Monique S.'s Blog, page 8

Ras de bol/I have enough!

Goodreads keeps annoying me to the extent, That I am seriously contemplating leaving. The new book page, that in my opinion is absolute crap by comparison to the old one, the changes to our profiles, all of that points to the same idiocy, that took over the automobile industry about 15 years ago: designers in the attempt to profile themselves as innovative ruin perfectly good concepts.

I know a designer at Volkswagen, who said that the VX Golf 15 years ago was pretty much perfect, it was impossible to improve its features. Changing design, lies about technical data (the exhaust skandal) and new supposedly innovative features then made it less reliable, less durable and generally worse than the previous model. A trend that still continues, that drove that particular development engineer to prefer rather early retirement.

The same thing is happening now to Goodreads, which means that as soon as I find a suitable alternative I am gone here. I'll warn all my friends and readers in advance.

A truly exceptional book!

Protection Rapprochée by Alexandra Mac Kargan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Protection Rapproché est un livre exceptionnel. Alexandra Mac Kargan nous livre deux files, une intrigue mystérieuse et une romantique, tous les deux bien travaille et avec un développement personnel étonnant, spécialement pour Megan, la jeune chanteuse d’une groupe des musiciens Rock (Metal). Xandra, une agente de protection, qui a juste la presque récupéré sa forme après une blessure presque mortelle, est engagé pour protéger Megan d’un menace apparemment venant d’une femme qui lui veut sa relation avec le guitariste de la groupe.
Même si Xandra est au moins 14 plus âgée que Megan, elle se sent attiré par la belle et charmante jeune femme, qui néanmoins ne veut pas lâcher son relation toxique. Le plus de temps ils passent ensemble l’attitude de Xandra envers Megan se change aussi que la jeune femme gagne foi en soi même.

Quand le menace s’empire et Xandra lutte de plus en plus contre le magnétisme de sa jeune protégée, celle se admets enfin à soi même, que elle, aussi, se sent attiré de sa protectrice. Après un éclat avec le guitariste et les autres membres de la groupe à cause de Megan, Xandra propose des vacances avec Megan et ils partent ensemble pour rétablir la confiance de la chanteuse en son talent et faire les deux se connaître mieux. Une bien douce mais passionnante romance se développe.
À partir de ce moment le rôles de Xandra et Megan changent et le romance et leur développement personnel prennent le devant de l’intrigue mais l’auteure a plusieurs tournants surprenants encore, pour nous captiver, mais je ne vais pas vous gaspiller la lecture.

L’écriture est douce et passionné au même temps et d’une beauté fascinante. Aussi l’auteure évite avec aplomb nous préciser trop des interactions sexuelles, et quand elle en fait, ça touche le cœur en profondeur. Un style vraiment exceptionnel dans ce genre, qui j’aime beaucoup plus que la plupart des livres j’ai lu.



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I'd call it a classic!

Secret Sanctuary by Nance Sparks

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Secret Sanctuary starts slow as a thriller, but Nance Sparks sure knows to ramp up the tension until you hardly dare to turn to the next page. Towards the end it becomes almost unbearable.

The two main ladies, Alexandria (Alex) Trenton is a US Deputy Marshal in charge of keeping the sanctuary and its inhabitants safe. Elina Hawkins is a former Search and rescue specialist from a native American blood line and the ranch, that is the cove for the facility belongs to Mary, her grandmother. Mary is one of the wonderful, well defined supporting characters, who Alex assumes to be ignorant of her real job, even though she officially works for the ranch.

When Elina turns up, Alex has no clue to her actual activities and neither of the fact, that she is much more badass than she is herself, as she is completely in the dark of who her new (and old) crush really is now. Both are restricted by the secrecy each job involves.

Introducing Candice, who is the woman, who is Alex superior and mentor, but also seems to be all too familiar with Elina. She becomes more and more of a central figure of the mystery in the background. And a tripping stone in the slowly developing romance between Alex and Elina. She like Mary, the grandmother, also is a wonderfully worked character.

As the plot thickens, more and more secrets become unveiled, the tension mounts to almost unbearable heights and the romance develops alongside. A fantastic read!



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Fantastic!

Secret Sanctuary by Nance Sparks

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Secret Sanctuary starts slow as a thriller, but Nance Sparks sure knows to ramp up the tension until you hardly dare to turn to the next page. Towards the end it becomes almost unbearable.

The two main ladies, Alexandria (Alex) Trenton is a US Deputy Marshal in charge of keeping the sanctuary and its inhabitants safe. Elina Hawkins is a former Search and rescue specialist from a native American blood line and the ranch, that is the cove for the facility belongs to Mary, her grandmother. Mary is one of the wonderful, well defined supporting characters, who Alex assumes to be ignorant of her real job, even though she officially works for the ranch.

When Elina turns up, Alex has no clue to her actual activities and neither of the fact, that she is much more badass than she is herself, as she is completely in the dark of who her new (and old) crush really is now. Both are restricted by the secrecy each job involves.

Introducing Candice, who is the woman, who is Alex superior and mentor, but also seems to be all too familiar with Elina. She becomes more and more of a central figure of the mystery in the background. And a tripping stone in the slowly developing romance between Alex and Elina. She like Mary, the grandmother, also is a wonderfully worked character.

