Showcasing some of my favorite books. Here you will find my 4 and 5 star reviews for books I enjoyed reading. My 1-2-3 star reviews can be found on the various sites I post reviews on. THIS IS A SPOILER FREE ZONE!
For inquiries about release dates: H.M. Ward never sets release dates for her serials. She usually gives us fans a general idea of when a book will be released a week or so prior to it's release on her Facebook page. A good clue is when she opens up ARC requests on her Facebook page. Normally, once the ARC requests open up, you can expect the book to be released a week or 2 later, but this is very variable.
ARC review for The Proposition 2 (scroll down to see review for book 1)
The Proposition 2: The Ferro Family by H.M. Ward
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Somber love story about grief, despair, blackmail & deep, deep physical attraction
Hot and intense! Once again, I must catch my breath. “Bryan Ferro, the heartless” is such a mystery. Sometimes affectionate & loving, sometimes ruthless & calculating, sometimes just nutball crazy. Poor Hallie is desperately struggling between what her head, heart & lady parts want. Emphasis is put on a strong storyline and amazing character description (Maggie, the best friend, is such an amazingly strong secondary character). Tons of information is handed out in this book that make you wonder about so many things. The story could go in so many directions! As with all H.M. Ward serials, the ending is totally unexpected and you wonder how the characters are going to handle the sudden turn of events. There is a sexually explicit scene that adds just the right amount of sensuality to the story. Oh, yes, and we must not forget the comical animal interludes we have come to love and expect in an H.M. Ward book as well as character cross-overs (we get to see a little bit of Jonathan Ferro & there is mention of Trystan Scott)! I laughed out loud during my read, even though the book is mostly dark and sad. So many emotions in so little time!
The Proposition is a series of 5 serials. This is a Ferro Family series about Bryan Ferro (aka the Ferro cousin). Other Ferro Family titles are The Arrangement (Sean Ferro), Damaged (Peter Ferro) & Stripped (Jonathan Ferro). You don't have to read the other Ferro Family books to appreciate & understand The Proposition but if you like H.M. Ward's books, you may want to read all of them. Reading order: I highly recommend reading the Ferro Family books in the order they were published (starting with The Arrangement 1) to avoid any spoilers from one series to the next since they cross-over at multiple points in the timeline. The Ferro Family books are contemporary "new adult" romance stories involving characters mostly in their 20's (college aged women & slightly older men).
On H.M. Ward's serials: Serials are shorter books (1/4 to 1/3 of a full length novel) that come out more frequently than full-length novels (about 1 per month). They tend to start off abruptly from where the previous book ended and end with a surprising cliffhanger. Being shorter books, serials don't recap events that occured in previous volumes, so it's highly recommended to start off with book 1. I am a moderately slow reader and each volume takes me about 2 hours to read.
With H.M. Ward, learn to expect the unexepected! Emotions & passion run wild!
Wow. Just, wow! I am trying to find words to describe this intense book and I am lacking for words (which is quite unsual for me). Let me catch my breath...
Right from the start, you are thrown into an extremely sad story and can't help but feel the sorrow that Hallie is going through. As soon as things start looking a little brighter, Bryan Ferro shows up and, "kablooey", everything gets shot to hell. Bryan is a wonderfully sexy & nutso character and by the end of this book you want to know what's going on in his messed-up mind. This series promises to be hot, sexy and twisted! H.M. Ward has a talent for description, bringing every little detail to life. As with all of her serials, this book ends in the middle of an unresolved situation, leaving the reader hanging, wanting to read the next volume asap.
The Arrangement: This is a love story between Sean Ferro, a sexy, powerful & slightly deranged multi-millionaire with a tormented past and Avery Stanz, a college student who resorts to being a call girl in order to survive against all odds. This series has taken on a life of it's own. It is now fan driven which means that H.M. Ward listens to what her fans want or expect from this series and goes from there. As long as her fans want more, she gives us more. She'll often ask her fans what they think of a certain scenario or what should happen next and she will write the story according to the fans' input. It’s an interactive experience like no other. For new “Arrangement” readers: don’t let the number of volumes discourage you. They read really fast and they are ADDICTIVE!
