ALL OF THE STARS ✮ KATE STEWART ✮ DRIVE

DRIVE

by

Kate Stewart

✮✮✮ ALL OF THE STARS ✮✮✮

Music . . . the heart’s greatest librarian.

The average song is three and a half minutes long; those three and a half minutes could lead to a slow blink, a glimpse of the past, or catapult the soul into heart-shattering nostalgia.

At the height of my career, I had the life I wanted, the life I’d always envisioned. I’d found my tempo, my rhythm. Then I received a phone call that left me off key.

You see, my favorite songs had a way of playing simultaneously. I was in love with one man’s beats and another’s lyrics. But when it came to the soundtrack of a life, how could anyone choose a favorite song? So, to erase any doubt, I ditched my first-class ticket and decided to take a drive, fixed on the rearview.

Two days.

One playlist.

And the long road home to the man who was waiting for me.

Love doesn’t die, even when you stop feeding it. There is no expiration date on the ache of missing someone you shared your heart, life, and body with.

Kate Stewart's star is rising. She is one of the most versatile writers I've had the pleasure to read so far and she always, ALWAYS delivers.

I have read a couple of love triangles in the past and I'm extremely picky about  them because I usually don't like them - one of the parties always has their heart broken. But since this is Kate Stewart, how can I refuse? And lordy, thank gaaaaahd I didn't. So let's have a look at the book, shall we?

We all have these songs, the ones that catapult us back into the past and let us re-live it. We remember the people we were with when we listened to them, the places we connect with them, the feelings that were prominent at that time. We remember details like smells and tastes. Some of them are so bittersweet that we feel regret - regret that it's in the past, regret how we handled a situation, regret that things happened as they did or that we did let them happen.

After a phone call that throws her off her game and makes her missing her flight Stella decides to rent a car and hit the road the soundtrack of her life playing on the drive, consciously letting herself slip back into the life she has moved on from. That road was stony, full of obstacles and pain but also love, so much true, unfettered love and passion.

Torn. In love with two worthy kings, and I was queen of the damned. - Stella

Stella is a firecracker with so much spunk I gave her mental high-fives all the time. Her personality is scintillating, sparkly, beautiful yet flawed. She wants to do right by the people she loves but more often than not her emotions rule her and that leads to decisions that, although not necessarily wrong, hurt people and mostly herself.

I loved that looking back at the men in her life she didn't feel regret, she isn't bitter from the sweet. She realizes that they had their time and place in her life and shaped her into the strong woman she is today. Her capacity to feel deeply is never toned down but re-directed. The passion she feels as a young woman is still there when you close the book but so much more mature and refined.

“Because I want to talk to you every day. I want to look at you every day. Because I can’t fucking wait to see what completely inappropriate T-shirt you wear to work next.”
“You like me a lot.” I grinned.
“Enough to risk a nut,” he mused as he poured cheap shampoo into his hand. - Reid

Both men in Stella's life are beautiful in their own way. Reid is the broken guy, the quiet one and loner who suffers alone and is immensely private. Yet in his love for Stella he is so transparent, it is so obvious that his love for her knows no bounds. I loved Reid. LOVED.

...and that last second . . . that last second when his lips devoured mine was the second I lost a piece of myself I could never get back. - Stella

Nate is the guy who lights up a room when he enters. He's as gorgeous outside as he is inside. His love for Stella feels different but is just as strong. It's lighter, brighter, not as desperate and this is the way her love for him feels too. He gives her the freedom to explore, never pushes. I loved Nate. LOVED.

“Because I’ll be goddamned if I let you forget that I’m waiting. I want you to get used to these hands, these arms, this lap. We’ll be around a while. If it happens, it will happen naturally, and we’ll make our own story. If it doesn’t, I’ve got you with me now, and I’m good with that.” - Nate

Yet there comes a point when Stella has to decide which road she takes because sometimes love just isn't enough. For me it would have been impossible to make a choice - Nate and Reid were perfect. Ultimately she chooses herself though and it's everything you can hope for.

I love music, like Stella my taste covers a lot of variety and having links to the songs for every chapter and being able to listen to them right away is awesome and unique. It makes the reading experience interactive and will pull you right into Stella's head and heart.
The story is told solely from Stella's point of view - in many cases that's a problem for me. I need the hero's thoughts, his feelings. Leave it to Kate Stewart to make Nate's and Reid's love shine through Stella. I had no issues at all to believe the depth of their feelings and connection with her.


This story gutted me, wrecked me. My heart is bruised and I hope Kate covers my therapy sessions, it's her fault after all. I have the worst book hangover - how am I supposed to just move on from this epic love story? Seriously, how evil is Kate Stewart to give us two perfect men while she watches our hearts getting punched and battered? I cried. I ugly-cried and I don't do that very often nowadays.  I thought I'd given away the book of the year award 2017 prematurely but Drive tied A Charm Of Finches. Guess I'll have to give away two books with my end-of-year giveaway.

