The Weekly Wrap Up (4)

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It’s time for the Weekly Wrap Up!
What did you miss this week on My Overstuffed Bookshelf?  Find out below!
(inspired by Smexy Books)

*****

Another week of madness and school functions for the kids has made this mom in need of some serious reading time!  I told my family that this week, I plan on reading to my hearts content and they will have to keep up with their chores because I am not doing them.  It is time for mommy time which involves a bunch of books!

REVIEWS
My Adventures As A Filmmaker by Andrew Jenks (1 Martini)
A Man For The Summer by Ruby Laska (2 Martini)
The Gamble by Kristen Ashley (4 Martini)
Against the Wall by Julie Prestsater (3 Martini)

COMING THIS WEEK
This week I will be featuring reviews of Falling For Finn and Sticks & Stones.  After those two reviews, I have a few discussion posts to decide on to get some feedback from all of you.  I have three other books I am needing to write reviews on as well, so they will be snuck in through out the week.

Any books you recommend for me to add to my “Buy” list for the week? What are you reading and is it one I should put on that list? Let me know in the comments!

Review: Against the Wall by Julie Prestsater

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Against the Wall
Series: Against the Wall #1
Author: Julie Prestsater

SUMMARY
(From Goodreads)

Shelly Gelson had it all…a job teaching English at Carver High, her best friend, Mel, working by her side and engaged to her high school sweetheart, Chase Marino. That is until Chase breaks her heart and leaves her for another teacher at the school. Now Shel is left broken hearted and trying to figure out what she wants while watching Chase and the home wrecker make moon eyes at each other. 

Enter Matt Fuller, Shel’s friend for the past 5 years and the perfect rebound. He’s gorgeous, smart, funny and fits into Shel’s idea of the right guy. Only problem is there may be more there then just a simple rebound. Is it a way to fill a void left by Chase, or is there more smoldering between these two friends? 

Find out what happens when the bell rings and the teenage drama ends and the adult drama begins. Who says being a teacher is boring? They obviously haven’t met the teachers at Carver High.

MY THOUGHTS

Against the Wall by Julie Prestsater is the first book in the Against the Wall series.

This was offered as a Kindle freebie and I had high hopes for it.  Most of the reviews I have read were fairly good ratings for this book.  The first half of this book had me laughing so hard my sides hurt.  I think I shared and highlighted so many passages in this book before the fifty percent mark that my Kindle is probably overloaded from hitting the share button.  Unfortunately, I am the small number of people to say that the humor was the only thing going for this read.

Shelly has broken up with her fiance after he dumps her for another teacher at Carver High.  They are both teachers at the school, so they will still see each other on a daily basis.  Summer, the girl Chase dumps Shelly for, is also a teacher at Carver High.  When her best friend Melissa — or aka Mel — pushes her to start dating again, she finally starts falling for fellow teacher Matt Fuller.

This book had a great potential with the plot.  It could have been wonderful due to the witty dialogue and quick wit that the author writes.  When it came to Shelly, she wasn’t too bad of a character.  She was funny, acted like she could be a person the reader could sympathize with, but she had no spark.  She was kind of dull at times and needed to move on already.  She explains that she had a on-again-off-again relationship with Chase until they became engaged.  They didn’t act like an actual couple though through Shelly’s memories.  We don’t even get to read much about their previous relationship – just bits and pieces.

Matt was a confusing character.  One minute I like him, the next I was wondering what the heck is this man thinking. All of a sudden we are suppose to believe that he is in love with Shelly but he also sets her up on dates with other men and says that it doesn’t bother him.  This is just one example of his confusing behavior.

When it came to Mel, she was a riot.  I really enjoyed her little side story and drama with her relationship and best friend support.  The only thing I didn’t like was how she kept reminding us she was married, then would go out to the bar with Shelly and then complain about her husband never being home. Oh, and be prepared to get an education on beer in this book.  That was another downfall. I think I know more about the different types of beer now than ever.

While there were plenty of humorous moments in this book, the pacing and characters were dull and flat at times.  I am curious though to read the next book in the series though just to see more of the side characters of this book.

MY RATING
Okay book, but it left me wanting more!

Review: The Gamble by Kristen Ashley

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The Gamble
Series: Colorado Mountain #1
Author: Kristen Ashley

SUMMARY
(From Goodreads)

Nina Sheridan’s on a timeout adventure in the Colorado Mountains. She needs distance from her clueless fiancé, distance to decide whether she wants to spend the rest of her life with a man who doesn’t care enough to learn how she takes her coffee.

