Tag: Elizabeth Lapthorne

What I Read Last Week

Posted February 22, 2010 by Tracy in Features | 15 Comments

Happy Monday!

It’s been a crazy week at my house. Hubby is still recuperating and I’m still taking care of him. My youngest then got sick on Saturday with a high fever, vomiting and a bad cold. Oy. I think I need a caretaker for the caretaker. lol Other than that life is good. I got a lot of reading done this week…especially this weekend taking care of my youngest. She just wanted me to hold her while she stared at the wall so I read. Poor thing.

At one point this week I was trying to think of the name of a book. I had to go back through my blog to find it since I could remember the premise but not the character names. I found the book but discovered that I really have been slacking on the book descriptions and just telling how I felt about the book. I will endeavor to do better with this. If I start slacking off you can give me a cyber slap. 🙂

Book Giveaway winner! I used my high tech name generator (aka put names in a basket and have my friend Shannon draw one out) and the winner of Catch Me If You Can by LB Gregg is:

Joder

Congrats Joder! I have the email address that you left on my blog when you entered. I will send you Catch Me to you on March 2nd!

Now – on to what I read:

First up for the week was The Truth About Lord Stoneville by Sabrina Jeffries. This is book one in the Hellions of Halstead Hall series about 5 siblings who were more or less raised by their grandmother. Said grandmother, who is a wealthy woman due to her husband’s brewery has said that all of the siblings must marry within a year or they will receive no money. Since none of them are flush by any means and depend on her they are not happy about this turn of events. The Marquess of Stoneville – the oldest son – decides to thwart his grandmother by bringing home the most unacceptable bride he can find…one straight from a brothel. Except he runs into Maria Butterfield and due to crazy circumstances pretty much bribes her into being his pretend bride. They of course fall in love cuz this is a romance, after all. I really liked this book a lot. I thought Maria and Oliver played off each other very nicely and it just gave me the warm fuzzies. lol 4.25 out of 5

The next book was Trouble in Mudbug by Jana Deleon. This was a recommendation from the lady at New and Recycled Romance but I just couldn’t get into it. I may go back and finish it sometime but IDK. I got about 100 pages into the story – a botanist in Louisiana who was being investigated, but we don’t know why – and she inherits an entire preserve from her dead m-i-l who in life hated her – Oh, and said m-i-l is now haunting her and she’s the only one who can see her ghost – and I just couldn’t read any further. When the heroine of the story kept saying that she was doing things that she would never in a million years do…like breaking and entering…I just couldn’t keep reading. DNF

The Bliss Factor by Penny McCall was next and again I had to put the book down for lack of interest. Again, got about 125 pages in and had to put it down. A woman is asked by her hippie-like parents to “watch” a friend of theirs. Only the man was hit on the head and since he was working the renaissance fair he thinks that’s his time period and doesn’t understand this strange new world. Not my thing, unfortunately. DNF

Next up was Bareback by Chris Owen. I read this one for my m/m challenge. I really liked it. You can read my review here. 4 out of 5

Remember I said that I had a lot of books to read for The Book Binge? Well, I tried to get through a bunch of the ebooks this week. All but two were novellas so it made for fast reading. It looks like I read a lot but really when you think about it the 3 novellas and 1 short equal 1 full length novel. 🙂

