Category: B reviews (Page 23 of 74)

Summer Skin by Kirsty Eagar

October 8, 2016 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I have been waiting for ages for my library hold of this book to come in because books are too expensive in Australia.

Summer Skin is not available to US readers unless they get the paperback from the Book Depository but the good news is that Ms. Eagar has recently announced it will be published in the US so that will change – but not until 2018 unfortunately.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Jess Gordon is out for revenge. Last year the jocks from Knights College tried to shame her best friend. This year she and a hand-picked college girl gang are going to get even.

The lesson: don’t mess with Unity girls.

The target: Blondie, a typical Knights stud, arrogant, cold . . . and smart enough to keep up with Jess.

A neo-riot grrl with a penchant for fanning the flames meets a rugby-playing sexist pig – sworn enemies or two people who happen to find each other when they’re at their most vulnerable?

It’s all Girl meets Boy, Girl steals from Boy, seduces Boy, ties Boy to a chair and burns Boy’s stuff. Just your typical love story.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): Summer Skin is a book which worked for me on a visceral level. There was something about the… vibe of it which bypassed my brain in some ways and got me straight in the feels. That’s not to say this is an entirely id vortex book. I don’t think it is. I’m just saying that if I were to examine the text and pull it apart, I could come up with all these things to say about how there wasn’t much to the relationship between Jess and Mitch. Summer Skin evokes that suffocating feeling of desperate want overlaid with the scary uncertainty of navigating a relationship where the ground under your feet is liable to shift at any time. It’s all there in between the words (h/t CS Pacat). So much of it was subtext and feel. I’m a reader who often doesn’t get subtle so I guess Kirsty Eagar is able to tap into the part of me which does. Continue reading

September Round Up

October 3, 2016 / Kaetrin

Monthly Mini Review

The Punishment Doctrine by Rebecca Grace Allen – B- This novella is book 3.5 of the Portland Rebels series and is available free to subscribers to the author’s newsletter. I figure those who want to read it won’t mind signing up for the newsletter. (I would have but I was already a subscriber.) Besides, if readers change their minds they can always unsubscribe. Although the author’s note at the front says this novella can be read as a stand alone (though she doesn’t recommend it) I’m not sure I agree with her. The complicated backstories of Krissy, Mikey and Rafe are more fully fleshed out in The Theory of Deviance. I said in my review of that book that I thought Rafe was a little shortchanged. Not much of the story was about him. Pretty much all of The Punishment Doctrine is about Rafe though so I feel the balance has been redressed. There are perhaps some simple answers to complicated questions here and a swift resolution to a major cause of angst for Rafe. However, sometimes a simple conversation can actually have that effect and sometimes the best answers are simple. I’d have liked a little more exposition but regardless, I ended up thinking Rafe would be okay. Continue reading

Force of Attraction by DD Ayres, narrated by Jeffrey Kafer

September 25, 2016 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I’ve had my eye on this book for a while and wanted to catch up on the series. I decided to try the audio rather than the digital version. MISTAKE.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) The only thing more powerful than fear is desire…

A seasoned K-9 officer with the police in Maryland, Cole Jamison has left her old life behind her. With a new home and a new partner – a protective canine named Hugo – Cole is ready for fresh challenges. A crucial position on an important drug task force is exactly what she wants – until she discovers her gorgeous, infuriating ex-husband will be the DEA agent in charge.

Agent Scott Lucca may be a pro when it comes to undercover assignments, but this job is daunting even for him. Posing as a happy couple on the dog competition circuit means he and Cole need to get a lot closer than they’ve been in years. Playing a live-in couple should seem like a walk in the park compared to tracking a brutal criminal, but suddenly nothing could be more dangerous than the passionate fire they’ve rekindled.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): Cole (short for Nicole) Jamison is somewhat unexpectedly asked to join an undercover operation run by a joint FBI/DEA task force. She’s a K-9 officer with the Maryland police but her previous experience in agility training/courses is the big attractor for the task force. Also, her ex-husband (who wants her back) suggested she be brought in.

