Recent Reads

Off Limits by Sawyer Bennett

Genre: Contemporary/Young Adult

Steam Level:  Just the right temperature

My thoughts:  I am so taken with this author and her books. One of the recent ones I read I only graded a 2 as I didn’t like the heroine one little bit, but over all I’m most impressed and quite happy to have found Sawyer Bennett.

I seem to be reading this series backwards so for anyone wondering if the series needs to be read in order, no it doesn’t.
This is the story of Nixon or Nix Caldwell and Emily Burnham. Emily is a trust fund child. She comes from wealth and privilege. Several years before the story starts, she realized that she had been a person she didn’t like and has made a concentrated effort to become a better person. I’ll be honest and say early into the story I wasn’t sure how it was going to go as she is given a choice, bow to pressure and go out with a former boyfriend who has become stalkerish or losing her trust fund and she went with the stalker ex route. I was a bit worried that would ruin her for me and I even put the book down for a couple of days thinking I would be disappointed. But since I have had good luck with this author, I went back to it and it’s a good thing I did. Emily is young, still in college and to buck a lifetime of behavior would be kind of difficult to do all at once and she has come a long way. And I did like her ever so much.

She and Nix meet when she almost runs him down and does some real damage to his motorcycle. They both orbit around some of the same people. Emily is the sister of Ryan Burnham, who’s story Off Sides, I haven’t read yet but is the first in the series and Nix is the brother of Linc Caldwell, the hero of Off the Record, which I have read and enjoyed. Ryan and Linc are both on the same NHL hockey team. Although they are kind of in the same circle up until the motorcycle accident they hadn’t met. Nix is, well, a jerk to Emily and she is less than impressed. She’s willing to pay him for the damage she did but it turns out that she doesn’t have enough of her monthly allotted amount so he comes up with the idea of having her work it off. He owns his own custom motorcycle/metal art business and he is terrible at the administrative end of it. He decides to take that in lieu of.

Nix is a real 'Oscar the Grouch' kind of hero and if done well, one of my favourite kind. And I think Ms. Bennett did him just about perfect. He’s a returning veteran and he is suffering from PTSD, a Traumatic Brain Injury, physical scars and a whole boatload of guilt. Because of all these factors, he figures there in no chance that he can have any kind of relationship, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t do one nighters. And he is hot for Emily. Emily, for her part, is hot for Nix, but his running hot and cold and being a jerk and a nice guy have her very confused. But lust and growing love have her agreeing to his offer – strings free sex.

Of course this is a romance and it never really works that way in a romance. Nix begins trusting and opening up to Emily about his ghosts and rather than reject him, she gives him unconditional support.

And while Emily is a younger heroine than I’m used to in a contemporary romance, I ended up liking her a lot. The characters from the other books make appearances but I don’t think it’s need to read the first one in order to enjoy this one – since I didn’t and I did.

I really enjoyed this one along with most of the other books by this author I’ve read and I ended up getting the box set of all the books in this series

Grade: 4.5 out of 5


Off the Record by Sawyer Bennett

Genre: Contemporary/Young Adult

Steam Level:  As it's the same author, it's again the right temperature

My thoughts:

I'm not sure how I came across this one, it might have been a Kindle Daily Deal. But however I came across it, when I read the synopsis, I was sold. I love sports romance and hockey in particular. I do hold my breath sometimes though. Although there are many who know the game more, I do pride myself in knowing quite a bit about the sports I enjoy and sadly, I dock major points if the author doesn't know the sport they are writing about.

I could breath with this one though. The entire story takes place during the off season so it wasn't really an issue. Lincoln Caldwell is a young goalie for the New York Rangers. If I had any reservation and it kept this from being 5 stars is how young he is. But that's a rather small quibble.

Lincoln is young, he is hot and he lives in New York. He's a normal guy. But Ever Montgomery, who is writing an article on him for the paper she works for brings misinformation and her own screwed over issues into the article and writes a scathing piece, calling him a man whore when he really isn't. As payback Linc insists Ever spend the next six weeks with him in order to get to really know him.

I liked this book, I really did. I wasn't sure if I would as it's written in the first person and not only that but also in the present tense. This is not normally something I read. When I discover it's first person, unless it's a well known author, or a book with real good buzz, when I find it's in the first tense, I tend to move to another book but I am SO GLAD I kept going. The author alternates with one chapter from Ever's POV and the next chapter from Lincs so we get to see what they are both thinking.

And I liked both characters immensely, Linc just a tad more than Evers. She was just a tiny bit harder to warm up too and took a bit longer to get over her issues resulting from being abandoned by her father and cheated on by her fiancé. But considering these things, I could see why she was the way she was. And her grovel was very well written.

I very happily recommend this book and as it's part of a series, I fully plan on getting more books by Sawyer Bennett


And again I read these out of order.  I read 2 then 1 and it was fine.
Grade: 4.5 out of 5

Recent Read

On the Rocks by Sawyer Bennett

Genre: Contemporary/Young Adult

Steam Level:  not to bad, not to bad at all

My Thoughts: If anyone is a regular follower of my reviews, they might think all the books I read are either 4's or 5's with a very rare 3. Alas, this is not the case. I'm only giving this one a 2. There is a BUT I will get to later though. This the story of Hunter Markham, a world class surfer and Gabby Ward, a young contractor who took over her fathers business when he died. Gabby has been lifelong best friends with his sister Casey and has been crushing on Hunter for years. She made a move on him a few years previously but he shut her down and at the start of the book she is still very angry and very cold to him.

But he has feelings for her now that she's all grown up and when she bids on a job to refurbish a local bar and wins it, they are forced to work together and the sparks fly.

The author writes in a very unusual style. She writes in the present tense and in the first person. Each chapter is in either Gabby's voice or in Hunters. Normally I would run far away from this, both because of the tense and the first person, but for the most part the author makes it work and this, oddly enough, isn't one of the reasons the book doesn't work for me at all. The biggest reason is I can't stand Gabby. Ugh, just ugh. She makes one stupid decision after the other based on her feelings. She's mad at hunter so she will toss away the chance to renovate, she decides not to tell her best friend she's banging her brother, knowing it will hurt Stacey when she finds out about Gabby and Hunter. She wants to keep their relationship a secret for no good reason I could figure. She's immature and just plain stupid and I did not like spending half the book in her head. And she calls her friends "bestie". For Pete's sake, that's what Amy Farrah Fowler calls Penny in The Big Bang Theory. In the show it's funny, in this book it's stupid and annoying.

