Review: Bastard by J.L. Perry

My name is Carter Reynolds. I was born a bastard and I’ll die a bastard. I learnt it at a young age, and nothing and nobody can change that. I’m on a one-way path of destruction, and God help anyone who gets in my way. I hate my life. Actually, I hate pretty much everything.

That’s until I meet the kid next door. Indi-freakin’-ana. My dislike for her is instant. From the moment I lay eyes on her, she ignites something within me. She makes me feel things I thought I was incapable of feeling. I don’t like it, not one bit. When she looks at me with her big, beautiful, haunting green eyes, it’s like she can see into the depths of my soul. It freaks me the hell out. She’s like sunshine and rainbows in my world of gloom and doom. I hate sunshine and rainbows.

••••

I’m Indiana Montgomery. My friends call me Indi. Despite losing my mum at the age of six, I have a wonderful life and great friends. My dad more than makes up for the fact that I only have one parent. I’m his little girl, the centre of his world. I adore him.

When Carter Reynolds moves in next door, my life takes a turn for the worse. He’s gorgeous, sinfully hot, but that’s where my compliments end. He seems hell-bent on making my life miserable. He acts tough, but when I look into his eyes I don’t see it. I see hurt and pain. To me, he seems lost.

I should hate him for the way he treats me, but surprisingly I don’t. If anything, I feel sorry for him. I want to help him find peace. Help him find the light that I know is buried somewhere within his darkness, but he won’t have a bar of it.

He’s warned me time and time again to stay away, but I can’t. I’m drawn to him for some reason. He’s always referring to himself as a bastard. That may be true, but to me, he’s more like a beautifully, misunderstood bastard. Whether he likes it or not, I refuse to give up on him.

 

If I were to say one word about this book, it would be "conflicted". I've been conflicted with my rating, my feelings, my thoughts and everything in between when it comes to Bastard. Usually, I'm pretty firm in my feelings on something but this time, I flip-flopped multiple times. 

First things first ... the copy of the book that I received didn't say that it was an ARC, so I'm left to assume that this is the final product. Unfortunately, it has punctuation issues. Quite a few of them. The author is Australian and I don't know if they do punctuation differently down there but they might, I guess. It's something that irritated me a bit, so I thought that I would bring it up. 

The beginning of the novel reads like a YA novel but at the same time, it felt almost as if the sentence structure was too simple. Like the author was very close to being patronizing. The sentences were short, simple and very basic. This quickly goes away as the characters start to grow up. Also, for something that reads like a YA novel for the first 40%, there sure was a lot of sex and penis talk. YA is aimed towards 13-17 year olds. There is no way in hell I would let my 13 year old read this book. Holy crap. There was just so much (very explicit) sex. That being said, the book is geared more towards New Adult for the last 60% of Bastard. Even with it being NA, it makes me blush a bit just thinking about an 18 year old reading some of this stuff.

The story itself was okay. It kept me reading, so I guess that's something! I quickly noticed that there was a lot of detail about inconsequential things but then the author would gloss over important things to the plot as if it was an afterthought. I'm not totally for sure why it felt like this ... there were just a lot of situations that I think needed more information included just to round out the story a bit better. There were also a few situations that happened and were resolved a little too easily ... as if the author took the easy way out of a situation that she got the characters into or something.

The characters were pretty good though. I enjoyed getting to know Carter and Indi. They were both very full characters and I felt like I knew them almost as well as I know myself. There were a few secondary characters that I wish I knew a little more about though but they felt passed over. 

I don't know if I will pick up another novel by this author ... if I didn't feel so meh about it, I probably would. But as it stands right now ... I will probably say ... no thank you. 

Lastly ... I need to talk about something very serious. We've all heard of blue balls. This author introduced me to blue flaps. You can guess what it means. This phrase, "blue flaps", should never, ever, EVER ... be repeated. Ever. Again. I don't care what the context is. Never say it again. That is all.

