Category Archives: Fiction

2015 Book #32 – The Magician’s Lie by Greer Macallister

Posted in #ReadingMyLibrary Reading Challenge, 2015, Book reviews, Fiction, Historical fiction, Magical realism, Reading Challenges by

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Title: The Magician’s Lie
Author: Greer Macallister
Date finished: 4/17/15
Genre: Fiction – Mystery / Historical / Magical
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication Date: January 13, 2015
Pages in book: 312
Stand alone or series: Stand alone

Blurb from the cover:

The Amazing Arden is the most famous female illusionist of her day, renowned for her notorious trick of sawing a man in half on stage. One night in Waterloo, Iowa, with young policeman Virgil Holt watching from the audience, she swaps her trademark saw for a fire ax. Is it a new version of the illusion, or an all-too-real murder? When Arden’s husband is found lifeless beneath the stage later that night, the answer seems clear.
But when Virgil happens upon the fleeing magician and takes her into custody, she has a very different story to tell. Even handcuffed and alone, Arden is far from powerless-and what she reveals is as unbelievable as it is spellbinding. Over the course of one eerie night, Virgil must decide whether to turn Arden in or set her free… and it will take all he has to see through the smoke and mirrors.

My rating: 4 stars out of a scale of 5
My review: This book will count for the challenge I am participating in for April, the #ReadingMyLibrary reading challenge. I checked out this book from the Terryville Library. I saw this book in a recent BookPage publication I think and a couple other places so when I saw it at the library I thought I would give it a try. From the beginning, this was a really interesting story. The murder is introduced early on in the book and then we learn through the rest of the story how this young woman’s life has gotten to where she is now, in police custody.
The Amazing Arden has had what many would consider a very difficult life. Her story is heart-wrenching and enthralling at the same time. That she has survived so much is truly astounding. There were a couple of drier parts to the story that were a little more difficult to get through but overall I really liked the book. The only thing I still wondered about after it ended was what happened to Ada’s mom? I can’t help but worry that Ray found a way to somehow punish Victor and the mom for Ada’s disappearance.
Ray’s character was just so creepy. The whole time I was reading this book, I found myself looking over my shoulder to make sure no one was following me. Ray is just such a scary person and the whole book just felt so real to me that I felt like I was living the scary parts sometimes.

The bottom line: Really interesting! Pretty dark but I found it riveting. I would recommend it.

Link to author website
Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

2015 Book #31 – Every Boy’s Got One by Meg Cabot

Posted in #ReadingMyLibrary Reading Challenge, 2015, Book reviews, Fiction, Reading Challenges, Women's fiction by

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Title: Every Boy’s Got One
Author: Meg Cabot
Date finished: 4/15/15
Genre: Women’s fiction
Publisher: Paw Prints
Publication Date: May 29, 2008
Pages in book: 328
Stand alone or series: Stand alone

Blurb from the cover:

Cartoonist Jane Harris is delighted by the prospect of her first-ever trip to Europe. But it’s hate at first sight for Jane and Cal Langdon, and neither is too happy at the prospect of sharing a villa with one another for a week—not even in the beautiful and picturesque Marches countryside. But when Holly and Mark’s wedding plans hit a major snag that only Jane and Cal can repair, the two find themselves having to put aside their mutual dislike for one another in order to get their best friends on the road to wedded bliss—and end up on a road themselves … one neither of them ever expected.

My rating: 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5
My review: This book will count for the challenge I am participating in for April, the #ReadingMyLibrary reading challenge. I checked out this book from the Terryville Library. I’ve read this book before and liked it a lot. I like all of Meg Cabot’s books, she writes funny, entertaining stories and she doesn’t disappoint with Every Boy’s Got One. This book was in the epistolary style, which I very much enjoy as a writing style. Jane Harris goes to Italy to witness her best friend’s elopement and meets Cal Langdon, a total ass. The descriptions of the Italian hillsides and scenery were just wonderful. I could really feel like I was there. And the food! The meals that Jane described made me just salivate, it all sounded so delicious! And Jane was such a funny character, and I love the WonderCat drawings that got incorporated into the story. The characters were all entertaining and the really fun part about the epistolary style is that you get to see the story from so many different points of view. There were emails to and from almost everyone involved in the story, it makes for a very nice, well-rounded read.
I also thought it was cool that Meg Cabot wrote this story loosely based around a story she herself lived. She eloped in Italy and encountered some of the same difficulties as Holly and Mark do in the novel.

