Title: Ghosted Series: Standalone Author: J.M Darhower Genre / Themes: Adult, Contemporary Romance Point of View: First Person Publisher: Self-published Publication Date: August 23rd 2017 Pages: 453
Goodreads Synopsis:
He’s a troubled young actor, Hollywood’s newest heartthrob, struggling with fame as the star of the latest superhero franchise. Through scandal after scandal, addiction on top of addiction, a flurry of paparazzi hunt him as he fights to conquer his demons.
She’s a single mother, assistant manager at a grocery store, existing in monotony with her five-year-old daughter. Every day when she goes to work, lurid tabloids surround her, the face of a notorious bad boy haunting her from their covers.
A man and a woman, living vastly different lives, but that wasn’t always the case. Once, they were just a boy and a girl who bonded over comic books and fell in love unexpectedly.
When Kennedy Garfield met Jonathan Cunningham back in high school, she knew he had all the makings of a tragic hero. With stars in his eyes, and her heart on her sleeve, the pair ran away together to follow their dreams.
But dreams, sometimes, turn into nightmares.
Now, years later, the only thing they share is a daughter—one who has no idea her father plays her favorite superhero. But Jonathan is desperate to make amends, and at the top of his list is the woman who gave up everything for him and the little girl he hasn’t yet met.
MY TLDR THOUGHTS
“Worse is loving someone who disappears and never knowing if they’ll come back. Because how do you move on if you’re not even sure they’re gone? The answer is—you don’t. When you spend most of your life chasing ghosts, eventually, you become one.”
Second chance romance has a special place in my heart especially if the main character is a single mom like myself. It’s nice to see myself represented in books, makes me hopeful I can have a happily ever after of my own. Anyways, I really enjoyed the story, there’s not much steam, but I’m happy the story was just about them trying to fix the problems from the past and trying to move forward.
PS: Maddie is super adorable.
Trigger Warning: Drug Abuse
⚜️ Big Bad Shhlut 2022 Reading Challenge!⚜️ 13. Mad: Drug abuse by MC.
Title: Black Swan Affair Series: Standalone Author: K.L Kreig Genre / Themes: Adult, Contemporary Romance Point of View: First Person Publisher: Self-published Publication Date: September 20th 2016 Pages: 337
I’ve loved him as long as I can remember.
The gangly boy with big brown eyes and unruly hair who grew up into an intoxicating man. He wears scruff like he invented it and ambles with a swagger that makes panties drop.
Killian Shepard.
Shep.
We grew up together. We played Ghost in the Graveyard. Had our own rock band. It didn’t matter that he was five years older than me. It didn’t matter that he looked at me as a kid sister even as I grew into woman. It didn’t even matter when he left me behind to go to college and start his adult life.
He’d be back. He was always meant to be mine.
He came back, all right. But instead of smelling of promises, he stunk of betrayal. And he destroyed me—us—the day he married my sister instead of me.
So I did the only thing a girl like me in my position could do.
I got my revenge. I married his brother, Kael. Now we’re one big happy f*cking family.
***mature content appropriate for 18+
“While he was the sun that lit your world, you were the darkness that shadowed mine.”
❝And this last year I also realized there are different kinds of love. There’s the dreamy kind you always thought you wanted and then there’s the steady one you never understood but the second you let yourself feel it…it’s nothing like you could have imagined in your wildest dreams.❞
Just wow. I wasn’t really expecting too much when I started this. I just thought the synopsis was rather interesting, having two brothers falling for the same girl and the girl marrying the brother she didn’t love just to spite the one that she does. It’s a messy family drama. I was just looking for a steamy read, so plot-wise, I wasn’t really too hopeful that it was going to be good.
Luckily. It was. It kind of all made sense in the end. At least for me.
MEET THE CHARACTERS
→Maverick
Not gonna lie, I sort of hated her in the beginning.
❝I’m anything but innocent. My soul is lost. My heart cold. I’m a devil in angel’s skin, trapping a man for life who could have any woman he wants but for some reason wants me.❞
I mean who does that? Marry someone you don’t love just so that you can get back at someone? Who does that really? Apparently, Maverick does that. Eventually though, I liked that she grew as her own person and realized all the things she thinks were the best for her before. However, I think if her best friend does not exist, she might not be able to realize this on her own. It took her a hell of a long time to figure things out and what things she really should focus on. She got there though. I ended up being so proud of the growth she had then. She wasn’t perfect and she acknowledges that. I am really drawn to characters that admits to their flaws and acknowledges them and try to make up for them.
→Killian
What can I say about him? I can’t say I hate him because even though he was such a dick, I understood why he did the things he did but just because I understood them, doesn’t mean that I think he did the right thing though. In my opinion, there were a hundred other things he could have done aside from the choices he made. Reading about Killian actually made me remember about my ex-bf, who was caught in a similar situation where he chose the easiest way out.
→Kael
From the get go, Kael just took my heart away. He is perfect. I don’t think there is anything else to say about him. Oh yeah, there is. Secrets. Like Killian, Kael made mistakes. And like Killian, he did have a choice. He should have chosen the right one from the beginning. But I guess, I can’t really blame him too because he got caught in the middle of a messy family drama, and of course, family is family at the end of the day. But over all, Kael is such a sweetheart and also super fucking hot. I want my own Kael.
For some reason I imagine him looking like this:
Goddamn it. If Maverick doesn’t like him, I would take him home and do… stuff to him lol.
LETS TALK ABOUT THE LOVE TRIANGLE (OR SQUARE)
Maverick (our female protagonist) grew up with Killian and Kael (who were brothers if you didn’t already know lol). She was closed to Kael who she treated like her best friend but she fell in love with Killian. They seem to have this mutual attraction but ultimately broke her heart and married her sister. Yeah. Wtf right. Distraught Maverick wanted to get back at him, so she married his brother, Kael. Yeah. Another wtf.
It was a messy romance but I really liked how everything wrap up in the end. I don’t want to spoil anything about who ended up with who because it’ll ruin the story. Overall, I feel like the ending satisfied everyone in the end, maybe not completely satisfying two of the characters but they are where they need to be at the end.
SMUT LEVEL
I was satisfied but I wanted more. The sexy scenes definitely got me hot and bothered lol.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
It’s been a while since I really got hooked with a male character. Kael was the highlight of this book for me, I absolutely fell head-over-heels in love with him. Not saying what happened though on whether he got the girl or not but for me, he takes the big cake for me.
This novel was told in a alternating timeline which I actually liked. Sometimes if not done right, it will cause some problems narratively. But K.L Kreig really did a good job in making the story flow nicely despite the non-linear narrative.
Perusing at Midnight 