A fine Romance by Christi Barth

A Fine Romance

by Christi Barth

Aisle Bound book 2

Reading Age: Adult

Genre: Contemporary, Romance

Format: ebook ARC

Average Good reads rating: 3.65

Published March 11th 2013 by Carina Press

They say you form your first impression of someone within thirty seconds of meeting them. Or, in Mira Parrish's case, within thirty minutes of not meeting them, when said person is supposed to pick you up from the airport and never shows. This is not a perfect start to her new life. Her
friend Ivy is depending on her to run a new romance store, and Mira can't afford to let her down.

Sam Lyons should probably apologize. But every time he sees Mira--which is often, since his family owns the bakery next to her shop--he can't resist antagonizing her. There's something about the sexy, straight-laced woman that drives him crazy. He can't get involved, though. He has too much baggage to be any good in a serious relationship.

Despite his teasing attitude, Mira finds Sam too sweet to resist. (His hot body may be a factor.) But if there's going to be anything permanent between them, they'll need to let go of their pasts and look to the future.

I really wanted to like A Fine Romance it sounded like my kind of book but in the end this one just wasn’t for me.

My main problem with this book was the drama it felt contrived and forced. I have no problem with relationship angst if it is believable but this just went a little too far, it seemed as though every time the characters got over one hurdle another one popped up and I found it a little silly. However, the writing itself was great; Christi Barth has a nice tone to her writing which I enjoyed.

The characters were alright, I thought Mira was a little self-centred and sulky and I really struggled to relate to her. Sam was better but he made mountains out of molehills, half of his issues he bought on himself and he was too much of a mummy’s boy. He dropped everything to do things for her sometimes without telling the person he is supposed to help/pick-up/met and then barely apologises for it, which drove me mad.

The romance started really well. There was some definite chemistry between Mira and Sam and I really liked their bickering and the first few chapters really worked for me. But as the relationship developed and the drama built I lost interest.

A Fine Romance was okay but I had issues with the drama and the characters.

2 stars

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Heat of Passion by Elle Kennedy

 

Heat of Passion

 

by Elle Kennedy

Out of Uniform book 2

Reading Age: Adult

 

Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Novella

Format: ebook ARC

Pages: 86

Published March 24th 2009 by Samhain Publishing

Carson Scott is the king of one-night stands, so a naughty encounter with a sexy brunette in a nightclub supply closet is right up his alley. When his mysterious seductress disappears, he’s blindsided by an unfamiliar emotion—disappointment. One thing’s for sure…if he ever encounters his lady of the evening again, he won’t let her slip away so easily.

Between her catering business, family issues, and her broken heart, Holly Lawson has too much on her plate to think about committing to a serious relationship. Hot, sweaty, anonymous sex with a Navy SEAL…now that sounds like the perfect appetizer to take the edge off. With no plans to ever see him again, she indulges in a fling. Only to come face to face with him weeks later while working a wedding.

Worse, Carson is hell-bent on the one thing she doesn’t want. The R word. She has no intention of falling for him, but in the face of his seductive, mind-changing methods, her resistance is crumbling.

In some ways I preferred Heat of passion to the first book in the series, Heat of the moment, it had a better storyline and better characters but it was nowhere near as hot.

There was more depth to this book the characters had real issues to struggle with and overcome. It was a sweet and short romance which had a lot more than sex in it.

The characters were good. I liked Carson from the first book and liked him in this one as well, he was sweet and swoony and determined to change the way he sees relationships.

I liked Holly too but I wasn’t crazy about her, she was a bit of a push over and I wanted to see her stand up for herself a little more.

The romance was nice and I thought they were cute together. The sex scenes were average not blow your socks off hot like the first book but I was fine with that, I was just happy there was a lot more depth to this story than in the last book.

3 stars

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Don't Bite the Bridesmaid by Tiffany Allee

 

Don't Bite the Bridesmaid

by Tiffany Allee

Sons of Kane book 1

Reading Age: Adult

Genre: Romance, Paranormal, Vampires

Format: ebook ARC

Pages: 209

Published May 27th 2013 by Entangled: Covet

Alice Shepard needs one thing: a date for her sister's wedding. And not just any date. A hunk who will make her fiancé rue the day he left her for her best friend. Her drop-dead gorgeous neighbor fits the bill—even if he is a bit quirky and never comes out during the day—and Alice has downed just enough appletinis to ask him. But she makes it quite clear that there will be no funny business.

Spending a week on a cruise ship full of humans while sleeping close to his sexy next-door neighbor sounds like a helluva bad idea to vampire Noah Thorpe. But his friends need time to get him out of a shotgun wedding—a vampire bonding that will tie his fate to a female vampire he's never met. And Alice's offer comes at just the right time.

What could possibly go wrong?

Sometimes as a reader I just want to read something light-hearted and sweet and that is exactly what Don’t Bite the Bridesmaid was and I really enjoyed it.

The storyline was very cute it was a romance and nothing else, there was not real sub-plots no other threads (just little ones which relate to the romance) just a story of two people who fall in love. There is a touch of paranormal but I would consider this to be more contemporary romance than anything else. more

The writing was good it was light hearted and I often laughed whilst reading it. Allee has created a lovely little tale and put it together really well.

I also really enjoyed the characters. Alice was bright and bubbly, her ex had really pulled a number on her but she was determined to hold her head up high. She was funny but also soft with a vulnerable side. Noah was equally likeable he was grumpy at first but was determined to help Alice however he could. He was sweet and protective without being pushy.

The romance was great, there were buckets of chemistry between Alice and Noah and I loved the build-up between them.

Don’t Bite the Bridesmaid is a very sweet romance that is more contemporary romance than paranormal; I recommend it to fans of the genre.  

3 stars

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Heat of the Moment by Elle Kennedy

Heat of the Moment

by Elle Kennedy

Out of Uniform book 1

Reading Age: Adult

Genre: Romance, Novella, Contemporary

Pages: 68

Average Goodreads Rating: 3.73

Published June 17th 2008 by Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

 In this heat wave, anything and everything goes. A Red-Hot Summer story. Shelby Harper has lusted over Navy SEAL John Garrett for over a year, but no matter how many sexy signals she sends out, the man shows a complete lack of interest in getting naked. Then she overhears Garrett talking to his SEAL teammate--a discussion in which they conclude she's vanilla. Stung, Shelby sets out to show them exactly how un-vanilla she is.

Garrett can't believe it when sweet, sexy Shelby suggests a wild and sweaty menage. He's been trying to figure out how to ask her out without coming off as a guy who only wants to get in her pants--her friendship is too valuable to him to risk it. But if a crazy, heat-wave three-way is what Shelby wants, then he's ready and willing to give it to her.

Once she gets it out of her system, however...well, then he'll let her know he wants her all to himself.

Heat of the Moment is extremely short and extremely steamy. If you do not like graphic sexual scenes then stay away from this one.

The story itself was alright but most of the book revolved around three people having sex, still there was a romance and a little bit of depth but not that much, if I’m honest. The writing is good and I enjoyed the build-up to the hot stuff

I admired Shelby for going after what she wanted, I really liked her in the first half she was assertive and strong but the second half she turned into a bit of a wet blanket. In my opinion she chose the wrong guy, Carson, John’s friend was a lot more appealing and had a lot more personality.

I wasn’t a big fan of John’s, I thought he was to quiet and boring. Towards the end he annoyed me, he has a massive reputation as a player and after he and Shelby sleep together she asks him if he will see other woman whilst he is away on deployment, he makes a huge deal out of it, offends her and storms out which I found unfair. He knows about his reputation, he knows that her ex-boyfriend cheated on her, I just thought he could have been more patient.

At the end of the day Heat of the Moment isn’t meant to make you fall in love with its story or characters, it is far too short for that. It is an intense, sensual and hot read and I will check out more from the series.

2 stars

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Tempted into Danger by Melissa Cutler

 

Tempted into Danger

Mellissa Cutler

 ICE: Black Ops Defenders book 1

Reading Age: Adult

Genre: Romance, Action, Adventure, Military

Format: ebook ARC

Pages: 288

Published June 4th 2013 by Harlequin (first published June 1st 2013)

When a simple mission to deliver the beautiful and brilliant Vanessa Crosby to a safe house goes horribly wrong, ICE agent Diego Santero’s life gets complicated. Keeping the anti-crime analyst safe from the notorious mercenaries after her program will put everything he’s worked for at risk.

Relentlessly hunted and not knowing whom to trust, Diego takes Vanessa on the run, deep into the heart of the deadly Panamanian rainforest. Vanessa reminds herself that she’s just another asset to the ruggedly handsome black ops agent…until their intense situation leads to a release of passion neither expected. But even if they make it out alive, how can they ever have a future together?

“And if we don't keep moving, we won't make it to a computer in time to stop the submarine sale because we'll have to spend a second night in the jungle, surrounded by friggin' pit vipers. In the rain. And I am sick and tired of the rain. I want to get a roof over our heads and dry clothes for you because I can see right through your damn shirt and it's driving me crazy.” 

I feel like Tempted into Danger is the type of book I really shouldn’t like. It was slightly ridiculous, very cheesy and ever so slightly silly but the truth is that I really quite liked this book.


Yes the storyline is a little far-fetched but who cares? Sometimes far-fetched fun is exactly what I want in my fiction and Tempted into Danger delivered just that. It was action packed and exciting, I really enjoyed it.

The writing was great and I had no trouble envisioning everything that was going on and there was a lot happening in this book. It could have been hard to understand with all the action but I didn’t get confused at all.

I really liked the characters in this. At first I wasn’t sure about Diego, he seemed a little obnoxious and full of himself but as time went on I grew to like him and learnt the inside he is actually quite a softy. He was an all action hero with a vulnerable side.

Vanessa was also great I liked the journey she went through in this. In the beginning she was terrified of being abandoned, of going it alone but the end of the book she was ready to face whatever was thrown at her. No matter how hard things got she always remained bubbly and often made me laugh.

I really enjoyed the romance. Vanessa and Diego had tonnes of chemistry I really liked them together. The romance built slowly and was full of sexual chemistry. It kept me on tender hooks and I was very entertained. 

3 stars

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Seduced By The Gladiator by Lauren Hawkeye

 

Seduced By The Gladiator

by Lauren Hawkeye

Reading Age: Adult

Genre: Historical, Romance

Format: ebook ARC

Pages: 100

 Published January 29th 2013 by Avon Red

Lilia is the rarest of commodities—a champion female gladiator. But success has come with a price: shunned by her peers and desired by hateful men like Gaius, the brother of the emperor, Lilia is at the mercy of those around her. Only her heart is impenetrable.

After Christus, a warrior with the body of a god, is sold to the ludus that owns Lilia, she finds herself forced to defend her position and to guard her body and heart against the erotic sensations only he can bring. Beneath the tantalizing flesh of the gladiator, Lilia finds a man determined to protect her, to love her.

But when Gaius reveals a challenge for the gladiators of Rome—an epic battle to the death—Christus and Lilia must fight to win their freedom, their lives . . . and each other.

If you stumbled upon this book thinking it was your average historical romance then you would be very, very shocked when you found out what was inside. This is what happened to me, I was intrigued by the idea of a gladiator romance, in my mind I saw Russell Crowe sweeping me off my feet and feeding me grapes off the vine. What I forgot (which is terrible considering I was thinking about Russell Crowe) was that the Romans were well known for their rather open and scandalous sexual appetites.

Seduced by the Gladiator is full of debauchery of all different and various tastes. To say my eyes have been opened would be an understatement. Now, I am no trembling virgin, my tastes are by no means ‘vanilla’ but there were times when this was a little too much for me. A vast majority of the content is consensual but some is mixed with a trace of menacing violence that I did not like. I was also unsure of how far the author would take things and I was a little nervous about what might come next.

Strangely enough it was not the sex (although there was so much that I did start skimming) that made me give this book a low rating. In the end, the problem I had with this was the main character Lilia, I really disliked her. I hated that everyone loved/wants/desired her and that she was so aware of it. She is arrogant and I struggled with her personality. It was a shame because Christus is the opposite; I liked him and thought he could do better.

Seduced by the Gladiator is not for everyone and it is at times extreme with its content, it was interesting enough and I read the whole thing but really it wasn’t for me.

2 stars

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Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn

Another Little Piece

by Kate Karyus Quinn

Reading Age: YA

Genre: Paranormal, Romance, Urban fantasy, Mystery, Horror

Format: ebook ARC

Pages: 419

Published June 11th 2013 by HarperTeen 

On a cool autumn night, Annaliese Rose Gordon stumbled out of the woods and into a high school party. She was screaming. Drenched in blood. Then she vanished.

A year later, Annaliese is found wandering down a road hundreds of miles away. She doesn't know who she is. She doesn't know how she got there. She only knows one thing: She is not the real Annaliese Rose Gordon.

Now Annaliese is haunted by strange visions and broken memories. Memories of a reckless, desperate wish . . . a bloody razor . . . and the faces of other girls who disappeared. Piece by piece, Annaliese's fractured memories come together to reveal a violent, endless cycle that she will never escape—unless she can unlock the twisted secrets of her past.

It is very rare to come across a book that is completely new, especially in YA and the paranormal/fantasy genre but I can honestly say I have never read anything like Another Little Piece before. It was explosively original and completely impossible it put down.

This book had me hooked from the first page until the last. It was complex, difficult and twisty. Half the time I had no idea what was going on and when I finally figured something out another twist appeared to grip me. It was gory, sexy and dark and I absolutely revelled in it. There were themes that some will find disturbing I think I was probably disturbed for most of the book but in the best possible way. Did everything make sense in the end? No, and maybe things could have been explained in a little bit more detail (it was a little rushed at the end) but I liked the mystery this book retains at the finish.

The writing was absolutely beautiful. I loved Quinn’s tone and her world building was superb, I lost myself in this book and didn’t come up for air until I had finished. Every single character, including the parents was full of character and personality. Kate Karyus Quinn clearly has an amazing imaginations and an ability to get all that creativity on paper, without going over the top.

I really liked Annaliese/Anna. She was morbid, morose and dark but I liked it. She was so obviously lost and confused and that endeared her to me. Her relationship with the parents was beautiful, so often I moan about the atrocious parenting in YA but in Another Little Piece they were amazing, especially the mum. I often found myself getting emotional over the strength of the mothers love and affection for a daughter she barely recognised she loved her without question and fiercely tried to protect her.

Annaliese is not the only complex character the nerdy and disturbed Dex also has issues, I was never quite sure what Dex was but I really loved him. He was the perfect love interest for me. His vulnerability was at times heart breaking and although he knew exactly who he was and where he came from he was as lost as Anna.

The romance was great, it was not the main storyline so wasn’t overdone yet it still managed to get my heart racing. They were perfectly suited and I really liked them together.

I could talk about all the other aspects of this book, like the flashbacks, or other characters like the evil Eric and the mysterious Physician but I do not want to give anything away.

If I had to compare this book to something I would say it was Jennifer’s Body meets The Craft with a dash of Dexter but really Another Little Piece is in a world of its own. It is smart and compelling, it is one of the best YA thrillers I have ever read and in my opinion it is an absolute must read.

5 stars

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Parallel by Lauren Miller

Parallel

by Lauren Miller

Reading Age: YA

Genre: Science Fiction, Romance

Format: ebook ARC

Pages: 381

Published June 6th 2013 by Sholastic (first published May 14th 2013)

Two worlds. Two separate identities. Two guys.

A collision of parallel universes leaves 18-year-old Abby Barnes living a new reality - every time her parallel makes a new decision. Never-without-a-plan Abby is forced to cope with the consequences of waking up in a life she has no memory of creating.

With chapters that alternate between our world (Here) and the parallel one (There), Abby's Here comes complete with a Yale address, a new roomie, and birthday blind date with a super-hot lacrosse player. In the parallel world, Abby's still navigating senior year class schedules, college applications, and her relationship with Astronomy Boy at her high school.

 So far a majority of the reviews for Parallel have been overwhelmingly positive and I can understand why a lot of readers really enjoyed it but for me there was just something missing. Parallel gets off to a brilliant start and I was really impressed with the first third but after that I felt Parallel lost its edge and I began to lose interest.

Parallel deals with the (lately) popular idea of parallel universes, it is something I have read about before but I thought Miller did a really job with her portrayal. I liked her ideas and I liked the way they were explained. The first third was a science nerds dream and I was impressed but the more the book went on the more it turned into a romantic teen drama and less of a science fiction.

Despite my issues with the storyline I thought Lauren Miller’s writing was very strong. It flowed really well and her world building was great.

I quite liked the main character Abby in the beginning, she was smart and funny but as the story went on I found myself liking her less. She could be a little too pushy and was at times a bit of a control freak. Yet every time she did something to annoy me she did something awkwardly sweet that made me laugh so I found it hard to really dislike her

The romance falls into the love triangle territory. I thought the triangle was handled well and I liked the idea behind it but neither of the boys involved really appealed to me so I couldn’t invest in the relationships.

There were several aspects of this book I liked but on the whole it wasn’t really for me. I look forward to reading more from Lauren Miller because I found her writing impressive.

2 stars

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The Kissing Booth by Beth Reekles

The Kissing Booth

by Beth Reekles

Reading Age: Young Adult

Genre: Contemporary, Romance

Format: ebook ARC

Pages: 448

Published April 25th 2013 by Corgi Childrens

(first published December 13th 2012)

 

Meet Rochelle Evans: pretty, popular--and never been kissed. Meet Noah Flynn: badass, volatile--and a total player. And also Elle's best friend's older brother...

When Elle decides to run a kissing booth for the school's Spring Carnival, she locks lips with Noah and her life is turned upside down. Her head says to keep away, but her heart wants to draw closer--this romance seems far from fairy tale and headed for heartbreak.

But will Elle get her happily ever after?

 

There is a lot of hype surrounding The Kissing Booth, it even made the six o’clock news in the UK which is quite an achievement. The reason for its hype is because of is overwhelming popularity on Wattpad and because the author is only 17 years old. I watched an interview with her on the news where she mentioned that she wanted to create a book about teens by a teen. I guess taking that into account I expected The Kissing Book to be different than other books in the genre and realistic, but that wasn’t the case at all.

I really have to take my hat off to Beth Reekles, I really do admire her for her achievements. Writing a book is never easy and is probably less so with school and exams to handle as well. But Reekles managed to handle that and got picked up by Random House as well.

Despite my admiration The Kissing Booth just didn’t work for me for several reasons. The storyline is ok but the background and information given by the author was sparse. I needed more backstory to connect to the characters but it wasn’t to be.

The writing is fairly simplistic and lacks detail however there is a sweet quality to it that I quite enjoyed. One of my big issues in concern to writing was repetition. The reader is told things over and over again. (ie that Elle had known Lee and Noah all her life) I cannot count the amount of times this was mentioned. Another issue was the use of British slang in a book set in America with American characters.

The characters were fairly well developed but not very likeable. Elle was self-centred and appeared to be better than everybody else. All the other girls are portrayed as boy hungry with a paparazzi mentality, they wait in car parks in a pack and practically jump Elle when she gets to school in order to hear all about the dreamy Noah. Elle is not perfect either she gets drunk at parties, dances on pool tables and tries to strip in front of everyone. Her father is utterly useless and appears to only be in this book because it would be weird if there were no parents. He lets her go to parties, lets her drink and never questions when she stays out all night.

I will talk about Noah and the romance together as my feelings about both of them are the same. Put simply the romance in this book is unhealthy (in my opinion) I know a lot of readers thought Noah was amazing but I though he was possessive, violent, hypercritical and controlling. The list of jerkish things he does is long and includes: Telling boys to stay away from Elle, Telling Elle that she is not allowed to date, beating up anyone who says anything bad to her or comes on to her (one guy has to go to the hospital), says that her natural and friendly personality is ‘leading other guys on’ and they will act on it (seriously), he shouts at her, orders her around, and steals her V card when they are not even dating and have only kissed a few times. I hated him and hated their relationship.

Sure they have chemistry but in my opinion it is not a healthy relationship at all and I find myself getting annoyed because it has been romanticized.

Could I have written a book at 17? Probably not, I applaud Reekles for her achievement. I think it is great that teens are writing and hope that other teen will follow her example. I wish I had liked this book more but unfortunately it was littered with problems for me.

2 stars

 

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