A Sci-fi story that needs to be read

Scale of 1 – 5: ♥ ♥ ♥♥

As the book opens, we meet Netty, a country girl growing up in the early 1900s. She had an uneventful life until she married Robert Doyle. He was a smooth talking, well-to-do man who surprised everyone by showing Netty attention. Her life was shattered around the time he broke her nose on their wedding night. A few years of brutal rape and abuse, Netty was finally able to escape to her parents’ home. Unfortunately, they were both dead.

While she makes her way in the remote country surroundings, she finds a woodland creature unlike any she has ever seen and it appears to be hurt. She names it Baby.

In reality, Baby is an alien. His contact with Netty heals her. Her scars disappear, hair grows, and skin glows. Life is good. So good, in fact, Netty chooses not to be concerned with the subtle changes to her body (changes that would freak out a person under normal circumstances).

After a time, she finds a drifter name Wil on her property. He was in poor health from being robbed and left for dead. Netty helps him to get well. He has no place to go and decides to stay with Netty and baby (he is not freaked out by the alien either). They make a nice, unconventional family.

The only thing still weighing over all of their heads is the monster of a person Robert Doyle, Netty’s husband. He is very influential in the community having much of law enforcement in his pocket.

I loved this book because it was a very different type of story. At times, I could not put into words my feelings for this story. Unexpected is probably the best way to describe this book. Some parts were extremely sad. Netty was an innocent victim of a malicious, greedy, powerful individual. Baby, the alien has the power to heal, but it is kind of difficult for me to understand its history.

This is the beginning book of a series which follows Netty’s story. This book does not end exactly with a happy ever after, but it is somewhat satisfying considering all that happens. I say that to mean, there was sufficient closure for me. But, I guess, by the end of the series, there will be a happily ever after ending. I am planning to read the rest of the books in the series. I do not usually like series, but this on was so unique that it has peaked my curiosity. The four heart rating has a lot to do with the fact that this book is like nothing I have read before. Bravo to the author J.K Accinni for her imagination.

You can buy Baby, Species Intervention #6609 on Amazon by clicking any of the links in this post

She gives geek girls a bad name

Oct20

Geek Girl and the Scandalous Earl ♥♥

Jamie is video game playing geek girl that gets transported 200 years into the past landing in Micah’s house. Micah is an Earl that is courting a woman who he thinks is respectable enough to draw attention away from the fact that one of his mistresses died from poisoning. It seems the sole reason for Jamie to be transported back in time was for her to love Micah the way he deserved to be loved.

That is the whole book in a nutshell. I did not read the blurb about the book, going solely on the cover to choose my purchase. My mistake. I was ill prepared for the time travel aspect. Getting over that, I proceeded to accept that and try to enjoy the book as best I could. No biggie.

The more I read, the more annoyed I was with Jamie.

She gave everyone a nickname. She insisted on calling Micah “Mike”. I do not like it when people do that. I think it is disrespectful.
I could not understand how it was that she did not like Micah one minute and then, just as quickly, she was in love with him.
She knows she is 200 years in the past, but she keeps making a big deal of the vast cultural differences as if she never read a history book. She wants Micah to treat her as a modern woman like that would not be as much of a cultural shock to him as it was to her.
Even though she was called a geek girl, she did not seem all that smart to me. Being a self-proclaimed geek (also part of a local Geek group), I want to say that being a geek is more than just playing video games all the time with no discernible social life.

I was not as annoyed with Micah but there were some holes in the story

Micah seemed to be too straitlaced to be considered scandalous
How he decided he was in love was another mystery for me. Halfway through the book, he declared in effect that would marry for duty and not love.

Jamie was an uncouth, brash, loser girl who needed to get her life together before she could think about falling in love. In my opinion, she was not over the breakup with her ex-boyfriend. Micah was an uptight earl who was unlucky in love because he was so stubborn. It is not that he was unlikable, but he was not that likeable either. By the time the story finished, I was indifferent to whether or not they would be happy.

The Tycoon’s Convenient Wife

Oct15

The Tycoon’s Convenient Wife – The Tycoon’s Convenient Wife ♥♥♥

Divorced Guy needs a wife to help him look like a family man while he is brokering a major business deal. Of course, he calls on Emily, his friend from university. Although she has been in love with him for 15 years, she initially was undecided about helping Guy in his situation. As she should be.

