Book #45 A Four Letter Word by Michelle Lee

Won this book from goodread's First Reads! Shipped fast, signed by author and came with a matching book mark.

After reading the prologue in 'A Four Letter Word' I immediately thought to myself "yup know the ending to this one". Sure this is your typical, predictable love story however, good stories are good stories. Even if the subject has been repeated time and time again the story itself can be different and interesting. I did not expect to get engrossed in this book but was shocked at how quickly I finished it.

Unlike most love stories I related a lot to this one. After seven years of friendship my best guy friend confessed he had been in love with me the entire time, we celebrated our 10th anniversary this year. The characters were a bit cliche and a bit immature at times but overall I liked them all. And I was pleasantly surprised at the twist in this story that I did not see coming at all!

I have seen some reviews slamming this book for being Twilight fanfiction and honestly, who cares?!?! Lots of works be it literature, film, music or art are inspired by other works. Why would anyone discourage others just because they got an idea from somewhere else? You never know, some of these fanfiction writers might go on to write some wonderful original works just because they took at shot pulling from another story they loved. Maybe if it wasn't for that original book, they would never had tried writing their own stories at all. Lift one another up, not tear each other down.

Book #44 Slip by Leslie J. Portu

Won this book through goodreads from first reads program!! Which by the way was sent by the author herself, arrived very quickly and with a cute heart-shaped personalized note inside. Very sweet touch. On to the book:

Soon to be seventeen year old Vivien is falling in love for the first time. Due to a rocky childhood she is a very reserved and guarded girl making her first real relationship a little tough to handle. Throw in the handsome, young and understanding exotic French substitute teacher and things get more complicated than ever. He befriends Vivien and in her quest to open up, try new things and finally let people in she turns a blind eye to the dangers right in front of her.

I LOVED this book! Two nights in a row I had to force myself to put it down so I could get some sleep. I thought the characters were complex enough to be consistently interesting and the story line was exciting even in the more mundane parts.

I cannot wait to read more in this series or more from Leslie J. Portu in general. I must add I did not see an editor listed and was pleasantly surprised to see very little, maybe even no, grammar or spelling errors.

Book #42 Unconscious Lies by D. W. Brown

I won Unconscious Lies from goodread's First Reads program! Very thankful for that.

This is the story of Peter. Peter was in a coma for quite some time. He has moments of consciousness while in this coma, he is in his bedroom and surrounded by people who refuse to acknowledge him or answer his questions. Furthermore he remembers talking to a group of people while being unconscious.

When Peter awakes from the coma for good he does not remember his past and must take his wife's word on everything. Soon he discovers she has been lying to him, so much so that even her place of work doesn't even exist.

Worst of all? Peter remembers killing people while in the coma and clues start to surface in his new life hinting at the reality of these crimes.

Overall I really liked this book. I thought the story line was great and different. Unlike a lot of books, Unconscious Lies was not very predictable and had surprises up until the very end. To me there were some holes in the story but it is such a ride they are easy to overlook.

I did however have two minor issues (and one major) and they were editing and rambling.

The editing was pretty spotty in the beginning and in the last third either the editor checked out completely or got too engrossed in the story to continue editing (lots of "me" and "I" mistakes there).

Rambling. In two parts of the story I felt I was conducting a google search. The author went into too much detail explain what microbursts are and the history of studying comatose patients. You do not need to know any of this information to enjoy the story being told.

And last but most important: the anti-gay marriage rambling at the end of chapter 16. Honestly I almost stopped reading right there. I understand we all have different opinions on this subject so being that this "character" feels vastly different than I do is not the issue at all. My issue is the fact that this commentary comes completely out of left field and has absolutely no reason to be in the book leaving me wondering if this is just the author injecting his own feelings through the main character, Peter. Peter and his wife are discussing a very, very minor character referred to as "gay Marcus". The wife Vicky states that she believe marriage is for men and women only and Peter goes on and on in his narrative about homosexuality being a choice and gay marriage leading to marriage between cousins (btw cousin marriage is legal in 26 states and has been since before gay marriage was even an issue) which will open the floodgates on marriage. Completely unnecessary but it was only a page or two so it didn't totally ruin the book for me.