authentic reviews and insightful interviews for inquisitive readers
Title: Lost Among the Living Author: Simone St. James Series: n/a Not as spooky or creative as previous work, but I enjoyed it 🙂 I would give this a solid four stars, except Alex wins that entire fifth star himself. I loved Alex. He was a complicated guy, torn between his duty, his pride, and his love for his wife. This book wasn’t as spooky as some of her other books–not nearly as spooky as An Inquiry Into Love and …
Title: An Inquiry into Love and Death Author: Simone St. James Series: n/a What a wonderful—and chilling—surprise! So, I loaned this audiobook from the library for the promise of romance. The synopsis didn’t make it sound particularly terrifying, more intriguing, and I love a good mystery with my romance–as well as a dose of history–and England–so I thought, sure, I’m due for a non-mainstream, non-mass-market-paperback romance and downloaded it. I needed a break from my own writing last night and …
Title: Entwined Author: Heather Dixon Series: n/a Enchanting and Heartwarming! I was complete taken with this novel! It might have gotten a tad tedious in the middle as the characters developed and I waited for something to happen, but I barely noticed, so swept up in the fairy tale. I wasn’t familiar with the tale of the twelve dancing princesses, but I googled it after and drew the parallels. I believe I much prefer this version. I usually read romance …
Title: The Untamed Bride Author: Stephanie Laurens Series: Black Cobra Quartet #1 Thoroughly confused by what Laurens was trying to do here First I’ll say that I’m not a regular Stephanie Laurens reader. While I’ve read a few, though I don’t remember which, she never caught my attention enough to find a spot on my keeper shelves. But my library’s digital selection is limited, and this happened to be available. It was not a wise choice. I was both intrigued …
Title: Ravished by a Highlander Author: Paula Quinn Series: Children of the Mist #1 If you like highlander romances, you MUST read this book! I LOVED this book! I’ve read a lot of romances, particularly a lot of highlander romances, and was prepared for a cheesy, unrealistically wanton portrayal of testosterone and damsels in distress. I was pleasantly surprised to find both of those elements, but in no way were they cheesy. I think they could have easily crossed that …
Title: Dangerous in Diamonds Author: Madeline Hunter Series: Rarest Blooms #4 I couldn’t finish it I couldn’t finish it. I almost forced myself to reach the end just to see if we’d get to meet Sebastian and Audrianna’s baby, but I just couldn’t do it. It was so boring and so bizarre that after a few hours I couldn’t stand it anymore and switched to a Dorothy Garlock to listen to as I finished mowing the lawn. Because I didn’t …
Title: Sinful in Satin Author: Madeline Hunter Series: Rarest Blooms #3 the good does not outweigh the bad I cannot tell you how many times I checked to see how close to the end I was, and how often I let out a bored groan when I saw how much was left. It…plodded…along…saving the “big” reveal for about three-quarters or perhaps two-thirds into the book. And either the reveal wasn’t all that exciting in itself or the time it took …
Title: Provocative in Pearls Author: Madeline Hunter Series: Rarest Blooms #2 read for the interesting plot, “hero” is no hero This book was bittersweet. On one hand, the plot that Verity (aka quiet Lizzie) was, lo and behold, Hawkeswell’s runaway bride presumed dead was exciting to me. Perhaps it’s somewhat of a clichĂ©, but I didn’t mind. When Hawkeswell discovered her, I was like, Ohhhhhh….snap. While running away as a solution to a problem smacks of cowardice, it’s dramatic and …
Title: Ravishing in Red Author: Madeline Hunter Series: Rarest Blooms #1 a little cliche, otherwise fantastic! worth reading This book had just about everything—a plucky heroine, a down-to-earth hero (or at least in the last three books he’s the most reasonable of the four), a scene involving a gun, an original reason for how the women knew each other (at least to my knowledge), steamy love scenes, intrigue, a wealth of historical detail (though the extent of my knowledge cannot …
Title: By Starlight Author: Dorothy Garlock Series: n/a A Wonderful Read — Audiobook Recommended! I really enjoyed this book! And while I’m sure I’d have liked it just as much if I’d read it in print, I have to say, the woman who read the audiobook version was a genius. Rebecca Gibel, I believe. A true master of voice acting. She did regional dialect, she did accents, she did male voices well, she varied tones and speech patterns and brought …