Well, there are already so many reviews for this one so this won't be a lengthy review.
New Adult, for me is a very hit and miss genre but I have to saWell, there are already so many reviews for this one so this won't be a lengthy review.
New Adult, for me is a very hit and miss genre but I have to say that this one is close to perfect. It has the well used new adult plot devices - gorgeous hero, slightly nerdy heroine, both have dark secrets in their past and are an unlikely couple BUT, it's very well written with fantastic character development and it doesn't feel at all trite or hackneyed and I enjoyed every minute I spent with Garrett and Hannah. Romance novels aren't about the happy ending - it's the journey to get there that captivates the romance reader and this is a good and completely engaging one.
Both the hero and heroine are highly likeable which is a great start but also, all the secondary characters are well fleshed out and endear you to them immediately without actually overshadowing the central romance. Our focus is entirely on Hannah and Garrett which is exactly where it should be.
The style is immediately engaging, right from the very first page - there's no uncertainty for me at the beginning of this novel, I was instantly engrossed. The writing style is highly addictive with plenty of humour and witty repartee and I found myself grinning like a loon at some of Hannah and Garrett's exchanges. Yes, they both have dark secrets in their past but this is masterfully handled and never allows the story to get bogged down by it all. It's handled well and kept in it's place - this isn't particularly heavy on the angst. It's fairly light, very romantic, sweet and sexy and just about everything a good new adult romance should be.
I knocked off half a star just for one minor niggle - I felt that Garrett's hockey story line was given greater importance than Hannah's musical one and I couldn't quite work out why. Also Garrett moves significantly on from the drama of his past by the end of the novel whereas Hannah is pretty much in the same situation, other than her relationship with Garrett. But these were minor quibbles and I think this rounded out at a pretty solid 4.5 stars....more
As the blurb states, Sebastian Stone, frontman of popular rock group Sunder, is hiding away from LA and the press in Georgia after he got himse[image]
As the blurb states, Sebastian Stone, frontman of popular rock group Sunder, is hiding away from LA and the press in Georgia after he got himself into a whole heap of trouble. There he meets Shea who's working in a local bar and they share an immediate and undeniable attraction.
Sebastian, despite his troubled and difficult past is really quite likeable. He's pretty sincere, fiercely loyal and, despite his reputation, very much one of the good guys. Shea, who also has secrets of her own, is a very easy heroine to like and for reasons we don't get to find about until the very end she's also trying to keep a low profile and isn't prepared at all for the way Sebastian is about to rock her world. (pun totally intended)
After a difficult start, I struggled a little to get into the story at first, I found myself absorbed and touched by their growing feelings for one another. It's a fairly typical new adult romance plot line - they're obviously falling for one another but both have dark, troubled pasts and secrets they're not ready to share and both are convinced that they can never be together. It's very high on the angst, quite low on humour but ultimately very romantic and engaging. I found myself completely on board with their relationship, rooting for them to overcome their hurdles and for the rest of the world to just leave them alone but it's not to be and we're left with a devastating cliffy that completely broke my heart as I read with horror at the unfairness of the situation. It's enough to leave your heart pounding, desperate for more although I have to say that the story, at this point, pivots on a MAHOOSIVE coincidence that had my eyes rolling slightly. I totally didn't see it coming.
There were a couple of real stand out scenes for me that live vividly on in my imagination - the night that they finally succumb to that all consuming attraction. The author did a fantastic job of really allowing Sebastian's and Shea's emotions to truly shine through and their passion felt real and incendiary. Also, there's a day at the beach when everyone seems to happy and everything is perfect (at least for a while) - there's a real rose tinted glow cast over that one that still gives me a goofy grin.
As I actually did enjoy the story very much, I feel the need to explain why I've only rated it at 3 stars. The writing style and techniques adopted by the author often stopped me in my tracks and distracted me from the story.
The first couple of chapters contained some rather overblown and flowery language which, rather than setting the scene, actually confused me a little but I soon settled into it but then I noticed another habit the author has - she likes to repeat things three times.
For example:-
Weak. Weak. Weak.
Pretending. Pretending. Pretending.
Trouble. Trouble. Trouble.
Once noticed, sadly, this could no longer go unnoticed. I think this technique would work well when used for dramatic effect in moderation but it's massively overused in Stone in the Sea. It crops up every few pages over and over again and once I'd decided that it was annoying me, it pretty much hit me like a sledge hammer between the eyes every time I came across it. I'd be enjoying the story and turn the page and find
Want. Want. Want.
OR
Deeper. Deeper. Deeper.
and I'd want to howl in frustration. It jarred me from the story and totally took away my enjoyment.
A writer's narrative should be the reader's guide into the story, the key that unlocks their magical world in our imaginations but, regrettably, this constant triple repetition of focal words ended up being stumbling blocks for me that made me grind to a halt and completely hindered my enjoyment of the story. And it's a real shame because it's a good story with great character development and strong emotional depth. I'm dying to know what will happen next with Sebastian and Shea - I was fully committed to their story but I just don't know if I can start the sequel knowing how much I struggled with the style.
The story continues in June with Drowning To Breathe. I very much want them to find their way out of the dark abyss they ended up in but I'm unsure if I will actually continue.
Wow! This was quite the roller coaster! And what an ending! When I finished the book, I stared mournfully at the page, my hands seemingly surgi [image]
Wow! This was quite the roller coaster! And what an ending! When I finished the book, I stared mournfully at the page, my hands seemingly surgically attached to the sides of my Kindle, heart pounding lost in a sea of bewilderment. How can it just end like that? I knew it wasn’t going to conclude – I was counting down the remaining percentage on my Kindle with an increasing sense of doom – we were going to be left hanging, twitching for the next instalment like a addict awaiting a fix. Rebecca Shea – you sure do make junkies of us all
This is the story of Emilia, who’s grown up in abject poverty in a trailer with her feckless and depressive mother (her father having bailed seemingly seconds after conception!). After the loss of her mother, she goes looking for her father who pretty much slams the door in her face.
My heart broke for Emilia at the beginning of this story. She cuts such a lonely figure – so desperate for love, so naive. She’s like the ultimate prey for some waiting predator to come along and snap her up. I felt so sorry for her – especially with the abrupt and heart-breaking dismissal from her biological father.
Enter stage left – Alex.
Never could a young girl have been more prime for falling into bad company than at the moment when he first sets eyes on Emilia. They’re like the lion and the lamb – he’s from a different and very dangerous world and, even though he thinks he’s protecting her, he’s putting her in deadly peril by taking her into his world. He should have just carried on driving by that fateful day and, instead, look where it has all ended!
I was very absorbed straight away as I always am by a Rebecca Shea novel – her style is engaging and draws you in and I found myself lost in the story almost instantly. Emilia’s devastation at the beginning was a palpable thing and I rapidly got into her mindset. The alternating POV works very well here allowing us to hear from both of the main protagonists and you need to hear from Alex as he really did have me wondering what on earth he was up to for a large part of this novel.
