Tag: RW Day

What I Read Last Week

Posted May 31, 2010 by Tracy in Features | 10 Comments

Happy Monday and for you US dwellers Happy Memorial Day. (For you non US people Memorial Day is the day set aside specifically to honor deceased US Soldiers.)

Let’s see – what happened this week? Friday I went to an awards ceremony at the school. My youngest got an award for excellence in math (obviously her father’s daughter since I suck in math) and my oldest got one for her participation in Toastmasters and the valet program at school. Then they had the family picnic later that day. There’s a park right near the school so we all hiked up there and had a great time. It was sunny but pretty windy but nice anyway. Saturday I took my girls and one of my oldests friends out to see a movie. The youngest and I saw How To Train Your Dragon. Very cute. Then we went to the used book store where I was very good and only got 2 books – I know, can you believe it? (Then when I got home I put them in Goodreads and it says I already read one of them. I have absolutely no recollection of ever reading this book. Maybe when I re-read it it will all come back to me.) Then we went to the nearest mall and moseyed around for a while. To say that I was tired after I got home would be a gross understatement. lol Other than that it’s been a pretty uneventful weekend.

Update on my Finish the Series Project: I suck. Moving on….lol
Actually saying that I was going to finish it in a month – or even 3 months was pretty high and mighty of me. When I look at the list I had made from when I started in March I had 46 books to read in order to finish all the series I wanted to. Dear god! It’s just wrong that I let those books go so long! Now, I did go through the list and I decided that there were some series I just didn’t care if I ever finished and I marked them off of the list (total of 11 books). Then I read a whole bunch of books and marked them off the list (total 23). So the list – as it stands today is at 12 books remaining. I guess I’ll try to be industrious and finish those 12 in the next month (or so) sigh so many books, so little time. 🙂

Ok – on to what I read this past week:

First up was A Strong and Sudden Thaw by RW Day. I read this one for my DIK reading challenge, my m/m reading challenge & my goodreads May pick-it-for-me challenge. An excellent book that I highly recommend. You can read my review here. 5 out of 5

Next up was the novella Worth the Risk by Savannah Stuart. This was book 2 in the Miami Scorcher series and it was a good one. This book told Stephan’s story – he’s a DEA agent undercover as an arms dealer when he meets his mate. I read this one for The Book Binge and I’ll let you know when my review posts. 4 out of 5

My Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week was Dangerous to Touch by Jill Sorenson. I won this one on DIK a while back and was looking forward to reading it. Then it just kind of got lost in the shuffle of the flash drive. This is the story of Sidney who has psychic visions. She has one and contacts the police. She meets Marc who does not believe in psychics – but he can’t seem to stop wanting to see Sidney even if she believes she’s a fake – and possibly a suspect in the disappearance and murder of two women. A very good story indeed. Marc’s coming to terms that yes indeed Sidney is telling him the truth and Sidney getting the touch and love she’s needed all her life – good stuff. 4.25 out of 5

After that it was His at Night by Sherry Thomas. I just adore Thomas’s books. The way she writes just flows so easily and her stories always grab me and suck me in. Lord Vere is an agent for the crown. All his peers believe that he is a bubble-headed idiot but he’s not – he just plays one very well. He’s investigating Elissande’s uncle but she’s not aware of it. She just wants to be compromised so that she can get the hell out of her uncle’s house with her aunt and she’s only got 3 days to do it. She manages to snag Lord Vere but she starts to realize that there’s more to the man than everyone thinks. It’s a story of secrets and lies and it’s so good! 4.5 out of 5

The next book I read was The Wolf Next Door by Lydia Dare. This is book 3 in the Westfield Brothers trilogy. While it was good it wasn’t great. I had some issues with the heroine, Prisca, and the hero as well. I read this for the The Book Binge 3.5 out of 5

Next up was Swap Meet by Lolita Lopez – another book for TBB. This was a very good category type romance between a French billionaire financier and a Houston. TX, firefighter who meet at a partner swap. They hit it off and start a relationship. 4 out of 5

And last for the week was Welcome to Harmony by Jodi Thomas. I loved this book. While I enjoyed the couple of western historicals that I’ve read from Jodi I just really enjoy her contemporary books so much more. With this one she’s in Harmony, Texas and telling several different stories of the townspeople at once. While there’s a large cast of characters I never once felt overwhelmed with info and couldn’t read it fast enough. Read this one for TBB as well so as with the other I will let you know when my review posts. 5 out of 5

My Book Binge review that posted this past week:
Impulsive by Cathryn Fox

Happy Reading!

