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2011 Individual Challenges
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MrsJoseph's Challenge
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Ok, wow! I am SOOOOOO behind in updating this thread. This is a list of the books that I have completed and not written anything for:
Unlocked
– Historical Romance Rating: 4/5Hunting Season
- Paranormal Romance (PNR) Rating: 4/5)The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern
– Cozy Murder Mystery Book 2 of The Cat Who series Rating: 3/5The Cat Who Turned on and Off
- Cozy Murder Mystery Book 3 of The Cat Who series Rating: 3/5The Cat Who Saw Red
- Cozy Murder Mystery Book 4 of The Cat Who series Rating: 3/5The Cat Who Played Brahms
- Cozy Murder Mystery Book 5 of The Cat Who series Rating: 3/5General Summery/Feelings for The Cat Who Series so far
There are a few things - throughout the series so far - that I've noticed that sort of dates these first few books: the treatment of women. There are several references sprinkled here and there in which the reader can really tell that these books were written in the late '60s and early 70s. The most telling of which is the idea of female reporters. The newspaper that Qwill works for - The Daily Fluxton - has a "women's department."
Other than that (and the obvious lack of cell phones/TVs in every room) this series has a certain timeless feel. I enjoy that.
Unlocked
– Historical Romance Rating: 4/5
This book is technically a novella (which I normally exclude from this challenge) but I decided to use this book in the challenge just because of how good it was.
This is not your typical historical romance. Serious Male Groveling Beyond This Point. And Spoilers.
Lady Elaine Warren is a spinster and likely to stay that way. At the beginning of her first Season Evan Carlton, Earl of Westfield made her into a mockery. He picked on her laugh (he said it reminded him of a horse), her looks and everything about her. She was a laughing stock and no one wanted to marry her. Then Evan disappeared but her tormentors never let up. He disappeared because he loved Lady Elaine and he only picked on her because he was young and wanted her attention but all of it exploded in his face.
Ten years pass and Evan Carlton is back. He’s a different man but he realizes that the situation he’d created and ran from was still the same. Lady Elaine is still being tormented and is still unmarried. Evan realizes that he might have (another) chance with Lady Elaine – but he has to humble himself because of his actions.
Man! There was some serious apologizes happening in this book! I really enjoyed the way that Evan manned up to the things he’s done wrong in his life and to Lady Elaine. I also loved the fact that it took TIME for Lady Elaine to deal with him. The relationship didn’t just happen because he said “I’m sorry” – the relationship grew. There’s not much more I can say other than “read it!” LOL!
Loosheesh wrote: "Woot!! Almost there and we're only about 1/2 way thru the year - congrats!! =D"Thanks! I almost feel like I can knock out another 100! Almost, lol!
Hunting Season
- Paranormal Romance (PNR)Book 1 of The Gathering
Rating: 4/5
This books is vulgar and fun!
Neecy Lawrence is a Crow. Crows are women who are murdered and given a second chance by being brought back to life by the Viking goddess Skuld. They are called The Gathering. The Crows chase, capture, (and usually) kill people who commit crimes against the Viking gods and goddesses (steal magical runes, etc).
Will Yager is a Raven. Ravens are descendants from the original protectors and warriors of the Viking god Odin.
Usually the Crows and the Ravens don’t mix and mingle but Will has only one thing on his mind, Neecy Lawrence.
I loved this book because it’s fun and silly and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. But that’s not to say the writing is bad or the plot is not well formed. This is a well written book with a good plot and well fleshed out characters. I enjoyed the relationship between Neecy and Will. One of the other things I really enjoyed about this book is that the book is an interracial romance but the author didn’t make a big deal out of it. The characters were who the characters were. The issues that the characters had in their relationship (one of Neecy’s hang ups was because she was an orphan and had become a small time hood prior to her death) was based on real things that had happened in their past or their present – it was never about the color of their skin or how much money they had.
This is book 1 of a series so I’m letting it slide that there are a few plot threads that were not tied up.
The Mane Event
- Paranormal RomanceRating: 3/5 stars
This book is good due to its female characters b(but the men were interesting, too). As I read book 2 in the series, I'm starting to think I should have given this 4/5 stars...book 2 is not as good.
Exile's Honor
- Epic FantasyBook 1 in Exhile
Rating: 4/5 stars
I've read this book a million times. Another one of my comfort reads. As can be imagined, it's hard to review.
The Beast In Him
- Paranormal Romance, EroticaBook 2 in the Pride Series
Rating: 2/5 stars
I swear I hated the main characters in this book. Both of them just irked my nerves. Why couldn't this be as cute as the first book? And why is this book in the "Pride" series when both main characters live in Packs?
