The Scandalous, Dissolute, No-Good Mr. Wright

5 big beautiful stars

I absolutely adored this book!  It has been a while since I read a book that I couldn’t put down.  The writing was funny and perfect in every way.  I loved how the passage of time was shown at the beginning of a chapter by a written invitation to some event or another.  This was my very first Tessa Dare book that I actually read because Tammy Blackwell said she liked this author on her blog and Tammy Blackwell can do no wrong in my eyes (except not put out the little bunch of stories called “At First Sight” sooner rather than later *insert foot tapping*). 

I don’t know how many pages the book is, Goodreads estimates it to be 100 pages and it was a well used 100 pages.  The romance between the two characters was believable because it took place over such a long time. 

Super Short Summary:

Eliza is the fourth daughter of the Cade family and through a situation (that comes out later in the story) she isn’t allowed to be “out” in society until all her older sisters have been married.  She has her first humorous encounter with the Mr. J Harrison Wright.  He is a known rake and is completely unsuitable to be alone with.  The rest of the story is the telling of Eliza and Harry’s various encounters over the years that turn from humorous to amorous and I loved every second of it!  The only thing I didn't like was the title.  It was too long and elaborate to remember. 

One of my many favorite quotes: (This is when I knew I would love this book)

“I’m not a child,” Eliza argued with the closed double doors.  “I’m a grown woman.  With accomplishments and bosoms and everything.” –Eliza to herself

Come Back To Me by Josie Litton (Viking and Saxon #3)

4 stars

This is the third book in this series (and I think it is probably the last book in the series).  The first two followed Wolf (a Viking lord) and Hawk (a Saxon lord) as they meet, marry and woe their brides (in that order).  This book follows Wolf’s brother, Dragon (another Viking lord) and his bride Rycca (a Saxon lady).  These marriages were designed to bring peace between the Norse and Saxon’s.

Like the other two marriages, it doesn’t start off well.  Rycca is running away from her family and the marriage.  Dragon is having some alone time at Hawk lodge in the woods outside Hawkforte.  They meet up but neither with tell the other their real names.  Dragon wants to help Rycca, but Rycca still manages to get away again.  The marriage starts off with a lot of distrust between these two people.  And like the other books there is still danger.  There are people who don’t want the Norse and Saxon’s to unite and they are working in underhanded ways to prevent this.  So the book follows these goings on and we watch Dragon and Rycca work through their difficulties.  We do get to see Wolf and Cymbra and Hawk and Krysta again a couple times in the book and it is nice to see the friendship between the ladies. 

I loved this series.  I had never read anything by this author before, but I plan to read the rest of her books as well now.  I loved all the characters.  I don’t know which is my favorite couple.  Even the bad guys are written well.  You know who not to trust, but you can’t quite figure out all the details.    

The Shattered Dark by Sandy Williams

I was soo excited for this book to come out.  The first book in the series (The Shadow Reader) was so awesome it became an instant favorite.  Perhaps my expectations were too high, or the first book became so awesome in my head that no matter what the sequel couldn’t live up to the image I had in my head.  Either way…I was disappointed and it makes me really sad to say that. 

I felt like nothing happened.  I bought this book the day it came out and starting eating up the pages, but I quickly found that it was a lot of running here, no sleep, no food, no time for Aren or for McKenzie to figure out how she felt and then we are going to hurry up and go somewhere else.  I found it really annoying that McKenzie kept up the whole “I don’t know how I feel yet” bit the entire time until the end.  The ending was the best part, but I only say that because I was for once, riveted.  I had to know what would happen next.  But now that I know the ending I am torn.  I was always Team Aren, but with this ending I don’t see how Aren can move past what happened! 

That is all I have to say for now, the ending was sad and the rest of the book was a lot of action that led to nothing.  I know this is a terrible review, but I can’t bring myself to talk about this book anymore.  I am definitely going to read the next book, and maybe with my expectations lowered I will think it is awesomeness incarnate again.    

Taken by Moonlight by Dorothy McFalls

4 Stars

This was a free novella through Amazon.  I haven’t read anything from this author before, but the tag of “Historical Paranormal Romance” caught my attention.  My three favorite genres combined into one! 

Super Short Summary:

Lady Amelia is an almost-on-the-shelf-woman at 21 years old.  She is restless and bored of the usual social niceties. 

Dimitri we soon learn is a lone wolf who has been called upon by his old pack (the only pack?) to find the missing daughter of the long dead pack’s previous alpha male and female. 

Lady Amelia and Dimitri meet and sparks fly but it appears that Dimitri knows there are other plans for Lady Amelia and struggles with his own feelings about her future. 

Thoughts:

This was a novella and I read it in an hour or so.  Sometimes I prefer novellas as I can get a short story: beginning, middle and ending all in one sitting.  I enjoyed meeting Amelia and Dimitri both.  Often one of the main characters will annoy me at some point, but neither did in this case. 

I enjoyed meeting some of the other secondary characters like Aunt Lettie and the Earl.  They were likeable and three dimensional.  I am not such a fan of Dimitri’s sister.  

There are a couple of characters that are portrayed as bad guys but then are either shown to be good guys or just fade into the back ground.  I feel like Vlad’s situation was unresolved. 

Overall, I enjoyed this very much.  The summary doesn’t say much so I can’t tell if explaining which of the various paranormal creatures exist in this book would be a spoiler so I won’t say anything except it is my favorite of the paranormal creatures here. 

Favorite Quote:  Lord Carew to Lady Amelia

“Lord help me,” he whispered, “you are so beautiful it causes me pain.”

