Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨
>
Books:
2017-romance-reading-challenge
(49)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
my rating |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1952646049
| 9781952646041
| B01KB8XC5A
| 3.78
| 436,521
| Oct 18, 2016
| Oct 21, 2016
|
it was ok
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challe [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challenge. For more info about what this is, click here. You know when you're ordering a really strong drink from a bar, and it's got a lot more alcohol in it than you thought, to the point that you can almost taste the hangover over the rum and artificial fruit, and you think to yourself, "This is a bad idea" but then drink it anyway, and order another because YOLO? That's me every time I pick up a new adult book. I tell myself, "Nenia, you're going to regret this, don't do it, you're not going to like it." But trashy erotica novels, like booze, are easy to do to excess. This is my second book by Penelope Douglas. The first I've read from her was CORRUPT, and that was lent to me by a kind GR friend via Kindle. I thought CORRUPT was okay, with reservations. I don't normally go in for erotica, especially erotica that reads like straight-up porn. All the men in that book were misogynistic and rapey, too, which added another level of nope. But the plot was decent and she was good at setting a decent pace, so I sort of half-enjoyed, half-wtf'd my way through the thing and at the end of the book, I wasn't mad. It was a flawed but decent read. PUNK 57 I bought myself, which already means that I'm going to be an eensy bit more critical of it because I'm spending my hard-earned money on the book and judging it accordingly. PUNK 57 was our book of the month in the Unapologetic Romance Readers group for April, and as someone who had read her work previously, I was interested in seeing how it had changed from CORRUPT. ***WARNING: SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT*** PUNK 57 is about two characters, Misha and Ryen, who are both in high school. They are also pen pals, although they have never met face to face before. Misha is punk and in a band and has piercings. Ryen is a cheerleader and preppy and into things like TWILIGHT and HARRY POTTER. After a tragedy happens in his life, Misha ends up going to Ryen's school under the name Masen for reasons that don't actually have anything to do with Ryen. When he realizes that she's not what he built her up to be on his imaginary pedestal, he gets angry and embarks on a mission to make her life hell. This, I actually didn't mind so much. It reminded me of Hana Yori Dango. A-hole heroes are actually a weakness of mine provided that a) the heroine reacts to this behavior accordingly and b) it takes a heck of a lot of groveling before the characters finally end up together. This does not happen in PUNK 57. Ryen is attracted to this mean behavior, despite herself, and the two of them have several sex scenes that have this really uncomfortable element that was also present in CORRUPT that is neither healthy nor entirely consensual (at least, that's how it felt to me). And it wasn't the fact that it wasn't 100% consensual at times that bothered me so much as the fact that Ryen seemed to be embracing this behavior as natural and something she needed. Example: at one point Misha/Masen breaks into her house while she's sleeping and catches her in bed naked. He assumes, naturally, that any woman who is naked must be entertaining male company, and makes an effort of looking around for that Other Man. When he realizes that she was actually masturbating, he asks her if she was thinking of him. Me, I'd be on the phone with the cops well before that point, but she lets him watch. Ew. He's also constantly getting physical with her and making her feel bad about herself, whether it's berating her for being fake or criticizing her clothes for being too sexy - because how dare she bring male attention upon herself. Like it's her fault for them looking or some BS. In keeping with this "me man, woman mine" caveman attitude, the sex is always big man alpha sex, of the cervix-slamming variety (you know the kind I mean) and I know some people enjoy this, and that's fine, but that isn't my cup of tea at all. I rolled my eyes a lot. Especially when they try anal - without lube - and all she feels is a tiny burn. Ha! Woman must have Superman's butthole if he can go in dry and not cause her any pain, that's all I'm going to say. I will say that the twist at the end with Misha's mom took me off-guard. I wasn't expecting that, although in hindsight it explains a lot. Like I said before, with CORRUPT, plotting isn't a weakness of Ms. Douglas's. But the confrontation and the way it was carried out left a similarly bad taste in my mouth, because it was a perfect mirror of his behavior towards Ryen and how it was actually pretty abusive. Misha is one of those guys who expects women to behave in certain ways, and if they violate that way at all, they are automatically bad. Ryen failed to live up to his sweet nerdy girl fantasy, so she becomes the whore in his eyes. Misha's mom couldn't take motherhood, so she becomes the horrible bitch who is responsible for all the problems in his life. It's the Madonna/whore complex, and I hate the Madonna/whore complex. Also, I'm realizing that I kind of hate Misha. I didn't want him to have an HEA with the heroine, because in my opinion, he never redeemed himself. He played the "Baby, I'm damaged" card and she completely bought it, final sale. Two things I did like (so this review ends on a positive note): I like how the author incorporates music into her stories. That was something I liked about CORRUPT as well, especially since her taste in music is pretty similar to mine. I also liked how she had characters from CORRUPT cameo in PUNK 57, even if it was the creeps. Am I surprised that Misha knows/is friends with those creeps? No. He's a creep, too. Creeps of a feather flock together. (No, bad Nenia - stay positive!) I didn't hate this book. I was afraid I would, but I didn't. Bar a few typos, it was fairly well written and had an interesting story. As much as I gripe, I must admit that I wasn't bored while reading it. It also has a Colleen Hoover-esque title whose meaning becomes clear at some point in the story, which is cool. Like Colleen Hoover, I think this author is capable of writing something some day that I will really enjoy. I like dark fiction, and I like suspense novels. She just needs to fine-tune the way she writes her heroes and sex scenes, and then we'll be golden. 2 to 2.5 stars Merged review: [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest You know when you're ordering a really strong drink from a bar, and it's got a lot more alcohol in it than you thought, to the point that you can almost taste the hangover over the rum and artificial fruit, and you think to yourself, "This is a bad idea" but then drink it anyway, and order another because YOLO? That's me every time I pick up a new adult book. I tell myself, "Nenia, you're going to regret this, don't do it, you're not going to like it." But trashy erotica novels, like booze, are easy to do to excess. This is my second book by Penelope Douglas. The first I've read from her was CORRUPT, and that was lent to me by a kind GR friend via Kindle. I thought CORRUPT was okay, with reservations. I don't normally go in for erotica, especially erotica that reads like straight-up porn. All the men in that book were misogynistic and rapey, too, which added another level of nope. But the plot was decent and she was good at setting a decent pace, so I sort of half-enjoyed, half-wtf'd my way through the thing and at the end of the book, I wasn't mad. It was a flawed but decent read. PUNK 57 I bought myself, which already means that I'm going to be an eensy bit more critical of it because I'm spending my hard-earned money on the book and judging it accordingly. PUNK 57 was our book of the month in the Unapologetic Romance Readers group for April, and as someone who had read her work previously, I was interested in seeing how it had changed from CORRUPT. ***WARNING: SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT*** PUNK 57 is about two characters, Misha and Ryen, who are both in high school. They are also pen pals, although they have never met face to face before. Misha is punk and in a band and has piercings. Ryen is a cheerleader and preppy and into things like TWILIGHT and HARRY POTTER. After a tragedy happens in his life, Misha ends up going to Ryen's school under the name Masen for reasons that don't actually have anything to do with Ryen. When he realizes that she's not what he built her up to be on his imaginary pedestal, he gets angry and embarks on a mission to make her life hell. This, I actually didn't mind so much. It reminded me of Hana Yori Dango. A-hole heroes are actually a weakness of mine provided that a) the heroine reacts to this behavior accordingly and b) it takes a heck of a lot of groveling before the characters finally end up together. This does not happen in PUNK 57. Ryen is attracted to this mean behavior, despite herself, and the two of them have several sex scenes that have this really uncomfortable element that was also present in CORRUPT that is neither healthy nor entirely consensual (at least, that's how it felt to me). And it wasn't the fact that it wasn't 100% consensual at times that bothered me so much as the fact that Ryen seemed to be embracing this behavior as natural and something she needed. Example: at one point Misha/Masen breaks into her house while she's sleeping and catches her in bed naked. He assumes, naturally, that any woman who is naked must be entertaining male company, and makes an effort of looking around for that Other Man. When he realizes that she was actually masturbating, he asks her if she was thinking of him. Me, I'd be on the phone with the cops well before that point, but she lets him watch. Ew. He's also constantly getting physical with her and making her feel bad about herself, whether it's berating her for being fake or criticizing her clothes for being too sexy - because how dare she bring male attention upon herself. Like it's her fault for them looking or some BS. In keeping with this "me man, woman mine" caveman attitude, the sex is always big man alpha sex, of the cervix-slamming variety (you know the kind I mean) and I know some people enjoy this, and that's fine, but that isn't my cup of tea at all. I rolled my eyes a lot. Especially when they try anal - without lube - and all she feels is a tiny burn. Ha! Woman must have Superman's butthole if he can go in dry and not cause her any pain, that's all I'm going to say. I will say that the twist at the end with Misha's mom took me off-guard. I wasn't expecting that, although in hindsight it explains a lot. Like I said before, with CORRUPT, plotting isn't a weakness of Ms. Douglas's. But the confrontation and the way it was carried out left a similarly bad taste in my mouth, because it was a perfect mirror of his behavior towards Ryen and how it was actually pretty abusive. Misha is one of those guys who expects women to behave in certain ways, and if they violate that way at all, they are automatically bad. Ryen failed to live up to his sweet nerdy girl fantasy, so she becomes the whore in his eyes. Misha's mom couldn't take motherhood, so she becomes the horrible bitch who is responsible for all the problems in his life. It's the Madonna/whore complex, and I hate the Madonna/whore complex. Also, I'm realizing that I kind of hate Misha. I didn't want him to have an HEA with the heroine, because in my opinion, he never redeemed himself. He played the "Baby, I'm damaged" card and she completely bought it, final sale. Two things I did like (so this review ends on a positive note): I like how the author incorporates music into her stories. That was something I liked about CORRUPT as well, especially since her taste in music is pretty similar to mine. I also liked how she had characters from CORRUPT cameo in PUNK 57, even if it was the creeps. Am I surprised that Misha knows/is friends with those creeps? No. He's a creep, too. Creeps of a feather flock together. (No, bad Nenia - stay positive!) I didn't hate this book. I was afraid I would, but I didn't. Bar a few typos, it was fairly well written and had an interesting story. As much as I gripe, I must admit that I wasn't bored while reading it. It also has a Colleen Hoover-esque title whose meaning becomes clear at some point in the story, which is cool. Like Colleen Hoover, I think this author is capable of writing something some day that I will really enjoy. I like dark fiction, and I like suspense novels. She just needs to fine-tune the way she writes her heroes and sex scenes, and then we'll be golden. 2 to 2.5 stars ...more |
Notes are private!
