All Booked Up

The Iron Wyrm Affair by Lilith Saintcrow My rating: 1 of 5 stars More Gaslamp than Steampunk; and my favorite part was when the dragon almost killed the main characters. I could list all of the reasons why this should have worked for me and didn't, but me wanting the main characters dead before half of the book was done pretty much sums it up nicely. View all my reviews

Fall by Kaye Blue My rating: 3 of 5 stars Enjoyed this one more than the first for quite a few reasons. 1) I'd met the characters in the previous book and had a glimpse of their backstories. Something I didn't get with Fawn and Vasile. 2) Personalities. Esther is a spitfire. She knows her own mind, she's brash and ballsy, but smart. I didn't seen her make one bad move. Other than falling in love with a known mobster, but I'm fine with that. It's a mob romance. 3) Sorin. Ohh, God, Sorin. Handsome, charming, smokin' hot sexy. Confident, arrogant, but vulnerable. Alpha without being too much of a prick. It's hard finding the right balance, but it was met here. Even more, he's honest. About his feelings or lack thereof. That is always appealing. And pretty damn unheard of for a mobster. 4) Their relationship. Anyone with eyes could see this pairing coming in the first book. Could immediately see the attraction Sorin ha...

Keep by Kaye Blue My rating: 2 of 5 stars I feel like I blinked and missed everything that would have possibly made some of this (read: a vaaaaast majority) make sense. I have a lot of questions; but damned if I wasn't entertained. View all my reviews

All the Ever Afters: The Untold Story of Cinderella’s Stepmother by Danielle Teller My rating: 1 of 5 stars This was....boring. View all my reviews

Syncopation by Anna Zabo My rating: 2 of 5 stars This is kind of hard to rate and review because I was super bored throughout most of it. Weird for a romance book with an aromantic lead and lots of BDSM in it; or maybe because of it. I don't know. Something integral that would connect me to the characters was missing. I was engaged to the point of wanting to see how it ended, but I didn't care one iota about the characters. At all. Any of them, including the one that the second book is featuring. It wasn't terrible or poorly written, but.......meh. I never thought I'd classify BDSM as boring, but here we are. View all my reviews

Fair Chance by Josh Lanyon My rating: 4 of 5 stars Now that's how you end a trilogy. View all my reviews

Fair Play by Josh Lanyon My rating: 5 of 5 stars *happy, contented sigh* View all my reviews

His to Own: 50 Loving States, Arkansas by Theodora Taylor My rating: 3 of 5 stars I shouldn't have started this one yet because there are two books in front of it but I tapped the wrong cover in my reader app and we were off to the races. I will never be a fan of this reformed white supremacist/black woman romance subgenre. I like interracial just fine, clearly; but there's a difference between an interracial couple dealing with clashing cultures and, more often than not, society and social issues in their relationship and overcoming them... and a couple where one of them literally hated the other and thought their entire race of people are subhuman. And went about proving that in violent, disgusting, bigotry-filled ways. I can't really wrap my head around falling in love with a guy who used racial epithets freely...up until the point he wanted in my pants. Speaking as a black woman, "Nah, I'm good. Thanks. Hard pass. I would rat...

The Phoenix Illusion by Lisa Shearin My rating: 1 of 5 stars Every word that didn't include Rake and wasn't about Rake and Makenna's boring arsed relationship was perfect. Review revision 11/21/2018: I had to come back and change my rating from 3 to 1. This book doesn't even feel like it should be part of the SPI series. It's basically The Rake Knows Everything And Saves The Day Show with little bits of Ian and the others thrown in while Makenna follows Rake around with big puppy dog eyes and drones on and on about how awesome he is and how she's lucky to have him. Ugh. This is not the series or characters I fell in love with. View all my reviews

Her Russian Brute: 50 Loving States, Idaho by Theodora Taylor My rating: 5 of 5 stars Oh, how I loved this! Let me count the ways: 1) A kick ass heroine! Sola was consistent perfection in personality, growth and individuality. That counts for a lot, trust me. I love a girl who can fall in love and still be herself and not just an extension of the man she loves. 2) An alpha who can be a jerk but isn't a flaming asshole. Listen, after the previous Rustanovs, Ivan had a super high bar to reach with me and he scaled it perfectly. He was a great balance of "who I used to be isn't who I want to be anymore." And went about changing himself for himself and Sola. He didn't expect her to fix him. Hell, he didn't even feel he deserved her or to be a whole person. But he wanted that, mostly for himself, so he could be with her. Again, after reading about his cousins, especially Bair...I fully expected to hate him. I was pleasantl...

His Pretend Baby: 50 Loving States, Oregon by Theodora Taylor My rating: 4 of 5 stars That actually went waaaaay better than I was expecting after the Russian Fiasco I call Bair....and my complete hatred of nearly every werewolf TT writes (I'm looking at you, Rafe). So, yeah, pleasantly surprised. I really liked Go from the start; starting loving him on their - *ahem* Wedding Night . Nyla was a...waffle honestly. She's tough one minute and then spineless the next. I'll chalk it up to her falling in love and learning to trust because this book was a return to the soap-opera feel that made me fall in love with the series in the first place. View all my reviews

Angels Fall by Nora Roberts My rating: 3 of 5 stars It wasn't terrible. View all my reviews

Becoming by Michelle Obama My rating: 5 of 5 stars After eight years with confident, witty, unfailingly graceful Michelle Obama - First Lady of the United States, it was a great experience getting to know Michelle Obama - The Person. As a black woman, I've been in some of the places she found herself and I hope that when I reflect on my own life at 54, I can say I did it with as much courage as she has. View all my reviews

The Red Scot by Twyla Turner My rating: 3 of 5 stars Cute. The friendship is spot on. View all my reviews

Holt, Her Ruthless Billionaire: 50 Loving States-Connecticut by Theodora Taylor My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book has given me so many feelings; about the characters, their struggles - both together and separate - and about the passing of my own mother that I can't even review it properly right now. View all my reviews