52 Books in 52 Weeks – May (running late)

Wow, this is really, really late and I am so sorry you guys! It’s not that I haven’t been reading, it is just that with so much other stuff going on I haven’t had time to sit down and get my thoughts together about what I read. So here comes May’s list… give me a little while to get June together 🙂

I should warn you that there are SPOILERS in the following because one of the books I did not enjoy and the only way to explain it properly was to “spoil” it.

27. The Adultery Club – Tess Stimson

Let me start by saying that it was probably stupid of me to pick this book. To me adultery is a no, no. If you are having serious feelings for someone other than the person you are married to then there is something in your marriage that needs addressing… before you start an affair… not after. But, I am doing this whole, ‘try something new’ thing so I picked it.

Here’s the basic blurb… Husband is a divorce lawyer who is happily married to Mal and loves their little family (young children), he would never do to his wife what his clients do to their other halves. Then a 20-something woman comes to work in his office, apparently she is okay looking, but he turns into a 17 year old hormonal freak whenever he catches a glimpse of her knee (I mean come on you guys, seriously? A knee? I can honestly say I have NEVER been turned on by a persons knee, but whatever, different strokes and all…). The story is told from 3 peoples points of view, Hubby, Wifey and Mistress, pretty much the only likable characters in this for me where the wife Mal and her ex boyfriend. I just wanted to smack Hubby and the mistress around so much!

The mistress at the beginning seems like a normal chick, then she becomes the mistress and it is like she is replaced with this braindead clingy, whingy thing that kind of looks like the character at the beginning of the book. She tells lies, she does some serious manipulating, I mean, she pretty much does everything a person should not be doing in a relationship!

I think the biggest kicker for me is that I don’t think that the husband learned from his mistakes, I found the end very unsatisfying. I won’t say too much in case you guys want to read it and like I said I am really against adultery so I am likely biased, but this was definitely not a book for me.

28. Renegade – Diana Palmer

Yup it’s a harlequin book hahaha. I knew it was a romance novel, but didn’t realise it was harlequin at first. Besides it is a best seller 🙂

I actually enjoyed this book, it was a nice, light reading story. I wasn’t too into the name ‘Tippy’ at first, but she grew on me in general. Since reading this book I have discovered there was actually one before it which probably explains a few things, but it was okay as a stand alone also.

I liked the character of Cash, usually the males in romances are over bearing macho types that have big barriers up that the women slowly overcome, this book wasn’t like that which is a nice change. Although the first time they sleep together he asks for something which is really odd and I am pretty sure no man has ever said that the first time they had sex with someone. It was a nice book and I would probably read the first one.

 

29. The Recipe Box – Sandra Lee

I thought this book was a totally sweet and moving story. I don’t know why, but I always love when people find creating through food therapeutic, maybe because I find cooking and experimenting with food therapeutic… who knows 🙂 I am also a sucker for stories where people visit, move to or really have anything to do with small towns hahaha.

Grace (our main character) is newly divorced Mum who has a daughter who is having some issues, her best friend has been fighting cancer and she has been regularly visiting her at her old hometown. Due to a number of events Grace desides to take her daughter there to finish out school. They move in with her mother with whom she has a strained relationship.

I don’t want to say too much because I did really like this book and apparently it was the author’s first so kudos to you 🙂

What can I say? Drama, cooking, good food, family, love… I’m all in 🙂

30. Immortally Yours (Monster M*A*S*H #1) – Angie Fox
Well I read the second one and kinda liked it so I figured I would go back and read the first one. I liked this one too and the second one in many ways made SO much more sense to me after reading this. But in some ways reading this first book made me not like the second one. For starters the relationship in this one is good, I really like both the characters and how they develop and how their relationship develops. So it kind of felt like the relationship in this book was cheapened by the fact that in the second one she moves on (…or is it backwards? Crap, I don’t know) so quickly.

Generally speaking the story was pretty decent, although I enjoyed the plot in the second book more. Again the sex scenes were pretty RAUNCHY so I guess points for that hahaha.

All round it was an okay book, I don’t know why I am so on the fence about it to be honest.

 

 

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52 Books in 52 Weeks – April – Volume 2

I did warn you there would be a volume 2 for April… didn’t you believe me? hahaha.

So where were we? 21? Okay, here we go…

22. Storm Siren: Book 1 Storm Siren trilogy – Mary Weber

Well this damn book was a dark horse. I picked this up because my trusty YA Librarian friend at work gave it a good star rating on Goodreads and she knows her stuff. So I figured it would be good.

This book is a bit of an enigma – I want to liken it to The Hunger Games. Why? Because from the main characters point of view it is absolutely a YA book, but the content and themes and some of the wrongness that occurs in this book feels decidedly adult. Kinda like how Hunger Games is a coming of age story, but with children being forced to murder each other for the sport of adults J I hope this makes sense.

