An Amish Gift: A Novel Offered by Random House Digital, Inc. Price: $9.99
A Heartfelt Christmas Story, October 31, 2012 This review is from: An Amish Gift: A Novel (Kindle Edition) An Amish Gift by Cynthia Keller While this could have been a real sappy story that most people of this day and age, would not believe; this book was not the sappy, faith based novel I had expected . I loved the fact that this non-Amish family, the Davis's had problems, REAL problems and the Amish while being stoic and helpful ,never preached, They just saw what needed to be done and then did it. In addition, I loved the fact that the problem solving was give and take. So many authors have the Amish become resistant to accepting any advice or help or even friendship from the Americaners. The Davis family is on the brink of bankruptcy when an inheritance forces them to move from Massachusetts to Lancaster Penn. Two adults, two teenagers' and a dog crammed into a car hauling a trailer of their worldly possessions. When they reach their destination things just aren't as good as they could have hoped and the family makes their dissatisfaction clear to Jennie. Jennnie is holding the family together with string and prayers at this point. Until one day an inadvertent aside from her son allows her to try something new, something that could really help them get out of their financial mess. This is a character driven story that spans 2 Christmases. A lot happens in these few pages. But one this I will say is that for a while I thought Jennie was allowing herself to be the whipping post, taking garbage from each member of her family. Nevertheless, she stuck it out, and I'm so glad she did. This family was quite `real' to me as was the neighbors and friends of the neighbors. What a difference a year makes!    *ARC SUPPLIED BY PUBLISHER*

				To Wed A Highlander Price: $3.03 Kindle Price
Michele Sinclair Does it Again, October 29, 2012 This review is from: To Wed A Highlander (Kindle Edition) To Wed a Highlander by- Michele Sinclair This was a very different book, at least to me. The premise is that these two people need to marry to save a Lowland clan. This is a common premise, that of the forced marriage at least on one person's part, what is uncommon to me is the male protagonist was married to the female protagonist's sister before she died. Colin loved her very much. And, it wasn't something that he kept quietly to himself. We did hear a lot about his late wife, but you will soon see that these reminiscences are germane to the story. Makenna is not the `normal' type of woman of her times. She doesn't know how to be a `lady' or to run a castle. She rides, she spars and she fights. She happens to do all of that better than some soldiers. She is taking a lot of opposition from many of her clan members for marrying someone who is not one of them and these dissenters are showing their displeasure. Of course she had also (sort of) promised (sort of) herself to a neighboring laird who is quite evil. Colin is taking his role as the new Laird of the Dunstan clan quite seriously. He feels passion for his new wife but not much else. Soon he has to defend himself to his new clan; he has to investigate just who is doing many cruel things to his people and he needs to ignite the passion that he knows is within his new wife. Soon Colin and Makenna are both trying to please each other and to learn compromise as they battle the enemies both without and within their castles walls. This is another relationship driven story, but out of all of the books I've read by this author, it is the first one that has action throughout the whole story. There is a very interesting and action packed conclusion to this book. This is a steamy and interesting read. I have found that the author is quite good at keeping things from us and she waits until the proper time in the story to have the greatest impact on the reader. What some may be considering being dues ex machine tactics is simple clever plotting on the author's part. I love these books and am hoping that the author will keep writing from this time period.

 

Christmas Stalking (Love Inspired Suspense) by Margaret Daley (Oct 30, 2012)

Learning to trust a person you barely know takes a lot of faith and since this is a faith-based novel, it seems appropriate that the protagonist Ellie, Winnie’s bodyguard, has trust issues.  While this is a Christian novel, it is never preachy or over-bearing with its message.

Ellie is working for Winnie as a bodyguard but Winnie doesn’t know that her life has been threatened.  That is, she doesn’t know this until her Grandson colt, makes a surprise visit and rattles Ellie into confessing to him what she is.  Soon things start escalating with actions  being thrown into the mix.

As we get closer to Christmas actions are soon out of hand and when they think they have the proper person dead to rights, things start escalating even more.

This is an action packed novel with strong, very strong female characters and the men almost taking a behind the scenes aspect.  The romance is there but is quite mild and you almost have to wonder just how they fell in love so quickly.

The habit that some author have of using bad relationships with their protagonists parents  is getting somewhat trite, but it seems to be fitting for this novel.

There is mystery, excitement and a HEA…what more could a reader want in a book?

