Wherein I go on about books

Sins of the Heart

2010-07-30T10:56:00.005-05:00

Otherkin Trilogy - Book 1

Author: Eve Silver

Roxy Tam grew up moving from place to place. Abandoned by her mother at a young age and placed in the foster care system, she had no family or anyone close. Until she trusted the wrong person and ended up in the hands of a killer. Her savior, Dagan Krayl, changed everything she thought she knew about the world and then left her alone once again. Feeling angry and abandoned, she runs to the very people he's warned her away from. She finds a family in the Daughters of Aset, who are enemies of Sutekh, Dagan's father. She tries to forget Dagan, but she can't, and eleven years after he saved her life, he's back and her both her association with the Daughters of Aset and her resentment puts them on opposite sides.

Dagan Krayl is a demi-god. A son of Sutekh, God of the Underworld, he is a soul reaper who scavenges the Topworld to harvest the souls of evil humans to feed his father. When he comes to reap the soul of Roxy Tam's would be killer he does not expect there to be an innocent there. No one has ever seen him and lived to tell. Dagan desires Roxy and feels drawn to her, but he wants her to have a normal life, something she can't have with him. He warns her to stay away from his father's enemies and leaves her behind, but he's never been able to leave her behind in his mind. He never expected to see Roxy again, much less as one of his enemies, but when his brother dies and his search leads him to the Daughters of Aset, he knows he can't walk away from Roxy again.

I've enjoyed Eve Silver's historical romances and only recently read her Compact of Sorcerers books, so I was pretty sure I was going to like this book and I'm glad to say that I was not wrong. I'll admit that sometimes I got a little frustrated with Roxy's choices, I understood why her character reacted the way she did. She was a though cookie who didn't let people get close, but with good reason. I also think that if Dagan was so set on her having a normal life and couldn't forget her, he should have peeked in on her now and again. I know that I couldn't have just walked away and never wondered what became of her. I did like that once he decided to go after her, he did not let her, or the opposition that they faced, put him off.

Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box

2010-02-15T09:31:00.007-06:00

PassionFruit Games is apparently coming out with a game based on Marjorie M. Liu's book, Tiger Eye. I'll be honest, I think I've loved every book I've read from Marjorie M. Liu, but Tiger Eye has got to be my favorite. Not only was it the first of her books that I read, but the whole idea of someone trapped in an object for centuries by a curse until someone comes along who can release them, is one I really like. I'm also crazy for puzzle games. Have been since the web based cypher puzzle games back in the 90's.

The game description:

Encounter mystery, magic, and romance in the interactive tale Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box.

Play as the beautiful and psychically-gifted Dela Reese, who is hurtled into an extraordinarily dangerous situation soon after purchasing an ancient riddle box in a Beijing dirt market. After Dela arrives back at her hotel room and manages to open the riddle box, she is shocked to encounter a gorgeous 7-foot tall warrior, who had been imprisoned in the box for 2,000 years. The warrior, Hari, has been cursed to serve as a slave to whomever opens the box. While Dela, a strong 21^st century woman, is repulsed by the idea of controlling another human being, there are others who desperately seek the box’s power and will stop at nothing to obtain it. Help Dela escape assassins, win the respect and love of Hari, and lift the evil curse that strips Hari of his freedom.

Right now there's a contest going on at PassionFruit Games. They're looking for beta testers. The first 50 people win a chance to get first crack at the game. So head on over there and have a look!

E-books, Video Games, and Kids

2010-02-15T09:11:00.004-06:00

I haven't been blogging, which is pretty obvious. I know I need to start back up. I've been rereading a lot, which is part of the reason I haven't been blogging, family holiday stuff and video games being others. I love playing video games only slightly less than I love reading. Between the Sims 3 expansion, World of Warcraft, and Dragons Age: Origins, my reading time suffers a bit, but I am reading. I've got several e-books that I'm going to be blogging about eventually, maybe keep me from molesting my husband by recounting plots and stuff. The main reason I started this blog in the first place. So there will be new stuff up, I'm just not sure when. I'm not sure whether to start posting after my kids go back to school or next Monday. Maybe Monday, but I doubt it.

Scandal in the Spring

2009-10-06T09:20:00.004-05:00

Wallflowers Series - Book 4

Author: Lisa Kleypas

Daisy Bowman is a dreamer. She knows she's the odd one in the family, everyone else is so practical and driven while she's content to watch clouds and pick out the shapes she sees in them. She loves whimsical things and and fantastical novels. When her father brought her and her sister, Lillian, to England to find aristocratic husbands, Daisy wasn't overly concerned. So long as she wasn't separated from her sister, she didn't much mind it. Though she did wish she might find a gentleman who was a bit of a dreamer too, someone who would understand her a little, but as the season draws to a close with no real prospective husband on the horizon, her father begins to become impatient to return to his business in America and begins to chafe at all the money wasted on an investment that doesn't look to make a return. He gives Daisy an ultimatum. Find a husband by the end of the month or marry his protege, Mr. Matthew Swift. There is no one Daisy would rather marry less than a cold-blooded business man who is an exact replica of her father. Much less one that will see her back in America, an entire ocean away from her sister. With the help of her sister, the rest of the Wallflowers and their husbands, she hopes they can save her from Mr. Swift. Even if he is looking a great deal more attractive than she remembers.

Matthew Swift isn't the man everyone thinks he is. He is a man with secrets. One of those secrets is the fact that he has been in love with Daisy Bowman from the moment he first set eyes on her, but his other secrets make any life with Daisy impossible. From the time he was an adolescent, and Mr. Bowman all but adopted him, he's looked up to the man and striven to be a successful business man like him. He knows that none of the Bowman's children like him, Daisy maybe least of all. She thinks him a carbon copy of her father, who disapproves of her fanciful nature, but the truth is that Matthew loves every quirky thing about her. When Mr. Bowman summons him to England for business he knows it will be hard for him seeing Daisy after all this time and doubtless surrounded by suitors, but she'll marry some aristocrat and he'll go back to America where he won't have to see her with another man. All he has to do is keep his feelings in check and hidden from everyone, shouldn't be too hard, he's been doing it for years. He just didn't bargain on how hard it would be watch another man court her or that Daisy might begin seeing him in a different light altogether. How can he resist the girl of his dreams? And resist he must because the secrets of his past are finally catching up to him.

Matthew's secret was pretty darn major. I thought that the untangling of it was kind of brief. I was kind of surprised that Mr. Bowman and his wife reacted the way they did to learning about his secret. Much cooler than I thought them capable of being. I could understand why Matthew thought that there was no future for him with Daisy, but I think that he just wasn't thinking it through enough. If he hadn't slipped up with his dad then he would have been perfectly safe to start a life in England, farther from the man who was looking for him and, since he did not know that his father had told where to find him, it would have been perfectly understandable for him to seriously consider it. I wish he would have told Daisy himself instead of having her find out the way she did. I found it annoying that Daisy never thought to give Matthew the time of day until he showed up in England looking all fit and attractive. By her own admission, she was never nice to him and yet when she sees him again, she is instantly attracted to him and agitated at the thought that he isn't interested in her. To me it makes her seem a bit petty and shallow. She never tried to get to know him when he was a bit gawky, but she disliked him anyway.

The Devil in Winter

2009-10-05T09:19:00.004-05:00

Wallflowers Series - Book 3

Author: Lisa Kleypas

Evangeline Jenner is the daughter of Ivo Jenner, former boxer and proprietor of a gaming hell called Jenner's. Her mother was from an upper class family, but met Jenner after a near miss accident involving her family's coach. She ran away with him and eloped. She went to her family before her daughter was born and dies during childbirth. Thought Evie was allowed to visit her father, she was raised by her mother's family. They treated her terribly and were not above beating or starving her to bend her to their will. She's always believed that marriage was her only way out of her terrible situation, but she's got so much working against her, chiefly the fact that her shyness causes her to stammer when speaking. Usually the more attractive the gentleman trying to talk to he is, the worse she stutters. She knows her odds are slim at best, but maybe with the help of her fellow Wallflowers, she might find a kind gentleman to marry. Then she finds out that her father, whom she hasn't been allowed to see in months, is at death's door and that her relatives plan to marry her off to a cousin so that they can keep her father's money. She also suspects they may kill her shortly after getting the money. She desperately needs a husband and there is only on man whom she knows who needs a rich wife just as desperately.

Sebastian, Viscount St. Vincent, has made women and the pursuit of pleasure his life's work, unfortunately for him, it isn't the sort of work that pays well. His father has squandered away the family fortune and St. Vincent needs to marry an heiress before his creditors come calling. A task he's made harder on himself by attempting to kidnap and force a marriage on Lillian Bowman, an heiress, a Wallflower, and the Duke of Westcliff's fiance. All he managed to get out of the deal was a severe beating and the loss of his best friend, the a fore mentioned Duke of Westcliff. When the stuttering, red-headed Wallfloer, Evie Jenner, showed up on his doorstep, all he felt was annoyance. When she proposed that they elope immediately, he was definitely suspicious, but a man in his position could hardly afford to pass up such an opportunity. They agree that Evie shall have a portion of the money for herself and they'll live separate lives, but once St. Vincent gets a look at Jenner's club, he starts to see an entirely new future opening before him ... a future that just might include such foreign concepts as fidelity and love.

Some of you may recognize Ivo Jenner as Derek Craven's nemesis in Dreaming of You. I always love it when author's do things like this, bring secondary characters from other books/series in to newer. It makes you feel more realistic. I mean, you've got all these character's living in certain areas, it's likely they're crossed paths, especially when you're talking about the aristocracy and upper classes. They tended to travel in the same circles. I'm not sure how I felt about St. Vincent, especially after the doings in the previous book, It Happened One Autumn. I was glad to know that he never would have made good his threat to rape Lillian, but he still shackled her to a bed and threatened to rape her. Yes, Westcliff's mother probably would have had Lillian killed if St. Vincent hadn't agreed to take her, but he could have easily taken her to a safe place and let Westcliff know what was going on. If he'd thought it through, even for a moment, he would have seen how impossible the whole scheme was. He started out being rather prick-ish to Evie, which was at times incongruous with the kindnesses he showed her, but for someone who is supposed to be a hardened libertine, he changes course rather suddenly. With most characters like St. Vincent when we see a change it's because they've become weary of their life style or something drastic has happened o cause them to rethink they're whole way of life. These things happen with St. Vincent, but neither of them seems big enough to cause such a change, and certainly not as suddenly as it did. I think I needed more of a redemption for him than I got. Eve was great. I like how she didn't do what most heroines do an give in to lust and sleep with St. Vincent regardless of her concerns. Sometimes I get so tired of the heroine who knows the guy is bad news and has decided that sleeping with him is a bad thing, yet the moment the hero comes within arms reach her clothes fall off and her legs flop open like she's some mindless blow-up doll. Evie wanted him and loved him, but she stuck to her guns until she felt it was right to sleep with him.

It Happened One Autumn

2009-10-02T09:17:00.003-05:00

Wallflowers Series - Book 2

Author: Lisa Kleypas

Lillian Bowman is the daughter of a rich American industrialist who's trying to buy his way in to the upper class by offering a sizable dowry to any man of suitable pedigree who's willing to marry his daughters. A fact so well known that in New York, where the girls are from, that they've coined the phrase "Marry Lillian and get a million". Now the girls are in England and they've got a season to find aristocratic husbands. Their father is doing business with the Earl of Westcliff and they're spending a month at his country estate. Lillian would be perfectly happy to enjoy the beautiful estate if it weren't for the arrogant, uptight earl who disapproves of just about everything she does. When he isn't mauling her, that is.

Lord Marcus Westcliff, Earl of Westcliff, is very interested in machinery and believes that industry is the future. Unlike his peers, who are desperately trying to hold on to their "superiority", Westcliff embraces industry and fosters it whenever possible. It is this that brings him in contact with Mr. Thomas Bowman, a soap magnate, father to Lillian and Daisy Bowman. He wishes to talk Mr. Bowman in to opening a branch of his business in England. Marcus could only wish that dealing with Mr. Bowman did not entail having to deal with Lillian Bowman. He finds Lillian to be arrogant, domineering, manipulative, and prone to inappropriate behavior. In other words, a complete hellion! There is nothing at all to recommend her. Why then has he suddenly been struck by this inability to keep his hands off of her?

I don't know how I felt about this perfume thing and how Westcliff disliked her intensely one moment and then was all over her the next. Only to retreat then maul her again. I understand that Westcliff's dad was an abusive jerk who tried to beat any sign of weakness or emotion out of him as a boy, but he seemed to be pretty self-aware, except apparently when it came to Lillian and what he wanted from her. That seen where he comments that a man who has sex more than once a week has too much time on his hands in a room with two recently married men and a complete libertine is just so funny to me. I liked that Lillian was of stronger character even though she did occasionally fall in to the trap of making stupid choices just to prove she was capable. Only one of those moments, the one with the horse riding, made me think she was pulling a TSTL. I'll admit that the whole thing with St. Vincent was a shocker. Did not see it coming! I know it was mentioned repeatedly that he was completely lacking in morals and untrustworthy, often by St. Vincent himself, but I still did not expect it to go the way it did. They mentioned the time he stole a woman from Westcliff, but I saw it as a favor to him. I figured that St. Vincent knew what that woman was about and that she was wrong for Westcliff so when she tried to use him to make Westcliff jealous, he seduced her so that there would be no chance of her snaring Westcliff. I still see it that way, even after the boneheaded thing he did with Lillian.

Evie's story is next and St. Vincent is slated to be the hero in that one. I'm reserving judgment on just how he's going to be redeemed after this. Here's hoping.

Secrets of a Summer Night

2009-10-01T09:14:00.004-05:00

Wallflower Series - Book 1

Author: Lisa Kleypas

Annabelle Peyton getting desperate. Her father's death has left her family in dire straits. What little money they have goes mainly toward putting her younger brother to school and keeping her looking as fashionable as possible on their meager budget in hopes that she will catch a wealthy husband. Even though she is beautiful and gently bred, she has reached the age of 25 and this will be her last season, her last chance to save her family before she's forced to do something ruinnous, like accepting the protection of one of the many "gentlemen" who have begun to circle like vultures. She knows there is no coming back from that and so she'll do whatever she has to do to catch a husband, even if it means going along with two outrageous Americans and a mousy red-head who stutters in a scheme crazy enough to work. They're tired of being wallflowers and all in need of husbands for various reasons, so why not pool their resources and join forces to get them each a husband one at a time. After all, what man could stand against the combined cunning and determination of four marriage minded women? If only that dreadful cit, Simon Hunt would stop asking her to dance and making inappropriate propositions that remind her all too well of that one time, years ago, when he kissed her in a darkened amphitheater. Yes, he's got obscene amounts of money, but he's not of her class and she knows he's not the marrying kind. The Wallflowers have set their sights on a rich viscount who seems very sweet and kind. They've got their strategy all mapped out and they'll have that gentleman caught in a compromising position before before he knows what hit him.