|
2
|
Apr 08, 2017
not set
|
Apr 19, 2017
not set
|
Feb 07, 2023
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| B00FZ0FGCM
| 3.74
| 1,705
| Mar 18, 2014
| Mar 18, 2014
|
liked it
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challe [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challenge. For more info about what this is, click here. Well, reading this romance novel was a little bittersweet because SWEET DISORDER marks the completion of my 2017 romance reading challenge: or, my personal goal to read 50 different subgenres of romance, many of which I would never pick up otherwise, in an attempt to broaden my horizons. SWEET DISORDER was my pick for the "BBW" (big beautiful woman) challenge, something I was not looking forward to because so many of the titles I see on the Kindle best-seller list look smutty and exploitative. SWEET DISORDER, however, was rated highly by many of my feminist-leaning friends, and also has a plus-sized cover model gracing the front. Hooray! Phoebe Sparks is a widow who writes and publishers. Nick Dymond is an injured war hero who also happens to be the brother of a local politician named Tony. Nick's family wants to get as many votes as possible for their party, and Phoebe is just the latest target: they want to get her married, so as to ensure another vote. Votes and the feud between Whig and Tory make up a significant portion of this novel, and while it does add background and substance to the story, it can also make it a bit dry at times. I marked this book as "DNF" at least three times before finishing it - it doesn't really pick up until around page 60, or so, when Nick and Phoebe start to find themselves attracted to one another. What really makes this book is what the secondary characters bring to the table. Nick and Phoebe both have pretty awful families, but they aren't cardboard cut-outs and it's clear that there is love in those families, even if it's showed in a potentially toxic and/or warped way. This is particularly noticeable with the mothers who clearly want the best for their sons, even if they have no idea what "the best" is, or what it might look like from their children's perspectives. I also liked how the siblings came into the story, and how they intersected in a way that I really wasn't expecting. The non-family characters are good, too. Phoebe goes on "dates" with several potential suitors who might get the Dymonds the votes they need. My favorite was the baker, Mr. Moon, because the descriptions of the pastries and sweets he made sounded fantastic, and he was also a very good and kind-hearted man, and I liked the simpatico that he and Phoebe ultimately achieved, and the way the author described it. There is something wonderful about forming a connection with someone and feeling the instant when it "clicks" - even, perhaps especially, when the "click" is a platonic click. I'm deducting two stars for the terrible pacing and the unnecessary drama in the last act. Not even some red-hot sex scenes towards the end could keep me from rolling my eyes at the "we mustn't be together after all!" "no, we must!" "no, we mustn't - for our own good!" cliche at the end. Spoiler: this is a romance novel, so they obviously do get together, but it was much more annoying than it needed to be (and unsatisfying - there is a villainous character in here who gets off rather easily). Overall, SWEET DISORDER is a relatively good book and I didn't have to pay for it (I received a free copy to review in an instafreebie bundle. I think the theme was supposed to be diversity in historical romance, because this book, Sherry Thomas's THE HIDDEN BLADE, and Courtney Milan's TALK SWEETLY TO ME were also in the bundle). Even if I had paid money for this book, I think my rating would be roughly the same (maybe 2.5 instead of 3 - that beginning - oy). It's a romance that takes the time to flesh out more than just the main characters, features a disabled hero and a plus-sized heroine, and discusses topics not often discussed in HR novels, such as the effects and sorrows of war; feeling emasculated or not masculine enough; the toxicity of certain family dynamics and the effects of too much parental pressure; and the stifling English class system. 2.5 to 3 stars ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Dec 10, 2017
|
Dec 16, 2017
|
Dec 10, 2017
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| B00JHVUQ70
| 4.09
| 25,510
| Mar 08, 2014
| Apr 05, 2014
|
really liked it
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Chall [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challenge. For more info about what this is, click here. I put off reading this author for the longest time because her books were often spoken of in the same breaths as other authors whose works I couldn't stand. I assumed that they were all the same, and I am kicking myself right now, because MUD VEIN was kind of awesome and I could have gotten a head start on her books years ago. MUD VEIN is not a traditional romance. It's dark and unpleasant, with a nonlinear story line. It actually reminds me of another book I read recently called THE GHOSTWRITER, in the sense that this damaged woman shrouded in mystery is the narrator of the tale, and it's all about her journey and her tragic love story as she tries to come to terms with herself and learn how to be human again. Senna, the heroine of MUD VEIN, wakes up one day in a house surrounded by snow, penned in by an electric fence, and supplied with enough food to last a couple months. Also trapped with her is a doctor, named Isaac. The house is filled with clues that allude to a past that she'd rather forget, and secrets that she's never told to anyone...except for Isaac. Who captured them? And how do they get free? The answers to both questions are interlinked in a surprising way. The story is chopped up into three seconds and it looks like my friends who DNF'd this (there were a surprising amount!) decided to do so in the second part. Which I get. The second part is where it starts to get slow and really depressing. I actually liked the minutiae, though, because it was the part of the story where we get to really know Senna as a person and a lot of the clues behind her imprisonment begin to fall into place. The first part is definitely the best, though - the gradual reveals are paced perfectly evenly, and have this "Netflix Original" vibe. So why not five stars? That slow middle section. It was sloooow. I didn't mind reading it, but it didn't keep me locked in the way the first part of the story did. I also wasn't keen on the last chapter of the book - not because it was depressing, but because one of the twists didn't really make sense and wasn't foreshadowed sufficiently or explained particularly well. I was left feeling confused, and I don't think it was because I didn't understand what was going on; I think it was bad storytelling. Still; this was a darn good book and I read it in a single day. One of my friends recommended this author to me because she said that her stories reminded her of my stories, and I guess that means dark and twisty - which I can totally get on board with. I love dark and twisty when it's done well, and this was done very well. I have a whole bunch of this author's other books on my Kindle and can't wait to start them, because the writing in MUD VEIN has left me feeling incredibly optimistic (although the story itself did not - yeesh). 4 stars ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Nov 24, 2017
|
Nov 25, 2017
|
Nov 24, 2017
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0671674366
| 9780671674366
| 0671674366
| 3.89
| 5,761
| Aug 01, 1987
| Jan 02, 1996
|
liked it
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest This is currently free for Kindle! I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Read [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest This is currently free for Kindle! I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challenge. For more info about what this is, click here. I needed to read a "rock star" romance for this romance reading challenge I'm doing, and I figured what better way of accomplishing that than to revisit the first vintage novel I ever read? Jackie Collins's ROCK STAR. You know you're getting into something good from the very moment you crack open the cover and see the author's full cover 80s glamor shot, looking like the world's greatest bad-ass with teased hair and a denim jean jacket. RIP, Jackie Collins. I read ROCK STAR for the first time almost ten years ago and it holds up pretty well. This book is an epic that is nearly 500 pages long that takes place mostly in the late 70s, early 80s. It is about three rock stars. There's Rafaella, who is a quarter black, a quarter French, a quarter English, a quarter American, and an amazing lounge singer. Born to wealth, she suffered many tragedies, including the death of her father, and rose to fame after having her heart broken for the second time. There's Bobby Mondella, a black soul singer, who started out life overweight and impoverished and later became a best-seller and international sex symbol, only to lose his sight in a terrible accident. Lastly, there's Kris Phoenix, the ultimate stereotype of the 80s rocker, cast in the mold of Mick Jagger and Bruce Springsteen. He sleeps around, and talks like a Valley Girl, but he's 100% all about that rock life. The thing that these three stars have in common is a creepy European dude named Marcus Citroen and his wife, Nova Citroen. Both of them are 100% about that creep life, and have invested mind, body, and soul into these stars for their own personal means. Now, in 1987, all of them are about to come together in a final showdown at the Citroens's benefit concern. Only, things are about to be explosive, because there's this random group of criminals planning a heist to end all heists, too. ROCK STAR is so over-the-top, so 80s, that it's absolutely amazing. It's the ultimate sleazy adventure. Everyone wears too much makeup. Everyone does cocaine. Everyone's a shallow jerk. The characters play musical beds. The word 'b*tched' is used as an actual dialogue tag. Even the written-out phonetic accents and racial stereotypes are done so unapologetically that it's almost not offensive. Almost. Is this book dated? Oh, God yes. The only thing more dated would be a guy wearing silver parachute pants and a mullet, dancing around in the street with a giant boombox to "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel while his Chrysler idles in the street. On the other hand, it's pure fun, and written just smartly enough that you won't be filled with morning-after regret the next day. I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ALL, OBVIOUSLY. 3 stars ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Nov 23, 2017
|
Nov 23, 2017
|
Nov 23, 2017
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 4.09
| 860,815
| 1878
| 1991
|
it was ok
