Everyday Rowena

The jist of this story is this: Main character’s best friend was in an accident that changed her life forever. Main character hasn’t gotten over the guilt of letting her leave in a car with a guy who barely knew how to drive and had some to drink and a totally drunk asshole who was pawing her best friend before they left her standing on the road. That night changed each of their lives so much that two years later, they’re all still not over it. Or at least, the main character isn’t.

 

Charlotte (Lottie to her friends and family) is ready for a new start. She’s ready to start school and begin the new chapter in her life. She’s not expecting to run into the two brothers that she never wanted to see again in her life. But she does and trying to get used to their presences in her life again is taking a lot out of her and whenever she sees them, she loses her shit.

 

She loses her shit because while Zan and Zack Parker walked away from the car accident with physical and emotional scars, at least they were able to walk away. Her best friend Lexie will never be the same again. She didn’t die but a lot of her did die that night. Lexie will never be the same again and Lottie is guilt ridden over it.

 

I’ll flat out say that I could not stand Lottie throughout the entire first part of the book. I think had we not gotten Zan’s POV as well as Lottie’s then I probably could have shined some of the crap that came out of her mouth and thoughts inside her head but for the most part, she was an ugly person. The way that she treated Zan, like she knew every move Zan made after the accident made me want to punch her in her freaking throat. I mean, she wasn’t this perfect person and she had no idea what Zan went through after the accident, the kind of guilt he carried around with him and for her to throw that night in his face, each and every single time they came into contact (which was fairly often, considering they lived in the same dorm) made me really hate her. It was her redemption that I was reading on for.

 

So there was Lottie and then there was Zan. Zan who carried the burden of the world on his shoulders. The guy of few words and the guy who was so in love with Lottie (and had been since long before the accident) and had to deal with how much she hated him day in and day out because of what happened to her best friend. It was a hard life to live and he was trying to do his best to stay on the straight and narrow, which kept getting narrow with each passing day and Lottie’s big ass mouth. It was hard enough for Zan to make friends because he was carrying around so much baggage that it was almost killing him and when he finally finds someone who won’t judge him and treat him differently, he ends up being the brother of one of Lottie’s friends who hates Zan’s guts.

The guy couldn’t catch a break.

 

There were plenty of times when I wanted to smack some sense into Zan. Don’t settle for scraps. Don’t let Lottie run over you like you don’t deserve to move on from that night. You didn’t mean for any of that to happen and you were only trying to help.

 

Over the course of the book, Lottie and Zan start connecting. Zan starts to break down the walls around Lottie and they find themselves falling in love with each other. It was during the thaw of Lottie that the book started to turn around for me. You can see just how much these characters came to mean to each other. The family that came together throughout this book made this book pop for me. The way that they cared about each other, looked out for one another and took care of each other was my very favorite thing about this book. From Will and Simon to Audrey and Katie, and even Stryker and Trish, I loved the way that they all bonded together.

 

I thought Cameron did a great job of putting this story together. She really put these characters through the wringer and even though at first, I couldn’t stand Lottie, she really came around for me and by the end of the book, I liked her. I liked her and I liked the person she turned out to be. She really pulled herself together and I was glad. By the end of the book, she deserved Zan just as much as Zan deserved her. So while this book wasn’t the perfect book for my tastes, I still ended up enjoying it.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a Jill Mansell book and after reading this one, I’m thinking that I need to pick up more books by her.  This book hit all the right spots with me and I really enjoyed it.

 

So this book is about Dexter Yates who is living the bachelor life and has no plans to leave it behind…not now anyway but that all changes when his sister dies, leaving him the sole guardian of his niece Delphi.  Having his life change overnight is something that Dexter isn’t prepared for and seeing him struggle with doing the right thing was really what made me come to love Dexter.  All of the internal struggles that he was dealing with, on top of his grief over losing his sister, I connected with all of that.

