Blog Tour: Ex-Factor & Unbreakable by Elisa Dane (Reviews & Giveaway)

 

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Ex-Factor by Elisa Dane 

Release Date: April 14, 2014

Pages: 207

Publisher: Swoon Romance

Series: Diamond Girls #1
Source: Publisher in exchange for an honest review

Purchase: Amazon | B&N

Description from Goodreads:

Nevaeh Evan’s life is uprooted after her father’s death, when she moves in with her aunt and cousin, Livvie. Her plan to lay low at her new high school isn’t working. Her friend’s jerky boyfriend keeps asking her out, the guy she likes treats her like garbage, and the thought of tumbling again makes her want to hurl. 

So when her aunt pushes her into joining the elite X-FACTOR cheer leading squad, Navaeh goes along with it. 

But Nev feels she doesn’t deserve to be happy. Not after what happened the night her father died. 

Bodie Scott knows about grief all too well. Critically injured in an alcohol related accident the year before, Bodie struggles with the fact that he’ll never play football again, and he’s so far behind in credits he can’t see straight. That is, until he meets Nev. Haunted by their bloody pasts and wary of a shared future, Nev and Bodie turn to one another for comfort and support, and realize they’re not so alone after all. And when the party scene at school threatens the life of a loved one, the two stop at nothing to keep the past from repeating itself. 

Ex-Factor is book 1 in the Diamond Girls series from Elisa Dane.

This is one of those books that pretty much sucked me in right from the start and didn't let me go until the end. I started this book with every intention of pacing myself as I read, but I ended up flying through it in a day. There was so much I liked about this book, and though it was not perfect, I still highly enjoyed it.

The characters were real. They had real feelings, problems, and thoughts, and I connected with them well. The main character, Nev, was the one who narrated the story, and I definitely felt her struggle throughout the story. Not saying I didn't roll my eyes at her a time or two, but she was overall a good character. And Bodie, her guy. Goodness I heart him. He was just fantastic. I kind of wanted to slap a bit of sense into him a few times, but he ultimately won me over with his sweet, swoon-worthy ways.

The romance worked for me. In all ways. I would have liked things to have been straightened out between Nev and Bodie earlier than they actually were, but that's almost always something I want, so this book isn't hurting me any. They were cute and I wanted them to be together.

I enjoyed the plot and liked the general message. It's a serious thing, and I liked that it wasn't taken lightly. I somewhat felt like the situation was dramatized a little bit, just in the things that were said. I get why it was like that (since we couldn't actually SEE what was going on), but it seemed like sometimes things were said that we all already got. Like at one point a girl said something to the effect of "she's going to drive--DRUNK!" and I was like...yeah. I got that. Other than those little things, though, I liked the seriousness of the topic.

Overall, I absolutely enjoyed reading Ex-Factor. I liked the characters and their stories, and going through their struggles that felt real. Plus, I loved the swoonage. Ex-Factor may not be perfect, but I'd say it's definitely worth reading.

 

Unbreakable by  Elisa Dane 

Release Date: June 4, 2014

Pages: 223

Publisher: Swoon Romance

Series: Diamond Girls #2
Source: Publisher in exchange for an honest review

Purchase: Amazon | B&N

Description from Goodreads:

Perception is everything to sixteen-year-old Olivia Brown. With her freakishly hot boyfriend, volunteer work at the local animal shelter, successful beauty channel on YouTube, and well-earned spot on X Factor Cheer's elite level five Diamond Girl team, Livvie's the girl every other girl wants to be. At least, that's the illusion she's aiming for. 

But Livvie's seemingly perfect life is anything but. Lying about the bruises her boyfriend gives her, and cowering beneath his raging temper becomes a regular way of life until she unwittingly witnesses her drunken neighbor beating his step-son, the town bad boy, Reid Tate. 

For Reid, vulnerability is the enemy. Opening up, and letting people in gives them the power to disappoint. Growing up with a co-dependent mother and an abusive alcoholic father, Reid has endured all the disappointment he can stomach. 

But when his pretty, do-good neighbor witnesses his step-dad beat him to within an inch of his life, and not only call the cops, but keeps quiet at school about what she saw, Reid wonders if maybe, just maybe, he's found someone he can finally trust. 

UNBREAKABLE is book two in the Diamond Girls series from Elisa Dane. EX-FACTOR is an Amazon bestseller in three categories in the United States, including Girls in Sports, Teen Sports and Teen Sports and Hobbies. 

I love how this book contained a bunch of things I LOVE in novels. It had characters that were pretty darn cool. There was a perfect amount of romantic elements. There was a common issue between the protagonist and her boy toy. Honestly, this book had SO MANY things within it to make me love the crap out of it.

Livvie took time for me to like. At first, I was adjusting to how different she seemed between the first book and the second. She felt like a whole different character in this one. Ultimately, I liked her, but it was still weird at first. She is also a character that needs to chill and COMMUNICATE. Her issue made it hard for her to feel comfortable telling people, I understand (seriously--I UNDERSTAND), but that doesn't change my feelings. Especially her communication issues with Reid. It took me until close to the end to completely like Livvie, but I respected her and her situation the whole way through the novel.

Reid was my favorite kind of guy. He was a bad boy who didn't exactly make nice with loads of people who he didn't know for a while. Something of a manwhore before Livvie, but he didn't show that in this story, so I couldn't hold it against him. He was a bad boy who was actually a nice guy with his own troubles. And goodness gracious, I heart him something fierce.

The romance made me feel happy inside. It was so sweet to see Reid become the kind of person who helped his girl bake desserts and whatnot. And he was so protective. They made my favorite kind of couple--not exactly surprising, considering he was my favorite kind of guy. 

I enjoyed the plot of this one even more than the one of the first book. This one tackled a different topic, and this one was tackled in a much smoother fashion. I LOVED watching the characters deal with their situations and make it through in their own ways. The plot paired with Elisa Dane's writing worked for me positively. I just enjoyed this book oh so much.

Overall, I absolutely loved Unbreakable. I adored Reid and I swooned so much for him. Reid and Livvie's story isn't completely smooth, but it was enjoyable and felt real in so many ways. I can't wait for the third book in this series, so I can fall in love with another work from Elisa Dane!

I'm a lover of books (YA & Adult romance), chocolate, reality television, and am a proud mother to three All Star cheerleaders. Woot!

I write Contemporary YA romance with cheerleaders. Yep. I write what I know, and it's my hope that my stories will not only take you on a romantic journey that will warm your heart, but that you'll find a new respect and interest in the sport of Cheerleading you may not have had before.

Author Links: 

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Blog Tour: Perfectly Messy by Lizzy Charles (Review of Effortless With You & Giveaway)

 

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Effortless With You by Lizzy Charles 

Release Date: 2013

Pagecount: 249

Publisher: Swoon Romance

Series: Effortless With You #1

Source: Publisher in exchange for an honest review

Buy It: Amazon | B&N | Kobo

Description from Goodreads:

School is out and Lucy is ready for the perfect summer: lazy days at the pool, invitations to the most exclusive parties, and romantic dates with her hot new boyfriend. That is, until she lands in trouble one too many times and her parents issue the ultimate punishment: a summer job. Suddenly, the summer can't end fast enough.

To make matters worse, the job is painting houses with Justin, the most popular, egotistical guy in school. Spending all summer with Justin might be other girls' dreams, but definitely not Lucy's. After all, Justin is cocky, annoying, and a jerk. So what if he's the most beautiful jerk Lucy's ever seen? Or that his grin makes her forget she’s mad at the world? Or that maybe, just maybe, there's more to Justin than Lucy realizes. Only one thing is certain: it won’t be the summer she wanted, but it might be exactly the one she needs.

I was kind of skeptical about this book at first. From what I could tell, this would be a cute book that I'd enjoy, but right at the beginning I kind of started to question that because the main character danced along the lines of one that would bother me the whole time. After getting used to the character and her personality, and getting into her story, I ended up enjoying Effortless With You so much.

Lucy has an attitude. Not really a snarky kickass attitude, but the kind of attitude some teenagers have that make you want to slap them. She starts out with a questionable relationship with her parents, and she's one of those mean girls who isn't outright mean, but stands by as her friend is mean. Oh, and she must have the hot I'm-only-here-to-get-in-your-pants boyfriend to top it all off. It kind of takes a bit to get to know Lucy and realize that she isn't terrible all the time. Actually, she isn't terrible at all. She just insecure and trying to do the best for herself in the way that she thinks is best--which is hard because she isn't too in tune with herself and who she is. 

