Journey's End (The Flight #3) by A.E. Radley

Journey's End by A.E. Radley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Third and final (I believe) book in this series.

This book finds Emily and Olivia married and living . . . mostly apart. As Emily has found limited success as a scriptwriter that requires her to work in London - commuting between there and New York. (Less required than an opportunity to get 'inside' experience by working directly on a play as it is put on stage). Henry (that's the kids name right?) is just now starting school, and Olivia is watching over him while Olivia is traveling/working. They don't just relocate to London for several reasons, some more important than others - I'll just mention that Olivia has issues now with flying on planes.

Then Emily 'develops' a stalker. Funnily enough, I knew immediately who the actual stalker was, but whatever.

Interesting book.

Rating: 4.33

July 19 2018



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Magnetic by Robin Alexander

Magnetic by Robin Alexander

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In my most recent Alexander review, I noted that this specific book was tied for fourth favorite Alexander book. Mostly because it was originally rated, on first read, 5+ stars and because I'd only read it once.

Well, the book was not as fun this time around and I'm tentatively rating the reread 4.25 stars.

Here's where I'd list/remark upon/note why I might have found myself rating this book lower than my first read. Harder to do now, unfortunately, because I'm in a transition situation in which I moved from a barely habitable super hot apartment to a hotel to a really long car ride of a thousand or more miles to a temporary home and eventually to a new apartment (though that won't be until sometime in September). So . . . it's hard to focus my energy on things like why I feel certain ways about certain issues - book-wise.

I know I didn't find the interactions between the friends, girlfriend/one-night-stand/love-interest to be as interesting as in my first read.

So, in a nutshell: Woman A gets dumped via email (or was it a text?) while on a business trip to another city. Woman A gets some heavy flirtation from Woman B - Woman A calls herself Chloe, though lied. Woman B only called herself Stacy, as in only gave first name. Woman A & B have amazing sex together. Then A leaves before B wakes up the next morning. Neither has the ability to contact the other. Both have developed certain feelings for the other based on this one night stand.

Layne, aka Chloe, is forced by her boss, I-do-not-care-about-his-name, to go on vacation. Immediately (basically he is an asshole, majorly). Layne turns over plans for the vacation to Molly - a friend who is recovering from cancer (if I recall correctly). Molly, Molly's significant other (whose name now escapes me), Layne, and their fourth friend, fourth-friend (unfortunately the friends names are not in the book description and I did not name them in my previous review). Fourth-friend (Rhonda? Rachel? Rebecca? Monique? bah, let's not even try to remember, mmphs) brings along her new girlfriend - though she's already broken some records in how long she's been around - since fourth-friend is a serious player type who runs when things get boring.

That new girlfriend? Well Layne and her friends meet up at the airport. While there Layne meets the new girlfriend - the same woman she slept with a month or so back. Naturally a bad situation all around. Compounding the bad situation: Molly chose a vacation almost guaranteed to be the opposite of what Layne might have liked on a vacation (lazy cruise ship) - a vacation at a horse ranch type place in Florida in nature.

Stuff happens. There's some humor. The end.

Rating: 4.25

July 19 2018



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Fearless by Robin Alexander

Fearless by Robin Alexander

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


You know the previous book I read to this one? That’s right, Soulshift. Wait… heh, oopsie. I thought the previous book I read was the newest Alexander book. See, now that just blows away my planned opening to this review. pfft.

Right, so, I was in the middle of reading a book (literally), when I just couldn’t take it any longer and had to jump to a different book to read. I had been reading the second book in Missouri Vaun’s ‘Return to Earth’ series, though it was the third I’d tried in that series (since there’s a prequel I also read). I generally enjoy Vaun’s works, so I’ve not put this one on my DNF shelf yet, but I needed something else to read.

Having recently read a new Alexander book, yay new book!, and having recently been glancing at quotes and reviews for other Alexander books, I figured I’d do something I rarely did in the past but is a frequent go to now – do a reread.

Fearless is a book I loved so much after I read it that I wanted to do an immediate reread. But I somehow held back. As each new Alexander book popped up, and was instantly read by me, I’d turn to this book again to see if now was the time, but no . . . not yet. I had ‘just’ read it in September 2017, I needed to give myself some room.

