Tag: Janey Chapel

What I Read Last Week

Posted May 7, 2012 by Tracy in Features | 5 Comments

Happy Monday!
How are all of you lovelies? I’m here at work taking a quick break to get this post done. I wish I was at home in my pj’s but I can’t have everything, can I? *sigh*
It was a good week this past week. Thank you all for your many birthday wishes. It was a good day and I was remembered by so many (thank you Facebook. lol). I had a good day at work and then hubby and the kids and I went out for a nice dinner. I got some great gifts – gc’s to Amazon, of course the laptop I got from my parents weeks ago, a new Keurig (which is the absolute bomb) and a wonderfully large gc from my hubby for a local day spa. I can’t wait to use that one!
This week will be an interesting one. My oldest is starting high school next year (yikes) and wants to try out for the cheerleading squad. I don’t know about your local high school’s but the ones around here take that shit seriously! The girls have to attend a 4 hour clinic (over 2 days) to learn the assigned tryout material. They then are scored accordingly. If the girls make it they have practice 3 times a week with 1 game during football season and 2 days of practice and 2 game days during basketball season. They also cheer for the baseball and volleyball teams. I’m glad she’s trying out but to say I’m a little concerned with all that practice is an understatement. Not that they don’t need it but with how long it takes her to do her schoolwork…it might be an issue. Well she’ll try out on Friday and they’ll post the new squad by midnight that night so by this time next week we’ll know one way or the other. I’ll keep you posted.
Ok – on to what I read this past week:
First up was Where It Hurts the Most by Anne Brooke. This is the first release in the Riptide Publishing Rentboy Collection and it was a good one. Take a male escort and a man who has shut himself off from everything due to an accident and put them together…what do you get? A really good book. 🙂 You can read my review here. 4 out of 5 
Be sure to join me tomorrow when Anne visits the blog.
Next up was Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas. It took me a while to actually get the book (cuz apparently I’m too distracted) but when I did I really loved it. This is the story of a woman who is dumped by her live-in boyfriend who then shacks up with her sister. Lucy then gets horribly injured and through a series of events gets to convalesce at Sam Nolan’s house. Sam is a commitment-phobe because of his alcoholic parents but he definitely sees something in Lucy that makes him look at her like he’s never looked at another woman. This was so good. I wasn’t too surprised with the magical elements in the book as there was magic involved in book 1 of the series. Kleypas sucked me in from the first word and I couldn’t put the book down. Good stuff. 4.5 out of 5
My next read was a book I got for review called The Virgin’s Revenge by Dee Tenorio. I was a little off on my release dates and this one doesn’t actually come out until July 3. It was a good read about an overprotected woman trying to break out on her own. Her older brother want her to marry the man of HIS choice, which is actually hers too but since Cole’s her good friend she’s never acted on it, and this brings a whole host of problems. Take the fact that she finds out about it all and then wants revenge on both of them for trying to control her. It was a good read and made me want to read more in the series (this is book 4). 3.75 out of 5
Beguiling the Beauty by Sherry Thomas was next. This was SUCH a good book. I really loved so much about it – the writing, the story, the characters. I did have a few niggles with it but despite that have much love for the book overall. I noticed on Goodreads that this one has gotten REALLY mixed reviews. I guess it’s one of those you have to read and decide for yourself. You can read my review here. 4.5 out of 5
False Start by Janey Chapel is the story is about two men who share a clandestine relationship in college for about 8 months before the one who’s so far in the closet he can’t find the door freaks out and things are done. Now ten years later Tucker is back in town and ready to face all kinds of music, especially the one dealing with Whit and how he left him behind. Such a good story. I really liked this one a lot and wished it was longer! 4 out of 5
Hot Hands by Erica Pike is the first short in the College Fun and Gays series. I read The Walls Have Ears so I thought I’d try out the 2 before it. This one was about a guy who keeps getting felt up by….someone. He has no idea who. He finally gets cornered and they share hot moments but Caspar is blindfolded and he still has no idea what the identity of the man he’s dubbed Hot Hands is. The story was really good but got into an area that needed, imho, so much more after the big reveal. It was still really good though. 🙂 3.75 out of 5
Second in the College Fun and Gays series by Erica Pike is Grade-A-Sex Deal. This is about one of the university teachers who makes a deal with one of his students to exchange sex for an A in the class. The college teacher, Daniel, is trying to deal with his emotional attachment to his student, Troy, as well as his kids’ attitudes towards him since he divorced their mother 2 years earlier. Again, I think this would have been great if it had been longer and had more detail but in the end it was still a fun read. 3 out of 5
Fair Game by Patricia Briggs was up next. This is book 3 in the Alpha and Omega series and has Anna and Charles helping the FBI with a serial killer investigation (because 3 of the victims were werewolves). It was a great mystery but also dealt with the issues that Anna and Charles had been having since the werewolves had gone public and Charles had to step us his duties as his father’s hit man (so to speak). This was such a good book with an incredible ending that I loved. Though I figured out who-dun-it about halfway through the book it was still great to see all the ins and outs of the story. 4.25 out of 5
Reading Fair Game made me want to go back and read about when Anna and Charles first met so I picked up my copy of the On the Prowl anthology and re-read the Alpha and Omega novella by Patricia Briggs. This is such a great novella! With Anna and Charles meeting for the first time and seeing Charles kind of brought to his knees it just worked for me. Definitely one that will be read over and over. 4 out of 5
Next was Spirit by PA Friday. I read Jenre’s review of this one over at Brief Encounter Reviews and she liked it. It’s the story of Grant who starts at an advertising firm with a homophobic boss. Grant is a man who has made a life for himself out of nothing and is willing to work hard. Grant meets Tristan who is the boss’s son and assumes Tristan does nothing and gets accolades but that’s not the case. Grant and Tristan hate each other, for different reasons, but that doesn’t stop the pair from being attracted to each other and eventually acting on that attraction. The story follows the men in their path from hate to…not and what that means for both of them. 4 out of 5
Silk is for Seduction by Loretta Chase was my TBR challenge read for the week. This is the story of 3 sisters who will do anything to get their dress shop off the ground. The oldest who is the designer heads to Paris to cajole a duke into making his intended use their dressmaking services when he finally gets married (which is supposed to be soon). But things go a tad awry in the plan when Marcelline and Clevedon meet and their attraction makes fire look like it’s not all that hot. It was a great story and I loved Chase’s writing. She dragged me into the book and I ended up staying up late to finish it cuz I couldn’t put it down. In fact the more I think of it today the more I like the book. I can’t wait to read about the next sister. 4.5 out of 5
My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Happy Reading!

