3.5 Pretty good story...loved parts of it 3.5
922800
Who'd have thought the world of bibliophiles could be downright exciting?  My heart was actually thumping at the final auction at Sotheby's.  Go figure.....but everything about this world fascinated me.  Made for an unusual story.

At 16, Cain was thrown out of his home by his crazy father after being accused of a heinous deed by said crazy father.  Juliana was brought up as a bastard in seclusion at her guardian's knee.  The guardian, an avid book-collector, gave her the only education she had, that of a bibliophile.  Meanwhile, Cain was learning to be a rake extraordinaire.

That's the nuts and bolts of the background.  Fast-forward eight years and it's lust at first sight.  They *did* like each other, thankfully, and the numerous sex scenes were saved from monotony by splashes of humor.  Sometimes they worked for me, sometimes not.  Actually, I began skimming them.

I liked the H and h.  Happily, he hadn't littered the countryside with illegitimate children.  The h was sensible, except when she leapt into bed with the H a bit too soon for my tastes.  But that's just me.

The mysteries wandered a little, but I liked them.  In general, a pretty good book and sets the stage for what I've been told is a very good series.  I look forward to reading the next Burgundy Club title.

I've noticed Ms. Neville's writing has consistently become tighter.  Her latest release, THE DUKE OF DARK DESIRES, is great!

Enjoy your reading! :)
1611141
This was my first time reading this author, and I liked her writing, though I did find that this story was a bit long. Both Grayson and Sam have issues in their past to deal with (so you get the typical NA angsty storyline), a critical one in Grayson's case that makes him a bit of a hot and cold character depending on where he is (at college, or at home) in the story. As a couple I liked the two of them together, and they shared some steamy scenes on the path to true love. They both have to confront their pasts to move forward. There are several interesting secondary characters and I quite enjoyed the camaraderie between the men (though Grayson's family were definitely polarizing individuals). 3.5 stars.
1589525
I liked this story for the most part. Though I didn't like Landon at all in the beginning, I began to like him more. He showed there was a depth to him, and compassion.

The only thing I really didn't like was the fact that this young, barely out of college woman was teaching high school students, one of which she had had a previous relationship with.

The story is well-written, with interesting characters, though at times they seemed a bit immature, even for the ages they were supposed to be. I did love Emma's sister with Downs Syndrome. The scenes with her and, later, her boyfriend were some of the best in the book.

I listened to the audio version and the narrator did a good job, enhancing the story. I liked this story well enough that I may eventually read the others in the series.
1508337
There was a lot to like about this book. The story kept me engaged. Alex was well-drawn as well as Dane. I was not a fan of the graphic sex, but that's just my personal preference. I thought the secondary characters could have been better developed. The parents were pure evil. Even hardened criminals have a few good points. The best friend seemed to be more of a vehicle to progress the story than a real person. The book could stand another trip past the proofreader. But I really did enjoy the story. 3.4 Stars
2791144
** spoiler alert ** 3.5 stars

Catching Jordan has had a ton of hype surrounding it, everyone i've heard talk about this book has had a rave reviews. I really enjoyed this story, but didn't fall head over heels in love with it for a couple of reasons, most of which when reading reviews are things that other people really loved about the story, that just unfortantually didn't work for me. First off i'll start with what I liked. I liked the uniqueness of the story, in case you couldn't tell by the cover, Jordan is the high school quaterback, and Jordan is a girl. Having a girl quaterback is almost unheard of, in real life and fictionally. I loved that the football talk was easy to understand (I pretty much know nothing about football, just that i've always liked football players lol) but as far as the game goes i'm as nieve as it gets. I loved that the team all embraced her and took care of her, she had a whole team of "big brothers" and I loved that. The characters on the team were all well-developed and I enjoyed them.

I liked Jordan's character, but here's where one of my problems came into play. I hated that she acted like such a guy. The fact that everytime she sounded like a girl in front of the team, she quickly tried to cover it up. She talked like a guy, acted like a guy, and lacked an overall feminity that I feel was a miss in the story to make it effective. I just wish she didn't feel that being a girl was such a negative thing, i'm pretty sure the guys on her team knew she was a girl and took her under their wings, and not just because she acted like a guy, or spoke like one.

