Day: October 27, 2010

Review: Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas.

Posted October 27, 2010 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments


Rowena’s review of Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas.

Hero: Capt. Christopher Phelan
Heroine: Beatrix Hathaway

She harbors a secret yearning.
As a lover of animals and nature, Beatrix Hathaway has always been more comfortable outdoors than in the ballroom. Even though she participated in the London season in the past, the classic beauty and free-spirited Beatrix has never been swept away or seriously courted…and she has resigned herself to the fate of never finding love. Has the time come for the most unconventional of the Hathaway sisters to settle for an ordinary man—just to avoid spinsterhood?
He is a world-weary cynic.
Captain Christopher Phelan is a handsome, daring soldier who plans to marry Beatrix’s friend, the vivacious flirt Prudence Mercer, when he returns from fighting abroad. But, as he explains in his letters to Pru, life on the battlefield has darkened his soul—and it’s becoming clear that Christopher won’t come back as the same man. When Beatrix learns of Pru’s disappointment, she decides to help by concocting Pru’s letters to Christopher for her. Soon the correspondence between Beatrix and Christopher develops into something fulfilling and deep…and when Christopher comes home, he’s determined to claim the woman he loves. What began as Beatrix’s innocent deception has resulted in the agony of unfulfilled love—and a passion that can’t be denied…

I’m so sad that this series has come to an end. I hope that we get a Hathaway Christmas story or something similar to the Wallflower Christmas story. I’d love to see more from this family. Oh how I love them so!

This book follows Beatrix Hathaway, the animal lover of the family find her happy ending. Beatrix is the last man standing on the single train and it’s time for her to find her Prince Charming. She hasn’t any kind of hope since she wants the kind of marriage that her brother and sisters have found and it doesn’t seem likely that she’ll get it. She’s much more comfortable around animals and that doesn’t help her case too much, especially with the only person in all of town that she can’t seem to bring herself to like because of something she heard him say about her.

He said that she belonged in a stable.

So yeah, Christopher Phelan isn’t too high on Beatrix’s list but Christopher heads off to the war and starts up a flirtation with Beatrix’s friend Prudence. Prudence receives a letter from Christopher and when Prudence brings up the fact that all he talks about in his letter is about a stupid dog, Beatrix’s interest perks right up and she asks to read the letter. After reading the letter, she begs Prudence to let her respond the letter and from there things get away from Beatrix.

What started out as one letter turns into more letters and before Beatrix knows what’s what, she has gone and done the unthinkable.

She’s fallen in love with Captain Christopher Phelan…and he has fallen in love with her. It’s amazing how much power words have when you’re lonely. The letters exchanged between “Prudence” and Christopher were so cute and I loved every single one of them. Hell, I fell in love with Christopher and Albert.

When Christopher comes home, things get interesting for everyone. It broke my heart to see Beatrix hurting the way that she was because Christopher was such a shit to her when he returned. I loved her take no bull shit attitude where he was concerned. She was hurting on the inside but from the way that she continued to do what she thought was right and what Christopher needed, the more my heart ached for her. I admired the strength in her. She was so strong and so deserving of a happy ending that I couldn’t read this book fast enough to see her happy ending come to life.

While I was reading this book, I was emailing and texting with my favorite animal lover, Ames. I couldn’t stop gushing over how much I was enjoying the book and I couldn’t stop kicking myself for waiting so long to read the book either.

I enjoyed this book so much that after I finished the book, I went back and read all of my favorite parts over and over again. When Christopher finally finds out that it was Beatrix that wrote all of those letters? Yeah, I read that scene at least thirty times. I enjoyed it that much. This book has it all, it’s got a great cast of characters (those Hathaways are just the best kind of family, don’t you think?) and the hero and heroine were both fantastic and they carried this book so well. Their romance was the perfect kind of romance. This book has everything that one would want in a romance novel and big kudos to Lisa Kleypas for writing another winner. This is definitely going on my keeper shelf and I’m pretty sure that I will be re-reading this one often.

