ARC Review of Never Dare a Wicked Earl by Renee Ann Miller
Wednesday 31 January 2018
BY
Maggie ☆ åįžå ☆ They
Never Dare a Wicked Earl
by Renee Ann Miller
Book One of The Infamous Lords Series
Publishing Date - 1 January 30 2018
Publisher - Zebra Shout, an imprint of Kensington Publishing Corp
Source - Publisher via Goodreads
"They are the infamous lords, unrepentant rogues whose bad behavior makes for good gossip among the ton. But every scoundrel has his secrets, and it takes a special touch to reveal the true hearts behind their devilish disguises.
Known as a brazen philanderer, Hayden Milton, Earl of Westfield, is almost done in by a vengeful mistress who aims a gun at a rather essential part of his anatomy—but ends up wounding his thigh instead. Recuperating in his London town house, Hayden is confronted by his new medical attendant. Sophia Camden intrigues him, for behind her starched uniform is an enticing beauty better suited for bedding than dispensing salves and changing bandages.
Unshaken by his arrogance, not to mention impropriety, Sophia offers Hayden a dare: allow her ten days to prove her competency. If she resigns in exasperation like her two predecessors, she will be beholden to this wicked seducer. As a battle of wills begins, Sophia finds herself distracted by the Earl's muscular physique . . . and discovers that the man within longs only for a second chance to love."
That about wraps things up for this post. I hope y'all liked all the new things I've done to the new site! I spent yesterday creating the graphics and editing the codes. My brain still hurts, y'all!
If you've already read Never Dare a Wicked Earl, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!
Until next time, darling readers, have a happily ever after!
by Renee Ann Miller
Book One of The Infamous Lords Series
Publishing Date - 1 January 30 2018
Publisher - Zebra Shout, an imprint of Kensington Publishing Corp
Source - Publisher via Goodreads
"They are the infamous lords, unrepentant rogues whose bad behavior makes for good gossip among the ton. But every scoundrel has his secrets, and it takes a special touch to reveal the true hearts behind their devilish disguises.
Known as a brazen philanderer, Hayden Milton, Earl of Westfield, is almost done in by a vengeful mistress who aims a gun at a rather essential part of his anatomy—but ends up wounding his thigh instead. Recuperating in his London town house, Hayden is confronted by his new medical attendant. Sophia Camden intrigues him, for behind her starched uniform is an enticing beauty better suited for bedding than dispensing salves and changing bandages.
Unshaken by his arrogance, not to mention impropriety, Sophia offers Hayden a dare: allow her ten days to prove her competency. If she resigns in exasperation like her two predecessors, she will be beholden to this wicked seducer. As a battle of wills begins, Sophia finds herself distracted by the Earl's muscular physique . . . and discovers that the man within longs only for a second chance to love."
I received a copy of Never Dare a Wicked Earl by Renee Ann Miller from the publisher via a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions published below are mine and mine alone.
Lord Hayden Milton, the Earl of Westfield is
shot by an ex-lover whilst coming home one early morning and is in need of yet another nurse to aid him in his convalescence. When his sister hires a young woman for the job, his lordship immediately fires Sophia Camden. Sophia isn't about to be deterred by her charge and maintains her position by daring the Earl to participate in a wager.
Sophia Camden bets her job and her future when she dares the Earl of Westfield, if she wins, the Earl must to do everything in his power to help her achieve her dream. Can Sophia last ten days in the Earl's employ and have her dream come true? Will the
Earl's most recent stunt make her quit or will she persevere? Will his lordship realise how much he loves Miss Camden before he ruins everything? Is somebody out to get Miss Camden? How long can the Earl's secrets ? Will Celia ever get a new governess?
I enjoyed reading Never Dare a Wicked Earl, it was a wonderful reintroduction to Regency era historical romances that I welcomed with a warm cup of tea and a handknit blanket. Miss Miller did an amazing job researching the Regency era, even going
so far as to write actual events from history into the story. Even the sex scenes were orchestrated in a tasteful manner whilst still maintaining the Regency tradition.
Sophia Camden was a joy to read, she's a well-written character showing remarkable intelligence and ingenuity. She didn't put up with any of the Earl's shenanigans and seemed to take great pleasure in putting his lordship in his place.
His lordship, Hayden, is guilt-ridden by past mistakes and I truly understood his behaviour in relation to women. He feels an attraction to Sophia that he tries his best fight until he decides to go for it, even if he isn't worthy, and then he goes all-in to making himself worthy of Sophia's love.
