“I’m broken, and I want you to fix me.”

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SQUEEE!!!! I loooooved this book!! I was hooked from the very first page and spent the rest of my afternoon laughing out loud, swooning, fanning myself, and highlighting awesome and hilarious quotes non-stop! Fans of Beautiful Disaster or Wait For You  should definitely check this out 🙂

So it’s about this girl, Hannah, who is crushing hard on a football player. She’s not one to usually get this mushy over a guy, but he’s caught her eye and she wishes she was on his radar.

The hero is a a guy named Garrett. He’s a bad boy hockey player with a bit of a manwhoring reputation around campus who is in one of her classes and borderline failing. He’s a smart guy, but this class just isn’t his forte. Lucky for him, she’s acing it… and he makes it his mission to get her to tutor him. Unfortunately for him though, she’s not remotely interested in anything he has to offer in exchange.

“How about a date?” I offer.

That gets her attention. She straightens up like someone shoved a metal rod up her spine, then swivels her head in astonishment. “What?”

“Ah. I’ve got your attention.”

“No, you’ve got my disgust. You actually think I want to go out with you?”

“Everyone wants to go out with me.”

She bursts out laughing…

“Just out of curiosity,” she says, “after you wake up in the morning, do you admire yourself in the mirror for one hour or two?”

“Two,” I reply cheerfully.. “I kiss each one of my biceps and then point to the ceiling and thank the big man upstairs for creating such a perfect male specimen.”

She snorts. “Uh-huh. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, Mr. Perfect, but I’m not interested in dating you.”

After a few days of trying his best to wear her down, he finally comes up with an idea: he’ll help elevate her social status by pretending to date her — thus making her more likely to catch the eye of her crush IF she’ll tutor him. She finally relents and the deal is formed.

But the more time they spend together, the closer they get… and even though Garrett swore he didn’t want a girlfriend, he falls for her… and makes it his mission to show her that he’s actually the guy she wants.

I have to say, this is the first time a girl’s been worried about getting caught in my bedroom. Normally they strut out like they’ve just bagged Brad Pitt.

Hannah takes a breath. “We studied. We watched TV. I went home late. That’s what happened. Got it?”

I fight back laughter. “As you wish.” 

“Did you really just Princess Bride me?”

“Did you really just use Princess Bride as a verb?”

She glowers.

I loved the way their relationship developed almost by accident. Neither of them meant for it to happen. They just began hanging out, spending time together, and one thing naturally led to another. (Side note: after reading about them watching Breaking Bad together, I kinda want to watch the show too!)

Just to clear up a question I’ve been asked by several readers: there is NO cheating and no triangle in this story. He does hook up with two girls (literally just meaningless one-night stands) before he and Hannah become a couple. But once they’re together, all that ends. So don’t worry!

This book had the ability to make me swoon one minute, put my heart in my throat the next, then literally make me burst right out laughing out of the blue. Here, I just have  to share this one scene…

The guy protests… “I don’t think you should go in th—“

I burst into the locker room and —

Penises!

Sweet Jesus.

Penises everywhere.

Horror slams into me as I register what I’m seeing. Oh God. I’ve stumbled onto a penis convention. Big penises and small penises and fat penises and penis-shaped penises. It doesn’t matter which direction I move my head because everywhere I look I see penises.

My mortified gasp draws the attention of every penis — er, guy, in the room. In a heartbeat, towels snap up and hands cover junk and bodies shuffle around, while I stand in the front of the room blushing like a tomato.

Teeheeeeee!!!!  C’mon, doesn’t that make you want to read the book?? 😀

You’ll swoon hard over Garrett, wish Hannah was your BFF, and totally get caught up in their story. It’s fun, sexy, but with just enough ‘seriousness’ mixed in to ground the story as well. I really loved it!

This was one of the best college romance I’ve read. It had epic banter, sexy romance, and fantastic writing!! I laughed, I swooned, I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommended!!

Rating: 4.5 — 5 stars. Standalone NA romance.

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Each book is a different couple. Click covers to purchase.

What do you do when a girl walks into your life and challenges everything you know? You hold onto her and never let go.

