Review: Capturing Caleb

Posted on December 18, 2016 by Sheila

Capturing Caleb (Knight Security 3) by Carole Mortimer
Series: Knight Security #3
on November 30th 2016
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 139
Goodreads
three-half-stars

FINAL DECISION: This novella had a great premise and beginning which ended up resolving too quickly in the end. For the length, however, I really enjoyed this story.

THE STORY: Caleb Knight has become obsessed with rescuing Magdelena “Lena” Roig who was kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery. Caleb has been looking for Lena for three months and he is determined to find her because of his own time held as a prisoner in Afghanistan. He knows what being held hostage feels like and will not allow her to be forgotten. When he gets a lead on her location, Caleb comes in disguised as a Russian gangster who is offered Lena’s services for the night.

OPINION: This was a good story. A reader has to accept that the two characters would have sex with one another upon first meeting one another and somehow that would work even though the two are under surveillance. I liked the story because it was tense and tending toward romantic suspense.

Caleb and Lena have a hot connection from the start. The tension when their lives are in danger had this book totally engrossing and interesting. Because of the length, however, the story was resolved too quickly and these two never really get to know one another.

Therefore, I really enjoyed the beginning of the book and because of the length I thought that it was resolved too quickly. I accept that, however, in a novella. I would read the story again especially as an add on to the previous book in the series.

WORTH MENTIONING: This is a short novella with an emphasis on the heated sexual events between the characters.

CONNECTED BOOKS: CAPTURING CALEB is the third book in the Knight Security series. It can be read as a standalone although it continues the story from the previous book in the series.

STAR RATING: I give this book 3.5 stars.

Review: Through the Looking Glass

Posted on December 17, 2016 by Sheila

Through the Looking Glass (Once Upon a Time) by Kay Hooper
Series: Once Upon a Time #4
on December 13th 2016
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 172
Goodreads
four-stars

“I’m involved with a woman who has the eyes of a siren, the face of an angel, and a mind like a labyrinth. She offers absurd answers to the most logical questions, and changes moods right in front of my eyes, and I know she’s a bit mad; I just don’t know to what degree. She’s trying to find one maniac in the middle of a rolling asylum, because the maniac pushed her cousin into a well.”

FINAL DECISION: I enjoyed the book years ago and still enjoyed it today. It’s quirky and unrealistic and has instant love that doesn’t always make sense, but the characters are fun and the story is an easy enjoyable read that has something extra.

THE STORY: Maggie Durant comes from a family of atypical people. She comes to the Wonderland traveling carnival to investigate the murder of one of her relatives. There she meets Gideon Hughes, a financier planning on selling the barely surviving Wonderland. When the two meet, something magical happens between the two even as Gideon struggles to know the mercurial Maggie.

OPINION: Don’t read this book looking for a realistic contemporary book. This is a book that tends towards a fairy tale more than realism. The characters fall in love quickly and with little to basis their feelings on. The story doesn’t make any real sense, and yet I love this book for the joy in the story, the fun in the characters and the attempts to push the boundaries that this book made when it was written.

Approach this book with an open heart and you can find fun and consideration in Maggie’s Chesire Cat like shifting personalities, Gideon’s Alice-like attempts to impose order on Wonderland, and the funny people and creatures that inhabit this book. A real attempt to push the boundaries of contemporary series romances toward the fantasy and paranormal, this is one of the book that opened my eyes to the possibilities of crossing genres that have become very prevalent.

Funny and simple and filled with joy and a bit of magic.

WORTH MENTIONING: This book was originally published in 1990 as a Loveswept category romance.

CONNECTED BOOKS: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS is the fourth book in the loosely connected Once Upon a Time series. These book are only connected by the fairy tale concept and one character who makes brief appearances to act as matchmaker for the couples. Each book can be read completely independent of the others.

STAR RATING: I give this book 4 stars.

