Showing posts with label Sourcebooks blog tour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sourcebooks blog tour. Show all posts

Monday, June 7, 2010

Book Review: Strange Neighbors by Ashlyn Chase


Strange Neighbors by Ashlyn Chase
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publish Date: June 1, 2010
Paperback, 384 pages


My Review:
Strange Neighbors is a fun, romantic romp that passes an afternoon wonderfully.  I was engrossed in this apartment complex and it's inhabitants from the beginning.  Merry is just out on her own and she's been thrown into a building with a lot of interesting characters.  The most interesting of which is Jason Falco, a great baseball pitcher.  The sparks fly between Jason and Merry from the beginning, but with strange happenings and even stranger events going on, it feels like things may never click between them.

I loved this book for the romance and the characters.  Both were very entertaining.  The plot moves things along well and it never lags so the book is wholly enjoyable.  Strange Neighbors was a quick enjoyable read with paranormal elements and I really hope that there are more books that will make this a series because there are many of the characters I want to learn more about plus I would love to see more of Jason and Merry.

My Rating:  4.0/5.0

About the Book:
He's looking for peace, quiet, and a little romance...

There's never a dull moment when hunky all-star pitcher and shapeshifter Jason Falco invests in an old Boston brownstone apartment building full of supernatural creatures. But when Merry MacKenzie moves into the ground floor apartment, the playboy pitcher decides he might just be done playing the field...

A girl just wants to have fun...

Sexy Jason seems like the perfect fling, but newly independent nurse Merry's not sure she's ready to trust him with her heart...especially when the tabloids start trumpeting his playboy lifestyle.
Then pandemonium breaks loose and Merry and Jason will never get it together without a little help from the vampire who lives in the basement and the werewolf from upstairs...

About the Author (from Goodreads.com):
Ashlyn Chase has been a registered nurse for 20 years. During those years, she wrote articles for professional journals and a thesis, but eventually, thank goodness, discovered the joy and freedom of writing fiction.

Ashlyn considers herself lucky. Her degree in behavioral sciences is a combination of psychology and sociology, so she has worked with and studied people most of her life. She never has to write out exhaustive character sketches to understand her characters or predict how they will behave. That doesn't mean they don't surprise her. Sometimes they take her on grand unexpected journeys. For her, it gives "character driven novels" a whole new meaning.

Ashlyn has learned to go with the flow. To enjoy the journey is not only one of her writing goals, but also a challenge in life so she tries to follow where the story takes her. As such, she has lived in 17 different places over the years. At last, she's all settled down and comfy in New England.

Is there a grand design or do we decide our own fates? Perhaps if the powers-that-be have a plot, then they also give us the right to revise it. Ashlyn has certainly made detours on her path, but she thinks she's better for it. She's having fun at any rate and hopes that if she enjoys the journey, so will those around her—including her readers.

FTC Information: I received this book from Sourcebooks Casablanca for review.  I have Amazon links on my review pages but I do not make any money from these because of NC laws.  I put them solely for people to check out the books on a retail site.


Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Book Review and Blog Tour: Lessons in French by Laura Kinsale

 

Lessons in French by Laura Kinsale
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publish Date:February 1, 2010
Paperback,  480 pages


My Review:

What a fun book.  I loved it from the start.  It is my first book by Laura Kinsale and I will definitely be checking out her backlist now.  

From the start of the book I fell in love with Callie and Trev.  Callie has been engaged three times yet never married  and she feels she will spend life in spinsterhood and she is comfortable with that.  Trev is one of those wounded men, he's been a bad boy and doesn't know if he can change his ways.  He's in love with Callie but doesn't think he's good enough for her so every time he gets close, he pulls away.  Callie has always been in love with him too, but doesn't think he returns her love.  It's a wonderful romance in that they keep getting close in the beginning of the book for Trev to pull away.  But you know they love each other so you keep reading.

I loved the dialogue.  Especially between Callie and Trev and Trev and his maman.  The dialogue is very witty and had me laughing out loud several times when reading.  I would have to say that Ms. Kinsale is a master of dialogue based on this book.

The plot got a little slow to me at times, but never too slow, I wanted to keep reading.  I wanted to learn more about Trev and Callie and what crazy situation they would get into next.

If you love historical romance this is a book for you. 

Rating: 9.0/10.0

Rating Breakdown
Characterization:      2.0/2.0
Plot:                        1.5/2.0
Writing:                 1.75/2.0
Attention-holding:  0.75/1.0
Ending:                    1.0/1.0
Believable:               1.0/1.0
Genre:                     1.0/1.0    
Rating:                 9.0/10.0

About the Book:
"It was quite settled by now. She was born to be a spinster. The gentlemen would have to declare their undying devotion to other ladies. Callie would be too much occupied with developing a delicate constitution and a dependable recipe for tapioca-jelly."

She is, after all, Lady Callista Taillefaire, jilted three times in spite of her fortune and her father's best efforts to find her a husband. Now her greatest desire is to win the silver cup at the agricultural fair with her gigantic prize bull, Hubert. But when Callie's only old flame returns from his long and mysterious absence in France, her quiet spinster life turns upside down.

Dark-eyed, elegant and a magnet for trouble, Trevelyan d'Augustin has given Callie lessons in more than his language in the past. Her father put a harsh and humiliating end to any dreams of romance with a French émigré scoundrel, however, and Callie never thought to see him again. Swallowing his pride, Trev has finally come home to care for his failing mother, but his secrets and misdeeds follow him.

Callie soon remembers that nothing is ever peaceful with Trev around. The enormous Hubert vanishes into thin air, one of her former jilts comes back to woo her in a most determined manner--and her bull takes the town by storm! In the midst of these misadventures, Callie finds herself falling in love again with the worst possible man for her...
*** I received this book from the publisher, Sourcebooks for review. ***

Look for this ARC as a giveaway in my weekend wondering post this weekend - which will feature romance of course - it's Valentine's Day, or as I joking say to my family and husband - who cares about Valentine's Day - it's Daytona! (I'm really joking and not joking - I love racing but I adore and love my husband even more - everybody say awwwww)

CymLowell