	The Highlander's Bride (Zebra Debut) by Michele Sinclair Edition:  Kindle Price: $2.42
4.5 Light Yet Serious at Times, October 26, 2012  This review is from: The Highlander's Bride (Zebra Debut) (Mass Market Paperback) The Highlander's Bride (Zebra Debut) by Sinclair, Michele This is the second novel by this author that I have read and while it didn't capture me as much as "The Christmas Knight" did, it still stands out as a good example of a historical romance. One that has its very steamy interactions, has many humorous moments and has a lot of fiery Scottish fighting and making up! This is another of the authors' relationship/character driven plots and there is a bit of action towards the very end. Conor McTiernay has vowed that he will never marry. He sees no need since he doesn't think any marriage will ever be as good as his late parents, he has many brothers to keep the line going and he can get his `relief' with just about any of the clans lasses. He has also been taken in by women who just want him for his wealth, title and strength. None have wanted him for pure love. Until he is coming home from a brothers wedding one fall, and comes upon a dirty, disheveled and very angry Englishwoman who seems to have been beaten within an inch of her life. Laurel Cordell has just escaped a fate worse than death. In Conor and his clan, Laurel sees a way to hide from her problems until the weather changes in the spring and she can escape to another country. Conor can't seem to trust or put his faith in Laurel even when she does her best to make his life easier. However, he will learn. Moreover, he will learn that not every woman wants him for what he has; he will learn that there is one woman out there that will want him for what he *is*. A sexy, virile and caring man who just happens to like being the *Laird* all the time. I have read many romances that use this tactic to define the couple's relationship. The author will use constant arguing and bickering, make the male protagonist overly controlling and the female protagonist overly self-sufficient and snippy. In this case it actually works. The characters really seemed like real people that I might know in my day-to-day life. (if I lived in the 13th century!). The author has a good voice and a good grasp of the era of which she writes. There is only one issue that rankled a bit - Ms. Sinclair would sometimes use a phrase or word that I don't think was used in this century.

			Kindle Paperwhite 3G, 6" High Resolution Display with Built-in Light, Free 3G + Wi-Fi Price: $199.00
Going to Take A While to Get Used to, October 24, 2012 Paperwhite a review by a non-tech person. So far so good. It is going to take me a while to get used to the lightness of this and the fact that I'm now going to have to use two hands to read! I had to reboot it once while reading the instructions---not a good thing if you ask me. I have it charging up using the external charger I got and for the life of me I don't know why I allowed myself to get suckered into buying the charging plug thingy. The old one works just fine as does the one I got from a different source. Oh, I know some will say the new one is needed to charge it faster, but damn, do you really need to spend the cash for [i]maybe[/i] an hour or so less charging time ...actually nobody know for sure (at least not as far as I could see) if it charges any faster with the new one. The light is fantastic and I find I'm not annoyed with the light at the bottom of the page as much as some people are and the tool bar is great, you can do so much more with it than you can with the older model. This is going to save me a lot of grief in not having to buy a cover with a light in it that may ruin the Kindle or an external light that is just a pain in the butt to use and never lights the entire screen at one time or smoothly. This does it all! Now this is interesting,, when you tap the bottom of the screen you can see your location but it also say, and this is on the first chapter so bear with me, 1 min left to chap --tap again and you see---16 min left to book. It is a cool feature using an algorithm to figure out your reading speed and how long it will take to finish chapter book. Do not be too concerned when you first start reading a book and it gives you a ludicrous amount of time that it is supposed to take you to read. It does eventually find its proper setting. For instance -I just opened a new book and after I flipped through a few pages it told me it would take me 19 minutes to finish a 320 page novel. However, a few seconds later it changed to 4 hrs and 48 minutes based on my page turns. Useful when reading for short periods of time I suppose. I have not seen page numbers yet. But, unless the book [i]came[/i] with page numbers you aren't going to see them. I have not notice any 'flashing' problems that some have spoken of, either that or it is just so minute that I just don't notice it. But, if you want to refresh each page with every turn you may do so by selecting that option. I wouldn't do so since I'm finding that the page turns are smooth and flash-less as it came set up from the factory It is even easier than ever to set up collection on this Kindle. Much easier I think than in the past. You can still shop from the Kindle like in the past, but it is even easier since Amazon has found a way to load things into the Paperwhite even faster! It used to take what felt like forever to download the store, now it is a matter of a second or two. Of course, I have the WIFI on as well as the 3g network so that changes my down-loading speed slightly. I love the fact that on my home page is New and Noteworthy book for me so I can browse new titles and not even got to the store. By clicking on one of the books there that interests you,you immediately get the book info that you used to get by going through a longer process. I'm keeping the lamp at about the halfway point. There is no glare or reflection, even while reading with a very bright lamp next to you. The screen repels finger prints. It does not feel as slick as the older Kindles. Tapping the top while reading will bring up your page numbers if the book has them included. I love it already.