Ok on to the juicy topic of the love interests!! I loved both Henry and Ty's characters. Henry is the best friend every girl dreams of having, a cute boy who's been your friend since childhood, who sleeps over, and who you spend most of your time with. Ty is the new boy at school, who happens to be the same football position as Jordan, the quaterback, but who also happens to be HOT! When Jordan falls for Ty and vice versa I was happy, they seemed good for each other, and Henry seemed to have had no interest in Jordan but interest in every other girl in the school, literally. As soon as Jordan found out Henry had interest in her though she dropped Ty like a fly and abandoned him, and that fustrated me. I was happy that she ended up with Henry in the end, but I just wish she wouldn't have dropped Ty like that because he didn't deserve it.

As you can see, I really enjoyed this book, but had a few small problems with it. None of the problems I had with the book ruined the story for me though, and still think that if you're a fan of YA contemporary reads then you should give this one a try, and like I said earlier in my review, many of the things that aggravated me, were things that other readers enjoyed about the story, so maybe i'm the exception.
4411320
4 STARS

Reviewed by Traci Hyland for Kindle Friends Forever

I am giving this review 4 stars because Amazon and Goodreads doesn't allow half stars, otherwise Id be giving it a 3.5. Though it is a good story and doesn't deserve a 3, it needs some work for me to truly feel it is a 4 star.

This is the story of a young single mother of 2 boys, who loves her boys to pieces but needs some me time, so she booked a holiday at a nice hotel to just rest, relax and enjoy herself.  Isobel is British and she is on holiday in England, near her home, where she meets Marc, a very attractive Harvard professor, who takes an instant liking to Isobel, who is a beautiful but plus sized woman.  It was refreshing to have a lead female that wasn't a whiny twit, and wasn't pencil thin with big boobs all up in her face.  She was beautiful and still a bigger woman.

For me, the fact that she was British and he was American was a key factor because I couldn't get past the fact that the way it was written. Isobel sounded more the American and Marc more the Brit. This may not have been noticeable to others, but it was absolutely noticeable to me. The story was also written very formally which took away from it for me. That isn't how people speak naturally, so it sounded very forced. Other than those two issues, I found it to be a light, sweet very appealing story and I'm looking forward to book two to see how the rest plays out. I enjoyed both characters and how they were together, and how they found each other and fell so quickly. It flowed well. It wasn't silly, ridiculous or drawn out. It still gave you a complete story and not a jump from one to the next and not really filling in the middle. And as always, the evil witch was just that, an evil witch and that was what it needed to be.

I would definitely recommend this story but I do think it needs to be less formal.
1705141
Really liked the story, would read more from this author.
1717442
I'm stuck between a 3.5 and a 4 so I rounded up.  I liked the story very much, I liked the characters too.  What would have pushed me closer to a 5 was if there was more about the atmosphere that they were living in.  This is a Dystopian novel but I honestly could see it being just about anywhere.  We didn't really get much background on where they are and how they got there, just that they live in sectors outside of Eden.  I really liked the growth of the characters.  There were a few instances where I thought, hmmm, I wouldn't see that character saying this or that but it wasn't enough to detract from the overall story.  I think I will keep reading the series because of the characters introduced in this first one and I  want to see more of them and find out what happens overall.
3285570
I really liked the angst that was the majority of this book but I genuinely feel that when bad things like that happen it doesn't end all happily ever after. So it was nice to see that. See some human emotion between these two people. Now at face value I liked the book. Which is how I got it to a 4 star rating. Strictly face value as a continuation of the previous story it was totally a 4 star book.

Now I did have some issues. So really if there was a 3.5 rating I'd probably be more in that realm.

1. Why does Lil even have a career in these books? She came out of college with a serious career and two books in it's been for the most part an after thought. That entire part of the story could be eliminated because she, in the end, is little more than your stereotypical biker girl in these books.

2. I have a lot of difficulty with her being all about her college stuff like she was and then being perfectly ok with drug and human trafficking.

2.5. If we're going to be heavy on the illegal activities I really wish that children would not be included in these books. It makes me feel weird reading that stuff. I've said it before and I'll never stop saying it. If adults want to be involved in illegal activities fine. And I'm cool with reading that but for goodness sakes stop dragging the children into this.

