Tag: RAW

Raw 2008

Posted September 22, 2008 by Tracy in Reviews | 21 Comments

She’s baaaaaaack! Lol Hey everyone! I’m back from West Virginia and I had soooo much fun! I’m not even sure where to begin everything. So I’ll try to start at the top and work my way down.

Thursday: Extremely long flight – or it seemed like it going from the Pacific time zone to the Eastern time zone. My friend Jen and I left at 11:30 am from LAX and didn’t get into Huntington, WV until 10:00pm. Wow.

So we had called to make sure the shuttle from the hotel would be there to meet us and of it wasn’t – bummer. So we called and they said it was full and had to leave so they sent us a cab – on them. Ok then. I can do that. Unfortunately since we got in so late we couldn’t see shit of the countryside – another bummer. Got to the hotel and it was very nice and found out that not only did we get free breakfast in the mornings but 2 free drink tickets per person for the restaurant bar for each night we were there! Woohoo – let’s party! lol We hung at the bar for a little bit then went to bed at about 12am

Friday: 5:00am: Fuckin freight train goes through town!!!!! OMG!!! Have you seen the movie My Cousin Vinny where Vinny and Mona Lisa keep trying to get some sleep and trains and loud noises keep waking them up? I felt like I was living that movie! Lmao!!! I tried to sleep again but then another came through at 6:30am so I gave up!

At breakfast we sat down and eventually a woman by herself came to asked if she could join us. Of course we said yes and introduced ourselves…she was none other than author Delilah Devlin! She was very sweet.

We went for a walk all over town. It’s not a small town but it’s definitely seen better days. About every other store front is empty and there are huge buildings that aren’t in use at all. I’m sure there was more of the town that we didn’t get to but I’m not sure where it was! Lol We walked over to Marshall University which was very nice and walked through the campus and went to the stadium. Marshall University is best known, unfortunately, for the tragic plane crash in 1970 that killed most of the football team and the coaches. The movie We Are Marshall tells the tale of the rebuilding of both the football team and the lives of those left behind.

12:00pm – RAW Registration – got a great Samhain publishing bag and lots of cool goodies.
2:00pm – Book sale! Woohoo!!! Unfortunately all of the new releases that we were told were going to be there weren’t so no Chosen Sin by Anya Bast, no Mercury’s War by Lora Leigh, no Magical Christmas Cat by Nalini Singh. BIG bummer! But I found plenty others! And I got out for under $100.00! lol
7:00pm – Slumber party begins! So much fun. Most everyone in their PJ’s eating talking, meeting new people and bustin a move – just a good time.
About 11:00pm – party in Jacquelyn Frank’s suite! Jacki was making butterscotch martini’s for everyone and raffling off ARC’s her new book, Ecstasy, that comes out in January 2009. Bianca D’Arc and Nalini Singh were also there. Great time just talking and laughing.

Saturday: (no the train didn’t go through on Saturday!) Free morning so we had breakfast and walked around town some more. I think we probably walked about 5 miles! There was a chilifest going on right on the street by the hotel so there was lots of people, food and music. You’ll see the picture of the blue buss from Fifth Third Bank. Fifth Third? WTF is that? Can any of you who live near WV explain this to me? Lmao!

2:00-4:00pm Book Signing!!! This was one of the best times of the weekend for me. Just talking to all of the authors was fabulous. Everyone was so nice! A few thoughts:
Shelley Bradley/Shayla Black is hilarious! So down to earth. She grew up in the city that I currently live in so we gabbed a lot about that.
Nalini Singh – I love this woman! She is so incredibly sweet and down to earth and she’s got a great sense of humor!
Donna MacMeans – that woman just cracks me up. She’s always smiling and laughing!
Lucy Monroe – so sweet and nice and her hubby sat behind her the entire time and he was just as nice as she was.
J.R. Ward – so nice and talkative and took time with everyone there. I tried hard to babble but it was difficult!! Lol
(I’m such a friggin fan girl…some of my photos you can see I’m just a dork and grinning from ear to ear.)
Jacki Frank – Such a nice person and very down to earth!
7:00pm Masquerade Ball – this was great fun. Food and drinks and wonderful homemade desserts: the cheesecake was to die for! Everyone had such great costumes and/or masks and it was fabulous. Unfortunately by this time I was pretty much on my last leg and didn’t take any photos. 🙁Sunday: Wake up call at 4:00am and down in the lobby by 4:50am to catch the shuttle to the airport. Again the shuttle wasn’t available and they paid for a cab to get us to the airport. As we’re waiting in the lobby for the cab a pizza delivery guy shows up! At 5:00am! Is this normal back east? I know in my town they do NOT deliver after about 11:pm!!
So the taxi shows up and the guy pops the trunk and just sits there. Okaaaay. We put our stuff in the trunk and close it. Open the back doors and plumes of pot smoke come wafting out from the interior! I shit you not! He got us to the airport safely. It was a huge drag that we got to WV at night and couldn’t see any of the countryside and then left at the butt rack of dawn and didn’t see anything then either!