I also thought the book had too many very descriptive sex scenes. Now despite what my sisters say, they do it to annoy me, not because it's true, I am NOT a prude and love a well written sex scene or three. But this book was on overkill. Enough already I thought a few times. We get it. Back to Abby, for a minute, she was, well, not to sound like a prude 'cause I'm not, but I'm going to sound like it, she has a potty mouth and a potty brain. She describes what she and Hunter do as the F bombing. I get that the guys in many of these books "think" that way, but when the heroine does, I find it rather offensive. So in no uncertain terms I did not like this book. I liked Hunter quite a bit but Abby ruined it.

But I mentioned there was a but and here it comes. I read another book by this author and really enjoyed it so I know she can write books I enjoy, she just didn't do it with this one. And Hunter has a twin brother who spent five years in jail and I wanted very much to read his story, so I did want to finish this one so I could read brother Brody's book. Which I am reading right now and liking.

So there you have it. A low grade for a book I did not like but I'm reading the next one and glad to be doing so.

Grade: 2 out of 5

'til later

More Ponderings

 

 

Another short post.  Work is picking up again (thank goodness) but I still have time to ponder.  As mentioned before, I lost my blogging mojo and it recently started coming back and before I could manage to solve the forgotten password, I started getting a lot more active at Good Reads – kind of my pre-resume blogging fix.  I found this really neat feature.  If I gave book 4 or 5 stars, it gave me a list of friends to send a recommendation to.  Cool beans.  But with great power comes great responsibility.  I’m an author’s delight.  I enjoy a lot of what I read so I was getting this feature pop up quite a bit.  But I didn’t want to abuse it and send out a referral to everyone that pops up.  My son is a friend on Good Reads and while the thought of recommending some real hawt erotic novel is very tempting and every time I see his name I giggle, I don’t.  The most tempted I’ve been is with Transcendence but even then I resisted.  I don’t think he would appreciate the romance aspect as much as I did – heh, heh, heh.  A lot of the people that come up are technically friends but I haven’t had real interaction with them so I don’t want to send them to strangers.  So if anyone reading this has received a recommendation from Good Reads from me, I have sent it thoughtfully.

 

But even still I hesitate to do this.  I know, I know some of you long term readers are thinking. 

“Aren’t you the odd ball who emailed every romance reader you know and told them they HAD to read Broken Wing by Judith James?  And aren’t you the one who haunted blogs and at the least little opportunity told the blogger to read Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas?  And what about Ride the Fire by Pamela Clare??  That’s what we expect from you.!"

 

Yes, that was me and I did do that.  But even as I was doing it, I knew that not all readers would be struck as much as I am by some books.  While many may enjoy the books as much as I do, some may consider them a waste of time and of money and wonder to themselves ‘what’s the big deal?’  I don’t want to – and this is going to sound rather vain, but I don’t really mean it that way – lose my power of the recommendation by going full tilt and have more people than not think it a m’eh book.  Because then they would have wasted their money and I’d feel bad about it.  I know every book we pick up is a risk, even if it’s a well-loved author, but it’s kind of like a box of chocolates, we never know what we are going to get.

 

So this is really my rambling (cause that’s how I roll) way of wondering if you appreciate recommendations from fellow readers, pay no attention to rec’s or find them annoying.  I don’t seem to get that many – I send a lot more than I receive, but I do check them out to see how they appeal to me.  And sometimes I’ll get the book and sometimes not.

And if you do get a book based on someone else’s recommendation and it’s so bad you don’t know why they bothered, does it bother you?

And this is the book that did it for me Recent Read

Transcendence by Shay Savage

Genre: I'm not quite sure how to put it - but - prehistoric

Steam Level:  Oh very nice.


My Thoughts:  This is the book that really kicked me into my Book Restelessness.  It's going to be a while I think, before a book affects me this deeply.

It was a long weekend here in Canada so I had a chance to read a number of books. One of them was Transcendence. I found this one when I was ‘playing’ on Good Reads and noticed it was on the list of a Good Reads friend with a 5 star review. I checked a few other friends reviews and they had given it similar raves. The story sounded very different so I thought I would give it a try. I think I can honestly say this is the most unique romance I’ve ever read. The setting is in prehistoric times though we’ve no idea where. As if that isn’t different enough, the story is told entirely from the hero’s POV and he has no real ability to communicate. He doesn’t have the talking function in his brain; at best he can grunt in slightly different tones.

Edh as he thinks of himself, is all alone. He did have a tribe but they were all killed in a fire many years before the opening of the book. He is very lonely but doesn’t really have the comprehension to realize that is what he is. He is getting weaker and weaker due to lack of food and real motivation to find some. But the human spirit in him refuses to give up altogether and he sets a trap by digging a pit to trap an animal. But it’s not an animal he trap’s, it’s a young woman from modern times.

Honestly it’s tough to get across how distinctive this book is. While Edh doesn’t talk, he has inner thinking and he’s delighted to have found a mate that he can ‘put a baby in’. That’s the adorable way he thinks having sex, making love. The mate, on the other hand doesn’t see things quite the same way. We learn that her name is Elizabeth but Edh can’t say that so he refers to her as Beh – the closest he can say to Beth. He also learns the word No, as Beh says it to him quite often when he’s all set to ‘make a baby’. Considering he’s prehistoric male though, he’s quite philosophical about the whole thing and is willing to wait until Beh is ready to ‘make a baby’. Most of what he knows or comes to understand, he picked up from watching his family before they lost. Despite not being able to communicate with Beh in any kind of language; she talks – a lot – but all he hears is a buzzing, they do manage to communicate slowly through their unusual communication, over time they fall in love.

I don’t want to say too much, but I will say that at the end of this very beautiful, very unusual love story, I cried. And I’m talking sore throat from trying not to break out into sobbing, crying. That hardly EVER happens when I read a book, but despite their being no real spoken language between Edh and Beh, I connected with them that much.

