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Within Reach by Sarah Mayberry

July 19, 2012 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I’m a fan of Sarah Mayberry and snatched it up when I saw it at NetGalley. Release date: August 7 2012.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Being a single dad was never on Michael Young’s agenda. Yet with the sudden loss of his wife, that’s exactly the role he has. On his best days, he thinks he can handle it. On his worst… Luckily, family friend Angie Bartlett has his back, easily stepping in to help out.

Lately, though, something has changed.

Michael is noticing exactly how gorgeous Angie is, and how single she is. She’s constantly in his thoughts and he feels an attraction he never expected. Does he dare disrupt the very good thing they have going? If they have a fling that goes nowhere, he stands to lose everything—including her. But if they make it work, he stands to gain everything!

What worked for me (and what didn’t): The prologue begins showing Billie celebrating her 32nd birthday with her husband Michael and their 2 children (Eva and Charlie) and her BFF, Angie as well as various other family/friends. The set up succinctly displays a happily married couple and two very close friends who are more like sisters. When Billie dies of an undiagnosed congenital heart defect, both Allie and Michael (as well as the children of course) are devastated. And actually, so was I. I was only on page 17 and I was already crying. Which tells me that in a few short words, I cared enough about the characters that their journey was going to be important to me. So, with a sigh of relief and a box of tissues I settled in for a good read.

Angie is godmother to Michael and Billie’s kids and had been Billie’s close friend since they met at boarding school. But there was never anything between Michael and Angie – no unrequited lusting or jealousy, etc, which I was very glad about. Their relationship had been based around Billie. A relationship entirely familiar to me.

Michael may have been married to Billie for six years, and Angie may have seen him once a week on average during that time, but their friendship had always been grounded in their mutual connection with Billie. Not that Angie didn’t like him in his own right—she did, a lot—but in her mind he was Billie’s husband first and foremost, and then Michael. Just as she suspected she was Billie’s friend first to him, and then herself.

But around about a year after Billie’s death, shortly after the book picks up in Chapter 1 Angie starts to notice Michael in new ways.

He preceded her up the hall and her gaze traveled across his shoulders before dropping to his muscular backside. Billie had often waxed poetic about Michael’s body, but Angie had always made a point of not noticing— she didn’t want to know that kind of stuff. Now, as he stopped at the kitchen counter, she was forcibly reminded of the fact that he was a very attractive man. For a moment she didn’t quite know where to look.

and Michael starts to notice her too.

He had no business noticing her ass. She was Billie’s best friend. Better yet, she was his friend. The shape and size of her ass was utterly irrelevant. Certainly it was of no interest to him.

No interest whatsoever.

Even if it was a very fine, very firm-looking ass.

Both Michael and Angie resist their attraction, feeling it would be a betrayal of Billie. Added to that, Angie knows how deeply Michael loves (present tense) Billie and believes (not unreasonably, in the circumstances) that Michael will remain emotionally unavailable to any other non-Billie woman. After it becomes obvious that resistance is useless, they embark upon what both think is a “friends with benefits” type affair, believing (!) they will be able to go back to their previous good friendship when it’s over.

After Angie realises that she has fallen in love with Michael, she breaks things off. Of course, it is impossible for them to go back and that leads to the finale where Michael realises his love for her two and they plan to live HEA.

The to-ing and fro-ing of the “I find you irresistibly attractive and want to jump your bones” and “I can’t feel this way, you’re my best friend’s husband/my wife’s best friend” could have gotten tired (and I can see that for some that will be the case) but for me, it was written so well and believably that I was caught up in the pair’s dilemma and it had me in tears well into the book. Michael’s journey in particular, as he wakes up from being almost completely numb for the first 10 or 11 months after Billie’s death, how he comes to grips with desiring another woman (no matter who it is) and his feeling that he is betraying his wife was very moving. Perhaps, because Billie had been a real character to me at the start of the book, I was able to sympathise with both characters and not think “oh, just get over it already.”. And maybe because of that same understanding of Billie, brief though it was, I never thought that she would disapprove of the pairing. It wasn’t icky – Billie had been gone for over a year before anything happened romantically between them. In fact, I thought Billie would be delighted that the pair had found happiness together and that her children would be so well loved and cared for.

It wasn’t all angst and tears though. Ms. Mayberry has a lovely turn of phrase which made me chuckle and occasionally snort as I was reading. Like here for example, when Michael is being hit on by a member of the local mother’s group

“That’s very kind of you,” Michael said.

It was, too—if only they weren’t both looking at him as though he was the last chopper out of Saigon.

There is also some hot (and sometimes tender) sex, including a blowjob scene where Angie tells Michael to “shut up and take it like a man” which made me laugh.

The connection and affection between Michael and Angie was obvious, as was their mutual devotion and connection to the 2 children – who, thankfully were not plot moppets. What concerned me (and perhaps I am just projecting here) is that it seemed to me that Angie thought of herself as the “consolation prize”. It was reiterated a number of times in the book that if Billie had been alive, neither Michael nor Angie would even have looked at each other with intent. Michael would have happily stayed married to Billie for the rest of his life. It struck me that would be hard to live up to as wife number 2. Toward the end of the book, and to Michael’s great appreciation, Angie makes it clear that she does not want to forget Billie and she knows Michael will always love her and she doesn’t want the children to ever forget her (although Charlie was only 1 when she died so good luck with that) but it seemed to me that she was by her words consigning herself forever to second place. I understood the sentiment – of course Billie should be remembered. Of course a part of Michael would always love Billie. But what I wanted as a reader was some assurance that Michael didn’t see Angie as the consolation prize and that he convinced (or at least intended to) Angie of it. Now, I’m not a writer and I haven’t given this hours of thought so it’s not like I have any suggestions of how to do that, but I would dearly have liked it to be there. Because as it was, I felt that eventually Angie would be crushed by it.

