WWW Wednesday!

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?


What are you currently reading?

 Just recently discovered this series and so far, LOVE IT!  The third book just arrived at the library and I'm picking it up tomorrow.  Can't wait to finish it out - been hearing so many good things about it!


What did you recently finish reading?

I was a little disappointed by this book.  I've recently read a TON of road trip books (been on a kick) and music/rock star related books, so I was hoping I would love this one.  It ended up just being kind of meh for me.


What do you think you’ll read next?

Re-iterating what I said above, but this is most likely what I'll dig in to after Hallowed!  Just got notice today that it's waiting for me at the library - will pick it up tomorrow.

Quick Update

In the middle of house shopping and packing and getting ready for a big move.  Not that my blog is uber popular, but for those that do follow, posts will be much more sporadic for the next several weeks. :( 

Review: Rocked Under by Cora Hawkes

Title: Rocked Under
Author: Cora Hawkes
Blurb:
Falling in love isn't always easy or pleasant. The intense and angst-filled story of Emma and Scott is a painful, gut-wrenching and exhausting portrayal of how hard it can be to let go...

Picking up the pieces and starting again in the US, Emma enrols in college with her cousin, Ashley. She is finally free to do what she wants and live how she chooses, and no man will ever rule her decisions or emotions again.

That is, until Scott Mason walks on stage...

Intense bad boy Scott is the lead singer of a popular local rock band. A ladies’ man and Ashley's long-time friend, Scott holds an instant fascination for Emma — she finds herself drawn to him, even though he represents everything she hates and needs to stay away from in a guy. He treats females like he does a cigarette — light it, use it, and lose it.

For her cousin's sake, Emma makes an effort to get along with Scott, but she soon discovers that there is more to him than first appears, making him even more dangerous in her eyes. Behind the façade of friendship, jealousy, obsession, fear and insecurity fester — an internal battle rages as she fights her attraction and does everything she can to stop history from repeating itself.

One thing she knows for sure is that if she breaks her rule, it may destroy her.

Links:
Rocked Under on Goodreads
 
 Kala's Review:
The big problem I had with Rocked Under is that the characters are so awful until the last couple of pages that they're nearly impossible to like.

SOME SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW!!

Our main character, Emma, is a Brit who recently transplanted to a college in the USA (can't even remember what school or even what state!). She is roommates with her American cousin, Ashley, and neighbors with the frontman of a local rock band (Scott) who happens to be good friends with Ashley.

The entire plot is Emma and Scott dancing around their attraction for each other in the most obnoxious ways possible. We spend most of the book reading about Emma being attracted to Scott, but refusing to act on it because 1) her parents have a fucked up relationship and 2) Ashley told her Scott is a player.

Emma spends a large amount of time drunk in nightclubs, allowing guys to kiss her and feel her up while Scott watches. Scott spends a large amount of time having almost public sex with girls while Emma watches. And while they're watching each other, they appropriately seethe with jealousy.

Scott also likes to punch people out and is constantly beating up guys that hit on Emma - he's probably worse about this than Travis (of Beautiful Disaster fame). I personally do not think it's romantic at ALL to have a guy (who is not even the girl's boyfriend) constantly yanking other guys off the dance floor and punching them out just because they danced/kissed the girl. I can't even count the number of guys that Scott punched. The only one who deserved it was the boyfriend, Adam, that Emma had for awhile.

Speaking of Adam, for 30% of the book, he is referred to as Adam. At around the 30% point, he suddenly becomes "Ad" which is just weird. Adam is not THAT long of a name and doesn't really need to be shortened!

Further on Adam... I just don't get this character. For a LONG time he is a sweet, nice guy, then after he takes Emma's virginity he suddenly turns in to a major prick? Like, the personality switch nearly gave me whiplash. It came out of nowhere and up until right before the virginity losing scene there were NO signs of it.

Back to Scott and Emma...

I don't know. These two were just a mess.

Scott does try to start things with Emma several times and she rejects him, over and over and over. Then she cries when he goes after other girls. If you're going to reject the guy, you don't really get ownership over him anymore! You don't get to say who he does and doesn't get to sleep with. You had your chance (or should I say CHANCES).

Ugh.

I just didn't like either of them, and when I can't stand the main characters I don't really care about rooting for their relationship to work out. I found myself just rooting for them to finally get it on so the book would be over so I could stop reading about Emma dancing at Soundz and acting skanky while Scott acts like a drugged out manwhore.

