Series: Finding Fate

Synopsis:

Sometimes when perfect falls apart, a little trouble fixes everything . . .

Twenty-one-year-old Kayla Turner has lost everything. After spending most of her life taking care of her ailing mother, she just wants to spot a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. So when her late father-a man she barely knew-leaves her an inheritance, she finally breathes a sigh of relief . . . until she learns the inheritance comes with strings. Strings in the form of handsome playboy Daren Ackwood, her father's protégé. To see any of her inheritance, she's forced to team up with him. From his expensive car to those sexy dimples, Kayla's seen his type before. But Daren isn't who he seems to be . . .

Struggling to make amends for his family's mistakes, Daren has a life more Oliver Twist than Richie Rich these days. He's beyond grateful that James Turner included him in his will, but working with Turner's princess of a daughter to fulfill his cryptic last wish is making Daren wonder if being broke is really so bad. Still, she's just as beautiful as she is stubborn, and the more time he spends with Kayla, the less it feels right being without her. Soon Daren and Kayla begin to wonder if maybe the best gift Kayla's dad could have left them . . . was each other.

Review:

Perfect Kind of Trouble was the perfect kind of book to put a smile on my face.  It was exactly what I needed!  It was heart-warming, smile inducing and when the last page closed, I had this happy feeling floating around me.  There’s a reason I love this author’s writing and that’s because in my eyes she always creates female leads who are like-able and that will have you rooting for them, males who are drool worthy, broken and definitely hard to forget, and a fun, entertaining story-line that makes you want to read the book again and again!

Kayla Turner’s father has passed away.  She has traveled from Chicago to Arizona, to not only attend his funeral, but to deal with his will.  But Daren Ackwood is involved with the will also.  As far as Kayla knows, Daren use to mow her father’s lawn, has a crazy amount of drama clouding his past, and is gorgeous.  Now they have to make a choice together.  If they want to receive whatever it is that Kayla’s father has left them, they have to team up together.  Handcuffed.  Little do they know what is in store for them!

An elderly couple walks past us, looking horrified when they see the glinting metal binding us together, and the old woman’s mouth drops open.
I smile at them reassuringly and explain. “We’re not felons,” I say, shaking my head. “We handcuffed ourselves together on purpose.” They look even more horrified. “Not for a kinky reason,” I quickly add. “For money.”
Kayla mutters, “Please stop talking.”

Kayla was so easy to like!  She is level headed, careful in her life plans, and thinks things through.  She deals with a lot of stigma for being gorgeous, but instead of coming off as stuck-up or trying to use her beauty as an advantage, it nearly hinders her at times.  Plus, the fact that she does not put up with any of Daren’s douche-bag ways, made me love her resolve!  She puts him in his place again and again, and I almost started to feel sorry for him.  Almost.

“Hi. I’m Daren Ackwood— all-around nice guy and legendary lover. Nice to meet you.”
She doesn’t even look at my hand.
“No.” I blink.
“No?”
“No.”

As I said, Darin could be a douche-bag, but then two seconds later his heart would peak out and he verged on the border of being a sweetheart.  Probably my favorite aspects of Darin was that he was cocky and charming.  He kept asking Kayla for a kiss and to be her friend.  Such simple requests, and it was so hilarious when Kayle would turn him down.  But there’s more to Darin than meets the eye.  What he has going on underneath it all?  Oh wow.  He truly is a beautiful, broken person inside.  His situation and past seemed so real.  That it could have happened to anyone in his situation.  And with how he handled it all, just made me love him that much more.

I trail my eyes over her face, down her body, and to our joined wrists, oddly satisfied by the fact that she’s literally locked to my side. Twisted, I know. But everything about this girl tangles me up.

This was an adorable, feel good book.  I was guaranteed that when Kayla and Darin were in the same area, I got to witness hot sexual chemistry and hilarious banter!  But personally, the beginning was a little slow for me, since we have to learn about each of them separately.  Thankfully that part doesn’t last too long and shortly after, I found myself snagged and falling for their story.  I’m so happy I read this book, and I can’t wait to start Right Kind of Wrong next!

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.***
Best Kind of Broken #1 Reviews: Jen	Perfect Kind of Trouble #2 Reviews: Jen	Right Kind of Wrong #3 Reviews: Jen

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.***
Best Kind of Broken #1 Reviews: Jen	Perfect Kind of Trouble #2 Reviews: Jen	Right Kind of Wrong #3 Reviews: Jen