Monthly Archives: June 2014

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Review: Then Came You by Jill Shalvis

18628672Then Came You
(Animal Magnetism, #5)
By: Jill Shalvis
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: July 1, 2014
Genre: Contemp. Romance
Rating:
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Veterinary intern Emily can’t believe she wound up in the small town of Sunshine, Idaho, instead of the Los Angeles clinic she had always imagined. Now she has to put her plans to move to L.A. on hold for a whole year while she fulfills the obligation of her vet school scholarship.

Then Wyatt, her gorgeous one-night stand from a Reno vet conference, introduces himself as her new boss. And Emily is just as drawn to his seductive looks and quiet strength as she was on that very steamy night. She soon learns that Wyatt isn’t just a laid-back doctor, but a delicious alpha male tempting her away from her carefully laid-out plans…

 

1thoughtsEmily isn’t overly excited to be assigned to some podunk town for her vet internship. She was hoping for a little more city and a lot less country. However, she can manage being stuck there for a year, that is, until she walks in on the first day and realizes her supervisor is the guy whom she had a one night stand with. They try to keep their relationship professional but pretty soon they find themselves sneaking around. The only problem is, Emily doesn’t plan on sticking around and Wyatt’s already had his heart broken by a woman who left him behind.

This was a cute story. It was highly predictable but enjoyable in the end. Emily is put in a pretty interesting predicament when her one night stand turns out to be her supervisor. At first she tries to skirt around the whole ordeal but soon finds herself literally jumping Wyatt’s bones… or boner if you will. I liked her character to a degree. I liked that she had compassion for animals and put them before her own safety. I liked her devotion to her family. However, I didn’t fully understand her when it came to Wyatt. She’d tell him that they couldn’t be together, and then the next minute she’d be stripping him in the broom closet saying how he’s just too scrumptious to resist. I’d have been fine if she decided to just go for it, but instead it just came off as weird and scripted. I mean, every interaction between the two when it became sexual was her voicing how she just couldn’t help the slut coming out when she was around him. One time this happened when Wyatt was expressing a dog’s anal glands. I kid you not, the woman got hot and bothered watching his hands work the dog’s ass. And that right there was what really turned me off.

Wyatt was a great character however. He knew what he wanted and he went after it… again to a degree. As a child, his parents moved him and his sisters around the world a lot. His life was uprooted more times than he could count and he never got a say in the matter. So therefor he will never take anyone’s decision from them. Which also means that he would never influence or alter their decision by giving them the choice to stay with him. Thus, the problem with his and Emily’s relationship. However, he is loyal to his sisters and friends. He’s even there for Emily on a moments notice in the middle of the night after she’s made it clear that they don’t have a relationship but rather a bit of fun before she moves on with her life. The guy was a stand up man, minus his problem with owning up to his feelings.

Like I said, this was a cute read. It didn’t wow me, but I wasn’t entirely bored with it either. I wish there was a bit more to it though. It just felt like it was missing something. I never fully committed to the characters.

 

1favequote“He wasn’t sure why she’d been in a suit in the first place when her job was wading knee deep in questionable shit all day, but hell, he had sisters, two of them, both bat-shit crazy, so he knew better than to question a woman’s clothing choice.”

kRISTIN

Review: Straddling the Line by Jaci Burton

18277064Straddling the Line
(Play by Play, #8)
By: Jaci Burton
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: July 1, 2014
Gener: Contemp. Erotic Romance
Rating:
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Trevor Shay has it all—a successful football and baseball career, and any woman he wants. But when he finds out his college mentor’s daughter is in trouble, he drops everything to come to her aid.

Haven Briscoe has finally landed a dream job as a sportscaster for a major network. But she hasn’t been able to move past the recent death of her beloved father, and it’s affecting her career. A plum assignment following the daily life of sports superstar Trevor Shay might be just the inspiration she needs…

Trevor will do anything to spark life back into Haven, including letting her into every aspect of his world. The chemistry between them flames higher than one of Trevor’s home runs and faster than his dashes to the end zone. But as they grow closer, Haven stumbles onto Trevor’s closely guarded secret, one he’s hidden his entire life. And despite his protests, now it’s Haven’s turn to put everything on hold to help Trevor. Will he let her in and trust her with a secret that could blow his professional and personal world apart?

