YES! Cora Carmack's new book ALL LINED UP is finally here!!
Author: Cora Carmack
Publication Date: May 13, 2014
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary
Age Recommendation:
17 and up
Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
In Texas, two things are cherished above all else—football and gossip. My life has always been ruled by both.
Dallas Cole loathes football. That's what happens when you spend your whole childhood coming in second to a sport. College is her time to step out of the bleachers, and put the playing field (and the players) in her past.
But life doesn't always go as planned. As if going to the same college as her football star ex wasn’t bad enough, her father, a Texas high school coaching phenom, has decided to make the jump to college ball… as the new head coach at Rusk University. Dallas finds herself in the shadows of her father and football all over again.
Carson McClain is determined to go from second-string quarterback to the starting line-up. He needs the scholarship and the future that football provides. But when a beautiful redhead literally falls into his life, his focus is more than tested. It's obliterated.
Dallas doesn't know Carson is on the team. Carson doesn't know that Dallas is his new coach's daughter.
And neither of them know how to walk away from the attraction they feel.
Excerpt:
There’s only one thing in the world I despise more than football, and he’s making his way down the stairs toward me.
My eyes flit around me like I’m scanning a battlefield instead of a blowout:fraternity banners, litter of red Solo cups, and a freshman pledge dragging around a trash bag playing reluctant maid. Part of me wants to keep doing that, to pretend like I didn’t hear him.
But I can’t. If I ignore him, it will only prove to him that he still bothers me.
I face him as he steps off the last stair, crossing his arms over his broad chest and grinning at me. Levi. My ex.
He leans his hip against the banister of the grand staircase, and I spy not one but two girls sitting halfway up the stairs, obviously upset that they’ve lost his attention.
Behind me I hear someone shout, “Ready. Aim. Fire!” and I know the beer guns are back in play.
“Alcohol and bad decisions, Levi? Can’t say I’m surprised to find you smack-dab in the middle of that.”
He kicks off from the banister, swaggering a few steps closer. His dark hair and eyes are as striking as always. I’d fallen for him so hard my freshman year of high school: doodling our names together in my spiral, watching him play from the bleachers, wearing that monstrous mum he gave me for homecoming, beaming on his elbow at his junior prom.
The memory of all that just makes me nauseated now. But as Stella always says, hindsight is a pretentious, know-it-all bitch.
“You come here to make some bad decisions?” He moves closer, his voice pitching lower. Intimate. His gaze drifts down my body with an arrogant familiarity. “Because you know I can help you with that.”
Levi Abrams has been the cause of enough bad decisions for a lifetime.
Stella steps in, her voice colder than I’ve ever heard it. “I’m fairly certain she’d rather sandpaper her own skin off.”
I nod and plaster on the fakest smile in my arsenal. “And then take a bath in lemon juice.”
Levi smiles back, and I’m pretty sure the bastard is enjoying this.
He’s bigger than when I last saw him. Bulked up. I guess that’s the difference between high school and college ball. But it’s not just muscles… he reaches out a hand like he’s going to touch my hair, and as I jerk back, even his hands seem bigger than I remember. A man’s hands, rather than those of the boy I knew. Or maybe his head got so big that his inflated ego overflowed to other parts of his body. Also a possibility.
I knew Levi was here when I chose Rusk University—hard not to when he’s the starting quarterback—but I didn’t think I’d ever have to see him. Since Dad wouldn’t let me leave Texas, and only a handful of universities here actually have a true dance major, Rusk was the best option out of the schools to which I was allowed to apply.
Levi lets his hand fall away and turns to leave, but then stops to say over his shoulder, “You don’t have to pretend to hate me so much, you know. I’m here. You’re here. We could start fresh, D.”
Why does no one get that it’s impossible to have a fresh start when nothing has really changed? God, I knew that better than anybody because no matter how many new coaching jobs Dad took, every school ended up the same.
Levi is still a douche-bag who only cares about himself.
