Genre: Romance

Kisses, She Wrote by Katharine Ashe | Book Review

Posted December 8, 2015 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 0 Comments

Kisses, She Wrote by Katharine Ashe
Series: The Prince Catchers #1.5
Published by Avon Impulse on December 3, 2015
Genres: Historical Romance, Holiday - Christmas, Romance
Pages: 176
Source: Purchased
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Christmas in town has never been so steamy . . .

Handsome as sin and scandalously rakish, Cam Westfall, the Earl of Bedwyr, is every young lady's wickedest dream. Shy wallflower Princess Jacqueline of Sensaire knows this better than anyone, because her dreams are full of the breathtaking earl's kisses. And not only her dreams—her diary, too.

But when Cam discovers the maiden's not-so-maidenly diary, will her wildest Christmas wishes be fulfilled in its pages . . . or in his arms?

Hmmm. Well, this is a tough review to write. I did not really like the first book in this series, I Married a Duke, but I’m a sucker for historical Christmas romances and bookish characters. I decided to give this one a try, and I ran into the same problems I experienced with the first book. I was bored. The background details and politics and cultural explanations were boring. I felt for Jacqueline and her major crush on Cam. What girl hasn’t this happened to? However, I got very tired of reading her “erotic” journal entries about him. In this time period, what woman would write those kinds of things and then leave her journal out in the open for anyone to happen across? Cam read it, and became so hot and bothered by it that he wanted her even though she never struck his fancy before. I felt like this was a pretty weak plot line. Everything that happened between them was a result of his invasion of her privacy. There was no intrigue or attraction between the two of them, only Cam’s sex drive and her obsession with his looks. Jacqueline is supposed to be shy and proper, but it didn’t take long for her to throw all that away. There was no romance here. Plus, the entire story significantly lacked Christmassy details. This could have taken place at any point during the year and nothing would have really changed. Needless to say, I’m pretty disappointed.

Mistletoe and Mr. Right: Two Stories of Holiday Romance by Lyla Payne | Book Review

Posted December 4, 2015 by Jana in Book Review, New Adult / 3 Comments

Mistletoe and Mr. Right: Two Stories of Holiday Romance by Lyla Payne
Published by Bloomsbury on October 6, 2015
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Holiday - Christmas, Romance
Pages: 368
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher (Mail)
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In "Mistletoe and Mr. Right," Jessica (not Jessie) takes a flying leap and follows her boyfriend home for the holidays for Christmas break, sure that Ireland will provide the perfect backdrop to the beginning of their happily ever after. But it turns out his family--and his gorgeous ex-girlfriend--don't feel the same way, and the only person making the trip worthwhile is the local farmhand, who has a way of showing up when Jessica needs him most . . . and least.

The holiday hijinks continue in "Sleigh Bells and Second Chances," when Jessica's best friend makes her own way across the pond! Christina Lake does not want to be away at Christmas, but it's her duty to babysit one of London's hottest bands at their last-minute concert on Christmas Eve . . . even though she had a fling with Cary, the band's lead singer, that never officially ended. Now forced to reconnect, Christina is starting to think that maybe London is exactly where she's supposed to be to get the perfect New Year's kiss--at least until she finds out that he's been lying the whole time. Can Cary find a way to prove himself before the clock strikes twelve? Or will the New Year ring in a new romance?

Lyla Payne wraps up two perfect holiday novellas, ties them with a ribbon of romance, and tops them with a light dusting of snow. Perfect to curl up with under the tree. Just add hot cocoa!

I really enjoyed Mistletoe and Mr. Right when I read it last year, so I was very excited to receive this bundle for Bloomsbury, which contains Mistletoe and Mr. Right and also a follow-up novella called Sleigh Bells and Second Chances. Just for convenience, I’m going to paste my original review of Mistletoe and Mr. Right here before reviewing the follow-up novel!

Mistletoe and Mr. Right: I was particularly excited when I found out that this novel takes place in Ireland, and Lyla Payne really did a wonderful job with the setting. It felt magical and quintessentially Irish. The characters were charming, and I could just hear their beautiful Irish accents as I read their exchanges. I loved the bed and breakfast that Jessica’s boyfriend’s parents owned, and I loved the snow and the decorations. I could just smell the Christmas treats baking in the oven.

My favorite part of the story was the very beginning. I commiserated with Jessica’s long and eventful travel time. Transatlantic flights are not fun at all, plus then she had to drive the snowy roads on the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the road… and almost killed the family’s beloved goat. There she is, wet and cold, standing in the dark looking for the goat she hit and up comes the sexy farmhand, Grady. I loved this guy, and I loved him so much more than Jessica’s stuffy boyfriend, Brennan. I did love Brennan’s family, though. They were such characters, and I laughed at their antics several times. I’d love to be a fly on their wall during their Christmas dinner.

