Tara Chevrestt's Blog, page 80

Close to the Wind by Zana Bell

I really enjoyed this heroine. She's a lady who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to head out an attain it, even if it requires her to be poor, lose status, dress as a boy, or even give up love. She also fights for those she loves and strives to be by her brother's side when he needs her.

She never picks up a sword or a pistol and finds herself in distress more than once, but she's strong.

In a nutshell, you have a former circus performer now orphaned and jilted by her fiancee (in a way) and she runs away dressed as a boy and works for her passage as a crew member from England to Portugal (she's aiming for New Zealand), gets shot, have to change disguises a time or two, picks up a few beaus, wins a couple hands of cards, and just overall is the funnest lass I've ran into in a book in a while.

And she falls in love...but she fears the man she is in love with is going to kill her brother, whose side she is trying to reach in time...so in a way, there's a race. Who will reach him first? Can she trust Harry the handsome captain? How will he react when he discovers she's a woman and what will he do with her? 

From ship to ship, country to country, villain to villain, this novel is just a ton of fun. I appreciated the theme that came in the end as well...true love is worth denying riches and status, right? And it's important for a woman to be true to herself, be herself, and not live a life she hates--not even for a man.

So you not only get a solid, entertaining story, but a strong woman and a moral.

I plan to read more historicals by Zana Bell.

Strong is Sexy Movie: Right on Track

I really enjoyed this movie from Disney. They do more than cartoons, you know. This is a docudrama based on two real-life girls (now young women) named Erica and Courtney Enders. 
It stars Beverley Mitchell and Brie Larson.  Basically, it's about two chicks paving the way for other women in junior drag racing. Encouraged by their racing dad, the elder Ender wants nothing more than to race. She has a natural talent for it. She paves the way for her sister and other girls to follow.
There's much resistance. Fellow racers and their fathers tell her she doesn't belong on the track and ask her if she needs tissues when she loses...she can't get a sponsor, even though folks she's beaten repeatedly have them. 
It's 'cause she's a girl and she knows it. This makes her somewhat an overachiever.
She becomes a teenager and while she wants nothing more than to win the Nationals, she also has to deal with struggling grades, boys and her lack of time for them, and the growing pressure she puts on herself. OH, and the part I liked best--how she has to learn to not only handle losing, but also WINNING.
I also enjoyed the "getting back on the horse scene." I'm not going to elaborate. You need to set your DVRs and watch it.
I thought this was a superb movie, though at times I felt the heroine was way overly cocky and even bratty--but she's a kid and that's to be expected. It's def a "girl power" flick and it's clean. I recommend it to the masses.
I think the movie took some liberties. As I said, it's based on the real women, but doesn't follow everything to a T. Regardless, I was inspired to check out the real woman. Here's her website. She's still racing, but stock cars now. Her list of accomplishments is extensive... I consulted Wiki for more of a list format.
-She was the youngest NHRA national event finalist in 2000 and NHRA Sportsman Rookie of the Year-"The first woman in NHRA history to qualify in the top-half of a Pro Stock field, and the first woman to reach a final round in Pro Stock (at Chicago). Enders achieved more round wins in 2005 than all other female drivers in NHRA Pro Stock history combined, and was a finalist for the “Road to the Future” award for the season’s top rookie.-She broke the national speed record in Pro Stock at 213.57 mph (343.71 km/h) at the Gainsville round, and defeated Kurt Busch-"On July 1st, 2012, Erica reached another milestone, becoming the first female Pro Stock even winner in NHRA history."

From Wiki Commons. Erica (left) and Courtney (Right)
Check your local TV listings. If you have the Disney channel, it may be on again soon.

My Ever-Growing TBR Pile 10/5/2013

I can't resist a lady pilot story. I was excited to find this on the list of Choc Lit's upcoming releases. Flight to Coorah Creek by Janet Gover is on my wishlist.


Only Jessica Pearson knows the truth when the press portrays her as the woman who betrayed her lover to escape prosecution. But will her new job flying an outback air ambulance help her sleep at night or atone for a lost life? Doctor Adam Gilmore touches the lives of his patients, but his own scars mean he can never let a woman touch his heart.Runaway Ellen Parkes wants to build a safe future for her two children. Without a man not even one as gentle as Jack North.In Coorah Creek, a town on the edge of nowhere, you re judged by what you do, not what people say about you. But when the harshest judge is the one you see in the mirror, there's nowhere left to hide.

