Book Review: The People We Hate at the Wedding by Grant Ginder

Right off the bat, I have to confess that I originally bought Grant Ginder’s The People We Hate at the Wedding on somewhat of a whim and read it for the first time back in 2017, and I’m so glad that I did, because this ended up being a really great book, in my opinion. I honestly hadn’t even heard of this book until I saw it at Target one day. As soon as I read the plot synopsis that’s on the cover, I immediately knew that this book was right up my alley. I thought about whether or not I wanted to buy it for several hours, and I bought it later that same day; which is something I don’t necessarily do when it comes to books that are written by authors that I’ve never even heard of. I’m much more likely to buy books rather spontaneously if they’re written by authors that I’m already familiar with and have read some of their other books. I’m also incredibly ashamed to admit that this review was originally written for the most part after I read the book for the first time back in 2017; but because I find the proofreading part of writing rather tedious, I never got around to proofreading and posting this review while the details of the book were still fresh in my mind. I finally decided to reread the book recently after finding out that Amazon made a movie adaptation of the book; which I’m planning to watch now that I’ve reread the book. That being said, here are my thoughts on the book.

 

Despite what the book’s title might suggest, The People We Hate at the Wedding is ultimately not first and foremost about a wedding. At its core, this book is about a dysfunctional family; and the problems that they have, with both each other and in their own personal lives. Eloise’s wedding simply serves as the backdrop for the conflict within the family. I have to say that while I absolutely love the title The People We Hate at the Wedding, I still think that it’s the book title equivalent of a clickbait headline for an article on the internet since the titular wedding plays such a small role in the book in the grand scheme of things. However, I still think it’s a pretty clever book title that was definitely effective when it came to getting my attention as I was looking around at Target and originally discovered this book.

 

While I personally loved this book, I don’t think that this book is necessarily for everybody, especially if you’re not a fan of books where pretty much all of the characters are rather unlikable people. Personally, I honestly love books, TV shows, and movies that feature unlikable characters, as long as the characters are written with the intention of them being unlikable, and they’re well written, and it's handled well by the author. When it comes to TV shows, my favorite comedy is definitely It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and all of the characters on that show are all truly terrible people. If characters come across as being unlikable due to bad writing, then I usually end up not liking the book all that much. For example, I don’t think that Ana Steele from E.L. James’ Fifty Shades trilogy is meant to be an incredibly annoying and unlikable, she just comes across that way due to terrible writing. That being said, I did think that Ana came across as being much more likable in Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian, even though the book was still horribly written.

Book Review: Royally Matched (Book #2 in the Royally series) by Emma Chase

Right off the bat, I have to say that as much as I loved Royally Screwed, I honestly loved Royally Matched a little bit more than Royally Screwed. Having listened to Royally Matched on audiobook two times, I have to admit that I actually loved this book even more than I originally did after listening to it on audiobook a second time. The main reason I would say that I liked Royally Matched a little bit more than Royally Screwed is because as much as I love Nicholas and Olivia as a couple, I honestly found myself liking Henry and Sarah as a couple even more than I liked Nicholas and Olivia as a couple in Royally Screwed; which I’ll talk about in much more detail later on in this review.

When it comes to the overall plot of Royally Matched, the tone of the book as a whole definitely felt a little bit lighter and less angst-ridden than Royally Screwed often did, which is something that I really liked about this book. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really have too many problems with the overall tone of Royally Screwed; I simply thought that the tone of Royally Matched felt very different compared to the overall tone of Royally Screwed. Regardless of whether or not Emma Chase was consciously trying to write Royally Matched in such a way that the overall tone of the book felt much lighter compared to the more angst-filled tone of Royally Screwed; I personally like that they felt very different in tone, because I feel like it’s a great way to set Royally Screwed and Royally Matched apart from each other, while still having them be a part of the same series. After noticing a difference in the overall tone for Royally Screwed and Royally Matched, I’m definitely really interested and excited now to see how the third book, Royally Endowed, turns out from a tonality standpoint.

It was definitely interesting to see Henry struggling with adjusting to his new role as the heir to the family throne at the beginning of the book, especially since it was a role that he had never expected that he would have to fill. While I understand that Royally Matched and the Royally series as a whole is supposed to first and foremost be about the love lives of a royal family, something that I felt Emma Chase should have explored in this book more than she did, was Henry carrying out his new responsibilities as the heir to the throne, and his struggles with adapting to his new role in his family. Ultimately, the fact that Chase didn’t explore that aspect of Henry’s life very much in this book wasn’t really detrimental to my overall enjoyment of Royally Matched; but I still wish that she had done more with that aspect of who Henry is as a character now, especially considering the way he was written in Royally Screwed.

