I haven't really been in the right mindset for a lot of reading, not even fluff. At some point, there are a couple of heavier titles I want to get at, but I just haven't been able to wrap my head around concepts. All of this month's reads are romance; one was grabbed from the TBR pile, three are from the book club, and one was a Woe-is-Me grocery store purchase.
If you're not familiar, this category is best described as those books purchased by a woman that's having a truly shitty day and desperately needs a mental escape. "Aha...a novel will do the trick. $11 for a paperback that I can get at the USB in a month for a fraction of the cost? Oh, woe is me, I deserve this book, so I don't care!" Hey...it's better than ice-cream, right?
There are a few books on my Christmas list and I just got an email from a friend saying she's mailed me eight books. What could be better? (TY, Janet!!!) Hopefully over the holidays I'll be able to relax and do some catching up in the fantasyland of fiction.
"Cover of Night" by Linda Howard
Heroine is a young widow and owns a B&B out in the boonies. The hero, filled with unspoken longing for the fair lady, quietly works as the town handyman. Bad guys mistakenly believe a guest left something important behind after staying in the B&B, so they decide to ambush the town.
Howard is one of my favourite authors, but this romantic suspense was a huge disappointment. First off, it wasn't full of romance or suspense. I kept waiting for the story to take off...and it never did. No catch my breath with concern or surprise moments. The interaction between the hero and heroine was dull. She was sympathetic enough, but never grew on me; he seemed capable enough and there were two "Awww" moments, but no sparks.
The entire town being ambushed should have opened up tons of secondary characters, but the ones featured were bland and lacking in backstory. Characters die at the peak of the action and I really didn't care...because they'd never even been mentioned before! Rather than build characters, Howard did loads of rehashing about how worried the heroine was of her ability to raise her twin boys, but it was so repetitive, I just didn't care. The ending was a relief. Dull, dull, DUD.
"The Wrong Hostage" by Elizabeth Lowell
A recently divorced judge's teenage son is taken hostage in Mexico. The ransom, her ex-husband, who happens to be in the witness protection program. Where's a heroine to go for help? The ex-lover she-done-wrong 'lo so many years ago, of course! He just quit working for a kidnapping consultant that operates under government radar, and the spark between boy and girl still sizzles. The heroine was tough enough to admire, but real enough to believe; the hero was full of sexy smug. There were a few history tidbits tossed into nice scenery description. The heroine's son is thrown a couple of curveballs and was very likable, but I didn't feel great suspense at any time. Still, an easy & enjoyable read.
"Just for Kicks" by Susan Andersen - Sequel to "Skintight"
Las Vegas showgirl/pet-lover heroine clashes with head of casino security hero. Old characters are revisited, which is always cool. Hero's teenage nephew throws a wrench in his lifestyle and naturally hits it off big with the annoying heroine. Their conflicts just didn't ring true and nothing was as steamy as Skintight. Even for a fluff read, this got a "meh" rating.
"Santa Baby" by Jennifer Cruisie
This choice from the woe-is-me category sounded like good medicine. I adore Cruisie - her writing style is addicting, she develops really strong characters that appeal to me on the believability scale, and her sense of humour is wicked good. This holiday novella...not so wicked good. I don't even want to explain the plot. There were some LOL moments, but not enough to justify the $11. Perhaps I've just gotten spoiled by Cruisie's full length novels, but this was all just too cheesy for me.
As for the bonus novellas, "Hot Toy" by Lori Foster and "Naughty Under the Mistletoe" by Carly Phillips, they should have been labelled semi-erotic novellas. Semi-steamy, no plot whatsoever. In all honesty, the best part about Santa Baby is the sneak peek at Foster's "Causing Havoc" which is due out soon.
