Dear Aaron | Mariana Zapata

Read: 10 Sept 2017

5 Stars *****

Mariana Zapata is my favourite author, every time I read a new book by her I fall more in love with her witty writing style and beautifully executed characters.

This book really spoke to me, not only was it a hard warming rollercoaster of a story but it inspired me to take action in my life.

Dear Aaron is about a lady who writes to soldiers deployed over seas, this allows them to know someone is at home thinking about them and give them someone to talk to when they may not have anyone. 

They develop a strong connection simply through writing to each other, something which in a sense goes against how people connect and choose to make friends in modern society. As people are so concentrated and obsessed with looks and how other people look.  However Aaron and Ruby are able to connect through words. 

Later in the book, when Aaron is back on US soil, he invites Ruby to stay with him and his friends at a beach house for a weeks holiday. This is the first time they met, and you fall more in love with them.

I instantly fell in love with this whole concept of Dear Aaron, not necessarily the romance part, even though that worked so well and made the book, I mean just the writing to someone who you have never met. This lead me to start googling programs were you are able to write letters to soliders, and actually signed up to one and now I have my own solider. 

2017 Read List

Right well its about time I start writing up the list of books I have read so far in 2017.....
This year I have added the authors names (.... well I started too) and a star waiting. This is mainly for me to find and remember what I thought of the books.

1. Carter Reed - Tijan ****4 stars
2. Cater Reed 2 - Tijan **** 4 stars
3. The Missing Link - J.M. Sevilla ***** 5 stars
4. Marked II - J.M. Sevilla ***** 5 stars
5. Like a fox - J.M. Sevilla ** 2 stars
6. Salvator 
7. Blaire - Anita Gray **** 4 stars
8. Dark Mafia Prince - Annika Martin **** 4 stars
9. Kingpin **** 4 stars
10. The Knight - Skye Warren *** 3 stars
11. RomeHate **** 4 stars
12. Perfect Summer **** 4 stars
13. Wrong 
14. Getting Dirty
15. Pinky Promise ***** 5 stars
16. Cold Hearted **** 4 stars
17. Protector ****4 stars
18. Looking for Trouble *** 3 stars
19. Devil You Know **** 4 stars
20. 367 Days **** 4 stars
21. The Coppersmith Farm House ************** 5 stars is not enough!
22. Falling Down
23. Loyalty and Lies
24. Salvation and Secrets
25. Fallen Crest Home **** 4 stars
26. Tribulation and Truths
27. Fallen Crest Forever ***** 5 stars


17th May 2017

That Thing Between Eli and Gwen | J. J. McAvoy

Read: 2nd June 2016

 3 Stars ***

I have been in a bit of a book slump.... until I was browsing a FB book group and someone mentioned  this book. I am so pleased I looked it up and decided to read it.

It was a really nice book. Nice being the important word here, I really enjoyed it but it did not have that wow factor to it, almost as if something was missing but I am not sure what.

The book is about, two couples. Eli and Gwen are with their respective partners, Eli had Hannah who he is about to marry, and Gwen has Bash, to whom she is engaged. However, it all goes to hell very quick! Bash and Hannah run off together, at the wedding. This I loved, it was such a good start to the book. Eli hated the sight if Gwen as she reminded him of what he has lost.

The way Gwen and Eli were introduced, the heartbreak you felt for them with an undertone of relief was perfect. I thought Gwen was a great character in the beginning, however, saying this as the book progressed I started to like her a little less. I feel that maybe I felt she had the potential to be better than she was.

Eli was the cocky doctor, which had the making for a great male lead, but he just did not do it for me. Yes I get that he was meant to be cocky but even with characters like that you are meant to Love/Hate them, I felt neither really towards him.

The start of the book portrayed the Love/Hate relationship Eli and Gwen had, the teasing, the annoying each other, the kind of start that you know will lead to them falling in love, hard! This is my favourite type of romance. Therefore the start was great for me.

When they progressed to liking and loving each other I enjoyed this too.

