Title: Finding Paris
Author: Joy Preble
Publisher: Balzer and Bray, 272 pages (April 21st 2015)
From: My friend and blog owner Lisa
Format: Hardback
Add to: Goodreads
Order a copy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository, Amazon UK

Synopsis: An evocative and compelling story of two sisters who would do anything for each other—perfect for fans of Thirteen Reasons Why and Speak. Joy Preble's stirring new novel explores the lengths to which sisters go to protect each other, and the winding road that brings two strangers into each other's lives.

Sisters Leo and Paris Hollings have only ever had each other to rely on. They can't trust their mother, who hops from city to city and from guy to guy, or their gambler stepfather, who's moved them all to Las Vegas. It's just the two of them: Paris, who's always been the dreamer, and Leo, who has a real future in mind—going to Stanford, becoming a doctor, falling in love. But Leo isn't going anywhere right now, except driving around Vegas all night with her sister.

Until Paris ditches Leo at the Heartbreak Hotel Diner, where moments before they had been talking with physics student Max Sullivan. Outside, Leo finds a cryptic note from Paris—a clue. Is it some kind of game? Where is Paris, and why has she disappeared? When Leo reluctantly accepts Max's offer of help, the two find themselves following a string of clues through Vegas and beyond. But the search for the truth is not a straight line. And neither is the path to secrets Leo and Max hold inside.

Review: 2 stars - When I started this book I didn’t quite know what to expect; but I knew being set in California I needed to give it a read.

I like the general idea of the book- scavenger hunt to find Leo’s missing sister following clues around California; but admit I nearly gave up reading half way through. I have recently read Paper Towns by John Green and I thought it was going down the same route, but instead of towns it was finding tourist destinations. The thing that kept me intrigued with this book was that I didn’t know where they were going to end up next. Having visited California a few times, I needed to keep reading so I could relive my memories.

Although I knew there had to be more to this book than just a scavenger hunt, the fact that Paris wanted to save Leo by any way possible if proof of her love for her.

I wasn’t expecting the ‘reveal’ at the end, although I was slightly curious because of that person’s involvement in certain parts of the book.

Finding Paris was an easy read, however at times it just felt live you were going round in circles and as I’ve said above it wasn’t the story itself that kept me reading. The characters are likeable; I can’t however say that I was particularly attached to them.

Finding Paris was not for me sadly, but I think this could be a book that is received differently by different people, as it seems to have very mixed reviews. Passing this onto Michelle at Much Loved Books now, looking forward to hearing what she thinks of it!

Read if you enjoyed John Green’s Paper Towns, M.G. Reyes’ Emancipated, and E. Lockhart We Were Liars.

Title: Playing With Fire (Tangled in Texas #2)
Author: Alison Bliss
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC (October 26th, 2015)
From: the Publisher
Format: eARC
Add to: Goodreads
Order a copy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository, Amazon UK

NOTE: This is a "Adult/New Adult" novel. Due to mature content this title is recommended for ages 18+

Synopsis: Nothing ignites a fire like the perfect match…

Anna Weber is every inch the proper librarian--old-fashioned, conservatively dressed right down to her tightly clipped flaming red hair. She's just moved to a small Texas town, and is determined to spend time with her friend before she has to disappear. Relationships aren't easy for her. She knows too well what it means to be burned. And the last thing she ever wants to do is fall in love…

Especially not with a fireman who's hot enough to set the entire state of Texas on fire.

Cowboy can't resist the fiery little librarian, and he's determined to make her his. Beneath that prim-and-proper exterior is a woman he very much wants to know--if she'd let him. She'll test his patience. His control. Hell, his very sanity. And for the first time, Cowboy wonders if he's found the one fire he can't control...

Review: 2 Stars - Playing With Fire is the second book in the much anticipated Tangled in Texas series from author Alison Bliss. Please be warned that there are possibly some spoilers in this review. I tend to stay away from them however in the need to explain why the book didn’t work for me there were some issues that I needed to go into detail about so spoilers could be present.

I should start by saying that this was a title that I couldn’t wait to read. I loved the first book – Rules of Protection. It was filled with laughs, a spunky female lead, hot FBI agent and a great story. So, yeah, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book to see who we were going to read about next.

Sadly the book just didn’t work for me on so many levels that I really didn’t want to write this review. It was hard to finish the book, yet I did because I kept waiting for the book to get better. I really wanted to get back to my love of the first book… I waited and waited and it just never happened.

The two characters never felt like the same character from chapter to chapter. Characters grow and change, but I couldn’t keep track of who they were from one minute to the next. I was never able to get a good grasp on them so that was the first thing that didn’t work.

Next was their relationship which felt forced. I never understood the attraction other than the crush Anna had from her teen years on Cowboy. I just felt like since she had a crush the relationship was forced and Anna was supposed to be as the synopsis says – proper, old-fashioned and conservative. That lasted for about two minutes and she switched back and forth from that and her teen self more times that I could count.

Then there’s Cowboy. I don’t even know where to start with him. He’s the guy in town every woman wants and he’s not one to settle down. He’s somewhat Alpha male, but was more angry than alpha, an d he thinks he knows Anna from somewhere yet can’t figure it out. When he finally does it’s never talked about, he just mentions a nickname of hers from the time. It was somewhat of a big deal, him figuring out how he knew her and then there was nothing talked about. Leaving it until way later on in the book where others brought it up and yet still it’s never talked about or worked out between these two.

Another thing… we never get to know Cowboys real name. And that frustrated the hell out of me. It was asked by Anna a few times over and he’d never tell her. He wants to be in a relationship with her yet won’t tell her his real name?

I felt like so much of the book was forced. There were holes and issues time and time again in the story that I couldn’t keep up with or what I felt was missing or glossed over.

It was heartbreaking in a sense of how much I was disappointed in this book. I just didn’t understand it no matter how hard I tried.

In the end, it didn’t work for me. I did finish it since it’s hard for me to not finish something and when I love a book previous in a series or from an author it makes it even hard to stop without trying to find something to love. I highly recommend the first book which was pretty amazing. They can be read as standalones… so keep that in mind while reading over this review.

So sad that this was just wasn’t for me.

"Just Picked" is a feature here at A Life Bound By Books. This is a place where I'll be spotlighting new (and old) childrens book or picture books for parents and new readers. It's a place to talk about books for a younger group and to try to help create a new generation of readers.

Title: Ten Little Beasties
Author's & Illustrator's: Ed & Rebecca Emberley
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Age Range: 2 - 6
From: the Publisher, Thank You!

Synopsis: If there's one thing beasties love to do, it's dance! When one little beastie is joined by two little, three little, and more little beasties, we count UP until there's a party on the page. But when one of the little beastie starts trouble, it's time to start counting DOWN.

Review: 2 Stars - The art of Ten Little Beasties is what makes this book. The text, mainly adding and subtracting - adding a beast on each page until reaching ten, then subtracting one each page until getting back down to one again - is a simple way for younger kids to start to learn how to count and some very simple visual math. While reading this book wasn't a stellar story, it was the abstract art that I loved to see change from page to page. It was the art that I sincerely was fascinated with. I just wish that art such as this would have had a bit of a story to it.

I haven't read this one to my younger nieces yet because I don't think this would grab them, however I can see boys taking to the monsters with ease, especially around Halloween.

*Please note that this is feature here that I have created specifically for my blog. Should you wish to have a feature like this, please be sure to credit me or make it all your own. Thank You!