That meant that the book had a bittersweet kind of ending for me. I loved the couple together and believed in their love for each other. I even thought that friends and family would probably accept them as a couple fairly easily*, but I worried for Angie that she would always feel second best and I thought she deserved better than that.

Now, the thing is, I spent some time last night (by the time I was about halfway through the book it was too late and I just had to go to sleep) worrying about it and when it wasn’t even touched on really in the book in any overt way at least, my worries weren’t assuaged and I didn’t know how to process that. But, there I was worrying about the characters. So, on the one hand, there was something that dissatisfied but on the other, the main reason for that dissatisfaction was that I felt so strongly about the characters in the first place. So that’s kind of a plus and a minus and it means that the grade is a high B rather than an A.

*Possibly because of word count restrictions, there weren’t a lot of other people populating the book. There was a vague mention of other friends of Angie’s but basically none for Michael. It seemed that he had been all but alone for that year since Billie did, except for Angie – and that kind of struck me as odd. It also seemed a little unhealthy for Michael to rely so much on Angie and it would have been nice for there to be a slightly wider circle for Michael to depend upon for support (apart from the practical help he occasionally got from his neighbour). It didn’t detract in a major way from the book and like I say, I think there were reasons for it, but I did notice it when I thought about it later.

I did like how Angie’s jewellery design business was integrated into the story – enough detail to feel realistic but not too much to intrude. And, with Michael being an architect, it provided another point of compatibility for them as a couple.

My thoughts overall: great book, a real tearjerker – can I have a Christmas short or follow up story where I can see how Angie and Michael deal with the “consolation prize” thing?

What else? Good Lord that’s a boring cover. Really, the book deserves much better.

Grade: B+

Something Like Normal by Trish Doller

July 14, 2012 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I saw the Twitter buzz about this one – Brie from Romance Around the Corner and Jane from Dear Author were both recommending it and I picked it up from Kobo with a coupon which meant I only paid about $5. Yippee

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) When Travis returns home from a stint in Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother’s stolen his girlfriend and his car, and he’s haunted by nightmares of his best friend’s death. It’s not until Travis runs into Harper, a girl he’s had a rocky relationship with since middle school, that life actually starts looking up. And as he and Harper see more of each other, he begins to pick his way through the minefield of family problems and post-traumatic stress to the possibility of a life that might resemble normal again. Travis’s dry sense of humor, and incredible sense of honor, make him an irresistible and eminently lovable hero.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I’m a hero-centric reader, so a story told from the hero’s POV is very tempting for me. There aren’t that many of them around.

I suspect that the “new adult” stories I’ve been reading lately have worked for me largely because, even though the protagonists are young, they are dealing with adult issues. Coming back from war is definitely something that strikes me as very adult and the depiction here seemed very authentic. Travis came across as a 19 year old who had seen too much, who was starting to mature and realise that life doesn’t revolve only around him (as teenagers do). He notices his mother in a new way and thinks about her happiness, rather than just what she can/should do for him. He reconnects with Harper and for the first time (it appears) really understands what his thoughtless exaggeration of their game of “7 minutes in heaven” in middle school meant for her. (Although, to be fair, it wasn’t all his fault – I suspect Paige had much to do with how big the story became). I would have liked to have seen Travis stand up to his friends a little more on Harper’s behalf and actually make it clear to them that the rumours were false but you can’t have everything.

Travis is far from perfect but he’s working hard to become a better man and I believed that by the end of the book he was on his way. There was a delightful lack of arrogance about him too. His transformation was perhaps a bit fast, but I put that down to his adult experience of war. I was prepared to accept that having those experiences and then being back in his home town for the first time since he enlisted, meant that he saw things a different way than he had before. It made sense to me that he would place value differently now.

His interactions with Paige (his ex-girlfriend, now his brother’s girlfriend) were interesting. Ordinarily they would be the type to really piss me off but actually, they fit with where I saw Travis at the time, his age and even where things were at with Harper. My sense was that he was letting things happen to him – and Paige fell into that category. When he finally started to control things better and make deliberate moves, he gave Paige her marching orders and I, as the reader, was able to move past it without any ill feeling for him. I wondered how Harper would react. In the end, I thought she probably had the right of it. My sense was that she internally told herself the things she would not let Travis say and realised that he hadn’t actually made her any promises (as upsetting as it was).

I loved Travis’ sense of humour and the self-deprecating way he thought to himself.

I’m not an especially romantic person, but when a beautiful girl invites a guy to the beach at night, sea turtles are not usually involved.

It’s actually quite a romantic book – it’s not at all all explicit (which strangely enough for me, I didn’t mind at all – it fit the book entirely).

I step into the space between us and take her face in my hands. I kiss her for days. Or maybe just a couple of minutes. It’s hard to tell.

What I also liked is how Travis is always 19 when he’s being romantic, so there’s humour and youth mixed in.

