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

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