Tag: #bookreview

Sunday Reviews

Sunday Reviews

Time Never Dies by Samantha Calcott and Melinda Lauer

Rose Mowbray, daughter of the Third Earl of Rothesay in Chathom County, knows few things for certain after enduring loss as a child.

One thing she does know, however, is that her best friend will always be by her side.

Winnifred Warwick, daughter of Lord Warwick, knows many things for certain thanks to a keen mind and easy life.

But the thing she knows above all is that she’s madly in love with her best friend.

When Rose’s feelings begin to change, allowing her to understand what she’s felt her whole life, she fears it may be too late, however, to win back the only person she has ever loved.

Dive into this lesbian historical romance today!

My Thoughts

*Preorder. Releases September 10th. I was lucky enough to receive an ARC copy for an Honest review.

This was a sweet slow-burn romance. I was quickly addicted and could not put it down. The characters are fun and well-written. I would highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys either sapphic or historical romance, or both.

Sunday Reviews

Sunday Reviews

Foster Love By Janis Reams Hudson

U.S. Agent Morgan Foster’s six-month assignment in Central America turned into a four-year struggle for his life, running and hiding, trying to get back home to his four children. When he finally makes it, he receives the shocking news that his ex-wife had been pregnant with his fifth child when he’d left the country. He has five children, not four! Even more shocking, his ex was killed in an accident two years ago and his five children were shuffled off to a foster home. They live on a farm. In Oklahoma, of all places. He’d never been to Oklahoma, but he’d done time as a foster kid on a farm. No way is he letting his kids stay in virtual slavery one second longer.

Sarah Collins didn’t know how she would have survived the death of her husband if not for the five wonderful foster children they had taken in months earlier. Unable to have children of their own, she and Gary had loved these kids as if they were their own. Now their real father is here, vowing to take them away!

My Thoughts

My grandmother had a huge collection of Kismet romances. The black covers. I was addicted to them. This is one I read several times and am seriously considering buying the kindle edition to read again. This was my favorite among them. The physical descriptions were so real I could see them. The emotions were realistic. And Lordy…I wanted to be in the book…

Sunday Reviews

Sunday Reviews

Thirteen Days of Luck by Lacey Dancer

Although her J. B. Starr fans were eagerly awaiting her next best-selling novel, author Pippa Weldon was staring at pages of her characters stubbornly refusing to cooperate with her storyline. When all else fails, travel was guaranteed to refresh her imagination and teach her capricious characters a lesson.

A quick call her travel agent provides the perfect solution to her problem. A Caribbean cruise. Not just any cruise but one featuring a world renown psychic, Joseph Luck. For years, her imagination has flirted with the gift in her futuristic novels. Not only would meeting Joseph Luck provide an opportunity to extend her research but it was just the thing to break the spell of boredom that had taken the edge from her writing.

On her plane trip to the port of call for the cruise ship, Pippa finds more than psychic information on her mind. Always on the look-out for a new look for her imaginary characters, Pippa finds a fellow passenger intriguing. He was male-model handsome with a walk that warned anyone with the smallest intelligence to tread carefully in his presence. This was a MAN in capital letters, a forceful, decisive individual who reluctantly agreed to her exchanging places with his seatmate for the duration of the flight. Pippa enjoyed her time with a very alpha male who parried her questions with skill and power.

Discovering her very interesting prototype’s name was Joshua Luck sharpened her interest. What were the odds? It would have been so easy to simply ask whether they would be sharing the cruise. Instead, she chose silence. She did so love a mystery.

Joshua has come on the cruise to reconnect with his estranged brother, Joseph. After years spent cutting a wide swath on the path of success, Joshua realized that his high-pressure world has demanded a high personal price. He hadn’t expected Pippa, a silver-haired siren with a laser sharp mind that keeps him balanced precariously on the edge of wringing her neck or kissing her senseless. She’s all wrong for him, definitely not his type. Or is she?

My Thoughts

My grandmother had a huge collection of Kismet romances. The black covers. I was addicted to them. This is one I read several times and am seriously considering buying the kindle edition to read again. The three in the series are tied together. I will likely review the other two in the coming weeks. This was good plot, good story and strong characters.

Sunday Reviews

“I will probably be clutching Flowers in the Attic…on my deathbed.” —Gillian Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Gone Girl

Forbidden passions have shaped and haunted the Dollanganger family since their first novel—Flowers in the Attic—debuted forty years ago. Now discover how twisted the family roots truly are, and witness the clan’s origins as a result of one wild and complicated relationship. In this evocative and thrilling tale from New York Times bestselling author V.C. Andrews, see Corrine Dixon as a young girl and discover the fascinating family history of the Dollanganger clan.

