Ellelou's Book Corner

I never thought reading about a heartbreak would be so entertaining!

And I'd never enjoyed so much being inside a male's head, well not any male but Drew's head. It was amusing and I was clutching my sides with laughter. Everything coming out if his mouth or going through his head was hilarious. Man flu has never been so fun!

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What was so refreshing about this love story is the fact that it was completely told by Drew, a very witty, arrogant, smartass, manhore, golden boy of Investment Banking.

But this bachelor who works hard and plays even harder met his match in Kate, she's sexy, smart, ambitious. I don't want to give much away but let just say that she gives as good as she gets and manages to reduce this confident man into a puddle of self pity.

But don't fret, because even though our hero goes through some transformations he didn't change his persona. That's why I loved this book so much, we didn't get a new hero with changed personality, no watered down versions, just the same witty, sexy guy who didn't loose his charm, his sexiness or his sense of humour, it's just that he now has purpose and focus on the right person and to quote him "is all worth it!

<b><I>“I can take a joke,” she tells me, sounding insulted.
“Yeah? When?”
“When it’s not being delivered by a childish jackass who thinks he’s God’s gift to women.”
“I am not childish.”
God’s gift on the other hand? My record speaks for itself.”</i></b> 
------------

<b><i> 

“She scoffs, “A date? Wouldn’t a date involve actual conversation? Don’t you mean you have a quick fuck to get to?”
I close my hands around her waist and pull her in. In a low voice I tell her, “My fucks are never quick—they’re long and thorough. And you should be careful, Kate”</i></b>

Throughout the book Drew's sense of humour shined, even when he was down and feeling glum. There were so many funny moments and Drew's head was never a dull place.

<b><I>
“Every healthy man in the world wakes up with a stiffy. A fatty. Morning wood. I’m sure there’s some medical explanation for the phenomenon, but I just like to think of it as a little present from God.
A chance to begin the day with your best dick forward.”</i></b>

And I can't just leave out the analogies with the frogs, rats, hamsters...you'll have to read the book to understand.

<b><i>"And, once again, she smiles. Like a cat with a mouthful of bird.
I hate cats. They’re kind of evil-looking, don’t you think? Like they’re just waiting for you to fall asleep so they can smother you with their fur or piss in your ear”</i></b>

And when he does fall, he does very hard. It's difficult to imagine what this self absorbed, extra confident man is reduced to
<spoiler><b><I>“Everything snaps into place.
The picture is as clear as crystal.
That’s what it’s like for me—right now—looking at Kate. Suddenly, it’s all so obvious. So frigging clear.
I’m in love with her. Totally. Helplessly. Pathetically.
In love.
Kate owns me. Body and soul.
She’s all I think about. She’s everything I never thought I wanted. She’s not just perfect—she’s perfect for me.
I’d do anything for her.
Anything.”

“I want her near me, with me. All the time.
Forever.”

“I’ve broken every goddamn rule I’ve ever set for myself to be with her. And it wasn’t just to fuck her.
It was to have her. To keep her.”</i></b>

</spoiler>

When things go pear shape, that's when Drew contracts influenza, man flu and while he's still moping around and feeling sorry for himself he's still providing entertainment for the reader.

<b><I>
“I’ve gone cold turkey. Completely. I haven’t even jerked off. Not once. In nine frigging days. I think the buildup of semen is starting to affect my brain. Like sugar to a diabetic.”

------------------
...and two thoughts enter my head simultaneously.
The first is: God hates me. The second is: I have been a naughty, naughty boy for most of my life, and this is my payback. And you know what they say about payback, right?
Yep. She’s one hairy bitch”<I></b>

With the help of his family and friends he gets on the right track to win Kate back. I'm not going to list all the things he did to change her mind but let's just say that she didn't make it easy for him, in fact I was feeling sorry for him.

I think Drew wins the <b>BGAFA </b>or <i><u>Best Grovelling Act In Fiction Award.</u></i>

<b><I>
“Kate,
If I throw myself in front of a bus,
will you come visit me at the hospital?
Drew
PS - Try not to feel too guilty if I don't survive. Really.”</I></b>

<b> PS</b> I included the quote above, not because it was the most romantic but because it made me laugh...

And for all of you who wondered if he did get his HEA, this should satisfy your curiosity:

<b>“I’m going to make you so happy, Drew Evans.”
My arms tighten around her. “You already have. After this? Heaven’s going to be a major disappointment.”
</b>

<I>HAPPY READING! HOPE YOU'LL ENJOY THIS BOOK AS MUCH AS I DID.</I>

3.5 stars Just finished the book today and I liked it, didn't love it.Hum...where do I start? I liked the idea of author meeting one of her fictional characters in real life and having that instant connection. There's mystery surrounding them both, she's got a dual persona, that of the author in the public eye and her own personal one and she tries hard to keep them separate. He's very intriguing and somehow able to see and read her. There's is a twist in the story that I didn't expect and considering that I actually I'm quite good at predicting these sorts of things I was pleasantly surprised, but somehow I needed more and the way it progressed wasn't satisfying enough. I don't know what exactly this book lacked, I struggled with the writing style in places and coincidently is the second book by the same author that I struggled with this month. The other one [b:Fragile|13563050|Fragile|M. Leighton|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1332879541s/13563050.jpg|19139048] published April last year is on hold and the first book ever that DNF.I noticed today that the author is pulling the book and to quote her : "I'm pulling the book from publication. It will no longer be available in any format from any source after tomorrow."Unfortunately because of this I felt a bit apprehensive posting a review. I only became aware of what was going on when I was checking what other readers thought and if I was missing something, after all it has been highly rated by my friends. What I came across is that apparently some readers found the book dark and that didn't sit well with them. Well that wasn't a problem for me, the problem I had was the writing style and that the characters, their issues and personal struggles should have been explored more. The book could have been so much more, much deeper, angstier, hotter.So, in short I think the book should be re-written, it has got a great potential.There is a frenzy now amongst my friends here on GR to go and get the book before is pulled out. Huh, dunno...maybe I'm just being my usual sceptic self, but reading author's reasons behind her decision to stop the book despite the high ratings in Amazon and GR, mainly the readers not understanding the characters and finding the book too dark, methinks its all a ploy to make the book popular and raise its awareness, same as banned songs, books etc... After all everyone is rushing to get the book before is gone!PS I loved Bad Boys series and will continue reading other work from this author, in fact if this book is re-done I will give it another try without any hesitations.PSS I liked the main characters and cared enough about them, I just needed more insight into their journey. I really hope that M. Leighton doesn't give up on their story, after all she owes it to Sam and Alec.

“Dear Gabby,It’s been fifteen days of no special coffee for you. I was afraid you might be going through withdrawal. Although it can’t be nearly as bad as the withdrawal I’m going through without you. I miss you, baby.Brad” What can I say? I'm in love with Brad. He's on top of my list of book boyfriends, the most romantic and poetic of them all. I'm not going to write a review and go into details, you just need to read the book and meet him. Just to give you a taste here are my favourite Brad quotes: “It’s almost like you opened up a window that I’ve been banging against for so long…screaming and clawing and trying to get out. Yet, that day you walked into my shop, you simply opened the latch and I poured out. Every bit of my heart and soul was exposed. I wasn’t scared. I’m not scared with you.”----------- “You’re not ready for me yet, as much as I wish like hell you were. But I’m patient. I’d wait forever to be the one who gets to hold your heart.”.-----------“I spy with my little eye, something that is so beautiful, it leaves me breathless."Swallowing hard, I take a deep breath and answer, "Trump Towers?" When I turn my head to look at him, I see serious brown eyes staring back at me."Nope... you.” ----------“I’ve been wondering something all night.” My eyes go wide. “Have you ever been kissed by a superhero before?” My mouth won’t move, so I simply shake my head back and forth. His eyes are burning up my lips as he breathes, “because you’ve never been truly kissed until you’ve been kissed by a superhero.”

