A Way Back Into Love by Veronica Thatcher

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Rating: 4/5

Emily left her home 5 years ago. She ran away from her home, her family, and especially her best friend, Derek, whom she also happened to be in love with. What she didn't know was that he was in love with her too. Now, she is returning home to begin a surgical internship. Derek has moved on and is now getting married to her sister. Emily and Derek become friends again and start to spend more time together. It becomes clear that they both still have feelings for each other but there's a gaping chasm that neither is completely willing to cross. As they spend more time together, secrets from the past come to light that change everything.

I almost never read contemporary romance novels because I tend to find them unrealistic, cheesy, and irritating. There's always lots of drama and usually the dialogue and interactions seem so pretentious.
That being said, I was quite impressed with this book. The interactions between the main characters, Derek and Emily, were really just fun and enjoyable to read. They had a truly interesting and entertaining rapport. They constantly joked with each other and just had a lot of fun with each other. That was just a pleasure! The actual plotline of the story was fairly predictable but nonetheless enjoyable. I kept thinking how incredibly blind and stupid they both were for not realizing that they were head over heels for each other. But then I realized that this is quite realistic. I think many people can understand misunderstandings and relationship drama of this type. We hesitate to open up and be 100% honest because we are scared. But if we just took a leap of faith, we could have something truly special.
I found Emma's character fascinating - she's the main antagonist but her behavior surprised me throughout the book. There were some interesting twists near the end that made my jaw literally drop. I also really liked the Grey's Anatomy-esque scenes. (Emily and Derek were both surgical interns.)
I did have a few issues with the editing. The use of contractions was puzzling - there were many instances where contractions weren't used in the dialogue and it made it a little awkward to read. In other cases. contractions were used where they were NOT needed (which I have never seen before). Sometimes, really obscure words were used that weren't really necessary (just because you can use a fancy 5 syllable word doesn't mean you should). I did learn some new words though, so that was fun.
Ultimately, a pretty good read. I was pretty engaged the whole time - I wanted to find out how it would resolve and, like I said before, Derek and Emily were really fun to read about.

Grammar/editing: Abysmal/Poor/Needs Work/Good/Excellent
As mentioned above, I had issues with the use of contractions. There were some words that were misused or not needed. Certain grammatical issues existed like saying "I and she went to ..." instead of  "She and I went to..." or using "She had got used to the idea" instead of "She had gotten used to the idea." Etc.
 
Violence: None/Mild/Medium/Heavy/Extreme: This book is violence free! (Unless you count the mention of one of the characters having an abortion). No one even got slapped or anything.

Profanity: None/Mild/Medium/Heavy/Extreme: The language used was fairly standard dialogue. The F-bomb was dropped when people were feeling particularly emotional. One of the characters was referred to as "Asshole," one was nicknamed "Bitchy Barbie." Course language was not used excessively.  

Sexuality: None/Mild/Medium/Heavy/Extreme: The sex scenes (there were 2) were done very tastefully and were not explicit. There was also mention of an abortion at one point.

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Frostbite by Claire Marta

Genre: Paranormal Romance/Erotica/Suspense
Rating: 4/5

This book was sexy, intriguing, and suspenseful!

I was eager to read about a supernatural Scotland Yard, vampires, and nefarious villains but I was not prepared for how much this book would keep me on the edge of my seat! In general, the characters were very genuine and relatable. The scenes were described beautifully. The internal dialogue was well done. I had no idea what was going to happen, which was exciting. As the story went on, it began to feel like an old James Bond movie. It was sophisticated and beautiful.

The story begins with Jasmine and her fellow Scotland Yard agent, Twitch, locked up in the lair of Marcel, an arms dealer. He has abducted them in order to coerce Twitch to help him with some sort of nefarious plot using complicated technology. Jasmine is used as a pawn of sorts to get Twitch to comply. They will hurt or kill her if he doesn't do what they ask. She meets a man who appears to be a henchmen of Marcel's, Eric, who she senses is a vampire. Twitch and Jasmine work to get out of Marcel's lair and Jasmine is caught by the vampire. They spend the next few days trying to figure out exactly what Marcel is up to and stop him before it is too late...

