2016 April TBR/On Deck

Hello everyone!  I hope you all had a fabulous March.  Per usual I have quite a few books from last month that I didn't get to.  I read quite a few e-books though while I was on vacation.  But these are the books that I need go get to from the previous months.

1. Forever in Your Embrace by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
2. One Virgin Too Many by Lindsey Davis
3. Perfect Evil by E.C. Sheedy
4. Dragonbane by Sherrilyn Kenyon
5. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
6. Stop in the Name of Pants by Louise Rennison
7. Are These My Basooma's I See Before Me by Louise Rennison
8. Deception of a Highlander by Madeline Martin
9. Half Bad by Sally Green
10. The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
11. Devil of the Highlands by Lynsay Sands
12. Come Love a Stranger by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

So I've decided to pull out a few more books from my TBR jar.  I'm hoping to make a huge dent this month.  I've noticed that this month I pulled out a lot of Sherrilyn Kenyon books, which I'm excited so I can put a dent in that goal.

1. Rasputin by Brian Moynahan
2. Born of Silence by Sherrilyn Kenyon
3. A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
4. Jaws by Peter Benchly (I'm actually really excited about this one, I picked it up at a book sale last year because I'm so enthralled by the movies.)
5. The Curse by Sherrilyn Kenyon
6. Dark Bites by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Well those are my books goals for this month.  Also I should mention is that I'm also reading a book called To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jennie Han, it wasn't on my TBR but I wanted to read it because it seemed interesting.  Another thing is that I'm quite close to my goal of 40 books to read so I might make my goal higher on my good reads account.  Anyway, I hope everyone has a fantastic April and wish me luck.

2016 March Wrap Up

Well March was a e-book heavy month for me, but I knew it was going to be since I was going on vacation and I didn't want to bring a bunch of physical books for me to read.  I'll usually read about 4 to 7 books when I'm on vacation, but this year because I have a kindle, so I was able to have a lot more at my fingertips.

• Play With Me by Piper Shelly is a young adult contemporary romance and is part of a series.  The book wasn't bad but nothing spectacular either, just a nice quick read. RATING: 3 out of 5 stars.
• Jace by Kenzie Cox is a paranormal romance novella and is the first in a series by this author.  It was a nice and quick read, but there were a lot of unanswered questions about the two main characters pasts, which probably won't be expanded on since the following stories are about other members of the pack.  It wasn't something that pulled me in and made me want to find out more or read the rest of the story.  I might if it is part of kindle unlimited though but other than that I have other books that I can read.  RATING: 3 out of 5 stars.
• Distant Waves by Suzanne Weyn is a young adult historical book set in the last 1800's to the early 1900's and also involves the Titanic.  Yes part of the book takes place with the Titanic's maiden voyage.  I plan on doing a more in depth review, but I wasn't a big fan of this book, in fact I had actually started to read this book about 2 years ago and stopped because I couldn't seem to get into it. RATING: 2 out of 5 Stars.
• Under the Cowboys Control by Lynda Chance is a contemporary romance and follows Selena Taylor as she makes her way from Mexico (as a citizen) into the US after all of her family had been killed,  where she finds herself at the ranch of retired bull rider now ranch owner of Travis Blake. I actually liked the story and was another quick and fun read. RATING: 4 out of 5 stars.
• Flirting With Felicity by Gerri Russell is a contemporary romance novel about a hotel chef Felicity Wright and the hotel owners estranged nephew, Blake Bancroft.  After the owner dies, he wills the hotel to Felicity,  The nephew wants the hotel, which makes to two have to be around each other and as they get to know each other, sparks fly.  This was another story that I loved and that I felt read at a good pace.  The plot wasn't overly complicated but there was enough conflict that kept me interested. RATING: 4 out of five stars
• Southern Fried Blues by Jamie Farrell is a contemporary romance novel and it's the first in a series (not quite a series but more of a themed book line).  The story followed newly divorced military wife Anna Martin, as she tries to pick up the pieces of her life.  Soon she is back in school earning her degree and has found new friends.  Not wanting marriage or any kind of relationship, especially with another military man, meeting Jackson Davis was the last she wanted, but every where she turns he's always there to be her knight in shining armour.  I loved this story, it had the right level of romance and humor.  As someone who is independent I sympathized a lot with the character Anna but was also rooting for her to get with Jackson.  RATING: 5 out of 5 stars.
• A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest is a paranormal young adult romance and is part of a series (28 freaking books).  I really enjoyed this book and I ended up getting kindle unlimited just so I could download the sequels for cheap.  I'm actually almost done with the second book in the series, but I did get slightly distracted by fan fiction.  RATING: 4 out of 5 stars.

