Call Me Mrs. Miracle

Author: Debbie Macomber
Publisher: Mira Books

This Christmas, Emily Merkle (call her Mrs. Miracle!) is working in the toy department at Finley’s, the last family-owned department store in New York City. And her boss is none other than…Jake Finley, the owner’s son.

For Jake, holiday memories of brightly wrapped gifts, decorated trees and family were destroyed in a Christmas Eve tragedy years before. Now Christmas means just one thing to him — and to his father. Profit. Because they need a Christmas miracle to keep the business afloat.

Holly Larson needs a miracle, too. She wants to give her eight-year-old nephew, Gabe, the holiday he deserves. Holly’s widowed brother is in the army and won’t be home for Christmas, but at least she can get Gabe that toy robot from Finley’s, the one gift he desperately wants. If she can figure out how to afford it…

Fortunately, it’s Mrs. Miracle to the rescue. Next to making children happy, she likes nothing better than helping others — and that includes doing a bit of matchmaking!

This Christmas will be different. For all of them.

I listened to the audio version. It was a very quick "read". I really enjoyed the story. Just the right book to put me in the mood for the holiday season. Even though it was published this year, it had an old fashion feel to it. The characters were fun and believable. The romance was sweet, without any angst and a nice change of pace. My only regret is that it wasn't longer. I would have liked a better epilogue or more about Holly's brother and her boss. I would definitely recommend for anyone looking for a quick holiday read. 5 stars on Goodreads.

In The Dark of Dreams

By: Marjorie M. Liu

4 Stars

She was only twelve when she saw the silver boy on the beach, but Jenny has never stopped dreaming about him. Now she is grown, a marine biologist charting her own course in the family business—a corporation that covertly crosses the boundaries of science into realms of the unknown…and the incredible.

And now he has found her again, her silver boy grown into a man: Perrin, powerful and masculine, and so much more than human—leaving Jenny weak with desire and aching for his touch.

But with their reunion comes mortal danger—from malevolent forces who would alter the world to suit their own dark ends. For Perrin and Jenny—and all living creatures— their only hope for preventing the unthinkable lies in a mysterious empire far beneath the sea—and in the power of their dreams.

A true love story. A real world romance with believable conflicts, (yes, he's a merman and shape shifters and magic abound - it's still believable) motivations and emotions.

Liu writes like a poet. The phrase "beautiful turn of phrase" was created for writers with her skill. For example:

And then those eyes disappeared, blown apart as though made of sand - each grain floating through the water toward his face, slow and glittering. Perrin watched, breathless. No longer hearing anything but the sound of his pounding heart.

Too often in today's romance novels hot sex (not that there's anything wrong with that & it does put in an appeareance here too) sucks up all the oxygen in the room and leaves none for love scenes. Dark of Dreams has oxygen enough for both:

She wrapped her arm around his neck and pulled him close until his head rested on the cot, their cheeks pressed together, her mouth against his ear, whispering words that she forgot as soon as she said them, just that her heart was in her throat, she wanted him to feel her heart, and hear it, and know he wasn't alone.

The lead characters are Perrin & Jenny. Perrin - forgive me - is a fish out of water. Save me from super-natural beings who thrive in the human world. Shouldn't other-worldly beings have a tough time in a society that doesn't have a place for them? In the world Liu has built the "different" truly do have a difficult time fitting in and I think her books are better for it. Perrin is in full exile from his world and people; a true stranger in a strange land and he suffered accordingly.

Jenny is smart and capable, while still being in need of help. She does help herself as much as possible, but she does really need Perrin's support. Together they are more than the sum of their parts. And isn't that a wonderful thing? Two people in love and actively supporting their partner. I think this is something we all dream of. Jenny & Perrin both are willing to sacrifice for the good of the other, this is perfectly written selfless not martyred love.

I'll let you read them for yourselves, the final three lines of In The Dark of Dreams are happily ever after gold.

This is the 10th installment of the Dirk & Steele series. It's not necessary to have read the previous 9 (but you should, Liu is a wonderful writer - her entire body of work is just lovely). Besides pure enjoyment the other books will give you a better understanding of the Dirk & Steele organization.

A Winter Solstice Celebration

Author: Didi Lemay
Publisher: AuthorHouse

From the author's site: A Winter Solstice Celebration” helps children and adults alike to understand how the animals feel about their planet, how humans can help and how and how humans and animals can live together in harmony. A Winter Solstice is warm story that relates to all who read it.

A Winter Solstice Celebration takes young readers deep into the forest, where they discover how seemingly harmless human activities can wreak havoc on the natural world.

This was a cute story that I think most kids will like to read. It teaches a good environmental lesson. It also shows how one person's voice can make a difference. I think my kids will enjoy the book. The illustrations were really nice, and I wish there had been more of them.

One thing I didn't like about the book was the format. I'm a bit picky, but the white lettering on blue background made it hard to stay focused. I also didn't like the use of all capital letters. But, I think this is just a personal preference.

To read more about the author, Didi LeMay, visit her website: Didi LeMay

* I have been provided a complimentary copy of A Winter Solstice Celebration for review by Author DiDi LeMay through an e-mail from The YP Publishing. By receiving a complimentary copy, I am in no way obligated to write a good or bad review. I am an honest reviewer and my reviews are based on my own opinion and only written by me. - Kari*

Bright Young Things

by:  Anna Godberson
published by:  Harper

The year is 1929. New York is ruled by the Bright Young Things: flappers and socialites seeking thrills and chasing dreams in the anything-goes era of the roaring twenties.



Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey have escaped their small Midwestern town to chase their big city dreams. In New York, they meet Astrid Donal, a flapper who seems to have everything she could ever want.


Across the vast lawns of Long Island, in the illicit speakeasies of Manhattan, and on the blindingly lit stages of Broadway, the three girls’ fortunes will rise and fall—together and apart.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Luxe series so I had high hopes for this book.  It lived up to expectations in my opinion.  It was somewhat similar to The Luxe series except that it was set during the Summer of 1929. 

Letty and Cordelia were both very likeable characters.  Astrid was kinda eh.  I think she was the girl you were supposed to not like, but there wasn't much about her to not like.  

This book reminded me a lot of The Great Gatsby.  If that's a book you liked, I think you would find this book pretty interesting.  The back of the book  indicates that it'll be a series and it should be an interesting time period to continue this story of affluent young women.  I'm looking forward to the next book already.

Throwback Thursday & Happy Thanksgiving!

In honor of Thanksgiving, I would like to launch Throwback Thursday. Every Thursday, a review of an "older" book, i.e. pre-2005, will be posted. Since I tend to read a lot of not so recently published books, I thought it would be fun to share reviews of some of them with you. Who knows? Maybe you will get re-acquainted with a favorite author or discover a great book that you may have missed. Enjoy!

The first Throwback Thursday book is.....

The Bride
Author: Julie Garwood
First published in 1989 by First Pocketbooks (Simon & Schuster)

From Goodreads:
By edict of the king, the mighty Scottish laird Alec Kincaid must take an English bride. His choice was Jamie, the feisty youngest daughter of Baron Jamison. Alec ached to possess her forever. But Jamie vowed never to surrender to this highland barbarian. Though his kisses fired her blood, shadowed secrets from Alec's past threatened Jamie's happiness. She brazenly resisted him -- until one rapturous moment quelled their clash of wills.

I absolutely loved this book. It was so much fun reading Jamie and Alec's love story. Ms. Garwood created two very likable characters. The romance is believable as they fall in love over time and not over night. There are a few steamy love scenes that made me want to blush. I loved the running joke of Jamie's lack of a sense of direction. There is even a little mystery and I was surprised at who that killer turned out to be. I listened to the audio version of the book and I think that really enhanced my "reading" experience. The narrator did a great job with the voices. I laughed out loud on more than one occasion and I often felt my heart melting. I think this is going to be one of my favorite all time romance novels. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves a good romance. 5 stars!

Review: Talion

by:  Mary Maddox
published by:  Cantraip Press

The dying body has a thousand voices, and all of them speak to Conrad (Rad) Sanders. Fifteen-year-old Lisa Duncan has no idea she has attracted Rad’s interest. At a mountain resort in Utah, he watches as vivacious Lisa begins an unlikely friendship with Lu Jakes, the strange and introverted daughter of employees there. Lu enters his fantasies as well. He learns she is being abused by her stepmother and toys with the notion of freeing her from her sad life and keeping her awhile as his captive. Lu seems like an easy conquest who could be persuaded to act out his fantasy by turning against her new friend.



But someone else is watching over Lu.


Talion appears to Lu as an angelic vision. He offers her love and counsel, the courage to defend herself from bullies at school and a way to free herself from her stepmother’s violence. He seems to know beforehand what will happen. But Talion’s true nature is unclear. His guidance leads Lu into dark places, moving her inevitably closer to the world inhabited by Rad. When she and Lisa are thrust into that darkness, will Talion come to her aid? Or will he become the killer’s ally?

I will say that I really liked this book.  I liked it a lot more than I was expecting.  I enjoyed the characters.  Lu was a really great character. 

