Bound Together Marie Coulson
Add to Goodreads Buy: Nook/KindleLayla Jennings is a fiery, independent and level headed nineteen year old. Always playing by the rules and doing what’s right, she has been the apple of her father’s eye and her mother’s treasure. But moving to college in Long Beach is about to turn Layla’s world upside down. With the gorgeous, pierced, guitar playing, wannabe rock star Oliver living across the hall, Layla finds herself thrown into a world of music, money, torn friendships and blood simmering sexual tension.
But on taking a job in a local coffee shop she meets the deliciously handsome Jared Garrett. Convincing herself that he is a waste of oxygen she tries to put the young successful business man out of her mind. But when he continues to show up she finds herself constantly thinking of him. Dazzled by his boyish good looks and discovering a whole new world of carnal and erotic pleasures, Layla finds herself falling head over heels in love but with Jared hiding a vital secret can she ever truly trust him?
Kim's Rating:
3.5 out of 5 Stars
Kim's Review:
I
will probably read book 2 to see how the story progresses with the man
she chose. I just hope it is shorter so you can really enjoy all the
good parts.
I have mixed feelings about this debut novel....
I liked Marie Coulson's writing style and found it engaging and easy to read.
I
both loved and hated the characters alternately in the book. I liked
them all in the beginning. There were sparks, confrontation, flirting
and it was fun. Especially between Jared and Layla. It was easy to like
both Jared and Ollie at first and see their potential as love interests
for Layla.
Layla: A
girl trying to make her way newly living away from family in a dorm.
Pretty, sweet, hard working, and popular. Also stubborn, immature,
unforgiving, and insensitive. She drove me absolutely nuts at times. I
hated how she strung the guys along and was so indecisive. She preached
about lying while she did it herself. She acted like a child and threw
temper tantrums. She would whip the guys into a frenzy and then act like
the martyr.
Jared: He
had some really good traits: Hot, charismatic, rich, sarcastic, funny,
loving, thoughtful, romantic, and generous. But he was also possessive,
domineering, overprotective, Jealous, secretive, and overly gushy and
lovey. I swear no man would declare his undying love in romantic poem
like paragraphs over and over like this man does. It was sweet the first
few times, but about the 20th time it lost it's appeal and he just
appeared kind of sad. I felt bad for him though because he could never
seem to make her happy no matter how hard he tried.
"You're my new addiction, my obsession and I'm hooked on you."
"A
gorgeous turquoise eyed blonde came crashing into my life and knocked
me off my feet. She's fiery, strong and infuriatingly stubborn. I was
hooked. She stained my shirt and stole my heart right in that shop and I
haven't been able to get her out of my mind since. She's amazing and
I've fallen head over heels in love with her. She's my happily every
after."
"I
love you. I've never met anyone that affects me the way you do. I feel
like I could conguer the world, bench press a bus, and run a marathon
when I'm with you. You make me feel alive and so happy I can't even
think straight."
"I
can't help feeling possessive over you Layla. You're the most valuable
thing in my life and I won't share you with anyone, ever."
Ollie: Rock
Star. Looks like a bad boy but has a sweet heart and lots of love to
give. He could not stop his feelings no matter how he tried or how hurt
he was. I could not help but like him and want him to to be happy. They
had chemistry but more of a smolder rather than the fire.
Jared:
"I'm serious Layla. I will not have that fucking little monkey trying
to climb by tree! You're mine and he needs to get used to it."
I
liked the character development in that you really see what the
characters all feel and you surely know what they are thinking. I think
she did a good job developing the love triangle with Jared, Ollie and
Layla. Lots of tension, jealousy, hurt, confusion, longing, and despair.
Her friend Mel and room mate Amy were also fun and supportive to the
story. His band mates evened things out.
In
the beginning, I really liked both guys and switched teams once or
twice. But the whole 2nd part of the book, I was Team Jared. And I felt
like it started really dragging.
My emotions were all over the place and were changing so rapidly it gave me whiplash.
"Falling
in love is easy, letting that love go, is hard. But your heart will
always have the right answer. You just have to listen to it and figure
out what it's telling you."
My biggest problem with this book was that it WAY too long. I
think half the length would have completely been enough to cover this
story. Especially since we have to wait to book 2 to even really get to
the rest of the story. I stayed up til 2 am trying to finish this book
just so I would not have to spend a 3rd night working on reading it and
to try to get to the resolution. And we got a little one, but the story
is far from finished. There were so many sex scenes and so many fighting
scenes that they just started to run together. And the back and forth
just got to be too much.
So
looking back at the book, the characters got to me and I liked the
story. I liked her writing style. I think she delivered the depth of
feeling of the characters. But sometimes less is more.
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