Well, that is what I read for the month of March.  I'm going to try to make April not be so e-book heavy, but no promises, especially because I've been addicted to the vampire series.  

Book Review: Winter

Winter by Marissa Meyer

Winter by Marissa Meyer is the fourth and final book in the Lunar Chronicles series.  This story is a futuristic adaptation of the classic fairy tale, Snow White.  This book has a lot more action and is slightly more graphic with violence.  None that I thought would be inappropriate of the genre but the three previous books kind of gradually got to this point.  Because I felt that these books were aimed for older teens, the darker nature of this book wasn't to bad.

The novel becomes more of a focal point for Princess Winter, who all of the Lunar people admire her for her grace and kindness.  She refuses to use her glimmer which would hide the scars on her face.  And because of that, her mind is slowly going insane.  Because of the Lunar people's admiration of Winter, Queen Levana is jealous of Winter and tries to find ways to get rid of her (much like Snow Whites step-mother).  The crew: Cinder, Captain Throne, Cress, Wolf, and Emperor Kai come up with a plan to get Scarlet back and to destroy Queen Levana once and for all, but they must help the Lunars in a revolt so they can put the rightful Queen back in her place.

I loved this story and I was so sad to see the series end.  I fell in love with all of the characters, and they were very human despite being fictional.  The ending was quite nice but it was definitely a little open.  There is a resolution to the major conflict, including the characters minor conflicts, but you're left to come up with your own conclusion of Cinder and Emperor Kai.  I choose to believe that once all of the political things settle, they get their own happy ending between each other.  The action was intense, the personal story lines flowed well with the main story line and plot.  I had a very hard time putting this book down and I think I read this book in about a day and a half after I bought it.

The one thing that I hate about when I read books that I'm completely in love with is that I suck at reviewing them.  I seriously loved this book and this series.  And I'm definitely looking out for the next book and series that Marissa Meyer releases.  This would definitely be a series that I would recommend for my niece (who is almost 16).

RATING:
5 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Love, Lucy

Love, Lucy by Lucille Ball is an autobiography set from when Lucille Ball was a little girl to the early 1960's.  The book was published in 1997 (8 years after Lucille Ball's death), and was published by Berkley (both of Ball's children decided that this needed to be released.)

The biography starts off with a forward from Lucille Ball's daughter, Lucie Desiree Arnaz.  She talks about how she found the manuscript when she was going through some things that she had of her mothers.  She also mentioned how her mother never released this was because she didn't want to hurt her ex-husband, Desi Arnaz.  She talked about the love and respect that they both had for each other.  Lucille chronicles her earlier years from when her father died when she was 4, to moving to different relatives while her mother tried to figure out how to support her family to living with her grandparents as a big family.  She also talked about how she modeled but really wanted to be an actress and how she dealt with rejection before going out to California and her rise to stardom.

