In Victorian England vice of every kind can be purchased, and Matthew, the Earl of Wallingford, makes certain he avails himself of every possible pleasure. Bored and jaded, he is as well-known for his coldness as for his licentious affairs with beautiful women. While these numerous dalliances fulfill Matthew’s every physical need, they secretly leave him numb and emotionally void. Until one night when he finds himself beaten, eyes bandaged and in the care of a nurse with the voice of an angel—and a gentle touch that soothes the darkness in him and makes him yearn for more. Yet Jane Rankin is a lowly nurse, considered shy and plain by most.

There is no place for her amongst the lords and ladies of the aristocracy—despite Matthew’s growing craving for the fire that burns behind her earnest facade. And then there is Matthew’s secret. A secret so humiliating and scandalous it could destroy everyone he loves. A sin, he fears, not even the love of a good woman can take away…

I am usually a huge fan of this premise: the injured and bitter rake who falls in love with a smart but independent heroine. The book had a great start that featured a fantastic introduction of Jane, who is nursing Matthew after he suffers a brutal attack. Their initial encounters at the hospital were filled with emotional and sexual tension – especially when he had no idea what she looked like. But despite Matthew not knowing what Jane looked like, he becomes obsessed with her because she senses and looks at the real man beneath his cynical rakish demeanor. However, I did think Matthew idealised Jane and although he saw her as his ‘perfect angel’, when she meets up with him for an arranged asignation, he rejects her because she was not the beautiful woman he envisioned. At this point, the story started to falter and any liking and sympathy I had for Matthew dissappated like a deflating hot air balloon

This was a man who was weary and had used sex as a tool to numb himself from an abusive childhood – as well as to rebel against his authoritarian aristocratic father’s dictates. I really found at this point that the build up of tension from the positive beginning lost momentum, and then the book carried on in angst filled mode, with an emotional overwrought muddle in the middle of the story. Matthew’s shallow and arrogant behaviour to Jane was pretty annoying – especially when he finds out the truth about Jane, who I didn’t blame for hiding her identity. And once Jane and Matthew finally got together – with a lot of angst on Matthew’s side – I didn’t really care. I also found the love scenes to be melodramatic, and I think the emotional intensity missed way over the mark. And although I think this is the kind of book with erotic love scenes, I found myself skipping them.

I love dark, gritty stories but the more I read Sinful, the more frustrated and disappointed I got – especially since it had a promising beginning. I felt that there was forced angst and obstacles which was pushing the plot of the book. And when there was a real reason, such as the circumstances behind Matthew’s ill but mentally disabled sister (which in my mind should have been developed more because I liked this plot point with it’s twist), the build up to the ending began to pick up. But at this time, I just wanted to finish the book.  Matthew was so antangonistic and there was so much angsting over Jane, that it just made the tone of the book emotionally hysterical.

I am not saying this was a bad book. I liked the writing, and I loved the opening of the story, but the muddled middle and forced angst just made me dislike Matthew. It also affected the pacing with the constant torturous angst between Matthew and Jane, and I did not care if they did end up together or not. However I did find the ending interesting and it was brave to end on that note – especially since it was an ending which Matthew and Jane was afraid of having, and it was not an easy way out. It doesn’t have a traditional Happy Ever After which I found to be realistic and fitting. I know there is an epilogue at the author’s site, but I am actually happy with the way it ended. I just wished I liked the characters, especially Matthew, who wasn’t very likeable and seemed to overpower Jane, which created an inequality in their relationship.

Review: Sinful by Charlotte Featherstone is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter

Blurb is from The Book Depository:

“Lara has always had an over – active imagination. Now she wonders if she is losing her mind. Normal twenty-something girls just don’t get visited by ghosts! But inexplicably, the spirit of Lara’s great aunt Sadie – in the form of a bold, demanding Charleston-dancing girl – has appeared to make one last request: Lara must track down a missing necklace Sadie simply can’t rest without. Lara’s got enough problems of her own. Her startup company is floundering, her best friend and business partner has run off to Goa, and she’s just been dumped by the love of her life. But as Lara spends time with Sadie , life becomes more glamorous, she dresses in beautiful vintage frocks and their treasure hunt turns into something intriguing and romantic. Could Sadie’s ghost be the answer to Lara’s problems and can two girls from different times end up learning something special from each other?”

