Beanbag Love

This is the final book in Heath's "Lost Lords of Pembrook" trilogy. I thought it was the best of the three, but I was still a bit dissatisfied in the end.

The trilogy revolves around three brothers: Sebastian, Tristan, and Rafe. Sebastian and Tristan are twins and four years older than Rafe. When the twins were 14 and Rafe was 10 their uncle murdered their father -- the Duke of Pembrook -- and locked the boys in the tower with the intention of killing them as well. Their neighbor friend, Mary, helped them to escape. They ran away and split up. Sebastian, being the oldest, made the decisions. He left Rafe at a work house, sold Tristan to a ship's captain and bought himself a commission in the army. All of them suffered in various ways during their separation. Twelve years later, they came back together to take back what had been stolen from them.

Rafe's story always promised to be the most difficult. He was left behind, crying and begging his brother. He had been the pampered youngest and always felt an outsider with his brothers who were so close they knew each other's thoughts. His situation in the workhouse was abusive and, once he escaped, he did things of which he was extremely ashamed.

Evelyn Chambers is the illegitimate daughter of an Earl. When her mother died, he brought her to live with him, giving her all the love he never shared with his legitimate son. When he dies, his son promises to take care of her. He does this by planning to put her up for auction to any nobleman who will take her as his mistress. She, naturally, hasn't even heard of these plans, so she's a deer in the headlights.

Rafe takes one look at her, talks to her for about five seconds and snaps her up for himself. And so our story begins.

Evelyn (Evie) and Rafe have nice chemistry. She's innocent and naive, but she's also smart, compassionate and strong-willed. It's completely believable that Rafe would fall in love with her. It's believable that she would fall in love with him.

Everything is going along swimmingly until the end (this is the point where the first book in the trilogy unraveled a bit, too). It just doesn't make sense. When she leaves and goes to Sebastian and Mary, it's utterly bizarre that neither one of them at least visits Rafe to see how he's feeling about Evie's absence. It was baffling and completely unbelievable.

I was also disappointed in the resolution of the brothers' troubles with one another. I felt like there should be a more dramatic, or poignant, scene where they sort things out. In Heath's "Scoundrels of St. James" series, the backdrop of a rough childhood is also present, but it seems to be handled much better. I felt like that backdrop was made remote and glossed over, even though it's as important to the "Lost Lords" as their eventual love interests. Especially with Rafe. We had a couple of explanations of the horrible things that happened to him, but it all seemed removed from the story even though we've been told throughout that it's ever-present for him. Somehow there's a disconnect, and I think it was in the lack of concrete resolution between the brothers.

I love Lorraine Heath and I have enjoyed this trilogy despite some unfortunate flaws. I highly recommend her if you're a fan of historical romances.

This is an anthology of three short stories about characters from the Rough Riders series. It was a quick read, they were definitely short stories, but they had a lot of heft drama-wise so they were enjoyable.

The first one is called "King of Hearts" and is about Cam McKay, the hero from "Shoulda Been a Cowboy". It's a poignant story about a PTSD murder/suicide he has to deal with and his feelings about his own experience in that area. It's pretty sad at points, and really cute and has a nice, sexy scene with Domini.

The second one is called "Rough Road" and centers around the Trevor/Chassie/Edgard family (Rough, Raw and Ready). The threesome takes a sexy vacation from family and work and that's pretty hot. The rest of the family stuff is very moving and leads to a throat-lump-inducing conclusion.

The third one is called "All Knocked Up" and concerns Jack and Keely (All Jacked Up) and their pregnancy. At first I thought this one might be a DNF because everything I hate about Keely is on full display near the beginning. But then things get a lot better and there are some nice scenes and surprises, as well as some very touching moments.

At $2.99 this is totally worth it. And I wish other authors would do something just like this. Short, slice-of-life stories sold in anthology form (for a decent price) rather than shoe-horning favorite characters into another couple's story line. I really like this and I will buy if my other favorite authors choose to do something similar.

PS: Someone needs to tell LJ's characters that all home-schooled kids are not isolated freaks and there are a great many nice Christians in the world who successfully counter the jerky ones. Just noting a kind of annoying running angle in a few of her stories.

