Category: Giveaway (Page 35 of 38)

Item: Under the Lights
Rating: 4
Author: Anna

RELEASE DAY + TRAILER + EXCERPT + GIVEAWAY – Every Last Breath (The Dark Elements #3) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

July 28, 2015 / Jen / 0 Comments

The Epic Finale in Jennifer L. Armentrout’s

Dark Elements Series…Who Will She Choose?
(BTW we here at Star-Crossed say that she better choose Roth!!)

Every choice has consequences—but seventeen-year-old Layla faces tougher choices than most. Light or darkness. Wickedly sexy demon prince Roth, or Zayne, the gorgeous, protective Warden she never thought could be hers. Hardest of all, Layla has to decide which side of herself to trust.

Don’t miss the conclusion to this stunning Young Adult Paranormal series filled with danger and romance published by HarlequinTEEN.

Grab your copy today!

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Trailer:

Every Last Breath Synopsis:

Some loves will last ‘til your dying breath

Every choice has consequences—but seventeen-year-old Layla faces tougher choices than most. Light or darkness. Wickedly sexy demon prince Roth, or Zayne, the gorgeous, protective Warden she never thought could be hers. Hardest of all, Layla has to decide which side of herself to trust.

Layla has a new problem, too. A Lilin—the deadliest of demons—has been unleashed, wreaking havoc on those around her…including her best friend. To keep Sam from a fate much, much worse than death, Layla must strike a deal with the enemy while saving her city—and her race—from destruction.

Torn between two worlds and two different boys, Layla has no certainties, least of all survival, especially when an old bargain comes back to haunt them all. But sometimes, when secrets are everywhere and the truth seems unknowable, you have to listen to your heart, pick a side—and then fight like hell…

Amazon Barnes and Noble iBooks IndieBound Kobo BAM**

“Armentrout is a major talent…I just can’t stop reading!”

—New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter

“Armentrout works her magic with swoon-worthy guys and a twist you never see coming.”

–#1 New York Times bestselling author Abbi Glines on White Hot Kiss

And don’t miss the first titles in the Dark Elements Series!

BITTER SWEET LOVE

Amazon Barnes and Noble iBooks BAM Kobo

WHITE HOT KISS

Amazon Barnes and Noble BAM iBooks IndieBound ** Kobo

STONE COLD TOUCH

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Excerpt:

Roth cleared his throat. “Shortie, look…look at your hand.”

Look at my hand? Why in the world would he be asking me to do that in the midst of all the cray?

“Do it,” he said quietly and too gently.

The dread exploded in my gut like buckshot, and my gaze dropped to my left hand. I expected to see the weird marbling of black and gray, a mixture of the demon and Warden that existed inside of me and a combination I’d become almost familiar with by now. My nails had lengthened and sharpened, and I could tell they were hard enough to cut through steel, as hard as my skin, but my skin…it was still pink. Really pink.

“What the…?” My gaze traveled to my other hand. It was the same. Just pink. My wings twitched, reminding me that I had shifted.

Zayne swallowed. “Your…your wings…”

“What about my wings?” I almost screeched, reaching be‑ hind me. “Are they broken? Did they not come out—” The tips of my fingers came into contact with something as soft as silk. My hand jerked back. “What…”

Stacey’s watery eyes had doubled in size. “Um, Layla, there’s a mirror above the fireplace. I think you need to look in it.”

I met Roth’s gaze for a second before I spun around and all but ran to the fireplace I was sure Stacey’s mom had never used. Clutching the white mantel, I stared at my reflection.

I looked normal, like I did before I shifted…like I was going to class or something. My eyes were the palest shade of gray, a watered-down blue. My hair was so blond it was almost white, and a mess of waves that went in every direction like usual. I looked like a colorless china doll, which was nothing new, except for the two fangs jutting out of my mouth. I wouldn’t show them off at school, but that wasn’t what caught my attention and held it.

It was my wings.

