Book Review: Within A Dream by Tempest C. Avery

I'm back from vacation so first things first! I gotta put up this review!

Book received in exchange for an honest review through Lovers of Paranormal

I'm going to need some help with this review...



Much better.

I don't even know how to start with this one.

On one hand, there's an interesting premise to the book. 4 teenagers are reincarnations of magical beings and have special powers. Bad people are after them and they have to try to protect themselves and learn more about their heritage and their powers.

On the other hand, it was everything but the kitchen sink when it came to the magical/supernatural beings and I was wondering when it would stop. Shall I list them?

You know it.

1) Witches
2) Faeries/Fae
3) Werewolves
4) Aliens
5) Shapeshifters
6) Reincarnations
7) Voodoo/Hoodoo
8) Celtic Mythology
9) Viking Mythology
10) Some Wiccan incorporated



Some bonus features:

A. Insta-love
B. Insta-love + love triangle
C. Insta-love for secondary characters
D. Hot guy on a motorcycle
E. Evil ex-lover type
F. Absentee Parental Units



The characters and the story was interesting enough but there was just too much going on. Too many histories and stories getting mixed together with far too many magical beings. It works in something like Harry Potter because as far as the first book goes, there aren't major characters that are different beings from different planets. You cannot introduce all of these different creatures into a book without it looking like you are trying too hard.

I liked Lily, the main character, fine though. She wasn't completely helpless and she liked to take charge which was nice. Her love interests both occupied the dark broody boy character which was a little typical but it wasn't a bad description of a relationship. It did feel like it was trying to pull on the Shattered series a bit with the old love interest coming to you in dreams but I was able to overlook that part of it.

But there's one thing that doomed this book for me.

PROOFREAD. NOW.

There were typos or misspellings every ten pages if not more frequently. This book desperately needed some editing and a lot of love because there is absolutely no excuse for spelling "melodramatic" as two words. "Mellow dramatic".



So yeah, real rating about a 1.8 so I'm rounding it up to 2 stars. The saving grace was the interesting idea behind the book but there was just too much going on with not enough editing.

Book Review: Boost (A Haunted Addiction #1) by D.A. Paul

ARC received in exchange for an honest review

Blurb from Goodreads:

They call it a boost.
It’s the buzz you get from absorbing the spiritual energy of the dead, and it absolutely terrifies Lidia Powell.

Shortly after meeting Ander at summer camp, Lidia is thrust into the world of psychic mediums and brought to a new school. At Mountain Heights Academy, even a casual pizza-date is accompanied by a ghost, and only a frightened uberdork would refuse the boost. To Lidia, the peer pressure to absorb phantom apparitions is horrifying, but to everyone else, it's the drug of choice.

However, when one of the students delves into dark energy, Lidia suspects that a boost isn’t as innocent as it seems. Soon, the boost becomes an addiction and Lidia must act fast before the changes become irreversible.

Boost by D.A. Paul is probably best described as a mix of Ghostbusters, and Vampire Academy. The main character, Lidia, is a teenage girl (I'm assuming around 16? The age was never really given or I missed it somehow) who gets entangled into a world of ghosts, spirits, and demons. She never wanted this life in the first place, never knew about it to be honest, and she wants to go home and live a normal life with her dysfunctional family. It's all a bit too much for her, getting whisked off away from her charming, normal boyfriend to go live in the mountains with a bunch of other teenagers who add high school drama to her already messed up world.

Okay, so I don't do most high school drama type books. My high school was a bit weird, I only graduated with 55 people and we couldn't really have that much drama because it was impossible to have secrets in the first place. Whatever grudges we had (and there were some, no doubt) we kept them to ourselves. You were stuck with them anyways and how else were we going to get a senior prank together? That being said, sometimes I just can't relate to the mean girls and backstabbing that goes on in some YA books. My reference for normal high school life comes from old school Nickelodeon. 

Odd note: if you google "high school drama gif" it's all Ouran High School Host Club and that makes me really happy

But anyways, Lidia ends up moving away from her boyfriend Ethan and basically being stranded in the middle of nowhere in the weirdest private school ever with his best friend who is not only a flirt but also terribly attractive. Because that's going to go well. Lidia has to learn how to deal with being away from the stability in her life while trying to figure out how to deal with the ghosties that keep cropping up in her life.