I’m a fan of Kinsella’s Shopaholic series and her stand alone, Can You Keep A Secret. Her other stand alone novels I have been very disappointed with. Sad to say, I felt the same about Twenties Girl.

My main problem: I had no liking for the main characters, Lara, and the ghost of her Great Aunt, Sadie. I thought Lara was extremely weak and had no backbone to speak of. To be blunt, she was a complete ninny!

Lara leaves her job and takes all of her bank savings, and enters into a new Head Hunting firm with her best friend Natalie, who is a ‘headhunter’, without doing thorough research or background checks on Natalie. I admit, you instinctively believe what your BF tells you, but you don’t just enter blindly into a new business venture without checking the details for yourself. Especially after putting all of your live savings into it. That stuck me as extremely stupid.

So, Natalie ups and leaves to go abroad, leaving Lara who is inexperienced to run the firm. The firm is floundering and Lara doesn’t try and go after Natalie, she just bumbles along with no experience with disastrous results.

The other main character is Sadie, who is a ghost. Sadie appears at her own funeral, where only Lara can see her which is never explained. Yup, this is a story that is sort of paranormal, but is very much chick lit. IMO, a recipe for disaster as there are no explanations regarding how Sadie came to be. In a way, I wish Sadie never came to be. She was ‘unbelievably’ annoying in this book.

Between her and Lara, I had to put the book down numerous times in sheer exasperation. Sadie acted like a petulant child where she mostly screamed in Lara’s face, ordering Lara to do her actions for her. I felt as if I were reading about two children in this book.

Lara was very child-like regarding her ex-boyfriend. He clearly didn’t want her, yet Lara spied on him, stalked him and blindly swore that he still loved her. I felt embarrassed just reading about her feelings and reactions towards him. Where was her self respect? It gets worse though. Lara conspires to get back with Josh, her ex-boyfriend, by telling Sadie to use her powers on Josh. Oh yes, Sadie has special powers where she is able to command people to do exactly what she says by shouting and screaming in their ears. Sadie does what Lara wishes, and they get back together. Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!

While we have Lara finding the necklace, acting bat shit crazy over her ex boyfriend and trying to keep the business afloat, we have another sub-plot regarding the actual hero of the story, Ed, who I thought was kinda boring but nice. And even that avenue was annoying. Lara is only dating him because Sadie wants to. Yup, that’s right. Lara is dating Ed, so Sadie can pretend that she’s dating him. And Lara must say and do exactly what Sadie does as it’s Sadie’s man. *rolls eyes* And the only reason that Ed starts to date Lara in the first place is because Sadie makes him.

All of these sub-plots come head to head towards the end, but I was just glad the book was finishing. I may sound harsh, but I’m just disappointed with the whole slew of characters and their personalities.

In the end, we do find out the reason why the necklace was so important to Sadie and I admit, I did find it very sad and heart warming. This is the only time that Lara really starts to shine. I just wished she was like this from the beginning.

If you want a strong heroine, don’t read this book. If you want to read about a heroine who only gets a backbone in the last four chapters of the book, then read this book. If you want to read about a ghost who is extremely annoying, then read this book.

I give Twenties Girl 2.0 out of 5.

Twenties Girl is available from The Book Depository.co.uk (52% off) and from The Book Depository.com

Review: Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter

Sorry it’s a day late, things were very busy last night.

Carrying on with the Strange Brew anthology reviews, this week it will be P.N. Elrod, and Charlaine Harris.

Helcate’s Golden Eye by P.N. Elrod.

Set in Chicago, June 1937, P.I Investigators Jack Fleming and Charles Escott are hired to find and retrieve the Helcate’s Jewel, a beautiful pendent which is rumoured to kill any man that touches it. Luckily for Jack Fleming, being a vampire already makes him the undead.

