Mark This Book Monday: The Shape of My Heart by Ann Aguirre!!!

Hello guys!

Today is a weird kind of Monday. It is an official holiday here in Spain so people aren't working, except for those like me, so it is a working Monday, but since I've also worked the weekend, it's not a "terrible start of the week" kind of Monday!

I'm starting the week with an ARC edition of Mark This Book Monday! I got approved for this one on NetGalley by Harlequin HQN and I am oh so grateful because they always approve my requests! Since I ended up reading it once my preorder arrived, I've read the finished copy.

I did a buddy read for this one with the lovely Emma of Never Judge a Book by its Cover and it was great having someone to discuss the book while reading and share all the feels! I cannot wait till the Book Club she's organizing starts in Jan!

As an ARC this one will hopefully continue to improve my NG ratio and will count towards my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge!

The Shape of My Heart by Ann Aguirre

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Ann Aguirre really knows how to write NA in a way that keeps me glued to the page, connects with me emotionally and makes me want to beg her to write more books!

I had read and loved the previous two books in the 2B trilogy and for this one I did a buddy read with the lovely Emma from Never Judge a Book by Its Cover, because we both were super excited for this one!

This is the story of Max and Courtney and quite unexpectedly, it is my favourite of the three of them. I connected to these two and their story in such a raw and personal way that I found myself bawling my eyes out more often than not.

Max we met on the first book since he was one of the original tenants of the 2B apartment, but we always saw only the façade he showed to the world, though we got hints at who he really was and what might be behind his bad boy looks and attitude. And boy did I love discovering who he really is! His past in no walk in the park and it's amazing the strenght that the character has.

Courtney is a more recent addition to the 2B apartment but she really got to me. I wasn't 100% sure of her when we met her as Lauren's replacement but being in her head in this book made me love her. She is one tough girl that defies expectations and conventionalisms to always try to be true to who she feels she is, and she's strong and emotional and broken and has flaws and simply is a fantastic character.

The relationship between Courtney and Max started from flatmates, to friends, to best friends to couple and it was done great, so much that it got me super emotional and super invested on their relationship. Not only they have to realize that they have feelings beyond friendship and trust but they have to deal with each other's ghosts, Max's family and Courtney's ex and her family.

There are many tough themes touched upon in this book like alcoholism, death, substance abuse, accidents, disabilities... but always presented in a realistic way and never felt cheap or done for the sake to stir drama. And as tough and realistic as they can get, there's always a current of hope and positivity through this book that makes you feel like even if things are bleak, they can get better. And the characters will fight tooth and claw to make it better.

I highly recommend this series to all of those who love NA or love Ann Aguirre or love contemporaries and to all the rest too because although Ann is now on my auto-buy list, I am not a big fan of NA or contemporaries and I've loved all three of these books! Ver well deserved 4.5 stars for this one!



View all my reviews

Saturday Pages: ARC Review of As Long As You Love Me by Ann Aguirre!!

Hello everyone & happy Saturday!

This week I'm back to having Saturday Pages around and it's all about another ARC review. I got approved for this one via NetGalley and I have to give a big shout out and thank you to Harlequin and all its imprints cause they always approve my requests! Thank you for the vote of confidence!

As an ARC it also counts towards my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge and will hopefully help eventually reach the 80% ratio on NG!!

As Long As You Love Me by Ann Aguirre

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


NA is not exactly a genre I have ever felt very drawn to and as such I haven't really read much of it, but I can safely say now that I love the kind of NA that Ann Aguirre writes!

As Long As You Love Me is the second installment on her 2B trilogy and I really enjoyed this one too, I'm not sure if I can say if I liked this one more than I Want It That Way but I know it hit me in the feels more closely to home than the previous one, and made me cry a whole lot more!

This one is all about Lauren, Nadia's best friend and roommate that decides to give up on university and run back home. We barely got to know Lauren through Nadia's story, and all because Lauren was already steeling herself to leave. The book starts with Lauren returning to Sharon, to live with her mom again and to deal with all the gossip surrounding her return.