Malice in Wonderland by H.P. Mallory (Dulcie O'Neil #5)

I’m torn between 3.5 stars and 4 stars.  What pushes me to 3.5 stars is that Dulcie would go on these long tangents in her head about this situation or that situation and whenever Knight wanted to talk she would push it away saying she hadn’t had time to sort out her thoughts yet.  Ugh!  Shut up Dulcie!  We all wanted Knight to pay for how he treated you in Wuthering Frights, but make up your mind already!  And at time I found Dulcie to be… (Gasp) annoying.  She was always tired, she was grumpy and not the normal Dulcie.  Let her have a nap!  What pushes me towards the 4 stars was that it was still very well written.  I loved the scenes between Dulcie and Bram and Dulcie and Knight.  So you can see my conundrum.  Who’s ever heard of a 3.75 star? No one! 

This book picks right up where Wuthering Frights left off.  Knight just learns that Dulcie wasn’t willingly working for her father and actually help set up a sting on the latest and greatest potions smuggling.  He is apologetic, he is remorseful, and he wants Dulcie back!  Dulcie gets a crash course in how the resistance works.  Then not much else happens (besides Dulcie’s scenes of thinking in her head) until…something big happens and Dulcie must be moved for her own safety.  Bram is forced out of his fence straddling position (Is he good?  Is he bad?) and must make his decision and we finally learn why he was so well known in the prison in the Netherworld. 

The ending was a bit of a cliff hanger.  We got some answers to some things, but are left hanging…again. 

What was the dream about?  We never learned more about that!  I need to know…

Also only 85% of the content on the kindle version is Malice in Wonderland.  The other 15% is the short story released in “Kiss Me, Kill Me” (which I had already read) and some excerpts from Jolie’s book. 

I did have to get on Facebook to check out the pages for Dulcie, Bram and Knight while reading this to keep their images in my head.  For some reason Bram never looks as good in my head as he is intended to so I have to refresh myself. 

Opal (Lux #3) by Jennifer Armentrout

4 Stars

I would have given this book 5 stars except that the book felt like it could have been shaved from its 452 pages to 250 pages.  I loved the scenes where Daeman and Katy were together, but it felt like the author put too much effort into drawing out the times between attempts on Daedalus. 

So this book takes off right where #2 left off.  Blake comes back and wants Katy, Daeman and Dawson’s help to get his friend, Chris (think Daeman and Katy’s connection) out of the DOD’s holding cell.  They enlist help and train, they go to prom and a club.  Daeman and Katy get closer, but Daeman still hasn’t told her he loves her. 

The end of the book was a major cliff hanger.  I can’t remember if the others ended this way, but I feel like there was some measure of resolution.  We are just left wondering what just happened and what does it mean?  Clearly this isn’t a trilogy.  I just hope that the next book isn’t a bunch of filler like this one felt like.  It still gets 4 stars because it is an awesome story line.  It feels authentic and I love the characters.  The summary of the book basically has you wondering who is on Katy and Daeman’s side and who is not.  I never quite figured it out and I will admit that I had it all wrong.  I liked that Daeman and Katy got closer but I still don’t feel like I know Daeman very well. 

Katy drove me nuts sometimes.  She was always making her own decisions about what to do in situations instead of asking Daeman when this is his world and she is very new to it.  She insisted on going to Daedalus and that is just asking for trouble.    

Favorite Quote:
“Simmer down, Kitten, before I have to get you a ball of yarn to play with.”  -Daemon to Katy

Scent of Magic (The Healers #2) by Maria V. Snyder

4.5 Stars

This is the second book in this series.  The first is Touch of Power.  I positively loved Touch of Power! Review: Touch of Power  This book takes up right where the first book left off.  Avry and Kerrick have just left Tohon’s castle where Avry had destroyed his garden of Death Lily’s and taken two of the children (Danny and Zila) who had survived injection of Death Lily serum.  Avry wants to find her sister again and Kerrick needs to check in with Ryne.  This means they split up and as others have said, they spend the entire book apart.  The only thing that saves this from being unbearable is that we get dual POV from Avry and Kerrick throughout the book.  Usually I find only one of the main characters narrative is interesting enough for me to want to continue and I will be disappointed with the switch.  However, everytime we switched from Avry to Kerrick and back again the author managed to create mini cliff hangers that I was loathe to leave but then within a few sentences I am sucked back into the next person’s dilemma. 

Avry infiltrates Jael/Estrid’s army and teaches them how to move silently in the forrest.  She manages to keep her identity hidden and gains the trust of many of the officers.  I couldn’t tell from what direction the betrayal would come from.  Those that I suspected of treachery ended up proving themselves loyal to Avry and those who I thought loyal proved their betrayal.  I kept guessing and I was wrong. 

Kerrick meets up with Ryne and spends time training his troops to move silently as well.  This is important because Tohon’s Dead Army is silent and deadly.  Soon they learn that the tribes from the Wild Lands have invaded Alga Realm (Prince Kerrick’s realm) and so Kerrick must go investigate.  The rest of Kerrick’s time is spent with this situation.  I did appreciate that the author didn’t try to insert a love triangle in here.  I HATE (and by hate, I mean I will stop reading an otherwise good book because of a love triangle) love triangles!  Blech!

We meet so many new characters and Avry makes some new friends, but the author definitely does not shy away from killing off those close to Avry.  This makes it a much more realistic war time/zombie story, but it is a bold move. 

Favorite Quote:

Ursan remained quiet until we reached his tent. "Prince Kerrick's a forest mage.  Which means his eyes change color with the seasons.  Right?" he asked.

"Yes."

He stared at me for a moment.  "Lucky guy."