Been Away....My American Road Trip 2014

Where do I begin?

Sorry I haven't posted in a while guys, I have been travelling around America since May and haven't really had the time to blog...I know I've been really bad. 

But I had a fantastic time and got to see a lot of really incredible places and do a bunch of amazing things. 

It all started when my family and I decided we wanted to go to Nashville for the Country Music Festival (being hardcore fans) so I decided I was going to stay and travel around America by myself, and my sister Josie decided she was going to come with me, so off we went, to America.

We flew into Atlanta, but the next day drove to New Orleans, which is such a vibrant place and after that we went to Memphis, which was amazing, visiting Sun Studio's is definitely up there with one of the best things I did on this trip. 

(Inn on St. Peters, our hotel in the French Quarter)

(Elvis, Cash, Lewis & Perkins microphone, Sun Studios)

Then after Memphis we headed to Nashville!!! And my god it was incredible, I want to make it an annual occurrence, all the performers where amazing and the atmosphere was definitely something you need to experience once in your lifetime. 

 (CMA Festival in Nashville) 

(Photo-booth at one of the exhibition stands at the CMA festival)

When we were in Nashville Josie's and my friend Lucy decided she wanted to come out and join us, so when we were headed back to Atlanta for everyone else to catch a flight home, she flew out and joined us. 

When we were in Atlanta we went to a baseball game and got foam fingers. It's so much fun, but just like rounders (my UK readers will understand what rounders is). After Atlanta we went to Washington D.C, which is such an amazing city! I definitely recommend visiting, we did all the touristy things while we were there and even used their version of Boris Bikes and cycled to Georgetown (which if you are there, go and get a cupcake from Georgetown Cupcakes, they are to die for!!) From there we made our way down the coast stopping at Virginia Beach, Myrtle Beach, Charleston (where we got our car stuck in a huge pothole), Savannah and then made our way into Florida. 

 (Atlanta Braves baseball game)

(THE White House)

 ($2 Mimosa in Virginia Beach)

 (Rainbow Street in Charleston)

 (Car getting stuck in Folly Beach)

(Savannah)

After Savannah we entered Florida having planned our first stop there to be Daytona, but after arriving and not liking our hotel and it being dead we left and headed to Orlando where we were for 4th July, after that we went to Miami and got to swim with DOLPHINS!! After Miami we drove to Tampa where we spent a couple of days before we flew to San Diego.

 (Universal Walk in Minion Glasses)

(Water ride at Typhoon Lagoon)

(Swimming with Dolphins in Key Largo, during our stay in Miami) 

(Busch Gardens in Tampa) 

Going from the East Coast to the West Coast there were a few differences, 1) a lot more touristy 2) people are generally nicer on the east coast, but the people from The South are the friendliest by far and 3) the weather is a lot better. We flew into San Diego and from there made our way up the coast to L.A and Santa Monica where Lucy went home. 

 (Sea Lions at La Jolla)

(Laguna Beach, unfortunately we didn't see LC)

 (Us sitting on THE ACTUAL FRIENDS SOFA during our Warner Brothers Studio Tour)

 (Dierks Bentley Riser Tour at the Greek Theatre L.A, with Jon Pardi, Chase Rice and Chris Young)

(Muscle Beach)

After we dropped Lucy off at LAX, Josie and I headed to Runyan Canyon for a hike, and then continued on with our road trip, next stop was Palm Springs (where the temperature was 120 Fahrenheit, so bloody hot) then from Palm Springs we headed to Malibu going via Huntington Beach to watch the US Surf Open, then from Malibu we headed to Santa Barbara where we did our own surfing.

 (Runyan Canyon with a view of Los Angeles)

(Mount San Jacinto hike in Palm Springs)

(US Surf Open)

(Malibu)

(Surf Lesson in Santa Barbara)

From Santa Barbara we took the coastal route up to San Francisco having a night stay in Cambria and stopping at Big Sur. Once we got to San Francisco the traffic was a nightmare but after about an hour we made it to our hotel and got settled ready to take on our time there. 

 (Josie with her stone tower in Big Sur)

 (Photo stop during our cycle to and along the Golden Gate Bridge)

(Stuck in Alcatraz)

From San Francisco, we then went to Yosemite National Park where we enjoyed 3 long days of hikes, and saw some incredible views! Then we headed to our last destination VEGAS, during our time here we went on an over night trip to the Grand Canyon, to get there we went via the Hoover Dam and the historic route 66.

