Review: Lonely Hearts

Author: Heidi Cullinan
Series: Love Lessons, #3
Released: August 11th 2015
Publisher: Samhain
Length: 355 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

With the quiet help of his wealthy family, Sebastian “Baz” Acker has successfully kept his painful past at bay. But as the end of college draws near, his friends—his buffer zone—are preparing to move on, while his own life is at a crippling standstill.With loneliness bearing down on him, Baz hooks up—then opens up—with Elijah Prince, the guy Baz took a bullet for last year. The aftershocks of their one-night stand leave giant cracks in Baz’s carefully constructed armor. For the first time, the prospect isn’t terrifying.

Accustomed to escaping his demons by withdrawing into his imagination, Elijah isn’t used to having a happy herd of friends. He’s even less comfortable as the object of a notorious playboy’s affections. Yet all signs seem to indicate this time happiness might be within his grasp. When Baz’s mother runs for a highly sought-after public office, the media hounds drag Baz’s and Elijah’s pasts into the light. In the blinding glare, Baz and Elijah face the ultimate test: discovering if they’re stronger together…or apart.

Warning: Contains sex in a Tesla, sex in a cupboard, sex under a piano, kinky role play, and a cappella RuPaul songs. Just a couple of boys groping, battling, then finally loving their way to becoming men. 

Heidi Cullinan’s Love Lessons series is the only new adult contemporary series I’ve ever liked. That may be a bold and unusual starting sentence, but it’s sincere. I’m not much of a NA reader and I never was, but if there’s an author out there who has the power to turn me into an avid fan, it’s the amazing Ms. Cullinan.

LGBT Monday: Carry the Ocean

Author: Heidi Cullinan
Series: The Roosevelt, #1
Released: April 7th 2015
Publisher: Samhain
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

Normal is just a setting on the dryer. 

High school graduate Jeremey Samson is looking forward to burying his head under the covers and sleeping until it’s time to leave for college. Then a tornado named Emmet Washington enters his life. The double major in math and computer science is handsome, forward, wicked smart, interested in dating Jeremey—and he’s autistic.

But Jeremey doesn’t judge him for that. He’s too busy judging himself, as are his parents, who don’t believe in things like clinical depression. When his untreated illness reaches a critical breaking point, Emmet is the white knight who rescues him and brings him along as a roommate to The Roosevelt, a quirky new assisted living facility nearby.

As Jeremey finds his feet at The Roosevelt, Emmet slowly begins to believe he can be loved for the man he is behind the autism. But before he can trust enough to fall head over heels, he must trust his own conviction that friendship is a healing force, and love can overcome any obstacle.

Warning: Contains characters obsessed with trains and counting, positive representations of autism and mental illness, a very dark moment, and Elwood Blues.

Are we ready for a love story involving one brilliant but autistic boy and one boy with severe depression and clinical anxiety? Just days ago, I would have said an emphatic no because honestly, how would that even work? Right now, as I’m eating my third comfort cupcake and wiping happy tears from my eyes, I know exactly how: it works splendidly, beautifully, poignantly and amazingly. It’s challenging and often ridiculed, yes, but it works. My eternal gratitude to Heidi Cullinan for showing me that I was both blind and – forgive me for using the S word - stupid. We’ve been seeing more and more diversity in YA and NA books, which is absolutely wonderful, but positive representation of mental illness is another marvelous step further, and one not many dare to take.

Review: Fever Pitch

Author: Heidi Cullinan
Series: Love Lessons, #2
Released: September 30 2014
Publisher: Samhain
Length: 270 pages
Buy: Amazon

Sometimes you have to play love by ear.
Aaron Seavers is a pathetic mess, and he knows it. He lives in terror of incurring his father’s wrath and disappointing his mother, and he can’t stop dithering about where to go to college—with fall term only weeks away. Ditched by a friend at a miserable summer farewell party, all he can do is get drunk in the laundry room and regret he was ever born. Until a geeky-cute classmate lifts his spirits, leaving him confident of two things: his sexual orientation, and where he’s headed to school.
Giles Mulder can’t wait to get the hell out of Oak Grove, Minnesota, and off to college, where he plans to play his violin and figure out what he wants to be when he grows up. But when Aaron appears on campus, memories of hometown hazing threaten what he’d hoped would be his haven. As the semester wears on, their attraction crescendos from double-cautious to a rich, swelling chord. But if more than one set of controlling parents have their way, the music of their love could come to a shattering end.

