Jim

Awful

Revisado: 07-17-20

Spoilers*****This series would have to be a fairytale because it sure would not be real life. I love books. I love book series. Books are my happy place. I had recently been rereading some of my book series because additions had been added, enjoyed every minute. So, I decided I needed to read something new, maybe a new author. That is the reason I read this series over the 4th of July weekend. Little did I know what I was in for. First, I wish I had read the reviews for both books before I purchased them. This series made me want to throw my kindle up against a wall. Or just break something to release some of the frustration caused from reading this series. Ellie Wade, you truely know how to make a reader hate your characters.

Saint Stella takes the honor of most hated character in this series for me. The first time Stella showed up in book 1 I knew she was going to be a problem. Stella chased Jax all through college until his stupidity allowed her to catch him. Lily was right to have uneasy feelings about Stella as soon as she met her. Ellie Wade tries to use smoke and mirrors to make Stella appear as pure as the driven snow. I never bought into that. Stella always had and ulterior motive where Jax was concerned. She was a munipulative little b*tch! She deliberately took Jax, when she knew he was in love with Lily. But, she didn't care because she wanted him. Wow! She was angry because she wasn't going to get her HEA, so she took Lily's. "But if a dying woman cannot be selfish, who can?" Stella, sweetheart, everyone is dying from the day they are born. So that just makes you a selfish b*tch! So you had cancer. I did not care! That says a lot about how strongly I disliked this character. I wish you would have died before you got engaged to Jax. You took, through guilt, Jax from Lily. You married him in the fall just like Lily wanted to do. You had Lily & Jax song played at your wedding. Ellie Wade wants readers to believe you are this good, sweet, and wonderful person. NO YOU ARE NOT! I could not read the Jax and Stella love fest. I skimmed over them. Which meant I did not read a large portion of book 2 due to the fact that it all about Jax and Stella. Ellie Wade you love Stella so much and it is obvious. You should have done what other authors have done. They write their books. They include their, "I cause problems for the main couple (Lily & Jax) girl" (Stella). The author lets the main couple get back together. If the author still has not gotten over their love affair with "I cause problems of the main couple girl", then the auther writes a novella about this character. No one reads this novella because they hated this character to begin with. But the author is happy because her beloved character got her own story. Oh wait, Stella did get her book, it's "A Forever Kind of Love."

Jax is a character I grew to detest. He obviously does not understand soul mate. Soul Mate: Noun. A romantic partner with the implication of an EXCLUSIVE life long bond. I hate the way he treats Lily after he went to college. He is a total hypocrite. He would treat Lily one way and then turn around and do the opposite with Stella. It gives you whiplash. Jax is just plain stupid a lot of the series. Another reviewer wrote that they kept reminding themself that he was only 21 over and over. I kept reminding myself that he was stupid over and over. Jax only got engaged and married Stella after he found out about the cancer. He loved her like a friend. He was in love with Lily, big difference. After Stella dies he goes on his guilt trip for about as long as he was married to her, which was maybe six months. What part of "til death us do part" did Jax not get? Jax knew Stella only had a year to six months to live. They waited six months from learning the news to get married. It took a letter from Stella to give him a kick in the seat of the pants to get him to move on. Really? That letter should have pissed Jax totally off. It proved how selfish Stella was. I started to wonder if Lily had died would it have fazed Jax at all.

Lily is the poor dog that Jax keeps kicking throughout the series. And Lily keeps coming back for more over and over. I cried for Lily everytime I had to read about Lily's heartbreak at Jax hands. I wanted Lily to find her a guy who would love her like she deserved to be loved, but Ellie would not allow that to happen. I had high hopes for Rob. Lily was an afterthought in book 2. Strange considering she is one half of the soul mate couple.

I did like the way Jax proposed to Lily. Why didn't we get to see their wedding?

The Epilogue was too little to late.

This series could have been epic.

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I didn’t enjoy this one.

Revisado: 01-22-20

This is a definite reason why I usually read reviews for spoilers. This book wasn’t exactly the best writing and it had a lot of highs and lows, and back and forth. Just when you think they have it figured out, the male leads entire family decides to move back to Mexico and they break up. There are some books that are just so gripping/moving that can still enjoy the book with a heartbreaking ending. This just isn’t that book. It’s very much a YA novel, with juvenile writing. It just wasn’t worth it.

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No

Revisado: 01-18-20

Just couldn’t get into this after listening to him meander about his feelings for her then 5 minutes later he’s talking to her about his latest one night stand. He’s my least favorite hero type, the “pretends to be a nice guy, while beating like a complete d-bag”. There were two conquests just in a couple of weeks at the beginning of the story! Being that he states repeatedly how he started having feelings for her a year ago, he’s probably slept with 40-50 women since he started “falling in love” with her. He stops sleeping with other women the week they hook up. Yep, he’s a winner right? Sorry. I like alpha men who are passionate about their women. Not “meh” men who are content to take home Sally from the bar instead of fighting for the woman they actually want. He’s just a loser all the the way around.

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Bad choice of narrator

Revisado: 08-20-19

Why do authors chose narrators that are completely wrong for their books? I just don’t get it! This is the second time that I’ve tried this book. I didn’t realize it until it was too late. I can listen to books at work but can’t pull my phone out of my pocket at all. After 10 minutes I chose to take my headphone out and listen to air for two hours. I couldn’t stand it. The woman sounds at least 45/50 but is narrating a book about a 17 year old. Listening to her speak slang bits brings to mind sketch comedy where the parents are trying to be “hip”.