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What I Read Last Week

Posted September 12, 2011 by Tracy in Features | 10 Comments

It was a relatively quiet week last week for me.  I had a migraine for daaaaays but unfortunately life doesn’t change all that much for me even with the headache from hell. lol
I’m really excited that GayRomLit is only a month away!  Yay!  I can’t wait to head to New Orleans and see all those lovely bloggers and authors.  It will be great to see Tam, Chris and Kris again and I’ll get to meet Janna, Leontine and Kassa as well as others, I’m sure.  The event itself sounds to be freakin awesome and I’m really excited.  I was looking at the author list a while back and figured out that of the 67 authors they had on their list of attending authors (I’m sure there are more that aren’t on the list) I’ve only read 20 – yikes.  I have books by 4 others that I haven’t read yet but that’s not all that much, now is it?  I should probably make an effort to read more of those authors…we’ll see how that goes. lol

And let’s see…oh, I looked at my Goodreads challenge today.  I signed up for the reading challenge at the beginning of the year and I put how many books I wanted to read for 2011.  I put 400.  I know, was I on dope at that time or what?  I apparently just pulled a number out of my ass and typed it in.   So I looked this morning after not paying it any attention for the past month and as much as I read I realized that I’m 4 books behind!  Yes, behind.  Seriously, what was I thinking? 400? I know no one but me is paying one iota of attention but still – I feel bad for falling down on the job.  Did any of you sign up for it?  If so how are you doing on the challenge?

Ok – what did I read last week?

I stared off the week with Just A Little White Lie by Lynnette Hallberg.  This was a cute contemporary about a woman who finds her fiance at the church on the day of her wedding making out with his ex-fiance.  Nice. Not.  She takes off but breaks down on the side of the road and is saved by a guy who then thinks to use her for his own purposes – namely he wants her to be his fake fiance.  It was a cute book that I had a few issues with – but good. You can read my review here. 3.5 out 5

Next was Breathe Again by Bonnie R. Paulson.  This was a really good book that had Maggie who was trying to deal with her husband’s suicide meeting 2 brothers that help her deal with it all.  They have their own issues as well so the three of them end up helping each other.  You can read my review here. 4.25 out of 5