 

As with all Mansell books, there was a lot more than just the whole Dexter thing going on in this book.  We met Molly, Dexter’s neighbor and the people in her life and a lot of other people in the small town that Dexter moved to, to raise Delphi.  Getting to know the other people around was fun.  So much happens in Briarwood, who would have thought?

 

So much happens in this book and I’ll admit that a whole lot of what went down surprised me.  I didn’t see  a lot of what came out happening but they did and holy crap was it good stuff.  So much drama.  The whole thing with Frankie blew me away.  I was not expecting that to happen but it did and a lot of other things unraveled because of that one thing but in the end, man it was a great book.

 

Now, I will say that there were times when I wanted to punch Molly a good one for the assumptions, the holding off and then the almost letting Dex get away bit but eventually she gets it right so I wasn’t too mad about it.  The thing about Jill Mansell characters are they are so imperfect and they all revel in their imperfections.  And those imperfections make really great stories, as was the case with this one.

 

I definitely recommend this book.

I read the first book in the Woodlands book and found it enjoyable, but it didn’t knock me on my ass the way that I was expecting. The hero and heroine got on my nerves throughout most of the book and even though I ended up liking the book, it was the secondary characters in that book that sucked me in.

 

This book is Noah’s best friend Bo’s book. I was mighty intrigued by the guy that had Noah’s back no matter what in Undeclared. We didn’t get very much from Bo in Noah’s book but when I found out that he was featured in the second book, I was excited. I wanted more Bo. And holy cow did Jen Frederick give me more Bo.

 

I absolutely adored Bo. He wasn’t perfect. He had a quick temper, he was crude but getting to know him, I didn’t give a damn. He completely worked for me. His cocky demeanor, the way that he just kind of bulldozed his way into AM’s life, all of it worked for me. He was what he was and he made no apologies for it and I loved it. I loved the way that he was with his friends and I absolutely loved the way that he was with AM.

 

AM was a bit frustrating at times but for the most part, I understood where she was coming from. She was slow to trust and that was easy to understand, considering what she’d been through. She slept with one guy on the lacrosse team and then turned one down and all of a sudden, she’s fried socially for it all over campus. Rumors fly, reputations are tarnished and she kind of caved in on herself. She stopped hanging out on campus, she stopped going to campus unless she was going to class and what was surprising was that her best friend Ellie did the same thing.

 

What I really like about this series is the friendships we get to be a part of while we’re reading it. The guys at woodlands have a solid bond, a loyalty that I love but aside from that friendship, the girls are pretty solid friends too. I really liked Ellie in this book. The loyalty she showed to her best friend, the way that she was going to walk away from someone that she came to really like because he was associated with the people that hurt her friend solidified my love of her. Not a lot of people would make the kinds of choices that Ellie made for their friends and I really enjoyed the way that they cared for each other. They had each other’s backs and I really dug that.

 

The romance between Bo and AM breaks the steamy scale. It was hot and man did it make me cry. The lengths that Bo went to make the people who hurt AM pay made me all mushy inside and I just loved the hell out of him for it. This was a solid romance for me and I adored it. While there was some frustration on my part for AM and the way that she kind of took the abuse from everyone before Bo came into her life, I really came to like her. She was great for Bo and he was great for her. They made sense and I completely adored this story. It hit each of my love buttons so I couldn’t ask for a better reading experience.

This story took me back to my reading of Fallen too Far…and I didn’t like this book anymore than I did that book. There’s a huge thing that happened in this book that pissed me off because I don’t feel that it was necessary at all to jump start yet another spin off from this series. Will I continue to read these books? Any of them, really?

 

Nope.

 

This book has guaranteed that I won’t pick up another book from this series or any of the spin offs. Sorry Grant. Sorry Tripp. I can’t willingly go into another one of these books without wanting to rip someone’s head off so I think it’s best to stay away from them.

 

I didn’t recognize Woods in this book. He was so suffocating and I hated that Della let him get away with coddling her the way that he did. The constantly wanting her by his side, just to sit around and do nothing all day so he can look at her or have sex with her in his office if he wanted to? Yeah, pukey. After that stopped pissing me off, other things started to piss me off so much that I kept having to put this one down until finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I’m just done.

