Tag: Young Adult (Page 9 of 158)

Item: Fauxmance
Rating: 5
Author: Jen

BOOK REVIEW: Fauxmance by Cookie O’Gorman

April 27, 2022 / Jen / 4 Comments

Fauxmance by Cookie O'Gorman
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
Fauxmance (foh-mans): Term for a romantic relationship that is fake. Real feelings, like love, are strictly prohibited. See also: Why would anyone enter a fake relationship?

Eighteen-year-old Magnolia believes in true love.

Or she did.

When her boyfriend dumps her the day before her sister's wedding, Maggie is devastated—but her broken heart is only part of the problem. Maggie is the maid of honor, and her sister insists: Every member of the bridal party must have an escort. No exceptions.

Thank goodness for Hayden Davenport.

Sarcastic, cocky, a surprisingly good listener and self-professed player, when Maggie gets stuck in an elevator with the handsome stranger, she thinks she's found the perfect wedding date. Unfortunately, Hayden hates weddings. Like really hates them.

But one soul-shattering kiss changes everything.

Maggie needs a fake boyfriend. Hayden wants to prove he's changed his playboy ways. Faking it should be easy. The hard part?

Remembering it's all pretend and not falling in love for real.

This book features two opposites with sizzling chemistry, a sweet, hopeless romantic and a cynical bad boy who'll steal your heart. Elevators, fake romance, and weddings, oh my! Get ready to swoon, laugh, and say 'I do' to this heartfelt YA romance.

Review:

Fauxmance was absolutely adorable and so much fun! With laugh out loud and sigh worthy moments, this heartwarming story became a quick favorite! And with a fun and flirty vibe, this was YA at its best! If you’re looking for a young adult romance that will keep you smiling and laughing, you definitely need this book in your life!

“Let me prove it to you.”
My brows pinched together. “How are you going to do that?”
“I’m going to kiss you,” he said.
Anything I was about to say left me. My brain went totally blank. What were words again?
“If you still think kissing’s overrated after that, okay. I’ll retire my player card for good.” Hayden’s eyes went to my lips, and they tingled in response. “That won’t happen, though.”
I swallowed to clear my throat. “How can you be sure?”
“Because I’m going to do my best to please you.”

After Magnolia got dumped by her longtime boyfriend, the day before her sister’s wedding, she was lost without an escort. And her sister was a stickler for how she wanted her wedding to run. Thankfully fate intervened and Magnolia found herself stuck in an elevator with Hayden. And while there was definitely a connection, and lots of chemistry with a swoon worthy kiss, Hayden was completely against weddings. Except Hayden needed to prove he was no longer a player and Magnolia desperately needed a date. What could be the harm of fake dating each other to get what they both wanted?

As he leaned back, Hayden gave me a soft smile. “Don’t sound so worried. I’m going to be the perfect fake boyfriend.”
I didn’t tell him then— but that was exactly what I was worried about.

You will passionately fall in love with Hayden! He was beyond sigh worthy. With a bad boy, cynical vibe, I loved his cocky ways! But he could also make me laugh so hard. Messing up names, comparing Magnolia to his grandma, honestly there was so much uniqueness to Hayden that I loved learning everything there was about him! Especially his sweet side, like how he would stand up for Magnolia or say wonderful things about her. He could be such a good guy. Cookie O’Gorman created another book boyfriend that I was completely obsessed with!

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” he said, and my heart tried to escape my chest— right up until he added, “Your strange fear of peeps and how you refuse to eat without a napkin really made an impression.”
“Ha ha,” I said.

I loved Magnolia with my whole heart! She was definitely someone you would want to be bff with. She was so honest, but at the same time she cracked me up. With always having her sister’s back and her heartfelt dreams of being a bridesmaid, Magnolia was so adorable! I loved the relationship she had with her mom, I loved that she went to therapy and I loved what a good, kindhearted person she was! So watching how far she grew from that first page to the last warmed my heart!

I caught myself staring at Hayden’s hands as he drove— the same hands that had gripped my waist and tucked my hair behind my ear. My gaze moved to his lips, and I shivered. I could still feel the imprint of them on my skin.

