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| 1420145819
| 9781420145816
| 1420145819
| 4.00
| 6,612
| Sep 25, 2018
| Sep 25, 2018
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really liked it
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RATING: 4 stars to Hidden ★ ★ ★ ★ I've been wanting to read a Rebecca Zanetti romantic suspense novel for a time. With this series flaring its feathers RATING: 4 stars to Hidden ★ ★ ★ ★ I've been wanting to read a Rebecca Zanetti romantic suspense novel for a time. With this series flaring its feathers in every direction, I thought I'd make my entry via the opening instalment to the author's Deep Ops collective. This series spotlights a rag-tag, mismatched but complimentary collective of unsuspecting Individuals that are rallied together by none other than one Angus Force; a jaded detective, not unaffected by his own weary history as a profiling operative. One who has expertly fielded out members to form a squad of demoted governmental operatives. The story even delivers a handful of chapters by the troubled sect leader himself who has an equally troubled furry friend in Roscoe, one who almost felt like an unofficial member of the fledgling alliance. Everyone acquired, which we gradually meet through the developing narrative, seems to sport some level of eccentricity, peculiarity, a troubled personage or a hard-worn history of service-centric work that speaks to some form of disillusionment and dissatisfaction. Notwithstanding said perturbed canine companion who blends in with the misfit mentality and elevates the peculiarity with his characterful intrusions. Roscoe's timing, as well as his general presence, was a well-judged amusement to the overall tensity. The well-paced unravelling was as interesting as learning each of Roscoe's character quirks. I really enjoyed the slow-grow assembly of the deep ops team. We weren't introduced to who I believe was supposed to be the finalising member of the squad, none other than someone who Indulges in one of my own favourite topics and pastimes, a philosopher, but I'm assuming he'll likely show up in book two's standalone. I do admittedly sport a strong preference for the first person narrative, and I will likely favour a first person narration over the third, but this romantic subdivision pairs really well with a distant scope, both synergistic to the suspension and the suspenseful intrigue of a romantic suspense and the psychologies of our central cast. So this book does indeed adopt said narrative choice, and it was easily a compliment to the creation. Malcolm is no longer active duty but his instincts and acquired abilities are still well-honed. So it's no surprise that his sights see more to his new and unassuming neighbour than meets the eyes. Things get very tricky after he's roped into an investigation that includes the possible criminality of his new neighbour, Pippa. The term 'dance of lies' becomes the discomforting theme of their relationship, and I really wondered how the author would remedy the complication that was made out of a true and attractive interest between the central couple and the deliberate orchestration of Malcolm's duplicity. I was most looking forward to how the betrayal would be handled as well as the plotline of a disturbing cult, and I'm glad to say that it was well considered in thought to Pippa's (rightful) feelings and the urgency of what was required with the immediacy of the investigation's real dangers. The ambiguity of Malcolm's required obligations to his current assignment and his feelings for Pippa left me in no doubt in thought to the difficulty of what he was doing. The attraction was as thick as the gravity of each danger introduced. He came to care for her quite quickly and both his distress and unease with what he was doing played a big part to his characterisation as the saviour overall. More than anything, Pippa's safety was pivotal to Malcolm in spite of being so torn between his duty and his heart. But it remains his growing purpose to protect her without condition, even if she is found out to be the felonious evildoer carrying out the whims of a religious group. I probably loved that most about him. It's also a personal preference of mine to experience a more well-paced romantic development, even in spite of any level of instant attraction. In voice to that, I admit that the presented chemistry is very instantaneous and fast burn for a supposedly homebound, highly suspicious, self-safeguarding woman who lives remotely by design. So that was something of an inconsistency for Pippa, noting that she's been on the run for several years, lives off the grid for a reason and would likely spend her trust wisely in full knowing of what kind of danger is in pursuit of her. Saying that, the instant desire paired with the eroticism was well-matched to the high stakes, the danger and contextual tension, the activities of a terroristic group and the uncertain nature of everything that takes place. The pace and tone of the budding 'something' between Pippa and Malcolm was equal to the atmospheric tonality. The central attraction was a match to the deep landscape of suspense. And the suspense was a great enhancer in return. Despite the complicated nature of the relationship, it was more complimentary than calamitous to the dense suspension. Malcolm's essentially tasked with surreptitiously earning intel from Pippa undercover along with the messy business of infiltrating the community of a cult. To comment on the nature of the lies in this book, I must mention that the team exist to cover all bases and necessitate every avenue with a critical perspective considering the posed level of danger, but I did find it odd that the group didn't particularly look into Pippa's potential innocence as a survivor and trauma victim, because there's also the very tangible reality that she just wanted the emancipation that came with finding her freedom. She's more or less perceived to be suspect, and possibly a brainwashed runaway, but these jaded enforcement officials aren't taking any chances, even if Malcolm himself is perhaps the only one to sometimes hope for the best despite his own career-born doubts. The team don't particularly look into Pippa's innocence as a potential escapee from a predator, but I suppose the public danger of the investigation and the very real possibility of public harm becomes the imperative. The difference between Malcolm's lies and Pippa's were this: hers were born not of manipulation nor the intent to be necessarily manipulative nor deceptive, per se. I wouldn't call her omissive approach a lie as much as I'd say her history is her own to share, express or conceal, traumatic as it had been for her. It was for the sake of her own safety, security and survival. To share something so impactful and disturbing about one's past with someone they barely know - and have only just met - seems a highly personal and reasonable decision. It's entirely legitimate to me that she'd be as private as she is. What self-surviving person wouldn't require a functioning car and some escapist procedures in place should they need to make a swift getaway if a cult that centralised their principles on family and community were to take her against her will? Along with resulting paranoia of once again being found, she was self-protective for terribly good reason. I'm going to reasonably argue that Malcolm's lies were born out of a job-obligated manipulation and gaining Pippa's trust was certainly agenda-driven, but a careful manipulation nonetheless, and Pippa's were of survival and natural mistrust. Let's remember that our heroine's past equated to a big trauma, and although she was into some insights of Malcolm's disturbing past, she didn't demand to know everything of him. There's nothing particularly untoward about that, even if I understood the need for narrative speculation and dubiety, and appreciated the delicacy of the danger versus the fragility of the trust. She was by all accounts innocent, and I'm glad she commented on the team's double standard that 'they all lie for a living' and are therefore in no place of pure innocence in response to the silent accusations against her. I would have appreciated the absence of the 'you lied too' debacle since it seemed to exist to equalise the intent on both sides when Malcolm's duplicity easily trumped Pippa's. Even still, it was a well-considered play. And Malcolm's characterisation was very well-rendered throughout the entire book. What we have is a tightly plotted, layered landscape of suspense, foreboding and an investigative rabbit hole that observes the terroristic activity of a religious sect. All centralised around the close-proximity intimacy that heightens the stakes of an intense and instant attraction. We've got a terribly perverted cult leader in a predatory Issac, one who believes himself to be a grandiose authority. My worst nightmare in religious manipulator who's built himself to be an all knowing Messiah who carries out the work of the almighty. He's a baddie to truly loathe. Pippa's been living in fear and in hiding, a life on the run, but her past catches up with her when, unbeknownst to her, she's believed to be operating under the orders of a puritanical figurehead. An intense, suspenseful and high-stakes storyline welcomes a freshly forged governmental unit of erroneous individuals, bonding ex servicemen, a swiftly smoldering romance, and a well characterised cast. Clarence Wolfe was endearing with his over-sugared beverages and his fresh guardianship of a newly acquired feline friend. Both he and Roscoe were my on-page favourites. Zanetti's prose becomes an atmospheric foreshadow, the air charged with scent of the impending, the harsh rains and dense cloud cover of the current season an intensive overhang that preludes the gravity of what's about to disturb the lives of a housebound runway in an unassuming Pippa and a worn, inactive ex-detective in Malcolm. Who, after his latest undercover assignment, only wants a quiet life away from the work that has taken more than a simple toll on him. A long career in undercover work has left him emotionally overtaxed, suffering the constants of PTSD and the dues of the job. But he instead finds himself doing exactly what he wanted to avoid when he chose to live in a remote, secluded area in a rural Virginia. An active plotline, well-profiled characters and high stakes danger foundations Zanetti's atmospheric opener. I'd definitely recommend this very well-delivered suspenseful romance! EXTRA THOUGHTS: 1) Since Trixie was such an important person in Pippa's life as a survivor, I did want to witness some kind of a final scene between them after the end-most events. 2) “Do you really think Angus can protect me from being prosecuted for killing Mark?” she asked. “My prints are definitely on the knife.” If all else failed, Isaac would definitely set her up. She’d told both Mal and Isaac the whole story, and shockingly, it seemed they had believed her. - Just a mistaken use of Isaac's name that I picked up on. Content Listing/warning: on page panic/on page panic attacks. Deaths, harm and injury (both deliberate and accidental). Hero has PTSD (some PTSD flashbacks). Mentions and explains the terroristic/abusive/manipulative activity of a cult. The story also details the lifestyle, abuses, grooming manipulations and practices of that cult via the heroine's memory and the hero's present experience with the cult. Nonconsensual drugging. Also mentions criminal deaths and killings. Male MC was raised by an alcoholic (and abusive) grandparent. Mentions various past rapes and sexual assaults (including side characters who have been sexually assaulted by a cult leader, though not in any detail). Also a present rape (off-page) and a subsequent overdose/suicide via heroin for the assaulted. Nonconsensual sex with underaged girls. General warnings for violence and blood. On page shootout that results in injury and deaths. Mentions alcohol abuse. Also mentions drug dealing. Sex scenes (including some Dom behaviour and spanking kink between the hero and heroine). A dog who drinks and takes pain medication. Mentions (very briefly) an expose of a child porn syndicate (past). Discussions of terroristic attacks. And actual on-page terrorist attack. ...more |
Notes are private!
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Mar 23, 2024
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May 2024
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Mar 22, 2024
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Mass Market Paperback
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| 4.23
| 106,240
| Sep 01, 2020
| Sep 01, 2020
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it was amazing
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RATING: 5 STARS to The Traitor Queen! ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ For while pain was an old friend, and discomfort almost a way of life, to be confined to what sights RATING: 5 STARS to The Traitor Queen! ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ For while pain was an old friend, and discomfort almost a way of life, to be confined to what sights his own mind could conjure was the worst sort of torture. Because despite his most fervent wish it were otherwise, all his mind wanted to show him were visions of her. Lara. His wife. The Traitor Queen of Ithicana. “You are my goddamned damnation, but there will never be anyone but you.” 'She was right, and he knew it. But in his heart, he knew that even if he never saw her again for the rest of his life, it would never be over. She would always be his queen.' The Bridge Kingdom was a good book. The Traitor Queen was a tremendously superior sequel. And also just happens to be my first five star read of 2024, which is an additional (and atypical) joy relatively early into the year. Yay me for that because five stars and I share a once-in-a-blue-moon kind of courtship. The Traitor Queen was an intense, thrilling, emotionally engaging, fast-paced, action-packed, redemptive masterpiece. It was so high-stakes with the fallout of book one that I'd already made it through a huge chunk of the story without even realising it. Although I enjoyed my Bridge Kingdom experience, book one did sport some flaws. But this book? This sequel was a deliver-some follow up, and one that bore a mission. Every inch of this storyline is dedicated to Lara's redemption; a story-wide atonement and self-sacrifice she goes through that speaks to the lengths she confronts to atone for the collosal error that resulted in her husband dethroned, his kingdom stolen, his people killed and hunted and the loss of Aren's dream of a better future. All shattered by a mistake that slipped through her fingers, but ironically, written by her own hand. I know, it's a lot, and as far as oversights go, it's a big one. Now, we know this wasn't intentional in the end. Since Lara chose a different path to the one her father laid in motion, this wasn't supposed to come to pass. Instead of becoming discouraged and woebegone by way of the carnage caused by her own making, Lara's fidelity to Ithicana never faltered. She lives up to her nickname as well as her honorific by marriage come this sequel, because in my opinion, she behaved and endured it all like a queen. A warrior queen. A no-airs-and-graces survivalistic queen but a warrioress no less. I so appreciated the storyline's point in not trivialising the consequences and gravity felt by nations - and one in particular - that centralised the prevalence of righting wrongs and efforting the restoration that can't, unfortunately, be reversed. Lara marshalled every inch of herself to shoulder the magnitude, restore the suffering caused by said transgression, her energies dedicated to effectively righting the balance were absolute despite the mounting tension and inner grief of it all. I loved this book for that alone. Lara was the fully effortful, actionable heroine she needed to be. She was fully aware of the reverberations her faux pas had brought to pass. And although she felt the damnation in all she'd (unintentionally) but effectively set in motion, that she was singlehandedly responsible for the rupture of a kingdom, she powered through like a woman of principle and purpose, and did so without victimisation. Emotionally speaking, Lara was assailable, completely unarmed and indefensible to the pain and fury she knew she had to face, but her heart was as much a hurting thing as those she'd taken from. I have to say that I only loved her more for it, and for a vulnerability that made me root for her come every chapter. I forgot how exquisite Jensen's prose Is but The Traitor Queen leverages the same in storytelling intent, and the verbal volley was just as smart, sharp and well-phrased as I remember its predecessor being. The details of book one evaded me since it was a while ago since I read The Bridge Kingdom, so it did take some grounding on my part to familiarise myself with the world scape, the names, the sides, the places and the political conflicts. But I honestly didn't take any issue with that because once I was topped up with the need-to-know details I became the embodiment of a reader engaged. I know I've already waxed some poetry over Lara's indomitable spirit, but I am going to talk a bit more about her because I appreciated every way she'd stepped up as a leading lady. And proved herself wholeheartedly considering her indoctrinated upbringing and the real hardship of learning the hard way. Say what you want about this coarse, cynical and hard-headed heroine, but she really was a resilient presence and you'd likely want this warrior queen on your side in any battle, big or small, any skirmish or survivalistic occasion. My only qualm is I wished she'd gotten more in return. She may have earned herself the title of being enemy to her kingdom but she never stopped being its Queen. She could have buried herself under her losses and agonised, with enormous indulgence, over her mistakes, and as much as the self-loathing ate her up, she's on the ground running, no-nonsense, proactively practical and strategically down to business. I never stopped rooting for her. Lara's still vulnerable, at her most assailable even, but she still possessed such an admirable strength. Since Lara was more or less unsupported and on her own, I think the author made a well-judged decision in bringing her estranged sisters into the fold, for a few reasons. The first being irrelevant because the return of her sisters was simply an element I looked forward to the most. A prospective collective of lethal warrior princesses was far too enticing. Sahrina was brilliant, and I loved that her sisters backed her in spite of the bones they had to pick with Lara themselves. I especially loved that Sahrina in particular offered a much needed perspective that Aren needed to hear. She was fierce and sobering, and I'm glad that the emergence of her sisters highlighted the unavoidable reminder of a callous upbringing that wasn't unfelt or unnoticed by any one of them. It was so necessary to understand for Lara's redemptive development. And I wished that supporting characters hadn't overlooked that. Ultimately, it was refreshing for Lara to have an involved awareness of the fallout, play such a big part in healing the efforts, face the rage and vitriol as gracefully as possible, use every resource in her grasp and yet still carry that quiet hope and palpable vulnerability that not all would be lost for her, that Aren and his kingdom might be hers once again. And she endured it all while still knowing what she had to do. What I think I love most about Lara? It's her relatability, her humanness and that quiet, stirring hope that pools under her peripheral ruthlessness. She's flawed and semi-hostile and sometimes even brutal, but still vulnerable and sincere and real, and there's a subtle longing in her that I think touched me more than anything. She's had it hard, her entire life, and she just wanted something to belong to. This was, in essence, a story of accountability, fighting for what one wished to see in the world but also of the value in and of a second chance. And in spite of her blunders, a heroine who tried to be better and do better, even when she doesn't know better. The author succeeded with her character arc immensely. She endeared her to me so very effectively. She won me over. I did equally enjoyed Aren's arc as the betrayed ruler, the broken lover, the fallen face of a kingdom and a beaten man pushed to the edge who didn't know whether to trust his heart or his head. I felt so engaged and engrossed in the respective inner and outer plights of both Aren and Lara. Aren's indecision from page one was a living beat of the heart throughout. The angst and emotional complication was as memorable as Lara's. How could he love Lara when she stole everything from him? His personal road to forgiving Lara Vs his loyalty to his own people and kingdom struck a believable balance. There was a well grasped conflict between Aren's deep sense of betrayal and his perhaps - even deeper longing and need - to protect and safeguard the only woman he could ever love. My only qualm with Aren (and what pitched me to find frustration in the story) was his indecision. I was fully aware of his obligation as a ruler who had to eclipse his love and need for Lara, but there came a point where Lara had proved herself plentiful, and I was disappointed by Aren's withdrawal. Lara did so much more for his kingdom than he had done, but his self-pity wasn't conducive to the complex connection and difficult decisions he needed to make of his own volition in a show of fidelity to her in the end. He does do so much for her, and I loved those heart wrenching in-betweens that feel so bittersweet and wrought with longing on both sides, but Lara also deserved more than playing second fiddle in my opinion, and I wanted more for her considering the lack of a relationship development I felt from book one. I wanted more fight on Aren's part, more agency; I wanted to see and witness him fighting for Lara, even as I understood the difficulty in making a decision that favoured his people over his own need. Lara gave more than enough, she deserved more from Aren. The ending was a bit too abrupt in my opinion, so perhaps an epilogue would have highlighted what we needed and wanted to see in their relationship. Still, the emotional component was so authentically angsty. They were so miserable without each other, but still painfully amenable to the fact that they might never have each other ever again. I loved the author's imperative - and realistic - point that remained true: in spite of every effort, Lara would still never quite restore the faith Ithicana might once have had in her. Another reason why an epilogue might've softened some wounds and proved advantageous for some future possibilities in regards to the aftermath to some degree. Back to Lara because I can't seem to stop talking about her. I loved that she wasn't the standard card-carrying woman on a warpath for revenge who had icicles in place of a heart; it could appear that way superficially (which we saw more of in book one) and yes, retribution was a big part of the effort here, but for me, it wasn't the most important part. It was understood that it was the behaviour required of her, that she needed to exploit. There was something very humanising and real in the way the developments unfolded. It was angsty in part to the deep and driving longing in both Lara and Aren, in companion to the impossibility of possibly never having that again. So many complicated emotions. That being said, the reactions of every character felt appropriate and authentic. The broken faith touched every character and it was the intangible force that hung like a cloud above all, and everyone had their piece to say and part to play. Lara, naturally, took the brunt of it all. I additionally loved the participating efforts and on page presence of the Veliant sisters. It was what I remember looking forward to after finishing book one. And again, I appreciated the honest, conflicted but realistic route the author took in unravelling Lara's earlier decision to protect her sisters in book one with the actuality of what they all experienced after she left them in the desert. Don't worry though, all the immediate hesitation yields to a sisterhood that I'm glad didn't break and one that holds true. They showed up for each other and there was a lot of love between them. Now, Keris was also an interesting character, I loved him as the academic but dispensable heir who worked to a secret agenda. His characteristic quick-mind, articulacy and somewhat haughty affectation towards Aren was also fun to read, though I would have liked to have experienced a a possible connection between their estranged siblingship, given what Keris and Lara are to each other. They were separated a long time ago, and understand each other perhaps as best two strangers would, but I couldn't help wanting more for them. All things considered, I was prepared to follow this follow up wherever it wanted to take me. It was that good. Gloriously intense and active. Excellently paced and plotted with magnitude. Compelling and confident in prose. And so very engrossing in a setting that follows an invasion of enemy kingdoms, the gravity of responsibility and the forthcoming liberation of conquer-ship. Also like the first book, I relished the energy of each back and forth, and the excellently written conversations that bore daring, drive and discord. Exquisite writing deftly unravels the possibilities, well-volleyed dialogue thickens the atmospheric intensity. Excels the action with the impact of a chalice shattered, its contents spilled with the damnation of an irreversible fate. Its impact a binding irrevocability that anchors the inner conflicts as fiercely as it efforts the labour of picking up the pieces. The enemies to lovers theme of book one was re-animated in this second part and requires a re-emergence of trust and faith. It was so good! This is tantamount to what I call page-turning. The conclusion to Aren and Lara's portion of the series makes for seamless reading. Content Warning/Listing: On page torture, blood, violence, deaths and killings; general warnings for all of this. Some swearing. Descriptions of dead/decaying bodies upheld by castle walls. A scene that depicts horses being used as a means for escape, and hence includes an injured horse and horses triggered into fright by bombs and explosions. Child abuse/child exploitation that additionally resulted in the deaths of young girls (past). Theft. An intimacy scene between the central couple. ________________________________ Visit my blog: V.L. Book Reviews T W I T T E R: @TheVicarious1 I N S T A G R A M: @Vicarious.Hearts ________________________________ ...more |
Notes are private!
