Thursday, November 21, 2013

Review: Lila Felix's "False Start"

Author: Lila Felix
Title: False Start
Expected Release Date: Nov 22



Blurb:
Rex has firsthand knowledge of how love can rip a person to shreds. How it can swallow a person whole, leaving them gasping for air, and dying a lonely person. He watched his mother give everything she had to his father and then she died, too weak and frail to continue on. His father, the deranged man who could barely feed himself—taking care of him left a permanent crease on Rex's heart. He swears he can still hear his pleas for help in his sleep. Nothing can give him solace from the painful memories.

Except this girl.

Hayes is a constant and consistent optimist. She's witnessed her mother and father’s almost perfect marriage and taken it as an example of what she wants. But she can’t seem to find a guy who is sincere. She’s dated them all— snake-in-the-grass jerks, straight-up commitment-phobes, fakes and phonies alike. They all fit her perfect dream on the outside, but when the relationship gets to the nitty gritty, they all crumble like stale bread. 
Unable to find a better man, she settles for nothing instead, wondering if a man who treats her right could even exist. With perfect parents and a team name like I Kilda Girl, that man would have a lot to live up to.

 
Until this boy.

When she sees a rugged, tattooed guy who shows up at all the derby bouts, she wonders if chasing the bad boy might just be right.

Be sure to add False Start to  Goodreads
 
 
 
My Review:
 
You need to know two things before you start False Start. First, have something yummy (sweet things are best) and have a big ol' box of tissues!!  Are you thinking what is she talking about? Let me explain, Hayes works at a bakery and makes all these delicious treats you'll just die to get your hands on.  As far as the tissues, I cried y'all like big UGLY tears!! Ok, ok, enough now that you have your supplies you're ready to hear about False Start, lets start with my favorite subject Rex *sigh*
 
Even though Nellie calls him the "Grinch of the family" I promise you'll fall hard and won't ever look back!! Rex had a difficult life and still holds a grudge against his deceased father for all his heartache. Rex watched his mother struggle to hold the family together only to have his father rip it apart for sport. Because of this, Rex holds everyone (even his own brother) at arms length.  He just can't risk having the pain that comes along with a family.  Now all that said, Rex doesn't sit around and say "Oh poor me & boo hoo!"  Nope, he wouldn't be Lila's guy if he was like that!  He's a fighter and determined to rise above his past. Rex goes to school, works for Falcon *sigh* and even supports the girls in the family by going to their derby games.  This where he sees Hayes for the first time.....
 
 
Hayes on the other hand grew up with the perfect loving and supportive family.  That however, doesn't mean that tragedy won't seep into your life. Hayes has learned to be strong, self reliant and a bit sassy you'll LOVE her!! She doesn't take anything off of anyone including Rex. Hayes is  determined to make Rex understand that he does deserve be in a loving relationship and be loved. The closer he gets to Hayes, the more in love he falls. Will he listen to his heart and let go, or will unrealistic fears keep him from what he needs most of all?
 
 
What I Thought:
 
I know I've said it before, but Lila is truly THE master story teller!!! She has the power to enthrall and captivate the reader with  realistic characters. There is a little bit of all of us in each of Lila's characters, perhaps that's why we adore them so much?? Oh and her men!! HER MEN!!!! How can you NOT love them?? Rex is no exception, he's sexy, bold, sexy, smart, sexy, caring, sexy, intelligent, sexy, devoted, sexy and determined and did I say sexy???? Yet another book boy to add to your collection!!
 
 
Missing the Black family?? No problem, Lila brings them all back, no really!! You get to see how each member is progressing in his/her life and the struggles they are currently facing. "False Start" contains a struggle that brings the family to their knees, but they wouldn't be the Blacks we know and love if that didn't bring them closer.
 
This book is full of love, tragedy, laughter, tears, romance, growing pains and undying faith in the bonds of family. You'll think of this love story long after you've finished and want to revisit it often!
 
