For Real {Blog Tour + Review}

Hey y'all! Welcome to me review stop on the FOR REAL blog tour! Hope y'all enjoy your stay.

For Real by Chelsea M. Cameron
Goodreads

Summary

Two people. One fake relationship. What could go wrong?

When virgin Shannon Travers gets fed up with her friends demanding that she find a boyfriend, she enlists the help of tattooed, mohawk-rocking graphic design student Jett. He’s more than happy to play along with their Fake Relationship, including the Ten Rules of Fake Dating that control-freak Shannon comes up with. Even if he likes to violate them. Repeatedly.

But what happens when Fake Dating starts to feel… not fake anymore? Will Shannon be willing to let go and embrace the first thing in her life that’s ever felt REAL?

What I Expected: a short, sweet story about a virgin who's friends are meanie heads and a boy with an outer-shell that only she can break go on an adventure with their hearts and end up with a typical HEA

What I Got: that and more

For Real is adorable. In the beginning though.....I was a bit worried. At the start of this novel the writing style just wasn't for me. The characters felt like paper and their voices just weren't strong enough to hear. Shannon is completely and utterly naive to a point where it was actually annoying. For the first time they met (Shannon and Jett), Jett asks Shannon to watch over his computer and leaves her a crane. This crane sets off the events that are both insanely sweet and really, really idiotic.

When Shannon's friends who are just....ugh....Anyway's, when they threaten to leave her in a bar until she get's a guy to take her home in an effort to take away her V card, she breaks. She then proceeds to run out and runs into Jett. *sigh* Jett. I am rather fond of him. Jett is the tattooed boy with the amazing mohawk, love for origami and a talent for drawing who steals Shannon's heart. Oh, and he's also her fake boyfriend.

This isn't you typical story where the bad boy player steals the shy girls heart and breaks it. No, it's actually quite the opposite. I believe the correct word for it is refreshing.

Although I found myself fed up with Shannon in the beginning (but eventually grew to love her) I adored Jett right from the start. There was something mysterious about the way he grew on Shannon. He had a past that left him scarred but in a way, made him so much stronger.

Shannon's friends: Friends. *scoffs* I think you get what I'm trying to say.   

The writing, although I wasn't as in to it as I was with Deeper We Fall, was still good, just not up to my expectations.

Can I just say how much I love Jett? And old chairs? And bear mugs that creep around in the middle of the night? And penguin waffle makers?

Shannon's and Jett's chemistry in For Real was undeniable and just so cute. You could tell that Jett wanted to be a real boyfriend and not just a fake one. I felt kind of bad for him sometimes...And then his roommate. Yes, I like him. He will surprise you.

Overall this was a cute, short sweet book that, although doesn't showcase Chelsea's writing abilities, was still good and worth reading.

Happy reading
Jackie

No Turning Back {Blog Tour}

Summary

After getting involved with Dylan, the bad boy of the Dixon High Swim team, Charley decides to stay close to home for college. It’s just safer that way. Later, she realizes it’s a mistake, just like dating Dylan. She decides to put the past behind her and leave the small hick town of Grassy Pond. There is only one problem; she makes this decision three weeks before the fall semester begins.

Charley packs up her Honda and heads to Southern College. On the morning she’s about to leave, Cash walks back into her life. He has been her best friend since they were four and is the only one who knows the REAL Charley. She leaves her farm in Grassy Pond with all kinds of “what if” questions.

Charley decides to live her college career to the fullest. She finds a great group of friends, joins the swim team, and meets a guy named Joe. He’s got eyes that make ya wanna melt!

At college, she encounters a new problem. Charley has been away from home for only forty-eight hours before she breaks the two promises she made to herself. Will she be able to overcome her past? Find new love? What will happen with Cash now that he is back in her life? Will she find what she is wanting in Jackalope Joe? How will her first semester of college end? Joe, Cash, or alone?

