What I’ve Been Reading This Week

Posted November 25, 2008 by Tracy in Features | 7 Comments

Thank you all for your kind comments on my last post – I must say I love all of my blogging friends. They’re always there with a kind word and thought when it is needed. You guys are the best! It’s been a heck of a day but we’ve all gotten through it so far and can only go one day at a time.

Other than that the week was pretty good. The girls got their school pictures back which are adorable (and you know damn well that I’ll post them eventually cuz I’m just that kind of mom! lol) and they got their report cards as well. My youngest is doing extremely well in 1st grade and the teacher says she’s very motivated to learn – I love to hear that!! My oldest actually had a pretty good report card despite her current problems. The teacher said that she’s a great participant in class and asks a lot of questions and that she’s seen much improvement in the past month. That is so good to hear – obviously the tutoring is paying off! Yay!

So let’s get to the books:

Electra Galaxy’s Mr. Interstellar Fellar by Candace Samswas a pretty good book. It had it’s issues but it was mostly good (Kind of like in The Princess Bride when Westley was mostly dead). If you want more info you can see my review a couple of posts back.

Then it was on to Scions: Revelation by Patrice Michelle. This is a Harlequin Nocturne that will be released on Dec. 1. My review is scheduled for tomorrow so hop on by and check it out.

Next up was The Duke and I by Julia Quinn. The Bridgerton series was recommended to me over a year ago and I just never got around to reading it – like so many others that I’ve been told to read. Let me just say I loved this book. I thought Daphne was just wonderful and Simon, oh how my heart ached for him as a man but also for his horridly emotionally abusive childhood. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series.

After that I read Undead and Unworthy by Mary Janice Davidson. Although the writing was great I have to say I didn’t like this book as much as I’ve liked the others in this series. It just seemed to have a darker element in it that just didn’t appeal to me, especially at the end. And the character Nick was just so incredibly annoying I wanted to crawl through the pages and kill him myself. Bastard! Anyway, liked the book, but not as much as the others.

Birthright by Mari Freeman was my next read. This was a great book. I was immediately pulled into the story of Keena and her birthright as a witch and Priestess of the Wild. I thought Mari’s descriptions of WildLand as well as the different paranormal characters were fascinating. It was just a great fantasy as well as a wonderful romance – which at one point I cried about. It’s not easy to make me cry in a story! lol Very good book – I recommend it. Oh, and Mari received the Gold Star Award from Just Erotic Romance Reviews for this book. Congrats Mari!!

Last up were 2 short stories: The first was Tree of Buried Secrets by Cassie Exline. This was an odd story. It started when the author was 18 but then quickly went to when she was 70 or so. There was a secret that she had kept since she was 18 from her family and the story was the reminiscing about the secret as well as the secret itself. It wasn’t a bad story at all, just oddly written IMO.

The second short was Diamond Wolf by Kat Haeske. This is an m/m story about a Lupine and a Vampire becoming mates. Pretty good. My review will be up on The Book Binge sometime this week I think.

That was all for this week folks. Happy Reading to you.

7 Comments

Tagged: Candace Sams, Cassie Exline, Julia Quinn, Kat Haeske, Mari Freeman, Mary Janice Davidson, Patrice Michelle, What I Read Last Week, What I've Been Reading This Week

Review: Electra Galaxy’s Mr. Interstellar Feller

Posted November 19, 2008 by Tracy in Reviews | 9 Comments

Author: Candace Sams

In the distant future, Captain Keir Trask is hunting dangerous weapon smugglers and has tracked them all the way to Earth. In order to bring these felons back to the planet of Lucent, he has quite reluctantly agreed to go undercover as a male beauty pageant contestant. The only problem is that the Earth Protectorate agent assigned to work with him is driving him insane.

Captain Sagan Carter has orders to make sure her high-and-mighty alien counterpart completes all the requirements of the Electra Galaxy’s Mr. Interstellar Feller pageant; otherwise he’s to be escorted to the nearest deportation area, never to return to Earth’s surface.

All Keir wants is to arrest the smugglers and go home. To make the arrest and grab the kudos for herself, Sagan forces Keir to keep his assorted appointments including bikini waxes, cucumber facials and filming promo spots for ‘Pluto Pillow Mints…The mints that melt in your mouth and provide an orgasmic experience for your taste buds’.

Keir Trask (a shortened, Earth version of his Oceanun name) has been sent to Earth with his partner/second in command Datron (a shortened version of his Valkyrian name) to compete in the Mr. Interstellar Feller competition. This is not something that these Enforcers looked forward to doing and is considered far, far beneath them, but they have to be under cover in order to seek out smugglers. Oh, and Keir is a muscled-bound 7 foot tall man with long black hair and mint green skin. WHAT? That’s right, mint green skin. It was humorous at first, but after a while I forgot – until it was mentioned again of course. It didn’t detract from the story, which was great.

Sagan is an Earth Protectorate undercover enforcer whose job it is to keep an eye on Keir. Oceanuns are not normally permitted on Earth as there is no trade agreement between the two planets. So the only way that Keir is allowed on the planet is to pose as a contestant in the MIF contest. Sagan, acts as his manager during the contestant. During the time that Sagan and Keir are together they start falling in love with one another. Sagan is trying her best not to fall because Keir will have to return home as soon as the competition is over.

I have to say, this was an interesting book. It wasn’t at all what I expected. Even though the blurb stated that Keir was on Earth looking for a weapons smuggler and Sagan was trying to keep Keir in line, etc., I was convinced that this was going to be a bit of fluff that focused more on the Mr. Interstellar Feller pageant and the humor in that whole ordeal more than anything else. When I got into the book I realized that the book focused more on the mission of Keir and Sagan trying to find the weapons smuggler. Their cover was blown though and it became a mission of when to get the weapons smuggler rather than a whodunit.

As much as Keir and his fellow Oceanuns look down on Earthlings, Keir comes to realize that they’re not as stupid and backwards as they were led to believe. More like Earthlings are quite smart and he’s dully impressed. I liked how the author showed Keir learning to adjust his thinking about the planet.

I have to say there were a couple of parts I had a problem with in the book. First, Sagan hated people who lied to her. The 3 closest people in her life had lied to her. Of course Keir is trying to catch these smugglers but he has things to hide in regard to the mission and therefore lies to Sagan. When she discovers these lies she’s pissed. But it seemed that she just got over it within the next scene and thinks to herself that she respects him. Someone who’s that adamant about honest would not get over it that quickly. Would they?

Also, Sagan & Keir had already admitted that they had feelings for each other but Keir supposedly sleeps with the producer of the pageant. Then the next day Sagan sleeps with Keir. IDK, that just bugged the crap outta me. Why would she do that? No self-respect?

There were some pretty funny parts in the book that had me laughing out loud. There was also the part where Keir’s having sex with Sagan and the head of his penis starts rotating! OMG!!!! I was laughing so damned hard my hubby thought I was losing it. (KB, I thought of you and all those weird sex books you’ve been reading! lol)

Overall it was a pretty good read. There was about 40 pages right in the middle that were total WTF but it was good before and after. I won’t reveal what happens in the end but I will say that there was an HEA.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5