Proxima Five by Missouri Vaun

Proxima Five by Missouri Vaun

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is an ARC I received from Bold Strokes Books & Netgalley.

I believe I already mentioned this in a status update: this is kind of a post apocalyptic Conan the Barbarian type book set on a different planet than earth.

Like the previous book I read: earth is dying, certain groups are attempting to save humanity by fleeing in space ships. The book opens with Leah waking up in a spaceship on another world. A world with breathable air but locked with one part of the planet always facing the sun while the other only knows the night. Mercury is like that (I believe) - locked part not breathable atmosphere.

Leah wakes up as the sole survivor of her ship - but there were nine other colony ships that had set out from earth to this planet. Leah desires to find the colony/or possibly colony sites. So she leaves her ship and is promptly captured by humans but not any she had ever meet before (and she does have some knowledge of the other colonists). Some time later Leah is 'saved' by the female verison of Conan - the other main character Keegan. A commander in the Tenth (and ruling) clan.

I've used the term/shelf 'culture clash' for many books. But Leah truly does not understand the culture that she meets/finds herself interacting with; and while Keegan 'knows that Leah is something 'different' (for one: Leah is just too pale to have lived long on the sun side), she still expects reactions of her culture and is not getting it and so gets frustrated.

An overall interesting and good book. That had a somewhat riveting build up to conclusion but kind of fizzled there at end.

Last thought: I said female verison of Conan instead of referencing Xena because Keegan really did d'sseem more female Conan than Xena.

Rating: 3,82

September 3 2018



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Love on the Red Rocks by Lisa Moreau

Love on the Red Rocks by Lisa Moreau

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is both the first book I’ve read by this author, and the author’s first work published (which isn’t always something that happens with me and authors). The author has published two books and one short story (in a short story collection) since this book appeared.

I’d been intrigued by this book since it appeared, but I just never pulled the trigger on purchasing the book. And I still haven’t – at some point this year (last month? This month?) Bold Strokes Books started putting some of their books into the Kindle Unlimited program – which is how I read this book. The book wasn’t free to me, since KU isn’t a free program, but it’s near enough if you read enough books a month (heck, read two full length works that normally cost about $9.99, and it’s like you read one for free and one at full price, and I read a heck of a lot more books than 2 a month – though how many a month are KU depends on the month).

This book stares one Malley . . . oh, darn; the book description doesn’t have last names. Mmphs. Well, the book stares Malley as solo point of view character. She’s 30 (though I’m going more by remembering that she hiked a certain trail 15 years before the start of the story, and she was 15 at the time), and works a ‘steady, stable, and dependable job’ in some form of sales analyst position. She keeps dreaming about opening a bakery, but it’s risky. That’s what her love interest always says, at least. Opening a bakery being risky (‘businesses are closing all the time’).

That’s right, this book opens, well after the prologue, with the lead character having a love interest – and a plan to announce her love to this individual before a certain event occurs (the end of a lesbian retreat vacation).

Let’s back up as that’s vaguely confusing: There’s a prologue involving the lead character, Malley, hiking a particular trail with her dad. She has a moving experience visiting ‘the woman’ (I forget the exact title of the rock formation). 15 years later she returns to Sedona Arizona on a ‘lesbian retreat’, mentioned to her by her next door neighbor Jessie.

So Malley heads to Sedona with a plan – spend time with Lizzie, who she’s spent a year waiting to detach herself from her girlfriend (I want to say Heather?), and this is her chance. Except things start going wrong immediately – while heading towards the resort, Malley and Lizzie – driving together, crash. Not as important as it might seem, no the important part is a motorcyclist stops to offer assistance – the already mentioned Jessie. A problem for several reasons, well three specific reasons: 1) Lizzie makes comments about being interested in Jessie; 2) Malley thought Jessie, who she tries to avoid at all costs, despite being next door neighbors, wasn’t going to attend the retreat; 3) Malley always thought Jesse was gorgeous, and wouldn’t have been all over her if not for her profession (police officer), and she’s distracted on her mission to pursue Lizzie by her own random thoughts about Jessie.

Then, once the two crashed women traveling together finally reach the retreat, they learn that the retreat has a ‘random draw’ pairing random lesbians together to room together. For . . . reasons of experience and stuff.

Malley’s plans are unraveling. Then she learns, horrors, she’s going to be rooming with Jessie.
The book was a lot more interesting than I expected, and, while Malley is a hard character to like in the beginning, the reader both learns why Malley is the way she is – in certain aspects – and watches as Malley grows as a person (which includes her being bitchy (mostly mentally) about other lesbians at the retreat, only to later grow to realize what she was doing).

What else to say . . . good story, good romance. Sex occurred, I do not recall how graphically (don’t read too much into that lack of remembrance; I pay attention sometimes, I don’t sometimes, and when I pay attention does not always correspond to how well written things are or aren’t).

Rating: 4.60 (I originally marked this book 5 stars on GoodReads, putting it on my 4.75 star shelf, but have moved it down to 4.50 shelf and 4 stars on GoodReads. I might adjust again later, but this is probably where the book should rest).

June 11 2018




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Take My Hand by Missouri Vaun

Take My Hand by Missouri Vaun

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books in exchange for an honest review.

This book, the 20th work I’ve read by this author (9 using the Vaun name and 11 using the Braddock), is about Clay Cahill and River Hemsworth. Both of whom have a point of view in this book. Based off of a vague off-hand comment about a third party, there is a good chance both of the characters are near at or over 30 years of age (there was a comment about another character being ‘near us in age, thirties’ (hopefully I didn’t misread that)).

