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Out of Breath by Rebecca Donovan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I gave books one and two of The Breathing Series five stars. They were excellent and captivating, but book 3 had one or several too many loops in this roller coaster. The drama was a little excessive for me.
The ending was very sweet, and this is a must read for anyone who read books 1 and 2. I give this book 3.5 stars 🙂
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In The Stillness by Andrea Randall
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
In the Stillness was one of the darker novels I’ve read. At first, I didn’t understand or like the main character, Natalie. As the plot thickened, Natalie realized she had issues and why she was having issues. Going through that revelation with her pulled me in, and I was hooked.
This story is not butterflies and flowers AT ALL. It was intense, vulgar at times, real, sad, and emotional. By far, this is my favorite Andrea Randall novel!
View all my reviews” title=”In the Stillness”>In the Stillness
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Seeds of Hate by Melissa Perea
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Seeds of Hate is a unique story told in several points of view. What I loved most about it is the individuality of each of the characters. They were all flawed in some way but found something to love in each other, and watching those relationships develop was genuine, sweet, captivating, and emotional.
I was so impressed with the writing style and story line, and I cannot wait for the sequel to be published!!! 🙂 I will read any books written by Melissa Perea because I related so well to her story-telling. Even though I’ve never experienced what the characters experienced, she found a way to portray/generalize a point through events that made me view certain situations in life differently.
I loved this book.
View all my reviews” title=”Seeds of Hate”>Seeds of Hate
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The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
From start to finish, this book had me completely hooked. I LOVED the characters, I LOVED that it wasn’t a typical romance novel, and I LOVED the detailed descriptions of the different character traits. For example, the main male character does wood work. What other book have you read where a guy is doing intricate wood work? None. I absolutely loved Josh’s passion and how Nastya was drawn to it. It was completely unique and interesting. Nastya’s baking obsession was amazing, and I love love loved that Josh cooked for her. They had this unexplained balance that was relevant the whole story and so beautiful to watch grow.
This is a book I would recommend to anyone. Most romance novels I feel the need to filter as I recommend, but this is a book I have already recommended to people and will continue to recommend to people because I think it’s an absolute, extremely well-written, undeniably inspirational, must read.
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Love Me by Jillian Dodd
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
LOVE ME is book 4 of the Keatyn Chronicles. What I loved most about this book is that it’s SMACK DAB in the middle of the series (now that the novella, Adore Me, was added), and I feel like with this book, we literally just got to/slightly started sliding down that climatic hump….. YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!! And coincidentally, not a lot of humping has been going on… sorry, I just had to say that… but it’s true.
Oh, the feathers….. *melt*
So, moon boy is pretty much revealed, and I couldn’t be happier. In my mind, it’s totally HIM, and if she chooses anyone else, then she’s deciding not to choose Moon Boy. Anyway, I love Moon Boy, I love how he put the moon on her ceiling and then she took it down and the note on the back at the very end…. LOVE!
I loved that Keatyn struggled with herself in this book. At first, I didn’t get it, but then it became clear that she developed a depth that she was lacking before. I think because she has a deeper understanding of herself now, she’s forced to grow up and make better decisions… hopefully all of which will lead her straight to moon boy. And I loved that she got bloated. It made her seem so real to me because she got bloated on two occasions of which I am very certain most of us would. It really is the little things… and the soccer coach and how Whitney is such a fool and how Peyton is so like Keatyn but just at a different stage in her life, which I think helped Keatyn realize how far she’s come… just all the details made me feel more connected to Keatyn than I have in the other books.
I loved this book, and I love Jillian Dodd. This story keeps getting better, and I can’t wait to see what happens next!
View all my reviews” title=”Love Me by Jillian Dodd”>Love Me by Jillian Dodd
So, I’m not telling too many friends and family about my book because I’m waiting to see what a couple book bloggers have to say about it first. However, randomly, I noticed someone rented my book. I didn’t think much of it, but then a few hours later, it popped up on Goodreads that I had a THREE STAR rating. So, I was like….. crap. I’m already a failure. I only have one rating on Goodreads, and now it’s three stars. A day passed, and I started going over all the reasons why someone wouldn’t like my book. I actually started rereading it for the millionth time and telling myself she didn’t like the sex or the talk about religion or other multiple controversial things that come up. So another day passed, and I thought about what three stars mean. Three stars mean she “liked” the book…. not “really liked” or “loved”, but just plain “liked”. And then I started thinking about books I’ve disliked that other people have loved and vice versa. And then, I remembered that three is my lucky number. So, I only got three stars as my first rating, and I may continue to only get three stars or lower even, but at the end of the day, three is better than two, is better than one, and someone “liked” my book.
