Review: Tall, Dark, and Lonesome by Debra Dixon

Tall, Dark, and Lonesome by Debra Dixon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I got this free via a Twitter giveaway run by Sue Grimshaw with the file supplied by NetGalley. It's part of the relaunch of the Loveswept line and according to the copyright page, it originally came out in 1993.

I have to say, it holds up pretty well. Dixon did a good job of including in just enough technology to make it feel modern without specifying a particular model or brand that would date it today. Sure, you'd think cell phones would be mentioned at least once and it's more likely the heroine, Niki, would be a blogger today, but the absence of these things wasn't too jarring.

Basically, Niki gets drafted by her newspaper editor to go on a cattle drive run by the hero, Zach. Zach, unknown to Niki in the beginning, is a successful businessman and potential politician. Niki is wary of getting involved with him because she's well aware of the scrutiny politicians face and she comes with major baggage. However, the chemistry between them is fierce and they end up together.

If I think about it too much, I'm going to talk myself into dropping the story down a star because there are some plot holes along the way. However, it was exactly what I wanted, something easy to read while I tried to distract myself from the possibility of another ice cold shower because we still have no freaking power. I liked the dogs and found Niki was delightfully spunky at times.

My main quibble is that it was shorter than I expected. The page count on Adobe Digital Editions said 248, but Tall, Dark clocks in at 141 pages. I'm assuming the rest of the file contains previews for other books in the line. I didn't bother reading it. I have to say, I'm definitely glad I didn't buy it, although 2.99 isn't that bad of a price. I would've been pissed if the page count was listed at 248 and I was gypped out of 107 pages of story. That's practically a whole 'nother book! However, if you like the short Harlequin and Silhouette books with a Western flair, you'll enjoy this.

Review: Canyons of Night by Jayne Castle

Canyons of Night by Jayne Castle

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Since we still have no power, I read this book by flashlight and dawn's early light. So not kidding. And it turns out dust bunnies can come off as a little creepy when you're in pitch darkness. I am convinced, by the way, that dust bunnies are actually the evolved form of the aliens who originally colonized Harmony. The way Castle writes them, they seem almost sentient at times and Rex underscores that idea in Canyons.

Canyons is billed as the third book in the Dreamlight Trilogy, but could very easily stand alone, so long as you'd read other Harmony books. I did question the sudden appearance of the Rainshadow Preserve, but I think Castle did try to connect it back a bit to the older Harmony books (Amaryllis, Orchid, Zinnia). It's interesting that Castle/Krentz excludes those books from her list on her website. Are we supposed to think they are separate? Was there a second 'Curtain' that took a whole 'nother bunch of colonists to a separate planet, but allowed them to evolve the same way? I have to re-read them. Maybe I'll go on a Jayne Castle kick since I'm done with my sports craving.

I was mildly disappointed and impressed by this book at the same time. It's not anything new. It's your standard Castle book, complete with psychic peril and off-the-charts powerful characters. I was kinda hoping for the 'childhood friends turned lovers' trope, but that's not what I got. There's this line in the beginning where the hero, Slade, talks about how he's only on the island for six months because he's working on this project. I was all "Oh, that's so sweet, he came back to woo her." Nope, he's starting his own business. It was a tad deflating.

Charlotte started off mildly interesting for me because she had panic attacks when she uses her gift, which is a new one. Castle doesn't usually write heroines who are disabled in some way. It's her heroes that usually the damaged ones. However, it's not really pursued and it remains in the realm of an inconvenient side effect.

Despite the lackluster story between Slade and Charlotte, what impressed me was the way Castle set up the next trilogy. There's the slightest hint of what's lurking in the Preserve. A possible hero is introduced at the very end and we also meet two secondary characters who will likely be very important in the future. I also loved the kid, Dixon Devin, actually, (I don't have the book available at the moment. If I get power back tonight, I'll edit the correct name in). I really hope we see him again. Castle likes to throw in a young, practically an orphan, boy in her stories every now and then, and it would be a treat to actually get to watch one grow up.

