Veronica will tell you what goodre@ds will not

Alex Roe as Rome



****4 AMAZING, Yet unsafe STARS****
Coming from my monogamist, perverted little heart it's almost like a gazillion stars. I'm not joking, when a book is tagged as romance I get picky and I need possessive heroes and commited heroines. I rarely give 5 stars to unsafe books (ACOMAF was a glorious exception) unless there's something outside the romance and that something has to be really amazing to impress me.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, Trickery is an amazing book. I'm impressed!

I'll say this book is the perfect choice if you want a light fantasy book to take with you to the beach. You won't find complicated world-building. You won't find poetic prose and heavy social issues. You'll find a story of friendship, bravery and the eternal mystery of why opposites attract. And of course you'll find 5 hot guys completely devoted to their heroine.

I like the world building! I know that some fantasy readers prefer overdescriptive, detailed worldbuiding and everything explained in book 1 of the series, but I don't. I don't want to know the whole history and politics of the world in the first books of the series. I prefer the kind of worldbuilding that has the potential to grow throughout the series. Think Harry Potter, and Hunger games. Book 1 didn't explain the history and politics of the world but we the impatient readers eventually discovered what was going on as the series progressed. This one has potential to become really epic.

Jaymin Eve and Jane Washington provide us readers with enough information of their magic world:Minatsol, to understand Willa's position and why the Abcurse brothers infatuation with her are a big deal.

Minatsol is a world where not everyone is equal. Willa, a walking disaster, cheats during her "exams" and therefore she gets a high ranking that gives her the "privilege" of travelling with her sister to a very exclusive academy. Not to study but to serve the demigods who attend the school there.

I disagree with anyone who calls Willa stupid. She is quite smart actually. There are several types of inteligence. Willa has interpersonal and intrapersonal, skills. She's also good at language, I mean, all her witty comebacks. Poor Willa just doesn't have the kind of intelligence that allows normal people to put one foot in front of the other without tripping. That's the kinesthesic intelligence, but other than that she's quite smart and I like her. I guess some people will find her sense of humor juvenile, but I think that's what really made me enjoy this book. 

I had the most amazing pic to fancast the other abcurse brothers but for some reason it's not working. It must be that Willa's pull for chaos is rubbing on me.

Anyway, I think this book is different. I don't think it's romantic, and I'm uncapable to root for Willa with all the brothers. I prefer possessive, strong heroes and I think Rome is the one who really seemed more affected by the fact that Willa has a thing for ALL THE BROTHERS. I hope he eventually finds someone else or that Willa chooses him, but that doesn't seem the point of the series. The whole point seems to make the reader laugh so I'll read the next of the series and hopefully I'll enjoy the sequels as much as I enjoyed this one even if there's not a single couple to root for ... or maybe there are too many of them.. I might even preorder Seduction, book 3 of this series because my friends are all hyped about it. I think it's the most anticipated November release in the YOung adult section.

I'm not writing a parental guidance alert...yet because this book was clean, but I don't know whether the authors will try to be like Tahere Mafi and Sarah J. Maas and change genres, from clean YA to raunchy no-fade-to-black-during-sex-scenes-New-Adult later in the series. 

Do you need a laugh?A mindless YA? Juvenile jokes and hot guys?Read Trickery.

Pre-reading thoughts
I wasn't going to read this because TRIANGLES AND POLYGONS AREN'T MY THING. But I need a light young adult fantasy and My dear friend Karen says that this Fantasy book is the opposite of a Sarah J. Maas books and that ingrigued me. How is that even possible?

I also pick a popular overly anticipated series once in a while to read and Seduction book 3 of this series is coming in November: I don't think I'm exaggerating that it has to be the MOST ANTICIPATED YOUNG ADULT FANTASY NOVEMBER REALEASE, judging by the level of interest amogn my friens. Before Seduction appears all over my newsfeed with me not having an idea of what's going on I decided to step out of my confort zone of safe romances and go for something that everyone says is quite funny and different. I honestly hate reading on going, unfinished series because I hate cliffhangers. But usually Young adult Kindle unlimited authors finish their series quickly so I'm here ready. I'm not expecting romance. How could it be with so many love interest? 

Wish me luck. I really want to love this one.

Note: Unsafe means that there are other partners activities meaning kissing, watching naked and I usually hate that so. I wonder how I'd feel about this one.

TRIGGER WARNINGS ALERT Stay away from this one if you prefer safe reads. Don't read my review if the word "rape" makes you unconfortable, because I use it a lot, because this book has a lot of that. My review contains spoilers so beware.


I don't recommend this if you feel uncomfortable reading about:

Pedophilia Nicasius is only 13 and he's used as a sex slave. The worst is that he is supposed to be willing to be forever a sex slave because the king, his master, gets tired of children when they grow up and Nicasious is eagerly searching for a new master. 

