Second time - March TBR Challenge

I have failed fellow readers, I have failed. After being what turned out to be a day late and the wrong challenge that gave me almost a week to get this month’s CORRECT challenge done. And I didn’t get ‘er done.

I tried, I honestly tried, but no offense to the books and at another day at another time, they might have worked for me, but I couldn’t get into the ones I did attempt.



The first one Wild Cat by Jennifer Ashley just didn’t grab my attention that much. I’ve really enjoyed the first several in this series, but I just hit a spot where I thought the hero should have been grateful to the heroine and he wasn’t and I moved on. Now I fully expect I will go back to this one, but just not in time for this month’s challenge.





Having failed with Wildcat, I moved onto The Lady and the Libertine by Bonnie Vanak and again I had trouble getting into it. I quickly add that it wasn’t the book, I think it was my mood since I’ve read a few in this series and very much enjoyed them. More and more I’m becoming a mood reader though and I just wasn’t in the mood for historical during the past week. I know I will go back to it though.





And finally, I tried reading Hunter of Shadows by Nancy Gideon thinking for sure this would do the trick. Alas, it didn’t. I’ve loved all the previous books in this series but again I think it was my mood, because this one just didn’t appeal to me. I think I may be in a bit of a mini slump, at least until I stumble on the book that will wake up my sleepy mojo.



So that’s it, I gave it a good try, but just didn’t make it with any I tried.

Now what I can do, so it’s not a complete waste of a visit, is do a review of a couple of books that fit the bill, series wise. I read them in February so I think they are close to counting. The first up



Bad Boy’s Do by Victoria Dahl.

Steam Level: very nicely warm

Blurb: Olivia Bishop is no fun. That's what her ex-husband said. And that's what her smart bob and glasses imply. So with her trademark determination, Olivia sets out to remake her life. She's going to spend time with her girlfriends and not throw it all away for some man. But when an outing with her book club leads her to a brewery taproom, the dark-haired beauty realizes that trouble—in the form of sexy Jamie Donovan—may be too tempting to avoid.


Jamie Donovan doesn't mean to be bad. Sure, the wild streak in his wicked green eyes has lured the ladies before. Now it's time to grow up. He's even ready for a serious romance. But how can hat be when Olivia, the only right woman he has ever met, already has him pegged as wrong?


My Thoughts: Actually, I’m surprised I read this one. I got it at the same time as the first in the series, Good Girl’s Don’t. and I got the third one, Real Men Will, very shortly after that. I think I had coupons or something. But the reason I was somewhat surprised that I read Bad Boys Do is that I really didn’t care for the first book. I disliked the heroine quite intensely and neither of the brothers endeared themselves to me either. So I don’t know what came over me to read this one – must have been a Contemporary Mood I guess.


Whatever it was, I am SO glad I listened. I really enjoyed this second one. It was a complete change from Good Girls Don’t. We find out in this one that Jamie isn’t the screw up he appears to be in the first book. Rather, he just doesn’t bother justifying his reasons for doing things and the situation he found himself in from the first book, was him trying to do the right thing for his family and a nasty piece causing trouble.


Still, Jamie is a people kind of guy, working in the bar of the family owned winery. He has quite a reputation as a ‘good time guy’ but much of it is exaggerated. He is quite taken with Olivia, the heroine, when he first meets her. Olivia had a bad marriage and as a result, keeps pretty much to herself. She was persuaded by her friends to attend the book club (in name only) being held at Donovan’s, where she first meets Jamie. They run into each other again when he takes a community class she is teaching to learn more about the restaurant business. See, Jamie has big plans even though he doesn’t think his older, bossy brother will be interested. But he takes courses
anyway. He proposes that he and Olivia do some bartering; he will teach her how to be fun and she will help him with his restaurant plans.

Of course, this being a romance, against both their plans, they start developing real feelings for each other and what I liked, Jamie is the more willing to admit it.


I loved both Jamie and Olivia in this book. One of the big pluses is it’s one of my favourite storylines, older woman/ younger man. There wasn’t a huge difference in their ages, but enough to make me rub my hands in delight. Even the annoying sister Tessa was easier to swallow. Big brother Eric was still a pill but since I already had his book on stand-by, I knew I would be reading to see what made him tick.


Jamie has been keeping something very painful to himself and it was nice to see his trust with Olivia in being able to share it with her. This was a Most Enjoyable Read.

Grade: 4.75 out of 5




Real Men Will by Victoria Dahl


Steam Level: yep, steamy!


