Tag: Dianne Fox

What I Read Last Week

Posted August 13, 2012 by Tracy in Features | 7 Comments

It was a much quieter week this week – thank heavens! lol I did have to register my oldest for High School which was a bit painful for me – emotionally, not physically – but I made it through. Both girls start school on Thursday and they’re both excited.

Not much else happened – of which I was completely thrilled with so I’ll get on to what I read this past week:

My first read was for Book Binge and it was a historical called When You Wish Upon A Duke by Isabella Bradford. The story was about an Earl’s daughter who had been living in the quiet countryside with her sisters and mother after the death of her father years earlier. The oldest daughter is shocked when a man of business shows up and lets her know that she’s been engaged for most of her life and to a Duke no less. While Charlotte isn’t sure what she should expect she’s thrilled when she meets the duke and he is all that is kind and handsome. The duke is thrilled with Charlotte as well but he has some past issues that keep the pair from moving to a deeper relationship. I really liked this book a lot. I liked the characters and the fact that they weren’t hateful to each other but attracted and kind to one another. The duke issues weren’t as bad as I thought they would be, when revealed, but I could see why he would have them. Overall it was a good story. 4.25 out of 5

Next up was One Real Thing by Anah Crow and Dianne Fox. In this story we have two friends – one taking care of the other when he’s hit rock bottom and coming to realize that he loves his friend in more ways than one. The other friend who is thrilled to be helped but tormented by the feelings he’s always had for his good friend. They help each other in many different ways throughout the book and it’s very good. I really liked both the men in this story and liked the story itself. I did think that the story ran on a bit long after the I Love You’s were said – just pages of the reaffirmation of their love, really, and it got a bit old. I also didn’t really care for the odd and semi-sudden appearance of submission by one of the men. It was touched upon earlier in the book but not enough for me to think that level of submission would appear. Maybe it was just me. shrugs Still a really good story and definitely worth reading. 4 out of 5

The Reluctant Amazon by Sandy James was next. This is the first book in a new series by Sandy and it was darned good. Rebecca is a Kindergarten teacher and was planning on getting married until her fiancé left her at the altar and she then finds out she’s an Amazon. What? lol It’s much more in depth than that and I’ll go into it more when I post my review later in the month. 4.25 out of 5

A Lady by Midnight by Tessa Dare was next and it was Oh. So. Good. I love her Spindle Cove series and she didn’t disappoint with this book. The story revolves around the local music teacher, Kate Taylor, and Corporal Thorne of the local militia. Kate’s an orphan but then is possibly a Marquess’s daughter. She hates Thorne, but then she loves him. Oh it was so good. I’ll post my review next week of this wonderful book. 5 out of 5

Pyromancer by Amanda Young was my Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week. This is the story of Christian who has some weird powers having to do with fire. He can sometimes control it but he can supposedly hurt someone when he gets too emotional . He’s not been with a man for a long time and decides to call and escort service. He gets hooked up with Tanner and after that one night can’t stop thinking about Tanner. He ends up helping Tanner after he gets beaten up and the two end up in bed together. They have communication issues about what their relationship is and it causes great angst. I liked this book and the whole premise behind it all. The problems I had with the story were that A) We’re told that Christian can hurt someone with his powers when he gets too worked up but we never actually see that. He gets plenty worked up with Tanner during sex but the powers never appear to be a problem. B) We have to wait until the end of the book to find out that Christian has no clue why he has the powers – he just does. It would have been lovely to have known that ahead of time. I didn’t feel that that info should have been held back. Besides those niggles I really liked the story and read it quite quickly. 3.5 out of 5

Last for the week was the Real Men Do It Better anthology by Carrie Alexander, Susan Donovan, Lora Leigh and Lori Wilde. I read this one for my monthly TBR Challenge and will post my review on Wednesday.

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Wild Texas Rose by Jodi Thomas

Happy Reading!

7 Comments

Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What I Read Last Week

Posted August 22, 2011 by Tracy in Features | 13 Comments

It’s Back to School time! Can you believe it’s already time for my kids to go back to school? I can’t. Where the heck did the summer go? I have no idea! The kids, however, were rip roaring and ready to go. They don’t like the homework but they wanted to see all their friends and my youngest LOVES going to school – she’s so academic. I love that but wonder where she got that…definitely not from me. lol Here’s my youngest on the first day of school starting 4th grade – ZOMG 4th grade!

