Review: Nobody's Perfect by Kallypso Masters

4.5 Feathers

Nobody's Perfect

by Kallypso Masters

(Rescue Me # 4)

I have been procrastinating in writing this review because I feel that I need to write something amazing to explain how I felt.  But now I realized that is not what's going to happen, so I'm just going to tell you how this book made me feel.  And in my opinion, when a book can move you, make you connect, engage you to the point that it feels as if you know these characters and you care so much for their well being, not just for their happily ever after... then that is greatness!

That's how I feel about the Rescue Me series in general.  I have come to care for each and every character in this series because they are all so damaged and have gone through so much hardship in their lives, that I just want to be part of the happiness when they get there.  A perfect example of that has been Damian and Savannah.

I won't get into the background too much from previous books, will focus on this book.  Savannah comes back to Damian with their daughter in tow, running away from her father and his right hand man.  From California to Denver, with no money and battered.  Savannah is strength personified.  Damian takes them in without knowing Mari is his daughter and just tries to protect them and care for Savi.

But she is so damaged.  I don't think we had a clue, even though we had a slight idea, of what Savannah has gone through in her life.  This book and her story brought tears to my eyes many times, even again as I write this.  I admit that I had to take breaks from reading this book and good thing I had something light and funny to read in between.  It is deep and emotional.  To find out what she's been through, to see her go through healing, to see her deal with her triggers, to see her break down.  And she had to break down before she was able to start putting herself back together.

The way the author told her and Damian's story was so believable and realistic.  Never jumping too fast ahead that you wouldn't believe Savannah could do it.  I think all around the research that went into this book shows, because the scenes Damian picked, the reasoning behind them and how he executed them...everything leads me to see how this lifestyle has a lot of healing in these situations.

Damian also has his story and his issues.  Some are just in his mind and some are physical.  Ms. Masters deals with those as well.  This is not an easy book to read, it is very emotional, but once you go are done reading it, you'll be happy you did.  And I do have to add that O.M.G. Damian is so hot, if he wasn't perfect for Savannah I would seriously consider looking for him and stealing him.

And if you're wondering why this is a 4.5 review and not a 5, I can only say that is personal preference.  My heart ached for Savannah to find happiness and I think I would've liked to see a little more in between her darkness where she had a happy moment.  Even if it was a moment where they interacted with Mari more.  I think I personally needed some light to break up the darkness, earlier in the book.

I think from now on I will call Ms. Masters "The Queen of Making Me Cry!" from sadness or happiness alike.  NOBODY'S PERFECT is just an amazing healing and love story, because at the core, love did conquer all for both and saved them. 

Favorite Quotes:

"I care, Savi.  I understand.  Let me help."

"He fought the urge to mouth 'I love you' to her, but didn't want to scare her off.  So he just mentally tattooed the words on his heart, instead."

"Savi held onto his wounded leg, wrapping both arms around it and laid her forehead against his knee.  She wished she could shed tears for him, but she hadn't been able to cry in...forever."

"You said you had nightmares."
His hand stilled on her head and he stopped breathing for a moment.  "A few.  Over time, though, I chose to dream about you...us...and the nightmares faded some."
"So that's why you call me mi sueño.  Your dream.  Oh Damian." They'd missed so much.

"Don't call me a victim.  I'm a survivor."

"It will never be okay.  I will never be okay.  I'm too broken."
"Nobody's perfect, Savi.  Hell, look at me.  But you'll always be perfect to me."

"Nobody's perfect, mi sueño, but you're about as close to perfection as I've ever known."

"I never forgot you, Savannah.  Not for a single day."

"Marisol told me once you'd forgotten you were a princess.  I just wanted to make sure you never forget again.  You're my princess, Savita.  I'll never let anything happen to you.  I'll slay your dragons.  I'll chase away the demons that invade your sleep - and, trust me, I know they will come -  but they're no match for me, my love.  I'll be there for you no matter what - if you'll let me be."

*Review copy provided by author

Purchase Links: Amazon

ARC Review: Never Seduce a Scot by Maya Banks

Never Seduce a Scot

by Maya Banks

(The Montgomerys & Armstrongs)

Never Seduce a Scott is what Scottish Historical Romance genre is all about. It is an astounding love story that had me in tears. But be forewarned, this book will give you a book hangover and your next book will for sure to put you in a book slump.

