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My Review:Title: The Wallace Girl
Author: Eliot Scott
Series: Feud #1
Published by: Indie
Release Date: October 15th 2019
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 240
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Diversity Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 New Release Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:
Blurb:A feud that spans generations. A love doomed from its very beginning.
I fell in love with Alex Sinclair when we were kids. Our love was innocent and it was real. It was also dangerous.
We didn’t know our families were like oil and water, that the Wallaces and the Sinclairs hid dark secrets that involved us. We also didn't understand how deep the poison ran. When I found out the truth—when Alex forced me to leave town—I was devastated. Destroyed. But that was all part of the plan. The Sinclair lust for pain and torture at a Wallace’s expense made it impossible for me to stay…impossible to save Alex.
Mr. Sinclair is dead now, and Alex is the new heir. I’ve been waiting for this. It’s why I’ve come back. I’ve got secrets too, and if Mr. Sinclair’s gone, Alex’s heart and soul are up for grabs. He and I can end this feud. Because Alex? He’s not one of them. Never has been. He’s mine. He loves me.
I only need to remind him of that.
**The Feud Series is an adult/coming-of-age, enemies-to-lovers romance and contains mature themes not suitable for readers under 18**
4 stars — Parts of this book were total 5 stars, I was so dug in and invested I had swooping tummy syndrome. But other parts dragged and felt repetitive. The pacing just wasn’t consistent. I also believe that the book needed another editing pass (at minimum line/copy editing).
Jojo was hard to picture sometimes, b/c she came across almost goofy and younger than I expected in the past sections…I mean, it made sense for 14 year old her, but less so on 18 year old her. But I loved her stubbornness, her forthrightness, how she could be both bold, and then questioning when her boldness didn’t seem to work. She was pretty naive in some ways, and not in others. I really loved her initial unwavering faith in Alex, so I was kind of disappointed when that faith did waver…
Alex was hard to pin down as well. The problem is that this book is full of so many SECRETS, and secrets kept from the reader, which is NOT my favourite. Especially when it feels like a plot device. It’s hard to figure out if Alex is a villain, because he seems like one at the beginning. But then you get some past perspectives from him, and I just fell in LOVE with past Alex! He was so sweet, and sensitive, and just kind of adorable. His first meeting with Jojo was BEYOND. It was hard to watch him gather a layer of cynicism and self-loathing. It was hard to understand it because we didn’t get to watch it happen slowly, because of the time jumps.
Those time jumps really made both of our characters feel like they were all over the place, instead of consistent.
I’m not sure this genre is quite right for me, because I don’t actually love being kept in the dark, and KNOWING I’m being kept in the dark just to draw things out. It makes me want this book to be about half the size, because I got impatient with some of the repetitive back and forth that both present Alex and present Jojo kept doing. It didn’t move the book forward enough for me.
BUT, saying all that, I LOVED the relationship we see develop between young Jojo and Alex! They were so sweet, and authentically teenagers! It was a strange juxtaposition with the very graphic sex stuff, so even the past parts are not YA, but mature YA. But that’s warned in the blurb. I also appreciated the bits we got to see of Alex devolving because of his father’s machinations. At this point I still don’t understand the WHYs of it all (I know bits, but it’s not enough), but it’s all very over the top and TV show like.
The steamy parts are very sexy, there were just a few moments where I was taken out of it for some reason…Alex’s frank graphicness? I’m not sure.
It’s hard to watch this level of evil. And it’s more drama/angsty than I’m usually in for. But I’m so sucked in, and want to know how it’s all going to work out! It is fun to have theories on some mysteries, there were just a few too many for me personally.
My Review:Title: The Sinclair Heir
Author: Eliot Scott
Series: Feud #2
Published by: Indie
Release Date: October 24th 2019
Format: eARC
Pages: 240
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Romantic Suspense
Source: the author
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Diversity Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 New Release Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:
Blurb:Everyone knows when a Sinclair boy loves a Wallace girl people die.
The first time JoJo Wallace smiled, she had my heart. When we kissed, she owned my soul. And when she gave me her everything, I took it…consuming her when I had no right.
At first, we were just kids falling in love. We didn’t know about the generations-old feud between the Wallaces and the Sinclairs. I also couldn’t imagine Jojo’s destruction had been planned by my father when we were babies. To Father, the feud came first. I was simply bred to participate. My love for Jojo became his weapon, and to keep Jojo alive, I became the perfect son.
I never thought Jojo would come back after Father’s death. Never thought she’d smile at me or kiss me again--or that I’d let her. She’s the last woman I should ever touch. Only Jojo’s relentless. She’s no longer a child that can be frightened away. She’s made me dream again…made me feel. But before this goes too far, I need to get her away from this town and the rest of the Sinclairs who would see her dead.
Why? Because she’s a Wallace and I’m a Sinclair. She’s someone I’d kill for, and I’ll hurt her again. It’s what I do. But Jojo Wallace, she’s impossible for me to resist.
I received a free copy through the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.
3.5 stars — Maybe even just 3?
I had no patience for the pacing in these books. I would have LOVED them if they’d been edited down and tightened up (maybe even to just 1 book, a longer one?). I guessed a piece of the plot fairly early on, and so I kept waiting for it to be revealed. And waiting. And waiting. I found myself skipping forward to see if we were going to find out in this chapter. I guess there were just pieces that felt like filler to me, or that would have been more impactful and kept my attention better if they’d been shorter.
Which is a shame, because the good parts were REALLY GOOD. I loved the emotions in this one. I really felt the connection between Alex and Jojo, even as it was shrouded in lies and their faiths were both shaken.
I really enjoyed some of the redemptions that we did get in the end, even though I was more forgiving of some than others.
I just…I think the other problem I have is that I’m not a drama/angst reader. I don’t gravitate towards soap opera-y feeling storylines, and I kind of have very little patience for that. It’s like, I would have liked the romance between Alex and Jojo if all the craziness surrounding them had been toned down into something more real life (ie take out Alex’s father and have some other obstacles). That’s all a personal taste thing, totes on me.
But outside of the personal taste realm, I truly believe these books would benefit GREATLY from another editing pass or two. At minimum line/copy/whichever one the spelling/typo type one is. But because I have a stupid brain, I also caught on a WHOLE bunch of inconsistencies, or things that were patched up later on and it felt haphazard (like the fact that they kept only referring to Jojo’s virginity), probably because of the way it was originally written (radish or patreon or something?). That stuff could have been cleaned up before release, and it would have been a smoother overall story. There were also just weird turn of phrases that threw me off (including one about the clit pulling his tip in) and could have been cleaned up. So if you’re nitpicky about that shiznit, this one *may* bother you (it’s not horrible, but it is noticeable).
The past/present jumps didn’t always work for me. I mean, partially because I notice inconsistencies (like Sophomore year homecoming, but then they’re talking at the end of Junior year and referring to it as though it was only a few months ago). But also, like, they would set something up in the present (like where Jojo’s asking Alex about a specific past event), and then we jump to the past, but when we jump back to the present it’s a few days later and we don’t get to see Jojo’s reaction to that event. And, like, it felt pivotal, so I don’t understand that choice.
So yeah. Weird reviews right? Like, I often have mixed reviews, but this one felt even more mixed-ter than usual, even for me. Ah well. I think it would have been a bigger hit if this was a fave genre/trope for me.
I also liked the first book more than the second. I get the weird reviews because together the books were kind of weird.