His lordship, Hayden, is guilt-ridden by past mistakes and I truly understood his behaviour in relation to women. He feels an attraction to Sophia that he tries his best fight until he decides to go for it, even if he isn't worthy, and then he goes all-in to making himself worthy of Sophia's love.
Celia was the most
darling girl and I really wish there'd been more of Celia because she was obviously the reason behind his lordship's behaviour. The reading room scene was a turning point in how Sophia regarded the Earl when she sees how the child has her father wrapped around her little finger.
What I absolutely loved about Never Dare a Wicked Earl is Miss Miller worked a well thought out suspense vibe into the story. The story even started out with an attempted murder.
What I absolutely loved about Never Dare a Wicked Earl is Miss Miller worked a well thought out suspense vibe into the story. The story even started out with an attempted murder.
How do I rate this? 4 stars and 3 flames. I really enjoyed Never Dare a Wicked Earl and I can't wait until Never
Deceive a Viscount is available!
Overall Rating
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Heat Rating
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Renee Ann Miller writes historical romances that are sometimes witty, sometimes dark, but always sensual. She was a 2015 & 2016 finalist in the Golden Heart Contest® from Romance Writers of America®. Renee penned her first book at the tender age of seven and even drew the impressive stick figures—though clearly those characters weren’t as spicy as the ones she writes now.
She loves romantic stories, excessive amounts of chocolate, DIY projects, and gardening. And pastries… can’t forget those. She lives in the Northeast with her wonderful husband. They met their first day at college and have been married for over twenty-five years, which seems odd since she insists she’s only thirty-nine. Obviously, math isn’t her best subject.
That about wraps things up for this post. I hope y'all liked all the new things I've done to the new site! I spent yesterday creating the graphics and editing the codes. My brain still hurts, y'all!
Tuesday 23 January 2018
BY
Maggie ☆ åįžå ☆ They
Don't Rush Me by Jackie May
Book One of the Nora Jacobs series
Publication Date - 25 January 2018
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Most humans have no idea that a dark and deadly underworld, filled with magic and monsters, exists. They wander through life blissfully ignorant of the supernatural world around them. Nora Jacobs is different. Nora knows exactly what kinds of hellish creatures haunt the streets of Detroit.I received a copy of Don't Rush Me by Jackie May from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of the book. The following review consists of my opinions and mine alone.
Thanks to a unique set of psychic abilities, Nora has managed to steer clear of the underworld most of her life. But all that changes the night the most powerful vampire in the city discovers her gifts and decides to use her as a tool to find one of his missing clan members.
As if that’s not bad enough, Nora believes she’s cursed. All her life, people, especially men, have been drawn to her—some to the point of obsession and violence. Underworlders, it seems, are not immune to this curse, and now she’s caught the attention of some of the most dangerous monsters in the city.
Neck deep in an investigation only she can solve, Nora quickly makes as many new allies as she does enemies. Her biggest problem is staying alive long enough to decide which is which.
*This is a slow burn reverse harem romance.
Nora Jacobs is not your ordinary human. She has a certain allure to her that makes her more and more irresistible to men which has given her more than her fair share of troubles and she has a serious case of psychometry, psychic powers centring around her touch. When her spidey sense starts tingling on the bus ride home on her birthday, she assigns it to the sketchy gangbangers at the back of the bus. When she nears her home, it is revealed that the gangsters were not the source of danger she needed to worry about. Her landlord’s sketchy son has decided that her birthday is the perfect day to kidnap her. Nora convinces her captor that she’s all for a good party to celebrate her birthday and asks to go to the exclusive club, Underworld, determined to use her knowledge of the supernatural denizens of the Underworld to save her. After divesting herself of her would-be rapist, Nora exits the club post-haste, surprising her new bouncer friend in her escape. From there, she is captured yet again and taken to a vampire's residence. Her birthday night sparks the entire book's adventures, solving kidnappings, rescuing paranormals in distress, befriending men of different species and remembering things best forgotten.
I kept reading past the Henry debacle because I really wanted to see Nora come into her own and maybe kick Henry's ass later on. I loved Terrance and Oliver and I'd love to hang out with Ren sometime. But the other men are kind of asshats in one way or another. One I wanted to immolate and just be done with, if you read this, you probably know who. This wasn't my first reverse harem book, but this book is really a pretty bad representative of polyamory with half the love interests depicted as some sort of user or abuser or other.