The book opens with River doing what you aren’t supposed to do – be on the phone and drive at the same time. And you know why you aren’t supposed to do that? Well River found out first hand, when she nearly rear-ended some horses (in a horse trailer), swerved to avoid the truck, and slammed into a hair-saloon. And that’s the introduction of the reader to River. That phone played a lot of key pivotal plot points in this book (seriously, first the accident, later a pivotal moment when the phone was left, unlocked, near another person as if they wanted that other person to read the phone (WTF was that about?)).

The second major character appeared when she wandered up to check on River. To provide help, and stuff. River, dazed as she was, still seemed to vaguely respond to the rather obvious (to those who knew her) flirtatious advances of . . . Dr. Trip. Dr. Trip was a major character but not the other main character.

Trip’s advances were intercepted/stopped/redirected when another major character appeared on the scene. The quite attractive woman began asking River questions about the accident. I do not recall, now, if she also flirted, but it was obvious she was also a lesbian. This would also be a major but not main character. Grace the police officer.

By the time another lesbian was introduced (after several other women bounced around asking if River needed help), I was beginning to think two things: this small town in Georgia was filled entirely with women, and there was a good possibility that all of them were lesbians. I was wrong on both counts, but that’s the impression the beginning gave me.

That ‘another lesbian’? That’d be the tow-truck driver. Who River drooled over. Considering that River was kind of out of it, dazed, had literally slammed her head into her steering wheel, and had been given a drink that had more sugar in it than liquid, it’s possible River did in fact literally drool. The tow-truck driver was Clay – the same Clay I already mentioned in the first paragraph as being the other main and point of view character.

Clay helps River – both with her car and to get her to her B’n’B (how is that worded again? I know its Bed and Breakfast, but I forget the little BnB short-cut). They seem to hit it off. Until River mentions she’s from New York, and owns a gallery there. It’s hot. It’s the deep south. A distinct chilly sensation developed, though, noticeable to River after she revealed this information.

Right, so – those are the characters. Main and major (minor would include the new vet that works at Trip’s place, Dani something; and the new police deputy who works for Grace, Jamie something; and Bo – the never-do-well who works at the place Clay works; and ‘Grandpa’ who gave Clay a job; and . . . others). But what’s going on? Why is the New Yorker in Pine Cone Georgia, and why the cold shoulder from Clay?

Well the book description, if you recalled to read it (which I hadn’t – what it’s a Vaun book, of course I was going to read it sight unseen without an idea what it was about, but I’ve read the description now that I’ve read the book) tells you the answer to both questions I ended the last paragraph with.

Clay is an artist who had a bad experience in New York. River is in Pine Cone because the aunt she never really had anything to do with (family issues) died and gave River her car, house, and art gallery. That’s why River is in Pine Cone – temporarily; and why Clay’s there (she lives there).

I had a few issues with enjoying the book: there was no separation for the point of view changes, one paragraph could follow Clay, one could follow River, and there was neither rhyme nor reason for when the change would occur – though it was always obvious a change had occurred. Problem two: occasionally I lost track of who said what, though that was probably more my fault than anything (lost track as in they would talk, and I’d miss out on which person said what when and how). Problem three: wined was used once when whined was intended (yes, I noticed that one specific mistake, heh).

The last problem is more major, but I got around it well enough. And that’s how the book ended, or near enough the end part. When the book suddenly turned into a crime drama for no explainable reason. When that crime drama started . . . well, I kind of groaned loudly and figured that I’d end up giving the book a much worse rating than I had been thinking up to that point. I liked how everything unfolded, though, so . . . it probably has some negative impact on the rating but not as severe as I’d been thinking.

The characterization was good, the romance was . . . solid enough, the plot was interesting. I was intrigued and entertained. Good quick easy read . . . that I found to be slightly lessor than the most recent books that I’ve read by this author. Part of that is because of the issues I had, and mentioned, part of that was the part where a few things seemed a little heavy handed (I knew instantly that trouble was going to happen when one person left their phone with the other – it’s like a blinking red light when that happens, blinking arrow, blinking obviousness – and then trouble did in fact occur).

Rating: 4.31

June 5 2018




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Perfect Little Worlds by Clifford Mae Henderson

Perfect Little Worlds by Clifford Mae Henderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*I received this book from Bold Strokes Books and Netgalley for an honest review*

This is the fifth book I’ve read by this author, one of the five I’ve read twice. Every single one of these books are oddball books that defy classification. All but one of which I’ve rated highly (2 of the 5, or 3 of the six counting rereads are marked 5 stars on Goodreads, two are marked 4 stars, and 1 is marked 3 stars). All of the books involve some bit of traveling, though I can’t really use this as a link – none of them are really what I’d call travel fiction. Several of them, three of the five if you count a prelife story, involve dealing with life – death or prelife. But enough of this rambling.

What’s this specific odd ball book about, then? A woman of 79, living in Santa Cruz California, talks into a recording device. Telling a tale that’s mostly directed to events before, during, and slightly after a specific event that occurred in 1989. 26 years ago – when she was 53 (her actual age of 53 was never given, but her age of 79 was given, the fact that she tells the story in 2015 is given, and the fact that the story she tells is mostly focused on events in 1989 lead me to an age of 53).

