Meet Kate
MacKenzie...idealistic office worker, reluctant deliverer of termination
notices and queen of instant messaging. As sweet as sugar.
Meet
Mitch Hertzog...ever-smiling corporate lawyer, defender of the
downtrodden and king of aborted dinner dates. Good enough to eat.
Meet
Ida Lopez...cake, cookie and pastry-maker extraordinaire, purveyor of
the dessert trolley and goddess of all things mouth-wateringly yummy. As
nice as pie.
Together they must battle tyrants and despots to find truth, justice and the perfect double fudge pudding.
- 383 pages
- published in 2004
This book was definitely different. I picked it up from the library (and mind me, we're in Germany. They only have half a shelf for English books in the Teen section and a whole shelf in the Adult section. I prefer to read in English, simply because sometimes the translations just suck and I don't want to end up hating a perfectly good book just because the translator was too stupid to do their job right.) and it was do different from what I was expecting. It was completely made up of e-mails, diary entries, IM conversations and such things but I loved it! It was easy to follow the story even though you only had snippets from here and there. And it was a really cute and fluffy story, about love but also about doing the right thing. It wasn't completely focused on being a romance novel even though the title proposes that.
This book didn't have a definite point of view. There were emails from everybody so you kind of had the POV of everybody once in a while. And it was so easy to see how the person actually is when they email a person they don't have to impress or a person they are not lying to. It was really interesting to read that. I also liked how the characters were portrayed even though it was a little harder to get to know them. I hoped to have a follow up of them but the third book in the series is about different people. And I didn't know this was the second book of a series, since the books don't actually have anything to do with each other. You don't have to read the first to read this one. It doesn't matter.
I really liked the way this novel was made but that may not be fitting for everybody. So if you are interest in reading this book, you should decide if you are okay with reading mails, chats and diary entries instead of an actual story divided in chapters and views.
I rate it 4 out of 5 stars, it was a quick and cute read for inbetween.
Fun and fearless, Cora
Lewis knows how to keep her tattooed "bad boy" friends at the Marked in
line. But beneath all that flash and sass is a broken heart. Cora won't
let herself get burned again. She's waiting to fall in love with the
perfect man—a baggage-free, drama-free guy ready for commitment. Then
she meets Rome Archer.
Rome Archer is as far from perfect as a
man can be. He's stubborn, rigid, and bossy. And he's returned from his
final tour of duty more than a little broken. Rome's used to filling
many roles: big brother, doting son, supersoldier—but none of those fit
anymore. Now he's just a man trying to figure out what to do with the
rest of his life while keeping the dark demons of war and loss at bay.
He would have been glad to suffer through it alone, until Cora comes
sweeping into his life and becomes a blinding flash of color in a sea of
gray. Perfect may not be in the cards, but perfectly imperfect could
just last forever . . .
- 384 pages
- published in 2014
The Marked Men series by Jay Crownover is amazing and I really loved all three books so far. I cannot decide which Marked Men is my favorite, because they all have something special about them to love.
Jay Crowonver is an amazing writer, as I find. The sex scenes weren't flat and unappealing like they are in most books. I actually enjoyed reading them and I do usually skip them because they make me feel uncomfortable but this time, they didn't. So a big plus on that!
I really liked Rome and Cora together even though I think it went on a bit too fast between them, I would have liked to have a bit more struggle before they became a real couple. But maybe it just felt that way to me because I read it in one night? I am not sure. I did like the book a lot though so it didn't bother me too much.
What I really love about the Marked Men series is that 1. You know which couple will come next because they start to bond a little in the previous novel and 2. You don't lose a couple after their book is finished. You still get bits and parts about them in the next books!
And I really wanted more from Rome and Cora when I finished the book, I was actually quite sad that it was already over. I really can't wait for the next installment to come out, I'm sure I'm gonna love the story of Nash and Saint as much as I love all the other Marked Men stories! Jay Crownover hasn't failed me yet and I'm sure she won't start now.
I recommend the Marked Men series for anyone that loves New Adult novels and romance.
And I give 4.5 of 5 stars because, as I said, it went on a little too fast and that's why it wasn't perfect but it was pretty close!
