Christine's Reads

I really wanted to like this story more. Overall, the basic premise was enjoyable.
Over protective brothers interfere in sister's ability to date/have a love life. Sister meets a brother's best friend and begins a secret relationship.
The secrecy, however, just went on and on. Then, she had a freakishly hair trigger temper. She would get mad and start yelling at a drop of a hat. And, apparently, if she drank and became angry, she would get violent.
The heroine also seemed completely clueless about her family. I realize that she came into the family late, but still, you'd think that she would understand the dynamic a little bit better.
The thing that affected the rating the most, though, was the numerous grammatical and editing errors.
It's "pecs" not "pecks".
It's "wince" not "whence".
It's "too" not "to" (or, at times, the other way around).
And, in the infamous words of Ross Geller, Y-O-U-apostrophe-R-E means “you are,” Y-O-U-R means "your"!

Quick read.
Enjoyable enough, but really needed to be longer. I felt like I picked up the book in the middle of the story. Little to no background on the heroine; more on the hero, but still read almost like a prequel.

Enjoyable story. Our rich hero needs a fake fiancée to get his family off his back. The heroine needs money to help her brother be able to take advantage of an exchange program trip.
Heroine comes across somewhat immature (she is young - 24) despite her having had custody of her brother since he was 14 (now starting college).
I believe I would have enjoyed this more if the story didn't feel so rushed.
2.5 stars.

This is one of those 'piecemeal' stories. It was all right but, of course, you're left hanging in the end with basically a 'to be continued'.
Definitely some editing issues. And so short, you really don't connect with the characters.

Short - common sense 'secrets'.

Overall, I liked this book and storyline.
I would have rated it higher, but the heroine really got on my nerves!! The whole 'your kind' just because he had tattoos?!? Really?!?
And she kept it up even after she got to know him!!
Ugh!

I had high hopes for this story.
Hot guy with amnesia, accused of murder; college student using his situation as research for her thesis; he ends up living with her - - recipe for great book with awesome sexual tension.

Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me. I did not feel invested in the characters or their relationship/journey with each other.

There is very limited backstory on the characters. We are told that the heroine had a hard childhood, but not a whole lot about what she experienced. We don't get any information on how the hero is dealing with his amnesia - just that he is frustrated about not getting his memory back. And, finally, we are not given any detail on the progression of the characters' relationship/feelings - just that they are attracted to each other.

If the story had been fleshed out more - enough information given to get the reader invested in the characters and the storyline - this would have been a great story. As it is, it's likeable, but not great.

I have to admit that I ended up skimming most of this. The heroine was so amazingly annoying, that it sucked the entertainment out of the story for me.

The heroine, Elle, apparently dated a "bad boy" in the past and had an awful experience with him (he cheated on her and humiliated her in front of their friends), so all men with tattoos or any type of rough edges were no longer going to be 'her type'. After this experience, she told her mother and, said mother, took over her dating life for her - setting her up with 'appropriate', yet boring men.
Elle decides that she needs to pick her own man or she will be stuck with one of the men her mother picks, and so she chooses her boss. She decides to sneak into his bedroom and seduce him. However, unknown to her, she starts seducing the boss' brother - tattooed, broken nose, and rough around the edges - who is staying at his house.

Through most of the story, she was uptight, childish, judgemental, and whiny. She didn't make her own decisions and appeared to just be swept along with everyone else's ideas/actions . . . even the hero's. She was overly concerned about pleasing/kowtowing her mother. I mean, really, jumping up during sex to answer the phone because mom's calling?!? Give me a break!!

The story, overall, seemed somewhat disjointed. Several supporting characters seemed to be more important than their presence in the story implied. I'm guessing they will have more prominent roles in follow-up books (it looks like this is going to be as series). We didn't get enough back story on the hero or heroine, in my opinion, or the importance of their family/friends in their lives. It was superficial and did not help me really connect with either character.

I really liked the story line, however the story really bugged me.
Apparently, a newer version than the one I borrowed has been released addressing all of the grammar/editing issues that was throughout my version.

