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• Buy REMEMBERING JOY (Kindle)
• Buy REMEMBERING JOY (Paperback)

I’d had this book on my reading list for a while now because several readers had recommended it to me and since the sequel, Finding Joy, was recently released, I decided that now was the perfect time to try it out!

I don’t want to give away anything here so I’ll try and only give you a general idea of what the story is about…  The heroine, Alexis, is a career driven woman with a past that has been blocked out of her memory — an incident too traumatic to remember. But what she doesn’t know when she bumps into the hero, Adam, is that not only does he know her from her past but he also remembers everything and he is out for revenge! The only thing he didn’t count on was falling in love with the person he wanted to hurt…

Even from the first page I was intrigued. Check out this quote:

“And that’s when I saw her. It had been almost 10 years. My heart fell a little at the thought that 10 years had actually passed. I’d always known that she was here, but I’d never sought it out. It was practically mandatory that I’d keep her distance…. I recognized her immediately. hers was a face I would know anywhere and a face I would never forget.”

It kinda begs you find out more, does it not? Clearly they had a connection but… what was it? What was it that he remembered but she didn’t? … These were the questions that kept me going.

Adam was dark, brooding, charming and utterly mysterious but… with a bit of a dangerous edge to him too. He was fuelled by a build-up of ten years of anger and hurt.

“I’d thought about her every day for the last 10 years. A part of me wanted to walk away and spend the next 10 years trying to forget her.”

Alexis on the other hang was convinced that happiness was not in her future and she threw herself into her work as much as possible instead ….

“I knew better. The fairytale ending wasn’t in the cards for me. I wouldn’t even let myself go there.”

Thankfully, this story was told in alternating POVs — given the secrecy, it was a much needed element to have both sides of the story there and it was so interesting to see how much each of their realities did not match up with the other.

I will say that there were times when his obsession over her and just some of the things he did were borderline creepy and hovered precariously on the “acceptable” line. However, I didn’t get creeper vibes off him ever so that’s what kept him in my good graces in the beginning. That and an overpowering curiosity to know why the hell he hated her so much because really seemed like a good guy deep down.

“Who’s the bad guy in this scenario,” I whispered.
“Sometimes it’s hard to tell, but I think I am.”

So… about the reason why he hated her — I obviously won’t tell you what it is but I did figure it out relatively soon and I actually think that might have made me enjoy parts of the story more by giving me a better insight into him. Because otherwise his actions really would have been creepy without context. He was a man set on revenge and intent on causing her pain while at the same time falling in love with her. Those two emotional sides of him were such polar opposites that seeing him wrestle with them almost made my head spin at times. Very “hot/cold”. But, I guess that’s what happens when you fall for the person you secretly hate.

“Forgiving was not forgetting, and I’d never been able to forget.”

In the interest of full honesty though, I will say that while I did enjoy the book, there were some parts that were just a little slow for me. It’s not that I wasn’t interested, but I did find it easy to put down in places. There were also a few things here and there that I kind of squinted my eyes at a little and went ‘hmmmm’. And I did also wish that the love scenes had been a little more “there”. It’s not something that I feel always needs to be in a story but it was just something I missed a little in this one.

That being said, I loved that the book had a very different plotline than most and I cared about the characters. I enjoyed a lot of the writing — there were fun lines in there like “I was only two Americanos into my stake out when…” and a few scenes that had me laughing right out loud.

There isn’t a cliffhanger per se because things are happy at the end, but it leaves you with a lot of questions still unanswered. Luckily though, the sequel is out now and you can read straight through! The sequel tells the conclusion to Alexis and Adam’s story 🙂

Rating: 4 stars.

• Buy REMEMBERING JOY (Kindle)
• Buy REMEMBERING JOY (Paperback)

 

** SERIES READING ORDER **

Book #1 — REMEMBERING JOY
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback

Book #2 — FINDING JOY
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback

• Buy BOOK #1 — SEMPRE (Kindle)
• Buy BOOK #2 — SEMPRE: REDEMPTION (Kindle)

Being honest sucks.