Review: Blood Vow

Posted on December 17, 2016 by Sheila

Blood Vow (Black Dagger Legacy, #2) by J.R. Ward
Series: Black Dagger Legacy #2
Published by Ballantine Books on December 6th 2016
Genres: Paranormal
Pages: 432
Goodreads
four-stars

“He was extraordinary. Or maybe…extraordinarily dangerous was more like it However she defined the effect of him, she had a sixth sense he was going to change her life.”

FINAL DECISION: Good addition to the Black Dagger Legacy. Axe and Elise seemed set up perfectly for an angst filled drama, but the story ended up simpler than I expected. My favorite part of the book was the continuation of Rhage and Mary’s story from BEAST. If you read BEAST, you have to read this one.

THE STORY: Axe is a new recruit trainee with the Black Dagger Brotherhood. He is a loner who despises the idea of love after it wrecked his father when his mother left them. He agrees to take the job protecting a female vampire who needs a bodyguard (Axe desperately needs the money). He ends up meeting Elise who is an aristocratic female (definitely not of Axe’s class) and he is immediately attracted to her despite knowing that there can not be anything between them. Despite the boy from the wrong side of the tracks and the upper class girl vibe, these two find that they are desperately attracted to one another. In other tales, Rhage and Mary are happily waiting for the finalization of their adoption of daughter Bitsy. Just when everything seems to be going so well, a man who might have a greater claim on their daughter enters the picture disrupting the happy ending that the trio expected.

OPINION: This was an interesting book, but I honestly liked the secondary story involving Rhage and Mary more than the primary story. Axe and Elise seemed set up perfectly for an angst filled drama, but the story ended up simpler than I expected.

From his presence in the prior book in this series, Axe has shown himself to be a highly damaged person. A former drug addict, a current sex addict (who spends his free time at a sex club engaging in public sex), a male vampire who feels deep anger and guilt about his father, I expected his journey to love to be difficult and filled with drama and angst.

The intense problems are quickly resolved when he falls for Elise. This is more about two opposites falling for one another (although it is clear Elise is not as pure as she seems and Axe is not as dark). Axe is smitten from Elise from the beginning and doesn’t seriously fight that attraction.

Elise is a woman who wants to be different than the expectations of the older generation. In fact, the one thing that is consistent with the Black Dagger Legacy books is that the old ways are changing in the vampire world and this younger generation is determined to make different lives for themselves than the older generation expected.

The idea of the new generation breaking out from convention is a strong theme in this series which I enjoy — especially because I’ve read the Black Dagger Brotherhood series where the characters do largely adhere to the old ways (although things are changing there as well).

With Elise’s skills and abilities I had expected that we would see a crossover with the Rhage and Mary story, but those are kept largely apart.

The Rhage and Mary part of this book make this mandatory reading for fans of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series (especially after BEAST). This is the center of the angst and drama in this book. After the events of BEAST, this book upends the “happy ending” when a male appears who may have a claim on Rhage and Mary’s newly adopted daughter. This story kept the pages turning for me. Drama, love, resolution with complex ideas and themes.

WORTH MENTIONING: This book is highly focused on the new trainees and the original BDB characters which is nice for those readers who want to know more about the characters and less about the mythology of the BDB series.

CONNECTED BOOKS: BLOOD VOW is the second book in the Black Dagger Legacy series. This is a spin off of Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series. The main story of this book about Axe and Elise can be read without knowledge of the rest either of the series (although there is no world explanation so you have to pick up the nuances) but the secondary story about Rhage, Mary and Bitsy is a continuation of BEAST (Black Dagger Brotherhood).

STAR RATING: I give this book 4 stars.

Review: Wild at Whiskey Creek

Posted on December 13, 2016 by Sheila

Wild at Whiskey Creek (Hellcat Canyon, #2) by Julie Anne Long
Series: Hellcat Canyon #2
Published by Avon on November 29th 2016
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 384
Goodreads
five-stars

“That was the paradox of his life. To be stretched out on a sort of Catherine wheel, pulled between equal and utterly opposing desires. And if you believed the legend of the Eternity Oak, he has only himself to blame.”

FINAL DECISION: No one does the slow burn romance better than Julie Anne Long. Destiny and fate, decision and mistake, the pushing and pulling of characters live. Glory and Eli are characters that feel fated and yet fate can be fickle. Loved this one.