***
I love books about TV shows...for some reason I'd rather read them than watch them, so this made the wishlist too: Sugar and Spice by Angela Britnell.
Fiery, workaholic Lily Redman is sure of two things: that she knows good food and that she always gets what she wants. And what she wants more than anything is to make a success of her new American TV show, Celebrity Chef Swap without the help of her cheating ex-fiance and producer, Patrick O Brien. So when she arrives in Cornwall, she s determined to do just that. Jago Rowse is definitely not looking for love. Back from a stint in Afghanistan and recovering from a messy divorce and an even messier past, the last thing he needs is another complication. So when he lands a temporary job as Luscious Lily s driver, he's none too pleased to find that they can t keep their hands off each other!But trudging around Cornish farms, knee deep in mud and meetings with egotistical chefs was never going to be the perfect recipe for love - was it? And Lily could never fall for a man so disinterested in food - could she?


***
Crash Into You nabbed on Netgalley. Why? Because it's a girl racing cars. I'm hoping there's enough of that to make the story more than just boy and girl fall in love...

The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.

Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look.

But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.

***
Spotted on a blog I follow, reviewed by Anita Davison, this one has hit my wishlist: The Defiant Lady Penceval by Diane Scott Lewis. In 1796, Lady Melwyn Pencavel has been betrothed to Griffin Lambrick since she was a child—and she hasn’t seen him since. Now almost one and twenty, she defies being forced into an arranged marriage. She aspires to be an archeologist and travel to Italy during the upheaval of the Napoleonic Wars. Griffin Lambrick, Viscount of Merther, resents these forced nuptials as well, as he desires no simpering bride and wants no one in his business. For the thrill of it, he smuggles artifacts from Italy at his Cornish estate. Two reckless and stubborn people will meet—with chaos and humor—in this romantic satire, and face their fears.

Strong is Sexy Woman of the Past: The Rosa Parks Story

I recently watched this movie. It's a very powerful one telling the Rosa Parks story, not just the bus, but so much more...and Angela Bassett does an incredible acting job--as usual.

The story begins with a very young Rosie attending a Quaker school. She makes a friend who is later a NAACP leader. The time is the 1920s and we see right away the racial tension, or at least hear about it in the movie. (The Quaker teacher's school was burned down.) The movie very subtlely informs of major racial problems that occur before the Rosa Parks bus story, but doesn't miss a beat.

We go on to learn about the funny romance between Rosa and Raymond Parks. I thought it was interesting how he was pretty passionate and vocal about African-American rights until Scottsdale. Scottsdale seemed to change him, and he didn't care to act anymore, just voice his displeasure. This made me really curious to go read more about the incident.

There are so many powerful scenes in this movie...Rosa trying to get registered to vote. Her determination was incredible. She went not once, but three times.

The children lined up in the "whites only" library... I didn't know whether to cry that they had to do that for something every one takes for granted nowadays--the right to read--or cheer because these kids were taking such a wonderful stand.


The real Rosa ParksAnd then the movie takes us to the bus...and how she handled herself with the utmost dignity and poise. She was arrested, the buses were boycotted, the country was changed. And this woman lost her job and almost lost her marriage...but just think what the world would be like if she hadn't done this.

She wasn't the first to do it...but she was the first to convince others to stand behind her.

Favorite line, from an old lady boycotting the bus:

"I ain't getting on 'til Jim Crow gets off!"



Rosa Parks has been called "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement". She was arrested in December of 1955 for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. Though she was not the first, she was the first the NAACP felt could stand a court trial and possibly win--and she did. She was a secretary of the Montgomery NAACP. She is the first woman and second non-U.S. government official to be buried at Capitol Rotunda.

Pursued (Athena Force #5) by Catherine Mann

What a fun, exciting book!!! It has everything a reader could possibly want: an amazing, determined woman fighter pilot, a sexy biker, a story involving planes, pilots, the military, and revenge...

The flying scenes were incredible, heart-pounding actually, especially in the end. I also learned a lot about the Predator, a plane I'm not that familiar with. It's a plane that flies via "remote control" but the pilot is in a real cockpit using virtual data. It's a plane used for spying, digital spying with pictures and video feed. It sometimes has an actual person sitting in the plane ready to override should anything go wrong.

This was interesting to me. I was afraid I was getting a fluff book with this Silhouette Bombshell mass-marked paperback, but it's def not fluff. It's a real story with real interesting stuff.

Anyway, Josie is a fighter pilot and one of the elite graduates of Athena Academy, a school that turns out kick-ass women. She wants to continue her mother's work and prove the Predator can be improved. But someone wants to stop her...and while Diego is a contractor hired to "look over her shoulder", they end up involved and in some life-threatening circumstances.

