Review: Elevator Heat by B.D. Rowe

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

19542130

 

Elevator Heat
Author: B.D. Rowe
Release Date:  12/14/2013

SUMMARY
From Goodreads

Twenty-year-old Maddie has had a crush on Colin, her studly internship supervisor, for three long months. She struggles focusing on her work, and always finds herself gazing at his wavy brown hair, his chiseled cheekbones, his kissable lips. Little does she know, however, that he has feelings for her, too.

The problem is no matter how much time they spend together in the office, neither one can ever make the first move.

That is, until they both step into the old, rickety elevator late one Friday night.

And things start to get a little steamy…

MY THOUGHTS

Another case of cover love hit me when I saw this book.  I loved the steamy cover.  I liked the summary of the story.  I loathed the story itself.

This book could have been good.  For short stories, elevator sex can be a great chance to write some sexy scenes while telling quick story.  What we get with Elevator Heat though is a big mess.  We get the quick read in first person, third person and everything in between.  I started to get a headache just trying to remember whose head we were in when we actually weren’t in someones head. Confused? Well so was I.  It lacked editing and had serious repetitiveness with words.

After about 2/3 of the book I gave up.  I just couldn’t bring myself to finish a story that lacked connection from the characters.

MY RATING
[sc:rate1 ]
DNF

AMAZON / GOODREADS

Review: Castle Hill by Samantha Young

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

18621172

Castle Hill
Series: On Dublin Street #2.5
Author: Samantha Young
Release Date: 12/3/2013

SUMMARY
From Goodreads

A Joss and Braden Novella

Braden Carmichael never imagined he’d fall as hard and as fast as he did for Jocelyn Butler. He also could not have anticipated how difficult it would be to convince her to give in to love. But now that he has her, he’s never letting go. He’s got it all planned—the passionate proposal, the dream wedding, the sexy Hawaiian honeymoon—even the perfect family they’ll start.

After trying to flee from her painful past, Joss is finally allowing herself to embrace the future. But when things start moving faster than she anticipated, she finds herself panicking over something Braden can’t understand. After everything they’ve been through, Joss is sure that their love can survive even her worst fears. But, this time, she may push Braden too far—and risk losing everything all over again…

MY THOUGHTS

Castle Hill is classified as a novella coming in at 97 pages according to Amazon.  It is a short story featuring Joss and Braden from the On Dublin Streets Series.

In Castle Hill, we are taken on a quick paced journey from dating to engaged, to engaged to married, and from married to honeymoon with  juicy story all around.  I loved revisiting Joss and Braden. We get to read how Braden proposes to Joss and the planning of the wedding.  Then we flash to the wedding itself that was beautiful but not overdone in details.  Following the wedding we flash forward just a bit to the honeymoon.  After that wonderful and romantic set of scenes, we flash forward to the juicy part of the story that provides a surprise for the happy couple.  What should be exciting news ends up being the conflict of the story based on a communication misunderstanding.  Unlike before though, it is a misunderstanding  from Braden and he ends up shutting Joss out this time.

If you are looking for a sweet and quick Braden and Joss fix, then this novella is perfect for that.  We even get to see side characters as well from the series to round it all out for the reader.

MY RATING
[sc:rate5 ]

AUTHOR WEBSITE / GOODREADS / AMAZON

Review: Foreplay by Sophie Jordan

by ⋅ 2 Comments

17254035

 

Foreplay
Author:  Sophie Jordan
Series: The Ivy Chronicles #1
Source: Publisher

SUMMARY
From Goodreads

Before she goes after the life she’s always wanted, she’s about to find the one she needs.

Pepper has been hopelessly in love with her best friend’s brother, Hunter, for like ever. He’s the key to everything she’s always craved: security, stability, family. But she needs Hunter to notice her as more than just a friend. Even though she’s kissed exactly one guy, she has just the plan to go from novice to rock star in the bedroom—take a few pointers from someone who knows what he’s doing.

Her college roommates have the perfect teacher in mind. But bartender Reece is nothing like the player Pepper expects. Yes, he’s beyond gorgeous, but he’s also dangerous, deep—with a troubled past. Soon what started as lessons in attraction are turning both their worlds around, and showing just what can happen when you go past foreplay and get to what’s real…

MY THOUGHTS

Foreplay is the first book in a new series by author Sophie Jordan.  Sophie Jordan is well known in the young adult genre for her Firelight Series.  Foreplay is the first book in The Ivy Chronicles geared for the New Adult genre.  The main characters are Reece and Pepper.

Pepper has always had a crush on her best friends brother, Hunter.  He is reliable, safe and cute.  With her life planned out in her head, Pepper is determined to have Hunter now that he is single.  Since Pepper has no experience with dating or with men, her friends decide to find her a man that would be able to help in that department with no strings attached.  They decide to use the town playboy that everyone has been talking about from the local bar/club.  This is where Reece enters the scene and ladies, pick your chin up and wipe the drool.  Not only is he sexy and hot, he is sweet and charming too!  He has manners and is an all around good guy.  I will say that Reece is not what you expect while reading this book.  There is a curve ball thrown in to make you rethink the mysterious aura that is surrounding Reece.  By the end of the book you will have a hard time choosing between Hunter and Reece just like Pepper.