Magnolia and Hayden were definitely opposites in quite a few ways. I loved how she tried her best to be positive whereas Hayden no problems putting it all out there and being realistic. But their interactions together had me laughing so hard at times I couldn’t breathe. So with gestures that were smile inducing, second hand embarrassment that made you feel everything, and moments that will make you gasp out loud, this is the type of book that you can easily devour in one sitting! And with fake dating laced throughout the pages, just try your hardest not to smile from beginning to end!

But what if it could’ve been more? my mind whispered.
Shaking the thought off, I got back to work.

Fauxmance was swoon worthy, giggle inducing and impossible to put down! I literally squeaked, gasped, laughed and screamed out loud while reading this story. It was entertaining, captivating and the epilogue was the cutest! If you adore young adult romance, or the fake dating trope, you definitely need to meet Magnolia and Hayden!

*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book, provided by the author. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

BOOK REVIEW: The Damned (The Beautiful #2) by Renee Ahdieh

March 29, 2022 / Chelsea / 2 Comments

BOOK REVIEW: The Damned (The Beautiful #2) by Renee Ahdieh The Damned (The Beautiful #2)
by Renee Ahdieh
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

New York Times bestselling author Renée Ahdieh returns with the second installment of her new sumptuous, sultry and romantic series, The Beautiful.

Following the events of The Beautiful, Sébastien Saint Germain is now cursed and forever changed. The treaty between the Fallen and the Brotherhood has been broken, and war between the immortals seems imminent. The price of loving Celine was costly. But Celine has also paid a high price for loving Bastien.

Still recovering from injuries sustained during a night she can’t quite remember, her dreams are troubled. And she doesn’t know she has inadvertently set into motion a chain of events that could lead to her demise and unveil a truth about herself she’s not quite ready to learn.

Forces hiding in the shadows have been patiently waiting for this moment for centuries. And just as Bastien and Celine begin to uncover the danger around them, they learn their love could tear them apart.

“And real love may be a choice, but I plan to choose someone who steals the breath from my body and haunts my very dreams. That is the only kind of love worth having.”

Look, this is hard for me. I do NOT like bashing a book even remotely connected to another book I adore….let alone in the same series.

Yet here we are. Imagine how hard this is for me.  The easiest way I could think of to explain this abomination of a story is as simple as this:

This book, simply put, is the child to a mother who yearned for so much more world expansion so as to ‘have another child’ there wasn’t possibly any way to sustain the child that already existed, to possibly survive on its own. The lack of nourishment for our already conceived and existing child caused it to shrivel and die… all in the name of making sure there were enough nutrients for another child, another being that literally didn’t exist.

Ahdieh made it so we got another two books with other characters instead of taking care of the first book she had already written, made a lottt of people fall in love with, and let Bastien and Celine’s story just…what even happened? Celine legit was barely in this book. SHE WASN’T EVEN THE MAIN POV.

And here we go. HERE. WE. FUCKING. GO. Bastien. What the cinnamon toast FUCK did she to do my child?? That is NOT who we fell in love with in book one. Not a wink. I get it. I fucking get it. But to take this beloved character of mine and, like, massacre his soul like this-that is NOT okay.

And even more than that, she triggered the EFF out of me. Yes. I know. I KNOW I am sensitive and get mad at the stupidest shit…but I just felt like this was

What even. What EVEN was she doing here. Sloppy. Inconsistent. Unlike Bastien. And, I’m guna say it-COWARDLY. This was a pathetic attempt at a story and it was just…not good. I had read people said book two was different and, like, that’s okay? I don’t CARE. But this was just out of left field different.

New creatures. New storyline. No direction. I get what she was attempting here, but it fell flat, period. And to not even really do anything until the last bit of the book, to let things hang in such a manner, to throw so much in with so little payoff-especially for certain things (I WILL NOT SPOIL. I WILL NOT)-it was a slap in the face. I do not CARE about these next characters. If you cannot take care of the dog you have, you have literally zero-zip-right to get a new puppy.

