Guest Reviews Posted

I'm behind again on my Guest Reviews - will I ever be back on schedule? *sigh* Maybe some day.

Anyway - here are the latest guest reviews from The Book Binge (click on the titles to go to the review):

Atlantis Unleased by Alyssa Day

Poseidon’s warriors swore an oath eleven thousand years ago to protect humanity from those who stalked the night. Now those powerful forces are uniting. So are two souls who are all that stand between justice and the eternal darkness…

A warrior prince…Lord Justice made the ultimate sacrifice for his brother and paid for it with an unimaginable torture. Now he’s back, rescued from death, his sanity shaken, and his mission inescapable—the search for the lost Star of Artemis. But the beautiful human female whom he has sworn to protect is shadowed by an evil that could destroy them both…

A woman of science…The archaeological artifacts of Atlantis speak to Dr. Keely McDermott, sharing visions of life long ago. The ancient revelations have cast her into a world between past and present, between reality and illusion—and, when she meets the fierce Atlantean warrior assigned to guard her, between terror and temptation. Now as their two worlds collide, so too will danger and desire…


Atlantis Unmasked by Alyssa Day

A warrior scarred…Alexios survived two years of unspeakable torture at the hands of a vampire goddess. Now he’s been ordered to team up with a beautiful warrior and take on the most dangerous mission of his life: to retrieve the Vampire’s Bane. Without it, Atlantis can’t ascend to the surface and take its rightful place in the world. But when evil threatens, will Alexios be led by duty—or his heart?

A descendant of Diana…Grace is part of the rebellion against the vampires and shape-shifters trying to take over her world. She is deadly with her bow, because when she takes aim, she never misses her target. But suddenly she’s focused on a damaged Atlantean warrior who sees her as a weapon, not as a woman. When thousands of lives are on the line, will passion overrule, or will her aim still be true?

The Lone Texan by Jodi Thomas

Three days after arriving in Galveston, newly widowed Sage McMurray finds herself taken hostage in a robbery. She fears she may never see Whispering Mountain again when the outlaws decide to auction their pretty captive off to the highest bidder, until a tall stranger offers twice the highest bid.







Enjoy!

Review: Hot Pursuit by Suzanne Brockmann

I just finished reading Hot Pursuit and I thought it was pretty good. I didn’t love it but I think a lot of that had to do with the romance that was going on in the book – which is just freaky for me because I need my romance in my stories.

The story centers around Maria Bonavita, among others, who is running for Assemblywoman in NY. Her campaign manager is none other that Savannah Hopf who is the wife of SEAL Ken “Wilcard” Carmody. When Maria doesn’t seem to be taking her personal safety seriously Savannah asks Alyssa to go to NY and advise her on the importance of safety. Alyssa, her hubby Sam and several volunteer Team 16 SEAL’s head for NY to have a chat with Maria.

When they get to NY they meet up with Maria and her Chief of Staff, Jenn. They discover something gruesome in the office which begins a series of events that are completely unexpected. In the meantime Sam is dealing with Alyssa possibly being in trouble, the Team 16 guys fawning over beautiful Maria, and Dan Gillman trying to get it on with Jenn.

I very much enjoyed the suspense portion of the book (although I did guess whodunit almost immediately it was still nice to see how it unfolded). With Alyssa and Jules working together once again it was nice to see them working off of each other as they did before Sam came into the picture. For Sam’s part I enjoyed seeing him in the role of dad as well as being an underling to Alyssa – which he did very well and with much respect. I really saw a great part of their relationship in this story and I liked it. Then of course there was a small part of Jules and Robin in the book as well as some information about Izzy’s relationship with Eden (Gillman’s sister) from the previous book.

But the part of the book I didn’t care for was Gillman and Jenn. I really liked Jenn a lot. She was one smart cookie and truly too smart to fall for Gillman’s lines. I understand that she was portrayed as not beautiful and one who faded into the shadows when around her friends Savannah and Maria, but I still thought she was too smart for that. Jenn was also portrayed as being a big girl and because of this was not all that confident in herself and her ability to meet men. Gillman had all the right lines and when he was found out I was friggin cheering! Even when he supposedly was coming around, I just couldn’t believe it. Luckily Jenn did believe it either. Their relationship did not end in this book and according to an authors note at the end of the book their relationship will continue in the next book. Since this story didn’t have a HEA – except for more happiness for Jules, Robin, Alyssa and Sam – I’ll have to hold off total judgment of Gillman until the next story.

