ARC Review: Mad Love 2 by Colet Abedi

I have been waiting for what feels like forever to get the sequel to Mad Love by Colet Abedi. So when I heard that we were finally getting Mad Love 2, I could not have been more excited. Mad Love ended with a cliffhanger, and I needed to know what would happen for Clayton and Sophie. Mad Love 2 is the continuation of their story, and it does need to be read in order. So if you haven't already read Mad Love, there will be spoilers below. 

After her whirlwind romance in the Maldives with Clayton Sinclair, Sophie returns home broken hearted when she sees pictures of him with his ex-girlfriend splashed across the covers of magazines. So when her best friend lands her a job in the south of France, she views it as her chance to start the rest of her life. But upon arrival, Sophie finds out that things were too good to be true and is forced to face Clayton once again. The chemistry between them is as strong as ever, and soon Sophie finds herself unable to fight the feelings between them. But when a family tragedy happens, Clayton shuts her out and Sophie must make the choice between letting go of him once and for all, or fighting for a future together. 

I really loved Clayton and Sophie in Mad Love. The chemistry and connection between them is undeniable. Things between them happened very quickly, yet it always felt so real. Unfortunately for most of this book though they each drove me nuts. Sophie was a constant blubbering mess, and she came off as very weak here. There were a few times that she seemed to finally gain some strength, but it wasn't enough for me. Clayton was so hot and cold here, and I felt like he never really warmed up fully to Sophie. He did open up more here, but it still wasn't much. Plus to be honest he was way too controlling and acted like a jerk for the majority of this book. I just had trouble really seeing an actual relationship happening rather than just constant circling which would end up in them fighting and pushing each other away. It was mostly Clayton doing it here, but Sophie wasn't the best either. These two were just as hot together as ever, and that was the one place that they never struggled. But when it came to believing that these two had a real and believable relationship that felt steady and stable, I never did believe that here. 

Overall, I have to say that I was a bit disappointed here. I expected to feel better about Sophie and Clayton, and for the most part I would say that things were even more unstable in this book than they were in the first. I kept waiting for these two to finally come around and it just didn't ever really seem to get there. Though I did like some things about the ending, it still felt unfinished to me. It was definitely more of a happy for now with things still up in the air, than a finished series. I would have liked an epilogue or a few more chapters to really finish things off here. I also had some issues with the book itself when it came to the writing. There were several times that it would basically stop in the middle of something and switch to another time or location with no warning at all. It was disorienting and the transitions were almost non-existent. It really disrupted the flow of the story to have to try and figure out how in one paragraph Sophie and Clayton were together, yet the next Sophie was with someone else completely in another location or time. Those issues along with the characters and lack of development here were what unfortunately sealed the deal here for me. As much as I wanted this book to be as great as the first one and to give Sophie and Clayton the ending they deserved, I just never saw it and was left disappointed and wanting more. This one had so much promise and I really loved the first book, but this wasn't the ending that I had been hoping for or expecting.

**ARC Provided by Inkslinger PR**

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Review: Madly In Love by Colet Abedi

Madly In Love by Colet Abedi is a very short story meant to catch readers up on what has happened to Sophie since she left the Maldives. This takes place after Mad Love, but before Mad Love 2 and should be read after readers have finished the first book. I was expecting this to be a new story, and to help set us up for the next book. However, this one seemed to mostly rehash everything that had happened in the first book.

Madly In Love was filled with flashbacks of her time with Clayton, and how she felt before everything was shattered. There were some scenes from the present, with Sophie heartbroken and leaning on Eric and Orie. They did their best to cheer her up, but it was only a few pages between flashbacks, and unfortunately didn't seem to really add much to the story. If you are looking for a refresher before starting Mad Love 2, this might be of interest to you. But honestly I didn't really think that it added much to the story or that it was necessary to enjoy this series.

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Review: Mad Love by Colet Abedi

I will admit that when I first started reading this book, I wondered what I had gotten myself into. I was fearing the worst and honestly thought that I wasn't going to like it. But I am so glad that I kept reading because I ended up really liking Mad Love. It held my interest and was engaging after the first few chapters, and I didn't want to put it down after that. I will tell you that there was one surprise that I wasn't expecting that really irritated me though and that is that this is not a standalone book. It is said nowhere that this story ends with a cliffhanger, and I haven't been able to find out how many more books there will be. I do know that there will be at least one more, but there is no release date at this time.

When 23 year old Sophie Walker's life begins to fall apart she asks her best friends to go with her on a vacation to the Maldives. She just broke up with her boyfriend Jerry, deciding that no matter how good of friends they are she can't be in a relationship with no passion. She also informs her parents that she doesn't want to be a lawyer, but instead wants to pursue her art. When she arrives in paradise she is expecting to get away not to be immediately drawn to the handsome and enigmatic Clayton Sinclair. Clayton is rich and decides that he wants Sophie and will stop at nothing to have her. Sophie quickly realizes that she is out of her league though, and questions how Clayton could want someone like her. But Clayton and Sophie are drawn to each other like they have never experienced before, and Sophie finally finds the passion that was missing from her life. But can Sophie and Clayton possibly have anything real between them when their time in paradise is limited and there is still much that they don't know about each other?

I will say that I didn't like Clayton at all when we first meet him in Mad Love. He was cocky and arrogant and came off as a complete ass. As you get to know him better and see more of his character though he really grows on you. He is a straight up possessive alpha, but he was also a lot more than that. You could tell that he was used to getting his way and being able to make any woman his with little effort. He was out of his depth with the feisty Sophie though, and it was good to see him have to work for it a bit. Sophie was feisty and fun, but she was also insecure and vulnerable. She didn't see what could possibly draw someone like Clayton to her and it made her act irrationally at times. But I think part of that was due to her age, and she should have spent more time discussing her fears and insecurities with Clayton. I also felt like she made some snap decisions that weren't the best, and she could have seriously benefited from better communication. That seemed to be her biggest problem. I thought that Clayton and Sophie had a lot of chemistry and I liked that they seemed to fit well together. I do think that the majority of their connection was physical though, and I would have liked to have seen them have a stronger emotional bond than I saw develop in this one. I think that they were on their way to more though, and I think that regardless of how this book ended that there is a lot more to their story.

Besides being absolutely blindsided by the ending cliffhanger, I also thought that this book was a bit on the overdone and cliched side. Don't get me wrong I liked the story, but honestly once I got into this one and saw that it was a virgin and billionaire story I rolled my eyes a bit. The one thing that was different this time though was the age difference between them. I haven't read any before that had an eleven year age gap, and I think that is part of what helped me to get over how similar this story was to others. I felt that added a new twist to the same old thing, and it will be interesting to see how that comes into play in the next book. I think that is part of why Sophie and Clayton's actions drove me nuts, because they both act a bit young at times and I felt like they both needed to do some growing up. I have to say though that Sophie's best friend Erik and his boyfriend Orie were so much fun! I freaking loved those two, and they absolutely made this story! I hope we get a ton more of them in the next book. I really did end up enjoying this book, and that is why the ending annoyed me so much. At that point I was so invested in the story, that I felt a bit betrayed that I had no warning. It was like the floor just fell out from underneath me. I really hope that the next book comes out soon, because I need to know what happens next for Clayton and Sophie. To me this story had a bit of a 50 Shades feel, but in a NA kind of way. I would definitely give it a shot if you are a NA fan and like your heroes to be all alpha all the time. I will be anxiously awaiting the next part of the story, and look forward to reading more from Colet Abedi in the future.

**Review Copy Provided by Inkslinger PR**

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