Contemporary Romance

5 stars!

Sooo, contrary to my normal review style, I’m going to give you a look at the raw, untempered, ridiculously-book-high me…. this was my late night immediate reaction to finishing Mile High:

YES YES YES I HAVE ANOTHER FAVORITE TRILOGY!!!

My heart is racing. I want to SQUEEE from the rooftops!!!
I’m completely and utterly in love with James Cavendish.
He’s a fuckhot and Dominant, and yet tender and swoony billionaire!
and OH MY LORD DO I LOVE HIM!!!!!!
I’m hooked on this trilogy. Completely.
James Cavendish has stolen my heart!

He has a place right there in the same sentence as Christian and Gideon.
Now its Christian, Gideon and James. SQUEEEEEEEEEE <3 <3 <3

I need need NEED book #3 NOWWWW (but don’t worry, its not a cliffhanger). Zomg. I can’t even think straight. I’m in book heaven. LOVEE!

Ok… lol, in case you can’t tell, I finished reading this like 3 mins ago and am on a just a wee bit of a book high. I’ll calm down and write a real review tomorrow.
…in the meantime, START READING THIS SERIES PEOPLE!!!!

Click HERE for my review of Book #1, “In Flight“.

 *****************

Heheheh. So now that you have a taste of just how excited I was about this book, here’s my real, spoiler-free review:

“…you need to learn to trust me. I am sure of this, sure of us.”

After finishing book 1, In Flight, I just had  to keep reading so I fell right into this book. Its rare that I find a sequel surpass the first book, but I can honestly say that this one did. I reeeeally liked book 1, but I just loved this one.

It starts out about a month after the ending events of book 1 and continues to tell the hot, romantic, kinky, sweet, thrilling love story between James and Bianca as they figure out their feelings, work through their issues and insecurities  and learn to trust each other. I don’t want to say anything about the plot. Suffice it to say that it was awesome and I loved it.

This I found this book to have the perfect blend between angsty and swoony. Just enough belly dropping moments to keep my heart almost in my throat, but also enough kink, swoon and dreamy-sigh-worthy moments to keep me melting and fanning myself.

I really can’t say enough good about James. He was a dreamy, sexy Alpha with a kind heart and kinky preferences. He had a horrific backstory but I loved that it didn’t break him but rather shaped him into a man who figured out how to control without being overpowering. He was such a perfect blend of fuckhot Dominant in the bedroom and melt-your-heart tender outside it.

I loved that he always respected Bianca, was open with her about his past, honest with her about anything she asked him, never overly controlling, never stifling, but always wanting more in a way that made him endearing because it showed how in love with her he was.

“No one else can do this for you, Bianca. Don’t ever even consider it. You were made for me.”

He was so fair. Yes, he asked some big things of Bianca but he never once asked anything of her that he wasn’t completely willing to give back in return. And regardless of whether or not he liked her questions, he always answered them. His openness made me love him even more. I felt like no matter what, I could really trust him and it was such a wonderful feeling.

“You must know by now that I’ve never done any of this for anyone else. I was a slut once with my body, but I’ve never been a slut with my heart.”

It just made my heart squeeze how much he wanted her to need him, care for him and want him. I loved how open he was about his feelings and vulnerabilities. Letting her see exactly how much she affected him.

“You’re my angel, Bianca. You’ve exorcised my demons. I don’t have nightmares when I’m with you. I don’t have to work seventy hour work weeks to keep my mind distracted. My life has become more than work and emotionless affairs. You make me a better man.”

I loved that Bianca knew what she wanted and stood by it. The only thing that bothered me ever about her actions was that I didn’t like how unwilling she was to talk things out at first. But luckily, her ravishing billionaire was patient and respectful enough to give her the space she needed to become comfortable with him and finally come around.

She had a lot of trust issues stemming from her brutal childhood experiences but it just warmed my heart how patient and understanding James was. Giving her time, showering her love with love, and proving his dedication.

“Even his sweetest moment was still to fucking hot to bear.”

