2014 – Book #41

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Historical Romance, Lords of Vice series by rebeccabook17

The forty-first book I read in 2014 was After Dark with a Scoundrel by Alexandra Hawkins. I finished this book on 5/23/14. This is the third book in the Lords of Vice series by this author. I rated this book 4 stars out of a scale of 5. This book tells the story of Regan, sister of the Earl of Chillingworth who is one of the Lords of Vice, and Lord Hugh Mordare, also one of the Lords of Vice. When Chillingworth (“Frost”) catches Dare kissing his sister when she’s just 15, Frost immediately sends Regan away to a school for girls (which if you ask me seems a little extreme). Regan is devastated at being ripped away from her family, and five years later there is still a distinct strain on her relationship with her brother.

Regan’s parents were both gone by the time she was a little girl, so she was basically raised by the Lords of Vice. I thought that brought an interesting dynamic to her character, as she was raised by very rough men so she knows how to fence and fight. I thought Frost was a bit rough in how he treated her though. He would talk very crudely in front of her and I was surprised that as her brother she wouldn’t try to shield her a little more. I think I said this in a previous post but I’m not sure how I’m going to feel when I get to Frost’s book. I don’t especially like him. Anyway, Regan comes back to London after 5 years at her girl’s finishing school. Frost tries to forbid her from returning but she is determined to seduce Dare since she’s been in love with him her whole life.

Dare doesn’t think he can risk opening up his heart again after what happened the last time, when the woman he loved had an affair with his brother behind his back. Dare can’t seem to help but let Regan into his heart though, especially since he’s known her almost all her life. Overall I thought this was a very sweet, touching story. I couldn’t help but love the hero and heroine and found myself rooting for them through the story. I’m looking forward to the next Lords of Vice book!

Link to author website: http://www.alexandrahawkins.com

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/After-Dark-Scoundrel-Lords-Vice/dp/0312381263/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400853559&sr=8-1&keywords=after+dark+with+a+scoundrel

Link to review on book row in the Lords of Vice series: https://rebeccabookreview.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/2014-book-32/

Link to review on book one in the Lords of Vice series: https://rebeccabookreview.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/2014-book-19/

22May2014

2014 – Book #40

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Cynster family series, Historical Romance by rebeccabook17

The fortieth book I read in 2014 was Temptation and Surrender by Stephanie Laurens. I finished this book on 5/21/14. This is the 15th book in the Cynster family series by this author. Previous books in the series were discussed in earlier blog posts this year, specifically 2014 – Book #23, 2014 – Book #21, 2014 – Book #13, 2014 – Book #12, 2014 – Book #10, 2014 – Book #6, and 2014 – Book #4 (I know that’s quite a few!). I rated this book 3.5 stars out of a scale of 5. This book tells that story of Jonas Tallent and Emily Colyton. Jonas is the brother of Phyllida, who married Lucifer (Alasdair) Cynster in the 6th book in the series, All About Love. As I’ve said in previous posts about this series, I like meeting the characters in previous books and then seeing them and learning about their characters further when they feature in their own books.

Emily is willing to do whatever is necessary to get herself and her siblings out of their horrible Uncle’s house, even if that means taking a position as an innkeeper to earn money to support her family. So they take up residence in the town of Colyton, hoping to find a treasure that their ancestors supposedly left behind for future generations while Emily also manages the inn. Jonas Tallent’s father owns the inn that Emily now manages, giving him a perfectly good excuse to talk to her whenever he wishes. Their relationship develops and Jonas realizes that he wants to protect Emily and take care of her for the rest of her life, which is nice.

I thought this book was ok. I didn’t connect with the characters as much as I have in previous books by this author but the plot was interesting enough and the main characters seemed like decent people. The hero was a little too pushy for my taste but he was a nice enough guy. I felt like the ending was a bit of a stretch, the villain’s identity I saw coming in a sense but the explanation behind it was weak and not well developed through the rest of the story I thought. Overall this wasn’t my favorite book by this author but was a decent addition to the series.

Link to author website: http://www.stephanielaurens.com/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Temptation-Surrender-Cynster-Stephanie-Laurens-ebook/dp/B001NLL932/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400770991&sr=8-1&keywords=temptation+and+surrender

Link to first blog post in 2014 about Cynster family series (includes family tree picture): https://rebeccabookreview.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/2014-book-4/

16May2014

2014 – Book #39

Posted in Book reviews, Contemporary romance by rebeccabook17

The thirty-ninth book I read in 2014 was The Dream Dress by Janice Thompson. This was the third book in the Weddings by Bella series but was the first book I’ve read by this author. I finished this book on 5/16/14. I rated this book 2.75 stars out of a scale of 5. This book is about Gabi Delgado and Jordan Singer. Gabi is an alterations girl in the most renowned wedding gown salon in Galveston, TX. She secretly designs wedding gowns at night and on the weekends though. Jordan Singer is a reporter who comes in to do an article on one of the brides who is buying a dress from Gabi’s boss.

