Between the Devil and Desire (Scoundrels of St. James #2) by Lorraine Heath

tw: child abuse, pedophilia

I just recently discovered Lorraine Heath and I LOVE her writing style and her characters!

They're all so practical, so devoid of needless drama, it's refreshing!

Let me start with what I loved about this story.

The characters were perfectly fleshed out, completely developed. They felt real, they acted like actual people, I was honestly rooting for them. 

Very straightforward communication between the characters. There was no drama as you usually see from the characters simply not talking to each other like adults. I wish all books took this route...

The relationships, not only the one between Jack and Olivia, but especially the one between Jack and Henry, were lovely. It's so nice to get to read a HR where the 'hero' takes his time to bond with others instead of just ambling about in pursuit of the lady's favour.

The writing style: perfect!

What I mostly disliked about this story was its implausibility. 

Olivia is all that is moral and proper. She wouldn't be seen without mourning attire so soon after her husband's death. Society has its eyes on her, and it's her duty to behave appropriately, not only for her sake but for the sake of her son's future. 

Yet a notorious owner of a gaming hell/brothel, who is not only single but also a commoner moves into her house (which became his, to be fair) and we only get one brief mention of how she doesn't need to worry about living with him because she's a widow? 

No. She does need to worry about it! It was simply not done!

There was also the mystery, which I deduced as soon as the will was read, even though I kind of hoped my guess wouldn't be right...

Don't let my complaints drive you away from this book. I think I'm being overly critical. I've given higher ratings to less deserving books, it's just that Heath is so skilled that when something doesn't work it draws attention next to the brilliance of the rest of her work...

Anyway, I do recommend this book, so if you fancy the summary go ahead and read it!

Lorraine Heath's official site

Buy Between the Devil and Desire

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Bella and The Beast ( Cinderella Sisterhood #4) by Olivia Drake

Arc provided by St. Martin's Press through Netgalley

Release Date: November 3rd

DNF at 41%

Confession time:
This story provoked such a reaction in me _ and no, it wasn't a good one_ that even after deciding to DNF it, I am still mad as... hell.

Yes, I am not being impartial, because back in the day when I started reading historical romances, most guys behaved as atrociously as this did does, and I would read them and like them.

Thing is, we're in 2015 and violence against women is still the main cause of women's death. More than cancer.
Being a woman our days still means that you're probably going to receive inferior wages compared with guys.
It also means that you're probably going to be subject to sexual abuse.
And to read something that tries to romanticize this type of behaviour in our time and age, really gets under my skin.

I've honestly been going over and over in my head, trying to find a way to write this review without going into a rant, but I cannot.

I can't get over the fact, that during the first interaction between Bella and _ I've come to think about him as the Pig _ Alwynn, he lifts up her skirts so than he can see if she was a specific tattoo (the one you see on the model's ankle) . Now, you're probably thinking: Oh, its just the ankle. It could be worse...
But it is, because not only did she not consent to it, soon enough he is grabbing her leg, and thinking about he would like to do with parts of her anatomy.He has all the power, and she has to submit to his whims.
Not hot. Not sexy.
_______
_____________
__________
To make matters even worse, Bella and all the other characters _ from what I read _ just felt flat to me.
I read a review in which the reviewer basically tells that if you liked the Mummy, especially Evie, you were going to love this.
I am not a fan of horror movies. I don't like to see scarabs eating people's... faces. -_-
But I've seen that movie a couple of times because I like the characters.
 I loved Evie's personality. Even Rick's. And I loved their romance.
Bella is no Evie.
No.

So, let me recapitulate:
I hate the guy.
The woman is a nitwitt who is supposed to be strong and brave but instead feels like an Anastasia.
Then I can't stop thinking that this book should be called "Bella and The Pig".
The guy has just gone to a brothel.
The guy returns home after frequenting said brothel, and decides "what the hell, I should f***k Bella as well".
She tells him no.
He decides to ignore her attempts to free herself from his unwanted attentions, because surely that's just her maiden sensibilities arising.
She pulls a dagger to his throat _ YAY! _ but only because she came second to the brothel scene. -_-

No. No. And no.
Not sexy. Not hot.

