Nicole Reads A Lot

so many books, so little time

Jan 5

Blade Song & Night Blade by JC Daniels

by Nicole

Title:Blade Song
Author:JC Daniels
PublisherShiloh Walker, Inc
Publication Date:August 2012
Publisher's DescriptionKit Colbana - half breed, assassin, thief, jack of all trades - has a new job: track down the missing ward of one of the local alpha shapeshifters. It should be a piece of cake.
So why is she so nervous? It probably has something to do with the insanity that happens when you deal with shifters - especially sexy ones who come bearing promises of easy jobs and easier money.

Or maybe it’s all the other missing kids that Kit discovers while working the case, or the way her gut keeps screaming she’s gotten in over her head. Or maybe it’s because if she fails - she’s dead.

If she can stay just one step ahead, she should be okay. Maybe she’ll even live long to collect her fee...
My rating:****
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Title:Night Blade
Author:Shiloh Walker
PublisherShiloh Walker, Inc
Publication Date:March 2013
Publisher's DescriptionKit Colbana is always biting off more than she can chew. She has a knack for finding trouble. This time, though, trouble finds her. Someone from her past drops a case into her lap that she just can’t refuse...literally.
People on the Council are dying left and right and she’s been requested to investigate the deaths. The number one suspect? Her lover, Damon. If she doesn't clear his name, he gets a death sentence. Even if she succeeds? They still might try to execute him. Oh, and she’s not allowed to tell him about the case, either.

The stakes are high this time around, higher than they've ever been. Kit may be forced to pay the ultimate price to save her lover’s life...a price that could destroy her and everything she loves.
My rating:***** (squijillion)
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I read Blade Song and immediately moved onto Night Blade. I think I read the two books in about 5 hours (let’s hear it for vacation). I really like Kit and felt bad enough about her childhood after reading Blade Song that all the things she went through in Night Blade were really hard for me to take. None of the horrors that she survives in this series have ever felt gratuitous to me, and I found them even more gut-wrenching because I care so much about Kit as a character. I am certain that the third book, which comes out in two more days (dying here btw), will give me the payoff that I began to see glimmers of at the end of Night Blade.

Although this series centers around Kit, there are so many characters in it who are clearly going through a lot and growing all the time. Damon! Doyle! Goliath! Colleen! Chang! Doyle! I know I said him twice, but he’s like the leopard little brother that my parents neglected to give me. I really love how integral the secondary characters are to what is going on in the world. While I think it’s crazy that I just learned about this series the other day (I’ve bought book one ages ago and then promptly forgot that it existed), I’m happy, too, otherwise I would have had a much longer wait to get to the third book. Now, of course, I am going to go back and read everything else written by Shiloh Walker (whose pen name is JC Daniels) to tide me over until next week. I would give this series five squijillion stars, and since this is my web site and my rating system, I totally can, but I’ll just limit myself to five and call it a day.

Trigger warning: This book contains rape and copious physical abuse.

2014 5 Star Books Book Reviews Paranormal Romance Shifters Urban Fantasy Vampires Witches

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Jan 4

The King of Threadneedle Street by Moriah Densley

by Nicole
Title:The King of Threadneedle Street
Author:Moriah Densley
PublisheresKape Press
Publication Date:December 2013
Publisher's DescriptionHe owns three shipping companies, a diamond mine, and his own castle.
He knows Portuguese, Hindi, Mandarin and Morse code.
His assets net thirteen million.

Everyone thinks Andrew Tilmore, Lord Preston, the financial prodigy dubbed “The King of Threadneedle Street,” has it all, but he wants the one prize money can’t buy: his childhood sweetheart.

Alysia Villier can’t say if it’s worse having Andrew’s father in control of her inheritance or Andrew in control of her heart. He’s ruined her for any other man, but she simply can’t give in to him. She knows he’s destined for great things — marrying a courtesan’s daughter would jeopardize everything he stands for.

