Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved More (or Less!) Than I Expected To

Hey, guys!

It's Top Ten Tuesday by The Broke and The Bookish! This is actually the last official TTT until March 7th, though I may still do next week because I am #notcreative. This week's topic is 10 books you liked more or less than you were expecting to. Let's jump right int!

5 Books I Liked Less 

The first book went on my Best of 2016 list, and this book, at only 3 stars, was a big let down. 

Didn't like Nick. At all. 

First 4 books are probably some of my favorite guilty pleasure reads. This one was a train wreck, even compared to the other books. 

Sounded right up my alley, and wound up hating it. 

Synopsis was intriguing and loved the first third, but after that it tanked. 

5 Books I Liked More

I don't read memoirs; I find them dry and incredibly tedious. This, however, was incredible! So fun, so relatable, and just a blast. Highly recommend!

I'm not a big horror fan (at all) and had no idea what to think of a more romantic themed horror book, but this wound up being one of my all time favorite series. 

I wasn't expecting much from how cheesy this looks, but it was a solid 5 star read!

Didn't have the best luck with the first book I read from this author, but was pleasantly surprised here!

Normally not my thing, is now one of my all time favorites!

{Mini Review} Walk Through Fire (Chaos, #4) by Kristen Ashley

From Goodreads

Millie Cross knows what it's like to burn for someone. She was young and wild and he was fierce and even wilder-a Chaos biker who made her heart pound. They fell in love at first sight and life was good, until she learned she couldn't be the woman he needed and made it so he had no choice but to walk away. Twenty years later, Millie's chance run-in with her old flame sparks a desire she just can't ignore. And this time, she won't let him ride off . . .

Bad boy Logan "High" Judd has seen his share of troubles with the law. Yet it was a beautiful woman who broke him. After ending a loveless marriage, High is shocked when his true love walks back into his life. Millie is still gorgeous, but she's just a ghost of her former self. High's intrigued at the change, but her betrayal cut him deep-and he doesn't want to get burned again. As High sinks into meting out vengeance for Millie's betrayal, he'll break all over again when he realizes just how Millie walked through fire for her man . . . 

My Review

*ARC provided in exchange for review. All opinions are my own, as you'll see.

1.5 "There's 600 Pages of My Life I'll Never Get Back" Stars

Well. I'm usually pretty positive in my reviews, and hardly ever review something less than 3.5 stars. However, I had to make an exception for this. This was my second Kristen Ashely book; my first was one of the Rock Chick novels, and that was an okay read. This, though....

Let's get to it. 

This is book four in the Chaos series. I'd never read one before, but didn't feel like I was missing much at all. There were a few scenes were I felt like I should know x character's backstory, but not enough to effect my understanding of the story.

This book was...awful. The characters, the plot, the pacing, all of it. It was over 600 pages, and it could've easily been half that. You hit the "big reveal" at around 30% in, and it's not even that a big reveal: I guessed why Millie left from the get go. 

There were so many times during the book where I felt like it was trying to end, but it kept dragging on. The reveal happened, then there was some drama with Logan's life choices post-Millie, there was some motorcycle club bullshit drama, just one thing after another. It was sloppy, cluttered, and tiring.

Millie...oh my god, I couldn't stand this chick. She's around 43-45, and speaks like an obnoxious preteen. She's incredibly woe-is-me, and is constantly harping on how much she gave up for Logan. I'm sorry, but I don't feel your sacrifice when you're constantly reminding me of it. 

She reminds us how she hasn't had sex, or even gotten herself off, in the 20 years since she was with Logan. Right. If you'd go jerk off (jill off??), maybe you wouldn't have such a chronic issue with "tingling thighs". 

And the near constant references of how she "walked through fire" for Logan? Please. I get the title. I promise. 

Logan was worse than Millie, and that's saying something. The man is incapable of speaking in a complete, intelligent sentence. Everything with this guy was: "fuckuva lotta 'eadache". In Logan-speak, that was: fuck of a lot of a headache. 

The guy is an asshole, plain and simple. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind an asshole guy, to a degree. If he's funny, not a complete dick to everyone, and is good to his girl. Logan was not. He was offensive, rude, misogynistic, controlling, and an all around douche.

Their relationship was beyond toxic! There was no chemistry to offset that, either.

Overall, this is a train wreck that, for some reason, I couldn't stop reading. Read at your own risk!

- The Bibliophile Babe

Book Review: Every Wrong Reason by Rachel Higginson

From Goodreads

First comes love.

Then comes marriage.

Then comes the… really nasty divorce.

Kate Carter thought she married her soul mate. She thought she had her happily ever after. But seven years into Kate’s marriage, she realizes that her husband Nick is not what she wanted. He’s selfish, he’s oblivious and he doesn’t love her anymore.

Maybe she doesn’t love him anymore either.