	The Christmas Knight (Zebra Historical Romance) Price: $4.30  Sinclair, Michele
Would Have Given 10 Stars If I Could, October 25, 2012  The Christmas Knight (Zebra Historical Romance) (Kindle Edition) "He loved, and was loved in return." I picked this novel up quite by chance and found myself ignoring everything around me as I devoured it. I have not read such an intriguing and character/relationship driven novel in quite some time. This novel is about a Knight named Ranulf de Gunnar who has been ordered by his new King to take over Hunswick Castle. While on his boat trip back to the castle an accident occurs on the ship he is on and a man Laon de Breton, dies. While heaving his dying breath he forces Ranulf to promise to marry his youngest and most beautiful daughter. You see he has three daughters and the eldest is not supposed to be attractive to men. Well neither is Ranulf attractive to most women. You see, Ranulf has been scarred horribly in a fire and is also missing one of his eyes. His disposition is well less than amiable and he has no trust for the opposite sex. Ranulf's bitterness in how he has been treated show through in almost everything he does. On his way to Hunswick Castle he spies a man and a woman fighting in the woods. He realizes the man is intimidating the woman and fires of an arrow. And, this is where our story really takes off. The woman was Bronwyn de Breton the eldest daughter of Laon. Bronwyn de Breton has two younger, more attractive sisters and knows that the youngest sister is being forced to wed Ranulf. Lillybet cannot bear this idea so the three sisters devise a scheme in which Bronwyn pretends to by Lillybet. Then they plan to leave the castle in a few days to go be with relatives. Ranulf sees through Bronwyn scheme and soon is attracted to her, but he feels there is a story that he is not being told. And there is. It seems that another Knight, a neighbor of the castle wants Bronwyn and will stop at nothing to have her. While this story does have action, it really is not until the midway point that it will take place. Instead of relying on the action to move the plot, the author has told a superb story based on a character/relationship driven plot. It was a fascinating look at what happens when someone keeps the truth from someone else merely for his or her own good. The author gives us the added bonus of starting each chapter with the history, religious and secular, of the entire Yule season as seen in the 11th century.

			DARK POWERS (Decorah Security) Price: $0.99
I Managed to Finish This, Barely, October 24, 2012 This review is from: DARK POWERS (Decorah Security) (Kindle Edition) I haven't read anything by this author so I didn't know what to expect. But I did read all the reviews, both pro and con and now I realized that the con reviews were the ones I should have listened to. Sage wants to find her sister who has been missing for several days. She has spoken to the police in the town in which her sister lives and got a canned answer that she must have run away. Sage does not believe that so she hires Decorah Security Agency and gets Ben and `damaged' detective with a touch more going for him than good instincts. The characters have not been developed, their motivation to have sex was nil and did not fit in with the idea of the story. I realize that this was only somewhat longer than a novella, but it was still long enough to develop them a little more. As a matter of fact, these characters are so cardboard and bland that it was difficult to find anything about them to care about. There were unexplained and unnecessary lectures on the town and how it was founded. The S and M dream on Ben's part was just creepy and Sage being so hot for him so soon just didn't work. The plot with the Sheriff and the town fathers just made no sense at all. This novelette ends on a dues ex machine note and with a happily ever after naturally.

Seduced by a Pirate by Eloisa James (Kindle Edition - Oct 30, 2012) - Kindle eBook

Buy:$0.99

Available for Pre-order. This item will be released on October 30, 2012.

Seduced by a Pirate – by Eloisa James (Novella)  4 Stars

This is the wonderful companion novella to the book from August “The Ugly Duchess”. It makes no difference as to which book you read first.

In this novella, we find that Sir Griffin Barry has come back to England after 14 years at sea to finally consummate his marriage… his marriage of 14 years.  It seems that the evening of the day he got married; he had problems, went and got drunk.  Once drunk he was kidnapped to a pirate ship. After some years, he managed to get control of the ship and things turned for the better.  Now he has been hurt and has come back. 
Griffin may not have consummated his marriage but Poppy (Phoebe) now has three children and does not want to be married.  Until she starts daydreaming of Griffins big beautiful body!

