Review: Dangerous to Know & Love by Jane Harvey-Berrick

Blurb from Goodreads

Silence is only skin deep.

Nineteen year old Daniel Colton is the guy all the girls want to date, and the man all the guys want to be. Moody, with an explosive temper, closed off and sullen, he’s also beautiful, tatted in delicious ways, with a pierced eyebrow and spiky black hair. It’s rumoured he has piercings in other places, too. Is he really mad, bad and dangerous to know?

Daniel lives with his older brother, Zef, and their home is party central. You want drugs, a good time, liquor, no questions asked? Colton’s is the place to go.

When Daniel and good girl Lisanne Maclaine have to work together on an assignment, Lisanne finds there’s a lot more to the college’s bad boy than his reputation. He’s intelligent and funny and good company. And then she discovers his secret, why he’s so closed off to everyone, and determined to keep people at arms’ length. But being his secret-keeper is harder than she ever dreamed.

Recommended for readers 18+ due to sexual references and sex scenes, some coarse language, drug references and drug use.

ebook, 387 pages

Published May 17th 2013 by Harvey Berrick Publishing (first published May 15th 2013)

edition language: English

genre: Contemporary, Romance, New Adult

My Thoughts

I’m so relieved I finally finished this book. I think it’s one of the thickest NA books I’ve ever read. Unfortunately the thickest page doesn’t mean it’s a good reading since I didn’t enjoy it. The story keeps dragging on and on and on I think if I skip some of them, I won’t lose much. And it has obvious pattern that I can guess what will happen next easily. So the main characters will talk, one of them (but mostly) the hero, Daniel Calton, will mad at the heroine, Lisanne McLaine, he then will storm from the room or run away or something like that, Lisanne will cry and apologize though it isn’t her fault, and then they have sex. In a couple pages they will get along well before it repeats the pattern. Reading their story is like listening to one melody in an album, though it has different song titles.

And then the characters are judgmental and have double standards.

He was different alright. In fact, Lisanne was pretty sure that he’d wandered into the wrong classroom by mistake. No way someone like him was taking the Introduction to Business class.. […]Lisanne felt unreasonably irritated with him. Her parents had paid good money for her to attend college, and losers like that guy were just there for the ride. Lisanne couldn’t stand people like that – people who were fake.

I get that Lisanne meant to be a judgmental person in the beginning of the story so there is development character in her along the way. But the thing is even when she realizes that she’s being a judgmental person and seeing and thinking as stereotype as can be, she keeps being a judgmental person. I didn’t see much her changing. Well…maybe just a bit at the end of the story, even Daniel whom people think as stereotype often has prejudice himself. Not to mention Lisanne’s parents who are teachers assume the worst/the best from physical appearances.

Lisanne, as an 18 year old college girl seems so naive, lack of confidence and is insecure about herself while at the same time she acts all tense around Daniel I want to tell her to lose herself and relax once in a while.

It was second nature for Lisanne to doubt anything positive that someone said about her.

She asked for a bottle of water and both of the guys had beers. She frowned but didn’t say anything.

And it’s kinda annoying reading she calls herself as LA whenever she texts Daniel while only one time he call her that way. I mean why she declares herself with one nick name that hardly use by the characters?

And Daniel, boy…I’m kinda afraid of him, to be honest. His emotion is like a rollercoaster and he’s like a ticking bomb at the same time.

“What’s the matter, Lis?”She shook her head. “Nothing.”His temper flared instantly.“Don’t do that! Fuck! I miss enough of what’s going on around me, without you saying ‘nothing’ when I can see by your face that you’re upset.”

“Just give me the fucking chance,” snarled Daniel, instantly losing his good mood. “Mother fucker.”

“But you slept with her,” hissed Lisanne.Daniel’s patience was fracturing fast. “For fuck’s sake, that was when I was a kid. My dick hasn’t been anywhere near her in nearly three years!”

“Why don’t you want us to meet?” she said, tightly. “You said you’d introduce us.” Her expression was challenging and Daniel immediately felt his hackles rising.“Because I can’t take any more fucking drama right now, Lis, and you look like you want to start yanking her hair.”

Daniel knew that his hold on his temper was tenuous and tried not to take out his constant anger on Lisanne, but it was hard.

