Teaser Tuesday: Hellhole by Gina Damico {101}

Title: Hellhole
Author: Gina Damico

Release date: January 6, 2015

A devil is a bad influence . . . 

There was a time when geeky, squeaky-clean Max Kilgore would never lie or steal or even think about murder. Then he accidentally unearths a devil, and Max’s choices are no longer his own. The big red guy has a penchant for couch surfing and junk food—and you should never underestimate evil on a sugar high. 

With the help of Lore, a former goth girl who knows a thing or two about the dark side, Max is racing against the clock to get rid of the houseguest from hell before time, and all the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos this side of the fiery abyss, run out.

My teaser, from p. 43 in the egalley:

"Aaaaaaah!" Max screamed. Then added another "AaaaaaAAAAAaaaaah!" for good measure.

Happy release day to Hellhole! I don't why, but I found this very amusing. I loved the first two books in Gina Damico's Croak series, though I haven't read the first, so of course I'm excited for more from her. :)

I'll be visiting around and visiting back, so leave me links to your teasers! :) Happy Tuesday!

Review: Come Back to Texas by K.K. Hendin

Release date: August 18, 2014
Author info: Website | Twitter | Facebook
Publisher: Self-published
Pages: 274
Format: Egalley
Source: Author provided for review through Xpresso Book Tours
Buy the book: Barnes & Noble | Amazon

Everyone thought we’d be the ones who made it through high school. The ones who’d get married and stay married forever. The example of how young love can work. 

We thought so, too. 

Too bad life had other plans. 

It’s been three years since Hayley and Nate broke each other’s hearts. Three years, and a lot has changed. Hayley’s a freshman in Bushwick University, and the only things keeping her sane are stress baking, and her a cappella group, Twelve Beats in a Bar. 

Nate’s a Marine, stationed in Afghanistan. The only thing that’s keeping him sane is the last picture he has of him and Hayley, and the hope that maybe when the hell of deployment is over, he can find her again and apologize. 

One explosion will change everything. 

When a bomb kills all of Nate’s unit, leaving him missing a leg and eyesight in one eye, he’s sent back home to Texas. Texas, where he loved Hayley more than he could possibly imagine ever loving anyone else. 

With seemingly endless amounts of free time and needing something to distract himself, Nate starts making YouTube videos, imploring Hayley to come back to him, and come back to Texas. 

Hayley’s life is wrapped around the Beats, making sure she doesn’t flunk out of biology class, and babysitting Ohio’s smallest monster, Brandon. She doesn't want to admit it, but she misses Nate more than anything. 

It’s too bad she doesn’t know just how much he misses her, too…

Something about Come Back to Texas just called my name. Maybe it's the Southern setting--though I've always felt like Texas is rather a different kind of Southern than my good ole' Mississippi (Maybe I'm wrong! Heck, all I've seen of Texas is the Dallas/Fort Worth airport.)--or maybe it's the promise of a happy ending that I can't resist, but it was simply one of those books that got me excited.

Come Back to Texas is not the speediest of books, when it comes to plot--though it did feel shorter than its near 300 pages. For both Nate and Hayley, life is just about getting through the day. It's much more character-driven and introspective, which is fine for some of us and not as fine for others--just depending on who you are. For me, that's enjoyable. Not only do we see Hayley struggle with leaving her small town for a university many times its size, but Nate's whole days are filled with rehab and finding ways to pass time. This felt largely organic and lets you get to know the characters.

What I wish I saw was a bit more development of the Beats--not the characters themselves, who I got a good hold of--but what they did. It felt like Hayley's life was spent flitting back and forth between things and never spent enough time in one thing. Focusing on the Beats, who are supposed to be the kind of center of the series, would've felt better. There were also a couple of things that weren't quite correct, such as a mention of the "Mason-Dixie" line, instead of the Mason-Dixon line, that were such small things but so glaring to me. Not much of a detraction, but still something that pulled me out of the reading experience.

Even so, I quite enjoyed Come Back to Texas, as I fully expected to. It's filled with sweet moments between Nate and Hayley, and the ending is just so rewarding. I'll definitely be revisiting Nate and Hayley in A Different Kind of Fine and the other Beats in the rest of the series.

About the author:

KK Hendin's real life ambition is to become a pink fluffy unicorn who dances with rainbows. But the schooling for that is all sorts of complicated, so until that gets sorted out, she'll just write. Preferably things with angst and love. And things that require chocolate.

