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Review: How I Got Skinny, Famous, And Fell Madly In Love - Ken Baker

REVIEW

I really loved this story. The main character Emery was so hilarious at times and had me rooting for her all the way to the last few pages. She pretty much said what was on her mind and didn't care what people thought about it, my kind of girl. I absolutely hated her snobby, cruel mother. No parent should degrade a child the way she does during this story, but I feel like it made Emery fight all that much harder to just be herself.



This would be a good story for any teen/woman to read, in my opinion, and has a great message for anyone who has ever struggled with their self-esteem, appearance and weight issues. 


I gave this book five stars and would recommend to anyone looking for an inspirational read!!






5 Stars



Billie Jo

Review: Unbreakable - William Fredrick Cooper

REVIEW

Unbreakable by William Frederick Cooper is the 3^rd book that chronicles William McCall’s emotional journey after losing the love of his life Linda Woodson. It has been seven-years after Linda’s death and William is still grieving her loss. Valentine’s Day (their favorite day) he drowns his sorrows at a local bar he frequents in New York where he lives. Here is where he meets Keisha Gray a schoolteacher that resides in Michigan that is in New York to see the man that she loves. Tired of being the other woman Keisha decides that she needs to break the relationship off. Realizing that it is not fair to her or the man’s wife.

When William and Keisha see each other again the next day William is looking broken since he thinks he lost the last remaining piece of Linda and Keisha is going through her own struggle. With nowhere to go Keisha takes William up on his offer to travel with him to visit Linda’s parents. As they drive through the different states they soon form a bond from the love of Michael Jackson’s music. During the journey there are some self-discoveries within themselves that awaken their soul. With a little time and with the love for Michael Jackson and God will these two find a love that will be unbreakable?

Unbreakable by William Frederick Cooper was a confusing read to say at best. Before expressing what I did not like about the book let me at least point out the good. One of the things I really liked is that there were a lot of good quotes throughout the book. Thought provoking quotes. The other was that Mr. Cooper is poetic in his writing style. With the last being said the poetic writing style of his works to a point because the book because too drawn out and wordy then it becomes a negative thing.  In reading the synopsis I noticed that it was never mentioned that Unbreakable happens to be part of series. Although I am sure his previous novels are stand-alone, it still chronicles the journey of the main character.

I am puzzled at what Mr. Cooper was trying to attempt with this story. At times it read of a love story, at others it read like a Michael Jackson tribute and then to a Christian Fiction type of read. This novel could have easily been written within half of the 414 pages the novel was. This book was HEAVILY and I stress the word heavily geared toward “the gloved wonder”, singer, Michael Jackson.

Mr. Cooper also goes on to talk about politics, things in the news, adversity of the plight of our young black men. Which has NOTHING to do with this story. So the story drags on. His description of certain things such as the sex scenes came off a little weird. Example: Mr. Cooper constantly uses the word “stems” when referring to a woman’s legs. There are parts of the story that is predictable and the ending was too rushed and far-fetched to be believable. Another thing that was confusing is that the story is told from first person then switches to a narrator…who that narrator is this reader still has no clue.

Honestly this was just a bad read, had Mr. Cooper concentrated on the love story and worked on a more believable ending instead of talking about MJ and getting off topic so much this could have been a good read.

 

2 Stars

Leona

Review: The Conspiracy Kid - E.P. Rose

 

REVIEW

 

This was just an okay read for me. My main complaint was that there were so many characters to try and keep straight. I had a hard time keeping up with who did what, other than this, it did have a plot that was enjoyable that centered around a book club (a plus in my book). This story's saving grace was that author did an amazing job of injecting humor into many of the situations, and this made me want to find out what happened to everyone. I gave this book three stars!!


3 Stars

Billie Jo

Spotlight/Giveaway: Summer Demons - Mia Hoddell

Summer Demons
by Mia Hoddell

Genre: YA Romance
Release Date: 26th February 2014
Length: Novella

Blurb:
Jenna Shaw ran away to escape her past. In fact, she jumped on a plane and flew to Portugal to try and forget it. However, it turns out leaving everything behind isn’t as easy as it sounds.

She thought she could move on and break free of her fears—that if she had some space the pain would stop. But as memories resurface due to an ill-timed joke, the past crashes into her present once more and she didn’t see it coming.

Jenna’s plans for normality are derailed by the charismatic Ethan Brooks. She sees him as an annoyance; he sees her as a challenge. But as he tries every trick known to him to impress her, they only serve to push her further away. He’s never faced this problem before and Ethan has to work harder than he ever has if he wants to win over and help his mysterious girl.

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Excerpt

She saw red. Seeping into the crystal clear water it spread, bleeding and merging as the ripples around her pushed it closer towards her feet. The deep crimson only grew darker as it surrounded her.

She could feel her breathing quicken, coming in short, sharp rasps as she started to panic. Her chest constricted, an unbearable pressure tightening like a boa constrictor refusing to release her from its clutches. Her throat felt dry, her increased breathing doing nothing to help the situation as she forced herself to swallow in the hope of dislodging the lump that had formed there.

This isn’t happening. This isn’t real. I came here to escape this, she told herself repeatedly as she laid there, her turquoise bikini embellished with golden sequins shining in the sun as her back tanned slowly. Bringing up an arm to adjust her chestnut-brown hair that was dangling in the water, she tried to pull away before the colour reached her and tainted the beautiful locks. The damage done would be irreparable if it touched her.

Moving it just in time, she threw it over her shoulder so it rested between her shoulder blades, the damp tips feeling nice as they cooled her back by trailing droplets of water down either side. She tried not to flinch as her gaze returned to the bloodied water that lapped at the li-lo beneath her chin. With every wave it seemed to grow closer, making its way further up the yellow plastic to try and touch her. The tapping that was normally so soothing tormented her now, like a crowd clapping and cheering her sanity on as it fled for safety.

Rather than listen to the logical side of her brain, her body had other ideas. Shuffling back, she put a bigger distance between her face and the abnormal pool beneath her. As her toes dipped into the cool water behind her though, she flinched, automatically drawing herself up so that no part of her body was near the edge. No matter how disgusted she was, she couldn’t stop staring; her eyes were hypnotised by the gentle movements that swirled the colour into the water even more. The red had become so thick that not one tile beneath the surface was visible.

The more she stared, the more she remembered.

The more she remembered, the more she was pulled into her memory.

It might not have been real at that moment in time, but it had been, and Jenna was once again pulled into the unbearable memory.

About the Author

Mia Hoddell lives in the UK with her family and two cats. She spends most of her time writing or reading, loves anything paranormal and has an overactive imagination that keeps her up until the early hours of the morning.

With three poems published before the age of sixteen, Mia moved on to short stories but finding she had too much to tell with too little space, Mia progressed to novels. She started her first series (The Wanderer Trilogy) at the age of fourteen and since then hasn’t stopped writing. Elemental Killers is her second series and with an ever growing list of ideas, Mia is trying to keep up with the speed at which her imagination generates them.

Connect with Mia:

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Google+ | Amazon Author Page

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