The Beautiful Ones

"Antonina Beaulieu is in the glittering city of Loisail for her first Grand Season, where she will attend balls and mingle among high society in hopes of landing a suitable husband. But Antonina is telekinetic, and strange events in her past have made her the subject of malicious gossip and hardly a sought-after bride. Now, under the tutelage of her cousin’s wife, she is finally ready to shed the past and learn the proper ways of society.

Antonina, who prefers her family's country home to the glamorous ballrooms of the wealthy, finds it increasingly difficult to conform to society’s ideals for women, especially when she falls under the spell of the dazzling telekinetic performer Hector Auvray. As their romance blossoms, and he teaches her how to hone and control her telekinetic gift, she can't help but feel a marriage proposal is imminent.

Little does Antonina know that Hector and those closest to her are hiding a devastating secret that will crush her world and force her to confront who she really is and what she's willing to sacrifice." (Netgalley description) 

When i began reading this book i found myself hooked, i was so captured by the story and what would come of it. 

This book not only shows you how things were in a time that seems to foreign to us now, but it transports you back in time. You will feel as if you are living right there with Nina and Hector following along with every heartbreak, lie, passion and love. 

Nina is a simple county girl sent to the city where her cousins wife Valerie will watch after her and turn her into a proper lady to be wed. Nina is attending her first grand ball where she meets Hector Auvray and as any young girl will be she is smitten with him and his amazing talent. We find out that Nina has the same talent as Hector and the two begin to bond over that. Nina is finding herself falling in love with Hector, but he has not shown any romantic feelings towards her. 

Hector is in love with Valerie, and has been for over 10 years. We learn that while they were young they has a summer romance and he had to leave town and make his fortune, he asked her to wait and he shall return for her. Sadly she did not wait, and she married a wealthy man. When Hector returned he only thought of her and wanted to try to win her back and have her run away with him, little did he notice that Nina was falling in love with him. 

Valiere we will learn is a spiteful woman and will do anything to remain on this pedestal Hector has her on, she will not leave her husband and she will not show Hector any affection but she remains prudent in the fact that no one will have Hector. 

A summer goes by- Hector and Nina are no longer speaking- they havent seen each other in a year now...

The second Grand season is back in swing and Nina has arrived in the city once more, she does not plan to see Hector or speak to him, and a new man has his sights on Nina, a Luc Lemy. He is young, passionate and a bit wild. Nina finds herself having fun and enjoying his company but Luc is greedy and wants to make his own money the way he wants too, not by his family business. Luc sets his sights not only on Nina but on her money and quickly steps in to wed her. 

Nina and Hector have found each other once more and now Nina is engaged to be married, except she does not love Luc and is unsure what to do. 

I won't give it all away, but i can promise you it is worth the read! 

The girl in 6E

"My life, inside this apartment is simple. It works, as long as I follow the rules.

1. Don’t leave the apartment. Not in case of fire, not to mail a letter, not to run an errand. The door stays shut, and I stay inside.
2. Don’t get attached to clients. I take off my clothes, I stand in front of the camera, and I perform. What they want, I give. Their secrets, I keep. Everything I tell them, is a lie.
3. Don’t kill anyone. I’ve obeyed that rule for over three years.

My life, inside this apartment was simple, and it worked. Then, I started breaking rules."

The summary of this book caught my attention right away- took me a little bit to get into it but once i did i couldn't put it down!

You follow the girl in apartment 6E, as she NEVER leaves her apartment, the story is told from her perspective mostly and we learn that she is having homicidal fantasies and has had to lock herself away in this craphole apartment. 

She is a cam girl so she makes plenty of money from that, and we learn about the different clients she has to deal with every day. 

Every morning she leaves her door unlocked, even though no one comes and she never leaves, she hopes some braves soul will dare to enter so she can fulfill her homicidal fantasy. For the past 3 years she has had the same delivery man- and at first he tried to fight her about leaving her packages sitting against her door since many of them required a signature. Eventually he gave up and did as she asked, always wondering why the sweet sounding girl on the other side of the door refused to leave her apartment. 

He tried on multiple occasions to sneak a peak by waiting but she never came out and the package he dropped off just stayed there. 

One day though Jeremy ( her delivery man) came to the door and knocked and expected to hear his normal "leave it by the door-thank you" routine... except he never heard that and when he listened closer he heard muffled screams as if she was in trouble and possibly hurt. **Now remember she is a cam girl- we know this he does not LOL**

So he attempts the door and finds it unlocked, in his moment of panic for her he busts through the door and is frantically searching the small apartment with his eyes, he finds her naked on the bed with bright lights on her and a wicked look on her face. She goes from confused, to horny, to pissed off. She lunges off the bed towards him and begins fighting with him, grabbing his box cutters and attempts to kill him with his own weapon. 

