Tag: Willa Okati

What I Read Last Week

Posted August 1, 2011 by Tracy in Features | 6 Comments

Hello there and Happy August!
I hope you’re all happy and comfy wherever you are. It’s hella hot here…and strangely humid so I’m staying indoors lately. Those of you who live in high humidity areas would probably not even notice the humidity here but since we’re not used to it at all it’s a bit weird.
So I’m boss-less now. Ok, not boss-less completely but kind of (we have someone who’ll be the priest-in-charge until we find a new permanent priest). My boss’s last day at work was last Thursday and her last service here at the church was yesterday. We had a beautiful service and a great shindig afterwards. There were lots of teary eyes but both happy and sad tears. We look like a couple of geeks in this picture but here we are at the party yesterday.
Other than that it was a quiet week. What was your week like?
My reading…
I started off the week with She’s Got Balls by Mia Watts. This was the story of 2 police officers who go undercover to crack a drug ring. One of the men has to dress like a woman because “she’s” supposed to have been on steroids. The story is pretty short but long enough to get in some great laughs, great sex and a cute love story. I liked the book and liked Watts’ writing as well. 4 out of 5
Next was The Amorous Education of Celia Seaton by Miranda Neville. This was the story of a woman who is kidnapped. She escapes but comes across a dandy that she knows from London who likened her at one time to a cauliflower. Since he was hit on the head and doesn’t remember who he is Celia decides to make up a story about who he is. She ends up falling in love with the man while they are on their travels to civilization but when he finds out who she is he’s none too pleased. Unfortunately he can’t seem to break himself away from her. The story also involved an erotic novel that the couple read from and role-played a bit. It was a cute story. 3.5 out of 5 Read for The Book Binge
My next read was The Chase by Erin McCarthy. This is book 4 in the Fast Track series and it was another good one. The book was about Evan who is a driver who’s having a bit of a bad season and Kendall who is the only woman on the circuit. The pair dated a decade earlier but broke up – much to Evan’s surprise. Now they’ve communicated and figured out what went wrong all that time ago and next thing you know they’re hot and heavy again. But what happens when a BIG surprise hits Evan what will he and Kendall do about it. This was a really fun, fast and easy read. I read it very quickly as I just kept turning pages. I really liked Kendall and Evan together and how they worked things out. Kendall did have a lot of insecurities that bothered me a bit but I thought they were handled well. Good book. 4 out of 5 Read for The Book Binge
I Love the Earl by Caroline Linden was a cute novella about a woman who grew up as a tradesman’s daughter and then suddenly becomes a Duke’s sister. She is shoved on the marriage market by her brother with a 40,000 pound dowry and told that she can make the decision on a husband all her own. When she meets a man who is destitute and not afraid to let her know she’s not all that nice to him. But she eventually comes to love him and wants to marry…but what will her brother do and say. This was very cute. The pair fell in love rather quickly but it was done well and was a sweet story. 3.5 out of 5 Read for The Book Binge
My Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week was Closer by Jo Leigh. This was about Christie, a woman who was being stalked. She had no idea who it was but she had lost her job because of the stalker, her friends and now her bank accounts had been taken over and this had been going on for about 5 months. She was afraid to leave her house. While looking at a photo of her and her brother who had died she finds a phone number on the back and calls for help. Boone shows up and says that he was a friend of her brothers – which he was. He does everything he can think of but the guy still has a bead on her and now wants Boone out of the picture. Boone had been half in love with Christie before he arrived to help. Nate, Christie’s brother, always talked about her and Boone felt like he already knew her. It wasn’t that much of a stretch to take their attraction for each other one step further. I liked the book and how it was written. There were no sex scenes at ridiculous, inappropriate times that happen so often in these kinds of stories. Boone and Christie were great together and I liked the end a lot (total plot twist that was unexpected). 3.75 out of 5
Shifting Sands was next on my list. These are 6 different m/m short stories by Jet Mykles, Kimberly Gardner, JL Langley, Willa Okati, Ally Blue and Brenda Bryce that are all related but each have their own HEA. It was definitely a good yet different approach…can I call it an anthology? The story is about Shifting Sands ranch and most of the guys who work there are gay. Daniel who owns the ranch gets married to Yi (though they’re not in love) but when she can’t get the guys on the ranch to sleep with her she calls them unnatural and curses them. After that during the full moon each month they shapeshift into different animals. The stories are about each of the 6 men and them finding their loves. I really liked the stories and thought it was a clever way to tell them all. 4 out of 5
Last on the list was Lord of the Vampires by Gena Showalter. This is book one in the 4 book Royal House of Shadows series. Each book will be written by a different author (this one releases 8/23) and this one introduces us to the basic plot behind the stories. This book was about the oldest son of the four children Nicolai and his love story. I will post my review on this one later in the month. 3.5 out of 5
My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Happy Reading!