The bottom line: I’ve always liked this book, even reading it multiple times. I would recommend it.

Link to author website
Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

2015 Book #30 – Find Me by Laura van den Berg

Posted in #ReadingMyLibrary Reading Challenge, 2015, Book reviews, Fiction, Reading Challenges by

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Title: Find Me
Author: Laura van den Berg
Date finished: 4/11/15
Genre: Not quite sure. Fiction. Apocalyptic. Psychological. This one’s hard to label.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication Date: February 17, 2015
Pages in book: 270
Stand alone or series: Stand alone

Blurb from the cover:

After two acclaimed story collections, Laura van den Berg brings us Find Me, her highly anticipated debut novel–a gripping, imaginative, darkly funny tale of a young woman struggling to find her place in the world.
Joy has no one. She spends her days working the graveyard shift at a grocery store outside Boston and nursing an addiction to cough syrup, an attempt to suppress her troubled past. But when a sickness that begins with memory loss and ends with death sweeps the country, Joy, for the first time in her life, seems to have an advantage: she is immune. When Joy’s immunity gains her admittance to a hospital in rural Kansas, she sees a chance to escape her bleak existence. There she submits to peculiar treatments and follows seemingly arbitrary rules, forming cautious bonds with other patients–including her roommate, whom she turns to in the night for comfort, and twin boys who are digging a secret tunnel.
As winter descends, the hospital’s fragile order breaks down and Joy breaks free, embarking on a journey from Kansas to Florida, where she believes she can find her birth mother, the woman who abandoned her as a child. On the road in a devastated America, she encounters mysterious companions, cities turned strange, and one very eerie house. As Joy closes in on Florida, she must confront her own damaged memory and the secrets she has been keeping from herself.

My rating: 3.5 stars out of a scale of 5
My review: This book will count for the challenge I am participating in for April, the #ReadingMyLibrary reading challenge. I saw this book at the Terryville Library and I had seen it in one of the recent Book Page publications I think so I thought I would try it. This book was interesting from the start, with a description of an epidemic that has swept the nation, wiping out much of the population in its path. Silver blisters begin appearing on a person’s skin and then their memory starts to go, to the point where they forget what a job or a house or a hand is. Their mind gets eaten away until the person can no longer function and they end up dying. This disease is spread through any kind of human contact, but mysteriously certain people who come into contact with it don’t succumb to the sickness. Joy is one of these lucky few. She came into contact early on in the epidemic but never came down with any symptoms.
Its because of this that she ends up at the Hospital, where Dr. Bek is studying various individuals to try and discover a cure to the sickness. Due to a strange series of events, Joy ends up escaping from the hospital to try and find her mother who abandoned her when she was only a month old. Joy is only about 20 years old by the time she leaves the Hospital but she’s already seen a lot of tragedy and hardship in life.
A lot of weird $h!t happens in this book. The story line was so extremely interesting and the idea behind the book was really thought provoking. After the epidemic ends many survivors end up killing themselves, some out of anger that they survived when their families didn’t and some because they just can’t manage to live in the America that’s developed as a result of the epidemic. The after effects seem to come in waves, the tragedy creating a ripple effect throughout the nation. Other weird stuff happens too. I don’t want to give away too much of the book so I can’t describe all the weird stuff that happens. This book was really interesting, but I have to be honest its not my usual kind of book. It was dark and heavy and weird and thought-provoking and interesting and weird all rolled into one big ball of interesting weird.

The bottom line: Very very interesting, a little dark though. Not exactly my style but I would recommend it.

Link to author website
Link to Amazon

2015 Book #29 – You’re So Fine by Kieran Kramer

Posted in #ReadingMyLibrary Reading Challenge, 2015, Book reviews, Contemporary romance, Reading Challenges by

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Title: You’re So Fine
Author: Kieran Kramer
Date finished: 4/8/15
Genre: Contemporary romance
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Publication Date: December 30, 2014
Pages in book: 395
Stand alone or series: Stand alone

Blurb from the cover:

