lilly not of the valley

This song...

"I wish I never looked, I wish I never touched
I wish that I could stop loving you so much
Cause I’m the only one that's trying to keep us together
When all of the signs say that I should forget her
I wish you weren’t the best, the best I ever had
I wish that the good outweighed the bad
Cause it’ll never be over, until you tell me it's over

These battle scars, don’t look like they’re fading
Don’t look like they’re ever going away
They ain't never gonna change These battle scars"

...was on repeat while reading this.

I purposefully avoided reading this because of the major betrayal that Ellie suffers through thanks to Javier. And I’m assuming if you're reading this you've already read Sins & Needles and you know what that gut wrenching betrayal is.
That topic has always been tough for me to stomach. Mostly because I'm a firm believer in loyalty and trust in a relationship and of having the “cojones” to speak your mind and communicate if you're unhappy and because ...it hits home.
Of course ,though if he had just communicated we wouldn't have met Camden McQueen in Sin & Needles and that would've been a damn shame. And I think he's going to prove to be more than just the other option for Ellie. At least that's what I’m hoping for but that's in Ms. Halle's hands.

Needless to say though this one gutted me. Just like I expected it too. And can I say bravo to Karina for writing that excruciatingly perfect scene. It was so breathtakingly honest. Everything Ellie felt was real. She wasn’t a character in that moment. She was akin to me and I wanted to reach in to those pages and let her know that with time it gets better. But the truth is it never does. Not with the type of love that Ellie and Javier had.

”I love you more than I've ever loved anyone. More than I thought I was capable of. Eden, you've taken my heart by surprise from the day I first saw you. It hasn't been my heart since”

It changes you. Just like it changed Ellie from the girl willing to forsake her vendetta for true love into the girl we meet in S&N doing whatever she needs to do to get by.
Something I wasn't expecting at all was for me to want to understand why Javier acted the way he did . I thought I wouldn't care. That as soon as he did Ellie wrong he'd be dead to me but aside from his charm and smooth Latin Lothario persona ,Halle gave him this air of all-knowing mystery.

Like what he says and does is for more than what he lets on and it makes me wonder how sincere he was about everything he said...

“My angel will always come before me.”

So I guess we'll have to wait for the next one and see if he really did mean that. as far as teams go I'm #team-grow-some-cojones-and-show-her-that-you-care. Whoever does that wins my vote.

Review to come but real quick Why BLUE?!? WHY?! ;((


-edit

I'm going to tell you something that not a lot of people know about me... I really like assholes (male or female). They make me laugh, whether it be at them or with them. What can I say about this affinity? I guess I just enjoy getting the-no-bullshit-truth. A-holes never feel the need to sugarcoat and I respect that. Dante walker is one of the a fore mentioned and he had me when he thought this of our female MC...
"This is the girl Boss Man is after? She looks like a porcelain doll ...beat three times with an uglystick."
I know what you're thinking. "What a douche!" or if you're English "Horrid Man!" ,"Que Mamon!" if your Latin/Hispanic/whatever-the-hell-we're-calling-ourselves-now ,and you would be right. It is terrible thing to say ,thankfully he only thinks it and that is why I knew I was going to love this. How many male POV's have we read lately where the guy's thoughts are anything but a guy's?
Where the male MC starts of being a bad ass only to flip a 180 once he sees the female MC for the first time? It's usually all rainbows and puppies from then on(gag). It's very refreshing to not see the insta-love that exists in most novels. Well, maybe Charlie is in insta-lust but definitely not Dante.
"She nods her head as though I said something profound, then turns and walks to her window. For the first time, I notice she's wearing purple jeans. My god, it's like she stepped straight out of an 80's movie. Her wavy hair falls to mid waist , and I think how she looks better this way. From the back."
(Lol, gets me every time.)