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What I Read Last Week

Posted September 6, 2010 by Tracy in Features | 15 Comments

Greetings to all!

And…Happy Labor Day to those in the US!  I hope you’re enjoying the holiday and hopefully you, like me, have the day off.  Talk about a lazy day.  Wow.  I wish I could say I’m being uber productive today – besides laundry – but I really hate to lie to my friends. lol  None of us want to leave the house because it’s been so stinking hot here.  I want to know when I moved to the sun.  I must have blocked that out somewhere along the way but that’s apparently where I live because it’s hot like the sun here!  It’s been over 100 – F (that’s over 38 C) every day this past week.  Right now weather.com says it’s 90 here but the thermometer that’s in my back yard – that’s in the shade – says it’s 100.  That’s actually cool. lol

So what happened in Tracyland this week?  Not a whole hell of a lot.  We went to my youngest daughter’s back to school night and met her teacher.  I loved her!  She’s fun and funny but has her shit together.  She seems like a great teacher and my daughter likes her a lot – super important!  The teacher also loves math which makes her a perfect match for my youngest since she loves math as well.  (I know, she’s sick, she gets that from my hubby shudders) lol

Anyway, on to what I read this past week:

First up was Coronets and Steel by Sherwood Smith.  This is one I read for The Book Binge.  It was the story of a graduate student who goes looking for her ancestry and winds up with a lot more than she bargained for. The book has a lot of history in it, and even though it’s not my thing I really enjoyed it.  4.25 out of 5

Next was another book for The Book Binge called Marriage in Moonlust by Kate Hill.  This is about a woman who is given to the local vampire family as their monthly blood sacrifice but she ends up falling in love with one of the vampires instead.  A little rushed on the love but not bad. 3.25 out of 5

Next was Savage Sanctuary by Jacqueline Barbary.  This was a story of a shapeshifter that is on the run and the man who runs the sanctuary that he’s taken to.  They fall in love and face trials and tribulations.  3 out of 5  You can read my review here.

Next was Sureblood by Susan Grant.  This was a sci-fi book about warring clans in space and the leaders of those clans that fall in love.  Pretty good book.  I had some issues with it but on the whole I liked it.  3.75 out of 5  You can read my review here.

My Tracy’s TBR challenge read for the week was The Name of the Game by Willa Okati.  This was the story of a gay man, Clay, who is in love with his straight cop roommate, Seth.  Seth is in the relationship from hell with Sophie the psycho and it’s decided that Seth will tell Sophie he’s gay to get out of it.  It works to a point, but then Seth starts really having feelings and desires for Clay.  This was a good book but it was a bit much on the dramatic for me.  The men had Sophie to deal with but then they threw in speed dating for Clay as well as some other issues.  And did the characters ever work?  Uh, not that I could tell.  I just found it really wasn’t my cup of tea. 3 out of 5

Next up was Meet Me In Manhattan by Judith Arnold.  This here is an absolutely true romance.  That’s right, the book was written about the true life romance of Ted and Erika.  It’s also part of the True Vows series and  I’ll be posting my review of the book on Wednesday as part of the book tour so check back.

