Review - Ten Tiny Breaths - K.A. Tucker

Title: Ten Tiny Breaths
Author: K.A. Tucker
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: December 9th, 2012
Series: Ten Tiny Breaths #1
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Synopsis via Goodreads

Kacey Cleary’s whole life imploded four years ago in a drunk-driving accident. Now she’s working hard to bury the pieces left behind—all but one. Her little sister, Livie. Kacey can swallow the constant disapproval from her born-again aunt Darla over her self-destructive lifestyle; she can stop herself from going kick-boxer crazy on Uncle Raymond when he loses the girls’ college funds at a blackjack table. She just needs to keep it together until Livie is no longer a minor, and then they can get the hell out of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

But when Uncle Raymond slides into bed next to Livie one night, Kacey decides it’s time to run. Armed with two bus tickets and dreams of living near the coast, Kacey and Livie start their new lives in a Miami apartment complex, complete with a grumpy landlord, a pervert upstairs, and a neighbor with a stage name perfectly matched to her chosen “profession.” But Kacey’s not worried. She can handle all of them. What she can’t handle is Trent Emerson in apartment 1D.

Kacey doesn’t want to feel. She doesn’t. It’s safer that way. For everyone. But sexy Trent finds a way into her numb heart, reigniting her ability to love again. She starts to believe that maybe she can leave the past where it belongs and start over. Maybe she’s not beyond repair.

But Kacey isn’t the only one who’s broken. Seemingly perfect Trent has an unforgiveable past of his own; one that, when discovered, will shatter Kacey’s newly constructed life and send her back into suffocating darkness.

My rating:

4.5 Stars

Someone please slap me silly for putting this book on the backburner for so long. For real. How did I manage to skip over this book in favor of all the lesser ones that made me want to cry murderous tears? (You ever get that feeling? Where you hate a character so much—who isn’t the villain—that you wish you could just strangle them?)

Ten Tiny Breaths gives the phrase “beautifully broken” a whole new meaning for me. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a good tortured heroine book in a long time. But that’s exactly what this was, and it was all so perfectly executed. Not once did I wish for the protagonist, Kacey, to get hit by a car and have the story *cough*mercifully*cough* end. And man am I making myself sound like a crazy for willing sudden death upon fictional characters, but it’s been a bad week in terms of finding half-decent books for me, all right?

I think it’s been a year since I’ve found a character that I love this much. Kacey Cleary is one sarcastic, hilarious, all around badass chick. The catch, then? She's got some issues. Some emotionally repressive issiues. When she was 16, she was involved in a car accident. An accident that killed her parents, her best friend, and her boyfriend. Not to mention two of the three drunken guys that caused the accident. Her sister, Livie, is all that she has left. And that accident caused more devastation than anyone thought. It left her numb.

Broke and in a new city, Kacey and Livie find a home in this dingy apartment complex and simply try to survive. There they meet their neighbors. A single mom and her daughter. And a super hot guy who goes by the name of Trent.

Trent and Kacey’s attraction happens fast. Like, really fast. By their second time meeting, before I even really get a sense of who Trent was beyond the fact that he was sexy, had dimples, and blue eyes, he was already up close and personal with Kacey. Despite that, though, it was easy to like him. He played the savior role flawlessly, even though Kacey didn’t really need it. Have I mentioned that she's badass?

One of the best parts about Kacey was how she carried herself. Confident, even though a lot of it was bravado. On the inside, she’d be anxious, and you’d never know it by the strange and amusing things that came out of her mouth. You could tell that she had issues, but the way she dealt with them was all apart of her charm. (Not that I’m saying it was particularly healthy.) She effortlessly pulled off the snarky, tough-chick vibe without being annoying at all.

I came to love the rest of the side characters as much as I did the main ones. There’s little more than half a dozen. Livie. Storm. Mia. Dan. Ben. Tanner. Cain. Nate. If you haven’t read the book, then they’re just names. But if you have, then you know that each character has their own voice and serve as more than plot devices. And damn if I didn’t enjoy the fact that none of them seemed to embrace the stereotypes surrounding them. Storm was smarter and more talented than anyone gave her credit for. Cain wasn’t as sleazy as I—and Kacey—thought he’d be with the type of business he was in. Each of them was unique and interesting, and they all became vital parts of Kacey’s life as she learned to heal from her past.