If the plethora of scenes mentioning or describing sexual abuse were to be lessened, I'd thoroughly enjoy this book. I know the scenes build towards Nora's entire character, but it's also very triggering to those of us readers who've experienced such events.
In the end, I did enjoy Don't Rush Me and I was rather disappointed I couldn't immediately read the second book, but I doubt I'll recommend it to friends or readers. I do hope the series grows past this first book's less than stellar beginnings though and I'm still rooting for Nora to win out in the end. All in all, I think I'll give Don't Rush Me 3 stars. I liked it, but there were some things that just kept me from loving it.
Thursday 18 January 2018
BY
Maggie ☆ åįžå ☆ They
This is Manatee James, Manny for short. He's my best friend, my little brother, my comforter, and my protector. I've been training him for 3 years to replace his dearly departed departed brother, Ozymandias, as my service dog. We lost him to an inoperable malignant tumor in his brain a week before his and Manatee's 4th birthday.
I'd just like to note that I did not post my thousand different photos of Oz, I only posted two.
Manatee is finally at the level of training where he has to work in-store to get used to the million and one distractions and happenings in the world. We decided on taking him into the Staples in Winter Garden Village (it's an outdoor mall nearby that's got a bit of that Stars Hollow vibe going on). I was so nervous, I hated the idea of all these people staring at me and my service dog, who is obviously a service dog because there's a vest and numerous buttons to help deter dealing with people. I was terrified that we'd set foot in the store and Manny would forget all of his training. Just look at how loudly noticeable that training vest is!
But it was great. I went in after a planner to help organise my bookish life with the rest of my life, a quick in and out mission. Manatee walked on my right side and tucked himself between me and the displays when I stopped to browse. He executed his first real block when I was getting too overwhelmed with men nearby (I have anxiety problems when men get too close). He even posed for one of the clerks working who apparently loves dogs and manatees and was tickled pink about a dog named Manatee - he asked from a respectable distance if he could take Manatee's picture and totally respected the 'do not pet' rule.
Our only real issue was the register area, they have that set-up that feels like a livestock chute where they funnel the critters through a complex gate system to sort them out, I felt blocked in and he kept trying to drag me outside the whole time I was trying to check out, something he's trained to do for anxiety attacks but he's also supposed to apply pressure to me if we're in that situation. I need to work more on his differentiating between the two scenarios and that's going to be so much fun.
Our biggest success was when we walked by the large display of coffee and Manatee, the dog that sees a Starbucks sign while we're driving and starts crying for coffee, only gave the entire display one sniff.
At the end of his training session, I took him over to the Starbucks across the mall and bought myself my usual frappuccino and bought him a regular recipe grande frappuccino all his own.
All in all, that was a great first in-store training session for us. We're going to try Barnes and Noble this weekend and have a real coffee situation. Hopefully he remembers he doesn't do the food and drink on duty. Cross your fingers, readers!
Until next time, dear readers, have a happily ever after!
Tuesday 16 January 2018
BY
Maggie ☆ åįžå ☆ They
Deadly Sweet by Lola Dodge
Book One of the Spellwork Syndicate series
Publishing Date - 16 January 2018
Publisher - Ink Monster LLC
Source - Publisher via NetGalley
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Anise Wise loves three things: baking, potion making, and reading her spellbooks in blissful silence. She might not be the most powerful witch, but enchantment is a rare skill, and her ability to bake with magic is even rarer. Too bad one wants witchcraft on their campus. Anise’s dream of attending pastry school crumbles with rejection letter after rejection letter.
Desperate to escape her dead-end future, Anise contacts the long-lost relative she’s not supposed to know about. Great Aunt Agatha owns the only magic bakery in the US, and she suddenly needs a new apprentice. Anise is so excited she books it to New Mexico without thinking to ask what happened to the last girl.
The Spellwork Syndicate rules the local witches in Taos, but as “accidents” turn into full-out attacks on Anise’s life, their promises to keep her safe are less and less reassuring. Her cranky bodyguard is doing his best, but it’s hard to fight back when she has no idea who’s the enemy. Or why she became their target.
If Anise can’t find and stop whoever wants her dead, she’ll be more toasted than a crème brÃģlÊe.
I received a copy of Deadly Sweet by Lola Dodge from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Ink Monster LLC, for the opportunity.
