What I'm Reading: January to March

I LOVE reading. I am a proud, self-proclaimed bookworm (hence the blog title), and I can spend an entire weekend doing nothing but reading and be completely happy. A big part of this blog is writing book reviews for books that I've enjoyed reading, but I read so much (more than one hundred books a year) that I don't have time to review every single book. So, I've decided to do a monthly post dedicated to the top books I've read each month but didn't have time to review.

For this post I'm sharing my top six (not-reviewed) books from January, February, and March! Here you go:

Title: Lost Girl
Series: Neverwood Chronicles #1
Author: Chanda Hahn
Stars: 5 out of 5
For fans of: YA, Fantasy, Peter Pan Retellings
Blurb:
Wendy doesn't remember anything about Neverland—or the experiments done on her there as a child. Seven years later, all she wants is a normal life, but shape-shifting shadows plague her dreams and turn her life into a waking nightmare. When the shadows attack at a football game and a boy disappears right in front of her, she realizes these wraith-like shadows are real. They’re not just haunting—they’re hunting.

A mysterious boy named Peter, his foul-mouthed sidekick, and a band of misfit boys intervene before Wendy faces a similar fate. But can they trust Wendy enough to take her to Neverwood Academy and reveal all of their hidden secrets when she's hiding a secret of her own, or will the dreaded Red Skulls find her and drag her back to Neverland?

Title: Born in Fire
Series: Fire and Ice Trilogy #1
Author: K.F. Breene
Stars: 4 out of 5
For fans of: Adult, Urban Fiction/Fantasy, Kick-butt Heroines
Blurb:
Supernatural Bounty Hunter isn’t the sort of thing you see on LinkedIn. But with a rare type of magic like mine, I don’t have many options. If people found out what I could do—what I am—I would kiss my freedom goodbye.

So dangerous or not, the job is mine. And it was going fine, until an old as sin vampire stole my mark, and with it, my pay day.

Knowing I’m poor and desperate, he has offered me a job. I’ll have to work by his side to help solve a top secret case.

Everyone knows not to trust vampires. Especially a hot elder vampire. But without any other jobs coming up, I’m stuck. As I uncover a web of lies and treachery, revealing an enemy I didn’t know existed, the truth of my identity is threatened. I might make it out alive, only to end up in a gilded cage.

Title: The Rose Mark
Series: Black Rose Sorceress #1
Author: Connie Suttle
Stars: 5 out of 5
For fans of: YA/NA/Adult, Fantasy, Strong Heroines, Scarred Heroes
Blurb:
Sherra 
We belong to the King--those of us with the black roses tattooed on our left wrist, directly over our pulse. As if every beat of our hearts reminds us that we are not our own. 

All the women with the fire burning within them are culled, tattooed and taken to the warriors, to provide more energy. Energy that the warriors will then use to defeat the barbarians from the ocean of sand. Women with black roses on their wrists are emptied of their power by those warriors, who care not that they die a shrunken husk. 

In the King's library, The Book of the Rose says to honor the tattooed women. More than anything, I want to spit on its pages. 

As for running--there is one thing worse than having a black rose on your wrist. That is for the enemy to find you and see the black rose on your wrist. Your death will be slow and excruciating at their hands...

Title: Playing with Fire
Series: Standalone (but I hope the author writes a sequel)
Author: R.J. Blain
Stars: 4 out of 5
For fans of: Adult, Urban Fiction/Fantasy, Sassy Heroines, Unicorns
Blurb:
Warning: This novel contains excessive humor, action, excitement, adventure, magic, romance, and bodies. Proceed with caution. 

What do you get when you mix gorgons, an incubus, and the Calamity Queen? Trouble, and lots of it. 

Working as the only human barista at a coffee shop catering to the magical is a tough gig on a good day. Bailey Gardener has few options. She can either keep spiking drinks with pixie dust to keep the locals happy, or spend the rest of her life cleaning up the world’s nastiest magical substances. 

Unfortunately for her, Faery Fortunes is located in the heart of Manhattan Island, not far from where Police Chief Samuel Quinn works. If she’d been smart, she never would have agreed to help the man find his wife. 

Bailey found her, all right—in the absolutely worst way possible. 

One divorce and several years later, Bailey is once again entangled in Chief Quinn’s personal affairs, and he has good reason to hate her. Without her, he wouldn’t be Manhattan’s Most Wanted Bachelor, something he loathes. Without her, he’d still be married. 

If only she’d said no when he asked her help, she might have had a chance with him. While her magic worked well, it came with a price: misfortune. Hers. 

When Quinn’s former brother-in-law comes to her for help, he leaves her with a cell phone and seventy-five thousand reasons to put her magic to the test. However, when she discovers Quinn’s ex-wife is angling for revenge, Bailey’s tossed in the deep end along with her sexiest enemy.

Title: Clam Jam
Series: Standalone
Author: R.C. Boldt
Stars: 4.5 out of 5
For fans of: NA, Romantic Comedy, Roommate Romance
Blurb:
Clam Jam 
Definition: the female equivalent of a cock block. 
Example: You're chatting with a guy you're interested in and your friend comes along and lays claim to him. 

Maggie
That's my life except it's worse. My friend who keeps jamming me is my gay roommate, and if that isn't a W.T.F. moment, I'm not sure what is. 
Fact: He went home with three yes, three of the guys I had been so sure were into me. 
Fact: He's really pissing me off. I mean, hello? I'm trying to get back in the saddle, but I'll never manage to get a boyfriend before the age of fifty if he keeps this up. 
Fact: Secretly, I wonder what it would be like if he weren't gay. Why do all the hot, sweet, tender-hearted guys have to be gay? 
Fact: My gay-dar needs a serious tune-up. 


Ry
The day I interviewed for the room to rent, everything changed. I knew I had met the girl, except there was one small problem: she didn't want anything to do with men. I recognized a top-notch force field when I saw one. She'd been burned badly and didn't want to deal with a heterosexual guy as a roommate. I could've turned around and found another place to live, but I wanted to live there with her. 
So I had to go undercover. 
Fact: I'm in love with my roommate. 
Fact: I'm a likely candidate for carpal tunnel surgery since all the action I've had for the past year has been my hand. 
Fact: She's going to hate me if I come clean now. 
Fact: I'm not giving up. Which means I'll just have to continue to run defense until I figure out a way to get Maggie to see the real me. 
The me that loves her. 
The me that would never do her wrong. 
Until then, I'll keep running off every guy who shows any interest. 
Until then, I'll continue to Clam Jam. 

Title: Trigger 
Series: Origin #1
Author: Scarlett Dawn
Stars: 4 out of 5
For fans of: NA, Post-apocalyptic, Shifters, Soul-mates
Blurb:
New York Times bestselling author, Scarlett Dawn, has created a fresh and magical new adventure for romance and paranormal lovers alike. Shifters rule the world through corporations after the humans all but destroyed Earth. It's too bad humans are still oblivious. They have no clue terrifying beasts run their broken world.

And then along came a human. A beautiful and klutzy human.

She's the trigger the shifters have been waiting for...
But beware of the soul-sucking darkness soon to follow.