I know many of us are ambivalent about love triangles. Ultimately this is a story about growth and deciding who you want to be, that love comes in all shapes and forms. That you can give a piece of your heart to more than one man but they will never own the same piece. Give this story a chance - you will drown in the emotions and it will make you hurt for the characters but at the end of the day the road is more important than the destination and the road not taken will always leave you wondering. This story will stay with me for a long time and I'll definitely re-read. Thinking about these extraordinary characters still takes my breath away.

Note to the author: We need Lexi and Ben, Kate, and we need a third story and you know which one I mean - I need to know that he is happy.

All teasers courtesy of the author

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4.5 STARS ✮ JANE HARVEY-BERRICK ✮ BATTLE SCARS

BATTLE SCARS

by

Jane Harvey-Berrick

✮✮✮ 4.5 STARS ✮✮✮

From the dusty plains of Afghanistan to the sleek corridors of the New York Times, journalist MJ Buckman seeks the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. What she doesn’t expect to find is a man who’s her complete opposite … and fits her perfectly.

Marine Sergeant Jackson Connor knows that relationships don’t work for men in the military. He’s living proof of that. But when a steely-eyed temptress in a flak jacket, who carries her moral cause in front of her, crosses his path, he’s furious, curious, and all kinds of in-lust.

A grown-up love story about two people who aren’t looking for love, but realize how precious it is when they find it. They don’t play games and there are no stupid misunderstandings, just life standing in their way.

Can they compromise? And what does that look like in a modern relationship between two driven people? 

Assignment Vs deployment. 

They’re always traveling in different directions. What relationship can survive that?

Having never read a Jane Harvey-Berrick novel before, I went in with no expectations other than knowing I had to read Battle Scars after reading the blurb.

Our relationship had been born from the most desperate of situations, warmed by friendship and respect, heightened by our physical attraction, and tempered with the threat of losing it all in an explosion of dust and violence.”

We often see the heartache those left behind face when a loved one is deployed, but what happens when the boot is on the other foot? When it’s the marine who loses his heart to a woman who has a successful career that also places her in life-threatening situations? Something Sergeant Jackson Connor is all too aware of after he saves the life of the New York Times’ foreign correspondent, Maggie “MJ” Buckman in Afghanistan.

I would never forget this man or this moment.”

I loved how these characters were portrayed and, rather than being overwrought with angst, it brought realism as Maggie and Jack quickly realise that their feelings for one another run deeper than either has ever experienced and what they have is worth fighting for. Yes everything happens fast, to a degree a bit too fast considering their first acquaintance, but together they have a magnetic chemistry and I appreciated how Maggie’s career was as important as Jackson’s and the fact he never questioned that, along with their reluctant acceptance that they’d be apart for long periods of time.

I’ll never like saying goodbye to you.”

This story had so many facets which kept me glued to the pages and I felt every moment of Jack and Maggie’s joy and pain and can say with some certainty that Jane Harvey-Berrick will be an author I read again as her writing-style worked well for me. But not only has she brought her reader a wonderful, and I should say very sexy and at times humorous, love-story with strong memorable characters, she reminds her reader of what’s important and of past events we shouldn’t forget—the exact reason why we should love and hold on tight to what, and who, really matters.

Sometimes it seems like the whole world is on fire.”

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ALL OF THE STARS ✮ SUANNE LAQUEUR ✮ A CHARM OF FINCHES

A CHARM OF FINCHES

Venery #2

by

Suanne Laqueur

✮✮✮ ALL OF THE STARS ✮✮✮

Ex-escort Javier Landes is asking for his third chance at love. And the third time is the charm. He meets an art therapist named Steffen Finch and what starts as casual deepens into a passionate relationship—everything Jav has ever wanted, and everything he fears losing.

Stef’s business card reads Curator & Sailor. His creativity and insightful nature have made him into a talented therapist, the one to call for tough cases. His professional success can’t conceal a deep need to connect with someone, but Javier Landes is the last person Stef expected.

Geronimo "Geno" Caan is Stef's most challenging case. To cope with his ordeal, he's allowed an alter-ego called Mos to make decisions, and now lives a double life within a web of lies. Under Stef’s navigation, Geno uses art to express what Mos forbids to be spoken aloud. But as Geno’s attachment to Stef gradually extends to Jav, the boundaries between professional and personal begin to blur.