Rape and Sexual violence Damianos the Main character is entered in a slave contest where the loser gets raped. He gets drugged by Laurent "his love interest" so that he'll get weakened and lose the contest and Laurent can watch when Damianos gets raped...publicily!! In this book the court takes rape as a sport. Later Damiano's forced to receive oral sex from another slave to the enjoyment of Laurent. I repeat, Laurent is the "love interest". 

No romance  by the end of the book there's not even a kiss

Stockholm Syndrome Erasmus, A sexual slave, gets raped all the time but he supposedly enjoys being a sex pet and is all grateful when he gets to serve another master because said master treats sex-slaves "better". Sorry but in what sick world a sex-slave enjoys being a slave?How is that romantic or sexy? 

Extreme violence  Laurent, the MC "love interest", is a Prince and he gives orders to whip Damianos. This is vividly described and Damianos spends some time recovering from his injuries. How is that romantic? 

Double standards So Christian Grey gets the sh*t here in GR although he NEVER raped ANA, (although, to be honest he pushed her consent, but NEVER raped her) yet Laurent gets nothing but praise??? So dubious consent, sexual violence, and rape are okay when the characters are male? NO JUST NO!! That's not feminist at all, that's not fair. If the main character had been Princess Damiana everyone and their dog would be screaming murder. "Oh the abusive relationship in romance!" But because the victim is a male then it's okay? How is that fair? 

Unsafe reads This is supposedly a slow-burn-romance between two males, but there's a lot of cheating and disloyalty. [ In the sequel of this rape -fest Laurent who is Damianos owner and master, "lends" Damianos to a group of women warriors so that they can use him for reproductive purposes. Laurent's not even slightly jealous! He laughs with joy when Damianos returns to their tent worn-out from having sex with a lot of women in just one night. Damianos is attracted to Laurent but he is more attracted to women than to males. So we the readers don't get a little bit of cute jealousy and the couple doesn't kiss until way into the second book. 

I'm not the most articulated, coherent reviewer, so I invite you to read these reviews if you want more info on the problematic issues of this book.

Cait's review
Lainey's review

This book makes me angry. The writing is exquisite and clever, but it's the most disgusting portrayal of an M/M relationship. Contrary to what this book portrays, Homosexual Men have healthy, committed relationships . This is not the best book to portray diverse couples, because, as it is, a lot of people think wrongly that homosexuality and bisexuality are against nature and that Bisexuals and Homosexual aren't capable of loving, committed relationships. This book only re-inforces the idea of sexually "degenerated" characters. In real life gay people aren't like this. Not at all.

I gave two stars to the sequel because the graphic rapes aren't present. It's cleverly written and it's addictive, but it's still a harsh read because poor Nicaise. It's not fair what happened to him.

Final note: There are reviewers here in GR who praise this book to no end, and yet get all angry and write rants about romances like Twilight, Hopeless, FSOG, Beautiful disaster and other romance books of the romance genre. At time it feels like some of those reviewers are trying to make the people who enjoy, for example, FSOG bad with themselves because "they are supporting a book that portrays an abusive relationship". Yet they go and praise this very abusive book. 

This isn't about me having a problem with the people who like this book. I think it's okay if people enjoy this kind of books because

* Everyone has different tastes and opinions and all opinions are equally valid. You enjoy this book? That's fine.
* WE ALL ARE SMART! WE ALL KNOW HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE REALITY FROM BOOKS. We all know that In real life rape is wrong. The people who love this book to death aren't supporters of rape, this is just a book. But just like the the captive prince fanbase knows the difference between reality and books, the FSOG fanbase knows better than go and get themselves in abusive relationships because of a book.

My problem is when the double standard comes:Contrary to popular GR belief the people who enjoy books that portray abusive M/F relationships are as smart as the people who enjoys Captive prince. Just saying. 

So anyone who enjoys FSOG or any other bad-reviewed romance, but never says it aloud for fear of how their opinion will make them look in a site like GR where people trash "abusive relationship" books, should say it aloud. Most of FSOG bashers are top reviewers who praise this rape-fest so there's nothing wrong with liking FSOG or any other poorly-reviewed romance. 

If you like me feel unconfortable reading certain topics, ignore most of the 5 star reviews, very few of them mention the problematic issues of this book and most lack trigger warnings. Read some 3 stars reviews and some triggers warnings before deciding if this book is for you or not

Goodreads are deleting books along with reviews of short stories that appear on magazine websites or in anthologies.^{[screenshot 1] [screenshot 2]}

For some reason this doesn’t affect stories published on authors’ websites or Tor.com shorts, but at least two of my reviews have been deleted, for the 2014 Hugo Award winningSelkie Stories Are for Losers by Sofia Samatar published byStrange Horizons and Hugo nominated If you were a dinosaur, my love by Rachel Swirsky published by Apex Magazine, although it’s also available as an audio download. I actually received these stories in multiple formats as part of my LonCon3 Hugo Voter Pack.

