Love, Lex by Avery Aster

@Bunnitaz 
Rating 4 stars

Blurb:
This summer, I’d planned to celebrate my eighteenth birthday in Europe with my fellow Manhattanites—Taddy Brill, Blake Morgan, and Vive Farnworth—until I caught my boyfriend screwing my mother. According to the police report, this vomit-inducing incident happened around the same time I’d supposedly blown-up my mother’s penthouse. Like I’m walking around Soho with a stick of dynamite in my Louis Vuitton purse—not! Now, my besties and I are in jail.

Officer Ford Gotti, the Harley-wheelin’ biker cop who arrested us, keeps sticking his perfectly-sculpted nose into my case. His inked body is jacked like a superhero, and he says I can trust him. He wants me to fess up. I won’t. Not again. Why should I? My friends and I had a previous stint in juvie that nearly destroyed us. I gotta protect them and keep my mouth shut. Right? —Lex Easton, women’s studies major, motorcycle enthusiast, and virgin.

The Undergrad Years is a New Adult contemporary miniseries about first loves, independence, and everlasting friendships.

Purchase

Goodreads * Amazon * Kobo * Barnes & Noble

My Review:
I really liked this. I wish it was longer. Lex has pretty low self-esteem. Both of her parents are rock star so she has been in the eyes of the media since she was a kid. Not as skinny as the other kids she was made fun of for her extra bit of weight. Now the day before her eighteenth birthday, she is trying to lose the weight her scumbag boyfriend told her to lose in order for him to have sex with her. Talk about a low opinion of yourself to even think about agreeing to something like that.

This story was interesting from beginning to end. I found that the end was rushed. Regardless, I liked the story. I would love to get to know all the characters in the quartet. You can tell that each character had their own story to tell. I am eager to read the full length novel Undressed. Happy Reading!
-go to my Author Book List to see the list of books for this series

*this is an ARC
**most links are an affiliate links
-I receive a small percentage of any purchase made through affiliate link

Riches to Rags: One Broke Girl by Rhonda Helms

@Bunnitaz @FreestyleFriday
Rating 4 stars (3.8)

Blurb:
Anna Parker’s life disintegrates with one phone call. Her dad’s selling their ritzy New York City condo because her Wall Street banker mom emptied their bank account and ran off with another man. Which means Anna has to drop out of her elite college and move with Dad back to their small Ohio hometown. Anna’s determined to reclaim her life ASAP, so she’ll use the next few months to save money, help Dad get back on his feet, and find and confront her mom.

But Anna doesn’t anticipate things going so wrong. The only job she can get is working as a lunch lady in an elementary school. Their money-pit duplex is falling apart around their feet. And her dad is depressed without her mom, who's proving hard to find.

My Review:
We don't know Anna Parker before her bail out mom. We are told what type of person she was from her own self-reflection. She was the stereotypical rich kid. She spent money with little appreciation of how good she had it. Shopping sprees and $400 dollars dinners was just a thing her and friends just did.

Now she has gone from riches to rags. Forced to move from a condo in ritzy Manhattan to a rundown duplex in small town Ohio, Anna is determined to get back to her old life sooner rather than other. There's only one problem with the plan. How is she going to come up with enough money to set her dad up and pay for her way back to NYC when the only job she could get is as a part time lunch lady.

To make matters worse, she is the only person working. Anna father has fallen in to a depression that keeps him in his room most of the time. Then walks in Gavin, her old  elementary school boyfriend. The attraction is instant. Unfortunately, she still has a boyfriend back in New York.

Through Anna we see how a person can find themselves in a bad spot in life but in a good spot in development. Anna has become a better person. She discovered an inner strength, work ethic, and money appreciation that she wouldn't have if her mom has stayed. She learned what real friendship is.

I think that many people need to go through something similar. Many people take things for granted. When you have never seen anyone around you struggle it easy to make assumptions. Life just some times knocks you down and some people just don't know how to get up. It's the reverse. When you have struggled and everyone around you have struggled it makes it easy to feel like you can't get out of the struggle.

At any rate, I really liked this story. I'm not sure if there is going to be a sequel. I am going to reach out to the author and see if I can find that out. If there is a second book, I'm reading it. Please don't break up my happy Anna and Gavin home. What I would want for book 2? I want them to be planning a wedding and a confrontation with Anna's mother.

So there you have it. A feel good new adult romance with a message. Happy Reading!

Purchase

Amazon * Goodreads * Barnes & Noble

*this is an ARC
**most links are an affiliate links
-I receive a small percentage of any purchase made through affiliate links

Update: Book 2 is TWO LITTLE LIES, and it comes out in June (it's Natalie's book). Book 3 is THREE PERFECT NIGHTS, out in August (Bianca's book).

Girls Love Travis Walker by Anne Pfeffer

@Bunnitaz #NewReleaseTuesday #BlogTourGirlsLoveTravisWalker

Welcome to my tour stop for Girls Love Travis Walker by Anne Pfeffer. This is a New Adult contemporary recommended for ages 16+.  The tour will consist of reviews, with a few guest posts and interviews.

Rating 3stars (3.2)

From Book:
To nineteen-year-old high school dropout Travis Walker, women are like snowflakes--each one different, but beautiful in her own way.

He can charm any girl he meets, and yet down deep he fears he'll always be a loser like his jailbird father. As the landlady threatens to evict him and his sick mother, Travis takes a job he hates and spends his evenings picking up girls at a nearby night spot.

When he enlists in a teen program at the local fire station, he finds out he’s amazing at it. Then he meets the smoking hot Kat Summers, enlists Kat’s friend Zoey to help him woo her, and falls in love for the first time ever.

But he keeps the details of his life secret. His girl will never love him back if she knows the truth about him….

My Review:
By the title I thought this was going to be the typical story. You know hot guy. He knows it. He's the bad boy. He's the girl chaser. That is until he met the one. She's smart and got her act together. She too good for her. However, there opposites attract and fall madly in love. You know...that story.

Well. I was right. It is that kind of story. LOL I bet you thought I was going to say it wasn't. Travis is all of those things and so is his love interest in the novel. However, he has more to him. Travis is dealing with a series of bad to worse events that happens to his family.

There is a saying that what you see is what you get. That is usually not accurate. Instead, what you see is just that what you see. There is usually much more behind the superficial. Travis seems to have it all so much so that women what to be with him and men envy him. Travis uses his charm as a way to escape the hardships going on in his life.

He thinks that he is doom to go nowhere and be a "nobody". (I hate the notion of being a nobody but in this case it's how the character feels) There are situations that Travis has ended up in he had no choice in. The way he reacted to those situations however, he could have and should have handle better. Lying and avoidance almost always makes a situation worse. Lucky for Travis being 19 is young enough to bounce back from most things.

There's a decent pace to this book. I think it took me two day of off and on reading to finish. The writing could have been more descriptive. It could have help connect the reader with all the character better. What the his apartment look like, the building, how did he feel when he neared his apartment building, what did his mom use to look like? Describing these things makes for a more involved read. In short, it was good but it could have been better. If you like Y.A. romance novels you mostly likely will not be disappointed.

Purchase

Amazon * Goodreads

*this is an ARC

**most links are an affiliate links

-I receive a small percentage of any purchase made through affiliate link

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Challenges:
YA Bingo Reading Challenge 2014
2014 Book Bingo Reading Challenge