2.5 Stars, Had potential but...
351294
If you have read Julianne MacLean's novel Love According to Lily, you were introduced to hero Magnus Wallis.  You needn't have read the earlier book to grasp the full story of Portrait of a Lover, in fact it is almost better if you have not read the earlier novel  as the characters undergo such a transformation that they become almost unrecognizable from the earlier tale.

Magnus was the proverbially black sheep.  He is the grandson of an Earl but his father was basically abandoned by the powerful Earl and Magnus has nursed bitterness as he has watched his cousin Whidby who has acceded to the Earldom reap all the rewards he has not had.  Magnus despises Whidby and the feeling is mutual.  Whidby has an adopted sister, Annabelle, who is the heroine of this story.  Annabelle has grown up on the stories of how evil Magnus and his father were.  All kinds of dastardly deeds are leveled against them with little to no proof.

Magnus meets Annabelle on a train and she casts a spell upon him with her wit and unaffected charm.  He is smitten, he knows who she is but to assure that she stays in contact with him, he gives a false name.  So begins a whirlwind romance.  Later Annabelle finds out Magnus's true identity and they part badly.

Annabelle becomes aunt to her nieces and nephews never really venturing out too much, living with her brother and his wife, but she does paint. Magnus bursts back into her life offering to exhibit her paintings in his London art gallery.  She is suspicious of him but agrees to show her work.

Magnus is a changed man, he is no longer angry and he has been successful.  The reader can see that America has been good to him and for him.  Magnus wants a second chance with Annabelle but there are so many hurdles to their happily ever after and the biggest one is Annabelle herself.  I found Annabelle to be immature; she is 34 and doesn't seem to be able to make a decision without her brother's approval.  It's like she was caught in a time warp, like she was a young debutant.  I wondered how many times Magnus would have to say he was sorry, apparently a lot.  Annabelle is not trusting of anyone except her brother; she certainly does not trust Magnus or herself.

I so liked Magnus.  Here was a man who had many more hurts than Annabelle and had improved his life significantly and Annabelle just seemed stuck in the past, never growing beyond her hurt feelings.  She comes across as wildly insecure and her brother who I admired in the previous book just seems petty. On the whole, this romance which had great potential just fizzled due to a heroine who could not see the finer points in her hero.
4269151
2.5 stars

This book had its strengths but it also had some major weaknesses. This review my be a little all over the place, because I have a lot of thoughts about this book. I hope the author takes it has constructive criticism because I do think there was potential.

First, kudos to the author for not shying away from some hard topics. She touched on some things that I had never read about in a novel before, and I applaud her for that.

Next, I thought Neil and Kari's relationship was cute. There relationship was believable for the most part. I can understand why Neil was so taken with Kari when they meet. Once we find out who he is, I think it must have been nice to meet someone who like him not his relationship. However, I thought there age difference was a little hard to swallow. She is 17, and he is 23. Later in life 6 years is not a huge difference, but when one person is 17, it's a ton. Also, I thought their relationship moved to quickly, especially considering what happened the last time Kari moved to quickly with a boy.

This brings me to my next point. The timeline in this book was weird. There would be times when I thought days or weeks had to have passed because of how much happened, but then Kari would say something about it happening early the same day or the day before. The timeline could have been stretched without adding any more events and the story line would have become much more believable.

Also, I spent the whole book under the impression that they were in a city in the Midwest. I know they talked about riding the subway, but they also talked about Chicago, and when Neil was talking about it, it was implied (at least to me) that it was only a few hours away. Add to that the fact that Kari's mom appeared to be a die-hard Bears fan and voila - Midwest. But then they talked about seeing an NYPD car and going through Manhattan and I realized they were in NYC. I was confused by that to say the least.

This book was a prime example of do not write the way you think/talk. I don't care that it was 1st person, the million exclamation points are not necessary. The reader should add their own emotion to the lines as they are reading. It is not necessary to do it for them. On the same note, this book read like an adult trying too hard to sound like a teenager. It read like the author learned how teens talk from watching teen dramas on TV. Not the most realistic.