Over the course of a year, Jav, Stef and Geno form an unexpected and unconventional triangle, revealing how men make love in times of war and how love is a great wisdom made up of small understandings. The long-awaited second book of the Venery series, A Charm of Finches is an epic tale of survival and secrets guaranteed to make you think and feel and remember.

“I think love is a big wisdom made up of small understandings."

So. This is it. I daresay that this will be my favorite book of 2017 because I can't see how you can top this story. Big words, I know and I'm already taking away the conclusion of my review but what the hell. Bear with me.


Apart from losing his mother at fifteen, Geno was a normal teenager. He has a deep connection with his brother Carlos that only twins have.

They had a name for their shared space, and within it, they had secret identities. Carlos was Los. Geronimo was Mos. Los and Mos lived in the starry world of Nos, Spanish for we. Nos rhymed with dos, Spanish for two.

In one night Geno's world comes to a screeching halt - forty-four hours of horror make him hand over his life to an imaginary alter-ego.

My heart burned for this beautiful, sweet boy who'd had nothing but kindness in him and felt so deeply, his loneliness devastated me. He was betrayed in the vilest of ways by somebody he couldn't expect to turn on him, unspeakable things were done to him.

Carlos took his broken heart where he wasn’t supposed to be. He walked out of the henhouse and left the door wide open, letting the Fox in.

Restoring a measure of sanity and trust is a Herculean task and takes a strong, resilient heart. Geno was broken nearly beyond repair and what he endured would have killed a lesser person. His way back to the surface after disassociating himself from his broken self is paved with spikes but he braves every obstacle and one by one loyal champions join his battles to see him through the worst time of his life.

"They didn't get the best of you." - Stef

One of those is Steffen Finch, an art therapist working with the cases nobody else wants to touch because they know he is the best and if somebody can crack a case like this one it would be Stef. He is bisexual, divorced and we met him first at the end of An Exaltation of Larks, when he was being introduced to Javier Landes. The attraction is instant and it was sweet to see how they danced around each other until they felt safe enough to open up to each other. What then ensued was sheer beauty and bliss.

“Jesus, I can’t believe the shit I tell you sometimes,” Stef said.
“My ears are the round holes for your square thoughts,” Jav said.
“Dude, don’t make me like you.”
“Sorry.”

Stef is a wonderful character, uniting wisdom, kindness and strength. He finds Geno's cracks in his armor and slowly, slowly starts to fill them with light. Although he should keep a professional distance Stef's admiration for Geno turns into a brotherly love and soon the lines start to blur. I adored Stef and his love for his job. He is intuitive and an inexhaustible well of ideas how to make life for his patients a little more bearable. And even in the most heartbreaking therapy session Stef finds a way to Geno.

“Your heart is bigger than hate,” Stef said. “You tell the story. Words or pictures, nothing’s going to push me away, all right? If you can live it, I can listen to it. If your heart can survive it, mine can too.

When Geno's ordeal becomes to much for Stef, Jav anchors him and gives him peace.


Jav just ended his career as an escort and has a little bit of a midlife crisis. His life consisted of catering to his clients needs, socially and sexually. He identifies as bisexual but has never had a serious relationship and the two men he was in love were never a possibility for one reason or another. So here he is, trying to figure out what to do next, yearning for a real connection when he meets Stef. I have no words for my love for Jav and Stef. Their chemistry was explosive!

Tonight their bedroom overflowed with magnificent sex. Death by sex. Grandiose, over-the-top sex. They were making love like architects of the universe. Fucking like mathematicians. Multiplying, dividing, canceling each other out and starting from zero.

They were yin and yang, two puzzle pieces who fit perfectly. Both of them good men from the tips of their hair to the tips of their toes, with a huge capability to love. We read about Jav's backstory in An Exaltation of Larks - he faced his struggles with courage and dignity and it's a miracle that he became such a kind-hearted soul. I also adored his brotherly bond with Geno.


Suanne's description of Geno's horrific ordeal may not be overly graphic but reading about it is a deeply visceral, unsettling and upsetting experience. It left me hopeless at first - because how do you come back from this? How do you find the will to go on after you lose everything and most of all your innocence and youth? I have nothing but admiration and love for all the characters but Geno in particular. The way he clawed his way back into life was inspiring.


The most harrowing and disturbing parts will destroy you but those blows are cushioned by a cast with the ability to give unconditional love to a boy who has had his world turned up-side-down. I adored every single character in this story. And then there is the humor that is sprinkled throughout the story that helps you get past the hard parts.

“Gee, Stef,” Geno said loudly. “Max sure looks mad at you.”
“Because Max is mad at me, Geno,” Stef said in the same tone.
“Why, Stef?”
“I’m afraid that’s confidential, Geno, but you could ask him.”
Geno leaned out of his chair to look under the table. “Max, why are you mad at Stef?”
“He won’t marry my mother.”
Geno straightened up and raised his eyebrows at Stef. “Now I’m mad at you too.”
“I know, I suck.”