But it isn’t all just swoony. Remember, he has the ‘4th floor’ multi-room “playground” which they put to very good use. I have to say that I’m not a fan of spanking in books but for some reason none of their ‘sessions’ set of any of my alarm bells. Maybe it was because they both equally craved everything they did. So make no mistake, this book is hot, graphic, steamy, and kinky!

Oh, and I have to give a shout-out to Stephen, who is pretty much one of the absolute best ‘best friend’ characters I’ve ever read. I really, really hope he gets his HEA at the end of book #3 🙂

I will point out though that despite the full-earned 5 star rating, it wasn’t a completely perfect book. As a long-time avid horse rider, I found myself basically having to just drop all sense of reality in order to accept the scenes at the ranch. But the fact of the matter is that this is fiction. It bothered me a little, but the combination of hotness  and wonderful dialogue during those scenes made me able to overlook it enough to not deter my rating despite the act being utterly downright impossible.

Just like with the first book, when I got just past the 85% mark, my heart just leapt into my throat and I couldn’t flip the pages fast enough.  I was riveted! Holy hell!! I was exhausted and had to get up early for work but NOTHING could have kept me away from the book during that last past. My heart just turned to ice with worry. Fear. Angst. It was a thrilling, exciting, HOT HOT HOT ride of a book that left me desperately wanting more.

It ended on a note that left a lot of unanswered questions to be dealt with in the next book but at a comfortable place in their relationship. It isn’t a cliffhanger per say, more just like a story with more to tell. But you definitely don’t have to ‘wait’ for book #3 before starting this series.

Book #3 has easily made my list of ‘Most Anticipated Releases for 2013’. Cannot. Freaking. WAIT!!

“Yes,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “This is home.”

**SQUEEE**

• Click here for my spoiler-free review of IN FLIGHT (Up In The Air #1)
• Click here for my spoiler-free review of GROUNDED (Up In The Air #3)

CASTING:

• James and Bianca –> Click here
• James –> Click here
  
• Bianca –> Click here
  

** SERIES READING ORDER **

Book #1: IN FLIGHT
Buy on Kindle | Buy in Paperback | My review

Book #2: MILE HIGH
Buy on Kindle | Buy in Paperback | My review

Book #3: GROUNDED
Buy on Kindle | Buy in Paperback | My review

3.5 stars.

“Just tell me one thing before you leave, Ava.” His voice prickles at my senses… His face is serious, but still stunning. “How loud do you think you’ll scream when I fuck you?”

I’m not a fan of comparing books, I prefer to let each one stand on its own. But in the case of this book, after the huge impact of the last 2 mega-successful controlling billionaire series, its inevitable that some comparisons will be made. But, personally, if I were to do so, I honestly feel like Jesse was maybe a bit more like a non-kinky Knight (by Kristen Ashley) than Christian (by EL James) or Gideon (by Sylvia Day).

Let’s start out from the beginning. Because I felt differently about this book in the beginning than I did at the end.

To say that the beginning melted my panties and set my heart a-flutter is a mega understatement. I swear, after their first meeting, I was ready to just throw a 6 star rating at the book. I was hooked and utterly captivated by their chemistry.

When Ava, an up-and-coming interior designer lands a job at The Manor in the country side, the last thing she expects is for the proprietor, or Lord of the Manor, to be drop dead gorgeous. He is beyond intense and she is so strongly affected by him that he just takes over her mind every time she sees him. She jumps to several conclusions about him and decided though that its all too much for her and walks away. But Jesse is not one to be deterred from getting what he wants. He relentlessly peruses her until finally the combination of his determination and her intense desire for him make her give in.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers softly… “I lied, I’m sorry. I told you, I can’t stay away… I need to have all of you, Ava. Say I can have all of you.”

Jesse gave me shivers!!! He was a gorgeous, controlling, domineering, self-assured British billionaire with a husky accent. I mean, holy hell, can you just picture that?? *fans self* But… he was also an unreasonable control freak and pretty much a stalker. I do love me a controlling, possessive hero but… I felt he went too far. Even I was feeling stifled and I wasn’t the object of his attention.

He was just … too much sometimes… like too stalker-ish, too rude, too demanding, too extreme, too unreasonable, too neurotic, borderline immature (especially at the end). And Ava just gave in every time. I wish she stood up a bit more.

And honestly, if he told her to “Watch your mouth!” one more time… *mimes throttling* . I mean, its not like he was a saint or anything. He swore all the time, but every time she’d swear at all, he’d yell at her. Every. Time.
It got old real fast.

Let’s just say that, in real life, I’d personally actually put up with a Christian or a Gideon, but a Jesse would have been kicked to the fucking curb if he said/did the things he did in this book to me. That being said, this is fiction. And, in the spirit of appreciating him for the fictional character that he is, I tried to be more lenient in my judgement.

But I guess I just found Jesse too extreme overall. At the same time, I really did like him and felt like I wanted to know where his story went, but I couldn’t really look past a few of his demands.

Ava. hmmm I don’t know what to say about her. I didn’t like a lot of what she did but at the same time, I didn’t dislike her. She didn’t make me mad or anything, but her actions/reactions just didn’t make me admire her. First of all, I’m really surprised she didn’t see the “twist” at the end. I had my suspicions from the beginning and after that, there was a lot that hinted at it and she never had a clue. Second, I didn’t like how, on her own she was an intelligent, relatively strong, independent woman, but the second she shared the same air as Jesse, she pretty much turned into a doormat. So many moments when he’d say things to her like “Who has the power?”, I really just wanted her, at some point, to stand up to him, but she completely gave in every time. Even when she did “rebel”, it was always relatively short-lived. I felt that Jesse took things to an extreme  and what would have been needed to balance him out was someone that wouldn’t like outright defy him per say, but that would have stood on her own enough to not give him complete and utter power.

Also, with many other such controlling, possessive heroes, I guess what makes me accept them so readily, is that, no matter what extremes they’ll go to to control their women, they are still always thinking of the woman first. But there were several times here where I felt that Jesse put his need to control her above her comfort.

There are a few examples, but the one I’ll reference is the scene at 25%. I found it very unrealistic and unbelievable. I don’t have any problem with butt sex – if its done well. But the fact that it was her first time doing it, that it was only their second time having sex at all, that she wasn’t even like ‘looking forward’ to it and then he just rammed her so suddenly like that (and that was after it was made very clear how well-endowed he was)…. I didn’t like how he handled it. I mean sure the scene was hot, and she did enjoy it in the end but I guess it was about as un-realistic as their always-perfectly-timed mutual orgasms… lol, I felt sometime like they were taking a photo or something “three…two…one…COME!”  o_O

This book takes place in England and has a LOT of “Bristishisms” –> Sodding. Knickers. Jumper. Quiff. Plum. Posh. Tart. Tube. Lush. Dribble. Bloody. Tosser. Bin bags. Knackered. Bird. Shag. Cheeky fag… there’s a lot. It didn’t bother me or anything, this isn’t a complaint, but it definitely jumps out at you.

The plot wasn’t overly gripping. The whole story was about them figuring each other out. Again, it wasn’t bad, I just didn’t feel like there was too much change in the characters by the end of the book and wasn’t really sure if the story had gone anywhere except at the very end.

There was only one thing in the books that really made me mad. Now, I understand that this book came out after Fifty Shades and that it’s got to fight to be appreciated on its own terms and not be labeled a copy or a wanna-be. But regardless, there IS the blatant fact that it is in a similar genre and, although it did stand on its own, it is without a doubt along the same lines and as such, given the context, I did NOT appreciate the blatant dig at putting down Dominants. I thought it was petty and disrespectful because there is NO doubt what was being referred to there. I hope that if this book ever gets published officially (currently, it is self-published) that that line gets taken out.

That being said, you should know that this is not a BDSM book. In fact, Jesse is relatively anti-kink. Its all straight-up, albeit intense, vanilla sex.

Parts of this book thrilled me and excited me. Parts of this book annoyed me and frustrated me. I’m torn here because I know a lot of people rated it with 5 stars. But I’m just trying to really be honest and something about the book didn’t fully sit right with me. At the same time, I did like it. I really did. I didn’t hate it. Please don’t think I hated it. Its not a bad book. I just had some issues with it.

It really helped that Jesse was totally hot. And when he wasn’t being overly control-y and stalker-y, I could really see myself falling for him. He had him moments of tender and sweet to be sure and I really did get the feeling like he was just out of his league with this relationship.

“I want to look after you forever,” he whispers, pressing his lips against my temple.”

I am intrigued by him. I do want to know more about his past. Where did he get that scar?? How old is he???? What happened in his past to make him so utterly terrified of loosing her? There are a lot of questions still to be answered and I’ll definitely be going on to the next book. I hope he gets over some things though in it. I didn’t feel like he ‘grew’ at all as a person in this story. In fact, you could almost say it ended on a major low point for him. So I’m really, really hoping that in the second book (that is supposed to be out in December, so thankfully not too long a wait) he makes some progress at learning to be more reasonable and finding a more balanced way of being controlling and possessive.

• Buy THIS MAN on Kindle 

CASTING:

Here is his description: “This man is so perfect, I’m almost in pain. His dirty blond hair looks like he’s half attempted to get it into a semblance of a style but given up. His eyes are sludgy green, but bright and way too intense, and the stubble covering his square jaw does nothing to conceal the handsome features beneath it. He’s lightly tanned and just… Oh God, he’s devastating.” 

4 stars

This is a very beautifully written YA book about how tragedies can occur and mark you, and how to find a way to accept them and find the strength move on.

Adam lives a quiet life – engrossed in his school work, surrounded a by a few close friends, but always on the sidelines. Never one of the popular kids, not noticed by girls, he’s always the responsible one, a musician, gamer, straight A student with a good heart and a lot of insecurities who constantly feels overshadowed by his nearly identical twin brother Aaron who is basically, what he feels to be, a better version of him. He’s slightly taller, more muscular, more popular, more social, is adored by the girls… he’s everything Adam isn’t.

When Olivia moves to town, she’s all Adam can think about. She’s free spirited, sweet and out going and Adam is absolutely smitten with her. But when there is a better version of him out there, why would she ever notice him?

“What’s wrong?”
I wanted to tell her exactly what was wrong. I wanted to tell her that Aaron liked her, and that I liked her. I wanted to tell her that Aaron liked a lot of people, but I didn’t, making my feelings more meaningful. I wanted to grab her hand and take her back to my room… I wanted to tell her that I was scared that she would fall victim to my brother’s charms and forget about me.
But I didn’t say or do any of those things. Instead, I said, “Nothing.”

And despite Olivia’s happy exterior, there is more to her than meets the eye – something she is trying to forget about. A secret that could change her life forever.

This book was very seamlessly written – the writing style flows smoothly and it immediately drew me into the story.

I loved that this whole book was from Adam’s perspective. It really got you deep into him mind and gave you a full understanding of his character – his desires, his insecurities, his thoughts and feelings.

There is a bit of a love triangle going for a while – one that really hurt my heart. Both brothers were interested in her. Adam, because she was ‘it’ to him. He just fell so strongly for her from the moment he first saw her but was too shy to tell her. And Aaron was interested in her because she was ‘new’ – another conquest to add to his slew of broken hearts.

Adam and Olivia connected very deeply but remained friends for a long time. They had both suffered similar loss in their pass and, although it had marked them in different ways, they found a connection through it.

I wasn’t sure about the twist going in to this, it was bittersweet. Not your classic romantic HEA. I actually thought it would be different than what it was but this book would be perfect for fans of Chasing Nikki or A Walk To Remember.

My heart hurt so much for Adam in this. I guess it was because of how connected the POV made me feel to him but watching Aaron trying to step in with Olivia made me ache. A part of me wished Adam would just man up and talk things out with to tell her how he felt, but another part of me understood why he didn’t and sympathized with what was holding him back.

I’ll say that I didn’t cry ever, even at the end, but there were times when I came close.

• Buy MY ONLY on Kindle (Amazon)