Review: A Midsummer's Nightmare by Kody Keplinger

A Midsummer's Nightmare really was great. Reading it made me reflect so much on my own life, and my own feelings, as you will understand from reading this (very personal) review. I gave it FIVE STARS because it was so great!

What is A Midsummer's Nightmare about?

Whitley Johnson's dream summer with her divorcé dad has turned into a nightmare. She's just met his new fiancée and her kids. The fiancée's son? Whitley's one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin' great.

Worse, she totally doesn't fit in with her dad's perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't "do" friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn't her stepbrother...at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together.

Filled with authenticity and raw emotion, Whitley is Kody Keplinger's most compelling character to date: a cynical Holden Caulfield-esque girl you will wholly care about.

What did I think about A Midsummer's Nightmare?

I accidentally stumbled across A Midsummer's Nightmare when searching Amazon and Goodreads for a good book. I have read so many books now that I struggle to find something to read that I actually really enjoy. As a result of reading a lot of 'OK' books, my Amazon recommendations that I rely so heavily upon has been setting me astray from the great books out there. Anyway,  after searching through the two sites I found A Midsummer's Nightmare which seemed promising from the blurb and it really lived up to my expectations! Actually it surpassed my expections! I really really loved it, as I am sure you can understand by the five star rating I gave it!

God this book was really great! The story line wasn't completely original or anything like that (which I don't really expect). I mean there is only SO many storylines that can be written to fit in the genre. Due to this I have found that a lot of books go way over the top, and that makes the story less realistic and harder to connect with the characters in the book. I digress, back to my review of the book! What makes this book so special is not the story line its self, but they characters and the way that the book is written that really captivates you and compels you to want more and more.

I cried so many times reading this book, I don't know if that is just because I can really relate to Whitley's situation (not that I have fallen in love with my step brother, that would be weird cause they are younger than me!). My parents got divorced before I was born so I didn't really know any different than having seperate parents. I was very lucky as my step dad was great and I saw him as my dad, as my dad was absent most of my life and didn't really have much contact with him while I was growing up. Over the years I have had occasional visits with my dad, and at the moment we are trying to reconnect after him being absent from my life for most of my life. However, it is hard because he has remarried and has a daughter, and it is difficult seeing that family dynamic that they have that I never got to have with him. Do not take this as a pity story because I really do love my step mom, she is great and I don't remember a time that she hasn't been in my life (and I am 24, so they have been together for a long time!). And my little sister is great! I love her very much and she is cute as a button and she makes you want to give her anything she wants because she has this great personality and infectious happiness. When I say anything she wants, I mean within reason, she is not spoiled or anything, she is a very happy go lucky kind of girl, a lot like Bailey in A Midsummer's Nightmare. When I visit sometimes I feel like I am on the outside looking in. Like I am reading a book or watching a movie and I am not really there, as if my reality is fiction. I think that causes a disconnect with me and my father and has possibly contributed to the way our relationship is now and has been for so many years. Do not get me wrong, my father is not a bad dad or anything like that, I think he struggles with long distance parenting (seeing as I live on a different continent, it can be quite difficult) and I think that it helps that I am an 'adult' now so he doesn't have to be strict and impose rules on me. Now when I visit it is a lot more relaxing and fun and slowly but surely we are building a relationship.

Like Whitley, I am stubborn. I am not good with communicating my feelings with people and can sit around with something for days, months or even years without telling people what or how I feel. People in my family can continue on with their lives without even knowing that I am struggling with emotions and feeling, because on the outside I look and act (well I think I do) as if nothing is wrong. To me (and this is also where I am very similar to Whitley's character) crying in front of others is a weaknesses and can cause people to pity you and therefore I do not like to do it, this further makes me bottle everything up inside of me. Like the saying, 'what comes up, must come down' or apt, what goes in, must come out. Eventually I explode and that can derail me for days at a time and I shut myself off from the world, separate myself from reality. Like Whitley, I do not like being vulnerable, and this makes dealing with situations with my dad a lot more difficult to resolve. How can someone fix something if they do not know it is broken? Not that I am broken, just got a dew dings and dents (like Whitley).

For this reason, I really loved Nathan's character. He really is a great guy (sadly he is not real). Anyway, he really pushes Whitley to talk to her father and repair their broken relationship. As a stubborn teenager myself, can I just say it is not easy to be open up to people and be vulnerable, and I have been told my whole life by people in my family 'if you want a relationship with your father, you have to push for it'. At the time, I was a firm believer, and to some extent still believe this, that the parent needs to be the one making the effort to build and maintain a relationship with their children, at the end of the day we are children, you are the adult. However as I got older I realised that someone has to make the first move, whether that is through increasing communication, or like me, staying in my dad's house instead of my older sisters when I went to visit. This is what Nathan pushes Whitley to finely understand and makes his character really endearing.

Like Sylvia, Whitley's future step mom, my step mom was the bridge between my father and me. She was the one that would discipline me when I visited my dad's house. She was the one that I could talk to about talk to about things that were going on in my life. She was the one that I went shopping with, and spent most of the time with. Unlike Whitley's situation, I did not suddenly gain a step mom and two step siblings at the age of 18, as Sam (my step mom) has been with my dad since as long as I can remember, so it was more natural than Whitley's situation. However I did gain (another) step dad and three step siblings at the age of 18 on my mothers side (my family tree is so complex, true modern family), so I really have had a similar experience to that of Whitley. At this point I already had a step dad and step mom as well as a couple half siblings and a step sister, so I think I had a handle on the whole rapid family expansion thing by this point, so for me it wasn't so stressful.

