Three Strong Words (by Becky S. Araujo)

Posted on November 4, 2012 by setaian

I originally reviewed this book as a guest reader for The Indie Bookshelf. The Indie Bookshelf is a blog created and run by a group of frighteningly talented women that supports independent authors. It is something like an Aladdin’s Cave for book lovers and a great place to find your next book.

http://www.theindiebookshelf.blogspot.com

I hate you. I never actually said those words aloud to him but in the beginning I sure did think it a lot. The thought of being near him sent nausea churning through my stomach and hearing his name caused my temper to flare to the point where I could almost feel my blood boil. Aiden Parker, every time I look at you three words always run around in my head. I hate you.

Aidan’s father is widely known as the most racist man in town. A man who enjoys beating up people of color for kicks.

When Esmeralda, a young Hispanic woman, is forced to do a joint school project with Aidan there are immediate fireworks. In her opinion, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and she isn’t going to take any abuse from him. But over time she comes to realize that he is completely different to his father and their initial antagonism turns to attraction.

This book isn’t perfect. There are things which just didn’t work. There was a (thankfully) brief detour into a courtroom drama which fell flat and honestly didn’t belong in this book. But those little blips don’t add up to much and there are so many good things about this book that I can’t help but love it.

My Kind of Christmas (by Robyn Carr)

Posted on October 24, 2012 by setaian

And Angie saw him. He was standing on the porch of the bar, leaning a shoulder against a post. He was most definitely watching her. When their eyes met he did that smile thing again––half his mouth lifted.

When Patrick loses his best friend in combat, he takes a medical leave and heads to Virgin River to get himself together and make some decisions about his future.

Angie has lived her entire life pleasing her mother, but a serious car accident has left her questioning her goals. Unable to decide if she wants to continue at med-school she escapes to Virgin River to collect her thoughts. When she meets Megan, a young girl with an ugly scar across her face, she decides to step in and make a difference. She makes it her mission to raise the money that will restore little Megan’s face.

Patrick and Angie are both being pulled in different directions. In a few short weeks they will be forced apart, but until then they are able to find a measure of comfort in each other’s arms. Before long they have fallen in love but with Patrick’s commitment to Navy and the widow of his friend, there doesn’t seem to be any room for Angie in his life.

My Kind of Christmas is very much what we have come to expect from Robyn Carr. It’s a light and fluffy love story with an upbeat and optimistic message. A fun book to read over Christmas.

Many thanks to Harlequin and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.

Merry Ex-Mas (by Sheila Roberts)

Posted on October 18, 2012 by setaian

As Christmas approaches, three divorced women find themselves having to deal with their ex-husbands.

Cass’s daughter is getting married and she wants her father to walk her down the aisle. Confronted with a husband who has been absent for years and then swoops in with his check book and new wife like a knight in shining armor, Cass struggles with jealousy and feelings of inadequacy.

Ella is living in the same house with her ex-husband. She is trying to get on with her life but is confronted on a daily basis with her past. A man she still has feelings fall. A man who despite evidence to the contrary, insists he never cheated on her.

After running off with another woman, Charley’s husband has returned looking for forgiveness and a second chance. His betrayal destroyed her, he took her money and set up house with the other woman. Can she forgive him and does he deserve it?

Merry Ex-Mas is a short and sweet holiday season book. As you would expect from a Christmas novel, it’s not too challenging and has an optimistic and upbeat message.

Many thanks to Harlequin and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.

Five Days Grace (by Teresa Hill)

Posted on October 2, 2012 by setaian

…she felt an urgency in his touch that she hadn’t felt before.

He did want her. Very much.

She felt a little thrill as that knowledge shot through her. It had been so long since she’d felt like a man wanted her urgently, like he was greedy to have as much of her as she was willing to give.

Following the death of her husband, Grace discovers that he was unfaithful to her. Feeling betrayed and alone she travels to the scene of his infidelity, a small and rustic lake front cabin, looking for evidence of his betrayal.

After sustaining serious injuries while deployed in Afghanistan as a Naval Intelligence operator, Aidan is using the cabin to recover both physically and psychologically.

Both Aidan and Grace have baggage, both are heart-sick. Over one week they are able to begin healing each other and start looking to the future. But they also have lives waiting for them, Aidan is career Navy and Grace has an established business in Ohio. The question is can they turn five days together into a lifetime promise.

Five Days Grace is a sweet and easy to read contemporary romance. I thought it was a little longer than it needed to be, but it was still a very satisfying read.

