Day: September 23, 2013

What I Read Last Week

Posted September 23, 2013 by Tracy in Features | 8 Comments

Another interesting week in Tracyland. There’s just never a dull moment! Among the many other things that happened: my daughter went on her first date. OMG talk about nerve-racking – she’ll be 16 in a couple of months but…still! The boy (her boyfriend) is very nice though so I wasn’t too worried and it was just dinner and a movie. I dropped them off and the boy’s parents picked them up – she was home by 10. Why do I feel so old? lol Here they are before the date. My girl had her eyes closed but the other one I took while they were in the back seat of the car looks pretty funny – he looked like a deer caught in headlights and she looked like her head was about 5 times too big for her body. lol 

I’ve still got a couple of giveaways going at the moment – click on the links to go to post to enter:
A print copy of Steam Bath: Sweaty Gay Erotica edited by Shane Allison
My 5 Star Read (so far) Giveaway
A print copy of The Hardest Thing: A Dan Stagg Mystery by James Lear (US Only) 
Congrats to Rowena who won Protector by Joanne Wadsworth!

Anyway, on to what I read:

I started off with the upcoming book Snowbound with the CEO by Shannon Stacey. This is a short story/novella that tells the tale of a man and his assistant that are stuck in a hotel in a blizzard unexpectedly. Each has been attracted to the other for a while but both have kept it on a professional level…until now. The story is about their weekend together and the things that happen once they get back to work and their everyday lives. It was a good one and I really enjoyed it. 4 out of 5

The Hardest Thing: A Dan Stagg Mystery by James Lear was a different kind of read for me. There was very little romance so that’s a big change but also the man character, Dan, was very promiscuous and for some reason it just worked for me – which it normally doesn’t at all. Because of this I really didn’t think that any kind of relationship that happened in the book would work but I still enjoyed it all immensely. You can read my full review here. 4.25/4.5 out of 5

Grabbed by Vicious by Lolita Lopez was a sci-fi romance. Due to an agreement between worlds men of one planet can come enter a Grab. Girls are chosen (I was a little unclear about how – lottery?) and then they are corralled and let loose to run, or not, away from the men. If they are Grabbed then that means that they are now married. Primitive but it works in this story. One girl is Grabbed when she doesn’t want to be but soon succumbs to Vicious’ attentions in bed and they soon fall in love. There are a few other things that happen but it was a decent, entertaining read. 3 out of 5

The Captain’s Promise by Susanne Matthews is the story of a girl of royal blood who is in love with guy when she is just 16. He goes off to be a soldier but he makes a promise to her father to always look after her. When he returns 10 years later and finds her in a big predicament he goes about trying to help her. It was a good story that had it’s issues. 3 out of 5 (read for Book Binge)

I Only Have Eyes For You by Bella Andre was my next read. I was sadly disappointed by this book. I mean, I liked Andre’s writing as in previous books and I liked the premise but when all the sex was taken out there just wasn’t a whole lot of story left over. What was there was good. I’ll post my review for this next week. 3 out of 5

Last for the week was a novella called Single Wolf Female by Jessica Sims. Alice was co-Alpha with her brother Chase but he died. She has to get a new alpha but she’s out of family members. This means she must mate the new alpha. Unfortunately a guy named Roscoe who is mean and nasty wants the position. Alice heads to a shifter dating agency and ends up finding Jackson who is an alpha who runs his pack of two. He takes the position but getting to know a stranger that’s going to be your mate plus dealing with a pissed off Roscoe makes for some strange days. The story was a good one. I really liked all the characters in the book and I very much appreciated that Sims didn’t have the h/h falling in love in a day. When the book ended you could see that it would happen but there were no I Love You’s spouted and that was awesome. 🙂 I definitely need to read more in this series. 4 out of 5

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
The Week Before the Wedding by Beth Kendrick

Happy Reading!

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Guest Review: The Autumn Bride by Anne Gracie.

Posted September 23, 2013 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 1 Comment

15704823Tina’s review of The Autumn Bride by Anne Gracie.

Abigail Chantry’s parents died when she was young leaving her to care for her younger sister Jane. Although she has not seen Jane in years, she helps to pay for her sister’s schooling with her job as a governess for a family she is not especially fond of. When she gets word that Jane has been kidnapped and is being held as a captive in a brothel, she sets out to rescue her, and in the process also saves two other girls from the brothel as well. This unlikely quartet take a vow to take care of each other and thereby form their makeshift “sisterhood”. This is how the Chance Sisters come into being, and how the first book in the series, The Autumn Bride begins.

This is my first book by Anne Gracie. Before this book, I had never even heard of this author before, which I can’t believe, as I am sure that I have been missing out!! I was hooked from the moment that I read the back cover, and although I felt that the beginning of the book was a bit slow, it picked up after about the fifth or sixth chapter and moved along quite nicely. It really started getting interesting once the sisters come across what they believe to be an empty mansion, where lacking money and needing food, Abigail decides to break in to try to find something of value that they can use to help them. What she finds instead is Lady Beatrice Davenham, who is bedridden and untended by her servants, who are using her money to instead feather their own nests. After she tells the story of her negligence, Abigail knows that she must help Lady Beatrice and proceeds to throw the worthless help out. At that point Lady Beatrice asks the sisters to stay and take care of her as her “nieces”, and that in return she would help them to find husbands. All goes well for awhile until Lady Beatrice’s nephew Max returns from the Orient to find a houseful of imposters caring for his Aunt.

