In the jungle, the mighty jungle.......

.......the lion man is most likely NOT sleeping tonight.

(Image from Goodreads)

I was so excited this week, for multiple reasons but mostly over the fact I'd gotten my hands on the sequel to Breeding Stock. Both happen to be written by the fabulous Melissa Harlow. None of Melissa's books scream out "normal" romance. Which is a good thing to me. It takes someone really creative and brave to think out side the box.

When The Lion Man starts, we're brought back to the post-epidemic world where supplies are few, and women fewer. I've decided I don't want to go into much detail about what happens in the book because even the smallest summary takes away the feeling of the book and the discovery that goes along with the story.

On that note...........the first book turned me on (no I'm not afraid to admit that, it's a compliment actually, so sit back down and shush a minute.), this one......., this one creeped me out. In the scary way, not in the pervy way. There's something out in the woods beyond our hero's and our heroine and it's scary. I really was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I decided to start reading this at night, which might not have been the smartest move, but once I started I was hooked. This was another one of those all nighters. I was so terrified of having nightmares (although possibly erotic...) that I wouldn't stop reading until I had reached the end of the story.

Then once I got there, sorry Melissa, I found a bit of humor. In the 90's one of my family's favorite movies was a movie called "The Pest" (which starred John Leguizamo). If you've never seen it you should. Takes the entire creepiness factor out of what you've just read. Once again though, I totally love the realness to the plague and the aftermath. Also the three way love that exists between our hero's and heroine. I was curious to see how they would play out, with Vaughn and Nicky having a father/son type relationship, but I liked the way the pairing worked. In the end we still got the happy ending, that's what it's all about. Right?

But big girls don't cry...

............although that wasn't true this morning when I was blubbering like a big ole baby.

And there were big, BIG, tears involved. Of course by then I was in "I can't stop reading now!" mode. At 5:30 a.m. no less. No time for Kleenex. Have. To. Finish. Book.

What book would have me up all night and then in tears? The "What If" Guy by Brooke Moss.

(Image from Goodreads.)

I'm sure I won this book. Just not sure where from. It magically appeared one day in an envelope from the publisher. Now that's not exactly an unusual thing around here, but not being to track down where the book came from in an e-mail is. So for now the book fairy brought it.

The book is about Autumn Cole, a single mother who happens to run into her true love her first week back in her hometown. She has bigger problems than Henry to worry about though. Like how to tackle juggling taking care of her father, her son, and getting a job to help provide for both of them. Having Henry's gray eyes turn to steel in her presence, her son growing away from her, and her father's mysterious illness growing more gravely each day are all things she looked forward too even less than coming home to a town where she grew up the daughter of the town drunk. It's not an easy transition for everyone involved. There are plenty of fences that need mending in this story. And a few hearts too.

I usually don't read a lot of contemporary romance as I like being taken away someone old, or having a paranormal element in my romances. This book though, ranks high on my list of contemporary romances. I did mention I ended up crying right? Yeah, about that. Be a good scout and be prepared with a box of Kleenexes. Anything from chapter 20 on will have you leaking tears left and right. I loved the story and the characters. There were a few times I was yelling at Henry........and then times it was Autumn on the other end of the rant. I was totally engrossed in every sentence of this book. This was another one of those books that when you start it, you're not going to want to put it down until you've read the entire thing. I hope each of you enjoys it just as much as I did!

I see your face, but who are you?

^ Seems like a catchy blog title for a romance about people who can easily shift their appearance, doesn't it?

It's not always about what you can see, it's about what you can't see. When I read Poisoned Kisses by Stephanie Draven that's exactly what came to mind.

(Image from Goodreads)

The book is a story about a nymph, as in mythological nymph, and the hydra she's destined to conquer. Nymph's had a tragic history therefore Kyra has her heart locked up tighter than Fort Knox. Marco on the other hand has seen some of the worlds horrors and has become as hard as stone. Their first encounter ends with Kyra trying to take Marco's life and accidentally being poisoned by his blood in the process. From there their romance isn't any easier as they both fight their inner demons............andddd a couple of war gods. One of which being Kyra's father Ares. (Just hearing the name Ares always makes me think of Kevin Smith's character on Xena.) It all comes down to Marco having to completely having faith in Kyra, and her having faith in herself and the power of their love, in order for them to have a future.


