Where are the weeks/months going?  I can’t believe it’s already the 3rd week in September!  Didn’t summer just start?  Ok, I know my kids went back to school and all but it’s just going too quickly! lol *sigh* Oh well, what’s a body to do?

It was a pretty quiet week around here. As I said on my Saturday Song post, my parents were in Maui this past week so I would take a late lunch and then go pick up my youngest daughter from school and bring her back to work with me.  That made life a little more interesting in the afternoons, but it was good to spend some extra time with her. 🙂

So let me get to telling you what I read:

First up was a book for The Book Binge called Lust Unleashed by Desiree Holt.  This was an interesting shifter story with a different twist.  A billionaire brings together a group of various law enforcement agents – some shifters, some not – to catch a beast called the Chupacabra.  All of the people have had loved ones or dear friends killed by the creature and they are determined to hunt it down and kill it.  During the first of these hunts shifter Jonah Grey meets the woman who end up being his mate.  It was a good book filled with a good mystery and great sex and a nice little twist at the end that will have me reading the next book in the series. 4 out of 5

Vampyres of Hollywood by Adrienne Barbeau and Michael Scott was next.  This was a contemporary story of Osvanna, a vampyre, and Peter King, a Beverly Hills detective, trying to find the killer of the people who know and work with Osvanna.  You can read my review here. 3.5 out of 5

Next up was Red Leopard by Tracy Cooper-Posey.  This story took place in a country called Vistaria that’s on the brink of revolution.  Calli finds herself attracted to a man that goes by the name Red Leopard aka Nicholas Escobedo and that attraction is mutual.  However due to his position as the Presidents brother and her being American they cannot be together.  What happens when they can’t deny their attraction any longer and the county breaks out in fighting?  This was a good book that I had some niggles with.  I liked the different setting and the sexual tension that you could cut with a knife – that was great.  The cousin who was a sex kitten was more down to earth than I thought she’d be but she still did some pretty reckless things.  When she pulls a doozer Calli runs to Nick for help because time is of the essence.  So what do Calli and Nick do because time is short and the cousin’s life may be on the line?  They stop and have sex in a conference room.  Was it hot?  Yes, but hello?  The cousin?  Remember her, might die, etc.?  That was just so frustrating for me to read because Calli and Nick were both so much smarter than that! *sigh* oh well, I can’t have it all my way. lol  3.25 out of 5

Next was another book for The Book Binge.  This was Play Fling by Amber Scott.  This was a book that kind of had 3 stories going on at the same time but they were all interlinked. It had Millie and AJ who are a cupid team trying to get Brooke together with her ex-husband, Jason.  Millie was kind of reincarnated – I think, that part’s a little hazy – from a socialite to a cupid.  She must make a match for Brooke or her partner AJ will be reassigned.  Since she’s in love with AJ she doesn’t want that to happen.  She’s determined to get Brooke and Jason back together.  But they don’t want to be back together.  The next story is Brooke who is 37 and being pursued by 28 year old college student, Elliot.  He’s just wonderful but she’s concerned about the age difference.  Then there’s Jason, the ex, who is actually gay and in love with Elliot’s cousin, Gordon.  The story was very cute but Millie was making such a mash of things I just wanted to kick her out of the story and read about Brooke and Elliot! lol 3.5 out of 5

Next was Nine Rules To Break When Romancing A Rake by Sarah MacLean.  I have an ARC of book 2 in this series so I figured I should probably finally read book 1! lol  It was good!  Calpurnia (Callie) has been in love with a rake for 10 years.  She’s firmly on the shelf at age 27 but decides that she’s going to do all the things that she’s wanted to do that men get to do, but women don’t.  She makes a list that includes, among other things,  kissing a man passionately, gambling at a gentlemen’s club and attending a duel.  For the kiss she goes to the rake’s house.  The Marquess of Ralston supplies her with the kiss and then ends up guiding her through the rest of her list.  I thought this book was so good. I love that Callie was plain but as Ralston got to know her he just thought she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. *sigh* I love that! A very sweet romance that I very much enjoyed reading. 4.25 out of 5

I read In The Rough by JB McDonald next. I have By Degrees by the same author, which I guess is the first book I should have read but got mixed up.  Oh well. Jay goes to Rick when he finds out that his ex wife’s boyfriend has molested his eight year old daughter.  Jay has many, many, many issues from his childhood and teen years and needs to get his life together so that he can take custody of his daughter who is temporarily a ward of the court because the ex wife won’t kick the boyfriend out of her house.  Rick loves Jay but knows that Jay isn’t the committing kind so tries to keep his distance – even though they are occasional fuck-buddies.  This book shows Jay slowly getting his life together and Rick and Jay moving into a relationship.  The first thing about this book that I had a huge problem with was: if the court found out that the ex wife’s boyfriend had molested a child they wouldn’t worry about whether he was kicked out of the house or not – he would be in jail!  I had a really hard time dismissing that issue in my mind and kept going back to it. There were also flashbacks in this one but I didn’t know who was having the flashback until half way through the book – that was kind of annoying.  I did like how they showed Jay getting his life back together but wished that there had been more of Rick and Jay after they’d decided to make a go of it as boyfriends. 3.5 out of 5

My Tracy’s TBR challenge read for the week was The Hunt by Anne Marsh.  This was a fantasy shifter book.  Virgins enter a temple once a year and the warrior/were-cats hunt them to search for their mates.  The townspeople do this in exchange for protection from another world that had been destroying them.  It’s much more civilized than it sounds when it’s explained throughout the book but at first I was kind of thinking wtf? lol  Miu enters under the guise of a virgin, which she’s not, in order to steal a necklace for her “master” who is holding her sister hostage.  Miu will stop at nothing to get the necklace.  Jafar is under instructions to follow her to see what she’s up to, but he discovers she’s his mate and when she’s put under a death sentence he’s more than willing to get her out of there.  This was a fun, light read.  Pretty fantastical in the end and everything gets wrapped up with a tidy bow, but there was some witty banter and good sex scenes that kept me reading. 3.25 out of 5

Last up was The Accidental Wedding by Anne Gracie.  This was a fun book – almost a cottage romance, which I love.  The Honorable Nash Renfrew is on his way to claim an inheritance when his horse slips on mud and throws him into a wall.  Maddy sees the whole things and manages to get him to her cottage to save his life.  She cares for him while he’s ill but when he awakes he has no idea who he is.  He’s not able walk because of a hurt ankle so he must stay at Maddy’s cottage with her and her 5 young siblings that she has charge of.  While at the cottage Maddy falls in love, but Nash doesn’t believe in love matches after seeing his parents go through hell with their love match.  I really liked Maddy in this book.  She was a very strong character and wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself – I loved that! (another Book Binge book) 4 out of 5 (this book releases on 10/5)

My Book Binge reviews that posted this past week: