The Old South

My Rating: 5/5

Review: I was immediately caught up in the story of Livinia and Belle, the slave woman who was put in charge of her. Plantation life came alive for me as I consumed each word. There was tragedy and hardship, but there was also love and togetherness that only a close knit family could share. Livinia was seven when she arrived at the tobacco plantation in Virginia. She was a freckled-faced Irish girl, with red hair and no memory of who she was or where she came from. It takes a shocking moment for her to have a sudden flash of memory. Her story goes on from there up until she's a grown woman. I liked that the point-of-view went back and forth between Livinia and Belle. There were so many characters to cherish or loathe as the case may be. I only wish that there could have been an epilogue at the end just to give me a little more closure, but I made up my own in my mind, so I'm quite satisfied.

Book Description: Orphaned while on board ship from Ireland, seven-year-old Lavinia arrives on the steps of a tobacco plantation where she is to live and work with the slaves of the kitchen house. Under the care of Belle, the master's illegitimate daughter, Lavinia becomes deeply bonded to her adopted family, though she is set apart from them by her white skin.

Eventually, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction. Lavinia finds herself perilously straddling two very different worlds. When she is forced to make a choice, loyalties are brought into question, dangerous truths are laid bare, and lives are put at risk.

The Kitchen House is a tragic story of page-turning suspense, exploring the meaning of family, where love and loyalty prevail.

Dark Divine #2

My Rating: 5/5

Review: This is the first series in a long time where I actually need the little reminders of what happened in the previous books. I say books, because I'm sure I'll need a refresher by the time the next in the series comes out. I generally tend to read older series so that I don't have to wait anxiously for the next book to be released. The Dark Divine series is a happy exception. I love how the author makes Grace's world seem so real. She has real teenage problems, like waiting to have sex and whether or not she should go to college. There's a definite Christian element here that is unusual for paranormal books. I find that interesting. In this sequel, Grace now has the potential to become a wolf, but her boyfriend, Daniel is trying to help her keep that from happening. But Daniel has a strange issue of his own to deal with, and Grace ends up feeling cast aside. Enter the mysterious flannel clad Talbot who rescues her and starts training her himself. Only Talbot seems to be encouraging the wolf instead of helping her keep it at bay, and Grace soon has a battle she may not be able to win. In the midst of all this, Grace's brother, Jude, is missing, and everyone he once cared about is trying desperately to find him. Great action, cool characters, and a cliffhanger at the end will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat.

Book Description: The non-stop sequel to The Dark Divine delivers an even hotter romance and more thrilling action than Bree Despain's first novel. Grace Divine made the ultimate sacrifice to cure Daniel Kalbi. She gave her soul to the wolf to save him and lost her beloved mother. When Grace receives a haunting phone call from Jude, she knows what she must do. She must become a Hound of Heaven. Desparate to find Jude, Grace befriends Talbot - a newcomer to town who promises her that he can help her be a hero. But as the two grow closer, the wolf grows in Grace, and her relationship with Daniel begins to crumble. Unaware of the dark path she is walking, Grace becomes prideful in her new abilities - not realizing that an old enemy has returned and deadly trap is about to be sprung.

Bad Revamp of an Austen Classic

My Rating: 2/5

Review: This book was just okay for me. I actually won it through the Goodreads giveaways, so I was excited to read it and post my review. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the book as much as I thought I was going to. The characters were vaguely interesting, there was a scattering of wit here and there, and I vaguely enjoyed the scenery. For the most part, however, I found the story to be quite boring and very depressing. I didn't feel that it was much of a homage to Jane Austen at all, as other reviews claim. I hate giving bad reviews, but I had much higher expectations for this book, and was left feeling quite disappointed.

Book Description: Jane Austen’s beloved Sense and Sensibility has moved to Westport, Connecticut, in this enchanting modern-day homage to the classic novel

When Joseph Weissmann divorced his wife, he was seventy eight years old and she was seventy-five . . . He said the words “Irreconcilable differences,” and saw real confusion in his wife’s eyes.

“Irreconcilable differences?” she said. “Of course there are irreconcilable differences. What on earth does that have to do with divorce?”

Thus begins The Three Weissmanns of Westport, a sparkling contemporary adaptation of Sense and Sensibility from the always winning Cathleen Schine, who has already been crowned “a modern-day Jewish Jane Austen” by People’s Leah Rozen.

In Schine’s story, sisters Miranda, an impulsive but successful literary agent, and Annie, a pragmatic library director, quite unexpectedly find themselves the middle-aged products of a broken home. Dumped by her husband of nearly fifty years and then exiled from their elegant New York apartment by his mistress, Betty is forced to move to a small, run-down Westport, Connecticut, beach cottage. Joining her are Miranda and Annie, who dutifully comes along to keep an eye on her capricious mother and sister. As the sisters mingle with the suburban aristocracy, love starts to blossom for both of them, and they find themselves struggling with the dueling demands of reason and romance.

Danger in the Hills

My Rating: 3/5

Review: While I did enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Black Hills, I couldn't help but feel that this book tended to drag a little bit. There was too much down time between suspenseful scenes, and the romance didn't really add much to the story. I kept waiting for the nail-biting suspense, but it rarely came. In fact, there wasn't much suspense at all until the last couple of chapters. I liked the story of Lil, and her wildlife refuge. I liked the family camaraderie, and the little coming of age set-up with Lil and Coop in the beginning. I did not like how long it took to get to the story's climax, however, nor the feeling relief once I'd finally gotten to the end. I expect better from one of my favorite authors of all time. This felt more like a Lifetime movie, then the gritty goodness of her past works.