Most of the time he takes everyone words wrongly. He gets mad easily because of it. He even gets mad to Lisanne’s parents just because they worry about their daughter.

So once again I’m being in minority side. I guess it’s another it-is-just-me-not-you kind of book, then.

Result: 1 out of 5 stars

Review: Knowing Jack by Rachel Curtis

Blurb from Goodreads

I am not a slut, although I’ve been called one often enough. Yeah, I spent three months screwing one of my college professors, but I was crazy about the guy. Then he broke up with me.

I am not a bitch, although people like to say I am. I kept our relationship secret. I’m not responsible for telling the university administrators about it, but a lot of students still blame me for getting their favorite professor fired.

I am not a drama queen, although everyone thinks I am now. When I got a few nasty messages, I just deleted them. When I got the threat, I assumed it was someone being stupid. I still think that’s all it was. My parents worry, though, so they hired me a bodyguard. Now Jack follows me around, intimidating everyone who approaches me and looking obnoxiously hot.

This is what I am. I’m Chloe. I’m a twenty-year-old art history major. Kind of shy, although I pretend not to be. Stubborn enough to stay here for my senior year, even though everyone hates me.

And I’m stuck with Jack.

He calls me “Princess,” but I’m not a princess either.

ebook, 165 pages

Published January 17th 2014 by Rachel Curtis (first published January 15th 2014)

edition language: English

genre: Contemporary, Romance, New Adult

My Thoughts

Do you read the blurb before you read the book? I mostly read it before I decide to read the book. But I should’ve known better that I shouldn’t too rely on the blurb before I read the book because sometimes it misleads me. When I read the blurb of this book in NetGalley I was intrigued. Somehow I thought it will contain a drama with some kind of suspense and/or thriller scenes since the main character, Chloe has a bodyguard, Jack. Apparently, it’s all about knowing Jack, literally. In this case, the title suits well since there is barely anything else aside about Chloe’s trying to know Jack the whole time. I honestly don’t know what I should feel about it. Should I disappointed because there isn’t much story in it or should I be happy since the title has already tells much. You tell me.

As you may read in the blurb, it’s about Chloe who has a bodyguard after her affair with her professor which caused him to get fired from their university. Her parents feel there are death threats to her. Therefore they hire Jack. That’s why Jack gets his job in the first place.

Although most of the story is told from Chloe’s POV, there are chapters from Jack’s too, the prelude, interlude (is told after a couple of chapters from Chloe’s POV) and postlude. In prelude, he’s attracted (but I feel like it’s more a lust than just an ordinary attraction) to her from the first time he lays his eyes on her. Apparently she feels the same which she tells me from the first chapter, from page four to be exactly.

It’s basically what she talks and thinks all the time in a whole book. Here is what she says

” I can’t think about anything except Jack and his big body and his strong hands and his rough jaw and that deep, hot, knowing look in his eyes”.

She desperately lusting on him (her words, not mine), keeps thinking about how sexy Jack is and wanting to have sex with him. And everything he says, does and even when he doesn’t do anything (she only hears his voice) makes her shiver and quiver and her girly parts clench (again, it’s her words, not mine). She tells me all those things too many times. She also has annoying habit giving me advice about “how to or what I supposed to do” when I face certain kind of situations. First couple of chapters is about a situation regarding on a hot bodyguard since she knows it well and is on man-fast.

I’m on a man-fast. Fasting from food is supposed to be good for you – clear your body, clear your mind, get you refocused on what’s important. […]. So this year, I’m fasting from men, so I can focus on what’s more important.”

Apparently she fails it miserably. And instead of focus on what’s important such as finding who send her text message and post her photos on Tumblr, she keeps lusting him and doesn’t understand why he couldn’t be with her. She said on the blurb that she’s a shy girl. I don’t think I agree with her because there isn’t anything that mention or prove that she’s a shy girl. I don’t know what to call her, though.

Jack also isn’t better than her. When it’s time for him to tell me his POV he has the same things in his mind. How beautiful and perfect Chloe is, though she’s a tiny small girl; acts and thinks like a caveman; and attack first ask later to someone who approach her. He also has an annoying habit. He keeps thinking about her, flirting with her, mad of her then have sex with her before he realizes that it isn’t good for their bodyguard-protectee relationship. This pattern happens many times.