One of my favorite things about the autobiography, was how Ms. Ball looked at the hardships in her life and she would find the lesson in it.  When she went though a bad situation where a well known director was enthralled by her and wanted to leave his wife but Lucy decided to not pursue a relationship because it could have hurt his children, the wife found out about it and made it so that Lucy wouldn't get any parts in A movies (which led to her title the Queen of B) during that part of her career.  But what I found so interesting was that she never named names, she accepted that was going to happen in her career and instead of giving up she put her all in every roll that she got.  For about half of the book, was on her life with her first husband Desi, whom she did I Love Lucy with and a few movies.  She talked about the passion and love, but she also talked about their dysfunction and difficulties.  One thing, which I felt was important, was that Lucy didn't lay all of the blame on Desi, It wasn't all his fault, she looked at where they both went wrong, she didn't play the victim but she didn't make him out as the villain.  The last few pages talk about their divorce, and Lucy's marriage to her second husband, Gary Morton (whom she was with till her death).  I loved how she talked about how Gary and Desi would golf with each other, how they were all apart of their children's lives.  She said something that I just thought was so powerful, and that was, "I'd rather have my children grow up in two loving house holds instead of growing up in one miserable home."

I loved this book, when I finished it, it left me with such a wonderful warm fuzzy feeling that I couldn't help but be happy.  I honestly think that that this should be required reading for high school students, especially girls.  Lucille Ball is the definition of classy, funny, smart, witty, and just all around a great woman.  She didn't sing her praises she didn't place blame on anyone else.  It just made me happy to read about one of my favorite actresses and comediennes.  I recommend this book to everyone and anyone.  Even if you don't think that you'd like it because you're not a big biography reader, you will.  It was so easy to get through and really hard to put down.

Rating:
5 out of 5 stars

2016 March TBR/On Deck

Happy March.  This month I decided to do mostly kindle/e-books since I need to catch up on the physical books that I haven't made it to yet and I'm also going on vacation and it's easier to bring my kindle instead of 4 to 6 physical books.  So I plan on reading the books from last month:

1. Come Love a Stranger  by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
2. Forever in Your Embrace by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
3. One Virgin Too Many by Lindsey Davis
4. Perfect Evil by E.C. Sheedy
5. Dragonbane by Sherrilyn Kenyon
6. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
7. Stop in the Name of Pants by Louise Rennison
8. Are These My Basooma's I See Before Me by Louise Rennison

I'll Probably start on the Louise Rennison books next, mostly because they'll finish the series, but another reason is that sadly, Louise Rennison passed away recently.  I loved the Georgia Nicholson books when I was younger.  I remember staying up all night reading them, laughing my butt off. 

Next are 8 e-books that I have decided to read, again, I picked 8 because I'll probably read 4 to 8 (depending on the length) when I'm on vacation.

1. Deception of a Highlander by Madeline Martin
2. Under the Cowboy's Control by Lynda Chance
3. Half Bad by Sally Green
4. Flirting With Felicity by Gerri Russell
5. Jace by Kenzie Cox
6. The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
7. Devil of the Highlands by Lynsay Sands
8. Play With Me by Anna Katmore

Well this is my March on deck/TBR.  I hope I can make a dent this month.  Wish me luck!  Next month I plan on only taking out physical books from my TBR.

2016 February Wrap Up

Well another month has flown by and I've read a total of 8 books.  And sadly only one was a actual physical book.  Kind of sad I know.  But it is so much easier to read e-books since I have the kindle app on my phone.  I'll try harder to read more of my physical books in the coming months.

