Book Review: The Wanderers ( Book 1) By Jessica Miller

The Wanderer

Book 1

By Jessica Miller
Reviewed by Sandra Long

This novel starts off with a very strong first chapter. We immediately meet our leading character, Ella, as she is having one of her recurring nightmares about her high school graduation night She and he boyfriend, Kyle, had made plans to spend the weekend at his parents’ mountain cottage where she plans to give him her virginity. They have been planning this for some time so it is a very special night for them and they are very excited but also nervous and talk very little on the way up the mountain.

Suddenly a man appears out of nowhere and is in the middle of the road, Kyle swerves to miss him and the SUV flips over and goes skidding along the roadway. Shaken, but conscious, Ella gets out of the car and sees the man walking toward her but all she can see are his evil, demon-looking eyes shining in the dark. Too worried about Kyle to be really scared, she tries frantically to get him out of the car but can’t.

When she looks out again she sees a different man walking toward her. This man also has glowing eyes but somehow they look friendly and she thinks he will help her. He immediately slings her away from the SUV that almost instantly explodes into flames and she watches helplessly as Kyle burns to his death inside the SUV. She is alone—both men have vanished. Whenever she tries to tell anyone about them, they tell her that her rescuer was probably a local man who just didn’t want any recognition so left when he saw she was safe. She didn’t tell anyone about their glowing eyes, too afraid she will not be believed and people would call her crazy.

Ella spends the summer in therapy and staying at home with her family, her socialite mom, work-aholic dad and 2 older brothers. The family is very wealthy and seem to think throwing money at a problem will make it go away so Ella has the best therapist money can buy. Problem is Ella never tells the therapist or anyone else about the men with the glowing eyes or that they haunt her nightmares and sometimes even her waking hours. She can’t deny the nightmares because she wakes the entire family with her blood curdling screams.

Ella’s best friend, Josie, luckily is the daughter of her parents’ best friends, so they get a lot of time

together. Josie’s mother has a severe alcohol problem so Josie and her little brother Jake spend a lot of time at Ella’s house. This is true even when the two families go to their mountain cabins for some R & R as their cabins are not very far apart.

A weekend at the cabin sharing family time is the plan for the last weekend before Ella, Josie and Ella’s brother, Dean, all head to the East coast for college, all the way from California. A backyard cookout, then roasting marsh mellows over an open fire and telling campfire ghost stories before going to bed in their backyard tents is the teen agenda while the adults go inside after the meal for some “grown up time”. The kids are all having fun until a ghost story about a man with glowing eyes who kills and then keeps body parts of his victims starts to scare Jake. He falls asleep while being comforted and is put to bed in one of the tents hey had set up for the night, while the teens decide to go swimming in their underwear. When they finally freeze out of the water Jake is missing. After a scary and lengthy search they find him and he tells the he saw man with the glowing eyes in the woods and followed him to prove he was not scared. This really freaks out Ella because she thought she saw him several times following her but never told anyone, afraid she would be committed to a mental institution.

A weekend party at the cabin Ella was headed for when she and Kyle wrecked was something she

wanted to skip but felt she needed to face her demons. Kyle’s twin brother, Kevin, was hosting the

party, adding to the problem. Ella attended and survived the event and after talking with Kevin about what happened she learned that he blamed himself for Kyle’s death because he had forced him to switch weekends with him at the cabin. Kevin kissed her and brought flashbacks of Kyle, but also helped Ella find some closure. She and Josie left for college determined to start a fresh new part of her life.

Anyone who has ever gone away to college can relate to what happened to these two naïve girls their first week on campus. They were supposed to be in separate dorms on opposites of the campus but though some mix up Ella ended up with no roommate and Josie ended up with no room so after a phone call from daddy to the college, the girls ended up as roomies . They decide to explore and are deluged with the usual first week on campus rush—credit card offers, sorority offers, clubs to join, causes to volunteer for, parties to attend. They went back to their room a little overwhelmed but determined to fit in and have fun. First night they decided they would attend a party hosted by a fraternity who’s sister sorority had offered to let the girls pledge to them. Both girls drink too much and meet a lot of people, good and bad. The bad boy of the college seems to be a fraternity brother and also RA at the girls’ co-ed dorm. His name is Tristan and he is gorgeous but a heavy drinker and womanizer He immediately sets his sights on Ella, who does her best to lose him. She is there to study, or so she says. Josie is the swinger and she loves the party atmosphere and all the guys’ attention.

