Sunday Book Share #17

I'm participating in Feed My Reader Friday hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer,  The Sunday Post, hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer, and Stacking the Shelves, hosted by Tynga's Reviews. The  memes allow book bloggers the chance to share print and digital books they've received and different posts and events at their blog.

So, as it turns out, I did not drive down to my parents house for Christmas. My asthma, which has been mild this fall, decided to flare up. I've spent the past week curled up on the couch, coughing, sneezing and sucking on my nebulizer. The plus to this has been I've done lots of reading and that led to lots of reviews, both here and on goodreads (I put up about another half dozen or so on there).

Reviews:  Amityville Horrible by Kelley Armstrong

Origin by Jessica Khoury

Mistletoe Mischief by Stacey Joy Netzel

Cathedral Windows by Clare O'Donohue

Dick Francis's Bloodline by Felix Francis

Bah, Humbug! A Romantic Christmas Novella by Heather Horricks

Collared by L.A. Kornetsky

Holiday Sparks by Taryn Elliott

News/Info:  Merry Christmas!

Memes:  Sunday Book Share #16   Dusty Reads Link Up

BOOKS

Review - Print

I'll be doing a giveaway of the first two books in this series sometime in January.

Won - ePub

I won this from the author in a Twitter giveaway.

Bought - Kindle & Print

Yes, I indulged and bought both the ebook and the print editions. Kelley is one of my fave authors so it was a no-brainer.

Kindle Freebies

I also received three Amazon gift cards from the kids and families at school. So far, I only bought the Kindle version of Forbidden. 

I hope you all had a good Christmas or a good day, whichever is relevant, and Happy New Year!

Don't forget to leave a link to your post so I can stop by and comment.

Review of Holiday Sparks by Taryn Elliott

Publisher: Ellora's Cave
Format Read: Kindle
Release Date: December 20, 2012
Buying Links:  Amazon   Ellora's Cave   AllRomance

Book Blurb (from goodreads): 

Darcy Tucker hates Christmas. Being lead supervisor at a department store shows her the very worst of humanity. When her holiday display is demolished, she turns to the least likely person she knows—her hot, tattooed tenant who seems to get off on the very idea of Christmas. Maybe she can get him to decorate the store and stop decorating her house.

Tattoo artist Ben Hartley may not look the part, but Christmas is his favorite holiday. When Darcy gets in a jam and reveals her vulnerable side, he finally gets to learn more about the sexy woman behind the cool façade.
 
Thrown in close quarters to fix her store, Ben and Darcy realize the only chilly thing between them is the temperature outside. One supremely hot kiss leads to a night full of passionate surprises. Now Ben has to show her that there’s more to life than work, and that the season of hope is full of sexy possibilities with or without a Christmas tree.
 
Reviewed By: Bea

Bea's Thoughts:

I don't hate Christmas but I spent 2/3 of my life working in retail, either part-time or full-time, and I can empathize with Darcy. Working in retail definitely kills some of the Christmas joy. I've enjoyed Christmas more since leaving retail. Ben was also relatable. While I don't have tattoos myself, many of my friends do, so I enjoyed getting an inside peek at how and what a tattoo artist does.

Darcy and Ben make for a nice couple. They have misunderstandings and emotional issues to work through and feel very real, like the couple next door. The storyline with Ben's brother was predictable and the resolution anticlimactic. I also didn't think it was necessary, as Darcy had enough emotional issues to drive the story; but, the incident with Ben's brother is what brings them together.

There's a sweet and steamy kissing scene between Ben and Darcy at the store when they're decorating the new tree. Elliott hit it spot on and it nicely defines both of them. Elliott's experience with graphic design really shows in this book as she exquisitely describes certain scenes; she's a very visual author. I often have a hard time visualizing things, whether it's a new furniture arrangement or a scene in a book, so I appreciate this quality. This is a sweet romance with some steamy love scenes and is an enjoyable read. 

A couple favorite quotes:

Salaried in retail was tantamount to slave labor.