Book Review: Calendar Girl (January) (Book #1 in the Calendar Girl series) by Audrey Carlan

Right off the bat, I have to admit that I went into reading the first book/novella in the Calendar Girl series, January, with very low expectations for both this book/novella, and the series as a whole. After actually reading January, I have to say that January is definitely a book that utterly baffles me, because there are definitely a lot of things about Carlan’s writing for January that come across as being bad or problematic writing. Sometimes I would describe Carlan’s writing as being both bad and problematic at the same time; that being said, there are also times throughout January where Carlan does come across as being a decent writer. For that reason, I’m very hesitant to say that I think that Audrey Carlan is a truly bad writer.

One thing that really bothered me about this book is that it was very difficult for me to get good read on the protagonist of the series, Mia Sanders, in terms of her personality. When Mia is talking about the four guys that she had dated and thought that she had fallen in love with at the beginning of the book, she comes across as having a very bitter and jaded attitude towards men. She also comes across as really giving off a bit of a tough girl vibe at times throughout the book, and yet when she was talking about the first guy that she thought had found true love with, whose name was Taylor, she mentions that he had a small penis, but she referred to his penis as being a “winky the size of a circus peanut”. Mia saying that really made her come across as being immature, and if you ask me, Mia referring to a guy’s penis as a “winky” really contradicts the idea that she’s supposed to be a tough girl; which seems to be what Carlan was going for at times throughout the book. To be fair, it’s kind of understandable that Mia has a very bitter and jaded attitude towards men at the beginning of the book, given her history with the men she has dated prior to the events that take place in January; but it didn’t make her seem very likable in the first chapter.

Even though I didn’t think that Mia was a very likable character in the first chapter, and I thought that she was kind of annoying at times throughout the book, she never got to the point where I thought that she was an extremely unlikable and annoying character. While Mia can be annoying at times, she’s definitely not the most annoying and unlikable character that I’ve ever encountered in a book. (The award for the most annoying character that I’ve ever encountered in a book would definitely go to Ana Steele from E.L. James’ Fifty Shades trilogy.) However, as the plot of January progressed, I feel like Mia came across as being a fairly likable person for the most part, who enjoys giving people advice and helping them with their problems. I thought that was especially the case whenever she was talking to Jen, who was the wife of a guy that Wes works with.

Fifty Shades Darker: Official Trailer #2 (HD)

Here's the second official trailer for Fifty Shades Darker. I know that the Fifty Shades trilogy is supposed to be a romantic series, but there are moments in this trailer where I honestly think that this movie looks like more of a horror movie than a love story. Regardless, I have to admit that I'm really looking forward to seeing Fifty Shades Darker. :)

Book Review: One with You (Book #5 in the Crossfire series) by Sylvia Day

I should probably start out this review by saying that I originally wasn’t planning to read and review One with You any time soon, but reading the second book in Christina Lauren’s Beautiful series, Beautiful Stranger, and writing my review for the book really got me thinking about the Crossfire series again quite a bit, so I decided that it would probably be very fitting for me to go ahead and read One with You now. That being said here are my thoughts on One with You.

Because I feel like I’ve been repeatedly disappointed by Sylvia Day, and the Crossfire series as a whole, I’ve definitely been putting off reading One with You ever since it was released back in April of this year. Since this is the last book in the series, I was really hoping that I would enjoy One with You, and that the Crossfire series would end on a good note. Sadly, that definitely didn’t happen. While One with You does have some elements that I enjoyed, I was ultimately extremely disappointed with the book, especially when it comes to the fact that this is the final book in the series. To me, One with You came across as being the book equivalent of a TV show having a season finale where the writers have the season end with multiple cliffhangers, leave storylines open to be continued in the following season, and introduce whole new storylines, because they’re confident, or at least fairly optimistic about the show’s chances to be renewed for another season, only to have the network cancel the show. However, the fact that this or any final book in a series would have that kind of vibe to it is absolutely infuriating to me, since an author has the luxury of knowing whether or not a book is actually going to be the final book in a series. If an author who’s writing a book series knows that a book is going to be the last book in the series, they can and should write it as such, which Sylvia Day unfortunately didn’t do when it comes to this book.

One of the many problems that I’ve had with the Crossfire series is a lot of the writing and character development for Gideon, or rather the lack of character development and growth for him throughout the series. As I’ve read each book in the series, I constantly found myself thinking that I didn’t fully understand why Gideon is the way he is. Sure, we were given some information throughout the series about his past and the abuse he suffered when he was younger, but the character development and growth for Gideon still always felt rather incomplete, in my opinion. I feel that way even more so after reading One with You, and the fact that the series ends without Gideon truly working through and overcoming all of his issues, particularly his sexual parasomnia. The lack of character development and answers regarding Gideon’s past is one of the reasons why I would liken One with You and the Crossfire series as a whole to a TV show that’s abruptly canceled, leaving various storylines unresolved. However, I’ll admit that there was one “revelation” that’s revealed in this book, which I’ll talk about later on in this review, that does make me feel a little more understanding when it comes to the fact that Gideon doesn’t truly work through all of his issues by the end of the series.

