Review - The Queen's Promise by Lyn Andrews

Kindle: 496 pages
Publisher: Headline
Publication date: 28 Feb 2013

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 075538671X

Alluring Anne Boleyn knows she is required to use her charm to her advantage - and secure the status of her family at the Tudor court. She easily captivates the noblemen, most notably Henry Percy, future Earl of Northumberland and, hopeful of her father's approval, Anne agrees to a secret betrothal.

Controlling Cardinal Wolsey, though, will not countenance an alliance which could threaten his position. Exiled to the north, Henry is forced into a marriage of duty, whilst Anne's fortunes reverse when she bewitches the King himself. Unwilling to be simply his mistress, Anne will settle for nothing but the throne. But great power brings even greater enemies, and Anne's past actions - and long-kept secrets - might prove to be her undoing...

Anne Boleyn's life and subsequent death have been the subject of many, many books. She was a fascinating woman and her story makes for a riveting read.

There can't be many angles left which haven't already been explored to tell her story but The Queen's Promise seems to have found a refreshing one. It's told mostly from the viewpoint of Sir Henry Percy and his squire and really Anne is just one of the supporting cast, rather than the main focus. This is a story about Henry, for the most part. Anne is in there, obviously, but the story most Tudor fans will recognise has been turned inside out and it's like being on the inside looking out, rather than the outside looking in.

I liked that about this book. Henry Percy is usually mentioned briefly in most other stories about Anne. He was the young gentleman who fell in love with the young Miss Boleyn and I don't really know that much about him but I felt I got to know him so much better, thanks to this book.

It's got it's flaws and sometimes I got frustrated that it wasn't heading in the direction I wanted it to follow but overall it's a great story which is well told.

A great book for Tudor fans, History fans and romance fans. It's still a tragic tale but it's got a bit of everything in here.

Review - Unbelievable by Jennifer Pickup

Kindle: 320 pages
Publisher: Unbound
Publication date: 05 April 2012
ASIN: B00WDP9IP8

Neona White is rather extraordinary. The thing is, while she knows that she's very different from other teenagers, she doesn't know quite how different…yet.

A traumatic incident leaves Neona without the desire to keep living and a fear that she's not entirely human, and her mother is less than forthcoming. She is soon sent to live with her Grandmother where, after making some unusual new friends, she begins a dangerous quest to unravel the mysteries of her identity. Her supernatural identity.

Neona continues to face the eternal struggle between what people want her to be and who she actually is, as the world she thought she knew begins to disclose its unbelievable secrets.

I read this over a few days and my enjoyment of it rose and fell throughout. In the end I came down on the side of 'Really liked' because it was a good story, but there were a few times when I thought it was going to end badly for my rating.

My biggest problem with it was the secrets and lies and all the cloak and dagger stuff. It drove me mad. The story itself is a good one but I felt that a lot of the suspense and angst just didn't make sense. It felt forced and as the story progressed it became obvious that the withholding of information wasn't justified or explainable.

The whole tale revolves around Neona (the heroine) being different but not knowing why or how. She asks those closest to her if they know anything that will help her figure it out and they all say "NO, we know nothing". Something happens and they all say "Oh yeah, I knew that but didn't tell you when you asked because....Really? I'm not sure why I can't/won't tell you". I'm paraphrasing but that's about the size of it all the way through. 

She asks questions - she gets no answers or only half answers - something happens and she finds out a bit more herself - they tell her they knew that all the time but didn't tell her - she asks if they know more - they say "No" - something new happens and she finds out they knew about that too - and on and on and on. It became tiresome. 

Having said all that, I did like the story. I would want to find out what happens next but if there is any more to this story I'll hope the 'secrecy for secrecy's sake' is missing.

Review - The Greatest Love Story of All Time by Lucy Robinson

Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: Penguin 
Publication date: 12 April 2012

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0241952986

It's Fran's thirtieth birthday and things are good . . .

She's bluffed her way into a Very Posh Job and her outlandishly handsome and talented boyfriend Michael is escorting her to the Ritz with a bulge the shape of a ring box in his pocket.

But something has gone wrong. Very wrong. By the end of the evening Fran is howling in bed with a bottle of cheap brandy and one of Michael's old socks.

In her quest to figure out why her life has suddenly gone down the pan, Fran comes up with a failsafe plan: live like a badger, stalk a stranger called Nellie and cancel her beloved Gin Thursdays in favour of drinking gin every night. But then Fran's friends force a very different plan on her and it's nowhere near as fun. How could eight dates possibly make her feel better?

But eventually she agrees. And so begins the greatest love story of all time . . .

This has so many good reviews, I thought I was in for a great read. I was disappointed.

There was a lot of swearing in this one and despite not being bothered by it I did think it was a bit overdone for a Chick-lit read. That's not the reason I didn't warm to this story though...the single defining reason that this was a terrible read for me was Fran's Scottish friend, Dave. Yes, he's funny and yes he's a good friend to Fran but as soon as he called her by the cute little 'nickname' he had for her I couldn't bear him.

I'm Scottish so I've heard that word used plenty, and in it's proper context. It's really NOT a nice name. It certainly isn't a name to be used in affection for a close (female) friend by a man. *shudder*

There's no grey area here, it's just simply not a name anyone would want to be called. It's derogatory. The word might sound harmless to someone who's unsure of it's meaning, but it's really not.

Had it been used once I might have been able to overlook it. Maybe. But it's used over and over and over. If Dave were real he'd find himself without any friends if he persisted in calling them that name.

