Entries Tagged 'Journalism' ↓
March 9th, 2010 — 3.5 Stars, ARC, Contemporary, Cowboy, Crime and Protection, Farming, J-L, Journalism, Mystery, Ranching, United States of America, Western
Joanne Kennedy’s debut novel will put the honky tonk back into your life. Pull up a stool in the Roundup and have Crystal Hayes pour you a beer as I’ve got the latest gossip.
Libby Brown is a city girl with a dream of owning her own chicken farm. When her boyfriend ran off with her boss at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Libby packed up and headed to Wyoming. In addition to getting her chicken farm started, she works as a reporter for Lackaduck Holler.
Lackaduck is very small town. Neighbors are few and far between as ranches sprawl in all directions. Luke Rawlins is Libby’s sexy new neighbor. He is so typical stereotype cowboy in his whitewashed jeans, chaps, and Stetson hat, Libby can hardly believe he’s real. Aren’t traditional cowboys a myth? Not in Lackaduck!
Hearing about an unsolved local mystery perks Libby’s interest. With her background in crime stories, Libby dives headfirst into solving the case of Della McCarthy. Is she merely a runaway and missing or was she murdered? As clues stack up it begins to look more like the latter and not the former. The top suspects? A taxidermist, a chef, and a veterinarian... the real killer is close and he has his eyes set on Libby.
It's a little predictable as far as the mystery goes as I solved it pretty quick, but I had a lot of fun reading it anyway because of the relationship between the hero and heroine. Luke is a wonderful hero who knows how to handle a nervous filly.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Buy: Cowboy Trouble
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November 8th, 2009 — 3.5 Stars, 4 Stars, Asia, Big Misunderstanding, Book Review, Comedy of Manners, Contemporary, Crime and Protection, D-F, Estranged, Great Britain, Journalism, Lawyer, Plump/Endowed Heroine, Travel
There was a different reader for this book. It’s something that bugs me when it comes to series and sequels. Same reader please! Tracie Bennett was okay part of the time.
Sometimes I found her Bridget’s voice too harsh. I absolutely hated the mother’s voice; she sounded like she hated her daughter every time she saw her/spoke to her with the sharp hoarse, “HEh-LLooo DAH-ling.” Darcy sounded like a nancy boy instead of a sharp sexy lawyer.
There was more cursing in this book than the first.
The book and the movie are also very different:
- Plus – storyline is better than movie. Go Helen Fielding.
- Rebecca the Jellyfish is the woman after Mark not Rebecca Gilles. The Rebecca in the book is not a lesbian and is truly after Mark. Bridget is not crazy.
- No Daniel Cleaver, which is where the movie is better than the book. Hurrah for mixed up stories and sightings versus giving the wrong slip of paper. Grant and Firth are hot and dorky when they fight.
- I wasn’t a fan of the Gary the builder/fisher sideline. Seemed more like filler.
Bridget finds out not long after she quit her job with Sit Up Britain in September, that upper management loves her. She supplied 68% of the ideas for the year she worked there, that they produced and put on the show. Talk about awesome! Go Bridget. They want to give her a raise, pay her for the months she wasn’t working for them and call it paid leave, and rehire her as a manager something or other, forget the exact title, or as a consultant. Oh and Richard was fired due to personal reasons a month after she quit. Hurrah!
Rating: 3.5 because of reader, 4 otherwise.
Buy: Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (paperback)
, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (audio)
Buy on Audible.com: Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
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November 7th, 2009 — 4.5 Stars, Book Review, Comedy of Manners, Contemporary, D-F, Great Britain, Journalism, Lawyer, Love Triangle, Plump/Endowed Heroine, Spinster
This is the first time I read the books. I admit I am a bad girl and watched the movies first. That said, I really liked the reader, Barbara Rosenblat, as she reminded me of the movie. Her voice for the mother was fabulous. It was airy, a bit ditzy, and a tad lofty. Her Bridget was cute, the voice and inflections similar to Renee Zellweger in the movies.
There was less cursing than you’d think considering the movie which was full of fucks. The most used curse word was probably bloody.
The book and the movie are very different:
- For instance in the book there was no mix-up of who cheated who’s wife. That’s a plus.
- However on the other hand there wasn’t a fight scene between Daniel and Mark, which really was a deliciously wonderful and sexy dorky scene. Boo.
- Also, Bridget’s mother’s new boy toy Hoo-lio (Julian) is a scam artist opposed to a home shopping sales rep.
- Richard, the television boss, is not a rescuing savior but a revoltingly nasal and crass man. There were elements of the ridiculous in the movie but not nearly as over the top as in the book.
- Sadly Mark never read her diary in the book as he did in the movie and the super cute ending with kiss in snow isn’t there either. They do share a cute ending though.