The writing was kind of dramatic, but I tend to allow so many things I don’t usually allow when it comes to Christmas books. It read like a super cheesy Hallmark movie, but I get all sappy and cheesy during the holidays so I didn’t even care. Things are a bit predictable and formulaic, but I came away happy and satisfied and ready for Christmas!

Sleigh Bells and Second Chances: Sadly, I didn’t like this one as much. Mistletoe and Mr. Right was funny and light and sweet, and I found myself so annoyed by Christina that I honestly could not wait to finish this novella. I love that it took place in London, and there were some magical descriptions of the scenery… but my love stopped there. I cared more about the romance than the technical goings-on of a band publicist. The descriptions of sound checks and sweaty band members bored me. And Christina’s drama bothered me a lot. She spent most of the book either miserable, broody, or self conscious. I really liked Cary as a person now, although I hate what he did to Christina. But he’s trying to make amends, and she’s just being a baby who throws tantrums all the time. The backstory of why Cary did what he did makes no sense at all, and I was really unconvinced. Maybe I’m just at a higher level, but what girl goes out and sleeps with a guy who betrayed her? She keeps saying she can’t trust him and she doesn’t want his life, so why is she sleeping with him? Her poor decisions made me lose respect for her. And really, the story isn’t even very Christmassy. Meh.

Read this book for Mistletoe and Mr. Right! I thought it was very fun and an enjoyable read. Sleigh Bells and Second Chances just didn’t work for me, even though I was super excited about the whole band aspect. Things just fell flat. I wanted more Christmas magic and less brooding.

Heart-Shaped Hack by Tracey Garvis-Graves | Book Review

Posted September 21, 2015 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 1 Comment

Heart-Shaped Hack by Tracey Garvis Graves
Series: Kate and Ian #1
Published by Self on August 25, 2015
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Pages: 277
Format: eARC
Source: Author
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When Kate Watts abandoned her law career to open a food pantry in Northeast Minneapolis, she never dreamed it would be this difficult. Facing the heartbreaking prospect of turning hungry people away, she is grateful for the anonymous donations that begin appearing at the end of each month. Determined to identify and thank her secret benefactor, she launches a plan and catches Ian —a charismatic hacker with a Robin Hood complex—in the act.

Ian intrigues Kate in a way no man ever has. But after learning he’s snooped around on her personal computer, she demands retribution. Impressed with her tolerance and captivated by her spirit, he complies and begins to slowly charm his way past her defenses. Time spent with Ian is never boring, and Kate soon finds herself falling for the mysterious hacker.

But Ian has enemies and they’re growing restless. In the hacking world, exploiting a target’s weakness is paramount, and no price is too high to stop an attack. And when Kate learns exactly how much Ian has paid, she’ll discover just how strong her love is for the man who has hacked his way into her heart.

There’s never been a question about my love for Tracey Garvis-Graves’s books. I will always read anything she writes because she grabs you immediately, immerses you in a story with wonderful characters, and leaves you wishing she would write you a book every week. Heart-Shaped Hack is another title I’m adding to my list of reasons to love Tracey. As always, my main points are bolded. :)

1. Tracey likes to be unique. Every book she has ever written has never been written before. She keeps throwing in elements that make the story fresh, and I love that. Our main guy, Ian, is a computer hacker philanthropist. He’s basically Robin Hood. Can’t say I’ve ever read a book about a guy like him, and I’m pretty sure that if I did I would not like it as much.

2. Ian’s snark is probably my favorite thing about the entire book. He is blunt and cocky and has absolutely no filter. Everything in his life is gray. There’s no black or white, wrong or right. Everything is just Ian. He dissolves boundaries and can charm his way into anything. He finds Kate several times because he hacks into her credit card history to discover where she is. And then he goes there. And then he tells her how he found her. And he’s so charming and sexy that it doesn’t even matter that he’s spying on her! As much as he likes her, he turns their relationship into something SHE has to work for. Not only did he capture her heart against her will, he made her pursue him! This guy is something. And the master of the swoons.

3. Kate reminds me of myself. She’s following her dreams and living a relatively simple, quiet, almost cautious life. She cares a lot about helping others and making a difference in the world. I liked that Ian bugged the crap out of her in the beginning. She rolled her eyes at him and threw his cockiness back in his face countless numbers of times, and the banter that ensued had me giggling and turning the pages as quickly as I could.

4. Ian challenges Kate to break down walls and take risks, and Kate challenges Ian to be open and caring. These two are great together!