This book gets my highest recommendation for both its uniqueness and the fact it made me cry. Cry people! I don't normally do that when reading a book.


Grade: 5 out of 5

It's Not You, It's Me.

Sometimes I'm just going to be short.  While most of the time I AM in the mood to ramble on, on the rare occasion, I'm not

I’m going through a Restless Book Reader phase right now.  I’m sure we’ve all had it at one time or another.  Although similar, it does differ from a full-blown case of a Book Reader Block.  I think what caused it is I had such a run of good book, topped by the best one that went as far as to make me CRY!! (review coming shortly)  I’ve tried a few since then but can’t really focus on actually getting into one knowing it will be difficult to top the run I just had.

A Block is not the same.  When one has come down with a case of the Block, one is not interested in reading any book, anything more thought provoking than a cereal box or an odd People magazine.

Right now I’m in the mood, but I’m in the mood to read something I’m going to LOOOOVVVEEE.  But until I get into it, I won’t really know.  ‘tis a dilemma.  I’ve started about 3 or 4, all different genres and it’s that old “it’s not you, it’s me” feeling. 

 

'til later

 

Recent Reads

Taking Him by Jackie Ashenden

Genre: Contemporary

Steam Level: oh my stars, yes there is steam. Lots and lots


My Thoughts:  After reading a most excellent review at All About Romance for the second book in this series, Having Her I knew I must buy it. And since the first book, Taking Him was pretty much the same price and I could tell they were connected, I got this one too and figured I’d read them in order this time.

Note of interest. When I was in Grade 3 I developed a crush on the son of friends of my parents who was a few years older than myself. This crush lasted all the way through high school and even today, more years than I care to think about, hearing his name gives me a funny feeling. I didn’t know him that well, but spent a couple of summers camping with his family and mine and we went to the same schools. So when I read a story where the heroine has had a lifelong crush on the hero, dating back to childhood, I can buy into it so easily as I lived it. Mind you, mine is not a story where after years of unrequited love, he finally noticed me and we got married and lived happily ever after. I lost track of him after he left high school and my family moved to another city – but still.
If you haven’t gathered it by now, this is that kind of a story.

Ellie Fox has had a crush on her older brother’s best friend, Hunter Chase, for years, ever since he sometimes looked after her when she was young and her brother was dealing with a very unstable, mentally ill mother. But of course he never noticed her as anything other than his buddies sister who he knew had a crush on him. But Ellie is all grown up and about to leave the country for a squeal of a job designing video games for a company in Japan. She decides she has nothing left to lose, she’s leaving after all, and makes a play for him when he picks her up and rescues her when she gets very drunk at a Comi-Con convention. Hunter is horrified – it’s his best friend’s sister, but once the genie is out of the bottle he can’t help but think of her in “that way”. But she’s his best friends sister and if that isn’t enough, he had real sexual issues himself that plague him. He was sexually molested when he was younger by someone he trusted and he’s done a major job in his head trying to deal with things. Because he was not in control when he was young, he has major sexual control issues now and has rules that his partners must adhere to. When he folds under the onslaught of Ellie, she must also abide by his ‘rules’. And oddly enough, one of his rules is no sexual intercourse. Yes, our 33 year old alpha type hero is still technically a virgin. Oddly enough, this is the second virgin hero book I read in a weekend, though both for totally different reasons. Hunter is very skilled at what he does and definitely knows his way around a woman’s body.

Ellie is desperate and in love enough to accept Hunter’s very odd rules. She has no clue as to why he’s set them in place but she does clue in that he has issues and wants to help him. In the real world, things wouldn’t be solved by the love of a good woman, but I don’t read romance novels for real world solutions. I had no trouble buying into this “romance novel – love heals all’ premise. In the story Ellie eventually gets through to Hunter and gets to the root of his issues. She tries explaining that he wasn’t to blame, but a lifetime of issues take longer to overcome.

I loved this book. I loved Hunter; he most definitely is an alpha type hero and it makes for a very interesting dichotomy when the fact he’s a virgin is added. And I quite liked Ellie too. I read another review where the reviewer called her desperate. While I could understand why the reviewer felt that, I didn’t. I think she had a girls love for him but didn’t really know who he was apart from what he showed her when he took care of him, but as she got to know him outside and inside, that love evolves to a more mature love. And I found the ending a bit unusual – in a good way. I’m glad I found the review for the next book and as a result, found and read and loved this one. I know I’ll be reading it more than once.
I’m looking forward to the next book about her brother Vin and her best friend. I have a feeling it will take place around the same time as this one does.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5




Having Her by Jackie Ashenden

Genre: Contemporary

Steam Level: oh my stars, yes there is steam. Lots and lots


My Thoughts: Right off the bat I have to confess that this book made me uncomfortable to read. I’ve never read a BDSM/slave-master relationship book before and I can state categorically that it will never be my cup of tea. Not that I’m saying anything is wrong with it – hey we all have our fantasies and I can’t say that hasn’t been one of mine at one point or another in my lifetime, but I’m just uncomfortable reading with that being the sum total of the relationship. Which one would wonder why the high marks? I will explain *grin*

Vin Fox is a control freak. At least he comes across that way as in reality his life is completely out of control. His mother suffers from schizophrenia and when she is off, the voices tell her to kill her daughter, Vin’s sister Ellie and the heroine of the first book, Taking Him. His father left the family early, unable to handle Vin’s mother’s illness. Vin had to give up his dream of going to architectural school. Because he can’t control things, he overcompensates and anger seethes within him.

Kara Sinclair is Ellie’s best friend. While outwardly she is one strange young woman, she dresses oddly, constantly changes the colour of her hair, wears bright contact lenses, in fact she has a case of virginity she wants to rid herself of but whenever she gets close to it, she can’t – or rather can’t let whatever partner – go through with it. She also has issues though we don’t start seeing them until further on in the story.

So this is the set-up. Although they know each other through Ellie, Vin and Kara don’t have much interaction with each other until Vin picks Kara up after another failed attempt at getting rid of her pesky virginity. In a fit of pique, Kara asks Vin to do it. He refuses of course, but Kara seems to be set now on Vin being “The One” and sends him a series of emails and pictures, some at inopportune times. He finally loses his temper and takes her up on her offer, while she is wearing a Princess Lea costume she had donned for a Comi-con type convention.

