Swoon Thursday (74): Sexy Words and Surprising Kisses

It's that time again! We created a HOT meme, and if you're new to the game, here's how to join in the fun:

From the book you’re currently reading, or one you just finished, tell us what made you SWOON. What got your heart pounding, your skin tingling, and your stomach fluttering.

Shout it out on Twitter with the hashtag #YABound, post it here in the comments, or grab the adorable button above and share it on your blog. We want to know!

Really, today's title could be Bad Boys again because we have some good ones featured today--but they also all involve sexy words, surprising kisses (or kisses that make the heroines do surprising things!), and talented hands (he he). Is there anything swoonier than a guy whispering a sexy line that only a good fictional boy can, and then devouring the heroine (who we pretend is us, right?) with a kiss that leaves her breathless? Yeah, I didn't think so. Le sigh.

As always, remember to check out the comments where our lovely readers share links to their favorite swoony scenes, too! :)

RACHEL:  Swooning over Charade by the fabulous Nyrae Dawn

"I think you'd like my mouth, Princess. I've never had any complaints. I promise, it'll make you feel good."

She gasps and I suddenly want to make good on my threat. I want to suck the lobe of her ear into my mouth. Kiss the spot behind it to see if it drives her wild.  

KELLY: Swooning over Purgatory Reign by LM Preston

Angel moaned softly, and Peter's thumb tickled her chin as he teased her mouth open. Delving inside, it felt like paradise, and when her arms trailed up his arms and around his neck, he was lost. 

TARA: Still swooning over by The Next Forever by Lisa Burstein:

Her lips started tracing where they had been on my chest and stomach. I stopped her, pulled her chin up, and kissed her neck, her chest, trailing down her stomach with my tongue until I felt her wilt.

EILEEN: Swooning over Belladonna by Fiona Paul

She gave in, pulling him close, tangling her hands in his hair, tasting his skin and his lips and his tongue. She expected him to taste like ale, but he just tasted warm, like summer and sunrise. And happiness. Happiness Cass hadn't felt in weeks. And in that moment she knew that she would go home with him, that she would give in. She would let him return her to his meager lodgings and undress her, and their bodies would flow together like rivers.

TRISH: Swooning over Blaze by Laurie Boyle Crompton

Undaunted, he shifts his weight, lets my shirt stay on, but plunges both hands underneath it. Well played, I think as my body responds to his massages against my will. It feels so good Virgin Girl is nearly unconscious. 

BTW, this book is so funny, too!


NEREYDA: Swooning over The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

Adrian Ivashkov wasn't easy to surprise, but I surprised him then when I brought his mouth toward mine. I kissed him, and for a moment, he was too stunned to respond. That lasted for, oh, about a second. Then the intensity I'd come to know so well in him returned. He pushed me backward, lifting me so that I sat at the table. The tablecloth bunched up, knocking over some of the glasses. I heard what sounded like a china plate crash against the floor.

Whatever logic and reason I normally possessed had melted away. There was nothing but flesh and fire left, and I wasn't going to lie to myself--at least not tonight. 

And Nereyda says this is only one of their many swoony moments.... :)

SO NOW IT'S YOUR TURN! On your blog (and be sure to leave us a link), and/or on Twitter... SWOON us!

And PS! Make sure to tweet with the #YABound hashtag so we can RT you!

Authors After Dark 2013: WIN a Registration Package

Want to win your way into Authors After Dark 2013?

AAD 2013 is in Savannah 2013 and this year, the convention director, Stella Price, is giving away a VIP registration package for some lucky person to use to attend either 2013 or 2014! Package includes VIP badge (that allows you front of the line access to ALL EVENTS), Free parking, Special goodie basket from Stella and her sister including much of their backlist, apparel, and goodies from Savannah, a sweet hotel amenity sent to your room, and Breakfast with Stella and her sister Tuesday morning at BLUE, the amazing eatery in the hotel! Click here to check out the event!

Now how do you win this awesome prize? Its very simple.

Stella and her sister have a new book out called SOMETHING DARKER. It is the first in a new series, and whats more, the first book they have had out new in 2 years!

Once you buy the book, you send the receipt to everversestella@gmail.com and that’s it. You are entered to win the grand prize! Want more entries? There’s a raffle copter too to give you more easy ways to earn them!

Now you probably don’t want to just buy a random book, So here's the info about it:

The one thing Syrus Alcot, the God of Death Osiris in the Egyptian Pantheon, wants in all the worlds is the woman he loved and lost returned to him. When he gave up his powers, and freedom for a life of service he was promised her return. That was over one thousand years ago. A member of a team of dark gods charged with keeping humanity safe, he leads a loveless existence in New York City, searching for the one thing that could bring his wife back to him, a lapis scarab that was lost to him ages before.

Gwen Stapleton, a mild mannered librarian, is unaware that she holds the key to not only Syrus’ happiness, but her own. Seemingly stuck in a hopeless relationship with a man she doesn’t love, she has no idea that a chance meeting in Alphabet City will start a landslide to her heart’s content. Because Gwen is the keeper of the scarab, and is everything Syrus has ever wanted… and he’s not the only one. An Ancient evil is waking, and its servants will stop at nothing to see it seize its rightful place as the new pantheon of earth. And in order for Syrus and his team to save the world, Gwen is going to have to accept him, and show that love does make all the difference.

It is NOT YA but the beginning of a sexy new Paranormal romance series! But wait… there's more!

This VIP package can be used by anyone! If you’re a YA reader you can get in for FREE for the entire event, hangout with the YA authors before the masses Saturday and get all the awesome goodies that the convention is providing! You cant lose!

Info for the contest and raffle copter is here!

For Kindle readers, the book iscompetitively prices at 2.99 Click Here!

For print readers, 12.00 Click here!

 

Review: Hopeless by Colleen Hoover!

Hopeless

by Colleen Hoover 

Release Date: 12/19/12

391 pages

Summary from Goodreads:

Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than believing the lies…

That’s what seventeen-year-old Sky realizes after she meets Dean Holder. A guy with a reputation that rivals her own and an uncanny ability to invoke feelings in her she’s never had before. He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried.

Sky struggles to keep him at a distance knowing he’s nothing but trouble, but Holder insists on learning everything about her. After finally caving to his unwavering pursuit, Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life will change forever.

***Warning, this is my attempt at a review. It won’t be pretty***

“It’s real, Six.  You can’t get mad at a real ending.  Some of them are ugly.  It’s the fake happily ever afters that should piss you off.”

I read this book the first couple days of January and I still can’t properly put into words what I feel about this book.  Every time I took a moment to even attempt to write this review, my mind went blank.  But no matter how long ago I read this book, it feels like I just read it yesterday because it was that powerful that I still can’t stop thinking about it.  I may have also encouraged persuaded bullied other people to read it because I just want everyone to be able to experience this story.  To say that I loved this book would be a severe understatement.  To even say this is one of the best books I have ever read would be another understatement.  The story of Sky and Holder is tragic, heart breaking, and highly emotional.  It is also one of the best love stories I have ever read.  Like Slammed and Point of Retreat, the summaries from Goodreads do NOT do this book any justice.  At all!  Just trust me when I say that this book is a MUST.

From their first encounter, the best way to describe Sky and Holder is intense!  Everything about them is intense:  their feelings, their kisses, and their fights.  Their relationship is complicated (another understatement).  It starts off slow, shifts to fast, stops, speeds up, then full throttle rollercoaster.  I loved the banter between Sky and Holder.  They weren’t expressing their feelings all the time but they had their own special way of letting each other (and us) know that they are crazy about each other which made it all the more real and special.  Examples of their banter:

“You need a hair cut,” I blurt out.  “Really bad.  It gets in your eyes and you squint and you’re constantly moving it out of the way like you’re Justin Bieber and it’s really distracting.”

He fingers his hair with his hand and frowns, then falls back onto the bed. 

“Man.  That really hurt.”

or

I'm really dreading spending all day with you.  This doesn’t sound like fun at all.  Also, your sundress is really unflattering and way too summery, but you should definitely keep it on.

Just when it seems like Sky and Holder have conquered all their problems and I’m thinking: “Wow, this is an amazing love story” BAM!  Huge plot twist in the story that I NEVER saw coming!  Then, when we are finally adjusting and getting over the shock of that plot twist and your thinking: “Wow, this is a really amazing story.  Period.”  Double-BAM!!  This story freaking broke me apart and made my heart hurt so much.  But the ending also left me feeling very happy.  Has my heart recovered from this story?  Nope, but I loved every single second of this book.  Even the ones the really painful ones.  Sky and Holder’s problems don’t magically get fixed by the end of the book and the ending is not an unrealistic happily ever after.  It is happy, but is it also a realistic ending which I loved.  Hopeless is a powerful story that you WON’T want to miss out on.  A story and characters that will stay with for a very long time.  Although the love story is amazing, this is so much more than just that.  Oh, and if you are looking for swoon worthy ladies, look no further than Dean Holder.  He is one of the most complicated characters I’ve and one of my favorites.  I would also like to mention that Hopeless has the title of best non-first kiss EVER!  For those of you who have already read Hopeless, click HERE to read this scene from Holder’s POV. (Spoilers for those of you who haven’t read Hopeless yet)  I just wanna point out that no matter what my ramblings may come off as, this is not a depressing story.  It has plenty of sweet, romantic and happy moments.  But it is also real, and we all know real is not always pretty.

