Tag: Erica Pike

What I Read Last Week

Posted May 6, 2013 by Tracy in Features | 1 Comment

Hello from rainy So Cal!

The weather around here is insane, I’m tellin ya. Last week it was anywhere from 80-100 degrees…until Sunday and then it was overcast and chilly. Today it’s about 50 and raining. I love living here but I gotta say that sometimes the weather just baffles me. lol

It was a quiet week and a lovely weekend. Thank you to all of you who wished me happy birthday on twitter, facebook or on The Book Binge or on Nath’s blog (it was Nath’s birthday too!). I have to say that I felt very loved on Friday. 🙂 The fam and I went out on Friday night to a lovely restaurant called Sabor Cocina. I had a margarita as big as my head (I’ve never had one from there and it was huge – and tasty) and Enchiladas de Marisco (Fresh crab, wild pacific shrimp, spinach, poblano cream sauce, crema and avocado). OMG I was in heaven! Saturday was a running around and shopping day. On Sunday the whole fam went to see Iron Man 3 (which was great) and then we spent the day working on the State Tower project for my youngest, doing laundry, cleaning house and watching Cake Boss on Netflix. Overall it was just a fun weekend. 

On to what I read last week: 

 I started off the week with 18% Gray by Anne Tenino. This story is set in the future when the states have been divided and there are Red States and Blue States. The Red states are controlling and conservative, the Blue…aren’t. In a Blue state there is QESA (Queer Extraction Services) and they go into Red states and covertly remove/rescue those who are Queer and in need of extraction. Matt works for QESA and is sent into Idaho to rescue James but James has some funky things going on in his body and it’s not an easy extraction since there are so many people looking for him. The story is about the 2 men getting out of Idaho but also getting to know each other again. They had been friends until the age of 14 when James caught Matt in a compromising position with another man and then teased and ostracized him in high school. This is a good futuristic/sci fi type read. I wasn’t sure what to expect but should have known it would be good because of Anne Tenino. I haven’t read anything by her that I haven’t liked. The story did get a bit slow in the middle as it seemed there were almost too many obstacles for the two men but the rest was pretty darned good. 3.5 out of 5

Next up was The Laird’s Forbidden Lover by Amelia C. Gormley. The story of two men who are distant cousins who fall in love but only see each other one, maybe two times a year. My review for this will go up on Wednesday. 

After that it was Game On by Tracy Solheim. This is the first book in a series about a football team called the Baltimore Blaze. This story has the General Manager’s assistant falling for the new quarterback but he’s got serious relationship issues due to the death of his mother and the abandonment of his father. Throw in a stalker for the heroine and a half-brother for the hero and there you have it. It was a good story but I did have some issues with the heroine as she knew what the hero was like but expected different from him every time. I find that so annoying in a heroine as it seems like she just can’t take him as he is but that’s a whole other issue. lol My review for this will go up on Book Binge tomorrow if you’d like to know about what I thought. 3.25 out fo 5 

KC, at Bat by Tom Mendicino is about two boys who find each other one summer while working for a moving company. KC is one of the summer league’s star players and pretty much bound for the NBL, while Charlie starts the summer being a scrawny thing he soon puts on muscle from the moving company. KC and Charlie fall for each other but it’s an awkward time between the two at first. I really enjoyed this story so, so much. The book says Book One so I’m hoping we get the rest of Charlie and KC’s story as we’re kind of left hanging in the end. This one doesn’t come out til June 6th but I just couldn’t wait to read it after reading the blurb. I put a few of my thoughts down here at Goodreads. 4.5 out of 5 

It continued being a mostly m/m week with Little Stalker by Erica Pike. This novella was about a guy who gets drunk and sleeps with women when he’s not really even attracted to them – because he’s attracted to men. He won’t admit that to himself or anyone else. He’s got a stalker though who follows him around and when they get together it’s explosive. Really cute story that ended with a HFN. 3.75 out of 5 