Continue reading →

At the moment of posting this my goodreads review for A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES  has 131 likes so it should appear on the second page of that site. That isn't the case and I wonder one more time for the reasons goodreads employees are trying to cover up the information and reviews that can help readers make informed decisions. My Tower of dawn review by this same author rhas been supressed from the first page of reviews even though it currently has 265 likes.

I also want to point out that this book portrays abusive relationships (Feyre and her older sisters, Feyre and her two love interests)and torture by one of the love interests. That isn't a reason for not reading the book, it's just something you should know as many booktubers and reviewers aren't commenting on these kind of problematic content. If that doesn't bother you I highly recommend this series. Please don't take my word for it, do your own research.

Here are the links to the reviews that were censored by goodreads team

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1272748928
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31450852

My review will contain spoilers.

UPDATE APRIL 12TH ADDING PARENTAL GUIDANCE AND SAFETY WARNINGS because kirkus reviews, some GR librarians and most booktubers won't tell you the truth. This is a New adult book not as close to erotica as ACOMAF but still. I'm also changing my original 5 rating to a 3.5 rating


PARENTAL GUIDANCE
SEX/NUDITY 8 out 10 Descriptive make outs. Heroine is sleeping with a villager at the beginning of the book but it's not a graphic scene, some nudity descriptions, a graphic sex scene,including oral, between Tamlin and Feyre . Ritual sex is mentioned as part of a ceremony called Calanmai 


VIOLENCE/GORE 7 out of 10  descriptions of torture to heroine, some of it by one of the love interests (Rhysand), a villager is burned alive during days because the villains mistook her for the heroine. The elder sisters of the heroine are emotionally abusive and unhelpful, they reap the benefits of heroine's sacrifices for themselves without lifting a finger. 

PROFANITY 5/10 some curse words, some sexual references

SUBSTANCE USE 6/10 as every single character in this book is 19 or older or a milleneal ancient fae alcohol consumption is present. Mostly at meals and during a ceremony called Calanmai


SAFETY WARNINGS, possible spoilers for the rest of the series

In this series we have two heroes: Tamlin is the love interest in book 1 and he has sex with another woman after meeting the heroine because it's part of a certain FAE ceremony that keeps fae strong. They aren't together yet so it's not exactly cheating but that's the reason I didn't connect with Tamlin. Well the OW sex and the whole begging- on-his- knees- to- a -rival- for- the -heroine's -safety. That was just stupid. 

In book 2 the love interest switches, Rhysand who appears as the villain in book 1 becomes love interest and Tamlin becomes a jerk, no one roots for Tamlin after chapter 4 because he acts stupidly. But we get a very graphic sex scene of heroine and Tamlin together at the beginning of A COURT OF MIST AND FURY. As someone who is team rhysand I didn't enjoy that sex scene. I got very happy with the rest of the book because Tamlin dissapears and later there's a lot of sex with Rhysand, but yeah, this is an unsafe read. 


So my original rating changes to 3.5 I can't rate lower in spite of the safety issues because book 2 is one of my all time favourites.

WARNINGS WARNINGS 
I don't recommend this book if you feel uncomfortable with books that depict graphically

* Pedophilia/rape [ A 9 year old girl forced to marry and later bear a child to a grown man (hide spoiler)]

* Incest/child abuse [ The Buendia family members are constantly falling in love with close cousins, half brothers, nephews. An older woman Amarantha makes out with her underage nephew (hide spoiler)]
* Non sensical Violence [ including the cruel death of a newborn, and that's the ending scene. This book leaves you feeling disturbed (hide spoiler)]
*Prostitution
* Cheating
* Bestiality
* Women treated as objects sometimes by their own parents





If you like me grew up reading marvelous books like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Twilight, The Hunger games, which are all extremely strong in terms of characterization and character development and which are at times trashed by the same critics that praised this piece of cr%p, I doubt you'll enjoy this book because:

* No plot, everything is a messy mix of twisted, and I mean TWISTED, disturbing, cringe-inducing family anecdotes
*No character development. 
* Poor character presentation. Other than I know that Amarantha is somehow fierce it's difficult to describe the rest of the characters personalities. What are their goals? What do they want? What do they fear? Who are they? What are their motivations?
* Poor worldbuilding. Am I supposed to know how Macondo, the setting of this book looks like? All I know is that Macondo founders were trying to reach the sea and they couldn't and were tired of travelling so I know there's no sea close to this town. The rules of this world don't seem to follow a logic, either. It's like Garcia Marques just smoke weed and added whatever he saw when he was under the effects of the weed to add magical elements here and there. I rarely notice worldbuilding issues in my reads because I have a strong imagination. Even books that don't describe the rules of their worlds or the setting properly don't turn me off, but since this book is universally praised as a "master piece" I was expecting more. 
* No coherent timeline, Little to No dialogue
* Author breaking the rule of show don't tell 98% of the book




I should have tried to convince my professor to change this assigment. I should've told him that this kind of topics are potential PTSD triggers for me (which is 100% true, although usually books don't activate triggers for me, certain kind of music and smells are triggering for me) or that they are against my religious beliefs (that'd been a lie, but I wish I had lied) Maybe it wouldn't have worked and still I'd been stuck to read this horrible book, but these professors should be more responsible when assigining this kind of disturbing readings and forcing people to read them taking away our sacred right of DNF a book we don't enjoy .

I'm aware that the author won a Nobel Prize, but it seems to me that it was more like the academy thought it'd be rebellious and edgy to give an award to this author leaving other more talented authors out, therefore steering controversy. Sort of like they did when they gaveBob Dylan the Nobel Prize even if he's a songwriter and poet more than a book writer.

I don't even know who is supposed to enjoy this book. I think that some Hispanic readers might find something good in this book because it seems to me that the author at times was talking about Colombian/Hispanic political issues in a metaphoric way, but honestly there wasn't enough of that.

Also, the opening line of this book is supposedly matter of study in English literature courses around the world 


'Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.'


I can see why some readers might find that intriguing and get hooked from there, but I read a lot of books with great opening lines/paragraphs in commercial literature. Angefall by Susan EE, Divergent by Veronica Roth, Maze Runner by James Dashner have strong opening lines that get you hooked. I think every reader gets hooked by different opening lines, so why critics and scholars think this opening line is better than any is beyond me. However, I'll say that the ending scene was strong and extremely disturbing. It's a scene that will make you feel haunted and in search of a happy reading because [ A newborn is eaten by ants. You're supposed to imagine the ants carrying only the carcass of what was moments before a lovely baby ... who was born with a pigtail O_O (hide spoiler)]

I'm only writing this because I need to organize my ideas for my essay. I doubt that writing my honest opinion about this trash will earn me a good mark, so I'm trying to find an angle to write about. Maybe I can write about the role of women in Garcia's books. The other Garcia's book I read was Chronicle of a foretold death which was thankfully short and somehow realistic, but still 100% misogynist. An oudated view of women is common in this author's writings.
My recommendations if you are forced to read this author:

* Write notes for each time a new Buendia appears. There are at least a dozen characters sharing almost the exact name and that is confusing
* Don't expect character development, don't expect world building
* Don't expect brilliant dialogue, although you can expect beautiful monologues
* Expect a lot of info-dumping and exposition
* Expect a lot of magical elements, but not the kind of magic that makes you want to live in this world.
* Expect a lot of misogynism It's like the author comes from ancient times or the Taliban and his views on women are very outdated. As a demi-feminist some scenes were hard to stomach.
* Keep an enjoyable read at hand because sometimes you're tired of this world and you want to get out of it by reading something good.

Long story short, this book is way Overrated. Overrated doesn't cover it. I think the author, may he rest in peace, might have written it under the effects of the weed.




Best reviews I found on GR:
Martine's

Adam's

Update November 5th Adding warnings for my friends who expect not only faithful hero but 0% OW activity. Look my warnings at the end of my original review. This is important because this is a book that I recommend all the time to readers who like me hate cheating
4.5 solid stars, rounded because this is a great New adult read, FREE OF CHEATING, barely any slutshaming and the hero is just adorable. I've found a new book boyfriend!


Devin Paisley as Garrett!





Thank you so much my friends of the safety gang for giving me information of this book. I was about to pass on this one because the author is the same of that rape fest, disloyal hero fest, antiromantic sex-scenes called Paper princess. I can't believe this is from the same author. Where one book seems to be pro-rape, and is 100% inappropiate for a "YA romance" audience, this book was sexy, romantic, funny, smart (for the most part), realistic from the point of view of an abuse survivor and her strugles, full of anti-rape messages, (almost)free of slutshaming, mature but still addictive in spite of the lack of drama and it was definetely a joy to read. In short the word I'm really looking for to describe this book is AWESOME!

Garrett is the ideal book-boyfriend if you were looking for one. He manages to be a tortured soul, manwhore without being a cheater or a disgustingly abusive guy! He was so manly and sweet at the same time. And the best is that he had a very funny side. I laughed so much with his wit and his charm. I love him so much that I got pissed of at Hannah for taking a stupid decision later that hurt him so much, but other than that I didn't have problems with this book.