If you’ve been reading the Troubleshooters series and were unsure as to whether you should read this one or not…I say yes. If you don’t want to buy it in HC then get it from the library but I think it’s a good story and one worth reading. (Also – this is the continuation of a short story that was in the back of Flashpoint that had Alyssa and Sam investigating a double murder that went unsolved.)

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Book Sluts 'r' Us Blogger Award Winner!

The looking fabulous Tracy and Kris are pleased, proud and pretty friggin’ honored to announce that the winner of the ‘prove to us and the rest of the reading world how much of an unrepentant Book Slut you are’ award is...

CHRIS whose book tally for the month was an awe inspiring
97!!!



Kris & Tracy: We’re not worthy. We're not worthy

Kris: It’s official, hun.You are a BOOK SLUT!!!!


Tracy: *sniffles* It just gets to me every time.

Kris: *muttersapmutter*

Kris and Tracy: Congratulations Chris - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

What I've Been Reading This Week

Hi there!

Well I'm back in the saddle again! Last week was just awful. I mean, horrible-just-let-me-die awful but I survived and so did my hubby. We thought the kids were safe (I was hoping to delude myself into believing they wouldn't catch it) but last night my oldest started complaining about a severe belly ache and then the fever started up and then the vomiting started. Oy. At least she slept through the night which was good for her.

My youngest was on a roll this past week. She asked for toast the other day with "that poisonberry jam" on it. I, of course, started laughing and couldn't stop and then told her it was boysenberry jam. Too cute.
Then the other night I had an appointment and put a shirt on that has these designs all over it - one being straight across my ass. She asked what the markings meant and I told her that it was tribal for wide load. She laughed and laughed and then said, "what's tribal?" then paused, "and what's a wide load?" Omg I thought my sides would split I was laughing so hard. When I explained it to her she laughed even more - the stinker. lol

So last Sunday I was so sick I didn't read at all. I just laid on the couch and stared at whatever the kids happened to be watching. I did see the movie Lost in Austen which was kind of cute but I can't say I remember too much about it! lol The rest of the week I just read so there are quite a few books:


I started off with The Lone Texan by Jodi Thomas. This is my first Texan read by Thomas. I read this one for The Book Binge and will let you know when my review posts.








Next up was a total impulse buy/read: wtf by Peter Lerangis. I was shopping for Blaze of Memory by Nalini Singh at Barnes and Noble and even 2 days after it was released I had to go searching cuz it wasn't on the shelves. Arg! I hate that. I found it on a cart in the middle of BFE B&N which was just weird. Anyway, for some reason it was next to wtf and I just kind of flipped through wtf for a minute and decided to buy it - it was a Simon Pulse so I knew it was a YA book. It turned out to be good, but not great. It was 6 alternating pov's and corresponding timelines and how they all interact and effect each other. Basically the story of a drug deal that wasn't really a drug deal gone wrong. The details that initiated it, the characters involved, what happened before, during and after. The book definitely kept my attention and it was pretty short (well, 250 pages but a small tradepb and large font) but the ending just didn't do it for me. Everything just came out smelling too much like roses and in real life I just couldn't see it happening. Maybe if it had been set in an alternate universe but not when it's a contemporary novel. 3 out of 5

Next up was my Tracy's TBR Challenge read which was An Affair Before Christmas by Eloisa James. I could swear that I'd read a book by her before but after looking at her website I don't think I have, but I liked it. For a historical though it was set up much like I'm used to UF books being with all of the different stories going on at the same time. Because of that I thought that the main romance suffered for it. It was still good but not as great as I thought it could be. The main story is between the Duke of Fletcher and Poppy, the Duchess of Fletcher. They meet and fall immediately in love. Four years later they are completely frustrated with each other. Poppy just lays in bed and doesn't respond to Fletch no matter what he does to her and Poppy leaves because she's frustrated with him as well but for different reasons. I discovered during my perusing of James' books that this is book 2 in the Desperate Duchesses series. I haven't read book 1 but unless you all feel I need to I think I'll just move on to book 3. Anyone think I must read book 1 first? 3.75 out of 5

