Come Back to Me by Mila Gray

Book: Come Back to Me
Author: Mila Gray
File type: Ebook
Releasing date: June 19th 2014
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

synopsis:
Home on leave in sunny California, Marine and local lothario Kit Ryan finds himself dangerously drawn to his best friend's sister, Jessa - the one girl he can't have.

But Kit's not about to let a few obstacles stand in his way and soon Jessa's falling for his irresistible charms.

What starts out as a summer romance of secret hook-ups and magical first times quickly develops into a passionate love affair that turns both their worlds upside down.

When summer's over and it's time for Kit to redeploy, neither Kit nor Jessa are ready to say goodbye. Jessa's finally following her dreams and Kit's discovered there's someone he'd sacrifice everything for.

Jessa's prepared to wait for Kit no matter what. But when something more than distance and time rips them apart they're forced to decide whether what they have is really worth fighting for.

A breathtaking, scorchingly hot story about love, friendship, family and finding your way back from the edge of heartbreak.


This book reminds me of a cupcake with lots of frosting on it.
On the first bite, it tastes divine. On the second, it's excellent but by the time you're ready to take the third bite, you ask yourself 'Is it just me or is this cupcake a little too sweet?'

There's a lot to like about this love. The romance is genuine and sweet, if not cheesy..which it was on many occasions. The writing was simple, understandable and fluid and that worked well for the novel which was paced well. There was never a dull moment and nothing could take me away from the book until I had finished it. 

I've always loved beginnings. The promise of young love or love of any kind, the uncertain future and what lies ahead. The tentative first glances and stares. The first few steps into the real world. Beginnings are always magical. 
But here, I found myself gravitating towards the journey undertaken by both Jessa and Kit. I was stuck in the middle and I wanted to stay there forever. I didn't care about their past or future, I was living the present through them. This is what I ask of NA. I want love and not some overly tortured characters who want to sex each other up, all the time. But that worked for some novels, so I'm going to stay mum about that now. 

But here's the thing, to add complexity, there were several different elements that ran from Army boys to psychological desires to lusty thoughts and finally, back stories among many back stories. (yes, I'm exaggerating and not exaggerating)
All of this added together was a little too much. The cupcake was dense and the frosting sweet.
There were some tiny unnecessary bits, like that epilogue which I believe we could have lived without and the characters individually weren't as appealing as they were when they were together. 

On the whole, Come back to Me, is an entertaining read. If you're in need of some cupcakes and sweetness, then this is it guys.

Sins and Needles by Karina Halle

Book: Sins and Needles
Author: Karina Halle.
File type: E-book
Publisher: Metal Blonde books
Release Date: 25th January 2013
My rating: 3 out of 5.

synopsis:
Ellie Watt is used to starting over. The daughter of a grifting team, Ellie spent her childhood being used as a pawn in her parents' latest scam. Now she’s much older, wiser and ready to give her con artist life a rest. But returning to the dry desert town of Palm Valley, California means one more temptation than she bargained for – Camden McQueen. Once known as the high school weirdo, Camden is bigger and badder than the boy he used to be and a talented tattoo artist with his own thriving business. Ellie’s counting on Camden still being in love with her but what she’s not counting on is how easily unrequited love can turn into obsession over time. When Camden discovers Ellie’s plan to con him, he makes her a deal she doesn’t dare refuse, but her freedom comes with a price and it’s one that takes both Ellie and Camden down a dangerous road.


***The Artists Trilogy is a dark and sexy contemporary ride about three flawed individuals caught in a world where it's so easy to justify the bad things we do. This is a pure adult read (Not YA or NA).


Now, where do I even start.

I like Karina Halle. I absolutely adore her writing. She takes the most messed up characters, puts them in a situation where you have to either fight or run away. Then she makes them do things which completely flies over my head, which frankly speaking messes with my ridonkulous brain a bit and then finally, she ends it with a cliffhanger. 
Nice. 

I think the best thing about Karina Halle, is that she introduces characters who have problems that I can't relate with, but I sort of understand why or what led them to do whatever they did. It's like saying that you maybe the weirdest and the most ridiculously brave adventure junkie on the planet or you may be a person who loves to smoke weed, but in both the cases there is only one fact that motivates you: Your need to feel that rush. A person, a spectator, who isn't either one of those people, would still understand what led the others to be an adrenaline or you know, weed junkie, because he or she understands what it feels like to be suspended in a rush, even if he doesn't relate to any of the situations.
So it was something like that for me. 

Ellie Watt, Camden McQueen and Javier.. (I don't remember his surname. oops.) are three characters who are people who do what they want to do and I don't get why. Like for example, there were several situations where I thought that hmmm, maybe I'd do that differently, but you know what, it was okay. 
I wasn't too sold out when it came down to the plot. Initially, yes I was, but 100 pages in and I realised that maybe, just maybe, I know exactly how this would play out and eventually, it did.
But I like how it was built upon. There were these tiny yet powerful complex elements that jumped right at me through the pages and it made the lack of direction, okay.For instance, the part where we get to see this entirely new side of Camden and you realise that beneath his tattooed and sexy exterior there is a restrained animal, waiting to be unleashed onto the world. Now, that really excited me. 

