5 stars

The Champagne Toast Book Review

I’m not sure what I love more Melissa Browns writing or her love of 80’s movies.  I was given the gift of one of the best movie scene ever (insert one large boom box and one love sick John Cusack) in The Bouquet Toss and now I am gifted with The Breakfast Club (Sweet).  Throw in a NKOTB reference and I knew that this book had “The Right Stuff”.
In the follow up to The Bouquet Toss, The Champagne Toast brings us Evan!
“Evan Maxwell and Kate Armour fell hard and fast for each other while attending college. Their once passionate and loving relationship ended when old scars eventually tore them apart. Two years after their breakup, they’re each struggling to piece together what went wrong in an attempt to move forward.

Kate, a no-nonsense bartender, must face her past while attempting to focus on her future.
Evan is stifled by his bitter heart, which threatens each and every relationship he attempts after walking away from Kate.  Will life offer them a second chance at love or are old patterns simply too hard to break.”

Starting this book I knew that I would fall in love with Evan.  When I was introduced to him in The Bouquet Toss I knew he would be hard to forget and boy was I right.  Evan is sweet, caring, loving and attentive.  Though out his relationship with Kate love grows but its not always easy. 
When Kate entered the picture I knew that love was not going to be easy for these two.  After denying it they both fell for each other, hard.  I was drawn into this story.  Melissa Brown painted a picture with her words that shows love, pain and sorrow.  “Real love is the most possible thing in the world”.  Now I did find myself wanting to yell at my Kindle at multiple parts!  “Sweets. You couldn’t ignore me if you tried”.  If everything in life could be solved via a cheesy 80’s the world would be a better place but it is never that easy.
With a mix of well written characters and a believable story line Champagne Toast holds your attention from beginning to end.  Will Evan and Kate be able to fight the war that is love and come out on top…you will have to download your copy today to find out.  Melissa Brown did not disappoint with this follow up and this book would be a great add to your bookshelf.  For me this was a 5 star!     

Come Away With Me

“You are my now, always, forever”
-Kristen Proby, Come Away With Me
Holy Mother of Heart! This is freaking hot!!!
Are you sure it’s a debut novel Kristen Proby? Are you f*** serious? Cause it looks more like a pro to me…like someone who’s been doing it her whole life! The writing style, the flow of the story, how the characters were presented were just insanely AWESOME!
Well who doesn’t want  a happy ending? This only proves that a good book doesn’t really need a lot of complications, a whole lot of twists and turns just to satisfy the pallets of the readers. Yeah, the story was simple yet it will literally get you hooked from end to end.
The story is basically about two people who found love unexpectedly. They started out at the wrong foot, when while Natalie, a photographer by profession was taking pictures of  the beautifu scenery, was surprisingly confronted by a gorgeous, mysterious guy named Luke who mistakenly thought that she was taking pictures of him. Clearly surprised that she wasn’t, he profusely apologized and offer her out to breakfast to make it up from him being a total douche bag!
Natalie is a very strong character, she says what she wants and does what she thinks is right. She’s been through hell during her early days and those circumstances were very evident in her body, where every tattoo significantly meant something. I don’t think I have ever fallen in love this hard to any female character. Most of the times the guys get the swooning! But man! Natalie is someone you should look forward to. She’s just so irresistible and Kristen did a very good job in keeping her uniquely interesting all through out the story.
Oh, but did i mention about the hot scenes? Explicitly sexy! Airplane sex, desk sex, skinny dipping, name it and you will have it here…done in a very artistic and tasteful manner.
This book will surely satisfy your cravings for a good book, so what are you still waiting for? Go grab your copies now!

Rating:

Slammed & Point of Retreat

“Sometimes two people have to fall apart to realize just how much they belong together” 
― Colleen Hoover, Point of Retreat

Tissue please! I was Totally Slammed!

Let me start with an excerpt from one of my favorite poems in the book and tell me how in the world can you not get emotional reading this?

Sometimes, life gets in your way.
It gets all up in your damn way.
But it doesn’t get all up in your damn way because it
wants you to just give up and let it take control. 
Life doesn’t get all up in your damn way 
because it just wants you to hand it all
over and be carried along.

Life wants you to fight it.
It wants you to grab an axe and hack through the wood.
It wants you to get a sledgehammer 
and break through the concrete.
It wants you to grab a torch and burn through the metal
and steel until you can reach through and grab it.
Life wants you to grab all the organized, the
alphabetized, the chronological, the sequenced. 
It wants you to mix it all together,
stir it up, blend it.

Life doesn’t want you to let it tell you that your little
brother should be the only thing that comes first.
Life doesn’t want you to let it tell you that your career
and your education should be the only thing 
that comes in second.
And life definitely doesn’t want me
To just let it tell me
that the girl I met,
The beautiful, strong, amazing, resilient girl
That I fell so hard for
Should only come in third.

Life knows.
Life is trying to tell me
That the girl I love,
The girl I fell
So hard for?
There’s room for her in first.
I’m putting her first.” 
This is when you say….ahhhhhhhh! (sigh, Laken is such a lucky girl!!!)
Definitely one of my favorite book series my  my favorite series of all time! The story line, the poetry, the heartbreaking situations and the love between the characters are just perfectly awesome! It just hits you big time! I laughed, I cried and I even ended up loving the Avett Brothers. 
Colleen Hoover allowed me to feel the story as if I was on their shoes. Feeling the hurt, the love, and the complications. There was even a time when I have to stop reading and was forced to put the book down so I could gather myself again. The characters and their participation in the story are very well thought off and perfectly written. I truly adore them!
I always have a soft spot for poetry and reading this book made me wish I could write and perform one, too.    Both books talked about real life situations. Its about love for the family, taking responsibilities, strong bonds of friendship, fighting for love…its about priorities, taking decisions, committing mistakes and learning from them…its about moving on and deciding when to finally stop carving pumpkins!

A butterflying-tastic book that you can’t help but fall in love with!

Rating:


– Colleen Hoover is bringing back Will and Lake
for the final installment of  Slammed Series.
watch out for This Girl, 2013!

Bared to You (Crossfire #1)


” I want there to be happily-ever-afters for the fucked-up crowd. Show me the way, Eva honey. Make me believe.”

My post Fifty Shades read and it didn’t disappoint me at all! Better written as everyone would agree, with such incredible characters and not to mention all the angsty, erotic scenes and the emotional roller coaster ride the author has promised. The twists on the characters are very well thought out and will definitely leave you wanting more and more!
The story mainly revolves around Eva Tramell, a young ad agency assistant who tries to live a normal life after a very traumatic childhood incident and Gideon Cross, the hottie billionaire who doesn’t believe in mixing sex and emotions… well, only until he met Eva. When their paths crossed, there was an undeniable connection that was so intense they couldn’t let each other go. But there’s too much baggage for both of them and they are totally screwed up! Their troubled past make them the insecure lovers they are, yet they both want each other so desperately it hurts.
Can two broken souls survive it all? Can they find their way to heal without hurting each other? Will love and sex be enough to get them through?
I really love the story from beginning to end. Not to mention how other characters were strategically placed to spice up the story. Each has its own spotlight that you can’t afford to miss!

Sylvia Day did not just tell the story, she made it come alive! 
Apart from its extra steamy and erotic scenes, i think BARED to YOU is yet another reminder that sometimes, LOVE just ain’t enough to hold a relationship together, but its bare minimum! Its a combination of LOVE, TRUST, HONESTY, COMMUNICATION, COMPROMISE and a huge amount of COMMITMENT that each party is willing to contribute.
Just like Eva and Gideon, its always a “work in progress”!
Rating: 



…just about to read Reflected in You! 
stay tuned for the review!

Beautiful Disaster

“To douchebags! he said, gesturing to Brad.  And to girls that break your heart, he bowed his head to me. His eyes lost focus.  And to the absolute fucking horror of losing your best friend because you were stupid enough to fall in love with her.” 
― Jamie McGuire, Beautiful Disaster
“You know why I want you? I didn’t know I was lost until you found me. I didn’t know what alone was until the first night I spent without you in my bed. You’re the one thing I’ve got right. You’re what I’ve been waiting for, Pigeon.” 
Now tell me, how can you resist a guy like that? I can’t remember how many times I have read this book. I have even lost count the times I have marked the pages so I can easily review my favorite scenes, highlighted every crazy lines that Travis and Abby have sweetly thrown to each other.

Meet the Characters:
Abby Abernathy: a girl who was trying to leave outside the shadow of her dark past. She moved town and changed college with America, her best friend and the only person aware of her past. Not only did she witness  it, but countless times she helped Abby escaped from it.

Travis Maddox: the bare knuckle fighter who tends to sleep around with almost every woman in the campus. His irresistible charm makes them hard to say no! But he has some issues… a lot of them! He is possessive and overprotective! He had his fair share of life misfortunes and had never figured out how to cope with them. But he was the perfect match for Abby!!!
The Love – Hate Story:

Can Travis Maddox finally be tamed and be perfect enough to deserve Abby’s love? 

Can Abby manage to get through the ugly things that came between them? 

Can they both hold on to what they believed in despite the damaged pasts that have shaken them?


Crazy, exciting and insanely addictive!  The intensity and passion that Jamie McGuire has created between Travis and Abby will definitely gets right under your skin, with all those emotional and tremendous “push and pull” scenes…it will surely make your head spin!

Their relationship may not be a prime example of what most people would want to be involved with, but i found it certainly unique and inspirational. I love the idea that  LOVE can make someone want to change. It isn’t easy to change! Changing a behavior or a habit takes a lot of time, consistency and recognition. We are who we are because of how we were raised and the experiences we’ve had. So changing a person would mean a lot of compromise and negotiation.

But my lingering question was…


“how much of yourself should you change for the one you love?”

Well I guess, it’s really not about the ups and downs, its about who you ride it with that makes the whole journey worthwhile.

Rating:



…watch out for the second book , with Travis’ pov!
more exciting things to come for Walking Disaster , April 2013!!!

Fifty Shades Trilogy

Don’t give me that look! 

Trust me, I know I will be too dumb to even begin a review on this because so much has been said about this book already, to the point that I feel no one will even bother to read mine. But I will still push my luck and try in all my powers not to sound like the rest. Promise! It will be short and sweet!

“- “Why don’t you like to be touched?” 
– “Because I’m fifty shades of fucked-up, Anastasia” 
― E.L. James, Fifty Shades of Grey

Let me start off by saying this trilogy was a revelation (well, for me at least)! It has some very detailed graphic bedroom scenes that will make you blush most of the times and you will caught yourself turning the book to make sure that no one else would see what you’re actually reading!

The main story is about  a soon to be graduating college girl Anastasia, who is shy, naive, clumsy, with no sense of style. A good friend who with open arms willingly helped her sick best friend Kate to pitch in an interview with Christian Grey, a man who has almost everything; money, respect, success and not to mention the great looks! With an instant attraction, Christian immediately found himself to be obsessively drawn over Anastasia…and this is where all the conflicts began. With his deep, damaged past along with some major relationship issues, Christian wanted CONTROL (in every sense of the word!) over her and over almost everything around him.

Growing up, I was never really a fan of erotic fiction. Mine was usually trapped in some teenybopper books of cheerleaders hopelessly falling in love with varsity players and then eventually developed some interest on my sister’s Sidney Sheldon books. So it was really quite a surprise for me to finish the book, much less the entire trilogy! (well maybe because I have somehow also developed a crush on CTG who is insanely over the top hottie).  But looking beyond all the physical attraction and sexual exposure the book has revealed to us, the story itself is more than just a typical “boy meets girl and girl meets boy” journey. I have seen it as the character’s battle between acceptance of who and what he is versus the kind of person he really wants to be. It also touched the rising need and determination of Anastacia to cure and keep the relationship with her vulnerable significant other amidst all conflicts and differences.

Relating it to our daily lives, I think we all have our share of Christian Grey within us. It may not be as extreme as his, but often times we do things we thought were right and would satisfy us, but only to find out that it messed us up big time, we don’t know how to solve it anymore. Sometimes we find the Anastacia in us! The strong desire to change the world or at least the world of those we love!

Christian and Ana’s story simply teaches us to try to see the best in each person. Christian is not perfect, but definitely not a hopeless case! While Anastacia’s character reminds us to never ever give up on the ones we love; that beyond all the conflicts, they both have learned to unearth and heal the past and together hoped for a better future.

Rating: