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Sebastian isn't a Bad Boy... he's... naughty. Online, he's (anonymously) known as the Hook-up Doctor. He's there to tell girls what a boy wants (at $100 a pop), so the girls can provide the goods and get what they want. And while he guarantees that h...more
Sebastian isn't a Bad Boy... he's... naughty. Online, he's (anonymously) known as the Hook-up Doctor. He's there to tell girls what a boy wants (at $100 a pop), so the girls can provide the goods and get what they want. And while he guarantees that his clients will catch that guy if they follow his instructions, he gives no assurances that the relationship - such as it is - will last. When forced to bet on whether or not it will - Sebastian will always give those chances a thumbs down. He isn't speaking from experience, but from observation - as he watches his mother go through one disappointing relationship after another. Sebastian takes that knowledge and applies it across the board, as though what happens with his mom and her string of boyfriends is to be expected. Every. Time.
Aspen is Sebastian's neighbor and his oldest friend, which becomes a problem when he starts noticing new and enticing things about her. (Yes, physical things - because he's a boy and that's what *most* boys notice first.) Aspen, however, is in the Friend Zone, and he wants her to stay there. He enjoys her company and even though he's got those little sparks of interest popping up here and there, and he's determined not to act on them and mess up the friendship for something he knows wouldn't last. And because they've been friends for so long, it doesn't occur to him to curb what he's like with other girls in front of her. Sebastian is a man-whore in the making, and poor Aspen has a front row seat.
And then, Aspen contacts the Hook-up Doctor...(less)
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Warning: SPOILERS for Shade (bk 1) and Shift (bk 2). If you haven't read the first two books in this trilogy, run along now and go read them. STOP PEEKING! I SEE you! (To everyone who's waited for this book for a while - I recommend that you re-read...more
Warning: SPOILERS for Shade (bk 1) and Shift (bk 2). If you haven't read the first two books in this trilogy, run along now and go read them. STOP PEEKING! I SEE you! (To everyone who's waited for this book for a while - I recommend that you re-read the other two, or at least skim them, before reading this one. I spent too much time trying to remember what was what in the world-building Smith-Ready does here, and who was who in the minor characters. Possibly, this is a brain-fail on my part... but I suspect at least a few of you need the suggestion, so I'm giving it.)
Shine picks up right where Shift left off - with Aura standing in the cemetery, five minutes after Logan's departure. Zachary has been deported by the DMP, back to his native Scotland. He and Aura have plans to meet on their 18th birthday in late December - in Ireland, at a romantic old castle (ROWR, right?). But Aura fears she'll actually ever see him again - that she won't be able to make it to Ireland, that he won't wait six long months for her. Her fear is brought home in a whole new way when the receives a call from her BFF that Zachary's flight went down right after takeoff - in pieces.
A word of warning - my Kindle hit 40% before Aura and Zachary laid eyes on each other, let alone anything else. The story required Aura to search through clues to find out what happened to Zachary, and what, if anything, she could do about it, and the amount of time it took for this was frustrating. However, once they were back together, it was all systems go, despite the requisite starts and stops from their six-month separation.
Shine answered all of the questions brought to light in the first two books - what caused the shift, what did Aura and Zachary have to do with it, and what could be done about it - if anything. The romance was sweet, sweet, sweet, and Aura's flashbacks of her love for Logan were as well. I was never a Team girl in this series because Logan DIED in the first few pages of the first book, people. He DIED. I don't know that a book ever made me cry so quickly into it, and then multiple times through the next two! I loved Logan, too, but felt that Aura needed to move on eventually - as Logan would want her to do, once he accepted his death and stopped being selfish. This letting go proved how much he loved her. Sniffle! :(
This was a satisfying end to the triology, though not, perhaps, as emotionally moving as the other two. (Maybe that's a good thing - I don't think I could have taken any more than Shift did to me.) I absolutely recommend the trilogy as a whole, and will probably - if I ever have the time - reread the set back-to-back.(less)
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Lucas is a boy in denial. As the sole survivor of a horrific accident that took the lives of his three best friends - including his girlfriend - he can't move past the denial, unless he's also immersed in guilt. Healing after a tragedy is never 1-2-3...more
Lucas is a boy in denial. As the sole survivor of a horrific accident that took the lives of his three best friends - including his girlfriend - he can't move past the denial, unless he's also immersed in guilt. Healing after a tragedy is never 1-2-3 simple. We don't clip-clop down the stages of grief, step onto the last spot and proclaim that all is well. Healing is a jerky, irrational, two-steps-up and one-step-back mess. We get stuck, and we backslide. We also cling to the aspects of one stage while moving to the next - and that is what Lucas does in Collision Course. He adds the horrible aspects of each step to his burden as he goes, rather than leaving it behind.
