November 16th, 2018
November 13th, 2018
Book Review:
Muse of Nightmares
By Laini Taylor
No book by my favorite pink-haired author would be complete without cake. Yes, there is cake in Muse of Nightmares, and that is the last spoiler that you’re going to get from me.
Less than two months ago I finished reading Strange the Dreamer, I was so captivated by this amazing world created by Taylor that I wanted…no, needed to get to the rest of the story. That in itself tells you how good this series is.
Read my full review...
November 6th, 2018
New Release & Review:
Someone Like Me
By M.R. Carey
What I love about all of M.R. Carey’s books is the tease. The covers, while all distinct, have a certain continuity to them. Even without the author’s name, you know that it is an M.R. Carey novel. There is a mystery to his covers, no hint to the setting, nothing to suggest what this story could be about, other than a nondescript, shadowed character.
Read my full review...
October 26th, 2018
Book Review:
Roman Holiday
(The Chronicles of St. Mary's)
By Jodi Taylor
I was looking for a quick little story to listen to on my Friday commute. I really didn’t want to start a full-length book and then let it sit over the weekend. An hour and a quarter trip back in time to meet Julius Caesar and Cleopatra seemed like just the thing.
Read my full review...
October 23rd, 2018
Book Review:
The Hunger
By Alma Katsu
History is filled with many fabulous stories that can skillfully be turned into fictional horror. The less we know, the fewer the survivors, the more horrific the actions of the participants, all the more readily we are to accept the involvement of evil.
Read my full review...
October 9th, 2018
New Release & Review:
100 Fathoms Below
By Steven L. Kent & Nicholas Kaufmann
The Hunt for Red October meets 30 Days of Night. There is something terrifying about being trapped in a canister so far below the surface of the ocean that the pressure alone would crush your body. Kent and Kaufmann selected an ideal environment for their tale.
Read my full review...
October 5th, 2018
New Release & Review:
An Easy Death
By Charlaine Harris
It pains me to write this review, almost as much as it pained me to finish this book. I’ve always enjoyed Charlaine Harris’ writing: the Sookie Stackhouse /True Blood series, Harper Connelly, Midnight, Texas. When I saw that Harris had a brand-new, what I would call, dystopian/fantasy, I was all in.
Read my full review...
October 2nd, 2018
Book Review:
Consumed
(Firefighters #1)
By J.R. Ward
I’ve read my fair share of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, but with so many titles in the series, it gets a little intimidating. That’s why I was excited to see a brand-new series from J.R. Ward, one that I could get my hooks into from day one and not have such a massive catalogue to get caught up to.
Read my full review...
Read Shelley's review.
September 25th, 2018
Book Review:
Strange the Dreamer
By Laini Taylor
This is my second venture into the kaleidoscopic mind of Laini Taylor. I fell in love with her Daughter of Smoke & Bone series. There was just too damn much in the synopsis for me to resist this new series.
There are different types of authors: some are storytellers (they captivate you with their tales), others are writers (they expertly piece together stories that follow all of the rules), then there are the world-builders...
Read my full review...
September 11th, 2018
Book Review:
The Book of M
By Peng Shepherd
This is one of those books that piqued my interest long before it was released. The whole idea of lost memories tied to an apocalyptic loss of shadows was new and unique. I love it when an author says: let’s make a different apocalypse.
Read my full review...
September 4th, 2018
Book Review:
The Passage
By Justin Cronin
I’ve heard many great things about The Passage over the past few years, the timing was right, so, I decided to embark on this epic journey concocted by Justin Cronin. I’ve got to tell you, I loved it. This was one of those books that I opened up to read whenever I had a few minutes…or hours.
Read my full review...
August 28th, 2018
Book Review:
Mega 2: Baja Blood
By Jake Bible
It was two years ago that I read Mega by Jake Bible. I was in the mood for another fun, fast and furious ocean adventure. What could be better than a return voyage with Team Grendel on a new and improved Beowulf?
After finishing Baja Blood, I had to go back and take a look at my review for book one. There are a lot of things that can change in two years: my expectations among those things.
Read my full review...
August 21st, 2018
Book Review:
Circe
By Madeline Miller
Greek mythology is filled with women. Many of these women were portrayed in a villainous or destructive role: Pandora, Clytemnestra, Helen, Medea…and Circe, to name a few. Why the Greeks did this is a completely separate topic, but they did. I love what Madeline Miller has done with Circe, she has taken one of the most famous villainous Greek women and she has shown her readers the other side of the story.
Read my full review...
August 14th, 2018
Book Review:
Xinners
By Wayne Simmons
Right from the start, Wayne Simmons brought me back to a comfortable, familiar place: Helo brought me back to the Creature Cantina. With the intricately detailed and varied aliens, I was brought back to my youth, invested in the story even before I got to know the characters. But this wasn’t the Creature Cantina of my youth, it was a bit more “adult,” I kept waiting for Rev to tell a couple of Stokians that “This is not the whore you’re looking for.” I was hooked.