After that I moved on to On The Edge by Ilona Andrews. This was another new to me author. I did attempt to get into her Kate Daniels series but it just wasn't for me. But this book? This one I really liked. It's just a great mixture of fantasy, paranormal, romance and a bit of horror. It was such a mish mosh but it really worked for me. It pretty much takes place in the Edge which is a world between the world of the Broken (our world) and the Weird (a magical place). The Edge has magic too, but not like the Weird. The main characters are Rose from the Edge and Declan from the Weird. Good story. Since this is book 1 in a new series I'll be interested to see where the story goes next. 4.25 out of 5

After seeing that I was debating about reading Jet Mykles' Dark Elves series, Tam was nice enough to send me the 2 print books which included the first 4 stories. I have to say that after starting the first story in book 1, Taken, I wasn't sure if I was going to be reading further. You see these Dark Elves were created by the goddess Rhae to be her consorts (read: fuck toys) and when she left the earthly plane she discovered that she'd made an error - there were no women. How were the elves to continue procreating? So she gave the elves a spell that would help turn human women into elves. So the elves kidnap women, set the spell and then they all go about taking 9 day turns with them until they (hopefully) find their truemate - that one woman that can have their babies (which are all male, btw). If the women don't find their truemate they are then put into the brothel because the can never leave the underground city. The whole premise put me off a bit. And the heroine in book 1 was just prickly. She was a warrior so I could see that she wouldn't stand for being kidnapped but I just couldn't like her...and she fell in love in what felt like a millisecond, which I don't care for. Since I'd started book 1 I decided to finish it and go on to book 2. This is the book that made me want to read more. As usual Jet Mykles has a way of getting me into the stories and I found myself reading not just one book but both. The second story, Mastered, was better than the first, imho and I liked the characters more. Book 2 which included stories 3 - Salvation & 4 - Dissent were even better. These had more of a political intrigue to them along with the romance and sex and that held my interest. I now find myself wondering what the hell happens next. lol I guess I'll have to go find out. Taken 3 out of 5 Mastered 3.25 out of 5 Salvation 3.5 out of 5 Dissent 3.5 out of 5

Last on the list for the week was The Christmas Ball an anthology with stories by Jennifer Ashley, Emily Bryan and Alissa Johnson. All the stories are different but all end at the Hartwell's Christmas ball. It's interesting to think of everything that was going on at the ball at the same time at the end. They were all sweet little romances and I enjoyed the book overall - with Traditions by Alissa Johnson being my favorite I thinkl. I imagine it would be difficult to write a short historical like that but I really felt that they all did a great job. Overall rating 3.75 out of 5




I hope you all have a great week!
Happy reading

The M/M Meme

Kris over at Kris 'n' Good Books, in a fit of apparent boredom and procrastination, decided to produce one of those meme thingies all based around m/m books. Jenre at Well Read has tagged me so that I too can procrastinate. Thanks Jenre - every little bit helps. :)

Rules:

1. Answer all the questions below in either the comments here or post it on your own site. If you post it on your own site you have to come back and give the link here so I/Kris can mosey on over and see if you answered correctly have a sticky beak.

2. You have to tag two other people once your done and pester them relentlessly until they do the meme too.

3. Instead of a meme image thing you have to post a cookie, preferably a twofer. It is an m/m meme after all. ;)

The hardest thing of this whole thing was choosing which cookie to let you all gnaw on! Too many choices! So here's a twofer and a singlet all for you.


(Both stolen borrowed from Lisabea's blog.)

Questions:

1. How long have you been reading GLBTQ fiction?
I read my first m/m book in June 2008.

2. What was the first book you read in this genre?
Fatal Shadows by Josh Lanyon

3. Are you 'out' as a reader?
Kinda? Some of my friends know, and my boss...as well as all of my virtual friends. My hubby, after meeting Lisabea, knows that I read it but for some reason thinks I only read her books. I have no idea where he got that idea, it's not like I hide what I'm reading.

