Review-'Twas the Spy Before Christmas

'Twas the Spy Before Christmas by Connie Keenan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a cute little holiday novella. I really enjoyed the characters of Dan and Beth and their growing romance. I actually wouldn't have minded if it had been a full-blown novel, just to see how their relationship progresses.



View all my reviews

Source: Freebie from B&N (still free!)
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, Show Me the Free, E-Book Challenge, Contemporary Romance Challenge

Review-The Bite Before Christmas

The Bite Before Christmas by Heidi Betts

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This Christmas story is actually 3 novellas in one. The first one is about millionaire vampire Connor Drake who is desperate to get his home in the holiday spirit. His vampire friend, matchmaker Angelina, sets him up with event planner Jillian. The second story is about Angelina's fried Vivian, who is madly in love with her coworker and is devastated when he tells her he is dying. And the third story is about Angelina herself, who has an "It's a Wonderful Life" style intervention regarding her own boyfriend Ian.

I really enjoyed the first two stories, the third one not so much, although I did like Angelina as a character. The author has an easy to follow writing style, very humorous and snarky. I would read more by this author.



View all my reviews

Source: Freebie from B&N (no longer free, though)
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, Show Me the Free Challenge, E-Book Challenge

Review-God's Gift to Women

God's Gift to Women: A Novel by Michael Baisden

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


God's Gift to Women is a novel by radio personality Michael Baisden. I had read his book The Maintenance Man a few years ago, which I wasn't too impressed with, but I decided to give him another chance.

This novel is a typical fatal attraction story, where the main character Julian Payne (a radio host, just like Michael Baisden, what a coincidence!) has a one night stand with a woman named Olivia. Julian lets Olivia know that this is only a one night stand because he and his daughter will be moving to a new city the very next day. Olivia won't take no for an answer and follows them there.

I didn't really like Julian and I thought he was kind of a punk about the whole thing and the story had a few plot points that just seemed dumb and implausible (like Olivia becoming a longterm substitute at Julian's daughter's school...is it that easy just to become a sub?) but it did leave me on the edge of my seat, wondering what would happen next. A quick, enjoyable read.




View all my reviews

Source: Library
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year

Review-Visions of Sugar Plums

Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This Plum holiday novella has been on my bookshelf for a few years now and I've never gotten around to reading it. I've been pretty much over the Stephanie Plum series for awhile now, and I'm only reading the rest for completion, but I figured since this book came out awhile ago that it might have some of the same magic of the earlier Plum books.

No such luck. It opens with a man named Diesel miraculously appearing in Stephanie's living room, and unfortunately he's there throughout the rest of the book as some sort of piss-poor Ranger replacement (who is nowhere to be seen in this one.) The rest of the book includes the usual Plum antics: Stephanie's car catches on fire, Lula attacks some midgets, Grandma Mazur loses her teeth, Joe kisses Stephanie on the forehead, same old same old

A very generous three stars. It had a few enjoyable moments, but they were few and far between and I have no intentions of reading any of the other Plum holiday novellas starring Diesel.



View all my reviews

Challenges: 100 Books in a Year

Review-I Loved You First

I Loved You First by Reena Jacobs

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I Loved You First is a young adult novella about a college student named Alex, who has a crush on her best friend Seth. Seth is the perfect guy and the perfect best friend, except for one being problem: he's gay.



I liked Alex as a character and could relate to her in some ways-hanging on to Seth because he was her only friend, and leading Dink on since he was the only guy to pay her some attention. I've always had trouble putting my own self out there and making friends, so I could understand how Alex felt in that regard. I didn't like Seth and it did annoy me that Alex was so hung up on him and I was waiting for her to get over that. The story dragged some but it did have me wanting to see what would happen next. A decent, coming of age novella that would be a quick, enjoyable read.



View all my reviews

Source: Received from author for an honest review
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, Young Adult Challenge, E-Book Challenge

Review-The Hot Box

The Hot Box by Zane

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Zane has always been one of my favorite authors and this book definitely shows why.

The two main characters are Lydia and Milena, two best friends from a small town. Despite living in the small town, Lydia has big dreams and hopes to one day make it big in New York City or Hollywood. For the time being, she's stuck working part-time as a cashier at Food Lion and living with her safe but boring boyfriend Glenn. To spice things up a bit, she's also been sleeping with Glenn's best friend Phil for years.