She beams at me and it’s almost enough to make up for the fact that I’m harder than trigonometry right now. Almost.

and here

“Yeah, well, it’s my first time with you and I want to get it right.” It sounds like a line. Like I’m trying to get in her pants. Which I am, but not the way it seems. Harper’s skepticism registers in the hitch of her brows and it makes me laugh. “Okay, that sounded lame, but”—I drop my voice low because I have to admit something that kind of scares me—“I don’t want to mess this up.”

She gives me that tiny bit-lip smile that always knocks me out, and I know I’ve said the right thing.

“But”—I shoot her a grin—“if you want to wait, I’ll live. Of course, my balls will probably shrivel up and fall off, but don’t feel bad about that or anything.”

Harper gives me a little punch in the gut, then circles her arms around my neck. Her lower lip grazes mine and, just before she kisses me, she tells me to shut up.

I loved the interaction between his fellow Marines – that felt very authentic to me. I saw from the author’s acknowledgements at the back of the book that she spoke to many Marines during her research and the portrayal of life in Afghanistan and the camaraderie between the fellow solders felt very realistic. Sometimes, we bloggers talk about how women write male dialogue as they wish them to be, not as they are. But I could imagine guys talking this way for sure:

“Did you or did you not close the deal, Kenneth?”

“I don’t think I want to tell you now.” He crosses his arms over his scrawny freckled chest, all huffy, and turns his nose up, pretending to ignore me.

“Kevlar, man, I thought we were BFFs,” I say. Moss doesn’t open his eyes, but a chuckle rumbles out. “I still have my half of the necklace, and last night I wrote in my diary, ‘Dear Diary, Kenneth is my BFF. I hope he gets laid, because it’s a special night when a man loses his virginity and contracts a sexually transmitted disease at the same time.’”

I suppose the secondary characters could have been further developed but to be honest I didn’t feel the lack. I would have liked to have seen more interaction with Harper and Travis (more of Harper in general actually) and my HEA-gene would dearly love to know that Travis will survive his entire deployment. Nevertheless, I appreciated that the story ended where it did – there is definitely a happy ending but not everything is sewn up with a bright red bow. Which is a good thing – the kinds of experiences a soldier has in Afghanistan don’t get fixed in under 200 pages after all.

What else? The book is fairly short, coming in at about 140 pages. As much as I enjoyed it, I’m glad I didn’t pay full price. On the one hand, for a fairly short novel it certainly packed a punch – I remember thinking when I first picked it up that there was a lot going on in such a small space, but it never felt rushed. I have said before that writing short is a special talent and I think Ms. Doller has it.

Grade: B+

Sweet Talk by Julie Garwood

July 11, 2012 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I picked this up from NetGalley because the blurb looked interesting.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) When FBI agent Grayson Kincaid first encounters Olivia MacKenzie, she makes quite an impression. The beautiful, tough, young attorney has stumbled into the middle of an FBI sting operation and has reduced it to chaos. Months of surveillance and careful planning down the drain, Kincaid’s partner is furious and lets Olivia know that she’s ticked off the wrong guy. After all, he’s FBI.Olivia isn’t intimidated by his partner’s bullying because she’s something even scarier…she’s IRS. And working for the IRS isn’t for the faint of heart. She’s on the trail of an elaborate Ponzi scheme, one that threatens to ruin the lives of naive and unsuspecting victims, and one she has personal reasons to be angry about. But after she asks questions of the wrong people, her life is suddenly endangered. She’s accustomed to fighting for the underdog but being vulnerable herself is a very different story. Smart enough to know when to call for reinforcements, she contacts Grayson Kincaid.Together they make an excellent team to fight corruption but Olivia is also fighting the immediate and intense attraction she feels for Agent Kincaid, and that may be a battle she is bound to lose.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): The blurb is a little misleading. Olivia does work for the IRS and she also does some child advocacy on the side (she’s a lawyer) but the Ponzi scheme reference is a reference to a personal investigation she’s doing outside of both those activities. She’s investigating her father. And, she doesn’t contact Grayson – he comes to her.

When Grayson and Olivia first meet (she’s having a job interview because of potential cutbacks at the IRS), she is threatened by the interviewer (Jorguson) and his bodyguard (Martin) – they are dodgy as all get out (Olivia hasn’t had time to research – I appreciated she was smart and usually would) and suspect she is an FBI agent wearing a wire. When Olivia is shot a couple of months later, Grayson and his partner Ronan (not the partner the blurb talks of, a different one) investigate the possible connection and investigate Jorguson and Martin. as well as Olivia’s father and his lawyer, Simmons, (who has also been threatening Olivia).

All the bad guys in this book are very very bad. And there are a lot of them. There are no redeeming characteristics and their evil sometimes came across as a caricature. Olivia’s father is charismatic and evil and one dimensional. Olivia’s mother, sister and brother-in-law are heinous – unbelievably selfish and self-absorbed. These three crossed the caricature line early and never quite made it back.

Thankfully, Olivia has some non-heinous people in her life too. When she was a child, she had some form of (unspecified) cancer and was involved in some kind of (also unspecified) experimental treatment (which sounded horrendous but it seems to have worked). She was isolated and then merely hospitalised with 3 other girls with the same disease – Jane, Collins and Sam and they are her surrogate sisters and best friends. I enjoyed the banter between the girls.

