Capture (Seaside Pictures #1) by Rachel Van Dyken

Losing your ability to speak at the age of seventeen; it's not normal or fair. But trauma, has a way of throwing normality out the window. Dani lives anything but a normal life. Her sister is married to one of the biggest names in Hollywood. Her best friends are rockstar duo AD2.And she has more love around her than most people experience in a lifetime. But that doesn't change the fact their parents are dead. Or that it's her fault.

It seems her new normal is being a mute, living on the inside, unable to actually communicate on the outside. That is until Hollywood's newest heartthrob Lincoln Greene hires her as his assistant for the summer. He's gorgeous, completely unavailable, and unobtainable. But that doesn't stop her from wondering... if things were different...would he want her? If she was whole, would he be the other half?

Book: Capture (Seaside Pictures #1) by Rachel Van Dyken (Goodreads)
Published: August 20, 2015
Pages: 288
Genres: Romance, New Adult, Disability, Famous Hero
Format: Kindle
Date Read: February 9-23, 2016
Rating: 4 Potatoes 🥔🥔🥔🥔

Where to start with this review? Did I love the book? Yes. Did I love all of the characters? Not necessarily.

I loved Lincoln aka Linc, he stayed true to himself throughout the entire book. You'd think that since he's hollywood's next heartthrob he'd be shallow, rude, demanding, etc. That wasn't the case with him at all - he was kind, loving, and real. He wasn't a shallow self-absorbed snob like the typical stereotype dictates.

Dani, Dani, Dani. I liked her at the end of the book, I did. But she was so immature for so much of it that it began to really make me mad. I know that shes only seventeen in the book and she's just being a typical teenager but you can't expect people to treat you as an adult when you think and act like a teen. That being said, she did go through a huge traumatic event and my heart really bled for the teen girl inside of her that had to go through it all.

Jay and Tris... I didn't love their characters but I didn't outright hate them. I would like to read their backstory in the future, I think it would help me understand their actions a lot more.

Zane! I loved him and I absolutely cannot wait for his story. Where can I find a marshmallow-eating, kind, funny, sexy man for myself??? I love Zane and I can't wait to read book two so we get to learn more about what makes this awesome character tick!

Zane and Linc alone made me give this book 4 stars, had I cared more for Tris and Dani I would have given the book a 5 star rating without a moments hesitation.

Power Play (Pilots Hockey #2) by Sophia Henry

Beneath her innocent facade, Gabriella Bertucci has her reasons to be standoffish with guys. Especially guys like Landon Taylor, a star defenseman on the minor-league Detroit Pilots and the object of a serious crush since he first walked into her family’s market. But when Landon comes through for her in a moment of crisis, Gaby starts to wonder if there might be more to Landon than hard muscles and fast skates.

Landon isn’t afraid of telling Gaby that he’s got it for her bad. The problem is, she seems unwilling to believe it. And though Landon enjoys his reputation as a cool-headed athlete, he hates losing—both on the rink and off. It’s his competitiveness that makes him so damn good at what he does . . . but it also makes him just a little bit complicated.

One minute Gaby’s tempted to give in; the next, she’s getting cold feet. How can she trust a guy who’s destined for bigger and better things to stick around? Then again, when Landon pulls her close with those powerful arms, the only thing that matters is right now.

Book: Power Play (Pilots Hockey #2) by Sophia Henry (Goodreads)
Published: February 16th, 2016
Pages: 194
Genres: Romance, Hockey/Sports, Athlete, ARC (author released copy)
Format: PDF
Date Read: February 5-9, 2016
Rating: 2 Potatoes 🥔🥔

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I tried so hard to like this book more than I did. I really tried. But, the glaringly obvious spelling/grammar errors and storyline inconsistencies made that difficult.

Gaby and Landon have both had crushes on each other since they were kids and finally admit it after a tragedy happens within Gaby's family. Okay, that type of storyline I can get on board with. And I was excited about the fact that Landon was a hockey player (LOVE THEM!). But, the Gaby/Landon storyline barely develops, they go on one date (maybe two) and they are just in love and happy (with each other, anyway), blah, blah, blah. The hockey storyline is rarely referenced, except for the great elephant in the room that the oh so great Landon hasn't been called up to the NHL yet. I did like Landon (what I knew about him anyway), he seemed to really like Gaby but I needed more - more information about him, more moments between Gaby/Landon.

Gaby's family really made me mad - they were terrible to Gaby (especially her dad) and her brother Joey was just straight up annoying. And the pesky little detail of Gaby's rape? That whole situation alone was enough to make me give this book a 2 star rating. First of all, the whole arc of her rape came out of left field - there was nothing given away that would make you think it happened to her in the first place. And, if you are going to put something like that in a book, you need to expand a lot more on what happened - the reasons for peoples decisions in how its delt with and just provide more information in general.

And then, after all of the drama and horrible things that were done to Gaby, the end wraps up like a nice little bow. Where the heck did that happy ending come from?

I get that this was a novella, due to size, but I felt like the story could have been fleshed out so much more. It had so much potential from the summary and it seemed to be wasted. With proper editing and a more in-depth storyline this really could be a good book.