Bottom line, I'd either recommend you get it from the library or wait until the first book in the next trilogy is released, whenever that will be. You'll likely need to read Canyons to properly prepare for the next trilogy, but it's not exactly a must-read.

Review: Notes from the Blender by Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This book gets four stars because it's perfect. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but it was really too perfect. I felt like it was the basis for a teen comedy starring Emma Stone. I mean, I'd pay $9 to see it, but it was a glossy version of normal.

There's a lot of emotion thrown around. Dec is angry at his mother's death. Neilly is overwhelmed by all the changes in her life. Dec is horny and Neilly has a crush. Things could go horribly awry, but how do these teenagers deal with this intense feelings? They talk about them. They go to therapy. They are self-aware and they think things through. They are the most adult, mature, teenagers ever.

Despite the unreality of teenagers who understand and conceptualize exactly what they're feeling, it was a good read. I admit, part of the initial appeal of this book for me was the assumption it was a stepbrother/stepsister romance, which is a favorite trope of mine. Blender avoids that. There's still romantic elements, but overall, it's a light mostly angst-free read.

In short, it's for fans of the movie Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and anyone who wants to believe these are the kind of teens that are going to be the future of our world.

Review: The Game of Love by @jeanettemurray

The Game of Love by Jeanette Murray

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



So I have been without power since just after 9am on Sunday the 28th, thanks to Hurricane Irene. As a result, I am tired, cranky, and frustrated. All I want to do is yawn and glare at things. Don't expect great revelations from this review. Fair warning.

Anyways, I really liked this. I've been on a sports kick lately, and I went to another baseball game last night, so I was in the mood for something good. This is an ebook from Carina Press. The hero, Brett, is a former NFL star, now a high school football coach. Chris is the heroine and she is a former tennis pro, now the tennis coach & math teacher for the school (I think it's supposed to be a public school, but it reads like a private). The story is already unique for featuring two star athletes as protagonists.

Game of Love is not really about sports so much as it's about dealing with your past and the value sports can have. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm inclined to agree that sports often take precedence over the arts in high school, but that's not the point of this story. The point is that Chris is gun-shy after getting out of an abusive relationship with a NHL star. She's immediately inclined to think Brett's a misogynistic meathead. Rather than be turned off by her man-hating ways, Brett's intrigued because she's clearly not a 'pro-ho' and she's strong enough to stand up to him.

That, by the way, is the main reason I loved this book. I'm a strong-willed person and I need a guy who has the balls to tell me no. I broke up with my last boyfriend because he was too nice. I walked all over him. So to read about a hero who purposely sought out a strong woman? Hot. Add on the fact that Brett cares about his students and is willing to learn from his mistakes? Scorching.

Another sign of a good book is an immediate desire to seek out more by the author. While reading Game, I wanted to go read Jared's & Katie's story. Also, anything about Brett's brothers. Unfortunately, this seems to be the only book by the author. I wouldn't be surprised if Murray had the manuscripts in a drawer somewhere, but they were too raw for publication. Carina Press is intriguing me lately with its ability to sniff out strong contemporary authors.

In conclusion, I'm giving this a five star review because I felt it was a strong story that would appeal to a wide variety of contemporary readers. Also because it distracted me from my grumpiness for a while. It's not quite Holy Shit worthy, but I still highly rec it. Would appeal to fans of Shannon Stacey and Jaci Burton.

Review: Rednecks 'n' Roses

Rednecks 'n' Roses by Judy Mays

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Well, crap on a cracker. I'm on page 33 and I think I've said WTF about five times already. The plot is that romance writer Amber has inherited a house in the boonies from her great-aunt and it comes complete with a hick vampire. Amber discovers the existence of said vampire when she finds what she thinks is a dead body in the bathtub. It's actually the hero, Rusty Nipple (I swear ta God), and he's not too pleased about her intrusion in his life. Amber, on the other hand, thinks this is the greatest thing since sliced bread and immediately starts plotting ways to turn Rusty from a hick to a more traditional vampire & peppering him with research questions.

