March 21st, 2010 — 1.5 Stars, 3 Stars, 4.5 Stars, Book Review, Business, Cooking, G-I, Gambling, Historic America, Housekeeper/Maid, Inspirational, Prostitute, Religious, United States of America, Virgin Heroine, Widow or Widower, Working with Land
I really wanted to like this novel. In fact, I would have if it hadn’t been for the ending. It did not give me what I wanted. The only person in the Van Buren family to grow was Rachel, the heroine, and that really irked me as it was the younger sister, Lissa, who flouted the heroine’s authority, refused to do honest work, pursued scandalous behavior, and rubbed her sister’s face in it all the time. I kept waiting for Lissa’s comeuppance and/or repentance and it never happened.
Michael, the brother, he was okay until he decided to hurt the heroine by saying her morals were nastier than their other sister’s promiscuous and lazy behavior. (As if he had a leg to stand on – being 14 and gambling behind Rachel’s back.) Yes, the heroine could have been more tolerable but she was doing the best she could with the morals instilled by their parents on what was right and wrong.
For the time the other sister’s behavior was wrong. If was me and my 15 year old (going on 16) sister was determined to ruin herself I would have wrestled her to the ground and shave her head or something so she wouldn’t be so full of herself, her own worth and beauty. I guess that means I’m not heroine material, but honestly, Rachel was too much of a doormat in regards to Lissa’s and Michael’s behavior, she just couldn’t control them.
The hero, Johnnie, was of no help. He enabled Michael and Lissa figuring it was better for them to screw up and do stupid things under his presence where he could watch over them, supposedly to see no true harm came to them. So he rented Michael a table at his hotel/saloon and watched Michael take a man’s entire living (which Johnnie had done at the start of the novel) and only begins to regret and question himself after the gambler goes outside and shoots himself in the head.
I could have closed this book deliriously happy with it because there were many things I liked, but I couldn’t get over how it all ended up. It just made me mad.
Rachel is twenty and in charge of her younger brother and sister. They are stranded in San Francisco when the crew abandons ship and rushes off to find gold. Determined to do the best she can for Michael and Lissa, Rachel takes on a mantle of parental responsibility. I can hardly imagine how their father would have handled Lissa and Michael had he survived the trip, but believe me he would have nipped their rebellious behavior in the butt or forcibly marry Lissa within a day if she didn’t straighten up.
Rachel procures living arrangements, food, pay and jobs under Johnnie Parker at his establishment City Hotel. Johnnie is an ex-missionary and determined never to marry sanctimonious sunbonnets ever again as he feels they are the worst hypocrites alive. Sanctimonious is not an adjective I’d attribute to the heroine which is why I feel so keenly on how everything was handled.
I put up with a lot, as did the heroine and in the end was left with a bitter pill to swallow. More realistic? You decide as it's still a relatively happy ending with all the prostitutes, fallen women, arrogant brats and the heroine being friends again in the last few pages.
My feelings with ending: 1.5 Stars
Overall Rating: 3 Stars
If ending was different: 4.5 Stars
Buy: The Measure of a Lady: A Novel
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December 20th, 2009 — 2 Stars, Big Misunderstanding, Book Review, Category, Contemporary, Foster/Orphan, P-R, Police, Rape/Abuse, United States of America, Virgin Heroine, Western
I wanted to read another Western story when I selected Rogue Stallion. It’s set in Montana and is part of the Montana Mavericks series in the Silhouette line. I like the yellow and brown cover it reads and feels very Western.
The book itself is kind of average. I finished reading it because it was there, not because it was all that entertaining. It’s not bad, it’s just not that good.
The hero, Sterling McCallum, is a brooding plain clothes cop and ex-military. He grew up in foster care after sending his mother to jail for abuse. He has no family and no real close attachments. He knows he has issues and more specifically one of them is that nobody (especially a woman) lies to him.
The heroine is Jessica Larson. She grew up very sheltered, two parents, no real problems or hardships. She began a career as a social worker in her early twenties. Very early in her career, she went out alone based on a call about spousal abuse and was very badly beaten and nearly raped by the husband who blamed her for his wife leaving him. It’s not something she talks about and she took the hit publicly to protect the wife. Now she is in charge of the local unit and makes sure to send social workers out in twos or more. She too has no real family left.
Both are loners.
Jessica wants a baby, but can’t have babies herself. She couldn’t have them before the attack (supposed improbable at best) but now she definitely can’t have one of her own. Much of the book is focused on Jessica’s deep desire for children. In an effort to find Baby Jennifer’s mother Sterling and Jessica get close.
Rating: 2 Stars
Buy: Rogue Stallion
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August 22nd, 2009 — 3.5 Stars, 4 Stars, Book Review, Contemporary, Cursed Lead, Friends, Memory Loss, Musician, Paranormal, S-U, Scarred Hero, Survival, United States of America, Virgin Hero, Virgin Heroine, Werewolf, Young Adult
Their love was hopeless and yet they couldn’t help but hope no matter how bleak and forbidden it was.
Grace has been searching for love for six years since her attack by wolves. Her heart leaps every time she sees the gray wolf with yellow eyes that saved her from the vicious pack. He only comes in winter and that is why she loves the austere season so much, because she can watch him. She tries to lure him closer with food and quiet patience until one day he does cross the line of the woods and let’s her run her hands through his ruff.
Sam has a secret. He’s been in love with Grace for six years and he’s the wolf outside her home in the winter clinging to the memory of her scent. He’s a werewolf and his time is running out. The cold makes them change, shed their human skin, until one day the heat of the sun can no longer turn them back. When he’s shot in the woods by hunters and reverts to his human form, Sam struggles to keep it because he knows deep down inside that this is his last chance of being human. The wild is calling him and Grace is his last chance to escape the desolate future that awaits him. Grace is his sun.
The story had a surprising amount of parallels to Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, but I suppose to make a story like this work there must be some similarities. Here are the ones that I remember off the top of my head:
- Ignorant parental units. Grace’s parents, like Bella Swan’s, are incapable of really being there for her which forces Grace to be extremely independent. She even cooks for them.
- Self-inflicted isolated heroines. Grace chooses books over human contact like Bella does, but Grace has real friends even if they aren’t as close as they once were. I’m surprised they let her get away with dropping off the face of the planet once Sam shows up in her life. (Yes, I know they keep asking her where she’s been and to call but they never force the issue.)
- Heroes raised in supernatural families. Sam was raised by a pack of wolves. He was home-schooled by them, taught to defend himself and survive by them, and loved them like a family. Edward can hardly remember his human life and lives with six other vampires and they are like his parents and siblings.
- Eyes. Sam’s buttery yellow eyes and Edward Cullen’s topaz eyes, though Sam’s was born with his and gets to keep them in human and wolf form. Additionally, they never turn black with hunger.
- Musically inclined heroes. Sam writes lyrics in his head all the time when he has words (wolves have images) and plays the guitar. He writes a love song for Grace.
- Bedroom window stalking. Sam and Edward both watch their loves windows, though Sam never dares to enter until he’s invited.
I had a hard time with the poetry and lyrics throughout the story. They worked and they didn’t at the same time. Sometimes the narrative broke down into them as events took place. There were the occasional weird turns of phrases that made me pause and have to go back and reread to see if it was a grammatical error or done on purpose. Overall, it was a great book. I loved Sam. He was the perfect werewolf gentleman and has restored my faith in the supernatural species. If you’re more inclined to love vampires and need a great book to introduce you to werewolves this book is for you.
Rating: 3.5 – 4 Stars
Buy: Shiver
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May 9th, 2009 — 4 Stars, Another Planet/Dimension, Book Review, Fantasy, Historical Romance, Kings, Princes, Sheiks, Chiefs, M-O, Memory Loss, Queen or Princess, Runaway, Supernatural, Survival, Time Travel, Virgin Hero, Virgin Heroine, Young Adult
Of Two Minds is a very deep book for kids. As an adult how it ends leads to quite an interesting train of thought I’m not sure young children will catch. This is my second time reading it. I remembered enjoying it thoroughly when I read it back in middle school. I can’t honestly say one way or another if I caught the concept revealed at the end of the book back then. I enjoyed it just as much this time around as an adult.
Lenora is a young teenage princess from a people who all have the power to create whatever they want. To imagine it is to make it be. She doesn’t understand why it’s law not to create worlds and change things to suit your will. Why were people afraid to change the color of their hair or imagine bright pink puppies?
After one incident too many her parents decide to marry her off to Prince Coren. They feel it will ground her, get her head out of her fantasies and make her a sensible woman. To that end they even plan to set a full brigade (4K-11K men) to think her solidly on the island she and Coren will make their future home, thus making escape impossible.
Angry, frightened, and confused Lenora escapes into somebody else’s world when making one of her own is impossible. Unfortunately, she also dragged the object of her distress with her. Coren, gangly redheaded and freckled, can’t even stand up without tripping over his feet. Could he be any more useless? It turns out he can – where’s his sense of adventure?
Rating: 4 Stars
Makes me want to check out the sequel More Minds
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Buy: Of Two Minds
Spoilers:
Pg193
“I’m not dreaming?” Lenora said. “How do I know that for sure?”
“Well,” Lufa smiled, “I suppose none of us really knows that. Perhaps this is all a dream, a fantasy we will wake out of.”
…
“And if all her imaginings could be real, then who was to say that her reality wasn’t somebody else’s dream?”
…
Surely something this real couldn’t be just somebody’s imagination. Could it?
Ah, but couldn’t it? Especially in light of her adventure with Coren. Is her story her own or the very imaginings of others?
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