Review: The Perfect Play by Jaci Burton

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The Perfect Play
Author: Jaci Burton
Series: Play by Play #1
Genre: Steamy Romance

SUMMARY
(From Goodreads)

Football pro Mick Riley is an all-star, both on the field and in the bedroom. But a sexy, determinedly single mom just might be the one to throw him off his game…

For years Mick has been taking full advantage of the life available to a pro athlete: fame, fortune, and a different girl in every city. But when he meets and beds confident, beautiful event planner Tara Lincoln, he wants much more than the typical one-night stand. Too bad Tara’s not interested in getting to know football’s most notorious playboy any better.

As the single mother of a teenage son, the last thing Tara needs is the jet-set lifestyle of Mick Riley; even though their steamy and passionate one-night stand was unforgettable. Tara’s life is complicated enough without being thrust into the spotlight as Mick’s latest girl du jour. Tara played the game of love once and lost big, and she doesn’t intend to put herself out there again, especially with a heartbreaker like Mick.

But when Mick sets his mind to win, nothing will stop him. And he has the perfect play in mind.

MY THOUGHTS

Why have I waited so long to read this series? Maybe the hot cover side tracked me all this time because let’s face it, that cover is smoking hot!  I kept closing the book just so I could get another peek at that hot body.  I studied it long enough that I even noticed the sweat running down his chest!

I am not a big fan of sports in my romance, but author Jaci Burton really pulled it off in this one.  I didn’t feel too overwhelmed with statistics and sport plays in this one.  There was no shoving of the play book down my throat and the players actually seemed like real people.  I loved the character of Mick!  Hot, sexy and athletic all in one glorious package.  I could certainly see that cover model being Mick.  He seemed down to Earth without letting fame go to his head.  Tara was a little annoying at times with her constant reminders of being a single mother and having to give up so much to give her son a better life, but I shelved my feelings on that because the chemistry and attraction between the two made up for it.  Nathan, Tara’s teenage son, was actually portrayed as believable.  The side characters were also something I enjoyed reading about.  While I wasn’t a fan of Elizabeth, I can’t wait to see how her story will unfold with Mick’s brother Gavin.

While I felt the beginning of Mick and Tara’s romance was rushed and not that convincing, I did like how the relationship developed after their initial meetings.  Their relationship grew with real problems, emotions and turmoil.  I am really looking forward to reading about them again in future books.  A new series for me and one I will keep reading!

MY RATING

Very Good! I would recommend this book!

Cover Reveal of Up To Me by M. Leighton

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UP TO ME
Bad Boy Series #2
Author: M. Leighton
Expected Release Date: January 6, 2013


Happily ever after doesn’t come easy.  But for love, it’s always worth the fight.

Olivia finds bliss unlike any she’s ever known in Cash’s arms.  He sets her skin on fire and melts her heart right inside her chest.  Unfortunately, their happily ever after is short-lived when a shadow from Cash’s past threatens to turn their world upside down.

   Dangerous people from his father’s world have discovered that Cash holds information that could put them away for a very long time.  And they’re willing to do anything—and hurt anybody—to get it back.  Giving it up means Cash must choose between the life of his father and the life of Olivia.
Having nearly overcome her wariness of bad boys, Olivia’s trust is shaken when this new threat arises.  Now she finds that Cash is not only a danger to her heart, but his family has associations that are a danger to her life as well.  She soon discovers that there are some situations in life where trust is a girl’s only option.  And this is one of them.  If she’s to live, she must trust Cash with her life.  But to Olivia, that’s much, much easier than letting go and trusting him with her heart.

Flawed by Kate Avelynn

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Flawed
Author: Kate Avelynn
Genre: YA/New Adult

SUMMARY
(From Goodreads)

Sarah O’Brien is alive because of the pact she and her brother made twelve years ago — James will protect her from their violent father if she promises to never leave him. For years, she’s watched James destroy his life to save hers. If all he asks for in return is her affection, she’ll give it freely.

Until, with a tiny kiss and a broken mind, he asks for more than she can give.

Sam Donavon has been James’ best friend — and the boy Sarah’s had a crush on — for as long as she can remember. As their forbidden relationship deepens, Sarah knows she’s in trouble. Quiet, serious Sam has decided he’s going to save her. Neither of them realizes James is far more unstable than her father ever was, or that he’s not about to let Sarah forget her half of the pact…

MY THOUGHTS

I consider myself as a reader with a spine of steel.  I can read a book without shedding a tear and be proud of myself in the end.  Yet with Flawed, my steel spine broke.  I don’t think I have cried so much for characters of a book in this genre in a long time.  This book strung me along with despair, sadness, and the hopes of goodness being able to emerge. With the final two chapters though, I was an emotional wreck.

