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. 

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.

Twisted: Reading this book makes me wonder if therapists should offer gift certificates for couples therapy (My thoughts on Book #2 in the Tangled book series by Emma Chase)

Since my review of the book Tangled by Emma Chase ended up getting a fair amount of traffic and I absolutely loved that book, I decided to review the second book in the series, Twisted. That being said, I’m going to come right out and say that while I did like this book, I thought that it was a rather disappointing follow-up to Tangled.

One of the reasons I gave Tangled such high praise in my review (My thoughts on Book #1 in the Tangled book series) was because I thought that Emma Chase did a great job of putting fresh spin on the romance novel genre by telling the story from Drew’s point of view since romance novels are typically told from the woman’s point of view. However, with the exception of the epilogue, which is told from Drew’s point of view, Twisted is told from Kate’s point of view. As a result, Twisted didn’t come across as being a book that put its own unique spin on the genre for the most part, and I also feel like waiting until the epilogue to shift the story to Drew’s point of view really caused the book to suffer as a whole, but I’ll explain why I feel this way later on in this review.

At the start of the book, it’s established that two years have passed since the end of Tangled. Kate and Drew seem very happy together, and the readers are treated to a rather steamy sex scene, which involves some anal sex. I don’t mean to over share here, but since this review is about my thoughts on the book, I’m just going to come right out and say that I’ve never thought of anal sex as being sexy, erotic, a turn-on or all that appealing, but I still thought the whole sex scene was rather hot despite my personal feelings regarding anal sex. The sex scenes in both this book and Tangled are definitely a lot steamier than the sex scenes in Fifty Shades of Grey, which pretty much all include the word “There” as a way to refer to various parts of Ana’s body WAY TOO MUCH! I especially enjoyed the part leading up to the anal sex where Kate handcuffed Drew to the bed before she went to the kitchen, only to have Drew somehow manage to free himself from the handcuffs and join her in the kitchen, which is where they ended up having sex.

As I said in my review of Tangled, I’m also in the process of reading Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James, and as I’ve been reading that book, it’s becoming increasingly clear to me that the amount of time that E.L. James devotes to rather mundane events in the book compared to things that the reader is most likely going to view as being a very important detail is rather disproportionate, causing the story as a whole to move very slowly. I’m mentioning this because I thought it was very refreshing read a book where the author (Emma Chase) dives right into the main action of the story. Although, I do think that this book still has some issues when it comes to how suddenly the overall conflict of the story comes about.

Twisted: An update on the possibility of the show being renewed for a second season from TVLine's Matt Webb Mitovich

Here's some scoop on Twisted from this week's (Posted on 7/28/14) Matt's Inside Line column.

I am a fan of ABC Family’s Twisted — is it coming back? –Erin
“We love Twisted,” ABC Family president Tom Ascheim said when I asked about a possible Season 2, “but we’re going to announce pick-ups toward the end of the summer.”

Link to the full article:Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on NCIS, Arrow, Criminal Minds, Supernatural, Longmire, Castle and More | TVLine

Twisted: Scoop on the possibility of the show being renewed for a second season from TVLine's Matt Webb Mitovich

Here's some scoop on Twisted from this week's (Posted on 5/27/14) Matt's Inside Line column.

Hello, my name is Stephanie I’m trying to find out when is the new season of Twisted going to premiere?
There’s still no official word that there will be a second season – though the show is still listed on ABC Family’s press site, which has to mean a little something.

Link to the full article:Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Once, NCIS, Defiance, Falling Skies, Rizzoli, 24, Covert, Graceland and More! | TVLine

Twisted: Episode 1x18 "Danny, Interrupted" Promo (HD)

Here's a promo for next week's episode, episode 1x18 "Danny, Interrupted".

Twisted: Episode 1x16 "The Son Also Falls" Promo (HD)

Here's a promo for next week's episode, episode 1x16 "The Son Also Falls".

Twisted: Danny related scoop from E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos

Here's some scoop on Twisted from Kristin Dos Santos' Spoiler Chat column, which was posted on 2/24/14.

Laurel: Twisted is so good this season! What's coming up?
A lot of inner turmoil for Danny, that's what. No only is a blast from the past trying to wreck havoc on Danny's world, he's also going to trying to come to terms with the fact that he killed his father. "I think that's going to be his main internal battle for some time," Twisted star Avan Jogia spilled to us. "I think it's something you don't recover from ever, and but he learns how to deal with it. It's another thing he can't be truthful about." But it was totally self-defense! "if you think it's self-defense or not, there's also other factors that come up in the season that make everyone question whether that's the case or not." Yikes.

