Manwhore by Katy Evans

Rachel has been on the look out for The Story. The one that will help her job bounce back, and the one that will give her a name. What's a better story then Malcom Saint. Mysterious, womanizing, party going CEO?

"We don't fit," I say. "I just want to find a spot, warm not cold, with a nice view, everything I could want, and I want to stop moving and stay there- in that spot. and you will never stand still."..."I think we fit just right,"

The first thing I have to say about this book is... WHY HAS NO ONE COMPARED IT TO NEVER BEEN KISSED?!?!  I'm seriously upset about this. It's like the smutty version of it, and it plays a huge part in why I loved it.

Rachel, our reporter, was just assigned her first big story... Malcom Saint. Rachel is shy, motivated, and definitely not ready for what's headed her way. Saint is powerful, womanizing, and not looking for commitment. When it came to these two I was expecting something very different. With Rachel I was expecting her to be a strong-sassy-powerhouse but when she turned out to be more the opposite, I wont lie I was a little sad. Thankfully, as the story went on I found myself slowly liking her more and more. The last very chapters however she completely won me over. Malcom however was a very pleasant surprise for me. I was worried that with him we were going to get a mix of a Gabe Hamilton from Rush with Mr. Grey from 50 Shades... I prayed for it to lean more towards Rush. Turns out he wasn't either. He was so freaking sweet! The one thing I usually (almost always) hate in NA books involving "womanizing" men are that there is a lot of times the guy does a bunch of slutty acts  leading up to being with the girl. I almost always want them to leave out all the other ladies and  just focus on the two that are really involved. Thank the book godz that what Evans' did. These two were such an adorable pairing. They had me laughing and lusting.

Manwhore's plot is like I said above, a lot like Never Been Kissed. Reporter girl goes undercover, adorable meet-cute happens, boy falls for girl, girl falls for boy, shenanigans happen, and of course lies are uncovered. Just throw in some smutty fun times and wham you have Manwhore. The pacing of this book is what has me lowering my rating some. The first part of this book is all about adorable build up and fun run ins. It completely hooked me in. The middle (through hot) does slow down some. The romance scenes are well written and enjoyable, but there were moments that kind of threw me off. Actually only one. A scene involving a bet on cars. The scene just didn't do it for me. Remember reading it and actually saying "uhh yeah... NO". I just really felt that something was missing from the middle... Can't exactly put my finger on what though. Adorable dates- check. Sweet scenes with guy friends- check. Steamy moments that make you blush- check. Seriously have no clue what it is. The end of this book though... OMG!!! CLIFFHANGER!!!! Few NA books pull off cliffhangers well, but this one knocks it out of the park. *Minor spoiler* *that really isn't a spoiler* Clearly at some point in time we know that Saint is going to figure out that Rachel's big story is him... And will of course be heartbroken, but I had no idea that Evans' would leave the book off where she did. I really felt the same way reading this as I did watching the movie. You know at the end of NBK how she's standing on the pitchers mound, the clocks running out, the crowds cheering, and we are all on the edge of our seats waiting for Mr. Coulson to come and kiss the crap out of Josie Grossie!!! Well it has the same feel! You can barely breath waiting to see what will happen! How will she end this?!?! Then Evans' drops a cliffhanging bomb on us, and our hearts our shattered. Trust me it didn't end how you're probably thinking or how I imagined it would either. I need book two like yesterday!

The beginning of this book awesome, the middle okay, and the ending wont lie had me misty eyed. Manwhore has a beautiful cover, a stupid title, and is 100% one of those good time reads. Really looking forward to adding other books from Evans to my TBR list.

8.5-maybe 9/10 Stars
-Angela

Amber to Ashes by Gail McHugh

Amber Moretti is a new college student who unexpectedly falls for two best friends as she struggles to overcome the trauma of her tormented childhood. She didn't know what would happen when Brock Cunningham and Ryder Ashcroft come into her life. The last thing that she thought would be that she would end up falling for both of them. 

What the F did I just read??? No, seriously. What the F did I just read?!

Gonna say right here and now if you don't like love triangles don't go near this book... don't even touch it with a ten foot pole. Because Amber to Ashes is the love triangle of all love triangle books! A2A is like Beautiful Disaster meets... Ugh what's that weird movie with Aaron Johnson in it??? (insert me looking for it on IMDB here)... Oh yeah Savages meets Clipped Wings. This had my mind and feels all over the place.