There is a subplot involving Jane and her brother Logan which could have been left out I feel. There is a large cast of characters in this book and the consequences/fallout of the story involving Jane was left largely unexplored here due to (I assume) lack of space. Still, I suspect that Jane will get her own book and maybe those issues will be dealt with there.

As for Grayson, he ran a bit hot and cold for me. There were times when I loved him and there were other times where he skirted right up to the jerk line (and sometimes crossed over). He could be very overbearing and demanding and got really angry really fast – while I didn’t think that was ever a threat to Olivia, I can’t imagine it being comfortable to be around. Grayson is also a little too good to be true – he’s a trust fund baby who works super hard for the FBI, renovating and flipping buildings in his spare time. He also takes on custody of his 9 year old nephew Henry during the book and he’s a devoted “dad”.

Grayson and Olivia have an instant connection but at the beginning they spent long periods apart – Grayson doesn’t call for 2 months after their first kiss and, seemingly, he only turns up because she’s been shot. There didn’t seem to be any conversation between the two where the reason for his absence (he took on custody of Henry) was discussed and I ended up feeling that Olivia caved too soon because she didn’t make him grovel. Then again, she’d been shot so maybe she had other things on her mind! 🙂 The breaks between them in their early relationship had the effect, for me, of making the story appear episodic.

As the book progresses, Grayson finds it increasingly more difficult to stay away from Olivia. I’m sure there is potential professional trouble for him with him dating a witness/victim of crime but that wasn’t really explored beyond letting Ronan take the lead in the investigation and Grayson saying he should stay away (but then not).

Olivia, having seen (via her friends’ families, not her own) the devastation life threatening illness caused, is reluctant to commit to a permanent relationship – she believes she cannot have a HEA, thinking that one day the cancer will come back. This was a really interesting aspect to the story and I wish it had been explored a little more. In the end, she changed her mind (it is a romance, so of course she does) but I wasn’t quite convinced of the why of it.

There were some amusing moments in the book – I had a bit of a chuckle when Olivia compares Grayson to a modern day Bruce Wayne and asks if he has a batmobile in his garage (he says it’s in the bat cave of course) and Olivia’s tormenting of Grayson with a popsicle. The scene where both Collins (who’s about to start FBI training) meets Ronan (who is gobsmacked) and both girls are (inadvertently) tormenting the guys by sucking on their popsicles was pretty funny.

Grayson and Olivia had definite chemistry. While the book is not terribly explicit, they certainly smoked up the sheets.

What else? This was a book that I enjoyed well enough when I was reading – it certainly was readable and I read it in only 2 or 3 evenings, but when I thought back on it, I could see more flaws than story highs. I wanted to like it more than I did but in the end, it didn’t really satisfy. Then again, I think I might be super picky with my Romantic Suspense, so YMMV.

Grade: C-

Easy by Tammara Webber

July 8, 2012 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: This was another “new adult” book recommended by Jane at Dear Author. I actually bought 2 by this author but I haven’t read the other one yet. I’m saving it.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) When Jacqueline follows her longtime boyfriend to the college of his choice, the last thing she expects is a breakup. After two weeks in shock, she wakes up to her new reality: she’s single, attending a state university instead of a music conservatory, ignored by her former circle of friends, stalked by her ex’s frat brother, and failing a class for the first time in her life.

Her econ professor gives her an email address for Landon, the class tutor, who shows her that she’s still the same intelligent girl she’s always been. As Jacqueline becomes interested in more from her tutor than a better grade, his teasing responses make the feeling seem mutual. There’s just one problem—their only interactions are through email.
Meanwhile, a guy in her econ class proves his worth the first night she meets him. Nothing like her popular ex or her brainy tutor, Lucas sits on the back row, sketching in a notebook and staring at her. At a downtown club, he disappears after several dances that leave her on fire. When he asks if he can sketch her, alone in her room, she agrees—hoping for more.

Then Jacqueline discovers a withheld connection between her supportive tutor and her seductive classmate, her ex comes back into the picture, and her stalker escalates his attention by spreading rumors that they’ve hooked up. Suddenly appearances are everything, and knowing who to trust is anything but easy.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I loved this book. The main characters are 18/19 and 21/22 I guess and it is set at a college so it qualifies as “new adult”/YA. But in all other respects it is a contemporary adult romance. Eminently satisfying, with beautiful writing and a hot sexy hero – what more could you want?

The book starts when Jacqueline is attacked outside a frat party and Lucas intervenes to stop her from being raped. It’s the first time she’s aware of him but afterwards, she sees him everywhere. In the meantime, having been absent from her economics class for 2 weeks following the breakup with her douche-y ex-boyfriend, she’s terribly behind and after a groveling session with the professor, is assigned an extra project and help from the class tutor. So, there’s Lucas the hottie rescuer in the back of the class and Landon, the smart tutor who flirts with her on line. Lucas rescues her physically and Landon rescues her educationally. Both seem so different but both have significant attraction. What to do?

I won’t spoil the story with too much more description but be assured that the romance is very satisfying and the story has a HEA. There is more to this book than meets the eye; with depth and emotion, close friendships, steamy love scenes and wonderful main characters. And don’t worry, there’s no major love triangle going on – things become clear fairly early in the story.

What else? Here’s a taste of the great writing and sexy hero number 1….

Eyes blazing, he looked down at me. “Jacqueline?”

I blinked. “Yes?”

