Kylee Parker and Jayson Donovan came from two entirely different lives. Her, from a large family, loving and good, always taking care and looking out Kylee Parker and Jayson Donovan came from two entirely different lives. Her, from a large family, loving and good, always taking care and looking out for one another. And him, from a family rife with abuse, poverty, and alcoholism.
It certainly sets the scene when years after these two had a moment in high school, Kylee meets Jayson again when she arrests him for a drug deal she witnessed. She's a cop. He's a dealer -- or so it seems. She's very black and white on what is right and wrong. He's living in shades of gray.
It should be obvious what the choice is for a cop like her when it comes to a criminal like him.
And yet, it isn't.
Nothing ever is.
Life is not that simple.
The book is written in 3 parts, and I liked that as it helped to break some of the time jumps apart without being jarring in the plot line. There's a lot of inner dialogue, and that certainly worked to the characters' benefits to show their struggles with the relationship they found themselves in.
This book had ... quite a few twists. So, at least 3 caught me by surprise, but I can't name which ones they are without blowing everything, ha.
All in all, I really enjoyed Kylee and Jayson. They worked for their HEA and they deserved it. Well done to Becky. ...more
I went into this kind of knowing what I was getting myself into.
Uh, sort of.
Anyone who lumps this Please don't make me regret this ...
***
updated:
I went into this kind of knowing what I was getting myself into.
Uh, sort of.
Anyone who lumps this book into the romance category is wrong. It doesn't matter what the ending suggests, or what Erich thinks, because the entire point of the novel was for his captor to mold him into who he became, the perfect victim who thrived on the pain, needed the abuse, wanted the rape, the beatings, and the humiliation. And he succeeded.
That is not romance, and it doesn't get to be labelled romance when it is a slave with a master who purposely brainwashes a victim to turn them into this ... shell. The good old doctor wanted his experiment to "work" and as (view spoiler)[he said in the end, Erich was the first and only experiment to do so. (hide spoiler)] Why? Because Erich wanted to survive, and that need for survival turned into whatever he needed to do to make that happen, including accepting, revelling, and even needing the torture put down upon him. I don't think I should need to repeat it again, but it is not romance.
Just for the sake of, you know, saying it.
Because I can.
Now that I have gotten that out of the way ... Schadenfreude is full of atrocities that makes a reader cringe, and flip pages quickly, side-eye history, yet you keep reading. And that is the point of telling a good story. It is a good story.
It is also horrible, yet you keep reading.
Erich, a boy who was caught kissing another boy and was reported to the Gestapo, was then sent to a concentration camp. He was picked specifically by a doctor for experiments. I will let your mind run with that because I have little to no desire to write out what these experiments were, none at all.
And that is the plot until the end ... where it begins to take a different tone and light, yet reverts right back to where Erich started in the camp with his doctor.
Did I like it? Yes and no. I liked the story, the plot, and the Erich.
Will I read it again? No. Once is enough. I won't forget the words, believe me.
It could have been a five-star. The commas, everywhere, the random words in brackets for no particular reason, random ".," here and there. It's distracting.
It's still a good story if you can overlook those problems.
I still won't touch it again, but well done to the author for making me stay up until 3 in the morning to finish it after I had started it at 10 last night. ...more
Henley Elliott has a lot to run from. A past, her mistakes, health issues she didn't want to face, and a family th****Five "Dublin & Carter" Stars****
Henley Elliott has a lot to run from. A past, her mistakes, health issues she didn't want to face, and a family that couldn't care less as long as she wasn't embarrassing them again. Running is the only thing that feels right to her--settling down wasn't in the plans. Then her car breaks down just outside of Trapper's Cove, the kind of small-town where you're famous just by stopping into the diner for a meal. Here, Henley meets Carter McAlister, a small-town cop who once upon a time, used to be a big-time officer in Philly but with his own past to run from and his own healing time needed, found his way to Trapper's Cove, too. Neither Henley nor Carter are ready for the way each is drawn to one another, never mind the way they help push each other to be better, to heal. But the past has a way of catching up, and dangerous things are beginning to happen to Henley. Can Carter save her before it's too late?
In case you didn't know by the headline in my review, I would have given this book five stars just based on Dublin and Carter alone. Seriously, I would have. Sometimes it's hard for an author to bring in pets and show how important they are to the MC without focusing too much on that aspect, but Miss Flade did it quite well. So well, in fact, that I kept turning the pages to see the next scene between Carter and his dog. It was so real to me because I could relate with my own dogs--especially the "stupid" part, haha. So I felt I had to mention that first.
I devoured Fated Hearts in just a few short hours. Devoured it. Between Henley's secretive past, her strange but pretty cool ability (read to find out what it is, you'll get no spoilers from me) and the way you could visibly feel these characters healing one another, I couldn't put it down. Carter is a great hero--he embodies every sense of that word and he owns it, even if sometimes he doesn't feel like one.