I can only assume the Author knows the word from a Scottish acquaintance and used it without knowing the connotations. It was a terrible choice of word. Had she checked the Urban Dictionary she'd have been in no doubt that it was a poor choice.

For me, that word just sucked all the joy out of reading this.

Review - Dead Road Vol. 1 by Robert Paine

Paperback: 51 pages
Publisher: Smashwords 
Publication date: 07 July 2013

ASIN: B00DTXDRAA

It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation. It turned out to be the complete opposite...

A camping trip in the mountains of Vermont is interrupted when a group of friends discover there has been a zombie outbreak. Having been disconnected from the world for the past week, and one of their group already bitten, the friends have to make their way down the mountain and find safety.

Can the group cover miles of dark woods on foot while trying to avoid getting overtaken by the undead? What caused the outbreak? Are there any other survivors?

Just a little mini-review because it's just a little mini-story.  I don't know why I keep trying these serial stories... Oh wait, I do...The first parts are free! 

51 pages.  It's like a couple of chapters worth and not very satisfying.  The story itself had potential but too much of my reading time was spent picking out typos and tense slippage and wishing ill luck on the characters as they were tstl. 

Ok, so imagine this - You're a guy and and you and two of your spooked guy friends are being chased down a mountain track by a pack of zombies.  There are probably a couple dozen of them and they're only 5 minutes behind you on the trail.  You stop for a second to catch your breath and a stray zombie stumbles out of nowhere and knocks you flat and tries to eat you.  Your friend takes a hatchet to it and eventually stoves it's head in.  It's all good but when you get up off the ground you notice there's zombie gunk on the back of your jeans.. Oh noes!.  It's stinky and messy!  

Do you:

• a) Say "Whatev's" and keep running down the mountain because you just wasted 4 minutes of your 5 minute lead while fighting off the stray one?  

Or:

• b) Strip off your pack, your hiking boots,  your jeans and your socks, root around in your pack for clean jeans and barely get your new pair of jeans on before you see the minute lead that you had on the zombies has actually now dwindled to about 10 seconds which results in you taking off barefoot to complete the last 9 miles of the mountain hike to the bottom?

Our MC chose poorly.  He went with option 'b'.  

Yeah, I know...  Give me a break! 

It just goes downhill from there (no pun intended) and I stopped caring about how stupid it was because I knew I only had about 5 more minutes until it was finished. 

It'll come as no shock to hear that I won't be buying any further into the series.

Review - The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date: 25 September 2012
ISBN13: 9780547859262

Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers can get a taste of the real world. But the real world comes to her in this dystopian tale with a philosophical bent. Rumors of massive unrest on the “Outside” abound. Something murderous is out there. Amish elders make a rule: No one goes outside, and no outsiders come in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man, she can’t leave him to die. She smuggles him into her family’s barn—at what cost to her community? The suspense of this vividly told, truly horrific thriller will keep the pages turning.

Is this a Movie yet?!! If not, why not?!! 

I've been wanting to read a story featuring the Amish for quite a while now and have been collecting interesting ones when I find them.  I've had this one since it first came out but was put off a bit as I think it's YA.  I don't usually get much from YA stories but there are always exceptions, plus I was also in the mood for something end-of-the-world-y so I figured I could use this one to kill two birds with one stone.  I wasn't sure what I was getting into as Vampire apocalypse and the Amish don't really go together...Turns out they go together like PB & J!!

I. Loved. It.  Simply wonderful.  I lapped it all up and the only reason I didn't finish it in one day was that I had to sleep, otherwise I'd have ripped through it.   

Great writing, great storytelling, great characters, great dialogue, great everything.  Plain folk and scary vampires, what's not to love?! 

I've heard that the next one isn't as good but I'm going to try it anyway and I'll hopefully get to it this week while it's all still fresh in my mind as I'm keen to see what happens next.  Especially if the Bishop meets a grisly end. 

Review - Red winter by Drew Montgomery

Paperback: 291 pages
Publisher: 3.5 Miles Behind Stage Publishing
Publication date: 13 Apr 2013

ASIN: B007U92R4Q

Accounts of the plague are few and far between. No one knows how it started or how it spread so quickly, and even in the era of social media, little was recorded. There were, however, a few who struggled to keep hope alive, to maintain a semblance of normalcy in the face of panic. This is the blog of one such person, unaltered and unedited so that the world may know of the last days of life as we know it.

The fall of humankind told through one man's blog in the suspenseful prologue to The Plague, now available.

I found this one deep down in the far reaches of my kindle shelves so it must have been there some time as I rarely venture down there these days.  I'm guessing it must have been a freebie at some point because I wouldn't pay the current price of £0.99 for it.  It's 33 pages long.  Granted, it's not too terrible as short stories go, but still...33 pages. 

It's not without some typo's and at least one slippage in tense but overall it was entertaining while it lasted.  I'd actually be happy to read a full book about this apocalyptic world. The zombie apocalypse is always something I can get behind and rarely tire of and this was a nice addition.

It's set out in a sort of blog format and is written by a survivor on his own (If his name was given I don't remember it).  The blog entries are spaced out over about a month and it's nicely done and the pacing is good.  The ending was satisfying but I wish it could have gone on for longer.  It's quite hard to find good zombie fiction that is just about the surviving aspect but this one ticked most of my boxes so a bit disappointed it wasn't longer.  I see that the author has a longer one available called Plague though so I'll give that one a try too. 

