A LEAF ON THE WIND OF ALL HALLOWS by Diana Gabaldon

April 30, 2016

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An Outlander Novella

This is the second Outlander Novella I’m reviewing. The first was Virgins, so please see that review for some background: VIRGINS

If you are not familiar with the series, I’m not sure how much you would get out of reading this novella. For reviewing purposes, I have to assume you are an Outlander fan and hopefully you will be as excited about this as I was.

Roger lost his parents when he was a young child, believing his father, a pilot for the RAF, was shot down during WWII and his mother died in the London Blitz. I don’t want to give too much away…

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

Go away and come back and read this after you read WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART’S BLOOD!

Roger starts to learn what really happened to his father in that book, and the story he and his mother were told turns out to be much more complicated than they knew. This novella delves into his parent’s relationship, the London bombings, how his father knew Frank Randall, and how he really died.

It was really wonderful getting to know Roger’s parents a bit. I loved this novella.

If you’re an Outlander fan, this is a fun, albeit super short read. Then again, Kindle Singles only cost $1.99! And do check your library’s ebook collection, that’s where I got my copy.

4/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

A LEAF ON THE WIND OF ALL HALLOWS by Diana Gabaldon. Dell (December 3, 2012). ASIN: B00A5MREAM. Print Length: 58 pages

2 Comments | Book Reviews, Fiction, Romance | Tagged: Adventure, Historical | Permalink
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VIRGINS by Diana Gabaldon

April 29, 2016

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An Outlander Novella

I love the Outlander series. I’ve read all the books and watch the Starz TV series. I’ve also listened to all the books.

I’ve always heard that with a truly great reader, listening to an audio book can bring a great deal more to the story. I enjoy a lot of audio books, but never really felt that something was added until I read the Harry Potter books, read by the great Jim Dale. He makes listening to those books an immersive experience, and the same goes for the Outlander books. Davina Porter is the narrator, and she is simply transcendent. She takes me away on these amazing adventures – plus I learned the correct pronunciations for all the characters’ names, the various places and even the Gaelic.

But now that I’ve read all the Outlander books (and yes, some of them several times!) I was bereft. I know, I have more books on my shelves and my Kindle than I’ll probably ever read, but still, I love Claire & Jamie and I’m watching the Starz show and I want more! And we all know how long it takes for a new book to come out. But Gabaldon has been releasing novellas as ebook only, Kindle singles, and my library has them!

This is the first one I’ve read. If you’ve ever visited Gabaldon’s website or seen an interview with her or seen her speak at an event, you know she writes her books in chunks, then pieces them together to form a cohesive story. Some of the chunks end up in other books than the one she started them for, and I suspect these Kindle singles are chunks that just didn’t make it into her already super long books.

If you haven’t read the Outlander books, I’m not sure I would recommend you start here. It’s not a bad way to get a feel for the author, the way she writes and a few of her characters, but it is so much more meaningful when you already know these characters and their history.

Virgins is a prequel of sorts to Outlander. Jamie’s father has just died, his back is a mess thanks to Black Jack Randall, when he meets up with Ian Murray (who still has all his limbs) and a band of French mercenaries. Ian and Jamie end up taking a job to protect a young Jewish woman and transport her, her dowry, and an extremely valuable Torah to meet her husband-to-be. But things go awry almost immediately, and hints of the canny Lord Broch Tuarach emerge. I loved the Jewish history, the way the French and the Scots saw the Jews, something that has not come up in any of the books (at least that I can remember!)

If you’re an Outlander fan, this is a fun, albeit super short read. Then again, Kindle Singles only cost $1.99! And do check your library’s ebook collection.

Virgins is also available in an anthology if you prefer print: Dangerous Women, edited by George R.R. Martin.

4/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

VIRGINS: An Outlander Novella by Diana Gabaldon. Dell (April 8, 2016). ASIN: B01BRFMCWU. Print Length: 86 pages

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SWEETEST SCOUNDREL by Elizabeth Hoyt

April 24, 2016

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Maiden Lane, Book 9

Way back in 2010, I read a couple of Hoyt books in The Legend of the Four Soldiers series and I liked them a lot. But I haven’t read her since; why, I’m not sure. After reading Sweetest Scoundrel, she is definitely back on my radar.

