Shiirleyy's Bookshelf has migrated to Dear Shirley ! I will continue to post book reviews but there will also be a lot of personal and travel-related posts :)

Cover Reveal: Wait for You by J. Lynn

27 Feb 2013

Hey guys! Today, I'm thrilled to be sharing with you the cover of WAIT FOR YOU by J Lynn! I've been reading rave reviews for it over the past week (so apparently Cam has surpassed Aiden in many blogger's hearts? NO. FREAKING.WAY. You know what this means? I NEED TO READ WAIT FOR YOU IMMEDIATELY!!) 

What do early readers have to say about WAIT FOR YOU?
J. Lynn creates a wonderful cast of characters that will make you laugh, swoon, and cry. Cam stole my heart.” – Cora Carmack, NYTimes and USA TODAY Bestselling Author of LOSING IT

“For the love of all that is Cameron without a shirt on! Wait for You will have you laughing out loud, fanning yourself and anxiously waiting to know what will happen next.” – Molly McAdams, NYTimes and USA TODAY Bestselling Author of FROM ASHES and TAKING CHANCES

I don't think I have ever read a NA Contemporary novel with as much depth as this one. It really moved me and by the end I was just speechless over how inspirational and uplifting it was as well as being sexy and cute and funny and emotional.” - K Books

Wait For You is uniquely different from anything else J. Lynn's written but it might possibly be her best work yet.” – Jenuine Cupcakes

For all of you in love with Aiden and Daemon, PREPARE YOURSELVES! Your heart will have to expand a little more for Cam.” Total Bookaholic

For the love of all things CAM, this book deserves more than 5 stars.” – Mundie Moms

I cannot even begin to explain how much I adored this perfectly crafted contemporary.” – Shortie Says



Excited? Ready to see the cover for WAIT FOR YOU?




Some things are worth waiting for…

Traveling thousands of miles from home to enter college is the only way nineteen-year-old Avery
Morgansten can escape what happened at the Halloween party five years ago—an event that forever
changed her life. All she needs to do is make it to her classes on time, make sure the bracelet on her
left wrist stays in place, not draw any attention to herself, and maybe—please God—make a few
friends, because surely that would be a nice change of pace. The one thing she didn’t need and never
planned on was capturing the attention of the one guy who could shatter the precarious future she’s
building for herself.

Some things are worth experiencing…
Cameron Hamilton is six feet and three inches of swoon-worthy hotness, complete with a pair of
striking blue eyes and a remarkable ability to make her want things she believed were irrevocably
stolen from her. She knows she needs to stay away from him, but Cam is freaking everywhere, with
his charm, his witty banter, and that damn dimple that’s just so… so lickable. Getting involved with
him is dangerous, but when ignoring the simmering tension that sparks whenever they are around
each other becomes impossible, he brings out a side of her she never knew existed.

Some things should never be kept quiet…
But when Avery starts receiving threatening emails and phone calls forcing her to face a past she
wants silenced, she’s has no other choice but to acknowledge that someone is refusing to allow her
to let go of that night when everything changed. When the devastating truth comes out, will she
resurface this time with one less scar? And can Cam be there to help her or will he be dragged down
with her?
And some things are worth fighting for…


WAIT FOR YOU is available now!
Buy from: 


J. Lynn, also known as Jennifer L. Armentrout, is the USA TODAY Bestselling author of the adult romance Gamble Brothers’ series, the young adult Lux Series and award winning Covenant Series. She pretty much writes everything—contemporary, paranormal, and fantasy. All of her books have one thing in common no matter the name or genre: kissing… and stuff. When she’s not busy writing, which is never, she’s usually hanging out with dog Loki, watching reruns of The Walking Dead, or procrastinating on the Internet. You can find out more about Jennifer by visiting the following websites:


The Murmurings Blog Tour: Excerpt & Giveaway

26 Feb 2013

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for The Murmurings by Carly Ann West. Today, I have an excerpt for you as well as a giveaway at the end of the post!


The Murmurings
by Carly Anne West
Publisher:Simon Pulse
Release Date: March 5th,  2013

A teen girl starts hearing the same voices that drove her sister to commit suicide in this creepy, suspenseful novel.
Everyone thinks Sophie’s sister, Nell, went crazy. After all, she heard strange voices that drove her to commit suicide. But Sophie doesn’t believe that Nell would take her own life, and she’s convinced that Nell’s doctor knows more than he’s letting on.
As Sophie starts to piece together Nell’s last days, every lead ends in a web of lies. And the deeper Sophie digs, the more danger she’s in—because now she’s hearing the same haunting whispers. Sophie’s starting to think she’s going crazy too. Or worse, that maybe she’s not…

*Excerpt*

The wordless murmurings in my ear turns to one strained, sputtering gasp, and I open my eyes wider to catch the faint rippling of my reflection across the bathroom.

