Tour! A Review of Withering Hope by Layla Hagen

Withering Hope by Layla Hagen
Genre: New Adult (Contemporary Romance)
Date Published: January 19, 2015
Publisher: Self

****USA TODAY BESTSELLER****

*This is a standalone contemporary romance*

Aimee’s wedding is supposed to turn out perfect. Her dress, her fiancé and the location—the idyllic holiday ranch in Brazil—are perfect. 

But all Aimee’s plans come crashing down when the private jet that’s taking her from the U.S. to the ranch—where her fiancé awaits her—defects mid-flight and the pilot is forced to perform an emergency landing in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. 

With no way to reach civilisation, being rescued is Aimee and Tristan’s—the pilot—only hope. A slim one that slowly withers away, desperation taking its place. Because death wanders in the jungle under many forms: starvation, diseases. Beasts. 

As Aimee and Tristan fight to find ways to survive, they grow closer. Together they discover that facing old, inner agonies carved by painful pasts takes just as much courage, if not even more, than facing the rainforest. 

Despite her devotion to her fiancé, Aimee can’t hide her feelings for Tristan—the man for whom she’s slowly becoming everything. You can hide many things in the rainforest. But not lies. Or love.

Withering Hope is the story of a man who desperately needs forgiveness and the woman who brings him hope. It is a story in which hope births wings and blooms into a love that is as beautiful and intense as it is forbidden.

Withering Hope by Layla Hagen was full of suspenseful adventure, survival, a romance packed with anticipation, and two characters I completely fell for the more I read. This story felt real. From the impersonal conversations in the beginning to their more in depth conversations. As time went on, I felt like I really got to know Aimee and Tristan as they got to know each other. These two are survivors. The jungle was rough on them, but they learned how to live and keep each other safe. Tristan's survival skills were pretty amazing, and if all the details were accurate, it was pretty eye opening. Aimee had moments of silliness that made me cringe, but she's human. She had reason to be emotional, and not jump right into a relationship. It added to the real-ness. I loved the ending before the Epilogue. It's not that the Epilogue wasn't good, but I'm a sap. I would have rather left the rest of it, after the ending, to my imagination than cry over the Epilogue.

The writing in Withering Hope was like that though. It made you feel for these characters. Through it all, I felt like I was lost in the Rainforest right along with Tristan and Aimee, and to be honest, I want to go back.

The ARC of Withering Hope by Layla Haygen was kindly provided to me by Xpresso Book Tours for review. The opinions are my own.

Check out my reviews of other books by this author!

My name is Layla Hagen and I am a New Adult Contemporary Romance author.
I fell in love with books when I was nine years old, and my love affair with stories continues even now, many years later.
I write romantic stories and can’t wait to share them with the world.
And I drink coffee. Lots of it, in case the photo didn’t make it obvious enough

To learn more about Layla Hagen and her books, visit her website.You can also find her on Goodreads, Facebook, and Twitter.

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Release & Review! Seduction's Kiss by Alyssa Rose Ivy

Seduction's Kiss (The Allure Chronicles 0.5) by Alyssa Rose Ivy 

Genre: New Adult (Paranormal Romance)
Date Published: January 29, 2015
Publisher: Self

Never agree to a road trip to New Orleans with your roommate. At least not when your roommate is dragging you along while she reconnects with an ex-boyfriend. Possible consequences of failing to take my advice:

1) Unknowingly going out with a vampire stripper

2) Getting kidnapped by said vampire's nest mates

3) Falling head over heels for your winged hero

Believe it or not number 3 is the worst one, especially when no one believes you that he exists.

*Prequel novella to Lure (The Allure Chronicles #1)*

Seduction's Kiss is the prequel to Lure, the first book in the Allure Chronicles by Alyssa Rose Ivy. I love love love how this author is extending the world she originally created in the Crescent Chronicles to other new and equally addictive series. I think I remember mention of vampires in one of the other series, but now we finally get to see them. I already like the characters within this new series, and the story has completely reeled me in. Seduction's Kiss gave me just enough of a taste to drive me crazy for more.

The ARC of Seduction's Kiss by Alyssa Rose Ivy was kindly provided to me by InkSlinger PR for review. The opinions are my own.

