That Boy

That Boy
Jillian Dodd















Amazon Blurb -
You know, being friends with two cute boys does have its benefits.

There's Danny. Danny is a golden boy in every way. He has dreamy blue eyes and blonde hair that always looks perfect, even when it’s windblown or been stuck under a football helmet. He’s the boy every girl crushes on. The boy I get into trouble with, the boy I fight with, the hot quarterback no girl can resist, not even me. Being with Danny is like being on an adventure. He has a bright, contagious smile and abs to die for. He’s pretty much irresistible.

Equally crush worthy is Phillip. Adorable, sweet Phillip, who I have known since birth.  Phillip has dark hair, a perfect smile, brown eyes, and the sexiest voice I have ever heard. He’s the boy I talk to every night before I go to sleep. The boy who rescues me, the boy who can read my mind, the boy who is always there for me, the boy who tries to keep me out of trouble, the boy who irritatingly keeps getting hotter, and whose strong arms always seem to find their way around me.  And when he gives me that grin, I can never say no.

One boy will give me my very first kiss.
One boy will

teach me to make out.
One boy will take me to prom.
And finally, one boy will ask me to marry him.
They will both be my best friends.
But only one of them will be the boy I fall in love with.
Only one of them is That Boy.

*****

This was a sweet cute book.  It had me laughing, and I cried. JJ Reynolds is a wonderful, sassy, full of life character.  Such charisma, I just loved her.  Her two best buds in the whole world happen to be boys who both live next door to her.  Phillip, who she's known since she was born, their dad's were buddies since college, and Danny who moves in thinks she is just a girly girl till she pops him in the nose to set  him straight and the three are inseparable after that.

What a tom-boy Jadyn is!  She plays football with the guys, hangs with them over her gal pals since she can find them to be exasperating, lives life to its fullest just like her dad taught her.  The story takes you from the fourth grade all the way through to adulthood.  Her boyfriends, trials and tribulations all touch you to your very heart.  And through it all are these boys, Phillip the sensible one who always calls her Princess and ends her night by calling her before she sleeps, and Danny the carefree superstar who shows her the ropes and helps her in some of her silly jams.

If there is only one complaint I can make it's that I found  what goes on in Danny's life a little too perfect.  I won't elaborate more than that so there are no spoilers.  It's not deep you will get through it fast, but you feel good when you read it.

4 cannolis

Immortal's After Dark

I am loving this series!!  I read the first, A Hunger Like No Other three years ago, and just chomped through two and three in literally days!  I just get in these moods and Kresley Cole writes really well.  Funny how I adored the Night Huntress, and of late, I just can't get into it.  Nor can I come to pick up Anita Blake again.

I really liked Bowen's story, Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night.   Now on to Conrad Wroth, Nicolai and Sebastian's brother.  His is Dark Needs at Night's Edge.   What campy fun!!  I'm being good and reading in order even though I'm dying to read Rydstrom the demon king's :)  That's number six.

Want some light fun alpha male pnr, then pick up this series, you won't be disappointed!

Junes Wrap Up

Ahhhh, reading at the beach, I do it with gusto ;) love the beach, and love to read, what a perfect combo!  In two weeks we'll be in Carlsbad for a week right across the street from it so I look forward to much rest and relaxation.

Well, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, June has flew by!  Where the heck did it go?  Got some good reading in.  Not obsessing like I used to and just reading at my own pace enjoying other things as well.  Love love love the summer, and just wish it would never end.  Hhmmmm, how can I slow down time?

June's reading consisted of four books -

Snake Skin by C J Lyons.  Not bad, read it for my challenge hosted by Marce at Tea Time For Marce.  Pop over if you want to join. Read my review *HERE*

Another Piece Of My Heart by Jane Green.  Read it for June's book club choice, I picked it and it was decent, most certainly chic lit.  Review *HERE*

This Side Of The Grave by Jeaniene Frost.  I didn't review it, and it really didn't have the same impact for me that the others had.  I wonder if Bone's has lost his shine....

Gabriel's Rapture by Sylvain Reynard.  I really liked it.  This man can write beautiful love stories.  Borrowed it through booklending.com, I enjoy borrowing kindle books this way.  If they are popular, you do have to wait.  I've been waiting for months for one by Laura Kaye, but I don't mind, I have so many books it's not even funny, click on it to check it out. My review is *HERE*

I'll be away for book club this month so I don't know if I'll read the choice, Falling Star by Diana Dempsey, this is chic lit with all caps!  I'll think about it.  I did just read for Netgalley a flipping frigging fantastic book called On The Island by Tracey Garvis Graves.  This book was beyond great, I loved it so very much and the author left a comment on my blog!  Read my review *HERE*, pick it up from Amazon, sit back and just enjoy!  I myself couldn't put the darn thing down. Right now I'm reading some campy vamp love, No Rest For The Wicked by Kresley Cole, she writes well and I'm enjoying this second in the Immortal's After Dark Series more than I did Kat and Bone's.  Though I WILL be getting Vlad's story Once Burned, just out from Frost.