4. Ebooks, print or both?
I have a couple of print books but mostly ebooks.

5. Do you buy direct from publishers or from secondary sellers?
Both, but mostly from sellers.

6. Prove you're a Book Slut. How many books would you say you buy a week?
Books in general? I average about 25 a month. I go in spurts with the m/m and buy a bunch at a time...maybe it averages out to 2 a week? I don't have a clue.

7. Are you a cover, blurb or excerpt buyer?
Blurb mostly. If the blurb gets me then I'll read an excerpt, but not always.

8. Yeah, you read reviews, but do you actually take notice of them?
Most of the time, yes. Although if it's a book that I'm looking forward to reading I usually don't read the review because I want no spoilers.

9. Who's your fave publisher?
I don't think I have a favorite.

10. What about authors? Your top two only!!
2? Are you insane? I can't narrow it down to 2! Ok, I'll try:
Josh Lanyon & JL Langley

11. Is there a sub-genre you particularly dis/like?
I'm not a huge fan of fantasy in general so that would go for m/m as well.

12. Short or long?? *rolls eyes* And, no, I'm not talking about cocks.
I probably read more shorts or novellas than longer books but I like both. I like thick ones as well. Heh. Print books you pervs!

13. Anything turn you off about m/m or is all just glorious smut to you?
I think I'm with Jenre - not a fan of shifted sex. I can read it but it really has to be done well - and that's saying something since I love shapeshifter stories.

14. Finish this sentence. You know it's m/m twu wuv when...
the fat lady sings. No? Ok, then how about ...they admit they're gay.

15. What trope or theme are you heartily sick of in m/m romance?
Can't say I'm totally sick of it but there have been a ton of GFY stories out there lately.

16. If you could choose any 3 characters for a m/m/m who would they be?
Rhys (Langley's With or Without series)/David Cooke (LB Gregg's Happy Ending)/Ridley (KZ Snow's Seeking Something Wicked)

17. What new GLBTQ release are you most hanging out for right now?
The Dark Tide (AE book 5) by Josh Lanyon

18. What GLBTQ book has completely blown you away this year?
Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger. That is closely followed up by The White Knight by Josh Lanyon - Loved them both like chocolate.

19. What do you think we'll see more of in m/m romance in 2010?
Women? lol Just kidding. I'd have to agree with Jenre and say Steampunk

20. Don't you agree that author Josh Lanyon should kill off arsehole character Jake Riordan?
Absolutely not! You leave Jake alone!

OK, so I now have to tag two people - just don't either of you blame me. Remember this whole thing is Kris' idea.

I tag:

Sarah
&
Chris

What I read last week

Hey folks. I've got the flu. My hubby has the flu. Not sure if it's swine or not since we're too sick to go to the doctor. How sick? I didn't even feel like reading. I know, crazy. My parents have been here taking care of us and the kids which is wonderful. Sorry I'm late with this but I just now have felt well enough to get up and type for a few seconds. Good thing I did my little blurbs as I went this week. Sorry there won't be pictures or links. I'll might try to put them in later this week when I'm feeling better.

Started off with Atlantis Unmasked by Alyssa Day. This is book 6 in the Warriors of Poseidon series. I read this one for The Book Binge so will let you know when the review posts.


Next up was Wolf Flight by Vivian Arend - book 2 in the Granite Lake Wolves series. I read the first book, Wolf Signs, a while back but apparently forgot to put it on any of my lists cuz I couldn't find it anywhere. How weird is that? Anyway, book two (a novella) was just as good as book 1. This story covered Tad who is a half wolf/half human who hasn't been "triggered" yet. He basically needs to have sex with a female wolf. But there's this thing that happens that makes some of the "FirstMates" think that they're actually mates and then they're in love with their partner for the rest of their lives, possibly missing out on their true mates. Missy has volunteered to trigger Tad but he's afraid of the possible consequences. Besides that issues there are many others and it just makes for a good read. 4 out of 5


Damn Gorgeous by Jaye Valentine was my next read. This is an m/m novella that really threw me for a loop - but in a pretty good way. Journalist Spencer ends up in a small town to do a story on the Borden house - as in Lizzie Borden. He doesn't care for his lodgings so finds a bed and breakfast that suits him. Behind the counter is Virgil Slade who Spencer is immediately attrated to and is hot beyond belief. He's also interested in Spencer - bonus! But Virgil is hiding a serious secret that he's not sure Spencer can live with. This was a total surprise. One of those books that I read the blurb originally but kind of forgot what it was about by the time I read the book. The paranormal part of this story was completely unexpected but it was done in such a way that I totally dug it. 3.75 out of 5

Bound to Him by Ava March was next. This is actually a continuation of a story that was started in the book Bound by Deception. This was a historical story about 2 second sons who were in a relationship. The coming together was done in the first book and when this one opened they had been together for 6 months. But 1 man wanted more. Yes, they had to keep their relationship on the down low since sodomy was against the law but one of the men just hadn't come to terms with his desire for men. It put a wrench in the relationship and one man wanted more. It was good story but I felt that besides the "omg what am I doing?" moment that was had there wasn't a ton of character development. I would definitely recommend that BbD be read first. 3.5 out of 5


My Tracy's TBR Challenge read for the week was Heat of the Knight by Jackie Ivie. The story of a widow who is starving and trying to survive with her step daughters and husband's family after Battle of Culloden. She is approached by The Black Monteith, who is considered the biggest traitor and Sassenach lover in the highlands, and he wants to marry her. But is he really as evil as everyone thinks? This one started off with a bang for me and I gobbled up the first 1/3 of the book in no time. Then things started to slow down. I think it was a case of Langston Monteith doing a round about double talk to try and quell any questions that Lisle had about things that were not as they seemed. It was cute at first and then kind of got old. Then there was Langston talking about how he loved Lisle's light and joy in life. Ok, she was happy some of the time but mostly just kind of a brat. It definitely wasn't a bad story, just not one I loved. 3.5 out of 5

Blaze of Memory by Nalini Singh was my last read. I really liked it and will do a review sometime this week when I'm not at death's door.

Hope you're all well. Happy Reading.

Review: Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs

Mechanic Mercy Thompson has friends in low places-and in dark ones. And now she owes one of them a favor. Since she can shapeshift at will, she agrees to act as some extra muscle when her vampire friend Stefan goes to deliver a message to another of his kind.

But this new vampire is hardly ordinary-and neither is the demon inside of him.

Mercedes' vampire friend Stefan calls her and asks her for a favor. She's not really sure what to expect but ends up accompanying him to a hotel in her coyote form. What they come up against is a vampire who's a sorcerer. This makes the new guy in town one bad mo fo, let me tell ya.

So some bad shit goes down and Stefan, one of his vamp friends and a couple of werewolves go after the sorcerer vamp. One of the werewolves, Mercy's friend Warren, comes back fom the hunt but he's near death. The others are missing. Adam and Samuel decide to go after vamp man themselves and disappear. It's pretty much left up to Mercy to find them and take down the bad guy.

I have to say that when I was reading the book I was totally into it from page 1. Talk about getting sucked into a book and staying there. But when it came down to only Mercy to catch the bad guy I have to say I was more than a little skeptical. Here are vamps and werewolves who are meaner than junk yard dogs and yet we're leaving the saving up to a little coyote woman who's scared shitless? There was really no way I was buying that...until I kept reading. Patricia Briggs just has a way of writing that had me totally believing that this was A-Ok and that Mercy could do it no problem. Mercy, for all of her fright in some areas of life, is one bad ass chick. She handles herself in such a way that it seems perfectly normal for all of this to be happening to her. Of course she had to go after the big bad when he'd taken her friends - she's not the type of person to sit around and take that. She does what she needs to do, but she knows her limitations and it's one of the things that I love about her character.

Then there's the whole aspect of the book that has to do with her love interest. Is it Samuel...is it Adam? I know who I want it to be and am told that I just need to read 1 more book to find out if I'm right. Whatever you do, do not tell me! lol I want to find out on my own.

So loved the book - am loving the series - hate that I waited so long to read it. Isn't that how it always is when you find a series you dig? If only I could kick my own ass for it. Ah well...on to the next book.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5