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Today is another day of the Indie/New Adult feature where I provide you with mini-reviews from the many (mostly New Adult) books I've read lately. I had a ton of books get a 4 star rating from me and this is the 3rd day I'm featuring those. Check my previous posts for the other 4 star books and my 5 star favorites that posted on Monday.

Waiting for You by Shey Stahl
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This book started out for me as a raving, sparkling 5 stars. I absolutely loved Bailey and the fact that she wanted to escape her"perfect" life. She chooses to do this by jumping in the car with Dylan, the local bad boy, and heading off to who-knows-where. I am a sucker for road trip books and this one had so many amazing parts. Dylan started out as the perfect bad-boy character and I actually liked Bailey a lot because she showed how independent and rule-breaking she could be. Then, about 2/3rds through the book it took some strange turns. I won't say what happened but I will say that Dylan did something to Bailey that raised some reg flags for me. I couldn't brush off that uneasy feeling and the book never quiet grabbed me again after that. Either way, this may not be an issue many people find in this story. Maybe it just hit a sore spot for me, but I'd still recommend people give this one a try.

The Future of Our Past by Kahlen Aymes Add to Goodreads
I'm a sucker for books that involve teenagers who have been friends forever and question their relationship. I think many girls want to have that male best friend that we adore, and then we find out that maybe that's who we are meant to be with. In this book, Julia and Ryan are at that moment and neither know what to do. Once together, they deal with typical relationship issues, like distance, and it was good to see how they worked through those problems. By the end, the drama was a bit more boring and I hated that it ended on a huge cliffhanger. I still plan to read the next book in the series soon to see what happens.

Falling Into You by Jasinda Wilder
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I know so many people who just looooved this book. I enjoyed it a lot but it didn't blow me away like I expected. I will say though, the first part of this story had me in tears. It was the saddest thing ever! As with many titles I've read, the beginning was fabulous. I got the emotional connection with the characters after the accident and Nell and Colton were believable and obviously had a lot of chemistry. Towards the end I just wasn't into the story as much. I started skipping a few parts and didn't get the drama going on. But again, that beginning was insanely good and I do plan to read more from this author.

Fire Always Burns by Krista Lakes Add to Goodreads
This is a book you may not have heard of before but it's definitely worth the read. In this story we meet Holly, a young girl who lost her scholarship after too many late nights. This is something we rarely see in NA books (a person who fails at college and ends up back home in their small town), but it happens every day! She has best friends still in the town and one of them is Luke, a guy who is dealing with his parent's divorce and his little brother having to move. Then we have Andrew, a guy forced to take care of his mother after his father passed away. They all felt so stuck. I totally got these situations. They were similar scenarios but so relateable. Some parts I didn't fully understand (like how Andrew's mother was a nurse, but she was bats*it crazy sometimes), but I still enjoyed the overall story in this book.

Take This Regret by A.L. Jackson Add to Goodreads
I adored this story. Christian abandons his girlfriend, Elizabeth, after finding out she's pregnant. Now he tries to come back and connect with her and his child. I was frustrated at Christian at times because he let his families control go so far, but I felt that once he came back he really did want to try to make things work. I felt bad for Elizabeth who had been forced to raise her child with just the help of some family and friends, always regretting that her daughter wouldn't have a dad. The side characters we meet in this book are incredible. I think everyone would want to have a group like them.

Before You Go by Clare James Add to Goodreads
In this story we meet Tabby. She's had a public sex scandal that forced her to leave her college and go somewhere else. Now she wants to get back the control she felt she lost. She meets Noah and he pushes through the walls she's built up. They work on a newspaper together and slowly get closer. Noah was a sweetie. It was a bit harder for me to love Tabby because I didn't get some of her actions but I still enjoyed their relationship. This book does have some heavy issues and I liked how it showed how one single moment can really destroy a life. Tabby was faced with what happened every day and sadly, this is an issue that many teens face with social media and viral pictures/videos going out.

Wide Awake by Shelly Crane Add to Goodreads
I was a bit hesitant to pick up this one because I'm not really into the amnesia, lost memories, type of story but I'm glad I gave this one a chance. Emma wakes up from a coma as a completely different person. She doesn't know who she was before but through her friends and family she soon realizes that, well, she was a biotch! The new Emma is trying to adjust with the help of her physical therapist Mason. Their connection was great. Some things I didn't understand, like why Emma would want to join the cheer team so soon after waking up and not being able to walk? That would be the last thing on my mind. But besides the inconsistencies, the overall romance and building up of Emma was great to read about.

Promise Me Darkness by Paige Weaver Add to Goodreads
Woah, this book has the award for most surprising of the year. I was expecting what the blurb says which is that Maddie sees her childhood best friend Ryder one night and she realizes that she likes him as more than a friend now. We've seen this type of scenario often but this one adds a little more to that. It's a story that involves the before, during, and after apocalyptic setting and wow, it kept me on the edge of my seat! There is a ton that goes on in this story so the romance was just a bonus. I liked the way the world was portrayed after the attack. Sometimes I questioned Maddie's thoughts though and wondered if I'd really be that focused on a guy when the world was falling apart. Regardless, after the cliffhanger (GRR!!) I know I'll be reading the next book!

