Carian ColeReseñas

WTF?
Need to stay away from IG suggestions.
Major DNF.

The author definitely knows their ages of consent in all states and what age gaps are legal. That's a yikes. People who have the Romeo and Juliet laws memorized are scary to me.

I now realize this is labeled as #1 meaning there's going to be more books in this series and I don't know why I keep on seeing things through when it can only get worse than this.

Gives me Jacob on Renesme energy and I don't remember asking for that. That one werewolf in Twilight who is having a tea party with a toddler that's his mate once she reaches eighteen is the exact energy of this book.

Now knowing that, I'm not about to stop where I am which is partway through. So I kept going. Maybe this is a horror and she'll escape her godfather and Uncle Torren who has been enamored with her since she was little.

No.

They're not related but it doesn't change the fact that he's imagining her as a kid while touching himself and remembering her birth. The fuck? Ew. It would be a little less quick if he didn't keep remembering her as a BABY.

He preordered his bride in simple words.

This book is an exercise in not gagging or feeling threatened. He's pining for a child and admits when she is fifteen, he's been pining for years! What was she, eight? Seven? Five? When it started? Fifteen is extremely young!

On top of that we get flashbacks of her when she's eight or seven which makes me think he was after that child and is pretending to be surprised by it. Faking surprise but secretly planning this all along.

He's written like he's not in the wrong. At least Lolita can make the predator obviously in the wrong and readers don't side with the nonce in it. Torn wants us to side with the nonce and see it as romantic.

They don't even have chemistry beyond the obvious EW.

1.5 stars. Could have been a great horror instead of a ""romance"".½

I enjoyed this forbidden love story. Sometimes age gaps can feel -how do you say - WEIRD. I think the background of the characters established their connection early on and it was believable they would have an attraction to one another.

I got tired of the flashes into the past even though they weren't really long. They were in every single chapter though. I was getting restless about 3/4 through and started skimming some. I really hated the ending. It was so distorted and talk about speeding through the time! I felt Kenzi made some stupid decisions that hurt Tor. He was the best part of the book. I just wished the story had moved faster.

Wow! I read this one in 2 days.....so good! The book deals with sensitive issues but is tastefully written. You know what happened with bits and pieces of the past thrown in along the way. I couldn't put this one down. I'm going to go back and buy it to have in my personal library. Tyler and Holly deserved their HEA if ever any couple did.

Second read - November 2022

Not exactly sure why I read this one again, I guess I was in the mood for a rockstar story and found scrolling through my Kindle. I liked the idea of the arranged marriage that was not a reality tv show scenario. I liked both characters. Talon is one of those sweet under the tatoos and rockstar persona types and Asia is a tough girl who has lived through a lot. I liked how Asia makes Talon wait on the physical aspect of their relationship. I like how the story plays out and it feels authentic. What I didn't really like and remembered pretty soon as I got into reading, is the way the author writes the dialogue. She uses words like gonna, shoulda, coulda, wanna, etc. and it drove me nuts even worse than the over use of the F word. If it weren't for that, I probably would have given it one more star.

Enjoyed this older woman younger man romance. I mostly felt that this couple would stay together. The hero seemed to be pretty mature for his age. There was a bit of insta love but I mostly bought it over all. I didn't enjoy the actions of the heroine later in the book. I would have enjoyed it quite a bit more if she hadn't taken so long to come to her senses.

I don't remember why I dnf-ed it the first time but maybe because I was getting bored and when all the miscommunication started I was done with it but now that I finished it, I think it's not a bad book. It's just that it wasn't for me.

READ IF YOU LIKE:
- Age Gap
- Marriage of Convenience
- Friends to Lovers
- A tattooed and bearded although sweet MMC and a sassy FMC

4 stars

The blurb of this drew me in. It's a slow build-up toward real feelings. There are some pretty heavy topics discussed in this. I do wish some of those had been fleshed out more. The ones that were, however, were handled well. I liked that the author took a couple of common sub-tropes and made a unique story.

A dark fairytale infused with light

A shockingly beautiful tale. Rainbows and unicorns are overrated. A man with tattooed scars and a girl without a filter are way more enchanting.

I’m struggling to write this review. This book is going to take me ages to process. I smiled. I cried. I felt chills. Everything about ‘Tied’ was intense. By some stroke of writerly magic, Carian Cole lit up the darkness without extinguishing it.

Not all fairytales are perfect. Perfection is boring. The flaws in this fairytale are why I gave it five stars.

"None of this a normal situation, so how could there have been a normal result?"

I enjoyed the characters and I didn't have any issues with the ending. My only problem was the pacing - some parts of this just went sooo slowly for me. That's probably because I was really expecting this to be more strictly erotica and not so focused on the process of these two getting together. There's nothing wholly wrong with that, I just suppose my expectations weren't in the right ballpark for getting into this. I found myself skimming heavily through a lot of the dialogue, flashbacks, and whatever parts were dragging. Especially once Kenzi and Tor had decided to be together together, it took so long for them to tell her father it was absolutely killing me. But other than that I thought this was a really sweet romance, definitely good for people who want to read something kind of taboo but not too heavy.