As my regular readers know, I work with a woman who is a huge romance reader and she often recommends books for me, which is how I found Hoyt originally. I picked up this book because it was short listed for the Romantic Times “Historical Romance of the Year for 2015. I’d actually read most of the other books on that list so now I’m trying to hunt down the few I missed. If you like historical romances, it’s a great way to find new books to try.

Sweetest Scoundrel is a very fitting title. This book was a bit different than the usual because the main characters weren’t titled. Our hero is Asa Makepeace, AKA Mr. Harte, owner of Harte’s Folly, a theater and garden of entertainment. He is in the process of rebuilding, using funds from his backer, a Duke, although we never actually meet him. Instead, we meet his man of business, who in this case happens to be his half-sister, Eve Dunwoody.

Eve’s father was a Duke, but Eve is a by-blow, but her half brother takes care of her. Eve suffers from a traumatic event that happened earlier in her life, rendering her terrified of dogs and men. Her brother has provided her with a bodyguard who has been with her for ten years.

When Eve approaches Harte about how he’s spending his money, she is quaking in her shoes. He is a big, virile man, just the type to terrify her. But she is resolute and determined to go about her business. She moves a small desk into his office and begins her accounting of his books – or lack thereof.

Eventually they come to depend on one another, and Harte teaches Eve about her body and sex. There are some very erotic scenes in this book and yes, Harte is the sweetest scoundrel who helps Eve find her happily ever after – and she, his. A wonderful read and I will be looking for more books in this series.

04/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

SWEETEST SCOUNDREL by Elizabeth Hoyt. Grand Central Publishing (November 24, 2015). ISBN 978-1455586363. 368p.

Kindle

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LOVE OF THE GAME by Lori Wilde

April 22, 2016

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Stardust, Texas Series, Book 3

Wilde writes a lot of different series and I have yet to read all the books in one of them. This isn’t a personal choice, but if the publisher doesn’t send me the books, I find them at my library and we rarely have all the books in a series. As they age, or get read multiple times, they tend to get ugly and we weed them (send them to the great big bookstore in the sky.)

Case in point, this third Stardust, Texas novel is my first in the series. Stardust is a fictional small town a couple of hours outside of Dallas. Axel Richmond is a pitcher for the Dallas Gunslingers, and dreams of pitching for the Yankees, which I can sort of understand at the baseball level but have a harder time understanding any Texan wanting to move to New York. I lived in the Dallas area for a few years and never met anyone who had anything good to say about New York. But I digress.

Our hero, Axel, has a serious shoulder injury that so far has not responded to physical therapy. His team of coaches, doctors, and PTs are trying to talk him into an experimental surgery that has no guarantees. The Gunslingers have a new PT on staff, the beautiful but mysterious Kasha Carlyle and she disagrees. They acquiesce and allow her a week of therapy but if there is no improvement, bye bye job and hello surgery.

Axel moves to Stardust and stays at his coach’s house and he is putting the moves on Kasha, but she is determined to maintain her professional distance despite her attraction. Meanwhile, Kasha finds out she has a half sister with Down’s syndrome living in a group home, and she wants to take guardianship of the orphaned young woman.

Lots of challenges in this romance but also some really sweet moments. Both Axel and Kasha have a lot of baggage, and as the physical therapy starts to work, they form a real attachment to one another. Plus the magic hope chest that the Carlyle sisters have been passing down to one another as they marry says that Axel and Kasha belong together, and who can fight magic?

4/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

LOVE OF THE GAME by Lori Wilde. Avon (April 26, 2016). ISBN 978-0062311436. 384p.

Kindle

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FEEL THE HEAT by Kate Meader

April 13, 2016

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Hot in the Kitchen, Book 1

Meader jumps on the culinary bandwagon with this contemporary romance set in an Italian restaurant. The DeLuca family owns and runs the restaurant with father Tony, AKA Il Duce, at the helm. When mama DeLuca gets cancer, her youngest daugher, Lili, steps up to manage the restaurant, giving up her dream of a graduate degree in photography. She’s still taking pictures but her father likes having her in the restaurant and thinks photography is a nice hobby.

