HEAD OVER HEELS (Mama's Boys #3)

HEAD OVER HEELS                                                  CRYSTAL B. BRIGHT

Sometimes it takes hurt to open your heart…
  
At twenty-two, Thane Wells is the highest-paid pitcher in Major League Baseball—and he owes it all to his adoptive Mama, “Queen” Elizabeth Sommerville, a wise, beautiful, entrepreneurial African-American woman who always encouraged him and his two white brothers to reach for the stars…the woman Thane still talks to daily. He never dreamed their most recent conversation would be their last. With his beloved supporter suddenly gone, Thane is grief-stricken, shaken, and vulnerable—especially to a woman like Kari Meyers.

Kari’s had her eye on Thane for a while, but strictly for business. As a junior sports agent, she’s hungry to sign him, especially when she hears his current agent will be retiring soon. When she finally locates Thane, she’s shocked to discover he’s attending his mother’s funeral—and he’s shocked to find Kari in his hotel room. Assuming she’s an escort is just the beginning of their misunderstandings. But one thing that’s clear is their mutual attraction. As a single mom with an NBA ex, Kari has a rule against dating athletes. Yet as circumstances bring the two closer together, they just might find they’re on the same team, heart and soul…
 

HUBBY'S REVIEW:
This is the last book of the three brothers and it is about the youngest Thane, who is a baseball pitcher. He is back home but not for good reasons Queenie has passed and now they must move forward, but Thane is having problems with that part of his life. When he comes in contact with a women named Kari who is wanting to sign him as a client as she is a sports agent she is also like him in that she does not want to get close to anyone because she got burned in the past and she has to look out for her son. Well you guessed it they like each other but he must get past her rules and she must get past the walls that he has put up. They begin to work things out when he ends up in the hospital and when she finally is able to talk to him he of course blows it. Now having to fins her and tell her how he really feels is probably the hardest thing he has ever done. They work out there relationship and at the end you get an epilogue of 7 years which I really liked and brought all of the stories together for an ending. A good book and a good series also. I got this book from netgalley. I gave it 5 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com 

WITH MY EYES WIDE OPEN: Miracles and Mistakes on My Way Back to KoRn

WITH MY EYES WIDE OPEN                                        BRIAN "HEAD" WELCH

He left KoRn to help himself. He went back to help others. And along the way, he nearly lost everything.

A life-changing spiritual awakening freed Brian “Head” Welch from a stranglehold of drugs and alcohol and prompted him to leave the highly successful nu-metal band KoRn in 2005. What followed was a decade-long trial by fire, from the perils of fathering a teen lost in depression and self-mutilation to the harsh realities of playing solo and surviving the shattering betrayal of a trusted friend. In this intensely inspiring redemption saga, perhaps most inspiring is Brian’s radical decision to rejoin KoRn and reconcile with the tribe of people he once considered family in the metal music scene.

Brian returned to his musical roots with a clear head and a devoted heart. Though his story is wild, hilarious, and deeply poignant, the message is simple: God will love you into the freedom of being yourself, as long as you keep the relationship going and never, ever quit.

HUBBY'S REVIEW:
This is Brian “Head” Welch story after he left Korn which is a heavy metal rock band. He turned his life over to Christ and along the way he made mistakes. Which he chronicles the people that he trusted but does not fault them but looks at himself for wanting to do the right thing but not looking at the whole person even though there were signs for him to see? He moves on to how he stayed in music and working towards a christian album and how once those things started to work out he was back on the road and he still needed to spend time with his daughter which is the main reason why he changed his life to begin with. He goes into her problems and she gives a good account at the end of the book that any young girl going through cutting should read and look to get help. He then goes into his journey back to Korn and back to making a record doing that partly here in Bakersfield and in L.A. a very good book and I am glad that he added his daughters’ part to the book. A very good read. I got this book from netgalley. I gave it 5 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com 

