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BOOK REVIEW – Charm and Strange by Stephanie Kuehn

BOOK REVIEW – Charm and Strange by Stephanie KuehnCharm and Strange by Stephanie Kuehn
Purchase on: AmazoniBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

No one really knows who Andrew Winston Winters is. Least of all himself. He is part Win, a lonely teenager exiled to a remote boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy. The guy who shuts the whole world out, no matter the cost, because his darkest fear is of himself ...of the wolfish predator within. But he's also part Drew, the angry boy with violent impulses that control him. The boy who, one fateful summer, was part of something so terrible it came close to destroying him. A deftly woven, elegant, unnerving psychological thriller about a boy at war with himself. Charm and Strange is a masterful exploration of one of the greatest taboos.

Note that I’m not usually the biggest fan of books that hold the truth too long but damn, I enjoyed this one way too much to complain.


How to cook an incredible and dark mindfuck?

TAKE an unreliable narrator who I *cough* loved? Am I bad? I mean, to say that the guy is pretty fucked-up is an understatement – even at 10, if I dare to say it. But still, *take a huge breath* I absolutely enjoyed following him and trying to understand his actions – I’m not even talking about his thoughts, otherwise I’d be going round and round in circles, and you don’t want to see that, am I right?

AM I RIGHT?

That’s what I thought.

“From what I can tell, morality is a word. Nothing more. There’s the things people do when others are watching and the things we do when they aren’t.”

What can I say? I find myself in awe of writers who are able to make me CARE deeply about tortured and slightly evil souls, and I can’t deny that here I rooted for Drew since page one, despite his obvious flaws and his batshit crazy behavior at times.

PUT HIM on the layer of several storylines, let’s say, two, settled at 2 different times :
– when Drew was 10 and lived with his family.
– and nowadays, when he attends a boarding school at 16. What? I’m not going to comment on this.

Both storylines bring more and more questions to fulfill this psychological mystery which is Win’s life, and won’t let you indifferent.

ADD A FEW PINCHES of vague sentences like “I know what you’re going through lately”, “I’m such a dangerous person”, “I saw what you did!” and also a lot of “what are you talking about?”, “Is it bad if I like you still?”, “Screw real life I just want to know what happens” ← those are mine.

MIX it all well with a powerful and addictive writing, which blends poetic and sharp sentences in a master way, and haunted me from the beginning to the end.

SEASON with paranormal mental hospital coming of age elements. What? There : I don’t know! Happy now?

FRY the mixture with several awful characters, a creepy and disturbing plot and some crazy feelings – and underneath, the violence lurking. Always, always this violence we can’t outrun.

Congratulations! You’ve been mindfucked pretty well.

You’re welcome.

Warning : Don’t get fooled by my review, this book deals with pretty heavy subjects. And it does it masterfully. Hence the 5 stars rating.

“I am of the sea.
I am of instability.
I am of harsh, choppy waves roiling with all the up-ness, down-ness, top-ness, bottom-ness, contained within my being.
I am of charm and strange.”

BOOK REVIEW: Reclaiming the Sand by A. Meredith Walters

BOOK REVIEW: Reclaiming the Sand by A. Meredith WaltersReclaiming the Sand (Reclaiming the Sand #1)
by A. Meredith Walters
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Bully and victim.
Tormenter and tormented.
Villain and hero.

Ellie McCallum was a bully. No connection to anyone or anything. A sad and lonely existence for a young woman who had come to expect nothing more for herself. Her only happiness coming from making others miserable.

Particularly Freaky Flynn.

Flynn Hendrick lived a life completely disconnected even as he struggled to become something more than that boy with Asperger's. He was taunted and teased, bearing the brunt of systematic and calculated cruelty, ultimately culminating in a catastrophic turn of events that brought Ellie and Flynn’s worlds crashing down.

But then Flynn and Ellie grew up.

And moved on.

Until years later when their paths unexpectedly cross again and the bully and the freak are face to face once more.

When labels come to define you, finding yourself feels impossible. Particularly for two people disconnected from the world who inexplicably find a connection in each other.

And out of the wreckage of their tragic beginnings, an unlikely love story unfolds.

