Sophie Reads YA: 2017

#RockMyTBR 2017 Challenge

December summary

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December

Stacking the Shelves: December 30th 2017

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Blog Tour

Blog Tour: Busted by Gina Ciocca (+US giveaway)

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About the Book:

Title: Busted

Author: Gina Ciocca

Expected publication: January 2, 2017

Catching cheaters and liars is a lucrative hobby—until you fall for one of the suspects. Perfect for fans of Veronica Mars, this new novel from the author of Last Year’s Mistake will steal your heart!

Marisa never planned to be a snoop for hire. It wasn’t like she wanted to catch her best friend’s boyfriend making out with another girl. But as her reputation for sniffing out cheaters spreads all over school, Marisa finds herself the reluctant queen of busting two-timing boys.

And her next case? It’s for ex-frenemy Kendall. She’s convinced her boyfriend, TJ, has feelings for someone else and persuades Marissa to start spying on him. But the more Marisa gets to know sincere and artistic TJ, the more she starts to fall for him. Worse yet, the feelings seem to be mutual. Marisa knows she needs to give up her investigation—and the spoken-for guy who may just be the love of her life. Then she uncovers new secrets about Kendall and TJ, secrets that take ͞cheater͟ to a whole new level...

Marisa’s Top 5 Tips For Sleuthing:

Hey there. Marisa Palmera, Private Eye here. Okay, so I don’t actually call myself that, and neither does anyone else. In fact, I never meant to become a sleuth-for-hire. But spend one night scaling your best-friend’s boyfriend’s house to take incriminating pictures, and suddenly everyone wants you to be something you’re not…and when they’re willing to line your sadly lacking pockets for it, it doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.
So, should you find yourself an unwitting Girl Friday (or even a witting one... Is “witting” a thing?) like I did, here are some tips that just may save your butt:

Always have a camera handy. Whether it’s your cell phone, or the fancy camera you borrowed from your school’s yearbook club, you never know when you’ll need to snap an evidence shot. Just, um, make sure you turn off the flash if said camera is aimed through a window into a dark living room. I may have learned this the hard way.
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. Sounds ominous and dramatic, I know. But if someone gives you the vibe that they shouldn’t be let out of your sight? GO WITH IT.
Think fast. Suck at lying? Me too. Get over it, because you’ll be fudging the truth a lot.
But know when to say no. Weave enough white lies, and suddenly they’re a sticky, tangled web with you trapped inside. Know when it’s time to run, and do it like the flames of hell are licking your feet.
Don’t fall for the person you’re investigating. Yeah. You’re just gonna have to do as I say and not as I do on this one. Oops.

Extract from the book:

“Hey, Marisa.”
I slammed my locker a little harder than I meant to at the sound of TJ’s voice. Who knew being a stalker would make me so jumpy? I pasted a smile on my face.
“Hey, what’s up?”
TJ flashed a huge grin. “I finished it this weekend.” He moved his hand from behind his back and held out a black leather belt dotted with silver studs. It was totally gorgeous, and one hundred percent badass at the same time.
“I love it!” I cried, instantly forgetting to regard him as Shady McShadeballs. I took the belt and slid it through the loops of my jeans, loving that it complemented my green shirt, matching flats, and silver jewelry. “What do I owe you?”
TJ scoffed. “You don’t owe me anything.”
“No! I can’t take this for nothing. I have to give you something for it, please?”
The corner of his mouth turned up. “You can take my place interviewing Mr. Crossley about the Math League after school today if you want. I’ll even let you write my article.”
I smiled back. “Nice try. How about this – I’ll take the belt, but only if you let me order some more of your stuff for the holidays and pay you for it. Deal?”
The locker behind me slammed and the skin on my neck crawled. I whipped around, knowing exactly who would be standing there, and the daggers were already shooting from my eyes before I’d even completed my rotation. The ice in my glare could’ve turned the hallway into a skating rink. TJ must’ve sensed it, because he said, “Fair enough. Um, I’ll catch up with you later,” and walked away.
Jordan’s stare stayed fixed on his locker. “Don’t give me that look, Marisa.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “What the hell was that about on Saturday? You told me you wanted me at the bonfire, then totally blew me off. How am I supposed to look at you?”
He slung his bag over his shoulder and threw his other hand in the air. “It’s not that I changed my mind about wanting to be friends, okay? It’s like you said – I didn’t know how to react. Things have been shitty for so long that I forgot how to be normal around you. I’m sorry, all right?”
My comeback, “Sorry is a good word for you,” would’ve been awesome – if I’d had a chance to deliver it. But at that exact moment, my cell phone rang. And since a phone rarely rings with good news at 7:30 a.m., my attention was instantly diverted to the screen flashing Charlie’s name.
I stepped into the exit alcove and barely got a hello out before she said, “Sorry to bother you, but we need to talk. You’re advertising now?”
“Advertising what?”
“I’m hanging up to text you something. Call me as soon as you see it.”
The call clicked off before I could say another word. I was still staring confusedly at the screen when it flashed with a text message. Charlie had sent me a link to a website. When I clicked on it, my heart went dead inside my chest.
A website loaded onto the screen. The word BUSTED splashed across the top of the page in bold, fat letters, glinting in red and black stripes, almost identical to the pin I’d made for Charlie. The pin Kendall had specifically mentioned liking. A squat exclamation point punctuated the word, and a jagged split between the S and T made it – along with the heart around it – appear broken in half.
Beneath the heading, in smaller print, it said Don’t hate the player… bust his ass!
This had to be a joke. Only one person could’ve been responsible for this, and I knew exactly who it was.
I called Charlie back, crushing the phone against my ear as I dashed toward the computer lab. My phone was too old and too slow, and the school’s cell service was too spotty to mess around.
“You’re shitting me,” I said when she picked up. I didn’t so much sit as crash-land in one of the lab’s plastic blue chairs, and my book bag skidded across the floor and toppled over.
“So you didn’t know?”
I pulled the website up on the computer and scanned the page as fast as my brain could process it. “’Suspect your guy has a roaming eye? Our services are discreet, anonymous, and affordable.’” I almost dropped the phone. “She’s advertising me for a fee?!”
“Keep reading. It gets worse.”
“Oh my God!” I moaned. “Fake testimonials? Is she on cra- oh my God. Oh. My. God.”
“Told you.”
I had reached the spot where Kendall provided contact information for my quote-unquote “services.” She’d listed the email address as OnTheMAP17@yahoo.com.
MAP. Marisa Ann Palmera. Not only had she used my initials, she’d followed them with my freaking birth date. Who the hell had taught her the definition of anonymous? To think, earlier this morning I’d felt bad for her. Not anymore.
“Do you want me to throw a bag over her head and take her out behind the bleachers? Teach her a little lesson?” I could practically hear Charlie’s knuckles cracking.
“Don’t bother,” I said. “I’m going to kill her myself.”

