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Book Review

I Wanna Play Hyde and Seek!

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Untitled design (3)Hellooooooo jello legs.

HOLY HANNAH MONTANA. Looking for a new OTT(over the top) brooding alpha man for your romance collection? Look no further than Layla Frost’s Hyde and Seek series. She’s one of the authors writing in the Kindle Happily Ever After Crossover series with Aurora Rose Reynolds, and she’s writing Until Nox (and I am in desperate need for this book.)

I think my favorite alpha is the borderline-neanderthal kind, and Layla Frost’s Jack Hyde is such a caveman. The book kept me smiling from the very first “Babe” and had just enough twist in it to make me seriously want to cry and scream. But I held myself together enough to read it. Jack is a mechanic and owns his own shop, and Piper Skye is starting her own cake business.

Piper wins over almost everyone she meets by just being herself. Maybe feeding a bunch of huge, mega hunky guys with sweets she bakes to perfection helps too. Normally, when there’s a character that is so charming the people around them can’t help but be protective of them makes me want to gag. But it’s hard to hate Piper. She’s fictional, but I so wish I could meet her and be her friend. She won me over. Her sweet exterior totally matches with her sweet interior, but she knows how to rock. My favorite kind of people.

Jack Hyde makes me want to fan myself while I’m reading. And I’m not a fan of the man-bun or long hair look usually, but thinking about this caveman with long hair? Yeah totally did it for me. His rough, grunting ways are not because he is unable to speak, just that he chooses his words. And when shit hits the fan, he chooses to use more hands-on methods. His insecurities with dating someone ten years younger than him (plus some!) get to him, but he and Piper work it out. With the help of some friends.

If you read my Brynne Asher review, you know that one of my biggest pet peeves in a book is discounting therapy as unnecessary because they are fine, or don’t need it. Well, after some traumatic events, Piper needs therapy. And she admits she needs it! There’s not as much depth as I would have liked, but the acceptance of needing to gather more tools to help cope with something you weren’t equipped to handle, is something I think more authors should be doing.

There were some editing choices at the end that I wasn’t a fan of. There was a lot of quick flashbacks, and back and forth between Jack and Piper’s POV. Most of Hyde and Seek was told through Piper’s POV. Adding Jack in there was something I loved to see, but the back and forth on the timeline was a little disconcerting. It did help to amp up the anxiety and tense situation, but it just wasn’t my favorite aspect.

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The love that Piper and Jake find together is truly amazing. It is all consuming. But my favorite part that Layla details, is the parts you don’t think about. It can be hard to detail the little things that make you fall in love with someone. It’s not always the big grand gestures, but the way that someone searches for you in a crowded room, or the way they look and you when no one is watching. Layla manages to effortlessly make you fall in love with characters as they fall in love, while getting glimpses into the life that is hard to detail. As an author, you can’t always show or describe those little things, but Layla slips them in there.

So my rating? FOUR SOLID STARS. I cannot wait to devour everything Layla Frost has to offer. Her books are offered on Kindle Unlimited if you are a subscriber, but I am totally buying them the second I get the chance.

Follow Layla Frost on Facebook!

 

By the way… I’m totally finding amazing books by being in crazy book clubs on Facebook, and Layla has one for her cupcakes!

Book Review

Who Doesn’t Love Big Crazy Families?

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In anticipation for the Kindle World’s Until crossover series (also known as the “Happily Ever Alpha Kindle World”), based on Aurora Rose Reynolds’ Until Him/Her series, I’ve gone and read some of the authors crossing over. It’s releasing in April 2018 and I am so excited, because I seriously love the whole Mayson crew. (And Until Harmony comes out March 6th, look for my review after it’s released!)

The first author I picked up was Brynne Asher, and the Carpino series, because Byrnne’s novel, Until Avery, will be a crossover with this series. And Ms. Asher, I NEED MORE! It was a short series, only three books, but there were so many people that could have had a story, and the family is just so crazy, that I cannot wait until Avery releases. I need more Carpino’s in my life.

The first novel is Overflow, starring Gabby Carpino and Jude Ortiz.

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Gabby is an interior decorator, not designer don’t mess it up, with a huge, crazy Italian family. After decorating her friend’s laundry room, the FBI and ATF come barging in, hand cuff her, and pat her down. Jude Ortiz is the FBI agent that pat her down, and then barges his way into her life when she could be in even more danger. Jude, with his police get up, ability to put Gabby in a Jude coma with his kisses, and his bossy-ness, not-so-slowly moves into Gabby’s life and home, protecting her and going out of his mind with worry. Because as much as Gabby likes Jude’s bossy behavior, she still gets her way when she wants to.

This book started out slow. So slow, I was seriously worried if I would be able to finish it. I loved Gabby and Jude almost from the beginning, but because Gabby is an interior decorator, it seemed the first chapter was dedicated to just the laundry room Gabby had designed. Gabby’s eye for detail certainly made her job a profitable one, but the paragraphs dedicated to just how a room looked, were not for me. I bullied through, and I am so glad that I did. Gabby and Jude’s love story is one that I don’t think I will ever be able to get over. It has the perfect amount of struggle and darkness, and tons of comedy to keep it light, and fun.

After giving Overflow 4 stars, I moved onto Beautiful Life.

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This story had some more darker themes to it. Leigh, who is Gabby’s best friend since they were 8, has an abusive ex-husband, whom she left because she got pregnant and he beat her. She miscarried. Tony Carpino, who is Gabby’s cousin, who’s always had a thing for Leigh but waited too long, slowly moves in so he can get his chance to be with her. Leigh, who is still struggling with the four years she spent with her husband, and still coming to terms with how to be Leigh again, tries to ignore her feelings for Tony. Gabby was in a Jude Coma, Leigh had Tony Torture. Little touches, gentle caresses, that Tony gave Leigh to show her that he was not Preston, he would never be Preston, and he was going to wait until she was ready. He pushed, just enough for Leigh.

This book was a little darker in it’s nature. Leigh’s life was a hard one, but Brynne makes expertly navigates the emotional trauma Leigh suffered, and Tony’s struggle to be with Leigh, help her move forward with her life and not be stuck living in her mental prison, but also end up happy with her. The one thing that bothered me, that bothers me about all books that have an extreme emotional and physical trauma, is that everyone says their fine and they don’t need to see a therapist. Like going to therapy is a bad thing. Therapy is not bad! And I’d love to see more authors writing a more accepting view of therapy.

But I think that’s more my personal issue than an actual issue with the book. I have never been the victim of physical abuse so I don’t know how it feels to be abused by someone, and I can’t tell if this accurately portrays that. I do know, that it was believable.

My one question: for all that Gabby and her friends complained about Preston being an asshole, and never seeing Leigh, how could they not know that he was being abusive?! It seemed pretty obvious to me.

Still 4 out of 5 stars!

The last of the series is my favorite installment, Athica Lane.

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This is the story that, start to finish, kept me smiling and laughing. Paige Carpino meets Cam Montgomery after literally bumping into him at a burger store. After they’re both a mean to each they’re both mean to each other, they go their separate ways thinking they will never see each other again. But, Paige is watching his kids while her sister Sophia is on her anniversary vacation. While Cam would love to never see her again, and vice-versa, Cam’s kids quickly fall in love with her. Cam and Paige struggle with some crazy events, and Cam struggles with his ex-wife Bekki with an i (please read this novel so you can understand that reference), and the damage she did to him when she left him with two kids.

The third installment of the Carpinos includes two crazy families, a lot of psychos, and some more darker themes. This is probably the craziest of the three books when it comes to struggles, but it is also my favorite. I was engaged from beginning to end, constantly waiting for the next part, the next crazy antic that would happen. My favorite part? There’s something that Paige wants that Cam can’t give her, and she sticks with it. She agrees there’s things she has to do, to stay safe; she agrees there’s things she has to do for the kids, and will do everything she can to protect them; but she will not give up her dreams. And she doesn’t force Cam.

I do love a strong heroine.

This book? 5 stars. Hands down.

“You’re going to go down in the books as a first class donkey face with a pile of shit on your head.” – Jen Montgomery

Quotes like the one above are what made me laugh out loud, literally. Brynne’s writing is amazing. And she truly brings the Carpino family to life. I cannot wait to continue reading more of Brynne’s work.