Simon Hunt was born the son of a butcher, but you couldn't tell it by his fine clothes, bulging bank account and thriving businesses. He's got more money and connections than some aristocrats can boast and he's gotten there through ambition, hard work, and determination. What Simon Hunt wants, he gets. He's been fascinated with Annabelle Peyton from the first moment he saw her. He's never been able to forget the time he went to an amphitheater with Annabelle and her brother. The lights went down for a few minutes and there, in the dark, he gave in to the urge to kiss her. He expected to be pushed away and slapped, but instead she gave in and kissed him back. He's spent the last two years since that kiss trying to get her alone. He knows her family's financial situation and when she finally gives up on marriage she'll need a protector. Simon plans to be that man, no matter how many other gentlemen he's got to take down to do it. When rumors first surface that she's already taken a protector, an unsavory man who apparently gives her just enough to get by on, Simon is sure it's all a lie, but during a house party in the country, there seems to be an odd sort of tension between Annabelle and the man purported to be her protector. Could it be true? When Annabelle is poisoned by an adder bite, Simon diagnoses and treats her before the doctor even gets there. He realizes after the ordeal that he might just love her and that he wants her to be his in every way, but can he convince her to marry a man who's not of her class? Especially when a rich viscount seems ready to offer for her at any moment?

I really like Simon, though in the beginning it irked me that he used not being a gentleman as a rationalization for taking advantage of her bad situation to make a mistress out of her, but looking down on the aristocrats for doing the same thing. He has been fantasizing about this girl for 2 years and he never thought to offer her marriage? Really? Annabelle wasn't much better in her resistance to Simon. She let her prejudice of the lower classes color her judgment when it came to Simon. If she'd have accepted his offers to dance she might have gotten to know him. I mean, the guy is mega rich, and interested in her. If she'd gotten over herself she could have eventually talked him around to thinking marriage. She never even thought to give it a chance. The whole attitude the guys in this book had with regards to Annabelle's situation was disgusting. They're all like "Why marry the poor girl when I can wait until she's desperate enough to become my whore? " I know, different times and all that, but it's still sick as far as I'm concerned. I really liked the rest of the Wallflowers and am looking forward to their books.

Mr. Cavendish, I Presume

2009-09-30T09:12:00.001-05:00

Author: Julia Quinn

Amelia Willoughby is being embarrassed by her fiance and he doesn't even seem to know it. Normally being engaged to someone as lofty as Thomas Cavendish, Duke of Wyndham, would be considered enviable by any young lady and her marriage minded mama, but when you've been engaged to said duke practically from birth and have reached the age of one and twenty without being married people begin to feel sorry for you. Amelia doesn't know much about her fiance, they're practically strangers even after all these years, and has been never bothered by her fiance's lack of attention until she begins receiving pitying glances from the very ladies who should be envying her. She begins to wonder if her fiance even knows she's alive. When he begins acting strangely, not his usually stiff and upright self, and lets his guard down a bit, she begins to realize that she might just like him ... maybe even love him. Just as she's coming to the realization that she might be very happy married to Thomas, things begin to unravel and she finds that marrying the Duke of Wyndham might just mean losing the man she loves.

Thomas Cavendish, Duke of Wyndham, knows he will have to marry his long-time fiance soon, but surely it couldn't hurt anything to put it off just a little longer? When she behaves unexpectedly at a party, he gets a chance to speak with her alone, and finds that she's a bit more interesting than he ever thought possible. If an unknown cousin hadn't shown up all of a sudden to turn his world upside down, things might be going quite well. Finding out that a long dead uncle, older brother to the previous duke, married shortly before he died, leaving behind a pregnant wife who later died giving birth to Jack Audley-Cavendish and that he, not Thomas, might be the real Duke of Wyndham would be enough to send any man in to a tail spin. Thomas has an identity crisis of major proportions. All his life he's been taught and trained to be the Duke of Wyndham and if he isn't that, then who is he? What will his life become? He finds that Amelia is a good companion to him during this turmoil, but what good does falling in love with her do when she's contracted to marry the Duke of Wyndham regardless of what man bears that title?

This book is a sequel to The Lost Duke of Wyndham and, while the book can stand alone, I strongly suggest reading the first book before you read this one. I found it odd to read a sequel that basically relives the events of the first book, only through the eyes of what was originally a secondary couple. It's happened a time or two where I'm reading a book and this secondary pairing catches my attention and I wonder what's going on with them. Usually this happens when the pairing is slated for a book of their own, but I've never seen it done this way. At times I've wondered what was going on in the heads of other characters during a story and this kind of gave me that. In the first book, I though that Thomas was a real uptight tool and in the second you find out that he is, in fact, kind of an uptight tool, but there is more to him than that. I liked him a lot better once I got a look at things from his perspective. I remember that, in the first book, Amelia really annoyed me with how docile she seemed through the whole thing. Here are her father and her fiance telling her she has to marry a total stranger if he does turn out to be the legitimate Duke of Wyndham and she doesn't really say anything about it. She looks like a weak, hand-wringing ninny. You get to see her in a better light here, though I still think she could have spoken up for herself sooner. She picks up a real backbone by the end of it, though and I like that.

The Kept Woman

2009-09-29T09:20:00.000-05:00

Author: Susan Donovan

Samantha Monroe is tired of her life. The fiery red-head was once an artist, but she set that all aside to help support her husband and raise their kids. Unfortunately, 10 years down the road, her husband impregnates her, tells her he's discovered that he's gay and wants a divorce, then proceeds to disappear without a trace. She is now the divorced mother of three trying to make it on a hairdresser's salary. She's got two young teens who are always bickering and a precocious toddler who refuses to be potty trained, which causes no end of trouble in the childcare department. If she could just track down her deadbeat ex and collect the over $50,000 he owes her in back child support, things would be looking up, but after three years she's losing hope that she'll ever see a cent. When she muses tipsily to her friends on their monthly night out that being a kept woman might not be such a bad deal, she sparks an idea in Kara DeMarinis, long time client and friend of Samantha's who also happens to be a campaign manager who's congressional candidate, Jack Tolliver, has a serious image issue. Why not pay Samantha to pretend to be his fiance? She'll get to live in his fancy house for the duration, private school and college trust funds for her kids, and enough money to buy a house when the campaign is over. It's sounds insane to Samantha, but can she really afford to pass it up?

Jack Tolliver loves his playboy lifestyle and he's not the least bit ashamed of that. He can't get enough of beautiful women, especially red-heads, and has no intention of settling on just one. Due to an unfortunate moment that was caught on video, however, the whole world knows he's a shameless womanizer. As if that weren't bad enough, Christy Schoen, former lover and anchor for Capitol Update has got it in for him. What they say about a woman scorned definitely applies to Christy. She's made it her mission to expose every one of Jack's indiscretions and destroy his political career. Jack's cavalier attitude towards women does not sit well with female voters and family values groups. When the current senator for his state steps down unexpectedly, Jack realizes that this is likely his last chance to be elected. All he has to do is clean up his image, but when Karen DeMarinis suggests he "rent" a fiance, he's pretty skeptical. When he find out she has kids, he's totally against it, but in the end realizes that he has no choice if he's to have a hope in hell of getting elected. He's pretty sure this will all be a huge disaster, but he might be able to pull it off if he can play the doting family man and keep it in his pants until after the election. Then again, maybe he can talk a certain red-head into making their arrangement a little more ... personal.

The thing that most bugged me out of this whole crazy plot was Samantha's ex. He lives on the run because he doesn't have the money to pay child support. That's totally believable, but what gets me is that in all that time he hasn't tried to keep in any kind of contact with his kids. At first he gives the impression that he never even thinks of them. Then the phone calls, which alerts him that he may have been found, gets him to thinking about them and wanting to see them again. When he's told Sam's engaged, the man starts getting all crazy over the possibility of Jack adopting his kids. Most people don't adopt their step-kids, especially not when they're older, like Sam's were. Seems a bit irrational, but since he seems to be missing his kids and doesn't want them to become some other man's, it makes one think that he's realized that his kids are the most important thing in his life and that he may be sorry for what he's done. Then he turns around and blackmails Sam, takes money that was meant to be fore the kids, and tries to wreck things between Sam and Jack. The man's mind made more swings than a pendulum. The only time he seemed the least bit sympathetic was when he was playing Sam. Hated that character. HATED. The reason for Jack's womanizing was understandable, but really lame.

The Rogue Hunter - Lynsay Sands

2009-09-28T09:58:00.000-05:00

I'll state outright that I'm a sucker for anything Sands. I've read all her Argeneau books and I love her historicals. I really enjoy the humor in her books. They never fail to entertain. I know some people get caught up in the fact that she uses some modern language in her historicals, but I get a kick out of it.

The Rogue Hunter is about Garrett Mortimer, an enforcer for the Council. He's the immortal equivalent of a cop. He's been sent up to cottage country searching for a rogue immortal who's been biting people instead of bag lunchin' it like they're supposed to. Samantha Willan is on a much needed vacation with her sisters and ends up in the cabin right next door. She's an overworked lawyer recovering from a recent relationship disaster and definitely not looking for a man. Garrett suspects she might be his life mate and is less than thrilled. He's looking for a knock out with voluptuous curves, think Jessica Rabbit, and Sam is too skinny, flat-chested, narrow hipped and chronically clumsy to fit his bill. Between Garrett's partners, who think he's lucky to have found his life mate and Sam's sisters, who think she needs a vacation fling, Sam and Garrett keep getting thrown together.

This wasn't my favorite Sands book. It might actually be my least favorite. It just wasn't on par with the Argeneau series. The mystery just wasn't that interesting and pretty easy to figure out, which, depending on how good the rest of the story is, might or might not be a deal breaker for me. In this book I found it annoying. I both liked and disliked the main characters. I found Sam more annoying as the book went on. Her personally just seemed to grate on me. Mortimer seemed just a bit too uptight at times and it bugged me that he was so stuck on the superficial things he wasn't happy about in his life mate. It's his life mate for crying out loud! Some vampires never get that, but he's too busy complaining to himself about her looks to be happy about it. GAH! Also, the dialog wasn't as funny as I've come to expect from this author.

Today is the Greatest

2009-09-14T09:10:00.003-05:00

Only not really. I've got the flu and have been ridiculously sick for days now. I won't be posting an book today. I didn't get much reading done this weekend. Between the ALS Walk4Life on Saturday and just plain being dog sick and sore all weekend, I only got one book read and nothing written down. Will resume book blogging once I feel better ... ish.

Dogs and Goddesses

2009-09-11T09:32:00.003-05:00

Author: Jennifer Crusie, Anne Stuart, Lani Diane Rich

Abby Richmond, Daisy Harris and Shar Summer are descended from three of the seven ancient priestesses who served the goddess Kammani Gula. After their goddess was defeated by another goddess and banished from our world, their ancestresses sealed themselves in Kammani's temple and slept until their temple was re-opened. They waited, prepared and tried to raise their daughters to serve when their goddess returned, but they passed on and their daughters, not believing that the goddess would ever come, put away the traditions and raised their daughters with no knowledge of Kammani or what might be expected of them when she returns. Return she does and with it the powers of her priestesses who become minor goddesses in their own right. Of the seven women called Abby, Daisy and Shar are the most powerful, and the most suspicious of Kammani and what she wants. This does not sit well with Mina Wortham, the priestess carrying the power of death, descended from the one family who kept the old traditions, who feels she deserves to be the post powerful and prized by her goddess as she is the most faithful.The three, however, are too busy trying to control their new powers, freaking out over their suddenly talking dogs, and trying to deal with the men who have suddenly appeared in their lives.

Daisy is attracted to Noah Wortham at first sight, but can she trust a guy who's working for Kammani and who's family has been taught to serve Kammani from the moment they're born? And what if Noah's feelings for her aren't real, but a product of the chaos magic swirling all around her?

Abby's powers keep drawing Professor Christopher Mackenzie to her despite the fact that the genius math professor who hears the voice of a long dead mathematician in his head wants nothing to do with anyone who might distract him from his equations. Abby is none too happy that her magic keeps pulling her towards a man who is upright, cold and just plain frustrating.

Shar literally has a man appear in her life. He is the god king Samu-la-el, raised by Kammani and destined to be sacrificed. She'd been attracted to his likeness before, but it was nothing compared to the man. How can she let herself fall for him when he serves Kammani, sleeps with any woman who wants him and was in love with her grandmother, Sharrat?

I originally thought this book was an anthology. Imagine my surprise when I cracked this book to find that it's a book told from the perspective of several women in the book and written by all three authors in concert. I think each author wrote one of the three female leads, but I'm not sure. I really liked the story, though I'll admit that Shar's parts of the story were my favorite, followed by Abby, but Daisy bugged me a bit. Of all the guys and relationships in the book, Noah was the one with the least conflict and the least reason for Daisy to doubt and yet she was the one who made the biggest mess of things. Abby's was a close second as far as emotional mess goes, but in her case it was warranted. Christopher was so socially inept that he did the worse thing he could have done to hurt Abby without really meaning to. I was really glad when he finally pulled his head out of his ... ahhh ... books and went after Abby. I think, had I been Shar, my biggest issue with Sam would have been the fact that he had been in love with her grandmother, whom she apparently looks exactly like her, and that he occasionally called her Sharrat. Most especially when he called her by that name as he was holding her and kissing her. Apparently Sharrat wouldn't give him the time of day because she was all about serving Kammani. I'd have some trouble believing he was really in to me and not just using me as a substitute for the woman he loved.