Let us start with the characters. Sarah is the youngest in a family that has so many emotional and physical pain that I don’t think I could have survived if I were in her shoes. Her mother is practically locked in her own room so much that Sarah doesn’t even really know her.  She is just a fleeting image in her mind.  She has never been shown a mothers love and doesn’t even know what it is suppose to be like.  James is Sarah’s older brother.  He has always protected her as much as possible from their father.  He always tried to take the beatings their father dished out so Sarah would not have to suffer through them.  This is not to say that she escaped the physical abuse.  Sarah has plenty of scars to show that she has suffered from it as well.  Their father was a horrible man who use to be a boxer and is now working at the mill.  He works, drinks, and then turns on his family every chance he gets with his boxing experience.  When Sarah and James were younger, they promised to always be together and love each other.

Now lets discuss the writing.  Author Kate Avelynn has an amazing voice and talent.  She can bring out emotions in a reader with just a few words placed in the right context.  The suspense was built perfectly and just at the right pace.  The characters actually felt real to me and I can understand the reasons and events that shaped them into what they were.

The events that happen in this book are dark and depressing.  While this might be a turn off for some readers, I actually encourage you to dive into the lack of fluff and happiness so you can understand how emotional and real this book is.  While there are some sweet moments involving Sam and Sarah, it is by no means a fluffy and happy go lucky romance book.  The ending will rip your heart out and stomp on it with high heeled shoes.  Then just when you think your heart can’t possibly take much more, the author breaks it just a little more.  I was hoping for a different out come in the story, but I realize it wouldn’t have had the impact it did if the author would have changed even just one paragraph.

Flawed has left such an emotional impact on my reading that I am having a hard time accepting that the story is over.  I keep hoping if I reread it, I will find that it was just a dream and everything the characters went through didn’t happen.  Definitely a book that will be remembered for days after you read it.

MY RATING

Outstanding book that will stay on my bookshelf for rereading!

Guest Post with Author Cora Carmack

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Virginity.
Bliss Edwards is about to graduate from college and still has hers. Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, she decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible– a one-night stand. But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves her potential sexual partner alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half-a-brain would ever believe. And as if if that weren’t embarrassing enough, when she arrives for her first class of her last college semester, she recognizes her new theatre professor. She’d left him naked in her bed about 8 hours earlier.

GUEST POST by Cora Carmack


Hi! Thank you so much for having me here at My Overstuffed Bookshelf! I LOVE this blog (especially the martini glass rating system). My kind of place. J
I did a lot of thinking about what I wanted this guest post to be about, and in the end I decided to talk about perfection.
I feel like I see a lot of talk about “the perfect guy,” especially with reference to some of our favorite book boyfriends. Bloggers dedicate memes and posts and even tournaments to these fictional hotties.
And none of us are complaining because, hello, we’re all in love, too!
And let me tell you, if a man like my lead male Garrick walked through my door, I would never let him out.
I could probably talk forever about my book crushes, and I do whenever I’m out with book friends. J
But today I’d like to talk about what makes the perfect couple. Sometimes those hot fictional boys we love so much steal the show, and we forget entirely about the heroine and how the two stack up as a couple.
When I was writing LOSING IT, there was a moment after I finished the first chapter, where I almost decided to do the book in a split narrative, alternating chapters from Bliss and Garrick’s point-of-view. Ultimately, I decided not to do that (though the epilogue is in Garrick’s point-of-view). Some of you are probably disappointed by this news, but Garrick was such a strong, swoon-worthy character, that I didn’t think we needed his perspective to love him. It was really important to me that Bliss be a strong, well-rounded character that didn’t get lost behind our love for a guy.
And I hope I’ve made their relationship the focus, instead of just Garrick’s hotness.
So what makes a perfect couple?
Well, I think it’s similar to what makes a good couple in real life. In a good relationship, neither person loses him or herself to the other. They don’t become less in any way to please or appease the other. In fact, I think in a strong relationship, each person becomes more, becomes stronger because the other person is a part of their life.
Bliss, for example, has a tendency to stress and become paranoid. Calmness flies out the window, and she loses her head. Garrick grounds her (well, eventually, after he’s through flustering her). By the end of the book, he’s not taken away her quirkiness or her awkwardness, but I think he’s helped stabilize her life. On the flip side, Garrick can take things too seriously. He can be too blunt, too ruled by his emotions. He likes Bliss because she’s the opposite in many ways. She balances him out, makes him take life a little less seriously.
The ”Perfect Couple” doesn’t necessarily behave perfectly, and they certainly aren’t perfect in and of themselves. The perfect couple is one where you can see each other at your worst—whether it is in a mortifying situation (CATS!) or an unattractive one (sick in bed)—and love each other more for it.
I don’t know that I’ve managed to create “the perfect couple” in LOSING IT, but I’ve tried. There are a lot of books out there that I really love, but when I finished them, I was left with kind of an icky feeling because the relationship in the book felt too one-sided. The girl gave up too much of herself to the guy or vice versa. It didn’t keep me from liking the book, but if something similar happened to me in real life, I would walk away from a relationship like that without batting an eye.
In LOSING IT, I just wanted something good. Something honest. I wanted the kind of thing we all look for in real life.
Thanks again for having me! It’s been such a pleasure!
In Awkward