Complicating matters for Lucas are the things he never did or said. This made me think of the John Mayer song, Say. When my brother died, I was at his side. That was a miracle in itself - I literally arrived 15 minutes before he breathed his last breath, and it has always seemed to me like he waited for me. In my case, I repeated things I'd said to him before: I love you. You're the best little brother I could have had, and I'm so grateful that you were in my life. I'll miss you so much. I said these things because I wanted him to hear them, having no idea until later how healing it was in that moment, for me, to be able to say them to him.
Lucas isn't given the chance to say the important things or make the grand gestures. He was planning to tell Lil he loved her. They were planning to sleep together for the first time, but hadn't yet. Though he'd been best friends with Darren since they were five, and close friends with Darren's girlfriend, Sammy, he didn't get to say goodbye. The accident was quick, violent, and loud - and Lucas - the designated driver and the only sober person in the car - remembers it all.
He tells people he doesn't remember the accident, and the entire town believes he was drinking, too. Rumors abound, and because Lucas isn't fighting the gossip or standing up for himself, the gossip grows to impossible proportions. He feels survivor guilt. He feels inexperienced driver guilt (the road was slick from a sudden storm, and he hit the brake when he shouldn't have, sending the car off of the embankment). He feels incomplete from all that wasn't said or done. So he dreams his friends back into existence - pretending, in a way, that they aren't really gone. When awake, he wishes he'd died with them, every cruel taunt adding to his belief that he's guilty.
He experiences every possible emotion all at once, alone. His loneliness and isolation is, ultimately, what's keeping him from moving on. He needs someone to accept him, to care about his pain, to try to pull him out of that first stage. Enter Sawyer. I loved this girl. Loved her. She was one of the most selfless characters I've ever read. She wasn't perfect, but she was perfect for Lucas - patient and kind. She trusted her instincts, something that is a challenge for her (we learn from her backstory), because her belief in people has been unfounded in the past.
Is this a sad, depressing story? Yes. But it's profoundly moving, as well. And healing. If you've experienced a tragedy of your own, you will see yourself in parts of it. If someone you love is dealing with grief, you'll find ways to help. Ms. Stephens has penned another story told with raw, messy honesty, and I admire the hell out of her for it. She also writes with hope, and that isn't easy to do, with a story like this one.
Informative website: The Five Stages of Grief(less)
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Point of Retreat picks up just after the Slammed epilogue. (If you don't want spoilers for Slammed... well, you shouldn't be reading reviews for the sequel! So go away and read Slammed, and then we'll talk, k?)
First up - this one is in Will's POV. I...more
Point of Retreat picks up just after the Slammed epilogue. (If you don't want spoilers for Slammed... well, you shouldn't be reading reviews for the sequel! So go away and read Slammed, and then we'll talk, k?)
First up - this one is in Will's POV. I lurve getting the guy's POV, so I was all aboard for that. In the first book, Will and Layken lived through a tumultuous beginning to their relationship, which included not only forbidden love, but also the loss of the only remaining parent between the two of them. The ties that bind them are first and foremost a very strong attraction and inherent likeness of spirit. Both loving, sensitive and loyal people, they are each devoted to their little brothers, and determined to be there for them.
When Lake's mother dies, Will and she have even more hardship and heartache in common. What stunned me was that Hoover managed to turn the similarities between these two into the problem between them. The miracle that moved Lake across the country to within literal feet of a man who was living with the same pain she was enduring (and would soon endure more of), the miracle of the two younger brothers becoming immediate fast friends, the miracle of the intense attraction between Will and Lake is all called into question. By his ex-GF. The girl who deserted him when his parents died and he gave up everything to become a parent to his brother.
I saw this coming - that Vaughn would show up and come to her senses - realizing she'd thrown away a lovely, amazing guy. That she'd try to weasel her way back in. That she might cause some moments of confusion and distress. Especially if Will did that thing guys do, where they think it's better not to tell something "because you might get mad"? (One of the dumbest male thought patterns ever, btw.) But I thought: That skank's got nothing to say after deserting Will like that. There's no reason for him to listen to her.
But the skank is smart. She finds the weak spot and she slams her fist into it. She asks one question of Will: What if you're only with her because you know how all of this feels, and you only feel sorry for her?
Lake takes that question and fashions it into every possible real fear she can imagine: What if we're only together because of those similarities - the loss of our parents, the upbringing of our brothers. What happens to us when the similarities are no longer at the forefront, when the hard times end? Does he really love me?
