Category: book review

Playbook (Love Story: Book 7) by Tracy Ewens

~ Jolie ~ 1 Comment

Playbook (A Love Story #7)

Title: Playbook

Author: Tracy Ewens

Publisher: Self published

Date of publication: January 24th, 2017

Genre: Romance

Number of pages: 260

POV: 3rd person

Series: Love Story

Premiere – Book 1

Candidate – Book 2

Taste – Book 3

Reserved – Book 4

Stirred – Book 5

Vacancy – Book 6

Playbook – Book 7

Can be read out-of-order from series: Yes

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Goodreads synopsis:

If only life came with a script.

Anna Jeffries has spent the last thirty-two years blending in, content in her worn-out reading chair—her happy corner of the world—spinning romantic scenarios she’s certain reality can’t deliver. After three years of teaching Shakespeare at UC Berkeley, Anna is working toward full tenure. Her life in the classroom means everything and she can’t imagine wanting more… until she does.
 
Dane Sivac is in his second year as the wide receiver coach, and with new talent on the team this year, he’s beginning to think his future may hold a permanent position with Cal—as permanent as any coach can hope for. When his star receiver begins struggling on and off the field, the sports psychologist asks Dane for help. For Dane, emotions are best ignored, but his player’s seemingly uptight Shakespeare professor is driving Dane nuts… until she’s not.
 
Invested in the future of a student-athlete they’ve both come to care about, Dane and Anna are forced to work together. The attraction is undeniable, but opposing teams rarely get along. Right as Dane makes the type of romantic gesture Anna has only known in fiction, her career is threatened and she is reminded, playbook or not, she was never good at games.

My review:

I really enjoyed reading this book.  It was such a sweet romance and to be honest, after all the erotica and the wham-bam-thank you ma’am that I have read lately, I needed to read this. It was a balm to my brain.

I loved that the author chose to have Annabelle teaching Shakespeare at the University of Berkley. Shakespeare is my all time favorite playwright and to see his plays being taught in such a way that the students (even if it is fictional) were awesome.

I also liked the opposites attract theme. Annabelle and Dean couldn’t have been more different and to be honest, it works. They are just different enough that it keeps them both on their toes, relationship wise. The fact that they were first colleagues, then friends and then started their relationship was great. They didn’t jump right into bed with each other and when it did, it meant something to both of them.

I really connected with Annabelle. She was so passionate about what she teaches and it rubs off on her students. I just wish that she was more assertive earlier in the book. Because it would have gotten rid of a lot of her stress (read the book if you want to find out).

Speaking of that, and I truly don’t know this, is it normal for a committee to be so interested in an associate professor’s personal life when they are applying for tenure? Because even I lifted an eyebrow when they called Annabelle and questioned her about her kiss with Dean during the football game. Seemed a bit intrusive (and a lawsuit waiting to happen) to me.

Dean just melted my heart. He was such a nice guy and how hard he fell for Annabelle just melted my heart.

The secondary storyline of the tenure committee really ticked me off and I did a lot of eyerolls during Annabelle’s meetings with them. The other storyline of Trey was actually sad. But, I loved seeing him come out of his shell on the field and off. The talk that Dean had with Trey was perfect.

The end of the book was perfect. It was definitely a HEA!!!

How many stars will I give Playbook: 4

Why: I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a great read and it was something that I needed after reading a couple of eroticas.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Sex, some language

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

Cutting Ice by April Fire

~ Jolie ~ 2 Comments

Cutting Ice

Title: Cutting Ice

Author: April Fire

Publisher: Unknown

Date of publication: December 14th, 2016

Genre: Romance

Number of pages: 91

Series: No

POV: Alternating 1st person

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Goodreads synopsis:

Heartbroken Emily moves across the country to cover an up-and-coming hockey team – much to her chagrin. Knowing that this could be her big break she leaves her entire life behind and moves to Kingstown, where she meets Sam, the star player of the hockey team and a rapidly rising star. Though he acts cocky in front of her, he slowly begins to reveal his insecurity and warm up to her.

This is a standalone novella with No cheating and with HEA ending. It’s guaranteed to keep you hot on a cold night, so prepare yourself for a few hours of fiery fun.

My review:

I really liked this novella. After the last book I read and reviewed (not that I didn’t like it, it was just drained me because of how intense it was),  I needed something that I could just sit back and not have to think too hard about. And Cutting Ice was this book.

Told from alternating 1st person perspectives, we are introduced to Emily, a 23ish-year-old sports reporter, who is from the BIG CITY. I put it in capital letters because, in the first chapter, Emily did make a big deal about moving to Kingston to do a story on the local hockey team. A long-term relationship was out of the question for her boyfriend (he wasn’t going to wait around for her), so she heads to her assignment single.

Sam is a member of the hockey team who has the chance to make it big but he is hesitating because he has never left Kingston. Ever. He meets Emily at practice and invites her out for drinks. It doesn’t take long for things between Sam and Emily heat up. It heats up to the point where they have sex in his car.

The rest of the book is pretty straightforward. Even though they both have sworn off of having sex with each other, it ends up happening.

I actually agree with a line from the book, towards the end, where Emily states that her friends think that Sam is a rebound relationship. I kinda agree with them and that isn’t a bad thing. Every girl needs a rebound relationship.

I do like that the “L” word wasn’t even mentioned in the book and I thought that was refreshing. I mean, they do end up together but they weren’t spouting off how much they were in love with each other.

The sex was pretty hot and the author used safe sex….gasp. Every single time they bumped uglies, a condom was brought out and put on. Which, again, was refreshing.

The end of the book was pretty standard. The way it ended does make me wonder if there are going to be other books written in this world.

