Posted in Books, Reviews

Book Review – Wrecked (Bree L. Mina)

Hey Dearies!

Okay, so with Wrecked, I am going to give a brief intro and then going to spoil a lot of it because I have a lot to say when it comes to this book. Also, there is a second one that will actually be coming out in November, so I do plan on reading that one as well.

I did get recommended for this one as well. When I first heard her telling me all about it, I was skeptical because the plot seemed a little screwed up, but she did say it was a good read, so I gave it a shot. Plus, once she told me that the second one would be out in November, I was really excited since I’m counting out until Locked In: Season Two is released.

Anyway, before even starting the book, the author makes it very clear that this is NOT a happily ever after kind of book. Which, if you are like me and like reading about happily ever afters, this was a good heads-up. Although the second book is supposed to be a happily ever after, which makes up for it.

The book focuses on Ellie and Nate, who were high school sweethearts who don’t end up together because of Nate’s father, he thinks Ellie is just a distraction as he wants Nate to end up being a lawyer like himself and ends up making Nate end the relationship or he would ruin Ellie’s life.

Then, 8 years later, Nate ends up engaged to Ellie’s sister, Katie. Of course, both of them still have feelings for each other and this connection that they still have, but Katie has no idea that her fiance and sister had any type of connection since Katie was sent off to a private school, while Ellie and Nate attended public school.

Katie, not realizing this, she ends up having Nate and Ellie fly out to Brazil to pick up her wedding dress and hopes that they will end up getting to know each other better since Ellie has been avoiding Nate since she still has feelings for him.

Nate, is trying really hard to get Ellie to listen as he wants to explain why he did what he did and that he wants to be with her and not Katie since he was forced to do so by his father, however, his father passed away while in the middle of wedding planning and Nate wanted to end the engagement and explain everything to Katie and Ellie.

However, while on the plane to Brazil, Nate and Ellie’s plane crashes and they are stuck on an abandon island. Which forces them to not only work together to survive, but also gives Nate time to explain what had happened and that he still loves Ellie.

The book also happens to go back and forth and explains how Nate and Ellie fell in love, as well as going back on what’s happening on the island they are stuck on, as well as going back to Katie’s POV.

So, as you can guess, Nate and Ellie end up hooking up while on the island. Oh, and there are spicy scenes for it, but I could’ve cared less because this all could’ve been resolved if Nate called off the wedding BEFORE they left to the airport. Or even better, Ellie could’ve explained her past relationship to her sister when Katie introduced Nate to the family.

That’s what really pissed me off. It’s hard to root for Nate and Ellie when they couldn’t come clean to Katie about the entire thing, especially if they still had feelings for each other this entire time. Not to mention, Nate was only with Katie and lied to her about why he was even dating her.

Now, before I go further, I’m going to put a spoiler alert in now, since I’m going to spoil the ended of the book.

Nate and Ellie on the island end up stuck for almost a year and right before they get recused, Nate saves Ellie from being attacked by a jaguar and gets scratched really bad on the back, which ends up getting infected.

Ellie tries to save him, she is also a nurse, so she tries to look for something on the island that can help save him, ends up seeing a ship and flags them down to resuce them, but Nate dies before the ship comes.

Ellie gets recused and when she is brought to the hospital, they tell her she is pregnant. I had a feeling she might be because there wasn’t much for them to do other than survive and talk about how much time they wasted in the past 8 years they weren’t together.

Now, do you think Ellie even tells her sister what happened on the island?

NOPE!

Ellie goes forward with the pregnancy, since its a piece of Nate that she has left. She ends up having a baby girl, Luna. Go figure, another book that I have read with the name Luna. Which she only names her that because Nate mentioned if they ever had kids, he loved the name Luna for a girl because of Harry Potter.

You want to know what really set a fire on this book for me? After everything Ellie went through, surviving on an island for a year, watching the love of her life die in her arms, being recused and returned home, and having the love of her lifes child, Ellie kills herself and leaves her sister a note like a coward.

Yes, you read that right, she kills herself, abandons her daughter, and leaves custody to her sister to have her raise.

You’d think that Ellie would want to live for her daughters sake, but no, she was selfish and can’t live anymore because Nate is dead and she’d rather be dead with him. I was so pissed. As a mother, even if I lost the love of my life, I wouldn’t end my life knowing that they wouldn’t want me to do that.

When Katie reads that letter, she is upset and pissed. I don’t blame her either, she blamed herself for sending them to Brazil on that plane that crashed, thinking they were dead, then almost a year later, her sister is recused and finds out Nate is dead. Then, find out her sister and fiance were in love this entire time and is stuck raising their lovechild.