Yes, she wants to dye his hair black and convert him from drinking deer blood to drinking human blood. WTF, WTF! She wants him to start eating people?!? What the hell kind of heroine is she? Then, THEN, the reader discovers that Rusty is impotent, the assumption being since he's been converted. But wait! He thinks about Amber and bam! Little Rusty is back and we're treated to this: A single tear rolled down his cheek and disappeared into his beard. “Buddy, you’re back!”

In the next scene that Rusty and Amber share together, Amber begins to enlighten Rusty about all the things he's doing wrong, and Rusty basically tells her that he's the vampire & she doesn't know what the hell she's talking about. You said it, Rusty. I mean, if Rusty was an ethnic character, Hispanic or Black or whatever, and Amber starts 'educating' him on how his 'kind' is supposed to act? Readers would band together and trample this book into the dust.

And it doesn't stop! Amber just keeps being a, a, species-ist? racist?, JUDGMENTAL, person to the point where she shaves off his beard while he's sleeping because "Vampires weren’t supposed to have beards." This chick is insane. And Rusty apparently likes the crazy because little Rusty keeps making appearances!

Then there's a scene in a bar where Amber proceeds to sneer at every aspect of the local culture and doesn't believe that Rusty could've gone to college because "Rednecks don’t go to college." It's only until she's confronted with Rusty's sire, a 'traditional' vampire, that she says, hey, maybe a vampire who prefers animals isn't that bad after all.

I don't know what happened here. I mean, Mays is a good writer. And it's not like the book was littered with grammatical errors or typos. Really, it's all Amber's fault. She's an awful, awful person and Rusty is quite sane, despite his vampirehood. Why on Earth would you be attracted to her, Rusty? WHY?

I'm giving this two stars because maybe it's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek and I just completely missed that. Or maybe Amber should just be beaten with a tolerance stick. You decide, or just save your money and read the Ellora's Cave 'Heat' series instead.



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Perception, me, and Erin McCarthy's Flat Out Sexy

This is not a traditional review. I put off writing about Flat-Out Sexy because there wasn't much I could think of to say about it. A decent introduction to the series, interesting bits of NASCAR stuff here and a story that made sense. Woohoo. Don't you wanna run right out and grab it? It's better than I'm making it sound, buut something happened last night that made me re-evaluate how I saw the book.

An online friend of mine is a very talented artist and she's working on drawings for a new show. She showed me a rough draft of a take on Red Riding Hood and I said, in my own bluntly honest way, "I love it all but the nose. It's disproportionate." She's known me for a while so instead of being all "well, screw you and the broom you flew in on," she just said, "Thanks. But some people do have big noses."

And I thought about that statement. I enlarged the picture. Looked at it. Shrunk it. Looked at it again. And came to the conclusion that I still felt it was too big. However, I had to question why I felt that way. I realized that the rest of the drawing is perfect. The clothes are gorgeous, the background is evocative, and the feeling of wariness that the subject is experiencing just wafts from the drawing. Her face is beautiful, her eyes seem real, and then there's that nose. I've seen a lot of my friend's work and I expect every new piece to be beautiful. To have a so-called ugly element was jarring to me and my assumptions of what her work should be. In short, my perception of what I thought the work should be colored how I looked at it and, you know what? Some people do have big noses.

In Flat-Out Sexy, the hero, Elec, was a dumbass teenager and wound up with a STD. It wasn't caught in time and he wound up sterile. He can't have kids. He wants 'em, but he can't have them, which is why he views Tammy and her kids as a perfect situation for him. I really liked Hunter and Parker. In fact, in a perfect world, they'd get their own books someday. Parker, her son, reminds me of Harry from Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me, but I digress. McCarthy doesn't make light of Elec's sterility, but neither it is a big deal. It's just part of who he is and the life he has. If one of my friends came to me and said, "This guy I've been dating for a while just told me he's sterile," I wouldn't tell her that it's a deal breaker. I'd tell her he's clearly serious about her and she needs to think hard about if she sees a future about him. Of course, if they'd been dating for a week, I'd tell her to make him wear a condom anyway.

