All My Life by Rucy Ban
(First Things #1)
Publication date: May 2nd 2013
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
Seventeen-year-old Kari meets Neil Mars. “Neil as in Armstrong and Mars…as in Bruno.” A boy who beats every vampire, werewolf, highlander fantasy Kari has ever had. But she knows she can’t get close to him. Not ever. Because that would mean telling him everything. Coming clean. And Kari can’t bear the idea of changing the way Neil looks at her. Like she’s the only girl in the world. His reverence is something too precious to lose. Perhaps even at the cost of losing him.
But Kari doesn’t know why Neil calls her his ‘Angel’ and when she finds out, she realizes what love is all about. Boundless joy, unending longing and a fuckload of heartache.
Rucy Ban was born in 1978 and still continues to thrive. Ever since she first met Francine (the protagonist of her favorite novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn), Rucy fell in love with the written word. Rucy has a B-school degree in Marketing which she now puts to good use teaching lovable rowdy rogues and negotiating with her equally belligerent adolescent. In her previous avatar, she handled corporate communications for companies. At present, Rucy lives in Sao Paulo, travels often, speaks decent, if not quite fluent, Portuguese and really hates talking about herself in third person.
Author Links:
Website: http://jiltedgenius.
Facebook: https://www.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/
My Thoughts on All My Life
All My Life is by no means a perfect book. However, there was something about it that drew me in and I couldn't stop reading. So....I must have liked it, right?
The Characters- Rucy Ban did an excellent job making characters that I enjoyed. Yes Kari said Jheezus entirely too often and occasionally she comes off a tad immature but let's remember she's only 17.
Neil is really sweet, hot, and truly cares about Kari. I loved how he repeatedly proves his feelings with his actions. Yeah there is insta love and that is really getting overused but here at least there was a reason that the story needed them to fall quickly. Plus it's a romance story so you know ahead of time that there will be characters falling in love. I absolutely loved Nalini, Agnas, Josiah, Tatiana and Danny. They were amazing and so funny. I think they are a huge part of what I really liked about this book.
The Story- The story is a bit tricky for me. I really liked certain aspects of it and it had a ton of potential, but it sort of fell short in some ways. There were some problems that I just couldn't overlook. Kari's age for one. I get why she had to be young for one part of the story to work but then her age really messed up the romance for me. I can't imagine she would have been able to have the job that she has at that age either. I did enjoy how different All My Life is from many other new adult stories though. I didn't feel like I was reading the same old, tired story.
I loved how often I laughed out loud while reading All My Life and honestly I think this is a book that I will remember later.While I have mentioned things that didn't work, I as a reader could see why some of the plot happened the way it did so that some of the twists that the author wanted would work out. I think as writer though, your job is to figure out how to make it all work out smoothly and edit, edit, edit. Most likely I will end up reading book two because I really think Ban has potential and I truly look forward to seeing her grow as an author. Plus, like I said there was something about it.
All My Life Teaser
"Why do you look so happy?" Mom's voice is slow and suspicious.
"I looove my job," I announce dreamily.
There is silence for a few seconds and then she says "No one smiles like that because of job satisfaction, sweetie." Then she flops down right next to me. "You do know that getting involved with one's boss is usually frowned upon in professional circles?" she asks.
"It's not my boss. It's her son. Huge difference."
"Certainly is. In the first case, you'd be gay. In the second, you're just loosening your morals a bit."
"M-o-m!"
After a pause she gives me another one of her poignant one-liners. "The thing about falling for the hot, bad guy is...it's a hell of a ride going up but an incredible low coming down."
"Neil's not a bad guy, Mom. He just looks like one. It's like he has the mystery but....not the deceit."
"Looks like Nine Inch Nails but sings like Michael Bolton?"
"Who's Michael Bolton?"
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All reviews of the books I read whether bought, borrowed, or given are reviewed by me in all honesty. I don't intend to hurt anyone's feelings but my opinion is what it is, and I will not be swayed just because I have been given a book to review.
Great review, Shari. Some of the most memorable books for me are those that made me laugh out loud, actually, so this alone makes me want to read it! Glad you liked it! :)
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