Sarah Weston is a time traveler and the “keeper of the gate” so to speak, when it comes to letting others in and out of her time. She’s on a quest to find a friend and her own mother and knows that Foster knows where they are. But Foster isn’t telling her anything. Instead, he time travels with her from era to era, different times, different places, always keeping up with her and trying to protect her and help her. Along the way, she discovers things about herself, her family, and even Foster.
I can’t say that I loved this book and it isn’t because of the author or the book itself. It’s science fiction, complete with robots and flying cars. I’m not into sci-fi. The jumping from one time to another, the devices they used to travel, it was all confusing to me. I know a little about paradoxes and at the end of the book, Sarah probably should have ceased to exist.
It wasn’t a bad book. It just wasn’t for me. Ms. Allenton writes some fantastic books and I do think she’s got a grip on this genre, but I spent the majority of my time flipping back to see what I’d missed, reading things over, and was just in general confusion. I think if you like sci-fi, you will love this book. I just couldn’t keep up.
I received a free copy of this book and voluntarily left a review.
Purchase at Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/y2nlw42d
The Hunter (Victorian Rebels #2) by Kerrigan Byrne
FIVE STARS
“And just because I didn’t kill you doesn’t mean I won’t destroy you,”–Christopher Argent
Christopher Argent, or Argent, as he prefers to be called is an assassin and a good one. He gets paid well for what he does and he’s never failed. That is until a hit was called out on actress, Millicent LeCour. He attends a performance that she is starring in and is captivated by her beauty. He accosts her at the cast party and had more than one chance to get the job done, but just couldn’t. He had more opportunities in the days that followed and something still stopped him.
Millie and her son, Jakub, are on a hit list. Even when Argent doesn’t follow through with his assassination, others will try. Argent found himself in the role of protector now, vowing to defend the two at any cost. What he isn’t counting on is losing himself in the process.
Millie is a warm, sweet person. Argent is cold, calculating, is unable to feel. He is a ruthless killer and he makes no bones about it. He was born to it and knows no better or different. The two shouldn’t work. They’re too different. As the book implies, she’s fire and he’s ice. With him, everything is straightforward. No compliments. No flirting. No gifts. He has no idea how to woo any woman. He just tells it like it is and doesn’t care about the consequences. She gets plenty of that from the theater patrons and even though it isn’t said, she’s okay with how he acts because she understands. She understands him, regardless if he believes it or not. She brings out a side in him he didn’t know he had. It’s scary for him and sometimes he doesn’t handle it well.
There were many times that I felt bad for Argent. He had a rough start in life and it never seemed to end. He was raped, tortured, and abused and saw the worst of humanity. It was no wonder he was like he was. It was no wonder he couldn’t feel for Millie like he knew he wanted to and like she deserved. He was a man of method. He didn’t live in one place too long and he never visited the same prostitute twice. He never made eye contact with anyone and he always had sex from behind so he wouldn’t have to look at his partner. There was another reason he did it, too, but you’ll have to read the book to find out what that is.
Argent is probably one of the most complex characters I’ve ever read. He’s not an easy man and being with Millie flipped him upside-down.
He’s also “friends” with Dorian Blackwell from The Highwayman, and Dorian makes a few appearances in this book. I do recommend that you read The Highwayman first. Dorian is an enigma, too, but Argent has him beat.
This is a moving story that made me laugh, cry, and even cheer. I wish I could give it ten stars.
*I attained this book from my local library
Purchase from Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/y4mu253v
Book Review: Wicked Beautiful (Wicked Games Book 1) by J.T. Geissinger
THREE STARS
When I first started reading this book, I disliked Victoria intensely. I almost didn’t finish it because of how she acted, the mean, crass things she said, her lying and deceitfulness and her incessant desire to destroy Parker. I’ve never seen such hate or anger toward a person and it was unsettling, fiction or not. In addition to that, I disliked Tabby as much, if not more, than I despised Victoria. At one point, I made a comment that I couldn’t wait for Victoria to get hers. She did get it, but not in the way she deserved.
Despite the political shout-outs about women’s rights, women being better and smarter than men and how women are so put upon also made me wanted to close the book for good, but I plodded on. I can’t say that I’m glad I did, but the plot was compelling and I wanted to see how it all ended.
Onto the story:
Victoria Price is a best-selling author and a motivational speaker that teaches women how to be self-serving, selfish bitches (her words, not mine). She’s the Joel Olsteen of feminism and I don’t mean that in a kind way. She’s making her presentations to thousands of women, often to crowds where there’s standing room only. She’s got an axe to grind and she’s spreading her hate for all to hear. Gigantic turn off for me. She’s angry because fifteen years ago, her boyfriend left her and there were consequences to pay. She went through massive plastic surgery to change her appearance and changed her name and hit it big. My question is, where did she get the money to have $50K of plastic surgery done when she hadn’t made it big yet? Her family were poor dirty farmers and her dad had a gambling problem.
Parker is the former boyfriend and a successful restaurateur…23 in all, plus he wants to run for Congress. He’s ripe for her revenge and she sees it right away when her friend, Darcy, who is a food blogger shows up at one of his restaurants with Victoria as her plus one. She knew him right away. She’d changed so much, he didn’t recognize her, but he did find one of her mannerisms familiar. He just couldn’t figure out where he’d seen it before.
