Tag: Bonnie Dee

What I Read Last Week

Posted January 16, 2012 by Tracy in Features | 7 Comments

Well it was another stressful week at work but I survived which was a good thing.

We had a nice weekend as I headed out to my mom’s to help here with some computer stuff and then yesterday I got to see my grown & married nephew who lives in Pennsylvania. Yay! The local family got together for lunch and we had a great time just talking and catching up. Here’s a picture that I took of my nephew and my youngest. (I’d actually had one taken of him and me but apparently it turned out really blurry. I’ll have to take another before he heads home to PA.)

Don’t forget to enter the 2 contests I’ve got going. One for a box of historical novels and one for a box of fantasy/UF. The links are on the sidebar.

I read a really long novel at the beginning of last week and after that really felt the need to read a bunch of shorts. Here’s what I devoured this week:

I started off the week with Season of the Shadow by Bobbi Groover. This is an american historical that I read for The Book Binge and I really liked it but for a few items. The story was about a man (boy, really, as he was only 17) who was kidnapped, kept chained in a madhouse and treated like an animal for 6 years before he managed to escape with his life and most of his sanity. He’s back in his hometown to destroy the person who did it all to him, his cousin. He also is still madly in love with his first love but he thinks she might have had something to do with his abduction as well. The man is confused and hurt emotionally but determined to get his life back from the man who stole it. The book was very good but I did have a problem with the length which was 690 pdf pages. Just too long imho. I’ll let you know when my review posts at TBB. 4 out of 5

Here is where my short reading began:

First up was A Wedding Story by Dee Tenorio. Ruth Ann and Bobby have been prankster enemies since they were young kids. Ruth Ann isn’t thrilled when at her sisters wedding reception she is not only sat next to Bobby but they are at the kids’ table. Ruth Ann and Bobby decide to make the most of it and decide to dance but that’s when things at the reception start going awry and when Bobby and Ruth Ann are left alone they realize that maybe they don’t hate each other as much as Ruth Ann thought. Really cute and funny story. 3.5 out of 5 (free on Kindle)

Holding Out For A Hero by Stacey Joy Netzel was a short about a woman who is having a really crappy day. When she’s at lunch, however, she sees something happen that makes her start looking at life a little differently and it changes everything. A great story that has a little bit of a hopeful romance in it. I did kind of a mini review that you can read here if you’re interested. 4 out of 5 (free on Kindle)

Next up was Fury by Anya Bast. This is part of her Otherkin series which is looks like there are only 2 of. The story is about a woman who is in a “pack” of shifters but there are mostly wolven shifters. She is a cougar but the elders want to make her their queen. She runs but her mate comes looking for her. This was an ok read. I didn’t love the characters but the story was a good one and of course the sex was hot as is the norm with Bast’s books. 3 out of 5 (free on Kindle)

Without Mercy by Belinda Boring followed Darcy as she runs an errand for a pack bbq with the her future sister-in-law and best friend. A crazed man who is on a mission ends up accosting the two and all hell breaks loose. It was a sad story but it was so short that I just needed more. More of the after effects of the whole situation, etc. Maybe we were supposed to get that in future books but I never like being left hanging. 3 out of 5 (free on Kindle)

Four Kisses by Bonnie Dee was the story of two people who meet when they are 13 and share a kiss. The pair meet about every 3 or 4 years due to odd circumstances and always share some form of a kiss. It was a very sweet story and I really liked the whole scenario. You can read my mini review here. 4.5 out of 5
So ended my short binge. lol

A Rose is A Rose by Jet Mykles tells the story of Carson who is in his early twenties. He is a man used to be taken care of and when his “boyfriend” doesn’t want to take it to the next level it crushes Carson. He finds out that he was just one of many who is man was seeing. Carson befriends the owner of his building who is a shy manly man named Eddie. Carson isn’t used to not being taken care of but Eddie helps him out with food and stuff but Carson knows that Eddie isn’t gay. Of course Eddie will be gay for Carson as he just finds him beautiful and fascinating. I really liked this book a lot. Carson’s character was great but I just didn’t love the romance. The story was told in third person but we never got to see things from Eddie’s pov. When Carson decides that he needs to do things on his own we never get to see how that effects Eddie which I would have loved. Overall a good story but I did have some issues with it. 3.5 out of 5

My next read was My Summer of Wes by Missy Welsh. Mal is friendless and lives in a vanilla world with no excitement until his new neighbors move in across the street. Wes is the neighbors son and though older than Mal they hit it off immediately. Wes is gay and even though Mal has been called names and been accused of being gay for the past four years he is certain that he’s not. Until Mal and Wes start spending more time together and Mal starts to see the truth in himself. The story was very sweet with very little conflict. The sex scenes were hot and I just loved Wes to pieces. 4 out of 5

A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare is the first in the Spindle Cove series and I finally read it! It was really good and I’m so glad I did. Bram was hurt in the war and is looking to regain his position in the field. He contacts Sir Lewis in Spindle Cove and heads there with the hopes that he will get what he wants. Sir Lewis not only turns him down but makes him an Earl (via the king) and then asks him to get a militia ready in a month. Bram is pissed but Sir Lewis’s daughter Susanna is a nice distraction. Distraction being the key as he can’t seem to keep his mind on his work due to thinking of Susanna constantly. It was a cute book about the inhabitants of Spindle Cove and how they come together to try to make their local field day the best there is. Susanna and Bram’s relationship was wonderful and just thinking of the book makes me smile. 4.25 out of 5

Last on the list was my read for the monthly TBR challenge and that was An Army Ranger’s Return by Soraya Lane. Pen pal’s Jessica and Ryan have written to each other constantly and now Ryan is returning home. Jessica is nervous about what will happen and what DOES happen is not what she expects at all. I’d tell you more but then I wouldn’t have to write my review for Wednesdays post. lol

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
crickets chirping

Happy Reading!!

7 Comments

Tagged: Anya Bast, Belinda Boring, Bobbi Groover, Bonnie Dee, Dee Tenorio, Jet Mykles, Missy Welsh, Soraya Lane, Stacey Joy Netzel, Tessa Dare, The Book Binge, What I Read Last Week, What I've Been Reading This Week

The Long and the Short of It….Ok, Just the Short of It

Posted January 12, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 3 Comments

This week I went on a “buying” spree with my Kindle and managed to download 5 or 6 free books that looked appealing to me. All of them were pretty good but these two really stuck out among the bunch.

Holding Out For A Hero by Stacey Joy Netzel (though the cover looks historical this is most definitely a contemporary story)

Kelsie Newman meets the man of her dreams at the beginning of a really, really bad day, so excuse her for not recognizing him. Good thing she’s a smart girl and a quick learner. When he rescues her from her Good Samaritan act gone bad later that same day, she doesn’t make the same mistake twice.

Kelsie is just having a terrible no good rotten day. She manages to muddle through which is great but along the way she realizes while eating her lunch and watch a man save a child from running into the street was that

Our society is so enamored with Superheroes, and great BIG gestures that are easily recognizable and indisputably heroic, that the little everyday, wonderful things people do for others often times go unnoticed.

Because of this Kelsie, despite her awful day, starts seeing life and people with a new light. She sees that there are heroes all around us and they may not be Lancelot or Robin Hood or any of the other fairy tale heroes of old but they end up being somebody’s hero.

She also realizes the man who helped her after his brother practically knocked her off her feet was a really nice guy and she should have been a whole hell of a lot nicer to him. Luckily fate is on her side and things start looking up when she runs into him again.

This was such a short little book but it really hit me in a good way. It wasn’t a romance at all but the possibility is there. What really struck me was some of the truths that the author puts in about the way we look at the world and I just really liked that about the story. It just made me smile.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Four Kisses by Bonnie Dee

Unforgettable moments shape a romance that could last a lifetime.

Jen Adams’s first kiss didn’t happen the way she’d expected. On a steamy summer’s day, a shared moment with a boy who runs with a bad crowd leaves an indelible impression on a thirteen year old girl. But that’s only the first time Jen and Drake Malinson’s paths cross in an unforeseen way.

This story spans about 17 years in about 50 pages. The story follows Drake Malinson and Jen Adams from the age of 13 to the age of 25. The two meet when they are with friends at the lake and end up heading off to see swans together. Jen and Drake come from different worlds (Jen is a pretty straight-laced A student and Drake claims to sell drugs) and they both know that but they still manage to lock lips. Though the kiss is pretty unforgettable for a first kiss neither of them speak to each other after that.

The story then goes on to tell us how Jen and Drake run into each other again and again and how their lives change and move throughout the years. What I liked about the story besides the fact that it was very sweet is that the author created two people who were so very different from each other but could still find comfort, solace and yes, desire with each other.