The Arrangement is a series of multiple serials (the total number of volumes has yet to be determined). This is a Ferro Family series about Sean Ferro. Other Ferro Family titles are Damaged (Peter Ferro) & Stripped (Jonathan Ferro) and The Proposition (Bryan Ferro, aka the Ferro cousin). You don't have to read the other Ferro Family books to appreciate & understand The Arrangementbut if you like H.M. Ward's books, you may want to read all of them. Reading order: If you are planning on reading all of the Ferro Family books, I highly recommend reading them in the order they were published (starting with The Arrangement 1) to avoid any spoilers from one series to the next since they cross-over at multiple points in the timeline. The Ferro Family books are contemporary "new adult" romance stories involving characters mostly in their 20's (college aged women & slightly older men).
On H.M. Ward's serials: Serials are shorter books (approximately 130 pages in print: 1/4 to 1/3 of a full-length novel) that come out more frequently than full-length novels (about 1 per month). They are packed with emotional ups and downs and various twists and turns to her plots. They tend to start off abruptly from where the previous book ended and end with a surprising, suspensful and hair-pulling cliffhanger, leaving the reader begging for the next volume.. Being shorter books, serials don't recap events that occured in previous volumes, so it's highly recommended to start off with book 1. I am a moderately slow reader and each volume takes me about 2 hours to read and are really entertaining. It's almost like watching a tv show, episode after episode.
It's finally here! THE ARRANGEMENT VIDEO TEASER. **Do NOT watch it if you aren't totally obsessed, b/c you will be.** This is so awesome, you're gonna die. Share with everyone and encourage your friends to share too... the powers that be (tv executives) are watching. If you want a Ferro show badly enough, it'll come to be. Without out further adieu... THE ARRANGEMENT video teaser.
"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" - Casablanca
You know you've stumbled onto something wonderful when you get tingles from the first chapter.
Over the past couple of months, I have read many new independant authors in the YA / NA romance genre and I have really clicked with H.M Ward's style of writting. I love her sense of humour and the way she puts so much detail in describing her characters and the emotions they go through. She is funny as heck and her books are emotionnaly charged!
The Arrangement series is just that, a series. Whereas novels tend to be more like watching a movie with a nice conclusion and perhaps a hint towards a sequel, series are like watching a good tv show, episode by episode, always ending in a cliffhanger that leaves you begging for more. At the time of writting this review, the 10th book is about to come out.
As with all of her serials, this book starts off where the last one ended, like wham-bam-thank-you-M'am! Starts out intense, hot and heavy with the anticipation that Ward is so clever at delivering. LOL funny and witty, you easily get attached to her characters (main and secondary), even the ones you love to hate.
As with all Arrangement books, this one ends in an unresolved situation which makes you want to dive into book 3 immediately to find out what happens next! Entertainment at it's best!!!
To those who've claimed this series to be a scam or a ripoff, here's my point of view: I have done a little research and it is no more expensive to spend $3 on a 120 page Arrangement installment than it is to spend $12 on a 480 page novel. The quality of the writting is awesome! I say, give it a try, buy the first book and if you fall in love with her style of writting, like many of us have, go ahead! At $3 a pop, I have yet to reach the amount of money I've previously spent on other series and you encourage a very talented author!
The Arrangement is not your typical series. It is the love story of Sean Ferro and Avery Stanz, 2 people that have been dealt a band hand, find each during unusual circumstances and fall in love against all odds. Enjoy the ride (I know I am)!
Words to describe book 3:
Frustrating (in a good way), sad, compassionnate, joyful, funny, sexy, rage, heartbreak, devastation, torment, despair, twisted, intense!
"Emotional whiplash isn't for people with broken hearts." - Avery, The Arrangement 4
A love story between Sean Ferro and Avery Stanz. I read books 3 & 4 back to back in one sitting and once I got into the start of book 4, I was in tears. The emotional turmoil that Avery goes through is unreal. In book 4, Avery's situation goes from bad to worse and it just seems like there is no "happily ever after" in sight for her, like AT ALL!. This book is all about hearbreak, betrayal, desperation & survival. Loved it! *snif, snif*
"Pretend with me for a while." - Sean Ferro, The Arrangement 5
This was one of my favorite books of the series. Packed with feelings of abandonment, desperation, inner conflict, confusion, joy, lightness, friendship, infatuation, laughter. A couple of my favorite Sean-Avery scenes are in this book. They have a very bipolar relashionship and they will have you going up and down the emotional scale in no time flat. Brace yourself for some steamy scenes! HM Ward has a way of making your insides twist and turn as you're reading. In my opinion, this book marks a turning point in Sean's "road to recovery". Ends with yet another "OMG" cliffhanger that makes you want to dive into the 6th book to find out what happens.
