stephanie_inman's Reviews (228)

DNF @ 15%. Didn’t like any of the characters. Way too much information about “subjects” so that the author could show readers that they (the author) are indeed smart, however it took away from the characters actually having personalities. I didn’t want to hear Laney recite facts on mixes of Japanese herbs used for medicinal purposes. Or business theories. I wanted her to have an actual personality. And both Laney and Jett came off as judgmental, holier than thou characters who thought they were above everyone else

This is probably the worst review I have ever given to any book.

TW: RAPE

This is the third, and final book in the Granton University series. I liked the first book (I gave it 3 stars) I gave the second book 4 stars. I honestly loved the second book, so I had high hopes for this one. I have liked Bailey's character throughout the series. She's definitely flawed, but I'm a fan of flawed characters. She made some mistakes. In book two, she took liberties with her best friends relationship and feelings that weren't her place to take, but she did so out of love. I believed her to be a good character.

So, let's get to why I DNF'ed this book and why I think it should just basically not even exist. I am not someone who is at all easily offended. What I am, is someone who thinks that rape and sexual assault should be handled carefully and seriously. Not used as a throw away plot point, or worse yet, written, but not even called rape.

Our character, Bailey goes to a party. She meets Beckett. He's very drunk. I didn't read far enough into the book to see if he was only drunk or if he had been given a date rape drug, but either way, we know that he is at minimum, very drunk. Bailey finds herself in a bathroom and she is too embarrassed to come out of it when she hears Beckett enter the adjoining bedroom. Beckett is followed in by a woman, Melody. Bailey watches as Beckett talks to Melody, letting Melody know that he is not interested in having any sort of sexual encounter with her. However, he is drunk and not really all that able to move well, and Melody pushes him back, onto the bed. BECKETT AGAIN TELLS HER THAT HE DOESN'T WANT TO BE WITH HER. Melody then unzips his pants and performs oral sex on him. Beckett is protesting, but also his body starts reacting to it. This, as everyone should know by now, does not mean that he wants to have this experience. Our bodies are capable of reacting to situations when we have not consented. AND HE DID NOT CONSENT. After he finishes in her mouth, Melody pulls her skirt up and climbs on top of Beckett. He again tells her no. He doesn't want to have sex with her, but she continues. She puts a condom on him. He is too drunk to push her off. He clearly is trying to stop her. This entire time Bailey is in the bathroom and she is seeing what is going on. Melody then climbs on Beckett and RAPES him. Because, make no mistake, it was RAPE. Just because half way through it, he becomes aroused and starts reacting, doesn't mean he wanted to have sex with Melody.

At any point Bailey could have walked out of the bathroom and stopped this. Especially at the beginning. She sees Beckett protesting before Melody even has his pants unzipped, but does absolutely nothing? If the roles were reversed and the character were a man watching as a woman got raped in this way, almost every single review would be a one star. Hell, the book would be chastised. But a man getting raped? Nope. It's just fucking fine? What the hell? How can women be okay with this? For that matter, how can anyone be okay with this?

As far as I can tell, from what I read (and I did skim some of it) it's never even framed as rape. Melody accuses Beckett of rape and Bailey has to decide if she should come forward, because she doesn't want people to think of her as a voyeur? She is more worried about that than the fact that Beckett was fucking raped? Are you kidding me?

The plot of the book seems to be that Melody accuses Beckett of rape and his life goes to shit pretty fast because no one believes he didn't do it. Bailey has to step up and help him. Although, no one in the book seems to think that he actually has been raped. It's more that Melody is an awful person and they want to clear Beckett's name, but Melody doesn't actually pay for her crimes.

I was sickened that someone could write this rape scene, then write it off as just being part of a bigger storyline. And how are we supposed to like a so called "heroine" who, at the very first moment, knew that Beckett didn't want to have sex with this girl, but stood idly by and let it happen? And to believe that they have some sort of great love? To me, it's more they both have a great need for therapy, because they are both clearly fucked up if they think that they have any business being together. Beckett should be dealing with what happened to him and Bailey should deal with what a completely selfish piece of trash she is.

This book had an opportunity to deal with a very real matter. It could have taken something that happens and is often overlooked and brought attention to it. Instead the author chose to go the way that so many people actually do when a man is raped. Totally discounting the fact that men do indeed get raped and violated. That it does affect them. That they are victims of sexual crimes. That they don't have to just be okay.

I have other books by this author on my Kindle. Ones that I have not read yet. I am seriously considering deleting them without reading them. It's really a shame because Ms. Kage did such a good job and took such care with the hard subject of a school shooting in book one and then with the aftermath of the shooting and also the subject of bullying in the second book. I just can't wrap my head around the fact that this was written by the same author.

I only finished this one because I needed a cowboy romance for a reading challenge, and, this being a novella, I felt I was already a good ways in when it got to the part where I finally knew it had hit one star rating for me.

I really disliked the heroine. And I so wanted to like her. She’s not some little virginal waif, so that is a huge point for her. Unfortunately, the authors went the other direction and made her just cruel.

Kat and Braxton hook up. She sees it as a one night stand, but rather than having any discussion with Braxton, he’s barely even awake and she’s kicking him out of the bed. If this were a book and the man behaved this way towards our heroine, it would spoil the book for me as well. So, equal opportunity awfulness, I guess?

After their one night stand Kat and Braxton see each other around and she’s often cold and she generally just seems to hate him. Why? We aren’t given any reason. Had the sex not been consensual, then I could see it. And there could even be the argument that Kat was drunk when they hooked up, but if they want to go that route, then it would definitely drop my rating even more, as we would be getting into rape territory. Since this book is written as a romance and we are given an HEA, I don’t think the authors want us to think Kat believes she was taken advantage of. So there is really no explanation for her hatred of Braxton.

As for Braxton, he is fairly likable. He’s does (after realizing Kat hates him) make fun of Kat for her gluten free, dairy free, sugar free bakery. And for the fact that she is from one of the wealthiest families in their town. For some reason, both of these incredibly privileged things just piss Kat off more. The best he has against her is “Your family has money and you run a healthy bakery” and for this she is off the walls offended?

But, where the book lost me was with the pranks. Out of the blue, Kat brings Braxton a muffin. She tells him she made it for him, full of sugar and gluten. Of course, she also put laxatives in it. Because this was her way of showing him what it’s like for her if she eats gluten. She essentially poisons the guy, because she can’t know how he will react, and he is sick for three days because she’s too fucking immature to say “Hey, I get sick if I have gluten. My bakery means a lot to me and you hurt my feelings”. She has no regard for the fact that, one it could, and does make Braxton very sick, and two, Braxton is a ranch hand. He isn’t wealthy. Missing work means he doesn’t get paid and he needs his money. To me, this sort of reinforces Braxton’s view of Kat as spoiled.

This starts a small prank war, but none are as viscous as Kat’s laxative prank.

All in all, Kat was just the worst. Braxton deserved better.

This is the fourth book in the Outlaw Souls MC series, and while I didn't like it as much as I did the third book, Trainer, it is still a very solid addition to the series. (Full disclosure: Trainer and Erica are my favorite Outlaw Souls couple and they are going to be hard to beat!)

This book follows Blade, a prospect of Outlaw Souls. He meets Kat. I liked Kat a lot. She isn't your typical romance book heroine, which I'm finding is actually typical in this series. I'm so sick of the virginal waif type heroines, and Ms. Stone has given us some strong, fierce, sex positive heroines. Kat actually believes in hook ups and casual sex! She doesn't feel ashamed by it! Seriously, sex positivity for the win! Thank you, Ms. Stone!

The books in this series are progressing very nicely into the MC aspect of the series. While they can be read as stand alone, you will get more of the story if you read them in order. (Although, if you find yourself wanting to check one out, don't worry, you won't be lost). I like the way the story has been unfolding. Our resident club, the Outlaw Souls, have developed a rivalry with Las Balas, another MC.

Blade has been paying his dues, waiting to get patched in to become a member of the Outlaw Souls. The problem begins, when Kat sees the logo on his now patched jacket, she freaks out. Kat has been raised to believe that the Outlaw Souls are nothing more than gang bangers and that they target Las Balas for no reason. Her ties to Las Balas make her biased against Outlaw Souls, without knowing the full story. Kat's has family ties to Las Balas, and since she's already lost her mom, she is trying to hold on to the family that she has left.

Basically, we have a Romeo and Juliet story, but with no poison and less stupid teenagers.

There really isn't much to dislike in this book. My only criticism is that I wish the previous books introduced us more to the characters that are going to be in future books. While I understand not always knowing the heroine, (although I always give bonus points to those books where we know both characters prior to their stand alone) I would have liked to have seen Blade more in previous books. I'm already looking forward to Hawk's book, simply because I feel like he's someone we have seen more often than the others. And I'm definitely hoping for a romance between Moves and Kim.

I was provided with an ARC of this book and am voluntarily providing a review. All opinions are my own.

Wow. It took me over 2 months of starting and stopping this one to get through it, which is actually very surprising as I’ve been pleased with much of Hope Stone’s Outlaw Riders Series.

This is the fifth book in the series. I actually read the sixth while I was still reading this one, because I had such a hard time getting through this one.

This is the story of Diego and Misty. Diego is starting a chapter of Outlaw Saints in a city away from LaPlaya. Misty is a local woman, studying to be a doctor. She has been involved in a relationship with a gang member before, and doesn’t want that life. Her brother, however is also the new President of the rival gang to Outlaw Souls.

Obviously, this is one of the hurdles between our two MCs.

It was very slow. The only personality traits that the author gave the main characters is that they are Latinx. I LOVE the inclusion of diverse characters, but it becomes a problem when all you do is use stereotypes and give them literally nothing else. The sex is even described as a “Spanish Explosion”. Diego is Argentinian. Misty is Puerto Rican. There is so much more to work with in those amazing cultures than stereotypes and being reminded, constantly that Misty is “a feisty Spanish woman” and Diego is a “hot Argentinian man”. I wish I would have counted the number of times this is referenced. I feel like we could have had more story, in less pages, without the constant reminder.

I also just wasn’t crazy about the book being about new characters. We have already met so many great Outlaw Soul characters, and this and the next book, Colt both involve completely new characters (and new locations). We do get a cameo appearance here from Ryder, Trainer and Jagger, but it’s not a great one. My favorite OS, Trainer doesn’t even speak. And we get no updates on how our girls are doing! I just would like to see the series continue more with the characters we already know, before branching out. This book actually felt like a completely different book. It doesn’t have the same feel as any of the previous OS books.

The sex scenes were also oddly written in this one. Maybe it’s been a while since reading a scene in one of Hope Stone’s books, but I don’t remember any of them feeling this off. “His touch led him all the way to the Garden of Eden”. What the fuck? That is just weird.

I will continue with the series. As I’ve said, I already have read ahead in this series, so I know it does get better. So far, however, for me it has yet to recapture the magic of Trainer or even of Ryder. I feel like the books were better in the beginning. I thought Ms. Stone was hitting her groove in the first four books, but something has changed and the previous books are far superior to both this one and Colt.

Here’s hoping that the magic of the earlier books is rekindled soon.

I'm hesitant to write this review. I hate giving bad reviews, and I'm diving pretty deep into some issues here that are somewhat of hot button issues.

I'll start by saying that I had high hopes for this book. I really enjoyed the second book in this series. I liked the character of Nate, so I was looking forward to his story. Unfortunately, I felt the characters fell flat. The plot moved slow. And the writing was just weird.

Sunshine is bi racial. But throughout the entire book, we hear her referred to as "mixed". I can't speak for POC, obviously, so I asked a few friends if this was as problematic as I thought it was. Yeah, turns out many of them found it problematic. Especially since it's used so much. And, then when I added that the H describes the h's skin as "tastes like chocolate milk", again, not a great reaction. In fact, every description of Sunshine's skin is some sort of food related item. That's what I mean about the writing being weird.

Sunshine and Nate grew up together, in their small town. Sunshine's dad was offered a job and they moved to a bigger city. Sunshine missed the small town that she loved. Yet it's mentioned that because Sunshine is "mixed" (as they say in the book) she was lucky that she was good friends with Nate's respected (white) family. People didn't bother her because of her connection to them. So, apparently, save for having Nate, the white savior as her friend, the town would have been a bunch of assholes to her, and she's still like "Yeah, this is the place I'd like to raise my kid" WHAT?

Sunshine heads back to town, finds out Nate is a stripper and goes to the club to see him. He basically uses his body to torment her as his big “fuck you” to her for leaving. He pulls her into a dance in one instance. In a second, she wants to talk to him, so she pays for a private dance. Both times he gets things all heated between them, but is still angry that she left him and didn’t write or call him. I get his anger, but the whole using her the way he did was just immature and gross.

I also hated how the daughter was described. She is thirteen, and yet we hear her described as being incredibly beautiful, to the point her mom has been approached several times about getting her to be a model. But, of course, she doesn't want her daughter in "that type of lifestyle". It's just odd to hear a child's looks described so much in an adult way.

Once Nate finds out about his daughter, he’s all in as a dad, but still mad at Sunshine, which is fair. However, he also knows he’s eventually going to forgive her and he knows that he loves her, so the whole thing seems to drag on for no real reason.

My last real issue with the book, and I really hesitated including this because I know with 100% certainty, that this is an issue that not everyone is going to have. But I DO have an issue with this particular thing, so I just asked myself, “Would I have wanted to see it included in a review?" And, yeah, I would have. Because I wouldn’t have read the book based on this alone. So here it is and you can judge as you will: Sunshine is a lawyer. We rarely see her at work, which is fine, as the story isn't about that. But the ONLY time we see her at work (other than when she reconnects with the H, Nate) is when her assistant calls to tell her that a "Mrs. Sanchez" is calling and she needs help with some paperwork for immigration. Sunshine replies "Good for her, doing it the right way!"

Fuck. No.

I kept reading because there are so many five star reviews, I thought it must just be a "me" thing, but, if I’m being completely honest, nope. It has racism written all into it and I’m just not here for that.