Sunday, May 24, 2015

Reed’s Reckoning-- Ahren Sanders




Operation Matthews is a go! This book was four stars of sexy, loving and desperate characters.  Reed Matthews is the embodiment of all those adjectives after he had a chance encounter with his long lost love on a beach. Driven to find her again after seeing that there is a little boy that was the spitting image of him, he hires a PI to find Ariana Williams, the only woman who he has ever loved.

Their first face to face in about four years they find out that they had been deceived into breaking up. Their horrendous split causes Ari to not be receptive to their budding relationship. She can’t live through the pain again. With some help from those she loves and the irresistible Matthews charm, she opens her heart up once again to love.

Of course there is more to the story, like a crazy, obsessed stalker who was intent on being Reed’s perfect NFL wife.  There’s the fact that Reed is uber famous and his personal business gets aired out for public consumption or people assume that Ari got pregnant for the wrong reasons.  And then there’s the fact that they have an (almost) four year old who limits the R-rated moments in this book.

Those parts that are indeed NSFW or those under the age of 18 are definitely steamy.  Reed and Ari have that instant connection that old loves always have in books. Sometimes that drives me nuts but not with this book. There are so many unresolved feelings that letting that relationship open back up just seemed natural.  Reed is so open with his love and his love that their relationship takes on a new life.  Now-a-days there are all these romance novels out there and I am always searching for what makes them unique. Reed and Ari’s relationship and their relationships with other are what pushed this book over the limits for me.

Why four stars then? You ask.  It was simple as this the stalker situation could have probably been solved by the PI instead of them trying to handle it personally. Or with tape recorders, I know everyone now uses those to catch people in lies.  So I think that situation wasn’t the most realistic for this book, that being said I still loved the drama and suspenseful-ness it added to the book.  Then there was Cara, having recently been a young adult--actually currently a young adult, I know what peer pressure is like but I truly have a hard time believing that she would be so naïve to believe all that lies  that were spewed her way. It was disgruntling to have the characters mistrust her so much due to that stupidity/naivety--whatever you may call it.  Phillip is also one who suffers from stupidity, so much so he made me want to smack his, alas I could not.

The characters, the plot, the writing were all wonderful. Sure there were a few things here and there that I didn’t like as much but I still love this book and have read it quite a few times.  It’s a read for anytime, while I believe it can be categorized as a sports romance there is very little football in it.  So if you dislike sports you can still read this book without too much issue,  while on the other hand if you like sports there is enough to quench that need.
 

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Confess-- Colleen Hoover




 
I haven’t posted a review for any of Colleen Hoover’s books yet mostly because I don’t feel competent enough as a reviewer to do her books justice.  She is definitely one of my favorite authors, so I just went ahead and bought Confess without even reading the synopsis. I wasn’t disappointed but for those of you who did the same thing as I did, here it is:

Auburn Reed has her entire life mapped out. Her goals are in sight and there’s no room for mistakes. But when she walks into a Dallas art studio in search of a job, she doesn’t expect to find a deep attraction to the enigmatic artist who works there, Owen Gentry.
For once, Auburn takes a risk and puts her heart in control, only to discover Owen is keeping major secrets from coming out. The magnitude of his past threatens to destroy everything important to Auburn, and the only way to get her life back on track is to cut Owen out of it.
The last thing Owen wants is to lose Auburn, but he can’t seem to convince her that truth is sometimes as subjective as art. All he would have to do to save their relationship is confess. But in this case, the confession could be much more destructive than the actual sin…

I know that synopses are supposed to be vague but this one barely even covers the first layer of the book.  There was so much depth in both of the characters that you truly don’t figure out what was going through their heads or heart until much later. They keep their secrets hidden for as long as possible. Not really the best start to a relationship but still.

I was crying so hard during the prologue that my son asked me “Mom why are you sad?” my response was “Collen Hoover just knows how to write books that tear out your heart.”  I guess that wasn’t clear because I then had to answer the question “But why does that make you sad?”   How do you tell a four year old that the author of your book can twist words just right that they are filled with love and pain? That the heartache expressed in those 11 pages was so intense that it made me sob?  Easy, Colleen Hoover is a literary genius who can write love stories (quite possibly) in her sleep.

