Published by: Phoenix Press
Publication Date: July 25, 2014
Series: Strong Karma, #1
Genre: Contemporary Romance
433 pages
Format: eBook
Source: Free book
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Buy: Amazon – Currently FREE, Book Depository, Barnes & Noble, Kobo
Find on Goodreads
Sypnosis:
Bashful Karma Mason has been too concerned with college—and now work—to embrace her sexuality. Bullied as a child, she hides behind an unremarkable wardrobe and relegates herself to the shadows. But when her best friend convinces her to attend a charity benefit in Chicago wearing a stunning red dress that catches the eye of every man in the room, she discovers a surprising side to her personality. One that adores the spotlight but has no idea how to handle the attention.
Mark Strong, a wealthy Chicago businessman, is brimming with confidence. He’s in total control. Nothing—and no one—escapes his notice. However, Mark carries a heavy, painful burden. After finding his fiancée with another man six years ago, he’s erected a fortress around his heart, unwilling to let himself fall in love again. But when enchanting Karma snares his gaze from across the room, he has no idea she will shatter his carefully ordered life.
What starts out as a casual flirtation takes a series of surprising turns as Mark and Karma embark on a sensual journey destined by fate. Mark is driven to know Karma, understand her…educate her, and Karma is his willing student, eager to experience the pleasure he promises. But when the student becomes the teacher, Mark has to make a choice between taking another chance on love or a future alone.
Review:
I always love the idea of a guy who got his heart broken and can’t seem to move on, but after meeting “the” girl, all of that changes. Cliché I know, but I love it, haha, sucker! This story has that idea and imagine my excitement, yep, I’ve been on cloud 9 reading the first few chapters. Yep, just few chapters, because when I resume reading after a good night sleep, the story kind of changes that I can’t find the reason why I like it in the first place. That was also the reason why it took me 3 days to finish this story, which normally just took me a day!
Karma (yep, that’s her name) and Mark first meet in a charity benefit in Chicago. They both thought that they’re not going to see each other again but was shocked when Mark turned out to be their company’s consultant. And yep, that’s how their sexy ride started. Why sexy? I’ll tell you why in a few minutes. *wink
In the second chapter, Mark was introduced as a guy who’s obviously hasn’t moved on even after 5 years. He tried so hard to be unaffected but after seeing his happy pregnant ex with her husband, he lost it all. Reading all of those, I’ve been expecting a hero that is so messed up that he can’t think clearly or someone who causes trouble but was baffled to find out how a good “teacher” he is to the Karma. If you can get what I mean? Haha.
Karma is an attractive woman but because she’s too focused with her studies and now her work, she never got the chance to explore and experiment on her look and with her “other” life. In other words, her life is boring and so is her wardrobe, but all of that changes when Mark came. He didn’t just motivate her to really dress up and to stood up for herself but she also learned a lot about pleasing herself and her future man. I don’t know if I said that right but I am making this review rated PG as much as possible, haha.
Honestly, I’m not totally in love with how this story were weaved but I love the idea. I love the idea of two broken people (messed up in their own ways) found each other and tried to fixed themselves together. It’s just too bad that the other one was not yet ready to move on and to finally commit. But hey! There’s still book 2 coming!
And surprise! surprise! I didn’t find something in this story that I really hate. There’s no third party but there’s a douche and b*tches, but I’m so happy to read how Karma face them all and put them to their proper places. I also love to read each character’s improvements especially Karma. I love to read about her transformation especially on how she stood up against the nasty Jolene and her douche of a brother. I don’t really have any negative comments about her character because all were portrayed pretty well and so convincing.
Mark on the other hand isn’t what I expected. When I first read about him, my first impression was that he’s so messed up, but I was wrong. Well, partly, he’s still hang up with his ex but after all the explanations, I can totally sympathize. You know, sometimes when I guy is so heartbroken, instead of moving to the right direction, they end up on the wrong side of the road, but with Mark? He’s not. He’s doing great actually, but still a little messed up. I really love that he came into Karma’s life and how he makes her see what a wonderful woman she is. I’m not head over heels in love with his character but I adore him so much that I am praying for him and Karma’s happily ever after.
You know what I also like about this story? It tackles a sensitive life experience that we can all relate, and that’s bullying. It’s just bad how people can be so mean and says and do some bad things. Those experiences traumatizes the victims and some of them are still haunted even as they get older, but I’m so glad that both the characters dealt with it and was able to overcome it.
This story were both taken from Karma and Mark’s point of views and I don’t feel left out. All were properly explain and I love the fact that all the things I hate about romance stories isn’t in here. There were of course some few foreign words for me, but so far, I still find this story very easy to read excluding the sexy scenes, which I’ll warm you, there’s a TON. It was too intense that I’m my face is still red haha.
It took me a lot of time to finish this story that sometimes an idea of just putting it off permanently came to mind especially when I’m on the part where a too intense sexy scene is present. But I’m so glad that I succeeded and read the whole story. I’m sure I would have given it a perfect 5-star rating if their arrangement would have been different, you know, minimizing the number of sexy scenes? haha.
The ending was something that will really make you looking forward for the second book and I’m actually tempted. But after what I’ve been through with those abundant sexy scenes, I guess I could use a month or more before putting myself in that situation again, hah!
Well, I’ll be leaving a 3-star rating for now. It’s been my first time from the author but so far, it was a good experience. It’s good but is totally not a kind of book that I could tuck in when I’m bored while working or I won’t get any work done because I’m too flushed with the intense sexy scenes, haha.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Buy: Amazon – Currently FREE, Book Depository, Barnes & Noble, Kobo
Reading this book contributed to the following challenges:
- 2017 New To Me
- 2017 Mount TBR Reading
- 2017 eBooks Reading
- 2017 You Read How Many Books?
- 2017 Review Writing
