Tag: Book Binge

What I Read Last Week

Posted July 21, 2014 by Tracy in Features | 2 Comments

Howdy from Tennessee!

I arrived here on Friday night after driving through a nasty storm. It then rained Saturday, was nice yesterday and is raining today.  I just woke up to sound of intense thunder. I never hear thunder like that in California!

It’s was great to see my sister, brother-in-law and niece last week.  We had a great time and I’m so glad I added that leg to my trip.  They ended up taking us to Mestizo which is a restaurant owned by Aaron Sanchez – a judge on the show Chopped.  My youngest adores that show she she LOVED being at his restaurant.

Now I’m at my parents home and I love it.  It’s so wonderful to see them again and see how they’re settling in to their new home.  The house is huge and beautiful. I love old homes and this being 88 years old it certainly fits the bill.

Yesterday my other sister (who lives about an hour away) her husband, my other niece and her husband along with their new baby – my grand-nephew – came over to my parents house.  I love my family cuz they’re just crazy and we had so much fun spending the day laughing.  Here’s a picture of my baby with James, my grand-nephew:

About what I read this past week?  Well, not much!  I’ve been so busy with family and traveling that reading fell by the wayside.  I did read one book for Book Binge:

Road of No Return by KA Merikan is the story of a man who’s an outlaw in an MC and he’s gay.  Of course he has no desire to classify himself as such.  He finds himself falling for the new tattoo artist in town and falling fast.  Zak, the artist, sees Stitch (the biker) as a fuck buddy  – not a relationship.  The pair has issues and Stitch ends up being part nice guy, part bastard.  I had some mixed feelings about the book and both loved and hated Stitch at different times.  It was a tad too violent for my liking but that’s personal preference – it may not be for others.  3 out of 5

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Debutantes Don’t Date by Kristina O’Grady
The Longest Night by Kara Braden

Happy Reading!

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What I Read Last Week

Posted March 24, 2014 by Tracy in Features | 0 Comments

It was more or less a lazy week in Tracyland. We didn’t have any pressing matters to take care of so I got a lot of reading done during the week. Then the weekend came and my youngest had a promotion test where so totally rocked. 🙂 She was one of 2 that got the highest score. I’m very proud of her to say the least. I’m currently fighting with the app that joins all of the individual videos together to make one vid so when I win the fight and get it posted I’ll let you know. The rest of the weekend I hung with the kids, watched movies and just had fun. I think I read all of 70 pages the whole weekend. 🙂

I have two giveaways going right now. One ends today and the other on the 30th.

Giveaways:
1) A print copy of Marie Force’s All You Need is Love (open US residents only, sorry) – ends today at 11:59pm

2) A digital download (Kindle or Nook) of My Lady, My Lord by Katharine Ashe. Ends at 11”:59pm on 3/30/14.

Anyway, on to what I read…

I started off the week with the week with The Glaring by Andrew J. Peters. This is a short novella that is book 2 in his werecat series. The story continues to follow Jacks while he deals with being a werecat and finding out more about what that means to him. You can read my review here. 3.75 out of 5

Next up was the anthology Love Between Men edited by Shane Allison. A grouping of short stories that ran the gamut from I didn’t particularly care for them to I really liked them. You can read my review of the anthology here. 3.5 out of 5

Hope Ignites by Jaci Burton is book 2 in her Hope series and it was another good one. This one was Logan’s story and had him with an actress who was part of the crew that was filming on his land. He was positive he could stay away from her but she proved irresistible. I’ll post my review of this one tomorrow. 4 out of 5

Olivia’s Choice by Taylor Grace is a more or less contemporary fantasy if that makes sense. It takes place in current times but it’s about a race of people that don’t exist so that’s where the fantasy comes in. Olivia’s goes to Viddion a city for one of the races of Tree People called the annax where she was born to set up an exchange program. She’s been living as a human and wants nothing to do with anyone annex but she didn’t plan on falling in love. You can read my review here. 3.5 out of 5 

Last for the week was Wishing For a Highlander by Jessi Gage. This is a medieval time travel novel about Melanie who makes a wish on an artifact and next thing you know she’s in the 16th century. She winds up falling for the man who originally found her which is a good thing as they’re married right away. Of course then she’s accused of witchcraft so that makes things a bit sticky. The story was actually really good and I enjoyed almost every minute of it. 4 out of 5

 

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
So Right With You by Maggie Kaye
Disarm: The Complete Novel by June Gray

Happy Reading!

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What I Read Last Week

Posted March 17, 2014 by Tracy in Features | 0 Comments

Top o’ the mornin’ to ya!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day and all that. Hope you had a lovely weekend. If you plan on going out tonight just be safe, okay? I like all my peeps just the way they are!