What first grabbed my attention on NetGalley was the cover, I mean, did you take a look at that gorgeous thing? Hello! I requested access and crossed all my fingers, toes, and eyes that I'd be granted access to this purple literary gem. And I was! I was cutting it close on the publication date but I read Deadly Sweet in two sittings and only two because I fell asleep at 3AM Saturday morning reading it. Then as soon as my errands were over for the day, I settled in to finish the final half of the book that night. And I loved it.
I enjoyed my time reading Deadly Sweet, it was a relatively relaxing read with an easy to follow storyline. Anise and her fellow characters were nicely developed and they each had their own personality and tone of voice. She made some friends for the first time in years and she even managed to get a smile from the assigned bodyguard who has a perpetual scowl on his face. Most of all, Anise got to bake her heart out in that drool-worthy kitchen.
Deadly Sweet was well-written and very entertaining, from the immolation at the County Fair to the Thriller dance at the sleepover. The descriptive details in Deadly Sweet were pretty good. I loved the eclectic architecture of Witch Way. I truly appreciated how Ms Dodge showcased the eternal bonds of true friendship between Nora and the friends she'd lost contact with 20+ years ago by passing them on to the trio's children, Anise, Blair, and Gabi. I could tell that Lola Dodge put a lot of her own experience into the culinary aspects of Deadly Sweet, nobody knows the baking world better than someone who's actually been there and done that. I fell in love with Agatha's kitchen and would love a chance to cook up one of my special recipes, maybe my chocolate bourbon pecan pie with a good fortune spell slipped in with the caramel?
What I didn't like is that Gabi is introduced as this friendly and bubbly girl and it seemed that the author was building up for Gabi and Anise to become bosom buddies but then, she pretty much disappeared for most of the book. I'm hoping that Gabi has a more active role in the sequel.
It was rather obvious to me who the Big Bad was but I enjoyed Anise's journey to discovering what I already figured out. It was like watching one of those cheesy horror movies where the entire audience is telling the vacuous blonde not to go investigate the creepy basement alone. I found myself yelling at my kindle at two in the morning, telling Anise not to do the thing that will probably kill her.
I enjoyed Deadly Sweet and I look forward to reading its sequel when the time comes. But throughout the book, there was also something missing, and I know not what, that made me incapable of falling truly madly in love with the story.
All in all, I'm going to give Deadly Sweet 3 out of 5 stars. I'm totally going to buy it and reread it in a few months, but it's not a contender for my Top Twenty Literary Loves.
Check out the Deadly Sweet Blog Tour!I know this review isn't as in-depth as my others, but I've been dealing with a nasty little bug this week and I still wanted to get Deadly Sweet's review out for its book birthday. So, please don't hate me for the short review.
Until next time, darling readers, have a happily ever after! And if anybody knows how to get me some bake time in that kitchen, let a girl know!
Friday 12 January 2018
BY
Maggie ☆ åįžå ☆ They
Water Bound by Christine Feehan Book One of the Sea Haven/Sisters of the Heart series
Published - 27 July 2010
Source - Personal Library
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Christine Feehan’s #1 New York Times bestselling Hidden Currents may have closed the Drake Sisters saga—which “brought paranormal romance to a new high”*--but it has opened the door to an all~new series of startling magic, mystery, and the soul~stirring elements of nature….
Lev is a foreign secret agent, taken from his family as a child and trained to be the dark hand of his government. While on assignment, Lev ends up underwater in the Pacific Ocean with no rescue in sight. Just as he resigns himself to a watery death, he's rescued by a woman who takes him home to recuperate. He quickly falls in love with this autistic woman with an affinity for water, but he knows that finding their Happily Ever After is going to be a bit harder than a dime-store romance novel.
Rikki has a rash of fire and death in her past and things have to work for her or she shuts down and Lev has his entire existence in the way, having to remember who he is and then making sure he remains dead to his country. Separate, the two have special abilities, and together, the pair can work wonders but are their unique gifts enough to survive everything the fates have thrown at them?
I have started and restarted writing this review dozens of time in its lifetime. I want to gush and be emotional. And I want to be distanced from it all, all professional-like. I've struggled to find a happy medium to do this review because I want y'all to see how amazing this book is. And I can't. I am emotionally vested in this book and I am definitely not a literary professional as of yet. So here it is.
