Monthly Archives: January 2017

January 30, 2017 · 1:14 am

Quote-tastic Monday: Eleventh Grave in Moonlight by Darynda Jones

eleventh-graveI have been in love with this series since I first discovered it.  Although the story line is wonderful, it is the humor that makes the books.  Charlie absolutely cracks me up.

Eleventh Grave in Moonlight is the eleventh in the series and there is no sign of the books slowing down.  As much as I enjoyed this book though, I have one problem . . . cliffhanger endings.  The last three books have had terrible cliffhangers and I am tired of it.  Not just with this series, but any series.  I resent being left hanging at the end of a book.  I am a fan.  I am going to buy the next book in the series.  I do not need something to keep me coming back.  If anything, cliffhangers make me want to drop a series simply because I am ticked.

No, I am not dropping Charlie Davidson.  I love the books, but I am tired of being jerked around.

Okay, off my soapbox and on to the quotes.  Both of these are from Charlie and in both, she is talking about her husband (aka, the Son of Satan) Reyes.

It was an order, plain and simple. And the fact that he actually thought I’d follow it was comical.

Like Charlie ever followed anyone’s orders.  However, Reyes just never learns.  I am not going to tell you what this next quote is in reference to because of spoilers, but I love it anyway.

” . . . That’s logic for you. Of the penis-wielding variety.”

Again, this is a great series and if you are just starting it, you don’t have to worry about cliffhangers.  Eleven books are out already, so enjoy!

“Quote-Tastic Monday” is a meme hosted every Monday on Herding Cats & Burning Soup.  Head on over there to see what everyone else is posting about this week.quote-tastic final with green border

Advertisement

2 Comments

Filed under Contemporary, Humor, Paranormal

Tagged as , ,

January 29, 2017 · 1:42 am

Jacked Up (Birmingham Rebels, #3) by Samantha Kane

Jacked Up (Birmingham Rebels, #3)Jacked Up by Samantha Kane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Title: Jacked Up
Author: Samantha Kane
Series: Birmingham Rebels, #3
Pages: n/p
Publisher: Loveswept
Date: January 31, 2017

Summary:

The secret about the Birmingham Rebels is out: With a girl in the middle, two mouth-watering football studs are better than one.

Linebacker Sam Taylor feels like a ticking time bomb. He left the army with emotional wounds as fresh as the scars on his back. Sam’s been living like a monk, but his best friend, defensive lineman King Ulupoka, wants to get him laid. Easy for him to say. The larger-than-life Samoan is a hard-bodied, tribal-tattooed fantasy. Sam agrees, under one condition: King stays to watch.

ER nurse Jane Foster is done being a good girl, and nothing says wild like picking up two of football’s sexiest players and bringing them back to your hotel room. Trouble is, she can’t decide which one she wants more. Sam is hot, sweet, and vulnerable. Jane’s more than willing to ride him into oblivion. But King’s intense gaze from across the room promises that the best is yet to come.

Sure, King has had his choice of girls and guys in the past. That doesn’t mean he’ll jeopardize his relationship with Sam over a case of locker-room lust—until a naughty nurse pushes them both out of their comfort zones. Seeing Jane and Sam together turns King on more than he ever imagined. If they’re game, he’s ready to tackle a three-way play.

Review:

This is the third in the Birmingham Rebels series and I have loved each of them. I didn’t expect to. I don’t like football and I don’t understand it. And yes, I realize there is probably a correlation there.

So, why did I read the first one?

Samantha Kane people! Brotherhood in Arms! One of my favorite series ever.

Of course, I had to give the book a chance, even if it was based in the world of football.

And I am so glad I did.

I think this may be my favorite book of the three if for no other reason than I adore King Ulupoka. As the description says, he is larger-than-life and that is just physically. He has a wonderful, wonderful personality and he knows how to go for what he wants. Unfortunately, that sometimes means he rolls over people because, of course, he knows best. It doesn’t matter. I love him. I love how he works to make the relationship between Sam, Jane, and him successful. And it takes a lot of work. Sam is suffering from PTSD and Jane is a “good girl.” They can be their own worst enemies.

And that is my one problem with the book. I wanted Sam to get over himself. I know that sounds harsh considering his background, but I wanted them to have a happily ever after.

Did they get it?

Obviously. This is a romance, albeit a nontraditional one.

