Stacking the Shelves (108)

Posted on October 18, 2014October 17, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Stacking the Shelves

I love it when the stacks are short and sweet!

A couple of notes about this week’s stack; I also bought the Urban Fantasy Bundle from the marvelous people at StoryBundle. This time round it’s a collection of urban fantasy stories in well-known series by equally well-known authors, including the Bigfoot Stories by Jim Butcher, and the first-time-ever ebook edition of Elizabeth Bear’s Whiskey and Water.

Also on the list is an oldie but hopefully still goodie. Open Road Media has created a terrific business by producing ebook editions of/for authors of contemporary classics who have managed to obtain their rights back. I read Leon Uris’ Exodus at my grandparents’ apartment when I was in high school; I still have the half-torn hardcover. But I loved it then, so I’m curious to see how well it wears. And of course the ebook copy won’t get any wear and tear at all.

For Review:
Idol of Bone (Looking Glass Gods #1) by Jane Kindred
Night Shift by Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews, Lisa Shearing and Milla Vane

Purchased from Amazon:
Alaska Traveler: Dispatches from America’s Last Frontier by Dana Stabenow
Exodus by Leon Uris
Wildfire at Dawn (Firehawks #2) by M.L. Buchman

Borrowed from the Library:
City of the Lost by Stephen Blackmoore
Forcing the Spring: Inside the Fight for Marriage Equality by Jo Becker

Review: Alex by Sawyer Bennett

Posted on October 14, 2014October 13, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: ebook
Genre: sports romance, contemporary romance
Series: Cold Fury Hockey #1
Length: 224 pages
Publisher: Loveswept
Date Released: October 14, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, All Romance

Hockey star Alexander Crossman has a reputation as a cold-hearted player on and off the rink. Pushed into the sport by an alcoholic father, Alex isn’t afraid to give fans the proverbial middle finger, relishing his role as the MVP they love to hate. Management, however, isn’t so amused. Now Alex has a choice: fix his public image through community service or ride the bench. But Alex refuses to be molded into the Carolina Cold Fury poster boy . . . not even by a tempting redhead with killer curves.

As a social worker, Sutton Price is accustomed to difficult people—like Alex, who’s been assigned to help her create a drug-abuse awareness program for at-risk youth as part of the team’s effort to clean up his image. What she doesn’t expect is the arrogant smirk from his perfect lips to stir her most heated fantasies. But Sutton isn’t one to cross professional boundaries—and besides, Alex doesn’t do relationships . . . or does he? The more she sees behind Alex’s bad-boy façade, the more Sutton craves the man she uncovers.

My Review:

I just plain liked this one.

I know, I know, slightly more explanation needed. But at the end, my first thought, was “ooh, that was fun!”

Alex is a love story between two people who are both carrying a hell of a lot of very damaged baggage. The initial difference is in the way that each of them handles that baggage.

Both Alex Crossman and Sutton Price grew up with addicted fathers. Crossman’s dad is an alcoholic, and Sutton’s dad is a heroin addict. Note the present tense. Also very tense relationships with both of their dads.

But Crossman’s father is a functioning alcoholic. He continues to drink, and continues to emotionally abuse his star-hockey-player son, but no one outside the family knows about the problem. In fact, the old man was able to fool everyone that he was a really caring father who was an excellent coach for his son. No one else heard the abuse that he hurled along with the hockey pucks in all-night drills.

Alex learned to hate the game, even though it was his best chance at an economically free future. And he never learned to stop letting his dad call after every game just to pour on more ego-destruction in the midst of his supposed hockey advice.

So since Alex has known nothing but terrible treatment, he dishes out the same crap he takes from his dad. He’s a great player, but he’s also an absolute prick to everyone he meets. Even the fans call him MVP – “Most Valuable Prick”.

The team needs him to clean up his image, or they need to cut him. He’s just about abusive to the fans, as well as his fellow players.

