Veronica Roth - Divergent

Divergent is an imaginative, exciting, fast-paced, adrenaline-driven, and honest-to-God amazing read . The world Miss Roth created is very interesting and a real possibility for the future of our society. I also loved her characters because I felt I was reading about real people; Roth didn't try to romanticize her characters and give them only happy feelings. 

I found Tris to be a very human character. I know that sounds weird, but what I mean is that a lot of authors like to make their characters be nice and compassionate and just overall good people; but Tris wasn't compassionate and she really didn't care about others, all she wanted to do was survive the Dauntless training and not get close to anyone. I have to admit that I didn't particularly like the fact that she wasn't compassionate and didn't care about her friends, but it's real . People have ugly sides to them and I think it's good that Roth didn't hide that from the reader. 

Divergent is also not your typical YA read. It is gritty, dark, and no-holds-barred; no light and fluffy feelings here. There is a good deal of violence and death, and the good people aren't spared from it. 

Overall, an incredible start to a series, and I look forward to reading the rest in the Divergent trilogy.

Book Love,

Lena

Rachel Higginson - Hopeless Magic

Holy mother-cracking hell that was freakin INTENSE!! Like habanero peppers mixed with tabasco sauce intense. Just wha--why--how--who--what? What the hell did I just read!!Oh my god I seriously can't believe the book ended how it did. HOW COULD KIRAN DO THAT!!!!! I never really liked Kiran because he's been an asshole to Eden since the first book, but I really wanted to believe the best of him and give him the benefit of the doubt despite having a bastard of a father and being a bit--or a lot--of a prick himself. But no, he just had to prove that he was just like his father. 

I felt so so so so soooooooo terrible for Eden. She absolutely loved Kiran and then he goes and betrays her in the worst way possible. He totally killed their love, and I can't understand how he could think that Eden would forgive him for that. For a second I thought he was insane, like literally psycho, acting like everything was fine and telling Eden they had to leave like nothing had happened. He was totally unreasonable in believing Eden would keep loving him after what he did.

This is the first book I've read where two people are soul mates and absolutely love each other and one of them betrays the other in such an atrocious and horrible way. I have absolutely no idea how Eden and Kiran could possibly come back from this. How do you even forgive something like that? I would find it impossible to do. I'm on the edge of my seat because I desperately want to know what happens next. Is Eden going to hook up with Jericho? Will she meet someone else? Will she forgive Kiran? Or will she stay by herself? The possibilities are endless. 

I do think she will get back with Kiran because, hello, they ARE soul mates, but that kind of betrayal leaves a lasting scar on a relationship; I don't see how things could ever be the same between them. I'll be excited to see how Ms Higginson handles this situation.

On a positive note, because of what Kiran did, Eden turned into a total badass, and I hope she stays that way, because I'm not really a fan of wimpy, whiny, cry-baby, woe-is-me heroines. I was really getting tired of her being this helpless girl who everyone had to protect and who was always being submissive. I have high hopes that all that is over and that she is now more mature and tough.

On another note, I love how the plot of the series is developing, with all the drama of Eden being the only hope of saving the Immortal race. I'm super excited to see how much stronger Eden's magic is going to get and how she is going to bring down the Kendrick line. If it weren't for the awesome plot full of magic, intrigue, action and mystery, I would have stopped reading a long time ago, because the romance is DEFINITELY not up to par. I find Kiran to be cowardly, wimpy and totally lacking as the hero, but well, that's just my opinion, you might not think so. To be honest, throughout most of this book, I actually liked Kiran and wanted his relationship with Eden to succeed. But now, not so much. 

There are so many more things that happened but I'm not going to reveal anything specific; you'll have to read the book and find out for yourself!!! Rarely do I give a book five stars, so believe me when I say this book is AMAZING.

Book Love,

Lena

Mary McCall - Highland Treasure

I was kind of skeptical about reading this book because though it has a lot of stars, it hasn't been reviewed by many people (see Goodreads.com), which made me think the rating would not be very reliable, and it wasn't. I would probably give this book between 2-2.5 stars. What is sad is that this book had a lot of potential, but an extremely fast-paced story line, a lack of depth, and unrealistic situations/characters made it just an ok read. 

For one thing, everything happened extremely fast in this book, from Leonce and Hope getting married to them falling in love. This all happened in just a couple of days, and it just wasn't realistic and didn't allow the reader to enjoy the buildup of emotions between the H/h. It also was not believable that Hope, who had been abused by her father for years, could trust a man within days of meeting him. It was disappointing that Hope didn't make Leonce fight for her love. Instead of reacting like a normal woman who has been tricked into marriage by a man she has known for mere days and trying to escape or make his life impossible, Hope just randomly decides that she will give her heart to him and she will make him fall in love with her, WHEN THEY BARELY KNOW EACH OTHER!!!! Ugh it was just so unbelievable and annoying. And seriously, what was up with Hope? Was she bipolar or something? because she would be exuberant one moment and completely defeated the next, I swear it gave me emotional whiplash; I couldn't keep up with her mood swings. 

The lack of buildup also contributed to a lack of depth in the book. Because the author didn't give the characters time for their feelings to develop, it all felt very fake and cheesy. It would have been nice if Hope and Leonce had both had to work at cracking the other's shell and gradually falling in love, rather than how it played out. 

I'm also not sure whether to call Leonce an alpha male; I'm leaning more towards NOT. He just didn't make me feel like he was dominant and in control; most of the time he felt more like a petulant child rather than a grown man. Mind you, I'm not saying he should have exerted more control over Hope, but rather exuded more confidence and manliness than he did in the book. It just did not seem realistic that a Highland chieftain in the 11th century would have acted how he did.

I also felt like there was little plot in the book. It mostly consisted of Hope playing games, angering people, fighting with Leonce, and discovering she had family pretty much everywhere, which was also highly unrealistic and cheesy. I felt like the matter of her abusive father was not given much thought and was resolved much too quickly. There was basically nothing to make this book exciting, like mystery or intrigue. The magical aspect of the book (view spoiler) totally fell flat and was way too downplayed for my tastes. When people found out she was the Gifted One, they were in awe for like two seconds and then everyone forgot about it -__- . If it had been made a bigger part of the book, it would have made it so much better. It would have been cool if, say, her abusive father and his men were after Hope for being the Gifted One but this was a secret from Leonce and everyone else, and they had to figure out why she was hunted or something like that. Just anything to make it more exciting!!! *Sigh* oh well.

Overall, it's an ok read if you're looking for something without too much depth. But if you're looking for something a little deeper, steer clear of this one.

Book Love,

Lena

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

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