 

1thoughts Trey is a very talented man. He not only plays one sport professionally but two. He’s a very busy man considering he jumps from baseball season to football season in one year with no breaks. He gets a call from his old college dorm parent who calls in a favor. Her daughter (his college tutor) isn’t handling the passing of her father well and with her being a sports reporter, she should do an interview piece on him to take her mind off of her father. Have I mentioned that Trey is a very private man? However, he’d do anything for his dorm parent and agrees to help out. Only, he doesn’t plan to fall for the sexy reporter who shows up, or her persistence in revealing his skeletons.

I LOVED Changing the Game. So I was really excited when I got this book. Even though I haven’t read the other books in the series, each one can be read as a stand alone. However, this one just didn’t work for me. The characters seemed too scripted. There were parts that were just about robotic in both the characters speech and actions. I just found myself not connecting with anything going on because of this.

I did like that the author didn’t include a lot of nonsense drama. The problems that these characters face are real. They don’t play cat and mouse, leaving the other person confused on their feelings. I liked that twist at the end that the author gave Trey. It definitely humanized him.

This was a nice romance with some erotic highlights to it. However, it wasn’t the best one from the series. The characters came off as fake and that really detracted from the story for me.

 

1favepart“I sure as hell hope my mother doesn’t come running down the hall to see what that noise was about,” Haven finally said.

“Me, too. But if she does, I promise to throw you on the floor on the other side of the bed, toss a blanket over you, and then tell her I was thrashing around because I was having a nightmare.”

Her lips curved. “How chivalrous of you to protect my virtue like that.”

“Just the kind of guy I am, babe.”

 

Previous reviews from Play by Play
Changing the Game

kRISTIN

Review: Crux by Moira Rogers

5895613Crux
(Southern Arcana, #1)
By: Moira Rogers
Publisher: Samhain Publisher
Published: March 3, 2009
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Rating:
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Jackson Holt makes a decent living as a private investigator in New Orleans, home of one of the largest underground supernatural populations in the United States. He and his partners have never met a case they couldn’t crack…until a local bar owner asks him to do a little digging on her newest hire.

New Orleans is the fourth destination in as many months for Mackenzie Brooks, a woman on the run from a deranged stalker. After all, any man who shows up on her doorstep claiming to be her destined lover has more than a few screws loose. But crazy doesn’t explain why he always finds her no matter how far she runs.

When her well-meaning boss puts a PI on her case, Mackenzie comes face to face with the incredible truth: magic is real, and whatever spell has kept her hidden and separate from the paranormal world is rapidly deteriorating.

With time running out, she has no choice but to trust Jackson as he struggles to uncover the truth of her past-and her destiny.

 

1thoughtsMackenzie has been on the run for about a month from a man who will do anything to get and make her his. When she first met him, she thought he was charming but then he started talking about destiny and their babies and not soon after Mackenzie found herself running through five states to escape him. No matter how fast she runs and how well she hides, he always seems to find her in the end. Her latest stop in New Orleans has proven to be no different than the last except that she has stumbled across a supernatural community who is willing to lay their lives on the line to save her.

Mackenzie is a really skittish person. She isn’t quick to trust people and it takes her a little bit of time to trust Jackson when he tries to help her. However, she soon learns that the man chasing her, Marcus, wasn’t crazy when he talked about other beings. Not only is Jackson someone who can cast spells and make himself invisible, but apparently she can shape shift into a cougar. Which just so happens to be really rare.

This is the first book by Moira’s that I’ve read and I must say that I really enjoyed it. You don’t only have shape-shifters but seers and wizards as well. There are a lot of secondary characters in this story and sometimes that can throw me off, but they play such a huge roll in the story, that I never got confused with who was who. There was quite a bit of action in this story and a lot of sexual frustration at the beginning when Mackenzie goes into, what can only be described as, heat when the spell binding her cougar side starts to unravel. I found myself flipping through pages just to find out how it all ends and even though this book is rather large… I read it within a day.

 

1favequote“Jesus. How are we supposed to explain any of this to the cops? A wild cougar attacked me in the shower and you shot yourself?”

kRISTIN

Review: Five Ways to Fall by KA Tucker

18170583Five Ways to Fall
(Ten Tiny Breaths, #4)
By: KA Tucker
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: June 24, 2014
Genre: New Adult Romance
Rating:
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Purple-haired, sharp-tongued Reese MacKay knows all about making the wrong choice; she’s made plenty of them in her twenty-odd-years. So when her impulsive, short-lived marriage ends in heartbreak, she decides it’s time for a change. She moves to Miami with the intention of hitting reset on her irresponsible life, and she does quite well…aside from an epically humiliating one-night stand in Cancun with a hot blond bouncer named Ben. Thank God she can get on a plane and leave that mistake behind her.

