Tag: Rusk University

Sunday Spotlight: All Played Out by Cora Carmack

Posted April 30, 2017 by Rowena in Features, Giveaways | 7 Comments

Sunday Spotlight is a feature we started in 2016. Each week, we will spotlight a book that we loved or are excited about. We’ll be sharing why we love each book so much. Being total fangirls. You’ve been warned. šŸ™‚

Sunday Spotlight

All Played Out is the third book in Cora Carmack’s Rusk University series. It’s a contemporary NA that follows a couple of college kids getting their love on. It’s an opposites attract love story that hit me in my feels from the time I started the book, up until I finished it.

Mateo Torres is an unapologetic party animal who is enjoying the college scene with his football teammates. He’s loud and he’s proud and I absolutely adored him from the moment I met him in All Lined Up. He’s got an in your face personality that charmed the socks right off of me and I couldn’t wait to dig into his story and find out who his heroine was.

Nell is the opposite of Torres. She’s not a party animal. She’s spent the last four years, studying hard and getting high grades in all of her classes. She’s spent so much of her college years with her nose in a book, trying to stay on top of everything that she wants to have a little fun. Who but Torres to help her let loose? Right?

The shenanigans that these two get into in this book had me laughing, sighing and just enjoying the heck out of their blossoming romance. This is such a fun book!

All Played Out by Cora Carmack
Series: Rusk University #3
Also in this Series: All Lined Up, All Broke Down
Released on May 12, 2015 by William Morrow Paperbacks

First person in her family to go to college? CHECK.
Straight Aā€™s? CHECK.
On track to graduate early? CHECK.
Social life? ā€¦..yeah, about thatā€¦.

With just a few weeks until she graduates, Antonella DeLucaā€™s beginning to worry that maybe she hasnā€™t had the full college experience. (Okay… Scratch that. She knows she hasn’t had the full college experience).

So Nell does what a smart, dedicated girl like herself does best. She makes a “to do” list of normal college activities.

Item #1? Hook up with a jock.

Rusk University wide receiver Mateo Torres practically wrote the playbook for normal college living. When heā€™s not on the field, he excels at partying, girls, and more partying. As long as he keeps things light and easy, it’s impossible to get hurt… again. But something about the quiet, shy, sexy-as-hell Nell gets under his skin, and when he learns about her list, he makes it his mission to help her complete it.

Torres is the definition of confident (And sexy. And wild), and he opens up a side of Nell that she’s never known. But as they begin to check off each crazy, exciting, normal item, Nell finds that her frivolous list leads to something more serious than she bargained for. And while Torres is used to taking risks on the field, he has to decide if he’s willing to take the chance when it’s more than just a game.

Together they will have to decide if what they have is just part of the experiment or a chance at something real.

Pre-Order the Book:

AMAZON || BARNES AND NOBLE || KOBO

Why You Should Read It

I could probably go on and on about why you need to read this book. Is it good? Damn straight it is. Are you going to love it? I’m damned confident that you are. But, really…the one thing you need to read that should pique your interest is the following list that our brash and crude hero wrote for his girl. Check it out:

Ways to Prove that you love Nell De Luca

1. Tell her. Every day. Three times a day. As many times as it takes.

2. Never choose anything else over her. Not football. Not your own stubbornness. Nothing.

3. Be there whether she wants to go skinny-dipping or wants to study. Make sure she knows that sheā€™s the adventure, not anything else.

4. Always tell her how amazing her food is (okay . . . that one is partly for you, too, because it means you get to keep eating her food).

5. Give her the best sex of her life (also works out pretty well for you).

6. Teach her whatever she wants to know, and learn from her, too. Sheā€™s a fucking genius.

7. Tell her sheā€™s a fucking genius. All the time. When she doubts it and when she doesnā€™t. Just tell her.

8. Never walk away after a fight. Donā€™t. Fucking. Do it.

9. Prove you love her (preferably in bed, but thatā€™s optional) once a day. Three times a day. As many times as it takes.

10. Be worthy of her. Not by playing football or pretending to be something youā€™re not. By being the man she makes you feel like you are. Strong and smart and kind and so damn lucky to have her.

Are you curious about why he felt the need to write out a list to try to prove his love? There are lots of things that go down to bring about this list. Don’t you want to find out why? You should pick this book up because it’s funny, it’s crazy passionate and you’ll fall in love with the main couple just like I did.

You won’t be able to help yourself. You’ll be just like Nell when she thought the following:

ā€œBecause Mateo Torres is loud, and Iā€™m quiet. Because heā€™s reckless, and Iā€™m cautious. Because he belongs everywhere, and I donā€™t.