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Feb 27, 2024
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Mar 27, 2024
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Feb 27, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B09V7CTBTG
| 3.91
| 3,185
| May 24, 2022
| Mar 2023
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liked it
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RATING: 3/3.5 stars to The One Month Boyfriend ★ ★ ★ There were three highly influential reasons I wanted to read The One Month Boyfriend. The first: t RATING: 3/3.5 stars to The One Month Boyfriend ★ ★ ★ There were three highly influential reasons I wanted to read The One Month Boyfriend. The first: the very attractive cover design. The second: I have close to a dozen Roxie Noir novels and thought it was about time I read one. And the third (and biggest driver): the dedication to the 'unlikeable' heroine presented an opportunity I didn't want to resist. I couldn't not indulge the unfolding of such a tempting paradigm. As with any book belonging to a widely connected series, you'll admittedly feel on the outside looking in if you dive into The One Month Boyfriend without having a considerable grasp on Noir's Loveless series. I probably should have been a tad more switched on and read something from that series before picking this up. Since I hadn't, I felt a smidge out of touch with the introduced side characters, their romantic pairings, the series name and the origins of Wildwood itself. I was clueless to the interconnection despite this being first in a fresh collection and dove in believing it was the genesis of an unlinked saga entirely. It wasn't, but that didn't make it any less of a credible read. Just a confusing one in places. I've garnered the impression that fans of Noir's Loveless series were charmed by Silas as the mysterious, gregarious but troublemaking side character. From what I hear, Silas's story was well in demand, having assumed what I think was an on-the-sidelines supporting role while his fellow towners and companions partnered up in the name of love. This new series sets afoot his own romance in the form of an opposites attract, enemies to lovers, awkward fake relationship, let's-make-your-ex-boyfriend-jealous romp. I did enjoy this well written, well-textured, sober representation of a hostile, disharmonious faux romance but I'll also get into the complications that deemed this a difficult read to rate for me. I have to say that as a contemporary romance contender, the writing and storytelling has great quality. It's thoughtful, talented, textured, well scripted and very slice of life in a manner that speaks to its authenticity. The characters (central and supporting) are complex, troubled, imperfect and intense in their own respective ways but still have a connective camaraderie that speaks to the tight dynamic of a group of people who care acutely about each other. The mental health content in regards to traumatic service, PTSD, anxiety in its various forms, social anxiety, fear-based spiralling, catastrophism, and negatively-primed inner and outer discontent was very well rendered through Kat. There was a solid grasp on the abrasive complexities of unmasked anxiety, catastrophe thinking, overanalysis, its respective situational triggers and the hyperfixations of thought born of fear and uncertainty. Fuelled by the wilds of the imagination and inflamed by disastrously imagined scenarios that upend all sense of clarity was believably propelled through this romance's heroine. This was via Kat mostly and it's worth mentioning that there are some on page panic attacks. The uneasiness, the fretfulness, the foreboding, the overthinking, the gnawing, chafing feeling that feels like steel spikes on your skin and hot lava under it, the boiling tempest within that can look and feel like distance, coldness, irritability, anger and unkindness on the outside. It was well represented. The issue was, I'm still undecided on how I feel about both main characters, as a pair and as individuals. Kat's anxiety was experientially palpable but appeared rather vague, with some allusions here and there to situational triggers, and wasn't supported by necessary commentary that could have communicated her issues better. In addition, there was some incoherent commentary voiced via her perspective that felt a tad non sequitur. If you're going to slip in comments that open a window to questionable statements, it's fair to say that some explanation might accompany the monologue. Whether born of her anxiety or legitimate past experience, I can't possibly know whether her thoughts are credible or not. I understood the origins of Silas's inner turmoil to some extent, but Kat's was more obscure. We understand that Kat feels the extremes of it; in social settings, in conversation and in everyday life. As much as I was majorly looking forward to the take on the 'unlikeable' heroine, I couldn't make distinction between who Kat was and whether her reactions were always anxiety-based or just her. I didn't understand her outside of her anxiety, and that's a disturbance I was trying to work through and just couldn't grasp. I wanted to understand more of her as an individual and a person, more of her history and backstory, and I didn't. I had a separate but equally perplexing interpretation of who Silas was. Perhaps the author intended to demonstrate the distortions of character and personality, the depersonalisation that mental health conditions can evince in becoming the living form of an anxiety or PTSD disorder, but I'm still undecided on how I felt with the characterisation comprehensively. The mental health rep was well-defined by comparison but the characterisation was frazzling and intense in a way that needed words but didn't always have the words. The unsaid that needed to be said created a distance that didn't feel bridged. Although there was an understanding between Silas and Kat in relation to their separate anxieties, how they had the tact to help each other in those very raw moments of losing themselves, the lack of an emotional connection was a missing limb. According to the blurb, we have a 'loud', 'cheerful' golden boy hero but I didn't feel that was achieved in its deliberate outward effect. What the author attempts is to have those qualities be performative for Silas, as he masks how he feels and who he is very often. I'm assuming the author was attempting a reverse of the 'soft inside, hard outside' trope. Silas is even described in similar terms, an approximation of 'iron on the inside, all charm and smiles on the outside.' He was contained and frayed but quasi-composed, which is often the case with masked trauma; we're always hiding who we are, what we are, how ugly the things we feel can feel. Those adjectives are deliberately peripheral but I still didn't understand who I was supposed to understand him to be. One could say that he was supposed to perform as the charming, easygoing, quick-to-smile bachelor on the periphery who's masking the darkness within him under such a guise. He comes across as an intense someone with an inner darkness that simmered, threatening to break free, his every interaction with Kat maintained that subtextual intensity which implicates his traumatic history as a serviceman. Based on the blurb, he wasn't quite what I thought he was going to be though. Either through his characterisation, behaviour or lack of definition, I found him to be underwhelming unfortunately. Perhaps his complexity could been better underpinned, I think I was hoping for more from them both as individuals. Although the romance was purposefully irritable, tense and unwieldy, the story wasn't at all made leaden with the mental health content. There was subtlety, a great lack of it for needed developments but it was still interesting, snarky, pointed, sober and honest. It was authentic, if not entirely fulfilling. Silas and Kat might be there for each other during some intense moments, but I think the author could have spared space to really anchor their romantic connection and strengthen their interactions with meaningful moments while still permitting both characters to remain true to themselves. While still sympathetic to and in mind of their mental health conditions. Unfortunately I didn't feel that their connection was well expressed but I did appreciate the honesty in the experiences they've both ostensibly had with past therapeutic interventions; you can do the 'right' things and implement the 'right' protocols to help you through an episodic, reactive period or the general living, but the reality often looks a lot different in the day to day. Is much more challenging in the face of using the learned tools. The techniques aren't always effective, the trauma still sits like a waiting beast with hackles raised and one eye open and the ongoing nature of their afflictions Is something to be lived with, not bespelled away by practiced techniques. Though they definitely can help.That was especially evident through Silas and his reflective thoughts of suicidal ideation that once left him in a tailspin. He clearly still struggles a lot. Silas's experiences really felt a part of him and Kat's anxiety felt just as much an albatross to her. The enemies to lovers theme was introduced really well but I don't think it held well for me. Perhaps it was their respective psychological troubles that thwarted a deeper connection but despite how deep Kat's anxiety dwells, the relationship didn't hit that point of real, heart-embracing intimacy for me. I can appreciate their relationship growth; how sincere, realistic and no-nonsense they were with each other but I was waiting for them to connect with some pivotal moments that would bind the relationship building between them. There were times where I really enjoyed the careful build up, and there were times where I felt sidelined, irritable and confused. I will say that the author creates a discomforting atmosphere effectively. They're both quite layered and complex, both very imperfectly human, but I was expecting a deeper romantic connection for that reason. Even though it didn't happen in quite a memorable way, that's not to say that the story nor the relationships were without credibility. There was an understanding shared, but without a legitimate emotional connection. Things happened without always happening. The way they often related with each other was coarse, perplexing and baffling, and I did struggle at times with it. What took place was an uplifting, hopeful but honest and occasionally humorous representation of how two unlikely opposites could come together in spite of the darker, grislier parts of them. But also of how friendships can carry a great weight and lessen it in the same breath. What I really did enjoy was the dynamic of the male friendship group. There's a subtle but significant bond between Silas and his friends; they tease, they taunt, they prod but there's a deep and gentle intimacy between them all. I haven't encountered healthy male relationships in fiction very often and this did flip the script with that in a very readable way. They talk, they embrace, they hug, they worry, they support and the interrelationships felt healthy. They all come together like a de facto family, and when Kat explains how they once ended a night with hugs for everyone, I felt the warmth of family in that. It was touching and connective. They all seem present for each other. Silas's history of grief was another great example of this, in the way the story briefly hints at how his friendship with Levi was his safest haven during the most traumatic period of his life. As aforementioned, I may not have read the preceding series, which Is why I felt a disconnect, but I could appreciate the relationships between them, even as I didn't know them very well. Despite a sense of something unexplored and unvoiced about the pairing, I have to say that there was a believable development between them as two chalk-and-cheese opposites who can't quite stand the sight of each other (to begin with). Perhaps a more defined navigation between being a general support to the other and developing an otherwise romantic relationship should have been a more clearly outlined priority. But that said, I could appreciate the author's choice in playing with friction and exploring how the two of them relate and would eventually come together, even as I understand how they might have been paired with more suitable love interests. The bedroom scenes were scorching and the storytelling talent is certainly promising. Heavy themes meld suitably with humour, acceptance, friendships, steam and an interracial fake relationship romance. I will likely read more Roxie Noir romance, but all my qualms factored in, this was a tad anticlimactic as there was a struggle to find and form connection with what I was reading. I therefore didn't connect with it as much as I'd hoped to. Promising though, and I would definitely recommend this. ________________________________ Visit my blog: V.L. Book Reviews T W I T T E R: @TheVicarious1 I N S T A G R A M: @Vicarious.Hearts ________________________________ ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 12, 2024
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Feb 20, 2024
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Jan 18, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 1526628228
| 9781526628220
| 1526628228
| 4.47
| 562,063
| Feb 15, 2022
| May 11, 2023
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really liked it
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RATING: 4 stars to House of Sky and Breath ★ ★ ★ ★ I don't know how Sarah J. Maas manages to minimise me to a stunned, gaping, wordless feeling-too-muc RATING: 4 stars to House of Sky and Breath ★ ★ ★ ★ I don't know how Sarah J. Maas manages to minimise me to a stunned, gaping, wordless feeling-too-much form of human mystification but she has indeed managed to do just that yet again. Such is the work of a finished Maas novel. A phenomena ostensibly still in great effect. Some say she's redefined the fantasy genre, some disfavour her stylistic energy, but I'm entirely engaged to the passionate, thrill-writing creative who inks her own script and skewers her storyteller's staff in the ground with challenge. I expected the confluence of a few different outcomes for part two of the Crescent City saga: a continuing search for the truth, a time for decision-making significance, a world drawing closer to war, our central crew courting danger, the omnipotence of the forbidding force that are Crescent City's dictators (The Asteri), a cast of truth seekers and major players parrying like slinking predators in night, twilight and daylight, and the menacing powers of Pangera's feared migrating to their home ground. What I didn't expect was an ending that not only hints at, but has now boldy branded itself a multiverse crossover. ACOTAR fans, you will hold your breath as a silent roaring will stoke a life of its own inside of you, and that's all I promise to say without destroying the fun for the unread (more of my conflicting thoughts on this in the 'Extra Thoughts' section below). A sequence in the Mass monopoly that I look forward to is the hold-your-breath swiftly moving thrill of a set of action-rich concluding chapters that effectively uproots, twists and carves a veritable gauntlet in the sand, and this addition just celebrated the trend. In the sophisticated words of Tharion "you ready for the shitshow we're about to enter?" I mean, I don't know Tharion, shitshows are known for leaving a stench and I'm still processing the lingering aftermath of this particular performance. The third book can't come fast enough. Lucky us that January gifts us just that. Sarah J. Mass certainly possess the ability to keep a very big plot moving, with every arm, leg, functional and non-functional limb leading to newer, sharper, shadier developments. Secrets, surprises and discoveries waiting in the wings until they're given permittance to unleash themselves at the right moments. I am admittedly worried about the comprehensivity of the world-scape - vast as it is - effectively measuring up to a satisfying culmination. Sometimes this book felt like a lot of words routing out too many avenues. As it is, I'm not sure how many books are planned for the entire series. I'll be honest and say that It wasn't a difficult pastime to guess at some of the plot twists.(view spoiler)[ my fiercest instincts pegged the Hind as Ruhn's love interest, and I did guess early on about her involvement as a double agent. The clues were there, I couldn't see anyone else as a more proficient rebel and I couldn't see anyone else as Ruhn's lady love. (hide spoiler)] The remaining - and larger plot twists - however? I couldn't have guessed at them no matter the intense effort. Even that which I did see coming though, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it all come into fruition. Are we going to have a romance between Flynn and a certain fiery shifter? Is a very honour-bound, displaced, misplaced Ithan Holstrom game to will a new beginning and a new love into his life to usurp a long-lived longing for Bryce? Are the terror-inflicting baddies like The Hammer finally going to be at the receiving end of much-needed comeuppance? What's in store for an enemy turned sympathiser in Baxian? I have to say that I liked his involvement in the sequel. Or a cruel and cold Fae dictator who's father only in name to our Starborn Prince and unrecognised Princess? I enjoyed the group interrelations as always, made all the more intriguing by the tense, twisty suspicion of fresh cast members in the form of new arrivals. Never quite knowing who is a friendly or a foe. But the collective camaraderie and frenemy-like engagements extends like a non-negotiable, no-nonsense entertaining something that I relish. Like House of Earth and Blood, I still felt that each character mattered in the follow up. And each one has a path of their own to unravel. House of Sky and Breath does some great work in the space of character relationships and character development. I loved Tharion in book one (most notably his relationship with Bryce), but I'm going to agree with a reading friend's opinion and say that I think we got too much Tharion here. The younger Holstrom brother certainly takes up space of his own, I really felt for Ithan's plight of abandonment, his inner struggle with separation, loss, aloneness and the deep guilt eating at him was really well translated. That he may be a part of a newer 'pack' so to speak, or to forge one of his own, I'm only desperately awaiting his arc maturity. As the youngest of these paranormals, he has so much to gain, discover of himself and the author excellently puts his pain and progress to the page. So many characters seem to materialise from the woodwork, a lot of personalities to be curious by and become interested in. It's an unsmooth, paranormal de facto family affair. Also, I'm still reeling over Cormac's secret - but very final - decision to do what he did. He deserved so much more than what he gave up, but his presence served its purpose and laid down a statement in many ways: anything can await any one of them, and they'll have to make those challenging choices if they want to become a part of a world they wish to see. (view spoiler)[ I just wish his time in this fictional world lasted longer through the series, I was growing to enjoy his involvement and I'll miss his brooding, troubled prince vibe. But that's the sacrifice of freedom fighting and his actions paralleled who we gradually understand him to be. Apparently, though, he was marked for expendability, and I wasn't happy about it. After Danika, a female rebel we didn't know but who still played a significant part in this book's developing trajectory, he's the third to fall. I'm not excited about who might be next. (hide spoiler)] Things do of course develop with Hunt, Bryce and Ruhn. With the world-reordering events of the Spring behind them, a new normal awaits our rebellious circle of friends, frenemies, rulers, royals, defectors, self servers, independent enterprisers, loners and lovebirds. Bryce and Hunt have an adjustment to make. So much happened but so much is still up in the air, simmering like a waiting fatal blast should they breathe too hard. But life was never meant to settle, not when power brokers are a silent force working to an unseen ploy. Hunt and Bryce have decided to play small and keep it that way, even though they're both disturbed by the state of the world, Bryce especially. Contrastingly, Hunt doesn't want to be anywhere near a reviving continuation of a rebellion that smoked his dream to cinders once upon a time. He isn't happy about the rebel involvement that's in his future, but as we all know, he'd follow Bryce anywhere. On the topic of Bryce being encouraged by Ruhn to challenge the status quo and raise herself to an elevated status, we'll have to see what transpires in that regard. There are several hints peppered throughout of her regal bearing, what and who she can become, especially via Hunt and Ruhn's POV, so we'll see where and how this storytelling carves a destiny for her. I'm intrigued to see how the constellation will come together. Everyone mistrusts everyone else (to shifting degrees), each sporting a healthy dose of suspicion, even among friends. Can I also share that I'm really enjoying Hel's involvement in this major orchestration? Where most fiction loves to play with the chilling malevolence of the sinister dwelling of Hel's mythology, there was a really fresh twist on hel's involvement in this story. And I really enjoyed it. I was backing Aidas all the way and wanted more of the demon Princes' involvement. Aidas' lack of page time was semi negligent. Where we got excessive Tharion, we received minimal Aidas. As I mentioned though, interesting were the revelations of Hel's history. Despite Danika dying on us in book one (not a spoiler), she's certainly kept alive by the living shadows that are her secrets. I'm not surprised that Bryce is freshly wounded, each new revelation about her best friend inching wider that distance between them. I can't help wondering what else Danika had up the sleeves of her trademark jacket, perhaps she's also the unofficial leader of some secret sect, unofficial councillor of some settlement for rebels, we just never know. Danika's motives are finding life, and those motives are a lot bigger than the dirty dealings of black market trafficking. This is all big world trading for Bryce. It's a Maas fantasy novel, so of course, there's plenty to speculate upon, turn over and pick apart. Newer additions to the growing cast include the Ophion initiative, a predatory Dreadwolf, Crescent City's new ruling successor Celestina, The Harpy, The Astronomer, an abandoned, oppressed wolf, Pippa Spetsos, The Hind, Sandriel's reinstated triari members, the Asteri, an Avallen Prince, Baxian Argos, Hel's demon princes. I've likely forgotten several more but those are the ones I'm in mind of right now. The narrative continues in this second coming, a cosmic recurrence, if you will. An unavoidable second force that wants to correct an order, that's forcing idling players to make their moves, and hesitation or not, the wave of a war waits for no one. Everyone's pushed to act, whether they want to or not, all pulled into the melee by a greater influence. Enslavement comes in many shapes and forms, and although Bryce and Hunt have been granted a free life, they're far from liberated. They're still the fiercely partnerered twosome against all odds but they're not oblivious to the fragility of the life they're living. And it's not the benevolent celebration it appears to be. But for Bryce, the adjustment has been more than challenging, stuck between the bewilderment of acclimating to life's normal parries with the devastation of what's truly going on in the world, how quickly their lives might turn. A false sense of security but one direly needed after the sheer action of Spring's passing. Creatures and humans are playing rebel in the shadows, and it's not long before our central cast are pulled into the play. They also seem to be rallying up quite the count of enemies, and this sequel brings a time of great significance, for all of them. Her best friend may be of this world no longer but the secrets she kept are a living thing, leading Bryce to uncover more and more about the dangerous movements before her death. And that she never knew the intimate secrets of the friend she thought she knew. They're living normal, quiet lives designed to leave the peace undisturbed. But, and what makes for good storytelling, chimerical peace can't ever sit for too long without being disturbed. Hence, and I welcome, A House of Sky and Breath. Where Crescent City might just become the next battleground. Continued into its second stage, we see the cast too close for comfort as they become embroiled in rebel activity as a search for continued truth is veiled and warped by the powers that be. The introduction opens up with a highly suspenseful chapter expressed from the perspective of a human rebel. A courageous nobody by name of Sophie Renast was the unsung - and also sung - heroine of this sequel. All hope seems to rest upon the initiative of the callous members of a rebellion. And any other supernatural or human willing to put up a force. The threats are silent but no less sinister, and Bryce and Hunt could lose it all in a Vanir heartbeat. Magically enhanced sex scenes are like furniture for a Sarah J. Maas novel, and I enjoyed them very much. Although the passion, secrecy and danger musters on several cylinders, I have to say that I'm most apprehensive to dive into book three particularly. As every character keeps reminding us, '[they're] tangling in some dangerous shit.' Here's to hoping that sh*t stirs up storm that loiters in the very best way. Content Warning/Listing: Profanity galore, mentions death, torture, blood. General warnings for violence and harm of different kinds. Also mentions the rape of a long-ago figure of history. Mentions the slaughtering of minors (children/infants/babies). Slavery/ownership of other creatures/lifeforms. Murders/killings/death/torture. Harbouring and possession of slaves. Detailed Sex scene. Slavery (willing and unwilling). Mentions the objectification demise of children and child abuse/torture. Mass deaths and mentions of it. EXTRA THOUGHTS! (WILL contain spoilers) 1) As soon as I read 'scarred hands', scaled armour and hazel eyes I knew we were veering into crossover territory. I may have stopped breathing for a bit but really did I turn those final pages with a combination of stunned paralysis and some form of grotesque glee. I have to admit that any mention of the ACOTAR saga and I'm wholly broody for the series. But, and as much as I love a revisit to the acotar crew, I'm NOT sure how I feel about this multiverse development if I'm being completely honest. I know most ACOTAR fans are likely relishing in the aftermath and the possibilities, and I'm not saying that I'm not one of them but was the crossover needed? This series can of course stand on its own so I'm wondering why the author decided to take this route. And how many books dare I ask will the crossover involvement make it into? I can't stop thinking about how the two worlds will tie in and how long we'll get page time with the ACOTAR crew; a healthy dose of acotar content through the series? Or are we having a joining of two worlds, at least until bryce can get back to her own remains to be seen...to what extent, we're none the wiser. 2) So, we know that Ruhn and Bryce's father is a heartless piece of work, but I'm stretching my mental limbs here and saying that I think he's one of the bigger orchestrators, and knows exactly what he's doing. He may be a cruel and callous leader, and an even crueller father but I think there's a lot more to him than we're he'd ever be willing to admit to. Both good and terrible. I'm watching him closely, even though I don't forgive him for what he did to Ruhn... 3) My fiercest instincts pegged the Hind as Ruhn's love interest, and I did guess early on about her involvement as a double agent. The clues were there, I couldn't see anyone else as a more proficient rebel and I couldn't see anyone else as Ruhn's lady love. I'm just putting it out there that I think Ruhn and Lydia could be mates as well as love interests. Could it be mere coincidence that he can access her mental plane as easily as he can. He also keeps mentioning her scent... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 13, 2023
