Review: Make Me (Broke and Beautiful #3) - Tessa Bailey

(⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 5/5 stars)

Finally we have here the last novel of the Broke and Beautiful Series - Make Me.

The story of rough Russell Hart and posh Abby Sullivan, after we witnessed how their best friends fell in love with each other.

Again, Bravo to Tessa Bailey’s light and easy way of writing her books! I enjoyed this one the most!!!!! So uncomplicated and funny, we fall in love with the characters pretty easily.

The plot goes like this: Russell, the tough guy of the Supergroup is madly in love with Abby, the multimillionaire virgin that rents really expensive apartments to the other two broke girls of the series at a affordable amount for them, all because she thinks she’s unable to make any friends. So, Russell spends all his time in the friend-zone and fantasizing about Abby, because he thinks he’s not good enough for her - everything changes after Abby one day realize that he’s really good looking and that they have some sort of connection.

I have to say this is my favorite couple of the Supergroup! Totally opposites but son in sync at the same time - they really fulfill the needs of the other one and the way Russell loves Abby is really sweet and surreal. I enjoyed their conversations about love and their sexual interactions the most.

Great way to close a series!! So if you haven’t read it and you’re in the market for lite, uncomplicated, nothing-box reading, this is your thing!

From HERE on be aware that I might drop some SPOILERS over the lines.

Let’s get juicy on the details! Russell (OMG!!!) is amazing as a main character - is like a man-man! Handy, DIY, brave and really hard on the outside, we can see how sensible he actually is in the inside. Not only because he’s always caring for Abby, his family and friends, but also because he has his family issues to cope with. Finding his mother dead by depression made him a little rough on the edges, but not incapable to love - in fact, from all three male characters of the series, he’s the most emotional one - and that contrast with he’s outside is what makes even more interesting.

Then, there’s Abby - a rich girl who seems to have it all, except real relationships and experience in her life. Raised in a family where there was no allow to make mistakes because you ended dealing with them alone, she always felt like an outcast. Up until she decided to “buy” herself some friends by renting the rooms of her how at a cheap price. But even then, who really made her feel like she belong to someone was the cranky friend of Roxy’s boyfriend who was always there, no matter what she said to him. Being inexperience emotionally and sexually, it takes time for her to realize that what she had been sharing with Russell is not a normal friendship but something different.

Mix all that with a sexual chemistry accompanied by kind of dominant sex and the result is great! Because, beside from the fact that Russell wants to protect Abby from EVERYTHING so she doesn’t end like his mother, the kind of rough and direct way he treats her in that heated moments makes this book even more fun.

So I’m giving it five shining stars and I’m really looking forward to read new things from Tessa Bailey!

Hope you had enjoyed my review - feel free to add anything that you want down there.

As always, see you between the pages...

Trish ❥

Review: Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

(⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 3/5 stars)

Ready Player One….

>Enter

Welcome to the OASIS… Or should I said The Matrix or Room 13 or Second Life or World of Warcraft in the future. So yes, you guys get the idea. This is a story about a future society that lives online (At least the majority) in a virtual reality world called The Oasis. The author is Ernest Cline and he has another book called Armada (similar stuff). 

It follows the story of Wade, a 18 year old dude that even study in the Oasis and it is obsessed with 80´s pop culture (As everyone else) in the 2040´s. Wade is a Gunter, part of a massive group that spend every little single second outside of school looking to play the ultimate game: a quest all over The Oasis to find an egg the founder of this virtual reality (An 80´s geek called Halladay) put somewhere – the winner will take billions of dollars and the control of the Oasis. 

It is said that Steven Spielberg is looking forward to do a Film about this book. That could mean really good news (Jaws) or not so good ones (A.I). If it´s true, it won’t happen for a while know. I think it´s the future´s Elder Scroll (ehww).

I´m a 90`s kid: so you should take this review with a pinch of salt.. I you lived the 80´s in your prime or if you are obsess with the decade, especially if you play D&D and all kind of classic video-games, please go ahead and read this book – you will have a blast! For the rest of us, let´s see how this unfolds: 

THIS is the place where you STOP if haven't read the book, because I can get some SPOILERS over the lines!

Things that I liked about RP1:

✔︎ It was fun. For sure, light and fast reading that will entertain you. It does not matter if you do not get every little reference. The story unfolds quite fast and everything happens in a straight fashion. There is some romance, but mainly adventure and action.

✔︎ 80's pop culture. It is amusing. Pacman, D&D, everything  Matthew Broderick did, War Games and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Plus, the song about The Piña Colada (who would love that! c´mon!). There is a first plane where the 80´s references habit and all makes for a great background.

✔︎ The futuristic failed society is a great one. I think there is a nice message there: we, as a society, think we are facing huge perils in the near future because of recent global financial problems and global warming. If things follow the path news portrayed the world everyday it looks like we will, sooner or later, reach a point of extreme depression. I loved the “real world” where Wade and everyone else lives in – a group of trailer stacked one over the other (20-30 high) in order to create an improvise building – fascinating background. It is that world of depression. 

✔︎ The idea of avatars as a mean to do things you would not do in real life…. But wait, what it´s real life? (Is this the real world, or is just fantasy… you can go on in your head). This is a thing we already see all over the internet, please visit the comment section in youtube or any sub-reddit and you will find human nature without any restraint. It is a nice touch and theme present in the book. There is some gender issues and people looking for themselves. 

