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Closing 2012 with THE Opinionated Woman awards

Dec31

Opinionated Woman Awards for 2012

As year 2012 comes to an end, I decided that as part of my reflection over the past year I will give awards based on categories that I chose. There are two main categories: Literary and Foodie awards. I know these awards have little significance, but since this is my blog I make the rules.

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Literary Awards

Favorite author of the year – Brenda Jackson

Her books have consistency and predictability in a good way. I have liked all of her books so far. The characters were alike in many ways but different enough so it was not the retelling of the same story over and over.

Favorite book of the year – The billionaire wins the game by Melody Anne

This book is super sweet. I love the story of Amy and Lucas. They are wonderful characters and their story is heartwarming. This book has become my go to novel when I went to read something pleasant and comforting.

Favorite thriller of the year – All for one by Ryne Douglas Pearson

I had so many emotions reading this book. A bully is murdered and his victims are the suspects. Even though I wanted justice to be served, I was sympathetic to his victims and part of me did not want them to be found guilty even if they were. The author did a wonderful job of weaving an engaging story.

Hottest romance of the year – The Proposal by Brenda Jackson

It is no surprise that Jackson is bringing the heat. Jason and Bella have a super steamy romance and a wonderful story to go along with it.

Creepiest book of the year – Auld Lang Sigh by Jennifer Connor

In this story Ella and Lee hook up after she misses her bus going home. He owns a copy shop in the building where she lives. To me, he comes off like a stalker because he is super observant regarding the details of Ella’s life. He is a stranger but knows a lot about her lifestyle since he has been watching her. As he recounted many of his observations, warning bells should have been ringing in Ella’s head. Instead she sleeps with him! This is very risky behavior to me even if this is a nonsensical romance novel.

Foodie Awards

Favorite restaurant of the year – Chicago Grill

What can I say? I love the chicken Philly. The bread is wonderful, there is plenty of seasoning on the meat, and the peppers and cheese are scrumptious.

Favorite food truck of the year – Asada

Everything that I have tried from Asada has been delicious. I am following them on Facebook so that I know where they will be serving lunch when I have an opportunity to be in Greenville. And as I followed them around town, I hope that they will decide to serve empanadas that day since that is my favorite dish from their food truck.

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So even though it does not mean much, I congratulate all of the 2012 award winners. I look forward to trying even more things, reading more books, and sharing more opinions in 2013.

Hired by the cowboy by Donna Alward

Dec30


Hired By The Cowboy (Harlequin Romance)

The main characters are Alex and Connor. Connor has a cash flow problem and a trust find that he can only access if he gets married. Alex is unwed, pregnant and almost homeless without many viable options. They meet when she faints on the street. There is so much attraction that they are drawn to each other. Considering the attraction between them Connor devises a plan to get to his trust fund money with Alex as his wife. This option was not on the table as it were until his grandmother suggested it.

Alex is understandably wary. Her baby’s father did a disappearing act and she does not have any family. But when she thinks about the fact that she does not have any options, this actually seems like a decent alternative.

As one would imagine, living together puts both of them on an emotional roller coaster of enjoying what they have with each other and realizing that their time together is probably temporary.

Hired By The Cowboy (Harlequin Romance) is a cute story. The characters are very likable. Alex has her insecurities and Connor does too. You can understand why they react the way that they do. Despite their problems they have a happy sweet ending. The author did a good job in explaining their background so you as the reader will be rooting for their success in life and love.

Mail order millionaire – Carol Grace

Dec30

Mail-Order Millionaire

In the story, Max and Miranda meet because he calls a compliant for a package he ordered. There is instant attraction, but their romance had a hard time because of lack of communication. Plus Miranda has this need to be completely independent and she is not having much success. She moved from New York because of bad experiences, but I don’t think she gives herself enough credit for all that she has done. I think that she set her expectation level to high. Max has his own hang ups as well. For starters, his choice of job is not conducive to having a relationship. He knows this and blames his first marriage failure on that fact.

Technically, he does not have to work since he inherited money but he likes what he does. But now that he has met Miranda, he is rethinking his whole situation, knowing things will have to change if he is ever able to offer her anything.

This is not the best story I ever read, but it is not the worst either. In my opinion Miranda did not communicate her feelings enough. That is possiblely the only character flaw I saw. However, I can understand Miranda’s hesitation to engage in any physical relationship and fall in love Max since all she will be left with are memories after he is gone. Max has to make some decisions if he wants a relationship.

Overall, if you are looking for something to read, Mail-Order Millionaire is a nice book. It is entertaining, but the characters are probably not so memorable that you become emotionally involved with them.

Wicked women? Not really

Dec29

I think I helped get a book removed from Amazon.

There was this book called Wicked women’s ways by Kumari Davies. I download it because it was free for the day and I wanted to see who received the designation of “wicked woman”. The blurb sparked interest but once I started reading the book, I was not impressed.

This is a look at women in world history. I don’t know what the author’s methodology was in choosing women for this book. They are famous prostitutes, warriors, and some criminals but not at the level of being wicked as I would believe that to be.

For example the harlot named Rahab hid Israelite spies leading to Jericho’s defeat. I guess she is considered wicked because she was a prostitute? Joan of Arc was also mentioned in the context of being wicked. But considering the fact that she was pronounced innocent years after her death, does that negate the fact that she was executed?

There are plenty of other women throughout history that I would consider more wicked then the women listed in this book.

The book did talk about women that I previously did not even know existed, but very few did I think were worth calling wicked. If a man had done some of the same things, he would be called courageous or valiant.

With e-books, it can be easy for a reader to get scammed because all you have to go on is the blurb about the book and the reviews. If the book had stayed free or even been $.99, I might not have bothered. The book regular price was $2.99

The fact that the book was so expensive for such little quality, I had to say something.

I put a scathing review on Amazon’s website. I did not want to imagine that someone would waste their money.

Now the link to the book is gone.

All searches for that author do not bring up that book. I searched every possible combination of title/author and it is not there.

Hope the author learns from this. Publishing a book is not copying and pasting some words and uploading to Amazon website.

Put some thought into your writings and I will gladly pay and give good reviews 🙂

Inconvenient duchess came at the right time

Dec26


The Inconvenient Duchess
by Christine Merrill

In the prologue Marcus makes his mother a promise while she is on her dying bed. He promises to marry a girl who was coming because of a promise his mother made to her childhood friend. Marcus is a duke and needs to get married to produce an heir.

Miranda arrives at his door during a rainstorm. Soaked to the core, the Butler does not turn her away. While she is waiting, she meets a very charming man and is hopeful that he is the Duke. Only to find out later that he was St. John, the Duke’s brother and the Duke and St. John do not get along at all. Miranda is so naive that she does not discern the undercurrents of animosity between them. Marcus marries  Miranda to save her honor but he makes it plain that he does not really want to do so.

Marcus bad attitude come about because he is quite jaded with women. In the beginning it seemed that he was still grieving his first wife, but he was disgusted with her deception and thirst for position and wealth. With all his emotional baggage, he has a difficult time understanding how Miranda can be true loyal and seemingly innocent.

After a non-eventful wedding night Marcus goes on his fact-finding mission in London to determine his mother’s sins. He wants to understand what caused her to feel so guilty to make him promise to marry Miranda. And while the Duke is away, young brother is doing his best to charm the new bride Miranda. It was like leaving a lamb in the company of a hungry wolf. She is confused because she thinks he’s being overly kind to welcome her to the family. Considering she is an innocent, she is clueless to his real intentions. As the reader I could tell St. John was up to no good.

I was wondering:

  • How far would St John really go?
  • When is Marcus getting home?
  • When will Miranda get a clue?

Marcus was in need of an honest woman who would live in harmony with her marriage vows. Miranda had a hard life through no fault of her own and she needed a chance to prove her worth. I got my happy ever after ending and Marcus and Miranda get what they need. St. John got some of what he deserves and a great dose of undeserved kindness.

The title The Inconvenient Duchess still puzzled me.  The only thing I can think of is that Miranda arrived at Marcus’s house at an inconvenient time I’m not sure what other title I could suggest, but the title does not really give any indication of the plot. Nevertheless I enjoyed the story. I was stressing a little bit because I wanted it to work out for Marcus and Miranda and knew that St. John was the main source of conflict.