"Born to be Wild" by Catherine Coulter
I'm about a quarter into this romantic supsense, and so far, so good. Fast paced, witty writing, smart-ass heroine and two potential heros....mmmm. I'll letcha know.... : )
If you're not familiar, this category is best described as those books purchased by a woman that's having a truly shitty day and desperately needs a mental escape. "Aha...a novel will do the trick. $11 for a paperback that I can get at the USB in a month for a fraction of the cost? Oh, woe is me, I deserve this book, so I don't care!" Hey...it's better than ice-cream, right?
There are a few books on my Christmas list and I just got an email from a friend saying she's mailed me eight books. What could be better? (TY, Janet!!!) Hopefully over the holidays I'll be able to relax and do some catching up in the fantasyland of fiction.
"Cover of Night" by Linda Howard
Heroine is a young widow and owns a B&B out in the boonies. The hero, filled with unspoken longing for the fair lady, quietly works as the town handyman. Bad guys mistakenly believe a guest left something important behind after staying in the B&B, so they decide to ambush the town.
Howard is one of my favourite authors, but this romantic suspense was a huge disappointment. First off, it wasn't full of romance or suspense. I kept waiting for the story to take off...and it never did. No catch my breath with concern or surprise moments. The interaction between the hero and heroine was dull. She was sympathetic enough, but never grew on me; he seemed capable enough and there were two "Awww" moments, but no sparks.
The entire town being ambushed should have opened up tons of secondary characters, but the ones featured were bland and lacking in backstory. Characters die at the peak of the action and I really didn't care...because they'd never even been mentioned before! Rather than build characters, Howard did loads of rehashing about how worried the heroine was of her ability to raise her twin boys, but it was so repetitive, I just didn't care. The ending was a relief. Dull, dull, DUD.
"The Wrong Hostage" by Elizabeth Lowell
A recently divorced judge's teenage son is taken hostage in Mexico. The ransom, her ex-husband, who happens to be in the witness protection program. Where's a heroine to go for help? The ex-lover she-done-wrong 'lo so many years ago, of course! He just quit working for a kidnapping consultant that operates under government radar, and the spark between boy and girl still sizzles. The heroine was tough enough to admire, but real enough to believe; the hero was full of sexy smug. There were a few history tidbits tossed into nice scenery description. The heroine's son is thrown a couple of curveballs and was very likable, but I didn't feel great suspense at any time. Still, an easy & enjoyable read.
"Just for Kicks" by Susan Andersen - Sequel to "Skintight"
Las Vegas showgirl/pet-lover heroine clashes with head of casino security hero. Old characters are revisited, which is always cool. Hero's teenage nephew throws a wrench in his lifestyle and naturally hits it off big with the annoying heroine. Their conflicts just didn't ring true and nothing was as steamy as Skintight. Even for a fluff read, this got a "meh" rating.
"Santa Baby" by Jennifer Cruisie
This choice from the woe-is-me category sounded like good medicine. I adore Cruisie - her writing style is addicting, she develops really strong characters that appeal to me on the believability scale, and her sense of humour is wicked good. This holiday novella...not so wicked good. I don't even want to explain the plot. There were some LOL moments, but not enough to justify the $11. Perhaps I've just gotten spoiled by Cruisie's full length novels, but this was all just too cheesy for me.
As for the bonus novellas, "Hot Toy" by Lori Foster and "Naughty Under the Mistletoe" by Carly Phillips, they should have been labelled semi-erotic novellas. Semi-steamy, no plot whatsoever. In all honesty, the best part about Santa Baby is the sneak peek at Foster's "Causing Havoc" which is due out soon.
"Born to be Wild" by Catherine Coulter
I'm about a quarter into this romantic supsense, and so far, so good. Fast paced, witty writing, smart-ass heroine and two potential heros....mmmm. I'll letcha know.... : )
2 comments:
Books.
I am not a Linda Howard fan and reading the posts lately about her books, I don't think I'll bother reading them.
