The Duke is Mine by Eloisa James (read by MinnChica)
Had a VERY hard time relating to both the heroine and the hero of the story. The heroine continuously pokes fun at her betrothed – a man who is a bit of the slow side. And the hero isn’t much better. So far he doesn’t seem to have much of a backbone and does everything his mother says, constantly second guesses himself, not the kind of hero that I enjoy reading about. I DNFed this book at 37%

Stark Naked by Desiree Holt (read by E)

The blurb looked intriguing, two former college roommates meeting up again.  One just got out of a bad relationship and decided to relocate.  She is visiting her former roommate and that evening her roommate’s brother passes out at their feet naked.  The heroine’s reaction was very extreme and in fact she waiting until everyone in the house was asleep and then snuck out and left.  When the hero comes to apologize she goes from one extreme utter hatred to smexytimes and then horrified goes back to hating him.  While I enjoyed the conversation where he kept trying to get her to forgive him I couldn’t handle the heroine’s extremes.  I DNFed at 41%.

The Traitor’s Daughter by Paula Brandon (read by  Has)

Like the others – the blurb and premise of this book looked great and I am a huge fan of fantasy romance and  I thought this would be an epic tale of fantasy and romance. But as I started the book, it was pretty confusing with the world-building, and it also had elements of scifi which made it more of a historical futuristic, and less emphasis on the romance which barely had any although I gave up around 15 percent into the book so I am unsure if this is developed later in the book.

Whilst I would enjoy something like that for me the writing and characterisation didn’t work  as I couldn’t engage into the book and I hate not finishing a book. But If I had known this is what the book was like and I actually think the cover and blurb is misleading because it gives an impression it is something that is not I wouldn’t have chosen to read this. I do think that general fantasy or scifi readers will enjoy it more but this isn’t a book for fantasy romance/romance readers.

The Reluctant Nude by Meg Maguire (read by Lou)

I had heard good things about this book, though it took me a while to get down to reading it. I was enjoying it quite a lot, especially the dynamics between the hero and heroine. But in a scene, the heroine just casually smacks the hero across the face and feels no guilt, or remorse. Right there, I put the book down. Double standards in violence doesn’t work for me, and since this author did it in a previous book where her heroine slapped the hero across the face numerous of times, once splitting his lip, it’s safe to say I won’t be picking up any work of this author again.

Recent DNF is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter

“Madeline O’Connor was happy. Or was she? When she learns that her estranged sister is gravely ill, she leaves behind her life in Manhattan to be at her sister’s side in Italy. There, she discovers an ancient Benedictine monastery that accommodates travelers, and she decides to stay there, among the monks. Everything in her life turns upside down when she falls for Brother Anthony Lamberti, a soft-spoken Italian completely different from the men she knows in New York. Together Madeline and Anthony find love for the first time, and learn that life and love always find a way. Loving Anthony creates a new life for Madeline. A new life she would never have imagined and yet is perfect for her in every way.” I got this blurb from the author’s website here.

As a born and bred book addict I have learned that not every book works for every reader and this is actually a good thing because it ensures that a variety of different styles, subjects and methods of telling stories are available. I have to admit that I really enjoy finding a new to me author, liking their work and being able to introduce others to that same author. In order to do that I have to take chances and try out those new to me authors sometimes based on a recommendation I have received, sometimes based on the cover and blurb, sometimes based on the blurb, and sometimes just because.

Unfortunately I am not able to recommend FINDING FELICITY because the book didn’t work for me to the extent that I was unable to finish it. I completely understand that when you accept an ARC it is not the final finished product. There will probably be some errors or things that will be slightly different then the official release product. Those are not an issue. However, if you are an author sending out a book for review please ensure that you take the time and effort to see that it is properly formatted. You want your readers to stay immersed in the world you have built and having the flow interrupted by page numbers, titles, author’s name in very random places does not help. When I was able to get into the flow I was unable to relate to the heroine at any level except for the fact that I am also a woman.

She, Madeline, physically described almost everyone she encountered as handsome and included racial characteristics. Now please don’t take that to mean that the descriptions were in any way derogatory but how does that further your plot other then to say to me that your heroine is extremely shallow? Even in the land of Hollywood TV not everyone is handsome or pretty. I also noticed some inconsistencies for example Madeline is thinking about eating at her favorite place in Italy and at how she is looking forward to their gelato. I, therefore, expect at least some mention of gelato while she is at the restaurant. There wasn’t even a token mention of any dessert let along gelato. The final straw for me was when Madeline ends up stumbling as she is trying to leave her table and lands in the lap of a very handsome Italian man. As she is attempting to keep from falling she ends up knocking over a glass of red wine which spills all over his meal partner (a young woman’s) clothes. Madeline, head of a worldwide chain of high fashion boutiques, spent much more time and thought apologizing to the man whose lap she ended in than to the young woman whose clothes would require immediate treatment if they could be saved. At this point, ten percent into the book, I decided that I had a laundry list of things that I found to be issues in this book and nothing positive so I decided it was time to call it quits.