“The night we met—I’m not like that guy.” His jaw was rigid.

“I know tha—” He placed a finger over my lips, his expression softening.

“So I don’t want you to feel pressured. Or overpowered. But I do, absolutely, want to kiss you right now. Badly.”

He trailed his finger over my jaw and down my throat, and then into his lap. I stared at him. Finally comprehending that he was waiting for a response, I said, “Okay.”

He dropped the pad onto the floor and the pencil followed, his stare never unlocking from mine. As he leaned over me, I felt a heightened awareness of every part of my body that touched a part of his—the edge of his hip pressed to mine, his chest sliding against mine, his fingers tracing from wrists to forearms and then framing my face. He held me in place, lips near my ear. When he kissed the sensitive spot, my breath shuddered. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, moving his mouth to mine.

My favourite kind of story is one where the hero rescues the heroine and, just like in Pretty Woman, she rescues him right back. This book is my favourite kind of romance.

I just loved it. I will definitely re-read this one.

Grade: A

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

July 5, 2012 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: Jane from Dear Author has been tweeting about how good this book is and she talked about it on the latest DBSA podcast. I’m not usually a YA reader, but I was intrigued enough about the story to request this from NetGalley.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) “I won’t tell anyone, Echo. I promise.” Noah tucked a curl behind my ear. It had been so long since someone touched me like he did. Why did it have to be Noah Hutchins? His dark brown eyes shifted to my covered arms. “You didn’t do that-did you? It was done to you?” No one ever asked that question. They stared. They whispered. They laughed. But they never asked.

So wrong for each other…and yet so right.

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with “freaky” scars on her arms. Even Echo can’t remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal. But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo’s world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible. Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she’ll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): This story sucked me right in from the beginning and even a Thailand holiday couldn’t tempt me away. I read it almost non stop on the plane and then stayed up late that first night to finish it. Yes, it is set in a high school, with characters who are just about to turn 18, but it felt very adult to me. Both Echo and Noah were dealing with grown up problems and, for the most part, in a grown up manner (yet it still felt authentic to their actual ages). Told in the alternating first person POV from both Echo and Noah, the story starts when Noah and Echo are both assigned to have mandatory counselling with Mrs. Collins, a new school counsellor who is part of a special funding programme. Mrs. Collins is a little too good to be true but she does have some fun quirks which make her very likeable and not just a prop.

Noah’s parents were killed in a house fire and he and his young brothers were placed in foster care. When Noah punches the biological father (his first foster father) who was beating his own son, he is labeled a risk and separated from his brothers. By the time the book starts, he has managed to regain supervised visits of them at a visitation centre for 2 hours per month. He is not allowed to know where they live or what the last name of their foster parents are, and his own experience in foster care is such that he is very mistrustful that they are being treated well. His driving ambition is to graduate high school, get a job and gain custody of his brothers so they can be a family again.

Echo is a little harder to understand at first – she has repressed memories of the events which led to her scars. Because she doesn’t know what happened, we don’t either, and the reader takes the journey with her to find out. Echo’s previous efforts to remember have led to severe mental consequences and so, while being desperate to know, she is also terrified of what it may do to her. She is also somewhat of an unreliable narrator and as the book progresses, the reader sees how her views of the people around her change as she gains insight. I actually like this quite a bit. It made sense and felt true to the journey I was taking with Echo.

For me (and no-one who reads my reviews regularly will be all that surprised by this), Noah was the highlight of the story. (There is a reason all of my highlights were from Noah’s POV.) I loved his sense of humour, like here

“You know a lot about math,” I said. You know a lot about math? What type of statement was that? Right along of the lines of “Hey, you have hair and it’s red and curly.” Real smooth.

and here

Because of the warm April night, she’d pulled her shirt up a few inches to expose her skin. At least that was the reason she gave when her fingers inched the material of her blue tank away from the small of her back. Personally, I think she did it to drive me insane

I love how he thinks.

It had been so long since I’d let myself fall for anybody. I gazed into her beautiful green eyes and her fear melted. A shy smile tugged at her lips and at my heart. Fuck me and the rest of the world, I was in love.

Noah made me smile. And Noah made me cry. His love for his brothers, his feelings for Echo and how he tried to reconcile the two, how he grew and sacrificed and forgave and accepted was just wonderful. I was glad Echo had such a wonderful hero because after all she’d been through, she certainly deserved a champion. And, that’s what Noah is for her.

I completely believed in the HEA. I’m hoping to see glimpses of them in the next book which features Beth, Noah’s foster sister, but this is one romance where even though the main characters are only both 18, I believed they could be together for the long haul.

I liked how they didn’t rush into any long term commitment or even into an intimate physical relationship until they were ready (Noah is a real gentleman). That said, the scenes where they were making out were very sensual. For a book which pretty much keeps it clean, it was very sexy and, much to my surprise, it was very satisfying for me.

Noah (and the author) understand grief. And I liked this description – which I think is 100% accurate.

“It doesn’t get better,” I said. “The pain. The wounds scab over and you don’t always feel like a knife is slashing through you. But when you least expect it, the pain flashes to remind you you’ll never be the same.”

One of the reasons I don’t read a lot of YA is that I prefer adult themes but this book, even though it features young adults, is very much about adult themes and the heat level is both appropriate and steamy at the same time.

