Tag: Jill Gregory

What I Read Last Week

Posted July 9, 2012 by Tracy in Features | 5 Comments

Well it was an ever so exciting week in Tracyland this past week.
As I stated last Monday my new boss started and so far so good. She’s a very nice woman and though it was a pretty quiet week with her getting to know the place, etc. it was all good. Cross fingers that things continue to go well. 🙂
Then it was my baby’s 10th birthday yesterday. 10! How the heck did that happen? lol She was gearing up for the day and her party all week. We had the party at a local gym and the kids had a great time doing all the fun gym stuff as well as rock climbing & jumping into the pit of foam blocks. I called it the pit of doom because it seemed once the kids got in they had a damned hard time getting back out. lol  They all loved it of course. Here’s a few pictures:
The Pit of Doom
Her first time rock wall climbing
I think she wanted to stay in the pit forever
 We did have a bit of an OMG moment before the party when we went to pick up the cupcake cake. They, uh, spelling my daughters name wrong. Since the name was the only thing printed on the thing it was a bit obvious. My daughters name is KYRA. The cake said KRYA. Yeah, so much for spelling the name for the bakery worker and repeating it back and forth on the phone 4 times. They changed it while we waited but the colors were off and yeah, it was a bit disappointing. Thank God I just laughed about it – I mean, what could I do, right? 🙂 The saddest thing was that in the end the cupcakes were great but the frosting was horrible. Oh well – can’t have it all. 
Anyway, on to what I read last week:
I started off the week with Tempted by the Highland Warrior by Michelle Willingham. This was a medieval story of a boy who has been a slave for most of his life and had been constantly tortured. The fiancé of the man who is doing the torturing helps the slave and they form a sort of bond that becomes unbreakable. You can read my full review here. 4 out of 5
Next up was The Lady is a Vamp by Lynsay Sands. Book 17 in the Argeneau story has us FINALLY getting Jeanne Louise’s story. She’s quite young in vamp years – only 102 – so she wasn’t expecting to meet her life mate for maybe hundreds of years. She meets hers, however, when he kidnaps her so that she can turn his daughter into an Immortal to save her from dying from cancer. It’s a great love story and was a bit heart-wrenching because of the daughter but also what happens between Jeanne Louise and her life mate Paul. I’ll post my review for this later this month. (releases 7/31/12) 4 out of 5
My next book was Larkspur Road by Jill Gregory. This is book 2 in the Lonesome Way series and it was a good book. The story focused not only on the love story between Mia and Travis but also the troubles Travis’s son was having, an issue with Mia’s great-aunt and Mia’s niece, Brittany. A sounds story but light on the romance because of everything else that was going on. You can read my full review here on Book Binge. 3.25 out of 5
Forever a Lady by Delilah Marvelle is the story of an English Aristo living in New York with her millions and her finding love with a man who lives in Five Points – one of the very worst parts of New York. They actually meet while both of them are in England and Matthew falls for Bernadette almost immediately. Bernadette never wants to marry again after living for 12 years with her now deceased husband who was 43 years older than her. The book was not only about their love story but Matthew seeing a new life for himself, moving in that direction and becoming the man he always knew he could be. I’ll post my review of this later this month. (releases 7/24) 3.75 out of 5
Doubtless by Cat Grant was my last read for the week. This story has to do with Steve who was a character in Grant’s book, Priceless. I’ll post my review for this one this week.
My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Happy Reading!


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Guest Review: Larkspur Road by Jill Gregory

Posted July 9, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 2 Comments

Tracy’s review of Larkspur Road (Lonesome Way #2) by Jill Gregory.

Fifth grade teacher Mia Quinn expected a tranquil summer in her hometown of Lonesome Way, Montana, sewing for her quilting group’s exhibition fundraiser and caring for her rescued dog, Samson. But all her plans for a relaxing break are thrown out the window when Travis Tanner—the boy who broke her heart in high school—returns to town with his ten year old adopted step-son.

A former FBI agent, the boy Mia once knew is now well over six feet of male muscle—and he still has the power to make Mia lose her train of thought with just a glance. When Travis asks her to tutor his troubled son, Mia quickly discovers that the sparks between them are hotter than ever. As danger comes to Lonesome Way and family secrets come to light, will Travis and Mia realize that love can be even better the second time around?

When Travis Tanner was 18 years old he made a huge mistake – he broke up with his then girlfriend, Mia. He’s regretted the decision almost since that moment but he’s gone on with his life and career. Now he’s back in Lonesome Way – taking a leave of absence from the FBI, maybe permanently – and he can’t get Mia off of his mind. Of course she wants nothing to do with him but he manages to talk her in to tutoring his 10 year old son and things heat up from there. The pair can’t seem to keep away from each other after that and old feelings that they each thought were dead and buried come back with a vengeance.