So where am I going with this? Well, I realized that, as I was reading the later books in the series, I was expecting the announcement that Tammy was pregnant. By Elec. Who McCarthy made quite clear can't have kids. WTF, self, WTF? I suspect the problem here is that Elec clearly wants kids and therefore my subconscious feels that a miracle should happen. I mean, I didn't have a problem with Cal and Min deciding they never wanted kids. I was agreeable to the idea and Bet Me is one of my favorite books. However, it appears that my perception of a fictional happily ever after is that the main characters, who've I become invested in, get whatever they want. In Elec's case, this means kids. McCarthy does an excellent job of demonstrating the relationship between Elec and Tammy's kids, and she continues to build on that in the later books. He's a natural born father and he should get a baby if he wants one, dammit! Yet some people have big noses and some people can't have kids. Facts of life. You take the good, you take the bad... (Sorry, I couldn't resist).

To boil it down, apparently my perception of art, whether it be a line drawing or a book, is that it should be better than reality. This makes me a bit of a hypocrite because I've always demanded a logical framework for the books I read. I spent about fifteen minutes once, figuring out how magical powers could be genetically passed down the female line. I made one of those chart things and muttered to myself things like "it would have to be recessive on the x chromosome and the father would have to be a carrier with a similar genetic lineage, but obviously enough generations removed from the original population to avoid inbreeding." I did all that for magical powers, but my view isn't broad enough to accommodate cute girls with big noses or sterile heroes who want kids.

I didn't have much to say about Flat-Out Sexy when I first read it, but it proved to be the catalyst for a dose of self-awareness. This is why I love romances. They're about all different kind of relationships and if you look hard enough, you can always find some truth buried beneath the fiction.

Review: Hot Finish by Erin McCarthy

Hot Finish by Erin McCarthy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm giving Hot Finish 3 stars. It would probably have been less, but I don't want to torpedo the book's rating. The main reason I feel this way is the book's very first sex scene. I didn't like it. I would go so far as saying it affected my opinion of the characters. It's not that I thought they weren't a good match, but I didn't want to hang out with them. I didn't have a problem with Suz or Ryder in the first two books, but their interactions here rubbed me entirely the wrong way.

Ryder calls Suz a 'sexy bitch' after oral sex and McCarthy writes:

"And he used to call her sexy bitch all the time. It was a term of endearment some women might not like, but she loved it. It had told her that Ryder got her and her sense of humor, and he always said it with a grin, a satisfied smile, or an indulgent exasperation." -page 110
This is one of those times when I understand what the character is trying to convey, but I don't get it. I don't understand it. I think it's demeaning and it doesn't even happen again, although they have sex multiple times later on in the book. So why include it at all?

In addition, I found the sex scene between pages 113-119 to be jarring. I think the problem was that Suz and Ryder are basically an established couple. Sure, they're trying to find their way back to each other, but they already have a comfort level as a couple that allows them to be, um, a tad more raunchier than you would expect to find in a non-erotica romance.

Their communication throughout the book was awful. Suz was very defensive and seemed to treat Ryder worse than he deserved. Ryder seemed bewildered most of the time, like he had no idea what would set Suz off or what to do about it. And I'm sorry, and maybe it's because I'm single, but the big fight & the reason behind it? Suz was running scared and latched onto it as a pretext to extricate herself. Frankly, I found it to be rather immature behavior.

Hot Finish follows the other two books chronologically, so it takes place during NASCAR's off-season. I didn't know NASCAR had an off-season and I also don't know what "intensive training for Daytona" (pg.39) entails. I would've liked to find out. Aside from Ryder's profession as a driver, there was really no other 'sporty' element to the book. It's disappointing all around, but I'm willing to acknowledge that maybe after the awesomeness that was Hard and Fast, Hot Finish simply couldn't measure up.