Reviews of what you should be reading next.

Tag: twisted love story

The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton

YOU’VE NEVER READ A LOVE STORY AS TWISTED AS THIS.

Juliette loves Nate.
She will follow him anywhere. She’s even become a flight attendant for his airline so she can keep a closer eye on him. They are meant to be.

The fact that Nate broke up with her six months ago means nothing. Because Juliette has a plan to win him back.
She is the perfect girlfriend. And she’ll make sure no one stops her from getting exactly what she wants.

True love hurts, but Juliette knows it’s worth all the pain…

 

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

This book is so close to the diary of a stalker that you will be simultaneously appalled (jeez, that’s scary!), confused (why can’t she see that he doesn’t care for her?), and sympathetic (she really needs help, I hope she gets it). That combination of emotions didn’t work for me, as the feeling that overpowered everything was disgust. This woman just did not get it. The begging and pleading and duplicity were way too much for me to keep on going. That being said, I did finish the book despite my soul pleading for me to just DNF and move on. The author made a good showing, and I am sure there is a better second book in the works.

I will say the writing is good, the characters were mostly fleshed out and the twist at the end was something I didn’t see coming. The actual ending….meh. I felt that anyone who made it through the slog should have deserved better. The more I think about it, the more I call it a cop-out.

THE PERFECT GIRLFRIEND is one of the few books that I regretted spending time reading, even as I turned the pages. Perhaps if Juliette was less clingy (would that have diluted the story?) or if the book was shorter (there was a lot of plans and wailing and gnashing of teeth). At times it seemed as if the plot consisted of Juliette just breaking into places (some of which seemed nigh impossible) then vacillating between love and hatred for Nate. At least seven instances of that could have been removed to make the book go faster.

I think this book is one you will either love or hate – which one will you be? You can pick up your copy here.

The Reading Lessons by Carole Lanham

I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review. Thanks, Carole!

The first few pages were rather disjointed and I almost put the book away unread. I was THISCLOSE to doing it…but something made me keep going.

Boy, am I glad I did! The writing is sly, at times heartfelt, sometimes maudlin, and there are many hidden gems along the way. The plot is fairly simple: boy meets girl, boy becomes gently obsessed with girl, girl is evil and strings him along. At times I wanted to shake Hadley and say “Forget her! She’s a jerk!” but of course, he didn’t listen to anyone else, so my advice would be falling on deaf ears. 

Follow Hadley along as he grows older and tries to forget his obsession, with results you won’t see coming. When I think of how I almost missed this little golden story it made me think to give more books another chance. 
I would definitely read more by this author. These characters will stay with me a long time.

the reading lessons

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