bryckklovesbooks's reviews
630 reviews

My first dystopian paranormal romance and I loved it!

I must stress to you, please read the triggers. This was my first dystopian novel and I loved it. It was strange and a little weird, but I became fascinated with it. A world where the supernatural are the dominant species and humans are reduced to food sources and a means of entertainment.

Darius is a vampire who attends an action for a human blood slave (a routine event for the upper-class vampire society). There, he purchases Juliet, a human who is kept a virgin and trained from birth to be the perfect blood slave. She is educated and trained to be the perfect "pet" for a vampire of the highest bidder. After being purchased by Darius, she expects to be used and passed around at his request and leisure. What she doesn't know if that Darius has a plan to deprogram Juliet and "free" her in his crusade to rid the world of the barbaric practice of human slavery.

I loved watching Juliet "unlearn" everything she was taught. At times, I wanted to cry for Juliet and hug her. There were also times when Darius made me so angry, I wanted to reach into my Kindle and kick him, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the method behind his madness, and I enjoyed watching them both develop strong feelings for each other. My only complaint is that this story wasn't longer!

This book was excellent. I highly recommend!

Happy Reading!

Excellent writing tool. I was introduced to it in college and its still on my bookshelf. A must have for every serious writer!

In a word... "WHAT?!"

Since there is nothing, I can say that won’t be a potential spoiler, I’ll limit my review to two points:

1. I feel like this was an epic waste of my time. This is NOT what I signed in for when reading this type of novel.

2. As a fan of JT’s past books, I found this one to be a huge disappointment.

I know a lot of people enjoyed this. But it’s not my type of reading. All others who dare, happy reading.

This was a very interesting read.

I loved the plot and the story really took off fast. I really don't have anything bad to say about this as it did hold my attention throughout. The ending seemed rather rushed. As if the author grew tired of her own story and rushed to end it. Other than that, it was a good story.

Nothing extraordinary... just a good story.

Happy reading!

Alexander & Elena: What a Sweet Couple!

Alexander Kennedy was a man scorned. Between finding out his fiancee cheated on him and his father's adulterous scandals made public, he no longer believes in love. So imagine his disdain when he finds out the only way to acquire the CEO position after his grandfather's retirement is to do the last thing he wants; to marry. So, when his old childhood friend (also the sister to his nemesis, the man who stole is fiancée from him) finds herself in a financial predicament, he comes up with the perfect plan, He will solve her financial problem if she marries him. Sounds simple but the thing about the Kennedy family is, no matter the situation or circumstances, divorce is out of the question. The Kennedy's marry for life. Given his mother's unhappy situation, Alexander isn't seeking love and whomever he marries will have to deal with a life without love, from him at least.

At first, Alexander (Alec) came off as sweetheart, but it seems the minute he found out the true identity of Elena, he turned into this jerk! It seemed like he enjoyed throwing the fact that she needs him and his money. He seemed to take every opportunity to throw this up in her face. She was a kind soul and it seemed like he admired her for it but was annoyed by it. I'm glad that as the story went on, he mellowed out and became to the man we were first introduced to in at his first introduction.

This was a very sweet romance and it was a nice change of pace to the hard, dark stuff I've been reading lately! LOL If you want a sweet romance with a dash of family drama and shenanigans, you will enjoy their story. Be sure to download the bonus chapter! It's just a little extra sprinkle of sugar on this already sweet romance.

Happy reading!

Antonio and Daniella are amazing!

The "Sinful Empire Trilogy" is the type of book series that will make you smile, cry, and ball your fists up in anger. In a nutshell, this book is awesome for it!

Antonio and Daniella are thrust together based on a promise and a betrothal contract. Daniella doesn't want it and Antonio wants it for reasons that concern business and marrying the daughter of the man that mentored him is not in the plan. Soon as he meets Daniella, the sparks fly between them both. Soon they are thrust into danger as the acquisition of Daniella's family vineyard brings Antoinio more power that puts both of their lives and thei loved ones in danger.

This book took me through a myriad of emotions. I found myself frustrated with Daniella and even more frustrated with Antonio. But, oh the ride these two took me on! Antonio is a right bastard! LOL He has the worst potty-mouth and is so disrespectful. But, I'm here for it! LOL The secondary characters kept my attention and I wished Cristiano had his own book. I would have loved to see him take the lead in his own story.

This is definitely as trilogy with triggers. Antonio is a true alphahole and at times, he made me shake my head in utter disgust. But as hard as he is on those around him, he loves even harder. He's a very strong character and by the end of the trilogy, he didn't break character but he did become much more likeable. This is a good series which I read stright through. Well done, Ms. Charles. You've found a fan in me! Excellent Series!

Happy reading!

This book surprised me.

Surprised me in the sense that it wasn't as hard and dark as I expected, compared to some other books I've read in this genre. But, I wasn't mad at it. But, I wasn't very happy with the way this book ended. Let me try to explain without any spoilers...

We meet Belle, a single accountant with a crappy job and boss. She is on her way to a business meeting in NYC. She has her bratty, teen, kid-sister Elsie, in tow, who she appears to have custody of. She finds out before boarding the plane that she is left to fend for herself to perform an audit of a huge corporation. A fear of flying has her being soothed mid-flight by a sexy stranger, Nikolai, who "distracts" her from her fear of flying. Shenanigans ensue then, lo and behold! The stranger turns out to be a shady CEO of the company she is in NY to audit.

