Holding On by Emma Hart

This is #1.5 novel in the Memories series by Emma Hart.

My review of #1: Never Forget.

WARNING - This review will contain spoilers from the first novel! Continue reading with caution!

Alec
After Alec betrayed Lexy by keep the secret of her grandmother's illness, he was finally able to gain her trust back. And because Alec got a taste of what it was like without Lexy in his life, he has decided to move to London where Lexy is going to school so he won't be away from her 3 hours away.

But he has a lot to learn in London. He's not a city boy, but he will do whatever it takes to be with Lexy, the girl of his dreams and the one he is so in love with he could never look at another girl again.

Lexy
Lexy knows what Alec has sacrificed to come to London with her. It's a big adjustment and he is doing wonderful, but the city is a harsh, hard life. And an old friend/wanna be boyfriend, Adrian, finds out that she is dating seriously with Alec.

And Adrian is not taking it well that he never got a chance with Lexy, but she gave her heart to someone else. A "country bumpkin". And Adrian is looking for some revenge. Will Lexy have to let Alec go so he won't get hurt in London?

Jen
Jen is excited for the city life in London. Being stuck in a small town is alright, but her passion is to draw and the university in London is the best for drawing. It's been her life time goal and it's finally happening, but she is feeling homesick and missing her boyfriend of 2 years, Carl, who refuses to come to the city.

If Carl can't even make the effort to see Jen at school, will their relationship last? Or will it be time to let the small town go and become another person in the city crowd? And she also has the dilemma about being attracted to Lexy's older brother Bing...

Bing
Bing is glad to be back in London. Now he can hook up with random girls and live his normal life. Yeah, that involves dodging her sister's ex-friend Jayma, but that's okay.

What's not alright is his attraction to Jen, Lexy's best friend. Because Jen is taken by Carl. And even if she wasn't, she is loud, obnoxious, sarcastic, and witty. Which are 4 reasons he loves being around her. Of course he would want the one woman he couldn't have...

All four are about to face the object they most desire. Can the survive their encounters, or will it blow up in their face and leave them with a broken heart? Read Holding On by Emma Hart to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
Just a forewarning, this is a NEW ADULT novel, which means that it's a little bit more mature and graphic than a YA novel but not too racy like an adult novel. Mainly, New Adult (NA) novels are set in college and are about characters who are starting to grow up, but still do things that are immature.

Yay! I was very interested in Bing and Jen the moment they were in the same room during Never Forget and boy did we get to see the two of them a lot in this very short novel!

Oh, and yeah, Lexy and Alec were in here as well :) I thought this was a good novel for them to finally figure things out between the two of them. And yeah, I'm still a bigger fan for Alec than Lexy, though she wasn't AS bad in this novel as the first.

But Bing and Jen! As you can tell, I'm a fan of their's and I was very content with the limited scenes we were given in this novella. The comments that come flying out of both of their mouths crack me up. I don't know the last book that made me laugh so much as those two flying insults back and forth between one another.

Even though this book was very short, I really, really liked it. I think I even liked it more than the first novel in this series. But I think I'm going to love the next one even more because it's about Bing and Jen :D

Okay, yes, I really I have an addiction. So sue me, haha.

I most definitely loved this novel and would recommend it to other New Adult readers. I would suggest, though, that if you read this that you might want to read the first one first. It will definitely explain Lexy and Alec's history to help the reader understand the trust issues.

And the best part?!? I have the third book already! I won it in a giveaway from Emma Hart, so I get to read it a few days before it's release. Sweet, baby Jesus, I'm gonna read about the two most hilarious characters I've read in a long time, so off I go!

Everyone should definitely read Emma Hart's novels. They are fantastic!

Never Forget by Emma Hart

This is the first novel in the Memories series by Emma Hart.

The summer before Lexy goes off to college is not the time she wants to go to the small town of Devon where her grandmother lives. She wants to party with her friends in London and enjoy the last few months before she is off to school again.

But her parents forced her to go with them and now Lexy is stuck in this small town until term begins.

However, Lexy has always had a soft spot for Grammy and she is having a good time being with her again. It also doesn't hurt that she has reconnected with her friend from Devon, Jen, and her crew of friends. Suddenly, the summer doesn't seem so bad after all.

Though she does have to put up with the town player and bad boy, Alec, who is best friends with Jen's boyfriend, Carl.

The connection between Lexy and Alec is undeniable, but Lexy sure does resist for quite some time. She is a relationship kind of girl, not a summer fling or one night stand that Alec is used to having.

But Alec may just be changing his style of dating. Because he really likes Lexy. Sure, she's sexy and he can't get her out of his head, but she's also funny, smart, and gives back the crap that he gives her.

So Lexy might not be the summer fling he first thought of. She might just be his forever.

But when a secret comes out and Lexy finds out, everything might change between the two. Because this secret will change her whole life, and the way she sees Alec.

Can they get past the betrayal, or will it be too much to go back? Read Never Forget by Emma Hart to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
Just a forewarning, this is a NEW ADULT novel, which means that it's a little bit more mature and graphic than a YA novel but not too racy like an adult novel. Mainly, New Adult (NA) novels are set in college and are about characters who are starting to grow up, but still do things that are immature.

I got this book on Amazon for $0.99 and was so glad I got it! I loved it and really enjoyed the differences from one culture to another.

One of my favorite things is the language differences. There aren't many, but sometimes one of the characters would day a term that I didn't know or have only heard it from a tv show and would smile to myself.

I really liked Alec in this story more than Lexy. Lexy was kind of a whinny person to me, to be honest. She kept making excuses for why she shouldn't be with Alec - reasons that might have made sense if she wasn't so attracted to him and thought about him all of the time.

But Alec knew what he wanted and he was insistent upon getting what he wanted, which I like in the main guy. He also knew it would take time and work to get Lexy because of his past, but he was more than willing to work as hard as he needed to.

And I loved, ADORED, Grammy. She made me laugh out loud more times than I could count, she was so hilarious. And Jen and Bing were also pretty comical as well.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. I'm finding out that I am a big fan of Hart's and want to read all of her books that's she written previously, so it will be a goal of mine that I'm determined to accomplish.

I'm also really excited cause I get to read the next two books right away! :)

I would definitely recommend this novel to New Adult lovers out there and it's for a great price! Hart is on my "to watch" list for her future novels!

The Love Game by Emma Hart

This is the first book in The Game series by Emma Hart.

The game started at a house party. Maddie's friends, Kay, Megan, and Lila, wanted to give playboy Braden a taste of his own medicine: play the player. And Maddie is the nominated person to play him. She has one month to make Braden want to be her boyfriend, profess his love to her, and then she can hump and dump him.

At the same party, Braden's friends Aston and Ryan made a similar bet. They bet that Braden couldn't get Maddie to fall in love with him and sleep with her. He had one month to prove to them that he could get any girl to fall in love with him, even Maddie.

So now the game begins for both Maddie and Braden. They are confident they can get the other to fall for them.

But what they didn't count on was starting to like each other. They both need to keep reminding themselves that it's just a game, and after one month life can go back to normal.

And Maddie has one more incentive to keep herself away from Braden: her brother Pearce. She wants nothing to do with guys that remind her of her brother, and Maddie's first impression of Braden reminds her of Pearce.

However, after getting to know him better, she realizes he's not like Pearce. And that is a bad realization because now she has less motivation of staying away from Braden.

When Braden and Maddie find out that they have been played by the other, though, the feelings that they started to get might vanish. Because how can they believe the other person if they say the love them if they were just playing a game with their friends?

Can Maddie and Braden shrug off the betrayal they feel about the games, or will their "relationship" end when they find out the truth? Read The Love Game by Emma Hart to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
Just a forewarning, this is a NEW ADULT novel, which means that it's a little bit more mature and graphic than a YA novel but not too racy like an adult novel. Mainly, New Adult (NA) novels are set in college and are about characters who are starting to grow up, but still do things that are immature.

I saw this on Amazon for $0.99 and after reading the blurb, had to buy it because it sounded amazing. And it was! So glad I bought this! I have now fallen in love with this author and bought two more of her books for $0.99! :)

I really liked Maddie. She has a dark past and it has come to haunt her in California. She just wants to get through school and keep her nose out of trouble, but her friends decide to spice up her life with this challenge to get Braden to fall in love with her.

And throughout the whole game, she has to keep reminding herself that she can't like Braden. Also, she really makes him work for the little things - like her phone number. It was very funny that a guy like Braden, who could get any girl on campus in his bed, had to fight like crazy just to get Maddie's number.

Like I said, I liked Maddie a lot!

And Braden knew that getting Maddie to fall in love with him would be a challenge. She's not like other girls on campus and he might actually need a whole month to achieve his goal, but he had no doubt that he would succeed.

The premise of this book was great. Both characters were trying to fool the other in a game. And funnily enough, the friends of Braden and Maddie had no idea they were challenging their friends at the same time to do the same thing. It wasn't a set up, just a very big coincidence.

Like I said, I really, really liked this novel and cannot wait to read about the next two characters in the sequel (I'm hoping it's Megan and Aston's story!!).

I will also be playing catch up to read her other novels that have already been published! For anyone who likes New Adult, this is a must read! And the price is amazing for an eBook, so I would definitely recommend it to readers!