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KarenS Review: Unlocked By Courtney Milan

Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Posted in: Desert Isle Keeper, I love that bitch like a fat kid loves cake, Karen's Capsule Reviews, KarenS Review, reviews
Tags:, ,

Unbelievably, I’ve never read a Courtney Milan book, even though I’ve seen plenty of positive feedback with regards to her work.

I came across Unlocked when I was looking at some recommends on Amazon, and as it was only £0.86p, I thought I might as well give it a go.

Well, what can I say, Unlocked grabbed hold of me from the first paragraph, and wouldn’t let go until I’d read the very last word.

Here’s the blurb:

A perpetual wallflower destined for spinsterhood, Lady Elaine Warren is resigned to her position in society. So when Evan Carlton, the powerful, popular Earl of Westfeld, singles her out upon his return to England, she knows what it means. Her former tormenter is up to his old tricks, and she’s his intended victim. This time, though, the earl is going to discover that wallflowers can fight back.
Evan has come to regret his cruel, callow past. At first, he only wants to make up for past wrongs. But when Elaine throws his initial apology in his face, he finds himself wanting more. And this time, what torments him might be love…

Have you ever read a book where your heart literally felt like it was breaking from the start? A book that virtually had you on the verge of tears all the way through? A book that transcended the stereotypes of its genre? Well I have to tell you, Unlocked was that book. (more…)

9 Comments »

What Are You Reading Right Now?

Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Posted in: book talk

And is it any good?

I’m in between books at the moment, trying to write a review for Courtney Milan’s rather splendid Unlocked. I’m finding it difficult to put down in words just how wonderful this book is, but at 99c from the Amazon Kindle Store, you’d be daft not to get it NOW.

7 Comments »

KarenS Review Redux: The Sweet Gum Tree By Katherine Allred

Friday, August 26, 2011
Posted in: Karen's Capsule Reviews, reviews

I first reviewed Katherine Allred’s, The Sweet Gum Tree years ago. I remember how much I loved this book, anyway, I’ve recently re-read it, and it was just as good this time round…

I usually hate waxing lyrical about books, in fact, I don’t think I’ve done so since I read Sarah Mccarty’s Promises Prevail, but when a story is this good, what the hell, I’m just gonna gush away!

This is the blurb from Cerridwen:

Sweet tea, corn bread, and soup beans—everyday fare for eight-year-old Alix French, the precocious darling of a respected southern family. But nothing was ordinary about the day she met ten-year-old Nick Anderson, a boy from the wrong side of town. Armed with only a tin of bee balm and steely determination, Alix treats the raw evidence of a recent beating that mars his back, an act that changes both of their lives forever.

Through childhood disasters and teenage woes they cling together as friendship turns to love. The future looks rosy until the fateful night when Frank Anderson, Nick’s abusive father, is shot to death in his filthy trailer.Suddenly, Nick is gone—leaving Alix alone, confused and pregnant. For the next fifteen years she wrestles with the pain of Nick’s abandonment, a bad marriage, her family and friends. But finally, she’s starting to get her life back together. Her divorce is almost final, her until the day she looks up-business is booming, and she’s content if not happy and sees Nick standing across the counter.

He’s back…and he’s not alone.Once again Alix is plunged into turmoil and pain as Nick tries to win her love, something she resists with all her strength. Only one thing might break the protective wall she’s built around her emotions—the truth about Frank Anderson’s death. But when that truth comes out and those walls crumble, neither Alix nor Nick is prepared for the emotional explosion that could destroy as well as heal.

(more…)

2 Comments »

KarenS Mini Review: Notorious Pleasures by Elizabeth Hoyt…

Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Posted in: Karen's Capsule Reviews

Apologies in advance, but I don’t have time to do a proper review for this book, so all you’ll get today is a very brief overview I’m afraid.

Blurb:

Their lives were perfect . . .

Lady Hero Batten, the beautiful sister of the Duke of Wakefield, has everything a woman could want, including the perfect fiancé. True, the Marquis of Mandeville is a trifle dull and has no sense of humor, but that doesn’t bother Hero. Until she meets his notorious brother . . .

Until they met each other.