1) The first was Hidden Desires by Elizabeth Lapthorne. A woman goes to Mardi Gras in New Orleans and not only picks up a magical mask but meets the man of her dreams. 3.25 out of 5 Review here
2) The next was Mardi Gras by Lacey Alexander. The story of a woman who is crazy about her boss that she’s known since she was about 12. She puts on a costume during Mardi Gras so she can finally do him like she wants because she knows she can never have his heart. Things don’t always work out as planned though. 4 out of 5. Review here
3) Pet Me by Amarinda Jones. Drusilla goes to a pet store to find a replacement fish for the one she’s accidentally killed. She meets Cormack who’s fighting her for the fish and they find instant lust and eventually love. A very funny novella that I enjoyed. 4.25 out of 5. I’ll let you know when my review posts.
4) Heart of Gold by Riley Ashford. This is the story of a woman who buys an abandoned, supposedly haunted plantation in the south. She meets ghosts, learns its history and meets a very alive descendant that turns her heart and her body upside down. 3.75 out of 5. I’ll let you know when my review posts.
5) Master of Fire by Angela Knight. This is book 11 in the Mageverse series. I’ve been waiting impatiently for another addition to this series for about 2 years. It was a good one. Arthur and Gwen’s son Logan is being targeted by an assassin so they send a witch to guard him with strict instructions not to tell Logan what she is and definitely not sleep with him (doing so 3 times will turn him to a vamp). Yeah, things don’t always go as planned – with the relationship or the assassin. 4 out of 5. I’ll let you know when my review posts.

Next was the book for my DIK Reading Challenge. I chose Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts for this month’s read. The story of Emma and Jack and their friendship turning into much, much more. You can read my review on Wednesday. 4.25 out of 5

Lift Me Up by Rayne Auster was the following read. This novella is the story of Avery who has a heart wrenching experience in the elevator of his apartment building. He is so distraught he can’t quite make it into his apartment. His new neighbor, Dylan, accidentally trips over him and it’s a match made in heaven. Well, almost. It was a cute story. The telling in first person was a little odd at times but it was good. 3.25 out of 5

And last but not least was my Tracy’s TBR Challenge read (actually 3 of the books I read this week I’ve had for more than 3 months, but who’s counting?) was It’s In His Kiss by Julia Quinn. I had read the first 6 Bridgerton books fairly quickly but I think I’d gotten a little burned out on them. This is book 7 and follows Hyacinth who is helping Gareth St. Clair interpret his paternal grandmother’s diary. This leads them to spending more time together but also to start looking for some diamonds that are supposedly hidden in the St. Clair home. It’s a very cute love story that I very much enjoyed reading. Hyacinth had kind of bugged me in previous books but she really didn’t in this one which I was really surprised about. I liked her spunk in this book where in previous books her mouth just annoyed me. 4.25 out of 5

Happy Reading!

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Tagged: Amarinda Jones, Angela Knight, Chris Owen, Elizabeth Lapthorne, Jana Deleon, Julia Quinn, Lacey Alexander, Nora Roberts, Penny McCall, Rayne Auster, Riley Ashford, Sabrina Jeffries, The Book Binge

Guest Review: Hidden Desires by Elizabeth Lapthorne

Posted February 21, 2010 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 0 Comments

Tracy’s review of Hidden Desires by Elizabeth Lapthorne

Lily has to admit she’s desperate. She’s in New Orleans on a two-week vacation, she made the trip especially for Mardi Gras, and she doesn’t have a mask. Everything she’s found seems wrong.As a last-ditch effort, she enters a small shop and finds the perfect mask until it shows her visions of herself getting ravished by a masked highwayman. When that highwayman turns up at the Mardi Gras bash, she knows the chemistry between them could only lead to one place.The only thing that remains hidden between them is their true desires.

Lily has taken a vacation to New Orleans and wants to have a wild one night stand with a hot man. She thinks that everyone should have the Mardi Gras experience at least once in their lives. While looking for a mark to wear with her costume she comes across the perfect one. She puts it on in the resale shop and has a vision of herself with a man dressed as a highwayman. She’s intrigued by what she sees and buys the mask.

When she gets to the Mardi Gras party she meets a highwayman. He seems familiar, and not just from her vision, but she doesn’t dwell on it too much. Lily and her highwayman end up back at his hotel for a night of hot sex. When Lily wakes up at one point she sees that the man behind the mask is Andrew, a man from her work.

Andrew has been in lust with Lily since he started working at the same place. He’d been wanting to ask her out but the schedules had never seems to mesh. When Andrew overheard Lily telling a co-worker about her trip to Mardi Gras he figured it was the perfect time to get her right where he wanted her. But Lily’s not sure how to react to the revelation that this man followed her and has more planned for them than she’s ready to accept.

