Thursday, August 6, 2015

5 STAR #Review: Searching for Someday by @jenniferprobst

Searching for Someday by Jennifer Probst
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

SEARCHING FOR SOMEDAY is a refreshing contemporary romance with a charming magic twist.

Kate and her two best friends have built a solid matchmaking business by utilizing each of their individual talents and skill sets. One of Kate’s most unique talents is her ability to sense love matches simply by touching the individuals. But when she realizes her own soul mate is a divorce attorney who doesn’t believe in true love or marriage, she’s convinced her touch has gotten it wrong. Kate and Slade do everything in their power to deny the connection they share, but the closer they get, the harder it is to ignore.

Ordinarily I would say I’m too practical to enjoy magic unless its of the paranormal variety, but Jennifer Probst seemed to know just how to introduce something outside the realm of ordinary without making it corny or unbelievable. It still rang true to the story and to the characters and only added to the undeniability of their connection. Slade was the perfect combination of stubborn, opinionated, take charge, and alpha male. I loved how he could be so fierce and stern yet he’d be so reckless in his feelings for Kate. Every time he showed up at her door unannounced, I swooned. I was a little worried Ms. Probst would go too far in her efforts to introduce secondary characters in an attempt to build interest for future books in the series, but somehow she managed to straddle the line just enough to make the story more three dimensional without going overboard. I was unable to put SEARCHING FOR SOMEDAY down until I’d had my happily ever after and it made me want to read more in the series just to get another taste.

SEARCHING FOR SOMEDAY was such an endearing romantic story with a chick-lit feel and I would highly recommend diving into the Searching For series!

**Complimentary copy provided by the author/publisher for an honest review.

**Reviewed by preppea on I ♥ Bookie Nookie Reviews.

View all my reviews

BUY IT NOW! - Amazon

Sunday, August 2, 2015

2 STAR #Review: My Favorite Mistake by @chel_c_cam

My Favorite Mistake by Chelsea M. Cameron
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Everyone expects to experience new things in college, but most don’t think one of those things will be a dorm-assigned roommate of the opposite sex. Taylor understood she lived in a co-ed dorm. She did not think that meant she’d open the door to find Hunter on the other side. Tattooed, guitar-carrying Hunter walks in and Taylor is immediately up in arms. When housing isn’t willing to re-assign Hunter, Taylor and Hunter agree on an unusual bet to determine if Hunter has to move out. Taylor must prove she loves or hates Hunter, to his satisfaction, and he’ll find another place to live. Until then, Taylor is stuck with him and his flirtation.

I am partial to new adult, contemporary romance stories with a little bit of darkness to them. But unfortunately, MY FAVORITE MISTAKE fell short. It had all the right ingredients, but it just didn’t work for me. For one, I found Taylor annoying. She punched Hunter within minutes of meeting him, and Hunter seemed to find that, as well as everything else, charming about her. Second, Taylor seemed to think the only way she could convince housing to remove Hunter from her room was to lie and say he’d sexually harassed her (which thankfully she wasn’t willing to do). However, she hints from the very beginning that she has experienced something dark of the sexual variety in her younger years and that information alone, if revealed to the head of housing, should have been clear grounds to find her another roommate. But it never seemed to occur to her to reveal this tidbit when she meets with the head of housing in a private meeting and is asked if this is a personality conflict or something more threatening. I understand completely that this was not something she was open to sharing, but I felt like between Taylor and her mother freaking out over the roommate, it would have at least been mentioned as an option. Not to mention both of her other two roommates offered to switch with her so that she wouldn’t have to be the one sharing a room with Hunter, but she never even entertained the idea.

Taylor made broad statements about who Hunter was as a person and how he viewed other people before she’d spent any time alone with him or talked to him long enough to be able to make that observation. It seemed like an indirect way for Ms. Cameron to build up Hunter but it didn’t seem realistic since I’d seen no indication Taylor could have actually observed this for herself. Also, Hunter was unrealistically perfect from his cooking for the entire floor to his patience with Taylor and as a result he never felt believable.

I did like the emotions shown once Taylor finally had her big reveal. The story felt like it added layers of depth once Taylor opened up and I appreciated that it felt true to Taylor’s story. I also liked that MY FAVORITE MISTAKE flowed well from start to finish.

I had a lot of hope for MY FAVORITE MISTAKE and gave it 2.5 stars (rounded down to 2 for reviewing purposes). While I felt like it didn’t reach it’s full potential, some people will love the concept and may not have the same issues with Taylor that I did.

**Complimentary copy provided by the author/publisher for an honest review.

**Reviewed by preppea on I ♥ Bookie Nookie Reviews.

View all my reviews

BUY IT NOW! - Amazon