Twisted Luck by Mia Downing or a Contemporary Demon Love Story

Publication Date: April 7, 2017

Book Synopsis

When I told him to go to hell, I never realized it would be a trip for two.
All I wanted was luck—the good kind. I’d lost my job, a jerk hacked my bank account, and I caught my best friend screwing my fiancé. When stood up by my Internet date in a bar, I met the perfect man—tall, dark, and handsome in the most expensive suit. He was out of my league, but I didn’t want forever.
I barely remember the words he whispered under the veil of sin and seduction. I didn’t believe in Satan, God, Heaven or Hell. I thought he was kidding. A figment. A dream.
I was wrong. With one, breathless yes, my fate was sealed.
Businessman by day, demon by night, Leo Weston now owns my soul in exchange for good luck. Time is ticking as he works to secure my mother’s soul, too. Somehow, I have to take him down despite him being so damned gorgeous, glib, and devious. Will my gift of twisted luck be enough to save her and protect my heart? Twisted Luck - Goodreads

My Opinion

3.65/5 Stars

Well! Well! Well, dearies! Twisted Luck was a) a quick read b) funny and c) unique. Although, major WARNING in the sexy-time department!

After finishing this book, you are going to say, "I want more." At least, I did. There is so much more to explore in this book-universe. Being a romance/erotica, the romantic relationship drives the whole story leaving some stuff unexplored to the core.

As a side note: If you are a fan of the CW TV show, Supernatural, this book is no stranger to you. After watching an episode from season 12 of Supernatural, I was able to see it clearly. You know... I was finally able to pinpoint the familiarity I felt while reading Twisted Luck.

Sweet, funny, and cheesy are the first words which come to my mind about this love story. I got attached to the main characters so much. The author did a good job creating our protagonists with complex personalities with a touch of realism. Olivia and Leo are the ones who make this book addicting as chocolate and worth reading.

Speaking of characters, I wanted to see more of Babu and Annie, and Samuel to be more complex like Leo and not purely evil. And... I wonder how many "and's" I can squeeze in such a close proximity to one another?... That's just me. What I felt.

I know this is a romance novel but I want to know more about the demons' system and other small details which seemed brushed off to the side, like:

• the significance of the jingling change in pockets;
• why demons change their human names;
• make the "love" thing to be more believable and a more thorough explanation of why it is unacceptable.

The ending was a little anticlimactic. Or I was too tired to pay attention since it was quite late in the night. The open ending is satisfactory enough; although, it has some unanswered questions and plot holes. We still do not get concrete answers. Some people might be fine with it. I got a feeling that it was done somewhat purposely to leave room for a potential book two. Who knows? The author and the publishing company, obviously. Anyway, I will not complain if we get a second book. With that ending, we... I definitely need one.

Yes, I know! The cover is supper cheese but do not judge a book by its cover. And you're gonna say,"Yeah, right! I hope you are kidding because we all know this is not the case nowadays." Then my response will be, "What are you? The book inquisition?"

Alright! The book presents an interesting aspect. If you like a steamy romance with demons or the TV shows Lucifer  and Supernatural (especially Supernatural) then this is your cup of tea.

This is my sole opinion. ^_^

I would like to say thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Genre: Adult, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Romance
Language: heavy
Sexual content: heavy
Violence: moderate
Drugs/Alcohol: moderate to heavy (in the beginning - alcohol)

Melody Obsession of the Week Brought to You by Me Presents Stargate ft. P!nk and Sia Waterfall



Hello-Hello! It is the end of the week and it is time for the Melody Obsession.

Above, you have witnessed my Photoshop Skills. I am rocking the Beginner Style!

And I am some news for you... This baby is going to be the official picture of this section on my blog.

Now, back to the music.

It looks like I am gravitating around Sia lately. Trust me, it's not intentional. Call it fate or brain magic... Ok... I have no idea how to finish that sentence. Darn you bilingual brain.

Brain: LANGUAGE! And be easy on the insults. Did you forget I am your precious?

You are scaring me with that Lord of the Rings reference, brain.

Moving on... Where were we? Oh, right! Music and Sia!

HUMANS... I don't want to speciest (I googled the term just to be sure), so... ORGANISMS, I present to you:

Stargate ft. P!nk

 and Sia

 

Feel free to check out last week's Song here --> Ed Sheeran

Happy listening!

 

Winter TBR Closure Because It's Spring

Hello-Hello, Everybody! It is officially Spring and I am here to bring my Winter wrap-up.

This may or may not come as a shock to you but  - I should definitely know by now - I tend to deviate form my TBR's for no reason. It is like I am doing it on purpose.

What can I say? I am in a constant need to rebel against myself. (More information about that in my post A random post...) When it comes to reading, I try not to force myself to read - all the time hahaha! - books I do not have the desire to read at the moment.

