Gisele's place

Dear friends,

 

I have not abandoned you and I didn't stop reading either - well, not as much as I used to read - but I'm really busy these days, so, you won't see me here or at GR everyday. But I promisse, it is just this month.

 

I'm praying and hoping that November will bring my time back to me :)

 

Ah, last weekend I read The Golden Dynasty by Kristen Ashley. IT. WAS. JUST. AWESOME. BEAUTIFUL. GOLDEN.

 

See ya!

Gi

These days have been so busy to me.. lots of things to do at work and I have my college paper to finish until the end of the month. So at the end of the day I barely can keep my eyes open, and there you go, almost no time to read.

 

And the worst thing is, there are so many good books being released and also there are lots of books I've been planning to read but so little time, I'm becoming frustated. My sister instead of show me some support, keeps tempting me with the books she's been reading.. bad, bad girl! =/

 

Look what awaits me:

 

Kristen Ashley's Fantasyland Series and Jagged:

 

    

 

My sister is currently reading this series and keeps babbling all the time of how GOOD it is, especially The Golden Dynasty. I made the mistake of reading some reviews.. Damn, KA! Why do have to be so good in almost everything you write? It should be illegal. Seriously people, she can write from bad ass bikers to vampires and be awesome every time! 

 

 

 

Jagged will be released next month and since I finished reading For You, I can't stop thinking about Reece. I think even with the Ham and Cookie thing, I'm gonna like it!

 

Jill Shalvis' The Lucky Harbor Series, Always on My Mind. I love this series and Jack is so yummy I can't wait to have him all to myself!

 

 

 

 

Love and Lists by Tara Sivec has just been released and I can't help myself! My paper will have to wait until Saturday. As it is a short read, I'm gonna take today and tomorrow to read it. I've been waiting for Gavin's story way to much to resist the temptation.. HAHAHA. :)

 

 

 

In November everything's back to normal, thank God!

 

 

3 stars

 

Play With Me is the 5th instalment in the With me in Seatle series and I have to celebrate because it was the only one I finished reading. The others, I swear, I tried but I couldn't.. the stories didn't caught me and I had problem with the way the author wrote the hero pov, actually I had this exactly problem with this one.

 

What I liked:

 

1. The Montgomery Family - I have a big and loud family so I loved the interaction between them.

 

2. The girls - I'm a twin sister, I understand the connection and also the scenes between them and Caleb were so cute, so full of love that it warmed my heart! <3

 

What I didn't like:

 

1. The hero POV -  Unfortunately there are few authors out there that can write a good man POV. What I have seen nowadays in many books is men talking like women. A friend of GR says something that I agree 100%: Just adding f*cking doesn't make it a male's voice!  In this book, for example, Caleb speaks things like this:

 

She's so fucking beautiful she takes my breath away. 

 

Seriously people, do you know a MAN who talks like that? I don't. 

 

2. Where's the enemy? -  Brynna was hiding from some bad guys she saw murdering her ex-husband, but we neve see those guys! We only hear about them, even if when they break her house there isn't any conversations, we just hear Caleb beating them. We don't know why they killed her ex, we don't for sure if they are following her. It didn't convince me at all!

 

3. I love you? -  The story of these two comes from the other books, but even in the others they didn't have much interaction. I think the "I love yous" was rushed and without much depth. They almost didn't speak about their relationship, they think a lot, but they didn't converse about it, just in the end.

 

In general, it was OK, but forgettable.

 

Wow!

 

I don't really know what to say..  there are so many emotions inside me right now but I'm gonna try.  Without a doubt, KA is one of my favorite author EVER. She's one of the few authors that can make go from supreme happiness to absolute hate and despair with just a couple of pages. I adore when that happen, and do you know why? Because to me, for a book be really GOOD it has to move with my emotions even if I don't like it in the end. But no worries with this one, it is AWESOME!

 

 

Alexander (Colt or Alec) Colton and February (Feb) Owens have known each other since they were little kids. Colt had really bad parents. They were always high and drunk, his mother didn't care much about him and worse, his father could get really violent, beating his mom and him. But he had a safe heaven with the Owens. When he was 5 years old he met Morrie and they became fast friends and through his friendship he met Feb (Morrie's sister) and their parents, Jack and Jackie (whom owned the most poplular bar in town). Seeing the hell where Colt was in, this family always took care of him, and one night after a really bad fight that left Colt in a very bad shape, Jack and Jack took him home and made their family his.

 

Through all this, Colt and Feb's relationship remained strong, solid. They became high school sweethearts, Colt went to college, but their love was unmoving. Everyone just knew they belonged together and everyone wanted they remained that way. But one night, at a party everything changed and in the next day, Feb broke up with him. Colt didn't understand, Feb didn't explain and they saw all their dreams and plans slipped through their hands. 

 

For more than 20 years they became apart. Colt got married and Feb as well, but Feb got wild and after being beaten by her husband she left and started to wander across the country, lost, trying, and not being capable of, to forget Colt. And the same goes for him. He got divorced and tried to forget her, but he never did.

 

Feb came back to town and did her best to avoid him (although he was still part of her family), but after a pretty nasty murder at the back of the bar Feb and Morrie now owned, they are forced to be together and as they learn that murder was caused by a crazy guy who was obsessed with Feb, Colt had to protect her, didn't he?? 

 

All those feelings were always there, they just needed a little push.

 

Colt is fabulous! Tall, gorgeous, strong, loyal and honorable. He is also a bit bossy, overbearing and possessive, but if he didn't, he wouldn't be an alpha, and he is good just like that! Feb is great too, sweet, strong and with lots of love to give, but sometimes she's so stupid. And I think she is to blame for their separation, well, not totally guilt, but for the most part..she even admitted it! But they are great together, and I adored when they started to live together, and became a fuctional couple (I love this in her books!!).

 

But as I said, this reading was an emotional rollercoaster! First, their misunderstanding as a couple, second, the crazy, crazy guy killing people because he loved Feb.. God, sometimes I was scared, sometimes I wanted to punch Feb in the face and sometimes I just wanted to do unspeakeble things to Colt.. after all, he IS delicious. An on top of all that, great sexual tension and great sex, as well. They were HOT and they were beautiful. 

 

I leave you with some of that beauty:

 

"God, I loved him, always had, and always would." 

 

"You got in, Colt", I said and watched, super close, as his eyes opened and his hands tightened on my neck, no squeeze this time, they stayed tight and I could feel the pad of every finger pressing into my skin."Few days ago, you got in. I didn't let you in, you just got in" finally I lifted my hands to his chest and bunched his shirt with my fingers. "I wanna lock you there".

 

Do a favor to yourself and read this book, actually, the whole The Burg series. It's amazing.

 

 

 

I'm still reading For You. And right now I'm almost DYING, because I reached the 90% mark of the book, and for those who already read her books, you know what it means! It means something REALLY BAD IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN! 

 

In fact, already happened, and I don't know what to do with my emotions. Bellow, you can see through my tweets how crazy I am while reading a KA book :D

 

 

Damn @KristenAshley68, but you are GOOD!!

— Gisele Melo (@giselemelo) September 29, 2013

 

I'm readind For You by KA. Man, I'm loving every single word! Her first books are the best of all IMHO.

— Gisele Melo (@giselemelo) September 29, 2013

 

About For You by KA: of course Colt blames you, Feb! You idiot!

— Gisele Melo (@giselemelo) September 29, 2013

 

EITA, PORRA!!! #foryou

— Gisele Melo (@giselemelo) September 30, 2013

**Eita, Porra is an expression in Portuguese that in English could be translated as a big F*CK!

 

Review to come!!

 

These days I can't seem to find a book that excites me. The ones I'm currently reading are good, but something is missing.. SO, as I'm in need of some comfort food, I'm going to try one of the few KA books I haven't read yet, For You, the first of The Burg Series.

 

 

Funny 'cause I have read the whole series, except the first one. I remember when my sister was reading it.. she was like: Oh. My. God! This is creepy! or Gisele, the bad boy is killing everyone! This is a very intense book and etc. I was scared, I confess - I don't like to read things with lots of deaths and violence, but Kristen Ashley has something special. Her stories always gets me in a very unique way.. in a way that I LOVE!

 

So, why not? The reviews for this book are awesome, and my sister told me that even though the story gets pretty ugly at some point, it is TOTALLY worthy! And let me be honest with you, I need some alpha goodness, and KA is one of the few authors that can deliver it, don't you think?

