Customer Reviews

The Life and Loves of April Johnson

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book was a little too all over the place for me. It had great potential but would have been better written as two separate stories. Same two guys but two different heroines with different outcomes, maybe April should have had a twin. It would have allowed all of the characters as well as the story to be better developed.

This is literally a story about a woman who has two men in her life, she's known them both since highschool. She meets them both again at her ten year class reunion. She's hot for both but she goes with the one that got to the reunion first but still can't seem to make up her mind about either. The author solves the problem by having one of them die off. But the story is not neat and tidy by any means.

The heroine come's off as not knowing her own mind and her relationships with both men are developed in such a way that they come off as torn between two lusts as opposed to two loves. She also had way too much attitude that was unjustified and a huge turnoff. At times her treatment of one of the male characters was so strongly negative that it was a real stretch to read about how this guy kept coming back for more of the same again and again. It was like he was way into emotional masochism, that's the only way to explain his attraction to her. Which doesn't say much about his character. Frankly, none of the characters come off as really fleshed out. The best thing about the book were the sex scenes. Which is too bad because there was a story here just two of them.

That all being said, it was great to read an interracial romance where race was not a real factor to the story.

April Johnson goes to her high school reunion and meets amongst others the man who broke her heart and the guy who was the class geek. The geek is now gorgeous, so gorgeous she doesn't recognise him. And both he and her former love pursue Eve with a vengence. Should she trust the man who was her first lover, who dropped her because she didn't fit into the 'In crowd' or the guy who was a friend and now wants to be so much more..
Ignore the awful cover art and you won't be sorry.

If you love romance with black heroines written by a writer who really knows how to turn up the heat then check out all of Eve Vaughan's books. Her books in the Blood Brothers series feature, The Grimaldi's sexy Italian vampires, at Loose ID.

I am Eve's greatest fan and not in a worrying 'Misery' way either. Ms Vaughan knows how to entertain. Most of her books are only available as ebooks, but don't let that put you off.

First and most importantly, don't judge this book by the cover-literally! I hesitated to purchase it due to the cover, and surprise, surprise, it's one of the best books I've ever read. This book strays away from the conventional storyline of boy meets girl, fall in love, and live happily ever after. It has twists that make you want to jump straight to the end because you will become eager to know what the heck is going on. Don't cheat yourself- read from front to back- no skipping!! It does capture your heart, as well as bring tears to your eyes. I love this book, and it's now my favorite book by Eve Vaughn.

I've only finished about a fourth of this book, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to finish it. The plot is one that has been done thousands of times, but what is turning me off (being a retired English teacher, I suppose) is the incorrect pronoun usage.

A couple of examples are as follows:
"Hadn't I just told Richard I would try to see if a relationship with he and I would work?" -- should be HIM and ME
"Could you give Marcus and I a few more minutes?" -- should be ME

True, I favor mystery and detective fiction, but I can enjoy a romance novel now and then IF it is well-written, and in my opinion, this one is not.

I will say that I read all of the other reviews prior to writing mine because I agree with all. Kinda odd huh?? This book was good. I liked April even though she seemed needlessly combative at times. The story was done well. I must say that I typically shy away from stories written in the first person but this was one of the best first person stories I have read. The writer gave you enough clues so you were not in the dark to much regarding how everyone felt, but not so much that the story was given away. April's story felt real even if a bit disconnected at times. I felt it all in this story, I felt, love, fear, indecision, anger, sadness, lust, joy, and yes, even peace. It really enjoyed this story.

This book started out ok, with an interesting plot, but quickly deteriorated into a story of a woman who doesn't know what she wants or who she wants it from. The characters were poorly fleshed out and the dialogue wasn't very well done. Both guys seemed one dimensional. Her character fluctuated between tough and not being able to make up her mind.

I got this for free on my Kindle, so at least I didn't pay anything for it. I finished a little over half of the book, but there was no way I was going to waste any more of my time on it.

this book was horrible. i got a free copy on Amazon and i'm telling you if i had paid money, i would be pissed. #1) the author used the same words and phrases throughout the book. although the story was about the two men and a woman, each character used the same cadence/structure/development of dialogue. #2)which brings me to my point of lack of character development. the main character april was shallow and didn't grow beyond this view regardless of what she experienced. reading it made me believe the author couldn't figure out who/what this character was, and so the characters came out wildly fake and unimaginative. #3)the lack of depth within the characters made it hard to believe the story line. for instance, if a women as "strong" as april was in the hospital because she feared her child's life, why would she turn around and start tonguing the man she so call "despises" in the middle of the ER? passion like that can happen, however, the way the writer wrote it, and the language she choose (which had been repeated at least 36 times at this point), made reading the situation boring and disappointing. #4)the errors in the book were too distracting! from punctuation errors to grammar and typos, it felt like an junior high student wrote it. sorry, i can't recommend this one. i don't want anyone else to waste their time.

I was a bit disappointed in how the main character April was depicted. How she spoke was worse than a teenage child. April sounded so unsure of herself but at the same time trying to sound tough. Also I hated the way Richard and Marcus kept repeating their downfalls. The ending seemed rush to get to an end. I did finish the book, but wish it could have been better.

Previously I purchased this as an e-book and loved it. When it was released in paperback, it was said to be expanded. I didn't notice any difference. I enjoyed both of those reads.

This was the hardest book for me to read so far because the story was so similar to me. But the feeling in the words was so true to life. Made me cry and remember someone that was very close to me. Loved this book!!!