Black Lies by Alessandra Torre

WWWOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW.
WOW, WOW, WOW!!! 


Black lies was a dark, sexy, twisted, and addictive surprise. Brant and Lana are amazing characters, their chemistry leaps off of the pages and makes you really understand their relationship. Then we meet Lee who is rougher around the edges and that somehow just makes him more appealing. If Brant and Lana leap off the pages then Lana and Lee race past the charts. Just a personal opinion, as you can tell I'm team Lee. Between the three of them I'm surprised my book didn't catch itself on fire.




My mind raced through this book with thoughts of who she would choose and which male character was my favorite. Brant was rich, smart, hot, kind, and many other good qualities but he has a secret that comes between he and Lana somehow. Lee was rough, crude, hard working, tough, sexy, hard to get along with, and confident...among other things. My thought process through this book was that Lee eventually is going to want Lana to choose. Besides that what if they get caught?? And then when you don't think it gets much better...



PLOT TWIST FROM HELL!!! The best kind. Everything ties in perfectly, the whole book builds to this crescendo, and it's best ending possible for this book. Everything feels right and complete and as it should be. The only reason I took one star away is I personally don't like how the book jumps back and fourth between times. It's not drastic just enough for me to get frustrated. But! Brava to Alessandra Torre!!!! This book is great, if you're thinking about reading it I strongly recommend Black Lies. 

My overall score for this read is a 4 out of 5 stars. That's pretty damn good coming from me because I am a tough critic. You just haven't seen my bad side yet. I'll get to that eventually. One Page At A Time.

Emotional Turmoil.

So. It seems I have a wee bit of a problem. What is that problem you may ask? Oh! Well, I get way too emotionally invested in my books. Which you wouldn't think would be a problem right? Wrong. How is this a problem? Apparently, when you get as emotionally invested in words on a page as I do...you start to take things a bit too personally. Someone dies? Endless tears. Someone gets engaged? I am practically checking my mail for an invitation to a fictitious wedding between two characters from a book that's aren't real but feel totally real to me. Also, not only do they feel like real people, but they also feel like my friends. So why wouldn't they invite me to their wedding??? One character cheated on the other character? All hell breaks loose. Hell hath no fury. It's funny because you'd think I was the woman scorned. I am really starting to wonder if this is healthy. If I went to a therapist I'm sure they would ask me how this makes me feel. EMOTIONAL!!! IT MAKE ME FEEL EMOTIONAL!!!
Another question a therapist might ask is: Does this affect your daily life? Hmmm. Well...let me just think. YES.
How does it affect your daily life you may wonder? Well, I get angry at people for things that characters in my book do. Like when a guy cheats on a girl in a book, I get mad at my boyfriend because it feels like I was cheated on. I ignore people, my phone, and even meals all because I'm in the middle of a book I can't put down. Oh and when something happens in a story I laugh, cry, and slam things around in public as a reaction. Which makes the people around think I'm schizophrenic.

This what emotional turmoil feels like.

Sweet Ruin by Kresley Cole

" Vampirism did have benefits. No running out of toilet tissue, no flu, no periods."

Where do I sign up? So Kresley Cole is a favorite author of mine and she is one of the few authors I have found that writes Paranormal Romance like she herself is a goddess. I kid you not. I absolutely love her books and I was super excited to have the opportunity to read this book for review. I literally happy-danced. 

My first compliment is...this is a stunning cover. Absolutely breathtaking. Simply gorgeous. Second...Kresley Cole knows how to torch the words right off of the pages in every book of hers I've read to date. It is some seriously hot reading. It really makes you wish otherworldly beings like that existed because let me tell you mmm mmm mmm. Yummy. One thing I look for in books are good charaters. It's important for me that I like the charaters, or at least a few, that I'm reading about. No one wants to know about people that don't even like. Some of my favorite characters come from these very books. Nucking Futs Nix the Ever-knowing Soothsayer is definitely one of them. She is a reaccuring character in just about all of the Immortals After Dark series, I can't wait for her book. The male protagonist in this book Rune was not my favorite at times (and if you read this book you'll know exactly what times I'm talking about, trust me) but he still had something about him that made you want to understand him. His initial role in this bool is to kill Nix, which I was not pleased with. Josie on the other hand, was kick-ass! And sassy. And sarcastic. And I loved her spunk. If she were a real person I would definitely force her to be my friend. She reminds me of me!




The story itself was engaging and interesting but it was a little slow at times, but nothing too alarming. Honestly I read it in less than half a day, while doing laundry, cooking dinner, and cleaning house. So obviously it was good or there is no way it would have kept my interest through all that. I love Thad, Jo's brother. He does appear in other books so I guess as you read on in the series the characters that appear in more that one book, you tend to form more of an attachment to. His is another book I'm excited to read when it comes out. The book starts with him and Josie both in being homeless at a young age and Jo caring for the both of them with a little help from MizB a local librarian that sometimes feeds them and looks after Thad for an hour or so. Then one day Josie is shot and killed while Thad is with MizB. After that things get rough for Jo and she's forced to leave her brother behind. Not knowing anything of The Lore she grows up confused and alone, not even knowing what she is. Then she meets Rune...while he's having a Nymph orgy. Interesting, no? Obviously this is something Nix has to meddle in! Nix just can't help herself. After Josie and Rune team up (something Josie insisted on...in a unique way), Nix leads them on a rather extensive wild goose chase. And the rest, as they say, is history. Nix is probably the best matchmaker I know.

My overall rating is 4 Stars! I left a lot out so read on minions, read on!!!
This Advanced Reading Copy was provided to me by the publishers in exchange for an honest review.