Book Review: The Light Within Me, by Carly Fall

The Light Within Me
Carly Fall

Initial Thoughts: Hot Damn!

My Rating: 4.5 Stars!!!

Summary:
When Abby and Noah meet, there is an explosive attraction between them that neither can deny...

As a shy, awkward, social misfit, Abby has gone her whole life feeling as though she's different from everyone else and she simply doesn't fit in well with society as a whole. She longs to feel a real connection with someone, and she finally does when she meets Noah.

Unbeknownst to Abby, Noah is from another world and his sole purpose is to hunt down the evil of his people that was unleashed on Earth hundreds of years ago. He's certain he isn't going to be able to return to his home, and anger and the need for revenge are his constant companions. His focus has been eradicating the evil and making them pay for taking his life on his world away from him.

Noah tries desperately to fight his attraction to Abby so he can keep his focus on his mission. But when Abby gets dragged into the evil and mayhem from Noah's world, he realizes that maybe with Abby he can find a home here on Earth...if he can save her in time.

My Thoughts:

OK, first let's talk about this cover. Yum-me. I could take a slice of that cake.

Second, let's talk about my love-fest. Yes. Love. Fest. There is *so* much to love about this book. The voice is magnificent. This author gets you to that level of emotion that is so missing from many books. From the first page, you are right inside Noah's head. And I mean right inside. The writing is so natural, you really think it's him talking to you, telling a story.

Abby is also a great character. So well drawn and believable. The author takes time with her emotions and thoughts, building up believable reactions to everything thrown at her. And there's this one scene where Abby's in danger, OMG, I was on the edge of my seat!

The ensemble cast is dee-lish-us. All these savior dudes are hunka hunka burning love-fests. It's an orgy of beefcake. Not that I've ever partaken in an orgy (or have I? LOL ), but if I were to partake, I'd partake with these guys. Not since the Lords Of the Underworld series have I met a more delightful cast of swoon-worthy characters.

So, what drew this rating down from a 5 star review?

1. Lots of grammatical errors. Onesies or twosies I'll deal with. It was almost as if this author was writing so fast to get the words out, she missed some stuff. Hell, if I were writing this book, I'd be writing fast too!

2. The wrap up left a lot being desired. OK, so we have this situation where things aren't looking good, and the answer to fix it all is love. Got it. But then, we skip ahead when it's all said and done, and I was like, WFT? *HOW* did they fix it? It was like the author took a short-cut, or didn't know how this fixin' truly worked, so she glossed over it instead of writing about it. I felt a little cheated, like she'd short-sheeted my bed.

3. I'm jealous I didn't write it. OK, that one doesn't really count, and had no impact on my rating. Just saying.

Seriously, if you like PNR romance, read this book. I'm continuing with the series, and adding it my Series to Keep Reading list.

Book Review: Fearless, by Tawdra Kandle

Fearless
Tawdra Kandle

Initial Thoughts: Insta-love-itus

My Rating: 3.5 Stars

Summary:
Tasmyn Vaughn didn't expect much when her dad's job moved them to a small town in Florida; it was just another new school. But there is more to King than meets the eye, and soon Tasmyn's ability to hear others' thoughts is the least of her worries. Entangled in a web of first love, quirky and secretive townsfolk, magic and blood rituals, she discovers the town's secrets aren't just bizarre, they're deadly.

My Thoughts:

I really toyed with my rating. On the one hand, the story moved well, the characters were well drawn, and it was pretty well written. On the other hand: I hate insta-love. It's just not believable in my book, unless the author makes it believable, i.e., give me a reason to believe it. In this case, it didn't work for me. But for those of you who believe in love at first sight with no cosmic explanation...go right ahead and disagree with my thoughts and rating, cuz you'll love this book! 

So, like I said, this book was actually well-laid out, the plot moved fairly well (though started extremely slow...I'm all for the slow build-up, but sometimes things gotta move along, ya know what I'm sayin'?), and things were very descriptive. You saw, felt, smelled, got all the senses going.

Tasmyn is like-able, and her growth is what's to be expected from a teenage girl with over-protective parental units. I like how she took control over her life in the end. Atta girl! Loved the bitches, I could just picture those mean girls raging through the high school halls. The science teacher was deliciously mysterious and creepy.

Michael, her insta-love connection, is a nice guy, works hard, struggles sometimes in school with some subjects (which I liked, no one can be too perfect, otherwise - gag!). Another well-drawn character.

Here's my problem. Everything was insta-good. Tasmyn and Michael? Insta-love. Tasmyn and his parents? Insta-love. The good things here were that her parents weren't so quick to jump on the love caboose with Michael, and his sister wasn't down with the whole gee-she-can-read-your-thoughts-but-don't-worry-she-works-real-hard-to-not-listen-but-hey!-no-promises-there sitch. Good for her. Can't have everything be too easy! LOL

Other minor annoyances: 

1. If her parents are so freaking over-protective, the first, and I mean FIRST, thing they'd do is buy her a cell phone so they can connect any time. Not buying the fact that she didn't have one.

2. The set-up at the end was obviously a set-up. But Michael had his phone turned off...who does that? No teenager I know, so this was an obvious hurdle the author threw in to get us to the main event.

3. There's something going on with the insta-love connection, since it seems to be a family trait on Michael's side. I would have bought this whole thing if there was something behind that, and maybe there is, but it's never touched on.

4. The wrap-up was kinda quick. 

Overall, the book was good, just a little too many coincidences and obvious in the plotting phases.