"A Tale of Two Dragons" By: G.A. Aiken Review

A Tale of Two Dragons

By: G.A. Aiken

Synopsis

Braith of the Darkness likes going through life unnoticed. Not an easy task for a She-dragon of royal descent. But the evil plots of her father are turning her quiet, boring life upside down, and she has now become the enemy of the most vicious queen her kind has ever known. But for once, Braith won't have to fight alone. Not when the warrior dragon of her dreams is willing to risk everything to save her neck.

Addolgar the Cheerful wishes he could say he’s helping the pretty royal strictly for honorable reasons - but he'd be lying. It’s not his fault, though! He didn't tell Braith of the Darkness to have the most delicious tail he’s ever seen! Yet before Addolgar can get his very strong claws on that tail, heads are going to roll. Just hopefully not theirs…

My Thoughts

      Ugh. I’ve been a fan of G.A. Aiken since her first dragon book, but they have steadily been going downhill and I’ve had my fill. What began as a humorous and romantic series has turned into just a cluster of unfunny, uninteresting characters in unappealing situations.

     I’m not even going to go into what the story is about because I don’t care. I literally didn’t like the characters, and previous characters that I had fallen in love with are just dumb now...which is heartbreaking. The story was asinine, not making sense half the time and the romance was pretty much nonexistent. The characters were more interested in being slapstick than actually having a story, which broke my heart.

    I can’t believe this story was actually approved and I’m sad that such a promising series has failed so sadly. G.A. Aiken used to be one of those authors I recommended to people who enjoyed a great paranormal romance or a little humor but no longer.

    

Dragon Kin Series

1. Dragon Actually
2. "Chains & Flames" from Dragon Actually
3. About a Dragon
4. "Can't Get Enough" from Everlasting Bad Boys
5. What a Dragon Should Know
6. Last Dragon Standing
7. "Dragon On Top" from Supernatural
8. The Dragon Who Loved Me

Book Details

Publisher: Zebra Publishing

Date of Publication: November 5, 2013

ISBN: 978-1420133530

# of Pages:

Source: Personal Purchase

"Where I Need to Be" By: Kimberly Knight Review

Where I Need to Be

By: Kimberly Knight

Synopsis from Goodreads

Spencer Marshall was done moping. After catching her boyfriend cheating with his secretary, she decides to have a girl's weekend in Vegas with her best friend Ryan. Lady Luck must be looking out for Spencer, because that weekend will change her life forever. Despite what people say, not everything stays in Vegas.

My Thoughts
    I’m counting this book for my challenges even though it turned out to be a DNF for me. I read almost to the end, but I didn’t care at all how it ended, so I pretty much had to quit. Life’s too short to read a bad book!
    Spencer starts out the story mad that her boyfriend because she caught him cheating. In the mean time, she’s been eyeing a boy at her gym. On a weekend to Vegas with her friend, she sees the boy from the gym and randomly starts dancing with him at a club. The next day at a casino she introduces herself to him and suddenly, they decide to become an item.
     Ugh, where do I begin? First off, Spencer was so stinkin’ self-absorbed and just weird that I never liked her as a character. Never. Then she randomly takes this trip to Vegas and starts grinding on this random guy she doesn’t know, but hey, she’s winked a time or two at him at the gym. Weirdo...then the sudden intense attraction left me with a bad taste in my mouth. The random guy is totally self absorbed as well and then there is baby mama drama later in the story. Just a little too much for me, to be honest. I don't even remember the hero's name, that's how little I cared.
    I think with different characters I might have liked this story better, but I disliked both the hero and the heroine so much that I simply quit reading. I didn’t care what happened to them, at all, so Where I Need to Be has officially become the first DNF of my year!

Book Details

Publisher: Author Self Published

# of Pages: 134

Date of Publication: December 13, 2012

ISBN: 2940015762495

Souce: Personal Purchase

Challenges
#13 for the 2013 E-Book Challenge
#12 for the 2013 Contemporary Romance Reading Challenge
#13 for the 2013 Women's Reading Challenge
#13 for the 100 Books in a Year Challenge
#13 for the 150+ Books in a Year Challenge
#12 for the 2013 Where are You Reading Challenge {San Francisco, CA}

"Defying Destiny" By: Olivia Downing Review

"Defying Destiny"

By: Olivia Downing

Synopsis from Goodreads:

     She is a Huntress, the last of a long line of warriors who protect the human world from man-eating immortal Wolves. 

     He is a Wolf Guardian, the only of his shape-shifting kind who can break the 500-year old curse that drives his brethren mad beneath the full moon. 

     Blinded by duty and vengeance, Maralee chases her destiny determined to rid the world of the monsters that massacred her family and continue to haunt her nightmares. 

     Desperate to end the slaughter, Nash is certain he can prevent Maralee from slaying his people by showing her their humanity. He invites the Huntress into his life and falls for her. He hides his Wolf form from her, knowing he is everything she hates.

My Thoughts:
     It’s no secret that I enjoy a good werewolf romance, being such a huge fan of Kresley Cole. When I saw on Goodreads that Olivia Cunning had an alter ego that wrote paranormal romance, I was there! I had loved her rock stars and even have her upcoming books pre-bought on my nook. I’m sad to say though, “Defying Destiny” simply didn’t work for me.
     Maralee is a “huntress,” a killer of werewolves. She comes from an entire family whose sole job was to kill werewolves, so she’s pretty proficient at it and actually hunts out the elusive beast on the full moon. Who do you think is her hero? Yep, you guessed it, Nash, a full blooded werewolf.
     Nash and Maralee initially meet during a full moon as Maralee is hunting Nash’s family. She unknowingly fatally injures his brother. Days later she meets up with Nash and instead of being furious she had killed his brother (granted the brother was a snarling werewolf), he decides to take her in and care for her. Not counting that she had been caring for herself for years and she can kill freakin’ werewolves. Ugh.
     Of course Nash’s entire family and village are furious that one, he didn’t immediately kill Maralee, and two, he insists on keeping her within his house to “protect” her. Not the most sound reasoning, but hey, its a romance. In the middle of all of this, Nash decides that Maralee is the cure for werewolves and tries to figure out how she can save his family from the curse.
      I’m willing to stretch my mind a bit for believability. Vampires, sure...werewolves, oh yeah. But when the characters motivations don’t make sense, it just drives me crazy. There was almost zero chemistry between the characters and we are supposed to believe that they can’t live without one another within a few short days. Nash never worries for his own life or his family’s, even though he is a werewolf and his new found girlfriend kills wolves.
      I’m still a fan of Olivia Cunning, don’t get me wrong. I enjoy her voice, just not the paranormal world she has created. The characters weren’t believable and just for basic safety, I wanted to smack them in their head. “Defying Destiny” was a DNF for me, sadly.

Book Details

Publisher: Createspace 

Date of Publication: September 28, 2o11 

# of Pages: 392

ISBN: 978-1463764531

"Irreplaceable" By: Stephen Lovely

"Irreplaceable" 

By: Stephen Lovely

Synopsis:

When 30-year-old archaeologist Alex Voormann’s bright, ambitious wife, Isabel, is killed in a bicycle accident, he is faced with a momentous decision. She had filled out a donor card, and the hospital staff are requesting his permission to take her heart for a woman who would die without a transplant. Even a full year after he signed off on the procedure, Alex is still conflicted about the decision, so when Janet Corcoran, the mother of two whose life Isabel saved, contacts him, he becomes angry. Her gratefulness reminds him all over again of his grievous loss, and he can’t help but feel resentful that her good fortune came at his expense; meanwhile, his mother-in-law has a totally different reaction, believing that her daughter’s generous spirit lives on in Janet.

My Thoughts:

     "Irreplaceable" is Stephen Lovely's first novel, so I was pretty excited to read this debut novel. It was a book chosen by my book group and I was intrigued by the concept. I didn't know much about organ donation and have never really read much about the topic. While ultimately I think the novel had promise, the characters were weak and I was never able to get into the novel completely.

     Alex's wife, Isabel, is killed within the first chapter of the book. The novel really revolves around her death and how it affects the the world. If we were going to categorize a main character, it would probably be Alex. He is dealing with the death of his wife and feels somewhat  responsible for her heart even after her death. In the middle of this husband drama, we have Isabel’s Mother, the heart recipient Janet and the man actually responsible for Isabel’s death, Jasper.

      I think the first thing that jumped out of my mind after reading this book was, I just don’t care about the characters. Sure they’ve had this horrible thing happen to them and it was horrendous, yet they seemed so whiny to me. I understand this terrible thing happened and it will take time to get through the problems, but I felt the conveyance of grief through the characters was a bit misrepresented.

       This book had a pretty interesting set up but just didn’t deliver for me. A few of the people who are in my book group have pretty similar feelings so I doubt  I would recommend this book to anyone. It had promise but just didn’t deliver, at least for me.

Book Details

Publisher: Voice

Date of Publication: February 3, 2009

# of Pages: 352

ISBN: 1401322824

I'm Officially off of Evanovich! Are you?

"Smokin' Seventeen"

By: Janet Evanovich

Synopsis from Amazon:

Where there’s smoke there’s fire, and no one knows this better than New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum.Dead bodies are showing up in shallow graves on the empty construction lot of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. No one is sure who the killer is, or why the victims have been offed, but what is clear is that Stephanie’s name is on the killer’s list.Short on time to find evidence proving the killer’s identity, Stephanie faces further complications when her family and friends decide that it’s time for her to choose between her longtime off-again-on-again boyfriend, Trenton cop Joe Morelli, and the bad boy in her life, security expert Ranger. Stephanie’s mom is encouraging Stephanie to dump them both and choose a former high school football star who’s just returned to town. Stephanie’s sidekick, Lula, is encouraging Stephanie to have a red-hot boudoir “bake-off.” And Grandma Bella, Morelli’s old-world grandmother, is encouraging Stephanie to move to a new state when she puts “the eye” on Stephanie.

With a cold-blooded killer after her, a handful of hot men, and a capture list that includes a dancing bear and a senior citizen vampire, Stephanie’s life looks like it’s about to go up in smoke.

What the Brunette Thought:
     This is the end of an era. I have been reading Janet Evanovich books for at least the last ten years, if not longer…and I am declaring today no more! No more will I deal with the indecisive Stephanie Plum who can’t choose. No more will I deal with Ranger whose entire dialogue is “Babe.” No more will I deal with Morelli, who allows his girlfriend to pretty much do anything she wants…with anyone and its ok as long as she comes to him once in a while. No more I say!
      I went to “One for the Money” in theaters this weekend, so I was in a Janet Evanovich mood. The last book I had read was 16 so I was in the mood for some Stephanie Plum. Sure the books weren’t as great as they were in the beginning, but really who is? I needed some Morelli in my life with a little Ranger on the side and I decided to go for it.
      I am sad to say I made it about 1/3 of the way through and had to put the book up. I cannot tell you how disappointed I am with this chapter in the story. First off, Stephanie is kind of a ho-bag. First she’s sleeping with Morelli AND THEN the very (and I mean the very) next night, she’s in bed with Ranger. What? Ever heard of an STD? Ugh. Gross. Then back with Morelli again. The two men act like its ok, it’s just Stephanie. NO!
      The thing that probably bothered me more than Miss Hoochie was the utter improbability of the actions in the story. Sure Grandma’s crazy but at least there was a little believability, now its just a farce. Lula is almost the same – how many times do we need to hear she’s carrying a bucket of chicken and still hungry. We get it. It’s not funny anymore. The actual moment I put the book down was at a hot dog stand, Lula actually squirts mustard in a man’s tush. Honestly. That actually happens. I won't even go into the Vampire thinkin' old man, nor the dancing bear they got as collateral on a bond loan.
       So I boldly declare today will be my last day to read Janet Evanovich. Will I miss her? Sure, absolutely. But, I would hate to sully my fun memories of the Plum family with these weird, stilted new events that I despise. I was with you for 16 books, but now I’m lost forever.

What do you think?

Do you think Evanovich has lost her touch?

Book Details

Publisher: Bantam

Date of Publication: June 21, 2011

# of Pages: 320

"The Christmas Train" By: David Baldacci Review

"The Christmas Train" 

By: David Baldacci

Tom Langdon is a former war reporter who now writes feature articles for various magazines. Banned from flying on airplanes after a hostile incident at an airport security checkpoint, Langdon is forced to take a cross-country train from Washington, D.C., to L.A., where his girlfriend is waiting to spend Christmas with him. As he begins talking to the passengers and staff aboard the train, he meets an eccentric older woman who seems to be a regular rider, a young couple preparing to marry on the train, and a former Catholic priest. To Tom's shock, the former love of his life, Eleanor, is also aboard the train. Sparks fly between them, bringing up old feelings along with the unresolved issues from their relationship. Tom realizes this might be his second chance with Eleanor, but a series of unexpected events may derail his plans. 

My Thoughts:

     I am so embarrassed to admit this, but this is one of the few books that I did not finish this year! I read "The Christmas Train" for one of my reading groups and simply didn't finish.    

     While it was a cute story in the beginning, I cannot tell you how boring it was in the middle! Tom Langdon (the main character) has been kicked off a plane for being rowdy - so he's traveling by train to see his girlfriend in California. On the train he meets up with his ex-girlfriend, whom he still has feelings for. That's the basis of the book...sure there are quirky characters and Baldacci shares his feelings of love for the railway system but that's pretty much it. For 200 pages it's the same boring thing...over and over. 
     I don't want to put it down too much, everyone in my book group loved it. I just didn't see the appeal and stopped around page 103. If you are a fan of Baldacci or just love trains, definitely pick this one up...it just didn't appeal to me.

"Scarlet Thread" By: Francine Rivers Review

Today's review is of 

"The Scarlet Thread" By: Francine Rivers

Synopsis from Barnes and Noble:

A woman of the nineties. A young pioneer on the Oregon Trail. Though lifetimes apart, they share a remarkable journey. When Sierra discovers her ancestor's handcrafted quilt and reads her journal, she finds that their lives are amazingly similar. By following her ancestor's example, she learns to surrender to God's sovereignty and unconditional love.

My Thoughts:
     We had decided to read this book for one of my reading groups. I have a confession to make...and I'm only going to tell you, not my book group! Here goes...I didn't finish this because it was just horrible!
     I hated this book. I got to about page 200 out of close to 400 and couldn't take it anymore. Everything about this book is flawed. I gave it a chance, but I just couldn't do it.
     The characters are terrible. Sierra is the main character...but you dont' care about her because she is so whiny. She has a terrible husband, who is mean and doesn't care for her at all. Sure the author talks about their grand love, but you sure couldn't see it. She can't make friends and when she does, she is incredibly insecure.
     The story is boring too. I understand this is a character driven story, but the pacing of the novel is slow.  Time has little meaning and it seemed to skip all over the place.
     Only pick this book up if you are on a desert island, with no other reading material, and you need paper for your fire. This is a very poorly written story that I didn't enjoy at all. First book in a long time that I Did Not Finish!