I see the Fifty Shades nuts are still going strong on my blog.  I say, I know I've read some gals say lighten up it's just good fun, but honestly, it's not.  # 1 made for a great dark sad story about a twisted sick man, the rest just sucked a big smelly pickle.  Flame on folks *ducks behind chair*

Fast Library etiquette rant.  I reserved Another Piece of My Heart on June 11, it was due back the next day, and no one else had a hold on it.  I needed to read it by the 25th, and ya know what, it didn't get back to the Library till last week!  I hate when people do not return books!  I know stuff happens and it may be 1, 2, or even 3 days late, I know my kids have lost books under their bed, and I'm clueless to it till the over due note comes when it's past 10 days due so that I now count all the books I take out, but really folks, just dump the damn book in the return bin for heavens sake!

Yes I have many peeves, and yes,I am EXTREMELY opinionated on so very  many things.  But, this is my blog so I can do what I want :p

In True Blood news, my heart continues to break, though I think I know what Alan Ball is doing, he's trying to get into the Guiness Book Of World Records for most story lines in a single show.  There has got to be 10 damn sub-plots going on, and ya know what, they pretty much all suck :( 

Oh and quick promo for I guess what you'd call a meme hosted monthly by Carole from Carole's Chatter called Books You Loved, just click to check it out :)

Happy July people, take it slow, time goes way too fast!

On The Island

 On The Island
 Tracey Garvis Graves
 NetGalley Review
















Amazon Blurb -

Anna Emerson is a thirty-year-old English teacher desperately in need of adventure. Worn down by the cold Chicago winters and a relationship that’s going nowhere, she jumps at the chance to spend the summer on a tropical island tutoring sixteen-year-old T.J. T.J. Callahan has no desire to go anywhere. His cancer is in remission and he wants to get back to his normal life. But his parents are insisting he spend the summer in the Maldives catching up on all the school he missed last year. Anna and T.J. board a private plane headed to the Callahan’s summer home, and as they fly over the Maldives’ twelve hundred islands, the unthinkable happens. Their plane crashes in shark-infested waters. They make it to shore, but soon discover that they’re stranded on an uninhabited island. At first, their only thought is survival. But as the days turn to weeks, and then months, the castaways encounter plenty of other obstacles, including violent tropical storms, the many dangers lurking in the sea, and the possibility that T.J.’s cancer could return. As T.J. celebrates yet another birthday on the island, Anna begins to wonder if the biggest challenge of all might be living with a boy who is gradually becoming a man.
*****

 Wow.  Did you get that?  No?  Let me repeat it then WOW!!!  For those who read my blog, you've seen me whining about not finding a book that just lit me up.  One that made me laugh, cry and not want it to end.  Well guess what?  This is it!  I LOVED this book.  I'm not saying I haven't enjoyed books I've been reading, but I haven't felt like this since I read Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.

Anna is headed for a tutoring job in a tropical setting with 16 year old cancer survivor T.J.  His parents don't want him to repeat the 10th grade and high school English teacher Anna takes the job on.  After delays from one flight to the next, hours spent in airports, and no record of passenger status, with what really should have been an omen to chuck the whole thing, they finally manage to get on a private sea plane.

The plane crashes, and the two survive the wreck to wash ashore onto this deserted island.  Hoping that they'll be found in days slowly turns to months, to years.  Anna struggles with the reality of maybe never being found, the fear of T.J.'s cancer possibly returning and of the fact that he is becoming a man.

The two slowly turn to each other not as teacher and student or adult and child, but as man and woman who have very real, strong feelings for each other.

This was a gut wrenching, heartwarming and at times nail biting story of survival and overcoming some of the most horrific obstacles one could ever imagine.  I don't know what I would have ever done, and this story takes you on the roller coaster of emotion ride as you get lost in the life of these beautiful people.

This is one of my favorite parts, Anna likes to cuddle and in her sleep she will often snuggle up to T.J. After an amorous dream she gropes at him in her sleep this is their exchange -

"I am completely mortified." I said
T.J. sat down next to me. " Don't be. "
"You must have wondered what the hell I was doing. "
"Well yeah, but then I just rolled with it."
I looked at him with my  mouth hanging open.  "Are you insane?"
"What?  You're the one that said I was adaptable. "

I LOVED both Anna and T.J.  What a breath of fresh air these two characters were.  Real and warm, not smarmy or whiny.  I laughed at times, at times tears fell,  I even held my breath at certain points.  The pages turned so fast it was amazing.   Please read this book Tracey has done a stupendous job crafting a tale that will leave your heart feeling happy.  I give it a 5 and that is rare from me!

5 cannolis