Review: AN ABSOLUTE 5✩ WINNER FOR ME!!!!!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 22, 2013
What are you independent authors doing to me??? This is my SECOND 5✩ review in a matter of days. This is a very rare thing for me, as I have a strict guideline for what is required for me to put a 5✩ review....and you authors are stepping up to the plate and starting to hit them out of the park. Author Belle Aurora hit a GRAND SLAM for me in this book!Saw this recommended by an author whose work I really enjoyed in a trilogy of hers I had just read and thought I would give it a try. Let me start off by saying that this is not only a GREAT story, but it is literally LAUGH OUT LOUD funny. The characters are all so very different, but fit together perfectly, the commentary is hysterical, the behavior is crazy, adorable and just flat out lovable, and the terminology used to paint the pictures in your mind do just that...give you a visual where you truly can see what is going on.Dialogue is a big thing in any book, since it really is all we have to go on. A book is a story of words that we must create the image of in our minds. The Dialogue in this book is so REALISTIC you almost feel like you could have a conversation like that with someone you know any day of the week. Some scenes and commentary are so funny, I found myself not only clutching my sides, but out a breath and ready to pass out. One scene in particular had me laughing for more than twenty minutes.One of the many talents of an author, in my opinion, is their ability to not only introduce you to many characters within a book, but truly make them all have their own individuality. That is absolutely the case in this book. There are many characters that play a very active role in this book and each and every one of them is completely unique, has their own way of "speaking" and "behaving" and they all work perfectly as a group. I could not get over how easy this book flowed and how much fun it was to watch them all interact and get to know each other.There were romances and flirting within the backstory, as well as the focus on the main characters, Nikolai and Valentina. Both with their own mindset on love and relationships, which means neither of them want them or do them AT THE MOMENT, they agree to be friends. I have to say, this concept was BRILLIANT because you actually got to see one of the most realistic portrayals of relationship development....the friends to lovers progression. We all know it and most of us have done it. You get to watch their friendship slowly start to shift during its gradual journey towards feelings, acknowledgment of feelings, acceptance of feelings, displaying of feelings, jealousy and then admitting of feelings. And what a fun, tender and unexpected journey it was.Now, the author even kicked it up a notch by putting in some twists and turns that leave you somewhat waiting for the proverbial "other shoe to drop", which it does eventually, and not when you expect it. It is out of the blue and so sudden you are forced to go from riding a high to dropping down to the pits of hell in a matter of moments. Just like real life...always unexpected and hits you when you are not looking.I think saying I enjoyed every morsel of this book, even the parts that had my stomach in knots, is a vast understatement. It was truly a fun read and I found that I could not put it down.I am absolutely looking forward to the next installment of this series, as I fear this author has found a new book stalker, and that would be me. Her writing style is fun and flirty, realistic and relatable, hilarious and heartfelt, and sexy and sincere.AN ABSOLUTE WINNER FOR ME!