Reviews Published Professional Reader Challenge Participant 80% 2016 NetGalley Challenge 50 Book Reviews

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Paper Fools (Hearts and Arrows #1) by Staci Hart

My Rating: 5  Stars
Sex Scenes: Yes.
Series: Yes, Hearts and Arrows #1
Cover Designer: Quirkybird Designs
Photographer: Lauren Watson Perry
Subject: Don't let the fear of losing keep you from loving. 
Synopsis
Formerly titled Deer in Headlights, Paper Fools has been rewritten and re-edited just for you. 

Aphrodite knows love — just don’t ask her to figure out her own mess. 

Rather than deal with her sticky love life, she toys with the hearts of unwitting humans. It’s a little game she plays, and the stakes are high. Lucky for her, she’s just found the perfect match.

Lex is everything Dean needs, but he can’t have her.

It doesn’t matter that her eyes speak to a long forgotten part of him, or that her art and poetry touch his shredded heart. She’s off limits — crossing that line would implode his band and everything he’s ever cared about. There’s only one option: stay away from her, no matter the cost. Even if the price is his heart.

Dean is everything Lex wants, but she can’t take the risk.

The second she meets him, she knows her heart is in danger. She’s convinced it’s only attraction that has her hung up on the dark, quiet lead singer, but with every day that passes, she knows it’s more. It’s just that she can’t put her heart on the line. She won’t — love has never been worth the sacrifice.


If only they knew they were just pawns in a much bigger game. And in the game of love, Aphrodite never loses.

My Review

Book given by the author in exchange of an honest review.

I fell in love with this story, it was a hard book to read, given that we can all feel identified with Lex's fear of losing. I have it tattooed on my self "Don't let the fear of losing keep you from loving". We all have that moment in which we doubt giving in and opening our hearts to the uncertainty of love, but in the end, a few stolen moments of perfect and pure loving are worth an eternity of pain.

Lex was a beautiful character, I had a hard time reading about her lying to Travis, but in the end she did the right thing. I've been there and the author did an amazing job at capturing the pain you can feel when your heart keeps pushing you in that direction and the attraction is so much that it's nearly impossible resisting the pull.

Dean has had a troubled life, and he is the proof that everyone can change when the right person comes along, sometimes it doesn't work and you end up in a world of pain, and other times it just might give you your HEA.

This is a story of loss and love, the fact that we get two underlying love stories from the Gods makes it even better. 

All of the characters learn to forgive and to let go when they accept that love is not there anymore. As easy as it sounds, when you are faced with the emptiness and fear of being alone, like Lex and Dita did, it's not that easy to let go and leave the comfort you are used to. But like the author perfectly showed us, if you don't take the leap you can miss out on something beautiful.

I'm awed, this book broke my heart and made beat so hard it sang so many times during the ride that I didn't know what was going on, I just knew that it left me with a true lesson on life and love.




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Excerpt: 

She reached into her bag, digging around in the black hole for her book, but looked up, sensing someone in front of her. 
When her eyes locked on his, she froze.
They were the greenest eyes she’d ever seen, shocking and bright, rimmed by thick, dark lashes. His long face was graced with an elegant nose and wide lips bent in a crooked smile. And he was tall, really tall, with ebony hair that fell forward as he looked down at her. He pushed it back without seeming to think about it, but it still looked perfectly tossed, like he’d just rolled out of bed.
She realized she still hadn’t taken a breath and flushed as she fumbled and almost dropped her book. 
“Uh, hi. I’m Lex.” She tossed her hand in a wave, hoping she looked casual.
He paused for a second, watching her with an expression she couldn’t quite place. The moment seemed to stretch on forever, and as she studied him, it dawned on her that he was amused. This unnerved her, even more so when it dawned upon her that it was exactly what he wanted.
“Hey,” he said, the timbre of his voice deep and full. “I’m Dean.”
Lex realized her mouth was open. And that he was smirking. And that he was dead sexy while he was doing it. 
She closed her mouth and cocked an eyebrow, putting on her snark to hide the fact that he’d gotten to her. 
“Dean, huh? I heard they call you Professor Panty Dropper.”
His smile stretched wider. “Oh, is that what they say?”
“They do.”
A tall blond, who she guessed was Roe, stood at the microphone, glaring at them. “Mic check, Dean.”
They stared at each other like idiots for a split second longer before Dean turned to pick up his guitar, and he took his place with the rest of the band. She watched him walk away and blinked a few times before turning to her bag again, not looking for anything in particular — she only wanted to keep her hands busy and her eyes off of Dean while she scraped her dignity off the floor.

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About the Author
Staci has been a lot of things up to this point in her life -- a graphic designer, an entrepreneur, a seamstress, a clothing and handbag designer, a waitress. Can't forget that. She's also been a mom, with three little girls who are sure to grow up to break a number of hearts. She's been a wife, though she's certainly not the cleanest, or the best cook. She's also super, duper fun at a party, especially if she's been drinking whiskey. 

From roots in Houston to a seven year stint in Southern California, Staci and her family ended up settling somewhere in between and equally north, in Denver. They are new enough that snow is still magical. When she's not writing, she's reading, sleeping, gaming, or designing graphics.



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