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drey72's review against another edition
4.0
There’s really only two things you need to know about Crazy Thing Called Love: Pick this up if you love a good contemporary romance. And grab a box of tissues before you sit down. You’ll need it. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.
Once upon a time, a boy barely holding his life together met a girl stronger than she looks. They became best friends, grew up, fell in love, and got married. Then dreams (his) got in the way of a good thing, and they broke up.
Fourteen years later, the man the boy’d grown into shows up on the television show the girl-turned-woman anchors. And we get a story filled with enough emotion to sink the Titanic all over again. (See, I told you you’d need tissues…)
There’s plenty of heartbreak in this story of love found and lost, plenty of angst, and plenty of redemption and forgiveness. Molly O’Keefe gives Billy the gift of hindsight, Maddy the gift of courage, and readers the gift of a well-told story — complete with hurdles and obstacles over and beyond the emotional angst that comes with any second chance.
Definitely a pick-up for romance fans. You can thank me later.
drey’s rating: Excellent!
Once upon a time, a boy barely holding his life together met a girl stronger than she looks. They became best friends, grew up, fell in love, and got married. Then dreams (his) got in the way of a good thing, and they broke up.
Fourteen years later, the man the boy’d grown into shows up on the television show the girl-turned-woman anchors. And we get a story filled with enough emotion to sink the Titanic all over again. (See, I told you you’d need tissues…)
There’s plenty of heartbreak in this story of love found and lost, plenty of angst, and plenty of redemption and forgiveness. Molly O’Keefe gives Billy the gift of hindsight, Maddy the gift of courage, and readers the gift of a well-told story — complete with hurdles and obstacles over and beyond the emotional angst that comes with any second chance.
Definitely a pick-up for romance fans. You can thank me later.
drey’s rating: Excellent!
emilyhei's review against another edition
4.0
Madelyn Cornish whole world was wrapped up around her husband hockey player Billy Wilkins, but as most young married couples it wasn’t without it’s struggles. One unclear moment ended their marriage, and Maddy tried to never look back. Billy however, has never been the same since earning a reputation as the ultimate bad boy and in much need of a makeover.
Now Maddy is the host of a morning television show in Dallas. When Billy finds out they want to do a four week segment making him over, he jumps at the chance. Billy wants Maddy back, anyway he can get her but Maddy has grown into a strong independent woman who is intent on not letting him find his way back into her heart.
Full review on Single Titles
http://singletitles.com/?p=8518
Now Maddy is the host of a morning television show in Dallas. When Billy finds out they want to do a four week segment making him over, he jumps at the chance. Billy wants Maddy back, anyway he can get her but Maddy has grown into a strong independent woman who is intent on not letting him find his way back into her heart.
Full review on Single Titles
http://singletitles.com/?p=8518
jonetta's review against another edition
5.0
Billy Wilkins was traded to the Dallas Mavericks, an NHL hockey team and he's miserable. The coach doesn't believe in his rough playing style and Billy is resisting change. Madelyn Cornish wants nothing to do with him following her surprise confrontation with him at Victoria's party but she's being forced to because her producers have put Billy on her show as part of a short term makeover project. No one knows of their history and that he's her ex-husband.
I wasn't excited about reading this story as Billy seemed to be a bit of a wreck in the earlier books. Well, this turned out to be my most favorite of the series.
Billy IS a wreck but not for the reasons I thought. Instead of being just a wild man on hockey skates, brutal for the sake of the fight, Billy was expressing his anguish in the only way he knew how. When he and Madelyn ended their marriage, it seemed it was a choice he was ready to make. We learn so much more about this man, what led him to ultimately destroy his marriage and his relationship with Madelyn and the toll it ultimately took on his life.
Madelyn expressed her pain caused by the demise of their relationship so completely differently. She reinvented herself, becoming a glossy on air professional who was the picture of perfection, never losing her cool or displaying any extreme emotion. She was a brittle woman with no meaningful relationships in her life but on the surface appearing to be a model of success in her business.
This is a heart wrenching story as both Billy and Madelyn have to give up their protective shells in order to find their own hearts and the way back to each other. At times it is excruciatingly painful to experience but the payoff is huge. Billy's family unwittingly plays a significant role in their reunion as well. It all plays out in the midst of both of their careers, forcing them to reassess what is really important in their lives. I ached for both of them individually and for their fractured relationship. I really admired Billy for the risks he ultimately took to get this woman back and how vulnerable he was willing to be, publicly and privately.
I'm so glad I didn't put off reading this book. It was tough, funny, steamy, sad and romantic with an ending that was so very satisfying. I don't often read a story that has me be quite so emotionally strung out and it pushed me to my limits. It was a perfect ending to an extraordinary series and this story will always be one of my favorites.
(I received an ARC from NetGalley)
I wasn't excited about reading this story as Billy seemed to be a bit of a wreck in the earlier books. Well, this turned out to be my most favorite of the series.
Billy IS a wreck but not for the reasons I thought. Instead of being just a wild man on hockey skates, brutal for the sake of the fight, Billy was expressing his anguish in the only way he knew how. When he and Madelyn ended their marriage, it seemed it was a choice he was ready to make. We learn so much more about this man, what led him to ultimately destroy his marriage and his relationship with Madelyn and the toll it ultimately took on his life.
Madelyn expressed her pain caused by the demise of their relationship so completely differently. She reinvented herself, becoming a glossy on air professional who was the picture of perfection, never losing her cool or displaying any extreme emotion. She was a brittle woman with no meaningful relationships in her life but on the surface appearing to be a model of success in her business.
This is a heart wrenching story as both Billy and Madelyn have to give up their protective shells in order to find their own hearts and the way back to each other. At times it is excruciatingly painful to experience but the payoff is huge. Billy's family unwittingly plays a significant role in their reunion as well. It all plays out in the midst of both of their careers, forcing them to reassess what is really important in their lives. I ached for both of them individually and for their fractured relationship. I really admired Billy for the risks he ultimately took to get this woman back and how vulnerable he was willing to be, publicly and privately.
I'm so glad I didn't put off reading this book. It was tough, funny, steamy, sad and romantic with an ending that was so very satisfying. I don't often read a story that has me be quite so emotionally strung out and it pushed me to my limits. It was a perfect ending to an extraordinary series and this story will always be one of my favorites.
(I received an ARC from NetGalley)
shadowmaster13's review against another edition
3.0
The most remarkable thing about this book is that Sheryl didn't like it.
cindai23's review against another edition
4.0
This story had alot of heart. A story about change, second chances, trusting yourself and believing in another person without losing yourself. Quite a tall order for a contemporary romance, but one it ultimately pulls off quite nicely.
turophile's review against another edition
2.0
This book didn't work for me. My review captured here:
http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/blog/rita-reader-challenge-crazy-thing-called-love-by-molly-okeefe2
http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/blog/rita-reader-challenge-crazy-thing-called-love-by-molly-okeefe2
ajcousins's review against another edition
4.0
Man, I love reunion stories. And redemption stories. And bad boys. Ok, so this book was pretty much made for me.
The beginning of this book was hard for me, because watching young people in love screw up is never fun. But I like it when an author isn't afraid to have a character walk away from someone they love because they aren't willing to accept how they are being treated and what their relationship is turning them into. So the back story is terrific and their reconnection is bittersweet, especially as more details about their childhoods are revealed and you just sort of wish they could have found a way to work through their problems years ago, because these two are perfect together but have missed out on so much time. I think I particularly liked how much of the story was from Billy's POV. Watching him struggle with his issues was moving. Great book, and I definitely got teary more than once, so grab a Kleenex.
