Category Archives: New Adult

Book Reviews

November 18, 2013 posted by Nichole

DNF: Forever Too Far (Too Far Trilogy #3) - Abbi Glines

Rush promised her forever… but promises can be broken.

Torn between his love for his family and his love for Blaire, Rush has to find a way to save one without losing the other. In the end one has to be more important. Letting go isn’t easy.

Blaire believed in her fairytale… but no one can live in a fantasy.

Her love for Rush and desire to have a family keep her believing that they can find a way for this to work. Until she has to make the right decision for her and the baby. Even if it breaks her heart.

Can they find the forever that they both want or has it all just gone… too far?

This series is beyond painful for me. I loved the first book but the writing and the storylines for the 2nd and 3rd books have been God awful. The characters are unrealistic and annoying, the writing is just painful, and the storylines are predictable and stupid. I’m honestly shocked at how popular this entire series seems to be.

My problem started in book 2 when Blaire became pregnant. I didn’t like the message that Abbi Glines sent in this series, making a 19-year-old girl get pregnant and then married. It’s not something that I would want my kid to ever read about, and I was just personally offended that it was even taking place. Speaking of the pregnancy, I also have a really big problem with the cover of this 3rd book. Blaire is 9 months pregnant in this book, but she has a flat stomach on the cover. I think that’s a little misleading for anyone who is just starting out the series, and it just really confused me.

The characters in this book have grated on my nerves since the beginning. During the first book, I LOVED Rush, and I really liked Blaire. However, I didn’t care for any of the supporting characters. It was in book 2 that I realized that I didn’t like anyone anymore. Book 3 topped the cake. All of the characters sucked in this book. Not only that, but all of the characters (especially the male characters) were unrealistic. It was like Abbi Glines had her own definition of what SHE wanted a male to act and talk like. I gotta say, though, men don’t act like that! Men aren’t all about love and mushiness. Some are, yes, but for the most part, men don’t act or think like the men in this book. It was really off-putting because when I think of contemporary, I think of realistic fiction. This book was not realistic at all.

With New Adult books comes sex scenes. It’s going to happen in pretty much every New Adult book. I’m being completely honest, I was so grossed out in some of the sex scenes in this book that I started to gag. I don’t even know what to say to that. I thought that I was going to throw up. Not only did I not want to read about a 9-month pregnant lady getting her freak on, but some of the scenes………ew. Just…..ew. It was disturbing, unexpected, unappreciated, and just gross. I’m still recovering…

Overall, I did not like this book at all. I would not recommend this series to anyone, and I will never read anything by Abbi Glines ever again. I’m still not over the fact that I actually paid for these books. I know this sounds like a really harsh review, but it’s the truth! I didn’t even fully read this book, and I still wish I could get back all the hours that I wasted on this series. Live and learn, I guess.

Pages: 268

Publication Date: June 9th 2013

Source: Ebook

Rating: :

Book Reviews

November 14, 2013 posted by Nichole

DNF: Stir Me Up - Sabrina Elkins

Cami Broussard has her future all figured out. She’ll finish her senior year of high school, then go to work full-time as an apprentice chef in her father’s French restaurant, alongside her boyfriend, Luke. But then twenty-year-old ex-Marine Julian Wyatt comes to live with Cami’s family while recovering from serious injuries. And suddenly Cami finds herself questioning everything she thought she wanted.

Julian’s all attitude, challenges and intense green-brown eyes. But beneath that abrasive exterior is a man who just might be as lost as Cami’s starting to feel. And Cami can’t stop thinking about him. Talking to him. Wanting to kiss him. He’s got her seriously stirred up. Her senior year has just gotten a lot more complicated…

Stir Me Up is a very difficult review for me to write for several reasons. 1) I DNF’d it. I did a lot of skimming 2) I love the cover 3) Jenner L. Armentrout recommended it. But my DNF came down to several reasons, which I’m about to discuss!

My main problem with Stir Me Up was that I despised the main character Cami. Honestly….Cami acted like an MG character. I didn’t associate her with a 17-18 year old. She whined constantly, she was full of drama, and she was hyper and uber sensitive 99% of the time. Now….it wasn’t that long ago that I was 17. And, yes, I acted like an idiot more than once, but I was pretty mature for a 17 year old. And, honestly, I didn’t meet many people my age who acted as immature as Cami. I honestly just couldn’t stand her.