 

Sea Breeze, you’re it for me. Don’t let me down.

Macallan and Levi have been friends since Levi transferred to Macallan’s school and Macallan felt bad because he looked so desperate for friends.  So she became his friend.  And it’s a friendship that was put through the wringer.  From cheating other best friends to jealous boyfriends and girlfriends to a declaration of love and a trip to Ireland.  So much is packed into this book and I ate every word up.

 

I was kind of skeptical going into this book because with a title like this one, I thought things wouldn’t turn out the way that I wanted them to but after reading this, there really was only one way that this book could have ended and I thought Eulberg did a fabulous job with the set up, the build up and the ending.  This book was filled with a whole lot of things that I loved.  I loved the dynamic between Macallan and Levi.  I loved the way that they were with each other, the way that they understood each other (even when they were behaving like complete idiots) and I really liked the way that their story is told throughout the entire book.

 

The story is told through alternating POV’s (and the way that they marked who’s chapter you were getting was beyond cute, which is something I didn’t notice until Nath brought it up) and then each chapter ends with commentary from both Levi and Macallan.  The cuteness in this story knows no bounds.  It was so sweet, the way that these two bickered with each other.

 

This was a good book.  It was cute and funny and the characters became close to my heart.  Both Macallan and Levi were outstanding protagonists and their journey was a fabulous read.  Eulberg did a great job with this one and I’m super stoked that I got to read this one.  It was perfect for the mood I was in when I started it.  I’m SO looking forward to more books from Elizabeth Eulberg.

Callie was kidnapped as a young child by her mother and has lived the last 12 years, on the run. Her life wasn’t easy but it was the only life that Callie knew. She learned a lot of life lessons long before she should have learned them and when they’re caught, her mother heads to jail and she heads to live with…her father. She hasn’t seen her father in years and he’s a complete stranger to her now.

 

He’s got a new life now. A new family and one of the first things that he tries to get Callie to understand is that his new family is her new family too. Just because they haven’t seen each other in twelve years does not mean that he forgot about her or grieved her loss the entire time that she was gone. It’s one of the main themes in the book, trying to get Callie to realize that she doesn’t need to run anymore. She can plant the roots that she’s been craving for a while and she’s safe. Finally safe.

 

Her new life comes with a great huge Greek family and right from the jump, Callie is overwhelmed.

 

She’s overwhelmed with a whole bunch of things but when Alex Kostas comes into her life, she’s attracted and very, very interested. Too bad, her new best friend and cousin, Kat has warned her off of him. But you can’t run from life and Alex doesn’t go anywhere…and neither does Callie.

 

This book follows Callie as she tries to make sense of her new life with her father without holding on to the guilt that comes with being happy without her Mom. She feels like she’s betraying her mother for liking her new life. For liking the stability, the love from her father and family and for having a home to rest her heat at every single night. She can be free from her old worries and scares and though it’s everything she’s always wanted, she struggles with everything.

 

For a bit, I was frustrated with how much Callie didn’t trust her father. He’s shown her nothing but kindness and love and she stays completely loyal to her mother. Her mother who kidnapped her away from her family and didn’t protect her from things she should have protected her from. It was understandable, all of the trust issues but after a while, it grew frustrating. I wanted to smack some sense into her but alls well that ends well.

 

Her relationship with Alex was a bit hard to take at first too. She was 17 and he was 22. That’s a bit of an age gap but as the story continued, they made more sense together than they did apart. There were feelings there and a blossoming love that Callie needed. Alex kept her grounded and gave her peace and I wanted that for her. Alex was a cutie patootie too so it wasn’t hard for him to win me over.

 

Seeing Callie come into her own and make some tough decisions made for an interesting read, even if it came with its fair share of frustrations. It all ended the way that it was supposed to and when I closed the book, I was happy with the story as a whole so really, I can’t complain.