Beautiful Bastard: This book is seriously even better than I was expecting it to be (My thoughts on book #1 in the Beautiful series by Christina Lauren)

Before I get too far into discussing my thoughts on Beautiful Bastard, I definitely need to mention that this is actually a book that I’ve wanted to read for several years. The list of reasons for why I’ve wanted to read this book has definitely evolved over the years. I initially wanted to read Beautiful Bastard because I had heard that much like Fifty Shades of Grey, Beautiful Bastard was also originally a Twilight fan fic. Fifty Shades of Grey and Beautiful Bastard’s origins as Twilight fan fiction has definitely led to a lot of people that I’ve encountered online frequently comparing and contrasting the Fifty Shades series and the Beautiful series to each other, which naturally caused me to become interested in both series since I do like the Twilight books.

However, what ultimately served as my motivation to finally read Beautiful Bastard is the fact that I discovered that pretty much everybody who has been a narrator for the audiobook versions of Emma Chase’s books from her Tangled and Legal Briefs series have also served as narrators for various books and short stories from Christina Lauren’s Beautiful series, as well as their Wild Seasons series. I’ve loved all of the narrators for the audiobook versions of Emma Chase’s books, so that has definitely made me want to listen to the audiobook versions of Christina Lauren’s books even more than I already wanted to in the first place; that being said, here are my thoughts on Beautiful Bastard.

For the record, when I started reading Beautiful Bastard, I decided that I wasn’t going to spend the entire time that I was reading the book actively looking for similarities to Twilight and things about the book that might hint at or give away its origins as a Twilight fan fic; even though learning that Beautiful Bastard started out as a Twilight fan fic was one of the first things that got me interested in reading the Beautiful series. Based on what I’ve read of Fifty Shades of Grey so far, there’s no denying that it’s pretty obvious at certain points in the book that it originally started out as a Twilight fan fic. However, when it comes to Beautiful Bastard, there wasn’t really anything about it that I think screams, “Twilight!” Since I haven’t read the original Twilight fan fic version of Beautiful Bastard, which was called “The Office”, I obviously can’t do a comparison of Beautiful Bastard to the fan fic version of the story. That being said, I think that Christina Lauren did a great job of really distancing the story from Twilight and making Beautiful Bastard its own story. Honestly, if I hadn’t known about Beautiful Bastard’s origins as a Twilight fan fic before I started reading it, I’m pretty sure that I never would have guessed or believed that it ever had any connection to Twilight at all.

The Lunar Chronicles: Brace yourselves, Everybody! It’s time to explore the mind and past of Queen Levana (My thoughts on Fairest: Levana’s Story by Marissa Meyer)

Right off the bat, I have to say that while I’ve absolutely loved the Lunar Chronicles so far, Fairest: Levana’s Story is definitely my least favorite book in the series. For the record, I still have to read Winter, so that opinion may change. As I said in my review for Cress, I was really hoping that this book would give Levana some depth and complexity, both as a villain and as a character in general. To be fair, I do think that this book gave Levana some complexity and depth, but unfortunately it didn’t give her too much of those things, which as a result, greatly hindered my enjoyment of Fairest.

The biggest problem that I have with Fairest is the fact that right from the beginning of the book, Levana comes across as being so self-centered, unlikable and evil that it was extremely hard for me to get emotionally invested in Levana as a character and care about her, or get invested in what was happening throughout the book. While the Lunar Chronicles series as a whole has made me think about the TV show Once Upon a Time a lot, as well as the show Grimm, since they’re both shows that involve reimagining fairy tales; Fairest reminded me a lot of the season one episode of Once Upon a Time, “The Stable Boy” where the backstory behind Regina’s hatred for Snow White was revealed. I pretty much had the same problems with this book as I did with that episode of Once Upon a Time. The reveal of what happened to make Regina hate Snow White so much ended up being incredibly disappointing, and it was honestly rather difficult to go along with the idea that Regina was justified in blaming Snow White for the death of Daniel, who was the man that she loved and wanted to marry when it was her mother, Cora, who had actually killed Daniel. While I wasn’t crazy about the explanation as to why Regina hated Snow White so much and wanted to get revenge on her, I was still able to have at least some sympathy for Regina. Plus, I thought that Regina had plenty of depth to her at that point in the series. Levana, on the other hand, lacks depth and is constantly acting so coldhearted, self-centered and flat-out evil throughout the book, that the reader is never really given a chance to feel all that sorry for Levana or truly like her.

I get that Levana’s sister, Channary, was physically and emotionally abusive towards her and is responsible for the scars that she has on her face, but that doesn’t automatically mean that the reader is going to feel sympathetic towards Levana; because the things that Levana does in this book that don’t involve Channary in any way are pretty horrible. I can’t help but wonder if Meyer was trying to portray Levana as a sympathetic villain in this book. However, the thing I think people need to remember is that there’s a big difference between a character having a sympathetic backstory and actually being a sympathetic character. 

