Bitten & Smitten (Immortality Bites, Book 1) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is one of those books with a plucky heroine of the underdog sort nabs the powerful, sophisticated, and drop dead gorgeous hero. I like these sorts of stories if the heroine is sufficiently plucky that I really root for her - but Sarah never struck me as being particularly extraordinary. She's a college dropout secretary of unexceptional looks who is a self-described bubblehead. But she doesn't have, say, the breezy, irreverant boldness of (Undead and... series) Betsy Taylor - a character who manages to wear her faults with panache.
Nor is she really all that bold - she's just very insistent about going to the vampire club that the hero, Thierry, owns, and insisting that she be allowed to talk to him. Every night something happens that causes her to swear she will never return, and every night there she is, standing at the door demanding to see Thierry.
We are led to believe that she has some sort of conversion - that she realizes that she used to be an airhead and has changed her ways and will now approach life with more soul and thoughtfulness. But since the book's timespan is probably no more than a week, I wasn't really convinced.
Thierry is a good enough cold, in-control, bottled up, and uber powerful vampire master. That's kind of the problem. He seems intelligent, mature, and calm - I couldn't figure out why he was bowled over by plucky, which is to say whiny, Sarah Dearly. Not only that, for a good chunk of the novel he is fighting his attraction to her, which consists of being really, really convincingly not interested in her, and kind of contemptuous of her.
It was an entertaining enough read, but I was ultimately too frustrated with the heroine to really empathize with her.

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Endless Summer: The Boys Next Door; Endless Summer (Simon Romantic Comedies) Review

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(More customer reviews)Taken from my blog:
Endless Summer, the recent release from Jennifer Echols, is a perfect summer treat.
Packaged in this collection is a re-release of The Boys Next Door. Endless Summer is a continuation of that book, so it's a pleasure that they are together--with a beautiful cover!
I'm not going to give away too much about the plot of the book--because it is just SO GREAT. I can't really put it into words how much I adored Lori and Adam as a couple. Lori is the kind of girl who is laid back and has always been one of the boys. She's spent so many summers with Adam and his older brother, Sean--she's never really thought of Adam as a boy to date. He was just Adam. So when they collide into love, it's spectacular. The couple has a kind of chemistry everyone searches for and the kind of passion that propels you to keep turning the pages to see where they end up. You root for their relationship when it struggles, and you sigh at the parts that make your heart flutter!
If you're looking for a book to throw into your tote to take to the beach--this is perfect! It has the summer heat, the summer boys, and the summer love.


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In Love Off-Limits, Natalie has the perfect boyfriend, or so everyone thinks. But Natalie knows she wants more. When she discovers that more equals Matt, her boyfriend's best friend, Natalie finds herself in quite the dilemma.

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The Understudy: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm a fan of British humor and enjoy comic romances, so I had high hopes for this book. It comes up a little bit -- but a decisive bit -- short.
The book has a promising start, our hero, Stephen McQueen (with a ph), is a struggling actor whose specialty is playing dead bodies in television police dramas. That sounds like a funny starting point, right? Well, that's the high point. His subsequent struggles, both romantic and professional, are more pathetic than funny, and more boring than either. One after another the book sets up (admittedly with considerable skill) potentially funny or redeeming scenes--the party thrown by the star he is understudying, visits with his ex-wife, the star's wife, his daughter, his agent, acting jobs as a Squirrel, and so forth. Each time, the set up is unavailing--the humor is just short of funny and the positive change or transformative event in the hero's life so necessary to such a story falls just short of happening. The book and its ultimately unappealing hero just keep plodding along. Ultimately I felt like Charlie Brown, with the author playing Lucy--holding out the football of the conventions of a comic romance, then pulling them away at the last second. Spare yourself.

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Just the Sexiest Man Alive (Berkley Sensation) Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been a little leery of reading debut authors lately after one too many bad experiences, so I admit I did hesitate in picking up this book (even though I loved the cover and it kept drawing me back to it). Definitely a mistake on my part. Just the Sexiest Man Alive is one of the best debut novels I've read in a very long time! As a fan of virtually every sub-genre in romance, I found it surprisingly refreshing to have a light-hearted, sweet, romantic storyline without a vampire or serial killer in sight. Contemporary romance seems to be on a downward shift lately and authors are more frequently jumping onto the paranormal bandwagon (which I am a fan of, but every now and then you just want to pick up a nice boy-meets-girl story without a lot of subplots and angst involved).
This book follows a somewhat simple premise, but puts a unique spin on it. Yes, boy-meets-girl, boy-ticks-off-girl, hate at first sight ensues, but the difference being that girl is a very successful lawyer and boy is "The Sexiest Man Alive" (three times over) and the biggest name in Hollywood. An unbelievable plot told in a very believable way. When Taylor Donovan finds out she is supposed to "coach" Hollywood playboy Jason Andrews for his new upcoming legal thriller that he's scheduled to film, she's initially star struck. But after a no-show (twice) on his part, she's not impressed when he saunters into the courtroom two days late and a dollar short.
These two characters start their first scene off with a bang and the witty banter (especially during their first meeting) kept me turning the pages. There is sexual tension in nearly every scene - although actual consummation of said tension is very limited. I finished it in less than a day and actually found it hard to put down.
If you're looking for a light contemporary romance, this is definitely a book I would recommend. If her next book is as good as this one, I've found a new autobuy author!

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Misery Loves Cabernet Review

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(More customer reviews)Charlize aka Charlie Edwards works as a personal assistant to one of Hollywood's famous movie stars, Drew Stanton. It is not as easy and glamorous as one would think it would be working for a celebrity, especially when that person is Drew Stanton. Luckily for Charlie, she has her two best friends, Kate and Dawn by her side.
Just when Charlie begins to believe everything is going good for her, someone throws her a curve ball. First the guy she is seeing Jordan is offered a job in Paris. He will be gone for three months. Charlie doesn't think it will work between them doing the long distance relationship thing but she gives it a try anyways. Then her boss gets fired from the movie he is starring in...all due to an incident involving a hippo named Ida and a movie producer's swimming pool.
When Charlie spots her crush, Liam O'Connor, famous movie producer at a Halloween party, all bets are off between Jordan and her. Besides the statistics involving couples and long term relationships are not very good.
Misery Loves Cabernet is a fabulous, wonderful, witty and charming book.I absolutely loved Charlie and all her friends. Charlie and her friends need to have their own television series. I would definitely watch it.
I couldn't put this book down, in fact this book is a one-sitter! When you meet all the people that Charlie has to put up with, it makes her seem normal and everyone else dysfunctional. There are so many favorite moments for me in this book. One of the best had to be towards the very end when Charlie's grandparents arrived in their Winnebago to spend Thanksgiving with the family. Charlie's grandmother presented everyone with a list of items that had everything from Yogi Berra to baseball strikes on it. The list involved things that no one can mention during the holiday season.
For other great moments like these, you have got to pick up a copy of Misery Loves Cabernet today.

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