[REPOST!]

Grade: B+

Sharon Cullars is awesome. Her first book Again was both scary and sexy and after reading it, I found myself looking for more to read by this lady. I was psyched beyond belief when I checked out Amazon and found this book available for pre-order. It releases on April 24, but I couldn’t possibly wait that long, so I emailed the lady and begged her for an ARC. She was kind enough to send me this copy and kids, let me tell you, the very moment I had this book in my hand, I shoved everything aside and read it from cover to cover in one sitting. You can’t tell from the man-titty on the cover, but what’s inside is actually plenty creepy, yet sexy at the same time. There’s really two stories in this book: one is about a grieving woman who had just lost her twenty-one year old son in a senseless accident and takes solace in the arms of her son’s twenty-one year old best friend. The other is about an angry, angry ghost who can’t seem to let go because he sees his mother being seduced by his former best friend and wants to make sure that the two of them never ever end up together even if he has to resort to murder. Individually, the stories work quite well without the other, but don’t blend as well together. It is not seamless. They don’t flow together, which is why in some places, the supernatural aspect feels slapped on. But more on that later. The romantic aspect of the story doesn’t quite work for me, either, but the two leads do have some sizzling sexual tension between them and the fact that they’re such flawed, damaged characters trying to reach out to each other made for a compelling read. (more…)

[Ed. Note: This is fourth from the last of Annie’s reviews. *sad face* Enjoy it!]

Grade: B-

Payback Is A Bitch
by LA Banks

This story opens with a bang. Two sexy sluts are going at it with some dude, and my first reaction, “Woohoo! Finally, a threeway that doesn’t involve two dicks.” Then I read on to discover that this dude is, in fact, the villain of the story, and I hate shit written from the villain’s point of view. It almost always come across as so evil it’s just a caricature, and doesn’t enrich the story. This scene is no exception because they’re licking drugs off each other’s body parts, and while he’s fucking these fine ladies, Douglass is thinking about how he’s getting even with his frigid wife by being such a manwhore. That’s a helluva handicap to overcome. I woulda cut that scene so fast it’d make your head spin.

Nonetheless, I read on, hoping the story would improve. Lemme set up the plot a bit for you. Sidney Coleburn-West is married to a dickhead named Douglass. He’s doing his best to catch the clap all over town, but he’s refusing to give her a divorce because he wants her money. She’s fed up with his mess and hires an enforcer named Mitchell Brickland, Brick to his friends, probably named for the giant man-tool he keeps in his BVDs. Sid is willing to pay a cool 20K to him in exchange for him getting the dirty info on Douglass so she can wash that man right out of her hair.

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Grade: B-

I told myself I was going to stop buy the Sookie Stackhouse books in hard cover, but the second this book became available on pre-order at Amazon, I was right on it. I’m such a sucker. I have to admit that I rushed to buy it as soon as I saw the cover. That’s Eric, my favorite cool-as-ice Viking vampire, on the cover. With Sookie! And they’re flying! I was a little hesitant about reading this book because I was so disappointed with the last one in the series, which focused on Sookie’s developing relationship with the were-tiger Quinn (who, frankly, reminded me of a bald Joey Lawrence— who shaved his hair clean off for Dancing With the Stars) and I didn’t like him very much. Thankfully, there was a lot of good stuff in this book for us Sookie-Eric shippers and Quinn— wow, I didn’t mind him so much this time around. Weird. I still wish he’d die already ’cause I suspect a whole Morelli-Ranger thing developing for the future books, but hey, that wasn’t even my biggest problem with this book. A lot of stuff happens— I mean A LOT— and most of the time, I had no idea what was happening! There are some crazy-ass vampire politics going on in this one that will rival anything in the Anita Blake books or even Anne Rice. And frankly, I skimmmed through A LOT of it. And the ending was totally “meh”. Oh, and uh… there may be some spoilers in this review.

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Grade: B-

I really enjoyed the previous book in this series and was looking forward to this one. I was intrigued by the premise of a high-born lady falling in love with the peasant man who manages her estate and was curious as to how Ms. Hoyt would have the two leads overcome the class and societal boundaries. After I finished this book, I set it down and thought, “The heroine’s Earl brother is okay with his sister marrying a commoner? Really? And everyone’s okay with the little sister knowing that her older sister sneaks in at night to the steward’s cottage? Really?” Not that I’ve ever been a stickler for historical accuracy —hell, I don’t know any better— but what attracted me to this story in the first place is the seemingly insurmountable obstacle of societal rules. She’s nobility! He’s poor! She’s got tons of cash! He’s got one really old horse! Everyone’s okay with it? Really? Luckily, George and Harry were terrific characters and really made the book for me. I could have gone without George suddenly becoming a total idiot in the last two chapters for “conflict,” but honestly, the rest of the book was good times all around. Good times, I tell you!

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Grade: B+

Man, I’ve been reading a bunch of Laura Kinsale historical romances lately that I’ve completely forgotten how fun a “fluffy” historical could be. I picked up this book ’cause I wanted to just lay down for a couple of hours and read something —-anything, really—- and found my self totally engrossed with this thing. In fact, I devoured it in three and a half hours. I know this because I picked it up at 8:30 and was finished with it by midnight. It’s hot, clever, smart, and the two romantic leads are just to-die-for! It reminded me of the early Julia Quinn books —-you know, before she got stuck in her Bridgerton funk—- and I just wanted to keep reading about these delightful people. The prose is clean, the characters are reasonable people who actually sit down and talk, the dialogue comes fast and clever, and the sex is delicious. Sure, there were a couple of things I had a problem with —-like what the hell does it have to do with the fairytale, The Raven Prince—- and other nitpicky things, but on the whole, this debut book was a blast and I can’t wait to read the sequels. Squeee!

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