REVIEW

This was not what I expected and yet it didn't fail to surprise me at all. 

A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer is another one of those fantasy books that took bookstagram by storm. After months and months of contemplation, I decided to give this Beauty & The Beast retelling a try. And while I was entertained throughout the night, only pausing when the clock showed 5 am, I was not entirely won over by this world.

The potential of this series was evident on every page but because this was a young adult fantasy, I think in a lot of areas it failed to truly blow my mind and introduce me to something fresh. Instead, I was sucked into another love story that felt familiar. Too familiar. 

The characters and their stories seemed rather basic. Although, I did admire the sheer creativity of the beast and how its cruelty saw no boundaries. The beast killed and harrassed Rhen's people, making this story so much more heartbreaking. I really rooted for a satisfying ending when it came to this plotline but somehow it wasn't enough.

The character of Harper was initially the driving force of this book. She was kind, fierce, and loyal to her family, something that has shown through whenever she interacted with Rhen's people. However, her character seemed to lose her fire as the book progressed. I needed her to stay strong and throw herself into more training if I wanted to believe that she was able to stay in this world.

If there is one point in the book to pinpoint that withdrew me from the story, it would be the character of Rhen and the relationship he has with Harper. I just couldn't connect with their romance and there were quite a few times I found myself fuming at Rhen. He was arrogant for no reason and a lot of his actions just seemed like something a YA character does because it's expected.

I know by now it sounds like I didn't enjoy this book but you couldn't be further from the truth. As mentioned above, I devoured this book until the early hours of the morning and I just know that 18-year-old Tina would have rated this a five-star read. Because for a YA with such a popular retelling, I think Brigid did a great job. She still managed to intrigue me with the characters of Harper and Grey, and her spin on this story was admirable. That's just where it ends for me.

Rating: 3 stars

Trigger Warnings: Abduction, kidnapping, physical abuse, bloodshed

FULL BOOK DESCRIPTION.

Review

When I picked up Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert, I was in desperate need of a book that's good and wholesome. The world is a crazy place (HA!) and sometimes you just need to read a quirky, funny, and deeply passionate book that will help you see the "bright" side to things.

Take a Hint, Dani Brown was that book for me.

Once again I am overcome with the urge to give Talia Hibbert a huge round of applause for her dialogue skills. She effortlessly wove together a story of friendship and love, while remaining true to her talent of writing authentic conversations. In fact, the second installment in The Brown Sisters saga succeeded to surpass my expectations thanks to the believable and relatable relationships in this book. 

It was the little talks Dani shared with Zafir, the snide jokes she threw at Sorcha, and the relatable inside jokes she had with her sisters. These all culminated into one passionate book that I am officially counting as one of my favourite romance novels of 2020. Throughout this reading journey, which was pretty short because I simply flew through it, I was constantly in awe of the representation in this book.

As I previously stated in my book review of Get a Life, Chloe Brown, Talia expertly created a character that just happened to be curvy and black. These factors were never the driving force of the novel and the same can be said for Dani's story. The fact that she's black and curvy never played any role in this story. The same can be said about Zafir's character who was a Muslim man with anxiety. None of this actually affected our romance or overall plot. These characteristics only helped make these characters exactly the type of real human beings I want to read about.

True to Talia Hibbert fashion, this book starts off slow. While it was miles faster than the previous book, we do get the usual rushed ending. Within a few chapters the big "climax" of the story is resolved and we all get to rest assured that our beloved characters are meant to be. With this book, I came to appreciate this approach because for 80% of the story, we get to simply fall in love with these characters while they slowly fall for one another. This wonderful ride includes steamy moments, laugh out loud jokes, and riveting conversations about deep issues.

Take a Hint, Dani Brown was a heartwarming rollercoaster that I can't recommend enough. Plus, Zafir is a big teddy bear that will absolutely melt your heart. 

Rating: 5 stars.

Trigger Warnings: Anxiety attacks, cursing, sexual content.

Description

Talia Hibbert returns with another charming romantic comedy about a young woman who agrees to fake date her friend after a video of him “rescuing” her from their office building goes viral...

Danika Brown knows what she wants: professional success, academic renown, and an occasional roll in the hay to relieve all that career-driven tension. But romance? Been there, done that, burned the T-shirt. Romantic partners, whatever their gender, are a distraction at best and a drain at worst. So Dani asks the universe for the perfect friend-with-benefits—someone who knows the score and knows their way around the bedroom.

When brooding security guard Zafir Ansari rescues Dani from a workplace fire drill gone wrong, it’s an obvious sign: PhD student Dani and ex-rugby player Zaf are destined to sleep together. But before she can explain that fact, a video of the heroic rescue goes viral. Now half the internet is shipping #DrRugbae—and Zaf is begging Dani to play along. Turns out, his sports charity for kids could really use the publicity. Lying to help children? Who on earth would refuse?

Dani’s plan is simple: fake a relationship in public, seduce Zaf behind the scenes. The trouble is, grumpy Zaf’s secretly a hopeless romantic—and he’s determined to corrupt Dani’s stone-cold realism. Before long, he’s tackling her fears into the dirt. But the former sports star has issues of his own, and the walls around his heart are as thick as his... um, thighs.

Suddenly, the easy lay Dani dreamed of is more complex than her thesis. Has her wish backfired? Is her focus being tested? Or is the universe just waiting for her to take a hint?

REVIEW

After my little spin listening to contemporary romance novels, I was ready for more books in this rather unknown genre (to me). And what better book than THE romance book that was sweeping across bookstagram. Walking into Get a Life, Chloe Brown was a weird experience because I was partly hesitant about the hype surrounding this series while also battling the thought that this genre is great for audio books, not physical books.

Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised by just how well this book was written. Talia is a master at dialogue, effortlessly keeping us intrigued by the natural feel of her conversations and human interactions. I was always excited to read through both perspectives because our characters felt so fleshed out and real; like you'd run into someone just like Red or Chloe while visiting the grocery store.

However, Chloe took some getting used to at first. She's not the damsel in distress and she's not the girl next door that's going to blush every time young Red walks by. I could see Talia try to make this an enemies to lovers trope (which it is) but there were parts of this book that leaned towards Chloe being the enemy here, while poor Red just happened to get the brunt of it. And that didn't sit well with me.

It's this unfortunate character flaw that made the first half of this book tolerable, to put it lightly. Despite Talia's beautiful writing and dialogue, I found that the book started off slow and had way too many unnecessary scenes. Only once we reach the halfway mark, the story and romance finally takes off and morphs into a cute bundle of fluttery butterflies.

Once we've established that these two characters heart one another, we finally get to experience the magic of a Talia Hibbert book. It's fun and lighthearted, and the characters don't feel like they're forcing chemistry. And to make things even better, Talia never mentions Chloe's weight. She's just a character in this book and she happens to be curvy. 

As a curvy girl myself, who has never felt properly represented in a book, I was more than thrilled to experience this kind of inclusion. Most of the books that have a curvy character usually makes the characters weight the focal point of the story. Oh, look at this curvy girl that overcame her bullies and insecurities and also landed the hot guy despite being fat.

Ugh.

I was so tired of these types of books, which is why I steered cleared for most of my reading journey. But, with new thinkers and diverse opinions entering the book world, I can see the future of inclusive books better and I like what I see. 

Rating: 4 stars.

Book Description:

Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with seven directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family’s mansion. The next items?

• Enjoy a drunken night out.
• Ride a motorcycle.
• Go camping.
• Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
• Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
• And... do something bad.

But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.

Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.

But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…