She’s so cute!
My oldest started the day after and since we had an ant problem when we woke up that day (no, there was nothing they could get at but there were a damn lot of them nonetheless!) so we had to rush to get her to school and I didn’t take a picture. I know, I suck. I will get one this week though – she’s grown so much and she’s adorable so I have to share. 🙂
I’m loving my Kindle. Thanks to all who helped with the info from last week, it was extremely helpful. My print books are suffering though. The Kindle’s so fast that I haven’t been reading that many print books and they’re staring forlornly at me whenever I walk into the office at home and I hear them sniffle and whisper *read us, read us, don’t you love us anymore?*. It’s very sad.
Speaking of Kindle’s…a bunch of us in my family all chipped in for my mom’s b-day and bought her a Kindle! I think she likes it – not sure she’s had all that much time to play with it but hopefully she’s loving hers as much as I’m loving mine. 🙂
This weekend we had what we called a Back to School Bash here at the church and we had a HUGE double slip and slide. The kids absolutely loved it and had such a fun time. Here’s a picture of the slide and then one of my two girls racing each other. Looks like fun! (No I didn’t get in)

On to what I read this past week:

I started off with Second Chance at the Sugar Shack by Candis Terry. I really, really liked this story about a woman coming back to her home town for her mother’s funeral and then staying on to help her father at the family bakery. She left town 10 years earlier without saying a word to anyone and there are many hard feelings between her and her old beau as well as the argument that her and her mother never resolved. This was a great contemporary (with a little bit of ghost thrown in) and I definitely recommend it. You can read my review here. 4.5 out of 5

My Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week was Slow Bloom by Anah Crow and Dianne Fox. This m/m novel is the story of Ricky Talbot who is a 18 almost 19 year old boy who is taking care of his neighbor’s lawn for the summer. His neighbor, Jack Corson, and Ricky have a sexual experience one day and they think that’s all it will be until Ricky contacts Jack to help him out when he gets beat up at a bar one night. The two start what ends up being a two year relationship that is sometimes long distance as Ricky returns to college. I was a little perplexed at the age difference in this story at first since Jack is 48 and Ricky is 18 (and since Jack is described as much older it was odd – I swear I thought they were going to say he was 60! lol) Anyway, as the story moves on I had no issue with the age difference. Ricky is extremely intelligent and mature and it helps the relationship work. It’s tender and loving and I really enjoyed the book. 4.25 out of 5

My next read was a short erotic m/m called What’s A Boy to Do by Diane Adams. This is a very cute story about Tyler who has a boyfriend, Jake, but yet is in love with his roommate, Z. Z can’t decide whether he’s gay or not or actually wants to be with Tyler but it doesn’t stop him from sleeping with Tyler whenever he’s between girlfriends. I tried not to let that part bother me as the story was so short. One day Z starts coming on to Tyler when Jake is there and soon all both Z and Jake are having their way with Tyler. It was a short but great sex scene. I would love to read more about all three of these men in a longer format. 4 out of 5

Next up was Scandal of the Year by Olivia Drake. James has been told that the people who he thinks are his cousins are imposters. If they are then he would stand to inherit. He decides to pose as a footman to gain info on the family but instead ends up acting like a prince from a foreign country for the daughter of his cousins so that she can marry a duke. The pair end up falling in love but what happens when James reveals who he is and the reasons he’s there? This was cute but I had some issues with it. Mainly that James playing part upon part was a bit much. I never did see James and Blythe as all that in love and I didn’t care for the end all that much. 3 out of 5 

(read for The Book Binge)

My next read was A Solid Core of Alpha by Amy Lane. I’ll be posting my review this week so keep your eyes open for that.

Short story, Stormchild by Vivian Arend, was also cute. A travelling doctor and the woman he meets and has a passionate night with find that they’re more than compatible. I liked the story but it didn’t really have an end. I can only assume that the story continues in the next book. 3 out of 5

Last on the list was Midnight by Ellen Connor. This is book 2 in the Dark Age series and it was good. I didn’t care for it as much as I did book 1 but it was still very good. This has Chris Welsh from book 1 travelling (approx. 4 years after book 1 ended) when he runs into a settlement called Valle de Bravo which is run by Rosa Cortez. He doesn’t plan on staying but he ends up being the resident doctor. Chris and Rosa tap dance around each other but eventually succumb to their attraction. The problem comes when outsiders come to take over the town and Chris turns out to be someone he never would have dreamed of. And is it just me or does the guy on the cover of this book look like Ryan Seacrest? lol 3.75 out of 5 (read for The Book Binge)

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Happy Reading!

13 Comments

Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,