After Math by Denise Grover Swank Add to Goodreads
Scarlet is a quiet college girl who deals with a lot of social anxiety. Then she has to tutor the school soccer star, Tucker Price, and he manages to really push her boundaries. I enjoyed these characters and how Scarlet was able to see who the real Tucker was. Once they begin getting closer their affections go from zero to sixty pretty fast. It may have been a bit too fast and sometimes Scarlet got on my nerves with her constant over-thinking. But Denise is a fabulous author who really knows how to bring different aspects of a story together. Everything flowed nicely and I hope to continue with his series. The next book will focus on Scarlet's roommate.

Born by Tara Brown Add to Goodreads
I think this was even a free book when I got it but I've really been into the whole"post-apocalyptic" angle lately. When we meet Emma she has been on her own for over 10 years. Most people are dead (or, sort-of-dead) from an illness and the rest are just trying to survive. This book paints a scary picture of the world but it seems realistic for how I feel it would be 10 years after something like that took place. Emma meets some new people (Jake, Anna, and Will) plus several others along the way. She finally sees how the world has really been since she's been holed up for so long. This book has some editing issues but it didn't take too much away from it. It doesn't shy away from the gruesome parts of war, which was a nice thing. I have read the second book too and that review will be posted tomorrow.

ALL OF THESE BOOKS RECEIVED THE RATING

Today I am featuring the top 10 book boyfriends of 2012. You may notice that I haven't posted anything yet for this event yet but I've had a really sick child since Christmas: ( I will be catching up on the posts though so stay tuned for that.
Top 10 Book Boyfriends

Title: Deity
Author: Janenifer L. Armentrout
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
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"History is on repeat, and things didn't go so well the last time."

Alexandria isn't sure she's going to make it to her eighteenth birthday--to her Awakening. A long-forgotten, fanatical order is out to kill her, and if the Council ever discovers what she did in the Catskills, she's a goner… and so is Aiden.

If that's not freaky enough, whenever Alex and Seth spend time"training"--which really is just Seth's code word for some up-close and personal one-on-one time--she ends up with another mark of the Apollyon, which brings her one step closer to Awakening ahead of schedule. Awesome.

But as her birthday draws near, her entire world shatters with a startling revelation and she's caught between love and Fate. One will do anything to protect her. One has been lying to her since the beginning. Once the gods have revealed themselves, unleashing their wrath, lives will be irrevocably changed… and destroyed.

Those left standing will discover if love is truly greater than Fate.

Title: In Honor Author: Jessi Kirby Publisher: Simon & Schuster Add to Goodreads Honor receives her brother’s last letter from Iraq three days after learning that he died, and opens it the day his fellow Marines lay the flag over his casket. Its contents are a complete shock: concert tickets to see Kyra Kelly, her favorite pop star and Finn’s celebrity crush. In his letter, he jokingly charged Honor with the task of telling Kyra Kelly that he was in love with her.

Grief-stricken and determined to grant Finn’s last request, she rushes to leave immediately. But she only gets as far as the driveway before running into Rusty, Finn’s best friend since third grade and his polar opposite. She hasn’t seen him in ages, thanks to a falling out between the two guys, but Rusty is much the same as Honor remembers him: arrogant, stubborn.. and ruggedly good-looking. Neither one is what the other would ever look for in a road trip partner, but the two of them set off together, on a voyage that makes sense only because it doesn’t. Along the way, they find small and sometimes surprising ways to ease their shared loss and honor Finn--but when shocking truths are revealed at the end of the road, will either of them be able to cope with the consequences?

Title: Pushing the Limits
Author: Katie McGarry
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
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No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with"freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal.But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.

Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

Title: Easy Author: Tammara Webber Add to Goodreads A girl who believes trust can be misplaced, promises are made to be broken, and loyalty is an illusion. A boy who believes truth is relative, lies can mask unbearable pain, and guilt is eternal. Will what they find in each other validate their conclusions, or disprove them all?

When Jacqueline follows her longtime boyfriend to the college of his choice, the last thing she expects is a breakup two months into sophomore year. After two weeks in shock, she wakes up to her new reality: she's single, attending a state university instead of a music conservatory, ignored by her former circle of friends, and failing a class for the first time in her life.

Leaving a party alone, Jacqueline is assaulted by her ex's frat brother. Rescued by a stranger who seems to be in the right place at the right time, she wants nothing more than to forget the attack and that night--but her savior, Lucas, sits on the back row of her econ class, sketching in a notebook and staring at her. Her friends nominate him to be the perfect rebound.

When her attacker turns stalker, Jacqueline has a choice: crumple in defeat or learn to fight back. Lucas remains protective, but he's hiding secrets of his own. Suddenly appearances are everything, and knowing who to trust is anything but easy.

