Nicole Reads A Lot

so many books, so little time

Jan 18

Put Me Back Together by Lola Rooney

by Nicole
Title:Put Me Back Together
Author:Lola Rooney
PublisherSelf-published
Publication Date:November 2013
Publisher's Descriptionou’d Better Watch Yourself, Katie Kat

Katie Archer knows how to lie. After six years, no one really knows what happened That Night. Not even her twin sister. Choosing a college 3,000 miles away from the truth, Katie throws herself into art classes and a love affair with ice cream. Katie’s biggest rule? No boys. Ever.

But there is the little problem of Lucas Matthews. Former basketball star and total campus hottie, Lucas is the stuff girls have naughty dreams about—and he has the reputation to prove it! But that doesn’t stop liquid heat from running through Katie’s veins every time she sees him…

You’ll Never Get Away With It

Letting Lucas in is the hardest thing Katie’s ever had to do. And telling him the truth? Impossible. Then Katie starts to get threatening texts and she realizes Lucas is the least of her problems. Her past has caught up with her and it wants to settle the score.

I’m Coming For You

Now Katie must decide whether she wants to fight for her life, or leave everything—including Lucas—behind her forever...
My rating:****.5

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This is how an author does New Adult well.

I read so many books, for professional and personal reasons, that when I come across generic books, they tend to run together in my mind. Thankfully, I didn’t have this type of experience at all with Put Me Back together. This book was entirely unlike anything that I’d read before, and I found the story totally engrossing. Katie is such an interesting character! I felt that Ms. Rooney doled out details about Katie’s pre-university life at a good pace. She teased that there was more to know, but delivered new bits of information at regular intervals. And Lucas. HOW MUCH DID I LOVE LUCAS? A metric tonne (can you tell that I was thrilled to read a book that takes place in Canada)!

The mystery of what happened back in Kingston and why Katie feels complicit, to the point of not taking steps to protect herself from a determined stalker, is handled well and just adds to the book’s overall awesomeness. Lucas’s backstory is also complicated and fascinating. A lot of authors seem to think that New Adult books just require random tragedy, but everything that happens in this book felt necessary to the story, and not gratuitous or as if added merely for shock value.

This book is a thing of beauty to read. The grammar is perfect, the dialog sounds like it was written by a person who actually has had conversations before, and the emotion of the story felt incredibly real to me. I came to Amazon to buy whatever else Ms. Rooney had written in the past and was dismayed/overjoyed to see that this is the first thing that she has published. I’m sad that I’ll have to wait, but I hope that this book marks the beginning of her long and fruitful publishing career.

I received this book free of charge through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review and my most worn out marbles.

2014 4.5 Star Books Book Reviews Netgalley New Adult Romance

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Jan 17

Almost Matched A. O. Peart

by Nicole
Title:Almost Matched
Author:A. O. Peart
PublisherThree Graces Publishing
Publication Date:November 2013
Publisher's DescriptionWould you take another shot at love? Or just settle on a friend with benefits?

THEIR HEARTBREAKING PAST WILL MOVE YOU. THEIR PASSION WILL MAKE YOU BLUSH. THEIR ANTICS WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH OUT LOUD.

Twenty-five-year-old Natalie Davenport lugs substantial baggage. One boyfriend after the next has been a total disaster, leaving Natalie distrustful toward the male population in general. So when Colin Hampton crosses her path, she’s cautious. Her heart (and some other body parts!) nudges her to go for it, while her head wants her to run for the hills.

Colin is one of those gorgeous guys who attract women, no matter the age or marital status. With a successful career at a popular Seattle radio station, hard body, and charming personality, he is the complete package. But something dark lurks in the corners of his soul; some murky experience that has changed him—maybe for the better, but maybe for the worse.

Will he steal her heart and stomp over it like other guys did?

Will she let him into her heavily fortified world despite herself?

Or will they settle somewhere in the middle—establishing the emotional boundaries to protect them from falling in love?

****************************************************************
This contemporary romantic comedy blends humor, sensuality, and angst, with zany characters and witty dialogue.

***Warning: contains sexual situations (some quite vivid!), profanity, and a high dose of sarcasm. Oh, and there is a lot of appletini and beer drinking.
May not be appropriate for readers under 18 years old. Not intended for prudes and killjoys with no sense of humor***

THE SERIES:
The Almost Bad Boys series are the stories of four feisty twenty-something women who refuse to let their past drag them down.
My rating:**

almostmatched

Although there were parts of this book that I enjoyed, it just didn’t gel for me. I liked that Natalie was a successful entrepreneur at 25, and that she didn’t apologize or excuse her success. I liked that she had strong friendships with several other women. I appreciated that she and her friends were so sex-positive, and could be honest with one another about what they thought or knew themselves to want from men. I appreciated that Colin genuinely adored Natalie, and that neither of them were into playing games. Those were the good parts of this book for me.

