Tag Archives: book review

Smutty Sunday: The Will

By | |
2 Comments

Just doing one book today I’ve been uber busy and haven’t gotten around to reading a lot. But when Kristen Ashley’s The Will came out, well… I bought it immediately and carved some time out, yeah?

I usually wait to do a review because I need time to process what I’ve read. So many times, my reviews come days, sometimes weeks, after I’ve finished a book.

I couldn’t do that for this book.

I had also highly anticipated this book, ummm, because getting some KA without New York City editing (yes, I AM saying that as if I were in a Pace commercial) is the FREAKING bomb, yo. I tried to read it slow. Before I opened the book, I was worried it wouldn’t be as good. Then once I cracked it open, I was worried it would be over too fast. None of my worries mattered. Once I started, I couldn’t go slow. I tried, y’all. I really, really did.

I couldn’t do that for this book.

I’m also burnt out on NA books and just young acting people in books lately. So I got super excited when I learned these main characters would be older. Not much is new about that. Many of KA’s protagonists are older than the “norm.” I sighed with relief when I read these characters behaving not just like adults, but adults who aren’t irrational, shrewish or complete dicks.

This is VINTAGE Kristen Ashley. All the reasons I LOVED Sweet Dreams and several others were present in this book. I can’t lie to you though, her storyline is tighter than before she mingled with NYC. Her plotting is better. Overall, hanging with the NYC crowd has given VINTAGE KA polish, but what it didn’t do was gut the story and emotions and all the drama and clipped speaking and chin tilting that I have come to know and LOVE about her books.

And don’t get me started on the kids. Dude, very few authors can make so many secondary characters not just come to life, but do in LIVING FUCKING COLOR. It’s a gift. And she has it in abundance. I can’t tell you how many times, I have come to “know” the secondary characters almost as well as the primary ones. And in this book, it just started with the kids. The rest of the cast was just as brilliantly fleshed out.

Did KA stop there? No, boys and girls, she did not. Not only was the story about Jake and Josie a compelling one, there are underlying messages in her books. Here, there are threads of unselfishly loving someone, the redemptive power of love, AND don’t sit around and wait for good shit to happen to you, sometimes a lot of time is wasted when you do. Babies aren’t made, people die, love goes unrequited. All of that. In this book.

So hell yeah. RUN don’t walk to your computer and download this puppy like yesterday.

Smutty Sunday: Reviews Catch Up

By | | ,
Comments Off on Smutty Sunday: Reviews Catch Up

Today’s reviews will have a mix of bought and NetGalley books. I will let you know which is which in the body of the review. I know I’ve got quite a few book reviews to get through. And I will. I’m not going to download anymore books until I get my backlog caught up completely. Hopefully, getting new books will be the carrot that makes me get these damn reviews out.

First up…

1. Beneath the Patchwork Moon by Alison Kent

This was a NetGalley read. Thank you for them, Ms. Kent,  and Montlake for the opportunity to read this work.

Now onto the review…

This book just confused me. I just didn’t understand the whole premise. Three friends are driving. There’s a wreck. One of dies. Ones in a permanent vegetative state. And one broke her hip, was hospitalized and got better eventually.

Everyone hates the one with the broken hip.

Even though she wasn’t driving. Even though the accident wasn’t her fault. Even though all this happened when they were stupid teenage kids. And to top all this off, no one will talk about anything. They just hate the broken hip girl, umm, just because she’s alive and can be hated. By her surrogate family, even. People who’ve known her since she was little. Did I say the accident isn’t her fault?

And then there’s the weird, bizarre love thing. With the dead kids brother. Who just kinda deserts her after his family turns their back on her. So she loses both her best friends, everyone hates her, dead girls family hates her the most and then to top it all off the boyfriend bails.

And the whole thing with the vegetative state kid’s family? More strangeness. I did not get this book at all. I kept waiting for it to make sense. I’m still waiting.