Griffin Remmington, Lord Reading, is far from perfect – and he likes it that way. How he spends his days is a mystery, but all of London knows he engages in the worst sorts of drunken revelry at night. Hero takes an instant dislike to him, and Griffin thinks that Hero, with her charities and faultless manners, is much too impeccable for society, let alone his brother. Yet their near-constant battle of wits soon sparks desire – desire that causes their carefully constructed worlds to come tumbling down. As Hero’s wedding nears, and Griffin’s enemies lay plans to end their dreams forever, can two imperfect people find perfect true love?

Overall Verdict

I loved it.

Loved the heroine, Hero (what a fab name, although one would probably expect her to be Japanese with a name like that). Loved the rather irresistible Griffin The Scoundrel, who wasn’t really a scoundrel. Loved the interaction between the two protagonists. They had great chemistry, and I love Hoyt’s ability to use graphic sex words without veering into pornographic territory. Their love scenes were hot, hot, hot!

Notorious pleasures was a delicious book, filled with witty dialogue, interesting sub-plots, a credible mystery, and the fascinating and mysterious Ghost of St Giles.

A fantastic follow up to Wicked Intentions all in all. You can read an excerpt here, and buy the book from Amazon.com here.

Happy reading!

2 Comments »

The Most Stressful Day Ever: When An Intelligent Woman Loses The Plot…

Thursday, August 18, 2011
Posted in: there's nowt queer as folk

I’m recanting this story again by pasting my tweets from Twitter. It’s too much like hard work to actually write it all out again. But the following is all about the stressful day I had today.

So, my Lil Sis left to teach in Qatar for two years today. Talk about STRESSFUL.

Went to pick my sis and my mother up at 6.30am, as agreed. Went to my sister’s room, and she was still fucking packing. To leave for two years.

I was patient, I didn’t go crazy and ask her why the fuck she was still packing when we needed to depart, like two minutes ago. Instead, I helped her cram stuff in, questioning the weight of the bags. “It’s OK, I’m not over” she says “Yes you are” I said wisely, but she was convinced that she was ok, so who was I to argue? Anyway, we leave 20 minutes after I arrive to go to the airport.

We get to the airport in quick time, I tend to drive fast and the motorway wasn’t so busy at that time of the morning. I drop them off and go to park the car in the overflow car park. (Bloody busy at the airport). I then get a call from Lil Sis…

She thinks she’s forgotten her passport at home. (more…)

5 Comments »

But, But, What About My Lit Books?

Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Posted in: Reader Bloggers Rock, Say goodbye to MS Reader

Apparently Microsoft Reader is being discontinued: Here are the details from PCMag.com:

The free, but extremely outdated, Microsoft Reader software will be discontinued on August 30, 2012.
Microsoft, however, will shut down its eBookstore on November 8, 2011, so stock up now on those .lit files.
Microsoft Reader launched in 2000, long before dedicated e-reader devices came into existence, and was one of the first applications that allowed customers to quickly download e-books for viewing on LCD screens.
“Microsoft Reader 2.0 lets you curl up with your PDA and read the same titles as on your Windows PC,” gushed PC Mag writer Konstantinos Karagiannis in his review, circa 2001.
Microsoft Reader supported .lit filetypes and was also the debut for Microsoft’s ClearType font, the closest semblance to digital paper at the time. When it launched, its only formidable rival was Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader, but over the years, it faced competition from more advanced e-book formats like eReader, Mobipocket Reader, EPUB, Kindle, and the iPad.

I heard about this yesterday, so with the help of Jane from Dear Author, I managed to strip the DRM from my Lit books that needed it, and converted them using Calibre. They are all now downloaded onto my Kindle.

1 Comment »

Phoenix Sullivan & Jennifer Blake, You Should Be Fucking Ashamed of Yourselves

Monday, August 15, 2011
Posted in: Author should not read without a bottle of Jack Daniels, Batshit Crazy, Books that make me want to go Aaaarrrrghh, Fucked Up People

I assume that the majority of you will have read the review of Phoenix Sullivan’s book over at Dear Author by now?

If you haven’t already, this is not a bad thing believe me.

The following post is full of bad words. Lots of bad words. You have been warned.

Basically, apparently, the book is set in pre-Arthurian times. The heroine gets kidnapped by the ‘hero’ and whilst in his care, gets raped repeatedly by different men. When I say repeatedly, I mean repeatedly. In fact, the way the reviewer tells it, the raping of the heroine becomes something of a sport.

