Categories
Book Reviews contemporary new adult romance

The Wedding Obsession – Book Review

Title: The Wedding Obsession

Author: Madeline Ash

Pages: 199

Genre: New Adult, Romance

Publisher: Tule Publishing

Published: August 27, 2018

 

Summary:

Emmie Morgan woke up from heart transplant surgery, saw her best friend Brandon Tan sitting by her bedside, and promptly asked him to marry her. If there was a faster way to ruin a friendship, she didn’t know it.

One year on, Bran has returned home to open a restaurant and Emmie adds trying to make amends to her already chaotic life. She’s also running her own music venue, battling survivor’s guilt—oh, and secretly tending a wedding obsession sprung from her near-death experience.

Bran needs answers. But all Emmie has are problems. Hating that he couldn’t help her last time, he resolves to ease the trouble in her eyes. He sets aside their attraction and awkward past and tries to focus on being friends again.

If she would just stop trying on wedding dresses…

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Continue reading to see my review of The Wedding Obsession

Categories
Blog Tours Book Reviews

Confessions of an Undercover Girlfriend!—Blog Tour and Book Review

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Confessions of an Undercover Girlfriend! is the second book in the Confessions series. If you’d like to read my review of the first book, Confessions of a Virgin Sex Columnist!, you can do so HERE.

Summary:

So, I’m no longer a virgin sex columnist—thank you, Ollie—but if I thought that was going to make my life easier, boy was I wrong! John is back in town determined to win my forgiveness. Blythe is more ready than ever to take me down. Bridget is totally onto the new twinkle in my eye. And, well, Ollie is just as distractingly delicious as usual.

So, naturally, I have a few more confessions to make.

Confession #1: I came up with what I thought would be the perfect plan to keep my relationship with Ollie a secret—pretend to get back together with John!

Confession #2: It backfired. A lot.

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Review:

I was looking forward to this book from the second that I finished Confessions of a Virgin Sex Columnist! so you can just imagine how ecstatic I was when the author contacted me about joining the tour for the sequel. And boy, was I not disappointed by this book at all. It was everything I wanted and needed, and then some.

Skye has good intentions, she really does. But no matter how hard she tries, she always seems to mess things up in one way or another. She’s finally with the guy of her dreams, and while everything is going great, she’s still afraid to let anyone know that she’s dating Ollie. So Skye gets this *brilliant* (a.k.a. not so brilliant) idea to pretend that she had gotten back together with her cheating ex-boyfriend. Needless to say, things backfire a LOT, and Skye’s best friend Bridget stops talking to her.

I was especially pleased by the development of Skye’s relationships with her coworkers, as it was something that I didn’t see coming, but it was a nice twist. It brought a whole different side to the story that I wasn’t expecting to happen, and I think it really shows Skye’s character growth.

This story has great pacing and an amazing plot. I could not stop turning the pages, and finished it in a day. The characters are so real and relatable, and they have real problems and issues. They don’t always know the right thing to say, their lives aren’t always glamorous and they experience real human emotions.

I give Confessions of an Undercover Girlfriend! 5/5 stars. You can purchase it by clicking HERE. You can also buy the first book, Confessions of a Virgin Sex Columnist! HERE.

Categories
Blog Tours Book Reviews

Summer of Irreverence – The Rock Star—Blog Tour and Book Review

Summer of Irreverence tour banner

Click on the tour banner above to see the list of the other great blogs that have featured Summer of Irreverence – The Rock Star on this tour!

Summer of Irreverence - The Rock Star—Book Review

Summary:

Straight-laced, veterinary surgeon, Summer Wynters is ready to break the rules. And who better to break them with than the most irreverent of all men, mega rock star Malcolm Angel? With one last summer free from work obligations, Summer moves to New York City, and at the coaxing of her friend, pretends to be a model so she can spend one wild night with Malcolm.

Rock star, Malcolm Angel, tortured by a dark past, may be the poet laureate of romance, but he, like science-minded Summer, has never believed in romantic love. How could he? With his history, he doesn’t deserve to be loved.

When Summer’s honesty, kindness, and exuberance for life changes his perspective, the two discover they are in deeper than either dreamed possible. But when Malcolm discovers Summer’s been perpetuating a lie, will he forgive her? Even if forgiveness is possible, can a man immune to love teach someone else to believe in it?

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Review:

This is the perfect summer read for a day at the beach or something else relaxing. It was the perfect blend of sexy and entertaining, and I could not turn the pages fast enough.

I found this story to be relatable, despite how unlikely the whole scenario might seem. Summer and Jeanette’s friendship and dynamic reminded me a lot of the way that my best friend and I act with one another. I could totally see myself setting her up with some guy for a hot, steamy night of fun. They are always there for one another, even though sometimes get a little rocky, and I think that is true for a lot of best friends.

Summer and Malcolm both really matured and grew a lot throughout the course of the book, and it was great to see the changes slowly unfold through the story, but sometimes I just wanted to slap them across the face and tell them to open their eyes. If only they knew what the reader can obviously see was going on.

I am looking forward to seeing what other delights Cathrine Goldstein brings with the rest of The New York Artists series.

I give Summer of Irreverence – The Rock Star 5/5 stars. You can purchase it from Amazon by clicking on the book’s cover image below:

Categories
Book Reviews

Confessions of a Virgin Sex Columnist! – Book Review

Confessions of a Virgin Sex Columnist! - Book Review

Plot:

Two hot guys. One big lie. What’s a virgin sex columnist to do?

My name is Skylar Quinn. I just moved to New York with my best friend Bridget, and I have a confession. Well, more than one. Okay, quite a few really. Fine, here goes!

Confession #1: I’m a sex columnist. Hold on, that’s not really the confession. You see, I’m sort of a virgin…sex columnist.

Confession #2: I’m kind of in love with Bridget’s older brother, Oliver. No, I was. No, I am. Wait, was? Am? Crap.

Confession #3: I’ve been avoiding Oliver for four years. Or I was until today, because he just moved in. Yes, you read that correctly. He’s my new roommate. So that night we’ve both been pretending never happened, well, we might not be able to keep it a secret any longer.

And trust me, this is only the beginning.

Review:

I don’t think I’ve ever gotten this much entertainment out of the misfortunes of someone’s romantic life, with the exception of my own.

The main character, Skylar, or as everyone calls her, Skye, gets an internship working at a newspaper in New York City fresh out of college. At the paper, she works in the book review department, when she gets promoted to having her own column in the paper, while also working as an assistant. There’s only one small problem with this: Skye is supposed to write a sex column, and she is a virgin.

Adding to her troubles, the guy that she’s had a crush on forever, her best friend Bridget’s brother Ollie, moves in with them, making Skye’s life more difficult than it needs to be.

Every time Skye goes on a date with someone for her column, Ollie is right there,  quick to judge the guys that Skye is dating. No one seems to get his approval, and Skye has a difficult time deciding if it’s simply because Ollie is like a big brother to her, or if his judgement means something else entirely.

What I particularly liked about this book was how mature all of the characters seemed to be overall. Let’s face it,  I don’t expect everyone to be mature 100% of the time—we all have our childish sides—but the majority of the time the characters acted like mature adults, which is something that you don’t always see in books with characters in the new adult phase of their lives.

This book also has one of the most mature break up scenes I’ve ever read, which I can appreciate. Two characters (I won’t name names!) come to the conclusion that they don’t really see a future with one another and that their lives are just too different. Instead of a huge, dramatic break up, they wish each other the best and go their separate ways. Just because they are young doesn’t mean that they are ridiculous and overdramatic.

I could really see a lot of similarities between Skylar and myself, which I think only added to how much I loved this book. For example, she loves books and interns at a book review department of a paper, which is something I could definitely see myself doing. She is a bit socially awkward and inept, which I admit I am sometimes as well. And perhaps the greatest similarity of all is that she has absolutely no flirting skills and just starts rambling uncontrollably. Personally, whenever I flirt I get all flustered and start using big words that don’t normally find their way into everyday conversation. I guess it’s a good thing my boyfriend likes that kind of stuff. Ha!

I can’t wait to see how the story continues to unfold in the next book. I give this book 5/5 stars because I absolutely couldn’t put it down!