 

2. Dark Witch: Book One of the Cousins O’Dwyer Trilogy by Nora Roberts

I picked this book up on Amazon when it was on sale for like $3.99 or something. Figured I couldn’t go wrong at that price. Boy, was I mistaken.

Sadly, I neither liked the characters nor the story here. Roberts writes well. I just didn’t connect with the characters. I didn’t give a shit about the love story OR the paranormal one. It was all very blah. And I found myself skimming huge chunks of this book.

I will not get the rest in this series. That’s the way it is for me with this writer. I either love it–Witness–or I hate it–this.

Smutty Sunday: More NetGalley Roundup

By | | , ,
Comments Off on Smutty Sunday: More NetGalley Roundup

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Smutty Sunday. I just haven’t had time to read all the good books I’ve downloaded from NetGalley, or that I’ve just bought on my own because the deal was too good to pass up. I also will list a couple of titles I picked, but later decided against reading for one reason or another. Most of the time, I couldn’t read the selection not because of anything the author did, but rather because something about the story made me put the book down.

Anyway, here are a few reviews. And I will try to get to my backlog of books to be read.

1. Savage Secrets by Cristin Harber

I’m not going to tell you that I’ve liked all the books in this series equally. It simply wouldn’t be true. But out of all of ’em, I like this one the best. Seriously. I didn’t think I would based on my reaction to the last book I read in this series. I just knew Harber was a strong writer and I would enjoy the story. Maybe not love it.  But it would be good in that it would be edited, the plot would make sense and normal romance tropes would apply.

I liked Savage Secrets a whole lot more than a little bit. Color me surprised. Pleasantly so. Happily So.

Cat’s motivation made sense. Rocco had flaws– some really big. Being forced to work together just happens to be the best thing that could’ve happened to either of them. Only they might not realize it until it’s too late. But that’s the rub isn’t it. When you have two deeply flawed characters fighting for vengeance, redemption, sanity and love–well there’s going to be some mess and pain and crazy–it makes for a great storyline, and Harber takes that storyline and makes a great read.

 

2. A Husband’s Regret by Natasha Anders

I have mixed feelings about this book. I wanted to like this book. I loved the premise– husband makes a fatal error in judgment and the books looks at the process of rebuilding all that was lost. It was the execution I had serious problems with. There are numerous instances of WTFuckery.

Spoilers coming up.

Come on now. He’s rich–she runs away– neither finds the other. Really?!?! No one files for divorce. No one does anything about the kid. He doesn’t question his vision as he lay bleeding and losing consciousness. She doesn’t yell and tell him to piss off when he tells her to leave. None of their friends OR family questions her disappearance.

End spoilers.

 

Too many things just din’t add up for me. I’m willing to suspend belief… I really am… but I am not willing to overlook common sense and how the real world works in over 75 % of the work’s world, if that world is modern America or modern South Africa or modern Europe, etc. Umm, cause, just no. If your fictional world mirrors a real world, it would be in your best interest to make sure that world MIRRORS the other world closely. Exactly. Almost the same.  Otherwise, there will be people like me saying… all–WTF, over.

 

Can not review:

Off the Record by K.A Linde
The Companion y R.A Salvatore
The Godborn by Paul S. Kemp

Smutty Sunday

By | |
Comments Off on Smutty Sunday

Netgalley Roundup

Picked up a few Cynthia Eden books from NetGalley. So this week’s Smutty Sunday is going to focus on her latest body of work.

1. Fear For Me

After several Eden novellas, I was ready for a longer, meatier book. I got it in Fear for Me.

The suspense in the book is great. I was kept guessing about who dunnit for most of the book. I love that. LOVE. There’s nothing I hate more than knowing who did it WAY before everyone in the book knows, or worse, figuring it out even when I wasn’t supposed to. If that happens, it colors the rest of the book for me.