As the story progresses, he knows she’s hiding something and I kept hoping he was going to bust her. He figured some stuff out, but not what I was hoping he would. He’s not a stupid man. He was dealing with a liar and a fraud. You can expect a murderer to kill and a thief to steal, but you never know what you’re going to get from a liar. I wouldn’t have trusted her with my grandmother’s false teeth.
Despite my loathing for Victoria (I didn’t even like her at the end. She was still a crass loudmouth. I didn’t find her one bit cute at any time in the story) and her best friend and security person, Tabby, I still had to give this book three stars. The idea was great and the writing was good. I don’t think it would have worked with more demure characters, but at the same time, they were so over the top, they killed the story for me. With that being said, I did like Parker. I liked him a lot. He’s probably the reason I kept reading, too. How was he going to react when he discovered the truth? The author did a good job with that scene.
The next book is about Tabby and Connor, Parker’s security guy. Tabby is the epitome of disrespect, arrogance, and self-importance. I despised her so I guess I’ll pass on the next book in this series.
Many people will love this book. I just didn’t.
Purchase at Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/y54pcejz
Book Review: Jaguar’s Mate (Crescent Moon #8) by Katie Reus
FIVE STARS
Sapphire and Eli had a two-night stand and went their separate ways. As luck would have it, Eli is a friend of Asher’s who is left in charge while Grant, the pack Alpha, is gone. Sapphire has received an urgent call for help from her friend, Luna, whose daughter is in an abusive relationship and is pregnant. When she shows up at Asher’s to ask for help, Eli is on the job. Nobody else is available. Sapphire takes who she can get and heads out with Eli to get to Wyoming to rescue Luna’s daughter.
While they’re on the road, Eli and Sapphire get to know each other better. Eli already knows she’s his mate, but she thinks she’s cursed and refuses to acknowledge any of that. He has to make her see things his way in a kind way so he doesn’t scare her off.
This book is a fast-mover, as all of the books in this series are. It’s got some action and some hot scenes that keep the plot moving. The plot was tight and the writing was great. Although this is part of a series, it can easily be read as a stand-alone novel.
I received a free copy of this book and voluntarily left a review.
Purchase at Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/yxat852b
Book Review: The Highwayman (Victorian Rebels Book 1) by Kerrigan Byrne
FIVE STARS
“I make ye my heart At the rising of the moon. To love and honor, Through all our lives. May we be reborn, May our souls meet and know. And love again. And remember.”
From the very beginning when Farah and Dougan were just kids in an orphanage and they first met, the story was compelling. It steadily escalated from there and didn’t stop.
As children, Farah and Dougan had sworn themselves to love forever. He called her his fairy. But when Dougan kills a priest (good move, dude. Seriously), they are viciously separated never to see each other again.
Seventeen years later, Farah carries Dougan’s name of McKenzie and everybody believes her to be a young widow. Dougan is dead and she has no desire to marry anyone. She has a job at Scotland Yard as a clerk and goes with her boss to interview the infamous Dorian Blackwell, one of the Blackheart Brothers. He’s well-known for breaking laws and getting away with it. Her boss has him handcuffed behind his back and is beating him, something that Farah didn’t know he would ever do. She thought he was a fair man and Blackwell was at a disadvantage. But her boss is irate. Blackwell keeps slipping out of his fingers every time he gets him and this time is no different.
Farah is disturbed by the looming presence of Blackwell. He was a cold, heartless person with one dark eye and one milky blue one with a scar going over the blue one. He gives her chills. She was grateful to be dismissed from the interrogation.
As life goes, Carlton, her boss, takes her to the theater that night and when he walks her home, he kisses her and asks her to marry him. It was after he left that Blackwell made his move and kidnapped her and took her to his castle. She wasn’t okay with that, but when he told her her life was in danger and explained that one of her father’s old friends–a man she was betrothed to at seven years old–was after her and wanted to kill her for the fortune that she’d never claimed. She had no intention of claiming it until Blackwell told her she had to marry him. He didn’t give her an option to say no. But she had a stipulation of her own. She wants a family.
Dorian wants nothing to do with that. He’s emotionally wounded and physically scarred from his time in Newgate. He refuses to let her touch him and tells her to never reach for him. He also tells her that he will never sleep with her. He doesn’t touch her without gloves. He feels as if he is going to taint her if he touches her. He thinks he’s that bad and it’s sad. Until he got with Farah, I got the impression that he’d never been with another woman, despite his reputation of being a hedonist and having a harem of women at his beck and call. He was confident in what he was doing, but instinct will take one a long way.
There’s a lot of mystery in the story, as well. There were more than a few times when I thought Dorian Blackwell wasn’t who he said he was. Then something would happen and I would relax in thinking he was Dorian Blackwell. Then something else would happen that made me doubt it again. It was a roller coaster and kept me on my toes.
I couldn’t get enough of this book. I wasn’t sure I was going to get a happily ever after, but I got better than that. I loved Dorian through all of his wounds and brokenness and I loved Farah for being so steadfast yet not being a pushover. There wasn’t one bad thing about this that I can think of. I laughed and cried. I cheered and I groaned. I loved every second of it and when I was finished, I smiled with sigh. What a great ride that was.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been so captivated by a book that I ordered pizza to feed the family so I could get back to reading. It was that good.
Purchase at Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/yy9f9hex
Hanging out with Kristi 