A book to hand someone with the words, ‘Please enjoy’—something you can have fun with without having to think too much.
Ethan Wate was born and raised in the southern USA town of Gatlin, where people are very proud of their confederate history and nothing every changes. He longs to escape Gatlin and start a new life—until he meets Lena Duchannes. Lena has just moved back into town after living with her grandmother for many years. She is mysterious, beautiful and there’s something about her he can’t quite pinpoint. She’s also not like the rest of the bubble gum cheerleader crowd, which makes her an automatic candidate for outcast-dom. Ethan is drawn to Lena for reasons he can’t explain, and they fall in love—against strange supernatural odds.
I originally picked up this book because I found out it will be made into a movie with Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson. I then proceeded to read the entire series in about five days—I was so sucked in and captivated by the story I just had to know what happened next. The plot is fast paced, full of twists and way more interesting than Twilight. (There. I said it.) Lena is not a wimp, and although, in the second book ,she goes into a bit of a sad bitch mode reminiscent of New Moon—I stopped after that book, just so you know—she gets over it, moves on, and gets her shit back together. (Take that, Bella.)
But let’s get back to this book.
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A mixed bag—the characters aren’t sugar-coated, but the plot and characters lack depth, and I’m not entirely sold on the ending.
This review is part of the AWW2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge. Click here for a list of books I’ve read so far.
It’s taken me three years to finally read this story about Laila, a mail-order bride from Malaysia looking for a better life in South Australia with a man she’s known for a year via letters.
On one hand, the plot intrigued me. The term ‘mail-order bride’ is often pejoratively used, and I wanted to see its portrayal by Malaysian Australian author Siew Siang Tay. On the other hand, I wasn’t sure I’d like the ending.
When Laila leaves her family in Malaysia in order to marry a man she’s never met, her father all but disowns her. But she has bigger dreams than an arranged marriage and life in a farm, and when she lands in South Australia and finally meets Jim, she’s overwhelmed with happiness.
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The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do
Humour, tragedy, realism and, of course, a happy beginning—this memoir has it all. I don’t know why I didn’t read this sooner.
Anh Do is a comedian who travelled to Australia at the age of two via a refugee boat from Vietnam. This memoir tells the story of his family and his experiences growing up as an Asian-Australian.
This book came highly recommended by so many people. It has earned multiple awards and accolades and has consistently been on the bestseller list since it was first released. I decided to find out for myself what the hype was all about.
Do’s family escaped Vietnam on a tiny boat in the 70s during the war. They went through all sorts of hardships—running out of food and water, running into pirates—before they made it to Malaysia and then finally Australia. When they arrived here, they didn’t have much and Do was pretty much raised by a single mum from the time he entered high school. The Happiest Refugee charts Do’s growing up, his beginnings as a comedian, and how he finally finds success, all with the support of his loving family.
I managed to read most of the book during my lunch hour. It is so easy to read, and Do’s narrative captured me from the first page…and I kept going and going.
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Lead Me On by Victoria Dahl (Tumble Creek, Book 3)
The heroine’s struggle for self-acceptance may get a little dull, but a sexy hero, some hilarious dialogue and the snappy writing make this book a delight to read.
Lead Me On is the third book in a connected series set in Tumble Creek, Colorado, although the plot and characters stand alone and there’s absolutely no reason you couldn’t read them out of order.
Jane Morgan has changed her name and appearance to shed any trace of her troubled childhood, and the last thing she wants is a man like Chase—not only does he blow things up for a living, he’s inked and clearly so far away from the conservative, suited up man she’s looking for that she really should never have called him while tipsy.
Chase agrees to be Jane’s birthday present to herself—despite the prim demeanour, she’s completely uninhibited in the bedroom—he’s outraged when she sneaks off while he’s in the shower.
I love the way Victoria Dahl sets up these two characters. Jane, with her insecurities and snobbiness, could have been irritating if not for the humour and passion that Dahl provides. Chase is a hero to swoon over. He looks like a bad boy and used to be somewhat of a bad boy, but by the time the story starts, he’s in the right place in his life to be the dependable and patient guy that Jane needs.
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The Mango Orchard by Robin Bayley
A charming, entertaining and very easy to read. Perfect for the summer (if we had one!).
When Robin Bayley was little, his grandmother would regale him with stories about her father, who had gone to work in a weaving factory in Mexico. His adventures seemed so fantastical and amazing. Now an adult facing a crossroads in life, Bayley decides to set out and trace his grandfather’s steps, back to the mill near a small town near the river somewhere in Mexico. Along the way he ends up in places he doesn’t expect—Colombia, for instance!—he meets an interesting cast of characters, he falls in love, and in the end what he finds is more than he expects.
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Books like this are the reason I stopped reading category romance in my mid-20s. I hope I don’t come across too many more of them in the near future. DNF.
I have five more titles in my Lynne Graham glom pile, but I’m not sure I can bear to go on. On one hand, I knew getting into this book that Graham writes domineering heroes of the 80s alpha kind. I thought I could cope with it, but this book is such a trainwreck I gave up halfway through.