Many thanks to ePublishing Works and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC

White Ninja (by Tiffany Hall)

Posted on October 1, 2012 by setaian

All the things I hate –– Chinese burns, pimples, cheese, answering questions in class –– are Christmas compared with having to walk through the gate to school.

Roxy Ran is a 13 year old girl who doesn’t quite fit in. She goes to school at Hindley Hall where she is getting some special treatment from the school bully, Hero. Then one day while rescuing a kitten Hero is attempting to flush down the toilet, Roxy discovers she has some super ninja powers.

All of a sudden she finds herself on a quest to find the White Warrior and the Tiger Scrolls before the powers of evil get them.

White Ninja is a very short and cute story for early teens and perhaps a little younger about a girl finding the strength to face her fears. Tiffany Hall manages to weave a subtle anti-bullying message into this story without ever preaching.

I think this book would be great for young people who find reading difficult. It’s great fun and easy to read.

Many thanks to Harper Collins and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC

Stolen (by Shiloh Walker)

Posted on September 29, 2012 by setaian

Tearing her mouth away, Shay ducked to the side. “We … we can’t do this.” She pressed a hand to her buzzing lips. “I’m just getting to the point where I’m used to going through the days without you calling. I’m just getting to where I can pass a few nights without dreaming of you.”

As a child, Shay suffered unspeakable horrors at the hands of her step-father. Everything about her adult life has been about hiding from the trauma of her past. She lives in a remote town in Alaska. and has isolated herself from her family and friends.

Elliot broke off their relationship because Shay couldn’t open up to him, but he can’t let go of what they had together. When a stalker, someone who knows Shay’s most closely guarded secrets starts stealing her life and attacking her friends, Elliot is determined to be there for her…determined that he won’t abandon her a second time.

But in order to find her stalker, Shay will need to remember the horrifying events of her childhood (events so horrifying that even this reader winced). With Elliot’s support she figuratively returns to her past, as she literally travels to her childhood home town. There she comes face to face with the person who has stolen who she is.

Stolen is an intense and gripping story, packed with truck-loads or romance and suspense. It never strays too far from the tried and true formula you’ll find in many books of this type. It does everything it’s supposed to do and also manages to throw in a surprise or two.

It’s very good adult romantic suspense.

Many thanks to Ballantine Books and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC

Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes (by Denise Grover Swank)

Posted on September 20, 2012 by setaian

I didn’t know anything about saving anybody. I didn’t even know where to go, let alone have a car to get there. But I did have a gun, even if I’d never shot one before. I unwrapped it, careful to point it away from me. I couldn’t find the round spinny thing for the bullets. Then I remembered, those were the kind of guns they used in prehistoric times. That covered most of the television shows I’d watched pre-cable. I was looking for the thing at the bottom of the gun. After a lot of fumbling and, I hate to admit it a little bit of cussing, I got it opened.

Rose has a mundane job at the Department of Motor Vehicles. She lives with her mom and dresses like a nanna. The most interesting thing about her is she has the “second sight”, but even her visions are pretty unremarkable. She sees visions of toilets overflowing or dogs getting out of yards. Then one Friday afternoon while at work, she has a vision of herself dead in her home. Later when her mother turns up dead, suspicion immediately falls on her.

With dead bodies turning up, gangsters gunning for her, the police suspecting her and pretty much the entire town convinced she’s a murderer, things aren’t going so well for her. The one bright spot is her sexy neighbor, Joe who seems to be the only person in her corner. But he has his own secrets and at a time when she needs him most pulls away.

Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes is a seriously good fun murder mystery set in Arkansas. It’s a laugh out loud funny story with a quirky heroine. Most of the books I read have interesting heroines. Look at the books I read an you’ll see it time and time again. For me Rose stands out in that long list of interesting heroines as something a little more. I put her in the same league as Lisbeth (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Nora (The Siren), Angel (My Life as a White Trash Zombie) and Justine (Mind Games). I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next story about Rose Gardner.

The Disullusionists Trilogy (by Carolyn Crane)

Posted on September 15, 2012 by setaian

“You wish to be free, but there is no such thing as freedom. You can redecorate dungeon to give illusion of freedom, but you are still in dungeon.”

“I should’ve had the choice.”

“Choice is illusion, same as happiness and freedom.”

As a hypochondriac with extreme levels of health fears, Justine makes for an unlikely crime fighter, but that’s exactly what she is. Together with a ragtag bunch of men and women she uses her irrational fears for good, by psychically zinging them into bad people so they can be broken down and rebooted.

