Deer in Headlights by Staci Hart

Deer in Headlights by Staci Hart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher: Promise Socks Publishing
Date Published: February 14th 2013
Genre: New Adult Fantasy Romance
Source: Author

In this book their are two worlds that live side-by-side; Olympus and the mortal realm. The story starts in Olympus, where Aphrodite is up to bat for the games the Olympians play. The games, where the god for that turn has to go up against all of the other gods in the selected gods' craft. This time it's Dita's turn, and of course her specialty is love. Her first opponent? Apollo, who has a long-standing rivalry with Dita for killing Adonis and Dita turning Daphne into a tree.

Dita chose Lex, an artist and poet with abandonment issues as her player in the love game, and Apollo chose Dean, a screwed up guitarist and singer/songwriter. Dean sleeps with everything that moves, not knowing how to say no, and Lex already has a boyfriend. An impossible match, right?

Each god has a month to make or break the mortal couple. And the winner gets a favor from the other. Apollo is desperate to get a favor from Dita so he can get Daphne back, but Aphrodite never loses. Will Lex and Dean beat the odds and make it? Or will Apollo do the impossible and get his love back?
This book was not what I was expecting.

Just wanted that out there. When I first heard about it, I was like eh, another Greek God book? I have read a lot of them, and I did believe I had seen it all.

I was so wrong.

This book is so many things. Light, fun, fluffy, and at times, heart wrenching. Yes, it is another Greek God/mythology book, but it's different than any others I have read. It was the best kind of surprise.

During a good portion of the book I was torn between rooting for Lex and Dean and between rooting for Apollo. It's a hard choice, and I kept crossing my fingers that Aphrodite would be kind and lose on purpose so Apollo could get Daphne back and hoping that Lex and Dean made it. It was such a struggle.

Despite making me chose sides and bite my nails in uncertainty, it was still a fun, light read. Yes, you got attached to the characters, but you weren't about to tear around the room wrecking things because one of your favorite characters died (I hate that about Mockingjay. That book did a number on me, seriously). It's the perfect book for summer.

Things I loved:
1) The gods - they were fun and silly and serious all at the same time
2) Lex and Dean - they were perfect for each other
3) Aphrodite's forgiveness - in a lot of Greek myths the gods don't forgive easily, so it was nice knowing she had a heart
4) Perry - she is like THE best friend. I'll never look at her the same in mythology. And I love ice cream too ;)
5) The feels - oh my goddess, the feels. Whoa, just wow
6) The cover - it screams Dita to me
7) Heff - he wasn't in the big picture of the book, but I liked what little of him I did see and I hope he becomes a bigger character in books to come

Characters I didn't like:
1) Adonis - he reminds me of those guys who think of their girlfriends as accessories rather than living beings
2) Ares - I guess what he did is expected from him, but still

I honestly can't think of anything I didn't like about this book. It was great. I'm going to have to get started on the next one real soon :)

View all my reviews

Synopsis:

Aphrodite never loses, not when it comes to love.

Immortality has its perks and its downsides. Boredom, for one, is unavoidable, but instead of playing Backgammon, the Greek gods devised a game using humans as pawns. Remember Shakespeare? That was Apollo. Bonnie and Clyde? Aphrodite versus Ares.

Aphrodite is on deck, and she’ll defend her domain of love by using her magic to get the two human players together. Time is not on her side, and she’ll have her work cut out for her as her opponent does everything in his power to keep the players apart.

Game one is against Apollo, who chooses the loner Dean, a rock star who takes dark and brooding to the next level. His band has finally gotten a break, and he can’t screw it up, not for another one night stand, and especially not with his new drummer’s girlfriend. He swore to the band that he’d keep it together, but from the minute he first sees Lex, it takes every bit of willpower he has to stay away. But Dean’s will is nothing for the Goddess of Love, who’s certain she has a fighting chance to win with Lex as her player. The artist and poet is perfect for Dean, if only she can open her heart and find a way to love for the first time.

There’s always more at stake than winning the game when you’ve lived for thousands of years. The Olympians are the original dysfunctional family, surviving eons of love and lust, betrayal and lies, as friends and enemies, through feuds and wars. From the douchebag Ares, who’s forever trying get Aphrodite into bed, to her best friend Persephone, who she can always count on for a hearty helping of bacon on a bad day, the gods will take you on a lighthearted trip as they toy with humans, laugh and fight, lose love and gain power.