As classes begin and they meet other people. Ella becomes friends with a nerd named Jack who lives down the hall from her. They become study buddies and she goes out with him a few times, more out of pity than anything else. Tristan continues to pursue her and the louder she protests, the more determined he becomes. Apparently he has never been told no before. He is very open in his pursuit of her and one of his old flames confronts her on campus one day. They have a verbal confrontation that becomes physical. After they are separated, Tristan has a verbal confrontation with Skylar also.

That night Tristan and Ella go to the art room where he has promised to help her finish her painting. We have learned that he is a very talented painter and teacher and the art teacher agreed to leave the room open for them to have a private tutoring lesson. Painting is finished and the two get into a paint fight, then have a real mess to clean up. Before they can leave, Jack shows up and they leave the building together. Then they learn that Skylar has been murdered, mutilated and left tied to a tree nude with the words “bitch” and “slut” carved into her flesh. Tristan is immediately suspect number one but since he has an alibi and the police have no proof, they arrest him but have to let him go.

Tristan and Ella are spending more and more time together, an obvious chemistry there that neither can deny but Ella is not ready to accept. Jack seems to keep turning up all too frequently, leaving the reader wondering if he is a stalker, and possibly even a murderer. But Ella continues to pity him and see him as just a poor nerdy guy who needs a friend. The one thing that bothers her is that he suddenly is very secretive about his room and stops letting her come in and keeps the door shut and locked at all times..

Jack is telling her that Kristan is dangerous and she must stay away from him. Kristan is telling her the same thing about Jack. She thinks both are just jealous of each other but she continues to have the feeling of being watched and she still sees the glowing eyes from time to time.

When Jack’s roommate is found in their room, murdered and butchered, and Jack is missing, Josie and Ella’s parents arrive, the school is evacuated and classes cancelled until the murderer(s) can be caught. The wealthy parents have brought an entire army of giant bodyguards to protect the girls and old family secrets start coming out that have a direct bearing on these murders. The girls are told some, but not all, of their families history and how it relates to the current murders but they refuse to see the real danger and sneak away from their body guards to attend the sorority Halloween party in costume, then sneak into their abandoned dorm for some private time with their dates not realizing the killer was stalking them. Death awaited them, even when Ella managed to get outside, she could not escape the stalker.

This story gets more intense with each page and ends with a cliff hanger and a short note—“to becontinued”. The reader is left with an intense desire to get part 2 ASAP. We all want our love stories to end with a happily ever after but this novel leaves wondering—what next ? Another wonderful story by Jessica Miller—now I have to find part 2 before I go crazy !!!

                                                                 

I live in a fantasy world and have an over active imagination. But the best part about that is I never stop creating new characters and new stories to share. I love writing and expressing myself in a way that everyone else can enjoy as well. I work in the salon most days, but when i'm not doing hair, I'm writing or reading.

Website  //  Twitter  //  Facebook  //  Goodreads  //  Amazon

Book Reveiw: 500 Days by Jessica Miller

500 Days

By Jessica Miller

Published April 14th, 2014

Pages 528

Reviewed by: Sandra Long

This book catches your attention from the title alone and keeps us hanging for several chapters before we learn the meaning of this intriguing title and what it has to do with our characters. This is a fairly long novel with a large cast of characters but most of them are related to, or in some way connected to, our two leading characters. These are Casper and Alexis, or Alex as she prefers to be called.