My appreciation for Lidia sort of waxed and waned throughout the book. I enjoyed the fact that she didn't feel the need to dress up when Ethan came by and rejected her mother's pleas to "look a bit cuter". My mother, to this day, still does the same thing. I went to church without lipstick and blush a few weeks ago and you would think I walked out of the house naked. We all know those mothers and I liked that this girl actually stood up for herself a bit. I didn't like the body shaming or the trash talking though. I know it was a few isolated incidents but wanted a girl to be smothered with her "overly large breasts" just rubbed me the wrong way. It's not the girl's fault that she is well endowed.

Also, the vegan part. 

Or semi-vegan. I get that some people do it for health, philosophical, and/or taste preference reasons and I completely respect that. What I don't like is when people call themselves vegan and then eat cheese and dairy saying that they couldn't resist the temptation. I don't care if an author makes a vegan character but PLEASE stop using it as a descriptor as if her diet dictates who she is as a person. I got it. She ate waffles for breakfast (which are made with milk by the way) and tried to avoid meat because it made her feel weird after something with her grandmother but it felt like it was every other sentence. Lidia was closer to a semi-vegetarian than a vegan and that really bothered me. It felt like it cheapened the point of her trying to be vegan.

Moving on from that, I actually really liked Ander for the most part. He's not a good boy and he's not a bad boy but somewhere in the middle. Lidia asked for him to leave her alone and he did so. He knew she was pissed off and he tried to protect her without being obvious about it. He respected the fact that Lidia was dating his best friend and respected her boundaries. He was flirty without being a jerk and there were no cringe inducing lines that you sometimes find in YA.

The idea of getting high off spirit energy is pretty unique and that was what held the book together for me. Getting a "boost" (hence the name) is literally like getting a tiny shot of adrenaline. It makes sense. Spirits = Energy. Energy = Endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people don't get into as much drama as angsty kids.

But despite all of the good, interesting things in this book, there were some major flaws that didn't work for me. 

It felt like the stereotypical high school set up, that I'm starting to get really sick of seeing. We had the curvy sexy bitch girl. Check. We have the popular cool guy. Check. We have the awkward couple that everybody is slightly concerned about. Check. We have the guy with the lip rings. Check. It just seemed like there was a formula there and nobody really stood out. Lidia was beautiful and random guys developed crushes on her and she not only had a sort of boyfriend but also had Ander and every other guy that looked at her. Give me a girl main character who is confident in herself but doesn't have boys wandering around her like cows off their feed. I want strong girls who have insecurities but are honest with themselves.

Building on that was the sex. They are teenagers at boarding school. They're going to get it on. But it felt out of place if we're going to be honest. There was very little sexual tension for me because it was treated so casually. I think that if they weren't all having sex with each other, the relationships might have worked better. It went from zero to a hundred real quick. Lidia was thrilled about someone's pinky touching her thigh and then they were in bed together. It was rushed and there seemed to be little consideration for the stuff that happened between the first kiss and sex. That's not to say that it needed to be racy but it jumped around too much. There is awkwardness and deeper kisses between those things. There is more frustration and anxiety. The characters need to have more interaction with each other between those two settings other than just avoiding each other. It was a missed opportunity in that regard because there could have been more build up there.

GIVE ME MORE FEELS

The kids never actually seemed to be in class or at camp. They were supposed to be students and camp counselors but there was never any mention of them actually participating in any significant way. When I was at camp, the counselors were always busy and when I became in charge of 80 seven year olds for a few summers, I understood why. There is always something that needs to be done and you don't have a chance to go work on your tan. At school, there's always homework. Especially at a school that has high college acceptance rates and these kids barely seemed to go to class! I wanted a few classroom scenes but they were noticeably absent.

It just felt like parts of the book were missing. I was looking for tension. I was looking for teachers and kids getting caught out at night but it didn't seem to happen. This book could have been a hundred pages longer because it seemed like some of the descriptions and interactions had been pared down. Readers want to know what classroom life is like and what they do on their days off. Sometimes, it is good to see the characters lounging around talking shit and it just wasn't there for me.