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challe [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challenge. For more info about what this is, click here. You would have thought that I'd have learned my lesson after reading THE BRONZE HORSEMAN, but no - apparently this is the year of emotionally wresting Russian love stories. One of the more "heated" debates in my romance group is whether a romance, by definition, must have a happy ending. Most of the people in my group say yes; but I'm a pessimist, and I say no. With ANNA KARENINA, however, I can actually see the merit in reclassifying it as a "love story" and not a romance, because what occurs between these characters is less a romantic interlude than an intrigue of tempestuous thoughts, emotions, and chaos. Basically, Anna is married to this old dude named Alexei, and ends up having an affair with a much younger man named Vronsky. Her husband finds out and the result is a major fustercluck, where the decision to get a divorce and the matter of custody both become heated debates. Anna selfishly continues to pursue her relationship with Vronsky, and ultimately ends up pushing him away, because Vronsky is just as selfish and doesn't really appear to see people as people so much as abstract concepts that loosely orbit his own desires and sense of self. Juxtaposed against this is the relationship between Stepan and Dolly; Stepan has affairs as well, but because he is a man, his wife must deal. IT IS CRAY. Like Dickens, Tolstoy's writing still feels very modern because even though the particulars have changed, human nature mostly remains the same. I have a friend who is Russian and she explained some of the concepts of the Russian psyche that Tolstoy was writing about: namely, intense pride and the need to always be right (or at least, to not concede an argument). She also said that this edition is a really good translation, so if you're one of those people who - like me - always wonders whether the translator did their homework, this one apparently did. Despite that, I couldn't really get into this book. It was way too long and I skimmed the last 100 pages because I'd had enough of these families and their drama. It's also intensely depressing. That last scene with Anna, and the fact that she changed her mind, cut deep. In many ways, ANNA KARENINA reminds me of MADAME BOVARY and THE AWAKENING, in the sense that the wayward woman is punished for wanting more and daring to dream beyond what society allows her. But said woman is also so selfish that the reader has trouble investing in her emotionally. I could appreciate the writing and the characterizations and even the story, but I felt I was missing a lot because I didn't have context for the culture and the history. That's the benefit of learning these types of books in schools; you are literally saturated in context and then, later, tested on your understanding of it. Reading these books independently means being able to enjoy them at my leisure, but then, conversely, also means that I run the risk of missing crucial points or having things go over my head. I'm glad I read ANNA KARENINA but I don't think that this book is for me. Some classics just aren't "fun" and to me, this is one of them. So, since I rate purely on enjoyment and NOT literary merit, I'm going to give ANNA KARENINA a 2. It wasn't awful and got me through some lengthy jags spent in waiting rooms and bus seats, but it wasn't particularly enjoyable and the ending harshed my mellow. 2 stars ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Oct 27, 2017
|
Dec 13, 2017
|
Oct 27, 2017
|
Paperback
| |||||||||||||||||
| B00JY2P4R4
| 3.17
| 580
| Jan 01, 2014
| 2014
|
did not like it
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challe [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challenge. For more info about what this is, click here. I am fundamentally averse to the idea of MC romances because I just don't find the idea of a bunch of leather-bedecked bearded dudes on Harleys attractive - especially not if they refer to said Harleys as "hogs" and throw around F-bombs the way a creepy dude with a front-row seat throws dollar bills at a strip club. I'm honestly confused about how many women find the idea of this attractive. Billionaires, I understand - but bikers... I've never seen a charming biker. Or an attractive biker. Most of the bikers I've seen are dudes in their forties with bushy beards and dirty leather jackets who ruin nice summer days by revving their g-d engines. No, thanks. So why did I read this? I lost a bet. Well... no, MC romances are a category on this romance challenge I'm doing, and since everyone else had to suffer through bodice rippers and sheikh romances, it seemed only fair that I encounter my worst nightmare too. Plus, it was free. And only 100 pages. I figured hey, it's short - if I hate it, I only have to hate it for about 1/3 as long as I would a novel. Cassie hates her job and her boss and her stupid life. I could just picture her in my mind as that over-entitled, lazy, flaky person we all know who thinks they deserve more than they have but doesn't want to work for it. Case(s) in point she's late for work all the time and lies about why, and is super judgy of her roommate because she can't get any. When she witnesses an accident involving a motorcycle (I can't remember if she was at fault, and I do not care), she crosses paths with Logan, AKA Bomb. And since he's mostly referred to as "Bomb" in this book, it took me a while to figure out that Logan = Bomb. He's not thrilled when he finds out Cassie called the police because his MC gang is into some shady sh*t, so he goes through her purse and takes her driver's license so he knows where she lives now. When Bomb shows up at her door, waving her license tauntingly, she debates about whether or not to let him in. Literally - this is something she asks herself. And guess what? GUESS WHAT? She lets him in. For a short, this doesn't have much sex. The characters don't get together until the very end. Most of it is Cassie whining about her job and obsessing over this guy she doesn't know, and Bomb doing shady MC sh*t and thinking about how much he wants to have sex with this girl he doesn't know. The sex scenes are terrible, and at one point the heroine thinks to herself "I want to taste his soul." I won't be picking up any of the other books in this series, but at least I've checked MC romance off my list. 1 star ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Oct 22, 2017
|
Oct 23, 2017
|
Oct 22, 2017
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0676970087
| 9780676970081
| 0676970087
| 3.86
| 133,359
| Sep 1992
| Oct 22, 1996
|
it was ok
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest He lies in the room surrounded by pale maps. He is without Katharine. His hunger wis [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest He lies in the room surrounded by pale maps. He is without Katharine. His hunger wishes to burn down all social rules, all courtesy. Her life with others no longer interests him. He wants only her stalking beauty, her theatre of expressions. He wants the minute and secret reflections between them, the depth of field minimal, their foreignness intimate like two pages of a closed book (155). I've had this book for about five years. My mom gave it to me. Sometimes she gives me books because she thinks I should read them, and other times she gives me books because she thinks I should try to read them. THE ENGLISH PATIENT falls into the latter category. If you asked me to describe this book in one word, I think I'd chose "overwrought." Sometimes the writing is beautiful (see quote above), but other times (many times) it's purple to the point of nonsensical, for example describing a peen as a "seahorse." The plot is kind of strange. It's about four people - a nurse, a bomb defuser, a thief, and a burned patient - all living in this abandoned villa post-WWII. That sounds like it should be interesting, but in the first third of the book, the characters drift without purpose, swimming through the heavy-handed prose like sluggish fish. The story doesn't really get interesting until the last two thirds of the story, where the eponymous English patient finally tells his story of espionage and doomed romance. Not really my thing. There are better WII stories out there. 2 stars ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Oct 06, 2017
|
Oct 08, 2017
|
Oct 06, 2017
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0440242940
| 9780440242949
| 4.26
| 1,073,073
| Jun 01, 1991
| Jul 26, 2005
|
it was amazing
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challe [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challenge. For more info about what this is, click here. I'm proud to say that I read this book before it became a TV series. I was in college, and checked out the weighty hardcover edition from the stacks on the third floor, along with several Anne Rice books and Sheri S. Teper's BEAUTY. That was about seven years ago, and I found myself thinking about the series again recently because my library recently purchased the entire series in honor of the television show. I wanted to read the others, but couldn't remember anything apart from the fact that Claire was a doctor, something about a witch trial, and the hideous rape/torture scene towards the end that still haunts me all these years later. I'm half-tempted to start a Change.org petition to call for Diana Gabaldon to rewrite OUTLANDER so that a certain someone dies a horrible death. It's even worse in the TV show. I saw a clip, and I don't think I'll be watching that. It's like torture porn. No, thanks. For the past week I've been reading OUTLANDER, this book has been an emotional blackhole, slowly draining away all my feelings and leaving only despair. It's a very slow start, with Claire and her husband in the Scottish countryside, taking a bit of a break in the terrible aftermath of WWII, which they have both been affected by (especially Claire who, as a nurse, has seen some terrible things). Then, one day, Claire touches a set of standing stones and gets sucked back into 18th century Scotland, just before the battle of Culloden, and ends up encountering a highlander named Jamie Fraser. ***WARNING: SPOILERS TO FOLLOW*** Gabaldon tortures her characters with an enthusiasm that you don't really see anymore in romance novels. This is very much like those 1970s bodice rippers, where everything goes to sh*t, and the story is less about love and affection and whimsy than it is about sacrifice and struggles and giving up everything - and I mean everything - to fight tooth and claw for a person who might do terrible things but is your soulmate, for better or for worse. Two similar authors I could name are Rosemary Rogers and George R. R. Martin. Rosemary Rogers has these alpha heroes who might not fit into the modern idea of "perfect man" but are appealing because of their incredible charisma, bravery, and sacrifices that they make of the heroine. The relationships are often fraught with love and hate, and there's almost always some gruesome act of torture in the third act (in two of the books of hers that I've read, these, like OUTLANDER, also involved brutal whippings). And I think the comparison to George R R. Martin should be obvious - even though this is a romance, it's set in a time filled with battles and unrest, so scheming abounds, and ignorance has caused people to rely on superstitions and folklore, as well as a suspicion of foreigners, and especially strange foreign women. Some of the darker moments are the rape/torture scene towards the end, the story of Jamie's flogging, the scene when Jamie beats Claire with a belt, and of course, the witch trial scene. Interspersed with these moments (they are spaced out, thank God) are lighter scenes. I think my favorite was the wedding scene, when Jamie's all dressed up to the nines and says, all sly, "Your servant, Ma'am." I just about died. Also, when he tells Claire that he's a virgin. That was also super cute. The cute scenes were like salve on the emotional savaging that the other stuff caused. I can definitely understand why some of those darker scenes I mentioned put people off reading this, and I'm surprised that people seem more upset about the belt than the rape. For me, I found that devastating, and felt so, so sorry for Jamie. The beating was not cool, and it was weird that they joked about it later, but it's a sad fact that that was a common way that men interacted with women at the time. That does not make it right, but Jamie was not trying to break Claire when he did it, whereas the rape scene was a deliberate attempt to demean, humiliate, and destroy, which made it so much worse to read about, for me. I found this article by Vulture called Diana Gabaldon on Why Outlander Isn’t Really a Romance and Writing Her First Episode, and apparently she resisted the romance category because it "will never be reviewed by the New York Times or any other respectable literary venue" and "will cut off the entire male half of my readership," and I am side-eying the hell out of that because (1) So? and (2) SO? Honestly, I'm just about done with all the opinion pieces about What Men Think About X Female Thing. We've been hearing about what men think since thinking first became a public matter, and if *some* men are so terrified of catching cooties from a book jacket that they're willing to forgo an otherwise perfectly good book, well, then, that's their problem, and they can read all the Heinlein and Martin they want. The only thing separating Game of Thrones from a bodice ripper is literally just the packaging and the title. Call it DRAGON'S RAPTURE* and slap on a shirtless Jon Snow cradling a svelte Daenerys Targaryen in a too-tight bodice and ergo, you have a fantasy bodice ripper. YOU'RE WELCOME. Regardless of what the author says about her book (she's free to say whatever she wants about it - it is her book), I consider this a romance, through and through, because the focus is on the love story of Jamie and Claire, as they fight to be together against all odds. The setting is beautiful, practically a character on its own, and was extra special to me, because I've been to so many places mentioned here: Culloden battlefield, Inverness, Urquhart Castle. I've also gone horseback riding on the Black Isle and been to Fort George in Ardersier. Scotland is incredibly beautiful and feels wild in a way that the U.S. does not. I had the same impression when I went to Japan, and saw Hakone and Meiji forest. They haven't curbed and domesticated their wilderness and paved over history in the same way that us Americans have; it still feels wild and magical and dangerous there, which adds to the appeal. This was a really great epic romance done in the old style and I recommend it to anyone who likes that sort of thing, particularly if you're a fan of the older romance authors like Rosemary Rogers. *P.S. Somebody with more talent than I have needs to make a mock-up of that DRAGON'S RAPTURE cover. I could use a laugh after having all my feelings demolished. 5 stars ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Sep 02, 2017