Now for the love story. I wanted to like Lauren and Anthony. And separately, I did. I wasn’t real happy with the romance. And I don’t know why. There was angst. There was a passionate past. They were smokin’ hot in bed together. So I have no earthly idea why I didn’t dig on these two together. I’ve sat with this book, thinking and thinking about these two and STILL coming up blank about why I wasn’t convinced they needed to be together. Or maybe, it was that I didn’t believe the reasons they’d been apart for so long. SO DAMN LONG. It is becoming harder and harder for me to buy that people stay apart for such flimsy reasons for 5, 10, 15 YEARS. I wouldn’t do it. I don’t know many people who would. So maybe that’s why I have such a problem with this plot device.

Anyway, this is a solid Cynthia Eden read. Although, I love her PNR/UF stuff the best, she really does suspense very well.

 

2.  A Vampire Christmas Carol

 

This was a totally cute take on Dicken’s Christmas Carol.

Ben is tortured. And turning into a Scrooge. He lost the love of his life, Simone. And he blames himself. Only things aren’t always as they seem. And sometimes, Christmas is the perfect season for redemption.

 

 

 

Smutty Sunday 9/22/13

By | | ,
2 Comments

NetGalley Roundup

 

1. Jagged by Kristen Ashley

Colorado Mountain Men series by Kristen Ashley is probably one of my favorite KA series. The other being the ‘Burg series. Individually, I like some of her other books, but not the whole kit and caboodle. I was so excited to get my advance copy of Jagged. I pushed everything aside just so I could read it as soon as it hit my grubby little fingers. I was expecting a GREAT read in line with Sweet Dreams and Lady Luck. Instead, I got a story I was able to put down at will. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem. But for me to be able to STOP reading a KA book and walk away was telling. And all that it was saying wasn’t good.

Now don’t get me wrong, the book was good. And if some other writer had written this story, I would hazard to say it would have been a solid read for me. But I expect certain things from a KA book. One is length. And this book is about half of her other books in this series in word count and pages. Right there, that was a HUGE let down. And the drama was missing. Not that there wasn’t drama, but it was not high octane-can’t put the book down- must know what happens next- kind of drama. It was run of the mill kinda drama.

I liked Zara. I liked Reece. I didn’t like their pet names, Cookie and Ham, respectively. Most of all, I didn’t buy their relationship. I didn’t like them together. Don’t get me wrong, they had a certain amount of chemistry together. But it wasn’t the deep, all the way to the marrow of the soul deep. Not like say Joe and Vi. Or Tate and Laurie. It just felt like they were just at the right place at the right time to get together. The whole, even if it isn’t the right time, it isn’t the right place and this is the crappiest shit going on ever, I can’t stop myself from falling into you, grabbing onto you and keeping you forever and ever. Amen.

Maybe my expectations were too high. I dunno. But something was missing for me in this book. And it wasn’t just pages. From another author, I would be gushing cause this was a good book with decent characters and well-plotted story. But from KA? Not so much.

 

2. Mine To Keep by Cynthia Eden

Skye and Trace are back making another appearance in Mine to Keep after a riveting performance in Mine to Take. I’m pretty sure that this series will focus on two other main characters as it continues to play out. But it was good that Skye and Trace got this story because there were some loose ends that definitely need to be wrapped up.

One of those loose ends was Trace’s past. In Mine to Take, it was Skye’s past that came back to bit them on the ass. In Mine to Keep, Trace’s past was front and center in the drama unfolding in their lives.

I knew going into this book that I like these two characters. That they had GREAT chemistry, plus an entwined past and some demons that they needed to excise. So there wasn’t any of the angst I get reading a story about whether I’m gonna like the hero or the heroine. If the author made one too weak or whinny or in some other way portrayed them with characteristics I find annoying. Nope, I KNEW I liked these two and I like reading about them.

I also expected that once it was Trace’s past coming back to haunt them, that it would be about his time in the military- when he was away from Skye. Trace really didn’t want Skye to know about that part of his life. He wasn’t exactly proud of that period. But crazy was finding them and that very crazy made sure Skye knew exactly what Trace didn’t want her to know. What I didn’t expect was the twist that came. Surprised the hell out of me. Cause I thought I knew who the bad guy was. I was wrong.

