Tag: Lisa Brown Roberts

The Replacement Crush (Lisa Brown Roberts)

5 Comments

trc

True love can’t be strategized. 

After book blogger Vivian Galdi’s longtime crush pretends their secret summer kissing sessions never happened, Vivian creates a list of safe crushes, determined to protect her heart.

But nerd-hot Dallas, the sweet new guy in town, sends the mission and Vivian’s zing meter into chaos. While designing software for the bookstore where Vivian works, Dallas wages a counter-mission.

Operation Replacement Crush is in full effect. And Dallas is determined to take her heart off the shelf.

I read this book as a buddy read with Cátia @The Girl Who Read Too Much, make sure to check out her blog in the next couple of days for her take on it.

I was initially excited for this book, because I usually love Entangled Teen romances, the cover is super cute and the premise sounded super good. Unfortunately, the end result wasn’t my favorite thing.

The book was cute and OK for the most part, and I enjoyed the writing, as I had previously, since this isn’t my first book by Lisa Brown Roberts – I loved Resisting the Rebel. The book is told in Vivian’s POV though, just hers, which doesn’t really allow for us to get to know the romantic interest, Dallas. This was too bad, because Dallas was, for most part, quite mysterious, and that wasn’t always a good thing to be honest.

Vivian was the kind of female MC that was frustrating as hell for most of the time. I liked her passion for books and her love for logical thinking, but she took things to an extreme, and ignored feelings and ended up hurting a lot of people, which didn’t exactly made her likely. Dallas was a little better, for the most part, because he did know what he wanted and he sort of went for it, but then he kind of got lost there at some point, and I didn’t really like his actions for a moment.

The whole Replacement Crush mission was a bust, in my opinion. The beginning was kind of fun, but it went super downhill from there. The characters on the list did little sense, and I’m still not over the fact that Jaz MADE Viv put Toff on the list, and then told her off for doing it… I mean… seriously?!

There was some unnecessary drama, and the plot dragged out a little bit more than it should, which took a bit of my enjoyment for this book. Also, the characters were annoying sometimes, and their decisions and actions were out of my comprehension sometimes too.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this one, because the MC was quite frustrating, but in the end, it was an OK book, and it might appeal to a lot of you.

Resisting the Rebel (Lisa Brown Roberts)

8 Comments

resistingtherebel

Disclaimer: This book contains a villain pretending to be a hero, a hero pretending to be a villain, a disco-dancing heroine, two overprotective sidekicks, a little bit of bad language, and a whole lot of swoony kissing. 

Spirit committee leader Mandy Pennington is secretly in love with her best friend, Gus, but when he hooks up with her archenemy at a party, she decides to win him over once and for all. She just doesn’t know how. But who better to help than hot loner Caleb Torrs?

Caleb’s got his own problems, but when he sees Mandy pining over Gus at a party, he thinks she’s finally smoked the spirit stick and lost her mind. Maybe he has, too, because he just asked Mandy to be his fake girlfriend.She’ll get her loser friend’s attention, and he’ll get his stalker ex off his back.It’s a win-win.

But soon one fake date blends into the next and before he knows it, he actually wants to kiss Mandy. For real. Too bad their plan is working, and Gus is finally noticing the one girl Caleb just might be falling for…

Hello guys. Once again I read this book with Cátia @The Girl Who Read Too Much, as a buddy read. Go to her blog on the next couple of days to read her take on this book.

The story of this one, once again, revolves around a fake-relationship, but this book had probably the most unique group of characters and protagonists of all. Also guys, you know I’m a sucker for this trope, right?

In all its Entangled glory, this romance is told in dual POV, third person narration, and it’s done super well here. Mandy and Caleb had very distinct voices and personalities, and I thought the writing showcased their personalities perfectly.

I loved both main characters. Loved them. I wasn’t really sure at first when this book started, how I would feel about peppy/hippy Mandy and dark and broody Caleb, but they were wonderful, and their personalities complemented each other quite nicely. I loved that each of them had depth and various layers to them, because that made them very interesting.

I could identify with parts of both of them, and I think that’s why I loved them so much. I really liked that the author included a character with ADHD and dysgraphia, and her difficulties were a big part of the plot, and she explored how that affected her day to day. And I really liked how low key and misunderstood Caleb really was, and his love for books and literature.

The plot followed the usual “fake turned real relationship”, but it had a few twists, especially because of who the guys apparently were. I really enjoyed the chemistry between Caleb and Mandy, and that it was clear from very early on how they brought up the best in each other.

I was overall super happy with this book, though I sometimes wanted to slap Mandy out of her fantasy – even though I quite understood why she liked to live in it. I do wish she had believed her friends and everyone else warning her about her crush, Gus, and that she had realized earlier the truth, because seeing Caleb hurt wasn’t fun at all. I also wanted to know more about Caleb’s mom, and all of their friends, because they were seriously awesome…. especially Blue Ranger :D.

I highly recommend this YA romance, it was fun, unique and heartwarming. Give it a read.

June Book Haul

20 Comments

junebookhaul

Let’s just say that I might have used and abused the request button on netgalley… But I didn’t get any physical book 🙂 .

ebooks_june

eARCs_june

October TBR

39 Comments

octobertbr

Hello! Today I bring you my October TBR. As you might have read at some point – given that I’ve mentioned it A LOT – A week from now I’ll be heading to South Korea and to Japan for 14 days! I’m super excited about it, first of all JAPAN!!!! Then, I’ve only been to Asia once before, and I’m very looking forward to get to know it a little bit better.

I suspect that this will also impact my reading a bit, though I’m not sure if for the better or worse, because from one hand, I’ll have two 20 something hours trips to make. And reading on planes is somehow one of my favorite things. On the other hand, I don’t expect to have much time in the actual places, though South Korea will be mild, given that my companion (a.k.a. my mom) will be working, but in Japan we’ll be running around, and I think that my only time to read will be inside the bullet trains.

But without further ado, here is my TBR for this upcoming month:

octobertbr

1. Cinder by Marissa Meyer – I’ve been wanting to get into The Lunar Chronicles, and now that the Shatter Me trilogy is done and Queen of Shadows read, it is time to start. (I’ve started it this morning, 13 pages in and I already like that Prince… how is this possible?)

2. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer – I hope I manage to read this one as well before I get on that first plane, otherwise it will be the physical book coming along for the ride.

3. Angelfall by Susan Ee – I saved this one for the plane 😀 – See Josie? It’s already on my TBR for this month!

4. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor – Same as the one above

5. Your Voice Is All I Hear by Leah Scheier – This eARC is long overdue, I have to get to it this month without fail.

6. Rikki by Abigail Strom – Also an eARC…

7. The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone – Ditto, I’m quite excited about this one.

8. Playing the Player by Lisa Brown Roberts – This seems like a light-ish read, so perfect for the travel.

9. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs – As I said in my TTT Fall TBR post, I wanted to read this one around Halloween, just because, I’m not sure I’ll have the time or the will, but I’ll try.

10. The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak by Brian Katcher – I don’t know if this book will arrive on time… I ordered it along with Everything, Everything and they are bound to arrive on the 7th of this month, well, the problem is that my flight is on the 8th at 6 a.m., so if the books are delayed by one day I won’t be able to pick them up and they’ll be returned to AMAZON… 😦

This is quite an ambitious TBR, especially considering that some of these books are not small, others I have no idea of size, and some are fantasy. But still, the two 20h plane/airport rides + one 2h flight + four 1-2h bullet train rides should provide some time to read. And my kindle is quite stocked if I need further reading material 😉 .