“Please”, I whisper, no longer believing that anyone will come to my rescue.

The rippling grows stronger, and soon my reflection is disappearing behind an undulating figure that’s turning blacker and blacker with each movement.

“Please, don’t.” But I know it’s no use. It won’t understand me. Nothing can keep it from trying to get from me what it thinks I have.

A curtain of black, oily hair spills from the glass, obscuring the eyeless face and moving, silent mouth. Long skinny digits follow, twitching on the ends of blacked, rotting hands – a decaying body and halting legs emerge last from the mirror, leaving a layer of oily residue in their wake.

My joints lock into place, freezing me in a stiffened pose, as if they’re given up hope before my mind has. My reflection in the mirror is gone. I’ve already been blotted out of existence. The Taker is laying its claim to my body in an attempt to restore its own. 

***
Is it me, or does the "curtain of black..." paragraph sound a lot like The Ring?  I'm imagining Samara climbing out of the TV now...*shudder*

*Giveaway*
a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can view the full schedule HERE.

Showcase Sunday 24-02-13

24 Feb 2013

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Vicky @ Books, Biscuits and Bites. Inspired by Pop Culture Junkie and The Story Siren, the aim of this meme is to showcase our newest books!


Walking Disaster by Jamie McGuire
Shadow & Bone | Siege & Storm by Leigh Bardugo
Motherland by William Nicholson 
Reason to Breathe by Rebecca Donovan
Barely Breathing by Rebecca Donovan
Altered by Jennifer Rush
Drowning Instinct by Ilsa J. Bick
Between the Lives by Jessica Shirvington 
Girl Defective by Simmone Howell
Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

This week was absolutely epic! Walking Disaster is one of my most anticipated 2013 books and I've been desperate to read it ever since I finished Beautiful Disaster last year. I've been meaning to read Reason to Breathe and Barely Breathing as well, since they're both New Adult books that have received glowing reviews :) I'm looking forward to meeting The Darkling again in Siege & Storm, although I've heard he appears less in the book? *sigh* What a pity! I miss him!

A massive thank you to Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Pan Macmillan, Penguin & Harper Collins for the above awesomeness<3
What did you receive in your mailbox? Leave links!

Review: Losing It by Cora Carmack

22 Feb 2013


Losing It
by Cora Carmack
Publisher:William Morrow 
Release Date: February 26th,  2013
Format: Paperback, 288 pages

Virginity. 

 Bliss Edwards is about to graduate from college and still has hers. Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, she decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible-- a one-night stand. But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves a gorgeous guy alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half-a-brain would ever believe. And as if that weren't embarrassing enough, when she arrives for her first class of her last college semester, she recognizes her new theatre professor. She'd left him naked in her bed about 8 hours earlier.

*I like this cover more than the new cover with half of Garrick's head cut off. The guy on the other cover is too pale soooo I'm using the old cover for my review!*

Losing It is one of those books that once you pick up, you literally cannot put down. I was grinning from ear to ear since the very first word and several times I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. Losing It is an easy and relaxing read, one you can finish in one sitting after a tiresome day at work/school :)

I honestly don’t know if I should pity Bliss or envy her. She has a knack for winding up in the most mortifying situations possible and making possibly the lamest excuses imaginable. So yeah, I guess I feel sorry for her. But the up-side of her humiliation? The guy who ends up witnessing her embarrassment not only finds her adorable, but falls for her. So I guess I envy her as well, especially since said guy is GARRICK. The jaw-droppingly gorgeous Garrick, with his sexy-as-hell British accent will have all the girls melting into a puddle with only a single glance in his direction. I would rather die than live with the humiliation; it would haunt me Every. Single. Day.

While most of the characters felt realistic and I certainly enjoyed meeting every single one of them, I can’t say the same about the relationships between some of the characters. I was frustrated and a little annoyed that Bliss failed to be truthful with her best friend Kelsey. I hated how she lied to Kelsey again and again; I mean, the two are best friends for a reason and I really didn’t think she had a legitimate reason (as a best friend) to lie to her about certain things. Then there’s Bliss’s relationship with Garrick. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE these two, but sometimes I felt they didn’t understand each other at all and their love was based purely on their lust for one another. I also didn’t feel Garrick’s character was ‘complete’; he felt like a hollow character, where I could only see the outside and there’s nothing else inside for me to get to know better. Fortunately though, the book was so fun and hilarious, that this didn’t bother me!

Losing It is a light and delightfully amusing read for anyone interested in the New Adult genre. Don’t think too much, just read purely for the fun of it!
A massive thank you to William Morrow for providing a copy of Losing It for review!

