Wild by Sophie Jordan

Wild by Sophie Jordan
Release Date: November 18, 2014
Publisher: Avon
Pages: 288
Series: The Ivy Chronicles #3
Review Source: Edelweiss

Synopsis: (from Goodreads)

A good girl goes fabulously bad in the final book in New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan’s sexy New Adult romance series, in which three Ivy League suite-mates seek higher knowledge of just how far they can go.

Months after her boyfriend dumped her, Georgia can still hear the insults he hurled at her. Boring. Predictable. Tame. Tired of feeling bad, she’s ready to change her image, and go a little wild. What better way to prove her ex wrong than a hot night of sexual adventure at the secret campus kink club?

In the shadowy den of the kink club, she unexpectedly runs into Logan Mulvaney, her friend’s little brother. A player extraordinaire too hot for his own good, he may be younger, but the guy is light years ahead when it comes to sexual experience. Now he’s telling her to go home—“good girls” don’t belong here!

Georgia is tired of having others define her. She’s going to teach Logan a lesson he won’t forget—one white hot, mind-wrecking kiss . . . that leads to another . . . and another . . . and. . . . Realizing she’s way in over her head, Georgia runs.

Only Logan won’t let her go. Everywhere she goes he’s there, making her want every inch of him. Making her forget who she is. Who he is. And just how wrong they are for each other.

My Thoughts:
It would be an understatement to say I was excited when I saw that Logan was one of the main characters in Wild. I was totally ecstatic, because I just had a feeling he would be an incredibly sexy and interesting character to delve into. And, of course, that prediction was right. Logan, Logan, Logan… what is there to say about him?! Well, he’s both wise and experienced beyond his years. He is in no way a typical high school senior, and in a lot of other circumstances I would call bullshit on this guy being a high schooler, but Sophie Jordan pulls it off beautifully. Logan’s life hasn't been typical at all. He's basically raised himself, since his mother passed away and his father is a drunk. Logan’s older brother Reece (protagonist of book 1, Foreplay) has done his best, but he's only a few years older and he was away at school for a time. What’s so great about Logan’s character is that he’s a lot deeper than you think he is. You get to see his serious side here, the one that no one else really acknowledges.

Georgia was a good main character, but a very frustrating one as well. Georgia’s mother dictated her whole life, from the biggest choices to the smallest details. Georgia had her own likes and wants, but she never let them out. It’s definitely a tough situation to be in, and one you can’t judge from the outside, but it was hard to see Georgia so beaten down and unhappy. I understood the predicament, but I really wished Georgia had stood up for herself sooner.

So… Georgia and Logan together? Pretttty epic. There aren’t a lot of older woman/younger guy stories out there, so I was really excited for this one, especially since Logan is the experienced one in the relationship. The two of them together is primarily about sexual attraction at first, but it becomes more without Georgia wanting to admit it. She’s totally in over her head with Logan, because while she tries to tell herself he’s just a kid she can't stop thinking about him. These two seem like total opposites, but for some reason they totally work. Georgia grounds Logan and sees him how he really is, and Logan brings out Georgia's fun side and her real self, the one she wants to keep hidden.

I absolutely loved experiencing the relationship between Logan and Georgia and seeing everyone's reactions to them. Wild was an awesome read and this has been a great series overall. It brings in tropes and themes that you see in a lot of books and that you expect from NA, but the characters are so real and interesting that they truly make the books. Now that this series is complete I hope that Sophie Jordan will continue to write in the New Adult category.

The Cover:
Like.

Rating:
[5/5]

Purchase Links:
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Hear Me by Viv Daniels

Hear Me by Viv Daniels
Release Date: November 14, 2014
Publisher: Self-Published
Pages: 170
Series: n/a
Review Source: eBook from author for review

Synopsis: (from Goodreads)

Listen… the bells have stopped ringing.

Once upon a time, Ivy belonged to Archer, body, heart, and soul. They spent long summer days exploring the forest, and long summer nights exploring each other. But that was before dark magic grew in the depths of the wilderness, and the people of Ivy’s town raised an enchanted barrier of bells to protect themselves from the threat, even though it meant cutting off the forest people—and the forest boy Ivy loved—forever.

And there’s a naked man lying in the snow.

Three years later, Ivy keeps her head down, working alone in her tea shop on the edge of town and trying to imagine a new future for herself, away from the forest and the wretched bells, and the memory of her single, perfect love. But in the icy heart of winter, a terrifying magic blooms—one that can reunite Ivy and Archer, or consume their very souls.

Warm up this winter with a sexy, paranormal New Adult romance from Viv Daniels. Contains magic spells, true love, and the hottest scene ever set in a greenhouse. Not meant for readers under 18.

My Thoughts:
Hear Me is a dark fairy tale-esque story from New Adult author Viv Daniels, who has written some awesome YA fantasy/sci-fi stories as Diana Peterfreund. Basically, if you think that dark fantasy story + sexy adult action equals a win, I suggest you check out this book.