(We're on top of the world in Yosemite)

 (Our home while we were in Yosemite)

(Yosemite National Park)

 (Mason Jar beer at I Like This Bar and Grill in Vegas)

 (Hoover Dam) 

 (Route 66)

 (Grand Canyon National Park)

 (Grand Canyon National Park)

(530am sunrise over the Grand Canyon)

 (Las Vegas Strip)

 (Iconic Bellagio water dance)

And that was my 2014 American road trip, I will now be back on book reviewing and I'm also going to start adding a few other pieces on my blog, this will be either my own writing or reviews on different genre books and things other than books that interest me. 

 (Las Vegas)

Forged, G.A Regla PROMO

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Title:   Forged (Fragments of Me #1)

Author:  G.A. Regla

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publication Date:  14 February 2014

Cover Designed by:  Whispering Words Graphics

Synopsis:

What happens when the lines of love and friendship are blurred?

After discovering a heart shattering secret Elora Gerent collects the fragments of her life, and returns home in hopes of finding a way to put them all together. What she didn't expect to find was her sexy playboy neighbor Thane. 

Thane has shards of his own that he's left with to reassemble. Never did he imagine that the wholesome girl next door would make him even want to try. On the Eve of this fourth deployment a hope is crushed and they part on bad terms. 

When a dreaded phone call reaches Elora she realizes that the frame is always bigger than its picture. 

Will Thane and Elora remain fragments of who they are, or will they forge the shattered shards?

Fallen Crest Public, Tijan

Amazon UK

Amazon US

ARC received by author for an honest review

Fallen Crest Public is the 3^rd book in the Fallen Crest Series.

Being a huge fan of the Fallen Crest series I must say I was not let down and I found the book was better than Fallen Crest Family (book 2 in the series) one of the reasons for this is because I felt like the feisty Sam from Fallen Crest High (book 1 in the series) started to make an appearance but not completely.

I have so much love for Mason, but something’s he did in this book were unforgivable and strange, I understand that he was doing it with Sam’s best interest at heart, but I just found it a little farfetched and am unsure as to how Sam is able to get passed it all.

Logan is well same old Logan from the last two books, fun, argumentative and sexy as hell, however I didn’t like Tate being back and I didn’t really like the storyline that went along with her and Logan. But I guess it all happens for a reason, because if that didn’t happen the story would be different and the ending would have been completely different to what it was.

Katie and her friends were your average high school bullies, trying to take Sam down so they could be back in with Mason, Logan and Nate. Although their ways of doing this at the beginning was what you’d expect from high school students, Mason’s revenge was not, and was extreme.

This book was good and I am excited to read Fallen Fourth Down (book 4 in the series) however I really hope the book isn’t headed the way the cliff-hanger suggests, because I think that would ruin the series altogether.

This book was good, better than the last and I will be reading the next book in the series, therefore I give it  3* rating

Back to Reality, Danielle Allen

Received ARC of this book for an honest view.

After reading the first book in the Back to Life series I must say I was excited when Danielle asked me to review this one as well. I loved the first book, so I was nervous about the second; would it live up to my expectations? Would Sahara go for the Tyree the guy I was rooting for or would she go to Manny her childhood love?

I must say Danielle Allen didn’t disappoint me, throughout the book there was a good amount of drama, love and sex. Although I was kind of hoping in this book Sahara would be a bit of a stronger character she was still struggling to find herself and quite weak.

The relationship between Sahara and her best friend is back to what it used to be like, they are stronger than ever and even when Sahara runaway again she told her where she was going and what she was doing.

My favourite part of the book was near the end when Manny and Sahara sing a love song together, even though I was rooting for Tyree in that part of the book you could really feel the chemistry between the characters and see them both come to terms with their feelings.

What I did find about the book was that Sahara writing letters was a bit repetitive. I know that her therapist told her to write her feelings down in a journal, I just wish Sahara was strong enough to face people instead of hiding behind words, tell everyone to their faces how she really feels, because for me it was just a sign of how weak of a person she is and at the end of the book although she made a choice and is happy, the final letter made me feel as if she still had so far to come before she would be strong.

Overall I give this book 3.5* I didn't enjoy it as much as the first one, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a great book.

For the Back to Reality Blog Tour

Waiting on Wednesday: Week 13

Waiting on Wednesday hosted by Breaking the Spine

Fallen Crest Public (Fallen Crest Series #3)

Coming December 30, 2013

Sam's first day at Fallen Crest Public doesn't go well. Some girls want to be her. Some girls want to destroy her. And some just don't like her. All in all, despite being protected by Mason and Logan it's still only the strong survive. 

Sam will not only have to survive, she needs to learn how to conquer too, but there's another battle growing. Things are about to come to a disastrous end between the towns, Roussou and Fallen Crest. 

Sam's other main dilemma? 

Keeping Mason and Logan from getting arrested or hospitalized.

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