2 out of 5 stars.

Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/540161589

Review: Geek Girl by Holly Smale

Title: Geek Girl
Author: Holly Smale
Blurb:
Harriet Manners knows a lot of things.

She knows that a cat has 32 muscles in each ear, a "jiffy" lasts 1/100th of a second, and the average person laughs 15 times per day. What she isn't quite so sure about is why nobody at school seems to like her very much. So when she's spotted by a top model agent, Harriet grabs the chance to reinvent herself. Even if it means stealing her Best Friend's dream, incurring the wrath of her arch enemy Alexa, and repeatedly humiliating herself in front of the impossibly handsome supermodel Nick. Even if it means lying to the people she loves.

As Harriet veers from one couture disaster to the next with the help of her overly enthusiastic father and her uber-geeky stalker, Toby, she begins to realise that the world of fashion doesn't seem to like her any more than the real world did.

And as her old life starts to fall apart, the question is: will Harriet be able to transform herself before she ruins everything?

Links:
Geek Girl on Goodreads
 
 Kala's Review:
*I received a free copy of this book for review from NetGalley.com. Thank you!!*

I finished this a few days ago and I'm still not sure if I liked it much. The book definitely didn't grab me and I had to start and stop it several times, reading many other books in between. The main character (Harriet) is difficult to like. While I enjoyed the quirky, socially awkward side of her personality, her complete lack of honesty drove me nuts.

The premise of the story is that Harriet is a geek. When she gets nervous, she spouts off random facts and is generally clumsy and awkward. Her best friend is a fashionista with dreams of becoming a model who forces Harriet to attend some sort of fashion show thing. While there, a REALLY obnoxious scout sees Harriet and decides she MUST be a model. He takes some photos of her, and when her best friend finds out she is extremely jealous.

So when the scout calls later and offers Harriet a meeting with a top fashion designer, she accepts but doesn't tell her best friend (or her step mother). At this point, the book kind of veers off and teeters with being a romance, but not really, as Harriet goes to Russia to do a modelling assignment for some big name designer. She has to work with a cute male supermodel named Nick that I wish we saw a LOT more of.

The "mean girls" in this book are stereotypical and over the top. At one point, the mean girl gets in front of the classroom and asks the class who hates Harriet and gets every single person to raise their hand. I just don't see this happening in real life, but maybe kids have become even crueler since my high school days.

Actually, almost every side character in this book is an over the top stereotype. The modelling scout is overly flamboyant to the point of being annoying - especially with his extensive array of nicknames for Harriet. The fashion designer is overly rude, harsh, and mean. The other models are all bitchy and catty. While I know some stereotypes are derived from truth, I'm not a fan of books that constantly reinforce them in such an exaggerated way.

I do like that Harriet (and her father) have to take responsibility for their lies and bad decisions. They both spend the entire book twisting things around and lying in order to get their way without their loved ones finding out and I was happy to see real consequences for those decisions.

My biggest issue with the book was the love story. I LOVE LOVE STORIES! However, this one just skirted with it and ended with a kiss that seems to come out of nowhere. Harriet meets the love interest (Nick, no surprise there) only two or three times and I wouldn't even say their conversations are flirtatious. While she is swooning over his good looks, he does nothing overtly romantic to make the reader think he's even interested in her as anything other than a friend. I just felt like there was no build up to their love story and the book would have been better off with the romance part either cut out completely or fleshed out a LOT more.

The book was also poorly formatted in a way that was really jarring to read. There would be several paragraphs in a row, then suddenly a break of blank space that makes you think the scene is over, then more paragraphs of the same scene. Also, there are ENORMOUS pics of sunglasses that show up in completely random locations. I thought at first they were between chapters, but they're not - they show up mid scene and were so distracting I sometimes forgot what was going on. I didn't mark down for the formatting, because this is a galley, but I usually get much better.

I didn't find out this was a trilogy until I finished and started reading other reviews. The book definitely works as a stand alone and I'm curious now to see what else in in store for Harriet.

3 out of 5 stars.

Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/538706043

Review: Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren

Title: Beautiful Bastard
Author: Christina Lauren
Blurb:
An ambitious intern. A perfectionist executive. And a whole lot of name calling. Discover the story that garnered more than two million reads online.

