My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

That kiss destroyed me, gave me life, made me hopeful and sad at the same time.

 

I got lost somehow. I don’t know when. I don’t know where… I need to find myself… And then I’ll look for you.

 

I want you to know that my life only began when I met you, that I’d been waiting all my life for you and that finding you, loving you, has given me purpose, made me whole.

 

My Review:

 

This was not an easy read. It was, however, remarkably realistic in how frustrating and exasperating it can be for family and friends of an emotionally or mentally ill individual who will not seek or accept appropriate treatment or assistance, which is bad enough in itself, but then to suddenly disappear.   Heartbreaking! This happens more often than most people realize or want to contemplate, although most people’s stories are not as compelling or entertaining as this one.

Carin was wealthy, successful, beautiful, and had a lovely family and lavish home. Yet she felt stagnant, numb, and dissatisfied by her life and deeply envied her free-spirited friend who avoided commitments and blew with the wind. She lived for her work while her family life and personal responsibilities were falling into chaos from avoidance, neglect, and disinterest. She was also zoning out with thoughts of suicide and acts of self-harm and had developed an inexplicable resentment for her kind and loving husband. When the opportunity arose to disappear, she took it.

I had a difficult time caring for Carin, as she initially appeared extremely self-involved and whiny. I was unsympathetic and sighing with displeasure while considering a DNF until I read a bit further and realized she was grieving and clinically depressed. I had found myself growing increasing antagonized and annoyed with Carin, yet I couldn’t put my Kindle down and walk away. Ms. Brae’s emotive and well-nuanced storytelling put an itch in my brain and I needed to see it through. I was thankful for staying the course, as the ending proved satisfying (although she really made me work for it) and Carin’s romantic island adventures with the tasty Matias were quite the steamy diversion as well as a sweet delight for the daydreaming romantic in me. Sigh, I was totally enamored and besotted with the scrumptious Matias.

 

BLOOD TRUTH

(The Black Dagger Legacy Series #4)

by J. R. Ward

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

In the back of his mind, the tally of his sire’s neglect and condescension was like an electric meter going haywire, the count spiraling up into the stratosphere…

 

You are amazing. I know . . . I know that sounds like a line, but it’s not. You bring me to my knees and lift me up at the same time. It’s the definition of magic.

 

My Review:

 

I have been hearing this author’s name for several years – first as murmurs then loud rumblings and finally as shouted raves; but until now, I had never stopped to read one of the many books from her rather large shelf of offerings. Silly me, what was I thinking? I’m kicking myself… This was fantastic. Despite the need to read slowly while occasionally needing to check the handy and thoughtfully provided glossary of her creatively contrived lexicon, it was well worth the effort. I was quite taken with the cleverness and agile craft of her complex yet captivating world-building.

Being a paranormal novice I had been hesitant to delve in, knowing I was starting the second generation of a long-running and highly venerated series and I would be swimming in alien waters. And, I’m lazy when it comes to extensive world-building. Yet, I was pleasantly surprised, scratch that, I was downright gleeful with my discovery! Even though I found myself sliding into a completely unfamiliar mythology from any vampire lore I’ve ever come across, I had no difficulty following the complexity and didn’t experience the expected struggle in navigating or comprehending the foreign structure of their society and various nomenclatures.

The storylines were action-packed, well-crafted, and laced with sharp wit, keen insights, and evocative observations. I was enthralled, riveted, and highly invested throughout. Ms. Ward’s bewitching and engaging writing style whisked me right inside the core of her secret clan as if I had been granted the vamp power to dematerialize and transport myself there.   Her characters were peculiar, curiously enticing, and uniquely compelling – even the creepy and disturbing ones.

I am a new convert to the Black Dagger Brotherhood and will confess that the last serious vamp book I recall perusing was by Anne Rice in the late 1980s. I am totally enamored with J.R. Ward’s delightfully creative and mesmerizing arrangements of words as well as this new species – they drink hot cocoa and eat ice cream! I may have been turned – I now consider myself a paranormal reader in training.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

J.R. Ward is the author of more than thirty novels, including those in her #1 New York Times bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood series. There are more than fifteen million copies of her novels in print worldwide, and they have been published in twenty-six different countries around the world. She lives in the South with her family.

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My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I wanted to be able to breathe without feeling guilty that I still could.

 

Mary Jane Kleiber was on her third husband and fifth kid. She always did say she was going to find a man to take care of her. I guess the income of child support and divorce settlements was the route she chose.

 

Somehow, telling my mother that the sweet man she was referring to had devoured me with deep penetrating kisses only forty-eight hours ago then dismissed me like yesterday’s garbage didn’t sound like such a great idea.

 

You forget that this is a small town and that people talk. You can’t buy nonfat yogurt from the market without every person in town gossiping about how it’s about time you notice your ass has gotten bigger.