Here’s a little vid just to make you smile. How can you not love a cat on a skateboard? Especially when that tail’s in the air. 🙂

I didn’t end up reading all that much this past week. The church (where I work) was having a Goodwill Donation Drive fundraiser and I spent most evenings in my garage cleaning things out and getting items ready for donation. My garage is so much happier now – so am I! Then Saturday my kids and I spent the day at the Drive accepting items and filling bins with the donations. We ended up filling 45 bins and that raised $2,200.00 for our youth group. Very cool. Anyway – on to what I read…

I started off the week with Blitzing Emily by Julie Brannagh. This was a great story about a couple who starts a fake engagement and then ends up falling in love. It was very sweet and I liked the authors writing style a lot. You can read my review here. 4 out of 5

Next up was Dragon Heat 2-in-1 by Lolita Lopez. The book includes books 1 and 2 in the Dragon Heat series: Dead Sexy Dragon and Red Hot Dragon. (I actually only read the second story in this book as I’d read book 1 a while back.) The stories are both good. I definitely want more history on the dragons and their enemies in the future. :0) You can read my review of both stories here. Book 1: 3.75 out of 5 Book 2: 3 out of 5

Winter Bride by Anne Gracie is book 2 in the Chance sisters series. Damaris Chance never wants to get married. She is determined to keep this fact. We realize this has something to do with her past but we don’t’ know what til later in the book. Freddy, trying to get his mother to quit bride searching for him (as he also plans on never getting married), gets Damaris to fake an engagement with him to get his mom off his back. Of course the pair fall in love but Damaris is determined to never marry which creates a bit of a problem. Good story – very emotional. I’ll post my review in a couple of weeks. 4 out of 5

Last for the week was The Kraken King by Meljean Brook which is a serial novel of 8 installments that will release its first installment on April 15th and run weekly through June 3rd. The serial takes place in the Iron Seas world and its heroine is Zenobia Fox – sister of Archimedes Fox that we read about in The Iron Duke and Heart of Steel. I read parts I: The Kraken King and Scribbling Spinster 4 out of 5, Part II: The Kraken King and the Abominable Worm – 4.5 out of 5 & Part III: The Kraken King and the Fox’s Den – 4.25 out of 5 and thoroughly enjoyed them all. I’ll post my reviews of these as they come out. Besides the books being great I think that the covers of the stories are seriously to die for. Here are the covers for parts I, II & III:

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Desperately Seeking Suzanna by Elizabeth Michels
I Found You by Jane Lark

Happy Reading!

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What I Read Last Week

Posted March 10, 2014 by Tracy in Features | 0 Comments

Happy Monday!

I hope you all are doing well and reading up a storm.

Have you read any books lately that you feel like you need to tell everyone about? Or maybe you’ve read one that you feel everyone should avoid? Let me know!

Life is calm and pretty peaceful in Tracyland so I’ll get on to the books (as I know that’s why you’re here!).

First for the week was Dazed by Kim Karr. This is a story in the Connections series. The previous two books have been about Dahlia and River but this novella veers off and gives us Dahlia’s best friends story. Aerie Daniels is a woman who keeps herself organized. She’s a structured type of person and doesn’t break off from things she knows. Enter Jagger Kennedy, River’s cousin, and soon she’s living life in a completely different way and falling in love. This was a cute story that I really enjoyed reading. Aerie takes some getting used to but it worked in the end. 3.5/3.75 out of 5

Next up was Desperately Seeking Suzanna by Elizabeth Michels. This historical showed us Sue who, along with her sister and cousin, snuck into a masked ball. She meets Holden and they hit it off in a big way but when the masks come off Sue, who was referring to herself as Suzanna as she felt like a different beautiful woman, isn’t recognized by Holden at all. Parts of the story are really good and others frustrating. You can read my full review of the book on Book Binge by clicking here. 3.5/3.75 out of 5 

Reckless by Jessi Gage is a contemporary romance with a paranormal twist in it. Derek has a temper and ends up being the cause of an accident on the freeway (one he’s not actually involved in). He then starts thinking he’s having dreams that involved his dream girl and they fall in love. DG helps him change and he realizes he needs to take responsibility for his actions. DG, however, is actually Cami who was in the accident he caused and when she wakes up and he finds out that Cami is DG he’s not sure how she can forgive him causing it all. This was a good story. I liked how Derek grew throughout the book. I did think that the “I love you’s” came to quickly and I had another issue with Cami’s family but overall I liked the story and the writing. 3.75 out of 5 (read for Book Binge)

So Right With You by Maggie Kaye is the story of a woman who finds her fiancé cheating with her best friend and ends up staying with her boss who she then falls in love with. I didn’t care for this book. I thought that it was completely contrived and as the book was supposedly centered around Chloe and her best friends (it’s called The Girlfriend Series) then why did she not feel she could impose on them when she needed somewhere to stay. I found the story bland and nothing really happened. Not my cup of tea. 1 out of 5 (read for Book Binge)

