Off The Map
Showing posts with label Off The Map. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Off The Map. Show all posts

INSIDE OUT

This here series is something amazing.
To be frank(if you thought of Outlander when you read that you're my soul mate), in all three of these books I honestly thought that I would lose connection. I thought focusing on two character for three books was taboo after reading stand alone after stand alone for quite sometime.
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Sideswiped

Title: Sideswiped

 Author: Lia Riley

 Published Date: October 7th 2014

 Rating: 4/5 Stars

 Synopsis: Talia Stolfi has seen more than her share of loss in her twenty-one years. But then fate brought her Bran Lockhart, and her dark world was suddenly and spectacularly illuminated. So if being with Bran means leaving her colorless NorCal life for rugged and wild Australia, then that's what she'll do. But as much as Talia longs to give herself over completely to a new beginning, the fears of her past are still lurking in the shadows.
Bran Lockhart knows that living without the beautiful girl who stole his heart will be torment, so he'll take whatever time with her he can. But even though she has packed up her life in California and is back in his arms for the time being, she can't stay forever. And the remaining time they have together is ticking by way too fast. Though fate seems determined to tear them apart, they won't give up without a fight-because while time may have limits, their love is infinite . . .

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Review: WARNING: This is book two of a trilogy... AND you NEED to have read Upside Down to understand anything and everything in this book.
Now that that bit's done. Let's move onto my ramblings about the book. Prepare yourselves.

 I know Lia Riley to the point where she teases me endlessly. She warned me that Sideswiped was going to be filled with hard times and I believed her for the most part. I mean look at her author profile pic (down below), that is not a face that can harm a readers soul. Well LIES. That face has lies! Lia's nice and all but man is there some deep stuff lurking in there.
Sideswiped starts off a few months after the events that occur in Upside Down, which is a HAPPY ending of some sort.
One thing I love about this series is that it reveals that not everything will be all fine and dandy when it comes to relationships. There's obstacles to overcome other than just being hesitant to revealing your emotions to your significant other.
You see both Talia and Bran have some crazy family problems and personal ones that they need to overcome. Talia did the majority of that obstacle conquering in book 1; this time, it's Bran's turn. And boy is it a turn.
You see, Bran is insecure and stubborn, for good reason. His family is crud and knowing that he believes himself to be unworthy about anything good that comes his way. There were so many times where I wanted to slap some sense into him. Brandon seems to focus more on the bad than the good. He knows he has something good, something amazing, with Talia but he lets his insecurities and past experiences drive his actions and you're yelling at the book "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!?!"

Bran throws himself pity parties and is scared. I understand the reasons but really he needed to grow some balls and take a chance. He loves Talia but he's scared witless, he doesn't have faith in Talia's love even though they say it to each other every breathing moment. And finally, when Talia takes action to better herself and this relationship he understand. He has his head on right. 
A lot of frustration and cussing went down while reading this. And when I start cussing I can't stop for hours... I've yet to stop. I mean the simple name Brandon has me spewing curse words (don't even ask to see my notes on Kindle).
Besides all the stupid actions that occur, the ending is worth it. Talia and Bran realized that not everything is black and white. They need to have faith in the gray and have faith in each other.   

Impatiently waiting for Inside Out
-Vangie
James 1:12
P.S. A second part of this review will go up sometime next week.



Author Bio & Links:
Lia Riley writes offbeat New Adult Romance. After studying at the University of Montana-Missoula, she scoured the world armed only with a backpack, overconfidence and a terrible sense of direction. She counts shooting vodka with a Ukranian mechanic in Antarctica, sipping yerba mate with gauchos in Chile and swilling XXXX with stationhands in Outback Australia among her accomplishments. When not torturing heroes (because c'mon, who doesn't love a good tortured hero?), Lia herds unruly chickens, camps, beach combs, daydreams about as-of-yet unwritten books, wades through a mile-high TBR pile and schemes yet another trip. She and her family live in Northern California.
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Upside Down by Lia Riley

Title: Upside Down

Author: Lia Riley

Publish Date: August 5th 2014

Rating: FIVE GOLDEN STARS

Synopsis: Twenty-one-year-old Natalia Stolfi is saying good-bye to the past-and turning her life upside down with a trip to the land down under. For the next six months, she'll act like a carefree exchange student, not a girl sinking under the weight of painful memories. Everything is going according to plan until she meets a brooding surfer with hypnotic green eyes and the troubling ability to see straight through her act.

Bran Lockhart is having the worst year on record. After the girl of his dreams turned into a nightmare, he moved back home to Melbourne to piece his life together. Yet no amount of disappointment could blind him to the pretty California girl who gets past all his defenses. He's never wanted anyone the way he wants Talia. But when Bran gets a stark reminder of why he stopped believing in love, he and Talia must decide if what they have is once in a lifetime . . . or if they were meant to live a world apart.
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Review:
*ARC provided by NetGalley for an honest review*
 
I went into this book ready for some fluffy times. I left this book broken. The kind of broken that somehow stays intact with a million cracks, but if a butterfly were to land on me I'd break and there'd be no way to put me back together. This book was that powerful.

Now don't get me wrong. Upside Down doesn't just have pain, there are literally LOL moments that I lived for, but within those moment there's deep emotion that surrounds them. Neither of these characters are perfect, they're imperfectly perfect and they don't understand that; well they do but to a certain extent. But then again, no one ever understands that they are imperfect and that that's all they need to be in this world. It's hard to get that through our head and just because Bran and Talia are characters in a book, it doesn't mean they're invincible to this concept.

Now Bran. Know that when I first heard about Upside Down, I thought it'd be only a one sided story, and it was for the most part. However, there are these little jewels in this book where we step inside Bran's thoughts, and boy is it a trip. Because here's the thing, Bran is romantic, like SWOON romantic. But a fudging DUDE. And when we get in his head, it's all dudeness, If that makes any sense. It's real (or so it seems from my standing point). He seems like he's written like a dude by a dude instead of being written as some fake cheesy romance guy to make the readers swoon. It's real... He's real. There is some swooning action but don't be prepared only for that, Bran has his own problems too.

Talia. My love for Talia is this big *opens arms out wide.* Her paranoia reminded me do much of my grandmother I was laughing hysterically, and I just LOVED her (her being Talia, of course). And her witty thoughts are freaking treasures. I felt for Talia so much. With the writing, I was transported from my mind to Talia's and her environment. I felt every emotion coursing though her and it was pretty, and pretty ugly. Now this is solely her story. We are dominated by her thoughts and her feelings, but unlike other books, we get a glimpse of what the male counterpart is thinking, note that I said glimpse. And that is what I absolutely love about this book. This is Talia's story, but we get both sides without getting a play by play of both sides. 

The imagery in this book is amazing, as well as the writing. It grips you. Pretty much with every situation that went on you're given this analogy that is so perfect you don't know how Lia thought of it. The writing. Oh god, the writing. I don't know how but Lia transported me to Australia. And it's was the most frustrating fun I had. I can't wait to go back. This is how an NA should be written; it was a life journey for the characters, as well as for the readers. And I have no doubt the next books will be just as amazing.

Waiting (im)patiently for the other two books
-Vangie
1 John 4:18

P.S. I got really excited about this book and I had to post it as soon as I wrote the review. But this is not it. I am doing a collaboration with one of my best friends on twitter who has an awesome blog (Maf from Maf's Crazy Book Life) with this book. Hopefully it'll go up this week on either my blog or hers. So stay tuned!
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