My reading tastes and habits usually match what I am in a mood for or not for at a giving time. As a side note, I am not sure my previous sentence makes sense at all but it made sense in my mind. In the future (consider it a very close future... like further down in my post), you will see that my TBR is just a guide line because I do not want to set boundaries when it comes to reading. Reading should be a fun activity so why force it. DO NOT quote me if you are in a situation when you MUST read a book. If it's a must, it's a must. :D

What I read from my TBR

 Click for my full reviews here --> Illuminae Review Gemina Review 

Click for my full reviews here --> Storm Siren Review Siren's Fury Review 

Click for my full reviews here --> Black Moon Review  

 Full review to come

 Click for my full reviews here --> A Shadow Bright and Burning Review 

 Click for my full reviews here --> Aphrodite Review 

What I did not read or finish to read

It has a slow start. Since it uses Romanian history, I feel a little picky about this book. It is kind of weird when you read a book and you know the end of Lada and Radu from the real history. I already have a mind set about those two: Love Lada, hate Radu! As simple as that. The author does a great job in creating complex personalities for out two protagonists. Also, I am obsessed with things being correct when it comes to Romanian terms and names - especially names - and how they are used so... Sometimes I cringe when things are incorrect. Translation is a tricky thing and the author is trying to not make things confusing for the readers since her major target audience is for clueless (about Romanian history) Americans. (No offense, that is the naked truth. I mean... What really do you -or the majority of you - know about Romania besides Transylvania, vampires, weird reputation in history, and present bad reputation in Europe created by a small group of people?) I am 22% done with this book. I am planning to finish it although I have to push myself a bit. Slow pace. Great build up and descriptions so far. Oh! And hate Ottomans if you have Romanian Blood! Hahaha!

 The series was enjoyable so far... The second book mad me push this book down my general TBR list because reading Gemina and Illuminae created an epic book craving which is not good for a normal less drenaline stimulating novel. Yes, I am planning to read it and finish the series. 

 For this one, even though I received and advanced reader copy, I got spooked by the hype. Other books got in the way and... Yeah. I am going to wait a bit and then give it a try. 

This may come as a shocker since I read almost every single thing written by Stephenie Meyer - except this book and Life and Death; although I am planning to read that one cause... Twilight. I know you cannot force somebody to do what the public wants, however, I wanted her to finish The Host series. I was not in the mood for this book. There was lots of hype from my book entourage. I read 32 pages and I was not that hooked. School and other things got in the way... Thus, I decided to not read this book in the near future.

 

I hope you enjoyed this picture-long post.

Brush aside my saltiness!

Create your own opinions on books!

And you can check out the books' description and  Goodreads links in my Winter TBR Post.

 



Aphrodite by Kaitlin Bevis Where Spoilers Are Inevitable

Aphrodite (Daughters of Zeus #4) - Kaitlin Bevis

 

Being perfect isn’t easy, but Aphrodite is determined to live up to the ideal. So when Poseidon asks her to investigate strange happenings on several cruise ships, she jumps at the chance to prove herself. Demigods are going missing, and no one remembers them having been on board. Aphrodite charms herself into the best room on the ship, prepared to investigate in style. Unfortunately, the room belongs to the one man immune to her charm. Adonis. When Aphrodite realizes that he could be the next target, her investigation gets more complicated. Worse, whoever is responsible for the missing demigods charmed the passengers and armed them with long-forgotten weapons designed to kill gods. When the ship goes dark, Aphrodite and Adonis have to work together to discover who is behind the mayhem before Poseidon decides their ship, and every charmed and armed human on it, are more trouble than they’re worth. Aphrodite

 

 

 

My Opinion

3.60/5 stars

My opinion... My opinion... My opinion... I got into the Daughters of Zeus in March 2016 (Thank you Goodreads) and I was pumped about the series. The first three books center around Persephone and Hades. And boy, oh boy, I fell in love with those two.

We meet Aphrodite in the second book. In the beginning, I got mixed feelings about her and I still have some. Alright! Alright! Those of you who read the Persephone "trilogy" will say that it is understandable. And I could not agree more although I cannot click with her the same way I clicked with Persephone.

I cannot believe I am going to say this about a character... Aphrodite is shallow with a great personality and she is not afraid to tell the hurtful truths. Surprisingly, I liked her more when I was able to read her PoV because... lots of insight in the brain. (I made it sound like a brain dissection >:]).)
 

(Aphrodite from Kaitlin Bevis book/website) 



This book follows up the events of the Iron Queen and the gods go to investigate the "bomb drop" given by Zeus to Hades. Aphrodite volunteers and she becomes the investigator.

I am trying to keep this review as spoiler free as possible and it proves to be a very difficult task...

