KissinBlueKaren

I loved and hated this book. No, not the book. I loved and hated the characters in Night Owl. I just finished the epilogue of Night Owl. I wanted to write this while my views are fresh. I read all the rave reviews of this book and thought, “I have to read this!” It was not what I expected. The writing is brilliant. The characters dark and scary real. This book didn’t give me any reprieve, it just went there. Deep into madness and crazy love. I am so torn on how to review this. But let me try…

Night Owl is a book about a love affair. Hannah meets Matt on a collaborative writing website. Matt is a bit of an ass. No, he is a big ass. But she agrees to work with him anyways. His writing is brilliant. They start off completely anonymous, but then identities are accidentally revealed. They begin to let slip little details about each other in online chats. Between the writing there is this curiosity about each other. Hannah is giving him all of her info, and Matt begins to seek her out. Hannah is just getting out a relationship and starting over. She has nothing to lose.

Matt, on the other hand, is a man who lives with so many secrets. He has everything to lose, so he lies. The big one has to do with his writing. He lies about his true identity to her. He lies to Hannah about having a girlfriend. The cheating element was a bit of an issue for me. I could over look that because it happened almost against his will. Once you meet this character, you begin to understand. The mental illness that Matt suffers from, is something to be pitied. He is narcissistic, and very fragile at the same time. He never says goodbye on the phone, he just hangs up. He stalks her a bit, she doesn’t seem to mind. He tries to buy everything for her, no red flag is raised. He has hot and cold emotions and Hannah just blows it off. So much like a woman, Hannah is just happy to have him. When Hannah finally does put her foot down, Matt has a break down and shit gets real.

The complexity of this book is not easy to break down. First, the writing is brilliant. I could easily see this story. It is descriptive but not annoyingly so. The sex scenes in this book were incredible. Very hot sex, and deliciously written. The dirty talk is something I enjoy in a character, and Matt drives it home with his filthy, fictional mouth. Even with the amazing sex, this book is not all about sex. I don’t even think I could classify this as smut. The relationship isn’t what I would classify as normal. It is more like an addition for each other. How far would you go for your knight in shining armor? This is how far Hannah went for hers. At times, I felt he was deserving. Other times, I wanted to smack some sense into Hannah.

So I am torn on my review of Night Owl. I read this book incredibly fast. Like, late into the night, sneaking pages in at work. I love and hate the character of Matt. He is just like a man every man I have ever met. Because I love a**holes I love the character of Matt for pulling my heart strings. I know I shouldn’t even admit it, but I know how Hannah felt. When she saw her knight broken on the floor, lying in the hospital, crying because he was overcome with it. I know because women are so capable of love and look beyond every bad deed to see the man that he could be.

I love that the author of this book is also so secretive. Is M. Pierce a man or a woman. It is edgy and dangerous to write about a man like Matt. Is he sexist? Crazy? Maybe. He might turn a lot of readers off. By looking at the reviews of this book, Matt had the opposite effect. Is this book inspired by real life? I am completely absorbed in this story. It ended so…. suddenly. M. Pierce, where are we going with this? Luckily, I have [b:Last Light|2167112|Last Light (Last Light, #1)|Alex Scarrow|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328995482s/2167112.jpg|2172641], the next book in this trilogy, just waiting for me on my kindle. That review is coming soon…

What a grand adventure this book turned out to be. I like The Wonder so much I decided to get the first book, The Crown, so I can get more of this story. I had to learn more about these characters. It doesn’t seem like it is meant as a standalone, but it is such a good story I found it easy enough to catch up.

As soon as I spied the cover, I hoped it would be an Alice in Wonderland book. It is! This is the story the Queen. It is so much darker than you imagine, and fantastic. This is a magical story about the Queen’s exile from her home. The King has killed her brother and placed her (fake) sister, Vittiore, on the thrown. Dinah is cast out and sets off in the twisted woods. She has few supplies and the king’s Hornhoov, named Morte. Morte is a magical horse-like creature: part beast, part horse, part warrior. She encounters much danger, and wondrous sights. She struggles to survive with little knowledge of survival outside of the palace walls. She laments over her memories of love left behind, and death. So much death. She encounters a traitorous spade that seeks to help her. Help her what? This Spade pushes her to a place she never thought she should end up.

