Review: A Triple Knot by Emma Campion

SYNOPSIS:

The critically acclaimed author of The King's Mistress brings another fascinating woman from history to life in an enthralling story of political intrigue, personal tragedy, and illicit love.

Joan of Kent, renowned beauty and cousin to King Edward III, is destined for a politically strategic marriage. As the king begins a long dynastic struggle to claim the crown of France, plunging England into the Hundred Years’ War, he negotiates her betrothal to a potential ally and heir of a powerful lordship.

But Joan, haunted by nightmares of her father’s execution at the hands of her treacherous royal kin, fears the king’s selection and is not resigned to her fate. She secretly pledges herself to one of the king’s own knights, one who has become a trusted friend and protector. Now she must defend her vow as the king—furious at Joan’s defiance—prepares to marry her off to another man.

In A Triple Knot, Emma Campion brings Joan, the “Fair Maid of Kent” to glorious life, deftly weaving details of King Edward III’s extravagant court into a rich and emotionally resonant tale of intrigue, love, and betrayal.

 MY THOUGHTS: 

4 out of 5 stars

Let me go ahead and put this out there right now...this book did one important thing. It made me realize that I need to read more historical fiction.  I didn't realize I missed it until I started reading this book and all my love for the genre came roaring back.  I'm not sure why I stopped reading it, but I know now that I need more of it in my life. 

I sat on my rating for a little while, not really sure how I felt about it because it was not the easiest read.  My main issue with the book being that EVERYBODY HAS THE SAME NAME.  Well, not really, but yes really.  Multiple Edwards, an Edmund, more than one Joan...but since it is based on history, that really isn't anything that can be changed, so....  Thank goodness there was a small family tree/chart in the beginning of the book that I could go back and refer to when I started to get confused.

Because in the beginning, I was really confused.  Until I wasn't anymore.  Once the story of Joan and Thomas developed, I couldn't put this book down.  I was totally immersed in their struggle to love each other and I could not get over just how much I felt for the two of them together. 

And I am not exaggerating when I say struggle.  I realize that the world we live in now is dramatically different than 14th century Europe, but there were parts of this book that made me want to throw things.  People were mean.  So so so mean.  And cruel and corrupt and the amount of deceit in their world, it made the good moments seem that much better. 

Which brings me back to the good moments...yes, there were good moments.  Joan and Thomas together made my heart happy.  So much of this book is the story of them coming together, that when they do finally overcome all the obstacles standing in their way, I wanted more.  They deserved more.  Or maybe it is just that the obstacles in their new life are less obvious...if not just as cruel.  There was a tear or two while I was reading, I admit it.

I am so happy that I read this book.  I feel like doors have been reopened for me and I can't wait to read more by Emma Campion.

Thank you to Blogging for Book for a copy of A Triple Knot in exchange for an honest review

 

Cover Reveal: Twelve by T.M. Franklin

PRESENTS. . .

A Cover Reveal

for

Twelve

by T.M. Franklin

Release Date: October 9, 2014

Published by The Writers Coffee Shop

It’s only been a few months since Ava Michaels discovered she has ties to an ancient people living in the shadows of the human world, despite their superior gifts and abilities. A select few don’t like hiding, however, and think it’s time to take control.

Now Ava’s caught up in a conspiracy in the works before she was even born. In fact, her birth was an integral part of the plan. She’s one of the Twelve, the most powerful Race ever created, and they were created for a purpose.

Ava, however, doesn’t like being told what to do.

All she wants is to start a new life with Caleb Foster, the Protector who once put his own life at risk to save hers. Before they can even think about that, however, they need to figure out exactly what the Twelve and their power-hungry leader are up to—and find a way to stop them.

Along the way, they’ll have to forge alliances with former enemies, seek out powerful new friends, and infiltrate the heavily fortified enemy stronghold in an attempt to get some answers. In the end, Ava must decide if her destiny lies in her DNA or in her conscience. If she can turn her back on what she was born to do and do what is right. If she will save the ones she loves or save the world.

Or if her ties to the Twelve mean she has no choice at all. 

 

She sat up suddenly and grabbed Caleb’s hand. “Do you feel that?”

“What?” He instinctively checked the mirrors, but there was nobody behind them.

“Someone . . .” Ava’s eyes glazed over. “Someone’s coming. Fast.”

Caleb stepped on the gas, searching the horizon. “Who? Anyone familiar?”

“What’s happening?” Sophie asked.

Ava shook her head. “I can’t tell. Not yet anyway. You think it’s Protectors?”

Caleb’s jaw tightened. “Or Rogues.”

“You think they know?” Ava glanced at Sophie.

“We don’t know. Not for sure.”

“Would somebody please tell me what’s going on?” Sophie shouted from the backseat.

The temperature in the car dipped as frost formed along the edges of the windows.

“You’ve got to calm her down,” Caleb muttered, taking a turn too fast and swerving to correct.

“Now.”