In the beginning of the story the female protagonist is really very young emotionally, but in some ways she is completely adult because of the horrendous things that have happened in her life. She is a slave guys and she has had a seriously hard life. I did find the weirdness of the hot and cold love interest quite strange until the reason for that was made quite clear in the last third of the book.

The battle was pretty epic and the author was not afraid to kill off beloved characters. I was right there with this book until the freaking last few pages. I finished reading this book, put it down and went, “what the actual fuck?!” There is a HUGE twist in the last chapter you guys, it is a completely series altering twist! I don’t know where the author is going from here, but it is apparently part of a trilogy

23. Life in Outer Space – Melissa Keil

I totally picked this book up for the cover art. I was really pleasantly surprised by this book, I really enjoyed it. I would describe this as a coming of age novel from a boys POV and I felt that the reactions he had in the story were really natural. I really liked the realism that came through and how raw his emotions were at times.

The only problem I had with the book was the adults to be honest. Basically the parents in this film are not great at being parents, they love their kids yes, but don’t seem to have any idea of how to relate to them or understand them and some times I am not even sure they have put in any effort too.

I also LOVED all of the little geeky references, because let’s face it, I am a bit of a nerd and it was awesome to read this book and totally understand pretty much everything they were on about. 🙂 So good!

24. Geist: Volume 1: Book of the Order – Philippa Ballantine

Yay for a New Zealand author, I do have a special place in my heart for Australian and New Zealand authors… well as long as they are good hahaha.

This book kind of snuck up on me, I started reading it and whilst I was certainly interested in the story I didn’t tear through it. I think that was more to do with the fact that I have read a LOT this month and my brain needed a break. After having a break I certainly did rip through it and I really enjoyed it! Apart from the fact I needed a break I think that I struggled with the first couple of chapters because the main character wasn’t really invested in what was going on in the world during that time and so I guess that was written well because it made me feel the same way. After that it was all hands on deck. I really liked that there was a lot of depth to both the main and peripheral characters, the female protagonist Sorcha is a really interesting character. She is all hard edges and barbs which (let’s be honest) is hard to relate too and the people that would relate to it probably aren’t reading books J and the thing is that it is not a façade. She is a hardened woman and the story takes us through how she became that way even as she is evolving. It is interesting to have a main character who is completely developed, she is still relatively young, but has been through so much in their life that IRL that is where her personality would be finished developing.

The world building in this book is really good, I found I was able to draw places in my mind as I was reading about them which is always cool. I was concerned at first that the idea of Abbots and Orders and Deacons was going to be really religious, but it totally wasn’t. The Order is more like a version of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters than an actual abbey. Also… the cover art is freaking amazing!

I get that I have made parts of the book sound harsh here, I didn’t really mean to. Seriously the book was really good and I was impressed with a lot of it. The relationships are really complex and I can’t wait for the sequel.

25. Spectyr: Volume 2: Book of the Order – Philippa Ballantine

Told you I couldn’t wait for the sequel. In this sequel we really explore the strengths and limits of the bond and how it works. Whilst an Active and a Sensitive have a symbiotic relationship and otherwise are a perfect professional match – kind of like salt and pepper, they are also individuals and as individuals they are not helpless.

I liked the Rossin in the first book and I have to say that he is really developed in this second book and I love the ongoing struggle between he and Raed. I can’t wait to see where that relationship goes moving forward. You learnt SO much more about Merrick in this book, in fact I kind of felt like this was his book, his story which just goes to show that it is not Sorcha running the plots and that their partnership is truly equal. The world building was even better in this book and huge props to the cover artist because that is one awesome cover.

It does leave you with a bitch of a cliff hanger which really sucks because I don’t have access to the third book yet!

26. Immortally Embraced (Monster M*A*S*H #2) – Angie Fox 
I was kind of sceptical about this book to be honest. I mean look at that cover… what could the book possibly be about??? The quote on the front was “Sexy, sassy and sinfully funny” So I really was not expecting much.

It was okay, I mean I figured out a bit into it was it was actually book 2, I hate when that happens, but the story worked as a stand alone anyway because it spoke about the past a lot. The library has the earlier one so I am thinking about looking at it, but am not sure.

Everything felt okay with this film, there were some good relationships, I LOVED the Medusa storyline and character. For the most part I liked the God characters. The ending was weird for me, all the book they talked about fate and prophecies blah, blah, blah, but from what I could tell the ending would have occured whether or not the protagonist was trying to stop it. If she had not been in the story, the situation would have never occured in the first place, but she didn’t have a huge role to play after creating the situation. What? Hmm. 2 stars for some awesome side characters and a couple of HAWT sex scenes.