But there is more to him than his douchey musings. He is a soul Collector working for Lucifer himself. Put on earth to collect sinning souls but he gets a special assignment. One that requires personal one-on-one attention, Charlie Cooper. She's every thing most female MC's never are. Strong, inherently good and a little less than perfect, looks wise. And she gets under Dante's perfect skin.
"Charlie and I should be doing terrible soul-sealing activities. Instead, she somehow swindled me into volunteering."
She comes bearing gifts too. Her two BFF's Annabelle and Blue, who are great in their own right. Especially Blue. Dante and Blue develop a sort of tentative, tense, bromance that is hilarious and endearing. Which is why I was so devastated when ,(don't click on huge spoiler if you haven't read it) he dies! That deducted the last star for me. Otherwise this was perfect!

This was...cute. It had some really good funny moments that I loved like like when the dog licks Jackson's penis! :) but it was a bit too cheesy sometimes and I found myself skipping over parts that I felt like the author was summarizing instead of telling .I really liked Brandon and Callan though, I hope we see more of them in the next ones.

4 stars
After reading Binds I’ve discovered two things about myself.
The first, that I am a PNR & (High- Low)Fantasy lover and second, that I love a good supernatural love triangle. All Things that can be found in Mrs. Espinoza's promising debut novel.
Besides the obvious differences between a PNR/Fantasy Romance and any other type of romance novels (like fairies, monsters and mages), the thing that I love most about them is the slow burn of the story.
Where a good contemporary romance novel always cooks with high heat causing the story to sizzle in its crescendo letting you know it's done . A good PNR lets the characters simmer for a long time with low heat while continually adding new characters or twists in the plot, developing layers and texture that eventually (hopefully) come to an aromatic, satisfying boil. I swear I’m not hungry... but I could go for some gumbo ;). Anyway, Binds has heavy influences from Moning's fever series so it sort of reads a little like fan fiction. Very good fan fiction but still . It's kind of like the fever series meets aspects of Beautiful Creatures with a sprinkle of Daughter of Smoke and Bone except with an entirely new story .

We meet Ophelia or Phee, as I prefer to call her ...

while she's scrutinizing her mansion's food menus. She's married to a controlling, abusive man who isn't afraid to beat her if the wrong things are served for dinner so it's safe to say she's a little relieved when she's kidnapped by her new driver Reece...


after coming back from a gala her sadistic hubby makes her go to. She wakes up in Spencer's place.

A man ,who opens her eyes to the real word she's living in and introduces her to some of her truth. There's so many things going on already like Reece's culpability in her mother's death, spencer's secret dealing with the king of the fae! Who also happens to be Phee's dad!! that it's safe to say ,Mrs. Espinoza is doing it right. She's left us simmering, wondering what the heck is going to be thrown in next and which of these hunky but very flawed men she's going to trust. I know who I am rooting for.;)

Really enjoyed this one. It took me a little longer to get through but that was just my schedule getting in the way. The story itself was good and Dante and Jaime's story was better than Taryn and Trey's.
Even though I knew something bad was coming towards the end didn't expect how it would be remedied by baby healer kye can't wait to see who else get a book!

4 Stars
Um...wow. This is how a male POV should be done.

This is not a new book by any means ,the material is all the same but told in a 'behind the scenes' way while Layken and Will reminisce during their honeymoon.
Will's POV offers new insight into different scenes and shares new ones altogether that make you fall in love with him all over again. And let me just say that...

there are different authors for different leading men . If your looking for a tattooed-fighter-crazy-hunk you go to [a:Jamie McGuire|4464118|Jamie McGuire|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1355507473p2/4464118.jpg]. If you want a sexy-alpha-male [a:Karen Marie Moning|48206|Karen Marie Moning|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1350594088p2/48206.jpg] has many to choose from ,or maybe you're more of a 'chains and whips' person then of course there's [a:E.L. James|4725841|E.L. James|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1308409727p2/4725841.jpg]'s Infamous Christian Gray but if you're looking for a rational-thinking man and all-around-dreamy-guy with the most beautiful soul that says(thinks) things like this...

"It's almost as if the moment we said "I do" yesterday, the hardships and heartaches we faced as individuals were meshed, making our pasts lighter and easier to carry. From this point on I'll be able to do that for her. Should there be anymore burdens. I'll be able to carry them for her. It's all I've ever wanted to do for this girl since the moment I first laid eyes on her."

