Review: Nothing Left to Lose by Kirsty Moseley

I have finally completed reading Nothing Left to Lose by Kirsty Moseley. Warning: the book is very long so if you are looking for a quick read, this is not it.

What is Nothing Left to Lose about?

Annabelle Spencer’s life is every girl’s dream. She has wonderful parents, great friends, and of course the perfect boyfriend, Jack Roberts. That all changes on her sixteenth birthday when her life comes crashing down around her. Her dream night turns into a nightmare when Jack is murdered right in front of her, and she’s kidnapped by his murderer, Carter Thomas, a big time drug and arms dealer.

After five months of being with Carter, she’s found, but the experience has totally changed her. She’s no longer the happy-go-lucky girl that everyone used to know and love; she’s now cold, hard and suffers from night terrors. It appears that Carter broke not only her body, but her spirit too. A shadow of her former self, her slogan for life is now: ‘If you don’t care about anything, then you have nothing to lose’.

Carter is currently serving time for the murder of Jack, a conviction that Anna helped secure. But his retrial is coming up because some key evidence appears to have been tampered with. Unbeknown to Anna, death threats are being received by her father, the Senator. It appears that Carter is still interested in Anna and will stop at nothing to get her back.

Ashton Taylor is brought in to protect her. He’s a newly qualified SWAT agent, a bright spark, the agency’s new golden boy. He is assigned undercover, posing as her boyfriend. His job is to help her through college and keep her safe until the end of the trial in eight months’ time.

For three years she has been the broken, damaged girl, refusing to feel emotion or pain, but can Ashton help her rebuild her life and finally deal with the grief of losing her childhood sweetheart? Will he be the one to make her see that life is, in fact, worth living and that not all men will hurt her?

All the while, the shadow of the trial looms over the both of them, taunting them, reminding them that it isn’t over yet. After all, Carter Thomas will stop at nothing to be reunited with his ‘Princess’.

Due to heavy subject matter and sexual content, this book is recommended for ages 17+

What did I think the Nothing Left to Lose?

The book starts off by introducing you to Annabelle "Anna" Spencer, and her boyfriend Jackson "Jack" Roberts, as they wait in line to get into a club (fake IDs in hand), for Anna's 16th birthday. While waiting in line, Anna and Jack are approached by Carter Thomas and his friends, who offers to get Anna into the club without having to wait in the long line. Anna turns down his offer when it becomes clean that Jack is not included in the offer. Once Anna and Jack eventually get into the club, they have a great night, dancing and drinking the night away. As Anna and Jack had decided that her birthday would be the night that they would go all the way, Anna is anxious to leave and enjoy the rest of her night with Jack.

Unfortunately, Carter has other plans for how she will spend the night on her birthday. When Anna refuses to leave Jack, Carter takes matters into his own hands and kills Jack in front of Anna and kidnaps her, where she will remain for the next 10 months

Three years later, Anna is free of Carter, however is not free of the nightmares that haunt her as soon as her eyes are closed. Gone is the fun loving 16 year old that she once was. Carter Thomas took everything good from Anna. In her place is a broken girl, who is scared to be touched and hates the attention of men, so she hides her body with loss clothing. To protect herself, she has mastered martial arts and self defence training, so that if she ever comes face to Carter Thomas again, she will be able to protect herself.

"He can't hurt me anymore, no one can. I have nothing left to lose" -Annabelle Spencer

However, this protection mechanism is not limited to Carter. When men touch her, Anna reaches by breaking their nose to ensure that they understand not to touch her again. Sadly, this has caused her to be kicked out of numerous schools over the past two years. With her father running for president, and Anna having one last opportunity to start over at a new school, Anna is introduced to Ashton Taylor, her new near guard and pseudo-boyfriend.

After the death of his parents, Ashton Taylor grew up in foster care, with a rebellious streak in his teenage years, Ashton was on the path to becoming a law breaker, instead he turned his life around and decided to follow the law instead of breaking it. Now Ashton is a bad ass. He has just graduated from the police academy where he finished top in his class, setting 5 out of 7 records. Ashton has aspirations of working for SWAT on the front line, which is highly competitive and hard to get into. Ashton is given the mission of keeping Anna safe for the next 8 months, on the lead up to Carter's re-trail. If Ashton can successfully completed this mission, he will be given a job on the Front Line. The only problem - no near guard has managed to last more then a couple of months.

"All things worth having are worth fighting for" -Ashton Taylor

As soon as Ashton meets Anna, he is enamoured by her, and even though Anna is reluctant to admit it, she finds it hard to resist Ashton. Anna pushes the boundaries as often has possible, often leaving the compound without guards, Ashton realises that he has his hands full if he wants to protect Anna.

