TJlovestoread. Romance Reviews & More
There are many things we have in common, every day very real things like the fact we are wives, mothers, some of us have a job or several. We are friends who enjoy each other’s company while having coffee or playing cards. But what brought us together here is our passion for books, our weakness for hot alpha males and our love for a good story that we’ll take with us for a long, long time, especially when it makes us cry.
This blog was an inevitable, unavoidable, natural evolution to our book buddy friendship. We are still having hard time figure things out like what happens when we read the same book and have very distinct opinions about it (we’re just posting one review, first one who finishes has dibs). Our schedules are at ends and we do this because we need an outlet for our book infatuation, but it’s also done during our “free” time. So please bare with us and hopefully we’ll have a great blog for you to love to visit.
We’re Ceci, Dali and Ingri (sorry chickie, I needed to make that rhyme), and this is us.
Ceci (a.k.a. Ces BookGeek)
I am a hyperactive wife, mother, lawyer, teacher, daughter, sister and friend. My passion for reading started at an early age; it was fed by an unforgettable literature teacher in junior high and high school, and then it remained somewhat dormant during my new adult years (yeah!book lingo and all). Maybe having to read so much in law school made me lazy; I also got bored of all the “intellectual” books that were pushed down my throat by friends. Anyway, I grew up reading 80’s young adult novels like the Heartbreak Café and Sweet Valley High. Then one day, in my late twenties a book called Twilight was published, and just like that, my curiosity and my love for books was revived! Reading that book was a trigger and it helped me find great treasures and new friends.
My first reads were entirely based on Paranormal Romance, either YA or Adult. Of course, after finding the “adult” books, I now stay away from YA unless it is a recommendation from someone I know or, it’s a book with high ratings. Nowadays I read contemporary romance, new adult books, erotica with a plot and I’m still faithful to PNR.
What I don’t like in a book: Unnecessary drama. Stupid heroes/heroines who make harsh decisions without asking first. Porn on paper. Unbelievable insta-love (this always takes one star away from my ratings. I only believe in insta-love in paranormal or fantasy. Real life not so much, the author has to sell it really good for me to buy). Incessant self-loading and insecurities from a character. Horrible editing. Cliffhangers when the next book is going to take more than six months to come out (if that is the case, I wait for the whole series to be published). A book with no HEA (which never happens in romance so…. Any other genre I don’t mind). First person POV’s have to be real, if I am diving into the head of “regular” person, then such person should think like a real person; people don’t think in metaphors and analogies all the time, if writers want to be overly lyrical they should stay away from first person POV.
Aside from the above, I am very easy to please. I love alpha male heroes, but you can throw a sweet beta male my way and won’t complain. I love books that make you swoon and forget about real life drama and real life relationships (aka real men). Moreover, if you want my heart forever, throw me a book with spy/assassins/conspiracy/action/forbidden romance. I will dive into it right away. Why? Well if you want to know, I am a hard-core fan of La Femme Nikita, for me there is no other couple that equals Michael Samuel and Nikita, even if they never got their real HEA; therefore I’m a sucker for these plots.
oh and did I mention I am a Video Game geek ohh yeaahh!! RPG’s rule
Dali (a.k.a. The Star Wars and Star Trek Geek)
A friend suggested that instead of using my name I should call myself something “mean and scary” like the book bitch. He’s obviously never read my reviews because if he had, he would know I’m fairly easy to please. As long as I get my happy ending and there are no incessant inner whiny monologues from ANY character and we can avoid the wishy-washy heroines and steer clear of dumb decision making, you know the kind where the worst assumptions are made, no one asks what really happened, no one considers intervening to clear up misunderstandings a causing the heroes endless pain, then I’m good.
Ok, so I may be a bit demanding, but I do try to be as honest with the books I read as possible. I love to include quotes to state my case and sometimes just because they’re so swoony they make my insides go all gooey.
I will also take advantage and push eco-friendly advice. Shhh, the gals don’t know about this yet, but I’ll try to sneak those in once in a while.
You can stalk me on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2209138-dali-from-tjlovestoread
REQUESTS
If you want to request reviews, we will gladly accept, we are not very picky. Just abstain to request them if your book has more than two of our don’ts. We promise to be objective and to never, ever be mean or disrespect your work. If we don’t like your book for any reason we will, review and provide feedback for such reasons. If for any reason, it becomes a DNF we will not rate, because I truly believe that you cannot rate something you didn’t finish….
