For a debut novel, I am going to say...it was good. I am not bouncing up and down screaming that everyone needs to read this book, but it was an enjoyable read. And let's face it, the cover is smoking hot!

Let's start with the good stuff:

Cristos/Adonis. The man is hot. He is a tattooed, motorcycle riding amazing artist that works with kids every weekend. Awwwwww! He is also the campus manwhore. Boo! Oh well, you can't have everything! I did really, really like his character. He dealt with his past and his emotions in a realistic way. He wasn't perfect, but he was still a great character. He knew what Sam needed even when she didn't.

The plot had a good outline. Tortured girl from the East Coast with controlling parents incapable of showing love and a traumatic experience haunting her moves to sunny San Diego to go to college and re-make herself. Her parents expect her to be an accountant because it is safe, and that's all they want for her. They want her to be safe, secure and dreadfully boring. I wanted to smack her parents upside the head.

Samantha takes a drawing class as an elective and shows promise so her teacher hooks her up with a mentor. That mentor ends up being Cristos who goes by his middle name, Adonis (I just have to put this out there, any time I read someone calling him Adonis, I cringed. It made me uncomfortable!) Adonis is the town manslut, but he and Sam have some serious chemistry. Even if they are fighting against it (well, mostly Cristos is).

Ok, so let's talk about Sam. I hated her most of the time. She was whiny, immature, jealous, overly emotional and just plain annoying. I swear, I struggled most of the time to see WTF Cristos saw in her. She was constantly freaking out, being mean to him, running away, being crazy jealous, having no backbone at all. Ugh. She was like Ana from 50 shades on crazy chick steroids. I wanted to shake her, slap her and tell her to grow the F up!

Now, onto some of the issues I had with the book.

The "mean girl" cliche was alive and kicking. And it was totally overdone.
There were episodes of unnecessary drama. We didn't need the drive-by or the motorcycle gang. One round of Adonis coming to the rescue was enough.
There were too many issues swirling. Sam's drama, Cristos' dad/mom drama, the guy from the gallery (why was he written in? He wasn't needed) Sam's parents, the mean girls...there was just so much going on!

Ok. So here's my summary.
Like I said, it was and enjoyable book. I don't regret reading it and I will read the next one. If you are looking for a good NA book with no sexy time, this one is a good bet. We will see how I feel about the next book...who knows, maybe after I read it I will tell you that you MUST read it! It could happen! Especially when you have a new author, you expect growth in subsequent books. Devon Hartford certainly has talent, it will be great to see how he grows! ( )

For a debut novel, I am going to say...it was good. I am not bouncing up and down screaming that everyone needs to read this book, but it was an enjoyable read. And let's face it, the cover is smoking hot!

Let's start with the good stuff:

Cristos/Adonis. The man is hot. He is a tattooed, motorcycle riding amazing artist that works with kids every weekend. Awwwwww! He is also the campus manwhore. Boo! Oh well, you can't have everything! I did really, really like his character. He dealt with his past and his emotions in a realistic way. He wasn't perfect, but he was still a great character. He knew what Sam needed even when she didn't.

The plot had a good outline. Tortured girl from the East Coast with controlling parents incapable of showing love and a traumatic experience haunting her moves to sunny San Diego to go to college and re-make herself. Her parents expect her to be an accountant because it is safe, and that's all they want for her. They want her to be safe, secure and dreadfully boring. I wanted to smack her parents upside the head.

Samantha takes a drawing class as an elective and shows promise so her teacher hooks her up with a mentor. That mentor ends up being Cristos who goes by his middle name, Adonis (I just have to put this out there, any time I read someone calling him Adonis, I cringed. It made me uncomfortable!) Adonis is the town manslut, but he and Sam have some serious chemistry. Even if they are fighting against it (well, mostly Cristos is).

Ok, so let's talk about Sam. I hated her most of the time. She was whiny, immature, jealous, overly emotional and just plain annoying. I swear, I struggled most of the time to see WTF Cristos saw in her. She was constantly freaking out, being mean to him, running away, being crazy jealous, having no backbone at all. Ugh. She was like Ana from 50 shades on crazy chick steroids. I wanted to shake her, slap her and tell her to grow the F up!

Now, onto some of the issues I had with the book.

