Fanged & Fabulous (Immortality Bites, Book 2)

MICHELLE ROWEN

First lines: Jogging is great exercise. Running for your life - even better.

Michelle Rowen is my new favorite author. In this second entry in the Immortality Bites series, Sarah discovers that thanks to the incident at the club at the end of the first book, she now is known as the Slayer of Slayers, with an undeserved reputation that causes her to be feared by some of her would be enemies. Throughout the book she frets about the hunters and Thierry who has not had sex with her since their vacation in Mexico two weeks ago, and her best friend being married to Barry who she can't stand, and Quinn coming back...and it's all quite enjoyable and humorous. And I wasn't sure how things would be left off with Thierry at the end of the book. And I'm quite eager to get to the third book.

(I purchased this book used from Amazon.com.)

Dead and Dateless (Dead End Dating, Book 2)

KIMBERLY RAYE

First line: "I need a man."

After reading the first book in this series, I was a little on the fence about it. Lil, the heroine, was a little too fashion obsessed and self-obsessed, constantly reminding us that born vamps, herself included, are all ultra sexy and desirable...and there was a plot line in the middle of the book that just did not sit well with me and made no sense to me. But I was very enamored of Ty the bounty hunter.

In this second book, Lil is happily working away at her dating service when the cops suddenly bust in and arrest her for murder, claiming she chopped a man up. Using her vamp strength she is able to escape and goes on the lam. After a good (or actually bad) 24 hours of trying to hide out on her own, she finally calls Ty the bounty hunter, who she is very attracted to but doesn't want to be attracted to because he's a made vamp, not a born vamp. Made vamps can't procreate, so made and born do not get together. Anyway, Ty takes her in and assures her he believes she's innocent and they'll figure it out.

Lil is still too fashion obsessed and self-obsessed, and knowing the police are looking for her and there is a bounty on her head you'd think she'd be more careful, but she insists on running around doing what she wants to do, which puts both her and Ty in even more danger. So I was a little frustrated with her throughout the book. But I'm still quite enamored of Ty, and I did enjoy this book more than the first one.

(I purchased this book at a USB.)

Africa In My Blood

An Autobiography In Letters - The Early Years

JANE GOODALL

From the Introduction: A romantic and very young Englishwoman arrived in British colonial Africa in early April 1957 and soon, quite possibly in her first letter home, wrote the astonishingly dramatic, precocious, and prophetic words "I am living in the Africa I have always longed for, always felt stirring in my blood."

This book is made up completely of letters written by Jane Goodall to family, friends and colleagues, starting in1942, when she was seven years old, and ending in 1966.

I recently read In The Shadow of Man, and many incidents from that book are recounted in Jane's letters, though from a slightly different perspective, as that book was the result of her research, and this one is her own bubbly personality relating incidents to her family and friends. For the most part this was a fascinating read, though I was a bit bored by the early years, until Jane had grown up and was off working and eagerly getting ready for adventure. She seems like she would have been a very fun person to know.

(I purchased this book at Half Price Books.)

His Little Cowgirl

BRENDA MINTON

Love Inspired No. 466; The Cowboy Series No. 1

The first book I've read by this author, it was an enjoyable story, though it seemed to drag out just a little too long. Bailey has been raising her daughter as a single mother, with her father's help, for five years. Her father is ill and unable to work, and life is a struggle as she tries to keep up the mortgage payment and keep their heads above water. One day Cody Jacobs shows up on her doorstep, the father of her daughter who he doesn't know exists. Working his way through the AA 12 step program, the pro bull rider has stopped by to apologize to Bailey for the way he treated her six years ago, and then head off to the next meet. Then he sees little Meg, and suddenly he doesn't want to leave.

A story about love and redemption and forgiveness. The gossip and shame and guilt Bailey suffered as a young unmarried pregnant girl seemed a little quaint in this day and age, but then she does live in a small town.

I'll admit I teared up a time or to while reading this.

(Purchased at a library book sale.)