This book reveals Dinah coming into her own. By the end of the story, I barely recognize the girl from the beginning. She has been through so much and I have grown to love her and this world so much more. Dinah is this really cool character. She goes through so much in this story. Secrets are revealed here that rock her world to the core. I cannot imagine she would come out of this unscathed. This is where the queen finds her rage.

What else can I say about this book that makes it clear that this is an excellent read? YA or not, this is a tale many will enjoy. I loved the details given about the twister woods, the palace, the characters, the animals, even the food. The author incorporates so much from the original story. This book offers stunning visuals, and an addicting story with which to propel the reader into the world. Wonderland is everything I hoped it would be. I could completely understand how Dinah would react to a girl like Alice from seeing her in this story. She is a woman scorned. She is a survivor and has earned her right to her way or no way. Following her tale I felt bad for her and wanted her to get her vengeance.

I can only hope the sequel to this book comes out soon. I have to know what happens next.

Amy Valenti has the next book in the series out now, Not Your Damn Dom. I was so excited to get my hands on this read. This could easily be read as a stand alone, although it is book two in the Denial series. Compared to the first book it is almost as good, a recommended read for an erotica fan.

The Dom in this story is a man called Spencer. Spencer is a personal trainer for famous clientele. he works in movies and regularly stars as a stunt double. His latest client is Alex, an almost movie star who needs training for her next role. The role that will make her career skyrocket. So Spencer sets about to train Alex, all the while harboring a hunger for her. She of course wants him as well. Spencer had a bad experience with his last sub and vows never again to be anyone's Dom. He thinks he broke a sacred trust and doesn't want to ever do that to someone again. Alex is pushing all of his buttons, just begging for him to top her.

Of course these two end up being lovers. And they are scorching hot together. They have sex in scenes I could only dream of participating in. Imagine two very fit people playing around in a gym... the positions they can hold... and the equipment they could utilize. I really, really loved the relationship in this book. Alex and Spencer are so good together. These are real characters, they do things that real people do. The have believability that is not so common in most romance novels.

I really liked that Amy included the characters from book one in this story. They tie in and Spencer's relationship with Callum. Kat is there too and her role is important for Spencer to gain a subs perspective from. I am really looking forward to the next in this series.

I am not a big fan of sports romance. I did not like the spar scenes and all of the time they spent in the gym teasing each other between reps. I think this might appeal to most romance fans but it did not appeal to me. I imagined a bit more would happen in the bedroom. Other than that, I really enjoyed this story. There is more to come soon as Amy is planing (or writing) the next installment to this story. The BDSM was light but very imaginative. Amy writes in a way that makes it easy to swoon over the sex. I found this to be a very solid erotic romance.

Everything I Never Told You is a book about race, death, love, lies, prejudice, academia, and family. This might have had the best first line of any book I have read this year: “Lydia is dead, but they don’t know this yet.” Lydia is the middle child, the favorite child. Her death throws the delicate balance of this mixed race family living in 1970s in Ohio, into a quandary. They must face the things that have been driving them apart.

I have to admit that this book is something I might not have chosen for myself to read. I missed all the hype about it and only learned about it on Goodreads, as it was the latest pick in the Ford Audiobook Club. This book has been featured in a lot of places. It made the list of Amazon’s Best Books of the Year so far 2014. Being a debut novel, this is really impressive. Now that I have read the book, I can see why.

This book is so well written. The characters each have a story to tell, secrets to reveal and surprises in their tales for the reader. The time period, 1970s, was such a good choice for this novel. Being part of a mixed race family, (Chinese-American), in a time when mixed couples were being arrested, was very bold. The mother, Madelyn, is white. She wanted to be a doctor in a era when women did not become doctors. She became pregnant early in her academia and then had to settle for being a stay-at-home-mom. James, the father, is a Chinese childhood immigrant. James teaches American History at a college in Ohio. There is a bit of irony there, since all James wants is to fit in as an American. Their relationship is so strained. They bond because they both know what it is like to be different. They both have unfulfilled dreams.