I did really enjoy this – it’s very suspenseful and atmospheric as it builds towards its pulsating conclusion but I did feel that the book could have been at least 100 pages longer. A lot happens and a lot of it too quickly for my liking, especially the last 25%. It’s shock after shock without time to absorb and reflect – we’re hurtled from one startling revelation into the next and I really wanted to slow down at this point and see how the characters were feeling and reacting but it wasn’t to be. Emilia and Alex fall in love a little too quickly – I would have liked to have seen a longer build up there too. Emilia was rather too trusting – she just accepts that this devastatingly good looking stranger hanging out at a seedy motel by night only has good intentions. She’s massively naive.
So, in conclusion, a good and suspenseful romance but I needed it to be a little longer to get deeper character development and just to see more of their feelings and emotions but it’s a humdinger of a cliffy and I’ll definitely be back for more.
A new release from CoHo always attracts a HUGE amount of interest and deservedly so. She’s a quality author with a large following, she’s very
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A new release from CoHo always attracts a HUGE amount of interest and deservedly so. She’s a quality author with a large following, she’s very adept at social media (possibly the best), she’s funny and engaging and as such garners many auto 5 star reviews especially from the pre-release reviewers with ARCs which gush like crazy and extoll the book’s virtues and, having noticed this before, I raised a cynical eyebrow and vowed to read Confess with a highly critical eye and truly assess it on its merits before reviewing. In truth, I’m looking for fault. So, as soon as the book downloaded to my Kindle I decided to adopt a total immersion technique, avoiding Goodreads and those stellar reviews like the plague, and plunged in head first without even reading the blurb to form my own opinions.
So, having decided to look for fault, I have to confess (get it????) that I actually found very little. Possibly the story dragged a little at around the 60% mark and maybe the H and h didn’t get quite enough page time together as I would have liked but that was pretty much it and I think the conclusion to my experiment would be that she really does deserve all those rave reviews. She’s right at the top of the new adult contemporary romance category, the undefeated champion of the genre and, even though there are plenty of pretenders for her crown, she ain’t going nowhere!
And so I began. By 3% I was bawling my eyes out (rather like watching Pixar’s Up), by 15% I had the warm and fuzzies and was grinning like a loon into my Kindle, by 55% I was in the depths of despair and at 100% I sighed contentedly. Job well done, CoHo. I bought this on release day and had finished it by the evening – it completely held my attention as I pretty much lost a whole day to this story.
In a Colleen Hoover novel there’s always a ‘thing’. In Confess the 'thing' is art and our hero is Owen Mason Gentry (OMG) and he’s an artist whose work is inspired by confessions that are posted through his studio door.
Every day I’m grateful that my husband and his brother look exactly alike. It means there’s less of a chance that my husband will find out that our son isn’t his.
The confessions were brilliant – sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometime shocking but it’s a truly original idea for a novel.
I haven’t spoken to my children in four months. They’ll call on holidays and my birthday, but never in between. I don’t blame them. I was a horrible father.
Auburn replies to his ‘Help Wanted’ sign on the door and this is how they meet although it’s obvious to us and Owen that he knows who she is but Auburn is oblivious to this. I found myself instantly intrigued and dying to know what had happened in those intervening years between the prologue and now to bring us to the mysterious yet completely random meeting. By this point in the story, I was completely on board, totally hooked. As the story continues, there’s such a stark contrast between the innocence of the young love of the prologue and the desperate situations both Auburn and Owen find themselves in, all due to the actions of others. These two find themselves falling desperately in love and also realise that their being together would be the best yet worst thing that could happen to them. They REALLY can’t be together – I am aware that that’s a highly common dilemma in new adult romance but the author works her magic here and puts a truly original spin on this and it’s completely believable and engrossing.
There’s a lot of secrets here, possibly truths as yet untold, and plenty of confessions will be required to get us towards the end of the story. There appeared to be one glaring omission, one little fact not yet explained as we near the end of the book and I fretted, just a little, but I needn’t have worried – you can have faith in CoHo because she really does bring you full circle and everything is explained by the end of the book. Hence the aforementioned contented sigh!
The pace of the story is gentle rather than slow which gives lots of time for the expansion of the growing affection of the two central characters and for us to become fully involved in this story which appears to hurtle from one disaster to the next although Colleen keeps everything grounded with strong character development and profound emotional depth. I felt every emotion with the characters, experiencing every high and low with them and was completely engrossed. It’s a story that captured my interest from the very first page, kept me involved the whole way through and I found myself 100% emotionally invested. The book had an almost magnetic pull on it - whenever I put it down, I soon found myself back, dying to continue. Absolutely gripping stuff!
Reading a Colleen Hoover novel, to me, is rather like sinking into your favourite arm-chair after a hellish day at the office, kicking off those heels that have pinched all day and indulging in a glass of very expensive wine. It’s exquisitely comforting and it feels like coming home. I know I’m going to get a hero I will adore and a heroine I can identify with and that’s exactly what we found here. Heartbreakingly beautiful and achingly real, Confess is a wholly engrossing tale of two young people with many hurdles to overcome finding a love that is truly worth fighting for.
4.5 OMG stars
Owen’s paintings is based on a real artist – check out his beautiful work here
After really adoring Sigal’s Layers books, I was very much looking forward to this one as she branches out into new adult contemporary romance. This iAfter really adoring Sigal’s Layers books, I was very much looking forward to this one as she branches out into new adult contemporary romance. This is a standalone novel and really quite sweet as we follow Nia, newly arrived in the USA from Brazil trying to leave a tragic past behind and make a new life for herself in a new country as a dance teacher. Her first meeting with Reeves is NOT one to forget as he catches her with quite literally nothing to hide in a situation that’s highly embarrassing for her and highly entertaining for him.
She thinks she will never see him again but it turns out that they’re new neighbours and frequent the same club so their paths are destined to cross. And often. I did enjoy this but I didn’t really connect with the story of the characters quite as well as I did with the Layers books. For a start, the truly doom-laden dual prologue actually led me to think that it foreshadowed something far darker than I actually found in the pages within and for a while I found myself constantly waiting for something evil and nefarious to creep out of the shadows but what I was actually getting was classic new adult romance – a young couple trying to put traumatic pasts behind them and find love together. Once I got my head around this and realised to just go with the budding romance between Reeves and Nia, I started to enjoy it far more.
Reeves is a great hero despite his reluctance to commit to more than fuck-buddies with Nia, I really began to adore him and there’s some truly very beautiful and tender scenes in the book and Reeves is every girl’s dream – he’s gorgeous, tough, alpha and shit hot in the bedroom and he and Nia forge a very beautiful and genuine connection but they’re both reluctant to open up and talk about their feelings and confide in one another about the past which leads to a pretty big misunderstanding and some difficult times ahead for them.
My one major niggle with the book has to be Nia – she’s supposed to be a young Brazilian dancer moving to the US to start a new life and not once does she ever come across as anything but a young American. There’s very few hints about her speaking another language, coming from another culture and she’s fitted into the American way of life seamlessly, almost as if she’d grown up there. I know it’s only a minor quibble but I really would have like to have seem more of the Brazilian side of her.
But, all in all, this is a sweet and enjoyable romance. I think I prefer Sigal’s more adult stories but if you’re a fan of the new adult romance genre, then this will most definitely work for you.
Dearest Clementine is a standalone new adult contemporary romance with two companion novels planned for later in 2014 starring Jax and Daren, both secDearest Clementine is a standalone new adult contemporary romance with two companion novels planned for later in 2014 starring Jax and Daren, both secondary characters in Dearest Clementine.
Well, I very much enjoyed this. It’s a seriously cute and light-hearted new adult romance that has an almost young adult feel to it. It’s a feel good novel with a gorgeous hero to melt for and will most definitely leave you smiling.
Clementine is a college student with a bit of an ice-queen reputation going on. After a bad relationship and a betrayal, she’s completely closed herself off to guys and is hiding behind an emotional defensive wall a mile wide. She’s also been abandoned by her selfish, egocentric parents and stalked by a seriously creepy professor during her first year at college. She’s really rather vulnerable and a little alone although she has great friends that will really make you laugh. While I felt for Clementine, sometimes her lack of self-worth and often her lack of faith and trust did drive me a little wild! Despite the traumas of the past, she’s got an incredible tight circle of close-knit friends and she’s actually got a lot to smile about.
And then we have Gavin – the guy who is determined to melt that icy heart and he’s just about as perfect a new adult hero as you’re likely to find. He did make a couple of decisions and kept a couple of secrets that damaged his relationship with Clementine but, on the whole, he’s sweet, sexy, funny and very caring. Highly swoonworthy!
I found this really charming – the interaction between Clem and her friends is hilarious especially when they try out-skanking each other via text!
I glance down at my screen. “Jenna, why are you texting me when you’re three feet away?”
She smirks. “We’re going to play Out-skank.”
“I’m sorry. What?”
“We’re gonna help you talk about sex. The point of the game is to see who can out-skank the other. Harper and I are going to send you dirty texts, and you have to write us back.”
“Where do you come up with this?” I’m shaking my head as I read her text out loud: I want you to touch my man-slinky.
Man-slinky?
I look up at Jenna and Harper, and the three of us crack up.
Dearest Clementine is full of fantastic character development, a beautifully paced plot with plenty of sexual tension between the two main protagonists and a spine-tingling suspense plot bubbling away in the background. It’s a lot of fun and I very much enjoyed it.
Oh Wow!! LB has done it again. Her writing just gets better and better with each book that she publishes and this one is at once possibly one o[image]
Oh Wow!! LB has done it again. Her writing just gets better and better with each book that she publishes and this one is at once possibly one of the saddest and yet, at the same time, most uplifting books I have ever read. LB deftly combines the most tragic story you’re likely to see in new adult romance with her trademark quirky humour, fantastic character development and a deeply emotional and inspiring voyage of discovery for her heroine, Aubrey. It’s masterfully told, beautifully paced and utterly consuming.
Aubrey Miller is a girl long forgotten and replaced by her alter-ego, Raven. Aubrey has suffered untold tragedy and loss in her young life and has an appallingly bad case of survivor’s guilt - so much so that she’s buried her beautiful eyes and blonde hair beneath a mask of piercings, black hair dye, dodgy contact lenses and heavy make-up. Raven has buried Aubrey and risen from the ashes of that life as a loner and closed-off, reserved young girl – she believes that death follows Aubrey Miller and curses everyone she loves and comes close to so she’s buried her beneath the morose demeanour of Raven, a girl not easy to get close to.
We join Raven as she’s about to start college and is moving in with her new roomie Quinn – a relentlessly cheerful, beautiful pageant queen. Raven is desperate to keep her distance but Quinn is so happy that she’s almost infectious and, along with Kaeleb, her boarding buddy, they slowly begin to draw Aubrey out from under the veil that is Raven.
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Aubrey/Raven really did a number on me as her tragic past is slowly revealed to us, the readers. This poor young girl has suffered untold tragic losses, has known far too much tragedy for one so young and she has buckled under the weight of the wreck of her life and completely lost herself. She blames herself for every bad thing that has ever befallen someone she has loved in her life, firmly believing that getting close to someone is tantamount to killing them. She considers herself to be a curse, an anathema to decent society and has set about losing Aubrey Miller and living her life as Raven.
Raven is a disguise – hidden beneath all those piercings, cats eyes contacts and dyed hair and troweled on make-up, Aubrey still remains, albeit deeply buried. Raven’s new friends Quinn and Kaeleb and her guardian Linda can all see this and set out help Raven resurrect Aubrey Miller and breathe new life into this beleaguered soul.
Quinn is such a sweetheart – a beautiful pageant queen with some dark secrets of her own but she’s not going to allow Raven to fester quietly in a corner and drags her kicking and screaming into campus life, determined that she should be able to enjoy the experience to the full.
Princess Fi-Fi, ruler of Unicorn Land where rainbows reign and all things are pink and sparkly.
Along with Kaeleb, Quinn and Raven, slowly bring Aubrey back to life. Kaeleb is a wonderful hero. Rave instantly recognises him as a long lost childhood friend from the days before her life was torn apart and she mistakenly thinks that he doesn’t see through her disguise. He’s sexy, sensitive, caring and really very funny – he also has a journey to take in the book and I enjoyed and fell hard for Kaeleb. LB Simmons really does write THE most delicious heroes and Kaeleb is no exception.
I absolutely adored this book and found myself completely lost in LB Simmons’ powerful storytelling abilities as we follow Aubrey through her rocky path to resurrection. It made me cry and it also made me laugh. There’s plenty for Aubrey, Quinn and Kaeleb to deal with in the pages ahead and it’s a difficult tortuous journey but LB Simmons manages not to get bogged down in the tragedy and lends real quirky humour to the story. As much as this story is tragic and sad, it’s also incredibly uplifting and shows the true meaning of friendship, of healing through love as we see this young girl step forward blinking into the light and finally, once again, embrace all that life has to offer her.
It’s an astounding story, another winner from the author and a Sinfully Sexy Recommended Read.
Blurred is a novella of the Connections series and, in strict reading order, it’s 3.5 on the list. It’s very unlike the previous novella in the seriesBlurred is a novella of the Connections series and, in strict reading order, it’s 3.5 on the list. It’s very unlike the previous novella in the series, Dazed, which told a complete story in itself of Aerie and Jagger. There isn’t really a storyline to Blurred per se, it’s much more of a background read to the major plot twist in the first two books giving us the story from Ben’s POV, allowing us to see how he feels about it all. This obviously contains major spoilers for Connected and Torn, so I have to say that you need to have read at least those two books before embarking on this one.
If there is a moment in time that comes to alter the course of your life forever—mine would be the day Caleb Holt told me I had to disappear. I don’t even know who I am anymore. I’m alone and left to pick up pieces to a life I don’t have. Rock bottom. It’s a phrase I never thought I’d use to describe myself, but it’s the only one that fits.
I started Blurred with very mixed feelings about Ben Covington. He’s really not been my favourite person in romantic fiction – I understood why he did what he did but he’s always been the anti-hero and has always come across as a bit of a douche. But I have faith in Kim Karr and, even though the girl on the cover does look like a vampire, i was prepared to go in with an open mind and attempt to make my peace with Ben.
At the end of this novella, I confess that I’m still not very enamoured by Ben. Most of this served to remind me just why I have never liked him. I did understand his sadness and desperation at his situation and how he’s lost the two women who meant the most in the world to him, Dahlia and his Mother, and this part of the novella was handled seamlessly but I’d forgotten how he cheated on Dahlia with River’s sister Bell, who has also not been a very likeable character in the series so far and a potential romantic liaison between these two seems fairly fitting (birds of a feather and all that).
Ben continues to deal with the tragedy of his life by losing himself in booze an easy women and, if you like your heroes deeply flawed, then Ben’s upcoming novel Frayed is probably a sure thing for you but I didn’t really find anything in Blurred to make me like Ben any better. For the most part, he still seems fairly self-serving and shallow and I still don’t like him! Let’s say that he is pretty much River Wilde’s polar opposite.
Blurred is mostly a retelling of what has already gone before in the series told from Ben’s POV with a few more details surrounding the case that forced him to disappear that actually only serve to deepen the mystery. It’s definitely all background – he and Bell haven’t even started seeing each other by the end of this one but I think it sets up the potential of a fairly antagonistic and difficult relationship that will feature in Frayed between two very challenging characters. I can’t fault the writing – Kim Karr is always excellent, I just don’t care for Ben or Bell.
Kim Karr really does write heart-warming, feel good romances which restore your faith in human nature and true love and Mended is definitely an[image]
Kim Karr really does write heart-warming, feel good romances which restore your faith in human nature and true love and Mended is definitely another winner from her but be warned – Kim’s not afraid to throw in a truly shocking plot twist so be prepared for the unexpected!
This time, it’s the turn of Xander Wilde, big brother of River and manager of the Wilde Ones to find his forever girl and that girl is Ivy. He and Ivy were High School sweethearts. They were very much in love but they came from different walks of life, different circumstances and things were never going to be easy for them but then, the whole situation with Xander’s father which we’ve heard about in the previous novels, forced them apart and led Ivy to believe that Xander had betrayed her. Xander has let her believe this for years, thinking it was the right thing to do at the time but he regrets the loss of his Ivy and has never truly got over her.
Now, with Ivy a successful pop artist and Xander and The Wilde Ones finding themselves in need of a lead singer for the tour, Ivy steps in the join them, much to her over-bearing manager and fiancé's disdain and they all head off on a US tour together. Think two people who could hardly keep their hands off each other in the pasts with a world of hurt and pain between them now cooped up on a tour bus for weeks. Sparks are going to fly!
Xander had, at least for me, come across as really rather ornery in the previous books and it was so good to get closer to him, to see what a sweetheart he really is. He’s never really stopped loving Ivy and this was a fabulous second chance love story, of a love that seemed completely lost but could not be denied.
Ivy appeared to be such a lost soul – nearly all of the decisions she’s taken in her adult life have been for the benefit of someone else. Her family circumstances and her manager have never allowed her to fully pursue her dreams and singing for the Wilde Ones is a break that Ivy really relishes but she’s desperately trying to resist Xander’s charm. She believes he betrayed her back when they were teenagers and isn’t prepared to listen to the truth.
Of course, they just can’t resist that unrelenting pull that exists between them buried deep beneath all that heartache and they will eventually fall into each other’s arms but even when they seem to have found one another again, tragedy and shock are just around the corner to attempt to derail their fledgling rekindled romance.
This was such an emotional roller coaster of a ride – Kim Karr does a fantastic job of ramping up the sexual tension and chemistry as Xander and Ivy attempt to resist their attraction and I adored the second chance theme that ran through the book. Xander and Ivy show that their love is true and total and stands the test of time. We also get to catch up with River and Dahlia and the rest of the boys as they take their tour across the US.
Mended has just about everything a heartfelt, charming romance should have – a little bit of angst, a fair amount of humour and a whole lot of sexual chemistry and sweet love. Another fantastic addiction to the Connections series.
Ooooh - didn't know she'd finally written an epilogue for Maggie. Maybe Someday desperately needed this at the end - I felt that Maggie's story was suOoooh - didn't know she'd finally written an epilogue for Maggie. Maybe Someday desperately needed this at the end - I felt that Maggie's story was such a loose end and I'm glad to see there's some closure here :-)
Merged review:
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I’m going to confess something shocking to you all to start off this review and you’re going to think I’ve been hiding under a rock the last couple of years but I have never ever read a Colleen Hoover novel. I can hear your gasps of shock from here and, believe me, I’m right there with you. My failure to read a book by, arguably, the biggest author in the new adult genre really felt like a gaping chasm in my reading experience so I was determined to put this right with her next release and I duly bought Maybe Someday on release day and I was off.
Straight away I knew I was in the hands of an accomplished author - the writing is really tight and we’re plunged immediately into a scene of high drama and the story is allowed to gradually spread out from this moment in time. It’s masterfully told. The book begins with Sydney standing sobbing in the rain, her life in ruins not knowing what to do next. It’s a wonderful scene and my first ever from Colleen Hoover – it’s instantly so compelling that I found myself immediately sucked into the story, dying to know what had happened.
Now, I’m a strong believer that you really shouldn’t know much more than the blurb before you embark on a book – I firmly believe that to get full value from a book, you really need to experience it just as the author intends so each new reveal, each and every shock can have the full impact on you and, with that in mind, I can only be vague about the synopsis because there is so much you shouldn’t know but bear with me because it’s so worth the journey into the unknown.
So, as the blurb says, Sydney discovers that her roommate and best friend, Tori, has been doing the old horizontal shuffle with her boyfriend and this is how we begin. We jump back two weeks to fill in the gaps and catch Sydney sitting on her balcony listening to the guy who lives opposite, Ridge,playing his guitar on his balcony while she makes up lyrics to his songs. At this point, Sydney and Ridge really gave me a Rear Window, Grace Kelly and James Stewart kind of vibe and the scene painted itself vividly on the blank canvas of my imagination. Ridge and Sydney slowly get to know one another as she shares her lyrics with him and it is Ridge who invites Sydney up to his apartment that day he sees her sobbing in the rain as her world comes cashing down and it is these two who are at the centre of this romance but there are very good reasons why they should never be together and that it is the heart of the novel.
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Their love, their very painful love, can never be – everything about their growing feelings for one another is so very wrong and yet feels more right to them than anything else has ever felt before. It’s such an emotional and heartfelt story. There’s an unrelenting chemistry between Sydney and Ridge which I found so addictive – they resist so hard but they find themselves falling in love despite their better judgement and it’s just so painful. Their growing feelings for one another were so palpable and yet tinged with an awful guilt and an ever increasing sense of despair.
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There’s so much that we don’t know about these central characters and, having studiously avoided all reviews and spoilers, I knew nothing and every new bit of information genuinely came as a surprise to me and I really think every reader should experience this book in this way. There are things we don’t know about Ridge at first and each discovery should come unexpectedly out of the blue – just as it did for me.
Ridge is one of life’s good guys – he’s desperately trying to do the right thing by everyone, trying to not hurt anyone but his heart is slowly being torn in two and I felt his emotional turmoil so keenly. He’s constantly trying to do the right thing but his heart is betraying him as he finds himself falling in love with Sydney however hard he tries to resist and those pent-up, denied feelings are fighting hard to be released and it’s obvious that only heartache lies ahead.
I completely lost myself in Ridge and Sydney’s story – it’s full of intense angst, deep emotions, richly drawn characters and a forbidden love. It took me a few days to read this which is fairly unusual for me and those days I spent with those book were consumed by these two star-crossed lovers. There’s just so much heartache, regret and undeniable love packed into these pages. The characters are given such incredible depth that they came vividly to life as I read the book and I grew to love them all, despite their obvious faults and I cared deeply for them all and really didn’t want anyone to end up getting hurt although clearly this was inevitable.
Maybe Someday is a soul-searching, heartfelt and very intense romance from Colleen Hoover that packs a weighty emotional punch - it deftly combines a very sensual relationship of songwriter and lyricist working together with a forbidden love story which really will have your heart melting for everyone involved. I often felt like Colleen Hoover had reached out and ripped my heart from my chest, tore it in two and threw it on the floor in front of me – to say I was emotionally invested in all of these characters is a big understatement.
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I do wish there had been an epilogue to this story – there was one character that I felt desperately needed some closure and I don’t know if this was left with the intention of writing another novel featuring this person but, even now, I’m worrying about them. I can’t bear to think of them out there alone and heartbroken and that’s how things were left and I wanted, no needed, to see this character find a little happiness.
I don’t know how Maybe Someday compares to Colleen Hoover’s earlier novels and I don’t know how her legions of fans feel about this one but I do know how I feel. I do know that I felt every heartbeat, every single tear and every soul-searching, emotional moment - I laughed with the characters and I also cried with them. I do know that I’ve read a beautiful, deeply romantic love story and I do know that I’ve been in the presence of greatness.
Well, it’s safe to say that this book is a complete RIOT! It’s totally not what I was expecting. When I first saw that cover and read the blurb[image]
Well, it’s safe to say that this book is a complete RIOT! It’s totally not what I was expecting. When I first saw that cover and read the blurb, I was expecting a romance in a similar style to Katy Evans’ Real but this is very different from that. In fact, when I first realised that the two main protagonists are actually in High School, I was initially a little put off, but there’s something about this book that really kind of captivated me and I was pretty much sucked in.
Let me start off by saying that this book is VERY Irish - you can hear that Irish Brogue coming through loud and clear with the attitude, the slang and the swearing. No one can swear quite like the Irish – I feckin’ love it! I think it’s incredibly fitting that the book releases on Paddy’s Day – perfect timing.
Bronagh is our heroine, who has been raised for nine years by her elder sister due the tragic loss of her parents. This has hit Bronagh hard and she’s vowed never to allow anyone close enough to her for her to ever feel that pain of loss ever again. She’s closed off from everyone apart from Bronagh and hides from reality behind a pair of ear buds staying in her own little world. She’s incredibly spiky and practically snarls at anyone who gets close – she’s funny but she’s also very sharp with a dry,acerbic wit. Most of all, Bronagh is fierce, scarily so – she has a short fuse and is never shy of standing up for herself and what she thinks is right.
The American Slater Brothers storm into town like a tornado and Dominic and Damien, totally gorgeous twins, are placed in Bronagh’s class and Dominic knows straight away that he wants her but she’s gong to make it as difficult for him as she possibly can, fighting off his charms while other girls are literally falling at his feet but he is determined to pursue her.
Dominic is cocky, arrogant, possessive, protective, rude, quick to anger but he’s also incredibly charming and lovable, as are all the Slater boys and, despite some of his absolute stupidity in this book, he’s hard not to like. He torments Bronagh at school for ignoring his advances and makes her life hell. I had to laugh when he admired her ‘phat ass’ and she thought he had said ‘fat arse’ and named him Fuckface – they really did become Fatarse and Fuckface in my head after that one and I found myself grinning like a goof at some of their antics and arguments.
This is all kinds of crazy as the story thunders along at a furious pace with everyone constantly falling out, snarling and hissing at one another like feral cats and constantly falling into physical fights. I think I lost count of the amount of times poor old Dominic got clocked around the head. Luckily, the guy has a hard head as he’s an underground fighter going by the names of Nico or Rampage, something that Bronagh really doesn’t like.
Of course, there’s a reason why the Slater Brothers have come to Ireland and this will come roaring back to put them all in danger and the last part of the novel is a crazy rush of drama and action and it really does move us well beyond the High School style romance and into something significantly more adult.
I have to say Bronagh’s High School experience is pretty brutal. She gets beaten up several times and is always finding herself embroiled in fights and Dominic is no better – both of them, and several others, spend most of this novel wandering around with cuts and bruises.
Deep at the heart of the novel, despite the batshit crazy pace, is a story of deep and abiding loyalty between family and friends and very much a strong theme of love – brotherly, sisterly, romantic and very sexual love. It’s thoroughly enjoyable and charming with some really great character development. It’s so sweet to see Bronagh’s spiky resolve slowly being taken down by Dominic and her frozen heart slowly melting for him. I adored the way that he loved her and cherished her, despite their screaming arguments and I couldn’t help but find myself rooting for them.
"I'm yours?" I mumbled, still in awe that this beautiful person wanted me when he could have any girl he wanted.
Dominic smiled at me and kissed the tip of my nose then winked as he said, "You've always been mine, pretty girl. You just didn't know it."
This book is just all kinds of crazy but, strangely, it works – OK, it’s a debut and it’s a little rough around the edges with a few typos but it’s very original and it is absolutely hilarious and I really did enjoy it and I’ll definitely be continuing with the series. Can’t wait for some more Slater Boys action with Alec, the manwhore, up next. I’m dying for Damien’s story which I think will be the most emotional but it appears the author is saving the best till last.
Wow! Get the Kleenex at the ready and prepare for another emotional ride from Trudy Stiles! She’s going to make you cry, ugly cry and she’ll al[image]
Wow! Get the Kleenex at the ready and prepare for another emotional ride from Trudy Stiles! She’s going to make you cry, ugly cry and she’ll also make you smile – there’s so many mixed emotions in this book and the best way I can sum it up is to say that it’s bittersweet. Although there’s a lot of happiness here, we’ll also be left with a big ‘what if’ and and longing for what’s been lost and can never be replaced.
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I have to confess to having mixed feelings about Tabitha after I read Dear Emily. While on one hand, I sympathised deeply with her incredible losses and the terrible abuse that she suffered and on the other, I felt that she played fast and loose with the emotions of the men in her life and, ultimately, crushed two good men. She left both Alex and Seth heartbroken in her wake and I began this book with no small amount of anger towards her and I was very intrigued to see how Trudy Stiles would handle this very challenging heroine.
Her words tear into me like that fucking rake did so long ago. I feel gutted. My heart drops in my chest when the words she just spoke sink into me.
There isn’t an us anymore.
We join Tabitha a couple of years after the events of Dear Emily – Tabitha has grown emotionally and is now a much stronger person. She’s single again having left Seth long behind and haven given her heart irrevocably to Alex who she hasn’t seen in years but he is about to come back into her life and he’s not the only surprise in store for her as her past comes roaring back to completely change everything.
Both Tabitha and Alex come from harrowing backgrounds. Tabitha was orphaned at birth, adopted by a wonderful woman who died tragically and suddenly, abandoned to the foster system and then almost enslaved by an evil, abusive man. She’s escaped her past but she’s not without emotional scars and lives with constant nightmares. She’s lost and given up so much in her life for the good of others – her life has been about sacrifice and, only now, is she beginning to live her life for herself and on her own terms. She’s grown so much since we first met her and she’s now an independent woman attempting to leave her tragic past behind.
Alex also suffered years of abuse after the loss of his beloved mother but, thankfully, was able to grow up in the heart of his best friend Dax’s loving family. He gave his heart to Tabitha years ago only to catch her kissing Seth, betraying him and he ran, broken hearted, without ever looking back. If only he had – if only he had given Tabitha the chance to explain, things would have been so different. He’s lost more than he can ever begin to realise and now, the truth about Emily is about to come out and watch out for some incredibly emotional scenes as Alex comes to terms with all that he has lost.
This is such an emotional story – the raw pain BLEEDS out of this novel and Alex, especially, had me welling up. I felt so badly for him, much more than I ever did for Tabitha despite her awful past. There’s just something about Alex – the way he wears his emotions on his heart, the tender and patient way he handled a skittish and battle-scarred Tabitha as they were getting to know one another, the sweet things that he does for her that really melted my heart. He’s beautiful inside and out and I couldn't stand to see him hurting and Trudy Stiles really does put him through the mill in this book. Be prepared to hurt and to hurt bad for Alex.
Tabitha has so much to deal with in this novel – not only has Alex walked back into her life, a big part of her past, a part she thought was lost to her has suddenly returns and Tabitha is left lost and floundering, desperate to do the right thing but unsure if she has the strength to do it. Alex was such a rock for her even though he was hurting – he was there for her every step of the way and I just adored him.
This is beautifully paced. It’s told from Tabitha and Alex’s alternating POV’s and differing timelines and I think Trudy Stiles does a good job of getting inside their heads at different stages of their life. Their inner voice does a good job of reflecting the age their character is at the time – it’s very well told. It builds to an incredible emotional crescendo and the last 25% or so had me turning the pages at a rate of knots, completely unable to put this down as I found myself so invested, desperate for this all to end well knowing that the ending could only be bittersweet at best – there’s still the loss of Alex, Tabitha and Emily as the family that can never be. We do, however, get to catch up with Emily, Carly and Kyle and it’s great to see them so happy and moving on as a family and and I really enjoyed their scenes.
So it’s another intensely emotional story from Trudy Stiles and we have Seth’s story to look forward to later this year.
Inked Armor is the second full-length novel in the Clipped Wings series. It is necessary to have read Clipped Wings first – this will not work [image]
Inked Armor is the second full-length novel in the Clipped Wings series. It is necessary to have read Clipped Wings first – this will not work as a standalone story. There is a cliffhanger at the end of Clipped wings and the story concludes in Inked Armor.
We rejoin Hayden and Tenley in the aftermath of the events of the last few pages of Clipped wings. Tenley has returned home in an attempt to put her affairs in order, to finally close the chapter on that tragic part of her life to enable her to move forward to a brighter future with Hayden. Her sudden departure and subsequent absence from Hayden’s life has left a massive gaping hole that he is struggling to cope with. Hayden suffers badly with OCD and is a compulsive neat freak and having finally accepted how deep his love for Tenley is, her absence and lack of communication throws him into a tailspin and he is coping badly with every day life, much to the concern of his close group of friends.
Whereas in Clipped Wings we were mostly treated to a story of new love, of two young people slowly getting to know one another and tentatively sharing secrets, in Inked Armor they both have full disclosure about one another. All the horrific events of their pasts are laid bare and Hayden has some dark secrets that Tenley will struggle to come to terms with so Inked Armor is a far more angsty ride than it’s predecessor as they both attempt to accept what has gone before and move forward.
“Hayden, look at me.” He needed the one thing I could give him unconditionally, now more than ever. “You have all of me. I am only yours.”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t. But I’ll deal with it.”
I knew he was referring to my heart. But he’d had it all along.
“I love you, Hayden.”
As in Clipped Wings, this is one heck of a sexy new adult ride with beautiful and erotic love scenes between Hayden and Tenley and incredibly sensual scenes in his tattooist’s chair! I really felt so sorry for Hayden in this one – Helena Hunting really does heap the misery on this poor guy as his past comes roaring back to haunt him and he has SO much to deal with, not least the prejudicial way people treat him because he is inked and pierced. He’s besieged by nightmares and suffers a sense of impending doom – now that has found Tenley, he’s terrified to lose her and she plays a starring role in his night terrors, suffering the same fate as his parents.
It’s always the same dream. I can’t get to you in time and then you’re gone, and there’s nothing I can do to stop the emptiness.
As I look back over the series as a whole, I have to say that this is a high quality new adult romance, steeped in dark emotional pain. It’s very sexy and sensual and is paced beautifully as the growing relationship between Hayden and Tenley is given time to blossom into something really quite beautiful. It’s very well written, it’s captivating and it’s a very emotional journey. Highly recommended.
I really do love this series – I’ve become so connected to the characters that I’ve got to know so well over the course of the books that I am [image]
I really do love this series – I’ve become so connected to the characters that I’ve got to know so well over the course of the books that I am fully invested in them and they seem to come to life. The writing is really very good , very tight and I’m finding the books so compelling and I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while now.
This time it’s the turn of Ryke and Daisy and, FINALLY, she’s legal. They’ve been close friends since Daisy was fifteen and Ryke is seven years her senior and, even though he’s intensely attracted to her, he’s managed to hide it well and just be there to support her. Daisy’s been a highly successful model since she was fourteen and is old beyond her years but very traumatised by the events of the last few years, most especially Lily’s public outing as a sex addict and the poor girl is besieged by night terrors, is hardly sleeping an is existing on a minimal diet to keep herself runway thin and her life is escalating out of control – way beyond the carefree lifestyle Lily is so desperately craving.
With her career watched over carefully by her overbearing mother, Daisy decides to head to Paris Fashion Week alone for the first time ever and try to grab a little independence for herself but things don’t go well for her and she phones Ryke in desperation and gasping sobs and Ryke drops EVERYTHING to head to Paris to be with her.
BE STILL MY BEATING HEART!!
When Ryke finally catches up with Daisy in the stairwell of her hotel, I think I went weak at the knees. All that pent up passion, hidden desire and deep and abiding love that Ryke has been hiding is unleashed into their first ever kiss and I swear I melted into a puddle. Daisy is one lucky girl. Of course, everyone around them disapproves of their relationship, even those closest to them and Ryke is an absolute gentleman around her but he knows he is in love with her and can’t imagine a future without her.
I totally adore Ryke – of the three main guys in this series, he is my absolute fave. He’s loud, brash, has got a foul-mouth and is an extreme climbing champion and, of course, like the rest of them, a rich trustfund baby. He’s totally alpha, a complete badass and massively protective of Daisy – only he knows the full extent of what she’s dealing with. He’s turned his back on both his Mother and Father and is trying to live his life to the full but the past is never far behind him. He’s probably just as mixed up and confused as Daisy but he’s just handling it better.
Daisy – my heart just went out to her. She’s stunningly beautiful, rail thin and the epitome of physical perfection something that’s been exploited by her modelling agency since a young age and she’s been hurled into the glare of publicity, forced to stay stick thin – appearances are everything but there’s a wild young girl bursting to be set free. She has begun to HATE modelling and is desperate to be freed from the constraints of her very successful career and is deeply, deeply unhappy. Ryke sees this and worries for her health – she’s ridiculously thin and her nightmares are terrifying him. His tenderness with her when she was freaking out was a thing of beauty.
They share an unrelenting chemistry that sizzles red-hot all through the book – their attraction to one another is almost palpable. Despite her age, Daisy is not a virgin but has only had miserable sexual encounters and can’t understand what all the hype is about but Ryke, once he succumbs to that attraction to her he’s hidden for so long, is determined to prove her wrong and take her to dizzying sexual heights that she never thought possible. The is seriously HOT!! There’s amazing banter throughout the book, not just between Ryke and Daisy but between all the characters. Lo and Lily and Rose and Connor all have fairly big issues to deal with in this one which leaves me impatiently anticipating the next books.
It’s actually a beautiful love story with realistic characters – for new adult romance, this has incredibly well crafted and strong and consistent characters that keep their integrity all through the series. You can tell that this is meticulously well planned and the writing is of really high quality. It’s interesting once again to see the others as secondary characters – Lily’s staggering shyness, Lo’s addictions, Rose and Connor’s acerbic wit are fascinating to watch when they’re not taking centre stage.
The story is not yet complete and will continue with a novella and a full length novel later this year, both of which I am really looking forward to.
Clipped Wings is book one in a new series from Helena Hunting focusing on the story of Tenley and Hay[image]
Love consumes you. Secrets tear you apart.
Clipped Wings is book one in a new series from Helena Hunting focusing on the story of Tenley and Hayden. There is a prequel novella, Cupcakes & Ink, which it is not necessary to have read to enjoy this book but provides some nice background. The story does not conclude in this book and will continue in Inked Armor due for release in May.
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I really loved this darkly atmospheric story from Helena Hunting. It’s so full of raw pain, anguish and sorrow. It tells the story of Tenley and Hayden, two very damaged people linked through the pain of loss who share an unyielding chemistry whose connection grows far beyond the physical into an innate need for one another.
We start with Tenley moving to Chicago to embark on a Masters Programme at the university and renting an apartment opposite a tattoo parlour. She can see the comings and going of the four people that work there but one of them catches her eye, Hayden and she watched him from afar, silently longing for him. She takes a part-time job at his aunt’s shop which is right next to Inked Armor, his tattoo parlour, but she’s painfully shy and skittish and every time he comes into the shop she tries to blend in with the background and disappear and constantly hides from him but he has noticed her and he likes what he sees and he is intrigued.
Tenley really did a number on me. Even when I was sleeping, she haunted my dreams. Her pain and her incredible grief were almost palpable. She’s so broken and she’s built such incredibly strong emotional walls that she really doesn’t want to let anyone in but, slowly, Hayden chips away at her defences and she begins to let him in and he agrees to do a really huge tattoo on her back – something that will bring them into close, intimate contact for weeks to come. It’s going to be very hard for them to resist that incredible pull that exists between them.
Hayden is inked and pierced but beneath that apparently hard exterior and brash comments and flirtatious nature lurks a surprisingly sensitive soul – he’s quite the pussycat under all that body modification. No stranger to loss himself, Hayden has handled things badly in the past and it’s only in the last year that he’s attempted to clean up his act and make something of his life but he also has a past that haunts him and is ready to roar back into his life.
Hayden has a bad case of OCD going on, really likes things in order and his feelings for Tenley are like a tornado throwing everything into upheaval – Tenley is the variable disrupting the order in his life. He sees her pain and can only guess at what she’s been through and he can see that she’s keeping everyone at a distance and how socially awkward she is but he can’t help but find himself developing very strong feelings for her. He’s a little territorial and possessive where she’s concerned but just his physical presence seems to ease Tenley’s pain and, slowly, they start up a beautiful relationship.
They’re linked through the pain of loss and they really do manage to heal one another – they’re both eased by the other’s presence but there were times when their reticence really frustrated me. They’re both very backward at coming forward and both hold so much back that, with your birds eye view as a reader, you can see disaster lurking on the horizon for these two as secrets from the past come roaring back to tear them apart and you can do nothing to stop it. There were times when I wanted to scream at them to just talk and open up but, alas, they don’t do enough of this and we;re left with a humdinger of a cliffie!
I really enjoyed this – it’s really quite haunting and atmospheric and I completely lost myself in their world. The pacing is spot on and I loved at how much time was given to allow these two to get to one another, to digest what was happening and recognise their feelings and, OMG, just how hot is it when Hayden finally gets to ink Tenley?? It’s actually a slow burner but all that pent-up sexual attraction becomes wound so tight that it’s ready to go off like a nuclear bomb when they finally succumb.
I’m now desperately waiting for the sequel to see how on earth these two come back from the events of the last few chapters – it can’t come soon enough.
This is just a short little novella showing the moments when Tenley and Hayden first spot each other and how that simmering attraction between them beThis is just a short little novella showing the moments when Tenley and Hayden first spot each other and how that simmering attraction between them begins. It's a great introduction and sets up the fantastic story that awaits you in Clipped Wings.
Dazed is another sexy and charming new adult romance from Kim Karr - another fantastic addition to the Connections series.
This time it’s the tu[image]
Dazed is another sexy and charming new adult romance from Kim Karr - another fantastic addition to the Connections series.
This time it’s the turn of Aerie to find a little love in a difficult world. Aerie, if you recall, is Dahlia’s best friend and has stuck by her through thick and thin. She’s a type A personality, likes to be in control of every part of her life to the point of OCD, she’s a little untrusting and she’s never really enjoyed sex.
Enter stage left – Jagger Kennedy. Jagger is not just good looking – he’s Abercrombie good looking. He’s been working as a model and he’s recently moved to the west coast to try his hand at acting. He’s very easy-going, charming, fun to be around, very sexy and very unlike Aerie but a evening at Dahlia and River’s house throws them together in the midst of a cupcake drama.
I so enjoyed this – it’s a little bit angsty and a whole lot charming and I fell hard for Jagger. He’s hard not to adore with his easy-going charm and Aerie will find it hard to resist although she will find it hard to trust him. She’s got a whole lot of issues casting a shadow over her from her past and trust doesn’t come easily to her but Jagger works his magic spell over his ‘Alice’ and it’s a fantastic and hot sexy read.
Even though it’s just a novella, it really did feel like a novel although I could happily have read a longer story involving these two. We also get to catch up with Dahlia and River who are still blissfully happy and it’s a fantastic new instalment in the Connections series.
Looking forward to Mended due in June starring Xander Wilde
Tyler & Stella is book two in Heidi Joy Tretheway’s Tattoo Thief series. It works perfectly well as a standalone. Something that happens in the[image]
Tyler & Stella is book two in Heidi Joy Tretheway’s Tattoo Thief series. It works perfectly well as a standalone. Something that happens in the first book plays an important role in this book but it’s fully explained in the early pages of Tyler & Stella.
If you’ve already read Tattoo Thief, like me, you’re probably not very enamoured of Stella. I knew that she was going to be a hard act to sell after the first book – after all she constantly let her best friend down and then completely betrayed her and sold her out and almost destroyed her relationship with Gavin, lead singer of Tattoo Thief. Stella, at first appearances, is NOT one of the good guys!
And, I will say, it did take me a long time to warm up to her. She’s ambitious, fairly sexually aggressive, hard-drinking and has a bit of a tough exterior – it’s hard to find anything warm about her really. But, if you look hard, underneath that brash exterior is a softer centre but it’s well hidden.
In contrast, Tyler at first appearances, seems to be a hard-edged, devil-may-care bad boy rockstar. He’s absolutely gorgeous and flirts fairly outrageously Stella in the early scenes – he appears to be living the rockstar dream. BUT, nothing could be further from the truth. He’s really quite a sensitive soul. Tyler has always been tall but he was skinny and gangly and only started to muscle out that 6 foot two frame just as the band hit the big time. After a lifetime of being shunned by girls, he’s suddenly been inundated with female attention, nearly all of it shallow, feckless and far, FAR too easy. Tyler is looking for something much deeper, much more meaningful and isn’t prepared to go for the casual hookup that Stella offers him up on a plate – he wants much more than that and is prepared to play the long game to get what he wants. He’s prepared to fight for it!
Tyler touches my lips with his index finger to stop my rush of words, the same electric touch I felt in our first cab ride together. “Not like that. I let that get out of hand and that wasn’t fair. This is all kind of new to me. This attention. But I want you to fight all this negative shit that keeps you running away from me. Fight to stay.”
I enjoyed this second outing with the gorgeous men of Tattoo Thief – Heidi Joy Tretheway seems to specialise in peeling back the layers of bad boy rockstars to find the real man beneath and they’re all contrasts between their outward appearances, their tabloid personas and their actual personalities. The real men beneath the bravado. So far Gavin and Tyler have proved to be gentle souls, very deep and with a lot of love to give and it’s great to catch up with Gavin and Beryl and see them so happy now.
Tyler and Stella give them a run for their money in the angst factor in this one as Stella has a lot to learn, a whole lot of behavior patterns and coping mechanisms to unlearn and all the time, Tyler patiently waits for the right time to push their relationship to the next level. He holds out, much to Stella’s frustration, for the longest time. There’s a fair few obstacles for these two to overcome with some shocks and drama to deal with and this turned out to be a real page turner.
We’re introduced to Violet who is to take centre stage in the next book along with Jayce who really does appear to be the epitome of a manwhore rockstar and I can’t wait to see how that one works out.
So, another great new adult rockstar romance from Heidi Joy Tretheway and if you liked Tattoo Thief, I think you’ll also love Tyler & Stella.
Every Second With You is the second and final part of the two book No Regrets series. It does not work as a standalone novel and it is necessar[image]
Every Second With You is the second and final part of the two book No Regrets series. It does not work as a standalone novel and it is necessary to read the first book in the series, The Thrill Of It, to fully appreciate this story.
This was, as expected, a beautifully written and deeply satisfying conclusion to Trey and Harley’s story. In The Thrill Of It, we saw them both dealing with their addictions and slowly coming together as a couple and in Every Second With You we see them moving together as a couple having firmly put their demons behind them.
Harley has something to tell Trey, something that she discovered at the end of the first book and she’s terrified to tell him. The tragedies of his past will affect the way he deals with this issue and it’s a tough time for the two of them. I really felt for Trey – he’s suffered a huge amount of loss and the guy is terrified but his love for Harley and what they mean to each other will eventually help him to come to terms with this and allow them to once again start moving forward as a couple.
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As you’d expect from Lauren Blakely this is very well written with plenty of time given for Harley and Trey to fully explore the depths of their feelings for one another and it’s a very deep. very emotional story with a few tearjerker moments when I really felt for what they were going through. They experience plenty of highs and lows and we’re taken on a very emotional journey with them.
So, why 3.5 stars? Well, for me, this reads more like a huge epilogue than it does as a second part of a series as there isn’t a much going on for Harley and Trey to deal with in this one as they are an established couple for the whole book – it’s only in the last 10% that we get any real drama. They both have issues to deal with from their pasts and still struggle to deal with their addictions but this is mostly just the two of them growing together as a happy couple. It’s got a much higher steam factor than the first book but it’s much, much lower on angst. It’s wonderfully written as you’d expect from Lauren Blakely and brings Harley and Trey full circle with a very satisfying and romantic conclusion to their story.
This really does offer something very different from a lot of new adult books out there – it’s dark, twisted and full of surprises and shocks a[image]
This really does offer something very different from a lot of new adult books out there – it’s dark, twisted and full of surprises and shocks and wholly compelling.
Meet Josie Banks – a loner amnesiac. Her past is completely lost to her – she was found unconscious after her Father was murdered and now only remembers her brutal upbringing in the foster system. As soon as she was old enough she ventured out into the world, defensive, hurting and completely alone. She creates vivid graffiti art unsure of whether this work comes from her lost memories and she cuts such a lonely figures using varying different drugs and casual, impersonal one night stands to blot out the pain and stop her from feeling anything at all. My heart really broke for Josie – she seemed so isolated, so lost.
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Josie has become obsessed with sitting, hiding beneath a hoodie, watching a local tattooed bartender, Tristan – something about him calls to her but she doesn’t know what. She sketches him obsessively but when Tristan finally sees her face, he knows her. He remembers her from her lost childhood – her life before the accident that robbed her of her memories. He has loved her his whole life and thought he had lost her forever.
“You broke my heart, McKenzi, and here you are. It’s just too much.”
She didn’t correct her name. Instead, Josie was silent as she tried to work out his declaration. Was she too much? She’d never been too much for anyone. She’d never even been enough.
“I loved you from the first time I saw you,” he whispered, placing a soft kiss against her neck.
What follows is full of shocks and surprises and I never knew which way the plot was going to turn next but there’s a building air of menace throughout the whole novel as though these two are hurtling towards an inevitable and devastating conclusion and the threat keeps growing as Josie’s and Tristan’s pasts are about to come roaring back to haunt them. It’s tense and it’s edgy and completely engrossing and there are plenty of shocks awaiting them.
This really is an accomplished debut from Season Vining – she does an amazing job of creating the barren wasteland that is Josie’s world, her very singular and miserable existence. The desperation was palpable and uncomfortable to read and I found myself wanting nothing more than for her to open her heart and let Tristan in. He himself has a darkness within, pain that needs to be healed – it’s almost as if their parting as children forced this unfortunate couple onto a much darker path than had ever been intended for them and only being together again in the here and now can put it right. It feels very fatalistic.
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It’s incredibly atmospheric and I found myself completely lost in their world gasping at every twist and turn and completely rooting for them as a couple. I adored just how much Tristan adored Josie and just how far he was prepared to go to secure her safety and protect her. This is a fantastic debut from Season Vining and I’m very much looking forward to what she comes up with next.
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