 

Grade: 3 out of 5

This was my first read from my TBR jar. I can’t believe that I’ve had this book since the day that it came out and never got around to reading it until now. I started it once before and couldn’t get into it so I put it down, thinking that I’d try again in a week or so…I didn’t know that it’d be longer than two years before I picked it back up again.

I was also surprised that I really liked it. Man, I was trippin’ when I couldn’t get into it before because reading this book, took me back to how much I loved the other books in the Troubleshooters series.

 

So Izzy and Eden have been married for a while now but they don’t have a normal marriage. They got married because Eden was pregnant and Izzy offered support. He offered her his friendship and a shoulder to lean on so Eden took it. When she lost the baby, she didn’t take the news well because she turned Izzy’s world upside down but leaving him behind. Now she’s back in the states, trying to save her younger brother, Ben from their homophobic stepfather. Ben is being abused and Eden will do whatever it takes to get him out from under their stepdad’s thumb.

 

It’s not long before Eden realizes that she can’t do this alone. She needs help. She needs her brother Danny’s help but when he’s unable to get to her in time, she accepts Izzy’s help.

 

So much is going on in this book and I ate everything up. From Danny and Jenn’s dysfunctional relationship, to trying to save Ben and Ben’s new friend Neesha, not to mention Izzy and Eden’s reconnection, there was a lot to carry this story and I thought Brockmann handled it really well. She delivered on keeping things interesting and when I closed the book, I wasn’t in any way disappointed with the story.

 

Brockmann does what I thought was impossible. She made me like Danny Gillman. My opinion of him dropped considerably in the previous couple of books because of the way that he treated the women in his life. And of the shithead way he treated Izzy at every turn. He was Danny the Dick to me. I couldn’t stand his attitude but seeing him brought to his knees in this book went a long way in fixing my feelings for him. At the beginning of the book, all hope was lost of me ever liking him but I should have had more faith in Brockmann because she made him see the error of his ways and I was glad for it. Seeing him fix things with both Jennilyn and Eden made me happy.

 

I read reviews of this book a long time ago and there were a lot of people who were disappointed with Eden’s character. They didn’t connect with her as much as the other characters because she was cold and unfeeling but I didn’t see her that way at all. I saw a determined woman do whatever she had to do to take care of the people she loved. The lengths that she went through to help Ben and the people that were important to Ben, I dug it. I liked her. She made mistakes in her past and she owned up to them. She tried to fix them, to make amends and I ended up really admiring her. It wasn’t hard to see why Izzy was so in love with her. Seeing him come around with his heart, for her made me love Izzy all the more. And I loved the hell out of Izzy before this book. I was one of the people who wanted Izzy to end up with Maria but I’m not at mad that he ended up with Eden. I’m total Team Eden now.

 

This book was action packed and it was filled with all of the things that I love about the Troubleshooters series. I’m sad that this is the end of my Troubleshooters reading adventure but I’m looking forward to reading the new series. I just hope it’s as good as this book/series is.

*There may be spoilers from FINDING IT in this review so please read at your own risk.*

 

I love the New Adult genre.  I love that the protagonist and love interest are at the points in their lives when they’re first out on their own and can truly immerse themselves in finding out who they really are and what they were meant to be.  I love the idea that the characters are past the drama of high school and they’re living their lives for themselves, and not always for their parents.

 

What I don’t like about the NA genre is that most of the books that I’m reading are only from the heroine’s perspective.  The heroes don’t get any page time (well, the kind of page time that we want) but months after their book comes out, we get a novella from the hero’s perspective.  A bone to the die hard fans, I’m sure but I’m always left feeling disappointed after reading these novellas and this one is no exception.

 

If you read Finding It then you don’t need to read this one.  Why? Because this book is a replay of certain scenes from that book, coming from Hunt’s POV.  It’s nothing fresh or new, it’s just more of the same of things we already knew.  Hunt was hired by Kelsey’s father to kind of watch out for her and keep him informed of what Kelsey is getting up to on her trip abroad.  So Hunt does what he’s hired to do.  He follows Kelsey around.  He develops opinions of Kelsey and an interest in her that he can’t shake, no matter how much he wants to.