While I can understand the heroine's insecurities, I think that they were overly drawn out in this story. Additionally, the heroine felt she was fat. Really? A size 10 is not fat. Especially not when the average woman wears a size 14. And she's upset about a size 10? Ugh! Give me a break!

I really liked the hero. He was very patient with the heroine's insecurities. The story shows how close he is with his twin sister, and with his parents.

I enjoyed the way the hero and heroine's relationship developed and their interactions (mostly).

I did have problems with the heroine's family. It appears the only supports she had were her father and uncle, but even they apparently allowed her to be bullied by her mother and siblings a lot - or were blind to it - or something.

Anyway - this would have been a 5 star read for me except for the above issues.

I'm not 100% sure where to start with this. Overall, the premise was fine.
The story however . . .

So, here you have the only daughter - the youngest, with four older brothers - of an affluent family. The family thinks that the 24 year old girl, Aiden, is innocent and pure. The parents don't really appear to like her since she wasn't a son. The mother is very condescending and mean to her only daughter. Never pleased with what she is doing, plans to do, or has done. Mom (and apparently Dad) feel that Aiden is some type of hoyden (just a virginal one) and cannot find her own life partner, so they basically set up an arranged marriage.
The man they picked is nice enough, but for the story's purpose, he's kind of bland.
Our heroine, after a particularly trying encounter with her parents while her not-quite-yet fiance', decides to get in a boat and get away for a little bit in the bayou that is behind her family's home. She falls asleep in the boat, wakes up in the dark and a storm, gets lost and hurt, and finally finds her way to the porch or our hero - - who accuses her of being a tabloid reporter and refuses to give much information on himself (once he finally decides she's not a reporter and lets her in the house.)
So, she manages to find out his full name and social security number (while snooping in his wallet while he's asleep) and curiosity gets the better of her and she decides to research him (or better yet, get her 'research attorney' friend to research him).

Here's where I started scratching my head.
- Her friend tells her that she needs to go to some newpaper websites and try to see if there's any articles on him. Ummmm, why not just google his name and see if it comes up?
- She only finds a couple of articles on him, despite the fact that he apparently thought she was a tabloid reporter. Seriously?
- Later, her friend finds information that suggests that he may not be who he told her he is (after they track each other down due to their longing to see each other again and he confesses everything that he's been through). She kind of believes this, even though she was able to pull an article that had a picture of him. Really?
- Our heroine has her own business, a trust fund, and apparently her own house. So why the hell is she living with her parents and letting them continually put her down? Stay at your own damn house!
- The hero finds information that Aiden's friend dug up while waiting in her house for her. This includes evidence that his dear old mom has told the world that he was dead. And he's pissed at the heroine for this. Unbelievable.
- There's a confrontation at a charity auction, but the hero tells the heroine that they are okay. Then basically turns on her within the hour.
- Then we have six weeks of no contact, in which she decides to go through with the arranged marriage, and (at the heroine's brothers' urging) he finally shows up at the last minute to stop the wedding while, of course, at the same time she is breaking it off with the 'arranged' groom.

I kept reading because I felt it had to get better. Meh, not so much.
There were more issues that bugged me, but I think the points above hit most of the major ones.

I have a total love/hate thing going on with KA’s books.

I love, love, love the books!! You get sucked into the story and the characters and get emotional with them. I just can’t put them down when I get started.

I hate that I have to ration/restrict myself to only reading them to when I can sleep in the next day because I can’t put them down!

At any rate – loved Motorcycle Man. Started it last night after I got home from work. Luckily, I have taken a few days off from work to extend my long weekend, as I was up until 4:00 a.m. reading until I just couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. Slept in, then, got up today and finished it.

When I started reading this, I was thinking that Tack was going to go down as one of my least favorite of KA men. He was a major asshat at the beginning of this book. So completely different from how he acted in Mystery Man. But, then he changed and got all sweet with Tyra, even when he was being a typical alpha-jerk. Big sigh . . .