Lover Beware

2009-09-10T09:17:00.004-05:00

Anthology

Magic in the Wind - Christine Feehan

Damon Wilder is a genius. He's spent years working for the D.o.D. on defense systems. This has gotten the attention of several terrorists groups and foreign governments. When Damon and his assistant are kidnapped and tortured for information, Damon manages to escape even though he was gravely injured, but not before his assistant is killed in an attempt to make Damon talk. He can't let go of the guilt over his assistants death. He retires to a small town looking to find peace and a place to call home, but the sense of impending doom follows him and he can't seem care about anything. Suddenly the town is abuzz because someone named Sarah is coming back and Damon find himself intently curious about this mystery woman and looking forward to her return.

Sarah Drake works for the government and has been assigned to protect Damon Wilder. She's also something of a witch, as are her sisters and all of their female ancestors before them. She finds Damon living in her home town and and if that isn't coincidental enough, the gate to their home opens for him, fulfilling the first part of a family prophecy that will lead all seven Drake sisters to their destiny. He's grumpy and a dark aura of death clings to him, but Sarah is drawn to him. If she can keep the bad guys from kidnapping Damon and if she can figure out how to get Death to stop following him, she just might be able to sit back and enjoy her fate.

Damon's character tickled me. He was like a crotchety old man in the beginning, then Sarah comes along and suddenly we begin to see him as a brilliant, attractive man who just isn't good with people and happens to have a physical impediment. Sarah's character is intriguing. She works for the government, protecting people from bad guys and kicking ass, but on the flip side she's a nurturing type who's kind to everyone in town and they all think she'd never hurt a fly. I'll be honest, though, there were parts there that were a little too syrupy for my taste.

Hot August Moon - Katherine Sutcliffe

Anna Travelli is a profiler for the F.B.I. She works with a secret unit of the F.B.I. that teaches people with certain psychic abilities to find serial killers and violent criminals. Now she's been assigned to a serial case that takes her back home to New Orleans and has her working with the Jerry Costos, D.A., ex-boyfriend, and the only man she's ever loved. The serial killer is torturing and killing prostitutes, but he knows who Anna is and he's thinking about setting his sights on her.

Jerry Costos has just lost his godson to a serial killer. He wants this guy bad enough to call in the F.B.I. The local cops are none to happy about it. When the profiler they send turns out to be Anna Travelli, the woman who broke his heart and whom he's never gotten over, he's not so sure he made the right call. She's keeps going in to dangerous situations without back up and wreaking havoc on his emotions. There's something going on that she's not telling him and he's determined to get to the bottom of it. Things between them are as electric as ever. If he can convince her to give them a second chance, he might get a chance at happiness.

This story was real interesting until I got to the end of it and realized there was no kind of resolution. Not for the romance between the lead characters and not with the serial killer. It was all a set up for the book Bad Moon Rising. I've never read it because the complete non-ending of this story just annoyed me no end. I thought the characters were interesting and I found the premise of psychics working as sort of profilers for the F.B.I. very interesting. This story just didn't deliver a satisfactory ending.

After Midnight - Fiona Brand

Jane O'Rilley is a widow. She spent the last seven years caring for her sick husband and the last four months of her widowhood avoiding Michael Rider, the man she's been secretly in love with since the moment she first laid eyes on him seven years ago. She feels she can't be with him because it would be like betraying her husband. She feels guilty enough that Michael kissed her once years ago before going off on a potentially deadly mission and that she spent months worried about him while her husband lay sick in bed. If she can avoid Michael and find out who's been secretly watching her and creeping around her property, everything will be fine.

Michael Rider is a retired S.A.S officer. When he met Jane O'Rilley all those years ago he was happily married and looking to start a family. Then, suddenly, all he could think about was Jane. His marriage ended and he took mission after mission, staying out of town and away from Jane as much as possible. Now Jane's husband has passed and he's retired so that he can finally claim Jane for his own. Someone is breaking in to people's homes and attacking women in his home town and Michael finds himself labeled as a suspect because he's got weapons and fighting skills, but it just might take those skills to catch the real criminal before he kills again.

I found this story a little hard to believe in places. Jane's character is very believable as the woman who avoids the man she loves because she feels guilty that when her husband was alive she was in love with another man and only staying with her husband out of duty because he needed her while he struggled with cancer. I found Michael's character a little harder to swallow. Here you have a man who stopped sleeping with his wife because he wanted another woman. He fell in love at first sight with this other woman and pretty much gave up on his marriage. Apparently he didn't love the woman he married enough to move away from the source of temptation and seek marriage counseling. Nice! Then he spends years celibate while patiently waiting for her husband to die. He's so hot that women are throwing themselves at him, but he's saving himself for Jane and never has so much as a hook up in seven years. Seriously?

Only Human - Eileen Wilks

Lily Yu is a homicide detective investigating a recent rash of murders apparently perpetrated by werewolves. She's no strange to the paranormal, but catching a killer who's DNA can't be reliably typed by forensics is going to be tough. Still, she's not sure if working with Rule Turner, poster boy for lycanthropy and prince of the local clan, is the best idea. Not only are his looks and charm a big distraction, but she's not sure she can trust him to tell her the truth about who the killer is.

Rule Turner is heir to the Chief of Clan Nokolai and the public face for lycanthropes in the area. He suspects that a rival clan is looking to not only cast suspicion for the murders on his clan, but scuttle a bill that will give lycanthropes certain rights while making them subject to human law. He's working with the police in hopes that he'll get to the killer before he causes any more problems for his clan. He's willing to lie and manipulate the police to make sure his clan gets a hold of the killer first. It would be easier if he wasn't absolutely sure that Lily Yu was meant to be his mate.

This was the precursor to the World of the Lupi series. I love Lily and Rule. Hell, I've loved the entire series! Go read it!

Miserable

2009-09-10T08:27:00.003-05:00

I'm so sick right now that I feel almost zombie like, no cravings for flesh or organs though, so that's good. The next to updates will be romance, because I already read them and just need to blog them, but the one after will likely be some sci-fi, the old stuff. My vintage sci-fi books are like comfort food. I'm thinking it will be Way-Farer by Dennis Schmidt.

He Loves Lucy

2009-09-09T09:32:00.005-05:00

Author: Susan Donovan

Lucy Cunningham is an ad exec who's just landed the biggest account of her career. Unfortunately the client is a fitness club and the campaign involves trying to lose 100 lbs in one year by working with their star trainer, Theo Redmond. The upside? She earns $1,000 for every pound she loses. With that kind of money she can realize her dream of opening her own ad agency. The downside? Having to get up at 4 AM every day, keeping a food journal, giving up Milk Duds and being tortured by Trainer Ken, or "Theo-dorable" as apparently every woman in town calls him. She's going to give it her best and hopefully not embarrass herself by drooling all over Theo. The guy is smoking hot, looking perfect in every way, but shallow jocks who's greatest concern in life is making sure they don't run out of hair gel just are not her type. Certainly not since that humiliating fiasco with a football player back in college that caused her to put on all the weight in the first place.

Theo Redmond had to drop out of medical school when his parents died, leaving him with custody of his 16 year old brother, Buddy, who has Downs Syndrome. Now he works as a personal trainer at the Palm Club during the week and as a bouncer on the weekends to make ends meet. This ad campaign that Lucy Cunningham cooked up bight just be his way back in to med school. He'll get $1,000 for every pound he helps her lose. With that kind of money he can pay for school and help for to care for Buddy. It won't be easy, losing 100 lbs in a year with nutrition and exercise is unusual, but if he can keep Lucy focused and motivated they just might make it. Unfortunately, spending so much time working closely with Lucy, whom he's liked from the first, is making it hard for Theo to keep things strictly professional. He's got to though because aside from the no-dating-clients rule, once he starts med school again he won't have time for a relationship, and the last thing he wants is to hurt Lucy or make her hate him because he's never around.

I really like that Theo liked Lucy and thought she was pretty before she started losing the weight and that he found himself attracted to her well before she all that weight. I thought Lucy was great, when she wasn't making making assumptions and obsessing over the slump buster thing. I loved Buddy! He was so positive and well adjusted. I liked the way things worked out between Lucy's sister, Mary Fran, and her husband. I thought it sucked that Lucy's brother, Dan, and her supermodel friend, Gia, didn't too long. I guess it was kind of a far fetched pairing. I liked that Dan took it so well. Normally I try no to put many spoilers in my little chatty bit, but as far as the lead characters were concerned, I didn't have much to complain about. I enjoyed the book quite a bit. Here was a story about an overweight heroine who wanted to lose the weight, put in the hard work, and did it. I don't think that you have to be thin to be healthy, happy, or beautiful, but if being overweight is making you feel unhappy or effecting your health, then something should be done about it. I think reading a book where the heroine sets out to do just that and gets it done, is inspiring.

Night's Touch

2009-09-08T09:31:00.004-05:00

Author: Amanda Ashley

Cara DeLongpre is the adopted daughter of two vampires. When her teenage bio-mom went in to labor in an alley the vampire couple stopped to help her and she told them to take the baby or she'd just leave it in a dumpster. Thus did Cara come to have vampire parents, her mother always having wanted children, but not being able to have them as vampires do not have babies. So Cara has grown up in the dark, figuratively, not literally because her parents have never told her about them being vampires. They're always had staff to look after her during the days and made up explanations for not being able to be in the sun or eat food. So now she's in her 20's, a librarian and still living with her parents. Her parents are protective to the point that she's had a bodyguard since she was 12. She doesn't really understand why she needs a bodyguard or why her parents don't want her to move out, but it's really starting to chafe. When she decides to check out a club called The Nocturne, she meets Anton, a charming stranger who asks her to meet him again and she agrees, not knowing that he is her family's enemy. Years ago Anton's father nearly killed her mother and tortured her father before her father finally killed him. Anton was born after his father's death, but Anton's mother has raised him with thought of revenge and they're looking to use Cara to get it.

Vince Cordova made the mistake of picking the wrong woman for a one night stand. While the sex was amazing, it wasn't worth being turned in to a vampire for. Mara, an ancient and powerful vampire, drained him to near death and gave him the choice, die or live on as a vampire. A year after that night, Vince isn't so sure he made the right choice. He's had to distance himself from his family, a loving close-knit bunch, he can't trust himself to sleep with a woman and he's struggling to retain as much of his humanity as possible. When he spots Cara siting alone at the bar of The Nocturne, he knows that she's trouble. Can vampires fall in love at first sight? All he knows is that he needs to steer clear, because a girl like Cara needs a man who will marry her and give her a family. A mortal man she can grow old with. When he sees her reaction to finding out her parents are vampires, he's sure that she could never be happy with him. Unfortunately, no matter how many times he tells himself to stay away, he just can't seem to do it for long and she doesn't seem to be able to keep away either. When her father's enemies put their plans in to action, Vince can't help but want to be there for Cara.

I believe this is a sequel, but I've not read the first book. Please to keep that in mind. I'm sorry, but Cara was not just TSTL, she was too damned stupid to exist! She's been raised by vampires, but never suspected what her parents are? She supposedly loves books and yet she can't see the similarities between her parents and vampires? Then, when someone clues her in to the fact that her parents are the undead, does she confront her parents and ask them what the deal is? Noooo, that would be too logical! Instead she packs a bag and runs for a hotel because her parents are bloodsucking monsters and because her parents, who've never been anything but loving to her, might have some nefarious designs on her. Then when daddy tells her that her boyfriend is also a vampire she refuses to believe it, even though she's never seen him eat or out in the sun either. This after she keeps meeting with Anton even though her instincts keep telling her he's not right. Her parents are the brightest bulbs in the box either. Here is Anton, looking soooo much like their dead enemy, Anthony,with the last name of the woman who was obsessed with Anthony. Anton and his mother now run the coven that worked with Anthony to hurt their family and it never occurs to them to find out what these people are up to? Or what Anton might want with their daughter? Vince was a little more understandable. At first he didn't want her to know he was a vamp because of her reaction to finding out her parents were vamps, then it got harder and harder to tell her because she would feel betrayed by him. He didn't feel he could offer her what she deserved and he thought the best thing was to leave her so that she'd find someone who could. Unfortunately, he wasn't very good at being unselfish because he kept coming back. I applaud the nobility of wanting someone you love to have everything they've dreamed of, even if it means you'll be miserable without them, but it only counts if you have the guts to stick to it. If you keep coming back and hurting that person again you are basically jerking them around emotionally. It makes you an spineless jerk who needs to be punched in the junk IMHO. And, of course, she forgives him for all this way too easily. It was all a bit much for me, as far as my ability to suspend disbelief goes.

The Power of Two

2009-09-04T09:36:00.002-05:00

2176 - Book 4

Author: Patti O'Shea

Captain Jake Tucker is a U.C.E. Special Forces officer. He grew up as part of a Sentonian cult where children are taught to use blades as soon as they can hold them, but when he was of legal age, he escaped and eventually joined the military. When he was selected for the Quandem project, he wasn't particularly thrilled, but he soon became used to his "anchor" being in his head. Having his anchor sending all the latest intel straight in to his brain via implant really gives his team an edge out in the field. After five years of working together he's come to rely on his anchor not just for intel in the field, but as a friend and confidant. He's not the sort of guy to open up to people so having a built-in partner and friend there to share his thoughts with and to just be there for him in though times is working pretty well for him. So what if his best friend is just a computer?

Captain Cai Randolph is a U.C.E. Special Forces officer.She's the genius child of two brilliant research doctors. When she was 13 her parents sent her to U.C.E. school and then disappeared. She believes they've been kidnapped by Elliot Marchand, a rich man who wants to use her parents' research in nanobiology for his own purposes, though no one seems to believe her. At 16 she was recruited by the military for the Quandem project because her brain wave patterns matched one of their field operatives. She was sent through Special Forces training and joined the project as an anchor. Five years later she and her "receptor" are the only Quandem left. Seems that when an achor overloads the brain implants there are varying levels of brain damage that occur and an anchor who's receptor died committed suicide. Now Cai believes she's found where her parents are being held and has maneuvered her way in to being sent out in to the field with her receptor and his team on a mission to her parents location. One small problem, her receptor thinks she's a computer and he will not be happy when he realizes that not only has she never told him otherwise, but that she's been in his head during some of his most private moments since she was just a girl.

I've read the whole 2176 series series before. It's a toss up between this book and The Legend of Banzai Maguire for which book in the series was my favorite. I liked the way the relationship developed between Jake and Cai. There was already a lot of history between them when they met face to face so they had a jump start, but it also created issues to be worked through. Jake was understandable angry that the computer he's been sharing his thoughts with for the last few years is actually a living person. He feels he's been lied to. Jake's also kind of embarrassed because for the first year or so he was not able to block Cai during certain moments and she was only 16. Then there's the fact that he's got to take her on this dangerous mission when she's never been in the field. Part of their cover is that they are lovers. This requires a lot of time spent in close quarters and he can't seem to keep from getting distracted by his attractive anchor. For her part, Cai doesn't want to lose Jake's friendship. Being a genius didn't win her any friends in school and since joining the Quandem project she spends most of her time on the computer or talking to Jake. She has no real friends other than Jake and she's afraid that he won't be able to forgive her for not telling him she was human or that now that he does know he just won't feel comfortable talking to her like he used to. She was attracted to Jake, but because of her negative self-image it never occurred to her that he might be attracted to her. She was so sure he couldn't be attracted to her that she failed to see the signs and so Jake thought she wanted things to be platonic. I thought it was funny that Cai was practically rolling her eyes at the lame over the top lines Jake was feeding a barmaid yet totally missed out on the fact that some of Jake's team mates were flirting with her pretty hard. I was kind of interested in Nicole and Tony, the Quandem pair that was working for Elliot Marchand. I would have liked to find out more about them and what happened to them after the everything.

Dark Protector

2009-09-03T09:47:00.004-05:00

The Paladins - Book 1

Author: Alexis Morgan

Devlin Bane is one of the world's best kept secrets. Devlin is a Paladin, born to fight, die and rise to fight again in defense of Earth until madness takes them. Deep in the earth there is a barrier between our world and another. The Paladins call the denizens of that world the Others. The Others are pale, sensitive to light, and come across the barrier crazed and looking to kill. Activity in the tectonic plates brings down the barrier from time to time and the Others come charging across. Lately they've been coming through in larger numbers and no one knows why. When the traitor responsible for that increase decides that Devlin might be a threat to the operation, they order him killed, but getting a Paladin to actually stay dead is the hard part. After the first attempt to end him, Devlin takes longer to resurrect than normal, which leaves his Handler concerned. He hates the tests and scans, but doesn't mind so much spending time with his attractive Handler.

Dr. Laurel Young is what's known as a Handler. She's in charge of stitching the Paladins' wounds up whether they're living or dead, seeing them through their resurrections, and making the decision as to whether they're sane or if they need to be put down. Laurel is proud of her work and has dedicated her life to finding a way to cure or stave off the descent in to madness that all Paladins eventually succumb to. She hasn't had to kill any of her charges, but she dreads it, especially where Devlin is concerned. She knows that her feelings for Devlin would get her removed as his Handler if anyone knew and she can't risk that. Devlin is the Paladin who's lasted the longest without going crazy and her best chance to find what can save the Paladins.

When Laurel has to put down a visiting Paladin, she's grief-stricken and goes home early to deal with her feelings. When Devlin hears about it from Dr. Neil, Laurel's boss, he slips off quietly to go to her place so she won't be alone. Devlin tries to convince Laurel to quit being a Handler, he's afraid she can't deal with having to kill her patients, but Laurel believes it's only right that she cry. Paladins are unsung heroes who often times have no one close to them who will shed tears over them. Their fellow Paladins will grieve their loss, but they see this as the inevitable end to all their lives and more inured to it. After she cries herself to sleep in his arms, Devlin decides to hold her until she wakes. When she wakes in his arms, Laurel can't resist kissing him. When their mutual attraction ignites, Devlin ends up spending the night. Unfortunately, this is not lost on the man looking to take Devlin out. He believes he's found the perfect bait to lure Devlin in to a trap.

This one's a re-read for me. I originally read it a couple of years ago. Devlin did the whole I'm-not-good-enough-for-you-so-I-must-push-you-away thing, but considering that every Paladin that ever lived has ended their lives either at the hands of their enemies or insane and put down like animals by their Handlers, he had a very valid basis for believing they would have no future and any relationship would only bring Laurel more grief. Especially when one considers that, as his Handler, it would be Laurel making the decision to put him down, Laurel giving him that shot, and Laurel watching him die chained to a steel table writhing like a mad man. It's a good thing that Laurel is a strong willed woman and not about to let Devlin push her away. She's not naive, she knows what his life is about. She's patched him up and been there during his resurrections enough to know how dangerous being a Paladin is and, though she dreads the probability that Devlin will go insane and she'll have to make that call, she strong enough to love him regardless of what the future may bring.

FYI

2009-09-02T14:07:00.002-05:00

I've eaten up my 8 day cushion and am now having to read and post. This means that some days I won't be able to post, either because I've not finished reading a book or haven't had time to write it up. I'll do my best, though and hopefully the weekends will afford me time to keep up. We'll just have to wait and see.

The Fire King

2009-09-02T09:49:00.006-05:00

Dirk & Steele - Book 9

Author: Marjorie M. Liu

Karr died 3,000 years ago. He's been trapped in a nebulous underworld of dreams, memories and nightmares. So when he awakens in his tomb to find it full of shifters, enemy to his people, and humans pointing strange weapons at him, he is disoriented and angry. He is attacked and fights back, but he is paralyzed by their strange weapons, rendered unconscious and placed in restraints that would kill him if he shifted. Karr is a chimera. Chimera are the offspring of two shifters who are of different natures. Karr's mother was a dragon and his father a lion. Chimera inherit the shapes of both parents and are therefore considered unstable. It's like they are pulled in three different directions and some lose their minds becoming violent and a danger to all. Chimera are also stronger and faster than shifters. When a prophecy came down that the chimera would destroy the shifters, those who already saw them as abominations used it as justification to attack the chimera. This set off a bloody war that lasted for centuries. Karr has no knowledge of how much time has passed and when the shifters send in a human woman who can speak his language, he's sure they're trying to get some sort of information from him. He can trust no one.

Soria has a psychic gift for languages, which is what originally led her to work with Dirk & Steele. After a recent traumatic event that left her missing most of her right arm and feeling abandoned by Roland, her boss and the man she loved, she's decided to strike out on her own and is looking forward to a job as a UN interpreter. When Roland calls her because Dirk & Steele really needs her, she's not happy to oblige, but she does it anyway. From the start she's concerned that Roland isn't using the agency's people for this job and he seems to be withholding information from her. Roland has hired mercenaries and is working with a group of shifters led by a dangerous woman. She's angry when she sees what condition the guy she's supposed to communicate with is in, but she's wary of him because she knows he's dangerous. When a band of mercenaries attacks the facility holding Karr, Soria has to make a choice, set him free or let him be taken, maybe killed. They escape together and even though Karr knows he can't trust her, she's the only one in the world he can communicate with. She's willing to help him because he was alone, in danger, and unaccustomed to the world.

With Roland acting strangely, Soria's friends at Dirk & Steele being kept in the dark, a shifter "ally" who keeps switching sides, a powerful shifter with an old grudge who'd like to kill all chimera and an enemy neither of them could possibly expect after them both and no one to back them but a couple of scary mercenaries, they're running out of time to solve the mystery of why Karr is alive after thousands of years and whether any other chimera exist in this world where most shifters don't even know chimera ever existed and don't think a crossbred shifter could even survive.

I loved Soria. I loved her strength and her will to survive. She was forced to make a horrific choice to survive once, one that I don't think most people could make, and she's had to deal with the consequences, both physical and psychological. She stuck by Karr even when he refused to trust her and sometimes purposely hurt her feelings because she had a good heart and it was the right thing to do. Karr was quick to recognize her good qualities, even though at first he was afraid it was part of some plan to get information from him and recapture him. He came to trust her, even though he didn't want to. It was Soria's strength that made Karr determined to survive as well. Karr helped Soria accept herself and her missing arm. Helped her feel that she was still a whole and beautiful woman. She really needed that in her life. The hero and the heroine were very good for each other. Koni had a very small part in this book, but I really liked it. Hell, he saved the day when you get down to it. I can't wait for him to get his own book.

Some Like It Wild

2009-09-01T09:04:00.002-05:00

Author: Teresa Medeiros

Pamela Darby and her half-sister, Sophie, are in dire straits. Their mother was a beautiful actress and they've grown up in the theatre, but now it's burned down, killing their mother in the process and leaving the girls alone without a home. When their mother's solicitors delivers to them an old letter that their mother had from the Duchess of Warrick explaining to their mother, an old friend of the duchess, that she was leaving her husband and taking their baby with her in to Scotland, Pamela begins to believe that the fire was no accident and that someone set out to murder their mother for that letter. After all, with the duke offering a reward for the finding of his son and someone who stands to inherit a lot of money if the duke's heir is never found, there are plenty of suspects. With a noble set on making Sophie his mistress, the possibility of reward money and finding clues as to who may have murdered their mother, Pamela and Sophie take to the Highlands in search of the duchess and her son. When they come across news that the duchess died before reaching her family in the highlands Pamela decides that any man of appropriate age and coloring will do, but where to find such a man?

Connor Kincaid is a Highlands highwayman looking for any way he can avenge himself on the English. After the brutal death of his parents at the hands of the English, Connor was left in charge of the clan. After years of leading his clan in dangerous raids, trying to get enough money to rebuild the clan, Connor decides to leave before he brings destruction down on the clan. Now he robs coaches and lives with a band of criminals. When he's told that a carriage with no out-riders and only one coachman will be coming down the road carrying two young English ladies covered in furs and jewelry and likely fat purses, he figured they were ripe for the picking. What he found were cheap furs, paste jewels, nearly empty purses, a pretty young blond, and a feisty, curvy brunet with a gun and a persuasive plan. If they can pull it off not only would it be the ultimate revenge for a Scotsman to steal an entire dukedom, but he might even escape his fate to meet the hangman's noose. Now he just has to keep whoever killed Pamela's mother from killing him and try his damnedest to keep his hands of Pamela ... or talk her in to putting her hands on him.

I loved both of these characters. Pamela was smart, cunning, daring, and funny. She took big risks, with all their lives really, but it payed off. I liked that she had the guts to do everything she did after her mother's death. Connor was every bit Pamela's equal. He was a hardened criminal, but he wasn't unnecessarily cruel and he treated Pamela and her sister with kindness, even when he didn't have reason to. He protected them from his fellow criminals and, though he didn't think he had much to offer her, he didn't fight his feelings for her. In fact, it was a bit the way around later in the story when certain truths are uncovered. Pamela pushes Connor away for his own good, even though this makes them both utterly miserable. The side story with Sophie and the duke's cousin, Crispin, was cute. I felt so bad for Crispin because of how Sophie was treating him. It was obvious he was besotted with her. It was also pretty obvious who murdered Marianne Darby almost from the second you meet the duke and his family. I really enjoyed this book. Both the hero and the heroine where just such fun to watch together. Teresa Medeiros is one of those authors who I can usually count on for a good read.

Beyond Compare

2009-08-31T09:06:00.007-05:00

Author: Candace Camp

Kyria Moreland is an unconventional girl in an unconventional family. The whole Moreland clan is made up of scholars, except for Kyria who designs jewelry and her older brother Reed who's considered normal and runs the family estates. When her sister Olivia's wedding to a silver magnate brings Rafe McIntyre to their home, Kyria finds herself truly fascinated by a man for the first time. She's had many admirers and enjoys flirting, but no one has made her feel the way Mr. McIntyre does just by being in the room. She knows better than to fall in love with him. He's a charming flirt and she can see right off that he isn't the type to marry and settle down. The arrival of a mysterious artifact delivered by a man who is killed at their door step brings about a frightening and dangerous chain of events that draw Kyria and Rafe closer and closer together.

Rafe McIntyre was once a southern gentleman, but gave that all up to fight for the Union during the civil war. He did what he thought was right, but it cost him his family and his fiance. Now he's a partner in a silver mine and something of a charming rogue. He doesn't mind a bit of flirting, but he never intends to let himself love again no matter how temping he finds Lady Kyria. If she wasn't in danger, and if he wasn't feeling so damned protective of her, he'd get away from her before she really got under his skin. Unfortunately fate seems bent on presenting him with situations where only his will to do the honorable thing keeps their passion in check.

I really loved Rafe. He was fun and charming and he put up with an incredible amount of stuff from Kyria. Most men of his time wouldn't have taken Kyria along on the "adventures" they had to undertake while trying to solve the mystery of the artifact. She made these info gathering forays more difficult because, not only did their plans have to be more complicated to keep her undetected, Rafe had to split his focus between finding what he came for and protecting Kyria. Not to mention that he held back during interrogations for her sake. He probably would have had the mystery solved in a quarter of the time if Kyria hadn't been in his way. He was suspicious of the villain earlier on, but because Kyria had him all mixed up, he ignored his instincts. Kyria did that thing I hate where a character thinks that being independent and strong means making dumb decisions and not letting anyone talk you out of them. She kept waiting for Rafe to say she couldn't do something so that she could be disappointed in him for treating her like some weak woman. She was so hell bent on being in the middle of things and proving how smart and independent she was that she never stopped to think that she was making things harder for Rafe or anyone else involved. Pretty self-centered IMHO. The artifact and it's story were interesting. The mystery, well, about the same time Rafe was feeling an inkling of suspicious about the villain I had already decided who the villain was and I was not wrong. I loved Con and Alex.

Getting Rid of Bradley

2009-08-28T09:47:00.007-05:00

Author: Jennifer Crusie

Detective Zachery Warren is afraid to grow old. He's a man of action who goes with his gut and makes split second decisions. For a man like him getting old means slowing down and slowing down means death. Detective Anthony is Zach's partner and the thinker of the duo. He's afraid that Zach is going to burn out, but isn't sure how to keep it from happening. Zach is too busy trying to catch Bradley to worry about any of this navel psychobabble that his partner is so fond of. When a tip about Bradley leads them to a diner where they overhear a couple of attractive women talking about getting rid of Bradley as they walk out, Zach's sure they've caught the break they've been waiting for. The partner's split up to follow the women, but Zach's barely manages to get the woman's attention when someone shoots at them. Zach's not the most popular guy with everyone, but he's pretty sure she's the target and it's possible that Bradley might be trying to get rid of her.

Lucy Savage is a physics teacher who loves logic and making well thought out practical decisions. The one time she made a spontaneous decision resulted in marriage to Bradley, whom she's just divorced. Now she's got this cop on her doorstep, who looks more like a criminal than an officer of the law, telling her that her dull uptight ex-husband is a criminal and that someone may be trying to kill her. She doesn't believe it, of course, because it's illogical that someone would want to shoot at her. She feels she's been proven correct when it turns out that the criminal he's looking for is not her ex, Bradley Porter, but a man named John Bradley. Sure the signs that someone has been trying to break in to her house are a bit disturbing, but it's a far cry from attempted murder. Unfortunately, the car bomb is not. This, coupled with a yearbook linking both Bradleys, leads Zach to move in with Lucy for protection and to find what someone wants from Lucy's house.

I really liked Zach. He very clearly had issues and he fought his attraction to Lucy, but once he decided to fall he did it all out. Lucy was really cute, I really like nerdy characters, but she had some serious TSTL moments that were just ridiculous. I hate it when a character decides they're going to be free or independent and then proceed to make the most boneheaded decisions all in the name of this new resolution and, of course, if anyone dares to cut up about whatever idiocy they've committed they're filled with righteous indignation and anger towards the person they perceive as trying to stifle or control them. It's annoying and makes me think less of the character, especially when that character is supposed to be smart, like Lucy is. Some might say that it's simply a lack of street smarts on her part, but I think anyone with half a brain would think it a bad idea to go out for a solo morning jog when a cop has told you to stay indoors because someone has tried to break in to your home repeatedly and might possibly be trying to kill you. Then to go out alone again just to get your hair done without so much as calling someone to let them know where you are going to be after someone sets of a bomb in your car? This coupled with the fact that she refused to leave her home for her own protection, even after a bomb is set off in the house, really made me want to slap some sense in to her. I like this book, but I don't love Lucy ... or at least I don't love her bad choices..

Truly Madly Yours

2009-08-27T09:46:00.004-05:00

Author: Rachel Gibson

Nick Allegrezza is the illegitimate son of the mayor in a small town. His father took advantage of his mother when she was a grieving widow and left her with a child he refused to acknowledge. He's grown up hating his father for not wanting him and for marrying a woman, adopting her daughter and giving her everything that should have been his. He grew up a bit of a trouble maker, often picking on the mayor's adopted daughter, Delaney, but eventually became a successful business man and almost legendary ladies man. He's not averse to a one night stand and never lets a woman get the impression that she's special in any way. Now that his father is dying with no heir in the picture, he's trying to get Nick to to all sorts of things, but Nick's not having any of it. When the old man finally dies, he leaves Nick some great properties and the only thing Nick has to do to get them is not get sleep with Delaney Shaw for a year. Like he'd let Delaney twist him up like that and hang him out to dry again like she did all those years ago.

Delaney Shaw left Truly, Idaho shortly after her 18th birthday under a cloud of rumors. After a fight with her adopted father, Henry Shaw, Delaney decided to be free and reckless for once. A decision that wound up with her naked on a beach with Nick Allegrezza, the guy who'd fascinated her since they were children. She could never figure him out. One minute he was sweet and in the next he was cruel. On this one night he was sweeter than he'd ever been, but when Henry discovers them and tells her Nick is only using her to get back at him all Delaney can see is that Nick isn't denying it. So she leaves town and severs all contact with Henry and Truly, Idaho. When Henry dies, Delaney comes back to be with her mother through the funeral and for the reading of the will. Henry, however, has other plans. He leaves Delaney half of everything he owns, assets that add up to millions, if she will stay in Truly for a whole year from the reading of the will. How can she walk away from that when it could bring her dreams of opening her own business to life? Surely she can stand living in Truly for a year! All she has to do is keep below the local gossip's radar and avoid Nick Allegrezza for a year. Shouldn't be a problem considering he seems to harbor some grudge against her. He's got some nerve, considering she was the injured party all those years go.

Both these characters drove me nuts! Delaney remembers him saying something to her during the incident in their youth, but she didn't know what it was because she was in a panic over being found with Nick by Henry, yet all those years later when he says that he told her he'd take care of her, she is completely disbelieving. I understood how, at the time, she reacted the way she did. She'd made herself vulnerable to Nick and usually that's when he turns around and does something to hurt her. The situation with Henry was upsetting and she was looking for some reassurance from Nick and he didn't give it to her. I also understood Nick's reaction. Here he is, finally, with the girl he's wanted for the longest time and suddenly she's acting like it's the worse thing that's ever happened to her. Then Henry, whom he hates, tells Delaney that Nick's just using her and she acts like she believes him. She hurt his pride and she chose his enemy over him. What drove me nuts is that as adults, they were still hung up on this incident! Neither of them seemed to be able to look at the situation through adult eyes and accept that maybe they were both to blame for what went down. If they hadn't had all that history, and been all about each other since they were kids, I wouldn't have bough that they could be in love because all their adult interactions seemed to center around sex. They were either fighting attraction, flirting, involved in pre-sexual activities, having sex, being jealous or arguing. The characters annoyed me to the point that I had to force myself not to skim. I'm not saying there weren't enjoyable parts, but it definitely is not one of my favorite books by Rachel Gibson.

Take Chance on Me

2009-08-26T09:14:00.006-05:00

Author: Susan Donovan

Thomas Tobin is a lawyer who works as part of a murder-for-hire task force. He's proud of the work he does, but seeing the bad side of humanity day in and day out is starting to wear him out. He too often finds himself looking for the dark side to every person he meets. It doesn't help that his fiance dumped him when a rugby accident left him unlikely to ever father children. Now his team's best informant,Scott Slick , is dead and Thomas is feeling guilty over coercing him to continue as an informant. After all, if Slick had quit when he wanted to he might not be dead. It's that guilt which leads Thomas to take home Slick's dog Hairy, a Chinese Crested. After only two weeks Thomas is at wits end with Hairy's behavioral problems and seeks help from a veterinary psychologist. If only he didn't find her so attractive he'd be a whole lot happier.

Emma Jenkins is an animal behaviorist and all around good person. Ever since she divorced her husband, a fellow animal behaviorist and partner in her practice, she's had her hands full keeping her clinic afloat and raising her best friend's daughter. Then there's her ex-husband coming around trying to get money from her and acting so strangely. She doesn't have time to date and she certainly doesn't have time to be distracted by someone who blows hot and cold like Thomas Tobin. He wears expensive suits, but his face and body scream bad boy and one minute he's drawing her closer and the next he's pushing her away. She wants nothing to do with him, not even as a client, but when Thomas suspects that Hairy's behavior might lead to catching a murderer how can she say no?

I was with Emma on her opinion of Thomas and his two-step. I liked that she wasn't afraid to confront Thomas about it too. She didn't take crap from him and I love that in a heroine. Thomas was a bit of a wanker at times. When he started looking for Emma's "dark side"I could kind of understand it. In his line of work it would be easy to expect the worse out of people, but he was letting it turn him in to a misogynist. This is evidenced later when he starts riffing on how women mess a man up and how often the men he sees in his line of work are there because some woman has them all twisted up. I get that his fiance dumped him at the worse possible moment, but that wasn't what hit him so hard, It was the news about his malfunctioning equipment and the end of his plans for the wife, kids and white picket fence thing. He was letting it make him bitter. I hated that because of those issues he gave Emma such a hard time. The things he said to her towards the end of the book were horrible. I get why he said them, what with always expecting the worse of people and his damaged equipment, but had I been Emma, I don't think I could have forgiven him quite so easily. He wasn't a bad guy. There were spots where I liked him a lot and felt sympathetic towards him. It was just during his bonehead moments that he bugged me. I really loved Hairy and that he had his own occasional POV in the story.

Tell Me Lies

2009-08-25T09:00:00.003-05:00

Author: Jennifer Crusie

Maddie Faraday grew up in Frog Point, a small town of where everyone knows everyone and who your people are is as important that who you are. All her life Maddie has been a "good girl" and done what was expected. She married Brent, her high school sweet heart, she stays home to raise their daughter while her husband is part owner of a very successful construction company. Maddie should be happy, but ever since Brent cheated on her a few years back, she just can't seem to get that loving feeling back. In fact, she's pretty sure she hates Brent at this point and the only reason she's still married to him is their daughter, Emily. When she finds a pair of black crotchless panties stuffed in seat of his car she decides she's had enough. She's going to end their marriage once and for all. She just hopes he can do it without causing too much of a scandal. The last thing she needs to hear right now is that the boy who's car she climbed in the back seat of the one night in high school she's decided not to be a good girl is back in town.

C.L. Sturgis was given up by his mother and taken in by his aunt and uncle in Frog Point. No one in town expected any good from him on account of who his mother was. He was always getting in trouble whether he actually did something wrong or not, so why not just be the bad boy they all thought he was? When he was in 5th grade, Maddie Martindale was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, and when she tried to defend him to a teacher he was hit with the biggest crush, but since he and Maddie were worlds apart he never even had a chance to be her friend. In high school, when Brent cheated on her and Maddie decided to get back at Brent by climbing in the back seat of his car, C.L. found himself once again crushing on Maddie. Unfortunately they call them crushes for a reason and the next day in school Maddie crushed him by walking away and pretending nothing had ever happened between them. She got back together with Brent and C.L. was left to move on. Now, a successful accountant with a good job in a big city, he's back in town to help his ex-wife and take down Brent. He did not expect that seeing Maddie would bring back that ridiculous crush he's had on her all his young life. He also did not expect Brent to turn up dead and Maddie to be the prime suspect.

I absolutely loved C.L., but Maddie and her constant worrying over what people were going to think drove me up the wall. I'd hazard to say that most men wouldn't have stuck around and put up with all conditions Maddie put on their relationship, no to mention the way she was all over him one minute and telling him to stay away the next. She couldn't make up her mind what she wanted and even when she did, it took her forever to find the damned backbone to go after it. Once she decided to be free and forget what the town thought, she made one crazy decision after the other just because she could. Her daughter, Emily, was well written. She knew she was being lied to and she didn't take it lying down. I was more impressed with her than I was her mother. Maddie's best friend Treva needed to be slapped. When Maddie's life is going crazy Treva decides it's the best time to start venting her life long resentments about Maddie always being good and perfect. And this is your best friend?

True Love and Other Disasters

2009-08-24T09:51:00.007-05:00

Author: Rachel Gibson

Tyson Savage lives to win the Stanley Cup. His old man is a hockey legend in Canada, but even he never got his name on the cup and Ty is determined to see that his is. When Virgil Duffy, the owner of the Seattle Chinooks, offers him good money to join a team with a good shot at the cup, he leaves Vancouver in favor of Seattle. Who cares if the entire country think him a traitor? He's not letting anyone or anything get in his way.

Faith Duffy is a trophy wife and not shamed of it. So what if people think she seduced a man 50 years her senior to get her hands on his cash? All her life she's done what she had to in order to survive and she's not going to apologize for that. She's gone from stripper, to playmate, to the wife of Virgil Duffy, a multimillionaire who expect nothing more from her than that she make him look good in public and be a friendly companion in private.

When Virgil dies, leaving Faith his hockey team, Ty is greatly concerned about his shot at the cup. In fact, most of the team is concerned about what sort of trouble being owned by a gold digging bimbo with no knowledge of hockey could cause the team. For her part, Faith doesn't want the team and is perfectly willing to sell it Landon Duffy, Virgil's awful son. The team thinks this is a fine idea until rumors surface that Landon plans to move the team. When Landon tries to humiliate Faith about her past in front of the team, not only does he cement the teams negative impressions of him, but he angers Faith enough that she decides to keep the team.

From the first time she travels with the team to an away game, Faith feels the sparks between Ty and herself. As his boss and a woman that is determined to keep her old party girl persona in check, she's sure she needs to keep her distance from Ty Savage. Unfortunately, he's feeling them too and though he knows getting involved with the team owner is the worse idea possible, he can't seem to stay away. With Landon lurking in the wings trying to get his hands on the team, Faith's ex-stripper mom and Ty's dad sneaking around together and the playoffs in full swing, can either of them afford to fall in love?

I really liked this one. I enjoyed both the lead characters, but I think what really made this book for me was Faith. There aren't many heroines in romance who have a past like hers and aren't either trying to hide it or feeling guilty/bad about it. I think that's what I found refreshing about Faith. Her mom was a stripper and a party girl who changed men like most people change their clothes. Faith was following in her footsteps until she was discovered by Hef and became a playmate. When she married Virgil, she molded herself in to a good society wife for him, leaving behind the party girl. She became what he needed her to be. When he died and left her a wealthy widow she was free to finally find out who she was or could become. Through out all that, she refused to apologize for her past or to be made to feel ashamed. I thought that was pretty damned kick ass. And Ty! Once he realized that Faith was special to him he didn't try to weigh which was more important to him, hockey or Faith. H knew what he wanted and id what he had to get it. It was Faith who wanted things between them kept secret because she worried so much about the team and his career. She was just sure Ty would never choose her when it came down to it that she kept trying to put distance between them. Luckily, Ty didn't put up with much of that nonsense.

Hard and Fast

2009-08-21T09:35:00.000-05:00

Fast Track Series - Book 2

Author: Erin McCarthy

Imogen Wilson was raised in the world of academia. She's a grad student majoring in sociology. Her professor/mentor/friend is married to a race car driver. It's during a trip to the track with that Imogen meets Nikki Howard, a woman bent on marrying a driver. When she sees Nikki's dating manual "How to Marry a Race Car Driver in Six Easy Steps" she thinks she's found the subject of her thesis. The plan? Read the manual and use the techniques on several drivers and see if such manuals actually work.

Ty McCordle loves fast women and faster cars. He lives for speed. Racing is all he's ever wanted to do. It's also all he fears he's qualified to do. A severe case of dyslexia has kept Ty from learning to read. He's gotten where he is by his wits and talent behind the wheel. Very few people know about his illiteracy and that's the way he likes it. When he meets Imogen he finds himself both attracted and intimidated.

Imogen knows she can't use Ty as a test subject for her thesis because she's very attracted to him and doubts her ability to keep from becoming emotionally attached. She feels this is a bad idea because she's nothing like the flashy, built girls Ty usually goes for. Ty, however, has set his sights on her and she doesn't stand a chance. She knows she'll probably get hurt when Ty moves on, but she can't resist him. Ty's never felt jealousy over a woman before, but when he finds out that Imogen plans to flirt with other drivers and then that one of the drivers on his own team has been asking her out, he's forced to admit to himself, and to her, that he wants her all to himself. Imogene's been swept off her feet, but her logical mind is telling her there's too much she doesn't know about Ty and that's got her running scared. Can Ty convince her he's really in it for the long haul?

Imogen's character had to be my favorite of the bunch. She was cute, smart, and socially awkward ... all things I love in a romance character. I really wanted to love Ty, but I didn't feel much of a connection to the character. I guess, like Imogene, I didn't feel like I knew enough about Ty. There wasn't as much depth to him as there was to Imogen. It greatly annoyed me that a man that smart, and with the kind of resourced he had, didn't try to find a way to learn to read. There is plenty of info out there about dyslexia, plenty of programs designed to help people with dyslexia to learn, that he had to have known there were ways for him to overcome his issue. His illiteracy was such a sore point for him. yet he did nothing to change it. Then there were the horrible things he said to Imogen. One of the things I love best about romances is the HEA. Sometimes I don't feel a couple should have one, like when either the hero or the heroine does something that they should not be forgiven for or haven't made up for. I'm not saying that happened with this book, but I did feel that Ty got off a bit lightly. All in all, I enjoyed this book and am really looking forward to the next book. I really want to know what Ryder did, or Susan thinks he did, that ended their marriage and how they can come back from it.

One With The Night

2009-08-20T09:55:00.000-05:00

Companion Series - Book 5

Author: Susan Squires

Jane Blundell was infected with vampirism in her father's laboratory because of a broken vial. Her father nursed her through the turning by infecting blood and feeding it to her. Since then he has dedicated his life to finding a cure. She has dedicated her life to being the son he never had, trying her hardest to make him proud of her. She knows nothing of being a vampire and when her father's life is threatened, she figures it's time to remedy that. When Callan Kilkenny comes looking for the cure, willingly volunteering himself as the dr.'s test subject, Jane begins to feel all manner of things she's never felt before. She's both excited to explore these new sensations and afraid of what they could mean. She finds herself falling for Kilkenny, but afraid to make herself vulnerable and losing control.

Callan Kilkenny was a "Charming Irish Rogue" until he ran afoul of Asharti, a very powerful female vampire with a penchant for compulsion, sexual torture and a fondness for breaking men's spirits. She made him a vampire so that there would be no risk of him dying before she's completely broken him. Set free by her death, he is unsure if he can ever get back to who he used to be. As a vampire he can not commit suicide, his companion won't allow it, and so he wanders around trying to do small good deeds where he can to counteract the terrible things he did under Asharti's command. When he begins to hear rumors about a possible cure, he sees his chance to become human again or die trying, either would be fine by him. He knows he's in trouble the moment he meets Jane. He's been celibate since Asharti, afraid that he's become twisted by his experiences with her, but Jane tempts him to the breaking point. He plans to avoid her as much as possible, but between her father throwing them together on herb gathering outings and Jane's curiosity about vampires, he hasn't got a chance of resisting her.

The stakes become deadlier when a trio of powerful vampires, led by Elyta Zaroff, come from the vampire's ruling council. Elyta says they want to protect the dr and help him find the cure. Although suspicious, they really have no choice but to let Elyta and her crew stay on. It soon becomes clear that Elyta's motives are less than pure, both for the cure and towars Callan. When she reveals to Callan that it was she who taught Asharti everything she knew, he knows that she'll kill them all as soon as she has no further use for them. The only way to save Jane, whom he's fallen in love with, is to make a deal with the devil. One that will ensure Jane will never love him and see him in the same form of slavery that nearly broke him before. He's gladly do it for Jane, but when she finds out what's really going on she puts and end to the deal and Callan is forced to come up with a long shot plan to save them both from their protectors and the vampires who want to destroy the cure and anyone associated with it.

While this book can be read as a stand alone, you'll be much more clear on a few things if you read the other books in the series first. Both the main characters were great. I felt terrible for Callan. In previous books we've been shown the effects of Asharti's twisted games on people's minds, but Callan is the first one who though himself truly evil because of the choices she coerced him in to making. Jane occasionally gave thought to a possible future with Callan, but since he never said anything about having feelings for her she kept thinking herself a fool. Callan wouldn't let himself dream. He didn't believe there was any way that she could love a creature like him. They were both afraid to speak. Jane sometimes frustrated me earlier on with her unwillingness to step outside the role she'd set for herself. Repressing any urges and expressions that didn't fit with what she thought was proper for a scientific minded individual. Callan was more frustrating at times, but I found it hard to really blame him because of what he went through. I mean, it had only been a couple of years since Asharti's death. Anyone who survived something like that would have some major issues to work through. Hell, some they might never be able to work through. Didn't stop me from wanting to pull my hair now and then. I've read the series up to this book and plan to pick up the next two soon. I better move quick because the eighth book, Time For Eternity, is due out at the beginning of September.

Fast Women

2009-08-19T09:35:00.005-05:00

Author: Jennifer Crusie

Eleanor "Nell" Dysart is trying to rebuild her life after her divorce from her husband of 20+ years. A year and a half later he's married to a younger woman who's taking over her role in the insurance agency they built together and Nell starts to realize that she's spent a year and a half in a numb sort of haze. Now she's gotten a job as a secretary for McKenna Investigations on a recommendation from her former brother-in-law and her life is suddenly livelier than it's ever been. She's almost slept with a client's husband, had a one night stand with Riley McKenna (one of her bosses), wrecked her ex-husband's office, forced the embezzling ex-secretary to give back the money, stolen a dog and that's just her first week there! The only problem with the job is her boss, Gabe McKenna, and his my-way-or-the-highway attitude. All she wants to do is make the office look nice and keep things running smoothly, but he fights her at every turn and she's be lying if she said it didn't make her kind of hot.

Gabe McKenna likes things the way they are and he does not like change. When he agrees to give Nell a temporary job as a favor to an important client, he knows she's going to be trouble, but how much damage can she do in 6 weeks? Unfortunately, while wreaking havoc in his office, Nell's discovered that the secretary she was temping for has been forging company checks and stealing from petty cash. He's going to have to take her on permanently despite the fact that he's had to talk her out of legal trouble twice and she's broken all three of the companies rules in her first week there! He doesn't need this on top of the week from hell he's been having. His ex-wife, whom he's been sleeping with despite the fact that they've been divorced for 10 years, has cut him off and decided to see the world. His 19 year old daughter wants to trek through Europe instead of going to college, which he's already paid for the first semester of. Their top client is being blackmailed, possibly by their ex-secretary, and Gabe's own father may have helped cover up a murder. Now she's renovating his office and changing everything against his wishes. If only his life would go back to the way it used to be before Nell walked through his door. If Nell would only stop trying to run his business. If he could only decide whether to strangle her or kiss her.

This is one of my favorite Crusie books. Not my absolute favorite, but it's up there. It's because Gabe and Riley McKenna are such great characters. They're both really good guys and watching them struggle with the ladies they were for was enjoyable. I wasn't crazy about Nell. My beef with Nell was that she kept trying to turn Gabe in to her ex-husband. She hated her ex-husband for being weak, for letting her run everything while pretending he was doing it all and she was just incidental to their success. She projected the issues she had with her ex on to Gabe. She was hired as a secretary, but she changed everything about the office to suit her despite his objections and then then she got angry when he didn't appreciate it. If she had pulled the crap she did on anyone else she would have been fired that first week. She didn't know how to just be an employee and then she started sleeping with Gabe and because of the patterns she's developed with her ex, she thought that gave her say in the business. She kept comparing Gabe to her ex despite the fact that they were nothing alike, something even her best friends kept pointing out, and she put the blame for their conflict on Gabe and his stubborn attitude when she was sooooooo in the wrong. I liked her friend Suze much better and I loved the interplay between her and Riley. I'm definitely rooting for them. I would also love to know what happened with Margie.

My Hero ... A Contest Entry

2009-08-18T09:57:00.004-05:00

I'm reading Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling Series and this was originally written for a contest she was hosting to celebrate the release of Mine to Posses. (I did not win.)

(Re-posted from my old blogger)

The subject of this contest is our favorite romance hero/es and why we love them. I would have to say that of all the heroes out there my absolute favorites are the tortured alphas. They aren’t always the nicest guys around, but they’ve got their reasons for it. Whether it’s a loveless/abusive upbringing, betrayal or the death of a loved one these guys have had their hearts broken and are going to make sure no one does it again. The world sees them as aloof, cold or even down right heartless beasts and they sometimes go out of their was to prove them right. Then the one meant for them comes into their life and they fall in love ... kicking and screaming the whole way down. Some realize the danger right away and do their best to drive their heroine away, some mistake it for something else and don’t see it coming till it wallops them right upside the head, while others want the love, but don’t know how to go about winning it or keeping it. I know I’m not alone in this because there are several series, many supernatural romance, where all the heroes are tortured in one way or another.

My favorite of these fellows is hard to choose. Off the top of my head, I’d have to say Sebastian, Lord Dain, from Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels. His father was a cold man who cared more for his estate than anything else. After losing his wife and two young children to illness he chose to marry a young Italian lady who’s noble family had money. He found her to passionate for his taste and, after she gave him an heir, he stopped having “relations” with her. This led to a very tense and unhappy home life for our very young hero. It did not help that he took after his mother’s family in both looks and temperament. He was a sensitive young boy who was very aware that he didn’t look like others and that his father was ever disappointed in him. His mother disappears when his is just 8 years old and all his father will tell him is that his mother is Jezebel. He hates his mother for abandoning him and begins to develop his mistrust of the female species. The fact that his mother would abandon him drives it home in his mind that even a mother could feel no love for someone like him. He is promptly hustled off to school where he is picked on and taunted. He fights back and earns the respect of the bullies and is then determined to be the worst of lot. His first experience with a woman , a whore, at the age of 13 teaches him that with enough money people will deny you nothing and sets out to become as rich as humanly possible.

As an adult Dain has achieved everything he's set out to. He's rich, he's feared, and he lives life on his terms. Knowing that his father prizes his family’s title and reputation, Dain has set out to be the biggest blot on the family name that he can be. He spends his time drinking, gambling and whoring, when he’s not collecting antiques and works of art or making loads of money. His one foray into decent society led him into the hands of a gold digger and he then swore off anything to do with women who are not professionals at all cost. He avoids ladies like the plague. He believes himself ugly, evil, and unlovable and has built a shell around himself that is all those things and unapologetic about it.

Through his fall we get to see inside him, which is what draws me most about this type of hero's story line. There is a part of Dain that is still that lonely little boy who's only ever wanted to be loved and shown affection. While he falls in love we get to see him learn to accept that part of himself and learn that he can love and is worthy of being loved. Really, though, my favorite parts are the times where his lady shows him some affection and he is so socked and thrown off balance that he goes into a bit of a tailspin. Those are the moments that touch me most because those are the moments his character seems most realistic to me. Damn, I think I'm going to have to go read it again now!

Others I am partial to off the top of my head are: Zsadist (J.R. Ward’s Lover Awakened), Asterius (P.C. Cast’s Goddess of the Rose), Hades (P.C. Cast’s Goddess of Spring), Connor McCabe (Patti O’Shea’s Through a Crimson Veil), and Zarek (Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dance with the Devil).

The Bride Finder

2009-08-17T09:56:00.005-05:00

Author: Susan Carroll

(Re-posted from my old blogger)

Anatole St. Legere is a clairvoyant and telekinetic, which he sees as a curse. As a child his mother was freaked out by his abilities and wanted nothing to do with him. Then one day he tried to cheer her by picking her a bouquet of flowers. Since she didn't want him near, he floated the flowers to her. She lost it and threw a glass vase at the poor boy and traumatized him for life. Lately he has been seeing visions of a flame haired woman who will bring about his death. So when he sends out the Bride Finder, who is the only one who can choose a bride for a St. Legere man without his being cursed to a life of misery and early death, he asks him for a simple, sturdy, placid woman with anything but red hair. The Bride finder, Reverend Septimus Fitzleger, finds the bride that is fated for Anatole. Unfortunately for Anatole she is a dainty noble woman with flaming red hair.

Madeline Breton arrives at Anatole's castle expecting a warm welcome from the Prince Charming that Reverend Fitzleger led her to believe she was going to marry. When her party shows up at his gloomy castle she finds that, not only is he not at home, but his people won't let her in. She's worn his miniature around her neck, the portrait of a 15 year old Anatole that made him look like some soulful poetic prince, and dreamed of meeting him, but the man she meets large, rugged and rough. He rides in and mistakenly grabs up her maid, whom is everything Anatole asked for, and is then heartily disappointed when he realizes Madeline is his bride. Though she is a bit frightened of him, and feels terribly rejected by him, she chooses to make the best of things and sets herself to be a good wife to him.

Anatole finds himself in a though situation. He marries his wife and pledges himself to her for eternity, a vow that is magically enforced for the men of his family, and while he's feeling the pull that St. Legere men are supposed to feel toward their mates, his new bride seems not to be feeling the great passion that St. Legere brides are supposed to feel. He spends most of the story wooing his bride, or learning to, and trying to keep her in the dark about his "gifts" and the family ghost, Prospero.

There is also some drama in the way of a possibly evil cousin and the family's ancient rivals, the Mortmains, whom everyone thought wiped out.

I really loved this story, partly, I think, because I could relate so well to Anatole. I really felt for Anatole who felt like he was an unlovable freak thanks to his mother, with some help from his father, and who thought that his new redheaded bride would be the death of him, literally. He felt his gifts were curses and was at odds with Prospero, his ghostly ancestor who really only wanted his descendants to find love and happiness. I love watching him learn how to win over his new wife, which would have cost him less effort had he not been so obviously disappointed at the sight of her upon their first meeting, and come to terms with himself. I liked that Madeline did not give up easily on Anatole and that she helped him accept his gifts and make peace with Prospero. She helped him realize that his mother was messed up and that just because she couldn't deal with him it didn't mean that he was unlovable or wrongly made.

Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down

2009-08-14T09:55:00.005-05:00

Anthology

(Re-posted from my old blogger)

Captivated By You - Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

Rhea Stevenson is pretty hot, but she's also a by the book girl, and a little uptight. She's secretly crazy about Ace, one of her fellow Bureau of American Defense (B.A.D.) agents. Since he's a womanizer and she's set on following the "no office romance" rule, she acts as if she hates him and gives him the cold shoulder/evil eye every chance she gets. Unfortunately she's been assigned to work a case with him that has her posing as a dominatrix at an exclusive club to catch a terrorist.