Song of the Waves (Harlequin Presents No. 209)

ANNE HAMPSON

I think this is the first one I've read by this particular author. I enjoyed it, I absolutely love these older Harlequins. In this story, our heroine, Wendy, has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and no surgeon will operate as the risks are too great. So on her doctor's advice she sells her home and embarks on a four month around the world cruise, where of course, despite her intentions, she falls in love. At times it was laughably melodramatic (especially when she thought the end had come and she was dying that very minute), but Wendy was a sweet, likeable young girl, and despite her illness we, the reader, are never really in any doubt as to whether she will survive.

(Purchased at a library book sale.)

Dead End Dating (Dead End Dating Book 1)

KIMBERLY RAYE

First line: For those of you who don't already know me, my name is the Countess Lilliana Arabella Guinevere du Marchette (yeah, I know), but my friends call me Lil.

A quick read, that was enjoyable for the most part. The author puts her own spin on vamp mythology, with two classes of vamps, born vamps, and made vamps, who do not intermarry. Born vamps can have children with their eternal mate, and when choosing a mate they don't consider love or feelings. A female looks for a mate with a high fertility rating, and a male looks for a mate with a high OQ - orgasm quotient - as the more orgasms she can have in a single session of love making, the more eggs she can produce and the higher her chances of conceiving. Made vamps are unable to procreate.

Lil Marchette is a born vamp, who is also a romantic. She has started a matchmaking service, catering to both vamps and humans. She would like to find an eternity mate for herself, but she also wants someone she can actually love. Her mother is constantly trying to set her up and get her to settle down. One of Lil's first big clients is Francis, a geeky born vamp who blushes whenever a woman talks to him. If she can make him over and find him a mate, then her business should surely take off.

In the meantime, she meets Ty Bonner, a bounty hunter who is after a serial kidnapper. Ty comes to her office to warn her to be on the lookout as the kidnapper may be meeting his victims through dating services. Ty is a made vamp, and Lil is surprised and dismayed at how attracted she is to him, and keeps reminding herself that born and made do not get together and it would never work.

The story and the dialogue were enjoyable, though Lil is a little too on the chick lit side, being overly obssessed with fashion and clothing and such. Her assistant is a human who knows nothing about Lil's vamp side, and it was a little hard to believe that she never wondered about her nocturnal boss.  Ty was a great character, but was around way too little, though I gather he'll be in future books in the series. He seems attracted to Lil also, and hopefully something will come of that, despite Lil's reservations.

Where the book turned sour for me was during Francis' transformation. Lil has fixed his wardrobe and messed with his hair, but she isn't satisfied with him. So she takes him to her parents' next door neighbor, a werewolf, and talks her into keeping him for the weekend. I never really understood the point of that exercise, how spending the weekend with werewolves was going to make Francis more confident, and when Lil picks him up Sunday night he seems to be a quivering mess who no longer blushes - because they overly spray tanned him - who can't stop blinking.

I have the second book in the series so I'll read it, but I'm not really sure yet how eager I'll be to continue after that.

(I purchased this book at a USB in April 2010.)

Oregon! (Wagons West, Book Four)

DANA FULLER ROSS

So far my favorite book in the series, and I liked it so much that I'm now eager to get to the next book. It was a little slow going at first, but once the wagon train actually reached Oregon and began to stake their claims and interact with the British settlement across the river, it picked up very quickly. There are many characters, but as the books go along their personalities seem to be evolving more and they're becoming more memorable, which makes me more vested in them. Whip Holt is still one of the more prominent characters, along with Lee Blake and their respective wives. We also meet a few Russians who join with the settlers, British officers - some sympathetic to the Americans, some who want them to leave, and some traiters. What would history be without a few of those?

(Received through PBS.)

Class Action

KAT ATTALLA

The story opens with Gillian standing before a judge for sentencing after having been arrested for staging a protest. The presiding judge is her godfather. Her father is also a judge, and Thomas "Hawk" Carter, the attorney who will be supervising her probation and thinks she is a spoiled little rich girl, is in his pocket. Gillian knows that the three of them have conspired together to decide her community service assignment, to teach a computer class at an Iroquois reservation, which is far enough from home that she will have to live there.

