Tuesday 27 August 2013

Last Chance Summer: A Short Story by Hope Ramsay.

I was provided with a free e-copy by netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I found this to be a very enjoyable read, a quick glimpse into the life of a single woman with a young son and a grandma who is slowly losing her mind.

Amanda is going to the county fair, taking her young son and her grandma. She lost her husband to the war and her grandfather died six months ago, now her grandma is slowly losing her mind and she is finding it hard to take care of them both.

Whilst at the fair, her grandma wanders off and then while she is searching for her, her son goes missing too.

I know the review doesn't sound like much but the book is well-written and the author has handled a very delicate subject extremely well. I'm definitely hooked and shall be looking for more of Hope Ramsay's books.

Monday 26 August 2013

A Bad Boy is Good to Find by Jennifer Lewis.

I received a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I'm in two minds about this book. The way that every thing is described is very detailed and brings the scenes to life. The characters, however, are another thing altogether.

The fact that Lizzie assumed everything about Conroy just shows how naive she is and how Conroy just let her believe it speaks volumes about a serious lack of trust. The fact that he thought he could marry her and not tell her about himself, just goes to show that he was only interested in one thing. He may say that he could marry her and make her happy but when the money is taken off the table, he quickly changes his mind.

When she does a runner, he tracks her down and tries to help her get back on her feet but she is only interested in making him pay for using her. She decides to get even and talks him into marrying her but only for show, or in this case, a tv show.

She decides to sell their story to a tv network that her cousin works for, getting them to foot the bill and also pay her $50,000. He agrees but doesn't realise that she's going to make him pay in the worst way. She insists that they go back to the small town on the Bayou where he grew up. Somewhere he hasn't been to since he ran away from at the age of 14.

What is supposed to be a show about their wedding soon turns into the Conroy Beale show as he finds out about his family and his past. The network decides to follow up on his story and Lizzie gets pushed to one side.

When I was reading this book my feelings towards the characters kept changing. I found them both to be both likable but also really annoying. They both needed a boot up the backside and a good shake at times. They both had their own agenda but if they had just been honest with each other, they would have been able to resolve their problems and avoid all the pain they put themselves through.

The rest of the characters are funny and the story is interesting but I don't know that I would buy this book if I was browsing in my local bookstore

Thursday 22 August 2013

Ice Games by Jessica Clare

I found this to be a well-written, funny and entertaining book. I didn't realize that it was part of a series but it made no difference. It definitely stands on its own.

Sparks fly when Ty and Zara meet on the show Ice Dancing With The Stars and not the good kind, at least not to begin with. He describes her as "a stick with a mouth". And no-one is interested in Zara as she's just a replacement skater, a has-been.

After she covers for him after he head-butted her and broke her nose, he agrees to buckle down and train hard. With the audience behind them they get through the first round but realize that the choreographer isn't going to help, they sack her and Zara does the choreography for their next dance.

As they get to know each other they see that they are alike as they both have screwed up in their careers and are using the show to get back into the public's good graces and hopefully win the show.

Zara soon starts to fall for Ty and as luck would have it, he seems to like her too. Both decide that nothing can happen while they are still in the show but when they get voted off that changes. The next morning Zara is told by the shows management that she is no longer needed and that a car will be sent to take her home. She can't bring herself to say goodbye to him, as she's falling for him so she just leaves.

Trying to get over Ty, she's back to teaching kids at the mall how to skate when she gets a call asking her to go back on the show for the finale. She agrees but says she will only go back for the last day, refusing to go back to train with Ty as she thinks it will be too painful.

When she gets there, Ty is angry with her and ends up making her cry. They eventually talk and both admit how they feel and we get a happy ending.

Both Ty and Zara are extremely likable and the story is very detailed, I could see and hear their skating routine in my head. The sex scenes were very detailed and graphic but not in a bad way. Some authors over-do the description in sex scenes but these were just graphic enough to be entertaining and not pornographic.

I will be looking for more books by Jessica in the future.

The Monsters in your Neighbourhood by Jesse Peterson.

I received a free e-copy of this book from the publisher with the condition that I post an honest review.
I found this to be a well-written, funny story.  The characters are extremely like-able and interesting.  The idea of monsters in group therapy is a brilliant concept.  The fact that the humans are more monstrous is also a stroke of genius.
Being hunted down by the Van Helsings' and having one of their own turned against them only makes them pull together, well eventually, after they get over the shock of it.
Led by Natalie, one of Frankenstein's creations and with the help of her boyfriend, Alex the Wolf Man, the monsters unite and together they stop the Van Helsings and Hyde from outing them to the public against their will.
They also have to do something about the chip's that some of them have had put in their heads without their knowledge.  (This part of the plot reminds me of The Initiative in Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer.)
This is a fun read and I shall certainly be looking for more of Jesse Peterson's work.

Wednesday 14 August 2013

Broken Angels by Harambee K. Grey-Sun

I received a free copy of this e-book from the publishers with the intention of giving an honest review.

What to say? I tried, several times, to read this book but I couldn't finish it. It was too convoluted and mixed up. I kept losing track of which characters were doing what and where they were. I kept having to back-track over and over again trying to understand what was going on.

I eventually gave up reading it as it kept giving me a headache. I will not be on the lookout for the next book.