A2A  is told from 3 POVS. First being Amber's the "sassy spit-fire" whose managed to steal both out leads hearts. How she did it exactly is beyond me.  She was a leading lady that took me most the book too warm up to. She manages to be both like-able and hate-able all at the same time. Then there Ryder Ashcroft. Ryder Ashcroft... seriously even his name sounds like sex. He's the dark-mysterious-cocky-a hole-with a deep core. So clearly he is the one I'm gonna fall for right away?! Last we have Brock... Sadly every time I hear the name Brock all I can think of is the guy from She's All That who does that random dance scenes...

Yeah that guy. So that caused a few minor issues. Brock is the preppy boy-with the good guy persona-that makes all the girl's panties drop. Not mine but apparently the rest of the female race. Both men are complete opposites. One gets to love Amber while the other has to swoon over her. Brock reminded me so much of Maddox from Beautiful Disaster (I hated Mad Dog Maddox), and Ryder reminded me of a "rough" version of Hayden from Clipped Wings (Hayden <333). With all that being said there was still something about all three characters that I felt were lacking in the personality department. Why everyone was falling all over them is a little beyond me. Guess there was just something I was always waiting too get out of them that I sadly never did. Can't exactly point out what though.

As far as A2A's plot goes it's stray cray. Starts off having you thinking it's gonna be all rainbows, melted knees, and sunshine, then WHAM! takes a turn into "WTF" territory (because again it's crazy)... Then goes further off roading into "what is happening", drives right off a cliff and into an ocean of bizzaro, and finishes off with something you know is coming. Not kidding when I say that either. This story heads right where you think it's going to. I think my biggest "issue" with A2A is that it's a book that has EVERYTHING... Which lead me to wonder how much is too much? Then again Gail kind of makes it work. Don't get me wrong this is a cluster of a book mess but pulls ahead with something so addictive. Though some of the terms used to describe some "intimate" moments could be a little out there, the plot still managed to sink its claws into me. I was hooked just a few pages in and had to know what was going to happen next. I spent most the book asking shouting...

I was in one of the worst reading slumps I've ever been in, but A2A brought me out of it. Sometimes I think all you can do to get yourself out of the depth of a slump so deep is to read something so ridiculous, so smutty, so out there that it pushes you back into reading... A2A is that kind of book. This isn't going to be a book that for everyone, heck it might not even be for 90% of people. And yeah it a book I would normally hate but for some out there reason just did it for me.


9.5/10 Stars 
-Angela 
   

After Ever Happy by Anna Todd

As ya'll know I've been marathoning The After Series. Well today I finished.
First off, you might be wondering why I posted a review for book one: After and book two: After We Collided but didn't post a review for book three: After We Fell; well that because I still don't know how I fell about book three. So instead of just trying to throw something together that will surely sound much like my first two reviews I just decided to let Todd's words do my work for me.

"You're always fucking sorry! It's always the same shit: you do something, hide something, say something, I cry, you say you're sorry, and bam! All is forgiven."-Tessa

"I stomp down the stairs and throw myself on the couch like a temperamental child. That's what I am really, a fucking child. She knows it, I know it- hell everyone fucking knows it. I should just print that shit on a goddamn tshirt."-Hardin

That's book three in a nutshell... So, now that that's out of the way I can turn my full attention back too After Ever Happy. I never in a million years thought I would be saying this... I actually really enjoyed this book. I know I know, after how much crap I gave the first three how could this happen. I can't even full comprehend it myself. As much as I hated this series, this last book won me over. At first I thought that this series was ridiculous but after powering through it I actually completely understand it's madness. For example: I didn't understand why each book need to be 600+ pages, but now I do. This series is only written to be over a span of months, but instead of trying to cram all this into 200 pages she decided to just go balls to the wall and make the books as long as they needed to be. You (at least I ended up) feeling like I was going through everything with these characters. Characters that, and I quote, "I would never end up rooting for". Well guess what, I ended up doing just that. I was praying that Tessa and Hardin would end up together. I was hoping that even though everything they went through was so exaggerated, so overdone, far fetched, so pointless that it wouldn't end up being pointless. 


Hardin and Tessa both turned out to be characters I ended up liking. I have NO CLUE when my opinion of Tessa changed, but I know that  it was the middle of the third when Hardin finally made sense. It came out of nowhere too. I was just reading along minding my own business and WHAM, all of a sudden I found myself thinking "Huh, wow I finally get Hardin... I get all his rash decisions, his outburst, and how is attitude zero dark crazy." Then I found myself saying "What the HELL did I just say?!?"

Both the writing style and character development in this final book is both leaps and bounds above the other three. Both Hardin and Tessa reached me on a level they never had in the previous books. After Ever Happy, like the others in this series, still had a crazy cluster of a storyline, was still covered in flaws, and still had no real structure to it. I can without a doubt say that the After Series is one of the most pointless things I've ever read, yet I have no regrets about how addicted I was too it. AEH had me laughing, had me on the edge of my seat, and even had me shedding a few tears... Yeah I might have cringed a little too hearing myself saying that, but hell I just read close to 3000 pages of one direction based fanfiction, what do I really have left to be embarrassed about... So I'll say it again; a few tears were shed while reading this! Get off my case! Jeez. 

I think the thing that AEH had going for it was that of all four it was the "most realistic". With more touching and real topics happening through out, and more human reactions were given in response to each issue. The After Series turned out to be one of the biggest surprised I've had in my reading history. I completely agree with both negative and positive comment, statement, and review ever written about it, because it is everything everyone has ever said about it. It's annoying, unhealthy, romantic, comical, addictive, and so much more... But damn it if I didn't fall for it even though for some reason I still can't stand it. I still can't manage to figure out what happened to me or when my opinion changed... But Anna Todd I'm pretty sure you've won me over... Maybe, I truly don't full know.

If it wasn't for the last half of the epilogue I might have given this book a higher rating, but sadly something about the last few pages rubbed me the wrong way. But, I guess all terribly good guilty pleasure reads must come to some kind of end, and I was overall happy with this one. 

Turn on the TV for background noise, grab a jar of peanut butter, and make yourself comfortable, because once you grab a hold of this series you'll be in for the long haul.  

8/10 Stars 
-Angela  

Kaleidoscope Hearts by Claire Contreras

He was her older brothers best friend and she was never suppose to be his. They thought they could get it out of their systems... One did and one left.

This second chance romance really did it for me... I'll say that right off the bat. 

Elle and Oliver have known each other forever. Oliver is Elle's brother Vic's best friend (that's a mouth full). This means by bro code they can't date. This issue never kept them from secret met ups. Oliver however decided that relationship aren't for him. So Elle goes her way Oliver goes his.

Elle of course is our leading lady. She ends up engaged to an older successful artist, who teaches her how to master her art. Together they open a studio. Once her fiance dies her world is thrown upside down (not a spoiler Fyi says it in like the first few pages). Elle sells their house and moves in with her brother Vic. Oliver our main man left Elle shattered after keeping their relationship a secret for years. He decided that he would focus on med school and just keep up with his womanizing ways. Both characters were realistically written. They were both characters that stood well on their own and together. As much as I liked Oliver, I liked Elle more. Even though sometimes she made me mad with her choices I really liked her character overall. She was silly, fun, and selfless. Oliver, who earlier on I didn't think I would like I ended up loving. His back story was sweet and his reasons were the same. His character development really did it for me. It's odd that every book I've read lately has been involving art/artist. Again though, it was another book that prefect wove in this aspect.

The story's plot circles around how hard it is to get over your first and only true love. And I for one am a sucker second chance love. The plot isn't rushed and though Contreras has it written that it could have been broken up into several books, I like that she choose not too. I loved how the novel goes from Elle's point of view in the present to Oliver's point of view being in the past. This had it so the story came perfectly together, and solved any unanswered questions. The reason I didn't give this book a higher rating was only because at a few points I did feel like it got a little repetitive. There was one or two times were I was like "ok come on I know where this is headed we've heard this song and dance already". Other than that I really enjoyed this Chick-lit of a read. 

Kaleidoscope Hearts was a sweet fun you know what you're getting into read and I really enjoyed it. 

8/10 Stars 
-Angela 
 

(Kaleidoscope Heart Audio Clip)
(Kaleidoscope BookDepo)