Category: Colleen Hoover

Posted in Book Tours, Colleen Hoover

BOOK TOUR: Ugly Love – Colleen Hoover

Posted on by Z. Elizabeth

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21210570Synopsis

When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she knows it isn’t love at first sight. They wouldn’t even go so far as to consider themselves friends. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. Once their desires are out in the open, they realize they have the perfect set-up. He doesn’t want love, she doesn’t have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her.

Never ask about the past.
Don’t expect a future.

They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all.

Hearts get infiltrated.
Promises get broken.
Rules get shattered.
Love gets ugly.

All the Stars!

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My Review

If there is one author who I will come back to EVERY SINGLE TIME, it’s Colleen Hoover. She is my one constant whom I know will never disappoint me with her books. There is something new and refreshing with each book that captivates me and I need to point out now that UGLY LOVE is most definitely her best book to date. I am obsessed with the Slammed series and with Will and the  Hopeless series and Holder and Daniel, but I think I have a new obsession with the deliciously broken Miles Archer and his and Tate’s story.

I can’t even begin to tell you how devastatingly beautiful and haunting Ugly Love is. I cant put into words how much this book tore me apart and then put me back together. Ruined me, tore my heart into tiny pieces and then like a jigsaw, it was put back together perfectly in the most beautiful ending this book could receive.

 I knew it would be a tear-jerker, but holy crap, it was broke me apart. I was tearing up throughout the whole damn book and then the flood gates opened at one critical point in the book and my heart was killing me. My chest was tight and I was texting Holly from Holly’s Hot Reads in all caps because although I kinda guessed this one thing would happen, it still shocked me to the core because it DID happen. Authors, if you make me cry and sob and lose my breath, you have an avid fan in me and Colleen has done that with ALL her books. I LOVE IT.

Ugly Love is told in dual POV’s. With Tate in the present and Mile’s in the past, when he was eighteen, telling us of how he found and fell in love with the love of his life. If there is anything Colleen can do, its differentiation characters voices and to see a carefree younger Miles and a broken 24 year old Miles, well, you definitely feel and get sucked into his past and wonder how it made him how he was in the present. And then we have Tate who is just amazing and she tells us of her and Miles in the present. She doesn’t have time for love, he doesn’t want love. You just know your heart is going to be shredded watching and reading these two. HEARTBREAKING.

I pretty much adored Tate from the get-go and at times I could see myself in her and it killed me. She’s such a strong, selfless and beautiful character who gets her heart broken by how much she loves Miles but can’t have him. That broke me too because i know the feeling. My chest would tighten at certain scenes. I was crying throughout the whole book too because i just felt every single emotion – from each character but especially Tate. What technically starts as fuck buddies inevitably turns into much more for Tate. She wants to be the one to beak down Miles’ wall and be the one who he can see a future with. I was so emotional reading how Tate was falling for Miles. How she wanted to be the one who had a future with him but tried her damn hardest to have him any way she could, even if it meant walking away in the end.

The more she fell, the more she wanted to know Miles. Break his rules and ask him about his life. I urged her to as well. I urged her to break them all. The more she fell, the more my heart pained knowing that she was about to be shattered and ruined and broken by Miles. And when that time came i couldn’t swallow. What i read on the page, dear God, it was heart-breaking and gut-wrenching and fuck, even i cried with and for Tate. How she still had an once of strength i will never know. To just up and walk away, her heart scattered on the floor. To turn her back on the one who she loved. That is a hard decision but an easy one when you deserve to be loved. And as the book is so aptly titled, Love is Ugly.

Miles. He is sexy and mysterious and someone you spend the whole book trying to work out. Pilot Miles who is broken and tortured and can’t get past the events from his past, from six years ago. As mentioned, we learn about his past through flashbacks. I was trying to figure out his past, why he forbid himself to love again, to be happy, to have a future and so I began to create theories. I did, in fact, get it right but that’s not the point. The point is that Miles can’t get past the event and it limits him in his life. My heart was breaking and cracking  for Miles and at times i was so angry at him for the way he was treating Tate but then i thought that, technically, it was sex and they weren’t in a relationship. I enjoyed seeing the later parts of Miles. Especially in the present with Tate. How he would smile and laugh and it made my heart bloom because he doesn’t show any form of happiness when we first see him. We see a broken down man, a vulnerable being and someone who doesn’t feel worthy of himself or being loved. He doesn’t want a future or to move on from the past as he blames himself and that in itself made me want to climb into the book and hug the crap out of him. Let him know that he needs to face his past to be able to face the future.

Despite the fact he was completely ignorant to his feelings for Tate, the way he kind of showed her what he was feeling, in the touches, the smiles, it proved that he did like her. That perhaps, she could break down his barriers and could be someone he could bare his soul to about his past. They made the’relationship’ that bit more real although Miles was adamant that they were never going to be together. That it was just sex.  But when he saw the light, when he faced his past to have a future with Tate, i couldn’t help but cry and feel so utterly proud of him. For accomplishing something that has been on his mind for six years. For breaking him for that long too and putting a leash on him. For making him never want love, nor a future. And Tate was the hidden one, the one who he could see himself with, despite not wanting to see it. She broke him apart and he flew. He flew and uncaged his heart…for her.

The chemistry between Miles and Tate is breath-taking. It’s sizzling  and intense and you can see why they are so drawn to each other; they are magic together. The little touches, the stolen glances, everything that makes you feel giddy is what Tate and Miles do. As the reader, you feel all smiley and fuzzy and full of love. The sex scenes are intimate and sexy without giving too much away. Colleen knows how to keep a scene hot without indulging in too much and that is something i adore of her and all her books. Eeee I get all tingly and swoony just thinking of the times they are together.