This is definitely going to be one of the most painful reviews I have ever written :'(

Let me start out by saying that I absolutely adored the first book, Sempre, and still stand by the fact that it is one of my all-time favorite books. For me, it was a 5-star read. It was different, unique, thrilling, sexy. It made my heart race, kept me connected and took me on a reading journey unlike any other I’d ever been on. Needless to say, Sempre: Redemption was one of my most highly anticipated book releases of the year and I could not wait to find out what happened next for Carmine and Haven.

Unfortunately though, this book didn’t really work for me.

While I will keep this as spoiler free as I can while I explain why — the only thing I’m going to have to mention is something that happens very early on at 12% in the book because that event is the major reason why I was not happy with the direction of this story.

Before I get into the bad though, I will say that I loved the first 12% of this book. From the opening line, my heart was right back in the story. I’d missed these characters so much and it was so good to be back with Carmine and Haven and see them together even in the midst of their rather dangerous new situation.

“I did it because I love you, Haven, and you didn’t force me to fucking love you. I did that shit all on my own. And I don’t regret any of it.”

With Carmine essentially now one of Salvatore’s pawns, he was trapped and no longer in control of his life, soon to be forced to relocate to Chicago and work for Sal full-time….

“Run away with me,” he continued, leaning down to softly kiss her lips.“We can disappear before the sun comes up.”…

“We can’t run away.”

He sighed. “It’s a nice dream, though, isn’t it?”

I couldn’t wait to see how he and Haven would handle this new obstacle together. I mean, just think of how what an interesting story it would be to see them try and continue their relationship in the midst of all of this hellish craziness while Carmine was forced to participate in the Mafia lifestyle. I couldn’t wait to watch them draw on each other for strength, to help each other through it……… but, no.

This was not where the story was going. AT ALL.

Carmine left. Without telling Haven. Just fucking left. (this is that moment at 12% I was talking about)

Ok, so… I was still “with” the story at that point… I figured maybe either he would realize the monumental error of his way or she would go after him and give him a piece of her mind for leaving like that and show him that they really could make it work and just that someway, they’d find their way back to each other after maybe like 50 – 60, or even 100 pages or so….. right????

No.

The reunion wasn’t until 72%.

THEY SPENT 60% OF THE BOOK APART!!!!! 🙁

Before I go any further, I’d like to explain the reason why I was so shocked by this separation. If you read the book’s blurb, it totally gives the impression that this is a romance (just like the first book was) with a couple working on their relationship (which this book was decidedly not). Here’s the opening line from the blurb  — “In this thrilling and sexy follow-up to Sempre, two young lovers struggle to keep their relationship intact after they become deeply enmeshed in the dangerous mafia-run crime ring they once tried to overthrow.”  …… Okay, maybe it’s just me but, based on that line, I was expecting a story where they actually struggled to keep their relationship intact, not one where they spent 60% of the book with absolutely no contact with each other (of their own choice I might add — there could have been secret meetings or secret messages and such… even the separation could have been turned into something sexy and thrilling but instead Carmine and Haven chose to completely remain away from each other). 

So here’s more of an explanation into my feelings…. As a reader, I don’t really care how painful a hardship a couple has to go through, but I want to see them do it together. I was frustrated because what I loved most about Sempre and about Carmine & Haven was THEM — them together. 

I might just be overly romantic at heart but I genuinely believe in couples working through things together. I do understand when separation needs to happen but if it does, then I want it to be either where a situation outside their control tears them apart and they do everything in their power to get back to each other or where they do get separated but then realize their mistake after not toooooo long and one of them makes an epic come back to set the other straight. Or something like that, y’know?

I really struggled with the fact that they spent the majority of the book apart and while I could understand the need for them to grow individually, 60% of separation was just too much in a 530 page book. I didn’t really care that much about two people dealing with stuff separately… my connection was to THEM as a couple, not to them individually (like, I wouldn’t be that interested in reading a book just about Haven, for example). I am a romance reader. The first book was a romance — in fact, it was a beautiful romance. This one though was more like a Mafia book with a light sprinkling of romance.