This story is book 2 in the Lonesome Way series so when he had back there with Travis and his son Grady, we get to revisit the town as well as some of the characters that we met in book one which was very nice. The characters in this story were very engaging. I loved Mia and her dedication to both her job as a teacher as well as her stubbornness when it came to her great-aunt Winny. Travis was very strong and stable. He loved his son and was willing to go to bat for him and be there for him in a way that his mother and stepfather had not been. I had to admire his determination to take care of Grady as best he could.

There were a few different parts that were involved in the story. There was Grady, Travis’s son, who was in Lonesome Way for the summer. He was having issues at home with failing classes and fighting so Travis needed to deal with that. Then there was Mia’s niece who suddenly showed up at her house begging to stay the summer. We know as a reader that there’s more to that story – and even Mia knows there’s something strange going on with Brittany – but that’s not discovered until later. Then there’s Mia’s great-aunt Winny who has been apart from the family for many years and something happened between Winny and her sister, Mia’s grandmother, to cause a huge rift. When Winny gets hurt Mia wants to help the grouchy woman, but she also tries to figure out what happened in the past. While all of these stories were interesting they unfortunately made the romance take a back seat. It seemed that Travis finally talked to Mia and explained and apologized for what he’d done in the past and then they were together. We got scenes of them together but mostly sex scenes – which were great but they didn’t really grow the relationship any.

While there was a lot going on in the book and everything got solved and “righted” in the end it still seemed like at the end of the book there was something missing. Was it the romance? IDK, but I think so. So while I liked Larkspur Road it didn’t bowl me over. I’ll still be reading the next book in the novel about Travis and Rafe’s brother, Jake. He’s one of those guys that is positive that he won’t ever get married because love is not for him. Oh I love to see men like that fall. lol

Rating: 3.25 out of 5

The Series:

Book Cover Book Cover

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


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Guest Review: Sage Creek by Jill Gregory

Posted October 25, 2011 by Tracy in Reviews | 4 Comments

Tracy’s review of Sage Creek by Jill Gregory.

After her marriage falls apart, Sophie McPhee returns to her hometown of Lonesome Way, Montana, planning to steer clear of men and focus on her new bakery, A Bun in the Oven. Who she doesn’t expect to see is Rafe Tanner, her first crush who now runs his family’s ranch-and who spent most of their childhood ignoring her. But is Rafe a changed man?


While Rafe – is stunned to discover that Sophie’s grown into an irresistibly beautiful woman, he’s been hurt too. They both have their guards up, but melt in each other’s company. Can they admit that home is truly where the heart is?

Sophie is devastated by the betrayal of her husband with another woman. Not only was he having an affair but he got his mistress pregnant – something she’d been wanting from day one of their marriage. She was always told it wasn’t the right time so to see him get another woman pregnant was just too much. Sophie heads home to pretty much lick her wounds and ends up throwing a baby shower for her best friend. Not only that but she almost immediately decides to start a bakery – something she had just sold in San Francisco.

When Sophie meets Rafe Tanner, her best friends’ brother that she’s had a crush on most of her life, she finds that her attraction to him hasn’t lessened with time and space. Rafe is anxious to get near Sophie as well but he thinks that he may want more than just a fling – even though he knows that it’s unlikely that Sophie will want the same.

There is also a bit of a mystery stalker in the picture as bad things keep happening to Sophie’s truck and they can’t quite figure out why. There were quite a few story threads running through the book that really took the focus away from the romance. I’m sure that the intention was to give an overall view of the town and the people in it but it really ended up detracting from all parts of the story.

While I like Sophie as a character for the most part I didn’t quite understand her. She was so very focused on having a baby that it almost was running her life. It was in her thoughts constantly – both from her ex-husband and of course her best friend being pregnant – and it got to be a bit much. I understand wanting children but feeling like you can’t be a complete person without them overshadowed, to me, even the romantic relationship in this story.

Rafe was great and I really liked him as well. I loved that he was a great father and really looked out for his daughter and his family. He hesitated at first with his decision to chase Sophie but once he made the decision and the fact that he wanted her in his life permanently he didn’t hesitate. A really good hero.

In the end it was a cute book and I might read the next in the series and I’m a bit curious as to what happens with Rafe’s brother.


