Hi-dee-ho Neighbors!
How are all my cyber friends today? Behaving yourselves? I certainly hope not! lol
Ok – update on what exciting things happened in my life this past week….***crickets chirping***…all right, moving on.
LOL Actually nothing much happened at all this past week and that’s A-ok with me! The hub’s good, the kids are good. I can’t complain!
You can still get in the running for the Diana Palmer book giveaway that will run until this Saturday at 11:59pm. Just leave a comment to enter.
Also – I posted the list of books that I read in April on my other blog. You can go here to see it.
So – what did I read this past week?
I started off with a Quickie read for The Book Binge called Too Good To Be True by Penelope Friday. This was a cute book with some British humor in it. The heroine’s self-esteem was really low when I first started the book and I was slightly turned off but then I liked her so much that I enjoyed the story. About a woman whose husband left her and she meets a great looking guy in a bar – but he’s going to trial soon because he might be a criminal. What’s a girl to do? I’ll let you know when my review posts.
Next up was To Beguile a Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt. I’m considering this both a Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week as well as an FTSP read. I actually tried to read the first book in this series several times but couldn’t get into it for some reason. I did read book 2 and really liked it so I’m just continuing with the series. This is the story of Helen who has been the mistress of a Duke for many years. She’s finally left him after being only looked at as a possession for much of that time. She enlists the help of her friend (from the previous book) and goes with her 2 children to Alistair Munroe’s castle in Scotland to be his housekeeper. Alistair is none too happy to see her. He doesn’t want a damned housekeeper! Alistair is scarred from an Indian attack and lives a quiet sequestered life. When Helen arrives his life is turned upside down – but in a good way. I really liked the book a lot and it was a sweet beauty and the beast story – which I love. 4.25 out of 5
Next was Savor the Moment by Nora Roberts. This is book 3 in the Bride Quartet series. It started off slow for me but got better. I read this one for The Book Binge as well and will let you know when my review posts. This was Laurel and Del’s story.
I read a lot of The Book Binge this week because I’m trying to catch myself up and…well, I have a hard time saying no! lol Anyway, another short read for them was Sacrifice in Stone by Patricia Mason. This was about a statue and the woman who was trying to bring it to life. Cute.
Lover Mine by JR Ward was my next read. This was a darned good book. It’s so nice to have some romance back in the BDB books. This was John Matthew and Xhex’s (pronounced Hex from what I understand) story but we also got views into Blay and Qhuinn’s relationship, more from Tohr, some info on Payne (thank heavens!) and of course the evil Lash. There were 2 corresponding stories that were in the book as well. One was from Darius which I really enjoyed cuz I’ve liked him from book 1 (will it ever be revealed that JM is Darius? hhmmmmm IDK) and also another story about a tv show called the Paranormal Investigators. The PI story was a bit odd and it wasn’t revealed until the end how it connected but it did, finally, connect. I’m not sure I cared about the connection too much or if it’s going to be used in further books but I could have done without it and been quite happy. 🙂 Anyway a good book worth reading. 4.25 out of 5
I decided that it was time to catch up on some of the m/m shorter stories and novellas that I have had on my ereader for some time. The first was Out of My Mind by ML Rhodes. What a great story. Rafferty Jones and Nick Tucker have been partners in the PD for 4 years now. They’ve been best friends practically from day 1 and have spent great amounts of time together. Rafferty is now divorced and he’s damn happy about it, but now he’s having erotic thoughts about his partner and he’s freaking out. He’s never had “those” kind of thoughts about a man before and he doesn’t quite know how to handle it. After a storm where Nick almost drowns Rafferty and Nick have a great night together (oh, Nick’s gay but didn’t reveal it to Rafferty for his own reasons) things go a bit haywire and Rafferty’s confused. I really liked this book a lot. Rafferty in his self examination unwittingly hurts Nick and it just killed me. I seriously was feeling the guys pain and my heart hurt for him. The only thing I think I would have liked was to see more from Rafferty during his self-examination. We got his POV at the beginning of the book but later only Nick’s. It was still great but that would have given it a different depth as well. 4.5 out of 5
After that I read 3 free short stories that I got from the GLBT Bookshelf (thank you Tam & Chris for the link) The first was Halloween Pickup by PA Brown about a guy who quickly picks up a guy who’s in costume as a cop. They take off and enter a dungeon – but are things really as they seem? Cute. (8 pages) Then Lee Rowan’s Gift Exchange (7 pages) about 2 men on a submarine who exchange some great gifts with each other at Christmas. Very sweet.
