Broken (Broken) by Kelly Elliott Review

Series: Broken #1
Publish: November 17th 2013 by Kelly Elliott
Format: ebook, 354 pages
Rating: 5 / 5

Synopsis: Layton Morris and his brother Mike grew up not knowing what it would be like to live in a normal home. With no running water or electricity in their home, no parents around to protect them, they quickly learned how to survive and depend only on each other.
When a tragic accident takes Mike away from Layton, and the only other person that he ever let into his heart walked away from him, leaving his heart shattered, Layton focuses all of his time and energy into the ranch he and his brother dreamed of. He makes a vow to himself to never let love in again. The last thing Layton needed or wanted was more heartache.
Whitley Reynolds grew up in a privileged home in upstate New York. When she landed the star football player in high school no one was surprised, not even Whitley. She dreamed of a life with Roger living in New York City and happily followed him there.
The first time Roger hit her for arguing with him about a dinner party, she forgave him. The more it happened, the further Whitley withdrew from her friends and family. One fateful day things go to far. Whitley makes a promise to herself and finds the courage to do the one thing she thought she’d never be able to do.
Fleeing with her best friend Courtney, Whitley was determined to put her past behind her and start a new life in the small town of Llano, Texas, where no one would ever find out about her past.
Will they both ever learn to trust and love again, or will their pasts come back to haunt them, keeping them both alone and...
Broken.

Review:
  Kelly Elliott has an outstanding talent to create stories which are extremely sweet and steamy at the same time. Okay her books are a little bit predictable but not so much. She can create exceptional situations and can make the same situation a bit different every time giving them a novel feel, atmosphere. There is little bit of a similarity between this series and her Wanted series. Both takes place in Texas with cowboys and loveable best friends, whom stir up the events. But there are plenty of differences between them. First of all that in this book there is an older cast and has a more mature and darker topic.

  Both of the main characters have a lot of emotional and physical scars. They come from very different worlds, backgrounds still they have a similarly hard past.
  Layton’s father left him and his brother so they had to grow up really fast and only could rely on each other. If it wouldn’t be enough he lost his brother and the love of his life left him, too. While Whitley has a beautiful and good childhood but her taste in boys is not the best. The man she chooses for husband slowly turned into a monster and completely broke her. They hit rock bottom and thought there is no way out they met.

  Their first meeting is not roses and love; they are constantly at each other throat. However these little disagreements and the banter between them turn into attraction somewhere along the line. They learn to love again with each other help and thanks to this they get over the obstacles. The sexual tension and the chemistry are palpable. It’s impossible to put down the books until the two main characters confess their feelings and take the road to emotional healing.

  The plot is built typically in Kelly Elliott style, makes a full circle. It’s a fluidly flowing story that sucks the reader in completely. It’s full of romance, amusing little events, emotional debates and a lot of pleasant moments in the company of a freshly formed circle of friends. Of course there is a lot of drama and a bad guy too. The author not only endears her characters but makes the reader an addict. I can’t wait to read the next book, however not because of Courtney and Reed but because I hope there is more Layton and Whitley in it too. Courtney and Reed behavior with each other makes it hard to like them.

  About the cast? There is an extremely sexy cowboy, who is a bit closed up in the beginning but slowly opens up and shows his true personality. He is really passionate, caring and sweet and all of this without losing his masculinity. I couldn’t help myself; I constantly smiled during reading his point of view.
  Then there is Whitley who is the perfect damsel in distress, but still a very strong and persistent character. She is really honest and loveable; it’s easy to relate to her.
  We also get a very detailed description about the secondary characters too. And they are the levers for the main characters, whom on the edge of giving up in the beginning of the story. Despite this Courtney and Reed couldn’t get along, in each other presence they act like completely different persons and most of time it’s an ugly change. I know it supposed to prepare their story but it’s not really appealing.

  I absolutely love this book and hope there are a lot of people who agree with me. A fantastic story, I can recommend it to anyone who likes light romantic books.