2 Stars just because I loved the hero's mother. She needs a book! Love a Southern Woman who knows how to take out the "trash."
MrsJoseph wrote: "I have read several of the BDB series ... some people swear by them. "I also gave Dark Lover a try because so many people were raving but couldn't get past the 60% mark. You are right to call it soap-operish. The villains, especially, are mediocre.
If you like PNR and assassins, I recommend Monica Burns Order of the Sicari series. I've read the first two and they are excellent. The third is coming out in October.
Ooh! That sounds good! I'll have to put it on the TBR Mountain.
I am not a BDB fan, but I have read the first 4 since people are always talking about them. I am much more of a Night Huntress and Kate Daniels fan. I am reading the fourth Elemental Assassin book and that series is also very good. I will have to check out the Monica Burns books.
I haven't tried any of these as yet. I am so behind on everything...
I can't believe with the amount of pnr/uf and smut you read that you haven't read Night Huntress! I have changed my reading habits much since reading this series two years ago. Bones is one of the best male leads, and he is extremely drool worthy.
ROTFLMAO!!!I do read a lot of smut, don't I? I guess that's how I fell into the Kindle Smut group, lol!
I think its cause I bounce around so much and being on GR/MR is the first time I've had people to talk to about books. Most of my friends don't really read and think I'm a little weird.
I also went through a period of about a year where I hardly read anything new (all re-reads). This year has been a polar opposite however. Now I feel like I'm years behind everyone and I'm rushing to catch up.
Night Huntress isn't really smut, it just has one or two really good sex scenes in each book. Book two is the one most people refer to. There are even shirts made about chapter 32. I can't tell you the plot of the book, but I can tell you about the sex scene, lol.I re-read a lot of books, but I have read a lot more new to me books in the past couple years. I want to re-read The Wheel of Time series before the final book comes out. That will be a big read, but I am excited too. I have all of the audiobooks as well, so I can listen to them while cleaning, cooking, and driving. I was thinking about starting a challenge and seeing if anybody wanted to read the series with me.
Oh man, I haven't updated this in FOREVER, lol!So, I also did another challenge: the Kindle Smut July 2011 Friends Challenge. The challenge is to go through your friends list and pick a book from their shelves to read. The options were 4 friends = 4 books, 7 friends = 7 books, or 11 friends = 11 books. Here is my challenge list:
Read: 6/11 as of 07/09/11
3. Eileen: Lean on Me
4. PJ: Make Me, Sir
5. Christa: Hounded
6. Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress": Iron Kissed
7. Grant: Royal Assassin
9. UniquelyMoi *~*Dhestiny*~*: Long Hard Ride
11. Loosheesh: Ecstasy
Joust
– Epic FantasyBook 1 of The Dragon Jousters
Rating: 4/5 stars
Alta and Tia have been at war for years. Vetch, a young farm boy ripped from his family, is an Altan serf for an abusive Tian master. Starved, beaten and overworked, Vetch’s fortunes change for the better when he is taken by the Tian Jouster Ari to the Jousters’ headquarters to become a dragon boy (a young man who cares and feeds the jousting dragons). During his tenure as a dragon boy Vetch decides to raise his own tame dragon.
I love this book. As I’ve read this book a million times, its really hard to review it.
Alta
– Epic FantasyBook 2 of The Dragon Jousters
Rating: 3/5 stars
Vetch is not Kieron, son of Kieron. His friend and mentor Ari has helped Kieron escape serfdom in Tia and make his way to Alta. In Alta Keiron learns that there is more to jousting than flying a dragon. He also learns that there is more to the war between Tia and Alta than anyone else realized. Can Kieron help save his homeland from a rot that has started within?
Yet another book that I’ve read a million times. This book deals more with the political machinations that take place within the Altan society and how it effects the people who live there.
The Dom's Dungeon
– Contemporary Romance, EroticaRating: 2/5 stars
Mackensie is an ex-foster child who was abused (locked in closets). Later, around 14 years old, she runs away from home because of potential sexual abuse. Immediately she is taken by a pimp and forced into teenage prostitution. She is saved by a veterinarian at age 16 who takes her in, raises her, and teaches her to become a vet. Because everyone in the small town she lived in knew and judged her by her past, she is trying to move to a new state. Mackensie does a home vacation exchange so that she can go on job interviews. During the exchange the owner of the home comes back early and finds her in his locked dungeon – his BDSM play room – where she had no permission to be.
I normally enjoy Cherise Sinclair's work but this story unsettled me a little. I felt that the problems the heroine had were too deep for a few spankings and some hugs. In a way I felt that the sexual abuse the heroine had to deal with was trivialized for the sake of a quick plot.