Next was Romancing the Countess by Ashley March. The story followed Leah who is married to Ian – but Ian dies in a carriage accident along with his best friends wife.  Well, well – what were they up to I wonder?  If you’re thinking that they were having an affair you’d be right.  Leah’s not all that crushed over her husband’s death as she knew about the affair.  Then there’s Ian’s best friend, Sebastian, who’s devastated by the loss of his wife and all he knew about her.  Many things happen and Leah and Sebastian fall in love – but they don’t tell the other.  Can they be together or will ghosts of the past haunt them? A really good story that was on the darker side – not a lot of humor.  4 out of 5 (read for The Book Binge)

It Happened One Bite by Lydia Dare was my Tracy’s TBR Challenge read.  This is the start of a new trilogy about vampyre’s in regency England but it has a continuation of characters from the authors previous werewolf stories. This book was Blaire’s book and has her in the Highlands awakening a vampyre who was put under a spell by the previous coven 20 years prior.  This is a good historical paranormal and that had great humor. 3.75 out of 5 (read for The Book Binge)

After that was a short called The Wild Side by Janey Chapel.  This was about Ryan who’s normal guys are either jocks or jarheads.  He heads off to work at The Wild Side for Valentines day and finds himself enamored with Nick who is the opposite of his “type” – but that turns out to be a good thing.  Good story.  4 out of 5

In the Heat of the Bite by Lydia Dare was next.  Another story in the regency vampyre trilogy.  This was Rhiannon and Matthew’s story.  I really liked Matthew but Rhiannon was kind of blah for me.  Rhiannon had Matthew pretending to be courting her so that she could have more respectability and of course they fall in love.  The story was a bit different from the previous book and while still good had too many similarities to the previous book for my liking.  3.5  out of 5 (read for The Book Binge)

In the Crease by Stephani Hecht was a complete impulse buy on my part. We have those from time to time, don’t we?  Don’t deny it! lol  The story was about Cole who heads to his hometown to try to talk his sister out of marrying her fiance who was, with his brother, his archnemesis.  Of course he’s trying to do this 24 hours before the wedding so it’s not all that easy.  What ends up happening is that he gets together with the brother, Andy, and the pair find they’re quite compatible.  A very cute story.  A little bit of insta-love but hey, it was only 45 pages!  3.5 out of 5

Another impulse buy – Confessions of a Rentboy by TR Verten.  I read a review for this book on Jenre’s blog, Well Read, a while back and it really appealed to me.  The story is told by Andy and has him telling us about his time as a rentboy in London. He tells us of how he got into the business, some of his clients and experiences as well as his time after the man he falls in love with marries someone else.  It’s a very good book that had me smiling as well as tearing up a time or two while reading. Well written and definitely worth the read. 4 out of 5

And last on the list for the week was Demon Marked by Meljean Brook.  Another fantastic book by one of my favorite authors.  I seriously love this series and will cry huge crocodile tears when it comes to an end.  Can’t it go on forever? Please?  No?  Dammit.  In this book we have a halfling demon who has no memory meeting up with a man who was raised by a demon who had taken over the role of his mother.  He has serious issues and doubts everything a demon says as he thinks it’s a plot.  Not the start of a great romance, I’d say.  But Ash and Nicholas are so good together it’s amazing.  Then there’s the continuing story of Taylor and Michael and them working on getting him out of the frozen field in Hell and wow.  The story is so good and has so many twists and turns I couldn’t stop turning pages.  Just an excellent read as far as I’m concerned! 5 out of 5

My Book Binge Reviews that posted last week:
Happy Reading!