They were large, not as massive as Zayne’s or Roth’s, and normally they were almost leathery in texture, but now they were black…black and feathered. Like legit feathered. That soft, silky thing I’d felt? It had been tiny feathers.

Feathers.

“Oh my God,” I whispered at my reflection. “I have feathers.”

“Those are definitely feathered wings,” Roth commented.

I whipped around, knocking over a lamp with my feathered right wing. “I have feathers on my wings!”

Roth cocked his head to the side. “Yeah, you do.”

He was absolutely no help, so I turned to Zayne. “Why do I have feathers on my wings?”

Zayne shook his head slowly. “I don’t know, Layla. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Liar,” hissed Roth, shooting him a dark look. “You’ve seen that before. So have I.”

About Jennifer L. Armentrout:

# 1 New York Times and # 1 International Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing, she spends her time reading, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell Loki.

Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen. Her book Obsidian has been optioned for a major motion picture and her Covenant Series has been optioned for TV. Her young adult romantic suspense novel DON’T LOOK BACK was a 2014 nominated Best in Young Adult Fiction by YALSA.

She also writes Adult and New Adult contemporary and paranormal romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.

Website Facebook Twitter Novel Goodreads Author Goodreads

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BLOG TOUR + BOOK REVIEW + GIVE-AWAY – Under the Lights (Daylight Falls #2) by Dahlia Adler

June 24, 2015 / Anna

Under the Lights (Daylight Falls #2)
by Dahlia Adler
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
Josh Chester loves being a Hollywood bad boy, coasting on his good looks, his parties, his parents' wealth, and the occasional modeling gig. But his laid-back lifestyle is about to change. To help out his best friend, Liam, he joins his hit teen TV show, Daylight Falls...opposite Vanessa Park, the one actor immune to his charms. (Not that he's trying to charm her, of course.) Meanwhile, his drama-queen mother blackmails him into a new family reality TV show, with Josh in the starring role. Now that he's in the spotlight—on everyone's terms but his own—Josh has to decide whether a life as a superstar is the one he really wants.

Vanessa Park has always been certain about her path as an actor, despite her parents' disapproval. But with all her relationships currently in upheaval, she's painfully uncertain about everything else. When she meets her new career handler, Brianna, Van is relieved to have found someone she can rely on, now that her BFF, Ally, is at college across the country. But as feelings unexpectedly evolve beyond friendship, Van's life reaches a whole new level of confusing. And she'll have to choose between the one thing she's always loved...and the person she never imagined she could.

“The thing is, K-drama, sometimes you just have to accept that no one else’s opinion means shit, you know? Sometimes you just have to do what makes you happy and say fuck to everyone else.”

► These characters sound so REAL to me, I can’t even express how much I find this fantastic. Yes, I have to admit that it took me ages to warm to them, but in the end? In the end I’m glad to have had the opportunity to follow them.

✘ Josh is this guy we see in a Reality TV show and ask ourselves what the fuck he did to deserve (Haha, talk about a super prize) to show his life on TV. The fact is, I’m not objective because I hate that stuff. I have zero interest in anything celebrities related, especially when it comes to their love life/partying/children. I don’t fucking care about that. So, you know, I should hate him. I should despise him – I don’t. Truth be told, he annoyed and maddened me sometimes, but no, I don’t loathe him. Yet I did get pissed at his continual comments about girls doing blowjobs to him. I mean, was it really necessary to refer to them every time he was at a party? Every fucking time? I don’t think so. But move on.

So, yeah. Josh’s an asshole and a womanizer – sorry but there’s no other way to put it. Josh’s an asshole and yet, I doesn’t hate him, because first he’s unapologetic and doesn’t ask for people – including the readers – to love him and then he isn’t the love interest here. Don’t get fooled, I’m not saying that he’s that kind of super jerk but broken inside many authors LOVE throwing at us, because he’s not. He’s way more complex and interesting than that. According to me, although he doesn’t strike people as the unconfident type, he’s afraid and doesn’t trust himself for shit. In my opinion? He’s just feeling lonely ~~but hey, I’m not a psy you know, only a teacher^^~~. Anyway – Josh struggles to become the person he wants to be, hell, he doesn’t even know who he wants to be, and to see him growing up was fantastic.

