"Zenn Diagram" Book Review

My Rating: ★★★★☆ 4 Stars

This was one of those cute books with a surprisingly clear writing style and selection of words.

The protagonist stood out to me and I connected with her in a way I haven’t connected with a character in a long time. She was smart, but not to the cliché point of having no social skills. She was a Christian but also a regular teenager with emotions and made bad decisions. I love how the various themes in this book were not overly done for the sake of creating drama/gaining attention. 
The friendships featured were not perfect, some fell flat while others were exciting and intriguing. 


Allow me to expound:
Eva & Zenn: Exciting, intriguing and cute.
Eva & Charlotte: Tolerable, not too many girly squeals.
Charlotte & Josh: Flat, dull, almost too perfect. I didn’t get to experience who they were, instead I got told who they were (if that makes sense). 
Eva & Family: Real

Overall, Zenn Diagram was well-written with a solid plot and likeable characters. 


Digital copy received from publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

"Taming the Rebel" Book Review

My Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3.5 Stars

Definitely a cute, light read which will entertain you for a few hours. Although full of teenage angst and highly emotional responses, Taming the Rebel is filled with comedy, strong friendships, delightful rapport between characters and charming intimacy. 

Digital copy received from publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

"Tattoo Thief (Tattoo Thief Book 1)" Book Review

My Rating: ★★★★☆ 4 Stars

Let’s get one thing straight, this book has absolutely nothing to do with the stealing of tattoos, because c’mon, that would be torture to the highest degree; however, the thought of someone carving out tattoos from a person’s body does make for a compelling premise of  a future novel. Hint Hint.

So, Tattoo Thief – music, romance, second chances, real estate, drugs, insta-love/infatuation and a judgmental pseudo-psychologist is what we get.

Beryl, our protagonist, is a small town girl of Eugene, Oregon, living a small town life working at a coffee shop and three days a week at a brewpub. She gets the opportunity to become a house sitter for the ultra-rich in the big apple.

Her new-found job places her in the home of rock star Gavin Slater – lead vocalist of Tattoo Thief (yup, it’s a band). His place is trashed, his dog abandoned and Beryl makes it her duty to get to the bottom of this – why he left his place in such a mess, why he disappeared in such a hurry and what part did he play in the death of his muse?

I gave it 4 stars because it was well-written and there was an actual plot, the romance did not overpower the plot at all.

The plot started out great – a small town girl getting a job opportunity in the big city, getting to house-sit for a super-rich, hot, rock star. I loved that about the book, I even loved that she had the opportunity to fall in love with the guy. I found that to be a dream come true fantasy. Ugh, what I would give to be in her shoes.

However, the romance between Beryl and Gavin blossomed prematurely and because of that it felt like they didn’t have much in common except for their loneliness. It would have been more plausible if the author chose to keep them as friends, which is what they were more suited to be based on their conversations.

Beryl was also pretty judgemental toward Gavin. There’s a difference between telling the truth like it is and plain out being judgemental, especially when it’s someone you’ve just met. Like hold up chick, this is my life, not yours; you don’t know what went on so shush. But no, Gavin didn’t tell her that, just wishful thinking on my part.

She also did this creepy thing where she wore his ex-girlfriend’s clothes; the same clothes he told her to throw out. Believe me, I understand that the wardrobe must have been expensive, but don’t go wearing it when you’re going on a date with him. I mean c’mon! Be more considerate toward the poor guy, he’s going to be distraught in memory lane when he sees his dead girlfriend’s outfits on the new girl that he’s dating. That was just wrong and inconsiderate of her. Tsk tsk tsk, any human would know that Beryl.

So there it is – a well-written book with a plot, even though some parts were pretty ridiculous. It doesn’t fall in the erotic genre by the way. 

"Pieces (Patchwork #1)" Book Review

My Rating ★★★☆☆ 3.5 Stars


e-ARC request approved by publisher and received via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Pieces follows the story of Rebekah Von Stein, a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein, and a "prisoner" in her own home because of her mortality. Her father, leader of the Patchwork and head of all the factions in the Works, vows to keep her locked away in their mansion until he can cure her of this flaw.

Rebekah is portrayed as a "badass" throughout the book yet 90% of the times I saw her as no more than a petulant toddler stuck in the body of a sexually-driven nineteen year old (the latter only becoming fitting toward the end of the book).

The book starts off slow and at times the writing style was a bit unclear. I didn't particularly like the writing style - continuous tense was used throughout the book at the beginning of sentences. Not my cup of tea. Many times there were drawn out scenes which could have been kept to 2-3 pages max. 

It wasn't a great read but it was entertaining. I was hooked from mid-way till the end. The only thing which saved this book in my opinion was the romance which pretty much was the prominent theme 50% onward.
It was a good romance story, not so much of the other genre that it's supposed to be.

UPDATE*** Apologies. This genre is pure paranormal romance. So I guess it delivered. This has put things into perspective now and I think it deserves at least 3.5 stars rather than 3. The romance was great come to think of it!

