2019 Book #71 – Immortal Born by Lynsay Sands

51BXdg0-nKLTitle: Immortal Born
Author: Lynsay Sands
Date finished: 9/17/19
Genre: Paranormal romance
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: September 24, 2019
Pages in book: 384
Stand alone or series: Not sure exactly the number but its #30-something in the Argeneau family series
Where I got the book from: Edelweiss
NOTE: I received this book for free from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Nothing compares to the physical chemistry between an immortal and his life mate—or to the spellbinding thrills in a new Argeneau novel by New York Times bestselling author Lynsay Sands…

A simple promise to protect her friend’s infant son has turned Allie Chambers’ existence upside down. Caring for—and feeding—an orphaned vampire baby has been tricky enough. But as little Liam grows, so does his appetite. He needs more blood than she can personally supply. And when her attempts to steal from a blood bank go awry, Allie wakes up surrounded by doctors, cops…and the gorgeous, mesmerizing Magnus, who she can neither trust nor resist.

Magnus never expected to find his life mate breaking into a blood bank. Clearly, Allie is already entwined with his world—in deeper, more dangerous ways than she realizes. A band of vicious rogue immortals is in pursuit, and Magnus’ first task is to keep her safe. His second: to awaken her to mind-blowing pleasure, and hope she’ll accept the life, and the passion, that only he can offer.

My rating:  3.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I used to read this series a long time ago, it was probably one of the first paramornal series I read ever. I was excited to get back to the series and be able to read one of the newer novels! I’ve been reading Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series a lot lately so it was kind of hard to switch into this other author’s vampire world – each author does their own world-building and creates different quirks intrinsic to their own vampire group. That being said there was a lot of explaining in this novel so it was a good one in the series to pick up. The whole like first half of the book was plot and world-building, so much so that when we turned to look closer at Allie and Magnus’s characters I felt like they weren’t as well-developed as the plot was. They just didn’t leap off the page to me, though they were both fierce and loving and good people. The whole town atmosphere was a little cheesy / unbelievable for me but it’s nice that they had so many friends. Overall I liked it but didn’t really love it. (I think I like her Highlander novels a lot better lately) I’d still recommend it if you like vampire / paranormal romance! And especially if you like a “small town romance” which I think is pretty prevalent in this one too.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

2019 Book #65 – Christmas in Kilts by Various authors

61R+s8NYm7LTitle: Christmas in Kilts
Author: Terri Brisbin, Lecia Cornwall, Bronwen Evans, Lavinia Kent, and May McGoldrick
Date finished: 9/1/19
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: Swerve
Publication Date: October 31, 2017
Pages in book: 494
Stand alone or series: Many of the stories are part of other series
Where I got the book from: NetGalley
NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Tis the season to fall in love! These five bestselling authors bring you great tiding of highlanders and romances this holiday season!

A HIGHLANDER’S HOPE by Terri Brisbin
A village harlot who would never dream she could have a different life meets a Highlander who visits for the holidays and brings with him an offer and hope.

A HIGHLAND CHRISTMAS WAGER by Lecia Cornwall
When a snowstorm forces a charming lass hiding a broken heart to take shelter in a castle with three fine Highland lairds just days before Christmas, there’s a game afoot—who will be the first to win a kiss and maybe her heart.

A SCOT FOR CHRISTMAS by Bronwen Evans
She’s ready to embrace her life and future as a spinster, he’s trying to have one last hurrah before he gives into his family’s wishes and proposes marriage to his neighbor, but fate has other ideas when the lady and the Scot meet at a holiday house party in the wilds of Scotland.

LEFTOVER MISTLETOE by Lavinia Kent
What happens when a highlander finds himself stranded, maybe kidnapped, with an English lady around Christmas… maybe the mistletoe will help answer that question.

SWEET HOME HIGHLAND CHRISTMAS by May McGoldrick
An encounter between an English officer and a desperate aunt trying to keep custody of her young niece leads to a little magic during the holidays.

