Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 290

Review: THE BOYFRIEND WHISPERER by Linda Budzinski

Love is but a whisper away.


Lexi is the Boyfriend Whisperer. Running a covert operation in the school, she plays a secret Cupid, spying on love interests, and coaching her clients on how to make them fall in love with them. Being a tomboy that enjoys sports, Lexi has always known how to get a guy's attention, giving her a 95% success rate at matching couples.


"Some days I look around at all the couples I’ve brought together and feel like Cupid himself, but deep down, I know the truth. I’m a fake, an imposter, an emperor with no clothes. Because when it comes to whispering my own crush, I’m a total fail. Stuck in the friend zone with no clue how to escape." (15)


Even though she was just a high school kid, Lexi smart and savvy professional who knew how to deliver. She's totally down-to-earth, plain, and simple. Of course, she's a bit of a sports freak, which I couldn't relate to, but, otherwise, she's totally cool and efficient.


While her numbers indicate that she's a whizz in love, her own personal love life (or lack thereof) would speak otherwise. She and Chris have been friends forever. They like the same movies, they play basketball together, and they practically stay glued at the hip. So why can't he love her like she loves him?


Of course, when it comes to high school crushes things tend to get dicey and melodramatic. At times, there were too many kids to keep track of.


Story was quirky and easy-to-read. Like I said, I wasn't interested in any of the sports play-by-play, but this was still a pretty good read.


My rating: 3 stars

Review: SISTERS, STRANGERS, AND STARTING OVER by Belinda Acosta

Once again, Belinda Acosta dazzles us with her unique writing style, which exudes a raw eloquence dripping with vibrant resonance.


Although complete opposites, Larry and Beatriz have an undivided love between them. Larry is the type of guy who would be there for Beatriz and would do anything for her—very rare in a man. When this strange, little girl shows up, he steps up, assuming the role of “the man.”


My heart goes out to all the characters, especially Celeste, whose world was turned upside down with being tossed into the street like garbage after the sudden death of her mom and then having to live with a horde of strangers—most of them boys.


The families were a constant reminder of my own, particularly the part where all the women were gossiping about the newcomer while the men were standing outside in silence, eating and drinking. I’d so much rather be outside.


Full of mysterious secrets you can’t wait to unravel, and everyone had secrets that tore at them like razor claws. The characters were well-drawn as they lure you into an emotional whirl of drama and sinking turmoil. What I found most interesting was that nearly everyone faced the decision of choosing sides—between the one they love and the familia (their blood.)


I did find it a bit cliché that there had to be a quinceañera, but, then again, this was a quinceañera novel. I would’ve liked it better if Beatriz or the reporter had tried to probe the mysterious death of her sister, Perla. She didn’t even try to find out who killed her (I would’ve liked to have known.) But I guess this novel was more concentrated on the drama rather than the suspense, otherwise it would be a thriller, right?


Nonetheless, this was a Mexican fiesta of words. Acosta mixes the traditional and the non-traditional in a powerful, insightful story. 
My rating: 4 stars

Review: WARRIOR WON by Meryl Davis Landau

“Most people use the term meditation, but since I discovered this blissful practice several years back I rarely call it that. Even before I ever had a session where I went so deep I was nestled inside the egg of the universe—something that happens . . .” (2)
This is about a woman’s emotional journey as she battles life’s obstacles.
There was terminology that I didn’t quite understand. Story was slow and lilting, filled with words of spiritual reverence. I have to say that I didn’t quite connect with the main character as much as I’d hoped. The whole thing kind of dragged on and on for me.Not an interesting read.
My rating: 2 stars

Review: WINNER TAKES ALL by Patricia McBride

“My name is Sarah Winner: Winner by name, loser by nature some say, but hey, things can always look up. I firmly believe this: that's why I read every self help book I can lay my hands on.” (3)
At first, Sarah seemed like a quirky character that I could relate to, but one thing I found annoying about Sarah was her tendency to ramble without really saying anything. Her story really didn’t go anywhere, in my opinion. The focus mainly centered on her finding The One, but what I mainly struggled with was trying to find the point.
My rating: 2 stars

Review: THE DR. PEPPER PROPHECIES by Jennifer Gilby

Mel Parker’s boyfriend has just dumped her—literally—at the airport after she had a pregnancy scare in the plane’s bathroom. She is a neurotic, obsessive character that can sometimes be deemed as funny, but not usually. The 1stperson perspective is written in this snarky, witty, so-called humorous style.
Mel decides to embrace the single life, but a new co-worker may change that. In fact, I think her male BFF may be the Harry to her Sally (the movie was referenced in the book.) Story has a Clueless plot theme because Mel, like Cher, embarks on a quest to help others in naïve, harebrain ways (ex: she helps the 29-year old virgin break out and live a little.)
All in all, this was nothing but the mindless jabbering of a London nut job.

