Tag: Naduki Koujima

What I Read Last Week

Posted December 14, 2009 by Tracy in Features | 13 Comments

Happy Monday!

How are you all today? I’m only fair – I started off the day with a phone call from my oldest teacher….not a great way to start the week if I do say so myself. Ug…she’s a handful and a half and I’m about at my wits end. That’s all I’m saying. 🙂

I got a new tattoo on Saturday night. I’ve been waiting a month since the initial consultation so was very excited to finally be getting it. It only took 3 hours and it is seriously cool if I do say so myself. 🙂 As soon as it heals I will take pictures and post them.

My reading slump is kind of still in effect. Thank you all for the wonderful suggestions you gave last week. I did manage to read a short story and a whole book after that! lol I tried re-reading a couple of books but couldn’t get into them. I did re-watch movies though…X-Men, Serendipity, Definitely, Maybe and I took the kids to see The Princess and the Frog yesterday. I also watched a few episodes of Full Throttle with my husband on Saturday. I thought he was gonna go into shock that I was watching tv. Funny guy. Hopefully I can get back into things (reading) soon.
So what did I read last week?

Well I started the week off with The Untamed Bride by Stephanie Laurens. After 3 days and 200 pages I put it down for good. I wasn’t caring for the flowery writing at all. The heroine was annoying the heck outta me as well which didn’t help matters. The story follows 4 British Officers who are all carrying information on the true identity of the Black Cobra – a horrid person who is raping, pillaging and murdering people in India, back to England so that the BC aka a British citizen can be caught. One man has the original and the other 3 have copies…but the Black Cobra doesn’t know who has what so he needs to stop them all. Besides not being in to the story at all, I just couldn’t see how the other 3 books would be different. I could be very, very wrong – as I’ve been before – but the men are traveling to get their information to the correct person and while in the course of their travels meet their mates…would I be reading 4 books with the same stories but different names? IDK. Anyway – this just wasn’t for me. Rating: DNF

Next I read 2 yaoi manga’s that were sent in the swap. The first was Our Kingdom by Naduki Koujima. I didn’t really care for this one because I just couldn’t get into the 15 year old cousins falling in love, but maybe that’s me. Rating 2 out of 5 Then I read Crimson Wind by Duo Brand. I liked the graphics in this one a lot. It started off with one man being in a relationship with a warrior but then the man was reading a journal about the warriors past relationship and that was more the focus of the book. I was slightly confused but now understand that this is like book 2 in the series. I might look into reading the first book to see if I can catch up. Rating 3 out of 5

I read about Wanting by ML Rhodes on Lily’s blog and found it interesting. This was a good read. Short, but good. Jeremy had sex with his best friend and house mate, Ben. Ben’s gay…Jeremy has always thought of himself as straight. But why does he keep thinking about Ben then? This was a great story about self discovery, friendship and family – not the family you’re born with, but family as you create it. Rating: 4 out of 5

And last on the list (I know, isn’t the list small and sad?): Vision in White by Nora Roberts. I read Montana Sky for my re-read challenge at the beginning of the year – before that I hadn’t read a NR book in years (maybe 12?). This was a good choice to re-introduce myself to her as an author. I really enjoyed this book. The friendship between the 4 women who ran the wedding consultation/planning business was wonderful. They were there for each other – just as friends should be. The hero to the story just cracked me up to no end. He was so unsure of himself at first – shy. One scene I loved was when the h/h were having coffee and Carter was admitting, because he felt he had to, the fact that he had had a crush on Mac, the heroine, way back in high school:…Are you always so forthright over coffee dates?”

“I don’t know. You’re the only one I ever had a crush on.”“Oh boy.”“And that was stupid.” Flustered again, he raked his fingers through his hair. “Now I’ve scared you. That sounded scary and obsessive, like I have an altar somewhere with your pictures over it where I light candles and chant your name. Jesus, that’s even scarier. Run now. I won’t hold it against you.”

I love that! And then later when he’s talking to his 3 legged cat and only getting stared at by said cat (of course):

“Well, she’s not as reasonable as you. I’ll tell you something else while we’re on the subject. I’m good for her. I’m exactly what she needs. I understand her. All right, no, I don’t. I take that back. But I know her, which is a different thing altogether. And I know I can make her happy once she gets over being too pigheaded to admit it.”

Just great stuff. If you haven’t read it and like a good contemporary I’d say go for it. Rating: 4.25 out of 5Oh and my review for Lord of the Highlands by Veronica Wolff has posted here.Anyway, I’m hoping to pop out of this slump this week – I’ll keep you posted!