What specific event occurred in 1989 that she relates? Why, that’d be the time she got a call from the neighbor of her mother and sister. The neighbor indicated that there might be an issue. After a bit of back and forth, Lucy, who – in 1989 when she got the call – was/is living in Portland Oregon at the time, must attempt to help her mother and sister living in Santa Cruz California. So she does – heading down for a visit. Only to find that her mother is in horrible shape – and doesn’t have a clue who Lucy is; her mind is mostly gone. Not completely, she spends her time bouncing from on time to another, but mostly watching television, and occasionally frantically getting ready for guests to arrive (not that any guests are going to be arriving). Alice, the sister, seems somewhat stressed but also mostly handling things. There’s a little back and forth about why Alice didn’t say what was going on, whereupon Lucy realizes that Alice did, in her way, say that things were deteriorating. Mentally, for the mother.

While attempting to figure out what to do about the situation, the sisters are trapped underground during and shortly after an earthquake hit – a 7.1 one that hit October 17 1989, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake (which, for whatever reason, I see Google calls a 6.9 earthquake, but whatever, it’s 7.1 in the book).

And that’s basically what the book is about. A daughter finds out her mother has mentally deteriorated, and her autistic sister is coping as best she can. Bits and pieces of other parts of the characters’ lives get mentioned – like stuff that occurred in 2015, and stuff that occurred before 1989; and stuff that occurred between 1989 and 2015. In terms of romance – there . . . the beginning stages of a romance is shown, but the book ended before anything of the relationship’s development was shown (though, since the book is actually set in 2015, not in 1989 – as in a woman of 79, in 2015, is thinking/talking about, recording the story of her life events that occurred in 1989, then the ‘what happened next’ is known by the reader, ‘what happened next’ in terms of the very brief glimpse of romance, I mean).

This is a rather sad story. I’m sure there were happy moments in Lucy’s life, but she’s examining a sad portion of her life (albeit one tied up with, presumably, a happier time – i.e. her relationship with another woman), during a period of time when she’s basically alone in the world.

I’m not really sure what all I can say about the book. I’m sure I’ve both under and over revealed stuff as it is. The book is listed as ‘General Fiction’, not ‘mystery/romance/historical/etc.’ I can’t put anything in here that reveals my feelings on the mystery/romance/etc. angle. Historically? Well, it is set in 1989, and there were some neat bits that were shown there. 1989 is too close to today, though, to call the book ‘historical fiction’. So I’m back to ‘General Fiction’. Which doesn’t give me a hook to ramble about. There’s no mystery to solve, no crime to watch unfold, no humorous caper, no ghosts to mingle with, no . . . easy hook to pin words on. It’s a ‘reflecting on life by an old woman’ type of book.

I liked the book well enough. I’ve no clue if anyone else would or wouldn’t. One of the problems with odd ball books is that it is hard to recommend or not recommend a book that falls into this category.

Rating: 4.28

May 19 2018



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Breakthrough by Kris Bryant

Breakthrough by Kris Bryant

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*I received this book from Bold Strokes Books and Netgalley for an honest review*

I’m not sure I’ve read a book like this one before. I do not mean anything good or bad by making that comment, just making a note about it. I’m specifically referring, here, to the main character – the solo point of view character.

I’ve read many books that involved players or people with play reputations. Oddly, or not, most of those involved non-femme characters (or, at the very least, not high femme). Have I seen that character in books? Yes, but not high femme player.

Going over to the player side of the characterization I tend to find three versions: 1) players wanting to stop being a player and to settle down (most of the time I see this in the form of rakes in historical fiction who have spent the good portion of their early adult lives sleeping around with every woman they could find, but now they’ve decided they need to be responsible); 2) people with player reputations who were never players but that reputation got stuck to them for one reason or another (I’m reminded of two characters: Brayden has a character with a player reputation who feeds that reputation, not because they are specifically a player, but because they use it as a shield against . . . I forget now what; and Galli has one who got that reputation by being seen going home with different women every night from a bar, except she was driving them home as a designated driver type, not for romance); 3) players who have no intention of being anything but players (rarer character to find as main character). Well the character in this book is something of a fourth type. A woman who lives in a world, a situation, in which being a player is the norm, and she doesn’t even realize that she lives in a somewhat ‘different’ type of world. She knows she’s a player, but everyone is a player.

Kennedy Wells has spent her life going from one party to another, drinking, partying, sleeping around, and getting paid to do it. Quite well paid. She works as a celebrity journalist. The kind who writes articles about ‘her friend the actor’, instead of hit pieces. Her life was tossed off-course, though; when one of her flings with a random woman, her interview subject, lead to a lawsuit. So she was moved off the high flying celebrity circuit and wants back on. Her boss, Erin, promises that she’ll be put back into her old position if she helps her brother, Erin’s brother, Travis settle in at another magazine – one that’s more about fishing, hunting, and the like. Help by writing a feature article, not help in person with Travis. Travis makes no appearance in this book (other than via one or two emails).

The feature article involves interviewing a jerk asshole reality star type person who has a fishing show. In Alaska. And she has to leave immediately. All mentioned because she heads off with barely adequate clothing and without even reserving a room. Which is where I get back to reminding people that the main character is a high-maintance high femme princess type – who, upon arrival in Alaska, proceeds to disdain the offer of an SUV, takes instead a luxury sedan, then drives around in high heels somewhat randomly. Until getting lost. Because she’s a city girl and stuff.