Thus begins an erotic, somewhat unnerving role playing game of Vin being the Master and Kara being the Slave. There is no affection between the two; it’s strictly a sexual relationship at first though Vin is careful to be gentle and give Kara plenty of opportunity to call it off at any time. But in a twisted way, it suits both their needs; Vin’s need to control and Kara’s need to be absolved of any responsibility or intimacy and as we will find out later on, a kind of punishment. I’m not exactly sure what I was feeling reading this part of the book, but what I did find was that it was a compelling read and very difficult to put down. If the book had continued like this, I’m sure I still would have kept reading but not sure of my enjoyment level, but as Vin’s world spins more out of control, he slowly begins treating Kara differently, caringly, needing her outside the boundary of Master/Slave. Kara wants no part of this changing of the rules. That means facing her own tragic demons.

I am in awe of how this author tells a story. Kara’s life is so sad. She is so far from the person we think we know from the beginning of this book and the previous book when she was a secondary character. I ached for her. And it would be so easy to dislike Vin and his control issues, but I didn’t. I ached for him too. He never had a childhood and had to take on responsibilities far beyond what he should have had to. These two are perfectly suited, both filling a need the other one has. They are both so broken and it is through opening up, getting past the lines of their initial relationship, they begin to heal, as much as they are capable of. For both, the other is exactly what they need. It’s a complex connection they have and it’s dark, complicated story. And I loved it. Comfortable isn’t always best. This book proves it.


Grade: 5 out of 5

Recent Reads

Embattled Hearts by J.M. Madden

Genre: Contemporary/Romantic Suspense

Steam Level: Just about perfect

First in a Series (second book read)

My: Thoughts: I had no sooner finished reading Embattled Minds, the book I last reviewed, when I started reading this one. I was so taken with the first book by this author; by her writing, by her realness, by the characters, by the concept, that I had no choice but to read the first book in the series. This is the story of John Palmer and Shannon Murphy. John is one of founders of Lost ‘N’ Found Investigative Agency, a detective agency organized and run by Wounded Vets. John is quite the gruff unfriendly kind of guy. He was paralyzed from an injury – but – yes he can *wink* – and has become even more unsociable since being stuck in a wheel chair. His past is a sad and lonely one, so the reader can see why he is the way he is. Shannon has recently been hired by the agency as the office manager. From the beginning they notice each other but because each has quite a set of baggage, they don’t act on any attraction they may have. That is until John notices that Shannon seems ‘off’ and wants to know why. It turns out that something has gone terribly wrong. She had a very scary stalker years ago, but he is in prison now. Yet many of the same things are starting to happen that he did years ago; a Pepsi can left where she can’t help but see it and it has the stalkers finger prints, yet he is in jail. John takes no time in moving in with her to protect her and get the rest of agency on the case.

This one didn’t ‘get’ to me quite as much as Embattled Minds. While the previous is a 5, this one would be a 4 ½ if we could give ½ marks. I love a gruff teddy bear type of hero, but I didn’t find John teddy bearish. He is reluctant to believe that Shannon could really be interested in him at all. He was often rude and while I could understand why he is the way he is, he just doesn’t have that inner marshmallow that makes this kind of hero so attractive. I like Shannon, though she isn’t a real stand out kind of heroine. I did appreciate how calm and collected she remained despite the threat she is under. And I also liked how she wasn’t bothered at all by John’s infirmity. She wants him, she goes after him – that simple.

Like the first one I read, Embattled Hearts, this one is also novella size in length but again like the first one, I found the story and the characters to be very well developed.

I’ve already started reading the next one in the series, Embattled Home and expect that it won’t take me long to finish it either.
And I just want to make mention that there seems to be another Investigator/Private Detective type series entitled Lost and Found which seems to also be a group of Vets returned from war. I haven’t read this other series, but want to make everyone aware the author of the series I’m reading at the moment is J.M. Madden. Thumbs up J.M.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5





Embattled Minds by J.M. Madden

Genre: Contemporary/Romantic Suspense

Steam Level: Just about perfect

Second in a Series (first book read)


When I embraced the world of ereading, it changed my reading world in so many ways. Because of outrageous prices, I don’t read nearly as much main stream romance authors anymore. I flat out refuse to pay MORE for an ebook than a print book and since so many publishers charge more, it breaks my heart that I just don’t read as many beloved authors as I used to. But the plus of this is I’ve discovered how many really wonderful authors there are in the world of epublishing. J.M Madden is one such author. In a previous review, I noted that I can tell how good a book is by how much time I can waste between readings. I’m a pro at wasting time with playing games, beading, watching TV, crocheting; anything but reading. While I was reading Embattled Minds, there was very little time wasting. In fact I woke up around 2:00 am one morning and right away dove back into the story for about half an hour or so before heading back in the land of the Zzzzzs.

As you may have gathered, I quite enjoyed this short story. This was another excellent Kindle Daily Deal. The synopsis sounded intriguing, right up my alley, so I wanted to give it a try. I’m pleased to say that I happily recommend it and in fact I hadn't got far into it before I purchased the rest in the series. I love a wounded hero healed by love and Zeke Foster made a wonderful wounded hero. Badly injured with a traumatic brain injury and physically scarred in Afghanistan; a wall exploded and landed on him, he feels no one can care for him. He has a hard time speaking anymore with a debilitating stutter and he feels he looks like a monster. Ember is part owner/waitress/single mother who works at a nearby bar that the PI team have started to frequent. Zeke is surprised that his disabilities don’t seem to faze her at all. He didn't count on someone like Ember entering his life though. She sees past his scars to the wonderful man underneath. He struggles believing that she really does care about him. I just loved Zeke to pieces. And Ember was a pretty darned good heroine. She has some difficult personal issues to deal with and Zeke.

