Lover Avenged by J. R. Ward
Why I read this: Yes, WHY!? I gave up on the series, but a dear friend sent me the book. For what she spent on the hard cover copy and shipping costs, I owed it to her to give it a try.

Caldwell, NY, has long been the battleground for the battleground for the vampires and their enemies, the Lessening Society. It’s also where Rehvenge has staked out his turf as a drug lord and notorious nightclub that caters to the rich and heavily armed. His shadowy reputation is exactly why he’s approached to kill Wrath, the Blind King, and leader of the Brotherhood. Rehvenge has always kept his distance from the Brotherhood, even though his sister is married to a member. Because he’s a sympath, his identity is a deadly secret- the revelation of which will result in his banishment to a colony for sociopaths. And as plots within and outside the Brotherhood take their toll against Rehvenge, he turns to the only source of light in a darkening world- Elhena, a vampire untouched by the corruption that has its hold on him- and the only thing standing between him and eternal destruction.

This will be short and sweet because I don't want to waste any more of my reading or reviewing time on this series than I have to.

The brothers still dress in leather, they still wear shit kickers, and they still have a stupid vocabulary of words.
The Lessers continue to bore me.
Ward is so busy flipping back and forth from storyline A to story line B to story line C to Storyline D, etc, that there is not near enough time for me to become invested in the supposed h/h.

This series used to excite me. It used to make me happy to follow the brothers and watch them fall in love.
Ward's odd story lines and inability to keep my attention makes this a DNF. I don't care what happens to anyone in this series any more.

Charming the Highlander by Janet Chapman
Why I read this: The back cover blurb sounded good.

When a plane crash strands brilliant scientist Grace Sutter on an icy mountaintop in Maine, she finds herself alone in the wilderness with the only other surviving passenger -- Greylen MacKeage,a sexy, medieval warrior who's been tossed through time to find the woman he's destined to love. Forced together to survive the harsh, wintry landscape, neither expects the fierce passion that flares between them. But Grace is not used to letting her heart take control, and Greylen will settle for nothing less than her heart's surrender....

There were a few things that had me excited to read this; highlander, plane crash, time travel.
I'm disappointed. That blurb is much too misleading.

I was wanting and expecting something similar to Linda Howard's Up Close and Dangerous, but with a highlander twist.
It wasn't even close.

Only two or so chapters covered the survival aftermath of the plane crash, so there goes the plot as described on the back cover that I was wanting to read.

Since I enjoyed a the other Janet Chapman books that I have read I figured I'd just read on. Even though it wasn't the story I was lead to believe, it could still turn out to be a good book, right? Sadly it didn't turn into a good read.

The story was all over the place. Heroine is to give her nephew to his father, but she doesn't want to (even thought she made a promise to her now dead sister) she lies about who the baby belongs to. There is a weird kidnapping plot that is inserted over half way in that doesn't fit the book at all. The heroine trying to help both her Hero and her sister's baby daddy, but there is resistance on both sides. None of it fit. It could have, though. But as it was, it felt like a bunch of different stories meshed into one.

DNF on page 272, however, I did jump to the end to skim the last few pages.

I'm not giving up on this author. I have the next few books in the series, which I do plan to read.

To Seduce a Texan by Georgina Gentry
Why I read this: It was the cover and blurb that attracted me to it. Plus I can never turn away from a kidnapping plot.

Texan Will 'Waco' McCain and his gang are under orders to rob a bank in Prairie View, Kansas, and get the loot back to their home state, pronto. Trouble is, the town's crawling with Yankee soldiers so it's on to Plan B: kidnap the banker's stepdaughter. Nabbing the delectable Rosemary Burke turns out to be easy as pie. But Waco soon discovers the smart, stubborn heiress is quite the handful - in every sense.

Rosemary knows this kidnapping is the perfect opportunity for her greedy stepfather to get rid of her and keep her inheritance, which is why he's ignoring her captors' ransom demands. Truth be told, living in close quarters with the handsome cowboy isn't the worst thing to happen to a girl who's had few chances to hone her feminine wiles. Come to think of it, seduction might be her best chance at escape - not to mention a bit of fun.

With the ransom dropping, his deadline looming, and something entirely unexpected blooming with Rosemary, Waco wonders if this dangerous game she's playing is about to turn deliciously real...

To Seduce a Texan had elements that I enjoy in books.