A good part of the book moves rather slowly. It is a build up for the grad finale which was extremely rich in action. And only for that, I am glad I gave the book another try after a couple of months; although, I wanted more Hades and Persephone. Ha-Ha-Ha!

Spoilers 

I know that the main ship is Aphrodite and Ares but the fact that we do not see how they click it makes me hard to believe in their relationship. Do not cut short my ship, I need feels. Ares and Aphrodite are great characters by themselves and they need more story time. Probably, I am the only person being sympathetic towards Adonis and that is because I had a classmate in 7th and 8th grade called Adonis and he was (and is since he is still alive) beautiful to the eye and a nice person sooo... I have high hopes for him. Ha-Ha-Ha! He does not seem bad. He just took bad decisions.

End of Spoilers

As a warning for those who got addicted to the series, I recommend taking a break after the third book and then read the Aphrodite books. Aphrodite is not Persephone and Kaitlin Bevis does a great job at keeping them distinctive.

I recommend the series if Greek mythology is you cuppa tea or should I say cup of ambrosia?

These books deserve more credit if you ask me.

 

This is my sole opinion. ^_^
 

P.S. I dare you to eat a pomegranate for every single time I used the words click, clicked or clicks  - including now.
  

Link to Goodreads -->Persephone by Kaitlin Bevis 

Link to Author's site -->Kaitlin Bevis

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Greek Mythology Romance
Language: moderate
Sexual content: moderate to heavy
Violence: moderate to heavy
Drugs/Alcohol: moderate to heavy



Melody Obsession of the Week Brought to You by Me Presents Ed Sheeran Shape of You

Hello-Hello! It is the end of the week and it is time for the melody obsession.

Of course you know what is my song pick because... post title.

BUT bear with me before pressing the play button because I have this whole explanation on how and why I chose this song.

Tap-tap-tap... An explanation... Ok. Well... I heard bits and pieces of this song on the radio and I was "Eh! It's alright." Ed Sheeran is a particular artist who, in my opinion, is more lyric focused and I usually like my songs with  more instrumental music. (I will rather listen to him live in a concert because he has a great voice --> YouTube - Ed Sheeran Bloodstream Live) So, I kind of ignored the song until... Until I heard the part "Oh, I! Oh, I! Oh, I!" 

That was the moment! I went to YouTube. I found the song and pressed play a million times. And yes, I fell in love with the "Oh, I! Oh, I! Oh, I!" parts. I wished the song had more "Oh, I! Oh, I! Oh, I!" in it. Ha-Ha-Ha!

Without further ado...

 

Ed Sheeran - Shape of You

 

Play it on repeat!

Feel free to check out the last week melody obsession Loreen Statements and Lilo & Stitch Intro.

 

Bonus:

The acoustic version of

Statements by Loreen

 

Happy listening!

 



The Edge of Everything by Jeff Giles - The book with two sides Contemporary and Fantasy

Book Synopsis

For the perfect love, what would you be willing to lose?
It’s been a shattering year for seventeen-year-old Zoe, who’s still reeling from her father's shockingly sudden death in a caving accident and her neighbors’ mysterious disappearance from their own home. Then on a terrifying sub-zero, blizzardy night in Montana, she and her brother are brutally attacked in a cabin in the woods—only to be rescued by a mysterious bounty hunter they call X.
X is no ordinary bounty hunter. He is from a hell called the Lowlands, sent to claim the soul of Zoe’s evil attacker and others like him. X is forbidden from revealing himself to anyone other than his prey, but he casts aside the Lowlands’ rules for Zoe. As they learn more about their colliding worlds, they begin to question the past, their fate, and their future. The Edge of Everything

 

My Opinion

3.75/5 starts.

This book stays at the edge of Contemporary and Fantasy (Paranormal). It was strange and a page turner. Jeff Giles succeeded to create something fresh and unique.

When the blurb came out about this book, a lot of people - including me - thought this was a contemporary novel. Wrong. Alright, half wrong. It is so much more than that.

You might want to read this book only for its beginning and end. There is so much tension and suspense that you want to grip something tightly. For a second, I got the impression I was reading a thriller/horror novel.

There are two worlds in this book-universe: our world and the Low Lands - kind of like a hell type of dimension. Our main characters are star crossed lovers from these two worlds, Zoe and X respectively. Their life stories are very interesting so I will let the book to tell you more about them.

The good romance loses same of its credibility due to the rushed start. It was like the author knew that they are going to be together and he was not quite sure how to deal with it so it happened quite fast. Don't get me wrong some moments felt real and genuine.

I feel like I am in minority because I preferred X's part of the story even though we still need to learn more about it. Zoe was a weird character and I mixed feelings about her. In one scene I was liking her and in the next I was despising her. She was not too considered and responsible at times. I grew more sympathetic towards her at the end of the book when things started to get resolved - somewhat.

