Romance Lovers for the Challenge-Impaired discussion

I'm going to go for Angel Fire for now

It's got Setting, Cover, Title and 'bus stop' points (13 points). I'm hoping to get at least one more category but I've got a reasonable starting scord.

(and it's free so it'll do for now (I've got a 'not-enough-caffeine-today' headache tonight so I'm off to bed now))

Hope you feel better, Damiellar!

Week 4 - ♬ Set Fire to the Rain by Adele (2011)

Damiellar: Angel Fire by Valmore Daniels ♬ POINTS: Setting + Cover + Plot + Title + Word = 16 points ♬ Review Here

Susan: Forged in Fire by Trish McCallan ♬ POINTS: Setting + Title + Plot = 13 points ♬ review here

Christal: Firelight by Kristen Callihan ♬ POINTS: Cover + Plot + Title + Setting = 15 points ♬ Review Here

JenniferJ: Ignite by Kaitlyn Davis ♬ POINTS: Cover + Plot + Title(Midnight FIRE series) + Setting + Shelf = 16 points ♬ Review Here

Catherine: Chasing Fire ♬ POINTS: Cover + Title + Setting(year) + Plot = 15 points ♬ Review Here

Book:
Angel Fire - Valmore Daniels

Rating: ★★★
Finished: 25-Jan-2013

Review:

This was a really light book. I've rated it 3 stars (which is my standard 'don't mind this one - worth the read) but if I'd never come across it it wouldn't have made much of a difference. It's the kind of book I could imagine reading while on holiday having picked it up from the local second-hand bookstore.

At the beginning of the story Darcy is just about to return to her home town after being released from prison for manslaughter. The book opens with her having a nightmare regarding the fire in which her parent's house burned down. We're already being tempted to regard this as a case of pyrokinesis but it's not quite that simple (as implied by the series name).

When she arrives in Middleton to stay with her uncle and aunt most people are the unchanged from when she left 10 years before. However she soon meets Neil (the new fire chief) who soon moves to the centre of events.

This was an enjoyable book and I'll likely follow the storyline through out of curiosity's sake if nothing else (and also because I'm an unabashed completist.. a story has to be truly bad for me to abandon a series outright)

Links:

COVER - Wings of fire behind crying woman on cover match lyrics 'it burned while I cried'
PLOT - Neil (male protagonist) is shot and killed by the sherrif (not a very nice guy in this book). Darcy loses control and expresses her rage in a fireball that wipes out an entire block. Neil is dead and everybody in town thinks Darcy's dead as well.
This matches the lyrics
I set fire to the rain,
And I threw us into the flames
Well, it felt like something died
'Cause I knew that that was
The last time'
TITLE - Book title 'Angel Fire matches song title 'Set Fire to the Rain'
SETTING - Song and book were both released in 2011.
WORD - 'bus stop': I stood at the bus stop outside the front gates of the prison - Kindle location 135

Individual points: Cover(2) + Plot (3) + Title (4) + Setting (6) + Word (1) = 16 points

Susan (susayq) wrote: "Hope you feel better, Damiellar!"

Thanks. The main thing is it's self-inflicted. I know better. Based on my usual pattern I should be ok if I get some sleep and make sure to keep my coffee intake at the right level tomorrow.

Wow Damiellar you are fast.

Mods’ Cheat Sheet

Possible Links
Lyrics:Click Here
Video:Click here
Shelf:Love Triangle 1 point
Word: Bus-stop* 1 point per player
*(we will also accept the two words consecutively without the hyphen)

Cover: 2 points
(Link to lyrics) - Single body parts eg, face, lips, arm, leg. Fire. Rain. Board games or scoreboard. A fireman (needs to be in uniform... I have a weakness for firemenwomen, but that's another story.) NEITHER a black and white cover, NOR dark sky or on cover will count.

(Link to video) – Dancer; leotard; (dance shoes alone will NOT be allowed). Two men and one woman. Church or stained glass windows.

