Holding On and Letting Go Reviews

Holding On - A
Letting Go - A


Holding On is a story about Quinn starting out being in love with her best friend, Luke. But, Luke doesn't ever make a move when he's in love with her, too. He doesn't want to ruin their friendship. Luke's older brother, Jake, gives him crap for it for years. When they start college, Jake tells Luke if he doesn't make a move, he will. And that's what ends up happening. Jake starts dating Quinn. Quinn forgets all about the feelings she has for Luke, although the feelings are never far away. However, Quinn is head over heals in love with Jake. Quinn finds out she's pregnant and Jake is ecstatic. Luke is not. He still loves Quinn. But, he's happy that she's happy. Jake and Quinn get married pretty quickly after they find out they're having a baby. Life goes on without them hearing from Luke very much. Then, Jake and Luke get back together for a guy's weekend, and Quinn is thrilled that they get to spend time with eachother. She's been heartbroken that she came between brothers. It seems like everything is going well then Meg Jolie hits us hard with about a third to a quarter left in the book. Quinn and Jake are supposed to go to the doctor's office to find out what they're having. Jake is late to the appointment, and then ends up not showing up at all. She has the sonographer write down on a piece of paper what the sex of the baby is so she and Jake can find out together. She goes home and finds what she thinks is his truck, but it's Luke's. :( He tells  her the awful news that Jake has died. At this point, I'm like WTF. It was sudden, they think it was an aneurism. I can't imagine being pregnant, losing the dad, and thinking all the time that the baby will never meet his dad. Heartbreaking. She ends up opening the piece of paper and finds out it's a boy, which Jake had said all along. She gives birth with Luke being there. She's grateful he was there for her. The story basically ends right there.

Letting Go is Luke and Quinn's story about dating and the feelings they've had for eachother for a decade. However, everybody is talking, even Quinn's parents. They don't think it's a good idea that they're together now that Jake is gone. Since Luke has always had feelings for Quinn, they think it's really happy he can move in on Quinn. That's obviously not the case though. But, after one weekend out with Quinn's sister and her fiancee', 2 girls, Tabitha and Betsy, say some awful things that make Luke second guess whether or not he should be with Quinn. He leaves and Quinn is heartbroken when he won't answer his phone. Carly goes and talks some sense into Luke. They end up together. They get their happy ending. In the epilogue, we see that Quinn is pregnant, only about 3 months along but showing alot more than she did with Carter (her and Jake's son). We find out that she's actually having twins! I'm sure we will see more of that in Carly's stories.


My only problem with these books was the lack of sex scenes in the books, lol. I wanted just a little bit more passion between the characters. I didn't like how we saw over and over again the regret of not getting together between Quinn and Luke, but over all I was really happy with these books.

Until next time!
Ashley

Before Now by Cheryl McIntyre

Rating: B+

Loved the story line with this book. Troubled boy, good girl. Life throws them together and gives them a few curveballs. Classic.

What bothered me about this book is that the author would skip ahead without letting the reader know. In some books, the author says "1 week later" or something of the sort. Miss Cheryl did not. It was a bit confusing at first. Or, you would be reading and want to continue with a certain scene and she just ends it.

I loved the length of the book. I would look down and see how far I was in percentage wise and would realize there is a lot going on, and it's only a quarter way into the book. I LOVE THAT.

The guy is Park Reed. The girl is Lucy Braden, or Lulu or Lu. The book starts with a Prologue of Park finding out that girl he thinks he's in love, but isn't even in a relationship with, leaves him for some other guy. Her name is Hope. The new guy is Mason. His best friend, Guy, even knows that Hope wants to be with Mason. Guy is also Hope's brother. Hope is also adopted. You don't find that out til the middle of the book. But, Park comes out and tells a secret of Hope's, that she secretly cuts herself. And he leaves.

We open with Lucy hiding in the building she lives in, playing water war with her friend Jessie. Jessie also knows Park, and Park moves in with him. Lucy squirts Park on accident and then Lucy gets drenched with cold water by Jessie. That's how Park and Lucy meet. He's kind of entranced with her. But, unfortunately, the rules of Park living with Jessie are that Park can't touch Lucy.

Lucy dated a guy named Jared who used to live with Jessie. Jared broke Lucy's heart by being a man whore. Which is just what Park is, now that he's been hurt by Hope.

Lucy lives upstairs from Jessie (and now Park) with her friend Bree. Bree and Jessie are "seeing eachother". And by that, I mean they're friends with benefits. Bree and Lucy are best friends.

