Tag Archive: romance



Witch to ChooseWitch to Choose by H.T. Night

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I just had to slap my hands and get tough with myself. I am three reviews behind my reading! The problem right now is that I already had book two of this series and I didn’t stop reading to do my own writing. Bad Dar, bad Dar!

And look at this! I didn’t know that this author was a male! So I have to give kudos fo his writing. With my goal of the last couple years to read mostly books written by women with strong female main characters, and aiming for the Bechdel test awareness, this book nearly slid right by. I think it was around the third chapter that I had to stop and look up this author. Women talking to each other and not about the male characters, realistic feelings coming from all of the people in the story. Men who cry. Women with power! Wow! H.T. Night, I am proud of you! And I plan to read more by you.

Oh, and look at this: NO CLIFFHANGER! It ended nicely yet I just wanted to see what happened next.

Now I am not a Wiccan and have only studied a tiny amount. So it felt believable…all except the person who is a warlock. I have heard that men are witches, too. Aren’t warlocks dark magicks? If anyone wants to educate me on that I would be happy to know.

For what it’s worth, Mr. Night has a plethora of books out there with vampires and wolves and all. I may have to stretch our my reading chops and finally include those bitie creatures. Now more reviews to do before I can read more!

View all my reviews


Spirit Binder (The Cascadian Chronicles #1)Spirit Binder by Meghan Ciana Doidge

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love BookRooster.com! I have discovered so many gems this way. Books I might not have been able to afford or wouldn’t have known about otherwise. I have nearly one hundred books on my queue starting way back in 2013. This one came to me about that long ago. Yes, I am slow to read all they send me, but they don’t seem to mind my ADD of books.

For a while, I only read my BookRoosters on my Moon Reader Pro. Now I find I can send by email to my Kindles. I love MRP because I can read and listen on the same device. But with the emailed one, I can make sure to get the books sent to my tablet or any of my Kindles. Sure, I have to listen on the older Kindle while reading it on my tablet or Fire, but it reminds me to read it more quickly as I can see readily all the books I have waiting my eyes on the carousel.

Now for the book itself. Spirit Binder feels to me an Epic Fantasy as there is magic, and swords involved. Not my favorite genre of fantasy, but, with the main character a strong female, I felt more inclined to get involved in the story. I know there are those who LOVE Tolkien. Not me. Too many warring men. Just not my kind of story. Theo is gusty and smart. Though the book starts with her at a disadvantage, having forgotten the last ten years of her life, she claims back her own bit by bit with all the love and power she can–and that’s quite a lot!

Luckily, BookRooster sent me book two so I can follow up in the near future. How cool is that?

View all my reviews


Five Minutes in HeavenFive Minutes in Heaven by Lisa Alther

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a ride! Not exactly rollercoaster, but not merry-go-round either. From the beginning, I like the main character, Jude. She is one who doesn’t belong in the world, but finds her way, anyway. She is flawed and confused, with good reasons. I wanted to root for her to win each of her obstacles.

From Tennessee to New York to France and back, Jude struggles with her demons, longing for love to return to her as pure as she put it out. Rarely does it find her. Mostly because of her own insecurities and lack of role-models, love floats out as a fantasy. Never to be achieved.

I picked this version of the book up from Amazon, Kindle Unlimited (which is in fact limited, as you can only have ten ‘checked out’ at a time). I kind of wished I had the Audible version or the Whispersync to go along, but I managed okay without.

My biggest complaint is the French. Not the people. Just the use of the language with no definitions available to the reader. If you only took Latin, Spanish and German in your language classes, French isn’t a language you even have books for. At least that’s how it is in my house. So I had to ignore the language and hoped to get the gist. I hate when authors do that to the reader. It stinks of a superiority to the reader. It wasn’t necessary. If you are conveying a story to the reader. and most of the book is in English, why not continue in that language in the last third of the book?

And the ending? Wish I had been given a grown up, matured, version of Jude when she comes home at last! The last part ended in the same way, that the other two sections had ended. Wondering what next. Still, it was worth the read.

View all my reviews


Special Offers (Coursodon Dimension, #1)Special Offers by M.L. Ryan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I picked up this fun book through BookCrossing dot com. I put off reading it for a long, long time. Why? The title and the cover. Even the blurb didn’t make me want to read it. But I am so glad I finally did!

It is only vaguely about Special Offers. What it is is a humorous paranormal story. When I started reading it I couldn’t stop. I needed something light to read as my husband was in the hospital and I was in the middle of a fibro-flare. So I couldn’t be at the hospital with him. Instead, I started this book. What a joy!

