Forever Ours by Cassia Leo

Synopsis: Sometimes, it takes more than love to mend a shattered heart.

After eight years of being tossed around from one home to another, never forming any meaningful friendships or bonds with her foster families, Claire’s caseworker gives her an ultimatum: Behave or your next home will be a halfway house.

When fifteen-year-old Claire arrives at the home of Jackie Knight and meets Jackie’s fifteen-year-old son, tattooed guitarist Chris, she fears she’ll be seeing the inside of that halfway house soon. But Chris isn’t like any other guy Claire has ever encountered and he soon gains her trust through his music and unwavering patience.

Claire has finally found her forever home and she and Chris soon find themselves falling in love.

But Chris’s dreams of musical stardom and Claire’s need for a stable home soon put their love in jeopardy. Chris struggles deeply with his plans for the future, entirely reluctant to leave Claire behind; until Claire does something that may break their love — and the only home she’s comes to know — forever.

2 Stars

I liked this book. It was okay.  But….the timeline glossed over some real important parts in my opinion. And, I don’t really understand what happened at the end.  It was like everything that was built up over the course of two years was suddenly not good enough? The consistency wasn’t there for me and that is a huge deal in my rating of a book.  If it doesn’t fit, I don’t believe it. If I don’t believe it, I loose interest…fast.

And I just didn’t buy it with this book.  Sure the emotions they were feeling were there but it seemed to always go back to more of the same. I hate repetitiveness.  It sucks the like right out of the book.  Claire was very skittish in the beginning then all of the sudden she was fine.  She had abandonment issues which, is to be expected.  However,  it kept coming back to that and I was like, “Come on, haven’t we dealt with this already?  Put up with it or shut up about it.” There was nothing to look forward to for me in their relationship. No growth, nothing but more of the same.

Sorry, I will not be reading the next one.  I needed more.

 

The Understatement of the Year by Sarina Bowen

Synopsis:
What happened in high school stayed in high school. Until now.

Five years ago, Michael Graham betrayed the only person who ever really knew him. Since then, he’s made an art of hiding his sexuality from everyone. Including himself.

So it’s a shock when his past strolls right into the Harkness College locker room, sporting a bag of hockey gear and the same slow smile that had always rendered Graham defenseless. For Graham, there is only one possible reaction: total, debilitating panic. With one loose word, the team’s new left wing could destroy Graham’s life as he knows it.

John Rikker is stuck being the new guy. Again. And it’s worse than usual, because the media has latched onto the story of the only “out” player in Division One hockey. As the satellite trucks line the sidewalk outside the rink, his new teammates are not amused.

And one player in particular looks sick every time he enters the room.

Rikker didn’t exactly expect a warm welcome from Graham. But the guy won’t even meet his eyes. From the looks of it, his former… best friend / boyfriend / whatever isn’t doing so well. He drinks too much and can’t focus during practice.

Either the two loneliest guys on the team will self destruct from all the new pressures in their lives, or they can navigate the pain to find a way back to one another. To say that it won’t be easy is the Understatement of the Year.

    

My Review:
4 stars — So I got totally sucked into this book b/c the author does a “First Chapter Friday” on Facebook/her blog.  And yesterday she posted the first chapter of this book, and you guessed it — I was hooked.  So I bought the darn book, and even though I’m in NYC, I still managed to stay up until 3am to finish the darn thing.  But I had to know what was going to happen!!!

So obviously a compelling book.  I loved the premise of it — 2 boys who had a teenage relationship that didn’t end well end up on the same hockey team in University.  For a sports romance, there was a lot in this book about the struggles of coming out, the fear of unacceptance and hate, gays in sports…it just tackled a lot of issues.  It could be kind of hard to read b/c Graham was just so afraid that he was such a dick to Rikker….so on one hand your heart just breaks for him, but on the other hand you want him to…I don’t know, grow up?  But it’s just not that easy, especially with the way he grew up, and seeing how difficult it could be for Rikker being out.

I definitely had an easier time falling in love with Rikker.  He was funny, and sweet, and so incredibly lonely.  And damn it was hot when he got controlling in bed…:P

There were a few solid secondary characters — Skippy could be a bit much to take (though I think he was supposed to be), but I LOVED Rikker’s grandmother, and Bella was actually really interesting too.  I actually already have the 4th book, which is Bella’s book, so I definitely want to dive into that next.  Though I missed book 2, so I need to go back and read that one soon.

