#ARC Review || Spare and Found Parts by Sarah Maria Griffin || Teapot Heads and Slow Plot Lines

Spare and Found Parts by Sarah Maria Griffin
Published October 4, 2016 by Greenwillow Books
Amazon || Goodreads
ARC via Andye @ readingteen.net

Nell Crane has always been an outsider. In a city devastated by an epidemic, where survivors are all missing parts—an arm, a leg, an eye—her father is the famed scientist who created the biomechanical limbs everyone now uses. But Nell is the only one whose mechanical piece is on the inside: her heart. Since the childhood operation, she has ticked. Like a clock, like a bomb. As her community rebuilds, everyone is expected to contribute to the society’s good . . . but how can Nell live up to her father’s revolutionary idea when she has none of her own?

#ARC Review: Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter || Dolls That Eat Everything

Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter
Goodreads || Amazon
ARC via Andye @ readingteen.net
Published September 20, 2016 || Tor Teen

- - -

In the enchanted kingdom of Brooklyn, the fashionable people put on cute shoes, go to parties in warehouses, drink on rooftops at sunset, and tell themselves they’ve arrived. A whole lot of Brooklyn is like that now—but not Vassa’s working-class neighborhood.

#ARC Review || She's Got a Way by Maggie McGinnis || One Cabin Doesn't Fit All

She's Got a Way by Maggie McGinnis 
Amazon || Goodreads
ARC via NetGalley + Publisher
Published August 30, 2016


Gabriela O’Brien is devoted to the girls at Briarwood Academy—even when their bad behavior earns them an entire summer at a remote campground in Echo Lake, Vermont. When the headmaster assigns Gabi to be their chaperone, how can she refuse? A long, hot summer with neither indoor plumbing nor wireless access might be just what she needs to get her own life in order…right?

#ARC Review || I'm Still Here by Clelie Avit || A Modern Sleeping Beauty

I'm Still Here by Clelie Avit
ARC via Publisher + NetGalley
Published August 23, 2016
Amazon || Goodreads

A modern take on Sleeping Beauty, for fans of Jojo Moyes.

Elsa is spending her thirtieth birthday in the hospital bed where she's lain for months after a devastating mountain accident. Unable to speak, see, or move, she appears to be in an irreversible coma, but her friends and family don't know that she's regained the power of hearing.

Book Review: Beautiful Girl by Fleur Philips {BookSparks Summer Challenge}

Beautiful Girl by Fleur Philips
Goodreads // Amazon
Published June 2, 2015: SparkPress
This book was received in part of the BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge. This did not affect my review.

Seventeen-year-old Melanie Kennicut is beautiful. Her entire life revolves around this beauty because her overly controlling mother has been dragging her to casting calls and auditions since she was four years old. According to Joanne Kennicut, Melanie was born to follow in her footsteps.

But Melanie never wanted this life. When a freak car accident leaves her with facial lacerations that will require plastic surgery, she can't help but wonder if this is the answer to her prayers. For the first time in her life, she has a chance to live like a normal teenager--at least for a little while--away from the photo shoots and movie sets that have dominated her entire existence.

But after Melanie allows her best friend to come to the house to see her, Joanne decides to hide her daughter in Montana for the remainder of the summer. There, Melanie won't be seen by anyone they know, and her face will heal in time for the scheduled surgery in late August. Joanne’s plan backfires, however, when Melanie meets Sam, a Native American boy hired by the home's owner to tend to the property. Sam is nothing like the Hollywood boys Melanie knows--he¹s poor, his father's a drunk who possesses a bizarre gift inherited from a Kootenai Shaman, and his only brother disappeared into the mountains after the death of their mother eight years before.

What transpires over a mere 36 hours after Sam and Melanie meet changes both of their lives in ways they never thought possible.

Melanie is beautiful.

After an accident, scars coat her face like trees in a forest. There isn’t a place where they aren’t. Her mother controls her life, and is horrified by Melanie’s appearance. Because of this she has her husband book a trip to the middle of nowhere. In the middle of nowhere, Melanie meets a person who doesn’t see her for her face---beautiful or not. Melanie has to figure out if she wants to be beautiful, or find out what else is out there for her. But, of course, nothing is ever that simple.