This woman had so many issues! She was abused, neglected, beaten and forced into prostitution. When she meets the hero she had not had sex in 12 years! Not since she’d been rescued from prostitution. It boggled my mind that all these mental and physical issues were handled with a couple of spankings.
I also hated the fact the hero decided he would “push her” in order to show that he cared about her. Because she was locked in closets as a child the heroine had a belief that only people who are loved get spankings. In order to force the heroine into receiving a spanking – the hero allows other men (his friends) to basically make her horribly uncomfortable and panicky by touching her and pulling her clothing off of her. When she rebels and puts on clothing (she’s supposed to be his submissive and he’d given his friends permission) he orders her to publicly strip and when she refuses he spanks her. Now that he has spanked her, she knows he cares about her. Bullshit. That was one of the most horrible sections to me. This girl has been abused within an inch of her life AND she has major issues about being thought of as a whore. Now I’m supposed to believe she gets over ALL OF THAT because he gave her a spanking??! No thanks.
LOL!! I'm so sorry, lol.I can say that my challenge list isn't all smutty, lol. SA few of them are quite tame. :-)
I'm actually reading it right now. Kindle freebie, right?
So true. :-(
Updated KS Challenge Post Read: 7/11 as of 07/13/11
3. Eileen: Lean on Me
4. PJ: Make Me, Sir
5. Christa: Hounded
6. Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress": Iron Kissed
7. Grant: Royal Assassin
9. UniquelyMoi *~*Dhestiny*~*: Long Hard Ride
Ecstasy
- Contemporary Romance, EroticaRating: 2/5 stars
The beginning started very cute and promising...but it went downhill for me from there. Candy running from Charlie after hot sweaty monkey sex was annoying after the first time and her deceptions to him just pissed me off. I did not believe that Candy had "fallen in love" at the time it happened - Charlie would have been more believable as the reader got a better perception of Charlie's feelings than Candy's.
I admit I really liked Charlie, it was nice to see a nice guy actually looking for a relationship and companionship rather than it just "falling in his lap."
I also am not a fan of "books within books" and anything that requires more than one page of italics is almost guaranteed to get skipped by me. The additional storyline was annoying and it helped to take me out of the author's original story time and time again.
That's one of the best part of a freebie! A lot of people liked this book, just not me. My KS group told me she's a "love her or hate her" kind of author. I don't plan to read any more from her unless it's free.
Nowhere Near Respectable
– Historical RomanceBook 3 of The Lost Lords Series
Rating: 4/5 stars
Lady Kiri Lawford –the half-English and half-Indian daughter of an English Duke and an Indian Princess – was spending time with her prospective fiancée and his family in the English country side when she overheard her prospective MIL say something so ghastly about her and her mother that she gathered her belongings and left. Alone. Not the best idea.
She was captured by smugglers but rescued by a gentleman by the name of Damian “Mac” Mackenzie. As Lady Kiri and Mac travel, she finds out that he is bastard born and owns a gambling casino. Not what would be considered the appropriate company for the daughter of a duke. Although Kiri knows that she should not be interested in Mac, she can’t help her attraction and actively searches him out. In her attempt to spend time with Mac, Kiri learns about a plot against the crown – and only she and Mac can stop it.
It’s been a while since I read this book and I still have mixed feelings about it. I really enjoy historicals but this one felt a little off for me.
The book itself is rather interesting. The writing is good and the pace is pretty swift. I was certainly entertained and I enjoyed the read. It was upon finishing the book that I recognized some of the issues that had unsettled me while reading.
The first issue was Lady Kiri: Lady Kiri is such a Mary Sue. Ugh. She’s beautiful and perfect (of course), extremely intelligent, has that “sparkle” that makes all eyes turn to her when she enters a room. She knows hand to hand combat (??), mixes her own perfumes and has such a great ability to sort out fragrances by smell that the entire plot revolves around her abilities. There are very few items that help keep Lady Kiri from being obnoxiously perfect: she’s more sexually aggressive then the hero and she is half-Indian and takes great pride in it. I loved the fact that the heroine was bi-racial and very proud of her heritage but goodness Kiri got on my nerves!
I also had a problem with Lady Kiri’s sexual aggression. Not the fact that she was sexually aggressive but the fact that she actively tried to take advantage of the hero on more than one occasion. Mac knew that he was not the proper person for Lady Kiri and he wanted to be honorable about that fact – he did NOT make passes at her because he respected her and her position. In fact, Mac has to berate her about her aggressiveness. Lady Kiri, on the other hand, went so far as to mislead Mac regarding her sexual experience. If a man had been that aggressive, he would have been considered a total jackass. But since it was perfect Lady Kiri, all was ok.