This reminds me of my initial problems with this book. Very early on there was a very strong vibe of ‘my gosh, I can’t believe how nice and helpful these folks are out here far from the big city; they’ll help without wanting something in return’ (very early on? This goes on, at least the vibe about ‘help without an agenda’, throughout the book) compared with the city dweller who only helps if they have an agenda. I’m not really sure why that particular trope comes up so often. I live in New York, I’ve helped people and people have helped me without needing to be blackmailed into it, or with an ulterior motive. But, eh, I’ve never lived in Los Angeles, where Kennedy is based, maybe it’s as hellish as Kennedy describes.

Got distracted by tropes. Where was I?

So, Kennedy, the main and only point of view character, heads off to Alaska to write some articles. While there she bumps into several people, some nice (all of whom, weirdly, are described as super thin), some less than nice (from a waitress who isn’t as helpful as Kennedy would expect, up to . . . people with guns and evil intent). Stuff happens. Personalities change. Etc. etc. I really hope Kennedy is supposed to be seen, how to word this, as a not tremendously likable person. She does grow, though, so that’s good.

Four things I wish to note before wandering off and doing whatever else: 1) there’s a bunch of sex in this story, lots and lots of sex; 2) I like Wally the pet raccoon; 3) it is hard to get a handle on Brynn, the other main character, since her point of view is not present; 4) thinness. As in, every bloody person meet is described as being super thin. From the 40+ year old librarian who is described as eating a mountain of food, but is just so thin despite that; to the main character Kennedy who is described as being 30 pounds underweight (Kennedy describes herself as being thin, too thin, because she needs to be for her job; Brynn describes her somewhat more negatively as needing 30 more pounds on her); to Brynn herself who is tall, lean, and all muscle; I do not specifically recall if Lara, the police officer, is described as thin or not, but she is described as being gorgeous by vain Kennedy so, since it’s a thought by Kennedy that probably means Lara’s super thin also.

Oh, a fifth thing: Kennedy is really into the fact that she’s a high femme, and likes that Brynn is butch. Though it gets slightly confusing at times – what with Kennedy thinking to herself how Brynn is exactly her type, shortly after making note that everyone she normally sleeps with are all high femmes. Eh, whatever.

Rating: 3.89

May 10 2018



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The Princess Deception by Nell Stark

*I received this book from Bold Strokes Books and Netgalley for an honest review*

This book is about a con artist and an abusive relationship (and no, I’m not talking about Maria and Sebastian).  Part of that is seen by the reader immediately. Part takes longer to come into focus, though it does by at least the 39% mark (more the potential, not the confirmation of an abusive relationship).

A con artist, by the way, who became violently enraged when her con was detected and broadcast to the world. The other party involved, the one who didn’t broadcast the information to the world, but was perceived to have done so – and even if the con artist (she thought to herself) believed this other party, this other woman’s words, that they didn’t tell the world about the con – she still . . . . lied about . . . the con artists identity (this is also part of the abusive relationship – getting enraged at the other party for your own actions.  Getting enraged that the other woman didn’t immediately, and I mean immediately, tell the other woman her suspicions concerning the long-con Viola was running).

A long con?  The book doesn’t seem to indicate some kind of criminal caper is going to be involved. No, it implies something like a retelling of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night would occur.   Sure, the book is titled ‘Princess Deception’, so the reader knows going in that the princess is a lying deceiving type, but I’m wording things too harshly, yes?  Perhaps.  Perhaps not.

Twelfth Night is about a young woman named Viola who shipwrecks on an island and, to protect herself (history isn’t exactly kind to random wandering single unprotected women), she pretends to be a man named Cesario.  There’s a weird love . . . mess that occurs. With Viola (as Cesario) falling in love with Duke Orsino; but Orsino is in love with Countess Olivia; and Olivia herself falls for Viola . . . as Cesario.   Confusion galore.

Princess Deception?  Well, it isn’t an exact retelling, of course.  With one story set long long ago, and the other set . . . roughly around now.  Viola and Sebastian are the twins of Deception and Viola plays Sebastian.  There’s even a Duke for Viola to fall for, here a Missy ‘I don’t like my first name’ Duke (former soccer star).  I suppose it would be pushing things to have the other ‘love interest’ in the story, Sebastian’s girlfriend I mean, be named Olivia – instead she’s named Maria in Deception (though one of Olivia’s servants in the play is named Maria; hmm, and Olivia’s uncle is named Toby – and Toby has a big-ish role in the Deception book).

As noted – Viola pretended to be a man in 12th Night (Cesario, though I’d originally misremembered and thought she played Sebastian).  And in Princess Deception Viola plays Sebastian, or pretends to be him in certain circumstances.  She’s doing this long con in Deception because Sebastian has a drug problem and Viola believes the best thing to do is to pretend to be Sebastian so that people wouldn’t hound him, and therefore allow him to recover in peace and quiet. 

They can’t all just go ‘into hiding’, or the like, because Sebastian had been the front person for the effort to land . . . um, the World Cup? Something like that, to Belgium and the Netherlands (a joint bid), and the month long celebration of this bid was just about to kick off when Sebastian landed in the hospital.  So – Viola gets a haircut, gets some masculine looking clothing, clothing that looks like Sebastian’s, cut to her own proportions, puts on a breast binder, and struts around as Sebastian.  She just doesn’t wear his clothing because they aren’t actually the same height/shape.

Duke, the other main point of view character in this story, starts off the book deeply depressed about her place in life.  For, you see, she had been a high rising, hard charging, and popular, wealthy soccer/football player.  Until an injury ended her career.  Through a teammate’s brother, she landed a job as a journalist (apparently, no one wanted to hire her on her own merits). Duke has been tasked with writing a story or stories, about the FIFA World Cup bid process.

