Random Ramblings

I’m working the late shift (12 to 8) and there is nothing to do except let my mind wander so I’ll follow it and write down where it wanders.  It’s not unlike the guy following a parade at the end and scooping up the horse poop.

 

 

This will be like horse poop.  And speaking of poop, not many probably realize this, but it’s a real fun word to say out loud.  Try it – say it out loud and see if you don’t get if not a chuckle, at least a smile.  Of course it works better if you’re alone.  If anyone is around and you say the word ‘poop’ out loud and they hear you – well – it will be a tough explanation.  Its best if make the ‘p’ at the end pop.

***~~~***

I get 4 weeks’ vacation where I work.  I’ve carried 2 weeks over from last year over so as it stands now, I have 6 weeks vacation in 2015.  I’m going to take a least a week off when I head to NYC to RWA in July.  Then in August, there are a group that seems to grow as word of our fun spreads of coworkers and head to a summer cottage on a local island. 

As there are 10 of us this year though chances are one or two attendees will drop out, we are up to 2 cottages.  It’s a week of hilarity emboldened by much alcohol.   So that will be at least a week also as I need recovery time after the week.  Now that I’m in the upper age range, it takes long to recover.  And that still leaves me with 4 weeks.   I’ve decided to take next week off.  The plan is to do massive amounts of house work in two of the bedrooms in the house.  I live in a 3 bedroom bungalow with another room in the basement which can easily be set up as a bedroom.  For years now I’ve wanted to knock down the wall between the two smaller bedrooms in order to make more of a sitting room/bedroom.  But I’m a great procrastinator.  I took a week off last year with the same purpose in mind.  On Monday I thought – ah, what the heck – I’ve got the rest of the week to do this.  Tuesday – hell, I still have enough time.  Wednesday – I’ve still got four days.  Thursday – it shouldn’t take me that long.  Friday – I have two days left – that should do it.  Saturday – well, it’s too late now, I’ll rush and get it all done tomorrow.  Sunday – Oh SHIT you idiot!

I’m hoping I don’t have a repeat of that week.

 ***~~~***

I signed up for a challenge at GoodReads.  Normally I don’t sign up for Challenges as the minute I do, I start to feel the pressure.  I’ve tried doing Wendy’s – it’s an excellent one – but then I run around in circles when there’s only a couple of days left thinking “ whatwillIread?  whatwillIread?  Ican’tdoit, Ican’tdoit”  Then I’m a mess.  But in this challenge at GoodReads the challenge (or reader) picks the number of books and they can be any book.  I tried to figure it out mathematically.  If I were to read a book a week – sometimes more – I should be able to read 60 – should be no problem right?

Well, then my TV was invaded by gremlins and I was watching very little TV.  And my book reading skyrocketed.  So far this early in the year I’ve read 34 books and I’m going to smash my number to smithereens if I keep this up.  I had to fix things though.  I inadvertently added a couple of short reviews for books I had read last year but somehow they showed up as being read this year and they counted towards the number I read for the challenge.  I debated leaving them there, but then thought, ’no, that would be dishonest’ so I removed them, then thought 'maybe I’m going a bit overboard on the honesty thing.  Who's going to notice?  It's not like we will be entered to win millions of dollars'  But I still changed the date anyway.  Oh well.

But then again I may not blast past the number I put down.  The television gremlins finally made their final stand when I could only get about 7 or 8 channels.  And one of the channels I COULD NOT get was Showcase.  Now for those who don’t know, Showcase is the channel that plays Outlander.  It is simply unimaginable that I miss even a second of Season 2.  It simply WILL NOT happen.
 And there is not a chance in hell I wasn’t going to take out those gremlins like the old Space Invaders game before April 5, the day it comes back here.  So I called Rogers and someone came over on Sunday to fix it.  I now get all the channels I’m supposed to – with sound.  And I shamefully confess *shaking head in sorrow* that I watched the season finale of The Bachelor.  I’d only watched one or two shows all season!!  I could have spent those 3 hours…….reading.  But nope – now that I have no more gremlins, I went straight back to the (as some call it) the “bube tube”.

***~~~***

I mentioned on another post that I’m signed up for this site called BookBub.  Every day they send a list of books found at either Amazon or Koo that are either greatly reduced or even free.  Now with new choices pouring in every day, not to mention the Kindle Daily Deal which I check – well – daily, I’m not going to get just any old book.  If it even appeals to me, I check out reviews on Amazon and GoodReads first.  Now I find many of the reviews on GoodReads helpful – but Amazon – fuggaboutit.  Many are less than useless.  I see some books on there with hundreds of reviews by an author I’ve never heard of and roll my eyes.  It’s obvious the author has friends, family and friends “stuffing the ballot” so to speak.  I know that this is an issue that will never be solved – but to authors – STOP IT.  It’s NOT going to make me buy your book when we have scores of reviews that say “Great Book” or “Couldn’t put it down!!!!!” or “I already bought the sequel”, “Can’t get enough of this author”.  Come on now – do you think the legitimate reader who does any homework at all is going to buy into this?  The only reason I ever do is to go up and down the reviews and hit NO on the “Is this review helpful?”  But here me author – I WILL NOT BUY YOUR BOOK.  It’s always the 1 star negative reviews I place any kind of value on. 

I’m looking at today’s Daily Deal and first I thought – hmmmmm – maybe.  But this book in particular, has over 1,000 reviews and nope – never heard of the author before so it’s just like I said above.  Here are a few reviews.

