Manwhore by Katy Evans

Rachel has been on the look out for The Story. The one that will help her job bounce back, and the one that will give her a name. What's a better story then Malcom Saint. Mysterious, womanizing, party going CEO?

"We don't fit," I say. "I just want to find a spot, warm not cold, with a nice view, everything I could want, and I want to stop moving and stay there- in that spot. and you will never stand still."..."I think we fit just right,"

The first thing I have to say about this book is... WHY HAS NO ONE COMPARED IT TO NEVER BEEN KISSED?!?!  I'm seriously upset about this. It's like the smutty version of it, and it plays a huge part in why I loved it.

Rachel, our reporter, was just assigned her first big story... Malcom Saint. Rachel is shy, motivated, and definitely not ready for what's headed her way. Saint is powerful, womanizing, and not looking for commitment. When it came to these two I was expecting something very different. With Rachel I was expecting her to be a strong-sassy-powerhouse but when she turned out to be more the opposite, I wont lie I was a little sad. Thankfully, as the story went on I found myself slowly liking her more and more. The last very chapters however she completely won me over. Malcom however was a very pleasant surprise for me. I was worried that with him we were going to get a mix of a Gabe Hamilton from Rush with Mr. Grey from 50 Shades... I prayed for it to lean more towards Rush. Turns out he wasn't either. He was so freaking sweet! The one thing I usually (almost always) hate in NA books involving "womanizing" men are that there is a lot of times the guy does a bunch of slutty acts  leading up to being with the girl. I almost always want them to leave out all the other ladies and  just focus on the two that are really involved. Thank the book godz that what Evans' did. These two were such an adorable pairing. They had me laughing and lusting.

Manwhore's plot is like I said above, a lot like Never Been Kissed. Reporter girl goes undercover, adorable meet-cute happens, boy falls for girl, girl falls for boy, shenanigans happen, and of course lies are uncovered. Just throw in some smutty fun times and wham you have Manwhore. The pacing of this book is what has me lowering my rating some. The first part of this book is all about adorable build up and fun run ins. It completely hooked me in. The middle (through hot) does slow down some. The romance scenes are well written and enjoyable, but there were moments that kind of threw me off. Actually only one. A scene involving a bet on cars. The scene just didn't do it for me. Remember reading it and actually saying "uhh yeah... NO". I just really felt that something was missing from the middle... Can't exactly put my finger on what though. Adorable dates- check. Sweet scenes with guy friends- check. Steamy moments that make you blush- check. Seriously have no clue what it is. The end of this book though... OMG!!! CLIFFHANGER!!!! Few NA books pull off cliffhangers well, but this one knocks it out of the park. *Minor spoiler* *that really isn't a spoiler* Clearly at some point in time we know that Saint is going to figure out that Rachel's big story is him... And will of course be heartbroken, but I had no idea that Evans' would leave the book off where she did. I really felt the same way reading this as I did watching the movie. You know at the end of NBK how she's standing on the pitchers mound, the clocks running out, the crowds cheering, and we are all on the edge of our seats waiting for Mr. Coulson to come and kiss the crap out of Josie Grossie!!! Well it has the same feel! You can barely breath waiting to see what will happen! How will she end this?!?! Then Evans' drops a cliffhanging bomb on us, and our hearts our shattered. Trust me it didn't end how you're probably thinking or how I imagined it would either. I need book two like yesterday!

The beginning of this book awesome, the middle okay, and the ending wont lie had me misty eyed. Manwhore has a beautiful cover, a stupid title, and is 100% one of those good time reads. Really looking forward to adding other books from Evans to my TBR list.

