It is 12:00 do you know where your books are…

Amanda asks in her blog - Where have your used books been?. I thought it was an amusing thought.

Do you ever wonder? Where your book was? Who owned it?

I have found a few things in my books, so I am very careful now when I take in books to flip through them to make sure I haven’t left anything behind.

Things I have found:
photos - twice in one book there were three pics and in the other it was just some guy
instructions for cleaning a vibrator
a grocery list
receipts - this happens often
coupon
paper with a name with a phone number
a short personal note
postcard

Now I am pretty sure whoever was reading the book, needed a bookmark and just picked up what was handy but it was amusing none the less. And taught me to always check my books ;).

Tags: Ponderings, things that make you go ewww, Used Books

linkslutting and general ramble

1. This is a great post by Shannon it even has dirty pictures. Sort of.

2. I need to go finish The Lady in Red if it kills me.

3. Master of the Moon by Angela Knight and Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris came in the mail today. WOoT.

4. I bought Indiscretion by Jillian Hunter and plan to buy her new book The Seduction of an English Scoundrel next time I am in Walmart.

5. To celebrate not being sick anymore I bought Return the Warrior by Kinley MacGregor, Talk of the Ton by Eloisa James, Julia London, Rebecca Hagan Lee, Jacqueline Navin and Lord of Sin by Madeline Hunter on Sunday.

6. I am not at all surprised by the bad review on AAR for Lord of Sin.

7. I think it might be time to give up on Rebecca Hagan Lee, oddly enough I don’t recall why I started buying her books.

8. I can’t make up my mind if I want to buy The Companion by Susan Squires or Fire Me Up by Katie MacAlister.

9. I have decided I really like Books A Million.

10. Turns out there is a coupon in Lady in Red for two dollars off of Return of the Warrior. Since I bought them both new and LiR bites, I am so sending it in. I want my two dollars back damn it.

Review: Fantasy Fix by Christine Warren

Fantasy Fix is another Ellora’s Cave novel. This time it is vamps!

I love a good vampire tale. The idea is a group of friend form this club of sorts. They write down five fantasy, when it is their turn the others randomly pick one and make it happen.

They get around the, don’t go home with a stranger rule by using friends of friends. All I can say is they must have really good friends.

Regina doesn’t want to do it, and missed her last turn because she was in a relationship. So they wanna ‘fix’ her twice. She writes what she thinks are five stupid impossible fantasy. And poof next you know they are at a goth club.

All doesn’t go as planned and she goes home with a real vampire, Dmitri. He is an alpha pushy guy, go figure, so if that isn’t your bag baby skip this book. My only bitch is no ones friend should ever get that pissed off you didn’t go home and fuck the guy you were suppose to. Honestly that was a lil odd.

Review: Dangerous Desires by Julia Templeton

Dangerous Desires is a Ellora’s Cave book and for those wanting to read an EC title but not wanting to jump into the deep end of the smut pool, this might be a good trainer book for you smutwise but it isn’t really a good novel.

If it wasn’t for the fact the hero kept screwing his mistress, this wasn’t any different than you read in most romance novels. Hell make it a Susan Johnson novel and it could be this book.

Honestly I didn’t really like it, which is a shame because I have been wanting to read Julia Templeton. And I can say part of it is I expected a steamy novel and it really wasn’t. Well that and the fact there were many things that annoyed the hell out of me.

Things that annoyed me:
Arlie finds herself ward to Dominic, a rakehell of the worst order who her father helped out once. They stay alone in a house together for most of the novel and this is ok.

The first public ‘outing’ she has is a house party at his married mistress’ home. Where tonish people, not the husband, know this is his mistress but it is ok.

She isn’t noble blood but he plans to try and pass her off as a baron’s daughter - even though she is a daughter of what seems to be a well known actress (who left her father for some man aka she is a whore).

He brings a whore (not the mistress) back - along with a friend and his whore - to his house where his ward is staying.

He talks her into turning down a marriage proposal to be his (new) mistress.

Then he waits four days, without a word, to come see her at the townhome he sets her up in to see if he can stay away and in control of himself. He did get a point here for not fucking anyone else during the four days.

He takes his mistress (Arlie) to his best friends wedding, well attended by the ton.

He gets engaged without fucking telling arlie first.

Arlie hops into a carriage and goes to best friends house and asks him about the engagement. This didn’t really bother me, in fact I could see the BF and his wife still being friends with them but historically it seems odd. And the author didn’t sell it to me that the wife was the sort to be friends with her husbands friends mistress.

yeah…. uh… there is the HEA at the end but I just wanted to deck them both. I do want to try another Julia Templeton book, I like to read at least two or three before I write an author off. And I want to read Surrender to Love - yay for the smutty western!