Casper is a rich kid, son of divorced parents with a dad that continues to gift him with new and younger step-moms and half siblings. We see and hear very little from his mother but the on-going hostility between him and his dad keep the dad as a principal character in our storyline. Casper is a disappointment to his dad because he wanted Casper to follow in his footsteps as an outstanding attorney, and maybe even a prosecutor like his dad. After three years of college Casper changed his major from pre-law to undecided. He loves music, writing it, playing it and singing it, and has his ownboy band that is very popular at the local club scene. His two best friends are his band mates and though he has a room in his fraternity house, he actually lives in a rented house with these two friends, Colton and Greyson. Everyone who hangs out at the clubs know these guys, especially Casper. He is devastatingly handsome and loves to get drunk and have sex—that is his reputation—and seldom with the same girl twice. He never takes them home with him. He either goes to their place or takes them to the frat house and either way they are gone by morning. He dresses and leaves their place after theygo to sleep and at the frat house he either passes them off to another guy or calls a cab to take them home. When morning comes he does not want to even see who he was with the night before. But something changed last New Year’s Eve at a party he attended. He hooked up with a girl whose name or address he does not know. All he knows is that it was the best night of sex he ever had and he cannot stop thinking about it or dreaming about it and the beautiful green eyes and ivy tattoo she had around her body. He called it poison ivy and that was what she was to him because since her no girl has been able to satisfy him.

Alex background has some similarity with Casper’s—he most notable being absent parents. The question we are left wondering for much of the book is why her oldest brother, who was only 18 at the time, had to assume custody and responsibility for raising her and her other 3 brothers. Two brothers are older than Alex, one is her twin and the youngest is graduating high school so the oldest, with his parental duty done, has joined the Marines and is being sent to Iraq. She and her brothers are very close and into their mix we find her brothers’ best friend. Colby, who was supposed to be like another brother 

to her but took her virginity and gave her the ivy tattoo her clothing conceals most of the time. If her brothers knew the truth about Colby there would be hell to pay. Probably the other most important person in Alex life is her cousin Declan, who has also been her best friend for their entire life and they currently attend the same college as Casper, work as bartenders at one of the clubs where his band frequently plays and the two girls share an apartment and expenses. They are not wealthy and really need the jobs as the pay is good and the tips are better. The bar owner and the bouncers are protective of the girls and Alex has proven several times that the martial arts she was taught by her brothers 

makes her pretty well able to take care of herself in most circumstances. But, she still does not wanther brothers to know where she works as they are very protective of each other and she knows they would not approve. The bartenders and waitresses at this bar wear costumes and lots of heavy make-up so she has never been recognized. One thing she has in common with Casper but neither know about is she also had an incredible New Year’s Eve hook up with a guy but was so drunk she doesn’t even know his name. She remembers his smell, his taste and the amazing sex that she still dreams about and has 

left her feeling every man she has been with since are all a bunch of losers who cannot compare to her dream lover.

This author tells us the story from the perspective of these two main characters—Alex and Casper, usually alternating chapters. A few authors use this technique and it works very well for me as the reader because we know what is going on inside the heads of both characters rather than one as is usual. It helps us follow the storyline much better and it also gets us more involved in the storyline as we want to tell these bozos what to do and not do. We become not just the reader, but a part of the story. But a part that no one listens to so we keep turning the page to see when they are going to wise up and 

listen to us. This is a very effective writing technique.

Alex troubled past has left her with her own set of problems and issues she needs to deal with but instead she tries to hide from them. She is extremely aggressive and unfriendly with most people, especially men. She has no respect for Casper as she has watched him get drunk and leave the bar too many times with too many whores. He likes Declan a lot in a sisterly kind of way and never tries to come on to her or to Alex as he has seen her almost castrate or knock out men who crossed the line into her personal space. The costumes and make-up hide everything but their eyes and lips and once Casper gets 

a good look at Alex eyes and lips, he feels a spark he cannot identify but it will not leave him alone.