Blurb: It was meant to be a one-night stand. One night of passion. Scorching-hot. Then Beth Cantrell and Eric Donovan were supposed to go their separate ways. That's the only reason he lied about his name, telling her he was really his wild younger brother. Hiding his identity as the conservative Donovan. The "good one."
But passion has its own logic, and Eric finds he can't forget the sable-haired beauty with whom he shared a night of love. When Beth discovers that Eric has lied, however, she knows he can't be trusted. Her mind tells her to forget the blue-eyed charmer. If only every fiber of her being didn't burn to call him back.


My Thoughts: Again, like the second book, I enjoyed this one ever so much better than the first
one. Eric is to put it mildly, a stick in the mud. He doesn’t give much leeway to his family, especially his younger brother Jamie. So it’s somewhat surprising that before the story begins he has had a one night stand with Beth Cantrel, the manager of an “adult” store. But because he’s a it of that stick, he gives out his brother’s name rather than his own thinking they would never meet
again.

So of course they do, and because he told Beth his name was Jamie, once the confusion is cleared up, he has a couple of pretty pissed off people, first off Beth, who deservedly has issues about being deceived and also Jamie who is both angry and hurt that his brother thinks he’s that kind of guy. And then there is the fact that he’s still in a committed relationship with Olivia.


But despite being not at all pleased with him, Beth is still wildly attracted to him and they agree to carry the one night past the one night. But they both have misconceptions about the other that cause me a few chuckles. Eric thinks that Beth is quite the experienced gal seeing as she gives sex demonstrations and writes a sex advice column. But Beth is only one of a number of contributors and I found it adorable that Eric thinks she’s such a wild woman. And Eric himself is going through major life changes. He’s been the big over authoritative brother all his life, but it’s not a role he ever wanted and he’s unsure of where he fits in with the changes going on with his family. He wants to be supportive but his relationship particularly with Jamie has been so antagonistic for years, neither is sure how to deal with each other.


As with Bad Boys Do, I really enjoyed this final chapter in the Donovan series. I love seeing a stuffed shirt thrown for a loop. And Beth was not the person we thought she was at the beginning. She has her own baggage and this made her an appealing character to root for.

I suppose anyone wanting to read this series of books might want to start with Tessa’s story just to get to know the family, but keeping in mind, at least for me, it wasn’t the best. But the next two more than make up for the disappointment of the first one. They have convinced me that Victoria Dahl is an author of contemporaries worth following.


Grade: 4.50 out of 5


So there you have it. I read two books that were part of a series that were in the TBR pile, but I didn't quite read them in the month we were supposed to.

Recent Read

Book 4 of 2009


Talk Me Down by Victoria Dahl

Why this one: I’ve seen good buzz on it and it’s a contemporary and I want to help the cause for this genre.

Steam Level: This’ll burn your tongue if you aren’t careful!!

Amazon Blurb: Molly Jenkins has one naughty little secret: her job as a bestselling erotic fiction author. Until her inspiration runs dry—thanks to a creepy ex—and it's time to skip town and move back to tiny Tumble Creek, Colorado.

One look at former high school hunk chief of police Ben Lawson and Molly is back in business. The town gossip is buzzing at her door and, worse still, a stalker seems to be watching her every move. Thankfully, her very own lawman has taken to coming over, often. The only problem now is that Molly may have to let the cat out of the bag about her chosen profession, and straitlaced Ben will definitely not approve.…

My Thoughts: This one has been getting good buzz and I can see why. It’s immensely readable; it took me no time to get through it. It has a Great hero – I adored Ben. He was macho with soft edges. He was Very Sexy!! Yummers. He wore a cowboy hat – any hero gets bonus points for that. It’s a great story line – friends turned lovers. The writing is excellent and it had me smiling in more then one place.

And I really do hate to go on because one would think that I too, am going to give this one high marks. Sadly – oh so sadly I’m not. I go into each book wanting to love it. I mean I pay good money for books and who does that wanting the book to be found lacking? Not me. But I had SERIOUS issues with Molly, the heroine.

Although I love a good hero, it’s the heroine who makes or breaks the book for me and *heavy sigh* Molly broke this one. After I finished it, I went looking for other’s opinions and there was an interesting discussion concerning Molly at Dear Author. It appears that some of the low grades for this book at other places may have been because Molly is quite open and honest about her sexuality and the thought is this turns some readers off. Not so for me. Although at moments, Kristie, my middle-aged self thinks she’s a bit too strong in what she wants, Krisite – my much younger alter ego was thinking ‘We are women, hear us roar! We are going after what we want ‘cause we aren’t middle aged women”

(You can see the two of us have a lot of differences, but Krisite always wins out in these mind battles and I agree – she should!)