Warning: Contains showmances, bad parenting, Walter Lucas, and a cappella.

Love Lessons, the first book in Heidi Cullinan's milder-than-usual series, proved that this author excels at characterization. This fact was pretty clear from her previous work as well, especially Dance With Me, which is one of my all-time favorites. But for some unidentifiable reason, Love Lessons didn’t quite reach me emotionally, not as much as I felt it should have.

When Fever Pitch came along, I waited a bit to read it, expecting more of the same, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. This book, you guys, I have no words to describe how it made me feel.

Review: Sweet Damage

Author: Rebecca James
Published: March 6th 2014
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Format: Paperback, 400 pgs
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

When Tim Ellison finds a cheap room to rent in the perfect location in Sydney it looks like a huge stroke of luck. In fact the room comes with a condition, and the owner of the house, the mysterious Anna London, is unfriendly and withdrawn. When strange and terrifying things start happening in the house at night, Tim wonders if taking the room is a mistake. But then his feelings for Anna start to change, and when her past comes back with a vengeance, Tim is caught right in the middle of it.

A thrilling rollercoaster of a story - read it with the lights on!

Sweet Damage is a compelling New Adult mystery with a distinctly gothic feel. I was new to Rebecca James' work so the quality of her storytelling took me completely by surprise. She is a master at building suspense to almost unbearable levels and leaving her readers terrified of their own shadows.

In other words, this woman scared the living daylights out of me.

In addition, good male narrators are hard to find, and Tim is far better than most. His voice isn't particularly strong or particularly memorable, but it's easy to slip into. Even though he is at times extremely unsympathetic and frustratingly weak, his numerous flaws make him seem more human and far more approachable, which allows readers to effortlessly slip into his skin. We've all known a Tim at some point: the not-quite-boy-and-not-quite-man, determined to avoid responsibility at all costs. He pines for his ex-girlfriend, a manic pixie dream girl type, not because she's especially lovable, but because she makes him feel wild and unrestrained.

In his effort to avoid the dreaded real life, he ends up living with the agoraphobic, recently orphaned Anna in her mansion. On the surface, Anna seems weak and vulnerable, but inexplicable things tend to happen to people around her, things that can’t just be explained away. After some very strange events and a few sleepless nights, Tim has to wonder whether Anna is unstable enough to hurt herself, and possibly even him.

Sweet Damage was so skillfully planned and constructed that it kept me guessing to the very end. I had no idea what might be the story behind Anna’s strange self-imprisonment, but I knew it must be awful beyond belief. I also couldn’t even begin to guess who was to blame for her situation, and while I had my doubts, none of them turned out to be correct.

Sweet Damage is frightening, fascinating, frustrating and so incredibly good. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but it seems that when it comes to Aussie writers, wonders never cease.

A copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher for review purposes. No considerations, monetary or otherwise, have influenced the opinions expressed in this review.

Blog Tour Review: Butterman (Time) Travel, Inc

Welcome to my tour stop for Butterman (Time) Travel, Inc by PK Hrezo. This is a New Adult Time Travel Adventure Romance and the tour runs Feb. 10-21 with reviews, author interviews and a few guest posts and top tens.  It also includes a great giveaway.  Be sure to stop by the tour page for all the additional information and list of tour stops.

Title: Butterman (Time) Travel, Inc
Author: PK Hrezo
Genre: NA Time Travel Adventure Romance
Recommended Age: 16 and up
Length: 267 pages
Release date: November, 2013

It’s the year 2069 and even though eighteen-year-old Bianca Butterman is heir to the family biz, she may never see the day her time-craft license becomes official. When a government agent starts nosing around the operation, Butterman Travel, Inc. gets stuck with a full audit—part of a government take-over scheme to shut down all private time travel agencies. Enter former boy band superstar, Tristan Helms, desperate to retrieve a lost item from his past and willing to pay triple fare for a time-trip to get there, and Bianca has to find a way to complete the job and return home before the government gets wind and shuts down the family biz for good.

Welcome to Butterman Travel, Incorporated; a full service agency designed to meet all your exclusive time travel needs. We’re a family owned and operated business with one hundred years of experience. A place where you can rest assured, safety and reliability always come first.

Anxious to attend some special event from the past? Or for a glimpse of what the future holds?

You’ve come to the right place. We’re a fully accredited operation, offering an array of services; including, but not limited to: customized travel plans, professionally piloted operations, and personal trip guides.

