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Book Reviews

Hit and Stay Review

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Title:  Hit and Stay

Author: Ninette Swann

Published: 2012 by Resplendence Publishing

Genre: Romance, Fiction

Click here to buy Hit and Stay from Amazon.com

 

Andrea Wadsworth is engaged to John Waters (who is running for senator).  She gets a phone call saying her grandfather is ill and it’s an emergency, but she doesn’t have a car so she decides to ride her bike to see him.  On the ride there, she gets hit by a car.

Jake Harrison, once a police officer, happens to be at the scene.  He immediately takes charge of the situation before the other police get there.  He also feels a need to do his own investigation, and visits Andrea at the hospital to see how she is.  Andrea and Jake end up on the run, trying to figure out who ran her over and why, with a little romance on the side.

So this was my first novella, and I didn’t really like it.  I was looking forward to it too because it had good ratings.  Here’s why I didn’t like it.  I felt like the relationship between Andrea and Jake moved way too fast.  They hardly knew each other and started developing serious feelings really fast.  Also, Jake told Andrea his past, which was a little sketchy, and she didn’t really care that much.  I just thought it was odd.

Another trivial thing that bothered me, were the names John and Jake are pretty similar for two main characters.  A few times as I was reading, I had to backtrack and think about which character was which, especially in the beginning.

I’m not sure if this is the way that novellas are, with the relationships moving so fast because it is a short story so there isn’t much time for them to develop?  The story itself was well told and suspenseful, and I enjoyed the secondary character, Burt, who was Jake’s friend and a reporter.  But overall, the lack of character development, and how it just didn’t feel real, is the reason that I thought this book was just okay and gave it two out of five stars.

 

My Rating:  2 out of 5 stars

 

~Pam

 

*****I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review.*****         

The Lure of Shapinsay Review

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Image from Goodreads

Image from Goodreads

Title:  The Lure of Shapinsay

Author:  Krista Holle

Published:  December 2011 by Sweet River Romance

Genre:  Romance, Paranormal Romance

Click here to buy The Lure of Shapinsay from Amazon.com

 

 

 

In the mid1800s, Kait Swanney rushes into the ocean to save her friend’s baby who is being discarded because it’s half selkie.  In her quest to save the child, a selkie man notices, but instead thinks that Kait is the one doing the child harm, not the one trying to save it.  This angers the selkie man, who then decides to kill Kait in revenge for the child.  I’m the type of reader who would rather not know anything about the plot, so that’s where I’ll end the synopsis in order to not give anything away.

What a good book!  I’ve always been interested in selkies, ever since they were mentioned in my favorite series (Outlander by Diana Gabaldon).  This was the first book I’ve read, and even heard of, with selkies as the main focus/character.  It was a quick read, with romance, suspense, and mystery, with little surprises here and there.

There were two main things that bothered me.  The one thing that I didn’t like so much, was Kait’s constant sadness over her ‘man’ possibly leaving her.  The other was her ‘man’s’ stubbornness to be with her.  Those were just their character flaws, but I just felt like it was a little much in both cases.  At the same time though, I understand why it was done.  Someone wouldn’t be stubborn if they were easy to change.  I get it.

What I did like was Kait’s willfulness for her time.  She didn’t just do something because a male authority, like her brother who she lived with, told her to do something.  She followed her gut and did what she felt was right.  I love that about her.

The Lure of Shapinsay was definitely an enjoyable book, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to read it.

 

 

My Rating:  4 out of 5 stars

 

~Pam

 

*****I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review.*****       

 

 

Elite Review

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Title: Elite

Image from Goodreads

Image from Goodreads

Author:  Rachel Van Dyken

Published:  2013 by Grand Central Publishing

Genre:  New Adult, Romance, Fiction

Click here to buy Elite from Amazon

 

 

Tracey got accepted to a prestige and unique college, Eagle Elite University.  This is the place where famous and privileged students and their children go.  It’s a bit of a different experience for Tracey than the famous/rich kids though, because Tracey is there on a scholarship.  The fact that her grandfather has to drive through a security gate just to drop her off starts ringing bells in my head.  What kind of school is this?