Now, I have major dilemma. Tack has jumped up to one of my favorite KA alphas. Joe, Ty, Tack . . . I’m not sure I can pick just one. I think the only thing I can do is to have a favorite alpha from each series. Oh, and I can’t leave out Knight. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Tack and Tyra were a great couple. She did not get intimidated by him despite his "scary biker dude vibe" and would actually get in his face when he made her mad. Tack took care of Tyra’s soft heart/feelings. Including helping her friend, Lanie, and Lanie’s fiancé go off the grid. (I thought Lanie was an idiot to stay with the guy, but what do I know?) Tack was a rough guy, but was very good to Tyra and his kids. I loved Tack’s kids and hope to see more of them in the spin off series.

3.5 Stars

Alpha Warrior who rules the elves and dragons, but with a soft, mushy center.
Adventurous female who always seems to look on the best side of a situation.

An alternate world/reality, which includes said elves and dragons; where women and men can each hear specific species of animals talk; and in which resides everyone's twin from the 'real' world.

I liked this story - really liked the hero and heroine - and got a kick out of the cat and the men's views of cheating at cards.

The story did drag some. It included a lot of descriptions of buildings, surroundings, interiors, exteriors and clothing. There were a lot of characters and a lot of countries/towns that the characters visited. I had some difficulty in keeping everything straight.

Another difficulty for me were the freakishly long run-on sentences peppered throughout. They took me out of the story multiple times while I was trying to interpret what it was actually saying. If the editing were better, I would have gone ahead and marked the story at 4 stars.

I was surprised at how much I liked this book.
There was a lot of hype and I am often skeptical about indie authors.

This book really captivated me and I could not stop reading until I finished it. Unfortunately, it did not make for a good day at work after staying up all night reading it!

16 year old TJ and his 30 year old tutor, Anna, are on their way to meet TJ's family for a family vacation after TJ's battle with cancer, but they never make it due to their small plane crashing into the ocean. They wash ashore on a small uninhabited island and end up being stranded together for the next 3 years.
During this time, TJ and Anna depend upon each other to survive under difficult circumstances. Their eventual romantic relationship develops slowly.
The author did an excellent job in describing their circumstances, their actions to survive, their friendship and eventual feelings for each other, as well as providing insight into the difficulties they went through once they returned to civilization.

This is an enjoyable series.
Quickie, light reads with the expected HEA.

4 1/2 stars

I really, really, really liked Flynn. Alpha male, but sweet.
I even liked the heroine.

The voyeurism scene was a little ehhh for me, but I wasn't totally icked-out.
I would have loved for the story to be a little longer to show more of their relationship - - after they agreed they had a relationship.

On my keeper shelf, and is definitely one I will re-read.

I was lucky enough to get one of the hundred advance copies that the author gave away through net galley.
I really enjoyed this book and pretty much read it in one sitting.

The heroine, Cath (Mary Catherine), had started her life over, trying to let go of mistakes in her past. This included her having a bit of a boring, predictable life, as evidenced by her getting an item for a museum exhibition by "predicting" who would be coming up on a train platform. One of these individuals is the hero, whom she nicknames "City".

As a last ditch exercise to get the coveted item for the exhibition, she agrees to go out on a blind date with the owner's boyfriend's cousin, who is in town. The blind date turns out to be a disaster and she ends up drinking more than she normally allows herself.

She ends up running into "City" when she is trying to get home and he ends up taking care of her. As she wouldn't tell him where she lived or what her name was, City took her to his home, put her to bed, and set out a toothbrush and towel for her to use the next morning.

Cath ends up seeing another side of City that is totally unexpected for her. She views him as a man who is well-to-do, working in the city as a banker, and being a little stand-offish, with a snooty British accent. (Did I mention she is actually from the states - Chicago?)

Cath sees City (aka Nev) in casually dressed and a little mussed, painting. This begins the unexpected chemistry between the two . . . as well as a relationship that she won't admit to.

Throughout the story, we get more of Cath's background and the problems/mistakes she experienced/made. Additionally, we see Nev's difficulties involving his family and his wants/dreams.

The story draws you in and makes you a part of the character's lives, giving insight into why they think/act like they do. Definitely, a good read and it is interesting to see how all the characters - not just the hero and heroine - change throughout the story.