Number of Pgs.: 220

Publication date: February 5, 2013

Publisher: Lakehouse Press
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary, Romance

How I got the copy: Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Rating:  5 Stars

From Goodreads:

24-year old Pax Tate is an asshole. 
Seriously. 

He’s a tattooed, rock-hard bad-boy with a bad attitude to match. 

But he’s got his reasons. 

His mother died when Pax was seven, leaving a hole in his heart filled with guilt although he doesn’t understand why. What he does know is that he and his dad are left alone and with more issues than they can count. 

As Pax grew up, he tried to be the kid his father always wanted; the perfect golden boy, but it didn’t work. His dad couldn’t overcome his grief long enough to notice and Pax couldn’t keep up the impossible perfect façade. 
So he slipped far, far from it. 

Now, he uses drugs and women to cope with the ugliness, the black void that he doesn’t want to deal with. If he pretends that the emptiness isn’t there, then it isn’t, right? 
Wrong. 

And it’s never more apparent than when he meets Mila. 
Sweet, beautiful Mila Hill is the fresh air to his hardened frown, the beauty to his ugly heart. He doesn’t know how to not hurt her, but he quickly realizes that he’s got to figure it out because he needs her to breathe.

When memories of his mother’s death resurface from where he’s repressed them for so long, Mila is there to catch him when the guilt starts making sense. Mila is the one…the one who can save him from his broken troubled heart; from his issues, from the emptiness. 

But only if he can stop being an asshole long enough to allow it. 

He knows that. And he’s working on it. 

But is that enough to make her stay?

Plot: 9/10

Characters: 9/10

Setting: 8/10

Pacing: 7/10

Style: 8/10

Cover:  This cover just reminds me of spring time.  I like it, but at the same time their heads are awkwardly angled.   We can see up her nose!  I like the font though.

41+50=91 (5 Stars)

     I wanted to save this book for my dr. appointment this week because it would be easy to read on my phone in the office.  Well, I started it the other day thinking I'd just read a few pages.  I ended up reading it in pretty much one day.

     I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did!  I was expecting typical New Adult where the main guy is an ass and then the girl falling for him anyway and him treating her like dirt and her just staying with him and fawning over his great abs.  Well, some of that happens (Pax's abs are rockin), but Mila is a really strong heroine and doesn't take his crap.  So refreshing!

     There is also no insta love.  There is insta lust.  VERY big difference and I feel like Courtney Cole deserves a standing ovation for that.  The two characters are instantly attracted to each other.  One thing I don't get is how Mila can be attracted to Pax after she tastes his vomit when giving him CPR, but to each his own I guess.  But once she starts to know him their relationship grows and develops over time.  It was the most realistic developing relationship I've ever read in a New Adult novel.  And there were some seriously steamy scenes that you won't want to miss.

     The last few chapters had my eyes misting more than Niagra Falls.  I loved that it was dual POVs so we could get the full emotional effect from both characters.

Number of Pgs.: 354

Publication date: May 1, 2012

Publisher: Abrams
Genre: YA, Supernatural, Steampunk

How I got the copy: ARCycling

Rating:  2 stars

From Goodreads:

This dark and thrilling adventure, with an unforgettable heroine, will captivate fans of steampunk, fantasy, and romance.
On her 18th birthday, Lena Mattacascar decides to search for her father, who disappeared into the northern wilderness of Scree when Lena was young. Scree is inhabited by Peculiars, people whose unusual characteristics make them unacceptable to modern society. Lena wonders if her father is the source of her own extraordinary characteristics and if she, too, is Peculiar. On the train she meets a young librarian, Jimson Quiggley, who is traveling to a town on the edge of Scree to work in the home and library of the inventor Mr. Beasley. The train is stopped by men being chased by the handsome young marshal Thomas Saltre. When Saltre learns who Lena’s father is, he convinces her to spy on Mr. Beasley and the strange folk who disappear into his home, Zephyr House. A daring escape in an aerocopter leads Lena into the wilds of Scree to confront her deepest fears.

Plot: 3/10

Characters: 3/10

Setting: 6/10

Pacing: 2/10

Style: 5/10

Cover:  This isn't the cover on the ARC that I received.  But I like this cover.  I'm just a little confused why the main character isn't on it.  But regardless it's pretty.

19+50=69 (2 Stars)

Please don't throw stones at me, but this is my lowest rated book ever I think.  If I hadn't received it from ARCycling I  might have DNFed it.  It's not that it was bad persay, it just didn't have any of the elements that I personally enjoy in a book.  I like lots of romance in my books and while there was a little flame of love beginning in this book it was set on the back burner the entire time.  I wanted more chemistry and more flirting (although I do get that back in that time period flirting was more understated).

I also like first person narrative and find it hard to connect to characters when it's not. This was in third and I just didn't care what happened to the characters at all.  When bad things happened to Lena it didn't bother me.  And a lot of that was because she didn't think things through before she did them so I thought she kind of deserved it.  Her long fingers with extra joints creeped me out too.  Jimson was cute, but he didn't have much depth.  I thought he'd have more of a back story.  I liked Mr. Beasley and his quirks like his drawn on eyebrows.  There were a few parts in first person, but they felt random and didn't really add to the story.

This story reminded me a lot of The Madman's Daughter (which I loved) so I'm not sure why I didn't like this as much.  Maybe it was the steampunk era I wasn't digging.  I've only read a handful of Historical Fiction books so I don't have much to compare it to.  I just felt the plot didn't really go anywhere.  It was slightly predictable as well.  The flying coach seemed a little unrealistic, but I guess it's fiction so it's supposed to be unrealistic?

The things I liked?  I liked that it felt like it was back in the 1800's.  The author did a great job world building and describing Lena's surroundings. I liked the library she works in at Mr. Beasley's house and wish I could see all his inventions.

Would I recommend this book?  Probably not, but if you like steampunk you might want to check it out and decide for yourself.

“It's not your family who defines you; they're an influence, all right, but they don't have the final say. We answer for that ourselves.” 
― Maureen Doyle McQuerry, The Peculiars