February 22nd, 2010 — 4 Stars, Book Review, Clumsy Heroine, Contemporary, Paranormal, Stephenie Meyer, United States of America, Vampire, Virgin Hero, Virgin Heroine, Werewolf, Young Adult
The first book in the Twilight saga as said by the author in the Amazon interview is about finding true love and is conveniently entitled Twilight. Stephenie Meyer was partial to calling it Forks, the name of the little town Bella goes to live. Her name was chosen because Stephenie Meyer would have named her daughter that if she had one. It fit so nicely with Edward. Bella's full name is Isabella Swan.
Isabella goes to live in Forks, a little town that really does exist on the map on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. Forks is full of rain. It never stops raining. It rains so much you never dry out. Isabella is horrified at the idea of returning to her childhood home to live with her father, Charlie, but she is going to go through with it. Bella is like that. Once she has made up her mind she won't change it. The agonizing and worrying and doubting happens during the decision making process only.
Bella moves to Forks so her mother Renee can move around from place to place with her second (new) husband Phil and not feel guilty. She wants her mother to be happy and by going to Forks she'll make Charlie happy. She's going to miss the sunshine and heat of Arizona. But most of all, Bella is going to miss how easily she blended despite her pale skin into the crowds of her large high school. Forks is small and can not hold a secret. Bella is afraid of her first day of sophomore year. She doesn't want to stick out like the clumsy sore thumb she is but knows she will.
At school things were going like she predicted and in ways she wasn't expecting. Boys were paying attention to her, she was the center of attention, and at lunch the most beautiful kids were staring at her. Who were they? Why did suddenly, the most handsome look up and glare at her? At the table sat the Cullens. Each was adopted by Dr. Carlisle and his wife Esme. They didn't hang out with anybody in school. Bella was told they thought themselves better than the rest.
But this did not explain the youngest Cullens' behavior. Why did he act like he couldn't stand her when she had done nothing to him? Why did he try to change out of biology before the school day was over? Why did he skip so much school? Was it to avoid her? Edward Cullens mystified Isabella Swan. That was until she found out he was a vampire. Then it made sense.
The Cullens are different from other vampires. The first of which I can't say since it is fun to hear of it in the third book. The second is because they are in their own terms, ‘vegetarians.' They choose to drink animal blood over human. You can tell when vampires shy from human blood because their irises are gold and not blood red. Bella can tell when Edward is thirsty or mad simply by the color of his irises. At first he is surprised, but then he relaxes. After all she was observant enough to notice he was a vampire when others simply ignored all the signs.
The sentence structure of Twilight is a little choppy and hard to get into. The story picks up, right where the author first dreamed about it. Stephenie Meyer wrote the scene in the meadow first and finished the story before returning to write the beginning. Beginnings are hard, and if you can push past the first one hundred to one-hundred-and-fifty pages then it gets good. That is when the story becomes captivating and hard to put down. Edward and Bella is a classic that only gets better.
Rating: 4 Stars
Buy: Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)
Originally posted 2008-12-01 01:36:27. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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February 17th, 2010 — Erotica, G-I, Guest Blogger, Paranormal, Supernatural
by Eliza Gayle, guest blogger and author of Lucas: A Black Cougar Novel
To be honest it was a fast and furious trip. Despite my love for reading and my early adventures in fanfic, (although I had no idea the fact I was writing sequels to Star Wars movies was called fanfic back then) I had not really given much thought to becoming a writer.
From the very beginning it’s been all about romance. I used to hide in the corner of the library devouring Rosemary Rogers as a pre teen and eventually wound my way to Nora Roberts. I’ve never been a reader of Horror of Science Fiction so it wasn’t until Sherrilyn Kenyon started writing the Dark Hunters that I realized paranormal romance was awesome. I fell in love with Valerius and that was it for me I was hooked. I sought out more books to read and I kept my library hopping for quite a while. Then two things happened that changed my life.
I picked up a copy of the Romantic Times magazine and I found Ellora’s Cave. My first EC book was by Lora Leigh and I swear my eyes were probably bugging out of my head. I kept turning to my husband with that OMG, deer in the headlights look. I even commented to him “They can write that? Wow!” Yes, I was truly oblivious to erotica until that moment. Somehow I’d made it into my thirties unaware. But I loved it and the wheels started turning. I wanted to write some but I didn’t have a clue even how to get started.
