Category: B reviews (Page 56 of 74)

Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold, narrated by Grover Gardner

April 29, 2013 / Kaetrin

Why I listened to it: Having enjoyed Shards of Honor and Barrayar so much, I decided, whether or not any of the other books had a strong romantic thread (or any) I was going to listen to the rest of the series. I decided to start at the beginning – Falling Free was written after Shards of Honor but is chronologically the first book in the series. There are no Vorkosigans in the book, but apparently the author recommends starting here.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Leo Graf was an effective engineer…Safety Regs weren’t just the rule book he swore by; he’d helped write them. All that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat. Leo was profoundly uneasy with the corporate exploitation of his bright new studentstill that exploitation turned to something much worse. He hadn’t anticipated a situation where the right thing to do was neither save, nor in the rules…

Leo Graf adopted 1000 quaddies now all he had to do was teach them to be free.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I hadn’t even read the blurb for this one. So, the “quaddies” and the whole set up was a bit of a shock. Essentially, the quaddies are a genetically engineered human species, designed to be perfectly adapted to life in freefall (zero gravity). They have no need of legs. They have four arms instead. They can cope with a lot more radiation than a “normal” human and for a variety of reasons, represent a huge potential saving to the company “Galactech” – they don’t need to send the quaddies to 1G atmosphere for 1 month every 3 months – no transport costs, no wages, no employee benefits. Because the quaddies aren’t regarded as human.

Leo, from whose (3rd person) POV most of the story is told doesn’t think of them that way (thank God or I would have hated him). But the story does raise interesting questions about what is humanity, about genocide, slavery and corporate disinterest and greed – both of which can only mean disaster for the quaddies.

The Gamble by Kristen Ashley

April 27, 2013 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I liked Sweet Dreams so much I bought the rest of the books in the series and started at book 1.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Nina Sheridan’s on a timeout adventure in the Colorado Mountains. She needs distance from her clueless fiancé, distance to decide whether she wants to spend the rest of her life with a man who doesn’t care enough to learn how she takes her coffee.Arriving in a blinding snowstorm at the A-Frame she rented, she comes face to face with the most amazing man she’s ever seen. Minutes later, when he kicks her out of his house, she goes head to head with him.Beyond angry because she’s flown half a world away to start her timeout adventure, not to mention her sinuses hurt, she heads back down the mountain and ends up in a ditch. Unable to extricate herself, she gives up, hopes for rescue and falls asleep in the backseat.The next morning she wakes up in the amazing man’s bed and she’s sick as a dog.Holden Maxwell spends days nursing her back to health and then he spends the next two weeks trying to convince her to take her Colorado adventure further, in other words, make it permanent and take a gamble on him.

Nina has a tough time fighting her attraction to Max, especially when it seems all Max’s friends, her mother and stepdad and the whole town want them together and both she and Max get embroiled in the murder of Max’s ex-friend and the town of Gnaw Bone’s most detested resident – a man everyone has motive to kill, especially Max.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I’m a big fan of the main characters in a romance spending a lot of time together. I like it when they meet very early in the book and I don’t like long separations. There are exceptions to every rule of course but I think one of the reasons that the Kristen Ashley books I’ve read so far have worked for me, is that her main characters get together on the page very quickly and if there are any separations, they are short. Nina and Max, spend a lot of time together in this book. It is a fairly long book and they get a lot of page time. There is a lot of dialogue and I got a good handle on Max, notwithstanding the book is almost completely from Nina’s 1st person POV.

Thank You For Riding by Meg Maguire

April 26, 2013 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I had this one pre-ordered from Books on Board too and downloaded it before the bad news hit. Cara McKenna (aka Meg Maguire) is pretty much an autobuy for me.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) The last train of the night might just be the start of something good.A Strangers on a Train StoryStung ego or not, Caitlin’s relieved her fizzling relationship is over, even if she’s just been unceremoniously dumped between the copier and a dead ficus tree. At least she has an excuse to ditch the lousy office Christmas party in time to catch the last subway home…to her cat, and early-onset spinsterhood.