Review - Nowhere But Home by Liza Palmer

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: 02 Apr 2013
ISBN13: 9780062007476

Queenie Wake, a country girl from North Star, Texas, has just been fired from her job as a chef for not allowing a customer to use ketchup. Again. Now the only place she has to go is home to North Star. She can hope, maybe things will be different. Maybe her family's reputation as those Wake women will have been forgotten. It's been years since her mother-notorious for stealing your man, your car, and your rent money-was killed. And her sister, who as a teenager was branded as a gold-digging harlot after having a baby with local golden boy Wes McKay, is now the mother of the captain of the high school football team. It can't be that bad…

Who knew that people in small town Texas had such long memories? And of course Queenie wishes that her memory were a little spottier when feelings for her high school love, Everett Coburn, resurface. He broke her heart and made her leave town-can she risk her heart again?

At least she has a new job-sure it's cooking last meals for death row inmates but at least they don't complain!

But when secrets from the past emerge, will Queenie be able to stick by her family or will she leave home again? A fun-filled, touching story of food, football, and fooling around.

Mostly I pick which book to read next based on cover alone.  When I first buy the book I skim the blurb to see if it's in the ballpark of something I'd like and to make sure it's got nothing in it that would turn me off.  After sitting on my kindle or bookshelves for eons I've usually long forgotten what it's about by the time I finally get around to reading it.  I rarely if ever read the reviews for books I'm about to read either so I go in blind most of the time. 

I read across all kinds of genres so my shelves are a total mismatch and riot of covers and I never know what I'm in the mood for until one of the covers calls to me.  

This cover called.  From the looks of it I had thought it might be a quirky Small Town Romance but it's sooo much more. Actually, I wouldn't even call it a romance, it's just Small Town but I still love this book!

I'm never very good at giving a quick run through of plot and there's just so much to this one that I barely know where to start with it but long story short...

The names of the MC and her sister actually threw me a bit in the beginning and took a while to grow on me but eventually I just loved everything about them, including their names.  Queen Elizabeth and Merry Carole.

Queen Elizabeth (Queenie), is a talented chef and originally from a small Texas town (North Star).  She has spent the past ten years moving from one job to another and from big city to big city to try and outrun her past which has left her with a lot of emotional baggage.  Top of her baggage list would be - Being raised by an uncaring and at times cruel mother who had a taste for other women's husbands, a town full of mean girls and snobby first families who took delight in letting her (and her sister Merry Carole) know they were considered trash, and a broken heart from the man she's loved since they were in junior school together.  After losing her latest catering position and tied accommodation she returns home to North Star to try and collect her thoughts and see where she should run to next. 

While she's considering her options on where to head next she's offered a position as chef at the local prison, with the responsibility of cooking the Last Meal for prisoners on Death Row.  

It all sounds a bit bleak, no?  Just take another look at that cover though... It's a story about finding yourself and making your own luck and laying your demons to rest by meeting them head on.  It's such a great story and I'm selling it short and probably turning a lot of people off it but it's brilliant. 

For all it sounds depressing it's actually really heartwarming and the characters are vivid and funny and likeable and the Texas setting just came to life for me.  I loved every single thing about this book.  Everything!

I'm rambling.   I find it really hard to put into words how I feel about 5* books but I want to let as many people as possible know that this is a great read.  My mum isn't much of a reader but I pick out two or three titles a year to pass on to her as being special and this one went straight to her house. 

I'm going to go now and buy all Liza Palmer's other stories and although I may take my time in getting to them I know that when I do they'll be written by someone who knows how to tell a story.  This lady can write!

DNF - The Rich are Different by Susan Howatch

Kindle: 566 pages
Publisher: Sphere
First Publication date: 15 Mar 1977
ISBN - 9780751553123

First lines - "I was in London when I first heard of Dinah Slade. She was broke and looking for a millionaire, while I was rich and looking for a mistress. From the start we were deeply compatible."

1983 Synopsis - Dinah Slade was young enough to be Paul Van Zale's daughter. But she didn't care. She was a very ambitious and beautiful woman with her eye on Van Zale's tremendous fortune. However, she hadn't counted on falling in love. Paul found himself attracted to Dinah in a way he had long forgotten. Her vitality, her sensuality, consumed him. With her he could forget his past, his wife, his enemies, his empire....

2013 Synopsis - When ambitious, exciting Dinah Slade becomes passionately - and dangerously - involved in the private and public life of American millionaire Paul Van Zale, it is the beginning of a violent battle over his business empire and a ruthless struggle by two women to win his heart. We follow the fortunes of Dinah Slade from the boardrooms of Wall Street across the ocean to the Norfolk Broads, from the Roaring Twenties to the Great Depression and the Second World War. For two decades she stakes everything on winning the fight, in business and in love - and at any cost ...

Urgh, I'm so disappointed.  This cover caught my eye years ago and I added it to my wishlist because I was so drawn to it (I'm shallow, yeah).  Finally got it on my kindle and it has gathered dust there until I finally cracked it open.  I didn't have the first clue what it was about, other than it was to do with rich folk and the Wall street crash of the 1920's.  Good enough.

The first chapter was promising.  Second chapter ended and it was game over.

I can't even remember the names but we'll call him 'Rich guy' and we'll call her 'Little girl'.  God knows how old he was but kept talking about his 'front hair', whatever the hell that was (but I do know it was on his head o_0) and she was 21.  He's a rich American banker and she's a stupid English girl who needs to borrow money to save her Estate in the country.

The first thing he wants to know about her when he finds out that she wants to meet with him is, "Is she a virgin?" 

Well, it turns out she was, right up until he combed his front hair and took 40 seconds to remedy that situation.  Ack!.  Whatever.   I just can't do it.

I've just found out it was written in 1977 and was probably considered racey back then but now...it's just lame. 

Lots of people seem to like it and I know I'm in the minority, but it's not for me.

DNF.

Review - Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Paperback: 563 pages
Publisher: Scholastic
Publication date: 01 May 2005
ISBN13: 9780439709101

One cruel night, Meggie's father reads aloud from a book called INKHEART-- and an evil ruler escapes the boundaries of fiction and lands in their living room. Suddenly, Meggie is smack in the middle of the kind of adventure she has only read about in books. Meggie must learn to harness the magic that has conjured this nightmare. For only she can change the course of the story that has changed her life forever.

This is INKHEART--a timeless tale about books, about imagination, about life. Dare to read it aloud.

Inkheart isn't aimed at adults but it was entertaining enough and kept me reading to the end.

The cover of the book makes it appear like a light, fantasy story filled with fairies and nice things......but nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, there are a few fairies but only enough to fill a sentence or 3, the rest of the book is given over to dark, sinister types with murderous intent.

The concept is a fascinating one. The ability to read characters and things out from the pages of a book. As great as that sounds, the reality of it is more of a curse than a gift as the lead characters find out, and you're left wondering right up to the end how they can put things to right.

If this book has any flaws, it's perhaps that at times the pace stalls and is slow to pick up again, also I feel the villians seem to be a bit too one dimensional. Pain, suffering, misery and fear seem to be all there is to them but perhaps since they're a 'baddie' in a storybook, that's all they need ???

I wouldn't recommend it to be bumped to the top of anyone's TBR pile but it's a nice book to fill in the 'between books' times, that might crop up.

Review - The Future for Curious People

Paperback: 317 pages
Publisher: Pan Books
Publication date: 02 Sept 2014
ISBN: 978-1444770360

What if you could know your romantic future? What if an envisionist could enter the name of your prospective mate into a computer that would show you a film of your future life together?

In The Future for Curious People, a young librarian named Evelyn becomes obsessed with this new technology: she can’t stop visiting Dr. Chin’s office because she needs to know that she’ll meet someone and be happy one day. Godfrey, another client, ends up at the envisionist’s office only because his fiancée insisted they know their fate before taking the plunge. But when Godfrey meets Evelyn in the waiting room, true love may be right in front of them, but they are too preoccupied—and too burdened by their pasts—to recognize it.

I just lapped this story up! I could barely put it down and read it cover to cover in almost one sitting. It's just so good and exactly the sort of thing I love. I was just sucked in from page one.

It's a romance but with a bit of a twist - For anyone who wants to see their romantic future with a potential partner there is a service available called 'envisioning'. With the help of Dr Chin and his coin operated envisioning machine, Godfrey Burkes initially sets out to see his future with his potential fiance but a chance meeting with a woman in the waiting room leads him to question his future with the woman he had hoped to marry. His other half is also visiting another envisionist's office hoping for some guidance in her romantic future as she has questions she'd like answered before she says 'Yes'.

Told in alternating point of view between Godfrey and Evelyn it's very entertaining and such a joy to see it all come together as the story plays out. All the characters were really fleshed out and the dialogue between them all is hilarious. I loved the main characters, Godfrey and Evelyn, but the secondary characters were every bit as wonderful. I just loved them all. They're quirky and likeable so much fun to read about. 

This would make a fantastic rom-com movie. The characters and dialogue are just begging to be put on the screen and I'll keep my fingers crossed that someone sees the potential for that because I'd love to see it. 

From start to almost finish I had this pegged as a five star read but I was a bit disappointed by the ending. Everything else was given proper page-time to play out and was so well constructed but the ending felt a bit rushed. It wasn't a satisfying conclusion given how wonderful the rest of the story was.

I think this is the first romance I've ever read which was written by a male author but hopefully it wont' be the last. This author can definitely write.

Review - The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Paperback: 291 pages
Publisher: Random House
Publication date: 26 June 2012
ISBN13: 9780812984750

On an ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia awakes to discover that something has happened to the rotation of the earth. The days and nights are growing longer and longer; gravity is affected; the birds, the tides, human behavior, and cosmic rhythms are thrown into disarray. In a world that seems filled with danger and loss, Julia also must face surprising developments in herself, and in her personal world-divisions widening between her parents, strange behavior by her friends, the pain an vulnerability of first love, a growing sense of isolation, and a surprising, rebellious new strength. With crystalline prose and the indelible magic of a born storyteller, Karen Thompson Walker gives us a breathtaking portrait of people finding ways to go on in an ever-evolving world.

When I started this I thought I was going to get some kind of Apocalyptic End of the World type story but I can't really say that's how it turned out. It's more a coming of age type story with a bit of monumental planetary change in the background.

It's a very good story and it's very well written, this lady can definitely tell a great story. It's just not what I was expecting. I thought the title was referring to an Age as a period in time but now I'm wondering if it's a reference to the chronological age of the narrator.

The narrator is 11 year old Julia and she tells her story mostly from a point in the future as she looks back on what happened when the Earth stopped rotating. What we never find out is 'why' it happened. I'm not sure if it's because Julia is/was 11 and just wasn't concerned with the 'why's' but it was a little frustrating to only get some of the picture.