Look, I sound bitter-and I AM bitter-but this was a dumpster fire of a book, and NOT in a complimentary way like the masterpiece that was You Deserve Each Other. I could go on. And on. And on. About this piece of trash but-as I said in review one-I don’t have time to pretend that such a sadistic piece of turd exists and I’ll continue to cherish book one as if it was a standalone-or, rather, a single, solitary fucking child. At least then it can learn to feed and take care of itself instead of living in the shadow of stink that this one exudes. And that…is all I have to say. Regardless of what else I want to rant about, it’s not worth it-period.

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BOOK REVIEW: The Mime Order (The Bone Season #2) by Samantha Shannon

March 28, 2022 / Chelsea / 0 Comments

BOOK REVIEW: The Mime Order (The Bone Season #2) by Samantha Shannon The Mime Order (The Bone Season #2)
by Samantha Shannon
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Paige Mahoney has escaped the brutal prison camp of Sheol I, but her problems have only just begun: many of the survivors are missing and she is the most wanted person in London...

As Scion turns its all-seeing eye on the dreamwalker, the mime-lords and mime-queens of the city's gangs are invited to a rare meeting of the Unnatural Assembly. Jaxon Hall and his Seven Seals prepare to take centre stage, but there are bitter fault lines running through the clairvoyant community and dark secrets around every corner.

Then the Rephaim begin crawling out from the shadows. Paige must keep moving, from Seven Dials to Grub Street to the secret catacombs of Camden, until the fate of the underworld can be decided.

“You call a past lover an ‘old flame.’” His apple-gold eyes were more chilling than beautiful, his face carved out of nothing earthly. “For Rephaim, it takes a long time for a flame to catch. But once it burns, it cannot go out.”
It didn’t take long to understand what he meant. “But I will,” I said. “I’ll stop. I’ll go out.”
There was a long silence.
“Yes,” Warden said, very softly. “You will go out.”

It’s so hard to write reviews for a series when you are reading them back to back-Not to mention if they are dense and lengthy. The Bone Season is both of those plus more, but I cannot imagine not taking the time to at least make an effort to try and relay what makes this series special in its own unique way.

Voyants, do you hear me?

It won’t be as long or well thought out as it would have been had I taken the time immediately after finishing to write this, but it stands on its own merit and I am simply assisting those who want my personal opinion and why it works for me (wow I am so robotic-I. Am. SO. Tired. Did I mention I’m tired?).

Do you hear me?

Well, for one, this is the most ‘serious’ forbidden romance I’ve ever had the ?pleasure? of reading. I mean, it’s downright painful going page to page as these two treat each other’s goals, ambitions, and loyalties with such a staunch and unrelenting manner. The push and pull is so agonizingly sinful that I am absolute TRASH when they slip away and just simply…give in. That being said, mind you, I am undeniably mixing up books 2 and 3 right now. I am shamelessly furthering my own agenda by saying this push and pull thing goes on book after book after, well…as far as I am in book four [which is 54% of the way through.] I. Need. Some. SERIOUS. Relief…oKaY?

“Paige.” His voice was a gray shadow of itself. “It is not that I do not want you. Only that I might want you too much. And for too long.”

With all that being said, this book had a lack of Warden for quite some time-so know that the typical book two formula is in play here, but damn if the tension of her ragtag group of the seven dials didn’t fulfill my very macabre idea of a good storyline.

“Surely we have to try, Jax? Who’s going to rule I-4 when they come for us?”
“Be careful, Paige.” Jaxon’s face was losing color again. “You are treading a very fine line.”
“Am I? Or am I crossing yours?”

Which leads me to another reason I love this series: Jackson. He is the most….dastardly Mime Lord ever. Well, no, he’s not. But the sinister way in which he is their friend-but not-their leader-but not (more like dictator)-their savior-but not…It’s mindfuckery of the utmost thrilling proportions. Are we supposed to like him? Hate him? Love him? I was on the edge of my seat for so much of this book. It certainly did not suffer from book two syndrome with the action and peril and utter destruction of mind and soul.

“…And words, my walker—well, words are everything. Words give wings even to those who have been stamped upon, broken beyond all hope of repair.”