BEAUTIFUL GIRL was short. Like, super short. Goodreads says it is 150 pages, but it didn’t even feel like that. I don’t particularly mean that as a compliment. I don’t know if my biggest complaint is the instantaneous love (falling head over heels in a need kind of way) or the lack of feelings I had toward Melanie or her mother or her brother or her said love interest. I don’t really have much to say about this novel because, even though a bunch happened, it didn’t feel like a whole bunch happened. Does that even make any sense? I suppose there was a girl trying desperately to break free, even if she didn’t actually know what she was trying to break free from. I suppose that the love the necessary in order for her to realize that she was worth something more than her face.

I suppose her mother needs to be redeemed. But, (of course there is a but) I can’t actually say I liked any of the events. They felt very two-dimensional. I didn’t find myself falling for Sam. He was a beacon for Melanie. A needed light. But I really wish that she didn’t fall so fast.

This book needed to slow down. Put on the brakes. Sit down for a second. Take a nap. It was just so, so fast paces to the point where it felt very rushed. It just wasn’t my cup of tea---the book was just two rushed and I couldn’t get the feeling of being connected to any of the characters.

ARC Review: Lailah by Nikki Kelly

Lailah by Nikki Kelly
ARC Via Netgalley + Publisher
October 7, 2014
Goodreads

Synopsis

The girl knows she’s different. She doesn’t age. She has no family. She has visions of a past life, but no clear clues as to what she is, or where she comes from. But there is a face in her dreams – a light that breaks through the darkness. She knows his name is Gabriel.

On her way home from work, the girl encounters an injured stranger whose name is Jonah. Soon, she will understand that Jonah belongs to a generation of Vampires that serve even darker forces. Jonah and the few like him, are fighting with help from an unlikely ally – a rogue Angel, named Gabriel.

In the crossfire between good and evil, love and hate, and life and death, the girl learns her name: Lailah. But when the lines between black and white begin to blur, where in the spectrum will she find her place? And with whom?

Gabriel and Jonah both want to protect her. But Lailah will have to fight her own battle to find out who she truly is.

I honestly wanted to hit my head with a brick (maybe I should of just DNF’d it) for the majority of this book. I was introduced to this book on Wattpad; the website that pretty much rules my entire social like, or lack thereof. It sounded enticing, the cover is amazing but the love triangle hints made me more than a little nervous. And I was right to be weary of the love triangle. Because I really, really didn’t like it even the tiniest bit. But, I’ll delve into this in a bit. First, let’s talk characters.

We have Lailah, a girl who knows glimpses of her past by visions who owns the heart of a Vampire and an Angel. Lailah saves a handsome stranger who she knows is a vampire. He’s weak and running. His name is Jonah and she saves his life by giving him her blood. Her blood is more powerful than any of them could have ever guessed. Lailah has been alive for give or take two hundred years. Her first death was the worst and her next one will shatter someone’s existence.

“I might desire the darkness within her, but I fell in love with the light I heard in her laughter” (ARC)

Jonah is the vampire she saved. With the love interests, even though I’m not really a fan of either, I like Jonah more. Through the book, we see his struggle to be good. We also see his acceptance and love of all of Lailah. There’s not that much else I really need to touch on with his character, so onto Mr Angel!

Gabriel. I don’t like him. I though he was really contradictory. The whole time he says that he wants nothing more than to keep Lailah safe. Yet he hurts her again and again and again. I don’t understand why he does what he does. But there’s something that draws him and Lailah (it is told in the book) together over the years. And it pisses me off. Because, well it’s not that he doesn’t deserve her (because I don’t really like her either) but it’s more that Jonah doesn’t deserve that (even though I don’t really like him either). I know I have issues.

NOW ONTO THE LOVE TRIANGLE! I hate it. It feels like she’s playing with feelings and I’m just so done. Done! FIN!

