Currently Reading: Rock Stars, Vampires, Demons, and Maids

Source: Review copies provided by the publishers through NetGalley.

Are you feeling cheerful today? Here’s a bunch of mini doom-and-gloom reviews to help you with that.

Rock Addiction by Nalini Singh

I was very excited when Ms. Singh announced that she was publishing a Contemporary Romance, but this book was a disappointment that I couldn’t even finish.

A rock star falls in love with the virgin, skittish heroine the moment he first sees her. There is absolutely no reason why these two would want to be together, not even to have sex. The problem here wasn’t the trite tropes and contrived plot, though, but how incredibly half-baked the book was. Nalini Singh’s books are all about complex world-building and interesting characters, and at first I thought that the shortcuts she was taking were the product of bad PNR habits that didn’t translate well to a contemporary setting. But whereas the fated mates in the Psy/Changeling series are nuanced people who take time to develop a relationship, this book had two stock, flat characters getting together for superficial reasons in what ultimately was an underdeveloped story. I hear the second half gets better, but I seriously doubt it, because the groundwork just isn’t there.

Grade: DNF
Purchase: Amazon

Review: Love, in English by Karina Halle

Note and spoiler warning: This is the longest review I’ve ever written, so here’s the TL;DR version: Love, In English gets a NOPE in every language. If you still feel like reading the review, keep in mind that there are visible and unannounced spoilers all over it.

I’ve heard so many great things about Ms. Halle’s books that it was hard for me to resist her first standalone Contemporary Romance.

Our heroine is Vera, a 23-year-old student who decides to spend the summer teaching conversational English in Spain. The program, which looks a lot like a retreat, is a great deal because she gets to stay in a fabulous hotel and all she has to do is spend the day speaking English with people who are mostly fluent. There is a lot of partying and sex, so it’s not the most professional environment ever, but it’s a good forced-proximity setup to justify our main characters falling in love.

The first day, Vera meets 38-year-old former soccer superstar, Mateo. She is very attracted to him and the feelings are mutual, but Mateo is married and has a young daughter, so she fights the feelings as best she can. However, the more time they spend together, the more they like each other and it’s no surprise when they fall in love. Actually, it is a surprise, because these two have nothing in common. Although he is going through an early midlife crisis and she is reckless, immature and has managed to convince herself that she’s a lonely, tormented soul, so I guess their eventual affair makes some sense, but not in the way it was intended.

Review: Play by Kylie Scott

Last year, Kylie Scott’s New Adult novel, Lick, was Romland’s (or maybe Twitter’s) “it” book for about five seconds. I quite liked it, even though the premise was over the top and it seemed to be one of those New Adult titles that are only NA because the heroine is young and, well, the NA label sells. But I saw a lot of potential in Ms. Scott’s writing, so I was excited to learn that she was releasing a sequel. Unfortunately, this new book came with all the issues and none of the fun.

Anne’s money problems go from bad to worse after her evil roommate disappears, leaving her with no way to pay the rent. I’m not surprised the roommate is evil, because with one exception, all the non-sequel-bait women are evil, something you can tell because they are into sex and skimpy clothes. But I digress. Back to the main plot, poor Anne is desperate and trying to find a solution to her problem, when she conveniently meets the hero, Mal.

Review: One Tiny Lie by K.A. Tucker

Warning: ALL THE SPOILERS AHEAD.

I usually take time to talk about how and why I decided to read the book, but today I’m feeling lazy, so I’m skipping everything and jumping right into the review.

The blurb should give you an idea what the book is about:

Livie has always been the stable one of the two Cleary sisters, handling her parents' tragic death and Kacey's self-destructive phase with strength and maturity. But underneath that exterior is a little girl hanging onto the last words her father ever spoke to her. “Make me proud,” he had said. She promised she would...and she’s done her best over the past seven years with every choice, with every word, with every action. 

Livie walks into Princeton with a solid plan, and she’s dead set on delivering on it: Rock her classes, set herself up for medical school, and meet a good, respectable guy that she’s going to someday marry. What isn’t part of her plan are Jell-O shots, a lovable, party animal roommate she can’t say ‘no’ to, and Ashton, the gorgeous captain of the men’s rowing team. Definitely him. He’s an arrogant ass who makes Livie’s usually non-existent temper flare and everything she doesn’t want in a guy. Worse, he’s best friends and roommates with Connor, who happens to fits Livie’s criteria perfectly. So why does she keep thinking about Ashton? 

As Livie finds herself facing mediocre grades, career aspirations she no longer thinks she can handle, and feelings for Ashton that she shouldn’t have, she’s forced to let go of her last promise to her father and, with it, the only identity that she knows.

This book was one entertaining mess. The heroine is instantly attracted to the bad-boy hero, but she decides to start a relationship with this other guy who is just as hot, but also nice, which instantly makes him the safe, but wrong choice. She’s still lusting after the hero, though, even when he turns out to 1. Have a girlfriend and 2. Be her boyfriend’s best friend and roommate. But who can resist a bad boy, right?  She’s also kind of disgusted by the hero constantly cheating on his girlfriend (even after spending the night with the heroine*, so double rainbow cheating all the way!), but she’s not that disgusted not to cheat on her boyfriend with the hero who apparently was only sleeping around to forget her. This is a thing that happened.

Review: Sweet Talk by Julie Garwood

Source: we received an e-ARC of the book through NetGalley for review purposes.

I’m a huge fan of Julie Garwood. She’s one of my favorite historical romance authors and I also like her contemporaries. I thoroughly enjoyed her last book, The Ideal Man, and I was anxiously waiting for Sweet Spot. I regret to say that I was very disappointed. 

Olivia is an IRS agent and an attorney that works with children in danger. She’s investigating a Ponzi scheme to bring her father down. In the middle of a job interview, she interrupts an FBI investigation. Grayson Kinkaid, the agent in charge, is equal parts pissed and attracted to Olivia. He doesn’t want a serious relationship so they flirt a bit and leave at that. But when she is attacked, he realizes that keeping her safe means keeping her close.

Review: Where the Heart Lies by Michelle Garren Flye

Source: we received an e-ARC of the book through NetGalley for review purposes.

I’ve been reading a lot of stories about widows falling for their husband’s best friends, especially widows whose husbands were soldiers. I think it’s a new trend in Contemporary Romance. This one in particular looked like a sweet story and that’s why I read it.

Alicia’s husband, Ty, died in the war. Since his dream was to move back to his hometown and take care of his father’s bookstore, Alicia decided to do just that. So now she and her kids are in a new town, trying to settle down and adapt to life alone. 

Liam was Ty’s childhood friend but they didn’t stay friends after he joined the military because on a faithful night there was an accident that thwarted the husband’s career in sports and forced him to join the military. An accident everyone in town still blames Liam for, even though it’s been years and Liam was a troubled teen that needed more help than scorn. Now Liam is a college professor and has a PhD, and still everyone hates him. I guess he feels the need to atone for his sins because he still lives there. It makes no sense.

Review: The Shape of Desire by Sharon Shinn

If you’re a fan of Paranormal Romance you probably recognize Ms. Shinn’s name. She’s the author of the Samaria books, a popular series that’s quite well-known even among readers like me, who aren’t die-hard fans of the genre. Last year I finally managed to read her novella, Nocturne, that was part of the Angel of Darkness Anthology, and I loved it. So when I heard about this new series I decided it was time to read one of her full-length novels. 

Maria Devane and Dante Romano have been secret lovers for over fifteen years. I say secret lovers because Dante is a shifter who spends more time as animal than human, and his random “shifting” patterns make it impossible for them to be out as a couple. So they have developed this routine in which every time Dante is human he goes to Maria’s house, eats her food, fucks her, and leaves her again. This is the part where I explain that Dante isn’t you regular shifter, no alpha werewolf protecting his mate whom he loves in a sweet but creepy possessive way. Nope, first, Dante can shift into any animal, cat, bear, cow… He can’t control the animal although the environment helps, so if he happens to be near a farm, chances are he’ll turn into a farm animal. Second, he can’t control the change. He feels it coming, but he can’t avoid it, same goes from going from animal to human. The older he gets, though, the more frequent and longer the shifts become. So their relationship, which began in college, has turned into this thing resembling the most dysfunctional long distance secret relationship ever.

Review: Rules of the Game by Sandy James

Source: we received an e-ARC of the book through NetGalley for review purposes.


Note: this review has two parts, or two different reviews. The first one is spoiler free, the second one spoils the whole plot. If you don't like spoilers there's a mark that separates both reviews.

The reason I picked this book was because the blurb hit all the right notes. I love Contemporary Romance and this one looked like a cute story about a shy woman trying to get over her issues by confronting her fears with the help of a bad boy hero. What’s not to love, right? If you are like me, then it will only take reading the blurb to see how appealing this book is. Unfortunately, the blurb was pretty much the only thing that worked for me.

Review: Unscripted by Natalie Aaron and Marla Schwartz

Source: we received an e-ARC of the book through NetGalley for review purposes.

Unscripted follows our heroine, Abby Edwards, as she tries to make a living in Hollywood while working as a producer in the world of reality TV. We see her trying to come to terms with the fact that her dream of being a screenwriter won’t come true, having a job that is hard and demanding but not as rewarding as she would like, and overall struggling to find her place, be successful and achieve happiness. In the process we meet Abby’s best friend Zöe, who has her own struggles, and a set of different characters that are part of Abby’s life, some of them help her, some of them become obstacles, but all of them impact her in some way. All of this is set against the background of Reality TV, a complex and interesting world that acts almost like another character.

Review: Casting Samson by Melinda Hammond

Source: we received an e-ARC of the book through NetGalley for review purposes.

This book really appealed to me. It looked like a sweet, interesting contemporary romance, set in a small town, with a hot hero and a secondary storyline that was even more enticing than the main one. Unfortunately it didn’t deliver as promised and I was left wondering how a story with so much potential ended up being such a disappointment.

Deborah Kemerton’s birthday is going from bad to worse. The spa appointment she had got cancelled and when she goes back home she finds her boyfriend naked with someone else. When she confronts him, he tells her that he had an itch to scratch and that she shouldn’t make such a big deal out of it. Heartbroken and unemployed (the boyfriend was her boss) she goes back to her hometown to put her life back together.

Review: Navarro's Promise By Lora Leigh

Like with all my other reviews about a series, I am going to start saying that this review is full of spoilers, and Navarro’s Promise –being the 24^th book of the Breed Series – is a book that has to be read only by those who have followed the whole story, otherwise you are going to be feeling like you are missing out on half of the plot –which you are-. So, consider yourself warned.

Personally, I see the Lora Leigh’s Breed Series as a TV show in which each episode is focused on the development of a couple -sort of like Lost and its characters-. These “episodes” –in this case, books- are just a chapter in the whole story, and with every new one we discover a new layer in the complicated and well-explained plot.