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *

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Review: Playing With Fire (Tangled in Texas #2) by Alison Bliss

Nothing ignites a fire like the perfect match…

 

Anna Weber is every inch the proper librarian--old-fashioned, conservatively dressed right down to her tightly clipped flaming red hair. She's just moved to a small Texas town, and is determined to spend time with her friend before she has to disappear. Relationships aren't easy for her. She knows too well what it means to be burned. And the last thing she ever wants to do is fall in love…

Especially not with a fireman who's hot enough to set the entire state of Texas on fire.

Cowboy can't resist the fiery little librarian, and he's determined to make her his. Beneath that prim-and-proper exterior is a woman he very much wants to know--if she'd let him. She'll test his patience. His control. Hell, his very sanity. And for the first time, Cowboy wonders if he's found the one fire he can't control...

 

This is the second novel in the Tangled in Texas series and since I absolutely adored the first, I had super high expectations for this one. The lovely Ms. Alison Bliss shot me an email last month and said she didn't know if I would have the time to read Playing With Fire but she wanted to offer it to me. I mean, come on. I immediately said yes!! I had no idea what this one was even about but I knew that I had to read it. It's by Bliss, so I knew it would be exceptional. Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed. After Playing With Fire, I'm totally immersed in my love of what this amazing author can create. I'm a lifetime fan. 

Enough of the slightly embarrassing gushing about Alison Bliss ... let's get down to business. I started reading and when I was like 3 pages in, I was already in love with Cowboy. I nearly burst into flames during a couple of scenes ... "Next time we'll try whipped cream ... and a different body part." ... Sweet baby Jesus. Yes, there are other amazing characters involved in this book but Cowboy is my absolute favorite character in any romantic suspense novel. Ever. He's crass and vulgar and I wouldn't change him one iota. I enjoyed Anna as well ... she's very sweet and demure but also has this sassiness to her that makes her a woman I aspire to be. Experiencing the relationship ebb and flow between Anna and Cowboy pushed me to read faster and faster and then curse myself because I was blowing through an amazing book that I wanted to last for forever. 

The story-line was everything that I had hoped it would be in Playing With Fire. You won't find any spots that are wordy or slow ... everything moves along at a wonderfully delicious pace that leaves you wanting more with the end of each sentence. Bliss also brought back all of the characters from the first book and it was nice being able to catch up with them and reminisce about the previous book. Absolutely nothing was forgotten and how Bliss can write so many characters with all of their distinct quirks and then bring them back into the fold with a new book just amazes me. It felt like I was hanging out with some old friends that I hadn't seen in a while. It is so difficult to get that kind of feeling from fictional characters but Bliss really blew it out of the water. 

I really don't want to get into anything else with this one because I REALLY want everyone to read it and get that first read magic like I did. It is definitely one that I'll read again and again. I'm already itching to get my hands on number three because I want to see what happens next. I just love everything about this book. I could go on for hours but you really need to read it and then let me know what you think about that ornery Cowboy!! 

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *

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As the youngest of five girls, Alison Bliss has never turned down a challenge...or been called by the right name. Her writing career may have started out as a dare by one of her sisters, but Alison hasn't put her pen down since.

She grew up on a small island off the Texas Gulf Coast, where most of her childhood vacations consisted of camping or hunting trips to the deer lease. Although she'll always be a Texan at heart, Alison currently resides in the Midwest with her Iowa farm-boy husband and their two sons. With so much testosterone in her home, it's no wonder she writes "girl books."

She's an animal lover, a closet video game enthusiast, and believes the best way to know if someone is your soul mate is by canoeing with them because if you both make it back alive, it's obviously meant to be. Alison's an avid romance reader who enjoys penning the type of books she loves to read most: fun, steamy love stories with heart, heat, laughter, and usually a cowboy or two. As she calls it, "Romance...with a sense of humor."