Another vital part of Kacey’s healing process was her actual romantic relationship with Trent. Or, well, it was more like the catalyst. She fought tooth and nail to not fall for him. Which, I guess, it was pretty hard to do since that man made it his life’s mission to make her happy. To make her laugh and smile. Sounds pretty sappy, but when you learn the real reason behind why…wow. I literally put my Nook down and said into the empty air: “I cannot believe this shit!” Shout out to K.A. Tucker for delivering the best spinning-kick-plot-twist I’ve read in a while.

Their HEA happened so close to the end, I never thought it’d happen. But when it did, there were tears in my eyes. And I learned a very, very valuable lesson: For the love of chocolate sauce and steaming hot coffee, the next time I put a book this good off for more than a week, someone reach through their computer screen and give me a good shaking!

Or just send me an email recommending it. That works, too. ;)

**ARC received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

Review - No One's Angel - By: Kelly Walker

Title: No One's Angel
Author: Kelly Walker
Publisher: All Night Reads
Release Date: September 6th, 2013
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Synopsis via Goodreads

Tess used to spend more hours than she’d care to admit playing her favorite computer game, using the nickname Angel. She could pretend her life was different, and she could pretend Arion was just a friend. But a girl needs more to keep her warm at night than pixels and she traded her virtual heaven for a real life hell. Now she’s on the run from a past she won’t talk about, and the only place she has to go is the doorstep of the friend she’s never actually met.

When Angel disappeared from their nightly games, it nearly destroyed Arion. He threw himself into work and women, but he can’t help knowing the one night stands will never compare to the angel who haunts his dreams. At first, when she shows up soaking wet and scared-shitless on his doorstep, he thinks his prayers have been answered.

But the more Arion tries to keep Angel close, the more her fear drives her away. If they are ever going to have a chance for a future, they’ll first have to deal with the past that hasn’t forgotten her any more than she’s forgotten it, and Arion will have to learn how to let her go.

My rating:

Damn. Fooled by the synopsis again. Be careful, guys. It sounds way better than it actually is. When I requested it, I thought I’d be getting an exciting, original story with complex characters and a heart-swelling romance.

Exciting, it ain’t. Original? Not quite.

Wanna know what sucks the most? I thought it was going to be a 5 star-er. It started off so strong. Kelly Walker pulled me into the story from page one with her fluid, angsty pace. The first chapter opens with Angel (Tess) in the rain, broke and shivering, and looking for a specific place. When she gets there, we learn it was not the place exactly that she was searching for, but a guy named Arion. A guy she’d never met, but had forged an online connection with in a game.

So, yeah, it seemed like it’d be all kinds of unique. Except it fell flat. Really, really flat. The uniqueness wore off in about four chapters when all Angel and Arion did was lay around his home and sleep and have a bunch of meaningless conversation. I kept waiting for something to happen, something to spice up the monotony.

I waited a long time.

I think there was supposed to be a plot, but I didn’t find one. Seriously. This book flipflopped between Arion and Angel doing absolutely nothing with their lives, him trying to get her to open up about why she sought him out in the first damn place, and Angel trying to figure that out for herself.

Angel had been in an emotionally and physically abusive relationship with her boyfriend, Nick. When she decided she’d had enough, she ran to Arion. (It’s not a spoiler; you figure it out pretty quickly.) From Arion’s preconceptions of her, she was supposed to be this feisty, sarcastic, smart girl. I didn’t see that at all. I mean, I get it. She was vulnerable and trying to put herself together after being in such an abusive environment, so I didn’t expect for her to be those things for a while. The thing was…they never showed up. And all the while Arion was thinking ‘Gosh, she’s so strong and beautiful and stunning and awesome and spunky and blah blah blah.’ I got HOW they fell in love. I just couldn’t understand WHY. Maybe I just didn’t see it, but the only character traits I got from her were annoying, indecisive, and unnecessarily stubborn the few times that she stood up for herself.

As for Arion…he was mediocre. That’s all that comes to mind when I think of him. He had a bit more substance than Angel, but not much. The occasional funny line thrown here and there. A few times, he showed traits of being this sexy, charming guy. But the way his internal monologues went on and on and on about how Angel had wrecked him on the inside made him seem less like a tortured hero and more like a desperate, weak man with controlling impulses. For example, when he destroyed his house in a tantrum because he thought (with no proof) that Angel had left after the first night of him ever seeing her in real life. He could’ve handled that so much better. By, say, actually searching for her instead of being immature. Seriously, she ended up being in the next room. You can’t justify that.