1. The Blood & the Roses by Callie Hart is a complete series that I downloaded a few months ago.  This series had well over 800 pages and had so many twists and turns.  I thought that the plot was well thought out, and I felt for the characters no matter how messed up they were.  I believe that the series has 6 or 7 books to it, but it was only around $0.99 to download the whole series.  Side note: there are spin offs that I really want to purchase and read, because I liked the authors writing and how her plots seemed to move so well.  I started to read this book at the tail end of January and finished it up in February.
2. The Island by Jen Minkman is a dystopian young adult novella that is a little more than 100 pages long and the first in the series.  It was a nice quick read, and I plan on downloading the other two in the series to see what happens with the main character.
3. Gypsy Brothers: the complete series by Lili St. Germain was another complete series that I downloaded.  While the book by Callie Hart was descriptive, this one was a lot more focused on sex and violence.  You feel for the characters, but you're also cringing as you find out was is happening to them.  This is another book that has sequels and spin offs.
4. Toughened by Ophelia Sikes is the second story in the Vegas Nights series.  I downloaded this right after I finished Hardened and again it was short, sweet and left off with a freaking cliff hanger.
5. At Any Price by Brenna Aubrey is the first book in the Gaming the System series and is a full length novel (around 350 pages).  I really enjoyed it.  I loved the characters, while there wasn't a whole lot of action in the way the a couple of the books had, there was a lot of back story and understanding.  This book did a good job of setting up for the next book since this one had a lot of unanswered questions that need to be worked out.
6. Love, Lucy by Lucille Ball is a autobiography/memoir written by the legend herself.  This is the third biography that I have ever read in my life (the first two were autobiographies by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart that  I read probably 10 years ago).  But I have to say, I loved this book.  And made me love and admire Lucille Ball even more.  When I got to the end, it left such a nice warm fuzzy feeling in me and made me realize that this should be required reading for young girls in high school, so that they know how to act like a classy woman.
7. At Any Turn by Brenna Aubrey is the second book in the Gaming the System series.  This starts off where At Any Price finished and it is loaded with drama and romance.  I really enjoyed the series and once I finished I immediately downloaded the next book in the series.
8. At Any Moment by Brenna Aubrey is the third (and essentially the last book that follows the two main characters) in the series.  When it comes to romance stories, I'm a sucker for happy endings, and for the two main characters they got one.  Since both of the characters ended up on a roller coaster of drama, it was nice that they finally had what deserved.  There is 2 other stories in the series, that follow other characters that were a part of the first three stories in the series.  And yes I plan on downloading those as well.

Well that is my February wrap up, I think I've read more full length novels instead of novellas this month, but unfortunately only one was a physical book.  I plan on catching up on those in the next couple of months.

February 2016 TBR/On Deck

Welcome to my February TBR/On Deck!  Last month I was quite proud of all of the books that I had read (15 total!), even if some were short novellas.  This month I picked out 7 books, and I plan on finishing up the books that I didn't get to last month which was a lot more than what I wanted.  I kind of concentrated on mostly Kindle books.  The books that I still have to read are Love, Lucy by Lucille Ball, Perfect Evil by E.C. Sheedy, Dragonbane by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Come Love a Stranger by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss and One Virgin Too Many by Lindsey Davis.  So yeah, I'm adding 5 books to my list this month, because none of these are really all that short, I don't think I'm going to hit the numbers that I hit last month, but I can still try.

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgensern.  I have to be honest I don't really know much about this book, I bought it last year after watching a couple of booktube video's and it sounded interesting.  I think it involves magic and a circus.
2. Forever in Your Embrace by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss.  This will be my second Woodiwiss book that I'll be reading so far this year.
3. Stop in the Name of Pants by Louise Rennison.  This is I believe the 9th book in the Georgia Nicholson series, which is a young adult comedy book.
4. Are These my Basooma's I see Before Me? by Louise Rennison is the 10th and final book in the Georgia Nicholson series.  So this will count towards my series goal in my challenge.
5. The Blood & The Roses by Callie Hart, this is a six book series wrapped into one.  I've already started on it and so far I've liked it.
6. The Island by Jen Minkman. Is a kindle book but I'm not sure what genre.
7. Gypsy Brothers by Lili St. Germain is a kindle book and I blelieve that it is a novella series all in one.

Well this is my TBR for February.  Not as many books as last months, but considering that I have a quite a few books from last month that I need to read I think this should be fine.  Wish me luck!

2016 January Wrap Up

Wow, I have to say, I started this year off with a bang by reading a ton of books!  15 in total!

Starting off, I actually read 3 books at the tail end of 2015, but I decided to count them towards my 2016 goal for numbers.  But if I keep going at the rate I am, That might have been unnecessary.  So the three book that I had read were Kindle books, that I had downloaded to read specifically during my holiday shut down at work.