Welcome, Brother by Erica Pike was a novella about a Freshman in college who applies to The Nova Britannia Brotherhood. He fears he won’t get in but he does – and his mentor Hunter is someone that Kyler has a huge crush on. It gets more intense the longer they’re together but Kyler doesn’t even know if Hunter’s gay. When a gay bashing occurs in the Brotherhood it brings out ghosts from Hunter’s past but Kyler is there to help him out. This was such a good story. I really liked the way the story was set up and how it played out. I thought the characters were very well written and enjoyed every moment of this story. 4 out of 5 

Last for the week was Wild by Zoe Perdita. Wild is a born werewolf who is an omega and was banished from his pack because they didn’t want to waste the money it would take to feed him. Wild has been on his own for 5 years when he’s caught in a trap and saved by Caleb who was bitten by a werewolf. Caleb takes Wild in and gives him food and shelter, and even a position as his assistant but Wild wants more as he knows that Caleb is his mate. They also have to deal with a local wolf pack and werewolf hunters who were brought near by Wild. The story was good but a little repetitive for my liking. Wild really pushed Caleb and I found it got old after a bit. It was definitely a slower paced story but interesting. 3.25 out of 5

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Roses in Moonlight by Lynn Kurland
Unbroken by Melody Grace
Take What You Want by Jeannette Grey

Happy Reading!