*Terms and conditions do apply Use our Web conferencing to contact our frontline reservation specialist, Bianca Butterman, who will handle all your inquiries in a professional and efficient manner, offering a tentative itinerary and free fare quote, so you can make the most of your time trip. We look forward to serving you at Butterman Travel, Inc., where time is always in your hands.

 Goodreads |  Amazon Kindle  | B&N 

I’ll be perfectly honest here and say, not for the first time, that the very idea of time travel confuses the hell out of me. Perhaps I’m not overly bright when it comes to these things, or perhaps the concept is just too complicated… or maybe it’s a little bit of both. From where I’m standing, time travel is nothing to be messed with, so I can’t help but admire authors who tackle it so bravely. Although science is not at the forefront of this book, the little that was offered was both convincing and crystal clear. I understood what was happening and why at all times, which is more than I can say for the vast majority of time travel books I’ve read in the past.

Bianca Butterman, our lovely tour guide, is a girl after my own heart. She is a lot like me, in fact, a workaholic dedicated to a fault. It takes a lot for her to loosen up, and I must say I admired her sense of responsibility. Even when she was changing and adapting, she stayed true to herself.

I was somewhat less fond of Tristan, I’m afraid. He charmed me a bit toward the end, but I still don’t quite see the appeal. I suppose self-entitled poor little rich boys that never once face consequences for their actions simply aren’t attractive to me. Also, as a former addict who keeps falling back into his old patterns, Tristan infuriated me more often than not. Fortunately, my dislike of him didn’t affect my overall enjoyment of this story, and for the most part, I was able to relax and just go with it. I learned that from Bianca.

The little detour that Bianca and Tristan took was the most exciting thing that happened to me in a very, very long time. They ended up in the middle of a huge historical event, something I tried my best to learn everything about while I was growing up. I don’t know how this will resonate with younger readers, I honestly don’t, but those who know their classic rock will be just as thrilled as I was.

Butterman (Time) Travel, Inc is, in all honesty, a surprisingly good book. Based on the reviews I’ve seen so far, most readers agree with me completely. It is charming, different and very well researched, so please make sure to give it a chance. 

A copy of this book was kindly provided by CBB Promotions for review purposes. No considerations, monetary or otherwise, have influenced the opinions expressed in this review.

About the Author:

PK Hrezo is a native Floridian whose life could easily be a Jimmy Buffet song. She shares her home with her firefighter husband and their two children. When not creating characters and their worlds, PK can be found at her other job of rearranging passenger’s itineraries for a major international airline. The only hobbies she loves more than traveling, are reading, writing, and music, and when the four are combined she exists in total bliss.



She blogs regularly at PK HREZO: Fearless Fiction http://pk-hrezo.blogspot.com/

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Review: Be with Me (Wait for You, #2)

Author: J. Lynn
Series: Wait for You, #2
Published: February 4th 2014
Publisher: HarperCollins
Format: Paperback, 336 pgs
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository 

Teresa Hamilton is having a rough year—she’s in love with her big brother’s best friend, but he hasn’t spoken to her since they shared a truly amazing, mind-blowing, change-your-life kiss. She got out of a terrible relationship. And now an injury is threatening to end her dance career for good. It’s time for Plan B – college. And maybe a chance to convince Jase that what they have together is real.

Jase Winstead has a huge secret that he’s not telling anyone. Especially not his best friend’s incredibly beautiful sister. Even though he and Teresa shared the hottest kiss of his life, he knows that his responsibilities must take priority. He certainly doesn’t have time for a relationship. But it doesn’t help that all he can think about kissing the one girl who could ruin everything for him.

As they’re thrown together more and more, Jase and Tess can’t keep denying their feelings for each other. But a familiar danger looms and tragedy strikes. As the campus recovers, the star-crossed couple must decide what they’re willing to risk to be together, and what they’re willing to lose if they’re not…

When it comes to Jennifer Armentrout, no matter how many times I decide to stay away, I can’t seem to help myself. She is the only one capable of making me pick up a New Adult novel, since it’s a genre I generally work hard to avoid. And what’s more, although I’m fully aware of the flaws in her books, rarely do I regret my decision to read them.

Be with Me is exactly what you’d expect – a New Adult romance filled with sexual tension and angst. We remember from Wait for You that Teresa was in a long and abusive relationship, but until now, we only saw the scars it left on Cam. In Be With Me, we see what that kind of relationship can do to a young girl like Teresa. That’s not to say that Teresa is anyone’s victim anymore. If anything, she’s stronger, braver, more resilient than ever. Her experience with Jeremy wounded her deeply, yes, but it also turned her into a better, more mature person.