All in all a solid M/M romance, and a solid hockey romance.  Great hockey moments, for anyone who’s a fan (which would be me).

Bound Together: A Holiday Novella (Bound Series) by Stormy Smith

Synopsis: After weeks spent on the road tracking down Immortals still in hiding, Amelia and Aidan are finally ready for some down time. Holed up in a cabin at the base of Mt. Shasta, they prepare to celebrate their first Christmas together.

While Aidan makes secret plans for the celebration, he and Amelia create their own holiday traditions, finding surprises around every corner as they embrace each other and their future together.

Enjoy this short novella (40 pages) and celebrate the holidays with your favorite characters from the Bound series.

**Make sure to read this AFTER reading Bound by Prophecy. It is book 3.5 in the series.**

5 Stars for the narration

4 Stars for the novella

I received this audio book in exchange for an honest review.

I am shocked, shocked I say!  This narrator has some serious skills.  She did accents perfectly.  Her voice was so emotive, it was like I was there. I could hear the sarcasm, the playfulness and the serious tones.  It was very expressive.  Her book was full of so many different accents and it made the characters in my head come to life in a way that was impossible while reading to myself.

Its no secret I loves me some Stormy Smith.  Her writing is professional, detailed and well rounded.  And I wish this novella was longer just so I could hear the narrators voice nail all the different characters.  I will say I found Aidan’s voice a bit hard to listen too at first, like she was trying to hit a lower register than was possible for her.  It made me cringe a bit in the beginning. But once I got used to it, the whole cast really came together nicely.

I like this audio so much, I’m looking for other books she has narrated just so I can hear her voice again.  Well done Kristin James!  And of course, kudos to Stormy for writing such a wonderful book to be narrated.

This book also satisfies my Read Harder challenge of reading a book under one hundred pages. Boom.

 

Sweet Home by Tillie Cole

Synopsis:
At age twenty, Molly Shakespeare knows a lot.

She knows Descartes and Kant.

She knows academia and Oxford.

She knows that the people who love you leave you.

She knows how to be alone.

But when Molly leaves England’s grey skies behind to start a new life at the University of Alabama, she finds that she has a lot to learn — she didn’t know a summer could be so hot, she didn’t know students could be so intimidating, and she certainly didn’t know just how much the folks of Alabama love their football.

When a chance encounter with notorious star quarterback, Romeo Prince, leaves her unable to think of anything but his chocolate-brown eyes, dirty-blond hair and perfect physique, Molly soon realises that her quiet, solitary life is about to dramatically change forever…

    

My Review:
2.5 stars — Well I am mega bummed.  This book was HIGHLY recommended by quite a few friends and fellow reviewers I follow on Goodreads.  So highly recommended (the series as well as the book), that I bought like the first 4 books (or 3 books and Rome’s book) when they went on sale.  And like 10% in I was tempted to DNF it.  Seriously.  The only reason I didn’t was because I had the next few books, and I kept hoping that it would get better somehow.  But unfortunately, my initial impression lasted right to the very end.

So what didn’t work for me?  *grumble* The better question would almost be what did work for me.  *sigh*  OK.  So….where to start.  The characters all felt a little 2 dimensional to me.  And I mean right from the secondary characters up to the main characters.  I could see an attempt at making the MC’s 3 dimensional with their tragic backgrounds and such, but I just didn’t end up feeling that much empathy for them.  They felt flat.  They felt like caricatures.

And maybe I’m way off base, but the way the characters were portrayed (their actions, the way they talked) just felt very much like a stereotype of the south.  I saw someone else quote a line from Cass in their review, and I was like “YES!!  EXACTLY!!!  Mama wants a taco???  WHAT???”  I didn’t highlight them, but I was constantly cringing with the dialogue.

And speaking of Cass and Lexi (and to a lesser extent Ally), what in the world brought them together as friends with Molly??  Seriously, I didn’t feel the friendship chemistry at ALL.  It felt like they were just friends b/c they were intially rooming together, but there was nothing in common, and so I just didn’t buy into their concern all the time.

Back to the MCs — they felt SOOOOOO volatile and overdramatic to me.  Like, the emotional swings were making me feel nauseated.  Molly would jump to the most over the top conclusions with very little nudge in that direction, and then rush off all upset…and then Rome would come barrelling through yelling and apologizing and then it was “I love you I love you, never leave me”…”I’ll never leave you or run away again”…only to be repeated in a few chapters.  OK, so I might be over simplifying, but that’s just the way it read to me.  And OMG, I could see the conflicts coming from a mile away, and they felt contrived so that we would have strife, when really some common sense would have avoided everything.

