It’s Friday, the weekend is upon us and we here at Book Binge are feeling generous. So, we decided to giveaway a hardback copy of Scream for Me by Karen Rose. But then I was thinking about how you really have to read Die for Me first, so then I thought..hey, why not throw that in the box, too.
So that’s what we’re going to do. Simply leave a comment here before noon Sunday, June 15th and you’ll be entered for a chance to win Die for Me AND Scream for Me by Karen Rose.
Good luck!
Yes, I know, I’m a glutton for punishment. I can’t seem to help myself, though! I’m a Linda Howard fangirl through and through, which means I love her – even when I don’t. I haven’t been impressed with any of her releases since Kiss Me While I Sleep, but that doesn’t stop me from lusting after this book. I want and I want now!
In Linda Howard’s gifted hands, second chances, unexpected romance, and unrelenting action combine into a riveting new novel of suspense. In Death Angel, bad girls can wake up and trust their hearts, bad guys can fight for what’s right . . . and dying just might be the only way to change one’s life.
A striking beauty with a taste for diamonds and dangerous men, Drea Rousseau is more than content to be arm candy for Rafael Salinas, a notorious crime lord who deals with betrayal through quick and treacherous means: a bullet to the back of the head, a blade across the neck, an incendiary device beneath a car. Eager to break with Rafael, Drea makes a fateful decision and a desperate move, stealing a mountain of cash from the malicious killer. After all, an escape needs to be financed.
Though Drea runs, Salinas knows she can’t hide–and he dispatches a cold-blooded assassin in hot pursuit, resulting in a tragic turn of events. Or does it?
Left for dead, Drea miraculously returns to the realm of the living a changed woman. She’s no longer shallow and selfish, no longer steals or cheats or sells herself short. Both humbled and thrilled with this unexpected second chance, Drea embraces her new life. But in order to feel safe and sound–and stop nervously looking over her shoulder–she will need to take down those who marked her for death.
Joining forces with the FBI, supplying vital inside information that only she can provide, Drea finds herself working with the most dangerous man she’s ever known. Yet the closer they get to danger, the more intense their feelings for each other become, and the more Drea realizes that the cost of her new life may be her life itself–as well as her heart.
This book is available from Ballantine Books July 1, 2008. You can pre-order it here.
Hero: Jordan Townsende, Duke of Hawthorne
Heroine: Alexandra Lawrence
Grade: 5 out of 5
The tempestuous marriage of Alexandra Lawrence, an innocent country girl, and Jordan Townsende, the rich and powerful Duke of Hawthorne, is about to face its ultimate test of tender loyalty. Swept into the endlessly fascinating world of London society, free-spirited Alexandra becomes ensnared in a tangled web of jealousy and revenge, stormy pride and overwhelming passion. But behind her husband’s cold, arrogant mask, there lives a tender, vital, sensual man…the man Alexandra married. Now, she will fight for his very life…and the rapturous bond they alone can share.
This has got to be one of my most favorite Judith McNaught reads.
It’s one of those romances that you love but can’t read too often because there are parts of the story that really makes your heart hurt and then there are times in the story where you want to karate chop both the hero and the heroine in the knee caps because of all of the misunderstandings and all of the assumptions.
On the other hand, this is the book that you can’t help but reread as often as you can because there are fantastic scenes that make this book just so lovable. The first kiss, the first time they made love, the fencing match in the glade, the grovel scene at the end…all of those scenes make this book just amazing.
I love, love, loved this book.
I have read it more times than I can count and with each reading, I love it just a little more. Jordan and Alex were fantastic characters. Their story was filled with angst, a solid storyline and a great cast of characters that added the right amount of goodness to make the story work.
I loved Jordan Townsende and his cynical personality. I loved how serious he always was and how hard working, handsome and smart he was. He was so confident in himself and strong. I loved almost everything and I say almost everything because there were times aplenty that I wanted to throttle the snot out of this man. All of his assumptions drove me right up the wall and instead of just coming out and asking Alex flat out if she was trying to kill him would have saved him so much time, money and energy…but then where would the drama be? But, Jordan will always be one of my most favorite heroes and I will always love his big, stubborn ass!
Alex was a great heroine. She grew up to be such an incredible woman. When we first meet her, she’s so young, naive and very trusting but then she grows up when Jordan goes missing and the way she held herself and the Dowager Duchess together was nothing short of amazing. She held her own against Jordan and she didn’t let the ton get her down. She won me over when after Jordan disappears, she took care of Jordan’s grandmother even though she was such a hag to her when Alex and Jordan got married. The way that she faced down the ton and braved the whispers and the gossip surrounding her and Jordan made me so hot damn proud of her.
Together, these two would become one of my favorite JM couples of all time. I loved them both that much. I loved Anthony as well but not nearly as much as I loved Jordan. The whole story was just one drama after the other but it made for a beautiful story where two people came together in love and worked really hard for their happy ending. JM knows how to write incredible love stories that don’t come easy.
This is one of them.
I think anyone will enjoy this story, everyone will enjoy this story because it’s just the best…and you should read this story if you haven’t already because it’s the best thing you’ll read all month, I promise!
This book is available from Pocket Books. You can buy it here.
I have no idea why, but for some reason our right sidebar has been pushed down to the bottom of the page. It was fine this morning, but now it’s wonky. So I’m working on it. If things look kind of funky around here for a bit, you know why.
Which reminds me, I should probably back things up before I start playing around….
ETA: All better now. I’m so smart….
😉
The beachside knitting shop Malibu & Ewe is the perfect place for L.A.’s hip young crowd to enjoy colorful yarn and intimate conversation. For personal chef Nikki Carmichael, it could be the softest place to land if her new job falls through. Working for magazine writer Jay Buchanan has come with some strange conditions—like pretending to be his girlfriend. As for Jay, he finds himself drawn to the kitchen, where he’s intrigued by his sexy cook’s ability to withstand the heat between them. And now he thinks it’s time to turn up the flames.
Genre: contemporary romance
Series: Book 1
Isn’t that a great cover? Okay, maybe not, but it’s bright and cheerful and just screams FUN, right? That’s probably why I went into the book thinking it was a comedy…
Nikki Carmichael lost her mother at age 14. It taught her to be independent and not to show weakness. Fifteen years later, she’s built a barrier around her and doesn’t intend to let anyone close… which is easy since all she has is a mechanical fish. The most important thing in her life is her career as a chef which she has to partly give up due to her injured knee. Since she can’t work in restaurants anymore, she hopes to find a position as a private chef… which lands her on Jay Buchanan’s doorstep.
Jay Buchanan is a writer (and owner?) for the most popular men magazine, NYFM, and is thinking of giving up women for a year… not just because he’s had one too many no-string-attached sex gone wrong, but for a series of articles as well. Of course, that’s till Nikki shows up on his doorstep with a batch of her best cookies… and she has to pretend to be his girlfriend in order to chase away an ex.
So yes, I thought this was going to be funny, but I was wrong. It wasn’t. Yes I did chuckle a few times, but it wasn’t anything like Jennifer Crusie or Janet Evanovich where the book is a continuous LOL moment. I think the funniest moment is when I discovered that Fish was a mechanical fish… and the book actually dealt with some serious topics such as rape and artificial insemination.
What did I enjoy? Jay. He was a fun hero, the perpetual playful bachelor. It was interesting to see him interact with Nikki since these two are so different. Also in the beginning, he wasn’t sure whether Nikki was a lesbian or not and that was the perfect set up for some funny conversations. I also liked the atmosphere of the book very much. I could feel the beach ambiance and felt like I was in Malibu…
Nikki wasn’t a bad heroine, but I never warmed up to her. Although her past is not tragic, it’s not a happy one either. After her mother died, Nikki needed comfort… and since her father never provided it, she went looking for it in the wrong arms. She fell for an older boy who pressured her into sex and it resulted into a fight and injured knee. Events in the past have a way to haunt people and Nikki was definitively haunted. At the end, I never got the feeling that she was able to shake her demons off and let people close to her. Yes, she did have the surgery for her knee, but I couldn’t sense any real significant growth. See, the reason why she never got the surgery for her ACL was because she didn’t have anyone close to her to help her out afterwards… nobody to help her to the bathroom after the surgery, nobody to drive her to the physiotherapy sessions, etc. Then, finally, she got the surgery, but the person helping her out wasn’t Jay… and that annoyed me. Jay was willing, he loved her, but she disappeared on him. Then when finally he finds her, she already had the surgery. I was disappointed, because in this book, Jay is the one who changed the most, but he didn’t have the opportunity to show the new him, because she took it away from it. Nikki says that she changed and that the surgery is proof of it, but I don’t feel that way. To me, Nikki was running away from a relationship with Jay and she needed the surgery in order to run farther. Also, she got Cassandra to help with the surgery aftermath, because Cassandra was the lesser of two evils… Otherwise, I don’t think that Nikki would have her get close.
There were many secondary characters and storylines. I thought the one involving his neighbor was superfluous and it should have been eliminate in favor for Nikki and Jay. As for Jay’s younger cousin, Fern, I understand why the author would incorporate her storyline… although it didn’t feel complete. To me, Fern appeared whenever it was convenient to the author and when it wasn’t, she was forgotten. What happened to her at the end? As for the third storyline, Cassandra – owner of Malibu & Ewe, a yarn shop – she was the most interesting and I’m curious about her relationship with Gabe… All those storylines and characters made the book way more busy than necessary and I think it took a bit away from the book.
How to Knit a Wild Bikini was not the beach read I was expecting. It wasn’t bad either, but a tad too busy. I think the author should have focused on the H/H relationship and develop Nikki’s character more instead of the numerous secondary characters and plotlines. However, there is an interesting and refreshing twist that got me all curious to see what’s going to happen next.
My Grade: 3.0/5