This book was not an all-nighter for me. Nor was it an everyday read. I picked it up a couple of times a week, read as much as I could and then left it for a day or two. Now don't think that I didn't like the story, because I did. I think it had more to do with the amount of violence and the real world problems that exist in Rwanda and other war torn countries. When we read romances we're hoping to escape from everything real world related, even if just in our minds, and if if just for a fraction of time. I loved the tie in's of mythology and how the Gods and Goddess' powers would've transform over the years to current times. All in all I liked this book and the short story that happened to be included in the back.

We're all mad here....

Well of course we all are.........aren't we? Well I'm aware I am and if you're not I'll just imagine you are! (LOL!)

So I happened upon the novel "Reign of Madness" by Lynn Cullen a few times and it caught my interest enough that I entered a Goodreads contest to win a copy. Luckily I won a copy and this past Wednesday I picked it up after watching "Elizabeth" the movie for the first time. It set up the mood for this book, very much so, as I saw lots of similarities between the two.

Reign of Madness is about the early life of Juana of Castile, otherwise later known as Juana the Mad. She was born into the royal family of Queen Isabel and King Fernando. She's far enough down in line to the throne that she is happy to become and archduke's wife. Her husband is known as Philippe the Handsome and their marriage starts out happy and full of love. But as her line to the throne grows shorter she encounters more and more problems within her marriage. Eventually her husband decides he would rather have control over lands and the accompanying titles rather than the happiness and love of his wife. Soon after he dies his lies live on to ruin Juana and leaves everyone believing she's gone mad with loss.


This story gripped me from the very first page and I stayed up all night until I finished the last page. To me that's the true sign of a great book, it can claim all-nighter status. The story is well written and was easily readable. Every now and then when you come across a historical tale like this the wording is usually hard on a reader, I had no trouble with that here. I also loved the author's take on the historical tale she had at hand. Often it's hard to piece together a historical person's life, but Juana's life and story were vibrant to me. Each chapter played out like scenes in a movie. I don't remember what was on TV or notice how fast the night got away from me while reading. This is no small book either, it is a novel through and through. 433 pages were read in about 9 hours, and worth absolutely every minute of it to me. I took a catnap after I finished and when I awoke I immediately went to the web looking for more information on Juana. I definitely recommend it to everyone!

(Image from Goodreads)

Double the pleasure, double the fun!

I got a Kindle this week! 

You might have heard my shriek wherever you are. It was heard around the world I'm sure. I had been fighting the e-book evolution, hard. Truly a non-believer. Here recently though I've noticed a lot more self published works and said works only in e-book format. I live in the boonies and my internet has a limit so continually downloading books to Kindle for PC wasn't really an option. Plus who wants to have to lug around a seven pound PC everywhere just to be able to read a book? So the time had come. I cracked. I checked out my options and it just so happened that one of our bills came in lower this month. Just enough to buy myself a Kindle. I ordered it Monday. It was here Thursday. I've read a book and a half so far. Which leads me to my, "OMG THAT WAS AN AWESOME BOOK!", moment.

My first book to load to my Kindle was "Breeding Stock" by Melissa Harlow. 

(Image from Goodreads)

Let me start with the fact this book isn't for the prudish or faint of heart. It's unique and cutting edge with it's story. For me though, I thought it was fresh and it completely consumed me from page one. If you've ever seen the movie "The Crazies" (and if you haven't you should), this to me is the erotic side to that movie. It's also completely feasible for this story to take place in the future. 

'Drea loves Jackson. Jackson as male as he is, of course only realizes this too late. Even further behind that discovery is the realization that he loves her too. She leaves home to do something other than farming and to forget about Jackson. Until the virus hits. Humans and animals alike start dying off by the droves. The country is in chaos. 'Drea hopes she can go home and find Jackson still alive untouched by the virus that has left the world in shambles. Jackson meanwhile, has started a colony where the men inside take    

turns trying to impregnate the women in order to repopulate. The 

colony runs smoothly until Jackson's second in command Bennett brings in 'Drea. The women are to be shared and after seeing the way 'Drea responds to Bennett, Jackson doesn't mind sharing her with his co-founder. The other men however, he wants to keep her from, which goes against all the rules and principles he's set at the colony. It all comes down to Jackson and Bennett realizing they have to leave the colony in order to keep 'Drea theirs, and only theirs. 

