Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 311

Review: UNETHICAL by Jennifer Blackwood

Payton is a college student looking to get into med school. She’s looking into her future, but she cannot forget her past, especially when her past surprisingly ends up at the same frat party, at the same college. The two were heartbroken when the relationship ended in high school. It seems they each blame the other for leaving, but they don’t know the full story.
A yearning still exists even beneath the thick cloud of anger and resentment.  They mostly try to stay away from each other, even though they have the same ethics class and both get the same internship. The two constantly fight between wanting each other and wanting to strangle each other. It gets very heated (sexually and angrily.)
Story felt like it had a few holes in it, like certain things could’ve been expanded more. I found the debate on Assisted Suicide to be interesting, especially since it hits so close to home for Payton. Her father is awaiting trial for the extra morphine he gave his wife during her battle with cancer. Is Assisted Suicide ethical? Why is it okay for a pet but not for a person? Shouldn’t it be suitable in order to end the suffering?
An okay college romance.

My rating: 3.5 stars

Review: SEDUCING LOLA by Jessica Prince

Lola is a believer in love and HEA’s—just not for her after three failed and miserable relationships. That’s why she follows the adage: Those who can’t do, teach. And that’s what makes her the perfect radio host for Girl Talk, a program that dishes relationship advice and keeps the dating scene real.


One morning, while bearing the rants of her overbearing mother, Lola runs into Power Suit in the coffee shop and, unsurprisingly, she does a little shameless flirting because, let’s face, the girl’s not blind. Power Suit was HOT!


Thinking she’ll never see Power Suit again, Lola goes to work, where she embarrasses a high-profile millionaire named Grayson on the radio. The guy threatens to sue, so the station tries to settle the irate businessman. They decide to help restore his public image by making Lola his personal escort to his events. Of course, Lola was outraged. She was flummoxed when she discovered that Grayson was actually Power Suit.


Nonetheless, Lola, in order to save her job, reluctantly agrees to be Grayson’s “date.” Grayson, however, has been intrigued by the lovely Lola and enjoys the challenge of cutting through her hard exterior. The challenge of seducing Lola is on.


I just loved the characters in this book. Loved Lola stubbornness and sense of humor. Loved Gray’s bold and unwavering tenacity and how hard he fell for Lola.


A rocking good story!
My rating: 4 stars

Review: TRUSTING JAKE by Lauren Giordano

Jenna is looking for a do-over life after the death of her cheating husband, so she’s uprooting her 2 kids to a new town for a fresh start. No lying husband or harassing boss.
On the way to a job interview, she gets stuck on the road and hot construction guy Jake comes by and helps her out. Jake is a managing partner of a construction company Jenna was actually considering working for. What a way to make a first impression, huh?
Story is about her trusting any man after what happened. The kids are loud and boring. The pace was slow and the construction talk put me to sleep.  I’m sure Jake and Jenna are pretty good together, but the story didn’t quite send me.

My rating: 2.5 stars

Review: CAUGHT UP IN US by Lauren Blakely

An old romance may be rekindled when two people are thrust together for a business mentorship. Kat just wants to learn the ins and outs so she can grow her homemade jewelry business. She hopes to make enough money to pay off her student loans and help out her struggling parents. Her plans don’t include Bryan, a guy that broke her heart five years ago.
Strictly in the POV of Kat, who goes on and on about Bryan—how he was the first love of her life, how he could’ve been the one, how he totally destroyed her, blah, blah, blah. Mostly it’s about her fawning and pining over Bryan, who is as hot as he could be. Yadda-yadda-yadda. It becomes tiring, and the fact that the two pretend there’s nothing going on is typical and uninspiring.
This is the classic story of mixing business with pleasure with the business end taking precedence and leading the story nowhere.

My rating: 2 stars

Review: THE PA’S REVENGE by Diana Fraser

Cassandra is looking for revenge for the death of her father and son. Who does she blame? Dallas McKenzie. What is she going to do by playing the part of his PA? Well, since money seems to be all he cares about, she plans to ruin him and bankrupt his company.  Dallas is no fool either. He knows his new PA is hiding something, and he aims to find out.
But there seems to be one small snag in the plans: the two are instantly attracted to each other from the start. What happens when the two let their guards down? An explosive, sexual passion emerges.
As the two spend more and more time together, Cassandra wonders if there is more to Dallas than his “profit at any expense” mantra.
A quick, sensual, lovely romance.