5. A hacker’s life is a dangerous life, and Ian’s attachments to Kate (and his desire to stay in one place for too long) bring with them a scary situation that nobody anticipated. I loved the mystery and the danger surrounding this part of the story, even though my heart is a little worse for wear as a result.

6. I feel like this book was really well researched! Garvis-Graves does a great job of portraying the life of a hacker.

7. The writing style is, as always with Tracey, amazing! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. She knows how to grab you immediately and never let go. And, even though I read an ARC, I did not find one typo or grammatical error. I noticed the same thing when I read her self-published On the Island back in the day. Tracey pays attention to every detail, and that’s why her stories are perfect. She’s just that good!

8. There were more sexytimes than I’m used to with her books, but I can kind of see why that was necessary for these particular characters. I wish there had been a little less, though, because I was blushing way too much!!

I can’t wait for the sequel, White-Hot Hack, which I know I’ll be bugging Tracey about over the next few months. I’m excited to see where Ian and Kate go from here! I still stand by my bold proclamation that I will read anything Tracey ever writes. Definitely give this book a shot if you like words.

The Trouble with Destiny by Lauren Morrill | Book Review

Posted August 13, 2015 by Jana in Book Review, Young Adult Fiction / 5 Comments

The Trouble with Destiny by Lauren Morrill
Published by Delacorte Books for Young Readers on December 8, 2015
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Pages: 272
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey...

With her trusty baton and six insanely organized clipboards, drum major Liza Sanders is about to take Destiny by storm—the boat, that is. When Liza discovered that her beloved band was losing funding, she found Destiny, a luxury cruise ship complete with pools, midnight chocolate buffets, and a $25,000 spring break talent show prize.

Liza can’t imagine senior year without the band, and nothing will distract her from achieving victory. She’s therefore not interested when her old camp crush, Lenny, shows up on board, looking shockingly hipster-hot. And she’s especially not interested in Russ, the probably-as-dumb-as-he-is-cute prankster jock whose ex, Demi, happens be Liza’s ex–best friend and leader of the Athenas, a show choir that’s the band’s greatest competition.

But it’s not going to be smooth sailing. After the Destiny breaks down, all of Liza’s best-laid plans start to go awry. Liza likes to think of herself as an expert at almost everything, but when it comes to love, she’s about to find herself lost at sea.

*sigh* I’m sorry, but this was a bit of a train wreck for me. I loved Lauren’s other books so very much, so I’m really sad to feel this way. Aside from the cheesiness, which could have been cute under other circumstances, this book is riddled with inaccuracies. Maybe I should not have read it while I was on a cruise… So here are my problems:

1. No school band in the entire world would be able to go on a cruise for free for any reason, much less for less than $25,000. If this band can afford to go on a cruise, but they MUST win $25,000 or the band program is discontinued… isn’t that contradictory? Sure, they won a contest that got them on a ship. But no cruise line would ever hold a contest with this kind of prize, much less have the space to allow for a marching band (or multiple marching bands).

2. The Destiny, a luxury cruise liner, weighs only 50,000 tons but has six sun decks, three pools, a casino, an atrium, “many buffets”, multiple lounges, a spa, and a bowling alley. This is pretty much impossible. Pretty much all of today’s large cruise ships with these features weigh 2-3 times this amount. I was on the Carnival Dream when I read this. That ship weighs 130,000 tons, has three pools, an atrium, one buffet, two lounges, a spa, and a few bars. No bowling alley. I mean, an author can squish anything into anything, so perhaps this ship is really tiny, with really tiny amenities and can hold very few passengers. But it just did not feel realistic to me.

3. There was no lifeboat drill! This is required by international maritime law, and happens before or during the ship’s departure from the original port. But when the ship pulled away, nobody had done the lifeboat drill and there was not even mention of it. Sure, maybe the author just chose to not mention it… but everything else was mentioned!

4. There are so many problems with the ship. It is constantly not working properly. This does not happen. And if it does, it’s a huge deal. It’s very dangerous. It makes the news.

5. A kid threw a drink overboard. Glass and all. You can get in so much trouble! Depending on the deck, that drink most likely blew back into the ship and landed on someone’s balcony or an open deck.

6. Seasickness patches (Scopolamine patches) are not applied to the arm like the book says they are. They are placed behind the ear. And you can’t use more than one like Liza did during the storm. That’d be an overdose, and you’d get pretty sick. One lasts an entire week on a cruise.

7. You are NOT allowed to sleep on deck. Cruise ship workers circle the decks all night and wake people up and make them go to their cabins. It’s a liability.

