Courtney Cole

Melpomene’s Top 25 of 2014

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What a year!!!! Seriously!!! I have read so many great books, that trying to pick only 25 nearly gave me an ulcer. Stressful. While many of these weren’t released in 2014, I didn’t read them until this year. But here it is:

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1. Flat-Out Celeste by Jessica Park
2. Archer’s Voice by Mia Sheridan
3. Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover
4. The Collectors’ Society by Heather Lyons
5. Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
6. The Deep End of the Sea by Heather Lyons
7. Bright Side by Kim Holden
8. The Law of Moses by Amy Harmon
9. Elicit by Rachel Van Dyken
10. The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons

The rest are in no particular order
11. Even the Moon has Scars by Steph Campbell
12. Becoming Calder and Finding Eden by Mia Sheridan Those two go together. They’re a combo pack.
13. Jacked by Tina Reber
14. Hope at Dawn by Stacy Henrie
15. Red at Night by Katie McGarry
16. The King by JR Ward
17. Vain by Fisher Amelie
18. Greed by Fisher Amelie
19. Maybe Not by Colleen Hoover
20. Until the End by Abbi Glines
21. Burying Water by KA Tucker
22. Infinity + One by Amy Harmon
23. Until We Fly by Courtney Cole
24. Hate: A Love Story by Laurel Ulen Curtis
25. Letting Go by Molly McAdams

What are some of yours??

Review: Until We Fly, by Courtney Cole

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“I stand on a wall to protect what is mine.”

WOW. Just WOW. I started this early this morning and read it in one sitting. I needed to finish it. My heart is in my stomach. My stomach is in my shoes. My nerves are shot. I’m a mess. At one point I had to put my kindle down and walk away to catch my breath. I was so upset. I live for angst filled books, and this definitely filled that requirement.

Synopsis
Ex-Army Ranger, Brand Killien, has always been good.

A good friend, a good soldier, a good everything. .
The problem is, good hasn’t gotten him anything but a crushed heart.

So after licking his wounds, he decides to move on. And moving on doesn’t include being good anymore.

Bad sounds so much better.

Jaded and detached, Brand is determined to never open himself up to anyone again. It’s not worth the pain. Instead, he becomes closed, hardened, aloof.

But then he’s called back home for a family emergency… a family that he is estranged from. A family that he put out of his mind a long time ago for very good reasons…reasons that involve secrets and pain. Reasons he tried hard to forget.

But home is where the heart is, and it just might be where Brand finds his again.

Why? Because home is where Nora Greene is. A fiery, red-headed spitfire, Nora is a thing from his past. A beautiful, feisty thing. When Brand left, she was away at boarding school.

But she’s back now.

And she wants Brand, scars and all.

I have been in love with Brand for a while now. I wanted him to have a happily ever after. I really did. He was a sweet guy and he deserved it. But his heart was broken and he became hard and closed off. He thinks he’s no good to anyone. Everyone leaves him, so he feels unworthy. He lives with guilt, from a past that he can’t get away from. It’s always chasing him.

Nora is living with a controlling father and she is trying to break free. She keeps secrets that could cause more harm, if exposed. So she takes this on all by herself, even if it slowly takes pieces from her.

“People watching has always been a hobby. Watching other people’s lives distracts me from my own.”

An unexpected accident brings these two together and fate draws them closer.

At first, I wasn’t sure if I’d like Nora. She seemed a bit too forward to me. But after a while I realized she is just a girl who is going after something that will make her happy. And frankly, she desperately needs a bit of happy in her life. Her story was almost more than I could handle. My heart was in pieces over it.

“He made me feel safe in a world that is dangerous and ugly, a world that has only hurt me.”

I honestly don’t know how to put in words, what this book made me feel. Sadness, happiness, angst, overwhelming anger, heartbroken, disgust, content. By the end of this roller coaster ride, I was completely happy I climbed aboard. This is the fourth book in the Beautifully Broken series, but it can be read as a standalone. But you really should read them all. Courtney Cole is an amazing writer and believes in happily ever afters, so even if she drags you through the mud, you’ll get all cleaned up, by the end.

“Sometimes, before we fall, we fly.”

~Melpomene

Buy
Until We Fly (The Beautifully Broken Book 4)

Catch up on the others:

If You Stay (Beautifully Broken)
If You Leave: The Beautifully Broken Series: Book 2
The novella, Until We Burn (Beautifully Broken)
Before We Fall: The Beautifully Broken Series: Book 3

Review: Before We Fall, by Courtney Cole

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“Before we fall, we fly.”

WOW!! I need to collect the pieces of my heart before I can even type another word…

This is the first book I’ve read by Courtney Cole. But this will definitely not be the last. This was such an emotional book. Not in my usual cry my eyes out, but in a raw and dark emotional type. It made me all twisted inside.

Dominic Kinkaide’s been closed up and in a very dark place, for the past six years. He’s been hiding it from the world. Only his close family knows something happened, by they don’t know what. But whatever happened, it’s left him dark and seriously twisted. Seriously twisted and very broken. He was basically just a shell of the man he once was. He doesn’t let anyone get close to him and he doesn’t like people. He thinks everyone will let him down, so he won’t take any chances.

Jacey is a strong willed, no holds barred kinda girl. But she is also a bit broken inside. You don’t really realize what she’s been through til about half way through. You just know she’s looking for something to fill a void in her life, but hasn’t quite found it yet. So she’s just wandering around. When she first meets Dom, she is drawn to him and knows there is more than what he lets people see. She is determined to save him from everything that hurts him, even if it’s himself. She believes he’s a good man, no matter what he thinks.

After an unfortunate incident, they must work together, and their personal issues start to come to the surface and they’re forced to deal with them. Dom and his hot and cold behavior and Jacey’s need to fix things, bring out emotions that they both wish would be kept closed up.

There where so many emotionally charged scenes in this book. I was all over the place. Dom’s brokenness completely destroyed me.

“Fix me, Jacey…If you can.”

Watching him slowly come to the realization that there may be another person who loves him for him, was so powerful. Dom felt he was so unworthy of any type of love. He even told Jacey not to love him. But of course, she didn’t listen.

“I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”

“You exist.”

I was teary eyed for the last 15% of the book. But when I read that Epilogue, it was all over. My poor spouse thought something was wrong with me. I am so glad I read this. I know there is more I want to say, but it would give too much away.

~Melpomene

Forever
Buy it now Before We Fall: The Beautifully Broken Series: Book 3