SURVIVING WOUNDED KNEE: The Lakotas and the Politics of Memory

SURVIVING WOUNDED KNEE                                 DAVID W. GRUA

On December 29, 1890, the U.S. Seventh Cavalry killed more than two hundred Lakota Ghost Dancers- including men, women, and children-at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota. After the work of death ceased at Wounded Knee, the work of memory commenced. For the US Army and some whites, Wounded Knee was the site where a heroic victory was achieved against the fanatical Chief Big Foot and his treacherous Ghost Dancers and where the struggle between civilization and savagery for North America came to an end. For other whites, it was a stain on the national conscience, a leading example of America's dishonorable dealings with Native peoples. For Lakota survivors it was the site of a horrific massacre of a peacemaking chief and his people, and where the United States violated its treaty promises and slaughtered innocents. 
Historian David Grua argues that Wounded Knee serves as a window into larger debates over how the United States' conquest of the indigenous peoples should be remembered. During the five decades after Wounded Knee, the survivors pursued historical justice in the form of compensation, in accordance with traditional Lakota conflict resolution practices and treaty provisions that required compensation for past wrongs. The survivors engaged in the politics of memory by preparing compensation claims, erecting a monument "in memory of the Chief Bigfoot massacre" at the mass grave on the Pine Ridge Reservation, by dictating accounts to sympathetic whites, and by testifying before the U.S. Congress in the 1930s in support of a bill intended to "liquidate the liability" of the United States for Wounded Knee. Despite the bill's failure, the survivors' prolonged pursuit of justice laid the foundation for later activists who would draw upon the memorial significance of Wounded Knee to promote indigenous sovereignty. 
Published on the 125th anniversary of this controversial event, Surviving Wounded Knee examines the Lakota survivors' half-century pursuit of justice and points to lingering questions about the United States' willingness to address the liabilities of Indian conquest. 
HUBBY'S REVIEW:
An excellent researched and documented book about the events that took place on December 29 1890, where the 7th Cavalry killed more than 200 Lakota, men, women and child. Throughout the author's research the only official reports were that of the 7th Cavalry, the stories from the few saviors were not taken in because they were deemed to be of “hostile”. That term “hostile” would be used by men from the Indian affairs department for decades, and then used by congress. First just let me say that I for one do not believe the official report from the 7th the same unit that was Custer’s and I do believe that they were looking for revenge. On top of everything else the government officials always deflected the case back to the Indian affairs office who then would hire someone likely a farmer from the area of Pine Ridge to look into it and lo and behold they found no just cause for the Lakotas charges. Go figure. Decades would pass and even into the 20’s the Lakotas were fighting for justice still to be denied. It did not matter that men from the tribe fought in WWI they were still turned away. If they did make it farther than the last time then they would have to fight the Army once again who have spent more time and money protecting these soldiers than they do for the soldiers of the current war. Now they will take foreign enemy testimony over their own, but they will fight tooth and nail with the Lakotas over these killings. I believe were a massacre. You can write it up any way you want but killing women, children, unarmed men and then hunting them down is sickening. If you can a soldier’s testimony then you can take one from a mother who lost her child and has the wounds from being shot. He goes into how most of this started over a dance called the Ghost dance, that’s’ right the Indian’s were forbidden to dance, also the had to get a pass to leave the reservation, and they could not hire attorneys to fight their cause because they were the guidance of the dept. of Indian affairs and that dept. would look at the case and then decide if they could hire an attorney. I could go on and on but I just get more and more frustrated. The U.S. government broke every treaty it made with every Tribe but yet they take no responsibility for killing 100 of thousands of Native Americans. Also not in the book we as a nation still took more of their land where almost every dam was built it was done so on or flooded a reservation, just a little bit of information. This was done after WWII. This is a book that should be taught in our schools and if you get a chance read it. Yes there is some dry reading but overall a good book. I got this book from netgalley. I gave it 4 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com

JUST A GIRL

JUST A GIRL                                                     ELLIE CAHILL

After getting kicked out of her own band—by her own boyfriend—Presley Mason finds herself back in Wisconsin, helping her parents run their renowned music store. Instead of belting out powerhouse vocals to sold-out crowds in L.A., she’s stocking shelves and inspecting rental violins. But the shop isn’t all bad: When she’s vacuuming up late one night, she bumps into the guitar teacher with the smoldering amber eyes and the killer tattoo. And that’s when things take an interesting turn.
 