Overall, this is not a book that I can recommend. And if I did ever buy it, I would buy it for the cover. This one, sadly, just wasn’t my cup of tea. Although that quote up there, did make me melt a little on the inside. Just a tad. 

So. Vampires and Angels and weirdos oh my!

ARC Review: Evidence of Things Not Seen by Lindsey Lane

Evidence of Things Not Seen by Lindsey Lane
September 16, 2014
Goodreads
ARC from NetGalley and publisher for honest review

Summary

When high school junior Tommy Smythe goes missing, everyone has a theory about what happened to him. Tommy was adopted, so maybe he ran away to find his birth parents. He was an odd kid, often deeply involved in his own thoughts about particle physics, so maybe he just got distracted and wandered off. He was last seen at a pull-out off the highway, so maybe someone drove up and snatched him. Or maybe he slipped into a parallel universe. Tommy believes that everything is possible, and that until something can be proven false, it is possibly true. So as long as Tommy’s whereabouts are undetermined, he could literally be anywhere.

Told in a series of first-person narratives from people who knew Tommy and third-person chapters about people who find the things Tommy left behind—his red motorbike, his driving goggles, pages from his notebook—Particles explores themes of loneliness, connectedness, and the role we play in creating our own realities.

EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN starts with a boy who lives in his head, takes everything all too seriously, but is content- happy even- missing. Nobody knows where he went. I mean, sure everyone has their theories. Along the books ‘plot’ people begin to find things that this boy lost. They connect this to their own life and in a way, they use these as hope and shape their own reality.

Now what I thought of the book. I honestly don’t think much. I wasn’t entertained as much as I had hoped I would be. There wasn’t a real plot. I was wondering where he was the entire book and we never really heard anything from his point of view. It was all from people who had seen, knew or found things he had lost. It was interesting to see how everything connected but this book really couldn’t keep me interested.

Overall, sadly, this book isn’t going to find a place in the books I want to recommend or books I plan to read again.

 Yup. This book (besides the rather epic cover) did nothing for me. I wanted to like it, but, it just didn't happen. 

ARC Review: The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu

The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu
ARC from publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
June 3, 2014
Goodreads

Summary

Everyone has a lot to say about Alice Franklin, and it’s stopped mattering whether it’s true. The rumors started at a party when Alice supposedly had sex with two guys in one night. When school starts everyone almost forgets about Alice until one of those guys, super-popular Brandon, dies in a car wreck that was allegedly all Alice’s fault. Now the only friend she has is a boy who may be the only other person who knows the truth, but is too afraid to admit it. Told from the perspectives of popular girl Elaine, football star Josh, former outcast Kelsie, and shy genius Kurt, we see how everyone has a motive to bring – and keep – Alice down.

First of all, I love the cover. What else do I love? Not much. Actually, nothing. Let’s have a character round of, shall we? We have the gay best friend who intends to never come out of the closet, and hever straight out admits to being in a closet of any sort. He has a secret. He know what really happened that night. And no matter how guilty he feels, no one can find out. Then we have Miss Popular who runs the school. She follows the bad if she feels like it. She follows the good if she feels like it. She has the aura of power. Then we have the self-conceited ex best friend who starts up one of the more nasty rumors about Alice Franklin. Finally, we have the sweet stalker boy who knows what happened but has no one to tell.

This book, more specifically, the characters, annoyed the shizz nizz out of me. All of them had an agenda for keeping Alice down. I know I should feel sympathy for the dead guy, but honestly, he’s as bad as the rest of them. I mean, sure, he didn’t deserve to be dead, but dude, he’s a *insert not so nice word of choice here* and sweet lord. I was just fed up with all of them. The only one I could tolerate was stalker boy.

Here’s the weird thing though, the writing was AMAZING. I could feel all the emotions. The way the book was written (being told from indirect personas) was so unique and actually kind of brilliant. I thought that was the best part of the book.

There wasn’t really a plot to THE TRUTH ABOUT ALICE. More so, there was the reasons why everyone did what they did. That was fine, just not really for me. I would have wanted to see what everyone thought of Alice before the rumors and then during the rumors.