“Very good read.  Couldn’t wait to read the next book.”

“It was a good read can’t wait to read the rest of the books.  I like series you get to know the characters in all of all the books”

“Awesome book, love the series! Exceptional author”

And just one more – though I could go on..

“This Book was awesome.  I would recommend it to anyone who likes a lot of action and intrigue.  Plus the Love Drama” (Love drama???  What is Love Drama???)

Are any of those the least bit helpful???  Nope, I won’t be getting this book.

One star reviews can drive me nuts too.  Along with the multiple, multiple useless 5 star reviews, this book had some readers that weren’t so happy.  One “reviewer” gave 1 star to said RS book where the hero is a SEAL and on the cover of the book is just the hero with not a whole lot on.  So you have a clue what kind of book you’re going to get right?  But the one reviewer had this to say

“I didn’t really read this book because half way down page 1 they had already used the “F” word.  Many people may not care about this but I do.  I wish more reviewers would make it clear if the book used this word and if there are explicit sexual scenes in this book.  It would sure save me from downloading a book I know I won’t read”

To said reviewer – so would using the thing inside of your head.  If it’s a RS with SEAL’s it’s a given they are going to use salty language.  What – you think a bunch of men who does the most difficult jobs in the world and constantly put their lives on the line are going to use words like ‘rats’ or ‘fudge’?  Get a clue.  By posting such a ‘review’ on such a book, you make yourself sound stupid.

Something tells me this person wouldn’t say the word poop even if it’s real fun to say.


'til later

 

 Later!!
Yep - another night I'm on the late shift with not much to do.  So THIS is why I had to get my cable fixed

 

 

Part II - Peggy L Henderson

These are the other two books of hers I've read - though there WILL be more.  I really do enjoy her writing


Ain't No Angel by Peggy L. Henderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've read a couple other Peggy Henderson books in the Yellowstone series and really enjoyed them so was more than willing to try another series she's written even though I still have to finish the Yellowstone one. And it was actually the second book in this series, Diamond in the Dust, that appealed to me. But the hero in that book is the villain in this book so I wanted to see how villainous he was.


This is another time travel western and like the other series, I think the author does a wonderful job. Laney Goodman has led a sad and lonely life in the present time. Raised in foster care, she's never had friends or family and she about to embark on a life of reluctant prostitution when her first "customer" offers her a position working with horses, a passion of hers, in Montana. With nothing left to loose, she agrees. The next morning she wakes up in strange clothes in a real honest to goodness stage coach. It takes her a while to figure out and then with the help of her mysterious benefactor, she's been sent back to the past.

Tyler Monroe runs a successful horse ranch but he is starting to have problems. One of them is a lost bet to we'd a mail order bride. Because his mother abandoned he and his father, he wants nothing to do with women and the last thing he wants is to marry one of them. But when he meets his mail order bride, Laney of course, he changes his mind and they marry.

They are both attracted to each other but both have issues.

I enjoyed this one quite a bit. I had no problem suspending belief and buying into the time travel aspect. I liked both Tyler and Laney a lot. Laney is drawn to Tyler and his old fashioned manners. She's never been treated so respectfully by a man and I REALLY liked Tyler. He is confused and dismayed by his growing feelings for Laney but at all times treats her with dignity even though he begins to suspect she may be a 'soiled dove'

I recommend this book happily to fans of western and time travel readers.



Diamond in the Dust by Peggy L. Henderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.5 Stars

My last review was for the second book in this series, though it was this book that really appealed to me. And while I think this book could be read as a stand-alone, I am glad I read Ain’t no Angel first as the hero in Diamond in the Dust, Gabe McFarlain, played a significant role in Angel as the bad guy. There is something delicious when an author can successfully change a villain into a hero and the author does a wonderful job with Gabe. At the end of the first book he is sent to the present time from 1872 – to say why would be a huge spoiler for the first book so I won’t say why, but he doesn’t go happily. In fact it’s very much against his will when he realized the mysterious Mr. Johnson has sent him to the future. One of the keys to writing a good time travel is make it seem believable - even if the reader knows it can't happen and in this case I had no problem buying into how it's done

He wakes up on the side of the road, badly beaten up (from the end of the first book ‘cause he’s the bad guy and deserved it). Morgan Bartlett, our heroine, sees him lying there and picks him up and brings him home. It doesn’t take Gabe long to realize he’s in the present time but when he shares this with Morgan, she doesn’t quite know what to think.
Gabe has a lot of issues. He would have to, being the bad guy from the second book of the series. He grew up in the old west the bastard son of a whore who didn’t give Gabe much in the way of love. He was treated badly by the town’s people and he was abandoned by the man who fathered him in favour of another son. To say he had a chip on his shoulder was putting it mildly. But Morgan sees something in him. Morgan is a trust fund baby who is determined to make a life for herself despite a controlling mother. She is also a single mother who chose not to stay with the father when he punched her.

Gabe develops strong feelings for Morgan yet he refuses to act on them. He comes from the past where men treat women with respect and he doesn’t think he is good enough for her. As he falls for her more and more, he feels worse and worse for what he did to Tyler Monroe the hero of the previous book. On top of that he hates feeling beholden to Morgan. Because he comes from the past, he doesn’t really know how things in the present work and he finds it difficult that he is not able to pay his own way. He also is old fashioned enough that he is almost horrified by today’s style of clothing. All these factors make for a very appealing hero. He really made the book for me.
I liked Morgan too though she wasn’t quite the standout for me. I found her a little too bit lenient with her mother’s interfering ways. And because she was quite wealthy, she didn’t really have to struggle too much financially, though when her mother cut off her trust fund, she needed to find something. But she’d never really had to work and didn’t have a career. But that's just a minor point.

