Side Swiped (Off the Map #2) - Lia Riley

It was only meant to last the summer . . .

Talia Stolfi has seen more than her share of loss in her twenty-one years. But then fate brought her Bran Lockhart, and her dark world was suddenly and spectacularly illuminated. So if being with Bran means leaving her colorless NorCal life for rugged and wild Australia, then that’s what she’ll do. But as much as Talia longs to give herself over completely to a new beginning, the fears of her past are still lurking in the shadows.

Bran Lockhart knows that living without the beautiful girl who stole his heart will be torment, so he’ll take whatever time with her he can. But even though she has packed up her life in California and is back in his arms for the time being, she can’t stay forever. And the remaining time they have together is ticking by way too fast. Though fate seems determined to tear them apart, they won’t give up without a fight—because while time may have limits, their love is infinite . . .

At the end of Upside Down, the first book in the Off the Map series, I was left with a sense of… why not just write a fabulous epilogue and end it here? What is there left to tell.  What I didn’t realize was, in a sense we were going to go back to the beginning.   

In Side Swiped, we spent more time with Talia and Bran as a couple.  When she leaves California this time, on a temporary visa, they are constantly on the run from the impending end date on the visa.  What will they do? How will they be able to stay together? 

We also spend more time with each of them individually and I have to say for me, I really enjoyed Bran more in this book than I did in Upside Down.  In the first book, I really had trouble connecting with both characters, and up until the end of this book, he really started to win me over in this book.  We get to learn more about him and his family and what he wants out of life.  We also learn what he will do when faced with competing priorities.  

On the other hand, I still feel a lack of connection to Talia.  I’m starting to feel like it just might be me though.  Being in a faraway place with a time limit and no answers has triggered a lot of her issues from before Bran…not that OCD ever goes away but in the first book he was the one that soothed her and made her symptoms not as bad.  In this book, they are back and stronger than ever.  

Sometimes this happens to me in the second book though.  It’s hard to live up to the first and it is a pathway to the last… 

Then I read the excerpt to the next book at the end of this one, and that might just be what saved the day for me.  The third book looks like it might be the best one yet.

 

 

Black Lies - Alessandra Torre

 

Brant:
Became a tech billionaire by his twentieth birthday. Has been in a relationship with me for 3 years.
Has proposed 4 times. Been rejected 4 times.

Lee:
Cuts grass when he’s not banging housewives. Good with his hands, his mouth, and his cock. Has been pursued relentlessly by me for almost 2 years, whether he knows it or not.

Go ahead. Judge me. You have no idea what my love entails.

If you think you’ve heard this story before, trust me – you haven’t. 

 

 

Ummm…. I think it’s possible that I am broken.  Before you readthis review, I will acknowledge the fact that many, many people absolutely adored this book.  Most of my friends have given it 5 stars wishing they could give it more.  For me, I just never had buy in. 

Part of that was that I just couldn’t connect with Layana.  She grew up feeling stifled under the weight of her parents and their expectations as she came from a well off family.  She was to go to the best schools, and meet and marry the best kind of man and spend her life dedicating it to her family and a charity.  She’s so upset by this and wants  to go outside of what is expected of her that she gets a degree from a great university and then *gasp* gets a job…the horror.  She holds out at said job until her trust fund kicks in where she promptly leaves her job and then dedicates her time to a charity a few days a week…so other than not getting married, what exactly are you fighting against? 

So for me, from the beginning I couldn’t connect with her.   

From there, I just had a hard time with the story.  There isn’t one specific thing…it was the lack of connection, the bouncing from first to third person in Brant’s head to first person in Layana to first person in Brant to Jillian and so on, it was hard to feel connected for me.  (That is a personal quirk, I have to love both characters to love a dual POV…and any more than two and I start to get unhappy).

 

The story wasn't always easy to follow because at some point even the main character knows the secret but it is still being kept from the reader and it's just frustrating...I've spent more time trying to get through reading this book and writing this review than any other book I've ever read. 