I really enjoyed it. My only quibble is there's a sidestory involving a dead Athena classmate and apparently you have to read like all seven books in the series to get the answer. I didn't know that when I nabbed this book on PBS.

Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Olivia Law

Book: Ask Me For More
Author: Elise K. Ackers
Heroine: Olivia Law 

Olivia "Lawless" Law isn't proud of her reputation. One long-ago mistake promoted her from child mischief-maker to town pariah, and it drove her from her home. Eighteen years later, her best friend Samantha O'Hara is calling her back to Hinterdown; the town where no one forgives much, and forgets even less. This takes an incredible strength of character, because the locals are ready for something new to talk about, and they don't mind mowing her down in the gossip crossfire.

Returning, she proves that people can change, and that old friends sometimes don't. It is her strong-willed, resilient nature which secures the admiration - and heart - of Sam's brother, Caleb.

Liv's no longer the wild-haired gypsy child she once was. She's modern, she's got her hair under control and her impish, exuberant behaviour lures like a siren call. She’s got plenty of reasons to feel sorry for herself, but Liv’s unsinkable. Which through Cal’s eyes, is sexy as hell.

Then when she proves herself to be the kind of person who will endure a town full of spite for a friend in need, she becomes irresistible.

Olivia Law is the heroine of Ask Me For More: A Hinterdown Book, the second in the Homeland series being published with Destiny Romance.

Blurb:
When Olivia Law returns home for her best friend's wedding, it stirs up a lot of unexpected memories – not all of them good ones. Liv has a history here she'd prefer to forget, and a life in the city she wants to get back to. She certainly doesn't expect to find herself attracted to the bride's elder brother, Cal O'Hara.

Cal remembers Liv as the trouble making friend of his little sister. He doesn't expect to be faced with an incredibly sexy grown-up version. But Cal has been hurt in the past and is not prepared to risk his heart again. Certainly not for someone who is leaving town in a few days.

Nothing is certain in this delicious tale about escaping the past. Ask Me for More is a poignant story about finding love where you least expect it.


Are you an author with a strong heroine in your book? Want to see her featured? Find out how here.

Micah's Island by Shari Copell

I'm not that into erotica. Too much of it focuses on sex, sex, and more sex, and next to no story OR the story is something swiped and decimated from Nora Roberts--done 5,000 times before.

Shari Copell didn't do that. Oh, she has sex, but the story is so unique. I've never read anything like it.

It's like Tarzan and Jane, but Jane is this young girl with an incredible narrative voice who ends up on an island because her uncle wants her dead and the ship of his crony sinks instead...and she ends up on this island with this gorgeous, innocent Tarzan...Micah.

It's very unique and well done with a strong voice. I appreciated her decision to stay on the island, to not go back to a snot-faced society. Haven't we all imaged that at some time or another? I love Micah and it made me think of how wonderful people can be if they were tainted by TV, society, and taught to be...not the themselves.

There's adventure, sex, love, emotion, and intense moments--on the ship, on the island-- and lots of suspense. Will her uncle find her? Will she be kidnapped again?

I had no quibbles until the ending. I thought a mostly smart chick suddenly became stupid (I'm not going to say more than that, as it would ruin the story and be spoiler). I also wondered...well, why not kill the man when he's sleeping? It didn't make sense to me, some of her and Micah's behavior.

But I recommend this. It's a great read when you need an adventurous, sexy quickie with deeper meanings.

I was sent this by the author for an honest review.

Golden Earrings by Belinda Alexandra

This is a novel with a moral, that reminds us to always get the full story before judging others.


It took me a long time to read this, as I had to juggle it with review-required books, but it's a book that one needs to savor bit by bit anyway.


It goes from Paloma in 1970s France--a ballet dancer estranged from her father, living with her Spanish grandmother who is full of secrets--to Evelina in a turbulent Spain--a wealthy pampered girl I never came to like--to La Rusa, a flamenco dancer accused of betraying Evelina's family.

I won't deny that I became confused at times with jumping around, but not to the point it detracted from my enjoyment of the story and the lessons and history within. The Spanish Civil War is a difficult one to grasp--so many parties, so much hatred, so many factions, but the book simplifies it as much as a historical novel possibly can. The church, Franco, the Republicans, the Socialists...etc.

There's three romances, though I would say La Rusa's steals the show. There's secrets, lies, betrayal, and it being over 500 pages, we'd be here all day if I tried to tell you even a quarter of them. It's great story telling though and as I said above, educational about the war. I also appreciated the awareness of class division. It's something we must never forget--how it can tear apart a nation, how things can go so badly when the rich get richer and the poor get poorer... The moment we forget history is the moment we risk repeating it. That makes books like this even more important.