Due to the fact that Duke had, in fact, once been famous, she’s recognized when she attends a particular event. Recognized by a young Princess.  Of the Netherlands.  Who invites Duke to get close, then watch a soccer match up in the VIP area.  Before that, though, Duke had seen a speech given by Prince Sebastian – a welcoming to the festivities type speech. And Duke immediately knew, knew, that Sebastian was actually . . . . Princess Viola.  Despite never having meet either, and the fact that her entire knowledge of Viola comes from some research conducted, while distracted, on the train up to the soccer match (research study needed for many reasons, including the part wherein she never before paid attention to royal types).   Part of the ‘oh my god that’s Viola!’ is from phrases, and moves Sebastian does/says while giving the speech. Which I’d normally leave for the reader to find, but I need to say that so I can say – part of the OMG is the part where Sebastian has to be Viola because . . . of certain feminine aspects detected by Duke (I mean, seriously? In this day and age we are going to play the ‘men are men, which means super macho manly men, while women are feminine, and effeminate men either don’t exist or are actually women in disguise’ game? Seriously?, pfft).

Right, so, Viola-as-Sebastian and Duke interact.  Duke doing things like interviewing Viola, Viola doing things like flirting outrageously and trying really hard to kiss Duke.  Despite, you know, that not really being Sebastian’s style.

Life continues. The month long celebration continues. Duke continues studying the situation and building a story about the matches/bid; plus another story about Viola-as-Sebastian.  Viola continues doing the long-con, and continues flirting hard with Duke.  And playing power games (‘close your eyes, do you trust me? Close your eyes and let me slip you a drink . . .’).

One thing leads to another, and as you would expect, the truth comes out.  As I said in the beginning of this review - this is a book about an abusive relationship.  Because, really, it is. Viola plays power trips and does abusive-like moves throughout the book.  Including the part where she becomes enraged by her lies being seen by Duke – turning it around and calling it Duke’s lies (somehow).   Did I mention yet that Viola, as Sebastian, kept trying to kiss and seduce Duke? Yes? Well, it’s important to keep mentioning. Then, even though Duke is looking horrible – lost weight, bags under her eyes, Viola keeps up the abuse by hate fucking her – sure, she demands consent first, but still – hate fucking her – and continuing to play power control games during this hate fucking.

Viola is one of those ‘I’m doing the right thing! I’m helping my brother! All that you mention is just . . . what had to be done for the greater good!’ types.  The ‘I’m a good girl’ type who gets enraged at others for doing much less …. Um . . . fuckery to her.  I’m not wording this right. Ironically Viola is probably making things harder for Sebastian, even though she’s ‘trying to help him’, but, meh.  She’s ‘doing the right thing, even if that means lying and deceiving the world’ then getting angry at anyone who calls her on her deceit and lies. Viola is a horrible human being.

Duke?  Eh – oddly, I had to stop reading the book originally because of Duke.  Part of it was because of her hyper-conscious about gender roles (aka – the person calling ‘himself’ Sebastian has to be Viola because . . . of the feminine traits Duke sees).  Part is because of the ‘journalists and photographers, who I despise, were horrible when I was a famous athlete’; ‘I need a job, I despise journalists, I’ll do that’ vibe.  Oh – and later it turns out she didn’t really need a job, despite the vague ‘must find work, must keep working, must . . . do my best!’ vibe.  Because of reasons.  Like the various sponsorships she was able to retain through not revealing that she was a lesbian. So, initially, I disliked the book because I disliked the Duke character. Then the nastiness that is Viola became revealed, and so that’s two main POV character to dislike.  Oops, there are only two in the book.

Weird.  First 39% of the book, I was thinking that this was the best of the Princess books.  But . . . alas . . ..

As an aside, and I’m sure it doesn’t matter in any real way, but, of the roughly 15 plays I’ve read by Shakespeare, Twelfth Night is nowhere near the top of the list of favorite plays.  No, it’s one of those that I didn’t really like when I read it decades ago.  I didn’t enter this book expecting to dislike the book because of that, though. Nor did I enter expecting to like it because it’s a retelling of a Shakespeare play.  So, just an aside of no importance.

Rating: 2.67

April 3 2018

Hearts Like Hers (Seven Shores, #2) by Melissa Brayden

Hearts Like Hers by Melissa Brayden
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Book received from both Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review

For ‘reasons’, some of which are based on spotting various ratings pop up in my feed (but without reading the reviews attached), I both went into this book, and spent the majority of the book thinking that I’d likely rate this somewhere near 4 stars. Not that I always rate the same way as others (that’s a laugh, considering the number of books I can’t even finish while others praise them, and the number of books I praise and others give two stars too, it might be closer to ‘it’s a toss-up if I rate the book the same way as someone else’). Just the rating slipped into my subconscious. But somewhere near the end, I realized . . . well, let’s move on to the review.

This is the second book in Brayden’s second official series (which I say because there are non-series books that occasionally have characters from other books appear), Seven Shores. I’d seen the series as being linked by Seven Shores – the apartment complex in Venice California (an independent city from 1905, when it emerged as a seaside resort town, to 1926, when it merged with Los Angeles). The second book in the series involved mid-thirties Autumn Primm, friend of the three women who live in Seven Shores, and owner of the Cat’s Pajamas, a nearby coffee shop, and a resident of some house some distance away. So, how could Autumn be the star of the second book in this series? Well, strangely enough, that specific connection to Seven Shores apartment complex is in fact continued in this here book through the other lead character of this book, firefighter Kate Carpenter, of Slumberton Oregon.

