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Book Review: What I Saw by Beck Nicholas

Feb 25, 2016

What I Saw by Beck Nicholas

Pages: 320
Publish date: March 1, 2016
Publisher: Harlequin
ISBN: 9781760371975
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon US – Amazon AU – Harlequin

One punch will shatter a town.

Is anyone ready for the consequences of the truth?

Callie Jones is not the kind of girl who gets drunk at school dances, and certainly not now, with her scholarship on the line. And she definitely doesn’t hang around with bad boys like Rhett Barker. Especially alone, at night. But these are the circumstances she finds herself in when she witnesses a king hit that lands the town’s golden boy in a coma.

With his reputation, no one is less surprised than Rhett when he is accused of throwing the punch. But he didn’t do it. And he knows Callie saw what really went down. He just has to convince the ‘ice princess’ to come forward and talk to the police – except, for once, good girl Callie doesn’t seem all that interested in telling the truth. Just what is she hiding, and why?

Drawn together by secrets, scandal and heartache, Callie and Rhett find themselves getting closer – even as the solution to their problems gets further away.

What I Saw:

I received an e-arc of What I Saw by Beck Nicholas via NetGalley from Harlequin Australia in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

I have wanted to read this book from the moment that I heard about. I like novels that capture heartbreaking incidents from a different perspective. The king hit – is something quite big in Australia at the moment and a lot of I leads to death and the person that committed the crime, either getting away with it or being judged guilty for the crime.

But what happens when the person being accused of the crime didn’t do it? What if the person who was king hit is the towns darling? And what if the only person that saw what happened, wants to hide the truth? Then you have What I Saw by Beck Nicholas.

What I Saw follows protagonist Callie Jones and Rhett Barker as they go through a journey of hurt, truth, lies and questioning what would you truly do if someone you care for was in trouble.

I feel very confused about this book – it had so much potential, so much to go on and then it fell flat. The concept of the plot, intrigued me from the get go and that is what kept me reading. I wanted to know what would happen.

The romance was the biggest problem for me in What I Saw. The book went from about 3/4 days and in that time both Callie and Rhett pretty much feel in love with each other … too much instalove for me. Can it even be called that though? Since they have known each other or about each other for quite a bit.

If the book was set over a couple of weeks and the romance was building in that time – then I would have loved the romance, because Callie and Rhett are quite cute together, but it was just was too fast.

I enjoyed Rhett much more than I did Callie. I sympathised with Rhett and all I wanted to do was tell him that, somehow everything is going to be okay. Everyone pretty has hates Rhett and when is accused of the one doing the punching, it was never questioned. And gosh did it make me angry. I like these types of characters, those who are misunderstood, however I hate the situations. Rhett wasn’t who everyone thought he was, he is just this big squishy marshmallow.

In saying that, I didn’t like Callie as much. She annoyed me quite a bit throughout the novel was getting on my nerves. She wants to be ‘perfect,’ for her family and she plays guitar and just so uptight. I found her quite blank.

I also didn’t like her Callie’s parents, but when do I like parents in YA anyway – next to never.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy What I Saw but not as much as I thought I was going to, I liked the protagonists, but didn’t love them, the message of the book, stood out and I did enjoy that, because it is an important message. Something that everyone should listen to – one punch can kill.

Overall, What I Saw by Beck Nicholas shows us that sometimes the right thing to do is the hardest thing, that sometimes family isn’t everything and the importance of how a king hit can not only hurt the Victim but everyone else around them.

Have you read What I Saw? Are you going to read it? What did you think? Let’s Talk!

Book Review: Love Me, Love Me Not by Alyxandra Harvey

Feb 20, 2016

Love Me, Love Me Not by Alyxandra Harvey

Pages: 211
Publish date: 22 February 2016
Publisher: Entangled: Crush
ASIN: B01B1NC13S
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Dating isn’t easy when you’re in the middle of a blood feud.

Anastasia Vila’s family can turn into swans, but just once she’d like them to turn into responsible adults.After hundreds of years, they still cling to the blood feud with the Renard family. No one remembers how it started in the first place—but foxes and swans just don’t get along.Vilas can only transform into their swan shape after they have fallen in love for the first time, but between balancing schoolwork, family obligations, and the escalating blood feud, Ana’s got no time for love. The only thing keeping her sane is her best friend, Pierce Kent.But when Pierce kisses Ana, everything changes.Is what Pierce feels for her real, or a byproduct of her magic? Can she risk everything for her best friend? And when the family feud spirals out of control, Ana must stop the fight before it takes away everything she loves.Including, maybe…Pierce.

Love Me, Love Me Not:

I received an e-arc of Love Me, Love Me Not by Alyxandra Harvey from Entangled Publishing: Crave in exchange for an honest review, this has in no way influenced my thoughts or feelings about the book.

As soon as I saw this book I knew that I had to read it for a few reasons. 1. I love the author. I adore Harvey’s Drake Chronicles, it was one of the first YA series that I read actually. 2. The plot sounded extremely interesting.

Love Me, Love Me Not follows protagonist Anastasia Vila and her family, who can well shapeshift into swans. I think that was the most intriguing part of the novel. I was unique and as soon as I heard that I knew that I need to read it.

The Vila family can only turn into swans once they have fallen in love for the first time. At the start of Love Me, Love Me Not Anastasia is yet to have transformed.

And while the Vila family can turn into swans the Renard family can transform into foxes. And a blood feud between supernatural families is never a good thing, but one that has been going on for hundreds of years always ends with blood.

I really enjoyed Anastasia, she was quite interesting and felt like a protagonist that I could get along with. There were some moments where I wanted to wake her up to her feelings, to see what is around her, but overall, I did enjoy her.