 

 
 Buy Links (for all of the following books) 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
**** OTHER WORKS****
*All works can be found on the above links*

 

Skate Series


Love and Skate:
On the rink she’s tough, she’s a leader, she’s fast and she’s the epitome of a rebellious girl. But Nellie’s been hurt, only once, but it was enough to make her look at life through different eyes and off the rink she’s a timid girl who loves with no pretenses.
A long time ago Owen Black was betrayed by the girl he thought he loved and the guy he called his best friend. The anguish set off a domino effect of negativity in his life and he never has fully recovered. He meets Nellie Forrester and thinks he can let it go for her.
But how can you love someone when the wounds from your past are still wide open?

 
 
How It Rolls:
Despite the odds, Reed Wolfe is making it, by the skin of her teeth. Her dreams and aspirations will have to wait until she can get on her feet. Because right now she’s homeless and churning on a downward spiral.

Falcon Black is existing. Not living, not thriving, just jutting along a path. But when he finds Reed, he can’t resist the urge to help her, lighten her load. But Falcon tends to go overboard, over the line, crossing boundaries he never thought he would and risking her trust in the process.

Can she accept his love or will it end up smothering her?

 
 
Down 'N' Derby: 
 Maddox is running.
By accident, he discovered long ago that he was adopted as a baby and his need to find his biological father has consumed him ever since. Now, on a road trip, determined to find his father and his sanity, and armed with locations and his cousin, Nixon, to help him, maybe he can find the answers he’s been searching for. With nothing but a suitcase and a wad of cash to get him there, lead after lead takes him further from home.
But he’ll find much more than he intended.
He finds Storey, a pint sized pin-up model who has learned painful lessons about guys. Her wounds run deep, but so do his. She knows what she wants, but will she recognize it when it’s right in front of her?
Maddox can’t touch anyone without feeling like his skin is crawling, but just maybe his instinct to protect this amazing girl will supersede his own hang-ups.
If he can brush her skin and start to feel alive inside...everything will change
 
 
 
Caught In A Jam:
Nixon Black has made mistakes. He made one mistake that would change his life forever. Now he’s working and in school—and he’s got a three year old. He gave up dating when Scout was born, but every night he retreats to another life in his mind, one he could’ve had with her.

Journey spent her formative years on the arm of any boy that didn’t expect anything out of her. She was hiding from the one person who did expect something in return—Nixon. Years after being cheated on and dumped for the last time, she takes a job at a daycare center where there’s a genius of a ginger haired girl whose last name is Black.

But the roles have been reversed and Journey is no longer Nixon’s first priority. Can he make room for the new Journey? And when he does, will he be able to forgive the old one?
 

 
she's spent a long time in a bubble. In an odd turn of events, Corinne is taken out of boarding school and plunged into high school where bullies reign and nice guys come in last.

But this is after she's already fallen in love with Abel over the summer.

Abel is trapped, with friends he secretly hates, but has chosen to stay with the status quo. It's just high school, right?

What do you do when the person you love sees the very worst part of you? And how do you help them when they discover their life is a hoax?




Remi Harris has a plan. Graduate high school, go to college, become a history teacher, be self-sufficient unlike her mother who is a struggling single mom. And the word ‘boy’ has no place in her plan.
Cooper Neal has been sent to his estranged father’s house to spend his Senior year getting to know him. And maybe, just maybe, there will be some cute girls in the small town.

Cooper sees Remi and he falls hard. Remi sees Cooper and wonders if she can do both. The question is; will he ruin her plans, or will she let him be a part of them?




Jenna has spent too long being complacent and accepting. Her mother and step-father constantly belittle and berate her for simply being alive. She passes through life keeping everyone and everything at arm’s length because it’s just not worth the questions or the pity party. She takes what they dish out and just tries to survive.
She has thought up a million different ways to get away from them, but lacked the motivation and the sheer will. Like a fast moving tornado, her motivation comes in the form of a boy who cares for her as none other has and who shows her a glimpse of hope, a glimpse into a life she never thought she could have.
But is her new motivation enough to get her out....