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Dec 30, 2023
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Nov 11, 2023
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Paperback
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| 0062279025
| 9780062279026
| 0062279025
| 4.04
| 16,610
| Nov 01, 2016
| Nov 01, 2016
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really liked it
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RATING: 4 stars to A Million Worlds With You! ★ ★ ★ ★ I travel towards thinking of myself as challenged by completion as much as I've previously taken RATING: 4 stars to A Million Worlds With You! ★ ★ ★ ★ I travel towards thinking of myself as challenged by completion as much as I've previously taken to chasing it; I pathologically behest an appetite for finishing things but also feel the flood of approaching dread for that bittersweet parting of all said finishings. I'm likely the most stubborn resistor of the tide that tells us all good things must come to an end. I dread fictitious finishings the most. Alas, the finale has arrived, once-parted crimson curtains closed, the performance performed and the stage dusted and as vacuous as the empty matter on a page of words. The closing of a series is never easy (especially since I spend so much time with a book before I'm done with it), but here it is, in all its cross-dimensional, destructively conspiratorial, multiverse-mass death, romantically challenged family-driven drama. Similar to the pace of the previous two instalments, the dust barely settles before its unsettled once again, and a breath barely meets air before the next swift intake as the Caine family and their two researcher assistants must face the shocking prospect of falling worlds and falling lives, including their very own. On a scale of quantum realities. Time really is of the essence, and with the Home Office - home to an extensively plotted plan of widespread murder - utilising bereavement as their most demolishing force, it's yet again up to Marguerite to lead the rescue efforts with the brains of extraordinary science (those of her extraordinary parents, Paul and Theo) behind her. All comes together with the swiftest pace, a chaser's plot and more entertaining dimension discovery; the bites of all we've learned before joined by newer pieces assembled into a picture of crime too heinous to name. One that crosses worlds. Worse even than pandemic proportions, though widespread inter-dimensional annihilation do cometh close. Triad's workings might become clearer but without a solid plan of their own to counterpoint the Home Office, who are leagues and lengths ahead of them, working against the tide is as uphill a fight as it sounds. And just like before, the vulnerabilities of our main characters are weaponised against them. The fight in our protagonist reaches a different depth, and Marguerite's possessed of a driven display to take on the responsibility of more than just her own world. It's mission critical for her to do right after her previous wrongs have echoed through worlds, and her motivation is perhaps bigger than ever. Our leading lady artist was definitely touched by a lesson I was hoping she'd learn in book one (and then book two), especially when the true terror of experiencing what her companions have becomes the opening experience of the book. I have to say that as fascinating as the concept of her having to face a darker piece in another version of herself - and the truth of an alternative self in the form of Wicked - didn't quite carry the needed impact. Wicked herself underperformed in the role of antagonist and the navigation of that plot piece, though definitely interesting as it spoke to a challenging belief of the inner best/flawed that carries a thoroughline through the entire series with each character, fell somewhere flat. I did enjoy the speculative draw of her malevolent multiverse clone drawing her into an unknown danger through each universe. I additionally love the intrigue and structure of each new dimension travelled to, but as interesting as the setup is, the writing itself didn't draw the best and most palpable impact from crucial moments. Since this concludes the trilogy, I was hoping for some surging end-of-series gravitas to seal those flaws and flood me with more end-of-trilogy thrill. A really great sense of plot pushing, direction and depictional settings, however. Next to my soft spot for dear Paul, the world travelling comes close to being my favourite element of the series. Comprehensively, I'm still considering this concept creatively mysterious. I had a few favourite world choices in this book, each for different reasons, but the Egyptverse just might be my favourite; I loved the exotic archaeological site. Along with Medieval Rome for its timely difference, and the mid-Russian revolution for the scenario of a well-loved and humble life for Marguerite and Paul. Where the first book became a justice mission fuelled by passionate grief and the second book was propelled by a different kind of rescue effort motivated by love, A Million Worlds With You yet also follows through with a similar drive to act with the immediacy of disaster, desire and need, though this time it engages with the bigger service of saving the multiverse. I do enjoy a busy plot, and dare I say that even as the storyline feels a tad uncoordinated and the story itself sweats out its flaws and unrealised potential in different spaces, the instalment that finalises it all still maintained the enjoyability I've experienced series-wide. Marguerite, Paul and their splintered relationship considered, it's like they're faced with everything all at once. The safety of her world's Paul is no longer a comfort she can turn to, and appealing to her very withdrawn boyfriend is a losing battle. With bigger tragedies in play, her love life comes second to the perils of scientific debauchery. What? You may ask. T'is true, I tell you. Book one tells it best. Still, Paul's perched on a mountain of guilt, the deepest doubt, and Marguerite might have to face the finality of letting him go. Helping him believe he's bigger and better than the pieces he's been fractured into and she quickly realises it's not going to be easy when he's so adrift in his own body, perhaps not even salvageable, yet tethered to him she'll always be. In every world. Admittedly, I did feel that Paul's inner struggle played part to something more long-suffering than character performing and relationship cinching. I would have liked to see the storyline of his splintering managed differently, more creative tweakery to back up the transitional portrayal, though Gray still taps into Paul's characterisation consistently. The endless angst between our fated couple did leave something to be desired, and (for me) the potential for the final part to their romance did fall relatively flat. But anyway I can have Paul Markov, I'll definitely take him. For the fact that the epilogue didn't cement the main family angle together as a stronger knot to the closing narrative since the big theme of familial relationships and how Marguerite's family (including Theo and Paul) relate to each in each world, I was a bit disappointed by the finalisation. I hoped we might've had more commentary over the interrelationships between the six of them. And since Paul's splintering took such a toll on him book-wide I was hoping we'd get more threaded commentary on how he continued to deal with the aftermath of that inner, unseen struggle. Perhaps the persistent need for a deeper, reflective perspective might always leave me pushing for a tactile settlement, but the ending was whispersome over satisfyingly put to bed. For all my struggle with our heroine I did appreciate her growth span; that she transitioned into perceptibly distinguishing their multiverse duplicates as separate individuals as much as they were a part of them highlighted the difference in her examination. As did the scene that brought each Marguerite together in a single world - it was a really nice (and likely needed) touch. Most especially since that very sci-fi situation afforded a very unique opportunity where she and the Duchess are given space to meet, face to face In conversation. A lovely moment of closure for the three of them, since Paul gets some too. The character Integration was ok but since this is the book of closure, the involvement didn't rise to the occasion. As a quick example, Josie's character has been conspicuously absent through each book - typically given a scene or two and contemplated through the thoughts of her sister's perspective - and her covertness as a side character created some curiosity around her. I was even wondering if she might follow through with some surprises of her own, but she felt more or less like a distanced Caine family member. Surrounding a scenario of such epic doubt, where every character feels burdened by the touch of hopelessness, I would have appreciated a better balance between the machinations of us vs. them. Each chapter is motivated by movement and action, and that definitely leaves a reader enveloped in the fray. Marguerite realises just how pivotal her role is in safeguarding every other version of herself and her contrition was beyond doubt through her inner rumination. She's now coherent to the understanding that a life is a life within every universe, and every single one matters enough for her to be a part of the rescue. As iterated in my review for A Thousand Pieces of You a very individual conceptualised palm-print inspired by the mystique of dimensional universe travel is a great way to describe this book. It always draws back to family, love, relationships, choices made, the novelty of a unique experience and evinces the complexity of who we might become given a different life, in choosing a different path. Even as the narrative discourses with fate, scientific probability, possibility and fated outcomes, the display of imperfection within each character always brings it back to relativity. Creative, interesting and inventive it, summons a diverse cut from the common crop. With this last instalment, the essence of the series remains the same and its thematic consistency performs continuously. As a personal preference (because character relationships carry the wealth of utter significance to me) I would like to point out that I came off hoping for a stronger engagement between Marguerite and Theo. The storyline is otherwise well handled and although this isn't a series of five stars I'm calling it a gateway portal of four because I'd love to lift my hand for any other book with 'Claudia Gray' inscribed on the front cover. I loved the multiverse magic! Content Warning/Listing: Violence, widespread death and demise. Descriptions of accidents and injury. Death. ____________________________________ Visit my blog: V.L. Book Reviews T W I T T E R: @TheVicarious1 I N S T A G R A M: @Vicarious.Hearts ____________________________________ ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 15, 2023
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May 16, 2023
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May 15, 2023
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Hardcover
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| 9798427019019
| 4.01
| 27,653
| Apr 21, 2022
| Apr 21, 2022
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Stopped reading at 33%
I’d given her the name Honey Bee when we were kids because we’d learned about them in school. I’d always been amazed at t Stopped reading at 33% I’d given her the name Honey Bee when we were kids because we’d learned about them in school. I’d always been amazed at the way the girl would buzz around spreading all her sweetness from one person to the next. Deep inside her lived a queen… but she hadn’t tapped into that shit yet. But I saw it. I saw the fierceness behind her dark gaze when it came to protecting her sisters. Her father. Just not herself yet.' 'I thought about the first time I ever called her by that nickname. The first time I realized Vivian Thomas was my best friend. The first time I crawled through her window craving all her goodness'… Always Mine is actually my first Laura Pavlov romance (additionally to being first in the Honey Mountain series) and not to say that this wouldn't be an adequately passable read for most romance readers but the friends to lovers dynamic didn't hit with the expected intention. I found that the peripheral elements of the story were more preferable to the immediacy of the central romance. Niko's your quintessentially unattached, unattainable straight-talking grump and his personality profile parallels a truly rough upbringing as he shouldered the strong arm of abuse to protect his family. Familial responsibility disrupted his dream and he's been stuck in that small town since, the consummate sacrificer for his mum, sister and niece. Throughout the years, Vivi's been his confidante and she knows everything he's suffered through at the hands of an abusive father, an enabling mother and negligent guardianship all around. He's completely no-nonsense in every way, is who he is without fault or frills and, just like she would, Vivian is one of the few people in his life he'd do anything for. A hard hero who's softer only for her. He's got a lot of love and time for his best friend, and vice versa. Neither has ever even entertained anything more because the value between them stretches long into the past, and because constants are necessary comforts. Anything beyond friendship has never been on the table, until recently of course. Vivian is one of a family of sisters, all of whom are scattered all over the place. She's as much of a family girl as she has her own independence; her own beachfront home and bakery business in their small town of Honey Mountain. I did like the way the Thomas sisters relate to each other, just a very honest, down to earth sisterhood. Dylan had a very memorable personality type as the most outspoken, opinionated of the assemblage but they all gelled quite convincingly as a sibling collective. Both she and Niko have completely different relationship styles. Simply for him, he doesn't have them, the free and loose Honey Mountain bachelor everybody knows him to be. Casual sex is his wheelhouse and he makes no excuses for his leanings but that's all that's free and easy about him. Vivian, on the other hand, is a relationship girl but has only ever had one long-term partner. A relationship that only persisted out of complacency as opposed to any real, committed affection for him. Which is just as well, when she found him cheating on her and received a wedding invite addressed to her entire family. The story has a comfortably routine setting and the believability itself isn't a problem, though other things were. While it was nice to see we have a heroine without the common qualms most would have about breaching platonic territory with her long-time bestie, there was something oddly too convenient and quick about her drunken suggestion that he school her in some sexual education that read as a bit insincere, even if she did admit to wanting to enjoy it without overthinking the arrangement. It was very sweetly bonded and genuine though, which I liked. The history of their friendship could also have been better depicted. Even thought I clearly left this unfinished, from what I gather, I think the bulk of the storyline conflict doesn't come from the romance but the supporting conflict with Vivian's ex and Niko's father as he intervenes with a return into his son's life. I think the romance stays considerably stable. This one was highly anticipated for me but who knows, maybe this just wasn't the right Pavlov pick. A Laura Pavlov romance has been long overdue so I'm glad I had the wherewithal to final pick one up even it it currently idles incomplete. Content Warning/Listing: Teen pregnancy. Abusive parent in jail. Abusive/alcoholic parent. Mentions a DUI. Childhood abuse/frequent mention of child abuse. Profanity and sex scenes. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 2023
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Apr 14, 2023
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May 04, 2023
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Paperback
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| B00TE8LHXI
| 4.05
| 23,807
| Nov 03, 2015
| Nov 03, 2015
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really liked it
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RATING: 4 stars to Ten Thousand Skies Above You! ★ ★ ★ ★ The plot thickens in a colossally orbicular bowl I'm going to call a Multiverse soup with Fire RATING: 4 stars to Ten Thousand Skies Above You! ★ ★ ★ ★ The plot thickens in a colossally orbicular bowl I'm going to call a Multiverse soup with Firebird #2 where dimension travel fiction has uprooted me from my ordinary for a second cycle sequence. So much fun, and the concept persists with no less a generous helping of interest. The stakes become steeper, love is used to leverage twofold, scientific ingenuity continues to be inextricably harmonised with human agenda, surprises travel across worlds, relationships are challenged, conspiratorial collaborations form a new face and Marguerite's love life hypothesis meets contention in newer forms. It's rarely plain-sailing in paradise for this teen. In Marguerite's world, her problems come stacked with the weight of many. Literally. And with the weight of family. And with enemies who want to use them against her. Her parents' cross-travel innovation is proving to be more trouble than it might be worth in pioneering science. Because with the triumph of an empirical breakthrough comes the flaw of misguided human ambition, and those who are closer to tweaking, tinkering and orchestrating their way to unthinkably inappropriate ends are much closer to her than she could ever have thought. And the possible end to countless lives in the process is but dust in between worlds, debris in between dimension. True to from, she's doing her effort best to pick up the pieces, literal and figurative. It's not just a matter of being acquired to weaponise for Marguerite, nor is it just about her Paul becoming the splintered example of what can be done to a soul and an adversary's desire to capitalise on every modern possibility that can come from puppeteering the multiverse. Those are big problems, of course, but it gets much more personal than that when she's exposed to the unchangeable aftermath of her own multiverse faux pa. The sequel brings us up to speed speedily but like book one it opens up with interesting plot-based action. Ten Thousand Skies Above You skips ahead a few months on and the alternative world jaunt picks up with a new set of challenges our protagonists have to face. But with all the reveals of book one, we get more secrets with book #2. Poor Theo's been hiding health woes, suffering the secret ravages of what was done to him through the manhandling of a multiverse twin. As such, the state of his health is indefinite. He's been distant with the rest of the gang, and it becomes pertinent soon why. I was truly happy to see Theo get some page time to shine since he became such a source of questionability for Marguerite. He needed it, deserved it and supports her endlessly. Paul, is again, consistently AWOL. Like book one, we have a Paul who is mostly absentee amid the story bulk (bar the dimensional others of him we meet), and in that sense, I appreciated the needed collaboration space lent to the real Theo and Marguerite. They were robbed of their chance to really bond over a dimensional journey of their own. But back to Paul? If he's mostly AWOL again come book three, the final partner to the trilogy, I may have to disown him I've decided. I'm going to play devil's advocate and say there may be something that feels a bit too promised about our leading lady artist and her beloved student physicist, and I'm losing confidence that he's the soul mate we're led to believe he is, not because we face different facets to his character (which was necessarily and realistically grounding as Marguerite's often remiss in placing too much stock in her idea of perfect paragon Paul) but because he feels more echo, like a possibility in between worlds as opposed to solid form sans adequate romantic relationship progress. There's something intangible about him, and I'm very curious to see what transpires. I'm analysing the value of activising a 'where is Paul Markov' campaign, however. He completely disarmed me in only the best possible way in A Thousand Pieces of You, but his place in book two felt more redundant. Their relationship is currently in a place of challenge so we'll see how the challenge transpires! I was prepared to usurp my extraordinary love for Paul moreso with Ten Thousand Skies Above You but I'm shocked to say I might have loved him less. And that statement right there is placing me within the biology of intrinsic uncertainty. Maybe the trilogy closer will conclude with a different kind of ship, or shock us further entirely by introducing a multiverse throuple. I joke, but as it stands I don't know where I stand with this fledgling love triangle that seems to know precisely what it wants but also doesn't. I feel as I if I know every other Paul we meet more than I do Marguerite's actual Paul, which contributes to her protracted love hypothesis and inner struggle to see beyond her made belief system, or perhaps Paul's too issued up to really show up with the fight Marguerite's going to need from him. Where I thought the love triangle was snugly put to bed upon finalising book one, the author draws it back to life again a little bit here, and I had to question whether it was really necessary, unless Claudia Gray has plans, plans she's singularly sidelined us with so far. I was pleasantly curious at the semi-revival since I believed the author might be heading somewhere clever with it for round two, this potentially reasoning why I felt a lack of a developed connection between Paul and Marguerite. We all know who Marguerite believes she's destined to be with but could there be a maybe in that equation, even as adamant as she is in where and with whom her heart currently lies? Of course I want to believe in destined love, but perhaps the author has clandestine goals to maintain the subtle misdirective for reasons she's not willing to disclose just yet. I hope. I pray. I'm at her mercy. We know that Paul and Marguerite have a destined connection across parallel spaces, sparing others where she discovers the lack of him in certain