How many stars will I give Cutting Ice: 4

Why: This is a good book to read at the beach or pool. The plot doesn’t go off in 8 different directions and there are only 2 MC’s.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Explicit sex and language

**I received a free copy of this book and volunteered to review it**

Phantom Limb by Lucinda Berry

~ Jolie ~ 1 Comment

Phantom Limb: A Gripping Psychological Thriller

Title: Phantom Limb

Author: Lucinda Berry

Publisher: Rise Press

Date of publication: January 17th, 2017

Genre: Thriller

Number of pages: 260

Series: No

POV: 1st person

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Goodreads synopsis:

Emily and Elizabeth spend their childhood locked in a bedroom and terrorized by a mother who drinks too much and disappears for days. The identical twins are rescued by a family determined to be their saviors.

But there are some horrors love can’t erase…

Elizabeth wakes in a hospital, strapped to her bed and unable to move or speak. The last thing she remembers is finding Emily’s body in their bathroom. Days before, she was falling in love and starting college. Now, she’s surrounded by men who talk to themselves and women who pull out their eyebrows.

As she delves deeper into the mystery surrounding Emily’s death, she discovers shocking secrets and holes in her memory that force her to remember what she’s worked so hard to forget-the beatings, the blood, the special friends. Her life spins out of control at a terrifying speed as she desperately tries to unravel the psychological puzzle of her past before it’s too late.

Phantom Limb is a character-driven mystery that begs to be read in a single setting. The shocking and shattering conclusion will make you go back and read it again.

My review:

Ever read a book that keeps you up at night because not only was it an incredibly hard read but it made you think. Well, Phantom Limb is such a book and I was up for a couple of hours after I finished it, thinking about what I just read and mentally trying to form my thought into a review.

When I say this book wasn’t easy to read, it wasn’t. There are very graphic scenes of neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, cutting, and suicide. I actually cringed during the scenes where Elizabeth was helping Emily clean up after cutting. And the scenes where Elizabeth was reliving the horrendous neglect/abuse that her mother and the special friends put the twins through, made me cry. Because, somewhere in the world, there is a child going through the same thing that the twins went through.

Elizabeth was the healthier, mentally, of the twins. She was going to college, had a steady boyfriend and lived with her twin, Emily, in an apartment off campus. Emily, however, was a mess. She rarely left the apartment and was in a severe depression. Any attempt to get her out of the apartment was met with resistance, she refused to talk to their adoptive parents and she was sliding into a very deep depression.

Elizabeth decided that she wanted Emily to meet her boyfriend, Thomas. Only thing….she hasn’t told Emily about him yet. When she did tell her, Emily was very excited and was making plans. Then Thomas tells Elizabeth that Emily showed up at his car and told him to leave Elizabeth alone. Furious, Elizabeth and Emily have a huge fight that results in Emily overdosing on pills and dying. Elizabeth finds her and, in hysterics, calls her adoptive parents for help.

Then the world goes black.

She wakes up a week later in the hospital and is later admitted into the psych ward.  It is there that she realizes that there are huge holes in her memory about Emily and the keys to remembering what really happened to Emily is to look into the past. Into the severe neglect and abuse that Mother put them through and the sexual abuse that their 5-year-old selves endured at the hands of the special friends that Mother brought home.

The friendship between Elizabeth and Rose, an anorexic, was sweet but there was a small part of me that wondered if she was going to transfer what her and Emily had onto Rose. Not going say if that happened. You need to read the book to find out.

There is a plot twist that blew my mind and looking back, it made so much sense about certain things that were mentioned in the book. The end of the book actually made me very sad and I wish it didn’t end the way it did. But, not every book can have a happy ending and with the trauma that Elizabeth endured…..it made sense why that happened.

How many stars will I give Phantom Limb: 4

Why: I will be honest, this isn’t a happy book. But the issues that it brings up: childhood abuse/neglect, mental illness, suicide, anorexia, and cutting are brought up in a way that I have rarely seen a few books do. The author doesn’t glamorize” mental illness (which, unfortunately, I have seen other books doing) and she also doesn’t offer a quick fix to Elizabeth’s issues (which, again, I have seen other books doing). Instead, this book is a very realistic book into the above-mentioned issues. Like I said above, not an easy read.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Child abuse/neglect, sexual abuse, cutting, suicide attempts, language.

**I received a free copy of this book and volunteered to review it**

His to Cherish (Fireside: Book 3) by Stacey Lynn

~ Jolie ~ 2 Comments

His to Cherish (Fireside, #3)

Title: His to Cherish

Author: Stacey Lynn

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Loveswept

Date of publication: November 15th, 2016

Genre: Romance

Number of pages: 292

POV: Alternating 1st person

Series: Fireside

His to Love – Book 1

His to Protect – Book 2

His to Cherish – Book 3

His to Seduce – Book 4

Can it be read out-of-order from the series: Yes. The other characters from the other books do make appearances in this book but the focus stays only on the main characters.

Where you can find this book: Amazon|Barnes and Nobles

Goodreads synopsis:

Chelsea Dwyer arrives home from her job at the middle-school library in Latham Hills, Michigan, expecting another quiet evening—until she hears the screams for help through her living room window. As the first witness to a terrible accident involving two local students, Chelsea doesn’t anticipate how her own life will be irrevocably changed by the father of one of the boys. In the wake of tragedy, she’s the only one who seems to understand his grief. Chelsea’s a survivor, too—and she knows that there are brighter days ahead.

As a single father, Aidan Deveraux worked his entire life to provide a stable home for his son, Derrick. Without him, Aidan feels the deepest despair imaginable. The one thing that keeps him going is his connection with the woman who tried to save his son. Hard as he tries, Aidan just can’t stay away. Chelsea’s warm embrace is the comforting solace he desperately craves—and it doesn’t hurt that Aidan had noticed the beautiful librarian and wanted to ask her out for years. Now that she’s in his life, he doesn’t ever want to let go.

