Book Review: Overbite by Meg Cabot

Overbite (Insatiable #2) by Meg Cabot
Genre: New Adult (Paranormal/Fantasy Romance)
Date Published: July 5, 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Meena Harper has a special gift, but it's only now that anyone's ever appreciated it. The Palatine Guard — a powerful secret demon-hunting unit of the Vatican — has hired her to work at their new branch in Lower Manhattan. With Meena's ability to predict how everyone she meets will die, the Palatine finally has a chance against the undead.

Sure, her ex-boyfriend was Lucien Antonescu, son of Dracula, the prince of darkness. But that was before he (and their relationship) went up in flames. Now Meena's sworn off vampires for good ... at least until she can prove her theory that just because they've lost their souls doesn't mean demons have lost the ability to love.

Meena knows convincing her co-workers — including her partner, über-demon-hunter Alaric Wulf — that vampires can be redeemed won't be easy ... especially when a deadly new threat seems to be endangering not just the lives of the Palatine, but Meena's friends and family as well.

But Meena isn't the Palatine's only hope. Father Henrique — aka Padre Caliente — New York City's youngest, most charming priest, has also been assigned to the case.

So why doesn't Meena — or Alaric — trust him?

As she begins unraveling the truth, Meena finds her loyalties tested, her true feelings laid bare ... and temptations she never even imagined existed, but finds impossible to resist.

This time, Meena may finally have bitten off more than she can chew.

Overbite is the second book in the Insatiable series by Meg Cabot. I really enjoyed the story line of this book. Lucien gets shafted quite a bite. I felt pretty bad for him through most of the book actually, but it gave me time for Alaric to grow on me. By about half way through or so, I joined Team Alaric. I know! I didn't expect that either, because I really didn't care for him much in book one. This time around we meet new characters and new monsters. There are some twists along  the way. If the series ended here, I would be happy. I love how things turned out, which also surprised me, because normally a thing or two that happened would have bothered me, but in Overbite? it worked. With all that being said, this isn't the end. There's at least one more book in the works, and I'm pretty excited about it.

Click to read Chapter One

Check out my review of the first book in this series by Meg Cabot!

Also by this author...

Meg Cabot was born on February 1, 1967, during the Chinese astrological year of the Fire Horse, a notoriously unlucky sign. Fortunately she grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, where few people were aware of the stigma of being a fire horse -- at least until Meg became a teenager, when she flunked freshman Algebra twice, then decided to cut her own bangs. After six years as an undergrad at Indiana University, Meg moved to New York City (in the middle of a sanitation worker strike) to pursue a career as an illustrator, at which she failed miserably, forcing her to turn to her favorite hobby--writing novels--for emotional succor. She worked various jobs to pay the rent, including a decade-long stint as the assistant manager of a 700 bed freshmen dormitory at NYU, a position she still occasionally misses.

She is now the author of nearly fifty books for both adults and teens, selling fifteen million copies worldwide, many of which have been #1 New York Times bestsellers, most notably The Princess Diaries series, which is currently being published in over 38 countries, and was made into two hit movies by Disney. In addition, Meg wrote the Mediator and 1-800-Where-R-You? series (on which the television series, Missing, was based), two All-American Girl books, Teen Idol, Avalon High, How to Be Popular, Pants on Fire, Jinx, a series of novels written entirely in email format (Boy Next Door, Boy Meets Girl, and Every Boy's Got One), a mystery series (Size 12 Is Not Fat/ Size 14 Is Not Fat Either/Big Boned), and a chick-lit series called Queen of Babble.

Meg is now writing a new children's series called Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls. Her new paranormal series, Abandon, debuts in Summer of 2011.

Meg currently divides her time between Key West, Indiana, and New York City with a primary cat (one-eyed Henrietta), various back-up cats, and her husband, who doesn't know he married a fire horse. Please don't tell him.

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

Book Review of Montana Cherries by Kim Law

Montana Cherries by Kim Law
Genre: Adult (Contemporary Romance)
Date Published: July 28, 2015
Publisher: Montlake Romance

After her mother’s tragic death, Dani Wilde had no choice but to abandon her dreams. She left Columbia University and returned to her family’s Montana cherry farm, intent on being a maternal figure to her brothers. Now the kids are grown, and it’s finally her time to fly. Her sights are on New York City, and nothing will stop her—not even an old flame with gorgeous green eyes.

