Dying to Dance by Jamie Cortland

Genre: Adult, Romance, Suspence
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

From Goodreads:
Char and Diana Mansville, two sisters in their early twenties, lose their parents in a tragic accident. Finding themselves on the brink of financial disaster, they re-locate to southwest Florida to live with their aunt, a beautiful and wealthy ballroom dancer.
Once there, they meet handsome and charismatic Roland Donovan, who is a sociopath and involved in a deadly insurance scheme. Stricken by Diana's beauty and charm, he sets his focus upon her and relentlessly begins his pursuit of her.

My Thoughts:
The book starts out describing the tragic death of Char and Diana. After the loss of their parents they move to Florida to stay with their aunt.  Once established the two sister/writers go their separate way. Diana finds a condo not too far from her aunt and begins ballroom dance classes. Char moves to the East coast to live with her grandfather, windsurf, write and take ballroom dancing. As the book progresses we find  that Diana's former boyfriend is a private investigator who has been working a case that takes him back to Florida and Diana. 

There is quite a bit going on in the story. We find the two sisters meeting deadlines with their editors, starting new books, all the while taking competitive ballroom dance classes. I was surprised by the ending.  I thought I knew what was going to happen but was pleasently surprised to realize I was wrong.  This is a good book and one I would recommend to those who likesuspense, and romance that isn't mushy and full of sex.

The Rise of Ren Crown by Anne Zoelle

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Source: I purchased a copy

From Goodreads:

Reeling from what the students at Excelsine University are calling "Bloody Tuesday," Ren is determined to regather her magical family. But the events of the attack were not without multiple costs. Magically broken and exposed, Ren is ripe pickings for multiple factions that want to use and chain her, and the Department is the scariest of the pack.

With only a limited amount of time to save her friend, and confined with the rest of the student body awaiting their fate, Ren stands a mere hairsbreadth from losing her freedom completely with each and every decision she makes.

My Thoughts:

I thought that this was the final book in the series, and was surprised to learn it is not.  Ren’s character continues to grow.  She continues to be the best friend that she can be. She still puts herself on the back burner for her friends. The bond between all of them is strong.  In this book we see more of the contrast between Dare and Constantine.  Ren’s magic makes her a target which in turn puts her friends in danger.  The loyalty and disloyalty in this book has been taken up a notch. Fighting the “Department” was terrifying to read.  This book in my opinion is much darker and more violent. Don’t get me wrong, I love dark novels. This one seemed to end so abruptly that I can’t wait to read what will be in the next one. I will warn that this one is a lot more violent.  I enjoyed it immensely.

The Protection of Ren Crown by Anne Zoelle

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

From Goodreads:

Barely surviving her first term at college, all Ren wants to do over break is relax and bond with her roommate—not get eaten by a sentient building or attacked on the street. But with increasingly open warfare brewing between the magical factions and Layers of the world, this time, Ren will not fail in making sure everyone she loves stays safe and protected. 

That includes doing things like filling her parent's house with personal art heavily embedded with wards, bubble-wrapping her increasingly imperiled roommate, and even making sure that a certain sexy thorn-in-her-side continues to breathe free air.

Finding herself on duty protecting the entire university alongside campus god Alexander Dare...was not what she'd had in mind. 

But this time it's not only her life on the line. And Ren will do anything to protect those she loves.

My Thoughts:

While I loved the first book in this series, the second was even better. We get to see the characters grow throughout the story. No stale, static characters here.  I really enjoyed getting to know Dare better.   Excelsine, the world the author has created just keeps getting better.  Ren has worked her magic when it comes to friending people. Olivia has started to come around now.  Reading this book is like peeling an onion one layer at a time. The story line gets sweeter and sweeter.