In the end, THE TRUTH ABOUT ALICE, although extremely well written, just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Overall, the concept was good. The whole slut shaming and finding yourself and even dealing with death. But, it just wasn't my cup of tea. Who's read it?

Review: Shattered Veil by Tracey E. Banghart

Shattered Veil by Tracey E. Banghart
Published February 28, 2014
Goodreads

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for granting me a copy of SHATTERED VEIL to review! In no way did this influence my opinion of this book.

 When everything that defines you is stripped away, who do you become?

War has invaded Atalanta’s quiet villages and lush woodlands, igniting whispered worries in its glittering capitol. Far from the front lines, 18-year-old Aris Haan, a talented wingjet flyer, has little cause for concern. Until her beloved Calix is thrust into the fray, and a stranger makes her an impossible offer: the chance to join a secret army of women embedded within the all-male military. 

Aris’s choice to follow Calix to war will do more than put her in physical danger; it will make her question everything she believes about herself. When she and her enigmatic commander uncover a deadly conspiracy, her expert flying may be the only hope for her dominion’s survival…and her own.

It’s Mulan meets Battlestar Galactica, with a heroine who is strong enough to save a nation…but only if she’s willing to sacrifice everything, even the one promise she swore she’d never break.

I saw this on NetGalley and the cover was GORGEOUS. I mean do you see that cover y’all? Perfection. So, obviously, I clicked the cover so I could read the premise. So far, it was sounding promising. Girl Power? Check. Self-discovery? Check.  Possibility of romance? Check. I was all set. So I requested and got approved for it.

This is where it started to go downhill. From the beginning of the book, it had a very Matched by Ally Condie feel to it with the whole selection and paring up aspect of it. Uhm, yeah, no me gusta. When she get’s chosen to be a flyer for the army I was like YES! Go you! And that’s pretty much where I lost interest. I basically skimmed the next 70% of Shattered Veil. I read the beginning and the end. From what I gathered, the writing really developed, as well as the plot.

It looks like she face and overcame a lot of trials, she had to fight against a male- dominate society and that made her strong. She wasn’t the same person in the end as she was in the beginning. In the beginning, she fought for love and hope. In the end, she fought for herself and freedom. GIRL POWER!

So, while the plot was good, this one just want my cup of tea. It wasn’t able to hold my interest. I think I’ll probably try to re-read it over the summer when I’m less distracted. *shrugs* Maybe that will end with better results.

So, obviously, I wasn't a fan. And believe me when I say I am in the 2% according to Goodreads. What do y'all think?

ARC Review: In Bloom by Katie Delahanty

In Bloom by Katie Delahanty
Published: 2.10.2014
Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for giving me a copy to review. In no way did this sway my opinion.
Goodreads

Summary

My name is Olivia Bloom and I. Am. Free.
I left for LA with everything I owned piled into my old Volkswagen and dreams of becoming a costume designer. Little did I know I’d wind up designing for a lingerie company—yeah, not sure how I landed this gig—and taken under the wing of two young Hollywood insiders. The fashion shows and parties were great, but life really got exciting when the seriously hottest lead singer of my favorite band started to fall for me.　
How does someone like me, an ordinary girl from Pittsburgh, wind up in the arms of the world’s sexiest rock star—surrounded by celebrities, fashion, and music—and not be eaten alive? Berkeley is everything I've ever dreamed of in a boyfriend, but the paparazzi, the tabloids, the rumors, it's all getting a bit too crazy. My life has become every girl’s dream come true, if only I don’t blink and lose it all…

IN BLOOM has a fairy tale worthy whimsy and true- to- life characters like our accident prone main girl, Olivia. Then of course we have the completely and utterly sigh worthy rock star who goes by the name Berkeley. The characters in this story were very relatable and I LOVED HER MOM.

So here’s the thing with IN BLOOM, it was a good story it just wasn’t a good story. You know what I mean? It was brain candy: no thought process required. It seemed as if everything just came so easily to Olivia: her major fashion industry job, rock star boyfriend, relatively drama free life. Our main girl had a questionable thought process with her whole believing the internet and tabloids without a second thought. Also, honey, calm yourself. It’s obvious he adores you, even when you embarrass yourself. Like really embarrass yourself.