Scott Lucca met and married Nikki (as he then knew her) in a whirlwind romance. After his beloved (and golden) brother, Gabe, died while deployed, Scott lost it a bit and things fell apart. At the time he was working as an undercover operative infiltrating the Pagans MC and some of the things he had to do to maintain his cover cost them both. That was two years earlier and Scott still misses Nikki like it was yesterday.
Continue reading

August Round Up

September 2, 2016 / Kaetrin

Monthly Mini Review

The Scoundrel & I by Katharine Ashe – B Elyssa Patrick was singing the praises of this novella and, as it was only 99c, I snapped it up. While I didn’t love it quite as much as Elyssa did, I did enjoy my time spent with Gabriella (Elle) Flood and Captain Anthony Masinter. The Scoundrel & I is a spinoff novella (from the author’s Falcon Club series) but stands alone well. I expect there will be quite a few readers using this book as a gateway in fact.

Elle works in a printer’s and has been left “in charge” when the owner and his family go on two week’s holiday. And, by “in charge” I mean she is in the shop for reasons which are not made clear, as she’s not allowed to do any actual printing herself. Nonetheless, she resolves to take home the print “chase” for the latest women’s rights pamphlet from Lady Justice so her blind and ailing grandmother can read the type with her fingers. (The backstory doled out along the way explains how this is relevant). Unfortunately, on the way home, Elle is startled by a rider and drops the chase, losing 53 pieces of type and destining her for unemployment at best and prison at worst.

Anthony, when he realises a couple of days later what he has done, resolves to help Elle to restore the type before her employer returns from holiday. Thus restored, no-one need ever know she took the chase out of the shop at all. Used to captaining a ship, Anthony does tend to take charge, even if Elle is not at all keen on having his help – at least, not at first. Continue reading

June Round Up

June 22, 2016 / Kaetrin

Monthly Mini Review

Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold, narrated by Grover Gardner – B Another strong entry into the Vorkosigan saga, (I’m getting close to the Miles romance books! Whee!!) which I am slowly making my way through. I listened to Borders of Infinity before Brothers in Arms and the former has a framing story around three novella length tales – I’m pretty sure at least one of those short stories takes place after Brothers in Arms so I did have a bit of cognitive dissonance when Miles was doing the business with Elli Quinn. I’m sure I’ve heard a story where Ellie falls in love with someone else. (Did I get that wrong? Am I confusing this series with something else?)

I enjoyed Miles’ ponderings on what makes family and I liked Ivan’s appearance in this one – he makes me laugh actually. Ivan strikes me as a fairly simple sort of guy, not at all stupid but a little lazy and almost Miles’ polar opposite. He makes a good foil for our hero. I also liked the way Elli and Miles hooked up here and how it was implicit that they were having, essentially, a FWB relationship. Appearances are another theme in this story – Miles’ appearance, Elli’s appearance and how it has changed since Miles has known her, the various consequences of their respective visages and bodies, not to mention the appearance of “Mark”. Continue reading

Another Dream by Mary Balogh (from Once Upon A Dream anthology)

June 6, 2016 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I adore Mary Balogh books so I bought it. (I haven’t yet read the Grace Burrowes story. I may not ever do so as I really only bought it for the Balogh novella.)

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Miss Eleanor Thompson has found satisfaction as the director of a respected school for girls. The life of a dedicated educator offers many rewards and much meaning–but also more loneliness than Eleanor anticipated. She accepts an invitation from her sister, Christine, Duchess of Bewcastle, to attend a Bedwyn houseparty, never dreaming the summer curriculum might include stolen kisses and true love.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I was feeling in the mood for a comfort type read but I also wanted a story I hadn’t read before – so I turned to Mary Balogh. She is ever the comfort read to me. I just sink into her books like I would a comfy couch.

Eleanor Thompson is Christine’s sister (as in Wulfric’s wife). She is now the owner/operator of the Bath school for girls formerly run by Claudia Martin, now the Marchioness of Attingsborough. On her way to Lindsey Hall for a summer holiday with her family, she is stranded at an inn waiting out a storm. There, she meets a charming man, a widower with two young children, Michael Benning, the Earl of Staunton. Robert is five years old and very shy, Georgette is # and precocious, voluble and whip smart. The children take a shine to Eleanor and Eleanor and Michael take a shine to each other. Continue reading