I am so delighted I found Peggy L. Henderson. This is the fourth book of hers I've read and I just think she writes very good books. I plan to read everything she has. I'm delighted when I find an author I can really get on board with.

The Wonderful World of EAuthors

Because I read 99.5% ebooks these days and since the big publishers actually charge MORE for an ebook than they do for a print book and I REFUSE to pay MORE.  Here are just a few examples of why I’m not reading the big authors these days

Rogue Spy  - Joanna Bourne

$7.99 Mass Market paperback - $8.21 Kindle

Run to You -  Rachel Gibson

$4.68 Mass Market - $8.99 Kindle

Hard to Come by – Laura Kaye

$7.12 Mass Market - $7.99 Kindle

Mind Games by Carolyn Crane

$6.33 Mass Market - $9.12 Kindle

I could go on, but you get the picture. 

Update – in the interest of fairness, I just finished comparing prices for a lot more books and it seems prices are coming down for ebooks, though still not what I think they should.  Source Books and Harlequin are the two best New York publishers who also publish in eform.  Avon at the opposite end, often are charging $2 MORE for an ebook than a Mass Market book - at least here in Canada - yet another reason I loathe them.  In my mind, publishers should charge $2.00 LESS for an ebook as there is no cost for printing, shipping and any number of things that ebooks would cost less for.  Of course none of that should be put on the authors.  I believe they should get the same amount whether it be an ebook or a print book.

But to a great extent the damage has already been done.

Most of the authors I’ve been reading these days are either self published or their publishers are small epublishers.  As a result, I’m finding a lot of authors I’d never heard of before and many of them are VERY GOOD.  And the prices I’ve been paying are VERY reasonable.

 They recently did their Annual Poll at AAR and while I submitted books for quite a few of the categories, I knew the odds of any of the books/authors I picked would even make honorable mention.  But because I’ve been so impressed with so many of them, I want to highlight some of the gems I’ve found so that other ereaders can check them out too.

Today’s author is Peggy L. Henderson.  I’ve read 4 of her books so far and plan to keep reading more.  All the books I've read so far have been Western Time Travel though she does have some Westerns that don't involve the traveling of time too.  

Every book I’ve read has been at least a 4 out of 5.  Here are the reviews of the first two books I’ve read by this really good author.

  

Yellowstone Heart Song by Peggy L. Henderson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I recently came across this really nifty keen site called BookBub. It sends me daily ebook deals.

Yellowstone Heart Song was in the first bunch of recommendations and talk about score, score, score!!! It was free, it’s mash-up of Time Travel and Western romance and it was very, very good.

Aimee Donovan, a trauma nurse, thought the old man she met in the hospital was pulling her leg when he told her he could send her back in time 200 years so she could do some backpacking in Yellowstone before it became such a tourist place. She humoured him and quickly through together a backpack with only the bare essentials.

Next thing she knows, much to her shock, is she has indeed been sent back to a place she knows but doesn’t know and realizes that time travel does indeed exist. Though she is an experience back packer, she does manage to get herself in a bit of a pickle and is surprised to be rescued by two men, one of whom is a mountain man named Daniel Osborne and is the son of the old man who sent her back and the one she was told to connect with. Daniel is less than pleased to run into this strange but beautiful young woman in the middle of nowhere. Zach, the time traveling father had told Aimee before he sent her back NOT to say anything to Daniel, so Aimee is hindered in what she can say to him as to who she is, how she got there and what her plans are.

I really, really enjoyed this story. I love time travel and I love westerns so this hybrid was right up my alley. And both Daniel and Aimee were wonderful characters. Daniel was in turn grouchy, resentful, gentle and thoughtful. He lived in his element. He had loved and been rejected cruelly in the past and did NOT want to have anything to do with another white woman. He fought his growing feelings for Aimee but it was a losing battle. And I loved Aimee as a heroine. She was a perfect kind of person to travel back in time when life was more primitive. She’s an experience back packer as mentioned and is very much at home in the wilderness. Though she knows quite a bit, she and Daniel bond as he shows her more survival lessons.

And of course Zach’s insistence that Aimee not tell Daniel anything about being sent from the future comes back to bit them.

The secondary characters are excellent. I love the teasing his “brother” Elk Runner. And Aimee has a best friend in the present that apparently has a story of her own further down the line.
The writing is very good and her descriptions of the area very clear. I’ve never wanted to visit Yellow Stone before – but now – maybe. I found this story very moving and touching in places and funny and sweet in others. As I said, this book is free at the moment but there isn’t a doubt in the world that I will be getting the rest in the series and any other book I can find by this author. I’m a happy little camper with this discovery.



Yellowstone Redemption by Peggy L. Henderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I knew after finishing the first book in this time traveling western series, Yellowstone Heart Song that I would be reading the rest of the book in this series, this one, Yellowstone Redemption, is the story of Sarah Osborne, daughter of Daniel and Aimee from the first book, and Chace Russell, a traveler from the future.

Chance is mysteriously sent back in time after passing out drunk the previous night. He almost dies of exposure and when he is drooped off at the cabin where Sarah and her family live by a small group of natives, Sarah nurses him back to health.

