Stephanie’s Favorite Books of 2018

Posted December 31, 2018 by Stephanie in Promotional, Reviews / 1 Comment

by M. Leighton

It’s hard to pinpoint book ratings sometimes. If you leave reviews or ratings you know what I mean. How do you sum up your thoughts about a book in 5 stars or less?

Well…in 2017 I decided for 2018 I would be a little more discerning when it came to my stars. A 5* book really had to have me by the tail, so to speak. I needed to have some sort of massive emotion in order to mark it as a 5. I’ve read 200 books this year. Out of those 200 only three (3) received 5 star ratings. Here they are with Goodreads links, buy links (click the photo) and my review for each one.

Feel free to leave a comment, if you read this post, and tell me what you thought about these books – if you read them. If you haven’t read if you’d like to.

Badd Boy (Badd Brothers) by Jasinda Wilder

I’m Harlow Grace, the newest, hottest face of Hollywood sex appeal, the woman every man wants and every woman wants to be… and I’m running away. I need an escape. I need to get away from the pressure, find somewhere I won’t be hounded at every step—an impossible thing to ask when I’m on billboards everywhere, from LA to Laos, Japan to Jakarta, Sydney to Siberia. So, I buy a yacht and hide out in the most obscure, remote, and unexpected place I can think of: Ketchikan, Alaska.

Instead of a peaceful vacation, however, what I find in Ketchikan is trouble. The kind of trouble that’s six-plus feet of nerdy hotness I can’t resist. I mean, who could? He’s a genius with no idea how attractive he is, an enigma of contradictions: awkward yet confident, fascinating and flirtatious, yet aloof and evasive of physical touch.

He’s utterly and deliciously sexy in every way—and oh, so innocent.

* * *

I can recite all of The Iliad and The Odyssey in the original Greek. I can do advanced mathematics in my head and memorize entire books with ease. By the time I graduated high school I had been scouted by several international soccer teams and recruited by think tanks, the NSA, and the CIA.

All of which is totally useless when a woman like Harlow Grace is standing in front of me, trying to talk to me, flirting with me, touching me. She’s Helen of Troy—a woman with a face that could launch a thousand ships, a woman wars are fought over.

It turns out she’s not just beautiful—she’s famous. A Hollywood sex symbol. A superstar known all over the world…

And yet somehow she’s interested in me?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38657446-badd-boy

Stephanie’s 5* Review:

I received a copy of this book from the author. 

This is my first 5* read for 2018. Xavier Badd has been a favorite Badd Brother of mine the whole series and to finally get his book and learn more about him was fantastic. 

There’s so many questions answered about X in this book. I loved the brotherly advice Sebastian, the eldest Badd, gives Xavier in this novel. 

Meeting Harlow aka Low is the miracle Xavier needed to be able to live a life of love. Not only for himself but for a woman. Full of distrust and suspicion Harlow broke through all those walls. 

Whereas all of Xavier’s brothers had to make some grand gesture to win their women back – Xavier and Harlow just needed a push in the right direction by the right people. 

As their secrets are revealed in this book the love for these characters, as a reader, grew. Everyone should have someone to love them no matter their quirks or disabilities. 

I think anyone who reads this particular Badd Brother novel will gain a new appreciation for Xavier and what he, and people like him, live through on a daily basis.

The Way We Burn by M. Leighton
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40205123-the-way-we-burn
Irresistible attraction. Unimaginable danger. 

I knew from the moment Noah Williamson walked into the diner that he was haunted—deeply haunted—but I couldn’t resist the lure of him. He was gorgeous and fascinating and mysterious, and like a delicate moth to a brilliant blue flame, I was drawn to him. Drawn to his fire.

But if I’d known about his job, about what happened to his wife, I’d have run the other way. Before I got caught up in the red-hot blaze of his life. Before everything in my world got burned to the ground. 

It’s too late to run now. I hesitated and that was it. I fell. I fell for him before I knew there was danger in loving him. 

Noah once told me that this is the way we burn—together or not at all. At the time, I didn’t know what that meant.

Now I do.

Stephanie’s 5* Review;

OMG does Michelle know how to write a thriller. This book… MUST READ for those of you who love books with a twist and a HEA. 

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Murder Girl by Lisa Renee Jones
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36689498-murder-girl
New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones returns with the second book in her electrifying series featuring Lilah Love, an FBI profiler who doesn’t fight her dark side—she embraces it.

It’s Lilah Love’s job to inhabit a killer’s mind. The unapologetically tough FBI profiler is very comfortable there. But her latest case is making her head spin. It’s a string of brutal assassinations carried out across the country, each tied to a mysterious tattoo. Body by body, she’s followed the clues all the way back to her hometown. And every step of the way, the killer has been following her.

Here, beneath the glamour of the privileged Hamptons community, is a secret long buried but never forgotten. It’s bigger than Lilah. It’s powerful enough to escape the reach of the FBI. And it’s more personal than anyone can imagine. Because it’s hiding in Lilah’s own past. To fight it, she’s forced to turn to her lethally tempting ex, Kane Mendez. He’s an expert at bringing out Lilah’s darkest impulses. If she plans to survive, she’s going to need them. 

Stephanie’s 5* Review:

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. 

Have you ever had a time in your life where you felt like everything you knew was turned upside down? The truths you thought were true weren’t. Lilah Love has some harsh realities revealed to her in this edition of the Lilah Love series. 

I devoured this book. Gosh she makes one heck of a profiler. I’d love to sit in a room with her and just walk through the cases. Help her put them together piece by piece like a puzzle. Because really that’s what profiling is. Putting the puzzle pieces together. Some people are just able to do it faster than a detective. 

In this particular book Lilah is forced to admit to herself she’s a target of their serial killer. Why? This is what she has to piece together. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger – or deeper and deeper depending on how you look at it.

If you love suspense novels – this one will keep you enraptured til the end. I’m looking forward to the next book in this series. There’s still more answers to answer. More clues to find. More connections to make. 

Just remember – what you thought you knew no longer applies!

About Stephanie

I'm a wife, mom of two, volunteer, reader, blogger, and author pimp. Welcome to my website!

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One response to “Stephanie’s Favorite Books of 2018

  1. Kim Brewing

    I read The Way We Burn after having it recommended to me. I actually emailed her back and said are you sure I’m going to like this after reading about 20%….she was right. Awesome read

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