Jeremy is to strong for her though and he manages to get a hold of her and try to calm her down. Except she knows that she is naked and he is attracted to her- she begins to use her body and when he can no longer take it begins to kiss her. She enjoys it for a split moment until something snaps inside her and she goes back into her homicidal rage. Deanna (the girl in 6E) forces him out of her apartment and is shocked by what happened. The next day they go back to their normal routine.. 

Everything at this point seems like this is how it will be going- except she has a new cam client and he is seriously creeping her out. He wants her to do age play, where she has to act a certain age and taken even further pretend to be "Annie". Since Deanna is so worried about her privacy she has a hacker look into every client, and when she looks into this new client she is not happy. Nothing is popping up but something seems "off" about him... 

A few days later the news is reporting on a missing child, an Annie... She was taken from her home and has not been seen since. They have no leads and no suspects as to who would want to take the child. She left the home willingly, so she knew whoever took her. 

When Deanna finally hears the news of the girl missing, something clicks in her and she knows that her new client had something to do with this-- she calls the police and tips them off, they are too slow in the one horse town. She has to take matters into her own hands to save this little girl. But how can she when she cant even leave the apartment?

Now follow Deanna on her journey leaving the apartment and hopefully to save Annie, and we finally find out why she locked herself away all those years ago- why the homicidal fantasies actually began! 

Brother's & Sister's

What would you do to protect the ones you love?

1970-A 14 year old girl raped by her uncle, fallen pregnant, and now a new baby boy she has to give up to protect him and herself.

2016- A body of 46 year old missing man has been dug up on the family farm.


In this story we follow Rose, and Tim Fitzpatrick during 1970 and 2016, during the times it is 1970 we learn about their childhood, their abusive father, drunk of a mother, and rapist uncle.

You learn about the harsh childhood Rose and Tim had to endure, and the how future is bleak for both, one is facing neurological disorder, the other potentially facing murder charges.
Their father owned the Fitzpatrick farm in Ireland, which the men tended too, while the woman were to take care of the house and them. Except the children's mother locked herself away in her room for years- drinking, and taking pills to ease the pain of her depression. You eventually find out why and you be the judge on how you feel when a mother cannot save herself or her children. Every night Rose' is to bring dinner down to the cottage where her Uncle Patrick lives, she hates going there especially now that she is maturing into a woman. He has been making remarks towards her and she has been warned by her brother Tim to never be alone with him. One night when she is forced to take him dinner, he makes her wait for the plate and when he finishes eating doesn't let her leave but instead rapes her. When her brother finds out he is seeing red with rage, and wants to go and kill his uncle. Rose' stops him that night, but little does she know he sneaks out and follows him to the bar where he beats the crap out of him and warns him to leave and never come back...

2016- The new owners of the farm Michael  and Marie McGrath are working on restoring the place, they are working in the fields and dig up a body in the ditch...
Once the body is ID' it is confirmed that it is the missing man from 46 years ago (1970) of a Patrick Fitzpatrick. Now the detectives are working hard trying to figure out who in the family had killed him and why. The only two surviving family members that they are aware of are Rose,and Tim. Neither will ever tell what truly happened that night.

An amazing story of Brother & Sister and the lengths one goes to protect those they love... This book had it all murder, suspense, heartbreak, love... a book for anyone !

A Clockwork Murder

This is a true crime novel, and wow the emotions that i felt while reading this; anger, sadness, hatred, disgusted... The list continued.

Two friends George Woldt and Lucas Salmon are total opposites, but they are the best of friends, after watching a Clockwork Orange they decide they are going to stalk, rape, and murder a young woman... Both say that at first it was just a joke but then quickly became real over time each blaming each other...
As we will learn George has been fantasizing about this for years, even before Lucas Salmon came into his life. He has tried in the past to recruit other friends to make this fantasy a reality. We learn about George and how he enjoy's violent, abusive sex.. he says the more they resit the better it is.. 