Their romance was dead to me. It lacked everything. Trust. Steam. Emotion. Angel was much too concerned with getting away from Arion and then wanting to jump his bones and then running scared again for me to even consider it love. And Arion was too hung up on his mommy issues to ever let Angel be independent like she needed to be in the aftermath of her abusive relationship.

The side characters were actually, surprisingly, well done. There was Chelsea, Arion’s step-sister and Lexi, a girl who worked with his family that stood out the most. Their portrayals actually did ambitious, intelligent women justice. Chelsea came off as this stupid blond bimbo initially, but then we realize that that’s not entirely true. And Lexi was this bright, horse-loving girl with a dream to study Equine Science. They were both equally supportive of each other and Angel. There was none of that petty drama and slut-bashing that you see so prominently nowadays.

The end was unbelievably predictable and awfully anticlimactic, much like the entire book. The bad guy went down, and Arion and Angel lived happily ever after. Congrats to them, but I just could not muster a single crap to give at their HEA.

Why did I give it two stars instead of one, then? Simple. It made me cry.

Angel’s recounts of Nick’s abuse brought tears to my eyes like nothing else. Each snippet was heartbreaking:

“Nick took my innocence, and my hopes for the future, and my chance at college and everything I’d wanted for myself the first time he held me down and told me I could either agree to let him fuck me, or he’d dope me with ecstasy until I did.” 

__________________***___________________

“My fingers absentmindedly trace the scar behind my elbow, one of the few outward ones I have. Most of the time, Nick was careful not to leave visible evidence; he liked to believe people were fooled into thinking he was a good, upstanding guy and a bruised-up girlfriend might complicate that. Maybe they were fooled. I sure was. I don’t remember what I said that made him send me crashing through the glass coffee table, but I’ll never forget the bite of glass as it seared my flesh.”

__________________***___________________

“Last night, I dreamed Nick killed my mom. I found her lying on the cold tile floor of her kitchen, the words ‘come back’ pained into the pool of her blood beside her.”

The bottom line is, while I didn’t like the characters or the plot, the meaning stuck with me. It touched upon some very serious topics, and didn’t make light of them by overshadowing/ignoring the issues with the romance. I can respect that.

“I know I’m no one’s angel, because if I had wings I’d fly away, and I wouldn’t stop until I eventually soared above the pain.”

**ARC received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

Stacking the Shelves #5

Stacking the Shelves is a  weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews where we share books we're adding to our shelves, be they physical or e-copies.

BOUGHT/BORROWED

The Sound - Sarah Alderson

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - April Genevieve Tucholke

Smash Into You - Shelly Crane

Ruin - Rachel van Dyken

Mangled Hearts - Felicia Tatum

Secret for a Song - S.K. Falls

VIA NETGALLEY

Redemption - C.J. Barry

I thought it'd be a while before I did another Stacking the Shelves post. Two weeks in, I'd still been adjusting to school. Blogging had been put on the backburner. But I just couldn't resist. These lovelies were calling to me.

I'd like to think I was super duper selective this week. At least, that's what I told myself I'd try to be. I thought I'd stick to only getting the books on my most-anticipated shelf. Things I'd waited months for and would die to read. Alas, that was not the case. While I was more selective than usual, all those pretty covers still managed to reel me in.

Anywho, enough about me. Did you do a Stacking the Shelves post? Leave me a link in the comments, and I'll stop on by!

Review - Real - Katy Evans

Title: Real
Author: Katy Evans
Publisher: Gallery Books
Release Date: May 28th, 2013
Series: Real, Raw & Ripped #1
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Synopsis

Remington Tate has a bad-boy rep in and out of the ring, a granite-hard body, and a raw, animal power that sends his female fans into a frenzy. But from the moment their eyes lock, the only woman he wants is Brooke Dumas. His desire is pure, all-consuming, and REAL.

Hired to keep his perfect body working like a machine, Brooke finally has the lucrative sports therapy job she’s been dreaming of. But as she tours the dangerous underground fighting circuit with Remy and his team, Brooke’s own body becomes alive with the most primal of hungers. If what happens between Brooke and Remy is ever as light as a flirtation, it quickly becomes an erotic obsession for them both, and promises so much more.

But their white-hot lust has a dark side—and when Remy’s deepest secret comes to light and Brooke’s familial duties demand action, will the pair be able to hang on, or will everything that once seemed so real suddenly fade away like an illusion?

