RSS Feed (xml)
Waking up to discover an antique carousel horse and an armed guard in his front yard is not what Bobby Spencer needs on a quiet Sunday morning. Once again the Spencers are going to be the talk of Trinity Harbor, Virginia. And Bobby isn't feeling very kindly toward the person responsible.
But Jenna Pennington Kennedy is a desperate woman. That carousel horse is her ticket to capturing Bobby's attention and convincing him to offer her the opportunity to plan the town's new riverfront development. It is also her chance to prove to her father that she is a responsible woman and not the reckless kid she'd once been. The last thing Bobby wants in his life is a sexy single mom who's driven to succeed. The last thing Jenna's looking for is another ride on an emotional roller coaster. But in Trinity Harbor, love has a way of defying expectations. Ask anyone.
4 stars. while the story was great, the lack of chemistry and romance between the two made it a bit boring to finish.
47. big girls dont cry by cathie linz
After her plus-size modeling career tanks, Leena Riley becomes a receptionist in her hometown veterinarian's office. Too bad the vet is Cole Flannigan, a boy who taunted her all through school. Good thing Leena has grown into her curves, because he's about to grow very fond of her.
4 stars. fun read. i like both characters but not the rest of the characters.
48. epic fail by claire lazebnik
At Coral Tree Prep in Los Angeles, who your parents are can make or break you. Case in point:
As the son of Hollywood royalty, Derek Edwards is pretty much prince of the school—not that he deigns to acknowledge many of his loyal subjects.
As the daughter of the new principal, Elise Benton isn’t exactly on everyone’s must-sit-next-to-at-lunch list.
When Elise’s beautiful sister catches the eye of the prince’s best friend, Elise gets to spend a lot of time with Derek, making her the envy of every girl on campus. Except she refuses to fall for any of his rare smiles and instead warms up to his enemy, the surprisingly charming social outcast Webster Grant. But in this hilarious tale of fitting in and flirting, not all snubs are undeserved, not all celebrity brats are bratty, and pride and prejudice can get in the way of true love for only so long.
4 stars. i like derek, elise, chase and jules, though chase and jules getting together at the first day of school was just too fast it's unbelievable. the book didn't really explain what derek liked about elise except on the last page which i thought wasn't enough. layla was okay for me but it would have been nice for elise to include layla with them once in a while. i mean she's the sister and they have to be friends right? not sure if there would be a sequal? and im also not sure why the book is called as such. oh, i didn't like the mom very much. she's the principal yet she seems to like the boys more for their popularity than being good boys to her daughters. same with the best friend dianne (even though she had very limited exposure). everyone seems to be obsessed with derek's parents than him but i guess it's his fault for being standoffish but i like how the author made him popular but mysterious and not the usual rich and all around great guy.
When did Sadie Beecham get those curves? She'd always been the geek next door, his baby sister Meg's brainy best friend. Smart, sure. But hot? He never would have imagined it…before. Now, Trey Kincaid's imagining all sorts of things. And none of them has to do with Sadie's gifted mind.
A mind, he discovers, she's clearly lost. Because she thinks she's in love with Meg's fiancé. And that's an obsession he's determined to put an end to—one way or the other.
4 stars. loved the characters from the very start. i like that this book talks about having flaws and that there's no such thing as a perfect relationship. there should be give and take and love is not always enough. you also need commitment to make it work.
50. every move she makes by beverly barton
When he was 18 years old, handsome bad boy Reed Conway was convicted of a crime he didn't commit killing his abusive stepfather, Junior Blalock. Out on parole after 15 years and back in his hometown of Spring Creek, Ala., Reed is determined to find the real murderer. But it seems everyone had a reason to kill Junior, including Senator Web Porter, the man who prosecuted Reed when he was the county DA. Meanwhile, the murderer, aware of the danger posed by Reed's probing, arranges events that will put the parolee back in the slammer. Complicating matters further is Reed's attraction to Web's daughter, taciturn Ella Porter. Ella is drawn to Reed's raw strength, and together the two overcome their vastly different backgrounds, join forces and try to find the real killer.
