Angela Carling

New girl Lucy moves to Washington with her family when her dad gets a new job. When the good looking and seemingly perfect, Ryan gives her a tour of the school, Lucy immediately falls for him. Their relationship moves at super speed before Lucy realizes just how deep she’s gotten herself, only by then it’s too late.

I was a little nervous about reading this book, knowing it focused on an abusive relationship, but I think the author handled the subject really well: portraying the ugliness of abuse without getting graphic like other books I’ve read.

Ryan’s abuse is rarely physical, it’s more emotional and controlling. He’s absolutely obsessed with Lucy and wants her all to himself. He tries to control her life as much as possible by pushing all their friends away and only hanging out alone. He completely melts down if she talks to another guy or brings up hanging out with anyone else. He even goes so far as to put a bug in her cell phone so he can make sure she isn’t talking to other guys.

The story is told from three different perspectives: Lucy, Ryan, and their friend, Mason. I’m glad the author chose to do this because it helped me to understand where Ryan was coming from and how he got to be the way that he was. Without those chapters from his point of view I would have looked at him a lot differently.

This book starts with a prologue that is taken from one of the most intense scenes at the end of the book. It is used to draw you in and keep you reading. I must say it worked. Once I got into the story, I was constantly thinking about it while at work or elsewhere wanting to know what would happen to Lucy next.

Despite how good the story was, I did have some slight issues with the writing. The first being, that there were a fair amount of grammatical errors sprinkled throughout that should have been caught by the editor. Secondly, there were a lot of repetitive descriptions.

This is the second book by this author that I’ve read and I noticed that she ended them both in a similar fashion. The whole book builds up to this one big climax and then she skips ahead a few months to tie things up without dealing with the after effects of that climactic event. This is something that bothered me with Unbreakable Love as well, but when it happened again in this one I was kind of annoyed.

Overall, I really enjoyed the story but think it could have been better had there been some more revisions and an ending that dealt with the immediate after effects of what happened.… (altro)

ARC Giveaway & Book Review:We’re participating in the Indie Author Giveaway Hop, and are delighted to have Shackled by Angela Carling as our giveaway. This is Angela’s second book and it covers a very important subject, domestic abuse – specifically boyfriend abuse; however, it does that in a way that doesn’t lecture or preach. The way we’re taught to be as girls sets us up, no matter how smart or competent or self-confident we seem, to easily fall prey to the predators in this world. This is a book that should be in every school library and should be read by every tween and teen girl, as well as every woman. Read the rest of my review & enter our giveaway at http://popcornreads.com/?p=4066.… (altro)

This was a sweet, romantic and totally clean love story, which is something I really appreciated!

I’ve never been a fan of the narrative writing style in any book, I feel like it keeps people from getting to know the characters deeply and being able to fully connect with them. That was the case with this book as well. I felt like I didn’t get to know Jennie and Nate as much as I would have liked, which in turn, hindered me from getting too attached.

Although it took me awhile to get used to, and connect with the characters, once I did, I found them all to be very likable. Aside from Jennie and Nate, my favorite character was Marissa who is Jennie’s best friend. She wasn’t in the story a whole lot and I found myself wishing she had a bigger part.

Nate was a too good to be true (but really is) kind of guy who also happened to be a guardian angel. His love for Jennie is so genuine and sweet it made my heart smile.

One of the things I really liked about this book was the family dynamic. Jennie, her sister, and parents are a close-knit family who actually enjoy spending time together, having game nights and such. I feel like in most YA the main character has some form of broken relationship with their family, so it was a nice change to see a loving family in the picture.

While I enjoyed the book as a whole I didn’t really care too much for the ending. I can’t really say why without spoiling it but lets just say it was kind of overkill.… (altro)