Tag: Tory Temple

What I Read Last Week

Posted February 21, 2012 by Tracy in Features | 8 Comments

Hi there!
I’m a day late with this but I’m finally putting it together.
Unfortunately my lovely 3 day weekend was spent taking care of a sick child (my youngest again) and heading to the urgent care. Luckily she’s better now and on the road to recovery but I think I might need 3 days off to recover from my 3 days off! lol
Since she wasn’t moving much we played a lot of games and watched a lot of movies while cuddled on the couch together.  (Unfortunately mommy couldn’t be too far away from her baby before baby started whining. :).) This weekend I saw (again): Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan (the live action one), The Prince of Egypt, Willow, Jumanji, Thor and A Series of Unfortunate Events. I think I’m movied out for a while. 🙂
My reading was a bit schizo this week as I had lots of little bits of time to read rather than long periods. Hopefully this week will be back to normal.
I started off with Sea Change by Darlene Marshall which is the book that I read for my TBR Challenge. It was a great historical – ship – with a cross-dressing heroine book. You can read my review here. 4 out of 5
After that it was I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella. The story with this one starts with our heroine, Poppy, looking for her engagement ring after a tea with friends. She then gets her cell phone stolen and because she gave out the number to everyone to contact her about the ring – which is a family heirloom from her fiancé – she’s beside herself. She then finds a cell phone in the trash that still works and since it’s finders keepers she keeps the phone. She’s not really willing to give up the phone even once she discovers that the phone belonged to a personal assistant and the man she was assisting needs it back. A fun and funny story. You can read more in my review here. 4 out of 5
My next read was for The Book Binge and it was a novella called Love Revealed by Sorcha Mowbray. This was the story of a woman who is on the outs with the ton because of the fact that her now dead husband had syphilis. Of course it is thought that she must have it too – which is untrue. She takes care of her baser needs at a place called The Market where she can play out her sexual fantasies – and those she hadn’t ever thought about before. There she meets a man who goes by the name of Sir who wants her as a long term partner. Little do they know that they know each other. The story was definite an erotic historical romance that was light on the romance. It was a good book but just too short. There were lots of things to work out between the couple and I just didn’t think they were fleshed out enough by the end of the story. 3.25 out of 5
After that I picked up Few Are Chosen by Storm Grant. I liked this story so much but I wish there had been more of it! lol The story is about two boys who are fighting demons with one going the traditional demon hunter route with the speech and all and the other going more street gang. You can read my review here. 4 out of 5
The Husband Hunt by Lynsay Sands was my next read. This is book 3 in the Madison Sisters series and the story was about Lisa. Lisa is in love with Robert who she practically grew up with. Robert only sees her as a little sister and Lisa goes back and forth with giving up on him and hunting for a husband then trying to make him jealous. I really wanted her to choose one or the other and stick with the plan. You’ll be able to read more in my review when I post it this week.
Another book that I read for The Book Binge was Not Wicked Enough by Carolyn Jewel. This was the story of a woman who was visiting a friend and falls for her brother. Only she doesn’t exactly fall…more like makes a slow slide into it. lol The book was really great and I’ll definitely let you know when my review posts. 4.5 out of 5
Happy World by Kiernan Kelly and Tory Temple was about a man who works at Happy World (kind of like Disneyland) as a groundskeeper. Kyle loves working at Happy World but would really like to get into the theatrical part of it and become a “character”. For now Kyle is stuck training Rory as a groundskeeper and Rory isn’t one to follow rules to the T. The more time the men spend together the more they attracted they come and eventually start a relationship. But there are people who are out to get one or the other and secrets that are kept and this all might bring the relationship skidding to a halt. The story was very sweet and fun. I really liked both men and the story was great. Thanks for the rec., Tam! 4 out of 5
Another of Tam’s recommendations was Grand Jeté by Diana Copland. This story is about an ER nurse, Jordan, who starts falling for one of his patients, Davis. Davis is a ballet dancer who has been hurt and then deserted by his boyfriend and his dance company. He has nowhere to go so Jordan offers to let him stay at his place since he’ll only really be around for about a day. That day…and some…is enough for the two men to get together and form a bond. But Davis has to go back to the west coast and when Jordan tries to contact him his cell is turned off. Jordan has no way to contact him and eventually resigns himself to the fact that he was a bit used. But was he? This was a great story. I loved Jordan and Davis and though the book is pretty simple it was very sweet and pretty darned hot all at the same time. 4 out of 5
My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Happy Reading!


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What I Read Last Week

Posted May 3, 2010 by Tracy in Features | 24 Comments

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)
Happy Reading!


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