The same, however, cannot be said about Jase. He has his own fair share of past traumas and wounds, but he doesn’t handle them nearly as well. The thing I liked most about Cam in the previous book was that he pursued Avery relentlessly. He never once claimed to have changed his mind or tried to fight his attraction to her. Unfortunately, we weren’t as lucky with Jase. He had the whole ‘Ill kiss you, but then I’ll tell you what an awful idea it was’ routine down to a T, and let me tell you, it didn’t take long for it to start getting on my last nerve.

Once again, Armentrout shows her greatest strengths in her very natural dialogues. her familiarity and willingness to use current slang breathes and extra breath of life into her characters, making them far more realistic and endearing. While she’s not the best of writers per se, writing witty dialogues that flow naturally is something she’s extremely good at.

The secondary characters aren’t nearly as important in this installment, but we were, at least, given a chance to get to know Calla, Teresa’s friend and protagonist of the next book in the series, Stay with Me. While it’s true that I don’t normally read NA, when it comes to JLA, I’m obviously powerless to resist. Stay with Me should be released sometime in 2014 and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to it.

A copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher for review purposes. No considerations, monetary or otherwise, have influenced the opinions expressed in this review.

Review: Trouble Comes Knocking

Author: Mary Duncanson
Series: No info
Released: November 11th 2013
Publisher: Entangled Embrace
ebook, 179 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

It’s hard not to answer when trouble comes knocking.

A girl who can’t forget…

Twenty-two-year-old Lucy Carver is like Sherlock Holmes in ballet flats, but her eidetic memory is more albatross than asset, and something she usually keeps hidden. When she notices that something’s amiss at her dead-end job, she jumps at the chance to finally use her ability for good. That is, until, a man is murdered, and she becomes the target of the killer.

A detective on his first case…

Detective Eli Reyes is overbearing, pompous, way too hot for Lucy’s own good, and seems as determined to ruin her relationship with her boyfriend, John, as finding the murderer. He brings Lucy in on the case, thinking she can help him get to the truth, only to cut her loose when he realizes he’s gotten far more than he ever bargained for.

A past that won’t go away…

When memories from her childhood invade her present, Lucy discovers a mystery bigger than she could have imagined. With the killer still after her, and Eli nowhere to be found, she takes things into her own hands, determined to expose the truth no matter what—before trouble comes knocking…again.

I love that the New Adult genre is starting to stray a bit from the usual format. I’ve stopped reading it altogether because of its repetitive, formulaic nature, but Trouble Comes Knocking seemed different from the start, which is why I decided to give it a chance. Romance is an important part of this story, but it’s not at the forefront. The characters here are young and Lucy still lives with her aunt, but she is out of college, and so are her friends/romantic interests. They have already started living their adult lives.

Lucy is someone I could have liked a lot, were she sufficiently developed as a character, but she wasn’t. The length of the story, which is somewhere between a novella and a full length novel, made proper development of characters and plot virtually impossible. The only thing that was fully developed (which I suppose says enough about the planning of this narrative) was the dreaded love triangle. Lucy has feelings for two men – one she’s allowed to be with, and one she’s not. What bothered me was that she started having feelings for both of them in a matter of days, which made me doubt the quality and intensity of those feelings. It was, however, clear who she really wanted to be with, but that didn’t make me feel any better at all.

The story constantly jumped back and forth in time, between Lucy’s questioning at the police station, and past events she was being questioned about. These jumps happened without any kind of warning, which made them a bit awkward and exhausting at first. Even when it’s well done, it is a narrative technique that never works for me, and it didn’t work now. I would have much preferred a linear story.

The last 10% opened up a whole new story for Lucy, a mystery that will probably be pursued in the next book, if there is a next book. I doubt I’ll read it myself, but I might change my mind once it’s out. If I do, I hope I’ll get a better understanding of these characters; wasted potential always makes me so sad.

A copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher for review purposes. No considerations, monetary or otherwise, have influenced the opinions expressed in this review.

Review: The Secret of Ella and Micha (The Secret, #1)

Author: Jessica Sorensen
Series: The Secret, #1
Release date: April 11th 2013
Publisher: Sphere
Paperback, 320 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

The girl he thinks he loves needs to disappear. I don't want tonight to be irreversible, so I pull away, breathing him in one last time.

