Vanessa’s Comments (group member since Jun 15, 2017)

Vanessa’s comments from the Read, Reading, Planning to Read and More group.

Melindeeloo... I'm just into the Every One In My Family Has Killled Someone novel on audio. I have been laughing at some of the really amusing side bars that the author slides in. Thanks for the reminder about the book. I didn't get it on sale but I like some craziness in my reads... so I got it with a credit. As fast paced as the book is, I can't imagine reading it would have the same impact as with the Aussie narrator.

Hi Dorsey... This is an older series which can get steamy. "The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie" by Jennifer Ashley is one if my all time favorites. Sorry on my phone & links don't work on the GR app.
Also have you read any Lorraine Heath? Deanna Raybourn had a couple of great series, Lady Julia Grey, (Which is a complete series) & Veronica Speedwell.
Two mystery & romance series...
Wrexford & Sloane by Andrea Penrose and also by Sherry Thomas the Lady Sherlock series. These are both slow burn romances.
Welcome to the family!

Happy... Those sound like good books, I'll give the first one a try.
Congrats on retirement and on moving back into your house. It must have been really hard these last years. Good Luck!!

any deals for KU renewal yet?

Some of us have recently read "Signal Moon" by Kate Quinn. I really loved "The Huntress" and "Diamond Eye" by her. They were excellent on audio. She's really got a talent for period writing.

melindeeloo... I feel the same way about the Time Police series on audio. It just figures, Jane & Grint finally ... and then there's an emergency, LOL!
I finished the latest Mercy Thompson book, I liked it. This time it's more about Mercy and Adam than all of the pack dynamics. This is one of the series that I won't listen to on audible. I have their voices in my head and I don't want to hear them portrayed differently.
I finished an ARC of the latest short story in the RIP Through Time series. "Schemes and Scandals".

Kelley Armstrong has a new book out today, "Finding Mister Write"

Sorry, I have a crack in my phone screen and sometimes I's and O's are crossed. And I just plain old hit the wrong keys, LOL!

I have to renew my kindle unlimited tomorrow. Does anyone know of any deals, or when Amazon days happen July 16-17? If someone would let me know if they've found a KU renewal deal, I would appreciate it.
I have been catching up on Chloe Neill's Chicagoland Vampire's spin-off "Shadowed Steel". I really like the daughter Elisa and her love interest, Connor, the North American Wilf Pack's Apex's son. Their interactions are thought out and not running around willy-nilly. These are excellent on audio, I also dis the entire Chicagoland Vampire's series in audio too. I find that I need to catch up on a few series lately.

I get it. Stupid me my husband is 7 years younger than me and self employed. I carry the insurance or I would be looking to retire in the next 2 years. Good luck with the "retirement" plans, everytime I'm home I spend my days working in the yard! LOL!

Thanks again everyone. HappyBookWorm have you seen anything on NetGalley about Jodi Taylor's "The Ballad of Smallhope & Pennyroyal "? I have received ARC's from her in the past, (thanks
to you), but I don't see anything coming up yet. I know that you are a lot more astute at picking up on our groups popular series ARC's.
Has anyone else been reading any of the kindlevella stories? Some are quite good from various popular authors, and some feel like they are dragging out the story to leach more money from you. Has anyone come across any good ones? I like " The Seduction Series" by Eloisa James, a couple by Rebecca Zanetti, "Darkkin Knight" by John Conroe, it's a spin off but I never read the original series and liked this just fine, and Kimberly Titus has a few good ones out too. None are as ridiculously long as a couple that I started and DNF.

Thanks everyone! It's a journey to say the least.

Kristi... I have you and your hubby in my prayers. Do you stay with him or do you have to travel back and forth every day?
Last Monday my husband had his second heart attack. He is 58 and his first happened when he was 32. He had a heart valve replacement about 6 years ago and the did 4 bypasses. Now, 3 out of the 4 are blocked again. He has a history of blockages. Every stent that he has had has blocked or blocked near it, so they tried the bypass surgery.
The Dr's are just letting him take meds and if he has any pain then they will determine their course of action after that. He's home and returning to work a few hours at a time. (We own a light duty truck salvage yard). He has some good people working for him so he is able to depend on them for some of the work. I work for a public utility in construction so I had to return to work on Saturday. He's been home since late Thursday night and so far doing pretty well. It's a scary situation and as many if us know waiting around is at times excruciating. I just mentioned this to get others know here that they aren't alone and many of us play the waiting game for those we love.