Here’s my other issue, I was pretty sure I knew what the big secret was…and I was right.  I tried to talk myself out of it, told myself it couldn’t be…but it was.  The clues were there and I followed them.  But I think Torre waited too long to reveal the secret to the point where I almost didn’t care what it was anymore.  When you have to have your friends talk you into continuing to read a story…it just loses something. 

All that being said, I am in the absolute minority of this.  Everyone else I know fell in love with this book.  It is not your typical romance…and when she says you think you’ve heard this story but you haven’t – she’s right.  But in the broken minority here, it just didn’t work for me.

 

 

Scratch - Rhonda Helms

The most painful scars are the ones you never see. In her DJ booth at a Cleveland dance club, Casey feels a sense of connection that's the closest she ever gets to normal. On her college campus, she's reserved, practical-all too aware of the disaster that can result when you trust the wrong person. But inexplicably, Daniel refuses to pay attention to the walls she's put up. Like Casey, he's a senior. In every other way, he's her opposite. Sexy, open, effortlessly charming, Daniel is willing to take chances and show his feelings. For some reason Casey can't fathom, he's intent on drawing her out of her bubble and back into a world that's messy and unpredictable. He doesn't know about the deep scars that pucker her stomach - or the deeper secret behind them. Since the violent night when everything changed, Casey has never let anyone get close enough to hurt her again. Now, she might be tempted to try.

Okay, the premise of this story really caught my attention, I mean - how often do we get to go behind the scenes with a deejay? I was really excited to see the club world through the eyes of someone who was so passionate about music.  

I knew that Casey was holding something back, she had a secret but I thought as the story unfolded and we learned everything about her, I would like her even more.  

Unfortunately, the connection never really happened for me.  I felt more like when I watch the news on tv and something bad happens.  It's sad, you feel bad...you have twinge of guilt for feeling happy that it wasn't anyone you knew, but that was it for me.  I never really FELT what Casey was feeling.  

Not that the tragedies are the same, but if you take for example, This is Falling by Ginger Scott it's a similar plot in that we know something happens but we don't quite know what it is...however in that story I felt what she felt.  It tore at my heart and made me feel.  

This story had potential but didn't quite live up to it like I had hoped. 


On the plus side, it was a quick read so if you think it might interest you, I'd say go ahead and give it a try.  There will be plenty of people who really like this story, but for me it was just missing enough story.  

**ARC provided via Net Galley**

Remember When (Remember Trilogy #1) - T. Torrest

Years before Trip Wiley could be seen on movie screens all over the world, he could be seen sitting in the desk behind me in my high school English class.

This was back in 1990, and I cite the year only to avoid dumbfounding you when references to big hair or stretch pants are mentioned. Although, come to think of it, I am from New Jersey, which may serve as explanation enough. We were teenagers then, way back in a time before anyone could even dream he’d turn into the Hollywood commodity that he is today.

In case you live under a rock and don't know who Trip Wiley is, just know that these days, he’s the actor found at the top of every casting director’s wish list. He’s incredibly talented and insanely gorgeous, the combination of which has made him very rich, very famous and very desirable.

And not just to casting directors, either.

I can’t confirm any of the gossip from his early years out in Tinseltown, but based on what I knew of his life before he was famous, I can tell you that the idea of Girls-Throwing-Themselves-At-Trip is not a new concept.

I should know. I was one of them.

And my life hasn’t been the same since.

**Remember When is the first book in an NA romantic comedy trilogy, but there is NO CLIFFHANGER. It is intended for mature teen readers and immature adult ones due to some high school sex scenes, underage drinking, questionable language and 1980s flashbacks.**

*Ducking and hiding from all my friends who LOVED this story*

Okay so there were some things I absolutely did love about Remember When by T. Torrest. I loved the late 80's early 90's references. While Layla and Trip were a few years older than I was, I definitely remembered a lot of the things they talked about...and the fact that they grew up in North Jersey - just a hop, skip, jump and a couple inches of big hair away from my hometown in New York made a lot of it very relevant to me. 