Arriving in a blinding snowstorm at the A-Frame she rented, she comes face to face with the most amazing man she’s ever seen. Minutes later, when he kicks her out of his house, she goes head to head with him.

Beyond angry because she’s flown half a world away to start her timeout adventure, not to mention her sinuses hurt, she heads back down the mountain and ends up in a ditch. Unable to extricate herself, she gives up, hopes for rescue and falls asleep in the backseat.

The next morning she wakes up in the amazing man’s bed and she’s sick as a dog.

Holden Maxwell spends days nursing her back to health and then he spends the next two weeks trying to convince her to take her Colorado adventure further, in other words, make it permanent and take a gamble on him.

Nina has a tough time fighting her attraction to Max, especially when it seems all Max’s friends, her mother and stepdad and the whole town want them together and both she and Max get embroiled in the murder of Max’s ex-friend and the town of Gnaw Bone’s most detested resident – a man everyone has motive to kill, especially Max.

MY THOUGHTS

The Gamble is the first book in the Colorado Mountain series by Kristen Ashley.

First of all, if you have never read anything by author Kristen Ashley, you won’t understand the addiction of her books.  For those of you who have, I am sure you know what I mean when I say that her books are like crack for book addicts.  Sometimes you are rolling your eyes and shaking your head at the story, but you just can’t put the book down.  The Gamble was an addictive indulgence that helped ease my Kristen Ashley addiction.

Max is not a happy camper when he realizes that Nina is suppose to be renting his cabin for a few weeks.  When he is out of town for months on a construction job, he usually rents his cabin out for extra income.  When Nina refuses Max’s offer of a refund and a gruff apology, she is mad and according to Max — cute.  What follows is both of them sharing his cabin, many disagreements, sexy times that were hot, a murder in town, a fast relationship, mystery, and tons of characters. (Wow look at the length of that sentence! I must have KA fever!)

As you can see by the above sentence, Kristen Ashley books always have certain characteristics that set them apart from other books.  With run-on sentences, weird dialect (usually with the male characters), repeated ‘Yeah’s’ on almost every page, and hot male leads with the female leads giving as good as they get, you can’t help but keep reading and needing to know what is going to happen. I think my only real complaint is the length of the book.  I think it could have been cut in half — with the murderer revealed sooner — and it still would have been just as great.

The Gamble was a great way to get my fix for her writing and I can’t wait to continue in the Colorado Mountain series!

MY RATING

Very Good! I would recommend this book!

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: Andrew Jenks – My Adventures As A Filmmaker

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Andrew Jenks: My Adventure As A Filmmaker
Author: Andrew Jenks

SUMMARY
(From Goodreads)

Meet the filmmaker who is the voice of his generation!

Behind the camera, Andrew Jenks has captured the attention of young adults everywhere with his innovative MTV documentary series, World of Jenks. When asked about his inspiration for the show, Jenks said, “I want to tell the stories of my generation. I want to be a filmmaker that is able to capture what my generation thinks, how they act, and what they ultimately stand for.”

Now fans of all ages will be able to discover everything they’ve ever wanted to know about Jenks, from growing up to becoming a renowned documentary filmmaker in this comprehensive photo-biography. How did he do it? By following his own rules for success-always be flexible, fake it till you make it, and never accept no.

MY THOUGHTS

As most of you know, I am not a big fan of memoirs or biography.  Non-Fiction is usually not my cup of tea.  On a rare occasion,  I will read one if it is about someone that I have heard of or want to know more about. So when Scholastic sent me this book,  I was really hesitant on dedicating my time to it.  I have never heard of Andrew Jenks.

Now that I have read this book,  I am still on the fence about it.  The author came across as stuck-on-himself and it didn’t really interest me much.  Maybe it is because I never have heard of him before reading this, or maybe it is my usual aversion of these books that turned me off to truly enjoying it.  I also want to state that with this being an ARC copy, most of the photos that go along with the story were still missing and it left some holes in the story that a photo could have helped to tell it.

With that being said, if you are a budding filmmaker — or one who is planning to be in this field — then you might have a better time with this book.  Others might recognize Andrew Jenks and be fascinate with learning his journey.  I was not a big fan, but this might be a perfect fit for someone studying the making of film.

MY RATING

       
I did not like this book at all!