Ok it's almost 6 AM, so I am not even going to try for a coherent review right now, I just want to get some thoughts down before I pass out and forget something.

*looks at all the 4 and 5 star reviews* My god, did we really read the same book?

First off- editing. Horrible. Missing commas, run on sentences, even a couple of words that I don't think really exist. "blaringly" obvious? I think she meant glaringly.

Alex's body. Chiseled. Rock solid. Sculptured. Hard. Delectable. Strong. Bulging muscles. Massive. Very impressive. Beautiful. Muscled. We get it. The guy is built.

He's also way over the top on the possessive scale. Plotting a way to get her to leave her job, simply because she used to date her boss? Even though she swore it was never serious? Hiring a guy to act as a bodyguard because she has a stalker, but not telling her about it?

Slut shaming. The guys can't have a bachelor party in Vegas because no way do the women want their men around "money grabbing whores". WTF?

Misunderstandings. So stupid. He'd rather let her, and everyone else, think he was screwing other girls in college, rather than tell the truth, that he was behind on his school work, and had hired a tutor? Ok, there's pride, then there's downright stupidity.

Of course, he did try to tell her the truth the night she "caught" him with his tutor, but she refused to listen to him. She was so sure he was sleeping around, she jumped to the wrong conclusion about everything and wouldn't listen to him, even a year later, til he finally MADE her let him explain.

And then there's Valerie. She knows Alex is the jealous possessive type. She stays with him anyway, but she keeps not telling him stuff. Big stuff that she knows he'll take the wrong way if he doesn't hear it from her first. Does she tell him? No. She keeps talking with Luke, the boss. Having breakfast and lunch meetings with him, letting him come to her apartment. Is this smart? I think not. If you're going to commit to being with a jealous guy, you have to take his feelings into effect before you do stupid shit.

She and Alex both know there's a stalker after her. He made threats to her on a particular night- the night before Sarah and Angel's wedding. The girls all want to do a girl's night in, drink, and play Truth. (no one felt very daring apparently) Valerie knows how worried Alex is. She knows there's a stalker out there. She knows he was following them THAT NIGHT! But she lets the other girls confiscate ALL the phones because the guys keep calling and checking on them. Doesn't insist on them letting her at least text Alex that she can't talk. Doesn't tell them she has a crazy stalker who just might show up tonight, a crazy stalked who mentioned two of them by name.

Instead, when she knows there's a stalker out there she----SNEAKS OUT OF THE HOUSE ALONE, to get her laptop out of the car to email him!!! It really would have served her right, if she had been grabbed. Stupid stupid stupid.

I know these people are supposed to be in their 20s, but more often than not, if felt like a typical high school story, only without the high school. They didn't act like mature adults, college graduates. It just felt....juvenile.

But in spite of all this- the author DID tell a good story. I finished the first book, and figured that was it. I wasn't interested in reading any more. But they kept getting good reviews, so I kept picking them up. And this one did pull me right in. I read it all in one sitting. And in spite of all the freaking eye rolling moments, bad editing, and new words I learned, I still kinda want to read Sofie and Eric, Romero and Isabel, and Sal and whoever's stories.

But I'll give this one time to fade in my memory a bit first, just like I let a year pass between reading the first one and reading this one. ( )

Alex and Valerie have a up and down, on and off relationship. After years of struggling Valerie thinks she's finally caught Alex cheating.. she was wrong but never aloud him to explain.. and Alex was too prideful to fight to tell her the truth. A year later they are forced because of Angel and Sarah's wedding to be around each other again.. they both had thought they were over one another.. until they laid eyes on each other and thats when they realized.. they still loved each other. Valerie continues to put up walls as Alex fights to break them down. When Alex finally starts breaking through he finds out about Valerie's psycho, stalker ex boyfriend who is out for pay back against Valerie and isn't taking no for an answer. Alex fights to find the truth and keep Valerie safe before time runs out.

“I love you Alex." "I don‘t think I‘ll ever get tired of hearing you say that sweetheart." He lifted himself on his elbow and kissed her. "I love you too. Forever." Valerie still could't believe the impossibility of this night. If she woke up in her bed and this all had been a dream she was going to kill someone.” -Valerie & Alex

“The one thing I've always liked about that boy. As much as I hate his body language screaming he owns you, with him next to you ain't no one gonna mess with my little girl.It may as well be written on his chest in neon lights.” -Valerie's Dad

"Your mine, Valerie always have been." -Alex

"Never again will we be apart." -Alex

"... I want you to be happy.. and safe.. and mine. Always mine, Val." -Alex

"If you know you'll never get over me, why don't you just marry me?" -Alex

"He picked her up, cradling her in his arms. 'I need you right now.'" -Valerie

"If I can make you half as crazy as I am about you, I'd be the happiest man in the world." Alex ( )

(check out my Author Interview here: http://niinas-reading-and-reviewing.blogspot.com/2012/01/always-been-mine-review... )

Valerie and Alex had a relationship, well not really a defined relationship but they hangout on and off, until Valerie had enough and went to see what happened when she wasn't around. As she witnesses his infidelity she calls it quits she wants absolutely nothing to do with him, ever again. She takes her broken heart and swears to never let Alex close again.

Alex has bit of a proud streak, with his football scholarship he has to keep his grades up with is not easy for him, he hates people viewing him as stupid so he doesn't tell Valerie just what keeps him away from her - but when she surprises him with a girl, his tutor, he tries to explain but it falls on deaf ears. And it, whatever it is, is over.

It's been a year and Valerie and Alex are both living their lives when a family wedding brings them together again, and love, passion and broken hearts are all dragged back out. Love hasn't died and even though Valerie fights to stop feeling for Alex she can't help seeing him as a changed guy. With a jealous ex ( the one she thought she'd use to get over Alex ) is threatening her and her boss wanting to date her she has more than enough on her plate, but when Alex states he wants her back... just how much can a girl have on her plate?

~

Say, Hi, to deliciously passionate and intensily protective Moreno brothers! I really enjoyed this book, it's been a while since I've read just contemporary romance, and it was nice, no shifters or vampires coming out of closets. ;) This story is all about second chances, and I loved that! Things just went wrong with Valerie and Alex, and their pride kept the two apart until something just had to give when they met again. Of course the reader knows these two belong together, but reading the whole journey is still interesting with yummu elements of danger, jealousy, love and passion.

I really liked Alex even with his proud streak and his temperament he was lovable and having him pine after Valerie and reacting to her mere presence in the room was yummy reading. I wish though that I could have just shook him and go, "oh come on just tell her how you feel, what really happened!" of course that marks a good book when you can get frustrated at the characters, it means you're involved in the story. But I loved Alex even more after they decide to give things another go, sure he's possessive and jealous but in a deliciously yummy way. ;)

Valerie, oh I wish she could have just given him a chance, she harbored her ill feelings for him for a year trying to replace him ( big oh-oh ) and tried to trick him ( by saying she had a boyfriend ) and eventually she just had to open her eyes and see that was changes and hear him. I really liked her, she was fun to read and had really heartfelt emotions, lots of guts and a good sense of humor.

Alright, things that needed a little fixing were the repetition of events in the first half of the book, which slightly stalled the reading. But after the half way that didn't come up anymore and the story moved a lot more smoothly. The covers on the other Moreno Brothers books in the series are quite good, this one has something lacking it, could have used something extra, it's not a big problem as I read this on the Kindle.

What I loved was all the tension! Loved it, it's just what a good romance needs! The tension caused by Alex's passion for Valerie, tension from Valerie's boss trying to get her to date him and forget Alex, and Valerie's jealous ex that keeps threatening her and demanding she pay for leaving him and him ending up in jail. I love love love all that tension!

You'll love this if... you like your romance contemporary, if you like second chances and if you love a love story with a stalker to add an element of danger! ( )

Always been mine is the second Moreno Brothers book, but it is transitioning from Young Adult Romance to Adult Comtemporary Romance. In Forever Mine, we follow Angel and Sarah through love, laughter, and tears; with just a side salad of Alex and Valerie's wild sex craze. Always been Mine digs deeper into that romance, and finds that emotions run much deeper than the occasional hook up previewed in the first book. After a disasterous spy mission, Valerie has given up on the relationship she knows can and will never exist. Alex has proven to be the ultimate ladies man that will not be capable of settling down with just one woman, and she refuses to continue setting herself up for heartache.

All the while, Alex has many things he is not proud of; including letting Valerie walk away. Valerie is the one person he wishes he could spend the rest of his life with, but he just let her walk away rather than tell her the truth. Now after a year apart the pain of her loss only seems to be increasing. If he could just find a way to get her to see how much he really loves her, and that he can be the a one woman kind of man. His opportunity comes at Sarah and Angel's wedding shower.

This begins a rollercoaster of frustration when Valerie lies to Alex telling him she is seeing someone, and they can no longer be more than friends. Followed by a month of lies and secrets that will keep the readers infuriated with the characters. Valerie has spent this entire year trying to get over Alex, and made several mistakes. One of which turned into a controlling and psychotic boyfriend. When he begins calling her, and making corner her alone she begins looking for somewhere she can feel safe. It becomes evidently clear that the only pace she will truely feel safe is the one place she has vowed not to go back to.

Always been Mine was very different from the Young Adult Romance that Forever Mine offered. This was anticipated seeing as how we were changing genres, but I think that it was also a little shaky as Elizabeth Reyes finds her Adult Romance groove. Overall, even with the transitioning occuring I it was an incredible read. I love how each book highlights one romance, but there is some much about beginnings and continuations of the romances prior. Reyes is one exceptional author; that offers story packed full of hot and steamy romance. As mentioned before I believe she is still learning and working out the kinks, but all around she has a very promising future. Great read!!

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