 

The thing about this story is it’s not really a story.  It’s just part of a story.  There’s a beginning but there’s no end.  The story just stops..and those kinds of endings drive me up the freaking wall.  This novella was supposed to give us insight into Jackson Hunts life but I didn’t feel like I knew him any better by reading this story than I did when I read Finding It.  And that’s disappointing because I went into this book, wanting to like it and it just didn’t work for me.

I read the blurb for this book and immediately wanted it because this seemed like it was right up my alley. Not so much the addiction to prescription drugs but the high school basketball player part of it. Genna plays basketball for her high school team and she’s good. When she gets hurt, she struggles with the end of her basketball career dreams and she struggles with the pain and the prescription drugs that she takes to ease the pain. This book was one of those gritty books that takes a realistic look at what it’s like for athletes who get hurt playing the sports that they love.

 

Genna Pierce was the star basketball player on the varsity basketball team for her high school. When she gets hurt during an important game, her world as she knew it completely combusts. Gone are her college basketball dreams and now her days are filled with physical therapy, fighting parents and physical pain. Just before things went to shit, Genna started dating the guy that she’s had a thing for, for a very long time.

 

Genna spends the entire course of this book trying to overcome her addiction to painkillers. The book paints a realistic picture of what happens to a person who has a drug problem. The frustrations, the heartbreak and everything else that comes with all of that. It was hard to read at times for me because I found that I wasn’t very patient with Genna and her problems. I’ve never been addicted to drugs and I’ve never known anyone in my life who has had a drug problem so it was hard for me to read through this book because Genna gets really down on herself and I found myself getting so mad at her at every turn in the book. Every decision she made pissed me off and every person she pushed away made me want to smack her. But I can tell you that at the end, I really liked the way that Genna comes into her own. Reading the end, made the beginning and middle of this book so worth it because you saw just how much Genna grew and it was easy to forgive her for being such a dumbass throughout the book. She was stronger in the end and I really liked that this book resolved all of the issues brought forth in this book without needing another book.

 

Even though this book got on my nerves a lot, I’m glad that I read it. I don’t think I’d read it again so it’s hard for me to recommend this book. I don’t recommend it lightly. It was a hard book to get through but I think it paints a realistic picture at the affects that prescription drugs play in young kids lives and it opened my eyes to a lot of things I wasn’t aware of so in that aspect, I would recommend it but it’s not one of those books that I absolutely loved and want to shout my love for it from the rooftops. But still, it was good.

This book is told in dual perspective and I thought that would be interesting so I was interested and while I did enjoy some aspects of this book, mostly I was just confused. You see, Simon is in love with Cassie or maybe, obsessed with Cassie is more acurate of what Simon feels for Cassie.  He went on a date with her years ago and never kissed her.  He’s been living with that regret ever since and once she’s broken up from her boyfriend, he’s finally got his chance to right that wrong from that first date.

 

The book is told in two realities and they’re so similar that it was hard to keep up at first and once I felt like I got a good hold on the two stories, I spent most of the book trying to figure out which one was the real storyline.  The whole book was confusing and it would have been okay if I liked the guy in the story and while he was okay, I still wanted to punch him in the throat a few times.

 

It’s one thing to have the biggest crush on someone you go to school with and to fantasize about that person but what Simon had on Cassie was more obsession than anything else…and not in a good way, either.  I mean, he was so blinded by his need for Cassie that he didn’t hear or see anything around him.  His friends couldn’t talk any sense into him because he knew what he wanted and finally had his chance to go after it.  While that is all good and dandy, it was really apparent that Cassie was not the same girl from their date all those years before.  She was a complete stranger to him and his incessant need to analyze every look and conversation that he had with her got to be annoying.  Even his friends were fed up with his obsession with her.  One of his best friend even told him that he was done with him forever after he helped him try to win her affections.  Said he wasn’t going to go to college and help fix him anymore, he was done with it all.  After reading this book, I couldn’t blame him.