My rating: 2 stars

Review: CONFESSIONS OF AN UGLY GIRL by Alice Wasser

This is the diary of a 33 year old, single woman with a bad name as she records her everyday thoughts about life and being ugly. Dreading the path to 40, she believes that she’ll never get married because she’s just too short, fat, and ugly. But, on the contrary, Millie was a very nice, hardworking nerd that was very into statistics. Seriously, she recites a bunch of them in the book—about marriage rates, life span of a single woman, etc.


This was a sad woman’s diary, which was ok to read, but not very funny. Sometimes the daily diary entries got a little boring, even though there were a few witty remarks here and there.


My rating: 3 stars

Review: CONFESSIONS OF A KLUTZ by Abigail Davies

She is a klutz with the attention span of a fish, which was why she’s had so many jobs. After relocating to a temporary office, she meets her new boss and sees that he’s hot. Of course, she would rip her skirt in front of him. She was a klutz.


Violet is a klutz and a rambler. It’s the story of a woman with the hots for her boss. This should’ve been an easy situation to manage, except that she happens to be a walking disaster. Things like kneeing your boss in the groin (accidentally, of course) and drawing a penis on the board with a permanent marker are all incidents that happen only to Violet, who has broken every part of her body and makes constant visits to the ER. I loved the plot of the luckless woman, and reading about these stunts were certainly funny; however, the whole thing kind of tapers off once she sleeps with her boss half-way through.


This wasn’t quite what I expected, but it was alright.


My rating: 3 stars

Review: 10 DATES by Emily James

Joan has waited for years for her proposal, and tonight―New Year's at midnight―was THE night. What she got instead was her boyfriend's unexpected announcement to move to NY to launch his new dating app. The even ended with her drunk butt landing on a cake, topped with frosting and drenched in champagne.
Shortly after her New Year's disaster, she runs into her hot, sexy neighbor, who is as arrogant as can be. The last thing she needed was to be annoyed by his conceited antics or to be haunted by that penis that she accidentally grabbed to break her fall. Ooopsie!
Joan is clumsy and a bit of a scatterbrain. I liked how she gets into these funny situations, but her delivery (way she describes them) could use a little work. The dates were interesting, but the read was mediocre.
My rating: 3 stars

Review: EASY LIKE SUNDAY MOURNING by Jennie Marts (Book 2)

Another Page Turners (the book club from last book) novel. Another “Dating can be Deadly” theme.

This one centers more on Maggie and Jeremy (the new couple that met in the last book.) At least this one had a dead body to start with, but it still wasn’t very compelling. It still had the same lag I couldn’t stand in the last story. And that book club is just a girly teen bopper club, where the gab fest never ends.

My rating: 2 stars

Review: ANOTHER SATURDAY NIGHT AND I AINT GOT NO BODY by Jennie Marts (Book 1)

Dating can be deadly.

Sunny Vale yearns for excitement. Not that teaching 2nd graders wasn’t exciting, but it didn’t compare to the hot romance novels she loved to read. Then she becomes entranced by the sudden arrival of a sexy, new neighbor. But then what happened to her other old neighbor?
In the midst of this strange mystery, Sunny’s book club schemes to set her up on a blind date each Saturday night, thus beginning a series of clumsy, bad dates. At the end of each disastrous date, Sunny would come home weary and exhausted, but yet still compelled by new neighbor Jake, whom she’s suspicious of and attracted to. Could he have anything to do with Walter’s disappearance?
Story was cute and had its funny moments, but it was also long-winded. It just took forever to get to the point. But I kept on reading because I did wonder what happened to Walter and if Jake was a killer. The ending was not what I expected though.

My rating: 3 stars