Tag: Alyssa Brooks

Guest Review: Kidnapping Kara by Alyssa Brooks

Posted June 30, 2010 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 0 Comments

Tracy‘s review of Kidnapping Kara by Alyssa Brooks

Kara Morgan—fiery, passionate, wild. But a drug addict? A stripper? Nearly a decade is plenty long enough to forget the wayward lover who ran out on him, but try as he might, Shaun Weston can’t kick Kara from his mind. Now, just when his luck can’t get any worse, her wealthy mother is waving a lot of money in his face and begging him to help save her daughter. To kidnap Kara.

Shaun Weston—caring, good-hearted, determined. But reasonable? Or right about her? Not on his life. Taken by surprise—while completely naked—then bound, gagged and hauled away caveman style by the one man she’s never stopped hurting for, Shaun is fit-to-be-tied angry…and maybe just a little turned-on. Okay, a lot turned-on.

Who knew she had such a kinky side? Or that he did too? And why is he back in her life now, determined to “save” her? Someone sure has their share of explaining to do—but with passions running this hot, who has time for talking?

Shaun Weston is approached by Kara’s mother. Kara’s mother convinces Shaun that Kara is doing drugs and stripping and he must go get her so that the mom can take care of her. So why should Shaun care? Well, he and Kara were in love 8 years ago. She left one night though and never returned. As much as his heart was broken and he says he doesn’t love her any longer, deep down he really wants to help her if she’s really doing drugs.

He finds her right where her mother said she’d be – in a run down, ramshackle apartment with strippers clothes hanging in the closet. Does Shaun question Kara at all and see if what the mom says is true? Nope, he just assumes that Kara’s mother is correct and kidnaps Kara to take her home. Kara manages to get away and events ensue that make Shaun finally question the information that Kara’s mother had given him. Kara and Shaun realize that they never stopped loving each other and decide to work things out.

I have to start by saying that this book didn’t set well with me. I’m not sure if it was Shaun doubting that Kara could turn into the person her mother claimed – even though Shaun knew that Kara’s mom had always tried to manipulate things to her favor? Or was it the attacking of Kara by Shaun that got to me? It wasn’t exactly violent but it was rough enough to disturb me. I’m not sure but I couldn’t seem to get past that. It seemed to me that in the first part of the story it was the “I hate you but you really make me hot” trope and I just wasn’t falling for it.

Then there was Kara herself who had lied to her mother and told her she was stripping even though she was a fine upstanding citizen who was trying to make something of her life. Did she want her mother to come after her? She acted like she didn’t but what did she expect her mother to do? Kara was trying to help different girls from the strip club where she did the books (along with the books for a carpet store) and one girl in particular, Chrissy. Throughout the story Kara feared that Chrissy would return to her abusive boyfriend so she had her at her apartment and she took Chrissy’s – hence the stripper clothes in the closet. Then at one point in the book Chrissy was never mentioned again. Kara’s brother had gone to her apartment and had met Chrissy therefore we didn’t need to know what happened?

I think the only part of this book that I truly enjoyed was when Kara’s mom went to Shaun’s house to try to “retrieve” Kara (like she was a pet) and Shaun stood up to her and told her how much he admired Kara. It was quite enjoyable to see the mom get a talking to.

In the end – not a book for me.
Rating: 2 out of 5
This book is available from Ellora’s Cave. You can buy it here in e-format.
You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

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What I Read Last Week

Posted June 21, 2010 by Tracy in Features | 23 Comments

For the most part this past week was pretty quiet.  Compared the week before it was very welcome!
The exciting part of the week was going to yet another So Cal Blogger/Author get together on Saturday, June 19.  It was so much fun to see everyone again and meet even more So Cal readers, bloggers and authors.  And one of the main reasons we all got together was that Pearl, from Pearl’s World of Books, was visiting LA from the Netherlands! Pearl is incredibly sweet and it was great to meet her!  We All met at the Borders in the Century City Mall and then went on to the Ummba Grill, where the food was wonderful.  They sat us in their “lounge” area which we came to find out was outside but I thought it was great to be able to get up and move around.  Who cares that I ate with my food on my lap, I was in great company! 🙂  Here are pictures of the group:

I thought, what a great picture this turned out to be!  And then I realized that the man who was taking the picture cut off Nikki and Lori! Oops!  I’m going to tell you who everyone is because some of the faces were cut off in the total group picture.  I’m hoping Pearl comes through with some better pics from her camera. 🙂  Starting from the left: Rosie, Judith, Rowena, Pearl, Holly, Rachel Jameson, me, Sabrina Darby, Wendy (down in front), Christa Paige, Zoe Archer, Danielle Yockman, Renee, Netta Ferguson

Definitely not as great of a picture but at least we’re all in it – although you can’t see Christa’s face at all!  Lori and Nikki are on the left next to Rosie,