|
Sep 09, 2017
|
Sep 02, 2017
|
Mass Market Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0821719807
| 9780821719800
| 0821719807
| 3.74
| 499
| Jan 01, 1987
| Feb 01, 1987
|
did not like it
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Chall [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challenge. For more info about what this is, click here. Native American romances were super popular in the 80s for some reason, and up until *peers at shelves* last year, I had never read one before... which is partially the reason behind why I "tricked" my entire romance reading group into reading the Native American bodice ripper, SAVAGE ECSTASY. The title ought to clue you into how this little gem rates on the PC scale. I got CHEYENNE CAPTIVE when it was free for Kindle. The reviews on Goodreads were mostly positive. "Why not?" I figured. As one of my friends pointed out on my status updates, at least the word "savage" was nowhere to be found in the title. That, at least, should have been a good sign. Right? ...right?! Let me show you the literal first line of the book: Summer Priscilla Van Schuyler had never given a thought to the possibility of being raped and murdered by a band of renegade-Indians (1%). I see your ha and raise you a ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Ha. CHEYENNE CAPTIVE is one of the worst romances I have had the pleasure of reading in a while. It is the type of book people who don't read romance novels use to make fun of the romance novel genre as a whole because this book (or one like it) is the one they flipped through out of curiosity that one time as a child when they found the book sitting on their mother's coffee table. It is so terrible that it is almost good because it takes irony to the very heights of soaring ecstasy. ***WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS TO FOLLOW*** The plot is simple. Summer "Do you know who I am?" Schuyler is the daughter of a rich man who ends up being taken captive by Native Americans. The one who catches her, Angry Wolf, taunts her with rape, followed by gang-bangs and then fire torture, when one of his tribesmen shows up and quickly puts a stop to that. Her savior is Iron Knife, one of those cringe-worthy "half-breeds," who is portrayed as being superior to the other NAs simply because he's half-white. Iron Knife does not rape Summer, but he does end up taking her as a slave, and she lives in his cabin and looks pretty and sad and sickly, because she has an infected wound on her arm that he must heal. She ends up going into a fever from it, and when she awakes, suddenly Iron Knife is the greatest and the two of them go from being captor and captive to I love you pookykins, no, I love you, pookykins rather sickeningly quickly as the reader is treated to a medley of sex scenes like these: "Little One, I am built very big! You are a virgin-" "I'm YOUR virgin!" she breathed against his lips. "But I have promised you will never be hurt again!" he protested. "Hurt me!" she begged as she kissed him deeply. "Hurt me as I want to be hurt!" (15%) And then her need was so great she could think of nothing else but plunging her tongue deep in his sucking mouth, grinding her body down on the pulsating dagger that impaled her womanhood (23%). She felt him forcing her thighs even further apart and she forgot about everything but the sensation of the blade of his warm tongue sliding home in her scabbard (33%). She felt as though she were impaled on a hot, fiery sword (59%). She surrendered to her ecstasy and began a dream ride at dizzying speed across Ekutsihimmiyo, the Milky Way. Nothing could be better than this peak of passion they were approaching together (96%). It is tedious and repetitive. Most of the 80s romances I've read don't have explicit sex scenes. Georgina Gentry says tah-tah to that, and the hero and heroine engage in all sorts of "risque" behavior like oral sex (he reciprocates, she's a blow-job goddess); role-play (that is literally where the title comes in; he is the "master" and she is his "Cheyenne captive"); and cowgirl ("Ride your stallion!" the hero cries at one point; plot-twist, he's not talking about his horse). The saving grace of this book is the scheming bad guys. Angry Wolf was pretty stock, as far as bad guys go, and was dispensed with quickly without a whole lot of development (although he does threaten to rape the heroine and then cover her with honey so she'll be eaten by fire ants). The real stars of the show were Jake Dallinger and Gray Dove. I just read this great bodice ripper by Amanda York/Joan Dial called BELOVED ENEMY and it also featured a real lame-o heroine, who was made even more lame in comparison when compared with the amazingly beautiful and cunning other woman, Indigo. (I think it's also interesting that both OWs are women of color and very much in tune with their sexuality, as opposed to their virginal blonde opposites.) That's how I felt about Gray Dove. Gray Dove is from a neighboring tribe called the Arapho and she is brutal. She sacrificed her baby brother and tortured her mom at the behest of their murderers, because she was desperate to survive, and then lets them rape her to stall for time before killing them. When she gets pregnant, she gives herself an abortion with a "rusty wire" (*cries*) & sleeps with the husband of the woman who took her in, only to leave them both by destroying all their belongings as she leaves on a rolling carpet of give-no-f*cks. She then betrays her own people and starts a war that results in many of them getting disfigured or killed - all to get back at Summer and keep Iron Wolf to herself. She sells Summer out to Angry Wolf, prostitutes herself - literally and figuratively - without a thought, and ends the book as the madam of a profitable whore-house by rebranding herself as fallen Spanish nobility. Jake is even more messed up. He's actually tied with Iron Knife, because he had a thing for Iron Knife's white mother, Texanna. When she came back to her village a fallen woman with two mixed-race children, he tried to first proposition her and then rape her. He's the reason that Iron Knife had whip scars, because Jake's prostitute of choice slept with Iron Knife when he was like fourteen, then accused him of rape, and Jake killed her in his anger and then pinned the murder on Iron Knife. He has some of the best lines in this book: Yes, he would have her at least once and then she'd change her mind once he'd put a baby in her belly and take him as her protector. That was how his pa had gotten his mama. Next year, that could be Jake's baby in that cradle, his son sharing those full, swollen breasts with his daddy (62%). "Missy," he whispered. "You just barely missed gettin' ole Jake's big rod rammed right down your little musket barrel" (62%). "Hell, if you had as many pricks stickin' out of you as have been stuck in you, you'd look like a west Texas cactus" (82%). There's so much more wtfery I could share, like the cat-fight, the whip fight, the gelding scene, the sociopathic younger sister line that goes nowhere, the tragic story of Texanna and War Bonnet, and the typos that get more and more abundant as the book goes on (as if the person reformatting it was getting so bored that they were just like, F it), including one where the "fierce braves raced to count coupon" (48%) instead of coup - because dammit, times are tough and groceries are expensive! Oh - and let's not forget the rapey Spanish guy who kept repeating "Comprende?" and "Si" and "hombre" like that guy in your Spanish 1 class who missed every day but exam day and thought he could bluff his way out of it. Dude was just a phrase away from saying "bad hombres." "You got too much spirit, puta whore! El Lobo likes his women docile as sheep. You need the fight taken out of you and I'm just the hombre to do it!" (36%) I know what you're asking yourself. Is this a bodice ripper? (Well, okay, that's probably question #2 or #3. Right now, you're probably asking yourself: WTF???) I would say that this isn't a bodice ripper because the hero is actually very kind, and all the insane stuff comes at the expensive of the many villains who surface repeatedly to threaten the heroine with rape and the hero with bodily injury. The last third of the book is much better than the first 2/3 because that's when the author randomly decides to go into Gray Dove's and Jake Dallinger's backstories, so we can see them for the incredibly awful (but surprisingly complex) people that they really are, as well as getting more insight into the tragic and doomed love story of the hero's own parents, which I thought was really well done. I originally thought that there was no way I could give this book anything more than one star... but now that I think about it, I feel like the last act of the book turned this book from boring-bad to wtf-bad. Both are bad, but one is vastly more entertaining than the other and offers up many interesting possibilities for self-amusement and satire. Would I recommend reading this as a straight romance? No (and I am side-eying the people who gave this book high marks who seemed genuine - what book did you read? Are there alternate editions circulating in Jekyll/Hyde format?). To quote the aforementioned "El Lobo": "This is gonna be mucho fun" (36%). 1 to 1.5 stars (for ironic purposes, only; actual rating: -1,000,000) ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 27, 2017
|
Aug 28, 2017
|
Aug 27, 2017
|
Mass Market Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1501101536
| 9781501101533
| 1501101536
| 4.07
| 30,625
| Mar 24, 2015
| Mar 24, 2015
|
it was ok
