Review: Wreck Me by J.L. Mac

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Wreck Me
Series: Wrecked #1
Author: J.L. Mac

SUMMARY
(From Goodreads)

Life can be cruel. People can be ruthless and evil. The world can be cold and uninviting. No one knows these things better than Josephine Geroux. By her own definition, she is a twenty-five year old “nobody with nothing,” and she is content to stay that way. Growing up an orphan has made her tough and indifferent to the people around her until she meets a strangely familiar man with a face that haunts her for reasons she can’t understand.

Despite the pain that will inevitably ensue, she makes it her mission to discover what parts of her tragic puzzle she is missing. On her journey to discovering why the she feels an alarming connection to an absolute stranger, her greatest fear is reawakening the demons and darkness from the past that will surely overtake her if she lets her guard down. 

Little does Josephine know that the past should be the least of her worries. She is toying with a man who has already broken her heart once. She just doesn’t realize it.

Although she makes it a point to avoid interactions with others, Josephine’s life becomes entangled with the enigmatic stranger. Before she realizes it, she has given herself over to the one person who is close enough to wreck her.

MY THOUGHTS

Wreck Me is the first book in the Wrecked series by author J.L. Mac.

This has to be one of the hardest reviews to write.  I am so on the fence with the rating that I am still not sure if I the one I give is the right one or not.  I had a really hard time reading this book.  The other reviews were so conflicting that I ended up buying it anyway to form my own opinion.

The pacing of this book is fast.  I am talking instant love and devotion in the space of 24 hours or less. Not only do they start sleeping together right away — which I can handle in a romance book — the showering of gifts and attention is almost instant.  I was shaking my head through the first half of this book.  I even complained about reading it to the point of forcing myself to read the rest of it.  Jo was not a character I enjoyed.  Sure, she has had a rough life but her attitude was rude and obnoxious.  Damon could be Alpha Male in the bedroom, but the rest of the time he was like the puppy he bought for Jo.  He bordered on sappy at times and trying too hard with Jo. I think my favorite character of this book though is a Damon’s Grandmother.  She was funny and kept my interest when she was in the scenes.

There are also grammatical errors that could be annoying to some readers, but honestly I don’t usually pay attention to those things since I make plenty of mistakes myself.  So if this is a big thing for you as a reader, be prepared for some.

As I approached the last quarter of this book though, it started to turn around.  I started to fall for Damon and I felt his pain.  While I don’t agree with his final decision in the last chapter, I can see the setup for the next book because of it.  This is where it is hard to make a final decision for my rating.  I hate that I had to wait until the last part of the book to finally find myself feeling for the characters and starting to enjoy the writing.  I couldn’t understand why the first 2/3 of the book couldn’t be as good as the last 1/3.

Since the ending is left on such a cliffhanger, I am compelled to read the next book. Now that I have made a connection with the characters, I need to see the outcome of the decisions they have made.  I am hoping that the next book will have the gusto that the last part of this book had.

MY RATING

If the library doesn’t have it, don’t worry about reading it!

Review: Louder Than Words by Laurie Plissner

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Louder Than Words
Author: Laurie Plissner

SUMMARY
(From Goodreads)

Since the snowy night when her family’s car slammed into a tree, killing her parents and little sister, Sasha has been unable to speak except through a computer with a robotic voice. Nothing is wrong with her body; that’s healed. But, after four years, Sasha’s memory, and her spirit, are still broken. Then one day, she’s silently cussing out the heavy book she dropped at the library when a gorgeous, dark-haired boy, the kind of boy who considers Sasha a freak or at least invisible, “answers” Sasha’s hidden thoughts — out loud. Yes, Ben can read minds; it’s no big deal. He’s part of a family with a host of unusual, almost-but-not-quite-supernatural talents. Through Ben’s love, Sasha makes greater progress than she has with a host of therapists and a prominent psychiatrist. With him to defend her, bullies keep the world from ever understanding Sasha, he pulls away. Determined to win him and prove her courage by facing her past, Sasha confronts her past — only to learn that her family’s death was no accident and that a similar fate may wait for her, in the unlikeliest of disguises.