RATING SYSTEM
Same as GoodReads
SOME TERMINOLOGY
DNF = Did Not Finish
HEA = Happily Ever After (endings)
HFN = Happy For Now (endings)
POV = Point Of View
PNR = Paranormal Romance books
TBR = To Be Read
YA = Young Adult (books about 15 to 18 year olds, no explicit or descriptive sex scenes. Although some portray teen sexual activity)
NA = New Adult (Books about 18 to 25 year olds, usually in College. Books about your very firsts screw ups and achievements as an adult)
SOME EROTICA TERMINOLOGY
BDSM = an acronym used to describe a variety of kinky activities. BD stands for bondage & discipline. DS stands for dominance and submission and SM stands for sadism and masochism.
Dom = shortened version of the word Dominant
Domme = dominatrix or female dominant
Dominant = term for the person who takes control in BDSM play
Limits = these can be hard or soft. A hard limit is a sexual act that a player will absolutely not consider and a soft limit is something they may consider but are unsure of.
Masochism = deriving sexual pleasure from receiving pain
M/F = a male/female heterosexual pairing
PWP = Porn without plot
Safeword = very important in D/s play. A word the submissive can use to slow down or stop a scene if it is becoming too much for them. Can also be used by the top.
S/m = sadomasochism
Sub = shortened form of the word submissive
Submissive = the person giving up control to the dominant
Topping from the Bottom = an expression used to describe the practice of a sub attempting to control the dom and the scene.
Veiled Innocence
3.5 to 4 stars. There is something so alluring about forbidden love stories; I am compelled to read them even if sometimes the theme is just wrong on so many levels…. But when it comes to romance and love, everything is valid.. after all “All’s fair in love and war”.
Student/teacher stories are hard for me to read and ultimately understand.. I teach high school kids so it just rubs me the wrong way. Even seniors before my eyes are still immature, young children who need lots of guidance and have no idea about their place in the world, much less what they want out of life.
Having said that, after reading this book and experiencing a story about an 18 year-old damaged girl and her 32 year-old world history teacher, I definitely had to mentally prepare myself in order to read this for what it is: Fiction, romance and finally, a story were love conquers all.
Addison (Addy) is a sad girl; she has severe OCD issues with time (tick tick tock) and counting due to a traumatic incident involving her younger brother. She has made it her goal to seem perfect, to be perfect for her parents (who are not very good to her), school and everyone else around her. She is dating the school popular jock; she is the star of the track team; she has good grades, etc. Perfect. But inside she is a broken mess and the only positive thing in her life is her Doctor (Doc). Her senior year begins and she meets Mr. McKendrik… time stops (literally) and she is determined to have him, even if it means going to the point of becoming a bold, cunning, and über stalker.
McKendrik, is just a 32 year-old man, who ends up teaching in that particular school in Denver because his father is sick and dying. He is there to be with him until the end. When he meet Addy, he was attracted to her, obviously she is pretty and alluring but he dismisses the attraction immediately. He never stands a chance against her bold advances… he ends up giving in.
Now to the book itself: the writing was great!! I loved how the book jumped from present to past. Reading about present events was the only thing that helped me warm up to Addy a little bit. I was not a big fan of her, not really. Despite her issues and needs and the way she felt with McKendrik, I couldn’t seem to shake the fact about the way she came on to him, I mean yes teenagers and 18 year-olds are sometimes sexually active, more than we care to admit obviously, but, just thinking about a daughter of mine behaving that way… NO NO NO. Even if she is “legally” an adult (which I believe is an understatement, because at 18… nope, they still do very very stupid things, very un-adulty-ish). Therefore, I had a hard time warming up to her character, I found her slutty, instead of forthcoming or just sure of herself. She made it her goal to seduce and lure the guy…
Him, on the other hand, tries to stop her. He never reports her though… why? Well because he actually threw ethics off the window and gave in to temptation. Enough said.
Did I like the book? Yes and sort of. I can give a solid 4 stars for the writing and execution, but the 3.5 is for depth. I still would have liked interactions with them before the sexy times, to actually start off with some sort of friendship. For him to make an effort in order for her to open up and stop being so bold and throwing herself at him. For them to form a connection/love/understanding/feelings before sex… the way it is written is just lust and then.. poof! Magically after a few weeks they love each other…. This may work with other books, with other couples, but here, given the situation and the forbidden part of it, and the risk of jail time.. it didn’t work for me.
Also, the epilogue was… not an epilogue. I definitely needed more resolution. The ending left me wanting more of them, together, to see them interact without the baggage but, we didn’t get it and that irked me.. badly.
All in all, I recommend the story if you are into these kind of books. It is good, sexy and easy to read; Ella Frank doesn’t disappoint, maybe you will find my peeves to be your delight!!!!