Slam by Holly S. Roberts

Title: Slam    

Author: Holly S. Roberts

Series: Completion #4

Genre: Romance, Adult, Sports, Suspense, 18+

Source: ARC

Pages: 210

Rating: 3 stars

Available at:

Amazon(.ca) • Goodreads • Amazon(.com)

Blurb: (via Goodreads)

Olivia Stradmore, daughter to Senator Jonathan Stradmore, has one goal in life—win her fifth grand slam tennis title in as many years. 

Olivia doesn’t have time for problems with a stalker who disapproves of her less than modest life choices. She enjoys the occasional tennis pro in bed, short skirts, and the chance to allow her wild side out.

Her dreams take a turn when her stalker, known only as Ty, runs over her with a van and puts her in the hospital. Ty will stop at nothing to possess what he covets.

Enter bodyguard Brack Jacobs—hair too long, attitude too uptight, and body too damn hot.

Brack has a job to do and sleeping with a target is not in the target’s best interest. Doesn’t matter that Olivia is sexy as hell and bent on adding a notch to her bedpost with Brack’s name on it.

Life is not as straightforward as it seems and deadly consequences await them both.

Can Olivia change Brack’s mind and turn a spark of desire into a raging inferno? Will Brack survive the flames or would slam, bam, thank you ma’am be his safest bet? 

My Review:

I was in the mood for a Romance novel, so when I had the opportunity to read Slam in exchange for a review, I took it. I don’t mention it a lot, but the Sport genre is actually pretty high on my interest list, and sadly, I don’t read it enough. So, that was another reason I was really excited to read Slam.

Let’s start with my loves. I loved that the main character, Olivia, is a sassy, confident woman that has no understanding of the word ‘shy’. She knows what she wants, *cough* Brack *cough* and she has no issues asking, begging, and demanding him. Saying that, I love that Brack was an Alpha male, to Olivia’s Alpha female personality. I love that he refuses to give her what she wants, but he isn’t afraid to admit he wants it too. The main characters and their development was definitely this novel’s strongest aspect. For the most part, they were extremely well established and they developed nicely with the plot. Saying that, I was a little disappointed on how flat every other character was. They were mentioned briefly, had little to say, and were only brought up when convenient. Unfortunately, that also includes the stalker.

And speaking of the stalker, I felt that it was such an integral part of the novel that was massively underplayed. Much like the other secondary characters, he only appeared when convenient. Starting right at the beginning, I felt like I was coming into the story half way through. I would have really enjoyed seeing the build up of the stalkers actions, but instead, I walked into the book right as the stalker got straight to deathly violent. I would have like to see Olivia’s reactions when the stalker first started to contact her, and see how those reactions changed and developed all the way through.

Just as I felt the beginning was a little too rushed, I also felt that the ending was a little rushed as well. It felt extremely out of place, and it also felt as though it came out of left field. More hints pertaining to who Brack is, or rather who his family is, would have been ideal for the ending to make more sense. Additionally, I believe the author intended a joke at the end of the novel (toward Brack and her father), but it played out very awkward, confusing, out of place, and a little crazy white-girl for my taste. The ending was definitely the weakest part of the novel. I think that 50 pages could have been added to both the beginning and the end to take away the rushed feeling, and I would have felt a lot more comfortable with the novel as a whole.

Lastly, one of the reasons I was so excited about this book was because of the entire sport aspect. However, there wasn’t a lot of tennis going on at all. HOWEVER, the author does give reasons for this fact, and she does bring attention to those reasons so the reader understands what is going on. So, while I was a little disappointed, I entirely understood it as a creative choice and I didn’t let my disappointment take away from my rating.

So overall, while the beginning and ending of the novel were very rushed, the middle of the novel was well established and ran at a good pace. I loved the details and the dialogue that was included in the plot, which really saved the book in my opinion. The main characters were amazing and fun to read, but I would have liked to read about the other secondary characters in more depth. And the ending? Eh, not the best I’ve read. I wish that I had read the other books in the series so I could have had a better understanding of the authors writing style, and to see if any of those secondary characters had more of a lead role else where. However, I didn’t have that opportunity, so I have to give this book a 3/5.

Losing It: A Collection of VCards

Title:  Losing It: A Collection of Vcards

Author: 22 different authors

Series: N/A

Genre: Romance, Adult, paranormal

Source: ARC

Pages: 271

Rating: 4 stars!!

Available at:

Amazon(.com)

Blurb: 

22 Bestselling YA authors reveal what went on behind the curtain in your favorite YA novels! From paranormal to contemporary, this collection features over 200 pages of ALL NEW CONTENT full of deleted scenes, extended endings, and more from the young adult series’ you love.

