The first thing that got me excited about this book was the adorable cover! Runaway bride, at Christmas no less... I was intrigued. What I hoped was a light hearted Christmas romance turned out to be more of a heavy, predictable story with some sexy scenes thrown in.

Now I'm usually all for some depth in my romance books. I love a good redemption story, but this book just had me frustrated the whole time. The book blurb promised a fleeing bride and a handsome man, both of which were present but the story itself was more about their bickering relationship, a man with a lot of baggage and a woman with no direction.

Leah seemed like a fun character, and while she had some funny moments she seemed artificial to me. Leave my wedding after finding my fiance with a bridesmaid and immediately jump into bed with a stranger? Well we all make mistakes when we are in pain and I can almost believe that. Proceed to move to a different country with no income and only knowing said stranger.... much less believable.

Aside from the insta-love from Leah's side, Rob was dealing with lots of demons of his own. I didn't quite expect the heaviness of his back story but that's not what bothered me. The writing style of constantly trying to create an internal conflict for him was hard to get through. Guilt and anger are sincere emotions and I feel like his standoffish behavior was supposed to create this tension with him and Leah but it seemed so forced and insincere. The constant "I don't deserve to be loved" attitude was exhausting and seemed to drag the story on for much longer than the actual 222 pages. His redemption moment was so very predictable I almost didn't finish the last chapter.

If you're looking for a light fun Christmas romance, this is not it. I will say that there were some exciting and sexy scenes mixed in with all of the drama that were fun to read.

A new freebie by Tara Lain, and a good one.

I liked the way in which the stereotype of a top in life and bed are analyzed here. It was fun to watch, it was hot to witness, and it was sweet to see it come to completion. I liked both MCs, and I felt with them and for them.

But it was a tad predictable. The big misunderstanding was no surprise, came and went way to easily and spoiled the ending a little bit for me. Still a good story, but it didn't exactly make me swoon either.

American lass seeks brawny Scot...

As if being newly single isn't brutal enough, Sloane Chatfield's friends are getting obnoxious about setting her up. When Sloane insists she's waiting for a certain sexy fictional Highlander to come along, her friends surprise her with a trip to Scotland to find her a new boyfriend. She'd rather have a root canal. But if she can find a Highland hunk to "break her heart" before her friends arrive...

In a remote Highland village, Galen Buchanan is struggling to keep the family pub afloat. Everything is falling apart, he's running out of money, and now there's an opinionated American lass parked at his best table, driving him mad. But then Sloane asks Galen to be her pretend Highland boyfriend...and offers him enough money to save the pub. It's only for a few days, he figures. What's the worst that could happen?

 

I've been in a reading slump as of late for various reasons, one of them being I am just not loving any of the books I've picked up. Unfortunately this gem is a part of that group. The premise was promising- desperate American girl tries to get adorable Scot to be her pretend boyfriend to appease overbearing friends, what could possibly go wrong?

I enjoyed the banter between Sloane and Galen a lot. Navigating a new relationship that was built out of convenience is never easy, but their lighthearted banter and snarkiness kept it fun. My only complaint is that both characters seemed pretty stereotypical: the "uptight American who works too much" and the "laidback Scotsman who calls everyone lass" is a bit overdone and outdated. I would have preferred a little diversity in the characters, but at least they had chemistry.

Sloane's friends were a bit vapid in my opinion. None of them really seemed to have good intentions and their personalities seemed passed over by the author. It is one thing to try to encourage a heartbroken friend to get back out there, but their motives seemed impure at best. We never really got to know her friends though, so it could be the lack of characterization that made it feel shady. 

There were a few unexpected moments that kept the story moving right along and I finished it in one sitting. I recommend picking this up when you're in the mood for a lighthearted romance.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. I was not monetarily compensated for my opinion.

Maid-of-Honor Dani Brown can handle anything that comes her way when it comes to her best friend's wedding. That is, until the bride asks for a huge favor-Dani needs to distract the best man, who happens to be Dani's ex. The ex she has fantasized dismembering for a year now. The ex she'll have to suck it up and play nice with if this wedding is to go off without a hitch.

Businessman Jamie Kingsland is back in Seattle for a wedding. There's just one problem - the maid of honor wants him dead. Except she doesn't. Even though he knows he broke her heart last year when things got too serious and he panicked and left, she's being way too nice about it now. And it scares him.