I was amazed by how easily everyone forgave her. In her job . . . in her rather questionable decisions. *shrugs*

Her mom is into all the new age stuff and is awesomesauce. Boots and her cousin were genuinely nice people and Boots seemed the most life-like of all the characters with her real emotions that made sense in the situation. Her new friends were HALARIOUS. Love them. And then, of course, we have Berkeley. I don’t like his name but I like him. He was sweet and protective and amusing.

Overall, this book was a “what if” book. What if I fell in love with someone famous? What if they fell in love with me? What if I actually made in LA? What if… what if… what if…

IN BLOOM was a sweet as cotton candy, fluffy read.

 Who's read this? And wouldn't it be awesome to fall in love with a rock star and have them actually love you back? Oh hell yes! Leave your thoughts in the comments!

ARC Review: Knight Assassin by Rima Jean

March 4, 2014
Goodreads

Summary

Seventeen-year-old Zayn has special powers she cannot control—powers that others fear and covet. Powers that cause the Templar Knights to burn Zayn’s mother at the stake for witchcraft. When a mysterious stranger tempts Zayn to become the first female member of the heretical Assassins, the chance to seek her revenge lures her in. She trains to harness her supernatural strength and agility, and then enters the King of Jerusalem's court in disguise with the assignment to assassinate Guy de Molay, her mother’s condemner. But once there, she discovers Earic Goodwin, the childhood friend who still holds her heart, among the knights—and his ocean-blue eyes don’t miss a thing. Will vengeance be worth the life of the one love she has left?

I went into this book with absolutely no expectations what so ever and I was still a little bit disappointed. I wanted this to be an epic girl-power story with a lovely little side romance and it was…sort of. Ish. I mean the romance was more staccato than anything else with really intense bursts of irrationality. But it wasn’t just that. The glimpses of when they were younger was rather sweet and really added to the whole ‘romance.’ It was oddly placed I give you that, but it was cute, none the less.

Zayn has strange powers and her mother was burned for being not human. When a man comes after she was raped by a high ranking official, he offers her the one thing she craves more than anything: revenge. She wants revenge for her mother and revenge for herself. On her little voyage, she grows into her powers, becomes stronger and gains friends as well as enemies. She also runs into said old acquaintance. Oh and she also learns who her absentee father is.  And she sets a few people and fire. And stabs a guy. But other than that she lives a totally normal life.

There was girl power

There was romance

There was the search for true friends in a nasty world

The story felt squished together. It felt like it tumbled out of the authors mind and found its way onto the pages. It had the meat of a great story but I needed more descriptions and more emotion. I also needed that romance to develop a little more than it did before it got so intense. I mean sheesh. Rushing into things much?

I liked the idea of the story more than the actual story.

Okay people, what do you think about being the only girl in a male dominated society who can kill? I think I would be amazing. Also, I could seriously kick butt. How cool? But to be judged?

Review: Live for You by Marquita Valentine

Live for You by Marquita Valentine
Published May 17, 2013

Summary

On the surface, twenty-two year old Cole Morgan is exactly what any girl would be proud to take home to meet her parents: He’s charming, intensely handsome and goal-oriented...Only he has some secrets of his own, which include provoking bar fights and a former drug-addict of a mother slowly wasting away in a medical facility. 

At barely twenty, Violet Lynn is Country Music's hottest star, until one night of partying gets out of control. Violet ends up in jail and on TMZ. Suddenly, she’s the girl least likely to be invited anywhere. Sick of the drama and keeping secrets, she runs away from the prying eyes of the paparazzi to her grandmother’s home in Forrestville, North Carolina.

A chance meeting knocks Cole off his feet, but he doesn’t recognize Violet for who she is. In fact no one does and Violet plans to keep it that way. 

Circumstances, however annoying,keep throwing Violet and Cole together. Unable to stop themselves they give into the inevitable.

But when Nashville is ready to forgive and forget, Violet is forced to choose between Cole and claiming her spot as the new and improved Princess of Country Music.

