Words cannot begin to describe the surge of emotions this book had evoke from me. I was totally "blind" when I picked it up. I didn't read any reviews and teasers online. I just thought that it was just an ordinary romance story in the likes of bad boy with troubled past meets a girl, so cliche but still satiates my boredom. This was just recommended to me via Instagram and since I already read another book from this author and loved it, I downloaded it and damn! I wasn't expecting anything this intense but this book had it and more.

Find you in the Dark was told in Maggie's POV, a 17 year old girl on her last year in high school. Having been living a normal,"boring" and predictable life everyday, she's desperate to experience more that is outside of he comfort zone on her senior year. She didn't expect that she will experience this with a new guy at school that she literally bumped into. Clay is the first guy that catches her attention. He's gorgeous and all but he got a big mouth and a scowl everytime they met. Being the bubbly and tenacious girl that she is, she approached him and struck a conversation thus started their friendship that develops into something more. And thus started their rollercoaster bumpy ride.

He is everything she thought she never wanted and she is everything he thought he could never have...

Though Clay is the perfect boyfriend to Maggie, she began to notice his erratic behavior and his crazy mood swings. Wanting to  find out more about her boyfriend, he admitted the reason why he transferred to their school and admitted his deep and darkest secret. You see, Clay has a mental illness. He suffers from bipolar disease and borderline personality disorder. He admitted that he went into rehab and has a bottle of  pills to   help him cope up with his illness. Determined to saved their relationship and Clay, Maggie did everything to help him. She researched eveything about his illness and constantly reminding him to take his pills. She let Clay into her life, into her circle of friends and stayed with him all through out. Clay's mental illness deteriorates him and his relationship with Maggie. He stopped taking pills and began cutting himself but Maggie still stayed with him, even left town to be with him. A bad decision on his part because it was Clay's breaking point but she never regretted anything with it.

Sometimes Love isn't enough


This is a beautifully written book. It's definitely not your typical teeny-bopper romance read but it's more like an emotional read full of angst, drama and real-life issue. Tackling real-life issues which in in this case mental illness can be difficult but Walter's did it with aplomb. Yes, it is a painfully emotional read that had me dried out my tear ducts from crying but it provides us a powerful look into mental illness that though we don't really talk about it but is happening all around us. You can't help but experienced what the characters went through. You will love every bit of them, laugh at their silliness, be mushy with their sweetness and cringe and be sad with how they ended. It totally broke my heart that it ended that way after all they've been through but needless to say, it was good for both of them. Maggie really wanted to help Clay but she can't do it if he's not willing to help himself. They both love each other but their relationship is toxic that one of them needs to get out and that's what Clay did.

I know that there is a second book that I had not yet read but I already have it on my reader but I'm hoping that if they find their way back into each other's hands, they had figured out what went wrong with their relationship and hopefully, Clay cleaned up his act. He's good for Maggie if he's not letting his inner demons get hold of their relationship. I'm still hoping for their Happy Ever After.

If you've stalked Jamie McGuire's facebook and website like I have for the past year since I read Beautiful Disaster, you probably have read the prologue and the first teaser that she posted online a few months ago (if not, you can check it out HERE). So when she announced the release date of Walking Disaster which is a couple of days from now, specifically, April 2, I am beyond excited. I've been waiting for this book for so long and I'm seriously counting down the days to receive my own copy of this book but for now, here's another teasers for those Travis Maddox fans out there.

 =====================================================================

What happens when in order to win, you’re forced to lose?

The only daughter of an infamous Las Vegas pimp, Raven Morretti grew up an outsider. Liberated from the neglectful home of her prostitute mother, she finds solace as a mechanic. With few friends, she’s content with the simple life. Flying under the radar is all she knows, and more than she expects.

Until she catches the eye of local celebrity, UFL playboy Jonah Slade.

Weeks away from his title fight, Jonah is determined to stay focused on everything he’s trained so hard to achieve. Undefeated in the octagon, he’s at the height of his career. But resisting Raven’s effortless allure and uncomplicated nature is a fight he can’t win.

Jonah trades in his bad-boy reputation and puts his heart on the line. But when her father contacts her, setting in motion the ugly truth of her destiny, Jonah must choose. In a high-stakes gamble where love and freedom hang in the balance, a war is waged where the price of losing is a fate worse than death.

Will the hotheaded Jonah be able to restrain his inner fighter to save the woman he loves?