And the bad guys were the worst caricatures of them all!!  It just wasn’t believable to me.

And I’ve never been a big Alpha guy girl (I don’t usually mind them, but I don’t seek them out), but am I seriously the only one who felt that Rome’s behavior was borderline abusive at times?  He SCREAMED at her and YELLED at her, and told her to be quiet, and I get that he was mad and upset, but WOOSH!  And his anger issues were crazy!  And she’s just supposed to miraculously make them go away???  I don’t know….

OK stop Lenore.  You’re starting to rant.  I’m sorry.  I really am.  I just had these huge hopes for this series, and to have them dashed on the first book is honest to god heartbreaking for me.  And OK, I’m probably being a little harsh on the bad qualities.  It had potential, it just didn’t live up to it at all for me.  I honestly knew from the prologue that the writing wasn’t going to work for me.  It was overly saccharine and…something that I just can’t seem to articulate.  *sigh*

Want to hear the worst part?  I’m reading Sweet Rome, b/c I just want to know what was going on in Romeo’s head!!!  I probably still won’t enjoy it that much, but I already have the damn books, so I figure I’ll give it one more go before giving up.  Maybe it was just this one.  Maybe they get better?  I don’t know.  I’m grasping at straws here.  I even have other books by this author…it will kill me if I find out I just don’t match well with her writing style.

Top Ten Diverse Books We’re Excited About

(Images link to Goodreads, Titles link to Amazon)

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish in which you make a list of ten to do with a certain topic.  This week is a Freebie Week, we were encouraged to pick our own topic!  We decided since we are participating in the Platypire Diversity Challenge we would do “Diverse Books We’re Excited About.”

Curly Carla’s Top Ten:

First, what is Diversity?  I looked it up and it’s pretty simple really, The state of being diverse; variety. A range of different things.  I like my art to imitate life.  We are not all the same so our books should represent this right?  Books that have people of color or are written by people of color; the LGBTQA community, people with disabilities, cultural and religious minorities, non-traditional family units are books that I would consider diverse.  What do you consider diverse?

1. Cinder & Ella by Kelly Oram.  This is a fantastic book!  Highly recommended, has different family units, an MC who is struggling with a disability and who has a Chilean background incorporated into the story as well.  I still want that recipe…
2. The History of Us by Nyrae Dawn.  This book looks into the gay culture and how it has changed over the years.  It’s title has a double meaning.  Loved this book!
3. Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg.  This book is about a gay teenager who wants to live life without the gay label. To just be ‘normal’ in his last year of high school.
4. Cinder by Marissa Meyer is a fairy tale re-telling featuring a Chinese heroine who is also part android.
5. 180 Days by T.E. Ridener.  This was my first transgender book and I can’t wait for the next one.
6. The Real Thing by Cassie Mae features a Somoan love interest.
7. Creatura by Nely Cab features a Hispanic MC.
8. Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan.  Never read it but it’s been on my kindle for months now.
9. Something True by Karelia Stetz-Waters.  F/F romance, I haven’t read it yet but it’s also on my kindle.
10. I do not have a tenth book…. 😦 At least not one that I already own or have heard of so if you have recommendations I’d be happy to hear them.

Lenoreo’s Top Ten:

So Curly stole at least 4 of mine…:P  I actually had a hard time narrowing this down to just 10.  For one, I read quite a bit of M/M romance, so it would have been a piece of cake to fill up my list with those.  And I think that when people think of diverse reads, they often think of reads with characters of a different race.  And quite frankly, I’m not sure how many of the books I own with POC actually focused on their differences…so I’m a little light on that category.  Strangely enough I found a lot of books with characters with disabilities — which I found kind of fascinating b/c there are so many different kinds of disabilities.  So here’s my spread:

1. A Hundred Thousand Words by Nyrae Dawn — this is one of my go to authors for diversity.  This book is an M/M romance and features a half black half white main character.  (Check out some of her other titles for diversity: Charade, Freeing Carter, What a Boy Needs, Rush, History of Us all come to mind)
2. Suicide Watch by Kelley York — great LGBT read (contains an M/M romance, though it’s not the main storyline), and addresses topics of depression and suicide.  Highly underrated book, I can’t recommend it enough.
3. My Life After Now by Jessica Verdi — the main character has gay dads.
4. The Cranberry Hush by Ben Monopoli — bi main character.
5. How I Fall by Anne Eliot — main character with Cerebral Palsy.
6. The Year We Fell Down by Sarina Bowen — main character is in a wheelchair.
7. Count On Me by Melyssa Winchester — main character is a high functioning Autistic.
8. True Love by Melissa Pearl — main character has her hand amputated.
9. Chasing Daylight by Carey Heywood — main character has an amputated leg (and suffers from PTSD).
10. Has to Be Love by Jolene Perry — main character of the Mormon faith.

Love Found (previously titled Parting Chances) by Caylie Marcoe

Synopsis: Haley Cavanaugh’s heart is broken.

Shattered into a million pieces, and that’s just how she’d like it to stay.

She doesn’t believe she deserves happiness. She doesn’t understand how to move on while her life is falling apart and her reality is destroyed.

Enter Eli Park.

Eli is someone Haley thought she knew, but who turned out to be so much more than she remembered. He sees through her pain and refuses to be pushed away, even when she lashes out.

Eli’s patience is both frustrating and surprising. Haley was so sure she wanted to go on feeling nothing, but Eli stirs emotions she can’t deny.

Will Haley allow Eli to help her through this horrific time so she can find herself again? Or will she lose the only person who can help heal her heart?

4 Stars for the book

3 Stars for the narration.

I received this audio book in exchange for an honest reveiw.

This book will always hold a special place in my heart because it is the first book I read that ever made me cry.  Not just little tears either, but big crocodile tears most would call the ‘ugly cry’.  So it was really hard when I listened to the book and found myself disconnected from the MC.  We share a common past; my mom also died of cancer so I totally got her character.

The audio book was overshadowed by the narrator’s high-pitched voice.  She surprisingly nailed the male voices but I found myself having a hard time liking the MC because her voice was so whiny.  I have read this book before I listened to the audio which is how I do it, like a compare and contrast of reading and listening.  The differences were very big in my head.  Hayley seemed to be a bit childish in her behavior when I listened to it but in the book I never noticed, I am not sure if it was intentional or not but I just couldn’t get in to her character this time around.

Great book, not so great narration.

 

Izzy Moffat’s Road to Wonderland (Wonderland series book 1) by Victoria L. James

Synopsis:  Making it to seventeen in one piece isn’t usually a concern for your average teenager, but if there’s one thing Isabella Moffit has never been, it’s average. Dragged through life by parents who couldn’t care less and surrounded by violence on a daily basis, Izzy reaches that epic birthday milestone in her life with only one person to thank for getting her there: her best friend and soul sister, Paris Hemsworth.

Vowing to stand side by side through thick and thin since they were four years old, the two of them have made it this far and are confident that now is their time to tackle the world head on, one shaky, naive little footstep at a time.

Except they have no idea what awaits them both on the other side of adulthood, and before either one of them can strap on their hard hat, they’re taking so many knocks and bruises that Izzy’s childhood suddenly seems like a stroll in the park.

Dodging as many bullets as they can along the way, Izzy tries to hold on to Paris’ hand for as long as possible without either one of them slipping away. But no-one ever told them how rough their journey would be. No-one told them that friends and family would change or leave along the way. And no-one told them that for every good intention they have, there’s a thousand people out there with bad ones, waiting to rip them apart.

Follow Izzy’s journey in part one of the Road to Wonderland series – a coming of age novel with a difference, where you’ll face tears, tantrums, laughter and heartbreak, but above all else, hope. Hope that no matter what life throws your way, it’s all part of setting you on the right path to your very own Wonderland and that, more often than not, everything happens for a reason.

4 Stars

I purchased this book after reading a review from a fellow blogger over at Books and Bindings.

What can I say about this book?  It was deep, like not just parts of it, the whole bloody thing!  Every chapter touched on a new emotional issue and how Izzy dealt with it, but it went into her mind in a detailed way and I appreciated that.  It had some serious soul searching in it.  A lot of heartache and a small dose of romance.  Too small if you ask me.  It seems to be a voyage and return plot book, and while I like those fine, I find that they are not exactly my cup of tea.  I have no closure in these kinds of books as they are often left open-ended.  And I hate that.