The Tables Have Turned

Okay, so yesterday I was checking Twitter and I saw a tweet from @ReadersDotCom. They had tagged me in a tweet saying

What's on Your Nightstand? We asked @KaciiEpicness and she told us: ow.ly/oBe7L

 Now a couple of months ago someone from Readers.com asked me to do a spotlight for them. I thought, sure, why not? And I had fun doing it. But I had no idea when they were going to put the spotlight on their blog (part of their overall website). So on September 4th they posted the spotlight on their blog and on the 5th they Tweeted to me about it.

You can imagine how psyched I am. I mean, I've done author spotlights, but that was me focusing on the author. This spotlight was about ME. And my book picks for the summer. I thought that was so exciting. Here's some examples of how I'm feeling, and (knowing me) what I look like right now.

 

 

I think it's a really cool idea to ask people who love books so incredibly to pick a few and share why their so amazing. You can ask anyone in the world about books, and I'm sure you'll get a variety of answers. But asking someone who loves books to pieces is awesome. And I'm not the only one who has been in the spotlight with this. Check out the Readers.com blog and look for What's on My Nightstand.

Never stop reading,


Kacii

 Have you entered the Origin giveaway?

17 Problems Only Book Lovers Will Understand

If you’re a self-proclaimed bookworm (or a bibliophile in denial), you can probably relate to these 17 problems.

1. When someone asks you what your favorite book is and expects you to pick just one.

 

2. When someone interrupts your reading.

                

Because, really, a book is basically a Do Not Disturb sign.

                

3. When the movie version of a book gets everything wrong.

                

4. And completely ruins your mental images of characters.

                

5. When someone you like tells you they don’t like to read.

                

6. When you forget to eat or sleep because a book is so good.

                

 

7. When your favorite character dies.

                

And you pretend they’re still alive but it’s just not the same.

                

8. When a book you love gets a harsh review.

                

 

9. When an author stops writing mid-series.

                

10. When someone spoils the ending of a book.

                

Or worse, the ending of an entire series.

                

11. When you walk into a bookstore.

                

12. When you lend someone a book and get it back in terrible condition.

                

13. Or never get it back at all.

                

14. When you finish a book and have to wait a year for the sequel.

                

15. When a book makes you cry hysterically in public and everyone thinks you’re crazy.

                

16. When no one gets your obscure literary reference.

                

17. When someone says you read too much.

                

Because you know there’s no such thing as too many books.

 

 I got this from Buzz Feed, where HarperCollins wrote/contributed to this post. I'm just borrowing it and am taking no credit whatsoever for it. You can get the link to the original post by clicking here. I just thought it was really funny and it explains me so incredibly much. So I wanted to share it with all of my book-loving friends and followers.

Happy reading!



Kacii

Phoenix Spotlight + Giveaways!

Today I have for you a book spotlight for a new release called Phoenix. I also have two giveaways, if you wish to enter. The Goodreads giveaway is for one print copy of Phoenix, and the Rafflecopter giveaway is for three eBook copies of Phoenix. You can enter either one, both, or none. It's all up to you.



Publisher: K.K. Cook
Date Published: March 4th 2013
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal/Fantasy Romance

Synopsis:

We are born from the sun in the sky and the people that roam the earth.
We are creatures of war and beauty and salvation.
We are the phoenix.
***
They are born from the tide that turns to follow the moon.
They are hunters of the night and people of the day.
They are the wolves.
***
Rakel grew up in the middle of the blistering hot Arizona desert. No civilization for miles around. She lived in a gated city for others like her. Others who can turn into giant war birds by mere will. Others who are phoenix.

Rakel soon discovers she has a rare ability, one that was thought to have died out millennia ago. She is one of the Vanished, someone who has the power to teleport and travel through time. Rakel is pulled from her quiet life of being invisible to being the center of every phoenixes attention. Her entire future is now in the hands of her alpha. And her alpha chooses his son Casey as her mate.

With emotions running high and powers out of control, Rakel ends up in the clutches of the werewolf alpha Ethan. A forbidden romance blooms and grows until it consumes Rakel and Ethan. Rakel has a choice that could change history. But who is her heart loyal to?

Read on as Rakel battles her inner demons and fights for her choice in life.