If this wasn’t bad enough, there’s also a kidnapped eleven year old who is also regularly raped, something that apparently turns our heroine on. Yep, you read that right.

Here’s the excerpt that I lifted from DA, highlighting the heroine’s horniness over hearing an eleven year old child being raped. (more…)

13 Comments »

Currently Reading: Notorious Pleasures by Elizabeth Hoyt

Saturday, August 13, 2011
Posted in: Book Buys of The Week, book talk

And I’m loving it so far.

Check out the blurb:

Their lives were perfect . . .

Lady Hero Batten, the beautiful sister of the Duke of Wakefield, has everything a woman could want, including the perfect fiancé. True, the Marquis of Mandeville is a trifle dull and has no sense of humor, but that doesn’t bother Hero. Until she meets his notorious brother . . .

Until they met each other.

Griffin Remmington, Lord Reading, is far from perfect – and he likes it that way. How he spends his days is a mystery, but all of London knows he engages in the worst sorts of drunken revelry at night. Hero takes an instant dislike to him, and Griffin thinks that Hero, with her charities and faultless manners, is much too impeccable for society, let alone his brother. Yet their near-constant battle of wits soon sparks desire – desire that causes their carefully constructed worlds to come tumbling down. As Hero’s wedding nears, and Griffin’s enemies lay plans to end their dreams forever, can two imperfect people find perfect true love?

You can check out the excerpt here, buy the book from Amazon.com here, and Amazon UK here.

What are you guys reading this weekend?

1 Comment »

Sarah Palin/Michele Bachmann Ticket? Please God, Make It Happen!

Friday, August 12, 2011
Posted in: American Politics

Am I the only person desperately hoping that Sarah Palin runs for president? I’d love to see her up there representing the Republican Party, with Michele Bachmann as her Vice President. Oh the comedy value would be priceless….

Please Oprah, make it happen!

I love Obama, and appreciate his innate goodness, but I’m not going to lie, I would love all the gag reels that would be created from a Palin/Bachmann presidency. It would enable me to feel vastly superior about the infinite wisdom of Brits in general (in comparison to “crazy Americans”) and the UK’s current governance, hahahaha!

9 Comments »

Standard & Poor’s AKA S&P: Why Do They hold So Much Power?

Thursday, August 11, 2011
Posted in: Financial crisis

I’ve woken up this morning to the news that France may be the next country to lose its triple A credit rating, and as a result of nervousness from investors, millions were wiped off the FTSE 100.

I’m not sure why these credit rating agencies are allowed to have so much power? It’s not like they don’t get things wrong, after all. I think they’ve been described as economic terrorists in the past, and I can’t help but agree.

I’m a huge believer that organisations like S&P have too much power, and coupled with the fact that they’re based in the United States leads me to believe that not all of their decisions will be free from political influences.

Fat cats sitting in their shiny offices blithely making decisions that affect people on a day to day basis, without the obligation of looking these same people in the eye? I would bet my mortgage that if somebody was brave enough to launch a secret investigation into their practices, we’d find a level of corruption that’s unprecedented.

I sense that something is rotten in Denmark, but in this case, Denmark happens to be Standard & Poor’s.

1 Comment »

Fascinating Aida: Effing. Hilarious.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Posted in: random ramblings

So fricking clever, and bloody hilarious. You NEED to watch it!

No Comments »

KarenS Mini Review: Loving Scarlett By Lola Newmar (Scarlett Rose and the Seven Longhorns 1)

Monday, August 8, 2011
Posted in: Author should not read without a bottle of Jack Daniels, Karen's Capsule Reviews

I heard about Scarlett Rose And The Seven Longhorns from Has Book Pusher over on Twitter a while ago. I was curious at the time, but I couldn’t actually bring myself to buy it straight away.

There seems to be a trend lately of having the most outrageous shape-shifters. I’m pretty sure there’s a story about a were-duck out there, but I have my limits, ya know?

Anyway, I resisted for a while, but I had a look at the price on my Kindle, and it was only £3.54, so I thought why not? Why not indeed. Sigh.

Basically, this is a story about a woman called Scarlett who obviously has the biggest vagina in the world, since she gets to share it with seven longhorn shapeshifters, who all love her to death, and swear to protect her from all the evil people trying to kill her.

