While It Lasts Chapter One

Eighteen months later…

Chapter One

Cage

            “Thanks for giving me a ride,” I said, reaching for my duffle bag holding my entire summer wardrobe.

            “I did it for Low,” Marcus Hardy reminded me for the second time. My best friend was a chick— a smoking hot chick. Marcus, her fiancé, was an elitist ass at times but I dealt with him; had to if I wanted to keep Low in my life. All that mattered was that he understood that Low walked on fucking water. As long as he kept that in mind and treated her as such, I could live with the prick.

            “I never questioned that,” I replied with a smirk, pulling the straps of my bag up on my shoulder.  Turning my attention from Marcus, I looked at the large white and tan farmhouse in front of me. It was surrounded by miles and miles of green grass and a helluva lot of cows— my purgatory for the entire summer. Glancing back at Marcus I nodded and started to close the door. I knew he was ready to get back to Sea Breeze where Low was waiting on him. No one wanted to be stuck in this fucking cow town.

            “Cage. Wait,” Marcus called out before I could completely close the truck door. Slowly, I opened it back up and arched an eyebrow in question. What else could Marcus want with me? He’d barely spoken to me on the hour ride up here.

            “Don’t screw this up, okay. Stay sober. Don’t drive a car until you get your license back and try not to piss off your coach’s brother. Your future is riding on this summer and you’re upsetting Low. I don’t want her worried about you. Think about someone other than yourself for a change.”  Well hell, I’d just got a parental lecture from Marcus fucking Hardy. Wasn’t that sweet?

            “I know what happens if I screw things up, Marcus. Thanks for the reminder though.” I let the sarcasm drip from my voice.

            Marcus frowned and started to say something more before just shaking his head and putting his truck in reverse. Conversation over. Good. The guy should learn to mind his own damn business.

           

            I slammed the door and turned my attention back to the house while Marcus’s tires spun out of the gravel drive. Guess I’d better go meet my warden for the rest of the summer and get this party started.  All I had to do was make this guy happy. I’d take care of his cows and do manual labor for two and a half months then my coach wouldn’t kick my ass off the baseball team. The DUI, he’d had to bail me out of jail for, would be forgotten and my baseball scholarship would remain intact. I only had three problems with this plan:

1.     No girls.

2.     I hated manual labor

3.     No girls.

Continue reading HERE

Onyx by Jennifer AWESOME Armentrout...

Being connected to Daemon Black sucks…
Thanks to his alien mojo, Daemon’s determined to prove what he feels for me is more than a product of our bizarro connection. So I’ve sworn him off, even though he’s running more hot than cold these days. But we’ve got bigger problems.
Something worse than the Arum has come to town…
The Department of Defense are here. If they ever find out what Daemon can do and that we're linked, I’m a goner. So is he. And there's this new boy in school who’s got a secret of his own. He knows what’s happened to me and he can help, but to do so, I have to lie to Daemon and stay away from him. Like that's possible. Against all common sense, I'm falling for Daemon. Hard.
But then everything changes…
I’ve seen someone who shouldn’t be alive. And I have to tell Daemon, even though I know he’s never going to stop searching until he gets the truth. What happened to his brother? Who betrayed him? And what does the DOD want from them—from me?

No one is who they seem. And not everyone will survive the lies…

Jennifer Armentrout NEVER disappoints and even though I am not still done with the book I can tell you that I am sure I will be craving for more once I get to the end...I absolutly ADORE Daemon in this new book, I didn't like him THAT much in the first one of the series "Obsidian"  

but hell, he does rock in this one!

Jennifer Armentrout...I worship you!
 
 

Brimstone by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Agent Pendergast returns in a new suspense thriller from New York Times bestselling authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Art critic Jeremy Grove is found dead, his face frozen in a mask of terror. His body temperature is grotesquely high; he is discovered in a room barricaded from the inside; the smell of brimstone is everywhere....and the unmistakable imprint of a claw is burned into the wall. As more bodies are discovered-their only connection the bizarre but identical manner of death-the world begins to wonder if the Devil has, in fact, come to collect his due. Teaming with Police Officer Vincent D'Agosta (The Relic), Agent Pendergast is determined to solve this case that appears to defy everything except supernatural logic. Their investigation takes them from the luxury estates of Long Island to the crumbling, legend-shrouded castles of the Italian countryside, where Pendergast faces the most treacherous and dangerous adversary of his career.

 I've read 3 Pendergast books so far and I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first two...I'm going to read the other two books in the series and see if it gets better. Two Pendergasts could be really challenging, one good, one evil.....