It’s not absolutely necessary to read the first two books in the series (Broken Play and Calling the Play), but it will make this one more fun. Previous characters show up and have important parts to play. Not to mention, they’re great books.

Give these books a try. I promise you don’t have to be a sports fan at all.

This book was sent to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Leave a comment

Filed under Contemporary, Erotica, Realistic, Romance

Tagged as , ,

January 23, 2017 · 2:02 am

Quote-tastic Monday: Dawn’s Early Light

“Quote-Tastic Monday” is a meme hosted every Monday on Herding Cats & Burning Soup.  Head on over there to see what everyone else is posting about this week.quote-tastic final with green border

I am still reading The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series and I still love them.  I am on book three now and as I said in my previous post, these are great books because of the story, not the individual lines.  However, that doesn’t mean there are not some great individual lines.  The ones for today’s post exemplify the characters personalities.  And that is what makes these books so fun.  The characters have great personalities.

So without further ado . . . Quote-tastic Monday!

Wellington Books was being entirely too obtuse, a trait Eliza attributed to his gender.

A night out with a colleague, a bar brawl, and a lead. The night with Bill had not been a complete loss.  — Eliza

Around Eliza, the unexpected was rather to be expected.  —Wellington

I love them.  Of course, Wellington and Eliza are falling in love.  They just aren’t ready to admit it, even to themselves, yet.

 

dawns-early-light

1 Comment

Filed under Historical, Humor, Science Fiction, Steampunk

Tagged as , ,

January 16, 2017 · 1:13 pm

Quote-tastic Monday: The Janus Affair by Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris

janus-affairSome books are good, but it’s really the individual lines that make the book.  Others are good, but you can’t pick out any piece of text or dialogue to explain it.  The Janus Affair is one of the second.  I love this series.  I believe it is the first pure steampunk series I have read and I don’t know why it has taken me so long to get back to them.  I read the first two when they were initially published and never noticed when the rest of the series came out.  I am making up for that now.

In these books, there is a gender role reversal, especially for the Victorian period.  Eliza Braun is a Ministry field agent, or at least she was, and Wellington Books is the Archivast – not a librarian as he is quick to tell you.  And yes, I do love their names.

Anyway, the most memorable line so far is from Books when he is talking to Braun,

“Admittedly, yes, but even you, the South Pacific Angel of Wanton Destruction and Calamity has to sleep sometime.”

And that pretty much describes Eliza and her penchant for explosives.

There are five books in the series and a the first book in a spinoff series was published in 2016.  I really, really need to get caught up on my TBR mountain.

“Quote-Tastic Monday” is a meme hosted every Monday on Herding Cats & Burning Soup.  Head on over there to see what everyone else is posting about this week.

quote-tastic final with green border

Leave a comment

Filed under Historical, Mystery, Steampunk

Tagged as , , ,

January 11, 2017 · 6:05 pm

The Cursed (League of the Black Swan, #1) by Alyssa Day

The Cursed (League of the Black Swan, #1)The Cursed by Alyssa Day
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Title: The Cursed
Author: Alyssa Day
Series: League of the Black Swan, #1
Pages: 282
Publisher: Berkley
Date: May 7, 2013

Summary:

Bordertown private investigator Luke Oliver’s beat is the dimensional fold in Manhattan between the human and supernatural realms. But now a secret from his past—the League of the Black Swan—has surfaced. Because Luke isn’t any ordinary P.I. He’s the Dark Wizard of Bordertown, and he never backs down from a fight.

But this time the fight threatens his life and his heart. Rio Jones, the only woman he loved, needs his help against a deadly menace. Luke pushed her away once before, so she’d never fall prey to the curse that threatens to destroy him. He swore he’d never let her go again.

Luke and Rio, with the help of the newly reformed League, must keep evil forces from taking over Bordertown—all the while battling a passion on the razor’s edge between danger and desire. And going to take everything they have just to stay alive.

Review:

I read this book when it was released and gave it five stars. I decided since I had not yet reviewed it to read it again to see if I felt the same way. Yep. I was right. It is definitely a five star book.

The setting is New York City . . . or at least it is New York for the humans. It is actually an area where the worlds of human, demon, and Fae intersect. In other words, it is the border, so Bordertown. Anyway, Bordertown is where you go when you don’t fit in anywhere else, OR you’ve been kicked out of everywhere else.