She's the author of NA contemporaries HEART BREATHS, ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG, and the TWELVE BEATS IN A BAR series. She spends way too much time on Twitter, and rambles on occasion over at kkhendinwrites.blogspot.com.

Stacking the Shelves {99}

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews where we get to share the books we've bought, been gifted, or received for review!

How was everybody's week? Mine's been good! Happy New Year, all! Nothing terribly exciting to report. We rang in the new year quietly, as always. Excitingly (and also sadly...), I didn't get a single book this week! Can you believe it? That's probably a good thing, since the only book I got read all week was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. My mom and I are actually doing a read through of the series together. She's never read them and wanted to try the series, and I haven't reread all of them in ages, so we're having a kind of mini book club. We'll talk about the first book today and watch the first movie, then move to the second. :)

A recap of the week here on Paper Cuts:
Monday - Review: Mistletoe and Mr. Right by Lyla Payne
Tuesday - Teaser Tuesday: A Cold Legacy by Megan Shepherd
Wednesday - Waiting on Wednesday: Rook by Sharon Cameron
Friday - New Year, New Blogger

Books I read this week:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

I'm currently reading:
City of a Thousand Dolls by Miriam Forster
Come Back to Texas by K.K. Hendin

So that's been my week! I did order a bunch of books from Book Outlet the day after Christmas, so maybe that package will be here this week! I can't resist a good deal. :) :) Have a lovely Sunday and a fabulous week!

New Year, New Blogger

I hope that title isn't misleading--I'm not going anywhere! Anyway, it's a new year! (I bet you hadn't noticed. :D) And with the new year comes thinking about how the past year went. I know you've seen a lot of resolution posts, but I'd like to throw in my own ideas.

While 2014 was an awesome year for the blog, it was less than awesome in what I did. Most of the year was good, really. I kept up with comments and posted all of the time when I was at school. But when I graduated from college, moved home, and started working, everything went downhill. I read less, I wrote fewer posts, and I largely left the blog by the wayside. I'm barely ever on Twitter and it takes me days to get back to comments. I need that to change this year. I can't halfway do this blog and enjoy it. When I work hard and keep up, I love it, but when I don't, it feels like a chore. The obvious answer to this is keep up, right? I'm going to hold myself to allotting time each and every day to the blog, be that commenting, updating pages, writing posts, whatever.

I've also been sitting on a new post idea for the past couple of months that I'm really excited about. It's not even too original, but I'm hoping the books featured will at least be different from what other people do. I'm going to call it Baking By the Book (a name I only found an inactive blog using, but if you know someone who does something by that name, please tell me! I don't want to steal!) and semi-regularly, I'll be posting baking inspired by books. I'm not a chef, so they likely won't be big exciting inventions, but I'll be trying out recipes of foods mentioned in books or ones included in the backs of books. I'm definitely going beyond the bookish recipes I've found online, most of which are inspired by really popular series. So, if you have any suggestions, please send them my way! I've got a few ideas lined up, but I'll always be searching for more. :)

That's all I've got to share today, I think. It's hard to believe how quickly 2014 went by, but I'm so thankful for all my readers here and for everyone who comments. Even if it takes me time to get back to you (which shall be changing!), I appreciate each and every one. :) Cheers!

Waiting on Wednesday: Rook by Sharon Cameron {74}

Title: Rook
Author: Sharon Cameron
Release date: April 28, 2015

Who needs a wedding ring when you can pick up a sword? A remarkable and utterly inventive novel from Sharon Cameron, author of THE DARK UNWINDING, which USA TODAY called "spellbindingly imaginative."

History has a way of repeating itself. In the Sunken City that was once Paris, all who oppose the new revolution are being put to the blade. Except for those who disappear from their prison cells, a red-tipped rook feather left in their place. Is the mysterious Red Rook a savior of the innocent or a criminal?

Meanwhile, across the sea in the Commonwealth, Sophia Bellamy's arranged marriage to the wealthy René Hasard is the last chance to save her family from ruin. But when the search for the Red Rook comes straight to her doorstep, Sophia discovers that her fiancé is not all he seems. Which is only fair, because neither is she. 

As the Red Rook grows bolder and the stakes grow higher, Sophia and René find themselves locked in a tantalizing game of cat and mouse. 

Daring intrigue, delicious romance, and spine-tingling suspense fill the pages of this extraordinary tale from award-winning author Sharon Cameron.