 

Come on, KA! Give me some sexiness! Bring the sexy back!

 

 

After several attempts, I BookLikes finally accept my GR import file!!!

 

Now I just have to wait 33 hours to complete the process... =P

 

5 stars 

Lingerie Wars was a lovely, lovely discovery! I have never heard about the author but some friends were saying lots of good things about it, and if you add Scotland into the scene, I’m hooked!

It tells us the story of Kristen Campbell and Lake Benson. She was a very successful lingerie model in the past, but due a car accident and lots of body scars, she couldn’t do it anymore, so she comes back to her village in the middle of the Scottish Highlands and opens a Lingerie Shop. But life is not easy, and while she’s struggling with the shop, Lake Benson – an English – comes into the scene and takes charge of the shop across the street. He had bought it to his sister, but Rainne was not doing things properly. The lingerie shop was doing very bad and he needed the money he invested back, so he could invest in the PI business he so wanted to do.

But you see, they were in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere… the city doesn’t need a lingerie shop, let alone two. SO,LET THE WAR BEGIN! And it was so much fun to read these two fight against each other.. lots of sabotages, stolen kisses, thefts in the middle of the night and support characters who added even more madness to the story! YAY!

These two try to hate each other, but as the story progresses they become sort of friends/lovers, and the whole community help their relationship. 

What can I say about Betty?? She’s and old lady and the owner of the building where Lakes’s shop is. She’s all kinds of crazy. Lake calls her “his Hobbit”.. how fun is that??? LOADSSS.. 

Lake with his charm, becomes a local attraction and even his photo is coveted by the old ladies! He doesn’t want to even imagine what they do with it! HAHAHA

There is another love story in the book between Lake’s sister, Rainne, and a local boy, Alastair, that was very sweet and chamming. I hope that in the next book, the author give them the spotlight!

It’s a must read people! You going to laugh loads and even if the Scottish cold tries to get you, the love and the sweetness of this book will warm your body and heart! :)

Looking forward to read more from Janet Elizabeth Henderson!!

Every time I read a book that’s awesome, I feel at lost for words because there are so many emotions, so much thoughts that I wanted to tell, that I usually don’t say anything. But it is a shame, because I really want you to realize that you NEED reading it. So, I’ll let Ed Sheeran lyrics to speak for me:

GIVE ME LOVE 

Give me love like her
‘Cos lately I’ve been waking up alone

Jack and Anne are two lonely souls. They lived their whole life thinking they don’t deserve love. 

 

Paint splattered teardrops on my shirt
Told you I’d let them go

Circumstances tells them they not worth it.

 

And that I’ll fight my corner
Maybe tonight I’ll call ya
After my blood turns into alcohol
No I just wanna hold ya

But deep down, there’s a yearning, and even though life is a burden, they fight to live. They fight to not lose what they discovered in each other’s embrace.

 

Give a little time to me, or burn this out
We’ll play hide and seek to turn this around
And all I want is the taste that your lips allow
My my, my my, oh give me love

And after that first encounter, the Hound and the Thief start their game of hide and seek. At night they are wild creatures, but at the day light, “respectable” members of society. They round each other, they seek each other secrets, they literally seek a little time with each other trying to relive what they had in that encounter. What they tasted in each other lips.

 

Give me love like never before
‘Cos lately I’ve been craving more

As the hunt progresses, fear, hate, admiration and compassion turns into love. Into an obsession, a craving never experienced before…

 

And it’s been a while but I still feel the same
Maybe I should let you go

Maybe they really should let it go. How they can trust in each other? Sometimes the weight of the past, the fear to repeat the same old mistakes, the fear of failing is so unbearable, that is easier to just let it go.. even though their hearts are breaking into pieces.

 

You know I’ll fight my corner
And that tonight I’ll call ya
After my blood is drowning in alcohol
No I just wanna hold ya

But they can’t let it go, the feelings are stronger, consuming even. One night, just one more night to drown into this madness. She just wants to hold him. He just wants to hold her.

