Book Review: Love Like The Movies

Author: Victoria Van Tiem
Title: Love Like The Movies
Publisher: Pocket Books
Publish Date: Feb 24, 2014
Buy: Amazon

Review Copy Provided By: Net Galley
Book Blurb: 

In this irresistible romantic romp, movie fanatic Kensington Shaw is thrown into love—Hollywood-style—when her gorgeous ex presents a series of big screen challenges to win back her heart.

What girl wouldn’t want to experience the Pretty Woman shopping scene? It’s number two on the list. Or, try the lift from Dirty Dancing? It’s number five. One list, ten romantic movie moments, and a handful of shenanigans later, Kenzi has to wonder…should she marry the man her family loves, or risk everything for a love like the movies?

Review: If you like chicklit and romantic comedies, you absolutely must read, Love Like The Movies by Victoria Van  Tiem. The whole time I was reading this book, I felt that it absolutely must be made into a movie!

Kensington Shaw is the perfect romcom/chicklit heroine. She is engaged to a great guy that her family absolutely loves, but her sister in law Ren upstages her, by getting pregnant at the same. To make things worse her ex from college who really broke her heart is back and a client. His return turns her world upside down.

I absolutely loved Shane and felt sorry for Bradley too. There were shades of Bridget Jones to the actual story, besides the "living out rom com movie moments" for the theme restaurant/theater he is planning on opening.

It is fabulous to see some of these on screen moments come to life through other characters. She learns a bit more about the two guys in her life as well as her sister in law and one of her friends.

I can't begin to say how much fun this book was to read. I was often frustrated with Kenzi, because I was TEAM SHANE from the very beginning. I wanted to shake her mom a few times in the book. It really was good fun with lots of laughs. I guarantee that when you finally put it down, you'll want to watch all the movies on "the list" so you can see the movie moments. And yes, I want a Love Like The Movies too.

This was quite possibly the best chicklit book I've read in ages!

Rating: 5 flowers

Book Review: Just One Night Part 1 The Stranger

Author: Kyra Davis
Title: Just One Night Part 1: The Stranger
Publisher: Pocket Star
Publish Date: Jan 21, 2013
Buy: Amazon

Review Copy Provided By: Net Galley

Book Blurb: Kasie knows who she’s supposed to be. But one passionate night with a mysterious stranger will teach her who she wants to be. You should sleep with a stranger, her best friend whispers in her ear as they take to Vegas for one last pre-wedding fling. Despite her best intentions, when Kasie Fitzgerald enters the casino and sees him, a man whose tailored clothes belied a powerful, even dangerous, presence, she loses herself to the moment. Maybe it’s the dress, much shorter than she’d ever normally wear, or the Scotch, but something makes her give herself over to him more completely than she's ever done with a man before.

It was supposed to be just one night. But right as she’s thinking she wants more, he shows up in her office with an agenda. As the billionaire CEO of a company that’s engaged her PR firm, his demands just became her reality...and he desires so much more than just some attention in the boardroom.

Review: I'm a huge fan of Kyra's Sophie Katz mysteries, so I thought, why not give her new erotic novel a try?

While I love Sophie Katz, I'm not so sure how I feel about the Just One Night series.

Not because of the writing, Kyra knows how to weave a good tale, however I found it hard to connect with Kasie. She was too selfish. I could excuse her cheating on Dave, if they had been together a short time, but they had been together 6 years and marriage seemed inevitable. So all in all her actions felt wrong and left me not liking her much.

Dave was ho hum. He definitely would inspire someone to cheat on him. However like Kasie, he has some secrets too, as you find out towards the end. However, the cliffhanger ending isn't enough to make me care.

Then there's Robert. He's the stranger that awakens the naughty girl in Kasie. You want to like him. He's mysterious, his rich, he's great in bed, as the smokin' hot sex scenes show us. However, you don't really get to know him. He felt like a cut out hero. In fact, so did Dave. I couldn't feel anything for either man, because there was really no reason to like them.

I wanted so much more from this story, because I love Kyra's writing. Maybe it is because this is part of short novella series. It reads like a naughty soap opera and the ending leaves you waiting to see what happens next. I like my stories to start and end. It is more satisfying.

There was one other thing that got me. No condoms/protection mentioned at all. Yet, Kasie bitches about Robert smoking a cigarette. Oye! She could get knocked up of some freaky disease, but smoking is bad?

UH?

I guess you pick your battles.

The heat factor is very high here, so if that's your thing, this book will do it for you, but the little things may bring you down a bit.

