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Saturday, November 22, 2014
Saturday, November 15, 2014
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Sorry. No bare-chested man-hunk on the cover of this book. Carrie seems to have corned the TFA market on testosterone for the month, so I went ahead with another genre. I know, I know...but this book DOES have quite an array of covers. See? 
Adding to the colorful cover choices is a lovely cast of characters, headlined by Don Tillman. Don is a brilliant but socially awkward genetics professor who sets out to find a mate by creating a 16 page survey to administer to prospective candidates. The search leads him to Rosie (she fails the survey miserably) which leads to a very unlikely friendship. Don and Rosie team up to find Rosie's biological dad, but also find themselves falling for each other. This book is sweet, tender and a bit sad. Don's never had a second date (most likely because he's a 40-year-old man with autism), Rosie is harboring some major anger toward her stepfather (leading her to want to find her biological father) and Don's only go-to-friends for advice are a loveless couple in an open marriage. Yikes.
The Rosie Project is a story about love where you least expect it; love in seemingly all the wrong places. It's also story about acceptance and change, which never gets old in my book. Throw in some science geekiness and a bit of humor and it works. The Rosie Project isn't a bare-chested man-hunk steamy type of read, but it is worthwhile just the same.
Adding to the colorful cover choices is a lovely cast of characters, headlined by Don Tillman. Don is a brilliant but socially awkward genetics professor who sets out to find a mate by creating a 16 page survey to administer to prospective candidates. The search leads him to Rosie (she fails the survey miserably) which leads to a very unlikely friendship. Don and Rosie team up to find Rosie's biological dad, but also find themselves falling for each other. This book is sweet, tender and a bit sad. Don's never had a second date (most likely because he's a 40-year-old man with autism), Rosie is harboring some major anger toward her stepfather (leading her to want to find her biological father) and Don's only go-to-friends for advice are a loveless couple in an open marriage. Yikes.
The Rosie Project is a story about love where you least expect it; love in seemingly all the wrong places. It's also story about acceptance and change, which never gets old in my book. Throw in some science geekiness and a bit of humor and it works. The Rosie Project isn't a bare-chested man-hunk steamy type of read, but it is worthwhile just the same.
Friday, November 7, 2014
Beyond Possession by Kit Rocha
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| This ARC came my way via NetGalley. I love ARCs. I'm too impatient to wait for release days. |
Once upon a time, Tatiana Stone was a fairy tale princess.
And now she lives sexily ever after with her guy, Zan.
Which makes Beyond Possession a fairy tale.
Kinda.
If, when you last read fairy tales, you read about gang leaders.
And dystopian worlds.
And the daughters of deceased gang leaders who are forced to bust their tails crafting soaps and lotions and shampoos in order to care for themselves and their sisters.
And ripped, cage-fighting, heavily tattooed enforcers from the O'Kane gang that displaced the old corrupt and violent rulers.
And lots of steamy, sweaty, dirty sex.
Hmm. Perhaps Beyond Possession is a different kind of bedtime story than you last read.*
But Beyond Possession is very nice bedtime story.
(Again, if when you read the word nice, you imagined hot, naughty, good times and true love in a world of O'Kane whiskey smugglers. Nice. Right?)
Beyond Possession is a novella. It's story 5.5 in the Beyond series by Kit Rocha.
The series is a full-on, no apologies, no-holds-barred, erotic and romantic trip through Sector Four--an area outside the city of Eden where every day life is a struggle. In Sector Four, the tattoos are plenty, the woman are as tough as the men, good days are celebrated with cage fighting and sexy parties, and true love is strong enough for partners who accept each other as they are. O'Kanes don't need to force each other in molds that don't fit.
I'm completely addicted to this series, and my only complaint about Beyond Possession is that, as a novella, it's too short. As with the other Sector Four stories, I love the characters. Kit Rocha writes great romance, but she also writes great friendships. (And, I did mention the sexy times, right? Those are great, too.)
If you want some heat with your romance, and you're open to reading some non-conventional situations, you should start the Beyond series. I'll promise you you'll enjoy reading your way through to Beyond Possession.
* And perhaps this is a good time for me to pretend that my mom and her friends don't read these reviews. Hi, Mom. Sorry.
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Thursday, August 28, 2014
The Ripper Affair by Lilith Saintcrow--so excited to jump in, annoyed the day job got in the way. #readingnow
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Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Friday, August 15, 2014
I've always found books to be illuminating, but this is a new level. #moma
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Saturday, August 2, 2014
Silly fun. Always love a good gods retelling. Author's from El Paso, too. Totally appropriate for teens.