I loved it.

Grade: 4.75 out of 5

Reading Order:

This book is available from St. Martin’s Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


Tagged: , , , , , ,

Tea for Book Lovers!

Posted October 27, 2010 by Rowena in | 8 Comments

If you’re anything like me, you start your day by making yourself a nice hot steamy cup of tea (or cappuccino) and settle down to read the news (or in my case, the blog posts in my Google Reader). I drink different teas every morning, sometimes I drink Mint, other times I drink green tea, Earl Grey and the list goes on and on but really, my days aren’t the same if I don’t start it off with a cup of tea. So, when I got this email yesterday, I kept going back to it.

Novel Tea? How cool is that? I’m just enough bookish nerd to get a definite kick out of this.
Check it out, straight from the website, Bag Ladies Tea:

Novel Teas contains 25 teabags individually tagged with literary quotes from the world over, made with the finest English Breakfast tea.

Spend teatime with CS Lewis, Rita Mae Brown, Alice Hoffman, and more as they share their thoughts on the delights and comforts of tea and books on each individually printed tea tag.

There is no better company than a steaming cup of tea as you open the cover of a favorite classic or turn the page of the latest thriller. Whether traveling to distant times and far off lands or discovering new characters in a nearby locale, a soothing cup of tea makes the journey more pleasurable and the memory lasting.

Novel Teas are the perfect compliment to your literary journey. Enjoy them iced by the pool for that steamy summer romance, or hot by the hearth for that long winter epic.

I’m going to order some to try it out for myself but I thought other book lovers would enjoy this bit of goodness!

..and that’s your scoop!


Tagged:

Review: Undeniably Yours by Shannon Stacey

Posted October 27, 2010 by Tracy in Reviews | 7 Comments

One-night stand + two percent condom failure rate = happily ever after?

Bar owner Kevin Kowalski is used to women throwing their phone numbers at him, but lately he’s more interested in finding a woman to settle down with. A woman like Beth Hansen. If only their first meeting hadn’t gone so badly…

Beth’s tending bar at a wedding when she comes face-to-face with a tuxedo-clad man she never thought she’d see again. She tries to keep her distance from Kevin but, by last call, she can’t say no to his too-blue eyes or the invitation back to his room. Then she slips out before breakfast without leaving a note and, despite their precautions, pregnant.

Kevin quickly warms to the idea of being a dad and to seeing where things go with Beth. After all, he’s not the player she thinks he is. But she’s not ready for a relationship and, given his reputation, it’s going to take a lot to convince her to go on a second date with the father of her child.

Beth is a nomad. She moves to a city or town that she feels comfortable in, gets a job, finds an apartment and stays for a while. When relationships start to get too stifling she then moves on. After meeting and having sex with Kevin and yes, getting pregnant, she finds she can’t move any longer. She’s pretty much bound to one place and it’s not something she’s used to, or that she likes. You see Beth was the only child of a couple who had multiple miscarriages. Because of that she felt that her parents were too overwhelming and they liked to hover and that’s what caused her to move so much. She wanted freedom and being pregnant and in one place is putting a huge damper on her independence plans. Now she’s pregnant and attached to a man with a huge family that frankly, overwhelms her, and she’s doesn’t quite know how to handle it.

For Kevin’s part he is pretty much overjoyed with the pregnancy. He didn’t plan on a baby but he likes the idea and he’s doing his best to be the best father-to-be that he can. He liked Beth from the first moment he saw her at his sports bar and the more he gets to know her the more he likes her. But Beth has put her foot down. She states that they will only be friends because she doesn’t want a bad breakup to ruin the relationship between the baby’s parents. She puts Kevin off time and time again stating that there will be nothing between them but friendship…but she really wants more from Kevin – she just can’t admit it to herself.