"I want the good, the bad, and the monster within." - Avery
Holy cow & WOAH! As with the other books, it is an emotional roller-coaster of love, romance, friendship, betrayal, sadness, optimism, revelations, comedy, mourning, melancholy, healing and shock (as in the cliffhanger at the end!). Once again, HM Ward uses the art of the written language to make us feel what her characters are feeling along with them. My heart sped up and thumped hard at certain points, my mouth crept up into a smile at others... not many authors can do that and with so little pages too!
"I'm at the bottom of Hell and I found you." - Avery
This book is all about confessions, revelations and breakthroughs. Avery and Sean's struggle to detangle themselves in the mess that is their feelings for each other and the scars left by their previous lives reaches an epic level. Secrets are shared, tears are shed, answers are revealed but there still seems to be a lot of obstacles in their way. The tension is palpable. We get a better view into Sean's depravity (and it's not pretty). This book crosses-over with Damaged 2. Another amazing read by HM Ward! Loved it!
"It's like his name was written on my soul and he belongs to me" - Avery
This book starts off a little differently than the other "Arrangement" books in that it is not a DIRECT continuation of the previous cliffhanger. The books starts off AFTER an event that is described in "Damaged 2". You don't have to read "Damaged 2" to follow the story because the important information is relayed to the reader as flashbacks in Avery's mind. Peter (Ferro) Granz makes another appearance in this book so... "yay!". A part of this book was so sad that I cried! Some memorable moments made me laugh out loud (the IHOP urban legend... where does she come up with this stuff?)! I held my breath at times, affraid to break the moment! I smiled at the Trystan Scott reference (another one of the author's series). Once more, the ending took me by complete surprise. Sad, very sexy, funny & shocking. A great read. HM Ward has a nack for character description, her writting is funny as heck and she can make your heart start pounding or your eyes water with a snap of a finger.
If you are planning on reading the "Damaged" series, I strongly suggest you read both Damaged 1 and 2 BEFORE reading The Arrangement 9, to avoid any spoilers.
As usual, the book is full of laughter, passion, sadness, frustration and ends on one helluva cliffhanger! H.M. Ward does it everytime!!!
I always look forward to my little Sean & Avery escapades once a month!!! It's like a little reward!!!
Words to describe this "episode": Funny (the snort-laugh kind), erratic (in a good way), sexy (of course, it's a Ferro book), unpredictable, romantic, emotional...
I feel like I stood in line for countless hours, waiting to get on a rollercoaster ride and, once the ride is done, all you want to do is get back in line to ride it again!!! Woah!
This volume is UNPREDICTABLE & INTENSE. One of the best ones of this series. The 1st 4 chapters are packed with constant OMG (& other colorful expletives) moments with unexpected turn of events (c'mon, this is H.M. Ward, you weren't really expecting predictable were you?). Reader's emotions explode all over the place, going from nervous to happy to frustrated to confused to discouraged to paranoid to scared... and that's just the first 4 chapters! When you finally get a bit of a breather, something else happens that makes you say "WTH" and the roller coaster ride starts back up again. 3 times, I got teary eyed and many times my heart would pound hard in anticipation. Once more, the book ends in an unexpected cliffhanger that has you begging for the next volume NOW! You'd think that by book 11, her writting would start getting predictable... the only thing predictable is that it is UNPREDICTABLE!!! At any given moment, you can never tell where she is going with the story... it is amusingly nerve racking!
True to herself, H.M. Ward is hilarious and there are lots of spur of the moment LOL & "snort-laugh" moments. I love Avery, how her mind wanders off sometimes & the comments that come out of her mouth... she's one funny girl!
A romantic, suspenseful, mysterious, funny, shocking, breathtaking book! Holly, you've done it again & have surpassed yourself!
This amazing series has taken on a life of it’s own! Careful, this book is explicit! Tsss!
You can’t compare this series to ANY other because there aren’t any like it. The characters have become so familiar to us it’s as if they were family.
This volume will put your emotions through the wringer once more (confused, relieved, worried, happy, giddy, hysterical, sexy). It’s more sexually explicit than the last couple of volumes. Very hot and very good! There is never a dull moment and you feel that Sean and Avery’s relationship is evolving by leaps and bounds. What started out as a sexy love story in book 1 has now become an intricate mysterious story revolving around the events in Sean's life (past and/or present?). I LOVED THE CROSSOVER SCENE! I love Avery and how her mind works. In fact, I love all of H.M. Ward's female characters. They are smart, headstrong, witty and funny as hell. Once again, the book ends in an intriguing cliffhanger...
The Proposition 2: The Ferro Family by H.M. Ward