lives, but we needed more relationship development between the two of them in lieu of relying on who he is and has been to her in every other world they encounter. Getting caught up in the semantics of every personality profile of Paul not within parallelism to her assumed beliefs does hurt her general sense of inner solicitude and her lack forethought as a protagonist, and It didn't escape my reader qualms that her belief system pertaining to Paul became the big theme that it didn't quite need to be. Even though Marguerite's inner conflict over Paul's indivisibility in her life repetitively perpetuates her unease and puts her conviction in him being her fated other deep into question, I do believe Ten Thousand Skies Above You becomes the book by which she meets her biggest learning curve. She really learns the consequences of her actions when she revisits the Russiaverse. Although she has her shortcomings in the way she doesn't make the most out situations and seems delayed in learning lessons most would come to with minutes of contemplation, this instalment really does play to some needed reflection and course change on her part. The book makes a great point of commenting on how arguably no one person should possess such uses of great and grand inventions, when they can even be used by good people misguided by their own humanity, where anybody can and will weaponise their feelings into mass destruction. That the universe we should be concerned with first and only is the one we exist within, not manipulating multiverse strings for schematic modification. One of my major concerns over book one was the autonomous ramifications of body hopping, and while it didn't push forward with every point I wanted it to, it did push forward with others. What this sequel accomplishes really well is coming full circle with the moral aftermath of Marguerite's poor choice making in book one. She tangles with the ethical dilemma of her actions and the unavoidable consequences, which I now realise may have been the author's truest intention with the often debatable choices our heroine made preceding. I love the way each universe leans into and layers the story like a building trifle, whether It's a plot point push, a revelation discovered, relationships in trouble, an inner struggle, we do always learn something from each visited universe. In that sense, there's always a sense of perspective. The destined concept of universal familiars is a deeply comforting concept, and Gray really digs her pen into this particular theme. There's a beautiful boundary-crossing sentimentalism about it that plays to familial conviction and universal affection that spans any gap between universes. As I'm sure I've likely already voiced, there something very readable about this set of books and I'm having such fun time exploring the author's ultra-fine sense of chicanery. As much as a very desperate part of me was deeply anticipating our heroine to experience the hollows of being an 'imperfect' traveller, I did not expect that adequately dramatic cliffhanger. The sequel's conclusion really came toting the surprise factor. The author plays with some interesting questioning in the curious sense of meditating on who we'd be in worlds existing in ones alongside our own but aren't our own. And the rightness of claiming ownership of every person in existence just because they're yours in another life. Interesting stuff. The series is back for round two and Marguerite is poised to make some hard choices as the people she loves never seem to be immune from the danger that now feels second nature with the open can of worms that spilled the multiverse before them with her parents universe hopping contraption. To kill two birds with a few leaps, she hopes to save both Paul and Theo, and deals with the devil/devils to do it. She has to breach familial boundaries and work against her family and friends in a handful of other parallels to stay the course to her mission. But It's one thing to choose against ill schemes and wily will, quite another for your hand to be forced by them anyway. And this is where Marguerite finds herself, cooperating with her enemy, sabotaging her dimensional hearth and dangling by the threads of scientific manipulation while roped into the calculating machinations of the tech entrepreneur that is Wyatt Conley who continues to use the love between the Caine family and their student researchers like tokens, bribes and offers they can't refuse. She's a hot commodity with a special skill and Conley will stretch lengths to have her, or worse. But if Marguerite's being honest with herself, she's quite sick of his face by this point. Nobody can outrun their problems though, since each of them can be found and leveraged in any dimension, in creatively cruel ways, or loved ones can even wear the faces of their other selves. Having come away with more knowledge of the multiverse as well as the loved ones that dwell in each one, Marguerite's learnings have taught her how precious her family is and how love can carry a familiar faith within each world. The consequences of scientific ingenuity and creativity are twisted to meet the needs of a high powered wrongdoer with dimension-spanning plans. Book two continues to lean into alternate world visits, which services the inner struggle of each character. The plotline is an ever-moving, ever-changing hook and I loved the alternate world settings we're dropped into with the sequel; a grim, war-ravaged San Francisco where her parents are using their Firebird research to turn the tide and maneuver a war to their favour; one that manifests a completely different side of Conley, apprehended by an organised crime syndicate where an unsuspecting Paul leads a very different life than any she could have ever imagined for him; back in the royal life of a duchess Marguerite but in the richest, ritziest old age Paris which isn't the safe, recuperative hideaway she thought it would be; a current day NYC that challenges her future, dreams and her relationship with Paul; and a severely undressed corporate culture of skyscrapers built upon skyscrapers where industrialism wears no shade but the truth - a layered society built to trade human for a consumer, where not even the sky can be seen from the lowest level of the earth. The Caine family are in a messy multiverse situation and Marguerite's the one to bulldoze ahead and press her way forward for a solution. The plot does lose itself to romantic speculation and belief perplexities more often than not but I was always eager for the readable plotline. There's more action, well-placed interludes of suspense and surprising turns. As with A Thousand Pieces of You some angles are decidedly guessable and some really aren't, though I'm hoping that the trilogy closer comes toting its weight in multiverse brilliance. For now, I'm trying not to worry over the fact Theo doesn't even get a courtesy mention in the blurb for Firebird #3 Content Warning/Listing: An on page seizure. General warnings for violence, injury and blood. Describes war and it's consequences (mentions the death of young children). Kidnapping/violence. Shootings. Detailed description of injury. EXTRA THOUGHTS: 1) I would have really appreciated seeing Paul and Marguerite's relationship blossom on page rather than having it shared retrospectively and just believed in for the sake of supporting the fated perspective. And while I love the concept of transcendental love to lean on it without the accompanying development feels a bit untrustworthy. 2) Marguerite is frustratingly represented at times. I found myself troubled by her assumption that every Paul fundamentally, essentially and elementally is the same as her own and would hence always act and behave like the Paul in every universe would. The concept of an essential sameness is very realistic and consistently believable with an idea such as this but that doesn't seem each one his own person with his own life. It's like she's blinded by her perceptions and fails to want to see the nuance in character and how people travel differently and circumstantially in different lives. For an artist she should be able to desseminate the more of the nuance in people, surely? She may have gathered insight through the many dimensions she's visited but she doesn't take anything else into account with the exception of who Paul is at his core. Good people do bad things. It does irritate the nerves when she continually shares in the idea of their interchangeability, but like I mentioned in my main review, she does actually make a turnaround. Just because Paul might be a certain kind of Paul in most universes, one so remarkably, familiarly similar, it doesn't quite mean that speaks true to each one. I was glad Theo gave her a bit of a truth talking so she could see the light and question the error of her ways. 3) Also, Josie’s been conspicuously absent through the books, or more covert a character which I’m finding curious so I’m wondering if the final book will have her come through with some surprises of her own (or if she’ll be used some way). Or maybe I’m letting the dramatic nature of teen fantasy get the best of me. See we shall! _________________________________ Visit my blog: V.L. Book Reviews T W I T T E R: @TheVicarious1 I N S T A G R A M: @Vicarious.Hearts _________________________________ ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 26, 2023
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Mar 12, 2023
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Mar 07, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| 1951878051
| 9781951878054
| 1951878051
| 4.02
| 934
| Apr 03, 2020
| Mar 28, 2020
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really liked it
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R A T I N G: 4.5 stars to Free Me! ‘But then Daniel’s words came to me again, even though I had no idea that they were the words I’d needed to hear. R A T I N G: 4.5 stars to Free Me! ‘But then Daniel’s words came to me again, even though I had no idea that they were the words I’d needed to hear. The power is in your hands now. The freedom to choose what happens to you, to your body. That freedom is yours. And then I felt it. Liberty. My choice to be with him could be mine. This man could be mine.’ ‘Andrew held my gaze. In it, there was comfort, patience, and care. Everything I needed to chase my fears back to the dark.’ Trish started her whole life over with a remarkable leap of faith, a food truck that has the New York crowd always in line for repeat business and an eleven month old that gave her a lifeline. From the start of this story It’s plain that Trish is clearly in the process of healing from the type of trauma that possibly won’t ever be washed away. But the past is not the point of this story because Trish is too fruitful, too heartening to look longer at her pain more than she ever would the skyline. You can feel everything that was taken from her, everything unvoiced that speaks for itself, the dark veins that bleed between the lines of all she makes bright. The torment didn’t stop when the horror did. That’s what trauma is and her devastating history is what led her to Paths of Purpose: a safe haven for women to rebuild their lives and re-establish themselves. It’s a refuge and a harbour, a mooring that has become her home and given her the space to meet the type of friends you can only make when you understand the intimacies of misplacement and deprivation. What might seem like small steps are major, meaningful shifts in Trish’s life. It’s not an abstract labour to see or feel that. Inserting herself back into the bigger, open-wide world is a fear-inflamed practice, and though Trish is overwhelmed by the pace, she’ll never jilt this life for the second opportunity she knows it is. It’s hard but it’s a future that once died in the shadows of incarceration. She now has a present bundled with the intensity of fear and freedom both. Trish won’t ever forget what brought her into the free world, but having physical liberty isn’t the same as discovering true freedom. When Andrew Dixon saves a clearly distressed Trish from the wrath of a grumpy police officer, he eagerly comes back, and not just for the delicious edibles that are in high demand, but for the woman across the counter who leaves him feeling unrested every time he’s apart. He restores natural but remote feelings Trish thought had bled out of her when all her choices did. He’s patient, attentive, charming and everything she never knew a man could be, give her everything she never knew a man could give. But he’s not without his own spent perception of relationships. That’s where the Dixon family comes in. Whether he’s ready to stomach her monstrous history is the question that tests. Free Me was unexpectedly deep and persevering. While reading this, there was a quote on repeat in my mind courtesy of Karen Marie Moning’s Faefever. It was a sentiment that referenced Kahlil Gibran’s ‘the deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.’ You can’t read this and not draw parallels to leading lady Trish who’s just a pure and moving replica of light. One that I hope sinks into the minerals of that joy one day. Trish's story is hard to swallow. Her history is utterly heartbreaking. Even harder to stomach and I was gut-pummeled by the horror of it. She doesn’t let you wallow for too long though. She’s such a survivor, a fighter, a trooper in every way a woman can be. It’s precisely why freedom has a poignant meaning in Free Me. I admire the authors for handling this story with such care. If Trish didn’t have her faction of free-handed and generous friends to lean back on, to be the first to reach her side in duress, if she didn’t have the supportive women at Paths of Purpose to help brace, reinforce and prop her up, this book wouldn’t have the force it does. Everything Trish has now is the inverse to what she’s never had before this phase of her life. These people are everything she needs. Help can do so much in making someone feel whole and human. Her present life is a unmediated ultimatum to every day she has left behind in the dark. I have so much faith in characters; the ultimate role they play in collectively carrying the heart of a story as well as they carry the hearts of each other. Every supporting member has a bearing in Free Me and has a place in the story. Without the curmudgeony, complaint-prone Mr. Hardaway, the nurturing Mrs. Quinn, the reconnecting family of Dixons whose love settles between their differences, I doubt this book would have quite the same humane and hospitable calibre. Each character is well-expressed; as real people with authentic lives and internal brawls - even if we can’t see what they’ve got to reveal just yet. Plenty of breadcrumbs for the singletons to see you into the following books in the Free Me series. The atmosphere is sober as much as it hums with a lasting spirit. Most of Trish’s friends already have established relationships with respective partners. After realising I was on the sidelines, I jumped the net with a light online search and came across the Paths of Purpose series which predates this one (the Free Me series) and that’s where Sonya, Drew, Muriella, Storm, Daniel, Vivian and the rest of the crew each have their books for their romances to unravel. In their books, I believe Trish is a side character, but here she has her opportunity to unsparingly reveal who she is behind the kindhearted surface - more kindness and a history that hurts. Whether Paths of Purpose was once each of the previous protagonist's home ground, I’m not sure, but I was completely drawn in by Paths of Purpose and their female-directed muscle. Whether it’s loosely modeled on a real life humanitarian endeavour or completely fictional, I was humbled by what they do by way of the many ladies (who live within and support the effort) did for Trish. What Mrs. Quinn does for all of them. These women have suffered but always boost each other at every opportunity. I found myself being grateful for the real-life asylums that echo the effort. But let’s talk about Trish a bit more. She’s intimate with the degrees debauchery can reach. She’s intimate with the worst a woman can be made to feel. A wealth of violence and violation charges her history, and yet, she’s a flowing fountain of hope who still has infinite space in her heart to give and be a stellar-hearted friend, to be a generous person to everyone who matters. She’d lost so much, can mourn over everything, has every reason under the sun to shelter the best of her heart and yet she chooses every reason not to. What i love about Trish is even though her past is as unfading as a painful haunting, she’s involved in the sunrise ahead. Her glow is timeless. She’s such a light. Free Me isn’t the dreamy, upbeat romance that scorches with spades of steam and froths with laughter. It’s the type of hard-won love story that burns at a pace and rings upliftingly. It’s sober, tentative, deep and resilient but with a comforting measure of humour and uplift. No reader can read this and claim it isn’t a story without heart or importance. There is horror, but the unselfishness and ungrudging kindness that testifies to the wide and wonderful human spirit. This book has a heartfelt center with generous bones and gut that swarms with pain. Trish has been whittled by the din of a horrifying history. Free Me is the offset of a love story as much as it is a rebirth of a survivor. The exercise of living like you’ve never been lost and loving like you’ve never been hurt is pulled flush to a revised stretch entirely. Trish deserves your unabridged attention for what’s to come. Each minute is a lunge. Every day is an upswing. What seem like mini-milestones cart the abundance of the big climbs - every one is infused with a badly impressioned history and a future’s pledge. Love isn’t the charted landmark made only for the unscarred. Even the most haunted and touched by grit can find their way to the light. Only for Trish, she is the light. You’ll get a protagonist who won’t let the worst darken her doorstep but finds that she has to face the fear of living openly and seeing how love fits and feels much sooner than she thought. Brilliant supporting characters, prickly familial relationships and sibling ties can also be found in this one. I’m surprised by this writing partnership and I’ve duly noted this Grahame Claire jaunt. I feel the same about this book as Trish does about her life: so painful but so worth it. So much more than just a romance, it’s a sterling feature of faith and second-chance life. Family doesn’t need to be silhouetted by blood. Blood bonds are given, these are made. A truly, truly meaningful story with twinkling heartstrings C O N T E N T_W A R N I N G: Mentions cancer. Gives reference to multiple counts of past rape, sexual assault, forced sexual intimacy, incarceration and physical abuse. Episodes of PTSD. Some swearing. Mentions drugs. Violence and blood. One sex scene. All in all, you’ll find adult content and sensitive themes that aren’t suitable for younger readers. S O M E_T H O U G H T S : (view spoiler)[ 1) Even at the end of the book, Trish and Andrew are still very much in the early phases of a relationship, still getting to know each other even though they found love. I found that I wanted more bonding between them, more adventures, to see the ways in which Andrew could show her how amazing life can be. Even when we’re told that they move in together we get his quote: “Andrew had helped us adjust to life outside of the shelter, to life out in the world.” - I was happy to hear this but would have liked to see how this happened. Because Trish had fallen to such a tragic rock bottom, I’d thought she’d get the opportunity to reach some especially joyous highs for us to see, the highs of a new life, to laugh uncontrollably and to feel joy in exact quantity to despair. I think it would have given real full-circle meaning to bring her story to a close, even thought it’s just the beginning for her. 2) I did like Andrew as a supporting protagonist but I didn’t find him to be as interesting a character. I was also a bit let down in him for the break up scene because I couldn’t understand why, after all the patience he showed with Trish, did it take someone exposing her past, for him to come to his senses. I think I just wanted him to be everything Trish needed, especially during the hard times. As well as that, I think the split wasted the time they could have spent building up their already precarious an snowflake-thin relationship. I just wanted to see more day to day things with them, even just talking about silly nothings. 3) When Trish’s ex tells her he’ll make one of the clients pay for helping her escape, I’ve got to say that I was surprised at her reaction. I can’t imagine she’d want to warn a man who had used and violated her as much as the others that Huxley might be after him. That was difficult to swallow and felt odd to hear, but I suppose that’s Trish’s choice to make not mine. 4) There are some loose ends that might make for substandard closure, things that we don’t really get answers for; this includes the part of the antagonists’ roles and the others who are also implicit in whatever part they played. It’s left more unclear than I’d like. I also would have liked to get a fix for the timeline and backstory because as I was trying to calculate the background info (which is sparse) it didn’t always add up. (hide spoiler)] ------------------------------------------ Visit my blog for more reviews: V.L. Book Reviews T W I T T E R: @VicariousHearts I N S T A G R A M: @Vicarious.Hearts ------------------------------------------ ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 19, 2021
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Mar 26, 2021
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Mar 26, 2021
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Paperback
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| B07XFM7K3X
| 4.33
| 16,349
| Sep 27, 2019
| Sep 27, 2019
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really liked it