I liked that the parent figure is not brushed off and be there just for show. That mother was involved. I am so glad. Lately, I see in a lot of YA books that the parent is portrayed as a villain or uncaring or dead or simply not there. And, my dear readers, I feel frustrated because it is not a good representation of how the parent-child relationship should be. In a lot of instances, I detected myself thinking, "That is not how my relationship with my parents is."  I am not saying that those instances are not real too... But as I got older, I realized these type of books can send a dangerous messages - directly or indirectly - to the younger audience. And it is not good. It took me a good junk of my life to realize that the adults in my life were also teenagers at some point.  (That is a lot of time of my life since I just reached adulthood. Adulthood such a weird word to say about myself when I do not feel like and adult at all.)

I was intrigued by the other bounty hunters (Banger and Ripper). I never thought I was going to feel sympathetic towards killers. I am telling you. This book is toying with your mind forcing you to see that things are not always black or white.

As a Minor Spoiler - How the heck did those dogs are still alive by the end of this book? Don't get it wrong, I am not complaining. It is just unbelievable among other things. - End Spoiler

Overall, this book was my cup of tea. Although, something was off and I cannot put my finger on it. I am looking forward to the next installment. I recommend this for its story arc which overshadows the annoying parts. In my opinion, it is something unique because it uses things we have read before but in an unexpected combination.

Give this book a try if you feel like it is something you would like to read.

This is my sole opinion. ^_^

 

Feel free to check out my post on The Edge of Everything - Booksplosion Book Pick and the book discussion, The Edge of Everything - Live Show, on polandbananasBOOKS YouTube channel.  

I would like to say thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal
Language: moderate
Sexual content: moderate
Violence: moderate to heavy
Drugs/Alcohol: mild

A random post because I am in need of expressing my mind and there is a twist

Hello-Hello! How is life? I am quite well or at least this is the answer people want to receive and not the true one. Yes, pleasantries. Futile pleasantries.

In real life, I am procrastinating because I want my brain to wander and do what it wants, hence this random post. I have read so many books lately. I have many reviews to come.

But... I do not know. It is like my brain is rebelling against - Is it me? Or myself? Or I?... Ok, the same brain says --> me.

It is like I have two different "I's" (not eyes, and before you ask, yes I have two eyes) inside of me:

I who is a stubborn and obnoxious child who taps the foot, crosses the arms over the chest and says," I do not want to" like a command;

And  

I who is like the goddess Athena rational, calculated, and intelligent... Oh! And that I is also stubborn. Sometimes she scares me! Hahaha! Then, with a fierce look over the rim of her glasses, she says, "Be reasonable! Think!"

Most of the time is good. But what happens when both rebel?

Well, you get me not doing my book reviews.

I mean... It's not like I am giving myself homework, is it? Is it?

Oh man! Really? How can you call that homework? That is your hobby!

Brain whispering: Keep telling yourself that. But you are not fooling me.

What are you doing here? Get out of this post!

Brain: Aaa... Do you realize that we are one and the same? So, of course, I have to be in this post.

Ok. Ok. Ok. So be it!

Hmmm! "Why am I in a quarrel with myself?" It is March. Spring has begun only not where I live. Apparently, Spring has decided to elope with the Sun after they had some heated meetings in February. (22 degree C in the middle of February that is unacceptable during the winter season.) Now, winter had seen the opportunity and it is snowing cats and dogs with a bucket. Thus, I was left to miss Spring and substitute her with Romance novels set in the 1800's.

Yes, I am a sucker for Romance and I am not ashamed of it. I quite enjoy reading about women and men who rebel against the system and society views.

Brain: Now you see! Spring. Rebel. Get it? 

Hypothetical face palm. Nooo! It is not like we are one and the same.

Brain: Are you sarcastic while using your own words against yourself? That's harsh, girl!

Bye, Brain! I can't deal with you!

Brain: Eyes roll then mimicking mockery

Yeah... I want my Spring and flowers! I miss Romanian Springs. They were so festive with flowers and ancient traditions. Maybe the Sun decided to run away with the Spring because it might have heard US politicians talking about making it to pay taxes... cause skin cancer. It is not like we are alive thanks to the Sun. I need my vitamin D.

Conclusion: The only thing I want to do is to read romance novels while I desperately yearn for Spring to come back into my life.

I mean, Spring is befitting for Romance novels.  

Bain: Just sayin'!

Agree! High five!

Original expression:

Raining cats and dogs (EN).

Plouă cu găleata (RO). --> "Raining with the bucket"? (EN translate)

 

I hoped you enjoyed my thought process and imagine being me everyday!

Wink-wink

Let's hope you understood something from this post.

It made sense in my head.

Laughing out loud! --> LOL

Brain: But The Diabolic was not quite a romance novel