I’m so tired I think this post is a little dryer than I’ve intended. We only got a total of 16 hours of sleep because we were going and going. Overall it was such a fun weekend. Meeting new people, talking to the authors, relaxing and not having to worry about every day life made the weekend the best one I’ve had in a very long while.

Oh and I read this week too!

B.O.B.’s Fall by Veronica Chadwick and Lora Leigh – good
A Wish, A Kiss, A Dream Anthology by Shiloh Walker, Mary Wine & Lora Leigh
Tempt Me With Darkness by Shayla Black – I liked it a lot. Can’t wait for the rest of the series.
Seasons of Pleasure Series by Anya Bast: I read the first 3 – Winter, Spring and Summer. Pretty good – I liked them. Now I have to find book 4 since they’ve taken it off of Ellora’s Cave.
Death of A Pirate King by Josh Lanyon: omg, omg, omg OMG! This book freakin rocks!! This is by far my favorite book in the Adrien English Mysteries series. Josh knocked it out of the park on this one. So. Damn. Good. (In fact I’ll probably read it again this week)
You Don’t Know Jack by Erin McCarthy – a follow up book to the Pregnancy Test… pretty good.


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I’m Leaving On A Jet Plane

Posted September 18, 2008 by Tracy in Reviews | 9 Comments

Don’t know when I’ll be back again…ok, I’ll be back on Sunday but that’s just how the song goes. (I know some of you younger readers are just saying, huh?)

Anyway, I’m off to Lora Leigh’s RAW today and won’t be back ’til Sunday. I’m still rolling around in the stone age and have no laptop so unless I get online at the hotel, if they have the computers and the capability, I’ll be offline until Sunday sometime. Big bummer, but there it is.

For those of you who don’t know what RAW is:

RAW stands for Readers Appreciation Weekend. It is a weekend put together by Lora Leigh and will take place in Huntington, West Virginia. It will start Friday and run ’til Sunday. They have lots of fun things planned, including a slumber party and a masquerade ball (both with bars thank heavens! lol) as well as a private book signing for the weekend attendees. They do have a public signing on Sunday. From what I understand a lot of the authors attend both the slumber party and mask so hopefully I’ll get some great bribery pictures to share with everyone when I return.

These are the authors that are set to attend:

Jules Bennett
Claudia Pemberton
Nalini Singh
Jasmine Haynes
Shayla Black
Lora Leigh
Kay Stockham
Delilah Devlin
Veronica Chadwick
Lorie O’Clare
Shiloh Walker
Bianca D’Arc
Dianne Castell
Jacquelyn Frank
J.R. Ward
Donna MacMeans
Sylvia Day
Lucy Monroe
Mary Wine
Jennifer Estep
Dawn Ryder
Anya Bast
Diane Whiteside
Shirley Damsgaard
Erin McCarthy

Isn’t that awesome???? Very cool IMO. So be good while I’m away and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. (that leaves you wide open! :))


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What I’ve Been Reading This Week

Posted September 14, 2008 by Tracy in Features | 15 Comments

Hey everyone!

How was your week? How are things going for you? Good I hope!

I had a pretty normal week. Every day life doing every day things – just like I like it! 🙂

RAW starts on Friday! I’m so very excitied! I’ll be flying out to West Virginia on Thurday since it will take all stinkin day to get there but I’ll have lots of reading time. My friend Jen will be going with me and since she’s always got her nose stuck in a book as well I’ll be in great company! I’ll fly back in on Sunday.

I almost fulfilled my goal of reading at least 1 book by every RAW author. I read all but 2 authors. I bought 1 ebook this weekend and the stinker wouldn’t download for some reason (to Adobe Digital Editions – yuk). I sent an email to the book site and hopefully it will get cleared up…but who knows. The other author I attempted to read and couldn’t get past the first 40 pages. Oh well! I gave it the old college try!

