James Games by L.A Rose | Blog Tour + Review !

Fiona is wild & fierce, a force to be reckoned with. James is cool & calm, but completely closed off from the world. 

So does opposites really attract? 

See my confession below for my thoughts on James Games.

James Games | L.A Rose
Pages: 243
Genre(s): NA, Contemporary, Romance, Humor & Comedy
Published: September 30, 2014
Format: Ebook
Source: Author 

Get It Here | Goodreads 

Every year , the girls of Phi Delta Chi, Fiona Arlett’s dream sorority, hold a competition.

The prize?

James Reid, king size bar of eye candy and famous actor turned haughty undergrad.

The rules?

No girl but the winner can touch him.

The problem?

Fiona miiight have unknowingly banged his brains out last week.

Losing the competition may mean wearing a chicken suit to the sexiest Halloween costume contest, but she’d rather have feathers up her butt than let the truth out.

Unfortunately, she and James have lots in common and more chemistry than the science wing. Soon they’re sneaking around behind the backs of UCSD’s hottest and most vengeful girls.

If they find out?

Fiona’s screwed.

Hey fANGIRL Readers,

After reading Adrian Lessons by L.A Rose, I was under the impression that I would never read a novel with such amazing characters again . . . then she releases James Games. This book was such a pleasure to read! Ms.Rose has this remarkable ability to create characters who are so funny, down to earth , and just all around relatable. With her first novel Adrian Lessons, we meet a girl named Cleo, a writer who creates the "steamy" scenes in her bestfriend's romance novels. Adrian our second character, is the "Sex King." An anonymous writer for the college's sex column. Cleo was absolutely hilarious. I haven't laughed that hard while reading dialogue in forever. Adrian matched her goofiness, and the couple definitely hit it off with their similar personalities. On the other hand, in James Games, both main characters are total freaking opposites. Not all authors succeed in making this type of attraction work. Sometimes the characters are so different, that they repel like trying to stick two magnets together. Thank goodness Rose was able to pull this off successfully.

In JG we're thrown into a whole bunch of crazy. The story starts off with our main character Fiona, drunk and as naked as the day she came into this world. We follow her thoughts as she debates whether to jump out of a frat house window. But it's not exactly what you think. Let's back up back a bit.

Meet Fiona Arlett. 

A 19 year old free spirit, whom we would all label as crazy. After leaving the Amish community where she was raised until she fled at 14, she decided that her college years would make up for what she has already lost . . . freedom. So she enters school with a IDGAF attitude, and clearly she doesn't.

Fiona and her roommate/bestfriend Iris, both pledge to join the Sorority Phi Delta Chi. It's one of the biggest, most popular sororities on campus, and both want in for different reasons. Iris is trying to walk in the footsteps of her older sister who was also a Phi Delta Chi girl when she attended UCSD. Fiona on the other hand is just looking for a good time. PDC is known for their big parties, which is right up her little alley. But Iris isn't exactly telling the complete truth as to why she decided to pledge, and that's where our second character, James Reid makes his debut.

James Games is a competition hosted by 4 upperclassman girls. Brooklyn - the sweet & genuine ring leader, Ellie - she's always on her phone so she isn't really important, Sigrid - the devil herself, and Amber - the devil's sidekick. Here's the breakdown on the competition:

James Reid. Upperclassman. Does NOT date anyone, except girls from Phi Delta Chi.

The competition was created for every girl to: 

A. For every sorority member to get a fair shot at Mr.Reid himself.

B. To help prove which girl is the most worthy of winning that fair shot at Mr.Reid himself.

At the end of the semester, points are tallied up (by the seniors of course) and the girl with the highest score, wins a date with James.

The winner only gets one date, which is a full night with of course, Mr.Reid himself, with the activities being completely up to the winning girl of Phi Delta Chi. 

Yeaaa, James Reid is clearly a piece of meat to these people lol. 