Plot: 3 points
A ménage à trois story (m/m/f only, NOT f/f/m). A story where one of the main characters is a dancer or choreographer. A story where the male lead is NOT what he seemed - he has a mistress, he's a spy, he's cheated on someone (NOT necessarily the heroine). A story where the female has just been cheated on. A song about someone who fights fires or sets fires (fireman, arson investigator, an arsonist is setting fires).

Title: 4 points
Anything that has the words SET FIRE, RAIN, or FIRE (alone) in it.

Name: 5 points
Author or Character with the surname ADKINS or BLUE or first name ADELE or LAURIE. Because of the amount of points involved with this link, differences in spelling will NOT be allowed.

Setting: 6 points
Any book written in 2011 or set around the THEATER or CHURCH.

For the title points can the word be in the series title?

JenniferJ wrote: "For the title points can the word be in the series title?"

Yes, Miss Jennifer.

ooops forgot I posted my question here to. Thanks again Mr Elf!

Wow! Super fast finish, Damiellar!

Thanks for posting the cheat sheet, Jennifer! I didn't know it was up in the threads.

I think somebody wants to nominate a song for next week. ;)

say rather that I've got a potentially busy weekend ahead so having my review done was one less thing to keep track of. ;)

choosing a song would be fun but doesn't particularly drive me.

ok...you'll have to give me a bit to find a book :)

we're not doing to shabbily! :) let's go team! :)

I think I will read Firelight by Kristen Callihan. It has cover, title, and plot for 9 points.

I can't wait to read your review on that Christal. I bought it when it came out and just haven't read it.

I'll be sure to get it up soon then Susan. :) I actually got the third book as an ARC for a fellow blogger and then decided I would start the series too when I found the first book for 2.99 on amazon.

Sorry guys, I've only just realised I hadn't put last week's dance card up for you. I've now updated it in Post #2 as well.

Don't you love getting ARCs, Christal? I have one that I need to read. Probably next month lol

hey guys....I feel like I'm droping the ball here!! :( can anyone take a quick perusal of my list to see if there is anything there that I am missing? I haven't found a book yet :)


HELP!!!!!!!

Sure, Catherine. Let me take a look

thanks :) I have looked and looked....:(

Hmmm, I've come up with about 11 from your TBR lol. Let me quickly see what points they'd give you...

Oh thanks sooo much. I guess I was only looking for specifics....like "fire" to be in the title :) you're a godsend Susan :)

Alrighty, let me start by saying I'm in this game to have fun and mainly read off my TBR and am not necessarily going for the highest point books just cause they'll get us more points :) (and now everyone is praying I'm not in their team next round lol) anyway...with that said, this is what jumped at me from your TBR that I would have considered...

several other people on other teams are reading this. It's worth 16 points

I've read other books in this series and liked them. This is only 7 points(plot +title), but I think that the witch compound is in an old church. Of course, I may be thinking of another series lol and I forgot to look at alternate covers to see if you'd get points for that.

will get you 10 points for setting and title.

I'll be honest and say this will only get you 4 points but I couldn't help but recommend it. The author is from my hometown (went to school with my parents) and the main character goes home to New Iberia ( my hometown) in this series :)

And lastly, this isn't On your TBR but I like Nora Roberts and others have read it this week for 15 points :)

I hope that helps :)

Thanks sooo much Susan :)

You're welcome! I just hope I helped :)

You did! I was growing desperate! I had looked and nothing I was finding fit the criteria....I may have been to literal.....perhaps that's why I was at a loss.....but these all look to be good choices....and I am having fun reading all these books....and getting some off my TBR list to boot! :)

Susan (susayq) wrote: "Don't you love getting ARCs, Christal? I have one that I need to read. Probably next month lol"

Oh definitely Susan, I love getting ARCs. My problem is that I request too many of them though and then I don't have time to read older books, lol.

