Category Archives: Romance

December 5, 2016 · 1:20 am

Quote-tastic Monday: Time Thief (Time Thief, #1) by Katie MacAlister

Time Thief (Time Thief, #1)Time Thief by Katie MacAlister
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Title: Time Thief
Author: Katie MacAlister
Series: Time Thief, #1
Pages: 341
Publisher: Signet
Date: May 7, 2013

Summary:

Outcast due to their ability to manipulate time, shunned by the mortal and immortal worlds alike, a Traveller’s life is anything but easy.

Peter Faa is a member of the Watch tracking down a murderer, and unfortunately, all clues seem to point toward his own estranged family of Travellers. Any of his cousins could be guilty, but which one? They’re all experts in the art of stealing time…

After surviving a lightning strike, Kiya Mortenson is determined to get just one thing in her life right. And if that means taking a job as nanny to five pugs on a campsite in the Oregon wilderness, then so be it. It doesn’t hurt that the job comes with some spectacular male eye candy, including her new boss’s gorgeous grandson. If only she didn’t keep having this strange sense of deja vu…

When Peter discovers his own family is stealing time from Kiya, all bets are off. While she may drive him crazy at times, it’s clear that it’s not just lightning that’s creating some serious sparks between them. And he’s not going to let secrets, lies, or a devious murderer keep Kiya from where she belongs: at his side.

Review:

I love Katie MacAlister because her books are funny. It doesn’t matter if they are historicals or paranormals, they are funny. This one however, may have slipped over the edge from funny to silly.

Make no mistake. I like it. It is funny, but it’s also almost too much. I am going to offer up a random quote which really was just thrown in there. I laughed when I read it, but it doesn’t actually have a bearing on the story.

“From a troll who runs a home for unwed poltergeists.”

Okay . . .

I don’t know what to say about that.

The funniest parts to me are Kiya’s conversations with her own mind. Her foster mom is a psychologist and Kiya knows far too much about her id, ego, and superego. They argue with each other after all and she argues with them. Yes, that’s as insane as it sounds.

One last thing: the description states the Travellers are outcasts. It’s more like they consider themselves better than anyone else and shun the rest of the world, both human and Other. They come off as real jerks.

There are two more books in this series and all three were published in 2013, so I doubt there will be anymore. I am still debating with myself (I have no idea what my id, ego, or superego think I should do) on whether to read them. The book was fun. It just wasn’t all that great.

If you are already a fan of MacAlister, give this one a try. If not, check out one of her other series. I highly recommend her Aisling Grey books.

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

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“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.

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November 27, 2016 · 6:32 pm

When All the Girls Have Gone by Jayne Ann Krentz

When All The Girls Have GoneWhen All The Girls Have Gone by Jayne Ann Krentz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Title: When All the Girls Have Gone
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz
Series: None listed, but I really think there will be two sequels.
Pages: 304
Publisher: Berkley
Date: November 29, 2016

Summary:

When Charlotte Sawyer is unable to contact her step-sister, Jocelyn, to tell her that one her closest friends was found dead, she discovers that Jocelyn has vanished.

Beautiful, brilliant—and reckless—Jocelyn has gone off the grid before, but never like this. In a desperate effort to find her, Charlotte joins forces with Max Cutler, a struggling PI who recently moved to Seattle after his previous career as a criminal profiler went down in flames—literally. Burned out, divorced and almost broke, Max needs the job.

After surviving a near-fatal attack, Charlotte and Max turn to Jocelyn’s closest friends, women in a Seattle-based online investment club, for answers. But what they find is chilling…

When her uneasy alliance with Max turns into a full-blown affair, Charlotte has no choice but to trust him with her life. For the shadows of Jocelyn’s past are threatening to consume her—and anyone else who gets in their way…

Review:

Okay, this book is definitely a romantic suspense . . . or maybe, a suspenseful romance? Either way, there is plenty of both in it.

One of the things I really liked about Max and Charlotte is they are ordinary people. Neither one is “stunningly attractive.” They both have to work to pay the bills. And they both have broken relationships in their past. They have problems, just like everybody else.

Max is definitely the strong, in charge type, but he doesn’t try to tell Charlotte what to do. Probably because he realizes it would be a waste of time. They both consider themselves plodders and use the phrase “one foot in front of the other” to describe themselves.

They are just likable people.

Now, the mystery. All I can say is Good Grief!

I had it figured out half way through the book.

I thought.

Nope. I was totally wrong.

Then, I decided it was someone else. How could I have missed that?

Nope, that wasn’t it.

And the plot continued to twist and turn. When the mystery is finally solved and all the questions are answered, I had an “oh, yeah” moment. There was nothing that came out of left field. I felt like I should have seen it all along.