Characters
There are two main point of views, and two main characters (there is at least one occasion when we get the inside thoughts of a third character, briefly and strangely inserted (there’s one occasion when suddenly Hadley’s feelings are so extreme she feels like her head is going to explode – that’s it, that’s her entire POV insertion into the book, and I don’t think it was by itself in the sentence it appeared in)). Those two main characters being Autumn Primm, and Kate Carpenter.

Autumn is 32 and a single child of Vicky (her mother told her to call her Vicky shortly after beginning school, maybe in the second grade) who has spent her adult life living in the greater Los Angeles area, learning everything there is to know about coffee, getting the seed money to open her own coffee place, and running said place of coffee.

Kate Carpenter is 34 and a firefighter who befriended two kids who lived down the street from her in her small town of Slumberton Oregon – and the place is as quiet and sleepy as the town name implies. The book opens shortly after Kate had rescued those same two children from a fire and is suffering a sort of post-traumatic stress over it (not sure if it reaches PTSD level) – especially the part where she lives in a small town and everyone knows the story and everyone talks about how much of a hero she is near or to her face – which she disputes, the hero part, for reasons. Shortly after the book opens, Kate throws some stuff into her truck and drives down to California so ‘she can breathe’.

For those curious, yes, all of the women who were friends in the first book reappear in this book here. Plus Taylor, the love interest in book one, also reappears with her significant other Isobel. So, to fill this out a little more, we have: 'the Seven Shores friends': Isabel Chase, star of Eyes Like Those (&, through her, Taylor Andrews) and television writer; Gia Malone, star professional surfer and relatively younger than the rest of the gang (I think), and star of ‘coming soon’ Sparks Like Ours; Hadley ?, fashion . . . person; and Autumn Primm – coffee shop owner.

Story: As noted: Kate is feeling stress from a recent fire she was involved with in Oregon, and has taken some time off from work to spend time in California and breath. Said time off spent renting an apartment in a specific complex known as ‘Seven Shores’. Meanwhile the other lead character, Autumn, is dealing with a certain amount of depression – a certain amount of low self-esteem brought on both by her rotten bitchy horrible shrew of a mother and her hideous ex-girlfriend who may or may not have cheated on her (it’s never actually stated bluntly, nor even implied, though it sure seemed like Olivia had cheated with Betsey-the-gym-trainer). Shaken by the news that her ex is getting married, Autumn has decided to ‘live’ more – which includes: being open to dating and the acknowledgement that she wants to stick a baby inside of her, and then have that baby pop out so she could be a mother to said baby.

Kate and Autumn meet well. Date. Both know that it’s temporary. Both develop ‘something’. An ‘issue’ occurs and there’s trouble in relationship paradise. I’m being purposefully vague – how detailed should I be? It’s a romance, it’s by Brayden, of course there’s going to be a brief ‘issue’ that breaks the people apart for a short time. And stuff.

Positives: 1) I rather like the personalities shown here, at least, or I mean specifically Autumn and Kate’s. 2) Kate’s described as being near perfect (calm, collected, gorgeous, etc. etc.) but there are enough ‘there’ to move out of ‘fantasy dream girl’ to ‘human’. 3) both main characters have enough page time to ‘show themselves’ and allow the reader to learn something about them. 4) three seconds after I push the submit button, I’m sure I’ll think of 100s more to insert.

Negatives: 1) I realize why he is in the book, I think, but I found Kate’s brother vaguely off-putting; 2) I realize why she’s in the book, again I think, but I found Vicky, Autumn’s domineering, self-centered, bitchy mother was . . . super annoying; 3) I’ve no idea why that whole section involving Autumn attending her ex-girlfriend’s wedding was needed – as a ‘jump start to finding that extra, or ‘more’ in life’, Olivia’s wedding invitation and some ‘stuff’ along those lines would work; having one of the Seven Shores women go along as a friend, Hadley, was good since it allowed more page time to a character who is supposedly a good friend but not really fully developed yet – but, and this is important, despite there being something like a seven hour drive there and back, and the wedding itself, and everything, the whole experience seemed to go by way too fast for any actual ‘character development’ to be seen. 4) see 4 in the positives section.


Overall: Somewhere along the way, despite my vague feeling I might be reading a 4 star book, something occurred – I don’t mean something specific – that made me realize that this book was actually better than I was allowing myself to see it be. I lost that last sentence. Pfft. As for a specific incident – there was one specific incident that caused something that I don’t think had happened before for me with a Brayden book – a slight momentary blurry vision due to watery eyes. The happy kind of blurry-ness.

I liked the book. I liked the characters. I liked the romance and the story. There was even bits of humor tossed in there here and there – nothing on the level of a Robin Alexander book, but humor –

”So, what else is new?” she asked her kitchen, which she was apparently talking to now.

Plus, in addition to some humorous talking to yourself moments, there were a few humorous because of situation moments – like when Autumn and Hadley got drunk that one night.

Right, so, liked the book.

Rating: 4.68

January 9 2018


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Eyes Like Those by Melissa Brayden

Eyes Like Those by Melissa Brayden

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

A young woman, relatively speaking, of roughly 28-29 years of age dejectedly returns home from work. Ex-work. She’s been fired, yet again. Over fennel. She’s, obviously enough, quite sad. She explains her sadness to Fat Tony, who is her uncle and a gangster. He whacks everyone at the restaurant. The end.

