First Time (Book #1 in the By The Numbers series): This book is seriously the best romance novel that I’ve read in years (My thoughts on “Ian’s Story” by Abigail Barnette)

At the risk of starting this review off on a bit of a tangent, if you’ve read my review of the fourth book in Emma Chase’s Tangled series, Tied (My thoughts on Tied), it should be pretty clear that I found that book to be rather disappointing. One thing that I didn’t talk about in my review for Tied is the fact that while I was reading it and found myself thinking about how it was a rather disappointing way to end the series, I also found myself thinking a lot about what I personally would like to see in a romance novel as I was reading Tied. I thought about discussing my thoughts on what I personally would like to see in a romance novel in that review, but I ultimately decided not to mention that because I felt like my review for Tied was already getting to be kind of long, and I wasn’t entirely sure how to work the subject into that review without completely derailing that review. However, I think it’s very important that I share my wish list for things that I’d like to see in a romance novel in this review, because it really relates to my thoughts on “Ian’s Story” for the book First Time by Abigail Barnette. The things that I found myself wanting to see in a romance novel were as followed:

1. I wanted the guy to be more average looking, while still being an attractive man, instead of being a guy who’s beyond gorgeous and could easily get a job as a model for men’s underwear.

2. I wanted the guy to have a relatively successful career, but at the same time not be a millionaire or a billionaire like so many guys in romance novels tend to be, based on my own experience with reading books in the romance genre.

3. Instead of having the guy be an uber confident man who can flirt and charm women with ease, I wanted the guy to be somewhat insecure and perhaps a little awkward around women at times, without coming across as being a creepy weirdo.

4. I wanted the woman in the story to be smart, strong and confident, but still have a vulnerable side, rather than be simply being an incredibly naive idiot and a total doormat like Ana Steele from the Fifty Shades books is.

The reason why I’m mentioning my personal wish list for things that I’d like to see in a romance novel is because the writing for “Ian’s Story” for First Time really made me feel like Abigail Barnette somehow got ahold of my wish list for a romance novel when she wrote “Ian’s Story”, and that’s huge part of why I love “Ian’s Story” so much. I don’t know how the timeline for when I read and reviewed Tied compares to the timeframe in which she wrote First Time, but I think it’s safe to say that she had to have at least started writing it, if she hadn’t already finished the book for the most part by the time I read Tied. There’s also the fact that I never wrote down any of the things that I’d like to see in a romance novel, so in order for her to have gotten access to my wish list, she most likely would have had to have gotten access to some form of time travel, as well as the ability to read people’s minds or the assistance of someone who could read people’s minds in order to get my personal wish list for a romance novel.

Tangled: Hey, Everybody! Do you want to read a story about two guys getting into a catfight over a woman? If you do, then this story is definitely for you (My thoughts on the short story “Holy Frigging Matrimony” by Emma Chase)

As I said in my review of Tied (My thoughts on Tied), that book really left a bad taste in my mouth to the point where it made me feel like I needed to take a break from reading the Tangled series before I would read and review “Holy Frigging Matrimony”. Honestly, I was originally going to wait a little while longer before I read and review this story. Pretty much the only reason that I decided to review it now is because I wanted to listen to something on my iPod while I vacuumed my basement the other day, so I figured that listening to “Holy Frigging Matrimony” would be a good choice since it’s a short story; that being said, here are my thoughts on the story.

Going into this story, I was really hoping that Emma Chase would be able to redeem both herself and Drew as a character at least a little bit after the extremely disappointing Tied. I recently discovered that Emma Chase has read the reviews that I’ve written for each book in the Tangled series, so I’ve honestly been very nervous to write this review. The reason why I’ve been pretty nervous to write this review is because unfortunately, I don’t think that there’s a lot to like about “Holy Frigging Matrimony”.