Will has to decide when it's time to stand up and know what he wants, say what he wants, take what he wants and make it butterflying real. And Layken has to decide if what Will says is actual truth, or just what he wants - however desperately - to be the truth.(less)
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Slammed
by
Colleen Hoover (Goodreads Author)
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If you're in a reading slump, and you want to try something genuinely unique, unlike anything else out there - here's your book. It sneaks up on you, starting out with one girl (Layken) missing one parent (check). Add quirky little brother (check) an...more
If you're in a reading slump, and you want to try something genuinely unique, unlike anything else out there - here's your book. It sneaks up on you, starting out with one girl (Layken) missing one parent (check). Add quirky little brother (check) and an unwanted move cross country, because of a parental job transfer (check). She arrives at her new destination, and immediately meets cute, charming guy (Will - double check).
What you don't realize is that this is the end of what you expected. You're about to be sucked into a vortex of slam poetry and Avett Brothers lyrics - one or both of which you may not have ever heard of, and you might therefore assume (as I assumed about vodka + Red Bull shots and the dueling piano bar last weekend) that you won't like it. I was wrong, and so are you.
I honestly don't want to tell you any more. Just go read it already. And when you hit that point at about 20% or so that makes you go, "OMFG!" - that's your departure point, right there. Strap in and put your trey in the upright position. Oh, and prepare to buy the sequel (which is out now - lucky you!), because you're gonna want it. As. Soon. As. You. Finish. Reading.(less)
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I was lucky enough to be a beta-reader for Liz on this book and it was one HOT finish to an amazing, couldn't-put-it-down series.
Brenna begins the summer with a finding-herself trip to Ireland, leaving Saxon and Jake to their own devices. After his...more
I was lucky enough to be a beta-reader for Liz on this book and it was one HOT finish to an amazing, couldn't-put-it-down series.
Brenna begins the summer with a finding-herself trip to Ireland, leaving Saxon and Jake to their own devices. After his parents get wind of his on-the-side cocaine biz, Saxon finds himself agreeing to do manual labor all summer to avoid yet another stint of rehab - or worse. Meanwhile, Jake gets all the social niceties he can stomach (and then some) when he's finally claimed by his *real* father.
Brenna's time away leaves her decided on who she's ready to commit to, body and soul... but when she returns, Jake and Saxon have swapped lives, and the boys she left behind weeks before aren't the boys she comes home to.
If you've read the first two in this series (and you should - I dare you to read the first one and not immediately want the second), you'll have to have this one, too. (And if you thought the first two were hot - get yourself a fan for this one. SWOON.)(less)
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(Froi of the Exiles is Book Two of the Lumatere Chronicles. Book One is Finnikin of the Rock.)
The only reason it took me ten days to read this nearly 600-page book is because I'm BUSY. If I had people bringing me food and coffee, I'd have crawled int...more
(Froi of the Exiles is Book Two of the Lumatere Chronicles. Book One is Finnikin of the Rock.)
The only reason it took me ten days to read this nearly 600-page book is because I'm BUSY. If I had people bringing me food and coffee, I'd have crawled into bed and fought off sleep, work, social obligations and cats who like to sprawl across whatever I am currently trying to read/write/do to immerse myself in this book.
I didn't want to like Froi. Not after Finnikin, no matter his change-of-heart and possible transformation. His temper and selfishness were only matched by his obstinance. And when I began reading, I didn't want to like Quintana, either - insane, furious, split and shredded little person that she was. But Marchetta, per usual, whipped up a big batch of The Past and fed it to the reader bit by bit, and the full picture of these two abandoned souls came into view.
Again, the world-building blew me away. What Marchetta began in Finnikin, she continued here, and then some. Even beyond that, though, are the characters and how their lives intersect and weave together. She's said that this book explores the debate of nature vs nurture, and that it does. Froi, as comfortable as he is - for the first time in his life - in Lumatere, doesn't realize that he's not where he belongs until he's sent to the place he does. He feels it in his blood, and he fights it because he has a job to do - an assassination, and he starts off with a bond - a sworn promise to Finnikin and Isaboe - to carry it out.
There is no great romance without two people who have needs that only the other can fill, but Froi and Quintana - each abandoned, discarded, told they are trash and treated as such, are the unlikeliest pair imaginable. They are both too intent on their given missions - duties that entire kingdoms depend upon each of them to accomplish - to tend to their own needs. They are both too broken to heal themselves, let alone begin to heal another. But that's just the thing - sometimes personal salvation can only be found in the act of redeeming another.(less)
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