10 Comments

Tagged: Jill Sorenson, Jodi Thomas, Lolita Lopez, Lydia Dare, RW Day, Savannah Stuart, Sherry Thomas, The Book Binge, What I Read Last Week, What I've Been Reading This Week

DIK Reading Challenge Review & M/M Challenge Review: A Strong and Sudden Thaw by RW Day

Posted May 27, 2010 by Tracy in Reviews | 11 Comments

This was one of Jenre’s DIK picks. I belong to an m/m group on Goodreads and each month they have something called a pick-it for me challenge. If you join you are partnered up with another member and they choose a book for you to read. When ASaST was chosen I thought it was a great opportunity to kill two birds with one stone (poor birds). This review actually is doing triple duty as it covers my DIK reading challenge, my pick-it for me challenge and my m/m challenge. Now who says I’m not a multi-tasker?

The Ice fell upon the world nearly a hundred years ago, and if civilization didn’t rightly collapse, it surely staggered and fell ill a while. In the small town of Moline, Virginia, folks struggle to survive, relying on hybrid seed sent by the faraway Department of Reintroduction and Agriculture and their own faith in God and hard work. But when a mated pair of dragons starts hunting the countryside, stealing sheep, and attacking children, the townsfolk quickly learn that they don’t have the weapons or the skills to fight off such predators.

David Anderson is a farmer’s son who has explored the world through books. When he meets the new healer in town, Callan Landers, he doesn’t quite know what to make of the strange warmth stealing over him. It’s not until he surprises Callan with another man-and both men are promptly arrested for sodomy-that David finally realizes the truth about his own feelings.

When David and Callan stumble over a secret in a nearby abandoned town, their personal problems fade before government politics and corruption that threaten lives. It seems the dragons aren’t the worst dangers facing Moline.

David meets Callan by chance when he takes his sister to the local healer. Callan is the healer’s assistant. They click immediately and find common ground in their love of books. David borrows a book and then goes back to Callan a few days later to discuss the book – this starts a routine between the two men. But as much as they like discussing the books that David reads they also just like being together. By chance David walks in on Callan when he isn’t expected and finds Callana and another local man, Taylor, in the middle of having sex. David was with town trouble maker, Elmer, and Elmer runs to authorities and Taylor and Callan are subsequently arrested.

Callan is sentenced and paroled for being a sodomite and part of that parole is that he cannot be near David as it is feared that Callan, being the sodomite and pervert that he has been proven to be, will influence and corrupt the young boys of Moline. But David and Callan find a way to talk despite the restrictions that are put on them. One of the times they are together they discover serious information about the Dept. of R & A and events come to a head when Callan and David are sent off to help find and fight the dragons.

There is so much going on in this book that it’s hard to tell all the main points without giving important information away. I don’t want to give spoilers as I think that the surprises in this book are way better when they aren’t given away first.

I have to say that I’m so glad that this book was chosen for me. There were just so many things that I loved about the book I don’t think I can tell you all of them.

The first thing that struck me as I was reading was the desolation of the environment. What had happened to the world was almost a reversal. When I think back to the 18th or 19th centuries and all that they didn’t have that we do today, it’s mind-boggling. But in David and Callan’s world they had, at one point, everything that we have today only it’s been destroyed or frozen. When David first takes his sister Almond to see Callan she is very sick. Callan believes that she has strep but of course he has no antibiotics to treat her with and it’s incredibly frustrating for him.

David and Callan’s relationship was one of the things that I loved best about this book. It was very sweet and touching and so very emotional. David believing that he’s not good enough for Callan yet Callan believing that he’s not good enough for David – it just got to me on so very many levels.

I feel I would be remiss in not telling you that this is a highly emotional book. There are tragic deaths, floggings, emotional heartache and family trauma but all of the elements in the book happen for a reason and are told in such a way that you feel that you are there with David and Callan experiencing everything that they do. I found myself crying, gasping, crying again, turning pages at the speed of light (which is difficult to do on an ereader lol) but I wouldn’t have changed a thing. This is a wonderful book that I can’t recommend to you enough.

FYI – from looking at RW Day’s website I see that Out of the Ashes, the sequel to A Strong and Sudden Thaw, is due for paperback release on July 10th. I’ll definitely be reading that one.

Rating: 5 out of 5

11 Comments

Tagged: DIK Reading Challenge, Guest Review, m/m challenge review, RW Day

Tuesday Teaser – A Strong and Sudden Thaw

Posted May 25, 2010 by Tracy in Reviews | 4 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Today’s Teaser comes from A Strong and Sudden Thaw by RW Day page 56:

I told him, made him repeat it seven times because Benny C had a memory like a sieve and he was likely to get confused and end up telling Callan he was imposing taxes without consent or some other bit of the Declaration, but in the end he had it down.

Mam had given her consent that I could spend the afternoon in town, returning the healer’s book and doing some marketing for her; Callan had sent a message, garbled horribly by Benny C, that either invited me to visit or told me that I should keep a standing army and quarter troops in his house.

I’m reading this one for my May DIK Challenge and so far I am loving it.