 

Give a little time to me, or burn this out
We’ll play hide and seek to turn this around
And all I want is the taste that your lips allow
My my, my my, oh give me love

A lifetime of suffering sometimes is strong enough to make us think that there’s nothing good out there. There isn’t love, there isn’t trust. And break these concepts is so hard that words are not enough, you have to prove it with your actions, with your own life. Jack and Annie had to do it to prove that what they felt for each other were real. They needed love so much, with such desperation.. but life had taught them not to love, not to trust. At 80% of reading, I still couldn’t see these two together. But as I said, actions are better than thousand words and through it they finally SEE each other. 

This history is not a light one, is dark and heavy, but at the same time beautiful and heartbreaking. I hope I could incite you to give it a try, it will be worth your time.

I loved, loved, loved it!

Anne Calhoun did an awesome job showing us how a man and a woman, that due a lot of circumstances, don’t know or forgot how to feel things.

And I think this is the perfect verb to describe this book: TO FEEL.

Rachel is a girl whom left a super rigid religious community to experience how is to live life to its fullest. At the community she couldn’t express her feelings. To feel anger, sadness, fury is a sin and they told her she had to suppress it. But Rachel has a free spirit. She wants to go to college, she wants to know how is to have a relationship with a man and with people, she wants to leave the safe and permit herself to experience everything, the good and the bad.

Ben is a cop who – at first view - doesn’t feel much. He doesn’t seem to be attached to nothing or anyone. At his job he is fearless, he likes to feel the adrenaline, the danger. His personal life is full of drinks, women and meaningless sex. He uses his aloofness and the badass exterior to hide strong and destructive feelings. Feelings and memories of a time in his life he prefers to forget.

For the most part of the story we see Rachel shine like a diamond. She buys a date with Ben wanting to have sex with him, no strings attached. She just wants to know how is to be with a man and they do have sex. Ben doesn’t know she’s a virgin and he didn’t even realize it until the next morning. She didn’t orgasm and he’s a bit rough, but she doesn’t care, because she felt.

Once Ben realizes what he did, he proposes Rachel to teach her how good sex can be. And boy, it was a good ride! The author takes sensuality to a new level. The scenes are sensuous and erotic in the best possible way. Rachel discovers herself as a powerful and sexy woman and little by little those encounters arouse a desire for more.

We see Rachel pursue her dreams to go to college, to get a better job at the same time we see her struggle with her father’s rejection and the pressure to return home. She grows stronger as the story progresses, she very determinate and sure of what she wants to her life.

In the end the focus shifts to Ben. We see how deep are his feelings for his twin brother (and as a twin sister myself I could relate alright!), how guilt he feels for what happened to him and how he focus all that guilt and anger on his father. It’s sad. He suffered so much that know he’s numb. And he doesn’t know how to cope with his growing feeling for Rachel, pushing her away again and again.

Everything was so realistic, the characters, the feelings, nothing was rushed. In the end, when they drifted away from each other, it was so good to see how they come to terms with themselves first and then try to give their relationship another try.Beautiful.

PS: The cover doesn’t represent the book in the slightest.

One of the best I have read this year!

Blake Shelton was the author's muse to write the hero. I loooooove him, I hope the hero has Blake's dirty mouth! ;D

4,5 Nicolicious stars

Penny, congratulations dear! Your second book is even better than the first. :)

Friends Without Benefits is a sweet, touching and very funny history that will caught you from the very beginning and even though you may want to punch the heroine in the face a couple of times, you won’t be able to put it down!

But first of all let me introduce you to the one and only, Nico Manganiello:



And now meet this stubborn but very nice lady, Elizabeth Finney:



These two have known each other since kids, and Nico had a strange way to show Elizabeth his affection for her. He bullied her, and Elizabeth hated it, but she didn’t have much chance to avoid him because their families were very close.

You see, Nico loved Elizabeth ever since, but she was in love with his best friend, Garret, and bullying her was the only way he knew to work with his feelings. At some point, Garret dies leaving Elizabeth at lost, and as she had lost her mom not so long too, she buries herself in pain and decides to not to love ever again, because is to dangerous and too painful.

But in the middle of all this chaos, the only place where she can find peace is in Nico’s arms. Every night, he goes to her room and holds her. His feelings for her didn’t change, it’s only stronger and one night she gives herself to him. Elizabeth realizes that she’s feeling things for Nico, but she’s afraid to love and lose him as she lost her mom and Garret, so she runs away and for years refuses to answer his calls, his letters, etc..

