Reading Challenge: Holly's 2020 Goodreads Challenge

Review: Whiskey Holiday by Crystal Daniels and Sandy Alvarez

Posted September 3, 2021 by Holly in Reviews | 0 Comments

Review: Whiskey Holiday by Crystal Daniels and Sandy AlvarezReviewer: Holly
Whiskey Holiday by Crystal Daniels, Sandy Alvarez
Series: Mistletoe Montana #1
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: December 16th 2020
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Point-of-View: Alternating
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
Content Warning: View Spoiler »
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 68
Add It: Goodreads
Reading Challenges: Holly's 2020 Goodreads Challenge, Holly's 2020 New to Me Challenge
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It’s Christmas all year in Mistletoe, Montana, and magic is in the air.

Winter Holiday wants nothing more than to have a man sweep her off of herfeet but doesn’t have time in her busy life to fall in love.

Until an attractive stranger with a panty-melting smile walks through the doorsof Whiskey Holiday.

Tannon Christmas moved to the Christmas themed tourist town on a newbusiness venture, seeking a fresh start in life. He wasn’t looking for love until hekisses his new client.

Tis the season!

Get ready for a sweet and steamy insta-love romance.

Winter Holiday is restoring her old home and needs a contractor to help. She meets a sexy guy in the bar her family owns and he sweeps her off her feet – literally – and out to his place where they share a night of sexy-times. She sneaks out, but it turns out he’s the contract she just hired to replace her furnace and give her a quote for some additional work, so he ends up on her doorstep the next morning.

This read more like a cautionary stalker tale than a romance novel. I was seriously concerned when the hero sees the heroine across the bar and immediately thinks “I need to keep her with me always” and then proceeds to move in with her -without her permission- the next day after a one-night-stand. It was meant to be a cute “love at first sight” tale, but it didn’t work for me at all.

Rating: 1 out of 5


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Review: Lord of Wicked Intentions by Lorraine Heath

Posted May 24, 2021 by Holly in Reviews | 0 Comments

Review: Lord of Wicked Intentions by Lorraine HeathReviewer: Holly
Lord of Wicked Intentions by Lorraine Heath
Narrator: Faye Adele
Series: The Lost Lords of Pembrook #3
Also in this series: Lord of Temptation (The Lost Lords of Pembrook, #2)
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: April 28, 2013
Format: eBook
Source: Library
Point-of-View: Alternating Third Person
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
Content Warning: View Spoiler »
Genres: Historical Romance
Pages: 384
Length: 10 hours, 7 minutes
Add It: Goodreads
Reading Challenges: Holly's 2020 Goodreads Challenge
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four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Three young heirs, imprisoned by an unscrupulous uncle, escaped—to the sea, to the streets, to faraway battle—awaiting the day when they would return to reclaim their birthright...

Lord Rafe Easton may be of noble blood, but survival taught him to rely only on himself and to love no one. Yet when he sets eyes on Miss Evelyn Chambers, an earl's illegitimate daughter, he is determined to have her, if only as his mistress...

After her father's death, Evelyn Chambers never imagined she would be sold to the highest bidder, yet circumstances give her little choice but to accept the lord's indecent proposal. Rafe is wealthy, as well as ruthless. Yet his coldness belies deep passion and deeper secrets. If she must be his, Evelyn intends to lay bare everything the Lord of Pembrook is hiding. But dark discoveries threaten to destroy them both until unexpected love leads the last lost lord home...

Lord of Wicked Intentions is the third and final book in Lorraine Heath’s Lost Lords of Pembrook series. I requested the audiobook from the library, but only listened to a few chapters before I switched to reading. I liked the narrator, but I was getting impatient with the pacing. I easily fell into the story once I began reading. I actually liked this book least of the three when I first started, but it ended up my favorite of the series.

My heart broke for poor Evelyn. There were some really hard chapters to read here. Her lack of control over her own future, the way her half-brother treated her, even the way Rafe treated her…man, she had a rough go of it. I liked her innate optimism and how she tried to make the best things. I also ended up really liking Rafe. In the beginning, his constant whining was kind of annoying, but I came to feel for him as things were further revealed about his past struggles.

Their romance was also well done. I enjoyed Evelyn’s journey to independence and how focused she was on herself. She didn’t need Rafe. She wanted him, but that’s not the same thing. It was very refreshing.

Another great series from Heath.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5

Lost Lords of Pembrook

four-stars


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Lightning Review: Hauntings and Humbug: A Steampunk Christmas Carol by Melanie Karsak

Posted May 5, 2021 by Holly in Reviews | 1 Comment

Lightning Review: Hauntings and Humbug: A Steampunk Christmas Carol by Melanie KarsakReviewer: Holly
Hauntings and Humbug: A Steampunk Christmas Carol by Melanie Karsak

Publication Date: February 2nd 2020
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Point-of-View: First Person
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
Content Warning: View Spoiler »
Genres: Steampunk
Pages: 77
Add It: Goodreads
Reading Challenges: Holly's 2020 Goodreads Challenge
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four-stars

Humbug! This Christmas, Ebony Scrooge will learn the true meaning of the holiday season.

