Casee: This is not my week. I’ve rarely had time to sit down, let alone sit down and read. Yesterday, I was finally able to start Shadow Rider by Christine Feehan. I love Christine Feehan. She will always hold a special place in my heart. Dark Prince was my first paranormal, as I have said many times. So I was very excited by this new series. It is not disappointing me.
I have almost all Christine Feehan’s books. I think a reread is called for. I thought about a Psy-Changeling reread, but I am far behind on the GhostWalker series and I think it’s time that I catch up. I’m back to the paranormal. It’s always been my favorite.
Holly: I spent the week binge-reading Sarina Bowen’s books. It started last week with The Year We Fell Down and The Year We Hid Away. I followed those up this week with re-reads of Blonde Date, The Understatement of the Year, The Shameless Hour and The Fifteenth Minute.
Just as I was finishing The Fifteenth Minute I got Rookie Move in the mail, which comes out in September. It’s the first in the spinoff series featuring Leo Trevi, the hero of The Fifteenth Minute’s older brother. It was so good! I loved Leo. After that I jumped right in to an ARC of Bittersweet, the start of a new series by Bowen. It, too, was really good. It features a farmer and a chef..I loved their chemistry.
I haven’t decided what I’m going to read next. I might start the Sawyer Bennett hockey series I’ve had in my TBR for ages.
Rowena: This week was a really good reading week for me. I finished Play of Passion and enjoyed that one, not nearly as much as I enjoyed the next book I read, Kiss of Snow. That book freaking rocked my socks. Hawke was beautiful and everything I hoped he would be but Sienna freaking slayed in this book. She went ham on those pesky Psy troops that thought they were going to get away with hurting her pack. After completely loving that book, I jumped right into Tangle of Need and that was another solid story in this series that I have become completely obsessed with. The romance between Riaz and Adria was refreshing and really interesting considering the way that they came together. I don’t read a lot of paranormals but I haven’t seen that storyline done but Singh did a fabulous job of bringing them together in my opinion.
Yesterday was Heart of Obsidian day. I’ve been looking forward to reading this book because 1) we find out who the Ghost is and 2) it’s Holly’s favorite book in the series, which is high praise. I inhaled that book and came to love the hell out of the main couple. The hero really turned his life around. Man, it was so freaking good. So now, I’m starting Shield of Winter today. squee
What are you reading this week? Any new favorites or books that drove you crazy? Share!
I recently tried Wicked Sexy Liar by Christina Lauren and now I’m going back and reading their Beautiful series with Beautiful Stranger up this week. I tend to stay away from erotic romance because it’s usually just too much sex but this series is quite addictive and very well written. I also love that it’s usually the hero chasing a reluctant heroine and includes plenty of scenes from the guy’s POV.
I also read The Billionaire and the Virgin by Jessica Clare, which was adorable, with a crass, blustering hero and a naive virgin heroine. That trope doesn’t usually appeal to me, but I loved Marjorie because even though she was naive, she was also a very strong character. She’s 6’1″ with a weakness for high heels, so she towers over everyone. The hero was slightly shorter than her but wasn’t at all put off by that, thought she was a goddess, and bought her several pairs of shoes with sky-high heels. So cute.
Ooh, forthcoming Sarina Bowen books …. Sign me up!
I don’t think I’ve done this in a while, so I’ll post my reading for the last two weeks. I enjoyed all of these.
— Tigers & Devils by Sean Kennedy. While this is a male/male romance; it is not explicit. I also learned some Australian slang.
— On a recent road trip, my husband and I listened to One Second After by William R. Forstchen (and read by Joe Barrett). It was an engaging/terrifying book, and it generated a lot of conversation.
— Beyond Repair by Susie Tate — I’d read a couple of other books by this author. It was an entertaining contemporary romance.
— Red Dirt Heart by N. R. Walker — a contemporary romance set in Australia featuring two men.
— Several books in the Portland Storm series: Breakaway (Portland Storm Book 1) currently free to Kindle readers, On the Fly (Portland Storm Book 2) currently free to Kindle readers,
and Holiday Hat Trick (Portland Storm, Volume 8)
— A Forbidden Rumspringa (Gay Amish Romance) by Keira Andrews — I really enjoyed this one. I would have liked it even better, I think, had it been somewhat less explicit as I think that might have better suited the storyline. And I say that as someone who has no issue reading books with adult content. I hope to read the two sequels.
— Valor on the Move by Keira Andrews — This was very different than the book above as it was a romance between the president’s son and a secret service agent.
— The Game Plan (Game On, Volume 3) by Kristen Callihan — a contemporary romance.
— a reread of the paranormal romance novella The Wicked (Elder Races) by Thea Harrison
— a re-read of Jo Goodman’s historical romance Beyond A Wicked Kiss (The Compass Club Series, Book 4). While Jo Goodman is a favorite author of mine, the Compass Club series is not a particular favorite. The way the series is written though is interesting in that all four books overlap in time (they are not sequential), so one encounters familiar scenes written from different characters’ points of view. There is some disquieting content (kidnapping and sexual abuse of teens).
— the contemporary romance Falling Under (Ink & Chrome) by Lauren Dane
–the contemporary romance Wicked Sexy Liar (Wild Seasons Book 4) by Christina Lauren
— the historical romance Tempest by Laura Parker; it was an unusual romance in that it featured three couples. (No, it was not polyamorous.)
— Dearly Beloved by Mary Jo Putney. This historical romance had a bit of everything — courtesan heroine, brooding hero, epilepsy, rumors of a mad wife in Scotland along with some disquieting events (rape, incest).
I read “Ready to Fall” by Daisy Prescott, (because I got it for free this week), and I snapped up and devoured “Fooling Around by Noelle Adams. I LOVED both of them. Went through a few Michelle Smart HQ Presents through the week, and those are great, but these two were light and fun and a nice counterpoint.
On a non-romance note, I read “Durotan” by Christie Golden as well. AMAZING book if you’re at all fantasy inclined. It’s the Warcraft pre-movie tie-in. Yeah, that makes me a total nerd, but the lore behind the game is what keeps me playing, and Ms. Golden is the best writer when it comes to the backstories. If you want to try a fantasy penned by her and don’t feel like tackling Orcs, she also wrote “Arthas”. It’s about the Humans in the game lore. A much lighter Game of Thrones. 🙂