Tag Archives: review

by

Jamie Begley – The Last Rider’s Series

viper razor know

Continuing with the theme of Motorcycle alpha males began last week with Reaper’s Property, I downloaded and read the Last Rider’s Series by Jamie Begley through my turkey coma.  Fun, steamy erotic romances with alpha male biker heros and various respectable good girl heroines thrown in for the ride.

As with any of this genre, you do need to practice some belief suspension, but the characters and the pace of the plot pull the reader along.  The characters are what really drive these books, flawed but you end of rooting for them.  The characters recur throughout the books so by the third one the reader feels they really got to know them well.

The only negative that I would say is that they needed a better editor.  There were some odd or just plain wrong word usages in the books, in fact one that made me snort with laughter, and some other things that a good editor would have corrected.

I am looking forward to the next book, the one that the series has been building up to, Shade’s story.

by

Rumour Has it by Jill Mansell and Getting Over It by Anna Maxted

  

I read these two over the weekend.  I picked up both them at my local independent bookshop, Booktrader of Hamilton.  

I loved everything about Rumour Has It.  From the characters (Tilly, among others, was awesome), to the interconnected plot lines, to the setting, it all made for a wonderful read with an all important (to me, for this kind of book anyway) Happily Ever After ending.  The characters that Jill Mansell created here are varied and well developed and make me care about what happens to them.  I have a hard time reading books where I don’t care what happens to the characters.  I need to make some connection and that definitely happens here.  Well written, both funny and heartbreaking, in all it is a very enjoyable read.

I picked up Anna Maxted’s Getting Over It because the cover looked interesting in part, but also because I am constantly admonishing my kids to “get over it” or “suck it up” so I connected to the title.  I struggled with this book, but I can’t entirely say why.  I will admit to skimming somewhere in the middle out of sheer  desperation.  I don’t really get the blurb on the cover – “Hilarious” -USA Today.  Hmmm, not so much, no.  

I think my major issue was that the main character seemed so self absorbed and completely in her own plane of existence.  I think this feeling really was emphasized due to the book being written in the first person, it seemed like the pages were inundated with “I”s. (really – open the book to a random page and count the number of  “I”s on that page and you will get into the double digits)   I get that she showed growth, sort of,  matured, sort of, got over it, sort of…  Anyway, not the book for me, but must have worked for many, many people because it was a National Bestseller (also on the cover) and an Independent Book Seller’s Book Sense Pick.  {{shrugs}}  Moving on..

by

Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner

 

Found this book at Booktrader of Hamilton and since I had read Good in Bed (Cannie Shapiro #1), I thought I would give it a try.

I have to say that I  while I was able to suspend my disbelief for many things, I had issues with the ending of Good in Bed…most significantly, why the “pusher” was not arrested and why Cannie’s family didn’t seem concerned about that.  (If you read Good in Bed you will know what I mean.)  That leads me to another warning, if you didn’t read Good in Bed, most of this book won’t make much sense to you.

In the first book, I liked the character of Cannie and felt like I could really relate to her and that was basically what held the book together for me.  Unfortunately, in this second book I don’t find Cannie very likeable (or even very rational).  She obviously has still not dealt with her own issues and yet is quick to suggest therapy the minute her daughter, Joy,  acts like a teen, which Joy happens to be.  My biggest issue is that Cannie doesn’t seem to have learned anything from everything she went through in the first book.  So, there are no spoilers, let’s just say secrets and lies.

Finally, this is really not a happily ever after book, seriously NOT happy ending.  Stop reading around chapter 35, after that it is a big downer.

 

by

Sunday in Bed with… Ellery Adams Pies and Prejudice

d0728-sundaysinbedwithsmall A meme hosted by Midnight Book Girl found here.

I have had Pies and Prejudice by Ellery Adams on my cozy TBR list for quite a while.  I found a copy at my local independent book shop, Booktrader of Hamilton.

I really liked this book!  I read a lot of cozies and I will say many fall into the very light, fun read category.  This is fun and it is certainly cozy, no blood or gore here, but the writing has much more depth to it than the average cozy.  The use of metaphors and just the nature of the descriptive language goes far beyond the average cozy.  Excellent writing.  The main character, Ella Mae, is strong and independent as are the rest of her a family, a group of strong southern women.  The setting is well defined and enchanting. The mystery plot develops at a nice pace, not rushed but also it doesn’t drag.  The magical element is not overwhelming, just a touch a magic :), which is how I prefer it.

After reading this, I will definitely continue with this series and I will also read the other series by Ellery Adams, Books by the Bay.

