Review: Fireworks

I recently reviewed the last True North series book, and it was also great, and yet here’s another. It’s amazing how Sarina Bowen can put out so many high quality books so quickly. I’m amazed. I have a feeling the series has been pointing in this direction for a long time however, because it intertwines so much with the previous books, going all the way back to the beginning.

We finally find out who nearly ran over Zara. We found out who Benito has been carrying a torch for. We find out more about what the Shipleys and Rossis were like as teenagers. And of course, mean old Jimmy Gage. I think his plot even wraps up Jude’s story with the weird drugs.

Skye and Benito’s story has a lot going on: teenage love and misunderstandings, abuse, the damage that can be caused by neglect in childhood, people making wrong choices, women not sticking up for themselves at work, the importance of female role models in the workforce, and the portrayal of consent.

God, this woman could rip my heart in half again. I know it, and I don’t even care.

Of course, I recommend starting from the beginning with Bittersweet, Griffin and Audrey’s story. There are unique dynamics and stories to each couple, but they all center around the same area, from different perspectives. The sexy times are hot, the stories are sweet and heartwarming, and there’s real emotional plot development with all of the characters. You can’t go wrong visiting this part of fictional Vermont.

Free book provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Do Over

The hardest reviews to write are for books that we just kind of meh. I didn’t like the structure of this book, so that really made it go downhill for me. There is a lot to commend it for, the characters seem to be pretty fleshed out, which doesn’t always happen. But the entire back-and-forth non-linear structure really didn’t work for this book.

We start with Jack (although we don’t find out his name for like two chapters or something, and it’s really weird, and at one point, his son is accidentally referred to as Jack instead of Gabe, and that really threw me), who works construction with his two buddies, who are given just enough backstory for me to know they will be getting their own novels later. Jack is watching his son on a weekend that’s not his usual weekend, because his son’s mother has a work thing. I have to admit from the lackluster way that he refers to the baby mama, I had no idea that we were getting a romance between the two of them until the next chapter, which is through her POV (that’s the magic way to know, I guess).  Continue reading

Review: The Ones That Got Away

tl;dr: a very touching story about love BLOOMING from the ashes of tragedy

The Story:

The Ones Who Got Away centers around a tragedy that happened 12 years before this book begins: the most deadly school shooting in America. It happened in the tiny fictional town of Long Acre, which is outside of Austin, TX. There’s a documentary being filmed about the incident, and so several of the survivors are coming back to talk on camera (or off camera) and be interviewed by the documentarian.

Olivia Arias and Finn Dorsey are two of those survivors, and this is a bit of a second-chance romance for them, as they sort of secretly dated in high school. In fact, they were “nearing second base” in a janitor’s closet when the shooting began. When the two heard the gunshots, Finn left the closet looking for his actual date, and he always has regretted this because he thinks it led Joseph, one of the gunmen, to Liv. However, Joseph didn’t shoot Liv, he just left her locked up in the closet. Instead, his mark appears to have been Finn’s date, Rebecca.

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Review: Dirty Scoundrel

tl;dr: the premise alone gets an F from me

The Story:

The synopsis is way too kind on the actual set up of this book. If I had known what I was actually getting into, I never would have picked this up. Clay Price, the hero, is a disgusting misogynist asshole. He completely takes advantage of Natalie, who is down on her luck and desperate.

The synopsis makes it sound like Clay comes in and offers her a legitimate job and the sexytimes are implied. No. He basically tells her that the “assisting” he needs is with his dick. He continually brings up that he paid for her body. She is self-conscious about the weight she’s gained since they first dated, and he brushes her feelings under the rug as unimportant. He essentially tells her that he still finds her screwable so she should be happy with her looks. And then, when she has real and complex feelings about her relationship with her father, he completely dismisses those, too.

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Review: Off The Clock

tl;dr: two sex therapists that have a lot to learn about love

The Story:

I don’t normally read back-of-the-book blurbs, but in this case, I did. It seemed interesting enough, and so I checked it out from the library, mostly because the blurb to the follow-up book, By The Hour, looked even more intriguing. Unfortunately, the library didn’t have that book, so, wary to purchase a book without knowing if I would like the author’s style, I borrowed this one first. And I’m so glad that I did, for a variety of reasons, least of which is that the most interesting part of the story was a complete surprise.

The first few chapters are a bit of an extended prologue where we get to know Marin and Donovan. Donovan is a doctoral student working on his thesis about aural methods of female arousal, by recording himself dictating fantasies that are supposed to be coming from the female gaze, or at least, more arousing for women than pornography, which tends to work better for men. After a week of working together on the scripts for the audio recordings, Marin and Donovan have passion sex on one of the desks in the lab. Marin doesn’t give him her real name, and she doesn’t even plan to see him again, ever. Due to a family crisis, she ends up dropping out of school and thinks that she’ll never see him again…

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Review: Back In The Saddle

tl;dr: short book that zipped too fast on plot development, otherwise ‘fine’

I reviewed this book for the 2017 RITA reader challenge at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. You can read my review here. It was interesting to write a review that appears in a popular blog (one that I love, no less). So check it out over there!


Find a copy at the library!

Like Westerns? I reviewed Chase recently, although I don’t really recommend it.

Like single parents? Check out Love & Rockets by Maggie Wells.

Review: A Bolt From The Blue

tl; dr: sweet and sexy romance that I’d love to see expanded

The story:

Even as a person merely in my early thirties, I’ve been noticing more and more than I’m older than most of the people in the novels I read. For some reason, it seems to be accepted as fact that 20-somethings are the only type of people that have interesting things happen to them, particularly in romance novels. Is that because it’s too depressing to envision people in their 40s and 50s and still unattached? Rather than depressing, we should find it hopeful–it’s never too late to find love.

A Bolt from the Blue is a ‘second-chance’ romance, since it is the second ‘love of your life’ for Hope Elliot. (See, even less depressing! Two true loves in one lifetime!) After nearly a lifetime away from the city she grew up in, Hope has to return to settle her late parents’ estate and deal with the personality clash that happens to be her sister. Things heat up–literally–when lightning strikes the house and starts a small fire, causing some damage to the house’s outdated electrical system. Hope is evidently a brazen old broad, because she wastes no time seducing Mick, the master electrician recommended to her by the first response unit. They embark on a sordid affair, one that Hope makes no secret is limited-time-only, since she fully intends to return to her home in France.

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