Boyfriend Glasses (Greta Bell Psychological Thriller #1) | Book Review

"Bitches be crazy"

Title: Boyfriend Glasses

Series: Greta Bell Psychological Thriller

Author: Livia Harper

Genre: New Adult, Thriller

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Summary: Greta is in love with Blake. They are soulmates.

But Blake is dating Greta's roommate. And Greta is batshit fucking crazy.

Rating: 10 "the fuck is this bitch doing?'s" out of 10

Review:

I don't even know where to begin with this novel. I just found it for free on Amazon kindle and I wasn't expecting much from it but then I found myself cringing, creeped out, and laughing throughout the entire thing. Greta's obsession with Blake and the flashbacks about her previous obsession with a boy named Johnny are just nuts. She has completely deluded herself into believing she has relationships with these guys and it'd be one thing to read about her disturbingness from the point of view from her stalking victims but to read her thoughts and get the entire story from her makes everything at least 7.3 times more uncomfortable.

The story is pretty straightforward, Greta arrives at college and falls in love with Blake at first sight, then is jealous of her roommate, Amber, for dating him, and she spends the novel trying to get Blake to be with her instead, through any means necessary. But what kept me going was the fact that Greta's life was a trainwreck that I couldn't look away from. I don't want to give away too much but through multiple acts of arson, having sex with random truck drivers, sleeping naked under someone's bed, and a scene straight outta Compton "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," Greta gets into some pretty bizarre situations and they are what keep the story flowing even when it doesn't seem like much is happening.

I like the way the novel jumps between Greta's high school story and her college story and the way the high school story goes is not how you see it going, and just when you think the college story may end the same way, something happens that throws everything off and sets up for what are sure to be strange sequels. I don't have any complaints about Boyfriend Glasses. It's fun, original, unpredictable, and one of the best books I've read in a long time. I highly recommend giving this series a try.

Boyfriend Glasses is available for free on Amazon Kindle, and in paperback at the Book Depository.

The Naturals (The Naturals #1) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes | Book Review

Title: The Naturals
Series: The Naturals (Book 1)
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
Summary: It's basically a YA version of Criminal Minds, in which a smart girl named Cassie joins the FBI to help catch serial killers
Rating: 9/10 stars
Review: I'll be honest, I think I know everything. I've read countless novels, I watch Criminal Minds religiously, so when I know how bad guys are caught on that show and I know every trope in fiction, it's rather hard to take me by surprise. Which is why I have to give The Naturals such a high rating. I had figured out who the killer was from their first appearance and for the first time in as far as I can remember, I was wrong about a novels' plot twist. While I was reading The Naturals, I saw myself giving it a 6 or 7 starred rating because I thought it was predictable. However, by the end of the novel, I found myself overlooking the pointless love triangle and one dimensional characters because I enjoyed the last third of the novel so much. The plot was easy to follow, moved fairly quickly (I finished this in just a few days), and the story is a lot of fun. There aren't many young adult novels based around criminal profiling so it's refreshing to read something new and unique. The Naturals does have its problems though. The love triangle, for one, is not needed at all. Michael and Cassie have chemistry as friends but whenever things get romantic it's awkward and I feel like they can't relate to each other very well and that this should just remain a friendship. The romance feels thrown in for cheap tension. Dean and Cassie make a lot more sense together romantically and I hope that by the end of the next book, the love triangle has been squashed and we can stop dedicating pages to it when that page time could be given to developing the characters. I feel like too often characters start to blur together, Lia and Sloane, Briggs and Agent Whatsherface. The characters don't feel distinct enough and it makes it hard to get attached to any of them, to the point where someone was on the floor bleeding to death and I was thinking "what am I going to eat for lunch?" There are still at least three more novels in this series and maybe now that we've gotten the first one out of the way, characters can have room to stretch their legs out a bit (and show off their abilities more).

The Naturals is a little rocky in a few places but manages to stick the landing and make the reader eager for book two, Killer Instinct. This is a solid start to what's sure to be a fun series.

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