Zeke works for a private detective agency that employees wounded veterans and Embattled Mind is the second in the series. This book just hit all my buttons in a good way and I can hardly wait to read more. I love the whole concept of a ‘band of brother’ theme. They all suffer to one extent or another; whether it’s PTSD, amputation, TBI or paralysis. Whatever it is, they aren’t the same when they come back from combat as when they left and I love they are made to feel an important part of society. This isn’t a full length novel, rather it’s novella size but Ms. Madden did a very good job in this shorter format. I started with this book and it was fine. I didn’t miss not reading the first at the time. Though I since have, and the review for that one will be coming shortly. She states that part of the proceeds for the sale of this book with go to a Veterans organization. This was just more icing on an already most delicious reading cake and more proof I did good when I bought this book.

I was just about to hit save when I realized I said very little about Ember!! Big omission that would have been. I loved her character. She was totally oblivious to the scars Zeke had and had a world of patience with him when he was trying to talk. She too has issues She has to deal with her father who needs help and is a single mother trying to raise a son with no input from his father who disappeared from her life when she got pregnant. She is the real head of the bar she co-owns with her dad. As much as Zeke is a wonderful hero, Ember is a wonderful heroine and just perfect for his wounded soul.

Grade: 5 out of 5

Things that make me happy

I’m a simple kind of people and the simple things make me happy.  Here are just a few:

 I love blingy jewelry.  I try not to go overboard but some days I probably do a bit.  But I love looking down at my hands when I type and see pretty colours on my chest, fingers and wrists.  That’s probably why I’m always forgetting about earrings, I don’t see them when I type.  Today I have 2 rings on one finger, one on the other, about 7 or 8 different skinny bangles on one arm, a boyfriend watch and white wire bracelet on the other, about five or six single strand necklaces, all in various shades of blue and white and I just look so colourful.

I love folded potato chips and I love burnt chips.  Whenever I get one that’s both, I kind of just stare at if for a few moments in anticipation before crunching down on it.  There was a scene in a book I read recently, Archer’s Voice, where the heroine loved folded chips and dug them out first.  There was nothing ever said about that, but later in the book Archer, the hero had got her a bowl of chips, all of them folded.  That one short little scene just melted my heart ‘cause I could relate to her love of folded chips and for the hero to notice that – well, *soft sigh*

While still on the same subject, oozing butter tarts.  Now I hear from my sister who lives in the US that butter tarts aren’t really something you guys have there.  Oh my, what you are missing!  There are two kinds, store made/store bought and homemade.  Now the store bought ones aren’t bad, but homemade butter tarts, oh total yummers.  My mother used to make them for a special treat when we were young and talk about comfort food.  Hopefully I can find a recipe and I shall include it.  The good ones are loaded with syrup and raisins and the juice can run down your chin.  I very rarely have them as they are some of the richest foods you can eat and loaded down with calories and other bad stuff, but once in a long while(?) another soft sigh

***OK – found stuff about them.  I don’t normally do recipes here but since it’s mostly a Canadian thing and I want to share them world wide……..*****

“Butter tarts are a Canadian tradition. Waaaay back in the 1970s, a national contest here in Canada concluded that these butter tarts, originating from Wilkie's Bakery in Orillia, Ontario, were the best. I certainly think so and it's the only recipe I use. Add a sprinkle of toasted walnuts when you add the raisins, if you wish, or use only walnuts if you don't like raisins.”

Butter Tart Recipe

Pie Pastry (enough to fill 16 muffin cups, your own recipe or from a mix)

½ cup raisins

¼ cup soft butter

¼ cup packed brown sugar

1 pinch salt

½ cup corn syrup

1 egg lightly beaten

½ teaspoon vanilla

1.     Prepare muffin pans by rolling out pie dough and cutting 4-inch (approx) circles; fit dough circles into muffin cups; set aside in fridge until ready to fill.

2.     In a small bowl, place raisins and cover with hot tap water; let stand on the counter for 30 minutes.

3.     In a large bowl, using a wooden spoon, mix together the soft butter, brown sugar, salt and corn syrup; stir well until sugar is dissolved and butter is creamed.

4.     Add egg and vanilla and mix well.

5.     Drain raisins.

6.     Retrieve tart shells and divide raisins equally into all shells; then divide butter mixture into all tarts.

7.     Bake at 400F for 15-20 minutes; filling will be lightly browned but still bubbling.

 Coming into work with a lot of work on my plate.  Without trying to sound too technical in talking about something no one else knows about or probably cares, we are assigned “tasks” by our Case Manager.  Since I started working in this job several years ago, we had thousands and I really do mean thousands of tasks.  The days flew by like you wouldn’t believe and I was beat daily, but all in a good way.  Then through ongoing changes and ongoing technology the number of tasks started going down.  In a matter of months I’ve gone from 300 a day to 30.  I’m used to working real fast in order to pound them all out and I KNEW I was earning my paycheck and I loved the feeling.  But now, until they change things to make up for the shortfall, the days are much longer and I have to stretch what work I do have and I don’t feel like I used to that I’m really earning my pay.  Of course it gives me time to do this so it’s not all bad.  But the odd day, I come in to a large amount of tasks again and I feel like going up and down the rows high fiving my coworkers.

Blogging again.  It was like a perfect storm that kept me away; drained after very busy day’s work, inability to get into blog and just no blogging mojo in general.  So if the stopping in blogging was a perfect storm, the return is a perfect glow after the storm.  I’m not exhausted at the end of the work day, I have time even to do this at work, my mojo came back and I’m back into the blog.  I’m thinking my mojo and job busyness are related.  I could tell it was coming back when I started doing more and more reviews at Good Reads and I knew it was back when I started putting personal stuff in the reviews and had to tell myself to stop doing that!!  Good Reads review readers didn’t care is I had a crush on a certain guy for most of my childhood life.  And I love to write.  I don’t have a novel in me – I have searched but it’s just not there – but I do love to write ABOUT novels, or about crushes, or about butter tarts or any number of things.  And I missed it and I’m glad I’m back doing it again

Freshly laundered sheets.  There’s nothing better than climbing into bed when you’ve just changed the sheets and they are still crisp and smell fresh.  It’s ever so much fun just to snuggle into them and wiggle around for a little bit.

Nighttime thunderstorms.  I love watching storms with great lightning.  Sometimes when there’s an especially heavy one going on, I turn off all the lights, open the blinds and just watch the show.  I know they can be dangerous, but they can also be beautiful.