All starts when Hannah, an abuse survivor and an "almost-non-TSTL" heroine (TSTL=too stupid to live) agrees to tutor Garrett in exchange of him helping her to get the attention of her crush. I say almost non TSTL because what I noticed from the two Elle Kennedy books I've read is that her heroines are strong for the first part of the book and later they become obedient and go along with the crap others put on them. For 70% of the book I was like "This is going to be a 6 stars" and it wasn't until the end that I had problems with Hannah because [ she looses her spunk or more like Elle Kennedy makes her lose her spunk. She lets herself be blackmailed and intimated by Garret's father. I wouldn't have even agreed to talk to that horrible man (he beats his wife and beat Garret when he was a kid), but she does it because "otherwise she wouldn't be able to concentrate in work" and then it's obvious that this man wouldn't retire financial support from Garret. I wouldn't have fallen for that, I would have put that man in his place, and even if I had believe his lies, I would have talked to Garret first rather than hurt him. There were so many ways the separation could have gone withouth her turning in a TSTL girl. Not only that. She doesn't talk about this to her friends, and then she lets herself be convinced into talking to a traitorous girl who treated her badly in the past during a recital. I wouldn't have talked to that bitch, but in the same recital Hannah is too agreable to this girl and too cold to her friends (hide spoiler)] but I still would prefer to root for Hannah 100000000 times over Ella, the heroine from the other Kennedy book I read. At least Hannah managed to be FUNNY, AND SMART FOR 80% of the book, she didn't slut-shame and she didn't let Garrett set the tone of the relationship or ordered her around. I love that in heroines.

Another thing that I love about this book is that sometimes you find adult fiction/erotica marketed as New adult reads, but there's barely any references to college life, to coming of age journeys and to trying to find your place while you're studying. Example of this would be At any price by Breana Audrey. It's labeled NA, but in reality it's more adult/erotica/romantic suspense. I love New adult, I love to see the struggles of people reaching adulthood but not quite there yet. This book is new adult featuring college life, full of college/coming of age situations and in my opinion a must read of the genre.

The romance builds slowly betweent these two, but it's not completely free of insta-love. I think it has the right rhythm for you to root for these two to be together, it's fast in a way but still you get to know them really well before anything happens. I enjoyed so much that. This book reminds me a lot of Beautiful disaster with the difference that Garrett never considers cheating throughout the customary separation of the couple that happens in all NA reads. Hannah considers cheating, though! But at the end nothing horrible happens and we get our HEA and closure. No cliffhanger here.

I'm recommending this to romance readers who like me hate TSTLness, cheating heroes, slut shamming and "adult" characters acting like teens. It's been a while since a contemporary romance impressed but The Deal surprised me in a good way, just when I was about to give up on the erotic romance genre.

WARNINGS
There is OW activity twice. Once the same day H talks h for the first time and another when she's still crushing in another guy but she's slowly falling for hero. I didn't mind. My hard limit is when that happens after our couple kiss for the first time. [ In this book OW happens when they were only strangers and later friends and it wasn't detailed. The first time is fade to black, the second time is a little more visual, I could picture the scene but rather than upsetting me I laughed at it because it was awkward the way Hannah caught him. It didnt' bother me other than I wish Hannah had refused to change their appointment. However, since a lot of my friends hate OW activity and one even didn't finish the book because these scenes I added the warning. I'd say also that I haven't read book 2 but I DNF book 3 because OW activity was too detailed for my taste but that's another free of cheating book, just be careful 

Just to add some parental guidance, this is one of the few YA reads marketed as YA that are indeed clean, but I'll add a warning for language. Nothing particularly innaproppiate, no f- bombs. 
Nothing they wouldn't hear on TV.

4.5 stars rounded because FINALLY! A young adult is REALLY a young adult book, and not a NEW ADULT book pretending to lure underage teens to its dirty sex scenes (cough ACOMAF cough)

This book is REAL, age appropiate young adult. 



Seriously. I can't be the only one noticing that lately you find almost the same amount of nudity, drama, sex, and heavy topics such as drugs, rape, cheating, bullying, violence, and "inappropiate" behaviour in "YA romance" books than you'd find in edgy New adult, adult fiction, even erotica. (cough Paper Princess, cough)



Well ladies and gentleman THE WAY TO GAME THE WALK OF SHAME (promising yet tonguetwister-ish title) is a book that isn't trying to pretend to be what isn't. You know from reading the blurb that you'll encounter the typical high school drama, the bad boy, the nerdy girl, the fake relationship, the mean characters and for once CUTE YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE LIGHT ON DRAMA AND A FULL OF CUTE, AGE APPROPIATE FUN. Anyone looking for heavy drama, originality or edginess won't find it here. This is a book that might appeal to readers in search of a romance with no complications, no cheating, plenty of fun banter, cuteness and in short, ENTERTAINMENT.