Solid 4.5 for me. I liked this first installment in the Chaos series. The characters are carry-overs from the Dream Man series about six years further on from the end of that one. It works well to advance so far between books, and I really loved seeing how things had progressed.

This book had a lot of moments that had me tearing up. A lot of heart-wrenching events and some moments where I, as a reader, felt deeply for what the characters were going through. Ashley has a real gift for triggering reader empathy and it makes for very satisfying reading experiences.

Tabby and Shy are a couple who have known their share of hardship and tragedy even though neither one of them is unloved or uncared for. They aren't alone individually, but they're definitely better together. Everything falls into place for them.

And once they do get together it's the real deal from the start. They fit and they've got each other's backs. But that doesn't mean angst and heartache won't happen, it just comes from outside sources.

As in Motorcycle Man, the alpha male main character says and does some things that I think I'm not going to get over, and then I do. I can't explain it, it just seems to happen with this author. He wasn't as difficult as Tack but he sure had his moments.

I really liked this one, even though it wasn't as funny as some of the Dream Man stories. If you haven't already, it would be good to read the Dream Man series -- or at least Motorcycle Man -- before reading this book.

Well, this one was the weakest KA I've read so far. Just kind of laid there for me.

Mara is a huge part of the problem. I liked her at first, and I got that there were things in her past that made her feel so inferior in both looks and status, but it went on forEVER. She was reduced to responding with "um" or "uh" again and again for at least half the book. It became a real challenge to believe Mitch had any reason to be so attracted to her. It wasn't her sparkling wit and charming personality (with him, at least).

Mitch was slightly disappointing as well. I had seen him as a little more refined in the other Dream Man books. Not upper crusty, but the thuggish jargon he was using here didn't really make itself apparent when I'd seen him in other stories. It didn't fit for me. I'd been looking forward to something a little different and it felt like he'd been shoehorned into the character template of the other dream men.

But there were some really poignant moments, especially with the kids. Mara's skanky, numbnuts cousin is a danger to himself and others and Mara has to step in and be the adult. That works pretty well once you get past the fact that she sure took her time rescuing them.

We also got some other POVs which isn't the norm for the series. We checked in with Mitch a couple of times throughout the book and also with Billy. I like to break away from 1st person as the unreliable narrator gets on my nerves when it's the only way to get information at all.

The epilogue is interesting, set far in the future, but that makes it really effective for this story considering Mara and the kids' issues with not being able to trust others to be there for them for the long haul.

Not terrible, I was just a little disappointed in this one compared to the others in the Dream Man series.

Tess is the owner of a cake shop called Tessa's Cakes. She's survived an ugly marriage and divorce and she's experiencing success in her business. She's also dating a really hot guy who makes her happy.

Brock AKA Slim is her hot guy. He's also the cop who's undercover on an investigation into her scumbag ex-husband. She's not happy about having been lied to, and Brock's not happy about having had to lie. He's fallen hard for her, but he has to convince her he's for real.

It's a romantic read, but the structure was a little wonky. We deal with the two of them working it out, his family, a little bit of her family, some dysfunction, some ugliness … all of it personal. But there was a danger plot hanging outside the romance thread that was completely ignored until the last act. It felt like a red herring when things finally started to happen in that area because we'd been focused on the romance and family drama.

Still, the danger plot brought about a really great reaction from Tess when she was actually put to the test. She was great.

Ultimately a satisfying read despite feeling it was a little oddly organized.

I bought this book when several authors launched a "book bomb" to support David Farland after his son was seriously injured in a skateboarding accident. That was the first time I'd ever heard of Farland, but it turns out he's a pillar of the community having mentored such luminaries as Brandon Sanderson.

This is YA Fantasy. Not my favorite genre. At. All. But I actually liked this story a lot. It's told in a mature way, even when the POV is from one of the featured teenagers. The world unfolds steadily and unnervingly. The lead is a teenaged boy who was abandoned as a baby and his POV is by turns frustrating and compelling. Just like a teen. <.<<br/>
It's the first of a planned series and I don't know when the next one will be out, unfortunately. But I will definitely read on because I have to know what happens next.

The book on Kindle is not expensive, so it's worth a try, especially if you like this genre. ETA: That's not quite accurate. The price is actually $7.99 which is pricey for Kindle, but at least the family gets more money. I have no regrets regarding this purchase. ;D

And I thought Tohr was a dick.

