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: Summer Rain Anthology

Source: Review copy provided by one of the authors. 

This review is going to be long, so let’s jump right into it.

*****

Redemption by Ruthie Knox tells the story of two unlucky people punished by the economy (as well as some unwise and bizarre business decisions) and how they come together and find solace in each other.

Basically, this novella is a unicorn, also known as a doom-and-gloom small-town contemporary. Blink and you’ll miss the magic of two miserable people whose future is uncertain, falling in comfort with each other. It has a hopeful ending that doesn’t promise much to either reader or characters, but that perfectly fits the tone of the story.

Grade: 4

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.

NA and the Limitations of Romance: One and Only by Viv Daniels

Source: A review copy was provided by the author.

When I heard that Diana Peterfreund was publishing a New Adult novel under the Viv Daniels pen name, I was very curious. I was even more excited after I read the blurb, because I like complex family dynamics and when the love of your life is your legitimate half-sister’s boyfriend, I kind of expect just that. Now that I have read the book, I can say that it was not what I expected in both positive and negative ways.

Our heroine, Tess, grew up knowing she was the product of an affair between her mother and a rich, married man. Her father was somewhat present in her life, but the unspoken rule in their relationship was that she should always remain a secret. And even after finding out that she had a half-sister, Tess focused all that curiosity, envy, and secret yearnings for a normal family, into her dream of becoming a scientist.

Giveaway: Stay With Me by Elyssa Patrick

Elyssa Patrick has been a member of the Romance community for years now, and I’m happy to see her succeed as an author. She also has a thing for rock stars, but who doesn't, right?

Her latest book, Stay With Me, released earlier this week, and it’s a New Adult story about a very famous young star that grew up in the spotlight and is ditching Hollywood to go to college and maybe have a chance at a normal life. Things aren't that easy for her, but at least she meets a dreamy guy who makes it all better.

Elyssa has kindly offered an e-copy of Stay With Me to give away on the blog today, so this is going to be a quick giveaway post. For a chance to win, fill the Rafflecopter thingy at the end of the post and also leave a short comment saying you’re in, so that if Rafflecopter malfunctions I can manually pick the winner.  Contest open to all.

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: True by Erin McCarthy

Source: A review copy was provided by the publisher through NetGalley

New Adult has been a self-publishing phenomenon, so it’s interesting to see what the big publishers are going to do with it. In that regard, True is an interesting addition to the sub-genre (?), and it successfully portrays the themes and subjects of NA. Unfortunately, there were other aspects in which the story wasn't as successful.

Rory is a bit of a nerd, so of course she’s a virgin. Lucky for her—and inexplicably for us—her best friends (and I use the term loosely) and roommates are hot party girls who know exactly what Rory needs: to get laid. So they enlist the help of Tyler, a guy they know from, well, having sex with him.

While that happens, Tyler and Rory get to know each other and date a little. There is chemistry between them and they develop a friendship that’s framed by sexual attraction. They become a couple, get over a couple of obstacles, and overall make it work. And then life gets in the way. And by “life” I mean Tyler’s responsibilities and shitty mother.

Review: Wait for You by J. Lynn, aka, Dammit, Authors, Stop Using Rape as Convenient Plot Devices and Write Something New!

Warning: there will be spoilers.

When New Adult started generating buzz, I was equal parts confused and hopeful. The first few books I read convinced me of the potential of a category that I’m still trying to figure out where it belongs. I have talked about the subject before, so I won’t repeat it here, but I’ll say that while most have a dismissive and cynic reaction to these books, I’ve championed and tried to explain that no, NA is not a bunch of steamy YA’s.

However, the truth is that the more I read, the more disillusioned I become. The success of a few bred many similar stories that tried to reproduce key elements of the original, but with a complete disregard of the quality and care that made those first books so successful. The result is a bunch of novels that offer nothing new and that use serious topics as convenient sources of angst. Instead of true storytelling and concern for the craft and the readers, these books feel like an exercise in marketing and fan-service. Wait for You is a perfect example of this.

New Adults and an Unrelated Giveaway

Hello, guys!

I have a new post on Heroes and Heartbreakers, this time about New Adult. Have you heard that term before? I bet you have. One of the reasons I wrote the post was because I've seen a lot of negativity and cynicism directed towards New Adult, and even though most of them are quite valid, I wanted to talk about it in a positive way, because I feel that it has a lot of good things to offer. It’s a very new label that’s been misused in order to exploit it, but there are a lot of great stories being told, and that’s what I was trying to convey in that post. 

Review: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

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

Have I mentioned how much I’m enjoying all these New Adult books? With some exceptions, I’ve loved everything I’ve read. Pushing the Limits is in part to blame for it because it was one of the first NA --or adult-ish YA’s-- I read.

Our leads are Echo and Noah. The book is told alternating between them and their stories are equally important. 

First we have Echo. Something happened to her, something involving her mother. But she can’t remember and no one wants to tell her what happened. All she knows is that there’s a restraining order and that she isn’t allowed any contact with her mother; that she has some terrible scars on her arms; and that months ago something triggered an attack that left her in the hospital for days. She’s desperate to put all the pieces together to find out what happened.

Review: Something Like Normal by Trish Doller

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

The reason I read this book was because the main character and narrator is a guy, something I seldom see in YA. It also seemed like a different type of story and I was intrigued. So I requested it months ago and read it, which turned out to be a mistake because I’ve been dying to talk about it since March.

Something Like Normal tells the story of Travis. He’s back home for a short stay before he has to go back to Afghanistan. It’s not the ideal situation because things at home are far from perfect. His girlfriend dumped him and is now with his brother, he has a poor relationship with his dad, and even if he doesn’t want to admit it, he’s suffering from PTSD. He has two choices: he can either ignore all his issues, or he can confront them. To be honest, all he wants to do is get away, it was the reason he enlisted in the first place, but his issues are hard to ignore so confront them he will.

Ginger Heroes, Hops and Not-So-New Adults

Don't mess with the gingers! (source)

My newest post on Heroes & Heartbreakers is about redheaded heroes. This was quite a difficult list to make because there aren’t that many. And when they do show up, they are either Scotsmen or don’t look like a redhead at all (no freckles, no pale skin). But I think I found a few good examples to show you how appealing redheads can be. I also want to say thanks to everyone on Twitter who recommended books to me.