✘ I’m not gonna lie, Vanessa wasn’t my favorite person in Behind the Scenes. Not because of the scheme they had to play with Liam (in my opinion Allie should have said what she thought, but hey, who am I to judge?) but although she was an interesting character, I had a hard time relating to her and yes, I have to admit that to me she was quite a bore.

So, did she improve here? Well, I kind of hated her at first. She annoyed me so much. But in the end? Definitely. Even if she doesn’t become my favorite character, being in her head helped me to understand her better, and in the end, I’m glad to have gotten the opportunity to really know her, even if I wasn’t always feeling involved in her story unfortunately. I mean, I enjoyed her romance with Brin, but in my opinion we didn’t get enough time to really become involved in their relationship. I definitely wanted more of them together, let’s say.

✘ I know they aren’t under the lights here (Haha) but can I say that I was ecstatic to see Liam and Allie again? Well, let’s be frank, mostly Liam. Really, I don’t know under what spell I fell, but every time he appears I can’t help but smile like a complete moron. However, I have to say that to see their relationship’s evolution through Vanessa and Josh’s eyes worried me something fierce. Of course I understand that life goes in the way and that people, even in love, don’t always act perfectly but damn, that was painful for me, and sometimes I felt like Liam acted out of character. And… Oh, fuck that. I’m just gonna say it : I cared more about Liam than I did about Josh or Vanessa, and I’m not sure it’s a good thing. Is it because I love his character too much that I wasn’t able to completely invest myself in their story? I don’t know. Maybe. It’s just how it was.

✘ Finally, the other girls – namely Shannah and all – were portrayed as such stereotypical bitches, for real, and as in Behind the Scenes, it did bother me. Really, it made me wonder if I was just too naive about the girls living in that world – anyway, I can’t believe that they’re all like that, I can’t, and if I’m wrong, well, it’s on me.

► When I reread what I wrote about the characters, it occurs to me that you may wonder why I liked this book if I wasn’t their biggest fan, but THAT’S THE THING!I’ll take flawed but realistic characters over perfectly boring ones any day, as long as the author doesn’t try to justify their actions. Dahlia Adler never does that. Josh is an asshole? Sure. Nobody is forcing me to love him – yet he is complex and multi-layered, he evolves, so YES, he IS interesting as a character (and he did make me laugh so much, but then, I may have an horrible sense of humor, because you know, I’m French and all)

Well, despite the fact that I didn’t quite like it as much as Behind the scenes~~but let’s face it, I’m such a fangirI when it comes to Liam, I can’t even believe myself~~, I thought it was a pretty courageous book, for starters, because it comes as a surprise.

Indeed this is NOT our regular contemporary romance. And this is so much BETTER as it is.

✘ This is not about a guy who’s going to fix some girl – or some guy, for that matter.

” /> This is about finding your place in the world.
” /> This is about difference and how to live in a world that put people in little boxes.
” /> This is about emancipation and how to learn to be true to yourself.
” /> This is about friendship and family – and what we’re ready to do to protect it.

~~And yes, we get to see Liam again but I have to stop being obsessed now. I swear, I will!~~

Oh, and by the way, this writing? I’m in love with it, and I shall read anything Dahlia Adler writes.

“Anyone who doesn’t want you to be happy with who you are is an asshole. Fuck pleasing everyone else. You only live once. Who are you gonna do it for?”

► What are you waiting for? Go discover these awesome books!

Follow the Under The Lights by Dahlia Adler Blog Tour and don’t miss anything! Click on the link to see the tour schedule.

