Tempt Me At Twilight by Lisa Kleypas

I haven't been hopping around blogland much but I don't recall seeing too many people talking about this book.

I'm loving it!!

I have the last few chapters to read but I can't see where it can go wrong. Unless the H/H die then I'm all good.

Harry is such a SOB and I love him! I think he's giving Sebastian a run for his money but then I never read the book where Sebastian was the villain.

I love it when you get characters that just don't fit any expectations.

Harry isn't a hero although I can't help but get all mushy about him now. I do think there is more that we could have known. He's not exactly forthcoming even in his own thoughts. He just knows what he wants and grabs it.

I would have liked to see him thinking about his hobby while working through something. I think there is a lot assumed about who he is (and I don't doubt he's every thing imparted) but it's not shown in his thoughts or actions for the most part. I think people who have active minds can't help but get distracted by seeing something new or interesting to them.

I guess it's just that Poppy is the new and shiny.

I can't wait to get to Beatrix's story although I imagine Leo will get his HEA before she does.

Okay, I didn't see the time creeping up on me and bedtime is calling!

But I can definitely call this one a KEEPER, KEEPER, KEEPER, KEEPER, KEEPER!!!

Don't Tempt Me by Loretta Chase

I wanted to love it.

Really I did.

Cindy Blurb: Zoe Lexam had been missing for 12 years when she is delivered to her family's front door. Of course, other woman had tried to pretend to be the missing Zoe and had been shown the door quite quickly. This time however, the gossip hounds were abuzz with the tale of The Harem Girl and how this time, it looked like Lord Lexam had finally found his real daughter.


Lucien de Gray has lost everyone he ever loved including a stubborn little girl he knew as a young boy. Hearing she had gone missing when he was seventeen shut Lucien down and he believed her to be dead. He continued on with his life, or as much of one as he allowed himself. Since Zoe must be dead, Lord Lexam was surely being fleeced and it was his job to go and oust the impostor.


Only the minute he saw her he knew it was Zoe. It just wasn't the Zoe he remembered.


What I loved about this book was Zoe. She is a breath of fresh air but then, she would be. She was kidnapped and sold into white slavery at the age of 12. She became a gift for a powerful man's son and was married to an impotent man. What happens to Zoe for those 12 years is very much glossed over or the story would have been far darker. In fact, I imagine it was far darker, we just don't get to see that. Zoe escaped her captivity and finally made it home where she was going to live a life of freedom and obviously not look back at her past too closely if at all.

The problem is her mere existence is scandalous. Put her in a room with people and she'd be ruined in minutes.

In comes Lucien, the boy she once knew as a child, who is now a duke. Lucien decides he can make her acceptable by presenting her to the Queen and having her acknowledge Zoe.

Lucien and Zoe accomplish all of this with some cute banter and maybe a few longing looks. Although I don't remember that many now.

I can't say I warmed to Lucien. I think he was supposed to be charming when I thought he was just dull. Sure, he'd lost everyone he loved but it didn't seem to grant him very much character. He just seemed to flow with life and as long as he wasn't bothered he was fine. So having Zoe come into his life didn't seem to affect him all that much. Sure, she discovered a bunch of stuff happening in his household and he was forced to become a grown up and handle situations but for the most part - meh.

In the end I wasn't bowled over by their story. I think Zoe may have got the shorter end of the stick while the duke made out like a bandit. I mean, Zoe is fun and while the duke likes fun, he's still kind of flat.

And all the stuff with the servants. Bah.

C+

This one was missing the zip for me. It wasn't the trainwreck that was Miss Wonderful and it certainly wasn't the beauty of Mr. Impossible.

If you are a Loretta Chase fan girl, have fun, if Ms. Chase is more hit or miss for you as she is for me, you've been warned.

The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley

Phew!!

Another book read and it was awesome!

This was my first Jennifer Ashley book and I can say it won't be my last. Although the other brothers in this story couldn't possibly be more interesting the Lord Ian himself.

Cindy Blurb: Beth is a newly rich woman after the elderly woman she had been a companion to left her an inheritance. Beth has not had an easy life but she's known love and understanding but it's been 7 long years since her husband died and she's ready to be a wife again. At least, she thought she was.

