The Impossible Vastness of Us Release Day Launch

From New York Times bestselling author Samantha Young comes a story of friendship, identity, and acceptance that will break your heart—and make it whole again. Grab your copy of THE IMPOSSIBLE VASTNESS OF US today!

About THE IMPOSSIBLE VASTNESS OF US:

“I know how to watch my back. I’m the only one that ever has.”

India Maxwell hasn’t just moved across the country—she’s plummeted to the bottom rung of the social ladder. It’s taken years to cover the mess of her home life with a veneer of popularity. Now she’s living in one of Boston’s wealthiest neighborhoods with her mom’s fiancé and his daughter, Eloise. Thanks to her soon-to-be stepsister’s clique of friends, including Eloise’s gorgeous, arrogant boyfriend Finn, India feels like the one thing she hoped never to be seen as again: trash.

But India’s not alone in struggling to control the secrets of her past. Eloise and Finn, the school’s golden couple, aren’t all they seem to be. In fact, everyone’s life is infinitely more complex than it first appears. And as India grows closer to Finn and befriends Eloise, threatening the facades that hold them together, what’s left are truths that are brutal, beautiful, and big enough to change them forever…

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Excerpt:

“India, I’m not using her. I mean, I am, but it’s not like that. Eloise is getting what she wants out of this relationship, as well.”

“Like what?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“You are using her.”

“I’m not.” His chair screeched as he pulled it closer so our knees touched. His dark eyes moved over my face and I sucked in my breath at the open appreciation I saw there. “I’m not using her…but we are in a relationship together. I guess it just never occurred to me that I might actually meet someone in high school. Someone I…”

That feeling in my chest, that thick, hot feeling, threatened to overwhelm me at all the things he wasn’t saying. “Finn, Eloise is going to be my family.”

He looked so forlorn it took everything within me not to reach for him.

“What is it you’re hiding?”

“I can’t tell you. Please, just trust me.”

Hurt and frustration swept through me in equal measure but I tamped it down.

It wasn’t my place to demand his secrets.

My frustration was suddenly mirrored in his eyes as he looked up at me. “I wish things were different.”

But they weren’t different. And yet they were the same, history repeating itself. I cared about someone and they didn’t care enough about me back to be honest about what was really going on.

I didn’t know if I was angry at Finn or just angry that nothing ever seemed to be easy for me. Everything was always a fight.

It felt like I lived in a constant clusterfuck.

I gave a huff of laughter. “Story of my life.” I shook my head, grabbed up my bag and, unable to look at him, said, “Thank you for your help tonight.”

“You’re not leaving without me.”

His protectiveness confused and pissed me off even more. “I’m not? Funny, it looks like that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

His familiar scowl was back in place at my sarcasm. “You’re also not going home alone after what happened here. I’ll give you a ride.”

“Finn.” I slumped, suddenly feeling exhausted. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Sadness flittered through his eyes before he managed a carefully blank expression. “I think I can handle driving you home.”

Still a trembling mess after everything that had happened, I gave in and followed Finn out to his car.

The tension that we’d shared before was nothing compared to how it was now. Now that Finn had in a roundabout way admitted he liked me and I’d realized that what I was feeling for him was attraction, the tension could not be mistaken for anything else but sexual.

I’d never felt anything like it before—it was the most frustrating, scary and exhilarating feeling in the world.

When we eventually pulled up outside the house, the guilt washed over me. I shouldn’t be feeling this way about Eloise’s boyfriend and he certainly shouldn’t be feeling this way about me.

I felt like we were to blame for the whole thing but I didn’t know why.

I hadn’t asked the universe to make Finn like me.

And I had definitely not intended to like him in return.

“India,” he said just as I moved to get out of his car. “I’ve never really cared what anybody thought of me before…but I really don’t want you to think I’m a bad person.”

I stared into his beautiful eyes. “I can’t imagine ever thinking you’re a bad person. I meant it earlier…thank you for coming for me tonight. I’ll never forget it.”

“This feels weirdly like a goodbye,” he said with a bitter twist to his gorgeous lips.

“Maybe it is. I guess we’re both just a complication the other doesn’t need.”

Slowly, so slowly my heart had time to increase in hard, steady thumps, Finn slid his hand over the center console between us and stroked his thumb along the side of my hand. I felt that simple touch in every nerve, my body reacting to it in a way it never had to the touches and deep kisses that had come before it.

