The Culling Trials 3 (Shadowspell Academy, #3) by K.F. Breene and Shannon Mayer

 The Culling Trials 3 (Shadowspell Academy, #3) 

by K.F. Breene and Shannon Mayer

 Blurb

 You Don’t Choose The Academy. The Academy Chooses You.

The last of the Culling Trials is here. I foolishly thought I’d survived the worst.

My team is falling to pieces around me and my heart is shattered for the losses I’ve endured. But I can’t stop when I’m so close to the end. There are too many people depending on me.

I foolishly thought there wasn’t much more I could lose…until the nature of my bloodline comes to light.

I’m not what I thought I was. Not what anyone thought I was.
But to tell people the truth would be to kill us all.

To fail the trials will mean death, but to succeed might damn me for life.

Even though I binged this whole series since yesterday and couldn't put it down, the series and especially this book left me rather unsatisfied. Yes, the story was intense and gripping but at the same time, it lacked some depth. I couldn't fully relate to the characters despite the fact that I really liked them and waited impatiently to learn more about them and to get more emotionally involved. Alas, I never did.

And then, finally, the big show-down, amazing scenes, fights, everything that I wished for...and then it was over and I was left with a bunch of unanswered questions, our great crew torn apart after everything they went through ...nope, no spoilers here...you have to find out yourself what happened...and I just sat back and thought something intelligent like..."Huh?"

All those wonderful questions about the main villain and his role, about Rory, about Wild and those that are out to kill her and who already killed her brother and then it turns out that these first trilogy doesn't even answer these questions but solves a problem that feels a bit, well, constructed. Yes, I can see why they introduced these characters but it feels as if everything is stretched faaaaaaaar.....just to fill these books. I can't find anything about the number of trilogies that they plan to add but I must admit that I won't read them, at least not until they are done with the whole series. This is frustrating. There is so much potential but at the moment it feels as if there are too many plots and none of them is really fleshed out.
The blurbs of books 1 and 2 mention that these books end on a cliffhanger, I was fine with that as the third book was already out and I thought that that would give me all the answers. Well, it didn't.  And I really don't know how I feel about that. I had a hard time deciding how to rate this book. It is a very weak 3.5 star-read now ...

~3.5~

 ★★★★

Quarter Miles (Runaway, #3) by Devney Perry

Quarter Miles by Devney Perry

 Katherine Gates has been in love with Cash Greer since the moment he saved her life from a runaway goat. According to Cash, she’s the little sister he never had, the greatest roommate in the world and his favorite coworker. They’re friends—best friends.

In the dark days of her youth, it was her friendships that kept her alive and made life in a junkyard worth living. So she’s learned to shove her feelings for Cash down deep, even if that means ignoring eyes that shine brighter than the Montana summer sun and the smile that illuminates the snowiest winter day.

Except with every passing year, the denial takes its toll on her wounded heart until one day Katherine decides to take an impulsive road trip to the Oregon coast. Alone. That is, until Cash cons his way into the passenger seat.

The farther they travel, the harder it is to pretend. And when she confesses her feelings, she learns that Cash has some secrets of his own. Secrets that will either bond them together.Or rip them apart.

I love Devney Perry's other books so it didn't really come as a surprise when I started to read Runaway Road, the first book in this series and was hooked. These books are just so good, captivating me and keeping me glued to my reader from the first page on, I love it!

The idea of the red Cadillac acting like some kind of baton being passed from one of these old friends to the next bringing them much needed change and love is intriguing. That this includes road trips and in the case of Katherine and Cash also the journey from best friends to lovers, well, that simply makes it perfect!

When Katherine tries to take a much needed vacation that is supposed to help her get over her feelings for Cash...okay, she honestly didn't expect him to jump on the chance to get on the road with her, let alone somehow manipulating her to take him with her...
I loved to see how those two finally figured out their feelings for each other and, of course, I also loved to learn more about our five friends from the junkyard.

Heartwarming and captivating, this book is another one that I'll definitely read again - and now I can't wait for the next book in the series to come out!

 ★★★★

The new book by the authors of The Girl Who Cried Werewolf ,

a nice pick-me-up that will keep you laughing and reading and that will help pass the time

if you're still sheltering in place. Or any other time, actually.

 Quarantine Crush

by

Bam Shepherd and Heather Hildenbrand

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

The phrase on the side of Embry’s shot glass sounds like a sign from the universe. And when her friend, Hadley, forwards her a video of the latest internet craze – The Shoot Your Shot Challenge – she can no longer ignore the cosmic push. If the women on the FlipFlop app can grab life by the lady balls and kiss their best friends, so can Embry. But what’s a girl to do when her shot gets Knox-blocked?

Knox Jacobs thought nothing would be more awkward than shooting down his best friend. Then, the Coronach-20 pandemic hits, trapping him thousands of miles from home – with the woman whose heart he just broke. But as the hustle and bustle of everyday life slips away, he finds himself wondering if maybe he’s the one who blew his shot.

Shelter-in-place is one thing. Sheltering at her place is not exactly what he had in mind.

Review

I guess, most of us got a good dose of shelter life in the last months so...just imagine for a while that you have to shelter with the one person by whom you just got shot down after having been in love with him for ages? Yeah, that's what Embry thought when all this pandemic stuff went downhill pretty fast and she was left with Knox as the one to shelter in place with. I mean, not that he felt that much better, all things considered, but, yeah.

Sooo, with nice and very much interested neighbors around and far too much time to spare and too many days to stay at home and wait for the pandemic to pass, these two were in for an interesting time!

I laughed a lot and giggled and I may have rolled my eyes and on the whole I really enjpyed the book. For a while I thought that it might go in a direction that I didn't really like and that someone would be hurt but knowing these authors and their books, I should have known better. When things worked out the way they were meant to be and when sheltering in the wrong place suddenly turns into being in the best place possible, well...I really enjoyed reading this book and I hope that you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

★★★★