Lord Ian Mackenzie is believed to be mad, after all he was declared so in a competency hearing when he was 12 years old. Everyone knows he was released only because after his father's death his brother, a right powerful duke, made it happen. Ian states things as he sees them, has a photographic memory, can re-play any music he hears and is unable to stare anyone in the eye.


The minute he sees Beth he decides he must save her from a horrible betrothal and proposes to her on the spot. Beth, a sensible woman, declines the offer but can't stop herself from being curious about the man who seems unable to tell a lie.

And then came love.

I don't know that I can do this story any justice.

What I can tell you is that in the beginning I was stumbling with my perception of Lord Ian and that's because I had seen someone put a diagnosis on him and I thought it was autism. Not knowing an adult with autism but knowing plenty of children I couldn't get the image of Ian 'the man' right in my head. I was prepared to stop reading the story but decided to head off again in search of what Lord Ian might be suffering and discovered I had made a mistake and it's believed he has Aspergers. I have seen adult men portrayed with Aspergers so after that I was able to see 'the man' and not a child.

And it was awesome.

But I think I've mentioned that.

With the many nuances of Aspergers, there is a million ways for Beth and Ian to not understand each other but neither seems to want to walk away from the other. This is not just a relationship between Beth and Ian but also between Ian and his brothers, Beth and Ian's brothers, Beth and her previous relationships and finally between Ian and his awful father.

Like I said, I can't do this story any justice, just know that I really enjoyed it. I ended up staying up past my 'bedtime' to finish reading the story the night before Bob's family was to come for the day. And you know how I need to sleep!

All that said, there were a few things that quirked.

There is a mystery to be solved and it took Beth to figure it all out which seems a bit silly but I guess with the assumptions the brothers made, it would take an outsider who believed. There's a TSTL moment but I remember feeling invincible at the age of the heroine so maybe it's acceptable.

I also have to say I'm not sure the rest of the brothers are at all likable which makes me wonder if I'll like other books.

I know I would love to re-read it again in the future but I'll go with a B+ as a grade.

To Beguile A Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt

I spent the whole day reading. Talk about bliss!

So I just finished To Beguile a Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt and decided to get some of my thoughts down cause I'm awake and it's day light and I'm hyper.

Good times.

Cindy Blurb: Helen Fitzwilliam is a wonderful heroine in the fact that she is nothing like what I have read before. Sure she's all good and sweet and stuff but get this. She's the long time mistress of a Duke and has two children from the relationship.

I know!

Then, the hero is a tortured (literally) soul with a horribly scarred face who has holed himself up in a decrepit castle.

So down to brass tacks and all that, the heroine has decided she must flee the Duke and knows that the Duke will try and keep her by stealing her children from her.

A friend of the H/H sends Helen to Scotland to the above mentioned castle to act as a housekeeper for Sir Alistair who is of course a grouchy grump but true love will prevail and all that.

The good news is that I enjoyed the story for the most part.

Anyone that knows me knows I don't like kids in my romance books. Not only were these kids not just a peripheral thing, they had their own little stories within the bigger story. Ugh. I powered through and enjoyed the little boy Jamie only because he seemed right for his age whereas the girl Abigail was 9 and moody. Basically too much like me as a child. Poor thing.

I liked that the heroine had a past and it wasn't something anyone was going to be able to sweep under the carpet. She makes no apologies for who she is or how her life has turned out. She just knows that she needs to move towards happiness before it's too late.

Sir Alistair could have become one of those heroes you've read about more than once. A small scar on the face and they feel marred for life and unworthy of love. Alistair's scars were immense and people fainted when they looked at him and children screamed. He knew what his reality was and had somehow etched out a way of life that was lonely and sad but was his.

He also wasn't charming or overly sentimental. He was rough spoken and like I said above, a bit of a grump which made him wonderfully different from most heroes. I was also surprised at his reaction to Helen's revelation later in the story. Most heroes would hold their tongue and maybe leave the room for a few hours. Not Alistair. He was brutal, not to be evil but because he is so immersed in reality that he sees everything Helen's revelation means.

