More Than Meets the Ink - Elle Aycart

Wickedly sexy James Bowen is a bad boy of the highest order -- tattoos and attitude included -- which unfortunately ranks way up on Tate’s not-a-chance-in-hell list, right there along with skydiving naked over Teheran and juggling Ebola vials just for kicks. But what the heck, she’s on holiday, the guy is absolutely irresistible, and she needs to unplug from her life. With her dad and brother gone, Tate is left to deal with the family restaurant, which is fast going down the drain. Her employees are acting out, her boyfriend has bailed out, and her very own private stalker is emailing her to death with lovely threats of doom, fire, and dismemberment. So yeah, maybe a little holiday fling is in order. Strictly sex though, and no follow-up whatsoever once.

She hadn’t counted on her take-charge holiday fling having an opinion of his own and stubbornly sticking around, before and after the sex, making himself at home in her life. There is definitely more to James than meets her prejudiced eye, and even if she's not ready to look deeper, James isn't prepared to permit her not to.

I didn't know what to expect from this book other than a tattooed body. What we got with James was so so much more than the ink.

Tate has recently been through a tough time in her life and is still dealing with the aftermath of it. She's lost a lot and is taking on some serious family responsibility. She meets James while visiting her mother in Florida and assumes based on his looks that he's the typical bad boy type that her sister always dates and gets her heart broken by. Since she's on vacation and James is making it known he wants to sleep with her, she decides as long as it's just sex – she is okay with it.

ooohhheemmmmgeee!!! JAMES!!!! "He should come with a warning label from the health department: Handle with extreme caution and use at your own peril. Looking will cause palpitations dizziness, and hyperventilation." Soooo true! James is one of my new favorite book boyfriends. He was sarcastic, funny, sexy, possessive, protective...he's too much to put into words.

He doesn't like being judged by his looks and the guys she's previously known. While commitment is usually the last thing on his mind and he would normally be into a sex with no strings relationship, he can't seem to stop himself from wanting more from Tate. Except she keeps pushing him away.

Their relationship was always one step forward, one step back. Every time James would break down a wall, she would push him back into another one. I was so frustrated by her lack of trust in him even after he kept proving time and again that he wasn't the type of guy she assumed him to be. A man can only take being pushed away so many times. It made me a little crazy, but James made this book totally worth the read. It's steamy, sexy, and at times even funny. Four stars!

Ceaseless (Existence #3) - Abbi Glines

Can he make her fall in love with him… again?

When Pagan Moore proved worthy of Death’s devotion, he was given the gift of getting to keep her.

But Dank was never promised that Pagan would keep him.

When a soul is created, so is its mate. In every lifetime those souls find each other. They complete the other’s destiny. It’s time for Pagan’s soul to choose if she truly wants an eternity at Death’s side or if she wants the mate created just for her.

Dank didn’t think he had to worry about her choice. He knew where her heart belonged. Until he realized that every kiss, every touch, every moment of their time together would be washed from her memories. He would have to win her heart all over again and prove to her soul that he was where she belonged.

If only her soul’s mate wasn’t right there standing in his way.

First let me start by saying I really like all my three star books.  It’s the one and two star books I either didn’t like or had serious problems with.  With that being said, I did like this book and I loved this series…I was just hoping for something more.  Please don’t throw things at me, I swear I really do like Abbi Glines!

I loved Existence and Predestined.  I really enjoyed the different take on the paranormal and the fact that Dank was Death was something different and inspired! But there was just something about this book that was anticlimactic for me.  I think because I loved the first two, I was really anticipating this book being the best of the three. 

The premise was great! She can’t remember anything about Dank or who he is… The man whose soul was made to be with hers in back in her life…  He’s her freakin’ soul mate…this is good stuff.  But this is where it fell flat for me.  I wanted more.  I wanted the war for Pagan’s heart to be stronger in this book than it was in the previous two books but I just felt like it wasn’t.  To me it just felt like some of the magic from the first two books was missing in this one. 

That’s not to mean it isn’t worth the read, and certainly if you read the first two it is a must! But compared to the other two books, this one just wasn’t my favorite.  I did love the covers to all three books!

 



Predestined (Existence #2) - Abbi Glines

You would think after helping save her boyfriend from an eternity in Hell that things would go back to normal. Well, as normal as life can be when you can see souls and your boyfriend is Death. But for Pagan Moore, things are just getting weirder.

The high school quarterback and reigning heartthrob, Leif Montgomery, is missing. While the town is in a frenzy of worry, Pagan is a nervous wreck for other reasons. Apparently good ‘ol Leif isn’t your average teenage boy. He isn’t even human. According to Death, Leif doesn’t have a soul. The quarterback may have skipped town but he’s still showing up in Pagan’s dreams... uninvited.

Dank has known from the beginning Leif wasn’t human. But he hadn’t worried about a simple soulless creature. Now, he realizes he made a grave mistake. Pagan’s soul has been marked since birth as a restitution, to a spirit so dark not even Death walks near it. Dank knows saving Pagan’s soul won’t be easy but Pagan is his. And he’s already proven he’ll defy Heaven to keep her. If Hell wants a piece of him too, then bring it on.