Milena had planned to have the perfect life. She was going to marry Jacour, a hot shot baseball player. However, she learned that he slept with some strippers at his bachelor party so she called off the wedding and went into seclusion, swearing herself off from men. That is until Jacour comes back into town and she has to find a guy to pretend to be her boyfriend, so Jacour doesn't think she needs him. Enter Yosef, a man she literally finds in the street.

As always, Zane creates colorful characters that you can relate to and a spicy, steamy plot that makes you want to keep reading. I enjoyed the little twists at the ending, especially Milena's. A definite must-read.



View all my reviews

Source: Library
Challenge: 100 Books in a Year

Review-If You Walked In My Shoes

If You Walked In My Shoes by Gwynne Forster

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



In this story we have Coreen a successful business woman who has a secret: years ago when she was a teenager she was raped by a classmate, and she gave the baby up for adoption. No one knows this, including her husband Bates and his two sons. Coreen and Bates already have enough strain on their marriage, due to her blossoming career.

Frieda Davis is the child that Coreen gave up all those years ago, and now, as a grown woman, she has vowed to find Coreen and get revenge on her for giving her up and causing her to spent years being sexually abused by her foster father. She comes up with a plan to ease her way into Coreen's life so that she can make it miserable.

The premise of this book sounded really good, but unfortunately did not live up to that. It dragged on in many parts and not one of the characters was likeable at all. The only thing that kept me reading was to see exactly what Frieda would do when she finally met up with Coreen and even that was a letdown. This is a generous 3-star rating.



View all my reviews

Source: Library
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year

Series Sunday Review (5)-In Between Lies

Series Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Literary Marie. Here is my Series Sunday pick:

In Between Lies by Shawna Hill

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In this story, we have Savannah, a successful career woman who has been hurt by love before. She cautiously enters into a relationship with Kevin, a handsome weather reporter from the local news. Kevin seems like the perfect guy, but of course he's hiding a secret: namely his ex, a crazy, stalkerish woman named Naomi. Even though Kevin is happy with Savannah, he can't resist slipping back into Naomi's bed.

This was a typical crazy-woman-stalks-man-and-his-new-woman story, but there were a few twists and turns along the way. It started off a bit slow and it took me awhile to warm up to the characters of Savannah and Kevin, (also there were quite a few grammatical errors that made the teacher in me cringe) but the story line did keep me on the edge of my seat and wanting to find out just what would happen next. I enjoyed the cliffhanger ending and I look forward to reading the next installment in this series, to see what crazy Naomi will do next.



View all my reviews

Source: downloaded
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, Contemporary Romance Challenge, E-Book Challenge, Show Me the Free Challenge

Series Sunday Review (4)-The Wolf Prince

Series Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Literary Marie.

My series Sunday pick for this week is:


The Wolf Prince by Karen Kelley

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



In this story, we have a pretty, blonde rich girl named Darcy who lives in a big mansion. She has dreams of becoming a PI, but her adoptive mother thinks it's too dangerous for her. One day while out strolling in the woods, she thinks she sees a wolf, and then thinks someone is trying to attack her, so she hits him over the head with a stick.

Turns out she hits the head of a guy named Surlock, who is completely naked and after being hit, can't remember who he is or what he was doing there. So Darcy decides to take him in and have him pretend to be her boyfriend to impress her parents.

Throughout the story, Darcy and Surlock grow attracted to each other and sleep together several times, much to the disappointment of Darcy's longtime friend Peter who has decided he loves her.

This was my first paranormal romance novel (not counting the Twilight series, which I love) and it was not a favorable introduction to this genre. Darcy and Surlock are nice, but I just couldn't find myself caring anything about them. In fact, at the end of the story when Darcy gets kidnapped, I was hoping her kidnappers would kill her off so the book would end. It was just long, boring, and tedious. I was going to abandon it around 80 pages in, but then it picked up a bit, so I kept reading. That was a mistake, because it just went downhill from there. The only good parts were the love scenes.

The Wolf Prince is the third book in the Princes of Symtaria series, although it can be read as a standalone. I have no desire to read any other book in this series.



