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My Review:Title: My Life in Shambles
Author: Karina Halle
Published by: Indie
Release Date: April 10th, 2019
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 350
Genres: Contemporary, Sports Romance
Reading Challenges: CC's Goodreads Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:
Blurb:My Life in Shambles is an emotional and sexy new standalone contemporary romance from the New York Times bestselling author of A Nordic King and The Pact.
When Valerie Stephens made the resolution to say yes to new adventures, she never thought she’d end up in the tiny town of Shambles, fake engaged to one of Ireland’s top rugby players. But there’s a first time for everything.
They say bad things happen in threes.
After my boyfriend broke off our engagement, I lost my apartment, and was laid off from my job, I can definitely attest to that.
They also say life is what happens when you say yes to new adventures.
So when my two sisters invited me to ring in the new year in Ireland, I decided to throw all caution to the wind and go for it. I was going to let “saying yes” be my new resolution.
Little did I know I’d spend New Year’s Eve having a hot and dirty one-night stand with Padraig McCarthy, one hell of a sexy Irishman. I also didn’t know that the brooding and intense sex god was one of Ireland’s top rugby players.
A rugby player with a proposition for me:
Come with him to his tiny hometown of Shambles and pretend to be his fiancé for a few days, just so that his ailing father can have some peace of mind.
It sounded simple enough.
It was anything but.
Not when a town gets up in your business, not when the media hunts you down, not when your past comes back in the picture, not when there are real hearts and feelings at stake.
Not when there are secrets that could break you.
They say life is what happens when you say yes to new adventures.
This is my life in Shambles.
Favorite Quotes:
“I was the arts and entertainment writer for an online news site but they just laid off most of us in order to concentrate on video. Something quick and easy that doesn’t require any thought to absorb.” “Sounds like a metaphor for the current state of the world.”
We’re so imperfect, ye see. All of us. We’re made of broken bits and jagged edges and we expect to fit flush with each other like puzzle pieces but we can’t. And that’s not the point of family. You don’t need to fit, you just need to be close.”
What if is fear. Even if is faith. Choose the latter my boy.
I loved how the title had a dual meaning which I find witty and kind of something I love when I come across, at any rate, I liked the cover and the title so I figured why not?
The first thing I noticed was how slow the pacing was, to be honest I don’t even know why I finished the book. The beginning part was fun and spontaneous; like when Val’s traveling with her sisters, bonding and then she meets this random hot guy at a bar. I thought cool, this is gonna be good.
But then it gets incredibly serious fast, and if it was me I would have bailed honestly.
It seems like Val had no other options since her engagement was off and she lost her job. So she was sticking with what she knew was a slam dunk. It was smart on her part but a bit too self serving.
I didn’t like the rugby guy (the fact that I can’t remember his name says something) I thought he was emotionally manipulative and I don’t think they had a good enough connection for the effort that was put in to try to work through all the issues that they had. It just didn’t seem normal at this new stage of their relationship.
I just remember feeling very unhappy with how it turned out and feeling like I wasted my time reading this book when I could have been enjoying something else better.
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