Page 173 of 268

The Year We Fell Down by Sarina Bowen

September 6, 2014 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: This was recommended by Jane from Dear Author so I bought it.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) The sport she loves is out of reach. The boy she loves has someone else.

What now?

She expected to start Harkness College as a varsity ice hockey player. But a serious accident means that Corey Callahan will start school in a wheelchair instead.

Across the hall, in the other handicapped-accessible dorm room, lives the too-delicious-to-be real Adam Hartley, another would-be hockey star with his leg broken in two places. He’s way out of Corey’s league.

Also, he’s taken.

Nevertheless, an unlikely alliance blooms between Corey and Hartley in the “gimp ghetto” of McHerrin Hall. Over tequila, perilously balanced dining hall trays, and video games, the two cope with disappointments that nobody else understands.

They’re just friends, of course, until one night when things fall apart. Or fall together. All Corey knows is that she’s falling. Hard.

But will Hartley set aside his trophy girl to love someone as broken as Corey? If he won’t, she will need to find the courage to make a life for herself at Harkness — one which does not revolve around the sport she can no longer play, or the brown-eyed boy who’s afraid to love her back.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): Okay, this one grabbed me from the start and made me stay up too late last night finishing. I’d say it’s a fairly low conflict story even though each main protagonist has plenty of “shit to shovel”. Corey and Hartley become friends quickly and that friendship builds and grows over time. Corey basically falls in love with him but they are just friends because Hartley is taken. His extremely high maintenance girlfriend is studying abroad for a few months. So there is chemistry and some light flirtation which neither acknowledges as flirtation because he’s taken, and a very slow build to the romance.

Review at AudioGals

September 5, 2014 / Kaetrin

I’m at AudioGals today with a review of The Pirate Prince by Gaelen Foley, narrated by Elizabeth Wiley. I read this one some years ago and it was kind of fun to revisit it on audio. Full of cheese though – so be ye warned. Aarrrr.

Review at AudioGals

September 4, 2014 / Kaetrin

I’m over at AudioGals with a review of Kate Noble’s latest release, The Game and The Governess, narrated by Beverley A. Crick. Unfortunately, this one was not a success for me.

August Round Up

September 2, 2014 / Kaetrin

Monthly Mini Reviews

Frigid by J. Lynn (Jennifer L. Armintrout) – C+ I enjoy the friends to lovers trope and I liked Wait for You so I bought this one when it was 99c one day a while ago. Kyler and Sydney have been friends since they were toddlers and each has had deep romantic feelings for one another for quite some time. Kyler is a bit of a manwhore and enjoys a lot of one night stands. Sydney has only had one boyfriend and her sexual experience is very limited (and the one time she had penetrative sex it wasn’t very good and her boyfriend split up with her almost immediately after and complained to his buddies she was frigid). Both Kyler and Sydney think the other is out of their league for one reason or another but when they are stranded together at Kyler’s family ski lodge in a blizzard the truth finally comes out. The story is told from both main characters’ POV in alternating sections and, for the most part, the big misunderstanding the story is conceived on didn’t bother me too much. This is because things move apace and the whole book, in terms of their relationship, is about solving the puzzle, not setting up the misunderstanding. So, they spend the book learning how to be honest with one another and that gave them a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card when it comes to my dislike of the “Big Mis” trope. However, they just had to throw in one too many of the misunderstandings in order to have the grand reunion and that was one too many for me. There is also a suspense plot in there which I thought was kind of unnecessary and bizarre but overall, it was an easy read and not taxing on the brain.

BUY IT:
AMAZON KOBO

The Hook-up by Abigail Barnette – B This free short story takes place after the events of The Girlfriend and therefore contains spoilers for the earlier books. For that reason, I’d say best not to read it before the other two but if you don’t mind about spoilers, then I suppose you could. In this story, Neil is in London, away from Sophie who is in New York. He has a hookup with their mutual friend-with-benefits “Emir” and things don’t go the way one might expect. I enjoyed the story in part because it was sexy and hot. I liked that Neil’s bisexuality was shown on page and celebrated and it was nice to get some of Neil’s POV. I also liked the chance to enjoy a short which was low conflict. I expect there will be some other trouble ahead for Neil and Sophie – books would be boring without conflict – so it was nice to see them happy, even if they weren’t physically together in this instalment. Sophie wasn’t completely absent from the story, but she’s not the focus. It’s only 30 or so pages so it’s a short hot read and hey: free.

DOWNLOAD IT:
SMASHWORDS

Review at Dear Author

August 30, 2014 / Kaetrin

Today I’m over at Dear Author with a review of The Devil in Denim by Melanie Scott. After a bit of a slowish start, It picked up in the second half and I ended up liking it quite a bit. Also, you don’t have to know much (anything) about baseball to understand it which is a bonus, because I haven’t a clue.

Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold, narrated by Grover Gardner

August 29, 2014 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I’m continuing my Vorkosigan series listen and this one was next. Or I’d skipped it. The reading order is somewhat fraught I must say. In any event, it’s kind of a tangent from the rest of the series so it fit where I was up to well enough.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Dr. Ethan Urquhart, an obstetrician on a planet forbidden to women, is Chief of Biology at the Severin District Reproduction Center and one of the busiest men on the planet Athos. Then a mysterious genetic crisis threatens Athos with extinction. Drafted to brave the wider universe for his cloistered fellows in quest of new ovarian tissue cultures, Ethan braces himself for his first encounter with those most alien of aliens–females of his own species.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): As is usually the case with books from the Vorkosiverse, I didn’t bother to read the blurb before diving in. So I had no expectations at all except that very likely Miles would not appear in this one given the title. (I was correct.)

Ethan is a doctor at the Reproduction Centre in the Severin District on Athos. It quickly becomes apparent that Athos is a very unusual place – there are no females on it. At all. The babies are all created from sperm donations from the male inhabitants who have earned sufficient “social credits” to be a father and ovarian tissue which is cultured to create egg cells. Once fertilised via an IVF-like procedure, the fetuses are gestated in uterine-replicators (just like the one in which Miles spent the latter part of his gestation).