Meternity by Meghann Foyer

 Meternity
Apr 26, 2016

by Meghann Foye

Kindle Edition

$8.99



The novel your book club must discuss!

"A fresh, contemporary take on love and work, marriage and motherhood, Meternity is guaranteed to surprise and delight!" —Emily Giffin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Something Borrowed andFirst Comes Love

Like everyone in New York media, editor Liz Buckley runs on cupcakes, caffeine and cocktails. But at thirty-one, she's plateaued at Paddy Cakes, a glossy baby magazine that flogs thousand-dollar strollers to entitled, hypercompetitive spawn-havers.

Liz has spent years working a gazillion hours a week picking up the slack for coworkers with kids, and she's tired of it. So one day when her stress-related nausea is mistaken for morning sickness by her bosses—boom! Liz is promoted to the mommy track. She decides to run with it and plans to use her paid time off to figure out her life: work, love and otherwise. It'll be her "meternity" leave.

By day, Liz rocks a foam-rubber belly under fab maternity outfits. By night, she dumps the bump for karaoke nights and boozy dinners out. But how long can she keep up her charade…and hide it from the guy who might just be The One?

As her "due date" approaches, Liz is exhausted—and exhilarated—by the ruse, the guilt and the feelings brought on by a totally fictional belly-tenant…about happiness, success, family and the nature of love.

      I really wanted to love this book The book description made this right up my alley. 

I have no kids (and have been married for 34 years) and this is by choice. I get a little tired of not being able to park where I want to because spaces are saved for mothers...of being run down in the grocery stores by those absurdly long carriages that are made to entertain children. It is an entitled generation.

It sounded (in theory)kind of good for Liz our main character to take matters into her own hands (so to speak) and grab some of the 'goodies' that only Moms get...then it just became an embarrassment for both the reader and the author. 

What I got instead is a book that was written for a different generation than mine, a book that I couldn't even begin to translate into readable English. I finally started skimming and then even gave up on that.

If anything this book will most likely become the lowest rated book ever on AMAZON. The reviews there are amazing and cruel towards the author.
Publisher Supplied ARC

The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

The Star-Touched Queen

Apr 26, 2016

by Roshani Chokshi

Kindle Edition

$9.99

Fate and fortune. Power and passion. What does it take to be the queen of a kingdom when you're only seventeen?

Maya is cursed. With a horoscope that promises a marriage of Death and Destruction, she has earned only the scorn and fear of her father's kingdom. Content to follow more scholarly pursuits, her whole world is torn apart when her father, the Raja, arranges a wedding of political convenience to quell outside rebellions. Soon Maya becomes the queen of Akaran and wife of Amar. Neither roles are what she expected: As Akaran's queen, she finds her voice and power. As Amar's wife, she finds something else entirely: Compassion. Protection. Desire...

But Akaran has its own secrets -- thousands of locked doors, gardens of glass, and a tree that bears memories instead of fruit. Soon, Maya suspects her life is in danger. Yet who, besides her husband, can she trust? With the fate of the human and Otherworldly realms hanging in the balance, Maya must unravel an ancient mystery that spans reincarnated lives to save those she loves the most. . .including herself.

A lush and vivid story that is steeped in Indian folklore and mythology. The Star-touched Queen is a novel that no reader will soon forget.

She Is The Queen of Naraka.

This is a tale told with the most beautiful word painting that I had ever seen. A retelling (if you will) of the myth of Persephone and Hades.  This tale is stuffed full with metaphors, myth and magic.

I would suggest that you read the preview novella (?) first. I wish I had.

Unfortunately it failed to hold my attention as I am not the type of reader that likes to read three pages of description when a couple of paragraphs will do.  Nor do I like not knowing the whole story as I read.  I don’t want to wait until the last chapters to find out what the tale was really about and why everything happened.

I found it too easy to lose myself in my thoughts instead of finding myself immersed in the story.  I want to forget my dreary life when I read and not have to work so hard.

This was beautiful, but a slightly difficult read if you are merely looking for a few hours of entertainment.  This book in part is too special to just spend a few hours with.  I will try to read it again, so for that alone I give it 3.75 stars and not less.

Publisher supplied ARC.

Best of my Love by Susan Mallery

Best of My Love (Fool's Gold)   A

pril  26, 2016

Book Description:  "An irresistible new love story from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Fool's Gold series, set in a town Library Journal calls "so appealing, readers will want to start scoping out real estate." 

To overcome her painful past, baker Shelby Gilmore goes on the hunt for a friend—a male friend—to convince her stubborn psyche that men can be trusted. But where in a town as small as Fool's Gold will the petite blonde find a guy willing to not date her? 

Dark, charming Aidan Mitchell puts the "adventure" in Mitchell Adventure Tours…and into the beds of his many willing female tourists. Until he realizes he's inadvertently become that guy—the one-night Casanova—and worse, everyone in town knows it. Maybe Shelby's boy/girl experiment will help him see women as more than just conquests so he can change his ways and win back his self-respect. 

As Aidan and Shelby explore the secret lives of men and women, the heat between them fires up the Fool's Gold rumor mill. If no one will believe they're just friends, maybe they should give the gossips something to really talk about!"

Review

This is an entertaining and typical read; although it is a sort of childish romance.  This book is written using Ms Mallery’s usual recipe, so there is no need for thinking while reading the book.

Shelby (an abuse victim) and Aidan (a man whore) decide they need to be friends so that they can see that there is more to male/female relationships and so that they can heal.

I didn’t buy it.  Not one bit.  The way it was written just left me feeling amused and not really in a good way.  I fully expected Aidan to grow some breasts by the end of this book! 

The sex felt forced, an excuse to continue on the book if you will and so did the so-called ‘friendship’. In my lifetime I have many male best friends and not once did I ever have them give or get a pedicure.  We didn’t make  each other do girly or manly things –we always did what we wanted to do at the spur of the moment.

I get the fact that these two are trying to understand and learn about the opposite sex, but in my opinion, I don’t think this was the way to do it.

Mayor Marsha makes a much unneeded appearance and very nearly forces Aidan and Shelby to do things that make entirely no sense.

Fans of this series will most likely love this book since we wanted Aidan to settle down, but I don’t think any of us expected it to happen quite this way.

Bright Blaze of Magic- Jennifer Estep

 

Bright Blaze of Magic (Black Blade) 

Apr 26, 2016 by Jennifer Estep

Book Description:"The characters are as fantastic as Estep fans have come to expect." – RT Book Reviews

Bad Things Always Come In Threes…

As a thief, I'm good at three things: hiding in the shadows, getting in and out unseen, and uncovering secrets. I put these skills to work for the Sinclair Family, one of the magical mobs that run the tourist town of Cloudburst Falls. 

Everyone knows Victor Draconi wants to take over all the other Families--and kill every last Sinclair. What they don't know is that I'm on to him, and no way will I let the man who murdered my mom get away with hurting all the other people I care about. Especially when I've got places to break into, stuff to steal, and Devon Sinclair fighting right by my side… 

"An adventurous ride you will never want to get off." --#1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout on Cold Burn of Magic

This book was not holding my attention at all until I realized that this was the last book in a trilogy –silly me -I thought it was going to be a fairly long running series.  I had erroneously thought that this book was falling into the same pattern as Esteps adult series and that is to write the same story over and over with little changed.  However once I found out this was the last book I re-read what I had already read and the story made more sense…mostly.

This book is the biggie – the crew is going to have a huge showdown with the Draconi family and surprises will abound.  (I don’t want to add too many spoilers to this review) Naturally Victor will cheat, Lila will save the day and we will have our happily ever after –or at least for now.  (this is a YA after all).

What totally bothered me about this book is that Ms Estep did what so many other author’s do when backed into a corner –add new tricks to the main character, in this case add a new sort of magic to Lila when she should have died.  I’m not always a fan of this concept.  Another thing----------------POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT----------------- there is an instance when Devon had the chance to use his compulsion magic on Victor and Devon did not.  I understand that this author likes to make the women the stronger characters, but I thought this was just so silly that I was tempted to throw my Kindle across the room. This was the perfect time for Devon to step up to the plate and he just totally chickened out.  I mean his magic so powerful and dangerous that Lila was hired as his body guard because other families wanted him and he just sits there like a wet noodle------------------------END POSSIBLE SPOILER----------------------

All in all it was a satisfying ending to this trilogy that would have been tons better had the author not felt the need to use so much back-story.

What We Find by Robin Carr

What We Find Apr 5, 2016 by Robyn Carr

Hardcover  

$17.45

Join Robyn Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Virgin River and Thunder Point series, as she explores the healing powers of rural Colorado in a brand-new story of fresh starts, budding relationships and one woman's journey to finding the happiness she's long been missing 
Join Robyn Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Virgin River and Thunder Point series, as she explores the healing powers of rural Colorado in a brand-new story of fresh starts, budding relationships and one woman's journey to finding the happiness she's long been missing 

Between the urban bustle of Denver and the high-stress environment of a career in neurosurgery, Maggie Sullivan has hit a wall. When an emergency high-risk procedure results in the death of a teenager, Maggie finds herself in the middle of a lawsuit—and experiencing levels of anxiety she's never faced before. She knows she needs to slow down before she burns out completely, and the best place she can think to do that is Sullivan's Crossing. 

Named for Maggie's great-grandfather, the land and charming general store at the crossroads of the Colorado and the Continental Divide Trails have been passed down through the generations and now belong to Maggie's eccentric father, Sully. When she shows up unannounced, he welcomes her with open arms, and she relishes the opportunity to indulge in his simple way of life. 

But shortly after arriving, Maggie's world is rocked once again and she must take on more responsibility than she'd planned. Though she's relieved a quiet and serious-looking hiker, Cal Jones, is willing to lend a hand, Maggie is suspicious of this mysterious man's eagerness to help—until she finds out the true reason for his deliberate isolation. 

Though Cal and Maggie each struggle with loss and loneliness, the time they spend together gives Maggie hope for something brighter just on the horizon…if only they can learn to find peace and healing—and perhaps love—with each other

This may be a difficult book for some readers to get into and to stick with -at least at first. It was tedious, with stilted characters and no emotional tug to them. That lack of emotional interest changes as the story progresses. Mark me well though -the character's never get 'overly' emotional, not how it can be played out in some romances using younger,greener character's. These two are in their late thirties and early forties and have already lived and learned a great deal. Actually it seemed to me to be a near classic case of tell not show and that annoyed me. However, once I got used to the authors style of writing I began to look underneath the lack of emotion for what it really was. Two wounded characters trying to hold themselves together. An interesting aspect to this novel is that after about 40% of the book is done parts of the book are told in Maggie and Cals separate voices, often times with them doing their own thing, but at the same time thinking about each other and fixing their lives-separately. This was not a true 'romance' at least not in my eyes. Yes, there was steamy sex and a HEA but this was still different; something better than a 'romance'. It was what real life could be for us if we were fictional character's in a good writers hands. There was really very little angst in a book that could have been riddled with it, and I want to thank Ms Carr with every drop of my being!