Fun With Books Blog

REVIEW

Whispers in the Dark

Author:  Maya Banks

Series:  A KGI Novel #4

Genre:  Romantic Suspense

I honestly did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did.  The paranormal twist to the story threw me for a loop at first, as this is a romantic suspense series, but it totally worked and I think it added something extra to the series.  

REVIEW

Falling Harder

Author:  W H Vega

Series:  Hearts Collective (?)

Genre:  NA Romance

What a waste of a day. If there is one thing I hate, it is a cliffhanger. If there is one thing I hate more than a cliffhanger, it is a story that just ends ................. as if it was an error. Grrrrr.  Other than that .... it was okay, a 3 star read.

Can you tell I am p'd off? 

REVIEW

Law Man

Author:  Kristen Ashley

Series:  Dream Man #3

Genre:  Romance

I loved this book (I seem to say that a lot haha). Kristen Ashley has fast become one of my favourite authors and I seem to be on a mission to read as many of her books as I can - thankfully she has quite a few, so I am sorted for a while at least :)  

I am not sure how I managed to start the series on book three, but I loved it, so I am quite happy to have started with Mitch and Mara's story.  It is a great love story and a great story about family and friends who are there for each other.   Very good.

REVIEW

Breathe

Author:  Kristen Ashley

Series:  Colorado Mountain Series #4

Genre:  Romance

I enjoyed the story but it was spoiled to an extent by a lot of unnecessary and sometimes exhaustive descriptions about nothing of interest.  As much as I hate to shorten a book, this one could have done with a good edit/cut of at least 50-100 pages. Other than that, it is a good story and I enjoyed it a lot.  

Next is Jagged which has an interesting range of ratings/reviews, so will see how it goes :) 

REVIEW

Lady Luck

Author:  Kristen Ashley

Series:  Colorado Mountain Series #3

Genre:  Romance

I absolutely loved this story and all the great characters, but I did have a slight problem with some of the language used lol.  I am not a prude, but there are some words I would rather not see in print.  Other than that small point, I loved this book.  It is a great love story but it is also a story about true friendship and family.

I am moving straight on to the next book in the series 'Breathe'.

It is such a great experience to read book that does not have the last 10% of the book devoted to promoting other books.  The end of Kristen Ashley's books are the actual end.

REVIEW

Sweet Dreams

Author:  Kristen Ashley

Series:  Colorado Mountain Series #2

Genre:  Romance

Loved this book.  I am seriously in trouble.  I really, really don't like macho man, badass, alpha male types' and yet ... darn.

Laurie didn't think she did either and had this to say after only a few days in his company.

"if he wasn't so handsome, strong, sometimes sweet, didn't have a Harley, that beard, a tendency to play with my hair, didn't look so good in jeans and wasn't so danged good in bed, he would seriously not be worth it"

Hahaha

And then this when they were trying to decide who buys what and who does what around the house:  "Sheets are chick territory," he said without delay.  You gotta use tools, that's dick territory."

LOVED this book.

REVIEW

The Gamble

Author:  Kristen Ashley

Series:  Colorado Mountain Series #1

Genre:  Romance

Published:  December 11, 2012

I really, really enjoyed this book, it is a great story. 

I am not a fan of men who use the words 'because you are my woman' during, or at the end of an argument or discussion - it makes my hair stand up on edge, and yet I have really started to enjoy Kristen Ashley's books.  All her male characters seem to be these He-Man type characters, but somehow I am able to do an eye-roll or hmpf and move on. I am now reading Sweet Dreams (book two in the series)  

Another thing I really like about Kristen Ashley's books is that they are nice thick books I can get lost in.

I came across this spectacular photo of Cape Town (my home city) and thought I would share it with you.  I don 't actually live there - see the mountains to the left in the distance, that is home - but I love the city, it is a colorful and vibrant place :)

REVIEW

Rocky Mountain Haven

Author:  Vivian Arend

Series:  Six Pack Ranch

Genre:  Romance

Published:  January 10, 2012

This is the second book in the series and I enjoyed it a lot.  It is a bit sexier than what I am comfortable with lol, but it was great. Beth and Daniel are good together and Daniel is, in my opinion, the perfect man - sizzling hot, caring, kind, and compassionate. He is Perfection.

I preferred this book to Rocky Mountain Heat, but it was great reading about, and catching up with the characters from Heat in this book.

A good read, I look forward to reading the next one.

Review

How to Breed Sheep, Geese and English Eccentrics

Author:  Valerie Poore

Published:  January 8, 2014

Genre:  Contemporary Fiction

This is without a doubt one of my favourite books - it is a real charmer, and I loved it.

There is a whole host of truly wonderful characters and supporting characters that helped shape this story and paint it in bright multi-coloured layers, and they all had me laughing out loud at their antics.

Maisie, our heroine, armed with a hard-earned university degree decides to rather try her hand at farming instead, and sets out to do so with hilarious consequences.  Her eccentric mother, who lives in a world of her own thinks nothing of wearing her ancient wedding dress to help mend fences on the farm or to wear her moth eaten cocktail dresses or ball gowns around the house.  I adored her.

