Tag: Stacey Joy Netzel

What I Read Last Week

Posted March 19, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 13 Comments

Happy, happy day!
How are you? I’m very busy at work with Easter and Holy Week coming up (since I work at a church…and all of you who are wondering about church/my potty mouth? What can I say – I’m a one of a kind church lady. lol) and that has us all working out tails off. I’d like to say it keeps me out of trouble but…it doesn’t!
You’ll all be happy to know that we bought a refrigerator!!! Yippee-ky-yay motherfucker! OMG I’m just the happiest woman alive. I can’t wait for it to get here on Wednesday. You’re all wondering what happened with the hubby/Tracy fridge debate, aren’t you? Who won? Neither. We ended up going with neither fridge we looked at prior and bought a Kenmore from Sears that would knock your socks off. It was $1500.00 less than the original price and though that still made it a couple hundred more than what I was looking to spend, we got a nicer and bigger fridge. I’m just happy that the search is over!
Another exciting thing happened this past Friday. I got home from work and both my parents were there and gave me an early birthday present (when I say early I mean 6 weeks early) of a brand new laptop! Holy shit. My other laptop was a hand-me-down from my hubby and it was very slow with very little memory and disk space which was about 9 years old. The new one is a Dell Inspiron and is small, light, has lots of memory and a 500GB hard drive. I love it to pieces and couldn’t thank my parents enough. I have never had a new laptop – I felt so spoiled!
So enough about my life…let’s get on to the books!
I started off the week with As You Are by Ethan Day. This was the story of Julian and his roommate Danny. Julian’s had the hots for Danny for as long as he’s known him. Danny has steered clear of Julian because he doesn’t want to screw up their friendship. Julian’s like: screw with it, please! lol Just when Julian meets a great guy Danny makes a move and he and Julian fall into bed. But things don’t always work out the way you plan them and that is SO true for Julian. This was a wonderful and hilarious story. I loved Julian to death and his sense of humor was killer. He was snarky and sarcastic and a man after my own heart. lol The issue that I had with this story was that even though it was in the first person I really got to see the other side of the secondary characters – Julian’s mom & Julian’s best friend Gwen…but not so with Danny. I ended the story not really knowing who he was and though I could see the physical attraction that Julian had for the man I was a bit in the dark as to what the appeal was. Don’t get me wrong, I still wanted them together I just wanted to know Danny as well as I knew the two female characters. 4 out of 5
Next up was Midnight Remedy by Eve Gaddy. This story followed Piper Stevenson who gave an herbal remedy for dry skin to a friend. The friend ended up making it as a tea for her husband (what????) and ended up curing his impotence. Ok, weird. So, Dr. Eric Chambers heads over to talk to Piper to try and find out what was in the recipe for the dry skin so that he can pass it on to his friend who is doing research on impotence. But Piper isn’t willing to give up the secret – not that she doesn’t want to find a cure but she wants absolutely NO publicity for her and her son due to her past. The story was decent and the love story was very sweet. I did have some issues with it but you’ll have to read my review to find out what they were. lol I’ll let you know when it posts on The Book Binge. 3.75 out of 5
Be My Vampire Tonight by Renee Field was a free Kindle read that I downloaded. This is the first in a series and though we meet the characters from the next 2 books in this book we are really left in the dark as to what’s going on with them. I guess that’s supposed to intrigue you enough to read the next two. Anyway, the story was about a woman who recently inherited a boatload of money and heads to a charity auction with her friends. She ends up bidding on a masked man and later finds out not only is HE a vampire but wow, so is she (well a half-breed). The problem is is that masked man became a vampire by selling his soul to Satan so getting it back may be tricky. It was a good story but didn’t make me want to run out and read more by this author. 3 out of 5