Divorce is the only option if either of them wants to find happiness.

Kate and Nick thought they knew what they wanted, but neither is prepared for the heartache that separating will bring them. The journey they embark on is not the freedom they wished for, but a painful look at the people they’ve become.

At the end of it, Kate has to decide if this is really the life she wants or if maybe there’s a way to salvage her broken heart.

My Review

1.5 "Am I Insensitive or Is She Just a Bitch?" Stars

Today I'll be skipping my usually ambiguous summary, because Goodreads says it more diplomatically than I ever could. Let's jump right into this one!

This book released just a few weeks ago, and as soon as I heard about it I was intrigued. I haven't read very much about couples on the verge of divorce or ones that have divorced, and I was interested to see how things panned out. I've only read one other book along the same vein (Fisher's Light by Tara Sivec - amazing!), and it became one of my favorite books for this year. 

I was severely disappointed in this book. It made me furious, and I'm surprised I finished it. I suppose that was the story's saving grace: for all its flaws, I was still curious enough to finish it. 

The writing wasn't horrible, and there's a few admittedly beautiful lines throughout the story. That's where the positives ended for me, though. 

Kate and Nick separate in the beginning of the story, living apart while Kate attempts to work out a divorce. Nick isn't keen on the idea, and he decides to do his version of fighting for her. Needless to say: #angst. 

Kate might just be the most aggravating, self absorbed, stupid, childish woman I've ever had the displeasure of reading about. She claims to no longer love her husband for the stupidest reasons, like how he gets the bathroom floor wet when he showers or the fact she sometimes has to wipe toothpaste from the bathroom sink. I shit you not, she has a list of reasons she can't stand him, and nearly all of the reasons are so asinine I can't put it into words. 

She constantly nags at her husband, Nick, constantly complains about every single thing and nitpicks beyond all reason. No wonder her marriage is on the rocks; if I had to live with a person like Kate, I'd commit murder. It's all Kate, all the time. She can't grasp that the world doesn't revolve around her, can't fathom why everything and everyone doesn't bend over backwards in order to smooth over her perceived slights. 

Nick was a shell of a character. He had no personality beyond meek pleading and groveling when he'd done nothing wrong. He wasn't a man, he was a little boy. He didn't even know what he liked to eat, and had to cozy up to his almost-ex-wife in the grocery in order to figure it out. I can't make that stuff up. 

They had no chemistry together, and I didn't care where either ended up or with whom. They were so unlikable and unrelatable!

There's no real backstory, flat secondary characters, and constant inconsistencies (Kate has a dog, but the dog only greets her when she comes back from work some of the time. I'm sorry, but anyone that has a young dog like that knows they wouldn't ignore you coming home. I have four dogs, and I can't come back in from taking out the trash without an enthusiastic welcome). 

Around 30-40% of the way in, infertility is tossed in, just for the hell of it. It didn't fit well with the story, and felt like an excuse the author used to drive a wedge between the couple. 

The pacing was quite odd. The book spans the time of around...6 months or so (maybe 9?), and sometimes everything was describe in too much detail, while others are skipped over in such a way that I felt like the story was missing chunks. The over-detailed parts where the inconsequential bits, if you ask me!

Like I said earlier, my hopes where high for this after loving Fisher's Light by Tara Sivec. They weren't met. If you're looking for an incredible, emotional, second chance love story, go with Fisher's Light, and skip Every Wrong Reason.

Stats:

Rating: 1.5 stars

Genre: Adult, contemporary romance

Series: Standalone

POV: 1st person, single perspective 

Steam/sexual content: Fairly graphic sex scenes, but no chemistry so low steam

Cliffhanger: No

Warnings: Sex, insufferable characters

Length: 311

Goodreads

- The Bibliophile Babe

Book Review: Before We Were Strangers by Renee Carlino

From Goodreads

From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a love story about a Craigslist “missed connection” post that gives two people a second chance at love fifteen years after they were separated in New York City.

To the Green-eyed Lovebird:

We met fifteen years ago, almost to the day, when I moved my stuff into the NYU dorm room next to yours at Senior House.

You called us fast friends. I like to think it was more.

We lived on nothing but the excitement of finding ourselves through music (you were obsessed with Jeff Buckley), photography (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of you), hanging out in Washington Square Park, and all the weird things we did to make money. I learned more about myself that year than any other.

Yet, somehow, it all fell apart. We lost touch the summer after graduation when I went to South America to work for National Geographic. When I came back, you were gone. A part of me still wonders if I pushed you too hard after the wedding…

I didn’t see you again until a month ago. It was a Wednesday. You were rocking back on your heels, balancing on that thick yellow line that runs along the subway platform, waiting for the F train. I didn’t know it was you until it was too late, and then you were gone. Again. You said my name; I saw it on your lips. I tried to will the train to stop, just so I could say hello.