My review:

What a sad book.

When I started reading it, I wasn’t expecting how much this book would hit me in the feels. I mean, I was ugly crying for most of the book. Maybe because I have a child that is a few years younger than Derrick was when he died but I was really affected by Aidan’s raw grief in this book. And oh boy, was it raw and it made me cry.

Aidan was a single dad who raised Derrick by himself after Derrick’s mother jetted when he was 2. Everything that Aidan did was for Derrick and when Derrick died, Aidan was lost and almost consumed by his grief. He would sit in his backyard and drink himself into a stupor. He was also trying to avoid woman he called “vultures”. They are Derrick’s friends’ single mothers who would come over and offer to “comfort” him. He didn’t want that. What he wanted was Chelsea but he was too consumed by grief to even begin to make a move.

Chelsea’s story was equally sad. Her husband divorced her because she couldn’t have children. Which is sad enough but she ran into her husband and his new wife, who was pregnant. Talk about a burn. She has, for the most part, has come to term with that she was “half a woman”….as her ex had told her. To say I greatly disliked her ex is an understatement.

Chelsea was also there for Derrick’s skateboarding accident. She stayed with him, cradling his head on her stomach. She stayed in the hospital while he was undergoing surgery and she was there when Aidan, who had just heard about the accident, was told that Derrick had died on the operating table. She was there for Aidan the day of the funeral and for those awful weeks afterward. Forget that she was very attracted to him, he didn’t need that type of attention. What he needed was a friend and that is what she gave him.

The side story of Derrick’s best friend was heart-wrenching. When I thought this book could get any sadder, the author threw in Shane’s side of the story and the guilt he was carrying. Like I said….this book is a waterworks factory.

When the relationship between Aidan and Chelsea turned physical, the sex scenes were hot, hot, hot. But what made it even hotter for me was that they were friends for months before they even had sex and when they did, the sex meant something to them both.

This book was told mainly from Chelsea’s point of view with Aidan’s showing up every so often. Which I liked and it worked for this book.

The end of the book was definitely not what I expected and I loved it. What Aidan said at the very last line made my heart melt and again, waterworks.

How many stars will I give His to Cherish: 5

Why: This is not an easy book to read. Not at all and I am sure it wasn’t easy to write. The author did a great job capturing a parent’s raw grief over losing a child to a preventable accident and she did a great job showing while it might get better, the pain never goes away. The romance between Chelsea and Aidan was also very realistic and I loved how it started off as friends, moved to lovers and then, after Aidan’s screw up, to boyfriend/girlfriend. I liked that the sex was secondary and not at the forefront of this story (and don’t get me wrong, it was very hot when they did end up bumping uglies). The secondary storylines, while hard to read, were wrapped up in such a way that you couldn’t help but wonder what is going to happen to Mandy and Shane.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Explicit sex (of course), language, some mild violence. And also some pretty intense scenes of grief.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

Curse Breaker: Enchanted (Curse Breaker Saga: Book 1) by Melinda Kucsera

~ Jolie ~ 1 Comment

Curse Breaker: Enchanted: [The More Epic Version] by [Kucsera, Melinda]

Title: Curse Breaker: Enchanted

Author: Melinda Kucsera

Publisher: Self-published

Date of publication: September 27th, 2016

Genre: Fantasy

Number of pages: 565

Series: Curse Breaker Saga

Curse Breaker: Enchanted – Book 1

Stars and Angel’s Sing – Novella

Standalone – First book, so yes

Where you can find this book – Amazon

Goodreads synopsis:

Secrets threaten, but magic kills.
Plagued by sanity-twisting magic, Sarn must unravel a deadly mystery. But he’s prevented at every turn because his life is not his own. Haunted by one of the victims, Sarn must find out what happened before the ghost drives him mad. As plans collide beneath ensorcelled boughs, one thing is certain. If Sarn can’t get his magic under control, he’ll never discover why enchanted trees committed murder. How far is he willing to go to find the answer? The search might cost more than his sanity. Exposing the truth might claim his life and destroy the secrecy protecting his son from a killer. Something lurks in the enchanted forest and its sights are set on Sarn and the magic in his blood. First, in a new series, Curse Breaker: Enchanted is a fast-paced, character-driven fantasy tale with a murderous twist. Sarn’s story unfolds over three action-packed days in his double life leading to a breathtaking finale.

My review:

Curse Breaker: Enchanted starts off Sarn hurrying through a crowded tunnel in the mountain fortress in which he lived. He was going to be late to his job and was cutting through an area that indentured servants were not allowed access. Indentured meaning slave. In this world, debts didn’t go away when parents died. Their children inherited them and if they couldn’t afford to pay them, then they became indentured servants until the debt is paid off.

Sarn, though, is a different case. To get his brother a chance to get out of the mountain fortress, he indentured himself to a very influential politician for 4 years. The time that it would take his brother to complete his classes and get into a university. The politician greed. In a few months, his brother will be graduating and Sarn will be a free man, he hopes.

See, Sarn is also something else. He is a mage and his magic manifests through his eyes. So they glow a luminous green. He has kept his magic a secret from everyone but his masters’, owner and his family. So, as he is hurrying through the crowd, he is doing so with his eyes shut and using a map that is generated by his magic in his head.

He eventually decides to take a turn and ends up on a balcony….where he senses that someone died in the enchanted forest. His magic wants out but after a struggle, Sarn is able to push it back down. Sarn decides that if he wants to meet with his masters on time, that he needs to jump off the balcony to the balcony below.