As to reading.. I read an ARC by Rebecca Zanetti called "One Cursed Rose". It's OK, not my favorite, kind of insta-love. He too alpha for me, which I can't believe I'm actually saying. The male lead Thorn, is a dark, brutal character. The female lead is supposed to be this famous alternate reality influencer. She comes across as a dim-whit, but she is not. I this world there are competing families who gain world dominance through gems, and the social media. It's a very weird combo bur after a while you get the gist of the novel's world setup. Not a great book IMHO.

I'm listening to a different to me genre, a western themed story.
"Claiming Her Legacy" by Linda Goodnight. This is a slow burn love story. Three young women are struggling to make ends meet on the family farm. Their father has been murdered and he was indebted to the notorious local money lender. The only way to save it is if the oldest woman hires a bounty hunter to ho with her to track down his killer. There is a sizeable bounty which will pay off all of their debt. I actually really like the slow style of the writer. You have a lot of their background and the story is as much about their lives as it is the hunt for her father's killer.

I feel really bad for you Doug, what a dilemma! :-)

On Facebook there is a post for an open casting call for men in their late 20's to early 30's, with a minimum height 6'1" for the BDB. Pasionflix is developing this series.

HBW I wished for Tough Luck. Thanks for the recommendation.

I am currently reading an ARC by Rebecca Zanetti, "One Cursed Rose"
It's kind of a back to her raw, gritty, and explicit writing. The beginning is a bit hard to get into and the power sources are a bit skewed but I am liking it so far. I'm not as enthusiastic about the alpha male and his correcting her by spanking. Maybe I'm getting a bit shaded by that.

Congrats!!! Someday I'll get up there!

Sorry the second book is "The Dead Romantics" by Ashley Poston.

I finished "Nora Goes Off Script" and I actually liked it very much. The reader was excellent and the overall story was good. I really liked that the woman was a practical person and great mother. The male lead was a fun character and of course a deep character than he first appeared. I would give it a solid 4 stars.
I also listened to a contemporary with a paranormal bend. The main character, Florence Day, is a ghost writer for an extremely popular romance writer. Ironically, she also happens to be able to see ghosts. After 10 years, Florence has to return to her hometown where her family runs the local funeral home.
As soon as she gets there she answers a knock at the door and is surprised to see the ghost of her hot New York editor who has no idea that he is a ghost. For more than half of the book, I didn't really like the character Florence. She's stubborn, irritatingly so, and rather bitchy. I get that the MC is supposed to be down on love but she is a pain. The overall story is really good. The author takes great pains in creating characters to be all inclusive, I think that it was a tactic to garner readers. For some reason it didn't flow for me because the story takes place in a really small town. I would also rate this novel 4 stars.

Paula, I agree I recommend the Miss Fortune series to lots of people. The thing that I hate is that in the beginning her audio books came out within a couple of months of the release, now, it comes out about a month before the next books' release.

I've been in a historical read mood lately. I received "My Season of Scandal" The Palace of Rogues series as an ARC. I hadn't read Julie Anne Long in quite a while so I went back and listened to the rest of the series. I like that each relationship shouldn't mesh but it does.

If anyone is interested in a creepy kind of mystery, "The Housemaid" by Freida McFadden is an excellent choice.

I picked a couple of not my usual genre books to listen to in Audible's recent buy one get one free sale. I'm currently listening to "Nora goes Off Script" by Annabel Monaghan. It's a contemporary read about a woman raising 2 kids on her own who happens to be a writer who's script has been picked up as a movie. The novel is based on her relationship with her now ex husband. She's used to writing for a romance channel and this is a big deal. The production company decides to film at her house for a few days and two of the biggest actors are portraying the leads. When everyone leaves. she get up the next day to drink a cup of coffee and watch the sunrise from her front porch she discovers the the male lead. Leo Vance is wrapped up in his duvet on her porch swing. He proposes that he stay for a week and that he will pay her $1000.00 a day. As her house is falling apart that is very enticing. So far it's pretty good, she doesn't fawn over him. in fact she's a good mix of I can't believe you don't know that and I am conducting my life as normal as possible. Sometimes she ditches him so she can go off on her own. So far it's not had any stupid moves.