Being given a special project at work that involves Excel just when I was anticipating a very long and boring day.  I had barely written the thunderstorm like when I got a communicator from my manager asking to see me in her office.  Naturally I thought it was something bad  - that’s just how I role.  But she wanted me to work on an interesting spread sheet.  My day just flew by after that and it will again tomorrow.  And it’s a Friday.  And a long weekend here in Canada.  That makes me very happy

'til later

STUFF

It seems like a long time since I’ve done a “Stuff” post.  That could be because it HAS been a long time.

 

One of the things that I’ve really been aware of since coming back from my extended absence is how dreadfully out of date this blog is.  It’s time for a revamp as I’m still showing books I read in 2011.  Who cares?  I don’t even care.  That was 3 years ago.  I will slowly be working on this but with only an IPad working it’s going to be slow progress.  But I’ve also been checking out the links to fellow bloggers on the sidebar and by the looks of things, I’m not the only one who took a powder.  Some of my fellow bloggers haven’t posted anything new since 2011.  And there are probably/hopefully many more new ones.  I was thinking if you drop me a quick note, I can add you to my sidebar as I (very sadly) delete some of the older former bloggers who haven’t been active for a while.

 Now this won’t be a quick process.  I still can’t get onto the internet on my home computer, only at work and through my IPad.  Without the ability to do Control C and Control – man do I love those buttons – it’s kind of hard to do much.  And even though work has dried up quite a bit lately – as opposed to those bygone and much missed days when it was even tough to get a bathroom break in it was that busy – I don’t feel right doing it at work.  I think management would frown and deservedly so.  It may just take a while.

 

I got some rather disappointing news today.  The contractor that I have renovating the bathroom has run into quite a snag somewhere else thus putting my reno back.  I was hoping to get it done next week; all the new stuff is in the store now and they said they would deliver it on the weekend.  But now he says he can’t get to it until the end of August.  I hope they will hold it at Home Depot until then.  Son #1 who moves about every 3 months it seems, is using my basement as his storage facility and no room down there.  I don’t want to leave my stuff outside for that long and I don’t have enough room to store it on the main floor.  *sigh*  Even more of a bummer – I already love my new bathroom in my head and I now hate the one I live with.  I don’t WANT to wait another month.  We’ve been working on getting it done since May and I’ve waited long enough says I.  It’s going to be ever so nice; no tub but nice big walk-in shower with gorgeous gray swirl tiles.  The floor will also be grayish gray swirls – they will look good together – and a blingy like black counter top on the vanity and very dark, almost gray, copper hardware.  The walls I’m having painted a gorgeous shade of salmon and will accent with shades of gray.

 

There will be those missing my tub though.  I have 2 new kitties.  I wasn’t going to get new cats after I had to have Cally put down when she got outside and was hit by a car, breaking her leg.  It was just too sad- and practically, too expensive.  But I realized I needed at least one cat again when I started talking to my fire detector.  You see, the battery was dying and it was “chirping” to let me know.  The chirping it made sounded just like a guinea pig we owned years ago and I was talking to it for about a week before I realized I either needed to get something living or see someone professionally.  I ended up getting to male kittens from the same litter I names Munch and Fin – I’ve long been a fan of Law and Order SVU. 

 

Now I’ve had cats all my life but I don’t think I’ve ever been as fond of any as I am of these two.  I’ve had them for a while now so they are no longer kittens.  They were taken away from their mama too early; I got them from a girl at work that got them from a neighbor who lied to her about how old they were.  They still suckle on stuff a lot.  A lot of different kinds of stuff; my head, my hair, my arm.  You should see them on fleece or flannelette.  They spread themselves out flat like pancaked squirrels, get their purring motors revved up full throttle and are off to the sucking races.  Munch – the more mischievous one loves to play fetch with a straw.  I throw it, he runs and gets it, brings it back to me and drops it right in front of me.  It’s a very fun game for both of us, though not so much for me at 3:30 in the morning when he’s up and rarin’ to go.  I found myself wondering if perhaps I was getting to carried away this morning though when I started giving them smootchie kisses – right on their kitty lips.

 

  Eeewwww.  Their favourite place to hang out now is in the tub.  I love watching them jump and run when I turn the shower on and they are still in there.

And a warning - though it's eeewwww to talk about kitty kissing, there will probably be many a story about my kitties.

 

 

 

And going back to the Shades of Grey – am I the only one not looking forward to the movie?  I haven’t read the books, don’t want to read the books and I haven’t watched the trailer.  I’ve seen bits of it on some of the entertainment shows and I’m totally meh on the guy who plays the lead – Christian isn’t that his name?

 

And speaking of books into movies, what I AM looking forward to is Outlander.  Now the guy who will be playing Jamie DOES do it for me.  It’s going to be playing on Showcase here in Canada though not starting until near the end of August as opposed to earlier on Starz in the US.

One of my more popular posts a number of years ago was one I did on how much I hate the Charmin commercial with that stupid bear family.  I thought that would be the worst series toilet paper commercials ever.  Part of me is morbidly curious to check out the website – enjoythego.com.  But I was wrong.  Dead. Wrong.  Scarily and frighteningly wrong.  There truly is worse and now I’ve seen the worst of the worst and I’ll never be the same.  I’m referring to those commercials where the English lady takes a roll of toilet paper and I don’t know – wipes or something – into a dimly lit speed dating lounge and asks prospective men about their toilet paper/pooping habits.  There is a series of them but it wasn’t until this particular add came out that I started humming that song ‘How low can the go.”  Sometimes I greatly fear for our society.

 

Dang – I’ve missed doing this kind of ‘stuff’

 

‘til later

Recent Read

Hard Time by Cara McKenna

Genre: Contemporary/Young Adult

Steam Level:  In all honesty, this one was too hot for me in  a few places - and I'm not a prude

My Thoughts:
I wanted to love this book. I really, really wanted to love this book and I’m sad to say I didn’t. I liked it, but alas, I didn’t love it. And it would have been easy if not for a couple of things.