Forged in Fire by Trish McCallan

Date Finished: 1/28/13
Rating: 3.5-4 stars
Review:

This was a pretty good book. There was more suspense than romance though. I'm almost tempted to give it to my Hubs and let him read it LOL A lot of time was spent introducing us to the other members of the SEAL team, especially the CO, Mac. I'll be reading the rest of the series when it's published cause I like hot sexy SEALS ;)
The hero, Zane, is psychic and can see flashes of the future if something is going to go wrong. He foresees the death of his team mates as they're waiting to board a flight. As he's warning them, in walks Beth Brown, his soul mate that he hasn't met yet. She had a dream the night before that showed her the hijacking of the plane and the subsequent deaths of all the passengers and she's there to try to warn someone and stop it. Kidnappings, shootings, deaths, and fires follow. Finally she accepts that they're soul mates, allowing their connection to one another to save her.

POINTS:
Title = 4
Setting = 6 (published in 2011)
Plot = 3 Can I claim plot points for this since only his SEAL team friends know he's psychic, therefore he's NOT what he seems...he seems to be a normal SEAL, but he's a psychic SEAL ;)

Week 4 - ♬ Set Fire to the Rain by Adele (2011)




Book: Firelight by Kristen Callihan
Rating: ★★★★
Finished: 29-Jan-2013
Review: I really enjoyed this debut by Kristen Callihan. I don't read a ton of PNR or historical romances so everything felt very fresh to me. I loved the main characters, Miranda and Archer, and am a little sad to see they are not the leads for the next book. I think the paranormal elements were handled well and the romance felt natural. I will definitely be continuing with this series!

*Links:
PLOT: Archer is hiding a secret and is definitely not what he seems and Miranda is a fire starter.
COVER: Lots and lots of fire
TITLE: FIRElight
SETTING: The major conflict of this story take place in a druidic church. I'll let the mods weigh in on this one though.

Individual points: Cover(2) + Plot(3) + Title(4) + Setting (6) = 15 points (or 9 if the setting doesn't count)

Great review, Christal! I'll be moving this up the list :)

Happy midweek! How's the reading going for this going, Jennifer and Catherine? Damiellar and Christal, are you reading something good?

My youngest is sick. YUCK! I think she has a mild case of the flu. She finally went to bed last night without a fever, so we'll see how today goes.

I'm just starting I hope it lives up to it's hype.

Hi ladies! Had to work all weekend so just now getting to really dig into my book (Grrr) I just noticed I never mentioned what I was reading. lol I am reading Ignite and so far it's ok but I am not very far in so hard to form an opinion yet. :(

Where do you work, Jennifer? And no worries about not getting to start until now. I was just feeling chatty this morning LOL

Good morning Susan :) I'm reading The Madman's Daughter and it is really good! I'm about halfway through and can't wait to find out how it all ends. I'll probably start The Mad Scientist's Daughter next. They were my last two ARCs to read for January. I have almost 20 to read for February. Somehow I ended up with the most books to read in the shortest month lol.

I want to read Dragon Bound too. I'll be waiting to see what you have to say about it. How your little one is feeling better today!

Those books sound interesting Christal. I'm really liking Dragon Bound. It has humor in it.

Hey there, and another couple of books get added to my list

(Dragon Bound may be moved up the queue as well) -a bit of humour is def good imo

I'm not really reading anything worthwhile at present - just 'read while I've got them in hand' and 'dip back into the good bits'.

I'm actually skimming through stuff that I can knit to so nothing too heavy. Not that that's bad though.

how can you knit and listen to a book? I would get sooo lost! I can knit/crochet/cross-stitch...etc with the telly on...but I can not do anything when someone is talkg to me..ie..audio books/music!

