Rules of Engagement

Title: Rules of Engagement
Author: Christina Dodd
Series: The Governess Brides (Book 2)
Genre: Romance



Christina Dodd is another of my favorite authors. I picked up Rules of Engagement at the library because it was a book by her that I hadn't read before. I usually look really close at books I pick up off a shelf randomly to make sure they aren't part of a series. If they happen to part of a series I make sure to start with the first book because I hate reading out of order, and I love series. I thought I had given this book my scrutiny, but apparently not, because this is Book 2 in the Governess Bride series, and I haven't read the first one. I intend to remedy this quickly, and then continue to the other 7 or so books in the series.

The series overall is about 3 ladies who are trying to start a successful Governess placement agency/school. In this book we meet Pamela, Miss Lockheart. She is one of the three founders of the school.

Devon, the Earl of Kerrich, is being blackmailed by Queen Victoria. She expects him to become respectable so he hatches a plan to acquire an orphan (for as long as needed for her to think he's respectable, then back the orphanage they go), and a Governess to teach the child and keep it out of his hair. He has hopes of doing this instead of getting a wife.

He comes to the Distinguished Academy of Governesses and tells them exactly what he needs, an unattractive, old governess who has no fancy notions of making him fall in love with them or trying to get him to marry them. Pamela overhears his demands and decides to do it herself because they desperately need the money. She wears ill fitting old dowager clothing, paints her face with rice powder, wears heavy rouge, and colored glasses. She fools the Earl easily.

She brings him home a girl from the orphanage when he asked for a boy, but they seem to get along alright. Then one rainy day, her disguise washes away and he sees her true beauty. There is arguing, misunderstanding and most important - Love.

Rules of Surrender is next for me (Book 1) and Rules of Attraction after that (Book 3)

Sucks to Be Me: The All-true Confessions of Mina Hamilton, Teen Vampire (Maybe)

Title: Sucks to Be Me: The All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton, Teen Vampire (Maybe)
Author: Kimberly Pauley
Series: None
Genre: Young Adult


Kimberly Pauley has put together a different sort of Vampire book in Sucks to Be Me. Mina is 16 and both of her parents are Vampires. Mina's uncle accidentally changed her father, and once Mina's mother had her, she choose to change as well. Now some overall Vampire Committee is making Mina take biweekly courses about being a Vampire and making her choose after the classes are over.

Being a typical Young Adult book Mina struggles with boys and has a best friend who adds an interesting bit to the story.

Vampires in this story also change in a different way, instead of the normal biting, or venom the vampire wannabe just has to drink some of the already vampire's blood. Yuck!

A cute story and I enjoyed the slight difference and humor that has been placed upon the vampire following.

Blue Bloods

Title: Blue Bloods
Author: Melissa De La Cruz
Series: Blue Bloods (Book 1)
Genre: Young Adult


I see this book/series every time I go to Target, and I finally decided to get it from the library. It is another Vampire series that is aimed at high school students.

Blue Bloods follows 2 different groups of friends who go to an elite prep school in New York City. There is normal High School Drama and cliques going on throughout the story, but there is a little something else that also lies right below the surface.

Many of the families who go to this school can trace their family tree to the Mayflower. This is no coincidence. These families are also members of a "charity organization" that is a front for what they really are, Blue Bloods, Vampires.

Now like every other Vampire story that is out there the rules behind being a Vampire are a little different. I think that's part of my favorite parts of books like these, the way the author has to think that through and makes it their own. They don't realize that they aren't normal until they reach age 15. Then the symptoms manifest themselves and they begin to crave raw meat, have nightmares about events in history, and get prominent blue veins in their arms. They live only 100 years, a single drop of their blood is saved and then they are reborn after a waiting period. Therefore their family tree relatives are really the same people who are around today.

They are suppose to be immortal for those 100 years, and some have tried to kill themselves by running in front of a train, but lately some have been dying. It ends up being due to Silver Bloods.

I enjoy this story and it was another quick read. The only issue I had with it is it seemed to have no ending. The vampires were dying due to something mysterious. They find out it is the Silver Bloods and that's it. They don't find the Silver Bloods, they don't stop them, they don't know who they are, nothing. I felt like I needed more closure, but perhaps that's to get you to read the next book, which I shall be doing.