...or

"Somehow trivial things like lying in bed watching TV have become euphoric when we're tangled together like this."

and my personal favorite, the one that had me looking over at my husband with distaste wishing he was ¼ Puerto Rican , a teacher, and liked poetry...

“Wife,” I say, staring straight into her eyes.”Think what you want, but there isn’t a single woman in this whole damn universe that I could ever love like I love you.”
Go on, lie to me and tell me your not sitting around reading this smiling like this girl.




Anyhow... Colleen Hoover is your go to for dreamy guys like Will Cooper. She writes the perfect men, you know the ones you dream of catching when your little, the attainable Prince. Only to grow up and get messed up by life and fall into the mass produced idea that jerks are hot , which I'm totally guilty of ,but that's another topic.
Back to Will. I saw somewhere somebody said they thought he was dramatic, well... duh! He writes poetry. As Layken would say "What did ya'll expect?" Of course he's going to be sitting around wishing he was a coffee cup so he could touch lake's lips. That seems natural for a poet. What doesn't seem natural for anybody though was him wishing he was a knee... what? that was random.;P
..anyway so maybe you're wondering, why if I loved Will and his Side of things so much did I only give this 4 stars?
Well, cause I missed the whole Gang! I wanted more of Kel,Caulder,Kiersten ,Gavin an Eddie!! and what did I get? I got like 1 one liner from Kiersten. 3 ish from the boys and 1 from Eddie. I don't know maybe nobody wanted to be funny with Will? who knows but I didn't like it. Mrs. Hoover held out on me there and that took away the last star for me. sigh' she was real close with that great epilogue and heart warming scenes with Julia but nope. Hopefully this was a strategic choice though and she withheld their awesomeness cause she's planning to give us their own story. Please, [a:Colleen Hoover|5430144|Colleen Hoover|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1333056335p2/5430144.jpg]? I'm not ready to say goodbye. :(

I did it. I finally finished it.


I was hesitant to read anything involving wolves and shape shifting because ,while I enjoy a good paranormal story, shape shifting is just not my cup of tea. That being said I really liked it. I specially enjoyed the differentiation between the wolf halves and human halves of each character. As opposed to in other books where the human and the wolf are one .I think the coexisting idea sounds more organic and slightly more believable.
There were a few cringe worthy moments ,mostly provided by Taryn's random cussing but all in all nothing that would make stop reading. And how is the sex between wolf shape shifters?


'nuff said.

ohh and I loved Dominic's cheesy pick up lines! lol they were awesome!

This one just... didn't work for me.

3.5 Stars
Warning: In order to avoid severe uncomfortable situations or general awkwardness, it is advised to read this book away from other humans , whilst still being in a general vicinity where relief is at hand.

So , I have read a lot romance novels. A lot, and while I have been able to abjectly enjoy reading some hot and steamy scenes, I have never read anything where I actually start feeling like Jen here

Hence the warning. Something's , like intense arousal, should just be kept to ourselves and our partners not innocent bystanders. The first 50% of the book was almost unbearable. There was so much sexual tension built up.
It was pretty delicious awesome, so thank you for that Katy Evans ,but there really wasn't much a story here and what little was there was so dramatic-al it was a little stupid and the way the ending was so perfectly wrapped up was just too much.
Of course, my main problem with it was the way Remy's bipolar disorder was handled and the way it depicted his manic episodes like he was a raving animal. To the point that shoving a tranquilizer in his neck was needed. Having a close family member with this disorder myself and having lived some of her more extreme episodes along with her it was unsettling to read so much bad info on how this disorder should be handled. So read this for the sexy steamy scenes (and lion remy of course!) but definitely not for the story or for the info in it.

Well I'll be... The son of satan just became my newest book boyfriend...:). I really enjoyed this one but after four books in I was hoping to get more than what I got , story wise. I understand in the first few Charley was just starting to see her world with new eyes and was processing all the new info but I really wanted her to deal and try to discover her story in this one and that just didn't happen. So that left me a little miffed . That and the fact that I still don't know WTH happened to Mr. Wong!!! I mean seriously tell me already!! But of course Charley is still a riot in this one so that helps . I liked all the new characters too but ,again, the development of the established ones was missing. I wanted growth and I didn't get much. However, that therapy session Reyes gave Charley was long overdue and that was what made me forget the negative. I just hope the next one will be worth the wait and we'll actually get somewhere.