Her life is complicated by the two men in her life. Packard is a crime boss, he’s mercenary and unscrupulous. He has an agenda, and uses his band of disillusionists to achieve that end. Otto is the exact opposite to Packard. As the chief of police and a psychic with the ability to create force fields, he is able to imprison criminal highcaps who can not be held in any conventional prison, using the power of his mind. But is it moral to imprison people for life without a trial?

Book 1: Mind Games

Justine is recruited by Packard into his group of Disillusionists. Teamed up with Simon, a disillusionist who can zing his own reckless behavior into others, and Shelby, who can zing people with her bleak view of the future, she struggles with her first mission to disillusion a woman who brutally murdered her husband.

She soon discovers that Packard has another agenda and that she is a crucial part of his plan to destabilize one of Midcity’s most prominent crime fighters. A man she idolizes.

Book 2: Double Cross

Justine has managed to get Packard his freedom, on the condition they disillusion the Highcap criminals Otto has imprisoned around the city. One such woman is a dream invader named Ezmerelda. After Justine accidentally touches her, Ez gains access to both her’s and Packard’s dreams. But despite a shocking crime-wave in which the sleep walking criminals bite their victims, Justine can’t help but think Ez is the victim of a frame-up.

Added to this, a group of killers is targeting highcaps, and the trail leads back to a conspiracy theorist. A man who could be Shelby’s perfect match.

Book 3: Head Rush

Justine is getting married to the man of her dreams, Otto. But she can’t seem to get Packard out of her mind, and with every one in the city gunning for him, why is he still hanging around.

The city is under martial law, crime is rampant and Otto is keeping secrets from Justine. In the end the fate of all her friends are in her hands, but can she find the courage to make the ultimate sacrifice for them.

The Disillusionists series is great urban fantasy. Quirky and funny, but also plenty of action. These books flow well and are entertaining from start to finish.

Fashion magazine disease articles. My personal Kryptonite.

Tab Bennett and the Inbetween (by Jes Young)

Posted on September 8, 2012 by setaian

The first time it happened I was completely unprepared. I was in the kitchen making a peanut butter and banana sandwich when I started to feel light headed. I steadied myself against the the counter, closing my eyes so the room would stop spinning. When I opened them, I was with Molly, I was Molly, and I was in the dark gasping for air. I panicked until there was nothing left to breath and then she died…

Tab Bennett has lived her entire life without knowing who she really is. Then she starts having visions of a world that has been hidden from her. A world in which dark elves are trying to kill her, and the people she thought were her family are actually guardians, sent to protect her.

After her mother, the queen of the Elves was killed, Tab was sent to the human world to protect her from those who meant to do her harm. Now in her twenties and coming into her powers, her enemies are stepping up their efforts to kill her.
Adding to her problems, there are two men vying for her affections, Alex to whom she was promised at birth and Robbin one of her guardians.

Tab Bennett and the Inbetween is an unusual book. It reads a little like a Young Adult novel but then I would be hit with a very adult sex scene. There are elements of Paranormal / Fantasy, Romance and even a little Mystery there. I could spend hours trying to figure out where it belongs, or I could just say it’s a very good book which doesn’t quite fit anywhere.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Jes Young for providing me with this ARC.

When Lightning Strikes (by Brenda Novak)

Posted on August 30, 2012 by setaian

(Whiskey Creek Trilogy, #1)

Simon O’Neal is a hard drinking, womanizing Hollywood superstar. He surrounds himself with people who fawn over him and won’t call him on his reckless behavior.
Gail Dimarco was his PR consultant until she sacked him as a client. But after an over-zealous employee intimated that Simon sexually assaulted Gail, they need to get together and do some serious damage control.

Simon is in a bitter custody battle for his son, and any more bad press will destroy his already shaky case. To rehabilitate his reputation, Gail marries him and they flee Hollywood for Gail’s hometown of Whiskey Creek.

When Lightning Strikes is a cute contemporary romance about a broken man and an insecure woman. Away from the craziness of Hollywood, Simon is able to set his life in order, and in Simon’s arms Gail is feeling treasured for the first time in her life. But someone has other plans and will do anything to ensure that Simon and Gail don’t succeed.

Fans of Robyn Carr and Toni Blake would probably enjoy When Lightning Strikes

Many thanks to Harlequin and Netgalley for this ARC

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