January 15th, 2010 — 5 Stars, A-C, ARC, Cowboy, Firefighter, Friends, Guest Reviews, Kidnapping, Older Woman/Younger Man, Ranching, Soldier, Teacher, United States of America, Western
By Susan S., Guest Reviewer
Brown’s novel will warm your heart, and bring you characters so real, you’ll swear they’re flesh and bone. Getting Lucky will move to the top of everyone’s list of new comfort reads.
Getting Lucky is book three from Brown’s Lucky Trilogy. It stands alone, here’s why: In this novel the hero (Griffin Luckadeau) tells the heroine (Julie Donavan) fate stories. These stories will retell Milli and Beau’s fate in Lucky in Love. Griffin also goes on to retell Jane and Slade’s fate in One Lucky Cowboy.
Do we have “small” cameo appearances in Getting Lucky? Not just no, hell no! We got the whole family together!
In book three, which tells the story of another hunky Luckadeau cowboy named Griffin, we’ll stumble upon a chockfull of clichés, idioms, silly sayings, and similes. Here’s a glimpse:
Cliché: Don’t get your panties in a wad.
Idiom: The pot calling the kettle black.
Silly saying: One legged chicken at a coyote convention.
Simile: Her heart thumped in her chest like a bass drum.
This book reminded me of my first romances, First Love from Silhouette. I’m recommending this novel to anyone who enjoys romances, HEA’s, and heart-warming stories which leave you smiling.
Julie moves from Jefferson, Texas to St. Jo. As a single mom raising a daughter named Annie, she hopes to leave the gossip-mongers behind. She’ll soon realize she’s jumped out of the frying pan, and straight into the fire. Julie’s first day as a kindergarten school teacher has left her stupefied. Her new student Lizzy, is the exact double of her daughter Annie.
Lizzy’s single father Griffin feels perplexed over the girls' similarities. While the story unravels, the reasons for these similarities will begin to surface.
Getting Lucky gives us plenty of new characters to fall in love with. My favorite of these? Alvie, the love-stuttering rancher.
What will you love? References to Wild Sex Anonymous, bumping headboards, bull riding, women making bets, and the six sheets to the wind stories.
What did I love? In the barn, Julie’s heel gets caught on a loose board. She trips, Griffin grabs her, but ultimately they both fall to the floor. Is there more to this? Maybe.
Fundamental themes: Friendships are to be cherished, and fate will not be ignored.
Julie thinks Griffin’s egotistical, domineering, and too young for her (she’s six years older.)
He thinks all women are shrewd, conniving, with ulterior motives.
They certainly feel the attraction, but will they overcome prejudices, and stop letting their past cloud their judgments? Maybe.
This is a 5 Star Comfort Read!
Buy: Getting Lucky
Contemporary Romance, ARC, Trilogy, Sourcebooks, Inc., Casablanca, January 2010, Mass Market Paperback, Print Pages 393. ISBN# 978-1-4022-2436-2.
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November 7th, 2009 — 3 Stars, A-C, Alien, Another Planet/Dimension, Book Review, Cursed Lead, Dragon, Highlander, Paranormal, Queen or Princess, Succubus, Survival, United States of America, Werewolf
Dark Highland Fire is about two distinctly polar opposites getting together and overcoming obstacles that should under normal circumstances lay them low. Rowan is a fiery demi-goddess akin to the vampire as she needs blood to survive. However her blood-taking is about life not death so at most she is a cousin of the vampire. Her actual species is called Dyaad and they are descendants of the Goddess Morgaine.
Rowan is full of sass, sharp tongued, and has a streak of violence in her. Her version of her tribe’s magic is geared toward destruction. This is important to remember as for why this is the case is revealed at the end of the novel. There’s one thing that irritated me about Rowan, the heroine of Dark Highland Fire. She claims to not need anyone but the novel starts out with her brother, Bastian, saving her by transporting them to Earth’s dimension and then again, same method, to the Scottish Highlands.