"What? You think the bedding department hasn't been violated six ways to Sunday? Please."

I received this from the author for review.

 

If you like how the book sounds, go here to enter to win a copy.

Review of Collared by L.A. Kornetsky

Publisher: Gallery Books
Series: Gin & Tonic #1
Format Read: Trade Paperback
Release Date: November 13, 2012
Buying Links:  Amazon  Barnes & Noble  The Book Depository

Book Blurb (from goodreads)

They rely on animal instincts…

Meet “Gin” and “Tonic.” She’s a dog person. He’s a cat person. But when these two friendly rivals team up to solve a mystery, you can bet their pets aren’t the only ones getting collared…

Ginny Mallard and her shar-pei, Georgie, are about to run out of kibble and cash, unless she digs up another client for her private concierge business. So she heads to her neighborhood Seattle bar, Mary’s, to sniff out an opportunity. Or a gimlet or two. The bartender, Teddy Tonica, is usually good for a round of challenging banter, and Georgie is oddly fond of his bar cat, Mistress Penny.

Before she can say “bottoms up,” Ginny lands a job tracking down some important business papers that have gone missing—along with the customer’s uncle. If Ginny hopes to track him down, she’ll need more than her research skills: she’ll need a partner with people skills—like Tonica.

This is one dangerous case that’s about to go to the dogs—unless man, woman, cat, and canine can work together as one very unconventional crime-solving team.

Quote:

Ginny was good at making lists. That was what she had done when she went home last night: put together the list of people she thought might be useful, adding and subtracting based on nothing more than gut instinct. She'd ended up with five people, and a sense of satisfaction in a job well done.

And then, at three in the morning, with Georgie snoring at the end of the bed, it had hit her, waking her up with one of those unsettling stomach-turning epiphanies. She had been treating it like just another job-meet the client's needs, rearrange the world so that they are not inconvenienced or delayed. Only this wasn't a party, or a vacation, or even ferrying people to and from the hospital, which she'd done once for an elderly woman facing surgery. This was someone's life she was trying to manage. More than manage-potentially undercut. And it was the life of someone who was neither her client nor an underage dependent of her client. Someone who might have very good reasons to not want to be found.

Reviewed By: Bea

Bea's Thoughts:

L.A. Kornetsky is an alias for Laura Anne Gilman, who writes urban fantasies and under the name of Anna Leonard writes paranormal romances. I love her urban fantasies and I love mysteries so I was excited to hear about this book and have been waiting for it impatiently.

The cover makes it look like a cozy mystery but it's not nor is it cutesy. The latter was a possibility given the addition of the animals as part of the investigative team. Kornetsky plays it straight, not endowing the animals with human characteristics or special powers.

The relationship between the main humans, Ginny "Gin" Mallard and Teddy "Tonic" Tonica is complicated and until now, casual. She plays on a trivia team in the trivia competitions at the bar where Teddy works. When she takes on a job looking for a missing person, which is really stretching her role as a personal concierge, she enlists Teddy to help her, knowing that his people skills are better than hers.

The story is tightly written, the characterization deft and skillful and the story intriguing. Having read her urban fantasies, which all contain mysteries as part of their plots, I had no doubt of Kornetsky's ability to write a straight-up mystery and she didn't disappoint. I got tired at times of the constant sniping Teddy and Ginny engage in and I also questioned Teddy's willingness to help Ginny. Yes, she appealed to his competitive side but it seemed unlikely. Despite those issues, I enjoyed the story and I'll definitely read the next one.

I borrowed this from my local library.

Review of Bah, Humbug! A Romantic Comedy Novella by Heather Horrocks

Publisher: Word Garden Press
Format Read: Kindle
Release Date: November 9, 2011
Buying Links:  Amazon   Barnes & Noble 

Book Blurb (from goodreads):

Lexi Anderson is an up-and-coming, Martha Stewart-type TV hostess whose two kids love the Jared Strong adventure novels, which happen to be written by their new neighbor, Kyle Miller. For the first time in his writing career, Kyle has writer’s block--until he sees the snowman on his lawn and realizes it’s the perfect solution to his plot problem. He digs in and discovers two things: one, his villain’s weapon will fit inside a snowman's body, and two, this particular snowman was supposed to be the backdrop for Lexi’s next show. From this improbable beginning comes friendship, but can there be a happy ending for a woman who is afraid to get close again and a man who has shadows from his childhood? Families join together and hearts are healed as this couple goes walking in a winter wonderland.