The story itself is rather pointless in my opinion. Drew, Kate and their friends are all going to a celebration for the second wedding that Matthew and Dee were having since they had eloped in Vegas at the end of Tamed, which had apparently devastated Matthew’s mother since she wasn’t able to see her only son get married. At the risk of sounding really shallow, my favorite part of the story was definitely the sex scene between Drew and Kate at the beginning of the story. Despite the fact that the Tangled series wouldn’t be considered erotica and the Fifty Shades trilogy is considered erotica, I honestly think that the sex scenes in the Tangled series are a lot steamier and written a lot better too.  Admittedly, I thought that Drew pouring his mimosa on Kate’s breasts was kind of hot. However, I thought the fact that he also poured some of his drink on Kate’s crotch during the sex scene was kind of gross though.

For the record, the sex scenes in the Tangled series aren’t the reason why I’ve read all of the books. The main reason why I decided to read and review each of the books in the Tangled series is because I’ve been a huge fan of romance novels and romantic comedies for many, many years. Plus, the fact that the Tangled series was written primarily from the guy’s point of view was really appealing to me as a reader since it’s something that I hadn’t seen before when it comes to romance novels. As much as I love romance novels, there’s no denying that it’s a genre that’s often full of clichés and severely lacking originality. By writing the series primarily from a guy’s point of view, I feel like Emma Chase has offered fans of romance novels something new with the Tangled series.

Tied: It’s a real shame that the cast of Bridesmaids never showed up, because that probably would have made this book A LOT better (My thoughts on Book #4 in the Tangled book series by Emma Chase)

 

As I said back in my review for Tangled (My thoughts on Tangled), that book and the way it was written reminded me a lot of How I Met Your Mother. If you read my review for Tangled, you might remember that I also said that I really hoped that when I eventually finished reading all of the books in the Tangled series, I wouldn’t be left feeling so disappointed by the ending of the series that I would be wishing that I had never taken time to read the entire series in the first place like the series finale of How I Met Your Mother left me feeling. Right off the bat, I’ll say that while I found myself being incredibly disappointed by Tied, it thankfully didn’t leave me feeling so upset by the way the series ended that I wish that I never invested my time in reading the entire Tangled series in the first place. However, I’ll say right now that in my opinion Tied is definitely the worst book in the series. That being said, I should probably mention that technically I still have to read the short story “Holy Frigging Matrimony”, but since this book is last book in the series and “Holy Frigging Matrimony” apparently goes back to an earlier point in Drew and Kate’s relationship, I’m going to consider Tied to be the end of series.

If had to say right off the bat what one of my biggest problems with Tied is, it probably would be that I feel like the overall plot of this book is very cliché and paper-thin, and it’s severely lacking conflict that’s genuinely interesting or entertaining. That’s a real shame, because one thing that I’ve always loved about the Tangled series is that it’s written almost entirely from a man’s point of view, which I’ve always felt helped put a fresh spin on a genre that’s often full of clichés and severely lacking in originality. Honestly, Tied reminded me a lot of the movie Bridesmaids when I was reading it given how the book focuses a lot on Drew and Kate’s bachelor and bachelorette parties, as well as their wedding, which takes place in the epilogue. Personally, I think the movie Bridesmaids is much more entertaining and funny than Tied is. Tied feels like more of a 256 pages long epilogue to the series than anything else, which I think is pretty weird given the fact that this book has an actual epilogue. However, the book also included some flashbacks to when James was a baby, and he’s two years old now, which allows the reader to see what Drew and Kate are like as parents.

One thing that I loved about Tangled and the epilogue in Twisted was getting to read about Drew’s views on relationships, women and life in general. While Drew has definitely always had a tendency to be a bit of an asshole at times, he’s at least always been willing to admit that he can be an asshole at times, and I still thought that he was a very likable protagonist in Tangled and Twisted. However, I have to say that when I was reading Tied, I suddenly found myself frequently thinking that he wasn’t a likable asshole any more, he was just being an obnoxious asshole most of the time throughout the book.