So, needing a book to read, I gave myself the green light and dove in.

It shows me taking two days to read, though that’s more because I keep having to break away to clean and box stuff (I cleaned 7 hours today, I very tired).

Fearless is the story, for those yet to try it, of two opposites who bump into each other on a cruise ship and immediately . . . hate each other. Literally bump into each other.

The book opens with Falon Whyte having an argument with her girlfriend (Leanne (sp?)). Leanne’s pissed because the cruise isn’t a lesbian cruise; Falon counters with 1) scheduling didn’t work out for that one and work; 2) there are a ton of lesbians around – it is a LGBT cruise. One thing quickly leads to another and before you can sing that famous song ‘Toot Toot’, the two year relationship was over. Falon leaves the ship cabin to do stuff like eat a mound of onion rings (which she couldn’t while dating Leanne), and drink.

Meanwhile, Haley’s pissed off that her roommate, her best friend’s cousin, has once again locked her out of the cabin. She’ll have to spend something like her third night out on the deck sleeping in a chair (luckily she meet a nice man she likes; both of them are not sexually interested in the other, by the way).

While heading to her sleeping spot, Haley angrily rushes through a door and a drink gets spilled on her. She immediately demands that the other woman tell her her room number so that she can send a laundry bill. The other woman asks for a new drink since this one cost $12 and it was that other woman who walked into her. Haley rushes away.

Falon, it just so happens, was that other woman.

The second time the two meet, Falon has the word ‘Ass’ written on her forehead. Haley gives her thumbs up in approval of her self-awareness of her nature.

The third time they meet, Haley is kind of having an out of body experience – she’s been talked into going on a zip line experience and Haley is in a fog, a horrified fog. She misunderstands what people are saying around her, and she ends up riding with Falon (there are in separate ‘chairs’ but the zip line sends people down two at a time). Haley, to show how out of it she is, was supposed to go with her new male friend, but couldn’t be coherent enough when questions were asked and accidentally said she was a single rider.

The two, once on the ground, continue to argue and march around. Then a man asks for stuff (in a 'my hand is in my pocket, pretend it's a gun' way) – in the middle of the two arguing with each other. One thing leads to another and . . . . the cruise ship leaves without them and now they are stranded.

Eventually the two end up at a hotel/inn/bungalow type place with a mobster looking guy in charge. A sweet mobster with a NY accent.

Any other set of circumstances and the two women probably wouldn’t have given the other the time of day (well not literally, but . . . bah). But they were forced together, they learned about each other, and they grew closer.

I once again rather enjoyed the two main characters, and their friends (well, Haley’s best friend is a bitch to Falon but . . . reasons and stuff).

Great book. Lots of great humor.

I’d originally listed this, seconds after reading this book the first time, as being in the top three of the books written by Alexander that I’d read. I was wrong at the time (as my comments show me) as this was in the top 4 of the books I’d read – at that time.

If I was to make that list again today, it’d be:
1) Patty’s Potent Potion
1) Next Time

Gave both of these six stars on reread.

3rd) Fearless
This one ends up ahead of a few others rated the same because I’ve read it twice (and gave it a 5+ rating both times) while similar rated books have only been read once.

4th) Temporary Girl
4th) Kellen’s Moment
4th) Dear Me
4th) Magnetic

All read once, all rated 5+.

I’ve reread 4 Alexander books by this point. The fourth, first that I actually reread, isn’t on this list. I’d rated it 4 stars on the reread, which is actually an improvement on original 3.5 star rating. Pitifully Ugly isn’t 8th on the list of favorite Alexander books, as there are other once-only reads rated higher than it.

Rating: 5+

July 15 2018



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The Cursebreaker Countess by Sasha L. Miller

The Cursebreaker Countess by Sasha L. Miller

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I received an ARC of this book from Less Than Three Press and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A woman named Kas comes across a sleeping woman when she goes into a tower to escape the rain. The woman has been asleep for some sixty-odd years, and is awakened by Kas. For that is Kas’ nature, no not waking sleeping women – destroying magic. She touched something, something else happened, and the sleeping woman was no longer asleep. Said her name was Anika, then admitted to being the Lost Princess (well, being a princess of that kingdom, and Kas informed her of that title, the ‘Lost Princess’ one).