And that makes for a great mystery. It kept me guessing, but all the clues were there.

Jayne Ann Krentz is a great romance author. I have been reading her books for years. However, she is also a wonderful suspense writer. I read her books for the romance and humor, but the plots completely grab me.

I haven’t seen anything that says there will be any sequels, but Max is one of three brothers. I really think (hope) we are going to get a trilogy at least.

When All the Girls Have Gone comes out November 29th. Give yourself an early Christmas present, but make sure you have time to read it. You will not want to put it down.

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

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November 21, 2016 · 1:59 am

Quote-tastic Monday: I Agree Stephanie!

Turbo 23

I am going to have to start with the quote on this one.  I’ll give you short review at the end.

Grandma Mazur wants Stephanie to go with her to the viewing of a murder victim and she doesn’t want to go.

Plus, I don’t share Grandma’s enthusiasm for viewings.  The flower smell makes me nauseous.  I don’t like looking at dead people.  And I’m not all that excited about talking to live people.

And that’s where she nails it in my opinion.  The flowers give me a headache.  Dead “things” and that includes people creep me out.  And I don’t particular like to talk to a bunch of people at once.  Particularly in situations of high emotion.  I just don’t deal well with a lot of drama.

Having made my quote contribution for the week, I have to say a little about the book.  I was really disappointed in it and I am not sure why.  From the first page, it just didn’t read like a Stephanie Plum book.  I am a huge fan and always preorder the books, but this one just didn’t do it for me.  I kept thinking that there is no way Evanovich wrote this book.

Again, I don’t know why.  All the regular characters are there:  Joe and Ranger, of course, Lula and Grandma Mazur, and a few that we met in previous books.  The lines were right.  She destroys a car.  Everything is normal Stephanie.

It just wasn’t right.  Did I enjoy it?  Yes, but it didn’t have the magic I expect from Stephanie Plum.

Will I buy the next book?  Of course, but I’m looking forward to the new Knight and Moon more.  The title is Dangerous Minds and it is scheduled for publication in June.

Anyway, read Turbo Twenty-three if you already a fan.  Just don’t expect much.

 

“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.

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November 14, 2016 · 1:56 am

Quote-tastic Monday: Thirst (Energy Vampires, #1) by Jacquelyn Frank & REVIEW

Thirst (The Energy Vampires #1)
Thirst by Jacquelyn Frank

SPOILERS!  SPOILERS!  SPOILERS!

 

 

Title: Thirst by Jacquelyn Frank

Series:  The Energy Vampires, #1

Pages:  np (It took me about three hours to read.)

Publisher:  Loveswept

Date:  January 17, 2017
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Summary:

A hidden society of vampires—and the humans they love—are at the heart of this opening novel in a biting, all-original series from the New York Times bestselling author of the Nightwalkers saga.

Rafe DaSilva is an energy vampire, soaking up nourishment from the sun—and, only when necessary, drawing sweet sustenance from humans who are pure in body and spirit. As the right-hand man to his queen, Rafe is a key player at a historic peace summit in New York City, which will unite the vampire nations against a common threat: the sycophants, who feed on humanity and kill indiscriminately. But Rafe’s fascination with a beautiful blond police detective may put everything at risk.

Detective Renee Holden has never worked a homicide quite like this. The victim has twin puncture wounds on his neck, and the only eyewitness swears she saw a vampire. Now’s definitely not the time to get distracted by a seductive stranger. But the suave, darkly austere, exotically handsome Rafe DaSilva is a hard man to deny, and as Renee falls under his spell, she also falls prey to his enemies. Desperate to protect her, Rafe lifts the veil on a shadow realm she can only visit—a world of intoxicating power, terrifying dangers, and forbidden pleasures.

Review:

Okay, I am combining the review for this book with my regular Quote-tastic Monday post because I cannot bear the idea of having to think about it twice . . . and that should tell you my opinion if the one star does not. I am not sure I have ever given one star to a book and I know I have never given it to a book written by an author I normally like.

My very favorite book by Jacquelyn Frank is Jacob which may have been her first published book. It had an interesting, unique to me, premise of demons in our world and their interactions with humans. AND it was funny. I love funny books.

Thirst is not funny, at all. It also has a unique to me paranormal species: energy vampires. And if that name isn’t bad enough they are referred to as e-vampires. I don’t know why that bothered me so much, but it did. Anyway, they don’t drink blood, they draw energy from their “resources” by biting them on the back of the neck.

Oh yeah, good vampires only feed from good resources. A good resource is someone who lives clean, as in eats healthy, exercises, doesn’t smoke, or do drugs. The reader gets an entire section on organic food just to make it clear how important a clean resource is to a good vampire.