I was truly captivated by this book. I started reading it midnight Thursday night and finished it  at 2 in the afternoon Friday. I've been raving to whomever I know will listen about how much I loved this book. Some of Melissa Harlow's other books are even more intriguing and I'm excited to see if they hold my attention as tightly as this one did. 

Hear that?

Ok so I know my blogs are a bit few and far between lately. I started my blog for fun, I'm not out to be the best or have a huge following. I'm sincerely humbled by every view I receive. And I'm still having fun. That's what it's all about for me. :)

Here's a peek into what's been going on here. Currently I'm reading Poisoned Kisses by Stephanie Draven and I'm absolutely loving it. I'll most likely finish it this weekend and post a review soon. I know that was the answer to your first question.

Moving on.

For 8 years I've had at least one child with me every second of every minute of every day. Not anymore. My youngest child started school two weeks ago and guess what?!? Hear that? Silence. Mom has time to think again! My husband works second shift Mon-Thurs and we get mornings together, alone, and Friday during school hours, again alone. It's heaven. I'm absolutely enjoying every minute of it. I've just been kind of relaxing for the first time in years. I'm doing things on my time during the day. Waking up. Moving. Reading. Eating. Existing. I'm blessed. Truly truly blessed. With a wonderful husband (who's birthday happens to be Monday. Happy Birthday Darling!). Two amazing sons. Friends that light up my life. And the rest of my extended family  who round out my complete life.

So if I'm sparse it's because I've thrown a paper umbrella in a fancy wine glass filled with Sprite and am just lying about enjoying not hearing "MOMMY!!!!" a million and 5 times in 2.7 seconds flat.

Towanda!

Such a memorable line from such a memorable movie. If you haven't seen it yet, you should. This line is from the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes". It made an excellent blog title for the book I'm about to review.

As most of you know I fell into reader's block not too long ago where the book I was reading was disappointing. I didn't want to pick up another romance right after it because I didn't want my letdown mood from the first book influence my feelings on the next book. So I gave myself some time off and this week I happened to receive a book from Goodreads.

This is the book:

(Image from Goodreads)

The book is about a woman who after having a stressful couple of days, agrees to accept an invitation to stay the summer with Will's, an old college friend's, elderly great-aunts. She's an aspiring author who thinks this will be the perfect time for her to focus on writing a story loosely based on her own complicated upbringing. In the process of settling in she learns some of the family history and is instantly enamored with it. As she tries to keep her friendship with Will just that, she's drawn to the darker side of his family and also his black-sheep cousin Jake. Living in a house with so much tragic lore leads her to scrap her original novel plans and switch gears into writing about a long ago incident in Will's family.


I don't want to go into too much depth about the story because it's a great story that needs to be read and not just left to it's summary to do it justice.

In this book we get a little early 1900's southern murder mystery, a bit of romance, and a touch of struggling to find oneself. To me this book was a cross between Fried Green Tomatoes and The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. From the first page this book kept my attention. Even though the writing style allowed us flashbacks and alternative point's of view it really flowed. For me the writing style actually kept my attention better than most books do. It was like getting a fresh look into things happening in the book. Some of the flashbacks gave us glimpses into the history of the town and Will's family, whereas some of the alternate points of views gave us glimpses in to some secondary characters heads and lives. You know how sometimes you read a book and it plays out in your mind as a movie? This was definitely one of those types of books. The story and characters embed themselves in your head and sticks with you long after you're done reading. When I wasn't reading I wanted to be or I was thinking about the characters. The murder plot keeps you guessing until the very end. I carried this book around with me for a whole day after finishing it. I really wanted the story to continue on and didn't want to have to part with the tale and characters. Anyone I've talked to this week has heard of this book or has had me show it to them and say, "You HAVE to read this.".  If you're looking for a break from you're regular romance reading I really suggest you guys check this one out!