What I Read Last Week

Posted March 7, 2011 by Tracy in Features | 11 Comments

I have pictures! My youngest got her glasses this past week and she loves them. No problem with getting her to wear them as she wants to wear them constantly! I tried to get pictures that showed the true colors of the glasses but I don’t think they turned out well. The front of the glasses are a brown color with a turquoise and green inside. Very stylish and cute!
I’m just happy that her eyesight has improved! 🙂 We also had a parent/teacher conference with her teacher this week and she’s doing really, really well in school so that’s wonderful! (She obviously takes after her father in the math department because I suck at math! lol)
Other than glasses life is moving along in our house. It seems like life has its highs and lows but isn’t that how it is all the time? I think ours are just more intense.
I did go and see the movie The Adjustment Bureau yesterday. Kind of a strange movie but it had a very sweet romance in it so it made it all worth it. lol. I’m such a romantic!
Anyway, on to what I read this past week:
I was trying to catch up on my Book Binge reading this week so I read quite a few for that site.  I started off with Hidden Away by Maya Banks. This is book 3 in her KGI series and was Garrett’s story. He’s put in charge of watching a woman in hopes that her half brother will be drawn out and he can then be arrested as he’s not a nice man. Garret doesn’t expect to fall in love with the woman though. I really liked this book – not quite as much as I liked book 2, No Place to Run, but still a very good read. You can read my review here if you’re interested. 4 out of 5
Next was a very short book called A Good Bargain by DC Juris – another Book Binge read. This was a 10 page story of a 40 year old man who was married to a woman for various reasons – even though he’s gay and is now divorced and has decided to get back into the dating scene. He ends up going to a bar and picks up a very young man and brings him home. He starts to have doubts about whether he should really be bringing young men home but things end up working out in the end. It was cute. More sex than story but cute. 3 out of 5
I read Saddled and Spurred by Lorelei James after that – yet another Book Binge read (I told you I was trying to catch up!). This is book 2 in the Blacktop Cowboys series. The story was about Harper who lives in Muddy Gap, Wyoming and holds two part-time jobs. When one of her jobs goes under she is desperate to find work and there are very few options open to her for a variety of reasons. Her friend hooks her up to work as a ranch hand for a friend of hers, Bran. Harper is a nail technician and past beauty queen but she’s not afraid of hard work. Bran and Harper, though trying to keep things on a professional basis can’t deny their attraction to each other – or eventually their feelings for one another. This was another good installment in the series. I would have liked to have seen more depth with the characters at some points in the book but overall pretty good. 3.75 out of 5
My next read was The Vampire Voss by Colleen Gleason. The series is about Regency Vampires and the first book was about, you guessed it, Voss. He’s fallen for a human woman but she’s not all that happy to hear he’s a vamp. You can read my review here. 3.5 out of 5
Love in an Elevator by Vivian Vincent was one of my Tracy’s TBR Challenge reads for the week. This was a pretty short novella about a woman who is stuck in an elevator with her ex-boyfriends twin. They’ve always had feelings for each other but have ignored them. They do the nasty in the elevator but then Trey steps back and shuts himself off from Dana because he knows that he’s not her type. The sex was steamy in this one but the main characters acted so childish in this story I wanted to slap both of them. 2 out of 5
Another of my Tracy’s TBR Challenge reads for the week was An Indecent Proposition by Emma Wildes. This was the story of a Duke and an Earl who are mighty drunk and decide that to make a wager about who is the better lover. They get many offers from women who want to be the one to decide between the two but only one offer really intrigues them. When they meet the woman they find that she is a widowed lady who they have met before but she is known for her standoffish, icy demeanor. They are intrigued and the duke decides that they will spend a week together. I really liked both the lady and the duke together – there’s was just a sweet romance, even though the duke wouldn’t see it as a romance. The earl wagered but only because the woman he loved had gotten engaged to someone else. During the course of the book he not only helps the lady and the duke come together but gets off his ass and goes after the woman he loves. This was my first time reading Ms. Wildes’ work and I really liked it. I have another of her books on my shelf and will have to pull it out sooner rather than later. 4 out of 5
Another Book Binge read was Never Again by Michele Bardsley. This is book 1 in the Wizards of Nevermore series and it was good. I really like Ms. Bardsley writing. She has a great way of bring intrigue and fun together to make a great combo. In this book we meet Lucy who is desperate for shelter and is running away from an evil man. She heads to Nevermore to ask her ex-brother-in-law to help her. He turns her away – after all her sister tried to kill him 10 years before, but he gets a bout of conscience and heads after her. On top of the romance which was good but a bit rushed, imho, there was the story of a resident of Nevermore who was trying to gain power in an evil way. Despite the romance going to fast I really liked the book. 4 out of 5
Last on the list for the week was Mongrel by KZ Snow. I really loved KZ’s writing. She has this way of dragging me in to whatever story I’m reading of hers and not letting go. Mongrel was no different. This was a steampunk m/m novel where we met young and thoroughly human, Will, who works for the mechanical circus selling medicine/tonic. He meets Fanule who is a mongrel one night at the circus and eventually the two fall in love. But there’s so much more than a romance in this book. The story covers the constant hate and distrust of the humans of the mongrel community as well as the horrible things leaders of the province are subjecting the mongrels to. I really liked the world – although I think I would have liked to have learned more about Taintwell, where the mongrels lived. It’s a story about acceptance and fighting for your rights as a living soul and it was very good. 4 out of 5
My Book Binge reviews that posted this past week
Happy Reading!