Dad still approaches parenting like I’m a member of his team.
And I… I’m still stuck. In my father’s shadow. In Texas. In this lame state school with a joke of a dance program.
And now I’m stuck at my first frat party with the ex who broke my heart.
Yay college.
My Review:
This is Cora Carmack's best book yet in my opinion. All Lined Up is just a great story. The characters are straight forward, there isn't too much drama or angst like you get in many NA's. Don't get me wrong there is some, I mean we are talking about young college aged kids, but it's not so overwhelming that you find yourself wanting to simultaneously roll your eyes while choking the snot out of one of the characters. *winks*
The Book is a dual POV from Dallas and Carson and seriously I loved them both.
"God, I just thought the word debauchery. Stella's right. I am going to end up a lame cat lady, probably yelling at people from my front porch and waving my cane around like a madwoman." -Dallas
Dallas, man did her character ever hit home with me. She's just a young woman trying to figure out how to live her life on her own terms while still forming to the mold of Coach's daughter. Terrified in a way to deal with the outcome of failing to live up to what she believes are her father's and societies expectations of her. Her tense relationship with her father (her only parent), her devastating relationship with her high school boyfriend (the quarterback and star of the football team), her drive to be perfect for everyone except herself...you can feel the weight that sits solidly on her chest as you read and also you feel every little moment when one of those weights lifts.
"I don't know if I always hate myself this much and I never think about it, or if it's a product of the reflection that's inherent in church and religion and being wildly unsuccessful at growing up. Feeling like every one around me can see the failure written across my forehead certainly doesn't help either." -Dallas
Carson, well now...Carson he's just perfect. Not in an eyes sparkling, teeth throwing off shafts of light when he smiles at you and rainbows shooting out his backside kind of perfect. No, Carson is perfect because he is imperfect (and his quarterback physique doesn't hurt *wink*), he is perfect because he does and is willing to fight for what he wants. He is willing to give everything he can to fight for his dreams and that is my favorite thing about Carson, he is never willing to give up, never willing to take the easy way out.
"...I'm surprised there are this many players here and at how wasted they all are. They take shit for granted...things I would kill for. But I'm used to feeling that way. Growing up poor makes you hyperaware of all the other things people take for granted" -Carson
Funnily enough I think that Dallas's wild best friend, Stella (isn't their always one and aren't they always surprisingly the wisest of the bunch?), sums everything that this book is about up in a few sentences.
"Oh, Sweetheart. You're going to be just fine. You're nowhere near as screwed up as you think you are.....This is just what it feels like to get older. It won't be the last time you look back at your life and realize just how stupid or naive or terrible you've been. I'm pretty sure that is a reoccurring thing until death due us part. The truth is...we're all a little screwed up. If humans were capable of being perfect there would be no such thing as Jerry Springer, and the world would be filled with unicorns and fairies....The only thing we can do is try to find people whose scars compliment our own." -Stella
All Lined Up is a funny, witty, sweet, emotional, sexy (but not over the top, another aspect I really enjoyed) book. It will settle down on your heart in a most comfortable sort of way and leave you wanting more from all the characters from Rusk University!
So warm up that one click finger and go get this awesome book, I promise you won't be disappointed! Oh and keep on scrolling down, there just might be a give away down there. *grins*
Cora Carmack Bio:
Cora Carmack is a twenty-something writer who likes to write about twenty-something characters. She's done a multitude of things in her life-- boring jobs (like working retail), Fun jobs (like working in a theatre), stressful jobs (like teaching), and dream jobs (like writing). She enjoys placing her characters in the most awkward situations possible, and then trying to help them get a boyfriend out of it. Awkward people need love, too. Her first book, LOSING IT, is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller.
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About Jennifer L. Armentrout:
# 1 NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing. she spends her time reading, working out, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell Loki.
Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen. Her book Obsidian has been optioned for a major motion picture and her Covenant Series has been optioned for TV.
She also writes adult and New Adult romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.
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