Ava didn’t argue, instead scrambling over the seat to take the girl’s hand. “Sophie, listen to me. You need to stay calm, okay? Try to breathe with me.”

“But—”

“I’ll explain everything, but first you need to calm down. You see what’s happening?”

Through the mirror, Caleb saw her glance up at the roof of the car as snowflakes began to drift through the interior.

“I . . . I don’t understand,” Sophie murmured. “What’s—why is it snowing?”

“It’s you,” Ava said quietly. “You’re upset, and your gift is reacting.”

“I don’t understand what’s happening to me.” Sophie choked on a sob, and Caleb felt the telltale prickle of another Race signature along the edges of his consciousness.

“I feel them now,” he said, sitting taller in the seat and leaning forward as if willing the car to go faster.

Ava didn’t respond but remained focused on Sophie.

Caleb felt Ava’s gift and knew she was letting it flow into the girl a little, helping calm her.
 
“We’ll help you.” Ava sounded so calm and soothing. “We’ll help you learn to control it, but for right now, you need to calm down. Breathe with me, okay?”

Sophie nodded and swallowed tears as she tried to match Ava’s inhale and exhale.

The snow stopped.

“That’s good.” Ava nodded encouragingly. “Keep breathing. I need you to stay calm. Someone’s coming, and I’m guessing they’re after you.”

Sophie’s breath caught, and the ice gathering on the dashboard cracked.

“It’s okay,” Ava hurried to say. “Keep breathing. Stay calm. We’re going to keep you safe.”

Sophie gripped Ava’s hand, but she kept breathing slowly in and out. “How?”

Ava smiled. “You asked what I could do? Well, I’m about to show you.”

Goodreads * Add to Want To Read List

T.M. Franklin started out her career writing nonfiction in a television newsroom. Graduating with a BA in Communications specializing in broadcast journalism and production, she worked for nine years as a major market television news producer, and garnered two regional Emmy Awards, before she resigned to be a full-time mom and part-time freelance writer. Her first published novel, MORE, was born out of a challenge to write a novel in thirty days issued during National Novel Writing month. MORE was well received, selected as a finalist in the 2013 Kindle Book Review Best Indie Book Awards, and won the Suspense/Thriller division of the Blogger Book Fair Reader’s Choice Awards.   In addition to MORE and its sequels, The Guardians and TWELVE, Franklin has penned the Amazon best-selling short stories, Window and A Piece of Cake. Her new YA romance How to Get Ainsley Bishop to Fall in Love with You is Franklin’s first love story without traditionally recognized paranormal or fantasy elements. Although . . . T. M. is the first to argue that love is the best kind of magic.
  

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Cover Reveal: The Duality Principle by Rebecca Grace Allen

SYNOPSIS:

Sometimes A + B = O. Yes. Oh, yes. Just like that.

Gabriella Evans’s life exists in terms of logic and definitions. She’s holed up in Portland, Maine, for the summer to work on her PhD thesis, but something is screwing up her concentration: the rumble of a motorcycle every time the embodiment of her rough-and-tumble fantasies rides down her street.

When her best friend talks her into a blind date, she finds herself out with the opposite of her fantasy. He’s polite and well-mannered, yet something behind his crisply tailored shirt doesn’t add up—a rebellious gleam in his eye that piques her curiosity.

Orphaned at fifteen, Connor Starks has finally put the years of failing grades, breaking laws and breaking hearts behind him. The only holdover? His penchant for getting down and dirty in public places. But Gabriella makes him want to prove he’s become a better man.

Nothing intrigues Gabriella more than a problem she can’t solve. But the more Connor tries to bury his past, the more determined she is to uncover it. And what she finds makes all her trusty logic begin to fail her...

Warning: This book contains a summer romance, dirty talk, dockside kissing, motorcycles and tattoos. Features a rebellious nerdy girl with an appetite for outdoor sex and light spanking, and a bad boy who’s turned good...or at least he’s trying.

I can not WAIT to get my hands on this one!!!!!!

PURCHASE LINKS:

Pre-order on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Duality-Principle-Rebecca-Grace-Allen-ebook/dp/B00M3XTPU8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406656342&sr=8-1&keywords=rebecca+grace+allen

Pre-order oniTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-duality-principle/id903314215?mt=11
Pre-order on Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-duality-principle
Pre-order on B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-duality-principle-rebecca-grace-allen/1120006613?ean=9781619223707

CONNECT WITH THE AUTHOR:

Website: www.RebeccaGraceAllen.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/goodreadscomRebeccaGraceAllen

Twitter https://twitter.com/RGraceAllen

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebeccagraceallen

Gone by Anna Bloom - Review and Giveaway

SYNOPSIS:

Title: Gone
Author: Anna Bloom
Genre: Mature YA (intended for readers ages 16-19)
Publication: July 28th, 2014

Rebecca Walters harbours a dark secret, and as the fifty-three bangles she wears on her wrists as a self-imposed sentence of guilt remind her, she can’t even begin to consider moving on. Not after what happened on that night six months ago… a night which she can’t remember and yet managed to change her life forever.