Lili’s older sister Cara is the success of the family. She is a producer of a cable cooking show, whose star, Jack Riley, is turning into a megabusiness. His new show features him squaring off against local restaurant chefs, and when the first chef backs out, Cara offers up her family business.

Jack and Lili have an unfortunate first meeting – she thinks he’s broken into the restaurant and clocks him. When he recovers he immediately falls in lust with the buxom Lili, who has spent most of her life fighting the fat label. She’s at the point where she accepts her curves but still has a hard time believing this gorgeous celebrity chef, whose last girlfriend was a supermodel, could be interested in her.

Their romance has a lot of heat but Jack is the one to put on the brakes. He’s tired of bedhopping and wants a real relationship. When a video of the two of them in a clench goes viral, Lili’s father is furious and embarrassed. And Lili has to put up with fat shaming again.

This is a fast, fun read with some really hot sex and lots of great Italian food – a terrific combination. Looking forward to book 2, All Fired Up.

4/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

FEEL THE HEAT by Kate Meader. Forever (January 28, 2014). ISBN 978-1455599592. 416p.

Kindle

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THE TOTAL PACKAGE by Stephanie Evanovich

March 15, 2016

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This is the latest contemporary romance from someone who has become one of my favorite authors. If you haven’t read Big Girl Panties (which made my best books of 2013 list) or The Sweet Spot, you can start here. Like most romance series, the latest book barely touches on the previous ones, but if you’ve read them, you will appreciate the update, and if you haven’t, you will want to after reading this one. Make sense?!

Tyson Palmer was a super star quarterback until he fell into drug and alcohol addiction. During that time, his college tutor, Bella, who had a big crush on him, managed to get him to take her virginity, but he barely remembers it.

Fast forward a few years, and Tyson has been given a true gift by the owner of a fictitious Texas football team. The owner gets Tyson dried out and cleaned up and back playing the best football of his life. Sports reporter Dani Carr isn’t too impressed, and in fact, keeps her distance from him. Until she’s hired by the team as a publicist for one of their closed mouth superstars and she is forced to deal with him.

Eventually Tyson figures out who she really is, but it takes a little longer for the romance to reach it’s usual conclusion – but not before the angst, the laughs and hot sex -and Evanovich really excels at all three. This is a terrific romance for fans of Jennifer Crusie or Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I loved it!

3/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE TOTAL PACKAGE by Stephanie Evanovich. William Morrow (March 15, 2016). ISBN 978-0062234858. 256p.

Kindle

4 Comments | Book Reviews, Fiction, Romance | Tagged: Thriller | Permalink
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IN WANT OF A WIFE by Jo Goodman

February 23, 2016

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Bitter Springs Series, Book 3

So yet again I have started a series from the middle. But even with the new genre, Western Romance, it doesn’t seem to matter. The series is set in the Old West, this book in 1891, and I’m really not sure how they differ from more traditional westerns. More research ahead.

This has what I imagine to be a typical Western Romance trope, the mail order bride. The bride in question is Jane Middlebourne.

Jane has lost her parents and was reluctantly taken in by some cousins. She is more servant than family member, so when the opportunity arises to escape her situation, she leaps on it.

But when she arrives in Bitter Springs, Wyoming, she find that her husband-to-be was expecting someone else – her cousin, who had somehow swapped out their pictures before mailing the letter for Jane. They decide to wait 24 hours to see if they still want to get married, and they do – but they don’t consummate the marriage for quite a while due to a series of misunderstandings and miscommunication.

Morgan Longstreet is the husband and is a rancher, fairly new to the community. He bought an existing ranch, hired some local ranch hands, but has been plagued by cattle rustlers. Longstreet is very closemouthed – to the town, and to his wife.

Eventually they find a way to communicate, and his past starts catching up with him. A bit of a mystery and some exciting action help propel this story right along. I stayed up late into the night to finish it. Now I’m looking for the first book in the series, Last Renegade.

2/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

IN WANT OF A WIFE by Jo Goodman. Berkley (May 6, 2014). ISBN 978-0425264164. 384p.

Kindle

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TRUE TO THE LAW by Jo Goodman

February 22, 2016

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Bitter Springs Series, Book 2

This was my first foray into the Western Romance subgenre. These are historicals, set in the Old West around 1889, and I’m really not sure how they differ from more traditional westerns. Guess I’ll have to read a few of those to find out.

