Novel Review: Don't Breathe a Word by Holly Cupala

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance; Abuse, Homeless

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: 2012

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Joy Delamere is suffocating.

From asthma, from her parents, and from her boyfriend, Asher, who is smothering her from the inside out. She can take his cruel words, his tender words...until the night they go too far.

To escape, Joy sacrifices her suburban life to find the one who offered his help, a homeless boy called Creed. He introduces her to a world of fierce loyalty, to its rules of survival, and to love—-a world she won’t easily let go.

Set against the backdrop of the streets of Seattle, Holly Cupala’s power­ful new novel explores the subtleties of abuse, the secrets we keep, and the ways to redemption. But above all, it is an unflinching story about the extraordinary lengths one girl will go to discover her own strength.

The Cover:

I don't mind this cover. I think that the color of the title is eye-catching, and the image of the girl works for the book. But it's not particularly pretty to me.

Review:

Joy can’t take it anymore. From her severe asthma and her overprotective parents, to her abusive boyfriend. She needs to get out. And when she meets a homeless boy, she takes the chance and runs away. It’s tough, but she finds friendships with Asher and his group, and they’re handling it.

This is definitely a harsh, realistic look at being homeless. Joy and them are homeless in Seattle, and they have a hard time getting money, finding food and shelter, staying clean. There are pimps and women who are abused and whored out. Stealing stuff is an inevitable, and they have a hard time of that. Asher plays music for money when he can, the other do what they’re able to. And Joy doesn’t really fit.

The homeless part definitely made me look at it differently. Which is good, that it changed my perspective a little. But it also made the ending a little less believable.

I wanted all four of them to have a happy ending, of course. They’d been through terrible stuff, and I wanted them to be okay. But after everything, I had a hard time believing it was that easy for them to come out okay and start working. I’m happy that they did, but still. The way Joy stood up for herself to her ex-boyfriend at the end, though, also seemed too easy.

It took a while for me to feel the chemistry between Joy and Asher, too, but I liked where they were at the end.

There were parts that didn’t quite work for me, but I do think that it was worth reading if for nothing else than the look at being homeless.

Novel Review: Dirty Bad Savage (Dirty Bad, #2) by Jade West

Rating (Out of 5): ~4.5

Genre: Erotica/Adult Contemporary Romance; BDSM

Publisher: Self-Published

Release Date: June 9, 2015

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon.

Goodreads Synopsis:

They say Callum Jackson's a savage.
No home. No prospects. No self-restraint.
He's red-flagged on my system, a grade-1 aggression risk, totally off limits for a woman like me.
But the rules don't allow for my dangerous games; they don't bend for my twisted desires.
Callum Jackson is the most beautiful beast.
A beast I can't stop thinking about, can't stop wanting, can't stop hunting...
...I just pray to God this beast bites.

Sophia Harding runs a tight ship. She may work in the dregs of housing association slums, but her patch is on the way up.
Anti-social behaviour is down, employment is on the rise, and she's even been shortlisted for estate manager of the year.
It's looking good. Really good. Until Callum Jackson completes his jail time and lands right back on her doorstep.
She could do without a guy like him on her books: a failure of the system and a pain in the fucking ass.
She should tick the boxes, do her job and keep her distance – that's what the handbook says. The handbook says no one-on-one contact, no at-risk situations, no direct confrontation of any kind.
But the handbook doesn't know of her craving for hardcore submission.
The handbook has no fucking idea how she yearns to unleash Jackson at club Explicit, where his savage can really run wild.
The handbook doesn't know shit...

The Cover:

I like this cover. I think that it looks a lot like the first book, but is different enough. The model and the tattoos give a nice bad edge, and the title is really nice. I like it.

Review:

Jade West is forever on my auto-buy list from now on. There’s no way I’m not buying any other book by her, and I really wish she had a hundred more ready for me to buy already.

I loved Dirty Bad Wrong. I loved it so much, and it’s already one that I’ve re-read. This is at the same level for me.

Sophie knows she wants someone dirty and bad and rough. She wants pain, she wants someone rough with her, but she’s playing the edge between good wrong and truly dangerous. She doesn’t want to go too far, and yet she’s drawn to Callum, and she can’t help herself.

Callum just got out of prison, and now he’s practically on the streets. Sophie helps him get his dog back, and now he’s on his own, trying to take care of a friend and her kid from some bad people. Sophie watches over the district he’s staying at.

Callum has never tried real BDSM before, but he’s rough in bed, because that’s what he knows and that’s how he likes it. Sophie gets him to explore the BDSM side more, because she keeps pulling him back, finally letting him stay at her house. They both want it, a real relationship, badly. And I loved that they admitted it to themselves, and then each other.

The sex is rough, and even dirtier than in the first book, in a kind of different way. It’s more literally filthy in a few scenes, and it’s hot. We even get to see Masque and Cat and Raven from the first book, and I love them. Masque and Cat put on a show in one scene, and it made me want to go back and re-read their book.

I loved this book, unabashedly. I want more so badly, and I cannot wait for whatever West releases next.

Review: Poughkeepsie by Debra Anastasia

 Rating (Out of 5): ~4-4.5

Publisher: Omnific Publishing

Spoilers?: Minor-ish

Amazon Synopsis:

He counts her smiles every day and night at the train station. And morning and evening, the beautiful commuter acknowledges him-just like she does everyone else on the platform. But Blake Hartt is not like the others . . . he's homeless. Memories of a broken childhood have robbed him of peace and twisted delusions into his soul. He stays secluded from the sun, sure the world would run from him in the harsh light of day. Each day, Livia McHugh smiles politely and acknowledges her fellow commuters as she waits for the train to the city. She dismisses this kindness as nothing special, just like her. She's the same as a million other girls-certainly no one to be cherished. But special or not, she smiles every day, never imagining that someone would rely on the simple gesture as if it were air to breathe. When the moment comes that Livia must do more than smile, without hesitation she steps into the fray to defend the homeless man. And she's surprised to discover an inexplicable connection with her new friend. After danger subsides, their smiles become conversation. Their words usher in a friendship, which awakens something in each of them. But it's not long before their bond must prove its strength. Entanglements from the past challenge both their love and their lives. Blake's heart beats for Livia's, even if her hands have to keep its rhythm. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love never fails. Love never fails, right? In an interwoven tale of unlikely loves and relationships forged by fire, Debra Anastasia takes readers into the darkest corners of human existence, only to show them the radiant power of pure adoration and true sacrifice. Complicated families and confused souls find their way to light in this novel, which manages to be racy, profane, funny, and reverent all at once.

Review:

 This book was kind of amazing. Only maybe without the kind of.

I won an e-book of this online a while ago, and after some complications (which kind of sucked, but is okay), I only recently got and read almost immediately. There was a blog tour going on or something, I think, which brought the book to my attention and I thought it sounded good, so I wanted to read it. It’s an adult book, so be warned about that; but, you know, I enjoyed those parts as well.

It’s about Livia, a college student studying psychology, who officially meets Blake, a homeless guy about her age with a bad childhood, who she has seen at her subway station several times. But it’s also about Blake’s brothers, Cole and Beckett, and Livia’s sister, and Eve, and all of their romances.

I really enjoyed all of the characters, although I wanted more of Livia and Blake, the first characters we’re introduced to. I wasn’t expecting the third person to move from person to person, and while I did want more of just Livia and Blake (and was so bothered by the cliffhanger like spots that Anastasia would choose to move to the next person), I did enjoy the others as well. Beckett and Eve were probably my second favorite pair.

I also wasn’t expecting the psychology thing. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that instead of having a supernatural element to the book, but I grew to like it. I was okay with Cole’s church-stuff, but it wasn’t my favorite. And I did enjoy Beckett’s pimp and drug dealer stuff, even if I didn’t agree with all of it and did find some of it a bit brutal and gruesome.
Blake was sweet and gentlemanly, and was frustrating at some points, but I liked him. I liked learning about Eve's broken past and how she turned out because of it. Mouse was so sweet and interesting and I'm so upset about him. I found the story with Chris really interesting, and I hated him, but did enjoy reading the pieces with him (from Livia or Blake's POV, not Chris's in particular). I liked that we got history, a story, from just about anyone in the story; I also found it interesting that the three brothers were in foster care, and how they each turned out because of it. Oh, and the tattoos. Everything was just put together really well and smooth. Although some of the working around the police things seemed to work out too well.

I really liked the romance. I liked Livia and Blake, a lot, and I liked Eve and Beckett; I was mostly okay with Cole and Kyle, although I felt a little iffy about them at first, I grew somewhat used to them, I guess. The smutty scenes and general romance stuff between them all was nice, though. I particularly enjoyed those. They were sweet and romantic, sensual, not blunt, which I enjoyed. I am still a little iffy about them all marrying so quickly, though. They did seem to get together fast, looking back on it, but they all just seemed to fit together so well, so naturally, that I didn’t notice. And maybe it’s just that I’m unsure of marriage or something, and it does make sense for the characters to marry, but so close together, so fast, bothered me.

I am unhappy with the ending between Beckett and Eve. I was expecting more, and want more, and it seemed a bit too open, cliffhanger like, for me, and I am not happy about it. Also, I just want more. More scenes between them all. More of the characters. I’m sad that the book is over; I want a sequel or something.
The book was really easy to read, too. It was mostly frustrating and slowed me down when it would move to a different chapter and a different person, leaving me wanting to know what happens next to the first people. The writing, I thought, was really good and easy to get through. Some of the sentences could have used some rewording, maybe, but nothing big.

I was really surprised by this book, and I’m glad. I really enjoyed it, and am looking forward to reading her other books, one of which I have and hope to start soon.

(Sidenote: I think I remember reading somewhere that this was a fanfiction? Is that true? If so, based off what? I was thinking it might have been published online somewhere before, like fictionpress, but I don’t know if that’s true or not. If it is, please tell me, I would love to know.)