Ace Krux has got it bad for Rhea, but she hates him and he doesn't know why. Fortunately he's maneuvered her into working a case with him that will involve her in skimpy outfits practicing her dominatrix skills on him. He's hoping that his charm and their near nudity will result in a little action. His prayers are answered and things heat up pretty quickly between them after she ties him down. Only now Ace isn't so sure he likes the idea of sending her into a room alone with a terrorist.

The characters weren't terribly well developed, but we did catch small glimpses into what made them who they are, and that made the romance more believable. I like the lengths that Ace was willing to go to in order to keep Rhea safe.

Promise Me Forever - Author: Melanie George

Ten years ago Savannah Harper and Donovan Jerricho were crazy in love, but with his pro-football career taking off there was a lot of strain on their relationship and when a misunderstanding causes Donovan to believe that Savannah has slept with one of his friend, they break up and Donovan leaves town without looking back. Savannah is pregnant, a fact that Donovan knows nothing about, and never will if she has anything to say about it. Now Savannah, a single mom to a precocious little girl, has finally agreed to marry Jake, her boyfriend of two years. Only, a few days before her wedding, Donovan Jerricho blows back into town stirring up feelings she thought were dead. They are both angry and bitter about the past, but can't help feeling that pull towards each other. Donovan learns the truth about that old misunderstanding and realizes that he made a big mistake and threw away the only woman he ever loved, but can he convince her of that before she ties the knot? He just might if she gave him had the chance, but since she won't he resorts to drastic measures and kidnaps her and plans to hold her hostage in their old love nest until she hears him out. And when will she tell him that Reese is his daughter?

I'm not sure how I felt about this story. He resorted to kidnapping, which was just plain creepy, but he couldn't find it in him to actually hold her against her will. It bothered me that Savannah was willing to marry Jake after she realized that she still loved Donovan and that she loved him more than Jake. It bothers me that such a sweet stand up sort of guy would marry someone who didn't love him wholeheartedly and slept with her ex shortly before the wedding. Seriously, doc, have a little self-respect! Nice is one thing, doormat is something else all together! I hated that Savannah didn't have the guts to let Donovan know that he had a child and that she didn't tell her kid who her father was.

Hunter's Right - Author: Jaid Black

Corporal Ronda Tipton, U.S Army, is excited about her new assignment. She's going to be stationed at a research base in the Arctic. Unfortunately, her helicopter crashes somewhere in the Arctic Circle and she is the only survivor. Hoping that she was somewhere near the base when the chopper crashed, she heads out on foot. When she finds what appears to be a door in the side of a mountain, she thinks her prayers have been answered. She soon finds that she was mistaken as she stumbles upon the hidden Viking civilization of New Sweden that has thrived underground for hundreds of years. She is discovered and chased by giant Viking men. She nearly escapes, but is caught by Lord Nikolas Ericsson, a cousin to the King and a revolutionary. He believes she is a military spy and questions her about how she came to New Sweden. When he learns she is telling the truth about the accident, she is sent off the the bride auctions. The auctions were once a respected tradition, but the Kings corruption has turned it into something of a sex slave auction where the men fondle the women who are brought before them naked and shackled. When it's Ronda's turn up on the block she takes serious offense to being manhandled and uses her martial skills to smack down the offenders and get free. Just as all hell is breaking loose Nikolas claims Hunter's Right, the law that says a man may keep a woman he has captured. Nikolas did not intend to marry until after the revolution, but not only did Ronda make him hot, she was a fighter and he hated to see her punished or handed over to one of the Kings vile friends. Ronda believes she must escape and find the base so that she can inform the military of what is going in this secret world, but she soon finds herself drawn to Nikolas. Will she choose freedom or love?

The sexual stuff is hot ... sizzling hot, thought the whole chains and aphrodisiacs stuff kind of weirded me out. I really enjoyed the characters and though the whole women as property thing doesn't appeal to me overly much, I found myself very intrigued by their world and most especially that prophecy of theirs. I've read the novellas and Deep, Dark & Dangerous which were set in New Sweden and I have to say, I'm looking forward to more.
(Author's website lists a book titled Big, Bad & Brutal that was supposed to be out 2008, but I don't know what's happened with that. )

Anyone but You

2009-08-13T09:54:00.004-05:00

Author: Jennifer Cruise

(Re-posted from my old blogger)

Nina Askew married a professional man and put her career on hold for him. She had an expensive house and an upscale lifestyle. Then she got fed up with the married life, living for someone else and having all her decisions made for her. So, now, six months after her divorce, she's sold the big house, moved into a cozy apartment, and started working as an editor again. Only Nina just turned forty and isn't dealing well with it. All she needs is a perky little puppy to cheer her up and keep her company. Enter Fred, part basset hound, part beagle, and on his last day of life. He's not a puppy and he's not perky, but Nina just can't leave him behind knowing she's his last chance. Neither Nina or Fred are too sure about each other at first, but it doesn't take Nina long to figure out that Fred was just what she needed.

Dr. Alex Moore, the thirty year old hottie who's apartment is right below Nina's, has just broken up with Debbie, another in a long line of girlfriends looking to marry a doctor and create a happy family. The problem is Alex doesn't want a family. His family is a dysfunctional disaster. Everyone's a dr, his dad's an alcoholic cardiologist, his stepmom is an recovering speed addict thoracic surgeon, his often engaged half-sister is an oncologist, and his serial dating semi-alcoholic half-brother is a gynecologist and they're putting pressure on him to specialize instead of working in the ER, where he's happy. Then Fred pops in his window and he meets Nina. There's an instant attraction that neither of them is too keen to explore right away. After a failed date, where Nina comes to the rescue, Alex decides he'd really like to get to know Nina better. So he invites himself up to her apartment to watch movies. This becomes a routine and they become fast friends. Unfortunately for Alex, he wants a whole lot more. He's afraid if he makes a move he'll lose what he has with Nina because he's pretty sure Nina sees him as an immature kid. Now he's rethinking his whole career. He's thinking of taking his dad up on a cardiology position so that he'll have money and Nina will see he's getting somewhere. But is that what Nina really wants?

Nina's determined to keep her relationship with Alex strictly platonic. Sure, she thinks about him a lot and wonders what it would be like to be with him, but she doesn't see it going anywhere. Alex is young enough to want marriage and a family, while she's been there, done that, and not going back again. She's also not to keen on showing her forty year old body off to a thirty year old man who's used to dating twenty year olds. When Alex makes his move, Nina decides to go for it, but is he looking for more than she's got to give?

I'll lead off by saying that I liked both lead characters a lot. They seemed very real and like they were good people. I really loved Alex, even when he went a little crazy there and you kind of wanted to smack him upside the head so that he's just snap out of it. He was just so cute ... him and his Daffy Duck shorts. His brother Max was also highly lovable and I hope to see him hook up with Nina's friend Charity in another book. They seemed to hate each other on sight, but I think there might be something there. Nina was great, but I though the whole Incredibra issue was flat out ridiculous! I'm thirty and have had a couple of kids (three now), so the girls aren't where they used to be, but to get that uptight over having your lover see you naked? If you can't stand for them to see you sans clothing, then you probably aren't ready to be sleeping with them. Her insecurities were a little overplayed, I think. She just mentioned her forty year old body one too many times for me.

Love is Blind

2009-08-12T09:52:00.004-05:00

Author: Lynsay Sands

(Re-posted from my old blogger)

Lady Clarissa Cambray is near sighted and blind as a bat without her glasses. So what does her "helpful" stepmother do? Basically tells her that "Guys don't make passes at girls who wear glasses." and when Clarissa insists on wearing them stepmommy dearest breaks them. She then sets Clarissa loose on the ton where she repeatedly causes disasters, like dropping food on herself, tripping, stomping on toes, mistaking people's laps for tables and burning their "piffles" with hot tea, and then she sets one suitor's wig on fire. This leads to stepmommy making her sit and do absolutely nothing during parties. She's miserable, she's bored and she's very aware that the ton laughs at her and calls her Clumsy Clarissa behind their fans. She doesn't know that they think she won't wear glasses for the sake of vanity.

Enter the Earl of Mowbray. Adrian Montfort, once thought one of the handsomest men of the ton and quite the rakehell, returned from the war a then years ago with a scar down the side of his face that had the young ladies swooning to prove their delicacy. That and a run in with one twisted lady, who pretended to like him when she just wanted to bed a freak, had our hero rusticating for a decade. Now he's back in town and still feeling the freak. His cousin, having been a victim of one of Clarissa's nearsighted accidents, warns him to steer clear, but Adrian is intrigued. The though of spending some time with a woman who might not cringe at the prospect of talking to him, much less dancing, holds a lot of appeal. He soon finds himself laughing and smiling more in a few minutes with Clarissa than he has in the last ten years. They both know right off that they'd like to spend more time together, but, of course, stepmom doesn't want them to get together. Adrian, not being someone to let something he wants slip away, enlists his family to help sneak her out to meet him. They're only too happy to do it since Adrian seems so happy and hopeful.

Some strange "accidents" have been happening to Clarissa and after finding her floating face down in a fountain with a bump on her head, having been lured out to the garden by a false note, Adrian suspects someone is trying to kill her. He waits outside her window so he can sneak in and talk to her about these accidents, but once he's in her bedroom, things take a turn for the naughty. When a fire breaks out right outside Clarissa's bedroom, Adrian gets her out the second story window and down to the ground, where the servants find them in less than perfectly clothed condition. Adrian asks for her hand and wedding plans are under way. There's just a few of things bothering our couple. Adrian is afraid that when she gets her glasses back she'll be disgusted by the sight of him and hate him. He's also worried about who might be trying to kill his wife-to-be. Clarissa is afraid that when he sees her with her glasses he'll think her ugly and she'll lose any chance that he might love her.

I'll come out right up front and state that I have a weakness for Lynsay Sands. It's just something about the way she writes her heroines. They're not what most people would consider perfect, but they end up being just that for our heroes. I know that her historicals have modern language in them and it tends to catch your eye when you're reading, but for some reason, it doesn't really bother me. I know the plot isn't spectacularly original, but I still found it enjoyable. The writing was definitely there and I really wanted Adrian to be happy at the ending of it all. I really liked his character. It was nice to see a hero who wasn't all alpha and swashbucklish. I'm a sucker for a hero who doesn't know what a great catch he is and is a bit insecure in his wooing. I see the alpha type much more often, so this type of her is a bit of a treat for me. I think Clarissa level of insecurity about her glasses was a bit overdone. I mean she was afraid the guy would suddenly think her ugly and not the least bit lovable because of a pair of glasses. If he's so shallow that a removable pair of glasses turns him off you permanently, then he is not a man you want to marry. I mean, if the glasses put him off that badly, what'll happen when she gains ten or fifteen pound? What about her body after she's had a kid or two? Know what I'm saying?

The Deal

2009-08-11T14:20:00.002-05:00

I'll be re-posting something from my old blogger every day. That means there will be an old post showing up every day until August 18th. After that I will be posting new content until I start slacking again. I've already got one new post scheduled and another new draft waiting to be finished. I've also got two old drafts that I started ages ago and never finished. I'll try to get those done and scheduled to post soon. I'm hoping that with this cushion of old posts I'll be able to leisurely post up new content and so not get so behind that I stop posting again any time soon. We'll see.

Tall, Dark & Dead

2009-08-11T09:52:00.003-05:00

Author: Tate Hallaway

(Re-posted from my old blogger)

The Order of Eustice is the Vatican's anti-witch hit squad. Yes, they take "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." very literally. Garnet Lacey was part of a coven until the one day she showed up late. She walks in expecting to get ribbed for being late and instead finds her entire coven dead and the Vatican's Order performing Last Rites. In a moment of rage she calls Lilith to her and becomes the goddesses avatar. She slaughters the Order's hit squad and, with the help of her vampire ex-boyfriend, hides the bodies. She leaves town and settles in . She's running an occult store and masquerading as a goth. Then one day Sebastian Von Traum walks into her life and it's trouble all over again.

Sebastian is dead, has been for years. He was an alchemist and became a vampire by drinking a potion. He's not your average vampire either. He can walk in the daylight, but he's got one major problem. After all these years the potion is failing and unless he can work the kinks out in his potion, he may end up dead for good. To top it off, the Order is after Sebastian. Seems they think that little potion of his might come in handy and though they don't usually hunt vampires, they're willing to make an exception, since he's also an alchemist. Garnet's ex-boyfriend vamp comes into town, confusing things between Garnet and Sebastian. Then there is Matyas, Sebastian's post-death damphyr son who's working with the order to bring down his father. Let us not forget Lilith, who's still inside Garnet and looking to take control over Garnet's body permanently. Can she and Sebastian work together to stay alive or will the forces aligned against them be too much for a failing vampire and a solitary witch?

I liked it, I really did, but Garnet got on my nerves with her feeding issues. I mean, come on, if you're going to date a vampire you will either have to provide sustenance or not be uptight about them getting it elsewhere. Either deal with that or stop dating guys that need to feed off other people! Sebastian was interesting, but I didn't feel like we got to know him much. I know we got a lot of info on him, but it was like reading a list of facts about someone. You know? No personal connection. I kind of liked Matyas. I know he was sort of supposed to be one of the bad guys and he tended to be a jerk, but he had good reasons for feeling the way he did and doing the things he did. He was wrong, yeah, but I couldn't dislike him for it. I felt bad for Phillip too. He comes to Garnet because he's hit hard times, and because he still has feelings for her, only to find her hooked up with a day walking vampire who fed off her when she wouldn't let him. As if that weren't enough, the poor guy is having to basically prostitute himself, he's in such dire straights. The ending left a lot of things open, so I'm thinking we're being set up for a series, a trilogy at least. I don't know how I feel about that. I love series books but I hate it when the individual books in the series are left too open ended. Leaves me unsatisfied and not too sure if I want more. Give me some kind of resolution on something!

(I never have read the rest of this series and have no real interest in doing so. I may pick it up at a future date, but I doubt it.)