Bastian is a perfect character that at the author’s will be applied like deus ex machina to any situation to get other characters to safety. He’s used this way more than the two times mentioned so far. Overall he’s a good brother to his sisters and I hope will be the focus of another book in this set of Highland novels even though he's not a MacInnes Werewolf. (Speaking of the MacInnes werewolves cameo appearances of Carly and Gideon abound in this book!)
Gabriel is a lackadaisical werewolf. He’s third in line and happy to stay there – no plots to overthrow his brother or father. When Bastian spies him, the cool Dyaad Drakkyn decides to leave his injured sister in Gabriel’s hands. Gabriel questions this decision and is said to have a streak of stubbornness inside him to rival Rowan – which he was going to need. Successfully he manages to get Rowan to do the things he wishes for instance drink his blood to heal, stay put in his apartment for safety purposes. He hasn’t quite figured out that as the next Dyana of her people, Rowan is more than capable of holding her own (at least when she doesn’t let fear paralyze her and smother out her flame.)
Lucien is a Dragon, heir to the throne and has fallen in lust at first sight with Rowan. His father backs his decision to go after the little fire princess and claim her as his own. Dragons apparently don’t understand the words no and not interested. He’s the reason Rowan is on the run and afraid. Though honestly from the daemon creatures mentioned throughout the novel with powerful magic sound more scary. I guess their weak and overly ripe bodies are the reason they inspire more disgust than fear though that’s there too in most cases.
If you’re familiar with the first novel in the series then you know that werewolves mate for life and this ritualistic act is like a marriage. Rowan and Gabriel initiate and finalize this unwittingly during some steamy sex scenes. Once created it is impossible to break though Lucien is going to try his best to do so – Rowan is his and the wolf will pay. Find out if Rowan and Gabriel make it in this fast paced multidimensional novel!
Rating: 3 Stars.
Originally posted 2008-11-10 14:09:27. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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November 3rd, 2009 — 4 Stars, A-C, ARC, Contemporary, Cooking, Cowboy, Guest Reviews, Ranching, Survival, Suspense/Thriller, United States of America, Western
by Susan Sigler, guest reviewer
Brown delivers another great cowboy romance! With devil-may-care characters, exciting plot twists, and outrageously silly sayings.
One Lucky Cowboy is book two from Brown’s Lucky Trilogy. This book stands alone, but if you read book one Lucky in Love, you’ll appreciate Milli and Beau’s cameo appearances all the more. You’ll also see the Yak-52 (Milli’s plane) take flight once again. This story takes place approximately one year after the first one, as evidenced by the amount of time Milli and Beau have been together.
Book two tells the story of another handsome Luckadeau cousin. We meet the hero Lester (Slade) Luckadeau. Slade’s a tall blonde, blue-eyed cowboy. He’s hell bent and determined to get the heroine (Jane) off the Double L Ranch. Slade’s grandma (Nellie) hired Jane as cook and driver and Jane has no intention of leaving. At least not until she turns 25. Staying alive for another six weeks will be a challenge, but dealing with an infuriating piece of cowboy eye candy will be downright impossible.
In typical Brown style, we have more outrageous sayings such as: burr in his britches, cow chips for brains, and one legged chicken at a coyote convention.
What will you find within the pages? Four fool hardy old women, who gamble, dance, drink, meddle, and have a grand ole’ time. There’s lots of eating, hangovers, and death threats.
I’ll be honest, I enjoyed this book more than the first, a lot more! Why? It has romantic suspense elements, and I love romantic suspense. The bantering between Slade and Jane was fun to read, while the drunken seven flights of stairs scene was cute and sexy. Oh yeah…it was also gross. (LOL)
The fundamental theme was the importance of family loyalty.
Will Slade run Jane off the ranch? Or will they simply drive each other mad?
I’ll be happier than a monkey in a Chiquita banana factory when Getting Lucky releases in January of 2010.
Rating: 4 Stars
Buy: One Lucky Cowboy
Contemporary Romance, ARC, Trilogy, Sourcebooks, Inc., Casablanca, November 2009, Print Pages 331.
ISBN# 978-1-4022-2437-9
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