The beginning of this book was hard for me, because watching young people in love screw up is never fun. But I like it when an author isn't afraid to have a character walk away from someone they love because they aren't willing to accept how they are being treated and what their relationship is turning them into. So the back story is terrific and their reconnection is bittersweet, especially as more details about their childhoods are revealed and you just sort of wish they could have found a way to work through their problems years ago, because these two are perfect together but have missed out on so much time. I think I particularly liked how much of the story was from Billy's POV. Watching him struggle with his issues was moving. Great book, and I definitely got teary more than once, so grab a Kleenex.
klndonnelly's review against another edition
5.0
Review at Beverages and Books
http://beveragesandbooks.com/?p=412
http://beveragesandbooks.com/?p=412
beckymmoe's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book. LOVED it. I didn't always love the characters--grown-up Maddy in particular rubbed me the wrong way through a lot of it--but I loved the story. The flashbacks were handled well, and fleshed out Maddy and Billy's early story that started in the novella "All I Want for Christmas is You" and made me so want to read this book in the first place. Grown-up Billy, once he gets his head out of his butt, is awesome. Loved him. Wanted to take him home myself, and not just because he's a hockey player (though that sure as heck didn't hurt!) What totally sold me about this book, though, were the kids. The really young Maddy and Billy (the story of how he got his scar just killed me. Killed me, I tell you!) and Billy's niece and nephew, Becky and Charlie, were wonderful. Their stories were fresh and heartbreaking. Really, this whole book took the romance novel genre in places I just wasn't expecting, and it was great. When I got near the end I kept putting it down for a minute or two, just because I didn't want it to end too soon--only I needed to keep going, so two minutes was about as far as I got. I've already downloaded the audio of book one in the series, and it's the next up on my TBR list when I finish the book I'm listening to now. Book two is sure to follow....
scorchingnix's review
4.0
Originally reviewed at http://scorchingbookreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/a-nix-contemporary-review-crazy-thing.html
I picked up this book expecting Chick-Lit. The blurb, the cutesie purple cover? It looked like a nice easy romance that would fill some time. Jesus, I couldn’t have been more wrong. This is a book about broken children and the damage that it does to the human psyche, how people often make choices based on the things they think they want rather than what they actually need. I read this book in one sitting, mostly chewing my nails and occasionally crying. It started off as something with a mild undercurrent humour and then it became something else because of an event that turns Billy’s life upside down, an event I can’t mention because it happens at 60% of the freaking book!
Billy is a broken man from a broken home that gets money thrown at him when he gets drafted in Hockey. From that day forward his life with Madelyn changes. She is the girl that he has loved since they were children, the young woman he married as soon as he could and he throws it away because money and fame get involved. I completely fell for Billy. He was young, stupid and had never had money. For him, this was the world that he wanted to be in, a world he would do anything to be part of. He didn’t mean to push her away, was even devastated when that was the outcome, but he just wanted the “dream”.
From that day forth his career was turbulent but then he has one fight too many and some PR is needed. Enter Madelyn and the show she has worked her ass off to protect. She doesn’t want Billy anywhere near her, had worked to become something more than just his wife and she is absolutely terrified that all that will be taken away if anyone finds out about their past. She is so cold with him it is heart-breaking. He is so upfront, allowing her to humiliate him with her “makeover” of him on National TV, all because he wants her back in his life. The thing is she doesn’t want him back in.
I didn’t really like the way that he practically eviscerates himself on national TV to make penance for his sins. It wasn’t that it made him weak, the opposite in fact, but it did make me think less of her. She was in a difficult position job wise, but that was no real excuse for what she did. She sat back and let him do all this when she had no real intention of letting him back in. She had hidden the girl that loved him so deep, she was pretty hard to let her feelings be known. Even doused in humour, it was still a very cruel thing to do. I liked that it was him that had the makeover though J
He is in a place in his life where he feels that he can commit; she is in a place where she feels she is happy without him. Him forcing himself back into her world leaves them with some occasionally hot sex and whole heap of pain. I couldn’t help feel that they were repeating the whole vicious cycle again, that they were doomed to fail. Then the “surprise” guests appear on the makeover show and Billy realises that maybe they can’t make it work after all. I really don’t want to mention who the guests are as I feel it’s a massive spoiler. These “guests” though were the best part of the book, the part that broke my heart and made me realise that Billy and Maddy may not get their HEA as the relationship they had wasn’t healthy for anyone to be around. To be together, they would have to accept that they were a product of their past, that denying wouldn’t change the damage that it had done. Only when they accepted their fears and desires would they evolve to a place where they could be together. The problem was that neither of them wanted to face and accept the place that they had come from, the place that had created a woman determined to be something in her own right and a man who never wanted to feel that impoverished or unsafe again. My heart bled all over the pages for these characters, especially during the flashbacks that littered the book, filling in the gaps of their history together.
