ARC Review: Come To Me Recklessly (Closer To You #3) by A.L. Jackson

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:
Release Date: April 7, 2015
Publisher: NAL
448 Pages

From the New York Times bestselling author of Come to Me Softly comes another irresistible new adult romance in the Closer to You series.

His heart was turned off…
Until she turned him on…

Christopher Moore gave up on the idea of love years ago. Now, his life is an endless string of parties and an even longer string of girls. Enjoying the physical perks with none of the emotional mess, he’s convinced everyone that he’s satisfied—everyone but himself.

Samantha Schultz has moved on with her life. Finishing her student teaching and living with her boyfriend, she’s deluded herself into believing she’s content. But there is one boy she never forgot—her first love—and she keeps the memory of him locked up tight. She will never allow any man to break her the way Christopher did.

When Christopher’s sister and her family move into a new neighborhood, Christopher is completely unprepared to find Samantha living at the end of the street. Memories and unspent desires send them on collision course of sex, lies, and lust. But when guilt and fear send Samantha running, Christopher will have to fight for what has always been his.

Goodreads.Twitter.Website.Facebook

  Goodreads.Amazon.Barnes & Noble.

Christopher Moore has always been this mystery to me. While reading the first two books in this series, I was constantly drawn to him, wondering what his story was. He was an enigma and when I heard that there would be a book focused just on him, I could not wait to get my hands on it.

The first two books, Come to Me Quietly and Come to Me Softly, were good, but there was something about them that didn't fully captivate me, but they kept me interested enough to continue the series.

Then came Christopher's story and the introduction of Samantha Schultz. We finally got to see high school Christopher and he was adorable. And we ultimately see his downfall. I liked watching him grow and become a person with feelings again the more he was around Samantha. Their friendship was believable as two people trying to reconnect with all these heavy feelings around them. And I also adored Samantha.

Samantha Schultz has not had an easy life. Being the pastors daughter and the sister to a cancer ridden brother made her notorious in high school but also caught the eye of troublemaker Christopher. Their relationship was fast and came crashing down. Years later they reconnect through Ally, Christopher's sister, and it's not smooth sailing to say the least. It also goes to show just what a little communication can actually do.

The one thing that bothered me though, was at the low point when Christopher changed, it seemed he was more caught up in losing Samantha then the fact that his best friend had lost his mom, tried to kill himself, and disappeared. I don't know. I mean, I get first love and it's supposed to be sweet and everything about how his world revolved around her, but it really seemed to demean what happened to Jared.
 

Come to Me Recklessly is by far my favorite in the series. And a shout out to Stewart, Samantha's brother, who stole every scene he was in. You are magic, sir.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

ARC Review: When We Met by A.L. Jackson, Molly McAdams, Tiffany King, & Christina Lee

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:
Release Date: November 4, 2014
Publisher: NAL Trade
400 Pages

Today’s premiere New Adult authors combine their talents to tell four original stories from inside one house.

When four girls decide to live off campus together as juniors at a college in Michigan, they expect it to be their best year yet. Little do they know, it’s a year that will change the rest of their lives.

BEHIND HER EYES by A.L. Jackson
Unable to live down her ex-boyfriend’s deception, Misha is determined to avoid betrayal. When, the new guy next door, Darryn starts to get under her skin, her defenses start to crumble. But trusting Darryn seems impossible, especially if he’s not sure he can trust himself.

SAVING ME by Molly McAdams
On the outside, Indy is always ready for a party—but inside she’s breaking. Kier makes a weekly routine of saving the girl next door from herself on Saturday nights… but when will she be ready to remember him on Sunday morning?

FOULING OUT by Tiffany King
Working at a sports bar, Courtney has become a pro at sidestepping propositions from arrogant jocks—which makes her a more elusive catch for campus basketball star Dalton than he expected. But when he falls for the saucy waitress, Dalton will have to rethink his game plan to prove he’s not the jerk Courtney expects.

BENEATH YOUR LAYERS by Christina Lee
In order to ace her fashion internship, Chloe must team up with local college dropout and set builder, Blake—much to her chagrin. But after some "hands-on" experience, Chloe will have to ask herself if Blake factors into her carefully laid plans…

Goodreads.Amazon.Barnes & Noble.

A collection of four short stories based around a group of friends living in the same house. 

Behind Her Eyes by A.L. Jackson: 3 stars. I just want to start off by saying that you should not refer to one of your main characters as ‘boy-man-god’ every time you want to describe him. It was funny the first time but then it just got to be too much. 

Misha was burned by her first love. Her trust shattered in an instant. Then she meets Darryn, literally the boy next door. Soon Misha finds herself trusting someone again, feeling safe. But like most stories, Darryn is keeping a secret from Misha, one that shows her that you can’t trust anyone. It was a cute story about learning to trust yourself and others. 

Saving Me by Molly McAdams: 4 stars. Adams was the only author in this bunch that I hadn’t read before and I had heard mixed reviews of her writing. But in all honestly, her story was my favorite. 

Indy likes to spend her nights partying at the frat house next door, just getting lost in everything. More often than not, those nights end up with her safe in her bed with no memory of how she got there. Kier is the boy who puts her there. Every party he is there making sure she’s safe. I adored Kier and how patient he was with Indy. The little things he did, without her ever knowing, were so adorable. And the fact that he wasn’t doing any of it for credit. Indy never remembered him in the morning. Oh, how many times he wanted to tell her, but was afraid she wasn’t ready for that. So he took it slow, bidding his time and a friendship grew. The writing style and pacing really made me interested in reading more of McAdams work.

Fouling Out by Tiffany King: 4 stars. King was the reason I was so excited when I received this in the mail. She tells a story of old friends, first loves, and chances missed. Courtney and Dalton have a past, one that Courtney wants to forget. He was the one that got away and it kills her to admit it. Now he’s the star of their college’s basketball team and she’s working at the local sports bar. 

Dalton wants to get to know the girl who slipped away from him when he was younger. It was his fault that things got as strained as they did between the two of them. Pressure from his father to focus on his game left little time for anything else. But first, he has to figure out how to prove to Courtney that he’s not just the spoiled jock everyone thinks he is. I loved Courtney and Daltons relationship. His blatant flirting and her feisty comebacks made for a fun exchange to read. 

Beneath Your Layers by Christina Lee: 3 stars. Lee tells a story about two opposites coming together. The classic opposites attract. Chloe has her life perfectly planned out and getting glowing marks on her internship project is where everything starts. She comes up with this brilliant idea but just needs a little extra help getting there. Enter Blake, the complete opposite of Chloe. College drop-out, messy, nothing planned in life. 

When Blake offers to help Chloe, she’s hesitant at first. Nothing about him seems trustworthy and her future depends on this project. They fight, they don’t see eye to eye, and they’re extremely attracted to each other. Chloe was a little too uppity for me, I understood why, but it still kept me from bonding with her. However, I loved Blake’s brashness. He had a hard edge to him and he wasn’t just this perfect boy who did sweet things. He was vulgar and rough but he tried and in the end, that’s what is important.

Overall, this was a nice collection of stories and I enjoyed every one. They all flowed nicely and worked well together. It was believable that this was the story of a group of friends and a glimpse into their lives. 

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

ARC Review: Come to Me Quietly (Closer to You #1) by A.L. Jackson

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:
Release Date: January 7, 2014
Publisher: NAL Trade
384 Pages

Aleena Moore is content with her life. She has goals and dreams and an easy smile. She also has a secret she holds locked inside.

Jared Holt believes he doesn’t deserve to love or be loved. He destroys everything he touches. Haunted by the mistake that shattered his life, he’s fled from the memory of that pain.

Jared doesn’t know why he’s compelled to return, but finds himself drawn back to the place where it all began. The exact place where it ended. When he runs into his childhood best friend, Aleena’s older brother Christopher, he agrees to share Christopher and Aleena’s apartment while he looks for a place of his own.

Aleena is no longer the little girl Jared remembers from his past and evokes feelings in him he never wanted to feel again. Terrified of destroying her, he fights to keep her away. But her touch is something he can’t resist—the touch that sealed his fate.

Their pasts are intertwined and their futures uncertain. The only truths they know are the secrets they whisper in the night.

Goodreads.Twitter.Website.Facebook

Goodreads.Amazon.Barnes & Noble

“I see beauty and pain. Joy and sorrow. I see the good and I see the bad…and I love it all.”

Jared, Christopher, and Aly all grew up together. Jared and Christopher were best friends, Aly was Christopher’s little sister and secretly in love with Jared, their parents were best friends, everything was good. Then an accident takes the life of Jared’s mother and sends him on a downward spiral throwing everything into chaos. Jared disappears leaving Christopher and Aly to pick up the pieces of their torn apart families. 

Time passes, Chris and Aly move into together and are going to college, successfully getting on with their lives. All that changes when Chris finds Jared in a bar and brings him back to his apartment. Jared’s arrival brings back all of Aly’s old feelings for him and she realizes that she never got over the him – the boy who protected her when she was a child, the boy who always made sure she was never left behind, the boy who made her feel safe.

I am a sucker for broken boys and Jared is definitely broken. He’s haunted by events in his past, events that he feels responsible for. And for once, I feel like his pain has a substantial base. Most tortured males in YA/NA are torn up over something that wasn’t their fault, they just choose to internalize it. What happens here is actually Jared’s fault, and even though it was something that could have happened to anyone, it happened to him. The result of this turns his life upside down and it just gets so out of control that by the time he comes back into Aly’s life, he sees no way out.

The story was told from both POV’s of Aly and Jared so that we could see what each of them were thinking. Weaved into this were glimpses of their past. I loved the little peeks into when they were children. I felt it made the bond between Aly and Jared so much more powerful and when he finally decides to let someone in, it makes sense that it’s her. Their bond is written beautifully and I reveled in their time together. However, just when it seems to be going good, everything has to come crashing down. 

Now, I knew this would happen. There always has to be the big blow-up and crying and heart-wrenching pain. I expected it and it did not disappoint. Jackson’s writing style had me feeling everyone’s heartbreak, not just Aly and Jared’s. When you lose someone important, it doesn’t just affect the intermediate family, it affects everyone around them. Jackson showed loss from all sides and pain from all sides, and then she showed growth and how people move on but never forget.

This was a 4 star book for me up until the end. The author took the story to a place that I honestly didn’t expect her to take it, and I honestly felt like it wasn’t needed and took me out of the scene for a minute. After reading the plot for the next book, I’m hoping it wasn’t just added for dramatic purposes. 

A great start to what seems to be a series I will continue. 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.