This is the story of Annie Goodhouse and Eric Collier. Annie is a librarian in the state of Michigan, a state hit very hard by the recession. One of the duties of her job is a once a week visit to the local prison to help write letters, teach classes, help with computer stuff, that kind of thing. The rules are very strict in as to prisoner/non prisoner relations and the chance of any kind of relationship developing is unlikely, but this is a romance, so of course one does. Right from her first visit she can’t help but notice one prisoner in particular, Collier is his last name. He soon writes her a very intimate letter and she replies by letter as any kind of touching or one on one conversation is out of the question. Thus begins a secret relationship. Annie had gotten out of an abusive relationship a number of years previously and as a result, was pretty frozen inside. And Eric Collier, as the prisoner turns out to be, helps, with his passionate letters, unfreeze her. She figures he is ‘safe’ as he’s going to be locked up for the next 20 years. There notes to each other are very tender and sexy. Eric keeps telling her if she wants to keep things going to wear a certain colour and he will know she wants to. He is very respectful of her and I really appreciated that.


But unbeknownst to Annie, Eric has been working on getting an early parole and when he lets her know that he is being released very shortly, she freaks. He had been convicted of a brutal assault and has no remorse. He was defending his sister and feels he was justified in what he did. He’s not a violent guy by nature; in fact he comes across as very gentle.

When he is first released she doesn’t want to see him, what was fantasy before is now becoming real. But the pull between them is so powerful, she very reluctantly agrees after a time and their attraction to one another is off the charts. Both have been celibate for five years and they more than make up for it.

So, sounds like a delicious storyline and I really liked both characters. I liked Eric a lot. A LOT. So why didn’t I love this story when in theory I should have? First off, it’s told in the first person. I have been reading a lot of first person books lately and amazingly, really enjoying them. Some have been keepers that I know I’ll be reading again. But in those ones, at some point the POV switches to the hero. And it doesn’t in this book at all. I REALLY would have liked part of the book to take place in Eric’s head as I found him to be a very interesting and most excellent hero. It just seemed that we were missing something that really could have made the story more rounded.

There was a scene towards the latter part of the book that I wish I could just wash out of my memory. As I said earlier, except for that one controlled act of violence, Eric is a gentle and even tempered kind of guy, almost a beta type hero. But Annie almost forces him to perform an act of a sexual nature that he was very reluctant to do. I found it bordered on cruel of her to expect him to do it; to the point it made me angry almost. She was testing him for some reason and I saw no point in it whatsoever. But because he loves her and wants to please her, he goes along with it. And I just found it degrading and vile and not at all romantic.

We are never actually told why Eric committed the attack. We know that the person who attacked him was his sister’s ex-boyfriend. We can kind of guess, but it never comes out exactly. I thought this was a major point that was dropped and it shouldn’t have been. I mean the hero was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison. The reader wants to know why. But he won’t tell Annie as he figures it’s his sister’s story. And since we don’t get in his head at all, we don’t know.

And last, now this was an odd one for me *laughing* there was too much sex. Now I love a good love scene but I confess I started to drone out and skim and kind of wishing for more interaction between Eric and Annie on a less, shall we say, physical nature.

So overall I liked this book, loved Eric, liked Annie for the most part except for the one scene, but was disappointed that I didn’t love it. It would have been so easy.

Grade: 4 out of 5

Very Happy to say - Recent Reads

I was beyond thrilled when I heard Carolyn Crane won a RITA on Saturday night, probably not as excited as Carolyn, but thrilled nonetheless.  You see, she is a trailblazer.  She self-published her winning novel, Off the Edge.  This so goes with my last post.  She by-passed the big publishers thus making her books very accessible and reasonably priced for ereader readers.  Because of that I’ve read the first two books in The Associate series and got the third one within minutes once I heard it was out.

I really hope with this win for Carolyn Crane other authors follow suit.  While I want good authors to make top dollar, I hope they do make good money by self-publishing and I am VERY HAPPY to do my part to spread the word on what excellent books these ones are.  I read them a while ago and posted my review on Good Read – when I was locked out here.  So here we go!

 

 

Against the Dark by Carolyn Crane

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Steam Level: Oh yeah

My Thoughts: I wish they had half stars here 'cause then I would give this one 4 1/2 stars. I save the five stars for books that will stay with me for years or ones that I have to reread right away - again and again.

But this one is very, very, very good. It's unusual and I love unusual. First off, our hero, Cole, is a self-declared nerd. He wears glasses and is heavily into logistics though I'm not quite sure what that is but he solves puzzles with vey few pieces. Though he thinks of himself as a nerd, he has definite un-nerd like tendencies. He is a member of a very shadowy organization called the Association which tracks down the bad guys. In this story he is undercover as a guard to areal sadistic monster. He need to get some documents that are locked up in a safe.

This is where Angel, our heroine comes in. She is a former member of a group of girl jewel thieves. She is the expert on cracking safes. Through a series of events, Cole tracks her down and blackmails her into helping him.

I LOVED both Cole and Angel. They are both fascinating well developed and well written characters. The sparks between them leap off the page. They are clearly perfect for each other. And the book is a perfect blend of romance and suspence. I inhaled the book and lucky, lucky me, I have the next one in the series uploaded and ready to read. This one gets a very well deserved thumbs up.lp

Grade: 4.5 out of 5



Off the Edge by Carolyn Crane

Genre: Romantic Suspense 

Steam Level: Another oh, yeah

My Thoughts: I am so glad I came across these books. I love all genres of romance books, can't decide which is my fave, but I do so love romantic suspense when written well and Carolyn Crane writes vey well indeed.

This is the second book in the series and I sure hope she has more up her sleeve. Peter MacMillan is a member of a shadowy organization called the Associates. They go deep undercover to route out the bad guys. Macmillan as he prefers to be called is a wonderful mix of nerdy alphaness. He is a linguistic genius who wears glasses but also can withstand torture. (I don't know exactly what they did to him, something to do with brass knuckles and doing terrible things to his feet. I read that part with my eyes closed). He is looking for the villain who is selling a top secret weapon in Bangkok and he will be able to tell who this mysterious arms dealer is just by listening to him speak.


Laney Lancaster is working as a lounge singer in the hotel where the auction for the weapon is being held. She is in hiding from her vicious ex husband who she helped send to prison. Even from prison he has people looking for her and she is terrified she will be discovered and dragged back into a life of abuse. She writes her own songs and has the ability, through music to paint vivid pictures with her lyrics.


