Book Recommendation Thursday ~ Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward

A former blood slave, the vampire Zsadist still bears the scars from a past filled with suffering and humiliation. Renowned for his unquenchable fury and sinister deeds, he is a savage feared by humans and vampires alike. Anger is his only companion, and terror is his only passion—until he rescues a beautiful aristocrat from the evil Lessening Society.

Bella is instantly entranced by the seething power Zsadist possesses. But even as their desire for one another begins to overtake them both, Zsadist’s thirst for vengeance against Bella’s tormentors drives him to the brink of madness. Now, Bella must help her lover overcome the wounds of his tortured past, and find a future with her…

The Twilight series is the series that got me back into reading BIG time but J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood is the series that got me into the Paranormal genre big time.  No sparkily vampires here!  It's best to start at the beginning of the series.  Each book builds off of the book before it.  Z and Bella's story is my FAVORITE one to date.  Kind of a vampire "Beauty and the Beast."  Check out this series!  I'll leave you with my ALL TIME FAVORITE quote from this book.

“I was dead until you found me, though I breathed. I was sightless, though I could see. And then you came...and I was awakened.”

Book Recommendation Thursday ~ Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Welcome to the first edition of Book Recommendation Thursday.  Every Thursday I will be posting a book that I have read at some point or another and enjoyed so much that I MUST recommend it to others.  If the book is one that I have reviewed here on the blog, there will be a link to the actual review itself.  Now for our inaugural pick.....

Synopsis:

Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.
The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

Why I recommend this book?:

This book was very different from anything I had been reading up the point that it arrived at my house.  Sure, I was reading a fair amount of Dystopian novels but I hadn't come across anything like Shatter Me yet.  The main character was a character that I could easily identify and connect with.  Plus, the love interest Adam to me wasn't your typical love interest.  This book for me was set up to impress and it most definately didn't let me down one bit.

My review