Captivated by You: Gee, I really wish I could say that I was “captivated” by this book, but… (My thoughts on book #4 in the Crossfire series by Sylvia Day)

Let me start out by saying that originally I wasn’t planning to read and review Captivated by You any time soon. However, I ultimately decided to go ahead and read it now because I wanted to have a book to read while I was working on my review for the second book in Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles series, Scarlet. Since my reviews for Bared to You, Reflected in You, and Entwined with You, have all gotten a lot of page views and the fifth and final book in the Crossfire series, One with You, will be coming out in a few weeks, I decided that now would be a good time to read and review Captivated by You; that being said, here are my thoughts on the book.

Right off the bat, I have to say that I unfortunately hated this book for the most part. If you’ve read my review for Emma Chase’s book Appealed, the main problem that I’ve had with this series as a whole, but especially when it comes to Entwined with You, is that it really feels like Sylvia Day is trying to cram as many sex scenes into the books as she possibly can, at the expense of having good character and story development in the books. I wish that I could say she did a better job of providing character and story development in this book, and to be fair, she did in some ways, which I’ll get to later; but for the most part, believe it or not, the whole issue of Day focusing more on having lots of sex scenes in the Crossfire series than she is on having good character and story development is even worse in Captivated by You.

Honestly, there are so many sex scenes throughout the book that the writing for Captivated by You as a whole felt extremely repetitive in the end. Despite the fact that the sex scenes are pretty steamy and well written, they actually become rather boring after a while due to the high number of sex scenes in the book. The way this book is written, it’s like Sylvia Day was thinking about the expression, “sex sells” as she was writing it, and she just went completely and totally overboard when it came to incorporating sex scenes into Captivated by You. If I had been reading a physical copy of the book instead of listening to the audiobook version like I did, there’s a really good chance that I would have started skimming through the sex scenes after a while. I think if I had done that, I might have been able to read this entire book in just a day or two, because that’s how many sex scenes there are in this book.

I’ll give Sylvia Day credit for not making Eva and Gideon’s relationship feel like one giant never ending angst fest in this book like I feel she has in the past, especially when it comes to Reflected in You. Eva and Gideon did seem happier together in this book compared to how they’ve been other times in the past. Plus, it was definitely interesting to see them deal with the fact that they’re secretly already married, while everybody else thinks that they’re currently just engaged and in the process of planning their wedding. However, the fact that Eva and Gideon are constantly having sex with each other really made me question how much depth their relationship actually has. The way Eva and Gideon act with each other most of the time makes it seem like they can’t be alone together for more than five minutes without them having sex. That really makes me wonder if their relationship really has what it takes to last for the rest of their lives. After all, once they’re old, their sex drive could quite possibly diminish, or it might become physically challenging for them to have sex with each other. If that were to happen, I honestly don’t know what they would do when they’re spending time together since sex has always been such a huge part of their relationship.

Appealed: It’s official! The Legal Briefs series is even better than the Tangled series! (My thoughts on Book #3 in the Legal Briefs series by Emma Chase)

As I said in my review for Sustained, while I thought that it was Emma Chase’s best book yet, I was still open to the possibility that I might end up thinking that she topped herself yet again with Appealed once I read it. Right off the bat, I have to say that I’m very glad that I kept my mind open to that possibility, because that’s exactly what ended up happening. As much as I loved Sustained, I definitely found myself loving this book even more than I loved Sustained in some ways.

One of the things that I’ve always loved about Emma Chase’s books, going all the way back to Tangled, is the fact that she often writes her books in such a way that it feels like the protagonists of her books are talking to the reader in the narrative and telling them a story. This particular aspect of Emma Chase’s writing style is definitely more noticeable at times than others, and it was definitely very noticeable in Appealed. The reason why I really love it when she has the protagonists of her books basically talk to the reader from time to time, is because it really helps to draw me into the story and become very invested in the characters and the story itself. This particular aspect of Chase’s writing style is definitely one of the many things that made me fall in love with the book Tangled when I read it, and it was one of the many things that has really made me fall in love with her writing in general. While I’ve always loved it when she has her protagonists basically talk to the reader, I especially love how she handled that particular aspect of her writing style for this book. It was something that really made me fall in love with the character Brent as I was reading Appealed.

