I feel in love with Stacey Lee's second novel, Outrun the Moon. I was super excited to have won an ARC copy of her newest book, The Secret of a Heart Note.

• I love the herb alchemy
• BFF is <3. She helped save the book when I was annoyed with Mimosa. 
• It has all the typical cute, angst-y, confused, awkward, and adorable romance troubles. 
• The twist was really obvious. It made the story feel a bit long and Mimosa a tad irritating. Like, just wanted to shake her and her mom so badly sometimes!
• Mimosa's old school mom was realistically annoying and stubborn. She's good and loves her daughter but is her own person with her own issues. I'm really glad how their relationship was done all the way through. 

The Secret of a Heart Note is good and cute, perfect for all the YA contemporary fans wanting a little drama and magic. The Secret of a Heart Note has a unique premise with a typical plot and diverse characters with standard relationships. 

While I enjoyed The Secret of a Heart Note, it didn't capture me like Outrun the Moon. 

I adore Stacey Lee's writing and skill, so I'll be reading her other book Under A Painted Sky and anything new. 

This is not a plot I'm used to find but it sort of reminded me a lot of the Ten Count series, so the novelty was lost on me.



I wanted to read this because it's Nash Summers, but in fact it didn't touch me the way fawn did. Not even close. This is a light read instead, the fragile fearful guy who lives in his apartment, and the new confident neighbor who falls for him for apparently no reason whatsoever, and goes through all the 'baggage' this person has... well, the idea is kind of romantic, but it's not very realistic.

Despite this, I can't deny this is a very sweet story and gave me good vibes. What I really complain about is how fast the plot is solved.

Yes, the OCD aspect is important. But here, errrhhh: now I have it, now I don't, now I have issues again, now I'm cured. Well... not convincing at all. A person with OCD suffers, and it's a painful and slow process to get over it, to get better. I personally believe the author doesn't emphasize well enough the importance this matter needs.

Also, the problem with the mother is not even talked about, one moment she is the 'cage', and the next she is all accepting and understanding.

However, the romance aspect is not less unbelievable. Too rushed for my taste, too 'easy'. They are touching hands (if ever), they have a conflict which separates them for a while, the MC decides to redeem himself and 'shape up' for the sake of the other, and suddenly they are together-forever-in-love as if nothing wrong has happened.

Uh?

There was something missing for me here. Like, the most part of an average novel. This change felt like a memory lapse rather than the contentious process of growing up as a person in order be healthy enough to have a happy and balanced life with your partner, in order to be able to cope with the daily complications the existence offers, and to fulfill your most profound wishes.

If felt incomplete. It felt not enough.

*****

You can read it for free here.

EVIL DOES EXIST

An abandoned house, a serial killer, and a victim reaching out from the grave. A woman races against time to unearth buried secrets before she becomes a ghost herself.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE

Madeline Anderson goes to Isabelle Island, Washington, to sell a family home abandoned over forty years before. Strange things occur the moment she steps on the property. Inside the dilapidated old house, items move about on their own accord. Noises come from empty rooms. She has a vivid, recurring dream of a woman running for her life. The wind rustling through the trees sounds like urgent, murmuring voices. When the cacophony dies down, one single word emerges: Madeline, Madeline, Madeline.

YOU CAN NOT HIDE

At first, Doug Lindstrom, the hot fireman helping Maddy restore the old home, doesn't believe anything bizarre is going on. He’s certain Maddy is jumping at shadows because the local kids call the house haunted. That is until he witnesses horrific violence he can't explain. After Maddy’s life is threatened not once, but twice, Doug vows there will not be a third time.

THEY ARE WATCHING

While searching for answers, Maddy uncovers astonishing secrets about her aunt's past. Finding more questions then answers, she digs deeper until she stumbles across evidence of a cold case involving a serial killer named The Seaside Strangler. Now Maddy must unmask the killer. The life she saves just might be their own.

What did I think:
OMG and here I thought this trilogy couldn't get any better then book 3 which is Spirits of the Bayou but I have to say that I was wrong, ok so I'm read these books out of order but that's ok , in fact I don't know which one I like the best between the two I've read so far, just like Sprits of the Bayou this reachs out and pulls you in to the story , and once that happens your hooked and it won't let go. you have to set back and enjoy the ride , its also just as chilling and terrifying as Sprits of the Bayou is, and it to has Lots of unexpected, moments that gives you a creeping sensation on your skin that cause the hair on your arms to raise, and when you think that that your at a non creepy part of the book , she laughs at you and say I'm not do with you get, so just set back and hold on to your chair and enjoy the ride, because that's when she throws more surprises at you ,so if you love to be on the edge of your set, and are not afraid of the unexpected, or that creepy sensation then this is the book and series for you, plus it show You that the best thing to do is to leave things along that you don't understand and when you start to hear voices or shadows I'm your room then its time to get out of there and don't come back no matter what, also once again I have to say this but there is just something about her writing style , with that said I would love to say thinks to Morgan Hannah MacDonald for send me a copy of her book to read in a change for my honest opinion, which this is 100% , this series is a must read .

It's not easy to achieve the transition from a non-con to a real BDSM love story. But Lisa Henry did it.



At first I wasn't very convinced, it was too dark, there was too much abuse. I honestly didn't see any romance in the torturer-tortured relationship. Miller struck me as a sadistic bastard, or at least, as an impassive person who has seen too much violence and, as such, he can't ever be moved by real emotions anymore.



Psychologists and psychiatrists who learn how to break minds instead of curing them freak me out.

But I ended up liking it pretty much.

How?

Well, for starters, there is a change, from the fascination towards someone who refuses to be broken to a fascination for something more he manages to see in Rho. Miller meets a POW who has survived for so long he wonders what's different in him. Days pass and Rho gets under his skin, Rho is someone he wants for himself, so he saves him and bends him to become his. Rho resists at first, but there is a compulsion that complies him to finally give in, to finally submit, to this man.



That's why I liked. Regardless of how wrong it sounds, how twisted the circumstances are, how depraved the situation is, there is a beautiful relationship in its infancy which is already life-changing in the most basic and essential of senses.



From pain and despair, to warmth and safety.

And surrender.

Is it even possible?



*****

You can read it for free here.

Dan Skinner writes about coming of age as no other.



This reads as a typical Dan Skinner story.

Young men barely out of their teens, if at all? Check.

First discoveries and sexuality exploration? All in all, coming of age? Check.

Sense of doom filled with dreams struggling to come to the surface? Check.

1960s in the middle of nowhere setting? Check.

Poetical and intimate style? Check.

Raw feelings? Check.

Dan Skinner has the ability of giving me what I need and still leave me with utter longing. This is a little gem. With an aery feeling, emotions get out of your skin and become tactile and real.

And the ending is open to hope.

So I hope and have the perfect ending in my head.

Because I choose to believe.



*****

Story ends at 75%.