Tag: book 7

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**

Black Widow (Jack Parlabane: Book 7) by Chris Brookmyre

~ Jolie ~ Leave a comment

Black Widow (The Jack Parlabane Thrillers Book 7) by [Brookmyre, Christopher]

Publisher: Grove Atlantic

Date of Publication: November 1st, 2016

Where the book can be found: Amazon

Series: Jack Parlabane

Quite Ugly One Morning – Book 1

Country of the Blind – Book 2

Boiling a Frog – Book 3

Be My Enemy, Or, Fuck This for a Game of Soldiers – Book 4

Attack Of The Unsinkable Rubber Ducks – Book 5

Dead Girl Walking – Book 6

Black Widow – Book 7

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

Book synopsis:

Diana Jager is clever, strong, and successful, a skilled surgeon and fierce campaigner via her blog about sexism in medicine. Yet it takes only hours for her life to crumble when her personal details are released on the internet as revenge for her writing.
 
Then Diana meets Peter. He is kind, generous, and knows nothing about her past—the second chance she’s been waiting for. Within six months, they are married. Within six more, Peter is dead in a road accident, a nightmare end to their fairy-tale romance. But Peter’s sister doesn’t believe in fairy tales, and tasks rogue reporter Jack Parlabane with discovering the dark truth behind the woman the media is calling the Black Widow.
 
Still on the mend from a turbulent divorce, Jack’s investigation into matters of the heart takes him to hidden places no one should ever have to go.

My review:

This is a book where I had to struggle through the first couple of chapters. I was left wondering, did Diana do it? The book begins at a trial, and the author goes between the 1st person and 3rd person.

Diana Jager’s character was a hard one to like and to sympathize with. Her childhood is less than perfect, and her adulthood hasn’t been any better. She wrote a blog that called out Scottish surgeons for sexism in the hospital. Then her life came apart when she was hacked by hospital IT guys, and her personal information was leaked. She is let go from her job and immediately got a new one in Inverness….where she meets Peter.

I didn’t like Peter from the get-go either. He came across as too naive and too nice. Usually, that isn’t an issue, but it bothered me (and I am glad that it did). Plus, he was too secretive with Diana.

Add in Jack’s storyline, and I got a mystery that will kept me absorbed until the end of the book.

I usually don’t like it when the author switches between points of view. But in this case, it worked with how the story is being told. While it gives the impression of jumping around, it doesn’t. While it gives the impression of jumping around, it doesn’t.

The author did a great job of keeping a bunch of things hidden until the end. The ending messed with my mind because what I thought was true ended up not being authentic and it screwed with me.

How many stars will I give Black Widow? 5

Why? This is a genuine whodunit with false leads, red herrings and dead ends masterfully woven into the tale. The fact that this is the 7th book in the series isn’t even a point with me because this is a totally standalone book.

Will I reread this book? Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends? Yes

Age Range: Adult

Why? Sexual situations, some language

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

King’s Ransom (Eyes of Darkness: Book 7) by Christy Poff

~ Jolie ~ 1 Comment
King's Ransom (Eyes of Darkness Book 7) by [Poff, Christy]

Publisher: Torrid Books, Simon & Schuster

Date of publication: October 1st, 2010

Genre: Paranormal, fantasy, erotica

Series: Eyes of Darkness

Dante’s Flame—Book 1

Spark of a Wolf—Book 2

Love Hurts—Book 3

Red Fire—Book 4

White Ice—Book 5 (review here)

Night Wish—Book 6 (review here)

King’s Ransom—Book 7

Winter Fire—Book 8

Where you can find King’s Ransom: Amazon

Goodreads synopsis:

“When a young upstart alpha werewolf moves in on Ardalyn Hunter’s grandfather’s region, she finds herself in the center of pack politics while coming into her own as the Huntress.
Ryman King becomes an unwitting pawn in the alpha’s plan when he uses him to lure Ardalyn into the open.

Will Ardalyn and Ryman’s relationship be worth a king’s ransom?” 

What I liked about King’s Ransom 

  1. Again (as with the last couple of books), it had hot werewolf sex.
  2.  The characters were somewhat relatable.
  3.  I liked Perrin’s character a lot. He cracked me up for some reason.

What I didn’t like about King’s Ransom 

*The sex. I was burnt out on the sex by the time the characters got around to it

*The plot. It confused me. The book starts with a werewolf trying to take over all of the packs. It ended with Ardalyn and Ryman’s relationship.

* I was not too fond of Ardalyn’s character. I wanted to reach through the pages and bitch slap her. She was this tough woman until she met Ryman, and then it was the opposite. Plus, she started acting like a spoiled brat.