Overall, this book was beautiful and engaging. My only complaint was the editing. There were quite a few punctuation errors and word misuses. It might have gotten a higher rating from me if those things were fixed.
I probably will see about getting the next two books in the series! I loved how the story was written!


Grammar/editing: Abysmal/Poor/Needs Work/Good/Excellent
There were many instances where commas were missing, which detracted from the flow. There were words that misused ("to" was used instead of "too," "breath" was used instead of "breathe," for example.) The editing did seem to get better as the book went on, however. And overall, it didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth and was fairly easy to overlook because the story was good.

Violence: None/Mild/Medium/Heavy/Extreme: There was not much explicit killing or blood and gore in this book. It is implied that a man was frozen to death and later found dead in a river. There are a few mild fight scenes with blades, and someone get's their spine snapped at one point. There was no extreme violence or excessive or needless killing.

Profanity: None/Mild/Medium/Heavy/Extreme: There was quite a lot of language in this book, but the main character vampire often points it out to Jasmine and chastises her a bit for it. The F-bomb is used in both it's appropriate context and as a curse word a multitude times. "Arse" and "shit" are also used extensively.

Sexuality: None/Mild/Medium/Heavy/Extreme This book does contain several erotica scenes so those who might be turned off or offended by that should steer clear. I will say that I feel like these scenes seemed well balanced and not over the top or unrealistic.

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Category Jeremy by Elizabetta Holcomb

Genre: Fantasy/Time Travel/Romance
Rating: 4/5

I won this book in a giveaway and I was really intrigued by the description. I'll admit that I did feel slightly lost from the beginning of the book because there is at least one book that takes place before this one. There's time traveling that goes on, though, so it makes it all a little tricky.
Jeremy becomes a host for a hurricane when he is a young boy growing up in Louisiana - that is, his body can actually turn into a hurricane at will. There are powers as well as problems that come with this ability. The story begins with him returning home after 8 years to his close friend Beau. He was whisked off to England as soon as he became a host and his family and friends didn't hear from him during that time. Jeremy and Beau realized that they loved each other in their time apart. But Beau was not very quick to forgive Jeremy for leaving her for all that time. It turns out that he became a part of an organization for other hosts (volcanoes, tornadoes, tsunamis) - Dover's Amalgam, which was based in Dover England in the 1800s. He was learning how to control his abilities while he was away. He and Beau fall more in love in the short time that he is back in Louisiana. But they can't have a happy ending just yet because there is a villain who is amassing his own group of hosts in order to overthrow Dover's Amalgam.

What I really liked about this book is that it is a truly unique concept with a lot of room for an interesting universe. There's time travel, hosts with super powers, battles, and more. The author did a really good job of creating something really different and interesting.
I do feel though, that things could have been explained better in some cases. In this book, for instance, Jareth was doing "church reform" in Louisiana. I couldn't figure out what that meant, even after reading the whole book. He was a prince from England who was very pious and formal but I really felt lost on that whole aspect of the book. The lack of contractions in the book was also really annoying. I get that the speech of people from the 1800s would be different but there was a lack of contractions throughout the book that was distracting. The editing in general could have been better as well. There were lots of missing commas, misused or misspelled words, and more. For example, there would be a switch of scenes and there was no indication of this in the formatting (no space between paragraphs or asterisks or tildes or anything - just one paragraph right after another.) It wasn't the worst editing I have seen but it definitely could have been better.
I also had a little trouble relating to the characters. The romance sections between Jeremy and Beau were sort of too sweet and cheesy for my taste. The dialogue was just a little unbelievable. Although, I will say that I liked Beau's character in general. She was sort of spicy and hot headed and I liked that!

