**Early Review ~ Home ~ JA Huss**

Home 
Social Media #6
Release Date: November 5, 2014
Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance
Source: I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review; also pre-ordered my own copy
Rating: 5 Bookworms

Synopsis

I just want my Grace back.

I want the girl I found sending me dirty tweets on Saint Thomas. I want the girl who reluctantly gave in to my charms and let me boss her around. I want the girl who sent me to my knees and made me imagine what her fairy tale would look like with me in it.

I just want to move on.

I want to plan the future and think about kids and preschools and college funds. I want everything she ever wanted, and I want us to make it happen together.

But the media needs more from us. More dirt. More pain. More payment for past transgressions.

You can't change the past. And even though Grace is ready to put her demons to bed, mine are just starting to get restless. Because when you've silenced as many enemies as I have over the years, you know that secret won't stay buried forever.

Home is the perfect ending for Grace and Vaughn. There were a few bumps along the way but where they landed gave me warm fuzzies.

I said at the beginning of this series that one of the things I liked most about Grace was her strength - her feistiness. Over the course of the series, she lost some of that zeal she'd seemed to have. Home could also have been titled "Grace's Return" and again, it wasn't a simple or easy path, but she found herself again.

Vaughn was *almost* perfection. He made a few decisions, in an effort to protect Grace, that I wished he'd discussed with her instead. But that made him more real. Other than that, I loved him. We did see a little of the dominant Vaughn return, but he was desperately needed.

Ms. Huss had said at some point that this series was about how social media, or media in general, had impacted both Grace's and Vaughn's lives. I got how it shaped Vaughn's - he's a movie star, after all. But it took me longer to see how it had affected Grace, both positively - with the freedom she felt hiding behind her twitter handle, and negatively - concerning the tragedies she suffered as a teen and adult. But in Home, the evils of media are made very clear. It's shocking, dismaying, and disgusting to think about how some in the media prey on others' lives.

The way that Huss incorporated social media lingo into the titles and what was happening in the story is brilliant. That she could wrap so much story, so much emotion, so much suspense into each episode - well, that's just Huss' talent, in my opinion.

Okay, y'all. They're all out now (or will be tomorrow). No more excuses. Read this series and see what the fuss over Huss is all about. :)

**Blog Tour Early Review & Giveaway ~ Eight Days a Week ~ Amber L. Johnson**

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Amber L. Johnson's Eight Days a Week. My stop includes all the details on the book, my review, and a giveaway!

Eight Days a Week

by Amber L. Johnson
Release Date: November 6, 2014
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Published by: The Writers Coffee Shop
Available from: Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, 
and TWCS PH
Source: I received a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Rating: 4.5 Bookworms

A "manny" should always mind his own business. 

And he definitely shouldn’t fall in love with his boss.  

Synopsis

Gwen Stone has secrets she’s not ready to reveal. After a recent promotion at work, she needs a caretaker for her children. She’s frenzied and in a lurch and pretty much ready to hire the first person who comes along. So she does.

Andrew Lyons needs to get out of his sister’s apartment, and a Craigslist posting may be the answer to his prayers. But what he thought was an ad for a room rental turns into a job offer he can’t refuse. Accepting the nanny position could change his life, if only he had a clue how to be a grownup.

A working mother, a shirtless “manny” who looks good in a towel, two children who need more than a babysitter, and hours of kids’ TV can only spell disaster for everyone involved. Because a manny should always mind his own business.

And he definitely shouldn’t fall in love with his boss.

Not too long ago, I read Amber L. Johnson's Puddle Jumping and fell in love with her writing and her voice. So when I was asked if I'd like to read Eight Days a Week, I jumped at the chance. I was not disappointed.

Eight Days a Week was something a little different as Ms. Johnson wrote it from a male's POV. I think she nailed it. Andrew Lyons, when we first meet him, is cocky, rather narcissistic, but smart and talented, with a penchant for playing pranks on his older sister. I wasn't immediately enamored by him, although he did make me laugh. But it wasn't long after his taking a job as a manny that I could see the special man hidden behind the snarky prankster.

Gwen Stone is so selfless and giving, smart, beautiful, but not quite self-assured. When she hires Andrew as a manny for her two children, he, and I, got the impression things were a certain way. But you know what they say about assuming. When the truth of her situation is revealed, I along with Andrew fell even harder for Gwen.

Bree and Brady, Gwen's kids, well...I adored them! They made me laugh and cry. Bree was such an oldest child - so grown up before her time. And Brady, once he started talking to Andrew, stole my heart.