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Review: Can't Walk Away (The Thomas Family Chronicles #1) by Ashlee Taylor

Christianna Thomas only wanted a break from her boring life…

But when she wakes up in a strange hotel room with absolutely no memories of what transpired, she has no other choice but to return to her writing career, plagued by dreams of an enigmatic, silver-eyed man.

Nicholas Prescotti is haunted by flashes of a breathtaking beauty he can’t believe is real…

He tries to force her from his mind and focus on his obligations to his powerful family, but when he crosses paths with his mystery woman again, he is driven to uncover the truth about that night.

They find something they never anticipated…and much more than they bargained for.

As a result of their first forgotten meeting and Nico’s determination to seize the reins of his own life, family ties are severed and allies become rivals. When trust is betrayed and events are set in motion, Nico and Christianna find themselves in grave danger just when they should be happiest.

When confronted with secrets and deadly agendas threatening the lives of those she loves most, will Christianna leave Nico?

Or will she discover she can’t walk away…

I haven't had the opportunity to read anything by Ashlee Taylor before and I probably won't after finishing Can't Walk Away. Unfortunately, I just had too many issues with the book to pursue this author again. Dammit. I just hate it when this happens. I want to love everything that I get my hands on but that just doesn't always happen. 

I think that the first thing that really bothered me was the switching of the POV. Just alternating between characters doesn't bother me. I frequently enjoy reading both sides of a story. But only when the switches are seamless and it doesn't get in the way of the story-line. This time it did. In a massive way. At least for me. So what the author has done is when she switches between Christianna and Nico, sometimes there is a bit of a rewind and you're rereading what has already happened but from the other point of view. Again, the rewinding isn't really an issue, I enjoy that. But it didn't happen every single time and it became confusing because you didn't know if you were reading about some new situation or reliving one that has already happened. Basically, it was unnecessarily muddy. As if that wasn't enough, it didn't switch POV with each chapter, it was multiple times within a chapter and it is a bit difficult to turn off one person's inner dialogue and then switch to the next so frequently. I've read so many books with alternating POV that I was surprised when this one just irritated me. I think that it just goes back to not being seamless. 

The story itself was pretty interesting. You've got this mob dude and an unsuspecting lady ... the story should have been just amazing. I think that the bones of the novel were great but the way that it was put together just didn't really flow and make sense to me. Maybe it was because things were dragged out when I don't think that they needed to be or maybe it was because of the POV issue or maybe it was because the entire novel read very unrealistically. 

The story didn't feel authentic. I mean, how many of us readers know how the inner workings of a mob works? Probably a very small percentage but even not being super familiar with a concept shouldn't make the book feel like an impostor but that is exactly how it felt. I don't want to give away any massive details but there is this one situation where someone is being held at gunpoint and then they calmly ask to give a child a bath and then that's okay with the guys holding the guns? Give me a break. I just don't see that as something that would actually happen. There were tons of situations like that were I was just left thinking what was going on was ridiculous.

At times, the dialogue was reading almost ... juvenile. That's not what I want to encounter when I'm reading a romantic suspense novel. These are adults. They shouldn't sound like children. And holy shit balls. The sex dialogue. O. M. G. Do people really say some of this shit to each other?!? I would hope not. Because instead of reading as this sexy thing, it was a massive turn off. Telling someone something about lapping up everything they give you. Gross. Maybe I'm a prude or something, I don't know. I've never had an issue reading raunchy stuff ... is it my cup of tea? Well, no. But people pick up books to escape their normal lives and live vicariously through someone else, even if it is a fictional character. But this was just too damn much. Again, it didn't read as authentic or realistic or anything close to being something that would happen in real life. Maybe if this book was listed in the genre of erotic suspense ... maybe it would work. But in no way were the sexual encounters in this book romantic. Juvenile, sure. 

This one just wasn't for me. It's just too bad. But it has received a bunch of high ratings, so there are a lot of people who have enjoyed it. You should just pick it up and see what you think. I'd be interested to see if others feel the same way that I do.

