06 December 2011

TUESDAY TREATS

Posted by Lynette
Take a look at his eyes and lips. Two of my most favorite features on a man's face.



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02 December 2011

Review: How to Worship A Goddess by Stephanie Julian

Posted by Lynette

HOW TO WORSHIP A GODDESS
Stephanie Julian
ISBN #: 978-1402251504
Sourcebooks, Inc.
December 2011   
Paranormal Romance













BACK COVER BLURB:

HE'S EXACTLY WHAT SHE'S ALWAYS WANTED...

Lucy was once the beloved Goddess of the Moon. These days the goddesses of the Etruscan pantheon are all but forgotten. The only rituals she enjoys now are the local hockey games, where one ferociously handsome player inflames her divine blood...

AND SHE UNLEASHES HIM LIKE A FORCE OF NATURE...

Brandon Stevenson is one hundred percent focused on the game, until he looks up and sees a celestial beauty sitting in the third row. A man could fall hard for a distraction like that...

COVER SNARK:
She doesn't look anything like I pictured Lucy.


FIRST LINES:
Some days, it didn't pay to get out of bed.

LYNETTE'S TWO CENTS:
HOW TO WORSHIP A GODDESS is a great read that I enjoyed very much. I love the premise of this series; Goddesses from an old Parthenon who have lost most of their powers, how they're able to adapt without the majority of their powers in this modern world and how they're able to find love. The characters are interesting and the plot, just when I think it's going to be predictable it always takes a slight turn that I didn't expect. If I have one complaint about this series and HOW TO WORSHIP A GODDESS specifically (though I had the same problem with the first book in the series as well) is that there is too much sex in it. That sounds like I'm such a hypocrite doesn't it? Especially given that I love steamy romance and erotica is one of my favorite genres. However, it didn't always fit in for me here. It was sort of like reading an inspirational and all of a sudden the heroine stands up and says F You. LOL. The majority of the sex scenes didn't flow right and slowed down the pacing of HOW TO WORSHIP A GODDESS. I’m not saying that it was with every encounter but a good deal of them. And yes the encounters were hot. I don't often say this, but the sex actually pulled me out of the story several times. It felt as if it were tacked on as if they author felt she HAD to amp up the sexual chemistry.

It seems silly to say that the only thing that didn't work for me in the book was the that the sex seemed out of place, but that's how I felt when I read HOW TO WORSHIP A GODDESS, but other than that it was a stellar read.



WHERE PURCHASED:
Received copy from publisher for review.


RATING:
















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01 December 2011

REVIEW: Hot Zone by Catherine Mann

Posted by Lynette

HOT ZONE
Catherine Mann
ISBN #: 9781402244988
Sourcebooks, Inc.
December 2011       
Romantic Suspense


BACK COVER BLURB:

DAYS FULL OF DANGER

For Pararescueman Master Sergeant Hugh Franco, it's all about saving other people's lives. Then he moves on. But when he pulls beautiful Amelia Bailey and her adopted nephew from the rubble of a catastrophic earthquake, he finds himself entangled in their lives in ways he could never have imagined . . .

AND DESIRE FILLED NIGHTS

Amelia's trip to the Bahamas to help with an international adoption has been no vacation, but the hardest part is yet to come. As Amelia and Hugh are pulled unawares into a deadly smuggling scheme, simmering beneath their growing need to protect each other in a compelling attraction they're both determined to deny.


COVER SNARK:
Generic man titty. And why is the author's name covering his face? SIGH.

FIRST LINES:
The world had caved in on Amelia Bailey. Literally. Aftershocks from the earthquake still rumbled the gritty earth under her cheek, jarring her out of her hazy micro nap.

LYNETTE'S TWO CENTS:

I wanted to read HOT ZONE because I was intrigued by the book's description. It had everything going for it and as a former Army vet, I'm a sucker for military set romantic suspense stories. Amelia and Hugh were intriguing with an unique and interesting layered background. Amelia's father had been a pedophile who prayed on her brother's girlfriend, which led Amelia to become a lawyer; Hugh's wife and child died in a plane crash, which pushed him into a career where he rescues people giving little regard for his life or his safety. This is not a spoiler as these facts are mentioned in the first or second chapter, by the way. Anyhoo, despite these interesting back-stories I had a hard time buying into their instant romance given the situation they were in.

Amelia has travelled to the Bahama's to assist her brother and his wife with the adoption of their new son. While there a major earthquake strikes and Amelia is trapped inside the debris with her nephew. Hugh comes in to save her and gets trapped as well. While they are trapped they talk to each other and a bond is formed between them. I didn't understand the sexual attraction/awareness that flared up between them. I mean, her nephew is trapped with them, his condition unknown, Amelia is hurt as well, yet they are thinking about sex and how they are attracted to the other person. The way it was written didn't ring true for me. I would've bought the attraction more if the author would've held back until they were rescued and they saw each other again. As it was written pulled me out of the story.

I loved the idea of Hugh's job and the men on his team. I felt their sense of camaraderie; however, I wish their stories were integrated more into the main plot. There was a significant side plot with Hugh's boss that in my honest opinion did not add to what should have been the focus on Hugh and Amelia. Of course, I am well known for my annoyance for major side plots that don't add to the hero and heroine's story (cough cough, J.R. Ward). I wish more of HOT ZONE focused on Hugh and Amelia fighting through their situations instead of the other characters (Hugh's boss who's name I can't remember at the moment and Amelia's brother and his wife). While cute, didn't add to the main story, IMHO.

