Month: May 2007

Review: Sugar and Sin by Stella and Audra Price

Posted May 29, 2007 by Rowena in Reviews | 17 Comments

Review: Sugar and Sin by Stella and Audra PriceReviewer: Rowena
Sugar and Sin (Eververse, #1) by Stella Price, Audra Price
Series: Eververse Series #1
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: August 1st, 2007
Genres: Paranormal Romance
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two-stars
Series Rating: two-stars

Dark Urban Fantasy Romance. What would you give for a second chance? Astrid, a witch, has often wondered what would happen if her lover, Fallon, a teleport demon, came back to her. After a year apart it seems fate will bring them together once more, and their relationship is going to be tested with a new threat to their lives and the lives of their friends. A reckoning is coming, and its time to choose sides. When the exiled demon prince Cassiel gives Astrid an offer she can't refuse, will her relationship with Fallon pay the price?

I got this book a few weeks ago and was really stoked to start it because it seemed different from anything I’ve ever read and I thought I’d enjoy a sort of change of pace I guess you can say.

Sugar and Sin is the first book in the Eververse series by Stella and Audra Price. Now these books aren’t your normal good and honorable hero who has an upstanding job and code of honor that he lives by, these heroes are more dark and a tad bit eviler (yeah I made that up so what) …LOL. These are the guys that have that dark lifestyle that your normal hero in romance novels wouldn’t get involved in. The shady guys, you know the hired assassins, the thieves and thugs and all that good stuff. I was all about this because you know, everyone needs love in their lives? I thought it was an interesting twist on things. Then I started the story and was a bit confused in the beginning as to who the main characters were, what the storyline was and so forth but I kept on pressin’ on and I guess you can say that this book just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Holly had to keep reminding me that this story is an erotica and not strictly romance so it makes sense that there’s a lot of sex going on in these stories. Because, seriously…there’s a lot of sex going on in this book. Not that I don’t love me a good love scene, even if it’s on the raunchy side, I mean seriously the more the better, but I need deeper or more concise storylines to go along with the racy sex scenes and I didn’t feel that I really got that in this story.

So we’ve got Fallon, who is the hero of this book. And Fallon, Fallon, Fallon….he was a character alright, a hero that I just didn’t get. He found his way onto my hit list when Astrid (the heroine) tells him that in the year or so that they’ve been seperated she hasn’t slept with anyone and that she was in love with him, she tells Fallon that she loves him and that it’s always been about him for her, this of course makes Fallon feel bad because though she’s been faithful to him (even though she didn’t really have to) he hasn’t been faithful to her and he kind of feels bad because it’s been the same for him with her, you know the whole, there’s never been another woman like Astrid for him in the year or so he’s banging his way around the world. And when Astrid tells him that she loves him, he says the words back to her. And he really means it, now Astrid (like me) didn’t believe him and told him that he didn’t have to say the words to her just because she said them to him and he assures her that he really does love her.

So happy happy joy joy?

Not really, because after their conversation about how much they love each other and all that goodness, Feyd (Fallon’s best friend and partner in crime) and Fallon walk into the club and already Fallon’s looking for his next booty call. Yep, I guess Fallon doesn’t really feel the need to be faithful to the one that he loves.

If that’s what rocks your socks, I guess but I didn’t get it and I didn’t like it and Fallon stayed on my hit list because of it…I mean, after everything, I’m okay with Fallon now but I’m still not a big Fallon fan but it’s all good in the hood.

There were other things in the book that I didn’t quite care for, like I found the dialogue to be a bit cheesy mostly and I thought Fallon and Feyd were immature in the pranks that they pulled on George and yeah I hated him too but the constant things they did to make George mad didn’t make me laugh or make me think, oh gosh these guys are so cool, it made me think, oh goodness, let’s grow up guys…you know that kind of stuff.

Then there was the onslaught of character introductions, there were so many and it took me awhile to get each character and what they were, what their powers were all straight in my head and Stella and Audra sure did make me work to understand their world, for me it just wasn’t easy to follow but it seems like a cool little world they’ve got going on here….though the overall story didn’t really grab me like other books have, I’m not going to give up on this series or these authors, I’ve got other books by them that I’ll try out and see if I like them better.

