Monday, March 28, 2011

Love, Life and Linguine


Title: Love, Life and Linguine
Author: Melissa Jacobs
Series: None
Genre: Chick Lit


Mimi is making big changes in her life: Moving in with her boyfriend, quitting her job and starting a new one. Then she walks in on her boyfriend with his pants around his ankles and a waitress on her knees. She then moves back to her hometown and in with her Mom.

Mimi starts to try and rescue the failing family restaurant and find a man. Instead, she finds two. The story revolves around Mimi trying to fix her family life and decide between the two men.

Unimpressive. I am always suckered into the dollar clearance bin at bookstores and have found some good finds. Unfortunately, this was not one of them.

Maybe it's because I read so many romance novels that I want the ends tied up between the love interests and in this case it didn't happen. Mimi may have started on another new path to find herself, but she didn't decide between the men.

This is a book I will not be holding on tol

Sunday, March 27, 2011

The Taming of the Duke


Title: The Taming of the Duke
Author: Eloisa James
Series: Essex Sisters (Book 3)
Genre: Historical Romance


Imogen has been trying to have an affair ever since her husband Draven died, now she finally gets the chance.

The sisters' guardian, Rafe, finds out that he has a illegitimate brother and welcomes him most graciously into the family. To help his brother, Rafe agrees to put on a play in the family theatre, bringing a whole troupe of characters to the house.

Imogen meets the brother, Gabe, and decides that he is going to be her next conquest. She arranges to meet with him and go to a bawdy show. Gabe appeals to Rafe and convinces him to wear a mustache and go instead. Rafe deceives Imogen and manages to fall in love with her while doing so. The problem becomes, having her for keeps and coming clean about the deception.

I was largely torn with my emotions concerning this book, and as I did some further research, it seemed I wasn't the only one. Although, for totally different reasons.

There seems to be some controversy on the story. How Imogen could want Rafe when she thought she was having an affair with Gabe? I can't say too much more about it, without ruining the story, but I was never surprised and saw the ending coming.

Upon checking out Eloisa's website and signing up for the Members only section, I see that she added a bonus chapter for the book (I think to help clear things up), as well as a "Spoiler Trail" for the readers to see where her thinking was in the book. Interesting that the extra chapter was already in the book I read. It wasn't extra to me at all. I don't know if it's because I read a digital version of the book? Perhaps this changed my perception of the book for a good thing? Because I honestly enjoyed the disguises between the characters.

The thing I had a hard time was seeing Rafe in a relationship with one of his wards. I knew it was going to happen and has suspicions it would be Imogen. However, the thought of a guardian (even though it was recent and they were older) marrying his ward was just too weird to me. I know it was acceptable...but my modern thinking just tripped over this.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Kiss Me, Annabel


Title: Kiss Me, Annabel
Author: Eloisa James
Series: Essex Sisters (Book 2)
Genre: Historical Romance


Annabel, second of the Essex sisters, knows exactly what she wants in a man and a marriage. She wants to wear silk every day and plans to treat marriage as a business proposition, expecting to eventually have discrete affairs. She is beautiful and has her pick of the ton. She seems drawn to a Scottish Earl, Ewan and even shares a kiss. However, rumor has it that Ewan is poor and Annabel vows never to be poor again.

Imogen (sister 3), is by now Widowed and is trying to cause havoc. She propositions Ewan and he tries to politely scare her away when she refuses to marry him. This leads to Annabel being compromised and having to marry Ewan and move to Scotland with him.

The trip to Scotland was probably my favorite part of the story. The two get to know each other and the little games they play kept me amused. I was glad to see that they got into a fight one point, because otherwise Ewan wasn't seeming very realistic.

As I was reading this, I just kept thinking how much I was enjoying the storyline, although I must admit, when I was finished I thought - That's it?

Monday, March 14, 2011

Much Ado About You


Title: Much Ado About You
Author: Eloisa James
Series: Essex Sisters (Book 1)
Genre: Historical Romance


When Tess' father passes away, she and her 3 younger sisters are rushed off to live with their new guardian, Rafe. They know that they should quickly marry and are looking forward to no longer being poor. Tess, being the oldest, is expected to marry first, and then help her 3 younger sisters come out.

Almost immediately she is being courted by the Earl of Mayne. She accepts his marriage proposal, but is left by him at the alter. As an alternative, she immediately marries one of his friends, Lucius Felton. Then starts to process of making the marriage work.

I usually adore the first book in a new series, and although this one was acceptable, it was merely that.

The Essex sisters and their crazy ways and knowledge were highly enjoyable and I think overall the series will be a good one. But this book seemed a little lackluster. Tess seemed to put a great deal of emphasis on reuniting Lucius with his parents. She visits them once and decides that she doesn't really like them and it's completely forgotten. I admit, I expected a bit more from that story line. It was rather anticlimactic.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

When Beauty Tamed the Beast


Title: When Beauty Tamed the Beast
Author: Eloisa James
Series: Eloisa's Fairy Tales
Genre: Fairy Tale, Romance



Linnet has been flirting with the prince. This combined with a poor wardrobe choice, and the everyone thinks she's pregnant. She is no longer getting any suitors and is ruined, without actually being ruined. Her aunt and father concoct a plan in which they arrange a marriage for her with a man who cannot have children, that way everyone is happy.

Piers is a cranky, limping, doctor, who doesn't want a wife. He hates his father and when he brings a wife for Piers, Piers doesn't want her.

The dialogue between Linnet and Piers was fantastic. They went back and forth with each other and they had me laughing at times. I enjoyed watching their relationship grow and what finally brought them together in the end had me in tears.

Although this is part of the Fairy Tales series, it is not connected to A Kiss at Midnight. This is only the second story of Eloisa James I have read, but I have enjoyed both of them highly.

Monday, March 7, 2011

A Kiss at Midnight


Title: A Kiss at Midnight
Author: Eloisa James
Series: Eloisa's Fairy Tales
Genre: Fairy Tale, Romance



Kate is our Cinderella, her father died when she was a young age, leaving all the money to her Step-Mother, who then forced Kate to move to the attic and work as essentially another servant. A pleasant change of pace is her stepsister, Victoria, who isn't evil at all but a wonderfully loving and nice sister.

Kate has to pretend to be Victoria at a Prince's ball due to a dog bite on Victoria's lip. Kate gets to wear Victoria's nice clothing, be pampered and pretend to be engaged to Victoria's fiance. Victoria and her fiance need the blessing of his relative, the prince.

Gabriel, "Prince Charming," is betrothed to a Russian heiress. He needs the money to save his failing castle and keep it's inhabitants comfortable and fed. Gabriel discovers that Kate isn't Victoria and starts to fall for her.

I adored this little twist on Cinderella. The twisted family trees, and somewhat more realistic characters. I'm a little skeptical that not even the people who knew Victoria could tell that it wasn't her, but for the sake of the story, I could pretend.

Kate was very down to earth and I enjoyed her as a heroine. She told it just like it was, with often pointing out what parts of certain characters were more fake then others.

Gabriel made a fantastic prince. He put aside his own wishes so that he could keep his family and subjects safe and cared for. I'm glad in the end he got what he really wanted.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Spell of the Highlander


Title: Spell of the Highlander
Author: Karen Marie Moning
Series: Highlander (Book 7)
Genre: Historical Romance, Time Travel


Jessi is working on her PhD and therefore has no life. She's walked on by the professor that she assists and *surprise* is a virgin. The professor gives her a call from the hospital and asks her to sign for a delivery at his office. She goes willingly, and accepts the package. It is such an expensive package, that she is required to see what is inside to confirm that she got it. She looks inside and sees a mirror. Jessi returns another day and instead of simply seeing a mirror, she now sees a Highland Warrior inside the mirror and a first attempt of many, is made on her life.

Cian MacKeltar, ancestor to Dageous, Drustan and the rest of the MacKelters, has been trapped in the mirror for 1100 years (give or take). No one has ever spelled him out, until Jessi needs help to save her life. Apparently, they need each other to stay alive and get away (with the mirror) from the "bad guy." Cian can only be out of the mirror for randomly spaced/lengths of time, which makes every moment he's out critical. He also is quite adept at Voice, but that combined with his disappearing, makes for some interesting situations for Jessi.

Cian is up against a deadline, and takes Jessi to MacKelter land, where they encounter Dageous and Drustan. Together, the three Druids try to come up with a solution to Cian's problem (which I won't spoil, because it doesn't come up for a while).

This book gave me goosebumps at the end. I realized that this whole series was setting up for the Fever series, this book in particular. The Fae Queen talks about how she is going to go missing and how she brought the 5 Druids from across time together to be her champions - the Fever story.

Aside from setting up for Fever, I loved the little twist that Cian in the mirror has added to the story. It makes it a little more bitter sweet and adds that wrench into things. I was totally amazed by this series as a whole, and it makes me want to reread the Fever series again.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Bloody Valentine


Title: Bloody Valentine
Author: Melissa De La Cruz
Series: Blue Blood (Extra)
Genre: Young Adult



Imagine my surprise when I found out this book was 3 short stories instead of another addition to the story. I found this to be quite a waste of the half hour it took to read it.

"Just Another Night in Suck City" revolves around Oliver and how he is dealing with being separated from Schuyler. Then he randomly meets a witch who takes his pain and unmarks him. He now is fine.

"Always Something There to Remind Me" tells the story of how Schuyler's parents met. Since we've never really seen much of either of these characters, I really didn't find it to be relevant.

"Ring of Fire" was the rumored Jack & Schuyler bonding ceremony, which was terribly disappointing. Aside from the first chapter when Schuyler was shopping for her dress, I could have done without this story as well.

Definitely not impressed and the next actual book isn't released until October.