3. I couldn't help this nagging feeling that I've read this before. There are only so many ways for a couple to react to the violence she went through. So there are going to be similarities to other books where the female partner is subjected to what she was. However, if one is sensitive to that sort of thing they are going to have a hard time not noticing that this book is heading down the same path as another series and has some similarities for at least a little bit with how the male lead deals with the trauma.

I can get past most all of that stuff and take the book at face value but some people may have issues. I noticed some minor editing issues. I guess I'd say if you're paying an editor make sure they are doing their job right. There were apostrophes where there shouldn't be. No apostrophes where there should be and some word usage problems. But nothing hugely glaring. But I notice that the editor is noted and if I was paying for editing I wouldn't be paying for how this was edited.
4713834
I liked this story, but I didn't love it. I wanted to, really I did. But ......the whole ista-love thing came on way to fast to be believable. Plus....who answers their phone, or even text messages with her friends while driving in blizzard type situations? Kayla sort of reminded me of some air-head, but I liked Ryan's character very much. And I also understood why he lied to her about who he was. Because let's be real here..... in his situation relationships must be very hard, especially when you know most people only befriend you because of  how big your bank account is.

I also liked the fact that the author included a special needs school and their constant struggles for funding their facilities in this book. That's something that is very near and dear to my heart, since I have three Autistic grandchildren of my own..
4715928
3.5-4 stars. I loved the dysfunction of Beautiful Disaster and Walking Disaster, something about Travis Maddox made it all so engaging and easy to read and I loved Travis for it. Having said that, I got to know Trent a little bit through those books and really got to like Trent, too. However, Beautiful Oblivion was not as enjoyable of a read for me. I liked Cami and I liked Trent just fine, but I didn't love them or get attached to them like I did with Travis. As a matter of fact, I think I got mostly attached to TJ of all characters. Even though he was Cami's boyfriend who was away on business and super preoccupied with work, he was the biggest obstacle between her and Trent having a relationship, yet there was something about TJ that drew me in and from the snippets about him that was revealed, and I'm glad that there will be more to come about him. Aside from that, I was surprised to see that the timeline for this story is actually parallel to Beautiful Disaster and Walking Disaster because I thought it was happening afterwards although now reading Beautiful Oblivion, a lot of things make much more sense from Abby and Travis' story as well as all of the characters who intersect. There's a good amount of dysfunction in this book as well, and that was portrayed very well. Olive was a great character introduced into the story. Cami is trying to separate her home life from her daily life and just like with Abby, I didn't grow overly fond of her, but Cami has some very relatable qualities and she really does care a lot about the people around her. Trent is persistent like in typical Maddox boy fashion when it comes to Cami. He's not all that different from Travis except Travis goes Mad Dog crazy with violence at times while Trent keeps himself in check a little bit more. Although TJ and Cami had a great dynamic going, it was obvious that Cami and Trent were the better couple because TJ is a secretive guy in every way and just doesn't have the time to give in to a committed relationship. The twist of who TJ really is actually makes the story more exciting and like I said, I'm looking forward to learning more about TJ in the future because he's different from the other guys even though they are alike in so many other ways. There are some really great lines and quotes in this book but I would say they aren't nearly as memorable as Travis' best lines.
4838243
3.5 stars. The Five Stages of Falling in Love started out really strong and had me hooked from the very start of the prologue. It kind of fizzled out for me as it progressed and didn't end as strong as I would have liked. It was still a really good book though and I enjoyed it.
The author did an amazing job at making me feel the grief and overwhelming feelings that Liz and her family experienced throughout the book. Although this book didn't make me sob or cry freely, I teared up several times and had a tear slip out at one point. The pain, grief, and chaos was beautifully written. One thing that really stuck out to me and pulled me out of the story a few times was that the oldest daughter Abby (6-7 years old during the course of the story) was having such a difficult time with her grief process and having a really hard time at school; yet with all of the repeated visits to the school to discuss Abby's behavior or latest stunts she pulled, no one thought it important or helpful to suggest that Abby speak to a children's therapist or grief counselor? Especially since Liz's sister, Emma, is close to finishing school to be a psychologist. I would think that would be a given but it never happened and it didn't make sense to me.
I feel like the story was wrapped up a bit too quickly with general statements and ideas such as "kids grew up", etc. without any real personalized detail that I would have liked to have seen.
Audible: I added the whispersync audible narration to this Kindle book. I would not recommend this audible. I really did not care for it so I only listened to about an hour total. My biggest problems with it were the voices, the pacing, and the emphasis. I couldn't stand the voice the narrator used for Grady and she didn't do male voices well in general. The women's voices didn't sound all that different from each other either and the kids pretty much sounded the same. Her cadence didn't really work for me with this story during the parts that I listened to and I was bothered by her word emphasis in certain parts and the inflection used with some of her word enunciation. The narrator has a really pleasant voice in general so I think she would be great a reading something that doesn't have different characters and doesn't have strong emotion attached to it.
2706373
Slight spoilers
I enjoyed this story quite a bit, I found the Other Kingdom to be interesting and exciting and I loved the girls' involvement in it. I enjoyed the drama that went on in that world while also enjoying the dilemmas that were arising in the "regular" world. The way that everything was resolved was quite well done, except for two bits:
I didn't like that the two cousins ended up getting married, although I suppose I can make a slight exception for a book that is supposed to take place in older times where things were acceptable. Still, though, it would have been nice if he hadn't been her cousin and they'd have fallen in love and all that.
Secondly, I didn't like the sister's (whose name now escapes me) romance with the vampire. Or rather, I didn't like how it ended. I was cheering for Jena whenever she verbally or mentally complained about the way her sister was carrying on, basically mooning around nearly unconcerned by some of the greater problems around her, and finally wasting away when her family needed her. As the oldest, I would think she'd be most concerned about her family's well-being, but that burden unfortunately fell to Jena. What I specifically did not like about all this is that in the end Jena accepts that her sister must leave and the romance between her and the vampire was good and all that. She basically accepted that it was okay for her sister to become useless and to waste away over her boyfriend, thus adding another trouble to the list of troubles Jena already had to deal with. I wished the sister had been reprimanded somehow for her overly dramatic behavior, but oh well. Overall, still a great story and would recommend it to many who love stories of magic and romance, even if the romance was odd in some places.
4893506
3-3.5 Stars Good Story

