Mini Book Reviews

This week I’ve been on a quest to find a nice light romantic read, and because I’ve read two books in quick succession I thought I’d do mini reviews:

Book 1: Undeclared (Woodlands #1) by Jen Frederick

Blurb

For four years, Grace Sullivan wrote to a Marine she never met, and fell in love. But when his deployment ended, so did the letters. Ever since that day, Grace has been coasting, academically and emotionally. The one thing she’s decided? No way is Noah Jackson — or any man — ever going to break her heart again.

Noah has always known exactly what he wants out of life. Success. Stability. Control. That’s why he joined the Marines and that’s why he’s fighting his way — literally — through college. Now that he’s got the rest of his life on track, he has one last conquest: Grace Sullivan. But since he was the one who stopped writing, he knows that winning her back will be his biggest battle yet.

I really wanted to love this book, I thought the synopsis had a lot of promise but ultimately, I was left disappointed. My main problems were that I didn’t like Noah, his possessiveness rang a few alarm bells and it just didn’t sit right with me. I also thought some his behaviors towards Grace at times was pretty shitty and the fact that she didn’t stand up and demand that he treated her better was astounding.

Grace annoyed the hell out of me as well. I felt no connected to her and her self-pity and lack of confidence in herself were a total turn off.

I also felt the story writing to be a little stuffy, and not really to my taste.

My Rating:  2/5 🌟 🌟

Book 2: The Boy Next Door (Off-Limits Romance #2) by Ella James

Blurb

The boy next door. That’s what he was. Dash Frasier—my hero from the day we met, when I was six and he was nine. His sister was my best friend, the three of us one happy crew. Then one sweaty summer night changed everything.
No one understood me like Dash. No one made me feel so loved. That’s why, when he skipped town, it wrecked me.

Now I’m older. Wiser. I’ve just snagged my dream job, writing at a film studio. The lead animator on my project? You guessed it.

He’s not the boy next door. Not anymore.

I’m guarding my heart this time.

But Dash has secrets that could break us both.

This book surprised me, it turned out to be a lot heavier than I was expecting. The start of the book took you back to when Amelia first met Dash so it was nice to get that back story, from then on it was dual perspective.

I liked both the main characters. I picked up almost straight away that there was something amiss about the way Dash was behaving. I enjoyed the chemistry between him and Amelia. I think that fact that I didn’t guess what drove Dash away from Amelia was what kept me hooked until the last page.

Overall I can’t say that I loved this story but it was a fairly good read.

My Rating: 3/5  🌟 🌟 🌟

So as far as my quest goes neither of these books have matched what I’m looking for. I’m a 3^rd of the way through The Allure of Julian Lefray (by R.S Grey) and so far this is holding a lot more promise. Review will probably arrive tomorrow!

Stay Tuned!