8.5-maybe 9/10 Stars
-Angela

Angela's December Wrap-Up

Goodbye December you will be missed! But I wont lie, I'm ready for January. December was a massive slack month. Don't let my list fool you. I basically started the month out so strong that by the time it hit the two week mark I was so over it. I wanted to read a different book every other day for the entire month, but it just didn't happen. I only got to do some of my "Angela does December" list. Looks like it'll be an "Angela rolls this TBR list into the new year" list now. It's okay though. It'll give me something to go off of for the New Year. Also think I spent more time buying books then I did reading book... Like that's a problem! AM I RIGHT!!! I'll more than likely do a post in January of all my Owned-TBR books, because it's kind of insane right now. Speaking of TBRs PopSugar put up a list of their 2016 Reading Challenge and it looks amazing! Pretty sure it'll be the one I'll be doing. Also posted my 2015 favorite covers. Anyways, on to my reading list and favorites.

Soundless- Richelle Mead

Glass Sword- Victoria Aveyard
Before, During, After- Richard Bausch

The V Girl- Mya Robarts

Harley's Little Black Book Issue 1- Amanda Conner

Harley Quinn Hot in the City- Amanda Conner  

The Elfstones of Shannara- Terry Brooks

Suicide Squad Volume 3- Adam Glass

Green Arrow #46- Benjamin Perry

Six of Hearts- L.H. Cosway

Complicit- Stephanie Kuehn

The Scorpion Rules- Erin Bow

Love in a Time of Global Warming- Lia Block

The Infinite Sea- Rick Yancey

Deathstroke #12-Tony Daniel

Wolf by Wolf- Ryan Graudin

Low Volume 1- Rick Remender

Manwhore- Katy Evans

Children of Men- P.D. James

My favorites of December are... *Drum Roll*: Childern of Men, Harley's Little Black Book, Wolf by Wolf, The Infinite Sea. Those were all my five (10) star reads. I also want to mention my four (9) star reads because they were both super close to being perfect. Those are: Manwhore and Six of Hearts. Children of Men is a book that freaked me out in the best way possible. A world where children are no longer born. Harley's Little is a new start in a series and I'm loving it so far. They come in these mystery bags and you don't know what cover you're going to get. The Infinite Sea is obviously a book I've read several times before, but decided to pic up again because the movie comes out so soon. Lastly of my five star reads I have Wolf by Wolf. Which was AMAZING! A girl escapes a Nazi death camp. After she enters a motorcycle race where the winner gets an audience with Hitler. If she wins she plans on killing him. This book was amazing, unique, and a complete page turner.

Six of Hearts is like a smutty version of Now You See Me. Manwhore is like a smutty version of Never Been Kissed. Both are excellent picks if you're looking for a fun-fluffy NA read.

My fail picks for this month are: Soundless, Before During and After, The Scorpion Rule, and Love in a Time of Global Warming. I'm sure by now you've heard about Soundless. The new standalone book my Richelle Meads... Well sorry to announce but this book was so boring! Struggled so hard to even finish it. The Scorpion Rule, well I don't even know where to start with this one. It was so freaking weird! And it was all about goats, which is also weird. Lastly, Love in a Time of Global Warming. Again another book that was so boring. The title of this book is so stunning I thought this read would be a knock out. It wasn't.

Yup, that's it. That was my entire December. Wasn't very thrilling. I spent way to much money and not enough time reading. Just so excited for 2016!

-Angela

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each day only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when Shahrzad volunteers to marry the Caliph.

The Wrath and the Dawn is every recently amazing YA book thrown into one read. Red Queen meets An Ember in the Ashes meets A Court of Thorns and Roses. The main difference it has between those books is the amount of action. The Wrath definitely set aside action packed scenes for a slower more lyrical literature depth.

Sharhrzad (Shazi) is out to seek revenge for the murder of her best friend and decides too volunteer to be the next wife of the Caliph of Khorasan. The Caliph is known for being ruthless, heartless, and cruel. But the thing he is most known for is the fact that every day he takes a different wife and every following dawn he kills her. Shazi doesn’t care why the king does this she only cares about righting what has been wrong and insuring that this fate doesn’t come to another girl.  Since this is told from a 3rd person point of view us as reading know that there is clearly more to the story than meets the eye. As Shazi gets to know Khalid (The Caliph) she learns he is not what she thought he was. She beings to become conflicted between doing what she set out to do and listening to her heart. Things only get more complicated when Shazi pre suicide mission boyfriend, Tariq, sets out to get her back.