Keeping Alysia out of trouble and away from eager suitors becomes a cross-continental quest for Andrew, and he won’t be stopped by his old-fashioned family or the disapproval of the ton. After all, he’s a man with the power to play newspapers and investors like pawns, tumble world markets and incite riots… but can he win the biggest gamble of his life?
My rating:**.5

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This book is as dramatic as a SoapNet (RIP SoapNet) marathon, and contains about as much logic. I didn’t mind it while I was reading it, but when I thought about it afterwards, I realized that a solid 85% of it was unbelievably illogical. Why would a man raise his mistress’s child alongside his own children? Having done this, why would he then object to his teenage son falling in love with the mistress’s beautiful daughter? Having seen this happen, why would he try to use the concepts of familial obedience and honor to dissuade his son from marrying his love? Wouldn’t having one’s mistress openly reside WITH ONE’S FAMILY already tarnished the family’s name for at least a generation? And what is up with Andrew’s mother? How can a woman who at the beginning of this novel is portrayed as being incapable of performing the most routine hostessing duties manage to so capably vex his supposedly brilliant son with her marriage-minded scheming? And why would a paragon of tonnish virtue would repeatedly try to sic a fortune-hunting ho-bag on her own son? And what kind of stock exchange/black wizardry is responsible for the money-related goings-on in this novel? He’s rich? He’s poor! He’s richer!!!! Or something.

The bottom line here is that nothing that takes place within this novel makes any sense if thought about for more than two seconds. Characters change on a dime, as is needed to further whatever scene is currently taking place. This book is utterly ridiculous, but as it only cost $.99, I’m not too bothered by this. Here’s what would have happened if this book made sense:

Andrew: I love you. You love me. Our three-year age difference becomes increasingly less creepy the closer you get to twenty. Let’s get married.

Alysia: Your parents won’t approve. I’m the illegitimate daughter of your father’s mistress.

Andrew: I don’t care my parents. Frankly, they’re irredeemably awful. Let’s go to Gretna Green, get married, come back to England, live our lives, and dare them to shun us in front of society. I’m like Donald Trump with better hair and and a soul and you’re like Frieda Kahlo with less self-confidence and no unibrow.

Alysia: I don’t get any of those references, but since you often speak in code, I’m not going to worry too much about it. Yes, I’ll marry you.

Boom goes the dynamite! The end.

Of course, this would have changed this story from a novel into the treatment for an entirely different novel, but hey, I’d read that book, too.

2.5 Star Books 2013 Book Reviews Historical Romance

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Dec 20

Faster Longer by Colleen Masters

by Nicole
Title:Faster, Longer (Take Me... 3)
Author:Colleen Masters
PublisherHearts Collective
Publication Date:December 2013
Publisher's DescriptionTwo star crossed lovers racing together at breakneck speeds, barreling along at 200 miles per hour willing to destroy everything and everyone in their path.

Siena can't escape.

She's trapped now.

How did she fall so helplessly, recklessly in love with the one man who could single handedly turn her life upside down?

Harrison has her wrapped up in his strong, muscular, tattooed arms. Right where he wants her. Right where she wants to be.

Even as the championship is decided and fate comes crashing down around them—betrayal, blackmail, death...all seem like nothing compared to Siena's ultimate secret.
My rating:***/***.5

18809594I’m glad that I came to this series late enough that book 3 was available immediately after I’d finished books one and two. I hate having to wait a long time between books in a series, and I’m always reading so many things that it tends to be a struggle to remember pertinent details of previous outings if any significant amount of time passes between when the books are published. Since I read book three in the same week that I read books one and two, I actually remembered lots of details. Details, for example, that the author did not. In the third book, Siena is said to have been born in the United States, even though she definitely states in the first book that she was born in Italy. I can barely remember what I email my staff from one week to the next, though, so I have very little room to talk.

While things that worked for me really worked for me, the things that didn’t really really didn’t.

The good:

  • Harrison and Siena continue to have smoking chemistry and make for some dynamic scenes.
  • I loved how supportive Harrison is of Siena. He believes that she is good at her job and tells her so.
  • I am always a fan of heroes who want the world to know of their love for the heroine, but who are willing to allow her to set their pace.
  • The scenes at Siena’s family home (excluding Enzo) worked for me. I liked seeing the Lazio family interact, and it was nice to see Harrison integrated further into Siena’s life.