This is another unforgettable CoHo book. One that should be read as soon as it’s delivered to your kindle/house because you feel. All the feels in the world are wrapped into this special and unbelievably beautiful and soul-destroying story and i want you to sob your heart out. I want you to become besotted with Tate and Miles and I want you to feel how i did reading it. Put your big girl pants on and stock up on the tissues. You’re going to need them.

Posted in Colleen Hoover

Finding Cinderella – Colleen Hoover

Posted on by Z. Elizabeth

18593175Synopsis

This novella is a companion novel to the Hopeless series, but can be read as a standalone.

A chance encounter in the dark leads eighteen-year-old Daniel and the girl who stumbles across him to profess their love for each other. But this love comes with conditions: they agree it will only last one hour and it will only be make-believe.

When their hour is up and the girl rushes off like Cinderella, Daniel tries to convince himself that what happened between them only seemed perfect because they were pretending it was perfect. Moments like that with girls like her don’t happen outside of fairytales.

One year and one bad relationship later, his disbelief in insta-love is stripped away the day he meets Six: a girl with a strange name and an even stranger personality. Daniel soon realizes the way he pretended to feel about Cinderella and the way he really feels about Six may not be so different after all. Especially when the two loves of his life end up being one in the same.

Unfortunately for Daniel, finding Cinderella doesn’t guarantee their happily ever after…it only further threatens it.

FIVE out of FIVE STARS

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My Review

GOD! Is there anything Colleen Hoover can’t do? She is pretty damn amazing in my eyes and every single book she has written has instantly become a favourite of mine and hot damn, Finding Cinderella, despite being a novella is pretty bloody perfect in my eyes. I want to thank Colleen for writing Daniel and Six’s story (I WANT…no NEED more of them though) and for making it free. That is an amazing thing to do, to thank us fans for loving you and your books. Even if it cost a bomb, I would have paid whatever to have a bit of Daniel in my life. I fell hard for him in Losing Hope.

Finding Cinderella, albeit a novella, makes you go through all the motions that a 300+ page does. Colleen Hoover knows emotion, she knows how to write it and how to drag it out of the reader. She knows how to use humour and angst and everything in between to keep you hooked, to keep you reading and who cares if this is 100+, this book has EVERYTHING wrapped up inside. The characters are developed, just like every single book of hers, the storyline drags you in, you fall for the characters, their lives, their emotions and you want to be with them and friends with them. Dear god, I will be fangirling so hard over Colleen on the 9th of this month when I meet her.

We previously met Daniel and Six in Hopeless and Losing Hope, as they are Holder and Sky’s best friends, who are always there for them throughout everything. It was great to finally see them get center stage and get to be loved like Holder and Sky’s love. They are both freaking fantastic characters, both outspoken, funny, sarcastic but definitely loyal and protective to their best friend’s. So when they meet for the first time when Six is back from Italy, and Holder tells Daniel not to do anything, well, of course Daniel isn’t going to listen to him.

Colleen gets suck right in from the first page and we all know that Daniel didn’t get given a lesson during a fourth period and hangs out in the closet and then BAM one day, a girl falls on top of him crying and thus begins the find for Cinderella when she leaves him a few weeks down the line. Never knowing each other’s names, nor what the other looks like, Daniel wants to find her but he never does find her…

So I don’t want to spoil what happens or anything but that cupboard changes Six’s life and dear god, when everything is out in the open, you will feel the utmost pain go through you, you will cry your eyes out for her and for Daniel. They fell for each other so fast and hard and god, you just know they are the ones for each other just like Holder and Sky. They go through so much in the short space and come out the other side.

You see their vulnerable sides, their fierce side, their loving side and their carefree sides. We all know Six’s personality, even from the short appearance in Hopeless, and although she has changed a hell of a lot during her year in Italy, you can see that she still has that spunk, that fun-ness to her, despite thinking over the time in Italy and what was left behind. She and Daniel are just perfect together and I am SO HAPPY that Colleen has decided to write a feature length book on these two because I cannot get enough of them!

‘Daniel’ even gave me a nickname and that nickname is ‘Sugar Boobs’ I will cherish this nickname (I call my friends ‘sugar tits’ so I suppose this is convenient and super bloody freaky that Colleen gave this to me HAHA). I have to say as far as Novellas go, THIS THIS THIS is the bloody best one I have ever read and I have read a lot. God, I just love Colleen so much and I cannot wait to meet her next week 😀

Posted in Colleen Hoover, Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday: Finding Cinderella – Colleen Hoover

Posted on by Z. Elizabeth

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine. It’s a weekly event that allows all us book bloggers and lovers to talk about what upcoming book we’re most looking forward to reading.

 

18593175Synopsis

A chance encounter in the dark leads eighteen-year-old Daniel and the girl who stumbles across him to profess their love for each other. But this love comes with conditions: they agree it will only last one hour and it will only be make-believe.

When their hour is up and the girl rushes off like Cinderella, Daniel tries to convince himself that what happened between them only seemed perfect because they were pretending it was perfect. Moments like that with girls like her don’t happen outside of fairytales.

One year and one bad relationship later, his disbelief in insta-love is stripped away the day he meets Six: a girl with a strange name and an even stranger personality. Daniel soon realizes the way he pretended to feel about Cinderella and the way he really feels about Six may not be so different after all. Especially when the two loves of his life end up being one in the same.

Unfortunately for Daniel, finding Cinderella doesn’t guarantee their happily ever after…it only further threatens it.

Release Date: 14th October and it will be a FREE novella.

(Six and Daniel are from Losing Hope and Hopeless)

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Posted in Colleen Hoover, New Adult

Losing Hope (#2) – Colleen Hoover

Posted on by Z. Elizabeth

17340050Synopsis

In the follow-up to Colleen Hoover’s #1 New York Times bestseller Hopeless, the charming and irresistible Dean Holder tells the passionate story that has melted thousands of hearts.

In Hopeless, Sky left no secret unearthed, no feeling unshared, and no memory forgotten, but Holder’s past remained a mystery.

