Tag Archives: abuse

An Inconvenient Marriage by A.K. MacBride Review

newarcbannerblurbPhoto of a young bride's back in a lace gown, her hands up highZach has only one goal in life:
To make the man, who had taken his mother from him, pay for everything he’d done.
Now, the only thing standing between him and the revenge he so desperately craves is a marriage to a woman he despises.
But from the moment they say ‘I do’, he learns that his bride is not what he thought she’d be, and walls that he’d built around his heart start to crumble.
What happens when he realizes the woman he is living with, is also the woman he can’t live without.
And how will he handle it when he finds out that he isn’t the only one with an agenda?

Natalie has only one goal in life:
To get as far away from her current situation as possible.
The out she so desperately seeks comes in the form of an arranged marriage to a man who makes no secret of the fact that he dislikes her.
Natalie soon realizes that Zach will not be her knight in shining armor, but that doesn’t stop her from hoping that he would see past the rumors and lies to notice the woman she keeps hidden from the world.

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author

akmacbrideEven as a young child I would conjure up stories with my imagination, sharing them with anyone who was around to listen. But my love affair with writing truly took flight when I discovered that I wanted to be the one who created the worlds avid readers – such as myself – like to get lost in. And so A.K MacBride, the author, was born.

I would describe my books as sweet and sensual and filled with enough romance to make you swoon. The real word is boring enough, therefore I want my books to be an escape. I love creating characters that are real and flawed. Stubborn males and defiant females to tame them. A HEA is a must.

I live in beautiful South Africa with my husband and daughter. We happily share our small-town home with a cat – who thinks he’s the boss – and two dogs. There is never a dull moment in the madhouse we call home. But, hey, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

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reviewaninconvenientmarriage

This was my first A.K. MacBride book, but man what a way to start! This was an enemies to lovers story, but Natalie and Zach didn’t actually hate each other. Zach hated the idea of Natalie, and the rumors that were spreading about her, and Natalie at first was hopeful about the marriage, but quickly realized Zach was kind of a jerk. I’ve been reading a lot of the “instant connection” books recently, which I love and adore, so I almost forgot what it was like to read about two people over coming a heck of a lot of back story to fall in love with each other.

Zach is on a one-man express towards revenge-town on the man that caused his mother to commit suicide. This has been sole reason for being successful for years. One of the consequences means dealing with the man that caused all his problems…. and marrying the man’s daughter. He wasn’t expecting Natalie though. Natalie that has rumors spread about her in the gossip rags; Natalie that is praying for her new husband to see through the facade she shows to the world; Natalie that prays for help.

When reading this book, you learn so much about both Natalie and Zach. The flow of this book is so natural, you end up flipping pages with out realizing it’s over. In fact, I was kind of mad when this was over. I mean HELLO, I obviously need more to this story, thank you very much. Natalie and Zach both develop as people, and watching/reading their story unfold was really amazing. I cannot WAIT to read more of A.K. MacBride!

aninconvenientmarriage25star

Here I’ll Stay… and cry

blurb

hereillstayI wanted to give up.
I wanted to give into the hurt and not look back.
I wanted to let my demons win and succumb to the pain.
I didn’t want to live because leaving would be easier than dealing with it all.
But leaving wasn’t an option. Not when my best friends held onto me for dear life, and not when my heart had found one more person to beat for.
I was going to fight. I was going to love.
I was Daysie Flores and I was going to find every reason in the world to live—to stay.

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author

16646808.jpgDominique Laura started off writing under the pen name Rosie C. but grew brave enough to transition to her real name (well, close enough to it). She loves to read and write whenever possible. She’s an advocate for love and happily ever afters, and she’s snarky and sarcastic. She lives in sunny Southern California with her dog, who she’s slightly obsessed with.

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review

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I’m not even going to lie, I usually stay away from Young Adult romances for a couple reasons. One, most don’t have steamy scenes in them. Two, if they do have them, I tend to get grossed out cause the characters are, like, 16. Three, I remember being an annoying teenager, thank you Facebook memories, really needed to see the song lyrics I posted 10 years ago, three times in one day, that spoke to my soul, and when I’m reading about 16 year olds, they’re annoying. Nothing against them, but I want to shake them, just like I want to shake my teen brother when he’s being stupid. But, hey, high school is the time to be stupid. Four, reading about people falling in love in high school makes me want to gag.

While there aren’t steamy scenes in Here I’ll Stay, the story of Daysie Flores is beautiful. This was my first Dominique Laura book, and I’m now going to go stalk her to see what else she’s written. This book spoke to my soul on a level other romances don’t often get to me. (Plus the teenagers, besides Jason, weren’t annoying like I was — which I’m pretty sure is not fair.)

Daysie is abused physically, emotionally, and verbally. Her father is an addict, to pain, alcohol, and drugs. Her mother is addicted to work. Neither should have ever been parents. Daysie has known pain almost her entire life. She has made a list of reasons to stay alive. At the top of the list are her two best friends, Maci and Sarah. Brenton Conners slowly makes his way to the top of the list. Although I would have loved to have seen him punch Jason, just once- please, he worked his way to the top of my list too. And he’s 18 so he can be on my “book boyfriends” list. He is sweet, charming, accepting, and honest. He openly communicates his feelings to Daysie and it is so important for her. Between Brent, and her friends, she makes her own family.

I think I was crying as much as Daysie did throughout the book. I’ve never been physically abused, but I have my own toxic people in my life. People that were supposed to be family saying nasty things to me, while I tried to fight my way out of their poison. Luckily, I had a support system that didn’t include those people, but did include family. Daysie didn’t have that. But I know secrecy, not wanting to tell people about what is happening, not being able to tell people about what’s going on, or how you’re feeling, making excuses for people that don’t deserve them. Coming up with reasons to stay alive.

I think one of my favorite things about this book, is something so little I didn’t notice till about halfway through the book. I was reading along, through tears in my eyes, when I noticed the chapters were reasons. Example, Reason One: Ice Cream. Each reason has something to do with the chapter, but usually they were little things. Things like ice Cream, coffee, or running. It caught me off guard in the worst and best way possible. I’m currently going through the chapters again to see what they all said. I’m mad at myself for missing it to start with.

This book was 5 stars, hands down. Thank you, Dominique, for writing this book. For making the characters believable. For making the teenagers not so annoying, while still making their emotions all over the place. Thank you for writing a beautiful piece of work about a topic that is not easy to write about.

Thank you.

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5star