Welp, 2 strikes. I have tried this author twice and both times I ended up DNF'ing fairly early. I figure it is most definitely a case whereDNF as 25%.
Welp, 2 strikes. I have tried this author twice and both times I ended up DNF'ing fairly early. I figure it is most definitely a case where her voice simply doesn't speak to me so this is where we part ways....more
Nick is a bit grumpy when we first meet him. I mean, he has a hell of a reason so I am not mad as him at all. But he iWell that was just cute as hell!
Nick is a bit grumpy when we first meet him. I mean, he has a hell of a reason so I am not mad as him at all. But he is a bit stand-offish to his new employees and first impressions matter. He gets off on the wrong foot with one of them.
Until the office Christmas party where he meets a very beautiful young woman who begins to turn his frown upside down.
Nick and Miranda embark upon a mostly conflict-free, sexy holiday-time romance. There is just one little problem... that employee who he got off on the wrong foot? The one who has the worst opinion of him? That is Miranda's mom. Oops.
So I thought that element added a nice bit of tension to an otherwise pretty low stress read. On the one hand you are enjoying Nick and Miranda as they learn and fall in love with each other and have sexy-sexy times, on the other you are kinda wincing waiting for her mom to find out. Even though I could see both sides of the conflict (Miranda wanting to find the right moment to tell, Nick just wanting to pull the band-aid off right now) I really was on Nick's side in all this. I am not one to waffle in my own life, I get hard stuff over with!
But overall even when the shit hits the fan it is still in keeping with the spirit of the Holiday and the overall feel good mood of the story. Nothing angsty or negative is allowed to bring any of the good feels down.
Not a five-star because there was this tendency for the story to jump around in time which felt unnecessary. And I know Nick and Miranda were hot for each other, but they seemed to lack sense sometimes, especially when it comes to where they decided to bone.
But overall this was a spicy, sweet, and satisfying holiday read....more
Promising start and premise. My biggest issue was how overly descriptive everything was. It felt like the author used 10 words when one woulDNF at 39%
Promising start and premise. My biggest issue was how overly descriptive everything was. It felt like the author used 10 words when one would do.
So basically, India was in love with Jessie. A professional ball player. They'd been very serious for years. But apparently, he gave in to a one-night stand and the ONS somehow got India's number and sent all the details.
Asa and Jessie were BFFs and bros for life. And Asa became India's friend as well. However Asa has always harbored a thing for India but she was off limits, of course.
Only now that India has basically razed Jessie from her life she comes gunning for Asa (because of course he knew about the cheating). While she is yelling at him for not telling her and allowing her to be blindsided, passion bubbles forth and they kiss. It was basically a humdinger of a kiss that tilted the axis of their world. But they could never do anything about it. Asa rejects her, and she leaves.
They don't see each other for years until a plot moppet in the form of Asa's niece -- India is a newly hired Assistant Principal at the school his niece attends -- forces them back into each other's orbit.
My biggest issue is that the prose becomes very labored. We might get two or three lines of dialogue and then we side-bar into paragraphs of how the presence of one affects the other. There are LOTS of lengthy descriptions of his/her lips, eyes, face, thighs, butt, and tits oftentimes using three or more adjectives each. And then those are followed by how the sound of a voice or the stretch of an arm causes a shaft of something deep down inside or a silent moan or some other torturous but rapt feeling to occur. There are at least 3 separate in-person meetings between Asa and India where we get the repeated inner monologues of how they feel and why it is wrong.
I fast-forwarded two chapters ahead at one point to see if we got away from all that and if we'd get a bit more forward action but it was still happening.
I like good descriptive writing. I like lots of sexual tension. And I actually love knowing the inner POV of the main characters when it is at odds with their outer actions. But this felt repetitive and too wordy for me to want to forge through.
This was an early Lauren Dane book. it is a testament to how much her plotting, pacing, and character work has grown because I've read a fai1.5 stars.
This was an early Lauren Dane book. it is a testament to how much her plotting, pacing, and character work has grown because I've read a fair amount of her stuff and really like the more recent stuff. But this one and some of her other early work is pretty rough!
There is a kernel of an interesting plot in this book. The heroine Renee is a witch with very little training who has been in a long-term (4ish years) committed relationship with a jaguar shifter, Galen. Since she is human she has faced some hurdles with being accepted by his pack, but over the years she has won most of them over. But there are still pockets of people who dislike her and try to bully her or get her to dump Galen.
Added to that she has a very contentious relationship with her stepmother and her father. It is clear the stepmother has been terrible to her all her life (since she was 7) and has done a number on her self-esteem.
Added to that there is someone out there trying to mess with her head and possibly kill her. There is a broad hint that she is being prevented from learning more about her powers and there is a mystery behind her mother's death.
Into all of this comes Jack who is a wolf shifter and in the grand tradition of many a wolf shifter plot, we get the immediate recognition of a mate, mine, must have...blah, blah, blah.
So right away we have a heroine who has some major damsel signifiers. But there are a few pilot hooks there to hang an interesting story on. The mystery, why is she being prevented from using her magic? What is going on with her father and step-mother and then you have the complication with a mate coming in to blow up a long-standing relationship.
But none of these are explored or developed in any depth at all.
The romantic conflict is over in a flash as the three hash it out over dinner and voila a throuple is formed. Cuz luckily the guys are both bi.
We get a few scenes of someone trying to mess with her mind and her magic and one murder attempt. But we never find out why she in particular is a target. And the person who does it is dispatched in a sentence off screen. We go from bad guy escaping after attacking her, to "let's have some breakfast" to literally the next sentence is something like "Galen had to go on a run to shake off the kill." What Kill? What happened? How did we go from wheaties to murder in one sentence? I was listening on audio and thought something was corrupted with the audio file. But nope, that is exactly how it reads in text.
And then we learn that Renee has been lied to all her life and some rather major family revelations. Renee confronts her father and stepmother about it and they are all "Not gonna talk about it." and she is all' Derp.' and leaves.
Which brings me to the most frustrating element of the story, the writing for the heroine Renee. She is all over the place. The writing for her is illogical and she is really rather stupid. The book tells us how strong and kick ass she is only to show her being the biggest of noodle spines and not kickass at all. Or in one scene 'I don't need you to fight my battles!!" and the next scene she gets into a major argument with a member of Jack's pack where later she complains to him "You didn't stand up for me." Girl, make it make sense!
And it was so repetitive, so many of the same talking points said over and over. And the prolific sex scenes were also repetitive.
Great writing. Had to get past my knee-jerk hateration of older-woman younger man age-gap. Don't get me wrong, I still have that hateration, 3.5 stars
Great writing. Had to get past my knee-jerk hateration of older-woman younger man age-gap. Don't get me wrong, I still have that hateration, but I never say never and in the right hands, even the plots/tropes I tend to dislike the most can work. This worked.
A little wordy in places, but the story engaged me and I enjoyed the dialogue and the characters. ...more
I needed something to listen to on a drive, this was quickly available. It sounded interesting.
It was fine. Low angst, low drama. Decent storyline. ThI needed something to listen to on a drive, this was quickly available. It sounded interesting.
It was fine. Low angst, low drama. Decent storyline. The ending felt a bit abrupt. Looks a like long series, so a continuing throughline of the rebuilding of a Hockey team after a tragedy. I didn't feel lost even though this is the 3rd book in the series and an offshoot, apparently, of another one. But I also didn't feel the burning desire to go find the earlier ones either.
Fairly typical of this genre. Hot, built rich guys. Beautiful women. Very white. Unobjectionable overall....more
This was quite good. The main characters are in their 40s. There is some good family drama and a nice suspense subplot. Antagonists that are suitably This was quite good. The main characters are in their 40s. There is some good family drama and a nice suspense subplot. Antagonists that are suitably annoying who get their comeuppance. A nice overarching story of an inn opening. And the romance is well done.
Took me a minute to get over the fact that the FMC name is Leelo, though....more
The formula is familiar -- a young woman from a small town can't wait to leave it in her rear view to make it big elsewhere. She does but crashes and The formula is familiar -- a young woman from a small town can't wait to leave it in her rear view to make it big elsewhere. She does but crashes and burns (in this case it was for doing the right thing) and has to come crawling back home to her more humble roots.
Jayna was a lot prickly but her prickliness is well deserved. Her mother is a piece of work and well, she is a lawyer after all. I really liked her relationship with her sister.
The hero Quaid was a lot more laid back and a bit more affable than Jayna. But his family dynamic was just as messed up as Jayna's in a different way. Instead of leaving town to pursue his law career, he chose to stay and follow in his father's footsteps, taking over his father's law practice and running herd on his family. His relationship with his brother is a warped mirror image of Jayna's with her sister.
But overall, even with some of the family dysfunction our two main have, the tone of this book is very light and the humor is well done. The quirks of the populace of the small town are on full display to great affect. Throughout the book, there is one court case where Jayna and Quaid are opposing counsel which accounts for 90% of the comedy in this rom-com. The rest of the story is them dealing with their various family members, Quaid revealing what his real passion is, and the romance which is quite well done.
And even some of the more bothersome characters get a nice redemption.
I listened on audio and the narrator was great....more
Decided to circle back and listen to this one. I had been reading these out of order and hit upon the audiobooks. The narrator is great and has a greaDecided to circle back and listen to this one. I had been reading these out of order and hit upon the audiobooks. The narrator is great and has a great sense of comedic timing to make the funny parts stand out.
One thing I noticed is as the series goes on the stories get lighter and lean more into the comedy. The first one was pretty much a down-the-middle contemporary with some heavy themes and only a few side characters giving the story a bit more lightness.
This one is also a little heavier than the later books. A sort of scorched earth family feud, the death of a child/partner, single parenthood, and secrets abound. There is a major antagonist in this one who veers a little over the top in her hatred at times but the author did manage to pull her back from the brink admirably.
I liked this but think the audio is what elevated it from a 3 stars to 4 stars for me.
The blurb makes you think this is going to be a fun, warm, funny romance. Yeah, no. It wasn't fun or warm or funny. And by the time I gDNF at .... 40%
The blurb makes you think this is going to be a fun, warm, funny romance. Yeah, no. It wasn't fun or warm or funny. And by the time I gave up, there was no romance.
I just didn't have it in me to sit and be dragged along with a main character whose existence in the book seems to be characterized by failure after failure after failure. It was pretty depressing to be in her company. It is one thing to have a string of bad luck but there never seemed to be anything to temper it.
In the time I was reading, I was bombarded with the terrible things that happened to her, even in flashbacks. But I never got to see her do anything just fun or silly. No belly laughs or anything that just deeply satisfied her or made her content or happy, even for one day. The author told us the character was "unlucky" and by God, we were going to understand just how unlucky she was!
More of the mayhem we've gotten used to with the McKilligan sisters and their close connections of Honey badger friends. Yeah Tock, oneFunny. Crazy.
More of the mayhem we've gotten used to with the McKilligan sisters and their close connections of Honey badger friends. Yeah Tock, one of Max's friends and teammates, is nominally the main character but really this is 100% plot driven hijinks with the shadowy shifter groups and feuds and power plays and "Hey it's that guy" and shooting and "Okay, y'all have made Charlie mad!"
Added bonus, several of the characters from both the Magnus Pack series and the Pride series not only make an appearance but help propel the plot.
Listened on audio and Charlotte Kane(aka Johanna Parker) is as usual wonderful narrating them....more
I had heard so many good things about this book so I was excited to read it. I started this back in January and it startedDNF at I dunno... somewhere.
I had heard so many good things about this book so I was excited to read it. I started this back in January and it started ok but my interest in it waned. I am not sure what happened, it just never kept me. Nothing about the characters or story ever really hooked me.
It isn't a case of I disliked it so bad and this is a kill it with fire DNF. This is more of a this is ok and pleasant but ...eh. I picked it up a few times read a few more pages and then would try again a week or so later.
Here were as in August and I tried again. And realized I remembered nothing about this and it still wasn't pulling me in. So I am finally giving up....more
Ok I lied. I told myself I would press pause on the JD Robb books since the last few have been hit or miss.
But I was desperate to become in engaged anOk I lied. I told myself I would press pause on the JD Robb books since the last few have been hit or miss.
But I was desperate to become in engaged and no matter what NR knows how to engage.
Glad I did. This installment was really good. It harkened back a lot to one of my personal favorites in the series, Treachery in Death. The mystery is the murder of a retired IAB cop who was a hard ass. Obviously, Eve's investigation must focus on the dirty cops he put away during his time on the force.
The investigation played out great and I liked how Eve came around to it and the discovery of the responsible party. Very satisfying read.
One thing that kinda made me chuckle, Webster and Darcia have gotten pretty serious. In typical Eve fashion, she is rather proprietary of her closest connections, of which Webster is one. Even is shocked and wondered if they were moving too fast since they just met a few months ago. It is a testament to how sloooow time moves in this universe, because Webster and Darcia met 13 years ago our time in the aforementioned, Treachery In Death. LOL.
Since I read one older woman-younger man age gap romance with The Perfect Find, I decided to read another. I actually was more interested in this one,Since I read one older woman-younger man age gap romance with The Perfect Find, I decided to read another. I actually was more interested in this one, it sounded... I dunno deeper and a little grittier than the other one. And it was.
The writing here was really good. I did wince because, well, blatant adultery and well I still am not a fan of this age-gap element. But the story was immediately engaging. It did drag a bit in the middle but overall I liked the writing and storytelling....more
The workplace drama continues apace and I feel like some things are coming to a head
The romance is stThis series continues to bump along really well.
The workplace drama continues apace and I feel like some things are coming to a head
The romance is starting to heat up a little. A nice addition to the story.
But it was the mystery in this one that was the winner for me. Holy man, the bad guy's plan was pretty diabolical. And I gotta admit, kinda clever. I really did not expect that to go where it ended up. I wonder if they could have pulled it off?
But I felt really bad for the victim. So I was happy with how things ended up.
I wonder if there is a suspense series written where the main cop goes on a case where a personal friend/family member is never put in jeopardy by the bad guy? It is such a staple of the genre that I think I might faint if I came across an entire series intact where the never happens even once....more
Enjoying my audio foray into this police-procedural-suspense-thriller-light romance hybrid.
This one was good with a lot of twists and turns. I liked tEnjoying my audio foray into this police-procedural-suspense-thriller-light romance hybrid.
This one was good with a lot of twists and turns. I liked the pacing and the way things got revealed, like peeling layers of an onion. Everything builds really nicely.
I did kind of roll my eyes a little with the bad guy's almost preternatural elusiveness, even in the end when surrounded, but it added to the mystery and I understand the end needed to set up a climactic showdown.
I am liking the workplace drama with Bree and her deputies and the adjustments they are going through as a working team. The personal drama is realistic but doesn't work as much for me. I much prefer the mystery/workplace stuff to the home life stuff.