By returning to Sharon, Lauren has to face all her bad choices in university, has to face all kinds of gossip and has to return to a home life that was less than ideal when she left. She stumbles onto Nadia's brother, Rob, who was her crush since she can remember having a crush and who has always treated her like a second sister.

They start hanging out as friends at first, even if Lauren is well aware that she's never got over the crush, and little by little they find themselves unable to deny the attraction and the connection between them.

As with IWITW, the main couple is made up of two individuals with their own diffent issues. Lauren has become an expert of hiding who she is and what issues she has and Rob has spent his whole life being relegated to be considered nothing but a hot guy with no brains. They both work as the foundations of self discovery of each other, but they also need to learn to stand on their own feet alone before getting into a healthy relationship. And that's one hell of an important message here, even if it can lead to some momentary heartbreak.

Great characters, realistic and believeable relationships with the focus not only on the main couple, but also family dynamics, friends, ex's, and the sometimes oppresive for some and comforting for others, feeling of a small town.

I connected so much with Lauren and Rob and loved their relationship, how they supported each other and how they made a great team. I loved how Lauren was so supportive of Rob, his hobby and his worth, even to the point of confronting those who are supposedly closer to him. Despite all her issues, Lauren is not someone to stay back and let others push her into a shape that is not her, and she takes charge of her life and makes sure that Rob does too.

I'm still not sure if New Adult is a genre that I will read a lot of, but I know for sure that I will be reading any and all the NA that Ann Aguirre writes and I'm already really looking forward to the third book in this trilogy! Well deserved 4 stars for this one!



View all my reviews

Saturday Pages: ARC Review of I Want It That Way by Ann Aguirre!!

As the second and last entry for this week's Saturday Pages I have an ARC review that since was read last month, I won't count for ARC August but that will be counted towards my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge!

I Want It That Way by Ann Aguirre

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I haven't been very much a contemporary romance reader, and even less the rather recent New Adult genre that has come up, but when I saw that Ann Aguirre had a NA trilogy coming and read her tweets about the books and saw the titles, that makes me sing BSB songs EVERY TIME, I knew I had to read them!

So when I saw this one NetGalley I immediately requested it and was lucky enough to be approved by Harlequin! And I was right to do so, cause I really enjoyed this book a lot!

I Want It That Way is the story of Nadia, a girl determined to make a good future for herself, focusing on finishing college while working to help her parents pay for it and then try to find a job as a special education teacher. She's always been very focused and even though she's still trying to enjoy some social life with her friends and roommates.

And it's exactly how the book starts, with Nadia moving into apartment 2B with her best friend Lauren and friends from college Max and Angus and meeting Ty, the resident of 1B. The first meeting isn't exactly heartwarming but after a chat on the balcony at night, they start a tentative friendship with a strong underlying attraction between them.

Ty is a single dad, with 3 year old and trying to juggle too many things, with night classes, a job and taking care of Sam, his son. He also has quite an amount of baggage and so he's not ready to get embroiled into an affair with the girl from upstairs and even less, allow himself to think about a relationship. Sam is his first and only priority.

The book is not only about how Ty and Nadia deal with their attraction and how they try to work with their relationship, but also with friendship and family. The relationship between Nadie and her roommates and how they help each other with their issues was great, the secondary character were well developed and never felt like just background noise.

There was no unnecessary drama between Ty and Nadia, and even when things weren't exactly peachy between them, they were always very honest with each other, no hidden drama, no cards kept up their sleeves. I loved how determined Nadia was to go for what she knew she wanted and not being afraid of facing the changes that pile up on her life.

Ann Aguirre knows how to write good chemistry, not overly drama filled or overly typical cliches stories and her characters feel genuine and you feel like rooting for them from very early on! I really enjoyed this one, despite how much the final part of the story made me cry. All in all, well deserved 4 stars for this one and I cannot wait to read the next NA books that Aguirre has coming soon!



View all my reviews