Heaven In Your Eyes

2009-08-10T09:30:00.002-05:00

Author: Judi McCoy

(Re-posted from my old blogger)

Anne McAllister is married to an uptight controlling jerk. They met in college, where Annie was a criminal justice major with plans of joining law enforcement. All that went out the window when she married Tom. She became his living Barbie doll. Wore her hair the way he wanted, wore the clothes he chose, ate what he ordered for her and basically lived her life to please him. Just as Anne is getting fed up and ready to shake things up Tom dies. Tom somehow manages not to go to Hell or Purgatory, but gets a chance to redeem himself by helping Annie find true love. You see, Annie was supposed to go on to law enforcement training, where she would have met her soul mate, Andrew Falcone, and had a HEA ... only that didn't happen because she met and married Tom before she ever made it that far. So Tom will have to hop into another body, a la Heaven Can Wait, and help Annie find the perfect man for her.

Fast forward six years after Tom's death and Annie's is now a U.S. Marshal and working her first Assignment with the Witness Protection Program. Her charge is one Dominic Viglioni, a mob guy turned informant, who doesn't have long to live. After putting the moves on Annie, during a one-on-one game of hoops, Viglioni is shot by rogue marshals and Tom moves in. They go on the run and soon after Annie, and Tom, figure out that Dominic Viglioni is no snitch. He's an undercover agent trying to draw out dirty marshals and his real name? Yup, you guessed it! Andrew Falcone. So now Tom, who's got pieces of Falcone's personality and memories floating around in his head, is trying to protect Annie until they catch the bad guys. Unfortunately, spending so much time together is proving a hard temptation for Tom to fight. He's finding he likes this new Annie a lot better than the one he tried to make her into. How can he find her a husband when he's falling in love with her all over again? Meanwhile, Annie's terribly attracted to Flacone and a little weirded out by some of his familiar habits. Will she find happiness with her ex in her soul mates body or will the bad guys kill them before she has a chance to find out?

I dunno, I really enjoyed Judi McCoy's Wanted books and the Goddess series was a fun read, but I just can't like Tom enough to want to see him happy with Annie ... and I'm feeling really bad for Andrew Falcone. Yeah, he was a good guy and went to heaven when he died, but come on! Because Tom's guiding angel didn't do her job Falcone got cheated out of connecting with his soul mate, a loving marriage, kids and the many more years of life he would have lived had he been married and not taken that fatal assignment! WTH?! I hate to bring my spiritual beliefs in to it, but I think soul mates are connected beyond death and that they will find eachother again. So the fact that Falcone's soul mate is now in love with some guy who seems to have taken on some of his characteristics, just sucks bananas. He deserved better. Tom? Yeah, his parents sucked. I get that. It still doesn't change the fact that he made his wife miserable for years. Many people have crappy childhoods without making other people's lives hell because of it. So this guy is a miserable prick and treats his wife like crap and the consequences of that are what? A hot new body, many years of life after his expiration date, and a second chance at the marriage he screwed up the first time around? Hello?! Does no one else have a problem with this? And, Annie? Why the hell would she even consider hooking up with a guy that reminds her so much of a man that made her life miserable? She wasted so much of her life on this man who treated her horribly before getting the nerve up to make a change. So now she's going to go for a man that exhibits some of the same traits/habits? Seriously?

The writing was there, and there were some good scenes, but I just couldn't get past my issue with the characters to really enjoy the book.

Winter Moon

2009-08-08T13:45:00.001-05:00

Anthology

(Re-posted from my old blogger)

Moontide - Author: Mercedes Lackey

I tried to read a Mercedes Lackey book several years ago and for some reason I just couldn't get into it. The writing just didn't hold me. So I put the book down unfinished and put her in the Authors I Can't Read category. Then a while back I saw The Fairy Godmother and decided to go ahead and give it a read. I really enjoyed it and One Good Knight. This novella, Moontide, is set in the same world of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, but does not involve Tradition.

Moira na Ferson, was sent away at a young age to foster with the King's sister, Countess Vrenable by her father, Lord Ferson of Highclere. The intent was that she be taught to be a proper lady and learn the running of a keep, but Countess Vrenable teaches a select few of her charges so much more. The countess is in charge of the Grey Ladies, a group of young ladies who are trained to be everything a lady should be, but are also trained spies and assassins. Moira has been invited to become a Grey Lady, but before she can complete her training, her father calls her back home, where Moira suspects he intends to marry her off. Before Moira leaves Viridian Manor the countess informs her that her father is suspected of treason. Moira, having had no real love for her father, readily agrees to be Countess Vrenable's eyes and ears. Once she returns to Highclere, she begins to see how right the countess' suspicions are. Her father seems to be planning to marry her off to an enemy prince and they make many sly comments about ships sinking in the storms that frequent Highclere. Here father's new Fool seems very interested in all the goings on, but is he a spy for the King or is he working for her father and the prince? Could trusting him see her married to the prince and imprisoned in his harem or will it lead to salvation?

For some reason, of all the characters in this story, the Fool was my favorite. I would have liked to have seen some of the story from his point of view. We were told about his wit, but never got a chance to see it. I liked how Moira handles the whole confrontation with the prince ... well, the aftermath ... and the spying really. It's a lot more realistic than having her be blase about it, as if it's something she does all the time. And really, no matter how much you train or prepare for a situation, you aren't really ready for the reality until it's there in your face.

I'm thinking I might try to branch out ... maybe check out the Obsidian Trilogy?

The Heart of The Moon - Author: Tanith Lee

Clirando is a warrior woman, strong and honorable, who's happy with her life. And why not? She's the leader of her band of warriors, of which her best friend from childhood, Araitha, is a part of and she's got an attractive lover, Thestus. Things couldn't be better, that is, until the night lighting strikes the Temple of the Maiden and, in the scramble to save the roof, she discovers that Araitha and Thestus are having an affair. She challenges them both in battle and wins. They are both shamed and must leave the town of Amnos, but before her ship sails Araitha visits Clirando for a parting shot. She curses Clirando to be filled with emptiness, to find joy in nothing and to sleeplessness, that she may find no rest. Clirando shrugs off the curse and goes on with her life. Until she hears that the ship Araitha was on has sunk. Suddenly she can not sleep, she finds joy in nothing, and there is a burning emptiness inside of her. Clirando and her band are called to go to Moon Isle for the Seven Nights, a festival to honor the moon being full for seven full days. Strange things happen on this island, and sometimes people don't return. The first night there her band sets up camp and Clirando takes the watch, but the impossible happens, she falls asleep. When she wakes up, her band is gone and there is no sign of where they could be. Clirando sets off to find a village or some sign of her girls, but she finds odd creatures who follow her and haunt her with their strange cries. In her trek through the forest she meets Zemetrios, a fellow traveler also looking for a village who wants to share her fire and travel with her. Is he who he says he is? He has a past more painful than hers, which he shares with her. Is he telling the truth or is this some trick. Can she trust him in this place full of ghosts and illusions when those closest to her have betrayed her?

I can't think of a thing that I've read of Tanith Lee's that I did not like. This novella was no exception. I liked that his was about a journey of self-discovery and forgiveness. Both Clirando and Zemetrios had to go a long way to deal with their ghosts and to accept themselves as they were. And I liked that Zemetrios' issues weren't easily settled.

Banshee Cries - Author: C.E. Murphy

This story was described as 1.5 in "The Walker Papers" series. I didn't read Urban Shaman, though it is on my TBR list, so I felt that I was always a bit behind on the story. It wasn't that I couldn't follow the story, but I did feel that a lot of the interpersonal stuff was really lost on me.

I won't give a summary bit about the story because there's so much back story that I'm just missing. I don't feel comfortable doing it.

Secret Society Girl: An Ivy League Novel

2009-08-07T11:44:00.000-05:00

Author: Diana Peterfreund

(Re-posted from my old blogger)

Prestigious Eli University is chock full of not-so-secret secret societies. Amy Haskel, junior and editor of the Lit Mag, is looking forward to being "tapped" by Quill & Ink, where all good little Lit Mag editors go, apparently. Only instead of Quill & Ink she gets tapped by Rose & Grave, a 177 year old society rumored to be akin to the Illuminati. This strikes our Amy as being more than slightly surreal. Rose & Grave are the elite, the rich and the powerful, who choose only the best and the brightest ... oh, yeah, and they're a "boy's club". So why are they interested in a girl from a middle-class background looking to become a magazine editor while secretly dreaming of writing the next Great American Novel? Amy isn't sure, but in an odd go-with-the-flow moment, she decides to accept their offer and join up. The initiation is beyond surreal, but almost instantly she begins to feel a bond with her fellow "Diggers" and is looking forward to learning all about her new brothers ... and sisters. It seems that Amy, Bugaboo to her fellow Diggers, along with 5 other women, are the first taps to include women. A revolutionary move for Rose & Grave. One that leads to some heartache for our Amy and her fellow Diggers. It seems that the board of trustees that runs the money behind Rose & Grave, made up of alumni Diggers, disagrees with the decision to tap women. Unbeknownst to the new taps, the senior class who tapped them, knowingly went against the board. Even though the seniors, being the active members, are supposed to be running things the board stages a sort of coup. They lock up the society's tomb (read: club house), cut off access to funding, and invalidate the membership of both the taps and the senior class. When they don't take it lying down, the old boys start wrecking their future careers and reputations, causing our girl Amy to lose her upcoming internship. At this point Amy's thinking it's all more trouble than it's worth. She's having problems with her room mate and her boyfriend over it and now the old boys are threatening to start wrecking her parents careers too. Will she quit Rose & Grave while she's got the chance or will she stick with it until the very possibly bitter end?

I just finished this today, so it's till pretty fresh in my mind. There were a few moments where I mentally shouted "Just shut your trap and keep it shut!" at our girl Amy during the whole initiation process. Mostly because she knew they were trying to mess with her head and yet she played right into it with all the carrying on. I just wanted her to suck it up, you know? Overall, I have to say that I liked this book. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. You see, I found her best friend secretive and annoying, her friend-with-bennies turned boyfriend, Ben, was way too good for her in the beginning and then goes all wrong when she's finally getting her act together. I found the dreaded Clarissa (Angel) much more to my liking than Amy's friend ... that's a commentary on her friend, not Clarissa ... even though she gets her shit together too when all is said and done. Demetria (Thorndike) was a little to much for me at times. She was a somewhat stereotypical "Afrocentric activist lesbian" chick with her kente cloth. The sub-plot with the spurned chick who was going to out one of the Diggers was a little weird, but I like how Amy handled it. And that's really what won me over, Amy. She wasn't the overdone sassy chick who always had something smart to say, though she did pull that off nicely in her taps interview. She was very real. She wasn't ridiculously stoic, or constantly practical. Sometimes she frustrated me with her actions and choices and sometimes she had me right there with her. She was someone that I wouldn't mind getting to know, if she were a real person, and sometimes that's more than you can say for a leading character.

Bah!

2009-08-07T10:51:00.000-05:00

I would like to note that I'm not über fond of any of the templates for blogger, unfortunately xml is like my kryptonite. I'd have to get a dummies book just to edit my blogger template. That or do some serious searching on the interwebs for tuts, which I'm not willing to invest the time in just now. I suppose I could go back to classic, that was pretty simple to edit. Only problem with that is that I'd then have to do all new graphics, cause I wouldn't want it plain, and I'm too tired and grumpy to even think about that right now. Maybe later.

AHA!

2009-08-07T09:42:00.000-05:00

Found the stuff I posted on my now dead blogger and will be reposting them here. They will be old, but oh, well!

Celebrate the Category

2009-08-07T09:21:00.001-05:00

Celebrate the Category

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Acheron - Sherrilyn Kenyon

2008-10-22T15:54:00.001-05:00

I recently finished this one and I've got to say that it is absolutely my favorite book in the entire Dark-Hunter series. I blubbered my way all through Acheron's mortal life and when he received his godly powers and I thought he'd kick some ass, disaster, thank you Artemis, strikes and he dies.

I liked his heroine a lot. She was perfect for him. I knew she's do the right thing at the conference with what Artemis gave her. I really liked that she got up in Artie's face. There could have been more of that, but I suppose it's more mature the way it was. *shrug*

I got a kick out of the Hades scene and Apollimy rocked! Raining kick ass all over the Atlantean gods. Were I her, however, her sister would have died much more slowly for what she knowingly did to little baby Apostolos, her own nephew! Slow, painful, humiliating and as degrading as possible. She'd deserved whatever she got. Maybe eternal torment instead of death? I joke with my husband about getting a t-shirt for our daughter that says "Katastrafia Megola" across the chest. Because she so totally is. This comic says it all.

Katie MacAlister

2008-10-21T08:37:00.000-05:00

She's one of the few authors who's work I read almost all of. I say almost because I haven't read her latest Aisling Gray and I don't know if I will. I've read the first of the new silver dragons and recently picked up the second, which I'm only a few chapters into, because I liked Gabriel and I want to like this spin off. The thing is that so far it's reading pretty much like Aisling Gray. At least in the things that annoyed me about it. You think things are improving and then something else goes down wrong and the leads end up apart or the heroine ends up in deeper than before at the end of the book. Instead of feeling satisfied at the end of each book I feel like I've been left hanging and that I'm being strung along. I don't like that feeling and if it goes on too long I get turned off of a series. That's why I lost interest in Aisling.

Now you're probably thinking that this probably applies to most series, but it actually doesn't happen very often. It's the cliffhanger feel that the endings have to them that turns me off. It makes me feel like the characters are right were they were when I started the book. It's very unsatisfying. Maybe it's just that her writing style doesn't lend itself well to this style? I lover Dark Ones and her non-serials, but these dragon ones are giving me a hard time.

Am I a sucker for even trying to get into the silver dragons series?

Garwood

2008-07-03T21:29:00.001-05:00

I'll post about individual books at a later date, but I just wanted to post about the fact that I've started reading her Buchanan books. I'm reading them in order and am currently on Murder List.

I really liked that John Paul got his own story, even though I thought it sad that Monk should come to such a pathetic end. I really wanted him to find out the truth about Jilly, take care of her himself and then disappear into the mist.

Maybe it's wrong, but I could sympathize with Monk in a way and I hated that he went out the way he did. He got played and died a fool for the love of a woman incapable of love.

What a pain!

2008-06-23T09:37:00.000-05:00

My blogger account disappeared so I'm going to have to start anew. Maybe this time I will be more constant in my efforts.