Beat of the Heart

The plot of these books sound so good....but, they just don't quite get there for me. I felt this reading the first one but saw all the reviews saying it was better.....so, I gave it a try. It fell short too for me. Mia was the big problem! I can handle when the heroine has issues if she is smart enough to over come them. Unfortunately, she was selfish/stupid the entire book! She made all the bad decisions then tortured him with her insecurities. I wish he had told her to take a hike! I found it easy to put the book down to do laundry/dishes...not a good sign. I pretty much just skimmed the last 25%.

Katie Ashley is a wonderful writer, there's no doubt in my mind! Beat of the Heart only solidifies the fact for me. I fell in love with AJ in the first book, Music of the Heart! The writing was witty as always, the romance was heartbreaking and charming at the same time. I liked how they had to work on the relationship.. that it wasn't just rainbow skittles. I liked Mia in the beginning of the book better than towards the end. In the beginning she was this sarcastic, strong woman, but towards the end she turns a bit annoying, she is unsure of things and makes some decisions that I don't agree with... BUT it works itself out in the end. Another thing that I didn't much care for, is the fact that they spend more time at the beginning of show more their relationship doing it, then actually getting to know one another. I kinda skipped through most of their smexy time, because there was just a lot of it. I know, it's an erotic read, but it got in the way of building feelings towards the couple for me.

I really like that I didn't have to re-read the first book to understand what's going on. I think that takes true talent. There's been about 300 books in between the first and second book, sometimes I don't always remember what's going on. But one thing I don't like is when authors take a long time rehashing and refreshing. Katie slowly reminds us of Jake and Abby's story throughout BotH.

Overall, AJ was a sweet-dirty talking-love machine! His heart's always in a good place, he's my favorite character so far! This book was everything you could want from a romance, it was sweet, angsty, heart-wrenching and when you finish, your heart is happy! show less