Category Archives: Humor

Finger Lickin’ Fifteen (Stephanie Plum, #15) by Janet Evanovich

Purchased

“Recipe for disaster: Celebrity chef Stanley Chipotle comes to Trenton to participate in a barbecue cook-off and loses his head – literally.” “Throw in some spice: Bail bonds office worker Lula is witness to the crime, and the only one she’ll talk to is Trenton cop Joe Morelli.” (from Goodreads)

This was actually a re-read for me . . . never a problem for a Stephanie book.  Since book sixteen is out, I want to be sure everything is fresh in my mind.

I have not been very happy with her last couple of books, but this one was much better.  I think there was too little Ranger in the more recent books.  I like Joe, but I don’t want to lose Ranger.

Finger Lickin’ Fifteen has classic Lula and Grandma Mazer.  Lula is once again on a diet and I love the way this woman thinks.  Grandma is still making the rounds of the funeral homes causing havoc.  And, oh yeah, there is a body without a head or is it a head without a body and the bad guys are gunning for Lula.

I loved it!

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Insatiable (Meena Harper, #1) by Meg Cabot

I like Meg Cabot.  I haven’t read everything she has written, but I have enjoyed the ones I did.  Her newest book, Insatiable, is a vampire romance.  Since that is one of my favorite genres, I was very excited about it.

This book is typical Meg Cabot in that it is a light romance with comical aspects.  The main character is Meena Harper which is an obvious play on Mina Harker from the original Dracula.  Her brother’s name is Jon, so of course, we also have a Jon Harper/Harker.  In Dracula, John was Mina’s husband.

In this story, Meena falls in love with the Prince of Darkness, although there is a possible rival in a vampire slayer named Alaric Wulf.  Oh yes, and just to complicate matters, Meena can foresee when people are going to die.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work on vampires who are, after all, already dead.

I really enjoyed this book, right up until the ending.  I would have given it five stars, except the author so obviously set it up for a sequel.  I love series, but I want each book to actually have an ending.  This one did not end to my satisfaction at all.

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The Spellmans Strike Again (Spellmans, #4) by Lisa Lutz

Okay, the end of the Spellman family.

Not really, the Spellmans haven’t been killed off or anything, but the author has stated this is the last book.  She does a good job of tying up loose ends, straightening out relationships, etc.  I just don’t want the series to be over.  I have really enjoyed these books and they are laugh out loud funny.

Rae is almost grown up.

Izzy is more grown up than anyone, including herself, ever expected her to be.

David is not quite so perfect.

And, the parental unit is the same as ever.

Izzy is involved with investigations that she is actually being paid for as well as the ones for revenge.  The revenge ones involve both outsiders and her family.  In other words, nothing has changed with her obsessions.

I will miss this entire family and I hold out hopes for another book somewhere down the road.  Otherwise, when will Izzy get the chance to say about document four “Now out in paperback!”

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Revenge of the Spellmans (Spellmans, #3) by Lisa Lutz

Izzy has taken a leave of absence (or has she quit) from the investigation agency.  She is working for Milo at the bar and making much better money than as a PI.

Her parents are going on “disappearances” and are miserable.  Rae is acting just as cute as ever.  However, it is not so cute in a sixteen year old as it was when she was twelve.

I really can’t say anything negative about this series.  They are funny and have characters that you care about.  Things do not always work out the way I might want them to, but I can see why they  had to go that way.

Of course, there is still one more book.  Maybe, I’ll get my way after all.

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Curse of the Spellmans (Spellmans, #2) by Lisa Lutz

Izzy and family are back!  The dysfunctional family of private investigators are at it again.

I love these books.  Lisa Lutz’s unique style of writing is mesmerizing.  I kept telling myself I was going to read one more section and then go do (fill in the blank.)  I ended up finishing the book before I could put it down.

In the first book, Izzy grew up.  In the beginning, she was still pretty much a juvenile delinquent, even though she was in her late twenties.  In this book, she matures (and I mean that in a good way) even more.

As usual, everyone in the family is keeping secrets from each other.  There is even something going on with the “perfect” brother David.  The uncovering of these secrets interweaves with the primary plot.

There are only two more books in this series and I am going to miss the Spellmans a lot.  I don’t think I would actually like to know these people, but I do love reading about them.

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Heart of a Warrior by Johanna Lindsey

The third and final book of this trilogy hits close to home.  That is, if your home is Earth.

Dalden, the twin brother of Shanelle from Keeper of the Heart, and the son of Tedra and Challon from Warrior’s Woman has always tried to deny his non-warrior half.

That denial is put to the test when he meets his lifemate Brittany.  Brittany is a carpenter in a small town in California.  Not only has she always supported herself, she has done so in a traditionally male profession.  She is certainly not willing to turn into a submissive female, no matter how deeply she falls in love.

This book ties up the Ly-San-Ter family story very nicely.  All family members are accounted for.  We get to meet Martha again (like she would have allowed herself to be left out of the story.)  We even get to see some old villains return.

Although the loose ends are all tied up, there is still enough of a story that further sequels are possible.  It has been a number of years since Heart of a Warrior’s publication, but Johanna Lindsey waited a long time between books two and three.

Warrior’s Woman- 1990
Keeper of the Heart –
1993
Heart of a Warrior
– 2001

So, we may not have seen the last of Martha yet!