We wove our way through the crowds. I glanced into the rows of bars and clubs teeming with people dressed in various degrees of costumes. Despite my apprehension of hanging out with someone I barely knew, the excitement seemed to be rubbing off on me. I found myself moving along to the music spilling out of one club when we were momentarily stopped.

“Duncan!” A girl with long blond hair yelled and proceeded to wrap her arms around Duncan’s neck. She was dressed as a pumpkin, if a pumpkin was just a skimpy piece of orange fabric. “Come dancing with us.” She was visibly drunk.

“Oh, hi.” He gave me an apologetic look.

I shrugged. It wasn’t like we were on a date.

“Why aren’t you dressed up? It’s Halloween. You’re supposed to be dressed up.”

He shoved a hand into his back pocket. “How do you know that I’m not dressed up?”

“Laurie!” The girl yelled. “It’s Duncan, the stripper who did Debbie’s party last week.”

Wait. What? Did he strip? Wow, that was pretty surprising. He wasn’t bad looking, but I hadn’t met a male stripper before.

Another girl ran over. This one was appropriately attired. She had an awesome lollipop costume on. She also gave Duncan a hug, so I decided to people watch while I waited. That’s when I saw him. The gorgeous guy from the bar. All six plus feet of his perfectness. This time he was wearing one of those sleeveless white t-shirts that showed off his muscular arms. But it wasn’t his muscles that jumped out the most. It was his beautiful set of black wings. Now that was a costume.

He glanced up just as he passed, and my chest tightened. He looked at me with curiosity for a second before continuing on. Maybe he vaguely remembered my face but didn’t know why. I wasn’t sure what would be worse, if he remembered the humiliating moment, or if he didn’t.

I suddenly felt embarrassed of my cat costume. Were the whiskers too much?

“Daisy?” Duncan called my name and snapped me out of my daze. “Ready?” The girls must have walked off while I was distracted because Duncan was alone watching me. I wondered how obvious my ogling was.

“Yeah, sure.”

Duncan towed me along until he turned into a dark and completely unappealing dive. This was his favorite place? I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t want to offend him. Maybe this was one of those hidden gems you always hear about. Just to be safe I texted Reyna the name of the place as inconspicuously as possible, Grounddiggers.

“Who are you texting?” Duncan asked as we walked through the entrance.

Evidently I wasn’t as inconspicuous as I thought. “Just a friend.” I’m not sure why I didn’t just tell him who it was. I just felt like it was safer not to.

He nodded at a bouncer, who like Duncan was dressed all in black. The bouncer grunted something unintelligible to Duncan. Duncan must have taken the grunt to mean enter because he pulled me further inside.

Check out my reviews of the the books in this series!

If you haven't done so already, you need to read Alyssa Rose Ivy's books!! While you're at it take a peek at my reviews too!

Alyssa Rose Ivy is a New Adult and Young Adult author who loves to weave stories with romance and a southern setting. Although raised in the New York area, she fell in love with the South after moving to New Orleans for college. After years as a perpetual student, she turned back to her creative side and decided to write. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and two young children, and she can usually be found with a cup of coffee in her hand.

To read more about this author, visit Alyssa Rose Ivy's Blog and Website. You can also find her on Goodreads, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.

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Release Day Blitz! Bridges Burned by Chris Cannon

Bridges Burned (Going Down in Flames #2) by Chris Cannon
Genre: Young Adult (Fantasy Romance)
Date Published: January 19, 2015
Publisher: Entangled Teen

Don't just fight the system…burn it.

Since discovering she is a shape-shifting, fire-breathing dragon on her sixteenth birthday (surprise!), Bryn McKenna’s world has been thrown into chaos. Being a “crossbreed”—part Red dragon and part Blue—means Bryn will never fit in. Not with dragon society. Not with the archaic and controlling Directorate. And definitely not when she has striped hair and a not-so-popular affection for rule-breaking…

But sneaking around with her secret boyfriend, Zavien, gets a whole lot harder when he’s betrothed to someone else. Someone who isn't a mixed breed and totally forbidden. And for an added complication, it turns out Bryn’s former archnemesis Jaxon Westgate isn’t quite the evil asshat she thought. Now she’s caught between her desire to fit in and a need to set things on fire. Literally.