Maisie’s photographer boyfriend started off as quite a bland character, but he is proof that if you hang around people who are eccentric, or even just slightly eccentric, it may just rub off on you.  He is as clueless as Maisie is about farming and doesn’t show much interest, but between the two of them they came up with the most bizarre of all schemes involving runaway sheep. So funny :)

What is a farm without animals?  This farm had the best animals ever.  There is Emily, the ewe, who was constantly scheming and leading everyone else astray, to Wellington the charming little ram ......... who rammed, and Miss Gee, the goose who terrorises everyone – there was enough craziness on this farm to keep you entertained forever.

This was an excellent read, and is one of those books that will stay with me for a very long time.  Great characters, and great story.  I loved it.

REVIEW

A Little Local Difficulty

Author:  Chris Marr

Published:  February 16, 2014

Genre: Crime / Suspense

This was a really good read.  Michael Janaway is a DCI who works and lives in Cambridge (UK).  He takes on the case of the murder of his neighbour, with a very interesting outcome – I honestly never saw it coming and other than a shocked ‘what the heck’ I was speechless haha.  The way it all played out was unexpected, but really, really good.

Michael has borderline Asperger’s Syndrome, which I found very interesting.  It was great to read about how he deals with the people around him, and how they in turn relate to him.  This, plus the way he goes about his job and how his ‘logical mind and his eye for detail’ (in the author’s own words) works for him, fascinated me.  I loved it.

It is not like any other suspense/crime novel I have read, which is a good thing, and it kept my interest throughout.  It is well written with good characters and a good story line.  Well worth the time, I will definitely be reading more by Chris Marr in the future.

Still can’t believe the outcome though lol.

REVIEW

Harbour Ways

Author:  Valerie Poore

Published:  February 16, 2014

Genre: True Life

I loved this book.  It was a lot of fun, but it was also very interesting to read about life on a barge, and what it takes to turn a historical working barge into a comfortable home.  

It must have been incredibly daunting as a single woman living in a foreign country to go out and buy a barge.  Not just any barge, but a historical barge that needed a lot of work, and a lot of money.  Add to this the fact that she would be doing all the work herself, and the fact that she was still learning the language.  Daunting, yes I am sure it was, but for me the reader, it had its very funny moments, as well as its wow moments.

Living on the water is certainly not for everyone, simply because of the ‘hardships’ associated with it.  But, after reading this book the hardships seem to pale in comparison to what you actually get out of it.  I think the feeling of freedom, and the friendships forged on the water will make the hardships, while not insignificant, seem more manageable because they are in a way, a shared experienced. 

I was continually amazed at the author’s courage, and her willingness to do all the work herself.  Her carpentry skills were amazing and her power tools impressive, but I would have run a mile before crawling into a 500l water tank to attach the necessary fittings.  Never, ever *shudder*. 

Other than being a great read, I think there is an important lesson to be learned.  Never give up.  Know your limitations, but push them ...... hard.  It was great to see how much Valerie Poore was able to achieve because she believed in herself and her abilities.

I especially enjoyed the photographs which accompanied the story.  I would have loved a lot more, but was thankful for the glimpses of what the author was working on at the time.  The kitchen and the bathroom were amazing.  They are tiny, and yet so perfect.

The photos of the barge moving serenely along the rivers/canals were awesome.

This is a great book.  It is beautifully written and I loved it.

I bought it - even though I have banned myself from buying anything for a month - but this is a bargain ... right ?  haha *sigh*

This is such a good read.  Valerie Poore is an author living on a barge in Rotterdam and tells the story about how she bought her historical barge and how she painstakingly restored it and converted it into a home.

She is braver than I am - my studio has a lot of power tools, but some of the tools she has mastered scare the heck out of me.  It is a great read so far

I have also read another two book by this author - I love her style :)

The first one is African Ways

This book is about Valerie Poore's life in South Africa and how she adapted and fell in love with the country and its people. She is British, and one line in her book still makes me smile - she said ‘I don’t mind being poor, but I do mind being cold as well as poor!’ …. so they moved to South Africa.  A good read :)  

The second was How to Breed Sheep, Geese and English Eccentrics

This book was also a fun read - it is about a young woman and her mother who is 'a tad eccentric' lol. They live on a farm and the daughter decides to actually try and farm - with hilarious consequences. I loved this book, but just realized that I have never written a review for it.  I will rectify that - it deserves a review of its own :) 

I am so sorry about filling the dashboard with all these books.  I just need to get them up and put away.  I will be doing one last author, and leave the authors beginning with "C' for tomorrow.  Then it is done until I get to list the books in another of my bookshelves - two bookshelves left to do :(   Sigh ................

REVIEW

Love Hacked

Series:  Knitting in The City

Author:  Penny Reid

Published:  March 3, 2014

Genre: Romance

This was not one of my favorite Penny Reid books. The story was fine and Sandra is a great character, but Alex .... I don't know, there was just something about him that got on my nerves.  He is much younger than Sandra, has a shady past and a lot of secrets. Sandra on the other hand is unable to stay away from him, and even though she can't understand why he can't/will not share his past with her, she is prepared to take a chance on him.  

It was great reading about the other ladies in the knitting group again, they are all so supportive of each other and a lot of fun, which made the book a fun and easy read despite the problems I had with Alex as a character  :)