Book Description: A summer at his grandparents' South Dakota ranch is not eleven-year-old Cooper Sullivan's idea of a good time. But things are a bit more bearable now that he's discovered the neighbor girl, Lil Chance, and her homemade batting cage. Even horseback riding isn't as awful as Coop thought it would be. Each year, with Coop's annual summer visit, their friendship deepens from innocent games to stolen kisses, but there is one shared experience that will forever haunt them: the terrifying discovery of a hiker's body.

As the seasons change and the years roll, Lil stays steadfast to her dreams of becoming a wildlife biologist and protecting her family land, while Coop struggles with his father's demand that he attend law school and join the family firm. Twelve years after they last walked together hand in hand, fate has brought them back to the Black Hills when the people and things they hold most dear need them most.

An investigator in New York, Coop recently left his fastpaced life to care for his aging grandparents and the ranch he has come to call home. Though the memory of his touch still haunts her, Lil has let nothing stop her dream of opening the Chance Wildlife Refuge, but something . . . or someone . . . has been keeping a close watch. When small pranks and acts of destruction escalate into the heartless killing of Lil's beloved cougar, recollections of an unsolved murder in these very hills have Coop springing to action to keep Lil safe.

Lil and Coop both know the natural dangers that lurk in the wild landscape of the Black Hills. But now they must work together to unearth a killer of twisted and unnatural instincts who has singled them out as prey.

Feelings Have a Taste

My Rating: 4/5

Review: Upon closing this book, I felt a little unfulfilled. There wasn't much closure, and I was left with that old feeling of "but what happened next?" It was a great story, however. Very unique to anything I've read before. I was drawn in immediately by Rose Edelstein, and her peculiar gift of being able to taste the feelings of anyone's food she eats. It begins on her ninth birthday, when her mother bakes her a lemon cake. Mrs. Edelstein was always cheerful and positive on the outside, but Rose soon finds out that she isn't really a happy person at all. It's a horrible realization for a young girl, and this new "gift" is something she wishes very much that she could give back. Rose tells her story from there all the way up to age twenty-two. It is funny, sad, interesting, and at times even a little uplifting. I just wish there could be a sequel.

Book Description: On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents’ attention, bites into her mother’s homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the cake. She discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother—her cheerful, good-with-crafts, can-do mother—tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes a peril and a threat to Rose.

The curse her gift has bestowed is the secret knowledge all families keep hidden—her mother’s life outside the home, her father’s detachment, her brother’s clash with the world. Yet as Rose grows up she learns to harness her gift and becomes aware that there are secrets even her taste buds cannot discern.

Magic and Martial Arts

My Rating: 4/5

Review: This book was both fascinating and magical. I was immediately drawn in by the very intriguing story about a healer who was also a protector, a thief who was also a murderer, and the world of martial arts and tattoos.

Book Description:
Mia Lockheart has a secret. Her mother was a Keeper, as was her grandmother—women who were warriors, healers, and protectors. As Mia practices her craft among the boxers and martial artists of South London, and begins a romance with her childhood friend, the fighter Nick Duffy, she has no idea that a man who calls himself “Dragonfly” is watching from the shadows.

Adrian Ashton is a brilliant scientist, an expert in the breaking field of biophoton emissions from cells within the human body. He is also a skilled martial artist—and a modern-day vampire. With the aid of the enigmatic Book of Life and Death, written in the thirteenth century by the legendary Chinese physician Zhang Sanfeng, he preys on other martial artists and drains them of their chi—the vital energy that flows through the body.

Mia finds herself drawn to his dark genius, but when he targets Nick as his next victim, she is forced to choose between the two men. It becomes a fight to the death in which love is both the greatest weakness and the biggest prize.

Vampire for Hire

I received this as an ARC though the Goodreads giveaway.

Rating: 3.5/5

My Review:
I was all set to hate this book a few chapters in, but before I knew it, I was eagerly turning pages and on the edge of my seat towards the end. As far as Vampire stories go, it's not exactly unique, but it did have a premise that was new to me. A vampire blinded by military experimentation hiring another vampire to help him out is quite intriguing after all. Raylene, also known as Chesire Red in the crime world, came across as an obnoxious teenager at first. Her attempts at being funny were just plain annoying, and she wasn't likable to me at all. Towards the end of the book, however, I began to like her more and more. She has spunk, she's brave, and well, she can actually be funny some of the time. I will most likely read the sequel, since I am curious by nature, and there is still a mystery to be solved.

Book Description: Raylene Pendle (AKA Cheshire Red), a vampire and world-renowned thief, doesn’t usually hang with her own kind. She’s too busy stealing priceless art and rare jewels. But when the infuriatingly charming Ian Stott asks for help, Raylene finds him impossible to resist—even though Ian doesn’t want precious artifacts. He wants her to retrieve missing government files—documents that deal with the secret biological experiments that left Ian blind. What Raylene doesn’t bargain for is a case that takes her from the wilds of Minneapolis to the mean streets of Atlanta. And with a psychotic, power-hungry scientist on her trail, a kick-ass drag queen on her side, and Men in Black popping up at the most inconvenient moments, the case proves to be one hell of a ride.