Overall I found this story very hard to connect with. The characters in the story were all nice all the time except for the one villain of course, but even he came around in the end. There was one scene where the four girls are all sitting around talking and the three girls that are currently in relationships start talking about how amazing their significant other is and they get all teary-eyed thinking about how wonderful their husbands/boyfriends are. WHO DOES THAT. The answer is no one. No one actually does that in real life. Ever. And while I like to read about romance novels because I like the happy endings, this book was just too far fetched for me.

Another piece of this book that was difficult for me to relate to was the overwhelming topic of God in this book. To be honest this book felt like it was more about Gabi finding God than about Gabi finding Jordan. Which is fine, I certainly have no problem with God. But did it really have to come up in every single conversation? And (**SPOILER ALERT**) in the end Gabi ends up this super successful wedding designer and she’s going to design a dress for someone to wear to the Academy Awards all because she prayed to God? That isn’t really how it works. I just couldn’t relate to that at all and I found it almost insulting in its lack of feasibility.

Overall I was not a fan of this book (obviously) not only because of the reasons already listed but also because I just couldn’t get into the book. The characters weren’t developed very deeply and the conversations all felt forced, awkward, and choppy. Just wasn’t my type of book I guess.

Link to author website: http://janiceathompson.com/blog/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Dream-Dress-The-Weddings-Design/dp/0800721543/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400245606&sr=8-1&keywords=the+dream+dress

13May2014

2014 – Book #38

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Contemporary romance, Parable, Montana - Big Sky series by rebeccabook17

The thirty-eighth book I read in 2014 was Big Sky Secrets by Linda Lael Miller. This is the sixth and final book in the Parable, Montana series by this author (I have read the other 5 books in the series though none of them I read in 2014 so no others in the series are discussed on this blog). I finished this book on 5/12/14. I rated this book 4 stars out of a scale of 5. This book is about Ria Manning and Landry Sutton. Landry is brother to Zane Sutton who was featured in the 5th book in the Parable series. All the characters of the different books are connected which I found interesting. Got confusing by the time I got to this last book in the series though, trying to keep all the different characters from the previous books straight.

I thought this was a very cute love story. It was an easy read and I was interested throughout the book. Ria was an utterly loveable heroine and I found myself rooting for her the whole time. Landry was a tough guy with a heart of gold. The whole story was just very sweet. The only part I had trouble with was that they got married like a week after they started dating. That just seemed a little unrealistic to me. Other than that though, this was a feel-good love story with the best kind of ending, a happy one.

Link to author website: http://www.lindalaelmiller.com/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Big-Secrets-Linda-Lael-Miller/dp/0373778317/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399947251&sr=8-1&keywords=big+sky+secrets

10May2014

2014 – Book #37

Posted in Book reviews, Historical Romance, Paranormal romance by rebeccabook17

The thirty-seventh book I read in 2014 was The Midnight Witch by Paula Brackston. I finished this book on 5/9/14 and it was the first book I’ve read by this author. I rated this book 2.5 stars out of a scale of 5. This is the story of a necromancer witch, Lady Lilith, set in London in the early 1900’s. She falls in love with a young artist, Bram. Together they are faced with what seem to be insurmountable obstacles that get in the way of their love.

This was a hard read for me. There was a lot of very lengthy descriptions that weren’t necessary to set scene. Also the story randomly jumped forward years at a time twice towards the end of the book. And the narration was constantly jumping from Lilith’s point of view in the 1st person and Bram and various other points of view in the 3rd person. Between all of this the story was honestly a little hard to follow. The plot line itself was interesting and could’ve resulted in a much better story I think. Of course there were some parts of the story that I didn’t like. Lilith is described as having such a strength of will and character and she twice defied the creed of the Lazarus Coven. I just found that surprising and couldn’t reconcile these facts.

I considered giving up halfway through this book. At that point I knew there was very little possibility that I would end up loving this book. I decided to finish it to see what happened and how it ended. I have to say that I am glad I finished it because the 2nd half of the book was slightly better than the first. However, the first half of the book was not what I would call fantastic so it would’ve been hard not to have it improve. I just had so much trouble being drawn into the story. I couldn’t get involved in the characters or what drove them. And there are so many loose ends and unresolved issues. Violet is lost to the Darkness in the beginning of the book and is never recovered. Lilith’s dad isn’t heard from at all in the second half of the book. I feel like the soup kitchen and the nuns were important to the story but they were mentioned so little that I had trouble understanding. I feel like there could’ve been more development of the relationship between Lilith and the nuns through conversations and what not. And pieces of the story were so dark. And (**SPOILER ALERT**) at the end Lilith comes back to life and then her and Bram live happily ever after? Even though she’s living in a dead body now and will have to drink the Elixir regularly for the rest of her life.