Ella and Micha have been best friends since childhood, until one tragic night shatters their relationship and Ella decides to leave everything behind to start a new life at college, including Micha.

But now it's summer break and she has nowhere else to go but home. Ella fears everything she worked so hard to bury might resurface, especially with Micha living right next door. Micha is sexy, smart, confident, and can get under Ella's skin like no one else can. He knows everything about her, including her darkest secrets. And he's determined to win back the girl he lost, no matter what it takes.

To repeat what I tweeted while I was halfway through this book – All this angst and not a single blueberry muffin in sight! Life can be so unfair sometimes.

Honestly, this book oozes angst, and while I know there are many readers who enjoy just that (proven by the very fact that this book is a New York Times bestseller), I’m not a fan myself. However, that’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy this book – I did. I just thought it was pushed a bit too far at times.

Ella and Micha have been best friends since childhood, but they were always either too afraid to take their friendship further, or there was something standing in their way. Neither of them comes from a happy home. Ella’s mother is dead and her father is an alcoholic, and Micha’s father walked out ages ago, never to be heard from again. Through it all, they always had each other, until one day, Ella just packed up and disappeared - no note, no goodbye.

Micha spent the next eight months obsessively searching for Ella. He always knew he loved her, but he waited for her to come to him, and when she left, he realized it might be too late. He put his life on hold and moved heaven and earth to find her, but Ella was nowhere to be found. When she suddenly reappeared, Micha decided he’d waited long enough. It was clear to him that he and Ella were made for each other, so all he had to do was convince her of that fact.

In a way, I’m glad neither Ella nor Micha resolved their family situations in the end. That would have turned this book into a fairy tale, and I dislike fairy tales on principle. It was never about making their lives perfect, it was about facing everything that comes at them together. Things as big as alcoholism or estrangement can’t be resolved overnight, but I loved seeing them make their peace with their respective situations.

Although I’m not in the habit of punishing books (or authors) for things that are entirely the publisher’s fault, I feel I have to point out that The Secret of Ella and Micha is chock full of editing issues. There are spelling errors, grammar errors and formatting errors on almost every page. I realize it was self-published first, but I thought the whole purpose of traditional publishing was to avoid this kind of thing. A half-decent copy editor could have fixed this in no more than a few days.

Clearly every successful book gives birth to a trilogy these days, and that is the case with The Secrets of Ella and Micha. They will be getting a sequel soon that will apparently focus on their family situations and issues with long distance relationship. After that, Lila and Ethan will be getting their own book as well.

Full of Grace Blog Tour Review

Author: Misty Provencher
Release date: April 18th 2013
Publisher: Cornerstone Publishing
Paperback, 188 pages
Buy: Amazon
         Barnes & Noble

Running about 7 bananas strong on shots from Hale and Oscar Maree's wedding bar, what happened between Landon Grace and Sher Traifere was supposed to be a one time thing. A quickie on a romantic night. Sher wanted a fast evening of fireworks to remember on the dull horizon of her life; Landon wanted to get his mind off his psycho ex by feeling Sher's curves. By the end of the evening, a secret of Sher's complicates Landon's attempt to escape the girl's chainsaw giggle.

Some one-night-stands just can't be finished in one night. 

Even more complicating, this one rises back up with a hard shot of morning sickness and an entire repertoire of questions. The most important being: how much pull does a guy really have in a woman's choice to pursue or terminate a pregnancy?

And in this case, how clever can he be about stealing her pants?

Full of Grace is a newly released companion to Hale Maree, Misty Provencher’s touching and original New Adult story that features an arranged marriage. It is, in my opinion, a slightly superior, more mature work, with better character development, better pacing and a far more believable plot. I’m rarely comfortable with female authors writing from a male perspective (or vice versa, really), but Misty Provencher gave such a lovely, genuine voice to Landon, and she was consistent throughout the novel.

Plotwise, Full of Grace is a bit more traditional than its predecessor: girl meets boy, girl gets pregnant, drama ensues. Neither Sher nor Landon wanted to find themselves in that situation, but Landon, being the outstanding guy that he is, is determined to make the most of it. He takes things as they come and he puts his whole heart into it, with no reservations whatsoever. It is admirable and perhaps a bit crazy too.