The two talk. Kas filling in a little on what has happened the last 66 years. Anika fell asleep, by however means, in a world of magic. But magic doesn’t work in that kingdom any longer – at least new magic doesn’t, and magic that’s already working can’t be fixed if Kas touches it.

--
I do not wish to do a step by step plot-line break-down, so let’s move on, eh?

The main character is Kas. She’s the ‘Cursebreaker Countess’ of the title, though providing more explanation than that might be too much spoiler information. The entirety of the story is from Kas POV.

I rather enjoyed this story – it had a nice ‘vibe’ to it, and it was a pleasure to read. The beginning and middle were great. The ending . . . eh, what needed to be done was done, but the ending did kind of seem abrupt regardless.

Right, so, I liked the main characters – Kas and Anika. The story was good. There are things left incomplete, but that’s more of a ‘what happens next’ type of feeling than a ‘plots not completed’ type of feeling.

Rating: 4.38

July 4 2018




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Temporary Girl by Robin Alexander

Temporary Girl by Robin Alexander

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is yet another Alexander book I read and loved. Though I was worried there when I found that the book existed, had been read by others, and that the average rating was at 4 stars (it's since gone to something like 4.7, and is now back down to 4.5). I was worried because, while I say 'yet another . . .' that's more recent Alexander books that I've read and loved, there have been that I didn't love, some I didn't like, and at least one I loathed (unfortunately that one was the start of a three book series, and I'd already bought book 2 and three, still haven't read book 2 & 3 in that series).

I think I've used this phrase, or words similar, when mentioning an Alexander book: this book stars two people that have issues. Both have been working on them, and both might want to start work on the next phase of their lives, which may or may not involve a significant other (though one is more in that direction than the other; the other is still dodging the texts of her latest 'relationship' while going to a wedding, more on that later). One has commitment issues - in that they do not like being alone, hook up with someone, and use the love word way too quickly and easily (though, as noted, they know this issue and have been working on it), the other has the opposite commitment issue - one one commits too easily, this other can't commit at all (or, well, runs the other direction – away – from a woman if they start to express relationship type comments).

The commitment-phobe, Jodi, has ‘reasons’ for being what and who she is, though she can fake it. Which is where the book starts, with …. (dang, I can’t remember if it’s Jodi who is 37 or 40, or if it’s Val who is 37 or 40, one, I mean, is one age, the other is the other (though both are described as having the bodies of 20 year olds – said after seeing through lust filled eyes)). Right, let’s start that sentence again. 37 or 40 year old Jodi opens the book driving to a wedding – a ‘forced’ week long vacation. Next to her is Vince, her ‘pretend’ boyfriend (he’s gay and not out to his family). Vince, to note how the trip occurred, mentions something to his mother, after they arrive, that the trip normally takes an hour and a half but they did it in only 15 minutes, because of how Jodi drives.

Vince’s brother, by the way, is the groom. Jodi is there because of Vince. To round things out, Vince owns and operates an expensive car dealership, while Jodi owns and operates a furniture store (though it’s connected to the family store-chain).

While at the wedding, the only other lesbian in attendance takes one look at Jodi and drools. That’d be Val. Who works for a potty manufacturer (there’s a lot of good humor in this book, there’s also a lot of humor connected to Val’s job of being a potty seller that didn’t really work for me). Val’s at the wedding because she’s friends (from college) with the bride-to-be, whose name Everly. It’s important to note that another college friend is there as well – Renee, and . . . I cannot recall but I think the other two young women who pop up in the story are sisters of Everly and not Rene, though there’s a ton of people in this story and some do not even have accurate names (mostly because the others seem them as snooty and call them something like snooty one and two). I mention these two others, specifically, because of their impact on the story – Kara being the youngest at 21, though she’s much more ‘mature’ than her sister Riley (who is first seen by the reader wearing a very small barely there swimsuit that she keeps popping out of it – which is important to mention . . . for reasons).

So then: time is spent on the week-long wedding festivities (that’s about the first, oh, 50 to 55% of the book, I think), then later back in their home locations (I forget now, did they life in Baton Rouge or was the week long vacation in Baton Rouge?). Val and Jodi date. Have fun together. And stuff.

Quite fun hilarious book.

Rating: 5+

July 12 2018




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