Perfectly Broken by Prescott Lane -- Review and Giveaway

Perfectly Broken by Prescott Lane
Publication date: March 2014
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

SYNOPSIS:

Even after years of trauma therapy, Peyton still believes she’s broken.  She has little desire to date or show off her natural beauty, content simply to hang out with her best friends and run her pie shop in New Orleans.  But her world turns upside-down when a handsome architect and self-confessed player shows up in her shop and thinks she’s perfect, much more than the usual hook-up.  While Peyton does her best to resist his charms, believing she could never be enough for him, she can’t deny the obvious heat between them.

With Reed determined to have her, Peyton must decide whether to continue to hide behind her apron and baggy clothes or take a chance and share her scars with Reed, a man with a playboy reputation and scars of his own — a dark past he can’t possibly share with Peyton, not after learning the horrors she’s endured.  But if they can find a way to trust each other, and themselves, they just might be able to heal, to save each other, to live perfectly broken together.

MY THOUGHTS:

4 out of 5 stars.

This book was not at all what I was expecting.  I mean, how many times can you read a book about a broken girl and a hot boy with a reputation without getting bored.  I figured I read it, like it well enough, blog about it and move on to the next book, right?

Y'all...I really really really enjoyed this book.

Sure, at its core, this book is about a broken girl and a broken boy who find each other and things all work out, but there was so much more to this story that once I started reading, I couldn't put it down and finished it in a day.  

There was just something about the way Prescott Lane developed these characters that made me really click with them.  I believed Peyton's insecurities, I swooned when Reed made his moves, I absolutely loved Peyton's therapist and wanted to high five Quinn for being such a devoted friend.  Plus there was pie and HGTV and Al Green and it took place in New Orleans so I was familiar with the setting, and did I mention there was pie?  So many things to love!

Yes, I'm totally gushing but I enjoyed Perfectly Broken that much and it definitely will be on my summer reread list.  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Prescott Lane is originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, and graduated from Centenary College in 1997 with a degree in sociology. She went on to Tulane University to receive her MSW in 1998, after which she worked with developmentally delayed and disabled children. She currently resides in New Orleans with her husband and two children.

GIVEAWAY:

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A Year Full of Flutters and Flails

One year ago today, I posted the first review on Flutters and Flails.  A whole year.  365 days.  12 months.  I can't believe I made it!

When I first started thinking about running a blog, I had no idea what it entailed.  I only knew that: 1) I read a lot of books and 2) I was already posting reviews on Goodreads and 3) I was constantly wanting somebody to talk about books with me.  Obviously, a book review blog sounded like a perfect fit.  And I'd say all in all, this year has been pretty awesome.

I've read some amazing books, I've read some not so amazing books.  I was able to meet some of my favorite bookish people and authors at YALLFest.  I've written reviews a week before my posting deadline, the morning OF my deadline and there was one unfortunate moment when I got my posting date confused and missed it completely.  But only once!  I've participated in blog hops and book tours and the occasional meme.  I've honed and perfected my procrastination skills.  My to-read list has almost doubled.  I've even fangirled. 

The most important thing I've learned over the course of the year, is that I am perfectly happy with my fun little blog.  I'm not the biggest or the flashiest or the one with the most giveaways.  I live in an area with very very few local bookish events and I get turned down for ARCs - though I don't cry as much as I used to.  I get way too excited when I get bookish mail and maybe a little jealous when I don't -- okay, a lot jealous but I'm working on it.  And, not gonna lie, there were more than a few moments where hurdles made me want to tear up all my reviews, stomp on them and throw myself a gigantic pity party.

But then I would remember a comment from a reader.  And the time another blogger offered to loan me an ARC that I really really wanted to read.  And the incredible day when I was able to participate in the cover reveal for a book written by a childhood friend.  And every swoony moment a bookish friend tweeted me a picture of Jon Snow just because she knows me that well.  And the fact that my 11 year old son and I started reading the same book this week and that he says he wants to help me write the review.  I mean...

 So yeah, I'm pretty much a ball of emotion today.  Much more than I thought I would be when I realized this blogiversary was coming up.  I set out last April with a heart full of "what-ifs and why-nots" and here I am today, still talking about the books I love.  To all my wonderful, amazing, stupendous, magnificent, fabulous readers: thank you for sticking with me while I continue to learn the ropes and I can't wait to see what this year brings.

 XOXO,

~Risbee

Lost in Me by Lexi Ryan - Review and Giveaway

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SYNOPSIS:

LOST IN ME is the first book in the Here and Now series, a spin-off of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling New Hope series. This sexy amnesia love triangle is intended for mature readers.

The last thing I remember is having drinks at Brady’s and trying to avoid eye-contact with my life-long crush—the gorgeous, unattainable Maximilian Hallowell. They tell me that was a year ago, but I have no memories of anything since then. What I do have is this ring on my finger that Max says he gave me, and this much-thinner body I’ve dreamed of most of my life. Aside from a case of retrograde amnesia, everything seems almost…perfect.