 

Overall, this book just wasn’t for me.  It wasn’t a bad book, I just couldn’t connect with Simon or any of the other characters, even the girl that ends up being the love interest.  I wish it had worked better for me because I was looking for a fun book and this just wasn’t it for me.

This short story follows Garrick and Bliss from Losing It as they travel across the pond to meet Garrick’s parents. Bliss hasn’t ever been to England before and Garrick hasn’t been home in a while but they’re on their way to London so that Bliss can finally meet Garrick’s family and see the place where he grew up.If you remember Bliss from Losing It, then you won’t be surprised that she is completely nervous about meeting Garrick’s parents and her nervousness isn’t lost on Garrick, but he can’t do much about it outside of constantly reassuring her that everything will be fine because he’s just as nervous as she is.

 

His Mom is not an easy person to get to know and his father isn’t someone that he’s proud to be related to. While Bliss is worried that his parents are going to hate her, Garrick is worried that Bliss is going to hate them. And he can’t even blame her.I loved getting a small glimpse into Garrick and Bliss’ life after their story came to an end.

 

I loved getting to see where Garrick grew up, meeting his friends and even meeting his parents. It was nice to see Bliss interacting with these other people in Garrick’s life and seeing them grow together as a couple. It’s always nice to see characters that I’ve come to love again after I’ve finished their book and I thought Carmack did a great job with this novella. It was just what I needed to get me in the mood for reading Finding It and I’m completely anxious to dig right back into another book by Carmack.This was great novella that was cute, entertaining and just all over great. I definitely recommend.

 

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

 

This review was originally posted on Book Binge. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book in the Serendipity’s Finest book and it features Mike’s (from Book 1) younger sister, Erin.

 

At Mike and Cara’s wedding, Erin was feeling lonely and didn’t want to go home just yet so she found herself at Joe’s bar after the wedding, getting pretty cozy with Cole Sanders. The guy that she used to have a huge crush on back in the day. They agreed that it was going to be a one night deal and Cole kept his word on that. Even though he can’t stop thinking about her and even though she can’t get that night out of her head.Things get interesting when a few months later, Erin finds herself…in a situation where Cole will probably be in her life forever.

 

On top of that situation, she finds herself being stalked, shot and under the protection of the very guy that she’s trying to stay away from. She knows that she’s in for a world of hurt because even though the chemistry between Cole and Erin, Cole is still adamant about returning to his life once Erin is safe. But the longer they stay together, the closer they get and the harder it is to imagine life without the other.

 

I really like this series. I like the characters, the small town of Serendipity and in this book, I really liked getting to know Cole and Erin. Their story was cute and I zipped right through it.Cole was a dreamboat who came around to the idea of a future with Erin in a way that was believable and fun. I loved that he wasn’t afraid of Erin’s brothers and that he understood where they were coming from with how pissed they were at him. I loved the way that he took care of Erin when she needed it and I loved the way that he took care of business. He’s all manly man and studmuffin-y and I loved the hell out of him.

 

Erin was a great heroine too. She was a lady on the streets but a freak in the sheets and Cole was addicted. She was an all around good person and she was interesting too. She had a great support system in her family and in her friends. I loved how she stuck up for Cole at every turn and she didn’t care who she was tearing down in defense of her man. She was great for Cole and he was great for her. And seriously, I thought the title fit the story perfectly. More often than not, the title of the book that I’m reading doesn’t really fit the story but that wasn’t the case with this one.This was solid contemporary story and I’m glad that I read it. I’m looking forward to Sam’s story even though I rolled my eyes when I found out who his love interest was. Still, it’s a Carly Phillips so I’m going to read it.

 

I definitely recommend this book.

 

Grade: 4.25 out of 5

This is the second book in the Razor Bay/Bradshaw Brothers series by Susan Andersen. It follows Max Bradshaw as he stumbles again and again to his happily ever after.