Football scholarship and frat parties with hot chicks? Part of charmer Ben Morris’s plan. Blown knee that kills any hope of a professional football career? So not part of the plan. Luckily Ben has brains to go with his knockout looks and magnetism. After three long years of balancing law school with his job as a bouncer at Penny’s Palace, he’s ready to lead a more mature life—until his first day of work, when he finds himself in the office of that crazy, hot chick he met in Cancun. The one he hasn’t stopped thinking about.

If Ben truly were a smart guy, he’d stay clear of Reese. She’s the boss’s stepdaughter and it’s been made very clear that office romances are grounds for dismissal. Plus, rumor has it she’s trouble. The only problem is, he likes trouble, especially when it’s so good-looking…

 

1thoughtsReese was left at a diner by her father when she was five. Her husband cheated on her with his ex-girlfriend. So it goes without saying that Reese is kind of a little wild when we first meet her. Ben is a character that we met in previous books. He’s a bouncer at the strip club who just passed the bar to become a lawyer. His father abused his mother, cheated on her and in the end became a bitter husband/father. With a husband/father role model like that, Ben isn’t looking to become anyone’s husband. So he bounces from chick to chick. Which is when he meets a fiery purple haired chick in Cancun. Fast-forward a few months later, they find themselves working for the same law firm.

This was a great story. Yeah, it’s predictable but it’s entertaining. Tucker has a great sense of humor and kept me laughing throughout the entire story. From Reese’s naked drunken starfish re-enactment to Ben being extremely drunk and wearing a thong with his nuts hanging out. I found myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion.

“I’m going to puke. I’m going to puke doing a facedown starfish if I don’t get up right now. The bathroom is no more than six feet away and I know I’m not going to make it all the way back to my feet. So I do the next best thing.
Scrambling to my hands and knees, I crawl toward the bathroom.”

The author has a great story telling voice. I was never bored with the story or felt like it was rushed. The romance isn’t one that happens instantly or out of left field. In fact, Reese isn’t a fan of Ben’s, not only because he’s sleeps around but because of their first night together where she made a complete fool of herself. Ben is of course attracted to her, she is a female after all, but he can’t quite figure her out. She’s hung up on her now-married ex-husband when what she really should be doing is singing her praises for getting out of the relationship and moving on with her life. She’s a wild child with a fiery attitude and yet she is a paralegal at a highly sought after law firm. She is a nut that he can’t crack which just makes him want to get to know her more. The two become friends and in the end develop a romance. At no point did I feel like anything was unbelievable.

This is a new adult romance however it’s not as explicit as some new adult books I’ve read. There are a couple of sexual scenes but nothing in sordid detail. Anytime there was sex, the author just left that part implied and hanging at the end of the chapter. If you’re looking for a story that will leave a soft spot on your heart, this is it. I fell hard for all the characters involved. Even the secondary characters. I have to be honest, I’m a little bummed by the author’s note at the end that talked about this being the last planned book in the series. I’m really hoping there are some unplanned books in the near future.

 

1favequote(you know you’ve thought it too)

“When I was sixteen, she made me go to a stuffy country-club Christmas party with one of Barry’s law firm partners’ sons. The guy was a twenty-four-year-old med student with aspirations of becoming a gynecologist. Call me sexist – I don’t really care – but in this day and age of equal rights and women becoming doctors, I wonder about men who choose to poke around in vaginas all day long as a career. Naturally, I spent the entire meal interrogation him on his intentions and his motivations.”

 

 Previous reviews from Ten Tiny Breaths
Ten Tiny Breaths
Four Seconds to Lose

kRISTIN

Review: One Foot in the Grave by Jeaniene Frost

2168860One Foot in the Grave
(Night Huntress, #2)
By: Jeaniene Frost
Publisher: Avon
Published: April 29, 2008
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating:

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Half-vampire Cat Crawfield is now Special Agent Cat Crawfield, working for the government to rid the world of the rogue undead. She’s still using everything Bones, her sexy and dangerous ex, taught her, but when Cat is targeted for assassination, the only man who can help her is the vampire she left behind.

Being around Bones awakens all her emotions, from the adrenaline rush of slaying vamps side by side to the reckless passion that consumed them. But a price on her head—wanted: dead or half-alive—means her survival depends on teaming up with Bones. And no matter how hard Cat tries to keep things professional between them, she’ll find that desire lasts forever…and Bones won’t let her get away again. Original.