So that wasn’t the issue I had with the heroine. Nope – it was that I found her to be a self-centered young woman who put her own needs ahead of Ben’s time and time again without giving his feelings so much as a thought. Ben’s feelings? P’ffffttt – what do they matter to Molly as long as she get’s what SHE wants? She keeps secrets from Ben – for the flimsiest of reasons. She plays with him – just for the heck of it. And by playing with him, I don’t mean in a sexual way – though she does that too – and I like that part of it. I wouldn’t mind a bit of sexual play myself. No – I mean she keeps from telling him things just to mess with him ‘cause it’s fun to her. For example, she gets a nasty note pinned to her door. Now by this time Ben knows that there are strange things going on. So she goes to see him and then at the end of the conversation she just kind of lets slip, ‘oh, by the way, someone stuck a hate letter to the front of my door.’

She has an ex-boyfriend that’s stalking her. Does she tell Ben? Of course not. Instead it’s all about her and how she thinks he will react. She doesn’t have enough respect for him to be honest despite knowing him most of her life. So instead of leveling with Ben and saying ‘look, this is what’s going on and this is what’s happened in the past’, she just ignores the situation until the ex shows up in town and Molly, in order to defend herself against something really indefensible, feels the need to tell everyone within hearing distance, about her and Ben’s sex life, in explicit detail, because she’s upset about a situation that she created in the first place. And then she goes on to tell about a trashy episode she had with said stalker after she broke it off with him. In front of all Ben’s coworkers. Yep – if I were a guy, that’s just what I’d want my girlfriend to shout to my co-workers. Yikes! What a self-centered little witch. She knows Ben has issues about privacy because years ago, he was humiliated by the fall-out of his father’s indiscretions. But does Molly care about this?? No, of course she doesn’t because in her universe, she’s the only one who really matters –not those around her.

Honestly, there were times when I was reading this book I picked it up and slammed it down on the counter and thought enough!! I just can’t read another word about this childish, self-centered woman.

If she had shown any signs of maturing at all, I might be a bit more lenient – but she doesn’t. Instead right near the end, when all has been exposed; what she does, what she’s done, and it involves Ben, wonderful, adorable Ben, he is Very Angry with her – with due cause. So – does she wait until he has some time to figure things out? To forgive her? Of course not. ‘Cause it’s all about her don’t you know. Instead, she tries to make him jealous by seeing other guys. At one point she says to a friend, ‘I can take it back to junior high as easily as he can.”

Uh, no. First of all, he’s not getting junior high. He’s taking time to work out his feelings of betrayal of the deepest kind. And second, it’s not junior high on her part – its kindergarten!!

Often readers wonder about a HEA for the couple after the book is over. I never do. I just assume it’s a given. But for the first time in longer than I can recall, I doubt a HEA for this couple. Once Ben get’s past his stimulated hormones, I think he will sit up and notice what Molly is really like; a liar, immature, self-centered and not even close to being worthy of someone like him.

Now – if you’ve made it this far, I want anyone reading to do something unusual. Forget what you just read. If you were planning on getting this book still go ahead and get it. Because it truly does have some excellent things going for it. Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben – what a great hero he is; serious but with a wicked sense of humour. The dialogue was snappy and when I didn’t have my hate on for Molly, I was laughing. She really had some funny moments. I can totally see why this one is getting good buzz. I’d be rating it very high myself if it wasn’t that this kind of heroine really hit’s a hot button. And very probably a lot of readers will have a totally different take on her then I do.

In order to give this one a fair representation, I hunted down a number of reviews

Kati of Adventures in Katidom - C-

Romance Novel TV - Andrea Williamson - 4.5 (out of 5)

SB - Sarah - B+

Dear Author - Jane - B+

The Romance Reader - Mary Benn - 4 *'s (out of 5)

AAR - Ellen Micheletti - D

*delaying tactics*

So you can see, there is a wide range of opinions on this book which is why I say to give it a try.

Now for the grade. This is the toughest one I've done in a LOOOONG time. Ben gets a 5 out of 5. The storyline a 5. The writing a 5. But I just can't get past how much I disliked Molly. Again I have to emphasize it's not because of her love of sex. It's....her.

*thinking*

*still thinking*

This is really tough!!

Grade: 2.5 out of 5

PS:
I WELCOME any one who's read this one and wants to disagree with me on Molly because I'd love to be turned around and rate this one higher!