CAN THE ROLE OF A LIFETIME…
Lacey Clark’s dreams of Hollywood stardom didn’t turn out quite the way she planned. Instead, her life is more of the daytime-drama variety: One of her actor ex-boyfriends fathered a child with another　woman, and now, long story short, Lacey is the adopted single mother of his son. She takes little Henry with her to South Carolina to escape the film business but winds up working at a small movie studio,　determined　to do a good job both on set and at “home.” Only problem is she ends up sharing a house with movie star Beau Wilder, who is no role model for Henry—and only spells trouble for Lacey…
LEAD TO A HAPPY ENDING?Beau is arguably the most gorgeous man on the planet—and a known ladies’ man. His wealthy Lowcountry pedigree is rivaled only by his bad-boy charm, a combination that proves irresistible for Lacey. And he adores Henry! If they weren’t both on a movie set, their lives would seem too good to be true…unless the chemistry—not to mention the burning attraction—between them is real, and Hollywood’s golden boy is actually falling for this sassy single mom? When it comes to love, sometimes you just have to throw out the script…

My rating: 3.25 stars out of a scale of 5
My review: This book will count for the challenge I am participating in for April, the #ReadingMyLibrary reading challenge. I saw this book at the Bristol Library and I had added it to my TBR list in January (this book was one of my featured “Friday Finds” on Jan 23. At first I found it difficult to really get into the story of this book. I ended up liking it overall but there were a lot of things that I wasn’t a huge fan of. Some of the scenes were hard to follow along with and honestly some of them I thought didn’t really fit. The flow was a little off with some of the book and it made it hard to fully connect with the characters I think. Also, I thought it was a little wordy, it was a pretty long book.
There were also a lot of things about this story that I liked, Henry was a total sweetheart and I found it really touching how amazingly devoted Lacey was to him even though she wasn’t his birth mother. I wasn’t really feeling Beau’s character at the beginning (he was honestly kind of an ass) but by the end I was more fond of him.

The bottom line: Story was ok, not sure I would necessarily recommend but I wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading it either.

Link to author website
Link to Amazon

2015 Book #28 – Cure for the Common Breakup by Beth Kendrick

Posted in #ReadingMyLibrary Reading Challenge, 2015, Black Dog Bay series, Book reviews, Book series, Reading Challenges, Women's fiction by

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Title: Cure for the Common Breakup
Author: Beth Kendrick
Date finished: 4/6/15
Genre: Women’s fiction
Publisher: NAL
Publication Date: May 6, 2014
Pages in book: 299
Stand alone or series: Black Dog Bay series #1

Blurb from the cover:

Welcome to Black Dog Bay, a tiny seaside town in Delaware known as “the best place in America to bounce back from your breakup.” Home to the Better Off Bed-and-Breakfast, the Eat Your Heart Out bakery, and the Whinery bar, Black Dog Bay offers a haven for the suddenly single.
Flight attendant Summer Benson lives by two rules: Don’t stay with the same man for too long and never stay in one place. She’s about to break rule number one by considering accepting her boyfriend’s proposal—then disaster strikes and her world is shattered in an instant.
Summer heads to Black Dog Bay, where the locals welcome her. Even Hattie Huntington, the town’s oldest, richest, and meanest resident, likes her enough to give her a job. Then there’s Dutch Jansen, the rugged, stoic mayor, who’s the opposite of her type. She probably shouldn’t be kissing him. She definitely shouldn’t be falling in love.
After a lifetime of globe-trotting, Summer has finally found a home. But Hattie has old scores to settle and a hidden agenda for her newest employee. Summer finds herself faced with an impossible choice: Leave Black Dog Bay behind forever, or stay with the ones she loves and cost them everything….

My rating: 3.5 stars out of a scale of 5
My review: This book will count for the challenge I am participating in for April, the #ReadingMyLibrary reading challenge. I saw this book at the Bristol Library and I have had it on my TBR list for a while so I picked it up. This book is about a brassy flight attendant who has serious commitment issues. She ends up in Black Dog Bay, Delaware to try to heal after a slightly traumatic experience. It is there that she meets Dutch, the Mayor of Black Dog Bay.
There were a lot of things that I liked about this story, the town is cute and kind of quirky cute. The town is known for being the town to go to after a bad breakup, and many of the businesses cater to the recently broken-hearted. It all started with a woman who came to the town a long time ago after her husband left her and when she hit her rock bottom lowest on the beach she was saved by a large black dog. The ghost of this dog is still rumored to roam the beach, saving women from heartache and all that jazz.
This was a cute, light story. A tiny bit too light for me (I couldn’t really get in deep enough with the characters) but it was enjoyable and touching. I will most likely read the next book in the Black Dog Bay series.

The bottom line:  Very cute story, sweet and touching. Would recommend.