8. Drum majors (Liza) do not have that much power. And seriously? Where was the band director? Did he throw some empty margarita glass overboard and get confined to quarters? Oh wait…

9. Liza made me want to strangle something. She’s awful! I’m not used to such an unlikeable main character, but she is high strung and annoying and judgmental and a major slut shamer.

10. I was bored. The people are boring. The story is boring. I would have died if I had been on this ship. I would have jumper overboard.

11. THE ANIMAL SIMILES made me want to die. Here are a few:
– “…shiver like a drowned chihuahua.”
– “…parrot caught in a hairdryer.”
– “…cat caught in a washing machine.”
– “Like cats tap dancing on a chalkboard.”
– Someone was compared to a “coked-up gorilla”.
I could go on.

The premise sounded like so much fun… I love books that take place on cruises, but this one just did not work for me. It did not feel realistic and the romance was nothing to get excited about. Seriously, it was just so silly (in an annoying way) and meh. If you can get past the fact that this story is not at all realistic, maybe you’ll enjoy the silly little teen drama and cattiness. I just felt way too old for this book. I liked the idea, but that was it.

Hello, I Love You by Katie M. Stout | Book Review

Posted July 27, 2015 by Jana in Book Review, Young Adult Fiction / 9 Comments

Hello, I Love You by Katie M. Stout
Published by St Martin's Press on June 9, 2015
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Pages: 304
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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A teen escapes to a boarding school abroad and falls for a Korean pop star in this fun and fresh romantic novel in the vein of Anna and the French Kiss.

Grace Wilde is running—from the multi-million dollar mansion her record producer father bought, the famous older brother who’s topped the country music charts five years in a row, and the mother who blames her for her brother’s breakdown. Grace escapes to the farthest place from home she can think of, a boarding school in Korea, hoping for a fresh start.

She wants nothing to do with music, but when her roommate Sophie’s twin brother Jason turns out to be the newest Korean pop music superstar, Grace is thrust back into the world of fame. She can't stand Jason, whose celebrity status is only outmatched by his oversized ego, but they form a tenuous alliance for the sake of her friendship with Sophie. As the months go by and Grace adjusts to her new life in Korea, even she can't deny the sparks flying between her and the KPOP idol.

Soon, Grace realizes that her feelings for Jason threaten her promise to herself that she'll leave behind the music industry that destroyed her family. But can Grace ignore her attraction to Jason and her undeniable pull of the music she was born to write? Sweet, fun, and romantic, this young adult novel explores what it means to experience first love and discover who you really are in the process.

I think most people will agree with me when I say that I was looking forward to a diverse book, taking place in a country we don’t see much in YA lit, and on a subject (KPop) that I’m not at all familiar with. I was excited to learn about and experience a new culture, new scenery, new music scene, and new people. The author had an amazing opportunity to shine a positive light on the Korean culture, but instead made a mockery of them, not to mention Americans and our knowledge of cultures other than our own. I was very, very disappointed in this book and almost didn’t even finish it. As always, my main points are bolded.

1. I hope not all Americans act like Grace did when she ended up in South Korea, because she was ignorant, judgmental, pretentious, patronizing, and obnoxious. I was embarrassed and offended. She ran away from her problems at home to a place I’m not sure she had even heard of before, with all these pre-conceived notions and transparent stereotypes. She has this superiority complex that never goes away throughout the entire story. She seems to think it’s impossible that Koreans can think or act without the influence of Americans. “Oh, they have music here? Oh, they have their own fashion sense? Oh, they have their own food?” Does the girl not know that Earth is not some huge America? She’s insensitive, she’s not accepting, and her comments (spoken and thought) are downright rude. I can’t believe she made friends or fell in love because I would want nothing to do with someone like her if they came to visit my country.

2. The author did nothing to make me feel like I was in South Korea, except for throwing in a bunch of Grace’s horrible comments about how the people look and what they eat. This could have taken place anywhere. KPop was pretty much non-existent. I feel like the author just wanted to label her book “diverse” because that’s the thing to do right now, but did absolutely no research to back herself up.

3. I did not find the romance to be cute or sweet because I hated Grace so much. And the fact that Jason could fall for someone who is so rude and judgmental about his culture and his home made me respect him less. Is she just really pretty or something? I don’t see the appeal.

4. For that matter, I didn’t like anyone in this book. When I was a teen I chose good friends based on common interests and a mutual respect. Grace spent the whole story on her high horse, making fun of the place she chose to live (on a complete whim, no less). Why does anyone like her? So I kind of lost respect for them as well.

Basically, Grace ruined the story for me. I have not hated a character this much in a long time. As such, I’m going to quit reviewing this now because all I’m going to do is continue to justify my complaints with my hatred towards Grace. I’m so disappointed in this book, and would not recommend it to anyone. Hence, my 0-star review.