The "mean girl" cliche was alive and kicking. And it was totally overdone.
There were episodes of unnecessary drama. We didn't need the drive-by or the motorcycle gang. One round of Adonis coming to the rescue was enough.
There were too many issues swirling. Sam's drama, Cristos' dad/mom drama, the guy from the gallery (why was he written in? He wasn't needed) Sam's parents, the mean girls...there was just so much going on!

Ok. So here's my summary.
Like I said, it was and enjoyable book. I don't regret reading it and I will read the next one. If you are looking for a good NA book with no sexy time, this one is a good bet. We will see how I feel about the next book...who knows, maybe after I read it I will tell you that you MUST read it! It could happen! Especially when you have a new author, you expect growth in subsequent books. Devon Hartford certainly has talent, it will be great to see how he grows! ( )

!!!WARNING: MIGHT BE SOME SLIGHT SPOILERS!!!

Fearless was very much different from what I thought it would be - but in a totally good way. I think the author has definitely found his calling and I was extremely impressed how good this book was especially since it was his first. Judging by the cover I was thinking this was going to be your average badboy with lots of hot sex and a little story thrown in to fill the chapters up with and I was way off. Don't get me wrong, there were some pretty hot scenes but the book was just so much more than that. I've seen a few reviews that just didn't like Sam a whole lot or thought she was weak and I have to disagree. I totally get Samantha and understand exactly where she's coming from. I didn't think she was weak at all. She was just starved for affection. The past combined with her parents never really openly showing her love or encouragement were the reasons she was like she was. Yes she had a bit of a jealous streak but who doesn't? I mean if I was a chick and was going out with Adonis I'd probably be jealous too. But I liked the fact that she knew she was being unreasonable and even stopped herself so many times from making a comment or a scene. And honestly Adonis comes across as a bit of a manwhore when she first meets him so who could blame her for thinking the worst. Of course once she got to know him she constantly fought against her jealousy. She still had problems though. Because of her past she didn't feel that it was fair for her to enjoy life or to have love and the only love she'd ever really experienced turned out disastrous for her. In some ways she was very mature but in others she was still very much that sixteen year old that she'd been when everything changed. The ending alone proves how incredibly strong she is.

I love people who create for a living whether it's music, writing, painting, poetry, etc. The fact that Adonis is such a great artist really enhances the story and of course there's Sam who couldn't even recognize her own beauty much less the talent within her and I really enjoyed watching Adonis help to ignite that spark of creativity within her. Adonis was great, he was protective of Sam, kind, caring, good looking, could fight but never started trouble. As tough as he was it was nice to see that he also had a tender side to him and wasn't afraid to show his emotions or to cry on Sam's shoulder.

There were just so many stories within this story and I felt that it gave it a lot of depth. The supporting characters were awesome too. Every scene Romeo was in was a blast and Sam's best friend was the type of friend we should all be so lucky to have. The author did a great job of capturing Sam as a person and showing the story from her perspective. The art and mentoring were very well done. I really can't wait to read more. There was just so much going on that my mind is still whirling in a very good way. I think Devon Hartford knocked it out of the ballpark with this one and I can't wait to see if Samantha can be truly fearless. ( )

I really enjoyed this book.

The story was great, as were the characters, especially Christos - he is creative and intelligent, charming and caring, and as if that isn't enough, he is also very, very sexy. Another two really interesting characters are Romeo and Kamiko. The two of them made a good book even better with their banter and their awesome friendship, I loved them both.

And then there is Samantha ............ this girl had me grinding my teeth many times. I could not for the life of me understand what Christos saw in her. She was jealous and possessive when she had no right to be; she was also incredibly insecure and had no self esteem. She pouted, she sulked. So, what did Christos see in her? I have no idea. The further I read, the more I understood some of her issues - she had a traumatic two years behind her, a seemingly loveless home-life, and her extreme loneliness could all have had this effect on her, but still, I would like to have seen what Christos saw in her to fall so completely (wow, this was actually really awesome, you must read it) in love with her.

I hope that Reckless - book 2 in the series, will give more insight into who Samantha is, and I am looking forward to meeting the real Sam.

Would I recommend this book? Most definitely, it is a very good read and I loved it. ( )