Happy New Year to you all! I hope you had a safe and fun New Year’s Eve. We stayed home with the kids and ended up making cookies at 10:00pm! It kept me awake that’s for sure. lol I wish you a healthy and happy 2013!

This past week was nice. I had Monday and Tuesday off and only had to work 3 days last week which is always nice. It was a relatively quiet week as the kids were gone on Wed. & Thurs. as they spent it with my parents. I think I’d forgotten how quiet the house could be with just hubby and I (and the cat) in it. 🙂

Anyway, on to what I read this past week which was, except for one glitch, a really good reading week:

I started off the week with Live and Let Love by Gina Robinson. This story is about a spy who works for a division of the CIA. Jack was in an explosion two years prior and pronounced dead. He lived however and got plastic surgery and a new name. He was married though and one of his enemies is “courting” his wif, Willow, to try to draw him out because he apparently doesn’t believe that Jack is dead. Jack heads to Willow’s town to thwart the bad guy but he doesn’t plan on getting close to Willow as he can’t stand the pain of getting close and then having to leave again. This was a good story that was funny and serious in parts. I had a bit of an issue with Jack being able to leave his wife for two years but the author did a good job of making that seem insignificant. You can read my full review here at Book Binge. 3.5 out of 5

Next up was Quid Pro Quo by LA Witt and Aleksandr Voinov. This is story about 2 rent boys who work at a place called Market Gardens. Jared has had a crush on Tristan for months but doesn’t think that Tristan even knows who he is. When a client wants to watch Tristan and Jared together Jared gets to finally put his hands on Tristan the way he’s been dying to. Good story – hot and sexy. You can read my full review here. 4 out of 5 

Blessed Isle by Alex Beecroft is the historical story of a captain of a ship and one of his lieutenants. It’s kind of a Murphy’s Law book of sorts as at one point there was nothing that wasn’t going wrong. It was a wonderful yet completely unexpected story that I loved reading. You can read my full review of it here. 4.5 out of 5  

My next read was Secrets of a Wedding Night by Valerie Bowman. The story is about a Countess who writes pamphlet about the secrets of a wedding night in order to try and stop the man she loves from getting married. It stops it but he’s pissed and swears that he will get revenge…by seducing her. There were huge trust issues from when they originally fell in love 5 years prior, there are honesty issues and frankly I found the heroine to be completely manipulative. In the end it was just an ok read. 2 out of 5 

Precinct 13 by Tate Hallaway was an unexpected surprise. The story is about a woman who has been thought crazy – even put in lockdown because of her hallucinations. Turns out everything she though she saw was real and that she’s a witch. She doesn’t figure this out until she becomes a county coroner and on her first autopsy the body gets up and walks out. It’s crazy as she and the members of Precinct 13 try to find out where the corpse is and what the heck is going on. The story is a bit confusing at the beginning as it felt like there was a previous book – but there’s not. It got better as it went and I found myself laughing out loud more than once. Overall a good read. 3.75 out of 5 

Inseparable by Chris Scully is the story of Adam who is hit by a car and logically ends up in the hospital. When he awakens he finds he can’t remember a thing – including his best friend, Joe. Though Joe acts more like a boyfriend Joe tells Adam that while Joe is gay, Adam is not. As Adam learns more about himself though he finds that things aren’t exactly as Joe said they were. This was a fun story. I loved the slow awakening of Adam in several different ways. It was a great Christmas read. 4 out of 5 

Fourth and Long by Chris Scully is about Eric who is heads to his high school reunion with trepidation. Eric thinks about all the various things that happened during his senior year and specifically Prom Night but we don’t get the whole story at once – it slowly unfolds. That happens when Eric is sent back in time to his senior year and he realizes he has the opportunity to change things. A very good read that I really enjoyed! 4 out of 5 

Last was Seduction of a Highland Lass by Maya Banks. This is the story of Alaric McCabe who is hurt and ends up at the cottage of Keeley McDonald. She heals him to a point but then they are found by Alaric’s brothers and Keeley is taken back to McCabe lands to continue healing him. She is also to oversee the birth of the Laird’s baby. Keeley was thrown from her clan over something that she didn’t do and so being in the McCabe clan gives her a sense of family that she hasn’t had for years. She and Alaric also fall deeply in love but he is promised in marriage to the daughter of the McDonald clan and cannot break that promise. It’s a heart wrenching story that was oh so good. I just love Banks’ historicals so much! I can’t wait to read the next in the series to find out what happens with brother number 3, Caelen. 4 out of 5

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week: 
Live and Let Love by Gina Robinson 
Chance of a Lifetime by Jodi Thomas

Happy Reading!