What I've Been Reading
Hello everyone! I am back to posting, have been for a bit now, after the US election. That kind of derailed any blog planning as I became hyper-focused on statistics and projections. I don't think I left CNN from the night of the election to when it was called for Biden. It was a lot of late nights, early mornings, and feverish result checkings mid-sleep but I can finally heave a sigh of relief.
I did, even if I wasn't posting on my blog, get through a couple of books during that time. I mainly stuck to romance, as is common with this series, to escape reality. I figured I'd live vicariously through couples who aren't dwelling on politics for a moment. Now that I'm back, let's get into my mini-reviews.
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Title: One Last Verse
Author: N.N. Britt
Genre: Romance
Description: Promises will be broken. Love will be tested.
Cassy Evans knows a thing or two about secrets. By juggling work and a hidden relationship with the world’s biggest rock star for months, she’s become an expert.
However, being with Frank comes at a price. Seven years after the accident that almost ended everything, his trauma still haunts him. Determined to get back on stage, the man known to the world as Frankie Blade would do anything to ensure the success of his band’s reunion. But when one rash decision puts his entire career on the line, it’s not clear if he can recover from it.
As Frank spirals out of control, pushing Cassy away, she has to face the reality of what they’ve become. He’s harder to love than she imagined. Her common sense tells her severing all ties with him is the right choice.
Problem is, she can’t leave without her heart. And Frank doesn’t want to give it back.
Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)
I'm going to say something I rarely, if ever, do: the second book in The Encore series was better than the first. I honestly loved both but the second was simply extraordinary. It may be because I want as much angst as possible in my romance and the second one delivered unlike any other. I say this with absolutely no negativity toward the first which was so great, but the second one just did it better.
The story morphs from what I would consider a buildup in the first book to a broken flood gate in the second. Everything established during the first book comes crashing down through the course of the sequel. It raises the stakes impossibly high and delivers on all the tension you could ever want.
Title: Say You'll Stay
Author: Sarah J. Brooks
Genre: Romance
Description: “I miss you, Meg. I’ve missed you for the past ten years. Haven’t you missed me?”
The man who broke my heart ten years ago is back in our small town.
Adam Ducate. My best friend since birth.
His gorgeous blue eyes made him the object of every girl’s fantasy in our entire school.
But it wasn’t just his perfect looks.
He read biographies on the US presidents for fun.
He could count to 100 in seven different languages.
He liked George Romero movies and could recite all the dialogue from Day of the Dead.
In short, Adam was everything every other boy in our grade wasn’t.
So I took the risk and confessed my feelings to him.
Of course, it all crashed and burned in extraordinary fashion.
It crushed my heart when he left my life without a word and married Chelsea instead.
The biggest b*tch ever.
But now he’s back.
And as much as I want to ignore the butterflies in my stomach, I can't.
Rating: ★★ (2/5)
I dnfed Say You'll Stay at about 20%. I knew from page one it was going to be a struggle to continue with the immediate onslaught of woman shaming and endless "not like other girls". The entire first chapter is a tired monologue about how different the main character is from other girls and it just fell flat for me as a reader.
I stayed with it for a while longer, though, thinking it was maybe just a rough beginning - but it sadly never improved from there. The book was immature and petty in every instance where I wanted dynamic storytelling and depth to the characters. Conflict throughout the book starts between teenagers then spans into adulthood yet somehow the characters never catch up to their age.
What would you rate your last read?
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