*****5 Absolutely Amazing Stars*****

There are certain things I’ve come to know and appreciate in life: books keep me happy, coffee keeps me upright, and Lex Martin writes one helluva phenomenal book.

I have loved each and every one of her books so fiercely. She continues to be not only one of my favorite authors, but an author I can count on for an exceptionally good and fulfilling read. She never fails to deliver a story that weaves together the perfect amount of undeniable heat and connection, the most thoughtfully crafted and all-feeling level of emotion, and an effervescent vibrancy that is tangible through ever extraordinary word she writes.

It’s pretty suffice to say that I love her books, her characters and stories, and her writing, hard. Reading a new book from her is something I so look forward to because I know without a doubt that she will literally give me it all between the pages of her books. She’ll give me the feels I crave, the romance that makes me melt, the vibrancy and life that is beyond mesmerizing to experience, and everything else in between that makes me love what I’m reading even more.

Shameless was a book that was equal parts beautiful and emotional and meaningful, while simultaneously making me blush and melt and fall so wonderfully hard for everything that Brady and Katherine were sharing. This book was romantic, it was fun, it was full of feels, and it was real. So genuinely real, with real, easy to love and understand characters that were spectacular on every page. The distinctive authenticity and life and spark that Lex Martin created within Shameless is something I know I won’t soon forget. (It’s something I’m missing already, now that I’ve finished the book.)

This book is about what happens when life throws you one seriously emotional curve ball you never saw coming. It follows two phenomenal characters as they try to figure out what in the world they’re going to do after that curve ball is thrown, and how they’re going to handle everything that curveball leaves in its wake. This book is about how that curveball throws Brady and Katherine onto a path they never expected to be on, yet how that path just might be exactly what they never knew they needed in this new normal they find themselves in.

Shameless is an immensely enrapturing story of loss and meaningful emotion, and how new life and love and hope might just be able to grow from that loss, if these characters just allow themselves the chance to have it.

The opening of this book finds Brady and Katherine thrust together unexpectedly, after an unimaginable loss ties them to each other in ways they never expected to be. He’s a cynical tattoo artist who’s got a lot on his plate, and she’s a dreamer who’s trying to put her life back together. He just lost his brother, and she just lost her best girlfriend, and now they have to figure out what in the world they’re going to do with all the heartache they now share. Throw in the fact that Brady was left with sole custody of his one year old niece Isabella, and you have the makings of one downright phenomenal story as these two try to put one foot in front of the other, while simultaneously trying to fight the intense attraction they have for one another.

What ensues between them is heartfelt, emotional, and meaningful to say the least, and experiencing what they share together and what they start to feel towards one another is nothing short of spectacular. It’s real, it’s honest, it’s kind of messy in the most genuine way, and it isn’t always easy, but it’s oh so wonderful and so damn worth it, and you will be invested in them right from the start. You’ll live and breathe and feel every word of this book with Katherine and Brady, which will have you hoping with everything you have that these two can figure out a way to take their not so easy situation and turn it into something more.

Brady was a character that pretty much stole my heart, and my ovaries, from the moment I met him. He’s certainly got a presence about him that will have your attention from page one, and the more you get to know him, the more you’ll see that that man has a heart of gold. He’s doing everything he can to keep it together, to make up for the regrets he feels with his brother, and to be there for his baby niece who has just lost everything she knew. You really get to see all that Brady does to figure out what’s right for him and his new future with Isabella, what needs to happen between him and Katherine, and what’s best for everyone.

I am telling you that along the way with him on his journey to discovering all of that, you will fall so hopelessly in love with him. I know I did. He is one of the most thoughtful, charming, and heart melting male characters I have read, and his tenacity, determination, and level of heart will have you beyond smitten with every bit of him.

Katherine is a female character I related and connected to on so many levels. I found her to be honest, sweet, and beautiful, both inside and out. She is so selfless and so endearing, and she is just trying to figure out what it is she wants from life and what truly makes her happy. Over the course of Shameless you learn that Katherine has been through a lot, and that that emotional upset is what brought her to that Texas farm in the first place. She was looking for calm and ease and solace, which is exactly what she found until one fateful night when everything changed, but then Brady enters the picture and makes it all mean so much more once again. He’s a game changer, and as much as she says she won’t fall for him, she can’t help but be drawn to his heart of gold.