Reviewed By: Bea

Bea's Thoughts:

Do you like marshmallows? Looking for a easy read where you can let go of reality and float along? Give this story a read. If you're in a critical mood, pick another book. :D

That seems harsh, I know. It's a cute, sweet fluffy tale of a whirlwind romance that has little to no tension and what tension there is seemed unrealistic. The heroine's children get along perfectly, they behave all the time (despite a huge upheaval in their lives), there's a predictable, by-the-numbers misunderstanding between the hero and heroine at the beginning, and in within a week, they meet, fall in love and get engaged. I just didn't find it realistic. 

The hero doesn't like Christmas, for understandable reasons, but it's both convenient and manipulative. (Without going into spoilers, my family and I have had the same sort of event occur at two different holidays. I resent an author so blatantly manipulating my feelings instead of putting time and effort into story and character development.)


Huh, the more I write, the less I like the story. As I read it, I rolled my eyes a lot and was critical but I also laughed and teared up. "Bah, Humbug!" is a quick read, cute and sugary sweet. If you want depth and believability, this isn't the book for you. Also, for a story of this length, there were too many typos and copy editing errors. I know, one or two are almost inevitable, but the proofing seemed rushed on this one.

I own this ebook.

Review of Dick Francis's Bloodline by Felix Francis

Publisher: Putnam
Format Read: Hardcover
Release Date: October 2nd
Buying Links:  Amazon   Barnes & Noble   The Book Depository

Book Blurb (from goodreads):

When race caller and television presenter Mark Shillingford calls a race in which his twin sister, Clare, an accomplished and successful jockey, comes in second when she could have won, he believes the worst: that she lost on purpose, and the race was fixed. That night, Mark confronts Clare with his suspicions, she storms off after an argument—and it’s the last time Mark sees her alive. Hours later, Clare jumps to her death from the balcony of a London hotel . . . or so it seems.

Devastated and guilty over her death, Mark goes in search of answers. What had led Clare to take her own life? Or was it not suicide at all?

Quote:

"She didn't say good-bye," he said suddenly. "Clare. She never said good-bye to me." "Dad, she was hardly likely to ring you up to say good-bye before she killed herself." "No, not that," he said, now openly crying. "I mean, she never said good-bye to me when she left here that evening. We had argued. We always seem to, these days. I can't even remember what it was about. Something about the house, or the garden. She kept telling me I was getting too old to look after it. Anyway, it doesn't matter what we argued about-suffice to say, we did. And I told her that she was an insufferable spoiled brat who should know better than to speak to her parent like that." I could imagine the exchange. I'd had them myself with the old git. "She just walked out without another word," he said miserably. "She didn't even say good-bye to your mother. I followed her outside, telling her not to be so bloody stupid, but she didn't reply. She didn't even look at me. She got in her car and drove away without a backward glance." He sobbed again. "I feel so guilty." Join the club, I thought.

Reviewed By: Bea


Bea's Thoughts:


I grew up reading Dick Francis's books, they were favorites of both my mom and dad, and I gobbled them up and continued to gobble them over the years. He went through a slump or two but always pulled out of them. When Dick and his son Felix started writing together, the books were okay but not great. Now Felix has taken over, writing the same style of racing mysteries that his father did. To be honest, I'd like to see him move away from his father's franchise and write his own material; I think he could be interesting on his own.

At the start of the book, it seemed as if he was trying too hard to channel his father but slowly the story smoothed out and I got caught up in it. Felix stayed true to his father's formula, there's little that's original. There are a few differences: his women characters aren't as strong and he killed off someone I didn't expect and that I think his father wouldn't have. But otherwise it's a tried and true Francis story.

