47 Once and For All, When It’s Real & Built

I rated Once and For All 4.5 stars, When It’s Real 4 stars and Built got 3 stars.

Once and For All, Sarah Dessen

368⎟ Penguin ⎟ 8th June 2017

Synopsis

As bubbly as champagne and delectable as wedding cake, Once and for All, is set in the world of wedding planning, where crises are routine.

Louna spends her summers helping brides plan their perfect day and handling every kind of crises: missing brides, scene-stealing bridesmaids and controlling grooms. Not surprising then, that she's deeply cynical about happy-ever-afters, especially since her own first love ended in tragedy.

When handsome girl magnet Ambrose enters her life, Louna won't take him seriously. But Ambrose hates not getting what he wants and Louna is the girl he's been waiting for.

Maybe it's not too late for a happy ending after all?

Mini Review

Sarah Dessen is my hero and that’s definitely not a secret.

Once and For All has everything I’ve come to love and expect from a Sarah Dessen novel, but it also had that extra feeling that made it feel like my favourite of her novels. Even when I wasn’t reading this my mind was in Lakeview and wanting to dive back into Louna and Ambrose’s story. I fell head over heels for them. If you’ve still not read anything by the Queen, seriously, do yourself a favour.

When It’s Real, Erin Watt

313⎟ HQ ⎟ 30th May 2017

Synopsis

Under ordinary circumstances, Oakley Ford and Vaughn Bennett would never even cross paths.

There's nothing ordinary about Oakley. This bad-boy pop star's got Grammy Awards, millions of fangirls and a reputation as a restless, too-charming troublemaker. But with his home life disintegrating, his music well suddenly running dry and the tabloids having a field day over his outrageous exploits, Oakley needs to show the world he's settling down–and who better to help him than Vaughn, a part-time waitress trying to help her family get by? The very definition of ordinary.

Posing as his girlfriend, Vaughn will overhaul Oakley's image from troublemaker to serious artist. In return for enough money to put her brothers through college, she can endure outlandish Hollywood parties and carefully orchestrated Twitter exchanges. She'll fool the paparazzi and the groupies. She might even start fooling herself a little.

Because when ordinary rules no longer apply, there's no telling what your heart will do…

Mini Review

I’m a huge fan of Erin Watt’s Royals trilogy so I pre-ordered this beauty as soon as I knew it was a thing and i gobbled it right up.

I did the whole, ‘I’ll read a chapter or two before bed’ and ended up reading 75% of the book! Then I finished it before i got out of bed the next morning. It is THE perfect weekend reading and I loved it. Sweet, sassy, funny and completely swoony - I really enjoyed it. I’m so glad there’s only a few months until Erin Watts’ new book. Bring. It. On.

Built, Jay Crownover

353⎟  Harper⎟ 5th January 2016

Synopsis

Sometimes you have to tear everything down to build something new…

Sayer Cole is frozen inside. At least, that’s what it’s felt like for as long as she can remember. She’s yet to let anyone past her icy exterior – and the one guy she thinks might melt her heart couldn’t possibly be interested in someone so uptight.

Rough, hard and hot-as-hell, Zeb Fuller has rebuilt his life and his construction business since protecting his family sent him to jail all those years ago. His elegant client, Sayer, makes him feel like a Neanderthal in denim, but despite the many hints that he’s been dropping to get to know her better, she seems oblivious to his charms.

Just as things finally start to heat up, Zeb’s past comes back to haunt him and he needs Sayer’s professional help to right a wrong and to save more than himself. As these opposites dig in for the fight of their lives, fire and ice collide in an unstoppable explosion of steam…

Mini Review

Jay Crownover’s Marked Men series is light, fun and easy to read and that’s exactly what you get with this new spin-off series. But sexy and swoony with tough topics woven through the middle wasn’t quite enough this time. It was fine, but I had very little attachment to the characters themselves. It just didn’t do it for me, unfortunately.

I do have book two in the Saints of Denver series so I may pick it up and hope it gets better - we’ll see!

Sophie