Contemporary Romance

**NOTE: This was one of the first reviews I ever wrote. I wrote it way before starting the blog and so it’s not nearly as long, in depth or detailed as my usual ones so I just wanted to take a moment and tell you that this is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE BOOKS!!!!!! Seriously, few books have EVER reached in to my heart as deeply as this one did. I highly, highly recommend it! 🙂

• Buy TAKE THIS REGRET (Kindle)

“She was mine, had always been, and I’d always been hers. Despite what I’d done, the wounds I’d inflicted, she had always been mine…. our hearts had been tied, our bond one that neither of us could ever escape.“

WOW!! This is an achingly beautiful, heart wrenching book about a second chance at love and with an wonderfully sweet HEA that tugged at ALL my heart strings!!

The level of emotion it pulled out of me right from the beginning was so strong and intense! I read most of it either with a huge lump in my throat or in tears (most often happy tears since the point of this book is about healing).

Just the way it is written makes you feel everything that they are going through in a very realistic way. Puts you right there with the characters.

Five years ago, when Elizabeth told Christian that she was pregnant with his child, he made her choose between him or the baby. He had a plan for his life, and that plan does not have room for a child. But in the face of his betrayal and despite being cut from his life, Elizabeth struggles to provide the best life she can for their daughter. And for this whole time, Christian lives on regretting his decision. In the present day, he finds himself in a supermarket, staring into the eyes of a little girl that he just knows is his daughter and every bit of regret that he spent the last five years trying to push away come crashing to the surface and he realizes that he will do everything in his power to win his family back. He finds himself drawn to his little black-haired, blue eyed daughter, to the love he feels for her mother, his achingly deep regret at how he treated and abandoned her when she needed him most and he knows, with every fiber of his being, that he will do everything in his power to make things right.

The story is told in alternating perspectives between Christian and Elizabeth, which is vital to this story, because otherwise Christian would just come off as a really big jerk. But being able to see into his mind allows the reader to understand the damage done to him in his past that made him make the mistakes he did and show how he comes to the realization that he needs to make things right. It also shows us the healing process that Elizabeth goes through learning again to trust the man who, though she still loves him, betrayed and abandoned her and broke her heart.

I loved seeing all the effort Christian into fixing his relationship with the love of his life and with his daughter – it brought me to tears so many times!! I loved how grateful and respectful he was for every inch Elizabeth gave him. How much he treasured every moment spent with his daughter. How patiently he waited for Elizabeth to learn to trust him again. And how he did everything in his power to win back her heart, earn back her trust, and put his family back together.

This book was basically all about the healing process that Christian, Elizabeth, and their daughter Lizzie go through… And about a “love as intense as the one we shared, one that had not dimmed through years of betrayal but had only grown…”

The story is fully relationship and family-centric. There is no bad guy, no evil ex’s, no external drama or anything to deter from the characters’ journey.

I cried, I laughed, this book touched my heart and I will never forget this story <3

It was an absolutely beautiful read that is definitely going on my favorites shelf!

5+ stars!!

• Buy TAKE THIS REGRET (Kindle)

** SERIES READING ORDER **

Note: Take This Regret can be read as a standalone.

#1 TAKE THIS REGRET
Kindle | Paperback| My Review

#0.5 LOST TO YOU
Kindle | Paperback | My Review

#2 IF FOREVER COMES
Kindle | My Review 

6 stars!!!! This is one of my FAV series!!

It’s one of those stories that sucks you in, makes your heart race, puts a smile on your face and doesn’t let you stop turning the pages even for a second.

If you are a fan of love triangles, you will looooooove Thoughtless. Basically, Keira is moving cities with her boyfriend of 2 years Denny, and they end up becoming roommates with an old friend of Denny’s, Kellan Kyle, who is a local rock star. He and Keira just have this instant connection but are respectful of the fact that she is in a relationship. But when Denny takes a job overseas for several months without really consulting Keira and stops calling etc, Kellan ends up comforting her and their denied passion/love is given room to grow…. there is SO much romantic tension in this book, its enough to drive you insane – but totally in a good way!