But you know what? I probably would have really enjoyed this book in high school when I really think about it. It's a young adult book and I think it would be perfect for young adults. I wanted more from it but that might be because I like high tension and more crazy drama. I want high speed chases and hiding in the woods overnight with ghosts surrounding the main characters. The drama in this book was, I feel, suited for a particular age range and that worked well.

Big thank you to D.A. Paul for contacting me and providing me with this ARC!

Oh my goodness, am I getting old? Is that really happening to me?

Book Review: Phantom by Susan Kay

HELLO ALL!

It's been a while. If we're going to be honest here, I've been crazy bogged down with school. It's online classes but holy shit there is a ton of reading and work and I haven't had time to read. Add that to an ever expanding obsession with KDramas and people that feed that obsession and I am just short on time for everything.

But I'm back! At least for now. And I have a book review!

Phantom by Susan Kay has been a favorite of mine for a really long time. I first got hooked on Phantom of the Opera stuff in high school. I watched the movie with Gerard Butler, I read the original novel by Gaston Leroux and I found this book. Then, in college among moving stuff from dorm to home and back again, I lost my copy of it! It's probably still floating around somewhere but I bought a new copy and I'm so thrilled that I was able to read it again.

Phantom really delves into the mind of the Phantom, Erik. He isn't just a mindless psychopath living in the basement, praying on young women. He has motivation. He has his arrogance. He is brilliant and so broken in this. Every aspect of his adolescence is so twisted, from his mother refusing to give him any warmth to his imprisonment in the gypsy camp to losing the one man who he could call a father figure. You begin to understand how he became the way that he did.

God, this book hit me so hard in the heart the first time I read it. It's so dark. It's so hopeless in many ways. You see someone suffering for how they look, despite their amazing mind and you wonder what would have happened if he had had love as a child instead of fear and scorn.

“I am not forsaken! I'm no longer alone in the darkness! Before my eyes I see a thousand little devils lighting black candles along the path which leads toward the edge...the blindingly beautiful edge.”

The secondary characters are remarkably well built as well. I hated his mother, Madeleine but you can understand her fear. In that time, Erik would have been seen as an abomination. There would be no place for him in society because of his image and you desperately hope that wouldn't be the case now. She was scared of this child that had so much intelligence but was hampered by her revulsion towards him. She was a young mother whose husband just died and she saw Erik as a curse. I can't imagine.

And then the Daroga. And the architect in Italy. Where he had once had hope and friendship, he managed to lose it all. I feel like throughout the book, up until he meets Christine, Erik strives to be a better person but his situation in life turns him into the sadistic person that he is.

“My mind has touched the farthest horizons of mortal imagination and reaches ever outward to embrace infinity. There is no knowledge beyond my comprehension, no art or skill upon this entire planet that lies beyond the mastery of my hand. And yet, like Faust, I look in vain, I learn in vain. . . . For as long as I live, no woman will ever look on me in love.”

My biggest fault with this book is the last ten to fifteen percent. The last little bit where he finally meets Christine and succumbs to the madness that he has been fighting for so long.

“She wanted an Angel of Music . . . an angel who would make her believe in herself at last. I'd been the Angel of Doom for the khanum. There was no reason in the world why I could not be the Angel of Music for Christine. I couldn't hope to be a man to her, I couldn't ever be a real, breathing, living man waking at her side and reaching out for her . . . But I could be her angel"

I hated Christine. She follows blindly and doesn't question anything. Lamb to the slaughter. And I'm not saying that she was supposed to be more worldly since she was only 20 and had hardly experienced any of the world but I wanted her to have more doubt than she did. Erik loved the idea of her more than anything else and she knew it. She couldn't make decisions on her own except on the occasions of threats against her or others. She ruined Erik's character for me since he had been so resolute and strong for most of the book but finally crumbles under an obsession.

But I guess that's the point of it all. He is supposed to lose it. Erik finally relinquishes control of his mind and basically damns himself. It's all so sad and terrible and that's why I love this book.

If you haven't read this book, you need to. It is such a beautiful supplement to the story that most are familiar with and it only enhances the musical and the original book. Seriously, go get it. Now. Do it. It's wonderful.

I promise I will get back to regular posting and reading other blogs. I've just been so busy it's ridiculous! Take pity on me and don't forget about me! I'm still around. I'm just lurking.

Book Review: Phantom (Dark Musicals #1) by Laura DeLuca

I went through a stage of my life, right before college, where I was absolutely obsessed with Phantom of the Opera. It started with the movie that had Gerard Butler as the Phantom which led to reading the original novel, then Phantom by Susan Kay, and eventually having the pleasure of watching the musical on Broadway a couple of times.

I wanted a new interpretation of the novels with a high school twist, a character just as distorted and flawed as Erik but with more modern problems. I wanted the beauty of the prose of Susan Kay's Phantom with the wonderful storytelling of Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera but in the end, I was more disappointed than a child opening a Cracker Jack box and there not being a toy inside. 

First: the blurb from Goodreads since I'm not going to bother writing one

The “Phantom” was a musical phenomenon that Rebecca had always found enchanting. She had no idea that her life was about to mirror the play that was her obsession. When her high school drama club chooses “Phantom” as their annual production, Rebecca finds herself in the middle of an unlikely love triangle and the target of a sadistic stalker who uses the lines from the play as their calling card. 

Rebecca lands the lead role of Christine, the opera diva, and like her character, she is torn between her two co-stars—Tom the surfer and basketball star who plays the lovable hero, and Justyn, the strangely appealing Goth who is more than realistic in the role of the tortured artist. 

Almost immediately after casting, strange things start to happen both on and off the stage. Curtains fall. Mirrors are shattered. People are hurt in true phantom style. They all seem like accidents until Rebecca receives notes and phone calls that hint at something more sinister. Is Justyn bringing to life the twisted character of the phantom? Or in real life are the roles of the hero and the villain reversed? Rebecca doesn’t know who to trust, but she knows she’s running out of time as she gets closer and closer to opening night. Only when the mask is stripped away, will the twenty first century phantom finally be revealed.

 Alright...I should have known better from the blurb.

I am pretty much over most high school drama, mostly because my experience was incredibly different from a lot of these characters' that you read these days. I went to a small school with a graduating class of 55. Most of us were in the same classes for 8 years together so you sort of learn to live in harmony. Are other high schools this horrible where kids are attacking each other in the hallway and there are catfights and challenges being thrown about like confetti?

Anyways, Rebecca is one of those girls who has never done anything special in her life and then suddenly decides to try out for the main role of her favorite musical. She (of course) lands the role of a lifetime with Christine and she thinks that she connects to the character in a special way. After all, she has spent her life in the high school equivalent of the chorus dancers, staying out of the way and trying not to do anything to gather attention but she can't pass up this opportunity.

So she gets the role, pisses off the popular girl, gets the popular boy Tom to finallyOMG notice her and then the creepy goth guy shows up and steals all of attention. Justyn has a beautiful voice but a tendency towards lurking in the corners and singing lines from the musical to her. Carmen and Debbie, her best friends, think that he's strange and urge Rebecca to stay away from him but she can't resist him and finds herself drawn to him.

Tom, who is supposed to be the basketball player who surfs with an awesome voice is the most over done character I've seen in my life. He's supposed to be perfect and blonde and pretty and oh wait...

I've seen this character before somewhere! I wonder where...

Moving onto Justyn. The goth boy with inconsistent character descriptions. He was originally described with facial piercings, eyeliner and black lipstick. He wears fishnet shirts and chains on his boots. Now, with my obsession over KPOP, I've gotten over most reservations about guyliner but the black lipstick is too much. There was some hazing at my college where the girls in sororities made the pledges wear black lipstick so if they made out with a guy at a party, everybody would know. Sorry, but black lipstick + making out + creepy character role = taking it too far. 

And he loves his cape and takes every opportunity to hide in the corner and lurk. He takes himself too seriously and fucking calls himself LORD JUSTYN I SHIT YOU NOT. 

