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

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

Let me just say that I read a bit of everything, that is how I became a reviewer but even though I love and am supremely entertained by many authors, when I pick up something by somebody like Dean Koontz you start to realize the whole level of talent, he and a few other possess to write a story that captures you and won't let you go after only a few pages. I can see I will have to make maximum effort to take myself to bed at a decent hour after only a few pages of After Death

I think I may be burned out on vampire romance, tried reading Darkness Unleashed which is a series I paid for the first 5 books and could not finish it, it was not bad but just got boring for me when I knew I had some really good books to read. I grabbed a new one by Deam Koontz After Death just to give me something besides historical romance to read. Thanks for the link to Cocktails & Chloroform , I REALLY enjoyed the first 2 books and considering that time travel books are way down on my list of favorite things that is saying something.

My Dad died from Alzheimer's related health problems and he was in law enforcement and was straight as an arrow his whole life but he would never have done things he did after it set in the last year or 2. It is a horrible thing and I live in fear I do not ever suffer that affliction. I completely understand your "sad and relieved" comment.

I was just browsing a bit and saw this for FREE on KU but what really caught my eye was over 13 THOUSAND reviews and still about a 4.5 average. I may have to get it just to see what I am missing :) It does sound like a revenge story and since I AM a confirmed revenge junkie ....

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NQJ37D3/

This compilation of 3 of the best fairy tale retellings I have read is free today to everyone but since the whole series is on KU it is worth the time to read them all (as I have, they are wonderful) :)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08...

@Vanessa - "Next up I'm going to return to a long abandoned series by Ann Charles, the Deadwood novels. "

I read the first 3-4 books and really liked them but somehow never continued the series, most likely some shiny new book took me away :) I may need to revisit them myself.

@HappyBookWorm - I now remember why I did not finish the series originally, she wrote them out of order and my OCD could not handle it. They are all exceptional reading but if you are a bit OCD like me the correct reading order for the first 5 books are as follows:

1. The Viscount's Rose
2. A Midsummer 's Kiss,
3. Rules for Reforming a Rake,
4. My Fair Lily,
5. The Duke I'm Going to Marry.

The rest seem to be in the correct timeline order. I read the first 2 books (which were exceptional) but when I got to book 3 it took a step back in time when the heroines of the first 2 books were just teenagers. They can still be enjoyed obviously from the almost 2,000 reviews but I wish I had known the correct timeline.

I have read books 1, 2 and 3 (the break in time I took allowed me to really enjoy book 3) but I will skip to book 1 and 2 in the reading order above then I can go to book 6 in the published order. Even though it sounds confusing I feel safe in saying that most people will enjoy them in any order.

I get so many books that sometimes I forget to finish a series which is what I did with The Farthingale Series which is very good and entertaining with the right mix of romance, humor, a bit of adventure and even what I would consider the right level of sex. I stumbled back upon the books I had already bought but not read and found that Rules for Reforming a Rake was exceptional, highly recommend the series

Thankfully, An Earl to Remember turned out to be an excellent book and I really enjoyed it. I am giving it 4 Stars instead of 5 mainly because it got a bit verbose in places but I loved the story and it did track lightly with "Overboard" but enough of a difference to make it original and the hero of our story took a bit longer to figure things out and the ending was great (but not as great as the 2 jumping into the ocean in the movie LOL). It is still on NetGalley and can be requested but since it releases next month I would assume that will end very shortly.

I am reading An Earl to Remember and for once I wish I had not read the synopsis which basically infers it is a historical romance version of the movie "Overboard" (the original is a favorite of mine, we shall not speak of the abomination of a remake they did). So now I am trudging through what would normally be the expected setup and background portion of the book but instead I am trying not to rush through and get to the "overboard" part LOL

Well damn, out of all the great free books I buy one that turns out to be a charity gift at 3 Stars. I will just paste my review below. I could have written a better story with this premise.

The Stolen Princess

TITLE: A Story With High Potential Wasted On Mediocre and Verbose Writing

I got this book thinking it was going to be great. I mean who can mess up a story of a princess on the run, an evil villain pursuing her and a hero to rescue her? This author managed it quite well, the heroine was easy to dislike, the hero rather than being a bit obsessed with her was more like a lost puppy. Throw in almost any situation where he could shine and the author removed another piece of his manhood. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy and expect strong women in these stories but this woman rolled all the way over into stupidity and just a general lack of common sense. If not for a great base story it would have been 1 or 2 stars since the ending pretty much sucked without any epilogue, I was waiting for a great ending, turned the page and it said THE END ....WTF? Seeing as how the rest of these books are not cheap (it would cost in excess of $30 to finish the series) I feel confident I can find a better use for my money with better writers.

Well after several days of arrogant dragons I decided to go back to a historical romance but it seems I picked one with an arrogant hero and a frustrating heroine (so far). The story is additive and I am only 30% into it but it is book 1 of a series and NOT on KU (I used some credits I had built up). The idea that I might have to shell out another $34+ for the rest of the series if it stays really good when I have probably close to a thousand books in my TBR just shows how insane I must be.

The Stolen Princess

https://www.amazon.com/Stolen-Princes...

This one is free for a limited time and looks good but obviously it is intended to hook you into the series (which looks good) which the other books are NOT free :)

Can't Get You Off My Mind: Somewhere, TX Saga

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017SCXB6M

I know some of us suffer the same fate as I do when you see a book that looks really good and you find out you bought it several years ago. I got to find some new authors.

Well, I read Nice Dragons Finish Last I enjoyed it. Liked it enough to grab the 2nd book One Good Dragon Deserves Another, I needed some time away from historical romance anyway :)

Nice Dragons Finish Last has been living in my TBR for quite some time, maybe it is about time I pulled it out :)

It seems that Come Back To Me was more of a novella and as such a lot of buildup was missing but I liked the story and as some of her other books have been, a bit overdone sex but not enough to mess the story up or to the point it felt like filler. A decent 4 Star effort. I will figure out what is next on the list tomorrow :)

Well I finished all 12 books of the "Girls That Dare" (that title just does not do justice) and loved them all even the last one I was sure I would not care for but where the others were more like 80% romance 20% something else. That last one was more like 80% adventure/romance and 20% "almost" sex/romance but there was a bit more filler than the others but it was still a very enjoyable story but I did a lot of speed reading especially the last 20% of the book. Decided I needed something a bit different so I grabbed this from Mt TBR and it looks really good and I love just about anything I ever read by Cynthia Eden

https://www.amazon.com/Come-Back-Me-C...

DemetraP wrote: "I'd like your opinion.

There is a new version of "Wall of Winnipeg" being released by the author Mariana Zapata.

If you haven't heard of this author, she writes very long "slow burn" friends to l..."

I read the original and it was exceptional but I doubt they could add anything to it that would make me buy it again.

I seldom read more than 4-5 books in a series until I move on to something else but I have not done a end to end reading of but one series since the Pennyroyal Green Series from years ago with 2 exceptions, the Bridgerton's and one I just finished called Girls Who Dare which is a bit deceiving but I read all 11 books back to back (there is a 12th book but it seems more filler since there are only 11 women) one of the things it does differently is you get into the mind of both parties plus as the series goes along the author gives you decent size hunks of the status of some of the other couples progress rather than as most do and throw in some hints in the last pages. Additionally, there is one couple that runs through the first 10 books and their story is told in the 11th book and it was freaking amazing since they started out hating each other (I mean REALLY HATING and you will hate him too) since he kind of ruined her life. It has been exceptionally entertaining reading all these stories without getting bored and I would highly recommend this series and they are all on KU. If you miss this series, you have missed a treat IMHO

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07...