Review: All Played Out

All Played Out
Author: Cora Carmack
Published:May 12th, 2015
Paperback, 320 pages
5 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

First person in her family to go to college? CHECK.
Straight A's? CHECK.
On track to graduate early? CHECK.
Social life? yeah, about that...

With just a few weeks until she graduates, Antonella DeLuca's beginning to worry that maybe she hasn't had the full college experience. (Okay... Scratch that. she knows she hasn't had the full college experience).

So Nell does what a smart, dedicated girl like herself does best. She makes a "to do" list of normal college activities.

Item #1? Hook up with a jock.

Rusk University wide receiver Mateo Torres practically wrote the playbook for normal college living. When he's not on the field, he excels at partying, girls, and more partying. As long as he keeps things light and easy, it's impossible to get hurt... again. But something about thr quiet, shy, sexy-as-hell Nell gets under his skin, and when he learns about her list, he makes it his mission to help her complete it.

Torres is the definition of confident (And sexy. And wild), and he opens up a side of Nell that she's never known. But as they begin to check off each crazy, exciting, normal item, Nell finds that her frivolous list leads to something more serious than she bargained for. And while Torres is used to taking risks on the field, he has to decide if he's willing to take the chance when it's more than just a game.

Together they will have to decide if what they have is just part of the experiment or a chance at something real.

As if this series couldn't get any better! Cora has once again made me fall in love with two characters who by all means shouldn't be able to work, but work perfectly and beautifully! We met Nell and Torres briefly in the earlier books, Nell is Dylan's roommate and Torres is the wide receiver for the Rusk University football team. She's a study-aholic who just wants to graduate early so she can go to grad school and he is hoping Rusk will set him in the right direction for a career in the NFL. They both have big dreams but neither expect the other to play a part in them. After watching Dyland and Silas being super adorable, Nell realizes she's missing out on her college experience, so she makes a to do list of normal college things she wants to experience. She follows Dylan's advice and goes out with her group of friends, catching the attention of resident playboy Mateo Torres. She decides he'd be perfect for her hooking up with a jock item and he thinks she's perfect period. Together they begin to check off items from her list, their sexual tension and feelings for each other growing every step of the way.

Leave it to Cora to make me fall for a playboy jock who seems to hook up with everyone he knows. She finds a way to get us inside his head without cringing. We find out that he was hurt badly by the one woman he loved and that's why he won't get close to anyone else. But Nell brings out something in him and the way he treats her, respects her, loves her, is everything a girl could hope for in a guy. And Nell, who's so used to controlling everything and being in control finds that she's able to let herself go around Torres and he brings out this great side of her without risking her dreams. There are great moments between these two characters, some awkward times and some hilarious antics as they move around campus completing the list. They're sweet moments are swoon-worthy and Torres certainly knows how to make a girl feel good. Cora is the queen of New Adult, I've said it before and I'll say it again. This is exactly what I look for in NA. Drama, love, heated moments and realizing what you want by making mistakes, taking things for granted, and falling in love.

This is the kind of book I just want to talk about. I want all my friends to read it, I want to hand sell to my customers at work, and I just want to pick it up and read it again, falling back into Rusk and my friends there. This makes me want to make my own to-do list of things I haven't experienced yet and go on crazy adventures with my love. It's never too late, even though I've long graduated from college? Right?

"Don't worry about whether you might be wrong someday. Worry about whether you're right now. Tomorrow can wait."

Review: All Broke Down

All Broke Down
Author: Cora Carmack
Published: October 28th, 2014
Paperback, 368 pages
5 Gold Stars

(from Goodreads)

Dylan fights for lost causes. Probably because she used to be one.

Environmental issues, civil rights, corrupt corporations, and politicians you name it, she's probably been involved in a protest. When her latest cause lands her in jail overnight, she meets Silas Moore. He's in for a different kind of fighting. And though he's arrogant and infuriating, she can't help being fascinated with him. Yet another lost cause.

Football and trouble are the only things that have ever come naturally to Silas. And it's trouble that lands him in a cell next to do-gooder Dylan. He's met girls like her before, fixers he calls them, desperate to heal the broken, and he definitely doesn't need a girlfriend trying to change him. Until, that is, his anger issues and rash decisions threaten the only thing he really cares about: his spot on the Rusk University football team. Dylan might just be the perfect girl to help.

Because Silas Moore needs some fixing after all. 

Cora Carmack does New Adult unlike anyone else. She's funny, awkward and captures that spirit and essence of new love in 20-somethings who are still trying to to figure out their lives. Cora introduced us to the lives of Rusk University's students in the first book in this series, All Lined Up, a school focused on football and those who get involved with it. Silas Moore is a great football player and Dylan is a great activist. When they are both put in jail for the night for two completely different reasons, neither can fight the attraction they feel right off the bat. The more time they spend together, the more the attraction builds and damn does Cora know how to build sexual tension between two characters. Like holy hell, is all I'm saying.

