Tag Archives: Romance

2014 – Book #38

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

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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

2014 – Book #25

Posted in Beautiful Creatures, Book reviews, Book series, Books made into movies, Young Adult by

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The twenty-fifth book I read in 2014 was Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. I finished this book on 4/11/14. This is the first book in the Beautiful Creatures series by these authors. I rated this book 4.5 stars out of a scale of 5. This book tells the story of Ethan Wate and Lena Duchannes, star-crossed lovers who are cursed from the start.

Lena is a Caster (fancy word for witch pretty much) who falls in love with Ethan, a Mortal. Ethan has been dreaming about Lena for months before he even met her, dark nightmares where Ethan tries to pull Lena from the Darkness. But every time he wakes up and can’t seem to remember how the dream ends, whether he saves her or not. After Ethan finally meets the girl from his dreams, he discovers that she’s been dreaming of him too. Not only that, but they can communicate through “Kelting,” where they talk to each other basically telepathically. The big issue is that Lena is coming up on her 16th birthday, when she will be Claimed for either the Dark or the Light, whatever is in her true nature. Ethan and Lena have visions of their ancestors, Ethan Wate (from Civil Ware era) and Genevieve Duchannes, who were also in love many years ago. Lena and Ethan learn of their tragic ending and the curse that fell on the Duchannes family after Genevieve used Dark Magic to try and save Ethan’s life.

Lena’s Uncle Macon Ravenwood will do whatever it takes to keep her safe. And as dangerous as loving Ethan is for Lena, it also seems to protect her in some way. The connection between them is unexplainable in the Caster world. And as their story plays out, Macon will sacrifice whatever it takes to push Lena towards being Claimed for the Light. Macon is a Dark Caster but he has chosen to be Light for Lena, even though it weakens him daily. Lena discovers though that Macon has been lying to her for her entire life by telling her that her mother is dead. Her mother, Sarafine, is alive and well. The Darkest Caster alive today, her mother will do anything to have Lena be Claimed for the Dark.

I really loved this book. I had seen the movie last year and its become one of my new favorite movies lately. So when I found out it was based on a series of books, I couldn’t wait to read them. There were many differences between the book and the movie (as there usually are) but I thought the book was riveting and all the extra intricacies in the book only made the story that much better. Was a great read!

Link to authors’ website: http://beautifulcreaturesauthors.com/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Creatures-Kami-Garcia/dp/0316077038/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397308531&sr=8-1&keywords=beautiful+creatures

2014 – Book #20

Posted in Book reviews, Romantic suspense by

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The twentieth book I finished in 2014 was Below the Surface by Karen Harper. I finished this book on 3/28/14 (again on a technicality at 12:20am). This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I rated this book 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5.

Brianna Devon resurfaces from her dive off the coast of Florida to discover her twin sister, Daria, and their boat have disappeared. With the threat of sharks and an oncoming storm, she is stranded 4 miles out in the ocean with little hope of being saved. Luckily for her Cole De Roca is also shored by the oncoming storm on a nearby island. When Brianna washes ashore unconscious, he knows he must get her help immediately.

After Brianna awakens and begins searching for her missing sister, she uncovers a wealth of things she never knew about the twin she thought she knew like the back of her hand. And after Daria’s body is discovered in their sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean, Brianna refuses to believe that Daria simply fell victim to the storm. With a wealth of motives from various people in their lives, Brianna believes that Daria may have been murdered. But as Brianna begins to dig deeper into Daria’s secret life to try and discover her killer, she becomes the new target. Cole must now protect Brianna at all costs as he discovers life wouldn’t be complete without her.

I very much liked the plot of this book, it was a good suspense story with a wealth of possible suspects. The conversations tended to be a bit choppy at times and there were a few loose ends that weren’t ever tied up (who was the second guy that Daria was meeting at that bar?) but overall this was a good story and I had a lot of trouble putting it down. I plan to read more by this author in the future.

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

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Below-Surface-Karen-Harper/dp/0778324966/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363631021&sr=1-1&keywords=Karen+Harper+Below+the

2014 – Book #16

Posted in Book reviews, Paranormal romance by

ImageThe sixteenth book I finished in 2014 was Werewolf in Las Vegas by Vicki Lewis Thompson. I finished this book on 3/15/14. I rated this book 3.5 stars out of a scale of 5. This book is part of Thompson’s Werewolf series, some of which I have read previously to 2014.

This book is about Giselle Landry, a werewolf from San Fransisco who comes to Vegas in search of her runaway older brother who is next in line to become the alpha of their family pack. During the course of looking for her brother she discovers that he is currently involved with a human, the little sister of Luke Dalton. She decides to team up with Luke to try and find both of their siblings. While they look though a steamy romance develops and even though Giselle is against Were-Human mating, she can’t seem to resist Luke. The result is definitely a steamy read.

I really tend to enjoy paranormal romance novels. The creativity that goes into them to create an entirely different world is astounding to me sometimes. Overall I have enjoyed Thompson’s novels and her Werewolf series as a whole. This story specifically was a very sweet story, though I found the ending a little too neat and tidy considering all the problems that Giselle and Luke will have to face as a Were-human couple.

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

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Werewolf-Las-Vegas-About-Novel/dp/045141568X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395145358&sr=8-1&keywords=werewolf+in+las+vegas