This quick read is perfect for a rainy afternoon when you need to kill a couple of hours. It has well fleshed out characters, a good story with plenty of funny parts and truly romantic love scenes.  Ms James remains one of the very few historical authors that I still enjoy and I see that she will most likely stay that way.   

The Wicked Wives: A novel based on a true story by Gus Pelagatti

3.5 Stars More Than Just OK, October 21, 2012

The Wicked Wives: A Novel by Gus Pelagatti

The Pros --------------------------------------à

When Mr. Pelagatti asked me to kindly review his new novel, I was hesitant since I do not usually choose to read novels based on fact.  However, once I read the synopsis I was intrigued with the subject matter, so I agreed.  I’m glad I got the chance to read this book.  It really has a gripping story and the historical accuracy was wonderful. I loved reading about this era and it was really brought to life for me with the authors writing.  Learning about the ‘mob’, reading about how minorities were spoken to and about, learning how the police worked in that day and age as opposed to how things work nowadays was fascinating. 

The story itself was sometimes difficult to believe but in my heart, I know that there are people in this world just like Giorgio The Gigolo and all of the Black Widows and the Deputy Mayor.

You just feel a compulsion while reading this to find out who did what, who they did it too and you *need* to find out   the mystery behind The Black Widow and The Giant.  

Mr. Pelagatti wrote a fine story, a mesmerizing story. He wrote well fleshed out characters that you could easily sympathize with or hate without compunction. The historical was as accurate as anything else written about this era and you could easily see the amount of research the author put into this book.

The Cons----------------------------à

All that aside, there are issues with the book. This novel desperately needs editing.  There are continuity problems, misused words, were there king sized beds in the ‘30’s and early 40’s?

I can understand that when  a budding author is at the finish line and the only thing left to do is to edit, that they may not even see the mistakes since they KNOW  what the book  is supposed to be saying.  Editing needs to be done with fresh eyes, and a Beta Reader would be helpful.

I can’t quibble too much with the mistakes because I make them when merely writing a simple review.  Mistakes I do not see until it’s too late.

Don’t let these issues put you off from reading this novel, it really is a  good story and you would be missing out if you did.

Now or Never: Wizards of Nevermore by Michele Bardsley (Mar 6, 2012)

Book 2

-------------->REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SLIGHT SPOILERS------------> 

 I love mysteries.  Usually the more complicated they are, the happier I am.  But have you ever read a mystery that had so many different mysteries going on at one time that you couldn’t keep a line on all of them?   Unfortunately, that is what seems to happening to this series.  It is only two book in and I’m wondering just how Ms. Bardsley is going to be able to keep up this nearly manic pace she has set for her readers.

We have the mystery that started in the first novel – who is trying to get the demon Kahl to the earthly plane and what may the outcome be.  Then in this novel we have that AND the mystery of Lenore and her powers which starts in the prologue, suicides and a mysterious gun, then Lenore and Taylor.  This is supposed to be their love story.     We do not get to read anything about them until about a third or more into the novel. This is less a romance with mystery and speculative undertones and more a paranormal novel that just happens to have a tiny bit of romance in it.

Then there is the mystery surrounding a magical named Cullen, the type which becomes obvious quite soon.

Unfortunately, although the synopsis states that the sheriff will uncover the mystery surrounding the gun and the suicides, ¾ of the book is finished and you have yet to find him doing any investigative work. .And you won’t in the last quarter either

Mundane or non magical people gaining magical abilities left and right -----the Goddess bestowing prophecies and gifts left and right.

As I mentioned with the last novel, the author seems to be using dues ex machine a little too much and too easily and I am getting a bit uncomfortable with this.  Not that we can really expect logical reasons for what is happening, since it IS speculative fiction; but still.  One should not have to stretch their credulity so much when reading a novel.

------àRANTISH< ----------------

Unfortunately to add to the novels problems, is a habit some authors get into of having characters repeatedly explain things to other characters in the book.  It is usually something   germane to the story; however, the reader does not need to re-read it multiple times in the same chapter.

-----------------àRANT OVER<---------------

This is in no way a horrible book, but it is not of the quality of the first novel in this series, and that will make me pause before picking up the next book in this series. The ending is less than satisfying, sometimes downright confusing and the romance is not there like it is in the other books by this author.

Never Again: Wizards of Nevermore by Michele Bardsley (Mar 1, 2011)

This was a darker novel than I expected form this particular author.   What novels of Ms. Bardsley’s that I have read are usually light fluffy and funny.  “Never Again” had much darker themes and was truly an interesting and absorbing read.  

Magic is the norm and magical people are quite common.  Be sure to read the very beginning of the novel, which explains all about the origins of the Magicals and the Mundanes. 

Lucy has come to Nevermore Texas to meet with her ex -brother-in-law Gray and to ask him to marry her. Gray sends her away with no help.  You see she is running from a curse her ex-lover has put on her and needs Gray’s strength as a Wizard to protect her.   Gray was once married to Lucy’s sister Kerren and killed by her.  Yes, you heard correctly, Kerren brought him to Hell and killed him.  Now he spends his days miserable and alone.  He is the Guardian Wizard for this town in Texas, yet he is derelict in his duties.  However, certain harsh truths are soon put forward to Gray and he goes searching for Lucy to give  her a little help  and here the real story starts.

The characters you are supposed to like and empathize with are written so that is exactly what you do.  The characters that you are supposed to dislike are written with the same depth.  No nuance is skipped.   Once you start the book, you are quickly sucked into the story and the murders that start taking place.  Ms Bardsley has a fine time having us try to figure out just who is behind all the bad things happening and I was a little surprised to find out who it was.

You can see quite clearly that this is a novel meant to set us up for the rest of the series, so you do get a lot of information on secondary and tertiary characters.  Especially the Sherriff about whom the next book is all about.

If I have any complaints it would be that the very ending is a little simplistic and it almost felt like Ms Bardsley couldn't figure out how exactly to end the book.   Even though it feels like a due ex machine ending – it won me over and I cannot wait to read the next book in the series.

Further Confessions of a Slightly Neurotic Hitwoman by JB Lynn (Oct 16, 2012)

3.5 Stars - Better Than OK Read!

This is the second book in this series, and while it usually is fairly easy to pick up a book this early in the series without reading the previous ones, this time I would suggest you read the first book before this.  It will make it so much easier to catch up to what is going on.

This book disappointed me a bit.  While the first book was unique, interesting ad engrossing – this book just seemed like one of so many romances that are so common out there.  Maggie seems to have 3 different men interested in her now and it looks as if she can’t make up her mind. Well…she really doesn’t have to make up her mind now does she? ;-)

This book had many things going on in it and at times, it could be confusing.  The story is still about her niece and the lengths Maggie would go to keep her in the care of experts.  She is again hired to kill someone and what disturbed me a bit this time around, is not how easy it was for Maggie to accept, because it wasn’t…what bothered me more is how she  was so at ease with talking of assassinating other people in the world that were making some things hard for her.

The talking animals pretty much got annoying, but I see the necessity…Maggie needs to talk things out and the author apparently doesn’t want it to be all inside of Maggie’s head.

So Maggie’s niece is still in the hospital, her best friend Alice is getting married in two weeks, an old nemesis is back in town and another Aunt wants custody from Maggie for her niece, a man she  thought she disliked ius really  hot stuff and he has a secret.

There is too much going on to recap it all for you without spoilers.

This book isn’t quite as dark, thought provoking and satisfying as the last one, but it still was a good light slapstick sort of  read.

Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond by Kim Harrison (Kindle Edition - Oct 9, 2012) - Kindle eBook

Buy:$11.76

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It is truly unnecessary for me to write a synopsis on each of the stories published in here since so many of the other reviewer’s have done such a fantastic job of it.

One of the most interesting aspects of this book is in reading what Ms. Harrison has to say about the why's and how's that she wrote the books the way she did.  For example it was interesting to not that Kisten wasn't really supposed to die until she (the author) understood that Kistens role was at a stand-still and he had nowhere to go but to die. 

This is most likely necessary buy for any hard-core Kim Harrison fan.   All of these stories but one has been published in other anthologies and as extras in the main books.  Nevertheless, this is a good way for   someone who has never read the series, to gain a little insight and to see if they would be interested in trying the full-length books.    It is a rather costly way to consolidate all of the novellas and short stories, but it sure does make things easier to read and then re-read.

"Dirty Magic" remains one of my favorites of the shorter stories. It is about a Banshee Mia, her child and how Mia has to 'eat' the emotions of others to remain alive and feed her daughter.It is a story filled with lies and deceptions and it gives insight as to how the general population copes with the 'others' around them.


"Ley Line Drifter" gives us an interesting look at Dryads, a  statue that is really a prison and seeing the world through Jenks eyes.I do love Jenks.

Most fans will probably go right to the only story that they’ve not read yet, ”Million Dollar Baby” but I find that the non-Hollows stories to be the most interesting. However, the fact that in this story we get to see Trent in such a different perspective and get a brief glimpse into his mind, should make this whole purchase worth it for fans.  We get to see how he and Jenks interact and how they have both grown as characters.

*ARC SUPPLIED BY PUBLISHER*

 

Gabriel's Woman by Robin Schone (Nov 4, 2011)

Kindle Edition:$4.99

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  While this novel is the second book in a dualogy, it is not necessary that you read “The Lover” in order to understand this book.  However, you would be in for a slightly better reading experience if you did read it first.

  Ms. Schone does wonders in evoking a very vivid picture of pleasure just by using words.  And not the words one would normally expect in an erotica novel.  This author can make you shiver just by her trademark perfect timing, the words and the style with which they are used. This is prime sensuous erotica and has the added edge of being set in Victorian England.   

  While some of her inner-dialoguing can get somewhat tedious, I think she uses this repetitiveness to make us really understand the depth of the characters despair and the feelings that they invoke in the reader are going to be either something you love, or something that you will hate.   .

  In this book, the second of The Angels” dualogy we meet Gabriel once again.  We fist met Gabriel in “The Lover”.  Gabriel was one of two boys trained from childhood (or close enough to it) to be a prostitute. One boy was trained to please women and one was trained to please men.  Gabriel has not touched a woman in over 14 years.  Until one night a caped woman enters his brothel to auction her virginity and self  off.

  Victoria believes that she had friends out on the street.  For that is close to where she is living after her last position as Governess was taken so cruelly from her.  She has been left with no references and decides that this was her best bet to get the money she would need to live the rest of her life without too much worrying.

  What she does NOT know is that she has no friends, she is being used as a pawn by the gentleman who so cruelly raped Gabriel all those years ago.  Now people will start dying.  But, even though there is suspicion and lies abounding, Victoria becomes mesmerized by Gabriel and his silver eyes and even the kindnesses he shows all the while not trusting her.  Who is going to be dead at the end of this book?  If any couple deserves a happily ever after it is Gabriel and Victoria.

   While I may have somewhat disliked this novel the first time I read it, I’ve recently re-read it and find that as I have matured so have my tastes and enjoyed this book immensely the second time around.

 

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Perfect Mate [Kindle Edition]

Mina Carter (Author)

4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)  

Perfect Mate by Mina Carter

The plot to this story sounded great, the reviews are pretty good and I didn't check out the reviews like I should have, because even with those two things combined this book had serious flaws.  Now mind you, I did finish this book and in the end it was worth it and I may even read the next one to see if the author has learned from her mistakes.  I actually blame the beta readers for not bringing these things to the authors attention.

------------------------------->SPOILERISH ------------------------------------------>



We have a Psychiatric hospital being 'invaded' by soldiers with a horribly maimed man. Now not knowing at the time that this man really wasn't a man   the hospital manager (our heroine) lets herself be rode roughshod over and lets them bring the wounded man in instead of making them bring him to a real hospital or even calling an ambulance for him. Now he is bloody with his guts hanging out, but she immediately starts thinking about how handsome he is. She does this again later on in the book too. Really?

The other army employees being injected with something that can stop the lycan, vampire, zombie virus but kills them? Uhm., did I miss something?  How can the operations stay operating if all the people injected ultimately die?

When we first meet Antonia, she is being given a dose of meds and at the end of this scene she is being paged  to Operations.  When we next see her she is on/in bed in her room.  Really? A very bad continuity issue. And not the only one; just the one I made note of.

If  Lillian is the manager of the hospital that her grandfather owns -how could she apparently not know that there are wings being used for nefarious purposes on one hand, and then on the other hand know enough about the hospital so that she knew there was secret passages?

 I needed some back-story on the main characters that I never got in this book. Where was this all taking place?  Will the next book explain all this?

Okay enough with what was wrong, now what was right.  The story itself has been told before by Lora Leigh.  Government experiments on soldiers/civilians, become other and find their one true mate. Ms Cart does well with making it just a little different though. The characters have been fleshed out but not enough in my opinion.

While I can understand the confusion of some of the other reviews with the abrupt ending, I can only say that this was a clever thing to do and will keep those who really liked the book anxious to read more.  I found it fairly good place to stop.

When you got by the mistakes the story was intense and fairly bloody and exciting.  The romance, what there was was at a fairly good heat level.  The bleakness that Jack had was normal and not overdone.

The decision Jack has to make for Lillian near the end of the books perfectly works with the dream sequence  at the beginning of the first chapter.  Good use of foreshadowing there.

This was NOT a horrible novel, it just needs some better management.  I will be reading the next one, especially if it's going to be Darcy and Antonia.

A Lady's Pleasure [Kindle Edition]

Robin Schone (Author)

4.6 out of 5 stars  )

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Digital List Price:	$2.99 What's this?
Kindle Price:	$2.99 includes free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet

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Length: 127 pages (estimated)

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A Lady’s Pleasure by Robin Schone

With her wonderful ability to create the sexiest read you will ever have with class along with a great story, Robin Schone shines again with this novella.  In addition, at 127 pages it isn’t the extremely short novella we have all come to expect from authors.

Abigail has rented a cottage by the sea for a month to say good-bye to her dreams.  Robert is at the shore to recuperate before he goes back to the war and continues killing. They meet during extreme circumstances and find a mutual passion while a storm rages, and ONLY while the storm rages.

Nevertheless, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions and when Robert had to leave for a bit and would have come back, even during fair weather, circumstances keep him away.

I had hoped the Ms Schone would have started writing mew books again and had hoped that this was a new one, but alas, it had been published before in an anthology.  Robin Schone—please come back to us, you have a lot of loyal fan!

The Marriage Trap [Kindle Edition]

Jennifer Probst (Author)

4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews) |)

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The Marriage Trap – Jennifer Probst

Can love be found when two people are perpetuating a lie? It can if you are reading this very cute and sexy series.  In addition, to add a bonus to this book, not only is Michael a uber sexy billionaire he is also an Italian Count. There may be some holes in the plot, but in the end you tend to forget them in lieu of the characters, both the main ones and the secondary characters.

Unfortunately for Michael, his younger sister wants to get married, but in his family she can’t marry until her older brother does.  Now Michael is in a quandary.  He has no long-term girlfriend, nobody that he can ask to help him out… but there is Maggie, a surly and unpleasant woman who is the best friend of his business partners’ wife.

Maggie believes that Michael is in love with her married best friend and for that reason, she pretty much hates him, so when he asks her to take part in his ‘pretend’ marriage she jumps at the chance to force him to give up his friendship wither pal. She was going to Milan anyway so what the heck!  Maggie is a fashion photographer of men’s underwear! Sexy men in their underwear!

Now of course this is a formulaic story, it has been done to death, right?  Well I feel that Ms. Probst takes the best of what we have already read and loved and puts her very individual stamp on it making it into something better.  What could be a mawkish, overly romanticized story has depth, both of character and plot. Plus, we get our hard won ‘happily ever after’ and I do mean HARD won! I enjoyed this book very much and I am looking forward to Michaels’ younger sister Carina’s story.

*ARC SUPPLIED BY PUBLISHER*

Full Blooded (Jessica McClain) by Amanda Carlson (Sep 11, 2012)

3.0 out of 5 stars Could Have Been Exceptional But, October 1, 2012

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This review is from: Full Blooded (Jessica McClain) (Kindle Edition)

This could have been exceptional series opener. ( It helps if you read "Blooded" a novella first, Full Blooded takes place 8 years after the novella.) Mind you I said could have. It has all the elements of something just a little different, just a little fresh in an over-burdened genre until you get about halfway through and you realize that the newness only goes so far. You realize that it is becoming trite and clichéd. However, there are reasons that plots become trite and clichéd - it is because they are popular and enjoyable plots, and I really enjoyed this book up until the last 25 percent or so.

For some reason seeing the big, bad, powerful, only female werewolf in the world having what amounts to a teen-aged 'female dog' fight with a Goddess/Sorceress just kind of shot down the illusions for me and turned this into something for the young adult crowd. What comes after that is even worse, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone who is interested in this book. Suffice it to say that trite and clichéd really had a field day with the ending of this book.