Book review: Double Full by Kindle Alexander

Double Full by Kindle Alexander

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This was the first M/M book I've ever read. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I had heard wonderful things about this author so I decided to give this one a try. I have to say, this book was amazing. The story has such depth and you come to truly care for the characters of Jace and Colt. There is nothing cliche about either of them, and they are written so well that you find yourself rooting them on toward a HEA.

This book is first and foremost a love story, made more complicated by the fact that it is not only M/M, but also in a sports setting which makes their relationship all the more tricky to deal with. The author handles all of these facets with ease, giving us a poignant tale that totally draws you in and keeps you glued to the page. I truly had a hard time putting this down, staying up until the wee hours of the morning reading.

In this story you get extremely hot and steamy-and a ton of it. But the scenes are not gratuitous, they actually demonstrate the closeness of the two main characters...but the scenes are strictly 18+ and are not for anyone who is not completely comfortable with reading sexual scenes of this nature. For my first time reading a M/M erotic romance, I thought the scenes were appropriate and not overdone.

At the end you get the tease of another book in the series, which I've already added to my TBR along with the rest of Kindle Alexander's books (more Jace and Colt? Maybe Mitch? Either or both would be great!). The author's writing is fantastic-and worth giving a shot even if you are unsure about trying M/M. A 5 star definite recommend from me, and one I'll surely re-read in the future.

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Book Review-The Year We Fell Down by Sarina Bowen

The Year We Fell Down by Sarina Bowen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This was such a sweet college romance. I loved everything about the story-the plot, the characters, the writing. For me, this was a unique storyline that totally kept my interest throughout the entire book. Everything flowed quite well and the pacing was perfect.

The story itself captures the emotions of moving away to college on your own in addition to the extra emotions from doing so while adapting to and dealing with injuries that have left the main female character without the use of her legs. Throw in coping with feelings for said character’s dorm-mate and you’ve got a story that pulls you in and has you experiencing the emotions right alongside the characters. And what great characters the author has created.

Corey is a very strong female lead, coping relatively well with her situation after her accident and her physical limitations. Hartley is your typical alpha male swoon-worthy lead with his own issues to deal with from his injury as well as his own other personal issues. The way they slowly come together first as friends and later as more makes for an excellent read that you won’t want to put down. The supporting characters are interesting and add some fun to the story (especially Bridger, whose story I can’t wait to read next).

The author deals with the difficulties of both Corey’s and Hartley’s respective injuries very well, integrating them into the story while not making the story solely focused on them…the story is focused on their relationship with their physical and other personal issues adding depth and some conflict without letting those things overwhelm the story.

There are a couple of steamy scenes, so I would advise 18+ for the audience for this book. My rating is 5 stars, a book I will definitely re-read in the future. I’d also like to toss a thank you out to the author for a well written book from the grammar and editing perspective, I might have seen maybe only 2 or 3 of these types of errors in the entire book (which I can’t even remember now, they were so inconsequential). Excellent book, and I can’t wait to read more from this author.

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Book Review-Entice (Evolve Series #3) by S.E. Hall

Entice by S.E. Hall

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


For the first 2.5 books of this series, Sawyer Beckett has been my favorite character, hands down. Here in Entice, we get his story...and get to fall for him all over again. While books 2 and 2.5 didn't have the oomph of book 1, here with #3 you get a great story again and also are introduced to Emmett, Sawyer's love interest and a strong, independent woman. Emmett is written very well and with everything that happens in this book, you really get to feel her emotions and get an excellent view into her character.

You also get the full range of emotions from Sawyer-from one end of the spectrum to the other. And he is still the funniest character of the group. Just wait until the scene at the doctor's office...totally cracked me up. Every side of him you see in this book just endears him to you even more. He's the most loyal, caring person even if he doesn't look it on the surface.