So yeah, this one just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Grade: 2 out of 5

two-stars


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Review: Hawk O’Toole’s Hostage by Sandra Brown

Posted May 29, 2007 by Rowena in Reviews | 4 Comments

Review: Hawk O’Toole’s Hostage by Sandra BrownReviewer: Rowena
Hawk O'Toole's Hostage by Sandra Brown
Publisher: Bantam
Publication Date: October 1st 1997
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Westerns
Pages: 224
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three-stars

From the one and only Sandra Brown comes a searing novel of romantic suspense. . . as a beautiful young mother falls victim to a brazen crime. . . and a seductive captor. . . .

When her divorce was finally granted, Miranda Price thought the worst was behind her.

Now she could get on with her life, far from the public scrutiny and private misery that went along with being Representative Price's wife.

But when Miranda decides to take their young son on a vacation out West, she stumbles into a mother's worst nightmare.

Snatched off a train full of vacationing sightseers, she and her son become the captives of an enigmatic stranger.

Miranda knows she will do anything to save her child. . . even if it means fighting her own treacherous feelings for the man who holds her hostage. . . even if it means facing up to a shocking revelation that will make her question her past, her choices, and the woman she's become.

So this is another book that I read yesterday while I waited to get my Crazy Cool back from my friend Theresa. I read this book in like 3 hours, it was really short and my very first Sandra Brown. As a first book by a new to me author, it probably wasn’t my best choice because this book was just okay.

I liked it well enough, I guess. I mean, the story is about an Indian Chief who is really a half breed, he takes a woman and her son captive in order to open the eyes of the Senators and Governors who shut a mine down on their reservation. The mine that brought in all of the business and money to their little tribe, without the mine open, lots of jobs were lost and a lot of families weren’t doing too good. But of course, the white man doesn’t care about the Indians and the Indians are pissed to high heaven about it. So they take matters into their own hands.

So the Indian Chief, Hawk O’Toole kidnaps Miranda and Scott Price so that they can have Morton Price, Miranda’s ex husband and Scott’s father take a keen interest in their cause. Their cause to reopen the mine and blah blah blah.

So yeah, Hawk steals Scott and Miranda won’t be left behind, so they had to adjust their plans to include her because well, she kicked up a fight and whatever and as they fight tooth and nail with each other, their desire for each other grows until it’s at an all time high, but Hawk, big bad Indian guy despises everything that Miranda is, she’s white, she’s privileged and she’s a whore and slut. He read that in a newspaper and totally believes everything the newspaper wrote about her ….oh hell to the no but if you were to believe everything that was written in the newspapers about Indians, it’s like OFF WITH YOUR HEAD to Hawk O’Toole.

He was a very stubborn and cynical man, one that I had a hard time liking. The names he called Miranda, without knowing a hot damn thing, the way he just knew she was a skank pissed me off, because he swore he was all knowing in everything, rolls eyes …he is SO not one of my favorite heroes.

Then there’s Miranda, who was pouty and prissy and just everything that gets on my nerves. She made things worst for herself whenever she talked to Hawk, instead of being scared and whatever, like normal people would be, she was headstrong and dumb. She never shut the hell up and even though I would have been pissed for him calling me all those dumb names, I still wouldn’t be as stupid as she was about everything, well, at least I hope I wouldn’t.

I really liked reading about the Indian tribes though. I thought Ernie and his wife, Scott and Donny were cool additions to the story. I didn’t care one bit for that stupid wench, Dawn January, if anyone was a stank hoe, she was…

One of the things that bothered me was the way Hawk manhandled Randy. He was always so rough with her, pulling her by the hair, roughing her up, it was like, hot damn man, if you care about your women so much, why are you tossin’ Randy up like she’s garbage…you’re the piece of shit.

I liked the way the story ended, with Randy coming to his rescue but it wasn’t enough to make me absolutely love it or even like it a lot…this book was just very average for me and I’m glad that I can finally get back to my real reading….Christian Hawkins time baby…ooh wee!