I thought the writing was really solid and quite good.  The thing that surprised me about this book was the level of violence that Rad inflicted on his victims.  You don't normally see that from female writers.  Usually it's kind of glossed over and male writers get more into the nitty gritty details.  There wasn't anything wrong with it because it was appropriate in the context of the story, but it was something that surprised me a bit.

My only negative about the book was that I was a little unclear on Talion.  I know if he was real, like a real angel coming to Lu or if he was a hallucination.  Maybe that was the intent of the writer, to leave it open to interpretation.

About Mary Maddox

Mary Maddox grew up in Utah and California. A graduate of Knox College and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she now teaches composition and literature at Eastern Illinois University.

She lives in Charleston, Illinois with her husband, film scholar Joe Heumann. Her interests include riding her horse, Tucker, and playing club and tournament Scrabble. Mary’s short stories have appeared in a number of magazines including Farmer’s Market, Yellow Silk, and The Scream Online. Her writing has been honored with awards from the Illinois Arts Council.

Talion, her debut novel, is available at Barnesandnoble.com as a trade paperback and at Amazon.com as both a paperback and a Kindle book. You can visit her at her Web site www.marymaddox.com and follow her blog at http://blog.marymaddox.com.

Review: Empty

by:  Suzanne Weyn
published by:  Scholastic

It's the near future - the very near future - and the fossil fuels are running out. No gas. No oil. Which means no driving. No heat. Supermarkets are empty. Malls have shut down. Life has just become more local than we ever knew it could be.



Nobody expected the end to come this fast. And in the small town of Spring Valley, decisions that once seemed easy are quickly becoming matters of life and death. There is hope - there has to be hope - just there are also sacrifices that need to be made, and a whole society that needs to be rethought.


Teens like Nicki, Tom, and Leila may find what they need to survive. But their lives are never going to be the same again.

I had a lot of high hopes for this book.  It sounded like it had a really great premise.  It sounded like it would be a really cool dystopian type novel. 

Unfortunately, this book just wasn't what I had hoped it would be.  I felt like the whole book was kinda preachy about consumption, not just about oil consumption, but all consumption on the part of Americans.  The book wasn't badly written or anything like that and the story carried well.  It just wasn't something I was in the mood to be chastised about.

I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading this book because it was pretty interesting, but be warned that it's a "tree-hugger" type book.

Winners

I'm a bit late in announcing the winners of two giveaways.  It's been a hectic week.  My oldest daughter turned 9 and her party sapped all my energy for awhile.  Carrying on...

The winner of Fragment by Marilyn Monroe is Jen @ I Read Banned Books

The winner of The Radleys ARC is Rachel

I've sent emails to the winners so check your email ladies.

Review and Giveaway: To Nourish and Consume

by:  Ryan O'Reilly

published by:  Black Oak Press

From Goodreads: A HAUNTING RETURN TO A FIERY LOVE TRIANGLE

Brian Falk and his best friend, Dabney, share a passion for the beautiful and wealthy Jackie, their childhood playmate and the prize catch of their social set. But, the young men are also drawn to each other—a secret, illicit connection that is cut short when Jackie chooses to wed the more moneyed Dabney.

Soon after graduation, a devastated Brian flees his hometown and, for ten agonizing years, tries to overcome the anguish that has all but consumed him. Now he is drawn back to try to answer some of the questions he can no longer ignore: Is he over Jackie? Was what he felt for Dabney really love? Does Jackie still love him?

As Brian desperately searches for closure, old wounds are reopened, a new love appears and revelations about his past throw his life into renewed turmoil.

I thought this book was fairly good.  It was well written and well constructed.  However, I just kinda kept waiting for something to happen. 

The main character kinda frustrated me.  I felt like he was stereotypical of a lot of people my age.  Sort of drifting around without a clue of what they want to do with their lives.  I don't know anyone like that though.  Most people my age have settled down and grown up.  I wanted to tell Brian to quit being such a baby and get over himself and deal with it!
About the Author:  Ryan O’Reilly’s is the author of critically acclaimed travel novel, Snapshot, which was published in 2007 and received rave reviews from Kirkus, Midwest Book Review, fellow authors and his many devoted readers and fans. He is also a freelance contributor to newspapers and periodicals across the country and a member of the National Writers Association and the Writers League of Texas.


I have two copies of this book to giveaway thanks to PR By the Book.   Just leave a comment with a valid email address on this post  before 11/23.  I have to ship these myself so US addresses only please.

Demon's Fall

By: Karalynn Lee

2 Stars

She was an angel at the gates of Hell.

Knowing he must gain Jahel's trust if she is to come to his bed willingly, Kenan treats her more as his guest than as his slave. When she reveals what brought her to the mouth of Hell in the first place — retrieving the soul of a young girl she was guarding — he even offers to help her complete her mission.When Kenan, an incubus, finds a caged angel for sale in the Hellsgate marketplace, he sees her as a challenge. Certain that his skills in seduction will work as well on a heavenly creature as they do on mortal women, he buys Jahel, intent on having her soul as a novelty in his collection.

Though he has promised Jahel freedom, Kenan soon realizes she has captured his heart instead. And as their passion for one another grows, they find themselves caught in a struggle between Heaven and Hell, one that will lead them to the very edge of the apocalypse...

Demon's Fall wasn't a bad story, but it wasn't a good one either. I think it'll be easiest to make a pro/con list for this book. Cons first, because I do want to end a positive note with Lee.

Cons:

This story has been done. It's been done to death. And it has been done better.

Still don't know why the hero/heroine are in love.

General silliness, plot devices not characters, chases, lukewarm sex.

Pros:

There was of seed of interesting world building. I don't think it was fully realized, but that could be to do restrictions on word count.

A cute nod to the fairy tale world.

My issues were with plotting, the writing was good. I may have rolled my eyes on occasion, but I never cringed. I think Lee could be a good writer. This book reads like an early effort of someone still learning. And I am willing to read more of Lee's work, I think in the future she could write a book I really enjoy.

Cara McKenna

By: Cara McKenna

4 Stars *

(* recommended to those who don't read the genre but are interested in trying it out)

For those readers who aren't comfortable with explicit sex scenes move along, nothing to see here.

Still with me? Good. Cara McKenna is the Good Stuff.

What has prompted me to review all of her work in one post is the quality of her writing. These books

Dirty Thirty

Backwoods

Ready and Willing

Willing Victim

Ruin Me

Shivaree

Brazen

are all fabulous without exception. McKenna is a very good writer, maybe it was unexpected - there is plenty of Erotica out there that I find wanting. Characters are blow up dolls jumping from one sex scene to the next, but in McKenna's books they are three dimensional and fully fleshed out. There is also a joy to her characters' interactions. Too many times the sex in Erotica is unrealistic thrusts and groans and orgasms by the bucket full. When McKenna writes, her characters are enjoying themselves, they enjoy what they're doing and not just on a physical level but on an emotional level too.

McKenna is also a master of sexual tension, I have literally found myself biting my lip and twisting locks of my hair around my fingers while reading. And then she snaps it, usually with a laugh. Absolutely brilliant.

Quickie reviews of each book:

Dirty Thirty - Caliguliberal, lol awesome. Blazingly hot read, but a real romance. Evan and Margie are so wonderfully in love. This is a little love story masquerading as pure Erotica.

Backwoods - Prequel to Shivaree. I'm still not sure how I feel about this book. Let me rephrase that, I'm still not sure how I feel about the character of Gabriel in this story. In most of McKenna's stories there's a character that, well, you never really get inside their head. You're not entirely sure why they're doing what they are doing. That's not to say they don't act in a consistent and logical manner, you are left wondering at their motivation. It's interesting and thoughtful, not maddening and sloppy.

Shivaree - Still not sure about Gabriel (but there is a 3rd book coming, so yay! please I'm begging - closure). Hot & thought provoking.

Ready and Willing - "It's exactly two o'clock according to my cable box." Lines like this are one of the reasons I love McKenna's writing. Her characters live in the same world we do, they are all people we could bump into. Perfectly relatable. This book is also a testament to the strength of McKenna's story telling. Abby, the female lead, is choosing to have a baby all on her own, a choice I'm not really on board with. In fact I put off buying the book because this. I ended up liking Abby, and while I still don't like her choice, I do like her and understand her decision.

Willing Victim - This was my introduction to McKenna. I love this book, I really can't recommend it enough. A hot hot hot story that turns into love and ends on a happy note, but not with the traditional puppies and rainbows happily ever after.

Ruin Me - This was my 6th Cara McKenna and the first one I didn't approve of the story line. Couple in committed relationship but something just isn't right, so the male half of the couple says go ahead screw the other guy and get him out of your system. Not cool. Know why I read this book, even with a plot I knew I would hate? I had just read read 5 of McKenna's books and she was too perfect, I picked this up because I was sure this was going to take her down a peg in my mind. It didn't, again - she made me understand and like her characters even when I didn't like their choices. Ruin Me made it possible for me to pick up Ready and Willing.

Brazen - A quick little novella that left me wanting more. This is a rare short story that keeps me thinking about it after I finish.

Read the blurbs on the books themselves and pick one. You won't be disappointed, and I bet you'll end up a fan girl just like me.