I like how Emily set boundaries for the relationship since she was trying to guard her heart. Guy seemed so adamant about never loving again. Emily made some snippy comments in a passive aggressive way when Guy was trying to convince her that a physical relationship would not hurt anything. Considering her emotional turmoil, I think she handled herself well.

The story is about Guy’s journey to figuring out that Emily had always been the woman for him. He took a 15 year emotional detour that armed his with enough baggage that helped him appreciate her even more. His cheating, but jealous ex-wife and two darling children also helped to add to the conflict of the story.

Overall The Tycoon’s Convenient Wife was a sweet story. The one thing that bugs me is that the story is this: Why is it that in these types of romances does the woman seem to put her romance life on hold since she cannot have the man she desires, but the man has relationships, gets married and has kids? But then he feels with some satisfaction that she held out for him. At least she was not a pushover to let Guy have is way because of her feelings for him. By the end though, I was okay with how everything turned out considering he was a basically a good man and great father who deserved to have a woman worthy of his trust and love.

Keeping secrets makes for lonely times

Oct5

Nicholas: Lord of Secrets ♥♥♥

After reading Darius, I was interested in the story of Nicholas (Nick) and Leah.

Nick has the obligation to do his duty to marry as an earl’s legitimate heir. His father is ailing and he promised to wed soon. Meanwhile, Leah is suffering the wrath of her father who intends to sell her to any depraved lecher with funds.

Knowing of her plight, Nick sets in plan motions to extricate Leah from her father’s control. Leah is grateful but wary of Nick’s assistance. He makes it very clear that he could not have any type of physical relationship with her. He was attracted to Leah but I was confused as to why he was so adamant not to do the deed with her.

The story was interesting enough to keep my attention. I liked Leah because she was a strong resilient character with common sense. She was forthright and asked questions. On the other hand, Nick’s decisions at times left much to be desired. He withheld a lot of information in hopes of evading rejection. His efforts had less than the desired effect because his actions came across as confusing.

Overall, I liked the story. It shined because of all the great supporting characters that helped Nick to see how ridiculous he was being. In the end, revealing his well kept secrets cleared up a lot of the confusion. I begrudgingly admit that I understand why Nick did what he did, although I do not agree that was the best way to go about it. Fortunately for him, Leah was a very understanding wife.

I recommend reading Nicholas: Lord of Secrets. It is long, so be prepared to spend the entire afternoon reading. The story stands well on its own, but read Darius: Lord of Pleasures first to get a better picture of the people involved.

Surrender

Sep30

Surrender (Volume 1) ♥

Raffaello (Rafe) is looking for a mistress. He chooses his mistresses in the way most people would hire a secretary. There is an application and interview process. Arianna (Ari) is looking for a job so that she can care for her ailing mother who is in the hospital in a coma.

Rafe has decided that Ari will be his new mistress and he will stop at nothing to make sure that happens. Ari is torn morally. When she finds out what the “job” entails, she does not want to prostitute herself but she needs money to pay mounting healthcare bills. The stress of the bills and the guilt over her mother’s situation is almost too much.

At this point, I thought the premise of the book was okay. It seems to be the standard “Pretty Woman” theme. And there are valid reasons why Rafe is a heartless manipulator, unwilling to give his heart to any woman. But here is where the book’s plot began to deteriorate. Rafe lacks compassion for Ari’s situation. He exploits her attraction in order to satisfy his lust. At every opportunity, he uses his wealth and power to intimidate her. Anytime a man has to coerce a woman, it is not romantic. He might not have used brute force, but he might as well have in my opinion.

By the end of the book, there is no resolution. The cliffhanger made me question if there was a missing chapter. Two things were clear: Rafe is a Class A jerk and Ari is in a worse position.

There are two more books in the series (I did not know this was going to be THAT type of series) and I assume the characters will have a happy-ever-after by the end. I am not wasting my time to find out.

Two words: VERY DISAPPOINTED

I liked Melody Anne’s other books – Billionaire and Tycoon series. Her style seemed to be jaded-wealthy-man-finds-love-with-sincere-down-to-earth-woman with variations along that theme. This book seemed to be a 50 Shades of Gray style series. I did not have any interest in reading FSOG, nor do I want to read imitators of it. On the other hand, if you liked FSOG, then you might like Surrender (Volume 1)