Will Violet and Cole have the courage to live for their dreams...Or their hearts?

One accident turned Violet the country singer to Violet the girl. Violet Rae gets tired of the media storm, her parent’s happiness at being pregnant and heads to the one place and person she knows will never judge her-her Nana. One morning, at 6:30 to be exact, she meets a too hot to handle with more problems than the sinking Titanic. Okay, maybe not that many but pretty close. And with him? His adorable little sister because his mom is currently…..unavailable.  They’re there buying sugar and ingredients you can’t say infested cereal because their health nut brother is working.

Cole wishes for a lot he can’t have. A mother who likes him, even a little bit. A dad who didn’t abandon him. A good like for his baby sister. And Rae. His entire life he never felt like he deserved anything, that is, until Rae. Rae made him feel happy for one of the few times in his life.

Like, quite a few of the books I’ve read lately, LIVE FOR YOU is predictable. While predictable, it’s also utterly adorable with a semi-believable story of a country singer and a broken boy falling too fast surrounded by a bunch of secrets. LIVE FOR YOU is an almost insta love…not quite but almost.

Overall, while this book was entertaining, it wasn’t anything new. 

I've seen a ton of good reviews for this book. Have you read it? What do you think?

Review: A Kiss by Design by Christy Hayes

Source: Netgalley
Goodreads

Summary

What's a girl to do when her best friend is making a mistake? Stop him, of course. College sophomore Emily Dilbert has been best friends with Dylan Chamberlain since they were kids. All she wants is for him to be happy and she knows him better than anyone. That's why when she finds an engagement ring in his backpack she has to stop him from marrying the wrong girl. Dylan Chamberlain has been in love with his brother's girlfriend, Emily, since the second grade. When his brother asks for help planning a surprise proposal, Dylan knows it's time to bury his feelings and finally let Emily go. Too bad his heart refuses to cooperate. All of Emily's attempts to lure Dylan away from his girlfriend fail, forcing her to turn up the heat on their friendship. Will Dylan reveal his long-buried secret and tell Emily how he feels? Or will Emily be forced to use any means necessary to show him the error of his ways?

Cute and light-hearted with a hint of scandal and a love that’s fire burned out long ago, A KISS BY DESIGN is a note-worthy story, but didn’t earn a spot on my ‘favorites’ shelf. Want to know why? Keep reading the rant!

College sophomore, Emily, is content. She has a boyfriend who cares more about football than anything else, the most amazing friends ever and her boyfriend’s brother as a best friend. When Emily finds an engagement ring at the bottom of Dylan’s bag, she freaks, to say the least. She goes on this whirl wind and not suspicious at all (that was said VERY sarcastically) adventure, hoping that the outcome is Dylan being single. Not that she cares. I mean she’s just being a good friend, right?

This book was okay. I have a feeling I am going to be in the minority here once this one gets a little better read in the bookish community. The writing was good- average at best and the story line was pretty cute. I was the big and totally oblivion to each other’s feeling’s that I found all too annoying. Also the tipping point is one of my biggest pet-peeves. And I can’t tell you because it is a ginormous spoiler (sorry!) 

From the beginning I was on team Dylan. I wasn’t a fan on him too much though. It was so freaking obvious he had the hots for her. But the beginning of this book was all too adorable to resist!! Mark my words- it'll make you swoon! And this his football fanatic brother with the engagement ring was a complete idiot but in some strange way, really did like her. I though Emily was typical. 

Overall, I can’t recommend this book for any other reason than for the writing style. If you’re looking for something sappy with characters who can’t see that the perfect person is right in front of them, then this, my dears, is your book. 

Who's read this book? What did you think of it? The cover if A KISS BY DESIGN is what drew me into it because it is just adorable! Do you like the cover? Are you more of a contemporary or fantasitcal fiction kind of  book person. I've seemed to be VERY into contemporary this year! 

