Ramblings From This Chick

Monday, July 27, 2015

Guest Post with Author Christine Warner

Meet Christine Warner author of A Friendly Engagement.

Christine Warner is living her dream in Michigan along with her husband, three children, one laptop and a much loved assortment of furry friends.

Besides laughing and a good round of humor, she enjoys spending time with her family, cooking, reading, writing but no arithmitic. A confessed people watcher, she finds inspiration for her stories in everyday activities. She loves to read and write about strong heroes and determined, sometimes sassy, heroines.

A girl gone wild, at least where social media is concerned, she enjoys meeting other avid readers and writers on facebook, twitter and her website.

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Sunday, July 26, 2015

The Taming of the Billionaire by Jessica Clare

You know how if you saw a blind monkey riding a tricycle with two wheels down the street during rush hour you would think to yourself, ‘well this sh!t won’t end well?’ That’s the feeling you get from the set up to Edie and Magnus’ relationship. And just like you wouldn’t be able to take your eyes off that poor monkey headed for disaster, it’s hard to put this book down. I don’t want to spoil anything for you but the way that Edie and Magnus come together has “disaster ahead” written all over it. But OH IS THE ENDING WORTH IT.

Edie is a self-described…cat lady. Like she has a bunch of mothereffing cats…7 to be exact. She’s a bit young for the cat lady moniker but she injured herself and had to give up her life dreams and become more of a…cat person. I don’t know. What I do know is that the EXCESSIVE references to cat hair and cats in this book had my nose running, my skin itching and my eyes watering like a cat was in the room with me. For someone with a cat allergy, like me, there were just too many damn cats in this book. Wait…what was I talking about? Oh yeah, Edie. Beyond having too many cats, Edie was also a self described b!tch. She was described that way by several other people in the book too. Edie was a little abrasive but that wasn’t off putting to me at all. Maybe because nothing is as off putting to me as a harem of cats? Her reactions seemed appropriate to me given that several other characters in the book were just a-holes who deserved to get flipped the bird as Edie often did.

Magnus is a video game developer/billionaire who initially comes off as an a-hole but later seems like a genuinely nice guy. For reasons that I can’t fathom, Magnus is turned on by everything about Edie that makes other people stare at her in horror. He loves how she interacts with her cat brothel. He finds her rudeness refreshing and sees it as covering for her extreme sensitivity. He thinks her limp makes her hips jut out in a sexy way. Seriously, if this chick had a mole the size of of a baby giraffe, Magnus would be like ‘aww, I love giraffes.’ Anyway, I’m not knocking him for any of that. It is true romance when someone can love you through the crazy that makes other people avoid direct eye contact with you.

I really liked the relationship between these two characters (even though it was littered with cat hair). There is a sweetness to their development as a couple that is compelling. I like the way their histories emerge in the story and how they both realize that they are in unhealthy relationships with their siblings. I love the accommodations Magnus makes for Edie and I really love how he does it inconspicuously so she doesn’t feel like he thinks she needs help. Edie and Magnus’ siblings, Bianca and Levi, play co-starring roles in this book. They are both crazy as hell but their shenanigans adds extra flavor to the story without overshadowing it.

The end of the book when all the secrets are revealed is my favorite part. Oh and don’t think you know what secrets I’m talking about because the author has a few tricks up her sleeve. I enjoyed the ultimate resolution and honestly that’s what boosted this book into the realm of really good in my mind. I almost didn’t make it through the cat hair, really. If you think I’m over-emphasizing the amount of cat ish in this book, multiply what I’m saying by 12 and you’ll have an idea of how prevalent cats are in this story. I’m glad I stuck it out and finished this book though because on top of a really sweet romance, there was smoking HAWT sex (how did I almost forget that?).

I had to think long and hard about my numerical rating of this book. For me, the cats and Edie’s description (she wore baggie clothes and two Laura Ingles braids behind her ears, I mean REALLY!) make this a 3 star book. If I remove the cats from the calculation and focus on the things I like about Edie, this might actually be a 5 star book. I’m splitting the difference and giving it 4 stars. If you’re a cat person, this will totally be a 5 star read for you.

**ARC provided by Publisher**

ARC Review: Drunk on You by Teri Anne Stanley

Drunk on You is my first book by Teri Anne Stanley. I was drawn in immediately with the blurb though as it had pretty much every single box checked when it comes to my favorite tropes. There was a lot to like in this contemporary romance, but I found myself having a few issues with the story. As much as I wanted to love this story, it just wasn't for me.

Allie has been in love with Greg Morgan for years. Their families have always been close since they co-own a distillery together. Greg was her older brother's best friend, and she always wanted to be with him. But when Greg and Dave are overseas serving their country, a tragic event takes Dave from them. Greg made Dave a promise to look out for Allie, and he knows part of that meant that she was off limits. But when Greg comes face to face with Allie, he knows that keeping his promise will be harder than ever when he sees the beautiful woman she has become. Allie is determined to make her newest idea for the distillery a success, even if it goes against what the family thinks. When Greg gets injured and she has to help him out, she views it as the perfect chance to get his help with her project. But along the way, Allie realizes that she still wants Greg as much as she did and she finds herself wanting more than just success when it comes to the company. But can she finally get Greg to see her as more than his best friend's little sister?

I had a tough time relating to these characters, and honestly I didn't really feel invested in their story at all. Greg drank a lot, and he didn't really seem to have much in the way of redeeming qualities to me. He always called every girl in his life the same pet names and said they were his girl, and he never really seemed to grasp that it was a big deal to Allie or the others he said it to. I just didn't really ever get to the point that he won me over. He seemed to be drowning himself in bourbon and not willing to ever man up and grow up. He was reckless and I just didn't care for it. Allie was hopelessly in love with Greg, and she pretty much gave in to him at the drop of a hat. Then he would do or say something to irritate her, and she would push him away with no explanation. These two needed to talk to one another about everything, and they never really did. While they had chemistry and a long connection by growing up together, I didn't really ever feel that these two had a forever love kind of connection. They didn't even really say how they felt until right at the end of the book and by then it was too little too late.

It took me awhile to get into this story, and even then I was often bored and wanting to skim a lot. The characters said and did things that to me were way older than their ages, often using expressions that came off as inaccurate for their age group. That along with the repetitious dialogue and thoughts of the characters just caused this book to drag and for me to lose interest. While there were some sweet moments that I enjoyed, this one overall was just a miss for me. I think that there are readers out there that will enjoy this book, but sadly this one fell flat in my opinion. Also, for some reason the blurb is showing that the character's name is Justin Morgan for some reason and yet the ARC I had the character's name is Greg Morgan. I'm not sure if the character's name was changed or if it is a mistake, but the rest of the blurb sounds like the story is the same.

**ARC Provided by Publisher**

Feature and Giveaway: Caged by Lorelei James

In the searing fourth novel in the Mastered Series, following Unraveled, only one woman can set a hardened fighter free from his past.…

In order to survive a life of tragedy, Deacon McConnell embraced his roughest edges and learned to fight on the streets. Then a life-changing jujitsu seminar led by Sensei Ronin Black led Deacon to become a professional fighter. With his muscular physique and his body covered in tattoos and scars, the MMA fighter defines mean, both on and off the mat.

But everything changes when innocent Molly Calloway signs up for his kickboxing class. Molly is Deacon’s opposite in every way: She’s kind, sweet, thoughtful, and educated. After a heated argument between them turns into a passionate encounter, Deacon realizes Molly is eager to experience more, and she looks to him to take her to the darker edge of lust....

The last thing either of them expects is how deeply their lives will be thrown upside down by the passion they find together.

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