Now, one may say I’m being spoilery. Nah. Anyone with any sense of awareness in this effed up world can see how malicious that man is:

“The only reason you are not dead already, O my lovely, is because of my good word. My declaration of your innocence. Put one toe out of line, and I will have you dragged before the Unnatural Assembly so you can show them that scar.”

Does that sound like a sane person to you? He is…interesting. And in the best way possible, in my opinion, because I can’t help but love what he adds to the storyline . And that’s really the whole thing, for me-I am almost done with the books available to us readers and I find that while there is never a lack of Paige and Warden being in danger (especially Paige), I much preferred books one and two for the story structure and plot.

“You helped me.”
“Do not labor under the illusion that I am a bastion of moral goodness, Paige. That would be a dangerous venture.”

I can’t proceed with that train of thought, just know that I am a simple gal who likes simple things and I am a huge fan of books one and two for the way they intricately play out…the complexities of 3 and 4 are so good…but man, I do so love the beginnings of revolutions (lest we forget I’ve ALWAYS been a book 1 kinda gal). ***EDIT*** Just went through some book three passages and I maaayyyy have been hasty in saying book three doesn’t give me ALL the vibes. I guess 1, 2, AND 3 give me happy macabre vibes. Yes. I did say that.

London—beautiful, immortal London—has never been a “city” in the simplest sense of the word. It was, and is, a living, breathing thing, a stone leviathan that harbors secrets underneath its scales. It guards them covetously, hiding them deep within its body; only the mad or the worthy can find them.

And, lastly, I will combine the last two reasons I adore this series: Paige’s friends (mostly Nick) and, obviously, the way this author gives no shits about simultaneously almost killing Paige every other chapter with not the bat of an eyelash. It seems to be as simple as breathing to her…and I inhale those tantalizing attacks with not one ounce of shame. I love this author’s attention to the goriest detail-in fact, I thrive.

“You can never want too much. That’s how they silence us,” I said. “They told us we were lucky to be in the penal colony instead of the æther. Lucky to be murdered with NiteKind, not the noose. Lucky to be alive, even if we weren’t free. They told us to stop wanting more than what they gave us, because what they gave us was more than we deserved.”

So, there you go. And it’s so hard to write reviews that obviously mirror another one or two books in a series-especially one like this. But I am proud to say that once you get into these, I don’t really think it matters because you’re either all in or you are done-both cases of which imply that you don’t care if the facts are a bit muddled because you’re trudging onward anyway and you’re as deep as I am or you simply don’t care and you’re curious. Either way, if anyone ever wants to talk Warden and Paige, I’m all ears.

But Warden cared if I laughed. He cared if I lived or died. He had seen me as I was, not as the world saw me.
And that meant something.
It had to. Didn’t it?

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BOOK REVIEW: The Beautiful (The Beautiful #1) by Renee Ahdieh

March 24, 2022 / Chelsea / 2 Comments

BOOK REVIEW: The Beautiful (The Beautiful #1) by Renee Ahdieh The Beautiful (The Beautiful #1)
by Renee Ahdieh
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she's forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent along with six other girls, Celine quickly becomes enamored with the vibrant city from the music to the food to the soirées and—especially—to the danger. She soon becomes embroiled in the city's glitzy underworld, known as La Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group's leader, the enigmatic Sébastien Saint Germain. When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of La Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sébastien's guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.

When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose—one Celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. As the murders continue to go unsolved, Celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more shocking: an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about Celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface.

At once a sultry romance and a thrilling murder mystery, master storyteller Renée Ahdieh embarks on her most potent fantasy series yet: The Beautiful.

My Disclaimer:

Before Reading Book Two: Highly Recommend (I literally insist)

After Reading Book Two: What are you talking about? There is no book two. This is simply a wonderfully charismatic, dramatic ending standalone. Do with that information what you will.

Nothing good ever came from succumbing to madness.

I read this over a month ago, yet I am no less breathless when I randomly begin thinking about it. I think it says something when you have read probably ten books post said book and your mind still randomly jumps back to it randomly, dumping you back into that time and moment when you wholly immersed yourself and said ‘I’ll never forget this’. But we always forget. Always.