Celebrity photographer Ben Denton hasn’t seen Montana in years—and hasn’t spoken to Dani since “that night” so long ago. When he discovers he’s a dad to a four-year-old—and the child’s mother refuses to care for her—Montana and the Wilde farm spring to mind. The orchard is the only place that’s ever felt like home, but will the warmth of the Wilde family be enough to help Ben figure out how to be a father?

As the Wilde family gathers for the yearly cherry harvest and Dani struggles to figure out what she really wants in life, she discovers the shocking truth about her own mother—and learns that following her heart may lead her to her dreams after all.

Montana Cherries by Tennessee author, Kim Law, is a story about healing, family, and learning to love. Dani is finally moving to NYC to live hear dream, but some big secrets about her family are revealed, and she realizes why she's put everyone else first for so long. The revelations make her question everything, even her growing feelings for Ben. Ben has his own issues. He found out he had a daughter and has no idea how to be a father. This story has so much to do with family and how life isn't always perfect or pretty, but family and friends make it liveable. I loved the messages within this story. Even through the ugliness, life can be beautiful.

The ARC of Montana Cherries by Kim Law was kindly provided to me by the publisher through NetGalley for review. The opinions are my own.

Check out my reviews of a couple of Kim Law's other books!

As a child, award-winning author Kim Law cultivated a love for chocolate, anything purple, and creative writing. She penned her debut work, “The Gigantic Talking Raisin,” in the sixth grade and got hooked on the delights of creating stories. Before settling into the writing life, however, she earned a college degree in mathematics and then worked as a computer programmer. Now she’s living out her lifelong dream of writing romance novels. She’s won the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart Award, has been a finalist for the prestigious RWA RITA Award, and has served in varied positions for her local RWA chapter. A native of Kentucky, Kim lives with her husband and an assortment of animals in Middle Tennessee.

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

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Book Review: Awake by Natasha Preston

Awake by Natasha Preston
Genre: Young Adult (Contemporary Romance/Suspense)
Release Date: August 4, 2015 (Pre-Order Now)
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Scarlett doesn’t remember anything before the age of five. Her parents say it’s from the trauma of seeing her house burn down, and she accepts the life they’ve created for her without question—until a car accident causes Scarlett to start remembering pieces of an unfamiliar past.

When a new guy moves into town, Scarlett feels an instant spark. But Noah knows the truth of Scarlett’s past, and he’s determined to shield her from it...because Scarlett grew up in a cult called Eternal Light, controlled by her biological parents.

And they want her back.

Awake is the first book I've read by Natasha Preston, and I found it pretty entertaining. Scarlett is a girl who sticks to her goals. If she wants to do or know something, in this case remembering her memories, she's going to do it. I liked her for that. I'm not sure why she was so worried about the memories to begin with. I have memories from when I was 2 or 3, but they are few and far between. I think making her a little older than 4 when she lost her memories would be more disturbing. Noah was an okay character by himself. The thing that didn't make sense to me was his purpose. His job was to make Scarlett fall in love with him so he could gain her trust and kidnap her back to his cult to be sacrificed. Now this is just me, but I think there are many other more efficient ways to fictionally kidnap someone than to send a teenage boy to seduce a teenage girl so she'll run away with him. That seems like you're just setting him up to fail to me. Yes they had insta-love,but that didn't bother me so much as Noah's purpose. There wasn't a cliffhanger, but it's definitely left open for more. I would read the next book. I'm curious.

The ARC of Awake by Natasha Preston was kindly provided to me by the publisher through NetGalley for review. The opinions are my own.

My name is Natasha, but most people call me Tash or Tasha. I don't mind either. I was born in England and have lived in small towns and villages out in the countryside ever since.

My husband, Joseph, is the most supportive person in my life. Without his love, help and patience I wouldn't be where I am today. And this website wouldn't exist! I'm a proud mummy to an amazing little boy who is my whole world.

At school I drifted through, achieving average grades. I fell into administration and receptionist jobs, thinking that I couldn't really do anything else.

In 2010 I stumbled into writing completely by accident. I was searching the 'app store' and came across Wattpad, an amateur writing site. For the first few months I just read, but then decided to type some of the ideas I had floating around my head. I'm so glad I did because I absolutely love writing.

Writing gave me an escape, and Wattpad gave me the self-confidence I lacked.

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

Book Review: Forever for a Year by B.T. Gottfred

Forever for a Year by B.T. Gottfred
Genre: Young Adult (Contemporary Romance)
Date Published: July 7, 2015
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co

When Carolina and Trevor meet on their first day of school, something draws them to each other. They gradually share first kisses, first touches, first sexual experiences.  When they’re together, nothing else matters. But one of them will make a choice, and the other a mistake, that will break what they thought was unbreakable. Both will wish that they could fall in love again for the first time . . . but first love, by definition, can’t happen twice.

Told in Carolina and Trevor's alternating voices, this is an up-close-and-personal story of two teenagers falling in love for the first time, and discovering it might not last forever

Forever for a Year by B.T. Gottfred is a story of first love and finding yourself. The story is told by alternating point of views between Carolina and Trevor. Trevor acted his age about half the time, but Carolina acted much younger than a Freshman in high school. The characters followed all the teenage stereotypes closely. Their thoughts and inner voices are repetitive(there were some cute moments though), they have no common sense, and they rarely use condoms. They listen to bad advice from people who are clearly not their friends. They make obviously bad choices. They have no parental supervision, and what little they have is by incompetent parents. Then you have the shallow mean girl who turns into a deep(possibly high) and friendly person then disappears. What? ... I mean, yes, all these things happen in high school. They're called stereotypes for a reason, but it felt like every teenage stereotype was put into these characters and amplified by three, and that's simply not realistic. Plus, what teenage male is going to talk to their mother about not being able to give their girlfriend an orgasm? See? Not realistic. I don't know. Maybe that was the whole point of the book. If it was, I clearly missed it. This one wasn't for me, but don't take my word for it. It might be for you.

Everything is so dramatic when you're younger. The world can begin, end, and begin again all in one day. You could really see and relate to the insecurities Carolina and Trevor had of themselves and each other. The author succeeded in capturing these aspects of teenage life and thinking.

Forever for a Year by B.T. Gottfred was kindly provided to me by the publisher through NetGalley for review. The opinions are my own.

And… yeah… I’m crazy but can pretend really, really well I’m not. Sort of what I feel about everybody. (Except for the people who can’t pretend they’re not crazy. You know who you are. Actually, never mind, you probably don’t.)

Anyway, here’s some stuff I’ve done to help me feign sanity:

Wrote and directed the play, “Women Are Crazy Because Men Are A**holes” that has played over four years in Los Angeles and Chicago and just made its Off Broadway premiere at the historic Cherry Lane Theatre. Los Angeles Times said: “Seldom have I been a part of a more enthusiastic and vocal audience. Brad T Gottfred’s play about young couples stumbling through the minefield of codependency taps a universal nerve.”

Wrote, directed, and executive produced the feature film “The Movie Hero” which played at over 20 film festivals worldwide, winning numerous awards including First Prize at the Rhode Island Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Austin Film Festival.

My first play, “Marry, F**K, Or Kill” was called “a guilty pleasure for veterans of the single life” by the Los Angeles Times. It went on to an Off Broadway premiere in the fall of 2011.

First web series “Sex and Love Conspire to Destroy the World” was released by MyDamnChannel in 2013.

My first-ish novel, “Forever for a Year”, was released in July 2015 by Macmillan/Holt.

To learn more about B.T. Gottfred and his books, visit his blog.You can also find him on Goodreads, Facebook, and Twitter.

A Review & Excerpt of The Bride Wore Denim by Lizbeth Selvig, Plus Author Interview!

The Bride Wore Denim (Seven Brides for Seven Cowboys #1) 
by Lizbeth Selvig
Genre: Adult (Contemporary Romance)
Date Published: July 21, 2015
Publisher: Avon Impulse

When Harper Lee Crockett returns home to Paradise Ranch, Wyoming, the last thing she expects is to fall head-over-heels in lust for Cole, childhood neighbor and her older sister's long-time boyfriend. The spirited and artistic Crockett sister has finally learned to resist her craziest impulses, but this latest trip home and Cole's rough-and-tough appeal might be too much for her fading self-control.

Cole Wainwright has long been fascinated by the sister who's always stood out from the crowd. His relationship with Amelia, the eldest Crockett sister, isn't as perfect as it seems, and with Harper back in town, he sees everything he's been missing. Cole knows they have no future together—he's tied to the land and she's created a successful life in the big city—but neither of them can escape their growing attraction or inconvenient feelings.

As Harper struggles to come to grips with new family responsibilities and her forbidden feelings for Cole, she must decide whether to listen to her head or to give her heart what it wants.