I stared at our hands for a moment, wondering how different my life could be if Finn wasn’t Eloise’s boyfriend, if we’d just met as strangers at school, felt the inexplicable bond between us and were free to do something about it.

Suddenly very aware of how long I’d been sitting outside the house in his car, I fumbled for the door handle. “See you around, Finn.”

About Samantha Young:

Samantha Young is the New York Times,  USA Today  and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of adult contemporary romances, including the On Dublin Street series and Hero, as well as the New Adult duology Into the Deep and Out of the Shallows.  Every Little Thing, the second book in her new Hart’s Boardwalk series, will be published by Berkley in March 2017. Before turning to contemporary fiction, she wrote several young adult paranormal and fantasy series, including the amazon bestselling Tale of Lunarmorte trilogy. Samantha’s debut YA contemporary novel The Impossible Vastness of Us will be published by Harlequin TEEN in ebook & hardback June 2017

Samantha has been nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award 2012 for Best Author and Best Romance for On Dublin Street, Best Romance 2014 for Before Jamaica Lane, and Best Romance 2015 for Hero. On Dublin Street, a #1 bestseller in Germany, was the Bronze Award Winner in the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2013, Before Jamaica Lane the Gold Medal Winner for the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2014 and Echoes of Scotland Street the Bronze Medal Winner for the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2015.

Samantha is currently published in 30 countries and is a #1 international bestselling author.

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Nowhere But Here by Katie McGarry

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An unforgettable new series from acclaimed author Katie McGarry about taking risks, opening your heart and ending up in a place you never imagined possible.

Seventeen-year-old Emily likes her life the way it is: doting parents, good friends, good school in a safe neighborhood. Sure, she's curious about her biological father—the one who chose life in a motorcycle club, the Reign of Terror, over being a parent—but that doesn't mean she wants to be a part of his world. But when a reluctant visit turns to an extended summer vacation among relatives she never knew she had, one thing becomes clear: nothing is what it seems. Not the club, not her secret-keeping father and not Oz, a guy with suck-me-in blue eyes who can help her understand them both. 

Oz wants one thing: to join the Reign of Terror. They're the good guys. They protect people. They're…family. And while Emily—the gorgeous and sheltered daughter of the club's most respected member—is in town, he's gonna prove it to her. So when her father asks him to keep her safe from a rival club with a score to settle, Oz knows it's his shot at his dream. What he doesn't count on is that Emily just might turn that dream upside down. 

No one wants them to be together. But sometimes the right person is the one you least expect, and the road you fear the most is the one that leads you home. 

Review:

When Emily’s mom and dad convince her to attend the funeral of her biological father’s mother, she expects to get in and get out as quickly as possible.  But life is never that easy.  Somehow Emily’s existence and presence in Snowflake is leaked to a rival biker gang that would love nothing more than to cause deadly trouble for Eli’s (Emily’s biological dad) motorcycle club.  Her three parents (mom, dad and Eli) decide it is in her best interest to stay hidden at Eli’s home in Kentucky while her mom and dad fly back to Florida.  No one will have expected her to stay which should keep her safe until everything blows over.  A two week stay turns in to more than a month.  A long visit that allows Emily to acquaint herself with a family she’s never known or trusted.  A visit that also makes her question everything her three parents have told her since she was a little girl.  

When other kids were dreaming of becoming police officers, teachers or doctors, Oz was dreaming of joining the Reign of Terror and working in the family security business.  When Eli asks Oz to prove himself worthy of making prospect by babysitting his daughter, Oz isn’t going to say no. 

At first, Emily and Oz circle each other warily.  Both have preconceived ideas about the other and their way of life and they most certainly do not like each other.  But as they spend more time with each other the more they understand and respect one another.  An understanding and respect that is turning into something more.  

I found the two main characters fascinating.  Emily holds back a lot but finds this inner strength and boldness in certain situations that made her an absolute joy.  The only way to describe Oz is intense.  He’s very experienced and lives in and whole-heartedly embraces a world where the social rules are so different.  At the same time he has this vulnerability about him that belies his age and emotional inexperience.  It’s no wonder that these two characters set my tablet on fire when they interacted on the page.