Rating: 3.25 out of 5

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


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What I Read Last Week & a NOLA update

Posted October 18, 2011 by Tracy in Reviews | 9 Comments

Home sweet home…and all in one piece!

I got back from GayRomLit last night…well really early this morning and I gotta tell ya – I had so much damned fun! I loved meeting all the readers, bloggers and of course authors that I met over the 4 days and it’s a time I’ll remember forever. I’m going to do a whole NOLA/GayRomLit wrap up over at Janna’s blog so I’ll let you know when that comes around and post the link. (I’ll post more pictures later as I want to get everyone’s approval to show their mugs on here first)

After our extremely fun time at Lafitte in Exile on Thursday night we got to do beignets & café au lait, author readings and a cruise around the French quarter before we ate lunch and then headed to the Creole Queen riverboat for an author signing on the water. I got to meet great authors that I had read and met some that I hadn’t but now want to. Yes, it’s true…my wish list has grown considerably. Lol

We had a pretzel party, a wine and cheese party, a hurricane party and of course the gay bar crawl. I did make myself known on Saturday night when I spilled my margarita down the back of Joyee Flynn’s pants. Yeah, talk about an embarrassing moment. Lol But we eventually made our way over to Lafitte’s again and spent the night drinking margarita’s, laughing and having fun. The bartender, Jimmy, was awesome and just adorable.

I gotta tell you that there was that time I went into the bathroom Saturday night and of course there’s no lock on the door (yeah, cuz they do shit it in there and it’s not shit. Lol) and had to pee. I did my business and was getting re-clothed when this woman pushed the door open. She, at first, was mortified that she’d walked in on me doing my pants up but then she just decided what the hell, came in and started peeing while I was still half nekkid. Oh. My. God. Really? I just had to laugh – and I did…for a very long time.

Belinda McBride, Clare London, Clare’s son David, Tam and moi

Squeee it’s Marie Sexton!, Clare London and Kate McMurray

I can’t possibly tell you every moment that was fun and funny because there were so many of them but trust me when I say I had a really, really, really great time.

Now – this post is about what I read last week…more or less. Lol Not much. Seriously, I ended up reading more than I thought I did but 2 of those books were on the way to and from my destinations via planes. It’s amazing what you can get read when you’re on a plane – and in an airport. I totally forgot about the TBR Challenge and yeah, didn’t do it. I’ll try to catch up for next month. (oh and no author links this week, sorry.  I’m just too damned tired and frankly – you can keep google working quite nicely while you look up the author.)

Anyway, I started the week with ZA Maxfield’s The Book of Daniel. Such a great story and just as wonderful as the first 3 in the series. Daniel was as such a crossroads in his life and he wanted to just make everything good in it by lying to people but he suddenly couldn’t lie to save his soul. Then there was Cam who Daniel really loved but Daniel and Cam had a hard row to hoe. They eventually managed to work it all out and it was great. 4 out of 5

I was lucky enough to have my GRL author lunch with ZAM & William Cooper, among others.  Here we are after we all stuffed ourselves with great food.

Me, Kayla Jameth, Shae Connor, ZAM, William Cooper & K-Lee Klein

After that it was Falke’s Captive by Anna Leigh Keaton and Madison Layle. This was the second story in the Puma Nights series. The second half of the quadruplets, Reidar and Kelan fall for a woman who is town to do genetic testing. What they don’t know is that she’s come to do it on animals – namely puma’s. Oops. Kelan gets captured and his blood taken. The family scrambles to get the blood back before people find out about the family and shifters and Kelan and Reidar work to not fall in love with the beautiful woman. This was a good second installment of the series. I liked this one only slightly less than book 1 as I thought it was a bit romance light – more of a fated mate thing – but it worked. I’ll post my review soon. 4 out of 5

After that it was a short called Surprises: Romeo Club by Brita Adams. The story was about a man who goes in to fill out an application for a dating service and gets a bit more than he was expecting. (m/m) 3 out of 5

Last on the list was Sage Creek by Jill Gregory. This was about a woman heading home to her small town in Montana after she’s betrayed by her husband. She finds that she still has a crush on her best friends’ brother and lo and behold he has a crush on her too! There’s a lot going on in the book with their romance, her mom’s romance, her opening a bakery, the hero’s daughter and his ex-wife and a crazed stalker. While I liked the book as a whole sometimes it was a bit much to take. 3.25 out of 5

And that is it. I think I read about 15 pages while I was in NOLA and then I fell asleep. Lol Maybe I’ll catch up this week but yeah…probably not. Lol

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Holly Told Me To Read it! Honor’s Splendour by Julie Garwood


Happy Reading!!


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