Cora
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I’m Cora Carmack,  a twenty-something writer who likes to write about twenty-something characters. I’ve done a multitude of things in my life– boring jobs (like working at Target), Fun jobs (like working in a theatre), stressful jobs (like teaching), and dream jobs (like writing). I enjoy placing my characters in the most awkward situations possible, and then trying to help them get a boyfriend out of it. Awkward people need love, too.  My first book, LOSING IT is available as an ebook on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren

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Beautiful Bastard
Series: Beautiful Bastard #1
Author: Christina Lauren
Source: ARC E-Book from Publisher
Genre: Adult Erotica
ISBN: 9781476730103

SUMMARY
(From Goodreads)

An ambitious intern. A perfectionist executive. And a whole lot of name calling. Discover the story that garnered more than two million reads online.

Whip-smart, hardworking, and on her way to an MBA, Chloe Mills has only one problem: her boss, Bennett Ryan. He’s exacting, blunt, inconsiderate—and completely irresistible. A Beautiful Bastard.

Bennett has returned to Chicago from France to take a vital role in his family’s massive media business. He never expected that the assistant who’d been helping him from abroad was the gorgeous, innocently provocative—completely infuriating—creature he now has to see every day. Despite the rumors, he’s never been one for a workplace hookup. But Chloe’s so tempting he’s willing to bend the rules—or outright smash them—if it means he can have her. All over the office.

As their appetites for one another increase to a breaking point, Bennett and Chloe must decide exactly what they’re willing to lose in order to win each other. Originally only available online as The Office by tby789—and garnering over two million reads on fan fiction sites—Beautiful Bastard has been extensively updated for re-release.

MY THOUGHTS

Seriously? Come on.  What the hell did I just read?  I hate to say this, but I think I just lost 3 hours of my life reading this and I want them back.  I feel a migraine and it started from Chapter One and I don’t know how to make it quit.

First let me tell you what I think of the characters.  Chloe is just a plain witch.  I couldn’t stand her, her attitude, her mouth and anything that came out of it.  Bennett appeared to be the asshat that the author wanted to portray and even had the attitude to pull it off, but he seemed to have a better grip on emotions and such to rate just a wee bit higher on the scale than Chloe.

Now for the plot. Was there one?  I am still wondering since I am having to purge my brain from all the sex scenes in this book.  I admit, I like to read my smut, but enough already!  It seemed like these two characters had sex every few pages.  I am sure the plot was in between those times, but I must have missed it.

Why is Bennett such a beautiful bastard?  Well, he is described as a smoking hot boss, but the bastard part was never really clear for me.  Why did they not get along?  Still scratching my head on this one too.  It wasn’t explained very well, but again maybe the overload of sex in this book covered it up.

The dialogue and pace of this book?  Let me just stop shaking my head at this one for a moment.  I guess the pace was okay but the dialogue was seriously messed up.  I think I might have even laughed when I wasn’t suppose to.

If I had to read about one more pair of fancy panties getting ripped I might just explode.  Every freaking time?  You would think she would just quit wearing panties and save some money.

I admit, I was one of the readers dying to read and review this book early.  I jumped for joy and hid from the family for hours just to get the chance to do this.  Then I came out of my hiding place and begged my family to forgive me.

MY RATING

       
I did not like this book at all!
(pre-order)
* I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review *