Link to author website
Link to Amazon

2015 Book #27 – The Vintner’s Daughter by Kristen Harnisch

Posted in #ReadingMyLibrary Reading Challenge, 2015, Book reviews, Fiction, Historical fiction, Reading Challenges by

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Title: The Vintner’s Daughter
Author: Kristen Harnisch
Date finished: 4/5/15
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: She Writes Press
Publication Date: August 15, 2014
Pages in book: 355
Stand alone or series: Rumored to be the first of a future series on winemaking through the centuries

Blurb from the cover:

Loire Valley, 1895. When seventeen-year-old Sara Thibault’s father is killed in a mudslide, her mother sells their vineyard to a rival family whose eldest son marries Sara’s sister, Lydia. But a violent tragedy compels Sara and her sister to flee to New York, forcing Sara to put aside her dream to follow in her father’s footsteps as a master winemaker. Meanwhile, Philippe Lemieux has arrived in California with the ambition of owning the largest vineyard in Napa by 1900. When he receives word of his brother’s death in France, he resolves to bring the killer to justice. Sara has travelled to California in hopes of making her own way in the winemaking world. When she encounters Philippe in a Napa vineyard, they are instantly drawn to one another, but Sara knows he is the one man who could return her family’s vineyard to her, or send her straight to the guillotine. This riveting tale of betrayal, retribution, love, and redemption, Kristen Harnisch’s debut novel immerses readers in the rich vineyard culture of both the Old and New Worlds, the burgeoning cities of late nineteenth-century America and a spirited heroine’s fight to determine her destiny.

My rating: 4.75 stars out of a scale of 5
My review: This book will count for the challenge I am participating in for April, the #ReadingMyLibrary reading challenge. I saw this book at the Bristol Library and thought it might be interesting. I have found over the past few years that I have a fascination with wine, I have taken a number classes to learn more about the different kinds of grapes and the winemaking process. So I picked this book up due to it  being about wine. It turned out to be just fantastic. It was very well-paced, I can honestly day I wasn’t bored once. It had everything you could like in a novel; murder, love, family, death, new birth. This book is rumored to be the first in a series about winemaking throughout the last century, and I honestly just can not wait for this author to publish her next novel. This book was so good, I was hooked on the story pretty much from the beginning and I couldn’t let go. The characters came alive for me and I would get so engrossed in the story that I would have trouble dragging my mind back to reality. The descriptions of the rolling hillsides of Napa as well as the description of the Saint Martin vineyard in France (Loire Valley) was just beautiful. Very good novel.

The bottom line:  LOVED this book! Love love love, can’t wait for her to publish her next one. I can not say enough good things about this book.

Link to author website
Link to Amazon

2015 Book #26 – The Sweet Spot by Stephanie Evanovich

Posted in 2015, Book reviews, Contemporary romance, Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2015 checklist, Reading Challenges by

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Title: The Sweet Spot
Author: Stephanie Evanovich
Date finished: 4/1/15
Genre: Ummm.. romance
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: July 8, 2014
Pages in book: 262
Stand alone or series: Related to another book by this author, Big Girl Panties

Blurb from the cover:

A sizzling story of everyone’s favorite couple from amazing Stephanie Evanovich’s New York Timesbestseller Big Girl Panties: hunky professional baseball player Chase Walker and his sassy wife Amanda.When pro baseball player Chase Walker first meets Amanda at her restaurant, it’s love at first sight. While Amanda can’t help noticing the superstar with the Greek-god-build, he doesn’t have a chance of getting to first—or any other—base with her. A successful entrepreneur who’s built her business from scratch, Amanda doesn’t need a Prince Charming to sweep her off her feet. And a curvy girl who likes to cook and eat isn’t interested in being around the catty, stick-thin herd of females chasing Chase and his teammates.
But Chase isn’t about to strike out. A man who isn’t interested in playing the field, he’s a monogamist who wants an independent woman like Amanda. His hopes rally when she discovers that squeaky-clean Chase has a few sexy and very secret pre-game rituals that turn the smart, headstrong businesswoman on—and into his number one fan.
Then a tabloid discovers the truth and turns their spanking good fun into a late- night punchline. Is Amanda ready to let loose and swing for the fences? Or will the pressure of Chase’s stardom force them to call it quits?