Still haunted by the little girl he let walk away, Holder has spent his entire life searching for her in an attempt to finally rid himself of the crushing guilt he has felt for years. But he could not have anticipated that the moment they reconnect, even greater remorse would overwhelm him…

Sometimes in life, if we wish to move forward, we must first dig deep into our past and make amends. In Losing Hope, bestselling author Colleen Hoover reveals what was going on inside Holder’s head during all those hopeless moments—and whether he can gain the peace he desperately needs.

5 /5 Stars

My review of HOPELESS

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My Review

If you’ve read my Hopeless review, you will know how much I adored that book. Like seriously? It’s on my favourites list and Holder is definitely a book boyfriend. When Colleen said she was writing a book in Holders POV and his story, well that book was going on my TBR list asap. Hopeless is pure amazing and I knew Losing Hope would be too.

I was not disappointed at all. Thank to NetGalley, I downloaded my copy and in two days, Losing Hope was read. It was devoured. I was sucked in and entranced by every word, every page and every feeling and thought Holder was telling us.

The fact that Losing Hope is NOT a retell of Hopeless…well I just love it. Yes there are certain scenes that are told in Holder’s POV but this is HIS story. His story from losing his sister, to finding Sky to finding Hope along the way. HIS story of how he began to live, how he fell in love, how he learnt to forgive and breathe again.

I had seen tweets that Losing Hope was more emotional than Hopeless and they were not wrong. A few pages in and I had to hold back the tears as I was in public. I ugly cried throughout the book, I felt every single emotion from Holder; I wanted to climb into my kindle and hug the shit out of him. I wanted to be there for him, be Sky and let him fall in love with me. Help him through everything he was going through.

If you have yet to fall in love with Holder in Hopeless, by god, you will completely and madly and totally in love with him in Losing Hope. He literally has my heart now. (I say this a lot. But it’s fine. It’s not cheating if they are from different books.) Daniel, Holder’s best friend also has a piece of my heart. He is utterly brilliant!

Colleen has written an AMAZING book in Losing Hope. She has you sucked in from the first page, she has you laughing, crying – ugly crying that is -, wanting to know everything about Holder. You feel. You feel everything in the book. There is no getting out of it and you won’t want to either because you will cherish all these feels.

We knew Holder was intense in Hopeless, but hes really intense in Losing Hope. But you can kind of understand why. I loved that you could see the story through Holder’s eyes. Experience his story and his feelings when that certain event happened. If you thought you knew Holder in Hopeless, you are mistaken. You won’t truly know him until you read Losing Hope.

Holder will completely surprise you. He did with me and there are certain scenes where I felt for him. My heart ached for him and although I understood why he did it, I wanted him to forgive himself, let himself love and this is why he and Sky were so perfect together. They were right together because they balanced each other out. They knew what they other needed without exchanging words. They knew each other well enough to know what the other was feelings.

“I live you Sky…I live you so much”

Just the littlest things they did meant so much to one another and I love this kind of love. It’s the purest form and they both definitely love one another so much that they can’t live without each other.

Holder is angry, hes confused, hes scared and he can’t forgive himself for losing both his girls but you watch him slowly fall in love, slowly learn to forgive himself and his sister, learn that he can breathe again and that Sky is the end game for him. She’s everything to him and he can’t and will never lose her again. It would kill him.

We see him relationship with his sister, Les, with his mum and of course Sky. We see different sides to him, sides you will fall in love with, sides you will want to smack his head but you will understand why, why he acted that way, why he did that certain thing. And in the end you will sob your heart out, be madly in love with Holder and love the journey he has been through in the last 13 months, see how far hes come, especially with Sky.

NOW to Daniel, Holder’s best friend. I cannot tell you how hilarious this dude is. The first time he is mentioned, I wanted to kiss him because the things he says are just so freaking funny. He is an awesome best friend to Holder, protecting him and sticking up for him, even wanting to get into fights for him. You know he will always have your back. The banter between him and Holder had me in stitches and you can really see the bromance between the two. It was lush to see that Holder had someone who cared for him and would do anything for him.

The ending was perfect. You see the closure that Sky and of course Holder needed. The closure to breathe again, to learn to love and forgive and let go of the grief that was held up inside of him. You see he and Sky come along way, a life where they are both in love with each other, a life where they are the end game and are happy together – happy to have finally found each other again.

Although it would be totally lush to have a book beyond Hopeless and losing Hope, I love the fact that it ended like that. Where Holder learnt to forgive and he and Sky are off to start the rest of their lives together. The way it should be.

If you have get to read Hopeless, please do get it. It is easily one of my favourites and I cannot recommend it enough. You will love Sky and Holder. Then go and buy Losing Hope and fall even more in love with Holder and his story this time. There are a lot of surprises and twists in losing Hope that aren’t in Hopeless and you will feel every emotion, and cry your eyes out. Remember what I said….if a book makes you cry, it’s a bloody, damn great one!

Posted in Colleen Hoover, New Adult, Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting On Wednesday: Losing Hope – Colleen Hoover

Posted on by Z. Elizabeth

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine. It’s a weekly event that allows all us book bloggers and lovers to talk about what upcoming book we’re most looking forward to reading.

I have been so excited for this book every since Colleen mentioned she was writing Holder’s POV. I am such a HUGE fan of Hopeless and it is definitely one of my fav books so to get Holder’s POV, well i am ecstatic!!

NOW we FINALLY have a cover and I can do a WOW for Losing Hope. God that cover, it’s definitely swoon-worthy and I love that it is in tune with the Hopeless cover!

17340050Synopsis

In the follow-up to Colleen Hoover’s #1 New York Times bestseller Hopeless, the charming and irresistible Dean Holder tells the passionate story that has melted thousands of hearts.

In Hopeless, Sky left no secret unearthed, no feeling unshared, and no memory forgotten, but Holder’s past remained a mystery.

Still haunted by the little girl he let walk away, Holder has spent his entire life searching for her in an attempt to finally rid himself of the crushing guilt he has felt for years. But he could not have anticipated that the moment they reconnect, even greater remorse would overwhelm him…

Sometimes in life, if we wish to move forward, we must first dig deep into our past and make amends. In Losing Hope, bestselling author Colleen Hoover reveals what was going on inside Holder’s head during all those hopeless moments—and whether he can gain the peace he desperately needs.

Release Date: 9th July 2013

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Posted in Colleen Hoover, New Adult, Romance

This Girl (#3) – Colleen Hoover

Posted on by Z. Elizabeth

15784909Synopsis

Layken and Will’s love has managed to withstand the toughest of circumstances and the young lovers, now married, are beginning to feel safe and secure in their union. As much as Layken relishes their new life together, she finds herself wanting to know everything there is to know about her husband, even though Will makes it clear he prefers to keep the painful memories of the past where they belong. Still, he can’t resist his wife’s pleas and so he begins to untangle his side of the story, revealing for the first time his most intimate feelings and thoughts, retelling both the good and bad moments, and sharing a few shocking confessions of his own from the time when they first met.

In This Girl, Will tells the story of their complicated relationship from his point of view. Their future rests on how well they deal with the past in this final installment of the beloved Slammed series

5/5 Stars

My review of SLAMMED
My review of P.O.R

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My Review

“So you keep your ocean, I’ll take the Lake”

Layken and Will have stood the test of time. They have overcome scenarios that no one would even want to be in but their love has come out the other side stronger than ever. Now on their honeymoon, Lake wants to know everything about Will, about his past and about theirs. Although Will would prefer not to rehash these painful memories, he cant resist his wife’s pleas and so he begins to tell the story, his side of the story from his parents death to the very part of their marriage.

Will reveals intimate thoughts and feelings, retelling good and bad parts and sharing confessions that Lake never knew from the time they both first met.

So join Will and fall back in love with his versions of events.

I’d like to first start off and say, if you haven’t read Slammed and Point of Retreat yet…HOLY CRAP get to Amazon, 1-Click or order the book and get this series in your life right now. You will love every single character in this book; they will evoke all sorts of emotions from you, from tears, to laughter, to smiles to anger, you name it, this book has it. But it also makes you fall in love. Fall in love with the journey that all the characters go through – In both books now. You see that love and family and friendship can survive anything when you have each other to get you through painful and also happy scenarios.

Colleen Hoover is a god and This Girl is the perfect book to end the Slammed series. It isn’t just a rehash of Slammed and P.O.R in his point of view, oh no. We get the scenes which we loved and disliked (disliked in a good way because they were so sad to read) and we also get to see Lake’s reactions in the present time when Will finishes his versions of events as well as a special epilogue!!

Normally I would sum up what happens in the book, but if you read my reviews of Slammed and P.O.R then you will get the jist of what This Girl is about, but there are new events, events that weren’t in Slammed because it was Layken’s POV, events that will tear at your heart, make you catch your breath, make you cry; just have that pounding in your heart for Will. There are new slams, and by god are they powerful. They captured my attention, had me sitting up straight. They conveyed so much depth; you couldn’t help but reread them.

This Girl had me hooked. I was going to wait to read it, but my fingers kept hovering over the title until I clicked on it. I couldn’t have cared less if I had a load of ARC’s to read; This Girl had to be read. I had to love Will even more, I had to know his versions of events, and I had to see how their story ended. It didn’t take me long to read because I couldn’t put it down.

Throughout the book, from Will’s POV, you really see how much pain he has gone through. From losing his parents, to having to give up the girl he loves – Lake. You can see how much he loves Layken from the beginning. From the very first moment he set eyes on her. He was completely hooked and it killed him so much to find out she was his student. Killed him that he has to try and stay away from her even though all he wanted to do was be with her; to have found this girl, to have fallen in love and not be able to be with her.

God the emotion you feel coming from Will and Lake in these scenes really hit you. You feel the pain and heartbreak and the anger from both of them that they can’t be together, that they have to try and stay away, act like they don’t know one another. My heart was hurting so much.

Throughout the stories, you will see every emotion pour not just from Will, but from yourself as well. Will bears his heart and soul into this book, and when telling Lake – from losing his family, to the Slam poetry, this all comes from his heart. You will melt, you will sigh, you will want to give him a massive hug. Seriously, you will be a wreck reading his POV.

What I also loved was how close Gavin and Will are. You never really see their friendship until Will and Layken are ‘figured’ out and are together, but it was brilliant to see that Gavin and Will were close. BFF’s ;). We never really got to see anyone be on Will’s side, to talk to him and keep him in line. Tell him what he is doing wrong. I really like Gavin and he was there from the very start when Will took Lake on the first date and he’s there until the very end too!

Now, what I loved was the epilogue. I was laughing at Gavin’s reaction, crying at Kel – the sweetest little man even – or should I say teenager? And crying at Will and Lake. It was the perfect way to end the Slammed series and it was so nice to see everyone get their happily ever after. They all truly deserved it after all the things that had been through and to be together, still so close and so happy; it was the greatest ending that could have been – especially with the last slam poem at the end. Oh. Floods. Of. Tears!

I don’t really want to say a lot about This Girl, but I beg you to read this series. You get added bonus scenes in This Girl, you get to see Will and Lake on their honeymoon, being all cute and you get to see them in the future, in the epilogue. I cannot express how much I love this series. How much emotion has gone through me with these books and how much I will cherish these characters and their journeys.

It’s butterflying amazing.

“You want to know my sweet?” I ask her.
She nods.
I kiss her on the forehead. “You. Always you.”