I found the dialog by turns artificial and stilted, but not even all of the descriptive text worked for me. Ms. Peart had a habit of not using contractions where almost every native English speaker would, which I found jarring and annoying. I didn’t like how Natalie had to contrast herself with her idea of feminism, in order to contrast herself with those men-hating feminists (how many women really hate having doors opened or chairs held out for them? not as many as romance novels would have you think, I’d bet). Dear Ms. Peart: You wrote a book about a sexually confident, young entrepreneur who excels at her job. Nothing I read in Almost Matched convinced me that Natalie wouldn’t like to have open to her any opportunity that would be open to a man of equal qualifications, so guess what: you wrote a book about a feminist.

I didn’t find Colin’s angst to be very compelling,  but that may be because the substance of it wasn’t revealed until what felt far too late in the book for me. I was annoyed by how whenever he did talk about his past, he just had to mention that, although he’d never loved in the intervening years since his tragedy occurred, he’d been with many women. Okay, dude. We get it. You were an emotionally unavailable baller.

I didn’t love how Natalie wanted to be supported by her friends but organized a shaming committee when Caroline confided in Natalie. None of the friends really had a storyline that didn’t somehow go back into providing an object lesson for Natalie, so I didn’t connect with much that happened to to (except that weird intervention that they staged on Caroline; that was cold).

I didn’t feel that this book delivered on the high levels of emotion promised in the blurb, and didn’t connect with this book enough to move onto the sequels.

I received this book for free from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

2 Star Books 2014 Book Reviews Contemporary Netgalley Romance

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Jan 9

My Sweetest Escape by Chelsea M. Cameron

by Nicole
Title:My Sweetest Escape
Author:Chelsea M. Cameron
PublisherHarlequin HQN
Publication Date:January 28, 2014
Publisher's DescriptionThe past will always find you

Jos Archer was the girl with the perfect life—until the night it all came crashing down around her. Now, nine months later, she still hasn't begun to pick up the pieces. Even transferring to a new college and living under the watchful eye of her older sister, Renee, isn't enough to help her feel normal again.

And then she meets Dusty Sharp. For reasons Jos can't begin to fathom, the newly reformed campus bad boy seems determined to draw her out of her shell. And if she's not careful, his knowing green eyes and wicked smile will make her feel things she's no longer sure she deserves.

But even as Dusty coaxes Jos to open up about the past, he's hiding secrets of his own. Secrets about the night her old life fell apart. When the truth is finally revealed, will it bring them closer together—or tear them apart for good?
My rating:***

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Neither terrible enough to scar you for life nor well-written enough to be memorable, this story brings nothing new to the New Adult genre. A lot of what happened here felt manufactured and unnecessary. From little things (Dusty is introduced to Jos as Dusty, but she knows his name is Dustin – how?) to looming problems (why is Renee so insane about Jos; one and a half lost semesters hardly explain her jailkeeper mentality toward her only slightly younger sister), so much about this book felt off to me. Dusty was actually a pretty stellar character, although I found his see-sawing to be tiresome and annoying. There’s such a thing as genuine confusion, but at some point, his behavior toward Jos felt needlessly hurtful. Likewise, both of their needs to assume the blame for something that was not their fault made me want to say, “Girls! Girls! You’re both pretty.” (or “Boys! Boys! Your penises are exactly the same length.” I’m not a sexist.)

This is the second book in the series, but I haven’t read the previous titles, so maybe I’d like Renee and the other housemates better if I was already familiar with them. As it was, I found them a bit cloying and far too involved in Jos’ life. Renee I sort of understand, but everybody else needed to take a giant step back and mind their own beeswax. Hannah, who I suspect will be the subject of a future installment in the series, also annoyed me, but for different reasons [Nevermind, just read that this is a two-book series. My apologies!]. She betrayed Jos’s confidences twice; while I know that this came from a good place and the results were ultimately favorable, if I were Jos I’d never tell Hannah anything that I didn’t want anybody else to know.

If you’ve already read the previous book in this series, I would think that you’d like to read this one, too, but reading this book left me with no desire to read the previous title.

I received this book free of charge from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review and my last clean pair of undies.