All the while I keep thinking where is the death threat that Chloe’s parents afraid of? I think it’s just in their thought (and mine too when I read the blurb). So who did send her text messages and post her photos on Tumblr, you ask? Well…there is a bad guy here but it’s so obvious I don’t have to think twice to guess it. And when they can tell who it is, it is just so so-so I feel relieve that finally the story ended.

ARC was provided by the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for honest review.

Result: 1 out of 5 stars

Review: Connected #1, Reconnected by Bethany Daniel

Blurb from Goodreads

Katy Warren had it all. A new husband, who was a successful theater actor and their whole lives ahead of them. But then Liam got discovered and once whisked off to Hollywood, he changed. After a night of being ignored for “business”, Katy decides she can’t handle it and leaves. Taking back her maiden name, and deciding to go for a Psychology degree she leaves Liam Warren and his celebrity behind, but she never got a divorce and Liam hasn’t stopped looking for her. When their paths cross again, Liam does all he can to fight for their love even with Katy fighting against him.

Kindle Edition

Published May 8th 2013

edition language: English

series: Connected

genre: Contemporary, Romance, New Adult

My Thoughts

I think this book could be an interesting story if it handles better than this. I mean I obviously interested with the premise, though it didn’t has something new. It has the same pattern as other romance books, so I don’t except things that surprise me. I chose this book hoping I can get a light sweet story. It’s light and sweet but I can’t feel it. There are many things that made me roll my eyes because I can’t believe to what the characters say and think.

“Kate, I think that man loves you. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be going through all of this to get you back..

I think buy you flowers and talk a few minutes to you after 4 years didn’t meet can’t count as all. It’s just one teeny tiny kind of pointless act of things that can happen in 4 years.

“No, you have to get on MY good side again, Liam. This isn’t like a movie where you just jump back where we left off and everything’s “Happily Ever After”. You’re going to have to really make an effort at this.”

I thought Katy wants Liam too woo her and make him try as hard as he can to prove her that he wants her and be with her. But why then I read the opposite thing? It’s Katy who kind of tries hard to get back to Liam. Where did her intention to leave Liam go? And how can she treat Lucas just like that?

“How in the world do you know about that?”, I ask confused. […]“There was only like three guys there though…”

Hmm….didn’t you realize you married with a well-known actor therefore you are famous by association and it tends paparazzi to stalk you? And have you ever heard of internet? Even when there is only one paparazzi, if he wants to show it to the world, he can do it in a minute.

“……and if Scott has his way, one for Krista too tomorrow.” […]“He seems really taken with her, honestly.”

Really? After one encounter, talking only a few minutes?

I think the biggest problem I get from this book is the story moving so fast, way too fast. I like fast-paced story but not like this fast. It’s like the author didn’t give me time to feel it therefore I can’t connect to story and characters. And there are too many things happened it make the story seems didn’t focus. When I read the blurb, I thought I will read about things Liam do to make Katy back to him, how she will forgive him and how they fall in love again. But I got it in just few chapters in the beginning, the rest is about another stories and it felt even more in a rush. I think it’s better if the author narrow down the story so that she can focus on Liam and Katy second chance. When I finished it, I feel like I read 2 stories, at least but somehow I miss and skip the main story.

Result: 1 of 5 stars

Review: Goddess Test #3, The Goddess Inheritance by Aimee Carter

Blurb from Goodreads

During nine months of captivity, Kate Winters has survived a jealous goddess, a vengeful Titan and a pregnancy she never asked for. Now the Queen of the Gods wants her unborn child, and Kate can’t stop her–until Cronus offers a deal.

In exchange for her loyalty and devotion, the King of the Titans will spare humanity and let Kate keep her child. Yet even if Kate agrees, he’ll destroy Henry, her mother and the rest of the council. And if she refuses, Cronus will tear the world apart until every last god and mortal is dead.

With the fate of everyone she loves resting on her shoulders, Kate must do the impossible: find a way to defeat the most powerful being in existence, even if it costs her everything.