Today, I uploaded my book onto KDP. Holy shit, that was so nerve wracking… I’ve read it a million times, given it to numerous people who loved it and hated it, and now I just had to push “SAVE AND PUBLISH”. Crap… and all I can think about are people finding typos. I’m not sure if I’ve ever read through a book and not found a typo.
Actually, John Green had no typos that I could find.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
From the beginning, this story, writing style, Hazel Grace, and Augustus Waters captivated me. I was/am so impressed with John Green’s use of vocabulary and style of adjective-use and description. It was unlike anything else I’ve ever read before.
Then…
That climatic/concluding point comes, and everything changes… and you’re left trying to remember what you liked about the book when you first started reading it. We’re human, and we’re bound to be upset by things we’re attached to, and this book will become your new attachment.
Spoiler Alert (I’ve never done this in a review): But…. okay, stop reading if you haven’t read it yet, please….. But… I am heartbroken. What happens to Hazel?? What if Augustus had lived??? It’s like he created this world within a world and then stuck us, his readers, into the semi-world of Hazel and Augustus, not quite satisfied with the ending just like they weren’t after reading AIA. I loved it. I really did. But right now, it just feels like from Dutch land to back home to the literal heart of Jesus, there’s something missing. I wanted more Augusts and Hazel together, but I think Augustus and Hazel wanted more Augustus and Hazel together too… so I think John Green has me right where he wants his readers… in between being in love and being in hate. And dissapointing or not, Peter, I think, symbolized God as he suggested the Tulip Man did. You didn’t know if you could trust him or not, but in the end you felt badly for him… and he knew so much…just like the eyes in Gatsby. They depended on Peter for the story of the fate of the characters from AIA. They put so much hope in him and were then let down… and then we never know what actually happens to him. There’s no clear answer on any of it. There’s that moment that he hesitates to put down the flask… John Green, I think, wanted us to wonder about Peter… in turn wonder out his story (AIA), and in turn wonder about the story we just finished…. Did Hazel’s mother ever complete her degree? Did Hazel survive long after? It all reflected the references from AIA, and I absolutely loved that. What I found even more brilliant is that he was able to do that but still have Augustus be the dying cancer victim while all arrows pointed to Hazel. And then we watched Hazel evolve, and that was heartbreaking and heartwarming all in the same paragraph. Ugh… I could go on and on. This one left me thinking. I’ll be stewing for days.
Losing Hope by Colleen Hoover
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was SO happy with this book!!!! 🙂 I usually get bored with different POVs, so I was worried… even though it’s Colleen Hoover, I was still apprehensive. Wrong, wrong, wrong. This book…. I LOVED IT. I needed the chapter breaks… God, I loved the Chapter breaks! She’s too damn clever. And I LOVE Dean Holder. He is so perfect and sweet but a total badass in all the right ways, and there was so much back story that needed to be told. The letters to Less… I could have died. I COULD HAVE DIED. SPOILER: I lived for that letter she wrote him… as soon as it flipped open and he caught a glimpse of it, I NEEDED to know what that letter said. And it was so good. That letter made me hug my kindle.
If you can read a book where you know EXACTLY what’s going to happen, and yet you’re still reading it like it’s the first time you’re hearing the story, you know it’s fabulous. I haven’t loved a book in awhile. I actually don’t typically write reviews unless I’m giving a book five stars, but this was the kind of book I couldn’t wait to review. I literally could not wait to scream from the roof tops that people need to go home and read Hopeless and then Losing Hope back to back and then have a horrible book hangover for like a week. I give it 7 stars. (Oh my God, the stars… and the pinkies… ohmygod)
I thought I loved Slammed best… I really did, but then she gave us Holder’s POV, and everything changed for me. ❤ I can't wait to reread them ❤
The Forever of Ella and Micha by Jessica Sorensen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was really impressed with this novel by Jessica Sorensen. The story of Micha and Ella continues, and it’s not predictable, overdone, or drawn out AT ALL. She creates such real scenarios, so the entire book kept me guessing. Of course you want them to be together, and of course you want Ella to just be happy, but as I read on, I reminded myself that this isn’t a fantasy and it’s not that easy or cut and dry. Jessica took two really real characters with real life issues and developed this journey we followed them through, and I loved it.
Scenes like Micha and Ella in the water fountain and on the cliff together were so sweet. Neither he or Ella are perfect, and I love that she portrayed that in different scenarios. I love that you get mad at both of them at different points in the book, and I LOVE that there was more of a change in Ella. The first book, she wasn’t as likable. This book, I really liked her, and I feel like I had more understanding as to why she is the way she is.
Five stars! Very cute summer read!
View all my reviews” title=”The Forever”>The Forever
Alexis L O V E S Books 