A great quality of this book is the psycological-ness of it.  I get Izzy, I understood her feelings of heartache and abandonment.  Her insecurity and her hopefulness, her feirce protectiveness of the ones she loves were described exquisitely.  Her life was a rollercoaster of emotions that I will gladly ride again.

Favorite Quotes:

We are soul sisters, connected by heart if not by blood.  I love her more that anyone else in the world.

Best friends don’t just ride through the good times side by side.  They fall when the other falls, too.  If she is going to get herself arrested, well then I’ll be right beside her, laughing the whole way through while Lori sits on the sidelines, shaking her head at us, no doubt laughing even harder.

Time takes away all those memories you try to cling onto, because new ones push past, bigger and brighter than the last and worm their way into their place.  Time makes you forget.  Time makes you question.  Time isn’t a healer.  It’s a destroyer.

Rumour has is that we, as a collective, should never say never.  They say (whoever they are), to place that kind of restriction upon our lives will only limit our experience and cloud our judgement in the future.

 

Tangled Tides (The Sea Monsters Memoirs book 1) by Karen Amanda Hooper

Synopsis: Yara Jones doesn’t believe in sea monsters–until she becomes one.

When a hurricane hits her island home and she wakes up with fins, Yara finds herself tangled up in an underwater world of mysterious merfolk and secretive selkies. Both sides believe Yara can save them by fulfilling a broken promise and opening the sealed gateway to their realm, but they are battling over how it should be done. The selkies want to take her life. The merfolk want something far more precious.

Treygan, the stormy-eyed merman who turned Yara mer, will stop at nothing and sacrifice everything to protect his people–until he falls for Yara. The tides turn as Yara fights to save herself, hundreds of sea creatures, and the merman who has her heart. She could lose her soul in the process–or she might open the gateway to a love that’s deeper than the oceans.

4 Stars

First, the cover.  I am kinda digging it and covers don’t stand out to me that much so this says something.  This was a great take on mermaids! The world building was awesome and there were so many other monsters in this book as well.  I like when a story incorporates other species into it, it gives an added layer to the writing.  The selkies were my favorite.  There were interesting subtle parallels to the human world.  The smoking is one that stands out the most to me.

It took me a while to really like Treygan because he seemed to be a bit manipulative in the beginning.  I eventually warmed up to his stand-offish personality.  Without giving too much away, his issue with his half gorgon self really put things into perspective for me.  I still liked Rownan more.  He just had more charisma in my opinion.

Honestly, I wasn’t feeling Yara.  She was a bit reckless with her actions and wishy washy with her emotions. I suppose that’s how it should be since she is a teenager.  When they are thrown into the adult world with big issues, I guess I expect a bit more from the characters though.  The storyline was a bit all over the place too, took me a bit longer to follow than it usually does. Or I am just denser than the average reader.  Either one could be true.  🙂

Favorite quotes:

For a world where it isn’t us against them, a place where all of us can coexist peacefully again.  But more than anything it reminds me to love.  Screw the rules, damn the consequences, and just love.  Love until it kills you, because there’s nothing better worth dying for.

The guy could lift castles in to the air.  Eat your heart out, Cinderella.

“If we had more time I would take you to climb the apple trees, so you could know what you smell like.” She kissed my shoulder. “You taste like saltwater taffy. But your smell is like-I don’t know. It’s what I imagine heaven smells like.”  I laughed hard.  “My gods, is this the kind of cheesy stuff couples say to each other?”

 

Rusty Nailed by Alice Clayton

Synopsis:
In this sequel to Wallbanger, the second book in the Cocktail series, fan favorites Caroline and Simon negotiate the rollercoaster of their new relationship while house-sitting in San Francisco.

Playing house was never so much fun—or so confusing. With her boss on her honeymoon, Caroline’s working crazy long hours to keep the interior design company running—especially since she’s also the lead designer for the renovation of a gorgeous old hotel on Sausalito. So with her hotshot photographer boyfriend gallivanting all over the world for his job, she and Simon are heavy-duty into “absence makes the heart grow fonder” mode. Neither has any complaints about the great reunion sex, though! Then Simon decides he’s tired of so much travelling, and he’s suddenly home more. A lot more. And wanting Caroline home more, too. Though their friends’ romantic lives provide plenty of welcome distraction, eventually Caroline and Simon have to sort their relationship out. Neither wants “out of sight, out of mind,” but can they create their own happy mid-ground cliché?