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What I Read Last Week

Posted May 7, 2012 by Tracy in Features | 5 Comments

Happy Monday!
How are all of you lovelies? I’m here at work taking a quick break to get this post done. I wish I was at home in my pj’s but I can’t have everything, can I? *sigh*
It was a good week this past week. Thank you all for your many birthday wishes. It was a good day and I was remembered by so many (thank you Facebook. lol). I had a good day at work and then hubby and the kids and I went out for a nice dinner. I got some great gifts – gc’s to Amazon, of course the laptop I got from my parents weeks ago, a new Keurig (which is the absolute bomb) and a wonderfully large gc from my hubby for a local day spa. I can’t wait to use that one!
This week will be an interesting one. My oldest is starting high school next year (yikes) and wants to try out for the cheerleading squad. I don’t know about your local high school’s but the ones around here take that shit seriously! The girls have to attend a 4 hour clinic (over 2 days) to learn the assigned tryout material. They then are scored accordingly. If the girls make it they have practice 3 times a week with 1 game during football season and 2 days of practice and 2 game days during basketball season. They also cheer for the baseball and volleyball teams. I’m glad she’s trying out but to say I’m a little concerned with all that practice is an understatement. Not that they don’t need it but with how long it takes her to do her schoolwork…it might be an issue. Well she’ll try out on Friday and they’ll post the new squad by midnight that night so by this time next week we’ll know one way or the other. I’ll keep you posted.
Ok – on to what I read this past week:
First up was Where It Hurts the Most by Anne Brooke. This is the first release in the Riptide Publishing Rentboy Collection and it was a good one. Take a male escort and a man who has shut himself off from everything due to an accident and put them together…what do you get? A really good book. 🙂 You can read my review here. 4 out of 5 
Be sure to join me tomorrow when Anne visits the blog.
Next up was Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas. It took me a while to actually get the book (cuz apparently I’m too distracted) but when I did I really loved it. This is the story of a woman who is dumped by her live-in boyfriend who then shacks up with her sister. Lucy then gets horribly injured and through a series of events gets to convalesce at Sam Nolan’s house. Sam is a commitment-phobe because of his alcoholic parents but he definitely sees something in Lucy that makes him look at her like he’s never looked at another woman. This was so good. I wasn’t too surprised with the magical elements in the book as there was magic involved in book 1 of the series. Kleypas sucked me in from the first word and I couldn’t put the book down. Good stuff. 4.5 out of 5
My next read was a book I got for review called The Virgin’s Revenge by Dee Tenorio. I was a little off on my release dates and this one doesn’t actually come out until July 3. It was a good read about an overprotected woman trying to break out on her own. Her older brother want her to marry the man of HIS choice, which is actually hers too but since Cole’s her good friend she’s never acted on it, and this brings a whole host of problems. Take the fact that she finds out about it all and then wants revenge on both of them for trying to control her. It was a good read and made me want to read more in the series (this is book 4). 3.75 out of 5
Beguiling the Beauty by Sherry Thomas was next. This was SUCH a good book. I really loved so much about it – the writing, the story, the characters. I did have a few niggles with it but despite that have much love for the book overall. I noticed on Goodreads that this one has gotten REALLY mixed reviews. I guess it’s one of those you have to read and decide for yourself. You can read my review here. 4.5 out of 5
False Start by Janey Chapel is the story is about two men who share a clandestine relationship in college for about 8 months before the one who’s so far in the closet he can’t find the door freaks out and things are done. Now ten years later Tucker is back in town and ready to face all kinds of music, especially the one dealing with Whit and how he left him behind. Such a good story. I really liked this one a lot and wished it was longer! 4 out of 5
Hot Hands by Erica Pike is the first short in the College Fun and Gays series. I read The Walls Have Ears so I thought I’d try out the 2 before it. This one was about a guy who keeps getting felt up by….someone. He has no idea who. He finally gets cornered and they share hot moments but Caspar is blindfolded and he still has no idea what the identity of the man he’s dubbed Hot Hands is. The story was really good but got into an area that needed, imho, so much more after the big reveal. It was still really good though. 🙂 3.75 out of 5
Second in the College Fun and Gays series by Erica Pike is Grade-A-Sex Deal. This is about one of the university teachers who makes a deal with one of his students to exchange sex for an A in the class. The college teacher, Daniel, is trying to deal with his emotional attachment to his student, Troy, as well as his kids’ attitudes towards him since he divorced their mother 2 years earlier. Again, I think this would have been great if it had been longer and had more detail but in the end it was still a fun read. 3 out of 5
Fair Game by Patricia Briggs was up next. This is book 3 in the Alpha and Omega series and has Anna and Charles helping the FBI with a serial killer investigation (because 3 of the victims were werewolves). It was a great mystery but also dealt with the issues that Anna and Charles had been having since the werewolves had gone public and Charles had to step us his duties as his father’s hit man (so to speak). This was such a good book with an incredible ending that I loved. Though I figured out who-dun-it about halfway through the book it was still great to see all the ins and outs of the story. 4.25 out of 5
Reading Fair Game made me want to go back and read about when Anna and Charles first met so I picked up my copy of the On the Prowl anthology and re-read the Alpha and Omega novella by Patricia Briggs. This is such a great novella! With Anna and Charles meeting for the first time and seeing Charles kind of brought to his knees it just worked for me. Definitely one that will be read over and over. 4 out of 5
Next was Spirit by PA Friday. I read Jenre’s review of this one over at Brief Encounter Reviews and she liked it. It’s the story of Grant who starts at an advertising firm with a homophobic boss. Grant is a man who has made a life for himself out of nothing and is willing to work hard. Grant meets Tristan who is the boss’s son and assumes Tristan does nothing and gets accolades but that’s not the case. Grant and Tristan hate each other, for different reasons, but that doesn’t stop the pair from being attracted to each other and eventually acting on that attraction. The story follows the men in their path from hate to…not and what that means for both of them. 4 out of 5
Silk is for Seduction by Loretta Chase was my TBR challenge read for the week. This is the story of 3 sisters who will do anything to get their dress shop off the ground. The oldest who is the designer heads to Paris to cajole a duke into making his intended use their dressmaking services when he finally gets married (which is supposed to be soon). But things go a tad awry in the plan when Marcelline and Clevedon meet and their attraction makes fire look like it’s not all that hot. It was a great story and I loved Chase’s writing. She dragged me into the book and I ended up staying up late to finish it cuz I couldn’t put it down. In fact the more I think of it today the more I like the book. I can’t wait to read about the next sister. 4.5 out of 5
My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Happy Reading!

