This is the first book in the Once a Marine series. I don’t know if it is the whole alpha thing that military men have going on or what it might be. But I have a big ol’ soft spot for these books where retired soldiers who knew untold grief and devastating trauma find some happy-happy. And that whole middle age crap that I have going on added to the not having any kids of my own–makes me love these books where people are pregnant or have hidden babies like the book equivalent of candy.
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Makin’ the Love Monday – Saved by Venom by Lolita Lopez
I feel really lucky at times. For instance when I am at Target and the parking lot gods bless me with a parking spot under one of the trees so my black car with it’s black interior doesn’t become 150 degrees fahrenheit in the SoCal heat. That makes me feel pretty awesome. Or when I get on a plane and the person next me is a female. I have a super duper male species type neurosis and having to sit next to a strange male person can give me an anxiety attack. So female flight companions… blessed by higher beings. Or when Laura the Ellora’s Cave book review representative sent me the email for Lolita Lopez’s third Grabbed book, Saved by Venom, that there was like winning the book lottery for the week. That made me feel really, really lucky.
Book Boyfriend Report – Picture Perfect by Alessandra Thomas
There is nothing like a good book boyfriend after a long stressful weekend that leaves you sick, sore and sorry that your bounce back ability isn’t what it used to be. I feel every day of my age right now and I need a hunky hero to swoon over to self medicate with and Nate West is this week’s best of the best.
Alessandra Thomas’s first book in her Picturing Perfect series, Picture Perfect, deals with the touchy subject of body image and body dysmorphic disorder. Cat Mitchell was sexy, skinny and modelled clothes that made her feel beautiful before an accident eight months earlier left her with such a severely broken leg that even with surgery and physical therapy made it impossible for her to get back the body she had always known. Having gained sixty pounds and four sizes she feels like a stranger in her new body, her confidence is tanked and humiliated by how she feels she is now seen in the eyes of others, she doesn’t want to be seen by anyone–much worse, look at herself. Enter childhood summer camp pal and former chubby sixth grade seven minutes in heaven kiss mate, Nate West.
Makin’ the Love Monday – Toxic by Belinda McBride
November means it is NaNoWriMo time of year again and I have made my account and I have begun writing and I have nearly 12K words written on my story. It would be more but I haven’t had a chance to work on it since past Wednesday but I consider that a good start. I had a cray cray weekend with a kpop concert with one of my favorite idol bands, Infinite. (Dongwoo is a sexy beast and my heart beats a very pop song like throb for Sungyeol) Then visiting with friends who came to SoCal from points yonder. Even though I am a socially inept and broken spend-time-outside-of-the-house-type-person, I enjoyed every awkward moment. So as I am writing this, and this is Sunday evening, I am tired, sick and sore.
My bangin’ the boots book for this week is Truckee Wolves: Toxic by Belinda McBride, plug in the yadda, yadda about NetGalley letting me review this book for my kickin’ awesome opinion and rockin’ flair for words. Belinda McBride impressed me with this book. I had never read any of her titles before and I really enjoyed the way she took the step out of the box and let you know immediately that she wasn’t going to play the safe game and color within all the lines. I like authors who push the envelope and take that risk to give you a taste of the alternative lifestyles that not many other writers out there have had or would think to entertain at a buffet. I like tasting exotic dishes. It makes dishy things more dishy and what makes dirty dishes more dishy than making meals out of things that aren’t on the same menu your momma would get?
Book Boyfriend Report – Propositioning Mr. Raine by Laurann Dohner
The first Laurann Dohner book I read was Mate Set and I did not like it. I actually thought it was flat out bad. Mika was pretty much a box of rocks kind of smartness in my opinion and Grady I just plan did not like.
But I had heard so many really good things that when I picked up Fury and I didn’t really have any of that darkness coloring my opinion and thankfully my disappointment for Mate Set was put aside while I dug in and devoured her New Species, Cyborg Seduction and Zorn Warrior books. Oddly, I had a weird hang up about her Riding the Raines series and there was no good reason for it. On a whim the other night I was on a .99 Amazon book crawl and I wanted to see if the pre-order on True was available yet and I just decided to buy and read Propositioning Mr. Raine. Laurann, honey… Brass who? I want me a Raine man.
Any Day that Ends in YA – Streaks of Blue by Jack Chaucer
I read a good part of Streaks of Blue but I was having such a hard time reading it and I felt horrible because Mr. Chaucer had contacted me to give me a code to use to get the book at a later time if I missed getting it from NetGalley. I wanted very badly to read the whole thing just out of respect for him. But I just found myself putting the book down and not picking it up again and finding myself looking for other things to read.
Why?
Any Day that Ends in YA – Change For Me by Lynn Red
I’ve been really struggling through reading YA lately. I’m actually in the middle of reading about 5 or 6 books at the moment and I read a little of them and then put them aside to read something else. I don’t know what it’s about. I’ve just been really having a hard time with it. The only author whose books I’ve been finishing are Ella James’s. I love her Stained series and Here trilogy books and I’ve been knocking them back like they are candy. But everything else is been like trying to eat green beans and celery. Blech.
But this week I have Change for Me by Lynn Red as my Any Day that Ends in YA. This book was a little different than what I had expected. I really loved J.A. Redmerski’s Darkwoods Trilogy and I think that as far as shifter books that might be my ideal teen shifter book. This book is NOTHING like that. As a matter of fact, it’s not like any shifter book I have read before. I found it refreshing–yet troubling.
Makin’ the Love Monday – 3AM Kisses by Addison Moore
This Makin’ the Love Monday comes to you by the number 0 and the letter POOP. I have had the world’s worst week. My car broke down. I had a migraine. I had some sort of stomach somethin’ somethin’. I had oral surgery. I got an ear infection from that oral surgery. I did something bad and karma is kicking my butt. The only mercy God is giving me is he is making the kitties curl up with me and letting me use Ree Ree as a 6lb blanket. She basically covers my knee-cap. But during this craptastic week I’ve managed to get some reading done. Thank the heavens something good came out of smelly pirate lighted cars and pulled teeth.
Morning Tea with the Author – Cecilia Robert
Cecilia Robert has already had success with her young adult paranormal Soul Collector series debut, Reaper’s Novice in 2011 and then a contemporary romance, Truly, Madly, Deeply, You this past year and is getting ready to find her home in yet one more genre with Homecoming, a steampunk cum paranormal adult romance. I had an incredible opportunity to ask her a couple questions, which she then indulged me to ask a lot more. This was a great chat and I think I picked her brain to the point where I could probably write parts of her first Cloaked Devices book now. =)
Thanks so much, Cecilia!
Tongue Wagger – Homecoming by Cecilia Robert
Have you ever seen a book cover and thought? Oooo this book is sex on wheels? Well probably not quite sex on wheels because I mean it’s a book so clearly it’s not “on wheels”. But I mean if you aren’t taking me by letter of that statement I think you get my meaning when you see the most beautiful cover of Cecilia Robert’s cover for Homecoming. This is one of the books I got from NetGalley and I saw the cover of this title and I hit the request button before I even read the synopsis for the story. It was love at first sight and thankfully the book didn’t disappoint.