Even if it costs her eternity.

ebook, 229 pages

Published March 1st 2013 by Harlequin Teen (first published January 1st 2013)

edition language: English

series: Goddess Test

genre: Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult

My Thoughts

This is the final book of Goddess Test series. I read its prequel a year ago, it didn’t impress me and I forgot about the story but won’t spend more time to reread it to remind me. I read this book only because of my promise to finish book I read, even when I didn’t like it. So, I struggle to remember who is who and what they role are.

My struggling didn’t stop on remembering the story. The plot is also unbelievable to me. It was going back and forth about how Kate will save her love ones and who will be the winner in the family business battles. Team Cronos or team Walter. I’m sure reader knows who will win eventually. The good will always stand still even when they have to sacrifice so many things. Hence, I’m waiting for their ways or tactics to win the battle. And set my hope high for the great battle. After all it’s a battle between the king of Titan with the queen of gods as his ally against the king of gods with other gods and goddess in his side. Of course I want nothing more than a great battle. But, I didn’t get it at all. At first I thought it’s because it told from Kate’s POV and she rarely joined the battles so I didn’t get the image but when she finally joined the last battle, the supposed to be an epic battle become an epic fail to me. It’s mostly telling than showing. I spent my time reading the characters’ dialogue they are talking things with less action. No action, talk only.

Another thing I struggled is it was hard reading through Kate’s POV, she’s one annoying character. One minute she said want to do something, minutes later she doubt it and change her mind. She keeps talking the same things over and over and talks and thinks obvious things. It becomes unbelievable, as in I can’t believe she say it. She always reasoning everything she did, whether it’s good or bad. There are too many if in her head. I think aside being a martyr complex she likes to be a drama queen also.

I’d leapt without thinking once again. This time it had cost me my family.

Yes, Kate you seem often act, think and speak without thinking, hence doing unbelievable things. I cannot believe you fell in the same holes many times. What were you thinking when:

1) Gives promises to gods and goddess. They are powerful, so that we have to be careful when we speak to them, especially when we give our promises, right? As much as I understand your reason, I think you didn’t think that you have to be careful to give your words to gods and goddess. I cannot believe you’re so easily gave promises or say “I do whatever you want” first to Cronos, to Calliope and to Rhea and Ava and who knows who else.

“I knew something was off. He kept saying strange things, he wouldn’t kiss me, and the way he could hold Milo when I couldn’t touch him…” I shook my head. “I should have known.”

2) It so obvious who is actually in the nursery room with Milo while Henry is dying but how come you didn’t realize who is he? I wonder whether you are naive or silly.

“We could stay down here while the others fight. They won’t miss you. And we can come up with another way to help them.”

Really, Kate? Didn’t you eager to show other gods and goddess that you are capable to go to war with them a couple chapters ago? You even argued with Henry because he didn’t want you to go. But 3) when Walter allow you to join their war without say anything else, you whine and demand that at least he ever show you that he cares for you. Something you already known that it is how Walter is.

I stared after him. That was it? After everything that had happened, that was all he was willing to give me? No offer to teach me himself—not that I expected one, and I would’ve turned it down anyway, but still. No attempt to insist I stay safe. Just permission to go out and die if that was what I wanted.

Despite of Kate, I also find other characters doing unbelievable things. 1) Calliope supposed to be a bitch badass villain but she seems cannot act like she supposed to be, the evil villain. 2) Cronos is the strongest of all gods and goddess I cannot believe how easily Kate trick him. It’s too easy for the most powerful and fearful titan who can rule all of gods and goddess easily.

“Think, Kate. Just stop and think. You’re the girl who trekked across half the Underworld to reach me on the off chance I might know where to find Cronus, and you’re giving up right now? I don’t think so.”

Everyone believes in you, Kate. Despite your constant mistakes, they still think that you are smart, strong and capable to do anything. But, sorry I couldn’t believe you. You never learn from your mistakes and made yourself hit the same wall many times. After so many times, it wasn’t a naivety anymore, you know. It’s just stupidity.

I’m relieved this series finally over and glad I survived with a headache and many rolled eyes throughout the story. If this is a test for me to gain immortality in Kate’s world, I don’t mind if I fail, don’t think I can bare the headache for eternity.

Result: 1 of 5 stars