Pieces Blog Tour: Review

19 Feb 2013



The Breakaway
by Michelle Davidson Argyle
Publisher: Rhemalda Publishing
Release Date: May 1st,  2012
Format: Paperback, 303 pages 

When Naomi Jensen is kidnapped, it takes her parents two days to realize she’s missing. Escape isn’t high on her list of priorities when all she has to return to is an abusive boyfriend and parents who never paid much attention to her. For the first time in her life she’s part of a family—even if it is a family of criminals. But she’s still a captive. In a desperate attempt to regain some control in her life, Naomi embarks on a dangerous plan to make one of her kidnappers think she’s falling in love with him. The plan works too well, and when faced with the chance to escape, Naomi isn’t sure she wants to take it.



The Breakaway was surprisingly very thought-provoking and entertaining especially after the half-way mark. I spent several days trying to get through the first few chapters as initially, it was extremely tedious and the third person narration didn’t quite work. Somewhere along the way however, I became invested in the story and couldn’t wait to read to the end.

Naomi was unfortunately a weak character. I expected some sort of resistance from her, and perhaps a formulation of a plan to escape. Instead, she completely…shut down. It felt like she had abandoned all thoughts of returning home and she’d essentially ‘given up’. But then I thought, perhaps her lack of rebelling was understandable. After all, she’d never felt loved by her workaholic parents, who were hardly ever present in her life. Her boyfriend was abusive and she’d collected some undesirable memories she’d like nothing better than to forget. Her kidnappers, though having kept her captive, were kind and sympathetic. They seemed to care about her, and Evelyn loved her like she was her own daughter. I could see why Naomi felt an inevitable bond…but it still didn’t feel right.

Then there’s Jesse, one of her abductors. He protected her, he seemed to understand her like no one else ever had, and he was always there, by her side whenever she felt down. (Which was all the time.) I began to like him as the story progressed instead of thinking of him as some sort of delinquent creep. I also began to root for him and Naomi, as screwed up as it sounds. He really wanted to change for the greater good.

Even though I had hoped for an epilogue, I was still content with the ending. I thought about everything that happened and tried to analyse all the character’s thoughts and actions days after finishing. This is one book I won’t easily forget!


A massive thank you to Xpresso Book Tours  for providing a copy of The Breakaway for review!


Pieces
by Michelle Davidson Argyle
Publisher: Rhemalda Publishing 
Release Date: February 14th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 284 pages 

Two years after watching her kidnappers go to prison, Naomi Jensen is still in love with one of them. Jesse will be released in a few years, and Naomi knows college is the perfect distraction while she waits. But when her new friend Finn makes her question what is right and what is wrong, she begins to wonder if Jesse is the one for her … until she discovers he's out on parole. Naomi must sort through her confusion to figure out where love and freedom truly lie—in Finn, who has no connections to her past, or Jesse, who has just asked her to run away with him. 

 Pieces is a companion to The Breakaway and can be read independently, if desired.


Pieces starts off with the introduction of a new character, Finn, a rather good-looking guy waitering at a cafĂ© near Harvard, where Nano currently attends University on a scholarship. (THAT LUCKY GIRL!!) At the start, I was torn and disappointed; I really thought Naomi and Jesse could be together after he’s served his time in prison. ( I even contemplated not reading the sequel because while the ending of The Breakaway was ambiguous, and I liked it. (sort of.)
But I was wrong.
As the story progressed, I realized Naomi and Jesse could never be together. He still hasn’t changed. And he’d never change. Doing illegal work is second nature to him. But the crazy thing is, even though Jesse’s making mistake after mistake, committing worse crimes day after day, it was all so he and Naomi could be together. It was for love…but perhaps the wrong kind?

Now, I was a little unsure of Finn at first, but I totally fell hard for him when he revealed his ancestry.

He leaned closer and said in a thick Italian accent, “Giachetti”.

*SQUEALS. HE’S ITALIAN!!!!!!!!*

Finn is kind, caring and understanding.  My only problem is that I had hoped to feel the love and chemistry develop between Finn and Naomi, but unfortunately, I didn’t feel that. I’ll blame it on the fact that the majority of the book focused on Naomi and Jesse’s relationship.

Naomi displayed so much growth as the story progressed. She may never be able to escape what happened to her 3 years ago, but as she spends more time with Jesse, abiding by his wishes and living under his control, she begins to realize so much about herself and the nature of the bond between her and her captors.

I did like the ending, but I had expected more i.e. an epilogue. No worries though, I’m still content with the overall story! Pieces is just as thrillingly entertaining and thought-provoking as its predecessor, but even more, there is a strong focus on discovering one’s identity and ultimately, growing up. I think there’s a lot to take away from reading this; it’s a highly recommended read from me!

A massive thank you to Xpresso Book Tours  for providing a copy of Pieces for review!