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Chall [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challenge. For more info about what this is, click here. I'm a romance blogger and sometimes my followers will ask me to review things. Twist ending: my followers did not ask me to review MANWHORE - no, I was asked to review REAL. Conflict: I have yet to find a copy of REAL in a used bookstore (yet). What I did find was one of her newer books, MANWHORE, and two of its sequels. Well, then, I thought to myself. Bring it on. My friends really did not like REAL so I was a bit reluctant to start MANWHORE, but to be honest, it seems like the book is a vast improvement over her earlier work. Again, I haven't read REAL so I can't say this for sure, but based on quotes and excerpts I've read, it seems like the author's writing and story-telling has improved a lot. MANWHORE is well-written and actually features a surprisingly charming hero. I really liked Malcolm Saint. He was pretty sweet. MANWHORE is a romance written in the vein of FIFTY SHADES OF GREY: an innocent ingenue-type heroine is asked to interview a Chicago playboy/billionaire for her dying magazine. The difference? No BDSM, and the guy in question is actually pretty nice for a playboy billionaire. Not knowing this, Rachel contrives to meet him to gain access to his deepest secrets for the article; he, of course, finds himself intrigued by her innocence and initial refusal of him; they obviously start hooking up after much ado, and business and pleasure become so hopelessly entangled that pretty soon the heroine, Rachel Livinston, isn't sure where one ends and the other begins. I liked the chick-lit style of writing. MANWHORE is a speedy read and reminds me of a dirtier version of the Red Dress Ink titles I greedily devoured in my late teens/early twenties. And Malcolm Kyle Preston Logan Saint (good God, what a name), as I said before, is a great love interest with way more depth than I expected (although to be fair, I was not expecting much). The problems stem mostly from the heroine, who is afflicted with 24/7 boner vision. The bulk of their scenes involve her waxing on about how much she loves [his] body part, or how [her] body part is reacting to him. It's a bit hypocritical of her, being as sex-obsessed as she is, because she's constantly going on about the hero's side-floozies and how she doesn't want to be one of them. Rachel also doesn't have much in the way of personality, which is always a death knell for me when it comes to romance novels. I like it when heroines have depth and character, and apart from salivating over Saint and working on her article (which I'm not sure counts as a separate hobby since the article is about Saint), she doesn't appear to be interested in much else. I think it's telling that all five of the hero's names make it to the back jacket, but the heroine's name isn't mentioned once. I get it, it's all about the raunchy sex and the attractive hero; Rachel's nothing more than a place holder for us to project ourselves into. If that's your cup of tea, then you'll love MANWHORE, as it is well written and erotic - way more so than most purely erotic books out there, to its credit. You could definitely do worse. 2 to 2.5 stars! ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
May 28, 2017
|
May 29, 2017
|
May 28, 2017
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| B003X95M94
| 3.84
| 3,541
| Jul 23, 2010
| Jul 23, 2010
|
liked it
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challe [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challenge. For more info about what this is, click here. This book is currently free in the Kindle Store. I love reading challenges - in principle. Actually, it's more of a love-hate thing. I love that sense of completion you get when the challenge is done, and I enjoy "discovering" new books that I wouldn't otherwise pick up. But man, sometimes it forces you to read books in genres you really don't like and for me, stories about vikings are one of those genres. That's when the Kindle Freebie Section makes itself especially useful because I can just look for free books in the genres I need, so I don't have to sacrifice money and pride. To my surprise, however, THE VIKING is actually a pretty decent story. Stefan is the son of vikings and when they go on a raid to Scotland, all of them are killed except Stefan, who hides and ends up getting adopted by a woman named Jirvel. He lives with her, and her young daughter Kannak, as a surrogate son, and gradually begins to learn the ways of the Macoran clan, all the while biding his time and determining when, if ever, he ought to return home. One of the best aspects of this book is the drama within the clan. Jirvel was supposed to marry the clan leader (I forget his name) but the Brodies (a nearby clan) invaded on her wedding day, and so to appease the Brodies and stop the war, Laird Macoran agreed to marry Brodie's ugly and nasty daughter, Agnes. He tells several people that the only way he was able to get her with children was to get blind drunk on their wedding night, and that was no consolation because he hates his children, two sociopathic pyromaniacs who enjoy hurting small animals and setting random things on fire. Agnes was my favorite character, because I understood her bitterness, and a sympathetic villain is often the best (and most frightening) kind; she was straight out of a bodice ripper. I didn't really like the romance between Stefan and Kannak because Kannak was so annoying. I don't really like bratty "strong" heroines, and she reminded me of this really obnoxious heroines in one of Johanna Lindsey's viking romances (I think it was FIRES OF WINTER). Unfortunately, that's a pretty big aspect of the story, so if it annoys you, prepare to have your annoyance prolonged! Another good part of the story is when Stefan gets sold into slavery because it makes him realize how the vikings weren't as perfect as he thought they were (his clan did a fair amount of enslaving), but also because of the surprise twist at the end of that particular story arc. I saw it coming, but it was still good - although the resolution was a bit "Disney" if you know what I mean. Overall, though, THE VIKING was a satisfactory read. Definitely one of the better efforts I've dredged out of the freebie section. If you find yourself in need of a viking story for whatever reason, you wouldn't go wrong picking this one. Plus, again - it's free. 3 stars ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Oct 23, 2017
|
Dec 02, 2017
|
May 22, 2017
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| 3.95
| 9,303
| Sep 19, 2015
| Sep 20, 2015
|
it was ok
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Chall [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challenge. For more info about what this is, click here. When I was a teenager, I used to spend all my time on this great site called Quizilla. It's now defunct, but it was basically the early 00s version of Wattpad + personality quizzes. With a few discerning clicks, you could find out which dysfunctional Care Bear you were (Nihilism bear), what weapon you were (sais), what element you were (water), or just forgo all of that and spend your time reading poorly written fanfiction or vampire smut. One of the popular stories at the time was this serialized PNR, written in the second person in a "choose your own adventure" format, called "Would an Angel, a Demon, or a Vampire Fall for You?" The heroine was YOU, and as you read the story you would "choose" various actions and then the "result" would be a scene with the character that you were "meant" to end up with (i.e. the angel, the demon, or the vampire). I bring this up, because Rachel Van Dyken's DARK ONES reminded me of this smutty story, except instead of an angel, a demon, and a vampire, it's about an angel, a siren, a werewolf, and a vampire. The heroine is not YOU, but she might as well be for all the personality she has. Like Bella Swan and her ilk, she's basically a place-holder for the reader; she's been told her whole life that she's ugly (and of course she believes it, because blonde hair and light eyes are so hideous), never mind the fact that all these paranormal frat boys are falling over her left and right, even though it's Forbidden. Smells play a key role in the sensory experience of the story. Everyone smells like a Bath and Body Works. Sex is a key plot point, and has the power to Change the World. There are dream sequences. The world is half-assed and not explained. The heroine is a virgin but comes like the hero just Konami Coded the hell out of her vag. It is, literally, just like those smutty, terrible stories I read as a teenager. Ironically, that ended up being the book's saving grace. As with DEAD SEED, an actual story that I read on Quizilla that was "cleaned up" (no) and republished, I found it hard to be mad at something that had brought me such joy as a sad, angst-ridden little teen, no matter how badly (so, so badly) it was written. Plus, I picked this book up while it was free, so there was zero financial stake. That said, this is the second book by Dyken that didn't work for me (the first was her new one, CHEATER). I'm thinking that her style might just be totally incompatible with my tastes. Still, it was cool to revisit the past, and I knocked one book off the Kindle, and got to do a great buddy read with some ladies from my Goodreads romance group, so let's not call it a total loss. Read Sarah's review here, Heather's review here, and Celestine's review here. 1.5 stars ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 28, 2017
|
Aug 31, 2017
|
May 22, 2017
| ||||||||||||||||||
| 1612130291
| 9781612130293
| 3.66
| 2,654,850
| May 25, 2011
| May 25, 2011
|
it was ok
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest A few years ago, when the movie had just come out, a woman was talking to me at a b [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest A few years ago, when the movie had just come out, a woman was talking to me at a bus stop, and we ended up talking about the Fifty Shades of Grey movie. It was a while ago, so I don't remember the exact exchange, only that she asked me if I wasn't just "so excited for the (Fifty Shades of Grey) movie?" When I said no, she asked me first if I'd even read the book, then whether I'd finished it and if so, had I read it properly? At the time of this exchange, I'd only read about fifty pages of the book. But I had read chapter by chapter breakdowns and seen a number of quotes pulled from the book. This seemed like sufficient evidence that this book was Not For Me and for several years I managed to stick with my decision to avoid this fandom. But people kept asking me to review this book for my blog, especially once I started reviewing romance and erotica almost exclusively - or I'd get people telling me my opinions weren't worth two cents until I'd actually read the book, and oh, ouch, my pride. It began to feel like this book and I were star-crossed, and destined to clash. For those of you who don't already know the story, FIFTY SHADES OF GREY is about a virginal college student named Ana(stasia) who gets involved with a billionaire named Christian Grey. He is charmed by her innocence and submissiveness but warns her away because of his dark desires. Ana is so wowed by his looks and his money that she refuses, and so he tempts her into the sinister BDSM lifestyle, and Ana adores him so much that she endures it, hoping to win him back to the light. Yes, I'm being a little facetious. In case you couldn't tell. (Insert winky-face emoji here.) When this book first showed up on Goodreads, I was intrigued by the summary. I like dark romances and this one sounded like a modern Gothic. Sinister billionaires in dark Seattle towers are only a step removed from dukes dwelling in crumbling castles on the English moors. However, FIFTY SHADES OF GREY disappoints in that quarter, as the vast majority of the book is them talking about engaging in a BDSM relationship without actually making it official. Bar a few bondage-light sessions and a bit of spanking and toys, there's nothing particularly racy about the sex in this book. In my opinion. It's also boring. Honestly, how many times can you flash the BDSM contract at us? If I wanted to look at official documents all day, I'd be an accountant. Is this sex or an offer for a time share? Another issue that many of those better than me have already pointed out is the relationship between Ana and Christian: it isn't healthy, and not only is it not typical of a BDSM relationship (and gets a number of things wrong in potentially harmful ways), it's also not a healthy relationship, period. Many of the things that Christian does look an awful lot like emotional abuse. I get that this is fiction and that people expect to be entertained in fiction so fictional relationships often don't reflect the reality of "normal" healthy relationships because those seem boring by comparison, but when a man is using his anger and frustration as an outlet when he uses belts and whips on his submissive partner, stalking her via GPS and hired help, and micromanaging her eating habits, you can't help but think to yourself, "There's a problem here." He also appears to confuse BDSM dungeons with prostitution, rigorously defends his underage relationship with a married woman as a teenager, and uses things like natural filament rope in his bondage extravaganzas, which could do a lot of physical harm. Then there's the fact that the writing in this