Tag: Hero of the Month

Hero of the Month: Dexter Jones from This Lullaby.

Posted February 16, 2011 by Rowena in Features | 4 Comments


Alright, so this month’s hero of the Month goes to a guy that isn’t known as being this hottie McHottie pants. He’s kind of on the dorky side and I loved him for it.

Dexter Jones.

He was a little crazy, a whole lot of awesome and when we first meet him in his book, This Lullaby, you know that you’re going to love him to bits!

Dexter and Remy are the perfect example of opposites attract. She’s very reserved, he’s so in your face passionate and it’s all great.

When Dexter first comes onto the scene in This Lullaby, he tells Remy in no uncertain terms that,

“I just thought to my self, all of a sudden, that we had something in common. A natural chemistry, if you will. And I had a feeling that something big was going to happen. To both of us. That we were, in fact, meant to be together.”

They were perfect strangers at this point but he knew, that in fact, they were meant to be together. What a curious young man Dexter Jones is and the more you get to know him through Remy’s eyes, the more you fell in love with him.

He’s not shy about putting himself out there and that’s what I liked about him. He was so passionate about life, about his music and about the people in his life and it was so easy to get caught up in the excitement that was Dexter. He was always broke too. He didn’t have eating utensils and yet, by talking to him or hanging out with him, you wouldn’t have known any of that.

What I loved most about Dexter is that he was real. He wasn’t this perfect guy that had the perfect smile, the perfect muscles or the perfect-ness about him. He was lanky, sometimes insane and yet none of that mattered because you liked him anyway.

He said things like this that made you break out in smiles. Check this out:

“The thing is,” he said, as if we’d been discussing the weather or world politics, “I saw you out in the showroom. I was over by the tire display?”

I was sure I was glaring at him. But he kept talking.

“I just thought to myself, all of a sudden, that we had something in common. A natural chemistry, if you will. And I had a feeling that something big was going to happen. To both of us. That we were, in fact, meant to be together.”

“You got all this,” I said, clarifying, “at the tire display?”

“You didn’t feel it?” he asked.

“No. I did, however, feel you slamming me into the wall,” I said evenly.

“That,” he said, lowering his voice and leaning closer to me, “was an accident. An oversight. Just an unfortunate result of the enthusiasm I felt knowing I was about to talk to you.”

Can you imagine a total stranger coming up to you and saying this to you? I can’t and yet it was these kinds of conversations that are peppered throughout the book that make you smile and make your heart sigh with glee over how real Dexter was.

Dexter Jones is in town with his band Truth Squad and they’re trying to get their band on the map. In the meantime, they’re playing covers at weddings and trying to make things work…as a band. We’re getting to know Dexter at the same time that Remy (the main character) and the Dexter we get to know is flawed but he’s also the most intuitive of all of the characters in the book. He may have been crazy but he was smart and his love for Remy was real and it was true and I absolutely fell in love with his character.

This post won’t do him any justice. You’re going to have to read the book to get what I’m trying to tell you. But everything about Dexter will appeal to you because he should have come off annoying but Sarah Dessen did a great job of making Dexter’s character pop right off the pages and into your heart. Read this book, you won’t regret it and you’ll find out for yourself why I’ve chosen Dexter to be this months Hero spotlight guy.

There’s only one person that I can think of that would be the perfect Dexter and that’s Seth Cohen from The O.C. A younger Adam Brody. I love it!


…and that’s your scoop!

Buy the book: B&N|Borders|Amazon|Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

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Hero of the Month: Nash Hudson.

Posted January 7, 2011 by Rowena in Features | 6 Comments


I am completely addicted to this series. Rachel Vincent does such a great job of pulling my emotions out of me and stringing me dry. A huge reason why I’m in love with this series is because of Kaylee’s love interest, Nash Hudson.

Nash is this month’s Hero of the Month and I’m going to fill this post up with all the reasons why I chose him to spotlight and I’m telling you right now, there’s plenty.

When we first meet Nash in My Soul to Take (Book 1), he’s the sexy, popular guy at Kaylee’s school who starts showing a whole lot of interest in little ol’ Kaylee. We first meet his fine self at a club that Kaylee and her best friend Emma go to and when Kaylee has one of her episodes as she called it back then, Nash is there to help calm her down and from then on, Nash Hudson just gets sexier and sexier with each book.

What I love most about Nash is that as sexy as he is, he’s not perfect. He makes mistakes and they’re big huge mistakes. The kind of mistakes that makes you so disappointed in him because you expect so much more from him but through out all of his mistakes, you fall in love with him a little more because he doesn’t hide from his mistakes. He owns up to his mistakes and he’s working on becoming a better person, not just for himself but for Kaylee.