Posted in 30 Day Book Challenge, Colleen Hoover, Jade C. Jamison

Day 11 – Favorite pairing

Posted on by Z. Elizabeth

Okay, so I can’t pick JUST one pairing. I love waaay too many to narrow it down, so just bare with me while i begin to tell you who i love.

1. Blake and Livia  from Poughkeepsie by Debra Anatasia.

Throughout everything that happened in this beautiful book, Blake and Livia fought through it. Whether it was the stigma attached to homeless people and talking to them/falling in love. From ex-boyfriends who wanted revenge for being dumped for a homeless guy, to murders and attempted murder. Throughout it all, these two knew they were meant to be and do anything to protect each other. And despite it all, they did get their happily ever after.

Poughkeepsie is about finding love and protecting those you love and Blake and Livia definitely deserved one another.

2.  Holder and Sky from Hopeless by Colleen Hoover.

I cant say too much about their storyline in fear of spilling what happens in the book. Their relationship started off rocky but eventually it blossomed into love. You will see the journey they take and understand why i cant say anything about it, because it will ruin the book but their love is pure for one another, it always will be because they have found the person they have been searching for, for so many years. Although there are things that test them, they never falter in their love for one another, knowing that together, they can get past anything that is thrown their way, as long as they have each other by their sides.

3. Andrew and Camryn from The Edge of Never by J.A Redmerski

During this challenge, I have badgered on about TEoN and how utterly amazing it is. Well I LOVE Andrew and Camryn. They are easily one of my favourite couples. They were both lost, not knowing which way to take, taking a journey alone across the country but then they met one another and Andrew took Camryn on a road trip – a discovery into making every moment count. He helped her discover her sexuality, helped her discover who she truly was and in turn, they fall in love with one another slowly, afraid to admit it due to their pasts. For those who have read this book, you will know they were two souls who were meant to meet, meant to be together. As Andrew said:

“For the first time in my life, I’ve felt whole, alive, free. You were the missing piece of my soul, the breath in my lungs, the blood in my veins. I think that if past lives are real then we have been lovers in every single one of them. I’ve known you for a short time, but I feel like I’ve known you forever.”

4. Anna and T.J from On The Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves

Anna and T.J’s relationship was kind of inevitable. If you are stranded on a desert island for years, with just the two of you, then of course, you’re going to fall in love. But its not just the fact they are on a desert island, Anna is 30 and TJ is 17. Anna, although she is starting to see TJ in a different light as they spend year after year together, she knows she cant do anything about it. She’s worried about the age gap but its TJ who pursues her, who woos her and doesn’t care about the gap. I just loved how their friendship changed into love and into a relationship as it was only the two of them, trying to make a ‘home’ on this island.  They truly love each other and as a reader, you’re sat wishing someone would come along and find them as both of them do not want to die and leave the other on their own.

5. Erin and Riley from Everything But by Jade C. JamisonT

I love this book. Seriously!! and i love this couple too. Erin and Riley are both afraid of love due to their pasts but they both cant seem to stay away from one another during the week that Rockstar Riley is in town. Spending the short time together, they both begin to feel something for the other, completely new and scary territory for the both of them as they don’t want it to end up like their previous relationships. They tackle some major issues during the days they spend together  and get to know one another, which makes them fall that little bit more for each other. They push past everything that had happened throughout the week, to finally finding that they can’t be without each other, no matter what is put in their path to stop them.

Posted in Colleen Hoover, New Adult, Romance

Point Of Retreat (Slammed #2) – Colleen Hoover

Posted on by Z. Elizabeth

13496084Synopsis

Hardships and heartache brought them together…now it will tear them apart.

Layken and Will have proved their love can get them through anything; until someone from Will’s past re-emerges, leaving Layken questioning the very foundation on which their relationship was built. Will is forced to face the ultimate challenge…how to prove his love for a girl who refuses to stop ‘carving pumpkins.’

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My Review

Point of Retreat picks up from where Slammed ends. If you haven’t read Slammed, don’t read anymore of this review, as it will tell you what happens next in Lake and Will’s life.

After Julia’s death and the hardships to get to where they are now, Lake and Will are together, with nothing to keep them apart anymore. Lake and Will have proved that love can concur all, and they have waited so long to be together. The four of them are now a little family and although Julia is missed every day, they get by; with the love they have for each other.

But when someone from Will’s past emerges, she seems to do more damage than good and when Layken watches an interaction between Will and that person, it devastates her and leaves her questioning and doubting everything about their relationship.

With Lake heartbroken and not listening to a single word Will wants to say, it’s up to Will to prove just how much he loves this girl and how he can’t live without her. And with the help of his new neighbour, he’s determined to make Lake realize just how much he needs and loves her. Will he succeed in getting his soul mate back?

Colleen Hoover is perfection. Utter perfection. Oh Point of Retreat has my emotions all over the place. I was smiling, I was cursing, my heart fluttered, I was angry and I was in floods of tears. WHAT.A.SEQUEL! I couldn’t put this book down either.  In Slammed, it’s about the forbidden relationship, the love but also about the loss of the one remaining parent between them both – Julia. Point of Retreat shows us the bind that both Will and Lake have, not only losing both parents, but having to bring up their respective brothers. But more than that, their love and connection that binds them together is also foremost in Point of Retreat too. Their determination to be together, to stand strong together and still try to be the young adults they are whilst helping each other find that balance between being parents and still acting their age.

With Julia’s death, Lake and Will have more in common, dealing with the heartbreak of another family member’s death, but could this be something that could tear them apart? Having so much in common? With them both attending college, yet on different days, Will encounters a blast from the past that he would rather forget about, but since she’s in his classes, he can’t.

Enter Vaughn, the ex-girlfriend who deserted him when he needed her the most. Deciding it’s probably best not to tell Lake about her being in his class, Vaughn wants Will back after coming to her senses and realizing she threw someone as amazing as Will away. But no matter what Will tells her, that he loves Lake, Vaughn hits him with a hard blow and asks him the question: What if he’s only with her because he knows how it feels and he feels sorry for her?

After a confrontation and witnessing something so heartbreaking, Lake takes that question and turns it into something that could ruin their relationship forever. Yes, they have the loss of parents, the bringing up their brothers in common but is that why he loves her? Lake is planted with doubts over his love and tells him he can have days, weeks, even months to think about why he loves her. Months? Like he needs months to tell her but if only she would listen and not block him out, then he could tell her how much she means to him. So what does a guy like Will do to prove him love? Slam Dunk with poetry of course!

But with their love back on track, something even worse is coming their way and now it involves everyone. It’s times like these where this small close family of friends need to stick together and pray that it will all be okay.

I felt every single emotion when this happened – around the 75% mark. Will was frightened, he was scared, he was tired of waiting, not knowing what was happening, but he had to be strong. I cried so much during these few chapters because I hated seeing Will hurting so badly and I just wanted to crawl into my kindle and give him a hug and console him. His love was so strong and powerful that he would do whatever it took to make sure Lake was okay.

Lake kind of annoyed me when she began questioning Wills love for her, but in a way, I could see where she was coming from. They had so much in common at such a young age, that it could be seen as just being together for the sake of this, but in Slammed, they overcame so many obstacles to be together and proved that even when they weren’t together, their love couldn’t be vanquished. I know that now Lake has had to grow up after losing her dad and now her mum, and with Will already knowing what it’s like, their love could be built on that foundation, but even when she’s not here, Mama Julia knows best and is still there in spirit and there with her advice and wisdom to guide both of them through the hard times they are both experiencing.

And she of course, has something for every scenario and feeling both of them are going through, to prove that they can get through anything together. The lyrics, quotes and wisdom throughout the book gave it so much depth and meaning and each one integrated into the scene that was happening with grace and gave a whole lot of emotion back.

I loved the determination of Will to make everything right again with Lake, to prove that their relationship isn’t just based on the factors they have in common, that it runs much deeper than that – about the little things about Lake, her personality, their favourite band, the booth they shared their first Slam together. He poured his heart out during his Slam to win her back and prove that he was so in love with her; everything about her that who cares if they have deceased parents and brothers to look after, he loves her despite those factors.

Point of Retreat was in Will’s POV and I absolutely butterflying love it when authors write in the guys POV because so many are in the females’ that you have to guess their feelings and go off from what the girl is saying. HOLY SHIT! This book made me fall even more in love with this god of a man. I love that we got to see his true feelings, his emotions, his love and his fears come through. He wasn’t a guy afraid to show anything, he bared his soul, and of course, his soul is also bared through his poetry which is why he is so passionate about it. Can’t wait to read the third book which will also be in Will’s POV 😀 WOOP WOOP!

Gavin and Eddie are heavily involved within this book and I love them as much as I did in Slammed, as are my favourite boys Kel and Caulder who are now 11. Oh my boys are growing up! But two new characters in the form of Shelly and Kiersten, the new neighbours are brought into the book.

Oh Kiersten! She’s the boy’s age but well old before her time. I loved her wisdom and advice, which she had obviously inherited from her amazing mother Shelly. She and the boys are really close and they protected and stuck up for her when things in school weren’t going too well, but she never once had a sad smile on her face, she was always happy and always happy to help, much the same as Shelly who was like the adopted mum to Will, Caulder, Lake and Kel. She was there with advice and medicine when they all got ill. It was great to see that even though Julia had gone, they had Shelly to go to.

This close knit family of friends were always there for one another, through thick and thin and you could see how much they loved one another and would help out whenever they could.

I can’t say how much I love this series and Colleen Hoover. This series is perfection. Its powerful, its full of love, its full of amazing poetry and quotes that integrate within the situations at hand and it’s about finding that one person who will own your heart forever, even though the hardships and it’s about loss. I can’t wait to read Slammed from Will’s POV now when it’s out later this year. I can’t get enough of Colleen’s writing. She has be hooked from the beginning, the book begging me to keep going until the end and not stopping till I’ve finished. Read Slammed and then this book – you will not be disappointed and I assure you, you will fall in love with Will and Lake and everyone else involved in this series! I butterflying LOVE IT.

Posted in Colleen Hoover, New Adult, Romance

Slammed (#1) – Colleen Hoover

Posted on by Z. Elizabeth

13372690Synopsis

Following the unexpected death of her father, 18-year-old Layken is forced to be the rock for both her mother and younger brother. Outwardly, she appears resilient and tenacious, but inwardly, she’s losing hope.
Enter Will Cooper: The attractive, 21-year-old new neighbor with an intriguing passion for slam poetry and a unique sense of humor. Within days of their introduction, Will and Layken form an intense emotional connection, leaving Layken with a renewed sense of hope.
Not long after an intense, heart-stopping first date, they are slammed to the core when a shocking revelation forces their new relationship to a sudden halt. Daily interactions become impossibly painful as they struggle to find a balance between the feelings that pull them together, and the secret that keeps them apart.

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My Review

Three days ago, I was devastated, bitter, and hopeless. Today I woke up feeling happy for the first time in months.

After the sudden death of her father, 18 year old Layken is quite literally forced to be the rock in her family, for her mother and 9 year old brother. With her mother selling their house in Texas, they are uprooted from the house they have lived in all their life, to a smaller house in Michigan and Lake is not happy to be leaving at all. She’s still processing the death of her father, but she needs to act strong for everyone else.

What she didn’t expect to find upon her arrival was a very attractive neighbour in the form of Will Cooper. 21 years old, has a passion for slam poetry and has captured Lake’s attention, much as she has captured his. Within days, they are spending time together and have formed in intense emotional connection, leaving Lake with a feeling that maybe, just maybe she will be okay living here. But after a heart-stopping first date, Monday morning rolls around and shocks them both with the realization of what cannot happen between them both.

Daily encounters are painful, and with both their brothers becoming best friends and spending every second together, it’s becoming harder to keep a balance of being ‘just friends’ to staying away from one another when their feelings for each other keep pulling them back together, no matter how much they try to keep them at bay from the outside world.

I have to admit, I’m not one for poetry. It never has captured my attention and I just hated reading/writing it in school, but Colleen Hoover is the one exception! I have never heard of Slam Poetry but by gosh, the way Will describes how much it means to him plus his Slam poems really had me hooked on his every word, much like it did with Layken. Once I finished the book (1am UK time), I laid in bed, thinking of my own poem – it wasn’t very good, so I think I’ll let Will stick to the writing and performing it, he seems to know much better than me.

I say this with a lot of book that everyone on my Twitter timeline tweets about, but WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG TO READ THIS?! This is the second book I’ve read of Colleen’s and I was as much captivated by Slammed as I was with Hopeless. For avid readers of my reviews, you will know that I LOVE to read forbidden relationships and the forbidden factor of the whole relationship when they both eventfully find out who each other are. And Slammed, in no way, disappointed me.

Lake was super close to her dad, so when he died it was like her whole world fell apart. But she knew she had to be there for her mother and brother, to help them through the heartache too. I think that was one of the reasons she was so resilient in her life. On moving day, she meets her neighbours across the road, Will and his little brother Caulder, who instantly seems to become best friends with her brother Kel.

Upon meeting Will it was love at first sight – for both of them. Will asks Lake on a date, but it’s unlike any date she’s ever been on. They don’t indulge in the obvious ‘do you have a cat etc’ questions and he’s not about to take her to dinner either. Oh no, his plans involved Slamming and Slamming good!

Lake becomes absorbed in the Slam poetry, finding it powerful to hear and she begs Will to do one of his. He obliges and Lake just can’t seem to get enough of this guy. He’s something completely different and she’s fallen. But everything changes on that Monday morning, and her heartbreak over the realisation of who he is has not only shock her, but also Will. What is going to happen?

Will had had to grow up faster in his 21 years of life. He looks after his 9 year old brother Caulder, works his ass off to make sure he can pay his bills, put food on the table and make sure Caulder is okay. They have been through so much in their young lives that they only have each other now. He’s been closed off for years, but something sparks inside of him when he spots his new neighbour and he just has to know who she is.

Will knows this girl has awoken something in him and so he asks Lake out on a date. Of course, Will is different to every other guy and takes her to a club where he recites Slam poetry. Watching Lake’s reaction to the words people are expressing on stage, he’s falling that bit more for her over the fact she’s so affected by it.

Happiness being together has consumed both of them, even if they haven’t known each other long, but when he sees her Monday morning, he’s broken, he doesn’t know why this has happened, and no matter how much he wants Lake, he knows he can’t have her now. Not when it could affect his job and Caulder, who he has to put first.

Although both of them know they can’t be together, no matter how much it hurts seeing each other day in and day out, as well as having brothers who spend every spare minute together, they try to reach a middle ground where they try to be ‘friends’ because of their brothers but it’s getting harder and harder everyday to push their feelings away and act civil. They have to overcome many obstacles throughout the book, and you really do root for them to be together – they belong together. Everyone knows they belong together.

You go through all the emotions too; the fun times, the heartbreak, the tears. It broke my heart that Lake was hurting over knowing that she couldn’t have Will. She literally became obsessed with watching him come home from school, just so she could see a glimpse of him every night. But with so many factors standing in their way, and at times I did get annoyed at Will. Lake was doing so well trying to stay away and Will would just pull her right back in and made her start all over. I became obsessed to get to the end, hoping it was happy one, but although it was, in a way, I still had tears flowing down my face.  It really is such  a powerful book!

All the secondary characters in my eyes weren’t that. They were as much as the story as Will and Lake were. I loved Eddie from the beginning. She was a very bubbly person who embraced Lake on her first day and adopted her into her small group. You find out about Eddie’s past and you come to see that now, where she is, is where she should be. She keeps Lake grounded when everything is going to pot and she really is the best friend Lake could have in her life.

Julia, Lake and Kel’s mother was a wise one. She moves them to Michigan because ‘they have no money’ but Julia is hiding something from her children, which you will find out and it will leave you heartbroken over her news. She really has some great words of wisdom for every character, and she adopts Caulder and Will into their life, which in turn, she treats them both like her own. She forces Lake is ‘man up’ and do the right thing regarding Will, which includes a stage and her poem and you can really see how much Julia is respected in every characters life.  Regardless of her secret, she really was a breath of fresh air.

There are way too many parts of the book to choose from as a favourite, but one that sticks out is at the start of the book, when Lake finds a hairclip from her childhood that her dad gave her. Although it’s dusty and mucky, it holds so many memories of her dad that she just can’t leave it behind in Texas and it means so much to her, even if she doesn’t use it again, she knows that it’s ‘magic’ to her.

Slammed is not just another fluffy book – it speaks to you through Slam poetry, which is so powerful that even as someone who hates poetry, become absorbed in each Slam poem that was expressed on the pages, through each character that got on stage and poured their heart out. It gives you wisdom, it gives you heartache and it gives you love. The power of the words, the poems, the advice and wisdom really stick with you after the finish the book. It kind of gives you hope that one day you will find someone like Will, who will be your own rock and soul mate.

I also have a new book boyfriend in the form of Mr Will Cooper and book little brothers in the form of Caulder and Kel – those two are so sweet, especially when they fell asleep together, with their hands in the shape of a gun. Oh adorable. They are the little troublemakers you definitely would want as your brothers.

If you were like me and either have this book on your kindle, sitting there for months or haven’t grabbed yourself a copy of Slammed (And Point of Retreat – which shall be read tonight) then GET IT NOW! Colleen Hoover drags you into the story until you just have to keep turning pages to know what is going to happen. It’s completely entrancing and I cannot wait to continue Will and Lake’s story in Point of Retreat!!

Posted in Colleen Hoover, New Adult, Romance, Suspense

Hopeless – Colleen Hoover

Posted on by Z. Elizabeth

15717943Synopsis

Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than believing the lies…

That’s what seventeen-year-old Sky realizes after she meets Dean Holder. A guy with a reputation that rivals her own and an uncanny ability to invoke feelings in her she’s never had before. He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried.

Sky struggles to keep him at a distance knowing he’s nothing but trouble, but Holder insists on learning everything about her. After finally caving to his unwavering pursuit, Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life will change forever.

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My Review

Seventeen year old Sky has been homeschooled all of her life. She doesn’t have a TV, internet or a phone but it doesn’t seem to faze her, until she begs to go to public school for her senior year.

Everything changes for her after school when she goes to get her secret hit of sugar from the supermarket. That is when she meets Dean Holder who has a reputation bigger than her but also stuns her into silence as with just one look he causes her body to feel things she’s never felt before.

Although he scares her, she’s captivated by him and the more time they spend together, the more he seems to bring out so many emotions but then he also brings out memories that she seems to have forgotten to the service. Ones that she has seemed to forgotten for a reason.

Holder is harbouring a secret and although he wants to stay away from Sky, he can’t. He needs to know everything about her but this secret he has will break Sky but when it’s finally revealed, it changes everything in Sky’s life forever. Thankfully Holder is there to catch Sky throughout it all.

Sky never knew why she didn’t feel attracted to any guy she made out with. She just went along with live thinking she’d never feel attracted or feel lust with anyone, but one look at Holder in the supermarket she was stunned. He was the first guy EVER to make her feel these things and he literally made her heart skip a beat which confused the hell out of her as she has NEVER felt anything for any guy before! Although she had been home schooled, she seemingly has a reputation around the town they live in. She and her best friend Six know the truth but Sky plays along with everyone’s opinions on her when she goes to school.

You can see she’s strong, sarcastic and bluntly honest girl who can definitely hold her own against Holder when they argue. But she’s also a girl who has started to feel new emotions that are foreign to her but she acts questions and Holder answers her as honestly as he can. They are the perfect match for each other and although they got together fairly quickly, it seemed to right for them to do that and I love that they didn’t hold back.

The first time Dean Holder is introduced, he’s smoking hot and a little intense. He blows hot and cold the first few times he is around Sky, which only makes her assumption about him being intense all that more truthful. With her attraction to him, she gets pissed off numerous times over his ‘tantrums’ he seems to pull every so often until there is a period where he stays away from her. But Holder is harbouring a secret that he cannot and will not tell Sky as it will break her but staying away from her is something he cannot do. He needs to be with her and needs to know everything about her. There’s just something about her he can’t pinpoint…

I loved Holder from the beginning. You get to understand why he acted the way he did further along in the book and why he just couldn’t stay away from Sky. He’s been on a mission for the past few years and he was beginning to give up until he found Sky. He’s also very attracted to her and even though they hadn’t known each other long, their chemistry and their charge just kept pulling them together. In the short time, they seem to become everything to each other and to me, it didn’t seem all that strange that they were falling in love quickly, especially when they secret comes out.

Everything that came out of Holder’s mouth was just perfect. He seemed to know what to say in the darkest of moments and also in the lightest. He’s not like any boy I’ve ever known and it was such a relief to read about a guy who felt so many emotions and had me hanging on his every word. He just knew what to do and say to make Sky and himself try to forget everything that was going on and he would do anything for her. Just you read and find out yourself!

There is one scene, okay quite a few, but this one, I KNOW everyone has probably written about it in their review and I’m just another person who will too. The scene where it was the best first kiss, that wasn’t a first kiss. HA you will have to read the book to see what I mean. I was getting so flustered over that scene and it makes it much more intense and sexually charged that my heart was pounding so fast in my chest, it felt like I was experiencing this too – that sounds pretty weird I know, but holy moly, that scene!!

Also the scene where I felt all panicky like Sky was a scene near the end where she’s in the shower. I felt all her emotions and my heart was beating with how much I would be like her if that had happened to me. I kept running a hand through my hair while reading that scene.

I really liked reading all the flashbacks. They are an important part in the story and you see how they integrate into Sky’s life and how they mould her into the person she is today. Since her adoption at 6 years old, she has seemingly forgotten everything about her childhood but slowly she starts to remember things she has pushed away from memory and the dreams are just the click into remembering everything before the adoption. She has never emotionally or physically been attracted to any guy until Holder enters her life and down the line you will see why that is…The flashbacks are essential to the plot.

I had many different theories about the secret, some which I were hoping were not true – I have to say, some of them were – but when the BIG secret was revealed , HOLY SHIT, that secret hadn’t even crossed my mind. That was a complete shocker to me and I’m glad I didn’t figure it out because I sat up in bed, mouth open, rereading that sentence. I don’t think anyone saw that coming!

The ending was a flashback and it kind of pulls the whole story together and makes you think back over the whole book, putting the final finishing thoughts to it as a whole. It took me a while to sleep after I read it as tears were continually falling down my face and I couldn’t stop them. Hopeless is now one of my favourite books and I don’t know why it took so long for me to read it.

Colleen Hoover has made me fall in love with her! Her writing style was refreshing, the book had me hooked from the very beginning and I was captivated until the very end, needing to know what was going to happen next to Sky and Holder. From the Sky and the stars to the pinky holding, it all made complete sense to me as to why they felt so familiar and this book is definitely real. It will drag your emotions out and make you feel things for the characters involved; you will feel connected to them.

A book with so much depth, so many emotions, so much love, and one big secret is definitely a book that needs to be read. Seriously, if you haven’t read the amazing Hopeless, download your copy now and understand why this book is now one of my favourites.