The Armstrongs and the Montgomerys are feuding clans that go back centuries and their hate towards each other are ingrained from childhood. As a last resort to end this quarrel, King Alexander II decides to marry them off. Both clans are furious but a forced alliance was made through Graeme and Eveline’s marriage.

Maya Banks did a wonderful job with Graeme as the hero, a total Scottish alpha male. He is every bit romantic, as he is a warrior. Everyone respected him, all the women wanted him and he is well endowed!!! He is the exact alpha I love to read about.

Eveline, is known to be “daft” but yet, forced into a marriage without knowing her groom, live in his household, deal with his clan who hates her, not to mention she has a disability but somehow survived it all. She stood tall, proud and made the worse situation to a better one without help or a pity party. I cheered for her right from the start and reading about her was so uplifting. Let me tell you this chick rocked.
Maya Banks did well to put these two very strong personalities together without clashing to a disaster. It was so easy to fall for them both. The Romance was just epic!!!

Never Seduce a Scot is without a doubt. one of my top reads of the year!

*ARC provided by publisher

Purchase Links: Amazon

Review: Broken by Megan Hart

Broken

by Megan Hart

Megan Hart is not your typical erotic romance.  Megan Hart is not just erotic romance.  And if there was ever a great example of that, that is BROKEN.  This was the first book I ever read by Megan Hart and quite frankly it was my first erotic book after I got back into reading all the time about four years ago.  This book moved me and tested my limits on what I thought was right and wrong.  This book broke my heart over and over again.  I remember lying in bed at 2am crying and sobbing.

What can I say?  This is not an easy or pretty story.  It's gritty and sad but sexy and engaging.  In a nutshell, Sadie is married to Adam whom she met and fell in love with in college.  We have a few flashbacks to their relationship but the main focus of this story is that Adam is now tragically quadriplegic after a skiing accident.  Sadie continues to live, work and take care of her husband.  Then she meets Joe and even though their relationship is platonic in a way and friendly, he's hot and she can't help but to be attracted.  Joe and Sadie start meeting up once a month for lunch dates and during those Joe always tells her about his sexcapades.

Their friendship and connection are well developed, the characters have so much emotion and the writing is just superb.  This book will suck you in and make you feel.  And yeah, even though it's sad and maybe even a bit depressing, I think it's a testament to an amazing author that can truly make me feel so deep.

Purchase Links: Amazon

Review: Vinnie's Ghost by Adrianna Dane

3.5 Feathers

Vinnie's Ghost

by Adrianna Dane

Vinnie's Ghost is a good and engaging novella.  It is one of those stories that is tough to decide on a rating, however.  There were some parts that I just loved, and there were some parts that were just okay, but for the most part, I liked and enjoyed the story as a whole. 

While this story involves a monogamous relationship, there really are three main characters at play here: Stroker, a surfer and surf board creator in Pleasure Point, California; Lee, a roaming ex-Army vet; and Vinnie, Stroker's boyfriend and Lee's comrade in the Army, who died overseas while serving his country.  Vinnie's Ghost begins roughly two years after Vinnie's death.  In the event of his death, Vinnie asked his close friend, Lee, to deliver a letter to his boyfriend, Stroker.  After leaving the service, Lee suffers from PTSD and roams, but finally finds his way to Stroker in Pleasure Point, intent to do the one thing that his best friend requested of him.  It doesn't take long for Stroker and Lee to form both a friendship and quickly thereafter, a sexual relationship.  Lee, however, has yet to give Vinnie's letter to Stroker.  Why?  We eventually are provided with a reasoning of Lee's withholding, but that is one of the things that was aggravating while reading it.  I kept saying, "Please, just please give him the letter already!"  Well, as expected, when he finally does, things go in the expected direction - south.  I don't want to give too much away, but was it frustrating?  You betcha!  Does Dane remedy the situation, though?  She does.  She provides insight from both Vinnie and Lee's points of view, and all of the emotions involved make sense once revealed to the reader.

Of course there needs to be some sort of conflict between these two men to help them find their HEA, but as I said before, there is another character also at play here - Vinnie.  Vinnie speaks to Lee in his head.  At first you don't know if Lee is just suffering from more than just PTSD or if Vinnie is actually doing the speaking, and this is a rather odd part of the book.  Ghosts fit in well with the paranormal and urban fantasy genre, but not the contemporary.  It's a bit of a stretch.  That said, though, at one point when I was so frustrated with Lee, I found that I was thinking to myself, "Wow - I really wish Vinnie was alive...I think he's my favorite character!"  Vinnie's voice gave the reader insight as to the man that he was, and why both Stroker and Lee loved and cared for him as much as they did.  And I'll just give a small warning, make sure to have the tissues ready when the letter is finally revealed.