Eight Days a Week is so many things. It's a story of growing up. It's a story of forgiveness. It's a story of finding yourself and finding love. And it's a story about coming home - once you figure out where home is. It's a lovely, heartwarming, and emotional story.

Since I have an avid Beatles fan in my house, I quite enjoyed the song and album titles used as chapter headings. The way they related to the chapters was brilliant. I asked my son if there was a pattern to them but he didn't see one. I had thought maybe there was a correlation between the Beatles' growth as song writers and Andrew's growth. Whether or not it exists, I truly enjoyed watching Andrew mature - and Gwen, Bree, and Brady's role in it.

Eight Days a Week gave me another reason to love Johnson's writing. She has a way of creating rich characters and poignant stories. I look forward to reading more from her.

Goodreads * Add to Want To Read List

Amber is a full-time mom and a full-time wife who is employed full time and writes when she can. She believes in Happily Ever Afters that occur every day—despite the obstacles real life serves up on a regular basis. Or perhaps they’re sweeter simply because of them. She always has two rubber bands on her wrist, a song in her head, and too much creamer in her coffee cup that reads ‘Cocoa,’ because she’s a rebel.

If she’s not at her desk, with her boys, or behind the computer, she’s supporting live music with her arms raised above her head and her eyes closed, waiting for the drop.

Twitter * Facebook * Website

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Praise for Eight Days a Week

"Laugh-out-loud story about a guy who goes to look at a room to rent and discovers it comes with a job - that of live-in nanny to two damaged kids. So Andrew Lyons accidentally becomes the "manny". Written in his POV, this book chronicles his hilarious escapades as he looks after and grows to love Bree and Brady, and his employer, Gwen. His pranks and spot-on observations about kids' TV shows had me giggling, but there were a few serious moments worthy of a sniffle as well. The star of the show may be Don, though - you'll just have to read this book to find out about him! Highly recommended." 

 - Andrea Goodreads Review

**Early Review ~ A Little Faith ~ Emma James**

A Little Faith

Ocean Beach #1

Author : Emma James

Publication date: 9th October 2014

Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance

COVER DESIGNER: Jemina Venter 

Source: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Rating: 4.5 Bookworms

SYNOPSIS
I had no idea a carefree island vacation would tear my life apart.

But now it’s time to put my walls up, make them impenetrable.

It’s the only way to survive. ~Faith

Six Years Later...

Harley, the protector. Retro, the straight shooter. Keanu, the funny bone. Levi, the model. And Text, who can’t seem to find himself. All their lives were permanently altered by one event. With a pact made, these five best friends need something from Faith. Is she ready now to give them what they have been waiting for?

Join Faith as she goes on an emotional and heartwarming discovery where all may not be what it seems. But with every ending, comes a new beginning, a second chance. You just gotta have A Little Faith...

Welcome to Ocean Beach.

“You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.”

~ Bob Marley

Oh, there's so much I want to say about A Little Faith. And yet there's so much I can't say because to do so would spoil the experience. This story begins with a shock...the tear your heart out kind of shock. I was immediately riveted.

This is such an original story. From its unique cast of characters, whom I'm already so invested in, the multiple POV narration, to the tragic incident that shaped them all into the people they've become - A Little Faith is fascinating. The story revolves around this group of guys that are so close, they're like brothers. And they've suffered this horrific event and it's brought them closer in some ways but divided them in others. And Faith is the person who keeps them together and can hopefully put them back together. We learn how the tragedy has affected them emotionally and physically...at least some of them. I think we've barely scratched the surface though.

I like the diversity of characters Ms. James incorporated. These guys and girls are not perfect - they have flaws and scars, both visible and not. And the event that rocked their world was so realistic...and their issues resulting from it are as well. It all felt so organic and true.

I really like how Ms. James tied together the act of having faith and the re-arrival of Faith into the guys' lives. Keanu, Levi, Retro, Harley, and Jase (Text) all took on roles in each others' lives and put up different kinds of walls to help them cope. And then there's Faith, who has also struggled to move forward. Now that she's on the path, she's on a mission to help all the guys heal and move on. At its heart, A Little Faith is a story of second chances, friendship, and healing.

Obviously, the emotions evoked are enormous. From the beginning shock to the ending, I was flipping through pages, anxious to see what was uncovered next. There are only a couple of things keeping this from being a 5 Bookworm read for me. First, I felt there were places where the prose didn't have enough variation in sentence length which made it choppy and interrupted the flow. And second, there were places where the detail, whether in prose or dialog, was repetitive. But the story itself was one I was so engrossed in. Overall, I'm so very impressed with Ms. James' debut. I'm kinda over the moon about it. And I can't wait until December, when I can get my hands on the next installment, Hope is Lost.