And this is why I love my Sony Reader!

As most of you know I have been trying to go paperless for the last year and I mostly have succeeded. This year, out of 119 books that I have read, only 11 have been paper-books. I think I'm doing fairly well.

When I first looked into which eBook reader I would buy I did some research and searched among those that read the largest amount of formats, because let's face it, eBooks come in different shapes and colors and until the format war was decided I wanted to be able to read all my books in the same device. Well, Sony really did it for me and I have never looked back.

What was great about the Sony Reader was that even though they sold their own format at their eBook store (format was .lrf) it also allowed you to upload .rtf files and .pdf files which for me was a biggie. I can take almost any format and change it to a .rtf file (a real text format is similar to a word document) or a PDF file which made Sony the winner for me.

Well, this past week Sony took the step that us eBook readers have been waiting to hear (from the NYTimes):

On Thursday, Sony Electronics, which sells e-book devices under the Reader brand, plans to announce that by the end of the year it will sell digital books only in the ePub format, an open standard created by a group including publishers like Random House and HarperCollins.

Sony will also scrap its proprietary anticopying software in favor of technology from the software maker Adobe that restricts how often e-books can be shared or copied.

After the change, books bought from Sony’s online store will be readable not just on its own device but on the growing constellation of other readers that support ePub. Those include the Plastic Logic eReader, a thin device that has been in development for nearly a decade and is expected to go on sale early next year.

“There is going to be a proliferation of different reading devices, with different features and capabilities and prices for a different set of consumer requirements,” said Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading unit. “If people are going to this e-book shopping mall, they are going to want to shop at all the stores, and not just be required to shop at one store.”

Yeah... I love my Reader!

Fragile by Shiloh Walker

Last month I had a great reading month but I honestly had a terrible blogging month. I have been remiss on my reviews for the last few months and I will admit that November and December were due to work and the holidays but January gives me no excuses. So, I'm determined to put in at least 5 posts per month from this point forward. So let's start with a new release from one of my favorite authors.

Fragile arrived at a bookstore near you on the 3rd of February. I was fortunate to receive an ARC which let me read it in January. and before I go on... Don't you just love that cover!

Fragile tells the story of Devon Manning, a social worker who is struggling to keep her head above water. She carries a dark past which makes her push away those that wish to develop any type of relationship with her. Devon was orphaned at a young age and put in the care of her Aunt who was not much of a care giver. She was abused by her Aunt's boyfriend and eventually kicked out of the house. By the age of 13 she was an addict headed on the road to nowhere. She was 'saved' so to say by a social worker that cared enough to look past the façade that she had put up. This inspires Devon to follow in that work, to be that one person that stands between a battered child and a system with too many cracks. She spends a lot of her time in the hospital rescuing those children. And it is there that she meets Luke.

Luke is looking for something. He has not been able to put his finger on what is missing in his life but he knows that he needs to find it soon. His life was never one of distress but he surrounds himself by those that need rescuing, especially his twin brother, Quinn, who had the unfortunate luck to have been raised by their alcoholic mother. She stole him from the hospital after birth, leaving a weaker Luke in the care of his father. Luke has stayed close to Quinn since he came back into their lives at the age of 11, but after Luke gets injured in the armed forces they head their separate ways. Luke finds military life empty and seeks meaning to his life, so he studies medicine and becomes a doctor.

Luke falls hard for Devon and she allows him to creep into her life. They develop a fragile relationship where Luke gets to play the role of hero and Devon gets face some of the fears she has been holding onto for most of her adult life.

If you think that this is where the story lies you would be wrong. The meat of the story lies in the suspenseful thriller that takes front and center by the middle of the book. Devon's work leaves her open to many people that might carry a grudge. Not every one appreciates some one meddling in how you raise your child, especially those with the propensity for abuse. This is why no one really pays much attention when she develops the attention of a stalker. No one that is, except Luke, who has the feeling this is more than just a disgruntled parent looking for payback.

The suspense is strong and when you think you know who's done it… you need to guess again.

Walker brings her talent for angst to the pages of this book but I think there was too much misdirection to keep me from being blown away as I was with The Missing. The most flawed / damaged of all the characters was the one that attracted me the most. Luke was very much the man who wanted to solve everyone’s problem, his super hero attitude pulled me away from really caring for him. It could be that I felt he wanted to take over Devon’s life in the guise of protection.

Devon had much baggage but she was holding her own. Her background gives her the characteristics of a strong female and the beginning of the story gives us a glimpse of that person – when she opens up to Luke and lets him in, but as the story moves forward she becomes just an image of the woman she was. There is an explanation for her 180 at the end of the story but we don’t get the chance to justify her behavior and get our feelings in check before then. It made me lose my admiration for her character and the explanation at the end was not enough to pull me back to my original opinion of her.

I also thought that the villain really came out of no where. I know that it would have killed the suspense but I felt we were being pushed into one direction and then forced into another at the last minute. If you are driving a car and try a maneuver like that, you just might fall off of a cliff.

Regardless of these 'weaknesses' the book kept me glued to its pages, it made me really think about these characters and what I expected from each one. It made me question my judgment on each and every one. I was never sure if I really knew the character or if I was being led on a merry chase.

Walker recently announced (see her post here) that she would be writing romantic suspense for Ballantine Publishing. I think this is definitely right up her alley. She can definitely keep you on the edge of your seat, turning the pages to uncover the true villain of the tale.

If you haven’t already picked up Fragile, don’t miss out, it will have your heart pumping until the very end.

Grade: B-

Format: eBook

The Missing by Shiloh Walker & Give-away

I recently had the pleasure of reading Shiloh Walker’s newest book The Missing and my first impression was Wow! I enjoyed the book to the extent that I am eager to share it with you all. Since I cannot give away my own copy I’m going to purchase a copy to share, so make sure you read on to get details.

Now to the Review:

Taige Branch has had to live her life in isolation because she is 'gifted' with psychic abilities. She has the ability to 'see' things. As an orphaned teenager living in Gulf Shore, Ala with her religious zealot of an uncle, her prospects are low, as is her patience for the summer boys that come to vacation at the beach front town. Until one of those boys proves to be more than just a pretty face with deep pockets.

Cullen Morgan is not from old money and he lives in a loving family so he knows how a girl should be treated. Regardless of her social standing, they deserve respect, so when he encounters two boys trying to rape a local girl he is compelled to step in and help. That the girl is the one that recently saved the life of a drowning boy bowls him over. He discovers that there is more to the girl than the mysterious air around her and over the summer, he falls in love. He returns to her every summer and every summer their love deepens. 4 years after they first meet, tragedy strikes at the heart of Cullen's family and with his heart torn he lashes out at Taige, destroying her faith in him.

At this point the book jumps forward 12 years, where Cullen has become a successful writer. He is a single parent of a 9 year daughter who appears to have some 'gifts' of her own. Taige also has achieved success but in a whole different area. She went on to college and after graduation became a consultant for the FBI on a special task force that helps the missing. She uses her abilities to find the lost but at a great emotional price. She has learned to master her gift but every time she uses it to save a child or to find one that is already lost, the toll weighs heavy on her.

Over the years she never has forgotten her only love and although she believes she loved more than she was loved, she dreams about him often. Vivid dreams that haunt her. They are more disturbing to her than the monsters she saves kids from. Unbeknownst to her, Cullen has been dreaming about her too. Dreams that wake him in the middle of the night, that make him yearn for the girl he chased away, that make him relive the loss.

When Jillian, Cullen's daughter gets abducted, he remembers those dreams and knows that Taige is the only person that can help him. When he shows up at her door she knows what he is looking for but seeing him again doesn't make it easier to accept. She would never say no to a missing child but knowing that the child is Cullen's makes the case more compelling. But there is more to the kidnapping than we are first lead to believe, there have been others that have gone missing, and the children share a commonality, something that has made them a target and if Taige cannot stop the madman, there will be even more lost.

The story is not just about lost love that is found again. This is a thriller that has you on the edge of your seat. The desperation that Cullen feels when he loses Jillian is palpable; the distress that Taige goes through every time she taps into her gift has you tensing. The villain is well hidden and you don’t suspect who it is (or I didn’t) until a little before it’s actually revealed in the story. But when his deeds are unveiled you feel him. The feeling was like when I saw Silence of the Lambs and Clarese was talking about the lambs being slaughtered. The same hushed disturbing visual, the same screams giving me the chills.

The relationship between Taige and Cullen is VERY believable. They have never really been apart, although they never realized it, because they have been linked through their dreams. So when he demands a place in Taige's life it doesn't come off as arrogant or presumptive. Cullen knows he messed up but he also knows that the love they had is still there. Taige's reluctance in accepting Cullen's feelings could have been annoying but Ms. Walker did not dwell upon that and made the reader know that Taige knew in her heart the truth but her mind rebelled against it. The internal conflict she felt for Cullen just made the story more grittier.

The book was reminiscent to works by authors like Sandra Brown. It was all about the romantic suspense. The darkness in Taige's visions, the evil the villain committed and the pursuit to find that person had you keeping your eyes glued to the page and refusing to put the book down.

I can't imagine the effort it took to write this, because I was exhausted by the end of the book. Like when you tense yourself for so long your body is tired when you finally relax. One of the best Romantic Suspense books I’ve read this year.

Grade: A+
Format: eBook

Now to the Giveaway, I really felt the need to share this one with you all so I will pick at random one name amongst those that leave a comment (make sure you also post your email address so I can contact you) and send them a brand new copy of the book when it’s released on Tuesday. Since postage can be pricey I need to limit this to those in the US.

Shiloh Walker is also having a giveaway at her site for those that pre-order their copy of The Missing or buy the book on release week (READ ALL ABOUT IT) where you can win, not just an ARC of her next release Fragile but also a $40 gift certificate to the bookstore of your choice and other goodies.

So, to give you a chance to get in on her giveaway, I’ll be picking my winner by Midnight EST on Sunday November, 2nd. That way if you didn’t win my copy, you can still pre-order your own copy and get in on Shiloh’s Giveaway.

I know you will enjoy this book as much as I did, so post away!

Anthology - Hot Spell

The great thing about going paperless is that you can take a book and break it into small books. Like an Anthology. Essentially an Anthology is just a book that is divided into several smaller tales. For some reason I can attack four short stories better than one big one.

Yes, it’s the same thing but just like a 200 question test is overwhelming when you break up that test into 4 - 50 question tests it becomes do-able. This has been my plan of attack for those Anthologies I challenged myself to read in the Triple 8 Challenge.

Since we are in the month of October and I am all about paranormals this month I thought it appropriate to tackle a title that has been sitting in my TBR pile forever. Now that I got it in ebook I chopped and split it up into 4 really great stories. There really was no loser in this one, but that should not have surprised me since all but one were well loved authors.

Let’s start with the one author that was new to me:

Falling for Anthony by Meljean Brook: (A) This is the first in Brook’s Guardian series. Anthony Ramsdell would prefer to do anything than to serve as the personal physician to a Major General in the peninsula but the Earl of Norbridge had paid for his studies and he now owed him his livelihood. This was a small price to pay for the future the Earl had put in his hands. Two days before departing Anthony has a strange encounter with Emily, the Earl’s daughter, who he has secretly loved for many years. She is furious with her father and in a rebellious act, seduces Anthony in the library. He promise to return from the war and put thing right, if she will have him. But that was not meant to be.

On the battlefield in Spain he and a friend are attacked by a vampire and he sacrifices himself to save his friend. His sacrifice is not in vain since a Guardian give him the option to either die or serve in protecting humanity. Either way he is not to return to the life he knew. When Michael (head Guardian) pulls Anthony from his training months later, it is because a Nosferatu (a rouge vamp) has attacked the Ames-Beaumont searching for a sword. His friend Colin is about to turn and his sister, Emily is in danger. Michael goes against Guardian law and asks Anthony to return to earth to resolve the matter. This one was the best of all the tales. It was a strong story that did not feel like a short. It was so well written it makes me want to pick up the rest of this series immediately.

The Breed Next Door by Lora Leigh: (B+) Another story that did not feel like a short. There were villains, love, character conflicts, even some in-laws and yet I didn’t feel rushed at all! I am a big breeds fan and this title was a treat. Tarek Jordan is a breed in hiding and acclimating to normal life has been a difficult transition.

His current assignment is to search for a trainer from the Breeds lab that had murdered many of his brethren. His current problem is his neighbor, Lyra Mason. She has gotten under his skin and he would do anything to get some of her coffee and fresh baked bread in his belly and if he can get a piece of her as well, more the merrier. Lyra has a few big brothers that are trained Seal soldiers that might not appreciate his intent but if the lady ain’t complaining? In just a few pages I was feeling Tarek’s isolation, his need for more than just a romp. Lyra was feisty and having grown up with overprotective brother, strong willed. She could handle anything thrown at her and more and when she made up her mind to have Tarek, breed and all, she never backed down. Loved her!

The Blood Kiss by Shiloh Walker: (B+) Roman Montgomery is the An Ri Mac Tire, Wolf king of Wolf Clan Montgomery and his brother has been abducted, well not really but almost the same. Seems his little brother Steve ventured into Vamp territory and the House of Capiet has taken him as a prisoner for trespassing. In reality they are testing the new king and Roman rises to the challenge.

When Roman arrives (in secret) to rescue his brother he finds out that there is a celebration that is taking place as Lord Eduard presents his blood child to society, what surprises him most is that the daughter in question is the same young woman he has seen earlier in the plaza painting tourists in a street stand. She had attracted him at that time and now she is revealed to be the daughter of his mortal enemy. Well, he won’t let such a little thing as a long standing feud stand in his way.

This one had so much story in so few pages you could have blinked and you might have missed something but Roman and Julianna (a play on Romeo and Juliet) held their own. Loved the character of Mikhail, a truly old soul that needs a story of his own. Maybe he already has one and I just have not read it. I need to search for it since this book was published several years ago.

The Countess Pleasure by Emma Holly: (B) And last but never least, Emma Holly’s contribution. This one was the most difficult to read just because it takes place in an alternate universe where there are demons and alternate life forces.

Georgiana DuBarry, The Countess of Ware is a widow with the exceptional quality that she is still a virgin (although honestly, if you read enough romance you will ultimately agree that this is not such an exceptional quality). She goes to Bhamjran (the equivalent to Vegas) with the hopes she will discover passion and not regret having put that off for the sake of her husband. She has heard great things about the striptease preformed by Lyan and wanted to see for herself.

Lyan was trapped into the degrading profession after his mother was framed for a crime she didn’t commit. He is force into indentured service until the crime is paid in full. When he finally believes that his debt is about to be paid, further charges are pressed and he looks to a future with no freedom. He has never prostituted himself but when the woman that stirred his blood during his performance approaches him with a proposal he cannot deny himself.

Even though the whole – I slept with you and you turned my world around enough to make me love you- is a line I hate to accept, this story had other things going for it. Yes, Ms. Holly is queen of eroticism, but not just was the sensuality of the story red hot, the world building was very interesting since it paralleled our own world back when the Irish were seen as less, the black were unworthy. The prejudice against the demon race was a great twist to your typical short.

This anthology was definitely worth picking up. If you haven’t had your serving of the paranormal variety this month reach out for this one. Every tale was a success!

Grade: B+

Format: eBook

Body Language by Suzanne Brockmann

Not all series romance can be winners, not even with Suzanne Brockmann's talent to back you up.

Clint McCade is heading home or better said to the only home he has really known. He has discovered that after many years of traveling around the world as a videographer / photographer his heart belongs where ever Sandy Kirk is and he is not wasting another moment. He heads out to tell his childhood friend that she is the one for him but gets a little surprise when he arrives.

Cassandra Kirk grew up on the wrong side of the tracks always yearning for more. She wanted everything the country club set had to offer and then some. But one thing she wanted above all else was the heart of her best friend McCade. He flew around the world from job to job and from skirt to skirt but he never saw her other than his best friend. Well now Sandy is leaving that love behind and pursuing something more real.

When McCade shows up at her door she confesses that she is finally in love but the guy has no clue she exists. McCade hides his disappointment in arriving too late to claim his own love and suggests to Sandy that he help her attract this man's attention. He says that her problem is all in the body language. She sends blaring signals to this guy that she is not interested. He suggests that she practice with him, pretending they are a couple and using her body language to reflect her interest in him.

Yeah, you can follow the premise from here. She realizes that she still has feelings for Clint, Clint thinks he is unworthy, yada, yada, yada. Writing was good, this is a Brockmann, but the plot was so used and old I could have stop reading half way through and I would have know how it ended.

Grade: C-
Format: eBook

Dead and Loving it by Mary Janice Davidson

This one is more of a compendium of short stories published previously in other anthologies but all from the Wyndham Wolf series. This series is very good but because they are all printed in different Anthologies it has been a pain in the butt to follow so I was jumping all over this Anthology when it first came out.

Now to be honest, I had not read any of the Wyndham Werewolf books but my daughter raved about Derik's Bane and since I knew Derik's Bane was the third book in the series I put off picking it up until I had collected all the books and could read them in order.

My suggestion is to NOT do this. The short stories are not strong plots and if you read too many of them, you kind of get sick of the tales. I read the first 4 on vacation back in August and then read the rest in September. Now all I need to read is Derik's Bane.

The Prequels to the Anthologies are:

Love's Prisoner : (C-) SPOILER ALERT!!!
I cannot fathom why I didn't give this story a worse grade. What I keep remembering is that Michael rapes Jeannie… more than once! I think that when I read it I forced myself to step out of my contemporary shoes and go into this alternate universe where werewolves exist and pack law determines how one deals with every day situation. He tries to explain this to his mate (who is human) and I REALLY had to work on getting past the whole rape issue. The story was good enough to bring up the grade even after the incidents but it is not for everyone.

Jared's Wolf : (C) Jared's sister was killed by a rouge Were and he has been searching for the culprit for years. Now he believes he has finally found him and is stalking the mansion waiting for his chance for revenge. He believes that only men can be Weres and kidnaps Moira from the grounds thinking she is in danger. Moira realizes the security risk Jared is and decides to stay close to him to 'protect' her pack. Yeah right!

Derik's Bane should be at this point.

From the Anthology though we have:

Santa Claws (C+): Cute little Xmas story but it was mostly a no plot story (thus why it didn't go over a C+). Just saw you, screwed you, committed to you. Didn't give it anything lower because the heroine, Giselle was a short plump girl that dressed in a Santa's costume. She was just too cute! The Hero, Alec was a Scot that came to pay homage to Michael and Jenny's daughter.

Monster Love (C+): In this one Janet Lupo, who must be a dominatrix in another life since she is such an overbearing b*tch, finds her mate in a vampire that kidnaps her (what is with these Weres getting kidnapped?), hot monkey sex ensues and she makes him heel to her – okay so she does give a little too.

There is no Such Thing as Werewolves (B-): This one was different. The hero was a blind Were who was not feeling welcomed in his pack. He has made a life for himself as a doctor among the humans and runs into some homeless kids that try to mug him. Cresent Muhn is among them but decides that mugging a blind guy is a bit much for her and offers him protection. Drake realizes that there is something different about Crescent and not in the wacko way (even though she is determined to fly). He had some issue due to an age difference but there is more different about them than age. This one was pretty good.

A Fiend in Need – (B): A crossover with Queen Betsy series. This story was a big seller for me on this Anthology. I want to say it was what made me buy the book but not really.. I wanted to read the story of George, The Fiend from the Betsy books and how he finds love with Antonia, the Were that doesn't change but has premonitions. These premonitions are what guides Antonia to Betsy's door and ultimately leads her to George.

Overall, I like this type of anthology where it’s one author and many of their shorts.

Grade: B-
Format: eBook

The Lightkeeper by Susan Wiggs

I had not read a Susan Wiggs book in a very long time. I scoffed down her titles like a madwoman when I started reading romance and collected everything in her historical genre (yes, even those VERY HTF and OOP titles) but I discovered other great historical writers and Ms Wiggs books sat forever in my TBR pile. When I had to make a list of books and authors I wanted to get back to for my challenges, Wiggs was on that list of "why did I stop reading her?"

Now I remember!!

The Lightkeeper was close to ending with a DNF grade (Did Not Finish) not because of bad writing or because of uninteresting characters but because the narrative went on forever! There was so little interaction from the characters for the first ¼ of the book it felt as if they lived mostly in their own little world. When Wiggs finally woke up and the interaction between Mary Dare and Jesse Morgan started I had almost lost interest.

Mary Dare is a survivor of a ship wreck who lands on the beach next to the Light house Jesse Morgan watches. He had lost everything in his life to the sea 12 years ago (wife and unborn child) and his guilt and remorse for their deaths has him commited to live without ties in the world. When a pregnant Mary washes ashore he is determined to shut her out but the feisty Irish woman will not allow it.

Both of these characters are damaged and they find strength and purpose in each other (in Jesse's case he finds it kicking and screaming). The book has great scenes that will stay with you for a long time, like a Norman Rockwell picture of early American life. The narrative that had me considering dropping the book in favor of another really made the book jump out.

The loneliness in which Jessi lived is brought into stark relief with his monologues. Mary's desperate attempts to attain some semblance of happiness and security is seem in her recriminations for herself and Jessi.

There is a villian in the story. The father of Mary's child tries to come between her and Jessi when they are close to finding peace. Because of who this man is, the threat he presents is credible and you don't roll your eyes when the villian drops in, although you know a HEA will arrive.

This one is recommended for those that can deal with a narrative tale. It is not everyone's cup of tea but if you can get past the first 100 pages, you will find a great story.

Grade: C+
Format: eBook

Unforgiven by Mary Balogh

This book was very different from the first installment of this series (Indiscreet). When reading this book you get the impression that the author was in a bit of a rush to tell a story but not committed to it’s outcome.

At the end of Indiscreet we find that Kenneth Woodfall, the Earl of Harverford needs to rush back home to Dunbarton Hall in Cornwall because he needs to marry a woman he hates since she will be having his baby in 6 months time. So based on the timeline of the novels, while Rex is getting in trouble with Caroline, Ken had already done his damage to his neighbor, Moira.

Moira Hayes has given up hope for a HEA after many years of hatred poisoning her heart for a man she once loved and that betrayed her. Her father has died and a distant relative has inherited her home. He has decided that Moira would make just as good of a wife as the next and formalizes that betrothal over the Xmas season. What Moira didn’t expect was that Ken would return to his home seat after 8 years absence and that the idiot that she is to marry wants to mend fences with the Earl.

The book is divided in two parts. Before the pregnancy and after. The first part we see the enmity between these two fester and explode after a Christmas Ball, where Moira’s pride gets her into a predicament that causes her to be trapped in a cabin under a snow storm with Ken.

The After takes place when Ken returns from the duel fought by Rex in Indiscreet. The hasty marriage and the terrible aftermath the day after the wedding. I can’t say what happens there since it would be a spoiler but Ken removes himself from his home a week after the wedding and spends two months in London with his buddies trying to forget. When that fails he decides that he must at least try to make the marriage work and calls for Moira to come up to London.

Now, first of all, the story is mostly narrated with an occasional dialog here and there. I don’t get that. There is a lot of story telling but not enough content that SHOWS us what is going on. I think Ken and Moira really shouldn’t have been together. Too much had gone on. There were too many misunderstandings that had sat in their hearts for too long. Then all of a sudden Moira goes off to London and within 24 hours discovers that SHE loves him. I could believe Ken’s affections since he only thought himself betrayed but Moira thought that Ken had not just betrayed her but also lied to her, caused her brother’s death and, if we follow the chain reaction, her own destitution.

I was very disappointed in this one and hope that the last in the trilogy will return to the first's great writting.

Grade: D+
Format: eBook

Indiscreet by Mary Balogh

For the longest time I thought this series was a category romance but when I went to pull it out to read I realized that it was a full length novel masquerading as a category (look at the cover!). Balogh is mostly a hit for me but she is also an author that writes more serious regency romances. They are books that have more bite to them and at times that is not what I’m looking for. This is why the book has been in my TBR pile for such a long time.
This year I put it on several of my challenges so that I could get it off my TBR list.

Rex Adams, Viscount Rawleigh heads out to visit his twin brother with two of his friends. When he arrives he lays eyes on Caroline Winters who has confused him with his brother and smiles at him. Rex confuses this gesture with flirtation and singles her out for his attention.

Caroline wants nothing to do with the Viscount. Her past holds many secrets that must remain hidden if she is to continue enjoying the peaceful life she has made for herself. She is frightened by her own urges but holds herself steadfast and denies Rex.

Rex, being the dumbass he is, thinks she is playing hard to get and continues on his pursuit until it’s too late. With her name in tatters, Lord Rawleigh must do the right thing and step up to the plate. Caroline is forced to expose her past to the man that has destroyed her present.

Rex was a bit moronic through most of the beginning of this book. His arrogance was his downfall. He just could not accept that Caroline wanted nothing to do with him. She avoided him like a plague and yet he kept seeing a game she was playing with him instead of seeing it for what it was. She was scared that her attraction for him would lead her to an indiscretion that would cause her to lose everything she had built.

Caroline was a strong heroine. A regency woman that learned from her mistakes and was determined not to fall again. She was so determined to keep what she had, she gave up all pleasures. She was frightened of living beyond the comforts her current life offered. But when she had to confront that past she did (kicking and screaming by her husband but she did do it).

Great first installment to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse trilogy.

Grade: A
Format: eBook

Baby, I'm Yours by Karen Templeton

What a refreshing read. Short, sweet and very strong. Picked up this recommendation from The Good, The Bad and The Unread. They were having a Harlequin spotlight and Karen Templeton was featured (You can find the Spotlight Here). The premise and reviews were very good so I picked it up in eBook. It was wonderful! I will definitely be keeping Ms. Templeton in my radar for her future work.

Kevin Vaccaro is a recovering addict who after wandering through life in a misguided effort of rebellion decides to get his act together. Unfortunately at the time his girlfriend was an addict herself and, although he tried to help her, he realizes that he needs to help himself first. He walks away from the relationship ignorant of the fact that she was pregnant. A year later he is ready to make amends. He is not looking to go back the relationship but to salvage the friendship he once had with Robyn. When he arrives at the home of Victor Booth he finds a hostile welcome from Robyn's father and sister. He later discovers that their hostility is justified having discovered that his ex-girlfriend is dead and he is a father.

Julianne Booth seems to find herself always recovering. First she has to recover from her mother's suicide, taking on the role of caregiver to her parent and younger sister, then when she finally thinks she will live her own happily ever after, a drunk driver takes the life of her husband and subsequently her own unborn child. Since the accident her life has been left in limbo until she is called to care for her pregnant sister and then for her newborn niece. She has built a barrier around herself, limiting her life to her niece's existence. When Kevin shows up her world threatens to crumble once again.

This is a book about growth. It's about three people learning to overcome the fear of living. Kevin, who is the recovering addict is actually the less damaged among them all.
Victor (Robyn and Julianne's father) writes self help book but cannot seem to help those closes to him. The only ways he feels he can protect them is by isolating them from the big bad world, but by doing so he is shutting himself out from the world too. He has given up on a second chance for love himself in an effort to stay close and protect the only daughter left to him.
Julianne's compliance to her father's safe harbor is destroying her. She knows that the right thing to do is to give up Pippa (the baby) to Kevin but she is lost without her and cannot find the strength to recover from that blow. When she starts falling for Kevin, her fears magnify because she cannot love again.

Templeton is a master and her trade. She took what could have been a cliche of a plot line (grieving widows, surprise pregnancies, love between in laws) and made it a poignant tale of individual growth and strength. Each character find within themselves the strength to heal so they could be open tot he love they were being offered. Wonderful!

Grade: A
Format: eBook

Racing the Moon by Michele Hauf

Thanks to Sybil and The Good, The Bad and The Unread blog I won a copy of this intro title to the new Silhouette Nocturne Bites line. It's a very short tale whose premise promised an interesting story but as most short stories go, it fell short.

Sunday is a Familar (as in witchcraft and demons) that has a bit of a control issue when in the through of a sexual climax. She tends to open bridges between her world and that of the demon world which allows the demons to infiltrate our world. Unfortunately her human lovers don't appreciate the evil demons that appear after Sunday's climax or the fact that she turns into a cat at that time either. So Sunday has given up on Sex as well as humanity.

Dean is a werewolf racing against the moon. He needs to "get some" before the full moon rises to stop the wolf from emerging but his truck has left him stranded in the middle of nowhere just hours away from midnight. It's just his luck that a sexy mechanic drives by and offers him a tow to her garage. If he plays his cards right he might be able to stave off the wolf after all. All he needs to do is convince the greasy sex 'kitten' to let him flush her pipes.

The book actually started quite good, having a different standard for short stories. But when I hit page 30 and Dean starts talking about "booty calls", Hauf lost me. She had me rolling my eyes in disgust and when Dean starts showing feelings for Sunday, I was about to drop the book altogether. I was happy that in the end there was no real commitment of feelings or words because I would have graded this VERY low.