Loved it!! I live for characters like Charley Davidson !! Her sarcastic wit combined with her grim reaper storyline is unputdownable and then there's Reyes Farrow! Their relationship is a lot like ,one of the many ,YouTube vids where you see a dangerous animal completely bessotted with something like ...a little bby duck. Except this baby duck (charley) has secret powers and probably the powers to one day kill if need be. The first of these series is addicting and I just couldn't stop!!

AMAZING!!

KMM gives us an alternative scene in the first book of the Fever series! Through Barrons' POV!!
The following are a few gems from it.;)

“Do you really intend to exchange information?”
“I do.”
“And you’ll go first?”
“I will.” So fucking gullible.
“We can trade through the door.”
In her dreams. My dick isn’t that long.
I came here for two things. I’m not leaving without them.

"I have found there to be little distance between the unlatching of a chain and the spreading of a woman’s legs. As if they can never unbar only a single
entrance. It’s a disease called hope. Women suffer from it greatly."

" I close my hands on her head and think I might not let her go. Slick with sweat, I defile her with reverence. Or revere her with defilement. Every. Inch. Of. Her. Mother- fuckingfinebody. She likes it."



Barrons' POV ,albeit short, Does. Not. Disappoint.

I really enjoyed this one. A bit of the lore that is in [b:The Fever Series 5-Book Bundle: Darkfever, Bloodfever, Faefever, Dreamfever, Shadowfever|15842007|The Fever Series 5-Book Bundle Darkfever, Bloodfever, Faefever, Dreamfever, Shadowfever|Karen Marie Moning|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1346294462s/15842007.jpg|21584022] is introduced and anything that reminds me of fever is an ace in the hole on my book.

The chemistry between Daegus and Chloe was nice...it just was a little too coincidental for my taste. She literally arrives in his doorstep and from then on never leaves his side. Obviously there's a time traveling formula in these books but I enjoy it. However, I don't know for some reason this one lost a little steam to me. I'm hoping that it's because I've been reading them back to back and maybe this just means it's time to take a break between them. So we'll see.

3.5 Stars

First and foremost, I want to say, I love Travis Maddox. Beautiful Disaster was one of my first insanely addicting reads, and it was all because of him.


I even loved their insane, unhealthy relationship. Because if were really honest with each other , we all know that's what it was. Crazy and unhealthy but I've been there done that (kind of, in a totally different way) , so I get it. It happens like that when they're so young. I even understood Abby's reluctance about him in the first one. I mean he looked like a maniac from her POV, in BD . A sexy one, but still totally cray.

In this one though, seeing Abby through his eyes...she really got on my nerves. So I really didn't get why he would be so crazy about her in the first one. And that was failed for me. That's what I was looking for in this one. I wanted to see through Travis' eyes what made Abby so special. I do feel that Jamie succeeded in telling us why Travis reacted so crazy and irrational in the first one and the story line with his mom totally broke my heart. I get it he fought for what he wanted. But why would he want her out of all the women available to him. I hardly think just 'cause a girl says no to a guy that would make him go as crazy about her as he did. Even if he really had never seen gray eyes like hers before. So I didn't like that. I also thought he was a little bit of a, and don't kill me for saying this, but a wuss. He's A fighter, damnit. He's scrappy,tough and awesome!I wanted him to curse more... but you know what saved it? That epilogue. All the cray paid off.:) and I loved that. I kind of hope we see a spin off of his twins! can you imagine daddy travis dealing with lil' Jess dating woes?? :) yes please!

amazing!!! Best one I've read in this series yet!!! And that ending!! Ugh! i feel like a fangirl who wants to shout.. "I love you Drustan Mackeltar !!!" Pathetic? I don't give a damn!! Off to see daegus' story!!!

Easter has been draining. Egg hunting is tiring. So all i have to say is it's Very ,very ,good. And bravo on the awesome names! the next time I have a child I will probably submit a request to Laini Taylor requesting consult on possible baby names. Let's hope she answers or my future child will probably just be named kiwi. I like kiwis. A lot .