In Shameless, Katherine is trying to figure out a lot of things about herself, Brady, and the life that she lives. The events of this book push her, and Brady for that matter, to realize what is truly important, what is truly worth fighting for, and the possibilities that can come when you meet that one person who literally changes everything.

Shameless explores the budding relationship Katherine and Brady share, and how the intense sparks and connection they have might just lead them both to something they so desperately crave. He’s trying his best to hold back, and she’s wearing her heart on her sleeve, and as much as they want to explore the world of feeling they share for each other, they both know there’s an expiration date on it all. They develop and honest to goodness friendship that soon turns into something much more than they bargained for.

That more is real, it’s raw and vulnerable, and it’s messy and emotional as hell, but at the same time it shows them what they could really share together if they only take that leap of faith and risk their hearts in order to see what could happen.

Lex Martin creates the most inviting world in Shameless with Katherine and Brady. She throws you knee deep in that good old Texas charm, with some amazing supporting characters that make it all the more memorable. Experiencing that charm and that wonderful world will have you even more consumed by this book. It will also have you feeling like you’re experiencing every lick of it.

Lex’s extraordinary writing gives you it all with these characters. She puts you in this book whole heartedly, she invests your heart right from the start, and she gives you so many exceptionally crafted moments to experience with them.

You’ll laugh with them, cry and hurt and feel right along with them, and you’re going to be consumed by the feelings and the intensity of the pull Brady and Katherine share towards one another. The more you read, the more you’ll get them and understand exactly what they want and so desperately need. You’re going to love them, you’re going to want to hug them and occasionally shake some sense into them, and more than that, you’re going to hope with all that you have that they can find a way to figure it all out, and make something more out of what they share.

I could literally go on and on about how phenomenal this book was, how vibrant and emotional and meaningful and wonderful it was, and how much I absolutely loved it. It was a fulfilling read all the way through, and it highlighted the true writing and storytelling talent of Lex Martin. I already know this will be one of my top reads of the year, and I can’t tell you enough how literally amazing it was to read and experience.

Shameless gave me two wonderfully distinctive characters trying to make the best of a situation neither one of them expected to be in, and it showed what happened between them as they tried to figure out exactly what they needed and wanted, for themselves and from each other. Their story pulls at your heart, it makes you feel every emotion under the sun, and in the end, it gives you a story of the extraordinary possibilities that can bloom even in the darkest of moments, if you only take that leap of faith and give into it all.

I loved everything about this book. I loved Katherine and Brady. I loved me some Isabella. I loved their journey and story together, and I loved every phenomenal aspect Lex Martin encapsulated into this book. Shameless is one of those perfect reads that reminds you why you love reading so much in the first place, and I truly can’t recommend it to you enough.

Read this book. Embrace its feels. Fall hopelessly in love with Katherine and Brady. Invest yourself in them, and what they so authentically share. Give yourself over to Shameless and everything it has.

It’s worth it. They’re worth it. And everything you get you get within the pages of this book is worth it.

I am telling you: run yourself, don’t walk yourself to this book immediately and experience the literal amazingness it has to offer. It would be wrong not to.

 

Lex writes adult novels, the sexy kind with lotsa angst, a whole lotta kissing, and the hot happily ever afters. When she’s not writing, she lives a parallel life as an English teacher. She loves printing black and white photos, listening to music on vinyl, and getting lost in a great book. Bitten by wanderlust, she’s lived all over the country but currently resides in the City of Angels with her husband and twin daughters.

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So Much More by Kim Holden

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Love is strange. It comes out of nowhere. There’s no logic to it. It’s not methodical. It’s not scientific. It’s pure emotion and passion. And emotion and passion can be dangerous because they fuel love…and hate.

I’m now a reluctant connoisseur of both—an expert through immersion. I know them intimately.

When I fell in love with Miranda, it was swift and blind. She was the person I’d elevated to mythical status in my head, in my dreams.

Here’s the thing about dreams, they’re smoke.

They’re spun as thoughts until they become something we think we want. Something we think we need.