Next was Josh Lanyon‘s The French Have a Word For It (30 pages) about a artist who is living in Paris trying to make it on his own when his old body guard finds him and they share a wonderful night together. But things are not always what they seem. This was very good and worth the read.
After that it was Tabula Rasa by Tory Temple. This a contemporary western that was recommended to me by Hilcia. The story of Rafferty (I know 2 Rafferty characters in one week!) who is trying to save his father’s horse ranch that was left to him after his dad died. He can make enough money on the rodeo circuit as a roper but his partner has a broken ankle. He gets Cash to be his heeler and they do fine in the circuit – but as lovers, not so good. Oh, the sex is good but they have issues in their non-relationship. Then Cash has a freak accident and has a temporary memory loss and can’t remember if they were together. Well, when Raff doesn’t come through with the whole truth things don’t turn out the way he plans. A great story that I really enjoyed reading. Cash is an ass at first but when he loses his memory his has somewhat of a personality change. Another book where I could feel the guys pain. Was I overly sensitive this week because my heart hurt a lot this past week for many of the characters. Good stuff. 4 out of 5
Last but not least was yet another read for The Book Binge (I told you I was behind!) called Drilled by Regina Carlysle. I hate the title of this book – seriously. However since the girl is dating a guy who owns a petroleum company and is drilling crude oil on her land, I guess it’s fitting. Doesn’t mean I have to like it! lol Anyway, this is part of the Tempt the Cougar series and tells the story of 41 year old Lori Donovan who has moved back to the small town that she grew up in. She meets 31 year old Jackson and things steam up. I’ll let you know when my review posts.
Some of my Book Binge reviews that posted this past week:
Icing on the Cake by Shayla Kersten (One of my m/m challenge reviews)
Happy Reading!
Another long list of books read…I got one for the whole month of April! But at least it was a good one, right? LOL
Glad to hear all is well out there for you and your family, Tracy :).
Glad you enjoyed the freebies. I understand there is a sequel coming to Rafferty and Nick.
Happy birthday girly!! Have a super day!
Happy birthday to YOU!!!!!
I really enjoyed Out of My Mind and am looking forward to the rumored sequel. Lover Mine is waiting for me to pick it up at the library.
You're welcome re: the freebies! 🙂
Happy birthday Tracy!
I read Lover Mine and was surprised at how much I liked it, considering how disappointing the last few books were.
In the last 6 days I've read 2 books! It's crazy. I'm so jealous of your ability to read all these books LOL.
Happy Happies, Tracy!!!!
Great set of reviews, Tracy – and happy birthday!
I read the first two Elizabeth Hoyt books when I was still reading m/f historicals. Part of me thinks I should get To Beguile a Beast despite losing interest in the genre. Hmmmmmm…I'll have to ponder whether my feelings are more to do with needing to finish a series rather than actually wanting to read the book :).
Speaking of series…I have Lover Avenged on my TBR pile plus Lover Mine on pre-order at Amazon. Two more books I ought to et down to reading :).
OMG you are right! Ward never revealed whether or not JM was Darius. I was so focused on Qhuinn and Blay I missed this.
Amy – Good to hear from you! Hey – 1 book is better than none, right? 🙂
Tam – Ooooh Nick and Rafferty sequel – that will hopefully be just as good.
Thanks for the birthday wishes!!
Chris – Thanks! Yep OomM was great! And Lover Mine was great too – hopefully you'll like it as well.
Stacy – Thanks!
I was pleasantly surprised with LM as well. I mean really, you just never know what you're gonna get any more with Ward but I can't seem to make myself stop reading the series! lol
Kris – Again? lol Thanks honey!
Jenre – Thank you and thank you! 🙂
Yeah, that's a toughy – do I want to read the stories or just finish the series. I've been there and it's not an easy decision to make! Was book 1 in the Hoyt series good cuz I just couldn't get into it. I liked 2 & 3 though.
LA is much better than Phury's book and LM is even better than that! Enjoy!
SHB – Do you think JM or anyone else will actually ever know the truth? It's odd since Xhex did the whole 2 made 1 thing. (Boy that was hard to say without giving anything away! lol)
Am glad the family (and you too I hope 🙂 are all well!
Behaving yourselves?
Well, not exactly. I'm just about to do the unthinkable and not read a highly anticipated book until…well, I read something else. OK, for me, that's a big move *grin*
YAH that we get Team Qhuay in Lover Mine! What can I say, I'm a fan. I've heard there are only 70 chapters – what's with that?