    

My Review:
3 stars — Meh, it was ok.  It had some great moments.  I really do like her friendships with Mimi and Sophia, and that side story could be kind of fun (though the Sophia/Neil stuff got a bit crazy).  And some of her interactions with Simon were adorable and sweet (and he made my heart clench with the bits about his past).  But I guess I just couldn’t vibe with her brand of crazy in this one, so it left me out in the cold….   I guess I got a little bored with it too…so much could have been solved by just talking to the other person.  I know that this happens in real life too, but I don’t have to read about it for 300 pages, kwim?  Now I have to decide if I read the other Alice Clayton book I own (the Unidentified Redhead) and get them all out of the way, or if I move on to something a little different and give myself a break…

Wallbanger by Alice Clayton

Synopsis:
Caroline Reynolds has a fantastic new apartment in San Francisco, a Kitchen Aid mixer to die for, and no O (and we’re not talking Oprah here, folks). She has a flourishing design career, an office overlooking the bay, a killer zucchini bread recipe, and no O. She has Clive (the best cat ever), great friends, a great rack, and no O. Adding insult to O-less, she also has an oversexed neighbor with the loudest late-night wallbanging she’s ever heard. Every moan, spank, and—was that a meow?—punctuates the fact that not only is she losing sleep, she still has—yep, you guessed it—no O. Enter Simon Parker. When the wallbanging threatens to literally bounce her out of bed, Caroline, clad in sexual frustration and a pink baby-doll nightie, confronts her heard-but-never-seen neighbor. Their late-night hallway encounter has…well…mixed results. Because with walls this thin, the tension’s gonna be thick. A delicious mix of silly and steamy, this is an irresistible tale of exasperation at first sight.

    

My Review:
4 stars — This book was actually both a 3 star and a 5 star read for me — hence the averaging out at 4 stars.  It took me a REALLY long time to get into this book.  I was just not captured by the initial humour of the book…it just wasn’t…me….  It felt almost forced or something.  I was even telling my husband that I was considering DNFing b/c I just wasn’t that into it.

But then I got to about 20% (somewhere around Jillian and Ben’s party) and something changed for me.  I’m not sure if I just got a better glimpse of who Caroline was, or maybe Sophia and Mimi helped to temper her a bit?  But suddenly I was finding Caroline to be HILARIOUS, and just so freaking sassy, and I even enjoyed her ridiculous temper (though I feel like that should have bothered me).  She just let her feelings out and even though it could have come across as childish, I just felt all of her frustrations.

But it wasn’t just Caroline.  I began to fall in love with Simon and Caroline together.  I fell in love with their relationship that developed after the truce.  They just melded together so well, and even though it wasn’t a traditional romance, I fell in love with their burgeoning friendship.  It was honestly just so sweet, sassy and genuinely fun.  Simon’s love of baked goods was HILARIOUS, he was just so endearing.  And they had chemistry out the wazoo.  My heart just broke for all the mixed signals they were giving each other, and what happened in Tahoe.  I LOVED the brief texting interludes, and I even enjoyed the moments being in all their heads on the ride back after Tahoe.

And can I just say that the Sophia, Mimi, Ryan and Neil situation was hilarious to read about and watch?  I enjoyed that bit of side story.

It started to slow down a bit in Spain, but I was still really enjoying their romance as it was developing.  But then we got back to the O.  Not to mention the Brain, LC, Backbone, Heart and Nerves.  OMG, it seriously got so old.  I started rapidly losing interest in the story.  Which was such a shame b/c it had been turning into a 5 star one for me.  But it just went on and on and on.  It took away from the heart that could have been in that section (and did appear for brief moments).

And then they got back.  And let me tell you, I love me a good erotica…but I grew tired of the sex.  There, I said it.  It got boring.  I could see what the author was trying to do, show the playfulness of their relationship…but I just could not care less.  I had been treated to this beautiful sweet romance, and suddenly it was all about the sex.  I’m sure I’m in the minority on this opinion, but I just ended up over it.

So that is my tale about reading this story.  Low to EPIC HIGH to low again.  Shit, the ending plays such a huge part in my enjoyment of a story that I almost want to rate it lower, but that would be seriously doing an injustice to the middle of the book.  I can’t decide whether I’m going to go on to the next book.  I’ll probably give it a try and see how I feel.  I’m just feeling meh right now, trying to hold on to the magic.