Macmillan hears her singing, and being the linguistic expert he is, is drawn into her music where he very reluctantly begins to feel again, something he hasn't done since his family were all killed in a bombing years before.


Their worlds intertwine and they have language as well as attraction as a strong pull between them as they begin to work together.

I loved the deliciousness of Macmillan. While much of his explanations into the world of language went over my head; he could go deep into the explanation of a single sentence, it was fascinating reading it. He was a vey well written and well rounded character.

Laney I found a wee bit more problematic. I really liked her, but I found her a bit too trusting of the wrong people for too long. It was obvious that there was something off about them but she refused to see it. Though considering her situation I did understand her need to trust someone, even if she did trust a bit wrongly. She was terrified of being found. As I said it was just a wee issue in an otherwise wonderfully written Romantic Suspense novel. While it seems many like this one better than the first one, Against the Dark, I think I like the first one just a tiny bit more. They are both great reads though and I anticipate more in this series, fingers crossed.

Bottom line, I highly recommend Off the Edge.

Grade: 4.5 out of %

 



I think I’ve said before – oh so long ago now since I took a lengthy sabbatical – that my reading life has been turned upside down over the past couple of years. I was a hold out to ereading, being one of those who said they loved holding a book too much, purchasing eBooks was too complicated, I like book covers – well some of them, etc. etc. But I bowed to the electronic age and purchased a Kobo. It was OK but I still read more print books than eBooks on the Kobo. Then I got an IPad and that is when my reading life was forever changed.
 

•  The books had covers. Coloured covers. And if it’s a naked guy cover, no one knows.

• I could get books either through Kindle, Kobo or IBook’s which means I can do comparison shopping for the best price.

• It’s backlit so I can read at night without lights. If the hydro goes out, I can still read. I was listening to Coast to Coast AM this morning before getting up – a fascinating, yet at times chilling show it is and they were saying we are due for a huge solar flare that will knock out electricity all over the world. I may not be able to cook or get money out of the bank or call anybody or get gas or any number of other terrifying things that will result (see – scary show) but I WILL be able to read

•  I can carry hundreds and I do mean hundreds of books around with me at all times

•  If a book starts to bore me, or it’s so ramped up for one reason or another and I need a break, I can easily switch to one of many jewel games.

• I can adjust the size of the font; the later in the day, the more tired my eyes get. Can’t find my reading glasses? Simply increase font

•  I can do a real quick look up if I’m reading a good book and want to know if there are more. I don’t have to put the book down and go to the computer

• Buying a new book, in my pajamas, at 3:30 in the morning if I can’t sleep

• Investigating a book; checking Good Reads, Amazon, that kind of thing The pros of having an IPad and reading on it are limitless. Probably a good 97% of the books I read are now eBooks.

And this has rocked my reading world. So, if this is the case for me, it must be the case for some many others – SO - I can’t understand how the big publishers can charge MORE for an ebook than for print. Yes I’ve read a few articles technically on why they do this; behind the times, trying to stick it to Amazon, other reasons. But I only care about ME and other readers. And I care about AUTHORS. We are both losers. For the most part I don’t read the same books I did a few years ago, even last year. I’ve stopped reading so many authors I’ve loved in the past and it hurts that I don’t.

But I WILL NOT CAVE to corporate greed and bickering because on huge corporate greed might be making more than the other. And in that battle, in my little corner, Amazon is coming out so far ahead. Because I don’t pay stupid prices, most of the books I’m reading these days are from authors I’d never heard of even a few months ago. The prices are SO much lower and even better; I am really liking many of them. A lot.

While I was blocked out of the blog and after the mojo started coming back, I started posting reviews to Good Reads. I have quite a few now of Amazon Digital books and just a very few of the big publisher books. I would have done them here – but, well, I was locked out of my own ‘home’. So all of this long winded post is just to say that in up-coming posts I will be focusing a lot on reviews by mostly epubbed authors I’ve enjoyed

‘til later

A Word of Advice

 

I can while away many an hour on Amazon, just browsing around; looking up authors backlists, checking out reviews, following other books which are recommended.  I was having fun this morning doing exactly this.  There was one author’s whose book popped up as recommended so I followed so see what I thought.  The synopsis of the book looked interesting so I thought to check out a few reviews.  I usually start at the one star ones because sometimes what bothers the reviewer might not bother me and one can be sure it’s not a ‘fan girl’.  When I did this, I saw the author had made a MAJOR FAIL.

 

Authors take note and DO NOT DO THIS.  This particular author had responded to the bad grades and when I read what she had written, I had an “oh no you didn’t” reaction.  The first reviewer didn’t say much in her review but did say she enjoyed the book.  The authors response?  She requested the reviewer change her grade!!!!!!  Seriously!!!!!  She wrote that!!!!!! 

 

The next low grade was even better – in a ‘boy is this a bad author thing to do’ way.  She accused the reviewer of being mean and as there were so many positive reviews, she didn’t understand why the reviewer would do this; she must be one of those people who got off on bringing other people down  AND THEN she requested that she not read or review any more of this authors work.  A huge WTF??  I read the review and I thought it was well written and the reviewer had been clear on why the book didn’t work.  She made no slight to the author personally.  So why the author had to do what she did is a complete mystery.  Of course there isn’t a chance I’ll try her now because she was so stupid in what she did.  They could be the greatest books in the world but her behavior made sure that this reader will never know.

 

I think many an author knows this, but for those who may not – not everyone is going to love your books.  I would say almost impossible that any writer will get universal high marks.  So instead of getting your knickers in a knot, accept this as an ‘it is what it is’ attitude.  Take something from bad review if possible.  In the case this morning, the negative had some issues the author could work on and try and improve instead of telling the reviewer not read her books anymore.  I can’t imagine a more absurd statement.  You don’t think that’s going to make its way around the wires?  It made it to me.  Because I like to ramble and my motto why say in 10 words what I can say in 100 I wrote more than needed.  So in 10 words

 

AUTHORS, DO NOT REPLY TO BAD REVIEWS OF YOUR BOOKS

 

‘til later