Real by Katy Evans

Awesome Cover!

Real by Katy Evans <— to stalk her click here

Self published on April 8, 2013

Date Read April 23, 2013

Rating: 2-3 stars

Synopsis via Goodreads

Soooo much potential that just wasn’t met.  Prepare for a long ride with this review.. I’m going for records this time.  I have strong feelings about this book because I really could have loved it.

To immediately get to the point the first 75% was very annoying.  I thought about not finishing the book multiple times.  The last 30% of the book was what I went into the book expecting (what the first 2% made me believe I was going to get – I seriously texted/messaged friends that I was only 2% in but I could tell this book was going to be great).. imagine my disappointment… it was somewhat redeeming, but a little too late.

This book had all the makings of a great New Adult book… hot alpha male who is a boxer, characters with troubled past and emotional problems,  sexual tension, and a fun side character friend to show up when needed; however for most of the book.. this mixture failed (in my opinion only…. from the great reviews it has gotten)

So here goes  my top 10 (THE GOOD AND THE BAD)

1.  Repetitiveness.  How many times can one clench her sex, hands, channel, vaginal walls, you name it (apparently 50+ times – I started highlighting this word or phrase about 20% due to it showing up on almost every page.  I stopped when I hit the 50s, but my estimate would be closer to 75 times throughout the book.  I mean seriously she may need to be checked out by a doctor with all the clenching she was doing… it’s just not right.  And if her sex wasn’t clenching it was gripping or rippling. There were also other weird things repeated:  my nipples hardened like diamonds (WTF),  calloused hands (the book could never just say hands), same goes for guttural voice, slick skin, eroticized (what?), and my favorite “I scented him,” “he scented me” (this particular phrase was a huge distraction and I was seriously in a fit of giggles every time I came across this phrase and it was a close second to “clenching” as far as repetition).  I’m not one to normally pay attention to this type of thing, but it was distracting.

2.  The two NEVER talked to one another AT ALL except during sex (oh baby, Remington, I own you, you’re mine) and the last 5% of the book when Remington finally was able to speak.  It was very weird.  The biggest portion of the book was Brooke’s inner monologue in which she continuously explained how hot Remy with repetitive lustful descriptions of him and how much she wanted to have sex with him.  I’m as book slutty as the next girl, but this was really too much and unnecessary and did NOT move the story forward at all.  I just wanted to yell “WE GET IT! YOU WANT TO F*** HIM! ” (Hey, me too- no need to convince me he’s f***able)  For most of the book (like 75%)  it felt like was huge COPY, PASTE, REPEAT.

3.  Their so-called love.  Sorry it’s call lust, not love.  As stated above they barely spoke.  They knew very little about one another except “Me Tarzan, you Jane” via Remy and different forms of “If you aren’t going to have sex with me I’m not going to speak to you” via Brooke.  And why would Remy not have sex with her you ask?  Because he couldn’t do that until she knew his problem, but would he just tell her his problem and put this poor girl’s spasming loins out of their misery.. the answer is no.

4.  Bipolar Disorder – the nurse in me could not accept the descriptions of this disorder,  nor could I tolerate the way his manic episodes were handled

“Pete looks at me.  “I’m sorry,” he mouths, then to Remy, “let’s put Destroyer to bed now, huh?” and he rams a syringe into his neck”

“Calm down, Brooke, we’ve got it.  Riley, you get another two of these tranquilizers.”

WTF is really my only response I can say to this.

5.  The characters.  Brooke was likeable and very funny at times when she wasn’t being so damn annoying talking about her “sex channel” over and over.  Occasionally she was all over the place.  At first she is conservative and shy and then not long after she’s protecting a professional boxer by slamming two beer bottles over two men’s heads.  Now on to Remington Tate… first, great name!  Hot, alpha, male, with a body I could almost taste – what’s not to like.  I wish this book would have been a dual POV because I really would have liked to get in his head. It also would have been a good filler opposed to Brooke’s ramblings.  If it hadn’t been for him I may have stopped reading the book, but I was very curious to learn more about this man.  Side characters (Melanie, Pete, Riley) were likeable and brought a little something to the book that I like to call… conversation.

6.  Good story line.  The idea of the book was really good.  The parts with Nora were a little convenient, but other than that I liked the whole idea of the book.  I really liked the parts where the two were sharing music.. really cute and sweet!  The writing was hit and miss.  In the first 2 chapters or so I was like great writing.. I’m not very visual (weird since I love reading, huh?), but the writing was really painting a good picture, which is pretty rare for me.. where some see characters roaming their head.. mine’s just filled black and white words… but I saw the characters in this book… but then other times it just kind of jumped around and threw in randomness (probably very similar to my reviews).

7.  The end of the book.  Somewhere around 75- 80% I started to finally feel a little connection between the two.  I noted in my kindle “this is beautiful” as I read those chapters.  The story got so much better and grabbed my attention.  I wish the whole book had been written in the same mindset as this part of the book.  It was hard to feel a connection with Brooke’s rants about the liquid heat pooling between her legs interrupted the story every 5 seconds.  This is the only part of the book when it started to feel “Real” to me.

8.  Unsexy sex.  I don’t mind smut, but let’s make it sexy at least.  For starters referencing your lady parts as “sex lips”  umm no. The following are some examples that just doesn’t do it or me.

“so hot as he scrapes his finger deep into my channel” (OUCH!)

“Seizing his hand, I squeeze it between our bodies so he can feel all of what he smeared across my abdomen.  ‘It means I’m going French this week and not showering so I can smell you on me’ ” (GROSS)

“Sticky? he asks in a gruff murmur bending his head and licking my shoulder as he pushes his semen back inside with one finger.”  (WTF)

9.  Anatomy and Human Physiology Lesson.  The descriptions of the different types of muscles, descriptions of ATP, endorphins.. blah blah blah.  This effort should have been placed elsewhere.  She’s a sports medicine specialist.. I expect her to know all the names of the muscles and how the body works.  There’s no need for her to go into detail explaining it to me.  If I want more info about the body I can just look it up.

10.  End of the book Part 2.  I’m giving the end one more number (mainly so I can fulfill my top 10, top 9 just doesn’t sound right – haha).  It really was done well.  So well that even though I wasn’t a fan of this book I want more of Remington and Brooke.  I am actually curious to read the next book (please don’t be a repeat of this book though).  I’m want to give these folks another chance.  That’s how redeeming the end of the book was.

So as a final note, go out and buy it.. just because I didn’t like it doesn’t mean you won’t.. if you don’t believe me check out the other reviews.

Are you still with me?  If so here’s your treat… Tom Hardy in Warrior

 

TO PURCHASE YOUR COPY  (OF THE BOOK NOT TOM HARDY) CLICK HERE!!!!