View all my reviews

Source: Library
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, 2011 Summer Romance Challenge

Review-So Much Closer

So Much Closer by Susane Colasanti

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Brooke is a high school junior who, on the last few days of junior year, decides she needs to profess her love to Scott, a fellow junior whom she believes she is destined to be with. Before she can tell him her feelings, she learns that he and his family are moving from their New Jersey town to New York City.

But not to worry! Brooke then decides that she's going to follow him to New York because she will move in with her father who abandoned her and her mother years ago who just so happens to live in the neighborhood that Scott is moving into. How convenient!

I normally hate stories that have plot contrivances like that so I was a little iffy on this one at first. However, I really liked Brooke and being able to watch her adjust to her new life in New York. She starts her senior year at the same school Scott goes to, and they have a fun class together called Out the Box. We are able to see what happens with Brooke's crush on Scott as well as the relationship with her father, and her new friends Sadie. Sadie finds out what a genius Brooke is and gets her to sign up for tutoring, where Brooke begins tutoring another senior named John, an eccentric boy with a learning disability.

I really enjoyed the characters of Brooke, Sadie, and John. I like how "take charge" Brooke was in regards to her feelings for Scott. I wish I had her determination! I also enjoyed her rants about the public school system. As I said, Brooke is a genius, but gets by on Cs in school, simply because her teachers (before she came to New York and met the Out the Box teacher) never challenged her or forced her to step up. As a public school teacher myself, it's things like this (even though this book is fictional) that let me know that I do need to be here to show that not all teachers are simply here for a paycheck(small as it is anyway.)

I wasn't too much a fan of Scott, and the outcome of he and Brooke's situation could be easily predicted, but it was still interesting to read how it happened. I was very pleased with the ending.

A solid four stars and I definitely recommend this enjoyable young adult read.



View all my reviews

Source: Library
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, Young Adult Challenge

Series Sunday Review-The Winter Lodge

Series Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Literary Marie. I'm posting mine early since, due to Hurricane Irene, I possibly might not have any power tomorrow (hopefully I will. But all the schools will not have any so I won't have work on Monday. Wishful thinking, of course.)

The Winter Lodge by Susan Wiggs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The Winter Lodge is the second installment of the Lakeshore Chronicles, a series set in the small town of Avalon, New York. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in the series, Summer at Willow Lake which told of the romance between Olivia Bellamy and Connor Davis. This book focuses on Jenny Majesky, the illegitimate half-sister of Olivia.

Jenny is the owner of the town's bakery and has just suffered the loss of her beloved grandmother. Then one night her home ends up catching on fire and she is forced to spend a few days living with the chief of police, Rourke McKnight. Jenny and Rourke have long had feelings for each other. But Rourke had graciously stepped aside when his best friend Joey professes his love for Jenny and they become engaged. Rourke carefully keeps his heart guarded and never lets anyone get too close.

I enjoyed this story, although not nearly as much as Summer at Willow Lake. Jenny and Rourke aren't as interesting as Olivia and Connor. I did like finding out what had happened with Jenny's mother and why she had abandoned Jenny (and Olivia's father) all those years earlier. We also find out more about Daisy Bellamy, Olivia's teenage cousin, who has her own little crisis to deal with. I definitely recommend this follow-up to Willow Lake and I look forward to the next in the series.



View all my reviews

Source: Library
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, Contemporary Romance Reading Challenge, 2011 Summer Romance Reading Challenge

Review-Something Borrowed

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Rachel White is the consummate good girl. A hard-working attorney at a large Manhattan law firm and a diligent maid of honor to her charmed best friend Darcy, Rachel has always played by all the rules. Since grade school, she has watched Darcy shine, quietly accepting the sidekick role in their lopsided friendship. But that suddenly changes the night of her thirtieth birthday when Rachel finally confesses her feelings to Darcy's fiance, and is both horrified and thrilled to discover that he feels the same way. As the wedding date draws near, events spiral out of control, and Rachel knows she must make a choice between her heart and conscience. In so doing, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk everything to be true to yourself.

This was a really good book, although very predictable. Everything that you think will happen, does, but the book still kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering if it would deviate from the predictable path (it never does.)

I really liked the character of Rachel and I could identify with her in a lot of ways. Not in the having-an-affair-with-your-best-friend's-fiance way, but because I know what it's like to be 30 and still single and feeling as though you will live the rest of your life alone. I could identify with feeling as though you are always in competition with your friends. And once she and Dex began the affair, I could understand her pain and frustration of not knowing if he shared the same feelings as her.