Mistress of the Night by Charlotte Featherstone had been in my ereader waaaaay too long so I finally decided it was time to read it. I originally bought it based on the info about the tortured hero – I love those.  And boy was Blaine tortured.  You see he had epilepsy and back then it was not a illness that was A-ok.  If you had the “falling sickness” then you were thought to be possessed by a demon and Blaine was afraid that his secret would get out and he would be committed to Bedlam.  He vowed to never get married and never have a child.  But he fell in love with Madeline and he couldn’t seem to keep himself away from her.  I really liked the book a lot.  Blaine could be a right bastard at times while pushing Madeline away and yeah, I hated him for it, but he was so afraid.  The problem was, he was so afraid that she’d find his secret out and be repulsed by him that he ended up living in hell because he couldn’t be with her the way he wanted.  Very good book but if you read it be prepared to hate Blaine at times along the way.   4 out of 5

And last but not least I re-read Lord of the White Hell book 1 by Ginn Hale.  And you know, it was just as great the second time reading it as it was the first.  I re-read in preparation for reading book 2 and I wanted to completely refresh my memory.  Man I just love Javier and Kiram.  Good people.  I reviewed this back in June – you can read my review here if you’re interested. 5 out of 5

My Book Binge review that posted last week:
Seduced by a Highlander by Paula Quinn

Happy Reading


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What I’ve Been Reading This Week

Posted September 20, 2009 by Tracy in Features | 16 Comments

Hello there!

I can’t believe I’m getting this post done on a Sunday afternoon! That’s almost a miracle for me lately. 🙂

Hope you’re all well. All’s well here. I managed to avoid 2 other “Stupid Ass Things” for the week. The bang cutting I think took precedence and I avoided the other two. Either that or they’re delayed! lol

Have you all seen the book cover for Carolyn Crane’s (aka our own wonderful CJ from The Thrillionth Page) book Mind Games that comes out on March 23 2010?

Isn’t it gorgeous?? I love it and I can’t wait to read her books!
Ok – on to what I read this week:
I started with To Seduce A Sinner by Elizabeth Hoyt. This book 2 in the Legend of the Four Soldiers series but I didn’t read book 1 first. I certainly didn’t feel like I was missing anything that’s for sure. I decided to try and read some of the DIK books that others had brought to the island. I chose this one after reading Renee’s quick blurb about it and I’m so glad I did. It was a wonderful story of love and healing and I will definitely be getting the next books in this series. Thanks Renee! 4.5 out of 5

Next up was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. You can read my thoughts here. Good book! 5 out of 5

After that I read Wolfbreed by S.A. Swann. I had started this book last week but put it down when it was just dragging for me. It ended up being a pretty good read once I got past the first 100 pages but I didn’t love it. It was very descriptive of blood and gore – it definitely didn’t shy from descriptions of massacres and that’s a tad off-putting to me. 3.5 out of 5

A novella was next called Screen Shots: Seduced by Willa Okati. This one was recommended by Tam and it was a cute little read. It had a tad more “I love you, man” in it than I generally care for but I liked it. 3.5 out of 5

After that I read Beyond the Rain by Jess Granger for review on The Book Binge. I will let you know when my review posts in case you’d like to read it.

My Tracy’s TBR Challenge Read for the week (yes, I almost forgot to do one!) was You Slay Me by Katie McAlister. My friend Jen gave this entire series to me about 2 years ago and there is has sat. I finally decided to pick one up and it I liked it. I thought that the heroine, Aisling, was a huge bumbling idiot and did some completely retarded things but overall the story held my interest and I read it quite quickly. Since I have the rest of the series I’ll read the next book and see what I think. If Aisling is too much of a bumbler I’ll call it quits but I’ll give it a chance. Has anyone read this series and if so what did you think? 3.75 out of 5

Happy Reading!


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