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *

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Review: More Than Water (More Than Water #1) by Renee Ericson

It doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel wrong. It just...feels.

EJ Cunning, an art history major, dates musicians. Foster Blake, a chemical engineering major, can’t sing a tune. They’re not each other’s type. They’re coworkers.

Then, one night leads to sex—sex between friends—which leads to an agreement. It all seems so simple—but nothing ever is.

Many layers build a person’s facade.

Look into the depths for what’s hidden within.

It’s more than water. It’s a story—a living and breathing substance beyond the reflective surface.

I don't really know where to start with this review ... so many things are going through my mind about this one. I guess I'll just jump in ... I've not had the pleasure of reading anything by this author before. I'm surely not opposed to it after reading this one, though! 

At the beginning of the book, you're just thrown into this situation with EJ and her best friend. EJ has just discovered that her boyfriend is cheating on her with a skanky Smurf. From that moment, within the first couple of pages, the book just takes off and doesn't slow down. I find it exciting when a book moves at a steady clip and doesn't stop or lessen its pace at any point. But that can also come at a price. There were a few situations where I felt like I was left wanting more from the scene ... more information or more dialogue or more description ... just more. Since I thoroughly enjoyed More Than Water, it was just a bit of a letdown at times when I felt like I was going to bed hungry. 

My wanting more could have just come from the fact that I enjoyed getting to know EJ and Foster so much. It's not very often that I like characters so very much from the very beginning. I loved the snarky / smart ass comments that both of them seemed to have, I loved the chemistry between them, I loved just about everything about who the characters were, who they strive to be and who they turned out as.

When I arrived at the ending of the book, I was so incredibly let down. The story didn't seem finished and again, I just wanted more. But then I realized ... there was a bonus scene. A BONUS SCENE!! And this bonus scene was absolutely incredible. I couldn't have imagined a better ending to the book and I can only hope that this extra few pages have ended up in every copy of this book that is on shelves everywhere. That extra part really ties the entire book together and puts a little bow on the ending. 

I'm looking forward to the continuation of this series and while I hope that it follows EJ and Foster, I would be interested to see who else the author might be interested in introducing us to. OH!! And the art and science stuff was cool too ... 

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *

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Review: How to Seduce a Scot (Broadswords and Ballrooms #1) by Christy English

He's the terror of the ton...
The plan is simple:
1. Descend from the Highlands to face the aggravation of a London Season;
2. Foist his wild sister off on some gullible English lord;
3. Retreat before the ladies of the scandalized ton can get any ideas.

Determined to see his hellion of a sister wed, Highlander Alexander Waters is willing to face anything-even the English. He just didn't expect his own rough manners to cause such a riot...or for a blooming English rose to catch his eye.

Gently bred Catherine Middlebrook must find a respectable man to marry or her family will be ruined. She won't allow herself to be distracted by Highland barbarians...no matter how her body may thrill whenever Alex is near.

Catherine wasn't part of the plan, but as their battle of wills escalates, Alex comes to realize this "proper" English girl is as wild as the Highlands themselves...and nothing will stop him from having her.

Oh, I do love me a good bodice ripper! I've always wondered if historical romance authors hated that term ... anyhow ... this is a good bodice ripper! I've read, I don't know ... hundreds ... of historical romance novels and I've become quite picky with my reviews. I've just read so many that I've had to become more discerning in order to figure out what kind of rating that they each should receive. Anyhow, this one will not disappoint you. At all. Actually, it's one of my favorite books for the year so far. 

The majority of the time, I read books on my Kindle and for one reason only ... I can take notes! With two kiddos, I don't remember my own name by the end of the day, let alone what I thought about a book I'm reading. Usually I have at least ten notes for each book and on this one, I didn't have a single one. Now, that can happen for two reasons ... either it was so unremarkable that I just didn't think anything or it could be because I was so wrapped up in the novel that I just didn't want to take the time to step away from what I was reading to note something. This time, it was the latter. 

