Review: All Your Perfects

'' ''If you only shine light on your flaws, all your perfects will dim.'' ''

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

From Goodreads:
Colleen Hoover delivers a tour de force novel about a troubled marriage and the one old forgotten promise that might be able to save it.

Quinn and Graham’s perfect love is threatened by their imperfect marriage. The memories, mistakes, and secrets that they have built up over the years are now tearing them apart. The one thing that could save them might also be the very thing that pushes their marriage beyond the point of repair.

All Your Perfects is a profound novel about a damaged couple whose potential future hinges on promises made in the past. This is a heartbreaking page-turner that asks: Can a resounding love with a perfect beginning survive a lifetime between two imperfect people?

An unfortunate coincidence brought them together. Life tore them apart. 

Review: Always Forever Maybe

'' It would be easier if he were dead. ''

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

From Goodreads:
When Betts meets Aiden at the candy store where she works, their connection is like a sugar rush to the heart. Betts already knows the two of them are infinite. Inevitable. Destined to become an us.

Betts has only ever kept one secret from her best friend, Jo, but suddenly there’s a long list of things she won’t tell her, things Jo wouldn’t understand. Because Jo doesn’t see how good Aiden is for Betts. She finds him needy. Possessive. Controlling.

She’s wrong. With a love like this, nothing else matters.

Letting go of something is almost always the hardest part. 

Review: #Toots

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

From Goodreads:
A British non-romantic comedy built on white lies, pink elephants and grey areas.

LONDON: Four sisters swipe left on everything they hate in their life, one cocktail at a time.

Louise dreams of an exotic lifestyle, miles away from Hackney.
Nick comes along. Famous, fit, funny and filthy rich.
Louise will stop at nothing to seduce him.

Louise will fake it till she makes it. All the way to the ka-ching bling ring.
But the little white lies soon snowball into a mountain Louise’s Louboutins can’t climb.

Jess juggles work, two babies, a cheating husband and nannies from hell.
Carla goes on a bender, and wakes up next to her young assistant. Freddie.
Emily is getting over her cheating ex by throwing herself into the dating scene.

When work, dating and proposals…all go wrong, the four sisters’ friendship is their only lifeline.

If it can go wrong, it will go wrong. But there's nothing that a sisterhood cannot take. They may momentarily collapse from the weight, but they'll climb back up, with revenge.

Mini-Review: Cassidy (Hotel #2)

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

From Goodreads:
There is no better remedy for a broken heart than a holiday with your sisters. Holly Claire arrives in Hawaii determined to forget Benjamin Henderson. Fate wants her to forget him too. In her first six hours, Holly runs into the same delicious man no less than three times. When she literally runs into him, Sean Cassidy becomes determined to make it more. What harm could a holiday fling do?

Holly's story could not have ended with Henderson, it felt more of a beginning of a journey through Holly's love life.

Holly doesn't have the luck in love. She is the forgotten one in her family, having concentrated only in her career the past years instead of the family's political image. And after what happened with Benjamin Henderson, she just wants to escape everything. And though the idea of having a rebound with more than delicious hotel manager sounds perfect, Holly knows that it won't help her get over Henderson. 

Sean Cassidy tries to solve the mystery that is Holly. The chemistry between the two is sizzling and irresistible. The two characters play well together and separate. The reader has already gotten to know Holly a little in the previous book, and the background story gets more weight in Cassidy. The reasons behind Holly's estrangement from her family becomes more clear and more questions about her past arise. 

I wonder what the third instalment brings and how many hearts it will break? There's just something magnetic in the writing that pulls you in and leaves you wanting more.

Review: Unbecoming

'' ''Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies.'' ''

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

From Goodreads:

Katie's life is falling apart: her mum's controlling, her dad's run off, she's in love with someone whose identity she can't reveal and now her estranged grandmother's turned up on the doorstep and Katie's expected to take care of her. Soon Katie discovers she's not the only one in her family hiding the truth. If she's going to get her life back together, she's going to have to expose everyone's deepest secrets - including her own.