Whip-smart, hardworking, and on her way to an MBA, Chloe Mills has only one problem: her boss, Bennett Ryan. He’s exacting, blunt, inconsiderate—and completely irresistible. A Beautiful Bastard.

Bennett has returned to Chicago from France to take a vital role in his family’s massive media business. He never expected that the assistant who’d been helping him from abroad was the gorgeous, innocently provocative—completely infuriating—creature he now has to see every day. Despite the rumors, he’s never been one for a workplace hookup. But Chloe’s so tempting he’s willing to bend the rules—or outright smash them—if it means he can have her. All over the office.

As their appetites for one another increase to a breaking point, Bennett and Chloe must decide exactly what they’re willing to lose in order to win each other. Originally only available online as The Office by tby789—and garnering over two million reads on fan fiction sites—Beautiful Bastard has been extensively updated for re-release.

Links:
Beautiful Bastard on Goodreads
 
 Kala's Review:
Alright, because I was approved for this via NetGalley/Gallery Books (thank you!), I went ahead and read it.

I still have a major issue with p2p fanfiction being marketed as original. If you want to see a great post on WHY I feel it's unethical, read this comment by Alicia.

Now, on to the book...

I like to read a lot of Twilight fanfic (the actual fanfic, not the p2p kind with new names!) and my boyfriend always calls it Twilight porn. THIS STORY is exactly why he calls it that. If ever there was a story that was pretty much porn without a plot, this is it.

Bennett and Chloe hate each other. For the first 2/3-3/4 of the novel, they have a lot of hate sex. They snipe at each other in public, then in private they have rough sex. Shirt ripping, buttons flying everywhere, bent over the desk type of sex. The sex scenes themselves are pretty hot - I will admit that.

But that's all there is. Lots of sex.

Towards the end, the sex becomes less hateful and the characters snipe at each other less frequently, but it's still just a sex story. I can give you the entire plot in a few lines:

Hate sex
Hate sex
Hate sex
Hate sex
Hate sex
Hate sex
Hate sex
Love/Hate sex
Love/Hate sex
Argument/Break up
Make up
I love you sex
The end

The book wasn't poorly written, but there just isn't any substance here. It's Edward and Bella having hate sex all over an office. That's it.

2 out of 5 stars.

Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/471025587

Waiting on Wednesday... on Thursday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

I had every intention on posting this yesterday... but real life intervened and I was too busy to get online!  As usual, so many books I'm looking forward to!  I just recently saw the trailer for Reckless by S.C. Stephens and it got me really excited about the book coming out (FINALLY!) on March 5th!

Here's a really awesome fan-made trailer:

Happy Reading all! <3

Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Title: Lola and the Boy Next Door
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Blurb:
Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion...she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit--more sparkly, more fun, more wild--the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket--a gifted inventor--steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

Links:
Lola and the Boy Next Door on Goodreads
 
 Kala's Review:
It took awhile for me to get around to this book, mostly because while I wanted to read it when it came out, I wasn't willing to pay $11 for the ebook. Finally I got it from the library and...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

I might be in the minority who liked this one a LOT more than Anna and the French Kiss. While I liked Anna, I just didn't connect with Etienne at all.

NOT so here!

I LOVE Lola. And I LOVE Cricket (except for his name, ugh). I think I connect so well with Cricket because he's exactly the kind of guy I would go for in real life. Slightly nerdy, socially awkward, sweet as pie.

His blue eyes are bright. Sincere. Desperate. "Go out with me tonight. Tomorrow night, every ni-" The word cuts off in his throat as he sees something behind me.

Oh, Cricket. I don't know how any girl could not hand you her heart on a sleeve after that whole scene.

Lola is this crazy, quirky girl who is trying to figure herself out. I love her crazy outfits and overall weirdness. I thought the whole talking to the moon thing was over the top, but whatever. I just skimmed that part.

Max disappointed me. :( However, his reaction was probably pretty damn realistic. Considering how much I loved him at the start of the novel, I was so sad to see him turn in to such a douchebag. I knew things would go horribly wrong with him and Lola, but damn. Bad Max. Bad.

My only real issue was that I wished we got to delve in to Calliope a little more. I found her really interesting, despite her being the generic mean girl throughout most of the book.

I love Stephanie Perkins. I love how her characters are always so different, but so real. It's going to be hard to wait on a library copy of Isla, but I still refuse to pay that much for an e-book. :(

5 out of 5 stars.

Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/414310688

Review: Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Title: Everneath
Author: Brodi Ashton
Blurb:
Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she's returned--to her old life, her family, her boyfriend--before she's banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance--and the one person she loves more than anything. But there's just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.

As Nikki's time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's queen.

Links:
Everneath on Goodreads
 
 Kala's Review:
Everneath got a lot of 4 and 5 star reviews from reviewers I know and trust, but as I was reading I was wondering if we were reading the same book! It's not that I thought the book was bad - it was alright - but these same people are very stingy with the glowing reviews so I think I was expecting more!

I like the premise of the story - a retelling of Persephone/Hades in a modern day/high school environment. However, I think the execution was lacking. A lot.

MAJOR spoilers below!

The thing is, I feel like authors are too afraid to make their hero do anything truly bad. You CAN have a likable hero who isn't perfect (primo example - Dex in Karina Halle's Experiment in Terror series!).

Let me back track a bit before I get back to that.

The basic plot line is that Nikki was in a relationship with Jack. Something happened to make her "forfeit" willingly (aka pretty much kill herself / give herself to the underworld/hell/Everneath). However, she gets to come back to the real world for six months before she has to go back to the Everneath forever.

I'm not quite sure WHY she gets to come back. We're told a little of the mythology behind Persephone and Hades, but we never really see why Nikki is allowed the opportunity. It was a little confusing.

We are eventually told what happened to make Nikki "forfeit" herself and when we find out, WOW. All I could say was "That's it? For real?" I was expecting some kind of ultimate betrayal from Jack, but instead it's nothing like that.

Jack's ex girlfriend came out of his room. That's it. Nikki didn't catch them having sex. She didn't catch them kissing. She didn't catch them with their clothes in disarray. She just saw the ex walk out of his room.

...

Jack has been her friend for years and her boyfriend for months that she's completely in love with. He was the "player" who NEVER had a girlfriend until Nikki. While I understand her having some insecurity, was seeing something THAT simple and small enough to put her into a state of despair bad enough that she would be willing to basically go to HELL over it?

I was really disappointed that Ashton didn't have the balls to at least make Jack make a mistake big enough to send Nikki into a depression. Instead, Jack didn't even do anything wrong. The ex girlfriend was just there in his room when he got back, trying to seduce him, and he kicked her out right away.

I think my biggest issue with the book is that Jack is just too perfect. The guy has no flaws. He's ridiculously good looking, popular, football player, head over heels in love with Nikki, aka perfect in every way. I'm sorry, having dated a lot in the past, BEFORE Nikki, doesn't count as a flaw!

Perhaps I just prefer more realistic characters instead of the vanilla Bella Swans we see so often in YA Romance/Paranormal these days.

That said, the story wasn't bad. The writing was good, I really felt Ashton did a great job portraying Nikki's despair when she returns from the Everneath (after 100 years!). The plot moves along fairly quickly and it was an easy read.

I plan to finish the series. I just think it could have been a lot better!

3 out of 5 stars.

Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/532781033

Hot Ticket by Olivia Cunning

Title: Hot Ticket
Author: Olivia Cunning
Blurb:
Book #3 in reading order of events in book series, per author

There are things in bassist Jace Seymour’s past that he is unwilling to share with anyone. To cover his guilt and anguish, he seeks dominatrix Mistress V (Aggie) to temporarily placate his inner turmoil.

Aggie doesn’t have much use for men–besides the power rush she gets when they’re begging for mercy at her feet–but Jace isn’t like her usual clients. His cool defiance and unexpected dominance in the bedroom drives her to distraction and quickly steals her heart.

When circumstances threaten Jace’s position in Sinners, Aggie must help him regain his rightful place in the band while showing him that time and love can heal all wounds.

Links:
Hot Ticket on Goodreads
 
 Kala's Review:
I absolutely LOVED the first Sinners book (Brian and Myrna). I felt a little meh about Sed/Jessica and I sorta liked the Trey threesome book. In those three books we really don't see much of Jace or get to know him very well at all, so I was a little bit worried when I got to his book.

And I shouldn't have been.

Cause JACE IS AWESOME!

I loved him! BDSM and dom/sub stuff isn't usually my thing, so I was really expecting to have mixed feelings about this one. Instead, I loved it!

Getting to know the story behind Jace was my favorite part. Where he came from. His past. His feelings about his bandmates. I thought all of the tie-ins between Jace's pre-Sinners past and various bandmates was a teensy bit convenient, but it was still okay.

