The Kari AnnAlysis

Posts Tagged ‘Books’

From Goodreads:
Chloe Peterson is having a bad night. A really bad night. The large bruise on her cheek can attest to that. And when her car skids off the side of a wet country road straight into a ditch, she’s convinced even the gorgeous guy who rescues her in the middle of the rain storm must be too good to be true. Or is he? 

As a successful photographer who frequently travels around the world, Chase Sullivan has his pick of beautiful women, and whenever he’s home in San Francisco, one of his seven siblings is usually up for causing a little fun trouble. Chase thinks his life is great just as it is—until the night he finds Chloe and her totaled car on the side of the road in Napa Valley. Not only has he never met anyone so lovely, both inside and out, but he quickly realizes she has much bigger problems than her damaged car. Soon, he is willing to move mountains to love—and protect—her, but will she let him? 

Chloe vows never to make the mistake of trusting a man again. Only, with every loving look Chase gives her—and every sinfully sweet caress—as the attraction between them sparks and sizzles, she can’t help but wonder if she’s met the only exception. And although Chase didn’t realize his life was going to change forever in an instant, amazingly, he isn’t the least bit interested in fighting that change. Instead, he’s gearing up for a different fight altogether…for Chloe’s heart.

My Thoughts:
This kind of series is my favorite. You start out and introduce a slew full of family members and book by book they pair off. I love getting to see characters out of the spotlight in a book and then see how they blossom in a book about himself… or herself. This book kicks off the Sullivan Series. It was a great way to get things started. Andre introduced everyone in the family and gave a little snippet of their life. You know their jobs and their marital status (single for all), but she kind of leaves you hanging, wanting to know what happens with them. Luckily, there’s a big ole’ series for that.

In this one, we get to focus on Chase and Chloe. And we learn a lot about them, in life and in the bedroom, and the balcony, and the bathroom…. Oy! I was very impressed with the sex scenes that Andre wrote in this book. They were explanatory, but subtle. I normally get embarrassed reading steamy books, but this one I was comfortable with… until the last 80 or so pages. Those pages are practically one long sex scene. Goodness gracious! What a date.

I really liked Chase in this book, except for that his catch phrase included the word “lovely”. I just don’t find “lovely” to be an attractive word. I feel like it’s for the older generation, or a bouquet of flowers at a funeral. Tell me I’m gorgeous, or stunning, or beautiful, or heck, even nice. But lovely doesn’t do it for me. I cringed a little each time he said that.

I have so-so feelings for Chloe in this book. I know she came from a tough place, and it would be hard to trust after that, but I felt like she kind of teased Chase. He was obviously smitten from the first second he saw her and was willing to do anything and everything for her, and then they got intimate and there was no turning back. I felt like at any moment she could have walked out and been fine with it. And there was even a time where she tried, but got sidetracked. It’s fiction, I know. But I get so attached to characters. That’s why I love these books.

I am excited to continue reading this series and see how Chase and Chloe play a role in the future.

I give The Look of Love 4 out of 5 bookmarks.

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Released: May 28, 2013 (print version)
Author Website

I am reviewing the 2nd and 3rd books in this series in the next couple of months. Here are the dates for those reviews:
From This Moment On: July 19
Can’t Help Falling in Love: August 22

Happy Sunday friends! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend. I kicked off my vacation on Friday at 6:27:54 (that’s when my show is over on Fridays). Yesterday, mom and I got a great workout in. We did a 5-mile walk that included some killer hills. Burned more than 600 calories. Then we spent a few hours by my dad’s pool. It was the best way to kick off vacation.

I hate to admit this, but I have been terribly behind on my reviews lately. I think I was a little ambitious about how much reading I would get done. I scheduled too many reviews too close together. I also haven’t been able to get in as much reading time as I normally do, so I’ve been cramming it all in before bed. Like 250 pages a night. I am hoping to get caught up and ahead of the game in the next week.

I am going on a girl’s trip this week with my mom, cousin and aunt. It’s been entirely too long since we have been able to get together and just have a little family time.

So since I’m catching up with books and family this week, I will likely not be blogging much. Forgive me. But I’ll be back with some new reviews next week!

On The Blog

Annalysis: First
AnnAlysis: Butterfly Tears
AnnAlysis: He Belongs to Me

Out this Week

From Goodreads:
He Belongs to Me is a love story . . . a tale of betrayal and deception and of a young mother’s determination to recover what belongs to her.

Forced to leave her baby and tricked into relinquishing her parental rights, four years later Catherine Boyd is back and she’ll do anything to regain custody of her son–even reconcile with the husband falsely accused of killing their son’s twin.

All in the name of love for a little boy, generations of pain and tragedy are exposed in a courtroom drama.

My Thoughts:
I am having a little trouble with the review on this book. There were parts that  I loved more than I can explain. And others that I disliked just the same.

The book started rough for me. It’s about 300 pages long and I wasn’t really hooked until the last 100 pages. I thought the plot itself was great, but thought the writing was flat. I found myself skimming through the pages because at times I was bored. That was in the first 200 pages.

Then, like a switch was flipped, the book did a 180 for me. Within the last 100 pages, I couldn’t turn away. I sat out by the pool (poor pitiful me right?) and couldn’t put the book down. The story started to unfold so quickly and a family secret, nearly five years old, is brought to light. There were multiple times in the last 100 pages that my heart swelled. The characters grew so much and it took a while, but I finally connected with them.

I have high hopes for Rizzo’s future works and will give her another chance because I see great potential in her writing. I give He Belongs to Me 3.5 out of 5 bookmarks.

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Released: June 1, 2013
Author Website

From Goodreads:

From Entrapment…

Abuse. Assault. Abandonment. Addiction. These are the histories of the young women in the inspiring book Butterfly Tears.

Some found themselves in gangs. Others in prison. Some remained trapped in the confines of an abusive family or a painful addiction. Society had given up on many of them.

But they hadn’t given up on themselves. These women were ready to take a different path. And Pathways to Independence was thereto guide them.

…to Empowerment

Therapy. Mentorship. Education. Support. These are the bywords of this ground-breaking organization founded and led by Dave Bishop—a man who first had to conquer his own internal demons.

The butterfly symbology is derived from the famous parable The Story of the Butterfly about utilizing life’s struggles to emerge a stronger person. Butterfly Tears chronicles the stories of nine young women who faced that struggle head-on and, with the help of Pathways, emerged victorious.

These women’s incredible journeys from darkness into light will elicit both tears of sorrow and tears of joy.

Pathways’ motto is to focus on what’s right in the world: Caring people. Pathways’ all-volunteer network of therapists, doctors, mentors, and even mechanics provides the support these girls have never experienced—and allows them to flourish.

Hope. Freedom. Success. Independence. These are the gifts of Pathways.

My Thoughts:
When you do something amazing with your life and open your life and heart to others who need it, you end up with amazing stories. Stories so amazing, they need to be heard by others. That is exactly what this book is about. Dave Bishop, the founder of Pathways to Independence Foundation. Since the program started in the 1990s, more than 250 young women have found the path to lead them to success. 

Butterfly Tears was once a dream, that has become a reality for Bishop. It allows a handful of women to tell their success stories.

Some of these women were beaten and abused, others were their own abusers, falling to the demons within. Some just had one bad decision that led them down the rabbit hole. But all of these women have something in common: They came out on top.

Butterfly Tears is an absolute must read for women! Gents, I suggest you read it too, but ladies, you’ll be able to relate. You may not have grown up in an abusive family, or gotten involved with drugs or a bad boyfriend, but you may have been close, or had a best gal pal that did.

Everyone in a terrible situation needs an angel on their shoulder. David Bishop has been that angel for hundreds. Each of these women have faced such heartbreak and have stories that make you cringe, make your skin crawl, and will most likely piss you off knowing that someone has to live like they did. But in the end, you’ll be in tears, happy that they pulled through.

I want to profile one story for you. And that is Kimberly. Her story was a little different than the others. She didn’t face some of the abuse or addiction that others dealt with. She became a teen mom. Her son’s father was a drug dealer in a gang. All odds were against her, but she had a dream of being a lawyer and Pathways set her on the right path. Although her story didn’t follow the line that others did, hers reached out to me most. Of all the ones I read, hers was the one that had me in tears at the end. I don’t know this woman, but I was proud of her. I am proud to know her story and I am empowered by her courage and her will. It wasn’t easy, most things never are. She wanted to give up, most of us do. But she didn’t. She pushed forward. And the angel on her shoulder, he may have introduced her to every person along the way who helped her out. But she was the one who got herself where she is today. Here’s a little bit from Kimberly herself:

To check out more videos from other ladies whose lives changed because of Pathways, click here.

Each day this week, a blogger has profiled one of the courageous women who shared their story. Click here to check them out.

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From Goodreads.com:
Seventeen-year-old Mira works on a farm in the ruins of Texas, along with all of the other descendants of the defeated rebels. Though she’s given her heart to Tanner, their lives are not their own.

When Socrates, a powerful First, chooses Mira as his Second, she is thrust into the bewildering world of the rich and influential. Will, a servant assigned to assist her, whispers of rebellion, love, and of a darker fate than she’s ever imagined.

With time running out, Mira must decide whether to run to the boy she left behind, the boy who wants her to live, or the man who wants her dead.

My Thoughts:
Let’s start this by saying I’m always up for a new dystopian series. I am always intrigued by authors who can put reality aside and come up with something completely mew and raw. Chanda Stafford did exactly this with First. 

I am a bit impatient when it comes to waiting for things to unfold in stories. I want to know immediately what is going on. With stories like this, when it takes a while to tell what is going on now and lay the groundwork, I find myself speeding through the book until I feel I have enough information to understand it all. At that point, I can finally relax and enjoy the read.

Such an intriguing premise for this book. It’s set a few hundred years in the future. They have found a way to keep the best and brightest alive when their bodies fail them, but they do it by giving them host bodies. But for that to happen, they have to kill the host, which is a child. The children that are selected from live in Texas, where previously there was an uprising. Very Hunger Games‘esque.

Mira is a very interesting character. Like many characters in these dystopian novels, there is always something at risk if you don’t go along with what you are asked  forced to do.

Absolutely loved this book and cannot wait to see what happens in the next two. But I hate waiting around for them.

I give First 5 out of 5 bookmarks and officially add this to my Summer Reads list!

Amazon B&N Goodreads
Released: May 8, 2013
Author Website