1. Kidnapping
2. Historical Western
3. A parental villain
4. An ugly ducking heroine

It should have been a book that I had a good time reading.

It wasn't.

My first issue is that even though I like a heroine who is not model perfect, I don't like to be constantly reminded of her physical short comings. It was mentioned in just the first chapter alone that she was plump, too round or fat-- five times. It was mentioned several more times, per chapter, until chapter four. From then on it was repeated only every other chapter instead of every other page, like it had been.

My second issue is that the heroine was made out to be a lady. Dialogue from people around her as well as her own inner dialogue stressed it. She expected to be treated like one, however, she had a mouth that no lady in that time would have used. Her favourite thing to say was "shut up" and she was fond of name calling.

My third issue is that there were several phrases both in narrative and dialogue that were used, word for word, more than once. It was distracting to read the same things over like that. I kept getting flashes of deja vu, and twice I stopped reading and flipped back to see if there was a printing error with the page numbers. Not so. It was all in the right order.

All of those I could have kept on reading through if not for the fact that I could not stand to read one more word from the uneducated, backward hero. I get that he had no learnin' and that he don't know what them there big words mean, (*Ahem* sarcasm) but holy hell, reading the way he talks made me feel like I didn't have an education past the second grade. It was way too distracting, and did nothing to make the hero look like, well, a hero!

To Seduce a Texan is not a book I could finish reading. DNF.

Wicked Burn by Beth Kery
Why I read this: There were lots of great reviews, and Ames stayed up all night reading it.

Vic Savian knows what he wants when he sees it. And what he wants is his sexy neighbor, Niall Chandler. So when he sees her in the hallway of their building being harassed by an aggressive suitor, Vic makes his move—and finds himself greatly rewarded…

Sleeping with her gorgeous neighbor—when she didn’t even know his last name—was the craziest thing Niall’s ever done. Now, she can’t seem to get enough of Vic—or the uninhibited passion he stirs in her. Suddenly, with his help, she’s opening to sensual pleasures she’s never known before. But when Niall’s past comes back to haunt her, will she and Vic let themselves venture beyond the bedroom and explore the possibility of love that’s in their hearts?

Ames and I were supposed to review this one for Breezing Through, but we decided that I should go ahead and post my review here, and she will maybe post her review on her own blog.

Since all I have to say about it I already told Ames via email, here you have it, my thoughts on Wicked burn.

Me: Hi Amy,

I'm not liking it at all, don't even want to finish it. I'm sorry :(
I don't mind still doing the review with you, but it will be a DNF one.

Ames: That's all right.

What part are you at? What aren't you liking?

Me: I'm in the middle of chapter five.

The dialogue isn't very good, I can't get a feel for Vic's voice at all.

The Amount of POV changes during the love scenes is past the point of annoying. One, maybe two, I am okay with, but I lost count at eight times in a single love scene. I like to stay in the moments during those parts and the going back forth kept giving me pause. I don't like that.

Where is the story? They meet, they have sex a bunch of times. Is there even a plot, a conflict?

You like it, right? Tell me something that makes me want to read on. I don't want a DNF this soon into the new year.

Ames: LOL I found all the sex at the beginning a bit tiring too. I was wondering when it was going to pick up...but around the middle it gets better - that's where the conflict enters the program.

Niall is just on the verge of telling Vic about her past when her mom comes over and coldly tells her her husband is getting better. So Vic is all "you're married?" and Niall doesn't say anything (confirming her guilt to Vic) and Niall goes to see her husband b/c he is asking for her.

Do you want me to tell you more? LOL

Me: Hmm, that does sound a bit better.

I'll read a few more chapters, and get back to you.
Thanks!

Ames: Ok. :P It might frustrate you though, what Niall doesn't do. But just keep going.

Me: That's another thing. I hate her name. I keep trying to pretend her name is Nelly or something.
First I didn't know how to pronounce her name, which is not fun, then we find out that she has a boy name (so, Neil?) ugh. I don't like it when girls have boys names.
If I was enjoying the story, then the name thing would not bother me. But you know how it goes. Little things are hard to ignore when there are so many of them.

Ames: LOL Yeah, I understand. Then you start nitpicking.

I say it the way it looks. Ni-all. Sounds dumb though.

One day later...

Me: I'm a few pages into chapter 12, and I'm going to stop now.

The dialogue did get better and I started to like Vic, but not enough to keep going.

