Review: True Love Story by Williow Aster

All the books that I read, I go on my Amazon recommendations, which could be quite precarious sometimes, however it seems to have directed me to a good one this time. I was a bit apprehensive to download this book at the start due to the title as I thought, that is a big claim to make, but I eventually gave it a read and have kicked myself for not reading it sooner. True Love Story is the first published book by Willow Aster and I have to say CONGRATULATIONS, because I loved the book.

What is it about?

Ian Sterling is a guitar playing god in the music industry. He is hot, talented and charming. How can any woman resist? Sparrow Fisher, a preacher's daughter, finds that resisting Ian Sterling is hard to do, even when he pushes her away. 

I know what you are thinking, good little preacher's daughter, and a bad boy musician, she tames him, blah blah blah. Well that is not what this story is about. Sparrow, in essence is a good girl, but she is not a goodie-two-shoes by any means, she has her own dreams and plans to leave her small town and go to college in New York with her best friend. When Ian and Sparrow first meet, Sparrow has a boyfriend, however this doesn't stop Ian from pursuing Sparrow. 

When her boyfriend, proposes marriage after they have been dating for only 4 months, she decides to end the relationship, as she feels that she is too young to get married and there is the little problem of not being able to get Ian Sterling out of her mind. 

Over the years, Sparrow and Ian meet up and they start a relationship starts to build between the two. As the relationship builds, they become more committed to each other, and they enter and exclusive relationship, or so Sparrow thinks.

Review: Ruined by S. Pratt

Ok so where to start with this book... I read the blurb and thought, "hmmm, that sounds interesting." 

What is this book about?

On the outside you would think that Bailey Micheals had a great life, she was engaged to a handsome and successful man, had a great job and owned a house in a town she loved. However, Bailey gave her heart away many years before, to a man that she cannot have. Despite this, she cannot stay away from Angel and finds any chance she can to spend time with him. 

This the basic outline of the story, the I thought this is quite mysterious, so I gave the book a try. To my dismay, this was a BIG mistake!

What did I not like about this book?

Nothing really happens for most of the book, apart from Bailey and Angel have a very sexual relationship, whenever they are near each other. So it is a book full of sex with not much story behind it. There are times in the book when there are flashbacks to Bailey's adolescence, of her memories of Angel. S. Pratt writes the book in a way that gives the book mystery as you are lead to believe that it her secret lover may be her coach at school. 

I normally try to write a review without spoiling the story for others, however for you to understand why I hated this book, I have to reveal the big mystery behind this book, so if you are going to waste your money and read this book STOP READING NOW!

Review: REAL by Katy Evans

I finished reading Real by Katy Evans earlier this week and from the moment I started to read it, I couldn't put it down. I really liked the book and gave it four stars on Goodreads.

What is the book about?

Brooke is a dedicated athlete, who worked throughout her adolescence to achieve her dream of completing in the Olympics. Unfortunately, during the trails she, her ACL tore and she has say goodbye to the Olympics. Brooke decides to pursue a career in Sports Therapy.   

One evening, her best friend drags her along to an underground boxing match, where she catches the eye of Remington Tate, a champion boxer who is known to be a rule breaker. Brooke finds watching Remy fit in the ring, unbelieveably hot and when she walks away from the ring, Remy runs after her (after KO his opponent in the ring) as he has to know her name. The next time they meet, Remy offers Brooke a job as his Sports Therapist, meaning that Brooke will have to leave her home in Seattle behind, and travel the country with Remy and his team. The only problem... Brooke doesn't believe in sleeping with the "boss", and she struggles with her desires in an attempt to maintain a professional relationship. 

Sneak Peak: Faithful by Kelly Elliot (Wanted Series)

YAY!! I found this sneak peak of the of Faithful (the Third book in the Wanted Series). 

The book is set to be Josh and Heather's story, however, if the other books in the series are anything to go by, then I am sure there be snippets of Ellie/Gunner and Ari/Jefferson's story.  

Faithful is set to be released in August , 2013. 

Below is the Prologue and first chapter to Faithful. Please remember that this has NOT been edited and is subject to change before publishing. 

REVIEW: Saved by Kelly Elliott

As soon as I finished reading Wanted by Kelly Elliot, I started reading Saved (the sequel to Wanted).

If you have not read Wanted, then I suggest that you read the book so that you can understand what his going on in Saved.

What is it about... 

By the end of Wanted, Ellie and Gunner got married and Jeff and Arianna finally started the romantic part of their relationship. The start of Saved carries on from where Wanted left off, with Jeff about to propose to Arianna, when Arianna found out that while they were apart, Rebecca, a girl that Jeff had sex with, was pregnant. After an emotional confrontation between the love birds, Ari decides that she is not going to give up Jeff without a fight. Little did she know that Rebecca feels the exact same way. Throughout, the book shows the battle between Ari and Jeff, with Ari trying to accept that Jeff may be having a baby with someone else, and Jeff trying to be there for the baby, as well as being there for Ari.

Their relationship becomes strained when Rebecca obsessively calls Jeff, claiming that she needs him to do things for the babies arrival, Jeff, not wanting to be like his father who was not around, he drops everything to be there for his unborn child. This leads to Ari feeling like she is second best, and she starts to worry about Jeff gaining feelings for Rebecca when the baby is born.

