ARC Review: Morrison by Chelsea Camaron and MJ Fields

Morrison is a decent book in terms of writing and the set up of the story but certain things about the language used and the characters attitudes were off putting. This is the second book in the Caldwell series, the first book was about Morrison's brother Hendrix (you can read out of order). I read some of the reviews of Hendrix and people seemed to really enjoy that one, I would give this author another try and pick up Hendrix even though I didn't love Morrison.

Morrison is a gambler, that's how he makes his money. He is very successful at it and divides his time between Detroit (the home team, yay for that) and Vegas where he earns income. Morrison had a tough upbringing and had to watch his mother suffer a great deal of violence at the hands of his father. He naturally has a protective instinct when it comes to women in distress. Enter Hailey. Hailey lost a bet and wound up basically trading her life as payment for the one bet. Hailey married the man she lost the bet to when she was 17 years old and from that point on, he constantly found ways to keep her in his debt and always owing.

I had to remind myself (a lot) that Hailey's mother had her as a teen prostitute when she got pregnant by her pimp and Hailey just didn't know any better. I had to remind myself of this because Hailey's way of dealing with her "husband" just didn't make any sense to me. He was charging her for every basic thing anybody might get out of a marriage. Most significantly, when Hailey gave birth to his child, he was adding every expense he paid on behalf of HIS daughter to Hailey's tab. As a result of his behavior and that of her pimp/father, Hailey developed this belief that every single thing had to be paid back. It was extremely difficult for her to let anybody do anything for her (especially a man) because she didn't want to pick up more debt. However, things with Hailey's "husband" go left and she is in a desperate situation that she couldn't get out of without help. Enter Morrison.

Morrison...is kind of an a-hole based on the description of his internal thoughts. At one point he is dividing women into these really inane categories like platinum pu--y, settled a-s, dominant a-s, first class etc. It was some super douche type ish and I had a problem just liking him right from the beginning of the book. I wanted to jump into the book and gut punch him when he makes the comment "If you don't want the Caldwell cocktail, you better stop." This was in reference to him being about to make a deposit in Hailey's oral bank. If a man ever said anything like that to me, I would be totally unable to control my bite reflex. So yeah, Morrison was completely annoying at certain parts of the book.

The thing that really didn't make sense to me was how quickly Morrison was all in when it came to rescuing Hailey and her daughter from a terrible situation. Then, I didn't get Hailey's reaction to being rescued. I mean, you would've thought she would be overjoyed but instead she was rude to Morrison and perfectly nice to everyone else. Also, I have to mention the fact that Hailey left her 3 year old daughter with Morrison while she went to work after she had known him for like a day. I didn't even see any mention that she checked the sex offender registry before she left her kid with a stranger. I just did not get that.

The book moves at a pretty good pace, the sex scenes are pretty good and the supporting characters were interesting. Unfortunately Hailey, Morrison and the things they said annoyed me enough that this isn't one of my favorite reads.

**ARC provided by Publisher**

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ARC Review: Irons by M.J. Fields

Irons is the first book that I have ever read by M.J. Fields, but this one sounded so good that I just couldn't pass it up. I was really looking forward to the sexy soldier falling for his best friend's little sister and them helping each other heal and deal with the pain of losing him together. At first I really thought that I was going to love this book. But as the story continued, this book fell apart and turned into a mess. I was honestly so frustrated and confused by the end that I really didn't know how it had even got to that point with the way the story started.

Jax was born into a military family, and it was his legacy to continue to serve his country. He attended the Naval academy to become a pilot like his father and grandfather along with his best friend Will. But after Will is killed, he returns home and must face things with Will's family. Will's sister Francesca (Frankie) has always liked Jax, and decides to let him know before he leaves how she feels. Still being young and in high school, Jax lets her down easy and heads out to live for a year in Florida. Three years later, Jax still hasn't moved on from Florida and he also hasn't been able to forget his feelings for Frankie. When he comes across her a few times, he knows that he should stay away but they both find it hard to fight what is between them any longer. But they both must deal with the motivations behind their feelings as well as the past. Things between them are anything but easy, but can they find a way to make it through together?

I could not connect with Frankie at all. This chick was a hot mess. She was immature and was constantly acting like a child. I realize that she had lost her brother, but I honestly didn't understand why she was the way she was. I liked that she was committed to finding a way to help others in a way that she couldn't help her brother. I thought that it was a great cause and a worthy direction for her future. But I just didn't like her and didn't like how hot and cold she ran. Jax was likable but he felt like a huge contradiction to me. He was supposed to be this player bad boy that of course didn't do relationships. He initially fights what is between him and Frankie, but then suddenly a switch flips and he is just changed. It didn't work and wasn't believable to me at all. I found myself really questioning which him was the real him, the past or the present. The relationship between Frankie and Jax should have been a clear connection with their shared history and the feelings between them, but honestly the whole thing felt forced to me. While there was attraction and chemistry between them, I felt like there was also a lack of steam.

Another big problem for me was that the story itself was confusing and hard to keep up with. It felt rushed and would seem to jump around a lot. Often times the scenes almost seemed to end abruptly or be cut short. It was hard to figure out what was happening or where the story was going. Then about half way through the book it seemed like the author starting just throwing in random things for drama and to increase the suspense. The story already was complicated, and I felt like that was just too much. It wasn't clear where things were leading, but I kept reading hoping to find out what happened at the end. I knew this was the first book in the series, however I had no idea that the ending was a cliffhanger. After going through everything, the lack of ending was what really sealed the deal on my rating. I just couldn't believe that we had gone through all that for a non ending that will continue in another book. This one already felt forced and I didn't like the characters, so I really had no interest in seeing what would happen after finishing this one and it being left open. Honestly this book just didn't work for me from start to finish. I was hoping for more but in my opinion it didn't deliver.

**ARC Provided by Xpresso Book Tours**

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