Hooked on the Game (Sterling Shore #1): 3 Stars

Author: C.M. Owens
Length: 204 pgs.
I picked this book up as a freebie and it was chosen for me to read for a March buddy pick. I’m surprised honestly that I downloaded this book because it’s NA romance which is outside of my usual favorite genres but it’s pretty short and I’ll give most anything a try if it’s not going to take up too much of my time.

The story is propelled forward by a series of very unlikely events. Raya is a college…freshman, I think? Living on her own due to her roommates abandoning their shared home for one reason or another. She lives next to a rich boy named Kade who’s constantly throwing loud parties. One day a few of his partygoers actually run a bulldozer into Raya’s home. Her house is destroyed, even her clothes have remnants of fiberglass in them due to the insulation imploding. They go to court and the judge is persuaded by Kade’s father, Paul Colton (who has his own fashion line) to make Raya live with Kade as punishment. He says that Kade will need to cater to Raya’s needs, drive her wherever she wants to go, and ask her for permission to throw parties. No judge would ever take this into serious consideration, but in the world of Sterling Shore it is agreed upon by all parties. Raya agrees because Mr. Colton tells her that if she lasts until the end of the semester, he’ll buy her a house. Heck yeah!

Kade and Raya butt heads immediately but eventually he warms up to her when he realizes she’s being teased relentlessly for moving in with him. I found the teasing to be a little exaggerated since this is a college setting and not high school, but basically the town they live in is all about appearances and status.

I liked watching Kade and Raya grow close, although it does irk me with these type of stories that the male character starts off so over-the-top assholish (pretend that’s a word for the purposes of this review) and inevitably transforms completely into a doting gentleman, even before there is an official romantic relationship in place. But on the other hand, Owens did give us some explanations for Kade’s behavior that weren’t included in my first assumptions and made me look at him differently.

Raya is definitely someone who’s insecure and her second-guessing the intentions of everyone around her and misconstruing them so badly definitely grated on my nerves after a while. She is convinced everyone’s looking down on her, including Kade. Even after he makes completely obvious romantic overtures, she still manages to wallow in self pity and rejection.

There is a very unlikely misunderstanding between Raya and Kade towards the end of the book that sends them on a path towards the inevitable reconciliation. I actually found the last 15-20% of the book to be the most interesting as Raya has to take matters into her own hands to solve a problem. This part was exciting, it made me wish that more of the book had been the same way.

Overall it was an okay read for me, I’m sure others who enjoy YA romance will like it more than I did.

Off the Record (Record #1): 3 Stars

Author: K.A. Linde
Length: 12 hours 10 min
Off the Record is the first book in the ‘Record’ series. I don’t usually read contemporary romance, it’s not really my thing. But this one sounded interesting and I was able to listen free with Kindle Unlimited so I gave it a try. It follows a college reporter, Liz Dougherty, as she begins a secret relationship with Brady Maxwell, a politician who’s in the middle of running for…something. Ha! I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was fantastic.

The main character, Liz, was immediately likable. She had a good head on her shoulders and her inner voice spoke common sense to her even if she didn’t always listen to it. As the reader we’re along with her for the ride from the beginning of the affair, when she is head over heels for Brady. As time goes on however, her feelings do get stronger but that common sense I mentioned starts to kick in. She starts to realize that she maybe doesn’t want to be somebody’s secret girlfriend. But every time she meets up with Brady her feelings for him intensify so she just ends up torn and confused.