At first sight, Silas is your typical bad boy football star: cocky, arrogant and damn good looking. He's not the type to settle down with any girl, especially one who thinks she can fix him. Based on our first impression of Silas from All Lined Up, you'd think he'd be a jerk, a womanizer, but the minute we get into his head we realize all the shit he's had to put up with, all the pressure and stress that football is causing him and the reasons behind why he does what he does. I fell in love with him right away, my kind of boy that's for sure. His dark past and how he's trying to be a better person for Dylan was perfection to me, and even though it didn't seem like these two would work, they meshed so perfectly together that I fell in love with them and their story quickly and without hesitation. Dylan's parents would rather her just sit tight instead of making a fuss in the world and when the two meet they may just be what the other one needs, but is chemistry enough to solve the problems these two have been running from for years.

Rusk University is my new favourite fictional place. I would go there if it were real and in Canada (wishful thinking I suppose) The footballers are good enough to go pro and they are sweet, loving guys beneath all the padding and hitting. I love that Cora doesn't let us see what's beneath the surface until we are in their heads an watching them fall in love. Carson and Dallas are there throughout the book to give advice and encouragement to our new lovers. Series like this make me so happy. When each book has a set of characters, but our favourites come back so that we can see them living happily after their own story ended. We are introduced to the characters that will lead All Played Out and other characters that will help the story along. There is a side story that doesn't really finish, an awful thing happening to a friend of all the characters, but I'm glad to know that she will soon get her own story to tell. I still love these characters long after I've finished the book and I'm not ready to leave Rusk yet. Cora has created such a great group of friends, lots of laughter, some heartbreak, and a whole lot of love, and to me, she is the reigning queen of New Adult.

"Dudes who look dangerous should just be dangerous. Period. The end. They should not be dangerous and beautiful all at the same time. It leaves the universe out of balance, and it makes me do stupid things like stare."

"I will never be able to turn this girl down. Whatever she wants from me, it's hers."

Review: All Lined Up

All Lined Up
Author: Cora Carmack
Published: May 13th, 2014
Paperback, 320 pages
4 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

In Texas, two things are cherished above all else - football and gossip. My life has always been ruled by both.

Dallas Cole loathes football. That's what happens when you spend your whole childhood coming in second to a sport. College is her time to step out of the bleachers, and put the playing field (and the players) in her past.

But life doesn't always go as planned. As if going to the same college as her football star ex wasn't bad enough, her father, a Texas high school coaching phenom, has decided to make the jump to college ball... as the new head coach at Rusk University. Dallas finds herself in the shadows of her father and football all over again. 

Carson McClain is determined to go from second-string quarterback to the starting line-up. He needs the scholarship and the future that football provides. But when a beautiful redhead literally falls into his life, his focus is more than tested. It's obliterated.

Dallas doesn't know Carson is on the team. Carson doesn't know that Dallas is his new coach's daughter. And neither of them know how to walk away from the attraction they feel.

I'm not sure why it took me so long to read a Cora Carmack book, but man am I glad I've read them now! All Lined Up is the first in her new Rusk University series, but you'd probably know her name from her first New Adult series Losing It. I've been having really good luck with NA lately and Carmack has quickly become one of my favourite authors in this genre. Dallas' life revolves around football whether she likes it or not. Her dad has just taken a job as the head coach at Rusk and her quarterback ex-boyfriend constantly shows up whenever she's around. Dallas just wants to have a real college experience, but football haunts her every move. When she meets Carson in a funny, dramatic, awkward way, she thinks she's found a guy that has nothing to do with football. By the time she finds out he's second-string quarterback, ready to take her ex's spot in the line up, and he finds out she's the coach's daughter, it's too late for them to stop the feelings riled up inside of them.

This is one of my favourite plots. As a reader, we know that Dallas is the coach's daughter and that Carson is a football player, but each character is in the dark and I loved waiting for the moment when all would break loose. Carmack wrote this wonderfully, in dual perspectives, keeping the dramatic irony going for just long enough for us to fall in love with both characters together. Dallas was very different from the girl NA characters I've seen out there. She's smart, ready to step away from her father's shadow, and put her bad relationship behind her. She's strong willed and not afraid to speak her mind, and her relationship with her father is very touch and go, as she tries to figure out who she is but still make sure her father knows she loves him. Carson has to work much harder than Dallas to get to where he wants to be. He works out and trains constantly, while also studying in his free time. When they start hanging out, Carson loses his focus and it's a harsh reality when you put someone you love before your needs. The conflict between the two of them, trying to keep the relationship under wraps, deciding if the relationship is worth it, and figuring out how to get through college, is written beautifully and captured me the entire time.

The fun part of reading NA, as I'm sure we all know, are the sexy scenes. These are the selling points to this genre and for good reason. You get all the angst and drama that you get in YA, but you also get the experience that us adults enjoy without the boundaries that YA puts on it. Carmack writes these scenes really well. They are too graphic like some and it's more about the tension between the two characters than anything else. I love a good steamy scene and boy does this book deliver! I lvoed that this involved sports, I feel like that broke it out of the very small NA shell and I loved getting to know the characters at Rusk University and I'm excited to get more of them. Every side character could have their own story and I hope Carmack has a plan for them. Stella was a long of fun and I know Silas is getting his own book next, All Broke Down, which actually comes out tomorrow! If you're looking for a fun, quick, saucy read, pick this one up! I'm sure you'll fall in love with Dallas and Carson as much as I did.

"I swallow and stare and swallow again, because dear, sweet Jesus riding a unicorn, he's perfect."

"It takes talent to be a gawking hot mess, and I am a gawking hot mess to the third power."