Spontaneous by Brenda Jackson/Long Summer Nights by Kathleen O'Reilly
It’s a labour of love to hunt down the local Blaze release by my favourite contemporary romance author, but it was definitely worth the wait.
I love Kathleen O’Reilly’s writing voice. Love. So if you’re looking for a non-fangirly review of her latest Blaze release, you’re reading the wrong blog.
But stay with me. I wouldn’t recommend the book if it wasn’t good.
Times journalist Jenn Dale is facing the sack—her biggest rival is sleeping with the boss—and she’s on the hunt for a big story to save her dream job. Except she’s stuck in possibly the worst cabin accommodation, to cover a festival that has no hope in hell of making headlines.
Meanwhile, she meets the tortured writer—‘Mr Habitual Scowler’—staying at cabin number three. And discovers that he has great finger technique. Must be all that frantic typing.
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Blameless by Gail Carriger (Parasol Protectorate, Book 3)
After the cliffhanger that was Changeless, the latest instalment in the Parasol Protectorate series brings us back to romance territory.
After Changeless, I was very frustrated. It was a total cliffhanger, and I went as far as DMing Gail Carriger on Twitter to ask what was going to happen next. She very nicely replied, I’m very sorry but I can’t tell you. Fortunately, Kat got a review copy of Blameless last Friday, which coincided with Carriger’s visit to Galaxy to randomly sign things. She assured us that, as a believer of happy endings, she always makes sure everything ends with a HEA.
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It’s a mix of genres this month in the Mixed Bag, which includes Deborah Locke’s memoir—a must-read for fans of Underbelly.
Don’t Bargain With The Devil by Sabrina Jeffries (School For Heiresses #5)
Dont Bargain With The Devil by Sabrina Jeffries (School For Heiresses, Book 5)
When Lucy Seton discovers that famous magician Diego Montalvo plans to build a pleasure garden next door to Charlotte Harris’s finishing, she’s determined to thwart his plans. But he’s sneaky and charming and continually makes Lucy forget her vow to be the paragon of propriety. Diego has ulterior motives, however. He intends to return Lucy to her long-lost grandfather even if he has to kidnap her.
Don’t Bargain With The Devil is the kind of book I might have enjoyed when I was just discovering historical romance, with its over-the-top dashing hero and the heroine who tries to be a good girl but can’t help herself in the hero’s presence. But I’ve been reading historical romance for a long time, and this one didn’t stand out above the rest. I skimmed bits of it, and while Jeffries comes up with some good lines here and there, the most interesting bit about the book is the mystery of who the hero in the final book of the series will be.
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The Prince of Midnight by Laura Kinsale
Wandergurl gives everybody’s favourite author a second chance, in an attempt to fulfil Kat’s dream of finding the perfect Laura Kinsale novel for her. No such luck.
Lady Leigh Stachan’s family was killed by a crazy cult leader, driving her to travel all the way to France dressed as a boy to find the legendary S.T. Maitland, once known as the Prince of Midnight, to train her so she can avenge her family. S.T. Maitland has spent the past few years keeping to his eccentric self in backwater country France, with his pet wolf, hiding a few ailments of his own. He falls in love with Leigh and decides to help her in her quest.
Second chance challenge
This is a second chance romance for me. Second chance in the sense that Laura Kinsale never worked for me before, but I promised I would give her another try. AnimeJune (Gossamer Obsessions) and I made a deal: I would give Kinsale a second try if she did the same for Nalini Singh.
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Lover Mine by J. R. Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 8)
With this latest instalment in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, J. R. Ward returns to form and delivers a story packed with action and emotion. The crack is back.
This was the make-or-break BDB book for me. After the disappointment—at times downright disaster—of the previous three books, I was prepared to give this series one last chance.
I’m so glad I did.
Gone are the random new H-words and awful brand name dropping on every other page. Indeed, there’s nary a ‘messie me’ to be found in Lover Mine.
Yes, the BDB slang still veers towards dagginess, question marks are still missing in action, and Ward makes some utterly ridiculous word choices—in some cases inventing new words that made my eyes twitch—but on the whole the editing is a lot tighter and the prose much improved from even the earliest Black Dagger Brotherhood books.
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Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (Hunger Games Trilogy, Book 2)
Although not as good as The Hunger Games, this book is still an excellent read and has only whetted my appetite for more.