It’s Christmas Eve in Victorian London, and Ebony Scrooge is hard at work tinkering weapons of mass destruction and avoiding all things Christmas. When the spirit of her deceased partner, Jacqueline Marley, warns Ebony that she will be visited by three ghosts, Ebony writes the visitation off as a dream. But on this Christmas Eve, the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future must try to pull off a miracle, restoring Ebony’s heart before it’s too late.

Hauntings and Humbug is a retelling of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, set in New York Times bestselling author Melanie’s Karsak’s steampunk universe.

Set in Victorian London, Hauntings and Humbug is a Steampunk retelling of A Christmas Carol. I really enjoyed Ebony Scrooge and the way her backstory unfolded. The secondary characters were well-drawn and I thought Ghosts of Christmas past, present and future were interesting.

This was an emotional retelling of A Christmas Carol. I enjoyed Ebony Scrooge and the people in her life.

Rating: 4 out of 5

four-stars


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Lightning Review: Goblins and Snowflakes by Melanie Karsak

Posted May 3, 2021 by Holly in Reviews | 1 Comment

Lightning Review: Goblins and Snowflakes by Melanie KarsakReviewer: Holly
Goblins and Snowflakes by Melanie Karsak
Series: Steampunk Fairy Tales #5

Publication Date: November 13th 2018
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Point-of-View: First Person
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
Genres: Steampunk
Pages: 111
Add It: Goodreads
Reading Challenges: Holly's 2020 Goodreads Challenge
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four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Never bargain with goblin men.

Scarlette Rossetti thought her stay at Strawberry Hill Castle during the Christmas holiday would pass by uneventfully. She couldn't have been more wrong. Enticed by the delights of the nearby village of Twickenham, Scarlette's life would change in unimaginable ways.

She never expected to be drawn magnetically to The Two Sisters Doll Shop and Toy Emporium.

Scarlette didn't guess that tinkering clockwork gnomes could have supernatural consequences.

And she didn't know that one should never, ever, bargain with goblin men.

But during the Christmas season, magic is always brewing.

Charles Dickens meets Supernatural in this magical retelling of The Elves and The Shoemaker. Dive into New York Times bestselling author Melanie Karsak's award-winning fairy tale world set in gaslamp England.

Scarlette Rossetti is visiting her uncle for Christmas and secretly helping some dollmakers in the village, when she starts seeing a traveling caravan in the woods. She doesn’t think much of it until she realizes she’s the only one who can see them. They offer her the thing she most desires, in exchange for a bargain. Even though she knows she should resist, the temptation proves too much. Now she must figure out how to outsmart the tricky goblins before it’s too late..

This was a quick, cute story. I liked Scarlette and her giving nature, not to mention how clever she was. The romance came on quick, but I enjoyed it for all that.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Steampunk Fairy Tales

four-stars


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Review: One Fine Fae by Molly Harper

Posted March 31, 2021 by Holly in Reviews | 1 Comment

Review: One Fine Fae by Molly HarperReviewer: Holly
One Fine Fae by Molly Harper
Narrator: Jonathan Davis, Amanda Ronconi
Series: Mystic Bayou #4.5
Also in this series: How to Date Your Dragon (Mystic Bayou, #1), Even Tree Nymphs Get the Blues, How to Date Your Dragon, How to Date Your Dragon, Selkies are a Girl's Best Friend, Shifters in the Night, A Farewell to Charms
Publisher: Audible Originals
Publication Date: December 8, 2020
Format: Audiobook
Source: Audible Plus
Point-of-View: Alternating Third Person
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
Genres: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy
Length: 3 hours, 10 minutes
Add It: Goodreads
Reading Challenges: Holly's 2020 Goodreads Challenge
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Publisher's Summary

Take a trip to the beloved supernatural town of Mystic Bayou in this brilliantly funny new stand-alone novella - written for audio-first!

Charlotte McBee knows she’s in for a challenge when she accepts a job as midwife for a dragon and a phoenix shifter. Being a fairy herself, it isn’t the supernatural world that scares her. It’s the thought of delivering a giant metal dragon’s egg, which has her gritting her teeth in pain for poor Jillian, the anxious mother-to-be.

While preparing for the big event, a handsome town resident catches her eye. Leonard is kind, charming, and a little bit mysterious. He’s also suffering from a highly unusual condition brought on by an ancient fairy curse, and he’s too wary of Charlotte to allow her to get close.

Will love overcome fear before the end of her assignment?

©2020 Molly Harper (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC.

Charlotte is a midwife to magical creatures. Mystic Bayou has been home to magi for years, but thanks to a rift that opened due to a magical artifact, humans and magi alike have been gaining strong magical powers. Charlotte is hired to help the residents with their pregnancies, a prospect she’s pretty thrilled with. Leonard is Fairy-Cursed. Any time he gets stressed, he turns clumsy, which causes all kinds of calamites to happen in his presence. Charlotte and Leo are attracted to each other, but her magic makes him nervous, which means his curse kicks in even more when she’s around than normal.

This was a cute short story. I don’t believe it stands alone well, since it heavily features characters from previous books. The new romance was sweet and I liked seeing some of my favorite characters pop up again. I don’t love the male narrator, Jonathan Davis, but the female narrator, Amanda Ronconni, is a favorite. I definitely recommend this for fans of Molly Harper and Mystic Bayou.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Mystic Bayou

three-half-stars


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