I LOVED Aggie. I think she completely won me over in the mugging scene. I don't want to give anything away, so I won't go in to more detail, but yeah. Aggie rocks!

While I loved Aggie, I thought she got kind of clingy after that scene and while she redeemed herself later, her overly mothering/nurturing personality was reallllly annoying.

The sex was hot, as usual. Olivia Cunning writes some really awesome 'alternative lifestyle' sex scenes! I did laugh out loud a few times during the scenes with Eric - now I'm REALLY curious to read his book and see his motivations for why he is the way he is!

If you're a fan of the Sinners books and/or love erotic romance with a side of kink, this book is DEFINITELY something you should check out!
 
4 out of 5 stars.

Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/527739936

In My Mailbox Part Deux

In My Mailbox (weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren)

I read extremely fast.  Like ridiculously fast.  Sometimes I wish I read a lot slower because I tend to fly through books so quickly that I just couldn't afford to buy them anymore at $10/each!  When I got a Kindle and discovered free and cheap self published books, it was like

But then I realized that a LOT of those free books were crap.  While I still love seeking out those diamonds in the rough when it comes to self published books, I really wanted to read all the stuff coming from the big name publishers too.  However, when you read 300+ books a year, those can be big $$.  Then, I discovered the library.

Yeah, I know.  I probably should have discovered it long ago, but what can I say?  I like to own books and re-read them.  I still buy a lot, especially the ones by authors I know I will want to re-read, but DAMN the library is awesome!  I usually go once every 7-10 days and pick up a bunch of books.  Here's my current haul, which I'm extremely excited about!  I've already read four of them!

Hope everyone else is having a great week!  Happy reading!

The Thing About the Truth by Lauren Barnholdt

Title: The Thing About the Truth
Author: Lauren Barnholdt
Blurb:
In this humorous love story from the author of "Two-Way Street", an unlikely romance is the best sort of surprise—but the wrong secret can ruin everything. Kelsey’s not going to let one mistake ruin her life. Sure, she got kicked out of prep school and all her old friends are shutting her out. But Kelsey’s focused on her future, and she’s determined to get back on track at Concordia High.

Isaac’s been kicked out of more schools than he can count. Since his father’s a state senator, Isaac’s life is under constant scrutiny—but Concordia High’s his last stop before boarding school, so Isaac’s hoping to fly under the radar and try to stay put for a change.

When Kelsey and Isaac meet, it’s anything but love at first sight. She thinks he’s an entitled brat, and he thinks she’s a stuck-up snob. So it surprises them both when they start to fall for each other. Kelsey’s happy for the first time in months, and Isaac’s never felt this way about anyone before. But nothing’s ever completely perfect. Everyone has secrets, and Isaac and Kelsey are no exceptions. These two may have fallen hard, but there’s one thing that can ruin it all: the truth.

Links:
The Thing About the Truth on Goodreads
 
 Kala's Review:
This book was disappointing. I read Two Way Street this past week and thought it was alright, so I was hoping another book by Lauren Barnholdt would be just as good, if not better. Perhaps some of her other stuff is, but this one isn't.

I have two big issues with this book. First, the entire plot of the book is a past/future retelling of a ginormous event that happened because of a lie. We start off in the "Aftermath" where Isaac and Kelsey are about to get expelled. Isaac hates her for a lie she told and Kelsey hates herself.

Here's the issue... the lie (in my opinion) was so minor. It came about at the tail end and even when she does it, it seems like such a small thing. The majority of the "Before" part of the book is the build up of Isaac and Kelsey's relationship. I thought this was reasonably well done. Then the reveal of the "lie" and what happened to get them expelled happens and it's so underwhelming.

Then in the last two pages at the end they kiss and make up and it's all good now.

I mean, I knew there was going to be a happy ending (it's YA romance after all), but ALL this build up to this supposed HUGE event and they have an obscenely short and fast reconciliation.

My other major issue with the book is the cardboard secondary characters. None have real personalities. Marina is the slutty crazy girl. We never really learn anything about why she behaves this way, she's just the stereotypical 'mean girl' villain. Rielle is the shit best friend. We don't really get to learn much about her either, other than that she's a terrible best friend but for some reason Kelsey keeps being best friends with her.

