Saturday, January 14, 2017

Until Ashlyn-- Aurora Rose Reynolds




This is the third installment in the Until Her series, which includes Until July and Until June. Those are secondary novels to the Until series. I say this because this is probably the weakest book in the series. Mostly due to plot holes that seemed highly unrealistic to me, and then secondly because there were a fair amount of spelling errors. Now with that negativity out of the way, I still enjoyed the book.


Dillon Keck knew Ashlyn Mayson was drunk when she suggested they get married. He knew he should have taken her back to their hotel room and put her to bed. Instead, he did what he had been craving to do since the moment they met.
Claim her as his.
Waking up married in Vegas isn't something Ashlyn Mayson ever thought would happen to her. Having Dillon, her boss, a man she thinks is a dick, insist they stay married is absurd, but every time he touches her, she gets lost in him and wonders if maybe they are meant to be together.
But someone isn't happy for Dillon and Ashlyn and their new found romance, and they're willing to do anything to keep them apart. Even commit murder.


In one of the other Until books, we hear about how Ashlyn’s boss makes her change how she dresses to work, and is a complete dickhead. All she does is complain, but her cousins know that deep down she has feelings for him. Here enter the plot issues that got to me:

Getting married in Vegas while drunk, done before and done better. I don’t see how she wasn’t extremely angry at the man who just trapped her in a “loveless” marriage. Personally, even if the man I had a secret crush on married me, I would be irritated. She puts up barely any fight besides semi-withholding sex. 

(Now that is something that was fantastic…the chemistry between these two is off the charts. Dillion is so caring, that when they meet in bed you would almost expect him to be soft. Ha-ha, that is not the case. At all.)

Now my other issue is with the murdering, stalker thing. Not much of a spoiler since it says it in the synopsis, so this will be vague as to not spoil more. If he was actually stalking her, he would have realized something was not right. It seemed to me sort of cheap, almost like she needed a quick way to add drama and suspense. I feel like there could have been better ways to tie it into the story than what was chosen.

Since the unhappy thoughts are out of the way, I will gladly read this book again, because while the plot was a bit cliché and contrived, it was cute and entertaining. (A bit expected since these story points have been used so many times before.) It is a feel-good book you can pick up and read whenever you want. Not original but enjoyable.


Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Corrupt-- Penelope Douglas



I read it, I was sucked into it, but I don’t know if I liked it. How can that be, you ask? Simple. It was dark and twisty and overall all kinds of f-ed up. Seriously.

Erika

I was told that dreams were our heart’s desires. My nightmares, however, became my obsession.
His name is Michael Crist.
My boyfriend’s older brother is like that scary movie that you peek through your hand to watch. He is handsome, strong, and completely terrifying. The star of his college’s basketball team and now gone pro, he’s more concerned with the dirt on his shoe than me.
But I noticed him.
I saw him. I heard him. The things that he did, and the deeds that he hid…For years, I bit my nails, unable to look away.
Now, I’ve graduated high school and moved on to college, but I haven’t stopped watching Michael. He’s bad, and the dirt I’ve seen isn’t content to stay in my head anymore.
Because he’s finally noticed me.

Michael

Her name is Erika Fane, but everyone calls her Rika.
My brother’s girlfriend grew up hanging around my house and is always at our dinner table. She looks down when I enter a room and stills when I am close. I can always feel the fear rolling off of her, and while I haven’t had her body, I know that I have her mind. That’s all I really want anyway.
Until my brother leaves for the military, and I find Rika alone at college.
In my city.
Unprotected.
The opportunity is too good to be true as well as the timing. Because you see, three years ago she put a few of my high school friends in prison, and now they’re out.
We’ve waited. We’ve been patient. And now every last one of her nightmares will come true.



The synopsis makes it seem like this is some high-school prankery. It’s not. It’s grown-up, psychopathic terror. Throughout the first half of the book, you honestly aren’t sure of anything. Which way is up, who is right, who to trust or believe? There are glimpses of the past making this novel like a giant jig-saw puzzle that you don’t have a picture of the final outcome.

Some people are comparing it to B.B. Reid’s “Fear Me”, and while I can see the similarities, I would definitely say this has differences for the better. I completely and utterly despised “Fear Me”, “Corrupt” has some similar aspects, i.e. brooding domineering alpha male, who is bordering on being completely abusive and a female character who falls prey to said male. However in this book, our alpha-male, Michael, never truly goes into things looking to physically hurt Rika. Emotionally scar, yes. And Rika, she plays plenty of games on her own. She gives as good as she gets. But the darker, twisty-er part of this book did leave me feeling unsettled.

A few things that I was confused by:
·         Random three-some
·         The prevalence of jumping to conclusions
·         Why is revenge a dish best served cold?

A few things that I greatly enjoyed:
·         Random-three some
·         The epilogue
·         Having to postpone my gym date due to the drama-filled suspense

Will I read this book again? Probably, right before I read Kai’s story, but not on the regular. I fully admit that I enjoy feel good books. This one has some definite feel good moments but also has a lot of moments that made me question why I was reading it. I will say that my favorite thing about this entire book was the epilogue. It brought the storyline to a close in a way that was complete. I would recommend reading it if you like suspense and drama, if you are after a HEA there is one…for the most part.