Then there is Pierce, oh how I loved him. It was adorable and from the moment he was introduced, I was rooting for him. Pierce is Anastasia best friend and knew that she could transform into a swan, however he was brought far more into the world in Love Me, Love Me Not.

That is what I like about Alyxandra Harvey, she writes really strong main characters that are really fun and different to read.

Tough I loved the premise of the whole book, it did fall flat for me unfortunately. While the plot of the world worked really well, I wanted more. It is only 211 pages, the world building kind of wasn’t really there. Things were thrown out at us without really explaining it and it just confused me.

I also felt that there was far too many characters. I was just so confused, everyone had names and nicknames and there was this family and that family. When a character hadn’t been on for a few pages and then they would pop up, I would have to really think about who they were.

I liked the climax of Love Me, Love Me Not. Alyxandra Harvey again does this part really well. I had my thoughts about what was happening on, I guess some bits, but I didn’t guess why – and I loved that. It made it for a really interesting ending. However like the rest of the book, I felt that the ending was way too fast. It was like bam, bam, bam and I really didn’t get to breath and it was a little much.

Overall, I quite enjoyed Love Me, Love Me Not. The protagonists were really enjoyable to read and I did find interesting. The plot was intriguing and very unique, that he has me turning page after page, however I did feel that it lacked in the world building element and had me begging for me.

Book Review: You’re Still the One by Rachel Harris

Feb 18, 2016

You’re Still the One by Rachel Harris

Pages: –
Publish date: February 15th 2016
Publisher: Entangled: Bliss
ISBN: 9781633755550
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Arabella Stone, Nashville’s darling, is eager to shuck her prim-and-proper rep, and a few wild months spent checking items off her “ summer bucket list” is the way to do it. First up: kiss the man she’s crushed on since she wore a training bra, the bad boy of country himself, Blue bassist Charlie Tucker.

For Charlie, a beautiful woman flirting with him isn’t out of the norm—but a beautiful woman bolting after the hottest kiss of his life sure is. And when he finds out his kiss-and-run Cinderella is none other than Arabella Stone, daughter of his label’s CEO, he knows he’s in trouble. Because not only is she a Stone, she’s also his employee for the next few months at the recording studio he just bought.

Over the course of one thrilling summer, Arabella and Charlie chip away at her list, but once it ends, so does their time together.

You’re Still the One:

I received an e-arc of You’re Still the One by Rachel Harris from Entangled Publishing and InkSlinger PR in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

I have quite a few Rachel Harris books to date but surprising none of her young adult ones. I find that her New Adult ones are so fun to read and I can normally read them in a day, two at the most and it was no different from You’re Still the One.

You’re Still the One follows protagonist Arabella Stone who is Nashville’s precious gem as she knocks off items from her bucket list while she is away from her over protective by loving father. Arabella is the daughter of the CEO of Blue whom we have previous meet in Accidently Married on Purpose.

The first thing on this list is to kiss the man she has had a crush for what seems like forever; Charlie Tucker. The thing is that she is country music’s bad boy and he just happens to be the bassist for Blue.

I loved You’re Still the One. It was filled with funny, sexy and awkward moments that every Rachel Harris novel, but there something different about this one. Charlie was introduced to us in Accidently Married on Purpose and I loved him straight away. There is something about him that grabs your attention, so I was really glad that he has his own novel.

Charlie is used to having all the girls attention, but Arabella is different. They have met quite a number of times before, but he was too busy with this music and being chased by girls that the CEO’s daughter didn’t catch his eye. But there is something different about Arabella to Charlie, apart from running away after they shared a steamy kiss she has this drive that Charlie hasn’t seen before. And now that he is her boss, let’s just say things get interesting.

I really did love Charlie. We get to see him grow throughout the novel and fall for Arabella, slowly. He was adorable sometimes, especially with his sister and niece. He handle things that is new for Rachel Harris, but I loved it so much. He cared so much for this family and what had happened and wanted to protect them with everything his got.

Arabella is very awkward and fun. She has liked Charlie forever, but has never really done anything about it. It loved her interactions with Charlie. She was a very easy protagonist to love. She wasn’t whiney or annoying, she is the person that everyone wants to be friends with.

The romance was adorable. Arabella and Charlie fumble around each other and get up to all sorts of stuff as they cross things off her bucket list. Some of the things that they get up to cause quite a bit of drama, however the drama that you love to read.

I also love that we get to see the rest of Blue and the band and there some adorable scenes that had me squealing, there is also some foreshadowing towards the next book in this series.

I have a love/hate relationships with books that include a musical person, you know the ones where the protagonist just pops put a guitar and starts signing – yer I really dislike those. Nevertheless, You’re Still the One is different, the band has already been together for quite a while and they are just building.

Overall, I really enjoyed You’re Still the One. It had all the Rachel Harris swoon worthy moments and had me flipping page after page. You’re Still the One reminds us that stardom isn’t everything. Behind every close door someone could be tearing themselves apart and that some people need a little light in their lives.

Have you read You’re Still the One? What did you think? Are you going to read it?

About the Author

New York Times bestselling author Rachel Harris writes humorous love stories about sassy girls-next-door and the hot guys that make them swoon. Vibrant settings, witty banter, and strong relationships are a staple in each of her books…and kissing. Lots of kissing.

An admitted Diet Mountain Dew addict and homeschool mom, she gets through each day by laughing at herself, hugging her kids, and watching way too much Food Network with her husband. She writes young adult, new adult, and adult romances, and LOVES talking with readers!

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