Overall I was just disappointed with this book. It was definitely not one of my favorites. I read on Amazon that other people were disappointed with this book and said her other two books were much better. I might try one of her other books in the future to see for myself but I’m not sure I can risk it just yet.

Link to author website: http://www.paulabrackston.com/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Witch-Paula-Brackston-ebook/dp/B00FCR3QUC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399690241&sr=8-1&keywords=midnight+witch

7May2014

2014 – Book #36

Posted in Book reviews, Historical Romance, Romantic suspense by rebeccabook17

The thirty-sixth book I read in 2014 was Otherwise Engaged by Amanda Quick (which is a pen name of Jayne Ann Krentz). I finished this book on 5/6/14. I rated this book 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5. This book is about Amity Doncaster and Benedict Stanbridge. They met on a ship bound for New York when Amity found Benedict shot and bleeding badly in an alleyway. She manages to get him back to the cruise ship, and thankfully she has some medical training from her doctor so she is able to stitch up Benedict and care for him through his fever and subsequent recovery. After passing through New York though, Amity is heading back home to London and Benedict is heading to California before then heading home to London later on. Benedict promises to call on her when he returns to London.

Some time later, Benedict finally shows up in London and pays a call to Amity. Unbeknownst to him though Amity was recently attacked by the killer they call the Bridegroom due to her friendship with Benedict. The story that follows is really Amity and Benedict, along with Amity’s sister Penny, assist Scotland Yard’s Inspector John Logan in hunting down this killer. One of the interesting things about this book is the heroine’s weapon of choice, something called a tessen, its a Japanese iron war fan. The heroine uses this as a weapon against the Bridegroom in order to escape his clutches. If you’d like to read more about tessens, here is an article about them on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_fan.

Overall I thought this was a very good story. It was interesting to go along on the journey to search for the killer. Some of the conversations felt a bit awkward though. But the plot was fairly well-paced and I liked the characters. This wasn’t my favorite book by this author but it was enjoyable.

Link to author website: http://www.krentz-quick.com/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Otherwise-Engaged-Ladies-Lantern-Street-ebook/dp/B00FX7R5QM/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399486343&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=otherwis+engaged

5May2014

2014 – Book # 35

Posted in Book reviews, Historical Romance by rebeccabook17

The thirty-fifth book I read in 2014 was A Dash of Scandal by Amelia Grey. I finished this book on 5/4/14. I rated this book 3.5 stars out of a scale of 5. This was the second book I read by this author. This book is about Miss Millicent Blair and Chandler, Earl of Dunraven. Millicent has been called to London to assist her aunt who recently took a very serious fall. What she doesn’t know is that her aunt doesn’t need help getting back on her feet, she needs help collecting gossip from each evening’s parties for the Lord Truefitt gossip column.

At first Millicent is horrified by what her aunt needs help with, but after some needling her aunt finally convinces her to help. As Millicent makes the rounds at all the ton’s best soirees, she meets Lord Dunraven, one of the ton’s Terrible Three. Dunraven has made a name for himself as a terrible rogue, and since Millicent’s own mother was run out of London after her own scandal twenty years ago, Millicent knows she must not fall under Dunraven’s spell. Try as she might though, she can’t seem to resist Dunraven’s charm. And the more Dunraven gets to know Millicent, the more he can’t seem to stop thinking about her. No one has ever gotten under his skin before, and he finds himself absolutely smitten.

During all of this, Dunraven is searching for the “Mad Ton Thief,” as is London’s police force. He enlists Millicent’s help to investigate on their own. Together they try to piece together the clues to figure out who the thief is and all the while become more and more infatuated with each other. Overall this was a cute story with a lovely heroine. A couple points were slow/dry but overall was a good plot.

Link to author website: http://www.ameliagrey.com/main.html

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Dash-Scandal-Amelia-Grey-ebook/dp/B005J4OZRQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399247638&sr=8-1&keywords=a+dash+of+scandal

4May2014

2014 – Book #34

Posted in Book reviews, Romantic suspense by rebeccabook17

The thirty-fourth book I read in 2014 was Night Diver by Elizabeth Lowell. I finished this book on 5/1/14. This was the first book I’ve read by this author. I rated this book 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5. This book was about Kate Donnelly and Holden Cameron. Kate Donnelly had a tragic experience as a teen and has been running from her family and her old life ever since then. The last thing she wants is for her brother to drag her back home to St.Vincent’s to clean up his mess. Kate’s brother Larry signed a dive contract (Kate’s family owns a salvage diving business) that is going to end up putting the family business into bankruptcy. Kate can’t leave her family to fail though, so she comes to the rescue and flies down to St. Vincent’s to meet with the consultant coming in from AO, the company that owns the dive contract.