MY THOUGHTS

Louder Than Words is the debut novel by author Laurie Plissner.

The summary of this book was what intrigued me instead of the cover.  While I can say the cover did absolutely nothing for me, the summary itself is what drew me into wanting to read it.  I loved the premise of this book — to the point to where I thought it was well outside the box of normal when it came to young adult paranormal.  The romance was a little on the darker side without the sweetness you would expect, but one that was different but good.  While I can’t say I was a fan of each of the characters, I can say that the author did have a great voice in her narration and execution of story.

It is kind of hard to describe how I felt upon reading the last page of this story.  It was good, but it wasn’t one that blew me away.  It had moments I enjoyed, but it also had moments that I didn’t.  While some parts I wanted to reread again and again, there were also parts I wanted to skim over to get to the next part of the story. There were several things going on at one time that led the reader down a different path than what you really wanted to read about.  At times it became too much and I wished the author would have just stuck with one or two things to keep me interested.

While this book is good for a debut author,  I feel it could have been better.  I think the book just needed a little more polishing before the ending was revealed.  Even though it wasn’t a favorite book of mine this year, it is an author I will keep an eye out for in the future for more.

MY RATING

If the library doesn’t have it, don’t worry about reading it!

Review: Raid by Kristen Ashley

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Raid
Series: Unfinished Heroes #3
Author: Kristen Ashley

SUMMARY
(From Goodreads)

Hanna Boudreaux has lived in the small town of Willow, Colorado all her life. The great-granddaughter of the town matriarch, she’s sweet, cute and quiet.

Too quiet.

Hanna has a moment of epiphany when she realizes her crush for forever, Raiden Ulysses Miller, is not ever going to be hers. She sees her life as narrow and decides to do something about it.

Raiden Miller is the town of Willow’s local hero. An ex-marine with the medal to prove his hero status, he comes home, shrouded in mystery. It takes a while but, eventually, Hanna catches his eye.

But after all these years of Raid and Hanna living in the same town, the question is, why? Is Raid interested in Hanna because she’s sweet and cute? Or does Raid have something else going on?

MY THOUGHTS

Raid is the third book in the Unfinished Heroes series by author Kristen Ashley.  The two main characters in this book are Hanna Boudreaux and Raiden Miller.

This first book in this series titled Knight was a disappointment to me.
The second book in this series titled Creed was better, but it wasn’t perfect.
After waiting not-so-patiently for the third book titled Raid, I was hoping it would climb to the peak and be the one in that saved the day. Unfortunately, this book was not as great as I was hoping.

First things first though.  Let’s talk about the characters and the chemistry.  Raid, in my opinion, was my least favorite of all the Unfinished Heroes.  Knight was creepy because of his “Daddy” slang and Creed was just okay but sexy.  Raid was a jerk and hovered on that line of asshole and alpha man.  There were times where he could be swoon worthy and sexy, but then he would step over that line into jerks-are-us territory.  Seriously, if he had called me a name and treated me the way he treated Hanna, there would have to be serious groveling including jewelry, begging on knees and a florist shop in my living room.  This particular scene was one of the main reasons I didn’t like him.  Yes he us dealing with PTSD, but that is no excuse.  I was willing to overlook the “dream” incidents, but that bordered on verbal abuse to me.  When Hanna brings it up with her best friend, she basically tells Hanna that this is alpha-man material. Not in my book.

Moving on.  I am also disappointed in the lack of action and suspense with this installment.  There is a scene near the end where it just starts to get good.  The bad guys seem like they are going to come out of the woodwork, but when it finishes we don’t even get to see Raid really do the action part of it. I wanted to see some serious bad guy beating and see Raid get into the bad-ass role he was suppose to have. I felt cheated when this doesn’t go down.

I will also mention that this book was shorter than the other books.  With Kristen Ashley you expect some long books with stuff that could be cut out.  Well, it seems she did that and cut out major parts of the story though.  I wanted more. I couldn’t believe it when my Kindle told me that the book was complete.

