Mad About Matt by Theresa Paolo

2 Cringe-Worthy Stars**

Small town boy loves girl, girl leaves boy to pursue big city dreams, girl returns to small town, boy still loves girl, girl makes him miserable, cue happy ending... blah blah blah.

Typical.

I have read this same concept in about 50 different books. 

Shay used to spend her summers as a teenager at her grandparents house in fictional Red Maple Falls. I honestly don't even remember what state as I really just didn't even care. She falls in love with local hot stuff Matt. Then, one day Shay leaves and never looks back. Matt is heartbroken as Shay is 'his one true love'. The one that got away. 

Eventually, Shay moves back to Red Maple Falls and opens her own little bakery after being some hotshot in NYC...ok?!

Anyways, Matt's pissed and he should be. I mean who the hell does she think she is stomping all over his puppy dog in love heart as teens and then have the audacity to come back years later and try to woo the town with her muffins?? 

Matt is now the town Sheriff, and by the sounds of it, the only damn one there is as he gets called to EVERY. SINGLE. CALL. Which, consists mostly of the town drunk half naked, running all over town in his tractor looking for some hot old ladies to throw on the back of his sexy ride and cruise off into the sunset. On his fricken tractor!

That is until one totally cliched night when he gets a break-in call to none other than the muffin-wooing, heart snatching Shay. 

Now, Matt goes from pissed to worried real quick. Real fucking quick.

We then proceed to go through about 15 chapters of Matt bitching at Shay to lock her doors at night and her yelling at him, refusing to lock her doors just to be an asshole because 'what gives him the damn right to care about her?' even though she secretly wants him to care about her. And love her. And get down on one knee and beg for her hand in marriage. And give her lots of babies. We eventually find out the real reason Shay left as the authors sad ass excuse at making Shay seem like a poor, little rich girl who deserves all the forgiveness and love in the world. I didn't buy any of it.

My head is spinning.

I got bored really quickly attempting to chug through this book, and I actually put it aside and read three other books before eventually coming back to finish this one up. There was a lot of unnecessary plot twists thrown in which never amounted to ANYTHING. And honestly, those plot twists probably would have saved a good portion of this story. 

The only reason this book gets two stars is because I actually liked Matt's character and his family. Especially his 90 year-old feisty grandma who encourages him to get some poo-nanny any chance he gets so she can have some grandbabies before she croaks.

The rest. Completely forgettable.

The Pawn by Skye Warren

5 Well Deserved Stars *****

Fifty Shades meets Beast...

"Something about the otherworldly glow of those eyes whispers to me, like a melody I've heard before." 

Yes.

"About war. About opposition. About standing tall in a rain of bullets." 

This.

His lips brush my temple. "Soon little virgin."
"Don't call me that.' My voice trembles only a little, revealing the turmoil inside me.
"What else should I call you? Princess? Darling?"
"You could call me by my name."
He dips his head, his mouth right by my ear, his voice just a breath. "There's only one thing I'm going to call you. Mine." 

Everything I have been looking for!

Every emotion I could feel. Every heart string tugged. My heart ripped out of my chest and stomped into a million pieces over again.

And BEGGING for more.

"There's something feral about this man, a fire that burns inside him, untamed." 

Skye Warren just did all of that to me. I read this entire story in the matter of ONE day. Book 2 in the series purchased after only a measly, yet powerful two chapters in. Yes, it's that good. I'm almost at a loss for words.

Almost.

It's like Fifty Shades of Grey meets Beauty and the Beast.
Twisted. Dark. Stormy.
I don't even want to explain the plot to you because you should all just walk into this blind. 

"You don't taste sweet," he says, pausing. "You taste like I'm fucking dying and you're the only water around. You taste like goddamn air." 

And feel the feels. EVERY. INCH. SLOWLY.

I promise you won't want to put this down. You'll want to hate him. And love him. And then hate him some more. You'll want to root for her. Then scream at her to find her courage and strength. And then you'll fall apart just like her. With her.

You think it will all be okay. That he will make it all better. And just when you think he will come through, it all comes crashing down. Hard.

Checkmate.

Forget Me Not by Willow Winters

*2 Debatable Stars**

I loved this book
I hated this book.
I love it.
But mostly I hate it.

I must admit, I've have been really into these dark psychological thrillers lately.

And this one started out SO GOOD!

*minor spoilers ahead*

I was completely captivated the first few chapters with the flashbacks of the Robin and John\Jay trauma and excited to see how it was all going to tie into the present. I was about a quarter of the way through when I figured out the psychological reasoning behind John and even still knowing this, I was curious how the story would unfold.

But that is when I got p***** off!

1st of all, we NEVER get the backstory at all of John's father and why he did what he did. Which is a pretty big chunk of the story considering he is how Robin and John even come together in the 1st place. There was a vague reference to John being blamed for his mother's death, but yet we don't get a backstory on that either.

What we get is about 30 or so years crammed into a unrealistic and way over the top trauma into a small timeframe that made believing any of it way too hard for me.

What's worse than that is the author decided to what seemed like a last minute decision to throw in a happy ending in there that made no sense at all.

So yeah, John finally gets reluctantly thrown in a hospital after repeatedly ramming his head into a bookshelf until the brink of death due to his psychological issues, after kidnapping and holding hostage the practically only woman he has ever known yet alone "loved" who is just as screwed up as he is. But now all of a sudden 2 short years later they are married with a baby on the way and having a freaking family BBQ with the neighbors??

Yeah, because that makes perfect sense!

Notable Quotes

• "I feel my walls break. She's powerful like that. Only her. I'm so fucking weak for her."
• "I want to take you away and keep you," he says, and a warmth flows through my body. He leans forward and I think he's going to kiss me, but he doesn't. Instead he whispers, "I want to fuck you until you forget. Until you're only mine."
• "It's why I want to let her go. And why I never will."
• "My memory destroyed me, but love is so much more. You can't forget love, no matter how hard you try."
• "It's funny that you break what you hate... yet I seem to be the opposite?"

Dear Aaron by Mariana Zapata

Genre: Chick-lit/Romance/Military Romance

This was my first ever read of anything by Mariana Zapata, and it definitely was not my last!

I'll admit, I had never heard of a slow-burn romance until this book, and now I totally understand the hype. 

Ruby Santos is just an ordinary young woman trying to make it in life and deal with the trials and rivals of her family. What starts out as an ordinary military pen-pal situation turns into a romance I have enjoyed reading like no other.

I was taken back a little in the beginning by the fact that the first half of the book is mainly back and forth emails and instant messaging. I am so glad I stuck with it because the second half blew me away. 

My only complaints evolved around Ruby. I loved her wittiness and her ability to laugh at herself, but I just wish the author didn't make her act so amateurish and totally self-conscious most of the time. I started out thinking she was a high school kid until I read her age. 

Mariana Zapata has completely ruined me! I went from loving fast and easy cheesy romances to thinking that cheesy romances are well...cheesy. In other words, #teamslowburn! 

If you are a fan of chick lit, romance, and slow burns, Mariana Zapata is definitely worth checking out. I have read more of her work and loved it!

The 11:05 Murders by Brian O'Hare

Genre: Crime/Thriller/Whodunit/Mystery

The 11:05 Murders by Brian O'Hare is volume two in a two-part series called the Inspector Sheehan Mysteries. The book has also gone on to earn the 2014 New Apple Award for Excellence by Independent Publishing. When victims start piling up after being killed in the same precise manner with a disturbing dismemberment, all on a Tuesday evening and each time of death being at exactly 11:05 p.m., the detectives of the Strandtown Police Station in Ireland must beat the clock to find the killer. Just when you think you have got it all figured out, they hit you with a ruse and suddenly you find yourself enticed into a 12-year-old suicide. Struggling to find a connection between the two incidents gets a hundred times more difficult when the murders point fingers at a few different possible suspects and a bunch of motives. Can they find the truth before another Tuesday night comes?

After reading a vast amount of positive reviews, I had high expectations for this book. While truly a captivating 'whodunit', I was certainly left a bit disappointed. I found all the characters to be pretty likable, except the main character of the story and that presents a huge problem. The perspective is a woman detective who has been scorned by the male population both in her love life and her in her former precinct, after discovering a huge corruption. While understandable and relatable, she comes off as way too cold and yet at times, the complete opposite. It is all rather bi-polar.

My second disappointment is how the story was articulated. While the concept was great, O'Hare has managed to turn it into a completely too coincidental story.  The characters are connected in a way that is hardly believable as well as how the murders were actually solved. On the subject of the murders, I had it all figured out less than halfway through, and that rarely happens to me as I am no good at solving mysteries I must say.

On a good note, I did very much enjoy the aspect and 'whodunit' concept of the story. Although I did figure it all out pretty early on, I was still completely enthralled enough to finish to find out how it all tied together in the end. O'Hare does have an easy and natural writing style that is a joy to follow, however, he does use a strong Irish dialect that took me a few chapters to get used to. Overall, I would rate The 11:05 Murders 3 out of 5 stars.

**Disclaimer: This book was sent to me as an ARC from Onlinebookclub.org in exchange for my honest review.