Confessions of a Virgin Sex Columnist! is on sale now. You can click the image of the book’s cover above to order it. The sequel book, Confessions of an Undercover Girlfriend! comes out next spring.

I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Categories
Book Reviews

Model Position – Book Review

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Plot:

All too soon, artist Sienna Karr will graduate art school and be flung out into Manhattan’s glamorous but cutthroat gallery scene. Luckily, she’s just met Dave Hightower, heir to the hippest gallery ever. He’s asked her on a date, and offered to introduce her to the gallery owner, his intimidating Aunt Lydia. Sienna’s excited! Now she’ll be able to climb the ranks and make those all-important art connections.

Trouble is, she’s falling hard for the sexy live drawing model, Erik, whose sizzling green eyes seem to pierce right into her soul. Dare she risk losing those potential art contacts for love? Erik insists that Sienna is a real talent and her painting stands out above all the others. But she worries that he whispers this come-on line to every pretty art student who flocks around him during breaks. And her friends worry, is Erik up to her pay grade? What kind of guy chooses modeling for a living? Who is he, really? Her choice may be her ruin… or not, but she must decide fast. Everything in Sienna’s super-organized life is turning to terrifying yet sweet chaos.

Review:

This novella was a very quick read for me, and overall I enjoyed the story as a quick escape from the things that I’m usually inclined to read. Occasionally I’m drawn toward a romance story, and this one was cute and clever.

Sienna thinks she knows what she wants from life, and when things start to fall into place, she realizes that perhaps she didn’t really know what she needs from life. Soon, Sienna finds herself being pursued by two men, one the nephew of the owner of the ‘it’ art gallery in Manhattan, the other the new model in one of her classes.

Sienna decides to follow what she feels in her heart, despite initial appearances, and is pleasantly surprised when she discovers that things weren’t quite as they seemed at first, and that the man she’s dating has some very interesting secrets.

Overall, I give this book 3/5 stars.

Categories
Book Reviews

Since Forever Ago – Book Review

SinceForeverAgoPlot:

Fresh off the heels of a devastating breakup, Riley Benson is a mess. But with her ingenious plan to become a ball-busting heartbreaker herself, she’s pretty sure she’ll survive. After all, what better way is there to get revenge than to move on?

Riley’s determined to become the perfect bachelorette—she’s going to drink like a bro, belch like a beast and swear so much that she’ll make even the most seasoned sailors blush. After all, those are the qualities that every guy’s secretly looking for…. aren’t they?

Max Fletcher is in love with the girl who gave him chicken pox and his first broken leg. When his best friend seems to finally be out of the picture, he can’t help but want to keep Riley all to himself. And, after coaching her with the very best of the very worst love advice, it seems as if he might actually get what he’s wanted after all those years. But just as the two come to the realization that they’re actually kind of perfect for each other, along comes a secret that threatens to tear them apart.

Review:

Before I even started reading this book, I saw that reviewers had been giving it very negative reviews, so I tried to go in with as open a mind as possible and to not let others’ opinions influence my own.

The characters in Since Forever Ago are very realistic. While some reviewers have called them whiny, immature and clueless, I think that these characters are very much a representation of at least a good portion of those in the “new adult” age range. As a 19-year-old college student myself, I thought that Riley and her roommates Liz and Audrey portrayed new adults in a fairly accurate way. College students are notorious for partying too much, drinking too much and being overly dramatic, and the characters of this book represent just that. While these traits don’t describe all college students, it does describe a decent percent of them.

Riley is no hero. She drinks too much, swears like a sailor, and generally doesn’t have any part of her life figured out. But no one is perfect, and not all characters are hero types. Not everyone can be a Hermione or a Katniss. Riley showcases real emotions and often acts before she thinks. Just because she isn’t the empowered heroine doesn’t make her a bad character. She is just flawed, as everyone is, but perhaps just a bit more.

This book does have a lot of swearing and a few sex scenes, if that bothers you. While this book definitely wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever read, I enjoyed it and thought it was very funny. I found the characters and the story easy to relate to, and it was a very fast read.

I give this book 3.5/5 stars.