Heat of a Savage Moon by Jane Bonander

Heat of a Savage Moon (’93) comes before FM and was a better book.

It does have GASP a virgin!widow. Her hubby is murdered right after she get to Pine Valley. (I giggle every time I see Pine Valley and want to know where Erica is)

I liked Rachel and Jason. Buck is hard ass, drinker at the end of his rope asshat but you feel for him more here. I wondered if I would have liked FM more if I had read it after this.

The big theme that runs through the novel is how the settlers treated the Indians. We do see how horrid the Indian’s could be as well, so there is something of a balance going on - but I would rec Ride the Fire over this.

The book was ok but nothing I would shout about.

Forbidden Moon by Jane Bonander

Forbidden Moon (’93) ouch this was bad.

Molly wants to be white and forget she is part Native American. She wants to marry for money and have everything she ever wanted as a child. She wants to be able to take care of her mother (who was raped and is slow and very child like, you never learn what is wrong with June but considering the time they wouldn’t have known other than she wasn’t well).

Buck is sleazy for a hero. I kept hearing ‘my name is buck and I am here to fuck’ - I swear that is from a movie but can’t for the life of me place it.

At the start of the book he is married to Honey, who he married cuz he knocked her up. Molly is 14 and a hellion on the make. She wants buck, buck is starting to notice the kid he has always looked out for.

yes I know omg 14 but the year is 1879

The nice family that has taken in June and Molly pay to send Molly away to school before she screws something or just the rest of her life.

1886 Molly is engaged to a nice, wealthy, bigoted, fucks the Mexican and Indian help that are beneath him, white man. Ok he isn’t nice. But omg she thinks he so loves her and she will be a good wife and omg look at the money wwwwwwwhhhheeeeeeeee.

Stuff happens but really I didn’t care. The characters so didn’t do it for me; hell the plot didn’t work for me. I must say I skimmed lots of this book. Bad reader.

Scent of Lilacs by Jane Bonander

Scent of Lilacs (’98) is a book I wonder if I would have enjoyed more if I hadn’t read it right after Wild Heart.

beautiful sister - check (although selfish this time not slutty)
secret baby - check (although it really is hers this time)
gosh I love him I want him I can’t touch him - check (this time without tits, well you know…)

The hero, Jake, thinks he is gonna die young because his father and grandfather did. Heart thing… Jake is a dr as is our hero, Lexy Tate. Or at least she is trying to be, the fact that it is the 1890s and she is female sort of screws with her want.

The book starts with Jake losing a mother giving birth and the daughter and having to tell the father he just lost his family. So jake is upset and goes to lexy - his friend. Jake had/has a thing for her sister, megan, who has married his best friend max.

Jake and Lexy do the comfort sex thing - and guess what he says when he hits the high note. Come on you can guess… I will give you a hint it is a name and it isn’t lexy.

I wasn’t really sure how the book was going to recover from that. Cuz, well, if I am ever in bed with a man and he calls out a name not mine, he is so out of there. But hey I read stories with virgins and people that get married without having sex first and I am not doing that either so I kept reading.

Four years later lexy decides to move west due to her daughter having weak lungs and the weather being better for her than in Rhode Island. She goes to her sister and her husband, which works out great cuz her sissy is preggers. Of course Jake is the dr at the fort. Now Jake did try to see Lexy before he tucked tail and ran - he asked Ben a guy who was trying to get Lexy to marry him and who didn’t like Jake to set up a meeting.

yeah that was what I thought

Ben said Lexy wouldn’t do it and oh yeah wish us happy cuz I asked her to marry me.

Ben was a lying, in case you didn’t know that. Well he asked but whatever. I had a hard time buying a pregnant, unmarried woman becoming a dr in 1890something and the story drags in parts. But all in all it is an ok read.

And there are no evol gays in this one.

Review: Wild Heart by Jane Bonander

Sybil’s Review: Wild Heart by Jane Bonander
Historical Romance by Pocket 01 Oct 1995
[Out of Print can be found in ubs]

Wild Heart was written in 95. And was something of a kick off for me last week of reading 90s romance novels.

I liked it. It is an author I had never heard of before I saw a post complaining about how great this book was if it wasn’t for the sex. I can’t remember what the complaint was about the sex - to graphic or word choice or something. It has to be something along those lines to make me hunt it down.

Yes I am odd but I am ok with that.

So we have lots of cliche’s here but cliches are cliches for a reason right? Julia Larson doesn’t like our hero, Wolf McCloud, who happens to be the best ranch hand her father has hired. She is afraid he is going to end up screwing her slutty, beautiful sister. The sister, Josette already has one kiddo - that of course smart, dependable Julia is raising as her own.