My rating:

This book was a train wreck. One giant, full-blown, explosive catastrophe filled with twisted piles of sexual tension, fragments of intense lust, and the shattered remains of angsty, heated arguments. A train wreck, indeed. So now, if you’re wondering why I gave it four stars it’s because…I enjoyed the vast majority of it.

Not once was I ever bored with this book. Its fast pace and the electric way Katy Evans wrote it kept me with my Nook practically glued to my fingers. I stayed up the entire night reading it, the glow maybe hurting my eyes a little, but I’d be lying if I said I wished I could have those hours back. And, yeah, electric is probably a weird word to describe K.E.’s writing, but it’s the only thing that fits. I could try to explain it, but I feel like direct quotes would be the only thing to do it any significant amount of justice:

“He looks into my face again, his eyes seething with desire. I think I just nodded in agreement, but I’m too shaky to know for sure. A sweltering fever runs unleashed through me. My legs won’t stop trembling as every one of my cells screams in lust because I want him now. I want him now.”

And then there’s…

“Holding me protectively in his strong arms, he brushes my hair back as his lips buzz along the bare curve between my neck and collar, his fingers sliding up my neck as he once again, like a chant, nuzzles my ear and tells me, ‘Mine. Tonight.’”

So, yeah, sexual tension galore. I’d say about 95% of the entire book was sexual tension. And that’s great if you’re into that sort of thing, but at times it read like pure smut. I’m no prude, and I’m not going to lie and say I’ve never read an erotica book before, but at times I found myself cringing at some of the word choice.

“Even though he’s wearing sweatpants and an easy T-shirt, there’s no way you can miss the clench of the muscles of his upper body through the damp cotton fabric, and the way his sweatpants hang low on his narrow hips make my breasts feel so heavy and painful I swear to god I can’t imagine how it will feel when I’m lactating one day.”

Now, outside of the context of the novel, nothing's wrong with lactating boobs. It's natural. But in direct contrast with Remy's hotness, it's just so out of place.

Those quotes are just few of many of the lusty thoughts our narrator, Brooke Dumas, has for Remington “Remy” Tate, the hero. There’s about a billon more where they came from, too. While I did like the intensity, I wished it had been toned down a bit to allow more room for the romance. Halfway through the book, I was already aware of how much Brooke and Remy wanted to bang. I got it. Cool. But where was the swoony romance? The meaningful conversation, expressed outside of song lyrics? (Though I will admit that the lyric communication was my favorite part.) A connection that didn’t involve sex, for once? The love between them, I feel, wasn’t as clear as it could’ve been. (Until the end, at least.) I didn’t experience them falling in love like I would’ve wanted to. Mostly, I just felt Brooke’s sex muscles clenching every time she even thought of Remy.

Another thing that kind of got squashed in Brooke’s sex-starved narrative was the characterization. I got no sense of character until I was almost done with the book. Remy was supposed to be this super hot, cocky, amazing, powerful, troubled guy. And I wanted to see those things more than I wanted to hear about how much Brooke wanted to jump his bones. The same with Brooke. I actually liked her, once I got past her smutty inner thoughts. She was cool and sensible. It wasn’t until the issue with her sister that I began to see some depth.

Despite the things I said above, I fell for Brooke and Remy’s relationship. It may have taken some time, but it got there, so I’m glad I read until the end. I really liked that things weren’t so happy-happy-joy-joy between them all the time. The way that they Remy fought to keep Brooke at a distance first, and then fought to keep her close. The way that Brooke’s emotions teetered a few times because of how much she wanted him.

“He must have wanted a different reaction to his gesture. He must have wanted me to be all gushy and tell him, ‘Oh my stars, you’re so amazing!’ But I won’t. Because I hate what he does to me. I hate that I want him like this, hate that I feel so volatile I want to tear his eyes out and then go cry about it.”

I’m such a sucker for angsty love affairs, I couldn’t help but give this surprisingly thrilling train wreck of a romance four stars.

 ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Review - Elite - Rachel van Dyken

Title: Elite
Author: Rachel van Dyken
Publisher: Forever (Grand Central Publishing)
Release Date: July 9th, 2013
Series: Eagle Elite #1
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Synopsis via Goodreads

For Tracey Rooks, life with her grandparents on a Wyoming farm has always been simple. But after her grandmother's death, Tracey is all her grandfather has. So when Eagle Elite University announces its annual scholarship lottery, Tracey jumps at the opportunity to secure their future and enters. She isn't expecting much-but then she wins. And life as she knows it will never be same . . .