The way that Nash loves Kaylee is something else. The lengths through which Nash goes in each book to be there for Kaylee and to protect her and educate her on what she is and what she’s capable of doing makes me a big ol’ softy where he’s concerned because his love for Kaylee is unconditional (there are times aplenty when I don’t think Kaylee deserves someone as awesome as Nash even though I love them two together) and so big that I’m a little jealous. lol. There isn’t a thing that Nash wouldn’t do for Kaylee and that is only a little part of why I love him so much.

Now, I know how strong Kaylee is and I know that people don’t think she needs Nash but I think everyone who says that is completely wrong because if you think about it…every single time that Kaylee has gone through with some boneheaded plan of hers, she’s counted on Nash being there to help her along. I don’t think she would have accomplished a lot of what she’s accomplished without Nash.

Nash is the business and I think everyone should know this.

In this scene, my heart went out to Nash and I want so much for him and Kaylee to fix their relationship because like Mariah Carey said, they belong together.

Check it out:

“Sabine” he said finally, when she showed no sign of breaking what was obviously a very comfortable silence. “Read me.”

“What” she frowned, looking genuinely uncomfortable for the first time since Tod and I entered the room.

“No.”

“I want you to read my fear. For real. Go deep and take a look at what I’m really afraid of.”

Her brows furrowed over dark eyes. “Why?”

“I think it’ll help you understand.”

“What if I don’t want to understand?”

He leaned closer, looking right into her eyes. “Then you’re a coward and I’m ashamed of you.”

Anger, ripe and bitter, passed over Sabine’s features and her frown deepened. “Now you’re just trying to piss me off.”

“I’m throwing down a challenge. You used to love a challenge. Has that changed?”

A new smile crawled over her lips, slow and dark, like the gleam in her eye.”Nothing’s changed. That’s what I keep trying to tell you.”

“Then read me.”

Sabine sat us, Nash pushed himself upright to face her.

…

“You’re afraid of losing her.” Sabine dropped her gaze, like it hurt too much to look at him. “You’re terrified of it. You dream about it, because that’s what he told you would happen. That demon. He told you that you’d lose her. That you weren’t good enough for her now. That you don’t deserve her. And you believe it. Your worst fear is that you’re not good enough for Kaylee. And she knows it.”

Rachel Vincent has written a winner of a series with this batch of books. I’ve fallen so in love with each and everyone of her characters that it hurts me to see them hurting themselves. You can’t truly appreciate Nash Hudson without reading these books so I urge you to find out for yourselves why Nash Hudson rocks my socks. I can garandamntee that you’ll fall in love with him.

The thing I love most about Nash is that he’s real. He’s not some cookie cutter hero who is perfect at everything. He’s real and he’s awesome and he’s accountable. He takes responsibility for his actions and he’s remorseful. He loves deeply and I could go on for days telling you just how awesome he is but really, you should read it all for yourself.

Nash Hudson rocks my socks, read the books and let him rocks yours too!

..and that’s your scoop!

Buy the books: B&N|Borders|Amazon|Book Depository
Book covers credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

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Hero of the Month: Prince Ash.

Posted December 8, 2010 by Rowena in Features | 5 Comments


This month’s hero of the month comes from a hero who will be getting their own story very soon.

If you haven’t been around Twitter lately then you missed Julie Kagawa’s announcement that Prince Ash from the Iron Fae series is getting his own book, titled The Iron Knight. Oh holy goodness, I cannot tell you how excited I am for that book and to be honest, that news alone is one of the reasons why Ash is this month’s Hero of the Month.

It’s no secret that I’m totally:


…so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that sooner or later, Ash would have ended up as Hero of the Month! There are so many reasons why I love Prince Ash of the Unseelie Court so let me count the ways…=)

When we first meet Ash (not when we first see him) but when we first meet him, you could just tell that he was going to be filled to the brim with hottiness and he certainly is. I loved the whole ice prince thing he had going for him because though he was all cold and aloof, you could tell that he burned hot for little Miss Meghan Chase. As the series progressed, my love for Prince Ash grew until I was near bursting with it all.

How can you not love someone who did what they did at the end of The Iron Daughter? Seriously? Check out some of the reasons that I melt every time Ash gets some air time (quotes from Goodreads)

“One more thing,” Ash said in his dangerous, soft voice as we turned away. “If you do not return with her,” Ash continued, staring him down, “if she comes to any harm while she is with you, I will turn this entire camp into a bloodbath. That is my promise, lieutenant.”

***

“Forgive me,” Ash murmured, and I heard the faintest of tremors beneath his voice. “But I can’t…I won’t…give her up. Not now, when I’ve just found her.”

***

“You’re here, and the only dance I want is this one.”