Read my full review...
August 7th, 2018
You have to understand, you don’t just sit down, relax and read a book by Iain Reid; it’s a contest, a competition - can you figure out what the hell is going on before he has to spell it out for you? Well, that’s how I look at it, anyway.
Read my full review...
Read Shelley's review
July 23rd - August 5th, 2018
Gone Fishin':
Summer/Vacation Reading & Recommendations
Vacation time has arrived, I’ve got some reading to do. I’ve been on a bit of a book buying bonanza lately and I have a lot of books I want to read. My reading list for this summer’s vacation is excessively ambitious, but between balconyville and poolsideton, I’m hoping to succeed.
Read my full post...
July 17th, 2018
New Release & Review:
Baby Teeth
By Zoje Stage
A connection. When an author can create a connection between you and their characters, you’ve got a winner.
As a father, with one child, a son, I could feel an affinity for Suzette. My son and I often butt heads and disagree; his relationship with his mother is the complete opposite. I saw parallels with Suzette and Hanna and Hanna and her father.
Read my full review...
July 13th, 2018
Book Review:
Whore
By Matt Shaw
After reading Whore, I think I must be a little bit dead inside. I like big books, write a fabulous story and I’ll read two thousand pages of it. But once in a while I like to grab a shorty…one hundred pages or so; a little something to reset my barometer, some literary sorbet, if you will.
Read my full review...
July 10th, 2018
Book Review:
Midnight Crossroad
By Charlaine Harris
I’ve been having a tough time of it the past few weeks…months; finding that book that gives me that Calgon moment, yes, I’m aging myself, but I want a book to take me away. I thought it would be good to go back to an old favorite, Charlaine Harris.
I was immediately ready to pack my bags and move to
Texas. Harris filled that little town with such an intriguing
cast of characters.
Read my full review...
June 26th, 2018
New Release & Review:
The Cabin at the End of the World
By Paul Tremblay
I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. When I pick a book to read, I want to love it. I want the book to captivate my mind, take me away and immerse me into the lives of its characters. The Cabin at the End of the World did none of this.
Sometimes I think that I get caught up in the hype surrounding certain authors. This award-winning, that prize winner, on the board of this, that and the other thing.
Read my full review...
The Captives
By Debra Jo Immergut
If you're looking for a book to
curl up with this weekend, my
latest review is posted. This
week's list of new releases is
also posted below. Enjoy!
This book ended up surprising
me. I was expecting an
enemies-to-lovers romance, a
good dose of angst, and a slow-
burning romance, and I got all
of that, but what I didn’t expect
was for this book to tug on my
heartstrings so much. If you’re
looking for a well-rounded love
story that invests you in the
characters’ lives, look no
further, this one is sure to please.
New Releases!
- The Devil - By Ashley Jade
They'll tell you I seduced them. Used my looks and body to lure them into my playground.
They'll tell you I'm a sinner. A demon who held them captive with temptation and lust.
They'll tell you I'm evil. A monster obsessed with the both of them.
They'll tell you they made a deal with the devil.
What they won't tell you...is how much they liked it.
- Austen Box Set - By Staci Hart - This set includes: Wasted Words, A Thousand Letters, Living Out Loud, and a Wasted Words Novella.
- Pucked Love – By Helena Hunting - The final standalone
novel in The Pucked Series!
As an NHL player, relationships haven’t been my thing.
Shrouded in secrecy and speculation, they never last
very long. But then that’s what happens when you require an NDA before the first date.
Until Charlene. She’s like a firefly. She’s elusive, and if you
catch her she’ll burn bright, but keeping her trapped dulls
her fire and dims her beauty.
I caught her. And as much as I might want to keep her, I’ll never put the lid on her jar. Not at the risk of losing her. So I've let her set the rules in our relationship.
But as long hidden secrets expose us both, I discover exactly how fragile Charlene is, and how much I need her.
We’re all broken. We’re all messed up. Some more than others. Me more than most.
- Fireworks (True North #6) – By Sarina Bowen - Standalone.
Skye Copeland is on paid leave from her broadcasting job after accidentally drawing a pecker on the traffic map.
Let that sink in. Like it's her fault the traffic pattern that day created a perfect schlong?
Skye isn't laughing. She needs this job. And that's the only reason she's agreed to chase down a story in her least favorite place--that hell on earth known as Vermont.
A quick trip. In and out. Much like - never mind. Skye can sneak into the town that once tried to break her, get the story and get back into the good graces of her producer. Easy peasy.