I will say no more on this book and its tale. It was a book that made ripped me apart a little on every page. Yes, Billy and Maddy are a hot couple but their chemistry isn’t the thing that kept me going. I didn’t know how they would make it work or if it would even be enough to create a good relationship, but I had to know they were OK. They say a good writer puts their characters through hell to put them back together again and by God these two were put through the ringer.
I picked up this book expecting Chick-Lit. The blurb, the cutesie purple cover? It looked like a nice easy romance that would fill some time. Jesus, I couldn’t have been more wrong. This is a book about broken children and the damage that it does to the human psyche, how people often make choices based on the things they think they want rather than what they actually need. I read this book in one sitting, mostly chewing my nails and occasionally crying. It started off as something with a mild undercurrent humour and then it became something else because of an event that turns Billy’s life upside down, an event I can’t mention because it happens at 60% of the freaking book!
Billy is a broken man from a broken home that gets money thrown at him when he gets drafted in Hockey. From that day forward his life with Madelyn changes. She is the girl that he has loved since they were children, the young woman he married as soon as he could and he throws it away because money and fame get involved. I completely fell for Billy. He was young, stupid and had never had money. For him, this was the world that he wanted to be in, a world he would do anything to be part of. He didn’t mean to push her away, was even devastated when that was the outcome, but he just wanted the “dream”.
From that day forth his career was turbulent but then he has one fight too many and some PR is needed. Enter Madelyn and the show she has worked her ass off to protect. She doesn’t want Billy anywhere near her, had worked to become something more than just his wife and she is absolutely terrified that all that will be taken away if anyone finds out about their past. She is so cold with him it is heart-breaking. He is so upfront, allowing her to humiliate him with her “makeover” of him on National TV, all because he wants her back in his life. The thing is she doesn’t want him back in.
I didn’t really like the way that he practically eviscerates himself on national TV to make penance for his sins. It wasn’t that it made him weak, the opposite in fact, but it did make me think less of her. She was in a difficult position job wise, but that was no real excuse for what she did. She sat back and let him do all this when she had no real intention of letting him back in. She had hidden the girl that loved him so deep, she was pretty hard to let her feelings be known. Even doused in humour, it was still a very cruel thing to do. I liked that it was him that had the makeover though J
He is in a place in his life where he feels that he can commit; she is in a place where she feels she is happy without him. Him forcing himself back into her world leaves them with some occasionally hot sex and whole heap of pain. I couldn’t help feel that they were repeating the whole vicious cycle again, that they were doomed to fail. Then the “surprise” guests appear on the makeover show and Billy realises that maybe they can’t make it work after all. I really don’t want to mention who the guests are as I feel it’s a massive spoiler. These “guests” though were the best part of the book, the part that broke my heart and made me realise that Billy and Maddy may not get their HEA as the relationship they had wasn’t healthy for anyone to be around. To be together, they would have to accept that they were a product of their past, that denying wouldn’t change the damage that it had done. Only when they accepted their fears and desires would they evolve to a place where they could be together. The problem was that neither of them wanted to face and accept the place that they had come from, the place that had created a woman determined to be something in her own right and a man who never wanted to feel that impoverished or unsafe again. My heart bled all over the pages for these characters, especially during the flashbacks that littered the book, filling in the gaps of their history together.
I will say no more on this book and its tale. It was a book that made ripped me apart a little on every page. Yes, Billy and Maddy are a hot couple but their chemistry isn’t the thing that kept me going. I didn’t know how they would make it work or if it would even be enough to create a good relationship, but I had to know they were OK. They say a good writer puts their characters through hell to put them back together again and by God these two were put through the ringer.
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