"Her eyes only flicked to me for a split second and held no reaction whatsoever before she turned to her father. My heart skipped a beat and my stomach tied in a knot. I wanted to run to her, wrap my arms around her, and tell her everything would be okay. I wanted to make her smile and hear her laugh. Oh fuck it; I really am in deep shit!" - Ashton Taylor

Anna struggles to deal with her feelings and attraction to Ashton, as she still is very much in love with Jack. She feels a lot of guilt over his death as she believes that she is to blame. After all, he was killed so that Carter could have her. As Anna and Ashton need to attend her new school under the guise of boyfriend and girlfriend, Anna has to learn to tolerate Ashton's touch. Anna is surprised to learn that he enjoys Ashton's touch and her body starts to crave the moments when they hold hands, or lock lips. This brings on a whole new layer of guilt for Anna as she feels like she is betraying Jack.

"There was just something about Ashton. He was slowly fixing me, I could feel it. The trouble was though that I actually felt guilty for letting him" - Annabelle Spencer

Then there is Carter Thomas. He is a drug dealer, murdered, and all around bad guy, with a very unhealthy obsession with Annabelle Spencer. While in jail, Carter sends Anna a letter every week, detailing how much he loves her, and that he can't wait to see her when he gets out of jail. Anna never receives these letters, as her father ensures that they are intercepted, so that Anna can continue to live as much of a normal life as possible. How will Anna react when she finds out at her father and Ashton have been keeping the letters secret from her?

"This is why Ashton's here, a SWAT guy. I finally get why he was assigned to me. Carter wants me dead [...]" - Annabelle Spencer
"He doesn't want you dead, Annabelle" -Tom Spencer
"Well what does he want?" - Annabelle Spencer
"He wants you back" - Tom Spencer

I originally read Nothing Left to Lose last year, when it was available on Wattpad. I have to start with an admission. I am a little bit obsessed with Kirsty Moseley. She writes the most beautiful love stories ever. I have read every book she has written at least twice! I absolutely love her books, and that why it is so painful to admit that this book kind of let me down. :(

It is not that the writing is bad, because it isn't, AT ALL! As always, Kirsty Moseley writes with a beautiful, flowing style that makes the book easy to read and understand. The main characters and the back story to the characters are brilliant. The book is creative. It provokes emotion from you. So why did I find this book lacking???

On paper this book is brilliant and the concept is compelling and captivating. I mean all you have to do is read the blurb and I think you will agree that the book sounds brilliant before you have even turned one page. So what was the problem?

Let me just clear this up before I continue. I DO NOT think that the book is bad, by any stretch of the imagination! I just found that the book was a little bit too long and the will they, won't they, back and forth was a little drawn out. I think that one thing that really impacted my enjoyment of the book, is that I read it when it was on Wattpad, and I really enjoyed it then, however, before it was published, Kirsty Moseley announced that there were going to be some changes. So the whole way through the book I think I was analysing the book and looking for the alterations, rather than really enjoying the story.

The next book in the series is Enjoying the Chase due to be released in the Spring of next year. This will be about Nate Peters, Ashton's best friend from the Police Academy in LA. I will definitely be reading this book and I am already counting down the days!

Review: Mine by Katy Evans

I have literally just finished reading Mine and thought I would share what I thought of the book with everyone. The book was released yesterday and I have been a little slower than some of write a review, this is due to fact that I decided to re-read REAL so that all the events from the first book were fresh in my mind.

What is the Book about?

The heart is a hollow muscle, and it will beat billions of times during our lives. About the size of a fist, it has four chambers: two atria and two ventricles. How this muscle can house something as encompassing as love is beyond me. Is this heart the one that loves? Or do you love with your soul, which is infinite? I don’t know. All I know is that I feel this love in every molecule in my body, every breath I take, all the infinity in my soul. I learned that you can’t run if you tear a ligament, but your heart can be broken into a million pieces, and you can still love with your whole being.

I’ve been broken and put together again.

I’ve been loved, and I have loved.

I’m in love, and I will be forever changed by this love, by this man. I used to dream of medals and championships, but now I dream solely of a blue-eyed fighter who one day changed my life, when he put his lips on mine…

What did I think about this Book?

I really loved REAL (the first book in the series), and I was worried that this book would not meet my high expectations as I have found some sequels can't recapture the magic from the first book, as with the first book there is the relationship development that really draws you in, and then the second book as to be just as captivating without that element, so the author really has to be creative with ensuring that they can make you love the characters just as much in the sequel. And Katy Evans doesn't disappoint, as I was really emotional and reading Mine.

I really loved Remy in the first book, but in Mine my Remy loving was kicked up a notch. He is so perfect in his imperfections, you just cannot help yourself from falling in love with this lion of a man, who loves so fully and openly.

"You're everything I never knew I wanted" - Remy

The book starts when the last book ends, with Remy about to start his first match of the new Underground Champion Season. With Brooke back at Remy's side, Remy is ready to take on the world and reclaim the championship title from Scorpion. Unfortunetaly Brooke struggles to deal with all the attention that Remy receives from his female fans, letting her jealousy take over.

"Who cares what they scream when I'm crazy about you?" - Remy

However, when Brooke finds out that when she left Remy , and he went black, Pete and Riley ordered him girls to keep him company as he had done in the past. Brooke struggles to deal with the information and pushes Remy away. In her head, she knows that she has no right to be angry and upset because she left him during his darkest period, after he had just lost the championship, and he was left to cope the only way he knew how. Her head can understand this, however her heart and soul are crushed by the revelation, causing her to blame herself for leaving Remy when he needed her most, and also she is mad at Remy for sleeping with other women so some after she was gone.

"You said no to me, for months and months. I was dying for you. I was going crazy.[...]You withheld yourself from me until i was... dying a little inside with wanting you. You've got more willpower than Zeus! But the first women they bring to your door... the moment I'm gone, the first whores they happen to bring..." - Brooke

Remy doesn't know how to deal with how upset Brooke is, especially knowing that he his the reason she is hurting. He tries to comfort Brooke and refuses to let her go when she begs him to leave her alone. The whole next day he tries to bridge the gap between the two lovers, and is extra attentive. When Brooke refuses to touch, kiss or look at Remy, he devices his own plan to get her to touch him again, and that involves him allowing his opponent to get a few hits on him in the ring.

"You are going to love me until I die. I'm going to make you love me even if it hurts, and when it hurts, I'm going to make it better, Brooke" - Remy

I just LOVE Remy. He is such a passionate person and his hot headed actions just shows the lengths that he would go to just for Brooke's touch. He is a bad ass fighter, with a gorgeous face with dimples that no one can resist, but the thing that makes him so irristible is his drive and determination and protective nature towards whose that he loves the most.

"Don't worry, Rem, I'll protect her as if she were mine." - Pete
"She's not yours, dipshit. She's MINE." - Remy

Once they get over this little hurdle, there is more instore for the two lovers and they find that Scorpion still holds a vendetta against Remy, when he sends a gift to Brooke under the guise of being from Scorpion. When Brooke opens the box, she is horrified to find that the box is full of scorpions. Brooke panics when she is stung a few times by the scorpions, and when her tongue starts to swell up, she finds it hard to breathe. Remy, being the hot headed, sexy fighter that he is, seeks vengance on Scorpion, and declares that this season he will not only win the championship back, but he will anilate Scorpion for what he did to Brooke.

"He is Reminton Tate. He's a man who falls and gets up again and again. He pushes, plows, plunders, goes on." - Brooke

And this this just some of what happens in the first 20% of the book! I have left so much out that happens in the rest of the book because I don't want to spoil the storyline for anyone else how wants to the read the book after reading this review. I would strongly recommend that if you have not read REAL, that you do before you read Mine as you may find it difficult to understand why the characters behave in certain ways.

"Like you said, I'll love you if it kills us. We all die. I'd rather die loving the hell out of you." - Brooke
"Baby, I'm the one who'll love the hell out of you." - Remy

In the first book, Remy used music to communicate what he was feeling to Brooke as he was not good at expressing these feelings in words, and this method of communication is still used by Brooke and Remy in Mine, however, it is not as exclusive in terms of their communication as it was previously, especially as the book progresses, as Remy starts to vocalise his feelings with Brooke more.

"Pressing our foreheads together, I watch his expression as intently as he watches mine ... and we both listen to this amazing song. Not just any song. His song. Iris" - Brooke

I would strongly recommend, that when reading the book, stop reading the book and listen to the song that is mentioned on YouTube, or Spotify, which ever medium you prefer, as I swear this will make you understand Remy and Brooke's relationship so much better and you will start to fall in love with the both of them! Katy Evans does a brilliant job of selecting the perfect songs to show all the emotion that each person is feeling at that moment in time and also it really makes you understand what they want to say and share with each other.
I have selected two of the songs from the book, that I think best show Brooke and Remy's feelings, Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls, however I found this cover version of the song which I fell in love with by Sleeping with Sirens and Shania Twain - In this Moment

I am really in awe of Katy Evans ability to write the characters seemlessly, in a way that the audience can really understand them, as if they were real people with real flaws, and character traits. She writes in a way that always keeps you captivated and keeps you wanting to read because you want to know more. Katy Evans really is a great writer and I know that any book she releases, I will buy without even reading the blurb because she makes me feel like I am connected to a character and the book in a way that other books have not been able to do. She writes characters that you can't help falling in love with.

"Do you still love me?" - Brooke
"You've got to be kidding me." - Remy
"Do you still love me, like before?" - Brooke
"I'm fucking insane about you! I told you I loved you with every petal of every rose." - Remy

The next book set to be released in this series is Remy which is out on the 26 November, which is only a few weeks away. YAY!! This book is not a continuation form Mine, but REAL from Remy's perception. I will definitely be downloading this to my kindle when it is released!

Countdown for Nothing Left to Lose by Kirsty Moseley and Mine by Katy Evans

To all my fellow romance book fans, the countdown for the last few hours until you can get your hands two great books that I have been waiting for, for what seems like FOREVER!! As I am in England, I have only five hours to wait til I can start to read these books, but I have a dilemma, which book will I read first?

Mine by Katy Evans

On hand there is Mine by Katy Evans which is the sequel to Real which was a brilliant read (click here to read my review). I have waiting for this books to come out since I turned the last page of REAL and I cannot wait to find out how the beautiful love story between Remy and Brooke continues.

What is this Book about?

The heart is a hollow muscle, and it will beat billions of times during our lives. About the size of a fist, it has four chambers: two atria and two ventricles. How this muscle can house something as encompassing as love is beyond me. Is this heart the one that loves? Or do you love with your soul, which is infinite? I don’t know. All I know is that I feel this love in every molecule in my body, every breath I take, all the infinity in my soul. I learned that you can’t run if you tear a ligament, but your heart can be broken into a million pieces, and you can still love with your whole being.

I’ve been broken and put together again.

I’ve been loved, and I have loved.

I’m in love, and I will be forever changed by this love, by this man. I used to dream of medals and championships, but now I dream solely of a blue-eyed fighter who one day changed my life, when he put his lips on mine…

Nothing Left to Lose

The other book, Nothing Left to Lose by Kirsty Moseley is also out at midnight, and for all of those that love Kirsty's books as much as I do, hopefully you will be just as excited as I am to read this book. I have actually already read the book when it was available on Wattpad for free, however, Kirsty Moseley has taken the book down now as she is set to publish the book, with some changes to the story and characters. The original book was great and I loved it, however it did lack the refined brillance that all of Kirsty's other books had, so I am really looking forward to reading new and improved version at midnight. For those readers who liked Free Falling you will like this book as it is similar, with a dark story and dangerous characters.

What is this Book about?

Annabelle Spencer’s life is every girl’s dream. She has wonderful parents, great friends, and of course the perfect boyfriend, Jack Roberts. That all changes on her sixteenth birthday when her life comes crashing down around her. Her dream night turns into a nightmare when Jack is murdered right in front of her, and she’s kidnapped by his murderer, Carter Thomas, a big time drug and arms dealer.

After five months of being with Carter, she’s found, but the experience has totally changed her. She’s no longer the happy-go-lucky girl that everyone used to know and love; she’s now cold, hard and suffers from night terrors. It appears that Carter broke not only her body, but her spirit too. A shadow of her former self, her slogan for life is now: ‘If you don’t care about anything, then you have nothing to lose’.

Carter is currently serving time for the murder of Jack, a conviction that Anna helped secure. But his retrial is coming up because some key evidence appears to have been tampered with. Unbeknown to Anna, death threats are being received by her father, the Senator. It appears that Carter is still interested in Anna and will stop at nothing to get her back.

Ashton Taylor is brought in to protect her. He’s a newly qualified SWAT agent, a bright spark, the agency’s new golden boy. He is assigned undercover, posing as her boyfriend. His job is to help her through college and keep her safe until the end of the trial in eight months’ time.

For three years she has been the broken, damaged girl, refusing to feel emotion or pain, but can Ashton help her rebuild her life and finally deal with the grief of losing her childhood sweetheart? Will he be the one to make her see that life is, in fact, worth living and that not all men will hurt her?

All the while, the shadow of the trial looms over the both of them, taunting them, reminding them that it isn’t over yet. After all, Carter Thomas will stop at nothing to be reunited with his ‘Princess’.

What am I going to do?

Well only time will tell which book I will buy first. At midnight I will have to make the choice between, Ashton and Annabelle, or Brooke and Remy... good job I have 5 hours to make my decision!