Hi-dee-ho Neighbors!

How are all my cyber friends today?  Behaving yourselves?  I certainly hope not! lol

Ok – update on what exciting things happened in my life this past week….***crickets chirping***…all right, moving on.

LOL  Actually nothing much happened at all this past week and that’s A-ok with me!   The hub’s good, the kids are good.  I can’t complain!

You can still get in the running for the Diana Palmer book giveaway that will run until this Saturday at 11:59pm.  Just leave a comment to enter.

Also – I posted the list of books that I read in April on my other blog.  You can go here to see it.

So – what did I read this past week?

I started off with a Quickie read for The Book Binge called Too Good To Be True by Penelope Friday.  This was a cute book with some British humor in it.  The heroine’s self-esteem was really low when I first started the book and I was slightly turned off but then I liked her so much that I enjoyed the story. About a woman whose husband left her and she meets a great looking guy in a bar – but he’s going to trial soon because he might be a criminal.  What’s a girl to do?  I’ll let you know when my review posts.

Next up was To Beguile a Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt.  I’m considering this both a Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week as well as an FTSP read.  I actually tried to read the first book in this series several times but couldn’t get into it for some reason.  I did read book 2 and really liked it so I’m just continuing with the series.  This is the story of Helen who has been the mistress of a Duke for many years.  She’s finally left him after being only looked at as a possession for much of that time.  She enlists the help of her friend (from the previous book) and goes with her 2 children to Alistair Munroe’s castle in Scotland to be his housekeeper.  Alistair is none too happy to see her.  He doesn’t want a damned housekeeper!  Alistair is scarred from an Indian attack and lives a quiet sequestered life.  When Helen arrives his life is turned upside down – but in a good way.  I really liked the book a lot and it was a sweet beauty and the beast story – which I love. 4.25 out of 5

Next was Savor the Moment by Nora Roberts.  This is book 3 in the Bride Quartet series.  It started off slow for me but got better.  I read this one for The Book Binge as well and will let you know when my review posts.  This was Laurel and Del’s story.

I read a lot of The Book Binge this week because I’m trying to catch myself up and…well, I have a hard time saying no! lol  Anyway, another short read for them was Sacrifice in Stone by Patricia Mason.  This was about a statue and the woman who was trying to bring it to life.  Cute.

Lover Mine by JR Ward was my next read.  This was a darned good book.  It’s so nice to have some romance back in the BDB books.  This was John Matthew and Xhex’s (pronounced Hex from what I understand) story but we also got views into Blay and Qhuinn’s relationship, more from Tohr, some info on Payne (thank heavens!) and of course the evil Lash.  There were 2 corresponding stories that were in the book as well.  One was from Darius which I really enjoyed cuz I’ve liked him from book 1 (will it ever be revealed that JM is Darius? hhmmmmm IDK) and also another story about a tv show called the Paranormal Investigators.  The PI story was a bit odd and it wasn’t revealed until the end how it connected but it did, finally, connect.  I’m not sure I cared about the connection too much or if it’s going to be used in further books but I could have done without it and been quite happy. 🙂  Anyway a good book worth reading.  4.25 out of 5

I decided that it was time to catch up on some of the m/m shorter stories and novellas that I have had on my ereader for some time.  The first was Out of My Mind by ML Rhodes.  What a great story.  Rafferty Jones and Nick Tucker have been partners in the PD for 4 years now.  They’ve been best friends practically from day 1 and have spent great amounts of time together.  Rafferty is now divorced and he’s damn happy about it, but now he’s having erotic thoughts about his partner and he’s freaking out.  He’s never had “those” kind of thoughts about a man before and he doesn’t quite know how to handle it.  After a storm where Nick almost drowns Rafferty and Nick have a great night together (oh, Nick’s gay but didn’t reveal it to Rafferty for his own reasons) things go a bit haywire and Rafferty’s confused.  I really liked this book a lot.  Rafferty in his self examination unwittingly hurts Nick and it just killed me. I seriously was feeling the guys pain and my heart hurt for him.  The only thing I think I would have liked was to see more from Rafferty during his self-examination.  We got his POV at the beginning of the book but later only Nick’s.  It was still great but that would have given it a different depth as well.  4.5 out of 5

After that I read 3 free short stories that I got from the GLBT Bookshelf (thank you Tam & Chris for the link)  The first was Halloween Pickup by PA Brown about a guy who quickly picks up a guy who’s in costume as a cop.  They take off and enter a dungeon – but are things really as they seem?  Cute. (8 pages)

Then Lee Rowan’s Gift Exchange (7 pages) about 2 men on a submarine who exchange some great gifts with each other at Christmas. Very sweet.

Next was Josh Lanyon‘s The French Have a Word For It (30 pages) about a artist who is living in Paris trying to make it on his own when his old body guard finds him and they share a wonderful night together.  But things are not always what they seem.  This was very good and worth the read.

After that it was Tabula Rasa by Tory Temple.  This a contemporary western that was recommended to me by Hilcia.  The story of Rafferty (I know 2 Rafferty characters in one week!) who is trying to save his father’s horse ranch that was left to him after his dad died.  He can make enough money on the rodeo circuit as a roper but his partner has a broken ankle.  He gets Cash to be his heeler and they do fine in the circuit – but as lovers, not so good.  Oh, the sex is good but they have issues in their non-relationship.  Then Cash has a freak accident and has a temporary memory loss and can’t remember if they were together.  Well, when Raff doesn’t come through with the whole truth things don’t turn out the way he plans.  A great story that I really enjoyed reading.  Cash is an ass at first but when he loses his memory his has somewhat of a personality change. Another book where I could feel the guys pain.  Was I overly sensitive this week because my heart hurt a lot this past week for many of the characters.  Good stuff. 4 out of 5

Last but not least was yet another read for The Book Binge (I told you I was behind!) called Drilled by Regina Carlysle.  I hate the title of this book – seriously.  However since the girl is dating a guy who owns a petroleum company and is drilling crude oil on her land, I guess it’s fitting.  Doesn’t mean I have to like it! lol  Anyway, this is part of the Tempt the Cougar series and tells the story of 41 year old Lori Donovan who has moved back to the small town that she grew up in.  She meets 31 year old Jackson and things steam up.  I’ll let you know when my review posts.

Some of my Book Binge reviews that posted this past week:

Icing on the Cake by Shayla Kersten (One of my m/m challenge reviews)