The Bride Wore Denim is the first book in The Seven Brides for Seven Cowboys series by Lizbeth Selvig. Harper and Cole have known each other since they were children, but Cole was off limits as he dated Harper's sister Amelia... Sister code and all. For various reasons, Harper left home after high school to find herself as an artist, but due to a death in the family, she's back and the family farm is in trouble. With her family, including six sisters, Harper and Cole are responsible for the fate of the farm. I loved how easily Harper and Cole get back into their friendship. I think they have a common goal in regards to the farm, but they butt heads about how to go about getting it done. The whole family is in disagreement. Add in some close calls and an accident or two and it seems all is lost. The feeling of family felt real within this book... both good and bad. It wasn't all warm and fuzzy. They have issues to work through. I loved Skylar. I really hope she's one of the Seven Brides in future books in this series. I'm excited for more in general. In already attached to this family.

The ARC of The Bride Wore Denim by Lizbeth Selvig was kindly provided to me by the publisher through NetGalley for review. The opinions are my own.

Another lucky grab garnered her a little Australorp who was returned, protesting, to the yard.

Glancing around once more to check the empty, rainy yard, Harper squatted back under the eaves of the pretty, yellow chicken mansion and let the half dozen chickens settle again. These were not her mother’s fowl. These were her father’s “girls”—creatures who’d sometimes received more warmth than the human females he’d raised.

Good memories tried to flee in the wake of her petty thoughts, and she grabbed them back. Of course her father had loved his daughters. He’d just never been good at showing it. There’d been plenty of good times.

Rain pittered in a slow, steady rhythm over the lawn and against the coop’s gingerbread scrollwork. It pattered into the genuine, petunia-filled, window boxes on their actual multi-paned windows. Inside, the chickens enjoyed oak-trimmed nesting boxes, two flights of ladders, and chicken-themed artwork. Behind the over-the-top manse stretched half an acre of safely-fenced running yard trimmed with white picket fencing. Why the idiot birds were shunning such luxury to go AWOL out here in the rain was beyond Harper—even if they had found the gate improperly latched.

Wiping rain from her face again, she concentrated like a cat stalking canaries and made three more successful lunges. Chicken wrangling was rarely about mad chasing and much more about patience. She smiled evilly at the remaining three criminals who now eyed her with concern.

“Might as well give yourselves up,” she called. “Your day on the lam is finished.”

She swooped toward a fluffy Cochin, a chicken breed normally known for its lazy friendliness, and the fat creature shocked her by feinting and then dodging. For the first time in this hunt,

Harper missed her chicken. A resulting belly-flop onto the grass forced a startled grunt from her throat, and she slid four inches through a puddle. Before she could let loose the mild curse that bubbled up to her tongue, the mortifying sound of clapping echoed through the rain.

“I give that a nine-point-five.”

A hot flash of awareness blazed through her stomach and lodged there manufacturing unwanted flutters.  She closed her eyes, fighting down the embarrassment that followed in their wake. She hadn’t yet found her voice when a large, sinewy male hand appeared in front of her, accompanied by rich, baritone laughter.  She groaned and reached for his fingers.

“Hello, Cole,” she said, resignation forcing her vocal chords to work as she let him help her gently but unceremoniously to her feet.

Cole Wainwright stood right in front of her, the knot of his tie hanging three inches down his white shirt front with the two buttons above it spread open. That left the tanned, corded skin of his neck at Harper’s eye level, and she swallowed. His brown-black hair was spiked and mussed, as if he’d just awoken, and his eyes sparkled in the rain like blue diamonds. She took a step back.

“Hullo, you,” he replied.

His grin, wide and warm and charming, hadn’t changed since they’d been kids. His pirate smile—the one that had been dorky when he’d been ten and she’d been eight and they, together with Harper’s five sisters, had been the only pirates who’d sought treasure on horseback rather than from a ship’s deck. Then she’d turned twelve and one day found she’d preferred being the captured princess to one of the crew, because that smile had no longer been dorky.

How long have you been writing?
I have been making up stories for as long as I remember. I used to tell myself stories in bed at night when I was as young as five. When I was about eleven or twelve I started writing what I guess could be called fan fiction about all my favorite rock stars—primarily Paul McCartney and Davy Jones and  Bobby Sherman (I have totally dated myself now).  Eventually I began making up my own characters and worked on lots of short stories. I submitted a few and started my first full-length novel while I was raising my kids. Then, during a three-year stay in Alaska, I got to be a “real” writer and get serious. In 2010 I won RWA’s Golden Heart award and I hope some day the rest will be history!