My rating:  2.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I had originally requested this book back in late Fall 2017, thinking it would be a great into to the Holiday season. And I stand by that thought, I think if I had read this during a different time I might have enjoyed it a little more. I liked a couple of these stories ok but I can’t say that I loved any of them. Granted I was reading them over Labor Day weekend when Summer is just wrapping up and it was still really warm. I feel like part of the draw of these novellas specifically is that they’re geared to the Holiday season. I think I liked the last one (Sweet Home Highland Christmas by May McGoldrick) best, as it was (I thought) the cutest story line while not being overtly corny. There were things I liked and disliked about each book, however overall now of them particularly grabbed my interest. They were still sweet and easy reads and I sometimes enjoy an anthology since you can take each novella as it’s own part. I’d recommend it if you enjoy Highlander novels or Christmas novellas.

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

2019 Monthly Status Update: August

update

August was another strong month for me. Back in late June I discovered the Fated Mates podcast, I am now deeply addicted to both the podcast and the Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series. I’m trying to stick with my scheduled reading also as much as I can but at the same time I just want to read what I want! Everyone once in a while I start to chage against the schedule and I’m feeling like now is really that time. Luckily I only have 2 scheduled reads so far for September so there’s lots of room for reading whatever I want. So anyways, here are some highlights from August for me:

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 11
# pages read this month: 4,158
# books read year-to-date: 64
# pages read year-to-date: 22,239

Favorite Books I Read this Month:

I’ve been devouring Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series and have loved almost all those books so far (I’m reading #15 now). Other than that I also really enjoyed:

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The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins – 4.5 stars

Other Posts this month:

Lots of ARC August 2019 posts this past month, that was it for other posts!

Next Month TBR List:

Not many on the scheduled TBR list for next month, like I mentioned:

-29 Seconds by T.M. Logan
-Immortal Born by Lynsay Sands

Luckily this leaves lots of room for both more of Kresley Cole’s books and also catching up on my backlog reading from books I missed. September starts to get much more hectic for me at work but it’s also my birthday month (woot!) so I’ll be trying to block off some reading time for myself since that’s what I like to do! Looking forward to some crisp fall weather coming up and one of my favorite times of the year. Happy reading everyone!

ARC August 2019 – Final Update and Wrap Up!

arc-august-2019

And so wraps up another ARC August! I thought this one went really well for me. I definitely pushed myself and tried to get as much reading done as possible. I lost traction a little bit over the last week of the challenge but overall was still very pleased with how much I got read! Here’s how I ended up on the ARC Reading challenge for 2019:

MY PROGRESS

July & August 2019 ARC’s 

-Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson
-The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins – Read & Reviewed – Week 2
-The Arrangement by Robyn Harding – Read & Reviewed – Week 3
-A Highlander Walks Into a Bar by Laura Trentham – Read & Reviewed – Week 1 
-The Perfect Wife by JP Delaney
-The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware – Read & Reviewed – Week 3
-The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai – Read & Reviewed – Week 2
-Outfox by Sandra Brown
-To the Stars and Back by Camilla Isley – Read & Reviewed – Week 2

Additions to the list:

– Conversations with a Fat Girl by Liza Palmer – Read & Reviewed – Week 4
– As Good as the First Time by K. M. Jackson – Read & Reviewed – Week 3

Books Read August 25th – 31st

Unfortunately didn’t get any books read this week!

ARC August 2019 Reading Bingo!!

I was so excited to play bingo again as part of this month’s challenge. I unfortunately didn’t get bingo but I still had fun playing. Here’s how I ended up:

Capture

I also liked that there were some new games to play – including a word search, crossword puzzle, and a guess the cover challenge. I did all the challenges but didn’t get a chance to submit them unfortunately. I’m still super interested to find out what the answers are though so I hope they post them!

And so that is a wrap for this year’s ARC August! I had a great time reading and I am already looking forward to next year’s challenge!