Review: Aequus by Randi Cooley Wilson

Aequus by Randi Cooley Wilson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received this eARC from Red Coat Publishing and the author. This is my honest review.

Caution - this synopsis and review will contain spoilers from the first book, Vernal. You have been warned!

Serena found out that her one true love, Tristan, is engaged to be married. And she even knows his fiancee - Freya. But when Freya was talking about her fiancee, Serena thought she meant Zander, not Tristan.

With this new information, Serena feels that she can't possibly ruin the peaceful union between the woodland people and the water people. But the more her and Zander think about the who's and the why's, the more they realize that things are not lining up the right way.

Serena convinces Zander to have her be his plus one to Tristan's wedding so they can figure out what is really going on and try to stop the wedding before it's too late.

The more that Serena learns about the wrong doings going on, the more she realizes that things need to get fixed, ASAP. And after cluing Tristan in on their plan, they have created their own plan to right the wrongs that are happening.

But their actions are going to have consequences - major, terrible ones. And the won't know what is going to happen until it's too late. And even then, things won't end up the way that they want.

True love is amazing, but it could also be the thing that ends them...

Wow. Seriously, I don't know where I have been that I have never 1. heard of this series and 2. never heard of this author. I am kicking myself so much because I love this series so much and I cannot wait to re-read them again already!

Plus, there is another series about the grown ups in this series so I can get even more!

Serena is one strong, kickass girl. She realized that things aren't really going the way that they should be and decides to fix it herself instead of wallow in self-pity. She is an action girl and I love that so much about her.

And Tristan is so swoony and so brooding, but also such a completely different guy when it comes to Serena. He was going to do his duty as the next heir of the woodland realm, but when sketchy things happen, he decides that his love for Serena wins out. I mean, that is so sweet!

I love the world that these character live in and I love all of the characters.

The cliffhanger ending is the worst, but thank goodness I have the next book and I am about to dive right in to see how everything gets all wrapped up!

If you have been under a rock like I have this whole time, I strongly recommend that you read this series! It's amazing!

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Review: Vernal by Randi Cooley Wilson

Vernal by Randi Cooley Wilson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received this eARC from Red Coat Publishing and the author. This is my honest review.

Serena, princess of the London gargoyle clan, is tired of being special. She wishes she was just a regular gargoyle protector training to prepare for her future. Instead, she is being protected and watched constantly because she has a destiny to fulfill. But that doesn't stop her from acting out and causing trouble for the people who are watching her. She's made it her life's mission to make their job as hard as possible.

When Tristan first sees Serena, he was struck senseless. It didn't help that she didn't have a stitch of clothing on and was dancing in the rain. But he loves her rebelliousness and always needs to put her in her place.

The connection between the two of them ignites instantly, and neither Serena nor Tristan know how to stop themselves from caving in. Serena thinks that her being with Tristan will help her case to be free from responsibilities, and Tristan has a dark past, and also a deep secret that may ruin them both.

Because both are royalty, and royalty does not get a choice on their future. They are destined for two opposite futures, and yet they cannot help but go to each other because of their instant, red-hot passion for one another.

When the secrets come tumbling out, both get hurt in the process and they go back to their original lives. But, as fate would have it, they keep bumping into one another. Pretty soon, their lives and their decisions will forever effect their future.

Wow. Am I ever so glad that I was able to read this book through the Red Coat Publishing group! I seriously loved it so much and flew through this first novel. The storyline was great and the chemistry between Tristan and Serena was off the charts! There were so many secrets, so it was so gut wrenching when some of them were revealed!

I read some reviews where readers were mad that Serena went from a headstrong, break the rules girl to a submissive, meek girl when she was with Tristan. I can see that, but that, to me, shows that she is really invested into Tristan and knows that he will forever be there for her when she needs him, so she can put down her walls just a little bit.

The tension between these two blew my mind. I loved seeing them banter and I loved when their banter went into sexual tension that they weren't able to control. It showed that sometimes you can't help how you act when you find the one that is meant for you.

I cannot wait to read the next book and see how things progress with these characters. Now that all (maybe? I think?) of the secrets are out, it will be interesting to see how it will unravel and how it will end with them.

I am also really enjoying the world that Randi Cooley Wilson has created. It took a little bit for me to get into the setting of the story, and I realize that is because this is a different series in the same world with different characters! I am going to have to finish this series and possibly get my hands on the Revelation series to get the full package of this world!

I'm so glad I read this and will definitely be raving about it to my reading friends! :D

(Also, gargoyles? Love it! So different, and it reminded me of Jennifer L. Armentrout's series, White Hot Kiss :D)

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Review: Playmaker by L.P. Dover

Playmaker by L.P. Dover
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this eARC from Red Coat Publishing and the author. This is my honest review.

