Saturday, August 31, 2013

Review: Derek by Dawn Martens



Rylie Sullivan hasn’t had an easy life. She is broken, so broken she doesn’t think she will ever be fixed. When she meets Derek, he barges into her life and tries to break down the walls she has so carefully construed to keep what’s left of her safe. When Rylie’s past mixes with her present, will Derek stand by her and help her survive? Or will he bail for the next pretty thing?

Derek Tremaine has had it easy. Coming from a wealthy family and blessed with good looks, Derek has breezed through life. After years of one night stands, and a few half ass attempts at relationships, Derek has almost given up on ever finding the woman for him. When he sees Rylie however, he can’t help but be drawn to her. Rylie is different, more so than any other person Derek has met. Rylie’s beauty- her tattoos, piercings and beautiful blonde dreads drew him in, but it’s her sweet, kind nature that makes him want to stay around and protect her. Winning Rylie’s heart will be his greatest challenge yet, but Derek knows the reward will be more than worth it. 
Which is why Derek has no intentions of letting her go.
This book is, by far, my favorite out of the series. 


Kade is still a close second, but Rylie and Derek’s story just ripped me up on the inside.


Our Heroine, Rylie Sullivan, grew up in a home without love, and lived in a nightmare scenario until the age of 18, when she finally made her escape. 


The book starts out with our girl Ry, celebrating a new promotion and finally feeling like her life is actually going somewhere. 
She’s fun, carefree, and high on life when a mysterious man named Caleb comes into her world. After spending a night dancing in his arms, Rylie decides to take things a step further, but is surprised when Caleb insists on getting to know her first. By the end of their first night together, Rylie is naturally starting to feel the buddings of an unexpected romance and we leave the prolog with high hopes that our girl’s streak of luck will continue on in to her new relationship status.

But then we wouldn’t have Derek now would we?

Derek comes into Rylie’s life when she’s only a figment of her old self. Some bad shit…and I mean really bad shit…goes down between Ry and Caleb, and our girl is nowhere near the end of the healing process and flat out refuses to consider any type of relationship with another man UNTIL she can gather up the remnants of her old self, and begin to re-build her life from the fragile,broken pieces that are left of it.
And this Ladies and Gentle-ladies is where I feel that this book stands apart from the rest.

Rylie’s struggles to rebuild herself…doesn't happen instantly! 
Ohmergerd! A heroine that doesn't fall from one relationship into another…could it be true?!
Yes it mother fucking is and it’s a fucking relief given the seriousness of the situation that Rylie had gone through.


Derek has to WORK to get Rylie to be responsive to him and LET HIM IN.
It doesn't happen instantly and OF COURSE there are few hiccups along the way, but this book comes full fucking circle in the end, and IMO doesn't leave you feeling cheated

It truly is a great fucking story of overcoming a terrible fucking situation and putting all of the pieces back together to make an even better life for oneself.

Rylie is a fucking boss.
Derek is a fucking Alpha male THAT GETS IT.
And Dawn did a really great fucking job with ending this series on its highest note.



Congratulations Dawn on another successful book, and while I’m sad to tell this series farewell, I’m stoked to see what you have planned for us in the future.


-B

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Arsen: A Broken Love Story by Mia Asher






“Falling in love with the wrong person is easy. Falling in love with the right person is easier. But falling in love with your soul mate is easiest.”


What can I say about this book…honestly it made me sick. 


I had heart palpitations…


…Bouts of nausea…


…Feelings of depression and at times full on hopelessness.


Arsen is the prefect name for this novel, because after reading it, I feel like my heart and my brain have both been shredded in to a million pieces tiny pieces by a dull bladed blender, while Mia Asher joyfully saturated them in gasoline, then dropped a match into her masterful concoction, and laughed while I burned alive in it.


Arsen: A Broken Love Story starts out with our heroine, Cathy, letting us in on one of the worst things a woman can ever experience. The failure of her body in regards to safely encasing a child in her womb until they are ready to come earth side. Its gut wrenching to read and feel the heartache that Cathy has been through, while continuing to mourn her latest loss, and see that her feelings of depression and hopelessness are foreshadowing of worse things to come.
The first few chapters of this book rotate back and forth between present day happenings and flash blacks of significant moments of the past. I loved reading the flash backs because I could literally feel the love that Ben and Cathy had for one another.


Which is why Arsen, aka bad boy millionaire, immediately rubbed me the wrong way; I knew he was trouble from the minute he first stepped off his daddy’s private jet, and laid those deceitful eyes, on our girl Catherine. 


There were parts of this book where I loathed Catherine and her indecisiveness, but upon further reflection: I get it.


