Book Review: Kissing Kendall by Jennifer Shirk

At First Sight: Following the death of her firefighter husband Jake, Kendall Grisbaum has fallen into a bad emotional place. She's depressed, has been let go from her job and if it weren't for her two best friends who keep pushing her, and for her newly acquired puppy, she would stay home all day and be depressed. 

But now, she has decided to start doing something about her life, starting with opening her own bakery with the help of her friends, which includes Brad. 

Brad is the brother of one of Kendall's best friends, Georgie, and a police man who was also pretty close to Kendall's husband - in fact, he introduced them -and, once upon a time, he was pretty close to Kendall as well though they drifted apart after she started dating her husband. 

Brad has always been in love with Kendall, but never dared to make a move until now, when they are spending a lot of time together as he helps her to get the bakery ready. Part of Kendall tells her she's not ready for another relationship, but the rest of her just likes being around Brad. 

Second Glance: Kissing Kendall was a fun read, it was well written, the characters were nice and everything. The situation was a little sticky because of the whole love-triangle-with-the-dead-husband -thing and Kendall's fear of dating another man who routinely puts his life at risk for the sake of others. 

She was very traumatized by the way her husband died on the job, so a relationship is the farthest thing from her mind at the beginning. I liked seeing her with Brad, I think they worked quite well - and it was easier to believe because it's stablished that they were great friends once - but it could have used a little more of showing instead of telling. 

I also felt like Kendall held onto her fears for a little too long, because Brad sounded like a really good guy. 

Bottom Line: Kissing Kendall was an entertaining read, it made me hungry with all the descriptions of cupcakes and desserts, and the concept of the story is adorable, but it lacked a little in execution. 

Book Review: Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

Okay! So, hello again and welcome to another chatty review!! I rather enjoyed free-forming it the other day so I think I might start doing it regularly. LOL

So, this week's book is Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay. I'm not gonna lie, the main reason requested this book from Net Galley was because I've seen a lot of bloggers that I know and respect - like Aylee @ Recovering Potter Addict - enjoying this book. 

Sadly, it wasn't for me...

The story goes like this: Nastya used to be a piano child prodigy until something happened and she wasn't anymore; so after a couple of years of being home schooled she has moved in with an aunt, and now has two missions in life: survive her last year of high school and take revenge on the people who destroyed her life. 

Josh, hasn't had it easy with life, the people he loved are gone and now all he wants is to be left alone and the kids in his high school usually let him be, except for the new girl Nastya. But how does Josh fit into her plans exactly?

Well, that's pretty easy to figure out so I'm no telling. What I am going to say is that this book was SOOOO depressing. It wasn't fun to read at all, and the start was kind of slow. I have a hard time connecting with characters who are gloom and doom all the time and Josh and Nastya were. They had their reasons and they were good reasons but yeah, I knew I should feel bad for them and at an intellectual level I did, but there was no emotional connection. 

And everything was so sad and draining that I was glad I wasn't feeling it. 

Sea of Tranquility is hard to read and if you're looking for something fluffy and fun, this isn't the one for you. If you like "issue books" then, go ahead, this one will be awesome for you, because it is beautifully written and the style alone got me to finish a book I would put down by chapter 3 otherwise. 

Not rating this week because this was so not for me. 

Book Review: Dirty Laundry by Heidi Cullinan

And you thought the
 previous ones were bad...

At First Sight: Adam Ellery - an entomology grad student - is not the type to hook up at the laundromat but when he meets Denver Rogers - after he chases away some drunken frat guys that were bullying Adam -  thanking him turns into them having sex right there in the middle of the laundromat; an event that should be a once off for Adam, but he can't stop thinking about Denver afterward.

Working as a bouncer at Tucker Spring's local gay bar - Lights Out - Denver has his pick of guys to have sex with - He might not be the handsomest guy around, but his strong physique and commanding air about him make him stand out - but since their first encounter he can't get Adam out of his head.

Neither of them have a great experience with relationships, but after a few dates they start a tentative relationship even if on the surface they don't have anything in common.

Second Glance: Dirty Laundry is the third book in the Tucker Springs series and it actually spins off a short story that Heidi Cullinan published a few months ago.

Once more, we are in Tucker Springs exploring the lives of two gay men. This book had a lot going for it actually, in the past book I grew to like Denver (he's El Rozal's best friend from Second Hand, and he and Paul show up a couple of times) and reading more about him and seeing things from his perspective  he won me over, he's not perfect but I liked him.

I liked Adam well enough too, he has severe OCD and other anxieties and it's hard for him to even be with someone - hanging out with friends, going to people's houses, using public restrooms - but he likes Denver, and he likes the person he is when he's with Denver.

They do have a Dom-Sub relationship, which was handled really well as boundaries were respected and the relationship was balanced; and in that aspect the sex in this book is a little more racy than in the previous ones in the series and it does jump at you more. I didn't have a problem with in particular but its also not something I particularly go out of my way to read in general.

Lastly, while I still like the community aspect of this series and I liked the characters in general, I don't really see me re-reading this in the future. I liked it but I think I still like Second Hand more.

Bottom Line: I enjoyed reading Dirty Laundry and I like the people involved, but it still was probably my least favorite of the series so far. Will I keep reading more about Tucker Springs? Probably yes - even with the bad covers and I'm curious about the next book which features a tattoo artist and a youth pastor (yeah, I know!). Fair warning though, the whole dom-sub thing is pretty explicit so it's not for the faint of heart. 

1/2

Book Review: Back to the Good Fortune Diner by Vicki Essex

At First Sight: After losing her apartment and job in New York City, Tiffany Cheung was left with no other option but to return home to Everville, where she's stuck living with her parents, having to work (at least some of the time) at the family's diner The Good Fortune, and with a mountain of debt.

Tiff never wanted to come back to Everville, where she always stood out for being Chinese - even if she wasn't really teased, she certainly was largely ignored by her classmates - and where there is no much to do.

Chris Jamieson was Everville's golden boy - star of the football team and with a college scholarship - but these days his time is divided between running his family's farm, fighting with his father over how to run the farm and fighting with his teenage son Simon over his lack of interest on his future.

When he learns that Simon has failed English, Chris turns to the one person who helped him make sense of Shakespeare when he was in high school: Tiffany, who tutored him and helped him to get that scholarship.

Running into Chris was not in Tiffany's plans, let alone when she's so down her luck and he's still as handsome as he ever was and her crush on him never really went away. Agreeing to tutor his son was not in her plans either but at least its a job where she doesn't have to wear a hairnet.

Besides, it's only a temporary thing, and the moment she gets another job in New York City she's moving back, and Chris's sudden interest in her is not changing her plans.

Second Glance: I read Back to the Good Fortune Diner because for the SBTB's book club and all in all it was a pretty good read.

I enjoyed the setting - upstate New York - and the tid bits both about farm life and running the diner. I genuinely liked Chris and his son Simon and a host of other characters like Tiffany's brother Daniel and his girlfriend Selena and their grandmother. I loved the grandmother, she reminded me of my own.

But the book did have a flaw: Tiffany. Tiffany was so not a likable character, she was so ashamed of her family and of her heritage - she eventually comes to better terms with it, but it was too little too late for me - and I couldn't see what Chris saw in her. She was a bit of a snobby bitch when she first comes back to town.

The parts where I liked her the most were when she was tutoring Simon, but the rest of the time I didn't like her. Also, her dream to work in Publishing but you never really get a sense of why, and you don't see her enjoy her job so that whole part of the book felt a bit like a cope out.

Not exactly a minus but Daniel and Selena's story took over a lot of the book, it wasn't bad - it was actually pretty interesting - but it did take away from the main couple. Also, I didn't like Tiff and Daniel's parents either. 

Bottom Line: When all is said and done, I liked Back to the Good Fortune Diner, and I really enjoyed Mis Essex's style of writing, but I didn't like all aspects of the story the same, I didn't like the heroine and I would have liked a little more romance for the main couple. I will probably read this author again, though. 

Book Review: Confectionately Yours - Save the Cupcake! by Lisa Papademetriou

At First Sight: Hayley is going through a lot of adjustments following the divorce of her parents, her mom being laid off work and their having to move in with her Grandmother into a tiny apartment above Gran's Tea Shop.

At school, things are a little weird as her set of friends is breaking up. Her girl best friend is getting tangled with the drama crowd and ignoring Hayley; and her other best friend Marco is acting weird and it seems like Hayley can never say the right thing to him.

But there is one thing that never fails Hayley: cupcakes!! Through thick and thin, Hayley takes comfort in baking and in helping out at The Tea Shop where the troubles are never bigger than getting the current batch of baking just right.

Second Glance: Confectionately Yours: Save the Cupcake! was adorable you guys! Such a sweet, lovely read - and I don't say it just because Hayley shares a lot of cupcake recipes.

Hayley was a great narrator, she cared about her family and wanted to do right by them but she wasn't perfect and she made mistakes, yet I always liked her - plus, her mistakes were totally age appropriate -  and it was fun to see her grow up a little and come into her own.

I really felt for her and all that she was going through with her parents (her dad is really clueless and he made me angry all the time he was around, though I don't think he's bad per se, and Marco and Artie. And I was so happy for her when she began to make a new friend. 

Bottom Line: Save the Cupcake! is one of the most adorable things I've read this year (so far) and I loved it! I loved it so much that I went online and ordered the next couple of books of the series. It's sweet and funny and, well, totes adorbs. 

1/2

Check out John @Dreaming in Books Review of  Confectionately Yours: Save the Cupcake!