This book honestly gave me a huge reading slump. It was frustratingly slow and boring and so unbelievable in a lot of ways.
Dahlia London first 2 Stars
This book honestly gave me a huge reading slump. It was frustratingly slow and boring and so unbelievable in a lot of ways.
Dahlia London first met the aspiring lead singer River Wilde when they were in college. They automatically formed an instant connection when they met. However during that time Dahlia was in a serious relationship with her boyfriend Ben, so when River asked her to stay at the bar until he finished performing, she chose to run away from that place without letting him know. Years later, they met again but this time Dahlia is already single and is on the process of moving on from a traumatic death of Ben who was already her fiance.
I found the first few chapters engaging because the author really did an amazing job describing the events and the story itself in a dramatic and melancholic way. But then the moment Dahlia and River met again after several years, it started to become shallow and it didn't even make any sense to me at all. There was an absolute insta-love that bothered me. In just one week of being together, they already professed their love for each other and things between them already progressed so fast it's so unbelievable!
I just didn't like the series of events happened in this book. I chose to read this book because I was in a mood for a rock star romance but meh, I didn't get what I expected. I think River just performed on stage at least once or twice in the entire book and all he ever did the whole time was mooning over Dahlia.
And don't even get me started on the ending. Yes, it sure was a plot twist I didn't see coming but for me it was another thing that is hard to believe. It was too much. I don't think I would read the next book.
Okay. First of all I don't hate this book nor the author. Hate is such a strong word for it so maybe I could go for resentment over the fact tha1 Star
Okay. First of all I don't hate this book nor the author. Hate is such a strong word for it so maybe I could go for resentment over the fact that there was racism shoved in its part and characters even made fun of a Filipino food. Worse is that the heroine herself, a half-Filipina, tolerated it and called the food "gross".
Apart from that, I didn't feel an ounce of connection to the characters. There was no chemistry or a spark between them.
So the story was all about Ruby Marisol Santos and Aaron Hall whose friendship started virtually. Their means of communication is only through e-mails and chats. Aaron is a soldier who is based in Afghanistan and Ruby lives with her parents in the US.
They e-mailed back and forth the first half of the book. For me that was quite exhausting and it really took a bit of patience for me to get through it because who knows, there might be things that are interesting in their e-mails, but then there was none and I felt like I was just wasting a lot of time for nothing.
The thing I also noticed is that the characters seem to act like teenagers in this book. Especially Ruby. She is 23 years old and Aaron is 28 but reading Ruby's POV felt like perceiving a 16 year-old's voice.
It took me a really long time to finish this book, because (not surprised) it's a Mariana Zapata book and her novels are known to be really, really long. I have nothing against it. I love slow-burn romances, but this would be an exception because nothing really important or note-worthy happened until the 80% mark. I couldn't even say I liked what happened from there. I have read the author's previous book The Wall of Winnipeg and Me and I loved it immensely. However, this book was a disappointment for me.
November, a girl who grew up in New York, moved to Tennessee when she was fed-up with h1 Star
I'm sorry but I was disappointed.
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Where do I begin?
November, a girl who grew up in New York, moved to Tennessee when she was fed-up with her abusive single mom and was randomly attacked by a stranger. In her new home she finally reunited with her long-lost father. Eventually, she started working for his club, not as a stripper but as an office worker. There, she met the hottest guy on the planet-- Asher James Mayson, who has siblings that are equally hot. Asher is not only irresistible but he has also a bad-boy personality which made her totally smitten. He's also rich as he owns a security company. And then... they fell in love. Then things start to get crazy as November's attacker followed her and made her life miserable.
So, there was insta-love here. And I hated it because it's super duper insta-love! When Asher called her "baby" on their first date I was like, WTH?
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And then he's got all-protective Alpha and jealous even if they're still new and that's it. I was so annoyed. His approach was manipulative. He treated November as if she doesn't have the right to decide and the right to refuse. What. The. Actual. Fuck.
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And then he kidnapped her (like literally!) because he's "interested". Seriously? And not only that. He even took her phone and keys so she can't get away from him. What a creep!
"I'm not ready to have you out of my sight."
"Why?"
"Because I'm interested."
"I'm sure." I roll my eyes. "So if you're interested, then why not ask me out like a normal guy instead of basically kidnapping me?"
"Why, if I asked you out, you would have blown me off and avoided me. This way, you don't have a choice. I have your keys and your phone."
"You have my phone?" I screech, opening my bag to see if he's telling the truth. "How did you get my phone? Oh my God, you're insane. I'm driving down a dark road with an insane person who kidnapped me."
And don't even get me started on the cheese and the predictable plot twist.
Thanks for the lots of patience I was able to finish it, but not without me rolling my eyes at least 20 times. *sigh
After reading R.S. Grey's With This Heart last year, I looked forward to reading her other works because I simply loved her writing 2 Frustrated Stars
After reading R.S. Grey's With This Heart last year, I looked forward to reading her other works because I simply loved her writing style and her swoon-worthy characters. Scoring Wilder is my second R.S. Grey read. Sad to say, it didn't live up to my expectations.
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Reasons why I didn't like this book:
> The heroine.
Okaaay this is getting so old and you guys are probably sick of hearing me say this, but I really hate annoying characters! Kinsley Bryant is one of those. At first, I didn't mind her dry humor and slut-shaming attitude but the more I read, the more she gets on my nerves. Here's a thing about Kinsley Bryant, soccer superstar and voted the #1 sexiest soccer player in the world. She's too perfect to be true. She actually has it all. Beauty, fame, good family background. But her attitude really sucks. I hate her opinion towards other people. Also, I can't believe she's a soccer superstar with the kind of attitude she has while she's on the field doing her daily drills. I don't know but I expect A-list athletes like her to be somewhat dedicated to their goals and ambition to succeed, but I see none of those. Instead, she's mostly distracted. Almost all her attention was focused on Liam Wilder, her sex-on-legs, hot-as-fuck coach. And oh, don't even get me started on how she always thinks about sex even when she's in the middle of a practice. Ugh.
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> Unbelievable side characters
I really find Kinsley's team mates annoying. Seriously, if you guys are a team, why would you waste so much time hating each other just because you're competing for a guy's attention instead of focusing on your game. That is just so dumb.
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> Insta-love
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All in all, I didn't enjoy this book. There were sweet moments, of course, but that's it. I still want to read more books from R.S. Grey, though. I heard Chasing Spring and The Allure of Julian Lefray are good! :)
I've tried so hard to like this book because of so many positive reviews. Unfortunately it didn't measure up. I've been puDNF @ 43%
That's it. I'm out.
I've tried so hard to like this book because of so many positive reviews. Unfortunately it didn't measure up. I've been putting this book down for days and every time I try to go back and continue it, it just didn't work out.
I really didn’t care about any of the characters and that's the main problem I had with this book. Also, I find everything so far-fetched. I couldn't believe how the heroine Mia Corelli turned into a total vixen after being deflowered by Ben in a one-night stand. Ha! Not to mention how she became at her horniest every time Ben was around and how she kept on reminding herself that she hated him. C'mon, you can't hate a person while lusting over him at the same time.
You have got to be kidding me!
As for Ben... I was so bothered with his over-possessiveness even though he and Mia were still not together.
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Even though I was almost half-way, I ultimately decided to just drop this one....more
It took every ounce of control I had not to DNF this book. It's one of the most unrealistic stories I've ever come across with!(SPOILERS ahead...)
It took every ounce of control I had not to DNF this book. It's one of the most unrealistic stories I've ever come across with!
Here are the reasons why I didn't like it:
UNREALISTIC PLOT - This is a work of fiction, I know. But why make the whole thing unbelievable to the extreme? Mikayla found out one day that her boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend. That same day, she also met the gorgeous guy with a sexy Aussie accent named Jake and well, instantly felt attracted to him. THAT VERY SAME DAY, she experienced great loss when her family members were murdered. The next day, she became part of Jake's family and Jake's family offered her shelter even if she's a complete stranger. Okay, I don't mean to sound so selfish and insensitive here because the girl lost everything she had, but honestly, all shit happened in one day?
MIKAYLA - Mikayla is also one of those unbelievable heroines ever existed. She just lost everything but I couldn't believe her way of coping. It didn't take her a week to move on. She can even laugh with Jake's friends and she even had time to entertain such unnecessary thoughts.. like how Jake is so damn sexy and how his accent always gets her and so forth and so on.
INSTA-LOVE - YES. Insta-love big time!!!
SIDE CHARACTERS - Why everyone that is close to Jake treats Mikayla like the way they treat an old-time friend confuses me. How did these people instantly warm up to her? They've just met her and then, just like that? So unbelievable!
TOO MUCH JEALOUSY AND INSECURITIES ALL OVER THE PLACE - Nuff said.
I cannot bring myself to recommend this book to others because it's completely over-the-top . Much as I tried, I just couldn't like this book. I was groaning inwardly and rolling my eyes at every scene. Ugh. Overall, this book wasn't for me. I didn't feel connected to everything.