2014 3 Star Books Netgalley New Adult Romance

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Jan 8

Perfect Summer by Katie Graykowski

by Nicole
Title:Perfect Summer
Author:Katie Graykowski
PublisherSelf published
Publication Date:October 2013
Publisher's DescriptionHigh school teacher Summer Ames is trapped in the nightmare morning from hell. Her alarm clock didn’t go off, she accidentally backed over the rosebush her grandfather gave her grandmother right before he accepted defeat against prostate cancer, she’s wearing clothes she picked up off the floor, and when she opens the door to her classroom, the lights from the TV cameras nearly blind her. She's won Teacher of the Year. But unlike the past winners, she doesn't get a new car or a Hawaiian vacation or even new school supplies, she wins an over privileged quarterback with a bright smile and questionable intentions.

Clint Grayson is an NFL quarterback in need of a reputation makeover. If he has any hope of landing a hundred million dollar endorsement deal, it will take some pretty impressive PR for the public to forget the photos of his battered and bruised ex-girlfriend. In an attempt to polish his tarnished reputation, Clint agrees to be a high school class mentor.

When these two get together all hell breaks loose and they both learn that all is fair in love and football…and winning is just the beginning.
My rating:***.5

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I really enjoyed this book. Summer’s belief that she was fat and unloveable was sad, but while it stained credulity a bit (why is there such a massive disconnect between characters about whether she’s curvy, fat, or obese?), I found her to be sympathetic and was invested in things working out for her and Clint. I liked that Davis and Lilly’s stories were included here as well. It’s good that this particular evil Texan mother repented, although there were things that went unexplained that I would have liked to see resolved (like, why is Lilly holding out on giving Summer her money?). I enjoyed this book enough to pick up Place Your Betts by the same author immediately after finishing this novel.

2014 4 Star Books Erotic Romance Professional Athlete Romance

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Jan 7

Broken Blade by J.C. Daniels

by Nicole
Title:Broken Blade
Author:J.C. Daniels/Shiloh Walker
PublisherShiloh Walker, Inc
Publication Date:January 2014
Publisher's DescriptionKit Colbana: assassin, thief, investigator extraordinaire. Now broken. She always expected her past to catch up with her but never like this. Haunted by nightmares and stripped of her identity, she’s retreated to Wolf Haven, the no-man’s land where she found refuge years before. But while she might want to hide away from the rest of the world, the rest of the world isn’t taking the hint.
Dragged kicking and screaming back into life, Kit is thrust head-first into an investigation surrounding the theft of an ancient relic...one that she wants nothing to do with. Her instincts tell her it’s a bad idea to just leave the relic lying about, but finding it might be just as bad.

Forced to face her nightmares, she uncovers hidden strength and comes face to face with one of the world’s original monsters.

If she survives the job, she won’t be the same...and neither will those closest to her.
My rating:****.5

brokenblade

A worthy successor to Night Blade, which is one of the best UF books that I’ve read in ages. I thought that this book came out on Tuesday, so I was pretty freaking excited to see it appear on my Kindle on Monday morning. Yay for not being able to keep my days straight! I’m glad to be able to say that this book far exceeded my expectations! While I knew that it would be good, I’m really impressed by how Ms. Daniels managed to advance Kit’s story in logical, though often unexpected, ways while setting up events that are still to come.

First of all: Kit is my freaking hero. She thinks of herself as barely being able to put one foot in front of the other, yet she is so, so capable; the fact that she doesn’t see this and doesn’t believe it when people tell her is heart-wrenching. Some characters in this book are obviously more welcome than others, but they all return and behave exactly as they ought to. Justin – still with the dreads but otherwise terrific; Sam – just as evil as ever; Damon – awesome and swoon-worthy even while navigating through a (largely deserved, sorry, but really) mountain of guilt; Doyle – still my bestest bestie ever, and even more so after this book.

I turned off the book progress info on Broken Blade, because I wanted to enjoy it without constantly trying to figure out whether I thought that the book was 70% of the way wrapped up at 70% in. Also, I just didn’t want to see the end coming. J.C. Daniels/Shiloh Walker is a freaking tactical genius; I bet her book outlines resemble the whiteboards o’crazy made popular by Carrie from Homeland (I am left-handed, and this is a compliment). I don’t believe that there are throwaway words or scenes in any of these books, but I love how seemingly small details from the first two books turn out to be absolutely pivotal in this one. And not in “a wizard did it” kind of way. I’m really excited for the fourth book, but I feel that Broken Blade ended in such a way that I’m excited, not distraught and anxious, to read the next installment in the Colbana Files.

Right now I’m still squeeing to myself over specific scenes and sentences. This series reminds me of my three favorite urban fantasy series: The Walker Papers by C. E. Murphy, and The October Daye books by Seanan McGuire. Even though I came late to it, this book has quickly made its way into the autobuy category for me. Preorder even, although I know that Amazon is totally going to screw me over on pricing somewhere around day 8.

2014 4.5 Star Books Book Reviews Paranormal Romance Urban Fantasy

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