I did think the end resolution for Noah was neat, but I was just so pleased that I didn’t care. Noah and Echo had been through so much that I wanted them to have their chance.

What else? I am finding that I’m far more interested in reading “new adult” stories than I was before this book. If there are more books out there like this one, I’d had to miss out. If you don’t usually read YA, I’d urge you to give this one a go anyway – it’s just that good. You might find, like I did, that the chance is totally worth your while. Thanks to Jane for the recommendation.

Grade: B+/A-

June Reads

July 3, 2012 / Kaetrin

on Paper/eBook

NB This review first appeared in the ARRA June newsletter which is distributed to ARRA members.

Gateway to Heaven by Beth Kery – B- First published in 2008, I picked this up as a Kindle freebie recently. Christian Lasher is a rock star who’s looking to take his career in a different direction. He meets art teacher and sculptor, Megan Shreve and is instantly captivated by her. She’s different to anyone he’s ever met before and she doesn’t know who he is. Because he doesn’t think she’d go for the “rock god” thing, he keeps it from her so she can get to know him without the hype. Megan is over protected by her sister Hilary, who gives her all the dirty gossip about Christian PDQ. When Megan was 3 years old, she was abused by the husband of her daycare provider and even though she can’t remember those events, they have affected her ever since. Hence her sister’s over protectiveness. But Megan isn’t as fragile as Hilary believes and Christian wants her to chart her own course and not be held in kid gloves. There is a bit of the on again/off again between Christian and Megan – a few times there I was kind of surprised that she was apologising – especially when it was Christian being the ass. There is kind of early shades of Bared To You and similar books in the dynamic between them – although, not quite as obsessive. I enjoyed the chemistry between Megan and Christian and found this one an easy, fast read. At the end, even though I believed in their HEA, I would have liked to have more about what their lives would be like – what did she end up doing with her career etc. I do like Beth Kery’s writing and I think this is one of her earlier works. It does kind of show – I think her writing has become more polished since then. But, I did like this one.

Beginnings and Ends by Suzanne Brockmann – see my full review here. The short version? Very disappointing.

A Different Kind of Forever by Dee Ernst – B I picked this one up after seeing a positive review of it at Dear Author . This is an older woman/younger man story – Diane is 45, divorced and a mother of 3 teenage girls. Michael “Mickey Flynn” Carlucci is 26 and a rock star – singer/songwriter, keyboard and guitar player in the band NinetySeven. Michael was all but raised by his older sisters and in Diane he has found someone who finally compares favourably with them – his womanly ideal.

I could certainly understand their attraction to each other, even if I did wonder occasionally how long it would last. But, as Michael himself says:

“Forever, Diane. I will love you forever.”

She looked at him. “Michael, think about what you’re saying. You and I will never grow old together. You know that. There is no forever with us.”

“Of course there is,” he said softly. “We aren’t like everybody else, you and I. You know that. We’ll have a different kind of forever.”

Michael and Diane have the sweetest meet cute that I have read in a long time – involving a big dog who loves pastrami. He falls for her pretyt much instantly even though she doesn’t believe him really. Early in their relationship, she asks him how many times he’s been in love. This is his response:

He thought. “Three times. My first great love was Theresa Milano. She moved next door to us when I was in the third grade. She was in public school, and I was in Catholic school, but I was determined to make it work. I proposed to her half-way through the fourth grade, but she had become infatuated with a shortstop. She broke my heart. But we stayed friends. She’s an intern now, at Columbia Medical School. I still see her.”

“How sweet.”

“There was an actress. We dated for about a year. Then I stopped touring and we lived together for six months. All that togetherness was a big mistake.” He sipped more wine. “And then there was a week ago Tuesday.”

*sigh* I did like Michael. A lot.

In the end, Dabney and I give this the same grade, although I think we had different things we liked/disliked about it. I did notice some typos and grammatical errors and there were a couple of references which dated the book to an earlier work (as it says in the front). But, there was something so compelling about the passion and connection between Michael and Diane. I grade with my emotions, so it gets a B. I did wonder how they would be in 20 years, but Michael was quite right in point out that life is precarious and either of them could get sick, get hit by a bus etc, way before age became an issue – I could get with the idea of living for now and worrying about tomorrow when/if it comes but still – 19 years is a big gap. I was seriously worried toward the end (even though I knew there was a HEA) which says much about the writer’s ability to suck me in. There is much unresolved at the end of the book and it has a very abrupt ending – like Dabney, I could have used an epilogue checking in in a year or so to round of my experience.

