Tuesday 16 April 2013

Real by Katy Evans

Reviewed by Donna, Dawn & Willow

Ok so this one actually had us disagreeing! We've all rated it differently. It just goes to show we all have different opinions!

What Donna says: 5 Stars!

What can I say....amazing for a debut book, totally got me hook line and sinker, pulled me in, put me through the emotional wringer and spat me out at the end..I was a mess, red puffy eyes, heart thumping, I looked like my best friend had died and it some ways it had as I didn't want the book to end and when I saw those words THE END I was bereft...I need book 2 NOW!! I need more Remy, purleasssssse.

Brooke dreamt of being an Olympic athlete she was certainly good enough and was heading in the right direction when it all went wrong, she was seriously injured tearing her anterior cruciate ligament, she went through rehab but returned too soon and tore the ATL again thus ending her dreams and career, she throws herself into uni and decides to become a sports therapist she has just graduated and finished her internship when this book begins. Melanie her best friend takes her out one night to an underground fight, she looks and feels out of place and wants to leave. Melanie tells her that she has to stay for the main event and that is one Remington RIPTIDE Tate... All the girls have their eyes on him but Remy only has eyes for one and that is Brooke...she turns to leave unable to take the screaming girls and the fighting..when Remy knocks the guy out for the count and chases after her...holy smoking hotness...phewwwww. It is a case of instalust which most find difficult to believe but I did actually believe this..the chemistry was amazeballs I felt the heat pouring out the kindle thinking it may actually combust...I know I was close! Melanie gives Remy Brooke's number and so the story begins...and boy does it begin!

Remy is extremely broken and misunderstood..he has been deserted and unloved by everybody that he has loved and was left to fend for himself in a mental institution at a young age, he was very aggressive and his parents could not cope so they sectioned him. He found a vent for his anger issues when he was 18 with boxing, however an out of ring fight led to him being banished and so he became the king of the underground. He chases after Brooke and eventually persuades her to take a job as his preventative therapist on a 3 month contract to the end of his tour. Brooke has an attraction to Remy but being the consummate professional that she is tries not to act on it but eventually she capitulates but this time it is Remy that pulls the brakes. He wants her to love him for him, not for RIPTIDE. He just wants to be loved, he wants her to see him, warts and all, he knows he his difficult, he has his issues and problems which we find out towards the end of the book and it is all explainable. Can she fall for Remington?....

Of course she can, how could anybody not, he is totally adorable and has just jumped straight to number 1 in my little black book of book boyfriends...I love him!

This book is amazing in the way that he communicates, he finds it hard to express himself so he does so through music, the scenes on the aeroplane are heart wrenching..I will never be able to listen to Iris without thinking of Remy and Brooke, in fact I have downloaded it from iTunes and listen to it and always end up crying..that is how sad I am and how much a lasting effect this book has had on me.

I don't really want to say much more about the plot as I do not want to spoil it for the readers but this story follows their 3 months together, secrets are revealed, things happen, ups downs, angst, love, anger it is all there in spades.

Such an emotional book that I will read again and again and it is certainly going on my favourites shelf..could even be right at the very tip top, it is a hard battle! I really cannot pimp this book enough, it has touched me and wrung me out like a wet sponge and the tears that fell during this boom were big fat and ugly..but I loved every one of them..go out and get this book, you will not be disappointed, I certainly wasn't. I cannot wait for book 2 "Mine" and on that note I wish Remy was! Cannot believe that this is a debut book, massive congrats to Katy Evans!

What Dawn says: 2.5 Stars

Please don't chuck too many rotten tomatoes at me but........this book just didn’t do it for me. I can see why people (especially Donna) loved it but for me something was missing.