✔︎ The research: astonishing the amount of detail – particularly with the 80`s references.

Things that I did not liked about RP1:

✘ It was fun. But it wasn't good. At least was not perfectly written, too much flaws and predictable outcomes. Do not get me wrong, this is a fun book, but it is not as intelligent as it could be. I did had a good time, it was not cerebrally challenging – think Elder Scroll and not Dune/Foundation. 

✘ 80's pop culture. Too much for me. Again, if you lived the decade and loved it, no problem. But do we really have to listen to every single obscure little easter egg about the 80`s. I know that you are thinking: but Andrew, isn´t that the main reason of the book. Well, yes; and it does add some nice texture to everything in the story; but I do not think the 80´s was as memorable as Ernest Cline thinks it is…. 90`s kid here, I told you.

✘ It's full of laughable impossibilities: like a 18 year old having seen every episode of every 80s TV show somehow, and being an expert in Pacman and a great player of Joust, Tempest, and the 1000's of other games that you think may be important in the quest including knowing the script of every movie and all Japanese anime references… too much. I understand that he is obsesses over all of this, but there is no time to know all that in a life time. Sorry.

✘ Finally, towards the end of the book I did not fear for one second for Wade and his friends. He seemed to experience almost no actual barriers to success and the bad guys were very incompetent (a Google like multi-billion enterprise) vs a bunch of 18 year olds. Aha, not believable and too easy for our heroes. 

This a 3/5 for me. A good read for a casual reader and a great read for a 80`s kids. Overall: good nice book. You can pass on it if you are not intrigued. 

As always… thanks for reading.

Andrew ♆

Review: Manwhore+1 (Manwhore #2) - Katy Evans

(⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Finally I'm coming with the review of a sequel I was eagerly waiting! And I'm sure, after the hanging finale of Manwhore, I wasn't the only one! 

With this book I cannot avoid SPOILERS coming between the lines, so if you haven't read it, STOP here.

After waiting so much to get to know what happened between Rachel and Malcolm in that thrilling last encounter in his office, I finally got my wish and learned what was next for this couple.

I have to say that, even if I think this is a good sequel to the first book, my expectations where a little high... and don't get me wrong, I still LOVE Malcolm and is my favorite handsome millionaire of all, but I was expecting more struggling from his side and less shyness from Rachel's part. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

In my opinion, Katy Evans did an amazing job by surprising us in the beginning of the book - I can bet most of us where expecting something entirely different from the first meeting between Rachel and Malcolm after Rachel's betrayal, but certainly not a job offer - fact that left us as speechless as Rachel was in the first moments of that meeting.

And since we are talking about Rachel, let's get deeper in the matter - as a character, she became more scared and insecure that in the first novel, I'm sure due to the fact that she was really ashamed for what she did, but she lost a lot of her ability to speak to Malcolm directly and that kind of bothers me a little... part of her charm rested in the fact that she was not that intimidated by him. In this book, we can feel a shift in this. 

Also, she spend a lot more time in her head day-and-night-dreaming about Malcolm and describing him over and over again:

"His sticking face is perfectly shaven today, and his sensual lips look so achingly full I can almost feel them against mine. Six feet-plus of perfectly controlled male power stands before me, in a perfect black suit and a killer tie. He's the very devil in Armani; strong-boned, square-jawed, gleaming dark hair and those penetrating eyes. He's got the best eyes."

Chapter 1: Four Weeks

"I'm breathless as I absorb the feel of his tanned skin against one, the strength of his muscles, the ripples of his abs against my tummy."

Chapter 3: My life now

"Tan, cut muscles, over six feet of pure testoterone-primed man. His skin feels so smooth and hot and hard when he lowers himself over me."

Chapter 14: Rebooting us

"He is perfection. He looks impenetrable in a business suit, as if nothing can touch him. But naked, he's a god, all tanned, toned chest muscles. Dark hair rumpled from my hands, those green eyes liquid."

Chapter 30: The Final Leap

So YES, we get it!!!! Malcolm is HOT!!!!

And I have so many good things to say about him in this book! Malcolm is the best character without doubt! BEST OF THE BESTS - he's really my guilty pleasure!!! And I think it has something to do with the fact that, in my head, he's exactly like Henry Cavill (Superman version ---> OMG!!!!) Hahahahah.

But aside from all jokes, he's a great main character that is not bullshitting around very much - he's angry with Rachel but still have feelings for her, so he wants to protect her from his father (reason why he offers the job in the first place)... Then his anger begins to fade because he wants to be with her - all of this happens in a non-creepy way, just as natural as any couple that got into a fight. He slowly gets back in trusting her again and develops a way to forgive her.

I missed a little bit more action in Malcolm's father's department - I thought it was going to be more direct and more messy. But I assume the author wanted to be more like in real life and she got that effect! Just legal business that were solve in the legals grounds.

Also, Evans kept the friends pretty superficial again and I really was curious about the Gina and Tahoe's - hopefully we are going to see more of them in next books.

So, we'll keep waiting until October 5th, for Ms. Manwhore's publishing, to see how this story ends (is it ends!!)...

Hope you had enjoyed this review and if you want to say anything, leave me a comment bellow ⬇️

As always, see you between the pages!!!

Trish ❥