However, as she and Hawk get to know each other better while she's working on the reservation, they both begin to realize they may have misjudged each other. Gillian is a spunky and defiant heroine, who often said things that made me laugh.

This was a quick light read that I was almost sorry to finish.

(Received through BookCrossing.)

Mini Reviews

The Ex Files, by Jane Moore

In the first little "chapter", I was thinking "hmm, I really like the author's style and her humor, I'm gonna really enjoy this". Then I began to get confused as all these different characters were introduced and began to intermingle. But in the end I did get caught up in it. And while the ending was a bit predictable, the journey there was still enjoyable.  (Received through BookCrossing.com and read in January 2008.)

Size 12 Is Not Fat (Heather Wells, Book 1), by Meg Cabot

I enjoyed it! Meg Cabot is always great. At first I wasn't sure about this one. Even though this book is written for adults rather than teenagers, it still read like a teen book, but with more grown up language and sexual references. For some reason that kind of bothered me in the beginning. But once I got past that, I really enjoyed it. I was disapointed not to have a resolution with Cooper, but then remembered that it is the first book in a series, so of course that storyline will probably be played out further in the next book, which I defintely want to read. (Receieved through BookCrossing and read in February 2008.)

Scot On The Rocks, by Brenda Janowitz

I really enjoyed this book! A very amusing story, told by Brooke, of how her boyfriend, Douglas, dumped her just a couple of weeks before her ex-boyfriend's wedding. Too embarrased to go to the wedding alone or to let the ex know she'd been dumped, she talks her friend Jack into posing as Douglas and going with her. Of course everything isn't smooth sailing. I actually laughed out loud a couple of times. (Don't remember where I got this book, but read it in April 2008.)

Santa, Baby, by Jennifer Crusie, Lori Foster, and Carly Phillips

The Crusie story, Hot Toy, was very good, funny and exciting, typical Crusie! The Foster story, Christmas Bonus, while I enjoyed it and all, was much more about sex than story. And the Phillips story, Naughty Under the Mistletoe, fell somewhere between them! (Do not remember where I got this book; read it in January 2008.)






Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor

This is a really good, tense at times, story. How scary to live in those times if you were not white. And how ashamed of my white ancestors I feel. (Purchased at Waldenbooks and read in March 2008.)

Obsidian Butterfly (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 9), by Laurell K. Hamilton

I really liked this entry in the series. Edward has always been my favorite character (besides Anita of course), and I'd missed him in the recent books, so I was glad to see he had such a huge role in this one. In this book, Edward calls in his favor from Anita and she travels to Arizona to assist him in investigating a series of mutilation murders. We get some insight into Edward's character and a glimpse at his long-buried human side! Jean-Claude only makes one brief appearance in this book, and Richard doesn't appear at all other than in conversation. And quite frankly, I did not miss either one of them! Terrible, I know, since Jean-Claude especially is such a central character, but I've never much cared for him or their relationship. In Arizona, Anita meets another of Edward's occasional back-ups, Olaf, who is a cold-blooded serial murderer who starts out hating Anita but comes to respect her in a creepy way, and I suspect that he will show up later in the series as well. An interesting character. (Received through PBS and read in 2008.)

Nebraska! (Wagons West, Book 2), by Dana Fuller Ross

It took me a little bit to get into this one, but once I did I got very caught up in it. So much so, in fact, that when I read the last page I was taken by surprise. The ending was quite abrupt, and unlike the first book, seemed to just stop in the middle of one of the plots. In this book the wagon train travels across Nebraska on their way to Oregon, and I guess I just figured the book would end when they reached Oregon. But of course, between Nebraska and Oregon they still have to travel through Wyoming and Idaho, duh. (Received through Book Mooch and read in November 2008.)

Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married, by Marian Keyes

 Like all of Marian Keyes' books, this was wonderful. At first I wasn't sure I'd like it as much as her others. Lucy is a very likeable character, but her flippant attitude towards drinking, work, men and drugs kinda bugged me. And then I thought to myself, jeez, I must be getting old. Then Gus came along, and while he was so very funny, I also felt that he would get very annoying after awhile. In the end though, it all came together for me, and had a very satisfying conclusion. (Received through BookCrossing and read in January 2008.)