Except things go sideways even as she sets foot over the county line. Her step-sister is on the run from a violent drug dealer. And the cop on the case is none other than Benito Rossi, the man who broke her teenage heart.
His dark brown eyes still tear her apart. And even as she steels herself to finally tell him off after twelve years, the old fireworks are still there.
Things are about to go boom.
- Bulldozer (Hard to Love #3) – P. Dangelico –Stand-
alone.
Amanda Shaw has pulled it together. It's taken a couple of
years, a boatload of hard work, and a ton of self-discipline, but she finally has her problems in a headlock.
Her yoga studio in the city has become so successful she's
opening one near the beach, and her relationship with her
ten-year-old son is improving every day.
The last thing she needs is a monkey wrench thrown into her smoothly running life.
Grant Hendricks is one big monkey wrench.
The four time Defensive Player of the Year, three time NFL sack leader, and all around football god has officially hit rock bottom.
A devastating back injury means he may have to retire and that scares him more than doctors telling him the next hit could leave him paralyzed.
All he needs is a quiet place to think and his teammate's beach house sounds like just the place. Problem is, the woman already living there.
- Mistletoe in Mayhem Boxed Set (Whiskey Sisters #3) – By L.E. Rico – Small town romantic comedy! Contains two companion novellas.
- Entrusted: The Love Duet #2 – By L.M. Carr
- All We Want (Alabama Summer #6) – By J. Daniels
- Too Good Girl – By Eleanor Lloyd-Jones
- Possession (Perversion Trilogy #2) – By T.M. Frazier - The continuation of the story that began in Perversion.
- Tragic (Lark Cove #3) – By Devney Perry
Kaine Reynolds wants nothing more than solitude. After an unthinkable tragedy destroys his family, he’s cut off all ties to his former life so he can battle his grief the only way he knows how.
Alone.
So when Piper Campbell knocks on his door, rambling on about being his new neighbor, he slams the door in her face.
But Kaine’s gruff demeanor doesn’t scare her. She’s set on living in Montana and starting over after a terrible divorce. And she wouldn’t mind having a fling to chase away the pain of her husband’s betrayal. Her handsome, albeit rude, neighbor is the perfect candidate.
Yet what neither of them suspect is that their no-strings affair will result in the surprise of Piper’s lifetime—and Kaine’s worst fear.
- Tequila Tequila – By Emma Hart – Romantic comedy! Best friends-to-lovers!
Don't sleep with your best friend.
Take it from me. I did it. And it was awful.
I-wish-the-tequila-made-me-forget kind of bad.
The problem is, Luke has forgotten. He swears that he can't remember a thing about that night beyond the trays of tequila shots being set on the tables.
Except I can't forget. I can't forget how good his hands felt until I fell over and hit my hip on the dresser, and I sure as hell can't forget the entire two minutes of tap-tap-squirt.
Awkward. Embarrassing. And the new subject of a couple of dirty lucid dreams.
But I have no intention of telling him what we did. Nothing good comes from telling your best friend he's the worst guy you've ever slept with.
Which makes the tequila on my birthday a very, very bad idea...
- International Guy: London, Berlin, Washington, DC (Volume 3) – By Audrey Carlan
- Endless (Merciless #4) – By Willow Winters - Romantic suspense!
- Whiskey Undone (Whiskey and Lies #3) – By Carrie Ann Ryan - Two best friends follow a dangerous and seductive path in the final standalone novel!
- Control: An Everyday Heroes Novella (1001 Dark Nights) – By K. Bromberg
Control is something Desi Whitman abhors. Why live life in black and white perfection when you can messily color outside the lines?
But when she comes face to face with SWAT officer Reznor Mayne, he’s about to show her just how good control can feel.
- Fighting the Fire (Warrior Fight Club) – By Laura Kaye
There’s only one thing firefighter Sean Riddick doesn’t like about Warrior Fight Club, and that’s Daniela England, the sexiest, snarkiest, most irritating woman he’s ever known. But MMA training keeps the Navy vet grounded, so Sean’s not about to give it up, no matter how many times he goes toe to toe with Dani—or how bad he wants to take her to the mats.
A former Army nurse and the widow of a fallen soldier, Dani is done with the military and with military men. Fight club is the only thing that eases her nightmares, which means she has to put up with Riddick. He might be sex on a stick, but he’s infuriating and everything she’s vowed to avoid.
But when an accident throws Sean and Dani together, all that fight bursts into a night of red-hot passion. Now they’re addicted to the heat and must decide if the one person they’ve most resisted might be exactly what they’ve both been looking for.
- Tell Me You Love Me – By S. Ann Cole
- Confessions: The Princess, The Prick & The Priest – By Ella Frank - M/M romance!