My rating: 1.25 stars out of a scale of 5
My review: This book was supposed to count for my April reading challenge but since I ended up skimming most of the last half of the book, I will be counting it towards my goal for the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2015 checklist under the “a book by an author you’ve never read before” check box.
I was not at all a fan of this book. To be honest, as soon as I read the “hero” describe the heroine as being “a vanilla,” I was like, Oh this is THAT kind of book (This was probably about 100 pages in). Up to that point I had been enjoying the story fairly well, but after I saw the term “vanilla” I ended up skimming most of the rest of the book. To be honest, I never got on the 50 Shades of Grey bandwagon. I just couldn’t understand why it would be physically stimulating to be hurt by a man. I mean if that floats your boat, more power to you, go have fun. It just doesn’t personally float my boat (AT ALL) and I know that so I usually try to avoid those kind of books. I obviously didn’t read the description of the story well enough. I wish that there was like a symbol that books have to put on the cover if there is kinky sex, so people who don’t want to read about kinky sex know to avoid that book.
That being said there were a lot of things other than the 50 Shades reminiscent scenes that I didn’t like about this book. The heroine started out as a strong business woman but by the end she was like a mess. Who just disappears on their fiancee for three freaking weeks?? That is so unbelievably selfish and awful. At least text him and tell him you’re ok you just need some space but to completely check out for like three weeks?? F that. No. That is a weak, selfish, cruel thing to do to someone you supposedly love. And also Chase was WAY too possessive. His burst of anger in the car when Amanda is talking about a previous boyfriend? That is unhealthy. Sudden bursts of anger than come out of nowhere, or even worse from some deep-seated possessiveness, that is someone who has anger/control issues. And she gives up her restaurant to run “their household” and she has to blackmail him at the end to keep him from selling the house? And the whole point of the spanking is to make her cry? Why would you want to be with someone who likes to hit you until you cry? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE
So obviously, suffice it to say I didn’t like this book.

The bottom line:  I would probably only recommend this to someone who liked 50 Shades of Grey. Otherwise, definitely no.

Author website
Link to Amazon

2015 Book #25 – I Loved a Rogue by Katharine Ashe

Posted in 2015, Book reviews, Book series, Historical Romance, Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2015 checklist, Prince Catchers, Reading Challenges by

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Title: I Loved a Rogue
Author: Katharine Ashe
Date finished: 3/30/15
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: February 24, 2015
Pages in book: 365
Stand alone or series: Prince Catchers series #3

Blurb from the cover:

In the third in Katharine Ashe’s Prince Catchers series, the eldest of three very different sisters must fulfill a prophecy to discover their birthright. But if Eleanor is destined to marry a prince, why can’t she resist the scoundrel who seduced her?She can pour tea, manage a household, and sew a modest gown. In short, Eleanor Caulfield is the perfect vicar’s daughter. Yet there was a time when she’d risked everything for a black-eyed gypsy who left her brokenhearted. Now he stands before her—dark, virile, and ready to escort her on a journey to find the truth about her heritage.
Leaving eleven years ago should have given Taliesin freedom. Instead he’s returned to Eleanor, determined to have her all to himself, tempting her with kisses and promising her a passion she’s so long denied herself. But if he was infatuated before, he’s utterly unprepared for what will happen when Eleanor decides to abandon convention—and truly live . . .

My rating: 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5
My review: This book will be counting towards my goal for the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2015 checklist under the “a book set in a different country” check box. This is the third book in a series about three sisters who have no idea who their real mother and father are. Since Arabella (I Married the Duke) and Ravenna (I Adored a Lord) are both married and preoccupied now, Eleanor has been asked to take up the lead on the investigation into how the three girls ended up on a boat with just their nanny so many years ago. Arabella asks an old family friend, Taliesin, to help Eleanor on the journey. I liked Eleanor’s character alot too, she was a fairly strong character and held her own. But the drugging scene was so awful I could barely read it.

I was hooked on the story, I couldn’t put the book down. I liked this book much better than the first two in the series. That being said, I was disappointed with the ending and with how many inconsistencies there were in the story. After being drugged and not eating for like two weeks she’s able to recover enough in a few days to travel, that I can understand, but then to have sex like 4 times in one night? Seriously? That seemed a bit, well, not do-able. And the same with the previous two books in the series, I felt as if the book alternated between sections that were too fast and too slow parts. And I didn’t feel like the ending fit with the story, it just made me feel weird.

The bottom line:  This was a good ending to the series, and while there were some holes and I didn’t love the end, I thought it was a good book and I would likely recommend it.