Once he realizes he really has traveled back in time, Chase is like a fish out of water. He has no real coping skills for living the kind of life he's been sent back to and must rely on Sarah while her parents are away on a rendezvous.

I loved Sarah. She was completely competent in the wild but unsure of herself in dealing with a young man she is attracted to. She has lived a somewhat isolated life, though she has many friends among the native tribes. But she doesn't know how to deal with her growing feelings for Chase.

Chase was a slightly more difficult character to warm up too. You just KNOW there is a good guy wanting to come out. And he has reasons for being the way he is, but he comes across as a bit of a jerk at the beginning. But as he learns and grows and adapts to the time he's been sent to, he grows on one.

Another thing I couldn't quite figure out is why the author had him come back in time from so far in the future. He comes from the year 2035 and I couldn't help feeling that's too far advanced. That's 20 years from now and considering how far we've come as a society in just the past 10 years, well I'd rather she have had him from a time closer to today's tine.

I did love visiting with Daniel and Aimee again. They appear iin the second part and are still hale and hearty and madly in love.

So while this one doesn't get quite as high a rating as the first one, still., I really did enjoy it and am quite pleased I bought the whole series in a bundle.

I think as a marketing idea, this is brilliant. Offer the first book free and hopefully get the reader invested in the rest of the books in the series as well as other books the author may have written. It worked out great in this case *grin*

I have two more (so far) by this author I will post


'til later

ETA

And oh, oh!!!  I forgot to mention that Yellowstone Heart Song - the book I gave highest marks to, is free at Amazon right now - so go!  Get it!  It's a good one :-)

Recent Read

Concealed in Death by JD Robb

Steam Level: Warm

 

 

My Thoughts:  I don’t read many print books anymore, very, very rarely.  My hours spent browsing the shelves of the nearest Chapters are pretty much over.  Those times I do read a print book, I usually buy at Walmart because of the 25% discount.  I’ll have to do a post sometime delving into this phenomena more but that’s not the point right now.  One of the rare exceptions are the In Death books by JD Robb.  They are too expensive to get as ebooks and I’ve started waiting until the paperback copies come out.

I have lost count of the number in this series.  When I looked it up, this is book #38 and except for the possible exception of a novella or two, I’ve read them all.  If anyone had told me years ago I’d be reading the 38^th book in a series I would have called them crazy.  I don’t DO series with those kinds of numbers.  But it turns out I do with these ones.

There have been so many changes throughout this series and I’m finding I’m slow to adapt in some ways.  When they first started, I saw them very much as romances with a great mystery to them but slowly they are changing to mysteries with some romance in them and I’ll admit I’m missing the more romantic element to them.  But after 37 books, what can you expect that hasn’t already been done.  So I will have to accept them as mysteries and not as romance. 

 

And as such that will be a good thing because as mysteries they work great.  I’m an end reader.  It’s very, very rare that I can’t skip to the end of the book to make sure it has an HEA which when you think about it is real stupid as they are all romance.  But right from Naked in Death I’ve been able to refrain from peaking, knowing it would really spoil I for me.

There’s not a whole lot new in the relationship sense in this book.  Eve and Roark have settled into their marriage and it’s a very good marriage.  The passion is still there and they ‘get’ each other though they come from two opposite ends of the spectrum.  Eve is all about the law, while Roarke, with his criminal past, focuses on the results.  But when their two viewpoints collide, the talk it out and do see the others P’sOV.  I love this aspect of the books.  And they are both so mad for each other.  I love the small moments between them when they express that love as well as the bantering they do with each other.  It’s wonderful to read.  But alas, it’s not the primary focus anymore.  Instead it’s all about Eve and how she and her team solve crimes, with her Civilian Expert of course on many of them.

In this book, the bodies of twelve young girls have been discovered in one of Roarks newest projects.  The bodies are quite old now so the regular methods of identifying and CSI’s aren’t viable.  While reading this book I couldn’t help but think of the television show Bones.  There is a Bones like character, but she’s not really like Temperance but does the same kind of job.  I wonder if Ms. Roberts watches that show?

Slowly the identity of each young girl is revealed and each have their own sad and often tragic story.  The abandoned building they were discovered in used to be a home for troubled youths and many of them had lived sad lives.  And anyone who has read this series, knows that each and every victim almost becomes a part of Eve.

The mystery, as always, is very well done.  I love trying to solve them before it’s revealed and I almost got it this time.

 

Grade: 4 out 5

Dr. Phil Saves TV's

In my last post I mentioned that it was the weekend and I was working.  When we work the weekend we have Monday and Tuesday off.  We also have a part time person who works on our caseload when we were off.  This dates back to the days when we were super busy.    And now we aren’t, a number of things we did previously we no longer have to do and we haven’t got them replaced yet – though they keep saying something is coming.  I’m the kind of person who needs to be busy.  And so is the person who did my jobs the past two days.  I have nothing, nothing.  At least I don’t until my Care Coordinators start sending me things to do.

So my boredom is your gain  anybody who visits that is.

 

First off, the sound came back on my TV.  It was all very strange.  I hadn’t even turned the TV on for a number of days and I was ploughing through books.  Then one day last week, I just needed a quick Dr. Phil fix; I don’t know why, that man sure loves himself, and when I turned on the telly, the sound was back!  Astonished, I began to check all the channels and sure enough the sound was fine on all of them.  I’m not entirely sure if that is a good thing or not.  Since my TV no longer sounds like there’s an imminent invasion by body snatchers and it’s not headache inducing any longer, the scales have changed and TV viewing has gone up and reading gone down. 