Link to the full article:Spoiler Chat: Pretty Little Liars, Girls, Once Upon a Time, True Detective and More! | E! Online

Twisted: Scoop on episode 1x12 "Dead Men Tell Big Tales" from E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos

Here's some scoop on Twisted from Kristin Dos Santos' Spoiler Chat column, which was posted on 1/27/14.

Hanna: Got any scoop on the new episodes of Twisted?
Hold onto your red jump ropes, because the winter premiere of Twisted is packed with shocking secrets. We just got done watching mind-blowing episode (We can practically feel your jealousy radiating through the computer screen!) and all you need to know is that many mysteries will be solved. Don't believe us? Here goes: You'll find out what really happened with Danny's aunt and the answer is completely unexpected!

Link to the full article:The Walking Dead's Peek Into the Past, Vampire Diaries Newest Struggle and More Spoiler Chat Scoop! | E! Online

Twisted: Scoop on episode 1x11 "Out with the In-Crowd" from E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos

Here's some scoop on Twisted from Kristin Dos Santos' Spoiler Chat column, which was posted on 8/19/13.

Malikah: Hit me with some spoilers on Twisted! I don't want to have to wait another week for answers!
Well, little Miss Impatient, we don't want you to have to wait either! We just got off the phone with the always charming Avan Jogia and he promised us that Twisted fans are in for a whirlwind of insanity in next week's summer finale. "It makes all of the episodes of the show up to this point almost nothing. It changes everything," the actor teases. "At the end of this finale Danny is at his lowest point and it's beyond just getting expelled. He's got bigger problems now." Ruh-roh!

Link to the full article:Spoiler Chat: Scoop on Once Upon a Time, Arrow, Nashville, Carrie Diaries, Twisted and More! | E! Online

Twisted: Danny related scoop on episode 1x12 from Entertainment Weekly's Sandra Gonzalez

Here's some scoop on Twisted from Entertainment Weekly's Sandra Gonzalez's The Spoiler Room column, which was posted on 8/1/13.

Anything on Twisted? It’s become one of my new favorite summer shows! – Anna
With just four episodes to go until the end of the first part of the season, Avan Jogia teased that we’ll be seeing Danny reaching “his lowest point” in the last new episode of 2013. And while he confirmed that we will not know if Danny murdered Regina anytime soon, he says he doesn’t know the actual answer to the big mystery. “They have not told me,” he says. “We have an opportunity to make a very interesting, challenging show and that’s all I care about. I want to hold my opinion on whether I want him to be a murderer or not. There are other ways that you can be a bad guy that have nothing to do with murder and that’s what I would like to explore … of course, he may still end up being a psychopath.”

Link to the full article:'NCIS,' 'Supernatural,' more: Find out what's next in the Spoiler Room | Inside TV | EW.com

Twisted: Episode 1x09 "The Truth Will Out" Promo (HD)

Here's a promo for next week's episode, episode 1x09 "The Truth Will Out".

ABC Family Renews Switched At Birth, Orders Additional Episodes of The Fosters and Twisted-TVLine

According to TVLine's Rebecca Iannucci, ABC Family has renewed Switched at Birth for a third season. The network has also ordered additional episodes of The Fosters and Twisted. Here's an excerpt from the article, which includes a statement regarding Switched at Birth's renewal from ABC Family's Vice President of original programming, Kate Juergens:

Birth, which is nearing the end of its second season, is “like no other show on television and we are so proud to have it as part of our family,” Kate Juergens, executive VP of original programming and development at ABC Family, said in a statement. “Adding additional seasons and episodes of our returning series spotlights how well our programming resonates with our audience.”

Link to the full article:‘Switched at Birth’ — ABC Family Renews Drama for Season 3 - TVLine



My thoughts: I haven't watched Switched at Birth in a long time, but I really liked what I have seen of the show, so I'm glad that it has been renewed for another season. Switched at Birth's ratings have been pretty good this season, so I'm not surprised by this news. I'm also not surprised that the network has ordered more episodes of The Fosters either since the show's ratings are constantly improving. The Fosters has become one of my favorite new TV shows, so I'm beyond excited that the network has ordered more episodes of the show. I can't wait to see what the producers of The Fosters have planned for the next batch of episodes. I haven't watched Twisted yet, but I'm happy for the people who do like the show that the network has ordered more episodes of that show as well.

Twisted: Episode 1x07 "We Need to Talk About Danny" Promo (HD)

Here's a promo for next week's episode, episode 1x07 "We Need to Talk About Danny".