REVIEW; When Summer Ends, by Isabelle Rae

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Genre: New-Adult, Romance,

Recommend: Yes

Standalone

SPOILERS 

Summary:

Chloe meets Will the bartender after getting into a club with fake ID. After stepping up to help him make drinks, the pair can't keep away from each other. Chloe meets his family and believes she's found the one and ends her summer on a high. Until returning to high school and Will walks in as her new teacher. 

Immediately he ends things with Chloe, crippled with guilt of dating a student. But Chloe  won't give up on them and will do anything to get a second chance. And as much as Will knows it's wrong, he can't forget the girl he fell in love with over the summer.

My Thoughts:

Chloe: She is so immature I really don't see how Will falls for her but anyway... I don't like how she played games and jumped to conclusions. I didn't like how she involved Ollie just to make Will jealous, even though Ollie got overly possessive about all of her male friends, I just felt bad for Will and didn't think it was fair to play with Ollie like that. She overreacted a lot and didn't even want to adhere to Will's plan of putting space between them. Just wished she was a bit more mature about it all. 

Will: I can see why Chloe falls for him but at times I wished he'd see what he was doing. For starters, obviously I know student/teacher relationships are illegal so when he discovers the truth I appreciate his efforts to end things, even if it means hurting Chloe despite really caring for her. But he often tells her to stay away but then is the one to initiate contact with her. Then when he realises she was underage he becomes overly dramatic about going to jail and how wrong it all was, which again, great he sees the seriousness of it all, but then still continues to see her. But the story would have been pretty short if he sat her down and just said 'wait until graduation' (which he did) and everything went to plan.

Story: I am a sucker for the forbidden/taboo romances. There's always something exciting when there's the risks involved. In this case they met each other outside of the classroom, meaning Will really falls for Chloe believing she's older and welcomes her into his family. When he discovers the truth, he tries hard to end things, but neither can deny their attraction. This causes a string of turmoil and heartache and ultimately drama, as the pair try to get on with things in secret. I didn't understand the need for Nick's character. Although he's Chloe's ex, I don't understand how someone would willingly set his life aside to support her when he thought she was pregnant. 

Overall:

Although it wasn't the best story of its kind, and rather cliché, I was still hooked and rooting for them to pull through. Recommend for those who enjoy these type of stories. Relatively predictable but enjoyable. 

Goodreads 

REVIEW; A Different Blue, by Amy Harmon

Rating: ★★★★★

Genre: New-Adult, Romance

Recommend: Yes

Standalone

SPOILERS 

Summary:

Blue Echohawk doesn't know who she is... not even her age. Her mother left her with a stranger when she was two, and he raised her as his own, teaching her about life and how to carve wood, constantly moving around. 
With his passing she is left on her own to discover herself. Having to attend high-school Blue doesn't want to do an assignment involving telling her story. Her teacher, Wilson, is instantly drawn to Blue's attitude and wants to know more. And instantly an unlikely but strong friendship is born, as Blue embarks on a journey to discover herself and balance a relationship with her teacher.

My Thoughts:

WOWOWOWOWOWOWWWwwwwWWWwwWwwwWwWWWwow!

Blue: Blue Echohawk is such a compelling character. She has a beautiful story considering she knows nothing of it to begin with... she doesn't even know if she is 19 or 20. As a result, we go on a gorgeous journey of self-discovery and redemption and revelations. She had great wit and sense of humour but yet an ability to feel the highs and the lows with raw emotion that affected me. She was such a unique character with her own struggles and I feel responded to bucket loads of shit thrown at her with a strong armor of attitude and bravery. 

Once upon a time... there was a little blackbird, pushed from the nest. Unwanted. Discarded. 

Writing: I'm so used to reading NA novels with easy read language. The prose in this is so engaging and encouraging, with a vocabulary above average of that usually found in similar novels. Although this story was so compelling, the manipulation of language was what really drew me in and what I found addictive. It was so refreshing! 

Romance: So I stumbled across this due to student/teacher relationship. Firstly, for the majority of the book Wilson had a girlfriend and no romantic barriers were pushed whilst they remained student/teacher so there was none of that consequence dealt with. What was beautiful was how their relationship evolved into a true and caring friendship as Wilson helped Blue on her journey. Part of me wished there was more romance depicted between the pair but I sort of liked how delicate and slow their relationship bloomed and how it was focused more on the emotional connection. 

Overall:

I wasn't expecting this book to affect me as much as it did. I honestly thought it would be a sub-standard level of writing but yet it was so powerful and a story I will remember for a long time. There is a beautiful soft romance woven around the journey of self discovery and is just fantastic. So poignant. 

Goodreads 

REVIEW; Downshift (Skid Row Kings #1), by Winter Travers

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Genre: New-Adult, Romance, Suspense

Recommend: No

Book 1

NO SPOILERS 

Summary:

26 Y/O Violet Barnes is on her own. Since her parents' death she has built her own life and keeps herself to herself. A book nerd, she works in the library to earn some money and fulfill a passion. 
Luke Jensen owns the local garage, where his two brothers work, and his younger teenage sister Frankie lives. Luke doesn't have time for innocence and vanilla, whilst Violet doesn't care for Luke's arrogant facade when she meets him through Frankie. But their stubborn arguing soon brings them together and they fight to be with each other, despite having opposite pasts. 