I thought the plot wrapped up way to neatly and to quickly. All of a sudden, there was a confrontation and it was over. And *spoiler alert* I don't care what he did, your reaction to seeing someone shot is not "At least the f***er is dead." It just isn't. Plus, when Kari finally went to the police. They could have just gotten a search warrant for Eddie's computer, found the file then arrested him for statutory rape and creation of child pornography with the intent to distribute. She was 16 at the time. It would have upheld. Of course, this didn't happened because it didn't go along with the author's plans for the story line, but I think it's what should have happened.

And can I just say that the cover has nothing to do with the book?

Anyway, like I said, I liked the premise, and I liked the characters, but execution needed some serious work. I think sending this book to a professional editor would have taken care of a lot of these issues. They are things that you wouldn't change just doing a reread on your own.
1811032
This book had a great deal of potential, but I just couldn't get into it. In the beginning I was mildly entertained with a few moments of great enjoyment here or there. But, by the end, any enjoyment I had was over. The end seemed like a hot mess. It was like a bunch of elements were thrown into it in the hope that it would work. It didn't.

I liked the fact that Samantha was blind. I thought it was nice to see a character shown to be confident and strong even with a trait that would traditionally be seen as a drawback. I liked how Samantha slyly put on revealing clothes and never let on that she knew what she looked like in them. I also like that she wasn't portrayed as a poor timid virgin waiting for a man to rescue her from her disability. She's had relationships, she's even had sex a lot more than once.

Samantha's interactions with her brother irritated me. I, personally, do not like to read about characters who humor their pushy, interfering relatives. Just like in real life, I just don't understand those people. This is your life? Why are you letting them act that way just to humor them? When she did try to stand up to her brother she came off as more of a petulant child than a grown woman. I swear I felt the walls closing in every time he was in a scene.

Jace was not a character I particularly enjoyed. He was one of those emo guys who whines and broods throughout the whole story. He was afraid he was too rough in sex to be with Samantha. I just wanted to slap him and tell him to get over it and man up. If you don't want to be with someone, don't hang around them. Quit being such a tease. The sex scenes were kind of hot, but they stopped before the finish so often it became really irritating.

I liked the thought of the world that was created. I wish sex wasn't used as the gateway for Samantha's ability though. I was on Jace's side when he got pissed about being used. The description of the demon's were interesting, but the role Stephen played seemed like it didn't really fit. Also, the girl who Samantha met at the end seemed to come out of nowhere.

I felt there were too many times of the world building not making sense. Add that to characters I didn't really enjoy... Well, I won't be reading the next book.
266244
I really wish Amazon would do the half star thing because although I didn't hate this book, I also didn't love it. So this is more like a 2.5 (okay) star read. The premise of the story was interesting. To be honest, I'm more a romance reader, but I love reading stories about relationships/families so thought I would give this a try.

The story centres around Nick who is married to Marcy. He decides to coach their young son's baseball team and meets, Tess, one of the mothers of the boys he coaches. There is instant attraction/infatuation that Nick struggles with and he finds himself at a crossroads of sorts. Told completely from Nick's POV, this is his story about his life and an inside look to the ups and downs of their marriage/family. I really enjoyed the way this was written. The story flowed well and was intriguing enough to keep my interest throughout the whole book. But there were some things that I'd struggled with, and mainly, that was to do with Nick.

I didn't like how he never told Marcy the whole truth of everything that happened and everything he'd been thinking/dreaming about. There were things that happened that he would tell half-truths to (or just not admit to at all), which made it really hard for me to be sympathetic towards him or to fully like him. It goes as far as him comparing to two women and finding Marcy lacking. And because of this, I feel that Marcy's decision in the end would have been different had she known the full story. It didn't help that Nick **************SPOILER***************had betrayed her while they were engaged*******************END SPOILER*****************and then to do this? She forgave him back then, and she forgave him again with Tess (multiple times with Tess, really). Makes me think that she will forgive him when he gets tempted (and follows through) again, which is kind of sad.