The characters M.L. Ryan invented were wonderful. Haily, the main character, is quirky and fun. She isn’t a hopeless romantic, she is practical and has a sharp wit. That romance happens in the deal is felt as rather coincidental. The rest is quite the adventure!

Even though I picked this up from BookCrossing, I want you to know it is free for Kindle on Amazon right now. I recommend it for adults, as there are a couple scenes that might be too racy for young adults. I picked up another copy so I could read it in my other readers when I feel the need of the fun ride again.

View all my reviews


The Exemeus (The Exemeus, #1)The Exemeus by Folami Morris

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked up this e-book about two years ago from BookRooster.com I’m glad I finally gave it a shot. This was a fun ride.

It starts in a dystopian future when a nerd, forever the recipient of the wedgies and other tricks of the bullies. It doesn’t take long to like this kid. In spite of himself, he is a smart yet patient young man.

Without going into spoilers… hmmm…how to do this? Well, he ends up with a journal that his mother kept back in our days. Through this and a few other happenings, we see how much he is like his mother and we watched his magic bloom.

Well, that didn’t give anything away, but it doesn’t seem all that exciting. But it was! I really loved the characters, even the bad guys. They were all well fleshed out. The plot was an interesting take on the dried up meme of dystopia.

When I get new books that aren’t from Amazon I usually download them to my Moon Reader Pro where I can read along with text-to-speech. That way I don’t need a light like I do for my older generation Kindles. MRP is backlit like the Kindle app on my Tablet or on the Fire. It was a very fast read. I was sucked in right from the beginning and didn’t want to let it go until the end. Sleep and other needs got in the way of the read.

There is to be a book two. I can’t wait to read it. I didn’t feel this book left me with a cliffhanger. We know how THOSE bug me! I guess the only reason I didn’t give it five stars is because there were places that I felt there were holes in the story, that things had been left out with little segue between parts. I managed to pick up the threads but felt unnerved by how it was done.

By the way, It is now $.99 on Amazon for the Kindle version. Not bad for a great bit of entertainment!

View all my reviews


Time and Time AgainTime and Time Again by Dennis Danvers

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This read took me a long, long time! The font was so small and the lines too close, so I had to take it a couple pages at a time.

Maybe it was the length of time it took me to read it that played into my occasional confusion as to whose head I was supposed to be in. I’ll accept that reason but still, there were other places that I knew I wasn’t confused. For a book that contains news of today, news of a century ago, a journal by Susanna, and a book being written by another woman, main character, Marion Mead… were all written by male author, Dennis Danvers.

Sorry, most of the time I didn’t buy it. I believe Dennis Danvers tried. The writing was good and for the most part I loved the main character. But what was irritating for me were male traits imposed onto the Susanna and Marion.

For the last couple years, I have made it a habit to read books that could fall into the Bechdel test. My own addition, in the case of writing, is that the book be written and star a strong fem. The only reason for this read was this is a BookCrossing hardback that has been in my TBR pile for a too long.

Okay for the nitty-gritty. Susanna’s journal was about the men in her life and how they interact with each other. It even went inside the males heads: this one likes to be plowed hard and fast–or something along those lines. Yeah. Most of the time, we prefer foreplay–please?

I know, this did include the mores of the past where women had no minds of their own as they belong to their fathers or husbands and other than that were old maids or whores. That probably made it easier to write from a woman’s point of view. But even when we were in Marion’s POV there was nothing but male-centric. Sure she had her daughters, and of course she looked like Mary Magdalene. Then finally we had a conversation between Marion and her co-worker, and even that was a conversation about sex with the male.

Oh, off the track a little, one of the reasons I wanted to read this from the beginning was I thought it was about time travel. Nope. Instead, it was more reincarnation. Hope that isn’t a spoiler. But that was part of the well done parts.

Most people wouldn’t notice the picky stuff I I saw. And so I think others will like it better than I did. It certainly was different.

By the way, this is BookCrossing BCID: 046-5591579. I will send it to other people of my group before setting it free.

View all my reviews


Pride and PrejudicePride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

To my English teachers and friends who have raved that I should read this. Check. Done! My grade for this book is a C- and that was with the help of Carolyn Seymour, the narrator. Glad I read it so I could say I did, but I was not wowed like others.

I couldn’t have gotten into it as a tree book, even on Kindle with text-to-speech I couldn’t get there. Though the reader did add a lot to the experience, in the beginning, I’m afraid there was no help.

The first half of the book seemed centered around bickering, gossip, and how women of the time could climb the status ladder. Ms. Seymour’s varied voices just made that part even more irritating. I felt sorry for the reader as there was no way to vary the voices enough within that family of females. Lizzy and Jane’s father was probably easy to do. And the voice of Darcy felt unique. But other than those voices, I couldn’t tell whose voice belonged to whom.