Ultimately - not my fav age gap ever, but it was too sweet not to feel at least a bit attached to these guys.

The writing is excellent. Just the right quantity and quality of backstory and description that I was able to very clearly see all the people and places described, tho I admit to never quite forming a solid image of the h in my mind. Could be because I had trouble getting past how she was unable to ask the right questions to the right people (perhaps she could have talked to Reece more openly about Blue’s behavior when he reached out to her?) yet knowing Blue’s history she kept pushing to force him outside his comfort zone into HER idea of perfect domestic life (family Xmas at her parents’ house, renting an apt with her), when he had refused just sleeping inside.

Possible Spoiler:
What truly made me crazy, hissing at my Kindle “Are you all completely blind? Stupid? So self-absorbed you don’t notice anything about those around you?
It should have been obvious to anyone spending time with the H on a regular basis that he was mentally unstable. The author could not have given more clues if bludgeoning the reader with a 30 lb carp.
The last 3/4 of the novel was ‘Name that Diagnosis’.
Did nobody listen to the man’s lyrics? The h was unable to see anything in his notes and words to her rather seeing them all as either his poetic words she can’t understand or finding a simple message ‘I have to leave you’ but failing to see the pain, turmoil, desperation of his suffering.
The failure of his best lifelong friend, his sister, the love of his life are unable to see his mental illness is unbelievable. If readers are unable to see his Bipolar Disorder before the author has exhausted all available 30 lb carp, there needs to be a much greater effort made to educate everyone about mental illness and treatment.

All that being said, I really did enjoy this novel greatly. I love books that allow me to immediately visualize everything, as clearly as if it were a movie.
(I think knowledge of psychology was the only reason for the score)

Curse me and my inability to just read out of order.
-Girl next door in a relationship meets rock star and his dog but doesn't realize it.

It was just a strange book overall, I kept reading because: SNOWED IN!!
It read like a very rough first novel with not a lot to it. i am not mad I read it, I probably would've just scrolled through the news or whatever so I was plenty entertained and I'll see how the rest of the series plays out. The idea, if not the execution, behind the intimacy between the characters is why I am curious how the author grows.

This book... is amazing.
I am trying not to include spoilers but please don't be offended if I give anything away, it's a really difficult book to review without saying too much.
Tyler Grace and Holly Daniels.
Tyler is Tor's brother from the first book.
Obviously from the 'blurb' these two have been through something very traumatic, but their story is the healing from their past. There may be some triggers for readers who have had any of these horrific experiences but the previous events, at least in the case of Holly are not detailed. They are hinted at, odd words recalled or sentences remembered, which I thought was really clever and helped it not become too dark.
Her family. What can I say? I don't know how any family recovers, that's not really possible but let's say moves on from the events that happen in Holly's life, BUT her mother, I just wanted to shake.
I can understand finding it difficult and even wanting to pretend it didn't happen but it did and to help your daughter move on with her life you have got to deal, and the bedroom, I cried. I can understand wanting to protect others but poor Lizzie what sort of life is she going to have.
I think this treatment was heart-breaking.
Even Zac, her brother and Anna, his girl friend, they were amazing but ill equipped to deal with what she had been through and could only help so much.
The amazing writing for me was that you are in Holly's head and life/people/family seem to go around her as normal but you are in her head and I wanted to scream for her. She smiles or agrees but is struggling so much, to get the reader to feel that much is incredible.
Tyler. There is no other woman drama though he thinks back on his life before his trauma and I liked that. There is one incident but it was an amazing twist to the story, very clever.
We hear about Tyler's family a bit, his brother Tanner and a sister, so possibly one of them will have the next book.
I would have liked to have had a bit more interaction with Holly and Tyler's family, esp with Tor and Kenzie but that may come in future books as we learn more about his family.
The ending is definitely a HEA, a bit to sweet but they have been through so much they deserved it.

Novella. It's an addition to the series, you must have read the previous books to enjoy it properly.

This was not for me.
I am not a fan of off/on and that is what this book is like for years.
Well written but heroine is a bit of a doormat.
Separation, heroine is celibate during that time. Hero says he was drunk and was with a woman one time, not bad considering his band lifestyle. And they are not together, together at the time.

There are no intimate scenes with anyone other than the Hero and heroine.

It is a complicated relationship that has huge issues, one that are not easily resolved.
I thought it was brave of the author to tackle this subject but it just wasn't for me.
He is completely invested in her in his own way but his issues make any normality difficult. (Trying not to add spoilers).
I would just like to add a comment from the author about the Hero's being with another woman.
'Carian wrote: I know exactly what you mean, when the dude is getting it everywhere, that's a turn off. Actually when I wrote this particular scene, in *my* mind, he really didn't have sex with anyone else, he only said it because he was angry. But I wanted to leave it up to the reader's interpretation of the scene. :)'
I would just like to add the epilogue is amazing.

This is a modern arranged marriage.
It's an interesting idea. It raises some interesting thoughts about preconceived ideas and judgements.
It is a good story, a little sad in parts and does have a HEA.