Then I met Tack.

This is the final installment of Kristen Ashley's Dream Man series. It stars Tack and Tyra as the leads and it is simultaneously hard to read and hard to put down.

Tack is a straight-up asshole for a good chunk of the first half of the book. In the second half he still has his moments. That I ended up loving him is nothing short of a miracle of writing on KA's part. How did she do that? I don't even know.

The story starts with a cringe-inducing prologue. A cringe of empathy, that is. Tyra has just had amazing and lengthy, wild sex with Tack who she just met that night. She's laying in bed with him thinking he's The One for her. Then she gets a big surprise. He's possibly the worst person in the entire world. In her entire world, anyway.

We move forward to more uncomfortable and infuriating situations and our heroine is seriously overwhelmed for a while. But she does stand up for herself. The thing is, unlike other alphas in the romance genre, Tack (and most of Ashley's heroes, it seems) doesn't actually back down. What's odd is that I end up okay with Tyra coming to a compromise and/or a new understanding of the situation. Again, how KA pulls this off without me throwing my Kindle is a mystery I'm not even going to try to solve. It just all ends up making sense somehow.

**ETA** Tack is the head of the Chaos Motorcycle Club and he's authentic as a crude, rude, rough talking/living biker. Some of the things he said had my eyes bugging out. How did I fall for him? The mind boggles. **End edit**

Tyra is a typical KA heroine -- at least as far as I know, I've only read three books and all in this series -- smart, witty, dryly observational. She cracked me up a number of times and I ended up really liking her. She did do one thing that was annoying, but just as I was about to downgrade my opinion of her, KA had her address the very thing that was bugging me. Again, how'd she do that?

I am giving this book five stars because, even though it was a difficult read for some of it, and the danger plot was skimpy on the details, I enjoyed the hell out of it. I'm glad it was my first KA read and I'm looking forward to savoring the backlist of this author.

Mystery Man is the first in Kristen Ashley's "Dream Man" series. It stars RangerHawk and Gwen. Wait! What was that? Did I just say Ranger? Yes. Yes, I did.

And if you don't know who Ranger is ... I'm surprised ... but he's a character from Janet Evonavich's Stephanie Plum series and he has a humongous fan base.

Why do I say Hawk is Ranger? Here's why (putting it in spoiler tags to save space):

-->Ranger is nicknamed for his former job in the Army. Hawk is nicknamed for flying Black Hawks, his former job in the Army.
-->Ranger owns a high-level security company that may or may not do some shady business even as they are consistently the good guys. Hawk owns a high-level security company that may or may not do some shady business even as they are consistently the good guys.
-->Ranger is a health nut. Hawk is a health nut.
-->Ranger puts human and electronic surveillance all over Stephanie's environment and she doesn't get as pissed off as she should. Hawk puts human and electronic surveillance all over Gwen's environment and while she gets more pissed off than Stephanie does, she lets it go pretty easily.
-->Ranger sneaks into Stephanie's house and she can't figure out how he does it. Hawk sneaks into Gwen's house and she can't figure out how he does it.
-->Ranger and Hawk are similar ethnicity.
-->Ranger and Hawk have a love/hate relationship with the police.
-->Ranger and Hawk both refer to the lead female of the book as "babe", often as a one-word response which turns it into a punchline.

Gwen has some similarities with Stephanie, too. Mainly her addiction to junk food and her wry, funny take on things. But she's not nearly as stupid, selfish and unlikable as Stephanie Plum. And the biggest bonus is that Hawk is not constantly nagging her about what she eats, he actually stocks his fridge with her faves, unlike Ranger.

This isn't a bad story, in fact it's really pretty good once you get past the insanity of what Hawk and Gwen have been doing for the past year and a half. But there are times when I felt Gwen let him off the hook too easily -- like the surveillance issue for one -- and the Rangerbabe fanfic feeling of the piece was pretty distracting. Especially since I loathe Ranger and Stephanie and that whole series at this point, those striking similarities were a bit of a drawback.

Still, Ashley overcame my hatred of those other characters.