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R A T I N G: 4 stars to The Price of Scandal ★ ★ ★ ★ Emily glared at me. “Why are you here?”. “If I’m being honest,” I said. “I find you annoyingly i R A T I N G: 4 stars to The Price of Scandal ★ ★ ★ ★ Emily glared at me. “Why are you here?”. “If I’m being honest,” I said. “I find you annoyingly irresistible.” “You can trust me, Emily Stanton, formidable boss, beautiful billionaire, and real live human being.” It wasn’t flowers or a love note but diarrhea medicine that made my heart do a slow, inevitable flip-flop in my chest. God help me. God help us both. For the sake of all that is lost that might one day be found, I start this review with a minor anecdotal confection. The Price of Scandal was lost to me by fault of my very own deeply flawed book-marking system. I was reeled in by a book I couldn’t even remember the name of. And as the months passed with me hurriedly trying to catch sight of a book that was the equivalent of ‘the one that got away' among of an infinity of romance titles, my hope of ever finding it again crumbled like soft rock with every day without a fruit for my labour. This mini quest bled into the best part of a year. I’m a really excellent wallower (and one who forgets the many resources at her disposal). Very safe to say that I senselessly overlooked a very obvious solution: the reading community. I mustered myself and posted - with the sparse details in my memory bank - about said book on a Goodreads reading forum. Within the span of perhaps a day, a boon arrived in the form of another reader. She found my book. Not my book though I should mention, but one authored by Lucy Score. I had a name, a cover, an author, a premise, and a fully-developed story within. I relaxed a breath of relief and thanked my lucky stars for a mind that uncharacteristically squeezed out a solution; I must have more faith in it. I was grateful to have a neighbourly online community within reach, just a question away. But I have my book, I learned a lesson, I read my book, and now I’ll tell you about all that was found… This lost-to-found book amounted to a brilliant lavishly-textured getaway that I woke up to thinking about, poring over even as I closed my kindle app for the day The Price of Scandal snared a daily deposit from me, and that was a firm itch to read that challenged a certain side character’s thirst to stun gun any potential adversary. I stand corrected if wrong, but the Bluewater Billionaires venture was dreamed up by a four-person romance novelist ensemble, and Lucy Score kicks off this four-book compendium with an elegant first instalment. One that features an alpha heroine CEO, who’s both a billionaire powerhouse and a STEM advocate, a truly made-up-of-swoon roguish heartbreaker hero (A Price that certainly is as shamelessly suggestive as a scandal), a moneyed collective of dynamic girlbosses who master their respective disciplines, all laced with quirk, finery, sin, scandal and an entire innovated state-of-the-art neighbourhood dreamed up and realised by this fearless foursome. And all right under the Miami sun. Lucy Score and her author collaboratives have fashioned a swanky, ritzy miniverse within this fictional pocket of Miami, and Score’s heroine is billionaire bosswoman Emily Stanton; a picture perfectly inaccessible heiress by consensus, a savvy, forbidding leader by trade and the agreeable daughter to an egocentric family. A multiplicity of responsibility comes under running a big, exorbitantly profitable empire and her every waking hour is committed to turning every cog, crossing every ‘t’ and tackling every item on her ruthlessly industrious schedule. Her life is a fine monopoly of carefully planned minutiae, a fast-paced succession of tirelessness. To marshal the way of a top tier enterprise comes with a slew of sacrifice. But for this worrying workaholic, to stay fifty paces ahead might end her quicker than any other vice. She’s the professional equivalent of a truly busy bee, working herself to unbreathable limits, but when her resolute relationship with the most important thing in her life is challenged by a drug scandal, her undivided attention is about to become very divided. Hands cuffed and photographed by a barrage of the media’s finest during the most pivotal point of her company’s timeline, her attempt to boost visibility backfires. And the Flawless CEO sports a flawed mark against her. Admittedly, it did take a few chapters to get into the story, but as soon as a trespassing man in the nude, lazily lounging in Emily’s prized tub like a feline content in its own offending comfort, I decided that from then on Derek Price had already snagged himself a seat In my gradually growing index of book boyfriends. I had also decided that meet-nude might just be the new (and favoured) meet-cute. Despite owning a business that caters to public stigma, he’s not quite a ‘cut from the book’ businessman, but it’s his style of damage control that stands between Emily and a potential business career collapse. He’s a transparent but calculating crisis management trader who intends to take the polished, put-together Emily and thaw her chill. To embark on an edifying show of vulnerability is a very strong ask for someone who’s about as vulnerable as an empress of the wild. While most might crumble in the face of Emily Stanton, public relations maestro Derek Price, rises like a sky-piercing high-rise with every unstinting refusal. I really love that we have a mature romance with leading characters that are above the 30 age bracket. Emily and Derek are strong personalities with strong voices, bustling with stubborn opinion and their exchanges worked with a chemistry that was so satisfying to me. Outside of their personal lives, they’re the types to not be walked over, even with each other. And this book would not have been the same without this dashing gent, because Derek Price falls hard, fast and without an ounce of shame, and honestly, I think I love him a little bit for it. Emily and Derek are both sharp, proud, confident, exceptionally business-minded characters and are (by every account) the perfect complement to the other. And as pushy and bossy Derek is, I loved the way he wore his self-importance - with swagger and without apology (a personal relish for me to read about such a one who pushes and prods, even as his fiery other dubs him as the enemy). He was also confidently unguarded with a laid-back charm, angsty about Emily’s well-being, and their stern on stern face-offs tightened the sharp hum. Score has whittled up a really well-matched love pair buzzing with chemistry and panache, with supporting cast members imbibed with style, flavour and flair. Emily’s billionaire girlfriends each have distinguishable personalities, and of course, the feminist within smiled proudly at their friendship fidelity and entrepreneurship. I have a strong preference for heroes that are a debonair and devilishly rakish hybrid, but Derek Price one-ups this by bringing with him the multi-talent side stamp. One such man who takes care of his interest’s bowel needs, dabbles in emergency hairstyling, can pull an outfit together in seconds, and while both passionate and committed to his work, offers a flexible and informal professional environment. His company would be my choice pick over Emily’s Flawlessany day. I besottingly admire and desire a hero with patience, and I think that a willingness to challenge one another is a real character strength within a relationship dynamic. I’m not sure if it’s because these two succeed the NA age range but they’re beyond insecurity and diffidence, and maybe that’s why I relished the to and fro, the back and forth, the confident conversations, because they seem perfectly, suitably ok in their own skin (inner conflict aside). The book does give us quite a bit to work with in the form of a busy narrative. Emily is a layered character, as is Derek. But for all the book’s expanse, I did find myself wishing for more depth, and the romance itself was in a hurry. The fact that Emily’s the impersonal and unsentimental type, coupled with her circumspect relationship with trust, their first kiss took place within perhaps a day of knowing each other. While the building element of trust offers a layer of intimacy between our leads, I think the author waives a deeper elbow into the story. But seeing as a rom-com isn’t quite the subgenre for depth, I have few complaints. I was also surprised that Emily was blindsided by the identity of the secret saboteur. If it was guessable to me from the start, and for all her tact and acumen, I’m unsure how she missed the betrayal in motion. I can recall only two books with the reversal of a truly rich heroine as the narrative’s powerhouse, both of which were unsurprising and failed to magnetise. Lucy Score is currently the vessel to outcruise with her wealthy hero/wealthier heroine romance. Plushy, palatial locale, strong character voices, an ingenious billionaire businesswoman heroine who built an extravagant community for her wealth-end mutuals, her bossy handler who’s more tickled pink than intimidated by her billion-dollar big time and some high-society side spectacle that completes the eclectic scene. A real delight and I feel confident to dive into any other Lucy Score novel should my bookish travels take me there. At the end of the book, the author writes: “If you loved Emily and Derek’s story, please feel free to shout your love to all your bookworm friends about it.” Well, my bookworm friends, I hereby feel a freeness to deliver a platter of candour and hope you take my review as long-distanced call and a media-shy murmur of said love through my pint-sized window. The Price of Scandal reminded me of Sex and the City (otherwise set in Miami) with mature, atmospheric hints of the latter-day 90210. Light, charismatic, elegant and (as our ravishing hero would dare to say with abandon) a delight that dazzles. C O N T E N T_W A R N I N G: Swearing. Mentions drugs. Mentions cancer. Also mentions drink driving, alcohol consumption and theft. A few bedroom scenes. E X T R A_T H O U G H T S: 1) To add on to the trigger warning, I’d like to point out to readers who don’t enjoy acts of invasion, that the male hero does have a characteristic habit of breaking into the heroine’s house. And the first time the heroine finds him in her house, he is very much in his birthday suit using her amenities. Something I also want to point out about that scene is (and while I really like Jane, Emily’s female bodyguard) I was disappointed by being too distracted by a very naked, good looking man to safeguard her charge right away. 2) The business talk does fly over my head but I'm putting that down to excellent research. 3) Also, the text conversation in chapter 38 between Derek and his family is hilarious. I would have enjoyed seeing more of his banter with his family, and I generally I felt that I didn’t get enough from his personal life. 4) I would have also preferred more smut, but what was on-page was really well done. F A V O U R I T E_Q U O T E S! Turning to me, she looked up. “Why did you carry my purse this morning?” I glanced down at her as she slid her sunglasses on. “In addition to being perfectly secure in my manhood—should you need an emergency tampon run, I’m your man—I was making sure the world knows who’s the boss.” She pursed her lips, but they fought back, curving ever so slightly. “Do you ever do anything without an ulterior motive?” “I like to think of it as multi-tasking.” By the time I was done cracking her lovely, hard-shelled exterior, I had a feeling the world would be falling for Ms. Emily Stanton. I just had to figure out where exactly she kept her humanity hidden. My client was a motherfucking genius, and if she kept smiling like that, I was going to have a problem not falling hard for her. “I haven’t made up my mind about you. Until I do, you’re on your own. The boss is plenty impressive on paper. But the real Emily? Beyond the bank statements and the business calendar? She’s the best person I know. And anyone who doesn’t see that doesn’t deserve her.” “You’re a little mean on your night off. I quite like it.” “Sometimes I really, really want to punch you. Just one shot in the middle of a sentence. I fantasize about it,” she mused. Terrifying boss Emily was alluring. Competent CEO Emily was charming. Giddy-in-the-lab Emily was delightful. But this softer side was something entirely different. I was powerless against vulnerable Emily. The woman was a manipulative liar, and I was already half in love with her. I just needed to be patient, give her enough time with my smoldering sexiness before her resolve shattered. He grinned and my knees nearly went out from under me. A smiling Derek Price was dangerous, a weapon of mass destruction. There was something very appealing about Emily Stanton, and it went far beyond her billions. “Do you still steal?” A smile flickered across his face. “Only when absolutely necessary,” he said, slipping a hand into his suit jacket. Oh, God. “Is that my father’s…” “Wallet. Yes. It seems he left it behind. Pity.” “I’m not here to hold your hand through day-to-day operations. I’m here to make the public realize what an intelligent, savvy, interesting woman you are. You don’t invest in businesses, love. You invest in people...." “I’m Derek Price. Age forty-three. Charming bachelor by choice. I dropped out of college to run a firm that specializes in fixing the damaged images of public figures. I charge exorbitant fees without the smallest measure of guilt because I’m confident that the service I provide is invaluable. I abhor anyone who can’t be bothered to be real. If you’re an asshole, be brave enough to be an asshole.” She was another loyal follower of Emily’s, which meant there was an interesting woman who earned loyalty from her team under that very shiny layer of polish. A cigarette dangled indolently from his lips. His hair was thick and dark, curling carelessly on top. The eyes that studied me were a glacier blue. His jaw was aristocratically carved, highlighted by delicate hollows just below breath-taking cheekbones. His lower half was covered under a frothy layer of my own damn Prosecco bubble bath. A crisis management firm? I didn’t like it. And I really didn’t like anything about Derek Price. He was high-handed. Condescending. Take charge. Sure. Some women liked that. Some women would probably like the naked trespassing, too. But I wasn’t some women. I was Emily gosh darn Stanton, and I was hanging on by my fingernails. Shit. I needed to schedule a manicure. “How do you feel about being a father?” “I’ll be thoroughly excited when the time comes,” he promised. “I want a family with you, Emily. I want to raise a new generation of pick-pocketing scientists.” I’d taken a respectable number of women to bed. I thoroughly enjoyed sex. But never in all of my forty-three years had I seen anything as sexy as Emily Stanton, sweaty and victorious on top of me. ‘She shot me a bland look. “Don’t act like you’re not salivating over her.” “She’s a fascinating woman,” I admitted. “Said the man fighting boners all day every day.” “I don’t want to be seen. And I don’t know if I want to be fucked into oblivion by you,” she said, destroying my world with her words. “With all due respect, darling, you’re a shit liar.” Her grin was devastating. My office door opened, and I sensed Derek’s annoying presence. The man oozed some sort of unignorable energy. Daisy would call it Big Dick Energy. “Sleeping beauty,” Derek crooned. That slight accent, like he couldn’t quite commit to British or South Florida, made everything he said sexier. Which annoyed me further. “No one wants to go up against Emily,” Jane explained. “She’s a shark.” It takes one to know one. And I’d recognized her the second she gave me that frosty ice queen look in her bathroom. That’s what we were. Two sharks circling each other. “You, Emily Stanton, are one-of-a-kind. It would be a damn shame if you waste one more second of pretending to be something you’re not to make someone else more comfortable. Be yourself in all situations. Wear your red lipstick into the lab. Address your board in kickboxing gear. Take a day off. Cut your damn hair when you feel like it. You’re in charge. And you’re going to win.” I breathed him in. Feeling the sun on my skin. The breeze lifting my new hair. My body warmed at his touch. This all felt so new. There was an energy here. A momentum. A buzz of excitement for what was next. He tasted like sin. Exactly how I’d predicted and yet somehow more. Everything was more. He didn’t kiss me back like a gentleman. No, Derek Price slammed my back into the front door. A beast off his leash. “If everyone could see you like this now, they’d fall head over heels for you,” I said, running my fingers over the buttons of her lab coat. “Not everyone,” she said, giving me a pointed look. “Everyone,” I reiterated. “There you were Friday night running around your house half-naked and needing me. And I forgot. It fell out of my head in a fog of lust and excitement and the egotistical boost of you letting me in. I’m only human, Emily. And the ‘you’ behind those monumental fucking walls is a goddamn miracle. You destroyed me.” I’d surrounded myself with too many people who didn’t love me, didn’t have my best interests at heart. And that was the price I was paying. But I was finished with that mistake. And now that the purge had begun, I was ready for more. Rock bottom was nothing but a foundation. And I would rebuild. But this time, it would be the life that I wanted. ---------------------------------------------------- Visit my blog for more reviews: V.L. Book Reviews T W I T T E R: @TheVicarious1 I N S T A G R A M: @Vicarious.Hearts ---------------------------------------------------- ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 18, 2021
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Oct 30, 2021
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Sep 19, 2020
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Kindle Edition
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| B07JHWB67J
| 3.85
| 19,725
| Oct 16, 2018
| Oct 16, 2018
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really liked it
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R A T I N G: 4 stars to The Wrong Game! ★ ★ ★ ★ “Look at me.” She shook her head. “Gemma,” I laughed her name, tilting her chin up with my knuckle. “ R A T I N G: 4 stars to The Wrong Game! ★ ★ ★ ★ “Look at me.” She shook her head. “Gemma,” I laughed her name, tilting her chin up with my knuckle. “Look at me.” When she finally did, it was the way a little girl looks at a closet door opening on its own in the dark. It was like I was every monster, every deep-rooted fear she’d ever known standing in front of her for the first time.’ ‘There were a million words in those coffee eyes of his, a thousand reasons to smile — but there was a bit of fear, too. And it was his fear that somehow brought comfort to me. He was taking a risk, too.’ ➤ Anxiety/ OCD rep ➤ An impressive, enveloping narration ➤ A brave heroine and a hero I need in my own life ➤ Flawed characters who deserve to be the stars in their own story ➤ A tender-hearted hero who isn’t your typical all-encompassing alpha but who I’d never trade with perhaps even the most alluring of dominants. He’s built with heart and emotion. ➤ An author with a talent for scripting meaningful and full-hearted prose. ➤ An acknowledgments page that has to be one of my favourites ➤ A prologue that demands a reader’s attention on the spot ➤ After reading, one might feel the enthusiastic need to immerse oneself in the art of sports watching. ➤ And please, let us all rise and melt into the guilt-free pleasure of public declarations! Just hand me a pair of rose coloured shades and I’ll happily wear them so long as I get to bear witness to a romantic declaration, cheesy or otherwise. “The choice is yours,” she said, her eyes finding my dad again, although she spoke right to me. “Hold on, or let her fall.” Written with the full heart of an author who holds faith by the flaws and fortune, the blemishes and bliss of a worthwhile love story. Characters are the souls of any story for me. It’s no secret. My passion always sits with them. And any author who shows me they care about the people who populate their pages is one that I want to read from. This isn’t a book that boasts scorching seduction - it’s a slow ripple of challenge with a sweet and bitter bite. An author who carefully, engagingly illustrates the two sides of love - its chilly challenges and warm embraces. My heart brewed with cracks, my gut splintered with nerves, my stomach dropped with sadness and my eyes were damp too many times from reading a sorrowful prologue that rigorously prepares you, in no uncertain terms, that Gemma’s fight is not going to be easy and puts into perspective her OCD-wired brain. Written with just the right words, that struck all the vulnerable part of me, this introduction liquified the membrane of the heart, and I understood that Gemma had every reason to avoid love because her reasons were heartbreakingly real, both born from her anxious mind and wounded heart. Love can change its face and its name. Gemma Mancini learned this when the weight of her world collapsed onto her, into her, around her - long reaching and far too deep to recover from. She stopped doing what had the potential to untie her inhibitions and pledged to annihilate the potential uncertainties that could unanchor her. She eliminated love all together. Anxiety fills her life with scrutiny, and once, tragedy made it inconsolable. She dropped her rose-tinted glasses long ago and she’s desperate and committed to staying away from anything that resembles love or romance. Plans are her preservation guide and the upper hand lends the condition for her emotional survival. Her heart has sundered the ability to give and named its price - so much love was lost but no more will be gained. At her best friend Belle’s insistence, Gemma agrees to a good old-fashioned no strings tryst through the football season. Enjoy her favourite sport, good beer, great atmosphere, the group solidarity of fans who love the shared experience of camaraderie and celebration... and some adult company to fill her nights. Control might prove a saviour but Zach Bowen might just be her knight in blue and orange armour. But…Master plans are infallible. A plan set in stone is a plan of well-oiled conviction. How can you win when you’re playing the wrong game? Zach Bowen has it in him to foil her plans... L E T _ T H E _ G A M E S _ B E G I N ! ‘The Wrong Game’ was a memorable debut - not for the author as this isn’t a first release, but for me, because this was my first Kandi Steiner novel. I’ve since learned that Steiner gives a veritable, original voice to romance. I loved the characters, who were written with flaws and significance. There is a weight to this story. A lot of weight, if I’m honest. That fragile organ that sits squarely in the centre of my chest? It is one that needs to be stroked, stoked and nurtured. It does not thrive under emotional strain or heartache. This isn’t the mournful tale it could have quite easily have been, but there are times when it is very sad and I wanted, needed more laughs. Full disclosure: I was already a bit emotionally vulnerable so this may have impacted my reading experience. There is laughter. There is fun, angst sweetness and lightheartedness but I think this story needed more because after a certain point, all fun and games cease to a halt and it becomes a bit…bittersweet. I was in tune with both Zach’s and Gemma’s characters. I wanted Zach to be the happiest man on earth and I wanted Gemma to find that with him - easier said than done but that’s what makes this story. Every time Gemma brought up her ex, I felt how much she had been wronged and I felt the explicit pain of having such a betrayal unanswered for. It’s a bit of a rarity to read a male protagonist who has a healthy, savoury relationship with his own feelings. This was definitely a refreshing tonic for me because Zach’s character was the type of character who had an open discourse with his feelings and he never felt ashamed for having them. A great fit for Gemma who isn’t great with sorting through her own coffin of toil. For me though, I wanted to see how they both would navigate this in terms of the future - how she would deal with avoidance and they both would deal with finding themselves as individuals a bit more. Sport is the backdrop of the story but the real headliner is the game of attraction and refusal between Zach and Gemma. Every lad or lady needs a Zach Bowen. I’d take his brand of love and affinity for romantic declarations any day. Excluding the latter parts of the story where I feel that he loses a bit of himself, he was a dream from start to finish. I do think the relationship development needs more work, but aside from that we have two protagonists teeming with a wealth of heart and pain, which is why this story is imbued with the same thing. This book has a different temperature, set to a different dial, and very much in tune with the heart of character flaws and the challenges of stepping into the soil of love. I love the way the writer paints a potent picture. I love even more how Kandi Steiner drafts a story because she bestows shards of her heart within the seams of her characters’ pockets. Great navigation and great representation. I could feel Kandi Steiner’s passion for love stories. Romance is great escapism, it’s one of the reasons this genre is a true favourite. But this book? It’s a bit more than that - it’s great escapism that merges with the real challenges of a sincere love story. You can’t win a game when a plan is set in stone. More than that, you can’t win when the fire of love will always have the kindle to burn. He hopes to take every page from his parents’ playbook to emulate the love he one day wants. She once bought into the complacency of safety. Patterns repeat themselves, in life and love. Re-order the equation and matters of the heart are in safe hands. Sometimes you need someone to put in the fight so you can find your own. And sometimes you need a well-meaning friend to show you what you really need - to brave that basement. Anxiety demands a list of plans and certain outcomes, the future can be micromanaged if we control It. This story gives voice to an unsteady and unanchored trust in faith. That faith being enough to hinge those fissures is permission enough to breath bonelessly while being insecure in love. A slow, anxious dance of doubt. Heartfelt. Sometimes raw. But a truly meaningful article of faith. Kandi Steiner isn’t a diamond in the rough. She’s a sharpened, overlooked gemstone. A unique, heart-blessed standout in a genre where many books summit the same salted wave. “Our past has a funny way of becoming part of who we are in the future, and I think that’s the way it’s meant to be. Without the scars, without the pain, we wouldn’t be able to appreciate the times when everything is magical — the days when life is absolute bliss. And trust me when I say that every day I’ve spent with you has been just that — magic.” Trigger Warning: Frequent mention of terminal cancer (past tense) and also infantile cancer. Past infidelity. Some swearing and sex scenes. Some odds and ends/ Things I didn’t like/ Things I did… 1) I think it would have been a great idea to add therapy into Gemma’s story. It’s clear that she has elements of PTSD entwined with her anxiety. I also kind of wanted to see Zach maybe taking a step toward playing sport again, even just for fun. 2) I love a steamy sex scene, but what I love more about this couple is that their relationship touches on a lot more than just sex. 3) I wanted more attention on the couple’s development. After both Zach and Gemma decide to be exclusive to each other, their pacing as a couple was slow, which is understandable as that’s the pace purposefully set. But it did find that their relationship was a bit underdeveloped. 4) First part of the book is more fleshed out and enjoyable than the second. It becomes a tad more depressing. 5) Great side characters - loved Zach’s family as familial dynamics are a favourite and I love Gemma’s bestie, Belle. She’s intrusive in the best way. 6) Love that Zach is tender with his feelings and not ashamed to have them. 7) What I love about the anxiety rep is that Gemma’s character didn’t conform to her anxiety’s opposite for the sake of a blissful conciliation. Life with any brand of an anxious disposition can be very treacherous. It just doesn’t go away. It’s a quirk that becomes part of the temperament. As an anxiety sufferer I know the struggle. I like that the author doesn’t gloss over Gemma’s - her brawl bleeds into her bond with Zach and any matter that involves a lack of control, I.e. matters of the heart. 9) A big thank you to Belle the bestie for injecting this story with a good dose of much needed, and my favourite, dirty humour. Thank goodness for characters with dirty mouths ;) F A V O U R I T E - Q U O T E S (view spoiler)[ This was what I loved about football — not just the sport, but the players, the fandom. Nothing stopped us. It didn’t matter what the score was, or how impossible the odds were. Until that last whistle blew, we would be there, on our feet, fighting for the win. I grabbed Zach’s hand, squeezing it as our eyes met. And that’s when I realized that it was the same for us. We were in it together, no matter what was to come, and we would fight for the win. For each other. Until the last whistle blew. “But, I’m in no rush. Life isn’t all about where you work, anyway.” “Right?” Gemma tossed her hands up. “Everyone always starts off with that, like at parties and stuff. They want to know where you work, what you do for a living. But isn’t it about so much more than that?” “It is,” I said. “It’s about what you do when you’re not working, how you spend your free time in life. Where do you go to recharge, to find peace?” “I mean, seriously,” he said, gesturing to his costume. “I thought I could make the romance heroes proud by dressing up as a hot dog?” Zach shook his head. “Matthew McConaughey is rolling in his grave right now.” “Pretty sure he’s still alive.” “Well, he’s rolling in his lush, 2500 thread count Egyptian silk sheets, then.” 'She pulled the ball back behind her, and then threw with all her might, the ball soaring across the little field in a perfect spiral. I snapped my hands up just in time to catch it before it hit me square in the chest, and I fought to keep my jaw from dropping. “Now,” she said, holding her hands up. “Really throw it. I promise, you’re not going to break me.” I just stood there, gaping, blinking more than necessary before I finally blurted out, “Marry me.” She laughed, hiccuping again. “Throw the damn ball, Bowen.” Growing up in a household full of love taught me a few things — like how to treat a woman, how to apologize like a man, and how to communicate when things got tough. My parents never let me bunker down and hide my emotions when I had them. Whether it was a bad day for me out on the football field or just a simple fight with a high school girlfriend, they forced me to talk about it. And through that, I learned how to recognize my feelings, how to dissect them, and how to move forward. My friends in college always gave me shit, saying I was a chick, but I didn’t see anything wrong with knowing how I felt and talking about it. I’m human, and I learned from one of the strongest men I know — my father — that crying, or hurting, or feeling heartbroken didn’t make you any less of a man. I learned from my mother that crying wasn’t feminine, it was human, and that even if it was feminine — that didn’t mean it was less than anything masculine. That was how powerful love was. It could save you, could help you live for the first time, see the world in a new way — but it could also knock you to the ground, the force so blunt you never forget the way it felt to fall. Failed love built walls, but it was our choice whether we decided to hide behind them, or sit on top of them, waiting for someone to come along who could knock them down. I was the latter, but something told me Gemma was the first. “So, you going to bring this girl some flowers and take her dancing under the stars on this first date, Romeo?” he said after Mom cleared the table and brought dessert over. “Don’t tease your brother,” Mom hushed him, but she grinned my way. “And if you did do those things, I bet you she would think it’s sweet.” “Totally,” Micah agreed, serving himself a piece of pie. “Or, she’d shove you right into the friend zone box where you usually end up.” Dad laughed, and Mom thumped Micah again.' (hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 2020