"Last Seen Leaving" Book Review

My Rating ★★★★☆ 4 stars

Book received from Publisher via Net Galley. You know something's wrong when civilians do a better job at solving mysteries than the police, and it's even worse when its a teenager solving that mystery. Last Seen Leaving was such a pleasant surprise. At one point (to me) it felt a bit similar to Papertowns, a pretentious book I detest and wasted a few precious hours reading; but that's only because I wasn't sure of the direction the book would take, and I was HOPING it didn't follow suit. This held my interest and I found myself speed reading through scenes, needing to find out what happens next. Some characters were likeable, others tolerable, one was necessary for the progress of the plot while one was trivial. All in all a fast-paced read that I totally recommend

"A Dark Billionaire Romance #1-6" Book Review

My Rating ★★★★☆ 4 Stars Thanks to the author for sending me the full series free of charge. I really do appreciate it. Before I go into my review I just want to say, objectively, this was a good book. Buy the book, support the author. My review is a bit odd. How can I give it 4 stars, say it's a good book that you should pick up, but not be in love with it? Well, it all comes down to preference; and I'm a very picky romance reader. 1. Romance. 2. Billionaires. 3. Lavish lifestyle. 4. BDSM? What's not to love?! I'm not a fan of romance, never will be. Not a fan of Billionaires either, nor the lavish lifestyle. Absolutely no comments on the fourth. BUT, I am a fan of Aubrey Dark since I first read Mine & His. I respect her writing. This is not a review of her previous work but I feel it necessary to comment on how I was initially intrigued by her dark spin on romance and how I ended up wanting to read THIS series. Three reasons: Her writing style - clear, concise, far from pretentious, one or two typos. Her imagination - she has a dark mind, almost as much as mine, except mine is devoid of romance and would include much more torture. Her research skills - she writes like she is an expert on the profession of all her male protagonists. I liked this one, not as much as I liked the one featuring Rein (or was it Rien) but this was a good book. I can see the appeal. As I said, her writing style in her previous works was superb and that style was carried over to this series. There was a plot to keep readers intrigued. Enough romance scenes to satiate the erotic genre fans. There was a scene featuring a character from one of her earlier books which made me speed-read then left me wanting more. Do you see? More than a year has passed since I read His & Mine and that one character has somehow always found a way to sneakily cross my mind. That's how much I enjoyed that book and in addition to the previously mentioned reasons, I wanted to read this series so that I could somehow recreate and forge a new connection to another character of hers. It didn't happen but not because of any negatives on the part of the author, but it's because I can only stomach certain types of romance. And those romance books need to be a lot dark with just a bearable hint of anticipated romance. I don't mean Fifty Shades of Grey dark or Stonehart dark (Uncovering you series). Those aren't dark in my books, those are merely mild BDSM bullshit. I mean dark dark, the real kind where the professional is in his element, has a scalpel peeling off the face of some bad guy while the girl is in the other room panicking but aroused (you know the book I'm talking about! Damn it!!). Again, this was a good book. It really is. Go read it if you get a thrill out of the erotic genre. Support the author, buy her books

"Bookishly Ever After (Ever After #1)" Book Review

My Rating ★★★☆☆ While this was a “fun” read, I didn’t enjoy it and I didn’t connect with the characters. I do think this had so much potential to be one of those AWWW books that a girl just has to love. I feel cheated; I feel like a kid who just left the candy store empty-handed. I was genuinely looking forward to reading this a few days ago despite my incessant rantings (soliloquy of course) about not being a fan of YA anymore (to be fair, I was never a real fan of YA, I simply happened to enjoy a select few YA books that I’ve come across in the past).  Phoebe, our protagonist, is virtually socially inept. She’s the classic knitting book-nerd who has a new book boyfriend almost every week but has failed to snatch a real life boy. She goes through her high-school free periods with her nose buried in a book and barely has time for anything else.  At the beginning of the book, Phoebe is actually crushing on a different guy who resembles the hot guy in the book that she is currently reading. Her friend Em has planted this idea into Phoebe’s head that Dev – the tall, dark, gorgeous, band geek – has a crush on her and that she should make her move. It’s only after Em mentioned Dev as a potential that Phoebe starts paying attention to him. But, being that she’s socially inept and has a lack of real life experience with dating she turns to her books as a guide. She attempts to channel the flirtatious female characters as a way to win Dev.  I mean come on! What’s not to love about this premise - the promise of a light, fun, happily-ever-after modern day fairy tale? Even the book cover is gorgeous and inviting.  She loves books. I love books. It was the perfect fit.  Phoebe has read countless romance/YA/Paranormal books; enough for her to easily take notice of Dev’s feelings for her yet she is unsure? Come on Feebs, you’re smarter than that. I know you are. Her obsession with this Golden book really made me like this one less. It really did. How obsessed can one person be with anything? I should’ve known she would be obsessed with a particular book, much like Hazel and Augustus Gloop in The Fault in Our Stars – The Imperial Affliction. She goes on and on about her love for the book and the characters (especially the swoon-worthy Aeden). My utmost wish at this point is to not have to read the word “swoon-worthy” during the next few months.  I also did not enjoy having to read snippets of another book; I cringed every time I had to. There was once I actually turned off my kindle when I got to the part where I had to read yet another scene out of Golden. I resumed reading the day after.  So there you go, I did not like Phoebe.  I did not like Em. She had an obsession too – French kissing German-style and breaking up/getting back together with her foreign exchange boyfriend.  I kept picturing Dev as Michael Persad (that gorgeous, Vine, Indian-descent guy) just to connect with him and get through, suffice it to say – that didn’t really help. Dev was just so plain. There was nothing which stood out about him or nothing that made me think “Yes! No wonder Pheobe likes him”.  Grace was probably the only character who seemed like she had her head on straight. Almost every scene she had in the book she gave some really wise, mature advice. Go Grace!  The writing style was confusing at times, but only a few times throughout the book in particular scenes.  The way the two main characters fell for each other would be more appreciated by the younger audience I think. Or maybe I’m just really not in YA.  Hey, quick question, do readers actually remember the names and stories of characters they’ve read? Because I seem to forget about names shortly after I read a book. And sometimes a month or two later I completely forget the plot of a book