Two generations before Corinne Foxworth locked her children in an attic, her grandmother, a gorgeous young girl named Corrine Dixon, is swept away by the charms of rich, sophisticated, and handsome Garland Foxworth. After discovering that she’s pregnant, Garland does what appears to be the honorable thing and marries her in a huge ceremony on the luxurious Foxworth Hall grounds. Both families fervently overlook the pregnancy, happy for a suitable resolution.

Now the mistress of a labyrinthine estate, Corrine discovers that nothing is what is seems. Garland is not the man once captivated by her charms, and she’s increasingly troubled by his infatuation with memories of his departed mother.

Can Corrine survive this strange new life? Or is her fate already sealed?

Explore the origins of the legendary Dollanganger family in this page-turning, gripping gothic thriller.

My Thoughts

okay. I am a part of the group of teenagers who actually read this series and I read it way too young. I am aware that most of the VC Andrews books have been written by ghostwriters. Still this one was not terrible. It didn’t even need as much of a tw. There was a scene with questionable consent, and it involves alcohol. Otherwise it was just a historical romance that was told from her pov. I am doubting the accuracy of the times. she is a bit more forward than most women in that era.

I recommend it with the caveat of this is actually better if you haven’t read the series. The knowledge of the rest of the series made me feel like it was written in a manner to shoehorn in.

Sunday Reviews

Sunday Reviews

Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce

Discover the origin story of one of the realm’s most powerful mages in the first book in the Numair Chronicles.

Arram Draper is on the path to becoming one of the realm’s most powerful mages. The youngest student in his class at the Imperial University of Carthak, he has a Gift with unlimited potential for greatness–and for attracting trouble. At his side are his two best friends: Varice, a clever girl with an often-overlooked talent, and Ozorne, the “leftover prince” with secret ambitions. Together, these three friends forge a bond that will one day shape kingdoms. And as Ozorne gets closer to the throne and Varice gets closer to Arram’s heart, Arram realizes that one day–soon–he will have to decide where his loyalties truly lie.

In the Numair Chronicles, readers will be rewarded with the never-before-told story of how Numair Salmalín came to Tortall. Newcomers will discover an unforgettable fantasy adventure where a kingdom’s future rests on the shoulders of a talented young man with a knack for making vicious enemies.

My Thoughts

Okay this is an author that I almost always love the books in. II enjoyed all the other books she has written for this world but this is the newest series. It lives up to her usual.

Sunday Reviews

Sunday Reviews

The Next Always By Nora Roberts

The historic hotel in Boonsboro has endured war and peace, the changing of hands, and even rumored hauntings. Now it’s getting a major face-lift from the Montgomery brothers and their eccentric mother. As the architect in the family, Beckett’s social life consists mostly of talking shop over pizza and beer. But there’s another project he’s got his eye on: the girl he’s been waiting to kiss since he was sixteen.

After losing her husband and returning to her hometown, Clare Brewster soon settles into her life as the mother of three young sons while running the town’s bookstore. Though busy and with little time for romance, Clare is drawn across the street by Beckett’s transformation of the old inn, wanting to take a closer look… at both the building and the man behind it.

With the grand opening inching closer, Beckett is happy to give Clare a private tour – one room at a time, in between blueprint meetings and kindergarten pickups. It’s no first date, but these stolen moments are the beginning of something that could arouse the secret yearning that resides in Clare’s independent heart – and open the door to the extraordinary adventure of what comes next….

My Thoughts

Okay this is an author that I almost always love the books in. I borrowed the kindle edition of this trio from the library and devoured three books in three days between major amounts of sleep.

Sunday Reviews

Sunday Reviews

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: A Lisbeth Salander Novel
By Stieg Larsson

ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER The thrilling first book in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series featuring Lisbeth Salander: “Combine the chilly Swedish backdrop and moody psychodrama of a Bergman movie with the grisly pyrotechnics of a serial-killer thriller, then add an angry punk heroine and a down-on-his-luck investigative journalist, and you have the ingredients of Stieg Larsson’s first novel” (The New York Times). Also known as the Millennium series

Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.

My Thoughts

I have the first three books in this series. I did not realize there was more or I would have all eight. The characters are crisp and delightful The plot is strong. I really enjoyed all three books I have read so far.