As I said, this book isn't prentending and isn't pretentious. It's not trying to be original, what book is? and it's not trying to be intelectual. The premise is very basic and very compelling. Taylor, a nerdy girl, is bullied at her school for being, well, nerdy! Oh! so you're a nerd? virgin? bookworm? Let's make fun of you. 

Then our nerdy heroine finds herself in the bed of the school playboy. Isn't that cool? And neither remember a lot of that "wild" night.

It turns our that our virginal nerd girl finds herself again the victim of bullying. This time one of the worst forms of bullying: slutshaming. OH how dare you sleep with a manwhore? Someone you aren't dating? He can sleep with a lot of girls and that's fine, but YOU are a woman and you shouldn' t ake control of your sexual life, you shouldn't make bad decisions, you should stay in your nerdy role and never stray from it. To get rid of the slutshaming she asks Evan (book boyfriend, I want him to be real) to date her in real life and he not only accepts! he even drafts a contract! Who the hell has a contract for a relationship?

Perhaps .... 




or 



This fake relationship is supposed to save heroine's reputation. Because slutshaming works with double standards and women can never win. If you are a virgin you're a prude, a judgmental bitch, an undersirable nerd. If you sleep with someone after a moment of poor judgement you are a slut. All this sounds very heavy right? It's what's happening, in this school and all around us, but that's not what the book is about. The author could have made this book an anti-slutshaming and pro-feminist book, but instead she focused in the story, in the fun, in the banter, in the entertaining factor. This book is not preachy at all, it's not dramatic. It's just fun for the sake of fun!

The book being a Young adult book, doens't have a lot of steaminess, but it compensates that with cuteness and smiles. YOu have to suspend disbelief a little because the attitude of the teachers in this book is almost supporting of bullying in a student, but other than that I think this book is a great read. It might be silly at times, this is a book that you shouldn't think too much or you might start to find things that will ruin your reading experiences. This is a mindless reading but that's what makes it a great summer read.

I want to read more of the author.

Safety issues:H unfortunately kind of has eyes for other girls after starting to date the heroine, but everything was so cute that didn't bother me.

Just to add some parental guidance, this is one of the few YA reads marketed as YA that are indeed clean, but I'll add a warning for language. Nothing particularly innaproppiate, no f- bombs. 
Nothing they wouldn't hear on TV.

4.5 stars rounded because FINALLY! A young adult is REALLY a young adult book, and not a NEW ADULT book pretending to lure underage teens to its dirty sex scenes (cough ACOMAF cough)

This book is REAL, age appropiate young adult. 



Seriously. I can't be the only one noticing that lately you find almost the same amount of nudity, drama, sex, and heavy topics such as drugs, rape, cheating, bullying, violence, and "inappropiate" behaviour in "YA romance" books than you'd find in edgy New adult, adult fiction, even erotica. (cough Paper Princess, cough)



Well ladies and gentleman THE WAY TO GAME THE WALK OF SHAME (promising yet tonguetwister-ish title) is a book that isn't trying to pretend to be what isn't. You know from reading the blurb that you'll encounter the typical high school drama, the bad boy, the nerdy girl, the fake relationship, the mean characters and for once CUTE YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE LIGHT ON DRAMA AND A FULL OF CUTE, AGE APPROPIATE FUN. Anyone looking for heavy drama, originality or edginess won't find it here. This is a book that might appeal to readers in search of a romance with no complications, no cheating, plenty of fun banter, cuteness and in short, ENTERTAINMENT.

As I said, this book isn't prentending and isn't pretentious. It's not trying to be original, what book is? and it's not trying to be intelectual. The premise is very basic and very compelling. Taylor, a nerdy girl, is bullied at her school for being, well, nerdy! Oh! so you're a nerd? virgin? bookworm? Let's make fun of you. 

Then our nerdy heroine finds herself in the bed of the school playboy. Isn't that cool? And neither remember a lot of that "wild" night.

It turns our that our virginal nerd girl finds herself again the victim of bullying. This time one of the worst forms of bullying: slutshaming. OH how dare you sleep with a manwhore? Someone you aren't dating? He can sleep with a lot of girls and that's fine, but YOU are a woman and you shouldn' t ake control of your sexual life, you shouldn't make bad decisions, you should stay in your nerdy role and never stray from it. To get rid of the slutshaming she asks Evan (book boyfriend, I want him to be real) to date her in real life and he not only accepts! he even drafts a contract! Who the hell has a contract for a relationship?