If there’s one thing about about Suzanne Collins, it’s that she can spin a good yarn. Catching Fire is the sequel to Collins’s bestselling novel, The Hunger Games, which I found to be a great read—a bit shallow on the character development but excellent in plot development.
Catching Fire follows on from the ending of The Hunger Games and it’s not a standalone book. A few months have passed since Katniss returned home as a victor in The Hunger Games, and she’s trying to manage the consequences of her actions at the games.
She and fellow District 12 winner, Peeta, are due to start their Victory Tour, and she intends to pretend that she’s madly in love with Peeta, hoping to appease the Capitol—the central governement—that their act of rebellion in the games was due to love.
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Love Bites by Lynsay Sands (Argeneau Vampire, Book 2)
This guest review is courtesy of Buttercup, a self-confessed Lynsay Sands fan.
The story begins rather bleakly in a morgue where our hero, Etienne Argeneau, is lying on a metal table about to be examined by our heroine, coroner Rachel Garrett. She is feeling a little puzzled at her attraction for the good looking, but dead, guy. She feels even more puzzled when the corpse starts talking to her.
Etienne is not in fact dead—he is a vampire with a bullet in his chest. Unfortunately for Rachel, whoever killed Etienne follows him to the morgue and she is caught in the crossfire, and is mortally wounded. Etienne wakes up just in time and saves Rachel from death by biting her. This turns out to be a great sacrifice on Etienne’s part as vampires are bound by law to turn only one human in his lifetime, an honour usually reserved for a possible mate. He brings Rachel home and takes care of her while she is transitioning, and takes a softly, slowly approach in introducing Rachel to the world of vampires. Sometimes with hilarious results…
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Goddess of the Hunt by Tessa Dare
A charming story of misguided love that goes the right way in the end.
Lucy Waltham has been in love with her brother’s friend Toby for ages, or so she thinks. He is about to be engaged to Sophie, who has been invited to their estate for their annual autumn hunting party. Lucy decides that she must take action and attempts to elicit the help of Jeremy, Earl of Kendall, another close family friend, with unexpected results.
At first, I did not like Lucy, the heroine. The first few chapters had me wanting to tear out her hair. Slowly though, as she grew as a character, I began to warm up to her. She wasn’t really a silly chit, just sheltered with the naivety of youth, the kind that in this day and age would write ILU 4EVER TOBY in a high school notebook. (God, I feel old.) Tessa Dare did an excellent job of developing the character throughout the book, and while Lucy may start out a bit silly, by the end of the book she has grown into a more mature, likeable person in a natural fashion. I think Dare does a great job of showing and not telling with the characters and how events shape them
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This month’s Mixed Bag features wildly different stories by Aussie authors, which have left me with…well, mixed reactions.
Liar by Justine Larbalestier
Liar by Justine Larbalestier
Micah Williams is a compulsive liar, and Liar is Michah’s attempt ‘to tell you my story…No lies, no omissions. That’s my promise.’ Zach, Micah’s friend, has gone missing and Micah’s story is a non-linear narration of events leading up to and following from Zach’s disappearance, interspersed with her family history.
You may have heard of this book due to the US cover controversy (a non-issue for Aussie readers because we got a different cover), but it’s just as likely you’ve heard of it from the many great reviews it’s received. The praise is well deserved. Larbalestier has created an original and compelling if notoriously unreliable narrator in Micah—something the story depends on for its success.
If you know me at all, you know I almost always peek at a book’s ending. I have no problem with spoilers
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Take Me by Lucy Monroe (Langley Family, Book 3)
A well-paced drama from Wandergurl’s new favourite I-will- buy-everything-you-have-ever-written author.
When Jared, Viscount Ravenswood’s, housekeeper and childhood friend, Mary, dies she leaves him her daughter, Hannah. She makes him promise to introduce Hannah to Calantha, Duchess of Clairborne, whom she once served. Jared is reluctant to do so, as she is the widow of the evil man who raped Mary and sired the child. He has no way of knowing if she was aware of this act and has his doubts about this reclusive widow.
Calantha suffered an abusive past at the hands of her husband and generally keeps to herself, indulging her passion for roses. When she meets Jared and Hannah, though, things begin to change and she slowly comes out of her shell, just in time for romance to blossom.
Lucy Monroe is my new favourite I-will- buy-everything-you-have-ever-written author. (Thanks, @EloisaJames!) This book had excellent characterisation, from the back story to the use of dialogue, to reflect their personalities. My favourite
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