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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

Please read: The post you are about to read is 100 % **Role Play
All the characters represented here ( @The_Omega_ ) with the exception of Lisa and myself are **Role Players from a group on twitter. They have agreed to role play with us to help celebrate not only our Halloween Event, but also to help share our love for the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by author J.R. Ward, as these Role Players are also huge fans of J.R. Ward's works.
PLEASE BE AWARE THAT NO ONE with this site/blog, Lisa's site/blog nor the role-playing group — which you can find with the list of twitter accounts provided — is in any way, shape or form connected to or affiliated with J.R. Ward. No one present or represented here is J.R. Ward, nor is the role playing intended for any purpose other than the personal enjoyment of the Role Players involved.

The following story contains some strong language and mature themes. The Favor by @The_Omega_
What is that spiteful b**** up to now?” I reached over to one of my pets, a strange mixed breed, part dragon, part cockatrice, all malevolence and anger. There are a total of six in existence. I bred them especially for aggression and protection, not that I really needed protecting or anything. But they come in handy when I need to intimidate my lessers. Or others. As I ran my arm over his bumpy scales, I thought back to the day the Scribe Virgin came to ask me a favor. It seems one of her precious warriors needed to be taught a lesson. He was a strong bastard and she had nothing with which she could impress upon him the lessons she felt he was in sore need of learning. I knew it was a sharp blow to her pride to have to come to me for anything. She had always been favored, in everything, and was loathe to have to ask me for help of any kind. In this it was no different. She entered my domain with a gust behind her, carrying that cursed scent from her Fade with her. “ Could I possibly borrow one of your dragons? I wish to curse one of my warriors, to teach him how to control himself and as I can think of nothing more out of control than your creatures, one of them would work nicely to punish him,” she asked without a hint of humility. She was asking me a favor and didn’t even have the decency to bow before me. I just looked at her, not saying a word. I could tell she was becoming impatient as she began to explain very quickly. “Rhage is impulsive and quick tempered. He’s also very strong and could take out many of your army before they even realize he’s there. It would be in your best interest for this warrior to be tamed.” I was hesitant to trust anything she said. I’m probably the only one who knows her truly. When our Father made us, it was assumed that she got the light while I got the darkness. We are supposedly two halves of a whole — she the positive and I the negative. Quite inaccurate. Our Father was mostly darkness and while it’s true all I got was that, it is also true that my dear sibling, while getting mostly goodness, also got a hefty dose of evil to go with it. She had a wicked mean streak that even her favorite monsters couldn’t escape. I would have said no out of hand, but I thought this would be an excellent way to dispatch of the Brotherhood immediately. I decided I would allow her to take the meanest, most out of control dragon I had, fully expecting that it would eat every vampire in the Brotherhood and make the rest of my job easy. There was no way, I thought, the Brother could possibly wrangle this monster.

