5 stars 2-17-2022 Feverish - 5 stars I’ve read the story of Jet and Emily before this so I thought I’d just skim it and write my review. But as soon as I started reading, I remembered how much I love Clay/Jet and his history (two women he loved who broke his heart, making him afraid to love again). Meanwhile, Emily is recently engaged to a man she doesn’t love because she feels he’s the smart, secure choice. Both try desperately to fight their attraction to one another There’s a scene near the end that has a description I loved. Clay is nervous that Emily is going to reject him and his mouth is dry as he tries to contain his emotions. But then: “She smiled as a tear welled over one of her eyes. ‘I love you too, Clay.’ Then he couldn’t hold back and brought her face to his. The dryness in his mouth had gone with his words, and he knew why. This woman—she was his water, his life. She was everything. I absolutely love this story! 2-18-2022 Be Careful What You Wish For - 5 stars Jade can tell one hell of a story. I actually found myself questioning whether this one would have a HEA. This is told in the past-tense exclusively from the POV of Jessica, the "homewrecker." Jessica and Kage have both survived pretty tough childhoods, leaving them both rather damaged, but although Kage seems to have suffered more tragedy, Jessica seems to be the more adversely impacted. She carries some heavy baggage that has necessitated the hardening of her heart and a healthy dose of suspicion and jealousy. Surprisingly, both seem to feel very deeply and are honest from the start about the connection they feel, as if they are soulmates. This means that even when hurting, neither can intentionally hurt the other. At one point, after a particular bout of crazy on the part of Jessica, Kage sits down with Jessica to have a heart-to-heart. She allows all of her insecurities to carry her away and imagines his intentions in the most poignant way. She likens his gentleness to that of someone whose beloved pet has reached the point where it must be put to sleep, and although it hurts him because he loves her, he must let her go. The pain she experiences and the corresponding realization that she loves him so much she must let him go for his happiness is the ultimate demonstration of selfless love. She then thought, “If Kage was not my soulmate, then life ws a lie and everything I’d felt in my short history had been meaningless.” I have only one complaint. I'm not naturally a suspicious or jealous person, but even I found some of Kage's actions questionable and could understand Jessica's reactions, although I did find them a bit excessive. After all, wouldn't it be easier to just ask? As for Kage, I couldn't understand why he didn't just explain things to her so she wouldn't jump to conclusions, especially after the first incident. In the end, though, I had to chalk it up to both having human foibles greatly shaped by their pasts. Ultimately, I loved the story, which was unusual and memorable. 2-19-2022 Tangled Web - 5 stars I recently read this book, so I remember well the story of Katie and Johnny. Best friends from childhood, both are secretly in love with the other, while hesitant to risk a friendship that means so much. Riley, another childhood friend, is mentioned in a not-too-flattering light, but in a not-so-unusual move, Jade later gives him his own story in which the misunderstood hell becomes a lovable hero, but that's another story. 2-20-2022 Love and Music - 5 stars I’m not crying; I have dust in my eyes. I’m always a sucker for a second-chance romance and this one does not disappoint. Meg and Tyler loved one another in high school and drifted apart after graduation. As the story unfolds, we find out that she broke up with him right after Prom because he’d be going to CA to pursue his dream as a musician while she’d be going to school in Kansas on a scholarship. Ten years later, Meg has a Master’s in Library Sciences and works as an assistant librarian in their small-town library while Tyler has achieved massive success as lead singer and guitarist of Madversary, a heavy metal band. They haven’t spoken in all that time, which to me, seems a bit silly, but I guess Meg felt that was the best way to get over him. Of course, she hasn’t. She’s still in love with him and compares every date to him and everyone else comes up short. She continues to try dating sites, “Even though searching through hundreds of men cut into my valuable reading time…” The story is told from Meg’s POV so we’re never really sure what Tyler is thinking, but we have a decent sense of how he feels. One of my favorite things about this book was Meg’s voice. She is sarcastic, clever, and outrageous, and some of her thoughts made me laugh. I burst out laughing when she thought, “I was by no means a stalker but there were times where my browser history might have made me a suspect had Tyler ever turned up murdered or turned into a skin suit.” Meg does not want to attend her ten-year high school reunion, but her best friend Lisa convinces her to go anyway. Her biggest hope/fear is that she’ll see Tyler. Her descriptions of her high school reunion made me thankful that I have never attended one of mine. I also suspect that there are people I won’t remember, based on perusal of my yearbook. She described her experience by explaining there were “a few people I hadn’t either loved or hated had probably dropped out of y memory bank in a use-it-or-lose-it fashion. F—. I did not want to be here, forced to remember and make nice.” The snark continues with observations like this: “That was the last thing I should do—which was probably why I agreed.” And this one also made me giggle: “Oh, the inner snark was fighting to jump out as if she’d been invited to a cage match…” And when deciding whether to do something because she might be slightly intoxicated, she decides she “would have made the same stupid decision stone-cold sober…” I think she may be my favorite character (translation: I’d like to be friends with her). I identified with Meg more than any other character in this collection. She was fairly level-headed and thought things through, up to a point. Unfortunately, she was so afraid of losing Tyler that she was willing to let him go before he could hurt her by leaving. It took her friend’s encouragement to make her consider that it was better to love and lose than never to try. Trite, but Meg needed to learn that lesson. I have to say, I couldn’t believe Meg fell for the lies of her arch-nemesis, Tamara. Seriously, why did she believe her when she knew Tamara would do anything to hurt her? That was the only flaw in the story. 2-20-2022 State of Mind -5 stars I hesitate to even rate this because it was so short. It’s really just an intro to Mike Norbert, former lead guitarist of Spawn of Satan, and his sad, hopeless life. It’s really just a teaser to the next book, but it was well-written and gave me an insight into who he is. February 20, 2020
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Elizabeth J ConnorWriter. Editor. Proofreader. Archives
September 2022
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