Lydia is the child that mixes both races. She is the one they project all of their aspirations on. A blue eyed Chinese girl, pretty and smart enough to make all of her parent’s dreams come true. Lydia is a bundle angst. Her deepest wish to please her mother and father, both in their own ways, leaves her a shell.

There is a big brother, Nath, and a little sister, Hannah. They each have interesting stories that are revealed in this book as well. Reading this book, I couldn’t help feeling like I was peeling back layers to reveal the people in this family as they really are. In the midst of the investigation into how Lydia ended up in the water, this family is made to face their deepest feelings for each other. The feelings missing and the ones they don’t want to admit to. By the time we get into learning about the real Lydia, we can see why she could never have lived up to the challenge her parents set before her.

I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to be moved by a story. The author’s descriptive style was such a delight to get immersed in. I could see, feel, hear, and touch the narrative. The style of writing is the best I have read all year. The subject and revelations were brutal and hard to digest. Just like real life there was much more than meets the eye to these characters, and this book.

I wasn’t sure what to expect of this story. The Executioner at the Institute for Contaminated Children (sheesh, that is a long title) is basically a bunch of kids with abilities trying to survive in a school/system that is trying to change them into something else or kill them. This is different than anything I have read before, that’s for sure.

There was a contamination about 20 years ago. A plant exploded and a lot of people were effected. The contamination doesn’t show up until they have children, and the children show certain abilities. Society calls them contaminated. The contamination shows up around age 16 and all children who show signs are then sent to one of the schools for such children. Also, their passports are stamped with a big red C, alerting officials tat they are not allowed to leave the country. It wouldn’t be so bad except that some of the schools have been blown up. Terrorists have started to target the schools, so being sent to one is almost a death sentence. Donna has just been diagnosed with contamination, and she is sent to a local school for contaminated children.

Donna was a smart character. She has the ability to predict things in games of chance. Given a multiple choice question, she will always choose right. This is what gets her discovered. Donna does the right thing almost against her own will. She is an advocate for the mistreated. At the school, she is tested over and over and she is able to learn more about her abilities. The school is designed so that these kids learn to work around the rules. The rules are laid out in a book about 700 pages long and they learn quickly that they must adapt if the want to earn privileges or even eat at this school. Earn points or go hungry, how motivating. All of the kids in this school are cool and frightening. Their abilities are so useful, they are scary. By the middle of the story, I could guess that most if not all of them ended up working for the government. They had too much to offer as spy and/or intelligence officers to just be set free.

The executioner in this tale is surprising. The end of this book had so many surprises. I did not see that coming. Then ending left a bit to the imagination, but still tied up all the loose ends enough for me to feel sated. There were a few deaths, a few lies and cover-ups, and of course a hint of romance. This tale had a bit of everything making it a good paranormal thriller, while staying in the confines of YA appropriateness.

I liked and was frustrated with this book. While the story was really enthralling, I kept loosing my place. The story is written in first person, and some chapters switched people without notice, not mid chapter mind you but, I kept loosing my place. I thought maybe it was every other chapter devoted to Donna, but no. Some of her first person account took up a few chapters subsequently, and then the next (or opposite) character would be first person. It made me stop and orient myself to the character telling the story each chapter. The other key players in this story had very different viewpoints, but it still took me a bit to figure it out. I mostly listened to this on text-to-speech and I was shocked and needed to hear some parts over and over so I could follow along. The last few chapters had my undivided attention and it ended well. Beside the chapter character switches, I have no complaints about this book. There was a bit of mystery, and suspense along with teenage angst making this a pretty solid tale. Unfortunately, the chapter person switches pissed me off enough to make me rate this at a 4 at most. It really irked me not to know whose head I was in at each chapter start.

Eventide was a great scary read, perfect for October. This YA fantasy had me staying up late and reading into the wee hours of the night. I loved this story. I loved the magic, the faeries, the other worldliness, this book had so much mythology weaved into it. A perfect fantasy adventure.

Devon accidentally killed her best friend, Rachel. It wasn’t her fault but she was driving. To make matters worse the family of the girl, and most people in town, hate her for it. There are very few people she can trust. When she starts to see her dead friend running through the woods, she is compelled to find her, to find out why. As this book unfolds it was a white stag in the road that made Devon swerve, causing the fatality. This is not the first time a white stag has been the cause of an accident in her town, she is just the only one who lived to talk about it.

Devon finds some unlikely allies in Rachel’s cousin, Jonah, and a girl at school named Mellie. Mellie has taken a liking to her all of a sudden. She may be the only girl in her whole school who sits with her at lunch and helps her with her homework. This couldn’t have come at a better time for Devon. She is so grief stricken that homework tends to fall to the wayside. I really felt bad for Devon. I can’t even imagine loosing my best friend and then having people blame me for it. Jonah almost hits Devon as she runs across the road trying to find Rachel. Almost killed her, and they form an unlikely alliance. All of a sudden Jonah starts to see Rachel, too.

I loved that there are faeries in this story. The Sidhe (faeries) are really bad, and I loved that they use magic on humans. They have some weaknesses, too as we soon discover. The other person in this story that sees the magic is her little sister Lucy. I would have liked for Lucy to play more of a staring role in this book. She sees Rachel in the woods, and she knows about the tree people. She may not understand it all, since she is so young. When she tells Devon that she sees Rachel too, Devon realizes she is not just loosing her mind, and the story shifts. It was seriously creepy when Lucy describes what she sees for Devon.

Devon starts to see those tree people, too. They sound terrifying, like the stuff of nightmares. Devon goes a bit crazy trying to figure all of this out. The search escalates when Devon loses hours of her life, the victim of a glamour at the hand of Thorn. Thorn states he is Mellie’s brother. This is almost the truth, except that Mellie is not who she seems. Devon doesn’t play the stupid victim, and there were no stupid moves from the characters. For example: Devon is lost in the woods and uses her phone’s GPS to find her way out. The next time she heads into the woods, she brings her dog so she won’t be fooled again. I liked that the character was smart.

There were so many twists, I was sure someone would end up dead by the end of the story. I wasn’t wrong, I just didn’t realize who. I really liked this story and it is complete enough for me to walk away from the series. The author did leave some loose ends and so I am looking forward to the next book Darkling Night. Eventide had a preview of the next book, which is due out winter 2015. It looks good, can’t wait to read it.

This series is so much more than I expected. Come Together follows up the first book, Come Undone, in the Rock Hard Series. These books are full of hot sex, lies, betrayal, drama, well written characters, a rock band, and an unconvientional happy ever after.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series. I knew by the end that I had to read the next. Writing about a rock band without sounding cheesy seemed pretty difficult to me. Madelynne Ellis handled this story, adding in just the right amount of sexy, making it look so easy. The characters were so easy to love. I had so much angst, wanting them to communicate their actual needs with each other. Dani and Xane were an unlikely pair. Dani from a prudish religious upbringing. Xane a rock star with a bit of a sexual addiction. This couple works because they complete the missing parts of each other.

Trouble starts brewing as they head out on tour. Dani is not the typical rock star girlfriend and the strain of thousands of screaming fans is something that takes some getting used to. To add insult to injury, Xane begins an affair with Luther and it almost breaks Dani. The scenes between Luther and Xane were enough to make me want to scream at Dani to just let Xane have this. I know the heart can love enough for two. Xane’s sexual appetite means there is more than enough for Dani to get hers, too. Someone is out to drive fear of losing into Dani’s heart, as if she needs more stress. The ending was a bit of a shocker…

Come Together is books two, but it could easily be read as a standalone. Reading book one would just give you more of a back-story of Steve (the former drummer) and how he plays into this relationship. Book two introduces us to Luther, another swoon worthy male. The m/m scenes almost rivaled the m/f scenes for hotness. This was a great read and I highly recommend both of the books from this series. More than just sex Dani and Xane share this undeniable need for each other. I was swept away by this story.

This book is pretty amazing. An apocalyptic story about the beginning of the end and the end of the beginning. There is so much about Paradigm that made this enjoyable. The story was really original and the characters had such different viewpoints and strengths. This story shifts from one timeline to another, both riveting in their delivery.