Written with Rachel Higginson
Cami Montgomery stole a car and smashed it into the front of a building in upscale Beverly Hills after a lousy date with the epitome of sleaze balls. The worst part, her parents are following through on threats after this latest plea for attention. Banished from her L.A. paradise and plunged into the Appalachian Mountains with her industrious aunt and uncle, Cami is about to find out how precious life really is.

Stockton Wright has been thrust into a hard life. He sacrifices everything to give his family and community what they need. He’s exhausted from life and work—and he’s only twenty four. What he needs is some change, and some sunshine. Even he will agree to that. He just doesn’t expect to find it in a stuck up, pompous, entitled Californian.

Cami bursts into Stockton’s life like wildfire, consuming all his thoughts and tangling him in her web. What starts out as a contentious rivalry evolves into a desire neither of them expected. When hammer meets metal, will they crack under pressure or be forged as one?

Cami and Stockton might just end up being exactly what the other one needs, but first their love will have to be drawn out in fireachel Higginson


 
Anguish was the status quo, until she walked in.
Breaker James Collins is confined in a prison of his own making. Scarred doesn’t begin to define his hell since finding out his girlfriend had cheated, stolen, and lied two years ago. It led to a single event—one that would blacken his days and his nights from then on. Since then, he hasn’t left his house, crippled by fear of people and any social interaction.
Ashland talks too much and has the voice of a meth-laden prairie dog, or so she’s always been told. She’s been called annoying and irritating all of her life and gave up on having friends for a long time. College has given her a new lease on a social life and she’s embraced who she is. But now she’s waiting for the one guy who can take her breath away and put up with her antics.
A simple note pinned to a corkboard will lead Ash right to Breaker’s solitary world and she will learn that just because a guy doesn’t fit her ideal, doesn’t mean she won’t fall head over feet in love.
 
 
 
All she wanted was a friend---one that knew her and not her circumstances. She needed somewhere to call home. Hers was an open door for countless men looking for the services her mother offered them. She camouflaged herself against lockers and blackboards to avoid the stares and whispers at school.

And then she found Cal...and Fade.

Cal lives like Frankenstein, rising at night to work and just trying to make it until dawn. He avoids most relationships, afraid of the things he will be asked to do. He moonlights as Fade, a radio station DJ who spends hours counseling his peers on their troubles. It was all mundane until Jocelyn called the station.

Cal and Havok pursue a friendship.

Jocelyn and Fade pursue a relationship beyond the confines of the radio waves.

But when Havok disappears, Cal will find that Havok has been guarding a lifetime worth of secrets. And when Fade and Jocelyn’s all night phone conversations cease, he finds a link between them he never saw coming.


 
 
THIS IS A NOVELLA SERIES
The United States has collapsed. Those citizens who are left are in one of two classes. One: Citizens who have undergone forced lobotomies, as mandated by the United Nations. Two: Those who fight against their tyranny.
Petra Kingsley falls under both classes. She falls in line with the drones, pretending her procedure worked. She’s existed among their ranks, hiding in plain sight, being worked to the bone and starved almost to death.
Lawson is a bounty hunter of sorts. His target isn’t the guilty, it’s those who are lost in the folds of a broken society.
When he spots Petra working in the masses, he stops at nothing to help her escape.
But he has no idea who exactly he’s helping—and who will now be hunting them both?


 
Coming Soon!!!
 

 More Forced Autonomy


and

 
You Little Thief
 
 
 
 
About My Girl Lila:
 
 
I am a stay at home mom from the South and wife to the most giving and hard working husband ever.  I love to cook and try out new recipes even if they don't always turn out like I want them to.  I refer to my kids lovingly as the Three Stooges as they are constantly coming up with new ways to reek havoc in the house.  Most recently that included putting a rubberband on the kitchen sink sprayer so it would douse me when I did the dishes.  I love to go to roller derby bouts and read in my spare time.  I write mostly at night when the house is silent and I can sneak cookies without having to share!  If you're into stalking, try under the Cypress trees in the swamps of Louisiana, but watch out for gators!!
 
Stalking Links:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



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