After seeing you, all of the youthful feelings and memories came flooding back to me, and now I’ve spent the better part of a month wondering what your life is like. I might be totally out of my mind, but would you like to get a drink with me and catch up on the last decade and a half?

M

My Review

NOW

Matt in his thirties, and is a gifted photographer for National Geographic. He's a little jaded with life now that he's in the office instead of out in the field, his (now ex) wife cheated on him with a coworker and friend, and no matter how hard he's tried, he's never been able to shake his longing for a girl he loved more than 15 years ago.

THEN

Matt met Grace, a gifted musician, in college, and their connection was instant and strong. They quickly became best friends that morphed into lovers that turned into something intense, but undefined. After months of this, life slowly starts pulling them apart. He's offered a job with National Geographic that's nearly unheard of for someone of his age and experience, and her music professor wants her to tour with a few of his other students for more than a year in Europe. With lifelong dreams pulling at them and their never really talked about relationship on the line, they go their separate ways. 

NOW

When  Matt inexplicably spots Grace on the subway one day, he throws cation to the wind and posts a Missed Connections ad on Craigslist. With the help of one of her student, Grace (now a music teacher) finds the ad, and they slowly start falling back into what they used to be. Things are very different now, and as secrets are revealed, our lovers are put to the test yet again. 

3 "Did I Read What Everyone Else Did?" Stars

*clears throat and wipes sweaty palms*

Well...this is awkward. Quite literally every blog or Goodreads review I've read has done nothing but rave about this book. People give it insanely high ratings, and I don't think I've seen lower than 4.5 stars. Combing that with my slight obsession with Craigslist missed connections ads (have you read any of them? They're so damn funny!), I one-clicked this baby as soon as it went live on Amazon.

With that in mind, I was expecting this incredible/amazing/wondrous/insert adjective experience. And I did get that....for the first few chapters. After that everything fell apart for me. This barely escaped a 2 star rating.  Let's get right to it, shall we?

This novel is told in three sections: the now (Matt now, without Grace), the then (college Matt, with Grace) and the now (Matt now, with Grace). It's told in both Matt's and Grace's perspective, though Matt is a bit more prevalent. While many are labeling it new adult, I'd definitely classify it as adult, despite the bit where they're in college. 

I absolutely loved the first "now" portion. Matt's voice was so easy to fall into, I enjoyed his slightly jaded but still witty character, and despite the fact that he's still hung up on his college girlfriend, it didn't come across as desperate or obsessive. He viewed Grace as the one that got away, rather than "I know she'll come back to me someday...or else" that I was expecting. The banter he had going with his boss made me laugh out loud! 

Then I got to the "then", and while I enjoyed the first few chapters, it started going down hill. I loved the chemistry and easy familiarity that Matt and Grace instantly had, but that was pretty much it. This is where I started seeing everything coming from a mile away. I'd think "there's no way it's going there. That's way too obvious!", only to read on and find out that's exactly where it went! 

It was so incredibly frustrating to have such transparency in this story. I'm not exaggerating when I say I saw everything coming from the moment Grace's professor was introduced and when Grace and Matt first had sex. 

This book rode so heavily on the "big plot twists", banked so hard on the shock value for the readers, that the rest of the story just fell by the wayside. Once the stage is set for said twists to happen, the pacing became choppy, the characters flat, and the chemistry non-exsistant. I didn't want Matt and Grace to be together again, and both of their characters wound up being people I was glad to be rid of by the end of the book. Matt went from someone I enjoyed to someone I just didn't like, and Grace's character was at complete odds with the woman Matt describes. 

Despite its numerous issues, it was a very quick read and did have a few bits of truly beautiful writing, like this paragraph (I don't necessarily agree with this, but it is pretty) :

You can't re-create the first time you promise to love someone or the first time you feel loved by another. You cannot relive the sensation of fear, admiration, self-consciousness, passion, and desire all mixed into one because it never happens twice. You chase it like the first high for the rest of your life. It doesn't mean you can't love another or move on; it just means that the one spontaneous moment, the split second that you took the leap, when your heart was racing and your mind was muddled with What Ifs - that moment - will never happen the same way again. It will never feel as intense as the first time. 
At least, that's the way I remember it. That's why my mother always said we memorialize our past. Everything is better in a memory.

While this book was not for me, I wouldn't take my review as law. Everyone else has loved it, so ignore the black sheep and try it for yourself! Then you can come back and commiserate with me in my lonely existence. :p

STATS:

Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Adult, contemporary romance

POV: 1st person, duel perspective

Steam/sexual content: Some steam, mild sex scenes

Warnings: Some mild drug use

Series: Standalone

Cliffhanger: No

HEA: Yes

Length: 320 pages

My own copy

Add to Goodreads

- The Bibliophile Babe