 

Max is the Deputy Sheriff for the small town of Razor Bay and he’s one of those do-gooder types. When he’s not making sure the town of Razor Bay is safe (from mostly, the drunks), he’s volunteering his time at the center, helping teenage boys stay out of trouble.Max was a complex character. He had some things that he was working through. A relationship forming with the brother he hated growing up. A bitter mother who never really moved on from his father leaving them and an attraction to a girl that was always on the move. He wanted stability in his life. He wanted roots and he wanted to share his life with someone who wanted the same things. And even though he knew that getting involved with Harper Summerville wasn’t going to give him those things, he still fell anyway. Sometimes you can’t run from things and he couldn’t run from Harper.

 

Harper lives her life on the go. She’s got that travel bug and she got it from her Dad. They moved around a lot when she was younger and while her mother wanted to plant roots, Harper was happy to see the world and meet new people every chance that she got. That didn’t stop when her father died and she got older (much to her mother’s chagrin). She just kept right on traveling for her job with the foundation her father set up and that job has sent her to Razor Bay.The first book in this series was Max’s brother Jake’s book and I enjoyed that one. I enjoyed it well enough that I was curious about this story. While I’m not particularly pissed off that I read this book, I wasn’t exactly blown away by it either.

 

I liked Max and Harper fine. I just wasn’t as wrapped up in their story as I had hoped to be. The story itself was fine, the characters were fine. Max and Harper were fine…but that was it. It was easy to put this book down and read other things, which is why it took me so long to read this one.I liked getting to know Max and I liked that he knew what he wanted and didn’t apologize for it. I liked that when he laid things out for Harper, he stuck to his guns and left it up to her to make the choice to stay with him or take him with her.

 

Harper was more of a blah character to me. I didn’t really find her all that interesting. I was kind of hoping that we’d get more from Max’s mother, some kind of resolution so I was disappointed that she kind of just faded into the background but I wasn’t too mad about that.There’s a new character that is introduced in this book and he’s introduction has definitely got me all curious about the next book so I’ll probably be checking that book out. Even though I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would, I still enjoyed it.

 

Grade: 3 out of 5

 

This review was originally posted on Book Binge by me.

Holy cow did I like this book.I read the first book in this series, Between the Lines with Ames for a buddy review over at Breezing Through (I’ll let you know when that review goes live) and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it so much that I immediately started this book. I was equal parts glad that I read the first book and anxious to get this book read because I was dying to know what happened next. What happened with Graham? What happened with Emma and Graham? Was Reid going to be redeemed? I had so many questions.One of the things that I was bummed about in Between the Lines was not getting enough Graham. So much happened between him and Emma in that book and I was invested in what happened in this book between them. I needed to know what became of them after the movie shoot. So much was resolved but there was still loads left unresolved and this book picks up not too long after they wrap shooting of the movie that they were working on.Reid and Emma are dunzo and Emma has feelings for Graham. Graham returns those feelings but they’re on different coasts so they’re both doing their own thing. Emma is getting ready to step out of the Hollywood spotlight and head to college to be a normal girl. Graham is back home, where he’s getting ready to graduate from college and taking care of family business. This is the book where they finally get together. But their coming together doesn’t come without its share of drama.Reid wants Emma back. He didn’t appreciate her when they were hooking up during the filming of School Pride and he wants her. Too bad, she’s kind of done with him but when his ex-girlfriend Brooke comes up with a plan to get them both what they want (Brooke wants Graham), Reid agrees to do his part in making Emma his again.This whole book was one big ball of drama. Brooke was a total b word and I couldn’t believe that she thought she could get away with her dumb ass plan. Reid was equally dumb because he agreed to be a part of that dumb ass plan. But man did I love Graham and Emma. The two of them together made my insides sigh with happiness and finally getting into Graham’s head made me love him all the more.Webber does a great job of bringing Graham and Emma together. I loved seeing their relationship grow into something so sweet and solid. The drama thrown in made their love stronger and I ate it all up. I loved this book so much that I bought the next book and kept the party going. This was another great addition to Tammara Webber’s backlist and I definitely recommend it.Grade: 4.5 out of 5This review was originally posted on Book Binge by well, me.

Double Click is the follow-up book to Click and it had been so long since I read the first book that reading this book was almost like being introduced to these characters all over again. I’d forgotten so much but after a few chapters, my memory of these characters came back and the emails were back to making me laugh. These characters remind me so much of my own circle of friends and the emails that we go through each and every single day.Renee, Shelley and Ashley are like the main besties of the group. They really do remind me of my friends and our emails throughout the work day. The emails are constant and often hilarious that I find myself straining not to laugh out loud when I’m sitting at my desk.In this book, Renee and Ethan are together and they’re happy. Shelley is single and Ashley just had a baby and…even Mark has someone. Mark brings his new girlfriend around and the girls are not fans of her. She’s too much to take and Shelley outright hates her which makes Renee think that Shelley has feelings for Mark (so not the case) but Renee is determined to get along with Mark’s girlfriend…for Mark. And she wants everyone else to give her another shot so a good chunk of the book is spent trying to get along with Mark’s sweetie.As fun as this book was, there were times when the story dragged. There were times when I found myself dazing off with the book open and just thinking about other things. I liked the book but it wasn’t my favorite. I liked the first book better. Though I will say that it was good to see the gang again, when the story ended I wasn’t sad or mad about it. I thought everything came full circle and it was a fitting ending. Everyone is happy and moving on with their lives. Which was good. So while this book wasn’t the best thing that I’ve read, it was still a solid read.Grade: 3 out of 5This review was originally posted on Book Binge. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Madison is the older sister to Mila Hill and she’s running the family business and living in their parent’s old house. When her parents died, she was living in New York and working as a model. But guilt and grief brought her home, giving up the life she had in New York and taking over the life that belonged to her parents. She took care of her younger sister, Mila and now that Mila is an adult and married, Maddy is free to do what she wants but the guilt she feels over not being around when her parents were alive keeps her locked in at the family restaurant that she co-owns with her sister. And it also keeps her from packing up her parents things and not moving into their bigger room. She’s got a lot of emotional baggage and getting to see all of that, made for a great reading experience.When she meets Gabriel Vincent, she wasn’t expecting to ever see him again. It was a one night stand gone wrong and even though she never got to the happy ending she was looking forward to, she was glad to be rid of him because it was apparent that he had even more baggage than she did and she couldn’t deal with her baggage, let alone some complete strangers. But when Gabe turns out to be her best friend’s brother that never showed at the club the other night, Maddy deals with his presence in her life in the only way she knows how…by starting to date someone completely wrong for her in hopes of forgetting Gabe.But Gabe’s not going away and he’s very persistent in his quest to finish what they started on that first night they met.Gabe just got home from overseas and he’s suffering from a huge case of PTSD. He’s dealing with it in the only way that he knows how…by pretending it doesn’t exist and hoping like hell that he doesn’t hurt anyone in the process. Seeing him come into his own and finally get the help that he needed, felt rewarding. I enjoyed getting to know him and I’ve got to hand it to Courtney Cole. Her characters are completely broken when we first meet them, they’re so imperfect and so in need of someone to help them with their burdens and to see each character find the other and help each other heal was pretty damned great.I enjoyed getting to know both Gabe and Maddy. I liked the way that they came together. The chemistry was strong between them and seeing them battle wits until they figure out their feelings for each other made for an interesting read. I think I liked this book better than the first book and I cannot wait to read the next book. I was hoping that Gabe’s sister would end up with Gabe’s best friend but I guess he’s got his own happy ending in some other story (fingers crossed). This was an enjoyable book. One that I couldn’t read fast enough to suit my greedy eyes. Well done, Ms. Cole.Grade: 4 out of 5This review was originally posted on Book Binge by me.