 

I've been gone for a while...rough times...now I am back and this is what I have been reading:

  

The first teaser from WHILE IT LASTS

My phone started ringing in my pocket and I pulled it out to see Low’s name lighting up the screen.

  “Hey baby,” I replied backing up and sinking down onto the bed. Surprisingly the mattress wasn’t bad.

            “So how is everything? Are they nice?” Just hearing Low’s voice made me feel better. Not so alone.

            “I’ve only met the guy’s daughter and the next door neighbor.”

            “Oh, so there’s a farmer’s daughter?” the teasing tone in Low’s voice made me chuckle. Yeah, there was a farmer’s daughter alright but it wasn’t what Low was thinking.

            “There

’s a farmer’s daughter but she hated me on sight. Crazy I know and, to think, I thought it was impossible for a female to hate me until after I bagged her then forgot her name in the morning.”

            “She hates you? That’s… odd.” Low’s voice trailed off like she was in deep thought. 

 

By ABBI GLINES

While I was supposed to be reading....

While I was supposed to be reading "Hounded" and failing miserably on getting into it I started and finished in a record time two books, they were nice and easy, romantic and compelling.

He may have given her up without a fight, but Sawyer Vincent is far from over losing the girl he’s loved all of his life. Instead of giving up his best friend and the girl he thought he’d spend forever with, he gave Ashton and his brother Beau his blessing. However, adjusting to seeing Ashton wrapped up in Beau’s arms isn’t easy. Complicating everything even more, Ashton’s cousin Lana is in town for the summer. Sweet, kind, soft-spoken Lana, who gets under his skin. Just being near her makes him forget all about Ashton and his broken heart. Lana is everything he wanted Ashton to be except she isn’t Ashton. She lacks the backbone to stand up for herself and confidence that Ashton wears like a crown.

Lana McDaniel has lived her life in her cousin's shadow. While Lana struggled with her grades no matter how hard she tried, her mother praised Ashton's intelligence. She hadn’t been blessed with Ashton’s blond hair and flawless skin, but that didn't keep her mother from lamenting her naturally red hair and freckles. But none of that would have mattered if Ashton hadn’t always had Sawyer Vincent wrapped around her finger -- the only boy Lana wanted. Once Ashton let Sawyer go, Lana had been so sure that he’d move on. Determined to make Sawyer finally see her, she'd talked her mother into letting her spend the summer with Ashton. But Sawyer is still in love with Ashton, and Lana isn’t going to be anyone's rebound girl. No matter how yummy Sawyer Vincent’s kisses taste.

 From the fantastic author of The Lonely Hearts Club and Prom & Prejudice comes a story of all the drama and comedy of four friends who grow into themselves at a performing arts high school.Emme, Sophie, Ethan, and Carter are seniors at a performing arts school, getting ready for their Senior Showcase recital, where the pressure is on to appeal to colleges, dance academies, and professionals in show business. For Sophie, a singer, it's been great to be friends with Emme, who composes songs for her, and to date Carter, soap opera heartthrob who gets plenty of press coverage. Emme and Ethan have been in a band together through all four years of school, but wonder if they could be more than just friends and bandmates. Carter has been acting since he was a baby, and isn't sure how to admit that he'd rather paint than perform. The Senior Showcase is going to make or break each of the four, in a funny, touching, spectacular finale that only Elizabeth Eulberg could perform.



  for both of them
(I'd give them 5 but since they were predictable I can not do such a thing!)

Currently Reading: Hounded

The first novel in the original, six-book Iron Druid Chronicles--introducing a cool, new, funny urban fantasy hero

Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, lives peacefully in Arizona, running an occult bookshop and shape-shifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbors and customers think that this handsome, tattooed Irish dude is about twenty-one years old—when in actuality, he’s twenty-one centuries old. Not to mention: He draws his power from the earth, possesses a sharp wit, and wields an even sharper magical sword known as Fragarach, the Answerer.

Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants that sword, and he’s hounded Atticus for centuries. Now the determined deity has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power—plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, his vampire and werewolf team of attorneys, a sexy bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, and some good old-fashioned luck of the Irish—to kick some Celtic arse and deliver himself from evil.

Reading

Benson Fisher thought that a scholarship to Maxfield Academy would be the ticket out of his dead-end life.
He was wrong.
Now he's trapped in a school that's surrounded by a razor-wire fence. A school where video cameras monitor his every move. Where there are no adults. Where the kids have split into groups in order to survive.
Where breaking the rules equals death.
But when Benson stumbles upon the school's real secret, he realizes that playing by the rules could spell a fate worse than death, and that escape--his only real hope for survival--may be impossible.