***

“His forehead bumped softly against mine, his brilliant silver gaze searing into me. “I plan to keep you, from everyone, for as long as I’m alive. That includes Puck, the false king, and anyone else who would take you away.” One corner of his mouth quirked, as I struggled to catch my breath under his powerful scrutiny. “I guess I should’ve warned you that I have a slight possessive streak.”

***

“Hey, princess.”

“Hey,” I whispered, as Ash slipped his arms around my waist from behind, drawing me close. I could feel his glare aimed at Puck over my head, a silent, protective gesture that spoke louder than any words. Mine. Back off.”

***

“You are my heart, my life, my entire existence.”

I’m a sucker for romance and I’m a goner for possessive guys who love the heck out of their women and there’s no doubt in my mind that Prince Ash loves him some Meghan Chase (oh to be loved by someone as fiercely hot as Ash is).

The way that he loved Meghan and the lengths to which he went to protect her and show his love for her made me go soft each and every time. How could I not love him? He was also hotter than Hell and that helped matters a whole lot as well.

In my head, this is what he looked like:



Yum!

So for all of those reasons and quotes and overall goodness, this is why Ash is this month’s Hero of the Month!

So why do you love Prince Ash? Share your thoughts with us!

..and that’s your scoop!

Buy the books: B&N|Borders|Amazon|Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

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Hero of the Month: Matt Perino.

Posted November 5, 2010 by Rowena in Features | 4 Comments


This month’s hero of the month is a hero that I read just a couple of months ago. I enjoyed the story so much that the guy in this book immediately went onto my list of possible Hero of the Months for the blog…

…and his name came up again when I was picking this month’s Hero of the Month.

I couldn’t get him or his story out of my mind for the past couple of weeks so I started thinking about this post and before I knew it, I was 100% sure that Matt had to be this month’s HotM.

So this month’s spotlight is on Matt Perino from Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler.

If you haven’t read this book then you need to fix that soon because this book does such an incredible job of breaking your heart and then putting it back together again. You can read my entire review on this book here.

Here’s the blurb for the book:

“Don’t worry, Anna. I’ll tell her, okay? Just let me think about the best way to do it.”

“Okay.”

“Promise me? Promise you won’t say anything?”

“Don’t worry.” I laughed. “It’s our secret, right?”

According to her best friend Frankie, twenty days in ZanzibarBay is the perfect opportunity to have a summer fling, and if they meet one boy ever day, there’s a pretty good chance Anna will find her first summer romance. Anna lightheartedly agrees to the game, but there’s something she hasn’t told Frankie—she’s already had that kind of romance, and it was with Frankie’s older brother, Matt, just before his tragic death one year ago.


Beautifully written and emotionally honest, this is a debut novel that explores what it truly means to love someone and what it means to grieve, and ultimately, how to make the most of every single moment this world has to offer.

The reason I chose Matt to be this month’s Hero of the Month is because even though we lost him early on in Twenty Boy Summer, I literally grieved for him throughout the entire book. The whole time that Anna and Frankie are grieving for Matt, I was too.

We first meet Matt when Anna is thinking back to her fifteen birthday, the night that Matt kissed her for the first time and Ockler did such a great job of describing the event because I could see everything as it happened as clearly as if I was there myself. I could taste the frosting from the cake that Matt smashed in Anna’s face, I could feel my breath hitch as I thought Matt was going to kiss Anna right in the middle of her backyard boogie and my heart stopped when they’re cleaning up and this happened:

“Come here,” he whispered, his hand still stuck in my wild curls, blond hair winding around his fingers.

“I still can’t believe you made that,” I said, not for the first time. “It’s so –cool.”

Matt looked down at the glass, his hair falling in front of his eyes.

“Maybe I’ll give it to you,” he said. “If you’re lucky.”

I smiled, my gaze fixed on the blue triangle. I was afraid to look at him, because if I let my eyes lock on his, he might try to–and then everything would be–and I might just —

“Happy birthday,” he whispered, his breath landing warm and suddenly close to my lips, making my insides flip. And just as quickly as he’d surprised me with the cake, he kissed me, one frosting-covered hand moving from my hair to the back of my neck, the other solid and warm in the small of my back, pressing us together, my chest against his ribs, my hip bones just below his, the tops of our bare summer legs hot and touching. I stopped breathing. My eyes were closed and his mouth tasted like marzipan flowers and clove cigarettes, and in ten seconds the whole of my life was wrapped up in that one kiss, that one wish, that one secret that would forever divide my life into two parts…”

*swoon*

If I was fifteen and that kind of first kiss with the boy that I was crushing on big time, I would have melted into a puddle of lust right at his feet. What makes Matt so special is it took me a page and a half to adore the heck out of him.

I loved his playful demeanor, the way that he talked to Anna, the way that he cared about her and just the way that he was when he was with Anna. It was too cute for words. He was a total flirt and I just adored him to pieces.

I adored when he said:

“Happy birthday Anna,” he said, picking me up and spinning me around in a giant hug, telling me with a wink that he’d see me tomorrow, just like he’d done on a thousand other nights. “Write something for me tonight.” (He gave her a journal for her birthday)

*sigh*


Matt was such a great addition to this story and I missed him sorely after he left it. My heart was broken for a good chunk of this book because I wanted more Matt.

Memories, dreams, I didn’t care, as long as he was in them and when the story ended, I was okay again. Ockler did a great job of making it okay. For me, the draw to this book wasn’t Anna, Frankie or the trip to Zanzabar but Matt.

His sparkling personality, getting to know him through the people who loved him was an interesting way to get to know him and it made me love him all the more. He was a great character, a most memorable character and if you haven’t read this book and you don’t know the goodness that is Matt Perino then I urge you to fix that because this book rocked and knowing Matt rocked too.

Matt had dark hair and bright blue eyes, the only person I could think of that would make a good Matt was Zac Efron because he’s a little hottie. He’d make the perfect Matt in my eyes. =)

Until next month..that’s your scoop!

Buy Matt’s book: B&N|Borders|Amazon|The Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

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Hero of the Month: Damon Salvatore.

Posted October 4, 2010 by Rowena in Features | 9 Comments


It’s a new month which means there’s a new hero of the month. This month’s hero stars in best selling author’s L.J. Smith’s Vampire Diaries but it is in the CW’s Vampire Diaries TV show that this smexy character captured my heart.

This month’s hero is: Damon Salvatore.

Damon is the bad boy Savatore brother who comes back to Mystic Falls to torment his brother, the goodie good Stefan because Damon swore that he would spend the rest of the eternities making Stefan’s life a living hell and he’s making good on that promise because there isn’t a moment when Damon’s not being a smart ass about any and everything under the sun.

The thing about Damon is he has a lot of things in common with his brother Stefan and the main thing is their taste in women. They fall in love with the same women. Twice in fact…and the reason Damon is so bitter (and he is totally bitter) is because both of the women that he fell in love with…were both in love with Stefan.

Damon’s bitterness has driven him to do some pretty extreme things. In the first season his bitterness drove him to releasing a bunch of rabid vampires on the small town of Mystic Falls, all in the hopes of finding Katherine. Katherine is the first woman that the Salvatore brothers fell in love with and she’s the woman that started the feud between the brothers.

In the beginning, I hated Damon. When he first came to Mystic Falls and started being an ass toward Stefan, I wanted him gone. I wanted some mighty fierce vampire to swoop in and slit his throat but as the season progressed, I started to see why Damon was the way that he was. I started to see the Damon that Elena believed in and the Damon that even Damon didn’t know was in him.

He started showing signs of a very hurt, deeply tortured man who I just have to get to know more. Damon has a certain charm that gets me right in the chest area. He’s got this draw to him that I’m unable to turn away from and I think it’s the knowledge I have that there is a good guy buried deep down inside the guy that Damon shows to everyone.

Damon is used to living in the shadow of his perfect brother Stefan. It’s hard to compete with someone that everyone loves and Damon has stopped trying to win everyone over and has become his own person. He’s become the bad brother who relishes his role but underneath the witty remarks, the badass-ness and all of the drama, there’s a heart that beats strongly and fiercely.

On top of the heart that I know is lurking underneath all of the human blood he consumes, his witty come backs and hilarious one liners is what keeps me coming back for more each week. I mean, there’s no one on the show that can deliver the lines he does with a straight face and still crack me the heck up.

I mean, how can you not fall in love with a guy who deliver lines like these?

Mason: I’ve heard a lot of great things about you.
Damon: Really? That’s weird because I’m a d**k.

“Stefan is different. He wants to be human. He wants to feel every episode of How I Met Your Mother.”

“Stefan likes puppy blood… little Golden Retriever blood with floppy ears. That’s his favorite.”

“Guess what? Everyone hates me. But you can’t deny: we were bad ass!”

“If I had a good side, not a way to get on it.”

“I get it. He’s the reason you live. His love lifts you up where you belong.”

“I have two liters of soccer mom in the fridge.”

“How long are you gonna blame me for turning your birth mother into a vampire?”

“I was ambushed. I was shot. Now, I’m vengeful.”

There’s plenty more from where that came from. Damon is one of those misunderstood characters that will tear at your heart. He’ll have you coming back for more each week and if you haven’t been watching this show then you should totally fix it because there’s a reason why Damon’s this month’s hero of the month and you really have to see it to figure out why.

…and that’s your scoop,

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