Hawk has much more depth, if not nuance, than Ranger has. His back story is poignant and difficult and makes some of his behavior much easier to take. He's much more layered and likable, IMO. Gwen is not an idiot but she does make some mistakes and, as I said, she sometimes lets him off the hook too easily. She is also someone who draws men like flies. There are at least three hot men interested in her at all times, which is another similarity to *gags* Stephanie Plum, only this time it's a lot more believable and makes more sense.

Which brings me to Tack, a featured character in this story (and one of Gwen's suitors) who becomes the lead in the superiorly crafted Motorcycle Man. He just kind of disappears at the end, and that was a bummer. His relationship with both Hawk and Gwen is complicated enough that I felt he should have been more present in the finale.

This is the second book I've read by Kristen Ashley. I started with Motorcycle Man, which is the 4th and final book in the Dream Man series. So many of my friends adore this author I was very nervous to give her a try. What if I didn't like her? That didn't turn out to be a problem, I do like her. I like her quirky heroines and her bossy, hunky heroes. I like that the females could be completely squished out by the males, but they retain their individuality and strength without taking anything away from the heroes. I am now reading the second in the series -- Wild Man -- and I'm pleased to see it doesn't seem to be following the same template as Mystery Man and Motorcycle Man. Her villains and their nefarious plots could stand a little more specificity, but the key for me is the romance and Ashley has a real gift for that, I think.

And I especially like that she's, until recently, a self-published author who's made good. Ashley is a competent, engaging writer in a sea of self-indulgent, story-challenged dilettantes. She has a huge backlist so there are plenty of options to try and I'm looking forward to getting to them.

If you're a frustrated Rangerbabe, this may be the HEA you've been dreaming of. It's certainly a much more satisfying tale than the tower of refuse the Plum series has become, so consider giving it a try if you haven't already.

Sex, more sex, some more sex ... and some more sex .... followed by a great, big helping of sex. With a little sex on the side.

Not much story. Fresh-faced, beautiful girl, Riley, comes to NYC from Washington state to start a new job. Her first night in town she goes to an exclusive club where she's admitted immediately. Owner of club, Cade, sees her, goes to kick her out because of her innocence -- not the club's target clientele -- and falls for her in two seconds. Calls his best friend, Trevor, who always, always, always shares girlfriends with him and tells Trevor to get over there, Cade's found The One They've Been Looking For.

And ... yeah ... that's about it. Sex ensues and doesn't stop.

Oh, there's a murder plot, but it only pauses the sex for a few pages.

Three stars because it was endearing despite the lack of story. And, although it was sex overload, it was pretty good sex, so it's got that going for it.

This was more of a 4.5 star read but I bump it up to 5 stars because I can. The price was not set by the publisher, so it qualifies per my rating policy. Suck on that A6ers! *ETA* Ooooooh. Color me with egg all over my face. This may not have been Agency priced but the price dropped a lot a week or two after release. So if you're a loyal fan and you preorder then *insert two middle fingers*. No longer eligible for 5 stars. Will keep an eye on this publisher to see if this kind of tricky behavior is typical. *end edit*

Anyway, I really like the Night Prince series. It's part of the Night Huntress World series which is an off-shoot of the Night Huntress series which features Cat and Bones (okay, that's really confusing). While I also liked the Night Huntress World books that have gone before -- Spade and Denice/Mencheres and Kira -- I think they suffered from having to be resolved in the space of one book. Jeaniene Frost is particularly talented in multi-book romance arcs and I really wish those stories had been told this way.

Leila is a great lead. I really like her voice -- this is first person POV -- and her story. It's complex and full of angst. Her devotion to her friends and family is admirable and makes her a solid action heroine.

I love her power, too. She kicks ass.

Vlad is an arrogant ass who is violent and grumpy and totally lovable. His feelings for Leila are clearly disruptive to his equilibrium and it's really endearing. She's a nice match for him.

I'd been sort of "meh" about the Night Huntress series, but this off-shoot has gotten me more excited about all of it. There's an excerpt for the new Cat and Bones book at the end of this one and I'm even excited about that now. So I'd say the Night Prince series is good medicine for the disenchanted Night Huntress fan.

You really don't have to read the other two Night Huntress World books (First Drop of Crimson, and Eternal Kiss of Darkness) to be able to fully enjoy these books.