Tracey gets an extremely rude welcoming by a few young men, including Nixon, the student body president.  The bullying starts immediately, and is out of control.  Not only that, but the teachers look the other way when it happens.  Tracey notices other odd things, such as underage drinking at school events.  Sick of being pushed around by Nixon, who seems to be the ringleader of the bullying, Tracey finally sticks up for herself, which is uncommon here, and things start to change…

Yay, no more book slump!  I read this book in two days while moving with three kids, that’s how good it was.  Finally, characters I could connect with and a story I could get lost in.  I also love that the story is not at all what you expect, that’s why I’m not saying too much about it.  I love surprises.  The one thing that bugged me was that Tracey cried a lot, but then I thought more about it and I would probably cry if I was in those situations myself.

Elite is definitely a book to read; and good news is it’s the first in a series!  Can’t wait to see what comes next.

My Rating:  4 ½ out of 5 stars

 

~Pam

 

*****I received this book free from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.*****

A Discovery of Witches Review

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Image from Goodreads

Image from Goodreads

Title:  A Discovery of Witches

Author:  Deborah Harkness

Published:  2011 by Penguin Books

Genre: Paranormal romance, fiction

Click to buy A Discovery of Witches from Amazon
 

 

 

 

I’ve been in a book slump lately, and some ladies in a fan club of Diana Gabaldon’s book, Outlander, suggested A Discovery of Witches.   In fact, this book was suggested a lot.  I was pretty excited about everyone’s eagerness about it so I picked it up at Barnes and Noble and got started.

This book is about a witch named Diana, set in modern-day time.  She doesn’t want to be a witch; in fact she basically refuses to use her powers at all.  She’s a historian, a doctor in that subject in fact, and her daily routine is doing research at the library.  One particular book there soon changes her life.  Diana then meets a vampire, Matthew, and they become involved.

A forbidden relationship, magical powers, a vampire.  Sounds good right?  I don’t know guys; this book just didn’t do it for me.  At the beginning, I was enthusiastic, and actually got lost in the book, which made me more excited because I was like, finally, a good book!  But then I just got bored.  I know this is the first one in a series and I’m wondering if the series gets better?

Something trivial that bothered me was the main characters’ names.  I know Diana was used for a reason, but Matthew just seemed out of place for the vampire.  Also, there was only one suspenseful part in the book that left me wanting more, and in a book that’s over 500 pages, I want to want to know what happens more often!

It was good, just not awesome, and I’m looking for that next book that I can rave about.   So if this sounds up your alley, go ahead and I bet you’ll like it. Even for its length of 500 pages, it’s surprisingly a quick read.

Also, it ends on sort of a cliffhanger into the next book, which is already out on shelves.  I’m on the fence, because the ending was really good…..what to do, what to do…

 

My Rating:  3 out of 5 stars

 

~Pam

Panic Review

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Title:  Panic

Author:  Katie Hughart

Published:  2012 by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Genre:  Fiction, Suspense

 

Click here to buy Panic from Amazon.

 

 

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to write a review on this book or not.  I’m just wary about hurting people’s feelings.   Writing a bad review on a popular book with hundreds of reviews is much different than writing one on a book that’s out there with only a few reviews on Goodreads or Amazon.  I feel bad if I bring down the author’s rating, especially because I received this book for free from the author herself.  Also, to even write a book is a huge accomplishment in itself.  So Ms. Hughart, I hope this doesn’t hurt your feelings, and I applaud you for being able to write a book at all; it’s definitely something I would never be able to do.

I actually read this book back in July, and then I fell really ill for a few months.  So while I don’t remember every detail, I do remember some things.  I felt like there was a character or two in the story (the nurse being one) who had no place in it.  I feel like her character could totally be removed and not affect the story at all.  I don’t like when the point of view shifts, and I like it even less when a secondary character (nurse) pops up very late in the book with one.  It just takes me out of the story because by that point in the book, the reader already has a feel for the characters; so to jump into someone else’s head at that time in the story, just isn’t for me.

Also, I read the whole book and finished it.  This is a good thing; there have been some (few) where I just give up.  However, I feel like finishing it was also a bad thing; something horrific happens at the end with no closure at all.  The story just ends.  After reading the whole book, to get to an ending like that, sort of made me a wee bit upset.  I understand having cliffhangers, perhaps there was going to be a sequel?  But I always like the protagonist(s) to have at least some hope, you know?  Especially with an ending like this one.

That’s pretty much it, but like I have said before, even though I didn’t like it, doesn’t mean that you won’t.

 

Have a great weekend everyone.

 

My Rating:  1 ½  out of 5 stars

 

Happy reading!

 

~Pam

 

****(I was given this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review.)****