The part I did not like was the end. It had no real ending, almost as if it was rushed. Hannah the Ex was suddenly pregnant, had had the baby in such a small space of time, but not only that, Eli did not really have that much of a reaction. I feel that it was an easy ending, which made it nice, but it could have been amazing, and lifted the whole book. It was not memorable, I was not thinking about it after reading the book, which when you read a great book, one you fall in love with, you cannot stop thinking about it.

Would I read it again? Yes I think I would, I liked it. But would I re read it right now? No... I would say if you like the Love/ Hate Neighbour romance then give it a go. But its not up with my favourites of these.

Cover 5*

For the cover, I like it. The landscape image used in a portrait format really works for me, i think it makes the book stand out. And the photos used blend so well together. It is simple yet eye catching. I think the cover is my favourite part of the book! 

The title is reflected in the cover, as it looks as though the book is decided and there is something literally between them.

The colours are simple and allow the book to flow, there is not harsh colours, yet the yellow stands out. Normally I do not like the use of yellow but here with the skin tones and mute browns it ties it all together.

2016 Read List

This year I am keeping track of all the books I have read. The idea being I can write a review on each one.

So heres the list...

1. The Deal
2. Pucked
3. Hooked On The Game
4. The Line Between
5. The Friend Zone
6. Hockey Tutor
7. The New Girl
8. Under The Mistletoe
9. Secrets To Keep
10. Coming Out
11. All Good Things
12. Team Lucas
13. With You
14. Torn From You
15. Wall Of Winnipeg and Me
16. The Baller
17. Forever Pucked
18. Wicked Game
19. Alex: A Cold Fury
20. The Fighter
21. Before Now
22. When Summer Ends
23. 3:AM Kisses
24. Wall Of Winnipeg and Me
25. Obsidian
26. Onyx
27. Opal
28. Origin
29. Opposition
30. That Thing Between Eli and Gwen
31. Dangerous Lies
32. Ugglies
33. Pretties
34. Specials
35. Better than Perfect
36. Kulti
37.  MoonShine
38. Stealing Home
39. Southern Pleasure
40. Assured
41. Grinder
42. Tease
43. In the Spotlight
44. Wicked Sexy
45. Hitched 1
46. Hitched 2
47. Hitched 3
48. With the Band
49. The Gun Runner
50. Paper Princess            HALF WAY WOOHOOOO (such a good book for the 50% mark!)
51. The Broken Prince
52. The Problem with Forever
53. Call Me Cat
54. Leave Me Love
55. Tell Me True
56. The Harder I Fall
57. My Clarity
58. Rule
59. Anti Stepbrother
60. Saving Grace
61. Perfect Summer
62. Torn
63. Talon
64. Midnight Ballerina
65. Sketch
66. Spiked
67. Twisted Palace
68. Punk 57
69. Falling Down
70. Blush
71. Amplified
72. Lullabye
73. Music of the Heart

That was as far as I made it..... I was sooo damn close, and I really pushed but I did not make it to 100.

The Player Next Door | Kathy Lyons

Finished 29/10/15

STARS 3*

I want to start off by saying even though it only got 3* from me, I enjoyed it however I was not like wow! Or this is AMAZING. There were things in the book that just did not work for me, however it was indeed cute in a strange way!

Tori Tori Tori, I like her however she majorly frustrates me, the sole reason for this is because of her character. She is the kind of person who in real life I just don't click with, complete opposite to myself.
She acts ditzy, but is super clever. Her attention span  is like 2 seconds yet she's a university professor. So i think that is one of the main reasons i did not fall in love with this book. I just could not fall in love with Tori. Which in a book kind of needs to happen, so the book becomes your life line and you can't put it down.

I liked the story line, it was cute however I feel like I had read it before in a way, however this is a slightly worse version. It reminds me of 'a neighbour from hell.'