I feel like I’ve made it pretty clear by this point that one of the biggest reasons why I love Emma Chase’s books so much is because all of her books are written partially, if not entirely, from the guy’s point of view. Brent is yet another great character, and I’d say that I love Brent about as much as I loved Jake in Sustained. Brent is an all around great character, and I loved Brent’s internal narrative, because I often times found the things that he was thinking rather amusing. However, the thing that I loved the most about Brent is how he acted towards Kennedy, especially at the beginning of the book before they really get together, his therapist, Dr. Waldo Bingingham, and his butler, Harrison. I found it rather amusing that Brent was so hung up on the fact that his therapist’s first name is Waldo. I could also kind relate to that, because I definitely have a tendency to get hung up on what a person’s name is sometimes, especially if it’s a name that’s kind of unique. I also really enjoyed the dynamic between Brent and Harrison, because I definitely saw a little bit of myself in Brent when it comes to how he acted towards Harrison as well.

Sustained: Emma Chase did it! She topped Tangled! (My thoughts on Book #2 in the Legal Briefs series by Emma Chase)

If you’ve read my review for Overruled, you’ll know that I said that I thought that it might be very difficult, if not impossible, for Emma Chase to top Tangled when it comes to deciding which of her books is my favorite and how I would rank each of them. The reason I’m bringing this up is because I’m very excited to say that Emma Chase did it. She completely topped Tangled with Sustained, and I definitely think that Sustained is her best book yet. That being said, I’ll admit that perhaps I’m being a bit premature in saying that Sustained is Emma Chase’s book yet since I haven’t read Appealed at this point in time. However, if I had to say which of her books is my favorite at the moment, it would definitely be Sustained; that being said, I’m totally open to the possibility that I’ll end up thinking that she topped herself yet again once I read Appealed.

Based on Overruled and Sustained alone, I have to say that I definitely think that the Legal Briefs series is even better than the Tangled series. As much as I love the Tangled series, it’s not without its flaws, and I feel like the quality of the writing for the Tangled series as a whole definitely had its share of ups and downs. Emma Chase’s writing for the Legal Briefs series on the other hand is definitely a lot stronger and better than even her best writing for the Tangled series was, in my opinion. Things that I felt could have been handled better in Twisted and Tied in particular are handled a lot better in the Legal Briefs series.

For starters, I’m really glad that she switched back and forth between Stanton and Sofia’s points of view throughout Overruled instead of writing most of the book from one character’s point of view and then suddenly switching to a different character’s point of view towards the very end of the book for the epilogue like she did with Twisted. Plus, as I said in my review for Overruled, I thought that Stanton’s dislike of JD was much more understandable and easier to sympathize with than Drew’s dislike of Billy was after Tangled. If you ask me, the resolution of Stanton’s issues with JD was also handled a lot better than Drew’s hatred towards Billy was resolved in Tied.

When it comes to Sustained, there really is a lot to love about this book, and it’s honestly kind of hard for me to know where to start when it comes to talking about what I love about this book. For starters, one thing that I’ve always felt that Emma Chase really excels at when it comes to her books is being able to pretty much instantly get the readers interested and invested in the story right off the bat. Whenever I’ve read one of her books, I’ve always been able to get invested in the story within the first few paragraphs, if not the first few sentences of the book, and that was definitely the case with this book. It’s definitely a good thing that Chase’s books aren’t the kind of books where the reader has to power through approximately 50 or more pages before the story finally starts to get interesting, especially considering the fact that her books are all less than 300 pages long. That’s something I’ve really come to appreciate about Chase’s books since in addition to all of the books that I’ve reviewed in roughly the past three to four months, possibly longer than that, I’ve also been reading the book The Swan Gondola by Timothy Schaffert so I can review it as well. I’m currently seventy pages into the book, and I’m just now finally starting to get into the book.

Nothing says “romance” quite like two people pretending to be engaged to each other (My thoughts on Big Rock by Lauren Blakely)

At the risk of starting this review on a bit of a tangent, I have to say that my overall experience with reading the book Big Rock by Lauren Blakely was radically different from my experience with reading Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling’s Career of Evil. What made my experience with reading Big Rock so different from my experience with reading Career of Evil is the fact that as I talked about in my review for Career of Evil, I started out absolutely loving the book and thinking that it was perhaps the best book yet in the Cormoran Strike series, only to eventually become very frustrated with the book at times the more I read it, and eventually I came to the conclusion that it’s my least favorite book in the series. When it comes to Big Rock on the other hand, I instantly fell in love with the book as soon as I started reading it, and I absolutely loved this book from beginning to end. I actually loved Big Rock so much that I ended up listening to the entire audiobook version of the book in less than a day. I just couldn’t bring myself to stop listening to it until I finished the book.

That being said, as much as I loved Big Rock, it’s definitely far from perfect, if you ask me. As far as I’m concerned, this book’s single greatest flaw is that it definitely felt rather cliché and lacking in originality in a lot of ways. The entire time I was reading this book, I kept thinking that Lauren Blakely isn’t really offering anybody anything truly new with this book. As I was reading Big Rock, I kept thinking that this book is very similar to a lot romantic comedies that I’ve watched over the years, namely Just Friends and The Proposal, as well as numerous romance novels that I’ve read over the years, namely Emma Chase’s Tangled series and the first book in her Legal Briefs series, Overruled.