It's okay.
There are some positives and some negatives.
Whatever the reasons first of all I think it affects the reader when there is such a huge gap between one book in the series to the next, I couldn't remember who anyone was, yes you can reread but it depends how invested you are in the series and I wasn't interested enough to do a reread prior to the release of this book and it might not have actually come out, which is an issue when a release book is changes so many times.
A huge positive is the Hero, Asher is faithful for 8 years during the time his wife, Ember is in a coma.
That is huge! That is despite doctors not giving much hope and the music band environment he works in and regardless of how many offers he has.
They have been together since they were 15 and they are their one and only sexual partners.
He also visits her regularly, over the 8 years.

It is dual POV though primarily Asher from the start and then we get Ember in her dream state.
The dreams were a bit weird.
I'm not sure if they were in the other books in the series as I've forgotten but she comes to him in dreams and it's as if he keeps atune to her through them.
So of course he notices a change in them before she wakes up.

There are secondary characters who appeared in the previous books in series but as I said I'd forgotten most of them.
A few to me had fan pleasing appearances, the scene didn't seem to have any real point other than the character was known to previous readers.
The huge thing is her daughter has grown up from a teenager to an adult and married her parents best friend.
There was a character named Redwood and tbh the whole interaction with him was strange but I think he was introduced as he's having a book in the future and there was another new character the Hero met but I think again the whole purpose of the introduction was to link his book to the series.

The huge thing in the book is the heroine, Ember has no memory of her former self or her life with her husband and friends so she is like a different person.
She also begins to fall for her husband but as he's harping on constantly about old Ember, she feels jealous of her former self.
This could have taken the book two ways, either the heroine gets her memory back and becomes old Ember or she doesn't and Asher has to grow to love the new Ember.
I'm not saying this isn't an issue, to get used to a new person or to mourn the person you lost but it just didn't work for me.

Spoiler alert...
It was an interesting situation of amnesia but I wish the author had stuck to her guns and not got her memory back.
They were having issues and it felt like although he eventually comes to term with a new Ember he ends up getting both.

It's a bit slow burn, they don't end up having sex until very near the end.
No intimate scenes other than the Hero and heroine.
No cheating, flirting etc.

If you've read the previous books in series then you will probably want to read this book even if it's out of curiosity but if this had been the first book it wouldn't have made me determined to read the rest.
I'm a huge fan of the amnesia troupe and this one was okay but I wouldn't reread.

HEA.
Epilogue.

I thought this story was brave but the push/pull got on my nerves a bit.

It does have the ew factor. Age difference.

I can't give this book enough stars, really. There really just aren't enough to handle the joy and pain and love and hate that happen in this book. It's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Carian Cole had to put back the release of this one, and it was worth every single second of the wait.

Piper and Blue have the love affair of the ages. But, that epic kind of love affair isn't easy or smooth. Blue is different and has difficulties. Piper sometimes struggles dealing with Blue, especially when he is distant and she doesn't understand why he's being distant. It's not an easy life for either one of them. And when the relationship that Piper thought was going so well all of a sudden ended with a couple of extras left behind, Piper doesn't know how she's going to live without Blue, let alone just live.

There are places in this book that are downright devastating. I mean, just devastating. They wrecked my soul and left me hungover. But then, you turn the page and things are all of a sudden perfect and happy. It's an amazing ride. I'm so glad I took it.

I read this book first in 2018 and listened to it as an audiobook in 2020. I loved it just as much after listening to it as I did the first time I read it. The characters were written extremely well and I could feel for them and their struggles. The story was believable. The narrators of the audiobook were wonderful and conveyed the emotion of the story through their voices.½

Asher and Ember knew they would be together forever from the time they met at the age of 15. They were true soulmates...until Ember is injured in an unfortunate accident that left her in a coma for almost 8 years and Asher haunted by the memory of what happened that day.

This is by far my favorite of the Ashes and Embers series. The devotion of Asher to his wife is written so beautifully. He is amazing. He is almost too good to be true except that he is still so real with his wife even when the truth is painful. Ember's struggles with regaining her life are truly believable and heartbreaking. I really did love this.½

A man kills his daughter and a women's husband in a car crash, then sees the widow while visiting his daughter, they strike up a conversation -all the while not telling her he's who killed her husband- begin a relationship. She's a sub, he's a dom. A bunch of events happen that make this not an awful book but more a journey into awful circumstances and a series of bizarre events. I think this book should have offended me more, but I found it almost comical.

A weird read, but not an awful one. More awful secrets and some bad choices.

3.5 stars.½

So sweet

Lukas was so hot in his sweetness while still having that bad boy aura to him loved him so much, was so refreshing to experience a man not afraid to show his feelings also adored Ivy she seemed so unsure and Lukas sort of pulled her out of herself I think they make a adorable couple enjoyed so much.

Wow

this is the second book I have read by Carian Cole and I enjoyed this one just as much as the first. Absolutely loved Storm what a bad boy but also so sweet and adorable and Evelyn when she actually let go was the perfect match for this cheeky hotty. Hated Michael with a passion, I would have kicked that losers butt to the kerb years ago what a douche, Evie was well rid, I really enjoyed the playful tone to this story and the banter of these two lovers. what a great read this was.