Lucy and Park are both very attracted to eachother. But, Park, being a normal guy, tries to push her away. Lucy tries to atleast be friends with him, once she finds out about Jessie's ultimatum he gave Park about her. But, Park doesn't make that easy.

They go through this back and forth thing with being attracted to eachother for a while. Add that with the ending of certain scenes instead of playing them out and skipping ahead and I was getting frustrated. I wanted to see certain things.

FINALLY THEY GET TOGETHER. I wanted to fist pump. The author is very good with her sex scenes. But as soon as it gets good, it goes very bad. Park realizes the feelings he might possibly have for Lucy and he scared the shit out of him. AND, Hope shows up. So he pushes Lucy away. He leaves and finds a girl at a party (who is very much taken) with his old band mates and messes around with her, then takes her back to his place (something he never does) and EVERYBODY IS THERE. Lucy, Bree, Jessie, Chase, Guy, and Hope. He flaunts this girl, Erika, in Lucy's face, when only hours ago they had gotten together for the first time. And then a second time in the shower...(spoiler alert for later).

Lucy leaves, but ends getting woken up by shouting downstairs and see Park getting the shit beaten out of himself by 3 guys. The girl, Erika, is there. She figures it must be her boyfriend and his friends beating Park up.

Park ends up in the hospital. Lucy stays with him the whole time til he wakes up. He doesn't want to see Lucy and she avoids him for a while after he gets home. But, she ends up caving and makes him all his favorite foods. Bree catches her and thinks she's nuts, but she takes the food down to him. As soon as she gets downstairs, she regrets it. But, Park catches her and she leaves the food. Their romance starts back up from there.

Park realizes what an idiot he is for pushing her away and tries to get to her back. He leaves her little gifts, starting from her bed in her apartment, down to his room. He begs for her forgiveness and she sort of gives in.

Then, just when they're getting back together and taking things slow....she ends up PREGNANT! He's 19. She's 20. It was the time in the SHOWER. I think this is a good twist to the story, but where it happens, it's like "How can we see how the pregnancy plays out with only so much left of the book???"

Park is surprisingly okay with the pregnancy. He wants to be there for Lucy and his kid because his dad wasn't always around. *swoon* Things keep going along. He thinks they should get married, she doesn't say no, only not right now. They move in together. She's working extra shifts at the diner.

One night, while she's working, the diner gets robbed. The robber ends up killing her friend at work. Park freaks out. But, Lucy is okay. He proposes again after that, and she says yes.

Then there's an epilogue. I MEAN REALLY?? We miss the birth, and cut straight to the reception after the ceremony. The baby, Emari, is already 7 months old.

I think it ends well, but that's not the ending I wanted.

Overall, it's a good book, especially for contemporary.

Thanks!
Ashley

The Billionaire's Pregnant Mistress by Lucy Monroe

Rating: B-

This book took off in the beginning but towards the middle and definitely the end, I felt like we were going in circles with Alexandra Dupree aka Xandra Fortune and Dimitrius Petronides.

Xandra Fortune is Dimitri's mistress/lover. She's a model. He's a Greek heir. He's forced by his grandfather to get married and produce his own heir. He's basically betrothed to a lady named Pheobe, the supposed perfect Greek wife. Dimitri breaks off the arrangement he has with Xandra. It's dramatic. Xandra wants him to marry her and love her, but he says he can never marry a mistress. She's heartbroken. She tells him she's pregnant with his child. He doesn't believe her because of all the times she was away on a modeling assignment. He has her escorted out of their apartment they shared in secret, but she leaves everything he's ever given her, along with the pregnancy test.

She gets rid of the Xandra Fortune name and everything with it. Modeling, bank accounts, etc. Anything with that name tied to it, and becomes Alexandra Dupree once again, like she was before her modeling days. She goes back to New York and lives with her sister and brother in-law. She experiences awful morning sickness and mood swings. Her mother will not speak with her because she became pregnant out of wedlock,and while she was a mistress and model. She hated her being a model to begin with. The women in her family aren't supposed to work.

Later, when she's 5 months along, she finds out she's having a boy. She goes back and forth trying to make up her mind on whether or not she should call Dimitri. She eventually calls the apartment they used to share, only to hear Phoebe's voice on the other end. Their conversation starts with Phoebe wanting to know if she wants to talk with her husband, Mr. Petronides. Alexandra is crushed. She believes Dimitri went through with the wedding after all. Phoebe tells her he's been looking for her since she left. Alexandra ends the call.

Dimitri ends up finding her sister. At first, he thinks it's "Xandra" but ends up knowing it's not really her. Her sister goes on telling him Xandra is dead. He freaks. But, he never knew that Xandra was never a real person. Alexandra comes out as he's leaving but ends up coming back in, shocking her. He goes all caveman on her and tells her he wants her and the baby. She doesn't believe him because he's married. He says he's not. Spiros, his brother, ended up marrying Phoebe. She doesn't believe him, so he requests proof.

She ends up believing him and they get married. What bothered me about this is that there's nothing to read about the wedding. It goes straight to the reception. WTF. They honeymoon in Athens, and then she meets his grandfather. She ends up really liking him, but then he tells her that Dimitrius didn't disappoint him, because he kept his promise in marrying her. Alexandra grows upset at this because she believed he wanted to marry her on his own, not basically be obligated to marry her. This causes a whole scene between both of them.

I feel like at this point, we're going around and around in circles about their problems they've had since he basically told her to leave. I got really bored. I wanted to finish the book though, so I could read about the baby being born.

Only, we don't. It skips ahead a year down the road (in another paragraph, mind you, not an epilogue), to where the baby, Theo (named after his grandfather) is 9 months old. Another WTF. As soon as I read this, I skimmed the last few pages to be done with the book.


So, basically, my opinion is that it starts off great but ends really fast and poorly. I've seen better. But, then again, it is a Harlequin romance novel.


I hope my first blog hasn't disappointed you. This is the first time I've reviewed a book that is this in depth. Hopefully, I'll get the hang of it.

Thank you!
Ashley

First Blog as a book reviewer

Hello! And welcome to my book review blog!

My name is Ashley Brezina, and I love to read!

What kind of books do I love to read, you ask? Mostly romance. Almost any type of romance. I like to read on my phone or on my Kindle Fire. Here lately, it's just been on my phone. It's so easy to open my Amazon Kindle app on my phone and purchase any book my heart desires. I'm a bit addicted. Back in December 2012, I read 18 books in the entire month, finishing my 18th book on New Years Eve.

I'm going to try to review as soon as I finish a book. I will try to go back through my list of 123 books that I have on my Kindle Cloud and review those first. Mind you, it will take a while. But that's not even all of the books I have in my possession nor the only ones I've read. I've been reading my whole life and I've read over 75% of the books Nora Roberts has alone.

She was my first favorite author. The first book I ever read of hers was Irish Thoroughbred and my little 13 year old heart fell in love. LOL.

Here is a list of authors who's books I've read (not in any particular order):

Lara Adrian
Natasha Anders
Bell Andre
Alexx Andria
Maya Banks
Jenna Bayley-Burke
Amanda Bennett
Shayla Black
Melissa Brown
Sandra Brown
Coreene Callahan
Chelsea M. Cameron
Georgia Cates
Lynda Chance
Maureen Child
Pamela Clare
Courtney Cole
Suzanne Collins
Sydney Croft
Kyra Davis
Sylvia Day
Michelle Douglas
Kathleen Ragle
Kelly Elliott
Barbara Elsborg
Liz Fielding
Dorothy Garlock
Julie Garwood
Cindy Gerard
Abbi Glines
Jane Graves
Charlaine Harris
Amanda Heath
Colleen Hoover
EL James
Lorelei James
Laura Kay
Lisa Kleypas
S.H. Kollee
Leslie Langtry
Lora Leigh
Debbie Macomber
Isaac Marion
Jamie McGuire
Shannon McKenna
Heidi McLaughlin
Katja Millay
Cait Miller
Linda Lael Miller
Lucy Monroe
Erin Noelle
Kaitlyn Oruska
Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Theresa Ragan
J.A. Redmerski
Christy Reece
Nora Roberts
Susannah Sandlin
Jill Shalvis
Charles Sheehan-Miles
L.B. Simmons
Tara Sivec
Deborah Smith
Jessica Sorensen
S.C. Stephens
J. Sterling
Keary Taylor
Stephanie Tyler
A. Meredith Walter
H.M. Ward
J.R. Ward
Lacey Weatherford
Tammara Webber

Yes, I wasn't lying when I said I read a lot.

Anyways, I'm going to end this blog and blog my first book review. I will rate them on a letter grade basis; A+ being the best, F being the worst.

Anyways, enjoy!

Ashley