Despite all that, the story is good. Had it been a romance, this would have been an utter fail, but it's not, so normal romance rules don't apply here :) Because of that, I can appreciate the story for what it is, but I just wish that Marcy had known everything and that there had been more repercussions (or at least ones that Marcy didn't have to pay for!) and seen him really try to come back from that. Maybe if I felt Nick really wanted Marcy for more than just the familiar comfort she gave and was to him, I would have enjoyed it more.
4714217
I really wanted to love this book.  The sample read so much like the beginning of Gabriel's Inferno, which I loved!  The grammatical errors were distracting and there were points throughout that didn't really make sense/were confusing.  It was hard to imagine the characters because of the lack of depth.  I didn't feel like I knew them, which I normally do when I read a book.  The character descriptions weren't detailed which made it challenging to imagine the story unfolding. I feel like the surface of these incredibly complex characters was lightly skimmed.  The potential was there and hopefully with time the author's writing will come together better.  Again, I really appreciated the plot.  I hope to read more of this author's improved work in the future.
3599661
The storyline and plot had promise.  Two men come face to face in horribly awkward circumstance only to find the following Monday that one of them is the other one's new personal assistant and where do they go from there with the personal feelings they may have for one another.  The writing didn't hold up for it, though.  The narration is first person and switches back and forth between the two MC's and frankly, the internal thoughts of these men are right out of a bodice ripper romance of the 1980s.  The character development had potential.  Both loved their families and both families were very supportive and close.  The grandmother is pretty darn funny.  There's a incident near the end that seems thrown in just to create angst and drama and has one MC crying on a friend's shoulder like a 12-year-old girl.  It was all very out of place and jarring.  It had potential and I did finish it because I did want to see how it all ended, but the dialogue and the character's internal monologues were cheesy at best.  There were some minor editing glitches like character names being switched, etc., but I've seen a lot worse.
1476400
This book had potential, but a few key points kept it from being excellent.
Storyline/plot - 4 stars
Research - 2 stars
Editing - 2 stars

I enjoyed the idea this book was based upon and overall thought the book was pretty good; however, the lack of research and the editing ruined the overall "flow" of the book for me.

I agree with other reviewers - there were so many items that were totally wrong considering this was a story set in the USA. Anna, the main character, the daughter of a Senator had been kidnapped and kept for 10 months by a mafia kingpin. 1)Due to the media in the US, everyone would have known about this and her name and picture would have been plastered across the news outlets and print. She would have been recognized by everyone (e.g., other students at school, random people on the street); 2) Her many transfers to colleges/universities would have been followed by the media.

Also, at one point she is at a political dinner and the press just loves Anna, the "unknown daughter of the Senator." Again, not believable in the US.

Anna, while stunted maturity wise due to her kidnapping situation, refused to believe the main male character, Ashton, wasn't a player because of how he looked and how she thought his relationships with past women were handled. However, not once did Ashton do anything to make her believe he was a player. He was 100% honest with her from the beginning.

I really like Ashton's character. He was caring and understanding and had the patience of a SAINT.

The character of Ashton "saved" the book for me as I wanted to know how the book would end for him.
2147141
The concept is good, and the story has promise. However, I felt a strong disconnect from the H/h if you can even call Gabe an H.

The story is only told from Lizzy's PoV. Once she leaves the comfort of Hanna, things just kinda fall flat.  I feel like there were a lot of missed opportunities for more character development, and world building.

**Spoiler Alert**

Take Gabe, for instance. We hardly know anything about him, except he's a 120 year old Guardian and has an annoying brother Adam. Gabe's character didn't really do much in the book, and if he was suddenly killed by demon I wouldn't have been upset by it.

The so-called romantic connection between Gabe and Lizzy was a bit forced.  All she kept describing (in her head) was how she was attracted to his physical attributes, and how his closeness made her feel. But there was nothing beyond that. She spent weeks on the manor grounds, and never really got to know Gabe at all. Not really. When she wasn't training with him, she was stewing in her own "spoiled-brat" anger at him. Which seems a bit shallow to me.

Speaking of spoiled brat. When Lizzy wasn't assuming that Gabe and his people were demons... Yeah, about that, she assumed. As the reader you knew they weren't before they even said that they were Nephilim. I feel like that should have been explained to Lizzy her first night there. Perhaps she wouldn't have been spending all of time trying to "escape" into the dangerous demon filled woods.  Maybe not. Because even after she knew the truth, she still tried to "escape" into the demon filled woods. Which leads to the next point...

She whined about being stuck on the manor grounds for her protection, and didn't really spend time to get to know anyone except her roommate. It was only a few chosen words at the end of the book, do we find out she at least spent a small amount of time with her father.

There was more feeling in the few sentences that described how Gabe would someday take over Luke's position on the board, than there was between Lizzy and any of the other characters she interacted with.