As the plot thickens, more and more secrets become unveiled, the tension mounts to almost unbearable heights and the romance develops alongside. A fantastic read!



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Absolutely great!

The Raven and the Banshee by Carolyn Elizabeth

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


WOW!

As I said before, regard myself a dqughter of the sea.Alexander Kent and Patrick O'Brian are probably the two most knowledgeable writers on naval warfare and sailing ships around and I have read most of their work more than just once.

Ms. Elizabeth's tale is very authentic and a gripping read. The sapphic romance just the kick I needed to crave this book on top of the sefaring theme. As I said, the aspect of life at sea in a sailing vessel of the time are well and authenticly portrayed with just one small glitch that is the number of people involved to sail such a ship. eighty years later 30 something men would have hardly been able to man a cutter, a sloop of war (carrying te mentioned number of guns) would have had a minimum of sixty and a frigate of any navy would have been maned by at lest 300 sailors and anything like 100 marines.

But that kind of authenticity is not really required here, because all the rest is spot on. Both the action, especially the fight of the Banshee and the Serpents Mistress, an the general life are well portrayed. We are talking here the time of two real life female pirates, Mary Reed and Ann Bonney, whose existence is actually pretty much proven. There's much speculation about their sexuality, let's leave that open. But for me as a sapphic reader the romance - of course - is very satisfying, especially as both, Branna and Julia are, as another character said, pretty much equal in peersonal strength.



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My comment on the most expected romances.

Sorry, dear Goodreads guys, but why do you assume, that people who are fundamentally different to the generic mainstream, sapphic women like me, for example, love something as common and, sorry, again, generic as Hallmarrk Movies? For me that in itsef is an insult!

I admit, that a research project in the UK resulted in the realisation, that 80% of BA graduates from university were not able to pass a common O-level (middle grade) exam from the 1960s. But that doesn't mean, that anyone over 40 loves such kind of generic, sorry, "CRAP"!

I am 69 years of age, but I have had a very good general education, that included 6 years of LATIN and one year of ancient Greek on top of five years of of English? German, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History and social Social science, all of which I grduated in with a certificate to study those same topics at university level. Add to that 51 years of life experience and a lot of professionl training and Hallmark is as far from that as other galaxies, veut dire pas de mon monde.

Un vrai plaisir!

L' Insolente et douce Lai by Mónica Benítez

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


C'est rarement que je finis lire un livre et ne peux pas m'arreter a sourire. Ce petite romance certainment est un d'en.



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Excellent!

Choosing Her by Natalie Debrabandere

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Another book by Natalie Debrandere that had me spellbound. All three books I read so far have at least one seriously traumatised heroine. In this case there are two, Charlie Winters, an ex Captain of the Marines and her therapist, Renée Clarke, who just had the horrible duty to switch off her twin sisters life support after six months of her being in a coma after a rally racing accident.

Renée has her new boss and old best friend to help with her own grief and her new job as a distraction, but then there is Charlie, who was sent into therapy after a fight in a bar by a judge and his former employer. He tries to resist all and everything the Phoenix centre offers, but Renée is very experienced and really good at her job and gets Charlie to slowly open up.

Renée is holding back her strong attraction because of the ethics of her job and Charlie holds back because she fears her feelings more than deah or the devil. The way both slowly get closer and fall for each other is wonderfully written and I love the fact, that here finally are two mature independent women, who strive for seeing eye to eye on all levels as equal partners.

There are some very interesting and well built side characters and pretty much everyone progresses personally during the story. I can whole heartedly recommend this book warmly.



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Absolutely wonderful

This Wicked Fate by Kalynn Bayron

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This wicket fate is practically unputdownable – at least it was for me. I started at about 7 p.m. and had to stop at 2 a.m. as I could not keep my eyes open, but I was back at it the moment I woke up again. I gave myself just the time to brew some coffee.

I know quite a bit about ancient Greek myths and am amazed at the depth of what appears, albeit modified by Mme. Byron’s incredible imagination, in this … lets call it a fantasy thriller. Not to talk about the host of amazing characters, some of whom I already could not help but fall in love with in the first volume of this wonderful tale. The adventure bit is hair-raisingly tense and the parallel romances are heart warming, sometimes cute, sometimes intense, even if there is the underlying feeling of doom, that lingers almost to the very end, that is sad and satisfying at the same time.

This Poison Heart and This Wicked Fate together now occupy the number one spot on my top favourite list. Five stars simply are not enough.



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Balynn Bayron

OK,
it seems difficult to get to contact Balynn, but I cannot help feeling I have to express certain things.

Since my youth I had a fascintion with Greek myths (history?). I had six years of ancient Latin and one of ancient Greek at school, but neither helped me understand Greek myths like my studies since 1986, based on my encounter with Wolfgang Doebereiner.

Balynn, I have never before encountered as much knowledge and empathic understanding as you display in This Poison Heart and This Wicket Fate, other than in S.E. Diemer's The Dark Wife.

The other things I like about your books are the incredibly beautiful and fitting title images, especially for This Wicket Fate. If I was 45 years younger, I'd instantly fall in love with Briseis or Marie!

As to Circe I have chosen en entirely different approach in my "What if?", but then I am a white caucasian trans woman, so that is no surprise.

I'd love to talk Greek Myths and how they still apply with you, would you?