In spite of this "distraction" early in the book, this book is a slow-burn. The author spends a great deal of time building the relationship between the Nikolai and Belle. I enjoyed watching Nikolai transform from the villain to the hero who swoops in to constantly save Belle and her sister. Belle, however, frustrated me to no end. She just kept flip-flopping back and forth and seemed to think Nikolai has telepathy or something and should know exactly what she is thinking.

In a rare move for these types of novels, I'm #teambadguy (Nikolai) on this one because Belle just seems to make the most epically stupid decision ever towards the end of the book that had me scratching my head like, "HUH?!"

There are a few things about this story that I would definitely change. I wouldn't have included the little sister in this story. Elise was a constant irritation throughout this novel. She was mouthy, annoying, and pain in the ass to read about. I just think a better story and motivation could have been provided to compel Belle than a physically present third party.

The "pregnancy trap" was what compelled me to read this book. The way the synopsis is worded leads the prospective reader to think this is the meat and potatoes of the story and it isn't. I'll read the sequel because after reading 500 pages of this, I'm invested and I need to know how this whole mess is sorted out.

A worthy read. Just be mindful that story is a huge reach from the description provided in the synopsis. Happy Reading!

What Happened Here?!

I'm sorry to say... this book was a huge and utter disappointment to me. There are so many things to name that went wrong here. I’ll try to pinpoint some…

The sexual tit-for-tat between Nesta and Cassian was borderline ridiculous. The characters must have been experiencing PTSD after the war with Hybern because no one seemed to be themselves in this book. Everyone seemed to really be out of sorts and didn’t resemble the characters previously presented in the prior novels. Their behavior was a huge deviation from their usual charismatic selves.

As hard as I tried, I just couldn’t like Nesta. I think they took her anger too far. It should have been dialed back a little in the middle of ACOFAS to at least show her making an effort to change her negative ways. Thus, her having to deal with the Cauldron again in ACOSF giving her backslide into bad behavior more credibility. Especially, with the events that took place at the end of ACOWAR. At least then, we’d have something to root for. Her fast turnaround of behavior made the plot all the more contrived.

Cassian is wasted on Nesta. Sad because I really like him. I am all for a slow burn but there was never any close moments in the previous novels to give the heat and type of foundation. Their anger towards each other was the spark that ignited them. Many people like that kind of stuff… if it’s done right, so do I. Sorry! Not the case here!

The bonus chapters left me angry and very upset with Rhys. I won’t spoil it but, his reaction was out of left field and the Rhys in the previous books would never have demanded what he did of his brother. Very disappointing.

*sigh* At least I can go back and reread again. I’ll just stop at “Starlight”.

This book really surprised me.

When I first began this story, I was skeptical but I was drawn to the concept and the very bizarre storyline. This book was definitely marketed well. The brief synopsis was enough to get me to read the book.

"Beast" is a man who is a trained killer after he was snatched from the streets as a child, that has been kept in his cage by his "owner". Enter: Aurora, a crime boss's daughter who has spent her life being extremely sheltered by her father and taught to be ashamed of herself and her sexuality. Shenanigans ensue and these two broken people end up in a cage together. And this is where the story really begins.

I don't want to give too much away but the relationship that develops between these two is very well developed and accurate given the background of both. This is really a love story. I cannot wait to read the next book.

Please pay attention to the trigger warning at the beginning of the book. This book is gritty. and definitely not for prudes or people who aren't open-minded. Sad thing is, this actually occurs more in the real world than we think. I'm glad to see something beautiful come from something so dark.

Awesome writing, Clarissa Wild.

Disappointed...

I highly anticipated the release of the sequel to BEAST, BEAUTY. I must say that I was very disappointed. There were major details about the plot that just didn't make much sense to me.

The book picked up right where it left off, but I found the main character of Beast to be a different character to what was presented in book one. First, Beast seemed very knowledgeable in the ways of the world for someone who spent most of their life in a small, damp cell, in captivity with no contact with the outside world except to be let out to kill. He also seemed very knowledgeable about sex and pleasuring a woman. Did they teach this in "Intro to Killing 101" as a prerequisite? Aurora seemed very naïve and reminded me of cartoon character, Penelope Pitstop, because she always found herself in the craziest of situations that could have been avoided had she not made such stupid decisions!

While the overall plot was good, it was the little details that I don't think the author thought all the way through in order to make this storyline stick. the timeline made no sense, as Beast suffered numerous life-threatening injuries, he seemed to have healed from them overnight. Further, Aurora got on my last nerves and seemed to cry on every page. My biggest gripes were that the behaviors of both characters were inconsistent. Beast acted like a deranged animal one minute and the next like the most civilized person you ever could meet. Aurora was like a inexperienced virgin one minute asking "Oh, what are you doing? This is wrong!" and the next, an experienced super-Saiyan sex kitten chanting "Take me and use me... I'm here to please you.".

Too much went wrong here. I'll probably read this author's work again because I did enjoy the first book. But, I'm sorry... this could have been condensed and wrapped up with a HEA in one book.