In this YA/NA crossover collection all of your favorite heroines are cashing in their VCards! YA just got steamy, sexy, and not afraid to go all the way!
Stories include excerpts and extended material--ALL NEW CONTENT featuring the following YA novels & authors:

The Grimoire Saga by SM Boyce
The Death Series by Tamara Rose Blodgett
Penny Black Trilogy by Stacey Wallace Benefiel
Dirty Blood series by Heather Hildenbrand
The Mythology Series by Helen Boswell
Stories About Melissa Series by Bethany Lopez
Keegan’s Chronicles by Julia Crane
The Tate Chronicles by K.A. Last
Fragile Creatures by Kristina Circelli
The Spellbound Trilogy by Nikki Jefford
Judgement of the Six Series by Melissa Haag
A Dark Faerie Tale Series by Alexia Purdy
The Double Threat Series by Julie Prestsater
The Elsker Saga by S.T. Bende
Ovialell Series by Tish Thawer
The Runes Series by Ednah Walters
The Cornerstone Series by Misty Provencher
The Waiting Series by Ginger Scott
Forged Series by A.O. Peart
The Arotas Series by Amy Miles
Funeral Crashing Mysteries by Milda Harris
The Wolf Trilogy by M.R. Polish 

My Review:

Let’s start off by saying that this is definitely an 18+ book. There are some graphic scenes that are not appropriate for younger readers. 

NOW, saying that, this book was H-O-T hot! I usually review a specific book, but considering that this book is actually 22 different stories, I will just give you guys an overview of what to expect. I didn’t know most of these authors, I probably only knew two or three of them, but when I was contacted by one of those said authors to try out the book, I was excited to see what her more mature writing was like. Now, while I didn’t know most of these authors, they made me feel right at home. You don’t go into the stories blind, there is a little bit of back-story for you so you at least get an idea of what’s going on before you dive into some pretty intimate scenes. The stories were fast paced and the perfect length for this anthology of short stories. I was flipping through these pages like crazy! I probably consumed this whole anthology in a couple short hours.

Speaking of intimate scenes, you get a WIDE variety of how they play out. You have the random hook ups, they intimate gushy love, the hot and sexy spontaneous sex, and the goofy awkward first time. There were a lot of scenes in here that made me blush, but there were also a ton that made me laugh out loud. There is something in here for everyone to remember his or her first time.

Possibly my favorite aspect of this anthology is that it exposes you to a large amount of authors, many of them you probably haven’t even heard of. You get a sense of their characters and their writing styles and it leaves you wanting more! With just a few minutes of googling, you can find out what the authors have published, and it’s easy to get hooked into a new series. That is the best part, finding new books to love.

I would DEFINITELY recommend this book to my older readers out there. This set of short stories has everything you need, and there is something for everyone. It definitely leans to the paranormal side, which I was very happy about, and it leaves you with a whole slew of emotions and feelings. 4 stars to something pretty damn awesome!

The Last Superhero by Astrid Cruz

Title: The Last Superhero

Author: Astrid Cruz

Series: N/A

Genre: Science Fiction, Romance, New Adult, Superhero, Superpowers

Source: ARC

Rating: 2 Stars.

Available at:

Amazon(.ca) • Goodreads • Amazon(.com)

Blurb: (via Goodreads)

Even heroes have the right to bleed... 

Everybody knows that Steven S. Waldorf, the last superhero to roam the Earth, died twenty-eight years ago. What everyone ignores is that not only is he still alive, but being kept under the protection of the United State's government.

That is until, one night, he finds himself saving a young woman from getting mugged.

Giana is no ordinary twenty-nine year old, though. She's witty, badmouthed, and once she's set her focus on something nothing can make her stray from her goal.

Even if that means putting her life on the line to save the man she's come to know and love from the nightmares that torment him. 

Literally

My Review:

The low review for this novel is a mixture between my personal taste and actual problems with the book. As a reviewer, I only ever take off one star maximum for issues that I personally had with the book, but they are issues that make it difficult for me to read through and enjoy the book in question.

Starting with said personal issue, most of this book is written in something akin to internal dialogue. You experience all the random thoughts the main character has (her opinions, fantasies, questions, random thoughts), mixed with the actual narration of the novel. Because both internal thoughts and the narration were in first person point of view, and their was no formatting variation (i.e. Italics, bolding, or ‘single quotations’), I sometimes got confused as to what was actually happening, and what the main character wanted to happen. Thus, my flow of reading was constantly interrupted to take a minute and reread to figure out what was going on. I personally like to get fully immersed into my reading, usually finishing a book in one to two sittings; this book however, took me several sittings because the writing didn’t draw me in enough. Again, this is a personal reading issue of mine, this may not apply to other readers.

The major problem I found with the book itself was the pace of the story line. Everything between the main character, Gina, and our romantic interest/ superhero, Steven, consumed the first third of the book. The romantic aspects of this book happened EXTREMELY fast, with little to no sexual tension (or any tension) that makes the reader desperate to read on and find out what will happen between them. As for the conflict, it pretty much takes a back seat to the love story. You don’t really get a sense of the major conflict of the novel until much later. You get snippets here and there of the actual plot outside of the romance at the beginning, but these snippets felt more like an after thought than anything else. It was almost as if they were added later on to have the plot make more sense and flow better without much success.