We are clearly supposed to dislike Darcy, which I do. Just when you are wondering why Rachel even bothers being friends with her, there is the scene with their sleepover after Darcy's bridal shower, which I thought was really cute and allowed me to like Darcy a little bit, up until the end when she messed that up again. I do like Emily Giffin's writing style and I am curious to see what happens with Rachel and Dex's relationship and Rachel and Darcy's friendship, so I do plan on reading Something Blue, the sequel to this one, even though it is from Darcy's point of view.



View all my reviews

Source: purchased from B&N onto Strawberry
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, E-Book Challenge

Review-Summer at WIllow Lake

Summer at Willow Lake by Susan Wiggs

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Real estate expert Olivia Bellamy reluctantly trades a trendy Manhattan summer for her family's old resort camp in the Catskills, where her primary task will be renovating the bungalow colony for her grandparents, who want one last summer together filled with fun, friends and family. A posh resort in its heyday, the camp is now in disarray and Olivia is forced to hire contractor Connor Davis—a still-smoldering flame from her own summers at camp. But as the days grow warm, not even the inviting blue waters of Willow Lake can cool the passions flaring or keep shocking secrets at bay. The nostalgic joy of summers past breathes new promise into a special place and people…a promise meant to last long after the season ends.

I downloaded this freebie awhile ago and am just now getting around to reading it. I thoroughly enjoyed it! The main character, Olivia, travels back to her family's old camp resort to renovate it for her grandparent's wedding anniversary. Olivia spent many summers there as a child and teen, and while there, she met and fell in love with Conner Davis, her first love who ends up breaking her heart.

Olivia heads back to Camp Kioga with 3 failed engagements under her belt, and she's not looking for any type of romance. But who ends up being the only contractor in town who can help work on the camp renovations? Conner Davis. As they get reacquainted with each other, the chapters flashback to when they were teens at the camp, and what drew them to each other, caused them to fall in love, and what forced them apart. I generally don't like stories that use a whole lot of flashbacks (like in Sweet Valley Confidential...yuck) but I didn't mind it at all in this instance, because we got a lot more insight into Olivia and Conner.

Also, there are two sub-plots, one involving Olivia finding out a shocking revelation about her father, and the second involving Olivia's younger cousin Daisy whose parents are going through a divorce that reminds Olivia of her own parents' divorce years ago, and Julian, Conner's rebellious half-brother who is sent to spend the summer at the camp with him. Again, I generally dislike sub-plots in romance novels, because they usually involve people I don't care about, and they take away focus from the main characters. But I really enjoyed reading the back story on Olivia's father, and the budding friendship between Daisy and Julian. Apparently Susan Wiggs has a whole series of these books, focusing on the people from Camp Kioga, and I look forward to reading them all.



View all my reviews

Source: Freebie from B&N
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, Contemporary Romance Reading Challenge, 2011 Summer Romance Challenge, Show Me the Free E-book Challenge, 2011 E-Book Challenge

Review-Diamond Revelation

Diamond Revelation by Sheila Copeland

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Apparently this book is the third in a series (preceded by A Chocolate Affair and Chocolate Star). I wish I had known that before reading this book, so I could've read those first and then I might've liked this one more.

The main characters in this story are Sabre, a young up-and-coming music star; Topaz, a veteran musician with the perfect family; and Nina, Topaz's cousin who is trying to revamp her recording company.

None of these three characters was likable at all. Sabre sets out to destroy Topaz's life once Topaz decides to return to the music industry. Topaz's stupidity continues to cause problems in her marriage. And Nina is too busy smoking pot to properly run the music label. In between all that is a typical baby switching/who the baby daddy drama. The ending, while sad, is very predictable.

Source: Library
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year



View all my reviews

Review-Remember Me

Remember Me by Christopher Pike

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Shari Cooper was a typical teen with boyfriend trouble and cravings for chocolate cake. Now she's a ghost trying to solve her own murder.

