Review: Licked

Licked, a hilarious romantic comedy, is the first novel in a new series by Brooke Blaine. The book features a realistic heroine who's spunky, has a flair for vintage fashion, and is caught between two very different men. Did I mention her ice cream store that is full of flavours with naughty names? Tell me you're not intrigued! I sure was and Blaine delivered exactly the kind of novel I was expecting. It was fun and I was entertained throughout.

Here's the synopsis:

As the owner of Licked, an eclectic ice creamery and bar, Ryleigh Phillips doesn't have time for that love stuff. Serving up Nibble My Nuts sundaes and Drunken Sailor boozy shakes are as close to an orgasmic affair as she's had in months thanks to her expanding empire—until the night of her ten-year high school reunion.
When Ryleigh's crush, gorgeous ex-football god Cameron Mathis, comes streaking into her life (literally—streaking), she begins to wonder if she really can have it all.
Wouldn't it just figure that the moment you think life is perfect is when it falls spectacularly apart?
Enter Hunter Morgan, the contractor in charge of Licked's renovations. Devastatingly handsome, and a smartass to boot, he's got his eyes on Ryleigh from the moment he finds her passed out on his couch (yeah, that's a long story). There's just one tiny complication—he happens to be Cameron's best friend.
When the lines between relationships and friendships blur, and it's impossible to choose between two delicious flavors, what's a girl to do? Taste a sample of each? Or go out and get LICKED?

The actual storyline of this novel isn't what I enjoyed the most. I mean, I did like the plot but what set this book apart is the way it was told. Curse words and innuendo were used liberally in this book, which I appreciated. To me, it's just not natural if there isn't at least one f bomb in the whole novel. But maybe that's just me because I can sometimes (ok, often) swear like a sailor. Apart from the speech, the rest of the story - the setting, the characters, their lives - was so relatatable, and that is always something I love to have in the books I read.

I also liked that Ryleigh's friends are more than just the stereotypical BFFs you find in romcoms. They had their own, distinct personalities that had me interested in their lives too. I'm sure that probably has something to do with the fact that Licked is the first in a series, L.A. Liaisons, so her friends will become main characters themselves. (The next, Hooker, is out now!) Nothing is more annoying that having a vivacious main character with best friends who aren't good for anything but being spoken to. She may as well have a cat.

Of course, I did like the story. It almost veered into cliche territory with the whole reconnecting with a high school crush and then falling for his best friend, but somehow Blaine made it work. One of the relationships was so ho-hum boring and the other was blistering hot with a touch of sweetness (being a romcom, you can probably figure out which was which). Because I loved Ryleigh, I really wanted her to make the best decision for her. She did but, boy, did it take awhile for her to get there! Actually...the getting there was half the fun of the novel!

Overall, Licked was a lot of fun. Brooke Blaine has created a series with real, likeable women who find themselves in situations that almost any twentysomething could relate to. I'm really looking forward to reading Hooker sometime soon! Now, where can I find an ice cream parlour that serves flavours like Crushed Nuts and Ground-Shaking Orgasms?

*A copy of this novel was provided by the author via Rockstar PR in exchange for a review. All opinions are honest and my own.*

BEA 2015: Day Two

Happy birthday to meeeeee! That's right...Thursday was Day Two at BEA and my champagne birthday! I was thrilled to be celebrating my 28th birthday in New York City and completely surrounded by books.

I actually ended up spending the majority of the day at the show on my own. It was actually kind of nice because I was able to stop where I wanted, when I wanted, and stay as long as I wanted. I knew one of the things I had to do was the tattoo chain from Litographs. The basics: they take a poem, chop it up, and make temporary tattoos. I got the second last piece of the day for "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot. I told the guy taking the pictures that I wanted to do this that day because it's something fun to do on my birthday. He wished me a happy birthday and said they "just happened" to be having a birthday special and I got to pick out a tattoo to take home with me! (Stay tuned for my haul post where you'll see which one I picked!) How nice was that?

Left: Colouring books are all the rage (yay!) and there was a board to colour!
Top: My Litographs tat and the photos of the chain.
Bottom: The craziness that was the Harlequin romance signing.

I was getting the hang of signing times and such and I learned that Harlequin was going to be doing three signings throughout the day. I went to the romance one in the morning (I think that was the morning one) and the women's fiction in the afternoon. I skipped the insanity that was the YA signing. Harlequin did things a bit differently: you met and got signed books from about six authors all at once. It was nice because it cuts down on the number of lines you have to wait in but it's also tough when, at the end of the day, you have twelve novels to lug home and you're not sure if you want to read all of them! I ended up giving two of them away to two of my roommates and another got left behind since I knew I wouldn't read it. Suitcase space was precious! It was great to chat with the ladies at Harlequin (I loved seeing all the badges from Canada!) and meeting so many of their authors.

Orphan Black was for my mom. Hexed is
signed. And yes, that is Lumberjanes!

