"Ellie Parker is a master at building walls around her heart. In the twenty-five years she’s been alive, Dex Remington has been the only person who has always believed in her and been there for her. But four years earlier, she came to Dex seeking comfort and then disappeared like a thief in the night, leaving him a broken man.

Dex Remington is one of the top PC game developers in the United States. He’s handsome, smart, and numb. So damn numb that he’s not sure he’ll ever find a reason to feel again.

A chance encounter sparks intense desires in Ellie and Dex. Desires that make her want to run—and make him want to feel. A combination of lust and fear leads these young lovers down a dangerous path. Is it possible to cross a burned bridge, or are they destined to be apart forever?" (Melissa Foster)

Title: Game of Love (Love in Bloom: The Remingtons #1)
Author: Melissa Foster
Published: 2014
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Contemporary Romance

TL;DR Review:

For starters, this novel was so awful that I didn't finish reading it. Game of Love reads like an angsty teenager with all hormones and emotions with no sophistication, no eloquence and certainly no skill. The writing was cheesy and exaggerated and the plot line seemed to revolve around the same issue. It got so boring that I actually went and read another book (which is equally as boring but that's a story for another day). Furthermore, the main characters were needy, clingy and desperate. We're talking about adults here with jobs, not teenagers. Another point of contention I have with Game of Love is Dex's obsessive behaviour with Ellie. He constantly guilt trips her into staying by his side and if it's not guilt tripping, it is emotional blackmail. It got to the point where Ellie decided to stay! It didn't feel like she stayed out of love but rather out of necessity because he's been the one staying all this while. It was just awful, awful, awful.

Review: [May Contain Spoilers]

For starters, I didn't finish this book. I cannot find it in me to even read to the end because it just got so extremely boring and it became a chore to read it.

Game of Love is the latest addition to Foster's Love in Bloom series, making this the tenth-novel in the larger series. The moment I scrolled through the start with Foster's list of books, I knew something wouldn't go quite right with this novel. The list was far too extensive which meant that there wasn't enough time devoted to perfecting each and every novel that she writes. I pushed through.

I loved Foster's interpretation of the gamer industry (albeit a little optimistic) and it was a career that very few leading men seem to hold. Mostly because of the fat-lazy-sloppy-disgusting gamer stereotype which although has been broken by the likes of PewDiePie, has yet to change it. I was quite optimistic that this novel would be full of feels, angst and all things that make a good romance novel.

However, once Ellie was introduced (and far too early into the story, I might add), things went downhill from there. In my notes while reading, I wrote, "While Ellie sounds incredibly educated, she also sounds extremely pathetic and needy. So does Dex. Both highly educated individuals but extremely pathetic and cringe-worthy."

I also wrote, "The writing seems to be the stuff you write as a teenager, looking for an outlet for your angst, not the stuff that someone who wants to be a professional writer writes. It's just beating the same issue around the bush and not in a clever witty way. It's laying it all out there for you and expecting you to swallow the boring bullshit."

Yes, Game of Love reads like an angsty teenager who has all these pent-up emotions that he/she needs to release and is just writing it all on the page. There is no sophistication, no eloquence. Just angsty, immature teenage writing. It is like the stuff I wrote at seventeen. I cringe when I look at what I used to write. Very pathetic, very needy and very clingy and very, very desperate. It is the same cheesy stuff that people never, ever say in real life.

Not to mention, Dex is constantly blackmailing Ellie emotionally. He seemed very, very obsessive and he seems to want a girl that he USED TO KNOW. Not the woman that Ellie is today but the Ellie he used to know.

He constantly reminds and guilt-trips her her of the night she left and how that made him feel and how she should not run again. He constantly reminds her of how he was her emotional-support-rock and allowed her to climb in through his window and cuddle. And he never stops complaining about how much it hurt. We get it, Dex, you were upset that you were just a one-night stand, no matter how much you love her. GET OVER IT. (If I was Ellie, I would have ran as well. And ran so far away from this creep)

It was so bad that Ellie decided to stay. It didn't feel as if Ellie was staying because she loved him because let's face it, throughout reading this novel, not once did I feel like Ellie loved him. Ellie respected him and trusted him but she felt no inch of love. It also felt like she was staying out of necessity for his feelings because he's always been the one to stay so now it was her turn.

And don't even get me started on the sex. It's the most boring sex I've ever read and trust me, I have read boring sex.

There is nothing more I would like to do than to remove this from my Kobo.

Some Quotes: (Fair warning, creep alert)

Chapter 1: "By the time they were teenagers, he'd craved so much more of her than just friendship, and when she'd come to him four years ago, he'd thought they'd finally fall into each other's arms for good and he'd be able to finally show her how much he loved her."
Chapter 9: "She could still feel his heart beating against hers, his hand covering her lower back, the other cupping the back of her head, and the way his embrace had felt like he was claiming her as his own."
Chapter 13: "Ellie, I'm sorry. Don't go reticent on me, please. This is so hard. I'm trying, I'm really trying to stay with you, to stay with us, but I don't know what you expect of me. I hurt, Ellie. Every fucking time that you clamp down on your feelings. Every time you shut me out, it's like a gunshot to my heart. A man can love a woman for only so long without it being reciprocated. On some level, you must know that."

Rating: 1/5
Other Details: I read the Kindle edition, approximately 230 pages and published 2014.

Title: Tempted by the Bride: Blue Moon Brides #1
Author: Anne Marsh
Date Published:  October 26th 2012
Publisher: NA
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Erotica

I am not usually drawn to erotic novels but I do love a good werewolf romance novel as opposed to it's vampire ilk. Perhaps it's the primitive animalistic appeal of a werewolf as opposed to their cold, fang-y counterparts. I wasn't expecting to like this novel considering that it is an erotic novel and I've reserved their likes only on certain occasions when I know I won't get bored with the insane amount of sex. I have too many books to read and this was the latest one I downloaded but for some odd reason, I was drawn to this book and I couldn't help but read it.

TL;DR Review:

Despite this being an erotic novel, I feel that the characters and the world have been sufficiently built to serve the purpose of the limited story. Rafer (and his many brothers) and Lark's character and personality clearly shone through and they were individualistic. What I loved very much is Lark's feisty and headstrong personality, always ready to headbutt. She wasn't some simpering heroine who crumpled and fell at the feet of the sexy, brooding male lead. I also love the emphasis on consent. Nothing is more important in a sexual relationship than consent. Readers should keep in mind that this is an erotic novel and they shouldn't expect much out of it (even though it surprised me). The only things that got me rolling my eyes was the overused vampire vs. werewolf battle and a ménage, having to share booty calls. It could also use some editing as there are some issues with sense of space. Overall, it is a simple and clean read, perfect for a couple of hours of leisure.

Review: [May Contain Spoilers]

Compared to what one reader on Goodreads has pointed out about not having much world and character-building, I think the characters and world has been sufficiently built to get the point of the book across. Despite it's novella-esque length, it communicated very well the setting of the bayou (I am somewhat familiar with the bayou setting from Sandra Brown's Slow Heat in Heaven) with one shaman woman, lengthy descriptions of the bayou and multiple mentions of the danger that it presents. I kept constant images of the water and houses on stilts in my mind. Perhaps a stereotyped vision but still, that was the image the novel presented. Although, I did find the flower farm rather out of place in the bayou area.

There was also enough character to read that the heroine, Lark Andrew is not a weak and submissive woman as more than one erotic novel has painted their heroines. She is the kind of heroine that I would love immediately and I could feel that my mental had made a connection with Lark (despite not having to pay a mortgage yet or suffer from monetary problems). I loved her from the first moment I read her. There was just something humanising about her, rather than just a sex object/character to achieve the means to and end in a book. However, towards the end, I experienced some disconnect on her level and things started to get a bit...awkward.

Somewhat Spoiler Alert: There was a less than exhilarating ménage where much like a sex scene in a movie, it was confusing, not knowing what was what and who was what part of the human body. It felt like a fight scene from Transformers where you can't tell what body part belongs to whom. Also, when I have a man that I am highly interested in, I will not share him with my sisters, no matter how desperate for pro-creation they are. I am highly selfish and possessive when it comes to my mates so, it is personal preference/disdain for this menage. I can see why Lark would consent to it though but I do not approve. And it certainly was rather awkward.

Some have commented that it ended abruptly but I think the ending worked rather well. It was a simple and clean ending to Rafer and Lark's romance which is exactly what the novel is about. It presents conflicts in the form of werewolf-hunting vampires but the main point of the book is not the conflict in the vampires but the conflict between Rafer and Lark. Take a look at the other books in the series and it is not a continuation of Rafer and Lark's story but rather the focus is on the rest of the Pack finding their mates. (There was the hint that Rafer wanted to turn Lark into a true werewolf but she wasn't ready. Perhaps we'll see this in future books.)

However, I did feel that the build up to the ending was rather rushed and not properly thought out. It felt like it was still a first draft.

Marsh has a rather fluid style of writing, drawing in the reader instantly, especially when it comes to a dark, sexy and brooding male lead, or rather, leads. However, there are a couple of things that should have been noted and cleaned up during editing. One glaring problem with the novel was the lack of sense of space. For example, in one scene, Rafer and Lark are on the porch of Lark's house but several passages later (and without any transition), they are suddenly in Rafer's bed. And there are many other instances more where space hasn't been given much thought and the characters appear to be able to tele-transport.

Overall, it was an amazing and simple read. It could use some clean-up but I was very pleased with what I had read. In fact, this is the only ebook where I was actually quite desperate to get the rest of the series. Now, if only I didn't feel so bad using the credit card, I would actually get it.

What I Liked:

1. The lead characters of Rafer and Lark had character and four-dimensional qualities, contrary to how characters are in erotic novels.
2.  Consent, Consent, Consent. The characters always asked and stressed consent before having sexual intercourse, Lark's well-being was always taken care of.
3. Tempted by the Pack jumps right into things without all the beating around the bush nonsense. (Although I did question how well it would work out)

What I Didn't Like:

1. Oddly enough, the book starts with Rafer stalking Lark. Perhaps he can be forgiven because of his wolf/animalistic side but it still drew a red flag for me.
2. The same, repeated and cliched vampire vs werewolf battle.
3. The typical woman-saves-man trope, where a man needs the loving of a good woman to save him from his "animal" or "wild" side which is threatening to consume him.

Some Quotes:

Chapter 1: "She smelled of sunlight, of honey and sage." (pg. 3)
Chapter 1: "A blue-moon brides always dreamt, sexy, erotic dreams that would wake her early and leave her sleepless and aching for a lover's touch." (pg. 4)
Chapter 3: "She was the spiritual and moral anchor that completed him. The missing half they all needed to find because they were unrepentant, soulless bastards who knew how to kill and how to fuck but not much more."
Chapter 7: "Skins touches were an important part of Pack life, and it was the responsibility of the female wolves to make sure the unmated wolves had what they needed."
Chapter 9: "Somewhere, somehow, her nice, ordinary life had done a 360 and the unexpected geometry had brought her here."

Would I recommend it: Yes. Definitely. (Although paranormal romances have only a small following) This is the only free novel I had gotten through BookBub where I really wanted to get the rest of the series.
Rating: 3.5/5