I'm debating if I'm going to read this author again. I loved the military aspect and the unique roll the unit plays in the story. However, I was underwhelmed by romance. The hero and heroine's instant attraction and the completely predictable suspense plot. Though my love for the military plot will probably make me pick up this author again, it will because of how well she writes that world and the disaster situations and not for how she writes romance or suspense.


WHERE PURCHASED:
Received copy from publisher for review.


RATING:




















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29 November 2011

TUESDAY TREATS

Posted by Lynette
You're all sweaty and dirty. Let me turn on the shower, what, I need to be inside it to wash you up!





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Labels: | 1 people posted their 2 cents
28 November 2011

WINNER: Crista McHugh Tears of Elois

Posted by Lynette


Happy Monday. The winner of The Tears of Elois by Crista McHugh is . . . 

MochaGirlsRead

You have 48 hours to contact me with your contact information.




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Labels: | 3 people posted their 2 cents
24 November 2011

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Posted by Lynette

I hope that you are having a great Thanksgiving. What's the best dish you made or ate today?


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Labels: | 3 people posted their 2 cents
23 November 2011

REVIEW: Always A Temptress by Eileen Dreyer

Posted by Lynette

ALWAYS A TEMPTRESS
Eileen Dreyer
ISBN #:  978-0446542050
Hachette Book Group/Warner Forever
October 2011
Historical Romance

BACK COVER BLURB:

His greatest battle is just beginning . . .

Captain Harry Lidge has done his duty. After losing too many good men on the battlefield, he's ready to put his responsibilities behind him and live a life free of care. But first he has one last mission: find out what the most outrageous woman in London, the same woman who betrayed him nearly a decade earlier, is concealing, before her secrets take down the crown.

Her heart is the only thing she won't risk . . .

Surrounded by ardent admirers and a few loyal friends, Lady Kate Seaton glides through the ton on a confection of couture gowns and bon mots. No one suspects that beneath her lighthearted façade Kate hides a sorrow so scandalous she'll do anything to keep it hidden. But only when she trusts Harry with the truth and only when he trusts her with his heart can they stop the villains all too willing to kill Kate to attain their ultimate goal: destroy England.

COVER SNARK:
Kate he's a douche. Save all that lust and heaving bosoms for another man. Seriously, that is all I can see when I look at this cover.

FIRST LINES:
Whoever said that no good deed goes unpunished must have been well acquainted with Katie Hilliard. No, Major Sir Harry Lidge corrected himself as he trudged into Oak Grove Manor's Grand Salon to see her holding court by the front window. Not Hilliard. It was Seaton now.

LYNETTE'S TWO CENTS
I debated about posting this review, but in the end I did even though I did not finish this book. And I'm not sure if I can explain why in a coherent and reasonable manner. I'm sorry. I think that people are going to stop giving me books for review because I so rarely gush about books and frankly I just don't have the patience to keep reading a book that doesn't capture me even if I feel obligated to do so. I am such a crappy reviewer/blogger. I really want to gush about books, really I do, but a book has to keep me interested, it has to make me forget that I have two children running around like crazy in my house. ALWAYS A TEMPTRESS just didn't do that to me, I was too caught up in the Are You Kidding Me moments.

I think since I've become a Stay-At-Home Mom my tolerance level for any melodramatic drama that doesn't revolve around my children has gone in the toilet. That's because I just don't have a lot of leisure time to read. Ironic really when you think that I've had less time to read now that I'm at home than I did when I was working. Anyhoo, ALWAYS A TEMPTRESS had too much drama that could have been averted. I could tell from the first couple pages that all was not what it seemed. I also had issues with the hero from the moment he appeared on the page. He spent so much time assuming what the heroine was about that he never TALKED to her. Maybe my feelings would've been different if I read the other books in the series first (this is the 3rd, I think). Maybe if I'd seen the hero in another environment first I would have understood more of where he was coming from. However, since I didn't I hated, hated, hated the hero. All I could think of while reading ALWAYS A TEMPTRESS was I was just not in the mood for another story where the hero is treating the heroine for crap that wasn't her fault, things that he would have known wasn't her fault if he would've just shut the f up and spend two minutes talking to her to hash out their past.


******MINI RANT*********

*AUTHORS, please don't assume that all your readers are reading order nazi's who read books in order. I don't always and I know that others don't as well. So, if you're making your hero a jerk in the first couple pages, please please please make the reason a justifiable and a compelling one.

*********RANT OVER********

The writing inside of ALWAYS A TEMPTRESS was very well done, and the heroine actually appeared interesting, I would have liked to have known more about her background, it was obvious she had been abused and I wanted to know her history. However, I just couldn't get over the thin premise for the plot and the hero's actions. Basically a villain dies in the beginning and he says that the heroine has what he's looking for. So everyone believes a known villain who it appears did some awful crap in the previous books. So now that gives the hero who now believes the heroine is a spy justification to be a prick to her and get payback for doing him wrong when they were kids. Of course she didn't do him wrong, it's painfully obvious and I would have bought his I HATE HER, I HATE HER moments more if they weren't he said/she said type stuff and he actually tried to talk to her to resolve their past, but he didn't. It also didn't help that I so figured out what the heroine supposedly has because it was very obvious where their 'secrets' where hiding from a scene in a prologue. I could be wrong and I often am, but with me figuring this out, not connecting with the hero and the weak conflict that could've been resolved with a conversation caused me to lose interest.

ALWAYS A TEMPTRESS has gotten some great reviews so it could just be me, you know how ornery I am.



RATING:













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