Over the years I have learned that gaining a step family adds value to a family, not devalues my position within it, much like Whitley's situation in A Midsummer's Nightmare. In addition, me gaining step parents, especially step dads, helped me to have a more normal upbringing (as weird as that may seem) as I got to grow up in a home where my 'parents' were with the people that made them happiest, and didn't just stay together for the kids. Even though it may hurt the kids initially when a family breaks up, in the long run it is more damaging to bring up children in a home where their parents are unhappy. Furthermore, by gaining new parents I was able to have a father in the house growing up. From the age of four til twelve I had lived with my first step dad and that allowed me to have a dad that I got to cuddle up with on the sofa, or sit on his lap, or looked after me when I was sick. And then when I was 18 my mom started dating my second (and hopefully final) step dad. Scott (step daddy number two) was a little bit different from my first step dad, maybe it is because I am not a 'little' girl anymore, but I also think he is not the cuddly daddy type either so our relationship is a bit different. There is more of a camaraderie esque type of relationship between us but I still push the boundaries sometimes and cuddle with him on the sofa when I make him watch Disney movies with me or call him dad (mostly when I want something). Most people think I am messing around when I do it as they think I just want something from them, but the truth is no matter how old I get, I will always be a little girl who needs a daddy.

Once this was all written down, I considered deleting this and writing a simpler review that was less personal, as you will now know, I do not like to share my real emotions and feelings. And putting it out there on the internet is not a small scale share session! The whole review may not even be read fully, however, I decided that this was the best way for me to explain why I loved A Midsummer's Nightmare so much, was to explain why I felt so connected with the story. And that is all a result of Kody Keplinger's amazing writing ability! I cried so many times as the story unfolded, and for me that is what makes a good book! Not crying, I don't need to cry for the book to be good, I just need to feel some emotion and connection with the characters. The story line does not need to be completely original or over the top dramatic, sometimes simple really is better! So everyone read this book, it is BRILLIANT!

Review: Forgiving Lies by Molly McAdams

I do not know why it took me so long to read this book, because I loved all the other book I have read by Molly McAdams. So I have finally read this book and was very happy!

What is Forgiving Lies about?

A matter of secrets...
Undercover cop Logan "Kash" Ryan can't afford a distraction like his new neighbor Rachel Masters, even if she's the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. To catch a serial killer, he needs to stay focused, yet all he can think about is the feisty, long-legged coed whose guarded nature intrigues him.

A matter of lies...
Deceived and hurt before, Rachel would rather be a single, crazy cat lady than trust another guy, especially a gorgeous, tattooed bad boy with a Harley, like Kash. But when his liquid-steel eyes meet hers, it takes all of Rachel's will-power to stop herself from exploring his hot body with her own.

A matter of love...
As much as they try to keep it platonic, the friction between them sparks an irresistible heat that soon consumes them. Can Kash keep Rachel's heart and her life safe even as he risks his own? Will she be able to forgive his lies ... or will she run when she discovers the dangerous truth?

What did I think about Forgiving Lies?

I am just going to get straight into my review of the book, instead of starting with the character breakdown, I am just going to start expressing my love for this book!

This book has everything! A complex love story, with some suspense in the 'will they, won't they' department, characters that you can fall in love with, and some danger to keep you on your toes! And to top it all off, the best sex scene I have ever read about! It was so good I had to read it three times, and I have read a lot of naughty books and they have NOTHING on Rachel and Kash!

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!

Review: Free Falling by Kirtsy Moseley

Kirsty Moseley is one of my favourite authors (if not my favourite). When I saw that she had released a new book, Free Falling, I had to read it there and then! I didn't even bother reading the blurb because I knew it was going to be great.

What is the book about?

They say that your school years are supposed to be the best years of your life, and that you should make the most of them because you’ll miss them when you’re all grown up. Up until Maisie Preston’s senior year, she would have totally agreed with that statement. Life was great, she had everything going for her, excellent grades, great parents, an annoying yet caring twin brother, and an impossibly sweet boyfriend.

Everything was perfect - that is until the arrival of Zach Anderson. A misfit delinquent that seemed to bring with him a lot of bad karma. Is it just a coincidence that his arrival marks a significant change in Maisie’s life? Up until senior year, life was perfect, but things seem to be going downhill fast.

What did I think about the book?

This book is kind of a sequel to Always You, however you do not need to read the first book as Free Falling can be read as a stand alone book.

Basically, the connection between the two books is that Maisie Preston in Free Falling is the daughter of Clay and Riley Preston from Always You. There is no reference to the prior book in the sequel so do not worry if you haven't read the first book (even though you totally should because it is amazing!!!)

Like it's parent book Always You, Free Falling is a brilliant book and a must read for everyone. It was just as captivating and enthralling as it's predecessor, if not more.

Warning: once you start to read this book will not want to put it down!

Review: Always You by Kirsty Moseley

I first read Always You last year, but when Kirsty Moseley released Free Falling a few months ago, I reread the book and loved it just as much as I did the first time around.

What is the Book about?

Riley Tanner has a best friend, the best friend a girl could ask for. He’s supportive, loyal, honest, trustworthy, kind, and thoughtful. He’s also the biggest player in school.

Their relationship has always been easy and affectionate, but after Riley’s month long vacation, things become a little strange. She starts to look at him in ways that go way beyond the ‘friend zone’. Add in her best friend’s rival, and things become a whole lot more complicated.

What did I think about the Book?

From the very beginning of the book, I was hooked. I loved the two main characters Riley and Clay and their relationship.

What I really like about this book is that the characters already know each other and have this amazingly close bond before the book starts. With most books, it starts with the two characters meeting for the first time and shows the evolution of their relationship/friendship until it blossoms into the love all loves.