Obviously, bad vampires only eat from the rest of us and it makes them evil.

I can’t even say anymore about that.

As you can tell, I didn’t like the book from the beginning and it never improved. If I hadn’t promised to review it for NetGalley, I would have never finished it. And it got worse. I’ve never had the occasion to use the phrased “jumped the shark,” but now I can.

At the very end, where Rafe is explaining where e-vampires (cringe, cringe) come from, he states that they are actually descendants of aliens whose spaceship was struck by lightning over 500 years ago.

Really? REALLY!!??

Please do not waste your time with this book. Read her Nightwalker series instead. It’s wonderful. This one just isn’t.

Okay, a quote.

Renee, who is a homicide detective, has a chance to infiltrate the bad e-vampires and Rafe thinks it is too dangerous. He has told her that he will not allow it and she reacts as expected . . . badly.

Rafe realized he was going about this all wrong. She was an intelligent woman. He had to appeal to her intellect. And the more he told her what she couldn’t do, the more she would want to do it just to spite him.

Because all intelligent women do things just to spite their lovers. -sigh-

I’m done. So done.

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

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“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.

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November 13, 2016 · 5:43 pm

Is Pumpkin a Fruit or a Vegetable?

Halloween in Atlantis (Warriors of Poseidon, #8.5)Halloween in Atlantis by Alyssa Day
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Short, sweet and really makes me want to reread the Atlantis series. I think my favorite part was Jaime trying to explain that Jack-o-Lanterns weren’t dangerous and needing to be destroyed. Liam was quite a bit embarrassed to find out he was trying to vanquish a fruit.

And who knew pumpkin was actually a fruit and not a vegetable? Not me!

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November 2, 2016 · 5:12 pm

Quote-tastic Monday: With This Ring (Vanza, #1) by Amanda Quick

Yeah, yeah.  I know it’s Wednesday.  As a matter of fact, this isn’t posted yet and it may even be Thursday before I get it together.  Don’t ask about my week.  Just don’t ask.

Now for a little background.  The hero of the book has decided that the heroine, Mrs. Poole, should stay at his estate for a couple of days for her own safety.  He summons the butler to give him his orders.

“In the morning you will inform Mrs. Poole that she cannot leave Monkcrest until the day after tomorrow at the earliest.”

“You wish me to stop Mrs. Poole from leaving?”  Finch’s jaw unhinged.  He swallowed twice, very quickly, and recovered his composure.  “M’lord, such an action may not lie within my power.  Mrs. Poole is a very forceful lady.  I’m not sure the devil himself could stop her if she took a mind to vacate the premises.”

I love it and Finch is right.  “Forceful lady” is putting it lightly.  Force of nature would probably be more accurate.

I read this series when it was first released back in the late 90s and early 2000s.  They were great then and have definitely stood the test of time.  I am enjoying a reread after so many years.  It’s like I have discovered them for the first time.

If you are not familiar with Amanda Quick, that is the pen name for Jayne Ann Krentz when she is writing historicals.  She also writes science fiction as Jayne Castle.  It doesn’t matter what name she writes under, they are all wonderful.

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October 24, 2016 · 1:37 am

Quote-tastic Monday: Dominance Never Dies by Lexi Blake

“Quote-Tastic” 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.

This is the eleventh book in the Master & Mercenaries series.  These books are serious security/BDSM romances which are actually hysterically funny.  I wouldn’t like them nearly as much if it wasn’t for the humor in them.  It’s not the situations that are funny necessarily.  It’s the lines and the characters reactions to each other.

Anyway, this book had a number of lines that I loved, but I’ll just give you one of Mia’s.

She should have damn well known that cleaning up after a couple of murders was definitely women’s work.

And that’s the closest any of these characters get to being a stereotype.

I highly recommend this series, BUT READ THEM IN ORDER.  The story lines continue from book to book and you will be totally lost if you try to pick up somewhere in the middle.  Of course, the books are so great that reading the entire series will be a treat.

By the way, book twelve Submission is Not Enough comes out this Tuesday, October 25th and I cannot wait.

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October 23, 2016 · 6:47 pm

Under the Mistletoe (Lucky Harbor, #6.5) by Jill Shalvis

Under the Mistletoe (Lucky Harbor, #6.5)Under the Mistletoe by Jill Shalvis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Title: Under the Mistletoe
Author: Jill Shalvis
Series: Lucky Harbor, #6.5
Pages: 80
Publisher: Forever Yours
Date: December 4, 2012

Summary:

JUST ONE MORE KISS

There’s no place like home for the holidays. And the Lucky Harbor Bed & Breakfast is bursting with festive lights and good cheer. But for Mia, Christmas is turning out to be anything other than merry and bright. Her recent break-up with her boyfriend Nick has made her return bittersweet. But then a surprise arrives, when Nick follows her to town bearing gifts-and asking for forgiveness.