There, he is met by Gregori. Gregori is part of the Rangers….who Sarn works for as part of his indentured servant deal. He is blindfolded and brought back to the Ranger stronghold.  Before they get there, they are met by Nolo, one of Sarn’s masters and they make haste to the enchanted forest. Once at the enchanted forest, he passed through the barrier that was erected and was taken by one of the trees that patrolled the forest. He was taken to a murder site….where the ghost of a child attached itself to him. He is upset to find out that the trees allowed the murder of a child inside its woods. He also keeps hearing the phrase eam’meye erator and seeing symbols flash across his eyes. Symbols that he has no idea what they mean.

He is met by Nolo at the murder site and Nolo is shaken to see how much Sarn is affected by seeing a dead child. He thought that it is because of something that happened in Sarn’s past. See, Sarn was found half-frozen in a snow bank with his younger brother 6 years earlier. He was sent to work in the mines, with his brother, and was caught in a cave-in. Only he and his brother were saved…..because of his eyes. Sarn was sent to live in an orphanage, where he was severely abused by the Headmaster. He ran away, with Miren, his brother, time and time again to the Rangers and he was returned 5 times. The last time, though, the Headmaster was caught and a severely injured Sarn was nursed back to health. After the execution of the Headmaster, he indentured himself to the politician and the rest was history. It was Nolo who would send Sarn back and it was Nolo who finally discovered the abuse. Nolo feels extremely guilty over what happened, as do the Rangers who had seen what happened.

So when Sarn starts breaking down in the forest, Nolo starts to go to him. But, as he does that, the Queen of All Trees shows up. She takes a hold of Sarn and starts to read his mind. She is upset because Nolo (who she refers to as the Painted Man) hasn’t healed Sarn and he was still broken on the inside. If he isn’t fixed, his magic will expand and kill him. She refers to Sarn as the Child of Magic. While trying to bind him to her, she finds that he is tied to the mountain. Looking through his memories, she finds out something that surprises her. Sarn has a son. The child of a loophole, who shouldn’t statistically be alive and who will be watched closely as he grew into his magic. Troubled by what she has seen and by two deaths that she must prevent (if Sarn died before his son turned seven, then his son would die with him), she released Sarn and goes on her way.

What will happen to Sarn and his son? Will Sarn come to terms with his past? Will he figure out why the ghost child was killed in the forest and why the trees killed his murderers? Will he gain control of his magic? Will he learn to trust anyone outside of his brother and son?

This is just a taste of what this book has to offer. If you want to learn more….read the book!!!

****************************************

I really, really liked this book but it did take me a long time to get into it. The book starts off very slow and stays slow until about 50% of the book. But after that, the book picked up the pace. Now, I am not saying that I didn’t like that the book was slow in the beginning. Just the opposite, I loved it. The character and world building were phenomenal. The glimpses you got into Sarn’s past, but not by him…by others who were involved, was heartbreaking.

I did like Sarn. He is doing the best to raise his son and his brother by himself. He believes that he couldn’t go to the Rangers for help because they would separate him from his son…..because he thinks that they consider him mentally deficient. He does have a chip on his shoulder but if you were abused and kept running to people who you thought would help and they kept returning you to your abuser…..wouldn’t you have a huge chip too. Plus, he has his best friend, Shade, to deal with. Shade, who once protected him, has turned to drugs and is no longer reliable as a friend. Which pains Sarn to no end.

Of all the Ranger’s, I could not stand Gregori and I was so happy when his wife laid him out. Gregori had tests that he put Sarn through. All consisted of Gregori kidnapping Sarn, dropping him in a remote area and seeing if he came back. When I read that, I was like “WTH”???

I loved the Queen of All Trees. She was such a huge presence in this book and so feared by everyone….including Sarn. But she was creepy too. I mean, she was a huge walking tree that just showed up places and would call to Sarn to try to get him to come out to the enchanted forest. But, she also held a piece to the mystery of the ghost child….so I can see why she was trying to get Sarn to go out there. Still, creeped me out a little.

The end of the book was great and most of the storylines were wrapped up in very satisfying ways. The author did a great job setting up for book 2 and the epilogue….well I am very curious about where that goes.

How many stars will I give Curse Breaker: Enchanted: 4

Why: This is a wonderfully written book. While it starts off slow, it does pick up speed in the middle of the book. The characters are wonderfully fleshed out and the plot is very engaging.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age Range: Young Adult

Why: Violence. No sex or language. Very clean.

**I received a free copy of this book and volunteered to review it**

Sprite by Anna B. Madrise

~ Jolie ~ 1 Comment

Sprite

Title: Sprite

Author: Anna B. Madrise

Publisher: Black Quill Enterprises

Date of publication: November 14th, 2016

Genre: General Fiction, Fairy Tales

Number of pages: 123

Series: No

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Goodreads synopsis:

Wild and reckless Blaine Frost takes things too far one night when, after a Christmas party, he drunkenly wraps his sports car around an evergreen tree. With his girlfriend Noel, trapped and unconscious inside the crashed car, he swears he will do ‘anything’ to right his wrong.
His words are heard by a winter sprite, who decides to grant him a second chance by taking him on a journey through his memories in an effort to shine a light on where he has gone astray.
But Blaine is steadfast in his stubbornness causing Sprite to pull out all the stops. She gives him an ultimatum; he has seven days to unearth the virtues of compassion, charity, courage, and joy within his heart or by the final stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve, Noel will belong to Sprite…forever.
When Blaine wakes up the next morning, he finds that all is as it should be or so it seems; his sports car is untouched, the excitement of the holidays is in the air, and his girlfriend Noel…is nowhere to be found. Not only is she missing, but she’s not in a single picture, and none of his family and friends can recall any memory of her. It’s only then that Blaine realizes that the night before wasn’t a dream.
Living in a parallel universe under the watchful eye of Sprite who has turned his world turned upside down, Blaine races against time to honor his word that he will do “anything” to save Noel. It’s a journey of redemption where one man must learn to warm his frosty heart and discover the true meaning of Christmas from within.