I found that the story line rushed quite a bit. In the beginning it was all going in a good direction. Tori moved on from her Ex Edward and meet the pro athlete Mike. They meet in a strange yet quite funny way. Which i was thinking ah okay maybe the book will improve and i will fall in love with it. Nope did not happen. Anyway Tori meets Mike hanging upside down on her roof. Yep you read that correctly she was hanging off her roof.
#roofinggonewrong!

This was all sweet and cute. Mike and Tori had their sexual tension and such and then BAM they slept together. I was like wow this is moving way to fast for me! I felt like all the spark had gone, and Tori's lack of attention span was starting to really eat away at me.
Tori only wants a summer romance with Mike to get over her Ex or so she says. However she keeps thinking she's falling in love, however theres no encounters or tension to show this. She then has this rocky summer lovin' with Mike until he leaves for the Basketball season to start.

This leads to the part of the book that I like the most which was most defiantly the ending, LOL no not because it was over ahhh, but because it was cute. There was tension and it was more sexy! I just wish the whole book had of lived up to it!

Overall it was not the hot sports romance I was envisioning!

Team Lucas | Ally Adams

Finished 28/10/15

STARS 5*

A very sassy and entertaining book, with a Big headed arrogant untrusting male, and a will not back down, knows how to give the sass back female. That in my view is a GREAT book.

I went into reading this book expecting not to fall in love with it but BOY was i wrong, right off the go Ally Adams had me wrapped around her little finger. I was hocked and it was bad, as in reading all night even though i have a 9am lecture bad. However TOTALLY worth every second!

Mia is the girl that has got saddled with Lucas, the jock. He's a professional soccer player, she is a student still at college, who recently got banned from her job, due to telling a client where he can stick it. Mia you see is a sample collector/tester. Checking up on clients who have addictions, how you are wondering does this lead to Lucas? Well Lucas had some drug problems and is in need of his 5th 'minder' as he fondly refers to them. In comes Mia, and he thinks he can get rid of her in day one, she's not sure she will last. But against the odds she hangs on, sometimes just by the tips of her fingers.

Mia moves into Lucas Guess suite, the 'Posh Pad' as her and BFFL Alice like to call it. This Posh Pad is a darn sight more attractive than Mia's Student studio flat, thats for sure.
However living with Lucas who is hell bent on making her job as hard as possible is not all rainbows and sunshine. I will not lie they have there super cute and funny moments too as well as there mean and shitty ones.
My favourite if you can call it that 'mean' moment was when Lucas decided to be a real dick. Mia asked for a sample, meaning he needed to pee in a pot. She got her pot back as well as another pot with some 'swimmers' in. Lucas being Lucas told her she could go inseminate her self so she could sponge child benefits of him. That my dear friend Lucas is low of the low.

However by some miracle Lucas manages to start trusting Mia, and the tension between them before is now very much sexual tension. And you know what they say about sexual tension...Well when it explodes is crazy, and yes Mia's and Lucas's does indeed. FINALLY i was singing in my head FINALLY FINALLY, because lets face it, it had to happen. You can't not fall in love with Mia and Lucas. And having them together makes the cake that much sweeter i have to say.

Overall it was an ADDICTIVE book I think I need my own 'minder' so i don't keep reading it over and over!

You love Mia straight away, and Lucas has his oven Bad boy Jock charm which are always my weakness, so it was practically the perfect book for me, the only way it could have been better is if it had of been about the NFL. But we can't have everything in life i guess ;(

What would I say to people who are thinking of reading it?

READ THE DAMN BOOK, and try not to lose your heart in the process I dare ya ;)

Till next time readers :)

Scoring Wilder by R.S.Grey

Finished 2014, re read Sept 2015

STARS 5*
Review Part 1

This book is one of My absolute favourites. The main reason is because there is NO way you cannot not fall in love with the characters as well as attempt not wet your self because you are laughing so hard!