There was something just magical about this book. I can't really put my finger on what it was exactly that just kept me totally hooked. It was probably just a culmination of a bunch of things. First of all, I loved the characters. I loved Catherine from the very beginning of the novel ... and her sister and mom and then Alexander and his sister ... I just loved every single one. I couldn't wait to turn the page and see what they had gotten themselves into or what they were saying to each other. And the interactions between characters ... oh, the interactions. Christy English writes some awesome dialogue!! The conversations that would go on between these characters was just so realistic that you feel that you are right there, witnessing it happening in front of you. I'd imagine that is something very difficult to achieve, especially with historical romance novels. The language can be so strange and foreign to someone who isn't familiar with it and it can feel stuffy and stuck up. Thankfully, Christy English knows what she is doing and she was absolutely fabulous. 

I also enjoyed the chemistry between all of the characters ... even the cooks, servants and workers in the house left their own little footprint on the novel and the novel was elevated that much more just for that reason. I know that I'll be reading another novel by this author, it was so realistic that I want to see if other novels by her are written the same way. If they are ... it would seem that I have another author to put on my watch list!

I did love the book but I also only gave it 4 stars and that is because it did feel a little long in the tooth in some places and I thought that it bogged the story down just a little bit. But it was really close to being a 5 star book for me!

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *

Available: December 1st, 2015

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Review: Target Engaged (Delta Force #1) by M.L. Buchman

Delta Force: The most dangerous elite counter-terrorism force on the planet
• The deadliest shooters •
• The most out-of-the-box thinkers in any military •
• Will die to get the mission done •

Sergeant Kyle Reeves: The premier soldier of the new recruits
Sergeant Carla Anderson: The first woman of Delta Force

If the training doesn't kill them, their passion may-but Kyle Reeves and Carla Anderson blast right in. Show no fear. Have no fear. Then they get the call. The most powerful drug-smuggling ring in Venezuela needs a takedown, and Delta's newest team leaps into the deep jungle to deliver. Giving their all? Not a problem. Giving their hearts? That takes a new level of courage.

Ever since I was introduced to Vince Flynn back in 2001 when  his first Mitch Rapp novel came out, I have been a fan of military/spy/covert-op-shit books. I love everything about them ... the intrigue, the secrets, the characters, the plot, the sometimes scary correlation between reality and fiction ... I just love everything about them. So when I saw that there was this author that I've never had the pleasure of reading before and the book is a military/suspense/romance ... I was sold. I couldn't wait to rip into my copy and find out if I had found another author/reader soulmate. 

Before I get into anything ... it needs to be said that this author knows their stuff. The book reads like the author has done this stuff before and is writing from experience. That being said ... I have no idea if the author has that kind of background. Someone on Goodreads dinged me because I had a status update and said "This has some serious military shit going on and the author sounds like she knows what the hell she's talking about." Turns out that the author isn't a she but a he ... oopsie daisy ... I apologize for any offense I may have caused by saying she instead of he. Here's the deal ... when I start reading a book, I purposely don't look into the book OR the author. I don't want to be swayed by someone's review or things that are written about the author and/or the book. I like to have a fresh perspective until after I've written my review and it's already public. I just don't want to be swayed in one way or another unless it's by my own thoughts and feelings. Anyhow. I shouldn't have said she.

But this author does know what the hell he is talking about. It made the reading experience enjoyable from that end because it was so realistic. But on the other hand, that kind of attention to detail really took a toll on my overall thoughts on the book. I'm more than okay with action and a little back-story but I really would have liked more dialogue. I felt like I wasn't able to get to know the characters on my own because I was hardly ever able to see them interact with other characters and that adds a lot to who a character is, in my opinion. There was just soooo much about the process they were going through with Delta and again, I think that the book needed that kind of detail but there also needs to be a balance that I was just missing.