Perhaps .... 




or 



This fake relationship is supposed to save heroine's reputation. Because slutshaming works with double standards and women can never win. If you are a virgin you're a prude, a judgmental bitch, an undersirable nerd. If you sleep with someone after a moment of poor judgement you are a slut. All this sounds very heavy right? It's what's happening, in this school and all around us, but that's not what the book is about. The author could have made this book an anti-slutshaming and pro-feminist book, but instead she focused in the story, in the fun, in the banter, in the entertaining factor. This book is not preachy at all, it's not dramatic. It's just fun for the sake of fun!

The book being a Young adult book, doens't have a lot of steaminess, but it compensates that with cuteness and smiles. YOu have to suspend disbelief a little because the attitude of the teachers in this book is almost supporting of bullying in a student, but other than that I think this book is a great read. It might be silly at times, this is a book that you shouldn't think too much or you might start to find things that will ruin your reading experiences. This is a mindless reading but that's what makes it a great summer read.

I want to read more of the author.

Safety issues:H unfortunately kind of has eyes for other girls after starting to date the heroine, but everything was so cute that didn't bother me.

TRIGGER FOR DATE RAPE VICTIMS
I hate when this happens. When everyone loves a book that I don't. I hate being minority. I signed up to goodreads to fangirl over books with other people, to like the five star reviews and ignore the haters. 



I love when all my friends read the same book and love it as much as I did.

I hate to rate this book. A lot of my goodreads friends have LOVED IT! And I can see why. For the most part of the book I loved it, too. Then the twist happens and everyone still loves the book, but I don't. I'm left outside. So, yeah it sucks to be minority.




I hate giving bad ratings. I'd rather not finish a book than give a bad rating. However if in other occassions I prefer not to post a review or even a rating because 
a) I don't want to waste more time than the book deserves
or

b)I can't pinpoint what I didn't like,

In this case I think I have to warn other readers who might have the same problem than I have. If you are warned, you might enjoy the book more than I did. In addition, I can tell when the book was ruined FOR ME. If you are warned of what you will find you might even give a 5 star rating, that I think the authors deserve because for the most part their book is not bad.


I think everyone will love this book way more than I do. People should give it a try. The authors have a way with words and for the majority of the book I THOUGHT THIS WAS FANTASTICLY compelling and AWESOME, I never considered not finishing it because the emotions, the characters, the journey were so good that I just couldn't put the book down. I would recommend this book to anyone who isn't a freak like me: A freak who has a high sensibility on hero having sexual activity of any kind with other women.




Why? Oh Why? Can't authors think of another way to create drama? Everything was going so well, then that twist. IIt ruins the sequels for me. I asked a refund from amazon and I'm not continuing with the series. Again that's me. I'm extremely sensitive to disloyal heroes
I wish there had been a warning for that twist. I hate hate hate hate when the authors write sexual content, date rape and disloyal heroes without a warning.

This is also a NA book marketed as YA. I'm okay with sex scenes, actually I get bored if a NA book doesn't have at least a bit of sexual tension and I prefer self-published authors because they cross the YA/NA boundaries more often than traditional published books. I just think the ethical thing to do is to warn the readers that there's sex in the book so people who like sex will buy it, and people who prefer "clean" reads stay away. Readers under 18 should stay clear from this book as it contains sexual content, language, date rape and dubious consent.

This book reminded me of Tijan's fallen crest series, except the twist I mentioned. I think that I wouldn't have hated the ending as much as I did if I haven't been so involved with Ella and Reed. If you don't mind  edgy content and you like Tiijan give this book a try. If you hate dark contet in books labeled as YA then this book might not be for you.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8465169-tamlin-let-out-a-low-snarl-of-approval-and-i

TRIGGER FOR DATE RAPE VICTIMS
I hate when this happens. When everyone loves a book that I don't. I hate being minority. I signed up to goodreads to fangirl over books with other people, to like the five star reviews and ignore the haters.



I love when all my friends read the same book and love it as much as I did.

I hate to rate this book. A lot of my goodreads friends have LOVED IT! And I can see why. For the most part of the book I loved it, too. Then the twist happens and everyone still loves the book, but I don't. I'm left outside. So, yeah it sucks to be minority.




I hate giving bad ratings. I'd rather not finish a book than give a bad rating. However if in other occassions I prefer not to post a review or even a rating because
a) I don't want to waste more time than the book deserves
or

b)I can't pinpoint what I didn't like,

In this case I think I have to warn other readers who might have the same problem than I have. If you are warned, you might enjoy the book more than I did. In addition, I can tell when the book was ruined FOR ME. If you are warned of what you will find you might even give a 5 star rating, that I think the authors deserve because for the most part their book is not bad.


I think everyone will love this book way more than I do. People should give it a try. The authors have a way with words and for the majority of the book I THOUGHT THIS WAS FANTASTICLY compelling and AWESOME, I never considered not finishing it because the emotions, the characters, the journey were so good that I just couldn't put the book down. I would recommend this book to anyone who isn't a freak like me: A freak who has a high sensibility on other woman drama.