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WOW!! This book hooked me right from the prologue and I could not put it down until I turned the very last page of the powerful epilogue! It was beautifully written, deeply emotional, and unforgettable. Hunter and Ellison’s story will stay with me for a long time. I loved it!! Do yourself a favor and read this book!

The story begins fifty years into the future. Hunter is now an older man, a genius, who has discovered the cure for cancer and is about to give a speech in front of an entire medical community. He was supposed to talk about the medical accomplishments. But instead he told them the truth of where it started. About a summer when he was 19… and a girl who defied him and stole his heart. It all started because of Ellison…

And then we’re taken back in time to when they first met as he tells us their story.

Hunter had always been highly intelligent and he came from a wealthy family that gave him every physical thing he could want for. But when his drinking and drug taking went too far, his parents sent him to work for his uncle in Florida for a summer — no credit cards, no electronics, nothing — hoping that earning his keep would help teach him a lesson.

Their run-down lifestyle he now was a part of was about as far away from what he was used to as possible, but the real game changer came when he met a girl named Ellison. She defied him at every turn, had a quick temper and wasn’t afraid to use it, was snarky, sassy, and lived life to it’s fullest. She pushed and challenged him to be better. He’d never met anyone like her.

“I don’t want to be one of those people who, at the end of their lives, look back and realize they missed it.”

They came from different worlds, were about as opposite as you could imagine, their time together was limited since he was all set to attend college in the fall in Harvard far far away, and yet despite everything, they slowly grew closer and fell in love. This summer changed the course of their lives…

“You’re only going to be here for a couple of months and then you are heading back to your home. We can be friends, Hunter, but… I don’t like to risk my heart when I know something won’t work out in the end. I’m not a fling. I’m not some girl that’s okay with having fun just for the sake of the moment.”

Trust me when I say that this is not your typical summer romance. Also — I’m just going to say it because I know half of you are thinking it: No, she does not get sick and die over the summer either. M’kay?

I loved seeing Hunter’s transformation from this kid who was headed down a path leading nowhere, borderline addicted to drugs, partying away his lack of will to live… to this guy who fell in love with a girl who gave him a purpose in life. She showed him what there was to live for. And even though she didn’t make it easy, even though she challeneged him at every turn, I think that’s exactly what he needed. I’m not sure any other girl would ever have gotten through to him like that. And most of all, I loved how, when the tables were turned, he never once, not ever, not even for a moment, gave up on her.

“This might be your life, but I’m making it mine as well — because YOU are my life. I don’t give a shit what you say or do. You can ignore me, you can hate me — hell — you can put my picture on a wall and throw darts at it if that’s what makes you feel better, but I’m not going anywhere.”

I read this book start to finish in 2 hours. It’s a full length book (350 pages ish) but I literally just couldn’t put it down and that’s a testament to the story and the writing. This was just one of those books that flowed the whole way through. — That being said, I did find that there were some slower parts in the middle. But that actually made sense given that much of this story took place over the course of a summer and, realistically, no one’s lives are jam packed with drama every day so it felt realistic from that sense.

I absolutely LOVED the ending. L-O-V-E-D it!! The epilogue was hugely emotional!!! I cried. SOBBED!!! It wasn’t tragic though — please don’t be freaked out — and in fact, you could argue that this was indeed the truest form of a HEA. It was powerful beyond words. In some ways, even though the story was very different, it reminded me of The Notebook. I just sat there with tears literally pouring down my face. But I’d consider it non-tragic sobbing. You know what I mean? I was honestly SO happy with the way it ended.

I’m always on a search for books that not only tell a good story, but that also make me FEEL that story with all my heart. This was one of those books. I highly recommend it!

“My lips fell on hers and I kissed her with everything that I had. I told her I loved her with that kiss, I told her I would protect her, that I would care for her and that I would fight for her every fucking day if that’s what it took for me to be with her.”

Rating: 4.5 stars!! Standalone romance.

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“A man like me isn’t capable of being your fucking white knight.”

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I absolutely loved this book!!! Sexy, exciting, addictive, well-written… it was everything I’d hoped for!!!

