Unlike Any Other
Unexpected Series #1
by: Claudia Burgoa
Publication Date: March 5, 2015
Cover Design: Hang Le
Synopsis
AJ
The name AJ Colthurst may not have any meaning to the public eye, but it should, as I’m the daughter of two famous celebrities. Like any superstar, they crave privacy; so much of it, they built a house in the middle of nowhere for us children. As we grew older, we discovered the lies they built as a fort to protect us from the media, ended up causing emotional damage along the way.
I carry a portion of the guilt on my shoulders; the other part I discovered is the separation of my parents. Their unorthodox ways may have driven me bonkers, but knowing they are no longer together is unacceptable.
That’s why I decided to rattle their cage by reminding at least one of my parents of the past and the reason they belong together. They need to remember why their love is so perfect and why they have to fight to keep it alive. Even if it means I have to dredge up some of my own painful memories along the way.
Gabe
Back in the early eighties, I set myself to succeed in the financial world. The first step had been moving to New York City to become a stockbroker, but things didn’t work out the way I had hoped. Instead, I ended up making movies and by the end of the decade, Gabe Colt had become a famous name. The downside to my career of choice: the paparazzi. In order to protect my family and our privacy, I maintained my family away from the circus. It had been for their own good; a decision we had made before we started our family.
However, those past decisions ended up chasing my entire family away and now I’m trying to put the pieces back together along with my little girl.
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Review by Carol
Book – Unlike Any Other (Unexpected #1)
Author – Claudia Y. Burgoa
Publication Date – March 5, 2015
Genre –Romance
Type – Companion Series
Cliffhanger – No
Rating – 5 out of 5 Stars
Complimentary Copy generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
My Thoughts - Story
I have to start off stating that this may be a biased opinion since Claudia is a very close friend and I’ve had the pleasure of seeing this baby born and grow. Now, putting all that aside – I can’t even find the words to express how much this book affected me.
Why?
*There is a hidden gem that I never saw coming – definitely had that OH SHIT moment!
*I cried and choked up a few times – it affected me deeply
*I hated characters but then loved them and then hated them again but then ended up changing my mind throughout the book.
*Every emotion was tested in this book
*I wanted more after reading the last sentence
*These main characters (and some secondary ones) were developed perfectly
The above checklist is mainly what I look for in a book when I debate on how to rate the stars.
How to read this book?
*Go into this blind
*Don’t read spoilers (I know you are tempted)
*Don’t share spoilers (Let others enjoy the OH SHIT moments)
*Open yourself up to your internal “feels”
*Be patient (the beginning may seem slow and cookie cutter but it develops)
Trust me with the above advice…it will make your reading experience so much more delightful and will leave you with a storyline that you will reminisce about for a long time.
Re-Cap
I can’t say much about the story without giving the important parts away and spoiling this for you – so I’m going to try my best.
This is a story about a father and his daughter who are at odds with each other.
AJ, the daughter, thinks her childhood is the reason why she is so screwed up in the present and even though she loves her parents, she has an underlying disappointment with them. Gabe, her father, believes he did what was best in the past for his children by hiding them from the media.
After being estranged from her parents for a few years, AJ sees a front page article about her dad with a 20 something woman who is pregnant – no less with her father’s baby – she freaks. What happened to the great love between her parents? Why would her father announce this child but never told the public about her and her brothers?
She decides to confront her father, which leads to the two of them sharing the past with each other. We take a journey through the “Great Love Affair” between her parents in the 80’s, and AJ shares with her father her painful past. Through sharing, the two learn that they had made mistakes with each other and their significant others – to feel so much pain opens their hearts to rectify the present.
Along the way we meet the family and friends of these two and also sets the stage for the next book in the series!
This is the story of Gabe’s ultimate love and sets us up for the next book with AJ and her romance!
Reason for Reading – Beta Read with Wendy/Edited
Story – 5 out of 5 Stars
Steam – 5 out of 5 Stars
Angst – 5 out of 5 Stars
Writing – 5 out of 5 Stars
Content Flow – 5 out of 5 Stars
Told In – Dual POV
Heroine/Personality – AJ – she can be bitchy and uncaring but underneath she is just a hurt/naïve girl
Hero/Personality – Gabe – The Don Johnson of the 80’s – pisses me off but end up loving him.
HEA (Spoiler) - (view spoiler)
Would Read More from Author? Oh yeah!
Recommend To – EVERYONE
Excerpt
“So that’s it; bye, bye to the old, hello Twinkie wife?”
His gaze drops and I take it as a yes.
“Where is the big love, the one that happens once in a lifetime? What happened to it? If you lost it like that, then there’s no hope for the rest of us, Dad.”
No wonder my relationship fell apart like it did. The dreamer in me thought back to my sixteen-year-old self when I thought I had found the great love that could withstand everything. I claimed to have what my parents had … almost three years later reality slapped me, no, reality crushed me.
Gabriel doesn’t speak. He has no comeback or comment to what I say. He makes a one-eighty degree turn and stares out at the blue sea.
I don’t count how long he’s immobilized in front of the window, nor do I move. However, after what feels like hours, he extends his hand and curls his fingers toward me. The moment I’m next to him, he puts his arm around my shoulder and hugs me tight, kissing the top of my head.
I hug my dad for the first time in years and my back relaxes.
I’m home.
“You can stay together in the name of love just for so long, AJ,” his voice has lost all the strength, the shield is down.
My body and soul identify with his, we’re defeated, sad and with only so much energy left to continue.
This is one of the traits we share, putting on a brave front while withering inside.
“Lately, I wonder if what we had justified being together for so long.” I hate those words as he lets them out. “Was it real or a fantasy we built and once reality hit we couldn’t keep it together. It hurts, being apart is painful—I won’t lie.”
Really, it hurts? Because there’s a woman outside—pregnant. I want to yell at him, my teeth grind, but I don’t let my anger get the best of me.
Not yet.
“It was mutual, we came to the conclusion that we wanted different things, our lives were going in different directions, and now I’m trying to build something—a new life?”
The uncertainty in his voice is a gift, a speckle of light that gives me hope. The words… well, they sound like a speech they—my parents agreed on giving us. That’s the way they were while growing up, one parental front. I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but my money is on him. Gabriel called it off.
This is unfair. My parents drove me insane with their rules. Their crazy ideas and lies to the outside world. However, they are a match made in heaven. They are like milk and cookies, one can’t go without the other.
“This is wrong.” I shake my head. “You can’t finish a once in a lifetime love story like that,” I weakly claim. “Each time you told the story, it didn’t sound as if you made some sacrifices for us. It sounded as if you did it out of love. Am I wrong? Would you like to revise your story?”
He shakes his head.
“You should. Let’s do a play-by-play,” I suggest. “Maybe you can come clean and clear up all the lies you added to it when you told it as we grew up.”
“They weren’t lies,” he defends himself. “Maybe we skipped a few details… not many. We couldn’t disclose everything to our small children.”
“Once upon a time I thought I found what you did, Dad,” my bottom lip quivers, but I continue, “but everything crumbled, and… now I’m a cynic who doesn’t want to feel or believe. You’re proving me right, love is a shitty thing.”
“It isn’t, I can prove you wrong.”
Meet the Author
She now lives in Colorado working as a CFO for a small IT company, managing her household filled with three confused dogs, said nerd husband, two daughters wrought with fandoms and a son who thinks he’s the boss of the house. To survive she works continually to find purpose for the voices flitting through her head, plus she consumes high quantities of chocolate to keep the last threads of sanity intact.
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