5 out of 5 stars! 

(If my rating system had more stars, I would give them all to this book)

Some of my favorite non-spoiler quotes from Hopeless:

-I need to regain my bearings.  Somehow, in the course of sixty seconds, this guy has managed to swoon me, then terrify the hell out of me.

-“Let me inform you of something,” he says in a low voice.  “The moment my lips touch yours, it will be your first kiss.  Because if you’ve never felt anything when someone’s kissed you, then no one’s ever really kissed you.  Not the way I plan on kissing you.”

-I know that firsts don’t matter with him.  He could kiss me for the first time, or the twentieth time, or the millionth time and I wouldn’t care if it was a first or not, because I’m pretty sure we just broke the record for the best first kiss in the history of first kisses - without even kissing.

- The way he looks at me makes me feel…I try to search for an adjective to follow up that thought, but I can’t find one.  He just makes me feel.  He’s the only boy that’s ever cared whether or not I’m feeling anything at all, and for that alone, I let him steal another small piece of my heart.  But it doesn’t feel like enough, because I unexpectedly want to give it all to him.

(There are wwaaaay more but I don’t wanna spoil anything)

About the Author

I love music. LOVE music. Namely The Avett Brothers, Lumineers, Pink, Eminem. I have eclectic taste? If you have any recommendations, send them my way!
I'm addicted to diet pepsi and could tell you in a taste-test which restaurant it came from. It's a serious addiction, I tell you.
I get stoked whenever I get a message from goodreads saying I have a new friend request...so request me, dangit!
If you want to know when I have new books out or just want to be inundated by random, pointless blog posts, follow me at www.colleenhoover.com
Avoid my Twitter at all cost. It's propaganda. 

GIVEAWAY! Baby, You're as Sweet as 3.14159265 by HogWild

Jokes -- Video -- Excerpt -- Giveaway!

*The most important tip to dating on social networks is to avoid making the mistake of “liking” you own status. Because when you "like" your own Facebook status it's like when you're having sex and you slap your own ass.

*A lot of girls like a guy who is a bad-ass. That’s why my conversations with women go like this:

GIRL: I like a man of danger.

ME: Come back to my place and we'll open the .exe attachments in my email!

*Dear Shirtless Guy in his Profile Picture, you REALLY want to impress girls? Get a job and pose in front of your cubicle.

*Dear Guy at the Dance Club, Please stop grinding random girls from behind like you are some kind of creepy penis-shaped bulldozer.

*They say you can get a girl to like you, if you can make her jealous. So I make sure the girl sees me with a pretty expensive handbag!

*Girls like when you tell them about the adorable things that children do. For instance, like when my little nephew asked me, "When babies are in the tummy do they use mommy's belly button as a window?" Cute! Thank God he didn't ask what they use as a door! 

EXCERPT:

Dear Hog,

I know for a fact this guy who is single likes me and I like him, too. But he STILL hasn’t asked me out!

- Waiting Two Fortnights a.k.a. W.T.F.

Girls, I know it's frustrating when the guy you like feels the same way about you yet he still doesn’t make a move!

Most likely it’s because he’s still not 100% sure that you like him. Because guys don't get hints. So 1: Make eye contact. 2: Look down shyly. 3: Smile. 4: Deep-throat a banana. Lesson is, always carry a banana.

Guys just don’t get hints at all. Girls, you’ll have to shout at him like, “DO YOU GET SUBTLE BODY LANGUAGE? I'M LIFTING MY SKIRT AND HAPPILY POINTING TO MY LADY-GROIN! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”

If you're snuggling up to him in the movie theater and he doesn't attempt to kiss you, you need to take the bucket of popcorn, dump it over his head, then slam it down over his face and start slapping the bucket yelling, "You are an idiot! I like you, dumb-ass! This is why you will never get a girlfriend because you are a stupid, stupid boy! Learn how to make a move, you stupid weenie!"

Then as everyone in the movie theater yells at you to shut up, scream back at them, "It's not my fault! This guy here is like a hockey game -- he's fun to look at but he's got no balls! If he was a chocolate dessert he'd be a plain brownie -- because he's got no nuts! He's like Santa Claus the day after Christmas -- he's got an empty sack!"

