Dear Cassie  by Lisa Burstein

Published: March 5th 2013 
Publisher: Entangled Teen
**Ebook provided by the publisher in exchange of an honest review**

What if the last place you should fall in love is the first place that you do?

You’d think getting sent to Turning Pines Wilderness Camp for a month-long rehabilitation “retreat” and being forced to re-live it in this journal would be the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.

You’d be wrong.

There’s the reason I was sent to Turning Pines in the first place: I got arrested. On prom night. With my two best friends, who I haven’t talked to since and probably never will again. And then there’s the real reason I was sent here. The thing I can’t talk about with the guy I can’t even think about.

What if the moment you’ve closed yourself off is the moment you start to break open?

But there’s this guy here. Ben. And the more I swear he won’t—he can’t—the deeper under my skin he’s getting. After the thing that happened, I promised I’d never fall for another boy’s lies.

And yet I can’t help but wonder…what if?


Where do I start with this?
I fu**ing love it! And Cassie is probably one of my fav characters now. She's so real, so normal and at times, such a mess I can't help loving her.

This is the first Lisa Burstein book I read, I had Pretty Amy on my TBR pile since before it came out, I just haven't got the chance... But trust me after this, I'm so reading it!

Cassie got arrested on Prom night and instead of jail, she gets send to boot camp: no cell phones, no bathrooms, no internet and no earings. Absolute Hell.
But for her, getting arrested isn't the real reason she's there. There's something else, something worse that lead to boot camp.
What's even worse is that Lila run away and she was the one behind what got them arrested, and Amy ratted her out to avoid jail time.

There are many things I love about Dear Cassie:
The book is told in the form of diary entries, and through them we get to know Cassie in such a raw and basic level.
The secondary characters add to the story in a particular way each. Troyer is everything Cassie isn't and through her silence and notes she helps Cassie trust in someone again. I also like to how in her up front way, Cassie was just what Troyer needed. Nez is Cassie's other roommate and probably the bane of her existence but she knew just how to push Cassie's buttons.
And Ben... He slowly but surely makes you fall for him. He's everything Cassie doesn't want, what she's afraid of, but at the same time she can't stay away.
The relationship between Ben and Cassie is one of the best things of the book. Is slow, sweet, innocent and heartwarming. It has a first love feel to it and Ben is probably one of the most loveable male characters ever.

At first, I wasn't too happy with how easy to see what "the thing" was, but as I continued reading I saw this wasn't about "the thing" so much as it was about how Cassie was dealing with it. Denial is a powerful thing, and putting into word something painful can be one of the hardestthings to do, reading Cassie's entries as she tries to get through that and somehow live afterwards you learn to love her, all of her: the tough girl thiat curses non stop and the scare one who hides behind her.
The ending was a bit abrut maybe? I mean I knew that was the end, I just thought there would be a bit more to it. In a way it fitted Cassie's personally perfectly. She just ended that chapter of her life.
I Just want more of her... I need more of her. 

Dear Cassie is a raw, emotional journey about lost friendship and heartbreak. Is about how sometimes we make desitions that later become too painful. Is story about forgiving yourself and lear to love yourself again. Is about finding love again.



Lisa Burstein is a tea seller by day and a writer by night. She received her MFA in Fiction from the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University and is glad to finally have it be worth more than the paper it was printed on. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her very patient husband, a neurotic dog and two cats. Pretty Amy is her first novel. She never went to her senior prom.