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Keeper of the Heart by Johanna Lindsey

I finished a re-read of this book yesterday.  I did not remember it as being nearly as good as the first in the series, Warrior’s Woman, but I was pleasantly surprised.

This book starts up approximately twenty years after the ending of book one.  Tedra and Challon had twins – a son and a daughter.  This is the daughter, Shanelle’s book.

Unlike her mother, Shanelle is afraid of pain and hates confrontations.  She knows that she will never be happy with a warrior for a mate, so she is looking for one amongst the visitors.

What she finds is Falon.  He is obviously not one of her people.  His coloring and emotional responses prove that.  However, he is nearly as big as her father and that definitely appeals to her.

Of course, she discovers too late that he is a warrior after all, only from another region on her planet.

All of my favorite characters from the first book show up in this one:  Tedra and Challon, of course, Corth, the entertainment android, and my very favorite, Martha the self-aware computer with an attitude.

We also meet Shanelle’s brother Dalden who is all warrior despite his mother’s influence.

I did not like Shanelle as much as I did her mother Tedra, but her upbringing was totally different.  Even with her mother’s influence she was raised on a planet where women are submissive to the men.  She also had an incident in her childhood that gave her an unnatural fear of pain.

Even so, I thought she could be a wimp.  She does develop more confidence by the end of the book though.

A good bit of this book takes place in other regions besides her home.  I think that is what gives her the opportunity to grow.

If you enjoyed Warrior’s Woman, you definitely need to read this.  If you plan on reading the third book, Heart of a Warrior, you have to read this one.  You will have no clue what is going on otherwise.

These books are a mixture of romance, science fiction, and humor.  How can they miss?

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Warrior’s Woman by Johanna Lindsey

Warrior's Woman

Ly-san-ter Family, #1

This is the first book in the Ly-san-ter family trilogy.  I did not discover until recently on Goodreads that there was a third book in the series.  I originally read the first two when they were published back in the 1980s.  Anyway, since I have not read them in YEARS, I felt that I definitely needed a refresher.

Warrior’s Woman is one of the first science fiction/romance novels I can remember reading.  I have always loved scifi and this was a melding of two of my favorite genres.  To add icing to the cake, it is funny . . . very, very funny.

Tedra is a security agent from a technologically advanced world.  She has been trained in weapons and hand-to-hand combat.  Because she is so dangerous, she has had a hard time finding a man on her world she can respect.

In order to escape an invasion of her world, she is forced to flee her planet.  She ends up on a planet of warriors who although not nearly as technologically advanced, are perfectly capable of physically defeating her.  At least one of them is . . . Challon.

On Challon’s world, all woman are completely submissive.  He has no idea how to react to one who thinks she is his equal.

Tedra has finally found someone she cannot beat in combat, but he refuses to take her seriously.

So, of course, they fall in love.

Throw in an artificially intelligent computer with an attitude named Martha and the fun really begins.

I was a little afraid to re-read this book because I remembered it as being one of my favorites from long ago.  Many times, I am disappointed when I read them again years later.  That was definitely not the case with this book.

The relationship between Challon and Tedra is touching, but funny.  They are each having to deal with a personality they have never encountered before, all while falling in love.

And again, let’s not forget Martha!  In her opinion, she knows what is best for Tedra . . . whether it is what Tedra wants or not!

I cannot wait to get to the next two books.

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The Mane Event (Pride #1) by Shelly Laurenston

The Mane EventI was actually re-reading this book yesterday while I waited for the UPS truck to come with Beast Behaving Badly, the most recent book in the series.  It contains the first two stories in the Pride series: Christmas Pride and Shaw’s Tail.

I don’t even know how many times I have read these books, but everyone of them is hysterically funny.  These are some of the books I pick up when I am tired of reading “serious” books.  I consider them some of my comfort reads.  If I want something I know I will enjoy, I can count on Shelly Laurenston.

In Christmas Pride, Desiree “Dez” McDermott is an New York cop investigating the death of a member of Mason “Mace” Llewellyn’s pride.  Of course, she has no idea that Mace or the victim are actually lion shape changers.  Unfortunately, Dez has always been a dog person.  Some of the funniest scenes involve Mace and Dez’s two Rottweilers.

Because I have read this book so many times before, I am not going to re-read Shaw’s Tail again right now.  I can tell you, however, it is about Brendon Shaw, another member of the pride, and Ronnie Lee Reed, a member of the Smith wolf pack from Tennessee.

Just as a heads up, you need to know the language is very rough and the sex is very explicit, in case that makes a difference to you.

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Beast Behaving Badly (Pride, #5) by Shelly Laurenston

Beast Behaving Badly book coverI read this book in one sitting which is not surprising because I cannot put a Shelly Laurenston book down!

Blayne, the scary dog/wolf hybrid is back.  In previous books, we never see her really losing her temper, but we have warnings that it is not a good thing.  Now we know why.

Bo is a polar bear/lion mix, or as Blayne calls him a bearcat.  He is not as immediately likable as the grizzly Lock is in The Mane Squeeze, but he definitely grows on you.

There are references to Laurenston’s previous series The Magnus Pack, although you do not have to have read them to follow this book.  However, I haven’t read them in awhile, so I am sure I will pull them back out.

I am not sure which characters the next book will focus on, although I have my suspicions.  All I know is that I cannot wait!

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