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Saturday, July 26, 2014
Magic Breaks by Ilona Andrews (mild spoilers)
Thanks to Ace (a Penguin Group Science Fiction and Fantasy imprint) and my Twitter addiction, this happened on Monday:
My sisters love me (or they were afraid of my excessive use of exclamation points), and they agreed that the ARC (advance reading copy) could come to my house. It arrived on Friday. So this was a BFD for couple of reasons. As I texted, this is one my favorite series, but an ARC also meant I wouldn't need to wait until release day (July 29) to read the book.
Suffice to say there was much fangirl-ing* in my house this week.
And, yet, this Kate Daniels fangirl has somehow never reviewed a Kate book for you before.
A book set in Kate's world? Yes.
A novella in anthology that is also in Kate's world? Yes.
But an actual, honest-to-goodness Kate book? No. That just incomprehensible.
(And that word does mean what I think it means.)
Warning: mild spoilers found below.
Magic Breaks is the seventh book in this series; the authors are contracted for three more. (I am unlikely to think that 10 is enough.) The book opens with series summary by one of the supporting characters, so you could dive right in and read this book without being lost**. Briefly, what that summary explains is that Kate lives in Atlanta at a time when magic pulses and technology works inconsistently. Kate, due to her parentage, IS magic. She's also, due to her upbringing, quite the ass-kicker. Her fiance, Curran, is the Beast Lord, the alpha's alpha of the Atlanta Pack of shapeshifters. There are witches, trolls, and vampires*** in this world, and Kate works hard to protect her loved ones, the defenseless, and a few mostly righteous people willing to pay for her services****.
The story begins when the uneasy truce between the people who navigate the vampires and the shapeshifters is broken by the discovery that a shapeshifter killed a master navigator. Kate has to figure out how to prevent an almost inevitable war between the two sides--a war seemingly kick-started by Hugh d'Ambray, a wingnut with a twisted preoccupation with Kate. Hugh is so preoccupied with Kate that when she manages to foil his master plan (curses!), he uses betrayal within the Pack to get Kate (literally) where he wants her.
So, war averted, but personal jeopardy ensured. (That's kinda Kate's MO.)
Hugh is a sociopathic wingnut, so he underestimates both the devotion and capabilities of Kate's friends and family, and that underestimation eventually leads to his embarrassment before his boss, Kate's father.
Oh, I need to tell you somethings about Kate's dad.
He's . . . not nice. Nor is he weak.
He wants to "claim" Atlanta as his own, and he just might have a history of killing off his offspring.
So the part of this series and this story that has been leading up to a confrontation between Kate and her father?
Err, tense and likely deadly.
So what have a described so far? An urban fantasy about an ass-kicking, sword-slinging heroine; her devoted, psychotic (in a good way?) supernatural friends; and her messed-up family tree. A heroine forced (through circumstances and her own conscience) into facing a powerful wizard who will try to control or kill her.
Sound like fun? It's AWESOME. It's so good, I'm going to read it again before release day.
Now, excuse me, while my Precious and I go spend more time together.
*In my case, fangirl-ing involves dancing around the house with no concern for dignity, copious amounts of texts and social media messages--again, with no concern for dignity--and, of course, squee-ing. ZOMG!! We won an ARC.
**But for the love of my book OCD, start at the beginning. There's a difference between not being lost and really appreciating what's going on.***These vampires are little like remotely controlled zombies. On their own, they're mindless predators, but "navigators" can manipulate them like string-less marionettes.
***These vampires are little like remotely controlled zombies. On their own, they're mindless predators, but "navigators" can manipulate them like string-less marionettes.
****For more insight into Kate's world, go here. It's a new site, so I can't tell you much about it.
 |
| Just in case you were about to underestimate how happy this made me, please use the size of this picture to as an indication of my joy. Now, increase that amount by an exponent of 10 and crank up the volume. |
My sisters love me (or they were afraid of my excessive use of exclamation points), and they agreed that the ARC (advance reading copy) could come to my house. It arrived on Friday. So this was a BFD for couple of reasons. As I texted, this is one my favorite series, but an ARC also meant I wouldn't need to wait until release day (July 29) to read the book.
Suffice to say there was much fangirl-ing* in my house this week.
And, yet, this Kate Daniels fangirl has somehow never reviewed a Kate book for you before.
A book set in Kate's world? Yes.
A novella in anthology that is also in Kate's world? Yes.
But an actual, honest-to-goodness Kate book? No. That just incomprehensible.