Which with the way the first one ended, I really wanted to know how the second one ends because its supposed to be about Katie struggling to process all this information and raising her niece, however, she gets a happily ever after. Which she deserves after all the crap they put her through.

Overall, it was an okay book, but it’s not something I’d read again anytime soon. Nate and Ellie are both cowards who should’ve told Katie their past as soon as Nate was introduced. I’m sorry, but they both got their Karma. I heard people were crying about the end because of how it all ends, but I didn’t shed a tear at all.

What did you think of this book? Did it piss you off like it did for me? Or was this something that actually made you cry? Let me know in the comments if you attempted to read this or not.

Posted in Books, Reviews

Book Review – The Teacher (Freida McFadden)

Hey Dearies!

Okay, so before I begin the review, I just wanted to post a little side note:

If you see me suddenly stop posting blog reviews in the next few weeks, it’s because I had my baby boy! He’s due October 7th, so any time around then, if you notice either little to no blog posts, that is why I disappeared. In the meantime, I’m going to be trying to get as many book reviews as I can get done and have them scheduled out, just so you guys have something to look forward to on Sundays!


Now, back to the review!

Yes, I have another review from Freida’s library again! This one came up as a suggestion from Kindle Unlimited for me and a few others, but I wanted to give this one a go and see what she came up with for this one.

Before I go further into the review, I wanted to mention that this does have an underage romance between a student and a teacher. Now, from what I’ve read and heard, a lot of people had a hard time getting into the book because of it, which I completely understand. I was a little iffy about reading it as well because of that.

Anyway, the book has a few different people that you read about from their POV. Eve’s is the first one you start out with, and it goes between her and Addie, who is a high schooler who has both Eve and Nate as teachers; then lastly, you’ll get Nate’s POV.

It starts out by talking about what Eve and Nate’s relationship is, which is pretty basic since they are high school teachers. Eve teaches Math, while Nate teaches English. The only other thing you find out is that Eve has been having an affair with someone that she sees regularly.

Then you have Addie, who is a high school student who had a rough year before; she not only had her dad pass away, but she was accused of sleeping with another teacher, who ended up having to leave the school because of it. Although it doesn’t really explain or say if she did it, the only thing the teacher did was give her a ride home and tutor her with math. Eve ends up running into that teacher, and he warns her that Addie is a troubled girl.

Of course, Eve and Nate both have Addie as a student for this year, as she is a junior. Eve gives Addie a hard time in class, as the teacher she was accused of sleeping with was someone who was a mentor to her. Nate, on the other hand, thinks she is a struggling student who needs guidance.

On top of one of her teachers giving her a hard time, Addie is also getting bullied by one of the popular students, as well as the entire school, because of the whole situation she caused last year. Plus, her mother is also giving her a hard time about making friends, but the only people who wanted to be her friends were those who wanted to know more about the rumors.

So, Addie turns to writing as a way to release the emotions that she has bottled up. Nate happens to find her work very interesting and invites her to work with the newspaper club so that she can get one of her poems published in the paper.

This is when Nate and Addie start to get closer, more than just student and teacher, but more than that. Addie ends up losing her virginity to Nate, as Nate tells her she’s his soulmate and wrote a poem just for her about how amazing she is to him.

They start falling head over heels for each other and meet up frequently after school to have sex. Of course, Eve starts to suspect that something is going on with Nate and Addie as Nate starts to stay later at the school more. She also then accuses Nate of that and threatens to expose him to the principal.

I really did have a hard time trying to understand why Nate would go after Addie, but as a spoiler alert, she wasn’t the only high school student that she has slept with. Addie does find out that the girl who bullies her, Kenize, also slept with Nate as he got to her too, but she doesn’t tell her until later on in the book.

Anyway, Addie tries to visit Nate after Eve threatens to expose them, and Addie ends up knocking out Eve, but Nate makes her think that Eve is dead, which freaks Addie out. I honestly thought Eve was dead too, but as Freida does, she keeps you on your toes and has Nate freaked out over finding Eve’s favorite shoes randomly all over the house.

Overall, it was another quick read, but I get why a lot of people were uneasy about the whole “student-teacher romance”. Thankfully, there are only like two or three scenes where they kiss or have sex, which made it easier to get through. I will say, I don’t think I would randomly pick this one to read again, just because of that.

I swear that every time I read one of Fredia’s books, I think I know exactly who the murderer or trouble marker, but then you find out you were way off. For example, I thought Nate was innocent and Eve was the one who was going to kill either Addie or him, but nope!

What did you think about this book? Did you read it, or was this one of her books you didn’t want to read because of the student-teacher love affair? Let me know in the comments below.