Now, reading a story- a romantic suspense- is about the only time I will say this and mean it. I LOVE when I am wrong. It means the author did her job and did it well.

 

3. Hell Without You by Ranae Rose

All the pieces to Hell Without You were in the story to make it a good read. However, their combination still fell flat for me. I didn’t buy the reason that Clementine and Donovan were apart for so long. Once they were away from the town, they should have been able to get back together or just get in touch without any threat hanging over their head. With that said, if I suspend my rational mind and go with the premise, I can buy that they get back together when she comes back to her hometown and runs into him at her grandmother’s old house. A house that was sold off after her grandmother dies. To… you guessed it, Donovan.

The sale of grandma’s house to Donovan was the part I was able to believe the most about the story. Except… her parents hate him and would never sell to him. Ever. Okay. So I suspend belief for that and the rest falls pretty much in line from there. It seems like the plot turns are all plausible… on the surface, but once you really think about it in the context of the story, then not so much.

I get that fiction is about suspending belief, but it should at least fit with the characters as they are portrayed. And that was the problem in this story, at least for me. No amount of suspending reality was going to make the characters’ action believable. Not given the back story for each character. And the slight suspense at the end? Trite. I didn’t believe the initial reason for  the suspense and I DEFINITELY didn’t believe the resolution.

This book wasn’t terrible. The editing was good. The timeline was spot on. But it was the characters’ action in the context of the situations in which they were placed that made this book a so-so read for me.

 

4. Midnight Lies by Ella Grace

Midnight Lies is the second in Ella Grace’s Wildefire series about three sisters in a small southern town. Overall, the plotting was tight, the editing great and the characters sympathetic. I thought the suspense was well-done and the story kept me engaged.

But I had the same problem with this book as I had with the first book in this series. I thought the heroines were both fairly spineless and WAY too forgiving. WAY. There were many times I would read something asshole-ish the hero would do and the heroine would be all immediately forgiving. Samantha forgave Quinn way too easily. And fell into bed with him way too fast. Especially given what he’d done to her the last time they were in bed together. Seriously? And in my opinion, in this book as in real life when you don’t hold a person’s feet to the fire, they keep repeating the same actions towards you again and again. Quinn would push Sam away or be an ass and then be contrite. And Sam would immediately forgive him. End of story. It made me not respect her at all. And hello… the level of her guilt for thinking he’d done something when he hadn’t in the course of DOING HER JOB was not understandable. Dude, she’s  a cop. She HAS to ask questions when a crime’s been committed. It’s not about you.

There is so much to like about this story. There is so much to like about the series. So much. But wimpy heroines killed it for me. I just got fed up.

 

Non-NetGalley Books

 

5. Nocturne by Andrea Randall and Charles Sheehan-Miles

Okay. Now I’m back and ready to give my thoughts on the book and Savannah and Gregory. Let me start by saying that I wasn’t prepared to like this book. I’m not a big fan of adultery in novels. Not at all. It squicks me out. If I want real life shit, I’ll crack open a newspaper or watch E!. And I won’t go so far as to say that it was just fine and dandy in this book. What saved this sitch for me was that I felt like Gregory’s wife was the other woman. Yes, yes I know he was married to her and not to Savannah. But still. There are love links that can’t be bridged even when someone else gets to the vows first.

Gregory was socially retarded. Seriously. And Savannah, the youngest of the three of these mooks, was the most mature. I didn’t totally agree with all her decisions, but then again I don’t totally agree with anybody’s decisions. And you just knew when she and Gregory got back together, their connection was too deep to be denied. And yes, Gregory’s wife knew how he felt about Savannah and married him anyway. Get a clue. You can’t marry Romeo and expect him to deny Juliet when she comes back in the picture. Just. Not. Gonna. Happen. EVER.

Overall this read was awesome. The world building in the classical musical world was spot on. The characters were more than three dimensional. And the plot rocked.

I highly recommend this book. HIGHLY.