Review of Can't Catch My Breath by Sarah Sutton

 

CAN LOVE BREAK FREE FROM THE PAST?

After losing my dad in a car accident, I’d rather pretend things are okay than be crushed by the grief and the guilt. Some might say that’s “living in denial,” but my friends buy the fake smiles, and my mom doesn’t seem to notice…or care.

And I’m doing great until I’m randomly paired with Vincent Castello, the most intimidating senior at Greenville High, for a class project. He’s my complete opposite—broody, moody, and he even has a lip ring. Interviewing any other classmate for this assignment would’ve been easy, but interviewing Vincent? Nearly impossible.

Because the car accident that killed my dad? It left Vincent’s father paralyzed.

Despite the awkward ice-breaker, I find myself drawn to Vincent. He sees past the mask I put up and he makes me laugh, something that I haven’t done in a long time. As we get closer, I realize that our worlds might not be that different.

Until something happens that changes it all.

I have to make a choice: can I put the past behind me, or will I let the grief and guilt of the accident consume me, and lose the guy who truly takes my breath away?

Amazon

My Review: 5 STARS

I’ve been rapidly making my way through Sutton’s books and this one is my favourite so far. The raw grief and emotions in the story had me in tears at some points. Addy and Vincent were just so perfectly created and with every hurdle in their way. The way the author penned Addy’s journey through loss just felt so very real, and hit the mark every single time. I have fallen in love with Sutton’s writing style and will be looking for all the new books she may have coming in the future. This one is a tear-jerker, but that ending? Oh god, it was perfect! Highly, highly, recommended!

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#TeaserTuesday

 

Hope is pretty sure her sister will never be her friend, even when she's trying to help...

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 [ID: A cracked yellow background with the title LYNNE & HOPE at the top and Out now in ebook and paperback just below it. The except reads:

“Yeah, well I can’t let you into my lab because the last thing I need is you touching something and contaminating the evidence.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Lynne, I’m fifteen, I’m not stupid, if you told me not to touch anything I wouldn’t.”
“Whatever,” Lynne said, in her usual exasperated tone. Now, I know I’m supposed to be working on my relationship with her but she pissed me off. She just couldn’t see me for who I was, when she looked at me she saw this immature child who took the attention away from her. She’s just a bitter spoilt brat and I told her so as I swivelled my chair around and headed out to reception.

At the bottom is Joey Paul and just below that the website www.joeypaulonline.com, in the bottom left corner is the Readers' Favorite 5 star review seal, and in the bottom right corner is the logo for Bug Books. END ID]

 

5 Facts About My Current WIP: Keep Your Secrets

 

5 FACTS ABOUT MY CURRENT WIP: KEEP YOUR SECRETS

Last week I gave you five facts about my other current WIP called Project: Diagnosis (found here) and this week I thought I would do the same for my other one, which is Keep Your Secrets. I do love sharing these facts with you all and filling you in on what's going on with my characters and writing journey.

So Keep Your Secrets is a YA paranormal/mystery, Sara is fifteen and was considered a gulfer until recently because she hadn't developed her psychic ability until then. In this world, you normally develop at eleven and then go off to do your specialised schooling depending on your ability. While starting at a new boarding school, she struggles to make friends, and ends up finding herself able to do things other psychics can't do. She gets pulled into the mystery of who's stalking one of the more popular girls and all that goes along with it.

FACT #1: SARA IS DISABLED
I have been writing more disabled characters lately and Sara is no different. As well as being psychic, she also has the kind of lung condition that I myself have. She's prone to wheezing, struggles with stairs, and finds herself struggling to keep up when it comes to the physical parts of her schooling. I wanted to write another character like this because too often my condition is unknown and I know that at fifteen I'd have loved to have seen a character like myself on the page.

FACT #2: SARA IS DUAL ABILITY
There are four known psychic abilities: telepathy, telekinesis, influencer, and pryokinesis. Usually it's genetic and so you'll pick up one, or sometimes both, of your parents ability. Sara is a gulfer, i.e someone who didn't present with any abilities, until the day she ended up with two, both telepathy and telekinesis. She really struggles with the idea of finally making her parents proud after so long as being seen as someone who wouldn't amount to anything in the psychic world.

FACT #3: HER SCHOOL IS BOTH PSYCHIC AND REGULAR
Gatherweed is mostly a psychic school, but it also allows for some regular students to board and attend alongside the psychics. Because being a psychic is such a high-class ability, these regular students are usually from well-off families and are looking to cement themselves with connections for their future. Sara was always due to go to Gatherweed at eleven but when she didn't present, she went to a normal school until the day she did. She's starting off in the tail end of the school year and she has a ton to catch up on in regards to psychic ability.

FACT #4: SARA IS UNUSUALLY TALENTED
Sara has picked up how to control her telekinesis and telepathy really really fast, to the point where she realises that she's more adept at what she can do than some of the people in her year who have been getting their lessons from age eleven. She can use her telekinesis to move massive objects, easily pick up on thoughts and also do something she's not really sure anyone else can do. It's not all good though, because it seems to bring about the wrong kind of attention.

FACT #5: THERE'S DANGER, INTRIGUE AND THE UNKNOWN
This story is paranormal/mystery so I would be remiss if I didn't hint at the mystery element. Sara doesn't make friends quickly, and when it becomes apparent that the one girl she kinda liked is in danger, Sara is quick to jump to her rescue, only there's more secrets to uncover, and there's a lot of things that the psychic youth haven't been told about the other races that live alongside them. Sara finds herself in the middle of all of it, and she might not be able to extract herself without massive harm coming to her.

So there we go, those are my five facts about my current WIP. I am just over the sixty percent mark with this book and I am loving where it's going, loving revealing piece by piece of the mystery element and also some of the world building that goes with it. Sara has been a fun character to write and to get to know, and I'm looking forward to writing the next two books in what might be a trilogy.

Any questions? Lemme know in the comments below!

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Review of A Girl From Forever by Yolanda McCarthy

 The secretive Forever Institute towers over London. Some say it’s a cult. Others call it mafia. To seventeen-year-old Fern, Forever is simply home, run by the scientists who created her. A home she’s never been allowed to leave.

Forever gave Fern everything. A body that will never age. Psychic abilities, if she can work out how to access them. A purpose: Fern will be part of a new dawn for humanity, although she’s never been told exactly how.

Then Fern is contacted by a cryptic telepath from outside the Institute, and learns some dark truths that make her question everything she’s been taught. Fern must sort truth from lies, and new loves from old loyalties, if she’s to survive the conspiracy surrounding her. But her new friend has secrets of his own…

Amazon

My Review: 5 STARS

I picked this up because the blurb and cover called to me. The idea that there could be psychic abilities and a serum that allowed people to live forever. Fern was an amazing character, the narrative engaging from the first page and drawing you into the story as it twisted and turned along the way. I ended up having to finish the book in one sitting, desperate to know what happened, what would become of Fern and Rehan, and this is a series that I will be watching. Highly recommended to all who love a good paranormal/supernatural story.

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#TeaserTuesday

 

Tara can't help what she sees, but she's sure Kaolin's dad didn't die naturally...

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 [ID: A cracked yellow background with the title DYING THOUGHTS - FIRST TOUCH at the top and Out now in ebook and paperback just above it. The except reads:

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Matthew replied. “I was trying to get your money for you.”
“I wish I could believe that.” The shorter man turned to his companion and nodded. The second guy – who was heavily built and looked like the scariest of bouncers – removed a gun from the inside of his pocket, aimed at Matthew and fired. Matthew stayed in the corner, but his legs crumpled beneath him and he slid to the floor. Dead.

At the bottom is Joey Paul and just below that the website www.joeypaulonline.com, and in the bottom right corner is the logo for Bug Books. END ID]

 

5 Facts About My Current WIP: Project: Diagnosis

5 FACTS ABOUT MY CURRENT WIP: PROJECT: DIAGNOSIS

It's that time again when I give you five facts about my current WIP, and this week I'm focusing on Project: Diagnosis. I've done this for the first two books in the series (Project: Witch Hunt & Project: Isolation) and am now in what I think will be the last book.

For those who don't know, the Abby Delany series is young adult, urban fantasy. Abby is 15, has undiagnosed conditions, and is also a witch. The world is set up such that witches are a dying breed but are slightly set apart from humans. The first book dealt with a witch hunt, and the second, and third, are the follow on from that. The story is set in 2020 and so there is a pandemic going on, but while I thought it would be a big part of the initial story, it's more there in the background, while Abby is trying to find some clue as to what's wrong with her.