Cobb Bridger was a detective with the famed Pinkerton private detective agency who has gone out on his own. He is hired by the wealthy Mackey family in Chicago to find a former employee who has stolen something. Mackey won’t say what was stolen, but rather only hires Cobb to find the woman.

He tracks her down to Bitter Springs, Wyoming, a small town that is at the crossroads of the burgeoning train system. Tru Morrow is the new school teacher, recently hired by way of Chicago. Bridger forms a relationship with her, ostensibly to determine if she is the woman he is seeking, but he finds her most attractive and honest, and cannot imagine that she has stolen anything.

The more he gets to know her, and she him, the more their relationship deepens. When the Mackeys arrive in town, Bridger’s protective instincts are out in full force.

There are several interesting characters, all of whom are well developed, and I really enjoyed this story. There is the setting of the Old West, which is interesting for sure, and a mystery as well as the romance. Lots to keep the pages turning.

2/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

TRUE TO THE LAW by Jo Goodman. Berkley (May 7, 2013). ISBN 978-0425264164. 384p.

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ANYTHING FOR YOU by Kristan Higgins

February 6, 2016

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The Blue Heron Series

Jess Dunn is a young woman with a past – and everyone in this small town knows all about her alcoholic parents, her mother’s death, her father’s disappearance, her younger brother with fetal alcohol sydrome and her nickname, “Jessica Does.” Jess was the high school slut, but she had good reasons for sleeping around; all the boys she slept with helped protect her brother.

As an adult, she’s managed to turn her life around. She has a good job in marketing at a small, prestigious winery and works a second job as a waitress at the town’s swankiest restaurant. When the restaurant owner wants to send her for a wine class to help her upsell her customers wine, she reluctantly agrees. But when she gets to class, the teacher is none other than Connor O’Rourke.

Jess met Connor as a child, and when her dog attacked and almost killed him, the dog had to be put down. Connor felt terrible, and they basically fell in love with each other at age 12, but never pursued it or even acknowledged it. But the time had come, and after Connor spends the night with her, he accidentally blurts out the dreaded nickname – Jessica Does.

Their relationship is off to a rocky start, and over a ten year period they are on again, off again more times than anyone even knows. But eventually things come to a head and decisions have to be made.

I loved these characters and although their relationship was ridiculously overrun with obstacles, most of their own making, I couldn’t help but root for this couple. I also loved the small town setting, the vineyard beautifully brought to life, and the inside look at a passionate chef’s first restaurant.

This was my first Kristan Higgins book, which I picked up after seeing several stellar reviews, and I have to agree. I loved it. This is the fifth book in the series, so happily, I have some catching up to do.

2/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

ANYTHING FOR YOU by Kristan Higgins. HQN Books (December 29, 2015). ISBN 978-0373789085. 416p.

Kindle

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COLD-HEARTED RAKE by Lisa Kleypas

January 24, 2016

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Lisa Kleypas writes romance, both contemporary and historical. This one is historical, and terrific!

Devon Ravenel has inherited an earldom from his cousin, which he is none too happy about. The earldom includes a large estate that has fallen into serious disrepair after years of neglect, along with substantial debt. The former Earl’s wife and sisters are living in the manse and Devon decides to visit, kick them all out and sell off all the property. But when he gets there, he finds it’s not as easy as he thought it would be.

For one thing, his cousin’s widow Kathleen is stunning, and gets under his skin immediately. They butt heads constantly, but eventually Devon decides to keep the property. He send his drunken brother out to find out exactly what needs to be done, and with Kathleen’s sharp tongue keeping him in check, and sober, the work begins.

Eventually the romance heats up, but Devon has a love ’em and leave ’em reputation, and Kathleen isn’t interested – or so she thinks. This is a fast paced romance filled with snarky humor, my favorite kind. I can’t wait for the next book in this series – Marrying Winterborne (May 2016.)

1/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

COLD-HEARTED RAKE by Lisa Kleypas. Avon (October 27, 2015). ISBN 978-0062371812. 416p.

Kindle

2 Comments | Book Reviews, Fiction, Romance | Tagged: Historical | Permalink
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