Wednesday Reads

Hey! I’m getting caught up in my reading! Here’s what I read during the week:

Feb 20: “Kiss the Dead” by Laurell K. Hamilton. This is the 21st book in the Anita Blake series, an urban fantasy. Blurb from book: When a fifteen-year-old girl is abducted by vampires, it’s up to U.S. Marshal Anita Blake to find her. And when she does, she’s faced with something she’s never seen before: a terrifyingly ordinary group of people--kids, grandparents, soccer moms--all recently turned and willing to die to avoid serving a master. And where there’s one martyr, there will be more… But even vampires have monsters that they’re afraid of. And Anita is one of them… I love this series. I enjoy the world. But… This book was a bit on the thin side (story-wise), and it appears to be bulked up (word count-wise) by repeating descriptions and events. Descriptions that bordered on excessive (especially when it came to her lovers). Events that weren’t really needed for this story and would have been known by the readers of the series. Even so, I still love the series and will continue to read on. I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads.

Feb 21: “Ghost Lover” by Liza O’Connor, a paranormal romance. Blurb from book: Completely broke and with a criminal record to boot, Senna Smith is one day from eviction from her apartment when Brendon, her promiscuous roommate from London, suggests she go to England, marry him and manage his fortune. With few other options, she agrees to an open marriage. But she’ll never, ever, have sex with him, knowing if she falls in love with him, he’ll break her heart. As trustee of Brendon’s family fortune, there is no way Brendon’s older brother, Garrison Durran is going to let him marry a self-professed American gold-digger. As Senna tries to embrace castle life and English society for Brendon’s sake, Gar discovers Senna is the perfect woman for him--beautiful and intelligent, kind and caring. Now, if she wasn’t already engaged to his brother…The ancestral ghost of Durran Castle has to intervene if the Durran brothers have any chance of an heir. He can’t leave them to fix matters on their own. They are useless buggers when it comes to love. As counselor to Gar, matchmaker for Brendon and lover to Senna, a ghost’s work is never done. I enjoyed the story, but it took awhile before the ghost came into play. In fact, the beginning of the book seemed to resemble the movie “Sabrina.” So if you liked that movie, you’ll probably enjoy this book. I certainly breezed through it. I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.

Feb 24: “Unite Me” by Tahereh Mafi, young adult dystopian shorts, 1.5 & 2.5 of the Shatter Me series. Blurb from book: Juliette will not stand alone in a battle that will decide the fate of her world… In Destroy Me, Warner, the ruthless leader of Sector 45, refuses to let her go. In Fracture Me, Adam, Juliette’s first love, will do anything to get her back. This book included two shorts, as well as Juliette’s journal. The shorts were POVs from two other characters of the series. Not sure they were really needed as the events overlapped those of the first two books. This is why I’m not a fan of first person. If these POVs were really necessary, then why wasn’t the book written in third with these character views included? Plus, the “action” scenes (moving of body parts, mainly) were kind of clunky (I pulled my leg/I moved my head, kind of wordage). I thought I’d need to read these before the final of the series, but they didn’t offer anything I didn’t already know/suspect. I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads.

One good thing about walking on a treadmill--I read more! I’d still rather it was warmer so I could walk outside, though. What are you looking forward to doing once the weather warms up?

Happy reading!

Stacy