The Cool Part of His Pillow by Rodney Ross – C When I browse NetGalley, I search by genre – specifically, romance. So I thought this book was a romance about a guy whose husband has died. But it wasn’t a romance. The book tracks a year in the life of Barry Grooms, from the day before his 45th birthday, to his 45th birthday (the day on which his husband Andy dies) to his 46th birthday. This book is a book about Barry’s journey in grief and him getting to a place where he feels he can move on, at least, when the book ended, I thought that’s where he was supposed to be. I wasn’t 100% sure he was quite there yet. He has other difficulties and tragedies in the year of the book and it brought me to tears a couple of times. But, I’m a romance reader and the reason I persisted with the book was that I thought there would be a romance. Then, after 300 pages of the 330 odd page book, I thought maybe he’d just meet someone at the end and it could be a vaguely hopeful happy ending. But alas. So, I’ve graded it as a romance reader. I would not have chosen to read the book had I known it wasn’t a romance. That’s my reading preference talking and not really a reflection of the book. There are many great non-romance books out there I choose not to read every day, for the same reason. In terms of this book, there were parts of it that were very moving and well written and parts of it that I found confusing, with references I didn’t understand and which were inadequately explained – like I was not in on the joke. The first part of the book, where Barry is snippily describing all his friends and his horrible nicknames for them predisposed me to think he was a bit of a dick actually. I did believe that he and Andy had a strong connection, but truthfully, in the book itself there weren’t many flashbacks which showed me this – mostly the kind of things Barry shares are neutral or negative. But, the real and pervasive grief that Barry suffers shows me that there was more to that relationship and I would have liked to have seen a couple of scenes of very happy times to balance out the other. I’m not sure what I would have graded this had I gone in with only a “gay fiction” tag. Possibly around the same. But, be warned, this is not a romance. There is no HEA, there is no relationship – this is a stroy about Barry getting over the death of his spouse and moving on. But, it did make me cry, so there is that.

Party of Three by Daire St. Denis – see my full review here. This is the one with the TATTOOED PEEN.

One Small Thing by Piper Vaughn and M.J. O’Shea – see my full review here.

Brook Street: Thief by Ava March – C+ The first in Ms. March’s Brook Street Trilogy, Thief follows the story of Lord Benjamin Parker and Cavin Fox. Ben is fairly sure he’s gay but he’s never had sex with a man and wants to give it a go to make sure once and for all. He heads to Clements, a gaming hell, where he’s heard that men of a certain persuasion gather. There, he meets Cavin Fox and is instantly smitten. Cavin is the thief of the title. He lives in the rookeries and has an Oliver Twist/Fagin like relationship with Hale – if he doesn’t bring back sufficient funds, he’s punished. Cavin is also very close to 13 year old Sam, also a protege of Hale’s and has virtually raised him for the past few years. The story is sweet and sexy and enjoyable but I found myself questioning how ‘easy’ it all seemed to be. Cavin is the first man Ben has ever been with. They don’t spend much time together at all before Ben is opening his home, his wallet and anything else he has, to Cavin. Even after Cavin confesses his nefarious past, this doesn’t faze Ben at all. The solution was one I wondered about too – it seemed very unequal to me and I wondered how long it would be satisfactory – or, would Cavin eventually feel like a whore, bound by obligation and the need for a roof over his head rather than true feeling? Perhaps I’m reading too much into this short story. It’s certainly enjoyable but I found it to have a certain fairytale quality to it.

Sharing Hailey by Samantha Anne King – see my full review here.

The Girl with the Cat Tattoo by Theresa Weir – C+ This cute novella is mostly from the perspective of the cat (Max). Sick of seeing his owner Melody with losers, Max decides to find her a mate himself. After venturing outside his backyard, he follows a homeless man to a shelter where he meets Joe. He likes Joe and thinks he will be suitable for Melody. It’s cute and sweet and written in a simple style entirely appropriate to a cat’s perspective. There are some portions from Joe and Melody’s perspective as well to round things off. Enjoyable but I didn’t love it as much as Sunita and Jayne did at Dear Author.

Bound to You by Bethany Kane (aka Beth Kery) – B Sexy short story about a blind man who knows what to do with his hands (and his mouth). Rowr. John Corcoran is holidaying in his cabin in the woods. Out for a walk, he hears Hollywood actress/singer Jennifer Turner singing as she hikes. Knowing there are sinkholes off the trail, he follows. Both of them fall into a sinkhole and are stuck there overnight until rescue can arrive. Jennifer (for reasons which are explained later in the story) has a pathological fear of the dark and John helps keep her, ahem, occupied. Mandi from Smexybooks recommended and I picked it up after hearing from her that this was a dirty story about filling dirty holes 😀

Hell on Wheels by Julie Ann Walker – see my full review here.

Convenient Strangers by Cara McKenna – C Sexy short about 2 guys both down after recent break ups. They hook up for the night and the story ends with the hopeful prospect that they’ll see each other again. These guys also talk a lot about their exes and that wasn’t particularly sexy to me, particularly for an erotic short which focuses only on one night. I know from listening to the Savage Lovecast that gay men have an advantage sexually over straight people – they’re used to asking “what are you into?” – Stephen and Adam do that here and I appreciated their negotiation and openness. However, there was so much of it, that I found the sex strangely transactional – which is odd when I compare that to Curio (which I loved), where the sex was transactional (bought and paid for) but didn’t seem that way on the page.

Slow Summer Kisses by Shannon Stacey – see my full review here.

The Last Boyfriend by Nora Roberts – C+ I reviewed this on for the ARRA blog. I’ll provide a link when it’s up

Restraint by Charlotte Stein – B Mandi from Smexy Books recommended this one in a recent post and as it was only 99c from Amazon I immediately went and bought it. As it is a fairly short story and I was between books at the time, I immediately went and read it. It’s a sexy short about dirty talking Mallory who goes on holiday with her two best friends. Another friend is invited but unfortunately, Artie and Mallory dont’ get along. She thinks he hates her because of her potty mouth. After a revealing conversating in the hot tub, Mallory realises that it’s not dislike at all that Artie is feeling. Very sexy short read and well worth my 99c. Thx Mandi!

A Novel Seduction by Gwyn Cready – See my full review here.