Nick grew up without a family of his own so he’s overwhelmed by the love that Mia receives from all her relatives, gathered together to celebrate the season. Under their watchful eyes, Nick finds earning back her trust the hardest thing he’s ever had to do. If he succeeds, he will receive the greatest gift of all, Mia’s love for a lifetime.

Review:

Four times! I have read this book (novella/short story) four times and never reviewed it. And it so deserves a review.

Under the Mistletoe is Mia’s and Nick’s story. If you are a fan of the Lucky Harbor series, you will remember teenage Mia. I always loved Mia and her boyfriend Carlos. I really thought they would end up together.

But people grow up and sometimes they grow apart.

Mia moved to New York to go to school and met Nick. Like Mia, he was given up at birth but unlike Mia, he never had a loving family of his own. Needless to say, he has issues and it is those issues that almost cause him lose Mia.

This is a great little story. It’s sweet and heartwarming. We get to see many of the characters (including Lucille) from the earlier books.

And, of course, it has a happily ever after.

Oddly enough, this one stands alone. I am compulsive about reading book series in order, but if you want a charming read and you haven’t read the others, you can still enjoy this one. But why would you want to? Read them all. You won’t regret it.

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

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October 11, 2016 · 7:31 pm

Back to Buckhorn (Buckhorn Brothers, #5.6) by Lori Foster

Back to Buckhorn (Buckhorn Brothers, #5.6)Back to Buckhorn by Lori Foster
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Title: Back to Buckhorn
Author: Lori Foster
Series: Buckhorn Brothers, #5.6
Pages: 88
Publisher: Mills & Boon
Date: August 1, 2014

Summary:

For odd-girl-out Zoey Hodge, the best thing about Buckhorn, Kentucky, was leaving it behind. And now she’s back—at least until she can nurse her mother back to health and hightail it out of there anew. But there’s one person she doesn’t mind seeing again. Garrett Hudson was one of the few who was always kind to her. Now he’s a firefighter—still one of the good guys, but with a sexy alpha charm that’s tempting her inner bad girl.

In school, Zoey was smart, witty and unafraid to be herself. Garrett fell hard back then, and he’s falling even faster now. As far as he’s concerned, there are all kinds of reasons Zoey should stick around. Her pet grooming business. Her mom. And the chance for him to prove that he can be her real-life hero in every way that matters…

Review:

I have been reading Lori Foster’s books for years and they are always enjoyable. They’re funny, but not fluff. There is always some type of serious subplot going on. Most of the time there is an animal involved which I love. And did I mention they are HOT? They are hot and sexy without being overly explicit. Explicit doesn’t bother me, it’s just these books aren’t. For example:

Zoe has been swimming in the lake and still has her very small bikini on. Garrett is trying to pull her into his arms.

“After resting her hands on his shoulders, she hesitated. ‘I don’t want to get you wet.’

‘Funny.’ He leaned down until she felt his breath. ‘I can’t say the same to you.’

Like I said, hot, not explicit.

This set of books is about the second generation of men from Buckhorn. Their dads, the original Buckhorn brothers, make an appearance and although they only have short scenes, they are just as appealing as they were in their own books.

All of Lori Foster’s contemporary romances are great. They’re the type of books you pick when you want a quick, good read. Something you know you are going to enjoy. She nails it everytime.

I do believe it’s time for a complete re-read of this series. In other words, it’s time to have fun.

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

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October 10, 2016 · 1:17 am

Quote-tastic Monday: Crimson Death

I am reading Laurell K. Hamilton’s new Anita Blake for the second time BECAUSE I neglected to write the review the first time I read it.  The release date is tomorrow, October 11th and it’s only been a month since I read it.  You would think I would be able to remember it well enough to review and I can.  I just don’t think I can give it the justice it deserves.  It’s a great book although there are things that happen that I really, really didn’t like.

Anyway, that’s why this week’s quote is coming from Crimson Death.  I am reading it again. -sigh-

As long time readers of this series will know, Anita is terrified of flying.  She doesn’t like takeoffs, landings, or anything in between.  In this book, she has no choice but to take a multi-hour flight.  Because she knows her emotions will be out of control, she has to contact everyone she has a metaphysical link with and that’s a really long list.

Her solution:  group texts.

Yay technology. making polyamorous relationships better since the iPhone was invented.

And, once again, how did we survive without our cell/smart phones?

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