Hear Me definitely contains all the things you might expect when you think of fairy tales and fantasy horror stories. This book may contain a hot romance, but it’s so much more than that. It has the morality element of good versus (supposed) evil, the old ways versus the new theme (modernity and technology encroaching, etc), plus the sense of The Other. This isn’t a super long book, more like a longer novella, so it’s impressive that Viv manages to include all these things alongside an interesting plot and that sexy romance.

The story is in third person, but it's a close third person, so while we don't completely get in Ivy's thoughts, we’re still able to get to know her and understand her motivations for the most part. How Ivy feels for Archer is quite beautiful. The Archer we meet is different from the Archer Ivy fell in love with, but he's still pretty delicious. The glimpses of the "real" Archer show us how sweet and attractive he is, inside and out.

Setting-wise, Hear Me is extremely interesting. This is a modern fantasy, but even though Ivy’s village is set in our real world it’s also very much a fantasy setting. The village has a sense of isolation to it, a part of the real world, but also not really. The forest beside the village is a place of magic without modern technology. Both the separation of these two worlds and how they intermingled fascinated me.

Overall I was very intrigued by this story, and I couldn’t wait to see how it all turned out. Viv Daniels has proven here that she can craft a good fantasy and tell a fulfilling story within a short amount of pages.

The Cover:
Kind of undecided on this one... thoughts?

Rating:
[4/5]

Purchase Links:
Kobo | Amazon.ca | Amazon.com | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Google Play

The Shape of My Heart by Ann Aguirre

The Shape of My Heart by Ann Aguirre
Release Date: November 25, 2014
Publisher: Harlequin HQN
Pages: 352
Series: 2B Trilogy #3
Review Source: For review from Netgalley through InkSlinger PR

Synopsis: (from Goodreads)

Some people wait decades to meet their soul mate. Courtney Kaufman suspects she met hers in high school only to lose him at seventeen. Since then, Courtney's social life has been a series of meaningless encounters, though she's made a few close friends along the way. Especially her roommate Max Cooper, who oozes damaged bad-boy vibes from every pore.

Max knows about feeling lost and trying to move beyond the pain he's been on his own since he was sixteen. Now it's time to find out if he can ever go home again, and Courtney's the only one he trusts to go with him. But the trip to Providence could change everything because the more time he spends with Courtney, the harder it is to reconcile what he wants and what he thinks he deserves.

It started out so simple. One misfit helping another. Now Max will do anything to show Courtney that for every heart that's ever been broken, there's another that can make it complete.

My Thoughts:
If you read my reviews regularly you know that I’ve been loving Ann Aguirre’s New Adult 2B trilogy. This final book in the trilogy, The Shape of My Heart, stars Courtney and Max. Courtney is a very cool chick; she’s spunky and outgoing, but she also has a soft side to her. While it doesn’t totally take over her life, she’s very much still suffering over the death of her high school boyfriend, who was also her best friend. Our hero, Max, is a very layered character. We’ve seen some glimpses into his true self over the past two books, but here we get his full story. Max is someone who has made something of himself despite his rough past. He’s actually very vulnerable, and he’s one of those people who is so lovely but doesn’t see his own worth.

Courtney and Max are very intense together, but their relationship feels so right. They grew incredibly close as friends first, a situation where going to the next level made perfect sense. Of course since this is a novel, and reading about total happiness tends to be boring, there has to be a wrinkle in the perfection of their relationship. I was a bit disappointed in how things went down. In some ways it fit the characters, but I was frustrated with Max’s actions and confused as to why both of them made it seem like Courtney was completely in the wrong.

Overall, though, I thought this was a good book with awesome main and secondary characters. I do have to say that I Want It That Way is my favourite book of the three, but I still enjoyed every book in the trilogy. Ann Aguirre has a great talent at writing diverse college aged characters who feel like real young adults. I love that her books include drama without going over the top, and that they tell a great story of character growth for each of the the main characters, as well as a sizzling romance.

The Cover:
Like!

Rating:
[4/5]

Purchase Links:
Kobo | Amazon.ca | Amazon.com | Chapters-Indigo | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | BAM | Indiebound | Vroman's | Powell's | iBooks

About Ann:
Ann Aguirre is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling author and RITA winner with a degree in English Literature; before she began writing full time, she was a clown, a clerk, a voice actress, and a savior of stray kittens, not necessarily in that order. She grew up in a yellow house across from a cornfield, but now she lives in sunny Mexico with her husband, children, and various pets. Ann likes books, emo music, action movies, and she writes all kinds of genre fiction for adults and teens, published with Harlequin, Macmillan, and Penguin, among others.

Where to find Ann:
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr | Goodreads | Newsletter Sign-Up

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