I get why she felt torn between these two beautiful men.


Each one of them had something to offer her that she was missing her in life; a void that she eventually figures out how to fill properly without hurting others in the process. 


I started out wanting to give this book 5 stars then switched to 3 stars, and almost gave it a 1 star rating at one point, because it affected me THAT much. As you can see I settled with 5 *out of this world* fucking stars because this book was worth EVER penny that I spent on it and probably more.


I think what really hit me the hardest is that I've been in Cathy’s shoes before, in regards to marrying young and finding yourself moving out of the “honey moon phase” and into the more challenging parts of marriage. It fucking sucks sometimes, and Mia does a wonderful job of depicting how you can fall out of love with your soul mate, and just as quickly realize that you can’t breathe without them.


“Arsen became the air I needed to breathe, but Ben was my lungs. What good would air be if I didn’t have lungs to begin with?”



Being that I could ramble on for days about this book, here’s my quick notes version review:



This book hurts.


I hated Catherine.


I despised Arsen.


I felt sympathy for Ben. 


I cried for Catherine.


I still fucking despised Arsen.


I prayed for Ben.


And eventually I rooted for Catherine.


Miracles ARE the consequences of daring to believe.


Oh and Amy is kickass.


The.End.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Never fear

I'm still here.

Vegas was amazing and I'll have a full detailed post about that experience up in a few days. 
Things have been quiet around here because I've just started my fall semester of school AND I'm going to be working with one of my friends on a better blogger template. 

Somethings that are coming up within the next week on here are:

1. Review of Whiskey Lullaby by Dawn Martens and Emily Minton

2. Review of Derek by Dawn Martens

3. Review of Own the Wind by Kristen Ashley


4. Review of Fire Inside by Kristen Ashley


5. My Vegas Experience

and last, but not least...a snippet about the book that I've been working for the past few months. 
(Which is a really big deal for me because I've only let three other people read any parts of it. lol)

Hopefully when I get my school work schedule down pat, I'll be able to read more and be more involved with the blogging community. I'm starting to learn that it takes hard work and a shit load of dedication to keep one of these bad boys up and running! 

So this chick has some serious work cut out for her!
Til next time!
-B


Monday, August 12, 2013

Four More Days til...




That's right!
I'm going to VEGAS BABY!
Which means that in less than 120 hours I will be in the presence of
Kristen Ashley
Madeline Sheehan
and some other KICK ASS AUTHORS!!!
The only issues I have is that I need to pack.
Yup. 
My flight leaves early Thursday morning
and
I've yet to pack.
I fucking hate packing.
One minute I know what I want to wear and the next 
I'm freaking out because I don't know what to wear.
It's a vicious cycle.
Which means I'll wait until the last possible minute to pack
and look a hot mess in Vegas.
OH and I also need to finishing looking over my friends book. 
I've been trying to get back to her asap, but
life just keeps getting in the way.
So yeah. I guess I should do that now instead 
of trolling the Naughty Mafia FB Group.

-B

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Reading is My Therapy.

I'm currently trying to survive the second to last week of my CNA course.
Right now we're finishing up our clinical period and today was one of those days that you feel like the world is on your shoulders. I'm not allowed to say much about it because, as students, we are required to sign confidentiality agreements and we're not allowed to talk about the things we do or see, but man today was just heavy.
I knew as soon as I walked out of the building and stumbled to my car (my feet are SO damn sore today for some reason) that I would need some book therapy tonight after my kids go to bed. 

This is one of the reasons I'm passionate about reading. It's my go to remedy for a really crappy day and can almost always help me put things into perspective. 

For example:

Hey self, at least you don't have a psycho inner goddess that you constantly refer back to when you're incapable of using other euphemisms to say 
"Hey you guyz, I'm really fucking horny and this sex is AH-MAY-ZING."
(50 Shades.)

Or how about...
You think your day was bad? How about the fact that you just found a big ass chicken named Beyonce at your front door.

If you haven't read this awesome little tale of getting a lot of chicken for less than half the price...then what are you waiting for? Just click the picture and be ammmazzeed!
Anyways.
Life is crazy stressful at the moment, but I'm fixing to get lost in Derek by Dawn Martens.
So peace out home fries and I'll talk to you soon.

-B

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Season 3 is Coming!!!

I've always had a soft spot for all things witchy!
I remember when I was 14 my mom found a little 5 Star notebook that I had dubbed:
 "My Book of Shadows."
I mostly talked about wanting to plant a herb garden and may have mentioned a few wicked things...i.e. thoughts about life and wondering what else is out there (sooo totally not wicked, but hey, I grew up in a Southern Baptist household.) Let's just say mama wasn't pleased at what she read, and my pseudo-Book of Shadows was thrown into the closest garbage bin as I received a pretty heavy verbal lashing. 
Mom, if you by chance read this I never looked into anything Wiccan EVER again.
.....
...........
......
Ok maybe I watched The Craft a million times 


and was a devoted follower of Sabrina the Teenage Witch 

(TGIF show AND the Saturday Morning Cartoon).