Grammar/editing: Abysmal/Poor/Needs Work/Good/Excellent
As stated before, the main complaint was the lack of contractions. There were some punctuation issues and word usage issues but it was not too distracting from the story. The formatting between scenes could have been better.

Violence: None/Mild/Medium/Heavy/Extreme: There was almost no violence in the book. Since the hosts are weather phenomenon, there are some things that happen to buildings and such. There is a woman executed at the end of the book but it is only mentioned. Still, it could be considered disturbing. There is also a fight scene where a man is stabbed, a man is electrocuted, and a woman is killed. There is not a lot of blood or overly explicit descriptions.

Profanity: None/Mild/Medium/Heavy/Extreme Almost no language. "Ass" and "bloody" are the main words used and the characters are usually chastised if they use language, anyway.

Sexuality: None/Mild/Medium/Heavy/Extreme There is a lot of kissing and sex is mentioned and insinuated at times but there are no explicit scenes. It is all very soft and romantic.

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The Breeders - Katie French

Genre: Dystopian YA
Rating: 5/5
I read this book as part of a reading challenge. I was not sure what to expect, but the premise seemed really interesting. In a dystopian society, girls are taken to a facility to pop out babies.
I was not prepared for how much I was going to love this book - the world, the dialogue, the characters, everything! (I gave it five stars despite the fact that there were quite a lot of spelling and grammar errors because I was THAT impressed with it). This was one I hated having to put down to do housework and such :-)
It's set in New Mexico, which happens to be where I live. I was familiar with the barrenness of the land, but since an accident that poisoned the earth, it's become even more barren. Society has devolved into gangs. Those who survive are tough and have to resort to killing and stealing at times. The main character, Riley, is in hiding with her family because of her value as a female. Any and all women are taken to a facility in Albuquerque and forced to stay there and have as many babies as possible in a "gilded cage." So, this means that any girls who are exposed as female are sold off or traded because everyone is so destitute. The whole book, Riley is fighting to stay away from the Breeder's facility and keep her loved ones safe. She meets a man, Clay, whom she's very conflicted about.

I absolutely loved the dialogue of this book. They talked like southerners and it was all very gritty and real. I like post apocalyptic because I find it interesting to see how people deal with finding food and water and just deal with everything in general. Clay's character had me guessing the entire time and Riley was easy to relate to. She was willing to be reckless and save herself and she didn't trust easily but she was ultimately a reasonable and kind person. There were many times throughout the book that she would make small observations about things, like the state of poverty that people were living in. She was a very compassionate person but she had to do some things that she regretted.

I was THRILLED when I saw that there were 4 more books!
*Walks off the buy the next book in the series*

Breakdown/Summary
Grammar/editing: Abysmal/Poor/Needs Work/Good/Excellent
This is definitely not the worst book that I have read as far as grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word usage is concerned. Many of the words that were misused were done so in the dialogue but there were a few instances of words being used in the wrong context that spell check didn't catch (Like, "peak" was used multiple times instead of "peek") Punctuation was decent. Some words were missing.

Violence: None/Mild/Medium/Heavy/Extreme: The main violence came from guns. There were a couple of people who suffered gunshot wounds. There were implications (but not descriptions) of torture and rape so some might find that content disturbing. The actual plot of forcing women to get pregnant and have babies was not really expounded upon but this could also be considered disturbing.

Profanity: None/Mild/Medium/Heavy/Extreme There were a few uses of the word "hell" and "bitch" but that was it. This book was quite clean compared to many out there.

Sexuality: None/Mild/Medium/Heavy/Extreme This would have gotten a "mild" rating because there is no actual sex - just kissing. However, rape is discussed many times.

Here are my affiliate links to main five books of the series (there are also multiple novellas):


Here is the link to the YA Dystopian readers challenge if anyone is interested in that: http://www.ripleypatton.com/monthly-giveaways/kindle-unlimited-giveaway/#sthash.XN1DxJlH.dpbs

ALL 10 books are available on Kindle Unlimited but The Breeders is free if you don't have KU ;-)