Book Review: Raw by Belle Aurora

Author: Belle Aurora

Release Date: January 2014

Publisher: CreateSpace

Pages: 358

Rating: 5 stars

Buy on: Amazon

Add to: Goodreads , Leafmarks

***Author Note: This is not a love story. This is a story of love gone wrong.*** Growing up the way I did, you'd think I'd be more screwed up than what I actually am. Soon as I turned sixteen, I left that bump in the road I called home and took my chances on the street. Best decision I ever made. Now, at the age of twenty six, I'm educated, employed and damn good at my job. My friends have become my family. Like me, they know what it's like to grow up unloved. But the saying is true. The world makes way for those who know where they are going. That's me. I know where I'm going and I'll get there eventually. On my own terms and at my own pace. But then there's him. I feel his eyes on me. I see him hiding in plain sight. He watches me. He makes me feel. It's unconventional. But it's real. I'm sure you're wondering how a person falls in love with their stalker. So am I. This isn't a story. This is my life. ***This book includes situations that some may find uncomfortable.

My Thoughts:

DISCLAIMER: This book contains mature context,drugs, violence and foul language.

Raw is one of those books that talk about hard stuff. It is one of those books that attempt to change the readers view on a specific topic while some fail some others succeed. Raw is one of the books in the later category.

This is not a love story, this is love story gone terribly wrong. The book is written in an alternative pov that makes it even better, at least for me.

Everything starts with Alexa, a child of the system who made it big in Australia as a successful case worker, she is dedicated to her job, she loves the people she is responsible for and she has a stalker. Normal stuff.

I liked Alexa since page one, she is smart, and careful and leads a pretty normal life like every other person until one night everything she considers normal will wash away, she will come face to face with danger, recklessness and she will find her self in a world so much different that he own. But she is not afraid to just jump in and get the best out of it.

Meet Twitch, the stalker. The guy who has been watching Alexa for a year, an unstable psychopath, who needs anger management lessons and he is a bad person in general, from whatever point of view you decide to take it. To be honest, I loved Twitch because he is not your normal anti-hero. The guy is dark and twisted and literally he has no heart. He has nothing inside him that can love anyone or anything. He is scary, terrifying and he is real. A real stalker.

These two, are so much different, yet they have something in common. A memory that has defined both of them differently.

This is a book that shows us that labeling people can be deceiving, because looks don;t always matter. A book about finding your dark side and embarrassing it, a book that will tear your heart in little pieces and throw them out of the fucking window.

While reading this book I came to realise that no one is truly lost until you try till you drop to save him, to help him, to show them that you care. The book was twisted, and sad, with a lot of ups and downs and fucking twists that made me pull my hair out of my skull one by one. When you feels sure that you know something there comes the twist that makes you look at the page like an alien. Like you dont understand what you are reading. I loved that, because its been some time since I read a book that I actually did not want to turn the page because I was terrified of what will happen next. Raw is not an emotional roller coaster is a roller coaster ride gone terribly bad.

To be honest, I dont; know how I feel about stalkers right this moment, but it may have changed my view more than I am anticipating. These are people too that something went wrong in their lives at some point that made them who they are. Everyone goes through something that defines us as humans it is just some people tend to not take it that well and end up on the other side, the dark side.

While the book was exceptionally well written and it had its doses (apart from sadness, terror, mind blowing sex) of (surprise) humor that had me rolling on the floor with tears in my eyes and some romantic scenes (that were followed by pain) the ending was bloody awful. Literally.

I feel that its a cliffhanger so it better be a second book on the way. So, for people who hate cliffhangers and promising endings this book is not for you.

I recommend this book, because it is dark, twisted and something different from what we are used reading on the erotica genre.

this book reminded me of this song: Whore by In This Moment

Book Review: Catch Me by Claire Contreras

Author: Claire Contreras
Release Date: November 17th 2013
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Pages: 390
Rating: 2.5 stars
Buy on: Amazon
Add to Goodreads

In the past, I've always been given everything I've wanted, but nothing that I truly needed. I've experienced a lot of things in my twenty-five years, everything except the one thing I want. It's the one thing that can't be bought. It can't even be taken, it has to be given. And nobody has ever given it to me, not really anyway. Not until him. Music is the center of both our lives, but as he found his place in it, I lost my way. He soared, while I spiraled down a destructive path. I lost myself in more ways than I can count. The ironic thing is that I didn't realize how lost I was until he found me. And now that he has, I have to wonder if he'll stay around long enough to catch me.

My Thoughts:

Warning...extreme nagging.

Meet Brooklyn. Ex- drug addict, depressed, daughter of a multi millionaire, traumatized by her selfish mother, traumatized by the death of her best friend and a girl that blames everything on other people but somehow manages to land the perfect boyfriend.

This was the most dragged out story I ever read. But let me start from scratch.

Brooklyn, although she was damaged goods had a likable character and although the story was hard to get into , I liked her from page one. I like that Ms Contreras gave us a lot of background story on Brooklyn in order to make it easier for the reader to understand the present. The story is being told by Brooklyn's pov and sometimes we get to see a chapter dedicated to a past situation or we get memories that shaped her and eventually made her to what she is today.

What I hated about the book was that there were important incidents, situations and stuff going on that eventually the author ignored all together and that was a bummer. Since you introduce something that has the main character crying and breaking up inside and put us, the readers, through hell and back with the emotional roller coaster, make us a favor and give us the story. Describe, dont just refer to it in one sentence and done with it. That made me feel like the book didnt have a point, at all.

Meet Nick, the perfect (as humanly possible) music producer and eventually Brooklyn's boyfriend that had the most misleading description ever. I expected an Alpha male. A guy that was rough and rude and a bad boy from the image that he was promoting but instead we get a sweet, cute, love talking man that (I dont complain I liked him a lot) was what I wasnt expecting. Misleading much? Yeah.

There are a lot of hair pulling situations in this book but I felt like the emotions sometimes were flat and not enough for what was going on. I felt more for Nick than I did for Brooklyn. Oh, and the love triangle wasnt as intense as I was expecting it to be. Another turn off was the kind of instalove-ish thing that was going on. There was time for the characters to meet and although there was a pull that they both felt still the insta-love was there ready to consume us all.

To be honest this was an A-Ok book but I dont think it worths your time...

 Efterpi