Enjoy!

I had a checklist of things I wanted to see in the Qhuinn/Blay arc of this book and all but one of those things happened in this story. That's enough to give it four stars.

The side stories fluctuate between being completely tedious and skimmable to pretty intriguing and promising. And, oddly enough, those side stories got more interesting in the second half of the book while the main story got less interesting in the second half. Up until the final 15% of the book when things finally came together beautifully.

You'll see all the things fans love to complain about. Continuity problems, plot reuse, and repetitive, gratuitous and seemingly endless inner monologues. And that could ruin the book for you ... if you let it.

The highs in this book are incredibly high. It's a very emotional read with scenes that match some of the best scenes of the series. The lows are pretty much just "meh". So if you absolutely must focus on the things that bother you -- the things that happen book after book after book -- then you might have a problem with LaL. If you focus on the things that JRW does very, very well, there's a good chance you'll enjoy this book and be very satisfied.

The beginning is clunky and those side story lines are tedious, but it's worth sticking it out for a really nice conclusion.

This book was Agency 6 priced so it lost one full star off the top. I take a half-star for all the things that bugged me, but only half because if those things bothered me so much they were worth more than half a star I'd have to wonder what the heck was wrong with me for continuing to buy the books in the first place. ;)

I really liked this book. It had a few drawbacks, but it kept me intrigued the whole way through.

One problem, I think, is that for the first half of the book we're dealing with two protagonists who are so isolated and fearful of entanglements with other humans that we get a lot of inner monologue. It's actually interesting, which is unique, but it does make some segments drag a bit.

The other problem is that it has a YA feel in that the leads tend to be obtuse and make big decisions based on misunderstandings.

But the thing is, it all makes sense if you think about who these characters are. You just have to remind yourself of that when you want to shake them. And usually, Hoyt speaks to it not long after it happens.

I liked the two leads and their little posse well enough that I've already bought the next book in the series.

This was a freebie, so it's worth giving a try.

PS: The conversion to e-book seems to have been problematic because there is some mental editing required. Whoever did the job didn't do a very good one. It's not enough to ruin the story, but it's noticeable.

This is a novella that takes place between books 1 and 2 of the Spindle Cove series. It's fine. As usual, novellas are fairly superficial. This one might have had a decent premise for a full story, so it does feel like it's a rush, rush, rush to the end. I actually would have liked to go a little more in depth. Perhaps the couple will have another installment, since it seems their adventure isn't quite over just because their romance is resolved.

Paranormal mystery series about a science teacher who gets partially turned into a vampire. It's an odd combination that had its moments. Unfortunately, I felt the need to skim a lot as it just wasn't keeping my interest. The scene resolving the mystery was fairly disappointing as well. But there is an interesting relationship that seems to be building -- although there's also a triangle of sorts which is kryptonite to me as a reader -- that might be worth following to the second book.

All-in-all, I'd say it's not bad, but it has some sections that disappoint.

Just under four stars, I think. I liked it, but the first 25% was tedious with inner monologues and the last 10% was tedious with "I'm not worthy". But I really liked this couple and I loved every time they really got together and talked.

This is the second book in the "The Rules of Scoundrels" series by MacLean. I enjoyed the first, and this one was just as good. I'm looking forward to the next book with Temple as the lead.

I guess my expectations were low, because I liked this one despite it's obvious weakness as a novel.

The Ideal Man follows the Garwood suspense template closely. Dr. Ellie Sullivan goes for a quick run and manages to witness a shooting. FBI agent Max Daniels puts himself in charge of her safety. They're instantly attracted to each other and they're playing kissy-face within two days of meeting each other.

There's plenty of Garwood's trademark humor and the chemistry was boosted by their casual banter. At times the book felt more like a slice-of-life family drama, but that was all okay, too. For some reason what might have driven me crazy at another time didn't really bother me this time.

Anyone who's read Garwood's other suspense novels will be able to predict pretty each move in the plot line. But there's something to be said for familiarity from time to time. :)

PS: One star was automatically deducted from this review for Agency 6 pricing. I was lucky. I got the hard cover at the Goodwill book store for $2.99. Anyone buying it on e-book will be fleeced by the publisher as usual.