4.5 starsReview to come

it looks like another winner from Heidi McLaughlin!Can't wait 'till is out.

4.5 stars I loved the writing style, it flowed so effortlessly I read it in one sitting. This book wasn't just about discovering new places, meeting new people, above all it was about discovering yourself, your strengths, your fears and overcoming them. This book was about FREEDOM! Becoming free not only physically but emotionally as well. In the process of pursuing her dreams Evie learned the true meaning of life and happiness. I have highlighted the best part of the book, but I feel compelled to include this quote as I believe it captures best the metamorphosis of Evie: “I was a caterpillar, my many limbs held tight to my body, wrapped up in a cocoon. He paved the way, eased me from a small and ugly life to a beautiful one. The transition had been painful at times, but never more than it would be to leave him. But that was the path of a butterfly—to fly away from the one who had made her.” When Hunter first laid eyes on Evie, she was watching the sunset. He saw the innocence in her and something else. While she was enjoying the sunset, so impressed by it and so thirsty for similar experiences, something so simple and taken for granted from most of us, that was the moment he wanted her, wanted her to be his and wanted her to be part of him. A part perhaps that he lost years ago and unknowingly wanted it, needed it back. He clang onto her as if unconsciously knowing that she was his saviour, he called her Sunshine. “And then I realized we aren’t all human, at least not the way we were supposed to be. Sometimes our soul dies and then we’re just…muscle and bone walking around, with no purpose, no morals to contain us.” These were two broken people, in different ways but both trying to break free from their personal cages, prisons. This book was about second chances. It took another broken soul to understand him, to see him for what he was, to see the good still deep inside him. “He wanted to be this way, crazy and mean and awful. But he wasn’t really. It was a struggle for him as much as I had struggled to be a good little girl in that house.” And then comes the issue of trust. “You trust me not to break you?” he whispered.” Trust such a powerful word. Yes, he did trust her, he spoke to her about his demons, undoubtedly the first person he confided to after losing faith. But for Evie, understandably trust was very hard to come. “Evie,” he said in a cajoling tone. “It’s amazing. Trust me.”“I don’t trust you,” I said automatically, knowing it to be a lie.“It feels like flying.”“Not very well, I guess, since you fall.”“Yeah, but first you soar.” I personally think this was the moment when everything changed course for Evie and she was aware of it, but things changed for Hunter as well, he was enjoying life in a pure form and what better way than seeing things through Evie's eyes. Her hunger for exploring and living new experiences was contagious and little by little brought the faith back to him, faith that he lost when he most needed it. “He looked back, his gaze hard. “I didn’t scream, Evie. I prayed.” And he learned it the hard way that if you wanted something, even surviving you had to surpass fears, you had to believe in yourself and your strength. “It isn’t muscles that make you strong. It’s how much you want it.” And then comes fear, I felt it real through the pages and as Evie said: “just smelled the fear in the air. It was something I’d learned in my time with Hunter, that fear had a primal scent, a universal sign to get out while you still could.” When she comes to realisation, she saw the goodness within him, she recognised his cry for help, his cry for forgiveness, that is the moment when she realises what she has been looking for, what she has been missing. “The falls were both more beautiful than I could have imagined—and yet meant so much less. They were rock and water, not meant to be anyone’s salvation. Not like flesh and blood.” How do I feel about the ending? Was I happy with the choices they made? Was it right or was it wrong? But then again, who am I to judge them, as Evie so well said it: “I’d found in Hunter a kindred, broken soul. We didn’t fit in with the rest of society and never really would—but neither did we deserve to be locked away or abused for our issues. We hadn’t asked to be this way. All we wanted now was to live in peace.”-------“He was my ship in a tempestuous sea. I was the talisman he kissed before a storm. Even distracted and discontent, he always kept me close.”------“All I wanted was to be with Hunter wherever his rig should take us. Across the country, around the world.Like chasing rainbows and capturing each one in the smile it gave us.”

4.5 starsMy only complain is that it was too short. I want more!Hoping that maybe one day there will be another book...

Loved it!Can't wait for the next one.

4.5 starsBeautifully written, but I had few issues with Mia...

4.5 stars! Just finished reading and my mind and my emotions are all over the place.This book wasn't what I expected it to be. It took me a while to get into the rhythm of it but once it got going there was no stopping. I couldn't put it down and here I am trying to write about it at 1am. All I can say is that it's clever and kept me intrigued for the most part of it.To sum it up in one sentence: A different take on Avenging Angel! Who was saved or who was avenged? I'll leave it to you to draw that conclusion. “I had been alone so long, scared of myself and for myself, so deprived of so many freedoms. His hug broke me, broke every wall I had built, dam I had constructed, and weight I carried.”-----------“He stood when he saw me, his strong arms reaching for me and crushing me into a hug—a hug that I didn’t want, and didn’t need, until the moment I was touched.”

3.5 starsCute story, a bit predictable but still enjoyable ...

Disappointed!

3.5 starsA sweet story, just what I needed after some angsty books...

“And the thing about falling in love is that no matter where you are when it happens, you can't help but to color those moments with beauty, even if you're in a location of ugliness.”-------“I will prove to you that forever is not just a word, not just a measurement of unending time, but that forever is a place where I will treasure your heart.”-------“Everyone tells a story about themselves in their own head. That story makes you what you are, dictating all your actions and all your mistakes. If your own story is filled with guilt and fear and self-hatred, life can look pretty miserable.”--------“I think dazedly that falling, whether to the ground or in love, is always at least a little bit scary, even if you do it slowly.”

5 beautiful, heartbreaking stars!Review to come soon, but for now meet:Maggie"I’d never known what home meant.To me, it’d been a prison, a place I longed to escape. A place where horrors were harbored, concealed behind closed windows and lies.”“Had I been marked for this life before I was born? Fated before time to suffer at the hands of the ones who were supposed to care for me? Or was it the choices I had made that led me here? Did one fatal mistake send me on a collision course, or was this simply a consequence of a lifetime of naivety and fear?” William “Sometimes I wished I could erase the mark she’d left on me, that I could finally be free of this ache. Another part of me held onto it because it was the only thing she’d left me with. The only thing I had to prove that what we’d shared had been real”

5 AMAZING STARS! Quite easy one of the best books I've read this year!“I live on the Jellicoe Road. Where trees make canopies overhead and where you can sit at the top of them and see forever. My aunt built me a house there. Remember that.” Now and then I come across some little book that not everyone is raving about, definitely not the book of the month. It catches my attention when one of my friends is reading it, I add it to my TBR list and soon I forget about it. Few months later it catches my eye again and I do wonder when will I start it. Some other flavour of the month book comes to the scene and once again I let it go. I easily get caught in this race and little gems like this book get forgotten in the never ending TBR pile, but then comes one day when I'm tired and a bit disappointed by these popular books, let down by the hype and reach for the book that has been forgotten.What a revelation! I started reading and instantly loved it. I got invested in it and just couldn't put it down. I got caught in a magical whirlwind and lost myself in a brilliant story. I got emotional, sad, sentimental, I was touched deep down and through teary eyes I reminisced about life, love, friendships, memories and didn't want this book to end, ever. I felt I knew the characters, I felt part of their existence, I wanted to leap into the pages and give them all a big hug and whisper something, anything. These are the signs of a good book for me. I couldn't put it down, I got so involved I lived and breathed with them all, I kept reading and losing myself regardless of the life still going on around me, but at the same time I didn't want the story to end. “What’s the difference between a trip and a journey?” and my father said, “Narnie, my love, when we get there, you’ll understand,” and that was the last thing he ever said.” Well, let me tell you, this book was definitely a Journey!This book will have a special place in my heart.