This book was just okay, read it or not, it’s not really a waste of your time but it’s not like the best read ever either. I won’t give up on Sandra Brown though, maybe sometime later I’ll give her another whirl…

Grade: 3 out of 5

three-stars


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Review: White Lies by Linda Howard

Posted May 28, 2007 by Rowena in Reviews | 11 Comments

Review: White Lies by Linda HowardReviewer: Rowena
White Lies (Rescues, #4) by Linda Howard
Series: Rescues Series #4
Publisher: Harlequin, MIRA
Publication Date: October 1st 2003
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 256
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four-half-stars
Series Rating: five-stars

When Jay Granger's ex-husband is seriously hurt in an accident, she is asked to confirm his identity at the hospital. But the man before her is almost unrecognizable from his injuries. Tentatively she identifies him as Steve Crossfield, the man she was once married to. When he awakens from his coma, Steve cannot remember anything of their life together. Is this the man Jay once loved intensely, or is she attracted to a complete stranger?

I left my book in my friend Theresa’s car last night and so I made due with reading a short story until I can get that book back and finish reading about the uber sexy Christian Hawkins. I’m really loving all of this government agency crap, I’m totally loving it all. I just finished watching Shooter last night with Mark Wahlberg and man he was looking mighty scrumptious in that book and then in between reading about the SDF guys and now reading about Lucas Stone’s sexy self, I’m just one content, happy Polynesian chick salivating for more….;)

What surprised me about this book was that I really liked it. The reason I was so shocked that I liked it was because I don’t’ like amnesia stories. Actually, I hate them. Until You by Judith McNaught? Yeah, I hated that story and I still cringe thinking about when Sheridan whatever her last name gets her memory back and all the drama that comes after it, I just hate it, I hate reading about it and I hate when the shoe drops and blech, I just don’t like it.

It was different with this book, first off, the hero was the one suffering from amnesia. He was the sole survivor of an explosion and his friends and allies were trying to keep him safe by giving him a new name and face so that the bad people looking for him won’t know that it’s him. They even go so far as to getting his new identity’s ex-wife to come and identify him and then keeping her with him to make things look legit.

So the entire time that he’s in the hospital, he’s bonding with Jay (the heroine and ex-wife of the other guy) Granger and they fall in love with each other, not so soon or anything, but over the duration of his stay in the hospital and into their forced confinement in Colorado.

It was so cute to watch these two fall in love and it was so cute to find out Jay’s reasons for keeping up with the charade. I felt Lucas’ fierce pissed offness at Jay for her little white lies but after she tells him her reasons before turning away from him and getting in the car to drive away, I couldn’t help myself, I said…Awwwww.

She’s his lobster!

This book was super short but it didn’t feel rushed or anything, I loved Linda Howard’s ability to drag me into Lucas and Jay’s world by feelings alone and not with a wordy novel. It may have been short but it packed a sure punch and I really enjoyed getting to know Jay more and finding out just who the real Lucas Stone was.

I totally recommend this book and though it’s not my favorite LH book to date, it sure is a great read and totally B worthy, just like Crazy Cool.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

four-half-stars


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Review: Crazy Hot by Tara Janzen

Posted May 27, 2007 by Rowena in Reviews | 13 Comments

Review: Crazy Hot by Tara JanzenReviewer: Rowena
Crazy Hot (Steele Street, #1) by Tara Janzen
Series: Steele Street #1
Also in this series: Crazy Cool (Steele Street, #2), Crazy Wild (Steele Street, #3), Crazy Kisses (Steele Street #4), Crazy Love (Steele Street #5)
Publisher: Dell
Publication Date: January 1st, 2005
Genres: Romantic Suspense
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four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Only the most dire emergency could send paleontologist Regan McKinney racing across the West in search of a man. But her grandfather has mysteriously vanished, and Quinn Younger could be the missing link. What the bad-boy-turned-American-hero is doing in the deserted tumbleweed town of Cisco, Utah, is an even bigger mystery…until danger trails Regan right to his front door and the sexy ex–air force pilot becomes her sole hope of survival.…

Quinn figures things can’t get worse than being stuck in tiny Cisco on an impossible special-ops mission. Then the dinosaur doc’s granddaughter roars into town with bad guys on her tail. Once, Quinn was on the fast track to a life of crime…until Regan’s grandfather rescued him. Now Quinn owes it to them both to find the old guy. But throw in a deadly terrorist and some hot dinosaur bones, and a man could get himself killed. Because facing down danger with this revved-up lady is one endless adrenaline-rush of pleasure—especially when they’re falling crazy in love… and hanging on for dear life.…

Non stop action.

That’s what I liked about this book.

I loved meeting the team, it was like meeting the Troubleshooters again, there’s something about men that are in teams that work in covert operations for the government that I just find utterly sexy. I loved meeting the men in Quinn’s team and even meeting Quinn himself. I find myself drawn to Kid Chronopolous though, I really look forward to reading his book with Nikki. I thought they fell in love rather quickly but hey, whatever rocks your socks Kid. I’m really looking forward to their book and getting to know them better.

Quinn was a great hero, I love these younger years crushes that turn into true love as grown ups. There’s something about these kinds of storylines that totally grab me and make me want to gobble them up, which is what I did with this book. Quinn’s little crush on Regan and his little prank that he did on Regan’s ex husband, I thought that was so cute and just oh so sweet. I kept grinning like a fool while reading the little tid bits that Quinn would share about his crush on Regan and how he wanted to better himself so that he would have a shot with Regan and then to see Regan’s crush on him and just everything made this book just so friggin’ cute.

I loved it.

I thought Regan was a cool heroine, not my favorite or anything but I thought she was cool, the whole Jeanette chaos at the end made me roll my eyes but I didn’t not like Regan because of it, she was cool stuff.

I enjoyed meeting the other characters and reading their little stories that lead into their own books in the future and I’m really looking forward to reading more about these characters. I think Christian Hawkins is a total stud and Dylan Hart too..YUM! Even though he’s average looking, I bet he’s the most intense of all of othe SDF guys…hehe, I’m giddy to read his book. Hmmm, I really want to read more about J.T. and Creed, they make it out alive, right? Oh goodness, I hope so, I haven’t checked out any of the other books to see who’s book is next and what not, I want to be surprised but man am I looking forward to the reading that I’ve got ahead of me with the rest of the books.

So excited, so though this isn’t my favorite book of all or even of this year, I still enjoyed this book a whole lot and this book is totally B worthy! A great read!

Grade: 4 out of 5

four-stars


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Upcoming New Releases!

Posted May 24, 2007 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Promotions | 5 Comments

Hello ladies,

We have two new releases coming out. These books have a release date of May 29th and June 1st. We were a bit confused by the dates so we decided to post these up now rather than later in case some lucky wenches want to keep their eyes open for these books in the stores.

First we have Desperate Duchesses by Eloisa James. I’ve never read Ms. James books before but this looks like it will be a good read.

Welcome to a world of reckless sensuality and glittering sophistication . . . of dangerously handsome gentlemen and young ladies longing to gain a title . . . of games played for high stakes, including-on occasion-a lady’s virtue.

A marquess’s sheltered only daughter, Lady Roberta St. Giles falls in love with a man she glimpses across a crowded ballroom: a duke, a game player of consummate skill, a notorious rakehell who shows no interest in marriage-until he lays eyes on Roberta.

Yet the Earl of Gryffyn knows too well that the price required to gain a coronet is often too high. Damon Reeve, the earl, is determined to protect the exquisite Roberta from chasing after the wrong destiny.

Can Damon entice her into a high-stakes game of his own, even if his heart is likely to be lost in the venture?

Sounds fantabulous!

We also have a story about another Griffin. Sins of a Duke is the new release by Suzanne Enoch that looks really good. This is also the last book in the Griffin Series and looks like Ms. Enoch saved the best for last. My sister in law and I have been following this series so we’re both excited to finally have Sebastian’s story.

Lust is a Sin . . .

Sebastian Griffin, the Duke of Melbourne, has raised his younger siblings, seen to it that they made correct matches, and basically kept everyone in line. Seen as the most powerful man in England, Sebastian has a reputation for propriety and has maintained a scandal-free life.

Until now.

Josefina Katarina Embry is a beauty, to be sure, but she claims to be the princess of a faraway country. While she dazzles the ton with her wit and charm, Sebastian suspects she’s up to something. And he’s determined to expose her . . . if only he wasn’t so distracted by her brazen sensuality and the irresistible allure of her kiss. Sebastian knows an affair will lead them into scandal, but will the most powerful man in England risk all for a princess of dubious lineage . . . or will he allow a most sinful desire to rule his heart?

Looks like Sebastian has finally met his match!

Two new books for your reading pleasure. Happy reading!


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