This book will make you want to throw your book at the wall, it’ll make you laugh out loud, it’ll make you swoon and grin for pages on end, it’ll make you feel like your heart is ripped out, and you’ll love every minute of it!

Kellan is one of THOSE guys – you know the ones that make you swoony and drooly and make you wish he was real?? yeah, one of those *sigh* I’m really not kidding here, if you haven’t read Thoughtless, RUN out and grab your self a copy!

Its weird that I would like it given how there is  a theme of cheating in in it (though none in book 2 once Keira & Kellan are officially together) because Keira cheats on Denny to be with Kellan. But I think the reason it never bothered me was because I always just KNEW that Keira and Denny weren’t right  for each other, just as strongly as I KNEW that Kellan was perfect for her in every way and that he was her HEA. So them being together, no matter what the circumstances, just always felt right.

“What if I don’t choose you, Kellan? What will you do?” 
He looked away, a tear rolling down his cheek. “I’ll leave, Kiera. I’ll leave, and you and Denny can have your happily ever after.” He looked back at me. “You wouldn’t even need to tell him about me. Eventually, the two of you…” his voice broke and another tear fell on his cheek, “the two of you would get married, and have children, and have a great life.” 
I fought back a sob. “And you? What happens to you in that scenario?” 
“I…get by. And I miss you, every day,” he whispered.” 

“Open up your heart and see where it leads you…”

• Buy BUTTERFLY TATTOO (Kindle)
• Buy BUTTERFLY TATTOO (Paperback)

Oh boy! What a beautiful, emotional book with a very unconventional love story.

This book is about love and healing. That love can be found anywhere if you let it – no boundaries, no limits. And to accept it wherever and however it comes into your life. And that no matter how bad things get, it is always possible to heal.

I smiled a lot – there were many sweet moments, I squeed once or twice, and I cried several times. The story was deeply emotional and touching. And of course, has a sweet HEA and epilogue 🙂

This book has, honest to god, THE single most complex interconnected family dynamic I have ever read. But I loved it. It just reinforced how little difference a ‘conventional’ family makes. That family is the people you love and who love you – no matter who they are.

The book centers around the story of Rebecca, a former famous actress who, 3 years prior to the start of the book,  was attacked by a stalker with a knife and scarred this ruining her career in front of the camera, and Michael, an electrician who works on her building who is bisexual. He was straight his whole life until he met, fell in love with, and married Alexander with whom he had a relationship that spanned over a decade and with whom he had a daughter. A year before the book begins, Alex dies in a car accident leaving Michael and their daughter devastated. When Michael meets Rebecca, he is surprised to feel a connection and longing for her despite having been with a man for the past 10 years. But their growing feelings for each other and the way that Rebecca and his daughter bond draw them closer together, helping all of them to heal from the scars of their past and learn to love again. Taking love from whatever direction it comes from.

I loved how, through Michael’s memories, it almost feels as though his deceased partner Alex is a character in the book. I felt like I knew him as well as I knew Michael, Rebecca and Andrea.

The writing style of the book is beautiful. It really gets right inside the character’s heads. Makes you see the world directly through their eyes.

I loved seeing the characters grow and learn to work through their issues. They were both dealing with horrible, scarring events in their pasts and doing their best to move on.

The book deals with many hard questions. Why do bad things happen? How does one move on after them? Is it alright to love again when the person you’re in love with dies? Does it betray them to love someone else or is there a way of both honoring their memory and accepting someone new and continuing to live ?

“I’m here, he’s not, but it doesn’t answer the much bigger question…What am I, precisely, now that he’s gone? ” ~Michael

There is no smut in this book. Its not YA by any means. But its more focused on the emotional love connection. And there are no m/m sex scenes (some people were asking me so I thought I’d mention it)

• Buy BUTTERFLY TATTOO (Kindle)
• Buy BUTTERFLY TATTOO (Paperback)