My rating: 4 stars

Review: REINVENTING MONA by Jennifer Coburn

Mona is a dull drone that just wants “to be seen, to be known, to matter.” She feels insipid, vacuous, and plain vanilla. Her goal is simple: Marry Adam (her dream guy), have his children, and live a life of marital bliss and happily ever after. How very Donna Reed.
Right away, Mona strikes me as very naïve and neurotic. I mean, I wouldn’t have quit my job for trying to become the woman of some guy’s dreams and to transform her life into the “wonderful life.” I mean, it be interesting to see how she’d go about doing something like that. But I agree with Judy that Mona should really focus on loving herself rather than aim to be “disgustingly married” to Adam by next Christmas.
Narrator Mona deviates often with her inane ramblings and goes off tangent often. One minute, she’s an adult talking about her “plans” and, the next, she’s a teenager reliving her past. WTF?! Who cares!
Bulk of the story is on Mona yammering on and on over senseless, useless stuff. She’s basically a student of dating and was aiming to convince (or voodoo) Adam into thinking that she was perfect for him.
A fruitless story with no end.
Best quote: “Changing yourself into who you think someone wants is hurting yourself. It’s a rejection of who you are…[it’s] emotional suicide.” (LOC 449)

My rating: 2.5 stars

Review: TALES FROM THE CRIB by Jennifer Coburn

From the cover and the title, you know that this is a story with a baby, which, already made me not look forward to it, but I was hoping it would have some of that Baby Boom humor.
The lady that is having marital problems is yammering on and on, which was a bore. Then she gets knocked up by this husband.
Like the other book, character recounts the past, talking incessantly and relentlessly.
It’s all about babies!

My rating: 1 star

Review: TALK TO ME by Stephanie Reid

Emily Simon is a pro at reading body language. Well, she would have to be in her line of work, which is counseling and therapy.  One day, her brother rooks her into counseling a police officer friend with possible PTSD. Turns out he was the hottie she spotted at the coffee shop. Oh, boy!
To Emily’s refusal, her brother and sister-in-law, nonetheless, believe she’s the one that will get Mac to open up about what happened during the hostage situation. Not sure if you can do that by dating him, but Emily might consider giving it a try because he is a cutie. But she has this no-dating-a-cop rule because of her fear of losing people she loves (all started with her parents’ death in a car crash – she was driving).
Both have their issues and personal demons, and it was nice that they could lean on each other for comfort, peace, and solace. The whole purpose of “Talk to Me” was to open up about your feelings and just letting it out, rather than let it consume you.
Story was well-written and characters were endearing and lovable.

My rating: 5 stars

Review: ALMOST ROMANCE by Kylie Gilmore

Kate runs into Ian, whom she’s had an on-again/off-again thing for years. Neither one of them can forget that night.

Kate is a cute, dorky physicist and Ian brings out her sensual side. In fact, he’s the only one that can short-circuit her brain. An MIT graduate, Kate is a very smart cookie, and she seems to lose all sense when it comes to Ian. She is very honest and scientific and, because of that, she doesn’t know the first thing about relationships. She’s like the female Sheldon, which made her a lovable character. As for Ian, well, “brains and manliness made him the total package.” Yeah!

A sensual, geeky romance!

My rating: 4 stars

Review: DEATH WORE BROWN SHORTS by Audrey Claire

Annie is a quirky, germaphobic, whodunit mystery writer. Brown Shorts is a UPS delivery driver with great legs that the neighborhood women swoon over. Then death takes Brown Shorts.
Annie is a likeable character with a strange name (Happy Holloway?) Her father’s in prison for murdering her mother, so she has a dark past. This is probably where her fascination with murder mysteries comes from. Of course, she thinks her biggest problem is her control issues (washing her hands 50 times a day, cleaning every nook and cranny, her lover and fear of chicken, etc.)
In hopes to alleviate her OCD, Annie makes it her mission to solve this murder. Of course, I don’t know how that would help any. With everyone in town being a suspect and with the help of a hot firefighter-turned-sleuth, Annie will tackle this case and possibly get an idea for her next book.
This is a quirky, cozy mystery, and it’s a quick read; however, the ending was just too easy and had no effort. I felt like the case sort of solved itself.

My rating: 3 stars