I’m an Associate Editor of Mathematics by day, a Copy Editor by night, and I blog at The Daily Dahlia, YA Misfits, and the Barnes & Noble book blog. I also write contemporary YA (The Daylight Falls duology) and NA (The Radleigh University series). Rec-ing books is approximately my favorite thing in the universe, with macarons being a close second. Come say hi on Twitter, where I’m @MissDahlELama!

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BLOG TOUR + BOOK REVIEW + GIVEAWAY – The Ruins (The Union #2) by T.H. Hernandez

June 18, 2015 / Jen / 4 Comments

I am so excited to be a stop on this blog tour! That’s because this dystopian was EVERYTHING I was hoping it would be and then some. Below you can find out what this story entails, read my 4.5 Star review and enter an amazing giveaway (in case you missed it on release day). Enjoy!

BLOG TOUR + BOOK REVIEW + GIVEAWAY – The Ruins (The Union #2) by T.H. Hernandez

The Ruins (The Union #2)
by T.H. Hernandez
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
Heartbroken, grief-stricken, and wracked with guilt, seventeen-year-old Evan Taylor returned to the Union, leaving behind the boy she loved.

Now, she and her friends must find a way to do the impossible – warn the citizens of the Union about an impending rebel attack without alerting the government and risking retaliation against her friends in the Ruins.

When every move Evan makes is thwarted, it soon becomes clear she's being watched. Faced with a daily fight to stay one step ahead of her pursuers, she returns to the Ruins. But life in the Ruins has its own dangers, and soon she’s fighting a different battle – to stay alive long enough to discover the truth.

Review:

*Spoilers for The Union #1*

The Ruins had me run the gamut of emotions. I laughed, I cried, I squealed and I yelled horrible, horrible words to my poor kindle (thank you Bryce!)! You see, this was everything I was hoping the second book would be, and then some. Not only were there the characters and relationships that I fell madly in love with in the first book, The Union, but this time around I found the peril I was desperately seeking. I love getting sent into freak out mode where I can’t breathe and my hands are sweaty. Where I’m terrified about what is going to happen next. So of course I had a blast reading The Ruins, but now I have to wait for that third book, ack! I must know what happens next!!

I absolutely love when a second book contains my favorite elements from the first! Evan still has a ton of fire in her, even though her heart is in pieces. The last she saw Cyrus, he was escaping with his family and she has no clue where he is going, how she’ll ever contact him, and if she’ll ever see him again. So Evan puts all of her energy into trying her hardest to find a way to help the citizens of both The Ruins and The Union. Because she has an impossible task in front of of her. With the help of her friends (love, love, love Colin!), they are to somehow warn The Union citizens about an attack from the uprising, while keeping the innocents out in The Ruins safe. They come up against so many unknowns, and in the midst of trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together, they end up placing themselves in grave danger. Their lives have been marked, and nothing will ever be the same again.

Another thing that I absolutely loved was the relationships and friendships that Evan surrounded herself with. They felt so real. As though they could easily exist and play out in the real world with you and me. A dominating part of this story was the characters and their interactions, so it’s intricate to enjoy and become immersed in their everyday lives and interactions. I truly became obsessed with all of them! Well…..technically not all of them lol. So there’s a character in this story that I love to hate and his name is Bryce. He is the undercover detective that ultimately led Evan to be kidnapped in the first book, because of her association with him. She liked him, he still likes her, and now they are stuck spending a lot of time together. And I didn’t want Evan spending her time with him. I know, I’m being so petty. But that’s because I became loyal to Cyrus…..ohhh butterfly inducing, made me smile and swoon Cyrus! He was utter perfection and Bryce just isn’t. So I literally kept yelling at my kindle for Evan not to be nice to him. I don’t fault Evan in the least, because this is his area of expertise but ahem, I know it’s probably horrible to say but can he just die already? It could be doing something heroic? I know, I’m so bad at loving to hate characters. Bad Jen bad!