This is really a book about a woman’s fear. Fear is the driving factor behind almost all of Beth’s concerns. She’s afraid of things going wrong with Kevin and is therefore adamant that they have no further relationship. In fact any time that Kevin tried to push the bond between them further she would just tell him that he only wanted it because of the baby. She didn’t want to be with him and then have him eventually find out that he only cared for her because she had his child. I can understand this to a point but I have to say that it got old hearing it over and over. I felt so badly for Kevin as you could tell that he was truly trying to be exactly what Beth needed but he had feelings too and she kind of walked all over them.

Kevin was the best. I just loved him. He was one of those guys that everyone loved. He had a great personality, a sense of humor…I just loved him. Did I already say that? lol He actually reminded me of an older version of John Cusack in The Sure Thing when he was talking about naming the fake baby that Daphne Zuniga was carrying, “Nick’s your buddy. Nick’s the kind of guy you can trust, the kind of guy you can drink a beer with, the kind of guy who doesn’t mind if you puke in his car.” Just a fun guy. And very devoted to sports as he was a rabid (and I don’t use that term lightly) Red Sox fan. In fact when Beth and Kevin were talking about names for the baby (which made me think of the above Cusack quote) he made me laugh hard,

“How about Carl Yastrzemski?”

“Carl Yastrzemski Kowalski? What the hell kind of name is that?”

“I can’t believe I even let you in my bar.” How did he end up with a woman who knew absolutely nothing about sports? “Yaz was only the greatest left fielder ever. A Red Sox icon.”

“I’m not naming my child after a sports person. No Tom Brady Kowalski. No Derek Jeter or whatever Kowalski.”

“Jesus, Beth.” He almost ran off the road. “Jeter’s a freakin’ Yankee. I wouldn’t even name an ugly, three-legged, one-eyed, rabid and mangy dog I hated Jeter, never mind my own son. Whatever you do, don’t ever talk sports with anybody at Jasper’s.

We also got to see the entire Kowalski family again – that great big lovable family that we met in book 1, Exclusively Yours. They were just as wonderful this time around and though they overwhelmed Beth at times they really did it out of love and caring.

Though I had some issues with Beth I really ended up liking the book. I picked it up and didn’t put it down again until I was done. This is the second book I’ve read by Shannon Stacey and I really like the way she writes. I will definitely be reading more from her in the future.

Rating: 4 out of 5


Undeniably Yours releases from Carina Press on Nov. 1

I received this book from the publisher for review.


Tagged: ,

Review: Impulsive by HelenKay Dimon

Posted October 27, 2010 by Casee in Reviews | 0 Comments

Casee‘s review of Impulsive by HelenKay Dimon.

Katie Long was supposed to be undercover. She was just supposed to watch Deputy Prosecutor Eric Kimura at his ex’s wedding and gather intel on his campaign for prosecutor. But he’s a lot hotter in person, and the kind of intel they accidentally shared in the hotel bathroom might lose both of them their jobs. Especially since it seems to be a recurring incident. Is it possible for a one-night stand to last ten days?

Kimura isn’t usually the impulsive type. He’s driven, he’s ambitious, and he knows what he wants—a respectable future in Hawaii politics. Which means wild half-public sex with a beautiful stranger in a short little caterer’s skirt is just tabloid fodder waiting to happen. Conveniently, just as his campaign is coming under attack. Sabotage, media gossip, and an insatiable desire for a woman he just met? If he’s not careful, Counselor Kimura might lose all control…

This book starts out pretty hot. Katie and Eric are going at it hot and heavy. I just had to ignore that it was in a bathroom. Or pretend that it was a bathroom made out of solid gold, one that had no germs or bacteria in it. Eric is at his ex’s wedding to prove to himself and his future constituents that he is over Deanna Armstrong. Katie is at the wedding to help her sister–the caterer–and to make a few extra bucks on the side by spying on Eric. So when she does him in the bathroom (there is simply no other way to word it) she knows exactly who he is.

When Eric searches Katie out a few days later, he has convinced himself it is only so he can apologize for running out on her so quickly after their tryst. Katie is appalled to find him at the catering shop. The last person she wants to see is Eric Kimura. Not only does she feel like a whore for sleeping with him, but she actually liked him; felt a connection to him. Connections are things that Katie no longer does. After her last disaster of a relationship, Katie steers clear of connections of any sort.

Before long, Eric has sought Katie out again. Then again. To her credit, Katie went to the man she was “spying” for and told him to go stick it. Yet when she was told that someone else could do the job, she decided that she would keep the job because it was the lesser of two evils. All she would do is report back negative information. It was all very wishy-washy and immature. Katie was immature. I didn’t really care for her at all.

Now Eric, he was a man. A man that deserved a woman that was more grown up than Katie. I suppose that Katie did grow up while knowing Eric. She was forced to lose him which in turn made her grow up, but it was a slow process. Eric had to do a little growing himself, but I’m still not sure that Katie was right for him. No doubt she loved him, but I had doubts that she would satisfy him for the long term. I still love Dimon’s writing style and the sex is just hot. I give Impulsive a 3.75 out of 5.

This book is available from Brava. You can buy it here.


Tagged: , , , , ,

Guest Review: Sunny With A Chance by Emjai Colbert

Posted October 27, 2010 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 2 Comments

Judith‘s review of Sunny With A Chance by Emjai Colbert

Maybe it was kismet that brought Sunny Maitland to Ryan Chance’s doorstep that day. Maybe it was just dumb luck. Sunny had avoided the house and the man for months for fear of falling in love with the one person who was off limits.

Wounded in body and soul, Ryan Chance is surprised when his former masseuse saunters back into his life as if she had never left. She’d been his savior and confidant when his life was in pieces and then she was gone with no explanation. Bound by secret mutual desire, Sunny and Ryan waste no time getting to know each other again, and again one hot, steamy Southern night.

Sunny Maitland was a physical therapist/massage therapist and her professional expertise had been needed because Ryan Chance was recovering from having a building fall on him–literally. She had first come to know him when he was angry and resentful, wondering if he would ever be OK again, dealing with medical bills and a wife who did little else but demean him because he was no longer a man, in her estimation. Sunny’s encouragement and her consistent positive outlook had gradually helped to move Ryan toward physical health as well as mental and emotional healing. But one day, out of the clear blue, she was gone. Ryan did not know that his wife had made it very clear that Sunny was persona non grata and would no longer be welcome in their home.

Now Sunny is called in to substitute for Ryan’s new therapist, and she is not happy about having to once again face the man from whom she walked away, not only because of his wife’s edict, but because her heart was becoming trapped by this delightful man. She was also convinced that were she to have continued with Ryan, she would have had her heart broken–she was a plus size and she couldn’t get past the fact that Ryan’s wife was willowy and svelt. But she was needed and Ryan’s regular therapist had asked her to substitute. So face him she must!

This is a very nice, warm and fuzzy love story that involves a man whose life was irrevocably changed by his tragic mishap and a woman who is good and kind, caring and sensitive, but whose self-image has been trampled by society’s insistence that all women be a size 4 in order to be considered sexy and beautiful. Ryan is overjoyed to see her again but wary of letting her into his life once more–she left him, after all. Sunny is still not sure that a handsome and virile man like Ryan could love a plus size girl like her. This is not a heavy read–it is simply a love story. And while it is short it embraces the essence of what Sunny and Ryan are hoping for and what they found together. So the beginning of their affair is very tentative.

I think romance fans will find this story to be one of those tales that is said to “warm the cockles of the heart.” It is light but engaging, well-written and easy to read. Sunny and Ryan are genuinely nice people. What’s not to like?

I give this short story a rating of 3.75 out of 5.

You can read more from Judith at Dr. J’s Book Place.

This book is available from Ellora’s Cave. You can buy it here in e-format.


Tagged: , , , , , ,