Transitive Verve

Thoughts at a glance: ** (It was okay) Annie has just moved to Los Angeles with her mother after her father royally messed up the family's finances, and rather than finding a respite from drama, she finds herself right in the middle of it when her mother lands a position as makeup artist to Graham Cabot, Hollywood's current "It" boy. Suddenly her life is filled with reporters, screaming fans, and paparazzi. Things get better as well as worse when she and Graham find themselves falling for each other. It's hard enough when you're not sure if a regular boy likes you, but when he's a famous movie star, things get even more confusing. And then when a video of them kissing goes viral, life gets even more crazy... This story has its moments of cuteness, and especially if you're imagining someone like Ansel Elgort as Graham, the fluffy romantic parts are even more fun.  (Oh Ansel... *swoon*) But what wasn't so fun was listening to Annie's back...

This copy was provided for free from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. Thoughts at a glance: ***** (It was amazing!) Madeline Whittier has never left her house. She has an illness that renders her, well, allergic to everything, so she can't go outside, the (MANY) books she reads have to arrive shrink-wrapped, and contact with anyone other than her mother and her nurse Carla has to be carefully monitored. Things change when Oliver's family moves in next door. Maddy, wearing her white clothes, standing in her white bedroom, and feeling very aware of her unwell body, sees strong, muscular Olly dressed all in black, performing parkour stunts, and climbing onto the roof. They are instantly drawn to each other, and soon, they are emailing/messaging and pantomiming at each other through windows. Before long, it starts to feel like not enough for Maddy. Their romance, and Maddy's subsequent thirst for freedom, unfolds through Maddy's thoughtful and p...

Disclaimers: while my blog post itself does not contain any graphic sexual content, this book does. This is a review for a book that is meant for mature audiences, and therefore is unsuitable for minors.  Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) This is my review for the remaining currently-available books of Dannika Dark's Seven  series. (It looks like there is one more yet-to-be-announced book, plus one standalone that fits in chronologically between books 6 and 7.) I kind of marathoned through them all, so I decided to review them all together. You can find my writeup for the first book, Seven Years , here . *Spoilers for the first book as well as the rest of the series below*

This copy was provided for free from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. Thoughts at a glance: **** (It was really good) Zoe Webster has just moved to River Heights, following her parents' divorce. She doesn't really like it there, and it's difficult to make friends. The only "friend" she has is this weird guy named Philip Digby. She's planning to keep her nose to the grindstone and hightail it out of that town to attend a fancy private school so that she can eventually go to Princeton.  Digby shows up on her doorstep one day, and without so much as a polite introduction, he drags her into a whirlwind of crazy adventures. Digby has taken it upon himself to investigate the disappearance of a local teenage girl, and he's doing it his way, which happens to involve, for example, breaking and entering into a gynecologist's office (twice), snooping around drug dealers, and showing up in Zoe's window at odd hours of the night a...

Disclaimers: while my blog post itself does not contain any graphic sexual content, this book does. This is a review for a book that is meant for mature audiences, and therefore is unsuitable for minors.  Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) This is book 1 of Dannika Dark's Seven  series. Seven years ago, Lexi's brother Wes died, and her life hasn't been the same since. She's unhappy with her life - she's stuck in the town she grew up in, where memories of awful schoolmates (and sometimes even the awful schoolmates themselves) haunt her; her ex, who cheated on her in own car, won't leave her alone; and her father, who never really cared about her anyway, has left their family completely. Wes was the only protector she's ever known, the only person who ever took care of her and looked out for her. Still shaken up by his death, she finds her world rocked yet again when Austin Cole shows up in her life again. Austin was Wes' best friend ...

Disclaimers: while my blog post itself does not contain any graphic sexual content, this book does. This is a review for a book that is meant for mature audiences, and therefore is unsuitable for minors.  It was a fun story and all, but damn if I didn't find their relationship problematic. I guess I don't love it when the dude is overly controlling and the woman is so overcome with lust that she just can't help herself, especially when his language to her is often rude. (And it's not fully established whether this is a kink of hers or whether she just doesn't know how to stand up to him.) He reacted badly the one time she tried to take control of the situation, and since then, she hasn't attempted since? That doesn't sound healthy to me. I didn't think he redeemed himself nearly enough at the end - I mean, he showed up when he promised not to contact her anymore, and he prevents her from leaving. How is that learning to give? He should've gone wi...