On another note, Hugh Grant must have a great sense of humor because he’s mentioned in this book for the prostitute thing and Bridget compares Daniel Cleaver to Grant. I busted a gut laughing. It is only funny because he ends up playing Daniel Cleaver in the movie.
Overall, I loved the book. In my opinion it is much better to get this as an audio book versus reading because I didn’t mind at all the cigarette, alcohol units, and calorie counting as I would have in reading it. I also would probably skipped them all after a certain point and missed the subtle humor in it.
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Buy: Bridget Jones's Diary
Buy on Audible.com: Bridget Jones's Diary
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October 29th, 2009 — 4 Stars, A-C, Book Review, Captain, Category, Contemporary, Cursed Lead, Ghost, Journalism, Paranormal, Pirate, Rogues and Rakehells, Sailing, Suspense/Thriller, Travel, United States of America, Writer
Hurray a ghost romance! Double hurray there’s pirates! Oh I was so excited to start this novel and it was a thrilling and sexy story.
The first sexual contact? Burns your fingers it’s so hot!
Tyree's ghosty capabilities include walking through doors, levitating off the bed, solidifying into a sexy sinful lord of the night, and invisibility from most of the populace.
Pirate Captain Tyree St. James cursed to a life of wandering the earth for two hundred years or until a woman loves him so much she is willing to die in his place after accidentally killing his best friend and his love Elizabeth. Terrified a woman would be foolish enough to do that Tyree is steers clear of women and romance. Now he’s been tempted… sorely tempted… by Clara Fergussen.
Clara is the great-great (and so on) grandniece of Tyree’s best friend and curser Captain Sullivan Fouquet. Ironic – but this novel is littered with the relatives of several of the parties apart of the two captains’ lives two hundred years ago. She’s there to research Fouquet and dreams a very erotic pirate dream her first night in Rose Cottage only to find out the next day Tyree is real… if delusional.
The heroine’s stubborn refusal to believe Tyree is both a credit and a discredit. It makes Tyree’s story more poignant, her sacrifice more believable, but it also is highly annoying after about halfway through. Luckily Tyree is sexy enough and there are plenty of pulse heightening moments to overlook the heroine’s obstinacy.
The fire crime mystery is anti-climatic. It’s not wrapped up enough for me – especially with the fire captain, Andre Sullivan. How exactly does he fit in other than looking like a dead ringer for the late pirate captain?
Who knew eye-patches were so sinfully delicious? The one week whirlwind romance is exactly right.
Rating: 4 Stars
Buy: Ghost of a Chance
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October 5th, 2009 — 3 Stars, 4.5 Stars, Australia/New Zealand, Blackmail, Book Review, Category, Contemporary, Enemies, Entrepreneur, Great Britain, Journalism, M-O, Rape/Abuse, Revenge, United States of America, Virgin Heroine
I would say for about ninety percent of this book I thought it was excellent. Perfect execution, I liked the characters, I was involved in the revenge trope, and things were good. The other ten percent sent me up in flames with an angry face because of the super secret reason behind the revenge trope. Spoilers ahead...
Apparently the hero's sister was willingly involved with the heroine's father at the age of fifteen. The hero has always thought it was rape but near the end after a conversation with his sister he learns that no it wasn't rape and that the sister basically forced it to happen because she wanted to be with the older man... which makes it totally okay and now the hero's sorry about his revenge plot towards the heroine.
Um... wtf? Pardon my cussing.
I don't know Australian laws, but I'm pretty certain fifteen is underage (of legal consent) and therefore even if she slipped into the father's bed and wiggled herself onto him, the fact that he continued or participated knowingly is grounds for statutory rape. So no, it's not okay. Hero doesn't have to be sorry for wanting to see father of heroine dead. Hero is wrong for almost doing the same thing to the heroine that her father did to his sister.
I know I have a lot of issues with the use of rape in a romance novel. Just look at the category and read all the reviews of books which contained the situation. I think my problem is that I feel the way it's handled afterward is sub-par. I'm not convinced and I'm not sure many readers would be with how everything plays out. How do you feel reading about rape in a romance novel - whether it's side characters or the main characters?
Back to the review... other than that whole fiasco I would have rated this novel much higher, because the rest of it was fun and engaging.
Rating: 4.5 stars before rape arc.
Rating: 3 stars after rape arc.
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Originally posted 2009-02-07 16:08:39. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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April 8th, 2009 — 1 Star, Acting, Contemporary, G-I, Guest Reviews, Journalism, United States of America
By: Cara Lynn, guest reviewer
Some Nerve by Jane Heller promised to be an interesting book, but it turned out to be less than I had hoped for.