My opinion:  

June books (I am so looking forward to getting them!)

The second thrilling installment in Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy spinoff series

Tough, brainy alchemist Sydney Sage and doe-eyed Moroi princess Jill Dragomir are in hiding at a human boarding school in the sunny, glamorous world of Palm Springs, California. The students--children of the wealthy and powerful--carry on with their lives in blissful ignorance, while Sydney, Jill, Eddie, and Adrian must do everything in their power to keep their secret safe. But with forbidden romances, unexpected spirit bonds, and the threat of Strigoi moving ever closer, hiding the truth is harder than anyone thought.

Populated with new faces as well as familiar ones, Richelle Mead's breathtaking Bloodlines series explores all the friendship, romance, battles, and betrayals that made the #1 New York Times bestselling Vampire Academy series so addictive. In this second book, the drama is hotter, the romances are steamier, and the stakes are even higher.

 The sky is dark with wings . . . .

Like sand in an hourglass, time is running out for Luce and Daniel. To stop Lucifer from erasing the past they must find the place where the angels fell to earth. Dark forces are after them, and Daniel doesn’t know if he can do this—live only to lose Luce again and again.

Yet together they will face an epic battle that will end with lifeless bodies . . . and angel dust. Great sacrifices are made. Hearts are destroyed. And suddenly Luce knows what must happen.

For she was meant to be with someone other than Daniel. The curse they’ve borne has always and only been about her—and the love she cast aside. The choice she makes now will be the only one that truly matters.

In the fight for Luce, who will win?
The astonishing conclusion to the FALLEN series. Heaven can’t wait any longer.





 He may have given her up without a fight, but Sawyer Vincent is far from over losing the girl he’s loved all of his life. Instead of giving up his best friend and the girl he thought he’d spend forever with, he gave Ashton and his brother Beau his blessing. However, adjusting to seeing Ashton wrapped up in Beau’s arms isn’t easy. Complicating everything even more, Ashton’s cousin Lana is in town for the summer. Sweet, kind, soft-spoken Lana, who gets under his skin. Just being near her makes him forget all about Ashton and his broken heart. Lana is everything he wanted Ashton to be except she isn’t Ashton. She lacks the backbone to stand up for herself and confidence that Ashton wears like a crown.

Lana McDaniel has lived her life in her cousin's shadow. While Lana struggled with her grades no matter how hard she tried, her mother praised Ashton's intelligence. She hadn’t been blessed with Ashton’s blond hair and flawless skin, but that didn't keep her mother from lamenting her naturally red hair and freckles. But none of that would have mattered if Ashton hadn’t always had Sawyer Vincent wrapped around her finger -- the only boy Lana wanted. Once Ashton let Sawyer go, Lana had been so sure that he’d move on. Determined to make Sawyer finally see her, she'd talked her mother into letting her spend the summer with Ashton. But Sawyer is still in love with Ashton, and Lana isn’t going to be anyone's rebound girl. No matter how yummy Sawyer Vincent’s kisses taste.

Currently reading:

When unworldly student Anastasia Steele first encountered the driven and dazzling young entrepreneur Christian Grey it sparked a sensual affair that changed both of their lives irrevocably. Shocked, intrigued, and, ultimately, repelled by Christian’s singular erotic tastes, Ana demands a deeper commitment. Determined to keep her, Christian agrees.

Now, Ana and Christian have it all—love, passion, intimacy, wealth, and a world of possibilities for their future. But Ana knows that loving her Fifty Shades will not be easy, and that being together will pose challenges that neither of them would anticipate. Ana must somehow learn to share Christian’s opulent lifestyle without sacrificing her own identity. And Christian must overcome his compulsion to control as he wrestles with the demons of a tormented past.

Just when it seems that their strength together will eclipse any obstacle, misfortune, malice, and fate conspire to make Ana’s deepest fears turn to reality.

My opinion:

Currently Reading

Still Life With Crows (Pendergast #4) 

 

 A small Kansas town has turned into a killing ground. Is it a serial killer, a man with the

need to destroy? Or is it a darker force, a curse upon the land? Amid golden cornfields, FBI Special Agent Pendergast discovers evil in the blood of America's heartland.

 

My opinion: 

First Two Chapters of The Golden Lily!

CHAPTER 1

Most people would find being led into an underground bunker on a stormy night scary. Not me.