Oh, and I do like the sound of Out Of My Mind. I love books with character development and introspection (e.g. By Degrees and Keeping Promise Rock 🙂
Happy Birthday to yous…
Happy Birthday to yous…..
Happy Birthdays tooos Tracy….
Happy Birthdays to yous….
Hope all went your way honey!!!
Wow some books you got there!!!
Happy Birthday, hope you had a great day!
Looks liked you did some really good reading. I really liked Out of My Mind and Tabula Rasa.
glad to hear the bdb is back on form. I still haven't read lover avenged but have john matthew's story on order. 🙂
Lesleyw – it's too early in the morning to use the shift key. I apologise for the shortage of capital letters in this post. 🙂
Tracy, great list of books.
Hey you read a few of my favorites this week. Out of my Mind by Rhodes… Raff and Nick.. yeah! I see someone already told you there's a sequel coming out. I've been waiting for that one forever! (Still waiting…).
And I'm so glad you enjoyed Tabula Rasa. You made me want to re-read it. 😀
Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday!
Orannia – LOL I like that you're not behaving yourself. 🙂
Sometimes I have to put off the highly anticipated as well just so I don't over-anticipate. 🙂
Out of My Mind is great – I think you'll like it.
Actually I think there are 71 chapters in LM! lol
Cecile – aawww – thanks honey. Very nice of you.
Lily – Thanks!
Yep both of those books were very well done and highly enjoyable.
Lesley – LA was definitely more in the romance category than any book since Z's and LM is even more so.
LOL Don't worry about the caps – they're a pain! 🙂
Hilcia – Thank you for all the book recs – those were great. TR was definitely a different kind of read but very good.
Oh honey..
What a haul of a read…
I really need to grab a P.A. Brown and read it – I love romance suspense and I hear such good things..
I am reading one of those cougar books at the moment all the titles are wonky…
That Rhodes book is sone of my fav by her… Lover Mine seems to be a hit with you.. glad you are still loving the series..
Happy reading this week..
E.H>
Very nice list, Tracy!! And belated happy birthday 🙂
Out of My Mind is added to my tbb list and I'm looking forward to the freebies from Chris and Tam's links too.
I enjoyed Icing On The Cake as much as you did and hope to read more about these guys too! 🙂
EH – The PA Brown was just sweet. Short, but sweet.
The titles ARE wonky in that series aren't they? Strange. Although I'm starting to worry about Ellora's Cave and their covers and titles as a whole lately. lol
Janna – Thanks!
I think you'll really like Out of My Mind.
Icing was cute, wasn't it? Glad you liked it.
Happy belated Birthday, Tracy!!!
Looks like you had some great reading last week!
I'm on hold for Savor the Moment at the library. I hope I get it soon and will look for your review. In the meantime, I shocked myself and picked up Lover Avenged from the old TBR. I guess all the buzz with the release of Lover Mine got me in the mood for a BDB fix. Crazier things have happened! LOL!
I hope this week brings you plenty of hours reading some great books, too! 🙂
How odd does that sound, Christine that you FINALLY picked up Lover Avenged! You were the one who got me stuck on the crack in the first place! lol I have to say it was much better than Phury's book.
Thanks for the belated birthday wishes! 🙂
I know Tracy! It is odd sounding. I was SUCH a Ward fan as little as three years ago, but started to have issues with the series starting with V's book. Gah! It still makes me crazy when I think about it. But I was so vested in the characters at that point that I can't help but stick around to make sure everyone gets their HEA. I am enjoying Lover Avenged so far. 🙂
I finally joined the rest of the world and picked up my first BDB book. Then I immediately bought the next 6. I'm looking forward to finally getting to Lover Mine.
Christine – I know how you feel. V's book was good but really was just too much for me and took the series a direction I just hadn't forseen. With LA and LM I think she's finally putting some more romance in her books. Nothing like the first 3 but still good. Ok – just talking about them I want to go back and re-read books 1-3! lol
Katie – I did the same thing, only there weren't that many books out at that time. Christine told me to read Dark Lover and even though I'd purchased it I put it off. I got to about page 68, put the book down and went and bought the next 3! lol Enjoy them!
Did you review Savor the Moment yet, Tracy? I really enjoyed that book 😀
Hey Nath! My Savor the Moment review will go up on the Book Binge so I'll let you know when it posts. 🙂