miras_booverse's reviews
413 reviews

"A Game of Hearts" by Lola King is one of those books you keep thinking about, even until you're reading, that stay with you for a long time after you're done.

It's always been hard for me to write about books that have truly touched me and found a place in my heart because I feel like no matter what I write, I won't be able to fully convey the experience I had.

"A Game of Hearts" is a raw palette of emotions. Raw, because it makes you experience in the most real, genuine and powerful way every emotion that the characters go through until you feel like you can no longer endure it. And yet you keep reading because it's much worse not knowing what's happening to them than figuring out what and how life throws at them again. Someone once said it: it's like watching a car crash - it's terrible, but you can't take your eyes off it.

Once you start it, you will encounter a wonderful writing style that immediately manages to influence and get the reader into the story and into the lives of the characters without it seeming forced or hasty. It is rare for an author to be able to grab me with the first 1-2 pages, and if it does - even less often continues to keep my interest all the time so it continues to grow and become even bigger. Lola King, however, immediately became an exception, with whose books I can't wait to continue. The book is extremely difficult and on a very deep level it touches on a variety of topics, but on the other hand it is so beautifully written that I still can't stop thinking about it.

 ✨The thing is, I never realized Rose wasn't protecting herself when she used to keep things from me. She was protecting me.✨ 

The story and the characters are complex, well build, and each of them is displayed in front of the eyes of the readers so that they can see the hell the characters are going through, which makes a fantastic job at getting to know them and feel those imaginary people, almost like a real person the reader knows. This, as well as the understanding of where the plot will go and what one of the main problems will be, can be seen from the very beginning of the book.

 ✨She doesn't hold herself like a queen. No, queens were always in the shadows. Rose holds herself like a king. Like she owns the power, knows it and isn't afraid to wield it.✨ 

The characters themselves are extremely different from each other, but at the same time they complete and fit each other so well that it was like looking at four pieces of a puzzle.

 ✨Look at us, a group of simple humans. The only thing that makes us special? Insanity runs through our veins. Our blood is poisoned with a passion for chaos. And chaos we found in each other. ✨

First of all, we have Rose and Rachel, whose scenes are absolute fire, grief, sadness, happiness, crossing boundaries, and total self-destruction. I rooted for them and their happiness and the need to see them together calm and safe.

 ✨"My, my," she whispers, "Rose White on her knees for me."
"Anytime, baby."✨

Rose and Lick are a wild-sized fire. From the moment there were even little moments of sexual tension between the two, I didn't want to take my eyes off them anymore, I just needed more and more.

 ✨"Lik... Oh my god..."
"You gonna come for me?" he hisses against my lips. "Show me. Show me that it took. One. Fucking. Night for me to own this p*ssy."✨

The couple Rose and Sam are similar to watching two trucks that are stepping up towards each other and whose drivers are best friends, without anyone wanting to step back from the accelerator. There is a clash of wills, the outpouring of too harsh words and love in the most beautifully toxic way anyone has ever witnessed. At least up to a point. After that, it remains just beautiful.

 ✨"You've lost it", I breathe out, my voice a murmur trying to reach his crazy mind.
"Yeah," he nods. "You've finally done it. I've fucking lost my mind."✨ 

Lick and Sam are a hot passion with wonderful dynamics that, in addition to making me happy, made my legs swathe.

 ✨Lik is big on being protected from the evil eye. He doesn't understand that he has nothing to fear when the evil sleeps in his bed and fucks him regularly.✨

Sam and Rachel are strength, intelligence, control, friendship and love brought together and springing between them whether or not they are in one place.

 ✨"Your mere presence does unexplainable things to my heart. So don't you ever go away."✨

And Rach and Lick - they are happiness, friendship, freedom and carelessness that brings only joy and sweetness to the reader while reading about them.

 ✨It's funny how it often takes extreme situations for us to sit down and think about how we feel about the people around us. Life happens so fast, and we never take the time to feel anymore. There was a moment tonight I thought I might lose Rachel.
It took that to realize I would lose a woman I love.✨

The relationship between the four of them made me enjoy the understanding, care, love and wonderful family they create just as much as they made me explode with each of their erotic scenes. I haven't read such a hot thing in a long time, and I can safely say that every written word is a delight to the mind of the reader himself.

 ✨I love it simply because that's the home where my family and I live.✨ 

I would say that from one point things get very bad for the characters, but this will be a pure lie, because they never stop getting themselves in more and more trouble from the beginning to the epilogue itself.

 ✨What I don't tell him is that I don't want to taste happiness. I want to taste revenge.✨

And yet the climax feels even higher than all the characters' problems and all the other moments before it. Extremely good, full of action, feelings, dynamics and tension. And the best part is that for the first time then we can see the quad working as a team, which is an invaluable experience! The surprise after it and before the epilogue was just as good, as straining and liberating, as emotional and harsh as the climax, which for me was another proof of how great a masterpiece this book is.

The ending filled my heart with happiness for the main characters, because everyone got what they deserved and dreamed of.