But a painful past doesn’t always want to let go. And old wounds are never truly healed…and sometimes the further you try to run from yourself the closer you come to who you really are.

So…..I don’t have a ton to say about this book, other than I was severely disappointed. I’ve recently fallen in love with a book that has the whole ‘Mean Girls’ and bullying thing going on, so I really wanted to find another book like that-bullying wise. I’ve also recently started to realize I am in LOVE with flawed characters….especially of the male variety. So, naturally, I figured this book would be a slam dunk-and all my friends mostly seemed to love it.

Well, I’m only posting this review so I can clearly voice my displeasure: This book was moronic. From the cheesy dialogue to the overly mean friends who can only be described as villains in a sad B-list movie(am I saying that correctly?? I mean A HORRIBLE WANNABE BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE), this book had very little going for it. In fact, the one thing it had in its favor? I can’t even remember his name-this book is THAT forgettable. I loved the guy from the very beginning-he was sweet, kind, and he broke my heart. But that’s literally the only reason I finished.

As for the plot?? Also moronic. Why advertise a book like it’s present day when all the bad shit happens years ago??? I didn’t sign up for flashbacks, thank you very much. It was weird and it halted the story horribly and when it did become all present day, it was boring boring boring. I just wanted it to be over. Like…..I FORCED myself to finish this-but I should have called it a day from the first cheesy moment-it all went downhill from there.

So…Not much to say, really, that I haven’t already said. I have no clue why so many of my friends gave this such a high rating. Call me a bitch, but I didn’t feel even an ounce of the angst or see a smidgen of the beauty that was talked about. It was very sad, sure, but these were deplorable characters who did deplorable things….what else is there to the story aside from, errrr, Flynn? Is that it? He was the only character I cared about. So, ya know, everyone seemed to love this and none of my friends rated low…but me, Anna, and Jen certainly had no qualms about posting big, fat 2s on the record. Hopefully you’ll find something to love about this book. I just found personal torture.

 

********************************

Yeaaaaah this book wasn’t very good….not at all what I had expected and as it got later in the story, the dialogue became so cheesy (not Flynn, never Flynn) it was a struggle to finish. Man am I on a roll.

2 stars for Flynn.

Review to come

*****

Buddy read with Anna and Jen!


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BOOK REVIEW: The Deal (Off-Campus #1) by Elle Kennedy

BOOK REVIEW: The Deal (Off-Campus #1) by Elle KennedyThe Deal by Elle Kennedy
Purchase on: AmazoniBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

She’s about to make a deal with the college bad boy...

Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns her on. But while she might be confident in every other area of her life, she’s carting around a full set of baggage when it comes to sex and seduction. If she wants to get her crush’s attention, she’ll have to step out of her comfort zone and make him take notice…even if it means tutoring the annoying, childish, cocky captain of the hockey team in exchange for a pretend date.

...and it’s going to be oh so good.

All Garrett Graham has ever wanted is to play professional hockey after graduation, but his plummeting GPA is threatening everything he’s worked so hard for. If helping a sarcastic brunette make another guy jealous will help him secure his position on the team, he’s all for it. But when one unexpected kiss leads to the wildest sex of both their lives, it doesn’t take long for Garrett to realize that pretend isn’t going to cut it. Now he just has to convince Hannah that the man she wants looks a lot like him.

Sometimes people sneak up on you and suddenly you don’t know how you ever lived without them.

Once upon a time….No, seriously. This book had all the elements of a childhood fairy-tale where the hero comes to save the damsel in distress-except, get this-the damsel isn’t in distress. She doesn’t need some random dude entering her life when everything seems to be going well for her. It’s a modern day type fairy-tale where the prince is a jock who is cocky as fuck, but somehow is sweet as can be. And the girl is an intelligent, independent student with a blossoming music career that will take her all the places she’s ever wanted to go. But while this fairy-tale type story seems perfect as can be on the surface, because it almost was, there’s a tremulous storm brewing underneath. These two characters are broken. They hurt. They have secrets. Secrets they’ve never told anybody….and it’s time they unraveled them-Together.