Now on to the actual book: I loved the fact that Owen referred to Hannah as Palindrome Hannah. As that was the only interesting thing about her.  I loved the fact that he would do anything for the people he cared about. I loved that he was so selfless and so selfish all at the same time. I think that he was probably my favorite character in this book.  Auburn was self-conscious and unsure--with a good reason to be that way. I wish that Colleen Hoover went into a little more detail about why everyone was in their way working against Auburn.  I am trying to figure out how to say everything without spoiling it.  But I don’t think I can.

Simply put the book was complex, heart wrenching, painful and beautiful.  The characters were relatable yet their own entities and stand apart from other characters in YA books out there today. The last chapter wrapped up the book so neatly, that excluding some extraneous wants, I couldn’t figure out a better ending to a book.  Bravo Colleen Hoover on this splendid addition to all the other books you have written.

Monday, May 18, 2015

Burying Water--K.A Tucker




This is the second time I started this book. Originally I got the sample from Kindle but then couldn’t justify spending the money on the book. I just wasn’t involved with the characters and I didn’t understand why the story was told in “then” and “now”.  But then I received the book in my Bookworm Box. So I figured why the heck not?!

I think it was the point just after the sample ended that the story came to life. Jane Doe aka Water aka Alex woke up from a coma without any trace of who she was before her accident-- if you can call rape and attempted murder an accident.  She had quite a lot to recover from. She was in the hospital for about three months, in that time she had a roommate for a moment. That roommate was the doctor’s neighbor the quirky, kind of crazy, Ginny Fitzgerald.

In the short time they shared a room, Ginny grew to like Jane (as she was being called at the time), and with the doctors prompting Jane went to live with Ginny. Ginny was so far hidden behind her walls they were nearly impenetrable. Yet slowly Jane/Water began to break them down and ease her way into the stubborn woman’s life. They both shared similarities in their past, the only difference was Ginny remembered all of her past and Water didn’t.

Ginny and her quirks, I think, helped Water break out of her shell and fall into the person she was becoming. She got to create a new life for herself and find out what she really liked. Not just what was dictated or expected from others. Ginny pushed her but so did Meredith (her doctor and neighbor) and Amber (neighbor’s daughter). They helped her form relationships and a family. There was a word association game that they played, hoping to trigger memories.  They had to be there just hidden.  But the person who helped her the most was Jesse. She instantly felt a connection to him and didn’t know why. Everything with Jesse felt “normal” and easy.

Of course we know why that was because of Jesse’s point of view in the book. His point of view is told as the “then”.  We learned about how Alex and Jesse’s relationship was form and how the story moves to her attempted murder.  With Alex/Jane/Water’s point of view we find out how she preserved and continued with life and found love (albeit with the same person but love all the same).  I really enjoyed Jesse’s point of view but it was slightly repetitive.  Blah, blah, blah, cars, blah, blah, blah, Alex, blah, cars, blah, Alex. Of course in a way it made sense. He really only had two things in his life that he loved, cars and Alex.  His character was almost one dimensional from his point of view but from her point of view we, as the readers, saw how much her injury took a toll on him. Or at least that’s what I saw.

I really enjoyed this book, it was dark, it was sweet, it had bitter moments but overall it was damn near delicious-- just like a chocolate covered cranberry.  I will reread this book, I may wait until I’m in the mood for a darker book but it will definitely be reread at some point.

P.S. I didn’t know there were more books in this series! I MUST read them…now!





Wednesday, May 13, 2015

The Eden Series--Georgia Le Carre



Each of the books was sitting just under two hundred pages so I didn’t count each one towards my Goodreads challenge. So I am reviewing the series.  It’s about 550 pages, if that. The formatting was a bit funky and the writing was super basic. I mean it took me maybe three hours to read all three books, and for the first hour and a half Captain America was on in the background. Chris Evans is quite a distraction.

That is how I would describe this series, I think. It didn’t grab my attention. Usually when I read not even Chris Evans can distract me from a good story but I was drawn into a movie I have seen countless times to not read this book.

Honestly there are two reasons that I kept reading. I read the description for Eden 3 and it was quite a captivating little blurb. I felt compelled to know what happened in that book. My second reason was that all three of the books were on kindle unlimited and I could read them for “free”.