book simply is not very good. First, like many erotica authors, E.L. James appears to have some verbal tics, or words that she just uses so repetitively that you not only notice but they begin to pull you out of the story. "Cream" is not one of them, thank God, but some others that I noticed off the top of my head are "I peer/peek up," "Holy shit/crap!", "oh my," "I flush," "murmur," and "delicious." Sometimes, especially in the case of "I flush," these will appear two- or three- times to a page. I'm very surprised an editor did not challenge this. Subconscious/Inner Goddess Greatest Hits: -: I flush at the waywardness of my subconscious - she's doing her happy dance in a bright red hula skirt at the thought of being his (67). -: ...my very small inner goddess sways in a gentle victorious samba (78). -: My inner goddess is doing the merengue with some salsa moves (137). -: My inner goddess is jumping up and down, clapping her hands like a five-year-old (176). -: "And...swallowing semen. Well, you get an A in that." I flush, and my inner goddess smacks her lips together, glowing with pride (256). -: I examine the list, and my inner goddess bounces up and down like a small child waiting for ice cream (257). -: My subconscious runs, screaming, and hides behind the couch (259). -: My inner goddess has a DO NOT DISTURB sign on the outside of her room (326). -: My inner goddess pouts at me, failing miserably to hide her disappointment (357). -: My subconscious is furious, Medusa-like in her anger, hair flying, her hands clenched around her face like Edvard Munch's The Scream (360). -: My inner goddess is doing the dance of the seven veils (362). -: My inner goddess is standing on the podium awaiting her gold medal (446). -: My subconscious is frantically fanning herself, and my inner goddess is swaying to some primal carnal rhythm (485). -: My subconscious has found her Nikes and she's on the starting blocks (502). Am I the only one who was picturing Ana's inner goddess/subconscious as, like, a smaller cartoonish version of her, like Lizzie McGuire's alter ego? [image] Weird Sex Descriptions: -: "Aargh!" I cry as I feel weird pinching sensation deep inside me as he rips through my virginity (117). -: I sit staring at the screen, and part of me, a very moist and integral part of me that I've only become acquainted with very recently, is seriously turned on (186). Just, WTF: -: I eye Christian's toothbrush. It would be like having him in my mouth (76). -: "No one's ever said no to me before. And it's so - hot" (348). -: He reaches between my legs and pulls on the blue string - what?! - and gently takes my tampon out and tosses it into the nearby toilet (430). I would give this a lower rating but I'm rounding up slightly for unintentional hilarity - especially that tampon scene - and for the fact that the companion book from Christian's POV, GREY, was so, so, so much worse. Seriously, if you think Grey is bad in this book, his eponymous retelling of their 'romance' makes him look like Patrick Bateman's bondage-obsessed cousin. Ugh. 1.5 stars ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
May 16, 2017
|
May 21, 2017
|
May 16, 2017
|
Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 1416517170
| 9781416517177
| 1416517170
| 3.89
| 12,221
| May 10, 2005
| Mar 01, 2006
|
it was ok
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Chall [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challenge. For more info about what this is, click here. Given how my previous encounters with Gena Showalter's books went (spoiler: not well), I'm not sure why I decided to buy this one. ...Oh wait, now I remember. It's about an alien huntress. Assassins and bounty hunters in books make my ears perk up. Aliens make me come running. If you discovered a bodice ripper about alien assassins, I would probably zoom towards you at a speed that would break the sound barrier. Luckily, AWAKEN ME DARKLY, despite the bodice ripper-like title, is not a bodice ripper, so the sound barrier is safe (for now). Mia Snow is an agent of A.I.R. (Alien Investigation and Removal). She lives in a world where Earth has already made First Contact and many of the aliens we have encountered have chosen to make their homes on Earth. Most are peaceful, but some attempt to harm or kill humans, and those are the aliens that Mia deals with up close and personal (spoiler: *boink*). When what looks like an alien serial killer happens on the scene, it's Mia (and her team) who are called in to deal with the situation and nip it in the bud before it causes a panic. Her investigations lead her into the depths of a seedy community, straight into the arms of an alien named Kyrin, an Arcadian alien who just so happens to be of the race of aliens that Mia is investigating. Coincidence? Maybe. (Spoiler: Obviously, it isn't.) Reading this book brought back memories of the paranormal romances and urban fantasy novels I plowed through in my early years of college. Good, bad, I didn't care - I read them all. One of my favorites at the time before the series went sour was the Anita Blake vampire series, and in a way, AWAKEN ME DARKLY brought back a lot of those rose-tinted memories of books 1-5. There are a lot of similarities between the two books. Mia, like Anita, is a ball-busting heroine who compensates for her femininity with machismo and showboating. Mia, like Anita, is also a hunter of an immortal species and, like Anita, ends up forging a relationship with a member of the species she's hunting, with Kyrin playing Jean-Claude to Mia's Anita in this case. Kyrin, like Jean-Claude, is also fond of long hair, puffy shirts, and leather pants, and has a condescending paternal air to him that makes the heroine alternate dropping trou with death threats and declarations of her own independence, etc. Even the cover, with its vague hits at kink and taboo, would not be out of place in Anita Blake. I wanted to enjoy this book more than I did, and for about the first third AWAKEN ME DARKLY was engaging and fun, even if Mia could be a b*tch. It's when the mystery that Mia is investigating comes to light that things get weird (spoiler: WTF), and the abrupt ending did not help matters. Also, the hero's kidnapping of the heroine to his pleasure palace was so eye-roll worthy, it's straight out of a 90s futuristic romance. When she's dressed in gauzy silks, with a beautiful bejeweled armband designed to serve as an electric shock collar, draped in the arms of the blonde alien hunk, I kept picturing Fabio romance covers - especially when he braids his hair. Fabio the pirate alien. YAS. AWAKEN ME DARKLY has the dubious honor of being the least offensively awful Gena Showalter book I have read. THE NYMPH KING was kill-it-before-it-spawns-sequels bad. AWAKEN, on the other hand, is just cheesy. I think I would have liked it more if it were set in space, like a Linnea Sinclair science-fiction romance. This just felt like a PNR with extraterrestrial window dressing. 1.5 to 2 stars ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
May 09, 2017
|
May 14, 2017
|
May 09, 2017
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0062289241
| 9780062289247
| 0062289241
| 4.31
| 63,648
| Oct 28, 2014
| Oct 28, 2014
|
it was amazing
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I'm not very good at fangirling, but some books make me want to try. BURN FOR ME mak [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I'm not very good at fangirling, but some books make me want to try. BURN FOR ME makes me want to try. It was so good. The heroine, the villainous antihero, the magic system, the world-building...it was all so, so good. Reading this transported me to childhood again, when I could completely immerse myself in fantasy stories and they all felt real - Except no childhood fantasy story ever had Mad Rogan in it. (Phwooooar!) BURN FOR ME is the first in the Hidden Legacy series, which takes place in an alternate universe where a magic serum has given various human beings X-Men-like abilities. Some control the elements, some control minds. Nevada Baylor, a private investigator, has the ability to discern truth. And right now, she's hunting down a powerful pyrokinetic named Adam Pierce who seems to want to set the whole city of Houston up in flames. Mad Rogan is a powerful tactile who can level large buildings with the same ease that he can peel splinters of a chopstick, layer by layer. (And that's not the only thing he'd like to peel layer by layer *cough*) He's after Adam, too, although when he meets Nevada, he decides that he might just be after her, as well. You know, while he's at it. The result is a tug-of-war between the various powerful mages, called Primes, with poor Nevada bouncing around between them like a ping-pong ball, as she dodges gunfire, actual fire, mutant turf wars, and the sexual advances of a very attractive, possibly sociopathic telekinetic, all the while trying to prevent the destruction of the entire world. One of my friends recommended this book when she found out that I love villainous heroes, and Mad Rogan definitely fit the bill in that regard. Goddamn, that man is the type of bad that inspires X-rated fanfiction. He had some amazing lines, and some super steamy scenes with Nevada. Did I maybe skim ahead a bit, looking for said scenes? No, no of course not. That would be sacrilege. (Maybe.) It's so hard to find urban fantasy novels with romance that don't put the world-building in the backseat. In BURN FOR ME, it's front and center, and instead of detracting from the romantic elements, it makes them that much more stronger and compelling. I want to say more about this book, but to be honest, I wouldn't know where to begin. I could tell you that the secondary characters are just as colorful as the ones in a Stephanie Plum novel, and I could tell you that reading this book gave me those same "this is good fantasy" vibes as I got from His Dark Materials and Harry Potter. I could tell you that Mad Rogan has a place in my exclusive heroes hall of fame, and I could tell you that I am insanely jealous of my friends who seem to have acquired ARCs for not just book 2 (which isn't out yet) but also book 3 (which also isn't out yet). I could tell you all these things, but you should probably just read the book for yourself. Also, for all you people saying Mad Rogan is yours? Back off, he's mine. I WILL FIGHT YOU. 4.5 stars ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
May 07, 2017
|
May 13, 2017
|
May 07, 2017
|
ebook
| ||||||||||||||
| 1551667169
| 9781551667164
| 1551667169
| 3.69
| 557
| 1982
| Jul 01, 2003
|
it was amazing