Sometimes I don’t feel half as cool as people think I am, and I’m pretty sure that if any of them took the time to actually get to know me, they’d probably change their opinion. It’s like that pond I skated on when I was a kid-from a distance, the ice looked so shiny and smooth, until you got close enough to it, and suddenly all the uneven edges and crisscrossed skate marks became visible. That’s me, I guess. Covered with skate marks that nobody ever seems to notice.
-Garret

No, this isn’t a fairy-tale, nor is it marketed as such. But don’t you ever just read the perfect book for your mood and it makes you all happy and giddy and excited and it gives you more butterflies than you’ve had in weeks? Well, this is that book (Yes, sigh, I know, Jennifer/Harriet…you guys told me). It was happy and sad and heartwarming and uplifting and no…it didn’t teach me any life lessons and it wasn’t any deeper than a puddle after the rain, but it worked for me. Sometimes books just work. Sometimes we need that little fluff on our pillow to finally get comfortable, and lemme tell ya-I had my lowest book rating week last week since, like, I’ve ever been on GR-a 1, a 3, and a 2. It was horrible, I felt horrible, and I needed a pick me up. Thank God for this little slice of adorable-ness.

“For almost two months, Hannah. I went two months without knowing your name.”
“Well, we didn’t know each other.”
“You knew my name.”
I sigh. “Everyone knows your name.”
“How did I go so long without noticing you, damn it? Why did it take seeing a stupid A on your midterm to make me notice?”

Let me get the fangirling out of the way, because I think it’s inevitable. Garret….Garret is….I just….


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Yeah, thanks, Dylan!! Exactly!!! I mean, yeah, I’ve fallen in love with so many guys I can’t even begin to count them, but there’s just something so so special about this guy. It’s been a while since a dude who calls a girl ‘baby’ has gotten my heart pumping, so it must mean something that I was able to overlook such a cheesy term of endearment. He’s sweet. He’s funny. He’s smart. He’s a hockey player. AND DESPITE BEING A TOTAL MANWHORE…..HE’S *gasp* LOYAL. Once he, inevitably (I mean, come on), fell for Hannah, he never once looked at another girl. I found this to be so refreshing and sweet and did I say refreshing?? He broke my heart with how protective he was over Hannah and how he would do anything for her at the drop of a hat. And, something you don’t always find in NA, they were best friends. Even when they were ‘together’, they were as dorky and sarcastic and bantered like any other time. Every moment where they were together was better than the last, and I couldn’t help but to get snared in their trap as the story progressed.

“I’m not other women.”
No she isn’t. Because other women don’t entertain me as much as she does. I suddenly wonder how I ever made it through life without Hannah Wells’ sarcastic barbs and annoyed grumbles.
“Stop grinning,” she snaps.
I’m grinning? Didn’t even realize it.

*****

Hannah takes a breath. “We studied. We watched TV. I went home late. That’s what happened. Got it?”
I fight back laughter. “As you wish.”
“Did you really just Princess Bride me?
“Did you really just use Princess Bride as a verb?”

I know a lot of people thought there were tons of cliches, but I really didn’t mind. If a story flows well and has good grammar and isn’t cheesy (Hallelujah), then that’s something I hold dear. Lol, oh, and I love how Hannah always calls him ‘Dude’…I sometimes slip and say it to my husband as well so I thought it was hilarious. It’s so few and far between that I enjoy a NA so strongly, so I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth. There was adorable jealousy, self-sacrifices, confessions, protectiveness, and a possessive gleam any girl could get behind….Hell, can I just have Garret, please?? Please??


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While I didn’t fall head over heels right away for this story, it began to seep slowly into my pores as the story progressed and I couldn’t help but to fall in love. Of course the deal isn’t going to go perfectly as planned-then we wouldn’t have much of a romance, would we?? It wasn’t overdone and it had all the perfect amounts of cheese-I think anyone could like this, if they give it a chance.

Penises!
Sweet Jesus.
Penises everywhere.
Horror slams into me as I register what I’m seeing. Oh God. I’ve stumbled onto a penis convention. Big penises and small penises and fat penises and penis-shaped penises. It doesn’t matter which direction I move my head because everywhere I look I see penises.

^^Definitely one of my top favorite scenes lol^^

I laughed so hard and so frequently with this story it’s not even funny (ironically). The humor was absolute perfection. Sometimes I think we all need to put our pitch forks aside and go along for the ride…it’s nice to just stop and enjoy and not over think a book-in fact, I find it’s necessary sometimes. So, I will end my NA week on a VERY strong note…..I’m going back to my fantasy/dystopian/paranormal….boy have I missed it.

 

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Buddy read with Sarah (AND MAYBE ANNA OH ANNA YOU BETTER YOU TURD (Do you feel guilty yet)) starting this weekend!! Woot! Let’s see what all the fuss is about 😀 ♥


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BOOK REVIEW – The Deal (Off Campus #1) by Elle Kennedy

BOOK REVIEW – The Deal (Off Campus #1) by Elle KennedyThe Deal (Off Campus #1)
by Elle Kennedy
Purchase on: AmazoniBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

She’s about to make a deal with the college bad boy...

Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns her on. But while she might be confident in every other area of her life, she’s carting around a full set of baggage when it comes to sex and seduction. If she wants to get her crush’s attention, she’ll have to step out of her comfort zone and make him take notice…even if it means tutoring the annoying, childish, cocky captain of the hockey team in exchange for a pretend date.

...and it’s going to be oh so good.

All Garrett Graham has ever wanted is to play professional hockey after graduation, but his plummeting GPA is threatening everything he’s worked so hard for. If helping a sarcastic brunette make another guy jealous will help him secure his position on the team, he’s all for it. But when one unexpected kiss leads to the wildest sex of both their lives, it doesn’t take long for Garrett to realize that pretend isn’t going to cut it. Now he just has to convince Hannah that the man she wants looks a lot like him.

What do you mean by “You got the wrong book here?” Because I heard that confessions were fashionable these days. So let’s go, shall we?

Confession # 1 : I kinda liked it.

But don’t say anyone, you hear me?

I know, I KNOW. The fact is, if The Deal is by no means a perfect book, and if I had issues I will explain, I enjoyed my read more often than not. That’s something important to stress in a New Adult book, don’t you think? That’s what I thought.

Confession # 2 : I might have rolled my eyes a few times here. ░

Who am I kidding? I totally did.

► First things first, let me tell you that the beginning was cliché as hell. Let’s look at it, shall we?

Through the first 20%, we see – WAIT FOR IT –
✔ a college hockey player who happens to be 1) a manwhore, 2) rich, 3) with daddy issues
✔ a music-major MC who 1) is immune to manwhore mentioned above, 2) is sarcastic with him, 3) was previously raped
Hot chicks who only want to screw manwhore mentioned above because 1) he’s hot, DUH and 2) He has an enviable popular status which is nice to share
✔ a fake relationship aka the favorite twist of Harlequin

Yes that was violent and yes I was annoyed. Truth to be told, if friends who I trust hadn’t swear to me that the cliché hell would end, perhaps I would have stopped my read. Things being what they are, I continued on, and I don’t regret it at all. Continue reading

BOOK REVIEW – Best Kind of Broken (Finding Fate #1) by Chelsea Fine

BOOK REVIEW – Best Kind of Broken (Finding Fate #1) by Chelsea FineBest Kind of Broken (Finding Fate #1)
by Chelsea Fine
Purchase on: AmazoniBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

SOMETIMES MOVING ON MEANS MOVING IN

Pixie Marshall wishes every day she could turn back time and fix the past. But she can't. And the damage is done. She's hoping that a summer of free room and board working with her aunt at the Willow Inn will help her forget. Except there's a problem: the resident handyman is none other than Levi Andrews. The handsome quarterback was once her friend-and maybe more--until everything changed in a life-shattering instant. She was hoping to avoid him, possibly forever. Now he's right down the hall and stirring up feelings Pixie thought she'd long buried . . .

Levi can't believe he's living with the one person who holds all his painful memories. More than anything he wants to make things right, but a simple "sorry" won't suffice--not when the tragedy that scarred them was his fault. Levi knows Pixie's better off without him, but every part of him screams to touch her, protect her, wrap her in his arms, and kiss away the pain. Yet even though she's so close, Pixie's heart seems more unreachable than ever. Seeing those stunning green eyes again has made one thing perfectly clear--he can't live without her.