My Thoughts:

As a car girl I love any romance involving racing and cars and long to find an author actually showing knowledge about engines and how things work when a pivotal character has the hobby... in fairness to Travers, that was well depicted in this novel. 

Characters: I don't know why, but I couldn't connect with Luke or Violet. At the beginning I loved their chemistry and was hooked, but about a third of the way in I lost focus completely. Violet was 26 and I couldn't relate to her level of innocence at all. If her age had not been divulged, I would've guessed she was about 17 or 18 judging by her maturity. Frankie was integral to Violet meeting Luke, but she seemed to only re-appear when convenient for a plot twist or further drama. Luke will not be making it onto my book boyfriend list. I didn't find him charming or anything redeeming about him. He seemed to do a 180 too quickly for it to be believable from going to having one night stands to being devoted to Violet, even though we did get some mental battle. 

'"He beat York off the line and stayed ahead the whole race."
"That's good, right?"'

Is she serious?! Pretty sure everyone knows the person who stays ahead in a race wins!

POV: Dual POV can work really well... or be detrimental to the story. Sadly, in this case it was the latter. There was no added value having the insight into Luke's mind and the writing was not distinct enough to differentiate between characters. A reader should be able to tell who's POV it is without being told IMO. This is a common find among the female writers and although it probably doesn't bother 99% of readers, it's one of my pet hates. The thought process and mind of a male is entirely different to that of a female, and Luke showed too many female thinking patterns.

Romance: The initial chemistry between the pair drew me in and was electric. But then it all sort of fell by the wayside and felt strongly amateur. I cringed at most latter conversations or romantic scenarios between them both and sped read a lot of the remainder of the book. Luke calls Violet "Princess" throughout, but way too often for it to be endearing. 

There was a lot of pages of pure dialogue that held no meaning or substance. With this, there was also a lot of tell after the reader was shown. Authors need to have faith in their readers picking up on subtle nuances and double-meanings rather than over explaining everything. 

If the main characters are late twenties to thirties, I expect some maturity and advance in the writing style. I felt like I was older than them all in this book and it made me lose interest. 

Overall:

I wouldn't recommend this book. There were too many minor issues for me that disrupted the effect of the story and I couldn't get swept up in their romance. However, majority of people are giving this 5 stars, so if the issues listed don't bother you, than maybe it will be your sort of thing.

Goodreads

REVIEW; November 9, by Colleen Hoover

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Genre: Romance, Suspense

Recommend: Yes

Standalone

SPOILERS 

Summary:

Fallon's life changed on November 9th. Ben's mother committed suicide on November 9th. Ben and Fallon meet on November 9th. And then they make a deal. Fallon and Ben will continue their separate lives, but meet up again every year on the same date. The rest of the year they stay away without contact, no messaging, no calls, no social media contact. The date becomes something special to them both, but as their life changes each year, can they see it through and find love together? 

My Thoughts:

Story: For the most part I really enjoyed the premise of the story - meeting each other on the same day for 5 years before re-evaluating their lives together. But honestly, I don't understand the insta-love effect. I can't imagine how one can go a year without seeing someone, or even changing. The whole point was from 18-24y/o one changes but to be honest I didn't see much evolving of the characters.

Book: I enjoyed how Ben was writing a novel of their story within this - like a book within a book about the book! But I didn't understand the discussions re a bad romance novel and then mention of insta-love but yet they acknowledge that's what happened to them...? Seemed a bit weird acknowledging a bad aspect of a novel that's included.

Ben: Meh... I liked him at first when he showed up at the restaurant but I felt it hard to warm to him after the dress incident. His pushing for giving Fallon self-esteem was good but I felt he needed some sensitivity added to him. If a guy forced me to wear something I wasn't comfortable in just because he was paying for dinner I'd roundhouse him! 

Fallon: I really felt for her. Her dad was horrible to her and her career was ruined (ultimately because of him) but I hated the melodramatic romantic selfless acts of love she claimed were for the better that just pushed the guy she loved and who loved her away. I'm so over the "you're better without me bullshit" that's everywhere these days. If you find that sort of true love, you deserve to be broken hearted for rejecting it! 

Romance: the romantic scenes did not work. Ultimately cringe although suspect the aim was for some delicate handling of it all but really didn't work this time around. I feel like their should have been some more insight into the pain endured the rest of the year to solidify the level of happiness achieved on November 9th. While only recording November 9th has huge impact, at times it felt like the rest of the year didn't even happen but gaining an insight into their lives without the other would help hit home how much they needed each other. 

Overall:

I loved this and the unique spin of the story with some great plot twists and dark parts. But there was a little lacking for me and I didn't love the romance as much as I wanted too. Still, recommend it though!  

Goodreads