Mostly it's about growing up, first love, transitioning into adulthood and dealing with pre-teen issues...with a backdrop of potential apocalypse. If it were just a straightforward coming of age tale I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. It's a great story but I was in it for the End Of The World and seeing that side of things play out were what kept me going.

Very well done and scarily believable. Overall I really liked it and would recommend it..

Review - Once a Ferrera Wife by Sarah Morgan

Paperback: 480 pages
Publisher: Harlequin Presents #3043
Publication date: Feb 2012
ISBN13: 9780373130498

For better...or for bedding?

Laurel Ferrara wouldn't know a happy ending if she fell over it - of course her whirlwind wedding was always going to end in disaster. But it wasn't as simple as just walking away. From the moment she is summoned back to Sicily, the shivers of unease set in....

The command comes from legendary billionaire Cristiano Ferrara, the husband she can't forget - but it might as well have come from the devil himself. The outrageously gorgeous Cristiano's power is a potent reminder of this Sicilian dynasty's unbreakable rule: once a Ferrara wife, always a Ferrara wife....

It's been a while since I read any Mills & Boon but this one has made me remember how much I used to enjoy them. This isn't the first book I've read by Sarah Morgan but I didn't realise she was a M&B author too so I'll have to see if there are any I've missed. I hope there are lots more as she writes such great stories and I'm always charmed by her characters.

The chemistry between Cristiano and Laurel was electric and I was rooting for them the whole way through. I don't always enjoy romances to have friction and misunderstandings that need to be worked through but here I just lapped it up. For anyone who is familiar with M&B type romances it's quite predictable- separated couple who are thrown back together during a family member's wedding have to work through their differences while trying to convince themselves and each other that they've moved on. I just love stories about reunions with ex's. They sometimes frustrate me because a lot of the misunderstandings could be avoided if they would just sit down and talk to each other but they spend all of their energy trying to hide their true feelings and thinking the worst of each other. They do say that the path to true love never runs smooth, I suppose and it wouldn't be much of a story if they sorted it all out in the first chapter after a quick chat.

Wonderful setting of Sicily and Cristiano was a great Italian hero. Laurel was just the right mix of strong yet vulnerable and I actually shed a tear or two as they worked out their differences.

Lovely story and one I'd go back to.

If you're looking for another great Sarah Morgan story, try The Tortured Rake (Bad Blood - Book 1) it's every bit as wonderful as this one.

Review - Cowboy Take Me Away by Jane Graves

Kindle: 428 pages
Publisher: Forever
Publication date: 28 April 2013
ISBN13: 9781455515196

FIRST LOVE BURNS HOTTER

Rainbow Valley, Texas, has always been a refuge for animals, and Shannon North, director of the local shelter, intends to keep it that way. But with donations drying up and more pets in need of a loving home than ever before, Shannon's beginning to fear she's not the savior the shelter needs. When a tall, dark, and handsome cowboy from her past comes to the rescue, she knows that accepting his help may come with a high price: her heart.

THE SECOND TIME AROUND

Bad boy Luke Dawson shook the dust from this little town off his boots years ago. He walked away from everything...except the memory of the one night of passion he shared with Shannon. Now, a few wins away from becoming the world bull-riding champion, Luke's headed for fame and fortune. But then a crisis calls him back to Rainbow Valley, and Luke is reunited with the good girl who stole--and broke--his heart. As their rekindled relationship deepens into desire, old secrets resurface, and Luke must choose between the future he's always dreamed of and the only woman he's ever loved.

Small Town Romance in Texas ~This was so wonderful! I loved it so much! It's the first book in a series called Rainbow Valley. I can't fault it at all, it's all kinds of awesome! I don't have enough chick lit under my belt to know what's formulaic and what's not but I think if all of them were this kind of perfect I'd have no problem with that and could read them all day long. I'll definitely be looking out for any and all cowboy romance books from now on.

I tried to make it last as long as I could while at the same time wrestling with the urge to race to the last page to see how it ended. I just ate up every word.

It's got a tortured and troubled Rodeo hero (cowboy Luke *swoon*) who shares history with the reluctant heroine (Shannon) who runs the animal shelter, a deluded dentist who also hopes to snag the heroine, an overbearing mother and a kitchy sister who sells found treasures on ebay, a few quirky gal pals and some rescued animals in desperate need of new, loving, forever homes. Did I mention the cowboy? It's just so good! I barely know where to begin to explain how much I loved it. I can't put it into words... It's romantic and funny, sad and touching, exciting and inspiring. It's got it all.

The little side stories are so cute too and I really hope there's another story in the pipeline for Russell the dentist I'd love to know how he gets on. To begin with I just wanted him to get lost and grow a pair but by the end I was rooting for him and I hope he gets a story of his own.

It's just a really, really good story which has been written really, really well. I'll maybe let my thoughts settle and see if I can come up with a more coherent review, at the moment I'm just too gushy and fangirly over it to string a decent sentence together.

My only small gripe is with the ending, it seemed rushed. I wanted to know every little detail but the last chapter was 'this happened' and then 'this happened', The End. What was there was good, but I felt I was being hurried to the exit door with a firm hand on my elbow.

I'm desperate to read the follow on book(s) and I will.  Soon!

SUCH a great read!