“ You may have my favorite pet, but I have some conditions that must be met,” I said to her after a very long silence. “This isn’t something I do without great trepidation, knowing how horrid you are.” She waved her hand, as if to dismiss my concerns about her motives. She was always so dismissive of me and it drove me insane. “ No, sister mine, I will not be brushed off,” I growled in an ominous tone only I can pull off. “If you won’t agree to my demands, you shall not be allowed the use of my pet.” As I began to outline my requirements, a small smile played on her face. No one could tell me that the Scribe Virgin wasn’t sadistic. She was in absolute agreement that she borrow the most aggressive dragon, the one who would take the most work to control. She was happy to curse her warrior for 200 years, which I demanded to ensure the beast would have ample time to do its job. The only stipulation she balked at was my presence at the insertion. She didn’t want me there and I couldn’t understand why. “ I can’t be seen with you,” she said, aghast at the thought. “You can’t come to my sanctuary. You can’t be anywhere near me in any place where people might see us.” I put aside the insult. She had long since ceased to hurt my feelings with her obvious disgust at my very existence. “ Sorry, no deal. If I can’t be there to witness my pet, my baby, being implanted in that disgusting brute of yours, then you can’t have him,” I said as I turned away, fully prepared to send her away empty handed. I knew that would get her. One thing my darling sister couldn’t stand was being denied a chance to hurt another soul, even if was one that she had created. She liked to hide in her white world, where everything looked pristine and pure. However, anyone who looked closely at her behaviors, the things she did, the things she required before being willing to grant any favor, they would have seen the cruelty in her acts. “ I will agree to whatever you ask, brother,” she practically spat the word at me. “As you have asked a price for this, you must make sure the monster you give me will be the most difficult trial a warrior could possibly have to endure. If you don’t, I will find a way to make up the difference, and that will be most unpleasant for you. Of that you can be sure. Oh, and I shall have to hide you with a mhis. I wasn’t being facetious when I said I couldn’t be seen with you.” So the deal was struck. Within the blink of an eye, we were in front of the warrior, who had his head bent awaiting his punishment. I noticed the dead owl lying by the tree and I knew this vampire was in for more pain and suffering than he could possibly survive. My sister loved her birds and there was no way she was going to let this pass without extracting her pound of flesh. The Brother was larger than a typical vampire, but he was nowhere near big enough to contain my beast without a great struggle, and getting him into the vampire wasn’t going to be anything short of torturous. He was shaking a bit, perhaps in fear. Or maybe it was remorse, as he did seem to genuinely feel bad for whatever act had ended in the death of the owl. If he was smart, he would have been terrified. Whatever he felt, he kept his head bowed in shame and awaited his punishment with bravery. My sister, in her flowing black robe, was standing in front of the male. She reached down and grabbed him by his long, blond hair, yanking his head back until it looked like it was going to wrench from his neck. Looking into his face, she roared at him, “You have taken one of my most precious possessions.” The male just gaped at her, his eyes wide with surprise at her indignation. Tears were rolling down his face now as he stammered out a weak apology. His whole body was wracked with sobs. He blubbered about how he didn’t mean to do harm, how he hadn’t thought of the repercussions of giving his weapon to someone untrained. The words were coming out of his mouth so fast I had to struggle to understand what he was saying. I guess the male wasn’t stupid after all. He was petrified. From out of her robe, the Scribe Virgin pulled a large dagger. It was bone handled and looked like something with which a human would disembowel large game. Still looking directly into the vampire’s eyes, she took the knife and stabbed him in the throat. It made a sound of a stone dropping into wet cement, a slurping noise that would have caused a mortal to vomit. The male’s eyes did the impossible. They became even wider than they had been, taking up so much of his face that it appeared eyes were all he had.
Pulling slowly, she dragged the blade down through his neck, his chest. The sickening sound of his sternum cracking was loud enough to startle the birds still left in the trees in this very twisted sanctuary. The strength she wielded to break through his rib bones one by one was impressive. My sister was watching the line of damage as she created it, her gaze not wavering from her bloody task for a moment. She didn’t stop until she had cut him all the way to his pubic bone. As intestines and entrails spilled out of the gaping hole my sister had gouged in this pathetic creature, she looked as if she was in ecstasy. Her head was tilted to the sky, the look on her face one of rapture. My sister had lost her mind in that moment. I was sure of it. The male looked as if he was screaming, though no sound was coming out. His eyes were wide but not seeing. His face was contorted in pain that most would be unable to live through, draining of color as the blood poured from the wound in his torso. There was so much blood, running in rivers down the hill, into the fountain, turning the water a deep hue of red that was terribly out of place in this sea of white. The vampire’s essence was leaving quickly as my sister was lost in her own private rampage. She actually seemed unaware of the harm she had done. As the warrior seemed to finally grasp the severity of the situation he was in, he resigned himself to the fate that would be conferred upon him. Any fight he may have had inside his large body left, just as the vital fluid was doing. Snapping out of whatever twisted reverie she was lost in, the Scribe Virgin captured my dragon by his barbed tail and set about the onerous task of forcing a very round peg into a very square and much smaller hole. Inch by inch, she pushed and shoved that 12 foot dragon into the opening she had created when she eviscerated the vampire. The sound of bones crunching was almost more than I could bear. Almost. The warrior’s face was a study in tortured agony. Sweat was pouring from his brow. His mouth was agape in a silent wail. His eyes were rolled back in his head, and still my sister continued her almost methodical invasion of the body she had laid open. When the dragon was finally well seated, crammed really, in the small space, she held her hand out, a light emanating from it, and she sealed the wound she had earlier created. She unceremoniously dropped her warrior, using that dangerous hand to clean up the mess she had made. The vampire curled into a ball then very violently splayed his body out, knowing that whatever was inside was too large for his shell to hold. Finally he found his voice and the silent screams became deafening shrieks and had my sister not covered her heinous act with a mhis that not only hid me from sight, but this entire gruesome scene, all of her innocent Chosen would have fled her presence in absolute terror. But the Scribe Virgin was nothing if not smart. She wasn’t going to let anyone see her madness. With another wave of her hand, she wiped the memory of what she had done from her creature’s mind and made sure the dragon was well ensconced inside his body, making them one. It was almost as if the male came awake, he startled and awareness returned to him. “ You will carry with you a curse, for two hundred years, to remind you of what you have done here. No more will you be able to think only of yourself, acting impulsively as only a young child should be wont to do,” she whispered into his face, so close to him it made even me shudder. “And you will be reminded every time you get even slightly out of control, because you will be visited by a beast so savage even those you love won’t be safe.” I left her garden impressed, and a little hopeful that perhaps she and I had come to some sort of understanding. Perhaps we would be able to work together in the future, not always be at odds. She had, after all, just brutally attacked the warrior race she claimed to love so much. Of course that isn’t what happened. Instead of being able to break free of its warrior prison and devour the Brotherhood, my sister enchanted the beast, protecting her vermin, and instead my dragon chose to eat my lessers. In the 99 or so years he’d been inside of that Brother, he hadn’t eaten a single one of the noxious rodents he should have preferred. That certainly should be a hint as to how slimy those freaks are, when even a dragon won’t eat one. My sister, the malicious Scribe Virgin, irritates me to no end. My life's mission has been to eradicate the disgusting species she created and she is seriously screwing that up. Everything she did is in direct opposition to me. Every single thing. And it is beginning to piss me off. She really is a spiteful b****.

