My Perfect Mistake by Kelly Siskind

Title: My Perfect Mistake (Over the Top #1)

Author: Kelly Siskind

Publisher: Forever Yours

Release Date: April 5, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Indigo

What happens in Aspen

is definitely not staying in Aspen…

A girls’ trip to Aspen was exactly what Shay needed to forget about her toxic ex-boyfriend. She’s got her girls, pristine slopes for skiing, and hot guys everywhere. Of course, her epic self-rediscovery goes completely to hell when a wild (and deliciously hot) skier knocks Shay on her ass…and war is declared.

Kolton doesn’t know what it is about Shay that makes him lose it. Not just his cool—although she does have an unholy gift for that—but his restraint. When anger gives way to explosive chemistry, they’re both shaken with the intensity of it. But somewhere between lust and hate, Kolton and Shay realize they could have something real…if they don’t kill each other first.

I read Kelly Siskind’s debut earlier this year and it convinced me that this was an author whose books I would love. When I got the chance to read Siskind’s upcoming book, My Perfect Mistake, I jumped on it and I absolutely was not disappointed.

This weekend in Aspen was supposed to be all about Shay spending some quality time with her two best friends and move on from years stuck in a toxic relationship. It was supposed to be all about letting go of the past and getting her groove back. What it wasn’t supposed to be about? Getting in a fight with a gorgeous skier and hooking up with him a few hours later. Kolton doesn’t understand how he and Shay keep ending up naked together when they can’t seem to go more than two minutes without getting the other angry. But even after the weekend is over, he can’t seem to stop thinking about her. When circumstances puts brings them together again, neither one of them can deny that there’s something bigger happening between them. But can Shay and Kolton stop arguing long enough to see that what’s right in front of them could be the real thing?

Earlier this year, I read and loved Kelly Siskind’s debut New Adult, Chasing Crazy, and it definitely got me interested in reading more of her books. So when I saw that her upcoming contemporary romance My Perfect Mistake, was up on NetGalley I jumped at the chance to read it and clicked “request.” Once I started reading, I got hooked right from the beginning of the story. I mean, the story starts with a girl throwing her bra into a tree from a ski lift. How can a story not hook you when it starts off that way? But My Perfect Mistake did more than just hook me, it get me interested in the story the whole way through. Even though My Perfect Mistake is at its core a romance, I loved the way that Kelly Siskind also showed all different kinds of relationship. There were the friendships between Shay and her two best friends, and the one between Kolton and his two friends. There were all the different relationships that involved Kolton’s son, Jackson. But the most important relationship in this story was obviously the romance between Shay and Kolton. And honestly? I loved that romance. The loved the way it started, I loved the way it grew and developed. It just felt right and realistic. And obviously it didn’t hurt that I also loved Shay and Kolton.

Did I mention that this book starts with Shay throwing her bra into a tree from a sky lift? Then it should really go without saying that I loved her right away. I mean, she certainly grabbed my attention. More than that, she kept it. Iloved seeing Shay get back her confidence and find herself again after spending so many years in a relationship that got her down. In a way, it was really empowering to watch her taking her life back, even if she still had plenty of insecurities. And those insecurities definitely came out around Kolton. And I can hardly blame her because what girl wouldn’t feel insecure around Kolton? That’s because Kolton was pretty freaking fantastic. Sure, he had his own set of issues, just like everyone else, but that mean he wasn’t a genuinely good man. Because he totally was. And he was the perfect man for Shay. Plus he was adorable with his son and that wins him all the points in my books. Which brings me to Jackson, Kolton’s son, who absolutely stole the show for me. And made it so the number one thing I learned while reading My Perfect Mistake is not to let a curious and word-obsessed seven-year-old anywhere near an urban dictionary. That is unless you actually want him to ask highly inappropriate questions, loudly, in very public settings. But it was amusing to read about for sure.

I loved reading Kelly Siskind’s My Perfect Mistake. It was such a fun contemporary romance and I couldn’t seem to get enough of these characters. Lucky for me, there’s two more books coming and I couldn’t be more excited to read them.

The Turning Point by Marie Meyer

Title: The Turning Point

Author: Marie Meyer

Publisher: Forever Yours

Release Date: January 12, 2016

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

It’s funny how a piece of paper can change your life—a diploma, a ticket…a plain white envelope.

For as long as I could remember, I was the girl with the plan. Good college, good medical school, good career. I would save lives instead of standing by helplessly, watching while they slipped away.

That was before my father called for the first time in fifteen years to tell me about the terminal illness stealing his life—an illness that might be stealing mine, too. It was before he gave me the name of a doctor and a plane ticket to Italy. Before I flew across an ocean. Before I realized how brilliantly bright life could be. Before I met Lucas.

He’s everything I’ve always wanted, and the timing couldn’t be worse. I can’t do this to him—he deserves so much better. My head tells me I can’t afford to fall in love with Lucas, but my heart won’t listen. Lucas is fearless about the future, while I’m not even sure I have one. There’s only one way to know what’s ahead and it’s waiting for at home inside a plain, white envelope.

All I have to do, is open it…

I pretty much love any book that involves travelling. And I will read pretty much any book that involves travelling. And travelling was all I really knew about Marie Meyer’s The Turning Point when I found out about it. And that’s pretty much the only reason I wanted to read it. Well, that and the fact that it was a romance.