1. Bad Boy Daddy by Chance Carter.  This was a first for me, I have never read a romantic erotica that was written by a male before.  I thought the story was good, but it was definitely vulgar.
2. Unwrapped by Lacey Alexander is a short holiday story.  It was another one that I thought was good, but also on the vulgar side of erotica.  
3. The Stocking was Hung by Tara Sivec was another short holiday romance story that I downloaded on my kindle to treat myself and by far out of the three was my favorite.  While there was yes; romance and sex (and a touch of vulgarity), it was freaking hilarious.  I laughed so hard when I read this story, that I downloaded another one of her books to whip out if I ever need a good laugh.  In any of you read the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, then imagine those characters amped up by 10,000 points.  Seriously, someone gets shot in the balls at the "Christmas Story" (the movie) museum.
4. Stepbrother UnSEALed by Nicole Snow.  I can't quite remember if I read and finished this one in 2015 or if I actually finished it in 2016, All I know is that I did it all during that week I had off from work.  This was another one of those raunchy romances that were nice quick reads.
5. Shift out of Luck by Ruby Dixon, is a short romance novella that was of the paranormal kind, following bear shape shifters.  I enjoyed this book so much that I ended up buying and reading the three other novella's that were a part of this series, titled Bear Bites.
6. Get Your Shift Together by Ruby Dixon is the second book in the Bear Bites series.  Who doesn't like the thought of a hunky bear shape shifter coming to your rescue when you're out in the woods?  
7. Shift Just Got Real by Ruby Dixon is the third book in the Bear Bites series.  Out of the four books I liked this one the least.  
8. Does a Bear Shift in the Woods by Ruby Dixon is the fourth story in the Bear Bites series, which involves a wolf shape shifter with a bear shape shifter.  
9. Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James.  Let me just say that I was so happy to be done and over with this train wreck of a series.
10. Seven Up by Janet Evanovich.  This is the seventh book in the Stephanie Plum Series, and I have to say it didn't disappoint.  Because it had been quite some time since I've read any of these book I forgot how funny they are and was delightfully thrilled by the hilarity and mishaps that happened in the book.
11. The Duchess Wars by Courtney Milan is a historical romance book that I had downloaded onto my kindle a while back.  I started off just reading the first 3 or 4 chapters here and there, but once I actually sat down and dedicated a lot of time to it, it got exciting.  This is essentially a part of a series, so I may end up downloading the others at some point.
12. Kissing my Killer by Helena Newbury is a contemporary romance that has a Russian mob assassin and a computer hacker.  I had to say this was a nice story to read since, I haven't read something that involved a bad boy who has done something horrible.
13. Punching and Kissing by Helena Newbury is a contemporary romance that is centered around underground illegal boxing.  This was actually attached to the download of Kissing my Killer so I decided to read this as well.
14. Hard Eight by Janet Evanovich is the eighth book in the Stephanie Plum series.  In all seriousness, this book did not disappoint, Four vehicles ended up exploding and a man in a bunny suit decided to harass our hilarious bounty hunter.
15. Hardened by Ophelia Sikes is a short novella that is part of the Vegas Nights series by this author.  This story was actually a part of my February TBR but I ended up reading it because it was short and sweet.  The only problem is that it ended on a cliff hanger so I downloaded the next one.  This series alone is the reason why I'm seriously considering signing up for kindle unlimited since it's a free with that subscription.

Well, these are all of the books that I read in the month of January.  Some were short reads others took longer.  All in all, I have to say, I'm glad to be done with the Fifty Shades of Gray series though.  Don't worry, I plan on doing some book reviews for some of these.  If there are any that you'd like me to elaborate on more, please comment below and I'll try to put it on the top of my review list.

Book Review: Fairest

Fairest by Marissa Meyer

Fairest by Marissa Meyer is a bridge between the books Cress and Winter.  This book is part of the Lunar Chronicles Series, and is a futuristic, young adult novel.  While the other four stories follow a fairytale theme, this book is more like a window into the evil step-mother life.  While this book isn't a part of the series, I felt that it was a great read and set up for the final book in the series, Winter.  This story was shorter, but explained and introduced other characters that play huge roles in the final book.