I can't knit at all lol But give me a counted cross stitch pattern and embroidery floss and I'm all over it :) I smock children's clothes too. Of course, I haven't done either in a while. My oldest daughter actually bought me a new CCS book before Christmas that has Christmas stockings in it so I could do some for her children. I can do it with the tv or radio, going to have to try audiobooks ;)

Catherine wrote: "how can you knit and listen to a book? I would get sooo lost! I can knit/crochet/cross-stitch...etc with the telly on...but I can not do anything when someone is talkg to me..ie..audio books/music!"


and that's why I'm only reading the simple stuff on my notebook at present :)

I'm knitting chart stuff atm so it's fairly repetitive so I can read a paragraph or two while my fingers do a row of 'knit as previous' unless I come across a really interesting bit and then my fingers brake to a halt

Susan I work part time processing phone orders for infomercials. Then my hubby has a used tire business and I have to help him with that. I can usually get a good bit of reading done on either but for some reason this past weekend was unusally busy! LOL

I envy you ladies that can knit/crochet...I can't do either but I do enjoy sewing on the sewing machine occasionally. :)

I like sewing as well! counted cross-stitch, emboidery, sewing, needlepoint....can use a sewing machine too...but better with hand-sewing! :)

want to learn to quilt

and I don't sew at all. I learnt while younger but I'm certain I've forgotten it.

I'm refusing to submit to the urge to take it up again (or to pick up quilting full stop) as I suspect that the cost of a fabric stash on top of my current wool / fibre / book stashes would be just too much for my poor budget (let alone my cupboards!)

know your limits is what I say.

I'm still envious of anyone who does cross-stitch or needlepoint though - it has to be so precise and it's such fine work.

I do sew with a sewing machine. I make children's clothes. I use to sell what I made at several local boutiques and online, now I just sew for the grandkids and close friends.

New song choices are listed....

Week #5 Playlist Choices - First Five
Mr Randomizer will choose one song from the list below, and we will post it here on the DATE.

1.Damiellar from Teal We Read Again - She Hates Me by Puddle of Mudd (2002)

2.Nikita from Emerald City Readers - Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men (2011)

3.Judy from Team Red - I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston (1992)

4.Megan from Orange Crush - Airplanes by B.O.B. featuring Haley Williams (2010)

5.Gisela from Yellow - Viva la Vida by Coldplay (2008)

The mods will be able to answer questions once the song is picked. Happy linking!

Thanks for posting the songs, Susan. I think we should be able to make some good links this week.

No problem! I think we should be able to too :)

ok I am finally finished! Really sorry took me so long this week just got behind and couldn't get caught up for heck! @Susan change my points to 15 hon ;)

Week 4 - ♬ Set Fire to the Rain by Adele (2011)



Book: Ignite (Midnight Fire, #1) by Kaitlyn Davis
Rating: *****
Finished: 1/31/13
Review: Took me on a thrill ride! I LOVED IT! Kira is an amazing character who is not wimpy like most girls are and not afraid to go after what she wants no matter who don't like it. She is a new girl at school and she falls for bad boy Tristan even though her new found best friend Luke warns her to stay away from Tristan's group but says he can't tell her why.

Tristan I immediately fell for myself (swooning here) and took a liking to regardless of his warnings to Kira that a relationship between them can never be but yet he doesn't explain why either. Luke I also liked very much but he gave me more a feel of an older brother whereas Tristan was the sexy, dangerous, supposedly bad bad boy. ;)

Overall I really enjoyed Ignite but I do feel like parts were stretched out to long like Kira coming to understand how she was different and why the guys kept trying to warn her against forming a relationship with Tristan. Still it was a wonderful story and I loved the conduit concept!

Links:

2 Points - COVER: Fire in her hand.
3 Points - PLOT: Love triangle (2 guys and a girl), girl can set fire (she's a conduit of the sun), neither of the males are what they seem!
4 Points - TITLE: Has Fire in Series Title "Midnight Fire Series"
6 Points - SETTING: Written in 2011


15 points :)