Alexis Lauren – Z. Elizabeth

Synopsis

Willow never wanted to leave New York. She loved her job, her life, her friends. But what happens when her mom needs her in Texas? Willow reluctantly moves from New York City to Texas to help her mom. Being a city girl, she is like a fish out of water.
Everything suddenly changes when she meets Brody Harris. At 6’4”, with black hair, green eyes, he is one muscular country Boy. Soon the two fall in love, changing her life forever.

Note: Contains some mature content.

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My Review – Some spoilers included.

Now, I’ve read and reviewed Under Her Skin by Alexis, and I really enjoyed it, so I thought I’d give her other books a read, starting with Big Tex.

I have to say, there were some times that I did like in the book, and some that I found so annoying that if that happened to me, I know it would be different. This isn’t going to be my typical review, so watch out.

So, this book is about a girl from New York and a boy from Texas. They both meet when Willow helps her mum, Lauren move to Texas with her best friend turned surrogate sister Seirra helping. They all go to a Texan bar and HELLO Brody, who challenges them to a drink-off.

Next night they all meet up with Texas boy’s best friend tagging along. They all find that they love to be around each other and spend a lot of time together – although this was meant to be a trip to help her mum settle in.

Fast forward and they fall in love, there’s a death, a near death experience, a wedding, a pregnancy, a break-up, a pyscho, a few punches thrown around and a lot of ‘I love you, you mean everything to me.’

Normally with my reviews, I highlight the best parts of the book I liked so I will do them before getting down to the annoying parts.

1. It was focused in NYC and Texas. I love NYC and would love to go back and I really want to go to Texas.
2. The love between Willow and Brody was cute at times – Fluffy.
3. I loved Lauren’s character. You could tell she loved Seirra just as much as Willow, which was so nice to read about and she was written as an amazing woman.
4. Brody’s family are too cute. Loved the help from Mama Brody when something big happens to Willow and I love Brian’s offer. Brighton is so cute as well, like a little child at heart although she’s 21.
5. The Xmas presents were a really nice gift for everyone. I would have loved every single one of them.
6. The way Brody hit psycho Lisa. I know men aren’t supposed to hit girls, but she definitely deserved the smack down.
7. Everyone’s love for the kids, especially Brody and Willow.

Now the things that I didn’t like. They will contain slight spoilers so don’t read if you don’t want to know.
1. Seirra is meant to be Willow’s best friend and surrogate sister but throughout the major dramas it seemed that all Willow cared about was being with Brody. HELLO Seirra needed some comforting too.
2. When Willow was in hospital (slight spoiler) and only ‘family’ could see her, Brody was the only one allowed in. Urm, I’m sorry, hasn’t Seirra known Willow longer than you? It should be her allowed in too. That annoyed me to the high-end as Brody nor she mentioned anything about that and Seirra wasn’t allowed to see her.
3. As stated above, the whole best friend/sister thing, when Willow was pregnant, did it not occur that as Seirra’s best friend that she had a right to know, not 13 weeks later? I would be so mad that I didn’t know about my best friend’s pregnancy. Fair enough if they wanted to wait for the 3 month mark, but to tell Brody’s family above Seirra. That didn’t sit right with me.
4. They both moved to Texas together and it seems that Willow is abandoning Seirra. Bros before Ho’s remember? I know Willow is madly in love, but have a bit of time for Seirra.
5. They didn’t ring Seirra when Willow was in labour.

All the annoying things tend to be the relationship between Willow and Seirra. I know I seem a little prissy over them, but I know most people, especially my friends, would agree with me on them.

Anyway, if you like the fluffy love at first sight with a little bit of drama thrown in, then this book is definitely for you.

Synopsis

Marlo LaPointe is there to take care of her brother and his band mates, even the one that annoys her the most. Marlo and Tobias never got along. But when he turns into her Knight in Shining Armor more than once, she starts seeing him in a different light. What happens when then? She follows the band Pleasure Pointe as they are starting out and becoming a success.

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My Review

I have a secret. I love reading about bands and romance concerning the members – as you can see from Backstage Pass and Hard Rock (so far) and this book didn’t disappoint.

We start off with Marlo – known as Lola to her friends. She is her brother’s band PA and is very close to him, seeing as their parents didn’t care for them at all. Marlo gets along with everyone in the band apart from Tobias – the lead singer.
They seem to rub off on each other and argue whenever they are in the company of each other.

Being a 24 year old, she was a bit childish over her stance on Tobias, but hearing him having sex – as the playboy of the band that he is – would have wound me up too but one night where something traumatic nearly happens to Marlo and with her boyfriend – now ex- standing there not doing anything, Tobias sees red and jumps in to help her.

Throughout her downward depression, Tobias is there for Marlo, which is a turn of events and hes there every step of the way, making sure she gets back to her old self.

To make sure she does, he acts like a dick in front of her and that gets her spark back.

During the book, their relationship progresses and Tobias cant understand his feelings for Marlo – hes attracted to her but hes never had a committed relationship before and Marlo begins to have feelings for him too.

They spend time together, still sleep in each other’s bed and kiss quite a bit, but I don’t think he fully gets to grips with his feelings until Marlo ends up in hospital and she has to spend two weeks away from him, where they both end up missing each other.

Tobias and Marlo get together and it was nice to see him changing from a playboy to being a one woman man. Although there is drama along the way for the couple and for certain members of the band – Marlo’s brother Dusty included, you could see the love that Tobias had for Marlo and vice versa and the ending was very nice to read.

I recommend this book for all you out there.