Porn Star by Laurelin Paige and Sierra Simone

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You know me.
Come on, you know you do.
Maybe you pretend you don’t. Maybe you clear your browser history religiously. Maybe you pretend to be aghast whenever someone even mentions the word porn in your presence.
But the truth is that you do know me.
Everybody knows Logan O’Toole, world famous porn star.
Except then Devi Dare pops into my world, and pretty soon I’m doing things that aren’t like me—like texting her with flirty banter and creating an entire web porn series just so I can get to star in her bed. Again. And again.
With Devi, my entire universe shifts, and the more time I spend with her, the more I realize that Logan O’Toole isn’t the guy I thought he was.
So maybe I’m not the guy you thought I was either.

 

MY REVIEW

I can’t believe that I just read a book titled PORN STAR.

Okay, quit laughing at me. We all know it is believable. I am a smut reader at heart.

I loved this book. I was so in love with Logan! It was love at first chapter! Devi was a great character as well and had the most hilarious parents.
The one person I couldn’t stand, besides Bruce the douchecanoe, was Raven. Every single time she was getting page time, I wanted to stab my eyes out.
I still have no idea what Logan saw in Raven.

Logan is left feeling depressed and in a rut after his long term girlfriend and co-star Raven has left him for another man. She didn’t give him a reason or a goodbye and even took their pet pooch.  Logan has been going through the motions of work filming his scenes and secluding himself from others. When he finally attempts to move on and attend an industry function, he finds himself watching his ex girlfriend making a scene herself with two other guys in the middle of the party. When he goes to leave, he runs into Devi Dare by the pool. Devi Dare is the industries hot female on female actress. The only “het”, or male and female, movie she has done was with Logan and Devi. Logan and Devi both hold secret fantasies and crushes on the other.  They even use the other as the focal point of their alone time fantasies. When Logan decides to move on for good, he concocts a plan to include Devi as his next partner in a reality based porn series. Of course the two fall in love during the process but then a whole new set of problems arise.  They find themselves questioning how to make a relationship will work without jealousy and hurt feelings. Logan never felt this way when he was with Raven, so they didn’t have many boundaries. Finding himself in a new situation is hard for Logan to figure out and he likes to compartmentalize his feelings while Devi finds it hard to do that.  She can’t seem to separate work and personal life. Finding the balance and the way to make their relationship work is the true heart of this story. Honestly, don’t let the title of Porn Star scare you away from this book.

Also, can we just mention that art gallery scene again?! Oh to be that old woman who got a visual. MMMmmmm.

A great read for all you smut readers out there!

MY FAVORITE QUOTES

“in my experience, the minute you mention you’re allergic to bees, people start mentally replaying that scene from My Girl, and that scene’s a bit of a boner-shrinker to be honest.)”

“You’re supposed to be unsure. You’re supposed to dare, not stand still. You risk. You take chances. You figure out how to live by living.”

“I’m scared too,” she says.  “But I’m with you.  If we fall, we fall together.”

MY RATING

GOODREADS / AMAZON

 

 

 

Gray’s Anatomy by Henry Gray

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Written in the 1850s by a young doctor, Henry Gray, Gray’s Anatomy was the most comprehensive and accessible anatomy of its time. This beautifully produced slipcased volume contains the historic text of the second edition and all of Henry Vandyke Carter’s masterly drawings. It is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the history of medicine or in the amazingly complex machine that is the human body.

If you plan on working in the medical field as a Doctor, Surgeon, or if you just want to expand your medical knowledge of the human anatomy, then this is the book.  This hardcover comes in a slipcased box to keep it protected. Inside the book you can find things like skeletal breakdowns, muscular breakdowns, and illustrations of each with in depth reading in each section.

I work in the medical field and I have always had a fascination of how the human body works and is built.  This book is a must have in learning these things.  The illustrations are a bonus to the reading. I proudly display this on my bookshelf and find myself looking through it for many pieces of information.

 

GOODREADS / AMAZON

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

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Red Queen

This is a world divided by blood – red or silver.

The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.

That is, until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.

Fearful of Mare’s potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime.

But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance – Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart.

I finished this book roughly around 8 hours ago.
8 hours.
8 hours of bickering in my head about this book.
How do I rate a book that I both loved and loathed?
This book brought out a RoLlErCoAsTeR of emotions.

Let me start with the main characters of the book.
Mare: This girl had me wanting to pull out every hair on my head. One minute she is in love with Maven and the next page she is kissing Cal. Bad Mare. Although to be quite honest, I still can’t decide which boy to choose either.
Maven: Poor, misunderstood and unloved spare for an heir Prince. I fell for your sweetness and smooth moves just as Mare did. Then you pull a one-two punch at me and I STILL wanted to like you. How can you do that to me?…I mean Mare.
Cal: The Prince that matters to the Kingdom. Not only is he first in line for that throne, but he has everything going for him. Feelings that get in the way and make you care. Oh let’s not forget how you can set us on fire….literally.

Now the plot reminded me of Game of Thrones.
There. I said it. I actually compared a book to another book and I am waiting for the ruler to strike my hands. I can’t help it though. I kept picturing the characters from GoTs in each role in Red Queen. Think about it for a few minutes and it works — and it is amazing!

Then we get to the final page and I am so frustrated with it. Seriously?! You chose that point in the story to stop and leave me hanging? No. Just NO! Just for the record authors, if you are going to leave us with that big of a cliff hanger, you better deliver sooner on that next book. Write faster!

With all that being said though, I love this book. I love how I was yelling out loud at the characters.  I wavered in my choice of which Prince was the right one for Mare. I was excited for each traitorous move on the chess board. I screamed at the ending and maybe thought about throwing it against the wall. All in all, the emotions the author put me through in this book is exactly what books should do. So bring on the next one. I can’t wait.

“The truth is what I make it. I could set this world on fire and call it rain.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Red Queen

GOODREADS / AMAZON

Stolen by Lucy Christopher

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STOLEN
by Lucy Christopher

Gemma, 16, is on layover at Bangkok Airport, en route with her parents to a vacation in Vietnam. She steps away for just a second, to get a cup of coffee. Ty – rugged, tan, too old, oddly familiar – pays for Gemma’s drink. And drugs it. They talk. Their hands touch. And before Gemma knows what’s happening, Ty takes her. Steals her away. The unknowing object of a long obsession, Gemma has been kidnapped by her stalker and brought to the desolate Australian Outback.  

Stolen is her gripping story of survival, of how she has to come to terms with her living nightmare – or die trying to fight it.

Where to begin? After reading the last page of this book, my feelings are all over the place. I loved the build up and the descriptive narration. I loved how the POV is from Gemma, but it is her writing the story to Ty. I loved that!

I might actually have Stockholm Syndrome for a fictional person.  I can completely understand how it would be easy to fall into that behavior because Ty was actually a nice guy. He knows what he did is wrong, but his reasoning for the kidnapping falls into the “knight in shining armor” mentality in his head.

Even though Gemma fights him every step of the way, she does start to understand him and come to care for him.  By the end of the story I was in tears. You can feel the heart break Ty experiences when the hardest decision he has to make comes sooner than later.

— “People should love what needs loving. That way you can save it.” — Ty, page 216.

AMAZON / GOODREADS

The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall by Katie Alender

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In this asylum, your mind plays tricks on you all the time…

Delia’s new house isn’t just a house. Long ago, it was the Piven Institute for the Care and Correction of Troubled Females—an insane asylum nicknamed “Hysteria Hall.” However, many of the inmates were not insane, just defiant and strong willed. Kind of like Delia herself.

But the house still wants to keep “troubled” girls locked away. So, in the most horrifying way, Delia gets trapped.

And that’s when she learns that the house is also haunted.

Ghost girls wander the halls in their old-fashioned nightgowns. A handsome ghost boy named Theo roams the grounds. Delia finds that all the spirits are unsettled and full of dark secrets. The house, as well, harbors shocking truths within its walls—truths that only Delia can uncover, and that may set her free.

But she’ll need to act quickly, before the house’s power overtakes everything she loves.

From master of suspense Katie Alender comes a riveting tale of twisted memories and betrayals, and the meaning of madness.

I have always set a rule in my reading that I would try and read one spooky themed book in October.  I set the romance books aside and enjoy at least one book to go with the Halloween themed thrills and mystery.  This time I chose The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall by Katie Alender. The cover is spooky and the glimpse of a scene we get on the back cover drew me into the story.

Not only do we have a house full of creepy and insane ghosts, but we have a house hell bent on keeping out of control teen ghosts from leaving the place. Delia inherits this mansion/asylum from her relatives and ultimately ends up being a part of the ghost world more than she would like to be.

The story was suspenseful and the author did wonderfully at describing things with giving the reader the chills.  You learn to never trust anyone until they prove that they are worthy of that trust — sometimes being the people you would least expects. Secrets are revealed as Delia learns more about the previous patients and family heritage.

While this book is aimed for the teenage audience, adults will enjoy it as well I believe.  It adds just amount of spooky for the month of October reading.

[sc:rate5 ]

GOODREADS / AMAZON