What inspired you to write The Bride Wore Denim?
This is proof that it sometimes takes a village to raise a book series! I needed a new idea to pitch once my first four books were finished, and I knew I wanted to keep some kind of a “horsey” theme and setting to my stories. What I originally came up with was a modern-day Bonanza starring sisters instead of brothers, complete with a giant ranch and a small nearby town. So were born Paradise Ranch and the little town of Wolf Paw Pass. My wonderful editor at Avon helped flesh out the idea, and my supremely gifted agent helped me hone the characters and their stories. I threw out the idea of “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” almost as a joke, even though none of my heroes are brothers. With a little more tweaking, the Avon editors came up with the idea to make this a Brides series called “Seven Brides for Seven Cowboys.”  I have totally fallen in love with the idea and with every new character—and Harper and Cole, the stars of THE BRIDE WORE DENIM, are two of my favorites!

Which of your characters do you relate to most and why?
I have to say it’s Abby Stadtler from THE RANCHER AND THE ROCK STAR.  Abby is the me I want to be. She’s loyal and tries to find the best in people, she’s a great mom but doesn’t know how great, she works hard and is kind of a Jill-of-all-trades, and she’s wise about people—she understands them. She’s also naturally graceful and well spoken. Those are the qualities I wish were stronger in me. But Abby’s also stubborn, a little stuck in her own head, and slow to take constructive help. Those are the qualities I already possess. I feel a little like the kid who inherited all the bad genes!

What book have you read too many times to count?
I have a confession that might get me kicked out of the romance reading club. I rarely re-read books. My life is so often in such a serious time-crunch that I feel I barely have the time to read the books I want to read once. I have re-read a few LaVyrle Spencer novels and I’ve re-read all the Black Stallion novels from when I was young, but that’s about it. Sad, I know.  

What do you like to do when you're not writing?
I have a 15-month-old granddaughter who is my equivalent to crack cocaine—I’m totally  addicted to her. I get to babysit several times a month and hang out often since she’s only twenty minutes away, so there’s no hope of the addiction clearing up anytime soon!  I also love to quilt and have a huge to-be-finished pile as well as plans for more quilts than I can make if I live to be a hundred. Finally, I have a horse—a gray Arabian gelding named Jedi. I love riding but don’t get to do it nearly often enough. I read, I work on and off at my daughter’s horse farm, and I love visiting my parents who are in their eighties but still young at heart!

Are any of the things in your books based on real life experiences or purely all imagination?
I think people who know me find lots of “Hey, I know where you got that from” moments in my books. My first series is set in a fictional town near where I live in Minnesota, so all the places around that setting are real. Jill Carpenter, the heroine of my second book, RESCUED BY A STRANGER, is a three-day event rider and a vet student. My own daughter is an equine veterinarian and a three-day-event rider, so that’s the closest I’ve come to copying a living person. In my tiny town of Webster there is a wonderful mechanic named Dewey so I named the mechanic in THE RANCHER AND THE ROCK STAR Dewey as well, thinking he’d be a cameo role. To my surprise, Dewey showed up in all three first books, and I fell in love with him. He got his own story in GOOD GUYS WEAR BLACK—and I had to go tell the real Dewey he now has a namesake. They’re nothing alike—but he was pleased. In the new series, Harper in DENIM has my ability to dwell on a problem and hope it will get fixed by someone else until she has no choice but to solve it herself. The other sisters have little pieces of me, too. You could say I’m discovering I have slight multiple personality syndrome!

Lizbeth Selvig writes fun, heartwarming contemporary romantic fiction for Avon books. Her debut novel, The Rancher and the Rock Star, was released in 2012. Her second, Rescued By A Stranger is a 2014 RWA RITA® Award nominee. Liz lives in Minnesota with her best friend (aka her husband), a hyperactive border collie named Magic and a gray Arabian gelding named Jedi. After working as a newspaper journalist and magazine editor, and raising an equine veterinarian daughter and a talented musician son, Lizbeth entered Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart® contest in 2010 with The Rancher and the Rock Star (then titled Songbird) and won the Single Title Contemporary category.

In her spare time, she loves being a brand new grandma to Evelyn Grace as well as to hike, quilt, read, horseback ride, and play with her four-legged grandchildren, of which there are nearly twenty, including a wallaby, an alpaca, a donkey, a pig, a sugar glider, and many dogs, cats and horses (pics of all appear on her website www.lizbethselvig.com). She loves connecting with readers—contact her any time!

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

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