Why? Oh Why? Can't authors think of another way to create drama? Everything was going so well, then that twist. IIt ruins the sequels for me. I asked a refund from amazon and I'm not continuing with the series. Again that's me. I'm extremely sensitive to cheating, Other woman drama and rape culture
I wish there had been a warning for that twist. I hate hate hate hate when the authors  make their heros look at other woman naked after H and h get together.

This is also a NA book marketed as YA. I'm okay with sex scenes, actually I get bored if a NA book doesn't have at least a bit of sexual tension and I prefer self-published authors because they cross the YA/NA boundaries more often than traditional published books. I just think the ethical thing to do is to warn the readers that there's sex in the book so people who like sex will buy it, and people who prefer "clean" reads stay away. Readers under 18 should stay clear from this book as it contains drugs, dubious consent and date rape attempt scenes.

This book reminded me of Tijan's fallen crest series, except the twist I mentioned. I think that I wouldn't have hated the ending as much as I did if I haven't been so involved with Ella and Reed. If you don't mind disloyal heroes and you like Tiijan give this book a try. If you hate when NA is labeled as YA then this book might not be for you.

Update 09-01-2017 A famous author whose name I won't mention because her fans are scary ;) borrowed heavily from this SELF-PUBLISHED book. Anyone who loves the words "my mate" repeated endlessly should read this book

Update October 11th. I wish more people knew about this book because I found no cheating and no slut shaming. Books that don't promote violence on women like Transcendence and are still steamy and compelling deserve more love.
Jared Padalecki as shaved Ehd

ORIGINAL REVIEW




Before I write my review of Surviving Raine it's fair that I review one of my 2015 favorites. I re-read Trascendence because I wanted to have a feel of the author's style before I dived into Survaiving Raine. My conclusion? I'm a huge fan Of Mrs. Savage. (Update Oct 10th, Not anymore after I tried her scifi books and read the spoilers for Surviving Raine sequels , but this book is fantastic)

We meet Ehd, a caveman who lives in the Ice-Age. He's also the loneliest man on the planet. He lost his tribe to a fire, all his family. He has struggled to survive these rough times. He doesn't have much of a life. He's SURVIVING. He hadn't seen another human being for a long time and Ehd's starting to think that he'll be alone forever.

A modern-day girl named Elizabeth appears magically. It's never clear how that happens but you can imagine the 20000 years age of cultural differences that separte these soon-to-be-couple. Ehd is determined to mate with her and surely you understand all the sexy implications of that decision.


Or should I say instict? Because Ehd is a very primitive man whose actions are driven by instict and eventually by LOVE.







He'll provide for her, he'll protect her from harm and he'll put a baby on her. A baby! That's cute and sexy at the same time.




What I love about this book is that we are all the time on Ehd's mind and his train of thought is amazing. He's naive, but strong, and he falls in love hard for his mate. He's extremely repetitive. My mate, I have to provide for my mate, she is my mate my mate is weird, I want my mate with me, I have to protect my mate . It's really primitive, cute and charming at the same time.



I love how this couple falls for each other slowly, how they solve their cultural differences and how, what started as a very instictive desire (I have to put a baby on her) ended up in a love that TRASCENDS THE TIME. Love trascends everything. I think just the title was so full of promise and the book delivered.

The steamy scenes are full of that longing, cuteness and awkwardness of two virgin people who are learning to love. That's the reason I read New Adult and Classic romance. This kind of storyline is always so romantic because it's like inexperience is another burden for a couple to overcome and when they do it correctly is always so romantic. Beh and Ehd journey to survive the harsh times they live in and at the same time discover love is one of the best I've read. It's beautiful.

My only minor complain about the book is that perhaps just a little less sex would have worked better for me, and a I wish there had beem a little bit of Beh's perspective. That would have made a huge difference in an already-awesome-book, but at the end I don't care. I just started to try to put bookmarks on my favorite lines and without meaning it, I ended up re-reading the whole book. FOR THE THIRD TIME. I have a lot of homework and tons of books to read, but couldn't stop. That's how much I love this book and why is one of 2015 favorites.

I have to appreciate how cute this story was and I can't describe it in words properly. I just love how original this is. No billionaires, no tattoed boys, no clones of Anastasia steele or aby abernathy OR bELLA Swan. The two characters feel real and refreshing. You have to suspend disbelief a lot, because some times Ehd is just too perfect and the traveling from one age to the other is not explained, but who cares? The book is an incredibly, fast-paced journey.

If you haven't read this book, what are you waiting for? Even if you don't like fantasy book and prefer a contemporary setting perhaps you will enjoy Shay Savage's contemporary romances. I know I did.