One of my sister’s flew in from Kansas City, MO on Friday and a bunch of the family went and saw Wicked the musical. OMG it was so incredibly good! I had no idea it was a comedy too and that made it even better. If you ever have the chance to go – doooo eeet!

Ok – reading this week:

Promises Linger by Sarah McCarty. I have had this ebook for a while and finally got to it. I really liked it a lot. I thought Asa was just wonderful and Elizabeth for all her prior prudish ways turned out to be quite great in the end.
Dark Embrace by Brenda Joyce – see review in previous post.

Witch Way to Murder by Shirley Damsgaard (RAW author). I read this one because she’s a RAW author and I I needed to read it for the TBR Challenge and I liked it. Check the blog out on Wed. of this week for my TBR Challenge Review.

Heiress for Hire by Erin McCarthy (RAW author). I think it was Sayuri60 that recommended this book to me and I really liked it. I don’t have any problems with children in books, as I’ve discussed prior and this one just got to me. The child in this book was abused emotionally and that just killed me but the whole book was filled with love and lots of laughter. If you want a light, fast read and don’t mind kids in books I’d recommend it.

Promises Keep by Sarah McCarty was almost as good as the first in this series. I didn’t like it quite as much as Promises Linger but was still a great read.

The Trouble With Moonlight by Donna MacMeans (RAW author) was pretty good. It was a historical about a spy for the crown, James Locke, and Lusinda Havershaw who is a rare being in that she can soak up moonlight and become invisible. Yes, in case you’re wondering they did have invisible sex. Just a tad strange IMO. lol The book started off slow but it was a pretty good story. There were some inconsistencies in the book that bothered me but I’d still give it a 3 out of 5 stars.

Happy Reading!


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What I’ve Been Reading This Week

Posted September 2, 2008 by Tracy in Features | 14 Comments

OMG it’s Monday! How the hell did that happen? I think I completely missed Sunday. Ok, so I was hung over…but still, I should remember it! Sorry, I know I usually post this on Sundays but whatever. 🙂

Saturday night we went to a cocktail party at a friends house. So. much.fun. I had more mango martini’s than I thought was humanly possible and suffered a teeny tiny bit on Sunday. Oh well, it was soooo worth it!

This week we had Back to School Night at the girls’ school. Ok, my 5th graders teacher was like the energizer bunny on Red Bull. Seriously. That woman talked faster than lightning. I asked my oldest if she was always like that and she said yes! Holy cow! lol Then we headed to my 1st graders class and the woman has the voice of Minnie Mouse – no lie. She sounded more like a student than the teacher! haha!

RAW is almost upon me (Sept. 19-21) and believe it or not there are still 4 authors that I haven’t read. WTF? I did start one of the authors but got bored and moved on. oh well. I read a ton of books by RAW authors this week and still have more to go.

Just to let you know I’m being incredibly lazy today so you will get no book covers…but I’m going to inject a few hotties for your viewing pleasure (I already have those on my computer and don’t have to go searching!)

I started off my reading week with fellow DIK lady Katie Reus’ City of Secrets. Good story about a woman who’s ready to get back into the dating world after the death of her husband and how her best friend wants to be the only one she’s dating. Also has a great suspense story in there as well.

I then read Reason to Believe by Leslie Ann Dennis. A woman goes to Scotland to save a tree that her grandfather believes is connected to his life. If the tree dies so does her grandfather. She meets the Laird and love ensues. Well, lots of sex ensues, then love. FYI LAD also writes as Paisley Scott.

Moon Awakening (Children of the Moon book 1) by Lucy Monroe (RAW author) was next. I really liked this story. Basically a historical paranormal which included shifters and kilts. How could you go wrong???

Run with the Moon (A Children of the Moon story) by Lucy Monroe was next. A VERY short story which was kind of the start of the whole saga that then led into Moon Awakening. I just kind of read them backwards. Oops.

‘Til There Was U by Dianne Castell (RAW author) was a cute story about an architect who is originally from Tennessee but now lives in San Diego. He finds out he has a child back home but even his father won’t tell him what’s going on and who the mother is, etc. He decides to go home and takes his working partner with him. Sex, suspense and a HEA is what basically makes up the book. The series is Four O’Fallons and a Baby.

The Way U Look Tonight by Dianne Castell (RAW author) is the second book in the series. Also a cute book. Another O’Fallon comes home (to Tennessee)…this one a very famous soap star. Reporter hoping to get his personal story follows him home. I liked this book but it was wrapped up a little too pat in the end. I want my HEA at the end of the book but I also want it to be believable.