The heroine was strong and sassy, and the hero was this Alpha, dominant, wealthy CEO with a dark past. I loved their banter and sexual tension, and the way their shared history gave the story added layers and depth. I highly recommend it for fans of the Crossfire series. This is a new top favorite!! 😀

The story in HERO is about a woman, Lexie, who ends up working for a powerful man, Caine, with whom she shares a painful family history. What neither of them counted on though was their intense attraction to each other and even though Caine wants to hate her, that soon proves to be harder than he’d imagined.

“So what… you get to act out some kind of vengeance by working me into an early grave?”

“Something like that.” He smirked. “It’ll be a comfortable grave, though.” He told me the salary and I almost passed out…

Caine’s eyes glittered triumphantly at my obvious excitement. “As I said, it comes with a price.” His grim was wicked and I suddenly felt a little breathless.  “I’m a hard man to please. And I’m also a very busy man. You’ll do what I want when I want and I won’t always be nice about it. In fact, considering what your surname is, you can pretty much guarantee I won’t be nice about it.”

I’m not going to lie, Caine came off as a total asshole many a time throughout the book… but it wasn’t without reason. I felt like the motivation behind his anger and assholery made sense to me. I’m certainly not excusing or dismissing all his mistakes, but I’m saying that I understood what prompted them.

I really loved that Caine and Lexie’s past “connection” was revealed right at the beginning of the book… and that made the driving force behind this story be more about what they did about it, as opposed to focusing on it’s mystery, which was something I found really different and refreshing.

“I wished Caine could see what I saw — that we were the same in some ways. And I didn’t want to be someone he hated. However, it was clear Caine needed me to leave him alone. And I would. Even if it was the absolute last thing I wanted to do.”

The #1 thing that stood out to me as I read was how fantastic the writing was. I loved the flow of this story and I loved the way the author described the details and nuances of emotion. It really got me right inside these characters’ minds and allowed me to perfectly visualize the whole story as I read.

Despite Caine’s goal to make her life miserable, Lexie was equally determined to get through to him and show him that she was different than her family. She truly believed that she could break down his walls… In contrast, Caine was totally determined to hold on to his (albeit understandable) grudge. I loved their back-and-forth banter. Between his obvious discomfort, her small triumphs, their conflicting goals but ultimately same desires, this story kept me smiling, chuckling, and fanning myself for pages on end.

Luckily, it became clear quite quickly that he did indeed have a heart — despite how well he chose to disguise it under his antagonistic exterior. But regardless, there was no denying that he was “kind of honourable in a fucked-up way” and one of the highlights of the book for me was seeing the way he slowly came around and the way both their relationship and attraction built alongside that change.

“Caine, is it?

“Mr. Carraway,” I corrected myself.

She chortled. “You can call him Caine, sweetheart. He’s not a god.”

“Do you think you could tell him that? Because I don’t think he knows.”

Ohhhh the sexual tension between them was SO intense!! It was HOT, sexy, like everything else in this book, the writing really shone through. I’d go so far as to say that this one one of the best written romances I’ve read. Every single glance, gesture, action, line delivery, everything was perfectly described.

“Say you’re mine. Right here, right now, you’re mine,” he growled.

I have to say that I was warned pretty strongly prior to starting this book that I should be prepared for Caine to be a supreme asshole extraordinaire but maybe it’s just that I’ve read a lot of darker romances but even though he certainly had his moments, I honestly found that I quite understood his behaviour. It was clear based on the way he was so often apologetic that he wasn’t really trying to be an ass, there was just a lot of baggage carried over from his past.

And like I said, he may have made some mistakes at times but he most certainly apologized. You just have to love a dominant Alpha hero who is humble enough to admit he fucked up and give a good apology.

He briefly closed his eyes, and there was remorse written all over his face. “Jesus, Lex, I should never have said what I said. As soon as the words were out of my mouth…”He lowered is head and I found my eyes caught in his. “You are the last person in the world I want to hurt.”

I’d put this book in the same category as Crossfire (and Fifty Shades minus the BDSM) but instead of a series, this is a complete standalone story with a damaged, moody, powerful, and dominant hero who is healed through his relationship with a woman he unexpectedly falls in love with. 

I haven’t read a Samantha Young book in quite a while but reading HERO definitely made me want to go out and catch up on every single one of her other books that I’d missed. I love her writing, I loved this story, and it’s easily a new favorite of mine. A top recommendation!

Rating: 4.5 stars. Standalone Adult romance.

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