 

She would tell me that when I smiled at her, it made her tummy tickle.

  

My Review:

 

This book just wasn’t my preferred cup of Darjeeling. I struggled, valiantly I must add, as I have read and enjoyed several books by this author and knew eventually she would pull the depressed and wallowing character’s cranium from his rectum, but alas, it took far too long for my taste. I am no fan of constant conflict, repetitive cycles, or high angst, and unfortunately, that would describe 80% of this story.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it was poorly written, it wasn’t. My rating is purely a reflection of my personal satisfaction, and regrettably, this book fell short of my definition of enjoyable entertainment. While there were still things I did enjoy such as an interesting premise, dual POV, and eventual sweet and steamy HEA; Ms. Harms clever trademark humor made only scant appearances and not only did she deploy several of my highest ranking pet peeves in her storylines, she did so repeatedly. I was not a happy camper and experiencing an escalating level of exasperation and sighing with displeasure and high dudgeon until I neared the 85% mark when my mood vastly improved with that long-awaited skull extraction and sudden bursts of sweet romance and sensual steam which culminated into a fond HEA to save the day.

 

C.A. Harms
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I am one of those authors that adore my readers. I love to hear from you. After all, it is because of each one of you that I continue to write.

 

Excerpt

Somehow, Brooke managed to pull herself together. She let out a mouthful of air and nodded at the man in front of her. “We’ve met before,” she said, her voice thin. “Hello, Aiden.”

He said nothing for a moment, but she could feel those dark eyes taking every inch of her in. There was something unfamiliar about him. It wasn’t quite foreboding but it was on the borderline. She got the impression nobody messed with Aiden Black.

A shiver snaked down her spine.

“Brooke,” he finally said, holding his hand out for her to shake as though they were mere acquaintances. “How are you?”

For a moment she considered giving him a honest answer. Shocked. Nauseous. Wondering where the hell he’d been for the past ten years. “I’m good, thank you,” she replied, holding his hand firmly in hers. It was warm, strong, and sent the biggest jolt up her arm. In spite of the heat, her skin broke out in goose bumps.

“And your parents? Are they well?” The corner of his lip curled up. Was that a sneer?

“They’re good, too.” She nodded. “And you? How have you been?”

There was a twitch in the corner of his jaw. His face was as sculpted as she remembered. Though he was freshly shaven, she could remember the way it felt as she pressed her lips against his stubbled chin, kissing her way along his jawbone.

Stop it, Brooke. She didn’t need to be thinking about this, not now, and not ever.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I have nothing against drag queens, per se. I have everything against my husband running off with one.

 

It wasn’t quite the introduction to Pilates I was expecting. In fact, Pilates wasn’t quite what I was expecting full stop, and bore no resemblance to the old DVD I’d found and watched. We were shown to mats, and I was expected to contort my body into positions it hadn’t been in since I was a rampant teenager with a penchant for experimental sex positions. It was the slight leakage from a weak bladder and the pain from holding in a fart that had me pretending to remember a very important appointment and leaving the class early.

 

What if he was a murderer? I grabbed my phone and set three alerts to ring throughout the evening. As for layers, by the time anyone got my Tena Lady pants off, my tights, my body sculpture corset thingy that was supposed to give me back the shape I had twenty years ago according to the saleswoman, they would be too exhausted to do anything awful! Yes, I was safe from being attacked, I decided, I just had to make sure not to be murdered.

 

Manuel—and I didn’t for one minute believe that to be his name—flounced from the washroom. “What a big prick,” I said, picking another sheet from the basket. “I saw him naked once—you’d never use those words where he was concerned.” Maggie waggled her pinkie at me.

 

“I diagnose a serious case of notenoughsexsyndrome,” I said. “Oh, no. Is there a cure?” he asked dramatically…

 

 My Review:

 

I gleefully giggled-snorted my way through this cleverly amusing yet thoughtfully insightful tale of Lizzie, a newly divorced fifty-year-old woman who was determined to set a new course for herself. Her husband had left her for an over six-foot-tall former sailor/drag queen; man – that had to burn white-hot with humiliation! The engaging storylines sparkled with riotous levity and were cunningly paced and deftly constructed, while each oddly endearing character was nimbly nuanced and wittily described.

 

The irreverent title was derived from the descriptive nicknames given to a pair of octogenarian nudists that Lizzie happened across while they were attending an artists’ retreat on the same property she was visiting. Just one of many animated and comedic encounters  Lizzie experienced while settling into her new status of being a single mature woman with a capricious bladder and fair amount of sass as well as an exceedingly odd neighbor and new attractive male friend of indefinable and frequently shifting status.

 

I feasted on each lively and rib-tickling twist and delightfully humorous turn and smirked and snickered at Ms. Podger’s cheeky humor. I also picked up a new addition to my Brit Word List with boss-eyed – which is British slang for having either one eye or misaligned eyes.

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