 

by

Leading an Elegant Death by Paula Carter

 

I had never heard of this series before, but I saw it in my local used bookshop and decided to give it a try.  The book’s theme revolves around one of the now myriad home styling/cooking/gardening/entertaining experts and TV personalities, a la Martha Stewart.

The TV personality, Hillary, is not the main sleuth. Her new executive assistant, Jane Ferguson, law school dropout, divorcee with a child, is the primary investigator.   Hillary’s character is kind of a silly flake, but it seems like it might be an act.  A persona she has adopted to go along with her TV identity because when push comes to shove she takes action and is decisive.  In the beginning of the book Jane came across like a victim, but by the end she seemed much more capable.

The mystery was well done with clues dotted across the landscape and Jane as a sleuth actually doing investigating, not just stumbling across them.  This was a light, quick cozy with a definite southern accent and I will read the others if I come across them. Fans of the Southern Sisters Mysteries might enjoy it.

by

Tempest in the Tea Leaves by Kari Lee Townsend.

Finished this tonight.  I was intrigued by the theme, fortune telling, as there are a couple fortune tellers who set up shop relatively near my home and I found the cover really pretty as well.   The mystery was fine.  An interesting intrigue involving  several red herrings.

My issue was that I absolutely could not relate to main character, Sunny.  She just seemed like a stereotypical spoiled rich girl and on top of that she acted very immaturely .  Put her together with a male lead, who didn’t act much more mature than her, and I just couldn’t connect.  The name calling and temper tantrums were just really unattractive.

Maybe I’m just too old to relate??

 

by

Breathless by Louise Marley & A Canterbury Crime by Brian Kavanagh

Couldn’t sleep last night and decided to pull a few more books off of my Kindle.  The first was Breathless by Louise Marley.  There was a lot to like about this, a strong, interesting lead character, well built back story and setting. The plot involving Greg, Will, Zac and Drew ticks along at a nice pace.  I found a couple of the characters actions and reactions off putting or odd.  On the whole, a fun, quick romance with a dash of mystery thrown in to the mix.

 This book is 4th in a series and I did not read 1 through 3, so I hesitate to review because perhaps my thoughts are influenced by that fact.

I found the murder mystery plot interesting, especially the connections to the past and the archaeology aspects that were involved.  Other than that, I really didn’t connect to the characters and found some of parts a little heavy handed.  Perhaps I would have gotten more out of it, if I read the series in order.

by

The One You Really Want by Jill Mansell

 

I finally received this in the mail from worldofbooks, one of Amazon’s vendors.  I read a lot of British women writers and they can be hard to get here in the US.   I subscribe to the UK version of Good Housekeeping magazine and Woman and Home and always scan the book reviews first and add many of them to my TBR list, then I am disappointed when I can’t get the books here easily :(.  Ordering them from the UK, costs a fortune in postage…or so I thought.  When I tweeted about this, Jill Mansell responded and told me about Book Depository UK, so I am definitely going to try them!

I finished The One You Really Want….could be closer than you think last night and loved it! There were several characters, but the main female protagonists  were Nancy, Carmen and Rose.  The women were each well developed with their own personalities and their own concerns throughout the book.  I really enjoyed the multiple story lines throughout the book especially because they were all written to seem important and I cared about each of them.  Sometimes when I read book with multiple characters with their own story lines, there are one that takes precedence or the others just have that feel of not being as well done as the main one (then if it is segregated by chapter I end up just skimming certain chapters).  Definitely not the case here, I connected with all of them.  This was probably because the characters had that quality of seeming like real people, people you might actually meet in your community.

The book is well written and ties together the multiple story lines in the end.  Not to give anything away, but there is a happy ending, which after the week I had at work I really needed!

Recommended read for readers of ….hmmm, now what do we call it.  I just attended the Romance Writer’s Symposium in Princeton last week and this was the issue discussed.  Kay Mussell spoke and discussed the importance of referring to Romances, as Romantic Novels as a matter of gaining some respect for the writers of  romantic fiction.  All the genre fiction related to women’s writing was really put on the table.  Discussions included how marketing drives  this categorizing of books.  Romance and chick lit are seen as pejorative categories, but then other arguments were raised that women’s fiction was for “literary fiction” and then there was a debate about that.  Jennifer Crusie spoke, as did Eloisa James.  Both spoke with a great deal of candor about the publishing industry and the business of writing and selling books.  It has really made me think about how I classify books.

Maybe I’m dating myself but when I grew up there were not that many categories.  You had non-fiction and fiction.  Then, fiction had mystery, romance, adventure and THE CLASSICS, always referred to with that tone of awe.  So, as a school kid basically the first three were the things you wanted to read and the other one was the stuff you had to read.  As was said in the symposium, and I can’t remember who said it  (must take better notes next time), romance is the category that supports financially all the other categories.  Romance books sales allow people like Jonathon Franzen to first get published.

I highly recommend Jill Mansell’s The One You Really Want for readers of good books.

 

 

 

 

 

 

by

Ghost Walk by Marianne MacDonald & Haunting Jordan by P.J. Alderman

Started and finished this book this morning; it almost made me late for work:)  It is the second in the Dido Hoare series which I only recently discovered.  I love the characters of Dido, her father Barnabas and now her new sidekick, Ernie.   The characters are rich and well developed and I really enjoy the relationships among them and the others on the periphery of the story.

The mystery surrounds a former spy/secret agent and bookstore customer who died under what Dido deems suspicious circumstances.  Scotland Yard is involved along with other police/governmental agencies and even Egyptian authorities.  Dido follows the clues, attempting to do justice for  the dead man.  Barnabas and Ernie each helping in their own ways, everything from watching her baby, Ben, to minding the store, acting as a bodyguard, or researching antiquities.

This is a wonderful series, with a strong and intelligent cast,  and I plan to read all of it.  There are 8 in the series so far.  I have looked on line but am unable to find any current information on the author so I don’t know if she is still writing or not. The antiquarian book shop sets the theme, but it is not as cutesy as many modern theme based cozies.

 

Finished this one last night, the first in the Port Chatham series.  This is a paranormal cozy and the paranormal definitely takes front and center stage so you need to be prepared for that to be the focus.

The characters are interesting including Jordan Marsh, the protagonist therapist turned home renovator turned sleuth.  A good looking contractor type is thrown in for fun and then of course, the ghosts.

Jordan is actually dealing with more than one mystery.  The death of her ex-husband, an open case in she is the main suspect and the murder of Hattie, one of the ghosts inhabiting her home.  The chapters flip back and forth between the present day and the past events and journal entries.

The writing is well done and the transitions between chapters, past and present flow smoothly, which can be difficult to do well. Curious to see how this series continues since the original ghost’s mystery is solved.  Paranormal is not my favorite read, but this was well enough done that I would give another book in the series a try.

 

by

Reading This Week

I have looked at this series several times and finally decided to try it on my Kindle.  I read lots of mysteries and love cats and wine, so  expected to love this.  The main character is a young widow who is a relative stranger in the small town she lives in, people know of her but don’t know her. Her life revolves around her three cats and her quilting business and the mystery begins with one of her cats, an Abyssinian, named Syrah, being catnapped.  The other two, Merlot and Chablis, were apparently the “brains” of the crew and hid from the cat napper.  There is a murder later with a human victim, but make no mistake the cats are the stars of this show.

I found the book to be okay, maybe 2.5 out of 5 stars, but there was not enough there to keep me going back for more in the series. Not when I am interested in so many other series and have so many started.  I didn’t connect with the character, Jill, that well and found a couple of the other characters a little odd, not odd in the cozy mystery, quirky character kind of way, just odd.  I will say I was surprised at the reveal and the mystery was solved satisfactorily.

Also on my Kindle, I had this book:

This is not the cover of my edition, but it was all I  could find. Truth be told I probably wouldn’t have bought the book with this cover :).  Light, fun read with some heartbreak, some romance, and some basic growing up.  The main character, Mary was married young and then her husband has an affair and she has to start over, in the Cotswolds.  I liked it well enough that I would probably try the second in the series given the opportunity.  I found some parts of the plot forced you to suspend your disbelief  quite a bit, but overall an enjoyable chick lit type read.

I received this book by Mariah Stewart as part of a series from a friend.  I hate to say but it went in my DNF pile…I finished it, but with major league skimming to the end, so I don’t think I can say much more other than it was not for me.

 

Finally, the best of the bunch!  I always enjoy Trisha Ashley books and this was no exception to that.  Really lovely, touching, romantic comedy type read.  I loved the main character, Holly Brown (perfect name for a Christmas themed book).  The cooking and food scenes were mouthwatering and the setting was perfect.  The characters were well developed and interesting.  You could clearly understand their motivations and behaviors.  This book definitely put me in the mood for the holidays.  Fans of British women’s fiction, Christmas themed books, and cooking (traditional foods) should all find something to enjoy here.