4 stars. i like reed and ella though it's unbelievable that they can fall in love after having short tense encounters that resulted in them always arguing about the past. or maybe their feelings came from when they were still young (before reed was sent to prison) but then the book mentioned that they've never interacted before. midway through the story i had kind of guessed who the killer was because she was the only person that didn't have a redeeming quality (she was too whiny and bitter for the reader to feel bad about her situation). i also thought that the killer was going to such lengths to not get caught that her ideas were strangely getting absurd by every chapter. i thought she was too deranged and i guess i was right after reading the final chapter. she was so consumed with hate and anger she lost all sense. i also didn't like how everyone's sex lives were intertwined with each other. i felt like i was reading the creepy version of melrose place. regina as wade's daughter was fine but cybil as ella's mom is too much. and all throughout the story ohn henry loved carolyn but in the end he actually loved cybil but was just jealous thinking she was in love with wade after one night stand? too lame. oh and ella not knowing all the connections in her family? either she's naive or stupid to not notice all these things happening in her own home. if you do away with logic and just read the book, it's still a fun read.
51. the man she loves to hate by kelly hunter
Three reasons to keep away from Cole Rees...1. My mom had a scorching affair with his dad--just think how awkward that "meet the family" would be...
2. His arrogance drives me mad--he might be a gorgeous billionaire, but I hate how he knows it!
3. Every time he touches me I go up in flames...and it's utterly terrifying.
Come on, a fling with the man I love to hate? Like that would ever work out...
3.5 stars. i like the story because the conflict was believable. i would have rated this higher but i didn't like that the story seems to condone adultery with rachel saying that it's okay as long as you love the person, which is not right. she didn't even regret or apologize to her daughter for what happened. what kind of mother is that? mothers should be protecting their daughters. also, the book seemed to blame everything on james but rachel was also wrong in having an affair with a married man so openly, even if she didn't take a cent from james. i think this novel focused more on the damage an affair can have on children but the story could have had a deeper impact if there had been a closure between colin's mom and rachel (maybe like a showdown) because there wasn't any. it was like colin's mom became the bad person after james died and rachel is still the woman who loved a man. im not saying im siding with colin's mom since she was also bad but i wish rachel acknowledged her wrong doing to the mom. i thought the ending was also a bit rushed. i was hoping that hannah would have reconciled with jolie (since hannah said that she didn't hate jolie, she just had to choose between her family and jolie so she hated that she had to push her away) but it didn't happen except for a short talk in the toilet. funny how the lead character was named after angelina jolie.. dont know it that was deliberate or not. lastly, i wonder if hannah has her own story. id love her to get together with derek (the granite-eyed man).
52. charming by susie kaye lopez
Three psychics in two countries with the same message can’t be wrong, can they? Sophie Lancaster is about to find out. Going off to college is stressful enough without throwing in the revelation that someone has been watching you your entire life. This is Sophie’s reality when she is informed that her soul mate from a former lifetime is by her side. A practical skeptic when it comes to love, Sophie refuses to believe this could be true. However, as the pieces of the puzzle fall into place, she finds it is becoming impossible to deny.
It is not until Sophie meets her soul mate in a dream and recognizes him immediately that she surrenders to the truth. He is the boy she has been sketching her entire life, the one she calls Charming. Suddenly in the midst of her own fairytale, Sophie soon finds herself in an impossible love that she’d do anything to keep. But are the soul mates destined to live their life together only in dreams?
4 stars. the story somewhat felt familiar but it still kept me interested enough to finish in one sitting. i thought lopez was delaying the meeting between ethan and sophie so that she can have her "big twist" (though the hints throughout the story just made it anti-climactic). i thought it would have been better to let the two meet one or two chapters earlier (and not on the last few pages) so we could have seen their interaction in their new bodies. oh and there was too much kissing for two teenagers, felt like that's all they did whenever they met in a dream, they didn't even talk much except for professing their beyond forever love for each other. which was a bit cheesy but then they've waited for 150 years to be reunited so i guess that's a reasonable excuse.
53. lola and the boy next door by stephanie perkins
For budding costume designer Lola Nolan, the more outrageous, the outfit-—more sparkly, more fun, more wild-—the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins move back into the house next door.
When the family returns and Cricket-—a gifted inventor and engineer—steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.
3.5 stars. i really loved anna and etienne so i guess i kinda expected a lot from this book. the story is great but somehow i wasn't as invested with lola and cricket as i were with anne and etienne. i like lola but cricket, not so much, and that's the reason why i didn't like the book as much as i would like to. i also didn't like how the author tried to make max really nice at the start then just suddenly make him a huge jerk just to justify lola breaking up with him and finally going out with cricket? i think that was a big disappointment for me (kind of like meg cabot's queen of babble series).
0 comments:
Post a Comment