The issue now though is I can’t seem to get any channels on the higher end of the dial.  For the most part that’s not an issue – they are all Canadian channels from Western Canada with shows I watch earlier anyway.  But if I wanted to watch, oh say, the Y&R at 7:00, I can’t now.

  Not that I watch it of course, not at all.  I can’t stand Victor Newman.  Every time he says OK? After he gives a demand I want to reach in and smash his face.  Not that I watch Y&R of course.  Who wants to watch a show where an adopted son carries on an affair with his BLIND father’s wife?  Not me – that’s for sure.

Well, I have things to do now so that's it for now.





'til later

We are not alone

I’m a weekend worker today, working the 12 to 8 shift and I’m on my seventh day in a row.  And there is NOTHING to do.  I am dying of boredom and feeling guilty as hell that I’m being paid for not working.  All my work is caught up and the main point of being here really is to answer a phone that isn’t really working.  At the same time I’m drained.

So I’m taking some time to update things on the blog.  One of the things I’m doing is going up and down my Blog Hopping list and something is hitting home to me.  I’m deleting those who haven’t blogged in over a year and that make me so sad.  Though I’ve been fortunate enough to meet a number of your in real life, some are almost like voices in the dark.  Voices that mean something to me and were not only voices, but also lights.  And now that I’m back again, they will be voices/lights that I miss.

So it occurred to me, if I miss their voice/light, then my unplanned absences make others sad when my own voice is silent.  So I can’t always promise to be here, but I will try much harder.  Some posts may only be a few paragraphs long – I think that’s why sometimes I didn’t post – if I didn’t have a lot to say, why say anything.  But that’s the wrong approach.  Even if the star is dim sometimes, or the voice is not loud, doesn’t mean others don’t need to see and hear it.  I say that to all the bloggers out there.

So many were there for me when I’ve needed you, now I need to keep that in mind myself.

So while this is a short post today – after 7 days working, my brain is more fried (and older) something is better than nothing.

‘til later

Recent Reads

I am easily pleased when it comes to books and sometimes I wonder if I come across as a Harriet Klausner type author *shuddering at the thought*  I have a tendency not to do reviews on the books that don’t work for me so it may seem as if none do.

Besides being easily pleased, when I find an author I really like, I tend to like all their books.  But these two reviews are exceptions to the rules of Kristie.  The first one in the series I loved, the second I loathed – as you will see if you keep reading.

 

Here is the first Book in the series....

 

 

Alex by Sawyer Bennett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First thing I have to get off my chest on this book – I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED. LOVED IT. DO YOU HEAR ME WORLD, I LOVED IT.

Ok – got that off my chest. I enjoyed this book so much I inhaled it almost in one sitting and now it’s my obligation and delight to explain why. I have read a few other Sawyer Bennett books; some I loved, some, well, one – not so much. She has another hockey series, the “Off” series and I read and really enjoyed the first 3 I read and ordered the whole set. I’m not quite sure why I didn’t finish reading them, I certainly enjoyed them. But I didn’t. So when I saw this book, the start of a new series, the Cold Fury Series, I snapped it right up.

Now this is a sports themed, hockey in particular romance. I’m Canadian and for many of us, it’s almost like it’s in our DNA even if we don’t watch it much. I know it’s in mine and while I don’t watch a whole lot any more, I do keep track of the woeful Toronto Maple Leafs *a moment’s silence here…………….* and I watched it religiously when I was young. And I went to MANY a game when I was in my teen years and the local Junior B had a team with most of their players my age – so you can only guess what one of the big draws was there. All of this is to say that I “KNOW” hockey. So I’m always holding my breath when I start a hockey romance, hoping the author ‘gets’ the sport. And thankfully Ms. Bennett does

Alex Crossman, the hero, of our story is a jerk. In fact he is called the MVP – Most Valuable Prick - by many of the fans. He is amazingly talented but his attitude sucks donkey balls (a phrase coined by another but one I love)
In desperation, the team brass forces him to join forces with a local social worker, Sutton Price and our heroine, in a drug awareness campaign.
The love for this book started right from page 1. Though he comes across a jerk - and in fact he really is one, it’s a form of protection for a very abusive childhood. His father was cruel and sadistic to him and Alex has had to develop a tough shell. Though he doesn’t mind helping Sutton, in fact it’s something he could really get on board doing, he hates being forced into anything – that chip on the shoulder attitude. He shows up late, doesn’t want to cooperate at first, that kind of thing. But Sutton doesn’t give up on him. She also has come from a very abusive background and though she doesn’t know the details of Alex’s past, like recognizes like. But instead of being bitter and angry and lashing out, she has used her experiences to help others. And through her patience and caring, Alex slowly drops his attitude and become a much kinder Alex. And of course, since this is a romance, they develop a relationship.

Both Alex and Sutton are AMAZING characters. They are like two different side of the same coin in so many ways. Their growing love for each other and as a result, the love scenes are smokin’. And I mean bring a fan and some ice. It’s getting to the point where I yawn and skim many a sex scene but these were so well written and fit in so well with the story they really worked for me.

And before I go I simply have to say that in one particular scene, after Alex screws things up, it is THE. BEST. GROVEL. SCENE. EVER!!! I LOVED every single word, every sentence, every comma and every period. I loved the nuance and I loved the picture it put in my head. This book needs to be read if only for that scene alone.

