Hola!
How are you this fine Monday? It’s beautiful out today in my part of the land – I wish my desk was outside and not in a stuffy office. I just keep looking out the window with longing. lol
Not much happened this week. I did realize that I completely forgot my blog anniversary! Yep, on April 16th it was the 4th anniversary of Tracy’s Place. Damned hard to believe that it’s been that long. It really only seems like a year or so – weird. 🙂
This past weekend we went to the Santa Barbara Fair. The weather was great and we had a wonderful time. The kids rode a ton of rides, we watched pig races, got to see adorable baby goats and my oldest daughter got hypnotized. It was hilarious. I did get a dvd of my oldest so that she could see what she did while she was under. Too funny. I asked the hypnotist if he could make it so that every time I snapped my fingers she would listen to me but he just laughed. lol
So on to what I read this week:
I started off the week with The Witness by Nora Roberts. This is a wonderful romance and a bit of a mystery/suspense story all wrapped into one. I really, really liked it. You can read my review here. 4.5 out of 5
Next up was a YA book called Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink by Stephanie Kate Strohm. This is the story of a girl who goes to spend the summer at a living history museum. It was another really good book. You can read my review here. 4 out of 5
My next read was Country Mouse by Amy Lane and Aleksandr Voinov. This was the story of an American guy who is visiting London. He meets a guy in a bar on his first day there and they end up spending the weekend together. You can read more about this great story and my review here. 4.5 out of 5
Lady Maggie’s Secret Scandal by Grace Burrowes was a book I read for The Book Binge. This story was about a woman who is a by-blow but was “adopted” by her father (a duke) and raised with many siblings. She is 30 years old and living in her own household. She loses her purse and hires a man to find it. She’s got secrets though and the man knows that there’s more to things than just a lost reticule. This was a bit of a frustrating story as we didn’t get to know Maggie’s secret until right before the hero did. The romance was great though and I really liked the book. 4 out of 5
Next was The Walls Have Ears by Erica Pike. This is the 3rd in the College Fun and Gays series. Harley is a guy who has been having a relationship with the guy next door – but through the wall. They masturbate to each others voices until the guy on the other side of the wall, Devon, asks Harley’s roommate out instead of him. Harley ends up crying on Devon’s roommate’s shoulder but Tasha wants more from Harley than just being friends. It was a short story but so cute. My heart ached for Harley’s situation and that was written so well but Harley made me a bit crazy with his child-like emotional outbursts. I loved Tasha and admired him for his infinite patience with Harley. I look forward to reading the rest of the series! 4 out of 5
Devil’s Punch by Ann Aguirre was my next read. This is book 4 in the Corinne Solomon series. I’ll be posting my review of this later this week so stay tuned.
Sunrise by Kody Boye is a zombie apocalypse novel that I read. I’ll post my review of this on Wednesday so keep your eyes peeled.
Last on the list was What We Deserve by Kerry Freeman. This is the story of 2 best friends. One falls in love with the other but then the older boy, Jamie, heads off to the army without telling his best friend…the night after they sleep together for the first time. Sean is devastated but moves on with his life. Twelve years later Jamie is back but Sean is in a committed relationship and none to thrilled about Jamie coming back and wanting to talk and pick up where they left off – after 12 years of non communication. Eventually Sean does talk and after that Sean, Jamie and Tyler, Sean’s boyfriend, all fall in love to make a household of three. The story is about the falling in love but also dealing with the men’s families and their reactions. It was a good story even if I did have a couple of issues. There were things left unresolved with one of the men’s parents which bothered me and I never did feel that Sean and Jamie talked enough about Jamie’s jackassedness and ultimate silence when he had left all those years ago. 3.5 out of 5
My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Happy Reading!
Oh Lord, I love Santa Barbara, lucky you!
The Witness was my read of the week (last week). I just read your review of Country Mouse and am intrigued. I've read Voinov before, but STILL have not read anything by Amy Lane. Can you belive that? Anyway, going by what I've heard of Lane's style I think that sounds like an interesting combination, though…
Sounds like a nice weekend! I'm writing this from the deck at my brother's house – it's 63 and sunnyish.
I liked The Walls Have Ears, too. Pretty sure that m/m/m would just annoy the heck out of me.
I've heard such great things about The Witness..need to get to it!
Hilcia – Santa Barbara is so great. I love just wandering and looking. I can't, of course, afford ANYTHING there. lol
I really liked Country Mouse a lot – hopefully you will too. Amy Lane is just one of my favorite authors. I'm curious to read one of Voinov's works without a co-writer.
Chris – Our weather took a dump here in the last few days. Dreary is the word that comes to mind.
Walls Have Ears = good stuff.
Mandi – It's really great. I loved reading a stand alone by Roberts that, while it had humor, was much more serious than her recent contemporary releases.
Oh, it'd be fun to see your oldest being hypnotized! 🙂
Another good month for you 🙂 Looking forward to your review of Devil's Punch. I have a couple of books in this series, but have never really started it ^_^;
So glad you enjoyed The Witness! It was such a winner 🙂
Happy blog birthday, Tracy!
And Happy REAL birthday today! xo xo
I have a friend who lives in Santa Barbara and have been there once. Wish I was at the fair with you last weekend–sounds like so much fun!
Happy birthday!!!
Nath – The hypnosis was really awesome and it was interesting to see how the other people reacted as they were all different.
I love the Corine Solomon series by Ann Aguiree and highly recommend it!
Christine – Thank you for the 2 birthday wishes. lol
Santa Barbara is so beautiful. We just don't go there often enough considering how close we live. I'll have to remedy that.
Chris – Thank you!!