My review:

On the way home from his parents annual Christmas party, Blaine Frost wraps his Porsche 911 Carrera around an evergreen tree on the way home from his parents annual Christmas party. As he awakens, he was knocked unconscious, his first thoughts were about how this was Noel, his girlfriend’s fault. Forget that he was driving drunk and speeding, it was her fault because she got sick at the party and wanted to go home. He quickly forgets that when he sees Noel wedged in the front seat, barely alive. His focus, then, became on getting her out of the car. As he remembers the first time he met her and keeps belching up martini’s from the party, he tells her that he would do anything to have her smile at him again and that he would do anything to make it right.

As soon as he said that, he hears a young girl’s voice ask him if he would do anything. Thinking that he is hallucinating, he sees a white, bright, small girl with wings who calls herself Sprite sitting on the top of the Porsche. After exchanging some words with Sprite, he tries to get Noel out of the car. Instead, as he starts to pass out, she blows sparkly powder at him and says this rhyme:

Tick-tock, tick-tock goes the clock. The bells chime on. They never stop. Tick-tock! Tick-tock!”

Sprite then takes Blaine on a visit of 3 memories/situations that had recently happened and showed what a jerk he was. From telling the homeless man who is panhandling to try to raise money to feed/clothe his sick child to visiting the children’s ward of the local hospital where his mother routinely volunteered and where Blaine refused to set foot in to his job, where his employees were complaining about missing anniversaries and children’s musicals because Blaine would have not been kind about granting them time off to a memory of Blaine thinking that he gave Noel the perfect gift and it ended up not being what she wanted.

Sprite gives Blaine seven days, starting on December 18th, to learn the virtues of compassion, joy, charity, and courage. If he hasn’t learned those virtues in the seven days that she has given him, then Noel will belong to her. With that, she blows the powder in his face and sends him back in time.

When Blaine wakes up, he is in his office. Feeling poorly, and noticing that his assistant has no recollection of Noel, he decides to go home early. He makes the decision to send the office home for the holidays…which is out of character for him. As he calls his best friend to see if he had any clue what happened the night before, he notices that the picture he usually has of Noel and himself from a trip to the Grand Cayman’s has been replaced with a picture of himself holding a drink. Even more baffling was his best friend telling him that he doesn’t have a girlfriend.

He heads to her apartment and is told by the woman who owns the building that no one named Noel lives there. After freaking out on the woman, he heads to the park to collect his thoughts and Sprite makes an appearance. That is when he remembers everything…..

Will Blaine complete his challenges in time? Will he get Noel back in his arms or will Sprite have her forever.

Want to know? Read the book!!

********************************

This was a fantastic and imaginative rewrite of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. I really liked that instead of having the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future, the author reworked it so that Blaine had to learn the virtues of compassion, joy, charity, and courage. It was different and it definitely kept my interest.

I loved how Blaine’s character progressed in the book. He went from being this self-centered, mean and, dare I say it, immature man to a giving, mature man who went out of his way to help others. Granted, he was changing to get Noel back but still, it was wonderful to read. I teared up when he was the hospital, granted it was with T and Cabbott and was helping on the 4th floor. When he was telling the little girl a story and cheering her up had to have been one of the best scenes in the book. It was a definitely a tear-jerker.

I really liked Sprite. The mental image I had of her was this small girl with white, white hair, huge wings, a great laugh and a big bag of invisible snow. Her showing up at the hospital and riding the cart made me laugh. Also, her rhymes were pretty cool.

The end of the book was what I expected in one way but I totally didn’t expect everything that happened. Talk about what a difference in people!!!

How many stars will I give Sprite: 4

Why: Like I said above, this is a wonderful, imaginative retelling of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. For a short story/novella, it packed a lot of punch. The characters were fleshed out and the storylines kept your attention on the story.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Language and mild violence

**I received a free copy of this book and volunteered to review it**

Book Review: Campbell’s Redemption (Highland Pride: Book 3) by Sharon Cullen

~ Jolie ~ 1 Comment

Campbell's Redemption (Highland Pride #3)

Title: Campbell’s Redemption

Author: Sharon Cullen

Publisher: Random House Publishing – Loveswept

Date of publication: November 22nd, 2016

Genre: Historical Romance

Number of pages: 256

POV: 3rd person

Series: Highland Pride

Sutherland’s Secret – Book 1

MacLean’s Passion – Book 2

Campbell’s Redemption – Book 3

Can be read out-of-order from series: Kinda sorta. The focus is on the main characters with the MC’s from the other books making brief appearances.

Where you can find this book: Amazon|Barnes and Nobles

Goodreads synopsis:

Like his ancestors, Iain Campbell, the Marquess of Kerr, swears loyalty to whichever government happens to be in power. Privately, however, he despises the British for the slaughter following the Battle of Culloden and finds himself playing a dangerous game of deception. When he defends a fellow Scot under the cloak of darkness, Iain is wounded and must put his life in the hands of a mysterious healer. The prickly, bewitching woman saves him with her touch, though she denies Iain the pleasure of a smile from her sensuous lips—which only makes him want her all the more.
 
Cait Campbell has no fondness for the marquess and his political machinations. Now he makes a treacherous patient since Cait is harboring Jacobite fugitives in her cellar. But with Iain confined to bed rest, Cait sees another side of the fierce warrior. How can she hate a man whose eyes sparkle in candlelight, a man whose voice stirs her soul? She soon discovers that he loves the Scottish people deeply—and, despite her painful intuitions, Cait is tempted to let Iain love her, too.