Then we moved on to our book swap in the garage.  It was a fun time and we all pounced like scavengers! lol
And after it was all done these are the leftovers!  I know – a ton left (and this picture below doesn’t include the very large box of books that were in my backseat!  All the remaining books will go to my friend who is stocking a downtrodden local library. 🙂 
I had a great time and can’t wait to do it all again soon!
So on to what I read this past week:
First up was No Souvenirs by KA Mitchell.  Book 3 in the Diving in Deep series and it was just as good as the first 2 books.  This was Jae Sun Kim’s story – he meets Shane McCormack while on a diving trip.  Jae Sun doesn’t believe in love and seeing him have a meeting of the minds with Shane who ends up having 2 doctorates is something to behold.  Good stuff. 4.5 out of 5
Kidnapping Kara by Alyssa Brooks was a novella I read for The Book Binge and I gotta say I really didn’t care for this one all that well.  It was the story of a man who goes to look for the woman that he loved 8 years prior to save her from her job of stripping and the drugs that he’s been told (by her manipulative mother) that she’s doing.  There were a few things that bothered me in the story – I’ll let you know when my review posts and then you can see what those are. 2 out of 5
Next up was Fortunate Harbor by Emilie Richards.  You can read my review here and if you’re interested you can enter to win a bound galley. You’ve got until the 24th at 11:59pm (pacific) to enter. 3 out of 5
Angel of Thirteenth Street by Eden Winters was my next read.  This was the story of a foster kid who had been kicked out of his home because he had turned 18 and the foster parents were no longer receiving checks.  He was living in a basement of an abandoned warehouse and managing to still finish high school.  He meets Noah when he goes to do his laundry at a local coin op.  Turns out that Noah is known as the Angel because he helps get young male prostitutes off the streets.  Noah takes Jeremy off the streets, gives him a place to live while Jeremy is hiding from the local pimp.  Trust, faith and love bloom while saving Jeremy.  This was my first read by Winters and I very much enjoyed her writing style.  I’ll be reading more of her books in the future.  3.75 out of 5
My Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week was The Other Half of Your Heart by Janis Susan May.  I think I got this one free from ARe in 2009 during their 12 days of Christmas giveaway.  I just have to say that I’m very glad that I didn’t pay for it because it was a huge exercise in frustration.  I get when the author wants to draw the reader in by not giving them all the information right away, but I like to be given at least some info during the course of the book.  In this book a woman goes on a weekend with her boyfriend.  When she gets to the airport she finds that he’s changed the tickets from New Orleans to Puerto Vallarta.  On the first day that she’s there she is kidnapped and taken by a man who works with her in Dallas.  She has no idea why he’s taking her and what’s happening.  They run for their lives, but from whom?  They are constantly on the run and you have no idea if the kidnapper is the good guy or the bad guy…or if the boyfriend is a good guy or a bad guy.  While on the run the kidnapper, Dave, and Cara find common ground but not enough, imho, to warrant love – much less the other half of their hearts.  I had absolutely no clue what was going on (and neither did the heroine) until page 99 and it was a 112 page book!!!!  Anyway – not one I can recommend. 2 out of 5
Last but not least for the week was another read for The Book Binge.  This was Barely a Lady by Eileen Dreyer.  I’ve not read her before and apparently this is her first historical novel.  I really liked it.  The story of a man and a woman who divorce (gasp!) and she’s not so graciously shown the door.  She finds him 5 years later after the battle of Waterloo in a French uniform.  When he awakes he doesn’t remember much of anything and he believes their still married.  There were a few issues I had with it but overall a good read.  Anyway, I’ll let you know when my review posts so you can read more.  4 out of 5
Happy Reading!
My Book Binge reviews that posted this past week:
Swap Meet by Lolita Lopez (used for one of my m/m challenge reviews)

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Guest Review: Hard To Get by Alyssa Brooks

Posted November 6, 2008 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 1 Comment

Kris‘ review of Hard to Get by Alyssa Brooks.

Lizzy Cross has given up on men. When it comes to fulfillment, they don’t come close to a night alone with her fantasies and a wide variety of immensely pleasurable substitutions. Then on the night of her sister’s bachelorette party, Lizzy finds herself staring at the very naked and very familiar torso of her ex…
Cockier than ever as a cowboy stripper in leather chaps (and nothing else), Ty is determined to win Lizzy back by taking his act off the stage and putting it back between the sheets. But will he be able to get past the kink that stands between them and show her the true pleasure a flesh-and-blood man can give her?

I had to read this book twice. I read through it so fast the first time that i had to re-read because I could not tell you a thing about it. I hate when I do that. This book was interesting. Overall I think I liked the book. But she bugged me at times. She had major issues in general and with the hero and that I kind of understand, but she was blaming him for something that was out of his control and that happened 15 years ago. They were teenagers, they do stupid things and there are consequences.(if you want to know what he did then highlight below)

When she was 14 and he was 17 he took her away from her home where her stepfather was hitting her and they ran away together. They ended up in a flop house in LA. He was trying to get a job and wanted to marry her. He wanted the best for her to show her how he felt about her and tried to steal an engagement ring for her. He got caught and sent to juvie. She had no clue what happened to him, only that he never came back. Starving at this point she tries to prostitute herself, does not work the way she planned. The man that finds her is a good man that wealthy and married. He adopts her and raises her with his own daughter.

The story dealt more with that than with the kink like the synopsis says. But her kink is because of her inability to have an orgasm with a man, because she does not trust them enough because of what happened with him. Ty is such a sweet guy, not quite enough Alpha for me, but he is such a sweetie. He puts his whole life practically on hold for her and she still tries to blow him off.

She does eventually get over it. But I kept yelling at her.

One thing that I did love was that the first time they had sex she did not miraculously have an orgasm like in many other books. She wanted to but she still had that trust issue thing. The sex was very hot. Not quite what I was expecting but very good.

I would probably have to give this a 3.25 out of 5 because I was not crazy about the heroine.

This book is available from Berkley Trade. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

Read more from Kris at The Reading Spot.

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