Finally after stalking woman (randomly chosen) for about a week, they come up to a stop light and in the car next to them is Jacine Gielinski, on her way to her boyfriends house for a late dinner. They decide together to follow her and that she is the one. As she is walking up to the gate to be buzzed into the complex, George walks up behind her and grabs her around the waist, and covers her mouth, then Lucas comes over and grabs her legs- they force her in the car. George is straddling her in the back punching her in the face... 
Meanwhile Jacine did mange to scream before they got her into the car, and witness caught sight of both George and Lucas,as well as the license plate number of the car they drove away in... 
Sadly none of the witnesses were able to get to Jacine in time before they drove off with her, they quickly called the police but time was not their friend.

After driving away they found a nearby park that was secluded, took turns raping her. Then decided since she had seen their faces they had to kill her. Since they have never done this before it took them a long time to kill her and sadly Jacine suffered for a long time before finally dying. 

After they finished their "game" they high five one another, smoke a cigarette, and joked about how atlas Lucas isn't a virgin anymore. Then they went home to watch TV....

Once caught, they admitted to their guilt and were charged, the police and detectives as well as lawyers for Jacine's parents wanted death but you will see what pure evil is and how the justice system will fail you- to save to murder's life who didn't even consider the woman they killed as a person just as an object... But a panel of judges felt it was inhumane to put these two men to death... 

So now today in 2017 these two men are sitting in jail having 3 meals a day, and a bed... But Jacine's parents are trying everyday to live a normal as possible life, and keep Jacine's memory alive. 

Reality Alternatives

Science fiction for the modern age...

The cover actually caught my attention, it shows 2 girls seemingly in parallel worlds. Turns out that is exactly what it is.

Chloe is a physicist and she is working on an experiment that is exactly like VR except she and her assistant Emily, are working on reaching a parallel world.
The first experiment seems like it doesn't work, chloe goes into the VR headset and see's what she thinks is an ocean, but where she lives there is no ocean nearby. She's thinking that a parallel world should reflect what she currently knows, and not somewhere else.

Second time she tests out her experiment she realizes, that it was not an ocean she was seeing but a pool, which made more sense. She soon realizes she has a whole different life, a husband and 2 sons. She's happy, in love, and soon forgets all about the real world.

She spends a few hours immersed in the VR world, she is living as this other Chloe, except everything and everyone is not as happy as her. Her brother Colon, a war vet is suffering from severe depression in this other world, while in real life he is perfectly healthy and happy. In this parallel world he is a paraplegic, suffering injuries related to war in Iran.

Eventually Chloe becomes obsessed with this VR world, we have been following her journey through it, and some strange things are happening over there, her 2 sons and Chloe have "magic" they have suddenly been able to make things levitate, appear, stop mid air.... Things don't happen like that in the real world-- but to Chloe that is her real life, she doesn't remember she is only in a VR immersion...

Around thanksgiving time, she tells her family she has to work through the holiday and her family accepts that, but in reality she is going to VR immersion again. She has a hired a nurse to give her IV fluids and nutrition so she can test how long someone can stay in VR for.. We follow her throughout VR until Christmas eve, where she is awoken, very upset she goes back... While she is there her magical abilities have caught the eye of the town, and Homeland Security, now we are following Chloe and her family as they run from the government, and all the trouble that comes with having superpowers.
Eventually she is pulled out again this time by her brother Colon, he is worried sick about her, she has been missing for weeks now- her family unable to get in contact with her, and no one has seen her. Little does she know it is now February and she has been in VR since thanksgiving.
Her brother destroys her VR headset, and Chloe is unable to return to her happy life with a husband and children.

Does this husband exist her real world? Maybe... The ending will leave you smiling and hoping for a sequel to see how the events play out in the real world or was it just Chloe dream to have this happy life she saw in VR...

NETGALLEY BADGES

Netgalley Badges

The Darkest Lies

Captivating, Thrilling, Murder Mystery!

This book will have you hooked from the moment you begin reading to the very last page!

Imagine your 13 year old daughter tells you she is going to stay over at her BFF's house for the night, as you are walking her there, she begs you to let her finish the walk by herself and you allow her because that is what growing up is all about...
When you wake up in the morning you call her friends mother to find out what time she will be coming home- when you get the worst news ever-- She never made it there and never planned on being there.... Where is your daughter ?

Follow a mother's journey through grief as her daughter goes from being missing to her body being found left for dead in the nearby marsh. While Beth (13 year old) is fighting for life in the hospital, her mother Melanie is out looking for justice. Follow Mel as she suspects every person in her village, and as we follow her journey you will have your own suspects... But the one person you never suspect, the one were never taught not to trust may be your own worst enemy.

Then after finding out who left poor Beth for dead, we get another shocker, pay attention to the little details because before the book ends you will know what really goes on & what skeletons someone is hiding right in front of you!