HOWEVER, there were some great things about this book as well. The main character, Gina, is a big fan of poetry (as mentioned near the beginning of the novel). With the novel written in her point of view, in certain areas, the writing would turn very poetic to match the passion and excitement of the scene. This was popular with more of the intimate scenes. It’s a creative choice I would never have thought of, but I found to be very interesting and added a different layer to the book that I haven’t seen in many other novels. (One book I have seen it in is Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, and it was just as satisfying in The Last Superhero).

I also really liked most of the underlying story outside of the romance, specifically Steven’s story and even Steven himself. A mixture of his superpowers, his family history, his nightmares, and his rivalry with his brother make him such a dynamic character that really felt real to me. I don’t know if it is the sucker in me who loves a tortured male lead or what, but Steven was by far the best-developed character in this story and my personal favorite person to read about.  Props to Astrid Cruz for a job well done there.

Overall, it wasn’t a BAD book, but it definitely wasn’t great either. I do believe that with a few read throughs and some edits to the speed of the story line in contrast to the romance, this book could really be something. I will have to keep a look out for Astrid Cruz’s future writing to watch her writing grow and develop into something wonderful.

Defy by Sara Larson

Title: Defy

Author: Sara B Larson

Series: Defy #1

Genre: Medieval, YA, Romance, Magic, Swords

Source: Kindle

Pages: 336

Rating: 4 stars!

Available at:

Amazon(.ca) • Goodreads • Amazon(.com)

Blurb: (via Goodreads)

Alexa Hollen is a fighter. Forced to disguise herself as a boy and serve in the king's army, Alex uses her quick wit and fierce sword-fighting skills to earn a spot on the elite prince's guard. But when a powerful sorcerer sneaks into the palace in the dead of night, even Alex, who is virtually unbeatable, can't prevent him from abducting her, her fellow guard and friend Rylan, and Prince Damian, taking them through the treacherous wilds of the jungle and deep into enemy territory.

The longer Alex is held captive with both Rylan and the prince, the more she realizes that she is not the only one who has been keeping dangerous secrets. And suddenly, after her own secret is revealed, Alex finds herself confronted with two men vying for her heart: the safe and steady Rylan, who has always cared for her, and the dark, intriguing Damian. With hidden foes lurking around every corner, is Alex strong enough to save herself and the kingdom she's sworn to protect?

My Review:

The non-spoiler section:

I was in the mood for a good Romantic YA novel as my Christmas vacation is nearing its end, and Defy by Sara B. Larson was the perfect fit for my mood. There was the perfect amount of suspense and mystery, and a subtle release of information to the reader that both satisfies you, and keeps you wanting for more! The characters are so well defined and the author really stayed true to them while leaving room for them to develop throughout the book. And of course, the plot, was fascinating with very few complaints from my end. I would definitely recommend this books for Maria V Snyder lovers out there!

NOW FOR SOME SPOILERS!

Let’s talk characters first. Damian was perfectly crafted and I believe was written out the best. You slowly learn his past and the reasons he is so secretive and acts so closed off from the people around him and its both heart breaking, but understandable at the same time. His character had the slowest developmental time, and I think we will see much more of that development in the second instalment of this series. The main character, Alex, was also really well done. My only complaint with her development was having her twin brother die too soon. The reader just starts to scratch the surface o their relationship before he was killed off, and while I felt sympathy for Alexa, I wasn’t saddened by her brothers passing myself. I would have liked to see at least another chapter before he moved on.

That was a great transition as I move on to talk about plot now that I think about it! As far as the plot went, the only major complaint I had was the speed by which it went by! Sara Larson has so much to offer this book, and while I completely believe she did a great job, I believe that another 100 pages (or even 50!) would have made it so much better, especially as Alexa trains to learn how to defeat other sorcerers. The book was going at a great sped up until that point, then everything moved a little to quickly for my taste.  However, the writing was fantastically done. It flowed excellently and I never felt that there was any awkward wording or dialogue that took me away from me really getting into the story.

Let us not forget the juiciest part though; can we say love triangle ladies? Although it wasn’t a TRUE love triangle (with the female lead having romantic feelings for both interested men), I think that we are going to see a lot more of this in the second book. I think that the forbidden aspect of Alexa dating the Prince-turned-King adds a lot of tension that will push her toward Ryland, even though her heart lies with Damian…. Of course, this is just a prediction! I can’t wait to read the second book to find out if I’m right!

Overall, a great YA book. The second book was just released a few days ago (thank god I don’t have to wait!), so I am going to go read that as soon as this is posted. Once again, this was a great book for Maria V Snyder lovers out there! There was something about it that had a faint touch of a Snyder feel, possibly some inspiration from her books? Regardless, a solid 4 stars! Now, I am off to read Ignite, book 2 of the series!