Never Been Bit by Lydia Dare is 3rd in the Regency Vampire trilogy. This story followed characters that we’d met in previous books – Alec who was turned into a vampire and Sorcha the youngest witch of her coven. Sorcha is visiting England from Scotland and is looking to find a Lycan man to fall in love with. Her fellow coven witches did it and she thinks they are hotter than hell so she sets off to snare one. But Alec McQuarrie who is a family friend ruins her plans by kissing her and making her think of nothing but him. Unfortunately what Sorcha eventually thinks of as Alec loving her isn’t that at all. I have to say that Lydia Dare always provides me with an entertaining read. They blend the paranormal with the historical so well and there aren’t many of those that I like besides this authors. I will definitely be reading the next books by them that also have continuing characters (even though it’s a new series). 4 out of 5
One of my Tracy’s TBR Challenge Read for the week (the others were Never Been Bit and As You Are) was Silver Shark by Ilona Andrews was really good, I just wanted it to be longer! It’s a novella about a woman from a planet that has been at war for hundreds of years. She manages to get off planet as a refugee by shielding her mental powers. She begins work as a secretary for a man who’s mind is almost as powerful as hers. She imagines the guy in a million different compromising positions but holds herself back for fear of discovery of what she really is. I loved the story but as I said wanted it to be longer. Though I liked the romance we didn’t get to see much beyond when they finally got together and I wanted to see it all. I know, I’m greedy that way. lol  4 out of 5
Much Ado About Rogues by Kasey Michaels was a highly intriguing mystery/suspense/romance. This is the 3rd book in the Blackthorn Brothers series and it was good. Jack and his former lover Tess set out to find Tess’s father who has gone missing. You can read more in my review here. 3.75 out of 5
Trust in the Lawe by Stacey Joy Netzel was my next read . I read a short story by this author and really liked it so decided to get this book. The premise of the story is that Kendra and her brother Noah are on the run and hiding from her older half-brother (from her dad) who wants to kill them so that he can get all of his father’s money – like 15 million dollars – before Kendra turns 25 and gets control of it all. Kendra heads to Colorado to meet another half-brother (from her mom) who doesn’t even know that she and Noah exist. The ranch manager is skeptical for many reasons about Kendra and if she’s on the up and up. Colton and Kendra are attracted to each other but it takes them a while to act on it. So there’s the romance and then the wondering when the brother, Robert, will show up to kill her and her brother. The story was good and honestly I couldn’t stop turning page after page so the author obviously had a way with words that attracted me but Kendra and Colton really pissed me off. lol I understood the mistrust at first but they couldn’t stop slinging insults at each other and then they’d fall in bed. Ok, it was more complicated than that but it was frustrating to not see any of the good parts of the relationship and only be shown the bad. So there was good and bad. I certainly won’t give up on the author as I think she’s got something I like about her writing. 3 out of 5
Last up for the week was Winning the Wallflower by Eloisa James. This is a novella in the Fairy Tales series #2.5. The story follows Lucy who is tall and plain but engaged so, right on. But then her great aunt leaves her a great deal of money and now she’s an heiress. Her mother wants her to break off her engagement because the man is “beneath” Lucy now. Lucy really doesn’t want to but when she sits and talks to her fiancé, Cyrus, she realizes that she was just the best of bunch of titled women that he had to choose from – he never really SAW her. Well, when it’s brought to Cyrus’s attention he realizes what he’s missed and makes an effort to win Lucy back. This was a very cute story. It was short so I expected the I love you’s to come quickly but they came even quicker than expected. Despite that I thought it was lovely. 3.75 out of 5
My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Happy Reading!