I open my mouth to say something comforting, but I’m unsure of what. In this moment, I’m reminded that I know little about him. Other than the sarcasm and desire to understand nothing of my queendom, he hasn’t allowed me past the surface.
But then, I have my own walls, hiding things I’d never want him or any other to know. And I understand that need to hide them. You can’t trust anyone.
“Caben…” I start, but still can’t find the right words.
He lowers his hand from his face, never taking his eyes off the glinting water top. “You’re right,” he finally says. “Let’s find the access to Lilly’s section.”
A hollow pang hits my chest, and I’m not sure why. Something in his voice sounds lost, broken. I imagine the gears around my heart spinning faster, trying to keep up with my racing heart.
When he sidesteps me, I reach out and grab his arm. “Caben, I didn’t mean—”
“It’s fine, Kal,” he snaps. “We have work to do.”
“No, I’ve said something to offend you.” I drop my hand, but keep close to him, not allowing him to leave my side. Goddess, trying to understand the male brain is harder than anything in protector training. I’ve heard people say that you have to tip-toe around a woman’s emotions, but a man’s ego is every bit as fragile, if not more so.
He releases a heavy breath through his nose and walks back to the pool. He sits down along the edge and rolls up his pants, then slips off his boots. “I honestly don’t think Bax or his goons will be returning tonight.” He sinks his bare feet into the water and sighs.
Glancing at the back of the cave, I plant my hands on my hips. We don’t have time for indulgencies, but the prince is still my charge. If it were my empress, I’d give her anything she’d ask for. Allow her as much time as she needed to collect herself. I have to watch over his mental state as well as protect him, so I try to push the pending need to find Lilly aside and sit down next to him.
“Here,” he says, turning his hand out near my crossed feet. “You have to feel this.”
A smile tugs at the corner of my mouth. “I can remove my own—”
“Have you never been pampered a day in your life?” he asks, lifting an eyebrow. “I know that the Nactue are fierce and will put a hurt on any man for touching them. But try to relax.”
“Is that the rumor in Perinya?”
“What?”
I bite my lip, suddenly regretting my blurt. “Nothing. Never mind.”
From the corner of my eye, I see his lips pucker into a pinched smile, as if he’s trying not to. “Ah,” he says, like he’s made some great universal connection. “Well, there are many whisperings about the Nactue. Some I dare not repeat for fear I’d leave here missing a limb, but that’s one, yes.” He takes my booted foot and begins to unlace it. “I’ve heard that the empress’s protectors are untouchable—forbidden to give themselves to men. And that they’ll snap a man’s neck just for making an advance.”
My mouth drops open. Appalled, I counter, “That’s not true.”
“All right,” he says, as if he hasn’t just insulted my very existence. “It’s only rumors. Things men jaw about in pubs. The unattainable woman is a fantasy, Kal. Don’t be offended.”
“Unattainable?” I grit my teeth, trying to maintain my composure. “Tell me, prince. Do men in your country just go around bedding every woman they can in order to keep them compliant?” I shake my head. “If their fantasy is a woman that would have nothing to do with them, it seems to me it’s their way of feeding their egos after being rejected.”
His eyes widen. “No! How does your brain come up with these—” He bites off his words, his lips thin as he presses them together. “Look, it was a joke.”
I nod, many times. “Another joke. I’m glad that our hard work and sacrifice is amusing to the men of Perinya.”
Caben lets out another sigh and slowly pulls off my boot. His warm fingers skim my calf as he inches up my pant leg. “Just stick your foot in,” he says, then adds lower, “while I stick mine in my mouth.”
Unexpectedly, I laugh. “At least it’s now clean,” I say. “Would you like some help getting it to your face?”

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Deirdre Bardot’s life changed almost one year ago when her father was run over by a drunk driver and his crime was never solved. In the last few months, she has ended therapy, found love in the arms of Colin van der Meer, her psychiatrist’s son, and they are now engaged to be married and are expecting.

A grave secret is revealed on a routine check-up and Deirdre, feeling lost and alone, flees her old life, leaving her fiancée and the city of her birth, Seattle. She quickly settles in La Jolla, California and meets her sexy—if not mysterious—next door neighbor, Drake O’Connell. After he proves he is more than just a good looking face when tragedy strikes Deirdre, she is left with one of the most terrifying decisions of her life.

Colin is back and he isn’t ready to take “no” for an answer. Although she still loves her former fiancée, she finds herself head over heels and slowly falling in, Deirdre has no choice but to make a decision: she can fight for the past and the world she knew or she can fight for an unknown future that could bring her more happiness than her heart can hold.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Elle Chardou is a world traveler and author of several different series. Ms. Chardou is the author of The Ties That Bind Trilogy, The Atonement Series, The Hart Family Saga, The Vamp Saga, The Supernaturals, Beginnings: Book I (The Plague) series.
She is currently working on Only Time (The Atonement Series), and Queen of the Immortals, Book Three in The Vamp Saga.
Ms. Chardou has lived abroad in Stockholm (Sweden), Manchester (England), Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Portland. She currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Goodreads

The Chosen Ones (The Lost Souls #1) by Tiffany Truitt
Published June 12th 2012 
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
**E-copy provided by the publisher for review**


Life is bleak but uncomplicated for sixteen-year-old Tess, living in a not-too-distant future where the government, faced with humanity's extinction, created the Chosen Ones, artificial beings who are extraordinarily beautiful, unbelievably strong, and unabashedly deadly.