- Mouth to Mouth – By Tessa Bailey
A man with a prison record has no place around a fresh faced college student. Tell that to Rory Prince. He should stay the hell away from Olive Cunningham. There’s one small problem, though. She won’t stop almost getting killed—and with this too-smart, too-sweet girl holding his heart in her hands, Rory is powerless to do anything but keep saving her.
Homeschooled from a young age, Olive is now out on her own and discovering the world, one milkshake flavor at a time. Until recently, she has experienced life through books. She’s walked in a million sets of shoes while flipping pages—enough to know that Rory gives her once-in-a-lifetime feelings. If only he would stop trying to protect her…from himself.
- ASHES (Ignite #3) – By R.J. Lewis
- A Part of You - By Lynden Renwick
Ashleigh led an idyllic life. She was fit, loved her job, and was blissfully married to a doting husband. Then came the diagnosis: infertile. With every IVF clinic around the country shutting its doors, it seems that any hope of completing her family is lost. Enter Hannah—a beautiful and celebrated playwright looking for inspiration for her next show—who offers to serve as Ashleigh's non-surgical surrogate. However, when Ashleigh arranges for her husband to sleep with Hannah, tensions and questions start to rise...
- You Only Need One – By Lauren Connolly
Ben Gerhard lives his days reliant on a machine to keep him alive. His kidney failure has progressed rapidly, and none of his family or friends are matches to donate. Then relief comes in the form of Holly Foster. She’s bossy, adorable, and willing to undergo surgery to save Ben. Problem is, the more time he spends around her, the more he wants her to see him as a something other than the sick guy she’s agreed to help. Holly gets Ben to share hidden parts of himself, all the while keeping him at a distance.
Holly cannot be attracted to Ben Gerhard. That’s what she tells herself repeatedly even as his charming smile, constant jokes, and soothing presence entice her to let her guard down. But anything other than a friendly relationship would put the kidney exchange at risk, and there is nothing in the world Holly wants more than to save her brother. They’ve been burned in the past, and this time needs to go smoothly. Problem is, Holly is finding that the guy whose life she’s agreed to save is becoming an integral part of her own.
- The Results of Unrequited – By Len Webster
- Torn (Taken Duet #2) – By Natasha Knight
- Cold Cole Heart – By K. Webster – Dark romance! Only for the brave!
I once was a hero.
Until she kept me as her captive, tortured me, and killed my brothers.
She bred a monster.
Nothing could stop me from seeking revenge.
But it was over so quickly--her easy death a mercy she didn't deserve.
For a decade, the burning rage of what she did has transformed into something uncontrollable.
Something I want to feed.
Something I crave to unleash.
I want to make her pay.
Over and over and over again.
Finding the evil, spoiled women sates my ravenous, vengeful soul.
I hunt. I capture. I destroy.
Slowly. So slowly.
One, two, three, four, five...
And now six.
I'm wicked and sadistic.
I am Cold Cole Heart.
My mission is death and their payment to me has come due.
Number six thinks she is different.
Yet when I look at her, I see them.
She will pay. They always do.
- Buried – By Brenda Rothert – Romantic suspense!
Do you believe in fate?
I didn’t. I’d worked since childhood to become an NFL starting quarterback. All the blood, sweat, and tears were about to pay off with my name in the record books. Setting an NFL record was going to be the crowning achievement of my career. Hell, of my life.
But then fate, the cagey bitch, threw me a curveball I never saw coming. I ended up trapped in a doomsday bunker with four strangers, my chances at that record slipping away as days turned into months.
I never would’ve given Erin a second look. She was gorgeous, sure, but not my type. I liked women who were strong. Fearless. Resilient. Not to mention that she hated me.
But I was so wrong about her. And in that bunker, I fell in crazy, stupid love.
I thought a record would be my greatest triumph. But now, all I want is a shot with Erin. I’ve faced down massive linebackers intent on ending me. For her, I’ll go toe-to-toe with fate.
- Love Over Logic – By Diana A. Hicks – Mafia romance!
- Being Mrs. Cane – By Shanora Williams
- Bryce – By Jeannine Colette & Lauren Runow
- In Her Space (The Stars Duet #2) – By Amie Knight
- Sex, Lies & Lingerie (Secrets and Lies #1) – By Nelle L’Amour
Happy Reading!
November 16th, 2018
Ships and Stings and Wedding Rings
I’ll give Jodi Taylor this, she’s got a good thing going on with The Chronicles of St. Mary’s. I’ve grabbed a few of her shorts on Audible. They are great little distractions on my daily commute.
Ships and Stings and Wedding Rings takes its readers on a quick little holiday trip back to ancient Egypt. It is filled with what I am coming to know as Taylor’s trademark sarcastic humor.
What he's reading!
What she's reading!
Greg's Dailyish Blog
Shelley's Daily Blog
2 Book Lovers Reviews
The Outsider
By Stephen King
