Riley Shaughnessy is a big time rock star. He recently stepped back from his band to prove that he could handle a solo career. But... he's recently hit a brick wall on his song writing. His label is about to dump him but agree that he can have another chance as long as he participates in a month-long interview that will put him back in the public's eye. And not for being known as the least-talented of his band mates.
Savannah Daly is the reporter picked to do the interview. She's peeved because that means she's going to be bumped from a Cold Play article that she's been researching for the past month. Her first meeting with Riley is an accidental one when he quite literally bumps into her at a restaurant. Then she saves him from a rabid group of fans. When he finds out who she is, he assumes that their meeting wasn't accidental. And this is a continuing theme in their relationship. He assumes that she's all about the job, cools off and acts like a jerk, and then eventually figures out that he's being a jerk. And that was sort of boring. To see Riley make the same mistake over and over again and having Savannah apologize because he's hurt....
I think most regular Chase readers will not be disappointed but I was hoping for a little better from Riley.
Three stars
This book comes out December 6
Follows Always My Girl
Followed by Sky Full of Stars
Like most things in my life, my reading journey proceeds in a convoluted and undirected fashion. The reading cut ends up being about 75% romance, 25% everything else. Almost all of the books will have been supplied by the publisher in return for an honest review.
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Size Matters by Alison Bliss
Sam Cooper just got out of a doozy of a relationship and he's not looking for anything else right now. Not even a night of comfort. Until he meets the emerald eyes of a curvy brunette and then her friend comes over and picks up his friend Max. Too bad he opens his big mouth and the brunette seems to think he's rejecting her based on her size.
Leah knows she's not a size 2. Her ex dumped her because she was too big and her mother mentions her size every time they talk. So she's not surprised when the hot guy at the bar rejects her. It's par for the course. What's surprising is that he comes back to apologize. And then somehow announces to her mother that they're engaged. So now Sam has to help Leah back up his story since he's the one who got her into this mess in the first place. That includes a weekend at her grandparents' place at the beach.
This was a fast, fun, and fluffy story. Like one of Leah's confections, this is sweet but without a lot of substance. Leah and Sam fall in love and get engaged over the course of... a week? We don't get to know them much other than Leah is not a fan of her size but that Sam is and he wants to save her.
I am looking forward to more books in this series. Especially if Leah's friend/bakery buddy, Valerie, gets to find her own man.
Three stars
This book came out November 29
Leah knows she's not a size 2. Her ex dumped her because she was too big and her mother mentions her size every time they talk. So she's not surprised when the hot guy at the bar rejects her. It's par for the course. What's surprising is that he comes back to apologize. And then somehow announces to her mother that they're engaged. So now Sam has to help Leah back up his story since he's the one who got her into this mess in the first place. That includes a weekend at her grandparents' place at the beach.
This was a fast, fun, and fluffy story. Like one of Leah's confections, this is sweet but without a lot of substance. Leah and Sam fall in love and get engaged over the course of... a week? We don't get to know them much other than Leah is not a fan of her size but that Sam is and he wants to save her.
I am looking forward to more books in this series. Especially if Leah's friend/bakery buddy, Valerie, gets to find her own man.
Three stars
This book came out November 29
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Jed and the Junkyard War by Steven Bohls
Jed's parents have been doing strange things like dropping him off in the middle of Yellowstone and expecting him home in eleven hours since he was a kid. So when he wakes up one morning and all that's left is a note telling him to crawl through a tunnel with a backpack full of batteries and water bottles and an unusual watch to wait for his grandfather. Finally, he realizes what they've been doing all those years.
But the tunnel leads to an unusual new world. One where batteries are currency and the sky rains junk. It's a new world and Jed is fighting just to survive.
A really nice build up and great world building. Too bad the ending was sooooo flat.
Three stars
This book comes out December 6
But the tunnel leads to an unusual new world. One where batteries are currency and the sky rains junk. It's a new world and Jed is fighting just to survive.
A really nice build up and great world building. Too bad the ending was sooooo flat.
Three stars
This book comes out December 6
Monday, November 28, 2016
Deadly Treasures by Vivian Conroy
Lady Alkmene grew up with a somewhat peripatetic existence, moving from house to house while her father was on botanical explorations and after her mother died. One boy that never seemed to care was Duncan Woolsbury. He used to torment her and Alkmene used to do her best to get even. Now Duncan is getting older and his parents are afraid that he's never going to get married and present an heir to the viscountcy. They want Alkmene to present herself as a candidate to be his wife. She's very excited to travel to some far away place like Egypt or the Himalays. Unfortunately, it turns out he's excavating a medieval village in Cornwall.
When she arrives, Duncan is being held in between two constables. It seems a man was killed on the work site, his head bashed in with Duncan's own hammer. And there is a lot of intrigue around the site, supposedly there is a pile of gold buried somewhere in the castle. Duncan may have found some of it but there are plenty of people that would like for him to fail. So was the man killed because of something he did or to prevent Duncan?
I would have liked to see more character development in both Lady Alkmene and Jake Dubois. We're in book three and they're pretty much the same people we met in the first book.
When she arrives, Duncan is being held in between two constables. It seems a man was killed on the work site, his head bashed in with Duncan's own hammer. And there is a lot of intrigue around the site, supposedly there is a pile of gold buried somewhere in the castle. Duncan may have found some of it but there are plenty of people that would like for him to fail. So was the man killed because of something he did or to prevent Duncan?
I would have liked to see more character development in both Lady Alkmene and Jake Dubois. We're in book three and they're pretty much the same people we met in the first book.
Three stars
This book came out November 21
Follows Diamonds of Death
Sunday, November 27, 2016
In Bed with the Georgians by Mike Rendell
I thought the idea for this book was interesting. And the execution was okay. The division of the chapters was interesting but allowed for a LOT of repetition and overlap. The decision to put almost all of the illustrations into an appendix was definitely odd and really difficult to flip back and forth in an ebook. If you like history or would like to learn more about the Georgian period, this was an okay book. The writing was readable if not particularly exciting and the idea was a good one.
Three stars
This book came out November 21
Three stars
This book came out November 21
Saturday, November 26, 2016
One Sexy Mistake by Sarah Ballance
I haven't read the other books in the series but didn't feel like I missed anything because of it. The book opens with both Olivia and Grady swiping right on Tinder and agreeing to a one night stand. But, since this is a romance novella, there are complications. In the form of a big storm. And the fact that Grady kinda-sorta already knows Olivia but he doesn't tell her that. Or that he helped cost her a job. And the fact that the ending is over-the-top stalker-weirdness. It was a quite lovely novella until then and I liked that Olivia and Grady were forced to get to know each other and that they seemed to have a good connection. But Grady's ideas of romance are not only creepy, they're illegal and took me right out of the story. And, of course, there's the whole "would this book fall apart if these two sat down and talked to each other the answer is yes" issue.
I will definitely try Ballance again. I just did NOT like this book.
Two and a half stars
This novella comes out on November 28
I will definitely try Ballance again. I just did NOT like this book.
Two and a half stars
This novella comes out on November 28
Thursday, November 24, 2016
The Heiress and the Hothead by Sabrina Jeffries
Somehow, I seem to have read this novella before but it wasn't labeled as a re-issue. I kept wondering what happened with Amanda Keane but I apparently knew? This is the novella that is the most danger-boniest of danger-boners.
Stephen is a reporter who is trying to change the world. He knows that the mill situations are dangerous for the workers and he is writing scathing articles. He wants to take some heat off by writing about Amanda Keane, owner of a factory in America but she keeps dodging him. Now he has tracked her down to a house party. And there, he meets a woman who is not at all what he expected. She may be the one person who can tame his fiery articles and teach him a new way to fight.
It's a novella so there's not a huge chance for the romance to develop. Mostly just a fight-fight-kiss.
Stephen is a reporter who is trying to change the world. He knows that the mill situations are dangerous for the workers and he is writing scathing articles. He wants to take some heat off by writing about Amanda Keane, owner of a factory in America but she keeps dodging him. Now he has tracked her down to a house party. And there, he meets a woman who is not at all what he expected. She may be the one person who can tame his fiery articles and teach him a new way to fight.
It's a novella so there's not a huge chance for the romance to develop. Mostly just a fight-fight-kiss.
Three stars
Comes out November 28
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