Instead of a lonely, chilly ride, she gets an unexpected holiday treat in the form of a nearly familiar face—a handsome stranger she encountered last week at the blood drive.

At the end of the line, neither can seem to let their chance meeting end—until their extended flirtation finds them facing the prospect of spending a frigid winter night locked in an unheated subway station. And they wonder if keeping each other warm is merely a delightful form of rebound therapy…or a memorable first of many more dates to come.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I liked this one very much. It wasn’t as hot as I had been expecting, even having seen interviews with the author where she said that the circumstances the pair find themselves in do limit their activities. But, looking back, it was just right. Caitlin first spies “Mr. Cute” (who later introduces himself as Mark) when they are both donating platelets at the local blood bank. Some weeks later, after being dumped by her not-very-interesting boyfriend at the office holiday party, they meet on the train home. When they get stuck in the subway station for a few hours, they share conversation, body heat and even some body fluids as their attraction keeps them warm.

Sweet Dreams by Kristen Ashley

April 24, 2013 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: Continuing my glom. I bought the whole series and also the first 4 Rock Chick books. KA addiction, I have you. I started with this one because Kati D told me that Tate was a bit like Tack (ie yummy). I still like Tack better but Tate was pretty special.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Lauren Grahame has spent her whole life thinking something special was going to happen. She didn’t know what it was, she just knew it would one day be hers. But she learned the hard way that special wasn’t on offer.So, after divorcing her cheating husband, Lauren searched for nothing special and she thought she found it when she landed a job as a waitress in a biker bar in Carnal. It was perfect: a nothing job in a nowhere bar in Nowheresville.Then Tatum Jackson walked in. Part-owner of the bar, he took one look at high-class Lauren and wanted nothing to do with her. And he made this known, loudly.

Tate’s angry insults seared in her brain, Lauren decides the feeling is mutual and she doesn’t want anything to do with the gloriously handsome Tate Jackson. The clash of the bartender and barmaid begins but, even though Tate makes his change of mind clear (in biker-speak, a language Lauren is not fluent in), Lauren is intent on going her own way.

Until a serial killer hits Carnal and Lauren finds out Tate isn’t a bartender, he’s a bounty hunter. He stakes his claim for Lauren before he goes on the hunt for a killer but Laurie doesn’t speak biker nor does she understand bounty hunters and Tate comes back from the hunt to find his old lady has moved on.

Life throws curveball after curveball at Laurie and Tate. As secrets are revealed, women are brutally murdered, and Lauren tries to find her inner biker babe.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): There are some unusual things about this book if you compare it to what’s around the place generally in Romancelandia. Firstly, both the hero and heroine are in their forties. Next, Lauren, when she first arrives in Carnal, is a bit overweight and almost the first thing Tate (our hero don’t forget) says about her (which she overhears) is that she’s “fat, old and sorry-ass”. And she kind of is. Lauren has been driving around for months, trying to find a place to settle after being betrayed by her husband and all of her friends (he was cheating, they all knew it and no-one said anything to her). While Lauren is close to her sister and parents, she has been distant from them for the past few months while she’s been trying to get her head together. She’s looking for a place where she can just be but she’s not expecting anything special in her life. Tate’s comment (which he later does apologise for, fully realising he was out of line – although he gets impatient that she doesn’t forgive him immediately upon apology – something I had quite a bit of sympathy for by the way) spurs Lauren into taking a bit better care of herself. She doesn’t get a makeover to try and attract a man, but rather she realises that she’s let herself go a bit and she decides, almost by osmosis, to start looking after herself. She doesn’t ever do it for anyone other than herself. This is very good. And, it has to be said, that even upon arrival, when she wasn’t at her best, the townsfolk thought she’d be exactly Tate’s type – I got the impression that Tate was happy enough with the way she looked all the time, notwithstanding his out of line early comment (which was actually not much to do with Lauren at all).

Law Man by Kirsten Ashley

April 23, 2013 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: Continuing my glom.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Four years ago, Mitch Lawson moved across the breezeway from Mara Hanover and she fell in love with the tall, good-looking police detective who had an uncanny ability to dress well even though he’s single. It was not a stalker kind of love; she knows she has no hope since Mitch is way out of her league. That doesn’t change the fact that he’s her dream man.Then one day Mara’s faucet won’t turn off and she knows nothing about plumbing. Being a good guy, Mitch offers to help then he invites himself over for pizza. Mara gives it a go but finds herself running away from him (literally) on their first date, standing him up their second and then she runs into him (again literally) on her way to save her ne’er do well, criminal cousin’s kids who’d just run away from their ne’er do well, criminal Dad.Suddenly, Mara finds she has on her hands the guardianship of two kids and a gorgeous police detective who’s willing to do anything to help out… including giving fabulous foot rubs.

But Mara knows who she is and where she came from and she knows Detective Mitch Lawson is better than her. Hot law man Mitch disagrees and his challenge is to convince Mara to let go of her past and he sets about building a family at the same time he finds he also needs to protect them all against known and unknown adversaries that would tear them apart.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): The beginning of this book was a bit annoying for me, but once Mitch made his intentions clear, things picked up and I ended up liking this one quite a bit.

While there are definite similarities to the stories and the main characters, there are also definite differences and I appreciated them here. Mara is not only shy, she has significant self esteem problems. Mitch not only cooks and shops and cleans, he is a natural dad – he doesn’t bat an eyelid at taking on Mara’s cousins – he falls in love with them almost as quickly as he fell in love with Mara in fact. There is something super sexy and attractive to me about a man who is good with children – who is prepared to step up and care for and protect them.

Slam! by JL Merrow

April 22, 2013 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I pre-ordered this one from Samhain – JL Merrow is an autobuy for me. I’m glad I didn’t even read the blurb actually because Jude’s last name made me laugh out loud when I got to it in the story.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Limericks, lies, and puppy-dog eyes…Jude Biggerstaff is all the way out and loving it – mostly. The Anglo-Japanese university graduate is a carnivore working in a vegan cafe, an amateur poet with only one man in his life. His dog, Bubbles. Then there’s “Karate Crumpet”, a man who regularly runs past the cafe with a martial arts class. Jude can only yearn from afar, until the object of his affection rescues him from muggers. And he learns that not only does this calm, competent hunk of muscle have a name – David – but that he s gay.

Jude should have known the universe wouldn’t simply let love fall into place. First, David has only one foot out of the closet. Then there’s Jude’s mother, who lies about her age to the point Jude could be mistaken for jailbait.

With a maze of stories to keep straight, a potential stepfather in the picture, ex-boyfriends who keep spoiling his dates with David, and a friend with a dangerous secret, Jude is beginning to wonder if his and David’s lives will ever start to rhyme.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): This book is so funny. I was laughing out loud throughout a lot of it and my husband got treated to highlights because some humour just has to be shared. Told from Jude’s first person POV, he is hilarious, taking himself not very seriously at all (nor most other things in fact). He works in a vegan cafe (he’s not a vegan and refers to it as “rabbit food”) and every Saturday, watches the jim-jam parade as the local karate club does their run right past the cafe’s front window. His friend Keisha (who is a vegan) visits the cafe regularly and has all but been adopted by the owners, Vince and Lesley. Which is just as well, because Keisha is unemployed, desperate to find work and has a father who just got out of prison and is very bad news. Lesley has MS and there are glimpses of the the effect it has on both Jude and Keisha because they love her, as well as on Vince and Lesley themselves. It isn’t overdone, but these touches make Jude a more well rounded character – and give the book depth. Jude and Keisha don’t only talk about their love lives with each other – they met at a poetry slam and since then have made a close bond. Their banter, which is mostly snark and insults, reveals a deep affection.