This story covers the end of the world as we know it through a girl named Alice. A storm brings floods so bad civilization is forced underground. The survivors are mostly children aided by a company calledThe Industry. These children lead the way to a new way of living. They decide to start fresh and wipe out most of the things that led to the world’s demise. In the future there is Carter, a boy destined for leadership. He is unfrozen to a time 15 years into his future. He is propelled forward by being frozen in a way that has become normal. He is to be the next comptroller, a president like leader that controls the masses. The problem is that his family, both old and new, are the start of the rebellion to a society where art, music, and entertainment are prohibited. These two characters mark the beginning and the end.

What a fantastic way to start fresh! Wipe out everything that distracts from production. Alice and her generation see the err of the ways of the world. They see that the distractions take away from the things that are important. I found the character of Carter a bit less likeable, but his story was still . His reality is so rigid. He wakes up into the future. Society for him is so callous and unnatural. It is easy to see how, by avoiding somethings, a bit of humanity was wiped out. I was so captivated by the Industry. This population is made up of mostly younger people. The young and strong have found a way to survive and they are much more adaptable.

There wasn’t a bunch of technical talk in this story. We are given the elements of the community as they are known to the characters without boring explanations. This made it a much easier read than most sci-fi I have encountered. I found this book such a great escape. This was a well written story that was easy to envision. The story comes full circle in the end. There are suppose to be two more books in this series. Paradigm is so complete, I just could stop here. This book didn’t read like a series, and I am very happy to report this. Knowing and loving the characters the author has created, I am grateful there will be more. I would love to read more about this world. Bring it Ceri!

Book six in the Immortals of New Orleans was a great read. I haven’t read any of the previous books but I had no problem catching up and falling all in for this story. Dimitri is a great tale. It has nail biting fight scenes, sexy alphas, shifting cats and a whole lot of drama. Get ready to fall in love with this paranormal world.

I have to admit that the first chapter had me a bit lost. I was trying to catch up and get the gist of this world. Dimitri is a wolf shifter. Apparently, in the last book he was attacked at the very end. This book picks up right where Dimitri is waking up. He finds himself mostly healed by a woman named Gillian. A woman, who just happens to be a shifter as well. Gillian is a healer and also a tiger shifter. She is half wolf, half tiger, but a tiger shifter. Mating with a wolf will mean she looses her tiger.

Gillian has a secret family tie, a man who is after her to mate and Dimitri has a jealous ex. Trust me when I tell you that this book is well written with loads of drama. The story takes us all over the country from San Diego, to New York and then to New Orleans. Family ties and animal packs. I thoroughly enjoyed this tale.

Gillian is smart, and kick ass, and a tiger shifter, (how cool is that?). Dimitri is a beta wolf, he wants to be alpha but Logan is the alpha of Dimitri’s pack… Jax is the alpha wolf in his pack in Gillian’s home town, and just happens to be half brother to a certain tiger shifter. Gillian goes to Jax and asks for protection. Even though these two don’t know each other well, the family bond is strong and Jax happily steps up with a great idea for getting a mate wanna be to stop seeking Gillian. His plan is almost fool proof. I can’t say more, just get this book. If not for the paranormal world and all the cool animal shifters, get it for the hot sex scenes.

This is one scary book. Darkness tells a story that captivated me. It really spun a web of mystery, suspense, and finger nail-biting chapters, (just one more that stretched into half the night so I see this book through to the ending). I am not going to be able to give this book a fair review. It ends on the edge of something, I just can’t believe I have to wait to see how this tale ends. I want to read the next story in this series. Right. Friggin. Now.

So this story starts off a little dry. Like, I actually started and gave up on the first few pages a few times. Once I was determined to get to the second chapter, it was all consuming. I think my mistake was just reading the prologue and expecting to be gripped by it. I wasn’t. It wasn’t until I finished the tale that I went back and read the prologue. By then it made so much sense. I wanted to use all the interactive stuff too while I reread this book, but it wouldn’t work for me. Mine is a kindle first 1st gen, so no bueno on the extra effects. The good news is that you don’t need them. This books is dark and all consuming enough to stand without all that jazz.