The author did her research on art therapy and the historical facts. I also loved her figurative analogy of a hen house for Geno's home before and after this horrific event. Despite the devastation and atrocity this is a story full of hope, love and beauty.


Suanne Laqueur has found her niche in this so competitive profession. She writes intelligent stories about unconventional characters who have depth and profound stories to tell. Even the side characters are multi-dimensional and equipped with a backstory. She has been gifted with buckets of talent and really makes the most of it. If you follow Ms Laqueur's posts on social media you see a strong, smart, outspoken woman who is funny as hell and her personality shines through in her storytelling.

While this book can be read as a standalone I urge you to read An Exaltation of Larks - the beauty of A Charm of Finches will be enhanced. If you haven't been introduced to her writing yet please prioritize her - Suanne Laqueur is one of a kind.

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5 STARS ✮ ALL THE FEELS ✮ JAY MCLEAN ✮ LOGAN

LOGAN

Preston Brothers #2

by

Jay McLean

 ✮✮✮  5 STARS  ✮✮✮  ALL THE FEELS  ✮✮✮

As a kid, Logan Preston was a brat. 

Through his teens, he became the bad boy. 

Now, at nineteen, no one knows what the hell to expect.

High school dropout, Logan Preston is a 

good-for-nothing stoner. 

A black sheep. 

A disappointment. 

The worst Preston Punk of the lot.

At least that’s how everyone in his small town 

makes him feel. 

But Logan Preston has secrets. 

Secrets so dark and so deep below the surface that the only way he can fight them is to stay high, high, high. 

He wears cockiness as a mask. 

Arrogance as his armor. 

Until one girl, one night, asks one life-changing question: 

What's beneath the bravado, Logan Preston?

Did you hear that? That was Jay McLean shredding my heart.

There have been so many fantastic books this year and it's impossible to name one favorite but LOGAN is definitely among the top five of 2017. This book is also one of the hardest I've read in recent years and because of the theme one of the most important ones.
It's challenging to sort through my feelings for Logan and Aubrey and write a somewhat coherent and spoiler-free review.

Logan is the Preston brother who just seems to go with the flow, without direction in his life. His favorite pastime seems to be getting high on marijuana but that would be simplifying it. Nobody really knows what's festering inside him.
When Aubrey, the girl with the scarlet hair and freckles, moves into town Logan doesn't see her wounded soul. In fact, these two clash and are verbally at each other's throat at every chance. But slowly, slowly, slowly they find that they have more in common than they thought.

“You look like a leprechaun.”
“You smell like a venereal disease.”
“You want to get out of here?”
“Yeah.”

Following Aubrey's and Logan's journey to You + Me is delightful and sprinkled with hilarious moments, and gut wrenching when everything escalates and the house of cards he built, held together with spit and baling wire, comes crashing down.

Logan's one of the tortured heroes you can't stay mad at. I tried when my heart was dragged over a cheese grater by the author but to no avail. I loved him, despite him playing unfair and lashing out. His smiles and laughter are an illusion and underneath his skin the wound never healed. But he is also sweet and affectionate. He was perfectly imperfect, he left me raw and hurting for him.

I am lost.
I am high, floating.
I am low, beneath the earth’s surface.
I am night. She is day.
I am darkness. She is light.

Aubrey was a wonderful heroine who had her own demons to battle and she often was her own worst enemy. Her need to protect herself by not showing how much Logan means to her is crushing and sad, but she is also forgiving if the person deserves it. She pulled my heartstrings with a deep-seated loneliness and fear of getting hurt again.

“One day…” Aubrey whispers. “I’ll be your Mary, Logan. I’ll be the one to take away your pain.”

We are re-united with the rest of the Preston family and while I love each and everyone of them Lachy and his dad have a special place in my heart. The way the youngest Preston brother connected with Aubrey was moving, touching, heart-warming. This little one is wise beyond his years yet allowed to be a kid because his whole family goes to great lengths to make it so. They are such a solid support system and safety net that you know, even if things seem hopeless, everything will be OK in the end. I also hope for a story for Tom - even though his wife was the love of his life...if somebody can do a story about him justice it's Jay.

Ms. McLean impressed me with LUCAS last year. This year she upped the ante and I am so thankful that she gave me the chance to read and review this little masterpiece of New Adult romance. The author combines the dry humor I love so much with visceral storytelling and if you want to hop on an emotional roller coaster there is no better ride than this one.

“What if we try, Red? What if we try, and what if that was all I could promise you? Will that be enough?”

LOGAN is the second in the PRESTON BROTHERS series and can be read as a standalone.

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