I want him tramped by a horse carriage.
And he want her shaken until her brain cells get back into place!

There: this is what this book has made me feel. I cannot be more honest than this.
I can deal with brooding, ill mannered Beasts. What I can not do, is stand abusive borderline rapists.
Also to call this a retelling of Beauty and The Beast is really, really pushing it.

First book that I've read by this author, and the thing is, I have been curious about the first book in this series for a long time now.
Now, not so much.

Author's Official Site

Bookdepository.com

Love Show by Audrey Bell

With a good editor this could be a five star story.
Despite that, this was actually one of the best stories I've read this year. I don't know why it surprised me, but it did.

The thing becomes even more surprising, since this is a new adult story, and I normally have the worst luck with those. I think this is probably the second NA that I've liked, so far.

The thing that makes "Love Show" a great story, besides the characters (Hadley, Jack and David) and their interactions, are the dialogues.

I loved the dialogues.
~I'm a sucker for intelligent and witty dialogues. Or monologues.~

"It was eight o’clock in the morning. I told myself that civilized people woke up at eight o’clock, which meant I was allowed to disturb the uncivilized people who were still sleeping. Maybe teach them some good habits."

I loved the fact that the author didn't use the same old clichés to represent college life ( well, at least the college life that is mainly represented in YA books).
There's no slut shaming.
No over-abundance of angst.
We get a main character who feels real: someone that doesn't forget her friends, or her work just because she finds someone she likes.

There's a friendship relationship that is just as important as the romance.
The romance between Jack and Hadley was sweet, cute and hot. Their chemistry was off the charts.

Then unlike what normally happens in this type of stories, one gets actual portraits of real life. Towards the end of the book when we got to read about an event that took place in Syria, it was like I was seeing it once again: the images that passed on TV of the chemical attack.
It was once again heartbreaking to "witness it".

But I liked how the author didn't try to turn Hadley into some sort of hero. She ends up being just someone who is passionate about her beliefs.
In the end, my favourite part has to be the fact that Hadley keeps herself faithful to whom she was.
Definitely recommended and a book that I would love to buy in paperback.

I can only hope that the author decides to publish her books once again, and that a paperback edition will become available in the future.

Author's Bio on Goodreads

Amazon

The Little World of Liz Climo by Liz Climo

I had seen the work of Liz Climo on tumblr - sadly with no attribution, which makes me so mad, artists deserve recognition for their works!

So I was familiar with her work, and I loved every single comic I'd seen of hers: her comics are so sweet, and cute, and funny!

This book was no exception, it was SUPER CUTE, and just absolutely delightful!

There were some comics I had seen before, but there were also quite a few surprises in there, this was one of my favourites:

I know she has published more books and I hope I'll get to read them all!

Highly recommended for children and adults alike!

Liz Climo's tumblr

Buy The Little World of Liz Climo 

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Again, My Lord ( Twist #2) by Katharine Ashe

                 Arc provided by Billet-Doux Books through Netgalley
What to say of "Again, My Lord", the second volume in "A Twist" series?

Well, first of all that this could actually be read before "My Lady, My Lord", the first volume in this series.( Read my review here!)

The reason why I am telling you this, is because it has been awhile since I've read that first volume and let's just say that the characters names _ with the exception of the leading characters_ were somewhat "faded" in my memory.*cough*

That lead to a small case of nerves _to say the least_ because for a moment I thought that Calista was actually the daughter of the couple of the main book!
Which she wasn't/isn't: Thank God!

This was basically my reaction while reading the initial part of the story: What? No! Lord Chance did what? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!OMG,NO!
No! NO! Why are you ruining my perfect OTP? *cries*

So in case you're a little like me _ head in the clouds and easily distracted by things such as...DATES! And names_ pay attention:
CALISTA IS IAN'S SISTER! SISTER!
~You're welcome. Now go and appreciate the book~

This story as we can read in the synopsis is a romantic tale told in the "peculiar" way of the movie The Ground hog day: One character gets to relieve over and over a single day... much to her frustration and despair.
I admit however that there was a moment in which I got a little tired of the whole repetition of days.