It drove me to where I am now. But I am not ungrateful. For it brought to bear two of my deepest truths: I will always possess an errant young soul, no matter my age.
And I will always be the shadowy creature in darkened alcoves, waiting . . .
For you, my love. For you.

That’s not to say we NEVER remember it again, or can’t relive that feeling when we do think back to it, but we all move on, us readers, because we make room for so many more amazing books, if we are lucky. I think I’ve been very fortunate, as I have read no less than 40 amazing 5 star books just this past year (maybe more) and I loved them all fiercely for each individual story, each with its own merit-sometimes for the same reason, the same trope, the same male characteristics, the same strong, bold heroine, or a shy blushing MC. Maybe instead it’s witty and sarcastic, or dramatic and tension-filled, rife with peril or romantic delusions leading to a huge-but oh so amazing-misunderstanding that makes or breaks the book (but almost always makes the book, for me).

But if a monster takes a life, what kind of creature refuses to save one?

So why this book? What was so individualistic about it that it pops in my mind so much when it wasn’t without many flaws? Well. Perhaps that bias comes from book two which doesn’t even exist so why I even mentioned such an asinine thing is beyond me, but whatever. I. Don’t. Know. I just know that when I picked this book up, it felt right. I know I say that now and again [a lot] but it makes it no less true. And that just makes me a good reader, a smart reader, a very altruistic (I looked this up and legit this is not the correct word but I like the way it looks and sounds so…it stays) and enthusiastic fan. And this was no exception.

No matter where she went, danger followed.
And it horrified her. Just as it thrilled her.

I think part of the reason I fell so strongly in love with this story was that, TO ME, it felt different. New. Exciting. It’s not-not really-but it was such a mashup of so many things I felt a kinship to it, a pull unlike anything I’d felt in a while. It wasn’t my normal ‘Oh I’ll love this forever’ stint, nor did it just jump off the page and become an instant favorite. Much like the slow burn of this novel, this book grew on me in a way I’m not accustom to and…I definitely didn’t hate it.

In that instant, Celine thought she had an inkling of what it must be like to be a monster. To commit monstrous deeds. To wish for monstrous things to come about.
To revel in the dark.

Celine was a heroine I wholeheartedly enjoyed with her curiosity and fierce nature (it was a while ago I read this, so bare with me on describing her-I just know I LOVED her for simply being her and she was a fun heroine to follow, even if I don’t wholly remember everything). She knew what she wanted, and she also knew what she could and couldn’t live without-her friend was of utmost importance to her, so she did what she felt she had to. She could not put her friend in danger as she was sought after by the killer. What she could live with endangering her life for…well. Same.

Was this love then?
If it was, Celine wanted to bathe in it. To luxuriate in this feeling of knowing—without being told—that someone saw her, amid the beautiful decay. Saw her and stood by her side, against the very world itself.

Bastien. Let’s not pretend he is anything new in the male lead department…but it doesn’t mean I didn’t squee when he came on the page, morally gray as ever yet as sweet as a cinnamon roll to those he loved and cared about. I wonder who he grew to care about? Hm. Puzzler. That all being said, their love is forbidden for too many reasons to name, and he knows that. Yet as the book progresses, we begin to see his facade crack, his attitude change, and his motives become perhaps no less pure, but far more misguided.

“Ask him.” His smile turned punishing. “I have no doubt what his answer will be.”
“Mon cher, you don’t know him as well as you think you do.” Odette’s retort was pointed. “That’s the thing about beautiful fiends like Sébastien Saint Germain: they always do what you least expect them to do.” She brushed a speck of nonexistent dust from his shoulder. “And in the end, they always wear the crown.”

I cannot say why misguided, as I wasn’t quite sure what he was or wasn’t until a certain point in this story-I still raised an eyebrow when ‘proof’ was shown, but no matter. It all came to a head, in the end. Just know this: If a tortured hero (for actual good reason, this time) with forbidden love and mystery is what you fancy, I’d go for it.

“…Rage is a moment. Regret is forever.”