THE STORY: Glory Greenleaf and Eli Barlow have been moving toward and away from one another almost all their lives. They grew up together in their small hometown and their lives have always been connected because Eli was Glory’s older brother’s best friend. At seventeen Eli carved their initials on the Eternity Tree which by local legend sealed his fate. He has loved Glory in the decade since but they have not gotten together. A year ago it seemed like things were finally moving toward them being together when Eli had to arrest Glory’s brother. Since that day, Glory has refused to talk to Eli.

OPINION: A story about fate and freewill about a love that is destined to be and life which gets in the way. Glory and Eli are a couple that I haven’t stopped thinking about since I finished reading this book over a week ago. I held off writing this review because it is hard for me to put into words why I find this book so appealing.

This is a second – third – fourth chance at love story. Eli and Glory have been so close so many times to having a relationship but decisions, situations and life keep getting in their way. As this book progresses it seems like once again Eli and Glory might pass one another by.

Eli is completely devoted to Glory. He is the man who is willing to stand beside and behind Glory — who Eli knows is an amazing woman. He has been satisfied with the idea of being Sir Walter Raleigh to Glory’s Queen Elizabeth. Honest, dedicated and a genuinely good person, Eli has finally come to the decision that he needs to build a life for himself apart from Glory.

Glory is a woman who comes from a family from the “wrong side of the tracks”. Everyone knows that she is an amazing singer who is destined for more. A year ago it seemed likely that she was on her way. But when her brother was arrested for drug dealing by Eli, not only did it destroy the budding romance between Eli and Glory, but it also left Glory with a series of dead-end jobs rather than her flight to stardom.

This is a book of small moments, little decisions, close calls, missed opportunities and choices. I loved in this book how Eli and Glory are so obviously fated to be together and yet fate is not enough. They both have choices. Choices that can bring them together or drive them apart. The combination of fate and choices makes the story of Eli and Glory powerful and left me thinking.

One of the other wonderful things about this book is how completely Long has captured the small town world. Her secondary characters are memorable and fun and they create a sense of community and interest. Hellcat Canyon has a true sense of place, of identity. I feel like I could drive up the California coast and right into this story.

And perhaps that is why I can’t stop thinking about this story. Everything about this story feels so real to me. Glory’s ambition and dreams and hopes. The pain and sorrow that keeps Eli and Glory apart. The strange, snarky California vibe that combines celebrity with quirky places.

This is a book I will read again and again. (I already have a playlist of the songs mentioned in this book on my phone). Bravo!

WORTH MENTIONING: Pornographic garden gnomes. (Do you need any other information to try this book?)

CONNECTED BOOKS: WILD AT WHISKEY CREEK is the second book in the Hellcat Canyon series. This book can be read as a standalone although there are overlapping characters.

STAR RATING: I give this book 5 stars.

Review: For Maggie’s Sake

Posted on December 12, 2016 by Sheila

I received this book for free from Netgalley in order to prepare an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

For Maggie's Sake by Lora Leigh
Series: Tempting SEALS #3
Published by St. Martin's Griffin on December 13th 2016
Genres: Contemporary, Erotica
Goodreads
three-half-stars

FINAL DECISION: This is a very hot story about a second chance at love. The story has a lot of heat and some angst and drama as the main characters have to confront their past.

THE STORY: Maggie Samuels is a recent widow who is suspected of participating in the rape and drug crimes of her late husband. Joe Merino was Maggie’s husband’s best friend — or at least he thought he was. It turned out he did not know his best friend at all. Maggie’s husband held jealous feelings toward Joe and part of that was convincing Maggie to marry him after her breakup with Joe. Now Joe is determined to find out the truth about Maggie’s involvement.

OPINION: This novella focuses intensely on Joe and Maggie which is good thing considering the length. Most of the story takes place with the two of them alone. I thought the sexual attraction between them worked and also I did feel their remaining problems were well resolved here.