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest It's difficult to explain my love of bodice rippers to people who don't already enjo [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest It's difficult to explain my love of bodice rippers to people who don't already enjoy them. The distortion of reality that they reflect is not one that I find desirable at all: They are often brutal, politically incorrect (to the point of being offensive), with spoiled immature heroines and heroes who could just as easily double as villains. Oh, and the writing - the over-the-top, adjective-laden writing, with flowery euphemisms for primary sex characteristics and prose so purple that it makes violets look red. This is bodice-ripper land. Go big, or go home. At 700 pages (in my edition), SURRENDER TO LOVE is definitely a big book. It was originally published in 1982 and my reprint by Mira was released in 2003. Often when bodice ripper authors rerelease their older works, they will "clean them up" and remove some of the more un-PC references and rewrite blatant acts of rape into more "acceptable" forced seduction scenes. I was curious to see if Rosemary Rogers, who is fairly well known for her unapologetically OTT plots, would do the same. I haven't read the original version, but if this version is anything to go by, I would guess no. (If you do know for sure, please tell me. I'm very curious.) I was reading her author bio on Goodreads and part of what makes SURRENDER TO LOVE so fun is that the beginning part of it seems semi-autobiographical. Rogers, like our heroine Alexa, was raised in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in a rich family, and under constant supervision. The descriptions of Ceylon are amazing, not just of the land but of the climate and the people as well. Rogers's exotic setting is part of what makes this book so fun and is reminiscent of titles like Christine Monson's RANGOON (which is set in Burma/Myanmar) and Lane Harris's THE DEVIL'S LOVE (set in the Caribbean). I enjoyed both of these books, but the setting in SURRENDER feels so much more pervasive, and I'm sure that's because Rogers was actually there, and she knew its beauties as well as its disadvantages, and she had seen a lot of the local politics and tensions firsthand. Alexa is a fairly likable heroine, as far as bodice ripper heroines go. She's feisty and headstrong and sometimes this can make her annoying, but for the most part she is a decent character and I was always (at least halfheartedly) championing her. Nicholas, the hero, is where the fun is really at, though. He's one of those villainish heroes. One who thinks nothing about dub-con (or non-con), who treats women like garbage and goes around whoring and slut-shaming in equal measures. He cheats, multiple times, on multiple people, supposedly murdered his last wife, and appears to think nothing of threatening the lives of the people around him even if they are people he allegedly cares for. SURRENDER TO LOVE is more of a psychodrama than a romance in the traditional sense, since the characters spend most of the novel - about 680 pages out of 700, in fact - tormenting one another with physical violence, rape, whoring, manipulation, lies, and revenge. For reasons I won't reveal (come on, guys, you have to read it), Alexa wants revenge on Nicholas's family, and her attraction to him becomes just another weapon in her arsenal as she embarks on her vicious quest. What had she ever done to injure him? Except - the dark demon side of him answered too promptly - except by marrying a very rich man who was too old to please her and finding her pleasure in playing the whore, bitch that she was. Not for the money - that at least would have been halfway excusable - but to satisfy her degraded appetites (380). "If you had any realization of all the different kinds of pain and degradation and abuse that can be and are inflicted on some human beings by others in the name of 'pleasure,' I do not think you'd have dared indulge your whining, hypocritical little complaints to me of cruelty and the infliction of pain - unless you meant it as a challenge?" (443) "You can keep your eyes closed or open - it's all the same to me. And you can take off that ugly purple dress you're wearing, and all your damned petticoats and your corset as well - or if you prefer it, I'll rip the clothes off your body myself! But either way, my mermaid, I'll have you naked the way I first saw you; and I meant to use you, my virgin slut, as I should have done then and later. In every way and every fashion I see fit" (474). Nicholas - such a charmer. The best way of describing SURRENDER is saying that it's two parts V.C. Andrews and two parts Bertrice Small. It's like V.C. Andrews in the sense of Alexa's father figures have incestuous feelings for her (one of whom has an almost sexual fixation with his own mother), and there's a wicked matriarch type character who runs the scenes and will stop at nothing to have her way no matter how much manipulation it takes. There's also a narrative style that I can only describe as "breathless" - peppered with numerous italics, so you know how important every word is, and how it's emphasized when the characters talk, and many exclamation points so you know it is a dramatic exclamation! It's like Bertrice Small in the sense that Rogers is very cruel to her characters, and has them be very cruel to each other. Someone is raped in a Turkish prison, and decides to inflict that torment on others. The hero is flogged towards the end of the book, and tortured in front of the heroine (something that Rogers apparently does in another one of her books, SWEET SAVAGE LOVE). There's lots of cheating and sexual abuse. The heroine is ambitious and incredibly good at sex, despite her inexperience. Parts of the book take place in a brothel, with some kinky scenes ensuing. This is all classic Small, but Rogers is a much better writer than Small, which makes it even more amusing. Are these books for everyone? No. But unlike certain romance novels cycling around the popularsphere, SURRENDER TO LOVE doesn't pretend to literary accomplishment. It strives to entertain, instead - and entertain it did. I think this is actually my favorite bodice ripper that I have ever read to date because of the broadness in scope, and the epic journey the characters take across those neverending pages, from hatred to hate-sex to sex-sex to something that's sort of love but probably isn't because relationships like that aren't healthy at all. If you think you're up to tackling the mess, I definitely recommend this book. It will shock, it will disgust, but dammit, it will entertain! [image] 4.5 stars! ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
May 2017
|
May 02, 2017
|
May 02, 2017
|
Mass Market Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0373298986
| 9780373298983
| 0373298986
| 3.86
| 112
| unknown
| Aug 23, 2016
|
liked it
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest As of 10/06/17, this book is $1.99 for Kindle! I read this book for the Unapologetic [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest As of 10/06/17, this book is $1.99 for Kindle! I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challenge. For more info about what this is, click here. Jeannie Lin has been on my radar for a long time. Not only is she an #ownvoices author of historical romances featuring Chinese characters set in Tang Dynasty China (reason enough to buy her work in my opinion), but she also received an absolutely stellar review from my Goodreads friend Khanh, for her book MY FAIR CONCUBINE (a retelling of My Fair Lady). When I saw this Harlequin title at the bookstore for 50¢, it was super easy to rationalize the purchase to myself despite my self-imposed book ban (which has been ongoing for about a year now, and clearly not working considering how often I buy books). I wasn't really a fan of her Pingkang Li mystery series, but this was a fantastic way to sample her Tang Dynasty series - or so I thought. This isn't actually a book in the Tang Dynasty series. It's a collection of short stories set in the Tang Dynasty, some of which are loosely affiliated with the actual main books in the series, but they are not officially part of the series. Also, of the five stories included in this book, four of them have already been published as standalone short stories. Only the first title in this collection, The Touch of Moonlight, is new and previously unreleased. So if you've already read her short stories, take note: this book contains four previously published short stories you may have already read before. As with all short story collections I review, I'm going to break this book down story by story. The Touch of Moonlight, 841 CE: ☆☆☆☆ "Was it possible not to know how much you'd missed someone until you saw them again?" (13) Definitely the best story in the collection. Lian has been in love with Baozhen since she was young, but she knows that he still sees her as a child and is so used to female affection that the only way to snag his attention is to make him jealous. So she pretends to like his friend, Liu Jinahi, and conspires to have Baozhen "help" her get closer to Jinhai, all the while conspiring to win Baozhen. [image] The Taming of Mei Lin, 710 CE: ☆☆☆½ "If only I could offer you wealth and privilege. Your feet would never have to touch the ground." "I don't mind walking...beside you" (101). This was my second favorite story in the collection, because it has an odd fairytale-like feel to it. According to the author's forward, this story was the impetus for her book, BUTTERFLY SWORDS. After Mei Lin is propositioned by the governor, she turns him down because she thinks he's gross and decrees that she won't marry anyone unless they can defeat her in battle. The governor sends thugs to intimidate her, but none can defeat her - none until one day, a stranger named Shen Leung challenges and defeats her. But he claims he doesn't want to marry her, which results in her humiliation. This story was strange, but I did like it for the most part. The only weird thing about it that put me off and caused me to lower my rating was the fact that after Mei Lin is beaten and nearly raped, Shen thinks this is a fantastic time to have sex with her. That was a big old nope for me. Still, I couldn't really get that mad at a story about a girl with a sword. [image] The Lady's Scandalous Night, 759 CE: ☆☆☆ This was another story that could have been a lot better but fell flat for me. Part of the problem with these stories is that they are so short, the author doesn't have time to flesh out their characters. They often have sex very, very quickly for the silliest of pretenses, and she tries to force some sort of connection by mentioning how the two characters in question used to be close. In this story, River and Chen were going to be married at one point, but now Chen has to kill River's brother. To save them, she seduces Chen while her family and servants escape, fully expecting to take the fall. Incidentally, this story is apparently linked to THE DRAGON AND THE PEARL. [image] An Illicit Temptation, 824 BC: ☆☆ I thought this was the lamest story in the collection. Princess An-Ming is an alliance bride being taken to wed the Khitan lord. She has a secret, though: she's actually a bastard serving girl named Dao ("Peach") who is being sent in the real princess, Pearl's, place after she eloped with someone else. Escorting her is a group of Khitan warriors, including one named Kwan-Li. This story is lame because it relies entirely on insta-love. Kwan-Li kisses Dao after she falls off her horse, for some reason, and then they have sex before she is delivered to the lord. Then Dao tells him the truth of her origins but that she plans on marrying the Khitan lord anyway. Whut. Still, it was cool to learn a bit about the Khitan people, who I had never heard about before. Capturing the Silken Thief, 823 BC: ☆☆☆ This is a story, as Jeannie Lin describes it, about a scholar and a song girl. Cheng is an imperial scholar who is about to take his exams. One day he is robbed by a group of bandits who have been paid for by the hero, Jia, a concubine who plays the pipa. She has confused him for someone else with a similar name who possesses a pillowbook by the famous concubine, Xue Lin. Jia wants to steal the book because she's been offered enough for it to purchase her freedom and pay her debts. Cheng ends up helping her for reasons of his own. The two end up attracted to one another.... [image] I'm shocked to hear myself say this, but I think these short stories might have been better without all those sex scenes thrown in there. I could buy their affection for one another because sometimes extraordinary circumstances have a way of bringing us close together, but having these women simply shuck off their futures and their dreams for a night of passion didn't feel very realistic. And it happened in every single story, so that I began to roll my eyes every time they talked of "dampness." SILK, SWORDS AND SURRENDER isn't a bad collection of short stories, though. The writing is decent, and the stories are interesting. I don't think the new story is good enough that it's worth purchasing this collection for that alone if you've already read the other four short stories, however. 3 stars! ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Apr 30, 2017
|
Apr 30, 2017
|
Apr 30, 2017
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1501147552
| 9781501147555
| 3.74
| 771
| Nov 28, 2016
| Nov 28, 2016
|
it was ok