Now onto the actual story line: in the first chapter you have the instant attraction, the lust at first sight kind of thing.  You have this sexy gangster who owns the strip club that our heroine is dancing at.  Well they fancy each other in the most carnal of ways. They give into their desires and a world wind romance ensues. Sound familiar because it sounds like most of the stripper-y books I have read. BUT WAIT! There’s more.  Of course I can’t tell you the more because that would be big ole giant 

However I can tell you that it is a nice little turn of events that takes this mostly cliché, slightly bland book up a notch.

When I say bland I mean that the characters weren’t all that intriguing to me, they fell a bit flat. I did not mean that the sex scenes were bland.  A bit overdone, like seriously how much sex can one couple have?  It wasn’t like just sex, I mean if they were ever alone with each other they were fucking, hardcore, rough and dirty.  I liked it.

Overall not great, but the plot twist in Eden 2 was definitely enough to keep me engaged.  Eden 3 was by far my favorite. I think that was where the most character development was.  Also there was more interesting things that happened besides sex.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Jacked--Tina Reber


This book sucked me in from the very beginning and had me sitting at the edge of my seat needed to know who Cal was. And that was just the first few pages. Immediately I knew that I was going to like this book. Erin was a rather harsh and emotionally stunted female lead but her desire to care for others was an endearing quality that is lacking in quite a few of the more stoic females these days.

Then we have the hunk of the hour--Adam Trent. Sexy-man cop and sexy-man in general, he busts into Erin's life like a SWAT team in a drug den. (Cop pun intended) Of course he isn't SWAT but he does wear cargo pants and is, in my brain, quite a beef cake. He has he kink (as guessed by the cover art) but I mean which male lead doesn't these days. It’s like "50 shades" is the new vanilla. But I think that his kink had its benefits as opposed to just being for sex. It was to prove and build trust. Something that both the lead characters had a hard time doing.

Shoot their lives had so many fucked up things happen to them I am surprised that they were functioning adults.  The major plot adventure I thought was kind of predictable, I mean I was calling it from about halfway into the book. That being said, I still hung on every word of this book. I mean I started it four hours ago. I could not put it down. I had to when it was bedtime for my kiddo, so switching from this intense book to "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" was quite a shock to my system but worth it.

I will reread this book. I will re the rest of the series and I cannot wait to see how Jason's story plays out. He seems even more twisted than his brother. Can't Wait!!






This review was written at midnight. There may be some errors which I will fix in the morning, or afternoon--depending on when my brain kicks in.

Sunday, May 10, 2015

April Wrap-Up


This month was the start of me trying to slow down just a little… good thing too because I got a new job and am working more hours.  Still with only reading 25 new books I and still ahead of the “book-a-day” thing by 30+ books.  But I can’t get too complacent, especially since so far in May I have only read 5 new books. 

April 30

The Arrangement  by Bethany Kris ***
Lynked  by Bethany Kris  ***
The Starlight Rite  by Cherise Sinclair  ****
The Salvation of Vengeance  by Nancy Haviland  ****
A love of Vengeance  by Nancy Haviland  ****
Forever Red  by Carina Adams  ***
Meet Me in the Dark  by J.A. Huss  ***
Heart Recaptured  by Tillie Cole ****
In From the Cold  by Mercy Celeste  ***
Never Too Late  by Micalea Smeltzer  ****
Getting It All  by Erin Nicholas  ***
Soul Promise  by Rachel Walter  ***
Six Ways from Sunday  by Mercy Celeste  ***
Offside Chance  by Mercy Celeste  ***
Sidelined  by Mercy Celeste  ****
Tool  by Sabrina Paige  ***
Saving Dancer  by Jordan Marie  ****
Crushing Beauty  by Celia Loren  ***
Until You  by Penelope Douglas  ****
Bully  by Penelope Douglas  ****
Crazy From the Heat  by Mercy Celeste  ***
Light from the Dark  by Mercy Celeste  ****
Impulsively  by Colleen Masters  ****
The Scars that Define Us  by M.N. Forgy  **
What Doesn’t Destroy Us  by M.N. Forgy  ***

April 1