The story was short and uncomplicated and was resolved as might be expected, but in a short novella that is a good thing. The focus is on the relationship between Joe and Maggie. My only slight disappointment is that things are really quickly resolved between them as to the past. Most of the story is about the lingering mistrust that Maggie feels.

I really enjoy these two characters and their journey together. This novella was good enough that I’d really like to read more of the series because I liked the characters.

WORTH MENTIONING: FOR MAGGIE’S SAKE was previously published in the REAL MEN DO IT BETTER anthology.

CONNECTED BOOKS: FOR MAGGIE’S SAKE is the third book in the Tempting SEALS series. This book can be read as a standalone even though it clearly refers to events in other books. I haven’t read any of the rest of the series but I understood and enjoyed this novella.

STAR RATING: I give this book 3.5 stars.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in order to provide a review. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions contained herein are my own.

Review: Moonshadow

Posted on December 12, 2016 by Sheila

Moonshadow (Moonshadow, #1) by Thea Harrison
Series: Moonshadow #1
Published by Amazon Digital Services LLC on December 13th 2016
Genres: Paranormal
Pages: 335
Goodreads
four-half-stars

“Sometimes things change irrevocably. You turn a corner, hear a new song, read a book, fall in or out of love, or look at a painting in a different light. Or you get shot several times.”

FINAL DECISION: Harrison strikes off in a bold new direction in her Elder World. A fabulous paranormal with an alpha hero and the woman who won’t take his orders. I absolutely loved how Sophie and Nik fought and argued and found themselves in love and true partners in battle.

THE STORY: Sophie Ross comes to the United Kingdom searching for answers about her past. After having been shot in her job as a witch consultant for the police, Sophie has to rebuild her life. After a spell gives her a vision of a handsome and deadly man, Sophie ends up traveling to the U.K. where she meets Nikolas Sevigny — the man in her vision. Nikolas is a knight of the Dark Court who is working to defeat the Queen of the Light Court. As part of his quest, Nikolas realizes that Sophie might be able to help him return home to engage in the battle. This book takes place in the Elder Races world.

OPINION: The best part of this book is how Sophie and Nik fight and argue and learn to respect one another.

Nikolas is a definite alpha male. Controlling, in charge, demanding and a warrior in all ways. Nik has spent years alone. Separated from his homeland by the warring of the Light Court, separated from his brother warriors by necessity, Nik has become colder and more closed in. The hardened years of war have made him more course and more desperate.

Sophie makes this book for me. She is not going to take any orders, demands or gruff from Nik. She can take care of herself — and Nik — and she is not going to allow him to control her. Her combat with Nik allows Sophie to recover a part of herself that was damaged when she was shot as part of her job. While strong willed and a warrior herself, Sophie is also gentle of heart and caring. In fact, it is her caring nature that draws her into the battle between the Dark and Light Courts.

The relationship between Sophie and Nik is combative and full of disagreements and ultimately explosive passion. Both Sophie and Nik are warriors and they have to learn to deal with one another. While Sophie is not going to put up with Nik’s demands, she also knows when to bend to accommodate Nik’s own vulnerabilities and how to tame Nik’s instincts without making him a whipped puppy. There is no damsel in distress in this book rather two equals who learn to fight together.

The story introduced here which involves the battle between the Light and Dark Court is intriguing and had plenty of action and heft to it to kept the pace of this book hopping. The characters are fascinating with good stories that have possibilities that I look forward to seeing played out in the rest of this trilogy. With a mishmash of English legends including werewolves (in London), Arthurian and Midsummer Night’s Dream fairy characters (which of course have older mythological origins), at play here the book feels fantasy and real at the same time which is one of my favorite parts of Harrison’s Elder Races world books.

WORTH MENTIONING: This series has an overarching story that begins here but doesn’t conclude in this book.

CONNECTED BOOKS: MOONSHADOW is the first book in the Moonshadow Trilogy. This series takes place in the same world as the Elder Races series but can be read on its own because it takes place in a different place with new characters. A good time to try out Harrison’s Elder World books.

STAR RATING: I give this book 4.5 stars.

Top 10 Romance Books

An Omnivorous Romance Reader

Monthly Archives: December 2016