 

1thoughtsThis second book takes place 4 years later. Cat is now the team leader of her special forces group who take down the undead. She has turned cynical and sour over the years but she will do anything for her team. After all these years she still misses Bones and cannot seem to forget about him. However after a turn of events Cat is reunited with Bones and it doesn’t take long for their relationship to rekindle. But Cat seems to have a price on her head and Bones is ready to do anything in order to keep Cat safe, which includes joining her team.

The first part of the book is about Cat and her new life. You see how much she has changed but no matter what she still holds onto the past. She is respected by her team of men and she would do anything to make sure they are safe. Then comes Bones who after years of searching for Cat, has finally found her and no matter what refuses to let her go again. So since Cat is so dead set on staying with her men since, let’s face it, without her half vampire strength and speed, they would be dead without her, Bone decides to join the special forces group. Once Bones is on board, he and Cat pick up where they left off. There of course are a couple of bumps along the way, like someone putting a bounty on Cat’s head, Bones’ ex-lovers popping up and a little problem with Cat’s vampire father making an appearance.

This one sets the stage for Cat and Bones to work with the team and create a stronger vampire fighting unit. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more of Cat and Bones’ story.

 

1favequoteTate and Bones are ready to fight and Tate rubs it into Bones’ face that he has known Cat for 4 years now whereas Bones only knew her for 6 months.

“Quit it! Tate, enough of the taunts, and Bones, how old are you? Why don’t I just give you a pair of my panties to hang around your neck? Then whenever you feel jealous, you can wave them at whoever’s pissing you off.” -Cat

 

 

Previous reviews from Night Huntress
Halfway to the Grave
kRISTIN

Sunday Wrap-Up #34

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Excerpt: The Reapers by Jacinta Maree

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Character Quiz: Lost in Starlight by Sherry Soule

starLost in Starlight
(Starlight Saga, #1)
By: Sherry Soule
Publisher: Disenchanted Publishing
Release Date: June 26, 2014
Genre: YA Sci-fi Romance

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High school reporter Sloane Masterson knows she has one helluva story when she witnesses hottie Hayden Lancaster bending forks with his mind.
Like any good journalist, Sloane sets out to uncover the truth, even if it includes a little stalking. When the superhuman feats start to pile up and the undeniable heat rises between them, Hayden has no choice but to reveal his secret: he’s an alien hybrid.
They’re as different as night and day—she’s a curvy, purple-haired, horror junkie and he’s a smoking hot, antisocial, brainiac—yet the intense fascination between them refuses to go away. Even at Hayden’s insistence that dating each other is “off limits” and crazy dangerous, their fiery attraction threatens to go supernova.
Now Sloane’s dealing with creepy government agents, über snobby extraterrestrials, and a psycho alien ex-girlfriend out for revenge. After a crash course on the rules of interstellar dating, Sloane must decide if their star-crossed romance is worth risking her own life….

 

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Review: Treasures on Your Doorstep by Julia Lynam

17969427Treasures On Your Doorstep: The Other National Parks of the USA
By: Julia Lynam
Publisher: Seventh Circle Enterprises
Published: May 16, 2013
Genre: Guide Book
Rating:
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Looking for a grand day out? Or an inexpensive nearby destination for your next weekend jaunt? Your search is ended! In every State in the Union you’ll find often-overlooked National Park properties – over 400 of them – waiting to delight you. This beautifully illustrated little book will open your eyes to the Treasures On Your Doorstep and give you an insider’s-eye view of what they can offer you and your family.

 

1thoughtsWhen you think of National Parks, your first thoughts are Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite but there are over 400 units (parks, monuments, historic sites, etc.) that are overlooked in the grand scheme of things. Julia really opens your eyes to the fact that with so many places out there, there’s a good chance that we have a unit in our backyard and may not even know it.

I will be honest, I am not a non-fiction reader. I like to read to escape life. So when I was asked to review the book I was a little nervous on whether or not I’d enjoy it. However, by the 3rd page, all my fears were gone. Julia really does have a way to not only give information but she does it in a way that’s entertaining with little quips mixed in.