Because I think Iā€™m in danger of falling in love with him.ā€

Yep, it’s a good story with fabulous characters and a steamy romance. Don’t miss out!

Rusk University


Giveaway Alert

We’re giving one lucky winner their choice of one of our Sunday Spotlight books. Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter for one of this monthā€™s features.

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Do you love this book as much as we do? Let us know what your favorite parts of this book are!

About the Author

Cora Carmack

WEBSITE || FACEBOOK || INSTAGRAM || PINTEREST || TWITTER || TUMBLR

Cora Carmack is a twenty-something writer who likes to write about twenty-something characters. Sheā€™s done a multitude of things in her lifeā€“ boring jobs (like working retail), fun jobs (like working in a theatre), stressful jobs (like teaching), and dream jobs (like writing). Raised in a small Texas town, she now splits her time between New York City and Austin and spends her time writing, traveling, and marathoning various television shows on Netflix. In her books, you can expect to find humor, heart, and a whole lot of awkward. Because letā€™s face it . . . awkward people need love, too. Her first book, LOSING IT, was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller.

Represented by the fabulous Suzie Townsend of New Leaf Literary.


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Review: All Played Out by Cora Carmack

Posted June 28, 2015 by Rowena in Reviews | 3 Comments

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins

all played out
Rowena’s review of All Played Out (Rusk University #3) by Cora Carmack.

First person in her family to go to college? CHECK.
Straight Aā€™s? CHECK.
On track to graduate early? CHECK.
Social life? ā€¦..yeah, about thatā€¦.

With just a few weeks until she graduates, Antonella DeLucaā€™s beginning to worry that maybe she hasnā€™t had the full college experience. (Okay… Scratch that. She knows she hasn’t had the full college experience).

So Nell does what a smart, dedicated girl like herself does best. She makes a “to do” list of normal college activities.

Item #1? Hook up with a jock.

Rusk University wide receiver Mateo Torres practically wrote the playbook for normal college living. When heā€™s not on the field, he excels at partying, girls, and more partying. As long as he keeps things light and easy, it’s impossible to get hurt… again. But something about the quiet, shy, sexy-as-hell Nell gets under his skin, and when he learns about her list, he makes it his mission to help her complete it.

Torres is the definition of confident (And sexy. And wild), and he opens up a side of Nell that she’s never known. But as they begin to check off each crazy, exciting, normal item, Nell finds that her frivolous list leads to something more serious than she bargained for. And while Torres is used to taking risks on the field, he has to decide if he’s willing to take the chance when it’s more than just a game.

Together they will have to decide if what they have is just part of the experiment or a chance at something real.

This book!

I loved it. I loved the characters. I loved the romance. I loved the cast. I just flat out loved everything so be prepared for a lot of gushing in this review. I’m apologizing in advance for all of the oohing and ahhing I will be doing in this review.

Nell DeLuca is months away from graduating from college early and she’s realized that she hasn’t really lived the college experience so she’s going to change that. She makes a college bucket list and with the help of local party boy, football star Mateo Torres, she starts to make some progress on that list.

Mateo doesn’t know why he’s drawn to Nell so much but he is. Sure, she reminds him of his ex-girlfriend but there’s chemistry brewing between them and on top of wanting to bone her, he wants to get to know her.

When we first meet Torres in the other books, he’s this player. He loves to party and he loves being the center of attention. He doesn’t take anything seriously so when I found out that his girl was going to be Nell, who is the complete opposite of him, I knew it was going to be a great story and it was.

I read and loved both of the books that came before this one. I loved Carson and I loved Silas but there was something about Torres in this book that put him over the top as my favorite hero of this series. I loved seeing the party boy tamed by the nerdy girl. I loved seeing him fall more and more in love with Nell before he even realizes he’s falling. He was so much fun to get to know that he made this story for me.

Nell was Torres’ opposite in every way and I loved her. I thought she was awesome in that nerdy, you have to know her to love her kind of way. I’ve known a lot of Nell’s in my life. People who are too smart or book smart but completely ignorant of the world outside of their academics. Nell didn’t know how to act or be or even feel around people her own age. She threw herself into her studies because those were the things that she understood. She was awkward and she was smart and she rocked my socks.

Nell and Torres together was pretty awesome too. I loved seeing Nell not understand that Torres was serious when he said he wanted to hang out with her. I loved seeing how jealous Torres got whenever Nell did something on the list without him. I just loved seeing the two of them come together.

Their beginning was cute, their bumpy road was interesting and the way that they came together was great too. I’m hard pressed to find anything to gripe about because everything in this book worked for me. All of it. Torres. Nell. Seeing the gang again. The list. Everything.

I loved it.

Grade: 5 out of 5

This book is available from William Morrow & Company. You can purchase it here or here in e-format.


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