In conclusion, I would have liked to have read more chapters about the people living in the manor: Luke, Gabe, Adam, Raquel, Ashley, etc.. Their back stories, and seeing Lizzy getting to know them better over the weeks she spent there. Instead of constantly whining about being there, and about Gabe. How her training was going, and seeing her get better at it over the course of time. Her relationship building with Gabe, not just a insta-physical thing. I would have liked to have seen her relationship growing with her father. Since she didn't have a mother, and her Granny was not always so loving towards her.  That, in particular, was a huge missed opportunity.
1985956
This book was free to me through the Amazon First program.  The plot was a fine idea, and had a great deal of promise.  Ultimately, some rough secondary character development held the story back.  There were points where characters were too easily moved from one point of view to another, or were underdeveloped, and it detracted from the believability.  I also strongly suspect that some of the things they thought and said would never have had the impact they did at that point in history, no matter the passion behind the words.

One gets the feeling this was meant to be a "strong female characters" book.  On the one hand, I enjoy seeing women take a lead role in books.  On the other, some of it just did not mesh well with how the book described women as being treated then.  One moment the barriers are all there, the next they vanish after a speech?  She also rather undersold men in the process.  This creates the additional problem of making the women seem less than they could have been, since they seem to utterly miss so much fickleness when they are otherwise canny.

That being said, the heroine was likable and the villain both dislikable and not too stupid, so I appreciated that.  I enjoyed the few medical parts, and some of the religious content, which was not clumsily ostentatious as with other books that involve faith.  The descriptiveness of scenery could have been better, but the author conveyed emotion we'll both through words and character action.  In sum, not bad, and enjoyable enough.
2973111
I am reluctantly rating this book 3 stars.  This is my first book by this author.  The story had such great potential with a good story line and characters that were likeable.  I have read just about every MC/biker book released in the last year and without a doubt this book has some of the worst editing compared to all the other books I have read.  Lately it is not uncommon to read self-published books that have editing errors and words out of context.  This book took it to a new level with whole sentences that at time made you laugh.  ""Piper?" My patients were wearing thin, but I needed to get a hold on my temper."  "He leans up against the head board lacing his fingers behind his head, starching his long legs out."  Almost every page has at least one and most times multiple editing issues.  I am trying to provide constructive criticism here because the editing was so distracting, it took away from the story.  As a reader that purchases quite a few books, I also think that an author should consider the quality of a book that they charge for.
The story line and characters did not follow the formula that a lot of the MC romance books recently released and that was refreshing.  The guys were hot and all alpha personalities.  Avery (the h), at times was very independent but swayed to needy and insecure.  The actual plot could use some refinement to make it more serious to fit the scenes.  I think this author has great potential but strongly urge that more emphasis be placed on the quality of next book and reaching the full potential of what she has shown in this first effort.
274913
Let me start by saying that even though I didn't completely enjoy this book, I really feel like it had potential to be a fabulous story.

The story line itself could have been amazing.  You've got two characters who are obviously emotionally damaged, but don't want to let the other person in on their past.

My complaint is that I never connected with the two characters.  I don't feel like the story ever went in depth to allow any sort of connection at all. I may have loved them just a little bit more if I was able to feel how they were feeling.

My second complaint is the language.  I'm not sure that anyone in their right mind says "I am going to cum". The entire story was just a little to formal for my taste.

The ending is one hell of a cliff hanger and even though I finished this book because I owed it to the author, I will most likely find myself reading the second book to see what happens.
2331436
I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I admit that I was a little intrigued by this book because the whole track a blogger down scenario. As a blogger myself, that piqued my curiosity. I wish it had fully lived up to its potential. I didn't love the book, but I didn't hate it either.

First of all, Arden was a goody goody and pretty annoying. In the beginning of the book, I kind of liked her, probably because I could relate to her. Her mother taught her that she needed to put charity to others above everything else and Arden really took that message to heart. But then Arden's mom just left the family. She left after a fight with no explanation or word. In the book, the mom does eventually give an explanation but it's months after she leaves. When her mom leaves, Arden takes it upon herself to take care of her brother. Her dad is pretty absent (not unusual with most YA books, I think). He is always either at work or engrossed in his fantasy football. The problem with Arden was that she did all these things for the people in her life, but got upset when they didn't go to the same extreme for her. She basically made sure her little brother was taken care of at all times and she thought she had to take care of her best friend, Lindsay. It wasn't even just Lindsay. Arden also had a boring, cookie cutter boyfriend that she didn't really have strong feelings about but still felt the need to do everything to make him happy. And she got mad when he didn't return the favor.