Title: Unlikely Allies
Author: Tiffany King
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Eighteen-year-old Kimberly gets the shock of her life when she learns the father she thought was dead is not only very much alive, but never even knew she existed. Angry with her mother for lying all these years, Kimberly flies to Colorado to meet the father she knows nothing about before heading off to college in the fall.

Her father’s world turns out to be nothing like she expected. Rather than the typical nine to five lifestyle, Kimberly’s father runs a summer foster camp that teaches young children skills to build their confidence and self-esteem. The Colorado Rocky Mountains are a different world than the sunny shores of California, taking Kimberly completely out of her element, and causing her to second-guess her spur of the moment decision.

Never being one to quit anything, Kimberly is determined to show her father that a surfer girl can fit into this rugged mountain wilderness. That is if she can deal with Mason, an arrogant nineteen-year-old guy who has made it his mission to point out every mistake she has made since her arrival. While she would love nothing more than to rub it in his know-it-all face, Kimberly can’t deny the feelings he stirs up inside her, or the chemistry between them, even during their verbal assaults.

When a tragic accident leaves them stranded in the mountains, Kimberly must use her shaky skills to save Mason and survive the elements. Suddenly, fighting is the last thing on their minds as they must rely on each other if they want to live. In their struggle for survival, they realize what they thought they knew about each other isn’t true after all.

Title: The Edge of Never Author: J.A. Redmerski Add to Goodreads Twenty-year-old Camryn Bennett had always been one to think out-of-the-box, who knew she wanted something more in life than following the same repetitive patterns and growing old with the same repetitive life story. And she thought that her life was going in the right direction until everything fell apart.

Determined not to dwell on the negative and push forward, Camryn is set to move in with her best friend and plans to start a new job. But after an unexpected night at the hottest club in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, she makes the ultimate decision to leave the only life she’s ever known, far behind.

With a purse, a cell phone and a small bag with a few necessities, Camryn, with absolutely no direction or purpose boards a Greyhound bus alone and sets out to find herself. What she finds is a guy named Andrew Parrish, someone not so very different from her and who harbors his own dark secrets. But Camryn swore never to let down her walls again. And she vowed never to fall in love.

But with Andrew, Camryn finds herself doing a lot of things she never thought she’d do. He shows her what it’s really like to live out-of-the-box and to give in to her deepest, darkest desires. On their sporadic road-trip he becomes the center of her exciting and daring new life, pulling love and lust and emotion out of her in ways she never imagined possible. But will Andrew’s dark secret push them inseparably together, or tear them completely apart?

Title: Destiny's Fire
Author: Trisha Wolfe
Publisher: Omnific Publishing
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It's the year 2040, and sixteen-year-old Dez Harkly is one of the last of her kind-part of a nearly extinct race of shape-shifters descended from guardians to the Egyptian pharaohs. Her home and her secret are threatened when the Council lowers the barrier, allowing the enemy race to enter the Shythe haven.As the Narcolym airships approach, Dez and her friends rebel against their Council and secretly train for battle. Not only is Dez wary of war and her growing affection for her best friend Jace, she fears the change her birthday will bring. When Dez's newfound power rockets out of control, it's a Narcolym who could change her fate… if she can trust him.Dez's guarded world crumbles when she discovers why the Narcos have really come to Haven Falls, and she's forced to choose between the race who raised her and the enemy she's feared her whole life.

Title: Sweet Evil Author: Wendy Higgins Publisher: HarperTeen Add to Goodreads Embrace the Forbidden

What if there were teens whose lives literally depended on being bad influences?

This is the reality for sons and daughters of fallen angels.

Tenderhearted Southern girl Anna Whitt was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She's aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but Anna, the ultimate good girl, has always had the advantage of her angel side to balance the darkness within. It isn't until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage and her willpower is put to the test. He's the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.

Forced to face her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns?

Title: Lucid
Author: P.T. Michelle
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Once Nara combines her prophetic ability with Ethan’s power to outsmart Fate at his own deadly cat-and-mouse game, she’s more determined than ever to help Ethan learn the meaning behind the raven sword tattoo that suddenly appeared on his back after their confrontation with Fate.

During her quest to uncover the tattoo’s secrets, Nara enlists the help of some new friends and discovers her own surprising connection to Ethan.

While Nara digs deeper into the mystery, her desire for answers leads her down a dangerous path full of powerful and ruthless enemies. Swept into an age-old battle, Nara quickly learns that keeping one’s enemies close can be a necessary evil, making an intangible enemy she can control far more preferable to the human enemies she can’t.

Title: A Girl Named Digit Author: Annabel Monaghan Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Add to Goodreads Farrah"Digit" Higgins may be going to MIT in the fall, but this L.A. high school genius has left her geek self behind in another school district so she can blend in with the popular crowd at Santa Monica High and actually enjoy her senior year. But when Farrah, the daughter of a UCLA math professor, unknowingly cracks a terrorist group's number sequence, her laid-back senior year gets a lot more interesting. Soon she is personally investigating the case, on the run from terrorists, and faking her own kidnapping-- all while trying to convince a young, hot FBI agent to take her seriously. So much for blending in.

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