{Blog Tour: Review + Excerpt} Getting Schooled by Emma Chase

Getting Schooled by Emma Chase
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
GENRE: Contemporary
THEME: Romance, School Life
RECEIVED: Tour

Getting Schooled (Getting Some, #1)

by Emma Chase4.28 · 1,817 Ratings · 485 Re

BLURB:

Head of the class...

Garrett Daniels has this whole life thing figured out.

The cocky, charismatic former high school star quarterback is an idolized football coach and "cool" teacher in the hometown where he's not just a golden boy—he's platinum. He has good friends, a great house on the lake, and the best damn sidekick a man could ask for: Snoopy, the albino beagle.

Then...Callie Carpenter comes home.

And knocks him right on his tight end zone.

Back to school...

Callie has a pretty sweet life herself...on the other side of the country. But circumstances—that she'd prefer to never speak of again—have brought her back home, helping out her parents and substitute teaching at her old high school.

Now she's facing bickering, raging hormones, constant gossip, awkward weirdness, and drama galore...and that's just the teachers.

Just like old times...

When Garrett offers to show his former high school sweetheart the secrets of his winning teacher ways, Callie jumps at the chance—and then has to stop herself from jumping him.

Good friends are all they can ever be.

Or...these teachers just might end up getting schooled—hard—by love.

REVIEW:

This is my second book I've read by Emma Chase and now I feel like a fool for not reading more of her books. My gosh was this a fantastic story, emotional, sexy, funny and just pulls you into the life and love of these wonderful characters she created. I haven't read many book based in a school environment so it really brought back the memories of school drama, how hard it must be for so many teachers dealing with the insaneness of student life, plus the group of teacher banter was a freaking bonus of greatness. Even though this is a romance story, I feel a lot of people will love reading about the students and teachers, their interactions and drama really made this so "real".

My favorite tidbit of course of the whole story was the romance, reading about two people who loved each other young and meeting again is such a sweet and beautiful thing. Especially because Garrett and Callie have this undeniable connection and watching them find their way back into love was so perfect. Second chance loves really get all the feels out.

Overall I highly recommend this story, it has fantastic secondary character, that I'm hoping to get a story about them. The romance is hot, sexy and sweet, it will have you falling in love with this story and characters.

View all my reviews

ADD TO GOODREADS

AVAILABLE NOW

AMAZON | iBooks | B&N | Kobo | Paperback

EXCERPT:

High school parking lots are one of the most dangerous places on earth. I don’t have statistics to back that up…but I know it’s true.

I pull into the school parking lot Monday morning in my Dad’s giant, newly repaired mint-green Buick, with Back in Black by AC/DC blasting from the speakers. I feel tough, powerful—like I’m driving a tank.

I’m a badass teacher—I’ll run you down even if you’re a student—I’ve got twenty-nine more in class just like you.

The outfit helps too—leather boots, blue jeans, a starched white blouse and a black leather jacket. It’s my armor. The morning air is cool and crisp today, but I barely feel it. I’m locked and loaded and ready to roll.

As I march towards the main entrance, I spot Garrett and Dean and Alison Bellinger outside the doors. They pause when they see me, waiting.

“Damn,” Dean chuckles. “Callie’s got her shit-kickers on. Did you dig them out of a mosh pit from 1993?”

Garrett crosses his arms. “Somebody’s channeling Michelle Pfiefer in Dangerous Minds.”

He looks fantastic. His hair is tousled from the breeze and kisses his brow, and he’s wearing a dark blue sweater that’s snug around his biceps and soft, worn, light blue jeans. I remember his arms around me yesterday on my parent’s porch. The wonder and exhilaration of the moment.

Of him.

The intensity in his eyes, the desire and possessiveness in the grasp of his hands. The scorching feel of his mouth, his wet talented tongue that made my stomach swirl and my head spin.

So much for not complicating things.

But I’m not going to play head games with myself or Garrett—we’re too old for that shit.

I have feelings for him—I always have—our break-up had nothing to do with either of us not wanting each other desperately. But these aren’t just leftover echoes of a sweet, first love—this is something new. A throbbing, breathless attraction to the amazing man he’s become. I want to be near him. I want to know him, inside and out, all over again.

And he feels the same way. Garrett wants this version of me as much as he always did—maybe even more. I heard it in his whispered words and felt it in his kiss.

I don’t know if we have a future, if it can go anywhere. We have separate lives on opposite ends of the country. But I’m not going to worry about that—for now, I’m going to take each day as it comes and enjoy every moment we can.

Except for now. Now is not the time for enjoying or worrying or relationship building…now is the time for focusing. Now is the time to be ice and steel—don’t smile, don’t waver.

“Little fucknutters don’t know who the hell they’re dealing with,” I growl.

Allison pumps her fist. “That’s the spirit.”

Garrett opens the door for me. “Go get ‘em, Gangster’s Paradise.”

AUTHOR BIO:

Emma Chase is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the hot and hilarious Tangled series and The Legal Briefs series. Emma lives in New Jersey with her husband, two children and two naughty (but really cute) dogs. She has a long-standing love/hate relationship with caffeine.

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | NEWSLETTER | TWITTER | GOODREADS | READER FAN GROUP

{Blog Tour} Review + Giveaway of Dear Cassie by Lisa Burstein

Dear Cassie by Lisa Burstein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

GENRE: YA Contemporary
THEME: Romance, Drama
RECEIVED: Blog Tour
AUTHORS BLOG:

BLURB:

What if the last place you should fall in love is the first place that you do?

You’d think getting sent to Turning Pines Wilderness Camp for a month-long rehabilitation “retreat” and being forced to re-live it in this journal would be the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.

You’d be wrong.

There’s the reason I was sent to Turning Pines in the first place: I got arrested. On prom night. With my two best friends, who I haven’t talked to since and probably never will again. And then there’s the real reason I was sent here. The thing I can’t talk about with the guy I can’t even think about.

What if the moment you’ve closed yourself off is the moment you start to break open?

But there’s this guy here. Ben. And the more I swear he won’t—he can’t—the deeper under my skin he’s getting. After the thing that happened, I promised I’d never fall for another boy’s lies.

REVIEW: 
After hearing a lot of good things about Pretty Amy, I was excited to read another chapter in Lisa Burstein series about three girls whose lives change after prom night. Dear Cassie is the second book and connects to Amy’s story in Pretty Amy. Even though I didn’t read the first book, Dear Cassie was easy to jump into and connect with the characters while learning about what really happened that night.

Dear Cassie follows Cassie as she is off to a camp to go through rehab after what happened, but there is something else that deep down is tearing her apart. As she tries to deal with the rustic outdoors and hard work during camp, she has to deal with the other campers and one boy who she wishes she could ignore.

Cassie is a complicated and broken character, she has a lot of issues that she needs to over come and her life wasn’t easy to begin with. Emotionally this story will hit the readers with the flashbacks that come out from Cassie writing in her diary. I was curious from the start on what secrets Cassie was hiding and if she would ever reveal anything. What I liked most is that her connection and trust in her brother, the only person who gets her. For me Cassie is extremely rough around the edges, I liked her spunk and wished she wouldn’t keep pushing Ben away. In the end as the reader you’ll root for her to get past what happen and try to find something or someone to make her happy.

There are some very colorful and entertaining side characters that help Cassie and push her while at camp. Ben is the love interest and at the beginning have a major love hate relationship, Cassie is just plain annoyed with him. I liked their dynamic and how opposite they were. The reader’s see how sweet this guy is, just trying so hard to get Cassie to open up. In the end with Ben he shocked me with something extreme and I loved it! Also Cassie’s bunkmates Nez and Troyer, who are both socially different from Cassie. Troyer is quiet and later on connects with Cassie and they become close friends. She has her reasons for being there but mostly I felt her parents gave up because she wouldn’t talk. Nez is a frustrating girl that clashes immediately with Cassie. I liked her boy crazy attitude and that I couldn’t quite figure her out. In the end this made for a interesting journey to read about and how they all go through this “rehab” along with Cassie.

Overall this was wonderfully well written and the pace keeps you guessing with trying to find out Cassie’s secret. My only issue was the language. Cassie is a hard character who hides behind her tough attitude but cursing to this extent was over the top at times. But past that I really enjoyed this story of understanding, heartache, growth and trying to move forward. I look forward to reading Pretty Amy now that I have finished this one. I’m curious as to Amy’s actions and see Cassie from another POV.

RECOMMENDATION:
This is a Young Adult novel with mature content for language. Fans of Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols and Things I Can’t Forget by Miranda Kenneally will enjoy Dear Cassie by Lisa Burstein.

View all my reviews

AUTHOR BIO:
Lisa Burstein is a tea seller by day and a writer by night. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University and is glad to finally have it be worth more than the paper it was printed on. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her very patient husband, a neurotic dog and two cats.

She wrote her first story when she was in second grade. It was a Thanksgiving tale from the point of view of the turkey from freezer to oven to plate. It was scandalous.
PRETTY AMY May 2012 Entangled Publishing THE NEXT FOREVER January 2013 Entangled Publishing DEAR CASSIE March 2013 Entangled Publishing

AUTHOR LINKS:

Website/Blog/Twitter/Facebook/Goodreads

BUY LINKS:
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository, Goodreads

1 paperback copy USA Only & 1 ebook International