The Runaway Dolls

Title: The Runaway Dolls
Author: Ann M. Martin
Series: The Doll People (Book 3)
Genre: Juvenile Fiction


The Runaway Dolls is the third book in the Doll People Trilogy. Again we find Annabelle and Tiffany on a crazy adventure, but this time Bailey and Bobby (their younger brothers join them).

The morning before the Palmer family leaves for a two week vacation, a package arrives from London. They are confused, but don't open it and instead leave for their vacation. Annabelle and Tiffany inspect the box and hear a small voice from inside - it's a doll!

The girls want to let the three year old little girl doll, Tilly, out but the Doll parents say no. The girls decide to let her out anyway, and they learn that Tilly is The Doll Family's long lost baby doll that should have come with the set. Annabelle can't bear to think of leaving Tilly in the box for two weeks, and is afraid the Palmers won't open the box and her sister will be sent away. Her brilliant plan is to run away. Annabelle, Tiffany and Tilly do indeed run away, leaving the house through the cat door, and go on an amazing doll adventure.

I felt like this story was an excellent addition to the other two. It was a quick read and I had finished in under a hour. I feel as if this may even be the best book of the three of them. The dolls spend time Downtown, in the park, and in a Doll Department of a Department store. There is lots of adventure and comparison of things from a doll's point of view.

Hotter After Midnight

Title: Hotter After Midnight
Author: Cynthia Eden
Series: Midnight (Book 1)
Genre: Paranormal Romance




I define a good romance novel as one of those books that when you're finished your heart is pounding, feels big and in love. Not all romance novels leave me feeling this way - but Cynthia Eden's Hotter After Midnight was definitely one of those. I sat down and read it cover to cover, an increasing rarity in my life.

Emily is a psychiatrist, with a twist. She can see inside the mind of Others, so those are the only ones she treats. Vampires with blood phobias, a succubus who wants a meaningful relationship, as well as shifters (think werewolf), charmers and a slew of other paranormal. She helps them all.

Colin is a shifter, I won't spoil what kind - it's a bit of a mystery until further in the story, although I was pretty sure I knew and I was correct. He works for the police department and is sent to pick up the Monster Doctor, Emily, to work on a case that is part of the paranormal. Not everyone in the story is aware of the Others, so they have to keep it underwraps.

Things go a bit haywire and soon Emily finds herself as a big target for the killer they're tracking. Needless to say her shifter man wants to keep her safe.

I thought this was an excellent story, with just the right amount of mystery to it. Their love story to me was front and center and there are lots of excellently steamy scenes between the two. My only issue with the book, and I'm being picky, is her use of the word "cream." To me, it was just not right.

This is the first book in a trilogy with the second, Midnight Sins, already released and a third Midnight Masters set to be released July 1st. Midnight Sins revolves around the Succubus who wants a meaningful relationship, Cara, that we meet in an interview with Emily in Hotter After Midnight. Definitely a book I'm looking forward too.

The Meanest Doll Ever

Title: The Meanest Doll Ever
Author: Ann M. Martin
Series: The Doll People (Book 2)
Genre: Juvenile Fiction



The sequel to The Doll People is the Meanest Doll Ever. Again we follow Annabelle and Tiffany on their adventures.

Since we last saw the girls, they have been going on lots of Adventures with Auntie Sophia. On one such adventure they take too much time in the attic and start towards Kate's bedroom a little too late. Annabelle and Tiffany barely have time to duck into Kate's backpack before Kate comes out into the hallway.

The girls realize they are at school and Outside, which is a BIG deal. After the hallway at school is quiet the two steal out and take a look at school. They don't plan their time very well and end up stuck in a Kindergarten classroom where Tiffany is played with by all the students. The next morning they creep into another backpack, thinking it's Kate's, but they're wrong. The dolls go home with BJ.

When they get to BJ's house, they meet lots of other dolls and Mean Mimi - the princess doll that terrorizes all of the other dolls in the house. The dolls work together with Tiffany and Annabelle and are able to end Mimi's "rule." Monday comes around and Tiffany and Annabelle go back to school and make it back to Kate's backpack and finally home.

Their families are happy to see them, but all hell starts to break loose when the girls realize that Mean Mimi has come home with them as well and plans on making their lives miserable.

A cute addition to the original. The third book is The Runaway Dolls, which is sitting on the holds shelf at my library.