The Highland Wife, by Lyn Stone

Enjoyable story. Lowlander travels to Highlands to take a bride, thinking that her father has told her he is deaf. When he discovers that she is not aware of his "affliction", he decides to hide it from her until he has her home, so that she will see how well he's done and that he is still worthy. She of course figures out his secret but doesn't let on that she knows...  (Purchased at a library book sale and read in May 2008.)

Family Practice

BOBBY HUTCHINSON

Harlequin Superromance No. 844

Dr. Michael Forsythe and his wife Polly have lost their nine year old daughter to an incurable disease, and in the aftermath of their grief they forget how to communicate with each other and drift apart. Michael keeps himself busy working as much as possible and not thinking about their daughter, while Polly thinks about her constantly and wants to talk about her and share memories of her. Then they find themselves looking after a four year old while her father is in the hospital. Michael enjoys the child, but Polly is ashamed that she cannot bring herself to actually like this child.

This is a longer Harlequin, being a Superromance, and for the most part I just found it long and depressing. Happy ending of course, but it took forever to get to it.

(I received this book from a BookCrossing member.)

The Man That Got Away

HARPER ALLEN

Harlequin Intrigue

I did not know when I picked up this book and started reading that it was going to be a time travel romance. There was no indication anywhere in the back cover copy or anywhere else of that. So I was pleasantly surprised, as I am a fan of time travel stories.

Dana Smith was shot outside an office building five years ago, and has had amnesia ever since. Nobody ever identified her, and she's accepted that her past will always be a mystery and has settled into life as an assistant film director. But lately she's been having strange dreams, where she's a woman in the 1930's. And one night, she suddenly finds herself in the 1930's, where Gabe O'Shaunessy mistakes her for Dana Torrence, a young woman he saw shot outside that very same building, but who's body had disappeared before he could get to her.

As Dana and Gabe finds themselves being targeted by gangsters and on the run for their lives, the mystery of what happened to Dana Torrence begins to unravel as Dana Smith's memories slowly begin returning.

An enjoyable romance, with a mystery at it's core which I was unable to figure out right up to the end.

(I received this book through BookCrossing in August 2010.)

No Gentle Persuasion

KAY THORPE

When I started this book I was hooked within the first 10 pages. On a Friday afternoon Lauren Devlin is impatiently waiting for her father to come out of a meeting at work so they can go to lunch. The executive he is meeting with finally leaves, and dad reveals to his daughter and his secretary - who is also his girlfriend - that he "borrowed" money from his company to make an investment. He intended to replace the money when the investment came through, but Nick Brent, one of the company directors, discovered the discrepancy. Now Lauren's father has until Monday, at which time Nick will inform the other directors, and the police will be called in.

Devastated for her father, and determined that he not go jail for his mistake, Lauren chases after Nick, and tells him she is "prepared to do anything you want to get my father off the hook".  Nick takes her up on her offer, though what he wants is more than she anticipated - he is about to go to Italy on business, and he demands she accompany him.

As the story progressed, I was a little irritated at Lauren's attitude. She is determined that Nick will never enjoy being with her, and she fights her attraction to him. Yes, it is despicable for a man to agree to have sex with a woman to keep her father from going to jail. But I kept thinking, you made the offer, you put yourself in this position. In a way, I felt she wasn't truly holding up her end of the bargain with her attitude. But then, she, of course, was a virgin, so what did she know?

Once in Rome, the story suddenly took a turn, and things weren't quite what they'd seemed on the surface, as Lauren slowly discovered Nick's own reasons for wanting her with him. I didn't particularly like the plot twist, and from that point on was less enchanted, up until the satisfying ending.

So I loved the first half of the book, which is enough incentive for me to read more from this author.

(I really hate the picture on the cover. Lauren almost looks like a man in drag. And what is wrong with Nick's hand? It look about 50 years older than the rest of him.)

(I don't remember where I got this book, but first registered it at BookCrossing in November 2007, so it had been in my TBR pile awhile.)