Best of the Bunch ~ June 2014

Best of the Bunch is a monthly meme hosted by Always Lost in Stories on the last day of every month. The aim of this meme is to share the best book that we have read in that month and give it our Best of the Bunch award.

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Books read in June:

Hard as a Rock by Mina Carter ~ 3 stars 

Witches: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer ~ 4 stars 

The Guard by Kiera Cass ~ 3 stars

Charles Darwin and the Mystery of Mysteries by Niles Eldredge and  Susan Pearson ~ 4 stars 

Unravelling the Mysteries of Ancient Places by Brien Foerster and others ~ 4 stars

Straw into Gold by Gary D. Schmidt ~ 3 stars

Phantom's Dance by Lesa Howard ~ 5 stars ~ Review to come

Curses and Smoke: A Novel of Pompeii by Vicky Alvear Shecter ~ 5 stars ~ My Review

Exquisite Captive by Heather Demetrios ~ 5 stars ~ Review to come

Only Pretend by Nora Flite ~ 2 stars
The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter ~ 3 stars
The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan ~ 4 stars

Dirty Angels by Karina Halle ~ 4 stars ~ My Review
Play by Kylie Scott ~ 5 stars ~ My Review
Play Me by Blue Ashcroft ~ 3 stars ~ Review to come

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll ~ 3 stars

And the Best of the Bunch winner of June 2014 is...

Curses and Smoke: A Novel of Pompeii by Vicky Alvear Shecter

Published May 27th 2014 by Arthur A. Levine Books

When your world blows apart, what will you hold onto?

TAG is a medical slave, doomed to spend his life healing his master's injured gladiators. But his warrior's heart yearns to fight in the gladiator ring himself and earn enough money to win his freedom.

LUCIA is the daughter of Tag's owner, doomed by her father's greed to marry a much older Roman man. But she loves studying the natural world around her home in Pompeii, and lately she's been noticing some odd occurrences in the landscape: small lakes disappearing; a sulfurous smell in the air. . . .

When the two childhood friends reconnect, each with their own longings, they fall passionately in love. But as they plot their escape from the city, a patrician fighter reveals his own plans for them -- to Lucia's father, who imprisons Tag as punishment. Then an earthquake shakes Pompeii, in the first sign of the chaos to come. Will they be able to find each other again before the volcano destroys their whole world?

Honorable mentions go to:

Phantom's Dance by Lesa Howard

The Phantom of the Opera, dude! <3

Exquisite Captive by Heather Demetrios

F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C

The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan

David Levithan never disappoints. I devoured it. Also, it's so cute and little!

Play by Kylie Scott

Mal. Oh, Mal! Let me play with you!

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What was the best book you read this month?

Let me know!

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Genre: Contemporary Romance
Wordcount: 800000+ or about 3000 pages
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• His Wicked Games (Ember Casey): Lily would do anything to save her father's failing business - even take on the infamous billionaire Calder Cunningham. But she's not prepared for the wicked terms he has in mind...
• Fierce (Clarissa Wild): Hot, brooding college bad-boy Hunter turns out to have more secrets up his sleeve than geeky book-worm Autumn can handle. Too bad for her he doesn't give up the fight easily.
• That First Kiss (J.C. Valentine): Playboy and rising author Tate Larson is focused on his work with no plans of settling down anytime soon... that is, until a chance encounter with Southern beauty Piper Donovan derails all his plans
• Slow Burn (V.J. Chambers): A college junior, in hiding from a corrupt shadow wing of an arms corporation, finds herself saddled with a restrained, no-nonsense bodyguard—who also happens to be jaw-droppingly gorgeous.
• Layers Deep (Lacey Silks): He needs her to save a friend. She needs him to plan her revenge. Their pasts scar them Layers Deep. Their passion distracts them... and distractions can be fatal.
• Learning Curves (Olivia Rigal): Ariane wanted to spice up the life of her cooking school but one of her American students may be hotter than she expected.
• Can't Shake You (Molly McLain): Carissa's gotten herself into a mess with an impromptu renovation project, and the only contractor available to help her out happens to be the one man she's never been able to forget. Josh is also her ex-boyfriend's best friend, therefore completely off-limits...unless they don't get caught.
• His Indecent Lessons (Sky Corgan): When Cheyenne started her first year of college, she didn't expect to fall head over heels for one of her professors. His interest is totally academic though, and he's going to give her private lessons she'll never forget.
• Sorority Pledge (Daizie Draper): Inexperienced college students, Addison and Logan, recognize the need for power play in one another when they first meet. But as they dive into a BDSM lifestyle while trying to balance college life, they discover their sizzle doesn't come without consequence.
• Rae Omnibus (Blair Babylon): Rae will do anything to stay in college and for her dream of a clinic for autistic kids, but when the sexy and mysterious owner of The Devilhouse offers her job, she realizes that her small-town definition of "anything" was far too limited.

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1. Olivia Rigal sings every Wednesday night in the karaoke club
2. Olivia Rigal went to dog grooming school
3. Lacey Silks had a passion for acting when she was a teen. As an extra she met Marlon Brando, Matthew Broderick, Ricky Lake, Brendan Fraser, Jerry O’Connell and Shirly MacLain
4. Lacey Silks is afraid of flying. If you ever sit beside her on a plane, don’t mind the Hail Mary’s. And good luck getting to the bathroom. She will not unbuckle her seat belt through the entire flight
5. Before she was an author, Ember casey worked as a pastry chef. She's never met a cake (or puff pastry, or tart, or chocolate truffle) she didn't love
6. Ember Casey started writing Romance because her critique group kept telling her that her attempts at Young Adult were too, uh, "adult"
7. J.C. Valentine is a reality TV junkie. The Kardashians hold her prisoner often and without mercy
8. J.C. Valentine loves thunderstorms. They’re perfect for writing
9. Clarissa Wild always drinks tea when writing, and she needs at least 2 cups of earl grey tea a day
10. Like the main character in her book Fierce, Clarissa Wild is actually quite a book-nerd, and not just that … she loves playing videogames as well
11. Sky Corgan actually participates in the BDSM lifestyle as a dominant
12. Sky Corgan has to have complete silence while writing, so no coffee shop writing
13. V.J. Chambers still watches The Vampire Diaries, and she’s still on Team Damon
14. V.J. Chambers has a cat called Isis, and she does not like to relinquish the keyboard for her to actually write. She would rather lie on it
15. Blair Babylon has lived in 5 US states: Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa, New Jersey and New York
16. Blair Babylon was a child actor and model who did over 30 TV commercials and a short-lived PBS series
17. During her tween years, Molly McLain began writing while listening to Wednesday night dedications and requests on radio. Since no one ever dedicated a romantic song to her, she made up her own love stories instead. To this day, all it takes to get the creative juices flowing is a little REO Speedwagon
18. Molly McLain is a closet WWE fan. She may or may not fangirl over Randy Orton to the point her children refer to him as her boyfriend. They’re also kind enough to pause the TV when he’s on so she can drool
19. Although Daizie Draper’s pretty kinky, she’s more of a switch than a straight-up sub. The BDSM in Sorority Pledge veers into many untested areas for her because Addison, the sub in the story, learns she's masochistic, which I Daizie is not
20. One of Daizie’s quirky things is that she hates crumbs, like stepping on them with her bare feet. It just irks her like nothing else

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