Maddox, a famous hockey player and a popular bad boy, is done waiting. He got married in Vegas to an amazing woman, and then she left him the morning after their Vegas wedding.

Then he saw her at his cousin's wedding two years later. He played it off as if he didn't know her, hoping that she will end this little game of staying away. But after 11 months of pretending she doesn't know him, Maddox is done. He wants his wife back and he is going to do whatever is necessary to get her back.

Lacey knew marrying Maddox wasn't the best decision of her life. Sure, she loved him, but she knows how hockey players are - seeing as how her brother and her best friend are professional hockey players. Plus, she knows that Maddox doesn't get along with her brother, Dallas, that well, so it would just cause tension on the hockey team.

But when Maddox confronts her about their secret, saying that he knows who she is and he wants to be real husband and wife, Lacey is scared. She doesn't want her heart to get broken by him, and looking at the past 2 years, it seems like he didn't miss her one bit.

After awhile, both are caught up again in their strong feelings for one another and things seem to be working out. But because they are keeping their marriage a secret, there are people who are interested in both Maddox and Lacey, and they will have to decide how to proceed further and what they really want in life.

This was a sweet book! I was a little annoyed at the beginning because it was obvious that Lacey still liked Maddox and she was using his past (that she had no solid proof of, btw) to push him off. And she was doing it poorly. She would cave in and then be like, oh no, we can't, etc. etc. So annoying for me. If you like him, then start over again! Stop playing games!

Which she did, eventually, but it took way longer than I thought it should have.

I did love Maddox, though. He was so sweet and understand and persistent. He is definitely the whole package that most girls want to have forever. He is determined to have what he wants, and who wouldn't want that?

I also loved that he did other things besides just hockey. His landscaping is so cool and it is something he can do after hockey, which is always good to have a backup because hockey is so straining on a person.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and I know that fans of L.P. Dover, romance readers, and sport fans will enjoy this new installment of her series! :) I'm so glad I was able to read it!

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Review: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Being a teenager is hard. Being a teenage boy who is gay but hasn't told anyone yet? That's way harder. It's not that Simon is ashamed of being gay - he just doesn't know how to tell anyone. No one who is straight has to make a huge announcement, so Simon doesn't have anything to go off of to make a public spiel about it.

When a classmate, Martin, sees his emails that he writes to Blue, another fellow gay person, and blackmails him into trying to set him up with his friend, Abby, Simon is forced to realize that he is stuck in a really terrible place. Blue is very personal and private, so Simon doesn't tell him that someone else knows they are talking to one another. And Simon doesn't like being blackmailed, so he isn't trying very hard to hook Martin up with Abby.

Plus, it seems that Abby might be interested in Simon's friend, Nick, which makes his other friend, Leah, made because she likes Nick as well... Again, being a teenager is hard.

The more Simon talks to Blue via email, the more he wants to meet him in person. Because he is falling for this person, and hard, but he has never seen him nor does he know who it is. Not even an inkling.

When Simon's secret gets told to everyone on the internet, he has to tell his family and friends and suffer the insufferable immature classmates who give him crap about him liking guys. And because Blue is so secretive, Simon is worried that Blue will stop talking to him.

Simon's life is about to change - and Simon is going to have to figure out how to deal with all of these changes - both good and bad. And some things might not go as he wanted...

Okay, I'm one of those people who got this book because there is a movie coming out in March 2018 and it looks hilarious and I had to read the book to see how good/bad the movie is compared to the book. And the funny thing is that I have read "The Upside to Unrequited", which is a spin off where Simon and Blue show up in that book, and yet I've read them out of order.

And I'm so ashamed to say that I didn't read this when it came out, because I loved it! It is such a great novel! I love the questions that Simon asked, such as how come homosexuals have to come out and why it's such a big deal to be gay instead of straight. And the way that he had to listen to his father make fun of gays his whole life would make it extremely hard to come out to his family.

I loved how this book, while it talked about gays and homosexuality, also showed that Simon was a normal teenager and lived a normal life. He was in theater, had awesome friends, got annoyed with his siblings, had a crazy unusual family (which I thought was AWESOME!), and had a crush. It shouldn't matter if that crush was for a boy instead of a girl, but sadly when everyone found out, they became jerks.

Simon is extremely brave for everything that he went through, and he was still proud of who he was. He didn't let the pettiness and terrible things change his mind and play it off as a joke so they would leave him alone. And that is awesome.

He was also pretty set on how much he liked Blue, and I'm pretty impressed because most people aren't even sure when they meet people in real life.

I can't even express how much I loved this book and how much I love Simon. I am so glad that I finally got a chance to read this book. And I am very excited to see the movie next month! I hope it depicts the book as well it should because if they mess it up, I'm going to be pretty angry!

I am definitely going to be recommending this to my friends!

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Review: My Gentleman Thief by Meredith Bond

My Gentleman Thief by Meredith Bond
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this eARC novel from Red Coat Publishing and the author. This is my honest review.