FACT #1: ABBY HAS NEW WORRYING SYMPTOMS
By the end of the second book, Abby was already starting to display some new worrying symptoms that obviously have an impact on her day to day life. Now in book three, she's picking on more. With everything to do with the witch hunt still playing in the background of her life, Abby is starting to wonder if she'll ever get any answers, and if she does, will it be before or after her life is irrevocably changed?

FACT #2: HER COVEN ARE HER ROCK
With the whole trilogy, it has been clear that Abby is isolated from her peers, and beyond her three friends, she doesn't really have much support. Her parents are off and distant, more focused on other matters, and Abby is slowly becoming the one thing she is scared of most, a blank, losing her magic and her ability to keep up with her friends. At the same time, her coven is the rock holding her up. The four of them have been to hell and back, and they are not going to let Abby face any of this alone.

FACT #3: COPING WITHOUT MAGIC IS BECOMING A COMMON OCCURRENCE
Abby was, before all of this, deemed a strong witch who would carry her family's magic into the next generation. Of course once she got sick, her magic well just got emptier and emptier, and it feels like no one, bar her coven, really cares about that. She's struggling to keep her head above water with her regular school work, and then there's the magic lessons that she can rarely take part in. With her parents so fixated on Abby doing well, she's not really sure that they'll even notice that she can't do the smallest spell. Boosters are a thing, but after the events of the second book, she's struggling to find a combination that doesn't make her feel worse.

FACT #4: SHE DOESN'T KNOW WHO TO TRUST
With the events of the trilogy making it hard for Abby to know who's on her side, it's becoming clearer that she can't really trust anyone with even the simplest thing. People are lying to her, hiding things, and they're seemingly not caring just how much danger she's in. With her health faling even more, and answers becoming a thing of the past, Abby has to take a few leaps of faith in this book, and she doesn't know what will happen if she chooses the wrong person to trust.

FACT #5: THE TRUTH WILL NOT SET HER FREE
I can't go into too many details here because of spoilers, but there has been an ongoing thread throughout the trilogy and of course, it will be wrapped up in this book. Since the witch hunt started, Abby has been sure that the answers, the truth coming out, will be her salvation, and I can promise you this. It's going to rock Abby to her core and I don't know if she'll be able to come back from it.

So there we go, five facts about Project: Diagnosis, I am loving getting to write the last book in Abby's story and I can't wait to share some facts with you about the other book I'm writing, check in next week to find out more about that!

Any questions? Lemme know in the comments below! 

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Review of If The Broom Fits by Sarah Sutton

 

HOW DO YOU MOVE ON FROM SOMEONE YOU NEVER FELL OUT OF LOVE WITH?

I swear, I've got to be the only person on the planet that hates Halloween. At least the only person in my small town of Hallow, and they practically worship the holiday. Ugh.

And my ex-boyfriend, Lucas, thinks he can change my mind by making me take part in “festive activities.” Apparently carving pumpkins and watching scary movies is going to magically change my mind about the holiday? Yeah, right.

But I've never told anyone the truth of why I hate Halloween or the truth about why I broke up with Lucas. Definitely haven't told anyone how much I'm second-guessing that decision. Being around him is so much harder than I thought, especially when it looks like he's starting to move on...

And to top the crappiness of it all off, I got a letter in the mail from someone who broke my heart two years ago--my father.

 

Amazon

My Review: 5 STARS

I remember when this first came out and I wasn’t sure if it would be my kinda book, and boy was I wrong. I was hooked from the first line, and ended up speed reading through it until into the wee hours, I had to know what happened to Blaire, had to know if things would work out. The story is pretty much a quick read, but I adored it. The characters are all so real, so well crafted that you can’t help but root for them, even when they’re doing something wrong. I adore the background characters too because they are all also so well rounded that you feel like you’re watching a movie play out. Highly recommended for anyone who loves a spooky Halloween romance, and enjoys good dynamics between the characters. 

Join Joey here on the blog on Fridays for interviews, reviews and guest bloggers. If you'd be interested in doing any of those, you can contact Joey here.

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