Saturday, September 28, 2013

Three Wishes by Kristen Ashley


 

6 Stars

I admittedly am a bit smitten with Kristen Ashley’s writing, but this book blew me out of the water.  I often read reviews for her books where people say that it brought them to tears often.  This is not me.  I do not cry at movies and rarely cry at books.  I won’t tell you the first book I remember crying at because it is so embarrassing (ok…fine.  I’ll tell you.  It was…darn it, I can’t remember the name of it.  Whatever the second Twilight book is called.  Don’t judge me, that book devastated me!)  Anyway, there were so many times in this book that I was fighting back the tears.  It was perfect!  I loved everything. 

Brief Summary:

The story starts out with heartbreak for the grandmother of the main character.  We spend a small amount of time with this storyline to set the stage for the main character and…the genie!  Yes a real genie is brought out of his little bottle to grant three wishes.  Unlike most people however, Lily’s grandmother doesn’t use her wishes and the wishes pass on to her daughter who does use one then the remaining two pass to Lily.  Lily uses a wish when she is fourteen.  The main story starts up when Lily is twenty-two when she meets Nate McAlister.  Their time is a whirl wind that ends after just two weeks when tragedy strikes Lily’s life in too many ways to count.  Then, like many KA books, years pass before our Lily and Nate meet again and this is where the waterworks start!  The reunion was so perfect and heartbreaking!  I went back and re-read it a few days later. 

Thoughts:

I don’t think I need to write much here.  I think you get that I loved this book.  I loved Lily the best out of all KA heroines.  She went through so much!  She didn’t do anything to annoy me, except maybe forgive Nate too quickly when he was being a jerk (and when he decides to be a jerk he is the jerkiest of all big jerks!) 

(One of) My Favorite Quotes:


“Nathaniel is the name of a gentleman, a genius, a man of means and power.  Nate is just a name.  And my Nathaniel is a Nathaniel.” –Victor Roberts about his son, Nate McAlister

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Play it Safe by Kristen Ashley



4.5 Stars

So if you have visited my blog before you know I love, love, love a good Kristen Ashley book.  On her website she posts the first few chapters of her books so you can get a feel for it.  I had read those first few chapters like lightening and went straight away to get the whole book…but then…it sat…and sat…and sat on my poor overworked kindle.  Why you ask?  Who in the heck knows!  I know that I loved those first few chapters so what took so stinking long?  We may never know the answer to the mysteries of how my brain works, but we do know how great this book turned out.

Brief Summary:

Ivey is moving through town after town with her old brother.  They stop in Mustang, Colorado and one things leads to another, but they stay awhile.  It turns out these siblings have had a hard life and are on the lam.  To make money, Ivey hussles pool and Casey (her brother)…well, I’m not quite sure what he thinks he does to contribute.  In Mustang is where Ivey meets Grayson Cody.  He is a rancher/cowboy and the entire town looks up to him.  He does the right thing…always…but you also do NOT want to mess with this good guy rancher/cowboy because he will mess you up!  A conspiracy is…conspired and Ivey leaves Mustang and Gray behind for a LONG tragic time.  Mustang reaches out to Ivey although they turned they back on her a long time ago and while she is older, wiser and hard as nails, she still does what she can to help knowing she’ll get no thanks from Gray for this. 

Thoughts:

The first 70% of this book was AWESOME!  I loved reading about Gray and Ivey’s burgeoning romance and I LOVED reading about their time apart.  This is weird, I know, but KA wrote this tragedy so well.  I understood exactly how Ivey felt during those seven years.  I felt what she felt everytime her little heart took a beating.  The only reason why this gets 4.5 stars instead of 5 is that I wish there was a little more danger/drama in the last 30%.  It kind of fizzled out for me.  I still tore through it because I wanted to see how it ended.   

Favorite Quote: (This is Lash talking trash to Buddy Sharp…its great)


“I understand you’re a big fish in a small pond,” Lash said softly, his deep, cultured voice carrying a more eloquent threat than Buddy could ever hope to pull off.  “But I’ll explain that if you want to swim in the ocean, you must understand that the ocean is populated by sharks and sharks never sleep.”

Friday, September 20, 2013

Heaven and Hell by Kristen Ashley



 5 Stars

This is another Kristen Ashley hit!  I’ve had it stored on my kindle for months and just got a wild hair to read it.  I am so glad I did!  I really didn’t know what to expect, but this was awesome!

Brief Summary:

Kia Clementine is a woman abused.  She had a terrible marriage to a terrible man.  When we meet her she is no longer in this situation.  She begins living her life for the first time in seven years and takes a European vacation.  This is where she meets Samspon Cooper, an ex-football player (for the Colts, Woohoo!) and a beloved American hero.  She catches his eye as only a Kristen Ashley heroine can do for a Kristen Ashley hero. 

Kia has demons from her past that follow her into this new existence with Sam.  Like a good little Kristen Ashley hero, Sam does his darnedest (which is considerable) to ensure her safety.  But Kia soon realizes that Sam has his own demons and while he expects 100% of Kia he isn’t willing to give her 100% of himself and Kia must decide if this is enough for her.