The book starts off in an unusual way. We don't get the normal my name is....and blah blah blah about the main character no. We start off with cheating boyfriends....every girl loves a good bit of gossip and i think most boys do to so what a way to captivate everyone from the first line.
I also feel that this first part sets a sort of feel for the whole book in the way you see the little bits of humour that grace each and every chapter. At this point we don't know anything about the lead character other than she is great at closing horrible boyfriends and is as SASSY as they come! Which for me is what makes me laugh so much in this book, Its like i can here my friends and i saying and thinking these little comments and that makes it so easy to connect with Kinsley, who we happen to officially meet when she walks in on her boyfriend Josh sleeping with 'a bimbo.' I love the fire we see in Kinsley, she is not going to be a 'save me' kinda character who needs the boy to rescue her oh no she won't take any prisoners!


Kinsley is on the womens college football team, at her new university her aim is to make it to professional olympic level. I like the fact she is an athlete in this book, its interesting and motivational. We meet  Liam Wilder the male lead of this book at a house party.Liam is also a football player and a very very good one at that he plays for the All stars, which happens to be the same team the Kinsley's cheating Ex is a rookie on. This makes things very interesting, funny and intense through the book. However when Kinsley meets football God Liam she is blown away by his sexyness. Love how they describe Liam and that he's a super attractive guy always helps. You know as soon as they meet that they are made for each other. Both stubborn and sassy the perfect match.
However there is a amusing and frustrating twist to there story. Liam is Kinsley's coach this season, as he is helping out at the University, in aim to fix his bad boy reputation. The head coach has a No Go rule on Liam, but of course we know that Kinsley NEEDS to be with Liam. I was pro Liam the whole way through this book i mean how could you not be!

Things start to head up between the two, they have there trouble moments which of course are necessary in every romance book. They also have a small problem called Tara, Tara is the evil cunning bitch that want Liam, hates Kinsley and is too sneaky for her own good. Kinsley and Tara have their fair share of problems from Tara picking on here to making her do extra hard training practices because oh yes did i mention she is the team captain? Tara sucks big time!
I have a few favourite parts to this hatred between the two, one of them being when Tara is talking Kinsley's reaction and her thoughts are HILARIOUS, on so many levels!
'I wanted to stab one of Coach Davis' pencils in my eye just to get out of hearing her finish that sentence. I know that stabbing my eye wouldn't cause hearing loss, but maybe the trauma of the situation would shut Tara up'
The reason i was laughing so much when i read this was because A) so like Kinsley to say this, its the kind of dry humour that she has. B) totally something either my friends or I would say to each other when someone annoying is talking. I just adored that statement so much!!
Another of my favourite points was when the new freshers on the team were made to dress up and sort of play Quidditch from Harry Potter. All had to dress up in there crazy costumes. However the icing on the cake was when Tara showed Kinsley here costume. She was not a player no she was the 'Snitch' and Becca was the 'Quaffle.' This meant yellow and brown tutus, so attractive. I have to give it to Tara she did well with this prank.

As you can properly tell i adore this book, i don't have enough words to describe it however the last half is emotional, tense and funny. The rivalry between Tara and Kinsley goes up a few levels, as does the romance between Liam and Kinsley.
I don't really want to go into to much detail about the last part of the book to be honest so much happens and even though i do reviews with spoilers obviously, i want to leave this a bit more for you to read and discover and i will later on do a part 2 review as so much happens :P I will also do just a cover review for the book as well

I think that they way R.S. Grey has written this book is class, she makes it so easy for you to connect with all the characters, and you feel every emotion that Kinsley has, as well as hearing her thoughts in your head. Which for me shows talented writing.

Have fun reading this book ¡chicas! Its so worth it and it really will make you laugh....well i hope it does otherwise i may be crazy haha....Also if you have/do read it leave a comment i want to know what you all think!!

Lastly i am sorry i have not done a review in a LONG time, i am still alive haha and reading books every day, but University life and work comes before my blog *sad crying* but i will do my best to do more recent reviews and my list of books to review is up to about 50 books now so trying not to cry inside!!

Love you all thank you for reading as always XOXO