28 January 2018

Bounds of Passion (Bound, Book 1)


Synopsis from Amazon: Popular erotica writer Lucia Jordan brings you the first short story in her new 'Bound' series. This short story (approx. 4,400 words) contains adult content, hot sex and mild BDSM themes so only check it out if you are ready to get very, very excited.

Stats for my copy: Kindle edition, 2012.

How acquired: Amazon freebie

First line: Lydia could feel the man beneath her weakening and he was silently mouthing at her to stop – wait, to give him a minute, but she couldn't – not when she was so close to her own climax.

My thoughtsA very short, quick, hot read. Some suspension of disbelief required - girl has to be crazy to meet a stranger on a BDSM website, then meet him in a coffee house and immediately go home with him - but it's fiction so I can get past that pretty quickly. Some shades of that shades book what with the contract she had to sign before they got down to business. But if you have a little time to kill and want to be tantalized a bit, this is a good choice. 

23 January 2018

The First Kiss of Spring (Eternity Springs, Book 14)


Synopsis from Goodreads: Spring has come to Eternity Springs in the newest installment in this New York Times bestselling series by Emily March. 

When Josh Tarkington gets stuck on a gondola with the lovely Caitlin Timberlake, he thinks his consistently bad luck might have changed. 

After their blossoming romance is interrupted, Caitlin realizes that her encounter with Josh was a sign that she needed to make a major life change. So she packs up her things and moves to Eternity Springs, opens a day care, and sets her cap for the town’s mechanic—Josh. 

But Josh is hiding a well of secrets that would ruin him, and his relationship with everyone in Eternity Springs—especially Caitlin. When tragedy strikes, Josh and Caitlin find themselves, and their relationship, tested beyond imagining. Will they be able to find their way back to each other?

Stats for my copy: Kindle edition, St. Martin's Paperbacks, expected publication date 2/27/18.

How acquired: NetGalley

My thoughtsI'm usually pretty anal about reading series books in order, but when I received an email from NetGalley that this book was available for forty-eight hours I immediately downloaded it. I've not previously read anything by this author, but I've heard good things about her, and one friend compared her to Robyn Carr, so I was excited to give her a try.

Each chapter is prefaced with a short “Journal Entry”. We don't know at first which character is journaling, but they threw me a little off kilter at first with hints of past child abuse. Once I got past that though, I enjoyed the story. And not having read the previous books in the series wasn't an issue at all. I suspect some of the supporting characters might have been the heroes/heroines of previous books, but this one can definitely stand on it's own.

Caitlin meets Josh, and his dog Penny, who is in a little doggy wheelchair, while in Telluride for a wedding, when they are trapped together in a gondola. Like Caitlin, that first meeting with Josh had me hooked on him immediately. He's good looking, he's funny, and who wouldn't fall for a man who loves a little dog like Penny?

In a lot of romance novels the hero is the dogged pursuer. He meets a woman and knows right away that she's the one, and he sets out to convince her of that, while she resists because she's been burned before. Here, it's Caitlin who decides early on that Josh is the one. The last thing he wants is a relationship, and he's not a happy camper when he learns that Caitlin has moved to Eternity Springs to be near her parents and brother.


Of course you know how it will all end, because it is a romance, after all. But the journey to that ending was very enjoyable. The writing is a bit breezy, and I especially enjoyed Caitlin's interactions with her brother. The subject matter does get a little deep, as Josh has a lot of baggage, but it was never sensationalized and was thoughtfully handled. I'm going to have to look for the first book in the series and then go on from there! 

09 January 2018

A Basket Brigade Christmas

JUDITH MILLER
NANCY MOSER
STEPHANIE GRACE WHITSON

Synopsis from back of book: With the country embroiled in civil war in 1862, a group of women formed the Basket Brigade and boarded trains to minister to Union soldiers transferring from overflowing hospitals in the South to northerly locations. The Basket Brigade offered fried chicken, pickled peaches, pound cake, and other dainties to men who hadn't eaten a home-cooked meal since enlisting. The women of Decatur, Illinois, served nearly two thousand meals to wounded warriors.

Three bestselling authors were blessed and inspired by the words written by the actual women who organized and participated in relief efforts during the Civil War. They have penned their stories in honor of them.

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, Barbour Books, 2015.

How acquired: Via BookCrossing.

My thoughtsThree separate stories, from three new-to-me authors. While each story is about a different woman in Decatur, Illinois, there are several characters who appear in all three books, most notably Mrs. Collins, who reminded me of a less offensive Little House on the Prairie Mrs.Oleson. In each story she was a spiteful, self-centered, full of herself woman, who then exhibited some humanity at the end of the story.

The first story, “A Stitch in Time”, by Stephanie Grace Whitson, centers around Lucy, whose deceased father left her a dry goods store and a small fortune thanks to some savvy investments. While volunteering with the Basket Brigade one day, she is appalled that the soldiers traveling on the hospital train don't have enough blankets or socks to keep warm, and she comes up with the idea to open her home as a meeting place for any of the women of Decatur who want to volunteer to sew socks and make quilts and blankets to be distributed on the trains. Jonah is the manager of her store, and has been in love with Lucy forever, but because of a leg injury that keeps him from enlisting, and the differences in their stations in life, he doesn't expect his love to ever be reciprocated. While this was a sweet story, I didn't really connect with Lucy, who was completely oblivious to Jonah and his feelings until the very end.

The second story, “A Pinch of Love”, by Judith Miller, was my favorite. Sarah's mother is one of the organizers and leaders of the Basket Brigade, and when she falls ill, Sarah has to take her place. Sarah has avoided volunteering, as she doesn't think she can deal with seeing the wounded soldiers, but she sucks it up and does her duty. Jacob wants to be fighting at the front, and is disappointed to be assigned to travel with the hospital trains to look out for the wounded soldiers. Until he meets Sarah, of course. I very much liked both Sarah and Jacob, and they slowly get to know one another and develop feelings for each other. Their growing relationship appealed to me more than the non-existent until the end relationship of the previous couple, and the obstacles they had to overcome – another young man who wants Sarah for himself and pretty much stalks her and lies to her, and Jacob's still hurtful memories of his former fiance who turned around and married someone else – were very well written and more realistic for me.

The third story, Endless Melody, by Nancy Moser, seemed to drag on too long, but I think that had less to do with the length of the story and was more because the main characters were living completely separate lives, withe him in another city, and were kept apart for most of the story. Zona and Cardiff were planning to marry fifteen years ago, when Cardiff suddenly left to fight in the war between Texas and Mexico, leaving Zona angry and heartbroken. Cardiff wrote many letters to her, but she never replied, which left him angry and heartbroken. As the story progressed, I kept waiting for them to be reunited, and in the meantime I didn't find either character particularly appealing. I was a little more sympathetic to them as the reasons behind their behavior was revealed, but they never fully resonated with me, and when they did finally meet again, the story was suddenly and abruptly over.


Despite the book's title, this isn't really a Christmas story, or rather Christmas stories, as the season wasn't mentioned that often. The third story does have Zona putting together a Christmas musicale, and some of her group of singers serenading the hospital trains with Christmas carols, but there isn't much else Christmas related.