Hello and welcome to another collective book review!
I hope everyone had a great Easter break.
The Dating Plan by Sara Desai
Review
I read this book under 24 hours and I absolutely loved it. Sara Desai’s writing is just so easy to read and her storytelling is so easy to fall into.
We follow Daisy and Liam who knew each other 10 years ago. Liam used to live with Daisy’s family and he was much loved by the whole family. She was in love with him and was happy that he was taking her to prom until he didn’t show up to take her to prom and was never seen by the family again. Breaking her heart and that of her father’s.
Until she runs into him at a convention. Whilst she is still angry with him and believes she hates him, he rushes in to save her from her intrusive aunties who were trying to match her up with a guy. The kiss was unexpected and she knew she wanted more. At the same time, she realises that she still has feeling for him. She lies to her aunties that she was engaged to Liam just to get them off her back.
Liam is also struggling with his own family issues, as his grandfather has just left him a distillery on the condition that he gets married before his next birthday and stays married for a year. Whilst Liam can get anyone to marry him because he is simply scrumptious, he needs someone who would not turn around and ask for half of his inheritance at the end of the arrangement. Also, the lawyers must not know that he arranges a marriage. If he fails, the distillery would go to his brother who is planning to tear it down.
He goes back to Daisy and asks her to fake marry him but she also has her own terms. The company she works for is struggling and Liam works for an investment firm, she hopes that he would check out their proposal and hopefully give the company a chance.
She drafts out a dating plan that does not include then having sex but as you know with electricity, they find themselves smashing headboards and doing the devil’s tango. Things, as always, became more complicated from then!
Rating
I gave this book 4.3 out of 5 stars
Put Up Your Duke by Megan Frampton
Review
Isabella was promised to the Duke of Gage, however, it appears that it is no matter who that is. When the current Duke position is contested, it lands in the lap of Nicholas who has never dreamed of the position. He is content with his life of debauchery because he has promised himself that once he gets married he would not dishonour his wife by fornicating.
So when he inherits a new title and along with it comes a bride he doesn’t want. Things are more than he expected and most importantly more different than he expected. Isabella appears ice cold and uptight but he is willing to slow his pace to get to know her and peel back her cold exterior.
I really liked this book and it was really cute
Rating
I gave this book 3.5 out of 5 stars
Manazuru by Hiromi Kawakami
Review
I DNF this book.
This book makes no freaking sense to me, let me tell you why.
Kawasaki books are very popular on bookstagram and admittedly she writes elegantly. the world she creates remains a picture in your mind. A picture of emotion, a galaxy of healthy psychological intrigue which lays in the reader a foreboding apprehension (at least that is how I felt). I do believe that some things she wrote might have been lost in translation BUT one reason I did;t like this book was because nothing linked. There was no flow to the story. It was almost like cutting paragraphs from different stories and trying to mash them together (it didn’t work).
I believe I was supposed to feel a sense of loss and then connect to the main character’s grief but I just could not. There was too much weirdness going on with the mother describing getting companionship from her toddler than her husband “I felt no desire for the man, my husband. Momo was warmth enough. As long as I suckled her, my body had no desire for my husband. I had no tenderness for him”. I can explain this away with postpartum anxiety or depression but since the book did not explore this I cannot confirm. It was just weird. Even with the walks, they go on in Manazuru, I got nothing substantial from the story. It was vague, random and honestly all over the place…
Rating
I gave this book 2 out of 5 stars
With This Ring by Natasha Knight
Review
I will admit that I liked this book a lot more than I thought I would. This was because cartel and mafia tropes are usually a hit or miss for me. Luckily this one was a hit.
Christiano would do anything to get back at the family who destroyed his family. Trigger warning for rape, murder, suicide and a lot more. He has been hunting the De La Cruz family and he has managed to kill the members who were responsible for the death of his parents, and his sister. He was lucky to get away with his life.
One thing he finds himself unable to do is to kill Scarlett De La Cruz and her younger brother! He should kill them but he is simply unable. I mean killers also have their moral standards. He believes she knows nothing about his family destruction and killing her younger brother would serve no purpose. He takes her and he plans to use her and discard her later. That way he sends a message to the cartel. But he did not plan for his heart to become entrapped.
I would have rated this book higher if I was not convinced that she had Stockholm Syndrome.
Rating
I gave this book 3.2 out of 5 stars
I Thee Take by Natasha Knight
Review
Christiano and Scarlett got married. While Scarlett fancied herself in love with Christiano, he was getting married to her in hopes that it would be a signal to the cartel and for them to work under him. Everything seemed to be going as planned until he found out that she was not a virgin. He assumed she was and she never corrected him. Anyways he flipped out and called her a slut. Leaving her in the room. Whilst he was gone, she was kidnapped by her uncle and the opposing side. She was about to be sold on a ship when she was saved but Christiano.
This book is just so dark but because it covers everything up with hot sex scenes and hot talk. I have to emphasize trigger warnings again in this book: rape, murder, incest, sex trafficking, human trafficking, sex with a minor (paedophilia) e.t.c There are so many TW because this book did not make anything look pretty, it was as raw as it could be.
Rating
I gave this book 3.8 out of 5 stars
Thanks for reading