If you would like to follow along with the Role Players that @The_Omega_ is part of, please USE GOOGLE to easily follow each character within the group. And trust me, you don't know what your missing! So hurry and follow today!

Find @The_Omega_ Online:

Twitter | Facebook

@FritzDoggen_BDB Online: (updates, notes and information on the Twitter Role Playing Group)

Website | Twitter

Order All 8 books in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series and Preorder book 9 Online here:

Amazon | Borders | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository

Reference:

**Role Play

–verb (used with object)
1. to assume the attitudes, actions, and discourse of (another), esp. in a make-believe situation in an effort to understand a differing point of view or social interaction: Management trainees were given a chance to role-play labor negotiators.
2. to experiment with or experience (a situation or viewpoint) by playing a role: trainees role-playing management positions.
–verb (used without object)
3. to engage in role-playing.

Thank you so much to @The_Omega_ and all the other characters from the Black Dagger Brotherhood Twitter Role Play group for all the time and effort they have been putting in to help us celebrate not only Halloween and our event, but also our love for all that is the Brotherhood and J.R. Ward. * Check out Lisa's Haunted Halloween post with Sara Bennett Wealer and a giveaway for a signed copy of Rival.

*Reminder: If you are interested in the COMMENT CONTEST, remember to include your email address with your comment for an extra entry! Please read full entry rules here.