Things I could explain away and define with data didn’t frighten me. That was why I kept silently reciting facts to myself, as I descended deeper and deeper below street level. The bunker was a relic of the Cold War, built as protection in a time when people thought nuclear missiles were around every corner. On the surface, the building claimed to house an optical supply store. That was a front. Not scary at all. And the storm? Simply a natural phenomenon of atmospheric fronts clashing. And really, if you were going to worry about getting hurt in a storm, then going underground was actually pretty smart.

So, no. This seemingly ominous journey didn’t frighten me in the least. Everything was built on reasonable facts and logic. I could deal with that. It was the rest of my job I had a problem with.

And really, maybe that was why stormy underground trips didn’t faze me. When you spent most of your days living among vampires and half vampires, ferrying them to get blood, and keeping their existence secret from the rest of the world…well, it kind of gave you a unique perspective on life. I’d witnessed bloody vampire battles and seen magical feats that defied every law of physics I knew. My life was a constant struggle to hold back my terror of the unexplainable and try desperately to find a way to explain it.....

CONTINUE READING HERE

Currently reading

Jody loves Jackson Gatlin. At his only UK rock concert, she’s right at the front. But when she's caught in the crush and carried back stage she has more than concussion to contend with. Throw in a menacing manager, a super-wired super-star, and a curly-wurly, and she finds herself taking home more than just a poster. It’s the accidental kidnapping of the decade. But what happens if you’ve a rock-god in your garage who doesn’t want to leave? Jody’s stuck between a rock-idol and a hard place!

From the pen of C.J. Skuse, author of last year’s super cool debut Pretty Bad Things, comes a tale of rock star obsession gone nuts. Hilariously and sharply explores the fantasy and reality of celebrity obsession through a teenager’s eyes. C. J. Skuse has been billed as the new Nick Hornby for teens.

My opinion: 

My birthday, I got these books :)

Nelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela has been at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's anti-apartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality. The foster son of a Thembu chief, Mandela was raised in the traditional, tribal culture of his ancestors, but at an early age learned the modern, inescapable reality of what came to be called apartheid, one of the most powerful and effective systems of oppression ever conceived. In classically elegant and engrossing prose, he tells of his early years as an impoverished student and law clerk in Johannesburg, of his slow political awakening, and of his pivotal role in the rebirth of a stagnant ANC and the formation of its Youth League in the 1950s. He describes the struggle to reconcile his political activity with his devotion to his family, the anguished breakup of his first marriage, and the painful separations from his children. He brings vividly to life the escalating political warfare in the fifties between the ANC and the government, culminating in his dramatic escapades as an underground leader and the notorious Rivonia Trial of 1964, at which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Herecounts the surprisingly eventful twenty-seven years in prison and the complex, delicate negotiations that led both to his freedom and to the beginning of the end of apartheid. Finally he provides the ultimate inside account.

Benson Fisher thought that a scholarship to Maxfield Academy would be the ticket out of his dead-end life.
He was wrong.
Now he's trapped in a school that's surrounded by a razor-wire fence. A school where video cameras monitor his every move. Where there are no adults. Where the kids have split into groups in order to survive.
Where breaking the rules equals death.
But when Benson stumbles upon the school's real secret, he realizes that playing by the rules could spell a fate worse than death, and that escape--his only real hope for survival--may be impossible.








The year is 2032, sixteen years after a deadly virus—and the vaccine intended to protect against it—wiped out most of the earth’s population. The night before eighteen-year-old Eve’s graduation from her all-girls school she discovers what really happens to new graduates, and the horrifying fate that awaits her.

Fleeing the only home she’s ever known, Eve sets off on a long, treacherous journey, searching for a place she can survive. Along the way she encounters Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Separated from men her whole life, Eve has been taught to fear them, but Caleb slowly wins her trust...and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life

Breathe's ONE year anniversary

a scene from Breathe in Jax point-of-view. It is where Jax sings to Sadie on the beach...
 
This had been a completely selfish decision. Although it was serving it’s purpose, the fear that I’d gone too far was there in the back of my mind. Reminding me that this was not safe. Sadie’s life could completely blow up after tonight. But I’d wanted to do this. Making sure everyone in this small town knew Sadie White was taken had been more important than anything else at the moment. I hadn’t thought through the repercussions of coming here tonight. 

“So, is Star seeing anyone? They only ever show her with you.” A guy sitting across the fire from us asked as he leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees in wait of my answer. His gaze shifted from me to Sadie quickly and I could see the interest in his eyes. He wasn’t interested in Star. He was trying to call me out in front of Sadie. The girl beside him shot an annoyed frown in Sadie’s direction and confirmed what I’d already picked up on. He was interested and Sadie of course was completely clueless. She had no idea the affect she had on guys.  

