Tag Archive | romance

Would you rather #BookTag

Book Tag: Would you Rather

I am doing this because I was inspired by one of my fave bloggers Romance 4 the Beach

Feel free to be inspired and share your answers in the comments or link to your blog post with the same tag.

Would you rather only read trilogies or only read stand-alones?

Stand-alones. I hate with a passion trilogies where each book ends with a humongous cliffhanger to make you want to buy the next book. It is like the author is trying to strong arm you into buying 2 additional books.

Would you rather only read male or female authors?

Female authors. I read a lot of romance and I have not seen many male romance authors.

Would you rather shop at Barnes and Noble or Amazon?

Amazon. Since I love my Kindle (just got a paperwhite YAY), I buy most of my books from Amazon already.

Would you rather books were made into TV shows or movies?

I would like to say neither because I do not think either do the book justice. But if I have to choose – Movies. The TV shows are more likely go off script when there are more seasons than books. I am a purist with this sort of thing.

Would you rather read only 5 pages per day or 5 books per week?

5 books per week! Reading 5 pages per day seems like water torture.

Would you rather be a professional author or reviewer?

Professional reviewer. That would be how I am now, but I would be able to support myself financially too. That’s like a dream come true.

Would you rather be a librarian or a bookseller?

Librarian. I love libraries. Funny story: Growing up, I was complaining that I did not have enough money to buy more books. My mom told me that she knew of a place where I could read all the books I wanted for free.

“Where is this magical place?” I asked excitedly.

“The library.”

Would you rather read only your favorite genre, or every other genre but your favorite?

What kind of question is this? My favorite genre, OF COURSE! All day, every day. Only a masochist would choose otherwise.

Would you rather only read ebooks or physical books?

This is difficult but I guess I would have to choose ebooks. I have close to 1,000 ebooks in my Kindle library now. With unlimited storage in the cloud…Let’s just say that makes me very happy to think of all my books. To infinity and beyond.

Ours to Save: ES Siren 9 – Shona Husk #ScifiRomance #netgalley

Aug21

I received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ours to Save: ES Siren 9 by Shona Husk

Synopsis
Micah and his daughter Sadie are on the ship Siren travelling to a planet that is going to be colonized. Since he has experience in agriculture, his skill set is seen as a benefit to the new settlers.

Felicity is imprisoned for her involvement as a radical Gaia Movement . As an explosives expert, she knows a lot of bomb making. Because of severity of her crimes, she is in a maximum security prison. She does not want her daughter to be stigmatized by the fact that her mother is a criminal, so Micah and Felicity keep their relationship secret.

Despite their best efforts, someone found out about their close ties and looks to leverage this information for their own nefarious plans. Threatening harm to the important people in her life was not a wise move. Felicity will do whatever she needs to do to ensure her family’s safety.

Opinion
At first this was difficult for me to get in to because it was not what I expected. I knew it was part of a series but I thought that it would still be okay to read as a standalone story. Logically I know this is book #9 of the series, but I was optimistic.

Once I was able to understand what this world was about, I was able to focus more on the plot. That being said, I think you are better off if you read some of the earlier books to get background for the story.

