BOOK REVIEW: Jake Undone by Penelope Ward

Jake Undone by Penelope Ward
Genres: Contemporary Romance, New Adult
Publication Date: Oct 21, 2013
My Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥

Nina Kennedy was alive…but not living…until she met him.

Planes, trains, heights…you name it, Nina was afraid of it and led a sheltered life ruled by irrational fears and phobias. When she moves to Brooklyn for nursing school, that life is turned upside down, as she develops an intense but unwanted attraction to her gorgeous roommate, who’s pierced, tattooed and just happens to be the smartest person she’s ever met.

Behind Jake Green’s rough exterior and devilish smile, lies a heart of gold. He makes it his mission to change Nina’s outlook on life. When he agrees to tutor her, they forge a bet and the stakes are high as Jake forces Nina to face her demons. He just wasn’t expecting to fall hard for her in the process.

What Nina doesn’t realize, is that Jake has been living his own private hell. Once he drops a bombshell, will their love survive it?

Told in two parts from both Nina and Jake’s points of view, Jake Undone is a standalone story and a companion to the novel, Gemini.

My Thoughts

 

Holly batshit! I haven't read GEMINI yet but I've come undone by this book! Jake you are now my new book boyfriend!!

Nina aka Troll. Petite, long dirty blonde with a large blue eyes. She has a few phobias such as; elevators, planes and heights that led her a sheltered life. Nina is moving to NY to attend nursing school. She'll be sharing an apartment with her childhood friend Ryan with two roommates and Jake happens to be one of them...

Reality Show Scene Three, enter stage left: hot womanizing roommate. Then, came the three words that would change my life. “Hi, I’m Jake.”

Jake, the king of sexual innuendos. Tall, green eyes, tattooed arms, pierced, dark hair, mysterious and loves eating bananas! He's your typical delicious bad boy but smart, clever and on the inside. 

“Sometimes if you are willing to withstand a little pain in life, Nina, you might discover a pleasure that you never would have otherwise known existed.”

With Math being her worst subject, Jake offered to help Nina tutor her in  but there's a catch.. if she gets lower than A, she'll have to face one of her fears. This is where they started to become friends and over the time Nina couldn't help but develop an intense attraction to Jake. Both are opposite but they fit together somehow. The sexual tension between them was so thick you could cut it with a knife. But Jake is hiding something from her, something that is holding him back..

What are my fears?” He looked up at the sky, and his lip twitched as he pondered my question, then looked back at me. “Hurting people…like letting people I care about down. Stuff like that.”

I'll be honest, the cover got me on this one. Never heard of the author nor read any of her books so when I started reading Jake Undone, I kinda knew it's your cliche bad boy meets good girl story so I didn't put up any high expectation on this book. But the moment I read the prologue.. omg. I was a fuckin' goner and in that moment, I fell in love with Jake.

The house is fucking boring without you. Even sniffing your underwear hasn’t put me out of my funk. If I sniff this one five times, will you magically reappear?

Jake is one amazing character but I guess what really made me love him more is that he has a heart of gold. He's loyal and never stop wanting to help other people. Sure, he made a lot of mistakes (who doesn't?) and unfair decisions that made me want to smack him upside the head. But I also think that all these was necessary to make him feel more... real. (Sorry, I don't know if that's the right word I'm trying to put here)

But the sweet little things he did; making bat origami, poems, charmed bracelet and how he's insecure and unsure of himself made this book more special. Heck, even when he cried was so sexy and manly for me. I can go on and on how amazeballs he is but it would be more fun if you guys will discover it by yourself.

“I’m yours. I have never belonged to anyone before…but I know that I belong to you,”

I guess the only thing that "kinda" bothers me was in the end... (Please don't read if you haven't read the book yet) 

In the end, Jake will still continue to visit his ex wife every weekend. Even though she's an ex they still have some history together, so somehow the situation is quite disturbing. I don't mind if he helps with the financial needs but to visit her every weekend? EVERY.DAMN.WEEKEND? Uhm. No. :/

But if you look it the other way, I guess the ending made this book more believable. It didn't feel like other cliche NA books that everything was solve and they live happily ever after.

