Live
by Mary
Ann Rivers
Rating:
4.5 of 5 stars
My
Review:
Destiny
is caught in the web of her family and all of it's problems and
sadness. When she meets Hefin, she's pretty much hit rock bottom.
She's not one to let life keep her down though and things start to
look up for her even as her family's in the midst of more pain. Hefin
is stuck and getting ready to make some of his own decisions. There's
no way to see these two working out at the start of the book,
although most of the conflict is internal. Destiny is so rooted in
her life even though it's sad, and Hefin is ready to move on, to
finally make his life more satisfying.
I wasn't
sure what to think of Hefin. He seemed really nice and likable, but
at the same time it felt a bit like he saw his attraction to Destiny
as equivalent to his relationship with his ex-wife. I wasn't sure in
the beginning if he really understood what went wrong in his first
relationship, in order to make this one work. By the end of the book,
I was pretty sure, in a snuggly, content sort of way, that these two
would last.
This
book was really compelling. It's not really an escapist book. It's
down to earth and sort of gritty. These people live in their bodies
always. They're emotional but it doesn't feel like they sit
ruminating on things very often. It's hard to explain exactly what I
mean, but it feels like they're very physical, like even when they're
emotionally somewhere else, they truly live inside their bodies in a
way that is very real and authentic. Both are just fine with their
sexuality. The sexuality is rather explicit and pervasive, but not
exactly in an erotic way. These characters are awkward and really
open with each other.
Thinking
about bodies, this book also has quite a bit of a gory feel to it.
Wounds can be described pretty specifically in a sort-of gross way
and there was a general earthy, body-conscious feel to some of the
situations. Words like “sacral dimples” are used and made me feel
very tied to the physicality of the characters in a way I don't find
with many books.
Most of
the book is overrun with a sense of sadness. Like the message is:
people need to take every scrap of happiness they can find, wherever
they can find it, because life is still filled with pain and sorrow.
Hefin and Destiny are both able to compartmentalize quite a bit. It
felt real in the sense that I'm sure most people can do similar
things to hold on to their happiness even when the world is falling
apart around them. But it was still sad to see.
I loved
the language in this book. There's something so poetic and earthy
about Mary Ann Rivers' writing. It takes a little longer for me to
read than normal because I'm not used to some of the words in the
order they're presented, but it's all very beautiful and touching.
These
two characters spend most of the book trying to figure out how to
live in the moment. There's so much bad and confusing happening
around them, and they work the whole time trying to figure out how to
find happiness in spite of all the problems surrounding them. It's a
great message to have and a compelling story, but there was a lot of
sadness to deal with. I did get one good laugh out loud moment. So
if you're looking for a compelling and earthy romance, this is the
one for you.
I received a complementary ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Heating Up The Holidays
Rating:
3.5 of 5 stars
My
Review:
Play
With Me by Lisa Renee Jones
I had
trouble reading this story. The initial third of this story seemed
so complicated, trying to lay the ground work for the intrigue. I
had trouble keeping everything straight. There were a lot of names
and hints but no real clear path of what the story is going to turn
into.
This
story was written in first person, so it was a little harder to
understand the Instra-Lust that Kali and Damion were generating.
These two barely speak to each other after their initial meeting and
they still just know somehow that they're attracted to each other. I
felt that through Kali's eyes, these two were barely ever on the same
screen at the same time. I didn't really feel like I knew Damion at
all.
I ended
up not really caring for Kali that much. There was this whole
complicated mess of “things aren't what they seem” and Kali needs
to watch and report, but don't trust anyone, but you haven't even
actually started your job yet. She's supposed to be all tough and
assertive, but it felt like she really just let everyone push her
around.
And this
story has so much setup: lots of characters, lots of intrigue. Then
it just seemed to sort of end. “These are the greedy bad guys.
Now we have love. All is great.” I felt it was a lot of lead up
that I had to slough through without any real payoff at the end.
Snowfall
by Mary Ann Rivers
I think
this story just took more concentration than my brain wanted to put
in. It was interesting and the characters were well written, but
there were so many technical biological science terms that I had to
read each word really slowly to understand what they were talking
about. If you're a medical or biological science professional,
you'll probably have a really good time with this one. Once the
setup was finished, the story started to pick up and be a lot more
interesting and I really do like the writing.
Jenny is
a very charismatic, emotional character from a Barbra Streisand
movie. She emotes so clearly with all of her being. Whether she's
feeling depressed, angry, needy or happy, it comes through loud and
clear in the story. Not just the writing itself but the actions
behind each emotion are really clear. It is hard that for the bulk
of the story she is very sad and depressed. It really wore down on
my own mood while I was reading.
Evan is
a good solid character. Sort of vulnerable and a straight up kind of
guy. He didn't have as large of a presence to me as Jenny did. But
he'd totally fit in to my movie mind with Jeff Bridges.
I'm
pretty sure my movie roles are a bit too old for this book, but it
did remind me a lot of The Mirror Has Two Faces, baring the whole
medical verbiage. It's good when you're ok feeling sad and nice to
have a happy resolution at the end, but most likely you'll still
leave feeling down.
After
Midnight by Serena Bell
This one
was definitely my favorite story in the collection. Nora and Miles
were the most relatable to me. They could have benefited from a
longer story (this one felt like their relationship was a bit
rushed). It felt like they jumped really fast from “we barely know
each other” to “I'm somewhat co-dependent”. But I liked how
their relationship blossomed and they were both very likeable. I
liked how the story ended and how each of the characters were able to
own their problems and deal with them.
In the
middle of the story when Nora was being all co-dependent, I was
starting to cringe about how they were going to resolve their issues.
Sort of an “oh no, now she's going to subsume her existence into
his because 'he needs her'”. But it didn't go that way and I was
so proud. Nora was strong enough to stand up for herself at the end
and figure out who she was. Both Nora and Miles were able to get to
the point where they healed themselves, but liked being together.
So, I
think overall these stories were too short. For the first two, they
would have benefited from being able to spread out the information
dump over more time so I wouldn't have felt so overwhelmed. For the
last story, it would have been nice to see them interact in a healthy
way over a longer period of time.