The Doll People

Title: The Doll People
Author: Ann M. Martin
Series: The Doll People (Book 1)
Genre: Juvenile Fiction


While substitute teaching one day another teacher and I started talking about juvenile fiction books we liked. She mentioned her favorite book was The Doll People by Ann M. Martin (and others). I looked for it everytime I went to the library, but it was always checked out (a good sign). This week I finally got it.
The book follows Annabelle, a young girl doll. She is technically over 100 years old and has been passed down through the family. Her latest owner says she's eight. Annabelle lives in a dollhouse with her parents, a younger brother, a baby sister, a nanny, and her uncle. Her aunt also use to live with them, but went missing 45 years ago. They are china dolls and live in a old fashioned doll house with real cloth clothes.

When the humans are sleeping or away the dolls come to life. They must be very careful about moving around and making noise because if a human catches them they go into Doll State. Doll State lasts 24 hours and it basically renders them a regular non-living doll, except that they are still mentally there. It's almost like being paralyzed.

One day something exciting happens and new dolls move in next door (the younger sister gets her own doll house). The new dolls are made of plastic and come from a plastic house. They are also much more lax about being careful.

Annabelle makes friends with the girl doll about her age, Tiffany, and the two of them go on adventures to find Annabelle's missing aunt and encounter many other challenges along the way.

I thought this was an awfully cute book. I really liked that the dolls got to visit in each others home and experience the difference between houses in the 1800s and ones today. I remember when I was younger I had a plastic Papa Smurf. There was a little tag on him that said when I went to sleep he and all of my other dolls/stuffed animals would come to life. Although I thought I knew it was fake, I use to try and catch them moving or in the wrong spot. This book would have really hit home at that point in my life.

On to the second book of the series - The Meanest Doll in the World.

Vision in White: Bride Quartet Book 1

Title: Vision in White
Author: Nora Roberts
Series: Bride Quartet (Book 1)
Genre: Romance


I had my eye on this book a while back and was waiting and waiting for it to be released. Then I simply forgot about it until a few weeks back when I was at Target and saw it there on the shelf. Being Nora Roberts, I had to buy it to add to my bookshelf :) Shortly after that my life was a spinning disaster and I had other library books I had to read first. Luckily, I finally got the chance to read it over the past few days.

The basic premise behind these books is a group of four female friends that run a wedding company. Each woman has a different role in the company. Mac, who Vision in White is about, is the wedding photographer. We also meet Emma, Laurel and Parker, each of which will be the main character in one of the following books.

Mac has a screwed up relationship with both her parents. Her mother bleeds her dry for everything she needs and makes sure that the world revolves around her. Mac's father isn't in the picture. Needless to say this sets her up for some screwed up visions of what her love life should be. When she gets close to someone she wants to run.

Along comes Carter, a man who she went to high school with but never really saw. Carter has always had a crush on her, but now it's as a grown man. The two hit it off and things go wonderful. Of course Mac tries to screw it up due to the parental issues mentioned earlier.

I thought the book overall was okay. It has only gotten three stars on Amazon, and I can agree with some of the posters that it wasn't one of Nora's better books, but I still highly enjoyed it. Usually after I read her books I feel like I am left waiting to read the next installment because I've fallen so in love with the characters and stories she's created. This time, it was over (with a mediocre ending in my opinion. Sorry to ruin it, but I wanted a wedding, they do after all run a wedding business. Perhaps this will show up later in the series, or maybe the ladies will have a 4 part wedding) and I closed the book and was done with it. I didn't even read the little excerpt from the up and coming.

Bed of Roses is Emma's story. She is responsible for the flowers for the weddings. The book is released December 2009, and it will be on my Christmas list.

House of Night: Hunted

Title: Hunted
Author: P.C. and Kristin Cast
Series: House of Night (Book 5)
Genre: Young Adult



My long awaited book #5 of P.C. and Kristin Cast's House of Night novels has finally become available to me at the library. I'll admit, by the time I started reading it, I had forgotten what had happened in the earlier books.

We once again follow Zoey Redbird and her circle of friends. When we last left them Kalona had been raised and Zoey and friends had fled underground.

This book, of course, is about Zoey and her friends' battle with him and his Raven Mockers. I thought perhaps Zoey had cleared things up with the boy situation, but again in this book she hasn't. She's back to a boy/man/vampyre love triangle.

I enjoyed this book, as I have the rest of the series, but I felt that it was a bit more bland compared to the other books so far in the series. (This also could be because I've waited a few days since finishing and have mentally moved on to another book).

I am still looking forward to Book #6 to see how things progress with Zoey and gang. Tempted is released October 27th and the cover should be released this summer.