By: Judith Graves

People often ask me why I choose to write horror/paranormal stories. And I usually give them a standard reply: I love a good scare—I’m a fan of mythology and folklore. Rarely do I get into the nitty-gritty details.
Until now.
When I was thirteen, an unlucky age for so many reasons, a visiting aunt gave me a spectacularly wrapped present. About two feet long and a foot wide. The rectangular box could have contained anything. My aunt was from away. Surely she’d have brought me something amazing!
Looking back, I know she thought she was being generous, kind, aunt-like even. She was just trying to bring a smile to the face of a girl she barely knew, but was tied to by blood. That she didn’t know anything about me was painfully obvious as I unwrapped the present. A hush fell over the room when the gift was revealed.
A beautiful, lifelike doll stood in the box encased behind a clear plastic lid. Her eyelids flickered as the box dipped in my trembling hands. I dropped her to the floor and her eyes closed as if she were asleep. Or dead.
My aunt rushed forward to scoop the doll up. “Good God, be careful! She’s made of porcelain. An antique.”
Covering over the awkward silence and my pronounced lack of appreciative gushing, my mother assured my aunt that I was overcome by the generosity of her gift. As she told the lie, my father, leaning in the kitchen doorway, a silent observer as always, gazed at me with concern.
You see, I’d had a fear of dolls as far back as the family could remember, especially old dolls with aged, knowing faces and eyes that rolled back in their heads. Dolls so lifelike you could almost hear the faint gasps of their breathing.
For the entire duration of my aunt’s visit I had to sleep with THE DOLL propped up on my dresser. My mother insisted, not wanting to offend her older sister (the one who was only visiting us because she had to come to town for a funeral and didn’t want to pay for a hotel). When mother insisted, there was no plea-bargaining.
My father saved the day—marginally. “She should keep it in the box,” he announced. “We wouldn’t want it to get wrecked.” After the sisters left on a shopping expedition, he helped me seal the edges of the doll’s box with duct tape. She was locked inside. Or so I thought.
I’ll never know exactly how the doll ended up on the floor at the foot of my bed the last night of my aunt’s visit. I had jerked awake at the sound of a crash, and there she was, illuminated by the three nightlights my father placed in each plug around my bedroom. The doll had burst through the confines of her box and lay sprawled on the cold hardwood floor. Amazingly, she was in one piece with her head turned in my direction, staring at me with a strange gleam in her eyes. A hungry, I’m-going-to-get-you gleam.
Suffice to say everyone in the house charged into my bedroom, sure it was a burglar, an ax murderer, or a fire, at the very least. I had no control over the sounds of terror that ripped from my throat. I remember my mother apologizing to my shocked aunt, and guiding her back into the hall. I remember my father’s grim face as he stuffed the doll into a black garbage bag that magically appeared in his hands. I remember my aunt hugging my brother and sister—but not me—before she got in her car the next morning and drove away.
But mostly I remember those eyes. Those ancient, evil, hungry eyes. And that, my friends, is why I write about things that go bump in the night—because certain events can’t be explained and those are the ones that haunt me. So much so that I write about them and struggle to fabricate my own explanations.
In my writing, I share them freely. For what they’re worth.

Under My Skin by Judith Graves Publisher: Leap Books (March 27th, 2010) Reading Level: Young Adult Paperback: 328 pages Series: Skinned, book #1 All her parents wanted was for Eryn to live a normal life…

Redgrave had its share of monsters before Eryn moved to town. Mauled pets, missing children. The Delacroix family is taking the blame, but Eryn knows the truth. Something stalks the night. Wade, the police chief's son and Redgrave High's resident hottie, warns her the Delacroix are dangerous. But then so is Eryn--in fact, she's lethal.

But she can't help falling for one of the Delacroix boys, dark, brooding--human Alec. And then her world falls apart.

A normal life? Now that's the real fairytale.

Second Skin
- book 2 in the Skinned series -
will be out sometime in 2011.

Prize:

• 1 winner will receive a Under My Skin necklace and character card, a Class of 2k10 postcard, and some gothic"Death Mints".

• You must be at least 13 to enter.
• Name and email must be provided and counts as 1 entry.
• Extra entries are possible and links must be provided.
• Contest is INTERNATIONAL and ends October 29th.
• Once contacted the winner will have 48 hours to respond with their mailing address.
• The form must be filled out to enter.

Find out more about Judith Graves Judith Graves / Goodreads / Twitter
Purchase Under My Skin Amazon / Barnes & Noble / The Book Depository
Book Trailer

* Check out Lisa's Haunted Halloween post.

*Reminder: If you are interested in the COMMENT CONTEST, remember to include your email address with your comment for an extra entry! Please read full entry rules here.