I mostly loved reading this story from Layla's POV. The things she went through as a high school girl, while I couldn't necessarily relate to all of them, I felt like I could find my inner high school girl in most of it. 

Every high school has it's Trip...not necessarily the hot guy turned Hollywood super star, but that unattainable hot guy that you just drool after. I too (with friends), would peek out the window at the hot guy a couple years old than us when he was mowing the lawn across the street on Saturday mornings...so when she would creepy stalk Trip running through her neighborhood - I actually laughed along picture us all sitting at the window literally watching grass get cut. 

Trip was a typically high hot boy. He was lovable from Layla's POV and I couldn't wait to see how it would all play out.

There were times (*ducks now*) that I did feel parts of the story were drawn out and I found myself skimming through to get to the next important plot point. I wanted the next pieces of witty banter, or the next trip down my own memory lane - but sometimes the story itself wasn't enough to hold my attention. Before you chop my head off (or my fingers for typing it), I am well aware that I am in a minority here. 

However, I would say the humor, the memories, the fun of it was totally worth the read. I would totally recommend it to these girls that grew up in the 80's and graduated high school in the 90's that will remember all the references Torrest reminds us of. To my Jersey girls...this one is definitely for you.

**Copy provided by Net Galley**

***Side note - when reading reviews for the next book I read the spoiler for not just book 2 but book 3 as well.  I recommend if you are going to read this book, and plan to read them all - stay away from reviews until you are done with all three books.**

Right Kind of Wrong (Finding Fate #3) - Chelsea Fine

Jenna Lacombe needs complete control, whether it’s in the streets . . . or between the sheets. So when she sets out on a solo road trip to visit her family in New Orleans, she’s beyond annoyed that the infuriatingly sexy Jack Oliver wants to hitch a ride with her. Ever since they shared a wild night together last year, he’s been trying to strip away her defenses one by one. He claims he’s just coming along to keep her safe-but what’s not safe for her is prolonged exposure to the tattooed hottie.

Jack can’t get Jenna out from under his skin. She makes him feel alive again after his old life nearly destroyed him-and losing her is not an option. Now Jack’s troubles are catching up to him, and he’s forced to return to his hometown in Louisiana. But when his secrets put them both in harm’s way, Jenna will have to figure out how far she’s willing to let love in . . . and how much she already has.

First we met Levi & Pixie, their story has a little bit of a YA feel to it, in my opinion but for a first go at a different type of writing, I could see there was a lot of potential for what was to come. 

In the second book of the Finding Fate series, we join Kayla and Daren on their adventure. I really enjoyed that book and felt Chelsea Fine had really found her way of telling an NA story. The one thing that I thought was really missing was one more current chapter or an epilogue. (This was my favorite book in the series) 

All three of the books in the Finding Fate series intersect at different points, so they are all really being told at the same time. 

On this third leg of the journey we are road-tripping with Pixie's roommate Jenna and her friend Jack. Jack is yummy! Sexy and confident... 

"...the sound of Jack's voice poured into my ears and dripped down my spine, melting me one syllable at a time." 

You definitely got that feel for him as the story was told. 

This book definitely upped the mark on language and sexy talk, so there is no mistaking it for YA...but (don't shoot me!) Jenna annoyed the hell out of me. 

I read the story because I loved Jack. There was enough drama with his family that I didn't think it needed to be as over the top in Jenna drama. She wanted to be so fiercely independent but indecisive that it made me want to scream at times. 

Jack was steady though, and even seeing the different sides of him - there wasn't a side I couldn't get behind. 

One of the things this story did have though, were GREAT love quotes from Jack and Jenna's family and Pixie's Aunt Ellen...

"Love isn't an obedient whim. It's an unruly force. And it answers to no one." - so true!

"Choosing to love a man, and letting that man love you back, is the most independent thing a girl can do for herself. No independent person is truly successful on their own." Go Aunt Ellen!

This story comes full circle with the others and ends in the same place...and again I'd say I needed a little bit more at that point. An extra chapter or an epilogue...I just needed a little more to pull me past the finish line.