My review:

Cait Campbell is living on the border of Campbell and Sutherland land, alone. She has lived there for the past 3 years, since the death of her husband and working as the clan healer. She also is part of an underground network that moves Scottish fugitives through safe houses until safe passage to Canada can be obtained for them. She keeps the refugees in a secret room under her cottage, safe from the British and fellow Scots until another safe house is opened up. The only other person that knows about her activities is the leader of the Sutherland clan, Brice. He is the one who brings her the refugees and he is the one who takes them to the next safe house.

Cait lives apart from the clan by choice. She blames Iain, the Laird of the clan, for his death…seeing that John, her husband, was with him and saved Iain from being killed. So, she moved as far away from Iain as she could get and she ended up on the border of the Sutherland and Campbell land. She lives there, making a life for herself by being the clan healer and helping the fugitives. She also mourns the death of her husband and her 3-year-old daughter, who died the year before her husband did.

Iain comes thundering back into her life one night. She had just settled the latest group of refugees into the secret room when he comes up with his commander of the Campbell warriors, who had been shot by rievers while on patrol. Cait does her best to patch him up and orders Iain to leave her house. When he refuses, she tells him to stay in the barn.

Iain, who is still wracked with grief over John’s death, agrees. Shortly after he beds down in the barn, he was woken up by a noise from the outside. He witnesses Cait leading the refugees out of her house, to Sutherland, who then leads them into the woods.

Cait is afraid that Iain will find out about her harboring the refugees. Iain is well-known as an English supporter, much to the disgust of his fellow Scots. He is a friend of the Duke of Cumberland, or as the Scots call him, the Bloody Butcher. She assumes that since he has close ties with the English, that he would put the secret movement, along with herself and Sutherland, in jeopardy.

Adair, the man who was injured, has to stay at her cottage because he is running a fever and she wants to keep a close eye on him if he gets an infection. Which means that Iain will be there and that is the last thing that she wants. So she deals with it and with the memories of her husband and child.

Little does Cait, or actually, all of Scotland, know that Iain is a spy. He is playing a very dangerous game by pretending to befriend the English so he could learn their secrets and use them to make Scotland a better, more peaceful place to live. It is a small price to pay for what he considers the greater good.

While Iain and Adair are staying with her, the redcoats (British) show up at her cottage. She provides care for them if they want it and if they show up at her cottage….even if she doesn’t like it. This group has stopped by her cottage often because one of them, Sergeant Halloway, has a bad back and needs her poultice to help ease the pain. He is also sweet on her, which Cait knows and she isn’t encouraging it.

During dinner that night, Cait, Adair, and Iain are discussing who is stealing his cattle. They think that it is another clan, the MacGregor’s. The MacGregor’s have held a grudge against the Campbell’s for a very long time. It is during dinner that she discovers that Adair has a fever. After putting him to bed, Cait and Iain kinda have it out.

She learns about his promise to John, as John laid dying and his deep guilt over John’s death. Even after Iain telling Cait that he promised John that he would look over her, she still hates him. As they are having it out, they are interrupted by a boy who comes into Cait’s house and cries “Fire”.

It is after the fire that certain things are learned about her. She is the granddaughter of the Laird of the MacGregors and the Grahams. Her mother died giving birth to her and soon after, her father committed suicide. She was raised in both households and both households tried to get her to hate the other. Only thing, it didn’t work. If anything, it pushed her away and into the arms of her husband. When both of her grandfather’s’ found out, they both disowned her.

Cait is reunited with her grandfathers’ after 7 years. One grandfather openly regrets what happens and the other one hides his regrets. Everyone agrees that she shouldn’t be living by the forest alone but she disagrees. That is until the day she is attacked by a redcoat.

Everything after that is full of intrigue and romance.

Will Cait and Iain get past Cait’s bad feelings and fall for each other? Will she get caught harboring fugitives? Will she reconcile with her grandfathers? Will the redcoat make due on his promise of rape? Who is murdering the redcoats and will they be caught?

Want to know these answers? Read the book!!

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Cait was a strong woman who has had a lot thrown at her in her lifetime. The deaths of her mother and father (before she could even meet them), her grandfather’s disowning her, her child dying, her husband dying and her lover dying. So it really didn’t surprise me when she had a small breakdown in the middle of the book. I cried with her when it happened.

Iain, however, I was on the fence with for about 60% of the book. He kept everything on the inside and it drove me absolutely crazy. But, when he finally opened up, he did with a bang. I also think that he was straddling both sides of the fence with the English/Scottish made me kinda “eh” with him. Again, though, my mind was changed once it was explained why he was doing what he was doing.

The sex scenes between Cait and Iain were hot but I had to giggle at the term “his red member”. I just had this image of a severely discolored penis….lmao. Even Cait addressed it as a red member. Made me wonder what those Highlanders were rolling around in previous to sex…haha.

The end of the book did keep me on the edge of my seat with the mystery of who was on the killing spree. It ended up being the last person that I thought it was and totally surprised me.

How many stars will I give Campbell’s Redemption: 4

Why: I really enjoyed reading this book after I got through the first couple of chapters. After that, the story totally took off for me. It wasn’t a light read by any stretch and that is what made it refreshing.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Sex and mild violence

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

The Bear and The Nightingale by Katherine Arden

~ Jolie ~ 3 Comments
The Bear and the Nightingale: A Novel (Winternight Trilogy Book 1) by [Arden, Katherine]

5 Stars

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine, Del Ray

Date of publication: January 10th, 2017

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Winternight Trilogy

The Bear and the Nightingale—Book 1

The Girl in the Tower—Book 2

The Winter of the Witch—Book 3

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Book synopsis:

Winter lasts most of the year at the edge of the Russian wilderness, and in the long nights, Vasilisa and her siblings love to gather by the fire to listen to their nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, Vasya loves the story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon. Wise Russians fear him, for he claims unwary souls, and they honor the spirits that protect their homes from evil.