The final thing that bothered me was the fact that the majority of the plot revolved around Lady Kiri’s nose. More specifically it revolved around her “perfumer’s nose” that allowed her to pick out specific fragrances. It was such a thin plot that it ticked me off. Just to add insult to injury, Lady Kiri is allowed to leave her parents and ALL chaperones and go live in a house with more than one single man.
Those are the thing that bothered me about the book but all in all was an entertaining read.
Samson's Lovely Mortal
- Paranormal Romance, eroticaBook 1 of the Scanguards Vampires
rating: 3/5 stars
Read: 9/11 as of 07/24/11 3. Eileen: Lean on Me
4. PJ: Make Me, Sir
5. Christa: Hounded
6. Tracey: Iron Kissed
7. Grant: Royal Assassin
9. UniquelyMoi *~*Dhestiny*~*: Long Hard Ride
So, I have so many books to list here it's no longer funny! I just finished
Hounded
- Urban FantasyBook 1 of The Iron Druid Chronicles
rating: 4/5 stars
Would anyone be interested in joining a TBR list challenge?
Loosheesh wrote: "Yes! I have about 180 paid books I want to whittle down - any help is appreciated, lol"And done! :-)
I have about 125 I need to knock down (so I can build it back up again :)
I just keep building on mine - but I rarely pay. It's all freebies that I keep finding and picking up.
Caleb wrote: "I just keep building on mine - but I rarely pay. It's all freebies that I keep finding and picking up."I've done a lot of that, too. *face palm* I have so many freebies that I don't even bother to download them from certain sites. I know that I'll get to them some time or the other.
I DNF'ed Long Hard Ride. It was horrible and I couldn't make myself read a word more.I finished (and LOVED) Storm's Heart
by Thea Harrison. 4/5 stars.I also completed
. Very good UF!
It's pretty good! I really enjoyed it.
Just finished up The Duke And I
- Historical RomanceBook 1 of The Brigertons series
Rating: 4/5 Stars
I really enjoyed this book a lot. The characters are well thought out and very realistic. What I wasn't too fond of was the hero's inability to see his life for himself and not his father's expectations. All it all a really good book!
Exactly! You're going to toss away everything you ever wanted just to spite some dead guy? Now that really is cutting off your nose to spite your face.
The Warded Man
- Epic FantasyBook 1 of The Demon Cycle
Rating: 4/5 stars
I really enjoyed this book! The story is set up as if the present day world with our science & technology was suddenly wiped out by unexpected attacks by demons. Our civilization is destroyed and we are sent back to living in small warded towns far from each other, depending on barely known magical wards to protect/save us at night. This continues for 300 years until some people decide that they will not go quietly into the night. They will fight and kill or be killed. The story follows three young people as they figure out their place in a demon controlled world.
There were not too many surprises as I figured out where the author was going pretty early. That didn't bother me because I enjoyed the ride.
I really enjoyed The Warded Man and really have only two complaints:
-WTF could have compelled the author (view spoiler) I think that this one scene dropped it from 5 to 4 stars for me.
-My other issue is the plot line with the guys who live in the desert. It really doesn't bother me that much. It's really the former.
So, there's these:1. Alien Mate
2. Broomstick Breakdown
3. Last Minion Standing
4. Alien Mate 2
5. Dating Cupid
6. Alien Mate 3 – 6!
7. A Ghostly Ménage
8. Naughty List
9. Temptation In Lingerie
10. Army Beasts
11. Wolfen
12. A Modern Wicked Fairy Tale: Goldilocks – 6!
13. Lucifer's Daughter
Didn't you just love it???!
I have to create the challenge thread, I've just been swamped. :-(
OMG, I feel the exact same way! I didn't think Storm's Heart was anywhere near as good as Dragon Bound and I'm nervous about Serpent's Kiss. The short preview they had in the back of Storm's Heart was so...sad and melancholy that I was very concerned.
Go to the "homepage" where your currently reading books are listed. There is a small link for "general update" beside "add a new book."No need for blushing...I only knew it was there because of the phone app.
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Alien Mate 3 (other topics)Alien Mate (other topics)
Wolfen (other topics)
Naughty List (other topics)
Lucifer's Daughter (other topics)
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Book 1 of The Cat Who Series and of Book 1 in The Cat Who MR Reading Challenge
Rating: 4/5 Stars
This is a great cozy mystery. Qwill (and his mustache) is a great character and the story unfolds very well. I read this book years ago and it is so nice to run into old friends. I can say that one of the things I love about Braun’s work is that – aside from technology – so far the book is timeless. I couldn’t tell that this book was written in 1966.