Sweet Biscuit Publishing LLC |October 6, 2015 | New Adult Romance
Stand by Me, book 1
★★★★1/2
SOURCE: XPRESSO BOOK TOURS
Secrets are exposed, trust is betrayed and two people face the beauty of lies.
Leo Jensen has a secret–he is Mr. Expose, a blogger that reveals the truth about liars and frauds. It’s a way to make a living, and he’s had a motherlode of experience with liars. Cheaters. Women who live for drama and carry more hidden baggage than a Boeing 747. Even his twin sister can’t seem to admit the truth about her relationships, so finding an honest woman is about as likely as finding a unicorn in the middle of Nashville.
Harper Wade wishes life had a do-over button. She’d press that sucker and reset the last four years. Now, she has the chance to start fresh and make things right, but first she has to retrieve the damning evidence of her past from an annoying blogger. She’s doing all the things she knows she shouldn’t–breaking and entering, lying by omission, falling for the hot guy next door. Too bad he holds the key to her clean slate.
{ about brinda berry } .
Brinda Berry lives in the southern US with her family. Brinda is obsessed with cairn terriers, Kings of Leon, new technology and sandy beaches. She’s also terribly fond of chocolate, coffee, and books that take her away from reality.
{ review } .
In yet another solid Berry release, we have wanna-be writer Leo, who hides behind his Mr. Expose blog, and Harper Wade, who made a mistake and will do anything to get Mr. Expose to not publish her secret.
Including breaking and entering.
There were a few too-coincidental-to-be-true moments, but then again, with the research Harper did on Leo, perhaps they were more on purpose than coincidental, such as befriending Leo's twin and Leo's complex having an apartment for rent. But beyond that, the writing style of Ms. Berry is extremely consistent.
If you've never read a title of hers, you will find that her dialogue and actions ring true. It's very easy to get lost in one of her new adult titles. Leo and Harper both have lingering issues with trust and they both have extremely good reasons. Watching the two of them was enlightening and enjoyable.
I loved Leo's overwhelming feeling of being watched at the beginning, and the jokes with his buddies about having a stalker -- Harper wasn't as sly as she thought she was. She did a decent job of trying to cover it up, though. Harper's mistake isn't one that she wants aired, and as much as Leo's policy-policing ways say that the likelihood of her secret coming out are slim to none, she fights to wrong something she did in a moment of anger and hurt.
When Harper loves, she loves with everything she is, and this is shown a number of times through the story. Leo's relationships with his friends and sister were extremely fun to read, and watching him thaw his heart to Harper put him in category of one of my favorite Berry males.
I'm excited to see where she brings this series!
Including breaking and entering.
There were a few too-coincidental-to-be-true moments, but then again, with the research Harper did on Leo, perhaps they were more on purpose than coincidental, such as befriending Leo's twin and Leo's complex having an apartment for rent. But beyond that, the writing style of Ms. Berry is extremely consistent.
If you've never read a title of hers, you will find that her dialogue and actions ring true. It's very easy to get lost in one of her new adult titles. Leo and Harper both have lingering issues with trust and they both have extremely good reasons. Watching the two of them was enlightening and enjoyable.
I loved Leo's overwhelming feeling of being watched at the beginning, and the jokes with his buddies about having a stalker -- Harper wasn't as sly as she thought she was. She did a decent job of trying to cover it up, though. Harper's mistake isn't one that she wants aired, and as much as Leo's policy-policing ways say that the likelihood of her secret coming out are slim to none, she fights to wrong something she did in a moment of anger and hurt.
When Harper loves, she loves with everything she is, and this is shown a number of times through the story. Leo's relationships with his friends and sister were extremely fun to read, and watching him thaw his heart to Harper put him in category of one of my favorite Berry males.
I'm excited to see where she brings this series!
Thanks being being on the tour, Mignon! Great review! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for the kind review!
ReplyDelete