This has always been one of my favorite Christopher Pike books. Excellent story with interesting characters, especially the main character, Shari. Through Shari we get an in depth look at death as she sets out to prove that she did not jump off a balcony to her death at a friend's birthday party, and that she was in fact, murdered. The suspects are the other kids at the party: Jo, Shari's best friend; Dan, Shari's boyfriend who has been cheating on her; Beth, the birthday girl whom Dan is cheating with; Amanda, a shy, quiet girl who is the daughter of Shari's housekeeper and the girlfriend of her brother; and Jeff, the guy Jo has a crush on. As Shari travels in the afterlife trying to make some sense of her death, she is joined by a former classmate, Peter, who was killed in a motorcycle accident and Jeff's brother.

This story is full of twists and turns and is an enjoyable, creepy read. Shari Cooper definitely gets her one wish when the reader is finished this story: people will remember her.



View all my reviews

Source: Library
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, Mystery and Suspense Challenge, Young Adult Books of the '80s and '90s, Read Me Baby One More Time

Mini-Reviews

Princess Sister by Sheila Copeland

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Nice story. The characters weren't fully developed, but they were okay. I enjoyed the fact that the family was from Paris (I love that city and hope to go one day.)



View all my reviews

Source: Library
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year


Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl-A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship by Sherry Argov

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Very eye-opening. I'm a total nice girl. gave me some good ideas on how to be a Babe In Total Control of Herself.



View all my reviews

Source: Library
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year

Review: Heaven Right Here

Heaven 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.



View all my reviews

Challenges: 100 Books in a Year

Series Sunday Review (1): Sweet Valley Confidential

Sweet 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.




View all my reviews

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

Review-The Night Before Thirty

The Night Before Thirty: a Novel by Tajuana Butler

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This one was a little slow. It tells the story of five different women who have never met, but all share the same birthday.

The five women are Catara, Tonya, Elise, Lashawnda, and Alecia. None of them were extremely interesting characters, but I did like Catara and Elise the most, since they were the most relatable. Catara is a plus-sized woman who wants to be a fashion designer, but is unable to move forward in her career. Tonya loves her boyfriend Chris, but not his drug-dealing, street behavior. Elise has opened up her own gymnasium for kids and meets a new guy, but is unable to tell him her true feelings. Lashawnda is tired of being disappointed by men, but finds out that being with a woman isn't much better. And Alecia is the typical, spoiled, gold-digger who is having an affair with a married man. The five women all win a radio contest in which they are able to spend their thirty birthdays on a luxurious cruise.

The story was quite predictable and a tad formulaic. There are some "make you think" moments, but again nothing too interesting.



View all my reviews

Challenges: 100 Books in a Year

Review-Sizzling Sixteen

Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I remember when I first started reading the Stephanie Plum books, I couldn't finish them fast enough. I'd stay up until the wee hours of the morning because I couldn't put them down. That hasn't been the case for the past 6 or 7 books, but I keep reading them in the hopes that they will go back to the glory days of books #1-9.

This was not the book. Nothing exciting happens in this book. Stephanie is no longer the funny, kick a$$ heroine that I grew to love in One for the Money. The same things happen in all the current books:

Stephanie and Joe have a domestic dispute and are on a break
Grandma Mazur wreaks havoc in a funeral home
Stephanie and Lula go for donuts and Cluck in a Bucket
Lula wears spandex
Ranger gives Stephanie a black car
Stephanie destroys car
Ranger gives Stephanie another black car
Stephanie and Joe make up at the end, only to be on a break again at the start of the next book

I'm OVER it.

Sizzling Sixteen is no exception to the same predictable formula. I no longer care about the mystery and whether or not Stephanie will find her skips. The only parts that are interesting to me is when she's at home with her family and when she's with Ranger. I used to be a diehard Stephanie/Morelli shipper but they are so boring, I've moved on to shipping Steph and Ranger. That would make these books so much more interesting, if she would dump Joe for good and move on to Ranger permanently. Or at least for awhile. Basically, they just need to do SOMETHING. I finish reading these books, and I think back "What actually happened in this book?" because it seems like nothing of importance happens anymore.

Only 3 stars for this one. I truly hope that one day we will get back the funny, fearless, sassy Stephanie I fell in love with all those books ago, and that the storylines go back to being as cute and crazy as they once were. Now the story lines are just a little too over the top and trying too hard.



View all my reviews

Challenges: 100 Books in a Year, Mystery and Suspense Challenge