Review - True Love by Jude Deveraux

Paperback: 516 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication date: 27 May 2014
ISBN13: 9780345541819

Just as Alix Madsen is finishing up architectural school, Adelaide Kingsley dies and wills her, for one year, the use of a charming nineteenth-century Nantucket house. The elderly woman’s relationship to the Madsen family is a mystery to the spirited Alix—fresh from a romantic breakup—but for reasons of her own Alix accepts the quirky bequest, in part because it gives her time to plan her best friend’s storybook wedding.

But unseen forces move behind the scenes, creaking Kingsley House’s ancient floorboards. It seems that Adelaide Kingsley had a rather specific task for Alix: to solve the strange disappearance of one of the Kingsley women, Valentina, more than two hundred years ago. If that wasn’t troubling enough, Alix must deal with the arrogant (and extremely good-looking) architect Jared Montgomery, who is living in the property’s guesthouse.

Unbeknown to Alix, Jared has been charged with looking after her while she lives on the island—an easy task for him, considering the undeniable chemistry between the two. But Jared harbors secrets of his own, which, if revealed, may drive a wedge between the pair.

With a glorious Nantucket wedding on the horizon, sparks fly, and the ghosts of the past begin to reveal themselves—some of them literally. Finding their lives inextricably entwined with the turbulent fortunes of their ancestors, Alix and Jared discover that only by righting the wrongs of the past can they hope to be together.

True Love is the first in The Nantucket Brides series - #1

This is the first Jude Deveraux book I've read so I don't know how it compares to her earlier stories but I believe the Montgomery family in this one are the descendants of the original Montgomery's from one of her earlier series.  I'm not entirely sure.

Anyway, the story... I enjoyed it.  Eventually.  I liked it right from the start but there was something that I can't quite put my finger on that stopped me from loving it.  It was a gradual thing because the two main characters took a bit of time for me to warm to and were more than a little frustrating in the beginning.  They grew on me over time though and as their romance blossomed I started to root for them. 

Usually I like my mysteries and romance story's kept separate and prefer one or the other but the two mingled really well here and I really liked the ghostly interactions.  I don't think it wouldn't have been half as good without them.  It's like two romances for the price of one. 

The setting of Nantucket is a good one and I got a real feeling of the place's beauty and History as I read.  Sounds like a wonderful place.  I'm not sure I'll want to read further into the series though.  I might have to get the earlier Montgomery series and start at the beginning to get a better feel for them all.  Maybe I'm just missing something here by not having read the others.

If you haven't read the other series it won't matter, this is a stand alone series (I think) but maybe having read her earlier work would have made me more attached to this one.

It's a lovely beach read kind of book and I'd recommend it if you like a bit of paranormal with your romance.

Review - The Three by Sarah Lotz

Kindle: 480 pages
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date: 22 May 2014
ISBN: 978-1444770360

First Line - "Come on, come on, come on..."

They're here ... The boy. The boy watch the boy watch the dead people oh Lordy there's so many ... They're coming for me now. We're all going soon. All of us. Pastor Len warn them that the boy he's not to­­--

The last words of Pamela May Donald (1961 - 2012)

Black Thursday. The day that will never be forgotten. The day that four passenger planes crash, at almost exactly the same moment, at four different points around the globe.

There are only four survivors. Three are children, who emerge from the wreckage seemingly unhurt. But they are not unchanged. And the fourth is Pamela May Donald, who lives just long enough to record a voice message on her phone. A message that will change the world.

The message is a warning.

I had heard that this was a cross between Lost and The Passage so I went into it with a little trepidation as I loved Lost and hated The Passage. Now that I've finished I'd have to say that it's probably more like the former rather than the latter (but only loosely) and I'm glad because I got a great read.

The Three is an epistolary novel and is told through a series of electronic documents (blogs, email, skype transcripts and recordings), letters, newspaper clippings etc. It's a book within a book. When it's done well the epistolary format adds a feeling of realism to the story, it mimics how events would be documented if it were to actually happen. I don't always enjoy this style of writing (World War Z springs to mind) but Sarah Lotz is very talented and played the style to perfection

In some circles it's being touted as Horror but apart from being a bit chilling and having creepy kids in it it's not what I'd class as Horror. I'm struggling to know what genre it should be be in though. It's got apocalyptic undertones but that's not close enough either. It's a tough one. It's also a frustrating one. At the end I had no idea what it had all been about. Not. A. Clue. I think that's the point though, nobody has a clue what happened and nobody can agree.

I had read somewhere that it takes about 100 pages to get going so when it was struggling to hold my interest in the beginning I kept at it and ploughed on. So glad I did, it turned out to be gripping, interesting and very well executed. It was sometimes hard to keep all the characters straight in my head because the chapters are really short and whip about in time and place but that just adds to the urgency and suspense of it all.

It's very hard to write anything about the storyline without spoilers so it's not easy to put into words what I most liked about this one. It's a bit surreal, if I'm honest. That part at least is very similar to Lost. The downside would be that I didn't really get any closure on the story as it's very ambiguous and that was a cause of frustration for me, I got to the end of the last page and wondered what on Earth I'd just read. I needed answers and I didn't get all of them.

LOVED the story though. If this isn't made into a movie soon then there is something wrong with the film-makers. If ever a book was crying out to be made into a film, this is it. I can't wait.

I will definitely read more by this author. The lady can write!


*Note - I received a complimentary copy of this title from the publisher*

Review - Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Corgi childrens
ISBN: 978-0552546126

First Line - "Her laugh turned to a moan at the first ripple in her bones."

Vivian, at 16, is a beautiful young werewolf with all the young wolves in her pack howling for her. But then she falls in love with a human. If she reveals herself, will he be able to relish the magic of her dual nature? Then squabbles with her pack lead to a brutal murder.