His last chance is to be the team’s spokesperson for an At-Risk Youth drug counseling and treatment program. And that’s where Sutton comes in. She runs the program. She’s well aware that she became a drug treatment counselor as a way of dealing with her emotions about her own father. He is a heroin addict who sometimes manages to climb on the wagon, but so far hasn’t managed to stay there.

She loves him but doesn’t enable him, which is damn hard. But she’s used her experience to help others, not to wallow in self-pity or self-destruction. The high road has been a fairly rough journey, but she’s good at what she does and gets self-confidence and self-worth from it.

Sutton and Alex run headlong into each other. He may be gorgeous, but his personality is a real turnoff. And she doesn’t want to mix her career with her personal life.
Alex starts out just wanting to get through his obligation, and get into Sutton’s pants. It’s not that simple.

Alex enjoys being with Sutton, and the more they work together, the more fun it is for him. He starts to feel, and that’s beyond a novel experience for him.

He’s never had a relationship, and Sutton won’t settle for anything else. So when his dad gets too far into his head, again, and convinces him that Sutton is just a distraction from his game, Alex does the stupid thing.

He has to grovel pretty damn hard to get her back. And so he should.

Escape Rating B: As I said, this is just plain fun. Sutton is extremely upbeat, and it makes sense that Alex falls for her. Of course, he has a hard time admitting that he actually feels that much for anyone.

In spite of Sutton’s incredible cheerfulness, it makes sense that someone might have that reaction to her rocky upbringing. Some people follow in their parents’ footsteps, and some take the extreme opposite path. Sutton went to the extreme opposite, and it’s more healthy for her than the road Alex takes. But she recognizes that “there but for the grace of God go I” in every one of her cases. She uses her background to help others, and she’s conscious of it.

Alex starts the story as a Grade A arsehole. He’s an absolute prick to absolutely everyone. His redemption happens a bit fast in the story, but that’s part of what makes it fun. It’s good to see him turn his life around (admittedly with one gigantic misstep in the middle).

While it’s hard to believe that he continues to give his father’s continued abuse that much credence, it is all too possible. I’ve seen parent/child relationships that go just this way. Even when the parent is abuser, he or she is still the parent and the adult child is still looking for approval or at least acceptance.

It was fun to meet the other players on the Cold Fury team, but they are all a bunch of horndogs, including the married ones. No one seems to have a happy home life. While it looks like the series is going to be about the single guys getting their HEAs, I hope the married ones get hit with a clue-by-four about the way they are treating their wives.

Sutton does forgive Alex a bit too easily, but then, he does grovel publicly by reusing the scene from Love Actually. It is pretty irresistible.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 10-12-14

Posted on October 12, 2014October 10, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Giveaways> The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

October is just about half over, and every single grocery store has hordes of pumpkins just waiting to be carved into grinning Jack-O-Lanterns. Halloween can’t be far away!

And speaking of Halloween, the Spooktacular Giveaway Hop starts this week. The new hop starts on the day that the current hop, Books That Need More Attention, ends. So be sure to stop by and enter!

While this Sunday Post is posting, I’ll be at Geek Girl Con in downtown Seattle for the weekend. Not only are The Doubleclicks playing a concert, but Anita Sarkeesian is speaking on Saturday morning. This geek girl is looking forward to a real blast!

Current Giveaways:

The Moonlight Palace by Liz Rosenberg (US/Canada)
In Your Dreams by Kristan Higgins (US)
$10 Gift Card in the Books That Need More Attention Giveaway Hop

Blog Recap:

B Review: The Moonlight Palace by Liz Rosenberg + Giveaway
B+ Review: In Your Dreams by Kristan Higgins + Giveaway
A- Review: Dead Things by Stephen Blackmoore
B+/A- Review: Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher
B+ Guest Review: A Forbidden Rumspringa by Keira Andrews
Stacking the Shelves (107)

Coming Next Week:

Honor’s Knight by Rachel Bach (review by Cass)
Alex by Sawyer Bennett (review)
Spooktacular Giveaway Hop
Dirty Kiss by Rhys Ford (review)
Olde School by Selah Janel (blog tour review)

Guest Review: A Forbidden Rumspringa by Keira Andrews

Posted on October 10, 2014October 7, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews> Queer Romance Month

Format read: ebook
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genre: M/M romance
Series: Gay Amish Romance #1)
Length: 184 pages
Publisher: KA Books
Date Released: August 31, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

When two young Amish men find love, will they risk losing everything?

