Finding Paradise by Jane VerMulm

ZERO STARS

I DNF’d this book. It’s dry, not interesting, and is actually a story of forbidden love. The characters are unrealistic and I just can’t get into any of this.

Book Review: The Baron’s Brother (Defiant Brides Book 6) by Jennifer Monroe

THREE STARS

This is a clean story of an arranged marriage and is pretty good overall. I did like the premise of Caleb being a second son and Elizabeth not wanting to marry anyone, but Caleb’s status really had no bearing on anything. He had an incident in his past that had made him ward off love forever and had made him run and stay gone for seven years. Elizabeth had something happen in her past, too. In her case, it made her to never want children. That wasn’t flying well with Caleb. She also wanted to marry for love and Caleb couldn’t provide that. I wasn’t sure how they were going to work around the emotional aspects of it, since both had ideas that they didn’t want to give up or change. But it did work out albeit in a predictable way.

As I said, I did like the story, but the book has some issues with wrong word usage (meet instead of meat, conscious instead of conscience, for example), there were some timing issues with the first dinner scene. Dinner was at six sharp and suddenly it was seven. A little thing, but still pesky. The book definitely needs to go to a good editor for those reasons, but what really bothered me the most was there were no character descriptions or real development of the characters. I know that Caleb had long hair, something I love on my heroes, but what color was it? What color were his eyes? Did he shave every day? He had scars on his hands and on his chest. I did get that. As for Elizabeth, it wasn’t until the last few pages that it’s mentioned she has blue eyes. Great. What about her other features? What was it about her that Caleb found so beautiful? It’s never revealed to the reader just like it’s never revealed why Elizabeth thought Caleb was so handsome. Sorry, but that was a big let down for me. I read across genres a lot and authors can get away with little-to-no character descriptions in thrillers or mysteries, but not romances. Too much is riding on the mutual attraction. Just my opinion.

For these reasons, I’m giving this book three stars.

*Although this book 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

Book Review: And Gold Was Ours (Aguilar’s Fate, #2) by Rebecca Brandewyne

FOUR STARS

I didn’t enjoy this book nearly as much as I did Love, Cherish Me (Book One in the Aguilar’s’ Fate series.) It started out so slow I about gave up on it. The story is weird and I didn’t particularly care for the characters, although it was great to see Wolf and Storm again. I loved them in the first book and I loved them in this one, although they had small parts. They were still vital to the plot.

The story is unlike any book I’ve ever read, which is why I gave it four stars. Salvadore and Aurora think they’ve been together in previous lives, which is something I think happens and found the story to be believable on that point. But Aurora keeps dreaming of her only love and is bypassing living suitors for this dream man, frustrating her family. On the flip side of that, she’s just sixteen when things start to unravel for her. This is an old school bodice ripper (1984) and young heroines were a thing in romances then.

Salvadore was a typical hero; jealous, demanding, good looking, smart, and protective. I didn’t always like the way he treated her or think the the things he said to her were necessary, but it was the 80’s and romances were different. At one point, I thought he was in incubus, but not everything is as it seems.

The story takes place in Peru in the Amazon Basin in a big house that seems to be haunted. I was okay with that until a 40-foot Anaconda ate a man. Ugh! That creeped me right out. Thankfully, not a lot of time was spent on that scene. But the details of the forest, the house, and even the lost treasure people were dying to get was well written and interesting. It just took a long time to get to that part and, for me, the book didn’t really pick up until almost the end.

It isn’t my favorite book, but it did have some redemption with the mystery, revenge plots, drama, and steam.

Book Review: The Madness of Viscount Atherbourne (Rescued from Ruin, #1) by Elisa Braden

FIVE STARS

Victoria Lacey is at a ball with her boring betrothed and fantasizing about getting that “tingle” from a man when in walks the handsomest man she’d ever seen. She didn’t know who he was, not even when they were caught in a compromising position on the terrace. 

Lucien Wyatt, Viscount Atherbourne, spotted Lady Victoria and set out to ruin her as a way of seeking revenge on her brother, who had killed Lucien’s brother in a duel. Lucien isn’t mad in the traditional sense, but his desire for revenge and his excessive grief and despair has driven him to the brink. He was haunted by Waterloo and death and he needed to exact that revenge.

I’ve read revenge-themed books in the past, but nothing quite like this. It was revenge in its ugliest form. It’s also a story of a forced marriage, which is another trope of which I’ve read plenty, but there was more to this and it started at the beginning.

There are some steamy scenes, characters I adored, and a great story with a fantastic ending. It didn’t drag for a second and I didn’t get bored, which is a malady I’ve been suffering from with the last couple of romances I’ve read. This was refreshing and a good example of why I love romances.

Book Review: Shattered & Scarred (The Sacred Hearts MC Book One) by A J Downey

ONE STAR

I don’t like leaving bad reviews, but I really hated this book. The characters were weak and superficial, there was no plot to speak of, and the way the author described Ashton as being so small–one secondary character declaring that his nine-year-old niece was bigger than Ashton–was just creepy. I don’t get into having references to children in books that are basically one f-scene right after another; some scenes were basically porn and borderline nauseating, especially when Reaver got involved. Ugh! On that point, I have to say there was a mention in the blurb about one MMF sex scene. It wasn’t enough to make me not want to read the book, even if it isn’t my thing. Some people really get into it. I just don’t. To each their own. Not judging.

Onto the story. Ashton is married to a brutal control freak that keeps her in line with beatings that she called “corrections”. He really was pugnacious and arrogant and abandoned her on the side of the road after a disagreement. She wasn’t dressed for the cold weather and wasn’t wearing any shoes and was wandering aimlessly until this biker picked her up and took her to the motorcycle gang clubhouse. The flip in her character was so fast, I still have whiplash. She went from this weepy, beaten woman who’d been through eight years of hell with an abusive man to this biker’s old lady and having threesomes with him and his friend. I didn’t think she was believable at all and the way these badass bikers turned everything upside down for her was totally unrealistic. Then they wanted her to sing. Oh please. I wanted to puke in my shoes. Nauseam. 

As for Trig or Trigger, he was a simp. He did everything Ashton said. He worked so hard not to be like her husband that it turned him into a weakling. He had no backbone at all and the more he went on about how beautiful she was, how much he loved her, and carrying her everywhere, the wimpier he got. I would’ve expected more from a former Marine sniper/biker. Utter disappointment.

I can stick with a story I don’t like if I like the characters or care about them in some capacity, but there was nothing for me to like or relate to. I had all I could do to tolerate the book as a whole, but I hung in there and read it to the end.

This is a harsh review and I am sorry about that, but it is my honest opinion. I bought the book because I like stories where the hero or heroine is scarred and has issues because of it, but this wasn’t what I was counting on. 

Many people will love this book. It just wasn’t for me.