Water Bound hit the quadfecta for me. I found the book because it was written by Christine Feehan, a favourite author. I took it off the shelf for the title. I fell in love with the cover and the synopsis teased me. Author, Title, Cover, Synopsis. I immediately bought the book and I began reading it as soon as I got home and safely ensconced myself in my closet (I like reading in closets). And then, dearest readers, I read the book.
Water Bound shoved its way to the tippy top of my favourite books list with the first chapter. Why? Because for the first time ever, I had a book whose heroine I could relate to. An autistic woman with tragedy in her past that thought herself a monstrous freak. I cried reading Water Bound that night and I'm not a crying person. Not only was Rikki an autistic woman, but she was intelligent, not centring herself around math and science (which I strongly avoid), and she was mistreated by 'the system' for being different. Because Christine Feehan normalised autism by having an autistic heroine, I stopped hating being different and began to love myself, autism and all. I even started dating, which I’d sworn never to do because, ew, commitment and close personal contact with a person bother me.
Christine Feehan’s descriptions were exceptional, as always. I was enchanted with the vivid description of the underwater seascape that Rikki was so in love with. I was repeatedly reminded of the times when I was younger that I would climb out of my bedroom window at night to sit on the roof and just enjoy every raindrop that fell on my skin, something I haven’t done in over a decade.
I know this isn’t a new(ish) book or a yet-to-be-released book, but I’ve seen some disparaging reviews on Goodreads and Amazon that griped about Christine focusing on Rikki’s autistic qualities and her fascination with water and I felt the need to switch my review schedule about so that I could dedicate today’s review to this book that me feel a little bit more normal than I usually do. Writing from a point of view that isn’t neurotypical is hard – even for someone who is neurodiverse, trust me, I’ve tried. And the fact that Christine not only attempted to write from Rikki’s POV and give her a HEA, but succeeded in describing that special place we all disappear to during our ‘moments out of time’ and the frustrations of not being able to do ‘normal’ things like grocery shopping or hugging your family, it matters to me and any other reader on the spectrum. She constantly brings up Rikki’s ‘weird traits and obsessions’ because that’s a thing with us. We obsess and ‘space out’ and we stim and fidget. Many of us don’t do actual eye contact and some of us develop fake-out methods such as sunglasses or staring at a person’s nose. We have sensory issues and we have to have things just so or our entire worlds go off-kilter. For someone who isn’t an Own Voices writer (that I know of), she manages far better than certain popular TV shows to showcase autistic characters with a realness few authors achieve when writing characters with disabilities.
I give Water Bound a whole 5 stars because it is well-written and the research she put into the storyline shows from the succulent plants outside of Rikki’s home to her accurate portrayal of an autistic woman to the diving scenes that are fully developed without glossing over the 'technical' side of diving.
Oh, and I actually own three copies of this book. One is so tattered that its cover is duck taped to the binding which is also duck taped, I bought that one fresh off the shelf the first month it was available in my go-to chain bookstore in Georgia. Then I finally had the money last month to buy a replacement copy as a Christmas gift to myself and I bought the kindle edition this month, so that I can read that instead of accidentally damaging my brand-new copy that I cuddle with when I'm having an 'autistic moment'. It's calming and that's all that matters. Buy a copy, rent a copy, audio, print or eformat. Whichever. Just read this book.
Until next time, readers, have a happily ever after!
Published - 27 July 2010
Source - Personal Library
đđđđđ
Christine Feehan’s #1 New York Times bestselling Hidden Currents may have closed the Drake Sisters saga—which “brought paranormal romance to a new high”*--but it has opened the door to an all~new series of startling magic, mystery, and the soul~stirring elements of nature….
The last thing Lev Prakenskii remembered was being lost in the swirling currents of the ocean and getting sucked deeper into the nothingness of a freezing black eddy off the coastal town of Sea Haven. Just as quickly, just a miraculously, he was saved—pulled ashore by a beautiful stranger. But Lev has no memory of who he is—or why he seems to possess the violent instincts of a trained killer. All he knows is that he fears for his life, and for the life of his unexpected savior.Rikki Sitmore is an autistic sea-urchin diver who lives on a farm in Sea Haven with her surrogate sisters who saved her from herself years ago. One day whilst she's harvesting the spiny creatures off of a shelf along the San Andreas Fault, a massive wave comes out nowhere and throws Rikki off of her boat. Midway through her battle back to the surface, she encounters a man being battered against the underwater rocks along the shelf wall. In a split-second decision, Rikki saves the man from falling further into the fault line, risking her own life in the process. Rikki is a believer in the old laws, especially that of the sea. If you take it from the sea, it's yours. and Lev Parenskii is hers, come hell, fire, or damnation.