While the author’s voice and storyline in FINDING FELICITY did not work for me I did not notice any grammer, spelling or incorrect word choice issues so hopefully others will find that they enjoy the voice and storyline.

I give FINDING FELICITY a DNF

Barnes & Noble | Amazon Book | Kindle eBook

Review – Finding Felicity by Monica Marlowe is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter

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Publisher: Tor

Where did you get this book: Review copy from publisher

Release date: Available now

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This review contains spoilers!

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Blurb taken from Tor website:

Tess Livingston met Ian Ritter at a roadside stop high in the Andes, waiting for a bus to the mysterious town of Esperanza.

Tess is an FBI agent who remembers being on the track of a group of international counterfeiters. But she doesn’t remember booking a trip to Esperanza. Ian is a journalist who was planning to vacation to the Galapagos Islands. He, too, isn’t quite sure why he has a ticket to Esperanza.

Their meeting will change their lives forever. For they have been brought together because they hold the key in a mystical war between the kind spirits of the dead who guard humanity, and the hungry ghosts who exist only to possess living human bodies, and return however briefly to life.

In the midst of this war, Tess and Ian will find a love that can transcend time, and a cause that not even death will overcome.

When Tor offered to send this book, I jumped at it. Supernatural thriller? With sex? I’m in!

The premise was really fresh and interesting, and I wanted to like Esperanza so badly—but I just didn’t. There’s a sex scene in the prologue, but it felt glossed over and…not sexy. For me, when you’re talking about body-snatching ghosts (brujos) who do it to feed their sexual hunger and the sex is so intense it tends to leave the people dead, I expect it to be crazy hot. For me, the scene was just meh. Sure people ended up dead, but I never felt any of the wild passion that led to it.

I kept reading anyway because the premise still had my attention. Once the main characters were introduced at the bodega, I figured things would really get moving. Another dead body, a lot of fog and people not knowing what’s going on, but the protagonists seem okay.

The only problem is they never really moved up from okay for me. I bought into their attraction to each other well enough (I mean—he looks like George Clooney. Hello!), but I never connected with either of them. The one I liked the best was Nomad, the brujo sensing dog. And then I find out, not only are the main characters almost dead themselves (they are “transitionals” people who are on the verge of death) and not physically even in Esperanza, but the dog isn’t a dog—he’s a shapeshifter.

Even with all of that, I tried to keep reading. I made it about a third of the way through the novel before I realized I was forcing myself to read it. The author utilizes a lot of description that seemed unnecessary to me. And there’s also a lot of explaining that comes across as telling. For me, if the explanation doesn’t come about in a really organic way, it doesn’t work. Too much of Esperanza felt forced to me.

This is, of course, just my opinion, and based on a quick scan while looking for the blurb, a lot of people out there loved Esperanza. For this reviewer though, it wasn’t thrilling enough to warrant being called a thriller, and for that reason and those listed above, it was a DNF.

DNF Explanation: Esperanza by Trish J. MacGregor is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter

Publisher: Carina Press

Where did you get this book from: e-ARC from Netgalley

Release date: September 13th

Official blurb taken from author’s official website:

When Henrietta Watson learns that the man she loves plans to marry London’s most beautiful and fashionable debutante, she plots to win him back. She’ll give him some competition by transforming her boring bumpkin neighbor, the Earl of Kesseley, into a rakish gothic hero worthy of this Season’s Diamond.

After years of unrequited love for Henrietta, Kesseley is resigned to go along with her plan and woo himself a willing bride. But once in London, everything changes. Kesseley, long more concerned with his land than his title, discovers that he’s interested in sowing wild oats as well as radishes. And Henrietta realizes that gothic heroes don’t make ideal husbands. Despite an explosive kiss that opens her eyes to the love that’s been in front of her all along, Henrietta must face the possibility that Kesseley is no longer looking to marry at all…

Oye. If I could some up what I read of this book, it would be that first word. I’m going to be brutally honest. I struggled so hard to get through Rakes and Radishes, and by page 189 of 257, I called it quits. The characters had the emotional maturity of a gnat. The heroine, Henrietta, is one of the most immature and selfish heroines I have encountered in a historical romance, and the hero, Kesseley, was a decent sort who had an horrible upbringing with an abusive father. He let Henrietta use and abuse their supposed ‘friendship’ for her own means for so many years until he finally says enough is enough after her numerous heartless and thoughtless words. Also, I honestly don’t know why this is likened to Gothic heroes in the blurb, because the hero doesn’t become one. All that features of a Gothic romance is the book that the heroine loves that features a Gothic romance. And she certainly doesn’t turn the hero into one. In fact, she pretty much insults him at every chance, uses him, and does it repeatedly until he finally tells her basically to take a hike. Seriously, I have never disliked a heroine so much, and in fact, I would go as so far as to call her a bitch *gasp*. And when he tells her what he thinks of her, she sobs, and it’s all poor me.

The premise had so much promise because hello, farmer hero? The hero was really nice, and I felt a lot of sympathy for him when he gets ridiculed at London because of his inelegant ways. But then he turns melodramatic and his character arc was spoilt for me. Though to be truthful, after enduring what he had from the heroine, I would turn melodramatic also. By the time the heroine decides that she loves Kesseley, he is lost to her. This is the only point where I actually cheered.

I did think at first that there was one redeeming character in this story, and that was the Duke’s mother, who disliked the heroine because she saw what she did to her son. But alas, she turns melodramatic also. She makes best friends with the heroine, and then tells her son that he has turned into his dead abusive father. She calls him this because she didn’t like how he was behaving by gambling, drinking, and whoring. Not sure how those three equate to her abuser of a husband who forced himself on her. But there you go.

So for those reasons above, and for no emotional development whatsoever in the book that I had read so far, and to be truthful, no romance whatsoever, it became a DNF for me.  I wanted to finish it – especially as I requested it for review – but I wasn’t going to waste any more of my time on this title, because the temptation of chucking my e-reader against the wall in frustration was a strong likelihood.

DNF Explanation: Rakes & Radishes by Susanna Ives is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter

Sinful Surrender by Beverly Kendall

Blurb taken from Beverley Kendalls’ official website:

Millicent “Missy” Armstrong is entering her fourth London Season, but not for lack of suitors. Since her debut three years ago, Missy has received twenty marriage proposals. But she is interested in only one man—her brother’s best friend, James Rutherford. As a child, Missy looked up to James. As a grown up, her admiration has blossomed into the longings of a beautiful, sensuous woman—and she won’t rest until James admits his love—and desire—for her…

James Rutherford rues the day he let his physical weaknesses get the better of him by kissing Missy. His best friend has made it clear that Missy is off limits, and though he’s avoided her for three years, he hasn’t forgotten the feel of her soft lips pressed against his—and it seems neither has she. For no matter how much James tries to discourage Missy, he keeps winding up in her arms, sharing heated caresses that promise the most delirious pleasure…

Sinful Surrender is Beverly Kendell’s début book from Kensington. IMO, 2010 has already started off with a bang with some great releases. I’m firmly putting Sinful Surrender in that category.

Missy Armstrong has loved James Rutherford since she was a young girl, and without any qualms, she knows that he is her man. And by golly, she is going to get her man. Awesome!

Missy is very determined to get James and James is equally determined that he will NOT get entangled with his best friend’s sister. I felt like hitting Thomas, Missy’s brother, across the head. I was like: Dude, can you not see the sparks between these two? He’s your best friend. Give him some credit.

Sinful Surrender is a great read, and it has oodles of sexual tension. Even though the heroine is very young and some of her actions might come across across as immature, I didn’t get annoyed with her. Her character was so well written that I believed in her actions. She is also steadfast in her love for James which I admired. However, she doesn’t chase James throughout the book; if she did, then I would have been annoyed – especially after James acts like a complete dolt to make her stay away. Missy learns that her loving him alone is not enough, and she soon learns that James is far from perfect, and she starts to think more pragmatically about him.

Each character that’s central to the story has their own personality, and I can’t wait for Thomas’ book to see how his HEA turns out with the sharp tongued Ameila – who really ruffled his feathers.

I give it 4.5 out of 5.

The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber

I’ve had this book in my wishlist since it first came out, but it never made it into my TBR pile until a certain K.C Malone from Smokinhotbooks twisted my arm ever so painfully and told me that I HAD to get this book.

So I did.

Blurb taken from Leanna Hieber’s official website:

What fortune awaited sweet, timid Percy Parker at Athens Academy? Considering how few of Queen Victoria’s Londoners knew of it, the great Romanesque fortress was dreadfully imposing, and little could Percy guess what lay inside. She had never met the powerful and mysterious Professor Alexi Rychman, knew nothing of the growing shadow, the Ripper and other supernatural terrors against which his coterie stood guard. She knew simply that she was different, haunted, with her snow-white hair, pearlescent skin and uncanny gifts. But this arched stone doorway offered a portal to a new life, an education far from the convent—and an invitation to an intimate yet dangerous dance at the threshold of life and death…

The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker is a beautifully written love story that’s very unique. It has a haunting lyrical prose, and I eagerly gobbled up the words. The heroine, Percy Parker, is an albino and all of her life she has had to endure stares, and whispers from others because of her looks. Yet Miss Percy Parker doesn’t see her unique beauty, what she does see is strange visions and ghosts.

This book is chock a block full of unique and strange paranormal events that were original, and kept me glued to the pages. The romance between Alex and Percy is sort of a forbidden romance because he is a professor and she a student.

Percy is quite timid, and Alex is sort of over-bearing, but their romance was very sweet and at times angsty, but it’s a good sort of angst IMO.

My one quibble is that I don’t think enough attention was given to the evil baddies, so I hoping there will be more development in regards to them in the second book.

I give The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker 4.5 out of 5.

The Dresskeeper by Mary Naylus

Blurb taken from whsmith.co.uk:

When 13-year-old Picky’s Mum forces her to look after Gran, who has dementia, she is accidentally locked in Gran’s dusty old attic. There she finds a chest full of old clothes, and tomboy Picky is forced to don what appears to be a ball-gown when the freezing night temperatures hit. As soon as the dress is pinned together, Picky is transported back to the year 1700, where a man who appears to know her as Amelia is trying to kill her. Managing to get the dress off just in time, Picky returns to the present with the dress covered in blood. Did the man kill the girl called Amelia? Will wearing the other dresses in the chest take her back in time too? And will she be in danger again should she try it?

The premise of this book is very interesting, and it’s what made me accept the book for review. Unfortunately, it ended up being a DNF. The reason it’s a DNF for me: The heroine’s voice didn’t capture my attention and I found Picky to be irritating. Her constant ‘no, seriously’ got very annoying and some of the remarks she makes regarding adults were just off. Being 13 doesn’t mean you get a pass on being rude.

While the tone of the book has an English slang that’s very original, I found myself getting bored reading The Dresskeeper. IMO, it wasn’t engaging enough and the premise sounds better than the actual execution of the book.

Quickie Reviews is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter

Signatures of the Dead by Faith Hunter.

A rogue group of vampires are loose, killing and torturing people every night. Molly Trueblood, an earth witch, and her friend, Jane Yellowrock, need to find the rogue vampires before they strike again.

I enjoyed Signatures Of The Dead. It had a constant flow of action scenes that progressed naturally within the plot till the very end. Something was always happening, but it wasn’t busy or chaotic.  Molly’s power was very heavy, in the sense that every time she uses it, she gets bruised emotionally. Molly is able to sense what happened at death. She can read murder scenes and she is able to feel the victim’s pain, shock and the death inflicted by the murderer. I liked Molly, but her personality wasn’t shown as strongly or effectively as Jane Yellowrock’s character, and Molly is the narrator of the story. Jane is definitely someone I want to read about -  the scene in which Faith Hunter describe the shifts was beautifully written. Luckily, I have Jane’s book: Skinwalker in my TBR pile.

This story isn’t a light read, and the ending is sort of bitter-sweet and very emotional as we see the characters wrung out emotionally and physically.

I give Signatures Of The Dead 4 out of 5.

Ginger by Caitlin Kittredge

Sunny Swann is a witch, but she’s no where near as strong, physically and mentally, as her werewolf cousin, Luna, who is a police detective. While watching Luna in court one day, Sunny has to use her powers against someone who is dead set on murdering everyone in the court room. After the event, Sunny receives a strange phone call, from someone who has expressed a keen interest in her. While figuring out what they want with her, and doing some work for the police, Sunny ends up being kidnapped. How will Sunny get out of her predicament?

Ok, I have to admit this was a DNF for me. In the beginning, originally, I thought it was refreshing seeing a heroine openly admit to not being brave and taking a back seat rather than getting involved. This then got annoying when Sunny does something so completely stupid. While wearing an earpiece, which feed backs information to Luna and the police, she takes off the sound piece because Luna and the other police officer are arguing ( about something so inconsequential that it was just silly) Then, in the next scene, where Sunny is kidnapped, reading about her her crying and sniffling, while a child who was also kidnapped, is comforting her made me roll my eyes and skip right to the next story. The writing is not bad, but the heroine is just a complete numpty head. Sorry, but it was a DNF.

Dark Sins by Jenna Maclaine

Again, this was more of a TBF aka to be finished. I started reading it, but I found myself losing interest and I haven’t been able to pick up the book since. I liked the characters, and I would actually think about reading the series that the characters are featured, but my interest just waned and I couldn’t make myself finish.

Overall, Strange Brew is one of the better anthologies out there. I enjoyed most of the stories, but there were a few that didn’t press the right buttons for me.

So, my overall rating for Strange Brew is 4 out of 5.

Review: Week 1
Review: Week 2
Review: Week 3

Strange Brew is available in The Book Depos UK and Book Depos US.

Review: Strange Brew – Week 4 is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter