Book Review: Meant To Be by Terri Osburn

At First Sight: Beth Chandler has made it her life's work to please other people: she became a lawyer to please her grandparents, lives in Richmond because it was close to them, agreed to marry to her boyfriend Lucas - even though he's a workaholic - to make him happy... and she found herself alone in the ferry, going to visit his family because he was called back to the office and sent her along. 

At the ferry going to Anchor Island, and in the throws of a panic attack, for she does not like the water at all, she meets a dog named Dozer and, more importantly, the dog's sexy owner Joe. He talks her down, and stays with her during the crossing and they even flirt a little. All perfectly harmless, until Joe reveals his last name is Dempsey, same as Beth's fiancé Lucas; and she realizes they are brothers. 

Upon officially meeting Lucas'-Fiancee-Elizabeth, Joe is none too pleased to discover she's the same Beth he had been flirting with earlier. Joe might not see eye to eye with Lucas in a lot of things, but he loves his brother and would never flirt with his brother's girl. Yet, the damage is already done, the attraction is there and there is no denying it.

And when Lucas has to return to Richmond and leaves Beth alone in the island for two weeks, things get very complicated. Beth knows she shouldn't feel the way she does with Joe, but in Anchor island she feels at home, and she feels like her self for the first time ever. Joe doesn't ever want to hurt his brother, but Beth seems to fit his life, love his island and drive him crazy more than any other woman he has ever met.

Second Glance: Meant to Be turned out to be a delightiful surprise for me, and look that I was a little iffy about it because from the get go it's pretty obvious that the romantic pairing is Beth and Joe, not "Elizabeth" and Lucas; yet they remain engaged or pretty much the duration of the story. 

That can be quite tricky to pull off but Meant to Be manages pretty well. I think that one of the author's smart moves is that you never actually see Beth and Lucas together doing couple-y things, Lucas is off being a workaholic most of the time, and Beth is pretty aware that's not going to change anytime soon, she's just not ready to admit to herself that they aren't going to work out in the long run. 

So, as you see Joe and Beth hang out and Beth making herself at home in Anchor, you start buying it pretty early on. Plus, Joe and Beth have good chemistry together, they argue and the flirt and they care about each other. Joe is kind of surly, but Beth doesn't take it personal. 

There are a few subplots of this story that also keep things interesting: mostly, Joe's ex Cassandra is trying to buy the Island and make it into a luxury resort, so everyone is banding together to keep that from happening. 

Bottom Line: I really had a great time reading Meant to Be, I liked the characters, even workaholic Lucas (props to the author for not making him an asshole just to make it okay for Beth and Joe to be together) and I loved the setting of Anchor Island, it sounded like an adorable place. The only bad point in all of this is that the second book of the series (featuring Lucas) won't drop for another year.

Meant to Be comes out May 21st.

Love, 
Ps. Review copy provided by the Publisher via Net Galley in exchange of an honest review

Book Review: Take a Vow by Elizabeth Eulberg

At First Sight: New York City High School of Creative and Performing Arts (CPA for short) is a hot bed of really talented kids and everyone has a reason why they want to get in, and a dream they want to achieve. For Sophie, it's all about being a star, for Ethan is about quieting the voices in his head by doing the one thing that works for him: writing music. Carter thinks that going to a normal high school will be a good change of pace from a life spent in the spotlight as a child actor. And Emme, well, she wants to write songs too... but she's also kind of following Sophie's lead, since they are best friends.

Almost four years later, they are all seniors getting ready for their last year of school. Sophie isn't quite the star she would like to be (something that terrifies her) but she is dating Carter who is still pretty famous and a soap opera star. Carter is sick of acting though, and he would really like to tell his mom that he's done.

Emme and Ethan are part of a seriously awesome band along with their friends Jack and Ben, and the lot of them keep trying to encourage Emme to finally take center stage rather than staying on Sophie's shadow (where Sophie would like her to stay). Oh, and Ethan is trying to figure out how to say what he wants to say without going crazy, and if the band will stand it.

Second Glance: Take a Vow was awesome.

I had heard about it when the book first came out last year but I kind of just kept putting it off (I loved Elizabeth Eulberg The Lonely Heart's Club, but was less than impressed with her following offer Prom and Prejudice, so I wasn't off to the rases to get Take A Vow). 

I was a fool.

There were so many things I loved about Take a Vow: how it could have gone down the Love Triangle (or square) route with Carter, Emme and Ethan, but it didn't. I love seeing a guy and a girl being really good friends without them being attracted to each other, like Carter and Emme get to be. I loved that, and I don't think we see enough of it in fiction.

Ethan and Emme did this frustrating dance around each other all through the book but it made total sense for who they were: they were both a bit on the shy side, and knew each other so well, and were dead afraid of losing the awesome thing they already had.

The other band members were awesome, they were hilarious and supportive and understanding.

Also loved Carter's personal arc, trying to cope with the fact he doesn't love acting and hasn't for a while, and that maybe he's more responsible for it than he's willing to admit.

Sophie was, well weird, she's a bitchy selfish girl, but she serves as a good contrast to the other characters, and there is enough there to see how she could charm Emme and Carter into staying around for so long. And her jealousy was very human.

Bottom Line: I loved reading Take a Vow, it was just the kind of relaxing but exciting read that I needed. I liked the characters and the setting and how Miss Eulberg handled the relationships without making her characters whinny. A really fun read all around. 

1/2

Cover Love: Cassandra the Lucky

Oh, yeah, as soon as I saw this cover I knew I had to share it!! 

Cassandra the Lucky comes out on December 3rd, 2013

Meet Cassandra, the newest student at Mount Olympus Academy! She has an amazing talent—but will her new friends believe her?

This Goddess Girls story is based on the myth of Cassandra, who has the gift of seeing the future—except no one believes her. Can Apollo, the god of prophecy, help his new crush?

But, before that on August 6th, Penelope the Daring

Book Review: Pheme The Gossip by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams

At First Sight: As the Godess Girl of Gossip and Rumor, Pheme sees it as her duty and job description to get into everyone's business and report on it, often before she thinks of the consequences of her tales.

Currently, Pheme is trying to get into Principal Zeus' good graces so he'll write her a recommendation letter so she can apply to a job in Teen Scrollazine, the hottest magazine around.

All she needs is a really good piece of information to take to Zeus. Good for her that she's the girl's floor hall monitor and gets to snoop around quite a bit in that capacity, even if she shouldn't exactly. 

Second Glance: If Pheme the Gossip proves one thing is that it's very hard to like a gossip, and I'm sad to say I never got quite there with Pheme.

See, when Medusa and Pandora - two girls that the original 4 goddess girls didn't have the highest regard for at the beginning of their books - took center stage, it took me but a couple of chapters to feel these waves of empathy toward both girls, to care for them. Medusa has had it pretty rough and more than mean, she lacks social graces and acceptance; Pandora can't help to be curious, but she honestly doesn't mean any harm by it.

Pheme can't help to gossip because... well, she likes being the center of attention. That's pretty much it. We get hints of her past story but it's never explored enough as it to actually make a difference. And, in the end, I kind of felt like Pheme was being rewarded without quite learning her lesson.

Bottom Line: *sigh* I guess I'm not meant to be friends with Pheme. Was it bad? not really. Writing was as light and fluffy as ever, and kept a brisk pace. I'm still a huge an of the series, and I'm still REALLY looking forward to Persephone the Daring and Cassandra the Lucky, but to me Pheme was a bump in an otherwise smooth road. 

1/2

Book Review: Never Deny Your Heart by Maureen Driscoll

The Deal: Rosalind Carson has been in love with her best friend's brother Liam Kellington, Duke of Lynwood since she was about 12 and he was 18 and they met by chance. Years later, Rosalind struck a friendship with Liam's sister Lizzie and the two became inseparable, with the whole Kellington clan giving Rosalind the sense of family she never got from her own relatives. 

Not wanting to lose them all, Rosalind never did anything about her feelings for Liam, whom she's convinced will never love her. She was quite sure of this fact... up until the day of Lizzie's wedding, when Liam pulled her aside and the two of them shared some heated moments. 

Which would be all fine and dandy... if not for the fact that Rosalinds mother and brother had recently betrothed her to another man, and that Liam values his honor too much to take up with another man's fiancé... or does he love Rosalind more?

And will Rosalind stay put just waiting for Liam to do something?

My Thoughts: Oh, Never Deny Your Heart was a bit of a hot mess but in a surprisingly entertaining way. I actually skipped the middle books of this series, I read and reviewed Never a Mistress No Longer A Maid - which was silly and fun - and during that book I picked up on the frisson between Rosalind and Liam so I wanted to read their story, so I skipped all the way there. 

It was pretty fun, though it had some obvious flaws. One, Liam's motivation, he would rather let Rosalind enter a loveless marriage than do something about it ... until he's convinced that his honor would be best served by him taking her away from the other man; to which I say: That's poppycock!!!

Two: This book is full of historical inaccuracies  to the point where they just jump at you a lot, there are things in this book that just wouldn't have happened, even with the most open minded lot of people you cold have found at this time period. 

And, three: the fake out love quadrangle. For a moment there it looks like there were going to be new love interests for both Liam and Rosalind, and they were actually nice if unrealistic, but nope, in the end it didn't go down that route and it was just a bit of a cope out. 

Yet, despite all of this or maybe because of it, the story was loads of fun to read. Again, it's a silly book but it was a silly sweet and fun piece of brain candy.