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What I Read Last Week

Posted October 26, 2010 by Tracy in Features | 11 Comments

What’s up? What have you all been up to? Anything fun? Tell all!
Sorry this is so late today folks, I’m just busy, busy, busy!
So this is a short work week for me as tomorrow evening I’m leaving for San Francisco to go to Yaoi-Con and to meet up with Chris, Kris, Tam & Jenre and have a jolly good time. I can’t believe I’m actually going to meet all of these fabulous ladies from all over the globe. (Chris is from Minnesota, Kris from Australia, Tam from Canada and Jenre from England) It’s amazing that we could all work our schedules to get together and it’s going to be fabulous!
My reading this week was a tad frenetic – didn’t exactly stick to my normal routine of reading different sub-genre’s (contemp, then paranormal, then historical…in no particular order). I needed to get several books read so that the reviews could post on time so that kind of directed my reading. I’m happy to say that I got it all done – yay! And now I’ll have no worries about the blog while I’m gone. Hopefully my hubby will give up his laptop for the trip cuz I need to be connected!
Not a lot of excitement here other than getting ready for my trip so on to what I read last week:
First up was book 4 in the Farm series by Andrew Grey called Love Means…Freedom. This was a book about Stone who was kicked out of his father’s house when he came out to him. He was working his way south to warmer weather but got kicked out of his ride during a blizzard. He happens upon Eli and Geoff’s farm and is taken in. He meets Preston, who is in a wheelchair after being hit by a drunk driver and is doing the riding therapy at the farm. The two hit it off but as it usually does, life creates obstacles. This was a good installment in the series. It was almost a little too sweet for me between Preston and Stone. Preston’s father was an ass and I kept thinking that it would be revealed that he was the one that was hurting Preston’s work options but that never came to light. Who knows. 🙂 Cute though. 3.5 out of 5
Saving Lady Ilsa by Crystal Kauffman was a book that I read for The Book Binge. A historical about a second son who’s father wants him to marry but he’s in a committed relationship with another man. He’s willing to marry but not have the marriage be in name only. On a whim he takes home a tailor’s assistant, Ilsa, who is being abused by the tailor and decides to make her his bride. But he and his partner, Frederick, might want to keep her around and have the marriage be more than just in name. A cute book but it was a little hard for me to think of two gay men suddenly wanting a woman. 3.5 out of 5
Next was Duchess of Sin by Laurel McKee. This is book 2 in the Daughters of Erin series. I didn’t read book 1 but didn’t feel that I was missing anything. The story revolved around an Irish Duke who is anti-Union in 1799 and a woman who is looking for some meaning in life. The two fall in love and it’s quite romantic. The book mostly takes place in Dublin. I read this one for The Book Binge – it releases on November 30th. 4 out of 5
Next was a book that I received from the author for review – Forsaken by Shadow by Kait Nolan. The first book about the Mirus, who are paranormal beings. This story was about Cade who woke up and had no memory at all. Ten years later the woman he loves shows up needing his help to save her father. She would have looked for him sooner but she was told he was dead. We get to meet shadow walker, dragon shifters, fey, vampires. It was quite a good book and not that long so if you’re looking for a quick paranormal read this might be for you. You can a short review here. 4 out of 5
Craving Beauty by Nalini Singh was my DIK reading challenge book for the month. I’ll post my review on Friday.
My Tracy’s TBR challenge read for the week was Allergies by TA Chase. A shifter story about two men who meet at work – Lou’s a wolf shifter but Ray seems to be allergic to him when he’s in his human form. The story covered them getting together and the issues around Lou “coming out” as a shifter and those issues. There was another part of the book that had some shifter hunters coming into the territory but that wasn’t dealt with by the end of the book which was a bit surprising, and a little annoying. I can only assume it will be in the next book? IDK. I’ll have to read it and see. 3.25 out of 5
Undeniably Yours by Shannon Stacey was my next read. This was another book that set with the Kowalski family. Kevin has a one night stand but he’s really likes the woman, Beth, and wants to see if more can come from it. Well it did since she got pregnant – but she wants to just stay friends – friends that are having a baby together. I’ll post my review for this on Wednesday. It releases from Carina Press on Nov. 1. 4 out of 5
Picture Postcards by JM Snyder was a very short book but one I really liked. It was about a man, Donny, who was in love with his best friend, Greg, but his friend marries a woman and moves away. They fall out of contact but suddenly Donny is getting random postcards from Greg about his feelings and how he misses Donny, etc. Only 15 pages but it packed a punch. 4 out of 5
After Midnight by Teresa Medeiros was next and this was a book I read about when Luisa Prieto was on DIK recently. It’s a historical about a woman who thinks that the man who is courting her sister might be a vampire. Whether he’s a vampire or not she finds herself falling in love with him and he with her. Good book. The end resolution was a bit rushed but overall I really liked the story, thanks Luisa! 4 out of 5
Next up was Icing on the Cake by Alison Kent. I read this one for the True Vows tour and will be posting my review on Nov. 3rd. Let me just say though that the romance was great and I very much liked Kent’s writing.
Dance with a Vampire by Fabian Black was next. Only 7 pages long. The story was told in first person but it was told as if retelling a story to the person it happened to. (example: if I was telling the story of how I met my husband to my husband). It was short but sweet. I liked it. 4 out of 5 (free on ARe)
Last on the list was the novella You Get What You Want by Janey Chapel. This was a great book. An ex con, Jay, meets Patrick, a cop, when Patrick gets a drink at the bar that Jay works at. They are incredibly attracted to each other and have a great time in the bar’s office after closing. But Patrick can’t stop thinking about Jay and has 12 hours to kill before he has to head home (to another city), so seeks out Jay’s company. The time they spent together was very touching and sexy and I really loved the emotion that was infused into the story. 5 out of 5
My Book Binge reviews that posted since last Monday
Happy Reading!

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