Unexpected by Elizabeth Aton

I received an opportunity to read and review a debut novel by Elizabeth Aton and I jumped on board. I certainly do not regret it.

(Side note: It still feels funny that people give me an ARC to read when I ask it or sometimes even offers me an ARC to read. Like why would they ask me, the not-at-all important person from different side of the world to read their book. The work that one book requires is insane and I get to read that book is a huge blessing. Most of the time I feel like I am not worth these ARC's. But I am eternally grateful for all the authors who trust me enough to let me read their books.)

But now, back to business.

Elizabeth Aton wrote her debut novel, which I find hard to believe. I've read worse books by authors who have published tons of book. And I don't mean the plot or characters. I mean the writing. Writing and the flow of the story are important to me. Sometimes you read a book with great characters, but the writing or flow isn't as great. But it wasn't a problem with Unexpected. 

Unexpected is well-written story that flows most of the time easily. Sure, for me, there were few moments that it felt like story stayed put, but those were small moments. Characters were easy to connect with. 

Unexpected is a story about a waiter and a rock star, who happens to be a single dad. This book is contemporary romance with some steam. I really can't say much more, because it really would spoil the experience for you. But I'll say that if you're a person who cries, like I am, you will cry so keep tissues nearby. The twists and turns keep coming. 

The things I liked. The cover, have you seen it? It's amazing! The characters, I liked the bandmates and Ava a lot. Whit and secondary characters were great, too. I liked the writing. I liked the flow, if you don't count few slow moments. The author, she's funny.

So, why I don't give five stars to this book? For me there were few loose ends. I would have liked to know what happened with certain things. There were few slow moments, which was sad, because other than those, the book was very capturing.  

I liked the promise that we get to see more of these characters in the next book of the series, which is about Whit's bandmate. 

Over all, this was a great debut novel and I really hope that Elizabeth Aton keeps writing!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Unexpected by Elizabeth Aton

2022

Between Hello & Goodbye by Emma Scott

Hi all. It has been a while, but I am slowly getting back there. Here's a review from, yet once again, great Emma Scott book. 

Thank you for Valentine PR and Emma Scott for giving me an ARC to read and review!

There are few things you know before you start reading a new book by Emma Scott. One, you know that the book is going to make you cry. Two, you know that when you start reading you can not stop the reading before the book ends. That's why I needed to wait for a weekend to start reading. Three, you know that you get to read a great story with great writing. 

Between Hello & Goodbye is a story about Faith. Story about Faith, the girl and faith for the new beginnings. Faith for the power inside you. Faith for the other people. Faith for that you can find the strength when it isn't anywhere to be seen. 

I loved Someday, Someday and that's a book where we first met Faith. But I didn't love Faith in that book. It would be stretch to say that I even liked her. I felt indifferent towards her. She wasn't my main focus while reading Someday, Someday. 

But this time Faith became my main focus and not just because she was supposed to come being one of the two main characters. She has many great qualities, but she doesn't have faith in herself. She sails through the life without bothering to look anything meaningful. She meets Asher, the hot fire fighter with so many people to care in his life and something starts to change in Faith. 

It's a cliche to say that love changes people, but maybe it really does or at least maybe love makes you think things differently and therefore makes you to make changes. I really don't know. But Faith certainly makes some changes in her life as does Asher. 

But love isn't easy and certainly not when you're living 2700 miles from each other. These people struggle with theirselves and their beliefs, wants and needs. They still have faith and certainty for their love. They want what's best for the other one and sometimes it means that you're losing. You are giving something great to someone, but at the same time you lose a piece of yourself. 

So, really. This book is about Faith. Faith for yourself, faith for the ones you love, faith for the future and faith for the fact that you're enough and capable. The faith in that life is not a competition. We all are here and we all are different, we all struggle and we all thrive. We are meant to be ourselves and we are meant to have faith. In this book we get to see that sometimes loving hurts, sometimes being in love is hard and still it's all worth it. 

Emma's writing was once again solid, flawless and heart breakingly beautiful. (I did cry while reading and my spouse just asked if the book was good.) The world is built beautifully, the characters are just right, they are real people with real feelings and actions. 

Can I say anything more? Not likely. Maybe I just share one of my favorite lines from the book, the one I can connect with "We all have our stuff. It's all valid."

Thank you, Emma, for once again great book. I really appreciate that I got to read this book. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Between Hello & Goodbye by Emma Scott

2022