Katherine (Ms Lady Critic) and I met up at some point and wandered around together. We ran into someone who told us that there were Saved by the Bell comic books up for grabs. Since we didn't have any authors to see in the next little while, we headed on over to the graphic novel area. Boy, did we do well! We got chatting to a few of the vendors who were more than happy to hand over some titles for us since we're fairly new to graphic novels. A huge thank you to all of them for these goodies!

Lunch on day two was at a diner down the street from Javits. After a crazy huge meal (that was cheaper than eating at the centre), the roommates went home (happily taking my signed Sandra Boynton print with them so I wouldn't damage it - thanks, ladies!) and I went back to the show for the Harlequin women's fiction signing and a few other authors I wanted to see. I had promised my friend Natalie, of Browsing Bookshelves, I would try to get something for her. I ended up having time to get After the Red Rain signed by Barry Lyga for her, yay!

By a happy coincidence, I ended up in line behind Melissa (Chick Lit Central) at the women's fiction signing at Harlequin. Samantha Stroh Bailey came by to say goodbye to Melissa (who was leaving at the end of that day). Melissa wanted a pic of all three of us and, in more "the world is so small", the person taking our picture ended up being Beth of Fuelled by Fiction, a fellow Canadian blogger! The day before Giselle of Booknerd Canada had mentioned me, Katherine, and Beth in a tweet so it was a crazy coincidence. I absolutely adore Beth and I'm so glad I got to meet her in person. I just wish we didn't live in different provinces!

After a long day, I scurried home to change before my big birthday night out. While I was planning for the week, I had mentioned to Tiff (Mostly YA Lit) that I didn't have Thursday night plans. She and Sarah (You Should Read this YA) were planning to see Finding Neverland after dinner out that night. Did I want in? Um, hells yes. Dinner was at The Marshal, an amazing local place where I ate the best mac and cheese ever and the most scrumptious strawberry shortcake. Mmm. Bring me back.

3 ladies out on the town - I loved that the menu had the date on it!
A delicious New York rose cide - Birthday Dessert #3

Next stop: Broadway! I was so pumped for the show and was so pleased that Finding Neverland ended up being beyond amazing. There was laughter and tears (from Tiff...she just couldn't hold it together ;) ) and a great time had by all. (Seriously, see it if you're in New York!)

After the show was birthday dessert #4 (if you're keeping track) - donut ice cream sandwiches! Yep. Such a thing exists. Tiff, who discovered the shop and bought my dessert for me (thank you!!), was a champ and finished hers while Sarah and I had to admit defeat. I just couldn't finish my birthday cake ice cream between a coconut topped donut! But, boy, was it ever good. (Not so good? The guy who decided to start chatting us up. Sarah was too nice, I ignored him, and Tiff, at the other end of the table, was oblivious. Thank you to the shop owners for kicking him out before things got too awkward!)

Left: In front of the sign outside the theatre. Middle: I'm at a Broadway show!
Right: Posing with my gigantic dessert.

I don't think I could have asked for a better birthday. Thank you to everyone who made it such a special day!

Make sure you check out Tiff's day two recap post because she's got some more great pictures and details of our evening out.

In case you missed it...

Planning + Travel Day

Day One - Day at the Show

Day One - Evening Events

Guest Post: Anna Garner

Last month (last year!) I reviewed the adorably awesome Sugar Spun Sister by Anna Garner (review is here), the first in her new Sweet Dreams series. I really liked it and while I was reading it I wondered how she came up with the ice cream shop idea. Happily, Anna offered up this great guest post that explains why she chose ice cream as her heroine's food of choice (and try not to be shocked like I was when you read her confession!). I hope you enjoy this post and buy a copy of this sweet novel for yourself!

I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM

My latest novel, Sugar Spun Sister, is about a girl with ice cream dreams. To clarify: my protagonist, Cricket, hopes to one day have her own ice cream shop, and in this story, she starts working towards her goal. Now, this may come as a shocker, but I have a confession to make: I’m really not a fan of ice cream.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t dislike ice cream. (Unless it’s coffee-flavored. Ick.) I find it to be a pleasant enough treat, but if I’m going to consume those kinds of calories, I’d rather have a cupcake or two. You might wonder then, why did I write a book that centers around ice cream? Well, it’s because I knew I wanted to write about a woman who opens her own food business. I did consider having Cricket want to open up a cupcake shop, but there have been so many chick lit books that involve cupcake shops/cupcake designers/cupcake connoisseurs that I wanted to do something different. Ice cream seemed like the logical choice.

