Sylvain Reynard - Gabriel's Inferno

**Spoiler Alert** 

Wow. What can I say to do this review justice. It has been a very long time since I read such an emotional and well written romance. I noticed a resemblance between Gabriel's Inferno and Fifty Shades of Grey, but this book was so good not even the similarities spoiled it. 

It was unique and amazingly well written; I can't stress that enough. I would go so far as to say it was even more emotional than FSOG, maybe even better. I would have to say that what makes this book better than FSOG is the focus on the emotional aspect of a relationship rather than the sexual. Reynard waited until the very end to write their love scene, and I really appreciated the time the couple took to get there, rather than having sex early on which would have been on the basis of mindless passion rather than love. And please, I am not putting FSOG down, the trilogy was just as amazing. I only wish to point out the different focal points/themes of the two books.

The characters were entirely believable; The tormented professor with a dark and heavy past and the innocent graduate student who has deep emotional scarring and self-esteem issues. Of course, no book is completely without its annoyances or flaws, and one of the few things that bothered me was Julia's constant reticence to accept gifts from other people. However, it is such a small thing that it doesn't really take away from the greatness of the book.

I also have to say that I have not enjoyed a love scene, or even a love, as sweet and patient and kind and passionate as that between Gabriel and Julia. Yes, he starts out as an asshole, but he more than makes up for it later. 

I just have to once again give props to the writing style of Reynard, because of how much thought and research must have gone towards this book. The special lecture that Gabriel gave on Dante in the book must have taken a lot of thought, patience, and time to complete. So cheers to you Sylvain Reynard. A wonderful story with a wonderful message of redemption, healing, destiny, and renewed love. 

Book Love

Lena

Vi Keeland - Belong to You

First of all: daaaamn the guy in the cover is freaking hot. I can't even see his whole face but he looks totally swoon-worthy, haha.

Anyways, Belong to You, the first in the Cole Series, was a very likable read. It was fast-paced, exciting, and the characters weren't too bad. However, at several points it felt like more should have been written into the story, because I felt like in the beginning it jumped right into Sydney and Jack's relationship with no build up, and Jack was a little creepy in the beginning too. If you place this in real life, I'd be pretty freaked out by Jack's possessiveness only 5 minutes after meeting him, not to mention his intense staring and instant violation of spacial boundaries. I'm going to spoil just a tiny bit of the book so you can see what I'm saying. 

In the beginning, when Jack and Syd first meet, Syd is shocked by Jack's green eyes and feels all attracted to him and whatnot. Then a couple hours later after meeting him, Syd is at the bar after a performance and he approaches her and just stands behind her like a creeper, not saying anything and invading her personal space and just staring down at her all stalkery in my opinion. But Syd seemed to love it so I was like meh, whatever, but I would have been like: *uncomfortable laugh* "Could you like, back off?". 

I did appreciate that they gave the relationship a couple months before saying I love you, because the whole "I love you after only one day" doesn't really work for me. 

Jack wasn't overly restraining either and didn't creepily track his girlfriend's every move like Christian did with Ana in FSOG.

All in all, I thought it was a fairly fast and light read. It could have had a more intriguing plot with more twists than just the (somewhat shallow) problems between Jack and Sydney as their relationship developed. I gave it 4 stars because 3 is too low in my opinion, but 3.75 would be more accurate. 

Book Love

Lena 

Heather Killough-Walden - The Goblin King

Warning! This review contains spoilers

Ok, so obviously there's a pattern here for the King books: 1) the male lead has been alone for thousands of years and really wants to find his queen. 2) He finds her and instantly gets tunnel vision. 3) The respective queen is really apprehensive about the king and doesn't want anything to do with his world of supernatural creatures. 4) She eventually gives in because her desire for the king is overwhelming. 5) There's some significant battle involving the king and queen. 6) The king and queen end up getting together and having their (kind of) HEA. 

Yea, let's just say these books are becoming predictable. I'm only continuing to read them because I already started the series and have to finish it. It's a curse that I always have to finish what I start. 

Once again, we have a book with a bland romance but at least a better overarching plot. I just don't feel the love!!! There are so many other books where I can say "Wow, now that's what I call love", and this isn't one of them. 

And once again, you guessed it, f***ing Evie stole the spotlight. Ugh! Can someone please give that girl her HEA? Honestly, it's torturing the reader and her. 

There's just no creativity to the series, no imagination, and nothing tying the books or the characters together except that they're all kings and queens. And it also sucks that there's nothing special about each queen. All we know is that they are more powerful than the kings, but none of them have their own unique power. Well, Diana can heal and is a seer, which is progress, but the books before that did not make the queens seem like anything special. It would be great if each queen had a special power that was needed in the final battle to defeat the great evil plaguing the world. 

Seriously, I can see these books going so many more interesting and diverse ways, but I guess HKW doesn't. For example, HKW didn't make anything of the fact that Diana is the goddess of the moon in Roman mythology and that Artemis is the Greek version of the goddess. I mean, it was important in that the Fae kings all consider the moon sacred and thus their queens would somehow be related to the moon, but that's all; no cool powers, no cool ancestry connections, etc. For example, Diana could have had some special power over the moon, the tides, and gravity, since that is all related. And Chloe, from the previous book, could have had control over space, the stars, the planets, and all that comes with it. 

So overall, an OK read. I'm going to keep reading the series only because I'm in too deep and have to know what happens regarding the Egyptian gods and the evil power that is rising.

Book Love

Lena

Nicole Christie - Falling for the Ghost of You

Falling for the Ghost of You was a really cute and light read, though it didn't have much depth in my opinion. While I did like Violet because she was just hilarious and spontaneous (you never knew what she was going to say), I did get tired of her constant jealousy. It got pretty annoying and almost bordered on psycho. 

Zane was a nice guy, but I felt he was just, like, blah. There was nothing super special about him besides his secret, which is really not a terrible secret at all, even though the author made it seem like it was going to be. I don't know why, but my first thought was that it would be that Zane is the president of some porn company. I know, I know, you're probably thinking"why would you think that?" but really it's not that much of a stretch: He had a (different) girl over almost every night and flirted or was "friendly" with other girls while he was with Violet...ok so maybe that's not much evidence, but my mind still went that way. I also like my males to be more intense and dominant, but Zane was just very care free and honestly not too interesting besides being super good looking. Meh.

And the big secret came out of no where. There were absolutely no hints dropped about what it could be, so when we find out what the big secret is, all I could think of was that it was completely out of left field. I felt like I was all of a sudden reading a different book.

Also, I have to agree with the reviewer who said that she would have liked a little more explicitness during sexy time. It's just that on top of the whole book being kind of bland, the sex scenes (or rather lack thereof) were also very obscure and not at all descriptive. So yea, I guess that sums up my feelings about the book: it was pretty bland

If you're looking for a light, quick read, this might be the book for you. But if you're looking for something more thrilling or perhaps with a little more depth, I would look somewhere else.

Book Love

Lena

Kristen Ashley - Heaven and Hell

Warning: Prepare for some big ranting

Like always, KA managed to write a book that is packed with emotion and excitement, but also like always (imo), amazingly frustrating and headache-inducing characters

I was prepared to give this book one star because Kia and Sam were pissing me off so much, especially Kia, but the last 2 chapters or so saved the book big time because Kia finally grew a damn backbone!! And that's my problem with ALL of Kristen Ashley's female characters (I'll get to my frustrations with the males in just a moment, don't worry). They're all spineless women that are made (imo) extremely submissive to the men, and that seriously provokes my feminist streak. 

This is my fourth KA book, and the female lead is still no better and no different than the other heroines. By no better, I mean that they all allow the hero to trample all over their feelings but don't make a big deal out of it. And worse, they forgive them WAY too easily. The second worst thing is that the heroines all sound THE SAME. I feel like all the heroines from KA's books have been one and the same person the whole time because their reactions, way of speaking, and personalities are ALL. THE SAME. All of the heroines use the phrases "Oh man, Oh God, and Oh boy" A LOT. Can they not have different reactions? Do they not speak English/have a larger vocabulary? 

And the worst thing, the absolute worst thing, is that, somehow, the men are ALWAYS RIGHT (sorry men). I can understand them being right half the time because that would be fair, or maybe once in a while, but no, they are right ALL. THE DAMN. TIME. And the heroine even admits it when imo, NO, THEY ARE NOT FUCKIN RIGHT!!! It's like KA has something against her own sex or something that she always puts the heroine in a super submissive role, makes them unable to stand up for themselves, they are always wrong in everything and anything (when really they're not), and they even end up fuckin apologizing to the male for something the MALE DID WRONG!!! Yea you heard right. Not something the heroine did wrong, something the male did wrong but somehow the female ends up apologizing!! Fuck no! I don't know if I can handle this shit anymore, it pisses me off too much. 

Another thing that makes me super angry about this book in particular is that Kia had been in an abusive relationship for seven years, and it had been both physically and psychologically abusing. So what I don't understand is how she jumped from one abusive relationship to another. Sure, Sam was a handsome man, super good in bed, and was very caring and loving, but that doesn't change the fact that he did hurt Kia emotionally even if he didn't mean to and to me that is unacceptable. And it makes me mad that Kia withstood it for 2 months before putting her foot down.

I also had a lot of trouble liking Sam. Just to set the record straight, I love alpha males. They push all the right buttons for me with their possessiveness and over-protective tendencies. Unfortunately, Sam wasn't possessive or over-protective, he was just straight up controlling, and that totally rubbed me the wrong way. He didn't let Kia do much and was always ordering her around. Once again, this is the case with all her male leads.

Then, there were the side characters, Celeste and Luci, whom I initially loved, but who started to piss me off towards the end because they gave Kia terrible advice on her relationship with Sam, basically telling her to be submissive to him. Graaaaarrr!!!!! *tears hair out*. And Sam's friends...let's just say if I had a gun I'd shoot them in the balls. Freakin machista, crude, and rude sons a bitches.

Another thing that annoyed me (and I promise this is the last) was that right from the first day they met (maybe the second day), Sam acted like he had some sort of claim on Kia and was super intense when they. Had just. Met. I mean just think about it a little. Wouldn't it freak you the fuck out if some guy was possessive, domineering, and all up in your grill only a day after you'd met? Please say YES! But of course, Kia didn't see anything wrong with that. It would have sent any normal woman screaming for the hills that some guy they just met has staked a claim on them, but not Kia. But alas, that is the nightmare of KA characters. You can be sure as hell they'll piss you off before you even start the book.

Also there was the always-annoying insta-love between the h/H. I love when there's a build up of feelings, but that was nowhere to be found here. It was like this: they meet one day, they acknowledge their attraction the next day, and by the third day they have sex and are in a relationship. Ugh.

So like I said, what saved the book for me was the ending, because Kia grew a backbone and finally stood up for herself. The epilogue was also very cute and I would have loved to read a side story about Luci and Hap. In the end I gave the book 2.5 stars because the story was very touching and really hit a spot for me, but the main characters pretty much ruined it.  

Book Love

Lena

Elizabeth Vaughan - Warsworn

Warning! Spoilers ahead

To start off, I'd like to set the record straight and say that I really liked this book. It's not very often that I find a book that actually takes the time to world-build and a story which doesn't take place in our world as we know it. It brought to mind the Tairen Soul Series (although, even though this book is good it doesn't match up to the awesomeness of the Tairen Soul series, now that is truly a brilliant masterpiece in terms of plot, setting, characters, you name it.) 

This book continues where Warprize left off, with Keir reclaiming Lara as the Warprize. All seems fine and dandy until an enemy worse than any they've ever faced strikes, and it is not one they can fight with swords or see with their eyes. 

I really loved how the love between Keir and Lara got to blossom a lot more deeply than it did in the first book. Although I would have liked steamier sex scenes, the romance did leave me more satisfied than the first book and only grew better in the final book (I will write a review for that one too). So just a heads up that if you are looking for a steamy read, this is not it. As many others have said, it is not your typical fantasy romance.

Now, I'm going to talk about the things that bothered me about this book, and this is where the spoilers come in. 

We all know that Lara is a healer, and a pretty good one at that. She has a lot of experience and has been taught by one of the best Master Healers around. So you can hopefully understand my disappointment when she fails to find a cure for the much-more-aggressive strain of the plague that suddenly strikes. I understand that in the real world, a cure could take months if not years to find and the collaboration of many brilliant minds. But this is not the real world, it is a book, and I would have liked for Lara to find the cure since she is a healer. It was just strange and didn't make much sense to me that the author would spend so much time on scenes of Lara healing and helping her patients and being a miracle worker (according to the Firelanders) but then deny her the glory of finding a cure. I also found the resolution to the plague abrupt. Lara spent no more time trying to find a cure after the plague had run its course in the camp. It just doesn't make sense to me that the author would spend the better part of the book on the plague and how it was wreaking havoc on the camp but then drop the matter entirely without Lara finding a cure. It was disappointing, to be sure.   

Next is the matter of her being pregnant. According to Lara herself and from what she has seen, the Firelanders love children. When the Xyian baby is the only one to survive the plague from the Xyian village from which she was taken, the Firelanders are all joyous and beyond happy to have a baby in their camp, since she is a source of hope and because children are just straight up loved by Firelanders and are a huge deal. So then why does Lara make such a small deal about her possible pregnancy? Never mind that as a woman AND healer she should know better than to ride a horse and drink coffee and whatnot, she should definitely have told Keir about it since there are people out to get her, and if an attack succeeded because of lax defenses, she could have lost the baby. And to top it off, she shoves the matter of her possible pregnancy under the rug and totally forgets about it until more than  halfway through the last book. *Sigh* it was another thing that was non-sequitur from the rest of the book.  

And then there's Gils. Seriously Lara, aren't you a healer? It was quite disappointing to find out that the heroine who I thought was going to be kick-ass actually spent more of her time on self-blame, self-pity, and feelings of sadness and misery. Pull your head out of the gutter, woman!  

So those are my frustrations with the book. In the end I did end up liking it, but it had potential to be a seriously epic book, but it fell short by just a few shortcoming of the plot and characters. All in all, still a decent and entertaining read.

Book Love

Lena

Tijan - Fallen Crest Public

Another amazing book in the Fallen Crest High series. Tijan just never fails to deliver. 

I absolutely loved Mason in this book. I think the reader got a more in depth look into Mason and his feelings for Sam, and when we found out the true depth of his feelings, I completely swooned. I made this girly sigh any time Mason said/thought something totally sweet. I was just really happy to hear him call Sam the love of his life and his other half. If all boys had been this manly and amazing while I was in high school...oooh mama, don't even get me started *fans herself*. 

I have mixed feelings about Sam. On the one hand, I love it when she's a badass, but sometimes I feel like she acts before she thinks, and it ends up backfiring. Though most of the book was in her POV, I feel like she didn't play a big role in this book. It was probably because Mason and Logan kept a ton of things from her, but it made her seem like some poor helpless female. And though she was the main character, she wasn't in on the action, so it was a little frustrating at times. 

I think it would have been interesting if Brett came around more often and made Mason jealous. Also, Sam's mood swings and guarded personality are getting a little old; I wish she would just open up instead of going on her runs and shutting everything/everyone out. It drove me crazy when Mason would ask her what was wrong and Sam would be like "nothing". Just speak up, woman!!, talk about your damn problems once in a while.

I was very glad at the end when Sam decided to help Kate. At first, when she was debating whether or not to help Kate, I was like "of course you should!!!" Even if she did beat you up she doesn't deserve to get raped, no one does. So kudos to Sam for being the bigger woman.
And I can't believe the book ended how it did!!! OMG!! I know this probably won't happen, but I think it would be hot if Sam hooked up with Logan and Mason, since Logan loves her too. But I know the chances of that happening is pretty much 0. I also wasn't sure what to think about the fact that Mason cares if he loses Sam but not so much Logan. It's pretty fucked up of him to think like that, but I guess if it comes down to the love of your life and your brother, the love of your life wins out.

Anyways, I can't wait for the next book!!! Tijan, please, please, please, pretty please with a cherry on top, don't take forever writing it!! I can't wait that long!!!

Book Love

Lena

Kimberly Montague - Accidental Texting: Finding Love Despite the Spotlight

Warning! Spoilers ahead (though they're not really big)

When I start reading a book at 11:30 at night, it's usually because something about the synopsis has really caught my attention and it might therefore be worth it to stay up till 4 or 5 in the morning reading a big chunk of it. Unfortunately, this was not one of those books. I did stay up pretty late reading it, but only because I was hoping that it would get better. Not the case, my friends. To start off, Morgan drove me bat-shit crazy. 

Can you say drama queen? Because Morgan tops the charts for being a capital D-R-A-M-A Drama Queen. She reacted over EVERYTHING! It drove me insane and after the second time I just started rolling my eyes and seriously wanting to slap her. As a character, she made no progress whatsoever with her hang ups and fears, especially the whole Sean-has-a-shit-ton-of-money thing. If it was me, I'd just be like, "that's cool, it gives you security and you won't ever have to worry about being poor". But Morgan...she went insane whenever Sean spent any kind of money! Yea he would go a little over the top when it came to buying things and I would have liked him to be a little more reserved about spending his money, but come on! Am I missing something? Was she supposed to be bipolar? Graaaaarrrrrr!!!

And don't even get me started on her insecurities. NOBODY can be that insecure. She questioned everything! And I HATE it when the main female is all "He's out of my league. What can he possibly see in me? I'm just little ol' me, not really worth much. He must not be serious about me". AAAARRRRRHHHHH!!!!! *tears hair out*. 

And Sean...Ok, I loved him. I thought he was an amazing man and really cared for Morgan. What did bother me a lot was that for a guy that says Morgan is it for him and can't live without her, he didn't seem to suffer that much when she left him after Morgan saw him kissing Michelle. Sure, his friends said he was a wreck after, but since I didn't see it, it didn't convince me that he really was sorry for kissing Michelle. It should have been a bigger deal to him than it seemed to be.

Also, it was way too long of a read and could have been cut shorter. What bugs me about books like these is that instead of there being one big problem that the main characters have to resolve, there were many (and I mean MANY) small problems that they had to solve. It makes it seem like the author doesn't have enough imagination to create a problem that builds up throughout the book, and further, that she can't write a full length novel (although this is more near-bursting than full) unless she writes small problems that each take 30 or 40 pages to resolve. 

And the sex! That was really disappointing. I love me some sexy time but this book was just so vague about it that I had to go back and reread some paragraphs to understand what was happening.

Even though I say all this, it was still a likable read, but definitely nowhere near my top 10, 20, or 50 favorite books of all time.

Book Love

Lena

Cat Johnson - Unridden

Unridden was a cute, lighthearted read, though definitely not one of the better romance novellas I've read. I would have really liked it if the author had made the heroine's feelings towards the men more clear cut. 

I felt like there wasn't any build up to Jenna and Slade finally getting together. Even up until the last moment, we weren't sure who Jenna was going to pick, and her feelings for Slade were less than apparent throughout the whole story. There was just nothing that pointed out to the reader that Jenna liked Slade a lot more than Mustang. Sure there were times when it was a little clearer, but then she'd go right back to liking both of them and wanting them both in her bed. So when she tells Slade that she loves him, it's less than believable. 

And sorry to all you cougars out there, but I was not a fan of the big age difference, it just felt kind of weird. 

Also, the sex scenes were very bland, especially for a menage story, which are usually way more erotic than a straight up m/f novel. 

Overall, just an ok read, but I didn't want to give it 2 stars because it wasn't that bad.

Book Love

Lena

Abbi Glines - Existence, Predestined, Ceaseless

This is a review of the entire Existence Trilogy, excluding Leif's book.

There's no denying that the Existence trilogy was very interesting and attention-grabbing because of its unique plot (at least it's the first time I've read something like this). Unfortunately, the reason why the trilogy deserves an overall 3.5 stars is because of Ms Glines stunted style of writing and lack of thorough plot development. The ideas were there, and so were the characters, but the writing did not come through for the readers.

My biggest problems with the three books were the abrupt cliffhangers (for books 1 and 2) and the way that Ms Glines began books 2 and 3. 

Existence (Book 1) ended with Dank (horrible name by the way, it makes me think of "skank") telling Pagan that Leif wasn't human. Then Predestined (Book 2) starts off a month later and we find out that Leif has been missing for a month. Wait. Back up. You just threw out there that Leif has been missing for a month and you don't give us any lead up to this? Like it's not important? I felt so lost at this point, I was like "Is there a chapter missing from the book? did I get a defective copy of this ebook or something?" But nope, it was a perfectly good copy, the reader just has to deal with the fact that a month has gone by and we're not gonna get any details about what happened during that time, not even a flash back from Dank or Pagan telling us what happened after Dank told her Leif wasn't human. Nothing. Zip. Nada, amigos. 

Predestined ends with...wait let me check how it ends, I can't even remember anymore...oh right! Dank drops a bomb on Pagan (again, surprise surprise) and tells her that Wyatt's soul is back. 

Fast-forward two weeks (I think it's two weeks) and all of a sudden, PAGAN'S MEMORY IS GONE!!!  And all we have to prepare us for this is some weird prologue --___--...what the fuckety fuck Ms Glines? Don't you think your readers would want better lead up to this than some obscurely weird prologue? I would have liked to have seen the scene where the Creator tells Dank that he's gonna take away Pagan's memories so that "her choice can be fair" and the scene where Pagan wakes up with her memory wiped. I mean, we jumped from Predestined which ended with "Wyatt's soul is back" to Ceaseless which started with "Pagan's memory is gone"...does anyone see anything wrong with this or am I just crazy? It is the most non sequitur series I have ever read!! It drove me insane that Ms Glines did this!! Sorry for my rant, it's over, I promise ;)

Also, grammar and spelling were pretty bad at some parts, which made it hard to follow the story line sometimes.

Another problem I had with Ceaseless was that the language was way more sexually explicit than the first two books. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem reading a raunchy sex scene, but what I do have a problem with is that, once again, there was no lead up to this!!! From the first two books, you would never guess that the third book would include anything more than some steamy kissing. But nope, we get some smexy sexy time, which is completely out of left field. It would have been fine if the language was more sexually explicit from the beginning, but to throw it into the third book all of a sudden just made it seem like the author spontaneously decided to go from a YA to an NA genre. So once again, there is a problem of continuity. 

This was sadly the only thing that made me subtract 1.5 stars from my rating. Everything else was fantastic, but I just couldn't deal with how stunted the plot that ran through the 3 books was. 

Book Love

Lena

Melissa Kean - Discovering You

This is one of those books that remind you that a sweet and innocent love is just as powerful as a book that has sex as well as love, maybe more so because the author couldn't rely on sex to bring the couple together. 

What made the love between Lucy and Nicholas so powerful was that they seriously fell in love with who they were as people rather than how explosive they were in bed. I get really tired of books with male leads that prefer to conceal all their feelings and act like tough assholes, but this book gave me a reprieve from that. Nicholas was more than happy to act like a sappy, whipped man in the presence of Lucy, and that made me love him all the more. 

Some authors could really learn how to write romance from this book. All the small touches, the innocent kisses, the secret glances, they really built up the romance and actually made me believe in the love between the two. Even more worthy of praise is that Ms Kean made their love be passionate without including sex, which I think is an amazing and difficult thing to get across on a piece of paper, so kudos to Ms Kean. 

I could keep going on and on about this because I just adored the love between Lucy and Nicholas so much, but instead I'll say that you should seriously pick up this book right now, you won't be disappointed.

Besides this, I thought the plot was fairly original and intriguing. Again, what I loved about this book is that it didn't use sex as a device for plot advancement. Kean wrote this book with much thought and gave it an interesting plot that kept you on the edge of your seat and unable to put it down. I would know, I stayed up two days straight until 5 am because I wanted to keep reading it! So take my word for it, pick up this book right now and I promise you won't regret it.

Book Love

Lena