Surrender

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)

Necessary Detour review

Sep25

Necessary Detour ♥♥

Nikki is a rock star (stage name Goldy) who is looking for some rest and relaxation after retiring from the business. She has a stalker threatening her life, but that does not deter her from isolating herself in her house on the lake in a remote location. Pete is living in her neighbor’s house. The circumstances surrounding why he is there with his wife and son are really suspicious. There is attraction between them that they want to explore.

My issues with this story:

(1) Nikki’s life is in danger, but she insists on doing things that jeopardize her life. She knows the paparazzi are following her to get a picture, but she goes out in public in ridiculous outfits that draw more attention than detract. Dumb! Then, she would get frustrated when the paparazzi found her. For most of the book, I did not like her and was waiting for the stalker to catch her because of her failing to take sensible precautions.

(2) Pete seems to be married. Ummm. Yea. Since he is trying to give the appearance that he is married, then he should not be flirting with his neighbor. **Spoiler alert: He is not married.** But in the time that I thought he was, I was thinking he was really scummy for his actions. I could not settle into the romance until it was firmly established that Pete was not married. I do not care if the person is unhappily married. I frown on characters starting a relationship if he/she has not ended their marriage. Call me old fashioned.

(3) The last third of the book took a convoluted turn that threw me for a loop. It was as if it did not fit with the rest of the book.

Once I got past those points, the story was all right with fairly likeable characters (Pete more than Nikki). Besides the fact that Pete was not married, there were plenty of other twists that helped the story along.

Overall, if you want a contemporary, light suspense romance, you might like this. Keep in mind what I mentioned previously about the characters and you will be able to focus on the story better than I did. You might even rate it higher.

You can buy Necessary Detour on Amazon by clicking any of the links in this post.

Fallen Angel – Mona Ingram

Sep20

Fallen Angel ♥♥♥

Laura, addicted to prescription drugs, is in rehab. After weeks of therapy, she gets a job at a local hotel and winery. Bradley is there helping as well. He has his own problems. Once a fighter pilot, he suffered the loss of his voice because of a trauma related to a friendly fire accident. The attraction between them is palpable. Since he lost his voice, Bradley communicates with Laura using his cell phone to type messages to her.

In a nutshell, Fallen Angel follows two previously broken individuals who pick up the pieces of their lives and find love. The ending was satisfactory but unexpected.

I have found that Mona Ingram’s style lacks a little something for me. After reading her books, I was not filled with feelings of disgust as though I wasted my time. But I was not gushing about how sweet the romance was either.

The lack of emotional reaction on my part made me try to figure out why. What I can determine is that Mona Ingram gives a lot of detail to paint a picture for her reader. She gives the facts. She spends a great deal of time creating the scene but less time on the emotions feelings, and points of view of her main characters. I liked the plot, I was not drawn into the characters as real people. Their personalities remained 2-dimensional for me.
This is not to discourage anyone from reading this book. I think that her writing style does not enthuse me as it might for someone else.

Four Weddings and a Fiasco – the series

Sep15

Four Weddings and a Fiasco Boxed Set (Books 1-3) ♥♥♥

This compilation of books focuses on the people who work at Rose Chalet, a wedding venue.

The Wedding Gift (Four Weddings and Fiasco Series, Book 1) (Four Weddings and a Fiasco): Julie and Andrew ♥♥♥

Julie used to have her own restaurant until critic Andrew called her food boring. Now she is working as a caterer for Rose Chalet. She was trying so hard to cook the food people wanted to eat, that she lost focus of enjoying the art of cooking. Andrew helped her find that and discover love too.

The Wedding Dance (Four Weddings and a Fiasco, Book 2): Phoebe and Patrick ♥♥♥

Phoebe is the florist for Rose Chalet and is willing to live without love because she saw the pain her mother would feel after a breakup. In a twist to the usual romance, Patrick wants a commitment and Phoebe has commitment phobia. While he is thinking long term relationship, she is thinking about having a one-night-stand.

The Wedding Song (Four Weddings and a Fiasco, Book 3): Tyce and Whitney ♥♥

Tyce was a sweet musician who needs love to spark his creativity. Five years ago, he fell for Whitney and has not been right ever since. Now that he has her again, he needs to convince her that they belong together.