The only reason I didn’t give this book the highest rating is because it did drag in some parts of the story.  There were a few times I just wanted the author to get on with the story already and get rid of some of the ‘filler’ pages. This is one series though that I am excited to read more of in the future!

FAVORITE QUOTE

“You can’t even see it. I’m the safest thing you’ll ever find.”

MY RATING

[sc:rate4 ]

AUTHOR WEBSITE / GOODREADS / BUY ON AMAZON

Review: Walking Disaster by Jamie McGuire

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

Walking Disaster
Series: Beautiful #2
Author: Jamie McGuire

SUMMARY
(From Goodreads)

Finally, the highly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Beautiful Disaster. Can you love someone too much?
Travis Maddox learned two things from his mother before she died: Love hard. Fight harder.

In Walking Disaster, the life of Travis is full of fast women, underground gambling, and violence. But just when he thinks he is invincible, Abby Abernathy brings him to his knees.

Every story has two sides. In Beautiful Disaster, Abby had her say. Now it’s time to see the story through Travis’s eyes.

MY THOUGHTS

Walking Disaster is the second book in the Beautiful series by author Jamie McGuire.  This book is almost a mirror image of Beautiful Disaster except it is from the point of view of Travis.  I admit that the first book was not a favorite of mine.  I thought Travis was a man who abused Abby mentally and verbally.  Instead of rehashing all of my feelings from the first book, I will just let you read my previous review found HERE.

Now do I still feel the same way after finishing it from Travis’s POV? Well, I still consider Travis a beautiful disaster.  The only difference is now we get pieces of his past that help us to understand why he is so possessive.  I won’t excuse his behavior with that last line, but it does give us insight on how he was shaped into the man he is now. We also get to read about how insecure Travis really is deep down.  On the outside he is the man every girl wants.  What we get to read about though is how Travis is struggling about how he doesn’t feel good enough to be with Abby.  He considers himself a failure and a loser.

Abby is still Abby in this book.  I still want to know how she walks straight without a backbone.  This girl needs to find one stat. I was willing to overlook the lack of backbone this time around though since we knew this would be about Travis.

Can I also mention that cover? The previous book had a ho-hum cover that really didn’t capture my interest. This cover screams SEXY and is perfect for Travis’s story to be wrapped up in.  Kudos to the cover art department on this one.

Overall, this installment in the series was much better than the first.  I am still not a fan of the relationship between Abby and Travis.  They had a hard road that had way too many bumps that were borderline psychotic.  I will mention that the epilogue of this story though was sweet and gave us a peek into the future. While I still wouldn’t go all out and say it was a beautiful disaster of a book, it was one that made you walk a mile in the other persons shoes to see what is really going on inside their mind.

MY RATING

Very Good! I would recommend this book!
*Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley.  I received this ARC free of charge in exchange for an honest review*

Review: Vacant by Evelyn R. Baldwin

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

Vacant
(Adult Version reviewed)
Author: Evelyn R. Baldwin

SUMMARY
(From Goodreads)


Ethan Parker gets up every day, surviving the only way he knows how—alone. Orphaned as a child and forced into the child welfare system, he knows better than to depend on anyone but himself. He’s learned trust is a word used all too often, but rarely earned. Ethan believes that his best chance for maintaining a simple and solitary existence is to live by a simple mantra: Don’t get involved. Keep things simple. Take care of yourself! 

When a young woman moves in next door, Ethan is forced to reevaluate his beliefs. He tries to keep his distance, but his new neighbor’s infectious smile and outlook on life leave him struggling with the decision of living the life he knows, or taking a chance on the unexpected. As Ethan develops a relationship with his new neighbor, Emily, he realizes nothing is simple and learns that life is about more than just surviving… it’s about living.

**This version contains sexual content only suitable for adult audiences.

MY THOUGHTS

I am reviewing the Adult Version of this book but there is also a clean version for the young adult crowd.  Vacant by author Evelyn R. Baldwin was a book I heard about on another blog and it sounded interesting to me.  When I purchased it at $3.99, I forgot to check out the page numbers like I usually do when purchasing e-books.  I am a firm believer that if your book is a short story/novella that is coming in under 100 pages, then the price should be no more than $1.99.  This is a personal decision, but I was a little bit disappointed in myself for not realizing that I paid $3.99 for a book that only came in at 85 pages according to Amazon.

**personal rant over…on with the review**

I have to say that I really enjoyed this short story.  I loved how Ethan came from a hard life but still had the compassion and love in his heart still to take in Emily when she was needing it.  I liked the slow build-up of their romance and the way the pace was in it.  Even though it was short, and the characters grow from months to years even, I think if the author had made this longer it would have been just words to fill the pages to make a word count.  The only part that felt rushed was the last two or so chapters.  I know that short stories need to wrap up fairly quickly, but the rushed ending was like a sprint for the finish line to make the reader happy after all the good we just read earlier.  Again, this was the adult version with their being adult like scenes of sex.  I am assuming that in the clean version, the author might have reworked those scenes or possibly cut them out.  I am not sure which so be prepared when you purchase to get the one that you prefer.

Even though the ending wasn’t what I would have wanted lengthwise, I still thought this book was written wonderfully.  The author has a great voice, one that kept me interested and wanting more.  I am currently eyeing a few of her previous works for future reads, but I am hoping they will be longer so I can enjoy it for a longer amount of reading time.

MY RATING

Very Good! I would recommend this book!