So. I don’t know. Without continuing to ramble I don’t know how I am supposed to express why you should read this when I can’t quite pinpoint why it felt different to me. Set in an eerie New Orleans, with unidentified creatures and Celine’s quest to figure who or what is targeting those around her, this book was just a breath of fresh air. I loved following her through the streets not knowing what was following her, who was around (not all bad, ya know), what might happen (as there really wasn’t a set formula, it just flowed), and what would eventually transpire when it all came to a head and Bastien had to make a choice-I won’t say it was right up my alley, not outright, but, okay, I was laying in said alley basking in the darkness, starlight, and forbidden lovers as they raced to survive against an unknown wholly evil force and I literally could not breathe. But, like, make your own decision, ‘kay? Don’t take my word for it.

******

The way I loved this so much 😭😭

RTC

The Bone Season (The Bone Season #1) by Samantha Shannon

March 10, 2022 / Chelsea / 0 Comments

The Bone Season (The Bone Season #1)
by Samantha Shannon
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

The year is 2059. Nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney is working in the criminal underworld of Scion London, based at Seven Dials, employed by a man named Jaxon Hall. Her job: to scout for information by breaking into people’s minds. For Paige is a dreamwalker, a clairvoyant and, in the world of Scion, she commits treason simply by breathing.

It is raining the day her life changes for ever. Attacked, drugged and kidnapped, Paige is transported to Oxford – a city kept secret for two hundred years, controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. Paige is assigned to Warden, a Rephaite with mysterious motives. He is her master. Her trainer. Her natural enemy. But if Paige wants to regain her freedom she must allow herself to be nurtured in this prison where she is meant to die.

The Bone Season introduces a compelling heroine and also introduces an extraordinary young writer, with huge ambition and a teeming imagination. Samantha Shannon has created a bold new reality in this riveting debut.

With many books that I’m not sure of, I hold them back, watch…and wait. I can’t pinpoint precisely what it was about this series that always tugged on my heartstrings

(har) but it was never far from my mind, nor was it something I wanted to delete from my tbr, no matter whether negative reviews or claims of lengthy, unnecessary info-dumping invaded my feed or the review page for said book when I stalked it every once in a while. For whatever reason, I wanted this one to succeed. I wanted it to not fall prey like many fantasy series and lose steam and go nowhere. I wanted to be part of this world. Period.

It should come at no surprise that one of my closest friends mentioned one of their closest friends (and a friend of mine, as well, inadvertently) reading it, that it was getting better and better as it went…And that was literally a hair trigger. I was done. Ready to go. And I picked it up immediately. That simple. What does that tell you?

The folly in this, though, was that I thought SURELY after all these years that the series would be complete? But no. Alas, I will be in for a very long wait if I make it through that far (I see no issues as in book two it’s even better, in a way). But some of the best things are worth the wait.

Look, nothing I say about this book will be new-if you have been on GR at all for any amount of time in the fantasy scene, you’ve seen and/or heard about this book. What I can confirm is:

A) Why yes, it is extremely difficult to understand, especially the beginning
B) Why yes, it is long
C) And yes, some do not like the forbidden romance because of it’s nature (view spoiler) Though, I found this to be very loosely based as far as he is involved. Other people in this group? They are the real deal, though

I’d be lying if I said it didn’t have some highly disturbing scenes and I wasn’t triggered in the ‘child’ sense once or twice…but, other than that, I found this book to just be so addictive and, dare I say, wonderful. I was obsessed the moment this book picked up steam. Which, actually, didn’t take long if you can push past those first two chapters or so!

Is it a bit depraved? Absolutely. But as it turns out, my favorite books tend to be quite frightening in intense, disturbing scenes. For example: I LOVE when the hero/heroine get the snot beat out of them. There. I SAID IT. This happens frequently in this book (and the second, to be frank) and I am not ashamed to admit I found immense pleasure in it-and no, not because of the act of it [never the act of it], but because of what comes after between heroes and heroines.

Whatever. Call me sick, but I am who I am and I like scenes that draw the baser person out of all of us.

So, there you go. I am so happy to admit that my wait was not in vain and that I was ecstatic to continue to book two. And, really, what else can you ask for?

****

Oh gosh, I literally cannot believe how good this ended up being?

RTC, if I can form some coherent thoughts!

****