I know the main focus on the story was the relationship between Kelsey and Isaac, but I would have loved to see more fleshing out of the secondary characters.

Goodreads says two stars means "It was okay" and that's pretty much exactly how I felt about this book. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either. It was just "okay."
 
2 out of 5 stars.

Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/529012839

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

There's way too many books I'm looking forward to!  My to-read list on Goodreads keeps growing and growing and despite reading over 300 books a year I can't seem to make a dent in it!

The book I'm looking forward to most this YEAR is probably Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare.  One more month to go!

GOODREADS BLURB:

Danger intensifies for the Shadowhunters as the New York Times bestselling Infernal Devices trilogy comes to a close.

If the only way to save the world was to destroy what you loved most, would you do it?

The clock is ticking. Everyone must choose.

Passion. Power. Secrets. Enchantment.

Danger closes in around the Shadowhunters in the final installment of the bestselling Infernal Devices trilogy

Making His Mark by Jennah Scott

Title: Making His Mark
Author: Jennah Scott
Blurb:
One kiss is all it took for Alexis Catori’s world to turn upside down. One kiss with a man she thinks can help her move beyond her past.

Bo Nantan has one rule when it comes to tattooing: he refuses to ink his friends. Until Alexis asks him to do her work.

Bo tries to refuse, but decides maybe there is a compromise that will work. Together they discover their compromise is about more than just art, it’s facing the past so they can move on with the future.

Links:
Making His Mark on Goodreads
 
 Kala's Review:
The cover of this book is pretty much the only thing good about it. I struggled to finish it and have put it aside many times to read other things. I don't even know WHY I finished it. I used to think I had to finish every book I started and I've wasted so much time reading things that I hate. I always try to at least get halfway before putting it down and I should have done that here.

Making His Mark starts off dull and continues that way. For the entire novel. There's no real conflict or plot, other than Alexis acting like a raging hormonal bitch all the time.

Example: (Bo buys her flowers)

"These are lilies and they're orange. Both my favorites, and I've never told you I loved lilies. These aren't just flowers. You got them for a reason, spill it."

"Guess you'll have to wait and see."

"Whatever. I have a job to do."

She's just rude like this throughout the entire book. While she's not the most hated novel heroine I've ever read, she's definitely top five. There's pretty much nothing likable about her. Bo isn't the best, but he's at least a decent person. Alexis just flies off the handle constantly, over the most minor things.

I guess I should expect it though considering the entire conflict of the novel is over whether or not Bo should do Alexis' tattoo for her. She asks him to do it, he says he doesn't tattoo friends, she gets emo about it, he tattoos a friend and she finds out (and flips out), and he agrees to do her tattoo.

His reason for not doing tattoos on friends doesn't even make sense (Waaa my parents told me I'd never amount to anything).

I like a fluffy romance novel, but there should at least be SOME real conflict. I don't give a fuck whether or not Bo does her tattoo. A tattoo is not a real conflict.

The author creates other bullshit conflict, but it's all so dumb and minor and facepalmingly bad. Another example, Bo gets Alexis tickets to a Taylor Swift concert (her favorite singer).

At the concert, Bo is kind of grinding/feeling up on Alexis. She gets pissed at him, telling him that the parents of kids at the concert wouldn't like that and makes him stop. He doesn't get mad, he just says okay and stops. Immediately after, Alexis starts molesting Bo. He tells her to stop and winces about his blue balls. Alexis flips out, cusses him out and breaks up with him.

UH... WHAT?

I could have dealt with the flimsy boring plot if the sex was good, but the sex was awkward and boring. Who wants to read a sex scene with lines like this?

Bo had an unobstructed view of Alexis' moistened entrance to her core.

I just get a vision of him between her legs staring in to a huge gaping vagina.

Pass on this one.
 
1 out of 5 stars.

Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/522728004

In My Mailbox

  

In My Mailbox (weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren)

I'm not a big time book blogger (wish I had more time for it!) but I do love to read and write reviews and interact with other people who love books as much as I do!  I am fortunate enough to get some ARCs, but I usually buy my books.  I'm so excited because this has been a great week for me on NetGalley!  This week I plan on reading Geek Girl and Dash and Lily's Book of Dares, both of which are recent approvals from NetGalley.  I also am completely addicted to the Karina Halle's Experiment in Terror series and I start book four, Lying Season, tonight!  Marie Lu's Prodigy is the sequel to her bestselling (and AMAZING) book Legend.  I just got it as well and can't wait to get started!  So many great books, so little time!