Next was The Devil’s Pearl by Jennifer Haymore. Devlin and Julia were once lovers. He thought she knew he loved her but he treated her like a mistress and even tried to set her up in a house. She eventually leaves and moves to France but when she rejects another man’s advances he heads back to London and spreads rumors that she’s a courtesan. Now Dev is pissed that she cut him and took up with other men. When she heads back to England he kidnaps her and plans on keeping her forever. Ok, talk about anger issues. This guy was creepy and I think he’d actually lost it when he wanted to possess Julia. She needed to be with someone else entirely, imho. This is my first read by Haymore, and I liked the writing just not the character she wrote. I’ll definitely give her another chance but this one I found to just be ok. 2.5 out of 5 

Last was I Found You by Jane Lark. This is a new adult story about Jason who moved from small town Oregon to New York City. It’s not what he thought it would be at all and he’s pretty disillusioned. One night on his nightly run he finds Rachel on the Manhattan bridge about to jump off. He talks her down, takes her home and helps her out despite warnings from his mother, fiancé back home, and co-workers. The pair end up falling in love but the road is not easy and the issues they have to deal with are many. I just finished this one last night and I’m still formulating my thoughts on it. For the most part it was good but I did have some issues with it. 3.5 out of 5

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
For His Eyes Only by Liz Fielding

Happy Reading!

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What I Read Last Week

Posted March 3, 2014 by Tracy in Features | 1 Comment

Greetings!

How ya’ll doin’? Did you have a great weekend? I hope so.

My week last week was pretty quiet, if I remember correctly. My life has been pretty boring lately – I have to say I enjoy that sometimes. lol

My girls played in their bell choir this past Sunday – 2 pieces. Here are the videos if you’re interested. I think they’re both doing a wonderful job and they love playing, which I love. 

(My girls are..second from the left and 5th from the left.) 

 

(My girls are on the left table 1st and second from the right.)

 

Ok, on to what I read this past week:

I started off the week with A Lady by Any Other Name by Jennifer Kitchens. This story is about a young woman running from her evil brother when he promises her in marriage to an old disgusting man. On his deathbed her father had told her that he wasn’t her real father and gave her clues as to who the real father was. Nicole figures it out and goes to talk to her real fathers family hoping that they’ll take her in. What she finds is unexpected but then she’s sent to London to wait for proof of her parents marriage. She then falls in love with the man she’s staying with. The story was good if not a bit too busy – too many story lines floating about. The romance happened quickly with the hero and heroine going from what looked like 2 people who might have an attraction for each other to “I love you.” I just didn’t think they were at that point yet. Anyway the story still worked which was good. 3.25 out of 5

The Blind Wolf boxed set by Aubrey Rose is 4 stories following the romance and lives of Julia and Damien. Damien is a wolf shifter and finds out that Julia is his mate – but she’s full human which never happens. The story unfolds from there. Though not romance heavy it could get very emotional at times. I’ll post my review of this one this week. 3.5 out of 5

Disarm: The Complete Novel by June Gray was originally a serial. This is actually all 6 stories in the serial wrapped up in one and I’m so glad I read it this way. The story is a friends to lovers story involving Elsie and Henry. They finally get together after many years of friendship but then have to face Henry’s deployment to Afghanistan and Henry’s personality change when he returns. There’s a whole lot more that goes on and it was definitely worth reading. I’ll post my review of this one this week. 4 out of 5

Next was The Devil Wears Kilts by Suzanne Enoch. This is the first in a new series called Scandalous Highlanders. Ranulf is a highlander and proud to be one. He ends up chasing his 18 year old runaway sister to London when he refuses to let her have a Season. The family she stays with has an older daughter, Charlotte, who Ranulf is highly attracted to. Unfortunately Ranulf’s mother was English and that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Ranulf has prejudices against the English but Charlotte puts him in his place. The story is about the pair working out their differences as Charlotte abhors violence and Ranulf lives with it daily and thinks it’s ok. Ranulf decides to change his thinking but he’s not sure if it’s enough to capture Charlotte’s heart. It was a great story and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series. 4 out of 5

Bite Me by Shelly Laurenston is the story of Livy Kowalski, a Honey Badger shifter, and Vic Barinov, a hybrid shifter that is half bear and half tiger. Livy’s father is found dead and had obviously been murdered. Livy and her family decide that the person behind it all needs to pay. While this is happening Livy and Vic, who were friends before, start sleeping together which ends up turning to love. There’s a whole lot that goes on and it all wrapped up into a great story. I’ll post my review for this one later this month. 4 out of 5 

Last for the week was A Night With the Bride by Kate McKinley. This is the 3rd book in the By Invitation Only series. The story involves Nicholas, a duke who has basically been in seclusion and is thought to be mad, and Gabriella. Gabriella takes on a dare with her friends that she can get the duke to kiss her. It turns into so much more. I’ll post my review of this novella later this week. 4 out of 5

 

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Everybody’s Got A Story by Heather Wardell  

Happy Reading!

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