Brooke dreams of being an Olympic runner but that dream is lost due to injury to her knee. And she never let's us forget that bringing it up in almost every page!! We get it you didn't make it Brooke!!
 So she becomes a sports rehab therapist and is at the moment jobless after an internship. She is introduced to  underground fighting by her best friend Melanie who makes her go to see the hotter than hot Remington ‘Riptide’ Tate.
And she falls (she's good at falling!!)  into big time insta-lust with sexier than hell Remy. It's a mutual thing as he chases her out the basement and gives her a smoking hot kiss.  He then sends her tickets to the next fight and a backstage pass then invites he to his hotel room afterwards. She's sure she in for a hot night with the hot fighter that I could now draw blindfolded because he's been described to me in great detail so often already!! She obviously says yes and is off  on a three month tour with him and his team.

The attraction between them is intense but Remy is a quite man as he has some pretty big dark secrets. He finds it hard to communicate, well when he chooses to as I felt he was able to talk to her easily sometimes. But to begin with he communicates his feeling through playing her songs on his iPod and she does the same. I thought this was quite cute.
But it was all a bit much too soon for me. I know insta-lust happens but this was crazy fast and way way over descript.
We here of her ever clenching womb, dripping panties etc etc in so much detail  for ages and pages I felt my self skim reading at bits just to get to a bit with some story. She also describes Remy in great detail and we hear of muscle groups and veins I had to look them up just to find out where on his body they were. There's also a bi of advertising with a lot of brand and product names dropped in along the way.
 It obvious they have a strong attraction to each other but there's so little speech between them it obviously just physical cause they don't know anything about each other apart from what they have Googled.
This all goes on for at least the first 50-60% of the book and to be honest it was boring.
So at this point we get some  action between them with kisses that went on for hours and hours. And when the sexy times did come along I wasn't that interested in it even thought it was very hot but once again so over described it took away from it.

So we are in the second half of the book and now things are moving along and I'm beginning to enjoy it.
Brooke has gotten to know Remy and learned that she may well love him in-spite of his bad-ass super angry faults. She understands him and this what he wants before they get serious. And he doesn't want to mess it up.
 Remy shows he has a lovely soft side going to collect her from her bed every night just so he can sleep with her in his bed. But then comes the "lion grooming" where he pets, cuddles and licks her like a lion would till she goes to sleep and she describes herself as his little kitten!! Now I'm thinking What the hell?!
Now there are other interesting little things going on in the book but it seems to bypass them and still focus on over descript contact between Remy and Brooke when the story could have went in so many better directions.
I was constantly thinking, what about this bit or what's going on with that person. It was trying to do too much at once and just felt disjointed.
When we find out what's wrong with Remy and he starts to open up I thought oh good we're getting somewhere but not I didn't feel it ever did something was just missing.
The last part of the book was possibly the best but then Brooke goes a does a couple of things that REALLY REALLY annoyed me. Like waiting for someone in a bathroom for three hours, yes 3 whole hours, when she should be with him for a major reason. I actually put it down at this point I was so annoyed.
The end seemed rushed and I get that's there's another book so we will probably find out more in that but I'm not sure ill be rushing out to buy it.

Someone said that maybe I was overlooking the point of the story I get the point and see the message behind it I just thought it got lost along the way and the book overlooked the story.

What Willow says: 3.5 stars

I was so looking forward to this book! It was on my radar for a while, but I think I sit somewhere in the middle of these two! I would give it 3.5 maybe 4 stars. The beginning I did find the insta-attraction really irritating! I felt that their attraction was rushed and the fact that Remy offered her a 3 month contract to work with him before even knowing anything about her, felt unbelievable to me. Donna had told me "it will melt your pants off" but at times I found it way too over the top. That  being said I loved that although there was this insta- attraction, they actually don't get together until well into the book.

 I loved the whole expression through music thing they had going on. I definitely found the second half of the book so much easier to read. Although ad Dawn states, there were some things that annoyed me about Brooke in this part. I get what Dawn means that this could have been a better story, I think Remy's past and his secret and why he does what he does is a great story, but it could have been an amazing story.

 When I finished the book, I definitely thought about Remy and his secret for a few days afterwards and I haven't stopped listening to Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls since, so this book definitely did some things right.

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