Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Review: Heaven Right Here

Heaven Right HereHeaven Right Here by Lutishia Lovely

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Heaven Right Here tells the story of three friends, Stacy, Frieda, and Hope. Stacy is shocked when her ex-husband (who is now married to his male lover) decides to sue her for custody of their son. Hope is happily married to Cy, except that she desperately wants to have a baby but so far they have been unsuccessful, plus Cy's old stalker comes back into their lives. Frieda is the requisite party girl of the bunch who will sleep with any rich man available.

This started off very slow and it took me awhile to get into the characters and the story. I was pretty much done with Stacy when she decides she wants her ex-husband back and sets about to seduce him. (Um, hello, girl, he is GAY!) Hope's insecurity about Millicent wasn't very interesting either.

The story did start to pick up right about the part where Stacy has a health scare and I liked her a lot better after that. I was happy with the way her story ended. I found the ending between Hope and Millicent to be a little too unbelievable. Frieda's story ended with a cliffhanger, but I really have no desire to see what happens next.

Three stars for this one. A decent read, but not one I would buy or read again.



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Challenges: 100 Books in a Year

2011 Summer Romance Challenge



Book Chick City is hosting the 2011 Summer Romance Challenge. I figured I would sign up since I haven't really read any contemp romances yet this year (despite entering another Contemporary Reading Challenge at the beginning of the year), so this is another reason for me to get cracking on that. Here are the rules:


Timeline: 1st June 2011 ~ 30th Sept 2011. Only books started on June 1st count towards this challenge.

Details:

1. Anyone can join. You don't need a blog to participate.

2. 4 months, 8 books - that's doable, right? Or if you want to push yourself further, double it to 16!!

3. Any book format counts except audiobooks.

5. The books you choose can crossover into other challenges you have on the go.

I'm going to try and read 8 books and will track my progress here.

1. Harvest Moon-Rochelle Alers
2. Summer at Willow Lake-Susan Wiggs
3. Fools Rush In-Janice Thompson
4. The Winter Lodge-Susan Wiggs
5. The Wolf Prince-Karen Kelley
6. Last Night's Kiss-Shirley Hailstock
7. Seduced on the Red Carpet-Ann Christopher
8. Queen of His Heart-Adrianne Byrd

Completed on September 27, 2011

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Review-Eclipse

Eclipse (Twilight, #3)Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Finally finished Eclipse aka The One in Which Edward Remains Dull, Bella Remains Pitiful, and Jacob Remains Awesome.

So it took me almost a month to read this book, not because it wasn't good, but because I haven't had a lot of time to read lately. I usually try to read at least a chapter in a book before I go to bed, but these books have like 25+ pages in a chapter and that's just not gonna happen without me falling asleep. So it was slow going, but I'm finally done!

So, this is now my favorite in the Twilight series. Bella is still a pathetic shell of a girl. I hate how she's always so angry at Charlie and Jacob for stuff, but when Edward does something (like taking parts out of her truck so she wouldn't be able to visit Jacob and bribing Alice to baby-sit her) she's quick to forgive him. She has no backbone whatsoever when it comes to him.

Jacob, as I said, remains awesome in every way, except his one tragic flaw, that he's in love with Bella. I really cannot understand this at all, since she's as dull as dishwater, he needs someone as feisty and vivacious as he is.

We find out Rosalie's backstory in this book, which was very interesting. I already liked Rosalie (since she can't stand Bella) and her backstory made me want to learn more about her. We also find out Jasper's backstory, which I didn't enjoy as much, and it kinda dragged the story a bit. It does set up the whole conflict with the newborns and all, but I found that whole part of the story kind of meh.

I also really liked the fight scene between Victoria and Riley, and Edward and Seth. I typically don't like these scenes (see: fight with James in Twilight and then the Volturi nonsense in New Moon) but it was actually quite interesting in this one. We also meet the character of Bree Tanner, one of the newborns. She was intriguing enough to make me want to pick up and read The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (not any time soon, though.)

My favorite scene though, was the part where Bella, Edward, and Jacob are in the tent during their "camping" trip or whatever it was, and Jacob has to keep Bella warm throughout the night. I loved the whole part. Jacob is so cool, he even made those two Dull Dorises semi-interesting.

The ending of the story came as no surprise, since I am semi-spoiled for Breaking Dawn. I get that Bella is so in love because Edward is OMG, just the most beautifulest vampire evah!!!! but I just don't get why she's so willing to give up her human life to become a vampire. Well, I guess I can understand. She treats all the people in her life (Charlie, Renee, her friends at school) like dog doo that got smeared on the bottom of her shoe, so I guess it's no wonder that she'd rather spend all of eternity with her beloved Cullen clan. Me, personally, I couldn't give up Cokes and chocolate to live off blood for the rest of my life, no matter how fine that man is.

Anywhoo, so I loved this one and can't wait to watch the movie this weekend!



View all my reviews

Source: borrowed from a friend
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, Young Adult Reading Challenge

Monday, May 2, 2011

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? (18)

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by The Book Journey.

Last Week:
Sweet Valley Confidential-Francine Pascal

Currently:
Eclipse-Stephenie Meyer
Why Men Love B*tches-Sherry Argov

What are you reading this week?

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Series Sunday Review (1): Sweet Valley Confidential

Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years LaterSweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later by Francine Pascal

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Series Sunday is a meme hosted by Literary Marie of Precision Reviews.

*Read an installment of a series.
*Post a review/recommendation on your blog, FB, Twitter, Goodreads, or Shelfari pages.
*Share your review/recommendation by posting the link in the comments section below.
*Include the title, author, and name of the series so that other Series Sunday participants can add the book to their TBR Lists.

My first contribution to Series Sunday is Sweet Valley Confidential, which is part of the Sweet Valley series. My teenage years were consumed with Baby-sitters Club and Sweet Valley books, and I grew to love many of the Sweet Valley characters, so I was very excited to see this "where are they now" book that picks up 10 years after the SVH books.

I had read a few subpar reviews before I read this myself, so thankfully I wasn't expecting too much. However, I was disappointed anyway. These characters in this book were not the same characters I loved in the SVT, SVH, and most of the SVU series. Most of the plotlines were unimaginative or just plain WTF (Steven Wakefield and Aaron Dallas, anyone?). The way Elizabeth finds out about Jessica/Todd is stupid. The resolution to Jessica and Elizabeth's fight is stupid. I feel as though I just spent $10 to read a piece of fanfiction posted on fanfic.net.

It wasn't totally terrible, however. I did kind of like the parts about the friendship/relationship between Elizabeth and the playwright. And I liked how in the final catch up chapter, they mentioned Easy Annie and Nicky Shepard, two of my favorite characters from two of my favorite SVH books. But yeah, that's about it. If this was the best Francine Pascal could do, she could've kept it.




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Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, E-Book Challenge
Source: purchased at BN.com

April Reading Recap

April was a horrible month for me, so not too much reading took place.

Books Read: 5
Favorite Book Read: Torn Between Two Lovers by Carl Weber
Least Favorite Book: all the other 4 were equally blah
Number of Books Purchased: 2
Library Visits: 2
Books Won/Received: 1

Challenge Progress:
*100 Books in a Year Challenge: 5 Total: 24
*Mystery and Suspense Challenge: 1 Total: 5
*YA of the '80s/'90s Challenge: 0 Total: 1
*Show Me the Free Challenge: 0 Total: 1
*Read Me Baby, One More Time: 0 Total: 1
*Contemporary Romance Reading Challenge: 0 Total: 0
*E-Book Challenge: 0 Total: 1
*YA Reading Challenge: 1 Total: 6