Day: December 4, 2014

Guest Review: What the Heart Wants by Jeanell Bolton

Posted December 4, 2014 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: What the Heart Wants by Jeanell BoltonReviewer: Tracy
What the Heart Wants by Jeanell Bolton
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: September 2nd 2014
Add It: Goodreads
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two-half-stars

The love he left behind . . .

Laurel Harlow was once the princess of Bosque Bend, Texas: every door was open to the only daughter of the beloved minister and his well-bred wife. Then scandal rocked their family-and those same doors slammed shut. Now preparing the family mansion for sale, Laurel wants nothing more than to put the past behind her and move on. But when Jase Redlander appears on her doorstep, sixteen years after he left her heartbroken, she can't turn him away . . . especially when he needs her help.

. . . is the only thing worth coming home for

Jase never intended to come back to this one-horse town. But then his teenage daughter runs away, headed straight for Bosque Bend and the woman he once loved. The moment Jase sees Laurel again, he knows he never should have left all those years ago. There's a secret she's keeping from him, though-he's certain of it. Over the course of sunny days and sultry nights, Jase aims to find out what it is. And this time he'll show Laurel that this bad boy can be the man of her dreams . . . if she'll let him.

 

Tracy’s review of What the Heart Wants by Jeanell Bolton

Laurel was always the popular girl in high school. She was beautiful and her family had prestige and money. Now she’s 31 years old and all of that has changed. Her father did something awful and the town hates Laurel because of it. Both her father and mother have died so she’s the only one left to hate apparently. She has no money and now has no job.

Jase is the boy from the other side of the tracks who used to come in and get counseling from Laurel’s father, who was a minister. Jase and Laurel would talk while he waited for his appointment and the pair grew closer. Jase was only 16 to Laurel’s 15. When Jase is accused of attacking a teacher he’s run out of town and never heard from again.

Laurel is shocked when Jase shows up on her doorstep looking for his 15 year old daughter. While concerned for his daughter, Laurel feels all of the love she felt all those years ago bubbling up inside – as does Jase. They begin an affair and Jase is determined to have Laurel by his side for the rest of his life. That is, until he finds out what her father did and he can’t look at Laurel without thinking about her father. Needless to say, the relationship hits the skids and neither Laurel nor Jase knows where it might end up.

While this story kept my attention throughout, I didn’t feel at the end of the book as if I’d gotten all that I needed from the story.

Jase and Laurel still had feelings for each other after all the years of separation, I got that but they so quickly fell back in love when really they had no idea who the other person was as an adult. Laurel was a complete mystery to Jase but that didn’t seem to faze him. When he did find out all of the details he turned, imho, into a complete ass. Here he was lecturing his young daughter about how he is not like his horrible father and that she isn’t like her horrible mother, they are individuals, but yet he can’t separate Laurel from her father. I wanted to smack the man multiple times.

IDK I think I just didn’t feel the love between the two strongly enough to believe it all. My heart ached for Laurel and all that she was going through but she was a very strong woman and I had to admire her for sticking in there as long as she did in a town that hated her. When Jase does come back to her I certainly don’t think he groveled enough for my liking. He truly needed to get down on his hands and knees and beg her. The fact that she stated they needed to take it slow made me happy. In the end I found the story to be just ok.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

This title is available from Forever Yours. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

two-half-stars


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Review: Wild by Sophie Jordan

Posted December 4, 2014 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins

wild
Rowena’s review of Wild (The Ivy Chronicles #3) by Sophie Jordan.

A good girl goes fabulously bad in the final book in New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan’s sexy New Adult romance series, in which three Ivy League suite-mates seek higher knowledge of just how far they can go.

Months after her boyfriend dumped her, Georgia can still hear the insults he hurled at her. Boring. Predictable. Tame. Tired of feeling bad, she’s ready to change her image, and go a little wild. What better way to prove her ex wrong than a hot night of sexual adventure at the secret campus kink club?

In the shadowy den of the kink club, she unexpectedly runs into Logan Mulvaney, her friend’s little brother. A player extraordinaire too hot for his own good, he may be younger, but the guy is light years ahead when it comes to sexual experience. Now he’s telling her to go home—“good girls” don’t belong here!

Georgia is tired of having others define her. She’s going to teach Logan a lesson he won’t forget—one white hot, mind-wrecking kiss . . . that leads to another . . . and another . . . and. . . . Realizing she’s way in over her head, Georgia runs.

Only Logan won’t let her go. Everywhere she goes he’s there, making her want every inch of him. Making her forget who she is. Who he is. And just how wrong they are for each other.

This is the final book in the Ivy Chronicles trilogy and it was also my least favorite of the bunch. That makes me sad because I have been looking forward to Logan’s book. I LOVE Logan and I still absolutely adored him in this book but holy crap did Georgia drive me crazy.

I’m going to jump into my thoughts on the book since the blurb for this book explains everything you need to know about the story.

I’m not going to lie, there were times when I thought I was going to put this book down for good because I wanted to punch Georgia in the throat. Every time she got caught with Logan, I wanted to smack the hell out of her. Every time she denied her feelings at Logan’s expense, I wanted to karate chop her in the kneecaps. Logan had some serious feelings for this girl and I hate that it took her so freaking long to come into her own. By the time she finally did, I wasn’t relieved. I rolled my eyes down the street because I was like, “FINALLY!” It took Harrison coming back into her life and her parents trying to force them together again for her to freaking take a stand? Ugh.

My main thing was that Georgia lied to everyone about how she felt about Logan, including herself. Lie to everyone until you come to terms with your feelings but quit lying to yourself. Respect yourself enough to be honest with yourself. I hated that she let her Mom run her life. I get that they were paying for your education and your life but dude, speak up for yourself. I thought it took her far too long to get to the point where she was comfortable enough in her own skin to speak up.

But Logan? Loved him. He kept me invested in the outcome of this story. I wanted more for him than the little scraps of love that Georgia would give him. My heart broke for him every time Georgia denied what they were doing to their group of friends. She made him look like a beast in front of his family (well, his brother and brother’s girlfriend) because she was too strong to be honest with THEM. It’s one thing to hide things from your family but your friends? Hello, that’s why you have friends. If you can’t be honest with them, who can you be honest with? Ugh.

I’m glad that things worked out the way that they did, for Logan. I wanted him to get his happy ending and even though I was beginning to think I wanted it to be with someone else, I’m glad that Georgia finally wised up. So this is a tricky one to grade because my heart is completely Logan’s. I loved him enough to give this book a 3 because damn, he was freaking fantastic.

Grade: 3 out of 5

Reading order:

This book is available from Avon. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.


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