All that said, the story was missing something for me. That zip that makes a book a keeper and one you'll want to re-read again. As much as I enjoyed this book I can't say I would re-read it but if you love historical romances and don't mind kids in your story then I say give it a try for something different from all the other historicals out there.

C+/B- Can't decide. So I guess I'll have to tag this one under both grades.

Cause I'm lazy.

Buddy Review!! Branded by Fire by Nalini Singh

Woohoo!!

I finished this book shortly after it was published (there be no slumpville when my auto-buy authors come out!) but boy there is a lot of work in doing up a buddy review!!

Thanks to Nath for letting me play and having the patience for it all and for doing all the 'techie' things that need to happen to get a review like this up.

Without further ado:

Breezing Thru and Branded by Fire by Nalini Singh

You still here?

The TBR Pile Rescue!

I read over at KristieJ's that her TBR pile is starting to cause anxiety.

Been there.

For a long while.

My TBR pile can be such a fickle bitch but I commented at Kristie's that this year it saved my ass big time.

I'll have to go back through my posts for this year but I'm pretty sure all the books I have been reading in 2009 have been from the TBR pile. When backed into the Slumpville corner the only thing I could finally do was face the pile and just start picking.

I started easy.

I decided those Harlequin books would help get my numbers up for reading this year and I knew it was part of my stumbling block. Once I got past a few books I was able to look at other ones in the pile that I had thought about or heard about for the past year or two.

It was like a reward for darting through more than 4 books for the year. Pressure was off, I had officially beat my horribly pathetic record from last year and now I could pick those odd books out of the pile that had been calling for a while.

Yep, looking at the my tag for Books Read 2009 I see that the first 4 books of the year were Harlequins. Diana Palmer and Jessica Bird.

Done.

It was then I decided a box needed to busted open so I went with a romantica. Once again, looking at the AAR Annual Poll I picked the title that won. Beth Kerry's Wicked Burn.

Sadly I just had to skim my own review to remember anything about this book. The good news is I didn't stop reading and I used my 'new super power' skimming over the blah stuff.

Side trip: Buckled up? Let's go!

Skimming for me is a painful way to read. I swear my brain sends out 'pain' impulses to stop my eyes from passing over words. I remember in high school they had a few lessons on how to speed read.

I tried all methods (looking at one word in a line of text and somehow the brain absorbs the rest *snort*, reading the first and last sentence of paragraphs etc) and discovered that I knew next to nothing about a story or essay when I got to the end.

And then there was the whole 'hurting' thing going on. Probably trying too hard.

Anyways, I have been honing the skill but I figure I do it differently than probably most people. If I'm antsy or board I will skip the descriptive scenes of a room or house or what ever. I have a pretty good imagination so I only need a few words for my brain to have it all figured out. Also anything about food, especially when it runs over long. Three paragraphs to describe a dinner table and I'm either yawning or putting the book down to hunt for some food in the pantry.

Hmm, so good question. What does skimming a book mean to you? Are your eyes still scanning every line (that's what I automatically think of when someone says they skimmed a book) or are you more like me in that you'll skip over paragraphs to get to dialogue or past drawn out descriptions?

Annnnnd, we're back!

After this book I wanted to read an author who had a good past with me and my attention was pulled to Kresley Cole.

There was a book in the pile by Kresley Cole (there are actually another 4 including this one) but I picked Kissed By A Demon King because it was published in 2009.

Huh, would definitely count for next years AAR Annual Poll and I would get a new number up there on my sidebar in a different category.

SOLD!

Then I hit that description of the hero that had me scratching my head and yearning to just drop the book and try something else. Only that's where my slumps begin. With stopping. So I waited and picked the book up here and there while running errands with my husband until it reached out and grabbed me and said 'Hey, pay attention! I'm awesome!'

And it was.

Yummmmm.

Onwards!

The next book wasn't from the pile. Nope. Nalini Singh had a new series out and I decided I was allowed a free pass.

Sadly, it was back to the TBR pile afterwards because the Singh wasn't what I expected and I needed a pick me up.

Jessica Bird was back up from the pile and on deck.

It was good.

Ah yes, now I remember. I was heading back to my massive and towering TBR pile to pick out the next Jessica Bird book I found.