Maybe my accusation of this book being directionless isn't the best way to describe the book, but I do believe that there was something terribly incomplete. Although, it is a trilogy and I see the purpose of a cliffhanger, I just felt so unsatisfied by the end of it that I wanted to pounce on the next one immediately. On second thought, maybe this is a tactic to lure me into buying the second one. WELL, GOOD FOR YOU BECAUSE IT DID THE TRICK.

Another flaw, a very major one, in my opinion was the relationship between Camden and Ellie. Honestly, I don't buy it. In fact it's funny how Javier attracted my attention much more than Camden ever did. While I couldn't understand Camden and Ellie, I was excited by the prospect of Javier and Ellie and that is precisely why I intend to devour the novella, 'On every Street', with happinesss.

Overall, even with its flaws, Sins and Needles proved to be a nice start of my journey to devour Karina's books. It was very promising and I can't wait to get over with this review and jump onto the next one. Which is now. Ta-ta! 

ARC August 2014

I haven`t written a blog post in ages. *hides behind her hair* I`ve been feeling overwhelmed with writing reviews and it just wasn`t fun anymore so I simply stopped. I didn`t want to force myself to write when I hated going through my head and putting all the thoughts on a Evernote document. I never stopped reading! I just couldn`t write reviews. 

Anyway, an hour ago I saw this great event hosted by Octavia over at Read. Sleep. Repeat. I`ve been complaining to all of my friends how I keep ignoring my enormous ARC pile so I HAD to sign up, even if I end up reading only one book. 

I made a small list of ARCs I need to read soon. Two of them have been released already and the rest are coming out in September which is around the corner. I`d be pleased if I read three of them, or even some other three ARCs because I have a huge pile. I`m not even joking. I`ve abandoned Net Galley because I couldn`t control myself with requests. So right now, I`m abusing Harper Teen titles on Edelweiss thanks to their auto-approve list. 

I`m not touching any of the 2015 ARCs I got. Especially Red Queen and The Last Time We Say Goodbye, even though I really want to read both of them. 

There will be a twitter chat August 4th, at 8 PM EST which means it`ll be 2AM in Europe. *sigh* Use #ARCAugust when chatting. 

What does that book mean to you? Help Friends!

Hey, you all.
I've been MIA for a long period of time and I can't thank Zemira enough to be so kind and patient with me.
I know I know, I sometimes talk about things you probably wouldn't want to waste your time with (OR MAYBE YOU COULD, because then you're cool), but I promise to makes this as interactive as possible. Today, I want you as a fellow book reader, to come forward and tell me what a particular book or books in general mean to you? You could pick a single book or you could start talking about the entire bookdom for all I know. My purpose here is to not just create an interactive atmosphere but to also use this moment as an opportunity for me, to be better.

I won't go into the details of it. All I can say to you is that I am at a point in my life where, like many, I'm trying to find myself and make sense of what's going on. So here's how I've interpreted my situation:

My existence is based on an amusement park. An amusement park has it's opening and closing time and consists of various fun rides, places to eat and just relax or, I don't know, whatever it is you do at an amusement park.
In an amusement park, you're your own master. It is upto you to climb into or onto a ride and experience that rush. But sometimes, while you think that you know what you're doing, you're sometimes caught off guard. For some of us, being caught off guard signifies spontaneity and  exhilaration and feeling alive and in most cases, that person and that experience is me. But sometimes, things that catch you off guard literally throw you off balance and you're still riding on that damn cart but you just don't what you're doing here. You're lost.
Today that is me.
I'd like to believe that it isn't something serious. I'd like to believe that life is throwing a huge snowball at me and that it expects me to fight back, and I'm trying. I'm trying so hard.

Life got into the way. I had no time for reading books anymore. It's quite sad actually. My best friend called me the other day and asked me if I could recommend some books to her and all I said was that I was clueless. I couldn't finish the book that I had started and honestly, I didn't even feel like picking up a book. Call it a reading slump, maybe.

But then yesterday something magical happened.
For the first time in so many months, I thought, without any struggle, to finally pick up a book and read.
Mind you, it hasn't been that simple. I'm still struggling but I'm so much happier when I'm reading a book.
This is what books mean to me. Books are not just my source of entertainment and fantasyland. It's not just a portal to an entirely different world. These books are a part of me. I felt complete after reading a book. Maybe I feel this way because in the kind of 'world' I live, I'm confused as fuck about what I want to do in life and while people may say that things will eventually better, the stress of the future is never too far away. Perhaps I fell way more into the gloomy pit of feeling lost because I lost confidence in one thing that I knew to be true, with all my heart and that if I wasn't good at anything at else, I was good at something and that was reading a book. So when I stopped reading, I also stopped activating a very interesting and important side of me.

I wondered that if a single book (it was East of Eden by John Steinbeck btw.) had the power to pick me up from where I fell down, what roles do these books play in the lives of my friends?
I can't promise you that my posture right now wouldn't crumble, but I can tell you this, that there will always be this one thing to pick me up right back from where I feel and that my friends, is a book.

Maybe you won't read it or maybe you will, but if you do, it is my sincerest request to share something. Keeping my ulterior motives aside, maybe this in a way could help you too? Or you you could always be funny and make me laugh because I'm always open to that. YA Fanatic is always open to that and so is Zemira.