The romance built over time, it wasn't instant and all the better for it, really. It was true to these characters and their emotional roadblocks that kept them in their own walls of safety. Opening up often means getting hurt for some. Especially these characters. They're not perfect. Flade captures the essence of being flawed but craving the desire and will to be better perfectly.
It's an amazing, suspenseful story. Fated Hearts has some great lines, an awesome plot, and characters I wouldn't mind meeting in real life. And now I am super curious about Mag's and Aidan's story in Fated Souls, especially after what we learned about them in this one.
I give this five stars all the way.
***While this is a romantic suspense all the way, I think it's worth mentioning that I feel like there are some kind of paranormal undertones between this story and Fated Souls (which I haven't read yet). Maybe that was just me reading into things, but it's there so that's why the shelves. ...more
Danielle is on a mission. Her grandmother left her old, run down house to her in a Will and she needs to get it beautiful and liveable in a short timeDanielle is on a mission. Her grandmother left her old, run down house to her in a Will and she needs to get it beautiful and liveable in a short time so she can put it on the market, sell it, and get back to her life. She's got attachments to the place, emotional ones that run deep, but she's determined to see her plan through. Unfortunately, that means she needs a carpenter. Enter Ryan. A gorgeous, young man with taste for good work-work and older women. He also happens to be a hands-off kind of deal for Danielle, considering he's her best friend's brother. But how long will that plan last?
Liv Rancourt wrote an amazing tale, let me just start by saying that. She wrote it in such a way that while it was forefront and center the age thing was an issue, a huge one for Danielle's issues, but at the same time, you didn't *feel* the age gap. The two main characters were at the same level emotionally, which was due in part to both of their experiences, I suppose.
There are a lot of heavy undertones to Kind Stud. Family issues, addiction issues, and so forth. It really gives this romance a deeper feel than what's just on the surface. It also makes you seriously want to get the second book as fast as possible and find out what will be happening for the next characters.
I loved Ryan. He's charming, sexy, relentless and intelligent. You can't ask for much more than that when it comes to a hero. Danielle is fierce, determined and relentless. Their chemistry is fantastically done from start to finish. I wouldn't say graphic, but very sensual and I like that.
Well done to Ms. Rancourt. I'm looking forward to the next in the series!
Life was good before I met the monster. After, life was great, At least for a little while.
I've had this in my library for a while. Physical, not digi
Life was good before I met the monster. After, life was great, At least for a little while.
I've had this in my library for a while. Physical, not digital. This and also Impulse by Ellen Hopkins. I bought these books over two years ago and without looking inside (the covers simply drew me in and you know, Crank), took them home. Then, when I did open them and realize it was written in poetry and ... yeah, they were forgotten. It's just not my style. I didn't want the headache.
I chose to read Crank this month for whatever reason. Maybe I'm feeling nostalgic (not in a particularly good way) about my childhood and my own addict of a mother. Welcome to the freak show, people. When I have feels, I read books about addicts.
Nonetheless, Kristina aka Bree is introduced to the Monster aka Crank by way of a cute boy. Like it usually does for people, she immediately goes into a downward spiral. More, more, more. That is an addict's mantra all day, every day. I've seen it all too often, this book stays true to that. All in all, I enjoyed it. Even the poetry style and how the different styles throughout the pages almost follows the addiction and drug itself.
I'm getting a good laugh out of reading some of the reviews for Crank and how others feel about Kristina's easy fall into using and addiction.
Listen, people ... you don't have to be from a certain kind of household, have a certain bottom line in your bank account, or even be anyone horrible or special. You just have to be you. That is the nature of addiction. Everyone and anyone is susceptible. It's goddamn vicious and unless you're a part of the cycle, or know the cycle intimately, you can't really understand how addiction doesn't know how to discriminate.
I expected too much from Go Ask Alice, I think. That was my fault. I set the bar up higher, not putting into consideration this book is a great deal oI expected too much from Go Ask Alice, I think. That was my fault. I set the bar up higher, not putting into consideration this book is a great deal older than the counterpart I read (Letting Ana Go). It was more than that, for me, like the language ticks. Didn't fit for me with the heroine's age, I suppose. ETA: I forgot to mention, this book is what, 3 decades old or more? Yeah, since I'm still 5 years off thirty, I totally can see why I didn't connect with this teenager or relate her years to being anything like mine. And yes, mine were insane.
Nonetheless, addict girl uses journals to help keep her clean while moving forward sober in life, or rather trying to, and documenting it using diaries. Journals, whatever, you pick. In the end, like addiction usally does, she--Alice--believed she could control her addiction without the journals, that she didn't need them anymore. Her last journal entry is her last journal entry and I'm inclined to believe, based on my own experience with addicts and the book content itself, she fell back down that rabbit hole.
Working beyond that, no one can seem to decide whether or not this is fiction or non-fiction. So guess what? It goes on both shelves for me--first time for everything. And it gets it's own shelf (until something else comes along to get shuffled in there, too). ...more
Bethany-Kris
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