I didn't find Mark's career to be all that fascinating but then the few times I watch a sports game on TV, I often hit the mute button. Mark himself is interesting and matures as the story progresses; like most Francis heroes he's a bit emotionally stunted at the start of the story. His parents felt a bit stereotyped and I would have liked more actual horse time. The blackmail twist was a good one, very clever. I figured out who blackmailer #1 was early on but not blackmailer #2. As for his sister's death, there were some surprise elements there, including the reason for her death. The killer was a complete surprise and not in a good way but more like Francis himself wasn't sure who the killer was and randomly picked a character. Francis did tie the killer into another element of the story (and it made me go "eeeeew") but I do wish that there's been some hint, some buildup, to the killer's identity.

It's not bad, it's a decent story and one I enjoyed after the rough start. I admit, I still miss Dick Francis.

I borrowed this book from my local library.

Review of Cathedral Windows by Clare O'Donohue

Publisher: Plume
Series: Someday Quilts Mysteries #4.5
Format Read: eGalley
Release Date: November 13, 2012
Buying Links:  Amazon   Barnes & Noble   OmniLit

Book Blurb (from goodreads):

Christmas is just around the corner in the Hudson Valley. Nell and her friends at the Someday Quilts shop should be making eggnog and finishing up the stitching on their last homemade gifts, but when an arsonist strikes and a beloved teacher becomes a suspect, the ladies rally behind him to clear his good name. Will they succeed in time for him to spend Christmas among loved ones or will this be a chilly winter for the town of Archers Rest?

Quote:

There was no answer from Charlie, none that I could hear anyway, and despite every instinct to interfere, as well as a reputation for being the town's Nancy Drew, it wasn't my business. 

Reviewed By: Bea

Bea's Thoughts:

I had no trouble reading this story as a stand-alone despite it's being the fifth entry in the series and is a good introduction. It was quick, sweet and tugged all of the heart-strings.

"Cathedral Windows" is a quilting pattern and all that Charlie, a beloved teacher, has left when his house burns down. Although a hometown boy, he was away for awhile serving overseas in Afghanistan. He returns home, the last of his family, and different from the boy the town knew. He has trouble fitting back in and when he becomes the suspect in his house fire, the town is prepared to believe in his guilt. Nell isn't so sure and she sets out trying to help him.

The story is tightly written, without any wasted details. I did guess who the arsonist was but not until almost the end of the story. Things get sugary-sweet as Nell rouses support for Charlie but then, it is a Christmas story. O'Donohue does a nice job with characterization given the length constraints and the story never feels rushed. Overall, I liked it but didn't love it. I might get some of other books from the library but I'm not in a rush. I gave the story 3 stars on goodreads.

I received an eGalley from the publisher for review.

Review of Mistletoe Mischief by Stacey Joy Netzel

Publisher: Stacey Joy Netzel
Series: Romancing Wisconsin #1
Format Read: Kindle
Release Date: September 14, 2012
Buying Links:  Amazon  AllRomance  Barnes & Noble

Book Blurb (from goodreads):

Christmas in July at the zoo is the last place single parents Eric Riley and Marissa Wilder expect to find love. Thanks to some mistletoe mischief in the form of their two young daughters and Santa, they discover mistletoe rules were not made to be broken.

Reviewed By: Bea

Bea's Thoughts:

This was a cute little short story about two divorced parents who meet via their daughters and are instantly attracted to each other. Misunderstandings rapidly ensue, which last more than halfway through the story. It's not my favorite trope but Netzel manages it well. All of the characters are enjoyable and the story moves along quickly. Too quickly for me, I didn't like how fast things went and I'd have liked the story better without the epilogue. The story doesn't actually occur in December; the outing where Eric and Marissa meet has a July in December theme. It's a cute story, no real conflict despite the misunderstandings but it's a short, sweet read that won't make your teeth ache.

I own this ebook.

Merry Christmas!

May you have a peaceful day filled with the people and things that you love.