Something is up with his favorite bridesmaid, and he's determined to find out what...

If you're looking for a quick, fun, steamy read then this is definitely the book for you. While there weren't any surprises or twists,  I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Dani and Jamie's relationship. It was predictable but light and sweet. 

In typical second-chance-love type stories, Jamie is our "villain" at the beginning of the story. After breaking Dani's heart he comes back into her life due to a mutual friends wedding and of course the usual chaos and chemistry ensues. He is flawed and a bit immature when dealing with his family and job issues, but it gave him room to improve so it worked well for the story. 

Dani seems like a typical twenty-something girl who is just trying to get over her ex by not getting over him at all. She is clumsy, funny and real and it was easy to get engrossed in her thoughts. I recommend picking this up when you're in the mood for a lighthearted romance.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. I was not monetarily compensated for my opinion.

There was something missing....

Let me think about this. 

Oh yeah. I got it

There was no slow clap.

Otherwise Krys managed to add every single cliche a teen movie would sport. AND I mean every single one. 

Douch boyfriend.. check

Bitch BFF .. check

Mega self-involved beautiful and clueless female lead... check

Unpopular neighbor... check

mysterious bad-boy.. check

his girlfriend...check

tragic death... check

supposed cute banter... check

wanna be movie star villain.. check

homecoming... check

annoying and not particularly clever adults...check

i hate so much but i think i fall in love with you romance... check

Huge showdown... check

A supposedly shocking cliffy at the end... ding ding ding. 

Oh trust me it's all there.

Now I do enjoy the occasional craptastic book. At some point I thought this might be possibly a craptastic little read. But nope. Not even that. 

It's just C.L.I.C.H.E. in capitol letters.

Ok there are a couple of good things.

First did you see the cover? I mean is so very very pweeeety. And that's probably one of the reasons I did pick this book. I will not even deny it. I am a cover slut. And the cover... well it's ....convincing... know what I mean.*smirks*

Krys writing style is actually pretty neat. I think she can write. But sadly that's where the good ends.  Everything else was more or less a disaster.

The plot is more or less a string of teen movie cliches lined up - a supposed gasph worthy little twist at the end, leaving the story with  a huge cliff-hanger. *yawns* 

Problem about the cliffhanger: I could simply not be bothered but mostly I was so not surprised. AT ALL.

And that goes for every supposed twist and turn in the book. It's beyond predictable. 

The world building is ... well there isn't much world building done actually. On one level when you read the blurb you get the feeling there is a good idea behind this. And maybe there is, but frankly it doesn't even feel like much of an idea. It's kind of a Twilight with witches really, or any  high-school teen movie with extra gore and magic... same old. 

Not only is the world building unimaginative. But Krys did extreme minimal world building. We know little at best. It's set in L. A. and there is a war between witches and sorcerers .. end of world building. 

The characters were so cliche. I found them irritating at best. I could not connect with any of them. When tragedy struck, I could not careless. Indi is shallow and spoilt at best. And the supposed change of heart she has, didn't not really change that fact actually. 

I mean there is a villain who did remind me of a wanna be reservoir dog- and he actually mentions that he is trying to be just that. I was seriously irritated by that time.

The other villain's ugliness was described  a gazillion time. I felt like; Ok I got it, he is an ugly scary guy! 

Bishop - supposedly mysterious bady with a dirty mouth came across just as a plain asshat. Jezebel- seriously?!

The banter between them was I am sure supposed to be funny.. but ...

"Oh hell!"Bishop shouts.

"Couldn't have said it better myself!"Jezebell yells.

 

"Oh, thank God", I say.

"Or thank me. But whatever."Jezebel says. 

 

"I don't get it, but whatever. I guess he's a butt guy" I cross my arms over my small chest. "Am not,"Bishop says. "I like boobs as much as butts""

Funny? Uhm cliche more likely. 

Look basically I think this should have been made into a teen movie. Forget about the book. or books. It would work really well as a film. You know those kitschy teen high-school film, everybody has seen, but know-one will admit? Yeah this is it, but in book form. Except I doubt that it will be fun or cute even with a hot cast. 

It still has the potential to be a craptastic series I guess..

Will I read the next book? You kidding?!