Her name is Rikki, a sea~urchin diver in Sea Haven. She has always felt an affinity for the ocean, and for the seductive pull of the tides. And now she feels drawn in the same way to the enigmatic man she rescued. But soon they will be bound by something even stronger, and their tantalizing secrets will engulf them both in a whirlpool of dizzying passion and inescapable danger.
Lev is a foreign secret agent, taken from his family as a child and trained to be the dark hand of his government. While on assignment, Lev ends up underwater in the Pacific Ocean with no rescue in sight. Just as he resigns himself to a watery death, he's rescued by a woman who takes him home to recuperate. He quickly falls in love with this autistic woman with an affinity for water, but he knows that finding their Happily Ever After is going to be a bit harder than a dime-store romance novel.
Rikki has a rash of fire and death in her past and things have to work for her or she shuts down and Lev has his entire existence in the way, having to remember who he is and then making sure he remains dead to his country. Separate, the two have special abilities, and together, the pair can work wonders but are their unique gifts enough to survive everything the fates have thrown at them?
I have started and restarted writing this review dozens of time in its lifetime. I want to gush and be emotional. And I want to be distanced from it all, all professional-like. I've struggled to find a happy medium to do this review because I want y'all to see how amazing this book is. And I can't. I am emotionally vested in this book and I am definitely not a literary professional as of yet. So here it is.
Water Bound hit the quadfecta for me. I found the book because it was written by Christine Feehan, a favourite author. I took it off the shelf for the title. I fell in love with the cover and the synopsis teased me. Author, Title, Cover, Synopsis. I immediately bought the book and I began reading it as soon as I got home and safely ensconced myself in my closet (I like reading in closets). And then, dearest readers, I read the book.
Water Bound shoved its way to the tippy top of my favourite books list with the first chapter. Why? Because for the first time ever, I had a book whose heroine I could relate to. An autistic woman with tragedy in her past that thought herself a monstrous freak. I cried reading Water Bound that night and I'm not a crying person. Not only was Rikki an autistic woman, but she was intelligent, not centring herself around math and science (which I strongly avoid), and she was mistreated by 'the system' for being different. Because Christine Feehan normalised autism by having an autistic heroine, I stopped hating being different and began to love myself, autism and all. I even started dating, which I’d sworn never to do because, ew, commitment and close personal contact with a person bother me.
Christine Feehan’s descriptions were exceptional, as always. I was enchanted with the vivid description of the underwater seascape that Rikki was so in love with. I was repeatedly reminded of the times when I was younger that I would climb out of my bedroom window at night to sit on the roof and just enjoy every raindrop that fell on my skin, something I haven’t done in over a decade.
I know this isn’t a new(ish) book or a yet-to-be-released book, but I’ve seen some disparaging reviews on Goodreads and Amazon that griped about Christine focusing on Rikki’s autistic qualities and her fascination with water and I felt the need to switch my review schedule about so that I could dedicate today’s review to this book that me feel a little bit more normal than I usually do. Writing from a point of view that isn’t neurotypical is hard – even for someone who is neurodiverse, trust me, I’ve tried. And the fact that Christine not only attempted to write from Rikki’s POV and give her a HEA, but succeeded in describing that special place we all disappear to during our ‘moments out of time’ and the frustrations of not being able to do ‘normal’ things like grocery shopping or hugging your family, it matters to me and any other reader on the spectrum. She constantly brings up Rikki’s ‘weird traits and obsessions’ because that’s a thing with us. We obsess and ‘space out’ and we stim and fidget. Many of us don’t do actual eye contact and some of us develop fake-out methods such as sunglasses or staring at a person’s nose. We have sensory issues and we have to have things just so or our entire worlds go off-kilter. For someone who isn’t an Own Voices writer (that I know of), she manages far better than certain popular TV shows to showcase autistic characters with a realness few authors achieve when writing characters with disabilities.
I give Water Bound a whole 5 stars because it is well-written and the research she put into the storyline shows from the succulent plants outside of Rikki’s home to her accurate portrayal of an autistic woman to the diving scenes that are fully developed without glossing over the 'technical' side of diving.