Catherine is a very special girl. Left by her mother in the care of her grandmother, she is surrounded by love. We get that she is special from their interactions. Catherine sees things, and her grandmother tries to keep Catherine from acknowledging that. When her grandmother dies Catherine is thrust into her neglectful mother’s care. Catherine forgets about the visions she has. She sees nothing more than to get her next meal. Catherine’s only ally in this harsh life a neighbor named Nathan. Some other world players come into play and Catherine is forced to see the darkness around her, and to acknowledge that she is no ordinary girl. She sees the shadow people, she can weild the light. If only she knew this and had someone to show her how…

I really enjoyed the creep factor in this book. Some characters are both dark and light, but most have revealed their true nature within the first few sentences. The story is darkly told and the author uses rich language to describe the landscape. The character of Catherine is one of innocence and shattered hope. She lives a bleak existence and her best hope is to get the boy so they can trudge into their own misery together. That is not Catherine’s fate. Thanks to the introduction of colors to Nathan by Artros, that is not Nathan’s fate either. Their lives are bound to intersect and impact each other. Artros is the bad guy in this tale of dark and light. Artros is the man in the hat that drives this tale into a climax. Artros just wants to get the girl and calls in some unlikely allies to help him out. He is not the only one that has noticed Catherine, and a war of darkness breaks out.

I can’t say too much more This is just one of those books that is more like an experience. Wanna read a creepy tale that will keep you guessing? Get this book.

I didn’t really know what to expect from The Cure for Dreaming. Once I got into the reading I was pleasantly surprised. I don’t usually read historic fiction. I didn’t think I would like that genre. It turns out that I really enjoyed being swept into the past. I liked a book without any sex or work worries. I enjoyed reading about a time before women even had the right to vote. I enjoyed this book about the magic of dreams and hypnotism.

Olivia Mead is a girl ahead of her time. The story starts off with Olivia at a show of a hypnotist called Henri Reverie. Olivia gets called up the stage and “volunteers” to fall deep under his spell. This is her first meeting with Henri, but certainly not her last. The characters of Olivia and Henri are totally on the mark as far as the time period suggests. They don’t do anything I found to be unbelievable. Except maybe for the ease of which Olivia is hypnotized by Henri.

Olivia is progressive girl/woman and tries to stand up for women’s rights. She even goes so far as to attend a protest, (oh the scandal!). She is caught by her father who gets a brilliant idea. He hires Henri to hypnotize Olivia to be a more subservient woman. Let the drama begin! Even though Olivia is a girl in the 1900s, she is in no way going to be forced into submission. The author did a stellar job of portraying a girl of that time and gives the reader a accurate view of what rebellion in that age would actually look like. When Henri hypnotizes her into submission, she is given a view of the world as it actually is.

Keep telling the world what you see. Help others to see it, too.

The strange/fascinating era of magic and prudish behavior was enchanting. The relationship between Henri and Olivia is one of innocence, making this book something really unique. Olivia’s noble tale of dreaming and rebellion from sufferage made me a big fan. I wanted her to get all that her heart desires: education, the right to vote, and the right to make her voice heard. I cherished the Susan B. Anthony quotes scattered throughout this tale, which were a really charming touch. I loved that she did as much of the saving as the boy in this book. Olivia stays true to herself all the way through. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Indecent Proposal is an excellent read from the first to the very last page. I was completely hooked on this story. The characters and extras have depth and the details blew me away. This is a book I will be thinking about and replaying in my mind for a while.

I am not sure how this book could be part of series. It is so complete and there were no character leftovers that seemed out of place, like there are usually in a series. The book made me swoon, seriously. I am gonna have to stop reading romances for a while so I can get over this one. What a great book!

Indecent Proposal features a girl named Ryan. Ryan is a bartender who takes pity on a sad good-looking customer and offers herself to him. This guy Harry could be just the thing to break her 4 year dry spell. Harry and Ryan agree to be mostly anonymous. It was the perfect (sexy) encounter until she found out she was pregnant. Then she discovers that the father is none other than Harrison Montgomery, the man running for Congress in Georgia. The last thing his campaign needs is a scandal, so he asks Ryan to marry him. Just, ya know, for show. He asks her to be his wife for two years so he can get through the election and secure his place in politics.

