Ellie Reads All the Books: Emma Chase

Blog Tour

Blog Tour, Review and Giveaway for Twisted by Emma Chase

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Title: Twisted (Tangled #2)

Author: Emma Chase

Date of publication: 25 March 2014

Genre/themes: Romance

Purchase links:

Amazon / B&N / iTunes / Simon & Schuster

My rating: 3 Stars

Summary

Falling in love is easy. Staying in love is hard. In this heart-pounding follow-up to Tangled by New York Times bestseller Emma Chase, Kate reveals that there is trouble in paradise, when unexpected circumstances force her and Drew to "renegotiate" their relationship.

There are two kinds of people in the world. The ones who look first, and the ones who leap. I’ve always been more of a looker. Cautious. A planner. That changed after I met Drew Evans. He was so persistent. So sure of himself—and of me.

But not all love stories end happily ever after. Did you think Drew and I were going to ride off into the sunset? Join the club. Now I have to make a choice; the most important of my life. Drew already made his—in fact, he tried to decide for the both of us. But you know that’s just not my style. So I came back to Greenville, Ohio, alone. Well, sort of alone...

What I've come to realize is that old habits die hard, and sometimes you have to go back to where you began before you can move ahead.

Author Bio and Links

By day, Emma Chase is a devoted wife and mother of two who resides in a small, rural town in New Jersey. By night she is a keyboard crusader, toiling away the hours to bring her colorful characters and their endless antics to life. She has a long standing love/hate relationship with caffeine.

Emma is an avid reader. Before her children were born she was known to consume whole books in a single day. Writing has also always been a passion and with the 2013 release of her debut romantic comedy, Tangled, the ability to now call herself an author is nothing less than a dream come true.

Twitter / Facebook / Website / Goodreads

Review

I liked this book but not as much as Tangled. It's quite different - more intense and dramatic, less funny. It starts with Kate's POV and we get Drew's POV towards the end.

Kate was a nice character, but her voice tended to sound too similar to Drew's. Some of her thoughts were deep, other just hilarious. She gave us a new picture of Billy (her ex-boyfriend) and here he was just a good guy form her past, willing to stand by her side in her present. There was none of the negativity from book 1 and I didn't find this sudden change of heart and mind very convincing.

What we saw of Drew at the beginning, only from her POV,was sweet and funny, sexy and arrogant, in short, Mr. Drew Evans at his best.

My main issue with this story was the fact that the main conflict was based on a simple misunderstanding that could have been very easily avoided, or at lest cleared right away. Instead we got both Kate and Drew acting irrationally and in a hurry, thus making the worst possible choices.

I hated that this particular devise was used by the writer to drive the story forward and the explore the difficulties of a modern-day relationship between two highly ambitious, confident and competitive people. They were madly in love, yet they were unable to communicate freely about the things that mattered to them the most.

I did enjoy the second half of he book (after the reconciliation) a lot more than the first. We got Drew's POV and it was great fun to read it. There was depth and substance without the (melo)drama from the beginning. Things fell back into place and now they were much more realistic and convincing.

The epilogue was fantastic, I loved everything about it and I am really glad how things worked out for Kate and Drew in the end.

Despite some issues I had with the story, I'd recommend this book the fans of Tangled since it completes the story of Kate and Drew.

The next installment in the series, Tamed, will tell Mathew and Delores' story and can't way to read it since Delores is a rather unique heroine in romance and I'm curious how she'll make a romantic relationship work.

Giveaway

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Teaser Tuesday

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Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Here are the rules:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) or a few more “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• Be careful not the include spoilers!

This week's teaser comes from Twisted by Emma Chase. It's book 2 in her Tangled series - a funny and sexy contemporary romance series. I just finished the book and it was good but not as good as book 1, Tangled. There was humor and some sexy times, but there was also some drama and a lot of misunderstandings. I'm part of the Blog tour for Twisted, so you can check my blog on 31 March for my review, an excerpt and a giveaway!

Here is the teaser:

And sometimes, forgiveness is selfish. We give it not because it's earned, but because it's what we need. To find peace. To be whole.

Synopsis

But not all love stories end happily ever after. Did you think Drew and I were going to ride off into the sunset? Join the club. Now I have to make a choice, the most important of my life. Drew already made his –in fact, he tried to decide for the both of us. But you know that’s just not my style. So I came back to Greenville. Alone. Well, sort of alone....

What I've come to realize is that old habits die hard and sometimes you have to go back to where you began, before you can move ahead.

TWISTED picks up two years after Tangled’s end, and is told from Kate’s POV.

Emma Chase

Promotional event for Twisted by Emma Chase

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I'm happy to share with you an short and sexy excerpt from Twisted (Tangled #2) by Emma Chase. The book continues the romance of Drew and Kate and it releases next week. Visit my blog on 31 March when the Blog Tour will stop by so you can read my review of the book and to enter a fantastic giveaway. For now, enjoy this bittersweet excerpt!

Title: Twisted (Tangled #2)
Author: Emma Chase
Date of publication: 25 March 2014
Genre/themes: Romance

Author's links:

Twitter / Facebook / Website / Goodreads

Purchase links:

Amazon / B&N / iTunes / Simon & Schuster

Synopsis

What I've come to realize is that old habits die hard and sometimes you have to go back to where you began, before you can move ahead.

TWISTED picks up two years after Tangled’s end, and is told from Kate’s POV.

Excerpt

I close my eyes and let his words wash over me. Drew has an amazing voice. Calm and soothing - but devilishly seductive at the same time. He totally could’ve gone into radio.

I press another button.

And this time his tone is teasing. “Kaate, you’re late. . Tell Delores to pick out her own god damn shoes. You’ve got a boyfriend who’s sitting in a big, frothy Jacuzzi all by his lonesome. Come home, sweetheart. I’m here waiting for you.”