For the record, I love both of those movies, and I’m a huge fan of Emma Chase’s books, so it’s not like this book was reminding me of movies and books that I don’t like. This book actually reminded me of a lot of different things that I really love, which definitely made Big Rock a real feel good book for me personally. I simply feel like I do need to acknowledge that this book is rather cliché in some ways. That being said, I imagine that it’s probably very challenging for writers to write books that are a part the romance genre, since the romance genre as a whole is definitely a genre that’s full of clichés that numerous writers use for their books. It’s also a genre that in my opinion is rather lacking in originality when it comes to the premise of the majority of the romance novels that are currently out there, which is why I can’t entirely fault Lauren Blakely for Big Rock being rather cliché in some ways.

Speaking of Emma Chase’s books, one of the main things that convinced me to buy the audiobook version of Big Rock and read it is the fact that it’s narrated by Sebastian York, who narrated the audiobook versions of Tangled, the epilogue of Twisted, Tied, and the short stories “Holy Frigging Matrimony” and “It’s a Wonderful Tangled Christmas Carol”. He also narrated the second book in Emma Chase’s Legal Briefs series, Sustained, which is the next book I’ll be reviewing.

Entwined with You: Oh, for the love of God! Do Eva and Gideon ever stop having sex? (My thoughts on Book #3 in the Crossfire book series by Sylvia Day)

Let me start off by saying that I really went back and forth on trying to decide when I would read and review Sylvia Day’s Entwined with You since it was a book that I was very interested in reviewing given the fact that I had already reviewed Bared to You and Reflected in You, I really enjoyed them, and my reviews for both of those books have gotten a lot of page views. Plus, it has been somewhat of a goal of mine to review both this book and the fourth book in the Crossfire series, Captivated by You, by the time the fifth and final book in the series, One with You, is released on April 5^th. That’s definitely going to be coming up before we know it, so I decided to go ahead and listen to the audiobook version of Entwined with You this past weekend; that being said, here are my thoughts on the book.

Right off the bat, I have to say that while my feelings about Reflected in You were definitely mixed, my feelings regarding Entwined with You are very, very, very mixed. One of the things that bothered me the most about Reflected in You is the fact that there was so much drama and angst going on between Eva and Gideon in that book, and the story itself was rather lacking when it came to there being truly happy and romantic moments between them, which really made me question whether or not I should actually be rooting for Eva and Gideon’s relationship to work out. Fortunately, I feel like Sylvia Day did a somewhat better job of including, or least trying to include, enough moments between Eva and Gideon in Entwined with You that showed me why I should root for them as a couple.

While I do think that Sylvia Day does a better job of showing why the reader should be rooting for Eva and Gideon in this book, reading this book makes me think that Day’s idea of including lots of happy moments between Eva and Gideon in the books is to have them have lots and lots and lots of sex with each other, all the time. Reading this book made me feel like when Day was writing this book, she must have thought about the expression “sex sells”, and decided to cram as many sex scenes into this book as she possibly could, and just went completely super duper ultra mega overboard with how much sex is featured in this book. I get that the Crossfire series is considered erotica, but I still think there needs to be an actual plot and some subplots as well in erotic novels. Sure, there were definitely quite a few sex scenes in Bared to You and Reflected in You, but there were still plenty of clearly defined plots and subplots in those books.

When it comes to Entwined with You, I feel like there are so many sex scenes in this book that it kind of feels like the concept of having a clearly defined plot for the book was sacrificed as a result of there being so much sex in this book. I’m kind of tempted to make jokes about how trying to describe the overall plot of this book is a lot like looking for a needle in a haystack, but I think that would be a bit of an exaggeration. If I had to say what the plot of this book is about, I’d say that this book mainly focuses on Eva and Gideon trying to move past what happened in Reflected in You, with Gideon killing Nathan so he wouldn’t be able to hurt Eva again. However, their entire plan for how they would gradually publicly get back together seemed awfully convoluted to me.

Overruled: Good news, Everybody! Emma Chase is back with a new book series, and I couldn’t be happier. :) (My thoughts on Book #1 in The Legal Briefs series by Emma Chase)

Right off the bat, I have to say that I really wish that I had read Overruled a lot sooner. I got it on Amazon as soon as it was released back in April of 2015, but I didn’t read it until now. That being said, I loved this book so much that I ended up listening to the entire audiobook version of Overruled in less than a day when I read it this past Tuesday. I immediately got sucked into the story, and I quickly became determined to finish the book before I went to bed that night. I’ve seen a number of people who do book reviews on YouTube describe various books as being “book crack” before, and I’d definitely say that this book was definitely “book crack” for me. A line that I’ve used in the past to describe my enjoyment of various books is, “This book is more addictive than cigarettes”, and this is definitely a book that I would use that description to describe what I thought of it.