Author Stalker

Casey Peeler grew up and still lives in North Carolina with her husband and daughter. Her first passion is teaching students with special needs. Over the years, she found her way to relax was in a good book.After reading Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston her senior year of high school and multiple Nicholas Sparks’ novels, she found a hidden love and appreciation for reading.Casey is an avid reader, blogger (Hardcover Therapy,) and now author.  No Turning Back (Full Circle #1) is her debut novel releasing September 30^th.   Finding Charley (Full Circle #2) will release spring 2014.Her goal is to one day be an author who is recognized nationwide like Jamie McGuire, Colleen Hoover, Tiffany King, and Amanda Bennett.When Casey isn’t reading, you can find her listening to country music, spending the day at the lake, being a wife and dance mom, and spending time with friends and family.Her perfect day consists of water, sand between her toes, a cold beverage, and a great book.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/caseypeelerauthor

Twitter: www.twitter.com/AuthorCasey

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7106874.Casey_Peeler

Website: http://authorcaseypeeler.weebly.com

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/authorcasey/no-turning-back-sneak-peaks/

 

Author Interview:

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I am a wife, mother, book blogger, special education teacher, country music lover, and the proudest dance mama you will ever meet!  I love spending time with my family, seeing Luke Bryan shake it for me, and feeling sand between my toes.

  Do you listen to music while writing? Sometimes, just depends on my mood and if I’m in the groove.  If so, you can guess it will be anything country!  My personal favorites are Florida Georgia Line, Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan, Brantley Gilbert, or ANYTHING country!

  If you had to go back and do it all over, is there any aspect of your novel or getting it published that you would change? Not one thing… except the hamster in the wheel issue!
 
How did you come up with the title? Basically, with everything Charley is given in life, she decides to leave home and not turn back.  It’s about independence.

Excerpt

As we make our way to the door, Georgia slips on the gravel.  She starts laughing and the rest of us do as well once we help her up. 

“Y’all, I think the ground and curbs are out to get me.  I mean they come out of nowhere.  The next thing I know, I’m on my ass again!”  Georgia is a hoot.  She always makes light of situations.

Hank’s Tavern is not exactly what I pictured.  It’s an old, worn down, wooden shed.  There are five parking spaces in front of the restaurant section of the place.  The rest of the parking is located across the road in a gravel lot.  It’s gravel, no pavement anywhere.  The bouncers are dressed in jeans and Hank’s Tavern t-shirts that fit just a little snug around their arms showing off their muscles.  They ask for our IDs, take a brief glance, and in we go.  I will have to say, the guys don’t get in quite as easy.  They get patted down and driver’s license checked.  Sometimes it pays to be a female.

We enter through another set of glass doors and immediately cigarette smoke and stale beer hit my nostrils.  The room is open except for a few pool tables and the bar.  It is dark, lights are flashing, and the music is bumping.  We do exactly what any group of girls would do, walk straight to the restroom.  You have got to kidding me!  No door really!  There is no freakin’ door on the last stall.  After taking a few minutes to get over the negative stall door and freshen up, we walk out and head straight to the dance floor.

I have to say that this is exactly redneck meets ghetto fabulous.  Whoever thought a place like this would play Mystikal, Dr. Dre, Lil Wayne, throw in a little “Downtown” by Lady A and Old Crow Medicine Show?  We have the best time just dancing in a big group.  I notice Crystal and Lucas on the floor; she smiles and waves before continuing to do things she should be embarrassed to be doing in public.  I am so thankful that I don’t have to deal with that in my room.  That is one benefit to her dating a Resident Assistant… he has his own room.

By midnight, Hank’s is packed.  I decide to grab a bottle of water, and as I’m about to pay, I hear that oh so sexy voice.

“I got that.”

“It’s okay, Joe.  I got it.”

“No, I insist.  I was an ass earlier.  I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.  It’s the least I can do.”

“Damn straight!  I’m proud of who I am and where I’m from.  I just hate when damn Yankees come down here and then try to make us look like hicks.  You don’t like the way we live, then don’t cross the Mason-Dixon,” I say as playful as possible.  It did tick me off earlier, but I don’t want him to think I’m a bitch.

“I swear I won’t do it again, and nobody is gonna pick on you eating squirrel but me,” he says with a smile.

“Okay, I’ll give ya that.”

“So Squirrel, you wanna dance?”

“Mr. Scaredy Cat, I’d love to.”  He takes the water bottle from me and leads me to the dance floor.

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Happy reading
Jackie