Happy reading all!

Reasons I Fell for the Funny Fat Friend by Becca Ann

Title: Reasons I Fell for the Funny Fat Friend
Author: Becca Ann
Blurb:
It’s stupid to fall for your brother’s ex. It’s even worse to enlist another’s help to win the ex over. But Brody is desperate and Hayley, his partner in American Sign Language, is more than willing to lend him a few tips.

She’s the school’s matchmaker,’ and with her bizarre and positive personality, Brody finds her easy to talk to, even about the most awkward situations. Hayley’s tips seem to be working, but as Brody learns more about his matchmaker, he starts finding reasons to spend time with her, and not the girl he thought he was in love with.

But Hayley isn’t ready to fall for anyone. Labeled the “Funny Fat Friend” within her group, her self image makes it impossible for Brody to share his feelings without Hayley shrugging it off as a joke.

Convincing her Brody can, and did, fall for the “Funny Fat Friend” turns out to be harder than simply falling in love.

Links:
Reasons I Fell for the Funny Fat Friend on Goodreads
 
 Kala's Review:
This book was bizarre. I mean, the plot itself is unoriginal and fluffy, typical of a YA romance novel (which I don't mind!), but the characters themselves were just... strange. And I don't know if I mean that in a good or bad way.

Brody is the narrator of this book, our male lead, and I wonder if that's why it has such a strange feel to it. Some writers can do a believable male POV and some can't. I don't want to say it was awful, but it just didn't feel right. Brody is pretty vanilla, we can call him a Bella Swan if you will. He's kind of just there, being hot, nice, funny, smart (aka no real flaws).

(slight spoilers after here)

Hayley is the really bizarre one. She considers herself the "funny fat friend" but of course she isn't "really" fat. Then again, Brody's brother calls him a "chubby chaser" for being interested in her, so I can't really tell. Brody says she's not, his brother says she is. I'm not really sure. Hayley also is apparently really against things like swearing, but she has no problem having sex with Brody THE FIRST TIME THEY KISS.

Yes, you read that right.

Hayley has never been kissed before and when she and Brody try it for the first time, it's so awesome she has to have sex with him right then and there. Most teenage girls value their virginity a little more than that and I would expect a girl as straight edge as Hayley to wait a bit longer before giving up the V-card.

As far as the swearing, Hayley apparently hates swearing so she uses all sorts of weird phrases instead of swear words (like 'holy f-bombs of glory').

She also uses the word "fart" instead of the "f-word" which drives me nuts. I've no doubt that it's a huge pet peeve of mine, but I hate the word fart. I hate talking about it. I don't like hearing it. And not only does Hayley use it as a curse word in this book, but she and other characters giggle over how it rhymes with "shart" multiple times. It grosses me out and that turned me off of this story a lot.

We also get to hear constantly about how bad Brody's room smells (like corn chips and ass). Over and over again.

I guess I just like to leave the 'gross' things about real life in real life. Farting and sharting and pooping and everything else along those lines just doesn't belong in a romance novel (IN MY OPINION).

My other major issue with this book was Brody's voice. He often loses the 'g' at the end of words (ie: comin' goin' droppin' etc). This isn't done consistently though. In one sentence we'll have the 'g' dropped off of 'droppin' but not off of 'thinking.' Some people might like it, but I'm not a fan of this type of writing (I also didn't like the strikethroughs and numericals in Shatter Me, for example). I prefer writing to be clean. That said, if you're going to write like this, be consistent!

Regarding the plot, it was nothing special. Brody is supposedly in love with his brother's ex-girlfriend Quynn. Hayley randomly decides to help him get with Quynn, but while he's getting tips from Hayley he starts liking her instead. I thought the first half dragged on wayyyyy too long. We have pages and pages and pages of conversations that are just dull. I thought the second half was much better (where we get more in to Hayley's personal life and issues with her mom) as well as the progression of her relationship with Brody.

I feel like this writer has talent, but she needs to streamline the plot more. This book stalled out so badly in the first half that I almost marked it as a DNF. I put it down and read other books for awhile, then came back and finished it. I'm glad I did, because it got better, but the first half was still a struggle.

I'd probably read another book by this author in the future, but I wasn't impressed enough to put her on the auto-buy list.
 
3 out of 5 stars.

Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/481354942