That was Miranda. She was smoke.

I thought I wanted her. I thought I needed her.

Over time reality crept in and slowly dissected and disemboweled my dreams like a predator, leaving behind a rotting carcass.

Reality can be a fierce bitch.

So can Miranda.

And I can be a fool…

who believes in dreams.

And people.

And love.

*****5 Exceptional Stars*****

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Sometimes you read books. Sometimes you experience them, and every unforgettable moment they give you. Sometimes you feel them with every ounce of feeling and emotion you have. Sometimes you even read a book so extraordinary that it swallows up your body, and your mind, and your very soul for every single word within its pages. And sometimes, if you’re lucky enough, you find a book that gives you all of that and more.

Books like that is why I am a reader. I live for books like that. I love books like that and what they make me think and feel and experience and wonder. When I come across them, it makes me want to shout that books praises from the proverbial rooftop…

So get ready for some shouting, because So Much More by Kim Holden was that kind of book.

So Much More was that kind of book because honestly it was so much more than a book. It was an experience, it was a journey, and it was a breathtakingly emotional story unlike any other I’ve read. It was so many unforgettable and raw and heart squeezing moment woven together perfectly through the eyes of 3 very distinctive characters.

It was real. It was life. It was love. It was also utter heartbreak and pain. Yet at the same time, it was also healing in so many ways.

It was everything.

I feel like this story is so hard to accurately describe because it was so many things, and it encompassed so many different stories with Miranda, Seamus, and Faith. Kim Holden seamlessly weaves together their stories in So Much More, and she connects them all in ways that you will be blown away by. Ways that will make you feel every ounce of what these characters do. Ways that will hurt your heart and shatter it into a million pieces, yet at the same time, ways that will bring you back together again and make it right. Experiencing these characters’ interwoven stories in So Much More is something I know I will never forget experiencing.

Even though I find it so hard to tell you what this book is about (since it’s about so much), and why you should read it (which you obviously should), I’m going to try to find a way to tell you what this book will give you…but really you should just read it, because my words do not do this book the immense amount of justice it deserves.

So Much More is a story of love. A father’s undying love for his children. One girl’s journey to seek the love she’s always been missing. One woman’s bumpy as hell path to love that is certainly unorthodox, yet oddly fitting for her. It’s a story of the love and compassion you can share for others, the love you can feel for yourself, and the extraordinary kind of love you can feel for the right person if you actually let yourself feel it.

So Much More is a story of hate. Unbridled, feel it in your bones, hate that consumes you with everything it has. It’s about how that hate changes you, how it alters your mind and how it puts you on paths you never wanted to be on. It’s about how that hate can devour you if you let it, and how that hate can bring you to be a person you never wanted to be.

So Much More is also a story of resiliency. Of the heart, of the mind, and of the soul. It’s about what happens when you break, when things come your way that you don’t deserve and you experience the worst of the worst, yet you push through and fight with everything you have. That tenacious resiliency is everything, and reveals a vulnerability, honesty, and level of realness in these characters in the most extraordinary of ways. This book gives you that resiliency, and makes it tangible, it makes it real. Experiencing that resiliency from these characters will give you hope, it will give you love, and most of all, it will give you life.

So Much More is a story of Faith and Hope, and the life changing things that can happen when you have both of those things. It’s about what can happen when you open yourself up to the joy and light and happiness they can both bring you, and how that will change everything. (And yes those words are capitalized for a reason. Read this book and you’ll get that.)

This book is extraordinary. It’s unique and real. It’s wholly enrapturing and it’s raw and messy and it ain’t easy. It’s also one of the most honest portrayals of family and life and love that I have ever read, and it is a book I know I will never forget reading. This book consumed me. It took over my heart and my mind as I read it, and I couldn’t get enough. I needed more. Even when it hurt. Even when it made me shake my head. Even when it made me cry…I needed this book. I needed Seamus, I needed Faith, and as much as it kind of kills me to say this, I needed Miranda.