Full of Grace shows how a single mistake, a single moment of weakness, can cost you dearly and change your life completely. I disliked Sher intensely at first – she is a giggler, and she comes across as self-centered until things start klicking into place. Not all of her choices were wise, but Provencher gave me enough insight, even through Landon’s eyes, to sympathize with her and understand her completely.

Landon Grace is someone you should meet. He is a genuinely nice guy, honest and loyal. I adored him in Hale Maree, but being privy to his thoughts made me love and respect him even more. I couldn’t help but admire how hard he worked to make things right with Sher and how he just took everything she threw at him and tried to make the best of it.

Once again, Provencher did an excellent job and showed that she’s not in the business of creating plastic, meaningless characters. Whatever she writes next, I’ll definitely read.

Author Bio:

Once a high school drop out and runaway, Misty Provencher became a college grad, and is now a full-time novelist with a close knit family. She doesn't do labels well. While she can ride a motorcycle, knows how to Karate chop, and has learned enough French, Spanish, and Sign Language to get herself slapped, Misty's life is the ruse she uses to connect with people. She is totally enchanted with them and spends her days trying to translate the soul bouquet of her muses into words. 

Misty Provencher lives in Michigan. Knock on her internet blog door at: Misty Provencher's Books, http://mistypro.blogspot.com/ or find her on Facebook and Twitter as Misty Provencher.

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Review: Wait for You (Wait for You, #1)

Author: J. Lynn
Series: Wait for You, #1
Release date: September 3rd 2013
Publisher: William Morrow & Co.
Paperback, 336 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

Some things are worth waiting for…

Traveling thousands of miles from home to enter college is the only way nineteen-year-old Avery Morgansten can escape what happened at the Halloween party five years ago—an event that forever changed her life. All she needs to do is make it to her classes on time, make sure the bracelet on her left wrist stays in place, not draw any attention to herself, and maybe—please God—make a few friends, because surely that would be a nice change of pace. The one thing she didn’t need and never planned on was capturing the attention of the one guy who could shatter the precarious future she’s building for herself.

Some things are worth experiencing…

Cameron Hamilton is six feet and three inches of swoon-worthy hotness, complete with a pair of striking blue eyes and a remarkable ability to make her want things she believed were irrevocably stolen from her. She knows she needs to stay away from him, but Cam is freaking everywhere, with his charm, his witty banter, and that damn dimple that’s just so… so lickable. Getting involved with him is dangerous, but when ignoring the simmering tension that sparks whenever they are around each other becomes impossible, he brings out a side of her she never knew existed.

Some things should never be kept quiet…

But when Avery starts receiving threatening emails and phone calls forcing her to face a past she wants silenced, she’s has no other choice but to acknowledge that someone is refusing to allow her to let go of that night when everything changed. When the devastating truth comes out, will she resurface this time with one less scar? And can Cam be there to help her or will he be dragged down with her?

Once again Jennifer Armentrout managed to take a fairly simple, run-of-the-mill plot and turn it into something entirely her own. Armentrout’s greatest strength is not originality of the plot, or even her characters, but rather the dialogues that flow very naturally. She is familiar with current slang and she uses it strategically, which gives her characters and extra layer of believability. Nothing they say ever seems forced, they are realistic and easily relatable.

Yes, Armentrout relies upon familiar tropes, but she turns them into a quick, enjoyable, very hot read, and sometimes, that’s really all I’m looking for. Desperate to run away from her deeply traumatic past, Avery chose a college thousands of miles away from home. She is extremely lonely, wary and mistrustful. When she (literally) runs into Cameron on her first day of class, she is determined not to let him anywhere near her. But Cam is gorgeous, sweet and above all determined. No matter how many times Avery tries to push him away, he just keeps coming back.

I honestly don’t know how someone with Avery’s past would actually behave, but the way Armentrout wrote it didn’t strike me as something out of a textbook, or worse yet, a self-help manual (Katie McGarry, I’m looking at you here!). She didn’t, perhaps, use Avery’s past to its full potential, but what she did seemed genuine to me.

All secondary characters were very well done, with the exception of Avery’s mother. Given how responsible she was for Avery’s state of mind, I would have liked to see her more nuanced, more tangible. She was no more than a constant negative presence in Avery’s life, when she could have easily been much more. With just a little more work on these details, Armentrout could have turned this enjoyable, compelling read into something even more wonderful and, more importantly, memorable.

I’m not sure which couple the sequel focuses on, but I have my hopes and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that I’m right. Whoever it may be, Cam and Avery will surely be around and I will enjoy seeing them through someone else’s eyes.