Tina's Book Blog

Once Were Warriors is Alan Duff's harrowing vision of his country's indigenous people two hundred years after the English conquest. In prose that is both raw and compelling, it tells the story of Beth Heke, a Maori woman struggling to keep her family from falling apart, despite the squalor and violence of the housing projects in which they live. Conveying both the rich textures of Maori tradition and the wounds left by its absence, Once Were Warriors is a masterpiece of unblinking realism, irresistible energy, and great sorrow.

 

These are one of those books that the movie is better than the book.I brought the book several years ago at 17-18 years old(now 28) at a second hand book store while I was on holiday, It has taken me about that long to actually finish the book (and still I skimmed a lot.) I struggled in the past to actually finish this book because of the way it's written and today it was still a struggle to finish it. I have no words really. The only thing I could say was that I hated Jakes chapters and being inside his head with his thoughts and then his actions towards his wife and his children.

**Arc provided in exchange for honest review**

Thank you Netgalley, Lisa Renee Jones for ARC

 

The fourth in the Inside Out erotic romance series by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones, this steamy novel resolves Chris and Sarah's relationship and leads into Mark's story.

"Chris and I have faced our demons and bared our souls to one another in Paris. Now that we are back home in San Francisco, I want to believe that nothing can tear us apart. Not Ava’s accusations against me to the police, or Chris's fear that he will destroy me as he feels he did Amber. And not Mark, who was once too intimately a part of our lives, and who I can see crumbling inside out. He believes he is invincible, just as I want to believe Chris and I are invincible. We have to be invincible. We need each other too much for any other ending.

 

All I want to do is scccccccccccccccreeeeeeeeeam the house down! Or throw a tantrum like my 4 year old!! Argh! No, I'm not always this dramatic but ugh, this series is getting so frustrating!! I want to strangle someone! We follow Chris and Sara once again, we have no answers and seem to be going around in circles instead of getting to the bottom of Rebecca's disappearance. It feels like I'm just reading the same stuff but different title, release date etc. Even the novella's basically have the same details but different pov (which I'm not a big fan of reading different pov's with same events in them)

The most frustrating thing of all is I miss Rebecca, I miss her a lot. She is one my most favorite characters in a book and I wish we finally had the answers. I cannot wait for the last book!

Pre Order your copy! Released 19/08/2014

No In Between AMAZON

  RIP Robin Williams. Truly a legend.

 

I love him, from the instant I set eyes on him when I was just 11 years old I have loved him and nothing will ever change that, he owns me, he owns my heart and he owns my body and no matter how many lies are told, no matter how many people conspire to keep us apart, despite the fame and the distance, we will find a way.

"Georgia Rae, when we made love you used to cry" ... He waits for me to sing my bit. I try to swallow down a sob but I just end up singing through it...
"I said I love you like the stars above, I'll love you till I die"

Carnage is an edgy coming of age love story that breaks all the rules and transcends the decades. Georgia and Sean's story will stay with you long after you read the final word. 
An emotional, smoking hot, gut wrenching read.

Didn't really connect with this book at all. #loathetheheroine #wtfdidijustread

Wrong side of the tracks—that’s where Kayla’s life has been. Her only saving grace was her sister, Braylin. When Braylin dies, Kayla goes on a mission to avenge her death.

Nick is the mysterious stranger with the alluring devil’s eyes. He is attractive, powerful, and dangerous. If not for her obsession for revenge, Kayla would never dare go near him. To lure Nick into her trap, she has to become what he needs while trying to fight against her growing desires. On a destructive path, Kayla enters a secret world of underground crime.

DNF @30%

What was I thinking reading this?!
#stupidhero-heroine #wtfdumbfuckheroine #wastemytime #wtfdidijustread #seriouslypeoplehaveratedthisover1stars #hellnoiwillnotreadtherestofthebooksinthisseries

The birth of your firstborn child is supposed to be the best day of your life, a joyous occasion. Well that’s what twenty-eight year old Ava Jacobson thought. That is until her life takes a drastic turn for the worse and her daughter is born three months earlier than planned, weighing only two pounds, two ounces. 

A distraught Ava is thrown into the deep end of motherhood and instead of being able to hold her baby like other moms, she has to sit back and watch her daughter fight for her life in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, while her fiancé, Sebastian Gilbert is in the midst of a messy war in Afghanistan. Ava is left to pick up the pieces with the help of her only friend, Caleb Summers. 

When her vulnerable state hits an all time low, she finds solace in an unexpected pair of intense green eyes. Eyes that belong to her daughter's doctor, Ashton Bailey, and she falls, like she has never fallen before. However, for the sake of Sebastian she desperately tries to fight against her newfound feelings for Ashton, but eventually the pull between the two is so strong that it is impossible for her to stay away. 

Then when Ava is convinced things can't possibly get any worse, a cloud of blackness closes in on her as the secret demons of her past come back to haunt her, with news that will irreversibly shake her entire world forever. 

As Ava’s roller coaster ride she calls life begins to circle the drain, she quickly learns that even through the darkness of evil, there is always that one person who will look after you and have the ability to pull you away from the brink of no return, when nobody else can. 

 

I don't know why I tortured myself by finishing this book, but I did and now finishing it I went from disliking the heroine to full blown hatred. Blaming her infidelity on her <i>fiancée</i>,(who, by the way, is at war, fighting for their country) she has an affair while her premature daughter is in hospital. She's all about her daughter constantly by her daughters side, then has sex with the doctor who is obviously not her child's father, and spends more time with the doctor then her own child. Bravo. Selfish little biiiiiiiarchy.

I should have read the reviews for this, but went In blind. Stupid mistake on my behalf because if I knew what I read would happen, no way would I have read it.

It was a chance meeting
That changed everything

Before only one man loved me
Now two do

One is my husband
The other a lover

I didn’t cheat
We had a threesome

But the problem was what followed
My lover wanted more than one night

My husband got angry
My lover got dirty

And I got overwhelmed

 

So my shift finished at 4am this morning and all I could think about was finishing this book, so I thought I would stay up and finish this, while waiting for my children to get up for the normal morning routine for school etc (before I could even think about sleep) I just had to finish this book, I had to know what was going to happen and when I read the last page, I was feeling a little disappointed and that wasn't because of Kelly's choice or the ending. I guess I was a little disappointed in how much of an awkward feeling I got while reading this, especially the threesome and even the foursomes. Instead of feeling all hot and flustered (lol) I felt more embarrassed and quite uncomfortable.

I didn't really like Kelly from the start, but she did grow on me a bit by the end. I hated how she complained about her husband and how everything was about her writing, that she lacked in a bit of everything especially when it came to sex with her husband she was more interested in thinking about her books, writing, facebook updates etc yet she didn't display that same sort of attitude with Eric. 

I really liked how this story was based on a couple who have been married and settled for a while with a pre-teen and teenage children but still quite young in their late 30's. 

This was just an okay read for me, which saddens me as Marita is one of my favourite authors. I have loved all her books I have read so far especially the behind the lives series but this one, just didn't sit well with me. It won't stop me from reading the second one though. I'm still keen to know what happens between these 3.

The first time it happened, it seemed like an impossible miracle. Bills were piling up, adding up to more money than I could ever make. Mom's hospital bills. My baby brother's tuition. My tuition. Rent. Electricity. All of it on my shoulders. And I had just lost my job. There was no hope, no money in my account, no work to be found. And then, just when I thought all hope was lost, I found an envelope in the mail. No return address. My name on the front, my address. Inside was a check, made out to me, in the amount of ten thousand dollars. Enough to pay the bills and leave me some left over to live on until I found a job. Enough to let me focus on classes. There was no name on the check, just "VRI Inc.," and a post office box address for somewhere in the city. No hint of identity or reason for the check or anything. No mention of repayment, interest, nothing…except a single word, on the notes line: "You." Just those three letters.

If you receive a mysterious check, for enough money to erase all your worries, would you cash it?

I did.

The next month, I received another check, again from VRI Incorporated. It too contained a single word: "belong."

A third check, the next month. This time, two words. Four letters. "To me."

The checks kept coming. The notes stopped. Ten thousand dollars, every month. A girl gets used to that, real quick. It let me pay the bills without going into debt. Let me keep my baby brother in school and Mom's hospice care paid for. How do you turn down what seems like free money, when you're desperate? You don't. I didn't.

And then, after a year, there was a knock on my door. A sleek black limousine sat on the curb in front of my house. A driver stood in front of me, and he spoke six words: "It's time to pay your debt."

Would you have gotten in?

I did.

It turns out $120,000 doesn't come free

 

 

Ok so I didn't really finish this, but I did make it to 50% but by then I was like 

I did have to see what the whole "I own you, because you spent my checks" was all about so I skipped to about 80% and SPOILER ALERT: WTF MORE LIKE HE OWED HER FOR BEING INVOLVED IN HER FATHERS DEATH!

Top 5 things that put me off this book:
#1: Kyrie
#2: Roth
#3: Their conversations 
#4: The whole plot
#5: All of the above.

I'm not a big fan of Jasinda's books (but I didn't mind the big girls series) so I wasn't surprised that I didn't like this one.

Feeling stuck in an unhappy marriage Nikki finds herself being saved by an MC President. She finds herself in situations that she had only watched on TV. How exciting for her until reality hits her hard. Will she lose her kids, her life, herself? It all becomes too much but he won't let her go or so she thought. 

This is a fun and exciting story about a Mom who finds a new way of life whether she wants it or not

 

I found this read to be very sloppy and needed a lot of work. At $3.70 (+ extra charges that are added with using credit card) definitely not worth the price.

“You were born to be mine and I was born to be yours.”

Donya Stewart’s chest filled with the soft beating wings of butterflies when she first met Emmet Grayne’s green eyes at the ripe age of five. Unable to identify the tugging pressure within her when in his presence, Donya moved through the first several years of her life addled by her feelings for the boy who was her best friend’s brother, and very much like her own sibling. But one cool autumn night in her mystifying teenage years, Emmet erases any ideas Donya has of him being anything like a sibling.

Donya and Emmet, unable to deny the invisible cord that fetters them together on an incredibly visceral level, begin a long journey on a road abounding with challenges, hurdles, and destructive forces. Their love for one another is absolute, and the emotional link between them is strong, but when they make a series of painful decisions and mistakes that pull them apart, the strength of that tether is challenged.

Donya’s career as a model took her around the world and away from Emmet who was working hard for his law degree. When Donya makes a hard decision for both of them, the tether between them stretches beyond what seems possible.

“The tether contorted and quivered and groaned in protest.”

With age comes maturity and hindsight. Will Emmet and Donya have to live apart and with the consequences of their choices? Happy endings aren’t always a guarantee, even for two people who were born into this world for each other. Will the link between them bring them together or prove to ensnare them in heartache?

If you are in search of an angst-filled romance novel, get tied into Tethered…

 

DNF @ 88% (Crazy I just can't finish the last 12 %)So I am going to be the party pooper of the numerous high ratings for this book and am giving it a 2. I was not very fond of Donya, nor was I very fond of Emmet. (Actually, to come to think of it, I wasn't very fond of much of the characters in this book.) I just couldn't understand if Donya & Emmett felt so connected, so tethered did they feel the need to marry other people. I ask myself why because of the repetition of this connection, that was repeated so many times, I kind of got the picture the first couple of times said. I didn't like having to read the same repeated we are connected, soul mates, tethered. over and over again. Their disrespect and deceitfulness for and towards one another proved in the events that unfolded. I think maybe if this was my friend or someone I knew personally happen to, I'd probably think this is why the divorce rate is higher than marriage. Donya and Emmett had to go and marry other people, for the wrong reasons. Yet they felt so connected. I think this story is ridiculous. It didn't show any redeeming qualities after reading their teenage years to adulthood. They were still the same, in my eyes. They still didn't grow up, didn't mature, and still after all this time lacked respect towards one another or maybe they did, and I just didn't get to read the bits they grew up and found happiness and peace with one another. I guess I will never know til I read the last 12%

Early in her life, Josephine Malone learned the hard way that there was only one person she could love and trust: her grandmother, Lydia Malone. Out of necessity, unconsciously and very successfully, Josephine donned a disguise to keep all others at bay. She led a globetrotting lifestyle on the fringes of the fashion and music elite, but she kept herself distant.

While Josephine was trotting the globe, retired boxer Jake Spear was living in the same small town as Lydia. There was nothing disguised about Jake. Including the fact he made a habit of making very bad decisions about who to give his love.

But for Josephine and Jake, there was one person who adored them. One person who knew how to lead them to happiness. And one person who was intent on doing it.

Even if she had to do it as her final wish on this earth.

 

2.5ish. Thank goodness I have FINALLY finish this. Why does KA's books have to be so freakishly long. Ok read. Parts there, I really like then some were boring and dragged. Loved the kids bits in the story more I think..

Four years ago, my dreams were shattered in an instant.

I tried to pick up the pieces and glue them back together the best I knew how, but something was always missing.

A father for my two girls.

But then, Brody Murphy landed on my doorstep, literally. He was a carefree, playful hockey player who barged into my life and messed with my head. He left me more confused than I had ever been.

What if the one thing I thought I needed was the only thing holding me back?

 

I read this, only because it kept popping up on my goodreads updates, with friends and people I'm following speaking highly of Room for You. Deciding to give it a go, it didn't do the same to me as others but still an okay read. Loved the twin girls!