In a world where every detail of life–down to the width of a hat brim–is dictated by God and the all-powerful rules of the community, two men dare to imagine a different way. At 18, Isaac Byler knows little outside the strict Amish settlement of Zebulon, Minnesota, where there is no rumspringa for exploration beyond the boundaries of their insular world. Isaac knows he’ll have to officially join the church and find a wife before too long, but he yearns for something else–something he can’t name.

Dark tragedy has left carpenter David Lantz alone to support his mother and sisters, and he can’t put off joining the church any longer. But when he takes on Isaac as an apprentice, their attraction grows amid the sweat and sawdust. David shares his sinful secrets, and he and Isaac struggle to reconcile their shocking desires with their commitment to faith, family and community.

Now that they’ve found each other, are they willing to lose it all?

Note: Contains explicit sexual situations and graphic language. This is not an inspirational/Christian romance.

Guest Review by Cryselle:

When two young men fall for each other in an atmosphere as circumscribed as the Amish town of Zebulon, there’s only a few branches on the decision tree if there’s going to be an HEA. So everything rides on the style and the details. Once in a while a chunk of research looks like a chunk of research, but for the most part the details are organic to the story.

Keira Andrews gives us a book that flows, in plain language that fits the community that Isaac and David belong to. This offshoot of a larger group is struggling to make ends meet in a new place, with less interaction with the outside, and tighter rules than ever before. Where these young people had expected to have a time of freedom and tasting the “English” way of life, now, no such chance exists. As for joining the church under these circumstances—it doesn’t feel like a choice. The families that emigrated to found Zebulon all seem to be touched by tragedy brought by the young people experimenting, and therefore, no one shall experiment again: it’s too dangerous.

But the young will test their boundaries, and some cannot fit within the narrow confines.

Finding out the details of why strict went to straightjacket took long enough to make me impatient, because there had to be a reason why an already austere group would do this to themselves and their children. When even an orange safety reflector on the back of the buggy is too worldly, there has to be a reason. It was a while coming.

Not for Isaac and David to question why, though; they’re young, not yet “following church” or slipping into the life path expected of them. Isaac eyes David’s sister with fear—she’d make him a fine, hard-working wife, and if people pushed them together any harder there’d be bruises. Meanwhile, down in the barn, David and Isaac make more than furniture.

The two of them dance around the growing attraction as long as possible, but once they acknowledge the heat between them, they can’t keep their hands off each other. There were a lot of sex scenes which mostly drove the plot, but no sense of fumbling or inexperience, and I really don’t believe one raunchy magazine read by David long ago was enough to make them as adventurous or skilled as they were.

The author put a lot of effort into understanding the culture she writes about, and the respect is clear and unjudgmental. The sense of following the Ordnung, the religious directions, as a way of life is strong, though for David and Isaac, the sense of religion as faith is almost absent. Thinking for one’s self is anathema, and difficult for the young men to do. To do so risks friendship, family, and all ties. Isaac’s older brother Aaron never came back after rumspringa, and the youngest brother doesn’t even know Aaron exists. The pain of such choices weighs heavily on Isaac, who is our only POV character.

Escape Rating B+: The author tackled a tough situation where the characters have few options, writing with skill and dignity. David and Isaac have another book following, where they could solidify as a couple, which should be equally good reading.