Turns out I don't have the ones I was looking for. Which surprised me because I thought my massive and towering TBR pile had everything I would need!

Bad TBR pile.

So I kind of had to move on.

And there in the pile was Seduced By A Sinner by Elizabeth Hoyt. It had been flashing it's pretty yellow cover at me for a while and I had shifted it back and forth not sure I was ready to read a historical again.

Turns out it was terrific. (I'm working on one of 'my' reviews)

And now I'm back at the well, picking through the pile knowing a good book is in there somewhere.

And my reading speed is A-okay with me for now so that's a positive.

I should admit though that the month of May has some new releases I'm really looking forward too. Hello Anne Stuart!

What's funny is that in reviewing what I've been reading this year I've discovered that most of the books were a disappointment.

Out of the 9 books I have now read, only two are keepers. Then there are an F and D review of Palmer books, three C reviews and two B reviews (which meant I must have enjoyed them). For me, C books aren't ones I enjoyed but I wouldn't say other people wouldn't find something in those books for themselves.

So there we have it.

Let's call this a 'first quarter review' cause Wow, I got wordy!

The Billionaire Next Door Jessica Bird

Bloody Hell. The things I learn after.

This book was the first in a series about three brothers. Guess what? No plans on the horizon to come back to it. I really wanted to read Mac's story. Ah well. I have a few more from Bird's back list yet.

Onwards!

The Billionaire Next Door is awesome.

It was just what I needed, a story with two people falling in love. Sure there were the misunderstandings waiting in the wings but I knew they were going to show up because He-llo, Silhouette Special Edition.

Cindy Blurb: Sean O'Banyon is rich, like the title says and has made his way up from nothing. He's used to the world he lives in and sees every one around him for what they are, sharks in suits.

What the world doesn't know about O'Banyon is that his father was an alcoholic and abused him and his brothers, Mac and Billy during most of their childhood. The brothers left that life behind and never spoke of it again.

Lizzie Bond is the downstairs neighbour of an old gruff man who has been her friend for a few years. It is a sad time for her when he dies of a heart attack and she is finally allowed to call a number for a son, Sean O'Banyon.

There are lots of hurdles here.

Lizzie is a nurse working two jobs to make ends meet and lives a fairly simple life helping out her upstairs neighbour. She is a great heroine who is able to see pain in people and recognize when to push and went to let go. To say Lizzie is living pay check to pay check is generous but she is not a person looking for handouts. I really enjoyed her mother in the story as well.

Sean, meanwhile, meets Lizzie and feels refreshed. She doesn't recognize him or want anything from him. She's just attracted to the man and Sean avoids telling her who he is or what his father did to him and his brothers.

Thinking on it, Sean got lucky cause not many people could forgive as much a Lizzie did.

Halfway through the story Sean finally tells her who he is and she is shocked and upset. Why did a rich man let his father languish all alone. Sensing more to it Lizzie lets her anger go and once again they start down the path of falling in love.

The revelations are left until almost the very end which did give the reader more time to see Lizzie and Sean fall in love instead of having to deal with things extremely heavy at the beginning of a relationship. In the end, I enjoyed the romance and the sexiness and I, of course, wanted to know more about the other two brothers. Okay, I want to know more about Mac.

B+

Books read for 2009 - Eight!!

Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh

Holy crumb it took me forever to read this book.

My bad.

Or maybe it was the messy first half that had me scrambling.

I have to be honest and say I would have 'quit' this book much earlier if someone hadn't posted a small excerpt of Raphael and Elena's love scene. Seriously, I was reading to get to that scene and when it finally showed up?

Meh.

Cindy Blurb: Elena is a Hunter-Born which means she's like a hound dog and can sniff out vampires and track them. Why would this be something needed?

Not for the reason you are thinking of.

See there are angels in this world and they create vampires whenever the mood strikes them but these vamps have contracts with the angels that last the first hundred years. Well, I guess that's an awful long time so vamps run off and the angels need to have them back. Angels can't track I guess.

Then there are archangels. I guess they are the really powerful mofos. Raphael is one of these (there are 10) and he has a job that only Elena can help him with. Elena, not being a fan of super authority is fearful of the archangel (as everyone should be) and there is a dance between them.