This is my favorite book of the series so far, and has me impatiently waiting for the next one so we can finally get Zach's story. My actual star rating is a bit closer to 4.5 than a full 5, only because there are basic editing/grammar type errors that are noticeable, however they don't detract from the story. A definite 18+ read as the steam factor keeps ratcheting higher as you get further into the series.

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May Flowers $100 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway!

I'm so glad to be able to bring this giveaway your way...don't forget to share using the buttons at the end of the blog post!

Welcome to the May Flowers $100 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway sponsored by Social News Daily and hosted by The Parenting Patch.

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The May Flowers $100 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway is open worldwide.  An international winner will receive $100 minus any PayPal charges via PayPal in lieu of the specified prize.  The May Flowers $100 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway ends at midnight CST on May 12, 2014.  One winner will be chosen at random via Rafflecopter.  The winner will be sent an email and will have forty-eight hours to respond.  If no response is received within forty-eight hours, another winner will be chosen.  The Parenting Patch is not responsible for prize fulfillment.

Book Review: Entangled (Evolve Series #2.5, novella) by S.E. Hall

Entangled by S.E. Hall

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Entangled was a good, quick read but I honestly don't think it really added much more to the series. It was a lot of continuous declarations of love between Dane and Laney, with a healthy dose of the steamy stuff thrown in. You do get to see more into Dane's head and how completely devoted to Laney he is. But for me, honestly? I think this could have been made part of one of the other books or by giving Dane and Laney a second book focused just on them, fleshing out the things brought up in Entangled.

The writing is still very good, and as with the first two books, the characters of The Crew are still favorites. One thing this book sure does is pique your interest for Sawyer's story even more, and I can't wait to start reading it!

3 solid stars, a good way to pass the time if you've read the first two books in the series.  As the author states in the synopsis, the characters are getting older so yes, there's more sexy, steamy stuff going on so I'd recommend to 18+.

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April Kindle Fire Giveaway for a Kindle Fire HDX or $229 Amazon Gift Card or $229 Paypal Cash!

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Book Review: Embrace (Evolve Series #2) by S.E. Hall

Embrace by S.E. Hall

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


After such a great start with Emerge, I was a bit disappointed with Embrace. In Emerge, my heart broke for Evan and I was hoping he would find eventually find his happiness-but I was not expecting him to fall so quickly and certainly not for the one character from Emerge that I didn't care for at all.

*some mild spoilers ahead*

First, I do really love the camaraderie of The Crew that has been developing from the start of the series. The way all of the characters came together as the first book came out and how their relationships with each other (as friends) progressed is really great. The fact that they all readily enveloped Evan into their group was wonderful. Everyone is supportive of each other, and this is a group I would have loved to have been a part of during my college years.

Second, the characters are still written well...I just really didn't care for the direction that was taken for Laney and Whitley. It seemed like a total reversal of character for both of them. If we had seen more of Whitley's past and learned more about her family in the first book-which would have explained a lot of her personality in the first book-it would have been much easier to accept her character development here in Embrace. But when she was written to be the "villain" in Laney and Dane's story so that you come to dislike her character, it's hard to just switch around for the second book, even if we are now finding out more about her and her past and family. The fact that Evan is able to fall so quickly for her after the Emerge, well that's a bit hard to take as well. To him, Laney had been his everything-now suddenly he is falling for Whitley? If more time had passed, it would feel more believable to me.

I still love the characters, especially Sawyer and Zach. And I do like have the multiple POV chapters like there were in the first book, I think it gives a more complete picture of the story the author is trying to tell. But this time, things seemed to jump around more which made it feel like there was too much going on, less focus on the main story of Evan finding his HEA. It didn't help that the formatting was really bad, to the point where I had to reread many passages to figure out exactly who was saying what, and exactly where the paragraph breaks should be.

The ending felt a bit rushed, like the author was just trying to get things finished and quickly hit a sneak peek toward Sawyer's story-and in a way that was way to obvious that it kind of felt like a cheat. Even with the unmistakable teaser toward Sawyer's story, I am still looking forward to it as he is my favorite character so far from the series.

I still give the overall story 3 stars, I just wish it had been more focused and that things between Evan and Whitley had been allowed to develop more slowly so that I might actually have been able to learn to like her character.

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Book Review: Emerge (Evolve Series #1) by S.E. Hall

Emerge by S.E. Hall

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I loved this book. You've got end-of-high-school angst, first love, starting college angst, a love triangle...then throw in some really happy times, some heartbreak and of course some of the steamy stuff. That recipe will give you a winner of a story.

The characters-loved them all with the exception of Whitley-who I wanted to tell to buzz off (not because she wasn't written well, but because I don't care for girls with her kind of personality and attitude). Sawyer was just awesome and funny, I want Zach as my go-to friend and confidante, and Evan...*sigh*. My heart was positively aching for him and rooting him on. Not to say I wouldn't ever pick Dane-beacuse WOW-but Evan's sweetness and boy-next-door persona just melted my heart.

I flew through this book in a single day, staying up way too late to finish it as I just couldn't put it down. Everything flowed so smoothly and the characters were very well written, you're just totally drawn in. And it will tug at your heartstrings, so be ready for the emotion.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a sweet romance, just keep in mind there's a bit of spice thrown in so I'd say 18+. Can't wait to continue the series to find out where these characters' stories go!

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Book Review: Fighting for Irish by Gina L. Maxwell

Fighting for Irish by Gina L. Maxwell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This was my first time reading a fighter story so I wasn't sure what to expect. I'm not big on the whole MMA fighting thing, so I was prepared not to like those portions of the book. Well let me tell you-I had no reason to be worried. This story packed plenty of action in and out of the ring that keeps you riveted to the page, along with plenty of steamy, sexy scenes that will have you making sure you're reading when your significant other is around.

Ms. Maxwell's storytelling was excellent and everything flowed quite well. The characters were very well developed with strong backstories that you get to discover over the course of the entire book (as opposed to getting an information dump right up front). Aiden (aka "Irish") was my clear favorite with his tough, protective yet still gentle and thoughtful personality-though Xander is a close second and I'd love to read a story centered on him.

It was also nice reading a book where I didn't notice any simple grammar or editing errors for a change.  I've already got the rest of Ms. Maxwell's books on my wish list, and can't wait to read more.

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Book Review: Flight of Life by E.L. Todd

Flight of Life by E.L. Todd

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

To start off, I'll say this book is very solidly YA (the most "romance" you'll see for the main character of Calloway is a kiss on the cheek) and a very clean read. You can feel comfortable with teens 13 and up reading this story, and most teenagers will be able to identify with one or more of the characters (hopefully not with Hawk, the book's bully character though!).

When the story begins, I did feel a bit lost as you feel like you come into it as its already started. It's not until later in the book that you get more of the backstory so you can fully understand what is going on...but most of what you read in the beginning does get explained eventually. One of the things that doesn't is how Calloway and Breccan know Easton can help them, so I'm hoping we find out more about this in the next book.

Most of the characters seem well-rounded, however there seems to be untold details about Easton and I really didn't get a good sense of her character. Calloway is a classic underdog, being picked on and having a somewhat naive view of others, but you find yourself rooting for him and wanting him to become a stronger character, which he does start to do. As for Mr. Avey, I think there's more to him than what we've discovered so far as I don't know of any teacher who would do for a student what he does for Calloway.

The book flowed well and though it did have its share of grammar/basic editing issues including some incorrect, missing or extra words, it really doesn't take away from the reading. The concept of the Hara-Kirs, Life and Anti-Life are original (at least to me) in the YA paranormal genre, which is nice to see for a change.

My overall star rating is 3.75, rounded to 4 stars. I'm looking forward to continuing the series, and would recommend this to any YA readers who enjoy the paranormal category.

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