I’ll be honest and say that by the half way mark, I was struggling not to put the book down. Really, it just felt too long. See, technically I love the world that the author had created — it was fascinating, dangerous and had so many stories to tell, but in order for me to be able to stay interested in the Mafia side of the story, I needed it to have been balanced out by a ton of romance (like, if Haven had gone with him to Chicago for example) – either that or, in my opinion, it should have been shorter.

For the record though, even though they are separated and not technically “a couple” for most of the book, neither of them sleep with anyone else – thank God!! Haven does go on one date (ugh!!) but that’s it.

In the interest of fairness though, I’d like to point out that a lot of my issues with this book were definitely personal pet peeves. I didn’t describe things further because I didn’t want to give spoilers but there were other things that bothered me too. However…  it’s entirely possible that these things might not bother you at all. I’m just very strongly romantic at heart — I love seeing couples together and facing the world together so separation with no contact between the main characters is a plot element that is usually very hard for me to be okay with… and that’s just personal.

However, despite the fact that I did not like the direction of the storyline, I still loved certain parts of this book. It’s  a very well put together story with so many intricate layers to it. I absolutely loved the writing — it had the same smart, engaging and very unique tone to it that I associate so strongly with Sempre.

Another positive thing is something I said when I read Sempre and I’ll happily say it again now — this story would make a phenomenal movie!!!! I mean really!!! Sempre already has a movie deal so I really hope the movie gods hurry it up because I really felt like I could see the whole story playing out in front of me while I was reading it. I could easily see this as being the “next big Blockbuster” movie hit. Easily!!

I’ll also say that in the scenes where Carmine & Haven were together though, I loved the story. With the way this book ends, their story is fully wrapped up along with a beautiful epilogue set ten years into future.

I think the bottom line is that I loved Sempre and while I’ll admit that this book didn’t work for me, I still love the characters and I loved Sempre enough to still keep loving the overall story. I think that Carmine and Haven will always have a special place in my heart.

“You love me.”

“I do,” he said. “No matter what. Sempre.”

Overall rating: 3 – 3.5 stars (but 4.5 for the first 12% of the book + for the ending)

Gosh. That’s painful to write.

Did I mention that being honest sucks?? 🙁

 

Book #1 — SEMPRE
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review

Book #2 — SEMPRE: REDEMPTION
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback

SEX ADDICT | ALCOHOLIC | VIRGIN | SMARTASS | JACKASS | DAREDEVIL
6 friends … 3 couples … 1 epic series

The Addicted series is one of the BEST series and hopefully this’ll convince you to try them!!

I have loved every single word of every single book so far. This series truly makes you believe in the unwavering bonds of loyalty between family and the strength of love between people willing to sacrifice anything for each other; who want nothing more in life than than to be together. The Addicted series is sexy, angsty, and completely addictive. The characters come alive as you read, they feel like real friends you know and care about. With it’s unique storyline, flawless writing, and compelling characters, THIS is a series that every fan of New Adult romance should be reading.

You’re totally safe to start reading them at any time. THE SERIES IS COMPLETE!!!

This series should be read in order.

Overall it follows the story of 3 main couples whose lives are closely entwined. Along the way, the series will focus on a different couple at a time but it is one continuous story and all the characters are present in each book. So, that’s why they should be read in order.