Hauf has a strong voice and I think she would do well in a longer format. It felt like those last twenty pages were written by someone else. As if Hauf gave up on the story. I would give her another try just because the first half of the book had me quite engaged.

Grade: C-
Format: eBook

All Night Long by Michele Albert

I first read Michele Albert as an AOM several years ago and unfortunately my selection of Absolute Trouble was not the best choice since I found it lacking. It took me a while to give her that second chance I always give new authors but I'm happy I did.

Anne Beckett is searching for truths. For the last ten years, the photojournalist has been following the trail a Civil War soldier took to his disappearance. Lewis Hudson was a soldier that had a sweet heart waiting for him at home, he had a mother and a community that cherished him and he had a strong sense of honor and duty, yet the records list him as a deserter after he disappeared. Anne, who finds herself distantly related to Lewis, is looking for the truth so she can clear his name. Her search leads her straight to the farm of Rik Magnusson.

Rik is a farmer that lives more like a hermit. He doesn't want anyone at his farm and he especially doesn't want Annie, but with a drought that threatens to put him under he needs an influx of cash and when Annie offers to pay him to allow her to look over a part of land where she suspects Lewis disappeared he decides it's the lesser of two evils (or so he thought).

This story has such a great rhythm it was a pleasure to pick up. There was no rush to get in bed for these two but the tension was there. Annie had strong abandonment issues having been raised in the foster care system and Rik had serious trust issues since his wife ran off with his best friend. These two had to tear down the walls around their heart before love could flourish there.

This was the first book I read on my new Sony Reader and it was so nice to be able to enjoy reading the book so comfortably!

I have another of Albert's books in my eTBR pile, and I will not wait too long to attack it.

Grade: A
Format: ebook

My Journey to eBook Reading

I love my paperback collection. There is nothing like having a paperback to pull out when you're waiting for life to move on. The turn of the page, the smell of the ink, it's all part of the experience.

Now, with that said and out of the way, I am also a practical person who loves technology and how (in most instances) it makes life easier. I had been debating for a while on purchasing an eBook Reader. I have a fairly decent eBook collection from authors who's work I discovered in electronic format. Lots of these authors I can find in print now a days but every day there is a new author waiting to be discovered but is publishing in only eBook format. I would love to read their work but my eBook TBR pile was competing with my paperback one because I hate to read on my computer. I sit in front of a computer all day and the last thing I want to do is come home and read my books on my laptop. So I decided I really wanted a portable reader. Now came the decision on which one I wanted to invest my money in.

There are so many great readers out there and each has different pros and cons but I narrowed things down to two. The Cybook's Gen3 and Sony's Portable Reader PRS-505. Both books had great features but it boiled down to eBook formats and accessibility.

The Cybook could read PDF files and Mobipocket books which are formats that most books can be purchased in but the company was an overseas company and I really couldn't actually hold the product before purchasing it. It promises great things for future software upgrades but for me the company was unknown and not being able to touch it and play with it before shelling out 350 dollars was a big issue.

Now the Sony is a well known brand for me, it is not a first generation product so it has already gone through a series of bug corrections and I could walk down to the closest Sony store (or Borders store) and give it a test run. Downside... it has known problems with PDF files and did not read any of the mainstream eBook formats. It has it's own proprietary format for the eBooks it reads and those can be found on Sony's eBook store front. This smacks me as greedy and just not reader friendly. So I started my research on the models I was focusing on.

I was lucky to be directed to the Dear Author's blog (which has become one of my favorite blogs to read). They had recently done a comparison on the main stream readers and I was able to discover that the major problem I had found on the Sony Reader was not much a problem at all since there was a large community of techies that had been working on conversion programs for some time. I not only found that I could convert my PDF files into rtf (a format the Sony reader is comfortable with) but I could also convert my MS reader books (those with .lit extensions) and HTML books into a Sony reader friendly format. Having found a solution to this drawback, two weeks ago I headed to the Sony Style store in Dallas to pick up my new Portable Reader PRS-505.

Well, I actually had to order it because the store didn't have it in silver and the dark blue looked more like black and it really wasn't doing it for me. I also had it engraved with the same saying I have on the blog "Fairytales are beyond stories, they are written dreams".

FedEx delivered it to my door on Good Friday!

I found it funny that the box had this big sticker saying it could not be re-routed. I told my sister we were just lucky that we had the day off from work because if not I would have had to take time off from work to sit and wait for the box to arrive.

I was all excited and was happy it was well packaged because the way i was cutting the tape I might have stabbed my little reader before it even had a chance to see the light of day.

My sister couldn't believe I was taking the time to document my purchase. I told her that with all the headaches I had to decide on one I needed to keep the event on image for prosperity!

And there she is!

I was a bit disappointed that the cover it came with was brown. I really would have preferred the black but it came with the unit and I won't complain anymore... I want the Dooney and Burke cover for mother's day anyway.

It's a tiny little thing (the size of a category romance book) but it is actually heavier than expected. It's not a big issue but it was one I never really thought of.

You can't really notice the engraving on the pictures here but it's between the two navigation buttons (the two round buttons on front).

I spent the weekend converting many of my TBR pile in a readable format and then loaded them into the Reader. I had a few hitches here and there where the text was not aligned properly in the Reader but looked fine on the computer. I tweaked things around enough to know what settings work for me and so my future conversions will go a lot smoother.

I'm absolutely in love with my reader! I wish I had more of my paperbk TBR pile in eBook so I can walk around with 50 books in my purse. I bought an SD card so I can load up to 2 gigs of books in the Reader - not that I have that many, but give me some time and I'll work my way there!

Forever Blue by Suzanne Brockmann

I'm down to the wire on this series. Only Identity Unknown is left on the TBR pile, although I have a feeling that it will go forever unread since it's OOP (out of print) and I don't have it. But I was lucky to get Forever Blue and as always, it didn't disappoint!

I had gotten to know Blue McCoy over the other books in the Tall, Dark and Dangerous series. Blue was Joe Cat's swim buddy during BUDs training. This books was to be read as the second in the series, after Prince Joe, but since it takes place outside of the SEALs center of command I didn't feel as I had read it out of order.

Blue goes back to his hometown for the wedding of his step-brother Gerry to his high shool sweetheart Jenny but when Gerry shows up dead, Blue becomes that main suspect.

Lucy Tait has had a crush on Blue since he saved her from being assaulted in high school. He was the one that was out of her league. Well he is back in town and as a police officer it's her role to stay impartial to his guilt or innocence but when she suspects that the cover up to Gerry's murder goes up the ranks of the police department, she cannot stand aside and watch Blue go down for a crime she is sure he did not commit.

I loved getting to know Lucy and Blue better. In a later book Lucy gets seriously injured and I realized that she was a strong character and I really needed to see where she was coming.
Another high point in this book was when Blue realizes that he is being idolized by Lucy. He is able to open up and show him that he is not a hero but a man of flesh and blood.

This one is not one that should be shrugged off and left unread. This series is a must read not just for Brockmann fans but for anyone that is looking to meet some serious Alpha Males!

Grade: A
Format: ebook

Turnabout by Elizabeth Jewell

I have realized that there are only 11 days until the end of the month and although I have read a vast amount of books this month, I really haven't reviewed many at all.

At this point I'm really just playing catch-up with the blog, so I'll start with the shortest book of the month.

I had never read Elizabeth Jewell and I think this book is a bad example of her work since it was so short (27 pages). I have read fan fiction longer than that, sh*t, I've WRITTEN fan fiction longer than that.

Anyway, the story is about a married couple that go out to an Irish pub to celebrate St. Patty's day. Fee is not really into the whole pub'ing scenario and just wants to call it a night but her hubby, Mal gives her a hard time. They argue in front of the bartender and she wishes that Mal could walk in her shoes for once. The wish was granted.

The next morning Fee wakes up in Mal's body and vice versa.

The concept was interesting but, as I said before, the story was just way too short. We didn't really get to feel anything for the couple as they invented creative ways to pleasure themselves as they waited for the pub to open and get some answers to their dilemma.

This story was equivalent to pimpin' my reading time for a quick fix. Slam, Bam, Thank you 'mam. I think I need to give Jewell's longer stories a try.

Grade: C
Format: ebook

Marly's Choice by Lora Leigh

I had heard so much talk about this series, I knew I would not be able to stay away from it for too long. The talk and the fact that Lora Leigh is one of my favorite erotica authors drew me like a bee to honey. The August Men series is about three brothers and the way they have learned to cope with a past that left them with a peculiar sexual quirk. Their need to share their women.

Marly's Choice tells the story of the first brother, Cade. We don't learn the details of what exactly happened to the brothers in this installment but Cade is quite haunted by it. The experience has left him feeling quite deviant and he feels he is not worthy of Marly.

Marly has a past of her own. She was sexually molested by her stepfather when she was young and her mother took her to the August ranch in hopes that they could protect her from the obsessions of a madman. She was barely a teenager when she joined the August household and Cade and his brothers raised her as their niece. It's this fraternal relationship that has Cade gritting his teeth with disgust when he starts lusting after her when she becomes a woman.

When Cade's father dies, Marly comes home from college to the funeral. She has always idolized Cade and in the past few years that feeling has developed into a crush. She has noticed that Cade seems to see her a bit more than a niece and puts a strong backing into trying to seduce him. Cade resists but he is weak when it comes to his lust for Marly and every encounter leaves him feeling dirtier than the next.

This is where I had a problem with the story. He would resist but when he gave in, he did it with gusto. He then would recriminate himself for a few days. When he finally decides to give up the fight completely he is so dominating it borders on rape (during one encounter, I would definitely would have called it rape, even if she did appear to enjoy herself). The sharing of partners is the least of the problem. Marly was really all for it, even if she was a bit hesitant at first. She definitely was into it, but Cade was really over the top in his possession of Marly.

Regardless of this, Leigh mixed the romance with a subplot of her stepfather coming back into their lives, which gave the story more substance than just the out of the ordinary sexual encounters. Unfortunately the resolution to the subplot was so quick and so lacking in action buildup, we are left wondering, why we had it there in the first place.

Even with all the negatives I described, I still could not put the darn ebook away and read the whole thing in an afternoon. I guess if we catalog each aspects of the book I would have said the book was lacking, but as a whole it was good. It really kept me wanting more and that makes me grade it higher than I would have normally done.

Grade: B-
Format: ebook

Get Lucky by Suzanne Brockmann

Well, I'm down to the wire on this series. Just a few more to go. I was very lucky (no pun intended) to get my hands on this story. I read it in ebook format because it has been out of print for VERY, VERY long. I believe that it is scheduled to be republished like most of the books in this series but there is no time frame at this date. So, I do count myself lucky.

Luke 'Lucky' O'Donlon has always been the playboy of Alpha Squad Ten. He was the Adonis of the group and of course, all the women fall at his feet. When he has to give up an assignment to attend his sisters wedding, he thinks his luck has abandoned him but when he gets assigned to a special task force and is saddled with a reporter in his team, he KNOWS his luck has abandoned him.

Sydney Jameson is a freelance writer who had the misfortune of running into a serial rapist as he exited the apartment complex she lives in. He had just attacked her neighbor. When police arrive she threatens to write an expose if she is not put on the task force to capture the man who did this to her young friend.

These later books from the Tall, Dark and Dangerous series have included some type of suspense/adventure in them which I really didn't think was needed until I started reading them. The first few books are focused on just the romance but in the last two I've read (Hawken's Heart and now, Get Lucky) the added subplot of the chase to get the bad guy really made the story more robust, something I thought impossible in a book of such short content (248 pages).

Something else I really loved about this book in particular was seeing all the gang together. The Alpha Squad Ten with all their significant others were there and it just added to the pleasure of reading this one. And, oh how the mighty have fallen! To see Lucky finally meet his true love was fabulous! I guess I'm not alone in finding him the most charismatic of the whole squad.

Grade: B+
Format: ebook

Anthology - Howl

This Anthology is more focused on stories for Halloween, but the themed plot doesn't take from the stories, regardless of when they are read.

Jet Mykles - Leashed: Two For One Deal: Meg Grey is a witch in need of some help so she casts out a guardian spell to attract shifters that might help her but what she ensnares are a werewolf (Rudy) and a feline (Michael). It seems that Meg is the daughter of a very powerful witch and there is a warlock that wants to recruit her into his coven. When Roland steals Meg's power, Michael and Rudy have a way to link them together so that she can use their power as a conduit to regain her own. Very sexy short story but it left the story open ended. Didn't bother me too much though. (B+ )

Raine Weaver - Wolfe's Gate: Scarlett Grier is caught in a storm and when her Miata ends up in a ditch she seeks refuge in an ancient castle owned by Grayson Wolfe. She is definitely attracted to the mysterious man that locks her in a room, for 'her safety'. That night she witnesses several of Gray's 'guests' having a free for all sex party in the yard and she gets turned on but when the morning arrives and she is attacked by one of Gray's guests she hi tails it out of there quickly. When she arrives at her grandmother's house she discovers that she has died and her cousin Lucas has taken over the place. She spends the rest of the day fantasizing of Grayson. That evening she returns to the castle with seduction in mind and it doesn't take much to convince Gray, regardless of the fact that she is human and he is very much a Wolf. The story is really just a quick romp without promises of eternal love. When Scarlett is threatened, Gray saves her from an enemy wolf and she tells him that she is falling in love with him but the tone is so light that it is acceptable and believable, which is nice. (B )

Jeigh Lynn - All Hallow's Moon: This was the flop of the Anthology. I had not read something this bad since I use to read Roswell Fanfiction. The Hernandez family is having their yearly Halloween party and Devon 'Dash' Rigotti (their adopted son) is back from school to attend. When his brother arrives from his residency program, Dash gets all turned on over the scent he carries on him. Seems Alex is best friends with Dash's mate. Jill, who has been invited to this get together gets lost on her way and hits a wolf with her car. Of course she puts the animal in her car and then continues looking around until she finds a cabin of sorts to wait out the storm that comes in. It's there that she discovers the truth of her furry companion and then proceeds to have sex with the unknown mystery man. This story was so unbelievable it had me rolling my eyes before chapter four.I forced myself to finish it in hopes it would improve but there was no salvaging it. (D-)

The Anthology as a whole suffered because of the last story. If you are willing to pick this one up thinking that you are getting two stories instead of three you will not be disappointed because the first two stories were just so good, the book is worth picking up for just those.

Grade: C+
Format: ebook

Sterling Files: Vicious by Sherri L. King

I decided to give the Sterling Files series another chance, so I picked up Vicious' story. His 'gift' is Time chasing. He can slow down time to a point where he can weave around things and appear, to the naked eye, as just being very fast. Enya Merritt, who is of Arabian descent, is in protective custody with a pack of hit men after her. She is a witness for the government against Siren, the other organization that recruits people with 'gifts'. She use to work for them until she realized they were corrupt.

Running away from a couple of hit men she runs smack into Johnny Vicious, who cleans house very smoothly. When the police arrive, she meets John Strada who is a sexy police officer taking over her protection from the FBI, which failed her terribly. Well it seems John has a secret not even he knows, but Enya later discovers. John is Johnny Vicious.

I really enjoyed this installment in the series. A story like this is why I chose not to give up on an Author after a bad read. Everyone has a bad day. I loved the twist King gave the story by making Vicious, John's alter ego (no spoilers here, you figure it out early on in the story).

The story still has cheesy lines like: "I won't stop to ask again, Enya," he whispered. "Are you sure you're ready for this?" but the pace was slower and the romance was built nicely. I had to laugh when John's equipment was described, though. Have you ever noticed that these heroes are always HUGE! Poor John was abnormally huge and it was just too funny.

Girls, bigger is not always better! Don't get me wrong, size DOES matter and whoever says it doesn't is lying through their teeth, but too big can be a problem too. LOL!!

Anyway, not only did this story redeem this series in my eyes but it also made me want to watch out for the next installment which has to be Ryan Murdock's story. Quite an intriguing fellow.

Grade: B
Format: ebook

Sterling Files: Steele by Sherri L. King

I admit that Sherri L. King is a dastardly temptation for me. I loved her work with the Horde's War series (which is not yet finished) and I have picked up several of her single titles as well with great pleasure (no pun intended). She is very good at her art and her art is writing Erotica.

With that said it pains me to say that she missed her mark with her new series. The story behind the couple appears to be sound but this first installment left me wondering if I was reading King's work or was it some other author with no experience in giving her characters flesh (again... no pun intended).

Brian Steele is part of a government project called Sterling. He was discovered and bought into the program at the age of 13. Everyone involved in the project has some 'special' talent. His is his extraordinary physical strength. He is like a human Superman.

He is sent to recruit Marla Rivers who after being in a coma for a year, wakes up with the ability to control electrical currents. She does not know how to control these new powers and this is where Sterling can help her. That is, if their rival, Siren, will just leave her alone.

Well, within 24 hours she is already in Steele's bed and he's already gaga over her. I mean don't get me wrong, I've seen books that go this fast and honestly, it's a very short story (58 pages in PDF format), but the dialogue was very bad... to the point I found myself cringing.

Even with that, I still liked Brian Steele. He was this huge puppy dog you just wanted to take home to care for. He was all tenderness and sweetness, even when he was knocking heads. Marla... well... she did nothing for me.

I'm not one to kill a series because of one installment. I'll give the next story a try (Sterling Files: Vicious), the hero is like The Flash (super fast).

Grade: C-
Format: ebook