The cover looked intriguing, but alas, the story could have been summed up in about 10 pages.
Plus it is quite dated, printed in 2006, and opening with Britney Spears pregnant with her first child. It shows how careful one should be in including various trivia, even if the book is about the fictional Ann Roth, who writes about celebrities.
When Roth's boss demands she go for the main man, the big get, Malcolm Goddard who refuses all interviews and thinks the worst of interviewers to the stars, she has every intention of being the killer journalist her boss expects.
Alas, she is afraid to fly. Goddard knows this too and says he will accept the interview only if she does it aboard his plane.
She can't do it.
She is fired and goes back to her family, where Goddard ends up hospitalized to avoid the paparazzi. She, in turn, decides to become a candy striper in order to get close to him and get a story.
Of course, they fall in love. Goddard doesn't recognize her. She doesn't tell him at all. He thinks she is honest. She wishes she were. Someone sends her story, not her. But all ends well in the end.
There is humor, some laughs out loud, but for the most part this book details again and again and again and...you get the idea...about her fear(s). I ended up skipping huge sections of it except for a sentence here and there.
And there are some decidedly unlikeable characters and situations in the book.
I give it a 1.
I will read at least one more of her books.
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Originally posted 2008-07-10 05:18:22. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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March 22nd, 2009 — 0.5 Stars, Blackmail, Contemporary, Erotica, Guest Reviews, J-L, Journalism, Mistress or Courtesan, Plump/Endowed Heroine, Politician, United States of America
By: Sasha Muradali, guest reviewer
Jamaica Layne’s “A Capitol Affair” is a underdeveloped, ghastly excuse for erotic literature that glamorizes sloppy, whorish women as independent, strong and calculated.
As a person who rarely reads romance, let alone erotica-romance, I was unimpressed and, at times, disgusted.
I initially thought this would be the story to bring me over to the juicy-side: a PR-girl, a Washington scandal, romance and drama.
From the frigid sex that overtly describe bodily fluids, to plot holes, to random characters pulled out of a magician’s hat (like Dexter, the hero’s estranged relative), “A Capitol Affair” is lacking in more ways than one.
It’s a wonder one can get through reading the first 50-pages without rubbing their chin in confusion and speculation.
Not to mention the fact that I highly doubt most public relations professionals (and Ms. Layne get it right, in politics, it’s called public affairs) would stoop as low as to sleep with a magazine editor for their kinky, slob of a boss.
It’s a very possible, just not probable story.
The plot holes and lack of continuity start at the very beginning when the heroine, Jasmine, a frumpy, overweight public affairs director not only says she is under-sexed, but she implies she’s not the most outgoing of women in that department.
She proceeds to relieve herself in the bathroom thinking of a man, Rodney Doyle, our hero, that she’s never met.
Said man, and subject of her infatuation, agrees to have a meeting with Jasmine to discuss her boss, Sen. Grayle’s, indiscretions.
Jasmine proposes sex to Mr. Doyle – a little out of the ordinary and out of character for a woman sex deprived and seemingly shy, I would think.
During this same meeting, Doyle offers Jasmine a drink, of which she refuses claiming she doesn’t enjoy the stuff.
Yet, we see a few pages down the line, and a date with Doyle later, Jasmine chugging two cosmos like a first-week freshman, boozed-sorority girl, fainting, feeling light-headed and ready to spread eagle for a stranger.
And since when was eating meat off someone’s body, like a dog to its bowl, sexy?
Just as I started relishing the feeling of the meat on my skin, however, Rodney leaned over and began to nibble tiny bites of the fillet. The meat moved slightly with each bite he took, creating damp feathery sensations that sent warm prickles all over my belly. He ate slowly and deliberately to maximize the pleasure the food gave us. When it was finally gone, Rodney lapped up the ginger sauce that had adhered to my skin; making sure to spread it around with his tongue so I could get the most of the tingling sensations from the raw ginger root. A wonderful melty feeling headed straight for my pussy.
Needless to say, I laughed, then cringed and Ms. Layne, ‘melty’ isn’t a real word.
As the novel progressed, I began to wonder if Jasmine had any self-respect at all or if Ms. Layne was simply trying to appeal her novel of sloshing juices to men, rather than women.
I won’t touch the ginger sauce sending electric shots through her body theme. But I will say, better she just screwed a ginger root and called it a night. I was waiting for our heroine to roll over like a dog in heat and howl.
The novel speaks for itself, and if erotica tickles your fancy, perhaps check out Lora Leigh or something published by LitErotica.
I don’t think even the wickedly adventurous Miss_Figg (and all you fan fiction junkies out there know who I’m talking about) would approve of this capitol mess.
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