I Went to the Most Awesome Summer Concert Ever... with my Parents

When I was 17 years old there was this awesome 3 Day Outdoor Summer Concert. I wanted to go so bad! My parents, hearing my enthusiasm, thought, "How can we crush his dreams?"

So they said I could go BUT... only if they came along.

Um, no thanks. I'd rather miss the Most Awesome Summer Concert Ever than go with my parents. My parents were about as cool as Tabasco sauce in a frying pan sitting on an erupting volcano... on the Sun. Plus my dad has a bad habit of taking off his shirt to reveal his mooters (Man Hooters.)

I mean, I love my dad. But there's something I don’t understand about him… Every year his shorts get shorter and his socks get taller. He’s just not cool. One time my dad picked me up from school… on a bicycle-built-for-two.

I know!

I was embarrassed in front of my ENTIRE university.

Now that I don't want to go to the concert, my parents force me to go. As a compromise, I can bring one friend. My buddy was so excited to join me at the Most Awesome Summer Concert Ever. Poor guy had no idea what he was in for. 3 Days and 2 Nights with my parents.

There was this girl, Christina Spinelli-Feldman. Super-cute. I had a mega-crazy crush on Christina. I was like, "Hey Christina, so uh, I'm going to the Most Awesome Summer Concert Ever."

NOTE: Yes, it was actually called the Most Awesome Summer Concert Ever (sponsored by Pepsi, Pizza Hut, and Stridex Acne Pads.)

CHRISTINA: Me, too! Who are you going with?

ME: Uh, no one. I mean, my friend Russ. Yeah, we're totally going ourselves.

CHRISTINA: I'm going with Jen. Maybe we'll run into you!

No way that could happen because 75,000 people were going to be there. But at least something good was happening.

1 - Christina and I would have this entire bonding thing when we got back. We could share stories about the concert.

2 - I looked cool because she thought I was going with my buddy and NOT with my lame-o parents.

MORNING OF THE CONCERT

My mom is packing us lunches. Everyone else had sandwich baggies full of drugs. I'm going to have a sandwich baggie full of... a sandwich. Ugh.

She made turkey sandwiches for me and my friend.

MOM: Do you want Mayo or Mustard on your sandwich?

ME: I don't care.

MOM: Mayo or Mustard?!!

ME: Whatever. You pick.

MOM: MAYO OR MUSTAAAAAAAARD?!!!!

Now, I'm used to my mom screaming her head off for no reason, but my friend Russ looks like he just saw paranormal activity.

MOM: Fine! I'll make both!

Then mom prepares for everything. She packs extra underwear. Canned food. Powdered milk. Aspirin. Band-aids. A compass. Candles. A bread-making machine.

The bread-making machine I understand, because we're Jewish. If we're forced to make an Exodus, we're not going through that Matzah ordeal again!

It was a 7 hour car ride. It was actually only 3 hours but my mom somehow crammed 7 hours of small talk into 3 hours.

My mom is great but growing up she always gave me ridiculous “mom advice.”

She told me, “Always go out in CLEAN UNDERWEAR! Because what if you get hit by a bus?! Do you want everyone to know you’ve got dirty underwear?!”

What? That makes no sense! Because if I’m crossing the street and I see a BUS speeding at me…

My UNDERWEAR might have STARTED OUT clean...... haha.

The Most Awesome Summer Concert Ever lived up to its name. All the top bands were there: Puppy Blood Sacrifice, Gangstaz with Asthma, Death Angels of Murderous Death....

Russ and I are rockin' out in the sun when who do I bump into?

CHRISTINA: Oh my God! This is crazy! How are you?!!!

ME: (my voice cracks) Uh, okay.

Then I recover and ask smoothly,

ME: So uh, do you come around here often?

Dammit!

Then I hear the sound of the death bell tolling from about 15 feet away.

MOM: Do you want your sandwich?!!! Mayo or Mustard?!!!

ME: I don't care.

MOM: Mayo or Mustard?!!!!

ME: Either one, really!

MOM: MAYO OR MUSTAAAAAAAAARRD!!!!

Christina is horrified.

And then...

CHRISTINA: Oh my God! Is that your Dad up on the Jumbotron Video Screen with his shirt off?

Of course.

My face is so hot that I actually begin to feel it melt off my skull. And just before Christina walks away she can hear my mom yelling at me, "You should put on fresh underwear! Take off your underwear!!!"

What else can happen to me?

That's when it starts to rain. Hard. Non-stop for 2 days. My mom brought EVERYTHING... except an umbrella. Or tent. So we spent the rest of the Most Awesome Summer Concert Ever sleeping on slippery muddy campgrounds surrounded by canned food, powdered milk, and a bread-making machine.

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