Collide by Gail McHugh

How I felt reading this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Premise: Young, sweet teacher Emily struggles to choose between her increasingly abusive boyfriend who helped her through her mother's death OR the newfound dark, smoldering hottie that happens to own her boyfriend's business.


She's pretty basic.

Pacing: MAKE UP YOUR MIND EMILY. This book felt like it stretch on until infinity, coming in to 395 pages of JUST F%$#ING PICK ALREADY. It could have been accomplished a hell of a lot faster, saving me time and patience.


ProTip: You should choose Gavin.

Plotline: The plot is fairly simple. She moves to New York as a relatively poor girl, and meets all of these insanely rich people, goes to crazy house parties in mansions, and meets the hottest of the hot bachelors. Of course, she's loyal to her boyfriend who is in all likely hood cheating on her with at least one woman, and who also gets more and more violent and possessive as the book goes along. This book, for me, smolders for a very long time before igniting in one quick, brief, wow-that-was-short spark at the end. It left me feeling very disappointed, especially with the "cliff hanger" type ending.

Writing Style: The writing itself was not too bad. The sex scenes were short, sweet, and to-the-point, lacking all of the over-the-top flowery writing that a lot of authors seem to love.

Characters:

Emily is a door mat. That's the easiest way to describe her. She's wishy washy, emotional, and beaten down. She's not the kind of character you can empathize with or sympathize. I wanted to bitch slap her less than 20 pages into the book. At some parts, she chooses to settle with one guy, because he's the next best thing, even though he's cheating. GIRL. Get it together. You're so passive, it's like you're a mouse. Utterly unlikable.

Dillon, the savior boyfriend, is meant to be unlikable. I would have liked him a lot better if he had had redeeming characteristics, instead of slowly becoming more and more villainous. It would have been a lot more interesting if he was a really awesome, stand up guy.

Gavin the hottie falls for Emily much too quick. It's tragic, because I'm sure he could do much better.

I also didn't like how super nice and friendly Gavin's family was compared to the ultra bitchy family of Dillon. Jesus, author, could you be trying to make your point any more clear?

Final Thoughts: This was an okay read. A bit lengthy for the amount of material worked with, like stretching a pizza dough too thin. I wouldn't read it again.

Blind Wolf by Aubrey Rose

Stars: 1 out of 5 stars

Premise: Fat girl misfit finds her true love with a blind werewolf and his gang of misfits.

Pacing: Set over the course of less than a week. The girl is in love by like day 2. Much too fast, even for a novella.

Plotline: Novellas usually have less to work with, due to their length. This was so short it left a lot of unresolved story lines, and not in a pleasant way.

Writing Style: So, so overdramatic. The main character, Julia, is a total drama queen, and her little tantrums and fits made reading it a chore. The author is trying to hammer it in over and over that Julia doesn't fit in, much to the detriment of the story. 

Best [and Worst!] Quotes:
"Stupid boys," she said. "Don't know anything. They're mean anyway."
Jesus christ, is she 8 years old?

Characters:

Julia is a typical whiny fat girl (and I say this as a fat girl myself).

She moans and bitches about how people are mean to her because of her weight. Her job sucks, her house is getting foreclosed on, and she's ugly. Not much is going on for her, and it doesn't make her relatable at all. The main man, Damien, is so in love with everything about her by day 2, even though she has no redeeming characteristics. He must be brain dead, even though he's the more interesting of the two. His character is developed unsteadily, with random bits and chunks thrown in.

The sex scene was actually fairly amusing, considering it got real BDSM real fast. Their first time having sex, and he's choking her and telling her to beg him. That came out of left field for me, as it hadn't been hinted at before. All in all, shoddy work. The characters sucked and the plotline sucked too.

Melt With You by Jessie Evans

Stars: 1.5 out of 5

Premise: Beautiful, 33 year old Naomi moves back to small-town Georgia to recapture the heart of a flaming hot fire-fighter high school sweetheart. However, he's not going to come without a fight.

Pacing: Way too fast paced. All events happen in a month's time span. I HATE WHIRLWIND ROMANCES.

Plotline: Contrived, romanticized. Pushed through plot too fast.

Writing Style: Amateurish at best. It had minor editing problems with missing periods and commas. The sex writing was absolutely atrocious and unappealing. There was a random chapter about a minor character that was pointless. There were a few references that were off-mark, such as bees being able to smell fear. Also, the author apparently thinks that single mothers can apply for and get a child to adopt in a year's time frame. HAH! This is obviously a work from a new author.

Best [and Worst!] Quotes:
“[They needed to start] their new lives off on the right foot. For Naomi, that first, right-footed step would be taken tonight.”
Awkward wording in lots of parts.

"His cock was still the loveliest one she'd ever seen- long and thick, with an even thicker base like the root of the manliest tree ever grown, and a plump tip as round and flushed and delicious-looking as exotic fruit." 
This is the weirdest description of a penis I've ever seen.

Characters:

Naomi is a big fat bitch. That's the best way to describe her.

She's stalkerish, waiting beside his truck after the auction to see him, and googling him for hours to learn about his life. She says she likes to avoid conflict. This is very accurate. She wrote a five page break up letter to Jake when they broke up, AND cheated on him with HIS BROTHER. So not only is she a big fat bitch, she's a cheating whore as well. She also thinks at one point that real men are attracted to curves, which is rather upsetting because there is no standard of beauty; curvy or not, anyone can be beautiful. Naomi as a character has no redeeming qualities, and she is hellbent on making Jake love her again while lying and saying she just wants to be friends. She is a manipulative, ugly character.

Jake is no-bullshit at first, and I found myself hoping he would shut her down and she would live forever alone in her misery.[ Of course, that doesn't happen. He falls head over heels, with them declaring their love within weeks and getting engaged within a month of meeting again. This is after he finds out about the cheating with the brother (that Naomi disgustingly doesn't reveal to him). (hide spoiler)] So while he was written as a very blunt, strong character, the author ruined him by having him propose to the vile Naomi after only a month. Poor character development all around.