Presley soon finds that Paul Kellerman is as good in bed as he is on guitar. So why isn’t he stoked to share his band, Jukebox Bleu, with her? Turns out Paul has crippling stage fright, which he’s been self-medicating without much success. But when Jukebox Bleu’s lead singer gets called for military service, the other members beg Presley to front them. Even though she swore never to mix men with music again, the temptation to perform is almost as intense as her chemistry with Paul. Now Presley must decide what’s more important: a second chance at love . . . or rock stardom.

HUBBY'S REVIEW:
This book begins with Presley Mason being kicked out, fired from the band she started. Now leaving California and going back home to Wisconsin. She is back in her parent’s music store trying to figure out what the next step is. It is here that she meets a guitar player who is teaching at the store. They begin to date and slowly with his help she gets back into music. The problem for her is that his band wants her to sing with them after hearing her and she does not want to do it because she feels that this was one reason why she was fired. She does not realize that the band that fired her was changing or had changed her music and they were trying to change her style. Here no one was asking her to change, just to sing like they did at rehearsal. After singing at a music festival they are asked to go on a three week tour opening for a band in the Midwest. This should be great news, but for her it is panic mode 101 and she gives Paul a choice of them breaking up or one of them leaving the band. She does not want to date someone she is on the band with. Paul confused says you are doing this and they break up. By the last few shows his stage freight has gotten worse and the one person who was helping him he cannot turn to. The band fires him for his own good but once again the music suffers, but this time it is bad for he wrote all of the bands material, and when they get home they cannot find a guitar player like him. Now realizing that she made a horrible mistake she cannot get a hold of him. He is not teaching classes and not taking any calls. Even his sister is pissed at her, and she must find him before it is too late, for her sanity as well. The ending is good and answers a lot. A very good book, a really liked the characters of his sisters and Lilly’s mother, she was a definite lady from the 60’s. overall a very good book. I got this book from netgalley. I gave it 5 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com

ALL FOR YOU (Copeland Ranch Trilogy #3)

ALL FOR YOU                                                  KRISTINA O'GRADY

‘All For You was very enjoyable, and easy to read story’ - Rachel Gibley

Is it time for a second chance at love?
When Lily left her home town – and the love of her life Wade – 8 years ago to start her acting career she had big plans to make her dream a reality. However, a few dead end jobs and one dead end relationship later she is back to make a fresh start with the only good thing to come out it all – her unborn baby.

Lily soon realises however that the heart wants what the heart wants, and hers clearly still wanted Wade Copeland! Can they overcome the hurt and pain of the past to allow themselves a future?
The third novel in the sizzlingly sexy Copeland Ranch romance trilogy from Kristina O'Grady

THE COPELAND RANCH TRILOGY
Book 1 – I Choose You
Book 2 – Because of You
Book 3 – All For You

HUBBY'S REVIEW:
This book begins with Lilly coming home after 8 years she did not make it as an actress, but that was not the real reason why she left in the first placed. Now back the first person she did not want to run into is the one she does, Wade. Who was her high school love and she left him not the other way around. He is happy and frustrated to see her. But because she needs a job he gives her one on his family's’ ranch and this becomes more confusing for both of them. The other person she does not want to see is her mother, but she has too being in a small town. There are a few different storylines in this book and I feel like only one got settled. The between Lilly and Wade and still at times I felt like their story jumped around as much as some of the other parts of the story. I won’t go into detail because some people may not find the same things that I did. A good story, I was just expecting more. I this book from netgalley. I gave it 3 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com

SMOKIN' HOT IN THE SOUTH:New Grilling Recipes from the Winningest Woman in Barbecue

