Sidebarred (A Legal Briefs Novella): The gang’s all back, and I couldn’t be happier (My thoughts on Book #3.5 in the Legal Briefs series)

Right off the bat, I have to say that as much as I loved Appealed, and while I thought that it was a fantastic ending to the Legal Briefs series, I still wasn’t quite ready for the series to end; mainly because I was loving the series so much. That’s definitely one of the main reasons why I was really excited when Emma Chase announced that she had written a novella for the Legal Briefs series. While I did think that Appealed was a great way to end the Legal Briefs series, I think that Sidebarred was an even better ending to the series.

Prior to Sidebarred’s release, I initially got the impression that Emma Chase had written the novella with the story shifting back and forth between each of the main characters from the series. It was only a few weeks before Sidebarred’s release that I found out that that wasn’t the case, and that Sidebarred was written solely from Jake’s point of view. Personally, as much as I love Stanton, Sofia and Brent, I think that Jake was definitely the perfect choice when it comes to which character from the series should be the protagonist of Sidebarred. At its core, the character development and internal conflict that Jake underwent throughout Sustained was all about wanting to be a part of Chelsea and the kids’ lives, while also thinking that he wasn’t capable of being a family man with a wife and kids.

Sustained pretty much ended with Jake realizing that he had become a family man without even realizing it, thanks largely in part to the “intervention” that Stanton, Sofia and Brent had for him. I love that we got a brief glimpse in one scene from Appealed of what Jake was like after he had embraced the idea of being a family man, with him acting like a protective father to one of the teenage girls in the family when she came to his work with him, and there was a boy there that could have easily made advances towards her. However, that whole scene was written from Brent’s point of view, so we didn’t get that much insight into what had happened with Jake, Chelsea and the kids after Sustained ended. That being said, Emma Chase did a fantastic job of really giving the readers of the Legal Briefs series an in depth look at Jake’s life as a husband to Chelsea, and a father figure to Chelsea’s nieces and nephews in Sidebarred.

When it comes to the plot of Sidebarred, while I’m not sure that the plot and the book as a whole would have worked as well had it been a full-length novel; I thought that it worked perfectly as a novella. The reason I say this is because while Jake and Chelsea do face various problems throughout the book that were genuinely interesting and got me completely invested in the story, the plot of the book and the conflict that Jake and Chelsea face in Sidebarred wasn’t big and dramatic enough to sustain a full-length novel, in my opinion. The plot of the book revolves primarily around the fact that Jake and Chelsea decide to have a baby after Chelsea had thought that she might be pregnant, only to discover that she wasn’t pregnant after all when she took a pregnancy test. I could be wrong about the exact timespan of the book, but Sidebarred takes place over the span of about a year and follows Jake and Chelsea as they try to get pregnant and then follows them through the pregnancy, while they also deal with problems involving the kids and their work. Nothing truly dramatic happens to them or any of the other characters throughout the book. Honestly, I’m perfectly okay with that because I think that the problems that Jake and Chelsea face both as a couple, as the problems that they deal with individually, while also raising Chelsea’s six nieces and nephews, are all very relatable. Plus, I’m really glad that Chase didn’t have Jake and Chelsea dealing with any major drama and angst in their marriage, such as having one of them cheat on the other, or at least be tempted to cheat.

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.

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. 

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.

Welcome to Old Cranbury, Everybody! (My thoughts on “Ground Fault” from The Wonder Garden by Lauren Acampora)

To start this review off on a bit of a tangent, I’ve never been a huge fan of the short story genre, and my opinions on most short story collections that I’ve read over the years have typically been very mixed. Personally, I’ve often times had a very hard time getting invested in the lives of the characters in a short story or the plot of short stories. When it comes to short stories, I’ve always felt like the story either ends before I’ve had a chance to truly get into the story, or the story ends right when I’m starting to care about the characters or what’s happening in the story. Obviously the short story genre is popular with other people, and I know that some people prefer to read a story that they can typically read from start to finish in one sitting. However, I personally prefer a story that’s several hundred pages long, because it gives the writer a chance to really flesh out and develop both the characters and the story itself.

When I was in college, as an English major at UNL, I had to take quite a few classes where we had to read a lot of short stories. I had one professor for two different classes, the first was an advanced fiction writing class, and the other was a capstone course that English majors at UNL were required to take. My professor was a big fan of the short story genre and the short-short story genre when it came to the curriculum for those two classes. This was something that often frustrated me given my mixed feelings regarding the short story genre. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not talking about this as a way of bashing her or anybody else out there who’s a fan of the genre.

To be perfectly honest, the first short story collection that I ever not only truly liked, but truly loved was Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. The teacher that I mentioned assigned Olive Kitteridge for the students in her advanced fiction writing class to read. A big part of why I love Olive Kitteridge so much is because I really think the style and structure that Elizabeth Strout used for the book as a whole solved my biggest complaints regarding the genre by writing each story so they would be able to stand on their own, but all of the stories in the book are still connected with the titular Olive Kitteridge serving as a common thread in each story. Strout wrote that book in such a way that while the stories may have ended, the reader would still be able to get a glimpse of what happened to the characters from one story in the stories that followed. When I was reading Olive Kitteridge, I finally found myself really being able to get into each story, because I knew that there was a chance that I would see the characters that I was reading about again in at least one of the stories that followed, so I never felt cheated once I had finished reading a story in Olive Kitteridge.

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.