The dancing, the descriptions, every is vivid and beautiful with the perfect amount of description.

My only solid quibble is I freaking hated Evelina. Never came to like her. Spoiled brat, if you ask me--as a young girl, as a woman, as an old lady. I prefer to like the main players of a story--especially the heroines, and she came across as one. 

"I imagined that Margarida had become a famous writer and was living in a cottage somewhere with dozens of cats. She would write about us, and we would live on her fiction."

Why don't you, like, try to do something yourself, Evelina?

I almost took away a star I hated her so much (and Conchita too), but La Rusa's experiences as an ambulance driver redeemed the book. She had enough guts for all three women combined. :)

I bought this on Amazon Kindle a long time ago. It appears to no longer be available in the States. :(

Come Fly With Cheryl Cooke Harrington

I met this author through #wwwblogs. I read her flight journal (mentioned below) and was just so impressed...This lady didn't just stick to YouTube videos and how-to manuals... She went out and learned to fly just to write it properly!!! Please, allow Cheryl Cooke Harrington to share her experience with you.
"One of the things I like most about being a writer is the way stories take off in the most unexpected directions. In the case of SPARKS FLY, that direction was up. My characters needed an airplane, so I needed to find out how to fly.
Videos like this one below can be incredibly helpful to an author trying to write authentically, but nothing tops hands-on experience. And so it was, one sunny, summer morning, I found myself counting down minutes in the café at Waterloo Regional Airport. My introductory lesson would start at noon. I was almost an hour early. I ordered coffee, found a table, shuffled through someone's left-behind newspaper, and tried not to panic. And then I panicked. Earthbound, height-phobic, bit-overweight me was about to go up in a two-seater Cessna.  Not just go up. I was going to fly the thing. What was I thinking?


I gulped hot coffee and told myself to get a grip. I could do this. After all, there would be a fully qualified pilot in the second seat. If I screwed up, she'd save us. Unless I screwed up really badly…

I wondered if the instructor would wear a parachute.
Just as my imagination had me and the Cessna spiralling to our doom, someone yelled, "Billy!" 

The café cleared in an instant. Customers, wait staff, busboy, even the cook streamed through the door onto the observation deck beyond, sweeping me with them into dazzling sunlight and a deafening wall of sound: the shriek of an engine, pushed to its limit.
'Billy' was flying a fire-engine red biplane, a Pitts Special, according to the handsome pilot standing beside me. Guiding the little red plane through loops and rolls and dives, Billy would climb until the engine stalled, then fall earthward, spinning, silent... then do it all over again.
"She's a bit of a legend, our Billy" said the pilot, and I wondered aloud if they'd let me try that on my introductory flight.
Back inside, the handsome pilot joined me for coffee. His name was Dan and we talked about flying, and books, and the joy of living your dreams. Noon came swiftly. When the instructor called my name, I was ready to soar.
"Have fun," said Dan. "You won't want to come down."
He was right.
I've posted my flight diary and photos over on my blog, so come fly with me.  You know you want to."
Find Cheryl Cooke Harrington online at cchweb.com and at Twitter , Facebook , and GoodReads .

Blurb:
What happens when a thoroughly modern woman, longing to return to her roots, meets an old-fashioned hero on her first day home? Sparks Fly. And it doesn't take a forest fire, smoldering in the distance, to turn up the heat between high school science teacher Logan Paris and bush pilot Mitchell Walker.

Logan's dream of a bright future for her grandfather's lodge at remote Thembi Lake hits an unexpected snag when Gramps introduces the handsome pilot as his new partner. It seems that Mitch has plans of his own for Casey Lodge, and Logan is certain they don't include a partnership with a "city girl." Determined to prove herself and protect her heritage, Logan sets out to unravel the many mysteries of Mitch Walker. Where did he come from? Why is Gramps so willing to trust him with the future? And most disturbing of all ... what's she going to do about the undeniable attraction she feels whenever he's around?

What Were They Looking For? September 2013

Let's see what I have this month...

Dirt bike riders are sexy... Yep, they are. :)
Evonee Kummer...boobs...1940s. I Googled her as I've never heard of her. She was a performer in the New York World's Fair 1939-40. She was in something called American Jubilee in the Hall of Inventions. See the photos here and here. Beautiful woman. That same year she was the first star on a new magazine called Spot. It says, Bosoms are back in style...
So that ended up being interesting.

Let's ignore the offensive bottom one...and instead focus on victor cruz nude. I wish!!!!! I, too, wouldn't mind a racy picture of that hottie. Does anyone have one? Do share...

*smh*