Not only that, but randomly the author decides to insert that he is Wiccan into the plot. It does nothing to further the plot but seems to be there just to make him a little bit more different and make it so that his mother won't take him to the hospital when he breaks his ribs. I'm all for natural healing but I'm speaking from personal experience that when you break your ribs, it fucking hurts. It is difficult to sleep, especially if you break them on your side and a little bit of willow bark tea is not going to help much as far as pain scale goes. Take him to the hospital and get him some decent medication and treatment so the boy can sleep!

THIS BOOK WAS TERRIBLE.

Want some quotes? Well, you're getting them anyways. Prepare yourself...

"Why are you so nervous, Becca?" Carmen Webber asked. "You've got to be the only person in the school who's had the entire script memorized since kindergarten. Besides, you have an amazing voice. You're going to be fine. Really!"

 I hate teenybopper pep talks, especially as an introduction. Off to a bad start.

"He's the stagehand the Phantom kills right before the intermission. He gets hung."

 Being hung is something completely different than being hanged. I get that they're in high school but the editor should have caught that.

"I'm not the one who's been upstaged by some usurping loser from the geek squad."

 Ahahahaha...I miss insults like these. It's like all the old teen movies are coming back to laugh at the modern world.

"The phantom always used a noose to kill his victims."

 No...he used a Punjab lasso that was utilized like a garrote. Educate yourself.

"I can't believe you two would actually read that dribble on purpose."

 This is dribbling. The word you are looking for is drivel.

"I've put up with your crap for long enough, Wendy. The jibes. The looks. The nasty comments. Well, I've had it. It stops now. I got the role of Christine. I have the better voice. And you have been upstaged. Get over it and get on with your life. Being a bitch isn't going to change things."

 Ugh, sassy standing up for yourself is soooooooo two thousand and late.

"His one cataract eye was oblique and almost glowing"

 Did you even try to edit this thing? Your eye can't be oblique. Cataracts can make your eyes opaque though.

"Willow bark is just a plant."

No, it is the bark off of a willow tree which is where aspirin is derived from. As stated earlier, if you have fallen and broken your ribs, you are going to want a little bit more than some diluted aspirin tea.

"I heard he hung himself in the bathroom stall."

 HANGED. He hanged himself. You can't "hung" yourself. It is grammatically incorrect and therefore impossible.

All of this is before even considering the plot, which felt like it was *insert yourself here* fanfiction. Rebecca has no obvious flaws besides being so stupid that you wonder who ties her shoelaces every morning. Her friends are bitchy and have an opinion about everybody and everything. Debbie is described as the scary Amazon (which I personally take offense to) and doesn't stand up for herself through the entire book. Tom and Justyn fighting over her is the most played out plot line ever and the bitchy horrible Wendy is the most stereotypical mean girl I've ever seen.

I honestly cannot fathom how this thing is rated so high on Goodreads. A 4.05? Are you fucking kidding me? The author can't even call the musical by its proper name, doesn't credit the quotes that she used correctly and spells Andrew Lloyd Webber's name incorrectly at the start of the book. For a fan of Phantom of the Opera, it sucked at being a good tribute to the work.

There are two redeeming qualities from this book. The plot twist was unexpected (but not well written). I can honestly say it surprised me. The other is that it has made me want to find some good Phantom of the Opera literature and reread Phantom and the original novel.

So skip this one. Don't come near it. I've more than warned you. If you are an avid fan of Phantom of the Opera you will be excessively disappointed.

Book Review: Hello, I Love You by Katie M. Stout

ARC received in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley.

If you know me, you know I love KPop. And I was so flipping pumped when I got approved for this book. But then the negative reviews started and I got a little bit apprehensive about it. But I charged ahead and I read this book anyways.  Let's just say that the negative reviews are well deserved.

Quick Summary: Grace moves to South Korea to get away from the drama of her family. It's spontaneous and crazy but she can't handle life anymore with her mother and her past. She enrolls in an international boarding school and finds herself immediately taking a liking to her exuberant roommate, Sophie. But Sophie's twin brother is a music star and is cocky beyond belief. He has a right to be though. He's famous, gorgeous and obviously talented. 

