Review of "Arousing Love" by M.H. Strom

Arousing Love: A Teen Novel by M.H. Strom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was actually pleasantly surprised by this book.

Despite the notion that an 18-year-old boy pursues a 15-year-old girl is somewhat frowned upon, the author made it work.

The story centers around Zach, who falls in love with a girl over the summer. She's staying at a camping site with her religious family and they develop a sweet little summer romance. As often happens with teenagers, they do of course test boundaries and while some parents will frown upon the content, I very much appreciated the way it was portrayed.

One of the issues I often have with reading books involving religion is that it almost always come off as preaching to me. This wasn't the case with "Arousing Love". Sure, we did feel the scolding from Joanna's father as he explained his view, but at the same time we also experience how they're willing to give the boy a chance.

I didn't feel like the book was trying to teach me about religion, because if I wanted that, I'd have read something else. But instead, I saw the religious topics as simply being part of the character. As someone who grew up around Jehovah's Witnesses, I could recognize the fact that being religious didn't mean being fanatic.

However, the reason this book didn't get five stars was largely due to the ending. I did wish for them to get a happily ever after, but in a way, I just couldn't feel as connected to the ending as I did with the rest of the book.

I would recommend this as an easy vacation-read about young love.

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Review of "After Math" by Denise Grover Swank

After Math by Denise Grover Swank
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was actually pleasantly surprised by this particular book. However, as good as the set-up was, I still felt let down near the end.

May contain spoilers. You've been warned.

The story is told from Scarlett's POV. She's grown up in a trailer-park, and finally escaped when she went to college. Scarlett is described as extremely smart, and she has a job as a tutor at the school. When the school's star-athlete Tucker is in danger of losing his scholarship, he asks for her help. At first she's reluctant, but when it's revealed that her help might be the turning point in a new research lab, she agrees.

Over the time we find out that both Tucker and Scarlett has issues.

She's deeply plagued by her past, and lives in fear of turning into her mother or sister. (The former has a bad history with boyfriends, and the latter got pregnant as 16 year's old)

While he's adopted and basically only loved for his soccer talent.

They form a sort of friendship, and I liked that it wasn't insta-love, but at the same time I was much too annoyed at how long they took to finally admit there was anything deeper between them, and then even longer to actually act upon it.

Tucker's history confused me almost as much as Scarlett's. While both of their pasts must have troubled them both deeply, I still believed it was overdone compared to how small scale it was. We only hear about their past, but doesn't really see how they interact with those fragments that torments them.

For example:

Scarlett's issues is rooted in her mother's dysfunctional relationship. I get how that can make any girl wary of guys, but at the same time, Scarlett seemed to change her mind often about whether she was wary or frisky. It might have helped to see her interact with either her sister or mom--or even her nephew/niece--but no such luck.

Likewise, Tucker has his own issues. I liked how the book was set-up in a way that kept the reader guessing what his deal was. However, when we finally found out about the many brothers and sister--and about Tucker's own regret--it seemed to be resolved so quickly, that the suspense almost seemed wasted on me. We didn't see him interact with any of his brothers, but was only briefly told what had happened as Scarlett was briefed on the status.

Despite all that, it was an entertaining read. I loved Scarlett's relationship with her roommate, and how protective they were of each other. The scenes between Tucker and Scarlett was sweet, especially when he ran with her.

A good read if you're up for some sweet romance, and some quirky lines. Would recommend to people who enjoy college-reads.



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Review of "The Hazards of Skinny Dipping" by Alyssa Rose Ivy

The Hazards of Skinny Dipping by Alyssa Rose Ivy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If I could, I would give this book 4,5 stars. However, I rounded down, rather than up because of the things that bothered me.

  Warning: May contain spoilers.

What to do when you discover that your crush has extremely poor skills in the bedroom?

Innocent Julie is going away to college. Her cousin, Amy, gives her a list of challenges to do in order to prepare for the full college experience.

