✔ The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks 5★♥
(library audio read by Ron McLarty and January LaVoy 5★) (kindle own 4.5★)

I absolutely loved Luke!!!! He's a professional bull rider and pure cowboy. And yes I am looking forward to seeing the movie. Clint Eastwood's son, Scott is casted as Luke. I did end up envisioning Scott Eastwood while I listened/ read this book (doing what's called immersion reading with both a library audio and my kindle edition book). The audio is great. There is no doubt that the audio is winner for Audie Award, Romance 2014, and IMO it didn't have much competition.

Like the other book of Spark's that I read (The Lucky One), and the movies I've seen, The Longest Ride is a tear-jerker. I loved all three characters in this - Ira, Sophia and especially Luke! The audio has January LaVoy reading for Luke and I ended up not liking it so much. And so I read through Luke's chapters without the audio at times. But Ron McLarty did an excellent job reading the chapters for Ira. Some of the chapters were long so just listening to the audio was enough for me. His love story was the one that was the tear-jerker. The old man's life story and a lifelong relationship with a great woman is really sweet. And we know she's gone by Ira's current timeline in the story because she's an angel sent to help him survive (not much of a spoiler there).

There is a little timeline confusion in this story. Ira's story starts off on a Saturday in early February. His timeline doesn't change beyond him remembering about his past and about the love of his life, Ruth. And the chapters always start and end with Ira in early February.
Sophia and Luke's story starts off in mid October - more than 4 months before Ira's story timeline. And if it weren't for the audiobook I would've forgotten about that at times. The audiobook has a piano melody played in the background in between Sophia/ Luke's story with Ira's so I was able to remember there was a shift there.

This story has left me with a book-hangover. I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to seeing the movie come April. Love the trailer!!!!

2.5 stars
This is a nice short story. The kind one would read during their lunch breaks. Or like myself, who read it while in the middle of another book. I needed a sort of quick pause from the current book I'm reading. The Last Kiss was good.

The plot intrigued me. It's not the typical story of the first kiss, but rather the last kiss. The end of the relationship. Although it has left me hopeful that it's not Katie and Ryan's last kiss. Though this is really short, I was still able to relate a little with Katie. And I liked Ryan. I would have liked more detail about who Katie was.

The couple's last few kisses were good. I'd definitely come back to read this again. And it had me thinking of my past relationships. Brigid Coady is right. We don't often think of the last kiss of from our past relationships. They are left as a cold reminder of the past I think. But some can be good and hopeful.

✔ Unleashing Mr. Darcy by Teri Wilson 3.5★
• The characters (especially the H/h) always referring or calling each other by their last names was too much and too impersonal.
• I didn't like how Elizabeth ALWAYS had to mention Donovan as Mr. Darcy. It seemed like she had said or thought his name in one sentence and then called him Mr. Darcy the next. It became too predictable for the HEA. Although I was happy that Donovan punched the daylight's out of Mark.
• The sexual tension between the H/h was good. One sex scene, but not too graphic.
• Really liked Donovan