Wrapping up, this book is wonderful. I already have the next in the series on pre-order and I know I’ll be reading this book again and again – and soon. The first read went by too quickly. A hearty thumbs up for Alex by Sawyer Bennett.

 

******************

And now we have my review of the second one in the series...
 
 with a very different reaction



Garrett by Sawyer Bennett
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I’ve had such a good run with Sawyer Bennett books so far this year. I think I’ve read more of her books than any other author. Alex in particular, was a most excellent read. So it’s with a great deal of sadness that I say the next book in the series, Garrett, isn’t working for me at all. Garrett played a role in the first book and now he stars in this one. To put it simply, Garrett is a pig, a man-whore, a player of more than just hockey. In almost the first scene in this book, he’s in bed with two women and he doesn’t even really remember their names. He never dates the same woman more than once. The one time he did go on three dates with a woman it was only that it took him that long to get into her pants – his words. Pig. Not. Hero. Material. Now the women who allow themselves to be treated like aren’t any better, but he is supposed to be a hero *snort*.

And then he sees Olivia at a pre-season team party, the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen and he is IN LUST yet again. He hits on her, but she’s not playing. It turns out they have mutual acquaintances and when they run into each other again, she has changed her mind and wants to be another notch in his very long, very notched belt. She is facing life altering events in her life and she wants to live it to the fullest and that includes having hot and heavy sex with a man she is very attracted to. And lo and behold, Alex is smitten. The man, who slept with over 50 different women a year, but never the same one twice, never wants to fuck another woman. Yep – that’s how he explains things. As does she. They are both very crude in their language with each other. Sawyer Bennett does write in graphic words but it’s never really stood out the way it does in this book. While not a prude, I did find the language offensive. I found Garrett offensive. I found Olivia offensive. There seemed to be no tenderness between them other than her illness, no tender murmurings, just plain gutter language – all the time. Dirty talk can be very sexy, but I found theirs ugly. I found their entire relationship sex based, not love based

I found her best friend offensive. Not so much that he was gay – but that he was FLAMING gay. I felt he was way too much of a stereotype. I found Alex and Sutton bland. They were such vivid characters in their own story. But I think the author gave them a boring pill for this book.

Another thing that really irritated me; Olivia’s mother came to stay with her for a while to help her through some rough times. Garrett and Olivia waited until she went to bed and then boffed like bunnies. No, just, no. I was young and horny and newly married once and slept under the same roof as family but I didn’t do any boffing.

And not finished yet, another thing I found unrealistic is Olivia’s reaction to her health condition. It barely seemed to really register with her. I get that a new relationship with a hot young hockey player would be number one on her mind, but I just found her reaction to her illness unbelievable. Towards the end, just when I thought it would be hard to dislike the characters any more, I did.

I love Sawyer Bennett books and considering the number I’ve loved, I’m not going to stop reading her, but I hope the next one I read is softer, gentler and more believable than this one. There are a lot of very positive reviews for this book so I feel like one of a very small group of salmon swimming upstream *grin* but I did not like this one, no I did not. I give it two stars because I finished it and it was quite readable.

Random Ramblings

Is that not a catchy title or what!!  I’m quite impressed I came with that jaunty heading.  I used to call these "Ponderings"  but I think I like this better.

Anyway – it’s Friday, my CC’s are all off which means I won’t have any new work coming to me.  I don’t have anyone sitting in my little quad pod – they are normally staffed by my missing Care Coordinators, so I’m lonely and as I’m also working the weekend, I want to have some things left to do.  Plus I’m bored.  So you get the meanderings of my mind.

I think many readers, somewhere in their psyche may have a writer in them.  I do, but I realized long ago that while I have the desire I do NOT have the talent to wright a romance book.  It would be so cliché ridden as to become a joke.  I tried to do one many years ago, got a page and a half written and it was such crap.  That’s why I admire the heck out of authors.  Even if I don’t love their books, I appreciate they can get it from their imaginations down to paper.  I have a number of stories floating around in my head that I’m constantly editing and changing, adding scenes and characters etc.  Now the two main characters of all the different stories have definite names and personalities.  And I found myself in an odd situation when my son and daughter in law decided to give the same name to their son, my grandson, to the hero of one of my oldest imagination books.  I don’t let out to people that I have imaginary stories with imaginary characters weaving through out my head so it was pure coincidence they chose the name Jace.

When they told me what they planned to name him, I was a tad flummoxed.  While I love the name, it’s in actual fact the name of an outlaw in the old west, who wants to escape his past and decides to head west when he comes across a wagon traveling west.  It was a lone wagon as they had been abandoned by the rest of the wagon train due to the illness and subsequent death of the mother and father of a young woman, Sarah.  Jace had planned on robbing the wagon and was spying on them from a distance when he saw the daughter break down, her father having just dies in her arms and her mother passed away the day before.  Jace rides to see her, still contemplating just robbing her but as inside he’s a good guy, agrees to accompany her to the next wagon train station they come across.  Of course once they get there, he can’t really leave her for one reason or another and agrees to take her on to another wagon train a few days ahead of them.

Right from the beginning he has strong feelings for Sarah, but denies them.  And Sarah sees him as her hero.

Anyway, anyway – how could I possibly tell my son that he couldn’t use that name as it was already taken…. by me????? And he was almost like Ryan’s younger imaginary brother – well – not really as this is a romance and I admit that Sarah and I may share some characteristics (Mary Sue).  I couldn’t.  So now what do I do?  Jace and Sarah have been percolating for years.  By now they are quite real.  But my little grandbaby is really real – not just imaginary real.  It’s too late to give “my” Jace a different name.