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challe [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challenge. For more info about what this is, click here. I have to say, it feels weird reading a romance about Christmas in April. Kind of like if you were to go to the grocery store, looking for adorable chocolate eggs for the kiddies, and happened upon a dusty red-and-green package of candy canes. You can't help asking yourself, "How long have these been here? Is it even any good?" I've only read one book by Meredith Duran. It was FOOL ME TWICE. I really enjoyed that book, because it employed one of my guilty pleasure tropes (Byronic hero falls in love with his servant). I couldn't wait to start SWEETEST REGRET. My expectations were incredibly high. I know they say not to judge a book by its cover, but how could a book with a cover like that possibly be bad? SWEETEST REGRET is not a full-length book, which I could have found out more quickly if I had bothered to look up the book beforehand. I did not. The story revolves around "Georgie," the daughter of a British diplomat. He's hosting a number of European guests for the holidays but is called away to Constantinople last minute on business. In his absence, he gives Georgie the task of searching through the guests' rooms for a letter of the utmost importance, which he claims that one of them has in all likelihood stolen. Also tasked with The Purloined Letter Caper is Georgie's father's protegee, Lucas Godwin. Awkwardly enough, Lucas and Georgie have a history together. They were very much involved two years ago until Lucas abruptly ceased all contact with her, thereby breaking her heart. This is a second-chance romance with a "twist" ending that's reminiscent of THE NOTEBOOK and made me think that Georgie's father was an arse weasel. For a foreign diplomat to do what he did, well, that's just asking for an international incident, don't you think? It was difficult to be too angry, though. The story is much too short for the reader to get very emotionally involved in Georgie and Lucas's affairs. Short stories are difficult to pull off. Even authors I like, like Alyssa Cole, can't always pull them off. Courtney Milan is one of the few romance authors whose short stories truly excel, and yet even she has her misses as well. And Duran is no Milan when it comes to short stories. SWEETEST REGRET is a harmless, fluffy romance with a bizarre plot that traverses the line between nonsensical and amusing. The Christmas theme makes it ideal for romance challenges like the one I am currently participating in, and the length ensures that even if it is not an enjoyable read, it will at least be a quick one. I have read worse, though, and both of these characters were decent and likable, despite their blandness. If you're looking for something short and sweet, you could certainly do far worse. Do check out FOOL ME TWICE, though. It's much, much better than this! 2 stars! ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Apr 05, 2017
|
Apr 05, 2017
|
Apr 05, 2017
|
ebook
| |||||||||||||||
| 3.85
| 22,054
| 1998
| Mar 20, 2012
|
it was ok
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I went through a chick-lit phrase during my first two years of college, during which [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I went through a chick-lit phrase during my first two years of college, during which time I devoured any book I could find as long as it had a pink cover. One of these books was called LOLA CARLYLE REVEALS ALL by Rachel Gibson. I barely remember what the book was about, only that the experience of reading it was surreal...and not necessarily in a good way. SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE is also surreal...and not necessarily in a good way. It actually kind of reminds me of IT HAD TO BE YOU by Susan Elizabeth Phillips in many ways, which was another sports themed chick-lit/romance crossover book from the 1990s that I read recently and had issues with. Our heroine, Georgeanne, is a Texas belle engaged to be married to the manager of the Chinooks hockey team. No longer content to be a trophy wife to an older man, however, she jilts him at the altar and convinces a man from the wedding to spirit her away in his car. That man is John, a player on said manager's hockey team. As soon as he realizes who he has in the car, he begins freaking out, but Georgeanne browbeats him into letting her stay at his place. Spoiler alert: they boink. Georgeanne falls for him immediately, and is hurt when the next day after The Boink, he puts her in a car with a plane ticket back to Texas. Georgeanne doesn't want to go back to Texas, though, and stays in Washington instead. Where she gets a job working as a caterer. And, oh, yes, is pregnant. Spoiler alert: She neglects to inform the father. This is where I began to feel trepidation, because I do not enjoy the secret baby trope at all. But hey, that's okay. Maybe this will be the time that I will be proven wrong. Spoiler alert: Nope. Georgeanne doesn't bother telling John that he has a daughter (Lexie). He gets to find out by pure coincidence. This starts a long chain of fighting that will last until the last fifty pages of the book. Custody. Whether or not they find each other attractive. Whether or not they're allowed to find other people attractive. More custody fighting. Lawyers. Whether or not their kid can have a dog. Spoiler alert: Some people are born to dogs. Others have dogs thrust upon them. There is so much fighting, most of it about Lexie. And while I can't really understand personally how difficult custody is, I can certainly understand the reasons behind why this is such an emotionally charged issue. That said, I felt like Georgeanne was incredibly unfair to John about his daughter, especially when she pretty much refused to let him pay for insurance and tuition out of spite. That felt so selfish, like she was taking her own feelings of insecurity and her desire to be independent out on her daughter. For the most part, I liked the scenes of John interacting with his daughter except for one, when he says she looks like a slut. "He stared at his little girl, looking like a tart in heavy makeup..." (40%). That line just felt so unnecessary, and I couldn't like him as much after reading that. Georgeanne's relationship with her daughter was way worse, because of how she was projecting all her insecurities in front of her daughter. For example, she is constantly calling herself fat in front of her daughter (and other people). Georgeanne is 5'10" and weighs 140 pounds (and she's curvy, because you will hear numerous times about how large her fabulous boobs and butt are). Considering how curvy Georgeanne is, that is actually quite skinny. I am 5'10" and I weigh bit more than 140 pounds. I, too, am curvy - but I'm also in ok shape, and despite my weight, would not call myself fat. So it was annoying to me to keep seeing these measurements bandied about and hear about how fat Georgeanne is, especially when it was clear that she was doing it in front of an impressionable child. Even though John and Lexie were cute together, he's definitely borderline-alphahole with everyone else, talking about how he doesn't sleep with "skinny" women (oh boy, more body shaming), doesn't find "skinny" women attractive, that he's at least partially only interested in Georgeanne because of her body, etc. He also threatens to beat up other men, and uses "retarded," "pussy," and "sissy." He wasn't as bad as Hugh, though - the secondary love interest for Georgeanne's friend, Mae, who acts like an aggressive pickup artist. Even Mae herself admits that the reason she went out with him in the first place was exhaustion from too many no's. From a technical note, there was some odd formatting going on in this e-book (I have the Kindle version). There are no breaks between POV swaps, which interrupts continuity, and sometimes the same thing happens with dialogue tags. One person will be talking, there will be a description of something going on in the background, and in the same paragraph, Gibson would have someone else talking. This could make it difficult to figure out who was saying what at times. Also, typos and random hyphens. The funniest one I saw was a misspelling of Georgeanne's name on p. 274: "Georgeajine." SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE is dated, and I would say that for me at least, it doesn't stand the test of time. Not even ironically. As with IT HAD TO BE YOU, there were just too many issues with the book that kept me from enjoying it fully, even if it was almost compulsively readable, and it didn't help that there wasn't a single character in here who really spoke to me. I appreciated Georgeanne's struggle as a single mom and how she had dyslexia, and I thought Mae's drag queen friends were cool (although the story about her brother was sad), and I liked John's interactions with his kid. It just wasn't enough for them to feel developed and interesting. Points for hilariously dated 90s references, like the Macarena, jelly shoes, and Bob Ross. 1.5 to 2 stars ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Apr 02, 2017
|
Apr 04, 2017
|
Apr 02, 2017
|
Kindle Edition
| |||||||||||||||||
| B005078OQ0
| 3.57
| 183
| Jul 18, 2011
| Jul 18, 2011
|
did not like it
|
[image]
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challe [image] Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challenge. For more info about what this is, click here. Have you ever picked up a book and then gotten immediately, even irrationally, annoyed with the main character(s)? That was what happened with me and the "heroine," Maggie. I couldn't stand her, and reading CATCH ME quickly became unbearable. Remember when kids' TV shows from the 1980s and 1990s began introducing token female characters? If you're around my age, you probably do. They usually wore pink uniforms (to identify them as the female character, even while in uniform), and had, for the most part with few exceptions, a single character: "plucky female." They were the first to march stupidly into danger, the first to get kidnapped. They liked girly things, and were quick to say things, "I don't need help!" and "You're just saying that because I'm a girl!" Token girl characters were annoying to me because they didn't really act like any actual girls or women I knew in real life. They weren't usually complicated characters ("I like girly things!" / "I don't want to rely on anyone else, even though I'm part of a team!") and more often than not ended up being the foil that resulted in the introduction of the villain because of how often they got kidnapped. Maggie reminded me of these token girl characters that grated on me from childhood. Maggie robs a bank to get money to save her ailing father. A bounty hunter, Dean, is paid by the owner of the bank to hunt her down. If I remember correctly, he starts out in jail, and bringing in Maggie will not only grant him freedom from his cell, but also reward him with the sheriff's position he's been coveting. Anyway, he finds Maggie, who immediately starts waving around her gun and posturing. Even when she's captured, she continues to smirk and posture throughout the book, constantly needling her capture because it's fun to provoke him - she thinks it's hilarious. And let's not talk about the instant love that's going on here. Dean is the worst bounty hunter ever. He immediately starts fantasizing about his captive-to-be when he sees her wanted poster, and pretty much immediately starts "flirting" with her (if you could call it that). There's zero chemistry, since neither character has much in the way of personality apart from "I'm a tough girl!" and "I'm the strong silent type with the tortured past!" It's no small wonder Maggie managed to escape several times. DO YOU FREAKING JOB! The twist at the end was okay. By that point I'd checked out. Some rapey guy is introduced to put Maggie in danger, and it's revealed that Maggie's father has a checkered history of his own. Maggie, of course, is a hypocrite. "How could you do crime in the name of good!" thinks the girl who robbed a bank to "save" her father. Honestly, she gets so offended every time someone in this book points out her crime. Why are you so offended, Maggie? You robbed that bank. Unless you have an evil twin running around who is blaming you for their misdeeds, own up to your sh*t. I'm disappointed that I did not enjoy this book more than I did. It was a really good deal and I usually love Carina Press titles. Sadly, this one was a miss for me. I did, however, enjoy reading it with the lovely ladies from my romance book club, Karly, Casey, Sarah, and Helen 2.0. Thanks, guys! <3 1 star ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Mar 28, 2017
|
Apr 02, 2017
|
Mar 28, 2017
|
Kindle Edition
|
Loading...