I was graciously gifted an ARC by this new author and I was pleasantly surprised!  I thought the premise of the story was great but where it fell short for me was the overall execution.  I found that the characters also had great potential but again, for me, they themselves fell a tad bit short as well.  I almost felt like the storyline stayed on a monotone level throughout and the characters were one dimensional.  I would have liked more overall "energy" for lack of a better word to add some depth to the characters and the storyline.

Robert, I really loved him, I truly did.  He had a job to do but underneath it all, he was a good man with a big heart.  In his line of work, he cannot get emotionally involved and I understood that but I did love how he battled between his head and his heart.

Emily, hmmmm, I liked her but her character lacked a lot for me.  For someone, who found herself under these particular circumstances, she acted so matter of fact.  I had a really hard time to relate to her and because of that it made my connection to the story a little bit harder where she was concerned.  I needed her character to be more "believable", her character needed a lot of work and for me, I think she was the main reason I couldn't invest fully with the story.

Congrats Author Kate Sands, I think you have a very good future ahead of you.  It doesn't matter how fast you climb the ranks, it's the slow and steady that will get you there and with time and maturity, I see a lot of room for growth.  Just because I may not have been in complete love with this story, doesn't mean that others won't love it.  I am a picky reader and I have my own preferences while reading and they may not be the same as the next but I do wish you the best in the future. I hope to see much more from you in the future, and I will be looking forward it!
3772892
This was a hard on for me to rate, I really can't decide between 3.5 star or 4. For how I feel about the ending I want to rate it 3.5 stars but overall this was a real enjoyable read so I want to give it 4 stars.
It's a sweet, sexy, fun story that I couldn't put down. I really fell for both characters even though Jase was a bit un-likable in the beginning. Jase is kind of an anti-hero he's hard, has a rough past, he doesn't apologize for who he is and in general he doesn't give a F*ck. In the end though I really liked him, he kinda transformed into more of an alpha-male.
Piper is sweet and naive, but she's still trying to figure her life out. She knows what she wants but somethings hold her back. But throughout the book she's grows into how she is and finally finds herself. When she finally finds her voice she goes for what she wants no matter what.
Now in the end I felt like I was left hanging. What happened with Emmet and that epilogue just didn't do it for me. I feel like it was rushed and somewhat ubrupt. This is why I struggle with 4 stars or 3.5 stars. Maybe the next book with tighten up the loose ends that were left in this one I have no idea. So for now I have to leave it with a 3.5/4 star rating. But I do recommend it to romance fans.
3074490
I gave this book four stars but it was really more like 3 1/2.  It was about a girl who was forced to direct her school play when her aunt suddenly quit, all of the things that go wrong and threaten her success, and the stagehand that captured her attention but had too many secrets.  It was a good story and held my interest throughout.  The characters were great too.  They each had their own separate personalities and voices which was nice because too many indie authors write all of their characters with the same voice and it is left  to the reader to imagine the difference.  The main character, Wren, was a likable girl but with plenty of flaws which made her much more real and relatable.  Derek is a great leading man with layers to his personality so that he was more than just a trophy.  The secondary characters were also well written, each different, realistic and intriguing.  Her best friend, for example, could sometimes be self-involved and give bad advice but she also had her good friend moments and the author didn't try to suddenly make her perfect at the end like some kind of bad after school special.  I gave this  book only 3 1/2 stars because it was too brief, only 178 pages,  which was more of a novella than a novel.  Normally that wouldn't necessarily be a problem but in this case it meant the book wasn't nearly as satisfying as it should have been.  Some of the characters and parts of the storyline where left unexplored and/or unresolved.  If the author, Cheyanne Young, went back and added more depth and resolution, I think it would have five star potential.
124818
I enjoyed this story for quite a few reasons.  It has well developed characters and the authors allows them to show a wide range of emotions that made the book better for me including immaturity, anger, angst, fear, responsibility and love throughout the well plotted storyline.  There are a few grammatical errors which I will be sending to the authors, but there weren't enough to impact the story or rating from my perspective.  This book does contain adult language, steamy and semi-erotic intimate scenes, violence / assault, and blackmail, so if you are sensitive to any of these topics this may not be the book for you.

Dana Sommer is a 22 year old nursing student receiving a scholarship to a school in Dallas that loses its funding, so she is going to have to transfer to another school.  The problem is the other schools have already allotted their scholarships for the next semester, so she either has to wait another year to return, or come up with $30,000 to pay it on her own.  Then there is her brother, Charlie, that has really struggled since their parents died and they were forced to live with their alcoholic uncle.  Now he has gotten himself in debt to a bookie for $50,000 that has to be paid in 5 days or he will do worse than the beating he just gave him that landed him in the hospital.  Slim Pete her brother's bookie, then approaches her with an alternative way she can pay his debt, but there is no way she is sleeping with that slimball.  What is she going to do?  There is no way she can raise that amount of money, but she can't just do nothing and let her brother lose fingers or his life and there is no way she is going to take Slim Pete up on his offer.  So she starts looking through the want ads on the school's computer and it also pulls up Craigslist.

Brady Shaw is a 27 year old playboy, that doesn't do commitment and parties every night with a different woman.  He drives expensive cars and likes to travel the world with his best friend, Nick Calloway, and wakes up with a hangover almost everyday.  He doesn't get along with his father, Clint Shaw, who built a billion dollar empire, of which Brady is the sole heir.  Brady's dad has been after him for years to be more responsible and learn about the business so he can take over, but although Brady has an office at the main headquarters he has no desire to be involved and flits in and out never staying for any length of time.  This time though his dad has had enough and issues him a final ultimatum.  Get married and make a baby within a year or he will be cutoff from his inheritance.  It may be shallow of him, but he just can't tell his dad where to go, he likes his current lifestyle and doesn't want to give it up. So his friend places an ad on Craigslist without his knowledge, so maybe Brady will have a shot at finding someone to be his fiancee, agree to marriage and a baby with a stranger before his dad's soiree in two days ... yeah right, what are the chances of this? ...

I am going to stop there so I don't accidentally provide any spoilers or twists.  I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did.