My son does not understand my passion for romances so it would have been way too odd to tell him you can’t name your son that because he’s also a character in my head.

 

I wonder if anyone else ever has this kind of thing happen to them?? 

And in acknowledgement – while there are some differences, there are many similarities in the story in my head to my MOST FAVOURITE WESTERN ROMANCE OF ALL TIME, Outlaw Heats by Roseanne Bittner – another reason I couldn’t write my own romance.  I would probably unwittingly steal from other authors whose stories I’ve loved.

Oh Happy Dance! Happy Day, Happy Dance! 

 

 

 This is one of the few books I would pay any price to buy as an ebook, but it’s not available as an ebook.  But just now, just for the hell of it I checked Amazon and I wish you could all see how excited I am at this moment, but it IS coming out as an ebook!! It is!  It is!  June 2/15 – I just pre-ordered it.

 

 

SWEET, SWEET, SWEET, SWEET.  The direction of this post certainly took

Recent Read

Since I went to see a real live Rock Star Tuesday night, I thought I'm make this my first review now that I'm back in the saddle.





Rise by Karina Bliss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.5 Stars

I discovered Karina Bliss with What the Librarian Did, loved it, got all her backlist and have read every new book since then so it was a given that I would read Rise, her first single title and what seems to be the first of a series.

We first get to know Zander in Librarian and he's a first class, egotistical, selfish jerk. And he didn't really improve much in the next couple of books he appeared in. So I wasn't sure how I would react to him in Bliss and for at least the first half of the book it was not in a positive way and it was kind of tough going. It was Elizabeth, his biographer and his friend and eventually his lover that kept me reading a book when I didn't like the hero. Elizabeth makes for a wonderful heroine. She's funny, intelligent, grounded and more than capable of holing her own against the over-inflated ego that is Zander.

A bit about the book. Zander Freedman is the lead singer of a very popular Rock band named Rage. There decline is outlined in the book What the Librarian Did and is about Devin, Zander's younger brother and the lead bass. The band imploded when Devin collapsed onstage from over excess of the lifestyle that goes on with that kind of life. In Bliss, Zander has reformed the band with different musicians and is preparing to take Rage on a worldwide tour. In order to get even more publicity, he hires Elizabeth, a respected biographer of historical figures. She, of course, is reluctant as all get out since this kind of biography but Zander is a force to be reckoned with and is next to impossible to say no to with his charismatic ways.

So this is the story of Elizabeth trying to get the story from him. He dodges, cancels, only tells half truths and in general very difficult, but hard to stay angry at.

The book started out in my head as a 2, then as the book went along and Zander slowly became less of a prick, I upgraded to a 3, then a 3 1/2, then a 4 and ended as a 4 1/2. There was never any doubt though that Ms. Bliss lost no points as an author even if i wasnt feeling this one at the beginning and even as I was reading about this fairly dislikeable 'hero' I knew I'd be counting down until her next book in the series I enjoy her writing and stories that much.

So you did it Karina Bliss. You fully redeemed Zander Freedman for me so much to the point my throat was closing up as his was. You gave him the perfect partner in Elizabeth who could help with his oh so enjoyable transformation.

'Til later

******ETA*****

Because I was bored and fellow worker bees are still offering their help, I was checking out GoodReads for other reviews of this book and I stumbled upon a bit of news I hadn't really realized.  If you sign up for Karina Bliss' newsletter, there is a little bonus section where Zander meets Elizabeth's parents.  I did not know that.  Now I do, I signed up and I'm about to go on lunch and while on lunch, read said bonus!

Yep - believe it or not - I'm back again!

“Wowzers!” anyone still visiting here will be thinking.  “Wait a minute, didn’t you just do a post yesterday?”

Yes, yes I did and I’m doing another one today.  Work has slowed down considerably and I’m one of the few ones with stuff to do and I’m bombarded with other Assistants wanting to know if I need help.  I don’t really – but they want to do something and if I have them help me with my work, it gives me time to do this – win/win

I was brief yesterday but I’ll get more wordy today – something I’m always on board with.  What’s going on my life?  Let’s see.  Just got through a very tough time.  I’ve never named where I work here and don’t plan on doing it today.  But I will say I work in health care.  I work as an assistant to what we call Care Coordinators, most of them nurses.  They help arrange for home care for clients getting out of the hospitals, going to nursing homes (though I’ve nothing to do with that special focus) and kinds of other interesting things.  I have two Care Coordinators myself that I do administrative work for but I work on a team within a team with 16 in total and I love them.  I know people complain about the health care system in Ontario – and a lot of it with good reason.  But daily I see these people are dedicated to helping others and often go that extra mile.

Now they went on strike a few weeks ago.  Again, I’m not going into the issues, but what they were asking for was completely reasonable and all of their assistants all across the province were behind them 100%, encouraging them and offering all the support we could. 

  
But we are in a different union so we still had to go into work.  And because they were out and upper management were spread very thin, we assistants had to step up and take on a lot of the responsibilities that we are normally expected or trained to do.  We aren’t nurses and we don’t have the expertise we needed to handle a lot of the calls.  Some of the ones I took were SO difficult because they needed to speak to their coordinator and their Coordinator wasn’t there.  They are back at work now thank goodness, but it really did upset my depression apple cart.  I felt the same way as I did back in September when it was so bad.  But thankfully the meds I’m taking are good and our very dear Care Coordinators are back and my work world isn’t so topsy turvy again.