Next I read 5 short stories (and I do mean short…each one was only 5-7 pages long) by Lorie O’Clare (RAW author). The Billionaire, The Cop, The Motel Room, The Marine & The Toy Store. Very erotic. A friend sent these to me, I can’t even find mention of them on her site. *shrugs*

Nauti Buoy by Lora Leigh (RAW author) was next. I had read the 2nd book in the the Nauti Boys series over a year ago but just never read the first. It was ok. Not my favorite of her books by any means.

Bedroom Behavior 101 by Sophia Rae (RAW author who also writes under Jules Bennett). Cute little novella about the virgin and the carpenter.

Moving Violations: Law & Disorder by Veronica Chadwick and Lora Leigh (RAW authors) was last on the list. This was a novella about a woman who comes back to her home town after being gone for 15 years and picks up with the man she’s loved forever. There’s also a story of treason stuck in with all the sex. 🙂

Happy Reading!


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TBR Challenge: The Pregnancy Test

Posted August 20, 2008 by Tracy in Reviews | 14 Comments

TITLE: The Pregnancy Test
AUTHOR: Erin McCarthy
SERIES: The New York Girlfriends
Book 1: The Pregnancy Test
Book 2: You Don’t Know Jack
Published: 2005

REASON FOR READING:
Wanted to read more books by RAW authors.

SUMMARY:
This story is the story of Mandy Keeling, a Brit living in New York. Although she owns a business she’s pretty much living off of her rich parents. Mandy finds out she’s pregnant and figures out that she needs to grown up and take responsibility for her life, and now the life of her baby.

THOUGHTS/OPINION:
So Mandy Keeling finds out she’s pregnant by a guy that she’s been seeing for the past 6 months. When she tells Ben that she’s preggo he wants her to terminate the pregnancy. When she refuses he offers her $5,000 if she’ll pretty much just go away. She, being the bright girl that she is and knowing a complete ass when she sees one, refuses the money and, thank heavens, gets out of his life! Ok, she didn’t know he was an ass for 6 months but she figured it out!

Mandy also figures out that she can’t live on her parents’ money any longer, she needs to buck up and find a “real” job, one that has health insurance and normal hours which will make child care easier after the baby comes. She sells her business that she’d bought with mommy and daddy’s money (and has never turned a profit) and goes for a job interview that one of her friends got her at her work. The problem is that the guy she’s interviewing with, Damien Sharpton, is considered an ogre. They call him Demon Sharpton because he’s such a hard ass to work for. Despite a horrible first meeting and interview that ends badly, Mandy gets the job.

Employee and employer see very little of each other for 2 months…even though Mandy is Damien’s assistant she knows how to hide from him so that he won’t notice her slightly increased belly and know that she’s pregnant (she does a lot of IMing, texting and emailing). Damien can’t seem to get Mandy out of his mind and Mandy is having some pretty erotic dreams about her boss. Damien finally insists that Mandy take a trip with him so that he can get to know her and get her out of his mind (yeah, like that ever works) and things start coming together for them. They actually become friends while on the trip and find that they like each other very much.

Damien has some serious issues with his past and doesn’t want to get into a relationship but he wants to have hot monkey sex with Mandy…if only for the time they’re on vaca. This is saying something since the man hadn’t had sex in 3 years and has had no urge to do so until now. Yes, that’s right 3 years. Damn. Mandy and Damien end up falling in love and in spite of all the issues that surround them…Mandy’s pregnancy, Ben the jerk who has come back in to her life, Damien’s completely messed up past…they find that with each other they can overcome just about anything.

I really enjoyed this story from cover to cover. There were more than several parts when I was laughing out loud at things the characters would say or do. Mandy was an amusing, complex character that I thoroughly enjoyed reading about. Damien didn’t feel that he deserved to be happy and tried really hard to be mean but he was such a nice person, I really liked him. He acted the hard ass because it kept people away from him. I can’t even imagine going through what he had and coming out anywhere near normal. But Mandy helps him through and it’s all good in the end. Of course – I have to have my HEA! lol

Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again?
No she wasn’t new to me. I read My Immortal which was pretty good and then started Fallen but it was a DNF for me. Just couldn’t get into it. I think I’ll stick with reading her “lighter” stuff cuz I liked it much better.

Are you keeping it or passing it on?
Keep

Did you enjoy the book? Yes

Would you recommend this book to others? Yes

Score:
3.75 out of 5


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