lisaluvsliterature's Reviews (4.19k)

I loved the first book and couldn’t wait for this next one! I guess we are going to be (hopefully) getting all the members of the boy band INK that we met with Nolan in the first book, and now we have Kallum. Nolan’s story included Bee, who was a porn star, and so it was so different in that way from Kallum and Winnie, who was the original “good girl” and so so innocent. Kallum was the “Fatone” of his boy band. I say that, because Joey Fatone from N’Sync even joked himself one time that his last name was what people called him, the “fat one” of his group. Kallum was considered the 3rd best in their group, at least until he had a sex tape come out and all the women wanted to take part in what they’d seen. Or they wanted to have sex with him because usually he was the one right before “The ONE”. 

Winnie was coming off of a divorce and a bit of a disgrace from her good girl image, which actually the downfall began with a picture Kallum had taken, not realizing what people would think of her in the picture. She had narcolepsy, and he thought she was so cute just asleep in the limo while everyone else was partying. It looked to the world though, like she was passed out, sloppy drunk. That led to her ending up marrying her boyfriend at the time, whose parents were big deals in the world of religious entertainment. 

Kallum’s family was a bit different, loving, but still kind of waiting on him to grow up and stop being with all the bridesmaids. I loved that his family was from Kansas City, and I wish there really was a Slice Slice Baby Pizzeria here! All of that in the story made my hometown loving heart enjoy so much more of the story with that familiarity and fun hearing about things that were real in my city as well as made up things that I could just imagine perfectly. 

From the start though, Winnie’s introduction to the whole world of sex toys and even just being sexy for the on-screen moments in her new naughty film, I loved it. There were several things she felt and went through that I believe I’ve related to in the past. Her feelings of having to wait until marriage, I felt that way for the longest time as well when I was younger. But then the scenes of her lessons on that intimacy and orgasms with Kallum, boy were those as hot as can be! 

There was so much more to this story that happened right about the halfway point. I can’t even really mention one of the things that happened early on that gave me the heads up that what happened was coming without giving that away! But the emotions, and the way things were handled, all of it was great, and I did love it. I loved the silliness of the rewritten ending to the Santa Baby movie, I loved all the funny peppermint bits, not only her little toy, but what the magic peppermint in the new movie ending was. These two authors together can totally come up with some things that are just so out there I can’t help but giggle! 

The only thing that bothered me a little, and made me drop to a 4.5 here on my blog, is that it was a tiny bit long for me. A few bits I think maybe could have been shortened? I don’t know. Overall it was such a great story in the end, and I can’t wait for the next book, I assume it will be Isaac’s story!

I adored it.  Cute and fun little picture book starring the best kind of dog, a dachshund!  

There were a lot of interesting historical and even cultural/religious aspects to this story. I really liked the idea of a golem that we looked at as “good” and a character we wanted to see get to live a normal life. I know that there are similar stories out there about other types of creatures, but I feel like this was a little bit different and unique. It was another look at World War II and all the different sides. Showing how people just turned on each other to save themselves. One part where Vera is called a monster by someone, and she thinks how it is actually the humans doing this to each other, so how is she the monster? That really stood out. And I get that it was a lot of what the story was trying to get across. 

When the other golem or similar creatures are revealed it is just crazy, but also sounds right on track for something Nazis would do based on what we know of their experimenting on humans in concentration camps. There was a bit of a different look at the ghettos as well as resistance fighters. While this was a really good story, it did drag for me a bit at times. Overall I really did think it was a good story and will be putting it in my school library to share with my students. 

The little extra bits in between kept pulling me out of the story too much.

Just couldn't get into it.

I enjoyed the author’s first book, Give Love A Chai, but this book totally blew me away and I loved it! I loved the whole reality tv dating show aspect of the book, even if I don’t like to watch those shows really. But one thing I liked was how these two characters were dealing with it. I loved watching how Pippa dealt with her first two dates, even though I was mad she didn’t pick August when she had the chance at first. There was a lot of the miscommunication that at first bugged me. And I will admit at the end it did too in how it made the story go for that final bit. However, I loved the way Pippa was right there, when she finally figured things out, not giving up on him. Both characters had their own bouts of the miscommunication or refusing to believe what the other was saying. 

However, both characters were lovable as the story went along, and I once again really enjoyed all the other characters in the book. I liked not only the look back at our couple from the first book by this author, but also some of the new people we met, like August’s family. A perfect sophomore story from someone who is becoming a new favorite author for me!

I was really blown away by this! It kept me turning pages as fast as I could whenever I could fit in the time to read! I liked the enemies to friends/lovers aspect of this story. The backstories for the characters were so good. The surprise about Fritzi’s family, and even who the “wild magic” voice in her head was definitely was something I was a little surprised about and loved how it kept the story going and in a different way than I’d expected. There was a lot of interesting mythology to this witchcraft, but also so many historical aspects to the story that I think it will keep people who are interested in those two different genres engaged for the whole story. While it seemed to be wrapping everything up at the end, the author made sure that we got the little extra to see where the story will continue for book 2, as well as giving away a few more details we didn’t know for things that happened earlier in the book, and I’m definitely ready to read on!

I think it was her other books in the SmartyPants Romance series that got me hooked on Susannah Nix’s books. And this one was just as perfect as well! I loved that both of these two characters had their own issues and things to deal with, more than just what we would normally think of. Brandon’s ADHD was great to read about and see all the things most people normally associate with that and how it actually is for some people. And then I was unsure about Chloe’s skin issue, but it was something new to me, and I’m learning more about skin conditions, because my 5 year old nephew has a few that are new to me as well. 

There were a lot of great scenes for both characters to overcome their reservations as well as learn to make up for their own assumptions about the other one. It was good to see people able to realize their mistakes and come forward and admit it. Those are just good traits for people in a relationship to have in order to be successful, I think. 

We also got a lot of time spent with not only other characters just from this world, but with the Knitting in the Citycharacters from Reid’s books that we know and love and got most of us hooked and into this world. Another winning story in this series and world, and I can’t wait for me!

 So this might have been my least favorite in this series. Like with the last one, the main character I didn’t love or laugh at I guess, as much as I did with the first book in the series. So while this still had some fun moments, and wasn’t bad, the first in the series will still be my favorite.