The Virgin’s Revenge by Dee Tenorio – See my review here.

Still Into You by Roni Loren – B This is a sexy short which is described as book 1.5 of the Loving on the Edge series but it reads easily as a standalone. Seth and Leila have been married for 8 years but have fallen into routine and rut and are not feeling connected anymore. Seth overhears Leila on talkback radio asking for help after she’d been tempted to cheat and realises that desperate times call for desperate measures. He takes her away for a long weekend to “The Ranch” a sex fantasy resort where anything goes to try and revitalise their connection and save their marriage. The sex scenes were certainly very hot and enjoyable (*fans self*) but I particularly liked that issues about jealousy and communication were covered and that the story was about rebooting their relationship and not just an excuse for a lot of sex scenes. Seth’s job is one of the barriers in their relationship – he works very long hours chasing after a promotion which will mean he can finally afford the house Leila wants and he believes she should have (she comes from money, he does not). However, this aspect of the story was left unfinished – while I thought Seth was going to make a change, the reader wasn’t told what that would be and that loose end was left dangling in the wind. I did believe that Seth and Leila were well on the path to saving their marriage and I appreciated that the the book didn’t pretend that one weekend would fix everything. And, did I say the sex scenes were hot? This is my first Roni Loren book but I think I will be checking out more from this author.

Overseas by Beatriz Williams – B I reviewed this book for ARRA and will post a link to the blog post when it goes live. This was a book I really wanted to read and Heather at ARRA was kind enough to approach the publisher to get a review copy for ARRA (and thus, me!) and I very much appreciated her efforts. Thank you Heather! 🙂 When I finished, I didn’t quite know what to make of it. I was kind of “I liked it, but…” Now, I’m finding that the more I think about this book, the more I like it. Weird.

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry – B+/A- Full review to come. ETA: here it is.

Fallen from Grace by Laura Leone – B- This is my second male prostitute book. I liked Curio better but this one explores different aspects so they can’t really be directly compared I don’t think apart from the obvious. Sara’s attitudes bothered me from time to time – she was pretty uptight and uncompromising. On the other hand, Ryan wanted to stop being a prostitute so maybe her ultimatum is what he needed. There were things I wish were further explored in the book and I did wonder why Ryan couldn’t just save his money and then leave town and set up somewhere else – surely Catherine doesn’t have an unlimited reach? Those aspects lessened my enjoyment of the story somewhat but I did otherwise like it.

Easy by Tammara Webber – A Excellent book. Full review to come. If you’re not usually a YA reader, don’t let that tag put you off. The main characters are 18/19 and 21/22 and the romance is fully satisfying. I’m not a big YA reader but I’m so glad I went outside what I thought my comfort zone was because it is a great book. And really, apart from the YA tag, not outside my comfort zone at all as it turns out.
ETA: Review is up – here it is.

Holiday Secrets by Jill Sorenson (from Risky Christmas anthology) – C+ Good story but it felt a little rushed, like too much was being fit into the short word count. It had the effect of making it seem a little staccato. I liked the characters though. I think a longer length suits this author better.

Surrender by Pamela Clare – B- The author has recently put out an extended mix of this book but I read the original. It’s one of her earlier books and I think it shows a bit, as her later books are more polished and I think, more tightly plotted. I did like this book and plan on reading the others in the series – the historical setting of the war between the British and the French in America is a fascination for me. Even though Jamie and Clare were at Fort Ticonderoga much later, when I read this book I did think it did put me in mind of the Outlander series. I’m afraid Jamie is the winner in that hero battle for my money. Hands down.

on Audio

If You Hear Her, If You See Her and If You Know Her (Ash Trilogy) by Shiloh Walker, narrated by Cris Dukeheart – C I reviewed the trilogy for AAR and my full review is in this Speaking of Audiobooks column.

The Convenient Marriage (abridged) by Georgette Heyer, narrated by Richard Armitage – A- A delightful farce about a young woman who persuades the Earl of Rule to take her to wife instead of her older sister (who is in love with another man). There is a wonderful subtext especially from the Earl and Richard Armitage brings it to life. The story dragged a little toward the end when I just wanted Horatia and Marcus to have a conversation and sort it all out but otherwise, I was charmed. In hindsight, I suppose I didn’t really know why the Earl fell in love with Horatia and why (apart from the general – he’s rich, handsome and charming) she fell for him. Perhaps that’s in the unabridged version? In any event: Richard Armitage. Say no more.

Mariana by Susanna Kearsley, narrated by Carolyn Bonnyman – See my full review here.

The Bride by Julie Garwood, narrated by Roslyn Landor – C+ I have a confession to make. This is my first Julie Garwood. I’m actually reading her latest romantic suspense right now and I have a few of her other historicals on my TBR but this is my very first. I have to say that it was enjoyable enough but was a fairly standard “Highlander romance” – it was not enhanced by the narration I’m afraid. Landor is not my favourite narrator. Her heroes all sound really old, stuffy and blustery – she deepens her voice and out comes an old windbag. Adding a Scottish accent actually helped in this case because it muted the old and stuffy and as Alec is full of bluster, it worked better for me. I’ve tried Landor 3 times now. She won an Audie this year for her narration of Susanna Kearsley’s The Winter Sea so she has plenty of fans. I wouldn’t not listen to a book because she was the narrator – probably. But there’d be a definite hesitation.