The bad:

  • How fast do Charlie and Bex move? I mean, really. I would have liked to see a bit more of them as a couple, so that their trajectory in book three made more sense to me. Aside from sneaking out of hotel rooms and then having Bex ditch Charlie on a couple of occasions when Siena needs her, I didn’t get much sense of their relationship.
  • The scenes where Bex and Siena reconnect after a seemingly long time of barely talking felt repetitive and seemed like they barely worked within the book’s timeline.
  • What crawls up Enzo’s culo? It was annoying in the extreme that he is completely okay with being a hypocritical juicebox to his sister, seeing as how he is dating a member of Team McClain (who’s a total cow to his sister). Ugh. This kind of behavior is bad enough in Harlequin Presents novels, but I didn’t expect to see it here. [I believe that this is a legitimate character choice, do it’s you bad writing, I just dislike Enzo.]
  • Some members of the press’ lines of questioning at the press conferences in these books have seemed unbelievably unprofessional to me, but the one at the Lazio home seems particularly egregious. I don’t believe that other journalists would find some of the questions asked to be okay. It seems to me that such a vindictive/gossipy reporter would be more likely to stir up interest in himself, than in the answers that he receives.
  • The “mystery” in this book is not well done at all. I suspected the eventual culprit from book one, but definitely knew who it was by the second book. It disappointed me not that none of the characters suspect this person even briefly, especially considering his or her behavior in book two. The scene where it finally all adds up for Siena is only missing a neon downward arrow that says, “Bad Guy Here.” The title of this third book should have been A Bunch of Red Flags. Look, Ma! I stuck with the racing theme.

This video sums up how I felt about people in this book not recognizing the culprit.

(Click blurred text to reveal hidden text.)

Why in the world doesn’t anybody give Marques a second thought after he frames Siena with that doctored video? Even if they are ultimately swayed by the fact that his car has been “tampered with,” they still should discuss, then dismissed him as a possibility. The fact that none of these supposedly intelligent people pick up on what a ruthless creep Morales is made me think less of them as characters, and this book as a form of entertainment.

I guess what I’m saying is that I found this book to be a bit of a mess, aside from Harrison and Siena. I’m going to regard this more as a table-setting book, since the way that Faster Longer ends means that book 4 should be awesome and insane. If you’ve stuck with this series for this long, I recommend this book and that you give book 4 a chance, but I didn’t love this novel as I’d hoped that I would. I keep going back and forth on the rating, but I would say that it’s more of a 3.5 star book than 3.

I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

2013 3 Star Books 3.5 Star Books Erotic Romance Netgalley Romance

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Dec 13

Out of Turn by Tiffany Snow

by Nicole
Title:Out of Turn
Author:Tiffany Snow
PublisherMontlake Romance
Publication Date:December 27, 2013
Publisher's DescriptionBreaking up is hard to do, as Kathleen Turner discovers. After a falling-out with her ex, high-powered attorney Blane Kirk, she’s moving on the best she can. Unfortunately, someone from her past is set on revenge and nothing short of killing Kathleen will stop them.

Keeping his brother’s ex-girlfriend alive isn’t something new to assassin-for-hire Kade Dennon, but this time can he protect her from himself? She’s a woman he can’t convince himself to walk away from, no matter what it costs him.

Regret is a constant companion for Blane as he realizes the truth behind the lies he’s been told. Can love heal the past, or can some mistakes not be undone?

Murder reunites Blane, Kade, and Kathleen as the police put Blane in their crosshairs. Blane may lose everything unless he and Kade can find the real murderer before it’s too late. But if they can’t set aside their love for the same woman and work together, it will tear them apart.

In Out of Turn, Kathleen is caught between two warring brothers, and the consequences may be fatal.
My rating:****.5

ootI have been eagerly awaiting this fourth entry in Snow’s Kathleen Turner series, and I was not disappointed at all. I’d been waiting since I read the third book in this series for this book to come out, and Ms. Snow had a lot of expectations to live up to. I’m pleased to say that she exceeded my wildest hopes for this book. A lot of the things that bothered me about the earlier books in this series were missing here. Kathleen had greater agency; she was more of a participant in her destiny, and I felt like she commanded more respect. Of course, this could be because she spent a great deal of this book in the company of Kade, the brother who was always more likely to treat her like a capable adult. I must admit that Blane bothered me a lot in the past. He seemed at times to treat Kathleen like an ignorant appendage, and I felt that he didn’t always afford her the respect that anybody should give another rational adult. And that was before he went and accused her of cheating on him with his brother. AFTER HE’D RESCUED HER FROM SEXUAL SLAVERY. I don’t even know how he could have believed that story at all, even before you got to the part where the person who she’d supposedly cheated with was HIS BROTHER WHOM HE’D RESCUED FROM A CHILDHOOD OF NEAR-DICKENSIAN PRIVATION. I mean, really.

Who I picture when Blane talks

Alas, poor Alaric…I mean Blane

Even though Blane’s character has been consistent throughout this series, this book marks the first time that I felt more than annoyance, exasperation, or anger at him; the sense I got when reading Out of Turn was that Blane was a man living with a suffocating amount of regret over his past mistakes. I’m a big fan of the extended grovel, and in way too many romance novels,  the hero (because, let’s be real here, it’s almost always the guy) gets off way too lightly for doing something terrible to the heroine. “Love means never having to say you’re sorry” might have worked in the ’70s, but I am not on board with it at all. Thankfully, it seems that neither is Ms. Snow. Here, I got the feeling that Blane really did understand the magnitude of the mistake he made when he listened to his awful uncle, accused Kathleen of sleeping with Kade, broke the engagement, and pushed his brother out of his life. What’s more, he apologized and really meant it. Not just to get back in Kathleen’s pants, or even begrudgingly: he apologized sincerely and acknowledged the possibility that he might never be able to fix what he’d broken. Even more heartening, Kathleen (after a reasonable amount of time and soul-searching), offers him sincere forgiveness, while admitting that she may never be able to trust him again.

Team Kade

Team Kade – still, forever, some more

I still don’t connect to Blane the way I do to Kade – he’s just not my kind of guy – but I felt like I came away from this book with a greater appreciation for who he is and why Kathleen would have a difficult time choosing between him and his brother. That being said, I’m 100% on Team Kade. Obviously. I mean, I was even before I read this book, but I loved seeing Kathleen and Kade work through their relationship without having to work around Blane. Sure, he’s the elephant in the room throughout the book, as the other two try, both subtly and overtly, to explore their feelings while sparing his, but DAMN. This book basically reads like the Team Kathleen and Kade playbook.

I really appreciated how Ms. Snow was able to advance the interpersonal relationships in this story, while also moving along storylines that have been in play since book one. It was good to catch up with tertiary characters with whom the main characters had interacted in the past, and to see that events that happened in previous books still resonated with the characters in this one. To my mind, Out of Turn is the strongest book in this series yet. Although I spent a lot of time gushing over Kathleen and Kade, I really love how well the strained relationship between Kade and Blane was portrayed here. It’s easy for me to say which brother I’d pick, but I really felt how torn Kathleen was by worries about the effect that her choice would have on the other brother. The balancing at between these three characters is delicious. The whole thing works even better when I think of this novel in terms of The Vampire Diaries (when that show was still must-watch television for me): Kathleen is a smarter, more capable Elena; Kade is Damon (yum); and Blane is some weird amalgamation of Stefan and Sober Alaric.

I cannot wait for book 5.

2013 4.5 Star Books Book Reviews Erotic Romance Mystery Netgalley Romance

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Dec 10

Some Like it Sinful by Robbie Terman

by Nicole
Title:Some Like it Sinful
Author:Robbie Terman
PublisherEngangled: Edge
Publication Date:November 25, 2013
Publisher's DescriptionTheir attraction is sinfully delicious…
 
A struggling business and one act of vandalism may have brought them together, but bakery owner Chloe Nelson and professional hockey player Griffin Lange get along like chocolate and pickles. Chloe needs the famous (and famously unattached) Griffin to attract people to her pastries, and Griffin needs the curvaceous and fiery Chloe to keep him out of trouble. A fake relationship to keep the media interested seems like the perfect plan.

But when temptation throws them into bed together, a new plan arises. Why not make the fake real? Griffin’s winning every home game, and Chloe’s business has never been better. Both know it’s only physical—and only temporary. But can they drop their defenses for love, even if it means getting a little bit sinful?
My rating:***

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I found this book’s premise highly improbable, but it was the laughably thin sabotage plot that had me rolling my eyes here. This was like “Kimmy Gibbler on Full House”-level intrigue, and I was embarrassed at how long it took for these otherwise functional adults to catch on. Griffin gets slammed into baseboards and knocked around for a living, so I don’t mind that he wasn’t putting two and two together and coming up with four, but what was Chloe’s excuse for not figuring out what was happening here? It annoys me when otherwise sharp characters are dumbed down in an unbelievable way in the name of plot advancement. I wish that this book had just stuck to the romance, non romantic interpersonal relationships, and sports angles, and not tried to shoehorn in an ill-fitting “mystery.”

Aside from those gripes, I did like how Chloe and Griffin grew closer to one another and also blossomed as individuals. I felt that they both changed in believable ways as a result of being with each other. Although it wasn’t perfect, this book is a pleasant enough way to pass a few hours. Fans of Susan Mallery and others who enjoy contemporary romance novels should give this title a try.

2013 3 Star Books Contemporary Netgalley Romance

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