Because if Bryn can’t adapt to the status quo…well, then maybe it’s time for her to change it. 

On the drive back to school, Bryn reflected on how her life had recently gone to hell. It had all started when flames shot out of her mouth on her sixteenth birthday, proving she wasn’t completely human. Since then she’d been shipped off to a secret school for dragons—the Institute for Excellence—where she was learning how to control her shape-shifting dragon powers. She’d faced discrimination, death threats, and poisoning. She’d been blown up and involved in a battle to the death with a radical Revisionist member—and she’d been there for only a few months.

Though not everything about her new life was bad. She had a sexy boyfriend, Black dragon Zavien Blackthorn, and two good friends, Clint and Ivy. Being a crossbred dragon meant she had both the Red and Blue dragons’ breath weapons, fire and ice, and even though she was the only crossbreed, she could still outfly even the fastest Blue. Of course, that’s why some of the other Clans hated her. She’d upset the natural order of things in this color-coded world, where the Directorate dictated what Red, Black, Green, Orange, and Blue dragon Clan members could do as a profession and whom they could marry. It was absurd. Yet most dragons didn’t question it.

Part of Zavien’s appeal lay in the fact that he headed up the student Revisionist group that petitioned the Directorate to change outdated laws. Bryn glanced at Directorate lawyer Merrick Overton, who was driving the Cadillac SUV hybrid she was riding in. Her classmate and former nemesis Jaxon Westgate rode shotgun. She and Jaxon no longer hated each other. Scratch that: he no longer hated her based on his father’s vendetta against her mother, but that didn’t mean they were friends.

Funny how saving someone’s life could turn you from enemies to…what? Not friends. Frenemies, maybe? Who knew? It’s not like she wanted to hang out with him, but there was a weird level of trust between them now that she didn’t know what to do with. 

Chris Cannon lives in Southern Illinois with her husband and her three dogs, Pete the shih tzu who sleeps on her desk while she writes, Molly the ever-shedding yellow lab, and Tyson the sandwich-stealing German Shepherd Beagle. She believes coffee is the Elixir of Life. Most evenings after work, you can find her sucking down caffeine and writing fire-breathing paranormal adventures. Going Down In Flames is the first book in Chris Cannon's shape-shifting dragon series.

To learn more about Chris Cannon and her books, visit her website.You can also find her on Goodreads, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter.

Giveaway!! Touch by Natalia Jaster

Touch by Natalia Jaster

Genre: Mature Young Adult ( Mythology/Fantasy Romance)
*Intended for readers 17 and older*
Date Published: October 27, 2014
Publisher: Self

The myth of Eros isn’t the truth. Her story is the truth . . .

Love is an immortal bad girl. With a strike of her arrow and a smirk on her face, she pins human hearts together against their will. It’s for their own good, of course—silly, clueless creatures that they are.

But Love has never loved. Not until the Fates parcel her off to a small, frostbitten town littered with needy souls. Not until she crosses paths with Andrew, a crippled boy whose gaze locks onto hers. Yet how can this be? Mortals don’t have the power to see deities.

The longer they’re friends, the more Love wishes she could touch Andrew. In gentle ways. In other tempting and reckless ways as well.

It’s impossible. She isn’t a true part of his world. She’s an outsider whose fingers will only ever sweep through him. A mischievous, invisible goddess who’s destined to be alone. And he’s destined for someone else. By order of the Fates, it’s Love’s duty to betray his trust. To seal his heart while ignoring the gash in her own.

Or she could become human. For there is one very tricky, very dangerous way to do so.

If only Andrew felt the same about her, it might be worth the risk. 

My kindergarten teacher told my mom than I stared out the window too much, daydreaming instead of paying attention in class. It’s true. Eventually I learned to focus more in school (and to love it), but the daydreaming never stopped. So after earning my master’s in creative writing and spending a bunch of fun years as a magazine editor, I’m now a writer of YA romance.

I’m also a total fool for first-kiss scenes, fanfiction, libraries, and starry nights.

TOUCH is my first book.

To learn more about Natalia Jaster and her books, visit her website.You can also find her on Goodreads, Tumblr, and Pinterest.

Fill out the Rafflecopter form for your chance to win a signed copy of Touch by Natalia Jaster. This giveaway is open to USA & Canada residents only.

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