Book Review - Taking Chances

Overview

Eighteen year old Harper has grown up under her career Marine of a father's thumb. Ready to live life her own way and experience things she's only ever heard of from the jarheads in her father's unit; she's on her way to college at San Diego State University.

Thanks to her new roommate, Harper is introduced to a world of parties, gorgeous guys, family and emotions. Some she wasn't expecting yet, and others she never knew she was missing.

She finds herself being torn in two as she quickly falls in love with her boyfriend Brandon, and her roommate's brother Chase. Covered in tattoos, known for fighting in the Underground and ridiculously muscled...they're exactly what she was always warned to stay away from, but just what she needs. Despite their dangerous looks and histories, both adore and would do anything for Harper, including stepping back if it means she's happy.

Her first year away is turning out to be near perfect, but one weekend of giving in to heated passion will change everything.

My Review

Harper has grown up in a very sheltered life. Being the daughter of a single Marine, who had no idea how to raise a daughter, she is finally ready to start living her own life. Traveling across country to attend San Diego State University, Harper sets out on her first real life adventure away from EVERYTHING she’s ever known. Within hours of arriving she meets Chase and Brandon thanks to her roommate. Harper has a lot of chemistry and sexual tension with each guy, and after spending time with both throughout her first year in California, Harper realizes she may have bit off more than she could chew. Falling in love was suppose to be the most amazing thing to happen to her LATER on in life. But what’s a girl to do when you find your heart quickly being split in two? Well, Harper's about to find out just how amazing and tragic love can truly be.

First let’s me just say that this book and I have a very strong love/hate relationship. Taking Chances started out so strong for me. As soon as Chase’s character made an appearance I was completely head over heels in love. Team Chase all the way, baby. A little over halfway through, I was happily reading through the first major relationship hurdle Harper has when BAM! I was kicked in the gut by a choice and a consequence. I’m not going to lie, I totally ugly cried. Hard. My husband even came in to ask me what was wrong. When he told me “Oh, it’s just a book” I almost threw my tablet at his head. I then refused to continue reading the book. I eventually sucked it up, and continued (with a bit of trouble) until I had finally finished it. And that’s when I realized that even though this book was amazing, and it has such a great story very much deserving of 5 hearts, I couldn't do that to my Chase. So because it upset me so much I could only give it 3. Because I'm stubborn like that. But really people, it’s such a good book. If you don’t mind feeling every single emotion possible within one sitting then this book is perfect for you.

The author has decided to do a book from Chase’s point of view. I’m a bit conflicted about this because I’m not sure if I could handle it. Emotionally. Still, I’ll probably end up buying it anyway just because it’s Chase. 

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥

Wordless Wednesday

Trying To Catch Up

Hi!

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been over a week since I last posted! Crazy how that happens. It’s also OCTOBER, which for us usually means a really busy month! We have a lot of birthdays, anniversaries, and of course Halloween! This will also be the first Halloween for Emery to experience “trick-or-treating” so I’m REALLY excited! We haven’t done anything for Halloween in the past few years because one year I was pregnant and the other two Emery wasn't old enough yet. This year will be different though! I really want to go all out this year and make it super fun for her! Since our local community holds a nice Halloween event for the younger kids I plan on taking Emery out this year. I've already looked at a few costumes, but in the end I'll let her pick it out. I'm just hoping she enjoys it as much as I did when I was a kid.

Things on this end of the screen have been on the busy side lately. Lots of school work, helping my parents, fall cleaning/storing, and work in general. I’m trying to fit in as much as I can when I have any extra time so my blog has unfortunately been placed on the back-burner  This week my parents are packing, and moving everything over to their new house slowly. They've been making a few renovations that won’t be done till next week, so they won’t fully be settled in until the end of October. Then, we'll start moving into their old house right after that. Fingers crossed. So currently we’re just helping them pack everything up.

Lately, I've been a little overwhelmed with my classes. Even with my planner I sometimes forget when something is due or I get certain project due dates mixed up with another class. I've been heavily relying on coffee, which I hate, to get me through the days. Caffeine withdrawals kick in every morning, which is really sad. So, I had originally planned to drop one of my classes on Monday to lighten my load, but I found out last Friday that if I do I won’t get any type of refund. Which interprets into: get your shit together, Raquel. Right now my only fear is coming out of this semester with a horrible GPA. Algebra has been kicking my ass, and my writing teacher is awful with her curricula planning so I've fallen a bit behind. Which just means I really need to step it up in order to avoid failing any of my classes.

Emery is handling our new schedule wonderfully! She actually enjoys my mom taking her to the sitters and then having me pick her up on days that I don’t have classes. The first month she had a few issues like crying when I left, or throwing fits when she was dropped off at the sitters because I wasn't the one dropping her off. Thankfully, we’re going on two months now and she’s doing a lot better. No crying. No fits. There are even some mornings when she’ll even get up early to “help me” pack my lunch, and send me off to work with hugs and kisses. It’s definitely a wonderful thing.

Other than that everything has been pretty uneventful. So I'm just going to tell you now that my posting my be sporadic for a while. I’ll try to at least post once a week, but from the looks of it even that will be kind of tough. At least for the next few weeks. Mid-terms are already being mentioned, and major exams are coming up next week. I’m pulling as many extra hours as possible at work too, so that’s taking up a lot of my time. There is a silver lining though! Next semester I am NOT loading up on 5 courses. Yup, I've learned my lesson, and I miss sleep too much to try this again. Anyway, that’s about all the updates for now. Hope every is having a wonderful week so far!