In a separate but related note, the ebook is very prettily formatted, with custom chapter headers and horse-and-buggy dingbats.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: In Your Dreams by Kristan Higgins + Giveaway

Posted on October 7, 2014October 6, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews> Giveaways

Format read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, paperback, audiobook
Genre: contemporary romance
Series: Blue Heron #4
Length: 480 pages
Publisher: Harlequin HQN
Date Released: September 30, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Emmaline Neal needs a date. Just a date—someone to help her get through her ex-fiancé’s wedding without losing her mind. But pickings are slim in Manningsport, New York, population 715. In fact, there’s really only one option: local heartthrob Jack Holland. Everyone loves Jack, and he won’t get the wrong idea…. After all, Jack Holland would never actually be interested in a woman like Em. Especially not with his beautiful ex-wife creeping around, angling to reunite ever since he rescued a group of teens and became a local hero.

But when the wedding festivities take an unexpectedly passionate turn, Em figures it was just one crazy night. Jack is too gorgeous, too popular, to ever end up with her. So why is she the one he can talk to about his deep, dark feelings? If Em is going to get her dream man, she’ll have to start by believing in him…

My Review:

Very much like the initially fake marriage in book 2 in this series, The Perfect Match (reviewed here) the romance in In Your Dreams is kicked off by the strong and quite natural desire to show one’s ex that one has SO gotten over the breakup–especially if one hasn’t.

Emmaline Neal receives an invitation to her ex-fiance’s wedding back home in Malibu. Some of us might just throw it in the trash and have a private pity party, but Em knows that reaction isn’t going to work for her. Well, it might work for her, personally, but her parents are still friends with the erstwhile groom and his family, and they will expect her to come.

Not just that, but both Em’s parents are psychologists. They will analyze her (badly and incorrectly) if she does come, and do more and worse if she doesn’t. All their messages about what she should and shouldn’t do with her life and her relationships would make any adult child flee to the opposite end of the country.

Her parents are in Malibu, and Em is one of two Deputy Police Officers in Manningsport, NY. Just about as far across the continent as she could get.

So she needs a date for the wedding, and doesn’t have one. After a certain amount of persuasion and lots of people taking care of her business for her, Em ends up going to the wedding with Jack Holland. Jack is handsome, amiable, and every woman in Manningsport’s perfect date to any function. He is NOT the town bicycle, he’s a perfect gentleman about all of this. It just gets him away from his loving but slightly intrusive family.

Jack is the youngest of the Hollands, and we’ve seen most of his family’s story in The Best Man (review), The Perfect Match and Waiting on You (review). The story we see in flashbacks is Jack’s late marriage to the extremely high-strung Hadley, and Jack’s incredible act of heroism that has left him with an untreated (let’s face it, Jack isn’t willing to acknowledge it) case of PTSD.

Em doesn’t want to go with Jack because she likes him just a little too much. She neither wants him to see her at her worst, nor does she want to further explore the crush she has on him.

But when their crises run into each other at the wedding, they decide (not exactly decide, more like mutually exploit) to temporarily forget their problems by having one really hot night together.

Jack wants more. Em wants to forget it ever happened, which is impossible. But she refuses to believe that Jack wants her as more than anything but a fun diversion. His ex is back in town, and she’s chasing him with every “helpless female” weapon in her arsenal.

Jack is a sucker for a woman he can rescue. And Em, the very competent police officer, is not a woman who regularly needs rescuing–or ever wants to be.

Escape Rating B+: As with most of the Blue Heron series, the author tells the love story in the present day while using flashbacks to show the trauma that both characters have suffered in the past that makes them right for each other; even when they both use the scars from that same past to push the other away.

Em’s memories of her relationship with her ex are particularly heartbreaking. They were childhood sweethearts, the only two not-perfect kids in their Malibu high school of perfect-bodied beautiful children with important Hollywood parents. Em had a stutter and her ex was the only “fat kid” in the school. They bonded over not being perfect, and always being the last kids picked for everything.