One of the things I hate doing so much is DNF-ing a book because it feels bad to leave it when you've invested yoursFirst DNF book of the year.
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One of the things I hate doing so much is DNF-ing a book because it feels bad to leave it when you've invested yourself in it in the first place. But sometimes you just have to quit because it just doesn't work out for you. And you can no longer fool yourself and hope that things will get better as the story goes.
So yeah.. I DNF-ed this book for these reasons:
1. Writing Style - This book is poorly written and executed. I see so much potentials in this book but it fails to hold my attention most of the time because of the boring writing.
2. Plot - You can never find an absolute plot in this book. Every chapter is a complete waste because of so many unnecessary scenes that don't make any sense at all.
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3. Main Characters - If you can't love the main characters, then there's no reason to continue it. Why pretend and fool yourself? Tessa and Hardin are both immature characters. They always bicker like children and wow, their childish behavior annoys the crap out of me! And don't even get me started on Hardin's attitude! Gaaah this guy makes me want to pull my hair out because he's simply such a prick!
4. Cheating - Just so we're clear, I despise books with cheating, but I admit that there are books that I loved even when there's cheating involved but that's because they're simply well-written and well-justified. But this? A girl cheats on her boyfriend just because her boyfriend is boring and omg there's a tattooed and pierced boy-next-door who's way hotter and exciting than him. What the actual f*ck? And damn Hardin. This guy! He knows the girl has a boyfriend and yet he continues to seduce her just so he can prove that he's a sex god!
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I did try to like this book, honestly. But I just can't. It was a waste of time. Nuff said....more
I picked this book out of so many New Adult books in my tbr because it seems promising. And seriously, I love books that are with male protagonists wiI picked this book out of so many New Adult books in my tbr because it seems promising. And seriously, I love books that are with male protagonists with sexy, bad-boy image. Given the fact that this book also has high ratings, why not?
Rule is the first book of Marked Men series. We get to be introduced by the sexy, tattoo artist named Rule here-- a guy who grew up with family issues because of the tragic history that happened to his twin brother Remy. Then there is this girl named Shaw, a medical college student who always had a thing for Rule since she was 14. The thing is, she was close to Remy and everyone in Rule's family assumed that she and Remy were sort of an item-- not knowing exactly that Shaw is secretly in love with Rule.
This book is potentially good, I guess... If only I have no issues.
But then, I simply could not totally like it. Why? It's because of the characters.
First, let's talk about Rule. This guy is sexy as hell. With all those tats and piercings-- well, he's a guy every girl in the corner wants to hook up with. At first, I really adored him. But when I've read more and more chapters, my adoration for him slowly died. He's so not worth it! I don't like the way he's so full of himself, like "hey, I'm bad and sexy, girls. Want to f*ck with me? Come and get me" I have nothing against man-whore male leads but then this guy-- he just ruined my good impression on him. He's total jerk in a literal way. And so immature. All right, he has some issues I get it but to text his girlfriend "I kissed some chick last night"? WTF? If I were Shaw, I would not only destroy my phone after reading that text from him. I would freaking destroy his face!
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And oh, I hate it when he always compare Shaw to his previous conquests. Like, how Shaw is much better in bed than his previous one-night-stand girls, and how she's even sexier. Alright, Shaw is sexy and perfect and that should be it. Why bring up the EXes?
And now on to Shaw.
Shaw is what you can consider an ideal girl. Pretty, smart, rich, decent, and a medical student at that. Perfect. But then, she constantly disappoints me. All throughout the book I was groaning inwardly or rolling my eyes because she's such a love sick woman who is willing to cross everything just to be with Rule and it's just not right. She's playing martyr which does not sit well on me because I think she's too good for Rule. And when Rule openly admitted to cheating on her and she just instantly forgive him? WTH?
And here's her line that made me raise some serious eyebrows:
"Even if I hadn't been on the pill, having a moment of wild, uninhibited and totally unprotected sex with him was most definitely worth any of the risks that were involved with that."
Holy sh*it! That guy has serious sexual histories with different girls-- night after night-- and you could say THAT? You mean, you're ok getting STD because he's worth it? Oh, no!
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Because of that, the book did not gain thumbs up from me. I was mostly busy rolling my eyes at the immaturity of them. Maybe the next books of this series are better but I'm not so sure if I will pick them up soon. Maybe-- maybe not.
I still give it 2 stars, however, because I enjoyed the first parts of it. :)