(And that word does mean what I think it means.)
 |
| This is our ARC. You are not allowed to judge it by its cover. |
Magic Breaks is the seventh book in this series; the authors are contracted for three more. (I am unlikely to think that 10 is enough.) The book opens with series summary by one of the supporting characters, so you could dive right in and read this book without being lost**. Briefly, what that summary explains is that Kate lives in Atlanta at a time when magic pulses and technology works inconsistently. Kate, due to her parentage, IS magic. She's also, due to her upbringing, quite the ass-kicker. Her fiance, Curran, is the Beast Lord, the alpha's alpha of the Atlanta Pack of shapeshifters. There are witches, trolls, and vampires*** in this world, and Kate works hard to protect her loved ones, the defenseless, and a few mostly righteous people willing to pay for her services****.
The story begins when the uneasy truce between the people who navigate the vampires and the shapeshifters is broken by the discovery that a shapeshifter killed a master navigator. Kate has to figure out how to prevent an almost inevitable war between the two sides--a war seemingly kick-started by Hugh d'Ambray, a wingnut with a twisted preoccupation with Kate. Hugh is so preoccupied with Kate that when she manages to foil his master plan (curses!), he uses betrayal within the Pack to get Kate (literally) where he wants her.
So, war averted, but personal jeopardy ensured. (That's kinda Kate's MO.)
 |
| The copy pre-ordered will look like this when it arrives on Tuesday. |
Hugh is a sociopathic wingnut, so he underestimates both the devotion and capabilities of Kate's friends and family, and that underestimation eventually leads to his embarrassment before his boss, Kate's father.
Oh, I need to tell you somethings about Kate's dad.
He's . . . not nice. Nor is he weak.
He wants to "claim" Atlanta as his own, and he just might have a history of killing off his offspring.
So the part of this series and this story that has been leading up to a confrontation between Kate and her father?
Err, tense and likely deadly.
So what have a described so far? An urban fantasy about an ass-kicking, sword-slinging heroine; her devoted, psychotic (in a good way?) supernatural friends; and her messed-up family tree. A heroine forced (through circumstances and her own conscience) into facing a powerful wizard who will try to control or kill her.
Sound like fun? It's AWESOME. It's so good, I'm going to read it again before release day.
Now, excuse me, while my Precious and I go spend more time together.
 |
| One last look at our Precious for you. |
*In my case, fangirl-ing involves dancing around the house with no concern for dignity, copious amounts of texts and social media messages--again, with no concern for dignity--and, of course, squee-ing. ZOMG!! We won an ARC.
**But for the love of my book OCD, start at the beginning. There's a difference between not being lost and really appreciating what's going on.***These vampires are little like remotely controlled zombies. On their own, they're mindless predators, but "navigators" can manipulate them like string-less marionettes.
***These vampires are little like remotely controlled zombies. On their own, they're mindless predators, but "navigators" can manipulate them like string-less marionettes.
****For more insight into Kate's world, go here. It's a new site, so I can't tell you much about it.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Another (book) quickie
As promised I took a few hours to read the next offering in a series of short offerings from Alexander McCall Smith. I read and reviewed the first in the series here and I liked it.
This one, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs, didn't disappoint either. That's right, I said "sausage dogs."
Mistaken for a vet, the Professor has no choice but to perform emergency surgery on an unsuspecting sausage dog. Naturally, this leads to lectures on the finer points of sausage dogs and ultimately a trip to the Vatican where said sausage dog eats the bones of Father Christmas. Sound ridiculous? It is. But so is that book cover we posted the other day. And over 350 of you liked that enough to click on it. You're welcome.
Monday, July 21, 2014
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Friday, July 18, 2014
Have I mentioned that I'm excited about this?! AND I've got my next three books lined up after this! #booklove #summer
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Monday, July 14, 2014
Friday, July 11, 2014
Short. Funny. Done.
I don't know about you, but short, funny, and done is how I like my summer reading. I save the long, drama-filled plot twists and turns for the school year. Summer, in my view, should be filled with quick little funny stories that I can pick up at the pool and put down once a friend plops down next to me and my Build-a-Bear towel.
Portuguese Irregular Verbs by Alexander McCall Smith (of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency fame) is just that. It follows Professor Dr. von Igelfeld and his haphazard band of academic acquaintances all over Europe. Very proud of his title and of his published novel about verbs, Dr. Von Igelfeld takes himself way too seriously. And it's funny.
There are two more in this series and I plan to finish them this summer. Where, you ask? At the pool, of course!
Happy reading!
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Sunday, July 6, 2014
The moment when you realize the glorious book you started is part of a series. And not the first part #BookOCD #TakeTwo #CatValente
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Thursday, July 3, 2014
This is a test of an IFTTT recipe. (And it's the book I'm about to start reading.) 📚
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