Review:

I loved this book.  It was beautiful, raw, sexy, funny and utterly heartbreaking.  But the most astonishing thing to me, was my ability to connect with the storyline and characters on a level I never have before.  Of course I’ve felt characters pain, happiness and horror, but this felt as though their emotions became embedded in my soul.  Their joy and despair were mine, long after I closed the book.  I’m not sure if it was the seamless writing, the characters that I understood inside and out, or a personal connection I have to what took place in their past, or maybe it’s all three meshed together?  But whatever it was, reading this book was truly astonishing.  I will remember Pixie and Levi’s story for as long as I live.

Haunted eyes stare back at me in the mirror as I slowly finish shaving.
I wish I would have known back then how significant Pixie was going to be.
I wish I would have known a lot of things. – Levi

Pixie and Levi have known each other forever.  They were best friends since childhood.  Until an event that was beyond painful and horrifying made them fall apart.  But now they are now faced with seeing each other every day.  Working and living together is bound to lead them down a path they are unsure of.  Because feelings don’t just disappear, they continue to build and now they are a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.

Pixie’s been living here for only twelve days and I already want to stab myself with a spoon. Not because she keeps blowing the fuse, though that reoccurring shenanigan of hers is certainly stab-worthy, but because I can’t do normal around Pixie.
But fighting? That I can do. – Levi

Pixie had me cackling like a mad woman in the first chapter alone.  Her inner thoughts, along with the games she played against Levi to annoy him were hilarious.  Like tears pouring down my face because I’m laughing so hard hilarious.  I loved those moments.  And they were much needed because they still drowned from so much pain.  The pain you could feel radiating from the both of them was intense and devastating.  I have never cried and felt a pain as deep as theirs in a book.  It honestly felt as though my heart kept breaking apart and I just needed them to take that step to fix the other, so I could heal too.

My eyes drop to her mouth, her throat, her hands. Every instinct I have is screaming to touch her. To cross the space between us and wrap my arms protectively around her small frame. To shield her from all the bad things, the sorrowful things. All the things I’m made of.
But that can’t happen. We can’t happen. – Levi

But it’s hard to move on when there’s still so much broken history and unsaid words between them.  And within that history, is a desire for one another.  Their sexual tension was intense!  It was fun but edgy, and that combination gave me sweaty palms and a smile that couldn’t be knocked off my face.  But in the next instance, the mood would switch and it felt as though they were on the edge of the precipice and I was terrified to breathe.  Because I kept thinking it was all going to crash to the ground eventually, and in some irrational way I believed any movement or breath from me would provoke the situation.  Oh yeah, I was that deep into this book.

Our eyes meet beneath the dimmed lights, colliding in a tangle of shared emotions too raw to touch. How did we get so broken. – Levi

Even though I was obsessed with Pixie and Levi, I loved that we got to watch their coworkers and best friends became wrapped up in their lives.  The familiarity of it all worked perfectly, and they felt like an extension of true “family”.  They stuck up, argued, and meddled (loved Mable!) with each other.  It was constant entertainment!

I used to know him. I don’t anymore. – Pixie

Best Kind of Broken was a flawless story of ones hopes, crushed hearts, and being lost while desperately trying to find your way out of the dark.  It was impossible not to have my emotions tangled throughout these pages and love every broken moment of it.  Even the snippets of their past were woven throughout the story beautifully.  An important memory placed here and there never once distracted me from the story, and I loved learning as much as I could about their past.  Because they use to be the truest of friends, and watching them trying to find their way back to each other was incredible.

Reading Order & Links:
Amazon (click on covers), iBooks (click on titles) & Book Depository (click on book #)
***Each book can be read as a standalone, but best enjoyed in order.***
Fine Best Kind of Broken
Best Kind of Broken #1
Reviews:

Jen
Perfect Kind of Trouble chelsea fine
Perfect Kind of Trouble #2
Reviews:
Jen
right kind of wrong chelsea fine
Right Kind of Wrong #3
Reviews:
Jen
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