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What I Read Last Week

Posted January 16, 2012 by Tracy in Features | 7 Comments

Well it was another stressful week at work but I survived which was a good thing. 

We had a nice weekend as I headed out to my mom’s to help here with some computer stuff and then yesterday I got to see my grown & married nephew who lives in Pennsylvania.  Yay!  The local family got together for lunch and we had a great time just talking and catching up.  Here’s a picture that I took of my nephew and my youngest.  (I’d actually had one taken of him and me but apparently it turned out really blurry. I’ll have to take another before he heads home to PA.)

Don’t forget to enter the 2 contests I’ve got going.  One for a box of historical novels and one for a box of fantasy/UF.  The links are on the sidebar.

I read a really long novel at the beginning of last week and after that really felt the need to read a bunch of shorts.  Here’s what I devoured this week:

I started off the week with Season of the Shadow by Bobbi Groover.  This is an american historical that I read for The Book Binge and I really liked it but for a few items. The story was about a man (boy, really, as he was only 17) who was kidnapped, kept chained in a madhouse and treated like an animal for 6 years before he managed to escape with his life and most of his sanity.  He’s back in his hometown to destroy the person who did it all to him, his cousin.  He also is still madly in love with his first love but he thinks she might have had something to do with his abduction as well.  The man is confused and hurt emotionally but determined to get his life back from the man who stole it.  The book was very good but I did have a problem with the length which was 690 pdf pages.  Just too long imho.  I’ll let you know when my review posts at TBB. 4 out of 5

Here is where my short reading began:

First up was A Wedding Story by Dee Tenorio.  Ruth Ann and Bobby have been prankster enemies since they were young kids.  Ruth Ann isn’t thrilled when at her sisters wedding reception she is not only sat next to Bobby but they are at the kids’ table.  Ruth Ann and Bobby decide to make the most of it and decide to dance but that’s when things at the reception start going awry and when Bobby and Ruth Ann are left alone they realize that maybe they don’t hate each other as much as Ruth Ann thought.  Really cute and funny story. 3.5 out of 5 (free on Kindle)

Holding Out For A Hero by Stacey Joy Netzel was a short about a woman who is having a really crappy day.  When she’s at lunch, however, she sees something happen that makes her start looking at life a little differently and it changes everything.  A great story that has a little bit of a hopeful romance in it.   I did kind of a mini review that you can read here if you’re interested.  4 out of 5 (free on Kindle)

Next up was Fury by Anya Bast. This is part of her Otherkin series which is looks like there are only 2 of.  The story is about a woman who is in a “pack” of shifters but there are mostly wolven shifters.  She is a cougar but the elders want to make her their queen.  She runs but her mate comes looking for her.  This was an ok read.  I didn’t love the characters but the story was a good one and of course the sex was hot as is the norm with Bast’s books. 3 out of 5 (free on Kindle)

Without Mercy by Belinda Boring followed Darcy as she runs an errand for a pack bbq with the her future sister-in-law and best friend.  A crazed man who is on a mission ends up accosting the two and all hell breaks loose.  It was a sad story but it was so short that I just needed more.  More of the after effects of the whole situation, etc.  Maybe we were supposed to get that in future books but I never like being left hanging.  3 out of 5 (free on Kindle)

Four Kisses by Bonnie Dee was the story of two people who meet when they are 13 and share a kiss.  The pair meet about every 3 or 4 years due to odd circumstances and always share some form of a kiss.  It was a very sweet story and I really liked the whole scenario.  You can read my mini review here. 4.5 out of 5
So ended my short binge. lol

A Rose is A Rose by Jet Mykles tells the story of Carson who is in his early twenties.  He is a man used to be taken care of and when his “boyfriend” doesn’t want to take it to the next level it crushes Carson.  He finds out that he was just one of many who is man was seeing.  Carson befriends the owner of his building who is a shy manly man named Eddie.  Carson isn’t used to not being taken care of but Eddie helps him out with food and stuff but Carson knows that Eddie isn’t gay.  Of course Eddie will be gay for Carson as he just finds him beautiful and fascinating.  I really liked this book a lot.  Carson’s character was great but I just didn’t love the romance.  The story was told in third person but we never got to see things from Eddie’s pov.  When Carson decides that he needs to do things on his own we never get to see how that effects Eddie which I would have loved.  Overall a good story but I did have some issues with it. 3.5 out of 5

My next read was My Summer of Wes by Missy Welsh. Mal is friendless and lives in a vanilla world with no excitement until his new neighbors move in across the street. Wes is the neighbors son and though older than Mal they hit it off immediately.  Wes is gay and even though Mal has been called names and been accused of being gay for the past four years he is certain that he’s not.  Until Mal and Wes start spending more time together and Mal starts to see the truth in himself.  The story was very sweet with very little conflict.  The sex scenes were hot and I just loved Wes to pieces.  4 out of 5