Her story starts as travels up to her family's beach house, to cross off the last challenge: skinny dipping. A little nervous, she jumps into the water, only to see that her neighbor is arriving while she's still naked.

Dylan is hot, preppy and a few years older than her. When he sees her, he promptly jumps in the pool with her, and things heat up from there. It doesn't take long before Julie is in his bed, incredibly unsatisfied, and finally, she skips out on him.

Unfortunately for Julie, Dylan thinks she rocked his world, and as she starts college, he quickly claims her as his girl. Julie, who has had an idol-crush on him for years agrees hoping his skills in bed could be improved. Only they don't, but as time goes on, it takes additionally months before she realizes that Dylan is a controlling ass. In the mean-time, she joins a sorority, get a job, and makes some new friends.

One of the things that bothered me about this book, was how Julie was described both as innocent. I kinda would have wished she was more awkward around Dylan, since that would explain her hesitating to dump his poor-skilled ass. Or maybe, if every guy didn't try to bang her, that could have been awesome as well.

I also think that Julie's reaction to Amy and Reed's friendship was waaay overdone. It almost seemed melodramatic compared to how she dealt with other issues throughout the book.

Nevertheless, it was a fun read. I laughed at some parts, and I can't say I'll never read it again. However, I didn't particularly find any of the side-characters interesting enough to want to continue the series.

Would recommend to anyone who likes a light-read about the college-experience.

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Review of "Finding North" by Rachel Dunning

Finding North by Rachel Dunning
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was actually excited to read this longer work from Rachel Dunning. I was a big fan of her humor in Girl-Nerds Like it Harderbut somehow this really didn't pull me in at all.

Warning: May contain spoilers.

Leo is, in lack of better words, really horny. She hasn't lost her V-card yet, but she's definitely excited for when it happens.

She lives this upper-class life, which all the riches that wealth provides, and on several occasions go out partying, despite being only 17-years-old. Although, I can't judge. I did the same, but legally, here in Denmark when I was 17.

At a club, she meets the older Conall. He's handsome, suave and it doesn't take long before she decides that he's a good candidate for helping her get rid of her virginity. He's friendly, and I grew to like him a bit throughout the book.

Generally, Leo just sounds whining, and kinda like a bitch. Despite Kayla's obvious crush on random-hook-up guy, it doesn't stop Leo from fantasizing hard about him. She basically pleads for Conall to just do her, but then get extremely prissy when he says that Englishmen doesn't just jump the first and the best.

I don't know. I just couldn't connect to Leo. Like, I wanted to understand her so well. She's young, excited, and rich. She wants to travel the world, but can't before she get her trust-fund (which is less than a year away.

And the plot-twist with the attempted rape and drug-over-lord just annoyed me. I would have preferred if it had been evolved deeper--especially with such hard topics--but no such luck.

I don't know who I could recommend it too. I still enjoy Rachel Dunning's writing, but I much prefer her other series.


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Review of "Burned" by Krista Lakes

Burned by Krista Lakes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wanted to love this book, I really did.

First, I gotta ask: What's up with the italics at the start of every chapter? I kept hoping it was some sinister dark plot-twist, but I didn't quite get it.

Holly is home after discovering her college life was a tad-too-wild. Falling right back into her old group of friends, she comes up with a plan to help her friends achieve their dreams. What follows is a sweet romance.

The premise was good, and I absolutely adored how Holly slowly realized her crush for Andrew.

Their shenanigans were amazingly planned, and Krista Lakes definitely managed the mischief and feelings of being a new adult.

But then came the last half of the book.

I get that a friend's vow is important, but I couldn't get past the fact that Luke shunned his friends for being together. They're adults now. After rekindling his dad's high-school love, one would think he had more faith in romance. And it really bothered me because Luke was my favorite. The way he protected both Holly and his brother.

For some reason, we didn't see Holly hang out much with her best female friends.

And then Andrew goes all judgmental on her. Despite the fact that it wasn't Holly's fault. At all.

^I hope I didn't reveal anything. But to put it simply, the latter half of the book started to bug me.

I liked it, but I didn't love it. Would recommend for anyone who wants to hate character choices. =/

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Review of "College Collage" by Scott Haworth

College Collage by Scott Haworth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Do you feel like you are missing out because you're not in College? Don't worry, this book can give you an almost play-by-play of the experience.

I can't decide whether this book is pure genius, or if it's a bad attempt at a new adult read. I honestly can't. Never in my life have I been more annoyed at a book's character's as I was while reading this. No seriously, my friends had to tolerate my rage all through the day.

The following review may contain spoilers. Proceed only if you don' mind.

The story is told from Nick's POV. We follow him, from his first day of college and until graduation. Here we're introduced to his roommates, and the otherwise agony pleasure of his college days.

At first, he completely loathe his two roommates. One, Chris, is a christian guy, who seems to be Nick's favorite victim of passive aggressive behavior. But not to worry, the party-boy, Drew, also receives quite a spectacular amount of Nick's sarcasm.

Out of the three characters, the only one who seems like a straight-up guy is Chris.

Nick hates almost anything. And if he doesn't hate it, he strongly dislike everything else. Throughout the book, he's annoyed at pretty much anything. The college, his roommates, his classmates, his teachers, the teacher assistants, the parties, religion, non-religious people, the girl's he deem slutty and even the girl's he deems too uptight. He's annoyed at the two girlfriend's he ends up having, and he's even annoyed at himself on a few occasions.

Basically, Nick is a major pessimist.

Before the half-way point of the book, he meets a muslim girl, Adara, at a Halloween party, and somehow ends up hooking up with her on the same day. Adara is a sensible, adventurous girl who wants to experience american culture to the fullest. I'm not too sure how her character is a correct portrayal of Muslims, but I gathered it could happen--and probably has--that a muslim would experiment with another culture. On several occasions, she doesn't wear her scarf, and she has sex with Nick quite a few times, along with partying hard. Around halfway through the book, she is discovered by her brother, who pulls her back to Saudi-Arab, and she sends an email to Nick, explaining she had fun but that she won't be coming back to College.

(view spoiler)[Then Nick shows his first real feelings for her. At earlier points in the book he seemed to be with Adara only out of convenience--she wasn't as bad as the rest. I felt bad for him for at least a minute before he turns around and acts like a dick to Drew who helped him get home by postponing his own return to his family.

After that, the book shifts a bit, and Nick's own pessimism is pushed to the background. Now, instead we're introduced to a horn-dog version of Drew. He sleeps around, and nothing is sacred--not even Chris' girlfriend Candy. I got annoyed at that, because Drew had seemed like a straight-up friend, despite using the word "slutty" to describe any girl he meets.

All while Nick finally gets a new girlfriend, Amanda, who he doesn't like at all. In fact, the only reason he's with her is because she says she's been raped. We later find out she's been lying about this.

The Climax of the book seems to be after Drew chooses to sleep with Candy. In response to figuring that out, Chris shoots himself and moves out of the apartment. After hearing that Chris survives, we suddenly shifts a year into the future. (hide spoiler)]

The book is riddled with Nick's opinions, and while I agree with many of them, it often seemed like a tool to shove opinions down my throat. Also, as we follow Nick around to his classes, I personally think there are way too many filler scenes where we hear Nick being annoyed at his school life. Complete with direct dialogue from a class that has no importance to the actual plot of the book.

I think I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if it wasn't so... bleh. A lot of the things I cared for was skipped. Like the tender moments that made Nick and Chris friend's for life.

With that said, I adored Chris, though. His character was definitely the person I saw develop most in the book, and he made me crack up the most. Chris was the entire reason I finished the book, and he bumped this book up from a one-star.

Chris was awesome. More Chris, please!

I don't know if I would recommend this book to anyone I know. If you have nothing to read, I suppose you wouldn't be completely off with this book, but I wouldn't recommend it over so many others.

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