When Tess begins work at Templeton, a Chosen Ones training facility, she meets James, and the attraction is immediate in its intensity, overwhelming in its danger. But there is more to Templeton than Tess ever knew. Can she stand against her oppressors, even if it means giving up the only happiness in her life?

Let's start by the cover, shall we? I mean, the contrast between the girl and the floor are really good. And I love the font for the tittle. So, good cover, a good start for me.

And now the book... wow.

I absolutely love this book. The world building is fantastic and Tiffany Truitt makes an excellent job at writing the feelings that had me hooked from page one. The world of The Chosen Ones is an interesting scary place I couldn't get out from.

When I started this book, I had to take a second. This world that was presented to me in page one was a disturbing place.Tess is a Natural. A human. A week being that shouldn't have feelings at all. She lives at a compound, along with the rest of her community, protected by the Chosen Ones, artificial beings created to be soldiers and fight a war that has destroyed not only the country but people's hope.

"The absence of hope was the worst plague that ever ravaged my people"

Humanity is damned. They can't feel any emotions because it makes them week. Music, books, art and love is against the rules. Women are to blame for everything. They are the cause to this week state, so the oldest girl in every family must serve to Templeton, a training facility for the Chosen Ones for 3 years after they turn sixteen.

When Tess' older sister, Emma, dies at childbirth she must take her place and she does so willingly. She taught herself to bury every kind of emotion she ever felt and she's determined she will live, she won't make the same mistake her sister did. She won't fall in love.

In some ways, this made it a bit hard to relate to Tess, she doesn't give us an insight to her feelings right away, because she doesn't acknowledged them at all. But on the other hand, you can see that a part of her wants to fight back.

"The only time I would let them own my voice."

Her development through the book is great. I love her from page one and once she started working at Templeton and she meets James, is a whole new world in her eyes that kept me reading at night.

James is a Chosen One. He's trained to kill. He was taught he's better than a natural. And at the same time, he loves all that the rules say is bad. He has music and books.
His relationship with Tess has a steady pace and the reactions are real, they are going against everything they were ever told and I really liked that about the relationship. And the heated moments? Perfects.

Can you imagine living in a world without music or books, without feelings and love? The Chosen Ones made me feel lost.., and hope. Scared... and excited. I was angry, I wanted to fight back this organization that treated humans and women like were nothing. But most importantly I feel in love with it's characters and story. The ending was heartbreaking. I'm really looking forward to read the next one.

Besides traveling, Tiffany has always been an avid reader. The earliest books she remembers reading belong to The Little House on the Prairie Series. First book she read in one day? Little Woman (5th grade). First author she fell in love with? Jane Austen in middle school. Tiffany spent most of her high school and college career as a literary snob. She refused to read anything considered "low brow" or outside the "classics."

Tiffany began teaching middle school in 2006. Her students introduced her to the wide, wonderful world of Young Adult literature. Today, Tiffany embraces popular Young Adult literature and uses it in her classroom. She currently teaches the following novels: The Outsiders, Speak, Night, Dystopian Literature Circles: The Hunger Games, The Giver, The Uglies, and Matched.

Follow Brooklyn at:

Website * Twitter * Goodreads

Click HERE to sign up to participate in the blog tour for Stripped.

***GIVEAWAY***

Enter below to win a signed hardcopy of STRIPPED (if U.S. winner) or an e-copy with Authorgraph (if international winner)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Poison Me by Cami Checketts


Praise for Poisen Me







Cami is a part-time author, part-time exercise consultant, part-time housekeeper, full-time wife, and overtime mother of four adorable boys. Sleep and relaxation are fond memories. She's never been happier.

Book Blog
Fitness Blog
Facebook
Twitter




a Rafflecopter giveaway

Coming May 1st Cover by Sarah Hansen ~ OkayCreations.net

USA Today Bestseller - Forever My Girl - Amazon | Barnes & Noble 



GIVEAWAY a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hello LOVES!!

OMG we're so excited to bring this cover reveal to you today, because we'e talking about none other than Mr. Dante Walker!!

*Fan girl moment*

So, with only 27 days left to get our hands on Mr. Dante, and we know we can't wait to get here already, we get to see what his next book will look like!

Be ready to swoon...