SMOKIN' HOT IN THE SOUTH                              MELISSA COOKSTON

With the grill and smoker as her go-to tools, chef Melissa Cookston—named "One of the most influential pitmasters in America" by Fox News, and one of the "25 Super Women in Business" by the Memphis Business Journal in 2015—shares her all-new, modern interpretations of traditional Southern ingredients and recipes. Melissa explains how the culinary traditions of the South—long a bastion of slow-simmered vegetables and deep-fried everything—have expanded in the last decade to embrace Southwestern flavors, Asian spices, and the French palate.The nine chapters venture beyond the competition and barbecue principles of her first book and focus on instilling flavor with fire, using fresh herbs, and diversifying seasoning components in recipes that reflect the New South. She fire-roasts homegrown green tomatoes for a spicy take on a traditional pizza sauce and uses a barbecue smoker to add Southern nuance to porchetta. Also includes recipes for Butterbean Pate, Asian Pork Tenderloin with Watermelon Rind Pickles and Minted Watermelon Salad, Deep South Burgers with Pimento Cheese and Fried Green Tomatoes, Bacon-Wrapped Scallops with Blood Orange-Jalapeno Glaze, Mini Sage Biscuits with Homemade Sage Butter, and Caramelized Fig Clafoutis. She also covers the tools, techniques, and ingredients needed to be successful grilling or smoking at home. This book will not leave you hungry! 

HUBBY'S REVIEW:
This was an outstanding barbeque cookbook. The author first goes over everything you should have on hand in your pantry, and items to make you’re grilling less stressful. She goes over all the different types of equipment from the simplest to the professional. She does recommend to read her first book about pro barbeque if that is what you are looking to get into, for she went up against the best and won. Now this book she will give you recipes to cook, but for me the real meat of this book was her giving out the recipes of her rubs, and some barbecue sauce. One important part also that was helpful was writing down the measurements as you go along so you can change ingredients if needed and also you will not get the flavor you are looking for the first time you start putting together different items to come up with the taste you want. I have found this to be true in other items that I have cooked also. I really was not into all of the items that she was making but everyone has different likes, so that is really not a big deal for me. her direction in what to have on hand to make a rub, or the basic ingredients to begin a sauce, and her explaining the difference in all of the different grills out there, and how she was wanting you to get comfortable with one before thinking on moving on to a bigger one. She also shows you how you can get the same flavor without having to buy a big grill just by adding different wood. Overall those were the items that made this a very good book for me. I got this book from netgalley. I gave it 5 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com

AFTER THE FIRE (One Pass Away #3)

AFTER THE FIRE                                      MARY J. WILLIAMS

In his lifetime, Gaige Benson has dreamed of only two things. Playing football and Violet Reed. 

WELCOME TO THE NFL 

The Seattle Knights have the hottest players in the game. On and off the field. 

Second Chances. First Love. 

Gaige Benson is the NFL's golden boy. He's done it all. Won every award. Except that elusive Super Bowl ring. This year he is hanging up his cleats and he plans on going out a winner. 

Even a golden boy has secrets. Will Gaige's past be the one thing that derails his future? 
Violet Reed almost lost it all. Her sight, her dreams of becoming a doctor, and the only man she ever loved. A miracle saved the first two. Sixteen years later she is getting her second chance at love. 

Secrets kept them apart. Will the truth separate them forever?

MY REVIEW:

     Gaige Benson was a kid who was offered a chance out of a horrible situation at home.  You see his father was an alcoholic and a physical abuser.  His mother was too weak mentally and physically from all the abuse to get away.  His father had her brain washed.  She wouldn’t leave him even when offered help and a much better way of living.
     Gaige was not like her.  He was willing to take the help from Terrance Aldridge gave him.  Although leery at first it was Brooklyn after all. Gaige knew enough to at least listen.  Terrance had he seen Gaige throw a football back to one of his players when the football went out of bounds and crossed his path while walking home.  When the ball he threw not only hit its mark but with the force and precision he knew a future player when he saw one. On that day he offered him a chance to play on his pee wee football team.  His only problem is that he needed his parent’s signatures.  His knew he could get his mother’s but not his father’s.  So like all the other times he forged it.
     The second hurdle was when he needed the fee.  But Terrance knew that would be a problem and had already gotten the board to approve a waiver for him to play.  At first Gaige’s pride was going to allow him to miss this great opportunity until Terrance said he should remember that it was just a loan until the day he was able to pay it forward.  To help another child when he could.  Terrance on that day became a father figure to Gaige he mentored him from then on.
     Gaige made it to Yale on a full ride scholarship and then was drafted with the Seattle Knights as first string QB for this NFL team.  He was only 22 years old.  No sooner did he sign the contract when his good for nothing father blows things up.  He drove drunk and was arrested with three times the legal amount of alcohol in his system.  He did what he said he would never do he went home to be with his mother in Brooklyn, N.Y. and hopefully talk her into coming home with him and once and for all leaving his father.  But no she wanted him to use his name and newly attained fame to get his father off of the charges he so earned.  For which Gaige would never ever do for his father.  Gaige believed he deserved whatever he got.
     Especially, when he got there and found out once again she was one, lying for him to keep him out of jail and two, that his father hit a girl while driving drunk.  He truly deserved what he got.  Meanwhile, he is at the hospital, which is where he has to visit with his mother since she visits the man every day he is there. 
     One of the days before he was released to the jail Gaige is walking to the visitor’s room and a young woman is cussing up a storm.  Her eyes are bandaged, and she is falling out of the bed as she is trying to reach for something that fallen off her bed.  He caught her and righted her.  She kept him hostage by not releasing him for a while she said she was bored and want to talk for just a bit.  They talked for a few days after that. 
     He really got to like her and to everyone else it may sound crazy to him it did too but he was falling in love with her.  At least he thought that is what love must feel like.  He would have never known it but Violet Reed was feeling the exact same way.  She was just so happy to have this guy to talk to but that they had so much in common was so calming to her.  You see she had to deal with the possibility of maybe losing her eyesight for good and she was afraid.  Gaige gave her the courage to face each day.  The was Gaige had just found out that Violet was the girl that his father had hit with his car and it was not something he thought he could face having to tell her.  Now there was this surgery her only hope and she had no money for it.  He called his agent and made it happen she would have this surgery.  (She would never know it was him.  She couldn’t.)  She too felt like she was falling in love.  She so wants to see him and had hoped that he would be there for her upcoming surgery but he couldn’t but she kept the faith for them both.  But he had a job waiting so…
     Fast forward 17 years later Terrance is having a meeting with a young female Dr. from NY who specializes in eye surgeries.  They want her to come and join them on the board as well as work the foundation Clinics for Gaige Benson Foundation… To her surprise it is her Gaige the one that helped her when she almost fell then walked out of her life.  Or did he?  Did others have their hands in the way their lives turned out or did they cheat them?  Life was meant to be lived and they had theirs to live but was it their own or not?
     I enjoyed how the characters were so positive during situations that could have been horrible for most.  It may have been predictable but the reactions of the characters were not.  In some areas in others they were so surprising I was like hmm?
I give this 5 stars.  Provided by netgalley.com.  Follow us at:

www.1rad-readerreviews.com.

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD (The Wedding Belles #1)

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD                                        LAUREN LAYNE

Discovering her fiance is an international con man just moments before they exchange vows devastates celebrity wedding planner Brooke Baldwin's business—and breaks her heart. Now a pariah in Los Angeles, she seeks a fresh start in New York City and thinks she’s found it with her first bridal client, a sweet—if slightly spoiled—hotel heiress. Then she meets the uptight businessman who’s holding the purse strings.

Seth Tyler wishes he could write a blank check and be done with his sister Maya's fancy-pants wedding. Unfortunately, micromanaging the event is his only chance at proving Maya’s fiance is a liar. Standing directly in his way is the stunning blonde wedding planner whose practiced smiles and sassy comebacks both irritate and arouse him. He needs Brooke’s help. But can he persuade a wedding planner on a comeback mission to unplan a wedding? And more importantly, how will he convince her that the wedding she should be planning... is theirs?
 