There are secrets, immortals who have lost their humanity and a world that feels seriously off kilter.

Here's what I can tell you about this book. The first half needed to be cut or seriously edited. See Elena is a hunter and is contracted for a job that's pretty important in the 'holy crap end of the world' kind of way. Now it could be just me but if someone told me that I had to track a super killer cause he could end humanity as I knew it, I would probably buckle down and get my head in the game.

This doesn't happen.

Instead, Elena hides from Raphael cause he's scary and the reader is introduced to a bunch of people. Then Raphael finds Elena and the reader meets a bunch more people who are vampires and angels and archangels. There was a scene I have yet to understand in the grand scheme of the story. Raphael takes Elena to see vamps and humans intermingle. WTF?

How am I as a reader suppose to worry about the 'Big Bad' that's coming if the characters in the story are acting like nothing big is happening.

The spine of the book reads 'Urban Fantasy Romance' and yes, this is urban fantasy but it was schlocky and slow in the beginning. Actually, for most of the book, questions that I had were left unanswered. Why are there angels? Where did they come from? Why are 'hunters' born? The reason for why there are vampires is answered in the last few chapters.

Everything else?

Don't know.

Do Elena and Raphael fall in love? Apparently. But it's one of those stories where I don't get why they fall in love.

When the 'Big Bad' does finally show up on the scene I didn't care.

There was this sense by the vamps and angels that humans were expendable.

You know, just there. This feeling never leaves the story so when human characters besides Elena showed up it was like watching little ants on the scene. All I kept thinking was ' you have no way to protect yourself and you are only alive because you're not a nuisance'. For me, if you build up immortals to such great heights then what shot does a human have?

Immortals in most stories have a weakness and now I know why. If there is no weakness, if they can't be killed by anything other than their own kind, what's the point?

This one is tough to grade. I would have stopped reading if I hadn't already had a sneak peek at an excerpt, after I got to that scene I didn't want to finish the book but because I'm stomping out a slump I knew I had to finish it. The last few chapters were the best because there were some answers and stuff actually happens but is it a case of too little too late?

Okay, C-

I considered a D but after thinking about it D books make me crazy mad and this story just left me feeling nothing but meh.

That said, I love the Psy books and will definitely be buying the next one in July. This series though? I think I'll be reading reviews of the next one before making a decision.

Go here to read Rosario's review which as always, will tell you much more eloquently what this book is about.

I haven't read any other reviews yet so I'm off to see what others thought. I did glance through Rosario's review when I thought to myself 'where's the plot?' and yes, she mentions this in her review.

Uh, Oh

*taps fingers on desk, glances around*

Boredom just showed up.

It really shouldn't be here and maybe it's not boredom as much as restlessness. Yeah, I think I'm restless.

And tired.

Never a good combo.

I'm in between books, have watched 3 hours of TV and just want to have a nap but - we have plans tomorrow and mucking them up is not part of my agenda.

So no nap.

We're back to bored.

Wait. It's 10:30pm. Maybe I can go watch Battlestar Galactica. Then I could always start a new book. I just want to stay up until at least 2am so I have some time to kill.

Sure, laundry, vacuuming, dusting, donning gloves and tackling the bathrooms are all viable time killers but they aren't taking.

And I want chocolate.

PMS is in da house.

Plan for tomorrow is to go see He's Just Not That Into You at a theater where they have VIP seating. I already booked the tickets and we're going at 4:30pm. So I can't get up too early or I'm toast.

PMS and needing to stay awake.

Chocolate is a necessity and we have NOTHING in the house.

Okay, I'll go now before I start whimpering and making a spectacle of myself.

Edited: Did you hear about the guy who works as an insurance investigator? He has been making 93 grand a year to do nothing all day! He's been doing it for 10 years. He sued the company for something and in the settlement he had to remain employed. So they put him in a office with nothing - no computer or anything and never gave him a case to investigate - basically they were trying to get him to quit. Can you imagine the kind of boredom that would be? I told Bob I would have put my own computer in there and been surfing the web, brought in a TV etc cause doing nothing is horrid.

He's now suing them because he figures that in the last 10 years they could have given him at least one case to work on!