This is where the Romantic Times magazine comes into play. I came across the advertisement for the 2006 RT Convention in Daytona, Florida where they offered a pre-convention beginner’s writers course. That was only an hour away from my childhood home and my mother had been bugging me to come for a visit anyways so why not? I took that course with Judi McCoy who I will credit forever with starting me on this crazy path that I love so much. Her realistic approach to the business is awesome and I couldn’t recommend it more highly.
I returned from that trip in May of 06 and sat down and began writing a story about shapeshifters in the North Carolina mountains. I finished it in September and put it away. I needed some distance from it before I began edits and I had a short story idea I was dying to write. The short I finished in two weeks and sent it off to two publishers. The first rejection came and I sent it out again. The story sold a few weeks later and thus Eliza Gayle was born and it’s been crazy ever since.
That very first manuscript? Well, I poked it and prodded it here and there until in late 2008 I finally got serious with it. It needed a lot of work but I couldn’t let go of the premise. After a few name changes and a couple of other hurdles that book is now called Lucas and is my latest release and the first in the Black Cougar Trilogy.
Here is the blurb:
Lucas: A Black Cougar Novel
Kira MacDonald is in trouble. Plagued by false visions and erotic dreams of a man she’s never met, she fears losing both her psychic powers and her sanity. The cure? Finding and bonding with her mate. The stubborn red-haired warrior might not want one, but fate has other plans, plans that include her rescuing Lucas Gunn.
As the Guardian of his shape-shifting clan, Lucas Gunn lived a quiet, solitary life. Until he was kidnapped, examined, and tortured. Now imprisoned, his only tie to the outside world is the memory of his dreams and the passionate woman who appears nightly in them. He thought she was nothing more than a vision. Then she came for him.
An uneasy alliance, a mating call that won’t be denied, rituals that must be honored, and unrelenting enemies who will stop at nothing to get what they want. It all comes together in the first of Eliza Gayle’s sensational Black Cougar Series. Passion and Pride. Duty and Danger. In the end, there’s really only one choice…for Lucas.
The link to read an excerpt is http://elizagayle.net/books/lucas
Buy: Lucas: A Black Cougar Novel
Follow me on Twitter @elizagaylebooks
Or on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/elizagayle
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January 14th, 2010 — 3.5 Stars, Book Review, Bride Stealing, Comedy of Manners, G-I, Gentry, Great Britain, Highlander, Kidnapping, Rape/Abuse, Scarred Hero, Virgin Heroine, Warrior
Julie Garwood is a staple, a household name, and Wedding is the first book of hers I ever read. Recommended to me by my closest friend, I came to the conclusion that it must go to the top of my TBR pile. I found the Wedding to be a delightful combination of bride stealing, tortured hero, and a quest for justice. The tortured hero was my favorite part, though the heroine was pretty great too. The Wedding is the sequel to The Bride
, but I don’t think you miss anything by reading this one first; it is after all what I did first. I also found pieces of text to get choppy when going from scene to scene near the end or from heroine to hero point of view. Overall it wasn’t a bad start to learning about who this fabulous author is. Spoilers ahead…
Wedding focuses heavily on a revenge plot, which in the end I felt could have been wrapped up better. When young Laird Connor McAlister comes to his father’s death bed, he is made to promise to seek justice for the wrongs of his father. At ten, one would not think this would be particularly important or something that would be a driving force in the child’s life but we’re underestimating the loyalty between father and son, the pride of the Highlanders, and of course the time period. Connor seeks protection from Alec, forms a lasting brotherhood with the man and grows up to search for his father’s killers.
The man Connor’s father thought was behind the plotting is getting married. Since he cannot prove his involvement with his father’s death, Connor decides to seek a lesser revenge by stealing his bride, Brenna Haynesworth. Lucky for Connor, his soon to be bride, Brenna, shares a bit of history with him. I’ll give you it’s a relatively brief history, but this history is needed so that Connor can justify his actions to his brother Alec. See, Brenna as a young girl asked Connor to marry her three times during his one and only stay at her childhood home. Brenna is an amusing heroine because she loses her possessions constantly. Hair ribbons, knifes, shoes, it all follows behind her like a trail of bread crumbs.
When the novel focused on the hero and heroine falling in love, it was a very good read but then it drifted back into the revenge plot and stuck there with a few too many clichés. Connor's stepmother is plainly evil. She affects a loving spirit still in mourning for her dead husband in front of Connor, but sabotages Brenna at every turn and picks on all her fears about herself and Connor whenever the man isn’t looking. And Brenna is so concerned about gaining his stepmother’s favor and love that she doesn’t bring up her problems with Connor or anyone for that matter.
Then when Connor’s stepbrother arrives on the scene he is a lecherous cretin, bent on seducing Brenna as soon as possible, not caring at all if she’s willing or not. While this is going on the man Connor thinks plotted his father’s death is moving his players around and causing mischief so that Connor cannot be near Brenna or observe what is going on in his own household until it’s nearly too late. Then to top it all off is another communication misunderstanding and the happily ever after is almost caput. In the end they have it, but I would have preferred Garwood to draw it out more instead of tacking it on at the end as if she’d forgotten about it.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
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Originally posted 2008-12-27 09:35:12. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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January 5th, 2010 — 5 Stars, Book Review, Dukes and Earls, Great Britain, Heiress, J-L, Regency, Virgin Heroine
I loved In the Prince's Bed by Sabrina Jeffries. It was dazzling, sexy, full of wit and great dialog. The characters and their motives were well thought out and spun together to create a wonderfully fantastic tale. This is the first of the Royal Brotherhood trilogy.
Alec Iversley, comes home from abroad at his father's death to find his inheritance gone and in its place a large debt. His childhood home is a wreck, his finances a wreck, his tenets and servants in terrible shape, and his honor in question because of his father's misdeeds. He needs an heiress and he needs those funds yesterday if he is going to save Edenmore and all the fortunes of those that depend on him.
Miss Katherine Merivale needs to get married. Her grandfather left her a large sum of money as her inheritance, but it can only be retrieved upon her marriage. Her mother needs the money to pay off her father's debts from gambling and whoring. Katherine and her childhood friend, Sydney Lovelace, have had a long time understanding that they will wed. So why hasn't he bucked up the courage to overthrow his mother's tyranny and declare her his bride?
From a deal struck up with his half-brothers the other byblows of the Prince of Wales, Alec has in his possession the name of his future heiress. At Lady Jenner's cherry blossom themed party he spies a lovely young miss with flame-red hair and a wildly exotic red dress. When he finds out afterward that this woman is his heiress he thinks to himself, 'no man can be that lucky.'
But Katherine has defenses Alec can scarcely hope to breach. She believes in the gossip about his past, dislikes rakehells, and defends herself at every turn from seduction. Lucky for him, she's a passionate woman with a streak of recklessness yearning to be set free and that Sydney is a spineless wet towel. Now all he has to do is prove he's not the man the gossip paints him, woo her with drugging kisses, and somehow show her that he's the better man.
Rating: 5 Stars
Originally posted 2008-11-26 21:57:45. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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September 14th, 2009 — 2 Stars, A-C, Architect, Big Misunderstanding, Book Review, Children, Great Britain, Handicap, Heiress, Historical Romance, Rogues and Rakehells, Scarred Hero, Virgin Heroine
Merrick and Maddie were young, impulsive, and madly in love with each other. A wild dash across England through Scotland to Gretna Green ends in marriage and betrayal. For the dashing young lad Merrick MacLachlan, this mad run would be his last act of reckless spontaneity. When Maddie’s father catches up with them – he does all in his power to break them apart and succeeds.
Merrick is beaten, trampled, and whipped and left to die. He wakes up alone, in pain and forever scarred. He tries to get in touch with Maddie but his letters go unanswered. When Merrick manages to stumble free from the hellhole he was left in back to Maddie’s childhood home he is not received. The news he receives there wretches his heart out of his chest as he realizes what a fool he’s been. Maddie has married another man and is touring Europe.
It is nearly thirteen years before they meet again quite by accident. Maddie’s second husband is dead and she is desperate to find help for her son, Geoffrey, who experiences visions of accidents/death or something similar. London is her best shot to help him. I’m sure you can guess that Geoffrey was Merrick’s son and that her marriage to her second husband is not at all what it seemed. Her choices were slim and her circumstances were grave and she thought Merrick had used her to gain her fortune. Marrying again was her only hope.
Almost immediately after seeing each other for the first time in so many years Maddie and Merrick exchange their versions of the past events that led to their marriage being dissolved. Unfortunately, Merrick and Maddie, are incredibly stupid. I’m not sure they have ears and they don’t listen to each other both so certain they were the wronged party and both so certain the other one is a cruel-hearted bastard. It gets really irritating after the second/third time through explanations. Somehow they manage to extract themselves from their past in order to see a future with each other – then amazingly they both take the risk to trust the other and fall in love again.
Rating: 2 Stars
Originally posted 2008-09-17 05:54:44. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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