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

Judith McNaught - A Kingdom of Dreams

I think I can say that after reading over 440 romance books that I know what a good romance reads like, and Judith McNaught’s A Kingdom of Dreams is not exactly good romance. I’m not too sure why 95% of reviewers think it’s one of the best romances they’ve ever read, because I’ve read way better. I’m not saying it was a terrible read, I just wouldn’t give it 5 stars, more like 3.25. This is because romance books require that there be romance, and McNaught’s book was lacking in this regard.
The book starts out with Jennifer, the protagonist, and her sister being kidnapped by the Wolf’s men, the Wolf being King Henry’s fiercest warrior and feared all throughout England and Scotland.

When Jennifer is delivered to Royce, aka the Wolf, she is so insolent that he hits her (yes, hits her smack in the face), viciously pulls her hair, and spanks her so badly that she can’t sit down without it hurting like a biatch. So, all in all, not a good start my friends. But then, of course, Jennifer develops an uncontrollable desire for Royce and forgives him everything, or for a while, at least. Then blah blah blah there is a huge misunderstanding where something happens to make Royce think that Jennifer is a manipulative, scheming, conspiring bitch-slut and the rest of the book, at least until the last few pages, proceeds to be a pain in the ass. 

So much of the book was spent on anger, mistrust, and misunderstandings between the two characters that there was no room left for any build up of romance. This made it unbelievable to me when suddenly Jennifer realizes she loves a man who has spent the better part of the book making her miserable; same goes for Royce. It was like for every 10 pages of romance there were 100 of hatred and anger and mistrust. I’ve read books where the love between the protagonists is believable and profound, and in A Kingdom of Dreams, it was NOT.

Aside from that, Jennifer and Royce are characters for whom I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, Jennifer is right to hate Royce for wrongfully killing her brother, but on the other, her blindness to her father’s manipulation and lack of love for her grated on my nerves and annoyed me to no end. Up until the very last minute, she sided with her family instead of Royce, which was really stupid on her part. And then there’s Royce, who could have been a great male lead if it weren’t for his mistreatment of Jennifer and his lack of regret for how he treated and let others treat her. Call me an anti-feminist for having a thing for alpha males, but Royce was seriously lacking in this department. I love books where the male lead is insanely jealous of other men and who goes crazy when their girl is insulted or hurt in any way because, to me, it shows that he really loves the female lead. Royce is the complete opposite. In the beginning he hits her, is never jealous of other men (there might’ve been one instance, but I’m not sure), and lets other people call her slut, and for a while he didn’t do anything to stop it. Worst of all, he only feels “a twinge” of guilt for doing all this shit. And he never apologizes for hitting her. Actually, that’s never even revisited.

The ending only made up for things a little, and surprisingly, I ended up liking Royce more than Jennifer. Unfortunately, it could not make up for the lack of romance throughout the whole book. Definitely not a 5 star read, though not a 1 star either. I hope the next book I read is better.

Book Love,

Lena

Raine Miller - Naked, All In, Eyes Wide Open

So a little like I did with Fate and Fury and Beyond the Veil, I'm going to review these three books together from Raine Miller's Series The Blackstone Affair, starting with Naked. I came across the series as I was looking through my recommendations and saw that the first book in the series, Naked, had a 4.10 rating, pretty damn good for Goodreads since the ratings are for the most part trustworthy. I was a little apprehensive at first that it would be like Fifty Shades of Grey, with a male and female lead that drove me mad with frustration and annoyance. And, well, it kind of was. The first book, Naked, was very different form the other two books in that it mostly focused on the relationship between Ethan and Brynne, without really getting into the political intrigue surrounding Brynne's past and the horrid video of her. And speaking of the video, it truly is horrid to me that the author wrote that into the book. In my opinion, it was disgusting and it really screwed up a lot of the book for me, because if you've read some of my other posts, you know I hate when authors include rape, whether in the past or present, in their books. Miller didn't explicitly describe the rape video of Brynne, but Brynne at one point is telling Ethan that while she was drugged, the perpetrators used foreign objects on her and that made my skin crawl, not to mention disgusted that the author would have the audacity to put that to paper. When other books have rape in them, the author always glosses over it and just says something about the female lead being raped, but to actually include the foreign objects part? Really? That's going a little too far and frankly it's sick. *sigh* But I have to get past this and keep writing my review. 

So in terms of technical stuff, the language of Naked was very stunted and amateurish, with sometimes short, not very complex sentences that used an elementary vocabulary. The other books were better, but they did not improve in terms of tense usage. The author jumped a lot between past and present when it came to the character's inner thoughts. All in all, Naked was a lot of sex and not much else, so I gave it 3 stars. 

All In gets a bit better in terms of plot development, but the sex is still going long and strong, and I was kind of over it at one point. I don't mind sex scenes, but when they happen that often, it takes away from the depth of the book and just makes it seem like I'm reading porn, which for the first time this book made me feel this way and I didn't like it. Whenever Ethan saw Brynne, he wanted to f*** her, when she moved, he had sex with her, when she looked at him, talked to him, breathed, he wanted to have sex with her. So, ALL. THE DAMN. TIME. I disliked it immensely, because Brynne tried to talk to him seriously several times, but he would just seduce her and, of course, weak to his persuasion, she succumbed EVERY. DAMN. TIME. It's really sad to think that we live in the 21st century and women's rights have progressed so much but that not once have I read of any romance female lead being able to put her foot down and not be seduced by the male lead when he tries to solve their problems through sex. And it always works, the female lead stops complaining, which is so disappointing but expected at this point. 

The relationship between Ethan and Brynne was based mostly on sex and physical appearance, and not on much else. Even in the first book, we're told that the only reason Ethan agreed to protect Brynne is because he saw her picture and it was like insta-love, which is not very convincing. I like it much more when romance develops slowly but sweetly, with that smolder growing to an ember, then a small flame, then an all-out fire. This, however, went from nothing to a raging forest fire in two seconds flat. Also, when books are written only in the female lead's perspective, I get an urge to read the male's perspective too, but with All In that urge got crushed pretty damn fast. I would have rather not known what Ethan was thinking because it was obsessive, stalkerish, controlling, and frankly scary. He needed to know where Brynne was 24/7, told her she was moving in with him, tells her to quit her job, likes having her in the kitchen, and wants her in his bed all the time. Umm, I thought this was 2012 A.D. not B.C.?      

Then, in Eyes Wide Open, we get, of course, the pregnancy book. Wonderful. What was really stupid and just plainly not logical about her being pregnant is that she didn't know for a long time when she had been pregnant once before. Seriously. Wouldn't you think that since she was pregnant before she'd know the signs? The tender breasts, the sleepiness, the decreased appetite/sickness, the increased libido? No? Doesn't ring a bell? Well of course not because you're stupid. Heck, I've never been pregnant and I still know what the signs are. I don't have much to say about this book besides that Ethan was his usual controlling, act-first-think-later stalkery self, and the sex kept going, and going, and going...(Energizer Bunny?). 

But obviously there is a happy ending for them. The guy that had been stalking Brynne is killed and she marries Ethan and has her happily ever after. Although, Miller decided to write a fourth book on Brynne and Ethan, and though I'm mostly apathetic about it, I wish she had finished their story in the third book, i.e. solved Ethan's demons and carried the pregnancy to term. I wouldn't have minded the 80 or so extra pages to get that done, she should have just gone for the kill rather than make a fourth book. Oh well. 

I would give the series maybe like 3.5 stars in all, I don't know why since I obviously have so many problems with it, but I guess it's not as bad as some other stuff I've read. Well, I hope the next book I read is better. Till next time!

Book Love
Lena

Alice Clayton - Wallbanger

I think my roommate thinks I'm crazy now...but I can't stop laughing! This book is too much, too cute, too funny, too witty, it's everything! Aww man, when I read the title of the book I was like, Wallbanger? Really? Okay, here we go, another raunchy read with tons of hot sex and a little bit of romantic development, but it's got 4.25 stars on Goodreads so that has to mean something...and it definitely did my friends.
Wallbanger was a perfect blend of sexual frustration, romantic buildup, witty banter, and conflicted characters to make my whole week. I really appreciated the fact that Ms Clayton made the characters wait so long to have sex, and trust me, you might be huffing and puffing that it's one of those slow books that take forever to get to the good parts, but really it's not, it is totally worth it. The whole book was fun, there was no boring setting description or long, useless pages where the character goes on and on talking about her life and childhood and blah blah blah like some authors like to do. No, this got to the juicy stuff fairly quickly, and thank God for that. 

As the title--and the cover--might hint, Wallbanger is about...well...a guy, Simon, who likes to sex girls so hard his bed bangs against the wall. Repeatedly. And loudly (lmao). No other way to put it really. And our protagonist, poor Caroline, has to endure his wallbanging every night, leaving her tired and pissed each day after, even more so because she hasn't had an orgasm in 7 months due to a stupid one night stand that left her hooha traumatized (yes, her hooha).
Having to listen to the sounds of glorious sex night after night, Caroline finally explodes one night when she was on the verge of bringing the big O back, but the wallbanging interrupted her. Pissed and sexually frustrated, she walks over to her next door neighbor's door and bangs on it until he opens. And when he opens, what a sight she is treated to: a yummy, six-foot-something guy with steel abs, tanned skin, dark hair, and a pair of blue eyes that would make any girl swoon. Not to mention with his hips wrapped in a white sheet and his...ahem...still at attention. Oh and did I mention that Caroline was wearing a pink baby doll and she had totally forgotten about this? Yup. 

From here on out, Caroline and Simon's relationship develops slowly but sweetly: first as enemies, then as grudging neighbors, then as friends, and finally as a loving couple. What makes this book so great is the fact that the author developed a friendship between the two characters before writing their sex scenes. That is something very rare between a man and a woman but very valuable, because their relationship was based on friendship first rather than sex, and so it made it more believable of a romance. This is one of those books where I can't really say I could have asked for better characters because they both had so much personality, and I can say for the first time that I wasn't frustrated with them at all, and that's really rare. 

Of course, I wouldn't be a book critic without having something to criticize, and that would be the ending. I was really happy that Caroline finally got her O, but then it felt like the rest of the book was sex, sex, sex, sex, and towards the end it lost some of the depth that I loved. I wouldn't know what ending to suggest instead, but I could have asked for a better one. But anyways, it is too small of a thing to impact my outlook on the whole book, so I still give it 4.75 stars. I hope to read more from this author because I  loved her writing style and character development. 

So all that aside...I'm back bitches!! Woohooo!! Damn it feels good, I am so freaking happy that finals are over and I have time to finally read in peace! No tests to worry about, no midterms or finals or stupid roommate drama, just me and my wonderful books. Oh my books, you never fail to make me happy, hahaha. Anyways, more reviews coming soon!     

Book Love,

Lena