From Goodreads, here is the series in a nutshell

As a small fleet of ships makes their way toward a new colony the people on board find love and lust.

~~~Back to story~~~
Micah and Felicity were already in love when they were on their way to the new colony. For most of the story, I felt tense at the situation Micah and Felicity found themselves. Felicity’s feeling that Micah was too good for her and could possibly leave at any time, stressed me out. She loved him and could not understand why he was giving up a better life to love her back.

I felt sorry for Micah and Felicity. This is one of those screwed up situations where they cannot show in any kind of emotion that might prove how much they love each other for fear of someone trying to exploit the situation. Then someone did that any way.

Overall, I think that because the story picks up in the middle of their relationship timeline, there was not a lot of character development. I did not see this as steamy or sweet. It was raw in the sense that it deals with the realities of loving a person who is imprisoned. If a person likes that type of romance, they will love this book. I, on the other hand, prefer less stressful, more fanciful romances.

Ours to Save: ES Siren 9 Product Details
Print Length: 95 pages
Publisher: Momentum (July 23, 2015)
Publication Date: July 23, 2015

Can’t Shake You should be Can’t Understand You #contemporaryromance

Jul20

Can’t Shake You (River Bend, #1)

Synopsis

Carissa bought a house that she is remodeling to sell.

Josh is a contractor that helps Carissa after she fires her first contractor.

Carissa and Josh had a one night stand years ago, but decide that they cannot have a relationship now. Complicating things is the fact that Carissa dated Josh’s best friend. Plus Carissa’s best friend is marrying Josh’s brother.

Opinion

I think that Carissa thought that what she had with Josh was never going to happen again and that is why she decided dating his best friend was a good idea. Not a choice I would have made, but I guess she realized that she did not have many options in a small town. It is still confusing why Josh was not an option for a relationship.

What I could not understand about this story

Josh’s hesitancy to tell his best friend about dating Carissa. It was not as if they were still dating. What kind of ridiculous “I got dibs on her” type of childish nonsense was that? Josh and Carissa were sneaking around so that they could hide their relationship from one person. The way they were carrying on, it was as if one of them was married.

What really annoyed me about this story

Carissa’s best friend kept pushing her to sleep with guys as if she needed to be in a relationship to be happy.

Overall, this book was not the best, but was not the worst. The villain did not seem to have a decent grasp on reality. What stalker is a sane person? Josh’s reason for not making their relationship public was borderline ridiculous to me. But in the end, they get together and all loose ends are neatly tied up.

Should you buy? Yes as a time filler for an afternoon or while travelling, but do not pay more than 99cents (last I checked, it was free on Amazon)

Book details from Amazon

Print Length: 326 pages
Publisher: Molly McLain (February 21, 2014)
Publication Date: February 21, 2014

Available on Amazon

Finding #Love during #MardiGras is a sure thing #harlequinromance

Jul15

No Time Like Mardi Gras (One Night in New Orleans)

Synopsis

Jamie just moved to New Orleans and is experiencing her first Mardi Gras. Colin is a computer programmer who meets Jamie at a bar while helping out his friend the bar owner. After she accepts his offer to show her around Mardi Gras, passions were high fueled by their instant attraction. Plus Mardi Gras licentiousness stoked their simmering flame into a combustible event.

Alas, at the end of the night they get separated.

Knowing nothing more than first names, it was difficult for either party to follow up on the one night stand.

Colin’s ex-girlfriend helps him find Jamie. Meanwhile, Jamie, recently out of a very traumatic breakup with a sports celebrity, cannot decide if she wanted to be found or not.

They navigate their way through the relationship, dealing with ex’s and insecurities. In the end, they discover what is important while confessing their love for each other.

Opinion

This is one of those cotton-candy-types of romances. Sweet. Light. Fluffy.

The characters were amusing. I loved Colin. He was a cutie and a nurturer. Not my usual surly hero but a Prince Charming. At least he was a gamer computer programmer. I am more of a geek than jock girl.

However, I thought Jamie was overly neurotic. I know that she has reason considering she went from riches to rags plus no friends when she broke up with her sports celeb boyfriend. But get over it already! It was like she wanted to move on but could not.

Plus she had an annoying habit of micro-analyzing Colin as if he was just like her jerk ex. Since she was fresh out of a relationship, she should have taken it more slowly with Colin. Or at the very least, she should have been more open about (1) why she is relationship shy and (2) what drama she was still dealing with. It is exasperating that she wanted a relationship with Colin but wanted to shut him out at the same time. No wonder, he did what he did (not excusing him but saying I understand his frustration).

I thought the book happened all in one night/weekend. I was prepared to scoff at the early protestation of love. That was not the case. A plus in my book.

Overall, this is light fantasy romance reading. Series of very fortunate coincidences and they end up with a HEA.

This book in real life: two people have a one night stand during Mardi Gras never to see each other again even though they live in the same city. THE END

Should you buy? Even as annoyed as I got with Jamie, I think there were enough good points about this story to recommend reading. For the most part it is a predictable Harlequin romance.

Fierce #YAromance novel not quite

Jun20

Fierce (New Adult Romance) – #1 Fierce Series

Synopsis

Autumn is a self-proclaimed nerdy good girl in her first year at college.

Hunter is also a college student but he is a bad boy. As a testament to his badness, he is in an illegal frat club (more like a fight club).

The two meet and are drawn to each other. They have some classes together. They hang out more and more with each other as their relationship develops.

Opinion

This book was not my cup of tea for many reasons.

ONE: I like characters that are mature. Autumn was not. I rolled my eyes at the overused “Oh my God” and the many variations of the phrase. Since the story was written in first person from Autumn’s POV, I got even more annoyed with her character because she seemed to lack common sense.

Example 1: drug deal scene. She was shouting at Hunter WHILE he is trying to do a covert drug deal. I am in no way condoning that type of illegal activity. I do know that drawing attention to people who are trying to hide their nefarious dealings usually ends up with a person getting shot.

Example 2: Autumn’s relationship with her friend Evie. Her friend Evie is a lesbian who has a crush on her. Instead of telling the girl she does not feel the same way, she refuses to address it. It was almost like she was leading the girl on. Evie had to pointedly ask her what the status was. If Autumn was as good of a friend as she proclaimed, it should not have come to that.

TWO: How is Hunter still in college? He does not go to class most of the time. And when he is in class, he is not paying attention. Plus, I did not get the impression Hunter was the most adept fighter. The reason for his joining the fight club did not make much sense either. As with fighting in book or movies, my first thought is “How is it that the person does not have brain damage yet?” I think Hunter did have brain damage but does not realize it. He got hit in the head a lot.

THREE: By the end of the book, the author tried to bring all the elements of the story together, but it seem forced to me. After all Autumn had been through, she was still acting like a juvenile and it annoyed me. Meanwhile, Hunter magically appears to save the day at the end. How he extricated himself from his own precarious situation and still had time and the mental capacity to be a hero while defending his girlfriend is beyond me.

I read other reviews of this book and wondered if we were reading the same story. The reviewers were talking about how great Hunter and Autumn were. I was scratching my head trying determine if I was being too hard on the characters. In the end I decided that even though I know I sound like a grumpy old lady, I thought it was all ridiculous. I was reminded why I do not read young adult romance novels.