As far as the characters go, I would have to say that my favorite character was Lady Beatrice – she is such a gem and totally won my heart. I enjoyed this lighthearted story immensely, and appreciated the fact that the author didn’t turn the whole thing into a love at first sight kind of thing. I enjoyed the tension between Max and Abigail as the rest of the story played out. This was such a delightful read for me, and I have to thank the ladies from Book Binge who sent me the book to review. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series, and will definitely be looking for more books by Anne Gracie as well.

Rating: 4 out of 5

This title is available from Berkley.  You can buy it here or here in e-format. The book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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Review: Drawn Together by Lauren Dane

Posted September 23, 2013 by Holly in Reviews | 0 Comments

Review: Drawn Together by Lauren DaneReviewer: Holly
Drawn Together by Lauren Dane
Series: Brown Family #6
Also in this series: Laid Bare (Brown Family, #1), Laid Bare , Coming Undone (Brown Family, #2), Never Enough (Brown Family, #4), Inside Out , Coming Undone (Brown Family, #2)
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: October 1st 2013
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Point-of-View: Alternating Third
Genres: Fiction, Erotica, Contemporary Romance
Pages: 304
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
five-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Beauty is more than skin-deep…
Tattoo artist Raven Smith is blunt and hard, broken and jaded, dark and beautiful. While she doesn’t hide her painful past, she does keep a wall around her heart. She’s free sexually—but no one gets to the real Raven beneath the prickly exterior.
With a voice like smoke, Jonah Warner is a smooth-talking, highly successful attorney, with a body that should never be hidden by a suit. He’s the kind of man who never takes no for an answer and always gets what he wants. And what he wants is Raven. She’s a survivor, and he finds that incredibly alluring.
Jonah gets under her skin in a way Raven has never experienced. He makes her break all her rules—including her no-monogamy rule.
But when a figure from Raven’s past shows up at the tattoo parlor and drops a bomb into her life, their relationship will face the ultimate challenge…
MATURE AUDIENCE

Jonah sees Raven at an engagement party and wants her. He approaches her about getting a tattoo and – correctly – reads the invitation she extends for more. He decides to take her up on both. What he didn’t expect was to want more from her than a good time in bed and some ink. He wants to uncover all her secrets, break all her rules and watch her submit to him. Not so much because he wants to dominate her, but because he wants to see her let herself go.

Raven has never met anyone she wanted to break her personal rules for..until Jonah. He touches something inside her she didn’t even realize was there. Something soft and tender. She finds herself agreeing to be in a monogamous relationship with him – something she’s never done before. Ever. If that isn’t bad enough, she also finds herself coming to care for him. To looking forward to seeing him each day. To craving him on a level much deeper than the sexual. It scares her, no doubt, but she isn’t able to walk away.

Jonah comes from old money. His brother, and closest friend, is dating a woman their family deemed unacceptable at first. Raven worries she won’t fit into his world, but she’s willing to make an effort. Though she has a hard time curbing her tongue and tries to avoid his social scene as much as possible. There were some great scenes that came out of her attempts to behave herself.

My reaction to this book was wholly unexpected. Dane hasn’t disappointed me yet, but I didn’t think I’d love Raven as much as I did. I also didn’t think Brody could be topped as my favorite hero of this series, but I think Jonah managed it.

Raven has been a regular character in this series from the beginning. She wasn’t easy to like in the earlier books, as her blunt, sometimes fierce attitude rubbed the wrong way. As the series progressed, however, I found myself becoming more and more intrigued with her. What saved her for me was how real she was. Yes, she was blunt and honest – sometimes brutally so. But she never pretended to be anything but what she was. You have to respect that in a person, whether you agree with their actions or not.

Here we were given more of Raven. Not just more of her past, but glimpses inside the person she is. Her likes and dislikes, her fears and insecurities, her strength and independence. She became so much more than a smartass who was protective of her friends. I was curious to find out more about her guarded past. She’s hiding secrets and I wanted to see them uncovered. I didn’t expect to come to have major respect for her along the way, or for my admiration to grow into caring. She’s prickly and stubborn, but I think Dane did a credible job of showing another side of Raven. Her vulnerable underbelly was exposed, but not in a way that took from what she was before.

Jonah was an unexpected presence for both Raven and me. He kind of moved into her life unexpectedly. Before she realized it he was already under her defenses. I didn’t expect Dane to take Raven the direction she did, and I can say the same about Jonah. His brother Levi was somewhat domineering and I expected Jonah to be worse. He wasn’t, though. He was very definite in his likes and dislikes, but he didn’t treat Raven as anything but an equal. His need to care for her came through as just that, caring. He didn’t want to smother her or make her something she wasn’t. He just wanted her to feel loved and cherished.

This was a tender, sexy, emotionally compelling novel that really opened up both characters. I don’t know what to say about this novel except it was absolutely fabulous. Dane at her best.

 

4.75 out of 5

Brown Family

This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.

five-stars

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