Author website
Link to Amazon

2015 Book #24 – Mortal Heart by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Posted in 2015, Beautiful Creatures, Book reviews, Book series, Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2015 checklist, Reading Challenges, Young Adult by

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Title: The Mortal Heart
Author: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Date finished: 3/29/15
Genre: YA (novella)
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: March 10, 2015
Pages in book: 54
Stand alone or series: Beautiful Creatures: The Untold Stories

Blurb from the cover:

Everyone in Gatlin has a story…
Before she met and married Mitchell Wate, the beautiful and brilliant Lila Jane Evers was an honors student at Duke University. Studying late into the night in the rare books library, she is captivated by a single line of text on an old piece of parchment: “In the Light there is Dark, and in the Dark there is Light.”
What can it mean?
Then one night, Lila Jane meets a mysterious young man who may have the answer. His name is Macon Ravenwood, and for every secret he reveals, he is hiding another. With Macon’s help, Lila Jane uncovers the wonders of the Caster world–the Light and the Dark. But a romance between the Incubus who is fighting his own dark side and this fiercely independent Mortal is doomed from the start. The closer Lila Jane and Macon become, the more her life is in danger.
Discover the unforgettable and untold story of how Lila and Macon fell in love in this all-new Beautiful Creatures novella from #1 New York Times bestselling authors Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

My rating: 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will be counting towards my goal for the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2015 checklist under the “a book with magic” check box. While this was a short story (it was a novella after all), it was oh so very interesting. And such a tease. The end really just leaves so many worlds open on what could happen in future stories.
This novella tells the heart-breaking story of Lila Jane Evers and Macon Ravenwood. Lila Jane and Macon fell in love before Macon’s transformation into an Incubus. Macon has never wanted this fate and has fought his change at every turn. Lila Jane makes him wish more than ever that he was normal so that he could be with her forever. Unfortunately, he can not fight his family’s heritage. Macon gives her an Arclight to protect her in case he should attack her after he turns into an Incubus. I know that if Macon and Lila Jane had stayed together that Ethan never would have been born so obviously I can’t wish that they had been together always, but they loved each other so much it is just heart-wrenching.

The bottom line:  For those who like the Beautiful Creatures series I would definitely recommend this novella!

Author website
Link to Amazon

2015 Book #21 – I Adored a Lord by Katharine Ashe

Posted in 2015, Book reviews, Book series, Historical Romance, Prince Catchers, Reading Challenges, TBR Pile Reading Challenge (Roof Beam Reader) by

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Title: I Adored a Lord
Author: Katharine Ashe
Date finished: 3/24/15
Genre: Historical fiction
Publisher: Avon Books
Publication Date: July 29, 2014
Pages in book: 356
Stand alone or series: #2 in the Price Catchers series

Blurb from the cover:

Three very different sisters beguile society with their beauty and charm, but only one of them must fulfill a prophecy: marry a prince. Who is the mystery Prince Charming, and which sister will be his bride?
All that clever, passionate Ravenna Caulfield wants is to stay far away from high society’s mean girls.
All that handsome, heroic Lord Vitor Courtenay wants is to dash from dangerous adventure to adventure.
Now, snowbound in a castle with a bevy of the ton’s scheming maidens all competing for a prince’s hand in marriage, Ravenna’s worst nightmare has come true.
Now, playing babysitter to his spoiled prince of a half-brother and potential brides, Vitor is champing at the bit to be gone.
When a stolen kiss in a stable leads to a corpse in a suit of armor, a canine kidnapping, and any number of scandalous liaisons, Ravenna and Vitor find themselves wrapped in a mystery they’re perfectly paired to solve. But as for the mysteries of love and sex, Vitor’s not about to let Ravenna escape until he’s gotten what he desires . . .

My rating: 3.25 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will count towards my TBR Pile Reading Challenge, marking off #8 on my list. Many of my thoughts on this book are similar to the first book in the series. There was a lot going on in this book all at once, and while it was easier to follow than the first book it was still nonetheless slightly difficult to follow the train of thought. There are references made early on that are confusing instead of subtly intriguing and made it hard to follow the choppy thoughts of the hero and heroine. The story line had a lot of promise and was interesting but,same as the last novel, this book alternated between being too detailed/slow-paced and too fast-paced. I liked the heroine of this book better than the last, she wasn’t quite as wishy-washy. She still didn’t seem to value herself very much though, while I understand it makes sense for that time period, I hate to think that the heroine believed she wasn’t a good match for the hero just because of her birth. Other than that she had a good amount of backbone though, which I like to see in novel’s heroine.

The bottom line:  I liked this book better than the first in the series but I still wasn’t thrilled with it. There’s one more in the trilogy though so I’m going to read it, I’m guessing she marries that Tali guy and turns out he’s some kind of prince even though he’s an orphan.

Link to author website
Link to Amazon