Sophia thought she knew what the summer after her college graduation was going to look like. She would spend a couple weeks helping out her mom at her family’s gelato shop, and then she would start med school early. But that was before her estranged father dropped and information bomb in her lap. Before he offered her a six-week paid trip to Italy. And before Sophia decided to go on that trip and met Lucas. She couldn’t have met Lucas at a worst time. But she can’t help the way she feels about him and Lucas shows her what the future could be like. But in order to have that future, in order to be with Lucas, Sophia is going to have to go back home and face what her father revealed.

Travel books are totally one of my weak spots. If a book involves travel, I will read. I don’t really need to know much more about it than that. And that’s all I really needed to know before I clicked “request” on Marie Meyer’s The Turning Point. Well, that and that it was a New Adult romance. Travel + NA + romance, that’s like the definition of an Emilie book if ever we were to put what those books are into words. Add to that the fact that the travelling in this books is in Italy, which is pretty much my favourite place to travle, and I just had to read this book. And I was absolutely right in assuming that I would enjoy reading The Turning Point because I totally did. I loved that there was more to this story than just a girl hopping on a place to Italy where she meets a hot guy and falls in love. Don’t get wrong, I love those stories (and I not so secretly wish they would happen to me any time I set foot on a plane), but I liked that there was more to it than just that with The Turning Point. And a lot of that, for me at least, had to do with the fact that I really enjoyed the characters, almost more so than the story itself.

I really enjoyed seeing Sophia’s growth over the course of the story. Seeing her go through everything she did in order to accept what was potentially happening to her and coming out the other side. Granted, there were times when I anted to tell her to stop being stupid and just be with Lucas. But at the same time I could absolutely understand her reservations and why she was doing what she was doing. But still. You don’t walk away from Lucas. Because when I said that the characters were a large part of why I enjoyed this story as much as I did, what I really meant to say is that I loved Lucas and therefore I really liked this story. I don’t know what it was about Lucas but he just worked for me. That’s really all I can say about him. Well, I can say more (and I will) but that’s all you really need to know about him. But for real, I loved how easygoing Lucas was, and how willing he was to just be there for Sophia no matter what. And the next time I travel to Italy, I hope I find my own Lucas. Because I really wouldn’t mind. 

If you’re looking for a fun romance that digs a little deeper while also making you want to hop on the first available flight to Italy, then Marie Meyer’s The Turning Point is the book you’re looking for. Just know that you’re going to want to find a hot video game creator the next time you travel to Naples. 

Mini Review - Into My Arms by Lia Riley

Title: Into My Arms (Off the Map #3.2)

Author: Lia Riley

Publisher: Forever Yours

Release Date: September 8, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Indigo

“You’re here because I want to touch you.”

Beth Jacobs spends her days slogging away in a corporate “fish bowl,” as a hard-working assistant for one of North America’s youngest dot-com billionaires. Aleksander “Z” Zavtra is the definition of dark and dangerous with a sexy Eastern European snarl. He’s also ruthless. Curt. Exacting. An infuriating man she loves to hate. While Beth hardly sees him, it’s as if he’s always watching her…

Z doesn’t do romance. But he never expected to be captivated by a whip-smart, fiery assistant who just so happens to share an uncanny resemblance to the beautiful face that haunts his dreams. He craves Beth. He wants to stroke her skin, to feel her heat beneath him. And what Z wants, he gets. And for one weekend, the lines between employer and employee are blurred as Z and Beth give themselves completely to the dark pleasures they’ve both been dreaming about.

I have mixed feelings as far as novellas are concerned. But every so often, there are some that come along where I feel like they actually add something to the overall story they are a part of. When that’s the case, I’m all for those novellas, and that’s what I got with Lia Riley’s Into My Arms.

Beth Jacobs knows very little about the man who signs her paycheques. They might exchange hundreds of instant messages a day, but all Beth really knows is the same thing the world knows about Aleksander “Z” Zavtra, the Eastern European billionaire at the head of Zavtra Tech. Z has always kept to himself. But he can’t get Beth out of his assistant, not just because his assistant is smart and beautiful, but because she looks just like girl who haunts his memories. When Z decides that Beth is who he wants, Beth will find herself crossing all the lines she never considered crossing before.

Late last year, I absolutely devoured Lia Riley’s Off the Map series, and in the year since, I’ve read every book she has published. I’ve just become a little addicted to her brand of romance. So earlier this year, I read the first novella for the Off the Map series and really enjoyed finding out more about Sunny and Tanner. And when I was done, I was looking forward to Into My Arms and finding out more about Beth and Z, Talia’s other best friend and Bran’s old boarding school roommate, respectively. I’m a curious person by nature so I always finding out more about characters that were sort of in the periphery in other parts of the story. I wanted to know more about Beth since she was someone else who was really affected by Talia’s sister’s death. And I wanted to find out more about Z just because he was always so mysterious. But Bran liked him, so there had to be something there. And I definitely got my answers. There was a whole lot more going on with Z than I could have ever imagined. And I kinda wanted to punch Beth’s parents for what they did to her. For that matter, I pretty much wanted to beat up Z’s dad because that guy seemed like a serious ass. And though I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the romance considering the way it started, U was happy with the way it all came together by the end of the novella. It wouldn’t necessarily be something I would go for normally, but for Beth and Z, it worked.

Into My Arms was just the glimpse I was looking for when it came to finding out more about Beth and Z. But my ultimate struggle with novellas is that I can’t help but wish the story were longer. I would have totally read a full length book about Beth and Z.