Here’s the actual blurb from the Book Strand website: (more…)

8 Comments »

Currently Reading: Lord Ruin by Carolyn Jewel

Saturday, August 6, 2011
Posted in: Book Buys of The Week, book talk

I’ve never read a Carolyn Jewel book before, but so far, Lord Ruin is pretty good.

Here’s the blurb from the website:

The Duke of Sin
The Duke of Cynssyr didn’t believe in love. He planned to marry for beauty. But a night of unforgettable passion left him a changed man — a man tied to a bespectacled spinster. Anne Sinclair’s long legs drove him wild with desire, and her quick wit challenged his mind. Ruined for any oher, the notorious rake had only one choice; to court his wife. To win her condfidence, however, nothing less than his love would do.

The Old Maid of Bartley Green
Anne Sinclair had sworn to protect her sister from the infamous Lord Ruin. Yet she never expected to sacrifice her own virtue. Forced to give the rogue her hand in marriage, she vowed never to relinquish her heart. But Ruan worshopped her body and valued her intelligence, making Anne long to succumb to the ultimate temptation: falling for her husband.

What are you guys reading today?

3 Comments »

KarenS Review: Fade to Midnight by Shannon McKenna

Friday, August 5, 2011
Posted in: Author should not read without a bottle of Jack Daniels, Karen's Capsule Reviews

Shannon McKenna’s McCloud Brothers books have always been a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. I know that I really shouldn’t like them, because they normally have the most assholic heroes and the heroines are generally too stupid to live.

This however, has never stopped me from looking forward to her new releases. I always fondly remember our 2005 vacation whenever I think about some of her earlier books.

Fade to Midnight is Kev Larsen’s story. Readers of this series will know that Kev has been missing for eighteen years, presumed dead by most, even at times by us readers. There was a time when I wondered whether Ms McKenna would ever bite the bullet and write his story. And so here we are. At last.

Here’s the blurb from Ms McKenna’s website: (more…)

4 Comments »

Who’s Your Favourite Superhero?

Thursday, August 4, 2011
Posted in: Super heroes

Mine is definitely Superman.

The above are new pics that have emerged of Henry Cavill as the new superman. Waddaya think? I think Brandon Routh looked marginally better…

3 Comments »

Who’s Gonna Watch Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes?

Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Posted in: movies

I’m not gonna lie. I am totally looking forward to Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes. In fact, I’m practically dizzy with anticipation. Check the trailer out, if that doesn’t make you wanna go and watch it, I don’t know what will!

By the way, Andy Serkis, the guy who played Gollum in the Lord Of The Ring movies, and King Kong, in 2005’s King Kong, plays Caesar the ape. That guy is actually amazing.

5 Comments »

The Lunatics Are Actually Running The Asylum – Debt Ceiling Crisis… It’s Finally Over?

Monday, August 1, 2011
Posted in: American Politics

I read this morning that there’s finally been a resolution to the debt ceiling crisis talks that seem to have gone on forever.

Quite frankly, I think the sheer fuckwittery of the politicians have made America look like they couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery.

During this whole process, it seems to me that the politicians forgot who they were serving. If I was a U.S citizen, I’d be very ashamed that I had people like this supposedly looking after my interests.

Petty squabbles and point scoring seems to underpin American politics these days in a way that it never has before. And not forgetting the out and out racism of course. (For those in denial, yes, the Republican party are more racist than the Democrats, live with it.)

I of course put the blame on the Republicans, who also seem to be fighting amongst themselves. Well, what did they expect? The Tea Party lot aren’t going to make things easy for the more moderate right-wingers.
I guess it would be like having a faction of the English Defence League or the British National Party in Parliament. That kind of extremism mingled with more normal thinking people never leads to anywhere good. I’m pretty sure John Boehner is beginning to realise how little influence he has over that riotous lot. He really has his work cut out for him, trying to manage them and the more reasonable conservatives.

The Tea Party movement seem to be shouting the loudest within the Republican Party, and there’s not a damn thing anybody can do about it until the next round of elections. The lunatics are truly running the asylum it seems…

Anyway, I’m just glad that it’s apparently over and the politicians got what they wanted. Although I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t the American people who won here.

7 Comments »

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