Then we have Julian, and this is where the book got difficult for me..well…more difficult. See, I really like Julian’s character. I actually thought that he made the book. But…and yes…here it is….I thought his whole disability problem..you know…not having one of his legs…made for a very……awkward….NA book. Maybe if it had just been a YA book, then maybe it would have been fine. But it was really kinda gross reading about a 17 year old girl getting it on with a 20 year old guy who lost one of his limbs and had psychological damage. I wasn’t into it at all. I think that this is one of the only books that my face scrunched up on steamy scenes. I’m sorry…I’m just not into that. There’s nothing wrong with having a disability or anything, but it was very awkward.

I honestly did not care for the whole cooking aspect of this book. It didn’t really go with the story and it made it very choppy and bumpy. And if at all possible, it also made Cami even more annoying. There were just too many aspects to this book. I like that Cami had a side job and a boyfriend…and basically just a life. BUT….it was just too much.

Another complaint I had with this book were the parents. I couldn’t stand them. I though they were awful people, and I just couldn’t bring myself to read any scenes that they were in. I skimmed a lot during those parts, because I would just get so angry at the situation. A lot of the stuff that they said and did would just never go down in my house, and it just wasn’t an environment that I was very familiar with. I know it’s silly, but parents can play a huge role in if I like a book. If I don’t like the characters parents, I’m probably going to be skimming sections. I have firm beliefs about what parents should and should not do, and it just makes it awkward and uncomfortable for me to read. That doesn’t say anything against the writing. I’m sure that’s a good think that the author can bring out such emotions in me. But…no…I just couldn’t do it.

Overall, I didn’t much care for this book. Obviously, since I didn’t finish it. At first, I wasn’t going to write a review on the blog for this one, but I just felt that I had a reviews worth to say about it. I think that it’s going to be a hit or miss with people. I think it just comes down to preference. But it just wasn’t for me.

Pages: 268

Publication Date: October 1st, 2013

Publisher: HarlequinTEEN

Rating: DNF

Book Reviews

November 11, 2013 posted by Nichole

Never Too Far (Too Far Trilogy #2) - Abbi Glines

He had held a secret that destroyed her world.

Everything she had known was no longer true.

Blaire couldn’t stop loving him but she knew she could never forgive him.
Now, she was back home and learning to live again. Moving on with life… until something happened to send her world spinning once again.
What do you do when the one person you can never trust again is the one that you need to trust so desperately?

You lie, hide, avoid, and pray that your sins never find you out.

Warning: This review contains some spoilers. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.

Never Too Far was a very sad read for me, because I adored the first book in the series, Fallen Too Far. This book was very predictable and very cheesy. The characters lost all of the appeal that they had in the first book, and I just could not get into it. Never Too Far takes off right where it left off in Fallen Too Far with Blaire shunning Rush and her moving back to Alabama. And low and behold….she gets pregnant. You know what? That was a stupid plot. I’m sorry, but it was. I guessed that Blaire was going to get pregnant in the first book, and I was hoping beyond hope that it just wouldn’t happen. Not only did it happen, but it didn’t come across very well in the book. I wasn’t a fan of it at. all.

I’m trying to decide my biggest problem in this book, and I can’t choose between the pregnancy, Blaire, or Rush. Honestly, I want to say that it was Rush, but it’s a close call. Where Rush was edgy and had a snarky, sarcastic quality about him in the first book, he was a complete pushover who begged and cried during every second of this book. I didn’t get excited over any scene because what was there to get excited about? The whole damn thing was just depressing…and Rush was quite frankly making me feel a bit ill inside.

On the other hand, Blaire…I couldn’t even read Blaire’s thoughts. I did a lot of skimming in this book and most of those parts involved her. Whine, whine, whine, whine, whine. That’s all she did. Pooooor me. I’m Blaire, I’m pregnant, and I don’t want to tell the one guy that I truly love. Boo hoo hoo. Poor me. That’s what the whole damn book was about. And when they finally got back together, which you knew they were going to, it was more of the same damn thing. Ohhhhh, I don’t want to hurt Blaire cause she’s pregnant. Ohhhh…I don’t know if I should get back together with Rush. I’ll say yes now and then change my mind a million and one times. COME ON! There’s not even that much drama in real damn life! The whole thing just gave me a damn headache.