ABOUT GINA CIOCCA:

Gina Ciocca graduated from the University of Connecticut with a degree in English, but in her mind, she never left high school. She relocated from Connecticut to Georgia, where she lives with her husband and son. When she's not reading or writing, you can find her taking long walks around the lake in her neighborhood. Gina can also be found online at writersblog-gina.blogspot.com, on Instagram as gmciocca, and Twitter as gmc511

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Alwyn Hamilton

Waiting on Wednesday: Hero at the Fall (Rebel of the Sands #3) by Alwyn Hamilton

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December

Stacking the Shelves: December 23rd 2017

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December

Stacking the Shelves: December 16th 2017

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ARC

Blog Tour & ARC Review: The Sweetheart Sham (Southern Charmed #1) by Danielle Ellison (+ US Giveaway)

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Goodreads Summary
In a small town like Culler, South Carolina, you guard your secrets like you guard your cobbler recipe: with your life. Georgia Ann Monroe knows a thing or two about secrets: she’s been guarding the truth that her best friend Will is gay for years now. But what happens when a little white lie to protect him gets her into a fake relationship…and then the boy of her dreams shows up?

Enter Beau Montgomery: Georgie’s first love, hotter than ever, and much too much of a southern gentleman to ever pursue someone else’s girl. There’s no way to come clean to Beau while still protecting Will. But bless their hearts, they live in Culler—where secrets always have a way of revealing themselves.

Disclaimer: This Entangled Teen Crush book contains a hilarious “fakeship,” a scorching-hot impossible relationship, and a heartwarming best-friendship that will make you want to call your best friend right here, right now.

Goodreads

Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

If you’ve read any of my reviews before, you’ll know that contemporary YA fiction is one of my favourite genres to read - I simply adore them. When this one became available to request on NetGalley, I knew it would be one for me.

In The Sweetheart Sham, Georgia knows her best friend Will is keeping a massive secret from the rest of the town - the fact that he’s gay. As his best friend, she wants to help him in any way she can, even if it means masquerading as his girlfriends so he has a valid reason to spend time out, with his actual boyfriend. That was more than fine, until her old friend, and crush, Beau Montgomery arrives home. He’s Will’s cousin, and they were the three musketeers, until he upped and left, without a word. Though she wants nothing more than to see if they can rekindle their blossoming romance, she wouldn’t jeopardise Will’s trust - for anything.

Being English, reading about the south of America has always interested me. I’ve always loved seeing how the sense of community and ‘Southern Charm’ can manifest, and this book definitely fit the bill for me. Georgia and Will’s families were descended from the founding families of the town, and as such, there was a certain amount of wishing surrounding a member of each family marrying, and finally uniting the families. When they announced their ‘relationship’, all members of the family were notably excited and elated, except for Beau, whose old crush on Georgia had never abated, and he thought this might be the chance to apologise for leaving, and finally see if his feelings were reciprocated.

The main characters of Georgia and Beau were wonderful to read. Told in dual POV, the emotions within the two, and their backstories came through in dribs and drabs, which allowed the reader to learn about them, the town, and everything in between, without it being an information overload. They really endeared themselves to the audience, and I was armoured with their romance, and couldn’t help myself from smiling whenever they were together on page. I’m hoping that in subsequent books in this series, we’ll see more of them, because I love them so much!

I haven’t read anything from this author before, but she’s definitely one I’ll read again. One for fans of cutesy YA contemporary fiction.

Dates Read:

November 22, 2017

Rating
4 Stars

ABOUT DANIELLE ELLISON:
Danielle Ellison is a nomad, always on the lookout for an adventure and the next story. In addition to writing, she’s the
founder and coordinator of the NoVa TEEN Book Festival. When she’s not busy with books, she’s probably watching her
favorite shows, drinking coffee, or fighting her nomadic urges. She is newly settled in Oklahoma (for now) with her cat, Simon, but you can always find her on twitter @DanielleEWrites.

LINKS: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instragram | Goodreads

Giveaway:

The Sweetheart Sham Prize Pack (US): -Pampering goodies (sweet southern soap and bath bombs) -a “peanut butter <3s jelly” mug -ice cream erasers -heart shaped sunglasses -a copy of “Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit” by Jaye Robin Brown
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks, MaryAnn @ Chapter by Chapter for letting me be a part of the tour!