Luke Oliver is a good guy. He’s been around for years, think hundreds, not decades. He is the strongest wizard in Bordertown and “people” keep hounding him to take the sheriff’s job. He is not interested in the job at all, but that doesn’t keep people from bringing it up.

Rio is human, mostly, and can read most people’s minds. As you can imagine, that can be an ugly gift to have. Now, the bad guys are after her and she has no idea why. All she knows is it has something to do with her twenty-fifth birthday which is coming soon.

Throw in a child’s kidnapping, a Fae lady, and a demon prince. Not to mention, Grendels and goblins. Obviously, things get exciting fast.
And they stay that way.

Alyssa Day does an excellent job of worldbuilding without overwhelming the reader with too much detail. The secondary characters are described well enough to serve their purpose in the plot, but there are not so many of them that I felt like I needed to take notes. That has happened to me before with other books.

I have been reading Day’s Warriors of Poseidon series since its beginning and I love them. Every time I re-read them, I am amazed at how good they are. Based on this book, The League of the Black Swan series is going to be the same.

There is an in between book out titled The Curse of the Black Swan which can be found in the anthology Enthralled. I contacted the author on Twitter and she said the next book, The Unforgiven, will be available for free to her newsletter subscribers in either January or February of this year. I cannot wait.

This book was sent to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Leave a comment

Filed under Contemporary, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance

Tagged as , ,

January 9, 2017 · 1:34 am

Quote-tastic Monday: Telling Tails (Second Chance Cat Mysteries, #4) by Sofie Ryan

telling-tailsI love this author.  She writes as Sofie Ryan, Sofie Kelly, and Darlene Ryan.  I have never read anything of hers under the last name, but I have gobbled up her other books.

The main character (depending on your point of view) in this particular series is either Sarah, the upcycling shop owner, or Elvis the cat.  I know which way I lean.  Anyway, friends of her grandmother’s use the shop as the base for their private investigation service, Charlotte’s Angels.

Yeah, I know.

Everyone in the group is at least seventy years old and try as she might Sarah keeps getting dragged into helping with the cases.  Elvis, however, is integral in solving them and can be quite smug about it.

The relationships between the characters are like a large family.  They love each other, but they can certainly get on each others’ nerves.

“I heard that tone,” she said.

“Good,” I told her, leaning down to kiss her forehead.  “I’d hate to think I’d been too subtle.”

And sometimes the dialogue is just funny.

“Are you crazy?” she asked.

“It’s a possibility,” I said lightly.  “I’ve never been officially tested.”

“Well, may you should be so we can get confirmation.”

That sounds like a line right out of Big Bang Theory.

This book was released this past Tuesday and although I had another book I was supposed to read next, it jumped to the top of the list.  Again, as I say with most if not all series, read them in order.  They will be so much better if you do.

“Quote-Tastic Monday” is a meme hosted every Monday on Herding Cats & Burning Soup.  Head on over there to see what everyone else is posting about this week.

quote-tastic final with green border

4 Comments

Filed under Contemporary, Humor, Mystery, Realistic

Tagged as , , , ,

January 2, 2017 · 1:27 am

Quote-tastic Monday: Heart of Stone by Christine Warren

“Quote-Tastic Monday” is a meme hosted every Monday on Herding Cats & Burning Soup.  Head on over there to see what everyone else is posting about this week.

I re-read this book for two reasons.  It was sent to me by NetGalley over two years ago and I never reviewed it.

Major Blogger Shame!

And book five is due out in February, so I wanted to re-read this series to be ready for it.

Well I re-read it and had forgotten how much I enjoyed it.  And yes, I did review it.

Here are a couple of quotes to help you understand why I like it so much.

Of course, she’d continued to argue with him, because the gargoyle operated under the vastly mistaken assumption that he was always right, and Ella felt she had a duty to point out how misguided such a belief really was.

And, Ella and Kees are going into battle and she really hopes they’re not going to die because

She really hoped she and Kees won this one.  She was wearing her “I’m going to get worked really hard, sweat like a pig, and want to kick Kees in the nuts” clothes, not her “It’s okay if I die in this because at least I look hot” clothes.

A girl had her pride.

Not to mention having her priorities straight, right?

heart-of-stone

quote-tastic final with green border

1 Comment

Filed under Contemporary, Humor, Paranormal, Romance

Tagged as , ,