But what I want to talk about the most, I can’t. You see the story starts off with a few bumps here and there for Evan, but then things start to pick up and spiral into intense situations that had me glued to the pages. The scenes that Evan’s finds herself in become more dire and even at times horrifying. I loved every moment of what I can’t talk about! The situations, the decisions, the people, the places, oh it was SO good!

It was so much fun being back in a story where I adore the characters and felt invested in what was going on. Having the banter, friendships and commodore made me feel all warm and cozy being back in this familiar world. I loved trying to put the clues together and I’m extremely proud that I figured one out before it happened. By the way, best part ever!!!!! But I felt a little confused at the end of the book. I did not grasp a characters “interactions”, but since Hernandez does an excellent job of plotting out the reasoning behind why characters do what they do, I’m almost positive that my questions will be answered in the third book. And speaking of that third book, I can’t wait to read it! You’re not left in a perilous ending, but with so many things up in the air I’m excited to see what is going to come crashing down!

***ARC was kindly provided in exchange for an honest review***

Reading Order & Links: Amazon (click on covers), & Book Depository (click on book #)
The Union #1 Reviews: Jen	The Ruins #2 Reviews: Jen	The Uprising #3 Reviews: Jen
The Invasion #4 Reviews: Jen

T.H. Hernandez Bio:
When not visiting the imaginary worlds inside my head, I live in San Diego, California, with one husband, three children, two cats, and one dog. In addition to my day job as a technical writer and editor, I write young adult fiction. I love the intensity of teen emotions and the way they’re still figuring out life. When I’m not writing, you can find me with my nose in a book, hanging out with family and friends, hiking, or knitting. I’m obsessed with Facebook, young adult novels, bad lip reading videos, pumpkin spice lattes, microbrewed beers, and the San Diego Chargers. Links: Goodreads | Website | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram

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RELEASE DAY + EXCERPT + GIVEAWAY – The Ruins (The Union #2) by T.H. Hernandez

June 16, 2015 / Jen / 0 Comments

I am so excited for the release of T.H. Hernandez’s The Ruins! While reading this book, I laughed, I cried, I squealed and I yelled horrible, horrible words to my poor kindle (thank you Bryce!)! You see, this was everything I was hoping the second book would be, and then some. My review will be posted this Thursday, June 8th, but till then check out the exclusive excerpt and fantastic giveaway below!

The Ruins Synopsis:

Heartbroken, grief-stricken, and wracked with guilt, seventeen-year-old Evan Taylor returned to the Union, leaving behind the boy she loved.

Now, she and her friends must find a way to do the impossible – warn the citizens of the Union about an impending rebel attack without alerting the government and risking retaliation against her friends in the Ruins.

When every move Evan makes is thwarted, it soon becomes clear she’s being watched. Faced with a daily fight to stay one step ahead of her pursuers, she returns to the Ruins. But life in the Ruins has its own dangers, and soon she’s fighting a different battle – to stay alive long enough to discover the truth.

THE RUINS is the second book in THE UNION series, a young adult romantic adventure set in the near future.

Add to your Goodreads to-read list today: Click Here

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Exclusive Excerpt:

The scents of honeysuckle and fresh-cut grass float on a late summer night breeze. I stare up at clouds from the chaise lounge on the balcony. A thick marine layer inched its way in from the coast hours ago, blanketing the sky and obscuring the stars I was hoping to see. With the moon hidden and the Union lights off for the night, darkness envelopes me.

Grief, guilt, heartbreak, fear, loss, and abandonment swirl in my head, creating a vortex of pain and confusion keeping me awake. Three days ago I was planning a future with the boy I love. Cyrus was going to come back with me. We were going to figure out a way to warn the Union or stop an attack on it. Together. Now his brother is dead, and Cyrus stayed behind, unable to ignore his sense of duty, unwilling to abandon those who needed him most.