I'm usually am not the biggest fan of the 3rd person pov but in this case I found myself falling in love with it. That was not the only thing I fell for, the characters won me over. Shazi is our leading lady and the character I connected most with. Having to see her go back and forth on what she should do had me struggling along with her. She is a fierce lead and her silver tongued attitude is a forced to be reckoned with. Her take no crap ways and honesty will win you over. Khalid is our leading male and I can’t express enough how much I loved his character. He isn’t a man of many words, and the ones he uses he chooses wisely, time and time again had me swooning. Though I connected more with Shazi without a doubt Khalid was my favorite character. He has definitely made his way onto my list of fictional book boyfriends. I loved the mystery surrounding him, his intelligence, and his ability to read people. This is also the only negative feedback I have on the book. The romance, though amazing, I wanted more of it. I wanted more “screen time” with Shazi and Khalid. The moments we get with them are so perfect that it made me want this book to be longer. I think it says a lot if your only real complaint is that something was so good you wanted more of it. This is a very very minor issue in the grand scheme of things.  Both Shazi and Khalid are complex and well built characters. The fact that we are given so much back story and tells from their childhoods also gave these characters something that a lot of other books miss. Tariq is the only character I felt I didn’t really connect with or understand in this book. though I see his value and what he brings to the table I just think Khalid won me over and had it so I wasn't even glancing Tariq way.

“Love is a force unto itself, sayyidi. For love, people consider the unthinkable...and often achieve the impossible. I would not sneer at its power.”  

As I stated above The Wrath is a book that can be compare to others that have been released lately but it has something so different to it. Though most of it's action packed scenes are left towards till the end of the story, Renee's writing had it so I was still on the edge of my seat either way. She manages keeps a steady pace throughout the whole novel. Renee's writing is so beautiful and gripping. The brilliance behind how she survives through the night is what got me so hooked right away and every wonderful sentence after kept me there. This novel brought a whole new meaning to stories having power. Waiting so long to give us the true answer to the riddle yet giving us little bits and pieces really worked so well for this book. The action scenes in this book are perfectly placed along with their delivery.

The Wrath and the Dawn surpassed any expectation I had for this book. It brings something so new and diverse to this genre. The perfect start to a series. It’s a fresh retelling with and amazing band of characters, perfect amount of romance, and the perfect mystery surrounding it. Finding out this is the first book and that there will be a sequel has me beyond giddy! 

10/10 Stars
-Angela

The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall

Avery is the key to an ancient prophecy. Some want to use her as a pawn and some want her dead. Avery must follow a trail of clues left to her by a family friend. She wont be going at it alone... Stellan and Jack will both be a long for the ride and keeping secrets of their own. She will have to choose not only between freedom but between the boy who might help her save the world, and the one she's falling in love with.

Okay... Where to start... Guess I'll start with the most obvious thing about this book, the cover. The cover of this book pulls you in! It's a beautiful... But it also managed to do one of my biggest pet peeves. The girl on the front doesn't match the girl on the insides. Avery is shorter with dark hair. The girl on the cover appears taller and has dirty blonde hair. I HATE, HATE! when books do this. I know I have never done cover art before but I'm pretty sure the people who make it get a copy of the book, so I don't see how it could be so hard to make them match. 

Now on to what's inside, The Conspiracy of Us was just fine. That's it though, it's just fine. The book starts off with Avery the girl who is constantly moving with her mom and has a very average life. She doesn't have many friends, etc etc. Then of course the story has the mysterious boy in class that she swoons from from a far. Jack. He sounds super hot but as far as his character went I didn't really have any connection too him. Same with Stellan... correction I probably liked Stellan more. Avery is the same way. Most of the time she was kind of annoying. I was hoping she would turn out to be a super bad-ass. I really prefer my leading ladies strong and independent and THEN they have a boo on the side. Avery was whiny and heavily relied on the guys around her. All three of the main characters are just like-able enough for you to keep reading but nothing you haven't seen before. 