But Grace moved to Korea to get away from the music industry that her family is so entrenched in and she wants nothing to do with Jason. Being friends with Sophie means that she has to get along with her brother though and soon a grudging alliance forms. Grace realizes, after spending so much time with Jason, that not all is as it seems and not everything in his world is perfect. Their bonding sparks a romance that crosses language barriers and obvious fatal flaws in each other.

I'm just going to come out and say it: Grace is a ridiculous spoiled brat of a bitch. She's blonde, skinny, pretty, and is a princess in the music industry. She can't sing or play instruments but she's *awesome* at composing and is fantastic at everything.

She has trust and panic issues but it isn't really enough to make her relatable as a character. I wish someone in the book would have told her to lay off and actually be respectful of Korean culture and her friends but that never happens.

Grace repeatedly bashes Korean culture and shows such American elitism it made me want to gag.

"So people do play Western music"

She never really makes an attempt to dive in headfirst and opts to complain about everything that they do in Korea. Women wear skirts during winter? *Judgement* Girls are skinnier than her? *Judgement* They like to listen to bubbly pop music? *EXCESSIVE JUDGEMENT*

"I’m not sure what I expected--that they would be good? Pop is in the name of the genre. That never bodes well for the quality of the music. But I guess I’d hoped since they’re a big deal, they would be more than your average bubblegum band. After ten songs, my brain is ready to explode."

Get off your high horse. You sound like a baby. And it's not that I don't like her music taste. It's actually pretty good stuff in my opinion. But there's no need to be that person that judges everybody based off of what they are playing and listening to.

I guess that out of everything about Grace that bothers me, the worst is her obvious disdain for everything that she hasn't been exposed to. She tries to flaunt her hipster cred at every opportunity and it made me want to punch her in the face. 

Moving on now to some other flagrant flaws in this book.

Jason flip flops. He doesn't have any real personality to me. One second, he is cold and removed and then he is apologizing. This author started with what could have been a strong character in him but seemed to sort of give up and try to make him nice. I like him mean and rude. I liked how he pushed Grace and made her lose her cool. Jason clearly just didn't care and that was part of his character and all of that changes very quickly. He turns from outwardly aggressive to making snide comments and trying to push everybody away.

Sophie is obnoxious as well. She's happy and bubbly (which is fine) but for being a "best friend" she abandons Grace for a guy. And then tries to hide it from everyone. I can understand hiding a relationship with your brother's best friend from him just so it doesn't get awkward, but don't sneak around and act like nothing is going on and lie to your roommate. Everybody knows. Just be honest.

Honestly, out of all the characters, I liked Yoon Jae the most. He came closest to what I expected out of a book about KPop and he is thrown under the bus as far as character development goes. Yes, he's the drummer of the group but maybe he got roped into something he didn't want too. Everybody treated him like he was the one that caused the tension but really, he was just as unhappy as Tae Hwa and Jason in the band. Doesn't anybody else consider his dreams too? He wanted to be an Idol and he had to play backup to a sexy singer. Yoon Jae could have grown so much more and could have competed a bit more for Grace but he is one of the most passive characters I've ever encountered.

It's telling when your favorite character is a secondary character that has little to no personality. But hey, he danced and he sang and he was what I wanted when it came to a Korean star.

The plot was rather weak as well (now that I've raged about the characters). Grace helps Jason with a music project and somehow ends up being her Korean tutor despite not being able to read Korean. And then later, magically, he can write in Korean. It doesn't make sense. Sophie drags Grace around the country following the guys like a groupie and it came off as desperate. Yes, you're there to support your brother but it's borderline stalker for the guy in the group you like. It seemed awkward and forced.

Grace's mother and father are obviously a point of contention throughout the book and Grace has some baggage that she's carrying around but it never felt real to me. It felt like a plot device throughout and it was too dragged out. She focused on it too much while there was other stuff going on. What about the concern for your roommate? Does she not matter anymore?

Ugh...sorry for the rage filled review. When I hate a book, I always find I have a lot more to say about it. I wanted sexy KPop. I got a little bit of drama and a whole lot of whining. Whatever, I'm over it. Crash and burn.

So this book definitely deserves the negative reviews. It portrays Americans as elitist and self centered. It barely shows any of the Korean culture. The main character is a complete bitch and her love interest is so contrived it's ridiculous.