Surprisingly for a category romance, this is part two of a series. (Perhaps Graham should have just written a full length book, did anyone think of that?) The back story is explained well enough to get the gist—I’m fairly sure I wouldn’t be prepared to slog through an entire book to basically learn that Alexei finally slept with his personal assistant, Billie, taking her virginity. She’s pined for him in secret but felt she was no match for the dazzling beauties that naturally flock to her rich, handsome boss.
Unfortunately, Alexei tripped and hit his head and managed to conveniently forget the two nights they were together. More unfortunately for Billie, the oblivious Alexei tried to rekindle a childhood romance as Billie coped with the consequences of their nights together—yes, the old secret baby.
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Ruthless Magnate, Convenient Wife by Lynne Graham (Pregnant Brides, Book 2)
There’s nothing earth-shattering about this story. I didn’t hate the hero or the heroine, but that might be damning with faint praise.
Back in my 20s, I would have loved this book. This may be spoilery to some readers—although if you regularly read in this Mills & Boon line it would amaze me if any of this surprises you—but Ruthless Magnate, Convenient Wife features a tycoon hero who borders on misogyny, a contract marriage, a virgin heroine, an accidental pregnancy and a Small Misunderstanding.
But as far as these things go, Lynne Graham does a decent enough job with the plot. Sergei Antonovich was saved from a troubled childhood by his grandmother, and as she gets older he wants to give her what he knows would make her happy—a grandchild.
As you do when you’re insanely rich but scarred by a money-grubbing first wife and young hotties forever flashing their cleavage in exchange for your wad (of cash, people!), Sergei sets up a business arrangement to acquire a wife and child.
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Red-Hot Renegade by Kelly Hunter (The Bennetts, Book 5)
This RITA-nominated book is sexy, angsty and deeply moving—everything we love about modern category romance. Oh, and the heroine? She’s the tycoon. This one’s a keeper.
You may have noticed that I’m in the middle of a Kelly Hunter glom. How I missed this awesome Aussie author boggles my mind, but Red-Hot Renegade (published in the US as Her Singapore Fling) is the book that made me first try Hunter’s work. Nominated for this year’s RITA awards, the book also features an Asian heroine with an Australian hero.
The back story for this novel is set up in the previous books of the series, which features the romances of Jacob Bennett’s siblings. Jacob’s estranged wife Jianne is being stalked and, having run out of options, she reluctantly comes to him for help.
Jacob is a martial arts champion who runs his dojo in Singapore. For reasons neither he nor Jianne want to acknowledge, they’re still officially married even though Jianne walked out on the marriage twelve years ago. What makes this reunion story different is that neither of them blame the other—instead, they remind each other of the guilt they feel about not having fought hard enough to save their relationship.
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Twilight: The Graphic Novel (Volume 1) by Stephenie Meyer and Young Kim (Twilight Saga)
Twilight lends itself to the shoujo manga format much better than in prose or in film. Young Kim’s renditions of the characters are disarmingly gorgeous, but even they can’t redeem Stephenie Meyer’s story of destructive co-dependency. And then there’s the font.
Jen, graphic designer extraordinaire and pop culture aficionado, generously agreed to do a guest review of this graphic novel. You can read more of her writing at Evening Hour.
Ah, Twilight, the stuff that dreams are made on. It’s not every day that one book, whose very premise was born out of a dream—so its creator, Stephenie Meyer, says—can reduce the time-honoured traits of popular culture’s great vampires to glittering giftwrap in the sunlight. When Kat offered the comic for me to review, who was I to refuse the chance to return to all the loltastic awfulness that encompasses Twilight?
These days, comic book adaptations serve as extended editions in a sea of franchise fodder. Often poor and hurried productions, they’re an easy marketing tactic to gain revenue on the side and to appease the voracious and loyal consumer. For the disinclined readers among us, comics can be a great alternative to absorb a self-contained story without sifting through the boring bits, like watching the film version in one sitting.
Unfortunately, no fast-food serving of Twilight could possibly make me hungry for more.
Yet, despite the frequent jibes I make at the popular YA book, this first volume of the graphic novel is mostly successful.
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Untameable Rogue by Kelly Hunter (The Bennetts, Book 4)
If you can overlook the daggy warrior references and underutilised Asian setting, there’s enough depth in the central relationship to make this book a pleasure to read. If you enjoy the daggy stuff…well, that just makes it even better.
This was my first Kelly Hunter book, but it won’t be my last. I don’t care what anyone says about the super daggy Karate Kid-style set up at the beginning of the novel, or the constant references to Chinese zodiac signs (I am the warrior tiger, hear me roar!), this book was thrilling!
From the outside, Madeline Delacourte seems a bit…suss. Her late husband plucks a much younger wife off the streets of Jakarta, and she later inherits and now runs his multi-million-dollar business. But like all Mills and Boon trophy wives, Maddy has a heart of gold. She rescues stray kids from the streets and brings them to her friend Jacob’s dojo to become his apprentice.
As she drops off her latest street kid, she meets Jacob’s brother Luke, who’s in between missions. Luke is a bomb disposal expert and he’s quick to judge Maddy, who doesn’t rise to the bait because, frankly, she’s heard it all before.
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