Declan and Colton, Casper’s best friend and bandmate, start to really like each other but shyness or something keeps them from hooking up. Alex is encouraging Declan and Casper is encouraging Colton and finally the two agree to go on a date but only a double. Casper and Alex both hate blind dates but both agree just to help out their friend, never dreaming they would be a couple on this date. It is a night filled with slings and arrows going right and left. They appear to hate each other and yet when they touch, each feels the electricity. As readers we know this is love but they can’t or won’t see it and their 

love/hate relationship continues for much of the book. They are repeatedly thrown together because of the budding relationship between Declan and Colton so they agree to a truce. One night they get really drunk and end up having sex—great sex—but both continue to deny any emotional feelings for each other and yet have other nights of earth shattering sex. And there is the tattoo—or did he imagine it because he was drunk ?

As the storyline progresses we learn more about each family, learn what happened to both sets of parents, watch the characters face family dramas, deal with death, at least two major plots and several minor plots. When we finally learn the meaning of the 500 days the storyline begins to come together for us and then we see how the two families had a past connection we never suspected in the first part of the book. It is a lengthy book but worth every minute it takes to read it.

If you enjoy reading a really good book that will literally keep you up all night trying to finish it to see how their story ends, then this is the book for you. It has sex, romance, death, dysfunctional families, happy family times, college life, party life, almost everything a book could contain. And it is so well written that you feel a part of the story, you feel their pain, you rejoice in their happiness, you worry over their problems and you can’t sleep for wondering what was on that next page when you turned out the light.

Casper Covington had his music, women, and pretty much anything he wanted at his disposal. But the one thing that plagued his thoughts constantly was the one thing he couldn't have. The girl he met six months ago. A drunken one night stand that he couldn't get out of his head. The only thing he remembered from that night was her green eyes and the ivy tattoo that stretched the length of her body. In his attempts to put an end to the tortuous dreams of the mysterious girl, Casper’s attention is caught by the new bartender. There’s just something so familiar about her that his need to get to know her becomes more troublesome than he expected.

Alexis Radcliff was raised by her four brothers making her as tough as nails on the outside but on the inside she wanted what every girl did – someone to love her, faults and all. She would be damned if she admitted that out loud and made a point to show she could use men just as easily as they used women. But when a sexy musician starts to show interest in Alex she has a hard time convincing herself to stay away. Alex knows everyone has secrets but hers are ones she doesn't want to share. But when she can no longer fight her feelings, her dark past slowly starts to unravel. 

Can true love conquer all? Or are past ghosts a haunting premonition of what lies ahead?

I live in a fantasy world and have an over active imagination. But the best part about that is I never stop creating new characters and new stories to share. I love writing and expressing myself in a way that everyone else can enjoy as well. I work in the salon most days, but when i'm not doing hair, I'm writing or reading.

Website  //  Twitter  //  Facebook  //  Goodreads  //  Amazon

Cover Reveal: This Regret by Victoria Ashley

Phoenix has been stumbling through life since her brother Adric's tragic death but after eight years, she is finally piecing what remains together. She has a nice apartment, a steady job and not to mention a fresh new 'relationship' with her childhood friend, Kade Haze. He's the sexy boy next door she never even dreamed of falling for, but can’t seem to stop the pull she feels toward him. Just when life began to make sense again and a feeling of normalcy was on the horizon, Phoenix's carefully constructed walls come crashing down. When walking into the tattoo shop one day, the last thing she’s expecting to see is Kellan Haze, Adric’s best friend no one has seen or heard from since the day they found her brother’s body. He’s nothing as she remembers him as a child, with his wild messy hair, tattoos that cover most of his undeniably sexy body and eyes so intense it makes her legs quiver with one look. The one thing even she can’t deny is the instant rush she feels just by being in his presence. But how can you choose between love and lust when one of these hold a dark secret, one that can crush your world to pieces and leave you gasping for air. Who can you trust when your mind is pulling you in two different directions and your heart has to choose for you? The Haze brothers are sexy, daring and possibly . . . dangerous. This Regret is a story of love, lust, betrayal and danger with an ending that no one saw coming.

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The blast of a .38-caliber revolver sends me crashing to my knees, landing in the road, with gravel digging deep into the flesh of my knees. My hands grip the gritty ground, as if my life depends on it, making my fingers bleed. Who knows, at this point, maybe it does. Even with my eyes closed, I can feel the world spinning around me, my body threatening to give up and lose what control I have left. Tears stream down my horror-stricken face and a silent scream is threatening to form in my throat. It hurts. It hurts like hell. That’s when I hear it. A bloodcurdling scream that makes my blood run cold. Except, it’s not my screaming that is roaring through my ears as I expected. It’s the screaming of a woman. A very angry, hysterical woman. The only thing I can decipher is, “Call 911. Somebody fucking call 911. There’s blood everywhere.” I can hear bodies shuffling nearby, some of them even tripping over me to get away, but I can only process one thought. He’s gone. Please don’t let him be gone. With force, I am yanked to my feet, a large hand smacking me across the face, causing blood to taste on my tongue. I try to focus, but my vision is too blurred to make any sense of who has control of my body and at this point, I’m not so sure it even matters. “This is your fault,” the deep voice growls as I spit blood onto his filthy boots. Narrowing his eyes, he wraps my hair securely around his hand and yanks my head back, hard, while his other hand tightens around my throat, squeezing. “You’re going to pay for this if it’s the last thing I do, you stupid bitch.” He lets go of my neck and shoves me down to the ground so my face is pressed into the gravel, his boot crushing into the back of my skull. Dirt and rocks dig into my left eye, making it even harder to see through the tears. I desperately look for the man that hasn’t only crushed then stolen my heart just to crush it again, but has also replaced a part of me that I thought was long ago lost. Realizing that my search is pointless, I just lay there defeated, feeling half-alive, but mostly dead. “Go ahead,” I whisper. “See if you can hurt me anymore than you already have. I dare you.” My body’s trembling, but I look him dead in the eye anyways. I’m not scared of dying. Not after losing the biggest part of me, my heart. “Losing him will be my last regret.” I shift so that I’m looking at the deep scars that cover his face. They make me sick. He makes me sick. “That and not killing you when I had the chance.”

Victoria Ashley grew up in Rockford, IL and has had a passion for reading for as long as she can remember. After finding a reading app where it allowed readers to upload their own stories, she gave it a shot and writing became her passion. She lives for a good romance book with tattooed bad boys that are just highly misunderstood and is not afraid to be caught crying during a good read. When she’s not reading or writing about bad boys, you can find her watching her favorites shows such as Sons Of Anarchy, Dexter and True Blood. She is the author of Wake Up Call and This Regret and is currently working on more releases for 2014.

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New Release: All I Need by Emily Goodwin

Purchase on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1IqQ3BW

"My life was hell, nothing but pain and darkness.

Every night I hoped I'd lay down to sleep and never wake up. I saw no reason to keep going. There was nothing for me, no promise of a better life. Every morning I woke up hoping this would be my last day.

Then I met her, and everything changed."

Sold into slavery at a young age, Jackson Porter has known nothing but darkness until he is forced to kidnap a young woman with a fiery spirit who refuses to give up. Could she be all Jackson needs to awaken his dead soul?

You met Jackson in Stay, now it's time to hear his story.

*

This book is dark, graphic, and twisted. Recommended for mature readers.

Check out the companion novel to All I Need

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“I felt like I was walking to the end of a plank precariously hanging over shark-infested water. When I jumped, sharp teeth would rip into me and the cold water would steal my breath away. The monsters would take everything from me, leaving me shivering and naked in the water. The only difference was that tonight I would be pulled from the icy darkness and forced to do it again. There would be no release from death, only pain.” 

Home after her first year of college, Adeline Miller is looking forward to a stress free summer filled with reading, working on her blog, and spending time with friends. But all that changes in an instant when she is witness to something terrible, something she wasn't supposed to see.

Beaten, drugged, kidnapped.

Adeline Miller is ripped from her innocent and carefree life and thrust into darkness, into a world full of pain and horror. As a sex slave, she is forced to do horrible things, and have horrible things done to her. One of her captors has a past as dark as the world she is now living in. Will getting close to him mean freedom? Or will he pull her deeper into the shadows?