I am not sure how I feel about the friendship between Lindsay and Arden. At first glance, it seemed like Lindsay was taking advantage of Arden. But Arden took it upon herself to try and solve all Lindsay's problems. Arden had the thought at one point that if you love someone, you should solve all their problems and sacrifice what you want to make them happy. Ummm . . . no. That's not it at all. There was one scene where they were dealing with a car breakdown. Lindsay kept suggesting ways to fix the situation, but Arden just snapped at her about the uselessness of her ideas. Then later, when thinking about that scene, she thought that Lindsay should have solved it for her. Really?? Lindsay has ideas that Arden shoots down and it's somehow Lindsay's fault that she didn't have a magic wand.

The reason she stumbles upon Peter's blog was because she typed in the question, "why don't people love me as much as I love them?" Ugh, gag me. Part of Arden's problem was that she sacrificed so much for the people that she loved, but if they didn't make sacrifices for her, she assumed they didn't love her as much. I think part of the reason Arden loved Peter's blog so much was because she thought he was the same as her. And maybe he was. The problem was that she assumed she knew him from his blog and she also assumed that everything in his blog was true. I think we have a tendency to do that with all bloggers though. Even book bloggers (as opposed to the life blog that Peter wrote), we write our own version of what is happening with us and we only put out there what we are comfortable with. I think maybe Arden just felt so alone with all of her over sacrificing (much like her mother) and she wanted to talk to someone who understood. That's how I rationalized it anyway.

I do feel that Arden grew by the end of the book, but I kind of felt some of it was too neat and too tidy. It was literally like she learned everything she needed to know about herself in one night. And I hated the epilogue. It tied everything together in a neat little bow and it told where everyone ended up over the next several years. I hate epilogues like that. They are unnecessary, in my opinion.
870169
I actually thought the story had the potential to be good. In fact, I had high hopes because I always enjoy a plot where the main character has premonitions, like, final destination or somewhat. But sadly, Crash disappointed me.

One of my issues with the story is that I couldn't relate to the main character much less warm up to her. Jules' behavior in regards to her visions and to the cute boy from the opposing family annoyed if not turned me off completely. There was nothing that left a good impression on me and I'm a bit hesitant to start the second book if that's the kind of character I'm going along with. What bugged me most was how repetitive she was at times with the things she said, how silly some of what she did was, and then there's her intense feelings for Sawyer, which I thought were a bit too much and seemed extremely odd. Maybe if he had a stronger voice in the story, which wasn't really possible since it's told only from Jules' perspective. Then I would understand Sawyer more and get an idea of his thoughts for her, but throughout the book it seemed like his feelings weren't as strong as Jules' no matter how unfazed he was supposedly trying to be whenever she approached him around others.

The other characters didn't really stand out to me much either, with the exception of her little sister that seemed more mature than Jules at times, and her brother who appeared more like a non-family member. But those things aside, I wasn't really affected by their presence and hope for further character development as the series continues.

Anything else? The writing was good, very youthful, scenes were decently described, but again, the story could have been stronger. Initially, I went into the book with hopes of unraveling a paranormal and mysterious story, along with enjoying a bittersweet and forbidden romance. I wanted to learn about the main character and understand her family situation and why she was unable to be with the guy she loved. And indeed, the writer gave answers early on, which was good, because that's how fast paced it was, but that aside, the rest of the pages felt flat until the end.