The first three books (Addicted To You, Ricochet, Addicted For Now) are mostly about the main couple, Lily and Lo. They’re childhood friends who have grown up together but they each have an addiction — she’s addicted to sex, he’s addicted to booze — and if their very wealthy and controlling families ever found out, they’d both be kicked to the curb… and so they lie. They live together and pretend to be a normal, perfectly functioning couple and by doing so each one gives the other an alibi and a safe zone to feed their addiction. But sometimes there are moments when their pretend relationship feels like the most real thing in the world because what neither of them are admitting out loud is that their feelings for each other are real. And then… one yacht trip changes everything… And, I’ll just let you discover the rest on your own there 😉

In those 3 books, we’re also introduced to a group of side characters (friends and siblings of Lily & Lo) who are featured as main couples in the next 2 books — Kiss The Sky and Hothouse Flower — and then after that, the series swings back to 2 books from Lily & Lo’s POV — Thrive and Addicted After All — and then will finish up with Fuel The Fire and Long Way Down, and the final epilogue novel Some Kind Of Perfect.

If you’ve already read those, there is a new Addicted spin-off series that begins with Damaged Like Us which skips forward in time to follow the romances of the children from the original Addicted couples!

I’ve listed the full reading order below along with purchase links, release dates, and my reviews.

❤ SERIES READING ORDER  ❤

As I mentioned, this series must be read in order. These are NOT standalones. There are no cliffhangers now so you are safe to start reading. They are all full-length novels. Here’s the full order: Addicted To You, Ricochet, Addicted For Now, Kiss The Sky, Hothouse Flower, Thrive, Addicted After All, Fuel The Fire, Long Way Down, Some Kind Of Perfect. And then, the spin-off series begins with Damaged Like Us…

PS: I know that on Amazon and Goodreads, these books have different series numbers (for example, Addicted After All is listed as “book 3” when it’s actually the 7th book in the sequence of the series. And Kiss The Sky & Hothouse Flower are called “Calloway Sisters” books, etc.) BUT this just is an attempt to allow readers to jump in at anytime. It’s important to remember that all the books are about the same characters so please trust me and read them in the order I listed (which is ALL the books).

Click the covers to be taken to each book.

❤ TIMELINE EXPLANATION (DETAILED)  ❤

• The first three books (Addicted To You, Ricochet, Addicted For Now) are focused on Lily & Lo and told from their POV with a resolved ending at the end of Addicted For Now — but Rose, Connor, Daisy, and Ryke are all main characters too.

• Then Kiss The Sky continues the same storyline but from a different perspective (Rose & Connor’s) and while it focuses on their story, it also continues the journey of all the main characters that we’ve been introduced to. It has it’s own HEA.

• The next book (Hothouse Flower) is the same deal but focuses on a different couple (Daisy & Ryke) while continuing the stories of all 3 couples as well. It also has it’s own HEA.

• After that, Thrive & Addicted After All go back to focusing on Lily & Lo. Thrive contains their POV during the previous 2 books (which had been told from the POV of other couples). Addicted After All moves forward in time in Lily & Lo’s POV while continuing the story of all 3 couples.

• Fuel The Fire (Rose & Connor’s POV) and Long Way Down (Daisy & Ryke’s POV) come next.

• Finally, the epilogue novel Some Kind Of Perfect concludes the series.

It is perfectly safe to jump in and start reading this series now. No cliffhangers!

❤ ALL LINKS: PURCHASE & REVIEWS  ❤

*** These books should be read in order ***

ADDICTED TO YOU
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read My Review
Lily & Lo’s perspective

RICOCHET
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read My Review
Full length companion novel – do not skip!!

ADDICTED FOR NOW
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review
Lily & Lo’s perspective

KISS THE SKY
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review
Rose & Connor’s perspective

HOTHOUSE FLOWER
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review
Daisy & Ryke’s perspective

THRIVE
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review
Full length companion novel – Lily & Lo’s perspective

ADDICTED AFTER ALL
Buy For Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review
Lily & Lo’s perspective

FUEL THE FIRE
Buy for Kindle | Read my Review
Rose & Connor’s perspective

LONG WAY DOWN
Buy for Kindle
Daisy & Ryke’s perspective

SOME KIND OF PERFECT
Buy for Kindle
series epilogue novel

DAMAGED LIKE US (Like Us Series Book #1)
Buy for Kindle
spin-off of the Addicted series about their kids

“I want to love him without people telling us that our love is too much.”