Tag: Gail Wolfe

Guest Review: Cottage by the Stream by Gail Wolfe

Posted March 27, 2011 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 0 Comments

Genres: Paranormal Romance

Tracy’s review of Cottage by the Stream by Gail Wolfe


What would you do if you were forced to flee to another country because you were being pursued by a psychopath? How would you handle a situation where you were told you were from a long line of Celtic avengers called Star-Children and with the help of a two-hundred fifty year old druid who was a Watcher/Protector, had to kill a being from another realm called a Repeater to get your life back to normal?


Sarah King’s life is turned upside down when she becomes the victim of a psychopath. Fleeing to Scotland where she thinks she will be safe, she soon learns she is more than she knows. Meeting Ian McAlister who vows to protect her, she is drawn into a world she never thought really existed. Ian teaches Sarah about a certain Celtic legend that in actuality concerns Sarah herself.

Sarah was being stalked by a man who felt from the moment he saw her he knew they would be together forever – creeeeeepy! At one point he decides that if they can’t be together then he will kill her instead. Sarah manages to get away and the man, Joe, is arrested. But he escapes prison and Sarah has to go into hiding. She ends up at a cottage in the Scottish highlands and ends up meeting Ian.

While Ian and Sarah hit it off he starts to tell her about some of the legends of Scotland – about repeaters who are half-human/half-fey children whose souls move to other human bodies when their own bodies die. Not only do these souls move to a new body but they retain all of the knowledge and memories from their previous lives. Some of them turn evil with the power. He tells her about the Star-Children who were created to kill the evil repeaters and the Watchers who watch over the Star-Children. Well of course Sarah thinks that Ian is cracked in the head but eventually she is forced to believe that not only do these people actually exist but Joe the psycho stalker is a repeater, but she is a Star-child and Ian is her Watcher – pretty convenient, that.

Ian must force Sarah to face facts and Sarah must learn exactly what to do to face down the repeater and take care of the evil fey for good. During this time Sarah and Ian are falling in love but neither are willing to state their feelings to the other.

When I first started reading this book I was intrigued with the story of the stalker and Sarah going in to hiding but quite quickly I found myself rolling my eyes at some of Sarah’s actions (you are in hiding and you go to an event where not only a lot of people can see you but your name is announced as you walk in? Hello – doesn’t say hiding to me) because they seemed so ridiculous. She was very trusting of Ian right off the bat which seemed odd but she felt safe with him so I didn’t get hung up on that for too long.  I didn’t particularly care for Sarah’s character as I thought most of her actions were usually overblown and overly dramatized. Even at the end when Ian is trying to confess his love she’s yelling at him and hitting him. Temper, temper.

In this story here were a ton of characters to keep track of when I didn’t feel there needed to be and the story got a bit convoluted at times for my liking. The style of writing wasn’t to my liking either as a ton of, what I felt, unnecessary detail was given.  I think that the book could have probably been about 75 pages shorter and still gotten the same story across in a more clear concise manner. But that’s just me and what I like – I know some folks like extra details so it’s really a matter of person opinion, likes and dislikes.  Unfortunately this one was just ok for me.


Rating: 2 out of 5

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

This book is available from New Concepts Publishing. You can buy it here in e-format.


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What I Read Last Week

Posted February 21, 2011 by Tracy in Features | 16 Comments

And here we are again…another week has gone by.  How do they do that so fast? lol

It was a crazy week again this week.  My oldest daughter is going through some stuff and it’s stressful to say the least. But hey, we’re all hanging in and that’s wonderful! 🙂

This week was the week of the haircut for me.  I got my hair cut on Tuesday and loved it…until I started doing it myself (it always looks better when the stylist does it!) and then I realized that it really wasn’t cut like I wanted it. It was a great cut, just not what I was looking for.  So I went and got another hair cut (I know, no hair cut for 6 months and then 2 in one week…shocking!) and I love it!  I think I got the weight of a small child cut off of my head with all of the many inches that were cut off the back and the thinning of my hair. I wish it had all been at once so that I could have donated it all, but unfortunately since it was done in stages I couldn’t. 🙁  

First there was the “before” picture and if you ask me the back looks like some sort of animal pelt.  How did I walk around with that much hair? lol It was just damned BIG! Of course since I usually put it up into a ponytail about 4 hours of wearing it down each day I didn’t notice it that much.  For as crazy as it was down it turned into quite a nice tail. lol  I didn’t get a picture of the in between cuts – sorry.

Here is the final result.  She went a little short on my bangs but since they grow super fast I have no other complaints at all.

I need to work on styling it but it’s all good! So enough about my hair – on to what I read this past week:

I started off reading Duck! by Kim Dare for my TBR Challenge Review (through Wendy the Super Librarian) and it was really good!  I posted my review already so if you’re interested you can read it here.  4.25 out of 5

Next up was Seducing the Governess by Margo Maguire.  This was my first read by this author and I really liked the book.  This review also posted already so you can read it here if you’d like. 4 out of 5

Next up was Immortal Champion by Lisa Hendrix. I read this one for The Book Binge but it’s a series that I’ve been following since the first book (this is book 3). I really like the mix of medieval romance with the addition of magic and paranormal aspects mixed in.  This was Gunnar’s story and though it was heart wrenching at times it was really good. You can read my review here at TBB. 4.25 out of 5

Next was another book for The Book Binge called Cottage by the Stream by Gail Wolfe.  A woman heads to Scotland because she is hiding from a man who’s stalking her and out to kill her.  She ends up being thrown into a world of fey, Star-Children, Watchers and Druid’s. I really liked the premise of this book but it didn’t end up working for me.  2 out of 5

My next read was Not Knowing Jack by KA Mitchell.  This was an incredibly intense book that I certainly wasn’t prepared for what I got.  The book follows Jack and Tony who’ve been together for a little over a year but they never really talk and thoroughly get to know each other during that time.  Jack has some huge secrets and when they come back and start to bite him in the ass Tony isn’t pleased to have been left in the dark.  I knew from the blurb that the relationship between the two men is tested but, wow, that was intense.  You really have to read it to understand and I don’t want to give any spoilers but it was really good.  I wanted to smack Jack around a couple of times – ok, a lot – but in the end it was good to see the men work it all out. (That’s not a spoiler!  I mean, come on…it’s a romance – you know full well there’s gonna be an HEA!) 4 out of 5

For my Tracy’s TBR challenge read this week I picked up the Burning Up anthology by Nalini Singh, Meljean Brook, Virginia Kantra and Angela Knight.  I only ended up reading all the way through the Singh and the Brook stories and they were wonderful!  The Knight…I just couldn’t get into it though I normally like her writing.  The Kantra I read a few pages but just wasn’t feeling it.  I had read 1 book from the Children of the Sea series and it really wasn’t my thing so I passed on that one.  Anyway…for what I read – the Singh and Brook…5 out of 5!

Another Tracy’s TBR challenge read was Must Love Hellhounds by Meljean Brook, Charlaine Harris, Nalini Singh and Ilona Andrews.  I had read the Brook story back in Oct. of 2009 but hadn’t read the rest of the stories.  I really liked the Singh story – getting to see how Sara and Deacon got together in her Guild Hunter series.  The Brook of course was great again and though I don’t read that Andrews series the story was good.  I liked the Harris (my first read by her) but it was probably my least favorite of the bunch.  Overall with it’s highs and lows I’ll give it 4 out of 5.

My Book Binge reviews that posted this past week:
Moon Burning by Lucy Monroe
Immortal Champion by Lisa Hendrix

Happy Reading!


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