I really wanted to love both of the main characters, Kyle and Carla but at the end of the novel, while I knew all about them, I just didn't know them. You know? It was almost like reading a redacted military file. Yes, you have all of the information but little details were missing about who they were. I think that is why I felt like their romance wasn't hot and sexy and it wasn't even a slow burn type thing ... it was more of a smoldering fire that is almost out. It just wasn't what I was hoping for. I wanted those sparks and to not get them was a little upsetting.

Is this a badly written book? Absolutely not. It was well written but just not for me, I guess. I don't know that I would be opposed to reading another book by Buchman. I might in the future but just not right now. I need a little decompression time because after all that Delta went through, I felt like the author put me right there with them and it's exhausting!
 

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *

Available: December 1st, 2015

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Review: The CEO (The Game Changers #1) by Shealy James

Eve Bryant finds herself moving across the country with only one goal—to rediscover herself and get her life back on track…

Leaving a disastrous marriage, she swears off men and relationships, but when she meets sexy, charismatic Grant Mitchell, her new rules fly right out the window.

Grant is a born and bred businessman, and he always gets what he wants…

The moment he lays eyes on Eve, Grant is determined she will be his. She’s different from other women he knows—too stiff, too prim—but her smile pierces his heart and he longs to see what she’s like when she lets her hair down. They discover a powerful and undeniable connection, leading to a fast moving relationship that leaves Eve whirling in its wake.

The odds are stacked against them, and trust is hard to come by.

A woman scorned, a troubled ex-husband, and a mother bent on orchestrating her son’s future to suit her own agenda make for a very rocky road. The new couple may not last, no matter how strong their feelings for each other are. Grant is willing to fight to keep Eve in his life, but after recent events, Eve isn't sure she has any fight left to give.

Will outside forces drive Eve and Grant apart? Or will they learn there’s no love greater than the one you fight the hardest to keep?

Based on the name of the book, I really thought that The CEO would have focused on Grant but it didn't. Such a weird way to start a review, right? Well, I just think that the title is the first thing that you experience with a book and the name is everything. Anywho ... that is just my first thought. 

When I received this book, I wasn't told that it was an advance copy. When reviewers see that, we expect typos, grammatical issues and punctuation problems. It isn't a big deal and we know that there will be improvements and changes before the final copy comes out. But this one didn't say that it was an advance copy so when I (metaphorically) cracked this one open and it was a mess, I was a little surprised. I'll be honest. It was absolutely ridiculous. The amount of nonsensical sentences was just staggering. 

Here's an example: "Is someone to come home to them?" kept walking without turning back. 

W. T. F. No, you didn't read that incorrectly and I didn't type it wrong either. How the hell is someone expected to read that?!? I don't even know what the hell it was meant to say! These were ALL. OVER. THE. DAMN. PLACE.

I understand if this isn't the final copy. Hell, I'd be excited if I didn't receive the final copy. Something was definitely wrong and I hope that the mountainous pile of incomplete/nonsense sentences are fixed before this goes to the masses. It really takes away from the pleasure of reading when I'm having to decipher some unknown code to read a damn book. And let's not talk about the 'she' and 'I' issues. It was as if it was never decided which person to write the whole book in. 

Here's another big one for me ... the word TAPAS. In case you don't know, tapas means: small Spanish savory dishes. Spanish. SPANISH. Egg rolls are not Spanish. I'm fairly certain that crab cakes are also NOT Spanish. And I know for damn sure that TEMPURA (a Japanese dish), IS NOT SPANISH. The usage of tapas just set me off for some reason. If you don't know what something means, look it up or just don't use it. Please, for the love of everything soft and fluffy. Don't use a damn word you don't understand. 

