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

Sorry... :(

My poor, poor blog!! I've been neglecting you in favor of that pesky thing called college. But seriously, to be honest, I have no idea when the next time I'll be able to blog will be. I've read a couple books that I still need to review but just reading the book takes up a lot of time and I need to study too! Everyone who's in college knows that the junior and senior years are the most important in terms of GPA, so unfortunately there won't be any neglecting of my studies :(. Waaaaaahhhhh!!!!!! This is me right now....

 Sadness to the max!!

Quinn Loftis - Beyond the Veil/Fate and Fury

So for this time around, I decided to review two books in one post because, one, they are from the same series and two, I read them back to back so the two story lines kind of blended together and now I can't remember what happened in one book and what happened in the other (whoops!). 

So first of all, I have to say that Quinn Loftis is a goddess. I don't know how she does it, but her books are the wittiest and most exciting YA books I have ever read, and that's saying something because I've read A LOT. I honestly don't know how she comes up with the dialogue that she does, because I couldn't do that in a million years. She's such a dynamic writer; the way that she makes her characters talk is just so funny and so refreshingly different from other authors. 

I'm not actually going to give an overview of the plot of each book because that would result in a really long post (though it's probably going to be long anyways), so I'm just going to give a really short summary that spans the two books. I'm going to outline the biggest points of the story, so just a heads up that there's going to be a lot of spoilers.
Basically, Sally now knows that because she is a healer, she is compatible with the Canis lupus and is therefore Costin's mate. Desdemona is still a huge threat that has to be dealt with; the Great Luna has made the Fae and the Canis Lupus compatible and made them more fertile; Desdemona makes a deal with the Warlock King, Cypher, who turns out to be Lilly's (Jacque's mom's) mate; Jen finds out that she's pregnant but the Fates want her baby's life in exchange for letting her live when she was supposed to die; All the males (Costin, Vasile, Drake, Fane, Adam, Decebel, Gavril, and Sorin) get captured and put in the In-Between, a place where their worst fears are replayed in their minds over and over again. The girls rescue the males but their minds have been seriously damaged due to seeing their fears come to life over and over again for weeks. Because of this, the males have shut out their mates because they don't want their "darkness" to affect them. The girls get really pissed that their mates are sparing them of this "darkness" because alleviating the darkness is what their job as mates is. So the girls tell their mates that their touch is uninvited, so now if they do touch the girls they'll feel a lot of pain. Then, a spell is put on all the girls that makes them believe and feel that they're being tortured and touched against their will but the males can't touch their mates to give them comfort because of the whole "their touch is uninvited" thing. The spell eventually gets lifted off the girls but now their minds are really damaged too. Meanwhile, Cypher and Lilly are off to try and enlist the help of the Elves; the Wolves, Elves, and Fae fight against Desdemona and kill her, but then a new threat arrives and he turns out to be Reyaz, Cypher's brother.

So now for the good stuff. I'll start with Lilly and Cypher, because I was just so surprised about Lilly getting a mate but then so happy too. I was like "you go Jacque's mom!" Cypher and her were gettin' it on like teenagers in a dark corner of the library. I didn't know that Lilly had that much spunk in her, she's pretty much like Jacque with her sarcasm and smart-ass replies. I was really glad for Cypher and that Lilly was able to pull him out of the dark. They were so cute together! It didn't feel at all awkward that I was reading about Jacque's mom get her flirt on; I was really happy that she got her happy ending after all. 

Regarding Sally and Costin, I was a little apprehensive about reading about them cuz I never felt like they were very interesting characters, but I actually got really into them and was disappointed that the books didn't include them more. Jacque and Jen already got their two books so I was expecting that the 5th and 6th books would be about Sally and Costin, but Jacque and Jen stole a lot of Sally's spotlight, what with Jen being pregnant and Jacque slipping into a spell-induced coma because of Desdemona. I feel like though we did get a lot of scenes between Sally and Costin, they didn't seem extra special because all the other couples were getting the same amount of book time. I was also disappointed that we didn't see Sally's powers as a healer develop more. I really was hoping that Peri would  train her to be an awesome healer so that when the time to battle Desdemona came she would be a badass that defeated Mona, but her role was really downplayed and that bothered me a lot. Maybe we'll see her develop more in the next books, because the way that Fate and Fury ended tells me that there has to be another book coming. But aside from that, it was really nice to see how Sally and Costin developed as a couple throughout the books. It was nice to see Sally emerge out of her protective shell and become more confident in her womanly powers since she's always been the least confident one of the three. 

Now, about Jen, oooh that girl, she's a piece of work that one. First of all, how could she think that Decebel was going to hate her for something she has no power over? If she had chosen to die instead of live, then there never even would have been the possibility of a baby. And I'm sorry if this sounds really callous, but you can have more babies if you lose this one, and she might not fully recover from losing this one, but she will have other babies. Now I don't know what's going to happen because Decebel went behind Jen's back and decided to die in place of his baby in 9 months. That was a dumb-ass move. Seriously Dec? You think Jennifer is going to recover from losing you but she won't recover from losing the baby? SERIOUSLY? She  would NEVER recover from losing you, even if you severed the bond. Severing the bond might keep her from dying immediately but she would still die from grief, that can happen you know, and then the baby is going to be an orphan and all that would have been for nothing. I'm soooo frustrated with this couple because they keep doing stupid stuff!!! Aaaaaaargh!!!

And then there's the other stupid couple, Jacque and Fane. I don't know what the hell happened to Fane but he needs to snap out of it. At this moment he is soooo not worthy of Jacque. He's been treating her like shit, scaring her and emotionally hurting her. I get that his mind isn't fully mended yet because he suffered longer than anyone else in the In-Between, but that's no excuse to shut out your mate and hurt her. I don't know how he's going to fix it, but he needs to and soon, cuz Jacque doesn't deserve that. I hope that in the next book everything turns out ok, because they are the original couple and they should be happy. 

I was really glad that Sorin and Crina also found their mates because the Great Luna made them compatible with the Fae, but at the same time it was a little weird how fast they came together and how they were all like "Oh, you're my mate, so now I'll love you forever, no questions asked". It would have been better if in the other books there had been some sort of attraction between the couples so that this wasn't so sudden. It just really made it seem like they fell in love because of the bond and not because of who they are as individuals. Take for example Elle and Sorin. Elle said that she'd never thought of Sorin that way, but now, because of the bond, she says that he is "beautiful" and feels a really strong attraction to him. 

Overall, I feel like the books were just too tragic and too filled with anguish compared to the past books. It was tragedy after tragedy without any respite.  Don't get me wrong, I still loved the books and would give them 5 stars, but it seriously was tragic; I was crying way more than I was laughing. What made it so tragic is that EVERYONE was going through something. There was no couple that was truly happy or that could give us a break from all the sadness and hopelessness, which I feel the author should have included. Maybe at least have Fane and Jacque be happy because they're the "oldest" couple in terms of book sequence and thus should have all their problems resolved. So now I have to wait until the next book gets released which could be as long as 2 years!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Quinn, you can't do this to meeeee!! I really hope this is not the case and she has a book out in about 6 months because way too many things were left unresolved. Alas, that is all for now. I hope you enjoyed this review! Until next time

Book Love
Lena

Thea Harrison - Lord's Fall

Sooooo...I have really mixed feelings about this book. It's not like it was bad or anything, but its not like it was great either. It was missing something that would have made it better, but I just can't put my finger on it. It might be that it was too subdued for my liking. I think it was too big of a change from the passion and fast-paced action of the first book, Dragon Bound, which first introduced Pia and Dragos and how their romance developed. So here's what I didn't like about it:

For one thing, for the first 140 pages or so of the book, Pia and Dragos weren't together because Pia had convinced Dragos to let her go on a diplomatic mission down to the Elven Demesne in Charleston to repair their broken alliance (which Dragos had caused because in the first book, he had crossed the Elven border to chase after Pia when it was forbidden). So they weren't broken up or anything, but they were physically separated and it kinda sucked. 

I also found it really wrong that Pia, who is pregnant and starting to show, has no qualms about going into battle and putting her baby at risk. I understand that she's a tough bitch and won't cower behind Dragos, but dude, you're PREGNANT. You're going to have a BABY. A baby which you could possibly lose if you get injured. So I thought that was a little callous of her and thoughtless. 

The ending of the book also bothered me a bit because even though I was super happy that she finally had the baby, who has a conscience even as a fetus and who's been talking to Pia in her dreams for a long time, We don't even get to see mother and child together. The book ends with Pia sleeping with her head on Dragos lap because she's so tired after giving birth, so Dragos is holding the baby looking out the window into the lake all content and whatnot. Call me a sappy fool, but I kind of wanted Pia to be awake so she and Dragos could be like "Aww, look at him, isn't he the most perfect thing you've ever seen?" or something like that. 

So I felt that, overall, the baby got ignored a bit too much. I'd have liked it more if the book was a bit more about the baby and maybe her having some complication with the pregnancy. Instead it was about how she had to repair the alliance between the Wyr and the Elves, which all of a sudden turned into some battle to save the world from an elf who was being controlled by a powerful object made by a god. I guess the book was lacking in cohesion and seemed a bit fragmented. There just wasn't enough build up of tension or back story about the God Machines. It felt like I was reading two separate stories, one about Pia going to the Elven Demesne to try to repair the alliance and another about the battle against this crazy elf. It would have been better if the book was about, like I said, complications with her pregnancy or her secret of being a unicorn getting out or something like that, and her getting kidnapped by people who want to use her powers to their advantage. That would have been a really good read.

So I guess there wasn't much to like about this book, even the sex scenes were crappy compared to the first book, where they were crazy for each other and the scenes were really steamy. To be honest, I didn't feel their connection as strongly as I did in the first book, but maybe that's just me. 

But anyways, I FINALLY GOT TO POST AN ACTUAL REVIEW!!!! Yay for Spring Break!!! I'm hoping I'll be able to get 7 or 8 books in this week, and it might actually happen cuz I'm book starved and I read through this book like I was eating candy. Until next time!

Book Love,

Lena           

Finals, Finals, Finals!!!

Hi guys, I know it's been really long since I lasted posted a new entry, but school has kept me really busy. It's terrible!! I haven't done anything but study for weeks, and it still won't stop! Now I have to start studying for finals which are next week and which I am sure I am going to do really bad in. Honestly, professors need to stop assigning so much work! It's just not doable! I have three finals next week, two on Tuesday and one on Friday, and the one on Friday I have to prepare 19 essays because the teacher is going to pick 4 out of the 19 and we have to write on them. It's crazy right?! Who the hell makes your write 19 essays just to pick 4? Maybe 10 is okay, 8 is even better, but 19?! NO! Just kill me now, I don't think I'll survive finals week anyways.

But then after finals comes Spring Break, and you know what that means? I can read all I want!!!! Yaaaaaay!! I guess some people would be like "lame!" but to me its the best possible way I could spend my Spring Break, relaxing and not doing anything but reading. So hang in with me, there'll be a post up in about a week or so, and hopefully several more after that!