Waiting on Wednesday is a book meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and it features books that we are eagerly awaiting to be released.

Synopsis

Logan spent two years paying for the mistakes he made. Now, he’s ready to start over. He has a great apartment, a good job, and plenty of women to distract him from his past. And one woman who is driving him to distraction…

Grace escaped her manipulative family by moving to a new city. Her new life, made to suit her own needs, is almost perfect. All she needs to do is find her Mr. Right—or at least figure out a way to ignore her irresistible yet annoying womanizer of a neighbor.

Grace is determined to have nothing to do with Logan until a life-changing surprise slowly begins turning the wild heartbreaker into exactly the kind of strong, stable man she’s been searching for. Only just when she begins to give into his charms, her own messy past threatens to derail everything they’ve worked to build.



Why am I waiting for this? - I've been following this series and so far they have been hit and miss for me. This is the final book in the series and we met Logan in the previous book. He seems like a great guy and I'd be happy to see how his love stories goes.

Waiting on Wednesday is a book meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and it features books that we are eagerly awaiting to be released.

Synopsis

Alexa Holland’s father was her hero—until her shocking discovery that she and her mother weren’t his only family. Ever since, Alexa has worked to turn her life in a different direction and forge her own identity outside of his terrible secrets,. But when she meets a man who’s as damaged by her father’s mistakes as she is, Alexa must help him.

Caine Carraway wants nothing to do with Alexa’s efforts at redemption, but it’s not so easy to push her away. Determined to make her hate him, he brings her to the edge of her patience and waits for her to walk away. But his actions only draw them together and, despite the odds, they begin an intense and explosive affair.

Only Caine knows he can never be the white knight that Alexa has always longed for. And when they’re on the precipice of danger, he finds he’ll do anything to protect either one of them from being hurt again…


Why am I waiting for this? - I really like Samantha Young's On Dublin Street series and this enemies-to-lovers story sounds just irresistible. I've read the first two chapters on Ms Young's website and now I can't wait to read more and discover the story of Alexa and Caine. 

Synopsis

Shannon MacLeod has always gone for the wrong type of man. After she drifted from one toxic relationship to the next, her last boyfriend gave her a wakeup call in the worst possible way. With her world shattered, she’s sworn off men—especially those of the bad-boy variety.

Cole Walker is exactly the sort that Shannon wants to avoid—gorgeous, tattooed, charming, and cocky. But his rough exterior hides a good man who’s ready to find “the one.” He’s determined to pull Shannon from her self-imposed solitude and win her heart.

As Shannon opens up in the face of Cole’s steady devotion, the passion between them ignites to blazing levels. But when Shannon’s past comes back to haunt her, her fears may destroy the trust Cole has built between them—and tear them apart for good…

Review

Synopsis

Shannon MacLeod has always gone for the wrong type of man. After she drifted from one toxic relationship to the next, her last boyfriend gave her a wakeup call in the worst possible way. With her world shattered, she’s sworn off men—especially those of the bad-boy variety.

Cole Walker is exactly the sort that Shannon wants to avoid—gorgeous, tattooed, charming, and cocky. But his rough exterior hides a good man who’s ready to find “the one.” He’s determined to pull Shannon from her self-imposed solitude and win her heart.

As Shannon opens up in the face of Cole’s steady devotion, the passion between them ignites to blazing levels. But when Shannon’s past comes back to haunt her, her fears may destroy the trust Cole has built between them—and tear them apart for good…

Why am I waiting for this? I really enjoy this contemporary romance series and I've read all the books but one. I had some issues with the last one, Fall From India Place, but Cole (the hero in this one) made a nice impression on me and I'm curious about his story. I like Ms Young's writing style and hope this book will ne another winner for me.

Purchase links: Amazon /B&N / iBooks

My rating: 3 stars

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.

My teaser this week comes from Fall from India Place (On Dublin Street #4) by Samantha Young. I just finished it and it was a nice romance but I expected more from it. 

I was costing along, almost a little smug not only in my present contentment, but also in the fact that I'd beaten my issues with the past. Little did I know that the past doesn't take too kindly to smugness, to disinterest. The past can be spiteful. It can creep up on the present to taunt it with the memories and all the old hurts. 

Fall from India Place (On Dublin Street #4)

Samantha Young

Synopsis

When Hannah Nichols last saw Marco D’Alessandro, five long years ago, he broke her heart. The bad boy with a hidden sweet side was the only guy Hannah ever loved—and the only man she’s ever been with. After one intense night of giving into temptation, Marco took off, leaving Scotland and Hannah behind. Shattered by the consequences of their night together, Hannah has never truly moved on.