Thankfully the author was able to deal with this situation by introducing new titbits almost every single day, as well a much needed upgrade in the main characters thinking mechanism.
~basically they went from idiots who didn't know how to listen to one another, to people who actually understood the conversation they were having~

To say that these two idiots could use some lessons in the comprehension department was to put it mildly, and apparently the only way for them to overcome those difficulties regarding their behaviour was to make them repeat things. A lot. 
A little like dogs. -_-

Okay, jokes aside, this book deals with domestic and child violence in a way that never sounds disrespectful or clumsy.
But my biggest praise to this story has to be the way that I was feeling towards the main characters by the end of this: For people who start out not that bright _ yeah, I don't care if you are DARE. You were still an idiot_ they do manage to grow up nicely.
That means that if in the beginning of the tale, I was not that convinced by their prospective romance, towards the end I was more than their fan.
So, yes, this romance did manage to win me over.
However "My Lady, My Lord" is so far still my favourite novel in this series. And I say so far, because there is going to be more volumes. :D

Next victim I mean leading character: Evie. Calista's and Ian's sister.

Author's Official Site

Bookdepository.com (paperback edition) with Free wide world delivery!

Kobo

The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet by Kate Rorick and Rachel Kiley

Arc provided by Touchstone Books (a Simon and Schuster imprint) through Netgalley

I had a hard time with this book, and part of it was my fault.
After all, this is Lydia's book.

 And Lydia is Lydia. Even in the aftermath of "Wickham's I wanna punch you in the nuts SOB" incident, she is still her same frustrating self piling mistakes after mistakes.
The thing is, this contemporary version of Lydia is extremely adorb.

                                            

My biggest complaint about this story is that _for me_ it just felt as if it went on and on.
It's a very emotional, introspective tale of someone trying to pick up the pieces of herself, and trying to move on with her life. Basically, there is a lot of angst _ understandable one_ and a very new adult feel to it.

Thing is, my tastes don't run alongside the new adult/angst kind of stories, therefore there were some moments _ especially during the first half of the story _ in which I got pretty tired with this.
However, I just couldn't force myself to leave Lydia's tale unread. Because I actually like the girl.
I like her for that big heart of hers, and basically for the fearless way she lives her life. Even if sometimes things don't end working as she would wish they would, at least she tries her best.

As for the secondary characters, I loved her cousin Mary and her cat, Kitty. ;)
         
In case you're still not certain, Kitty is the one on the left...

Lizzie and Jane also make small appearances. Darcy not so much. -_-
So, all in all, this actually ended up being better than I thought it would turn out to be... considering how it started.

Oh, and I have  to mention that this is the first case in which I wished I had read the audio version: I think it must be really good to listen to "the adorbs" front and center.

Author Kate Rorick's site


Author Rachel Killey's Twitter account

Buy " The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet"

Interstellar Cinderella by Deborah Underwood and Meg Hunt

The cutest girl power book for children!

Cinderella loves to fix things, but her real dream is to fix fancy ships. 

When the time comes for the Prince's Ball, as the story always goes, Cinderella is forbidden to attend. But with the help of her Fairy Godrobot, and the faithful company of her robotic mouse Murgatroyd, Cinderella saves the day and achieves her dreams!

Deborah Underwood's official site

Meg Hunt's official site

Buy Interstellar Cinderella

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Out This Month

When I was way younger, and still dependent on what was translated in my country, one of my favourite things in the world, would to be to consult a list of all the books that would be released in the next month by all the publishers.
That list used to be published by a books magazine untitled "My Books", and I would have a blast making lists of all the stories I was interested in reading. #crazyBookworm
Now, having acess to the direct market _so to speak _ it has become increasingly difficult _ even with sites such as Booklikes and Goodreads _ to keep track of all the monthly book releases.
As such, I decided to try to make a list ~a feasible one~ of a small part of the books that have or will be released this month.
Some I am more than interested in reading them _ The Lisa Kleypas book for instance_ others I am curious about.
As for the rest, I thought someone "out there" with no access to netgalley or Edelweiss catalogues would like to see this.