My thoughts:

For Julie and Andrew, I can see them being kindred spirits since they were both passionate about cooking.
I do not know how Phoebe and Patrick’s relationship is going to work. They did not discuss any of the particulars. Like, where are they going to live? Their story ended seemingly on this note: We are in love and everything will work out. I am not too optimistic.
I think that Tyce and Whitney’s relationship will work out. He loved her for 5 years or I should say that he waited for her for 5 years. But part of me is thinking: What if he loved the idea of her and the reality is different from what he expected? If that happens, then their relationship will fail too.

Out of all the books, I liked The Wedding Gift (Julie and Andrew) the most and The Wedding Song ( Tyce and Whitney) the least. Julie was spunky and a good balance for Andrew. He saw her potential and pushed her until it was realized. However, I was annoyed with Whitney’s duty to her family as a way of denying herself what she wanted. Maybe I am selfish, but in my opinion, her family was sucking her dry with no regard for her feelings. She should have put her foot down long ago.

As you can tell, I obsess over story lines. I need for the author to create an air tight plot line with engaging characters so that I get the feeling the romance is long lasting and not a temporary.

Side note rant about this series: I wish the author would have used the epilogue to wrap up the story of the main characters instead of using it to plug the next book in the series. I think most people who read the series get to know the characters in supporting roles are interested in knowing their story too. Readers do not need an “intro” at the end of the main character’s book. For a series about a wedding venue, none of the characters actually got married yet.

There are more books to this series, but I have not yet decided if I am going to read them yet. Trust me when I say, if I do read them, you will read the review on this blog 🙂

Check it out yourself and buy Four Weddings and a Fiasco Boxed Set (Books 1-3) on Amazon

GoGlow 5K

Sep9

I have discovered a new passion: 5K races

I have decided that I like running 5K races because they allow me to exercise with a purpose. My efforts each race are directly correlated to that amount of training and exercise I did in preparation for the race. If I schedule a race every couple of months, I cannot stop training since that would negatively impact my race time.

As you can tell from reading this blog, I also like to have fun. I do not mind doing a 5K, but if there is a theme, I definitely want to sign up.

That is why I signed up for the GoGlow 5K in Greenville, SC. It was hosted by Half Moon Outfitters and the track was at Conestee park (on Mauldin Road).
My friend and I got there 6:45 because in the email instructions, it said to get there early to make sure we get a good parking space. We could have arrived at 7:55 and still got a good parking spot. They overstated that.

Registration was a breeze. No waiting at all. When we got our shirts, we changed into them since they glowed in the dark. Then we went to the paint station and finger-painted neon paint on our face, arms and legs. In the email, they said there would be a painting station. The way they said it, made it seem like it was going to be larger than it was. There was one table with 4 or 5 bottles of different colors of paint and some paper towel.

More than one person said, “Where is the painting station?” I responded, “It’s here. I thought it would be bigger too.”

The race was supposed to start at 8:00, but it was not dark enough so they delayed it until close to 9:00pm.

And we were off! The email said to have a flashlight or headlamp because the trail would be really dark. They did not overstate that. In any event, they might have understated it. They should have put that in big, bold letters. I thought “How dark could it be?” but brought my flashlight anyway. It was SUPER PITCH BLACK dark. Seriously dark and the little glow sticks did not help light the path. And since we were running through the forest, there were tree roots, mud puddles, and other sorts of nature things that would have annoyed me if I stepped in it. As it was, even with the flashlight, I almost tripped twice on tree roots. Some young girls that were ahead of us warned us about the puddles. I was wearing new running shoes and would have been quite put out if I had got them dirty in the mud! I forgot my bug spray, but thankfully, there were none biting that night.

We finished in 59 minutes and 30 seconds. Not my best time, but considering it was pitch black dark in a forest trail with roots and steep inclines, I think we did pretty well.

Overall, I had fun. I would do it again. The race event coordinators did a good job of keeping things organized. However, I would have liked more direction on the trail. There were times when we were not sure which way to go