Month: June 2014
Blog Tour Review: The Fall of January Cooper
Very few do NA as consistently well as Audrey Bell. I know that’s a bold statement to make, but the proof is in the pudding. If you’ve read her previous works I’m sure you will agree. If you enjoyed The Edge of Never & Breakfast At Tiffany’s… I definitely think you will find this one to be a WINNER!!!
This was a 4.5 star read for me. To be honest I was a little bit nervous about starting this. I love Audrey Bell. Carry Your Heart was a wonderful book. I loved how she was able to write a story about new adults that isn’t stereotypical or dealing with the same old/same old plotline. Love Show is and will always be one of my most favorite books ever. It was humorous, heart-warming, and beautiful. So as you can see I have very high expectations for Audrey…
My main concern when beginning January was that from the blurb I knew that she was going to be a rich, spoiled girl and I was afraid that the book would be full of first world problems which tend to make me roll my eyes so hard that I fear they will get lodged in the back of my head! 32% in and I was already sure I would not have any trouble connecting with January…
Ok, so I have a really, really hard time relating to the uber rich when a book is heavily laden in first world problems… I’m so glad that I’m not having that problem right now. I love how January can be vapid, spoiled, and entitled but she also recognizes & accepts these things & can make fun of herself. She comes off with a great deal of sincerity & dare I say I can actually empathize with her!
As the story unfolds you feel an amazing amalgam of feelings sometimes all at once. I really did not like January at times. She was all of those things that I described above. What made her likeable and dare I say loveable was her inner monologue and how real she kept it with herself. She also had a killer sense of humor. At other times your heart just broke for her to be in such a difficult position when she had no part in the making of it and has no way to alleviate it. Her vulnerability and helplessness made her human and went a long way to me being able to empathize with her character. Through the story if nothing else you learn that she is a survivor and far more complex than a girl who used to have money.
Christian is from a typical middle-class family. He has a twin brother and a future ahead of him that is bright and full of fame and fortune as a professional hockey player. One event puts him into a tailspin that you really are not sure how he will navigate through. He is defeated and he harbors a great deal of guilt and self-loathing. He is really just getting by and those who love him and care for him are struggling to find ways to reach him with little success. He is also just as complex as January. At times I hated him and thought he was a jackass of epic proportions, even though I understood. At other times he was just adorable and the nicest guy ever.
I love characters that are dynamic and can provoke so many feelings and emotions from you, sometimes all at once. It is realistic. No one is perfect and those that you love have massive issues and things that you hate about them and/or their character. Yet, you love them anyway! I really enjoyed this one and highly recommend it as it will be going on the list with my favorites. If you haven’t read Love Show yet I suggest you pick that one up as well and if you need more reasons why…
Quotage:
“Well, my feet hurt, my confidence has been destroyed, and I am covered in gin. So, if you don’t like how I eat pizza, I’m sorry, but I just don’t have any fucks left to give.” ~January
“Well, I just mean I didn’t really want a husband. It sounds so permanent. I just wanted you know, my other half.” ~January
“I just feel like you don’t realize what a psychopath I am.” He nodded. “Oh, no, I get it.” “I don’t think so.” “I know you’re a real piece of work.” ~January & Christian
Purchase Links:
Title: The Fall of January Cooper
Author: Audrey Bell
Age group: NA
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Synopsis:
How do you lose everything?
Ask January Cooper.
She was the daughter of a Dallas multimillionaire, the debutante of the year, and the girl most likely to get whatever she wanted.
But when her father is arrested for securities fraud, the girl who had everything starts to lose everything. And once she starts falling, she can’t seem to stop.
When she walks into Christian Cutlass’s bar, she meets the first person who sees all the way through her. And Christian Cutlass meets the first girl who doesn’t care about who he used to be and what he lost one night when he was nineteen years old.
She’s gorgeous and hurt. He’s twisted in too many ways to count. She’s the girl with nothing left to lose. He was the boy who lost everything he lived for.
How do you lose everything? You start by falling.
GIVEAWAY:
5 ebook copies, 2 prints, $50 Amazon Gift Card
Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/NGE1MDEyNTkzNmEzMjcwYWY1N2NlODA1YWVlMmE3OjM2Mw==/
Review: Hardline
Hardline by Meredith Wild
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
10++++ Blake is absolutely DIVINE and I need more stars for this one… Oh my Goodness…
I will not start with my usual warning for this series. As if you’ve gotten to book three already I am going to hope that you are not one of those people who know you hate this sub-genre and are deciding to read it anyway.
I don’t even know where to begin with this one. I truly enjoyed the first two books. Some of the twists and turns and how fierce and outspoken Erica can be always kept me coming back for more. The heat and the passion between these two never disappoints… and the love and devotion between these two is just magical. With that said I felt all of that and on an entirely new level in this book.
Meredith never loses sight of who these two individuals are throughout these books. In this book you still see the stubborn and strong minded feisty elements of Erica that you got in book one & two. She worked to submit and really let Blake in-in this book. That did not come easy to her at all. She had to intentionally decide and fight sometimes her own usual way of being and need to do it on her own to allow that to happen. Erica has a propensity for making decisions based on a need to “prove herself” or because she thinks it would make her weak to ask for help. Pride, is definitely something that she continues to have difficulty with overcoming. Often times when she gets herself into difficult situations it is not because she is not bright or that she is incapable of making the best decision it’s because she is so guarded and has been hurt so much in her life that she doesn’t even see the other options available to her. She doesn’t always see how something can be beneficial to her or helpful to her through her desire to want to do everything herself.
Blake was a wonder to behold. He has always been passionate yet sensitive and open about what he is feeling but he took that to another level. He put his foot down with Erica and at times I was not sure what was going to happen. She struggled to see that by giving herself to him she was also gaining his devotion and life in return. No matter how much he loved and adored her he was willing to risk losing her so that their relationship could move into a place that would reflect what they both needed. There is a point in this book about 38% in or so that gets very intense and the conflicting emotions were almost overwhelming for me the reader. It felt so real and palpable – what they were going through, the hurt, the pain, the push and pull, and the need for more – that it jumped off of the pages at times. Some are not going to like this particular scene but if you read it in its entirety and really apply it to these two characters you cannot doubt the awesomeness of what Meredith did here.
I could honestly sit here and read this all over again. Thankfully, I can see the need for a book 4 & 5 and it doesn’t feel like an over extension of these characters and this world that Meredith has so masterfully developed. I don’t think I could manage to put into words how this book made me feel and the depth of emotion that it drew out of me.
Meredith…
Erica & Blake
“I love you, Blake.” He tipped my chin up so I met his gaze. “I love you too.”
“I love you, Erica. You’ll never understand how much, but I’m going to try like hell to show you.”
“And goddamnit, you own me.”
“I want control, Erica. But I’m not going to take it from you. You have to give it to me. You opened the door. Now you have to walk through it. You’ve tried to draw this hard line between us, with work and our relationship, where you keep the amount of control you think you need. It ends now.”
“Have I ever left you unsatisfied? Has there ever been a time between us, no matter how far I’ve pushed you, when you haven’t begged for more? When you haven’t come hard screaming my name? Tell me if you haven’t.”
“All I ever wanted, since the day we met, was your trust. I want to be there for you, protect you. I can’t do any of that the way I need to when you fight me and push me back.”
Meredith Wild’s Spotify Playlist: http://open.spotify.com/user/12121443905/playlist/3L8dsl7F7SvEcLO3qsFLZT
Review: Almost Matched
Almost Matched by A.O. Peart
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
DNF at 55%
I picked this one up because it was a free read and the idea of the woman who has lost her faith in love was appealing. I like reading stories where people find a way to believe in love again. It is often the ultimate feel good feeling.
I don’t think that this book was completely awful, I don’t want to give that impression by my dnf and low star rating. There were a few pieces of sparkle that kept me reading such as this:
“I know what I want. I want to be happy for a change, and not burdened with heartbreaks or disappointments. Just for once, I need a break. All those losers I’ve crossed paths with have drained me clean from my positive energy. They took all the upbeat goodness right out of me and left me overanalyzing the possibility of dating ever again.”
There were other dollops of truth sprinkled through her that I also enjoyed. However, this woman said Sweet Mother of Jesus and Hell on wheels so many times that I was rolling my eyes. It wasn’t even over something all that impressive or great. I didn’t like how she was so cautious supposedly about getting into a new relationship and had all of like one day of going back and forth over whether she should give this new guy a chance, after that she was literally falling over herself or slipping in a puddle of wet vaginal fluid over any and everything that came out of his mouth. Which to me was not the actions of a hurt woman who is cautious and not sure if she is going to find love. The guy seemed to be alright, but since we don’t get anything from his point of view and all that is presented by this point in the book are a few nice gifts from said guy and some romantic dates… anybody can do that and still turn out to be an asshole. I also found it odd that they have this entire build up to a fourth date and what is supposed to go down on that date and then skip over it entirely. At 55% in there has been not hot sexy time. The interaction between the girlfriends is ok, but feels like it’s trying to hard, and the repetition of lines and descriptions were just getting on my nerves.
I think if I would have read this at a different time maybe I would have pushed through and finished it… It is just really hard to read really good well written books and then force yourself to finish one that is just alright.
Review: Give Me Reason
Give Me Reason by Zoey Derrick
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
3.5 stars, I really enjoyed the tone of this one. However, I found Vivienne’s stubborn ways to start to get on my nerves after a point. I get that she had to come to her own conclusions and learn to set her pride aside… but she could have been nicer about it at some points. A great start, I’m enjoying the plot, and Mikah is beyond adorbs!!! On to the next.
Kris Kritiques 