A week prior to attending the sorority's initiation meeting, Fiona has a hot and steamy run in with a mysterious masked guy at a concert. Unbeknownst to her, the mystery guy was actually James, and here ladies and gentlemen is where all hell breaks loose. 

The number one rule of James Games is:

No touching James before the end of the competition.

Breaking the number one rule before you even begin pledging?! Tsk, Tsk, Tsk Fiona. 

Anywho, after discovering who James was, and Sigrid's obsession to have him to herself, Iris and Mags another PCD girl they befriended, deviate a plan to keep Fiona off of his radar. Fiona is to "throw" every event they have to compete in. If the initiates have to show up at a party wearing the sexiest outfit they can find, Fiona has to do the complete opposite. But with her pretty face, and ability to command an entire room, her efforts to loose the competition doesn't go unnoticed. James is still intrigued despite her efforts to loose the challenges. With all this talk about the man behind the competition, let's dive into his character justtt a little bit.

James is just a normal guy. Well, as normal as a child star could get. That's right, James was a child actor on a hit show until he quit for reasons unknown. He attends UCSD . . . obviously, and has become the topic of everyone's conversation. But he's not as outgoing as I figured him to be. Even though he was a young actor, comfortable being in front of camcorders and flashing lights, he was quite socially inept. I mean James was such an awkward character, but I loved the aggressive personality he had hidden behind that shy exterior. Not to mention how closed off he is from other people. He doesn't let anyone in, because he feels as though no one, not even himself can be trusted. But there's something about Fiona he can't stay away from. 

I absolutely loved their friendship turned relationship. Things did happen pretty quickly, mainly because of the "one night stand" they had in the beginning of the story. To the outside world, he was quiet, not really invested in getting to know people, but with Fiona he was a completely different person. One of my favorite things about his connection with her, was that it seemed so natural. When a incident happened involving Fiona and another guy at a party, he stepped in showing a side no one had ever seen. From that day forth, he was super protective over Fiona. Always making sure she was okay, and even coming to her rescue when Sigrid would get out of hand with her bullying. He was so nurturing, and with Fiona being a bit of a loose rocket, he definitely helped to calm her down. As I mention before, and as you can obviously see, these two are not one in the same. But what's interesting, instead of their personalities clashing causing them to hate each other, (which they pretend to do, so Sigrid wouldn't kill Fiona) it actually bought them closer together, making them a perfect fit to such a weird puzzle. To my surprise, Fiona actually experiences what us readers like to call "character growth", or "character progression". From the beginning , Fiona has this in-your-face attitude. She's cocky as hell, shallow, and oh so vain, but when her "friends-with-benefits" situation with James begins to get a little deeper, this diamond in the rough gets her shine on, and blossoms into a sweet little flower. 

Okay, I lied about the flower part, but she does undergo a serious reality check and calms down . . . a little. 

She's young and having fun, a little too much fun if you ask me, but it's okay, we're going to let her live this time.

What I love the most about L.A Rose and her wonderful books, are the characters. The main characters are always extremely likable, and her secondary characters aren't just created as an after thought, or content to fill up some space. Nope, you'll find yourself loving them all, even the one's you're supposed to hate. But, what made me give James Games a higher rating than Adrian Lessons, was the fact that it felt like L.A Rose was taking a risk this time around. She covered controversial topics such as, sexual assault and bullying, 

and they were done extremely well. 

I really enjoyed how the heavy topics didn't bring down the feel of the book. This story is fast and fun, but she was still able to mesh that with some serious moments. Good balance Ms.Rose, good balance. 

All in all I think many of you will enjoy this book. I will agree that there are some absurd scenes in this story, but it's very fitting to our main character, so it worked for me. There still are quite of few topics I wanted to cover, but with this already being dreadfully long, and with me trying my hardest not to spill any tea, (spoilers) I decided to cut this baby short. Or as short as any of my reviews will ever be lol. 

So my dear readers, if you're looking for a nice change in what you've been reading,

pick up this book, and take a walk on the wild side !

                                                                                                 Yours Truly,