The only EL I have ever enjoyed enough to keep are the Amber, Jade, Pearl and Ruby series. I just can't get into them. Her daughter writes now. The reviews were poor on the library site but I got one out just to make up my own opinion. Not here yet. Will let you know.
Since I never finished Skintight.. I never started Just for Kicks.
Santa Baby.... was a HUGE disappointment. It's still on my keeper shelf but I don't know if I'll ever go back and read it again.
Born to be Wild - I wondered about. Since the FBI books are getting dull. If I remember correctly it's the one that bounced back and forth between 2 or 3 plots. I liked it. I got it from the library. But not enough to buy my own copy. It was a one time read.
Books...? Well I suppose one up side to our children growing up, is it seems we get time to read again : ) Don't get me wrong, i still get the opportunity to read, heck just yesterday i read Go-Deigo-Go, Deigo saves the baby wolf pup, Peek-a-boo-blues and A princess is... I have to admit, Dora books are still my favorite, lets learn Spanish!!! LOL Between these "top 10" titles and my 12 modules I have to read and study I have no time to read Santa Baby : ( Or any of the other 'real people' books : ) I have to admit, between you and I, I have made it about 15 pages into "A Million Little Pieces" Don't tell anyone, becasue I was suppose to be studying, lol! Ha, to all of them!!
Anyhow it's 9:45 and i'm sitting here listening to my MP3, MAN I LOVE MY MUSIC!!! HINDER, ALL THE WAY BABY! Oh, you have to check out a few of these songs......PAPAROACH - cut my life into pieces & BRAD PAISLEY -she's everything.
So last night we had a small pre-Christmas gathering with our neighbors, ate way too much Pizza, drank way too much and had 1 too many smokes ; ) What a blast! The kids had a great time, they love the sheer excitment of seeing whats under the pretty paper, ahh to be so innocent again. So after a whopping 4 hours sleep my freaking nightstand starts beeping in my ear, fu*k I can't believe time passes so quickly when you sleep! Anyhow I drag my butt out of bed, wash my face, grab a scrub top and bottoms, pray that they match and throw on some mascara and lipgloss. Off I go, still a bit messed and still 3/4 asleep, get into the van and pull out of the garage and down the road I go...BAM, STOP! I just stop dead in my tracks, try reversing and nothing.. Oh yeah did I mention that we got snow and 50 km/hr+ winds yeasterday and all night, including now?? Yeah, sorry I forgot that little detail... Who'd of thunk that the van wouldn't be able to drive through all the snow, in the same tracks that a big ass truck had left? Don't know how long ago the truck drove through the snow, but hey they were pretty fresh looking?? So I'm sure you can imagine how chirpy and impressed hubby was when I phoned him at 6:55am, to let me know I was stuck up the road and I needed to be shoveled out. Now 2 hours later and the dedicated cursing and camaraderie of 2 other soldiers and a retierd farmer, the van was thawing in the safe haven of it's garage : ) To boot, I don't own boot and I was wearing my open back clogs,oops! Snow really is freking cold and doesn't seem to melt when your feet are cold...Needless to say I didn't make it into work for my 4 hour shift this morning so I got the joy of working this evening. YEAH!!! No one was impressed with this but hey what can ya do?? I can't sit on my ass at home knowing that people are working 12 hours to make up for people who couldn't make it in, like me!! Tomorrow, we're alerady way understaffed, yeah, so I may be the one pulling another 12 hour : ( I hope not, i have last min, wrapping and Christmas cards to do but whaterver will be will be. Work or try and get ready and finish up for Christmas?? Huh, decisions, decisions...
Went to the New tattoo guy in town before I went into work this afternoon, I wanted to see what he can do to cover up the rose on my shoulder. So now I'm on the hunt for something really wild/funky. Any ideas??
Oh,I finally got the pics from Banff uploaded so i'll send them to you, just promise not to laugh!
Well I beter go, getting hungry and I should try and hit the hay a bit earlier tonight.
Talk to you soon.
Posh ;)
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