I know I'm not only going to read everything else by Lola King, I'm going to re-read "A Game of Hearts" soon because I want to experience the story of Rose, Rachel, Sam and Lick again. And I already can't wait to do it.
~~~
Rating: 5/5⭐

✨~~~This book was provided to me by Valentine PR for my honest opinion.~~~✨

"The Wildcat" didn't disappoint me, no matter how much I initially feared it wouldn't be able to get to the level of "The Keeper." Once again, I couldn't stop reading and the story of the characters caught me up completely. 

✨We might destroy each other, but I'm not going down without a fight.✨

It didn't take me long to like Everly and Cross as a couple, and it took all in all 15 pages for my curiosity about their story to hit the ceiling. The chemistry between them was brutal, the start of their relationship and interactions – so cool, and their hot moments raised the degrees as if we were in the middle of summer!

✨Sensations flood me. Ones I shouldn't be having. 
Words press at my lips, wanting to be said.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
Words I have no business thinking.✨

The characters were built very well without their stories weighing too much on the reader, although their past is not very easy. The really serious topic of sexual assault is touched upon, which, however, is passed on in a light way without the author belittling it.

The plot moves at a great pace, keeping the interest as it does not contain boring or unnecessary scenes, used for filling.

✨"We all get hurt at some point, Evie. That's why the good things in life feel so good. If everything was easy, how would anything be amazing?"✨

I love how much of a mess the whole big family combinig the Sinclair, Kingston and their friends are and that they also appear often in the book, so we can see that their lives continued. I can absorb their stories for weeks without getting bored! And that’s how much I love the characters Bella Matthews created.

Again, the climax is nothing special, I would even say that it is not noticeable here at all, and there was a possibility to become quite strong. On one hand, I really like the fact that the author does not introduce unnecessary dramas, but on the other, I have the feeling that she has missed an opportunity for the book to become even stronger and more influential with this climax.

The ending was great and now I'm looking forward to the next book in the series!
~~~
Rating: 4.5/5⭐

✨~~~This book was provided to my by Valentine PR for my honest review.~~~✨

The book had the potential to be great and it really wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything special either. I had just passed the first 60 pages when I realized that no matter how fast and light it might be to read it couldn't grab me the right way. In general, I read it because I had it as a read, not because I wanted to read it that much.

Much of the time I had the feeling that the author is trying too hard to build her characters into the well-known stereotypes such as the mafia leader, who is alpha male, terribly dangerous and wants everyone to obey him and the FMC who does not know when to shut her mouth and deliberately gets on his nerves just to challenge him. However, this did not go very well, as everything seemed forced, hasty and the chemistry between the main characters lacked almost to the middle of the book, and was strongly pushed in the face of the reader from the third chapter which did not do it for me. In the beginning, things happened too quickly, which did not allow me to delve enough into the nature of the situation in which the FMC was, but later the pace slowed down a little, so not everything was so rushed. And speaking of the situation in which Aria had fallen, which was the beginning of the story, and after probably five chapters, everyone forgot about this storyline, except for the occasional mention that she needed protection and therefore married Mikhail.

✨"Oh, you look amazing. Of my brother doesn't swoon for you, I'll marry you myself."
"Now wouldn't that be a plot twist," I murmur.✨

The characters are not the most superficially built, although there is no real depth either. They weren’t even in the golden mean – the reader rather understands a little about them, just to see that they had some life before the beginning of the story and that's it.

As I said - even if I did not like them initially as a couple, or more precisely - if they were indifferent to me, around the middle of the book my feelings for them warmed up and I began to like them. I want to emphasize that their teamwork is great and the scene where they had to cooperate for the first time to get away from the bad guys was very cool. And yes, at one point their scenes were cute, but they weren't as hot as the author was trying to get them out and honestly - their erotic scenes weren't written well enough to flicker something inside me.

✨God, I love when he gets all bossy on me, and I can show off.✨

The dynamics of the book are quite good, and I really appreciate that it was not only about the relationship between the two main characters, but also about the mafia war that was being waged between Mikhail's family and another family. It was these different subplots that made the action constant.

And I get to the point where everything went well, but the author has decided that there should be a drama between Mikhail and Aria, so something popped up literally out of nowhere, and this is an approach that I really do not approve.

Overall - I'm not particularly fascinated, as "Sovereign" for me was nothing special, but it was still not the worst. It just couldn't spark my interest and make me like it enough.
~~~
Rating: 3/5⭐

✨~~~This book was provided to me by Valentine PR for my honest opinion.~~~✨

Piper Rayne has a very light writing style that you can pass through in no time. It is not too detailed, but it is not completely superficial either, which leaves it in the golden mean - it gives enough information to the reader at the right time, so that the story runs smoothly and is interesting enough to follow to poke his curiosity.

Now, friends to lovers is a trope that is not one of my favorites, although I do like it. Much depends on the performance itself whether I fall in love with the couple or just get annoyed at their poor communication, which is most of the time the main reason for them not being together. There have been times when I go crazy about the story with such trope, but unfortunately, "Something Like Love" was not one of those. Don't get me wrong, Elle and Cooper are cute together, and from afar you can see how strong the bond they have with each other is. I liked them as a couple, and every now and then I even had something on the inside that fluttered for them as I followed their story, but the book never completely hook me.

✨I liked the guy and respected him for asking me if he could date Elle, but now that it actually seems as though it might become something, I'm starting to lose my shit. He's treading on my territory.✨

Their characters are built well, even if they are not very deep and complex. They are great for a light romance book.

I know that the book is not as closely related to erotics as other similar ones, but it had these kind of moments, and I cannot fail to note that they seemed to be rushed just as so there would be such scenes. For this reason, the sexual tension between the main characters was not good, although they have tremendous chemistry.

✨"If you love him, go to him, and when there are problems, love him harder. If you both truly love one another, you'll figure it out. I promise."✨

The climax made me puff and roll my eyes because it was extremely unnecessary the way it was written and rather added completely unnecessary drama and ended up with me disliking the FMC.

✨"I can't do it, Elle. I can't come second. Not when I'd put you first every damn second of my life. I want to share my life with someone, not feel I'm dragging them along for the ride."✨

The ending was sweet and nice. I even think that I would better like another book from this series, because the couple from it grabbed my interest very much, so I do not exclude the possibility of trying it.

In general, it was not a bad book, it just was nothing special for me and it won’t make me remember it for a long time.
~~~
Rating: 3.5/5⭐

✨~~~This book was provided to me by Valentine PR for my honest opinion.~~~✨