Thalia is a headstrong, wild woman in the middle of London. At age 18, she is supposed to be going to court and finding a suitable husband, but she is finding everything she can to avoid that situation. Instead, she finds her mother's old notes about the last archaeological dig she was doing before she passed away. With this revelation, Thalia realizes that this is her calling - to be an archaeologist and go back to Greece where she grew up digging in the dirt to find long lost artifacts.

When Yiannis comes to London, he knows he is out of his comfort zone, but his father sent him on a mission: sketch as many Greek artifacts he can find to create a collection of them in one area. This seems easy enough, but then he realizes just how...unhelpful most society members in London are when they realize why he wants this information.

Yiannis decides to take matters into his own hands when he realizes that most people are using these priceless heirlooms as hat holders - which is an abomination to his people's culture. Somehow, Yiannis finds himself taking the heirlooms that are not being properly cared for. So he has been putting them in the storage cellar at Thalia's home.

The more that Thalia and Yiannis find themselves around each other, the more they realize that Greek heirlooms are just one thing they have a passion for. But London society is a tricky thing, and they have to decide what they are willing to risk to take the next step.

This was a great book! It was full of mystery, suspense, wild horse races, and archaeology! Thalia is a hoot and a half and I love that she does whatever she wants, no matter the consequences. The only thing she worries about is how it affects her older sister, which is sweet.

Yiannis wasn't really my most favorite character, but he was likable I suppose. I like a man who takes charge and when he makes a decision he goes after it, no matter what. Yiannis isn't like that and is always questioning himself about his decisions. It got to be a bit annoying, but it wasn't too terrible.

I love the idea of Thalia in Greece digging ancient treasures, and I think that would be an awesome next book! London society has always had me break out in hives, because I would have been an terrible woman in that situation. I would probably be like Thalia - only worse!

I'm really glad I got a chance to read this novel, and if I ever find free time I might try to read the other books in this series one day!

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Review: Immortal Sleepers: Blood Awakening by Miranda Nichols

Immortal Sleepers: Blood Awakening by Miranda Nichols
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this eARC novel from Red Coat Publishing. This is my honest review.

The synopsis of this book sounded really good and I was so excited to get this novel! But for some reason, I really just couldn't get into it... The story was long winded, it was more narrative than action or dialogue, and as much as I loved the intimate scenes, it was just unrealistic to me.

Not because this is about Vampires and Shifters and such, but because Kaelyn and Tyrian were on each other like rabbits and didn't even know each other's last name. And then when Kaelyn was accepting of everything that Tyrian dumped on her? That was the icing on the cake for me.

But I tried to stick with it, because it was a fascinating storyline, but I just kept finding myself losing interest and skimming the novel more than reading it, so I gave up halfway through.

I think I might try to read this again in the future when I'm willing to commit more time to try to figure out the story, but for now this novel was just okay for me. I'm sure other readers will devour it, though, because it definitely has a lot of potential!

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Review: Summer Skin by Kirsty Eagar

Summer Skin by Kirsty Eagar
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this eARC novel from Edelweiss. This is my honest review.

Jess is sneaking into the all guys school to get a jersey from one of the Knights - who wrongfully used her best friend Farren last year - because they are going to get them back this year. After much hunting, with a killer hangover, Jess finally found one, but she also found a boy with it in the laundry room.

Said boy was grumpy, moody and just plain rude, Jess thought. What she didn't realize was that she was going to see this boy, Mitch, throughout the next year with much anticipation.

What started off as a tense first meeting, turned into an informative second meeting, and then a sexual tension third meeting. After that, both Jess and Mitch were hooked on each other. They didn't have a typical relationship, though, and since Jess announced that no Uni girl was to get together with a Knight guy, she was keeping their "meetings" on the downlow.

The more Jess and Mitch learn about each other, the more they realize they could really be something together. But with Jess's feministic outlook in life and Mitch's past that he forbids to talk about, they may ruin a good thing before it actually begins.

This was a good book! Similar to most New Adult novels, but different in a way as well. Jess isn't a really likable girl, for me, but she is definitely outspoken and says what she means, rather than letting secrets bottle up until she explodes.

I don't really agree with the way she was going to fix the Knight/Uni situation at the beginning of the year, but I do have to give her props for doing SOMETHING about rather than letting it get ignored and making the Knights think it was okay.

Mitch was...something else... If he would have said to me, "I want to touch you" I probably would have been majorly freaked out haha. It just sounds like a creepy statement to me.

But I do have to admit that they were each other's perfect match because they were always debating with each other. And Jess pushed Mitch's buttons just as much as he pushed hers so it was an equally matched relationship they had going there.

I'm glad that I got a chance to read this and I think readers will really enjoy this typical but not normal New Adult novel!

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