The students at Eagle Elite are unlike any she's ever met . . . and they refuse to make things easy for her. There's Nixon, gorgeous, irresistible, and leader of a group that everyone fears: The Elect. Their rules are simple.

1. Do not touch The Elect.

2. Do not look at The Elect.

3. Do not speak to The Elect.

No matter how hard she tries to stay away, The Elect are always around her and it isn't long until she finds out the reason why they keep their friends close and their enemies even closer. She just didn't realize she was the enemy -- until it was too late.

My rating:

So I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I hated this book at chapter one. I hated it so much it almost ended up in my don't-ever-read pile. The protagonist, Trace, seemed spineless and naive--characteristics that are annoying in their own right but unbearable paired together. By the tenth time I'd rolled my eyes I thought I'd save myself the pain of reading it and move on.

And I am SO GLAD I convinced myself not to.

Seriously. 4.5 fantastic freaking stars to the fresh, original and dangerously intriguing first installment of Rachel van Dyken's (whom I now tip my invisible but stylishly feathered hat to) Elect Series.

So now that I got the bad news out of the way, the good news is that I loved this book. It may've had its faults and I'll get to those later, but I loved it.

It starts out with Tracey "Trace" Rooks coming to her new school and immediately being introduced to the rules by a very rude and astoundingly attractive group of boys. Now, initially I thought I was in for something paranormal. Mysterious school. Mysterious guys. Mysterious rules. Eventually, I learned that paranormalcy wasn't the case. Nope. It was just a small group of people called the "Elect" (which seemed to be synonymous with "pretentious, self-entitled, self-centered dickheads") that ruled the school. Or, to be specific, it was Nixon, their leader and Trace's love interest that ruled the school. And when I say "ruled the school", I mean it. He, an alleged student, got to control when and what people got to eat for crying out loud.

Remember how I called Trace spineless and naive? Yeah, not so much. She didn't take kindly to their rules and she suffered the consequences. This book took "hazing" to the next level. Aside from that, though, I really liked Trace. Well, after I got over my initial hatred. When she wasn't a crying mess from all the crap she took from the other students, she was intelligent and witty. I admired her for sticking through the hazing and for her determination to create a better life for herself and her grandfather.

And then we have Nixon, with whom I had mixed feelings about. I hated him in the beginning, too. Calling him an asshole would've been much, much too mild. He humiliated Trace constantly, and then claimed it was to protect her. (Which turned out to be true in the end, but when I didn't know that, I despised him.) He had this air of infallible arrogance about him. Maybe the arrogance was justified by his unquantifiable amount of wealth and power over EVERYTHING EVER but it was still aggravating. By the time he and Trace began their Romeo & Juliet-esque love affair, he'd redeemed himself a bit, but he was still a jerk.

Imagine my surprise when their romance ended up being my favorite part. Once Nixon stopped being a douche and we learn the real reason he was being a douche, it was easy to accept. With the end's "big reveal" also came the big reveal for Trace and Nixon. Their relationship was all kinds of endearing.

His breathing turned shallow. He closed his eyes and mumbled, "It was always supposed to be like this. Always."

They had swoon-worthy moments as well as steamy moments, and I soon found myself rooting for them. I'm a sucker for old, forbidden love, what can I say?

The thing is: I spent the majority of this book confused. If you don't like being confused, I don't recommend this book. Actually, I take that back because the big reveal is well worth it. Trace's world becomes utter chaos, and I loved the unraveling of her past and how Nixon and the Elect and her family tied into it.

The only problems I had with this book were the following:

1) They were supposed to be in college, but the atmosphere and the dynamic screamed high school. I had a hard time swallowing it.

2) The pacing was too fast. Things happened back to back to back and there wasn't a period where I could rest and think about all the things that were happening to Trace. I just wished R.v.D. had just slowed it down a bit.

3) The potential for a love triangle in the next book. I'm all for Team Nixon at this point, but I don't want there to be a love triangle at all. The sad part is, I'm 100% there will be one with the feelings (rapid feelings, at that) Trace developed for...someone who isn't Nixon.

Other than that, Elite provided just enough originality and arresting drama to keep me hastily turning the pages (or pressing the screen, since I read this on my Nook.) Bravo R.v.D. for turning this heavily sarcastic skeptic (that's me) into a fully-fledged fan and keeping me entertained when I was trying to escape from the heavy boredom of summer homework assignments.

 **ARC courtesy of Forever (Grand Central Publishing) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**