Man, I sound mean, right? Just one complaint after another. I guess I'm so fired up because this book had amazing promise. I mean, the chemistry that the author created between Eve and Grant was sweet and enchanting. But when the sweetness is surrounded by stupid crap that shouldn't even be an issue, it sours you on the whole entire book. The chemistry between them was probably the only good thing about the book. There were so many things that weren't explained or tied up in the story. So many opportunities for the characters to explore relationships with other characters or to expound on the story already in place and it just didn't happen. I don't understand why. Why not finish the book? It felt unfinished and completely unresolved with every character except Eve and Grant and even with those two main characters, there were so many things brought up in the beginning of the novel that were never spoken about again and it seemed like these details were given priority at first and then just dusted under the rug when it was time for the novel to be over.

All in all, not a good reading experience. At. All. I don't think that I'll pick up another novel by this author and that's too bad. There was just so much potential. 

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *

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Review: Nirvana (Nirvana Series #1) by J.R. Stewart

When the real world is emptied of all that you love, how can you keep yourself from dependence on the virtual?

Larissa Kenders lives in a world where the real and the virtual intermingle daily. After the supposed death of her soulmate, Andrew, Larissa is able to find solace by escaping to Nirvana, a virtual world where anything is possible – even visits with Andrew. Although Larissa is told that these meetings are not real, she cannot shake her suspicion that Andrew is indeed alive. When she begins an investigation of Hexagon, the very institution that she has been taught to trust, Larissa uncovers much more than she ever expected and places herself in serious danger. Her biggest challenge, however, remains determining what is real – and what is virtual.

Nirvana is the first instalment in the three-part “Nirvana” series, a fast-paced, page-turning young adult trilogy that combines elements of the romance, mystery, and science fiction genres. This first novel introduces readers to a heroine who refuses to give up on the man she loves, even if it means taking on an entire government to do so.

 

I had such high hopes when I picked this one up. I thought that maybe I would be able to get hooked on a new dystopian YA series since I haven't found one that I've fallen in love with in a very long time. Not since The Hunger Games and Divergent. Unfortunately, this was just not one for me. I tried and tried and tried to get into it and I just couldn't. It was an uphill battle that I ended up losing. I had a lot of issues with pretty much everything in this novel.

Right off the bat, I despised the main character, Larissa Kenders. I thought that she was rude as shit and she was super sensitive. Those two traits work for some characters. The author can make a character that way and then prove why they are behaving the way that they do. I'm okay with an asshole character but it needs to be justified. I just didn't think that it was justified in any way. And to be honest, I just really didn't like her. Again, not liking a character can be a great thing. It can make you think or it will put a new spin on what is going on in the book but I just didn't like her because she was a horrible character. 

From the very beginning, this book is a bit hard to follow. You don't really know what the hell is going on until more than halfway through the book. It was super confusing with the reality and virtual stuff. I had a hard time telling what was real and what wasn't. At one point, I was even wondering if this is what the author wanted ... to keep the reader on their toes and wondering what was going on but then I tossed that away as quickly as I thought it because the book itself just didn't read like it was made for a reader. I know, that probably doesn't make any sense ... maybe I can explain. It always seemed like there was some secret code that I wasn't privy to that would help me understand what was going on. For such an in depth book, explanations just weren't there. Creating a dystopian world is probably very difficult but when things aren't explained, it makes it so very frustrating for the reader. And then when the past and present stuff started coming into play ... that was a whole new level of confusion. So you've got past, present, virtual and reality. It was just too damn much. ESPECIALLY, when there wasn't any indication you would be switching and swapping, it would just change from one sentence to the next. 

I think the most frustrating thing is that there are three characters with names that start with K. No big deal, right? Absolutely. It shouldn't have been a big deal but when the book isn't very clear on anything that is going on, having three names that are so similar just adds yet another layer to the confusing, spaghetti bowl of a mess that is going on in this book. 

I won't be picking up the next book in the series and I'll forget this one as soon as I'm done with this review. It's unfortunate when this happens because there was so much potential. It's just too bad.

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *

Available: November 10th, 2015

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