Over the soft murmuring of desalinated ocean water burbling through the aqueduct on its way to homes throughout the Province, I hear the door slide open behind me. I sit up as my bio-dad, Eddie, walks out and sits next to me. “Can’t sleep?”

I shift to my right, giving him more room. “No. You?”

He shakes his head, his wavy, cinnamon-colored hair sweeping his shoulders. “My grandmother used to say if you can’t sleep, it means you’re awake in someone else’s dreams.”

That’s a comforting sentiment. Is Cyrus dreaming about me now? Or is he like me, too afraid of the nightmares to close his eyes?

Eddie presses his lips together and studies me for several long seconds. “Are you ready to tell me where you really were all summer?”

His question catches me off guard. I thought he bought my story, the one I told him when I came back. The one Lisa fed him while I was in the Ruins. Posing as me, she texted my mom and Eddie from my tablet with regular updates on our fake adventures sailing off the southeastern coast. When I first showed up here yesterday afternoon, he didn’t seem to care where I’d been or what I’d been up to, only that I was here at all. I’m definitely not ready to have this conversation with him.

“I don’t know, are you ready to tell me where you were for the first twelve years of my life?”

He shifts his weight on the chaise next to me and sighs. “I’m not sure how many times I can apologize.”

“You think another ‘I’m sorry’ is going to fix everything?”

“Look, I know I was a lousy father to you, but—”

“You weren’t a lousy father, you weren’t any kind of father at all. You were non-existent.”

He rubs his palms on his thighs and stands. “You’re welcome to stay here as long as you’d like, but you might want to ratchet the anger down a few notches.” He moves toward the door before turning back. “You’re going to have to forgive me some day.”

I raise my head and turn toward his dark silhouette. “Why? You think sending me a ticket and letting me hang out with your new kids makes up for everything?”

“No,” he says quietly, “because hanging on to all that resentment isn’t healthy.” He walks back into the house, sliding the door closed behind him.

With a heavy sigh, I fall on my back and stare back up into the blackness. Seriously? After being nothing to me for three-quarters of my life, where does he get off being all parental right now?

T.H. Hernandez Bio:

When not visiting the imaginary worlds inside my head, I live in San Diego, California, with one husband, three children, two cats, and one dog. In addition to my day job as a technical writer and editor, I write young adult fiction. I love the intensity of teen emotions and the way they’re still figuring out life. When I’m not writing, you can find me with my nose in a book, hanging out with family and friends, hiking, or knitting. I’m obsessed with Facebook, young adult novels, bad lip reading videos, pumpkin spice lattes, microbrewed beers, and the San Diego Chargers. Links: Goodreads | Website | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram

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RELEASE DAY + EXCERPT + GIVEAWAY – Scorched (Frigid #2) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

June 16, 2015 / Jen / 0 Comments

We are so excited to bring you the Release Week Blitz for Jennifer L. Armentrout’s SCORCHED! SCORCHED is a standalone New Adult Contemporary Romance and is a part of Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Frigid Series. The first book Frigid was 5 stars, Click Here to read our review. Plus, below you will find an excerpt and an amazing giveaway! Enjoy!

Amazon Paperback Amazon Kindle Barnes and Noble **iBooks

SCORCHED Synopsis:

Sometimes life leaves a mark…

Most days, Andrea doesn’t know whether she wants to kiss Tanner or punch him in the gut. He is seriously hot, with legit bedroom eyes and that firefighter body of his, but he’s a major player, and they can’t get along for more than a handful of minutes. Until now.

Tanner knows he and Andrea have had an epic love/hate relationship for as long as he can remember, but he wants more love than hate from her. He wants her. Now. Tomorrow. But the more he gets to know her, the more it becomes obvious that Andrea has a problem. She’s teetering on the edge and every time he tries to catch her, she slips through his fingers.

Andrea’s life is spiraling out of control, and it doesn’t matter that Tanner wants to save her, because when everything falls apart and she’s speeding toward rock bottom, only she can save herself.

Sometimes life makes you work for that happily ever after…

Praise for SCORCHED:

“Armentrout’s latest new adult offering tackles substance abuse and mental illness — and, thankfully, the love of a good man is not going to be what heals this heroine.” – RT Book Reviews

SCORCHED Excerpt:

Tanner

Aw, shit.

I watched Andrea walk into the living room, the normal twitch of her hips absent. No one swayed ass like Andrea, and seeing it gone from her step was answer enough. Our normal whatever-the-fuck-it-was between us had gone further than I intended. No doubt what I’d said had cut her, but shit, it was no different than any other day.

My hand tightened on the neck of the bottle. For the life of me, I had no idea what the hell Andrea Walters’s problem was. Honestly. No fucking clue. One minute, sweet and sugary words parted those pouty pink lips of hers. Next second, she was a fire-breathing dragon from hell—a hot, fire-breathing dragon, but still. Her moods flipped more quickly than cups did during a game of flip cup.

Maybe it was because she was a redhead?

I smirked.

She’d always been this way with me, and the most fucked-up think about it, there was a part of me that actually looked forward to whatever was going to come out of her mouth. Twisted as fuck. It was like a game between us, to see who could hit the hardest without lifting a finger. If nothing else, it was damn entertaining—or at least, it had been until now. Now, I wasn’t too sure about it.

Those pretty doe eyes of hers had looked suspiciously damp right before she’d looked away, and yeah…that didn’t sit right with me.

Kyler shot me a look as he walked past me and grabbed a beer out of the fridge, but I watched Andrea sit on the edge of the couch, her posture unnaturally rigid.

Sydney leaned against the arm. “We’re thinking about leaving early in the morning, around six.”

My gaze flicked to Andrea, expecting her to make some kind of crack about not getting up that early, but she was abnormally quiet. My spine stiffened.

“That should put us at the cabin between nine and ten in the morning, depending on traffic.” Kyler stood beside me as he screwed off the cap. “Then we’ll be heading back the following Monday.”

“Sounds good to me.” I didn’t take my eyes off Andrea as she fiddled with a strap on her sandals, slipping them onto her feet.

Sydney glanced at me, smiling softly. “You’re definitely off from the fire department?”

I nodded. Kyler had mentioned weeks ago about wanting to hit up the cabin before everyone headed back to class, and I’d requested the time off then. Which had meant I’d pulled a lot of doubles, but I hadn’t minded it. Wasn’t too different from the twelve-hour shifts we worked in the first place, and I’d only be there until February of next year, and then I was off to the academy. Not that I was in any hurry to leave the fire department, but being a cop was in my blood. Except I wanted to be a good cop. I’d probably still volunteer at the fire hall once I knew what kind of schedule I was looking at on the force.

“It makes sense if we drive up together.” Sydney toyed with a strand of her hair. “Kyler and I can pick you two up.”

Andrea had twisted toward Sydney and started to protest the whole idea of taking one car. I zoned out, staring at her as the bottle of beer dangled from the tips of my fingers.

Damn…she was a cute girl. Nah, she was more than cute, and it wasn’t like this was the first time I’d noticed that. From the first time I’d seen her at the bar with Sydney, she’d done more than just poke my interest. Hell, anyone with eyes knew she was a very pretty girl. Lush lips. Freckled cheeks and thick, dark eyelashes. Come to think of it, she reminded me of a girl I’d had a crush on in middle school. Hell, couldn’t remember that chick’s name, but she’d had freckles and red hair. I think I used to pull on her braids or some annoying shit like that. My lips tipped up in a small grin as I lifted the bottle to my mouth. Andrea was a motherfucking firecracker, though, not the kind of girl who was easily tamed.

Hell, not the kind of girl you even wanted to tame.

And don’t miss the first standalone book in the series…

FRIGID

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About Jennifer L. Armentrout:

# 1 NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing. she spends her time reading, working out, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell Loki.

She also writes adult and New Adult romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.