ARC REVIEW: Sweet Ride (Playing for Keeps #3) by Cathryn Fox

Title: Sweet Ride
Series: Playing for Keeps #3
Author: Cathryn Fox
Publisher: Entangled Brazen
Published: November 16th 2015
Format: eARC | Pages: 75
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Source: Publisher
★★✩ (2.5/5) Stars

Cathryn Fox | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

A sexy category romance novella from Entangled's Brazen imprint...

He'll unlock her wildest fantasies...

Private investigator Curtis Jagger has always had a thing for Alix Harris. She was the darling of their high school--gorgeous, popular, class president...and, he suspects, just as naughty as she is nice. Now Jag has the opportunity to show her what she's missing. To show her that sometimes being bad can be sexy as hell...

Alix has always done what she's supposed to, and it's gotten her exactly nowhere. Determined to please herself--

I received a copy of this book, from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. In no way did this sway either my review or my rating.

I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how to express my feelings for this book and this series. On the one hand I loved it and couldn't wait to find out what happened to each couple, but on the other the books are each so dang short, novella length, that everything happens at warp speed and there's really not enough time for these stories to evolve and give you that wow factor we're all looking for. Sure they kept my attention enough for me to still be here for number three. But if I'm being honest...I should've called it good at the end of the first one. Oh my stupid-must-know-how-everything-ends brain.

Sadly, Sweet Ride is actually my least favorite book in the series. Because while I said all the books happen at warp speed, this one does so in triple time. Alix goes through this crappy situation and instead of digesting it all she hops on a plane via a mystery person, plays hard to get with Jag for about five minutes, then blinks and puts her good girl aside for some wild sex with a guy she barely knew in high school. Oh and they fall madly in love in about a week.

Sigh.

Look. It takes a damn good story to get me to overlook insta-love. And even then, 9.5 times out of 10, I'm still kind of irritated with the situation. Had this book been longer I probably could have come close to forgiveness, but still I don't feel like it would've been solid enough for it, in my opinion.

I'm not saying they're completely terrible. I mean, Alix and Jag had some really amazing chemistry. I just wish there had been more substance to their relationship besides just incredibly hot sex. Something to make me sit here and say "yes. I believe in the two of you!" That doesn't happen though.

I'm really not sure if there's anything more positive to say from my reading experience. Alix was an okay character, but probably my series least favorite. While on the opposite side of the fence, I thought Jag was wonderful and would definitely be my favorite. So you can see I was pretty conflicted. 

I guess if you're looking for a really quick filler book in between something bigger and you don't mind people diving head first into love faster than you can say yeehaw, you'll probably have fun reading these books. I'm, unfortunately, all insta-loved out for the year.

Thanks to Entangled Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book.

ARC REVIEW: Falling for the Wrong Guy by Sara Hantz

Title: Falling for the Wrong Guy
Author: Sara Hantz
Publisher: Entangled Crush
Published: October 12th 2015
Format: eARC | Pages: 170
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Source: Publisher
★★✩ (2.5/5) Stars

Sara Hantz | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Ruby Davis has a crush on her brother’s best friend. At least, he was his bestie until the big betrayal. Now Drew is off limits to everyone, especially Ruby. She can’t stand the way people treat him, or the way he feels about himself. It isn’t right. And those deep green eyes are calling to her.

Drew is scarred and damaged, and he has no business even looking at Ruby. But he can’t help himself. She’s beautiful, but he does his best to stay away. When they are assigned a school project, they become reluctant friends – even though they want so much more. 

She’s torn between her feelings for Drew and loyalty to her brother. There’s no way they can ever be together...but love just might find a way.

I received a copy of this book, from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. In no way did this sway either my review or my rating.

I think out of all the ARCs that I had gotten over the last month or so, this one was the one that I was most looking forward to. I mean, it sounded so sweet and angsty and I love the whole falling for the brother's best friend trope and add to it the fact that there was some betrayal so they weren't even friends anymore, well, that had me even more intrigued. Unfortunately it took me most of the book to get sucked in to it, and even when I finally did it still wasn't like I was hanging on every word. It was more like a curiosity as to how it would turn around and come together. My problem now isn't about trying to figure out what didn't work for me, because I could tell you easily. It's going to be breaking it all down spoiler free.

I feel like most of what went wrong for me personally with this story is "Drew's big betrayal". It's really not just one thing. There's the thing that basically is his fault, that Mia's (her name in my ARC is Mia so I'm not sure what it will be in the finish book Ruby or Mia) brother Blake and everyone else has a right to be upset about. But then there's this other event, something that is huge and horrible and has nothing at all to do with Drew, but Drew himself and almost everyone else seems just as pissed about that as they are everything else. Almost more so, in Blake's case at least. And it was just ridiculous and kind of made me mad that he should be made to feel like it was something that was his fault or that he had any control over or made it happen in any way.

I really hope that makes even the slightest bit of sense because I really can't say what the incidents are although I feel like at least one of them could probably be pretty obvious.

Originally I really liked Drew, Mia and even Blake. Drew I consistently liked through the book. He was like my one bit of light throughout. He was pretty screwed up both physically and emotionally and it was easy to sympathize with his character. He had that lost, drawn into himself, self hating thing going on that made you want to be able to reach into the book and comfort him and try to convince him that he needed to stop blaming himself for something that was out of his hands. Mia I went back and forth with. Sometimes she was great and I appreciated the way she was drawn to Drew and wanted to be there for him when nobody else was. Sometimes, though, she would come off as whiny or unreasonable and I wouldn't understand where she was coming from.