When he finally starts to lose all the weight he’s accumulated, her ex loses everything that made him who he was, and restarts his life with his trainer. Even worse, when he’s featured in People Magazine he trashes Em in print. It’s not just heartbreaking, it’s downright devastating.

There was some codependence there, he didn’t like it when Em figured out how to stop stammering, so he started getting back at her; or it felt that way to me.

Jack is the Manningsport golden child. He’s always been perfect, and he always comes to everyone’s rescue. The incident that causes his PTSD is tragic but understandable. And the aftermath affects the story deeply.

He has to convince Em that she’s not just a way of getting him through the nightmares, and he finally has to get his ex out of his life. His inability to see through Hadley went on just a bit too long.

But it was terrific to catch up with the Hollands and all the wonderful people in Manningsport. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

GIVEAWAY

Kristan is giving away a copy of In Your Dreams to one lucky U.S. commenter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 10-5-14

Posted on October 5, 2014October 5, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Giveaways> The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

Nobody won anything this week, but there are three giveaways going on this week. All gift cards, which is very handy for buying more books!

October is also Queer Romance Month, because, as the website says, “Love is not a subgenre”. I’ll have a couple of reviews this month, and my fellow book pushers over at The Book Pushers are doing reviews and/or guest posts every Friday to commemorate what we hope is the first ANNUAL event.

And in other news there are two surprisingly similar attempts to stifle bloggers going on at the same time, one among book bloggers and one in library land. Ellora’s Cave is suing Dear Author and its chief blogger, Jane Litte, for reporting the facts about Ellora’s Cave’s current economic troubles. In my other world, a male librarian who is known in the whisper network as a broken stair has sued two female librarians for publishing on their blogs that women tell other women not to be alone with this guy. If you are interested in details, just Google #teamharpy for a rundown. Both Dear Author and #teamharpy are looking for donations to contribute to what will probably be massive legal expenses. And yes, I’ve contributed to both. This is about prevention of the chilling of free speech through monetary pressure, and I am #notchilled.

Stacking the Shelves (106)

Posted on October 4, 2014October 4, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Stacking the Shelves

I didn’t buy any books this week. Which doesn’t mean I didn’t buy ANYTHING, just not books. The season premieres for TV are staggering out of the gate, so I finally have new episodes of NCIS, NCIS:LA (and the amazingly fun NCIS: New Orleans) to watch.) One of the best things about streaming TV shows is NO COMMERCIALS. And we can watch whenever we want.

When I’m not reading, that is.

ryder american treasure by nick Pengelley

dorothy parker drank here by ellen meister

til dragons do us part by lorenda christensen

For Review:
All That Glitters (Jake & Laura #2) by Michael Murphy
Demons in My Driveway (Monster Haven #5) by R.L. Naquin
Dorothy Parker Drank Here (Dorothy Parker #2) by Ellen Meister
Falling Sky by Rajan Khanna
Gunpowder Alchemy (Opium War #1) by Jeannie Lin
Not Quite Forever (Not Quite #4) by Catherine Bybee
The Red Magician by Lisa Goldstein
Ryder: American Treasure (Ryder #2) by Nick Pengelley
Taste of Treason (Tudor Enigma #2) by April Taylor
‘Til Dragons Do Us Part (Never Deal with Dragons #3) by Lorenda Christensen
Undercity by Catherine Asaro
Witch Upon a Star (Midnight Magic #3) by Jennifer Harlow

Borrowed from the Library:
Designated Daughters (Deborah Knott #19) by Margaret Maron
The Wisdom of Hair by Kim Boykin

Review: Have Yourself a Curvy Little Christmas by Sugar Jamison

Posted on September 30, 2014September 28, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, paperback (included in On the Naughty List)
Genre: contemporary romance
Series: Perfect Fit, #1.5
Length: 111 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Date Released: October 1, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

On the first day of Christmas, former wild child Dina Gregory returns home to New York on a mission: To find the father of her young son. Making him take responsibility for the child he helped create is the only thing on Dina’s wish list. Instead, she finds herself in an awkward run-in with his stuffy older brother, Ben.