 

I read this book immediately following Existence and to be honest, they sort of run together in my mind now...but what we know at this point is that Pagan loves Dank (still can't get over that name!) and Leif is not exactly the "normal" high school quarter back we thought he was.

But we do learn there is more to the Leif and Pagan story and it can't just end with her choosing to love Dank for as long as she can. Again, I knew she wanted Dank and I knew he is who she wanted to choose, but I couldn't help feeling bad for Leif. He truly believes he loves her and he has weirdly been a part of her life for a long time. I believed he would do anything to make her happy and felt heartache for him when she continually chose Death over him.

I love that you can truly see Pagan's love for her family and friends by doing whatever she thinks is necessary to keep everyone safe. She does this in Existence, which is how she proves to The Creator her love for Dank and she does it again in this book.

This story takes some turns I didn't see coming and I always love when that happens. I constantly find myself trying to figure out what is going to happen in these stories and am usually right in the end, but with these there have been twists and turns I couldn't predict and I love that about her stories.

I am definitely excited for Ceaseless now!

 

Existence - Abbi Glines

What happens when you're stalked by Death? You fall in love with him, of course.

Pagan Moore doesn't cheat Death, but instead, falls in love with him.

Seventeen year old Pagan Moore has seen souls her entire life. Once she realized the strangers she often saw walking through walls were not visible to anyone else, she started ignoring them. If she didn't let them know she could see them, then they left her alone. Until she stepped out of her car the first day of school and saw an incredibly sexy guy lounging on a picnic table, watching her with an amused smirk on his face. Problem is, she knows he's dead.

Not only does he not go away when she ignores him, but he does something none of the others have ever done. He speaks. Pagan is fascinated by the soul. What she doesn't realize is that her appointed time to die is drawing near and the wickedly beautiful soul she is falling in love with is not a soul at all.

He is Death and he's about to break all the rules. 

Abbi Glines does paranormal...and she does it well! I am so glad that I went back and read these books after having read the Sea Breeze series. I love an author that can do both the normal YA romance and the paranormal (Nicole Williams and Jamie McGuire come to mind) and now that I've read this book by Abbi Glines, I will certainly be adding her to the mix.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, I mean what do you say when you know the main character is going to fall for Death? How do you even go about making that work? And then there is Leif who you can't help but fall for, at least in the beginning. I was torn at first as to whether I wanted her to just pick the "normal" road and be with Leif, or pursue Dank knowing it could not possibly end well.

The only thing that really drove me crazy about this book were the names, Pagan? Leif?? Dank??? I guess it's better than referring to him as Death but really? These names definitely take the originality cake!

 

 

Forever Mine (The Moreno Brothers) - Elizabeth Reyes

Seventeen-year old Sarah's life is turned upside down when her single mom is sent to jail. She's forced to move, leaving behind everything she's ever known, including her best friend Sydney. Lost and bitter in a new school, her one goal is to save money and move back home. Then she meets Angel Moreno. Enigmatic but gorgeous, Angel is almost too good to be true. Except for one thing, his archaic belief that guys and girls can never be "just friends". The problem? Sarah's best friend Sydney is not a girl. With their unexpected romance intensifying to places neither ever experienced, how long can Sarah keep Angel in the dark about the guy waiting for her back home? 

Do you know those stories when you just want to kick a girl? I know I’ve read a few where I was just so frustrated with a character that I just wanted to slap her around a little bit.  Sometimes I just wanted to shake Sarah around and I was wishing Valerie (her cousin) would do that for me.  Yes, I know…violence is not the answer but since she’s fictional, I’m giving myself a pass on this one! 

For the most part, I liked Sarah.  I always feel bad for a character that has to change schools in high school, especially their senior year.  It’s not a personal connection, I never had to do it…I just can’t imagine having to do it.  But then there were the things that drove me crazy…like keeping secrets from your boyfriend (hello, Kiera!) and a little bit of the naivety that she had that I found surprising (if it walks like a duck…).   

On the other hand while I loved Angel, and I didn’t mind his jealousy to a point, I honestly do believe that guys and girls can be just friends as long as that is truly all they want from each other, friendship.  It’s when one or the other wants more that things get complicated.  It all goes back to telling the truth about Sydney from the beginning…lying about it makes it seem like more than it is! 

I really enjoyed the supporting characters in this book also.  I liked her cousin Valerie, I liked that she was her own person with her own way about her.  I enjoyed her best friend being a guy, it’s not something you see in a lot of stories, but definitely something I could related to.  I loved Angel’s brother and his sister Sofia.  I even liked that Angel’s friends were well enough written to be a bigger part of the story.   

This was my first book by Elizabeth Reyes, and happy to say I bought the rest of the books in this series last night and started on book 2 right away! I’m not sure I’ll love any of the other couples as much as Sarah & Angel, but I’m going to try.  I am also hoping they make some appearances in the coming books!