And that consultant is none other than Holden Cameron, a former British military diver who is consulting for AO. Holden can’t figure out why Kate fascinates him so much but the more he gets to know her the more he seems to like her. Holden was sent from AO to assess whether or not the diving project should be shut down. There hasn’t been quite enough results from this project to satisfy AO but Larry is sure there’s more down there. Holden thinks there’s a possibility that someone on the dive is stealing and keeping the treasures for themselves. And the deeper he gets into his investigation, the more Kate starts to suspect that there may be something going on as well.

But what neither of them realize is that they are getting elbow deep in issues that are turning deadly. Kate tries to protect her family and Holden tries to protect her. One of the things I liked about this book was the growth of the heroine during the story, she overcomes her fears of the water as her relationship with Holden matures. Overall this was a great story and had an interesting plot. A couple parts were a little dry/slow but the love story was sweet and heart-warming and the danger was palpable at points. It was also interesting to learn about diving through the story.

Link to author website: http://www.elizabethlowell.com/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Night-Diver-Novel-Elizabeth-Lowell-ebook/dp/B00ENGU6MO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399243847&sr=8-1&keywords=night+diver

30Apr2014

2014 – Book #32

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Historical Romance, Lords of Vice series, Romantic suspense by rebeccabook17

The thirty-second book I read in 2014 was Till Dawn wit the Devil by Alexandra Hawkins. This is the second book in the Lords of Vice series by this author. I finished this book on 4/29/14. I rated this book 4 stars out of a scale of 5. This book is about Lady Sophia Ravenshaw and Gabriel Housely, the Earl of Rainecourt, affectionately known to his friends as Reign. When these two meet at a ball, Reign is instantly attracted to the blond angel Sophia. When Sophia’s brother storms onto the terrace to rescue her from Reign’s scandalous nature, Reign discovers that his lady is a Ravenshaw. The Rancourt and Ravenshaw names are twisted together in a number of sordid past tragedies, but Reign can’t stop himself from wanting Sophia.

After Reign finds out Sophia is in trouble he races off to her rescue, but in rescuing her from her family he doesn’t realize he’s placing her in even greater danger. When he is faced with losing the love that’s begun to bloom inside of him, he knows he must fight for his wife’s life in order to keep what’s developing between them.

My blog post on the first book in the Lords of Vice series was overall not my favorite. There was a lot of things in the story that made me slightly uncomfortable while I was reading it. The second book in the series though was greatly improved, I liked it a lot better than the first. It was touching and interesting, sweet and steamy at the same time. Overall this was a great book and I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Link to author website: http://www.alexandrahawkins.com/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Till-Dawn-Devil-Lords-Vice/dp/0312381255/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398817956&sr=8-1&keywords=till+dawn+with+the+devil

29Apr2014

2014 – Book #31

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Contemporary romance, Cousins O'Dwyer series, Paranormal romance, Romantic suspense by rebeccabook17

ShadowSpell

The thirty-first book I read in 2014 was Shadow Spell by Nora Roberts. This is the second book in the Cousins O’Dwyer trilogy, I read the first in 2013. I finished this book on 4/28/14. I rated this book 4 stars out of a scale of 5. This book tells the story of Connor O’Dwyer and his lifelong friend Meara Quinn.

As the cousins O’Dwyer and their friends recover from their last battle with the evil Cabhan and try to plan for their next attack, Connor finds himself attracted to his sister’s lifelong friend Meara. But Meara has scars from her past that close off her heart from Connor’s love, and leave her susceptible to Cabhan’s sorcery.

One of the things I love most about this series is the interwoven back story back to the original Three Dark Witches, children of Sorcha. The story from long ago used as a backdrop for the journey of the Three Dark Witches now is very interesting. This book was fairly riveting, I didn’t want to put it down once I started it.

Though this was a simple story, it was one full of love, friendship, and family. It was a very touching story and I think I may have even liked it better than the first in the series. I am looking forward to the third book so I can find out if Fin and Brannan are finally able to work out their issues and be together.

Link to author website: http://www.noraroberts.com/index.php

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Spell-Cousins-ODwyer-Roberts/dp/0425259862/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398736504&sr=8-1&keywords=shadow+spell