And THAT is why I ended up loving Lucy. Not only does she have a magnificent character arc, but she turns out to be such an easy character to relate to. Don't get me wrong, I still wanted to slap her for her attitude problem, but by the time the story was over I actually felt like I could be friend with Lucy. You know, if she were a real person and not a fictional character. 

Justin, on the other hand, was likable from the very beginning. Yeah, he had that perfect golden boy thing about him, but he wasn't a douche. His perfect thing wasn't a cover for the A-hole he really was. He was just a super nice guy who tended to send mixed signals all the freaking time. That was my only real problem with Justin, though--that he was so clueless. And even if he wasn't clueless, it bothered me that he never really went for it with Lucy--that she had to. I LOVE that she did, but if Justin had feelings for Lucy for as long as he said he did, then he should have spoken up. Seriously. 

The storyline turned out to be a mix of Lucy's shenanigans and the happenings that lead to Lucy becoming more in tune with herself. Pretty close to everything that could go wrong for a teenage girl goes wrong for Lucy in this book. I'm not even kidding. This girl has some bad luck. I loved seeing Justin there through it all, though, even when he was sending his silly mixed signals. I especially loved watching Lucy's relationship with her mother transform. That was literally perfection, in my opinion.

And now, because I'm thinking about things going wrong for our lovely MC, I'm just going to say: ZACH PISSED ME OFF. So. Much. Not even because he was a jerkwad. Nope. Because of what he said when that thing happened at Matt's party. I honestly had to stop and say, out loud, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" when he said it. I'm sure I'm not the only one who wanted to punch things at that part. Ahem. "Why are you wearing that dress if you didn't want this?" Or something to that effect. Whatever. Pissed. Me. Off.

Aaaaand end rant.

Back to the actual review. The romance was cute and sweet, but it did take a while to establish itself. More than once I wondered if Lucy would end the book single. That wouldn't have bothered me TOO MUCH, so long as she and Justin were still besties. But no worries. They work things out and they're adorable. I even loved a majority of their working up to being a couple. They're both good people and I liked the happiness. My only real problem was how long it took them to become a THING. 

Overall, I positively enjoyed this incredibly sweet story. Lizzy Charles has written a fabulous novel with an enthralling story and characters that won me over and had me rooting for them all the way through the very last page.

Perfectly Messy by Lizzy Charles 

Release Date: May 27, 2014

Publisher: Swoon Romance

Series: Effortless With You #2

Buy It: Amazon | Kobo

Description from Goodreads:

Popularity isn't everything it's cracked up to be. Justin Marshall knows this better than most. For the captain of the basketball team, small business owner, and son of Minnesota's next governor, life can get pretty overwhelming. But Justin can handle anything as long as he has Lucy, the girl who fell for the man he’s trying to be.

But for Justin and Lucy, finding time together proves challenging. Stolen kisses and whispered promises just aren't enough. That is, until scandalous photos of the couple are leaked to a press intent on creating a juicy scandal during Justin's dad's gubernatorial campaign. And when Lucy becomes fair play for the tabloids and gossip pages, Justin does the only thing he can to protect her: he breaks her heart.

For Lucy, junior year is everything she hoped it would be: new friends, second chances, and a boyfriend she can’t stop kissing. That is, until the boy she’s pretty sure she loves chooses the life his family wants for him, over her.

Now it’s up to Lucy to teach him what it really means to have everything. Because for Justin, being who everyone needs him to be just might cost him the one person he can’t live without.

When Lizzy Charles isn’t scrambling to raise her two spunky toddlers or caring for premature and sick babies as a neonatal intensive care nurse, she’s in a quiet corner writing or snuggled up with a novel and a few squares of dark chocolate. Black tea keeps her constant and she loves guacamole. She married her high school sweet heart, a heart-melting musician, so it’s no surprise she’s fallen in love with writing contemporary YA romance novels.

Author Links: 

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Blog Tour: Twelve Steps by Veronica Bartles (Review & Giveaway)

 

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Twelve Steps by Veronica Bartles 
Release Date: March 25, 2014
Format: eARC
Publisher: Swoon Romance
Source: YA Bound Tours in exchange for an honest review
Buy It: Amazon | B&N

Description from Goodreads: 
Sixteen-year-old Andi is tired of being a second-class sibling to perfect sister Laina. The only thing Andi’s sure she has going for her is her awesome hair. And even that is eclipsed by Laina's perfect everything else.

When Andi’s crush asks her to fix him up with Laina, Andi decides enough is enough, and devises a twelve-step program to wrangle the spotlight away from Laina and get the guy.

Step 1: Admit she’s powerless to change her perfect sister, and accept that her life really, really sucks.

Step 4: Make a list of her good qualities. She MUST have more than just great hair, right?

Step 7: Demand attention for more than just the way she screws things up.

When a stolen kiss from her crush ends in disaster, Andi realizes that her twelve-step program isn’t working. Her prince isn’t as charming as she'd hoped, and the spotlight she’s been trying to steal isn’t the one she wants.

As Laina’s flawless façade begins to crumble, the sisters work together to find a spotlight big enough for both to shine. 

I read this book in one sitting. I mean, it's not like this is an extraordinarily long book or anything, but still. I sat down and I read this whole thing in just a few hours. The biggest reason this is important? I was in the middle of reading Sentinel by Jennifer L. Armentrout at the time. If you know me, you know that reading a different book while I could be reading one of hers is kind of a big deal. But Twelve Steps was so worth it! 

I adore this premise. I'm the third child myself, so I can kind of get where Andi's coming from. Not completely, since I don't have any sisters, but still. The idea of a twelve step program to get past feeling inferior was awesome. My only dilemma is that I wish the twelve steps had more to do with the story. Don't get me wrong--there are twelve steps in this story. But they don't pertain to what was going on as much as I'd hoped. Which isn't a huge deal, since I still very much enjoyed this novel.

Andi was such a lively protagonist. I actually had a great time sticking around inside her head throughout this story. I kind of wished she would stop being so gosh darn stubborn about some certain things...but overall, I was cool with her. She had a personality that I just loved. 

Andi's sister was actually really friendly. I'd imagined her big sister to be terrible to her, since she had sibling issues, but they got along pretty well. I didn't like Laina as much as I liked Andi, but I didn't really have a problem with her, either. Well, except for her complete obliviousness for Jared's feelings. I mean, COME ON. Open your eyes. Her blindness to that reality did get annoying. But still, she wasn't too bad. A great sister, for sure.

Speaking of Jared...yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of him. I started out thinking I might heart him, but nope. He was kind of a jerk to Andi. I'm not okay with that, no matter how conflicted he was over Laina. And Shane...I know he has nothing to do with Andi's romantic relationships, but I must say that he seemed sweet, but I liked him even less than I liked Jared. I actually wanted to slap Shane a couple times. So yeah, I totally prefer Jared and, even though he wasn't great to Andi, I think he and Laina are perfect.

And then there is Dave. I was on his team from the moment we met the guy. Why? Because he was nice. And that little boy was like "that's the girl you told my mom about" and I legit was like AWWWW. He had me from that point on, and he totally deserved it. He was so nice, and sweet, and can I just have him, please? I'm kind of mad at Andi for taking so long to get on the Dave train, officially, but since I like Andi, I'll let it slide. 

Overall, Twelve Steps is all kinds of cute. It's sweet and fun and the perfect story to pick up when you just want to read something to make you feel good and happy. I loved these characters, and their story was just as adorable as the cover suggests. I am definitely looking forward to checking out whatever Veronica Bartles has coming our way next. 

As the second of eight children and the mother of four, Veronica Bartles is no stranger to the ups and downs of sibling relationships. (She was sandwiched between the gorgeous-and-insanely-popular older sister and the too-adorable-for-words younger sister.) She uses this insight to write stories about siblings who mostly love each other, even while they’re driving one another crazy.   When she isn’t writing or getting lost in the pages of her newest favorite book, Veronica enjoys knitting fabulous bags and jewelry out of recycled plastic bags and old VHS tapes, sky diving (though she hasn’t actually tried that yet), and inventing the world’s most delectable cookie recipes.  TWELVE STEPS is Veronica Bartles's first novel.

 

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