By Viki

Firebolt (The Dragonian) by Adrienne Woods Review

Series: The Dragonian #1
Publish: September 19th 2014 by Fire Quill
Format: ebook, 394 pages
Rating: 5 / 4

Synopsis: Dragons. Right. Teenage girls don’t believe in fairy tales, and sixteen-year old Elena Watkins was no different.
Until the night a fairy tale killed her father.
Now Elena’s in a new world, and a new school. The cutest guy around may be an evil dragon, a Prince wants Elena’s heart, and a long dead sorcerer may be waking up to kill her. Oh. And the only way Elena’s going to graduate is on the back of a dragon of her own. Teenage girls don’t believe in fairy tales. Now it’s time for Elena to believe – in herself.

Review:
  I’m not much of a fun of books about dragons, but the beautiful cover and the synopsis got my attention. The story’s not really what I was expecting, it was even better.

  I was expecting a medieval setting, instead we get world that is a more advanced but still full of magic and fairytale like creatures. It is a beautiful and colorful world, perfect for the mysteries and excitement the book presents. The author writing style is great and the story flows easily. The whole installment narrated by Elena who is new to this magical place so we experience every little detail alongside with her. Her reactions and emotions come through spectacularly. It’s strange how easily magic and technology work together in Paegeia, but if we break down the story, the bare core of it a simply fairytale where the heroic prince who saves the day is replaced with Elena.

  Beside the beautiful world the book has a fantastic cast, too. Elena, the heroine, has no clue about magic and dragons so everything is quite a shock to her. The acceptance comes slow and hard and however much hers is the most realistic reaction I ever read about, sometimes she acts so dumb and infuriatingly hysteric. Then in no time she accommodates to her new life and genuinely tries to understand her new surroundings. That is until the first hardship, when she returns to the dumb, hysteric girl from the beginning of the book, some instance she even acts as a brat. So even if she portrays the most realistic reaction from someone who just finds out about the supernatural world I was expecting a stronger and more resilient main character.
  Becky and Sam, her room-mates personalities aren’t constant trough the story. My first impression about Becky was that she is a quirky, scatter-brained, mouthy and more of a laid back person, later she shows a more badass but also entitled side of herself. Sam transforms from strong and free-spoken to a skittish and gentler character. But they have a really strong friendship and they quickly include Elena in it, too. They are also extremely loyal, understanding and have a rebel spirit. Then there is Lucian, the quintessential prince charming with more determination and stubbornness than anyone. He is a stereotype through and through. I wasn’t too happy about his advances but as my other reviews show I usually like the dark ones.
  Blake stays an enigma and acts like somebody with multiple personalities. There are also a lot of interesting secondary characters, whom add to the book complexity.

  I have two big problems with the story. One is the pacing or at least the pacing of Elena change. In the first ¾ of the book she struggles to adjust to her new life then in a blink of an eye she starts to plan her grandiose world saving mission. It’s too fast change for my taste. The other is a minor detail which is the fact that a lot of “mystery” or secret is really obvious and predictable. You can guess almost everything from the clouded stories if you play attention. Unfortunately it has the potential to ruin the further books. So I’m hoping for a twist in the installment.

  Despite the little kinks I really enjoyed the story. It is well constructed, exciting, interesting and has a little bit of everything a fantastic fairytale needs. Looking forward to Thunderlight.

By Viki

Spun (Kings of Chaos) by Shyla Colt Review

Series: Kings of Chaos #1
Publish: April 12th 2015 by Hot Ink Press
Format: ebook, ? pages
Rating: 5 / 3.5

Synopsis: Born to a King of Chaos patch holder with a case of wanderlust and a self-centered mother, twenty-one-year-old Nevada Weber is used to taking care of herself. She's spent her life skating by on her wits and pure determination. When she lands in a situation, she can’t haggle her way out of, she’s forced to rely on another brother for help.
Club enforcer Gage “Wizard” Carmody has done his job too well over the years. Icy and numb on the inside, he walks around in a prison of his making. When the bright green-eyed girl he helped raise winds up unclaimed and in need of protection he steps in seeking redemption. In a life where destruction lurks around the corner, they discover something with the potential to bring healing and happiness.
But when you live in Chaos nothing goes as planned.

Review:
  I randomly choose this book from my TBR list without rereading the synopsis and since I couldn’t remember it I ‘went in’ kind of blind. I even was contemplating to abandon it after it became obvious that there is a huge age difference between the main characters. I can tolerate a lot of gruesome thing in books but for some reason I don’t like books where is a huge age gap between the characters in a relationship, especially one where they could be parent-child and the older character helped raise the other since birth. That’s my limit. However this book has a really great writing style and the story sucked me in from the beginning so I continued. I didn’t regret it.

