Thursday, December 31, 2009

Casting Spells


Title: Casting Spells
Author: Barbara Bretton
Series: Sugar Maple (Book 1)
Genre: Paranormal/Contemporary Romance



Chloe lives in Sugar Maple, a town modeled after Salem. The only difference is that in Sugar Maple the different are embraced. Vampires, Witches, Selkie, Fae and many other creatures all live together. There is only one human - Chloe. She is the daughter of a deceased witch and human and appears to have inherited none of her mother's powers.

Chloe's maternal line is an important part of Sugar Maple. The women in the line keep the town safe from non-paranormal folks. The spell keeps the town looking normal and flying below everyone's radar. Unfortunately since Chloe has no supernatural powers, the spell is wearing off and things are going a bit south in Sugar Maple. A passing by tourist is murdered.

Which brings Luke into town. Luke is a Boston police officer who is in Sugar Maple to figure out what happened with the murder. Between he and Chloe sparks fly (literally).

I thought this was a fun book. It reminded me slightly of the Charmed series combined with Eastwick. I did find it to be a little anti-climatic where the Book of Spells was concerned. Chloe spends a large amount of time looking for it, and when it's found it's almost glossed over.

Overall I can't wait to read the next one.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

The Leopard Prince


Title: The Leopard Prince
Author: Elizabeth Hoyt
Series: The Princes Trilogy
Genre: Historical Romance




Lady Georgina, known as George, has been left an incredible amount of money and now at the age of 28 is living on her own on her land. She has a very competent land steward, Harry Pye. The only problem is someone is killing off the sheep in the neighboring estate. Everyone thinks that it is Harry Pye.

Something about Harry draws George to him. The two cannot ignore the draw between them and finally get together. Of course the difference in their stations and money is a problem. Harry is worried that George is going to treat him as a lap dog and that he will not longer be able to be his own man. George of course has no intentions of doing such a thing.

I thought this was a wonderful story of the two of them overcoming their stations to be together. For some reason I did have a little bit of a problem imagining Harry. I pictured him as an older man. This made me have a hard time seeing him with George. I still loved the story, but couldn't help imaging Harry as an older gentleman.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Pretty Little Liars


Title: Pretty Little Liars
Author: Sara Shepard
Series: Pretty Little Liars (Book 1)
Genre: Young Adult



While looking for new challenges to start in the new year I came across one for the Pretty Little Liars series. I had never read the series before, so I went to the library and picked it up.

Four girls follow a fifth who is the Queen Bee. Then said Bee disappears. Years down the road the girls are no longer friends. They encounter all sorts of growing up challenges: underage drinking, driving drunk, shop lifting, relationships with a teacher, sexual confusion and stealing a sister's boyfriend.

Sounds like a drama filled book. I only have an issue with the way the book ended. The girls start getting text messages from the Queen Bee early on in the book. You think it's resolved at the end, but surprise...it's not. I felt like that left the book without an ending. I know it's part of a long series, but usually books even within a series have their own little mini story. I didn't feel that way about this one and I don't want to have to read all 7+ books to get the full story if I'm left hanging every time.

I may or may not follow up on this series, it just wasn' t that special.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

The Raven Prince


Title: The Raven Prince
Author: Elizabeth Hoyt
Series: The Princes Trilogy
Genre: Historical Romance



Anna Wren has been a widow for around 6 years. Her late husband cheated on her, died and left her with little money to live on. Anna lives with her Mother-in-law, and loves her dearly. Unfortunately, their funds have started to be more and more meager, so Anna sets off trying to find a job. Finally, she lands the job of secretary to the Earl of Swartingham, Edward.

Edward is all that's left of his family. He was the only one to survive the pox when he was younger and therefore is the end of his line. Edward has decided that it is time to return to his ancestral home and start a family.

Sparks fly between the two the entire time they are together. Finally Edward needs some release and decides he's going to visit a brothel in London. Anna figures out where he's going, but can't bear to think of someone else being with him. Besides, she's a widow and she has needs too (no matter how inappropriate at the time). She goes and meets him with a butterfly mask and their time together is earth shattering.

Eventually they both return to London, Edward still not knowing it was Anna, and the two continue to lust over each other. Of course, eventually Edward figures it out and demands Anna marry him. Anna, however, refuses and needs more persuasion.

I don't believe that I've read Elizabeth Hoyt before, but I enjoyed her immensely. I cannot wait to continue on with the series and read her second series as well. I thought that this story line was something new to me and something about it was better then some of the books that I've read lately.

Next up in the series is The Leopard Prince

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

The Magic Knot


Title: The Magic Knot
Author: Helen Scott Taylor
Series: The Magic Knot (Book 1)
Genre: Paranormal Romance


Rosenwyn Tremain is an accountant who has been sent to a business to try and figure things out. They've defaulted on their loan and it's up to her to fix it. Too bad it's in the one place her mother warned her never to go before she died.

Rose arrives at the business and meets a couple of hot brothers, Micheal and Niall. They're twins and something about them is not right. Eventually Rose learns their secret, and hers as well. Micheal and Niall are half leprechaun and half some other fake creature. Rose is half human, half pisky fairy. Not only is she pisky, but she's the pisky queen. When she finds out that she's one of two piskys who are still around she decides she must save the rest of her troupe, which is trapped in a painting.

I love the idea of the magic knot. Each person wears somewhere on them (or keeps in a box in Naill's case) three connected stones. A stone for Body, Mind and Spirit. One should never touch another's Magic Knot unless asked and when in love two people exchange their Knots almost like engagement/wedding rings/hand fasting.

The story overall was mediocre I thought. There were parts that dragged and others were too long. I also felt like it took me a while to get the world and ideas straight and then the book seemed to be over. Fortunately I learned their is a second book in the series, The Phoenix Charm and it is Micheal's story. I do enjoy the world and ideals that I learned about and am more than willing to give it another chance in hopes that it's a bit more interesting then the first.