Thoughts:


As always, the secondary characters are wonderful: Luci, Celesta and Thomas, Hap, Skip, and Marisela.  All wonderful.  I could have used a little bit more action (I am partial to the plot lines of the Rock Chick Series).  I always loves when KA brings in people from previous books: we get to briefly see (through Kia’s eyes: Lee Nightingale and Tanner Layne and brief discussion of a few more.  

Monday, September 16, 2013

Taken by the Cowboy by Julianne MacLean

This book was bundled together with 4 others books under the title of “bodyguard themed romances” and it was only $0.99 so I didn’t think too hard about purchasing it. I decided to review each book individually though. This is the first book in the bundle. It is a time traveling romance as well which I quite enjoy, although time travel can be difficult to write because it is hard to write the reactions correctly to finding oneself in another time. You don’t want to overdo the denial so much that the character is annoying but you don’t want them to accept something this bizarre too quickly either. This author, I think, put the perfect amount of confusion, denial, acceptance into the main character finding herself in the wild, wild, west.


Jessica Delaney lost her brother a year ago to a gunshot wound to his chest. The actual incident isn’t covered much except to let the reader know how much this situation scarred Jessica. Jessica also recently broke it off with her fiancĂ©e. He turned out to be a shallow, greedy jerk (go figure!). She gets into a car accident and finds herself in Dodge City (yes the Dodge City, but under new management, Wyatt Earp is not the sheriff now). Jessica manages to find herself the topic of the gossip column as a gunslinger and acknowledges and collects a reward for killing Left Hand Lou. The new sheriff, Truman Wade has a dark past (like all good heroes should) and pushes Jessica away every chance he can remember (when he isn’t making out with her).

I loved the ending. It didn’t turn out the way one would expect (with either the heroine staying or the hero accompanying the heroine back), but don’t worry there is still a HEA for all (although I honestly questioned this for hot minute).

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Feral Sins by Suzanne Wright (Phoenix Pack#1)


 


3 Stars

I started and stopped reading this book about half a dozen times before I managed to finish it.  This doesn't mean it was terrible, it just meant that whenever I stopped reading it, I didn't particularly want to pick it back up again.  The summary listed for the book sounded intriguing and I like the idea of what the author was going for.  There was too much smexy stuff for me though.  My biggest complaint was actually the heroine.  I couldn't stand her.  Side characters kept describing her as “spirited”, but she just annoyed me.  I think she was supposed to be funny with all her sarcastic comments, but obviously I didn't find it funny.  I am sure others would find her funny though so if you like excessively sarcastic heroines, then this is the book for you. 

Brief Summary:

Taryn is a latent alpha.  This means she can’t shift into her wolf form and gets a lot of negative attention because of this.  She is the daughter of an alpha pack leader who is trying to auction her off to another alpha whom Taryn can’t stand.  A way out presents itself in the form of another alpha who offers Taryn a proposition.  Taryn can’t decide if she is jumping from the frying pan into the fire, but takes this known psychopathic alpha wolf up on his offer to be his temporary alpha female.  All sorts of dramas unfurl from here.  I like the story line immensely which is why the book still gets three stars.

Thoughts:


Besides Taryn being so annoying to me there were a couple other things that I didn't like.  There are members of Taryn’s new alpha mate (Trey Coleman) pack who don’t like Taryn.  They make numerous comments throughout the book to Taryn in front of Trey about how unsuitable she is, or inferior, or unwanted.  Even taking out the whole alpha male wanting to protect his mate, any normal person in a relationship wouldn't let others talk to their significant other the way that Trey lets people talk to Taryn.  I think one time he chastises Selma (yuck…do not like her!) and one time gets in Kirk’s face.  He should have nipped this in the bud long ago.  Every time he let someone say hurtful things to Taryn he dropped lower in my opinion.  I'm glad I finally finished this book, but I doubt I will read more in this series.

First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones (Charley Davidson #1)



5 big fat stars

How have I not read these before?  I think it is the titles of this series.  It sounds just like so many other urban fantasy or paranormal romance book out there.  However, I absolutely loved this book.  Since UF/PNR books are a dime a dozen (or $0.99-$2.99 a book) these days it sometimes is hard to pay slightly more for a book, but these suckers are worth it!  I was only 1/3 through this book before I hopped back online to buy the second book.  I actually laughed out loud at least twice (I don’t do this much). 

Summary:
Charley Davidson is a grim reaper.  What this means for us is that the dearly departed that still have some business that is keeping them as ghosties will use Charley as a portal to the other side.  She is a smart mouth private investigator as well and works with the Albuquerque PD as well.  In this book there are some ghosts that come to Charley for help to find their murderer and the PD ends up needing her help as well. 

Beyond this there is too much in the plot line to go into more detail.  While everything was nicely resolved, I can’t wait to read more in the second book.  

Favorite Quote: (This is a little longer than I usually do, but it made me laugh out loud.  It is a conversation between Charley and her best friend, Cookie)

 “Told you he had the hots for you.”

“Too bad he was small enough to fit into my cleavage.”

“I think that’s why he liked you,” I said, a bubble of laughter slipping out. 

Cookie sat silent a long while after that.  I gave her some time to absorb everything I was telling her.  After a moment she asked, “How is it even possible?”

“Well,” I said, deciding to tease her, “I don’t think he could’ve actually fit in your cleavage…”