These characters in So Much More are unlike any other, and their wonderful distinctiveness sets them in a league of their own, yet at the same time they’re so beyond easy to relate to. Even Miranda. Kim Holden allows you to understand them all so fully, so authentically, and in such a way that you get them. I’ll repeat that. You get them in this book on every level possible. Even Miranda. You get them, you understand them, and you feel for them. Even Miranda. Even when you want to strangle them, or shake them, or even knock some sense or fire or something into them, you get them and you love them, you know them, and you understand them, and you sympathize and feel for them. Even Miranda.

So Much More gives you the unforgettable and so thoughtfully intertwined stories of Miranda, Seamus, and Faith, along with a slew of utterly fantastic supporting characters that I can’t get enough of.

Seamus is the epitome of a good father. He’s a man who would do anything for his kids. He’s also a man that is struggling something fierce, and So Much More presents him with even more struggles. And boy does he struggle, and boy does that break your heart, like a lot, but at the same time those struggles reveal all of Seamus. They reveal the good, what makes him so amazing and such a good father and person, and what makes him a person you want to root for. His resiliency and fight in this book, and really the amount of love he has, will have you in awe of him, and really you’ll just love him. All of him.

Faith is the dreamer. She’s an optimist, and she is the definition of what it means to be a good person, a caring person, both inside and out. That doesn’t mean she hasn’t struggled, because she has and in this book she faces so many of those struggles head on, yet she still does it with her good heart and her caring self. Faith is the kind of person I aspire to be. She feels with all she has, she fights just as hard, and in the end she tries, and she does it all with a genuine smile on her face. Reading and experiencing Faith’s character is like a warm hug that just never ends, one that gets better and better, and just feels right all the way through. I love her so damn much. So damn much.

Miranda is…complicated. To say the least. I’ll be honest with you and let you know that I spent much of this book hating her. I hated her thoughts, I hated her choices, and I hated and despised the things she was doing to those around her, along with herself. The more I read this book though, and the more I got in her character’s head, the more I found myself understanding her, and the more I felt bad for her. Yes, she mad horrible choices, did unforgiveable things, and she is definitely no ray of sunshine, yet I still understood where that came from, and why she did the things she did, and more than that, so did she. And she hated it just as much as I did. Her character is one of the most complex and emotion inducing ones I have ever read, and though she sure as hell wasn’t easy to love, like, or even tolerate, I got her. I understood her, and many times, I even felt for her. I got her on the realest and rawest of levels, and that is a true testament to how exceptionally Kim Holden crafted her character because she gave me all of that.

Kim Holden gives you each of these characters in ways you will never forget. She makes these characters real, and messy, and flawed, and that just makes them even more dynamic, even more distinctive, and even more unforgettable. She lets you see them at their highest, their lowest, and at every single point in between as they all journey together in this book, and that is just part of what makes this story the exceptional thing that it is.

I am completely in awe of how she wove together this story, these characters, their flaws, their realities, and everything they shared in So Much More. I honestly don’t have the right amount of words to tell you what it was like to truly experience this book and their story.

This book was so much more than a story. It’s so much more than a book. It’s so much more than just words on a paper.

It’s an experience, it’s a journey, it’s something I’ll never forget reading… and really, it’s everything rolled into one exceptional package.

So Much More is so much more, and Kim Holden’s exquisitely emotional writing made it all possible within the pages of this breathtaking book. What she gives you within the pages of this phenomenal book is a story of love, a story of hate, hurt, and pain, and a story of the tenacity and resiliency that can see you through even the darkest of days, and even the worst moments, if you only you let yourself feel it and embrace what it could give you.

I loved this book. I loved every moment, and feeling, and hurt, and hope, and experience it gave me with these characters. I could probably go on for thousands of more words, and I still wouldn’t even come close to telling you how much I loved this book, and how much you need to read it.

You need this book. You need its powerful emotions. You need its unforgettable moments. You need its incredible characters and everything they so honestly give you. You need its words, its feelings, and its messages. You need its love and its hurt and its life.

You need it all.

Even Miranda.

So please, I beg of you, read this book. Let it consume you, let it move you, and in the end, let it fulfill you in ways you never knew possible. Trust me. You need this book in your life. You need Seamus, you need Faith, and you even need Miranda.

I am telling you that this book will blow you away with everything it has, and honestly, it doesn’t get better than that.

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