“My body belongs to you.”
“My heart belongs to you.”
“My soul belongs to you.”
“Only to you.”

I didn't realize my review is already longer but overall this was a great read! I loved it and highly recommend this to anyone! I'm dying to read Skylar and Mitch story!!!! OMGEEEE!

About the Author

Penelope Ward grew up in Boston with five older brothers. She spent most of her twenties as a television news anchor, before switching to a more family friendly career.
Penelope lives for reading books in the new adult genre, coffee and hanging out with her friends and family on weekends.

She is the proud mother of a beautiful 9-year-old girl with autism (the inspiration for the character Callie in Gemini) and a 7-year-old boy, both of whom are the lights of her life.
 
Penelope, her husband and kids reside in Rhode Island.

Penelope Ward Websites

☻Facebook

☻Amazon

☻Goodreads

Available: Amazon

BOOK REVIEW: Carter Reed by Tijan

Carter Reed by Tijan
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romantic Suspense
Publication Date: Sept 28, 2013
My Rating: ♥♥♥♥

Emma decided to skip the gym and went home early. It was the last easy decision she made because she found her roommate being raped by the boyfriend. 

She had two choices. Call the cops and be killed by his family’s mafia connections or kill him first and hope to survive. There was no choice to her. She killed the bastard first and went to the one person who could protect her. 

Carter Reed. He’s a weapon for the rivaling mafia family, but he’s also Emma’s secret. Not only was he best friends with her brother, but she’s the reason he became that weapon in the first place.

My Thoughts

Good lord! I'm ready to shred my panties for CARTER REED! 

I was so excited to read this book!! First few chapters were engaging and I told myself..  

"wow.. this book is the shit!" But half way through the story it went down hill.. I was debating myself to either skim some pages or just drop this thing off my kindle!

The plot was interesting, love the mafia gangsta going on in the story. It has the right amount of sexiness, action, suspense and drama. In fact, everything was great, Carter Reed is an amazing character. The way the author describe him almost had me on a verge of orgasm! He's dangerous and sexy. He doesn't talk much but when he does it was a toe curling moments for me.

Emma... Gahhh! I hate her. Yep. You read it right. I use the word hate. You see, I've read so many stupid/annoying/doormat heroines in my reading life but never felt this kind of hatred towards a heroine. I love reading damsel in distress heroines but Emma was beyond annoying! She's selfish, dramatic, constantly whining and everything sets her off. I felt sorry for her but throughout the book I ended up hating her. I was waiting for her to at least redeem herself or something.. like ANYTHING. But heck 60% of the story I was wishing for her to just fuckin' die! In my opinion Emma ruined this book.. seriously. :/ The supporting characters were.. bland. The story wasn't flawless and drag a little bit. It was choppy and most of the time it didn't make sense to me. I wish it had more action, suspense and Carter moments coz really.. the only good thing about this book is him.

Oh just wondering... What do you do when some mafia gang are looking for you?
Ah... you go clubbing and get drunk with friends!

Sorry couldn't help it.. I just find the story a little unbelievable.

Overall it was an okay read.. it was enjoyable but most of the time I was frustrated. I was really looking forward to this book and put up a high expectation but sadly it came up short.

I'm giving this 3 stars and that is mainly because of Carter Reed!

Btw.. if killing one mafia member will get me a Carter Reed.. then fuck it.. I'll be happy to kill one. :D

About the Author

Hello~ (waves)

I didn't begin writing until after undergraduate college. There'd been storylines and characters in my head all my life, but it came to a boiling point one day and I HAD to get them out of me. So the computer was booted up and I FINALLY felt it click. Writing is what I needed to do. After that, I had to teach myself how to write. 

I can't blame my teachers for not teaching me all those years in school. It was my fault. I was one of the students that was wishing I was anywhere but at school! So after that day, it took me lots of work until I was able to put together something that resembled a novel. I'm hoping I got it right since someone must be reading this profile! And I hope you keep enjoying my future stories.

Tijan  Websites

☻Facebook

☻Goodreads

☻Amazon

Available: Amazon | B&N