I also found the different family members and friends more than a bit interesting.  Oz’s parents and friend, Razor.  Emily’s grandparents, cousins, newly gained family friends and even Eli.  There wasn’t a single one that didn’t spark my interest and made me wish for a side story just about them.   I do know that I will at least get my wish with Razor which will be super exciting.

But my favorite part of this story, by far, was the relationship between Emily and her three parents. I just need to put it out there how much I LOVE the way Katie McGarry writes parent/child relationships.  They are amazingly complex and she never holds back from making them unbelievably messy.  They are not the stereotypical horrific or absent parents (obviously there are exceptions…hello, Echo’s mom).  But they are also rarely perfect parents that get everything right.  She writes them as imperfect beings that love their children.  People that sometimes get the parenting thing right but very often don’t.   So many times they are what I like to call the “ambiguous villain.”  They are parents that love their children and try to protect them but in their efforts majorly mess up along the way.  And that is exactly how I saw Emily’s three parents.  

From the beginning you see the love that all three parents have for Emily.  It was both beautiful and heartbreaking to see the amazingly close and trusting relationship that Emily has with her dad and then see how badly Eli wants to have the same relationship with her.  But all that love can’t hide the feeling (for both the reader and Emily) that something is off about their history.  We only know what her parents (all three of them) have told her.  A history that doesn’t put Eli in a very nice light.  But it’s obvious from early on that they are lying.  A lie that you can only assume they concocted for her safety.  But that lie has negatively impacted her in ways she is just beginning to understand. 

Like I said.  Heartbreaking, complicated and all together messy.  And I absolutely loved it.  Needless to say, Nowhere But Here furthers my love affair with all things written by Katie McGarry…

Nat

Wicked Kiss (Nightwatchers #2) by Michelle Rowen

* * *

MY KISS CAN KILL.

I used to be ordinary Samantha Day, but that's changed. Now, after one dark kiss from a dangerous boy, I can steal someone's soul...or their life. If I give in to the constant hunger inside me, I hurt anyone I kiss. If I don't...I hurt myself.

Bishop is the one whose kiss I crave most, but if I kiss him, I'll kill him. Then there's another boy, one I can't hurt. One whose kiss seems to miraculously quell my hunger. They're both part of a team of angels and demons that's joined forces in my city to fight a mysterious rising darkness, an evil that threatens everyone I know and love. I just wonder if I'll be able to help Bishop-or if I'm just another part of the darkness he's sworn to destroy....

NIGHTWATCHERS

When angels and demons must work together, something beyond evil is rising...

Dare I say it? Wicked Kiss is even better than Dark Kiss! Now that Samantha has lost her soul and is a gray she has to deal with that constant hunger to feed off other people's souls. It's a bit of a nuisance. So priority number one is to recover her soul and get her best friend back. Not so easy. The person who could help her most is no longer, evil aunt Natalie, and Stephen her former crush who took her soul in the first place remains elusive. While all that’s going on, Bishop the fallen angel who is burdened with a soul is going mad from it. There are also a string of mysterious teenage deaths raising eyebrows and more grays to be rid off. Still, there's time for Samantha to nurse a longing for Bishop and her curiosity about his past is gnawing at her as much as her hunger for souls.

Our unlikely team of paranormals - angels, demons, gray - has plenty to contend with which makes Wicked Kiss so much fun. There is not one moment of downtime. Even when it’s sort of quiet, there’s always something or someone stirring the pot, whether it's her arch nemesis Jordan or the addition to the team, an angel named Cassandra.  She claims she’s there to assist with the cleanup in Trinity but she has a hidden agenda. There are plenty of trust issues going on and Samantha has a hard time leaving Bishop alone when it comes to getting to know him better. Their constant I-want-to-touch-you-but-it’s-too-dangerous moments are exciting and once Samantha does get glimpses of Bishop’s past it’s almost too much.  But really it’s the dynamic between Samantha and Kraven that was most fun for me. Kraven reminds me of some of my favorite snarky fictional boys – Damon, Jace and Patch – and we know how much I LOVE snark and bad boys. He had me giggling a lot! 

Rowen definitely elevated this story and as each chapter progressed so did the tension and urgency. Introducing a few new elements shaped a story that I genuinely liked. It's simply an enjoyable, fun escape!  

~ Bel