Hello there!
How the heck are ya? I’m good. Tired. I’ve been all over my city at what seems like a gajillian appliance stores looking at refrigerators. Our fridge died back on Feb. 20 (luckily we had one in the garage so saved most of the food) and this is the first weekend we’ve had to really start the hunt. Going to places, seeing what we like, then going home to check out reviews and consumer reports, etc. My God it’s exhausting. Then after all of that my brain is so fried I just want to say, “point to one and we’ll get it.” lol Besides finding one we like that doesn’t have a crappy rep, we currently have what’s called a counter depth fridge because of the way the previous owners of our house remodeled it. It looks great but with counter depth models you get less refrigerator for more money. It’s completely asinine but there it is. So then we have to decide do we want to pay the money or do we not care if it sticks out farther. There’s room for it but will it bug the crap out of me? IDK. (and this after the furnace broke down 2 weeks before that!)
And now YOU know more about fridges than you ever wanted to learn! lol
The girls were gone all weekend at different friends’ houses and I should have had a relaxing weekend and lots of reading done. Not. lol
This is what I read last week:
Wedded in Scandal by Jade Lee was my first read of the week and I read this one for The Book Binge. The story follows a woman who is an Earl’s daughter but because of a huge scandal with the father the daughter and mother are left penniless. The daughter, Helaine, starts her own dress shop and is trying to get it off the ground. One of her clients is sister to a Viscount and he falls in lust with Helaine. It was a good book with some great dialogue. I loved the banter between Helaine and Robert but I did have some issues with it. You can read my full review here. 3.5 out of 5
Next up was Winging It by Deborah Cooke. This is book 2 in the Dragon Diaries series and it was really good. The series is YA and involves the children (who are now teens) of the dragon shifters from Cooke’s Dragonfire series. I really enjoy how Cooke really makes this about the kids and doesn’t involve the adults. Would regular adults normally have stepped in after everything that goes on in the book? Probably but this IS fiction! lol The story is again told from Zoe Sorensson’s point of view. She’s having issues with secrecy. She can’t tell her best friend about her dragon side and it’s causing problems with her friend. Then there’s the problem with her powers that seem to be non-existent and she’s supposed to be the Wyvern who is supposed to have special powers. The story follows Zoe and her dragon friends as they try desperately to save themselves and other shifters against evil mages. The book was so much more than I expected and I really liked it. I can’t wait for the next book. Do I really have to wait til June? I know it doesn’t seem that far off but still… lol 4.5 out of 5
The Price of Innocence by Susan Sizemore was the story of a woman who was kidnapped and kept as a slave or sorts but she fell in love with her captor and never wanted to be released. When she meets up with him 9 years later her anger is driving her and she wants nothing to do with him. Or does she? You can read my review here. 4 out of 5
Hair of the Dog by Ashlyn Kane and Morgan James was my next read. This is about Ezra who was bitten by a werewolf….they prefer Lycans…on his way home from his father’s wake. He is then visited by the pack alpha, Callum, told he is a werewolf and then shuffled from his home. He is then inserted into pack society and he’s fumbling a bit. The alpha is trying to find out what is making they Lycan’s go a bit crazed and thinks it’s a disease until they discover that it’s really someone making them this way. Then there’s the lust between Callum and Ezra that’s almost out of control. I liked the writing in the story but I wasn’t sure about the story. I liked the suspense part but it definitely took over the book. The relationship portion of it wasn’t told as in depth as I thought it should be and I was a bit let down. I’ll be reviewing this one so I’ll let you know when that review posts. 3 out of 5
Last for the week was Taking the Shot by Jaci Burton. This is the 3rd book in the Play by Play series and it’s about the Riley sister, Jenna, and hockey player Ty Anderson. Wow. Hot. lol I’ll review it this week. 🙂
My Book Binge reviews that have posted since last week:
Happy Reading!
Oh, Tracy! Rough time! What annoys me about appliances nowadays is that they are not meant to last 🙁 There's either better coming out soon or it'll just break down ugh.
Still, you had a nice week 🙂 I'm curious about the Jade Lee. Not sure though I'll be picking it up… Looking forward to your review of Taking the Shot!! 🙂
My SIL works for GE, so I get a family discount – it was kind of nice being able to restrict my fridge search that way, and then by the few that would fit under my cupboards. 🙂 Personally, I don't mind the fridge sticking out.
Hair of the Dog had timeline murkiness that drove me nuts.
What nath said about appliances! I think my hot water cylinder is on the blink, but it's only just over 2 years old! The last one was put in when the house was built! Good luck with picking the right fridge. (I think, for me, I wouldn't want the fridge to stick out 🙂
Hair of the Dog sounds promising, but I do need character and relationship development.
I hear your pain, Tracy!
I hate appliance shopping, too.. all those choices and consumer reports. SO draining and you never really feel confident in your purchase, you know?
Like you, we're restricted by size for our fridge.. even when we did the addition/renovation! We could barely change the footprint of our kitchen so the fridge had to stay in the same place and be the same size! Ugh! If it helps, ours sticks out a bit, too, and it's really fine. Just make sure the doors can open all the way and not hit things. Good luck!
I was wondering about Cooke's YA spin off to her dragon books. Glad to hear you really enjoyed it.. especially since I know you don't read much YA. So I take it you are caught up in the PNR series? I have the first three books on the pile.. read the first one when it first came out and really liked it.. I always think about picking that series up again. How would you rate the series as a whole?
Nath – True that. The last fridge we bought was back in 1994 that now lives at my parents house. It still runs perfectly well as does the 20 year old crap fridge in our garage that my hubby bought for $10.00. The one that broke down in our house was bought (I assume) when the previous owners remodeled. That was only 11 or 12 years ago. I guess that's not too bad but it's certainly not 20 years!
I had such mixed feelings about the Lee. I liked the writing but the story just didn't hit me in the right way.
Chris – You're so lucky! lol I wish I was forced to only look at one brand.
Yes, Hair of the Dog definitely had some timeline murkiness.
Orannia – I think I'm gonna have to go with the fridge sticking out. I think it will be worth the savings of 800.00! Just ridiculous!
Christine – I think if the fridge was in a corner then I wouldn't mind it sticking out but it's kind of in the middle of the kitchen. Hard to explain.
The Dragonfire series – I gave most of the earlier books 3 or 3.5 while the later books I gave 4's. I think an overall grade would be 3.75 which is pretty good. I've read 6 of the 7 books and I've not disliked any of them.
I've liked the spin off YA series. Only 2 books so far but the first was a 4 for me and this one was a 4.5 so that gives you an idea of my opinion. 🙂
Thanks for the feedback on the Dragonfire series. I think I gave the first book a C, but knew I'd still want to continue the series because the premise was just really interesting and fun. I have to go back and read my review to see what my hangup was.. maybe predictability.. hmm.. Nice to know the YA spinoff is good!
I just refreshed my memory and read my review of the Kiss of Fate, the first Dragonfire book. I read that book in spring of 2008! Talk about falling behind in a series! LOL! So I gave the book a B- my biggest complaint that the romance fizzled out for no reason and there was no denouement between the h/h. Other than that, I think I really liked the book. I might just read the second one for this month's TBR. Isn't the theme 'series catch up'?
Christine – I can't actually find where I reviewed Kiss of Fire. I thought I did, but apparently not so I'm not sure what my exact thoughts were. As I said though – the books get better as they go on so don't give up.
Yep, the TBR Challenge is to catch up on a series. I'm thinking maybe Showalter's Lords of the Underworld…I think I'm really behind. lol