As for the book itself, I felt that the real book started about 3/4 in. That’s where it all started to get exciting. I suddenly cared for a few people. It may be that the passive voice that seems to live in most so-called classics that made this less than wonderful. I plan to watch a couple versions of the movie next. Then there are possible book two by more recent authors. And… I’m not done with Jane Austen. I do plan to read them all, somehow. After all, these follow my main goal of reading books by females with strong female leads.

View all my reviews


Ruination (Worlds Apart, #1)Ruination by Amanda Thome

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Damn!” Is exactly what I said as I deleted this book from my Kindle Unlimited list. Not because I would miss it, but because of the cliffhanger. I HATE CLIFFHANGERS! Especially when the next book isn’t available yet. It is the only reason I gave this book four stars instead of five. Sure there were a few editing issues, but the story flowed around them quite nicely.

Yes, it does remind me of other dystopian books, Divergent, Hunger Games, etc. But it had its own story. I loved the characters and the nearly constant suspense toward the end. I refused to read the last 10% just before bed as I could tell I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I tried. But it left me hanging. GRRRRRRR!

As much as I want to say I won’t, I can’t wait to read the next book in the series!

View all my reviews


Forbidden Witches (The Tarot Witches, #2)Forbidden Witches by S.M. Reine

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am loving this Tarot Witches series. Okay, it does get into more adult erotica but the stories are still quite interesting. The characters are full and flawed but lovable. This series takes you back to the beginnings as it were with werewolves and the worries those guys bring to the world. But now we have witches who are just learning that they even have that inner talent of magic.

This is the second book. The author sent me a free copy but then I bought the Amazon Kindle version so I could read it on any of my readers. But either way, I try to make my reviews as honest as possible. The most honest thing I can say here is that this series is not for children or young adults. New Adults and older is the audience the books are aimed for. If erotica or werewolves aren’t the tea you drink, stay clear of this particular series. I love Sara’s writing and her sense of adventure so I have been enjoying all her work.

I didn’t always enjoy the werebeings but I started with S.M. Reine’s Six Moon Summer of the Seasons of the Moon series and I couldn’t stop. Now after all her different series which often overlap, I think I am caught up. Dare I say it? Last time I said it another two books were ready for me. I hope other enjoy her worlds like I do.

View all my reviews


Caged Wolf (Tarot Witches)Caged Wolf by S.M. Reine

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just when I thought I was caught up with the prolific Sara Reine’s writings, there is more. After the last series which featured a male witch as the main character I saw this cover and thought it would be more of him. Not that Cesar is awful. He is actually amusing. But I love Ms. Reine’s female leads better. Other covers of this book show a female, though so I took a chance. Not a big one. I planned on reading it regardless.

Warning, this is the first of a new series and this one is for adults only. There are erotic scenes that lean toward BDSM in nature. But the story is fun. The main character is actually Cesar’s sister, Ofelia. It is the first time we get to see her side of the story. She now lives in a land between USA and Mexico where demons and other bad guys roam freely. She works at a bar as a stripper. Got your attention yet?

I read this one in one sitting. I couldn’t stop reading. I love the idea that this series, Tarot Witches, nods to the Tarot, starting with the devil. Beyond that would be spoilers. If you like exciting adventures, this is it.

View all my reviews

My Awesome Blog

“Log your journey to success.” “Where goals turn into progress.”

THE AVOERIA ARCHIVE

The Depth Behind The Ordinary

Life of Chaz

Books, games, music, and life — filtered through the mind of a writer, drummer, and philosopher who thinks too deeply about all of it. If it moves something in your chest, I'm interested.

Pieces Of My Heart

"Words & Wonders - Where thoughts meet art

💫The Afterlove Voice💫

Justice, Channeling,Spiritual,Astrology,Truth- Seeker.

Amin Academy

Education, Information, Motivation

Luso Loonie — Devin Meireles

Exploring Portuguese Culture, Azorean Heritage, and Luso-Canadian Identity Through Writing

UNDER THE WILL... OVER THE DRAMA...

Inheritance. Narcissism. Turf. Welcome to the family.

Selma

Finding the extra in the ordinary

Sip, Snack, See

A Blog About Food and Travels

Golu lodhi

I upload photos & videos Golu lodhi village pairakhedi

Creative

Travel,Tourism, Life style "Now in hundreds of languages for you."

intricate cantrips

twisted yarns, unraveled

Introverted Growth

The Introvert's Roadmap to Self Discovery and Growth