Emma Chase has definitely become one of my favorite authors, and one of the main reasons why she has become one of my favorite authors is due to the fact that a lot of her books are written at least partially, if not entirely, from the guy’s point of view. That’s one of the reasons why I say Chase’s writing has often felt really fresh to me. Writing romance novels from the guy’s point of view isn’t something that I saw writers doing with romance novels until I discovered Emma Chase’s Tangled series. I’ve been a huge fan of romance novels for years, but there’s no denying that it’s a genre that’s full of clichés and is rather lacking in originality. By writing a lot of her books from the guy’s point of view, I feel like Chase is really offering people something new.

Being a guy, I think it’s pretty safe to say that I don’t fit the target audience for romance novels, but I still love them. I’ve always been a real sucker for romance novels and movies that are romantic comedies, because I’ve definitely always been a bit of a hopeless romantic. However, when it comes to Emma Chase’s books and the fact that she has written quite a few books from the guy’s point of view, it really makes it easier for me personally to relate the protagonists of her books compared to a lot of the protagonists of other romance novels out there. Plus, I feel like she really does a great job of capturing the way men think with her writing.

When it comes to the overall writing for the book, I love this book almost as much as I loved Tangled, which is definitely my favorite book in the Tangled series. If you’d like to read my review for Tangled, you can read that here. That being said, despite the fact that I didn’t like this book quite as much as I loved Tangled, I’m not sure that I would call Tangled “book crack” for me personally. I didn’t get so sucked into it that I decided to devote almost an entire day pretty much just to reading Tangled like I did with this book; that being said, there’s probably always going to be a special place in my heart for Tangled. 

Fifty Shades of Grey: If you haven’t already figured out that this book was a originally a Twilight fan fic, this chapter should convince you (My thoughts on Chapter 3)

Let me start off by saying that I’ve really been meaning to get back to doing blog posts on each chapter of Fifty Shades of Grey, but I’ve clearly been putting that off for quite a while since I posted my commentary on chapter two way back in March of 2015. This is due to several reasons. For starters, I don’t want to buy the audiobook version of the book, and it’s really become a challenge for me to discipline myself enough to sit down not just read this book, but any book for that matter. That’s pretty much the whole reason why I’ve really gotten into audiobooks these days. Listening to audiobooks allows me to “read” books while I do jobs around the house, run errands, which also involves me having to ride the city bus and walk a lot since I don’t drive, etc. Plus, I’ve never been a very fast reader to begin with, and listening to audiobooks enables me to “read” books relatively quickly. Anyway, I pretty much spontaneously decided to read chapter three of Fifty Shades of Grey and write a blog post on it since I had the day off from work this past Sunday, which hasn’t happened in quite a while; that being said, here are my thoughts on chapter three of Fifty Shades of Grey.

Right off the bat, I have to say that I was waiting until I read this chapter and was ready to comment on it to discuss the fact that Ana blushes at the drop of a hat. I always thought that it was a really ridiculous quirk for Ana to have. It doesn’t really add anything worthwhile to the story or anything interesting to Ana as a character and the book as a whole. It’s a very well known fact that Fifty Shades of Grey originally started out as a Twilight fan fic, but as I said in my review of Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined by Stephenie Meyer, I haven’t read the Twilight series in years; so I didn’t remember anything about it being established that Bella had a tendency to blush a lot. That originally led me to believe that E.L. James had added the whole thing with Ana having the tendency to blush at the drop of a hat in an attempt to “make the character her own” when she decided to take her Twilight fan fic (Master of the Universe) and retool it as the Fifty Shades trilogy. However, after reading Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, which is a gender swap of Twilight, it’s clear to me now that James didn’t add the whole thing about Ana having the tendency to blush a lot when she retooled “Master of the Universe” as Fifty Shades of Grey. I think it’s pretty safe to say that James got the whole idea for Ana’s tendency to constantly blush from Twilight, too. I say this because it turns out that I had forgotten that Bella blushes a lot in Twilight, and Beau, the male equivalent of Bella in Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, blushes quite a bit, too.

The difference between how James handles it in this book versus how Stephenie Meyer handled it in the Twilight books is that James takes it to the absolute extreme. Stephenie Meyer may be a rather mediocre writer, but at least she didn’t overdo it when it comes to how she portrayed Bella/Beau having that particular quirk. When it comes to how E.L. James handles Ana’s tendency to blush at the drop of a hat, it’s just beyond ridiculous and way too over the top. Kate reacts to seeing Ana blush in this chapter in a way that’s absolutely ridiculous, because her reaction makes it seem like Ana blushing is a rare occurrence, rather than being something that she does practically every five seconds. 

