RSS

Tag Archives: 3.75 stars

Review – Hearts in Darkness – Laura Kaye

Hearts in Darkness
Author: Laura Kaye

Book Description:
Makenna James thinks her day can’t get any worse, until she finds herself stuck in a pitch-black elevator with a complete stranger. Distracted by a phone call and juggling too much stuff, the pin-striped accountant caught only a glimpse of a dragon tattoo on his hand before the lights went out.

Caden Grayson is amused when a redhead literally falls at his feet. His amusement turns to panic when the power fails. Despite his piercings, tats, and vicious scar, he’s terrified of the dark and confined spaces. Now, he’s trapped in his own worst nightmare.

To fight fear, they must both reach out and open up. With no preconceived notions based on looks to hold them back, they discover just how much they have in common. In the warming darkness, attraction grows and sparks fly, but will they feel the same when the lights come back on?

Review:
I’ll be the first to admit that I struggle with enjoying novellas. Most of the time, I am left unfulfilled with the conclusion at the end, because it seems as though the author just ran out of word count and had to end the story at a given point. Even more so, I’m not a fan of books where it encompasses only a couple of scenes, because I feel even more jilted. So when I saw that Hearts in Darkness was only 110 pages in print, I was skeptical. About the only thing that convinced me to pick it up was that many of my friends had given it 4 and 5 stars on Goodreads.com and since I rely on them to help me choose the books, I want to read – I took a chance on it.

I have to admit that overall, I was pleasantly surprised. True it was short and it only took me about 40 minutes to read (if that), but I felt like the author did a good job in the limited time she had for character development and while maybe a tad unbelieveable…umm, yeah, hooking up with a guy who you got stuck in an elevator is every girl’s wish right? I liked how the story progressed. I would love to see her take the characters and re-visit them, or maybe feature some of the minor ones that appears in this book and give them their own.

FWIW, I also loved the cover – how it was attractive without being too showy – there was just something that drew me to it. I’m curious to know who the cover artist was, so i can see what else they have designed in the future. Either way, I am intrigued enough by her writing, that I am going to be checking out some other books by her in the future and hopefully, they are as enjoyable as this one. 3.75 stars.

4 Comments

Posted by Dee on September 15, 2012 in Book Review

Tags: 3.75 stars, damanged hero, elevator hook-up, Laura Kaye, novella, romance

Review – A Gift For My Sister – Ann Pearlman

04 Sep

A Gift for My Sister
Author: Ann Pearlman

Book Description:
Tara and Sky share a mother, but aside from that they seem to differ in almost every way. When a series of tragedies strikes, they must somehow come together in the face of heartbreak, dashed hopes, and demons of the past. The journey they embark on forces each woman to take a walk in the other’s shoes and examine what sisterhood really means to them. It’s a long road to understanding, and everyone who knows them hopes these two sisters can find a way back to each other.

Review:
The first thing that drew me to this book was the cover, there was just something whimsical about it, but then reading the cover copy, I knew going in that it was likely going to be a gut-wrencher and was it in a way. Not a complete blubbering mess like some books i have read recently (Yes, Kristin Hannah, I’m looking at you..) but still an emotional read. I loved how the author not only choose to use an alternating view point between Sky and Tara, but that the each chapter was titled the same as it alternated, so you saw each scenario through both of their eyes. The use of the two different font styles in the books, further emphasized the different POV’s.

That being said, Sky bugged the ever living shit out of me…I know that everyone grieves differently, but damn, she was just a bitch. Although, I also don’t think Tara was completely innocent in the whole scenario either. It was nice seeing their relationship start to mend over the course of the book – while I realize that it won’t ever be tied up in a pretty bow, you could see the inroads that were made. Bonus in the book, there were recipes at the end! I photo-copied a couple of them and can’t wait to try them out! Overall, I’d give it 3.75/5 and might possible seek more out by the author in the future.

A Gift for My Sister (Hardcover)
A Gift for My Sister (Kindle)

Review – Red + Blue – A.B. Gayle

02 Sep

Red+Blue
Author: A.B. Gayle
Series: #1 in the Opposites Attract series

Book Description:
Fresh from backwoods Minnesota, actuarial student Ben Dutoit is ecstatic to land a job with Sydney Sutherland Family Insurance, one of the few companies that offers life insurance to people in the high-risk category. The fact that he gets to work in Gay Central, aka San Francisco, is just the icing on the rainbow-colored cake. Ben sets himself just three goals: be out and proud enough to participate in the Pride parade; seek out the company of like-minded souls in the clubs; and maybe, if he’s lucky, fall in love. But the men Ben meets are everything he’s not: suave, confident, sophisticated, and sexy. Unlike redneck Ben, they’re blue bloods from blue states, born with status, wealth, and the responsibility that comes with the package. Ben’s still wondering if red and blue can mix when he discovers what risk really means. The global economy tanks. The job he looked forward to is in jeopardy, and every dream Ben ever had is threatened, especially love, the biggest dream of all.

Review:
The cover is the first thing that drew me to this book, I loved the division of the Red and Blue – because it gave you the idea that there were going to be 2 distinct points of view to the story. And then having to figure out who was going to be the red and who was going to be the blue. I also liked how the author used the shifting perspectives to tell the story (the same period is told twice though both of the main character’s eyes, and then the last section is an alternating POV). My one complaint, and this is part of what stopped the book from being a complete 4 star read, was that the ended seemed very abrupt. Everything was jacked up, and then voila, in the space of about 4 pages (I would guess) since I was reading on my kindle, everything was fixed…and I was kind of left with an empty feeling, like it wasn’t quite complete.

I did enjoy the fact that the author took a risk with several of the topics included in the book (specifically HIV in a secondary character), however, I’m not a fan of the bitchy female that seems to routinely appear in many m/m books. It is almost like it is a required trope in the genre, I would look to see more books with supportive female secondary characters, or at least non-bitchy, manipulative ones. I look forward to more books by this author in the future.

Dee's Book Blog

Tag Archives: 3.75 stars

Review – Hearts in Darkness – Laura Kaye

Review – A Gift For My Sister – Ann Pearlman

Review – Red + Blue – A.B. Gayle

Follow Blog via Email

Dee on Twitter

Dee’s Book Blog

NetGalley Challenge 2015

Recent Tags

Archives