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What I Read Last Week

Posted April 30, 2012 by Tracy in Features | 8 Comments

Hola!
How are you this fine Monday? It’s beautiful out today in my part of the land – I wish my desk was outside and not in a stuffy office. I just keep looking out the window with longing. lol
Not much happened this week. I did realize that I completely forgot my blog anniversary! Yep, on April 16th it was the 4th anniversary of Tracy’s Place. Damned hard to believe that it’s been that long. It really only seems like a year or so – weird. 🙂
This past weekend we went to the Santa Barbara Fair. The weather was great and we had a wonderful time. The kids rode a ton of rides, we watched pig races, got to see adorable baby goats and my oldest daughter got hypnotized. It was hilarious. I did get a dvd of my oldest so that she could see what she did while she was under. Too funny. I asked the hypnotist if he could make it so that every time I snapped my fingers she would listen to me but he just laughed. lol
So on to what I read this week:
I started off the week with The Witness by Nora Roberts. This is a wonderful romance and a bit of a mystery/suspense story all wrapped into one. I really, really liked it. You can read my review here. 4.5 out of 5
Next up was a YA book called Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink by Stephanie Kate Strohm. This is the story of a girl who goes to spend the summer at a living history museum. It was another really good book. You can read my review here. 4 out of 5
My next read was Country Mouse by Amy Lane and Aleksandr Voinov. This was the story of an American guy who is visiting London. He meets a guy in a bar on his first day there and they end up spending the weekend together. You can read more about this great story and my review here. 4.5 out of 5
Lady Maggie’s Secret Scandal by Grace Burrowes was a book I read for The Book Binge. This story was about a woman who is a by-blow but was “adopted” by her father (a duke) and raised with many siblings. She is 30 years old and living in her own household. She loses her purse and hires a man to find it. She’s got secrets though and the man knows that there’s more to things than just a lost reticule. This was a bit of a frustrating story as we didn’t get to know Maggie’s secret until right before the hero did. The romance was great though and I really liked the book. 4 out of 5
Next was The Walls Have Ears by Erica Pike. This is the 3rd in the College Fun and Gays series. Harley is a guy who has been having a relationship with the guy next door – but through the wall. They masturbate to each others voices until the guy on the other side of the wall, Devon, asks Harley’s roommate out instead of him. Harley ends up crying on Devon’s roommate’s shoulder but Tasha wants more from Harley than just being friends. It was a short story but so cute. My heart ached for Harley’s situation and that was written so well but Harley made me a bit crazy with his child-like emotional outbursts. I loved Tasha and admired him for his infinite patience with Harley. I look forward to reading the rest of the series! 4 out of 5
Devil’s Punch by Ann Aguirre was my next read. This is book 4 in the Corinne Solomon series. I’ll be posting my review of this later this week so stay tuned.
Sunrise by Kody Boye is a zombie apocalypse novel that I read. I’ll post my review of this on Wednesday so keep your eyes peeled.
Last on the list was What We Deserve by Kerry Freeman. This is the story of 2 best friends. One falls in love with the other but then the older boy, Jamie, heads off to the army without telling his best friend…the night after they sleep together for the first time. Sean is devastated but moves on with his life. Twelve years later Jamie is back but Sean is in a committed relationship and none to thrilled about Jamie coming back and wanting to talk and pick up where they left off – after 12 years of non communication. Eventually Sean does talk and after that Sean, Jamie and Tyler, Sean’s boyfriend, all fall in love to make a household of three. The story is about the falling in love but also dealing with the men’s families and their reactions. It was a good story even if I did have a couple of issues. There were things left unresolved with one of the men’s parents which bothered me and I never did feel that Sean and Jamie talked enough about Jamie’s jackassedness and ultimate silence when he had left all those years ago. 3.5 out of 5
My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Happy Reading!

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