Then Vasya’s widowed father brings home a new wife from Moscow. Fiercely devout, Vasya’s stepmother forbids her family from honoring their household spirits, but Vasya fears what this may bring. And indeed, misfortune begins to stalk the village.

But Vasya’s stepmother only grows harsher, determined to remake the village to her liking and to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for marriage or a convent. As the village’s defenses weaken and evil from the forest creeps nearer, Vasilisa must call upon dangerous gifts she has long concealed—to protect her family from a threat sprung to life from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

My review:

The book starts on a late winter night in northern Rus’ (Russia) in Pytor Vladimirovich’s house. Dunya and the children were gathered around the oven. Dunya was about to tell the children a folktale about the frost-demon, the winter-king Karachun, when their mother, Marina, came in and joined in listening. Pytor was outside, assisting a ewe in giving birth. When he came in, Marina told him her news. She was expecting another child. This child would be like her mother, who was known as a witch-woman and had mysterious powers. She could tame animals, dream the future and summon rain. Pytor was worried about the news. Marina wasn’t a young woman, and he was afraid that she wouldn’t be strong enough for birth.

He was right. Marina died shortly after giving birth to Vasilisa (Vasya), and what she predicted came true. Vasya was a headstrong, willful, and almost feral. She also inherited her grandmother’s powers.

When she was six years old, she got lost in the forest outside her house and came upon an older man sleeping in the roots of a tree. Thinking that she could wake him up and he would know the way to her father’s house, she shook him. Only to find out that he is a hideously disfigured man. One eye was missing, with the socket sewn shut and with hideous scars on that side of her face. Still, she invites him back to her house if he can take her home. Then a genuinely supernatural thing happens, as she goes to take this stranger’s hand, a man on a white horse comes thundering to where they were, makes the older man go back to sleep and frightens Vasya, who ends up being found by Sascha, her beloved older brother.

After that escapade that Pytor decides to head to Moscow and get a wife for himself. He takes Sasha and Kolya with him. While he was there, he meets a mysterious stranger who gives him a beautiful jewel and tells him to hold on to it until Vasya gets older. If he doesn’t, this strange man will come after and kill Kolya.

Pytor does find a wife while in Moscow. His late wife’s half brother’s daughter, who sees demons and is classified as mad by her father, stepmother, and servants. Anna is her name, and she becomes my least favorite person in the book. After discovering that Vasya can talk to the household spirits and non-household spirits, Anna would beat her to get her repent. Not that it did any good. Vasya only became more feral, more headstrong.

When Vasya turns fourteen, a new priest is sent to her village since the old one has died. Anna begs the Metropolitan to send a new one, and they did. A young priest named Konstantin Nikonovich, who is considered somewhat of an upstart, is sent there to straighten him out. Anna is thrilled because he is driving out the demons (aka the household spirits) that she sees. Vasya, not so much, and she resorts to leaving offerings for them where her stepmother can’t see them or in rooms where she doesn’t go.

It is during that time that the mysterious man makes an appearance in Dunya’s dream, and he demands that she give Vasya the necklace. Dunya makes a bargain with him to wait another year to give it to her. In that year, everything that can go wrong does go wrong.

I loved Vasya. She was a spunky girl who called it like it was and wasn’t afraid to stand up to anyone or anything. I did think, at one point, that her spunkiness was going to get her killed, but it didn’t.

The end of the book is a must-read. It was fantastic. The very end of the book, though, is what got me, and it made me smile.

I would give The Bear and The Nightingale an Adult rating. There is no sex. There is no language. There is violence. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I would reread The Bear and The Nightingale. I would recommend it to family and friends.

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**

The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers

~ Jolie ~ 1 Comment
The Second Mrs. Hockaday: A Novel by [Rivers, Susan]

5 Stars

Publisher: Algonquin Books

Genre: Historical Fiction

Date of publication: January 17th, 2017

Where you can find The Second Mrs. Hockaday: Amazon

Book synopsis:

When Major Gryffth Hockaday is called to the front lines of the Civil War, his new bride is left to care for her husband’s three-hundred-acre farm and infant son. Placidia, a mere teenager herself living far from her family and completely unprepared to run a farm or raise a child, must endure the darkest days of the war on her own. By the time Major Hockaday returns two years later, Placidia is bound for jail, accused of having borne a child in his absence and murdering it. What really transpired in the two years he was away?

A love story, a story of racial divide, and a story of the South as it fell in the war, The Second Mrs. Hockaday reveals how this generation—and the next—began to see their world anew.

My Review:

The Second Mrs. Hockaday was a fantastic book, and I loved reading it. Told through letters and journal entries, it brings Civil War Era South to life.

I have read plenty of Civil War Era books to know when one is good or not. This book is a good one. The plot is fantastic, and for the author to use letters and journals to tell a horrendous story was beautiful. She seamlessly weaved the letters and the journal into a spellbound tale that you can’t put down.

I will say that there are several twists in this story. I called one of them, but the other one (which was told from Charlie’s perspective) surprised and haunted me after I finished reading the book.

I would give The Second Mrs. Hockaday an Adult rating. There is non-graphic sex. There is mild language. There is violence. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I would reread The Second Mrs. Hockaday. I would recommend it to family and friends.

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**

The Keeper (Crossing Realms Series: Book 1) by Rebecca E. Neely

~ Jolie ~ 3 Comments
The Keeper (Crossing Realms Book 1) by [Neely, Rebecca E.]

4 Stars

Publisher: Soul Mate Publishing

Date of publication: April 27th, 2016

Genre: Romance, Paranormal, Suspense

Series: Crossing Realms

The Keeper – Book 1

The Watcher – Book 2

The Betrayer—Book 3

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Book synopsis:

Nick Geary, jaded clan leader of human guardians, the Keepers, is doomed to love a human woman who’s forgotten him, time after time, for thirteen years: Libby Klink, a skittish accountant who’s as terrified of her recent and strange intuitions as she is of her mundane existence.

When Nick is ordered by the clan’s guiding force to seek Libby’s help in defending the clan against enemy Betrayers, romance sizzles as the pair forms an unlikely alliance in their desperate search to discover the key to the clan’s salvation–which Libby alone holds.

But a haunting secret could cost Nick everything, and in a race against time, both will be forced to choose between their hearts and duty. Can their love, and the clan, survive, or will the very forces that drew them together ultimately destroy them?

My review:

A mysterious group is meeting on the top of a mountain to discuss specific events. Events that could be disastrous to their people if not stopped. The only way to stop/change the events is to set in motion a series of events that could help them or could mean the end of their people.

Meanwhile

Libby Klink is stuck in the mother of all traffic jams, late for work, and about to have a massive panic attack. She has severe anxiety about driving because of the accident she was in when she was 12. That accident killed her mother. Not only that, but she is smelling different scents around people, and she is having dreams about people that she doesn’t know. She also is still recovering from the death of her father six months before. To put it mildly, she’s a mess.

As she inches along the highway, she notices a man walking down the highway, looking into cars. Looking for someone, and he is heading in her direction. When he gets to her car, not only does he know her first and last name, but he seems vaguely familiar. Lowering her passenger side window, he says that he is unarmed, and when she asks who he is, says his name is Nick Geary and that he needs to talk to her. Knowing her name freaks her out, so she lays on the horn. That attracts the attention of the guy in the truck in front of her.

While she is staring at Nick, she experiences something like a day-dream that involves her father and a fishing trip that they had taken when she was younger. She blinks, comes to the present, sends her would-be rescuer away, and lets Nick into her car.

They drive to Nick’s truck, where he tells her that he needs her help but can’t tell her what because he doesn’t know. Then he tells her to get into the car, which she refuses to do. It is when Nick tells her that her life might be in danger and explains a few things that she gets into the truck

Nick explains that he is a Keeper, and he protects humans like Libby from these evil guys called Betrayers. Betrayers feed off of human weaknesses and Keepers Vitality (a stone that they wear around their necks). He validates everything that he said by telling her of the memory of her father she had in her car. He promises to protect her; she believes him and gets into the truck.

As Nick and Libby have that conversation and Nick are taking Libby to his parent’s house, the bad guy is introduced. His name is Haenus Vickery. He is wondering why Nick was protecting Libby and wants to know what her deal is. As he walks, he remembers his mate, Genevieve, who I am going to assume died at some point in his past, and he is thinking out the details of the next step in the war against the Keepers. Haenus is hoping to overthrow them, somehow, so that fear and hopelessness reigned.

Nick explains more of what a Keeper does as they drive to his parents. He shares that his cousin and best friend, Dev, died after a Betrayer got him alone and stole his vitality, last week. Nick explains that the Watchers, beings that live in another realm parallel to the humans, send things called Compulsions to the Keepers with who they are supposed to help. He explains that Keepers live in Clans and that they are all connected.

Then a weird thing happens. Nick and Libby are hit by a car and approached by a knife-wielding woman who is screaming that they cut her off. Seeing no choice, Nick cuts across the highway median to make his getaway. As they are driving the opposite direction, Libby is full of questions about Nick, and he does his best to answer them. It was during that conversation that both get a compulsion about a woman in trouble in an alley.

On their way to help her, Nick discovers that she can smell things, like the whiskey that the woman had been drinking. She confirms that and tells him that only since her father died that she has been able to smell things. Libby tells Nick that she wants to help him, and he says no. But she doesn’t listen and is forced into a confrontation with Haenus. As he is draining Nick, she hurts Haenus, and that makes him stop. Nick, before the encounter with Haenus, kisses Libby and finds out something startling. She isn’t what she seems to be.

This book was not what I thought it was going to be. I felt that it was going to be a thriller/suspense book. Not a romance/thriller/suspense, and it took me by surprise. I loved it!!!

I could relate to Libby. As someone who has pretty severe anxiety, I liked how she was portrayed. I liked how her taking medication wasn’t used as a crutch but explained that she needed it to do daily things. She was such a strong person, and I thought the author did a great job of bringing it out.

Nick was perfect for Libby, and I sincerely wish that he existed in real life. He waited 13 years and had to deal with her forgetting him every time he helped her, which sucked because he was head over heels for her. I do think that the way that they finally met was a tad weird (hello, middle of the freeway), and maybe the love angle was rushed. But when the end of your world is about to happen, you can’t wait for months.

Haenus was a bad dude. My mental image of him was like a vampire except that he could come out during the day. I did also have a smidge of sympathy for him because his wife died, but that quickly got swept away with how evil he was to Libby.

The sex between Nick and Libby was hot, and dare I say sweet? I have never said sex was sweet before, but this was, and I might have wept a little during it because of the feeling between both of them. As I said, I wish Nick was real.

The ending was PERFECT!!! I couldn’t have ended a book any better, and the author did a great job in setting up Dev’s story.

I would give The Keeper an Adult rating. There is sex. There is language. There is mild violence. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I would reread The Keeper. I would recommend it to family and friends.

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**