Ryan is in no way meant to be a politicians wife. She is a high school drop out who lives in shoe box apartment in NYC. I really liked watching her go through the transformation from bartender to Mrs. Montgomery. Ryan and Harrison have a strange courtship and the fact that she is growing ever more pregnant is like the elephant in the room. I was on edge wanting these two to get it together, but there was so much at stake. I mean having two people want to be together, but not want to be together, is a common scene in contemporary romance stories. The writing of this tale really set it apart from all the others I have read. We don’t just have them falling for each other, they are in agony over the prenuptial contract requiring no sex. Then there is all this campaigning to do, key players in the background with their own drama adding to story, trying to put on a good show for the press, and the looming pregnancy.

I absolutely loved this tale. If this is what all Molly’s books are like, she just made herself a new fanatic out of me. I loved how the story felt so complete, yet left a bit to the imagination. It was the perfect romance. The sex was hot, but did not dominate the story. There was a real connection between these characters. I am still swooning over a love like that. Thanks Molly for such a delightful read! It was the perfect way to spend my day off.

The Walled City was an interesting read, at first. It lost my interest to the point were I couldn’t finish it. I got to about the 70% point in my kindle and I could not force myself to continue. The premise of the books looked so good. It is labeled as YA dystopia but it is actually based on a real place in Hong Kong, Kowloon Walled City.

The author kept the location of this book original. The characters of Jin and Mei Yee had so much potential to be great. Mei Yee was apparently sold into slavery. She works in a brothel in the walled city. Her sister Jin goes in after her. How she got in remains a mystery throughout so much of the book it killed me. These two sisters are really different. Kai is pretending to be a boy and running the streets, dealing with gangs and fighting for survival. She teams up with Dai, a guy who is looking for an invisible runner. Dai has a mission as well. Mei Yee is so beautiful she gains the affection of an ambassador who pays to keep her all to himself. She has been locked up for 2 years and is beginning to give up on escape and take an easy way out. These three lives intersect.

The long drawn out details killed it for me. I could see it very well. The story goes into painstaking details about location, physical condition and emotions.

Two lines.

I stare at them, legs crossed, fingers twitching. they stare back, thin and black. Like a pair of burnt, limbless trees or the pupils of a cat.

I just couldn’t read anymore of those descriptive scenes. My brain hurt trying to sort out the story from the metaphors. I kept waiting for the book to speed up, the climax to come or something really good to happen. it just didn’t. At 50% I realized I was dreading reading this story At 70% I put it down for good. I just couldn’t force myself to read more.

This book has plenty of great reviews, so my opinion of it is in the minority. This is the first book in a long time I just couldn’t finish. As a book reviewer, that makes me a bit ashamed. As a person with a whole lot to do, I know my time needs to be spent on better things, things I enjoy.

I loved this book. Sasha had everything I could want in a romance. It was funny, witty, sexy, realistic, emotional and swoon worthy. I laughed and cried as I read this book. I finished it in one sitting because it was so easy to read and just plain addictive. I was delightfully surprised as the story unfolded. Rae Matthews did a stellar job on this. I can’t wait to read more of this series.

Sasha is a bartender who has really bad luck when it comes to guys. So much so that her and her besties have funny/horrible nicknames for all of her ex-beaus. They are hilarious! On a night after her most recent dating disaster, a regular at her bar has a bit of a breakdown. He starts trying to molest the girls, to show them how a real man should do it. Just in the nick of time Stallion, (aka Bash), waltzes in and saves them from disaster. He is the out of control patron’s Grandson. An unlikely meeting and these two have an instant connection. It is brief and he runs out before she even gets his name. As luck would have it, they meet again at a social gathering. Their next meeting finds Sasha in true form, embarrassing herself in front of a crowd. Trying to dive into the water from a boat, she slips and falls into a split into the water, right in front of everyone.

I even hear some genius call out, “How was your river douche?”

Not the best first real introduction, but definitely a memorable one. How embarrassing? I could completely relate to a girl who isn’t always so suave. I am the kind of girl who would split my pants on a date, which Sasha did on the first sex date. Bash is really cool and takes her faults in stride. He is a guy any girl could fall for, but he is hiding something. Not wanting to be “jealous girlfriend” Sasha patiently waits for him to tell her about his big secret. She ends up spoiling it for herself in an obnoxious way.