Drake being a drug dealer, obviously, doesn’t exactly make him hero material. But there was just something about the guy that I liked. I always learned that we should begin as we mean to go on when it comes to our lives and so many other things, but we also have brains and free will and though we make mistakes in our lives we can always change them. For Drake that meant he ended up changing for the better and I loved that Jen could see the man that he could be from the very start.

The story also doesn’t end in an HEA but again, like the first book, it was the possibility and hope that was there that that I loved.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

3 Comments

Tagged: Bonnie Dee, Review, Reviews, Stacey Joy Netzel, Tracy's Reviews

Perfecting Amanda by Bonnie Dee

Posted October 24, 2007 by Casee in Reviews | 9 Comments

Book description:

One woman, two men—the choice of a lifetime and the chance for a perfect future.

When Amanda McCormick heads west as to create a home of her own and begin a “perfect” marriage with a man she’s never met, gambler Spencer Teague intercepts her. Pretending to be her fiancé, he tricks her into surrendering her virginity.

Amanda hides the misguided affair and forges a relationship with her young husband, Travis. But her secret haunts her when she learns she’s pregnant. Meanwhile, Spencer is haunted by visions of a little girl who demands he find and help Amanda.

Their lives entwine as the three come together in an unexpected relationship that touches—and tortures—them all. Amanda questions whether perfection is attainable and if it’s possible to love two very different kinds of men

Sometimes I love my job. Why? Because at times, I’m able to read an e-book at work while it’s open as a PDF and still look like I’m working. Heh.

I hate love triangles. I really do. Veronica belonged with Logan, not Duncan. Rory belonged with Jess, not Dean. Stephanie Plum belongs with, well, I don’t know b/c I don’t read the Plum novels. The main reason I don’t read them (aside from being allergic to 1st person) is I’m not interested in reading a love triangle that is dragged out for a gajillion books. That’s when it hit me…it’s not the love triangle that I’m against. It’s the dragging out of said love triangle. So Perfecting Amanda was perfect for me b/c it’s a book in which the triangle is resolved by the last page.

So do you want to know who she ends up with? Even being the spoiler whore that I am, I can’t spoil this b/c then you won’t even go and read the book. So my lips are zipped. Now how should I go about reviewing? Huh.

Spencer Teague is a real asshat. When he overhears Amanda McCormick telling the story of how she is meeting her fiancé for the first time, he decides to step in and be her fiancé. He figures that he’s due for a little fun. They get down and dirty all night long. The next day Amanda finds out that Spencer really isn’t her fiancé and she is mortified. She meets her real fiancé and they get married.

Amanda ends up with Spencer or Travis. The end.

Seriously. Okay, I’m giving it my best shot here w/ no spoilers. I think Bonnie Dee did a fantabulous job of writing this triangle. As the reader, I couldn’t decide who I wanted Amanda to end up with. Spencer really was an ass for what he did to her, but he eventually realized how fucked up it was and decided to make amends. Of course he was making those amends for all the wrong reasons, but amends are amends. He’d never felt for anyone what he feels for Amanda (do they ever?). On one hand Spencer wished he’d never laid eyes on Amanda. On the other hand, he thinks she’s the best thing that has ever happened to him. He just can’t make up his mind.

Travis was a man that deserved to be happy. Working hard on his farm, living alone, he was ready to marry and have a family. While he really enjoyed getting to know Amanda through their letters and was thrilled when she agreed to marry him, he never expected to fall in love with her. She was everything that he ever wanted in a woman. Though he regretted offering her time to get to know him before consummating their marriage, it was worth the wait. Before long, Amanda is pregnant and Travis is happier than he’d ever been in his life.

There’s only one problem…Amanda isn’t sure whose baby it is that she’s carrying.

In the meantime, Spencer is doing everything he can to forget Amanda. He soon realizes that it is impossible to forget her b/c there is a ghostly apparition of a young girl urging him to return to Amanda. It soon becomes too difficult to ignore her and he heads back west to find the woman he wronged in such a horrific way.

Spencer ends up showing up on the farm. Amanda is torn between both men. The husband she loves and the lover she can’t forget.

I’m really glad that I waited to review this book. I was so freaking mad when I got done with it. Then I realized that it takes a spectacular author to make you not able to forget a book once it’s done. Thinking it over, I really liked the book from beginning to end. I’m definitely going to check out more from this author.

You can buy this book here. I would tell you to email me and I’ll forward you the e-book, but I heard that’s illegal.

4 out of 5.