Romance

The Carhart Series by Courtney Milan

The Carhart Series

The Carhart Series by Courtney Milan

Blurb:

This Wicked Gift: Lavinia Spencer is too poor to be anything but practical. But when her younger brother lands himself in trouble, she has no choice but to do the unthinkable. She accepts the help of the dishonorable man that she’s always wanted, even knowing that it might mean her ruination…

Proof by Seduction: When Gareth Carhart discovers that his vulnerable young cousin is seeing a fortune teller, he vows to prove her a fraud. But he soon discovers that Jenny Keeble is far more than she appears to be, and before he knows it, he’s caught in her spell…

Trial by Desire: Lady Kate Carhart has no use for the husband who left her years ago. But when he returns, disrupting her carefully-laid plans, she has no choice but to distract him…any way she can.

Review:

I hate to say it but this is easily my least favorite Courtney Milan series. Two full length books and a novella, they each had a strong heroine very accepting of their flawed men, and they each had men I couldn’t really stand.

The Wicked Gift had the “hero” pressuring the heroine into sex and while you learn later that he didn’t actually, it still didn’t sit well with me. It ended up being the story I liked the most.

Proof by Seduction once again had a strong heroine, that knew her mind, and was completely capable of taking care of herself. This time the hero was an ass that knew that he was better than everyone and made it very obvious. He didn’t listen to the heroine and ended up annoying the shit out of me.

Trial by Desire was the book I was looking forward to the most. The hero had been in the previous book and he seemed lovable and the fact that he had depression just endeared him to me further. Unfortunately, this book takes place three years after the last which was apparently enough time for the hero to become his own unique ass. I liked that the couple were already married and learning to live with each other, and once again the heroine was great, but I couldn’t get over how much I disliked the hero.

3/5

A Prince of Paper

A Prince on Paper

A Prince of Paper (Reluctant Royals #3) By: Alyssa Cole

Plot:

The Reluctant Royals series returns with a good girl searching for the life that’s not too big, and not too small, and the bad boy prince who might be just right for her…

Nya Jerami fled Thesolo for the glitz and glamour of NYC but discovered that her Prince Charming only exists in her virtual dating games. When Nya returns home for a royal wedding, she accidentally finds herself up close and personal—in bed—with the real-life celebrity prince who she loves to hate.

For Johan von Braustein, the red-headed step-prince of Liechtienbourg, acting as paparazzi bait is a ruse that protects his brother—the heir to the throne—and his own heart. When a royal referendum threatens his brother’s future, a fake engagement is the perfect way to keep the cameras on him.

Nya and Johan both have good reasons to avoid love, but as desires are laid bare behind palace doors, they must decide if their fake romance will lead to a happily-ever-after.

Review:

Johan has lived the last decade of his life trying to make the life of his younger sibling better. He wanted to make sure they didn’t suffer the same way that he had done, but by doing that he sacrificed a lot of his own happiness and smothered them in the process.

Nya is trying to figure out who she is and what she wants. She wants love, but struggles with all the abuse her father subjected her too. She’s grown stronger, but doubts herself in some things.

These two are beautiful together. I cried through a lot of this book, especially the ending. I loved seeing Nya stand up for herself. My heart broke for all the pain that Johan was in and I only wanted to hit him upside the head once. They were perfect for each other and I’m very glad that Cole didn’t make the video game into a huge hurdle, they were adults and acted like it. Loved!

5/5

Blessed by Malakai

Blessed by Malakai

Blessed by Malakai (To Marry a Madden #1) By: Sherelle Green

Plot:

Every man has his weakness. For prominent painter and sculptor Malakai Madden, that weakness has always been women. Now, he’s finally ready to settle down and shower one woman with his love. There’s just one major problem. Overnight, he’s gained thousands of Twitter followers after his obsessive ex decides to leak some private information. To make matters worse, a well-known media source retweets them! Suddenly, every woman wants a piece of Malakai. And when the #BlessedByMalakai hashtag starts trending, he’s dodging women left and right, and blocking his crotch like he’s secret service securing the president. If he’s ever going to get his life back and find his future wife, he needs to solve this problem and he needs to solve it fast!

Image consultant Avery Nightingale can’t believe she’s landed a meeting with a huge potential client. She knows all about the #BlessedByMalakai hashtag and she’s ready to pitch her ideas. However, when she meets the man behind the Twitter legend, she’s rendered speechless and Mr. Make You Moan is not impressed. He agrees to hire her on one condition. Avery must promise not to feed into the social media craze as others have failed to accomplish before her. She agrees. After all, it’s just one rule, right?

Review:

Malakai loves sex with women, a lot. So he’s spent a fair amount of time perfecting his technique and he’s really good at it. Since it’s surprisingly not common to go the extra mile in this area he stands out. When an ex finds out, from his own mouth, he’s ready to settle down she posts a dick pic she’s taken without his permission to Twitter and shit blows up.

I couldn’t help but feel bad for what happened to him but because of a time skip you didn’t really deal with much of his emotions on the violation. The woman who did it ended up having a restraining order brought against her, but Malakai had to deal with women going crazy and his world being turned upside down.

Enter Avery a Tennessee woman recently moved to NYC to start up her PR company. She has followed Malakai’s art career since they were both teenagers, though, not in a creepy way. Honestly, it just skirted the line there for me, but only because of all that he’d already had to deal with.