While others have raved about this story and have even liked it above the others, I have to say that it wasn’t one of my favorites by this author.  I will continue to read the series for the simple fact that Kristen Ashley is like crack for book addicts, but I won’t be getting my hopes up as high as I did this time.

MY RATING

If the library doesn’t have it, don’t worry about reading it!

REVIEW: A Man For The Summer by Ruby Laska

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A Man For The Summer
Author: Ruby Laska

SUMMARY
(From Godreads)

Dentist Junior Atkinson left her tiny home town to see if she would fit in better in the big city.

She definitely didn’t.

Now she’s back, living in the house she grew up in, friendly with every citizen of the two-stoplight town. Things couldn’t be more wonderful. Well, maybe if her patients paid her regularly.

If there was an eligible man in a fifty-mile radius.

If she hadn’t just been told that a medical condition meant she had only a few more fertile months despite her tender age of twenty-eight.

Junior barely has time to digest this news when she finds hunky travel writer Griff Ross in her chair with a hell of a toothache.

MY THOUGHTS

A Man For The Summer was offered as a free read on Amazon and I am a sucker for free reads.  Sometimes the free reads are like little gems and sometimes they can be not so pretty.

The first two or so chapters had real potential.  We have Griff Ross who ends up in Junior Atkinson’s office for a toothache.  The banter between the main and side characters was amusing, engaging and flickered with sparks.  After those few chapters though, the book fizzled and never took off.  I was bored and shaking my head at Junior’s behavior.  Not only that, but Griff comes across as gruff and stand offish at first then does a complete turnaround the next day.

The pace of the story was also an issue for me.  It would move fast – like how they meet one day and sleep together the next – then it would drag out and make my finger twitch wanting to hit the button for the next page.

While this book wasn’t a complete loss — even if it was a free read — it wasn’t one I would consider memorable or wanting to read more of.  One to take it as is being a book to pass some time without having high expectations.

MY RATING

If the library doesn’t have it, don’t worry about reading it!

Review: His Undoing by Aria Grace

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His Undoing
Author: Aria Grace
Genre: M/M Romance Short Story

SUMMARY
(From Goodreads)

When Mike found out he would be sharing a dorm with a former football star, he was terrified. He’d been bullied by jocks all his life for being scrawny and weak and didn’t have high expectations of how it would go. To his surprise, Brett was a great guy that was easy to get along with and seemed to enjoy his company. When Mike learned that Brett was gay, it was a shock but it also explained the threatening letters that Mike had been receiving. Was Mike really at risk because of a jealous ex? Was there even anything to be jealous of? 

MY THOUGHTS

His Undoing by Aria Grace is a short story in the M/M Romance genre.  It is told from Mike’s point of view.

Like other reviewers of this story,  I feel that only having the one point of view is what made this story not as great as it could have been.  I enjoyed reading from Mike’s POV but I this story would have made better sense and would have been better at the execution if we could have peeked into what Brett was feeling as well.

Mike is a guy who has always had a hard time talking to girls.  He is still a virgin, scrawny and tall, and not very muscular.  He is starting college and is dreading wondering who his roommate will be.  When he enters his new room, he meets Brett who happens to be a muscular jock.  He thinks he is going to be picked on by Brett and his friends, but they both become good friends.  Brett even introduces him to his game buddies, the cheerleaders and eventually fills Mike in that he is gay.

While Mike is trying to figure out who he really is — gay or straight like he has always though he was — he is attacked in the dorm.  This is the part that would have made having Brett’s point of view to give us a little more.  When it is revealed who the attacker was, it is a character pulled into the story from no where.  This is someone who is not mentioned throughout the story and we never even get a glimpse at this person. It made the suspense and buildup of the “who-done-it” quite a let down.

While the tender and sexy moments were written pretty well, this story really need to have Brett’s story told as well.

MY RATING

If the library doesn’t have it, don’t worry about reading it!