Category: Paige Toon

Posted in Paige Toon, Romance

One Perfect Christmas – Paige Toon

Posted on by Z. Elizabeth

Synopsis

One Perfect Christmas picks up with Alice and Joe one year on… He’s a bigger star than ever, and Alice has managed to maintain her anonymity. But how long can that last? Will this be their first – and last – perfect Christmas? And where is Lukas?

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My Review

Okay, so the sequel is around 100 pages long, which is a shame as i would have loved it be longer, this is why i have read it in such a short space of time.

You start off a year later with Jessie and Emily – who are Alice’s friends and ex-housemates from One Perfect Summer – who are getting married. Alice is a bridesmaid for Emily and it was lush to read that after 10 years, they were still friends with Alice and Jessie still messing around together like they were still in uni and work. Jessie calls Alice ‘China’ and Alice calls Jessie ‘Weasley’ after Rupert Grint as he has red hair. You really do find the best of friends at university.

At the wedding, you FINALLY get to see who Alice ends up with and i totally squealed when it was revealed. I become far too involved with the characters when i read books. Obviously from the synopsis you know its Joe, but still.

Alice hasn’t seen Joe for three months, due to his busy filming schedule, so when he surprises her at the wedding, she’s ecstatic and Jessie and Emily are just about on the same par as Alice as they have yet to meet him. Alice and Joe’s relationship is still under wraps and Alice still has her anonymity although she has to endure her colleague talking about Joe all the time, which of course, would annoy you if your friend was going on about your boyfriend, even though no one knew you were together. Joe is the one who wants to go public, hating being away from Alice, whereas Alice is a bit more reluctant, as it would mean her whole life and career would be turned upside down.

You finally get to know what happened between Lukas and Alice too, as it rewinds 7 months back. As much as i hated Lukas in One Perfect Summer, we find out he quit his job in Germany, moved back to the UK and is still in love with Alice, forgiving her and wanting her back but as soon as you feel sorry for him, he goes back to the arsehole he was in the first book, which is great because Alice wants him to hate her so he will divorce her.

You can see the love and passion steaming off Alice and Joe, and i totally got drawn in when Alice takes Joe to their house for the first time. although they have been together for a year, it was like they were never apart and that pulled at my heart strings that they still felt the same way after 9 years apart.

There was a lot of jealousy on Alice’s part, which i can understand. Her boyfriend is a big movie star, hes away for months on end and there are so many rumours spreading around about him but then Joe is jealous of Alice when it comes down to her ex-husband and Jessie – who she has a platonic relationship with. They both seem to have issues but when you’re away for months on end, its hard and puts a strain on the relationship but they do talk about it and you can see that whatever issue they have, they can get through it.

Although short and sweet, i really wanted it to be longer. It seemed that although it was meant to tie up some issues from the first book, it just left me wanting more. Like going public, how Alice would cope being thrown into the public eye, the crazy fans etc but I suppose, stopping where it did, even though it was mean, just let the reader ponder over what happened in the future for the both of them.

I’d like to hope that everything ended perfectly between them.

Posted in Paige Toon, Romance, Suspense

One Perfect Summer – Paige Toon

Posted on by Z. Elizabeth

Synopsis

‘And you still love him?’
‘Every second of every minute of every hour of every day…’

While on holiday in Dorset one summer, Alice meets Joe, a guy working at the local pub. She’s eighteen and on the brink of starting university, while Joe’s life is seemingly going nowhere. But despite their differences, the pair fall hopelessly and desperately in love. And then summer comes to an end and they are dramatically torn apart.

Alice heads off to university in Cambridge where she gets a part-time job punting on the River Cam and slowly picks up the pieces of her broken heart. One day Lukas – a gorgeous golden boy from Cambridge University – spies her and it’s not long before Alice falls for his charms.

Months turns into years, but then Joe comes back into Alice’s life again in a way that she could never have imagined. While Alice lives her ordinary life with Lukas, she has to watch from the sidelines as Joe’s life becomes evermore extraordinary. She never stopped loving him, but he’s out of her reach now, surely? And what about Lukas?

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My Review

I have to begin with how much I love Paige Toon. It’s a given, but this book, although I enjoyed it, irritated me.

18 year old Alice spends the summer in Dorset with her mother before heading off to university after the holidays. There she meets Joe, a guy who lives and works in the local pub and they seem to just click. Joe’s life is seemingly going nowhere, his parents are completely horrible and his family has a secret.

They spend all summer together, and fall in love, but when summer comes to an end, they are dramatically torn apart and Joe leaves, not telling Alice where and leaves her broken-hearted.

Mourning for Joe, Alice heads to Cambridge for university where she gets a part-time job punting on the River Cam and she tries to mend her broken heart, with spending time on the river, going to university and making new friends.

One day, she meets Lukas, who is studying at Cambridge University and it’s not long before they start spending time together and Alice falls for his charms and with months turning to years and as much as Alice tries to forget Joe, she can’t. He was her first love, but she tries to for Lukas’ sake as she wants to make it work.

But suddenly, Joe is thrust back into Alice’s life in a way that she can never escape now and seeing him, watching from the sidelines, it just confirms how much she still loves him but he’s so far out of her reach she tries to leave it alone. But something extraordinary happens, thanks to Alice’s best friend and her life is seemingly going to change fast.

Alice and Joe’s teenager love affair was believable and real. It was a real love at first sight and first love between them, both spending their summer together and sneaking out at night to see each other. It broke my head when everything went wrong and a blast from Joe’s past came back and threatened both of them. Forget the heartbreak from Alice, I wanted their love to last more than the summer, but alas it couldn’t as Joe ran off without telling anyone where he went. Like his parents would care anyway.

When Alice met Lukas, I still wasn’t over Joe and so I really didn’t get into his character. He was rich, his parents weren’t completely fond of Alice when he took her home to Germany, he was possessive, jealous and didn’t like her friends – which would be a big no-no for me if my boyfriend hated my friends, he’d be gone because my friends are everything to me.

The book irritated me because although Alice goes to find Joe when she returns from Dorset with no luck, she is pinning over him throughout the book, and although she gets with Lukas, she can’t love him because her heart belongs with Joe. When she finds out what Joe has been doing for years and he is now a heartthrob, she begins to obsess over him, but there is no way she can reach him.

But she can get in touch with him. Thanks best friend.

The epilogue. THAT annoyed me. Paige Toon does it with some of her books, where you have no idea who the main character ends up with. Lukas or Joe? I’m rooting for Joe, but I suppose I’ll have to read One Perfect Christmas, which is the sequel to tie up any loose ends over this book and as I’ve just downloaded it, expect a book review very shortly.

Posted in Paige Toon, Romance

Lucy In The Sky – Paige Toon

Posted on by Z. Elizabeth

Synopsis

Settling down for a 24-hour flight to Australia, Lucy finds a text message on her phone from a woman claiming to have slept with her boyfriend, James, four times in the past month. Trapped above the Pacific, she questions everything about their relationship, but when she finally calls him, James reassures her that it was only his friend playing a joke. James is gorgeous and successful and Lucy adores him, yet at her best friend Molly’s wedding in Sydney, she finds herself having doubts and is keeping an eye on Molly’s brother-in-law Nathan. Nathan is a happy-go-lucky surfer boy with no prospects, no place to live, and an almost-girlfriend in tow. Suddenly, Lucy finds herself caught between two distant continents and two very different men.

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My Review

Paige Toon is another of my favourite author’s and her books do not disappoint, especially this one.

Lucy is off to Australia for her two best friend’s wedding – she hasn’t seen them in years and shes excited to go back to the country she spent most of her childhood living.

Once seated on the plane, she receives a text message from someone claiming to have been sleeping with her boyfriend James for the past month. With nowhere to go, seeing as shes stuck on the plane, the message stays stuck in her mind and she begins to question everything about their relationship.

When she does call James, he reassures her that it was a friend playing a joke and he would get to the bottom of it.

Finally landing in Sydney, she is so excited to see her childhood friends Sam and Molly, whom have obviously grown up during the years they have all been apart.

Lucy used to have the biggest crush on Sam when she was younger, but enter Sam’s younger Nathan – who was a young teenager the last time Lucy saw him and she feels an attraction to him.

Laid-back and always traveling – surfer Nathan and Lucy begin to spend a lot of time together – Him teaching her Surfing and both messing around together, getting drunk, joking around etc.

This causes Lucy to think about her relationship with James, especially as she misses Australia and feels sparks with Nathan.

Of course, her two weeks are up and its back to London, back to her job and back to James. She does stay in contact with Nathan, calling and texting each other and when he gets a temp building job in London, its Lucy who picks him up, shows him around London, much to James’ dismay and jealousy.

I loved Lucy and Nathan together – I was wishing for them to get together and for Lucy to dump James’ ass.

As a typical chick-lit, there is drama and feelings and not knowing what to do with them – which is why I love books like this. The ending – as most of Paige Toon’s books end, had me a bit confused, but I think I know who she ended up with – at least I bloody hope it’s the person I wanted her to get with.