I haven't read Sharon Cameron's other books, but does that matter? NOPE. While I've not read The Scarlet Pimpernel, I loved Across a Star-Swept Sea, which was also based on the book. I should probably read The Scarlet Pimpernel.

 So what are you guys waiting on this week? :)

Teaser Tuesday: A Cold Legacy by Megan Shepherd {100}

Title: A Cold Legacy (The Madman's Daughter #3)
Author: Megan Shepherd

Release date: January 27, 2015

After killing the men who tried to steal her father’s research, Juliet—along with Montgomery, Lucy, Balthazar, and a deathly ill Edward—has escaped to a remote estate on the Scottish moors. Owned by the enigmatic Elizabeth von Stein, the mansion is full of mysteries and unexplained oddities: dead bodies in the basement, secret passages, and fortune-tellers who seem to know Juliet’s secrets. Though it appears to be a safe haven, Juliet fears new dangers may be present within the manor’s own walls.

Then Juliet uncovers the truth about the manor’s long history of scientific experimentation—and her own intended role in it—forcing her to determine where the line falls between right and wrong, life and death, magic and science, and promises and secrets. And she must decide if she’ll follow her father’s dark footsteps or her mother’s tragic ones, or whether she’ll make her own.

With inspiration from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this breathless conclusion to the Madman’s Daughter trilogy is about the things we’ll sacrifice to save those we love—even our own humanity. 

My teaser, from 12% in the egalley:

Reading the future was nonsense, but there was a grain of truth in how his predictions had made me feel--as though escaping Father was impossible, even in death. Maybe, just maybe, I should stop trying so hard to fight it.

As flawed as this series is, especially when it comes to the love triangle that I keep hoping is resolved, I seriously cannot wait to see how it ends!

I'll be visiting around and visiting back, so leave me links to your teasers! :) Happy Tuesday!

Review: Mistletoe and Mr. Right by Lyla Payne

Release date: November 20, 2014
Author info: Website | Twitter | Facebook
Publisher: Bloomsbury Spark
Pages: 150
Format: Egalley
Source: Publisher provided for review through Netgalley
Buy the book: Barnes & Noble | Amazon

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring…but lust refused to settle in for a long winter's nap. 
She might be all nestled, snug in her bed, by why, oh why, do visions of the wrong guy dance in her head?

Jessica, (not Jessie), figures that nothing could be better than a trip to the Emerald Isle for Christmas break. So she takes a flying leap and follows her boyfriend home for the holidays, not only sure that he will finally agree they're destined for each other, but also that Ireland will provide the perfect backdrop to the beginning of their happily-ever-after. 

But it turns out his family--and his gorgeous ex-girlfriend--don't feel the same way, and even the family goat seems to be conspiring against her well-laid plans. The only person making the trip worthwhile is the very last one she should be thinking about, but Grady, the local farmhand, has a way of showing up when Jessica needs him most...and least.

USA Today bestselling author Lyla Payne wraps up the perfect holiday novella, ties it with a ribbon of romance, and tops it with a light dusting of snow. Perfect to curl up with under the tree. Just add hot cocoa!

Even though Christmas Day has passed, I know I'm certainly in the Christmas spirit, wishing for snow days and nights snuggled up with tea by the fire with a cute book. If you're like me, Mistletoe and Mr. Right would absolutely complete that night.

Not only does Mistletoe and Mr. Right deliver the cute romance you expect, the romance isn't the total focus of the story. Jessica is given a lot more character development in 150 pages than some characters are given in books double the length. Given that it's a novella, sure, there are bits of history and relationship development that could be expanded on, but given the length, I was quite the happy camper. :)

No matter the season, Mistletoe and Mr. Right is just the right dose of cute romance and holiday atmosphere to warm even the scroogiest of hearts.

About the author:

Lyla Payne has been publishing New Adult romance novels for a little over a year, starting with Broken at Love and continuing with the rest of the Whitman University series. She loves telling stories, discovering the little reasons people fall in love, and uncovering hidden truths in the world around us – past and present. In her spare time she cuddles her two dogs, pretends to enjoy exercising so that she can eat as much Chipotle as she wants, and harbors a deep and abiding hope that Zac Efron likes older women. She loves reading, of course, along with movies, traveling, and Irish whiskey. Lyla’s hard at work, ALWAYS, and hopes to bring you more Whitman University antics and at least one more Lowcountry ghost tale before the end of the year.