This is a pure mystery story and to be honest, I found it somewhat boring. I derived no personality from the characters and the story itself was quite mild in nature. I wasn’t sure at first if the characters were newly created, but looking the author up (google), Jack Fleming is the main character of the Vampire Files. I admit, I’m not knowledgeable in vampire mysteries, so forgive me. I did like the background setting of Chicago in the late 1930′s, but for me there was just no oomph in this story.

The jewel itself I’m guessing had magic, but we saw none of that. Just sly winks from the jewel itself. The people who stole the jewel were not very villainous, and I found Jack to be pleasant for a vampire. He didn’t have the ruthless quality that I thought a vampire should have. Over all, it was just a very nice, albeit boring, read.

I give Hecate’s Golden Eye 3 out of 5.

Bacon by Charlaine Harris

Dahlia Chivers is out for revenge. Her werewolf husband was killed by another member of a werewolf pack, and she’s determined to find out what happened that fateful night, and what-else or who-else contributed to his murder.

So far, this is the only story that I have disliked in this anthology. The heroine was completely unlikeable, and I didn’t feel any sympathy for her. I felt no pain or emotion from Dahlia regarding the death of her husband. She was ice-cold and I think she was the same when he was alive. Dahlia admitted she wasn’t very popular with her husband’s pack.

This story was just full of hateful revenge, which is understandable when your husband was murdered, but perhaps I could have enjoyed the story if there was any heartfelt emotion shown by the heroine.

The secondary characters weren’t particularly interesting and I found myself reading this story very fast so it would finish. There was nothing wrong with the writing itself, but Dahlia was simply a horrible character. The title of the story is very apt for the ending, which I found to be very icky.

I give Bacon 2 out of 5.

Strange Brew can be found in The Book Depository.co.uk and The Book Depository.com

Strange Brew – Week 3 is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter

There are some spoilers in this review.

Stephanie Plum is back, but this time instead of someone trying to kill her, the effervescent, crazy Lula is in the forefront. Lula witnesses a grisly murder: a celebrity television chef ends up getting chopped. Literally. Stephanie ends up having Lula as a housemate while the murderers try to kill Lula in a spectacular fashion. To catch these people, Lula and Grandma Mazur enter a tv food competition with disastrous consequences.

Stephanie, though, is working a job for the sexy, mysterious Ranger. Rangeman’s accounts are being burgled and Ranger thinks it’s an inside job. He employs Steph to snoop around undercover as he can’t trust any of his men. Unfortunately, not everyone is happy with this arrangement. Steph’s on and off boyfriend (currently off) Joe, is not happy with Steph working with Ranger. While helping Lula, trying to catch her skips, and food testing bbq ribs, can Stephanie figure out who is behind the burglaries and be able to resist the temptation of Ranger, and the irresistibility of Joe?

First things first, this was an improvement on the last book (only slightly though). Finger Lickin’ Fifteen is not a great book. Far from it. While I understand this series is very light and full of fluff, and cartoon type characters, I still expect a plot to carry the book through. The plot was just a mess. We have killers going after Lula, but instead of putting her in witness protection or having a policeman guard her, they can’t do that because apparently the police department can’t afford it. So Lula stays with Steph. I have no knowledge of police procedures, but even I went WTF at that. There are two maniacs trying to kill a woman, but the police don’t protect her because their budget wouldn’t cover it. I’m in disbelief over that. If that does happen, then some please correct me. But, I think it was a simple and poor way of letting Lula bulldoze her way through the book in typical fashion.

So we have one plot with Lula, and we have the other plot involving Ranger and Stephanie. This is where I got confused. How can Stephanie be so competent at working with Ranger on that job, but be so utterly useless at capturing her own skips at the bonds office? It was the same old, recycled plot running through this book.

Stephanie goes to bring in her FTA’s in. They don’t want to. They say, I’ll be right back, I just need to do something and then they are escaping out of the window. This happened numerous of times in previous books, and twice in this book. Huh??? Why hasn’t Stephanie improved. Surely she’s not that stupid and naive to believe what they say. In this book, she is. Bigtime!