The plot of this story was probably my biggest issue with this book. It started off like it was going to be a unique story that twisted history, but the incorporation of historical "facts" ended up being a turn off for me. The running around from country to country made the book rather sloppy. Along with all of that this book suffered from a case of predictability. There wasn't a single "twist" that happened that I didn't see coming from a mile away. And for that "dramatic conclusion".....

Sorry but I saw it coming from a mile away. The second Avery got on the plane I knew every single step she was about to take. I found myself underwhelmed with this story. As for what I liked, I LOVED!!!! the romance scene between Avery and Jack. It was written Flawlessly. It was sweet, creative, and was a highlight in this book. It wasn't enough for me to rate this higher, but I did get a little weak in the knees. 

Hall's writing is strong, and I feel like if I was new to YA I would have fell for this story harder... Sadly I'm not new to the game so I didn't get all I wanted from this book. I had high hopes for this book and have sadly been let down. I don't know if I'll continue this series or not. 

5/10 Stars  
-Angela  

Black Iris Cover Reveal!!!!!

We here at Southern Read are so excited and honored to be apart of the cover reveal for Leah Raeder's new novel Black Iris. If you don't know who Leah Raeder is she is the author of Unteachable. Which is the novel we choose as our biggest surprise read of 2014. We both read and reviewed that novel for our blog and have reviews posted (Links at the bottom of the page). We absolutely adore her! So again we are so thankful too be a part of this.  

Seriously people look at that cover!!! IT'S STUNNING and it's only making the wait for it harder!

Leah Raeder is a writer and unabashed nerd. Aside from reading her brains out, she enjoys graphic design, video games, fine whiskey, and the art of self-deprecation. She lives with her very own manic pixie dream boy in Chicago. You can learn more about her and see more of her work by visiting her at LeahRaeder.com. 

Wondering what Black Iris is about?? Well we've posted the description below... So after reading it be sure to go and add it to your TBR on goodreads.

"It only took one moment of weakness for Laney Keating’s world to fall apart. One stupid gesture for a hopeless crush. Then the rumors began. Slut, they called her. Queer. Psycho. Mentally ill, messed up, so messed up even her own mother decided she wasn't worth sticking around for.

If Laney could erase that whole year, she would. College is her chance to start with a clean slate.
She's not looking for new friends, but they find her: charming, handsome Armin, the only guy patient enough to work through her thorny defenses—and fiery, filterless Blythe, the bad girl and partner in crime who has thorns of her own.
But Laney knows nothing good ever lasts. When a ghost from her past resurfaces—the bully who broke her down completely—she decides it's time to live up to her own legend. And Armin and Blythe are going to help.
Which was the plan all along.
Because the rumors are true. Every single one. And Laney is going to show them just how true.
She's going to show them all."

Black Iris will be available in both Ecopy (5.99) and Print at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Booksamillion, and Indiebound (15.00). It's also available on all those sites for per-order.

WE CAN NOT WAIT TO GET OUR HANDS ON THIS BOOK!!! 

BUT WAIT! That's not it... We were also provided with an excerpt from chapter one to give yall!

  BLACK IRIS by Leah Raeder  

April is the cruelest month, T.S. Eliot said, and that’s because it kills. It’s the month with the highest suicide rate. You’d think December, or even January—the holidays and all that forced cheer and agonized smiling pushing fragile people to the edge—but actually it’s spring, when the world wakes from frostbound sleep and something cruel and final stirs inside those of us who are broken. Like Eliot said: mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain. In the deepest throes of depression, when sunlight is anguish and the sky throbs like one big raw migraine and you just want to sleep until you or everything else dies, you’re less likely to commit suicide than someone coming out of a depressive episode. Drug companies know this. That’s why antidepressants have to be marked with the warning MAY CAUSE SUICIDAL THOUGHTS.
Because what brings you back to life also gives you the means to destroy yourself.

 LEAH RAEDER YOU'RE GIVING US GOOSEBUMPS!!! 

You can also follow Leah on her many social media pages listed below:

http://www.leahraeder.com/

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

and check out both of our reviews for Unteachable here: 

Angela's Review

Leah's Review 

 Thanks again Leah Raeder and the people at Simon and Schuster the people at ATRIA BOOKS ( a division of Simon and Schuster, Inc.)

Captive by Aimee Carter

Captive by Aimee Carter

For the past two months, Kitty Doe's life has been a lie. Forced to impersonate the Prime Minister's niece, her frustration grows as her trust in her fake fiancé cracks, her real boyfriend is forbidden and the Blackcoats keep her in the dark. With all this happening she is also accused of treason and is forced to face her greatest fear: Elsewhere. A prison where no one can escape and people are hunted by the wealthy. Kitty is learning the hard way that she can't trust anyone. 

I waited for this book for what seemed like forever, and I feel a little more than let down. The cover is just as lovely as the first (and has the same stunning surprise when the duster is removed), but the book is close to half the size of Pawn.

Like the first book Captive kept a steady pace through out the course of the novel, but sadly I think it suffered a small case of second book syndrome. People kept saying they didn't see some events happening but I did.  

I really loved kitty's spark and fireball personality in the first book and in this one she kind of fizzled out. Also it always seemed like she was purposely doing things to get others killed. I want to like Kitty, I really do and I'm hoping when the third book comes out she wins me over again. Sadly Kitty isn't the only one I'm not a fan of..... Benjy. I almost always go for the underdog or the best friend love interest, in his case I just don't care if he dies or not. I'm still, not so secretly, pulling for Knox. I mean with a name like Lennox Creed you sound like a total badass. With that being said Knox became pretty confusing in this book and my love for him also kind of burned out as well (yes a lot of flames were put out in this book). I just didn't understand most of his motives. Kitty is constantly questioning Knox (with good reason), but we never really get the answers we crave. Plus I don't remember Kitty and Knox hating each other this much in Pawn.

Though the plot was fast-ish paced and kept a nice flow I just felt like something was missing. I didn't get something I wanted.  Elsewhere was a lot more brutal than I thought it was going to be which made for a nice surprise and did give this story a little bit of an edge. When I was reading Captive I felt like it was a book I had already read before. Just nothing too new was brought to the table. There was just a lot of issues and "what the's" in this book.  

I will say I really enjoyed the ending of this book, but that's about it. It has it set up nicely for book three. So I will be continuing this series in hopes that book three blows Pawn and Captive out the water. (Fingers-Crossed!!) 

5.5/6-10 stars

-Angela

The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

You know, most of the time Angela and I will do a joint review when we read the same book at the same time. Every so often, we read a book that is so epic, so mind blowing that we each have to write our own thoughts because it was just that good. This is what happened with The Retribution of Mara Dyer.

I think I am not over exaggerating when I say this is one of the most highly anticipated books this year (for us anyway). Michelle Hodkin sucked us into her world of Mara Dyer and made us fall in love with Noah Shaw and then left us hanging on a massive cliffhanger at the end of book two.

FINALLY, I was able to get my hands on my precious. I was actually out of town the day the book was released, so I reserved a copy at like three different book stores because I didn't know which one I was going to be able to get to first.

The book opens a few weeks after the last one left off. Mara is still at the Horizons facility on No Name Island, but she wakes up drugged and with no memory of what has happened in the time that has passed. Dr. Kells and her assistant Wayne are major parts of the first part of the book. Dr. Kells reveals a little why she everything has happened the way it has gone down. The book gets pretty intense pretty quickly, especially when our favorite villain Jude makes a reprise a la SAW style.

Mara finds Jamie and Stella in the facility, but Noah is still MIA. They have to figure out how to get out of this facility and off of No Name Island. Along the way they are finding more and more clues on why they are there and what they are. Once they uncover some pretty important information, they all decide that they need go to NYC. Along the way, we meet some other characters. Some good, some not so good. Between the three of them and their powers they are able to difuse and handle some pretty ridiculous situations. I won't reveal much, but I will say this book is a lot darker than I was expecting. Mara really has to deal with her crazy and she is also dealing with the fact that Noah may or may not be alive. You really feel her pain and your heart breaks for her right along the way (all I'm going to say is marashaw and when that scene happened I was ready to just go ahead and throw myself off a bridge).