A Rake's Guide to Pleasure Review

I must say that Victoria Dahl has some of the best historical romance covers around. I really do love the ones where the man and woman are mostly naked in a sea of silk sheets, and her latest, A Rake’s Guide to Pleasure is no exception. But a cover can only do so much for sales. A Rake’s Guide to Pleasure is a well-written, sexy romance with two mature characters who want totally different things in life. The Duke of Somerhart refuses to take the word “no” for an answer from Emma Jensen, who pretends to be the widowed Lady Denmore. You would think this would get a bit annoying after awhile, especially since Emma is so adamant in telling Hart to, “take a hike”, but Hart’s chase of Emma is the highlight of the novel. Emma is no simpering "oh woes is me!" character. She may be a virgin in body, but not in her mind, and the reasoning she gives Hart to remain so, made me want to take her in my arms and rock her. Emma has been dealt some bad cards in her life and because of this, she decides to live her own way, by her own set of rules, and won’t allow any man, especially a man like Hart to tell her otherwise.

Emma has come to London for a specific reason and it is not to enjoy the festivities that the Ton usually involves itself with. This is a woman on a mission, to make as much money as she can before the rest of London society arrives after the winter holiday. Emma uses her time wisely either gambling or places bets with various gentlemen in order to come up with enough money to live comfortably for the rest of her days in a little cottage by the sea. Emma has secrets and will lie to her advantage. She tells these little fibs so she will be able to fleece those who are gullible. Emma’s past is quite shocking mainly because of her father, who lived a life of debauchery where he gambled, drank and whored till the day he died. Emma saw many things as a young and impressionable child and refuses to fall into that trap where she will be left desolate or seduced and pregnant. She plays a dangerous game, flirting with the various titled gentlemen to get what she wants. She is very close to meeting her goal when, she is noticed by the one man who could destroy her well-laid plans, the Duke of Somerhart.

Emma met Hart about a decade ago during one of her father’s late night parties. Hart made quite the impression on the nine year old Emma and she daydreamed that Hart would be her knight in shining armor and come rescue her. Of course this didn’t happen and now years later, Hart has a reputation of being heartless, ruthless, cold… well, you get the picture. Emma is disgusted by these rumor’s especially the ones about Hart’s countless lovers. The boy she dreamed about was a fantasy after all, and she realizes that they must never be more than passing acquaintances. Hart’s reputation is mostly true but he has a new outlook on life. He will try to give up those vices he enjoyed when he was younger man. But he can hardly deny his lust towards Emma. When it comes to Emma, he finds her to be a different type of creature all together. She dances around any questions he may have and places herself in dangerous situations for money. Something is off about this so-called widow who has arrived out of nowhere. He wants to find out her secrets and thinks his excellent powers of seduction will enable him to solve the puzzle that is Emma.

I love when the heroine gives the hero a merry chase and A Rake’s Guide to Pleasure is exactly that. Emma seriously does not want to be bothered with Hart even if he makes her tingly inside. Where as the hero is the one who may seem cold and refuses to admit his feelings, Dahl has turned things around where it is Emma who tries her hardest to acknowledge any feelings she may have for Hart. She is not willing to take the risk or the consequences for a moment of pleasure. But Hart has a way of breaking down her defenses, not because this is a game to him, but because Emma calls out to him where he wants to protect and cherish her. He feels they are kindred spirits.

I can’t help but compare Emma and Hart’s relationship to a cat and mouse game that will end in the bedroom. There are two love scenes that especially caught my eye that are so very erotic. The very first one is where Hart is giving Emma pleasure and doesn’t ask for anything in return. Thank you so much for that scene Victoria! And as well as the next one where Emma gets her own revenge against Hart for rocking her world and destroying all the walls she has placed around herself.

Even though the main focus is Emma and Hart, there is a subplot that deals with an obsessive suitor of Emma’s from her past who comes out of nowhere quite suddenly. Some may find that this takes away from the on-going drama between Emma and Hart, but for the most part, I was pleased with the results, mainly because I am still a sucker for the hero who ends up saving the damsel in distress.

Even though the title may seems a bit misleading, because Hart doesn’t really have a guide he follows to make sure a woman is pleasured, A Rake’s Guide to Pleasure has everything I want to read in a historical romance from two engaging characters, wonderful dialogue and very creative and luscious love scenes. I am overjoyed that Zebra has such an author like Victoria Dahl writing for them, and A Rake’s Guide to Pleasure is one romance you will not want to pass up.

3 ½ stars out of 5

Katiebabs (KB)