  The book has a very good structure and the story flow fluidly. It’s kind of short but it spans in a sufficiently long time. There is a bit jumping in the timeline but way it’s go by in it just makes the story more believable, more realistic and not as insta that in other similar stories.
  The book is narrated from two different points of view. We see thing from Nevada and Wizard side, too.

  Nevada is 21-years-old but has an old soul. She had a lot of hardship while growing up so she is a pro survivor but besides surviving she doesn’t do much else. She’s not living just existing or as she states in multiple occasions she floats through life. It’s hard for her to trust in anybody or even just enjoy herself. But she has a clear picture about life and a quite different personality under the hard, quiet and shy outer shell she formed around herself. It’s time for happiness. Oh, and I think she is the first character who doesn’t make a fit about how ‘her man’ treats her, she knows her place. Don’t get me wrong I don’t agree the way they treat woman in MC books, but if you willingly enter a relationship like that then don’t whine about it.
  Wizard is older than Nevy and known her form birth. He also had to grow up fast and had a hard and unusual childhood, but he found a family with the club. He is quite levelheaded, respectful and reasonable but also has a harder, scarier and more dangerous side he needs when dealing with club business. He is not a saint but not too bad after you get to know him.

  My only problem is that I think the story has a lot more potential in it than the author used up. It could have been more detailed. I also think that the ending is rushed.
  There is plenty of action, emotion and twist and my heart almost break a couple of time.

  I liked the, it gone full circle, has a beginning and a satisfying ending but still short. I liked how it relays emotions in times it’s almost palpable. It’s an MC book but not that harsh and crude than others. I think I’m gonna check the author other works, too.

By Viki

UnTouch Me (Angels Warriors MC Trilogy) by Dawn Martens Review

Series: Angels Warriors MC Trilogy #2
Publish: April 20th 2015 by Dawn Martens
Format: ebook, 220 pages
Rating: 5 / 4

Synopsis: The truth always comes out, no matter how deep you try to bury it. Secrets never make their way to the grave.
Lilly Mayer has always lived a simple life. She’s loyal—maybe too loyal since faithfulness cost her the love of her life. Keeping Eden’s whereabouts a secret from everyone, including Vinny, has ripped away Lilly’s future.
Vincent “Zippo” Torino knows he’s a goddamn bastard. And he’s willing to use Lilly’s loyalty to Eden as his own escape from a hell he created. He doesn’t give a damn that he’s leaving the woman pregnant with his child behind—not when he has to protect his own destructive secret. And not when he’s sure she’s going to beat him to the punch and leave first.
As the dangers to the club escalate, nobody’s hearts—or lives—are safe.

Review:
  I absolutely love Dawn Martens’ books. However the first book in this series was a huge disappointment for me. That’s why I was a bit reluctant to read this one, but with the way the first book ended I couldn’t help myself.

  Fortunately the structure of UnTouch me is so much better than UnKiss me, that purely this gave the story a better chance in my book. It has a clear timeline with a couple of well placed glance in the past here and there, but the most positive difference that it has a preceptible beginning and a more or less clean ending. Still has a cliffhanger but at least it’s feasible. This is what I was missing from the first book the clear, follow able and logical timeline.
  Sure there are still things bugging me but it would be strange if all of the books I read ended the way I want them.

  This story is told from different characters point of view but the books strongly intertwine with one another. We get to know Lilly and Zippo story but the conflict from the previous book starts to unfold on another thread, too. I like that we get some kind of explanation for things that happened, even if it’s not a full one, yet. Most of these connecting events are surprising and not even remotely predictable.

  Lilly and Zippo’s story is kind of heartbreaking and depressing. Honestly the characters in this series have a really twisted, screwed up values. All they do are making stupid mistakes and decisions. As in the first book with Eden and Angel, now with Lilly and Zippo the secrets rule and eventually destroy their relationship.
  I don’t want to rant about their screw ups because then my review would be full of spoilers and I don’t want that, but let me tell you this Zippo reasoning simply pissed me off. He has extremely strong double standards and in times even act disgustingly. More importantly he doesn’t have a remotely justifiable reason for his actions, like Angel has, other than being a prick.
  Lilly is kind of naïve, a bit too forgiving but loyal to a fault. Her loyalty causes her a lot of grief. In my opinion she deserves better than Zippo, but love is blind.

  Overall this book is much better than the first installment. It’s of heartbreaking emotions and drama with better structure for it. I liked it and it’s more like Dawn Martens other works.
  The way she lined up the stores in the series is a new idea, and it’s good when authors try new thing out but it’s not working, for me at least. In this genre I like when the story is clean cut.
  I hoping for a happy ending, and a triple one at that, in the next book and I’m quite curious about the mysterious ‘Unknown’ characters’ identity so I’m gonna read the next book and I hope the next story is going to be more like this one than the first.

  Oh and the cover is freaking amazing.

By Viki

Yield the Night (Steel & Stone) by Annette Marie Review

Series: Steel & Stone #3
Publish: March 27th 2015 by Annette Marie
Format: ebook, 278 pages
Rating: 5 / 5

Synopsis: After surviving a round-trip to hell, Piper figures she can survive anything. After all, she just lived through the devastating loss of her Consul apprenticeship and a torturous stint at boarding school. How much worse could it get?
Well, she wasn’t expecting a group of crazy radicals to burn her home to the ground and take her prisoner.
The Gaians, a.k.a. the crazy radicals, plan to rid Earth of daemons and they need Piper’s help. In exchange for her cooperation, they promise her the answer to all her problems: magic. With her own magic, she could reclaim her apprenticeship, the only future she’s ever wanted. But her magic comes at price — it could kill her.
With the life she’s always known crumbling around her and her future slipping from her grasp, she needs Ash’s help one more time. But the greatest danger of all lies within her, and no matter what she does, she may lose everything — including him.

Review:
  The story starts a couple of months after where Bind the soul ended and as the previous books, starts with a dose of disappointment for Piper and quite a much action.

  We know the Gaians from Chase the dark and now they are back. Let me tell you Piper didn’t luck out in the parent department. With an emotionless, workaholic dad and a mother with a childlike delusion and a naivety what leads to overly grandiose and misplaced plans of world domination, it’s a miracle Piper hasn’t got a few screw loose. Okay as Piper states in the story to the Gaians have a couple of great idea but they also portray it through notions similar to the ones that led to the Third World War in their history. They also want to squash everything they don’t know or fear, even if they don’t have a chance. This part is typical in dystopian stories and I really don’t like it, so it’s true for the Gaians too. What pissed me of even more was Piper’s mother’s willingness to sacrifice her so called ‘destined to be together’ daughter. Unfortunately their angle doesn’t get a solution so I think they going to cause more problems.
  In the story we see into the Overworld, so we get to know all the planes there are in this magical world. There are a lot of beautiful descriptions about the places our heroes visit.
  After a while our trio reunites and their dynamic is back but not as intensely as in the first book and there is a couple of reasons for that.
  Piper is more confident in herself but her life turns so complicated through the course previous installments that her emotional stability becomes questionable. There are much more emotion in this story but is works spectacularly. We find fewer action scenes but a lot of answers for unanswered questions. Again a completely different atmosphere.
  Piper and Ash relationship reaches its peak and finally blooms, not with the best conclusion but they are so cute together its melt the heart. There is still hope for their happy ending.
  Ash’s sister is the biggest obstacle between them. She is really mean, manipulative and more like Samael than Ash wants to admit. As Piper states it they don’t know each other as much as they think, at least Ash still sees the little girl she once was. I hated her especially the way she tried to chase Piper away. She usually strikes where it hurts the most, breaking Piper even more with every jab.

  There is a lot of beautiful scenarios and otherworldly being in this book what proves the author has a really colorful imagination.
  This story isn’t that fast paced and has a little less action but its emotional depth gives that little plus I was missing in the previous books, thanks to this I gave it a 5.
  Originally I thought it’s going to be the last book in the series but it quickly became obvious that it’s not. I don’t really mind that there is gonna be a fourth book but I think Ash and Piper deserve a HEA especially after how this one ended. I’m curious about the next story since we already got three books with completely different undertone but the same plot thread.

By Viki