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Sep 05, 2020
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Aug 27, 2020
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Kindle Edition
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| 1542015863
| B07QNKVR3N
| 4.01
| 169,711
| Sep 26, 2019
| Sep 26, 2019
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liked it
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R A T I N G: 3 stars to The Stopover ★ ★ ★ “I just like true stories, regardless of what they are.” “So do I,” I reply. “That’s why I like romance. Lo R A T I N G: 3 stars to The Stopover ★ ★ ★ “I just like true stories, regardless of what they are.” “So do I,” I reply. “That’s why I like romance. Love is true.” He chuckles into his glass as if amused. I glance over at him. “What does that mean?” “Rom-coms are as far from reality as you can get. I bet you’re the type who reads trashy romance novels too.” I stare at him flatly. I think I hate this man. And there it is—the heat that this man creates with his stare could light up the earth. This review may be a bit spoilery! 4 pages of notes, lovely readers. I made 4 pages of notes back to front on this book, mostly dedicated to the defamation of Jameson Miles in an unmaidenly fashion, and readers, my notebook is currently sizzling with the heat of all the expletives scorching the pages… not limited to my troubled and double-sided feeling with these characters, their energy and this story…and still, I’m undecided on how I feel. James Miles has fought valiantly to take his place as arguably one of the most irksome characters I have ever read. Yes, Mr. Miles, you might just have taken the cake…and you ate it too. But what I really wanted to do was to slam that cake not-so-lovingly into your face. Such is the affection this man has brought out in me. I loved the introduction to my first T.L. Swan novel. I loved the premise even more. It was my reason for clicking ‘buy’ with grabby, gimme now hands. Our protagonists ‘Jim’ and Emily meet on a first class flight. He manages to, in the span of their timely flight, flatter, aggravate, anger, frustrate, offend, flirt and laugh with young Emily. This is very symbolic of what’s to come, a premeditated way to introduce the many tastes of temperament you are going to get with this couple. I sectioned this book into three chiseled parts, much like Jameson’s multiple personalities. Reading the three different stages of their relationship was almost akin to depicting three different relationships because that’s what it felt like… ➤ Jameson and Emily Part #1 - Tonnes of fighting and a world record for frequent angst made the first part of this book incredibly frustrating.…It was at this point that I sat in my bed dreading the idea of reading just under 500 pages of back and forth bickering if this is what motivated this story - if this is what I had to look forward to. Not tactile or sensitive, Jameson and Emily pound on each other like minced meat. She moans about being treated a certain way and commits to cutting ties…until she doesn’t. She likes him. She doesn’t like him. She likes him. She doesn’t like him. Emily has backbone, and believe me, you’ll need one, steel-reinforced, if you’re going to pit yourself against Jameson Miles; Emily’s fiery personality allows it, but how many times she says I’m done with him, then climbs right back on the saddle…sigh. OR how many times she says she’s here to focus on her new life and on her new job only to abandon those thoughts around Jameson. Emily is not you’re regular pushover. At times she doesn’t do herself many favours but she always claims her ground when she needs to. I wanted to say to her, have some fun, take in the sights of a new city, explore, take up a hobby, but here’s what no to do…fret over a man that brings you more hassle than he might be worth. God forbid they have a civilised conversation without arguing. Wouldn’t want them to get along now would we. ➤ Jameson and Emily Part #2 - This part of their relationship made a strong play at changing my washed-out, well-worm feelings over this couple because when they get along, they’re amazing together. I loved seeing them as a couple. This was my favourite part of the book. Loving. Tender. I loved the camping scene - it was my favourite by far. I finally found my sweet spot. And guess what? The fighting phase is nowhere in sight! I loved Jameson. I loved Emily. I loved what they were building together, even though they stepped on the accelerator. I was glad that this wasn’t going to be the 500 page composition of dissonant angst and grating bickering that I thought it was going to be. When I found out Jameson’s reasons for not committing to Emily I had admiration for him. It’s a twist to not come across a male protagonist in this genre who doesn’t have an aversion to commitment, which was proven when he decides to go all in with Emily after tying up loose ends. This is something of a guise though and I felt a bit fooled because, of course, this sweet spot has an expiry date…and it’s because apparently Mr. Abrasive is too selfless for his own good… ➤ Jameson and Emily Part #3 - It was this testing point in their relationship when sh*t hits the fan that, of course, Jameson steps into his armour of steel and walks into his telltale persona of callousness that I lost of lot of love for him for the way he handles everything. I lost love for this story. Everything sort of fell apart. All I kept thinking was ‘I’m telling you, he better pull out the red carpet, polish some fine china and pull out the performance of his lifetime if he wants her back. Then times that by 10 and perhaps I’ll make allowance for forgiveness.’ Then he uses her for a night of sex (though he knows she’s out of her mind trying to get back together with him) and told her it was a goodbye the morning after. I wasn’t a fan of the play out. Never mind Emily, I didn’t I think I could forgive Mr. Hard-around-the-edges. I didn’t understand why he was so shaken up that he was willing to lose her. The soundtrack in my head went something like this…'she should run a mile from Mr.Miles.’ She was so dedicated to helping him with his stress and uncovering the work scandal, and It seems that she’s always supporting him. His behaviour is then played off as coming from a place of selflessness. I found it hard to stomach because it excused the consequences of his behaviour, which was hurtful and selfish. It took a toll on their relationship. The near-ending lost me because of the way of fell apart. I did feel better once I got to the actual ending because they do get their HEA. J A M E S O N _ M I L E S Jameson is best described by his very poliarised personality. He once says that Emily has the whole Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde down to a T…and to that I’d swiftly turn the man around to face a mirror as I ask, have you met yourself? Also, for the record, If any man kept rolling their eyes at me and saying ‘here we go again’ I would most certainly blow a gasket no question so I happily encouraged Emily's heart of fire in these situations. Jameson had a lot of potential to win me over but my gut just couldn’t handle the whiplash of emotions and hot headed turnarounds. I didn't like the guy. He did win me over just over 1/3 into the story, but when everything comes crashing down he ruined the rest of the story. I only liked him again at the very end when he comes to his long-lost senses and does some grovelling. The love was conditional. I need to talk about this whole split personality thing. Jameson and Emily are so overcome and haunted with the two sides of his character, Jim and Jameson, and I didn’t understand what purpose this was supposed to play in the story. Nobody is ever just one thing. We have different sides, different temperaments, different temperatures. We present at different times with different people. We're complex. Most of us effect a certain persona for the world and show real heart to the people we love, which is the case with Jameson. So I didn’t buy into the whole you have to be one extreme or the other. People don’t work like that. I didn’t buy into the fact that he’s two people in one body and he can’t be with Emily because he can’t be Jim all the time. We all have a cast of personalities as large as book within us but we're also not singularly any one of them, which is why I found It unbelievable when Jameson has his hallelujah moment; that he can be both people. It’s kind of obvious. Golden sticker for you Mr. Stressed out boss man? The thing is, there is a very good guy in Jameson, and he does have a good heart, but he made a lot of mistakes and I found it hard to care after some time. I suppose I should have expected a complicated story when a complicated man sits at the helm. Mr. Miles, when you’re not being frustratingly detached, you’re really rather lovely. E M I L Y _ F O S T E R Emily was fairly irritating at times, and the truth be told, I’m unsure if I liked her at all. At times I cheered her on for showing spirit and backbone, at others I may have wanted to strangle her. Those notes that I mentioned? The defamation of Jameson Miles that bled over the pages of my A4 pad? Well, I might have done something of the same with Emily too. She definitely puts up a fight and I very much liked that she didn’t jump high when Jameson demands it. My sympathies weren't always with her though. At one point she’s insecure that he might be sleeping around because she believes him to be a player, then gets upset when she thinks he is, but on her part, she never actually made her conditions clear in this arrangement that they have going on. Also, can you trust a man that wants you to break up with your current boyfriend just to have sex with him? Think carefully Em. I think she’s meant to come across as strong and sensible, but she’s not really always sensible and comes off more immature than anything. She can also be quite righteous, but then if you’re dealing with Jameson Miles, one must stack their arsenal to the brim with it. A N D _ F I N A L L Y I have a passion for angst, it somehow remarkably lights a fire under me. Sometimes the angst in this story works. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it proved to more of a roadblock than anything, but most of all? It was just debilitating… If you can feel the depletion emanating from my pores through this review, you’re feeling right. I very much had a like/dislike type relationship with The Stopover. The premise got me excited for one of my favourite tropes: an office romance. It didn’t fruitfully pan out that way though. As far as the writing goes, It lacked verve and was very black and white so It wasn’t a particular winner for me. There’s also repetition with the writing and it didn’t seem well-planned. The major parts of the story perhaps were, but not the smaller parts, the smaller details. I’m a little disappointed, mostly because I had a lot of hope for my first T.L. Swan novel. I was convinced it would be something of a winner. My opinion may just be mine so I wouldn’t be discouraged to give it a try. I wish I were one of the many readers who fully loved it. I wish I could channel their love just so I could have been another grateful supporter. I give this book three stars because, like Emily and Jameson’s relationship, when it was good it was great. A story of two twin flames who burn bright enough to maim and relish. Trigger Warning: F bombs, swearing and multiple sex scenes. Some odds and ends… ★ Jameson has a knack for for sharing things with his ex before he tells Emily himself. ★ There were times when some things just happen off the cuff, and I’d wonder when said thing had happened? when did the story-leak threat come to an end, when did Hayden get fired, when did you slap Jake across the face Emily because I read the scene and you didn’t. If Jake wasn’t doing his job properly I really don’t understand why Miles Media kept employing him. It was technical points like these that made the story seem a lazy. ★ There’s a lot of breathing and whispering going on in this book. ★ The sabotage/embezzlement storyline is a great side plot, but the execution was disappointing. ------------------------------------------ Visit my blog for more reviews: V.L. Book Reviews T W I T T E R: @VicariousHearts I N S T A G R A M: @Vicarious.Hearts ------------------------------------------ ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 15, 2020
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Aug 23, 2020
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Aug 18, 2020
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Kindle Edition
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| 163042000X
| B00FH4FKZE
| 3.95
| 6,294
| Sep 26, 2013
| Sep 26, 2013
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really liked it
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R A T I N G: 3.5/4 stars to In Kelly's Corner ★ ★ ★ ★ "If there's one thing I know better than anyone on this earth, Kelly, it's that secrets kill R A T I N G: 3.5/4 stars to In Kelly's Corner ★ ★ ★ ★ "If there's one thing I know better than anyone on this earth, Kelly, it's that secrets kill beautiful things. Don't let secrets kill the thing you two are trying to build before it's even had a chance to draw a full breath." Bee Langston, tech wizard and a rising name as a prospering web developer can’t shrug off the stream of paranoia that has been hunting her in recent weeks. Her growing profile and company has made her a target and she’s certain of the irrefutable outcome that she’s being stalked. A young success, but still youthfully tender in a lot of ways, you can see that in the ways Bee struggles in enforcing a certain dominating profile in the business world. And of course, her kind heart doesn’t bode well for the role of aggressor. Ex-marine and best friend to Bee’s older, Kelly Connolly has since worked for The Lone Star Group as a private investigator. An ill-timed kiss forced a barrier between Kelly and Bee’s old friendship, a barrier that breaks when the seriousness of a threat lands very close by and Kelly sees it as his mission to keep her safe. In Kelly’s Corner is a high-speed, well-written sports/military/my brother’s best friend romantic suspense - yes, there’s a lot going on and you won’t complain! Various threads feed into this story of romance and suspense. Plot-wise it’s very busy which made this a very interesting read. I was never once bored or waiting for the final page to grace my screen. It was absorbing, page-turning and highly entertaining. Though In Kelly’s Corner is first in the Fighting Connollys series, it’s one of those books that stands proudly enough as a fully functional standalone despite this series existing in the same universe as Rivera’s Russian Protector series - which I’ve not read, admittedly. If Rivera’s books all read like this one, I’d suitably recommend branching out and trying each one. A great read! 100% worth a read and worth investing in. I wouldn’t be misled by the front cover because this book isn’t actually about fighting, nor is Kelly a professional fighter. As a part of the faceted plot, it’s an underground event he has to take part in. There are several threads of conflict and suspense that keep this story moving headlong, that keep it alive. The side characters make for some very compelling reading, but be aware that there are a LOT of them so many names are thrown around. With all the various plot conflicts and characters it’s fair to say that a reader might feel limb-pulled in different directions by names and plot points, but personally I loved it because it set a swift, bustling pace. I love the approach to physical/sexual intimacy in this book. It was affectionate and highlights the main couple’s chemistry perfectly without the over-gratification of voracious gluttony. Not that I mind, but many romance reads have an unforgiving, devil-may-care attitude toward those types of bodily intimacies, to run hot with sexual material, to throw sexual exploits left, right and midpoint and usually it serves as filler, a reason to exploit and to prove how amazing time between the sheets can be can be (Not always reliable or realistic). Sex isn’t used pointlessly as a tool or a crutch in this story and I loved that Bee and Kelly took things at their own pace. It was refreshing. In terms of objections, the big ones were, firstly, the abrupt closure of the story without a real sense of closure for the couple, including the 8-weeks-later epilgoue. You know the testament of a good story when you don’t want It to end, and I didn’t, but the issue with this one was the neglect of a better ending. The story had the potential to close up effectively by making reference to and exacting a better clean-up job, but it didn’t. Just a bit too rushed. The second one being Kelly’s major error toward the end of the book, because firstly, it felt like an unrealistic effort to separate the couple, secondly Kelly and the other bodyguards protecting Bee are real-life agents and ex-servicemen who have years of combined and acquired skills to piece puzzles and read situations (the least of their skills, considering) yet they readily believed Bee was lying through a bunch of a guesswork without further investigation and without considering her safety. Let’s not forget that Bee and Kelly have a long history and he’s characterised by his protective streak throughout the book so it felt contrived. His manly pride was also a very big obstruction. But I have to give this ending points for not falling into the baby/marriage resolution cliche. The couple in this book are really sensible in taking their time with each other in their new relationship. I can’t say the same for a lot of romances out there. Loan sharks, crime bosses, debts, deals, blackmail, bargains and secrets sharpens the fringes of a story that’s bound inherently by probing delicate love. You’ll get a touch of everything with this one.The larger workings of the story such as the threats, drama and action nicely frame the intermittent, intimate connections between Bee and Kelly. Fast-paced with blending ties of a faceted storyline and compellingly characterised connections and relationships. As far a romantic suspense goes, this is a winner. Readers, I highly recommend! Trigger Warning: Mentions alcoholism/gambling addictions child abuse. Also mentions a previous battle with cancer. A few descriptive sex scenes, some swearing (Not copious amounts) and attempted rape/assault/harassment. ------------------------------------------ Visit my blog for more reviews: V.L. Book Reviews T W I T T E R: @VicariousHearts I N S T A G R A M: @Vicarious.Hearts -------------------------------------- ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 06, 2020
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Aug 11, 2020
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Aug 10, 2020
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Kindle Edition
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| 0008365814
| B07WQ2G7QL
| 3.74
| 3,047
| Mar 13, 2020
| Mar 13, 2020
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liked it
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R A T I N G: 2.5/3 stars to The New Guy
★ ★ ★ 'Blunt, taciturn, stubborn, solitary. Yet also kind, honest, decent through to his core, and with R A T I N G: 2.5/3 stars to The New Guy ★ ★ ★ 'Blunt, taciturn, stubborn, solitary. Yet also kind, honest, decent through to his core, and with a wit drier than the desert.' A twist on the boss/employee romance trope where the female holds all the cards. That feeling when you’re one of the first few in line to give a not-so-favourable review for a book that has (for the most part) been a choice read for lots of readers? *Sigh*That’s how I’m feeling. I really struggled with ‘The New Guy’ , to the point where I just felt like I was slogging through. I really tried, but this was a rather unremarkable, unmemorable read for me. And what’s worse I couldn’t pinpoint the fundamental why’s. It was during the read itself that I discovered this is the type of low-energy book that you might read when you have some downtime or to fill some time because this book just wasn’t enticing or tempting, at least for me. Books are hard work so I always make the effort to finish them, even if I’m not enjoying them, but I couldn’t wait to reach the finish line with this one. A - B I T - A B O U T - T H E - S T O R Y After burning away her sorrows under the much-needed influence of some fine wine, Sam finds herself in a pub mindlessly chatters on about a special man in her life to the dour, nonreciprocal punter who has no interest in her big mouth and intrusive temperament. The last thing antisocial Ryan Black needs in his life is to listen to the woes of a tipsy, oversharing stranger who can’t keep her mouth shut. Ryan is far from the life of the party while Sam very much is. He’s gruff, sour and prickly, she’s light, sunny and a people friendly. It’s a surprise to both of them that they end up having an all-night stand. This man of little words, this stranger of the night was only supposed to be part of a magnetic memory that she could look on with liberation. All that takes a tumble when both realise he’s the new software developed on her team. ‘She’s the CEO and he’s the one night stand’. Sam Huxton is in a race against her competitor, and Ryan is the new addition to hopefully keep her ahead of the app game. Ryan’s social pool is as bereft as they come, consisting of a party of one because Ryan Black is a keep-to-himself kind of player in life, both personal and professional. One of life’s outcasts, and now one in the office, Ryan is about as warm as porcupine flesh. First day of work, aside from the shock of meeting face with what was supposed to be an unforgettable one night stand, doesn’t start on the best foot forward for Ryan…and as the days fly by, it doesn’t get a damn sight better. What with his rusty people skills, uninviting sourness and lonesome nature, he makes a very poor impression on his new peers. Ryan Black is the new guy …and what an impression he makes. W H A T - I - D I D - L I K E 1) The writing is mellow and easy to read. It has a simple, uncomplicated charm that bodes well with the story. 2) Ryan isn’t the chocolate-sending, flower-ordering, make-your-life-an-epic-dreamscape type of person. He’s gruff, broody with a big heart veiled under an apathetic veneer because he cares too much. He may be the bearer of bad news, but he’s also a harbringer of honesty and you can always rely on him to bring it to the table, whether it’ll ruffle feathers or not. Ryan Black is the gem of this book and the irony of that is laughable as I’m sure he’d scowl while telling me to go and do one if he were to ever hear the words. It’s always reassuring for a reader to see parts of themself reflected between the pages of the book. 3) While opposites may attract, both tension and disagreements are inevitable, and hence interactions are bound to be prickly. I liked that realism in that representation. In fact, this book is actually highly believable- a reliable book if you like your stories both believable, lifelike and a bit more down-to-earth. W H A T - I - D I D N’ T - L I K E/ C O N C E R N S 1) Both protagonists have flawed profiles and they definitely come across as very human. But be prepared for a lot of full-circle and frustrating angst. Normally I’m a big fan of angst but in this book it’s both exhausting and exasperating. Ryan and Sam always seem to take one step forward then three back. 2) If you’re looking for love scenes with this one, you will be sorely disappointed. I still don’t’ know how to feel about the absence of smut. It seemed incongruous with a story that’s partway attraction-based, and it jackknifed right through the couples’ chemistry (which I didn’t find they had much of, besides being told that they did). I’ve read many reviews that champion Ryan and Sam’s chemistry and I just kept thinking, WHY CAN’T I FEEL THE CHEMISTRY!? I don’t know If something is wrong with me, or if I’m going through a particularly non-feeling period but I didn’t feel it. Saying that though, I don’t think the existence of integrated love scenes would have made a difference despite that. 3) I didn’t dislike Sam but I’m still undecided about whether I liked her. Her character was neither here nor there, her profile not a very strong one. She’d frustrate me at times and I was down on her because to be begin with she didn’t have a lot of faith or trust in Ryan, made worse by the fact that her silence perpetuates his own insecurity, not always handling things with him in mind. Granted, Sam does have her own hang ups and Ryan is a hugely stubborn man, one she doesn’t need to emotionally babysit, but I think Ryan needed some of his own Aces. He can be too reactive and she can be too defensive (not criticisms) but something about Sam made me prickly. 4) There’s a lot of repetition in regard to both characters’ insecurity and why they can’t get together. ---------------------------------------- With some reads, it isn’t as easy to zero in on what was not to like, and with others it’s unambiguously straightforward to determine the difference. I had my work cut out for me trying to get my own thoughts into perspective but for the most part, I was just largely unaffected by the story, and I really didn’t know if it was just me or the book. There is nothing inherently wrong with this story; it’s not a bad book, nor is it offensive in any way, but you would be right in thinking that there is a large ‘but’ coming your way. I just didn’t enjoy ‘The New Guy’ . All things considered, this is a solid book but one that doesn’t stand out in the CR romance genre. This is my first try at a Kathryn Freeman novel and it just wasn’t for me. This book isn’t inspiring or particularly creative and it doesn’t try to be…which could work in its favour. I wouldn’t class this as a rom-com because for that to apply it would have to be funny and this wasn’t particularly a novel that played with humour, though it is light-hearted at times. However, it is a contemporary romance, an office romance and an opposites attract romance rolled into one. One of my favourite genres of romance is office romance. I can’t tell you why, but they’re top of the list! Simple, breezy, straightforward . A story that will bide the time nicely in a pinch. Not a story that dresses itself in the magic of a captivating romance. Alas, a few sprinkles of stardust wouldn’t have gone amiss. A well-meaning novel by Kathryn Freeman. I’m always a supporter of an outcast, so Ryan was the best part of this book for me. Trigger Warning: Minimal swearing and mentions of alcoholism. No love scenes, just a lead up to them. ---------------------------------------------- Visit my blog for more reviews: V.L. Book Reviews T W I T T E R: @VicariousHearts I N S T A G R A M: @Vicarious.Hearts -------------------------------------- S O M E - F A V O U R I T E - Q U O T E S 'His gaze snagged hers, eyes dark and intense. ‘My ego isn’t huge. I’m happy to live in your shadow. What I hated was thinking you were ashamed of being with me.’ ‘I was the one who nicknamed you Sunshine Sam, not Lucas,’ he admitted after a pause. ‘Because of your smile.’ Delighted, she leant forward, forcing him to look at her. ‘You thought I had a nice smile, even before Cornwall?’ A flush tinged his cheeks. ‘I thought you had a smile that lit up your face and touched everyone around you.’ ‘What?’ ‘Just enjoying the sight of Ryan Black without a scowl on his face.’ ‘You want to know how a man feels, don’t listen to what he says. Watch what he does.’ 'Yet still there were times, when he thought she wasn’t watching, that she caught a pensive look on his face. Brooding, almost sad. It was those times she realised that while she felt closer to him than she ever had, she was a long way from knowing what he was really thinking. But then he’d surprise her by kissing the top of head or squeezing her hand, and she reassured herself whatever it was on his mind, he was happy to be with her.' ‘Not bad for a guy who claims he’s not good with people.’ ‘I’m not.’ He caught her hand and laid it on his chest, over his heart. ‘You’re making me better at it.’ 'What would it feel like to be her lover for real? Not just a few furtive couplings, but a relationship where he didn’t have to sneak away at dawn. And that, he thought grimly, was the road to madness.' 'His eyes were so fierce, yet his expression, his voice, so gentle. As what he was saying began to sink in, her heart lodged in her throat and a muddle of emotions battered her senses. Shock, because she’d assumed he’d wanted to talk about them. Not to discuss work. Fear, both that he was right and that he was wrong. Gratitude, great swathes of it, because even if he was wrong, his faith in her was almost overwhelming. Threading through them all was an emotion that pulled at her heart. He cared, she realised. And that, more than anything else, made the tears start to fall.' 'She could do with a tall, dark, devastatingly attractive distraction right now. ‘Okay, let’s head to the cliffs.’ She received another of those small, resolve-melting smiles. ‘As long as you promise not to shove me over.’ Laughter burst out of her. ‘Now who’s scared?’ ‘You scare me all right, Sam Huxton.’ 'He had a raw, sexual energy, a rugged bluntness that seemed at odds with the idea of romance.' ‘I can see why you didn’t go into art.’ Slowly she turned to face Ryan. ‘There’s beauty in everything, if you know where to look.’ His dark eyes swept over her face. ‘Trust me, I know.’ ‘You assume it’s Sam who’ll get hurt,’ he threw at Lucas as he stood in the doorway. ‘Yet she’s the one who holds all the power.’ 'Ryan Black was attractive when he was snapping angrily or brooding silently in his office. With his face lit up with laughter, wet T-shirt clinging to the muscles of his chest, he was far more than attractive. He was dangerous.' 'An introverted, blunt-speaking loner at times, but an honest, principled one. And a man more in tune with the feelings of others than he liked to let on.' 'At times, like now, she’d put him down as a thinker. Slow and careful about what he said. It went with his need to work in isolation. He liked to detach himself from others, and from the problem, so he could look at it painstakingly. Logically. It was in direct contrast to her, who liked to talk out a problem, and then go with her gut instinct. At other times though, he seemed quick to blurt the first thing that came into his head. That, she guessed, was when his emotions were involved.' 'You might find you don’t like him, and then this crazy attraction will disappear.’ ‘And if the opposite happens?’ ‘Ah.’ She slid Sam a look. ‘You think you could actually like a guy whose default mode seems to be rude and the only smile he knows is a smirk?’ ‘Did I mention the part about me being Ryan’s boss?’ ‘You’re not the first boss to sleep with an employee.’ ‘Yeah, but the boss is usually male. I hold myself to a higher standard than that.’ Becky started to snigger. ‘If it’s like I’ve read in books, the boss isn’t just usually male, he’s also usually a billionaire who likes to tie his employee up in all sorts of—’ ‘Thanks, I get the picture.’ ‘Can you carry me?’ At his puzzled look, she laughed, a teeny bit self-conscious. ‘“The hot stranger carried her to the bedroom.”’ She bit into her lip, aware she was making a fool of herself yet also uncaring, because she wasn’t going to see him again. The beauty of sex with a stranger. ‘Sounds better than “They walked to the bedroom”.’ He let out a low laugh and it looked good on him. Softened the edges of his rather blunt masculinity. ‘Are you writing a dirty book?’ ‘Only in my head.’ ‘Yes!’ she squeaked as he threw her – okay, it wasn’t hard, but still, he threw her – onto the bed. Blowing her hair out of her eyes, she stared up at him. ‘Not quite what I’d imagined.’ ‘No? Your book doesn’t feature hunky firemen?’ It was because he said it with a straight face, she realised. Most men grinned when they used humour, but with this guy, it took a moment to realise he was joking. ‘You got a sex-with-a-stranger kink going on?’ He didn’t mind that. Didn’t mind it at all. ‘I don’t think so. More recovering from a shitty breakup and not ready to date but I miss sex.’ Reassured, he clasped her hand. ‘Then let’s get you laid.’ She laughed softly. ‘Not exactly Mr Romantic, are you?’ 'He looked big and mean. Intimidating. A bull, facing down the matador.' 'Although while he wasn’t listening to the words, he did enjoy the sound of her voice. Almost as much as he enjoyed watching her talk. The expressive face, the self-mocking laughter, the seemingly random movement of her hands which appeared to ‘talk’ almost as much as she did. Yeah, watching her was as good a way as any to spend the evening.' ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 11, 2020
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Jul 17, 2020
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Jul 12, 2020
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Kindle Edition
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| 1503959481
| 9781503959484
| B079TPGJJS
| 4.12
| 76,680
| Nov 06, 2018
| Nov 06, 2018
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liked it
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R A T I N G: 3 stars to Hate Notes *This review has some spoilers!!* ‘I didn’t want to guess the story behind this one. I wanted to live it, create R A T I N G: 3 stars to Hate Notes *This review has some spoilers!!* ‘I didn’t want to guess the story behind this one. I wanted to live it, create my own story for this dress. Maybe not today, but someday in the future. I wanted a man who appreciated me, who wanted to share in my dreams, and who loved me unconditionally. I wanted a man who would leave me a note like this.’ ‘Because a man who writes those words to someone doesn’t just fall out of love.’ Ok, so by unpopular opinion this book did indeed make a business out of pulling me in two polarised directions. Because there was a plethora of hype and fanfare that shot this book straight into the TBR’s of most every romance reader, I consequently drummed up a lot of expectation, thinking that it was probably going to be a winner what with so many readers championing it. And I can’t blame them because I was bouncing up and down with same telltale excitement; captivated by the premise alone and wanting to dive in as soon as possible. But although I had expectations I also didn’t know to what barometer my anticipation should level because I had never read a book by either Vi Keeland or Penelope Ward. Even so, I held a lot of hope and I really thought this story would sweep me off my feet much like the prospect of love did for our main character Charlotte Darling. Overall, Hate Notes was an ambivalent read. It started out so well. I smiled, laughed, loved where the story was heading, love the emotive component , loved the back and forth bickering between Reed and Charlotte and I really got into it. But more than that I was kind of in love with the premise and the whole construct of a love note being the crux and focal point from which this whole love story unwinds. The second half though was a bit mournful and demoralising, and that’s not considering the slender scale of the story. So let’s get down to some fundamentals… C H A R L O T T E: I loved Charlotte right from the start, she just made me smile. A lot. She’s quirky, adorable, eager, open-hearted and vivacious. Really, she’s just a ball of positivity, fun and a little special something that’s just Charlotte, even despite the whole fiasco with her ex groom-to-be. Most might become bitter, but that’s not Charlotte, she’s too spirited for that, too bright for that. I’d even go as far to say that there was something a bit magical about her, a bit fantastical and surreal, though who could expect any different from a lady who chases fairy tales?… ‘Such as asshole. A gorgeous, arrogant asshole who looked just as good going as he did coming.’ …and the air typing thing? Brilliant, I loved it! I have to admit, air typing is something I occasionally do but for different reasons (nothing as creative as Charlotte’s method but I can completely relate to quirk as it’s a big part of my personality) *grins*. But I think I’ll be trying out Charlotte’s method, just not in front of people. *grins bigger*… This sets her up to be Reed’s complete opposite so we know it’s going to be an ‘opposites attract’ romance, the kind where Charlotte has the capacity to potentially impart her light onto broody Reed, and for him to digest a different way of life. She’s a chaser or romance, the big fairy tale because she believes in it and has her heart set on hopefully finding something special. It’s easy to glean this. It is frustrating that she at time greets his insults with compassion and moral support and I just wanted her to serve him a cold slice of something similar. Granted, this curious kitten gave back when she needed to but being the constant chaser in a relationship can be unappealing. ‘Sure, If you consider expressive eyes, luscious lips, and a body like a 1950s pin up “pretty.” More like kryptonite. Charlotte’s physical beauty was undeniable. But there was absolutely no way I was going to acknowledge it. “Crazy” eclipses beauty.’ R E E D: Oh Reed, what to say. Overall, I think Reed makes a great character. Though he’s your quintessential moody, broody alpha, his dual struggle with what he wants and what he should do is apparent enough in the way he acts, one facet a lot stronger than the other. Reed is an alpha but I don’t think that part of him wasn’t showcased enough (bar the sex scene). The real difference between Reed and Charlotte is the way they’ve coped through faithlessness and rejection - Reed doesn’t possess a lot of it in his reserves whereas Charlotte stashes it aplenty. To begin with I was just waiting for some show of emotion/ vulnerability from Reed, something that might make his retorts/rejection seem worth it because I was reaching a tolerance limit with this cat and mouse, slow burn chase between the chasee and chaser as I had suspected that Reed’s reasons might just be predictably formulaic or run-of-the-mill. Like that saying, ‘You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink’. This was Reed in a nutshell. ‘Who gives candy to someone who just treated them like a piece of shit? Charlotte Darling does. Bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, spirited, blindlingly optimisitc Charlotte Darling. And I’d done nothing but try to dampen her spirits from the moment we’d met to ensure that none of her fucking sparkle rubbed off one me.’ When the twist was revealed though, I had a light bulb moment - a twist that not only I could relate with but suddenly Reed’s actions just made sense for me. It made sense because it covered and explored a situation where love sometimes isn’t enough: the fear that comes with the diagnosis of a chronic illness, it’s potential debilitating capacity and the immeasurable, rational and irrational doubt that comes with the possibility of sharing a life with someone. I had respect for the chronic illness rep because it is so rarely that we come across a protagonist that suffers from something of the sort, and in the CR romance genre no less. The rep wasn’t a detailed investment but it did explore the obstruction of feeling like a burden and the possibility of a limited life through the books dialogue. Reed’s fears were real fears , understandable ones, ones I frequently suffer from myself. Believe me, I can’t even imagine anyone wanting to put up with my personal, formidable fight with chronic illness. Reed still has the ability to work and live a normal life, it’s more the uncertain future of his illness that worries him; how severely he might perish, not wanting to rob Charlotte’s life or freedom. Those of us that suffer with the ailment of a half life never really experience the luxury of a fuller one, and Reed was resigned to his fate like the best of us. “She hurt me very badly when she realized the future she thought we were going to have was going to look a bit different than what she’d always imagined it to be. Without going into details, she showed me that her love was definitely conditional.” “There is no such thing as conditional love.” Admittedly, it was frustrating to watch Reed thwart what he could so easily have, not wanting to burden Charlotte with his progressive illness, thinking he’ll never be enough, can never do enough. But it’s the truth. If you suffer from long-term illness you’ll most likely relate to this mindset. I know I certainly did, which is why I couldn’t stand there and hold Reed accountable for rejecting Charlotte. Reed’s illness wasn’t at its worst (his symptoms were onset) so his fears were future orientated, not what he was currently capable of. I am 100% a sentimental reader, you’ll find me always shedding a tear or a hundred, and I did with this read because I could empathise. I understood. It hit me out of nowhere because I didn’t see it coming. Plus, that coupled with my current hormonal state just made me a bit of a mess. So what I love about this twist in the story was Reed’s character as a protagonist: He’s not your typical Lothario never looking to settle down. He doesn’t because he doesn’t want his love to be a burden. “The two of you fight like an old married couple, flirt like you’re in high school, and confide in each other like you’re lifelong best friends. My grandson isn’t pushing you away because he’s afraid to fall for you. He’s pushing you away because he already has.” S T O R Y/ P L O T: ‘I stared at Reed’s profile. God, was there really anything sexier than a gorgeous man who just wanted to be loved by a woman?’ ‘I shook my head and whispered to myself, “These are the kind of love notes you’re doling out now, Eastwood?” I laughed. “More like a hate note.” A GREAT premise. GREAT. But no so great in development, fleshing out or performance. This is a slow burn story, so you’ll have to get yourselves settled in for the play out. The story arc is confessedly a bit confusing. The story touches on and briefly looks into Charlotte’s developing art and developing her self in a gambit for re-evaulation, which is the main goal for her if I’m not mistaken, but the story doesn’t elaborate very well on either as she’s more preoccupied with winning over Reed. A nice balance would have been nice I think. Charlotte and Reed are both friendless which really didn’t make sense to me, and secondly it didn’t bode well for additional support because that’s what friends do. Supporting characters are just as important in maintaining a story as the plight of a main character is. It would have been effective to give either Reed or Charlotte a friend. I like that the story presents an emotional degree, but I think it needed more than that, including a more cohesive, consistent way to tell this story which was otherwise a bit bereft and without ample amplification. I’m glad that the story was given the forethought to be told in a double perspective or it would have fallen very flat. “What are you doing wrong?” “Nothing.” “Then why did I see a flash of the devil on your face for a moment?” “My grandmother always said a lady gave an angel’s smile and kept her devilish thoughts to herself.” We know what the bigger story is here and we know what result we’re striving for: for Reed and Charlotte to get together. But every other facet is left to make a play for itself or not at all. Hate Notes has an abundance of potential. It really does, I kid you not. But it was underwhelming and tapered into a story that doesn’t express itself in the most effective light, and thus a little hard to buy into. I’m not a big fan of consistent time lapses because it makes me feel like I’m missing out on a story. Though the jumps weren’t huge they were unnecessary because a story was passing us by that wasn’t as embellished as it could have been. So In this case, I don’t think those jumps were a good idea. Not to mention that the epilogue takes place 26 years into the future which took me aback. I might’ve understood its purpose, but it skipped out on the progressive nuances of Charlotte and Reed’s life completely. I guess, overall, what I’m asking for is more! I love Reed and Charlotte. I just wish that their story was told a bit differently and I wish we knew more about them as people. With more effect, more realism and a lot more development/fleshing out I think this could have been something special. Charlotte and Reed deserve an expansive story, but I don’t think it was written with that same justice. ‘Absolutely. It would be a dream. Just like this whole experience. It’s all a dream, nothing I’ll ever really get to live. So sue me for being a dreamer, Eastwood.” Aside from that, I do also like my romance reads a bit saucier…and yep, there just wasn’t enough sauce for me, but that’s just personal opinion. F I N A L T H O U G H T S: “Can I tell you the story of how we met?” “I know how we met.” “You think you do but you don’t.” ‘This woman finally had all her pieces, and I wasn’t about to take one that I might never be able to give back.’ What starts out with a perceived fairy tale in the form of a note condensed with love perfectly personifies the idea of superficial illusion, because most always nothing is as it seems, not even the illusory belief in misplaced speculation. When a dreamer chases some fairy tale hope and finds something distinctly antithetical, her ideals surpass the surface of love-penned notes, beautiful feathered dresses and fanciful words and instead falls into a love story dedicated to fear, possibility and faith. With the expressions of pain that come with conditional love, and love’s value with the right person you’ll find a man resigned to his fate and a dreamer who makes him wish, symbolic of the best life can offer because sometime love isn’t enough and sometimes it’s everything. It started with a note that promised hope, turned into a story that said a ‘fairytale is put to bed’ but shaped into a love story ready to make a leap while fear transformed into faith. “What if I told you I wouldn’t live here because it’s so close to the water that I’d be afraid of what might happen if there were ever a hurricane?” “I’d say you were seriously crazy.” “Really? Why?” “Because this house is the most amazing property I’ve had the privilege to represent. To not want to live in it, to not experience all of its splendor on a daily basis because you’re worried about the potential of a storm, is ludicrious.” “Because the storm may never come.” “That’s right.” Promising because something had me burning through the pages, but not plentiful because there wasn’t enough to flame a passion. TW: Adult content, a sex scene, interspersed swearing and briefly discusses depression. ----------------------------------------- Visit my blog for more reviews: V.L. Book Reviews T W I T T E R: @VicariousHearts I N S T A G R A M: @Vicarious.Hearts ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 09, 2020
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Jun 14, 2020
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Jun 10, 2020
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Kindle Edition
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| 1733396802
| 9781733396806
| B07X4Z5C5X
| 4.05
| 2,152
| unknown
| Sep 27, 2019
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liked it
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R A T I N G: 3.5 stars to Her Irish Boss!