I also may or may not have received a starter witch kit 
from my kick ass Step Mom
and
my very own deck of tarot cards...
....possibly a bag of runes....
Yeah.
ANYWAYS, back to 2013. 
American Horror Story just released a 17 second preview of this seasons plot line:
Witches
in
NEW ORLEANS!!!!!
Stick a fork in me because I am DONE.
I love the hoodoo voodoo stories from the Bayou and I can't wait to see what the creators of AHS have in store for us this season.
I've read that my crush Evan Peters will be back for his third consecutive season, so that's just icing on the cake!





How about you?
Ever had a hankering to turn that cheating ex-boyfriend into an ugly toad?
Do you watch American Horror Story?

-B

Monday, August 5, 2013

Review: True Love Story by Willow Asher







I normally do not go out of my way to write reviews for books (well that’s a lie now I spose!), but I’m learning that authors really do appreciate it when you take a few minutes out of your life to give them feedback.


So…let’s do this.




First off, I didn't read the excerpt of True Love Story that's located in the back of Dirty Red. I'm glad I didn't either. Dirty Red had me so messed up in the head that I don't think I could have handled another mind fuck of a book to process right afterwards. 



Then it comes out and EVERYONE has something to say. Some love it and others are up in arms about the cheating that takes place.

Yes, there is cheating. 





I'm an angst whore; I expected it, but some people seem really pissed off over it. I won't get into that but if you can't take the heat get outta the kitchen because shit got real in this book.


Speaking of real (you're going to here this a lot btw)




Sparrow was real to me. I felt like she grew from a small town, sheltered girl into a mature and experienced woman during the story.

I also felt like her life experience was TRUE. Which seemed to be running theme for me through out the book. 




Ian. 




You bastard. 




You beautiful bastard. 




I tried to hate him. I really did, but in the end I was pulling for him to win Sparrow back over. 




Hear me out before you sic the pitch forks on me.




Did he mess up. YES. 

Did it rock me to the core. YES. 

Did he really feel regret over his actions and was remorseful. YES.




I can't hold a grudge over that. 




It's True Love for a reason. You love that person no matter what their faults are. That doesn't mean you have to be with said person or forgive them, but if you can find it in your heart to do it then more power to you.




I'll admit when I got to THAT part of the book I felt like this

I knew it was going to happen and I had a feeling about one of the 'other women', but man at the time and place it happened it just hit me hard.
I. Wanted. To. Strangle. Him. 
Yet again, a fictional character has me giving side eye to my own husband because I wanted to murrrddder Ian and all men for being bastards. 
I even had to put the book down for a minute and take a deep breath because even thinking about being in Sparrow's shoes almost set me off into a panic attack. That's how you know when an Author is good. You start living and feeling the things that the main character is going through without even realizing until THAT moment gets you. It fucking hurts haha not going to lie but oh it feels so damn good! 

The things that happen after the big revelation is what made me give this book 5 BIG STARS and inspired me to write a review.
Real. 
There's that word again but it felt REAL. I could totally see this happening in real life as opposed to some of the other situations I've seen main characters go through.



I felt Ian's remorse and Sparrow's pain. I hated him for a bit and I wanted to scratch out "the other woman's" eyes for Sparrow. (Not going to lie I wanted there to be an epic cat fight. lol Next time beat that bitch's ass!) 




Ian's letters to Sparrow threw me off at first, but I think they added some depth and humanity to him. He was messed up. Literally messed up and yeah his actions weren't the best but dude was legitimately sorry and was hurting BAD. 




I'm also happy that she didn't take him back right away. It kept me on edge debating if she was going to forgive him up until the final chapter.


The resolution was perfect. Just perfect and even though I didn't say anything about her in this review. Sparrow's bff, Tessa, was the shit! I dream of having a bff like her one day! Her decision to support Sparrow in her choice of what to do with Ian is what makes a TRUE friend. She was an excellent supporting character through out the novel. 



As for the epilogue... it was icing on the cake. I felt complete after I finished the book. Which is nice because some times it just sucks being left with a vague cliff hanger. True Love Story is in fact a TRUE Love Story. The characters are flawed, their love is flawed, but in the end it's perfection!




Willow Aster Congratulations on a kick ass first novel! I look forward to reading many more of your books!



-B