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11 responses to “What I Read Last Week

  1. Your daughter is so cute in her glasses! I so wish my first pair of glasses (when I was ~10 years old) had me looking so cute! And I'm so glad she is goind well at school. As for math? *shudders* Never my favourite subject 🙂

    Sorry to hear things are intense…I hope things settle down a bit/lot for you all soon.

    Oh, lots of interesting reads. I do like the sound of Mongrel – I'm on a real m/m kick ATM.

    And the cover of Lorelei James' book? *fans self*

  2. Tam

    Awww, she looks great. Glasses are such an accessory now, not just for function, although that's a handy side-effect. 🙂

    I have no read that DC Juris story but have read some, some of which I enjoyed more than others. I must read Mongrel. I have it, no excuse.

    When I read "stuck in an elevator with her ex's twin brother" my first thought was "how conveeeeenient". LOL Right, like the odds of that happening aren't slightly lower than me winning the lottery.

  3. Orannia – Thanks! She really likes them.
    OMG just thinking about math gives me hives! lol
    Cover – yes, that man is a bit lickable. heehee.
    Mongrel was very good and I think you'd like it.

    Tam – They are a fashion statement, aren't they? Luckily she had really good taste in glasses. lol
    I admit I had Mongrel for a couple of months before I read it. Bad Tracy.
    I know, a little too convenient. The ex-twin lived in the same building as the ex girlfriend and the other twin was going to visit his bother when the black out occurred. Only in fiction! lol

    Chris – Well, as I've said many a time before that I'm a pretty forgiving reader. I thought the book needed more page time for everything that was going on and I had to doubt that any HEA was actually going to happen. So yeah, a 3.

  4. Ah, glasses…I've had them since the 4th grade…had contacts for twenty years, now back to the glasses. One of my many wishes is to be able to wake up one morning and see without the glasses.

    By the way, she looks very cute in them.

    The Emma Wildes book is one of my favorites of hers…because of that book, she's an auto-buy for me.

  5. Cute daughter! Classy glasses! 🙂

    I have a few of those books on my ereader. I've especially been looking forward to Saddled and Spurred, but it might have to wait a bit longer…
    Nice reading week!

  6. Lily – Thanks – she really loves those glasses!

    greengirlgret – I know I hate wearing my distance glasses – especially when I'm on a trip and then I have to wear them ALL DAY! ug! lol

    SidneyKay – My hubby was like that and was blind as a bat when I met him. He had lasik about 10 years ago and has had perfect vision since. He woke up one morning and was shocked he could see the alarm clock! lol
    Thanks!
    I really liked the Wildes book. I'm so glad I didn't let it sit there any longer. 🙂

    Barbara – Thanks hon!

    Janna -Thanks and yes they are! lol
    Hopefully you won't have to wait too long for the James. 🙂

  7. LOL, she's a cutie with her glasses, Tracy!! I hope she likes wearing them and is not too self-conscious!

    Oh, so glad to hear you enjoyed Emma Wildes 🙂 She's become one of my favorite historical romance author I think 😉 I like this one a lot and I agree with your grade 🙂

  8. Nath – Thanks – she's not self-conscious at all! She loves then and likes wearing them at school, which is great!
    I love discovering new-to-me authors that others love too! lol I think Wildes will end up being a fav.

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