Tag Archives: romance

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