Sunday Reviews

Sunday Reviews

Dragons within guarding her own by Balance of Seven publishing

Featuring stories by Celosia Crane, Kimberly Gail, Hayley Green, Kristine Haecker, Shannon McRoberts, Finn O’Malley, Leo Otherland, D. Marie Prokop, Jess Reece, Theda Vallee, Deana Rose Wilson, and Amanda Mills Woodlee. Introduction by Dorothy Tinker. Cover Art by Eben Schumacher.

“I am dragon. I am free. You are mine to protect.”

===

A truth-seeker becomes imbued with the power to tip the scales of justice.

A headstrong privateer tempers her courage in the heart of a violent storm.

A pair of mittens leads to a family history rich with dragons.

Sparks fly when a chronically single pilot finally meets her match.

Enter the world of Dragons Within: a place where woman and dragon are one in the same: reigning strong, fierce, and free. Forging bonds with the world of mankind, these unconquerable beings discover a love for the vulnerable, the fragile, the broken.

A pregnant goddess seeks refuge for her children during war. A telepathic soldier finds the courage to claim her humanity. A dragon in human form uses her gifts to protect abuse victims in need. A girl chases a soldier through a desert wasteland to find her missing brother.

Featuring twelve new and emerging speculative fiction writers, this power-driven book delves deep into the journey from treasure hunter to guardian, mercenary to savior, fire-breather to martyr. Transforming rage into righteousness, the women of Dragons Within claim their people, pledging their lives to…guard their own.

My Thoughts

Some really great stories.

Sunday Reviews

The Clan of the cave bear by Jean M. Auel

This novel of awesome beauty and power is a moving saga about people, relationships, and the boundaries of love.

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

Through Jean M. Auel’s magnificent storytelling we are taken back to the dawn of modern humans, and with a girl named Ayla we are swept up in the harsh and beautiful Ice Age world they shared with the ones who called themselves The Clan of the Cave Bear. A natural disaster leaves the young girl wandering alone in an unfamiliar and dangerous land until she is found by a woman of the Clan, people very different from her own kind.

To them, blond, blue-eyed Ayla looks peculiar and ugly – she is one of the Others, those who have moved into their ancient homeland; but Iza cannot leave the girl to die and takes her with them. Iza and Creb, the old Mog-ur, grow to love her, and as Ayla learns the ways of the Clan and Iza’s way of healing, most come to accept her. But the brutal and proud youth who is destined to become their next leader sees her differences as a threat to his authority. He develops a deep and abiding hatred for the strange girl of the Others who lives in their midst, and is determined to get his revenge.

My Thoughts

this series has been a favorite for me from my teenage years. it’s incredibly interesting and detailed. I recommend it .

Sunday Reviews

The Fox that Burns by K.N. Gemme

My parents were two of the most powerful individuals in the supernatural world. Yet, that didn’t stop an unexpected betrayal, or a neglected evil, from attacking our home when I was nine years old. I lost my parents, my home, and my childhood that night.
It’s been a thousand years since that day. I’ve watched the world change, move on, and forget. To survive, I tried my best to do the same. I learned to hide the elemental powers I’d inherited from my mother by pretending to be a strong Spirit Witch while doing what I could to ignore what I’d inherited from my father, even though the need to stop dirty souls was an itch on my own.
In recent years, that itch drove me to become a consultant crime scene analyst for the New England division of the Supernatural Department of Honor, or SDH for short. I willingly bore witness to crimes that tempted instincts I’ve spent lifetimes burying, because I knew my assistance helped stop dirty souls without exposing my Familiar, my Shadow or myself.
That was, until I put it all at risk when I offered to drive to Maine to do — what should have been — a simple confirmation of identity but turned into a race against the clock to save a young girl’s life. For when the fox burns, everything will change, whether I want it to or not…

Disclaimer: The Fox That Burns is the first novel in a long-running series. It’s an intricate story with many pieces, where Book One barely scratches the surface. Expect unanswered questions and cliffhanger that may not be answered until the very last book. And yes, there will be a slow-burning romance that will take time to develop. If you enjoy those kinds of stories, the Soul Bite novels will not disappoint. If not, you’ve been warned

My Thoughts

The disclaimer is correct. and I am afraid that I never got past the first book so far. the first one is well written, and I probably will be going back to the second but there was a personal disagreement between the author and I so I kinda forgot about the second book for a while. the first one was really good…so good I still have a signed copy on my bookshelf and refise to let go of it .