I've bypassed this book quite a few times and it's been overlooked because of one thing....I didn't realise it was about werewolves. Had I known that, I'd have snapped it up long before now. How I missed this one I'll never know.

I was drawn into this within a few pages and the story just grabbed me. It's a story about teen angst and love and decisions and betrayal and loyalty and just generally growing up and coming of age.... but with werewolves. I very easily got caught up with the story of Vivian, who has as many problems, if not more, then your average teen.

This book may be geared towards a young adult audience, but it can definitely be enjoyed by those of us who are young at heart and can still remember their youth. Klause pulls off a sensual story about the supernatural without making it seem cheesy. The characters are believable, the shape shifter culture is well rounded and Vivian's world comes alive on the page.

I've got the film on DVD here too but I haven't watched it yet. I don't know the first thing about the film, I've avoided reading anything about it so I'll be going in blind :D

Review - Mrs Sinclairs Suitcase by Louise Walters

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Hodder paperbacks
Publication date: 14 Augst 2014
ISBN: 9781444777451

First Line - "My Dear Dorothea"

Forgive me, Dorothea, for I cannot forgive you. What you do, to this child, to this child's mother, it is wrong...

Roberta likes to collect the letters and postcards she finds in second-hand books. When her father gives her some of her grandmother's belongings, she finds a baffling letter from the grandfather she never knew - dated after he supposedly died in the war.

Dorothy is unhappily married to Albert, who is away at war. When an aeroplane crashes in the field behind her house she meets Squadron Leader Jan Pietrykowski, and as their bond deepens she dares to hope she might find happiness. But fate has other plans for them both, and soon she is hiding a secret so momentous that its shockwaves will touch her granddaughter many years later...

This is a dual timeline story and I liked it quite a bit. Told in alternating parts from the point of view of Roberta, a thirty something single woman working in an independent bookshop in present times, and her grandmother Dorothy during the WWII.

I find with most dual time period books that I'm drawn to one era over the other and this was partially true with this one. I really liked Dorothy's sections set in the early 1940's. I liked Roberta's parts a bit too but really felt that it was secondary to the real story. There's a bit of mystery, tragedy, hopefulness, regret and at the heart of it a love story, of sorts. There's a lot of heartbreak here and it seems like a lot has been packed into less than 300 pages.

I would never have guessed that this was a debut book, it's very well written and I'll probably look out for more by this new author


*Note - I was sent a copy of this title by the publisher*

Review - Blood Red by Jason Bovberg

Kindle: 276 pages
Publisher: Permuted Press
Publication date: 07 April 2014
ASIN: B00JK1UW4E

First Line - "Rachel!"

Rachel is 19. She doesn’t know how to handle her new stepmother, let alone the end of the world. But after finding her stepmother dead, Rachel is suddenly racing against time—and terrifying, unnatural forces—to survive a gruesome apocalyptic event. Outside her door, the college town of Fort Collins, Colorado, is filled with corpses, and something unfathomable is happening to those bodies. And it’s only just begun. As Rachel struggles to comprehend her horrible new reality, she’ll need to find answers to questions she never thought she’d ask—all while desperately searching for her lost father, on whom she pins all her hopes for coming out of this phenomenon alive and intact. But nothing will be as it seems.

Well now, here's an interesting one. End of the World? Yes. Zombies? No. Plague? Not really. Aliens? Hmmm, might be. Maybe? Possibly? It's not obvious what caused The End but the story kicks off right at the point of things turning nasty and we're off and running from the get-go.

This is quite a tough one to review because most of what I want to say is likely to be riddled with spoilers. I'll have to try and skirt round the spoils...

So, Rachel is 19 and wakes up early one morning to a town littered with corpses. It looks as though whatever caused the mass demise of the population happened instantly to everyone at the same time but what that 'something' is isn't clear. So far, so good. Very quickly she becomes aware that there is something unnatural happening to the bodies. Something creepy. Now, what I _want_ to do here is say what I think has happened to them all but that would be one of the spoils I mentioned having to skirt around so I'm going to just going to say that it all seems a bit 'otherworldly'.

The whole story takes place in just over 24 hours(ish) so there's a lot packed in but because Rachel has no clue what is going on we don't have a clue either. Part of the fun of this is speculating possible (probable) cause but with no answers forthcoming it's a bit frustrating too. But in a good way.

Luckily Rachel finds she's not the only survivor and as with all good apocalypse stories she teams up with the random mix of people she meets. I like the characters, it's a nice mix. Cop with firearms, crazy unhinged one, new friend on the same wavelength, stable older person... the usual stuff.

What I'm not fond of though, is that even at the end I can't seem to grasp what the corpses have become. Despite having it spelled out for me plenty of times I'm still not clear on even the basics - what they look like, how they move... I just can't picture them. The fault may lie with me because it's mentioned plenty throughout, but I'm just not getting it. I hope it's turned into a movie so I can get a better idea.

The best bit and the worst bit (for me) was right at the very end. How it ended was brilliant, a twist that makes me want more...but it made no sense. Why? How? I..he...but...huh? I will definitely read the next one, I have to find out what that was all about. It was a gut-punch ending.

The story was a good one and the guy can definitely write but I'm compelled to mention the narrative style. It really rubbed me the wrong way. It's a bit different to what I'm familiar with and sometimes different can be a good thing but it just didn't work for me here. There was a dis-connect for the first few chapters while I tried it on for size but even when I got accustomed to it I never really warmed to it. Third-person present. I'm not a fan. Reading tastes differ but it just seems weird and unnatural to me to read in that tense.