All of that being said, if anybody has any suggestions for other books based on KPop, I'd love to hear them. I watch Korean dramas a lot and I love stuff like that so I would love some more input!

One Star

Book Review: The Other Side of Envy by C.L. Stone

This is my shameful series. The one I don't talk about to my friends (except for the other fangirls). The books you hide under your mattress but you can't put away completely. This series is a guilty pleasure that I can't step away from because I have to know what happens next ohmygod. I admit that this isn't the finest of literature but if you want a fun and dramatic read with a fair amount of suspense, The Ghost Bird series may be worth a shot. Just don't blame me when you become obsessed with reverse harems. Usually, when I talk about these books, there is a long warning at the beginning of my post. 

I sat and thought a lot about this book. It has taken me a few days to be ready to review it and it slipped from a 5 star OMG fangirl book to a 3.5. Trust me, I have my reasons.

Because let's be honest here. Nothing really happened in this book.

The best way to look at these books is as if you're watching a TV show. There are episodes that are action packed and you're constantly trying to keep up with what is going on throughout them. There are car chases and wild rescues and face to face conflicts. Then there are the episodes in between that support the craziness of the other episodes. They are quiet and are filled with the details of day-to-day life that you miss sometimes. There is character development but it isn't thrilling.

This was not an action packed book like the others. There is a fair amount of people spending time with each other and learning secrets and strategies. It wasn't boring by any means but it still makes you feel like you are missing something.

That being said...

There is a lot to fangirl about in this one.

Gabriel...Just Gabriel.

He's a hard character to understand sometimes. I feel like a lot of the time, he comes off a bit as a sassy diva type character and he's hard to take seriously.

He's creative and wants everything in his world to be beautiful. That's why he paints his walls and dresses up Sang. It's why he shops for everyone and fusses like he does. The only beauty in his life is his team and they keep him sane. But it's hard to keep up with the guys and Gabriel definitely has his weaknesses.

And I loved that this book exposed that in him. He isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Like the rest of the guys, he has his scars and this book allows Sang to explore that and help him in some ways.

Victor and Sang's relationship gets the chance to grow stronger in this book since we didn't see a lot of him in the last one but also, we get to see more of Dr. Sean Green. Which is awesome since it is breaking down that barrier between student and teacher in a real way. I love that all of the guys are struggling to hold themselves back from her as if they are scared of what they will do and how she will react. But I honestly wish they would stop treating her like she will break at any second. Luke is the only one with that kind of confidence in her and that's a bit heartbreaking.

As far as the plot goes, not much happens in this book. Volto doesn't crop back up really and while the whole phone tag thing is going on, it takes a back seat to the relationships. There's a lot of playing hot potato with Sang and you get this feeling that she's getting a bit sick of it. When will this girl get a driver's license? Seriously. This is ridiculous. The girl obviously needs to learn how to drive but she doesn't have a valid birth certificate or social security number so who knows how they will accomplish that.

So since we all know where this is going for her, does anybody else wonder about how all of these guys are going to live together with her? I don't care who you are, fitting 10 people in a house with all separate rooms is going to be difficult.

I keep imagining this as their nightly routine:

Kiss one, kiss them all, say goodnight, retreat to rooms until one of the guys decides to make a move on her. When will this girl assert herself in a real way? It's driving me crazy. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, these books are not about a strong female character. It reminds me of animes that have been created from otome games where the guys go through all of the action and the girl just follows along. The only difference is that in those animes, they try to develop the female character a bit better.

Sang seems to have lost a lot of her personality in this book so that's another reason why I downgraded it. Before, she was a little bit spunky and was developing an attitude but in this one, she just follows them around. If it weren't such a fun and ridiculous story line, Sang would make me one star these books. You read them for the guys, not her.

In conclusion, these books are a soap opera. Action happens in some episodes, in others it doesn't. This is one of those where you learn about all of the plotting and wait for the next book where everything comes to fruition. It's frustrating, but that's what this series is about.

I'm still a fangirl and I am still waiting on the next book. I obviously have problems.

I've warned people off these books before so I ask cautiously, had anybody else read them? Any other fangirls out there? Can somebody hear me?