Rating: 3 flowers

Book Review: A Holiday Of Love

Author: Judith McNaught, Jude Deveraux, Jill Barnett, Arnette Lamb
Title: A Holiday Of Love
Publisher: Pocket Star Books
Publish Date: 2005
Rating: 4 stars
Book Blurb: In New York City in the late 1800s, a beautiful but clumsy angel turns a lonely man's life around.... In medieval Scotland, the intrigues of a Christmas Mass imperil two Highland lovers....In Regency London, a world-weary lord receives an outrageous proposal....And in modern-day Colorado, a clever twelve-year-old plays matchmaker for his bighearted but impractical mother.

Review: This is another anthology of short Christmas stories. It was hit or miss though in good stories

Jude Deveraux opened it with Change Of Heart, which was absolutely adorable. A twelve year old genius finds love for his mother so that he could go away to school. I loved Eli and I liked the billionaire, Frank Taggert, who he befriended years ago and is now trying to fix his mother up with. Sadly, his mom, Miranda was a bit to wishy washy

Judith McNaught's Miracles came next. The hero in this story appears in a few of her other earlier books. It has been years since I read Whitney, My Love or Until You, so I didn't really remember him. I did feel that this story wasn't developed enough. I wanted to learn more about the characters. Juliana was so sweet and spunky and her relationship with her grandmother was wonderful, but I wanted more. I definitely wanted more with Nicki

Jill Barnett's Daniel and the Angel was the best story of the bunch. The story is set in the 1800s in NYC. Lillian is an angel who can't seem to get it right, and she gets cast out of heaven for breaking the pearly gates. If she wants to get back to Heaven she needs to perform a miracle on earth. (That's something she was never able to do in Heaven).

Daniel is a cool unfeeling millionaire. He believes money can buy everything.

Watching their love grow was just so sweet. This was truly the most perfect holiday story.

The last story was Arnette Lamb's Hark The Herald. To be perfectly honest, I remember very little about this story. Elizabeth Gordon was the herald for the Scottish King. I found it too hard to get into this story, because the holiday had little to do with it, and again, it left me wanting more background, particularly Randolf McQueen. This story would have benefited from being a novel rather than less than 100.

Book Review: Bare Bones

Author: Kathy Reichs
Title: Bare Bones
Publisher: Pocket Star
Publish Date: May 25, 2004
Rating: 4 Stars
Book Blurb: Feisty forensic anthropologist Temperance (Tempe) Brennan is supposed to be on vacation, but body parts keep turning up. At the start of her sixth adventure, she's awaiting the arrival of her current flame, Quebecois sleuth Andrew Ryan, so she can head for the beach near her hometown of Charlotte, N.C. Before he shows up, she's called in to use her world-class forensics skills when a local janitor's infant granddaughter is found dead and charred in an oven. Then some strange, decomposing remains (" `Human?' `I'm not sure' ") are discovered by Brennan's dog during a barbecue at a local lakeside resort. Ryan finally arrives, but Brennan's vacation is indefinitely put on hold when a small plane crashes nearby. Two people are dead, and her expertise is required yet again ("The skull had suffered massive communitive fracturing on impact. The fire had done the rest"). Brennan eventually realizes that all three cases are linked to a drug-smuggling ring that also dabbles in poaching exotic animals. As she pursues her investigations, she is forced to work with "Skinny" Slidell, a redneck cop who rubs her the wrong way, but tension is defused by the presence of Ryan, who gamely gives up his vacation to pitch in. He matches Brennan quip for quip, and Tempe's dog, Boyd, provides extra comic relief. Reichs has built a reputation on cut-to-the-chase writing and swift plotting, and this latest effort delivers everything her fans have come to expect.

Review: This is the first Temperance Brennan novel I've read. I took it out of the lending library at the Y because it was a "Bones" novel. What a surprise! Brennan in the books is nothing like Brennan on the TV Show and in this case, I like TV Brennan better.

So perhaps I should say, if you haven't read the series and watch the show, it might be best to skip on the books. The show is very loosely based on the books, and when I say loosely I mean, hanging by a thread. 

Bare Bones was a bit dry, but the plot moved along enough that it keep my attention throughout. I couldn't have used a bit more comic relief that it had, most of which came from Boyd, the chow, and Andrew Ryan, her love interest. (Yup..there's no Booth here)

Reichs does a great job at keeping you guessing too. As the story progresses there's really more to the mystery than first expected, in fact, there's several mysteries going on here. Not once will you guess who the real killer is. She gives nothing away until the last page is turned.

I don't think I've read a mystery where I couldn't figure out the whodunit until the end of the book.

I really enjoyed this book even though it was vastly different from the TV show. I look forward to reading more from this series.