About Emily Goodwin

Website    Facebook    Twitter

Emily Goodwin is the international best-selling author of the stand-alone novel STAY, The Guardian Legacies Series: UNBOUND, REAPER, MOONLIGHT (releasing 2014), The Beyond the Sea Series: BEYOND THE SEA, RED SKIES AT NIGHT (releasing 2015) and The Contagium Series: CONTAGIOUS, DEATHLY CONTAGIOUS, CONTAGIOUS CHAOS, THE TRUTH IS CONTAGIOUS (Permuted Press).Emily lives with her husband, daughter and German Shepherd named Vader. She has degrees in psychology and nursing. Along with writing, Emily enjoys riding her horse, designing and making costumes and Cosplay.

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Because who doesn’t like a whole lot of FOREPLAY…

Carter Reed from New York Times Bestseller Tijan

Emma decided to skip the gym and went home early. It was the last easy decision she made because she found her roommate being raped by the boyfriend. She had two choices. Call the cops and be killed by his family’s mafia connections or kill him first and hope to survive. There was no choice to her. She killed the bastard first and went to the one person who could protect her. Carter Reed. He’s a weapon for the rivaling mafia family, but he’s also Emma’s secret. Not only was he best friends with her brother, but she’s the reason he became that weapon in the first place.

Jake Undone from New York Times Bestseller Penelope Ward

Nina Kennedy led a sheltered life ruled by phobias. When she moves to Brooklyn, that life is turned upside down as she develops an intense attraction to her gorgeous roommate.

Behind Jake Green’s rough exterior, lies a heart of gold. He makes it his mission to change Nina’s outlook on life. Jake becomes her tutor, forcing Nina to face her demons. He just wasn’t expecting to fall hard for her.

But Jake has been living his own private hell. Once he drops a bombshell, will their love survive it?

Worth the Fight from New York Times Bestseller Vi Keeland

It didn’t matter that the ref called it a clean hit. Nico Hunter would never be the same.

Elle has a good life. A job she loves, a great apartment, and the guy she’s been dating for more than two years is a catch and a half. But it’s boring…and she strives to keep it that way. Too many emotions are dangerous. Her own past is living proof of what can happen when you lose control.

Then Nico walks into Elle’s office and everything changes…for both of them. But what can the tattooed, hard-bodied MMA fighter and the beautiful and always steady attorney have in common? A lot more than they bargained for.

This Regret from New York Times Bestseller Victoria Ashley

Phoenix has been stumbling through life since her brother Adric's tragic death but after eight years, she is finally piecing what remains together.

When walking into the tattoo shop one day, the last thing she’s expecting to see is Kellan Haze, Adric’s best friend no one has seen or heard from since the day they found her brother’s body. He’s nothing as she remembers him as a child, with his wild messy hair, tattoos that cover most of his undeniably sexy body and eyes so intense it makes her legs quiver with one look. The one thing even she can’t deny is the instant rush she feels just by being in his presence. But . . .

Kellan is sexy, daring and possibly . . . dangerous.

This Regret is a story of love, lust, betrayal and danger with an ending that no one saw coming.

Until Nico from New York Times Bestseller Aurora Rose Reynolds

Nico Mayson knew the moment he saw Sophie Grates that she was the one. His whole life, he has been judged by what’s on the outside, so finding a beautiful woman who sees the real him only makes his feelings that much stronger.

Nico knows the kind of man he is, and the things he is capable of, and he will do everything in his power to help Sophie fight her demons so they can have their happily ever after. Everything in life worth having is worth fighting for.

Playing with Her Heart from New York Times Bestseller Lauren Blakely

A sizzling and addictive story of a woman with a broken past and the man who can't fight his desire for her...

When you’re acting the role of a lifetime, how can you know if love is real—or all just a part of the show? Twenty-three year old rising theatre star Jill McCormick finds it nearly impossible to resist the director of her first Broadway play -  sexy, sophisticated, possessive, all-alpha Davis Milo. The attraction between them is too powerful, and soon their private rehearsals spiral into new, forbidden territory...but will the past stand in the way of a future together?

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