In conclusion, good but needs improvement to be greater. I like how Crash ended and would like to see how the author picks things up in Bang after that reveal. But once again, I reiterate that the first book has me really timid about continuing the journey.
3609273
This book honestly had so much potential, but something seemed to happen in regards to the execution of the storyline.  There were some long and tiring lapses in the plot.  The characters had a generic feel to them as well.  I still think this could turn out to be a decent series and I may continue on to the next book (especially since it was offered as a kindleunlimited), but this one left much to be desired.  The magical elements were nicely portrayed but that was about it.  No romance.  It defiantly was a YA fantasy 100%.  It had a very "PG" feel to it. There just seemed to be too many loose ends with this one.  It does have a beautiful book cover though.
1564698
This book had so much potential and I really wanted to like it, but it just fell short.
The first issue I had was that there were many grammatical errors throughout the book that pulled you from the story. If you get frustrated by grammatical errors in books, I would recommend you pass on this one.
The next issue was with the story itself. I felt that for a large part of the book the characters were wandering around aimlessly without any real goal or direction. Also, the characters were not really well developed. I could see what the author was trying to do by having the characters hate each other, then grow into a friendship that looks like it might become more, but she overdid the hatred and didn't put enough into the development of their relationship. You just didn't feel it when they started suddenly getting along better.
The story gave you enough that you could see hope for a great book developing, but it just didn't quite get there.
2556534
I like this book because it has the potential to be better. I will not bother to complain about the inaccuracies in grammar/vocabulary etc. There were sections of the novel that showed that the author had talent and made it a worthwhile read. However, too often it seemed that the author did not know her characters and she often put them in situations and was unsure of how they should react. The beginning of the book was good until we got to the first ball. The entire episode here was farcical and unreal. The whole thing was ridiculous, including the hero and heroine and Nicholas's reaction on the balcony was completely overdone. In fact, thereafter, the characters and their reactions were either overdone or just confusing and inappropriate. There were just too many instances where the reader was baffled by the characters and their reactions.

Several times one had to question the characters and author's intent. For example, why would Emma go to the house party of her former betrothed who has information about her secret past? Why would Sebastian, after overhearing such a damning conversation between Emma and Rawlings not question her about it when he is obsessed about having a spotless reputation, especially when Rawlings paid him a late night visit prior to the house party and when Emma was in tears when she left the room? His decision to leave her be and to even take blame for her "aching" is preposterous.

Too many times the author seemed confused. For instance, Emma notices Lady Kensworth hanging tightly to Sebastian's arm, yet in the following sentence she, Emma, introduces them to each other. How is that logical? Emma feels invigorated dancing with her supposed enemy, then the author tries to justify the feeling later as a ruse, a way to convince herself that she is stronger than Rawlings. And when did Sebastian find the time to tell his grandmother of his intention to wed?

More than once the hero comes off as a weak fool and the villiany at the end was overdone because it was not properly built for the end result. I felt the author tried to set up dramatic situations that were never properly developed and that fizzled too quickly.

Yet, even so, the potential for a good novel was easily obvious and I am interested in reading the third book in the series. I don't think that I'll read the first, but the sample for the third book was quite interesting and the character of Rawlings wandering around in the rain is well written. The author shows tremendous writing strength here, not only the descriptions of the scene, but in the introspective situation she has placed Rawlings in. I hope that the author follows through on that potential throughout the book. I am willing to spend $2.99 to find out. For a cost of $0.99, The Seduction of Sebastian St. James is not a bad buy. I am interested in seeing how this writer develops in her future novels.
4039537
My review of this book will be mixed.  I really wanted to give it 2.5 stars because I am divided on this 50/50.  I thought it had great potential, and if it were presented as a first draft I would give it 5 stars as a starting draft.

First of all, if you are going to start the beginnings of a love interest, then you should finish it.  He started to show the main character's feelings for this girl-cop, and then it was dropped - not good to do.

The characters, all of them, were never really fully developed so the book appears flat and pulpy, like a cheap novel with cheap writing.  The main character was only about 6% developed, and his sidekick was about 8% developed.  And what happened to the story about the sidekick's niece?  It was like sub-plots were started, then dropped.  The antagonist wasn't fully developed either.  If anything, I think this book should have been longer to give more development to the characters, or at least cut out all the static description and use the space for character development.

And that's another thing - a good writer doesn't statically describe things (allot of that in this novel).

However, it was an interesting idea, which is why I did like it as little or as much as I did and it had great potential.  I just think he should have taken more time re-writing it.

Still, it did hold my interest, even though I couldn't fully enjoy the story because of the flat characters.

The ending was pretty bad for an ending.  Again, more time should have been spent on the ending.  It looked like he just wanted to get it over with, which really robs the reader of any kind of satisfying resolution or climax.

But I would still recommend this book because of the interesting plot idea.