Or will Raven be forced into a life she’s been desperate to avoid? - Goodreads

I admit I picked up this book because I missed Beautiful Disaster and Travis Maddox. I actually found it in Instagram a couple of days ago and was intrigued because a lot of people like it and somehow it was being compared to Beautiful Disaster.   Sexy, fighter dude and a good blurb sold me.

Fighting for Flight is JB Salsbury's debut  novel. Considering that this is her first novel, she actually did great. She has a good idea and a solid plot and a good start up point but alas it just felt short towards the end.

Fighting for Flight started strong with a  prologue that promises something. I was immediately glued to the pages excited to know what will happen.  I love how the characters met. But after they officially hooked up, it went downhill for me. Honestly, I don't have any issues with the "love at first sight" theme. I know for a fact that this is the most difficult theme to work on because as an author you have to keep the romance burning and the attraction lasts. But sad to say, once they got past the initial attraction and began dating, I got bored. It just seems unrealistic that they moved in together after their official first date and love confession. I mean, seriously? who does that kind of thing? I don't have problems with insta-love but in this book, it was too soon, way too much too soon.

Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy reading this book but there were some parts that bored me and some scenes where I literally flipped pages unto the next page. There were too many clogged out scenes that doesn't feel right for me. I feel like this story could be improved. I love the theme, the author's idea and the characters but I wished for depth in the storyline. I wished for a more improved character development. I cringed for a romance story that will make my toes curl and a storyline that is more believable.

Overall, it was somehow a good read if you're the type to look for a simple romance story to waste time but if you're looking for something that will touch you and will leave you with book hangovers, this is not the book for you. 

Can love survive when life gets Reckless?

When the band hits it big, Kiera and Kellan must ask themselves: Can their love for each other survive the constant pressures of superstardom? The friendships they've formed, the new family they've found, and the history they've forged will all play a part in helping them navigate the turbulent waters of the band's exploding popularity. A greedy executive hell-bent on success, a declining pop star looking for an edge, and a media circus that twists lies into truths are just some of the obstacles the lovers will have to overcome if they are going to remain together. Fame comes with a price-but will it cost Kiera and Kellan everything? - Goodreads

It's been a couple of days since I read this book but I can't seem to get it out of my system. One of the most highly anticipated books of 2013, Reckless ended the Kellan and Kiera story to absolute perfection.

Where to begin? I can't describe what this series means to me and how it greatly changed my reading life. This series started my love affair with rock stars and celebrities. I feel so emotional writing this review. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to these characters. I know it has to end but I still am not ready to let them go. When I got to the end part, I was conflicted with emotions. I was gleefully happy that they got their happy ever after but at the same time sad because this means the end to the series that I loved the most.

Reckless picks up where Effortless left off. Having been signed by a record label, Kellan and The D-bags are now in L.A. to record their first album. Keira follows soon after accompanying Kellan on their tour to promote the album while writing an autobiography depicting her relationship with Denny, her infidelity with Kellan and of how they became a couple. As The D-bags rises, issues also came with them, invasion of privacy, overzealous fans, manipulative manager and a diva who will stop at nothing to be famous. Keira and Kellan's relationship are once again tested with the issue that had hounded them since they started - trust.

It's a known fact that I love Kellan Kyle but this book is all about Keira. She definitely shines in this book. She had evolved from the selfish, clingy and immature girl in Effortless to a woman of courage and strength. I love the fact that she pushes Kellan to never give up on his lifelong dream and pushes him to do his best even-though some of the things he has to do is painful for her. Being a rockstars' girlfriend or should I say wife is not an easy task to do but Keira stands by her man, supporting him, dealing with fans, groupies and other pitfalls of stardom and even convincing him to stay when Kellan was ready to left everything and go back to Seattle. She has definitely come a long way.

As for Kellan Kyle, well what can I say? This man is really perfection. I had loved him since Thoughtless and had fallen in love with him more. This guy is perhaps my most admired and love book boyfriend of all time. He may be sex on stick but there is so much more to him than his good looks and talent. His love and devotion to Keira is unparalleled for and all of the sweet and tender moments between them is swoon worthy. Damn! I can't get my mind off cowboy Kellan. That was hot!

All of the characters came full circle in this book. Relationships that started bad ended good. Kellan, Keira and Denny totally put their past behind and even work together as a team in the end. The love triangle and betrayal that started this series have move past to a greater place. Anna and Griffin had their happy-ever-after and so as the rest of the band. I love the fact that all of the loose ends and every single storyline on the first two books were answered on this final installment and were given closure.

Looking back at the journey, I am so happy how this series turned out. I'm sad that it ended and I know I will forever miss Keira, Denny, Kellan, Anna, The D-Bags and the rest of their friends and hopefully a reread will cure it.

Thank you S.C. Stephens for giving us a wonderful and perfect ending to the love story that we love.

REVIEW

After subjecting myself to two cliffhangers from reading the previous books and had eagerly waited for months for the final installment to be released, I finally got a copy of the conclusion to Lauren Oliver's Delirium series. Though for the most part it is a fairly satisfying read and I enjoyed every bit of it, it was kinda not what I had expected.

Delirium introduced us to Lena and Hana and how Lena got "infected" with the deadly amor deliria nervosa - the love disease that lets her experienced her first love and first heartbreak. Pandemonium shows us a different Lena, struggling to survive in the wilds with the rest of the invalids and with the pain of loosing what she had loved and lost. It introduce us to another boy that Lena saved and shared experiences with that somehow helps her forget the first love she had lost - not until at the end when HE came back.

In Requiem, Lena is a transformed woman. Though her love life sucks because of being sandwiched between the boy she loved first and lost but came back to her as a stranger and the other boy she rescued and shared experiences with, she is an active member of the resistance. In this installment, romance and love triangle takes a back seat but not totally because it also played a great deal in some important parts. It gave us a glimpse on the opposing sides of the rebellion and the impending war and everything that came with it

My annoyance with Lena in Pandemonium also took a back seat because in this book. She's not the scared and whining damsel in distress anymore but a matured unselfish fighter that thinks about the others rather than feels sad for herself. Meeting her mother after years and coming full circle makes me happy. Though she had changed and kinda crept back into me, she can't beat the two characters that solidified their place on my heart. These characters started out differently but ends up on a pedestal:

Hana - Lena's best friend to whom I hated for after I read the companion book Hana redeemed herself her. Quite honestly, I actually like her in Delirium but that was before reading her POV in the companion book. When I read about what she had done, how she betrayed Lena, she instantly earned jealous bitch from me. Requiem is told between two POV's, hers and Lena. After reading her thoughts, her compassion, her actions especially on the last part, my resentment to her turned into admiration. 

Alex - I'm Team Alex ever since. I shed tears after the end of Delirium and was ecstatic when he came back. Don't get me wrong, Julian is really a nice guy and all but Alex is on a different league. We know from Delirium what a sweet guy he is - always taking care of Lena even sacrificing himself for her in the end, now who wouldn't fall for that? Not much to say about him in this book though. He is rarely discussed by Lena unless its about him being different than the guy she had known before and her jealousy of his closeness to the new addition to their group. I admit, I hated him on the first few chapters. I was hoping at the end of Pandemonium he will get Lena back but in this one, he was a douchebag. I was slowly resigning myself to accepting Julian for Lena but there's still a bit of hope that first love never die. So when it came to the last chapters, he once again made a sacrifice, letting Lena go to make her happy and admitted that he didn't forget about her and still loves her. I know you would asked why he didn't fight for her but for me its the sweetest thing a guy can do. Letting her go not because he had resigned but because he wants to do something to make Lena totally happy - a new free world by sacrificing himself for the resistance. 

I know I had said the good parts but the reason why I was somehow disappointed with this is because of how it ended. I was already feeling something that I don't like towards the end and so when my eyes came to the word The End , I was not satisfied. It totally felt rushed and anti-climaxing. I know Oliver wanted it to be because of the cause and the fulfillment of what the resistance was created for but there were some loopholes that were not explained, questions that were not answered and scenes that left me hanging hoping against hope that there will be a fourth book to explain everything and making this series substantial. 

And what about the constant question that most of us wants to know? Will it be Alex? or Julian? 

It wasn't what I wanted to hear and I know its vague but I was not surprised at all. This is actually a typical Oliver style. I noticed that it was the same thing as what she did on her other YA Novel Before I Fall . Oliver didn't specifically tell who Lena ended up with. Maybe because the book is not all about the romance part but with something much more bigger or it could be because she wants the readers to comprehend and believe what they want to believe. But one thing's for certain, Alex confesses that he is still in love with her and promises that when they see each other again on the other side, he will not let her go again and what about Lena? She also confessed to Alex that she still loves him and was so worried about him she thought she will die again and smiled on what he promised. Then she look at Julian and remembers what they had been through. Complicated? definitely. So, go figure it out!  That's the reason why I want a fourth book. 

This month my name is Mary. My name is different every month—Brandy, Honey, Amy…sometimes Joe doesn't even bother to ask—but he never fails to arouse me with his body, his mouth, his touch, no matter what I'm called or where he picks me up. The sex is always amazing, always leaves me itching for more in those long weeks until I see him again.

REVIEW

I have my fair share of reading erotica for quite some time. But I don't just read them because of the sex but I love my erotic fiction the same way I love my contemporary romances - a unique storyline that will captivate me till the end. Broken did it and much more.

Sadie met his husband Adam in college. He was her first love and flashbacks to the way they were in college makes us conclude they were a happy couple until a skiing accident that destroys Adam and makes him invalid - a quadriplegic but also destroys their marriage slowly. With marital problems at home, Sadie mets Joe when they happen to share the same bench in the same area they both like. They slowly became friends and agreed to continue seeing each other once a month on the same place where everytime they met, Joe tells her his sexual conquests. Joe slowly unravels himself to Sadie thru his sensual stories and Sadie is imagining herself as the girl in Joe's story. She knows she's deceiving her husband by imagining herself in Joe's stories but it helps her deal with her stressful life, physical longing for intimacy and her slowly failing marriage.

Broken is a pleasure to read not just because of the sexual scenes but also because of its unique storyline. I love the fact Ms. Hart doesn't gave us right away the personality and history of her characters. We have vague feelings of who they are but as the story progresses the characters persona slowly emerged. Sadie's story was heartbreaking but I love the fact that she was a strong woman through and through. I actually predicted that she will jump into a forbidden relationship with Joe but she proved me wrong. Even-though taking care of her husband is draining and stressful and sometimes it makes her unhappy, she still stands by his side till the end. She didn't do what other intimacy deprived woman would do when in the company of a hot and gorgeous man.

A roller coaster ride of emotions, this book is worth the read.

Maysie Ardin is soaking up the summer before her junior year of college, shopping, hanging by the pool and shopping some more. But when her black belt in spending lands her in trouble with her parents, she is forced to take a second job at a local bar to dig herself out of a deep financial pit.

She thought she’d be miserable. But then Maysie didn’t count on Jordan Levitt, the hot, pierced and tattooed, drum playing bartender who also happens to be very interested in her. And the feelings are totally mutual.

It had the makings of the perfect romantic set up. Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Boy has girlfriend? Okay, maybe not.

But attraction is a hard thing to ignore and soon Jordan and Maysie find themselves in the middle of a gossip induced firestorm. Maysie has to learn whether she can set aside her fear of public disapproval in order to be with the one she wants. Or will she let the opinions of others dictate her life and her heart? - Goodreads

"Who gives a damn about their reputation? Oh, that would be me! Especially since mine had gone straight to hell in the span of thirty minutes".

I had been missing my dose of college romances lately. I am so glued up in reading New Adult and Contemporary Romances that I noticed I haven't had a romance book played in a college campus lately. I asked a friend of mine for recommendations and this was the one she gave me. I actually didn't read it right away but  was pushing it back down on my to read list prioritizing reading series I followed. So when I picked it up, I never thought I would like it but I did.

I'm not going to elaborate more on the plot because the blurb says everything already. But basically, it had the makings of a perfect love story. Hot, pierced and tattooed drum playing Jordan meet sorority girl Maysie in the bar where they work together. Attraction heats up and Maysie was willing to let Jordan enter her life until she found out that Jordan is in a three year relationship with a girl, not just an ordinary girl, but the equally gorgeous and famous president of her sorority. She turned down Jordan's advances because she doesn't want to be tagged as the other woman but one night and one party change everything that she builds. Caught making out by one of her sorority sister, Maysie saw her reputation went down the drain. 

This book had me on the grip. I could not stop turning the pages willing to find out what was going to happen next. I laughed, I cried and got really pissed off on all those mean girls and jerks. When I went to College, I was never a member of any sorority group but I knew a lot of people that were. I was never one of those campus faces that has reputation to upheld. I'm just one of the majority that blends in the background but I felt what Maysie went through. I wanted Maysie to stand up and fight not ran away and sulked in her bedroom. I wanted to scratch the pretty faces of those girls who call themselves sorority sister but on the inside, they are just shallow, back-stabbing bitches. It took a while but when she finally did it with flying colors, I was so proud. My heart literally overwhelms with joy when I read what she had to say to those bitches. I could just imagine the looks in their eyes. HAHA

Bad Rep is not just an ordinary romance story. Yes, the romance is sweet and swoon worthy and the sex is hot but I love this book because of the message it conveys and that is to be true to yourself. You can't please everybody so don't waste your time doing something for their own benefit but do something for yourself.