Don't let that put you off though there's a decent story here.


*Note - I received a complimentary copy of this title from the author*

Review - Meant to Be by Terri Osburn

Hardback: 308 pages
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Publication date: 21 May 2013
ISBN: 9781612183084

First Line - "Why did this Godforsaken Island have to be in the middle of the damned water?"

Lifelong people-pleaser Beth Chandler will do anything to make a good impression on her future in-laws, including defy her fear of boats to make the ferry crossing required to meet them. Lucky for her, a lovable mutt and his tall, sexy, blue-eyed owner provide enough distraction to subdue her paralyzing panic attack. But Beth’s human tranquilizer turns out to be her future brother-in-law, Joe Dempsey, and their instant attraction is both unwelcome and undeniable.

Joe expects his brother’s fiancé to follow the materialistic, blonde-bimbo stereotype that is Lucas’ usual fare. Wild-haired, sweet-natured Beth doesn’t fit the part, but she does fit Joe and his island better than any woman he’s ever met. Though the men haven’t been close for years, Joe would never put the moves on his brother’s fiancé. That means Beth is off limits, no matter how much he wants her.

When a demanding case pulls Lucas back to the city, Beth realizes her fiancé is already married – to his work. Are solitary nights and mind-numbing dinner parties really what she wants? Torn between loyalty to Lucas and her growing feelings for Joe, Beth rethinks her choices and contemplates a future different from the one laid out before her. One that includes an island, a dog, and a man she can never have.(

I've been reading a lot of small town romances lately and this one is really good. I liked it a lot. It's more of a 'small island' romance but it has all the hallmarks I've come to expect. This is the first in the Anchor Island series and it's so good.

It's very predictable, right from the first chapter it's clear what's in store but with these kind of romances that doesn't phase me, it's the journey rather than the destination that's important.

I loved the two main characters and their chemistry was believable, I felt a little bit uncomfortable at first with the 'choosing between two brother's' thing but actually it's not as skeevy as it sounds. The secondary characters are really endearing too, all the islanders. Sid, I love. I can't wait to read more about her in the next book. I hope Lola is mentioned somewhere too because she such a big character and I didn't get to find out enough about her.

All of it is just a really nice romance. Nice characters, nice setting and a great start to to a new series. I'll definitely be reading more of this one.



*Note - I was sent this by the publisher

Review & GIVEAWAY - The Moon Sisters by Therese Walsh

Hardback: 336 pages
Publisher: Crown
Publication date: 17 March 2014
ISBN: 9780307461605

First Line - "The night before the worst day of my life, I dreamed the sun went dark and ice cracked every mirror in the house, but I didn't take it for a warning.."

A poignant and mesmerizing novel is a moving tale of family, love, and the power of stories. After their mother's probable suicide, sisters Olivia and Jazz are figuring out how to move on with their lives. Jazz, logical and forward-thinking, decides to get a new job, but spirited, strong-willed Olivia, who can see sounds, taste words, and smell sights, is determined to travel to the remote setting of their mother's unfinished novel to say her final goodbyes and lay their mother's spirit to rest.

Though they see things very differently, Jazz is forced by her sense of duty to help Olivia reach her goal. Bitter and frustrated by the attention heaped on her sunny sister whose world is so unique, Jazz is even more upset when they run into trouble along the way and Olivia latches to a worldly train-hopper. Though Hobbs warns Olivia that he's a thief who shouldn't be trusted, he agrees to help with their journey. As they near their destination, the tension builds between the two sisters, each hiding something from the other, and they will finally be forced to face everything between them and decide what is really important.(

I loved this one! So much. I was offered this one by the publisher, Crown, and I'm so thrilled I accepted because it's my favourite book so far this year. I barely laid it down from start to finish. I'm a REALLY slow reader usually but I just rattled through this one.

It's hard for me to write a review of something I loved over one I hated as it's all about the 'feels' for me and I can't put it into words sometimes. (Just an FYI - with this one I have a lot of feels and chances are that this review is going to be all over the place because of it.)

I don't read very much in this genre (is it Women's fiction? Family drama? Coming of Age?...I'm not sure) but the thing that drew me to accepting this one was the mention of Synesthesia. It's a condition I've heard of before but don't really know anything about. It's fascinating. No two people who are affected by the condition have the same experiences and it varies from person to person but Wiki describes it as -

"A neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who report such experiences are known as synesthetes.

Loosely explained, it's the ability to hear colours, or smell sounds, or even taste words. It's fascinating to me.

Anyway, the story. It's just so interesting! Told in alternating chapters from Jazz and Olivia's points of view with some chapters interspersed with letters written by the girls' mother to her father when she was alive. Is it fate or luck that leads someone to make a certain decision over another? Is life all mapped out for us or is it just being in the right place at the right time? Maybe it's a bit of both?

I really cared about the characters, I loved them, both the main two girls and their family and the interesting people they meet on their journey (and their stories which run alongside Jazz and Olivia's are equally wonderful). Brilliantly written, evenly paced and satisfying to the end.

I'm not doing this justice at all, I'm all over the place. I can't find the words. I just loved it all and everyone needs to read it!

If you'd like to be in with a chance to win your very own copy, consider entering my giveaway HERE Winner will be drawn on March 16th 2014.

Good luck if you decide to enter!!