MY  REVIEW:
Life is always full of surprises.  But in a little girl’s mind when she is planning her fairytale wedding having your groom hauled off in handcuffs by the FBI is not one of them.  Well, that is just what happened to the poor exclusive top of her game wedding planners to the stars Brooke Baldwin, at her own wedding planning business.
     Yes, you read that right at her own wedding.  It turns out the man she had been dating for two years had duped her and a whole lot of wealthy people.  She didn’t lose money in the Ponzi scheme like they did just her business one the sh— hit the fan.  She lost something way more valuable, her heart.  Turns out Clay was a con artist on both coast who had finally been caught.  Why not ten minutes earlier?  But at the altar of all places in front of the world?  It just killed her.
     Brook was humiliated she lost so much business because of so many at first thought she had to know something about his business dealings.  She finally had to just close her doors.  Luckily Alexis Morgan on New York’s Wedding Belle Wedding Planners knew of her and wanted her come work for her.  She needed her to add to her staff.  Brooke jumped at the chance to work with Alexis she was the top of her game.  Plus, Brooke needed to get away from all the press and the court proceedings.  She needed the change where she lived to get out of the lime light that was Clay.  He had taken too much from her already he was not going to take the joy of wedding planning away from her too.
     Brooke hit the ground running on the same day after meeting the 3 staff members.  Due to a runaway bride, Alexis needed her to meet and take the new client due in.  So that she did.  There was just one glitch.  Not knowing it a man arrived who she mistakenly taken for the groom.  Who she came to find out was in fact the crotchety older brother.  (Thank god she thought at first.  For her lady parts were all on high alert because he was just that sexy, as sin.)  Then he spoke and puff it was all over lady parts drained in an instant.  She was over it.
     He was your typical rich spoiled, a silver spoon in his loud over grouchy mouth, and do as I say wealth says, I get my way kind of man.  So, Brooke told him different.  Let the games begin and they did. The one-upmanship was worth the show for sure.  Then he said I’ll be paying the bills…  Hold the phone!  His sister arrives and he somewhat becomes a lion cub when the picture becomes clearer as he meets Clay for the first time and let the pissing match begin.

     I really enjoyed this story because you have two love stories going on within this one book.  One is a love triangle that the two are trying to deny.  I enjoyed seeing how the conflicts were resolved but how the issues themselves were true to life also.  I give this book 5 stars.  Provided by netgalley.com.  Follow us at:  www.1rad-readerreviews.com.

ANYTHING BUT LOVE

ANYTHING BUT LOVE                                  ABIGAIL STROM
Socialite Jessica Bullock can’t catch a break. After a lifetime of chasing perfection, hoping to please her parents, all her hard work is set to pay off. But on her wedding day, her fiancé leaves her high and dry. Humiliated, she finds her calm, cool facade beginning to crumble…until an unexpected wedding guest, her childhood best friend and crush, offers to help her pick up the pieces.
Never in his wildest dreams would Ben Taggart have imagined he’d be escorting Jessica on her honeymoon to Bermuda. Although they haven’t seen each other in years, he can’t leave her to fall apart. Agreeing to keep things platonic, they vow to make the most of their spontaneous vacation—until an unplanned kiss sparks a powerful passion.
They tell themselves that what happens in Bermuda will stay in Bermuda. But when old secrets are revealed and new feelings ignite, will Ben and Jessica be able to leave their romance behind?
MY REVIEW:
     Carrying a close held secret of a trauma that happened to you is hard for anyone.  For Jessica Bullock it was extremely hard to keep it from her best friend and secret crush Ben Taggart.  You see Ben wasn’t just any friend on top of everything else their families were longtime friends even now at 28 years old to the two families met for holidays, birthdays and just because.
     But the summer when Jessica was 15 between her junior high and high school year life changed for her.  Her mother sent her to a fat farm.  Ben never understood why.  He thought the extra weight made her look more beautiful.  But it was during a time Jessica was looking for a complete change in her life.  She needed to purge all things before she went to fat camp even Ben.
     Ben being the kind hearted, gentle, and even tempered person he was/is never said a mean word to her.  But it was never beyond his grasp to give you the truth when and where it was needed.  So if you needed the truth he would give it to your face as well as expect it back.  Making Jessica avoid him even more.
     Now all these years later, ten, Jessica is getting married to Tom her best friend since high school.  Ben had planned on avoiding that at all cost.  Until his mother gave a direct order that he would be attending no questions asked.  Of which she rarely did.  So he knew she meant business.  So she put the invite n his refrigerator to remind him.  He did show up.
     As Jessica walks down the aisle Ben and she make eye contact and she feels he knows the secrets she keeps.  She feels like she always felt that he saw deep into her soul.  The feeling was like that every time she was around him.  They get onto the alter.  The minister starts to speak and Ben finds himself not able to sit down he feels her not wanting to get married and he doesn’t know how to help his friend.  When his mother tugs him into his seat.  When a man jumps up from his seat and speaks…
     Needless to say the wedding is off but the honeymoon is still on but a true twist of fate Ben can’t let her go alone so he goes with her.  What will become of their friendship?  Who will win the girl?  Or is the girl strong enough to stand alone?  I enjoyed this book.  It was a fast read.  Ben was a fun character who add several dimensions to both their characters with his antics. I give this 4 stars.  Provided by netgalley.com.  Follow us at:
www.1rad-readerreviews.com.

REWIND

REWIND                                                         KEISHA E. PEARSON

Angelique' Monet Collins is finally living her dream as a prime-time sitcom actress and creator of the show, Clare's Clinic, inspired by her mother who worked as a school nurse for over 30 years. On a vacation, Angelique' runs into two men in her past: her ex-husband, David Duncan Taylor, an NFL defensive lineman for the Atlanta Falcons and his sports agent, Keith Armstrong, the guy who Angelique' has a crush in middle school. Both men vie for her attention. In middle school, Keith ignored her and later she was mistreated by her ex. Who will win her heart?




MY REVIEW:
 Very different mix of genera in this book.  Christian based, mixed raced couples, and modern young black woman making her way after a divorce.  A divorce from a man she had once loved very much.  Who was kind, caring, and ambitious.  But when he was drafted in the NFL their lives changed.  Especially once he was injured.
     She tried to be there for him like she had always been but when he became addicted to the meds he had been given to handle the pain he became someone she no longer knew.  He slowly pulled away and was more short tempered.  One day she suffered a loss that made it easy for her to walk away.
     Then years later she was made a name for herself and became the actress she had trained to be as well as a screenwriter.  She had gone to college to become a writer and it was now paying off.  For she was now an actor, writer, and creator of her own sitcom.  They were on break so she was headed for Hawaii alone for some R & R.  At LAX she ran into 3 people that she knows from high school alone what are the odds.  Then she makes it to Hawaii and the next morning she is at a table and a man sits at her table on the beach removes her glasses and hat.
It turns out to be Keith Armstrong a guy she had a crush on in junior high.
     Turns out he always had a crowd of girls around him but he never noticed her.  He proceeds to tell her he had a crush on her too but never had the nerve to tell her.  He also said when he sat behind her in one of their classes her hair was so long it rested on his desk, so he played with it.  So he asked her to dinner.  She said yes.
     At six she’s waiting for him and he is late not good.  When he does appear he arrives with someone in toe.  He comes up behind her she doesn’t even bother to turn around and says, “You’re late there better be a damn...”  When she does turn she says, “What’s he doing here?”  Keith not knowing they know each other and goes to introduce them.  When David Duncan Taylor says, “What are you doing with my wife?”  Or something along those lines.  Sticky wicket I would have to say.  Angel corrects him saying, “Ex-wife!”  Then ask Keith why he has brought him on their date in the first place?  He says he thought he would impress her by introducing her to his celebrity client.
That he’s his sports agent.  Crazy!  Six years she’s been divorced, mad, and far away from him.  Now she is just divorced and mad.
     The thing is now both men want a chance.  She only wants to give one until one stormy night one the island.  One man ends up in her arms and bed when he comes to check on her wellbeing.
     It was a good book but not a book that swept me away.  One because when it started talking about God or scripture it bothered me as an unsuspecting reader who had no clue that this is what she was going to be reading.  Then I’d have to go “Oh yeah!”  And get back into the story.  I like Christian books but when I choose them myself.  There were a lot of parts that dragged too.  All in all, for her first book not bad.
     I give this 3 stars.  Provided by netgalley.com.  Follow us at:

www.1rad-readerreviews.com.