Until she finds him again. His niece, Angelica, has a rare pediatric disease and the hospital where she works has an special program to treat it. And the battle begins!

Nico is a wonderful guy, seriously. He’s so mature. He knows that her behaved awfully with Elizabeth when they were young, he knows that he made a lot of mistakes while growing up, but her learned from his mistakes and moved on. He knows he loves Elizabeth and wants her back .

But grown up Elizabeth is a pain in the ass. And this is my only complaint, she took too long to get her shit together! Nico was there, all Italian hotness, super sweet, funny and loving and she didn’t know what to do with herself!

But eventually, with her friends help (the knitting club is awesome), some matchmaking from his mother and his insistence, of course, they get together. *fans self* And they’re awesome together!!!! They complete and totally get each other.

You will love the dynamics of Elizabeth’s friends and Nico’s hot Italian family. You’ll see how difficult is to be a celebrity and at the same time have a private life. I didn’t tell you? Nico is a celebrity! =)

I super recommend this book, you gonna laugh your ass off! The characters are funny, witty and so full of love that will warm your heart! Thank you Penny, it was Nicolicious!

ARC provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Such a sweet read! It warmed my heart and brought tears to my eyes more than once.
I want a Fletcher to meeeee!!!! =)

DNF at 73%

I feel bad because everyone seems to love this one, but I didn't like it.

I didn't like Izzy. She doesn't want to deal with her problems, always running and hiding. Always crying. And for someone whom has problem trusting in man, she didn't shy away from climbing in every male lap available. And Axel.. well I didn't connect with him either.

Another thing that bothered me greatly was that they had sex and were ~together~ again BEFORE they talked about their past. They hated each other, they needed to talk and solve their problems, BADLY,but apparently they could have sex first.

I didn't like it.

5 stars

I loved, loved, loved it!

[a:Anne Calhoun|2919028|Anne Calhoun|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1336232596p2/2919028.jpg]did an awesome job showing us how a man and a woman, that due a lot of circumstances, don’t know or forgot how to feel things.

And I think this is the perfect verb to describe this book: TO FEEL.

Rachel is a girl whom left a super rigid religious community to experience how is to live life to its fullest. At the community she couldn’t express her feelings. To feel anger, sadness, fury is a sin and they told her she had to suppress it. But Rachel has a free spirit. She wants to go to college, she wants to know how is to have a relationship with a man and with people, she wants to leave the safe and permit herself to experience everything, the good and the bad.

Ben is a cop who – at first view - doesn’t feel much. He doesn’t seem to be attached to nothing or anyone. At his job he is fearless, he likes to feel the adrenaline, the danger. His personal life is full of drinks, women and meaningless sex. He uses his aloofness and the badass exterior to hide strong and destructive feelings. Feelings and memories of a time in his life he prefers to forget.

In 70% of the story we see Rachel shine like a diamond. She buys a date with Ben wanting to have sex with him, no strings attached. She just wants to know how is to be with a man and they do have sex. Ben doesn’t know she’s a virgin and he didn’t even realize it until the next morning. She didn’t orgasm and he’s a bit rough, but she doesn’t care, because she felt.

Once Ben realizes what he did, he proposes Rachel to teach her how good sex can be. And boy, it was a good ride! The author takes sensuality to a new level. The scenes are sensuous and erotic in the best possible way. Rachel discovers herself as a powerful and sexy woman and little by little those encounters arouse a desire for more.

We see Rachel pursue her dreams to go to college, to get a better job at the same time we see her struggle with her father’s rejection and the pressure to return home. She grows stronger as the story progresses, she very determinate and sure of what she wants to her life.

In the end the focus shifts to Ben. We see how deep are his feelings for his twin brother (and as a twin sister myself I could relate alright!), how guilt he feels for what happened to him and how he focus all that guilt and anger on his father. It’s sad. He suffered so much that know he’s numb. And he doesn’t know how to cope with his growing feeling for Rachel, pushing her away again and again.

Everything was so realistic, the characters, the feelings, nothing was rushed. In the end, when they drifted away from each other, it was so good to see how they come to terms with themselves first and then try to give their relationship another try. Beautiful.

PS: The cover doesn’t represent the book in the slightest.