Full Book Details:
Title: Phoenix
Author: K.K. Cook
Series: Ancient Elements
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal/Fantasy Romance
Date Published: March 4th 2103
ISBN: 1482688468 (ISBN13: 9781482688467)
ASIN: B00BP0DCS6
Book ID: 4194742

And now for the giveaways!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Phoenix

by K.K. Cook

Giveaway ends April 23, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Thank you all for stopping by! And good luck with the giveaways ;)

Kacii

Girl Power Post

I don't know how many of you realise this, but tomorrow is International Women's Day. So I'm doing a post about girl's who kick butt. Not just any girls, but girls who are in books. This is a book blog after all.



There are so many more, but I choose my favorites to show with you. We all know The Hunger Games, so I don't think that one really needs explaining. Katniss fights for her life, Peeta's life, and of course Prim's life. But she shoves her foot up the Capitol's ass while doing it. Kudos to her.

Divergent. Another one I'm sure we're all familiar with. Tris is a total badass shortie who kicks butt in so many ways. If you haven't read that book, you're seriously missing out. Like, really missing out. I don't think you can grasp how much your missing out.

Graceling. Hmm, this is a little trickier to explain. Katsa can kill super easy. You find out later that's not all she's good at. But anyway, Katsa kicks a load of booty's in Graceling. It's a fantasy book, a little hard to get into if you're not into fantasy. But it's damn good.

Oh. My. God. I hope to hell. I don't have to explain Vampire Academy to you. Rose, such an innocent name for such a deadly person, is pretty much the master of ass-kicking and boy-whopping. Or whatever. READ. IT. NOW. If you haven't already.

Delirium. Another one you should have read. But it's really in Pandemonium that Lena steps up into her role of a butt-kicker. And the third book, Requiem, came out this past Tuesday, I believe. I hope for more ass-kicking and I hope the damn love triangle ends. I Hate love triangles with a vengeance.

Raised by Wolves is one of my favorite books. Especially in the independent women department. You know how supposedly women are usually weaker then men? Yeah well this is a book about werewolves. To start off, if you're human you're weak. But if you're a human, and a girl? Man, you are so weak. Or not. Because Bryn is human and she's a girl. And guess what? She ends up as an alpha. Yes, a human female leading a bunch of wolves who are stronger than her weak pitiful self. She kicks ass. So suck on that you bastards!

Foul language aside, I am all about girl power. So I hope you enjoyed this post, and I hope you show support to women everywhere. You don't have to actually kick a dude's ass to be supportive. I am just a serious enthusiast when it comes to pointing my middle finger at the males of our lovely species.

See ya later people!

Kacii

Wait For You by J. Lynn

Wait for You by J. Lynn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Publisher: J. Lynn
Date Published: February 26th 2013
Genre: New Adult Romance

This book rocked. I wanted to strangled Avery several times, but it's kind of hard to strangle a fictional character. Cam was what we all anticipated and what we all wanted: HOTT!

The moment you begin reading you know Avery has had some issues in her past involving a guy, or maybe more than one guy. And she meets mister delicious (aka Cam) the usual way. She ran into him, of course. Books went flying, pens went rolling, and it was love at first sight.

Well, not exactly.

It took like five months for them to get their first kiss. And you learn that Cam has his own secret issues. It's perfect. But I think Avery's issues are definitely worse. I still wanted to strangle her for her stupidity, but she was pretty screwed over.

Now, my favorite two authors in the entire universe are Jennifer L. Armentrout and J. Lynn. They're kind of tied for first place. *grinning* I've liked everything I've read by the, so far. And I have nothing bad to say about any of their books. Just wanted to point that out people.

I think you can guess what I think of this book from the rating I've given it. It was terrible. Absolutely horrendous. Worst book I've ever read. Thumbs down.

Just kidding.

I freaking loved the book. Another hit by J. Lynn (aka Jennifer L. Armentrout... ah haha! You see what I did there). This book was awesome. It's awesomeness had it's own awesomesocks to go with it. Totally, completely, wicked cool.

Have I expressed my opinion well enough? If not, please do tell me and I will elaborate for you because obviously I was not clear in my feelings for this book.

View all my reviews

Synopsis:

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 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…

If you haven't already, I would advise adding this book to your TBR pile. Just saying. This book could kick your butt nine ways from Sunday.

Kacii