Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Laura’s Review on The Arrangement Series1-10 by HM Ward


If you like Collide by Gail McHugh, Fifty Shades of Grey by EL james, and Her Forbidden Hero by Laura Kaye, then you will love this series!!!



Basic Summary:  Avery has probably had the worst day of her life, when she comes across a kind stranger who helps her chase down her car when it is stolen right in front of her.  Everyday seems like a struggle for her, every day is a battle to survive.  She has a crappy roommate, a crappy job, a crappy car, and a scholarship to keep and if she gets just one bad grade she not only loses her scholarship but a roof over her head.  Her parents are both dead, and she has no one to turn until her friend Mel opens another door of possibility for her, a high priced call girl.  All her financial issues would melt away if she just takes the job, and Avery isn't willing to do that until she sees the picture of Sean the handsome stranger who helped her and who seems to be stalking her.  For once Avery considers that it takes to survive and what choices she has to make to stop drowning in her crappy life.  When she finally says yes and meets Sean, Avery gets more than she bargained for, the first time ending with her madam pulling her out of the hotel room, and the second time Sean leaving after he freaks out.  Each short story leaves you needing more of Avery and Sean, and it’s impossible to predict what will happen next.

“I wonder how I fell so far so fast.  If someone told me that I’d be doing this a year ago, I would have laughed in their faces.  Now nothing is funny.  Truth is like that, sharp as a knife and twice as painful.”

What I Love About This Series:  Each ending leaves you wanting more, no matter if it’s the middle of the night or in the middle of the day the minute you finish one short story you have to start the next one immediately!!!!

          Avery is in complete despair, so much you can almost taste just how desperate she really is.  Everything for her hangs on her scholarship to just keep a roof over her head.  She has no real home since her parents were killed, and has no money and nowhere to go if she loses her scholarship.  Avery has the worst roommate known to man, her car is basically a box of metal and her job doesn't pay her nearly enough for the way she gets treated there.  No one grows up thinking they want to become a prostitute, but circumstances can sometimes push you into decisions you wouldn't normally make.  I think anyone can relate to circumstances sucking so much you make decisions to just survive or get by and that makes Avery very relatable. 


          Sean Ferro, he is a dark twisted man who I already had a somewhat negative view on because I read Damaged and Damaged 2, which deals with his brother.  I already knew what haunted him from reading the other series, but it skims over it slightly not really going into detail.  From the very beginning though I kind of forgot my first impressions of him and saw him in a different light reading this book.  I don’t really have to hear his point of view to know what happened in his past, because in the very beginning he is dangerous or mean; he just seems very broken.  This makes him very lovable, something we all look for in these wonderful leading men when read these types of books.   He’s rich, he’s hot, he’s dark, he’s broken, and he needs someone like Avery to fix him.


“I want to feel everything.  I want to feel lust, passion, and fear.  I want whatever is on the other side of this.”

Cons:  As much as I like these story lines I’m not a huge fan of the author’s writing style.  When she describes the settings around the characters the sentences to me seem very fragmented and give not real details.  For example when describing a bathroom in the Arrangement 2; “The room is blush colored marbles, with white accents.  It’s beautiful.”  That’s all you get as far as descriptions go, I want to know where the tub is placed when Avery walks in the door, where the shower is, what shape is the tub are there any decorations, etc.  A lot of the descriptions are like this when it comes to settings, but the author is able to go into more detail when it comes to Avery’s many luxurious dresses.  It always kind of annoys me when authors can go into great detail about clothing, but skip over it in other areas.  It’s inconsistent and it makes the lack of details more obvious in my opinion.  I know that doesn't bother a lot people because they like things left up to their own imagination but for me, those details pull me into the story even more and into the character’s lives as well.  

I started writing this review before I was done with the 10 stories that are out right now.  I have to say that the last one that’s out right now, the arrangement 10, I almost want to give this series just two stars because of it.  I feel like the  last one was just a filler, it didn't need to be written at all, you could’ve just added the ending to story 9 and move on.  It reminded me of when a TV show jumps the shark and veers off course because story 10 was just so wasteful, the conversation between mel and avery are pointless and avery’s reaction when she meets up with sean in NJ is completely a waste of time. 

I get the draw of the back and forth in books like these.  But even in Fifty Shades of Grey in the entire last book they were married!!! It’s too much already, stop drawing out their love story, it’s too much and I can see from many other reviews I’m not the only person that feels that way.  Sometimes you have rein in it and get back to the original path you were going down because I feel like somewhere between book 9 and 10 the author has lost her way and the appeal the original story held. 



Overall:  Awesome story, there are points in this whole saga that I honestly don’t know how Avery and Sean will work it out and you get so entwined in their broken lives that it’s like crack; you finish one story you and just need to start the next one so it will hold you over before you go to sleep. 

     Yet like I said I feel the last couple of stories that they are fillers because there isn't much story to tell.  It just got a little too much, with naked guy, and Mel, and Amber, and Marty, and OMG we get it!!!!! The last two books jumped the shark so much I really could care less what Sean has to ask Avery and what their ending might be.  


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