Maybe a bit of my issues with the characters was also the fact that sometimes the dialogue just didn't fit or flow right. And at times they said things that weren't very teenagerish. I mean, how many teenagers do you know that use the word subterfuge especially when they're simply talking about keeping a relationship secret. For that matter how many adults use that word that casually? I don't know. Maybe that's just me being silly and nitpicking. It just didn't feel right at the moment and that was only one spot. But not the only one.

I'm really not sure where else to go from here. Like I said, it's going to be hard to explain clearly why this book and I didn't get on well without there being spoilers. I mean, I got to the point where I cared enough to want to find out how it ended, which is why I brought it up from 2 to 2.5 stars. But even then I felt more like I forced myself to get to that point so I couldn't go higher and feel right about it. That makes me sad because I had such high hopes for this one.

Thanks to Entangled Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book.

ARC REVIEW: Fearless (Pretty Smart Girls #2) by Shae Ross

Title: Fearless
Series: Pretty Smart Girls #2
Author: Shae Ross
Publisher: Entangled Embrace
Published: August 18th 2015
Format: eARC | Pages: 208
Genres: New Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Source: Publisher
★★✩ (2.5/5) Stars

Shae Ross | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

A new adult romance from Entangled's Embrace imprint...

Every fighter has a weakness...

Devi Dalton won't let anyone hold her back. With the help of her friends, she's taken control of her future and traded her messed-up family life for a new job in Manhattan. Her only obstacle? Ben Winslow, the sexy friend she's desperately trying to resist. If she's going to succeed, she can't afford to be distracted, no matter how hot the chemistry burns between them.

Cage fighter Ben spent six months trying to convince Devi to take a chance on a relationship. Now that they've reunited in New York, he's not letting her push him away again. They're more than friends-always have been-and he'll do whatever it takes to prove it to her. First, he has a few demons of his own to slay...one of which could ruin his chances with her for forever.

But every fighter has a weakness. Ben's is Devi. And this time, she'll need more than just her favorite "Fearless Red" lipstick to protect her heart if she lets him in...

I received a copy of this book, from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. In no way did this sway either my review or my rating!

It's really hard for me whenever I have to give a book such a low rating. I don't like to do it and I always try so hard drumming up enough positive feelings to not end up doing so. But, in all good conscience, I couldn't possibly go higher and still feel as if I were being honest. It's especially hard when I felt like I was clicking so well with Fearless at the beginning. At the halfway point, though, it started to go downhill. Fast.

I feel like describing Ben as a cage fighter was a bit of a deception. There were only two cage fighting references in the book. One towards the opening, when he was supposed to be in a fight but do to a spoiler type of an incident he didn't end up getting in the cage. Not that I'm complaining about that scene. It happens to be one of the few I truly loved completely before my views on this book got jaded. The second is at a time when he and Devi were at his family home and an MMA medal is talked about. It was the only thing that made me say huh maybe he really is a cage fighter. I mean there was what I guess you could consider a fight towards the end but you'll have to trust me when I say that it so does not count. So it was a pretty huge let down to go in expecting Mr. Tough-Guy-Cage-Fighter and end up with Mr. Suit-And-Tie-Boardroom-Guy.

But that ended up not really mattering anyhow. Because cage fighter or businessman Ben had some extreme jerk-like tendencies. The first time they showed I was just so shocked. I had been sitting here Ben's enthusiastic little cheerleader the whole time. Ben's so sweet. Ben's so charming. Look at Ben and his perpetual smile and positive air. Devi really needs to pull her head out of her rear and give sweet Ben a chance! 

And then this thing comes out. The demon that was hinted at in the blurb that could ruin his chances with her forever? Yeah. That one. Devi has every right to be upset and unsure if she wants to stay with him. Every. Right. Because this "demon" is a huge freaking deal. And yet when he comes after her after she's run off crying, taking herself out of the situation, he gets mad at her and starts throwing every insecurity and terrible thought about herself that she's ever had in her face. And then has the nerve to say he's always been able to "look past" those things about her? And don't even get me started on the whole scene with his mother where, not only did he sit back and not defend her, he then got pissed at her when they were alone and blew up at her telling her she owed him an apology.

Once again, don't even get me started on his b-word of a mother and her passive-aggressive ways of tearing down her own children and Devi for that matter. Odious woman.

Devi wasn't exactly perfect either. That girl had more issues than a magazine rack. Her insecurities and self-depreciation, which at first had me really feeling for her, ended up grating on me after a while. I don't mind a character with a bit of insecurity now and then, but the constant belittling of one's self gets old. Add to that the fact that she was constantly pushing Ben away because he was "too good for her" and then she'd be all over him and flirt with him, and then she'd throw around the friend word and then get mad when he doesn't introduce her as his girlfriend. I wanted to scream with the head games. I get it. She feels like crap about her upbringing compared to his. It was just hard to understand because in all other areas of her life she is bold and, well, fearless. She's not afraid to stand up to anyone and I loved that about her. It was just a really hard contradiction to accept.

My only conclusion was that Ben and Devi, though adorable at first, were just toxic for each other and brought out the other's bad sides and self-doubts. And that toxicity ended up sucking up 95% of the positive feelings I had been feeling up to that point. I no longer felt the desire to see them finally get together and stay together. It just seemed like a bad, bad idea.

When I think about all the huge negatives I wonder how on earth I kept going. Curiosity maybe? The need to know how this was all going to pull together in the end? Which I will give the book credit for. The end was pretty good and even had me laughing pretty hard at one point. But still it was almost like too little too late.

Maybe I should have given up and not pushed forward to the end. I mean, there was plenty of good and believe it or not I did laugh out loud at different times from beginning to end. It's just that all the negative things I felt towards the book really overshadowed anything positive I came across and drowned it out completely. I really wish I could have liked this one. And up to about 53% I really, really did and was excited to start singing it's praises. Unfortunately, in the end, Fearless and I did not get along.

Thanks to Entangled Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book.