Mob royalty. They had no idea of the horrors that lurked behind closed doors. They didn't know I was at the lowest point a person could reach. Enter Julius Carter. Aloof, handsome, blue-eyed Julius Carter. He saved me. I screwed him over. Now everybody was after me. My life was forfeit. It was only a matter of time. I was a dead woman walking. The question was, who would get to me first? Review: Dirty is the second book in the Raw Family series and man was it good. It has been a while since I read the first book, and I don't remember much except the ending (btw you should really read Raw before reading Dirty - there are spoilers for Raw if you read on!!), but as soon as I saw this boo...

Day 7: What would you put on your Christmas book list? What books would I put on my Christmas list? Since I wrote yesterday about how I borrow most books I read this will be a list of favorite books that I would like to own in paperback. Books that I don't already have, so not a complete list of favorites. Here we go! Oh, one more thing - you can click the title to go to my review (for a series it is to the first book in the series). These are in no particular order, just how they came to me as I was writing this up and I might be missing some. Kyland and Archer's Voice by Mia Sheridan The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan (Really all of the books in the Brothers Sinister series as they are all so so good) The Martian by Any Weir Pretty much any book by Laura Florand. My favorite is The Chocolate Touch , but I love them all Butcher's Crossing by John Williams Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy The Collectors' Society series and Royal Marriage Market b...

It is finally here! The fourth and final book in the Collectors' Society series!! If you have not read these book yet you really should. This is one of my favorite series ever. I heart Alice in this series so so much. So get reading and grab your copy of The Lost Codex today! Now Available on Amazon.com * Amazon.de * Goodreads Synopsis: Allies, once inseparable, splinter until they break apart. An insidiousness carves its way through Wonderland, challenging the land’s very existence. Battle lines will be drawn as pages, long languishing in darkness, are finally illuminated. Swords will clash, blood will be spilled, and lives will be lost. For what is written can still be erased. Prior books in the series:  The Collectors' Society Available on  Amazon.com  *  Amazon.de  *  Goodeads The Hidden Library Available on  Amazon.com  *  Amazon.de  *  Goodreads The Forgotten Mountain ...

Day 6: Borrowing books v. buying books Borrow or buy? I am a big book borrower. I have always been an avid library user. I remember every two weeks going to the library with my family and retuning all the books I had and checking out new ones. It was always so much fun. Rummaging through the stacks, finding a new book to read. Those were the best days. I still love going to the library or book store and just looking at books, making lists of ones I want to read. I haven't read a lot of classics that everyone else seems to have read and part of this is due to me just grabbing any book that looked interesting from the library. When you borrow books it doesn't matter if you end up disliking it as you just return it and get another one to read. Besides using the library all the time I also bought a lot of books second hand when I lived in the states. I hardly ever bought any new, really in the states I rarely bought anything new as it is so easy to get good stuff second ...

Day 5: What is something that you want to improve about your blog? What do I want to improve? Well I still have on my to-do list to update the look of my blog. I just have an idea of what I want it to look like, a different header and artwork and stuff, but I haven't gotten around to it. It is not that high of a priority at the moment and it entails me learning a bit more about computer programming and all that. I guess I could probably get my husband to help me since he does work in that field. Maybe I will move that up my to-do list for next year. Something else I want to pursue, maybe not necessarily an improvement, but I want to start making some video reviews. Sometimes it is just easier to talk about a book rather than write about it. I get together with a friend fairly frequently and discuss books and it is so much easier. Especially with books I absolutely love. It is hard for me to really express how much I love something with the written word. But talking? No p...

Available on Amazon.com * Amazon.de * Goodreads Synopsis: I’ve always known she was too good for me, but that never stopped me from wanting her.  And then I finally had her for one night.  A night I don’t remember.  I figured I’d blown my shot.  But now she’s walked back into my life, and this time, I have the upper hand. I want my second chance.  Will she be able to see the man beneath this ink? Review: Beneath This Ink is the story of Constantine and Vanessa. Con who blames himself for a lot of things. Con who didn't have the best start in life and seems to always loose what he hold most dear. Con who thinks Vanessa is way too good for him. And Vanessa who is a rich girl. Vanessa who always does what other people want. Vanessa who spent one night with Con a few years ago and hasn't been able to really get it out of her mind. Much like Con, but at least she remembers it. Then she left the next morning full of regrets ...

Day 4: Why did you start blogging? Why did I start blogging? Honestly? To get free books. That is how it all started. I was waiting for the next book in a series to come out from and author I like and she posted something that said if you have a blog and want an advanced copy to review let me know. And that was that. I had been kind of thinking about starting one before then, but was too lazy. My husband was always telling me I should start a book blog since I was reading so much, but I just kept putting it off. It is so much easier to just read books all day and not worry about anything else. That and I had started other blogs before, but never got anywhere with them as I didn't really make the time to update them as much as I should. So I figured book blogging would be the same. I would start a blog then it would fall to the wayside eventually I figured. Only once I started blogging about books it was addictive. I loved it. I love the world it opened up to me. I never ...

Now available on Amazon.com * Amazon.de * Goodreads Synopsis: “I can't shake the feeling that somebody's watching me.” One second Ella Leighton’s life was normal—the next, not so much. A social media maven who made her living saving sea turtles, the decision to join a reality TV show was a good one for the cause. But for her… the adjustment wasn’t easy. Her publicist used phrases like online personality. An overnight celebrity. Everyone explained that was why she couldn’t shake the feeling. But none of their excuses could explain the letters. The pictures. And then her stalker crossed the line, triggering the demand for security. Bishop O'Kane didn't expect to come face-to-face with his ex-girlfriend when Titan sent him on bodyguard duty. The woman he once loved, the same one he walked away from years ago, was now his responsibility. Opposites in every way, they couldn’t be more different, but maybe they had never needed each other more. With the FBI f...