All eighteen chapters of the book open with the name of an ice cream flavor that somehow relates to the action within the chapter, along with a brief note and a recipe. Here’s the first one, for example:

Chapter 1. Anaphylactic Surprise

(A.K.A. the ice cream that would kill my boss)

Ingredients: chopped strawberries, huckleberries, pecans, sugar, soymilk creamer, fresh ginger root (minced & cooked), soy yogurt, honey and carob bean gum powder

All of the recipes in the book are pretty much original. I spent many, many hours googling ice cream recipes, and some of these are similar to ones that are up there on the net, but I think I changed at least one or two things in each recipe to make it my own. Or Cricket’s own, rather. Some of them are completely original, like this first one here. I just wanted to include as many ingredients as possible that people are commonly allergic to, and still have it sound tasty.

It would be interesting to test all my recipes out, and I hope to do so one day. Talk about a fun idea for a book publicity event! Even though, as I said, I’m not that big on ice cream, I really would like to have a taste of “What a Girl Wants” (Cricket’s version of mint chocolate chip, made with Girl Scout cookies) and also “Delectable Dragons” (the sorbet made with exotic dragon fruit) and even “Love, Sweet Love” (the zingy strawberry and pink champagne flavor). Okay, perhaps I’m more into ice cream than I thought…

Review: Sugar Spun Sister

There are a few authors who are on my automatic review list. They're the ones who get a enthusiastic "hell yes!" when they email me to ask if I can review their latest book. Anna Garner is one of those authors. She had told me a bit about her new series awhile ago and when she eventually asked if I would review the first I said of course! Sugar Spun Sister is the first in the Sweet Dreams series and I. Loved. It. Anna, you have another winner!

Here's the synopsis:

Life isn’t exactly sweet for Cricket Whittier. Her boss hates her, her work is soul-destroying, and the sexy guy she’s hooking up with doesn’t want to date her. But this girl is far from hopeless. When Cricket’s in the kitchen with her ice cream maker and a few choice ingredients, her troubles slip away as she becomes a delectable dessert-designing powerhouse. She loves it so much, she dreams of opening her own ice cream shop one day.As it turns out, “one day” just might be closer than she thinks. Propelled by the help and encouragement of her best friends, Lindsay and Nora, Cricket starts making plans to set up shop. Which is easier said than done what with the internal squabbling, the sky-high costs, her parents forecasting failure and her increasingly complicated love life. Despite all these hurdles, will Cricket be able to make her sweet dreams come true?

Like with all of Garner's characters, I immediately fell in love with Cricket. She was so much fun and so easy to relate to. Also like most of Garner's characters, she's not afraid to drop the occasional f-bomb which, to me, makes her more real. I know some people could be put off by the swearing but that really doesn't bother me (because I've been known to swear like a sailor myself...). The dialogue between characters is totally believable and conversations always seem like ones I could have with my own girlfriends. But back to Cricket...I liked how invested she was in her little shop (once she finally realized her dream could be achieved) and that she allowed her friends to be a part of it. Sometimes I worried that she was letting them walk all over her but she learned how to balance business with friendship and how to keep the vision of her shop alive, even with the contrasting visions her friends had. I think she really learned a lot about herself by the end of the story.

I did find myself wondering about a few things...there was a lot of humour with how horrible Cricket's gargoyle boss was but sometimes I wondered if it was taking things too far. I also couldn't understand why she wouldn't try to make sure everyone knew that she wasn't living off of her uncle's money, even if he did help get her a job. I guess I just wanted to see her stand up for herself a bit more. There were also a lot of catering jobs that were described and sometimes I thought there were too many. The children's party was funny in a "can anything else go wrong?" kind of way but it didn't quite work with the flow of the story.

We've been seeing a lot of baking type stories in the chick lit/romance world the last little while (I've actually reviewed two just this week!) and I thought the ice cream shop was a great twist on this current fad. Garner did a great job of really showing both how hard it can be to open up your own shop and how fun and exhilarating it can be. Thanks to her writing I was both stressed and excited for the girls as they went on their entrepreneurial journey! And I really wish this ice cream shop existed in my neighbourhood! It sounds like it's just the cutest shop ever and it helps that they hired some hot guys to work for them too! ;) Still on the ice cream theme, I loved that Garner put recipes at the start of each chapter and that they had something to do with the chapter and Cricket actually made them within that chapter. Several of them made my mouth water...especially this one:


I'm a sucker for mint chocolate anything!

Finally, I liked that the romance in the novel took a bit of a backseat to the rest of the story. Sure, I always like having a nice romance in the books I read but I knew it wasn't the point of this story, not totally. But it wouldn't be a great chick lit without a little bit of relationship drama! I knew Cricket thought she was happy with Jimmy (and I thought it was hilarious that they called him Jiminy...you know, Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio?) and I was so hoping that she'd realize it was actually a toxic relationship. And also realize who she was supposed to be with! One of the reasons I'm looking forward to the next book is to see how they're getting along!

I think Sugar Spun Sister was amazing and I couldn't put it down! Anna Garner has created a great series and I can't wait to read the next book in the Sweet Dreams collection. I'd guess that Nora will be the next main character, only because her story was left totally up in the air at the end of this one. If you're looking for a fun, real, and sweet read make sure you check this one out!