Ben has never liked Dina. But he can’t help but admire her tenacity—and her bold beauty. Being trapped together during a holiday blizzard offers him a glimpse into what it would be like to have a family, and to fall truly in love. Could it be that Dina has reignited his Christmas spirit? The only thing Ben knows for sure is that her heart is a gift to behold…and he will never let go.

My Review:

It may be slightly early to start reviewing Christmas books, but this novella is such a treat that I couldn’t resist.

This is a combination of second chance at love with the old (but often good) trope about two people being snowbound together and finding out that they love each other after all.

Throw in a little of Dickens’ Christmas Carol and you’ve probably got the picture. And it’s a lovely one.

Ben Rowe has given up on Christmas, and pretty much given up on everything other than work, for the nine years since his wife died. Yes, he loved her, but there is a heck of a lot of guilt mixed into that love, and it seems like he’s punishing himself by becoming kind of a hermit.

A very hot and sexy hermit, but a hermit just the same. At least until Dina Gregory and her little boy Dash break into his isolation.

Because Dina’s little boy is also Ben’s nephew, one that he didn’t know existed. Not that his late brother Virgil didn’t get around enough to leave a whole string of children, but Virgil never mentioned Dash before he died, living fast as usual, in an accident.

He knew Virgil left behind a half million dollars in debts, but not a child. Ben’s picking up Virgil’s pieces just as he always has, but this is one piece that he didn’t know was there. But it’s one he really wants to pick up.

Dash looks just like Ben. Suddenly he feels as if he has a son. Or that he could. But the Dash package comes with Dina, a woman who thinks he never liked her. In fact, he liked her just a bit too much.

She blows into his life with her son, and the more they become involved, the more he realizes that he can’t go back to the empty existence that he used to have.

What he doesn’t count on is falling in love with this woman who is brash and outspoken and doesn’t take any crap from anyone. Dina might be willing to marry him to give Dash a father and a future, but only if her heart is not engaged.

Once it is, she realizes that she can’t settle for less than love. But Ben can’t seem to let go of his first wife, or his guilt.

Escape Rating B+: Have Yourself a Curvy Little Christmas is short and sweet, and full of hilarious banter between Dina and Ben. It’s not just that she knows what she wants, but she knows who she is and isn’t planning to change.

There is a lot of heartwarming in the story. We’ve met Dina before, in the first book in the series, Dangerous Curves Ahead (reviewed here) and she is much more the selfish villainess than a potential heroine. Having Dash changes Dina for the better, makes her much (MUCH) less selfish and self-absorbed.

But the events in Dangerous Curves Ahead have left her estranged from her family. Ben does something really terrific to mend that rift, but Dina has already made herself worthy of the mending.

Ben is the character who has a lot to get past in the story. The stick that seems to be stuck up his ass in the beginning has a lot of grief and a lot of guilt wrapped around it. Dash and Dina bring him back to life in a way that was sweet and sassy and kick starts him back to living again.

The series continues in Thrown for a Curve (reviewed at The Book Pushers) and today’s review book over at The Book Pushers, Gentlemen Prefer Curves. While Have Yourself a Curvy Little Christmas does not feature the absolutely marvelous Perfect Fit clothing store, it was fun to see Dina reform and get her own happy ending.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 9-28-14

Posted on September 28, 2014September 28, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Giveaways> The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

I have this fear that one of these Sundays I’m going to forget to add “flavor text” and leave the XXX placeholder in the post when I post it. ARRGGHH!

You can tell that we’re entering the holiday season, because blog hops are busting out all over. Last week we were Stuck in a Good Book, and this week we’ll be looking at Books That Need More Attention. (Honestly, all books need more attention! So many books, so little time!)

Last week, I’ll say that Soulminder absolutely blew me away, and this week it looks like Ryder has done the same thing. When you read the review, you’ll see.