POWER PLAY (Pilots Hockey, #2)

POWER PLAY                                                   SOPHIA HENRY

Beneath her innocent facade, Gabriella Bertucci has her reasons to be standoffish with guys. Especially guys like Landon Taylor, a star defenseman on the minor-league Detroit Pilots and the object of a serious crush since he first walked into her family's market. But when Landon comes through for her in a moment of crisis, Gaby starts to wonder if there might be more to Landon than hard muscles and fast skates.

Landon isn't afraid of telling Gaby that he's got it for her bad. The problem is, she seems unwilling to believe it. And though Landon enjoys his reputation as a cool-headed athlete, he hates losing—both on the rink and off. It's his competitiveness that makes him so damn good at what he does . . . but it also makes him just a little bit complicated.

One minute Gaby's tempted to give in; the next, she's getting cold feet. How can she trust a guy who's destined for bigger and better things to stick around? Then again, when Landon pulls her close with those powerful arms, the only thing that matters is right now.
 

MY REVIEW:
     This was a great coming of age story of Gabriella (Gabby) Bertucci.  A young woman from Detroit, who at 16 had gone to a college party with her brother Drew, a longtime family friend and a handful of his hockey friends.  As most parties it seems these days seem to have, on college level especially, there was alcohol served.  Well, Gabby had drunk before, you know she was 16, duh!  So, she thought this night would be no different but she drunk too many in a shorter period.  One of the guys in the group that she came with was a longtime family friend that was more like a cousin/brother to her.
     Now all these years later their family still does business with his family because both Gabby’s great grandfather and his came over from the old country together and started their businesses together.  Theirs produces farm and hers the produce stands in which to sell the produce.  No 60 years later is still going strong.  But you see at the party this family friend that she trusted with all her heart raped her.  And by telling cause a riff.  She was called a liar and long short of it never was reported and they still do business with their family per her grandfather’s instructions. Gabby struggles with the family's decision with this situation and her feelings on it.
     She was working at the new store at 313 Artisans with her father.  Not only did they sell produce but they sold her mother’s eclectic artwork, others from the community, other merchandise as well and of course produce.  On this day the guy that Gabby has had a crush on forever comes in, Landon Taylor.  She knows she would love to be girl that could talk to him and one day even date him but with what she had been through she can trust herself or men.  Plus, her family are so overprotective.
     Landon Taylor is a defenseman for the Detroit Pilots Hockey Team.  He is one of four boys in his family and the second born.  Yet, the only of the couples born to them.   They adopted the other three.  Every weekend they meet as a family by coming to their fruit stand and buying 5 apples to start their journey through to marketplace every weekend so they have something to munch on.  Every weekend Gabby turns into mush.
     The thing is that Gabby doesn’t know is that Landon has had a crush on her too.  Unfortunately, today would not be the day to tell her because as he was leaving he hears Gabby make a blood curdling scream.  And after them just having a fun time bantering and her throwing a stuffed animal at his head this sends an awful chill up his spine.  Her father had fallen to the ground.  As he ran back he was calling 911.  He had planned to close the store for Gabby but her father made her stay and had her call her mother to meet him at the hospital.  He felt so bad for Gabby she looked so lost and hurt.  She was made to feel less than.  He knew that feeling.
     She told him he could leave, he said no, she said no too because Papa would upset if she let a stranger close.  She could see he looked hurt although it passed over his face in a split second but still it was there.  When he drops the bomb saying they’ve known each other forever saying he knows her.  So she started asking questions about herself she knew he would never know just to be a pain.  Because you see she knew all things Landon from the internet and from all the years he came in and watching him and his family.  But she knew for sure there was no such information on her on the internet.
     Then he tells her things she shouldn’t know.  Flooring her to the point her mouth was open like a fish.  Then he says we are not strangers please let me help.  She says how do you know all this stuff about me?  I’m a good listener when I come in.  But why?  She asked?  “Because you were my first kiss!”  Then he leaves…

     This was an interesting family dynamics.  I could relate to on so many levels.  This was a lot of the families I grew up around too.  So very believable I just wish there was an epilogue and a better ending.  I feel like we were just left hanging.  Like there is no completion.  I give this 4 stars.   Provided by netgalley.com.  Follow us at: www.1rad-readerreviews.com.

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