We have blown up cars, lots of food being eaten, Lula farting numerous times (I think we are meant to find that funny) and Steph screwing up FTA’s over and over again until Ranger helps her. Even the ending was anti climatic. I was like, oh is that it? The plots regarding Lula and Ranger trickle off slowly until they come to a standing stop, and your left wondering what was the point of this?

There doesn’t seem to be any character development and the triangle with Ranger and Joe is not touched upon. Steph is currently off with Joe, so this gives her an opportunity to let Ranger flirt with her, but nothing happens. Why have Steph break up with Joe when nothing even remotely happens with Ranger? Even the break up with Joe was inconsequential. It’s getting to the point now where I couldn’t care less who ends up with who.

I’m sad in a way. When I got this book from the library, I was expecting a bad read. I don’t want to expect a book to be bad when I read it. Especially from a series that I used to love and was an auto buy.

The plot is stale, the characters are stale and readers are left hanging with no resolution in sight.

I give Finger Licking Fifteen 2.5 out of five. The .5 is because there are some humorous situations in the book. Not much, but it was there.

Finger Lickin’ Fifteen is available at The Book Depository.uk and The Book Depository.com. It’s also available in ebook format from e-retailers.

Review: Finger Lickin’ Fifteen by Janet Evanovich is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter

This review contain spoilers.

Kate and Jared have been married for quite some time. They have a daughter who has just gone off to college and they both lead very busy lives. Kate runs a veterinary clinic and Jared is a lawyer who has just opened up a legal aid office. Jared and Kate haven’t had the smoothest of marriages: a mother-in-law who hates Kate, and accusations from the past which have never fully healed.

I have to admit, it’s been a while since I have read any Harlequin romances that are not from the Mira, HQN or Luna line. The last few category books I’ve read from Harlequin haven’t been good. I’m sorry to say that Save the Last Dance falls into that category. Bigtime.

The story is told from the past and present. The past tells us how Kate and Jared meet and the story of their courtship and the interference of the awful mother-in-law, Sylvia, who does everything in her power to split them up.

When Jared expresses his interest in Kate numerous times, she shuts him down because she thinks their backgrounds are too far apart. Jared doesn’t care about Kate’s background, but Sylvia does. Enter ze evil mother.

Sylvia was a soap opera character. A badly clichéd one at that. She’s snooty, she’s disdainful and the comments she comes out with would be perfect for a soap. In this book, it came off as silly and unbelievable. Kate and Sylvia finally meet, and what a showdown it is. Sylvia immediately lets Kate know she is not good enough, and Jared is to marry someone in his social station and not a poor upstart like Kate. She dramatically tells Kate she will ruin Jared’s life because of her ugly background and how she will be a stain on Jared’s reputation. So of course, Kate does what the obvious evil mother says, and breaks it off with him. On the rebound, Jared gets engaged to a socialite while Kate buries herself in her studies to become a vet.

Throughout the book, this carries on with the present and past intersecting where we see Kate and Jared finally wed. We see past heartbreaks and the present where Kate is sitting by Jared’s bed, hoping he will make it through.

The past where we meet Kate and Jared wasn’t enough to carry the book through  I though. The resolution at the end didn’t ring true for me.

Everything – including the random and bizarre threats that Kate and Jared had been receiving - was explained in the last 7 pages, which conveniently ties up with Jared’s accident. It was just a mishmash of different tropes rolled into one story. I’ll list them for you:

Poor girl and rich boy storyline
Evil Mother-in-law
Accusation of infidelity
Hero in car accident
Threats aimed at hero and heroine

All this in 147 pages.

I actually thought my Sony Reader was listing the incorrect page number. I was saying to myself, This can’t be right. I only have 7 pages to go. No way can this story finish yet. Heck, why am I still reading the story? The flaming hero isn’t even awake yet.

How are they able to make things right with each other after all these years of things which were left unsaid, all in the last 2-3 pages of the book? It didn’t seem possible for me and like I said above, it didn’t ring true.

I give Save the Last Dance 2 out of 5. I did think the start was ok, but as the story went on it lost its way, and I found myself not even caring what happened in the end.

Review: Save the Last Dance by Roxanne Rustand. is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter