'Broken at Love' by Lyla Payne

Official Summary:

When a knee injury ends twenty-year-old Quinn Rowland’s pro tennis career, he’s not only dumped by his hot Russian girlfriend but ordered to attend college by his disinterested billionaire father. A rich kid who’s not used to being disappointed by life, Quinn and his sociopathic half-brother Sebastian create a frat house game intended to treat girls how they see them—as simple game pieces to be manipulated for their pleasure. College sophomore Emilie Swanson knows Quinn’s reputation—after all, he did send one of her sorority sisters into therapy earlier in the semester—but the game and his charm bring them closer together and soon she starts to believe there’s more to Quinn than people think. But what if the more is something darker than a game of toying with emotions and breaking hearts? Quinn and Emilie might be falling for each other, but there are secrets he’s not ready to tell—and lifestyle changes he’s reluctant to make. She willingly stepped on the court, but if Emilie finds out she started out as nothing as a pawn in Quinn and Sebastian’s twisted game, she might never forgive him. To his surprise, Quinn finds that he might finally care about someone more than he cares about himself…even if that means letting Emilie walk away for good.

Review:
I don't consider myself a usual reader of romance... they don't really do it for me. It's my usual opinion the stories are very rarely unique and aren't made of much more than the sum of their summaries. And while it could be argued, with enough evidence to drown me I'm sure, that the stories I've most enjoyed have romantic elements, the books bent on bedroom antics have a tendency of falling pretty low on my list of recommendations (when they make it on that list at all).

But when the author of something I've come to respect, enjoy and strongly recommend for another genre* goes rogue to publish her first "New Adult" romance - well sign me up in support of the new venture. Romance genre be damned because I'm coming for a visit!

Anyway, all the kidding aside, I was pleasantly surprised by 'Broken at Love' by Lyla Payne. The story of Quinn and Emilie was engaging, gritty and even playful at times. Good enough for me to put aside my usual angst-engulfed, rich boy with issues hate, because he was tempered with the strong, level headed Emilie. Good enough for me to sit back and enjoy watching these two overcome their obstacles together and, almost more importantly, apart. Great enough for me to put the story of Quinn and Emilie falling in love above the bedroom antics.

Bottom Line: Even though this one is a more, ahem, mature read, I'm tempted to recommend this to you if you enjoyed 'Callum & Harper', but you may want to skip over it if you're still too young for a rated R movie ticket. Not sure how die-hards of the romance genre would feel about it, but from an outsiders perspective, the focus of this lies title squarely on telling a story of compassion, growth and budding love making it definitely worth the read.

*An author reviewed a glowing review here on TTP mid-February under a different moniker for one of the best YA dystopia/fantasy series I'd picked in a long, long while.

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'Whispers in Autumn' by Trisha Leigh

'Whispers in Autumn' is the first of four books that are part of Trisha Leigh's The Last Year series. The finale, 'Summer Ruins', debuts a mere four days from now (on 2/19), so I felt it was the perfect time to get involved. If I liked it than I wouldn't have an excruciating years wait between titles (I'm looking straight at you Cassandra Clare). If I didn't, well, no harm no foul.

So, will I be reading onward into 'Winter Omens'?
More than likely.

The characters are well-drawn and developed and the story line is intriguingly unique. Then there's the issue of the cliff-hanger ending which just about shoved me into the next installment. More importantly, while 'Whispers in Autumn' is firmly planted in the Young Adult category of literature, Trisha Leigh does a great job of surfacing some fairly complicated messages without over complicating the plot.

The Bottom Line: This book with its quirky, teenaged protagonist isn't for everyone - but if you're looking to sink your teeth into a new YA science fiction series with a dystopian twist, this one's for you. Fans of Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone books, or the Divergent series by Veronica Roth would be an especially good fit.

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Waiting List - February Edition

February. Cold and bitter February. Besides the Hallmark holiday of Valentine's and the occasional leap year "bonus day" its just the span of time spent in the pit of winter before the warm air of spring returns to my little corner of New England. As an aside, did you know that January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar, since the Romans originally considered winter a monthless period*?

But cold and miserable outside is a good thing around these parts anyway - while the family goes stir-crazy I get more time to pull out the throw blankets, cozy up on the sofa with a corgi shaped foot warmer and read without feeling the pressing guilt of taking in the sun outside. Overall, its a pretty good deal.

However, before delving forward let me say one thing about January's entry. If you've got keen eyes you've probably already realized that I didn't cover 'Dead Beat' by Jim Butcher as promised. This has nothing to do with the novel itself - it was excellent per usual - but I realized something when I went to write the review. I've covered a handful of the series already and my opinion hasn't changed or wavered in the least. In fact, I've only grown more attached to the series as I get deeper into the story arch.  As such I'm going to continue reading through the remaining books but save you all from my inevitably gushing reviews. Unless something changes - I still love you Dresden but from this point on I'm going to hold off on the reviews... well... until I catch up. Then maybe I'll do a series retrospective review. That might be fun.
  
So here we go. If you're reading along with me here's my line-up for the next four weeks. As a word of warning, its a much beefier commitment than usual:

• 'Whispers in Autumn' by Trisha Leigh - this was another series I'm trying out per an Amazon suggestion. Has anyone out there read anything by this author or in this series? Love to know what you think before I delve in.
• 'Mariana' by Susanna Kearsley
• 'Child 44' by Tom Rob Smith
• 'The Human Division' both #1 & #2 by John Scalzi - these ones are short but look awesome!
• 'The Witch's Daughter' by Paula Brackston
• 'Reckless Magic' by Rachel Higginson - should have gotten to this one last month (per the book club) but... well... no real excuses I guess. Better late than never right?
• 'Domestic Violets' by Matthew Norman
• 'Wraith' by Angel Lawson - not sure about this one either but it's this month's book club entry so it makes the list in a defacto kinda way.  

Oh - and we can't be forgetting about the Bridal Title for the month of February. For all those interested I've got 'Wedding Planning Like A Pro: Confession of an Ex-wedding Planning' by Tammy J Beatty all lined up.       

That's it from me today. Keep warm, enjoy your heart shaped box of cheapo chocolates and have fun reading until the sun comes back!
 
*Lifted that sentence directly out of the February Wikipedia page - but it makes a lot of sense. Winter is cruel and cold and miserable... the only reason to track the time is to know how close you are nearing to the end.