"An angel sat on one shoulder, a devil on the other. Both of them wore my face."

Once they finally make it to NYC, crazy stuff stars happening left and right. All I'm going to say that several scenes left my jaw literally hanging open on the floor. The best thing about this book is we get answers. We FINALLY get ALL of our questions answers. Why is this happening? Why did Dr. Kells do this? Who all is involved? All of it gets answered.

The best part of the book happens over three hundred pages in and that is when my booboo Noah FINALLY reappears. Though he isn't in the whole book, the last ~150pgs that he is apart of is absolutely amazing. What he has to go through was so heart wrenching. He if faced with some crazy hard choices that involve Mara, his dad, Mara's brother, Jamie, and even Jude. I read the last part of the book in an hour because I was on the edge of my seat the entire time freaking out. It is truly freak out worthy and you will be going back and forth between wanting to cry your eyes out to wanting to rip someone's throat out.

But the ending is worth it. Oh my gosh, is it worth it. The way Michelle Hodkin wrote the last handful of chapters is so romantic and so beautiful. She makes you feel the feels without directly saying what is going on, but it still makes you feel uncomfortable in all the write ways. Let's just say that Noah Shaw earned his reputation for good reason.

"I know what I can do to a girl with a word, a look, a touch. And I want to do them all to her."

The ending reminded me a lot of the ending of the Shatter Me series. You get closure. Like for real closure. You're not sitting there wondering WTF just happened. The ending leaves it open enough that you don't know what the future will hold but you know that all the characters are going to be ok, at least for now. SPOILER (don't highlight if you haven't read the book because it will spoil the ending!!!)- You don't know if Noah and Mara will live a long life together, but you know the option is there that they could possibly live forever (since her grandma hopefully broke the curse) or Noah could die any time. You get enough closure to be okay with those questions not being answered because you know that right now Mara and Noah are together and they have chosen each other no matter what. 

sSo needless to say this book absolutely rocked my world. I didn't know what to expect going into this, but all of my expectations were blown out of the water. I'm sad this book series is over, but I am adding it to my top series of all time list. If I could give this book a million stars, I would.

"I will love you to ruins."

5/5 stars

Say Her Name: James Dawson

Say Her Name: James Dawson

Bobbie Rowe is not the kind of person who believes in ghosts or urban legends. A Halloween dare at her ridiculously spooky boarding school is no big deal, especially when her best friend Naya and cute boy Caine agree to join in on the fun. They are dared to summon the legendary ghost of 'Bloody Mary': say her name five times in front of a candlelit mirror, and she shall appear. When nothing happens the kids think they are in the clear... or are they?
The following morning Bobbie finds a message written on the bathroom mirror. "Five days" is all it says. Things get increasingly weird and more terrifying for Bobbie, Naya, and Caine as they soon realize that Mary is coming to get them and she's no Casper. They are now in a race against time before their five days are up and Mary comes for them. 

Say Her Name is definitely a top Halloween pick, even without being overly scary. SHN will more than likely appeal to a younger audience but will work for anyone who is looking a good quick thriller as well. I also think it would fit really well for book clubs as well. I enjoyed that Dawson did a thriller that was also very comical. This new spin on an old classic really was a nice break from the mundane. It’s really brilliant to read a story about a childhood game that I used to participate in myself. The fact that Dawson had it written so that Bobbie actually felt some compassion for the ghost and investigates who Mary was and the events that trapped her in the mirrors. Speaking of mirrors this book will probably keep you from looking to hard at one for a few days. As far as the setting goes Piper's Hall being a boarding school in my opinion is the perfect setting for a YA horror novel. This novel keeps a nice and fast pace through out the whole book. The end of the book was also fantastic. The whole plot came together in a really clever way

No doubt this book will be compared to The grudge and The Ring. It didn't scare me to the point where I couldn't sleep but it had more than its fair share of eerie.