Brady doesn’t do too much to make it any easier on her. He’s gentlemanly, but mostly he has the ‘this-is-what-you-signed-up-for’ attitude whenever she tells him how she feels. He’s also in the habit of bringing other, more “appropriate” women as his date to public functions, which further hurts Liz. He explains it away by saying he was pressured by his campaign manager (who is a BEEYOTCH) or even his mom to bring this person or that person on his arm, but my response to that is really? He is a grown man. And it’s not like Liz is some shady character – although she previously wrote some not-so-favorable articles about Brady’s education policy for her college newspaper, she doesn’t have any skeletons in her closet. But she continues to be treated like some dirty little secret and I could just feel myself getting angrier and angrier on her behalf as the book went on. Especially when I felt like she connected well with Hayden, another male character. I also enjoyed her being charmed by Clay and thought they were both better candidates for her attention than Brady. But the heart wants what it wants and all that crap…

I’ve never read K.A. Linde before and she brought a very human feel to every character. Her writing combined with the great narration made this a solid three star book for me. Maybe if I was more a contemporary romance girl I’d give it a higher rating but honestly that’s the only thing that kept me from getting immersed in this book. I’d like to know what Liz decides in the future (as this book ends in a cliffhanger) but not so much that I want to continue on in the series.

Truth or Beard: 4 Stars

Author: Penny Reid
Length: 390 pgs.
I picked this book up as a freebie after seeing it all over Goodreads getting rave reviews. The price dropped to zero, and you can’t beat that, so I downloaded a copy to my kindle and read it as a BOTM with my favorite Freebie group. No one is more surprised than I am at how much I loved this book! I am honestly not one to enjoy contemporary romances. I went through a definite chick-lit phase when I was younger and I loved authors like Marian Keyes, Jennifer Weiner and Jane Green. Since then I’ve moved on to different genres, and I usually pass by modern romance when I’m looking for my next book. I’m not a fan of insta-love, I hate when there’s a “big misunderstanding” between the two main characters and they somehow never talk to each other to clear it up, and I just have a hard time connecting with the characters in this genre.

I was excited to discover that that was not the case for me here. I immediately fell in like with the female main character Jessica James, when she shows up to a Halloween party dressed up as a sexy Gandalf. Yes, sexy Gandalf, complete with beard and the you-shall-not-pass stick and errthang! Her internal monologue cracked me up right away.

”I was halfway across the lot, lost in delighted mental preparation for my father and brother’s scowls of disapproval…

A sinister giggle escaped my lips. I’m not much of a giggler unless I’ve done something sinister.”

Jessica immediately notices her longtime crush, Beau Winston, at the party-but the twist is that after an unexpected, steamy make-out session, she finds out that it isn’t Beau after all. It’s his twin Duane – and she and Duane have never gotten along. Jessica then becomes very confused, because the make-out slash fondling session is causing her to second guess her lifelong feelings in a way she’s not comfortable with at all.

”It was all Duane’s fault. His words and lips, and hands, and eyes, and his penis’ fault.”

I truly enjoyed the camaraderie between Jessica and Duane. Duane’s status as the not-as-nice-as-Beau twin makes him way more enjoyable a character in my opinion. I liked how he tried to put on an unaffected face but couldn’t help the way that his feelings for Jessica make him completely vulnerable. Despite my previous disinclinations towards this genre, I fell fast and hard for Duane Winston (right alongside Jessica James).

I laughed out loud throughout this entire book, and I cried several times as well. The writing prompts some real emotion which is apparently the magic appeal of Penny Reid. She doesn’t just give us two relatable characters to root for, but also three dimensional family members and friends as well whose personalities and banter add to the richness of the story.

And those steamy scenes! Wowza. Those were pull-at-your-shirt-collar-and-fan-your-face hot. Made all the better because these are two people you really, really like.

I could take or leave the extra storyline involving the Winston bros. and the Wraiths, a motorcycle gang, but it served its purpose towards the end of the book so I didn’t really mind it and I appreciated that it was quickly wrapped up. And I loved that a different complication-something that could have warped into the “big misunderstanding”-was quickly squashed by Jessica because she’s, well, a smart girl with a brain and she knows better than that. And I feel like Reid gives us credit as readers as well, for not indulging that as a serious issue.

So I’m officially a Penny Reid convert and can’t wait to read the next book in the series!