This was a cute story. I love costume parties and of course Mardi Gras is a big one. Andrew and Lily were great together and it their time back in his hotel room was very steamy. But I just kept thinking of questions…for example: Lily was at a party thrown by an old friend of hers. How did Andrew know where she was going to be just by overhearing Lily say “Suzy”. New Orleans is a big place! There were others too and It made me wonder how into the story I was if I could stop and think about that kind of thing while reading.

While I liked the characters in the book they weren’t three dimensional enough for my liking. I know this is a novella so there is only so much time to do that but I just felt like I couldn’t get to know them. There was also a small part of the book that was seen through the eyes of the mask – as if it were its own entity. It wasn’t creepy or anything but I didn’t feel that its point of view was consistent enough throughout the story.

Rating: 3.25 out of 5

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

This book is available from Ellora’s Cave. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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Tagged: 3.5 Reviews, Elizabeth Lapthorne, Ellora's Cave, Erotica, Guest Reviews, Paranormal Erotica, Reviews, Tracy's Reviews

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

Posted August 17, 2008 by Tracy in Features | 11 Comments

Well it was a good week this week if very tiring. The girls going back to school threw me for a freakin loop. Getting up 45 min. to an hour earlier than summer just kicked my butt for some reason and I kept falling asleep early at night. God I felt old! lol Of course falling asleep early just puts a huge kabosh on the whole reading at night after the kids go to bed plan. This week only I read 2 full length novels and then a bunch of novellas and stories that weren’t more than 150 pages each!

Right now the girls are driving me batty. I’ve escaped to the computer and had hubby take over. If one of them comes up to me just one more time and says, “She looked at me funny!” I’m going to blow my fuckin lid! lol I love mykids, I love my kids, I love my kids…

Ok – so on to what I read this week…

It Had To Be You by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. See review below.

Next was Twin Temptations by Elizabeth Lapthorne. This is a cute little novella that is #6 in the Rutledge Werewolf series. I haven’t read the first 5 but whatever. 🙂 Oh, it’s “Twin” because the girl is a twin. You thought boobs or even menage, huh? Yeah, I did too! lol

Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Lapthorne was next. This is #2 in the Rutledge Werewolf series and strangely enough it’s about the parents of the twins I read about in book 6 – kinda weird, but ok. I liked the story but there was a huge build up to the major conflict in the book and then it was just settled without a whole lot of fanfare. It was kind of anti-climactic.

It’s been 2 weeks or so since I’d read a book in the Troubleshooters series by Suzanne Brockmann and that’s just not right! I read Force of Nature which is book 11 in the series (I’ll soon be all caught up, dammit!). This was another fantastic read. I just love Brockmann’s characters and this one didn’t disappoint. Annie, Ric, Jules, Robin, Martell and all of the others in this book were just great – even the bad guys are written so you really hate them. Let me just also say that Brockmann’s dedications almost always bring me to tears. (I’m such a sap)

Ok so last week I read Samantha Kane’s At Love’s Command which was fab. I really liked it and I decided to read the rest of the Brothers in Arms books that she has out. I wasn’t planning on reading them one right after another, but that’s just what happened. I went from The Courage to Love to Love’s Strategy to Love Under Seige. I liked all of these books. There was a time in one of the books – I think it was The Courage to Love that I started skipping a love scene and thought wow this has a lot of sex! lol Yeah, I don’t say that very often! haha. But like I said they were all good. I think At Love’s Command is my favorite but they’rea ll worth reading.

I ended my reading week with Educating Rose by Lissa Matthews. Educating Rose is Lissa’s first book, a short about a girl (virgin librarian) who has the desire to be a submissive, but only for 1 man. Although this story was only 36 pages I very much enjoyed it. Obviously you can’t delve too far into the characters with such a short story but after I was done reading I felt like I knew them. I’m not a huge bdsm book fan but this one was very enjoyable. Great job Lissa.
You can also find Samantha Kane and Lissa Matthews at Kiss and Tell which is where I found out about Lissa’s release.