A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare is the first in the Spindle Cove series and I finally read it!  It was really good and I’m so glad I did.  Bram was hurt in the war and is looking to regain his position in the field.  He contacts Sir Lewis in Spindle Cove and heads there with the hopes that he will get what he wants.  Sir Lewis not only turns him down but makes him an Earl (via the king) and then asks him to get a militia ready in a month.  Bram is pissed but Sir Lewis’s daughter Susanna is a nice distraction.  Distraction being the key as he can’t seem to keep his mind on his work due to thinking of Susanna constantly.  It was a cute book about the inhabitants of Spindle Cove and how they come together to try to make their local field day the best there is.  Susanna and Bram’s relationship was wonderful and just thinking of the book makes me smile. 4.25 out of 5

Last on the list was my read for the monthly TBR challenge and that was An Army Ranger’s Return by Soraya Lane.  Pen pal’s Jessica and Ryan have written to each other constantly and now Ryan is returning home.  Jessica is nervous about what will happen and what DOES happen is not what she expects at all.  I’d tell you more but then I wouldn’t have to write my review for Wednesdays post. lol  

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
crickets chirping

Happy Reading!!


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The Long and the Short of It….Ok, Just the Short of It

Posted January 12, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 3 Comments

This week I went on a “buying” spree with my Kindle and managed to download 5 or 6 free books that looked appealing to me. All of them were pretty good but these two really stuck out among the bunch.

Holding Out For A Hero by Stacey Joy Netzel (though the cover looks historical this is most definitely a contemporary story)

Kelsie Newman meets the man of her dreams at the beginning of a really, really bad day, so excuse her for not recognizing him. Good thing she’s a smart girl and a quick learner. When he rescues her from her Good Samaritan act gone bad later that same day, she doesn’t make the same mistake twice.

Kelsie is just having a terrible no good rotten day. She manages to muddle through which is great but along the way she realizes while eating her lunch and watch a man save a child from running into the street was that

Our society is so enamored with Superheroes, and great BIG gestures that are easily recognizable and indisputably heroic, that the little everyday, wonderful things people do for others often times go unnoticed.

Because of this Kelsie, despite her awful day, starts seeing life and people with a new light. She sees that there are heroes all around us and they may not be Lancelot or Robin Hood or any of the other fairy tale heroes of old but they end up being somebody’s hero.

She also realizes the man who helped her after his brother practically knocked her off her feet was a really nice guy and she should have been a whole hell of a lot nicer to him. Luckily fate is on her side and things start looking up when she runs into him again.

This was such a short little book but it really hit me in a good way. It wasn’t a romance at all but the possibility is there. What really struck me was some of the truths that the author puts in about the way we look at the world and I just really liked that about the story. It just made me smile.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Four Kisses by Bonnie Dee

Unforgettable moments shape a romance that could last a lifetime.

Jen Adams’s first kiss didn’t happen the way she’d expected. On a steamy summer’s day, a shared moment with a boy who runs with a bad crowd leaves an indelible impression on a thirteen year old girl. But that’s only the first time Jen and Drake Malinson’s paths cross in an unforeseen way.

This story spans about 17 years in about 50 pages. The story follows Drake Malinson and Jen Adams from the age of 13 to the age of 25. The two meet when they are with friends at the lake and end up heading off to see swans together. Jen and Drake come from different worlds (Jen is a pretty straight-laced A student and Drake claims to sell drugs) and they both know that but they still manage to lock lips. Though the kiss is pretty unforgettable for a first kiss neither of them speak to each other after that.

The story then goes on to tell us how Jen and Drake run into each other again and again and how their lives change and move throughout the years. What I liked about the story besides the fact that it was very sweet is that the author created two people who were so very different from each other but could still find comfort, solace and yes, desire with each other.

Drake being a drug dealer, obviously, doesn’t exactly make him hero material. But there was just something about the guy that I liked. I always learned that we should begin as we mean to go on when it comes to our lives and so many other things, but we also have brains and free will and though we make mistakes in our lives we can always change them. For Drake that meant he ended up changing for the better and I loved that Jen could see the man that he could be from the very start.

The story also doesn’t end in an HEA but again, like the first book, it was the possibility and hope that was there that that I loved.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5


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