Lost in Me (Here and Now Book 1)

http://areaderlivesa1000lives.blogspot.com/2014/07/lost-in-me-lexi-ryan.htmlhttps://www.facebook.com/areaderlivesa1000timesI was randomly scrolling through my facebook page and I see a suggested post from an author I had never heard of. I usually ignore those type of things but at that moment, I read the post. It sounded really good. I went straight to Amazon and one clicked it. I finished the book I was reading and started on this book today. I was instantly hooked. I wasn't even 30 pages into it and I am sending Catherine messages asking what she is reading and demanding that she put it down and start this one. I devoured it! Her books have been described as intense, emotional and wickedly sexy. I agree! I couldn't put into words how to describe this book, but someone else did it perfectly! I have always been fascinated with amnesia stories. Ive even imagined what it would be like if I woke up not knowing who I was. I think it has something to do with new beginnings. I love the Harrison Ford movie Regarding Henry where he realizes he didn't like his life before and changes it. This too was like that. Hanna wakes up in the hospital with retrograde amnesia and cant remember the last 11 months of her life. She has the skinny body she has always wanted, a business of her own, and the man she has been in love with since 13. Her life seems perfect. I like Hanna a lot. I like trying to figure out what memories she has lost. I love Liz. It hurt me to see how messed up their relationship was and not knowing why. I love seeing that relationship build itself back up."Trying to explain to someone what its like to have a twin sister is like trying to explain to someone what its like to have a pulse. I don't know any other way. All I know is that her smile is attached to my heart. I float when she's happy, and when she's sad, my world is a puzzle with a missing piece."Max... Im not quite sure how I feel about him. I just had such a bad feeing about him from the very beginning. Hanna wants it to work so badly with him. I want it to work with him. Being in love with him since thirteen is a long time! I wanted that childhood crush to mean something. I wanted her life to be as perfect as she wanted it to be. I just couldn't break that bad feeling about him. He just seems too good to be true."I know you don't remember. Ill win your heart all over again if I have to."Nate... Is it strange that I fell for him the moment he was introduced as a character?"His expression goes from confused to desolate as he skims his eyes over my bruised face. "Damn. What happened to you, angel?"I think the moment he realized that her and Max were getting married and he looked so heart broken, my heart went out to him. But what kind of person was Hanna that she had two men? Why would she be cheating on Max if he was as perfect as she had dreamed he was? If she had everything she ever wanted why was there a prescription for antidepressants in her kitchen? Which guy will she end up choosing? When one of the men say something like this to her, my heart melts."You are the most beautiful woman I have ever met." He swallows and braves a tentative smile. "You're like the sun - completely blind to your own beauty because you are so busy making everyone around you shin. No matter how far we hide in the shadows, you share your light."This book had me hooked. I couldn't put it down. When memories started coming back, my heart broke . When the truth came out about everything and why she wasn't as close to her sister anymore, I cried a little. When she chose who she wanted to be with and that guy didn't want her in the way she wanted, I cried a lot. Simply put, this book was amazing. I love the mystery surrounding everything and the romance. As soon as I was done, I immediately bought the second one and started reading. I want a conclusion. I want to know what happened the day of the accident. I want to now if it was really an accident. I think Lexi Ryan is a new favorite of mine and I will be reading all of her books. I do have to say, I wish I would have read the other series first, just because this book gave away some of the other books. I whole heartedly give this book a five stars!!

Not a stand alone but so good and of course I had to buy the other two in this trilogy.

The mystery behind why the main character had her accident (and subsequently got amnesia), and why she's in love with two men is really intriguing, but the characters, themes, and stereotypes in this story were beyond frustrating.Reasons why the story annoyed me:1. Hannah's body image issues and low self-esteem are understandable because her mother is a piece of work and people are mean and it's a central tenant to her growing character arc. But it drags on for too long without any real forward progress or growth. It would have been interesting to actually see Hannah go to this therapist she started seeing before her amnesia.2. Speaking of weight... Authors need to STOP using body size as a way to imply identity. The main character refers to herself as a "fat" girl, and when she talks about women who aren't overweight, she uses the term "skinny girl" and implies that every skinny girl is either perfect with no mental health issues, no pain or past trauma, no self-esteem issues, no health problems, always fits society's definition of gorgeous, or she's a raging biatch. This quote from the story is a prime example: "Skinny chicks should be required to take a class in empathy." How about we don't use weight in any negative sense, ever. Every woman is different with her own experiences and issues.3. And one more note about weight. Why is it that in romance novels there's this obvious and annoying double standard when it comes to female and male characters and what they're "suppose to" look like? Why is it okay for a female character to be overweight but not a male character? The heroine in this story even implies that if a man isn't ripped, he isn't attractive...4. The way the two male characters in this love triangle treat Hannah borders on emotional abuse/manipulation. One of them started the relationship under false pretenses and doesn't really care about helping her with her amnesia because he's constantly withholding vital information. And the other keeps stringing her along while using her to quiet his own inner demons.Everyone in this story needs therapy, ASAP.