★ ★ ★ “A toast,” Cathal announced. “Keep it clean,” Brogan muttered. “Here’s to women’s kisses, and to w R A T I N G: 3.5 stars to Her Irish Boss! ★ ★ ★ “A toast,” Cathal announced. “Keep it clean,” Brogan muttered. “Here’s to women’s kisses, and to whiskey, amber clear; not as sweet as a woman’s kiss, but a damn sight more sincere.” “I had someone tell me I wasn’t a human. I’d hate for my employees to think I’m not a fun, likeable fellow.” “Look at that. No tie and you’re mingling with the little people.” She laughed at his scowl. Palmer Jones writes an opposites attract romance; clean, warm and imbued with more than a dash of O’Keeley wit. With bossy Brogan present to take the lead, headstrong Selena to put him in his place and two charming O’Keeley’s who flavour this story with charm and heart, we’re set to watch the day-to-day operation of the O’Keeley restaurant and the day-after-day exchange of the up-and-down drama when the magisterial meets the contrary. Because of previous sexual misconduct claims, Brogan O’Keeley makes it an official binding that romantic fraternisations are against sanction at O’Keeley’s Irish Pub, but it becomes a problem to enforce workplace conduct when his unchanging attraction to employee Selena Chapman throws all kinds of utensils in the works. Surprised at his attraction completely because Selena his opposite in every way; the tardy, untidy and unpunctual to his bossy flawlessness. Selena might wear the guise of irresponsibility but her life epitomises the opposite. What we get with ‘Her Irish Boss’ is real, believable day-to-day struggles of a restaurant on the possible verge of shut-down and Selena’s home life responsibility. At times I didn’t know if I wanted to give grumpy Brogan a bear hug or pull his tie crooked and wrinkle his pristine suits - though, I think I’d manage to do both at the same time. :D This story does end a bit abruptly, and though it’s present with tense drama and see-sawing relationship conflict (which I liked) it was missing more of a roguish, edgy quality that I’ve come to love with my romance reads. Still pleasant, though. I loved Brogan’s brothers, dare I say I loved them even more for being the levelers of this story and always taking Selena’s side. With strong codes of conduct Brogan isn’t about to grant himself any exceptions when the rules have been put in place for reasons that keep him firmly at bay. No rule breaches. No rule breakers. No second chances. Clean cut, coolly meticulous and bossy, Brogan’s word is law…but not when he becomes the law breaking threat to his purposefully-put-in-place rules. With a boss man determined to practice what he preaches, an imperishable heroine with a mind to preach her own practice, and two O’Keeyley matchmakers makes this eventful, light and wholesome. A story that’s easy on the mind, a cover that’s easy on the eyes and a book that’s easy to enjoy! A good choice if clean romance is your forte! Trigger Warning: Minimal swearing, (no f bombs) and a mildly described sex scene. Some instances of sexual harassment. ---------------------------------------------- Visit my blog for more reviews: V.L. Book Reviews T W I T T E R: @VicariousHearts I N S T A G R A M: @Vicarious.Hearts ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 28, 2020
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Jun 2020
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May 29, 2020
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Kindle Edition
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| 0994054459
| 9780994054456
| B08GWRCNRM
| 3.87
| 205,287
| Aug 04, 2018
| Aug 06, 2018
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liked it
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RATING: 3 stars to The Chase! ★ ★ ★ I emerge bearing a crescendo of contrary contemplation for The Chase. As an expected four or five star read, I can' RATING: 3 stars to The Chase! ★ ★ ★ I emerge bearing a crescendo of contrary contemplation for The Chase. As an expected four or five star read, I can't say that this reader isn't gutted that It comes to you decorated with three. While those three stars do come flush with great book energy, strong readability and charactered by an effective college setting with fun, age-appropriate characters, its soaring potential meets a rising resistance that sabotages what I dare to say could have been a sublime romance of high place and steep ground. Excuse the dramatic nature of what I'm about to say but how deeply I planned to love the lifeblood out of this book. Initially I did have a lot of affection for the story - like I mentioned, the readability is positively page-turning and I was ready to root for an irresistible, dynamic, opposites-attract college courtship - but both its impact and what is supposed to be the centrepiece of any romance falls dormant with its inability to reach the heights it could have. Through perhaps 70% of The Chase's length I was in a commiserating state of mind, and in a fit of long-length pique, I felt exasperated with a romance that seems to sit on its own potential and squanders it in unison. Still, by comparison, my next point might seem presumptuous, premature and obnoxious as I three star this and additionally confess to now considering myself an Elle Kennedy appreciator who's itching to wolfishly browse through her backlist but that string of events did indeed happen. Like clockwork they did, and I share that I'm definitely untroubled by this offshoot. While the ambivalence was fierce, so now is my feeling remarkably adrenalised in the same breath, because I'm nothing short of trusted that Kennedy's collection of NA romance will hold something for me. I have a sixth sense sensation that the right pick will sashay its way onto my favourites list. The author seems to have seemingly, surreptitiously lit me up with interest, and I'm hereby regarding The Chase as an invitation to keep up the Kennedy chase. And I'm quite pleased by the semi-conquest in this stealthy turn of events. College romance isn't my usual fare but after reading this I know I've been missing out. Elle Kennedy gave me the introduction I never knew I wanted, and although I admittedly come prepped with mixed opinions, the story, for the most part, reads effortlessly. Let's talk about the romance. Fitz really did have dynamic hero written all over him. With who I thought would be a cross-breed sort of love interest (athlete, artist, introvert and gamer) definitely felt more my speed. Unfortunately, this leading man wastes so much of his own leading man potential, the story's time and the relationship space that the romance didn't receive the opportunity to thrive. His reservations are defensible, and introvert that I also am his denial, withdrawal, passivity and aversion to widespread visibility had some relatable beginnings which resonate with the introverted profile (as much as they speak to a man beheld by childhood trauma and his own fear). The relatability doesn't take long to recast itself into exasperation though. Fitz was full of feelings without wanting to act on his feelings and often wastes his capability at every given opportunity. He was very much all thought and acted at the bare minimum for a strong three quarters of the book. In the same way the romance feels 'all desire, little action.' Where Summer gives chase, Fitz is good at giving a millimeter, if we're lucky, but barely gives an inch. His continued lack of action and lack of pursuit becomes quite unappealing, and his reasoning starts to feel disproportionate to the resulting resistance that stands the test and the length of the entire book. Does that sound exhausting? It definitely felt exhausting. Like Summer, I wasn't asking for a recital on his entire emotional history nor immediate commitment from the earliest beginnings, just to see him make some moves forward of his own accord. Like me, I believe she would have been content to see him put his desire into action. It pains me to say this in relationship to a story with talent but the romance both unnecessarily catastrophises itself and immobilises itself by default. Fitz was so affronted by his own feelings that he never quite becomes the Fitz we need him to be. It's not easy to like, love or root for someone who fights the attraction every step of the way. The long-haul resistance was quick to court a long-haul sense of irritation, and I had to exhale more than just a few deep sighs of frustration. Although my personality is strictly more Fitz than Summer, I largely preferred The Chase's heroine to the hero. The author spends a long time stretching out the assumptive push and pull and long-haul miscommunication (which concedes to a romance that dawdles more than it does), and in that time I kept wondering over all the exciting ways the author could have used the valuable relationship space to navigate a more engaging introvert/extrovert dynamic in lieu. Everything is a force of defiance, stubbornness and opposition when these two have insane levels of desire for each other, and that was all the fuel they really needed. Impervious to his own behavioural faults, Fitz is unable to see how complicit his own responses and reactions play part to the continued conflict between them. It wasn't just that he became his own obstacle and did little to remove himself from himself, his obliqueness in acknowledging his own errors and thus typically perspectivising Summer as the stereotype to save his own feelings and validating his own hibernation doesn't register well. Rather than actually taking the time to get to know her firsthand (which would have complemented the slow burn, his introversion and his emotional difficulties) and working through whatever his perceived impressions were, he uses Summer's image to evidence his own rationale and defaults to holding her accountable without fail, quick to rally any defense against her. He clearly struggles with communication and self-expression but fails to see how his behaviour can lend itself to both a lack of interest in Summer and the very mixed messages she's left to deal with. His longing felt like a private secret no-one else was allowed to know, not even the one he longed for, and even though there was an obvious knowing, the private desire wore on me. If Fitz had put as much effort into a slow-going, at-his-pace pursuit as he does privatising his feelings, (and released his denial earlier on) this romance could have had a more satisfying turnaround. Even at the 70% mark it's really summer who (again) initiates the turnaround. Summer was the predominant pursuer but Fitz doesn't return chase as much as I wanted him to. If the author's aim was work with a resistance-wed hero to indulge the chase, perhaps it would have been better received if the resistance had earlier dispensed itself as opposed to what results in a lot of wasted energy between the couple had they marshalled even an inch of their stubbornness in the right direction. As it was, it was easy to feel discouraged by the romance. Post-resistance Fitz? I liked him very much. He was still gorgeous, endearing, worth the swoon (In places) and final-quarter Fitz was, for obvious reasons, my favourite Fitz. Mere mortal that I concede to being, I won't contest to feelings some feels from him since he does show up for Summer come the final division. And ok, I won't overlook his obvious quietly-confident tatted appeal. I would have liked to see him do more to earn his way back into Summer's favour however, but as it is the latter part of this romance still feels a smidge superficial relationship-wise, even as I liked where they were heading. Fitz does have some character development and I did appreciate him by the end, but it still pains me to say that he was the disappointment I didn't want to be disappointed by. I could have resonated with his inner conflict but he does little to challenge it and doesn't quite reach his depth in character. Regarding his personal life, his fraught relationship with his parents is given some commentary, but even though he eventually shares with Summer his parent's disastrous marriage and the ramifications of it all, the thread is left open without a follow-up; In how he might later shift the way he relates to them. Along with that point, there were a few other subplot pieces that felt Incomplete. Initially, the supporting sexual harassment plot did feel non-essential but I eventually appreciated the way it developed, moreso In the realistic inner conflict it produces in Summer (and the many, many girls who have been in her position) and how she becomes determined to expose the misconduct. It felt relevant, even if a little out of place. What is a romance without some good tension? There's head-butting, hitting walls, tense run-ins, sexual frustration and a complementary helping of sexual tension. The steam, the sexual angst and chemistry combined became a tasty buffet I wanted seconds from 24/7. As I mentioned though, the long-winded traction can be drawn out to its detriment and the romantic tension doesn't always work to success. I struggled with how desperate the ache was between these two and how their relationship instead becomes the cost and the sacrifice rather than the highlight. Thus, the untapped nature of the romance left me wanting. Where romances can often come hyper-focussed on the romance sans all else, I respected that both Summer and Fitz have their own lives outside of each other. The college setup was great. I loved the secondary character engagements and the dialogue. Fun, light and witty, with excellently placed exceptions of glee and humour. It does bear repeating that the story coverage can and does lose its focus in places. There's a lot of created space for a supporting cast as they make their introductions for what will clearly pre-empt their forthcoming stories but by dallying in those places, it can divest the book of its central romance, which does seem to fall behind. There is a quasi-love triangle at play here but nothing legitimately worrisome since it's clear from the outset who the hero is and who the heroine really wants. Fitz is the main attraction for Summer. Even still, it was nice to have that interplay with Hunter, especially since Fitz was, you know, busy being brooding Fitz. I whisper-confess that I may have sometimes very secretly desired for Hunter to be Summer's love interest. Oops. The pace itself does suffer in large part to the prolonged phase of denial, and the indecision on both parts meddles with story's stride. The subplots and intervening themes both did and didn't always make the best out of the story. There's a relevant theme that challenges common stereotypes the entire way through, and Summer's the recipient of several biases for being the beautifully unreachable, privileged rich girl. Both with elder gen side characters bearing their own complexes and people from her own peer group. For all frankness, I think the author could have played more tactfully with the social messaging over typecasting because as much as Summer does engage in admirable dialogue over feministic values and viewpoints, her arguments can be inconsistent as much as they slump against themselves. For the most part, she was great fun. She's so engaging that maybe I was in her 'orbit' too. See Fitz? This is how you appreciate someone. Segueing into The Chase's heroine, I can easily say that Summer was the entertaining, likeable and very-fun-to-read-from protagonist I didn't know she was going to be. She made me smile on many occasions. She's very endearing. She thrives on socialisation, excited by all that excites her and enjoys the finer things in life afforded to her by a very affluent family. She's something of a social kaleidoscope, a Summer celebration, and always ready to make merry with a night of fun. Still, there's a purity of character she brings to the role: if Summer thought it you know she believed it, if she felt it, we believed it too and she behaves in ways that always feels very true to Summer. She was as Summer she could be and does exactly what Summer wants to do. I loved that she was herself. I loved that she made a best friend within a day, I loved that she was candid without twice a thought and shared what she felt just because she felt it. I won't say her characterisation was perfectly put together. She wasn't always the best decision maker but she's driven by impulse, honesty and feeling more than anything, and that lends itself believably to a sincere character. Thrilled by all things fashion, pop culture and the convivial lifestyle she loves to live, It's likely because of Summer that this story arrives with as much spunk and energy as it does. All the guys want her and all the girls hate her or want to be her. She comes heated with a spotlight wherever she goes, and truthfully for Fitz, that's not the place he wants to be. Where fiction can often defame the stereotype and materialise her personality to a few oversimplified earmarks, I appreciated where the author wanted to take her characterisation. I can't say she was completely consistent but I liked her style. Some of Summer's arguments aren't always supported by her actions but I can admire a heroine who goes after what she wants, even if it's so far from her usual, and that's exactly what she does with Fitz. Even as she became the main pursuer, we can relent that she acts from a place of candour and that trait in and of itself reads truthfully to her own desire. Still, some honesty from me here - she was sometimes too desperate, even when she perceived Fitz's lack of interest, and I can't say I didn't huff and puff from the mounting umbrage. I liked her humanness, especially where Kennedy digs into the fragility over her learning disability and her long-standing struggle and sensitivity with academia. Summer finds herself challenged by her scholastic ability and hampered by her ADHD, and I really resonated with what the felt experience was like for her regardless of the ways she was always celebrated and encouraged by her parents. The personal experience of not performing well educationally is a really personal feeling that can make us see the worst of ourselves, and that was portrayed well. In the stead of observing the smarts she so obviously has, it's hard for her to see herself as anything other than scatterbrained and witless, the only Di-Laurentis of the family who doesn't level up with a very accomplished family. Since there's also the uncertainty of finding a passion that fits and sticks for Summer, and the ‘unknownness’ of not knowing what kind of career path she wants to take, it would have been nice if by the end she'd have had some idea of what she wanted to work towards with her college career. Set in Elle Kennedy's college hockey world, this spin off to a series of enormous popularity commences with a spunky socialite and a private Briar athlete, her very opposite who wants anything but to be beheld by the attraction. Hoping to share a new year's kiss with the long-time crush she can't seem to stay away from, Summer decides that tonight is the night to seduce. But overhearing the apple of her eye reducing her to nothing but a few shallow adjectives, listing every reason why she isn’t dating material spoils her night and her plans. It isn't music to her ears. His judgement a light to her deeper insecurity, Summer finds herself lip-locking his roommate instead. The semester's sure to bring about some drama though. Summer wishes she could say the rest is history, but ousted by her sorority house upon her fresh arrival to Briar, three hockey players are about to become her roomies for the foreseeable future. One is the brooding stud she didn't get to kiss, one is her new year's kiss she did kiss and the last is someone she'd likely never kiss. But she's expected to be on her best behaviour as a new transfer. Warned by the assistant dean that no further transgression will be tolerated lest she face another expulsion (and who'll be keeping a close and personal eye on her performance), an improper professor who makes her skin crawl, worrying over her course credentials for the term, living with a trio of attractive Briar bachelors, thinking through her future prospects and trying to walk the girl power walk, her life is full of the interpersonal day to day of a college-aged goer. The Chase does exist in a place of readable potential. It brings a big college setting, great personalities, excellent humour, well-timed wit, fun dialogue, boy/girl drama and a slew of sexy sportsman energy. I'm sure there’s going to be an athlete for everyone. The potential is big, but as much as I adore a slow burn, the relationship was too slow burn for me. The relationship pains did give me phantom pains and found me inexhaustibly exhaustible but still fresh, fun and youthful, the reading was effortless which says wonderful things about the prose potential. My mixed feelings gave rise to parent more mixed feelings but I was nonetheless collar-pulled to keep up with the chemistry. A reading friend kindly informed me that I definitely should have backtracked and started with the Off Campus series and worked my way up to this particular romance. Because I'm good at inserting myself in between a series and enjoying any romance as long as it stands alone, truth be told, I could have loved this as the standalone spin off series starter it was. I'm confronted by how thoughtlessly remiss it was of me, however, to bypass her OG series and make my entry at the doorstop of her spin off collective. I'll be sensibly circling back to what I likely should have done to begin with and read The Deal, hopefully supported by the burning reader love and glowing reviews. Hockey games, college parties, fun-loving college students, this campus romance keeps up with social lives, personal lives, love lives and academic lives of their college peers and friends. If you want a sportsman to swoon over, the series likely has someone for you. I've already added Elle Kennedy's backlist to my wishlist! Content Listing/Warning: Drinking. Profanity. Drugs, scenes including drugs and drug taking. Sexual harassment/sexual assault. A few bedroom scenes. Female animosity. Violence. Misogyny. ADHD. Feministic values and female attitudes. ...more |
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1
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Dec 21, 2022
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Jan 03, 2023
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Apr 23, 2020
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ebook
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| 1492631949
| 9781492631941
| 1492631949
| 4.05
| 1,409
| Aug 02, 2016
| Aug 02, 2016
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really liked it
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Rating: 4 stars to Reckless in Texas! 'His eyes were green. The colour of luck, and money, and the other side of the fence.' "The trouble with you, Rating: 4 stars to Reckless in Texas! 'His eyes were green. The colour of luck, and money, and the other side of the fence.' "The trouble with you, Voilet, is you've got a head for business and a heart for thrills, and as far as i can tell, the two of them aren't on speaking terms." An authentic, western contemporary romance that has a real respect and regard for rodeo. With realistic struggles, a special eye for atmospheric detail, a steady build-up and veritable story writing, we're brought two standing protagonists in the form of a bullfighter with a lot of baggage and a headstrong pick-up lady who both aspire for the hard-worked dreams that are slipping them by the wayside. Time to lasso up and get reckless in Texas! F A V O U R I T E - Q U O T E S: "Everybody's got their eye on Joe, and after that mess in Hickory Springs, the last thing i need is to draw more attention to my love life." Melanie snorted. "Honey, you don't have a love life. You have a series of unfortunate events." "The problem isn't that you're dating the wrong guys, Violet. It's that you won't accept that you're a sucker for the renegades, and you refuse to meet them on the dark side." "The point is, some people are good at being bad. If you're gonna dance with the devil, you should let him lead." 'It was impossible to save the day if a woman didn't have the basic damnd decency to show up for her own rescue.' 'Violet got her mulish look. "You have no idea how hard it is to find good bras." Thank God. Joe could see why women were tough to figure out sometimes. It must be hard to be reasonable when you were being tortured by your own underwear.' ---------------------------------------------- Visit my blog for more reviews: V.L. Book Reviews T W I T T E R: @VicariousHearts I N S T A G R A M: @Vicarious.Hearts ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 18, 2020
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Apr 22, 2020
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Apr 19, 2020
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Mass Market Paperback
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| B085CGSNT5
| 3.87
| 2,572
| unknown
| Mar 01, 2020
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it was ok
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Rating: 2 stars to Under His Control ★ ★ I was really looking forward to this boss-employee office romance, one of my preferred tropes that it is. Unf Rating: 2 stars to Under His Control ★ ★ I was really looking forward to this boss-employee office romance, one of my preferred tropes that it is. Unfortunately this book under-delivered on multiple fronts. To begin with it was actually decent. In places, it is likeable and even enjoyable but as a full-length storyline it's much longer than it needs to be, unnecessarily overcomplicates itself with additional verbiage and the long-winded push and pull wears itself out like a hypnotised animal on the run. The beginning led with interest and I was pulled to see where the writer hoped to take it but the story loses itself the further one gets into it. The protagonists aren't quite enough to save the story unfortunately, and both are bothersome in different ways. They were the type of MCs that persistently acted, behaved and thought in ways that didn't sit well. It was uncomfortable and awkward. The outcome could have been something special but it was a predominantly flawed read with Under His Control. I've also long-since established that the manwhore hero/celibate heroine stereotype rarely works for me; it fails more often than it doesn't and the extremism is an imbalance too male-MC favoured. Both Addie and Logan weren't love interests that I wanted to root for. This is a book that requires quite a bit of editing, pulling, pushing, hoisting, buffing, stripping, pruning, refining, nipping and some tucking, and it could have arrived bearing some decent qualities. It is admittedly pockmarked with grammar inaccuracies but the story itself also needs more work. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 25, 2020
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Mar 26, 2020
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Mar 27, 2020
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Kindle Edition
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| 1928044298
| 9781928044291
| B07G6W7KM1
| 4.15
| 2,018
| Sep 25, 2018
| Sep 25, 2018
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liked it
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Rating 3.5 stars to Fractured Honor First and foremost, 'Fractured Honor is a post service story about three friends and former soldiers brawling w Rating 3.5 stars to Fractured Honor First and foremost, 'Fractured Honor is a post service story about three friends and former soldiers brawling with the melancholy aftermath of years dedicated in service, now trying to piece themselves back into non-military life, with Captain Beckett Hollister taking the lead in Cross’s first Crimson Point novel - in small town Oregon, a picturesque town of peaceful terrain curtailed by an edge of the ominous. One soldier in self destruct, another mourning the love he can’t touch and then half-hearted, hardhearted Beckett, strong and silent, who wears pain, grief and the tormenting specters of his 20 years in combat with an invisible badge of shame and sharp-scented regret. Beckett is just going through the motions of his life; his dank, lacklustre spirit oppressed all the more by watching his last living parent wither away to the same fate that met his mother. Assimilating back into the soils of civilian life is hard. He’s lived and aged through the rough-edged life of a soldier - too severe perhaps for a down-to-earth kind heart like his best friend’s little sister, Sierra Buchanan. ‘Fractured Honor’ is a story that is not overwhelmingly steeped in the passions of romance, but it is overwhelmed by different kinds of surviving passions, both to do with living, losing and grief. There is a slight perfumed border of suspense that twines itself with the story. 20 years in service has bound Captain Beckett Hollister to a clear headed precision, but when one more mission proves an operation too far, he’s done with war. Watching the lives pass in his rearview and a conscience brimming with dense shadows, a cold eruption probes his insides, because half shadowed by the sights of his service leaves emotionally absent Beckett with flaying strength in this brittle attempt to hold on to it as his experiences catch up to him with a score-settling target on his back. Trigger Warning: A cancer diagnosis and the grief that accompanies it as the main lead deals with his pain and loss. PTSD & depression (mental illness) in service-people. Also mentions a previous suicide. Some swearing and sex scenes. This story introduces some heavy themes such as pedophilia and attempted rape with minors as well so I’d be careful if you’re sensitive to weighty themes such as these! Twitter I Instagram Visit my blog for more reviews: V.L. Book Reviews ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 20, 2020
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Mar 23, 2020
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Mar 24, 2020
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ebook
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| 3.93
| 4,239
| Jan 22, 2019
| Jan 22, 2019
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it was ok
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Rating: 2 stars to take me Take Me Again When a distressing familial loss brings the Knight siblings at the eldest Knight brother, Ethan’s disposal, i Rating: 2 stars to take me Take Me Again When a distressing familial loss brings the Knight siblings at the eldest Knight brother, Ethan’s disposal, it also has Ashley Easton far way from home as she flies to Ethan’s side, the only Knight member who stuck by her at her loneliest. But for Sebastian Knight, Ashley has not the heart for forgiveness or friendship when it was Sebastian who, eight years ago, sealed her fate with a careless teenage mind when her life was discussed with the dispensable caliber of the summer heat, then to be shipped away like yesterdays business. Ashley never desires to lose herself to love like she did so hastily to Sebastian Knight; lovely devotion is not in her romantic dictionary. Living in the pockets of each other brings forward the past in juxtaposed proximity though. For Sebastian, the reception of his family’s doubtfulness and Ashley’s bitter return has him take a good hearty look in the mirror - at his sloppy life choices and cursory conviction - understanding his misplacement in a careless lifestyle, and he doesn’t like what looks back. With Knight Time Technology in trouble of losing a big contract, Sebastian sees an opportunity to demonstrate his character to his family and to Ashley; he has a reason to keep both in his life. Unfortunately, Take Me Again by Carly Phillips was another story that promised more than the soundness I was looking for when I finished up with the story. The writing itself lacks the gravitas of character and personality, and it possessed a stiff, static and suspended quality to the characters and storyline that stripped away any enthusiasm I may have had otherwise. Alongside this, I had some issues with the dialogue and sentence structure, not always able to understand meaning. With a delivery that was deterring and a romance that lacked an appetising appeal, reading this felt very much like going through the motions because the delivery was deprived of the pull of wrenching gravity to consciously find pleasure in. Trigger Warning: Drug addictions, drinking and sex scenes Twitter I Instagram Visit my blog for more reviews: V.L. Book Reviews ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 18, 2020
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Mar 19, 2020
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Mar 18, 2020
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Vaishali • [V.L. Book Reviews]
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Books:
drama
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May 2024
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Dec 30, 2023
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Apr 14, 2023
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Mar 26, 2021
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Oct 30, 2021
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Sep 05, 2020
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Aug 27, 2020
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really liked it
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Aug 11, 2020
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Apr 23, 2020
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Apr 22, 2020
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it was ok
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it was ok
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Mar 19, 2020
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Mar 18, 2020
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