 In other news, I’m headed to RWA again year.  And me and Wendy are going to be roomies again – yea!!  We weren’t for a couple of years – she was Librarian of the Year – and most deservedly so – and last year I skipped it as the money was allocated to a total redo of my bathroom.  I’m so excited for that.  It’s tradition now *grin*

I’m also a grandma – not sure if I’ve blogged about that.  Yes, my youngest son and his wife whom I love to bits and bits had a little boy last October.  And Jace is his name.  He’s cute as a bug – as I imagine all grannies say about their granbabies.  It’s amazing how much I’d forgotten over the years about taking care of a newborn.  The holding the head thing freaked me out.  I’m glad he can hold his own head now.  Right now he’s in Mexico with his mama and papa.  Two weeks after that he’s headed to Florida with his mom and his other grandparents and in May he’s headed to Italy.  It’s very strange when six month old baby has done way more traveling than his granny.

While I haven’t been blogging lately – a long lately – I have been doing reviews on GoodReads.  I signed up there for a Challenge and gave myself 60 books to read this year.  Astonishingly I’m up to 30 all ready.  That’s what happens when you need a new cable box because the sound has gone on the one you have now.  And the only station where the sound is normal is CNN.  And as anyone who has tried to do it, watching CNN can be depressing!!!!! And – why is everything “
Breaking News” there??

I’d watch a story at say 5:00 pm and then again at 11:00 and it’s the same story and it’s still breaking.  Breaks don’t take that long.  I know.  I had a break in my leg and it only takes seconds.

Now, one might ask “But why doesn’t she just take the box back and get a new one instead of watching Wolf Blitzer every day.”  And that would be a real good question, I don’t like Wolf Blitzer.  I do like Anderson Cooper though.  I think everyone likes Anderson Cooper – how can you not?   The answer as to why I haven’t got a new box is I don’t really have an answer for that – except it’s electronicky and I don’t like electronicky.  I don’t watch much TV except for Face Off every Tuesday.  And I’ve gotten pretty fast at reading the captions.   I will have to before April though when the next season of Outlander comes on.  We have to have good sound for that – it’s imperative. 

But, I’ve read a lot more books than usual.  And I’ve done reviews for all of them at Goodreads and it seems easy as anything to copy and paste them on the blog.  So that’s what I plan to do – that along with my ramblings about all kinds of stuff.

And my final rambling of today……  This was who I saw last night and he was WONDERFUL!!!

I saw him 30 years ago on his Reckless tour the first time around and now I saw him again last night.  He's looking much older.  Of course when I saw him the first time it was The Palace of Auborn Hills and he was at the front and we were at the very back so he was about 1/2 inch tall.  And while our tickets last night were very good, I have, I think, 5 pairs of glasses for me near sightedness - I think that's when you can't see things far away - which makes no sense - and I couldn't find a one of them.  So while he was much bigger last night, he was also quite fuzzy.





OK, OK, OK - since his Mama pastes his pics on Facebook all the time - is he not just cute as a button?  Was I right or was I right!

and what does it say about me that I make the picture of Bryan Adams bigger than the one of my grandson????  I think it's maybe because I'm still not 100% on board posting pics of him - granbaby that is - not Bryan.

Yes indeedy, it is me making a rare appearnce

Hi!  Yes!!  It is indeed me again after yet another lengthy unplanned absence.  But I had to come back – hopefully more often – but also to give some great news.  I very rarely send fan letters to authors.  I should do it more often – we all want to hear when we do a good job and that job has made others feel good, but I alas, I am remiss.  I did however send one letter of appreciation and inquiry lately.  I was so excited when I saw that Lord of the Storm and Skypirate were released as ebooks.  I’ve already bought, read and loved them all over again.  But another series she wrote I equally loved – the Hawk Trilogy.  Buoyed by the excitement of finding the Coalition books out as ebooks, I wrote to her to see if there were any plans for the Hawk series.  I head back from her on Monday and yes indeed the Hawk ones were coming out – in fact the first one, Wild Hawk, was coming out Feb 24/15 with the next two planned for March and April. 

Well, lickety split, before one could say uncle, I raced over to Amazon and pre-ordered it.  And since TODAY is Feb 24/15, well, it was like my birthday when I first checked out my Kindle app.  I’m just about finished a book, but you can bet your bottom dollar you can all guess what my next one will be.   It’s been years since I read it, but I looooved it.  It’s one I’ve never forgotten over the years.  Here is the synopsis:

"Jason Hawk only came to his father's funeral to spit on his grave. That was the best the old man deserved from the bastard son he'd never given a damn about. The son whose plan for revenge had now been derailed by Aaron Hawk's death. Or had it?

Kendall Chase was Aaron Hawk's smart and efficient executive assistant, and had come to know a side of the old man that few saw. But convincing Jason there had been more to his father, more to his whole life's story than Jason knew, wasn't easy. He was as tough as the father he hated. And more compelling than any man she'd ever met.

Convincing him the mysterious Hawk family book, a history now chronicling treachery and murder, had answers even for things yet to occur, was a much bigger job. Despite his attraction to her, the only part of Kendall's stories Jason believes is that his father's vicious widow is determined to see that Jason gets none of the inheritance left him.

In the end, Jason has to make a decision. Is the magic real? Or more importantly, is the revenge he's wanted for nearly 30 years, worth losing Kendall"