I don't like to review a book I haven't read, giving an unread book 5 Stars because you were gifted a copy by the author is unethical at best, immoral at worst! And awarding 1 Star because you don't like an Author or Genre or whatever is petty and infantile. However; I am becoming increasingly 'Pee'd Off' by writers who try to get more money out of us by splitting their work into bits. Not proper sequels to, or following the stories of recurring characters within the book, but literally only as far as them meeting......, or their first big fight .... aaannd 'The End'! Offering a book for free is good business sense for new authors without an established name or publisher to promote them. BUT finding yourself at the end of the book only part way through the story is just downright devious. Calling them a 'Sequel' is merely an attempt to make it sound better than the Truth, which is:- "..in order to find out how this Story all ends you're going to have to; A - Wait for the rest of the book, (to be written in some cases) and then, B - Pay whatever I decide to charge you for the privilege." That's the truth of the matter - how ever fancy the terminology.On principle, whether I'm "cutting off my nose to spite my face" or not I avoid these authors. I certainly avoid these books. If I know that what I'm going to read is the start of a Series that involves on-going characters who pop up in each other's stories, that's an entirely different ball-game than a book being only a brief introduction to the characters and the start of their adventures, but where you don't know going in that it's 'Partial', I know myself well enough to know that once I start a book I'm going to want to finish the tale, at least I will if it's at all decently written. I've been caught out a couple of times downloading what purported to be "...a thrilling tale of...." that just stopped. Now when I find one I let other readers know, so that you can make an informed decision about whether to read a 'Free' book then pay for a 2nd & even a 3rd volume, not to complete a set but to complete the flamin' story! In this case it's 2 more booksBk 2 @ £2.99Bk 3 @ £3.49So this 'Free' story is actually the first 1/3 of the story!Free book my Aunt Fanny !!!What I WILL say, is that if you read the text CAREfully, rather than accepting that there is a sequel to this book, you'll find out that in fact the sequel is merely the next chapters in this story. Deception or creative marketing? You decide.

To begin with I found this book a really interesting concept and felt myself drawn in, right from the off. This book had so much potential to impress me, and surprise me, but it fell flat right near the end, selling out with a HUGE annoying cliffy.The story ends on a HUGE cliffhanger. I can't tell you how annoying that cliffy was. Not only that, but the great suspense that Lexi maintains throughout most of the novel is just stunted with this HUGE cliffy. I desired some small portion of resolution in this novel but it didn't deliver any at all.Another potentially awesome novel which became a victim of the trend for trilogies. It's a shame because I enjoyed Lexi's writing, her heroine made a refreshing change, and I really felt engrossed in the characters. I guess I am just getting tired of downloading books which expect my time and money but just sell out to the hysteria of trilogies.

This book has been sittings on my kindle for over a year and I can't believe it's taken me until now to read it, the only explanation I can think of is that knowing it was book 1 of 3 and I must have decided to wait until all parts were available since I don't like cliffhangers and then forgotten, anyway I've read it at last.As you can imagine the summary had me completely intrigued, Hanna wakes up in hospital having fallen down the stairs and her last memory is from eleven months ago, she's engaged to Max, the man she's been in love with most of her life she has the body she's always wanted, plus her own business, her life is like a dream, it's perfect she has everything she's ever wanted or does she, is her life really so perfect?Let me just say I'm in this for the long haul I've already got the next two books so the cliffhanger doesn't bother me as such it just made me so glad I'd decided to do it this way otherwise it would have driven me mad.I liked this book, I did but...it had such potential and I didn't feel it always realised it but then it's difficult to review a book like this in isolation because we've only got part of the picture, ultimately I think I was disappointed that Hanna allows her mother to completely take over, but then she has her mothers total approval for the first time in her life so...also that her mother pushes so much considering what's happened, but then we don't have all the facts, we've no idea what's really going on, hopefully the next book 'Fall to You' will help.

This was a free book on my kindle and I have no idea when I downloaded it. I just picked a page number on my kindle out of my head for a book to read while I am waiting on the release of other books. This book had me hooked from the first page. It flowed really well and drew me in. I loved the characters especially Nate and I must say I'm not over found of Max, I'm expecting him to be the bad guy in the end. Hanna was a wonderful character and body issues were written really well. I have to say when I started reading this I wasn't expecting to enjoy it so much but when I looked at the clock and realised it was 1am I knew this was a book I was really going to enjoy. I wasn't aware that it was part of a trilogy and I didn't even read the book description before I started reading. I finished the book last night in the early hours and straight away I bought book 2 and started reading. This to me is always a sign of a great series when I immediately jump into the next book. Of course the fact that all 3 books are available makes it so much better. I would have been so disappointed to have finished book 1 and not been able to continue the story. I can't wait to see what happens in book 2 and who Hanna will choose. For those who enjoy romance and hot sex scenes without any of the darkness that seems to be popular at the moment this story is perfect. I think I have found a new author to read and I am so thrilled that I chose to read this book out of the thousands on my kindle.

Hanna wakes to find herself in hospital with no memory of how she got there. The last thing she remembers is meeting her twin sister, Lizzy and best-friend Cally for drinks 11 months ago. She finds that her current life is a far cry from what she remembers, she’s the owner of a successful business, she’s lost a lot of weight and she’s engaged to the man of her dreams, but soon she realises that her perfect life is not as it seems.I’m not a huge romance fan and admittedly a lot of romance books end up in my “didn’t like it enough pile,” but I was totally blown away by the skilful way this romance was told. I kept turning the pages as my mind wanted to know more about what Hanna was going to find out and what she was going to do. Hanna is a very likeable protagonist because she’s not your stick-thin, idealised version of a woman none of us could stand. She has real insecurities and her story is extremely compelling. I really enjoyed the way Hanna’s doubts and fear were addressed and you could relate to what she was thinking. The book is the first in a trilogy and ends on quite a cliffhanger.An absolute must-read for contemporary romance, mystery and suspense fans.