Wait, sorry, Fat Tony is Isabel’s grumpy cat. Not a mobster. So, instead of ‘killing’ everyone who wronged her, the cat attacks her feet. Moments later Isabel’s life turns a completely different direction – her former college friend, wait, no, still friend, her friend from college sets Isabel up with an interview with a television series to be a writer on it. She hurriedly sets things up, gets hired, and promptly dumps coffee onto her new boss. And thus is Isabel meet, and thus is the book started.

As noted, Isabel is rapidly approaching her thirties and has spent her life winning awards at film festivals and . . . struggling mightily to have that actually mean anything (like in her bank account). Basically, what I’m saying is that she has received critical success on short films, but no financial success. Oh, and she has no lover in her life.

Enter . . . Gia, Hadley, Autumn and . . . um, well there’s also Stephanie . . and . . well, a bunch of people who live in Isabel’s cozy apartment building on the beach. Wait, you thought I was going to mention a love interest? Are you sure I haven’t? Right, so, my point is/was: Isabel, unlike her normal nature, instantly finds some friends to hang out with. Plus, she has that great gig on a high rated television show.

Meanwhile, a woman of about 32 has been running a highly rated television show for the past 5 or so years (well, this is season 5, so, past 4 years?). She has no one currently in her life, romantically, but then – she has no time for something like that. She’s run ragged from script meetings, to meetings with producers, to meetings with the budget people, to meetings with the network, to . . . well, you get the idea.

Well, she does occasionally have naked (or at least topless) women in her office (and in her life). Except . . . that’s the ex who won’t stop attempting to prolong the relationship. Taylor Andrews, who I now realize I forgot to name, has learned at least one lesson from her life, well many lessons but one specific one matters for this story, - she’ll never again have a relationship with someone she works with.

Isabel finds Taylor to be gorgeous. Taylor can’t stop examining Isabel’s traits, habits, clothing, and body. Things proceed from there.

This is/was a rather good book here. Good solid plot, great side characters (both those seen as friends off the set, and those on the set), great romance, and, and this one surprised me, great bits of humor. I don’t actually remember if that’s normal or not for a Brayden book. I’d have to go back and look over my reviews, but when I think of a Brayden book I think of well written books with great characters, good romances, and a certain formulistic foreshadowing of key plot points (specifically the key plot point that’ll cause mischief and problems with the budding relationship). Humor? Not an immediate thought that comes to mind.

But this book kept making me laugh, and all the other great points of a Brayden book were also there (unless you think that foreshadowing thing is a great advantage – because that seemed to be missing – which I liked). The ‘point of contention’ seemed logical to the story, and yet wasn’t foreshadowed with large glowing neon arrows.

My mind has suddenly become blank. Why’d that happen? Mmphs.

Right, so – there is a dog in this story, plus a cat. Both have important roles to play, though the dog more so than the cat. Family pops up, but more as an aside – as in, Isabel thinks of her father once or twice. I am not sure Taylor ever had family (okay, yes, her parents were mentioned, but I don’t think they played any role in this book). No kids were harmed in the telling of this story (also, no kids appeared, not even stray ones unrelated to the story).

Sex occurred. Graphically. Sometimes publically.

Right . . . so . . . great book.

Oh! Remembered something: POV? Both main characters have their point of view seen by the reader. Plus, unrelated, this is the first in a series and the second book has already been revealed - and stars Autumn of Cat's PJ's.

Rating: 4.84

September 15 2017




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Unlikely Match by Fiona Riley

Unlikely Match by Fiona Riley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books in exchange for an honest review.

I had every intention in the world to complete this book before it popped up for sale. And everything looked like I’d succeed. I was at 67% and had five days left. And I just stopped. For reasons. The most important one being that, while it is true I could easily have ‘powered through’ the end of the book, the last few percentage points, and then slapped up some quick review, I didn’t actually want to do that. I didn’t want to power through. I wanted to give this book a better chance to succeed with me. So I put it on pause. Still fully intending to complete the book before the 20th of June. So, here I am, the 24th of July and . . . well, I’ve finally restarted the book. And completed the last 33% in a few hours.

There were elements of the first book in the series that I enjoyed. Still, I didn’t like the book as much as I thought I would have, or as much as others did. So I had figured that it’d be a while before I tried another book by this author – I don’t stop reading after just one book. But then I spotted that this book here, and now I’m talking about ‘Unlikely Match’ not ‘Miss Match’, starred one of the characters who I thought was interesting in the first book, Shelly (plus another character from that book who hadn’t really made a massive impression on me – Claire). So I decided to go ahead and leap into another book by this author. Despite my somewhat tepid response to the first book.

Some of the problems that I had from the first book continued into the second. Namely the part where I still, no known reason why, had a massive amount of trouble keeping Lucinda and Samantha separate in my mind. Figuring out which was which. They just kind of merged in my mind. And quite frankly, they were kind of evil in this book, well Samantha was. In the old men from ‘Trading Places’ kind of evil. The ones who, as kind of a lark, manipulated two men into trading places for just a bet. I think the bet was for just a quarter at that. Why do I say that? Well, that’s what happened here, in a way – Samantha manipulated things to ‘force’ two people together who she thought would make a perfect match, despite how one of them never asked her to do so, and thought match making was stupid (or something like that) – and then that manipulation kind of continued, here or there, nudges, pokes, etc. And not just by Samantha. Shelly kind of got into that as well, maybe by accident. Like when Claire had come by to say that they can’t keep seeing each other because Shelly was Claire’s business client – and that got pushed aside by Shelly’s need to be close to Claire and hump her. But let’s move on from that.

I liked, for the most part, both Shelly and Claire in this book. They had some great scenes and dialogue, cute, sweet, humorous, touching. They also had some vaguely gross scenes, but that’s probably just me. I mean, maybe it’s just me that finds it kinda gross that someone would masturbate while thinking about the other woman and then – without in any way cleaning her hands, using that same hand that hand just been playing with herself, manipulating herself, gotten all slick and wet . . . that same uncleaned hand was then used to . . . . pet the cat. You know how cats keep themselves clean? By running their tongue over their body. I’m becoming vaguely nauseated as I’m mention this issue. So, I can’t continue. Please draw the correct conclusions as to what would happen next after basically wiping your pussy juices all over your furry cat who keeps themselves clean by use of their tongue.

Right, sorry. I had meant that paragraph to go ‘For the most part, I liked the two main characters in this book, Shelly and Claire, and, again for the most part, enjoyed their story. The thing that caused me to take a break for a month? Lucinda and Samantha. Why did they have to be in this book? They ruined things for me. I didn’t want to ‘break away from the action’ to go and visit them, who seemed to spend most of their time being lovey-dovey and dancing while planning a . . . big event (is that event a spoiler? I forget now, so I be vague).’

So: 1) liked Shelly and Claire; 2) liked Hedy the squeaking purring fur-ball cat; 3) there was sex, it was graphic, and occasionally it was gross (see my comment regarding cat earlier). AND 4) it did actually help me like this book more by giving myself time to pause and then restart. Maybe I didn’t really need a month pause, maybe I did.

Last thought: so the third book in this series involves the firefighter, Sasha, who has appeared, briefly, in this book here (and might have appeared in the first book). Hmm. She was kind of described as being strong and butchy looking. Why is the woman holding the fire-extinguisher on the cover wearing a tiny red dress and wearing high-heels? Right, sorry, I’m probably wrong in my recollections, and/or that’s supposed to be Abby holding Sasha’s fire-extinguisher. Oh, right, was going to say: I’m less excited about reading Sasha’s story.

Rating: 3.75 (which is an almost full star increase from my rating for the first book in the series)

July 24 2017




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The Time Before Now by Missouri Vaun

The Time Before Now by Missouri Vaun

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Ah shesh. heh. - A) seconds (minutes, or whatever) before 'it' happened, an event before the end of the book, I had the thought that 'the way two lesbians would, in this world, get a kid . . .' would be x. Then, seemingly immediately after that thought, x occurred. mmphs; B) a 'touching' Cheerekee story is told - problem is that I've heard/read that story way too often while still feeling annoyed about what all occurred just there at the end of the book.

But that seemed to be a theme of the book. Tragic events occur - beginning, middle, end. Weird overly dramatic events. That don't impact me the way they probably should. Like - in the beginning of the book, Elizabeth (side character) and Vivian (main character) had an affair. There was a massive amount of foreshadowing - the kind where the character herself, Vivian, was telling herself that she was being stupid and then . . . she's horribly horribly betrayed when the worst happened. Which, sadly, can be realistic - no matter how you prepare yourself for something, an event can still deeply negatively impact you. Reasonable for the character. For me the reader? I was mostly 'meh' about the issue.

Reoccurring theme. As noted. People bouncing along and . . tragedy! Each. Bloody. Turn. I think there might have been a section missing, that I either accidentally missed, or wasn't in my book - when Vivian crossed the Mississippi river - because she arrived thinking that she had nothing to trade. She was waiting to cross on the ferry. Now we are miles away. Um, wha? And Vivian feels bad about what happened 'back there'. I mention this because that specific river crossing seemed to be the only occasion in the book wherein something 'tragic' didn't get slipped in. Every bloody step of the way - tragedy. mmphs. Unrelenting tragedy. That I mostly felt meh about pre-during-post occurrence. Weird - that.

Another weird thing was I figured I'd begin this review talking about other stories I'd read that were like this one here - the kind like S.M. Stirlings that showed 'us' (as in the readers world) go into a disaster event, and then over the course of the series reach one or more generations later - the generations that don't even 'know' how the 'prior' world was really like - the kind of world where people entertained kids by telling them stories - recreating movies in oral bard like ways. Or, stories more like this one here - wherein some event occurred, and we, the readers, are picking things up a century or more after the fact.

These kinds of books can be neat. And this one also was 'neat'. It was also . . . overly determined to have every bloody moment have a scene of tragic importance in it. mmphs.

Rating: 3.64

February 6 2017



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Shadow of the Knife by Jane Fletcher

Shadow of the Knife by Jane Fletcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a good introduction to this author and this series universe. Quite 'deep' and detailed universe. Solid characters. Good bit of action/mystery/etc. Someone looking for romance should look elsewhere, though there's a bit of that mixed in.

I was quite happy with the story, at least I was until I suddenly realized that I rather liked how everything turned out. Then realized there was somewhere between 30 to 40% more of the book to read. That's . . . almost never a good sign, heh. And yeah, things turned . . . well, turned. Things rapidly shifted into a new angle and a bit of torture and the like invaded the land.

Still, I enjoyed the book. Felt like a solid 4 star book up to that point, and was so after that bit of nastiness.

I already own the rest of the books in the series, and nothing I read will keep me from reading the next.

December 17 2016



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