Oh, and I actually own three copies of this book. One is so tattered that its cover is duck taped to the binding which is also duck taped, I bought that one fresh off the shelf the first month it was available in my go-to chain bookstore in Georgia. Then I finally had the money last month to buy a replacement copy as a Christmas gift to myself and I bought the kindle edition this month, so that I can read that instead of accidentally damaging my brand-new copy that I cuddle with when I'm having an 'autistic moment'. It's calming and that's all that matters. Buy a copy, rent a copy, audio, print or eformat. Whichever. Just read this book.
Until next time, readers, have a happily ever after!
Friday 5 January 2018
BY
Maggie ☆ åįžå ☆ They
Animal Instincts by Patricia Rosemoor
A Kindred Souls Romance
Republishing Date – 9 January 2018
A Kindred Souls Romance
Republishing Date – 9 January 2018
Recieved From - NetGalley
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Half-human, half-Kindred, Luc Lazare doesn’t want more complications in his life. He's focused on protecting his shapeshifting family and love is the last distraction he needs.
Skye Cross has the ability to talk to animals. Her most recent animal rescue mission–stopping an alleged dog fight–actually involved shifters in a primal battle. Her investigation leads her to Luc, a man whose powers both unsettle and intrigue her. Skye quickly finds herself caught in a dangerous world she never knew existed, while relying on a man she couldn't possibly trust.
Coming from two different worlds, can Luc and Sky overcome the obstacles fated to keep them apart?
Amazon★Barnes & Noble★Google Books★Goodreads★Kobo
As this is a republishing, please wait until 9 January 2018 to purchase an updated copy
As this is a republishing, please wait until 9 January 2018 to purchase an updated copy
I received an advanced copy of Patricia Rosemoor's Animal Instincts from the publisher, Tule Publishing, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Tule Publishing, for taking the chance on a new blog.
This book is a paranormal romance centred around a young woman, Skye Cross, who has a psychic connection with animals and routinely works in connection with the police force's Animal Crimes Unit and Animal Care and Control to work towards shutting down the rampant animal fighting ring in the city of Chicago. While at a raid, Skye runs into her twin brother, Shade Cross, a homicide detective with CPD, who gives her a good luck charm after admonishing her for her presence at the bust and tells her to stay put. Skye disregards her twin's commands and goes about doing what she does best, helping animals. Although, her disobedience soon lands her in a nice hot pot of trouble from which a mysterious man, whom we later learn is Luc Laverre, rescues her just in the nick of time. Not long after our main characters are introduced, Shade is killed protecting a woman during his investigation who turns out to be Luc's mother and he turns into a ghost with short-term memory loss and a few weird rules regarding his ghostly activities.Teaming up to solve Shade's murder and put an end to the animal fighting ring, Skye and Luc alternate between butting heads and heavy flirting. Both of which were usually on account of Luc's half-breed status of one of the Kindred and his self-imposed family duty to his mobster-esque father and his den of multitudinous iniquities, a casino boat called The Arc. As they search for the culprit(s), the duo face off against dirty members of law enforcement and Kindred that aren't fond of half-breeds.
Y'all. I'm just going to say it. I struggled the whole way through Animal Instincts. I wanted to fall in love with it from the second I read the synopsis on NetGalley, what animal lover wouldn't? But I couldn't. I loved the premise of the story, a young woman trying to help animals and put an end to a animal fighting ring, but I just couldn't lose myself in the story. The writing seemed a bit stilted to me and the lead characters were all over the place. It took me taking short moments out of my day to read Animal Instincts, one lonely page at a time. I had to skip over the overly graphic descriptions of the animal fights because I can't even sit through one of those Humane Society commercials (you know the ones) on television. The characters varied from partially vivid to flat and lifeless. Skye and Luc were, of course, the most developed, but most of the other characters were a bit empty. The world-building that was put into this was underdeveloped and had definite holes that need plugging. To be quite honest, I'm still not entirely sure what the Kindred are except shifters who've given up their souls for more power. I was actually left in the dark on several things that happened in Animal Instincts and y'all have no idea how much it bothered me. I ranted for twenty whole minutes on New Year's Eve after finishing it.
All in all, I'm giving this a 2 out of 5 stars. The story has good bones hidden underneath the one-dimensional characters and substandard world-building and I'd love to see it flourish one day. But for right this moment, it fell short and that saddens me.
Don't forget to like, comment, share, use a bookmark, hug your pets, and brush your teeth.
Until next time, readers, have a happily ever after!
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