It’s time to play a game of “People Watching: Extreme Edition” (My thoughts on The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins)

Right off the bat, I have to say that I loved this book. However, I have to admit that I’ve kind of been dreading writing this review since The Girl on the Train is a mystery novel. When it comes to books in the mystery genre, I think it’s really important for the reader to be surprised by the book and all of its twists and turns when they’re reading it. Personally, I was really surprised by some of the plot twists in The Girl on the Train, and I would hate rob people of the chance to also be surprised by this book.

When it comes to the people that I’ve encountered online who have said that they didn’t like The Girl on the Train, I’d say that the most common reason people give as to why they didn’t like this book is because none of the characters are entirely likable. I’d say that’s a perfectly valid reason for somebody to not like a book, TV show, or a movie. After reading the book, I have to say that I definitely agree with the assessment that none of characters in this book are truly likable, and I can see why that would cause people to not like this book.

Personally, a book, TV show or a movie having characters that aren’t necessarily very likable doesn’t always cause me to not enjoy it. I think a story featuring unlikable characters can still be very enjoyable, especially in the hands of good writers, and if the characters are intentionally being written as unlikable or bad people. For example, when it comes to my favorite TV shows, my favorite comedy is without question It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. All of the characters on that show are written as being rather horrible people, with Dennis quite possibly being a sociopath, and yet that’s a big part of the show’s appeal when it comes to people who like the show. A critic actually once described It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia as being, “Seinfeld on crack”. As someone who’s also a big fan of Seinfeld and was never bothered by the fact that Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer were all rather selfish and horrible people, I think that’s the perfect way to describe It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia in just one sentence, but I digress.

What can cause me to not like a TV show, movie, or this case a book, that has characters that aren’t very likable people, is when the characters aren’t written with the intention of being viewed by the reader as a bad or unlikable person. If they just end up coming across as being extremely unlikable due to bad writing, that can really ruin a TV show, movie, or a book for me. When I think about fictional characters coming across as being unlikable people due bad writing, the first examples that I always think of these days would be Ana Steele and Christian Grey from the Fifty Shades trilogy and Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian by E.L. James. While I’m not 100% certain, I’m pretty sure that E.L. James didn’t write the Fifty Shades trilogy and Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian with the intention of Ana and Christian being viewed by the reader as horrible and annoying people. That just happened because E.L. James is a terrible writer. To be fair, if you’ve read my review of Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian, then it should be clear that I actually liked Ana in that book and the book itself.

Twilight Saga: Get ready to see Twilight like you’ve never seen it before (My thoughts on Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined by Stephenie Meyer)

Let me start of this review by saying that prior to Stephenie Meyer announcing that she would be releasing Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined as a part of the tenth anniversary edition of Twilight, I had actually been thinking a lot about possibly reading the original Twilight saga again and reviewing them at some point. While I’m not planning to do that any time soon, I decided to go ahead and read and review Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined now since so many other people are also posting reviews for the book and talking about it lately, especially on YouTube. For the record, I haven’t read the Twilight books since the beginning of 2009, so my memory of the first book isn’t perfect, but I did watch the movie as I was reading Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined to give myself somewhat of a refresher; that being said, here are my thoughts on the book.

I’m going to just come right out and say upfront that I didn’t like this book very much at all. Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined is definitely my absolute least favorite book that I've reviewed for my blog at this point in time. While I was immediately intrigued by the concept of Stephenie Meyer releasing a gender swap version of Twilight as a part of the tenth anniversary edition of the book, I was also immediately skeptical about the idea actually being able to work as soon as it was announced. Maybe other people will disagree with me, but in my mind Twilight just isn’t the kind of book that would translate very well if someone were to do a gender swap version of a book and publish it professionally as an actual book. To me, Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined is basically a Twilight fan fic that was written by Stephenie Meyer. I might be more forgiving of the writing for this book if it had been written by a random Twilight fan and posted on a website where people can post fan fiction for various TV shows, movies and books. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with this book.

I should also probably mention that I didn’t buy the actual anniversary edition of Twilight since I already own all of the books in the Twilight saga. I did, however, buy the audiobook version of the anniversary edition of Twilight, because as I said earlier, I’m kind of interested in reading all of the books again and reviewing them at some point, and I’ve been listening to audiobook versions of almost every single book that I’ve reviewed so far. The reason why I’m interested in reading and reviewing all of the books in the Twilight saga is because it’s a very well known fact by now that the Fifty Shades books by E.L. James apparently started out as a Twilight fan fic. Whenever I see people talking online about all of the creepy and controlling things that Christian Grey does in the Fifty Shades books, there are pretty much always several people who will mention some of the things that Edward does throughout the Twilight series that they think is creepy and inappropriate for a guy to do in a relationship. Since I haven’t read the original Twilight saga in over five years, I don’t really remember the examples of Edward’s behavior that people usually give when they’re comparing Christian Grey to Edward, which is one of the main reasons why I’m kind of interested in reading the entire Twilight series again.