REVIEW: Wanted by Kelly Elliott

I read Wanted by Kelly Elliott last year, but I couldn't remember what the book was about or what happened, and when Saved (the Sequel to Wanted) was released, I decided that I should reread the first book so that I got a better understanding of what  and why things where happening in the second book.

Originally I gave the book a 4 stars on Goodreads, and I still stand by this.

What is it about?

The story is about Ellie Johnson, a 18 year old, whose has suffered from verbal abuse from her mother since she was a little girl. Her mother always told her that no boy would ever love her or want her. As she got older, she tried to dating, however she always seemed to choose guys that cheated on her, which supported her mother's taunts and Ellie began to believe that she would never be wanted or loved. In Ellie's senior year of high school, she catches her boyfriend cheating on her, and she calls her older brother Jefferson to come and pick her up from school. Jefferson has always been very protective of Ellie, and when he arrives at the school, with his best friend Gunner, Ellie is arguing with her boyfriend in the hall.

From the first moment Gunner and Ellie laid eyes on each other they had an instant attraction to each other. Surprisingly, Jeff gives Gunner the OK to pursue his sister, however Ellie is hesitant at first to further their relationship past friends as she continues to be haunted by her mothers words.

Meanwhile, Ari, Ellie's best friend, has had a crush on Jeff since she was 10 years old. The only problem is that Jeff, is downright rude whenever Ari is around. He refuses to accept that he has feelings for Ari, whereas Ari refuses to accept that he doesn't have any feelings for her. So when he pushes her away, she tries to pull him in. This leads to some explosive confrontations, until Ari finally gives up and moves on. Little did she know that it would take her moving on for Jeff to accept he has feelings for her and actually fit for the 'women he loves'.

What did I like about this book... 

The story is written mainly in the first person, from the point of view of Gunner, Ellie, Arianna and Jefferson. For a majority of the book it is written in just Gunner and Ellie's perspectives, however there are a few chapters in Ari and Jeff's point of view, that looks at their dysfunctional relationship. I really like that the book doesn't just concentrate on one relationship, as sometimes in books they make the relationship so dramatic that you think, 'how can you put up with that??' With the book separating the drama between the two couples, it allows you to get all the drama that you want from a story, as well as maintaining some resemblance of reality.

So what did I not like about this book... 

...well, I didn't like that the book relied on instant love. That just makes me angry because you cannot know that you love someone because they touch your arm!! I mean seriously. I would have more respect for the book if it was that they found them so attractive they were really attracted to each other, and that they lusted after each other. But LOVE... I do not think so. 

REVIEW: Resisting Her by Kendall Ryan

So I have been a really bad blogger recently as I have not posted in a while. This is not due to the fact that I haven't read anything to blog about, because I have. I have gone a bit book crazy in my absence, with 9 books that I need to write a review for...

Last night I finished reading Resisting Her by Kendall Ryan. The book was easy to read and is not overly long (I finished it in a day).

The story is about an FBI agent, Colby Fletcher aka Cole, who is very career driven, and a bit of a workaholic. One of his missions is to enter a cult compound and extract the cult leader, and rescue the cult followers. Cole finds Savannah, a 19 year old girl, hiding in the corner in one of the backrooms. Cole feels a need to 'save' her and when she is later relocated to a Halfway House, he just can't seem to stay away from her. After they spend an afternoon together he gives her his number. That night she calls him in tears and he brings her home to stay with him. They develop a relationship once Cole admits that he has feels for Savannah and realises that he cannot 'resist her' any longer.

I had really high hopes for this book, as the story line was so strong for the first 75% of the book. The opening plot was very original and the characters were captivating. Kendall Ryan did a really good job of showing how venerable Savannah is, as her mother died and she was separated from the only family and life shes ever known. She was thrust into this different world and she has some internal struggles, trying to decide  if what she was brought up to believe in the cult was actually true. Ryan also does a great job at showing Savannah's personality changes as she gains more confidence in herself and the character evolves, and by the end of the book she is no longer that sad scared character that she was in the beginning.

As a mentioned before, the I enjoyed the first 75% of the book and there was so much promise, however I found the last 25% to be lacking any sort of story apart from Savannah and Cole having a lot of sex, nothing really happened. Throughout the book there are references made about Dillon  the son of Jacob (cult leader), who believes that Savannah belongs to him. He ends up tracking Savannah down and leaves threatening notes outside the apartment and on Cole's car. At this point in the book I was getting excited about there being some sort of showdown between Cole and Dillon  I mean Cole is a FBI agent after all!! Alas, that is not what happens. Cole ends up taking Savannah away for the weekend and he calls his boss who brings Dillon in for questioning, and the FBI team happen to uncover a lot of marijuana in his car. He ends up being arrested for dealing drugs and sent to prison for a few years. Talk about an anti climax!!

I was hoping that Ryan was leading us into the sequel of the book to where Dillon would be released from prison and he would come after Savannah, but from the looks of things, there is no sequel set in the pipeline. BOOOO!!

In all, I like Ryan as an author and will definitely read some of her other books in the future. Hopefully they have a stronger ending though!