If only that was true today.

There’s more - some are quick and to the point, some are downright dirty. And I listen to every single one. He doesn’t say ‘I love you’ in any of them - but he doesn’t have to. I hear it in every word. Every time he says my name.

Amazon.com Widgets

Comedy

Review: Tangled by Emma Chase

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Title: Tangled (Tangled 1)
Author: Emma Chase
Date of publication: 20 May 2013
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Author's links:
Website / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads

My rating: 4 stars

Goodreads Blurb

Drew Evans is a winner. Handsome and arrogant, he makes multimillion dollar business deals and seduces New York’s most beautiful women with just a smile. He has loyal friends and an indulgent family. So why has he been shuttered in his apartment for seven days, miserable and depressed?
He’ll tell you he has the flu.

But we all know that’s not really true.

Katherine Brooks is brilliant, beautiful and ambitious. She refuses to let anything - or anyone - derail her path to success. When Kate is hired as the new associate at Drew’s father’s investment banking firm, every aspect of the dashing playboy’s life is thrown into a tailspin. The professional competition she brings is unnerving, his attraction to her is distracting, his failure to entice her into his bed is exasperating.

Then, just when Drew is on the cusp of having everything he wants, his overblown confidence threatens to ruin it all. Will he be able untangle his feelings of lust and tenderness, frustration and fulfillment? Will he rise to the most important challenge of his life?

Can Drew Evans win at love?

Tangled is not your mother’s romance novel. It is an outrageous, passionate, witty narrative about a man who knows a lot about women…just not as much as he thinks he knows. As he tells his story, Drew learns the one thing he never wanted in life, is the only thing he can’t live without.

My Review

This book generated a lot of hype over the past month on Goodreads and being a romance (with a touch of humour) told from a guy's POV was enough for to pick up right away.

It was a fun read, going for 4.5/5 stars but I found the last third of the book was a bit disappointing, hence the 4 star rating.

As a reader of romance I am always curious for the male perspective on all things romantic and it is rather rare to come across a book with an authentic male voice, furthermore, a debut work written by a female writer. I think congratulations are in order for Ms Chase for this achievement.

I enjoyed Drew's voice a lot, even though he came across misogynistic at times, and often he was a bit too gross for my taste. His musings were accompanied with just the right amount of humour which saved him from being considered a complete jerk.

I liked Kate, as well, even though we see her and her actions solely through the eyes of Drew, and he is rather biased :)

The interactions between Drew and Kate were fun and always kept me on the edge. Their banter and the tricks they played on each other were greatly entertaining.

The supporting charatcers were also great, Drew's family, especially his sister "The Bitch" and niece, as well as his male colleagues and friends complemented perfectly the story.

The story was going really well, nothing was overdone until the final 1/3 of the book. The plot twist leading the their break-up was rather lame, a simple case of making the wrong assumption because of lack of communication, a device used far too often in romance and one of my particular pet peeves.

After the break-up, suddenly we see a completely different Drew. He went all out on trying to win Kate back but I found his new self unconvincing. The change in his character felt forced and it did not suit him. I missed the arrogant, self-centred, over-confident Drew from the beginning of the book.

The happy ending was beautiful, though.

In the end all I can say is that if you are looking for a fun romantic read where guys share honestly their thoughts and feelings about love and relationships, this is the book for you!

I just saw on Goodreads that there will be a sequel to Tangled. There isn't much information about it yet, but I hope it will be as good as this one and definitely plan on reading it.

Amazon.com Widgets

Comedy

Teaser Tuesday 09

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Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. I learned about it from my friend Nix at Unraveling Words. Here are the rules:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!

• Share the title & author so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.

I have modified them slightly for my Teasers. It will not be two sentences from a random page but two, usually more, sentences from the pages I have read so far that have struck me as most interesting, original or that I just happen to like a lot.

My teaser this week comes from a book that I just started. It is the first book of a new author - Tangled by Emma Chase. The book is generating quite a buzz on Goodreads at the moment and I have read a number of positive reviews, so I have pretty high expectations of it. It is sort of chick lit, though told from a male Point of View. I am really curious how the author (a woman herself) has managed to present the way guys think and talk about women. I should be fun :)

"Newsflash, ladies: We can't read your thoughts. And frankly, I'm not entire;y sure I'd want to. The female mind is a scary place to be."

Tangled by Emma Chase (author's website)

He’ll tell you he has the flu.

But we all know that’s not really true.

Katherine Brooks is brilliant, beautiful and ambitious. She refuses to let anything - or anyone - derail her path to success. When Kate is hired as the new associate at Drew’s father’s investment banking firm, every aspect of the dashing playboy’s life is thrown into a tailspin. The professional competition she brings is unnerving, his attraction to her is distracting, his failure to entice her into his bed is exasperating.

Then, just when Drew is on the cusp of having everything he wants, his overblown confidence threatens to ruin it all. Will he be able untangle his feelings of lust and tenderness, frustration and fulfillment? Will he rise to the most important challenge of his life?

Can Drew Evans win at love?

Tangled is not your mother’s romance novel. It is an outrageous, passionate, witty narrative about a man who knows a lot about women…just not as much as he thinks he knows. As he tells his story, Drew learns the one thing he never wanted in life, is the only thing he can’t live without.

Emma Chase

New Releases 20-17 May 2013

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Here are the new releases for this week. They are both by authors that I have not read before but based on their synopses and some reviews I have read, I have decided to include them in my TBR list. They are both contemporary romances with a touch of humour.

Usually we meet trophy wives, so having a trophy husband seems an interesting change of roles which I would love to read. At the same time, Tangled is told from a male POV which is also quite rare in romance so I am looking forward to reading it, as well.