Queen Levana is known as the ruthless ruler of Luna and their people the Lunars.  Known for her glamour you follow Queen Levana as a young teenager up to her adult years.  You feel for the insecure girl who was badly scared from a fire when she was a child.  Verbally abused, she becomes obsessed with a palace guard who is older than her and happily married into another woman.  She soon realizes the power she has not just with her glamour (Which is where they can change their physical appearance) but also with other people.  With the ambition of being not only the most beautiful Queen, but also the greatest ruler of Luna, she isn't afraid to hurt, kill and destroy anyone who stands in her way.  Including family.

I loved this book.  While it wasn't necessary to the Lunar Chronicles series, I was a great way to understand the madness that is Queen Levana.  One thing that I loved about this story is that even though you find out what she went through and you start to understand how she became who she was, you don't change your opinion on her.  You don't in the end hope that she gets a happy ending.  You still want to see her get what she has coming to her in the final story Winter.  While it isn't necessary to read this book as part of the Lunar Chronicles, it was still a great read.  Yes, you can read the Lunar Chronicles book without this and they explain everything that you need, I found it was interesting to go deep into the character which is Levana.  Finding out how she became the loose cannon that she was, was interesting.  I loved every second of this book.

Rating:
5 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Fifty Shades Darker

Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James

Fifty Shades Darker by EL James, is the second book in the Fifty Shades series.  This book is an erotica romance that touches on the BDSM lifestyle.  I finished this book in August of 2014, so I apologize if this review seems not that great.

Fifty Shades Darker picks up where Fifty Shades of Grey left off when Anastasia Steele leaves Christian Grey.  But the two lovers can't avoid each other and end up back with a each other.  Wanting a career, Anastasia feels daunted by Christian's need to control everything in her life.  But she feels frustrated with the secrets that he's keeping from her.

So I have to be honest, I didn't like this book, nor the first one.  I don't have an issue with the BDSM lifestyle that the author has wrote about, but I do have issue with her lack of development that she seems to have with the characters.  This book opened up a lot of issues that never seemed to get resolved or have a conclusion to.  I felt that the characters were so polar opposites that I couldn't relate them.  Ana is a weak person that doesn't have a back bone, and Christian is a manipulative dominate.  I felt that Christian's disregard of Ana's opinion on things was a huge turn off.  One thing that irritated me in the first book and it followed through to this book, and that was the constant mention of Ana's inner goddess.  I seriously wanted that inner goddess to get hit by a bus or something.   There were a lot of issues with this book, but one of the major ones for me have been was Christian's relationship with Elena (who was commonly referred as Mrs. Robinson), their relationship turned intimate and was a BDSM relationship right from the beginning when Christian was 15 and Elena was much older.  Ana is clearly uncomfortable with this but Christian disregards her voice on this matter.  This was something that could have been discussed and it just never happened.  And in the end, Ana can't live without Christian so she says yes to marriage even though they've known each other for a short amount of time and they have a ton of issues.  I have to be honest, if Christian wasn't rich or good looking, any normal girl would probably run the other way.

In the end, I didn't like this book.  If it had stayed as a fan fiction that I could have read for free, I would probably enjoy it.  But it is mediocre at best.  It really didn't deserve the hype and I think it gave a false image to the BDSM culture.  If you're interested in reading books like that, and that are done properly, I suggest reading something by Jaid Black.  She knows what she's writing about.  I personally feel that I'm being too generous with a 2 out of 5 stars rating, but I think I gave it an extra star because of it's origin.  I've read a lot of fan fiction over the years, some have been horrible, some decent, and others spectacular!  I have to honestly say that this one would have been in between decent and spectacular, but as a novel, and a series, I just don't get the hype.  I really don't.

Rating: 

2 out of 5 stars