Most people know she is Josette’s but not wolf. Wolf leaves after Josette sluts herself around him one to many times and after he decides staying near julia (who he wants) isn’t smart.

Enter daddy, he offers wolf some land if he will come back but before he gets there daddy is dead. The will says they (wolf and julia - josette has run off at this point) must wed if he wants the land and if she doesn’t want the land to go to the bank.

Of course it is in name only.

bbbbbwwwwwaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Really I like the book, the characters are people I cared about and the sex was done well. And I am thinking the tits and such are what the post was about (wish I could credit whoever it was) but a man who lives like wolf has and was raised as he was is a man I can see using the word tits. Sorry, men have been known to use such words while fuc…making love. And they do, make love as well as fuck ;). You can see that there is more to them just the shagging so even though it can get purple I didn’t mind.

Oh and I forgot the worst part of the story! The evol gay villian! I really thought for a while she was going to be able to pull off a gay chacter without making him the bad guy, well I had hope damn it. But alas it wasn’t to be. His mother (who was wolf’s evol mommy too and I did have an issue with being anywhere near a woman who tried to have you buried alive as a child) was worse.

Yes I said there were some cliches didn’t I? And I didn’t even mention the twin…

This turns out to be a book in the middle of three. I enjoyed it and would like to read more of her work.

Grade: C

From Literary Times:
Julia Larson doesn’t like Wolf McCloud. He may be the best man her father ever hired, but he’s dangerous. With her sister Josette around, Julia knows it’s only a matter of time before there’s another baby on the way. Josette has already had one baby out of wedlock– a baby that Julia cares for as if it were her own. Josette is irresponsible and selfish, but the men seem to like her. Since her father refuses to acknowledge that Josette is becoming a tramp, it is up to Julia to make sure that Wolf McCloud stays away from her sister. Wolf doesn’t wait for Amos Larson to fire him, he leaves on his own. But when he receives a note a short time later from the old man asking to meet him, he’s puzzled. Then Amos gives him a proposition. He knows he is dying and offers Wolf a piece of land in exchange for being Julia’s foreman. Wolf is a half-breed, abandoned at birth by a mother he has been searching for. The chance to own land is an offer he cannot refuse. But Amos doesn’t tell him all his plans. Amos dies mysteriously and Julia is left alone to deal with it. Josette has run off with a man, leaving Julia to take care of her baby. Then Wolf shows up, offering to work for free. She doesn’t know what his intentions are– especially since Josette is gone, but she can’t refuse free help. Then she reads her father’s will and finds out that in order to keep the ranch, she has to marry Wolf. How can she marry a man she hardly knows who likes her sister better anyway? Julia is distraught, but determined to keep her ranch. A marriage in name only is what Wolf and Julia agree to. But the feelings between them spark a passion that refuses to go away. Julia, always living in Josette’s shadow, starts to feel beautiful because of Wolf. And Wolf, who has never known kindness and love, finds in Julia everything he ever wanted. As they get to know each other, they become closer. But their new found happiness is threatened when someone starts sabotaging the ranch, and long held secrets are revealed. Will Julia believe in Wolf and learn to trust him– or will the fragile bond they have forged be destroyed?Passionate and suspenseful! Take a wild ride with Jane Bonander! Wild Heart is wonderful! Jane Bonander writes with feeling! Her characters come alive before your eyes! A terrific story from a fantastic author! Ms. Bonander captures all the untamed wildness of the west! Fans of western romances will be thrilled with Wild Heart! A memorable tale!
Kristina Wright — Copyright © 1994-97 Literary Times, Inc. All rights reserved

Tags: 1995, Historical, Jane Bonander, OOP, Pocket, Review, Sybil, Wild Heart

Back from the dead

I have been awake most of the day and have even left my apt. I so missed the blogs! And omg I was in such pain and my eyes hurt so much I couldn’t even read.

I think if you have to be sick and in bed, you should at least be rewarded with reading time and at worst tv time.

I have a few Jane Bonander books I want to bitch about - one I liked even with the cheese and I read Deborah Martin’s Stormswept (Sabrina Jefferies) it was written in 95. Book aside (will chat on it later) the cover screams for the smart bitches. hmmm so do the jane bonander books… So I will prolly be a postingslut tomorrow.

ok I have been up for as long as I think I can be so I am bound back for the couch to try and read The Lady in Red by Karen Hawkins and try not to stop to read Lord of Sin by Madeline Hunter instead.

Has anyone reviewed Talk of the Ton with Eloisa James, Julia London, Rebecca Hagan Lee and Jacqueline Navin yet?

Books A Million

How do they have books out before their release date?

HOW! And why didn’t I know this? I could already have Lord of Sin and Master of the Moon in my hot lil hands.

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