Review: The Gatekeeper's Sons by Eva Pohler

The Gatekeeper's Sons by Eva Pohler
August 13, 2012 by Green Press/Eva Pohler
Goodreads

Summary

Fifteen-year-old Therese watches her parents die. While in a coma, she meets the twin sons of Hades—Hypnos, the god of sleep, and Thanatos, the god of death. She thinks she's manipulating a dream, not kissing the god of death and totally rocking his world. 

Than makes a deal with Hades and goes as a mortal to the Upperworld to try and win Therese's heart, but not all the gods are happy. Some give her gifts. Others try to kill her. 

The deal requires Therese to avenge the death of her parents. With the help of Than’s fierce and exotic sisters, the Furies, she finds herself in an arena face to face with the murderer, and only one will survive.

Okay, I’ll admit I’ve been anticipating this one for a while and I am sad to say I was let down.  I was expecting something epic- a while wind Grecian romance threated by the Gods. I did get that…sort of. I found that although the story line was wonderful, the way the book was composed and the writing in general didn’t live up to my expectations. The way the characters talked and interacted with one another and their surrounding made them seem much younger than they actually were.

Also, this was insta love. *shudders* Oh how I despise insta love.  And this was that, at its finest. Well in her dreams it was. In reality, it took a bit longer and Than had to earn her trust. Yes, this all began because she has more power over her dreams and special powers (sort of) that most other humans don't really have. 

 And then the gods and goddeses are interfering. A lot. 

I found the characters a tad bit too juvenile for my liking and although the basic concept for the book was good, I found the execution to not to be as good as it could have been.

That’s all I got.

Any of y'all read this one before? What did y'all think?

Review: Off Sides by Sawyer Bennett

Off Sides by Sawyer Bennett
(Off #1)
February 21, 2013 by Big Dog Publishing
Source: Kindle Freebie
Goodreads

Summary

“I'm not sure what possessed me to do it. Maybe it was the impossible expectations I faced, maybe it was my own self-loathing. But I just knew I needed something different to happen. I needed someone... something... to derail me from my current path. Otherwise, I would become lost... a hollowed out shell of a man. So I did it. I approached her, then I pursued her, then I made her mine. And my life was saved...”

Ryan Burnham is the privileged son of a U.S. Congressman and captain of his university’s hockey team. While he is on the verge of fulfilling his dreams to play in the NHL, his parents want him on a different course. One he is expected to accept for the sake of his family’s public image.

Forced her to abandon her music career after the heart breaking death of her parents, Danny Cross exists on the opposite side of the tracks from Ryan. She is struggling to make her own way, working two jobs, attending college part time and volunteering in a homeless shelter. She is on a mission to build her own success.

With a chance meeting, their vastly different worlds collide, causing each to evaluate whether they are truly on the correct path to self-fulfillment and happiness. Can their relationship survive? Particularly when others are against them every step of the way. A lot can happen in just ten short days...

OFF SIDES was short and sweet but not entirely original.

We begin a not-so-subtle romance with a trip to the diner. The waitress is none other than our main girl Danny. Danny has purple tips in her hair and piercings but underneath her exterior, she’s basically a kitten. At the table is our man guy Ryan, who happens to be the captain out the school hockey team and a genuinely nice guy even with his oh so very cutthroat political parents.

This book takes us through the unlikely romance of two people from the completely opposite side of the tracks. We see the trials they face, and romance and the HEA.

Okay, let me just start off with I predicted every single thing that happened in this book. While this book is obviously a light-hearted read with no real plot twists, I still felt it needed something (please?) to give it some more substance than it had. When things got messy (his ex, his mom, their status) the issues were over as quickly as they were to arrive and although that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it did make the book less enjoyable form my stand point.

Also the language in this book is…off. I don’t mean cussing or any of that but just the way Ryan referred to Danny using names like ‘toots.’ I’ve never heard anyone my age call anyone toots.

Favorite Quote: "Finally Ryan pulls away slightly, breathing hard against my mouth. “Jesus, Danny.”
I don’t think Jesus has anything to do with the explosion that just happened between us but if He did, I’m heading to church to thank him."

I've seen a lot of good reviews for this book. Have any of y'all read it? Tell me what you think! Leave me a link to your blog to I can check it out!