Katie's lived her life just like her mum's wanted her to live. Endless practise for maths and never-ending piles of homework are her norm. It doesn't matter what Katie wants, if her mother commands something to be done, then it shall be done. But Katie's not quite sure what she really wants.

Review: Omitted

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

From Goodreads:

Secrets. Scars. Solitude.
Those three words now define her life.
And the big one, Silence.
But this is not a vocabulary lesson. This is a story about a girl; a girl who chose to keep silent.
Did she make the right choice?

SHE IS DROWNING IN SILENCE.
When Hannah wakes up in the hospital, she makes a decision to feign memory loss about the events that landed her there. Now a college freshman, she’s determined to put the past behind her, but she’s coming to realize that silence may be her biggest enemy.

WILL SHE LET HIM LOVE HER?
Within minutes of meeting Hannah, Parker quickly discovers that trying to befriend this prickly girl will be like hugging a cactus; it can only end in pain.
But Parker loves a challenge, and he makes it his mission to put a smile on that girl’s face. The more he knows about Hannah, the more he wants to find out. If only she would let him get close to her…

Hannah is done letting anybody in, but being surrounded by so many cheerful people—especially Parker—is tempting her to open up again. Maybe even fall in love.
Will she put an end to the lies?
Or will she keep pretending?

Sometimes lying about it feels easier. Maybe a colouring a little here and there so it doesn't look so bad. But omitting the truth entirely, that's when you know something is truly wrong with the situation.

Review: Rich People Problems (Crazy Rich Asians #3)

'' ''We're too rich to have problems.'' ''

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

From Goodreads:

When Nicholas Young hears that his grandmother, Su Yi, is on her deathbed, he rushes to be by her bedside--but he's not alone. The entire Shang-Young clan has convened from all corners of the globe to stake claim on their matriarch's massive fortune. With each family member vying to inherit Tyersall Park--a trophy estate on 64 prime acres in the heart of Singapore--Nicholas's childhood home turns into a hotbed of speculation and sabotage. As her relatives fight over heirlooms, Astrid Leong is at the center of her own storm, desperately in love with her old sweetheart Charlie Wu, but tormented by her ex-husband--a man hell bent on destroying Astrid's reputation and relationship. Meanwhile Kitty Pong, married to China's second richest man, billionaire Jack Bing, still feels second best next to her new step-daughter, famous fashionista Colette Bing. A sweeping novel that takes us from the elegantly appointed mansions of Manila to the secluded private islands in the Sulu Sea, from a kidnapping at Hong Kong's most elite private school to a surprise marriage proposal at an Indian palace, caught on camera by the telephoto lenses of paparazzi, Kevin Kwan's hilarious, gloriously wicked new novel reveals the long-buried secrets of Asia's most privileged families and their rich people problems.

It's two years since Nick and Rachel got married. They have been living their life separate from Nick's relatives, and far away from Asia's richest drama. Nick's grandmother has a heart-attack and Nick flies to her bedside, to find out his been banned from Tyersall Park. What ensues is a play fulfilled with drama, backstabbing, and gossip, where the only one you can trust is yourself and everyone else is your enemy.

Review: Jake's Redemption (The Angel Eyes Series Prequel)

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

From Goodreads:
An imprisoned cowboy. An empowered woman. When true love is forbidden, opening their hearts could destroy them both…

Chained and enslaved, Jake Nichols is convinced he’ll die alone. In this new order where men are stripped of all power, he endures brutal torture at the hands of his female captor. But when he’s hired out to build a ranch home for an outspoken beauty, his dreams of escape transform into visions of passion.

Monica Avery struggles to fill her heart in a loveless society. With marriage outlawed and romantic partners reduced to pawns, she’s given up hope of finding her soul mate. But the rugged rancher building her shelter awakens her deeply buried desires.

As the project comes together, Monica discovers a kindred spirit in the tenderhearted Jake. But despite their growing attraction, he still belongs to a cruel woman who’d rather see him dead than free.

Can Monica save Jake, or will their love lead to a tragic tomorrow?

Jake’s Redemption is a full-length book in the Angel Eyes cowboy dystopian romance series. If you like scorching-hot chemistry, clever post-apocalyptic worlds, and star-crossed love stories, then you’ll adore Jamie Schulz’s captivating tale.

Most of us take freedom as granted. We are used to living in a world where we don't have to think about losing our right to make decisions for ourselves. When the war strikes in this book, the normal lives that you and I live, turn to the slavery of the previously dominate sex, the world is thrown into chaos.

Review: Daughter of Fire

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

From Goodreads:

Laura led a sheltered, middle-class existence. Oh, she knew she was adopted, but what did it matter? A lot when her birth mother is murdered and the killers come after her next...for reasons that are deep in her very blood.

Based on the synopsis, there isn't much to go on so deciding to read this book was a true leap of faith. This time it just went in the wrong direction. Laura knows she is adopted but hasn't confronted her adoptive parents yet. Then the police officers arrive to inform her that her birth mother has been murdered and that they think that the killer is after Laura as well. Thrust into witness protection that fails to protect her leads Laura on a hunt to find the truth behind her mother's death and ultimately, her own true heritage.

Review: The Sidewalk's Regrets

'' I love this boy. I love him. And he loves me. But is that enough? This time I'm not sure it is. ''

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

From Goodreads:
Seventeen-year-old Sacha McLeod isn’t looking for someone to rock her world. But when she hears the boy in the music store play the guitar, the music thrills her and she falls hard for Dylan and his sound.

Sacha finds herself spending less time with her violin and more time with this guy. Her plans for her violin-virtuoso future—and her self-confidence—are shattered when she screws up the audition for a summer music program. Failure isn’t something she’s had to face before, so when Dylan asks her to spend her vacation with him in the city, she lies to her parents, pretends she won a place in the summer school, and secretly moves in with Dylan.

She’s expecting romance, music, and passion, but when she finds herself playing second fiddle to Dylan’s newly acquired drug habit, she realizes despite what the songs say, sometimes love isn’t all you need.

Falling in love might change the priorities in our lives. What used to come first is now the last thing on your mind. At least for a while. Then, people around you begin to notice the changes you are experiencing, they start to get worried, and the vicious cycle of deceit and lying begins.

Review: Eternal Soul

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

From Goodreads:
Reign Elise La' Roche is savvy in business, evasive in love, and private and protective when it comes to her personal life. Born in the flavorful city of New Orleans, she is also the descendant of powerful hoodoo magick, age-old African mysticism and dark family secrets. This Creole beauty is content living a charmed existence; that is, until a strategic retaliation against her father changes her life forever. Reign is suddenly tossed into a whirlwind of betrayal, magick and the awakening of a whole new world where nothing appears to be in her control.To protect and preserve her lineage, Reign soon learns that she must embrace the one thing she'd fought years denying...a bloodline of ancient power. And with time, Reign evolves from a successful artist and gallery owner, to a woman of unlimited means and potential with one climactic goal: vengeance.

I am quite disappointed with this book. Too high expectations when going in played the most part in this, but still. The book took entirely another direction than I thought it would.

Review: Kingdom Cold

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

From Goodreads:
Attempted murder, that's how sixteen-year-old Princess Charlotte's engagement starts. It seems like the only thing she has in common with Prince Young of Vires is their mutual discontent.

When her kingdom's attacked, Charlotte's parents renegotiate her hand in marriage to a handsome stranger with a sinister plan. With the people Charlotte loves dying around her, and her kingdom's future at stake, the only person she can turn to is the prince she betrayed. But, should she save her kingdom or her heart?

One must fall.

Princess Charlotte of Besmium made it clear to her parents, she doesn't want to get married. Not now, and not in the near future. Even the idea of someone robbing her from her one chance at freedom terrifies her to the brink desperation. She acts out a reckless plan that almost costs herself the entire kingdom.

Review: Realm of Beasts (Legend of the Nameless One #1)

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

From Goodreads:
An enchantress and a wizard get tangled in the grisly plans of an undead creature.
Tor Lir, the Nameless One, is unsure what he is. However, he knows he was born to bring balance to the powers of good and evil.
Forsaking his birthplace and fleeing from suggestions of a dark knowledge he’d rather not discover, he decides to take his fate into his own hands.
A chance encounter with a dead body, a dangerous beast, and a desirous creature lead him on the path to Paradise, where he senses imbalance.
Banished from her village and lost in a wicked forest, Citrine makes a deal with a dark creature, but that was before she found Paradise—the legendary land of a friendly giant.
Falling in love with the land, Citrine takes advantage of her time to study the lore of herbs and craft a spell of protection for her mythical beasts.
When darkness creeps into Paradise, bringing the mysterious Nameless One and an omen of death, Citrine realizes the consequences of her actions spell danger for herself, her beasts, and Paradise.
As time runs out the undead come to life. Citrine faces the ultimate showdown as everything she holds dear is ripped away.
Will the Nameless One save Paradise or destroy it to welcome an era of peace?

Reading the synopsis of the book again after finishing the book, I wonder, if the synopsis is meant to serve as the primary introduction to the world of the book, so that there doesn't have to an introduction in the story itself.

Review: Shadow Eyes (Shadow Eyes #1)

'' ''Are you sure you're ready to have your eyes opened to the truth?'' ''

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

From Goodreads:
Iris thought she could ignore the shadows…until they came after everyone she loved.

Seventeen-year-old Iris Kohl has been able to see both dark and light figures ever since a tragic incident three years ago. The problem is, no one else seems to see them, and even worse…the dark figures terrorize humans, but Iris is powerless to stop them.

Although she’s learned to deal with watching shadows harass everyone around her, Iris is soon forced to question everything she thinks she knows about her world and herself. Her sanity, strength, and will power are tested to the limits by not only the shadows, but also a handsome new teacher whose presence scares away shadows, a new friend with an awe-inspiriting aura, and a mysterious, alluring new student whom Iris has a hard time resisting despite already having a boyfriend. As the shadows invade and terrorize her own life and family, Iris must ultimately accept the guidance of an angel to revisit the most horrific event of her life and become the hero she was meant to be.

Iris didn't want to see the shadows. She wanted to be normal, but little did she know that her life would be far from normal. Meeting new people and navigating the treacherous path of being a teenager in the middle of real-life drama might just be the beginning.

Review: Hauling Checks

'' At Checkflight we always had the customer's best interest in mind. ''

'' Oh well, what you don't know can't hurt you. The engine seemed to be running okay. ''

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

From Goodreads:
I'm a cargo pilot. In the industry, I'm known as a "Freight Dog." I fly canceled checks and other types of high-value cargo around the country, mostly at night, in airplanes that are older than I am. Flying freight-or "work" as we call it-in small, twin-engine aircraft is a lesser known side of the aviation world. Our day starts when banker's hours end. Thousands of flights move millions of pounds of work from city to city every night while the rest of the country is asleep. We're out there in the freezing rain getting de-iced when you're laying down for bed. We're sweeping the snow off our wings with a broom at three in the morning. That horrible thunderstorm you heard last night while you were sleeping, we were flying through it. The fog you woke up to in the early morning hours, we were landing in it.

Hauling Checks is a comedy about the darker side of aviation. A cast of degenerate pilots, who work for a shady night time air cargo operation, take you on a flight through the unfriendly skies. The pilots abuse every Reg in the book in their quest to make deadlines for their high value cargo. As the company falls on hard times, management resorts to questionable measures to save the failing airline.

Hating your job is quite normal, especially if your working conditions are far from comfortable. But when you are flying a plane that was supposed to be scrapped a decade ago and most the flight-computer is so old that it isn't compatible with anything anymore, the job as a pilot doesn't seem so glamorous anymore.