Leaving Hannah was the biggest mistake of Marco’s life, something he has deeply regretted for years. So when fate reunites them, he refuses to let her go without a fight. Determined to make her his, Marco pursues Hannah, reminding her of all the reasons they’re meant to be together.…

But just when Marco thinks they’re committed to a future together, Hannah makes a discovery that unearths the secret pain she’s been hiding from him, a secret that could tear them apart before they have a real chance to start over again…

Goodreads Blurb

Ellie Carmichael had a crush on Adam Sutherland, her brother, Braden’s, best friend, for years, and although Adam treated her with proprietary concern he made it clear he thought of her only as a little sister. 

Over the years, as Ellie’s crush develops into love, her romantic idealism makes it difficult for her to move on. To make matters worse, as she’s gotten older, Adam’s attitude has changed toward her. His affection for her is now joined by attraction, but his loyalty to Braden, and his fear of losing the only family he has, stops him from claiming Ellie the way she wishes he would. 

But one night his attraction is put to the test, and as much as Adam would like things to remain the same everything changes between them in a simple brush of the lips. 

Soon lust, love, jealousy and heartbreak combine to force change upon their relationship… and Adam discovers the hard way that life is too damn short to spend it on regret.

My review

This is a short novella on Ellie and Adam which unlike Joss and Braden's I really loved. It offered the same emotionally charged writing that Ms Young won me over in On Dublin Street. It can be read at any order in the series, but you must On Dublin Street before it.

I am not a big fan of novella since due to their short length many things are left out - the characters are not fully developed, or major events are just skimmed through. This one was different, since we already knew the characters rather well and some of the major events related to them were already covered in depth in On Dublin Street. Novella was the perfect format to tell the story of Ellie and Adam's love.

I especially liked the way their story is told in retrospect though Ellie's diary entries. The story focuses on main events in their relationship and it's a long one starting back in Ellie's childhood. The going back and forth between then and now worked well for me. It is touching, emotional story of love and regret, some bad decisions and missed chances and ultimately finding happiness together.

We got glimpses of Ellie and Adam's story in the first book but this novella showed us the road with all its wrong and right turns it took Ellie and Adam to finally find each other. There were no surprises here, no major drama or unexpected plot twist. It was just a great love story of the meant-to-be kind of type.

It was short and sweet, feel-good love story. The relationship between the characters was very romantic like Ellie herself and very hot like Adam.

This is my final review of this series so far.You can also check my opinions of Castle Hill and Before Jamaica Lane. Now, I will be anxiously looking forward to Ms Young's next book in the series, telling Hannah and Marco's story.

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

My rating: 4 stars

Date of publication: 3 Dec 2013
Genre: Romance, Novella 

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

My rating: 2 stars

The story felt rushed and it included far too many events for its short length - the proposal, the wedding, the honeymoon, the pregnancy. They were not developed in depth and their presentation was rather superficial. The story was told from Joss' POV, just like On Dublin Street, yet here her voice felt detached, emotionally distanced. 

On the plus side, Joss and Braden were the same characters that I loved in Dublin street. Braden was sexy and cocky, somewhat possessive and impulsive but completely in love with Joss. Joss was mad about him as well, but she was still struggling with her fears and they tainted some of the sweetest moments in their life. 

Despite the monumental events in the lives of the characters this novella cover, it lacked the thrill of the unexpected, nothing about it surprised me. The conflict towards the end of the book which put Joss and Braden's marriage under stress was weak and unrealistic. The whole problem was just one giant misunderstanding due to inability to communicate on both sides.

There were some funny times and some sexy times but they were not enough for me to enjoy the story more. In the end I awasleft wondering if this novella was necessary at all or a nice epilogue to On Dublin Street would have been a better option.

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) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page 

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.

"You're that couple", he told me softly.
"What couple?" I snapped.
"That couple who are a couple even they're not being a couple."

Here just one new release for me this week - Samantha Young's Down London Road. I liked a lot the first book in this series, On Dublin Street, and from the excerpts of Down London road which Ms Young has published on her website, I will have to say that her second book in the series seems to be as good as the first. 

May 7

Down London Road (On Dublin Street 2)

Samantha Young

Romance

What books are you looking forward to this week?