Tag Archives: romance

Burning Embers Review

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Image from Goodreads

Image from Goodreads

Title:  Burning Embers

Author:  Hannah Fielding

Published:  2012 by Omnific Publishing

Genre:  Romance

Click here to buy Burning Embers from Amazon.com

 

Burning Embers takes place in Africa in the 1970’s.  The story starts out with Coral, mid-twenties, at sea on her way to Africa.  She is escaping an engagement gone bad, and visiting her family home where she grew up.  Coral meets a mysterious French man on ship, and then keeps running into him.  His name is Rafe, and she is warned by many that he is a playboy; a womanizer.  The warnings aren’t enough to keep Coral away, however, but should she have listened?

Coral wasn’t my favorite.  I just didn’t connect with her.  Some of her reactions just didn’t seem right.  For instance, she ran into her ex-fiancé after a few months and she didn’t feel any emotion.  That just doesn’t make sense.  I understand that he wasn’t the right guy for her, she probably didn’t’ love him like she thought she did, but I still felt like she should have felt something, you know?

The story was told from Coral’s point of view, but one or two times it was told from Rafe’s.  I felt like it wasn’t really necessary and kind of ruined the flow, especially since it was only his point of view one or two times.

Overall though, it was a good book.  I read it in a few days, and for the most part it kept me interested.  That’s why I am giving it 3 out of 5 stars.

 

My Rating:  3 out of 5 stars

 

~Pam

 

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

 

Hope Rises from the Ashes Review

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Image from Goodreads

Image from Goodreads

Title:  Hope Rises from the Ashes

Author:  L. F. Falconer

Published:  2013 by Outskirts Press

Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Feels like a Historical Romance, Hard to categorize 🙂

Click here to buy Hope Rises from the Ashes from Amazon.com

 

 

 

****This is the second book in a series, so if you like to be totally surprised you might not want to read this review.  ****

 

The story starts out with Collie and a young boy hiding under a wagon while the boy’s father is being devoured by a huge lion with wings.  Collie and the boy, Natt, manage to escape alive.  They soon meet up with two Tillaman warriors who give them a ride to their town.  Since her money is lost in the wagon that the lion attacked, Collie ends up agreeing to allow one of the warriors to pay for her food and her place at the inn as long as she’ll be his mistress.  This goes against Collie’s morals, but she doesn’t want to be put out on the street, and her heart is already broken thinking her first love is dead.  The situation goes from bad to worse though, as the man who is supposed to be protecting her, turns out to be a monster himself.

I should have read the first book, but even though I didn’t I was able to follow the story.  And wow, what a story!  It had me hooked from the first page.  The story is a little dark, so if you only like to read about flowers, unicorns, and rainbows, this probably isn’t the book for you.  Seriously though, this book deals with not only heartache, but physical abuse.  However, Collie is a strong woman and pulls through.

The point of view changes back and forth from Collie to one other.  I’m usually not a fan of the point of view switch-a-roo, but it was done from chapter to chapter and done for a reason which I don’t want to give away if you’ve read the first book.

Also, the genre is a little hard to categorize.  It feels mostly like a historical romance, but there is a little fantasy in there; a dragon, a flying lion.  But even with those aspects of fantasy, the story feels closer to reality than fantasy.  The author even states in the beginning, “Thus, I deliver Hope Rises from the Ashes (again, a story that rides the cusp of genre.  Purists beware.)”

Although this story is pretty dark, it is really good.  I didn’t want to stop reading; I had to find out what happened next.  Pick up a copy and get lost in Collie’s world for a while.  In the end, you’ll be glad you did.

 

My Rating:  4 out of 5 stars

 

~Pam

 

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

The Curse Giver Review (the conclusion)

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Title:  The Curse Giver

Author:  Dora Machado

Published:  2013 by Twilight Times Books

Genre:  Fantasy, Romance, Fiction

Click here to purchase The Curse Giver from Amazon.com

 

 

I did a partial review of this book a while back here.  Life got busy, but I finally got around to finishing it!

I love when the main female protagonist has strong character.  She knows what she wants, she’s been through a lot, but yet she still pulls through.  Lusielle was definitely that kind of protagonist.  She put up with an abusive husband, was almost executed, and tries to help Bren stop the curse that was put on him and his family.  It’s just refreshing to see a confident woman, who while in love with someone, doesn’t lose herself, you know what I mean?  Especially seeing that she is baseborn (lower class) and a woman, she still holds her own against men.  It’s just nice to see.

One of my favorite quotes from the book was, “The difference between doom and grace is hope.” (p.296)

Anyways, the author, Dora Machado, is a great writer.  Very talented.  And since I pretty much reviewed the story in my previous post (as much info as I want to give away), I’ll just say that it was a very well written book, and I enjoyed it a lot.

 

 

 

My Rating:  4 out of 5 stars

 

~Pam

 

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

The Curse Giver “Partial” Review

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Image from Goodreads

Image from Goodreads

Title:  The Curse Giver

Author:  Dora Machado

Published:  2013 by Twilight Times Books

Genre:  Fantasy, Romance, Fiction

Click here to buy The Curse Giver from Amazon.com

 

So this is what happened.  I signed up for a book tour to review The Curse Giver for today.  I ended up moving, and the book went to my old address.  The new owners opened the package thinking it was for them (it should have been forwarded to me by the post office).   Don’t hate on the new owners though; I think they just got married and probably just thought it was a wedding present or something.  Then when they figured out it wasn’t for them, they gave the book to their neighbor (my previous neighbor, hi Jane!) who I’m friends with to contact me.  So…I just got it a week ago and I’m only a quarter of the way through, which is why I can only provide a partial review today.  That being said, here it is!

 

I love when I start a book and immediately get sucked into the story.  That means the author has some serious talent because I’m a hard critic to please.  As I said, I’m only on partway through  (page 141 out of 414) but if this book keeps going the way it started, then it’s going to be big, a best seller perhaps?  It definitely has the feel of one.

The story starts when a baseborn (lower class, if you will) named Lusielle is being tied to the stake to be burned to death.   Her own husband accused her of practicing the forbidden odd arts (which she didn’t).  She doesn’t understand what’s going on or why this is happening to her.  Then her husband lights the fire meant to kill her.  A few moments later, commotion arises, and Lusielle is rescued.

Her rescuer is Brennus, the Lord of Laonia.  Bren, however, has his own agenda; and although he just rescued Lusielle from her death, he believes that he will have to execute her himself, to save himself and his people from a curse.  Bren keeps coming up with excuses though, as to why it’s not the right time to kill her, and I’m pretty sure Lusielle isn’t going to hang around to meet her doom, if that is what he still intends to do as the book carries out.

Sounds good, right?  The one thing that I am having trouble with is all the character’s names.  I just feel like a lot were introduced in the beginning, but I’m sure as the book goes on I won’t have to think about who is who anymore.

I really can’t wait to read the rest of this and give my final review.  But as of where I am in the book, I definitely recommend it.

 

My Rating:  Coming Soon!

 

~Pam

 

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

Hit and Stay Review

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Image from Goodreads

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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.*****