When Rebecca comes across Joshua Adams, man equally haunted by past tragedies, on a moonlit beach, both of their lives are destined to change forever, and when the girl made out of the sun meets the boy made out of the moon and sea, anything can happen… but will the knowledge of their murky pasts bring them together or drive them apart?

Will Rebecca finally be able to claim her freedom? Will she stay and fight to be the girl she found on the sandy beaches of Cornwall or is she destined to keep running and hiding from a past that won’t stay Gone? One thing’s for certain: either way, nothing will ever be the same again.

Amazon                  Barnes and Noble

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MY THOUGHTS:

5 out of 5 stars

Gah.  This summer has been a bit different for me in that I've been on a bit of a rereading kick and have sort of put the blog on "vacation mode" to let my batteries recharge and maybe figure out a few things.  I definitely cut back on the number of book tours on my schedule.  

But this book - it has called to me from the very first time I saw it mentioned in a book blast sign up.  I love good angst and there was something about it that called to me and even though I really did intend to stay away from scheduled reviews, I knew I had to read it.

Y'all, when the book heart knows, the book heart knows.

Gone absolutely owns me right now.  I want to gush about it and quote pretty words and talk about how the angst was just the perfect amount without being over the top and how much I enjoyed the characters and how I wanted to make everything better and how Joshua is now my new book boyfriend.

Joshua.

Dreadlocked surfer painter boy with a heart and a car named Daisy.  For real.  My inner 20 year old is in love (and maybe my 39 year old self is a little bit as well).

He makes me grinny.

There was so much emotion in this story...I felt a little bit of everything, but not too much of anything if that makes sense.  The darkness felt by Rebecca and by Joshua was balanced with hope and swoons, the anger and sadness with happiness.  The angst...it was so so so good.

I'm sitting here writing my thoughts and wishing that I could just gush endlessly about Gone.  I want to reread it already.  I want to read it for the first time all over again.  I want to gather all my bookish friends and watch them read it and then talk about all our favorite parts.  As an emotional reader, I connected with this book in a way that doesn't always happen and I can't recommend this book enough.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Anna Bloom is a contemporary romance writer who writes about life as it happens. Combining a busy schedule of looking after two small children whilst working in a local school and completing The Uni Files series she also spends a lot of time imagining kissing hot guys – all in the name of her art.

                  Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads  

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Review: One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

One single mom. One chaotic family. One quirky stranger. One irresistible love story from the New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You 

Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied and your math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can’t afford to pay for. That’s Jess’s life in a nutshell—until an unexpected knight-in-shining-armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess’s knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages . . . maybe ever.

One Plus One is Jojo Moyes at her astounding best. You’ll laugh, you’ll weep, and when you flip the last page, you’ll want to start all over again.

Annnnnd she does it again.

I've made no secret of my love of all things written by Jojo Moyes.  She is at the very top of my must-read-author list and I recommend her books every chance I get.  Her stories are well-written, her characters are magnetic, but I think one of my favorite things about Jojo Moyes is that all of her books are different.  Me Before You is nothing like The Girl You Left Behind which is different from The Last Letter From Your Lover which is different from One Plus One.

I had the opportunity to hear her speak at an author event back in September where she read from what was then her latest project, One Plus One.  Now, keep in mind that I had recently finished reading Me Before You and still reeling from that incredibly emotional ride, so I wasn't sure how I felt when she said that her newest title was going to be different.  Why mess with a good thing, right?  I think she had managed to read three or four paragraphs before I fell in love.  BOOM.  That fast.

Three or four paragraphs.  That was all it took for me to connect with Jess.  Now, Jess and I have very very few things in common.  I'm a happily married, college-educated, Volvo-driving SAHM living in NC.  Jess barely finished high school, has a deadbeat  absentee husband, works 2 low-paying jobs, and lives in a tiny coastal village in England.  But Jojo Moyes knew what she was doing when she was standing behind that podium reading...the passage she read took those differences and obliterated them and all I knew was that Jess and I were both mothers who would do anything for our children.  Even if the choice before us is a bit sketchy.

 I absolutely loved this book.  Loved it.  This book has everything I look for in a good read.  I laughed.  I got angry.  I sympathized.  I smiled.  I wanted go junk-punch Jess's husband and I wanted to hug Ed.  I wanted to take care of her two kids like they belonged to me.  I wanted to tell Jess that everything was going to be okay.  I wanted these characters to be real and when I turned the last page, I wanted more.  Not because I felt like the ending was missing something, but because I was just THAT connected.

Definitely add One Plus One to your to-read list if you haven't already.  You won't be disappointed.   

**Many many thanks to Pamela Dorman Books and NetGalley for providing the arc of One Plus One in exchange for an honest review**