The attraction is instant, they try and keep things professional, mostly succeed, until he gives her, her first sex stimulated orgasm. That revelation actually surprised me, especially when it’s later revealed that Avery’s ex-fiancé cheated on her with her sister. She’s moved past it and is happy her sister has found love, but how could you say that knowing that your sister is probably not having orgasms? It was just kind of weird and that side of things never addressed or commented on.

They’re both amazing well-adjusted people for having gone through some fairly unique experiences, definitely way more forgiving than I could have been. Malakai and Avery were much more serious than the characters in Single AF, and I kind of missed the crazy lol. I’m curious to see what Green has in store for the other brothers though.

3/5

Single AF

Single AF

Single AF (Social Experiment #1) By: Sherelle Green

Plot:

SINGLE: Unmarried or not involved in a stable relationship.

MEEKA
The pure term ‘being single’ makes me want to gag every time I hear it. To me, the worst part is the fact that you’re constantly reminded of your status. Like, do you really think I can forget I’m single? I’ve dated more Mr. Wrong’s than I can count, and now, the network that I work for wants me to share my messed up dating history with the world. To make matters more humiliating, my arch nemesis — aka Mr. Missed Opportunity — has a front row seat to my walking, talking mistakes.

TONE
To say working with Meeka on this assignment is bound to go badly, would be an understatement. We’ve never gotten along, and I have a good reason for staying clear. Everything about her screams … extra! So, of course when our network needs me to assist her with her project, I’m intrigued to hear what her exes have to say about their past relationship. Maybe I’ll get some insight into her character or validate my assumptions. Or unbeknownst to me, I might just find myself connecting with this loud, crazy woman more than I ever thought I would. They say don’t mix business with pleasure. Funny, I never liked that rule.

Review:

This book is worth reading for the first chapter alone. It’s freaking hilarious! I actually found it because Alyssa Cole tweeted about the first sentence and that sold me.

Meeka was…honestly people kept calling her crazy but she was not at all. She was a planner and a dreamer and I related to her a lot. She was maybe a bit too eager at times, but I loved her. Her ratchet rhymes had me laughing so hard.

Tone was HOT. Incredibly attractive inside and out and a worthy match to Meeka. I loved that he was willing to fight for her, not just take on an evil ex, but when she learned something that he should have told her earlier he wasn’t just going to let their new relationship drop. He was also willing to give her space to process and was just all around perfect. It was wonderful especially after seeing the losers she’d dated. She deserved to find a prince.

My only real complaint with the book was that it moved really fast and I wished the ex-boyfriends had been fleshed out more and there’d been more of them. It was over way too fast, but I’ve already got another book by Green purchased and ready on my kindle, so at least I’ve got that to look forward too.

4.5/5

Crazy Rich Asians

Crazy Rich Asians Book

Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians #1) By: Kevin Kwan

Plot:

Crazy Rich Asians is the outrageously funny debut novel about three super-rich, pedigreed Chinese families and the gossip, backbiting, and scheming that occurs when the heir to one of the most massive fortunes in Asia brings home his ABC (American-born Chinese) girlfriend to the wedding of the season.
When Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home, long drives to explore the island, and quality time with the man she might one day marry. What she doesn’t know is that Nick’s family home happens to look like a palace, that she’ll ride in more private planes than cars, and that with one of Asia’s most eligible bachelors on her arm, Rachel might as well have a target on her back. Initiated into a world of dynastic splendor beyond imagination, Rachel meets Astrid, the It Girl of Singapore society; Eddie, whose family practically lives in the pages of the Hong Kong socialite magazines; and Eleanor, Nick’s formidable mother, a woman who has very strong feelings about who her son should–and should not–marry. Uproarious, addictive, and filled with jaw-dropping opulence, Crazy Rich Asians is an insider’s look at the Asian JetSet; a perfect depiction of the clash between old money and new money; between Overseas Chinese and Mainland Chinese; and a fabulous novel about what it means to be young, in love, and gloriously, crazily rich.

Review:

I watched the movie before reading the book, so I was expecting the movie only a bit more. The movie, in my opinion, is a romance but it’s also about an American Chinese woman returning to her roots. I didn’t get that from the book.

Crazy Rich Asians the book was much more fragmented than the movie. You saw into the lives of a lot more characters and if possible you saw a lot more wealth. There were numbers constantly being thrown at you, the price of clothing and real estate, the wealth of someone, both current and projected. It was a lot.

There was more insight into the culture of the people and area, but not so much Rachel returning to her roots. It was more these wealthy people do this thing and if you don’t meet this criteria then they will ignore you or treat you this way. Or this person is doing this thing so that the outside world thinks this about them. It was interesting, but also hard to take seriously because everything revolved around money and wealth and appearances to an insane and calculated degree.

Everyone was a lot less empathetic. Nick, who already seemed so delusional when it comes to his family, was even more so. Rachel was a lot more emotional and weak. My favorite scene in the movie wasn’t in the book at all. The entire ending of the book was quite a bit different from the movie and I feel like the movie made it much more approachable for my American sensibilities.

Honestly, I wasn’t a fan of the book, which really disappointed me. I don’t plan on reading the further books, but I’ll watch any further movies. Crazy Rich Asians, the book, was really light on the romance and discovery of self that I loved about the movie.

2/5