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Not romantic

Revisado: 08-11-19

I didn’t feel any romance in this story. It seems like the author decided that a mature couple must be boring as heck. If this is the best we can do, I’ll stic with the 25 year olds. They two characters are both around 35. He has already has already been married and had children. Somehow even though she is the “romantic wedding planner” she is still single. They’ve known each other for years, and nothing has happened (no reason they couldn’t have gotten together if they had a speck of chemistry). It felt more like she realized she was closer to 40 than thirty and decided to settle down. The “ proposal” was awful,she went ring shopping with him a month before and basically just waited around for him to pop the question. The only time I have ever seen that in a romance novel is when the author uses it as an example of how not unromantic a main characters previous relationship was. There is a reason for that. Their relationship is so boring, it reminds me of a ”how I met my my husband” conversation that I could probably overhear at a PTA meeting. Very disappointed.

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I don’t know how to be fair...

Revisado: 07-18-19

I really liked the story in theory, but it was incredible hard to get past the narrator. Her female voice was great but the male voice would have been better off unaltered. Her attempt to differentiate ended up with a bizarre childlike voice. Being that his is a romantic story, and it was a teenage boy, it just became creepy. I couldn’t enjoys the romantic aspects of the storyline and gave up halfway through. I really tried to focus on the positives but it was just so creepy!

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Wow

Revisado: 06-23-19

This is literally the worst audible book I’ve ever listened to. I’ll be honest the plot had a few holes as well, but this woman could be narrating Pride and Prejudice and I would probably think it was crap. It’s that bad.

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I love this story.

Revisado: 06-19-19 El oyente recibió este título gratis

This is such a a great read/listen! The story is so so good. This is definitely a couple who found what they never knew they wanted. Not quite enemies to lovers, but they did not like each other at all. I love their journey. The story is one that translates great into an audiobook (I have found a few that just don’t) and the narration is perfect!

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Review mostly regarding the audible portion...

Revisado: 06-18-19

This is a confusing review to write. I enjoyed the story, but while I found the female perfect, I found the male narrator extremely distracting! He is absolutely the wrong voice for this book. I kept thinking “this sounds like a 30 year old man doing summer theatre instead of an 18 year old kid who although is an actor, acts on television/movies ”. I found it so distracting that at one point I stopped listening to google him. Low and behold we have a 30 (ish based on timeline) year old man who majored in theatre and runs a theatre company. The character is A person of color and the actor is a blond haired blue eyed blond. Why does this matter in an audiobook, you are probably wondering? Because I noticed that on the original cover of the book shown on Amazon the male character is on the cover and is obviously a person of color. On the audiobook cover the only thing different is that guy leaning against the truck is replaced with a unisex looking person with green hair in the front of the truck. Yes technically in the book her food truck coworker has green hair but she is also a she. You wouldn’t guess that the person on this book referred to her until after reading the book. Such an odd thing to change for no reason right? Extra irony points given for the fact that the male character specifically said that he appreciated that fact that Hollywood hadn’t attempted to “whitewash” the character that he was playing (in the movie within the book). Truthfully that whole issue really left me disappointed in the author. I don’t care what color a narrator is. I’ve never even looked it up before regardless of the characters color or ethnicity. But the narrator should be able to fit the character. If the character is an 18 year old kid, they should be able to reasonably sound like an 18 year old kid. And maybe you shouldn’t “whitewash” the cover? Just a few thoughts that distracted from an otherwise cute story.

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Blurb very misleading. Not worth reading.

Revisado: 06-18-19

As mentioned above, my number one complaint is that the summery was misleading. I thought I was getting a story about a hockey play who still can’t get his teammates sister out of his head months after they randomly slept together, so he decides to pursue a relationship with her. What we got was a story about a guy who grew up with said friend and friends sister and had supposedly always had thing for her. Which would be sweet if not for the fact that this has never stopped him from being a manhoe. What’s worse is it is another one of the “manhoe sleeps with a Virgin, then goes back to sleeping around while she remains having only slept with him” books that for some unknown reason authors are becoming fond of writing! What I really don’t get is why the author had him do this. Right after their night together he got a surprise phone call that a former one night stand was knocked up, and he believed it. He sent her money etc planning to be in the child’s life, only to show up at her house to find her drunk and not pregnant. He had a perfect excuse to not start sleeping around again, seeing as though finally taking things farther with the girl he has always had a crush on obviously wasn’t motivation enough. The author could have just left us wondering, instead she throws in a tidbit about him being with other girls but not in his bed since they hooked up, as if that means he deserves an award for that part? It was only 3 MONTHS for Pete’s sake! And he doesn’t pursue her because know he wants to be with her like it was implied. He basically accidentally falls into another alone time with her, and then a few chapters later runs scared when she tries to make it official. There’s truly nothing special about the guy or the story, so nothing to salvage the douchebaggery. Another character with mommy/daddy issues who uses it as an excuse for sleeping around and not being able to be in a relationship. I hate that I was stuck listening to this whole book, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to change it. Save yourself!

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