Live Through This

Live Through This
by Mindi Scott

If Coley Sterling’s best friend would stop hating her, if her dance-team captains would lighten up, if her friends would stop asking her about Reece, the geeky sax player she’s crushing on—then her life would be perfect. Right? After all, Coley’s stepdad is a successful attorney who gives Coley and her siblings everything, and her mother will stop at nothing to keep them all happy and safe—including having escaped ten years ago from the abuse of Coley’s real father.  But Coley is keeping a lot of secrets. She won’t admit—not even to herself—that her almost-perfect life is her own carefully crafted facade. Now, Coley and Reece are getting closer, and a decade’s worth of Coley’s lies are on the verge of unraveling—along with the life she thought she knew. (description from Amazon.com)
This. This is a doozy of a book. It is gripping, it is un-put-downable.  Once I had gotten about 20 pages in, there was no stopping. I read straight through until the last page, tears streaming down my face in several spots, shivers running down my spine.  I could not tear myself away. 

This is not a book for everyone. It is in your face about a very inappropriate sexual relationship and the author doesn't really pull any punches in describing what's happening.  But for the right reader, this is THE book. The one that will change their life. Whether it just be that reluctant reader who needs a compelling story to convince them that they can enjoy reading, or whether it's the teen actually dealing with the same emotional fallout...this book will find its readers.

I have already unequivically recommended this book to two readers I know because I knew without a doubt that they would love it. Need a blockbuster "issue" book or know someone struggling to come to grips with their feelings about being abused...try this book. Really.

Full disclosure: Review copy received from VOYA

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Timepiece

Timepiece

by Myra McEntire

Hourglass, book two

A threat from the past could destroy the future.
Kaleb Ballard was never supposed to be able to see ripples--cracks in time. Are his powers expanding, or is something very wrong? Before he can find out, Jonathan Landers, the man who tried to murder his father, reappears. Why is he back, and what, or whom, does he want?

In the wake of Landers's return, the Hourglass organization is given an ultimatum by a mysterious man. Either they find Landers and the research he has stolen on people who might carry the time gene, or time will be altered--with devastating results for the people Kaleb loves most. Now Kaleb, Emerson, Michael, and the other Hourglass recruits have no choice but to use their extraordinary powers to find Landers. But where do they even start? And when? Even if they succeed, just finding him may not be enough ... (description from Amazon.com)

Kaleb. Kaleb. Kaleb. Need I say more? If you've read the first book in the series, Hourglass, then I'm sure, like me, you were already half in love with Kaleb.  *THEN* Ms. McEntire had to blow me out of the water by starting this book off with a scene of my piratically-hot Kaleb in an actual pirate costume.  Oh.My.God. I had to fan myself a little while reading.  *Swoon*

Aside from the return of some rockin' romance, some awesome time travel and some amazing plot twists that keep readers on their toes, I cannot tell you how much I appreciated the change of narrator in this book. I loved Emerson and I still do, but Kaleb holds a special place in my lusty thoughts, I mean heart...

Again, I could not put this book down! There were heartbreaking moments, there were spots where I couldn't stop grinning... there was a passage I loved so much that I tweeted it:

From p. 197

"Maybe." The word caught in my throat. How did she see the man that I wanted to be so clearly, instead of the ugliness that was really there?

"Why don't you believe me?"

...and it has another killer ending that is just making me want book three NOW!! Myra McEntire has found a truly devoted fan in me.  :)

Full disclosure: ARCs received from NetGalley and Egmont for review