This book is perfect for a guide into the National Parks Service. She gives the reader all the tools they will need for not only a successful trip to the national parks but a safe one as well. She links to websites that will come in handy when doing research prior to your vacation. She offers guidance on what to do if you are lost in a park. She even offers some preventative advice on how not to get lost in the first place. She also gives one good piece of advice

“Tell someone who cares where you’re going and what time you expect to return”

Not only did I get a good chuckle out of the “tell someone who cares” bit but it’s sound advice. It’s advice that I give to visitors all the time. (Yes I work at a National Park)

Maybe I’m being biased here but I love that not only did Joshua Tree National Park get a page in the book but the National Parks Association (who I work for) got TWO pages! It was really cool seeing the places that I work for mentioned in the book.

There were subjects in this book that Julia touched base with that I was unfamiliar with. She covers everything from planning a trip, doing research, finding bargains with entry prices and merchandise prices, how to become a webranger (v.s. the Junior Ranger program which is an activity booklet that kids do while in the park), she even touches base with how to apply for a job in the NPS as well as volunteering.

Even if you are not planning on visiting a National Park in the near future I still highly recommend this book. It not only gives you great insight to the “treasures on your doorstep” but you never know, you could find yourself checking out one of the sites listed in the book and planning a vacation before you know it.

 

1favequoteJulia talks about the codes for the units. For instance anything we do at work pertaining to Joshua Tree NP is shortened to “JOTR”

“This system has some charming anomalies. Carlsbad Caverns, for instance, would be CACA, which is a rude work in Spanish, so they use CAVE instead – neat, eh?”

kRISTIN

Review: The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman

18656072The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street
By: Susan Jane Gilman
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: June 10, 2014
Genre: Fiction
Rating:
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In 1913, little Malka Treynovsky flees Russia with her family. Bedazzled by tales of gold and movie stardom, she tricks them into buying tickets for America. Yet no sooner do they land on the squalid Lower East Side of Manhattan, than Malka is crippled and abandoned in the street.

Taken in by a tough-loving Italian ices peddler, she manages to survive through cunning and inventiveness. As she learns the secrets of his trade, she begins to shape her own destiny. She falls in love with a gorgeous, illiterate radical named Albert, and they set off across America in an ice cream truck. Slowly, she transforms herself into Lillian Dunkle, “The Ice Cream Queen” — doyenne of an empire of ice cream franchises and a celebrated television personality.

Lillian’s rise to fame and fortune spans seventy years and is inextricably linked to the course of American history itself, from Prohibition to the disco days of Studio 54. Yet Lillian Dunkle is nothing like the whimsical motherly persona she crafts for herself in the media. Conniving, profane, and irreverent, she is a supremely complex woman who prefers a good stiff drink to an ice cream cone. And when her past begins to catch up with her, everything she has spent her life building is at stake.

 

1thoughtsBefore Lillian was the Ice Cream Queen, she was a Russian immigrant named Malka. A little girl who had been dealt one crappy card in life. Not only does her father abandon them when they get to America, but her mother blames her for their misfortune in America. So when Malka gets trampled by a horse, leaving her crippled, her mother turns her back on her and washes her hands on Malka. Luckily for Malka, the man who was steering the horse takes pity on Malka and welcomes her into his house where she becomes part of the family. The family runs a frozen ice business but soon take on the task of gelato, which is where Lillian is born.

“I had entered the church Malka Treynovsky Bialystoker. I emerged, however, Lillian Maria Dinello.
The Legend of my American life had begun.”

This was an interesting tale of a young immigrant who becomes a huge ice cream mogul. She overcame everything in her life and became successful in the one thing she set out to do, make ice cream. There were a lot of bumps in her life but in the end, that’s what shaped her into the woman that she is today.

I liked that the story was mixed between past and present time. In the present time, Lillian is in court for tax evasion and a few other things. So she recollects her life leading up to that moment. The fact that the story would go back and forward in time helped break up the story. There would be times when I’d start to get bored with the storyline and then all of a sudden we’d go back in time and there would be a change of pace. Even so, I did feel like the story was a tad bit too long. If it wasn’t for those time jumps, I’d probably have put the book down. It just seemed like there were parts that would drag on for a while.

This was a good story that could easily be true. There were no crazy plot twists or embellishments that made you think that this was all make believe. The fact that when I finished the story, I sat back and thought, “Huh. So this really wasn’t based on a true story?”, really earned the author points.

 

1favequote“WPIX was only a local station, for God’s sake. And we aired at 7:00 A.M. on a Sunday-a Sunday! And maybe I had had a few drinks. But darlings, you try hosting a kiddie show for thirteen goddamn years.”

kRISTIN