Sadie cleared her throat to cover up a small chuckle and I turned my attention from the curious crowd we’d gathered to look down at the reason I was here tonight. Sadie smiled up at me with an amused grin before taking a bite of the hot dog I’d roasted her over the fire. 

“I’m not sure. I don’t exactly keep tabs on Star’s love life,” I replied not taking my eyes off Sadie. 

More questions were asked but I didn’t hear them. I’d answered enough questions for the night. Sitting among her peers and making sure every guy here knew Sadie was mine had been accomplished. Now, I wanted her alone. No more questions about my music, Star, or personal life. 

I stood up and reached for Sadie’s hand. “If you’ll excuse us, I want to go dance with Sadie.”

Her big blue eyes flashed a surprised smile up at me as I pulled her close against my side before leading her to a secluded moonlit section of the beach......

 

Keep on reading on :  http://www.abbiglines.com/2012/05/breathes-one-year-anniversary.html

The Vincent Brothers June 5, 2012

The Vincent Brothers June 5, 2012

A new exclusive excerpt from The Vincent Brothers 

       Before I reached the door, Sawyer walked inside. His eyes seemed a little glassy and his normally perfectly styled hair was messy. I stopped and watched him as he scanned the room until his eyes found me and stopped. A slow grin spread across his lips and he sauntered toward me. Or was he st

aggering a little? 

       “Hey Lana, what you doin’ all alone?” 

       I swallowed the nervous knot in my throat as he stood so close my arm was touching his. “Uh, well, Ash and Beau went,” I pointed toward the stairs unable to tell him what they’d gone to do. 

       His amused smile became an angry snarl as he shifted his focus to the steps leading upstairs like they were repugnant. Great, I’d got him all worked up over Beau and Ashton, again. 

       A warm hand closed around my hand and I squeaked in surprise. Sawyer chuckled and slipped his fingers between mine, “Come on sweet little Lana. You can come entertain me since you’ve been stranded. Besides, I’ve been looking at those sexy legs of yours all night. You make them shorts look real good.”

        I gaped at him as he pulled me over to an empty couch. Had Sawyer just said my legs were sexy? I didn’t have time to think about his statement before he was pulling me  down to sit in his lap. 

       He buried his face in my hair and inhaled loudly, “Damn you smell good,” he murmured. One of his hands slipped around my waist and his hand spread out across the front of my bare stomach while he wrapped a lock of my hair around his finger with his other hand. 

By Abbi Glines

August 7, 2012 release of BITING COLD

BITING COLD ARC Contest Begins Now!

INTERNATIONAL!

 http://www.chloeneill.com/?p=1804

 

Turned into a vampire against her will, twenty-eight-year-old Merit found her way into the dark circle of Chicago’s vampire underground, where she learned there was more to supernaturals than met the eye—and more supernaturals than the public ever imagined. And not all the secrets she learned were for sharing—among humans or inhumans.
Now Merit is on the hunt, charging across the stark American Midwest, tailing a rogue supernatural intent on stealing an ancient artifact that could unleash catastrophic evil on the world. But Merit is also the prey. An enemy of Chicagoland is hunting her, and he’ll stop at nothing to get the book for himself. No mercy allowed. No rules apply. No lives spared. The race is on.

Need more Merit? Read the first chapter now, 
or preorder now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Indiebound!

Currently reading:Insurgent by Veronica Roth

War looms in sixteen-year-old Tris’s dark dystopian world as disputes between the factions grow. Tris must now fight against all odds to discover the truth that can save her and the people she loves. Sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge – and the choices she makes will have devastating and unexpected consequences.



My opinion:

Currently reading

Fifty Shades of Grey 

by E.L. James

 When literature student Anastasia Steele is drafted to interview the successful young entrepreneur Christian Grey for her campus magazine, she finds him attractive, enigmatic and intimidating. Convinced their meeting went badly, she tries to put Grey out of her mind - until he happens to turn up at the out-of-town hardware store where she works part-time.

The unworldly, innocent Ana is shocked to realize she wants this man, and when he warns her to keep her distance it only makes her more desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her - but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey's singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success – his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving adoptive family – Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a passionate, physical and daring affair, Ana learns more about her own dark desires, as well as the Christian Grey hidden away from public scrutiny.

Can their relationship transcend physical passion? Will Ana find it in herself to submit to the self-indulgent Master? And if she does, will she still love what she finds?

Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.


My opinion: 

Elixir - Aiden's Novella

"Aiden St. Delphi will do anything to save Alex.

Even if it means doing the one thing he will never forgive himself for.

Even if it means making war against the gods."