I loved how the story was broken up. The relationship between Sasha and her besties Megan and Sadie. They met when she was dating a friend of both of their boyfriends, that didn’t end well but at least she got to keep her friends after the breakup. There are some really great characters in Sasha, and who could forget her neighbor Betty.

I hurry out of the bathroom, only to see Betty showing Bash her new vibrator, and telling him that this little thing really drains the batteries.

There is some heavy subjects that come up in this story and the author handles them with grace, and veritable honesty. It is so refreshing to find a book about real characters, doing real things. I enjoyed how the author didn’t make it all doom and gloom and that the characters don’t take themselves too seriously. I really love the story. I enjoyed the writing style which sucked me right in. This story is true gem!

Blyss. A drug meant to drive her into a sexual frenzy, submitting to her owners sexual whims.

I really enjoyed this read. Jules is falling in lust totally against her will. Nick is a man completely obsessed with Jules. Nick has been planning to take ownership of her for years. He enlists the help of Travis to make her the perfect submissive. With the help of Blyss she should be putty in his hands in no time. These guys have never seen girl like Jules. They don’t know that she is actually a virgin. She fights off their advances and training techniques. The drug is making her see the men holding her captive differently. She has to find a way to stop taking the drug.

She is fighting with everything she has to keep her head on straight, bad guys= bad, her old life= good. But the temptation of sexual release is so much. Even for a virgin like her and after she stops taking Blyss, things are still not clear for her. She doesn’t accept that this is it, that she should just submit. She fights so hard. This brings Nick so much displeasure. He becomes a sadistic monster when he is angry. At least that is what Travis and Nick keep telling her. Travis tries to convince her to be good. He tries to warn her that it will get worse for her if she doesn’t act right, show respect. Jules just doesn’t care anymore.

Travis tries to make her perfect. In doing so, he sees just how different she is. It seems he is falling for her, or is he? He does more for her than he should. He crosses lines he should not cross. Although Jules is sexually attracted to both men, Travis shows her a tender side and seems to want to protect her. Nick is not like that. He can’t see past his obsession to realize a girl like Jules will never fall for a setup like this. If she keeps fighting she may end up being punished severely, maybe even sold to someone else.

I liked this story right away. The author doesn’t waste too much time before getting to action of Jules being taken and the start of her training. Training might be the wrong word. She is more or less being broken in. The sex scenes in this book are well played out. It isn’t just straight sex, or kinky sex, it is sex played out in the mind. I like it. I hated that this book ended without resolving the main issues, any issues really. This is part one of a 3 part series, and now I have to wait to find out what happens.

The sequel to Night Chill is just as disturbing, maybe even a little more so. Night Terror takes us ten years into future, after the event that rocked the little town of Prescott to its core. All the key players are there. In this book we hear much more from Sarah, the girl with the gifts. The ‘source’ from the caves turns out not be as gone as we thought and a new group of monsters enter the scene. The source has even stronger allies now, and will stop at nothing to get to Sarah.

This book starts off with the graphic description of a boy who can remember everything back to being born. He is a special child, with a lot of gifts. Then we see that his life is ending in the most disturbing way I can think of. It was sick and I found myself wanting to see who would do such a thing right away. The author introduces us to the main monster, a woman called Mama D. We get all her sad details and learn about her son. We learn why Mama D is pursuing Sarah and how hopeless the situation is for her.

This book also expounds Lauren’s role in all of this. Lauren is Sarah’s mom. Although she learned the truth about her old boss’ side project in the Night Chill, Lauren pursues his research with more caution. In seeking a medical answer for everlasting life and healing in the form of the ‘source’, Lauren is so very close to actually figuring out how to replicate the process. Her scene in the lab ends up being the thing of nightmares. It is something I am sure will be replayed in my mind over and over keeping me awake at night.

This book was non-stop action almost from the first words. I felt like this books was more focused. The author still gives us loads of details in every scene, but we already know the characters. The few characters that are new get special introductions and first person chapters so we really get a good idea of what is going on behind the scenes. Even the bad guys in this book are written so well, they all have at least a shred of redeeming qualities. I enjoyed this book as much as the first one. I recommend you read Night Chill first, you would miss a lot by skipping it. I highly recommend this series. I hope there is more to come.