The pregnancy thing was really stupid. I’m actually pretty annoyed that I already went ahead and bought the 3rd book because it’s just going to be more of this shit. Now they’re engaged and they’re getting married and going to have a baby. And, oh, yeah, Rush is a billionaire so everything is just going to be damn fine. Blaire is only 19! What kind of message is that sending to young people? FYI…you shouldn’t get married that young. There’s nothing wrong with it if that’s what you really want, and I’m not trying to offend anyone, but I just think that was a horrible message to send to young people. Like I said..headache. Not helped by the fact that I JUST finished this book, and I need to rant.

Not only those three things, but all of the other characters in the book were annoying and unrealistic. I’m sorry, but they didn’t live in a small town. Everyone knew everyone’s secrets and bowed down to help Blaire even before they knew about the pregnancy. Most of the guys in the book seemed very feminine…and just…unrealistic. All the voices eventually started blending together because everyone just sounded the same as everyone else.

Will I eventually read the 3rd book? Well, yeah, because I bought it. But I might not have read it if I hadn’t already bought it. I’m really shocked that this was the sequel, especially after how good the first book was. I’m just really disappointed /=

Pages: 200

Publication Date: February 25th 2013

Source: Ebook

Rating: :

Book Reviews

November 7, 2013 posted by Nichole

Fallen Too Far (Too Far Trilogy #1) - Abbi Glines

To want what you’re not supposed to have…

She is only nineteen.

She is his new stepfather’s daughter.

She is still naïve and innocent due to spending the last three years taking care of her sick mother.

But for twenty-four year old Rush Finlay, she is the only thing that has ever been off limits. His famous father’s guilt money, his mother’s desperation to win his love, and his charm are the three reasons he has never been told no.

Blaire Wynn left her small farmhouse in Alabama, after her mother passed away, to move in with her father and his new wife in their sprawling beach house along the Florida gulf coast. She isn’t prepared for the lifestyle change and she knows she’ll never fit into this world. Then there is her sexy stepbrother who her father leaves her with for the summer while he runs off to Paris with his wife. Rush is as spoiled as he is gorgeous. He is also getting under her skin. She knows he is anything but good for her and that he’ll never be faithful to anyone. He is jaded and has secrets Blaire knows she may never uncover but even knowing all of that…

Blaire just may have fallen too far.

I picked up Fallen Too Far because the cover is smoking hot. I’ve been in a huge New Adult phase lately. I’ve been stockpiling all I can get on my Nook. Fallen Too Far is one of the best New Adult books that I have ever read. It’s about Blaire who is from Alabama and has just up and moved to Florida to live with her father after her mother’s death. When she gets there, though, her father has run off to Paris and the only person in the house is her stepbrother, Rush. He decides to let her move in with him for one month until she can get a place of her own and during that time…well…..sparks…and heat…fly.

Blaire was an awesome main character. I think I fell in love with her the very first time she drew a gun on someone. She was tough, edgy, strong, and she stood up for herself and what she believed in. Normally these types of books are all about push over girls, and I was really intrigued that Fallen Too Far pretty much avoided that for the most part. Toward the end of the book, Blaire definitely got on my nerves a little bit more. That probably happened within like the last 4 or 5 chapters.

Rush. O.M.G. Rush. Tongue Piercing. That is all I have to say about him. No, no..I’m kidding. Well, not about the tongue piercing….Anways *ahem* Rush was just too steamy and hunky not to fall in love with. He is definitely an edgy and punkish type of character. Like in all of the New Adult books that I have read, that side of him disappeared by the end and was replaced by a more sensitive side. That is going to highly appeal to some girl, but I HATE reading about sensitive male characters. It’s just not something I’m into. Again, though, that didn’t happen until the very end of the book.

Fallen Too Far is definitely steamy and may not be appropriate for younger teenagers. It’s definitely New Adult contemporary, but it does have some sexual scenes included in it, which is pretty standard for New Adult. I would definitely say that this book is more for the older crowd.

I loved this book. I read it in about 6 hours and it kept me up late at night. I found the book to be well-written and the story to be addicting. I thought that I might run across some problems, because I was a little hesitant with the step siblings romance plot, but it really didn’t bug me. I don’t think that it will bother anyone else, either. It was just a really good book and the romance was everything that I could have hoped for. YOU NEED to go read this book!

Pages: 188

Publication Date: December 14th 2012

Source: Ebook

Rating: :

Contemporary

October 28, 2013 posted by Nichole

The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden (The Coincidence #1) - Jessica Sorensen

There are those who don’t get luck handed to them on a shiny platter, who end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, who don’t get saved.

Luck was not on Callie’s side the day of her twelfth birthday when everything was stolen from her. After it’s all over, she locks up her feelings and vows never to tell anyone what happened. Six years later her painful past consumes her life and most days it’s a struggle just to breathe.

For as long as Kayden can remember, suffering in silence was the only way to survive life. As long as he did what he was told, everything was okay. One night, after making a terrible mistake, it seems like his life might be over. Luck was on his side, though, when Callie coincidentally is in the right place at the right time and saves him.

Now he can’t stop thinking about the girl he saw at school, but never really knew. When he ends up at the same college as Callie, he does everything he can to try to get to know her. But Callie is reserved and closed off. The more he tries to be part of her life, the more he realizes Callie might need to be saved.

The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden was a very difficult read for me, because I loved the cover and I just really wanted to read it! I have been in a huge New Adult craze lately, and I’ve been chomping at the bit to get my greedy hands on all of it. This one was a bit of a disappointment, though. The writing wasn’t all that great, the characters weren’t that lovable, and I was a bit uncomfortable in several spots. There are a lot of people out there who adore this series, though, so maybe I’m just the odd one out.

There are a lot of uncomfortable scenes in this book. Child abuse, bulimia, rape, bullying, and other forms of self-abuse are major topics in this book. The synopsis kind of hints toward maybe one or two of those topics, but I really felt like they were pushed on me out of nowhere. If you have any triggers, this might not be the book for you. I ended up having to skip several scenes, because I didn’t feel very comfortable reading them. Contemporary lovers might end up really enjoying this book because those topics are so realistic. I wasn’t a fan of having all of those topics forced into one book. I felt that it took away from the characters and made the story really awkward and uncomfortable to read.

I didn’t like either Callie or Kayden, which made it a bit difficult since they are the main characters. Callie was very reserved, kind of boring, very whiney, and very dependent on Seth and Kayden. Kayden was not nearly manly enough for my taste. I tend to lean toward tougher bad boy types, and I especially 100% need that in my New Adult books. He just seemed way too weak for my taste. It’s very difficult for me to say this, because I understand that both Callie and Kayden both have emotional and mental issues. In reality, this is probably how both of them would act. I also know that I would probably have nothing to do with either of them in real life. So I think it just comes down to taste.

Not only was I not a big fan of the characters or topics, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of the writing. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. There wasn’t one scene where I was blown away. I have two other books to read by Jessica Sorensen, and I have to admit that I’m not all that excited now. I really need to relate in some way to my characters and to have big emotional scenes that really just tear at my heart. I didn’t have that. I just…didn’t care for this book.

Overall, I probably would not recommend this book. Contemporary lovers may enjoy it, but I just thought that it was pretty bland, and it just wasn’t for me.

Pages: 336

Publication Date: December 13th, 2013

Rating: :

Teaser Quote: “In the existence of our lives, there is a single coincidence that brings us together and for a moment, our hearts beat as one.”

Book Reviews

September 23, 2013 posted by Nichole

Wild Cards - Simone Elkeles

After getting kicked out of boarding school, bad boy Derek Fitzpatrick has no choice but to live with his ditzy stepmother while his military dad is deployed. Things quickly go from bad to worse when he finds out she plans to move them back to her childhood home in Illinois. Derek’s counting the days before he can be on his own, and the last thing he needs is to get involved with someone else’s family drama.

Ashtyn Parker knows one thing for certain-people you care about leave without a backward glance. A football scholarship would finally give her the chance to leave. So she pours everything into winning a state championship, until her boyfriend and star quarterback betrays them all by joining their rival team. Ashtyn needs a new game plan, but it requires trusting Derek—someone she barely knows, someone born to break the rules. Is she willing to put her heart on the line to try and win it all?

Unlike a lot of contemporary fans, I haven’t read very much by Simone Elkeles. Long before I started my huge reading craze, I read one of her books. I think it was Perfect Chemistry. I remember that I liked it, but it was sooooo long ago. Everyone else was so excited for this book, and I knew that I had to read it just because of that. Unfortunately, I didn’t like this book. I didn’t even finish this book. I think I got about 100 pages into it, and then I was done. I skimmed the rest. I’m not going to be rating this book, but I’ll tell you guys what I didn’t like about it.

Wild Cards stars out really good. It’s a story about a football player, Ashtyn, who has just been made captain of her team. Her sister, who she hasn’t seen in about 8 years, has finally moved back home….and she brought along two additional packages: her 5-year-old son and her stepson, Derek. Ashtyn instantly feels a spark with Derek and fights it by treating him like he’s basically dirt under her foot. Then, Ashtyn’s boyfriend betrays her and the team by switching schools to be the captain of their rival team, and Ashtyn’s relationship with Derek begins to grow.

The beginning relationship between Ashtyn and Derek is both funny and cute. All the snide remarks topped by the sweet gestures every now and then were a great starter for what was to come. Derek, especially, was a great character! He was hot, smart (a smartass, really!), dedicated, loyal, and just sweet. He had a total bad boy act going on that many girls are going to love. If all of the characters had been like Derek, this book would have been a major hit. Unfortunately, Ashtyn was a whole other issue. She was whiney, annoying, bitchy, spoiled, and just an overall obnoxious character. I found myself cringing every single time that she came on the page. She just wasn’t someone that I wanted to read about.

My major issue with this book was how choppy it was. It literally seemed like a group of people in an acting class rehearsing their lines. There were very short simple sentences, the characters didn’t seem to have the chemistry that I really wanted to see, and the supporting characters failed to impress me. It’s pretty choppy all throughout the book. I think the beginning might have been a bit better because that’s when Derek’s bad boy personality is at its peak. It starts dying down around page 60, though.

Overall, I wasn’t a fan of this book, and I will not be continuing this series. I would encourage contemporary fans to give it a shot, especially younger teens.

If you like this book, then try out:

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Pages: 288

Publication Date: September 24th, 2013

Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers

Source: ARC provided by publisher

Rating: N/A

Tempting the Best Man (Gamble Brothers #1) – J Lynn

Book Reviews

August 29, 2013 posted by Nichole

Tempting the Best Man (Gamble Brothers #1) - J Lynn

Madison Daniels has worshipped her brother’s best friend since they were kids. Everyone thinks she and Chase Gamble would make the perfect couple, but there are two major flaws in their logic. 1) Chase has sworn off relationships of any kind, and 2) after blurring the line between friends and lovers for one night four years ago, they can’t stop bickering.

Forced together for her brother’s wedding getaway, Chase and Madison decide to call a truce for the happy couple. Except all bets are off when they’re forced to shack up in a tacky 70′s honeymoon suite and survive a multitude of “accidents” as the family tries to prove their “spark” can be used than for more than fighting. That is, if they don’t strangle each other first…

A week after reading this book, I’m having a really hard time even remembering it. That probably doesn’t say much about it, huh? I normally read and love everything that J. Lynn a.k.a Jennifer L Armentrout writes, but this book just didn’t cut it for me. The writing was poor, the characters were annoying, and the story was just way too short.

I was so shocked that Armentrout wrote this. Normally, I can tell apart Armentrout’s writing from the rest. She has this snarky, funny quality to all of her writing that just screams her name? But this book? This book screamed a 99 cent Harlequin Romance book that you can find on the bottom shelf in the used book store. Harsh? Maybe. But it’s the truth!

The characters just didn’t do it for me. Maybe if the story would have been longer, then I would have had a better chance of connecting with them, but I really wasn’t the biggest fan of them. I honestly think that it just comes down to character development. There wasn’t enough time to fall in love with anyone in the story.

As for the story, like I said, it was just too short. The characters were weak, the writing was poor, and the whole story had a super cheesy feel to. All of this comes down to the story just not being long enough. I didn’t have enough time to fall in love with anyone, and I was being forced to accept a relationship that I had no time to gain an interest in.

When I look at my Goodreads, I can see that a lot of my blogger friends rated this book 4-5 stars. So, maybe there is something to it! Unfortunately, this book just was not for me.

Pages: 172

Publication Date: April 23rd 2012

Publisher: Indulgence (Entangled)

Source: Ebook

Rating: :