But the deeper I immerse myself into this new world of mine—planning a wedding to a man I don’t remember dating, attempting to run a business I don’t remember starting—the clearer it becomes that nothing is as it seems. Do I have the life I’ve always wanted or is it a facade propped up by secrets I don’t even know I have?

I need answers before I marry Max, and the only person who seems to have them is the angry, tatted, sexy-as-sin rocker Nate Crane. And Nate wants me for himself.

LOST IN ME is not a standalone novel, as the story continues in Here and Now book two, FALL TO YOU, releasing in June.

MY THOUGHTS:

4.5 out of 5 stars

Two weekends ago, my son had a Odyssey of the Mind tournament that would last all of Saturday.  I took Lost in Me with me thinking that I would have a lot of down time to sit and read between his obligations and the awards ceremony that afternoon.  I fully intended on getting a jump on my reading and maybe even write this review ahead of time.

(Please note that I am writing this the day before my scheduled posting date -- but that is purely due to my epic procrastination skills.  For real, they are epic.)

Anyway, after my son fell asleep in the hotel room on Friday night, I started reading - again, thinking that I'd just read a few chapters and then have all day the next day to finish it.  Yeah...I finished the book that night.  

Lost in Me is a story of the past and the present.  We open up as Hannah and her friends are enjoying a girls night out.  There are beverages and boys and all the ingredients for what could be a fun night.  

But that's all we know because the next chapter opens with Hannah in the hospital after having an accident.  While she knows who she is and recognizes her family and friends, she has lost the last eleven months of her life.  Gone.  Poof.  Nope.  

While losing any memory is tragic enough, there had been some pretty important changes in Hannah's life over those eleven months.   She'd lost weight, she'd opened her own business, and she was apparently engaged to Max, the man of her dreams.

So why was there another man crawling into her bed?  

And now I need to just take a moment to remember all the things about Nate Crane, because... 

Needless to say, there are questions that need to be answered.  And through flashbacks and conversations with her friends and family, Hannah starts to put things together...all the while struggling with the fear that maybe remembering will change what she thinks is her perfect life.

Now can you understand why I stayed up way past my bedtime reading until I finished?

(All that being said, it would be cruel of me to not mention the GIGANTIC CLIFFHANGER at the end of the book -- thankfully the remaining books in the series are due out this summer, so at least we won't have to wait too long)

So anyway, this story was exactly what I was looking for.  And while I was reading it, I started to remember the other book that I'd read by this author -- in a separate, yet still related series -- and I remembered how much I loved that one. Dude...Lexi Ryan knows what I like to read.  That's the only way I know how to put it.

There is something about the way she tells a story that clicks with me.  And she has solidified her spot as one of my "go-to authors".  Basically, if she writes it, I'm gonna need to read it.  

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Once a college English professor, I now write full time. I live in rural Indiana, where, when I’m not writing, I get to hang out with my husband and two kids–a six-year-old boy and a two-year-old hellion, er, girl. Not surprisingly, reading and writing remain my favorite activities, though both come in bits and pieces these days, not the big hunks of time I enjoyed before I had children. When I’m feeling virtuous, I like to go running (I use that word liberally. I’m really, really slow) or do yoga. Don’t worry, I’m always careful to balance out such activities with a hearty serving of ice cream or a chocolate martini.

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Cover Reveal: Love and Other Unknown Variables by Shannon Lee Alexander

Love and Other Unknown Variables
by Shannon Lee Alexander
Release Date:  10/07/14
Entangled Teen

SUMMARY:

Charlie Hanson has a clear vision of his future. A senior at Brighton School of Mathematics and Science, he knows he'll graduate, go to MIT, and inevitably discover the solutions to the universe's greatest unanswerable problems. He's that smart.

The future has never seemed very kind to Charlotte Finch, so she's counting on the present. She would rather sketch with charcoal pencils, sing in her pitch-perfect voice, or read her favorite book than fill out a college application.

Charlie's future blurs the moment he meets Charlotte. She's not impressed by the strange boy until she learns he's a student at Brighton where her sister has just taken a job. At Charlotte's request, Charlie orchestrates the biggest prank campaign in Brighton history. But by the time Charlie learns Charlotte is ill and that the pranks were a way to distract her sister from Charlotte's illness, Charlotte's gravitational pull on him is too great to overcome. Soon he must choose between the familiar formulas he's always relied on or the girl he's falling for (at far more than 32 feet per second). 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Shannon Lee Alexander is a wife, mother (of two kids and one yellow terrier named Harriet Potter).  She is passionate about coffee, books, and cancer research.  Math makes her break out in a sweat.  Love and Other Unknown Variables is her debut novel.  She currently lives in Indianapolis with her family.  You can follow her at www.wanderthewords.blogspot.com or on Twitter @shanlalexander.

EXTRA FLAILS

Here is the moment when I get a little sappy.  Shannon is one of my oldest friends - we have known each other since we were 11 years old, so I can't even begin to describe how happy I am for her and how honored I am to be a part of her journey.  I've seen what this amazing woman can do and trust me, you are going to want to read this book!  Congratulations, Shannon - you deserve all the exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cover Reveal organized by:

YA Bound Book Tours