Due to the reluctance to give Vinnie's letter over to Stroker, Lee's character is often quite melancholy, and I found myself wishing for at least a joke or witty conversation to make me laugh.  It didn't happen however, but it does make sense: Lee suffers from PTSD and is also trying to figure out who he is, who he loves, and just what living is all about.  Thankfully, Stroker is a patient guy, and he can see the good man that Lee is.  And fortunately, the heat in the bedroom (or ocean, beach or workshop, as the case might be) is not lacking or influenced by that melancholy.  These men are sizzling and just beautiful together.  Both of them just need time to find each other and to move into a relationship where there is nothing (and no ghost) between them. 

So while there were frustrating parts in Vinnie's Ghost, there were also some great ones, and overall, I did enjoy reading it.  Beyond the story itself, Dane provides beautiful descriptions and details in her prose, and it is a breath of fresh air for how poetic her writing could be.  I look forward to reading more from her.

*Review copy provided by publisher

Purchase Links: Amazon

ARC Review: The Space Between Us by Megan Hart

The Space Between Us

by Megan Hart

The wait between when we get a novel from Megan Hart is terrible for me, so when I saw that she was releasing this book I did my "hell-yeah-we-are-getting-a-MH-book" happy dance.  Quite frankly, I hardly ever read the blurbs and I stay away from any spoilers or excerpts because I want the book to speak to me.  Megan Hart's writing is one of those rare voices that can tell a a sad and oftentimes hard story beautifully.  It sucks you in and grabs you because you have to know what happens, how it ends.  THE SPACE BETWEEN US was no different.  I couldn't put the book down even when I thought the storyline was going places I didn't think I wanted to go.

I'll be honest here and say that I was not too thrilled to find out this book had a f/f/m menage.  I don't read f/f and I wasn't sure if I wanted to but I trust the author so I just went with it.  Our heroine, Tesla, has had a rough life.  Nothing ordinary or normal, more like crazy and sometimes wild.  Even though she doesn't see herself as wild.  Her parents were I guess swingers and, during the summers, they would take her and her brother, Captain, to a type of sex commune, The Compound.  There kids were even encouraged to explore and learn sexualy, either by themselves or with other kids.  She also met Vic there, who happened to be the rock to support her and get her out of that situation.  They bonded and a sort of love formed, even though he was older than her and they never really had sex.

Fast forward and now she's living with Vic.  Vic is married and has two kids and another on the way.  Tesla is in her mid twenties and works at a coffee shop (the same one where Johnny from COLLIDE goes to get his coffee).  She has a sort of crush on one of the customers, Meredith.  Meredith wants to be Tesla, she wants to be wild and free, to experience things.  So, she asked Tesla to have sex with her husband.  That slowly develops into Tesla, Meredith and Charlie being a part of a threesome.  And then the reality of that sets in.

I did not like Meredith.  I know her character is meant to be the way she is but I thought she was a bit of a lost soul and wanted to slap her around and smack some sense into her most of the time.  

Tesla on the other hand, you can't help but feel for her.  You get her present story but also some of her past.  And now she has to deal with a lot of changes and different emotions.  This book was really the evolution of Tesla for me, from what she had to live through, her teenage years to now.  Her conflicting relationships with her family and that is in big part Vic, who has always been there for her.  With Meredith and her attraction to her but also her attraction to Charlie.  Changes and emotions and pain.

And then there's Charlie who seemed to be the glue holding everything together.  The things he did and how he knew just what to say to make Tesla, and even Meredith, feel comfortable and happy.  How he went out of his way so that everyone would be happy.  He felt real if not the ideal of an alpha male we are so used to read about.

I enjoyed the few cameo appearances in this book by Johnny from COLLIDE and most of all Sadie and Joe from BROKEN.  Sadie is now pregnant and Joe is still in love and devoted to her.  So nice to see them and know what they are doing.

I kept waiting for the waterworks to start, because I always cry when I read a book by this author, but I have to say the tear jerker factor in this one was lower than others.  I did still cry at the end.  And I was happy at the end, although I guess I would've wanted to have more, maybe even one more chapter or an epilogue.

Favorite quotes:

"I would bang that man like a screen door in a hurricane."

"Can't say I've buffed my muffin over it or anything."

*ARC provided by Netgalley

Purchase Links: Amazon