Just waiting for something interesting to happen with this story isn't at all fun.

Is this the book that you stayed up until 3am reading? Can you tell me what you liked that much about it?

Ames: The emotion from the characters is what kept me reading. Like what Niall goes through with her ex. Did you get to that scene when he goes apeshit on her??

Me: No, I didn't get to that part in the book. I don't feel anything for the characters. I don't' care what they are thinking, what they did or what they will do in the future. For me, it's a DNF.

Ames gave it a B.

The Darkest Kiss by Gena Showalter
Why I read this: Gena Showalter is an auto buy for me, and I thought the first book in the series was great.

I expected great things for The Darkest Kiss. I thought that The Darkest Night was really good, so perhaps my expectations were just too high.

I'm not able to put my finger on what the problem was, but The Darkest Kiss was boring. Thats the only way I can put it. The first few chapters were good, and I thought for sure that it was going to be another great read from a favourite author, but unfortunately it wasn't like that. Something, I'm not sure what, just seemed to fizzle out. There was no desire for me to read on at all. I didn't care about turning the page or finding out what would happen next. I think because nothing was happening. Just a bunch of scenes of the H/H obsessing over each other, fighting and being annoying to the one another as they can be. I guess it was just dragging on too much for me to enjoy.

Th Darkest Kiss was a DNF for me.

Having said that, I still do plan to read the third installment of the series this month.



Ain't She Sweet by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Why I read this: I wanted to try something by this author, and this book caught my eye first.

Loved it! A contemporary read about a small town girl who burned a lot of bridges with friends and family back home. When she came back to the town she grew up in to look for a painting, she found love with someone she hurt in the past.

The conflict was awesome, and I must say that of the two main men in the book, she did not end up with the one I thought she would end up with. You see, I only read a few lines of the back cover blurb before deciding that this sounded like a nice read.

I do have a few issues with the way she was treated though. Some of the people who were mean to her when she came back home where just follwing the leader. They had no reason to be SO bitchy to her. Even though I didn't like how they treated her, it went well with the story. I love the writing style this author has. Very nice flow. B+. I can't wait to read more from this author.



Lover Enshrined by JR Ward
Why I read this: I don't know! But I mean it when I say that this is the last one. Grrrr.

Well, the Lesser POV's are back. That sucked. I did a lot of skimming. I skimmed the Lesser stuff, of course. I also skimmed plenty of Phury's POV. For most of his scenes he was talking to a voice in his head. A voice he calls The Wizard. The Wizard shows up when Phury is high or needs to get high.

Not nearly enough time was spent on the H/H. Much of the book focused on Qhuinn and JM. I'm not surprised though. Ward even said that this book would be a stepping stone for Q and JM. The worst part though, the part that I hate the most is the dialogue. Not only is the speech more annoying that it was before, but now all the Shellans talk like that. Some of it was entertaining-I have to admit that Ward can pull off a good twist (when she isn't killing pregnant women, and turning Shellans into ghosts). There was just too much skimming, and too many wall banging moments to make this book anything other than a C-

I need to re read Dark Lover ASAP. I need to get the horrible taste of the last few books in this series out of my mouth.

Charmed and Dangerous by Candace Havens

Published by Penguin Group

Why I read this: I admit it, the cover attracted me.

When Bronwyn turned twenty she took the oath to protect, and for the last five years she's kept that promise, working as a kind of one-witch secret service to the British Prime Minister. Her arsenal includes a combination of potions, spells, explosions, mind-reading tricks, and general butt-kicking skills. But Bronwyn has a soft side, too-especially when it comes to Dr. Sam, the favorite physician of her new hometown, Sweet, Texas. He's smart, funny, adorable, everything she could want in a man. Except he's also a warlock-a big no-no in Bronwyn's book of dating. Being a witch is definitely getting in the way of her sex life. If zapping evil jerks is easy, why is finding a boyfriend so hard?

Yeah, this wasn't my cup of tea. I didn't get very far into it before giving up.

Written in the first person it opens with Bronwyn talking about how she has found the perfect guy. She goes on and on about him. He is laying beside her in bed, and the only problems is that he is dead.

Chapter one has her flying somewhere to do a reading for some Prime Minister. Bronwyn is a Witch.

Thats all I got, folks. The writing style threw me off. It was very awkward. It was written almost in a diary style. I enjoy first person POVs, but this one wasn't doing it for me. I almost made it to chapter 2.

Charmed and Dangerous is the first book in a series. I'll stop at this one.

DNF.

The Bachelor by Carly Phillips

Published by Warner books

Why I read this: Okay, I bought it for 2 really silly reasons. 1) It was only twenty five cents in a hospital library. 2) It had the 'Reading with Ripa' book club selection stamped on the inside back flap. I have only read one other book by this author. Summer Lovin'. It was rather boring, so I had not planned on reading anything else by the author, but hey, who can pass up a $0.25 hardcover romance book by a popular author? Not I.

Will this bad boy make it to the altar? It takes a very special woman to
catch a Chandler man... Meet the Chandlers - a trio of sexy brothers and the
most eligible men in town...until their mother falls ill. As her three sons
gather at her side, she makes two desperate demands: "Get married! Give me
grandchildren!" Foreign correspondent Roman Chandler has always prized his
freedom above all else. Now losing a coin toss has sealed this youngest
brother's fate. Finding someone to escort down the aisle is the easy part -
every wannabe bride in sleepy Yorkshire Falls is itching to get hitched to this
gorgeous, globe-trotting Chandler man. But Roman still lusts after the woman who
got away. Stunning heartbreaker Charlotte Bronson has come home to put down
roots and get her erotic lingerie business off the ground. She wants a man who
won't go chasing off to the far corners of the earth for a breaking news story.
He wants her to say "I do". Will-she or won't-she? Can the love of the right
woman transform a go-it-alone guy into a stick-around-forever kind of man?

In all honesty, I only got 3 or 4 chapters in before I gave up. What I know for sure is that Roman's mother pretends to have a heart condition in order to guilt trip her sons into getting married and giving her grand babies. They are very good sons who don't want to upset their mother, so they flip a coin to see who goes first. Roman wins. Or loses. However you want to look at it.

Charlotte and Roman went on one date when they were in high school. Charlotte liked Roman very much, but as soon as she found out that he didn't plan to stick around, she put the brakes on their relationship before it really had the chance to get started. Roman has since then always considered her 'the one that got away'.

You see, Roman is a reporter who is not happy being in one place. He plans to marry a nice girl his mom approves off, get her pregnant, and then go off and do his reporter thing...only coming back home for things like birthdays, Christmas, etc.

Charlotte had a father who was never around, so she does not want to get involved with Roman at all.

Roman has decided to pursue her even though he knows she would not be happy with a husband who is gone all the time.

Currently, Charlotte owns a ladies lingerie store, and someone in town is breaking into homes and stealing a certain brand of underwear from her costumers.

I'm sure that by the end of the book, Roman decides to stick around.

I stopped reading because the story could not hold my attention. There is nothing that I didn't like about it, I don't think. It's just not interesting. I think that I will try it again another time when I am in the mood for something fluffy.

If you read and liked this book and think I should pick it up again, like right now, then let me know :-)

Sex and the single ghost by Tawny Taylor

Published by Kensington

Why I read this: I bought it because I am a fan of the author's books at Ellora's cave. It's been sitting in my TBR pile for some time now, and I finally decided to read it because Nath was reading it, and I wanted to compare notes.

Nine years ago, Claire Weiss died, which put a serious crimp in her plans. Now, she's caught in Purgatory, waiting for that Big Day when she can reanimate and return to earth and have sex at last! Nine whole days of chocolate! Cute shoes! Real beer! And, most important of all, a chance to reconnect with the object of her long-denied lust, hunky Jake Faron. The minute she materializes in front of her favorite old haunt, er, bar, Devil's Night--complete in a Halloween get-up of lingerie and high-heeled mules--she locks eyes with Jake, who is as hunky as ever.

The rules are that Claire has nine days to investigate her mysterious death, solve the crime, and do good deeds for others (not as easy as it seems, people) before returning to Purgatory. But she also has nine hot, steamy nights to do absolutely everything she's ever dreamed about doing with Jake. And that's a good thing, because not only does Jake have a secret that could change her whole afterlife, but he's perfectly capable of showing a love-struck ghost plenty of heaven on earth...

Sex and the single ghost starts off with a funny prologue stating the rules of purgatory and what one must do in order to get out of it for a while. The first chapter was also pretty good. Claire is determined to take her nine days with the living and spend them in the arms of her crush, who she has not seen since she died nine years earlier.

Claire gets out of purgatory and finds Jake right where she thought he would be. They go off together and then spend the night having sex.

We soon find out that Jake is also a ghost who died right around the same time that Claire did. It's no shock that when he was alive he lusted after Claire as much as she did with him.

Sex and the single ghost has some funny moments, but between the boring story line and the drawn out sex scenes, I didn't enjoy reading it, so thats why I stopped. Each turn of the page got less interesting for me and even though there were several love scenes, there was only one that stood out to me. It involved a sex swing, and that is pretty much the only part of the story (besides the prologue and first chapter) that I paid my full attention to.

I'm bummed, because I wasn't expecting not to like this book. I cannot recommend Sex and the single ghost to my friends. DNF. I stopped reading it about half way through.

Hot & Bothered by Susan Anderson

Published by MIRA

Socialite Victoria Hamilton had hers with a sexy Marine she knew only as Rocket.
But now her father's been murdered, her brother's on the lam, and the PI John Miglionni, whom her lawyer hired, turns out to be none other than the man she stole away from as the dawn broke over a Pensacola beach six years ago . And he wants answers. About a lot of things. But mostly about Victoria's daughter--the little girl with his dark eyes.

6 years ago Victoria had a week long fling with 'Rocket'. After her father is murdered, Rocket is hired to help track down Jarod, Victoria's brother , because he is wanted in questioning of the murder. Victoria also asks him to solve her father's murder. I guess the police think it's Jarod, so they have pretty much closed the book on it.

Rocket thinks that it will be a good idea to pretend that he and Victoria are engaged so that he has a valid 'in' when investigating things.

Deedee is Victoria's step mother, and even though Deedee has never cared one way or the other about Victoria, she all of a sudden is sweet and wanting to throw an engagement ball for Victoria and Rocket. Some guy with an agenda shows up at the ball drunk and lets it be known that Victoria gave her virginity to him when she was 17.

We get to see where Jarod is during all this...living on the streets with some little 12 year old girl. I gotta say that the little street girl is the most interesting person in the whole book. She doesn't even seem to have anything to do with the actual plot though.

Oh yeah, there is a kid, too. A 5 year old that Victoria got knocked up with during her fling with Rocket. She talks like a college student. A drunk slurring college student who has forgotten how to pronounce certain words.

This book is guaranteed to put you in a slump. I don't know if I even want to pick up the next book in my TBR for fear that it will be as bad as this one.

For a title like 'Hot & Bothered' you would think that it would at least be hot. It just bothered me.

So, who killed the dad? Don't know-don't care.

The rest falls away by Colleen Gleason

Published by Signet

Grade: DNF

In every generation, a Gardella is called to accept the family legacy of vampire slaying, and this time, Victoria Gardella Grantworth is chosen, on the eve of her debut, to carry the stake. But as she moves between the crush of ballrooms and dangerous, moonlit streets, Victoria's heart is torn between London's most eligible bachelor, the Marquess of Rockley, and her enigmatic ally, Sebastian Vioget. And when she comes face to face with the most powerful vampire in history, Victoria must ultimately make the choice between duty and love.

When I first picked this up I had a few other books on the go, so I thought that my disinterest had to do with that. I stopped my other reads in order to give this one my full attention. I'm a believer in that if a book is well written, then I should not have to put everything else on hold to appreciate it. However, since everyone else loved this book, I thought I should keep on reading.

I can't do it anymore. I don't know if it's the use of 'whilst' & 'betwixt'. Although, proper back then. Those words are rarely used in historicals these days. I find them archaic.

Or, if it's the fact that all the Vampires in the book are the bad guys. I enjoy Vampires, and I hate knowing that every one is a villain. Can't say that I didn't know that about the book though. I just didn't think that it would bother me.

I did like how each chapter was named. I like that better than just the numbers. Plus the chapter name gives you a little hint about what was going to happen. A number of them had me laughing.

The rest falls away does not hold my attention. I made it page 165, and it's safe to say that I found it boring.
It's not that I hate it, like I do with every other DNF. This just isn't for me. Not my cup of tea. Not my style. It doesn't float my boat. Etc.

When I bought The rest falls away, I also bought Rises the night at the same time. Since I can't get through this one, I wont bother to start the next. I hope I can get something for them on Ebay. I can't find my receipt, so at $9.99 each, I lost out on $20. Damn.