BOOK REVIEW (86): Santa's Playbook (Jersey Boys #3)

BOOK REVIEW:

Santa's Playbook

A little early for a Christmas-y themed title, but then this wouldn't be the first Christmas book I read this year. Ahem.

What can I say? I love the spirit of the holiday -- or most holidays because the gathering of family, friends and community. There's just a sense of magic in festivities... -sigh- Anyways, as I'm sure you can tell, I loved Santa's Playbook by Karen Templeton. The third in the Jersey Boys series, Santa's Playbook features yet another member of the Noble family. Each book follows one of the family members to a HEA.

This book gives us HS football coach Ethan Noble's tale. His is a sad story: he lost his wife and became a young father of four, and for the past sixteen years he's made no attempt to re-connect with the female species. That is until heroine Claire Jacobs blows into his life like a nor'easter. The spunky, drama-English teacher is his work colleague, so it's not like he can just ignore her either. Especially when his oldest daughter, Juliette, takes an interest in match-making the reluctant father and her young teacher, Claire.

So there IS a third POV in this romance, and it would be the perspective of  Juliette -- be-fitting name for a teen who has a knack for the stage. Although she doesn't get as much say as Claire and her father, Ethan, Juliette adds an objective plane to the story. It's different, but in a great way! ^^

It offers a break from Claire and Ethan, both pretty introspective people and particularly when it comes to their romance. I mean, Claire doubts herself a lot. She's already been married once and that ended because she was aloof to her ex-husband. But I liked that Claire was a spit-fire who was comfortable with the way she looked and what she liked to do, even if it didn't always give others a great first impression; she could be also adorably awkward.

Ethan sounded...um, hot. I think it was also because he was playing super-Dad. That's it.

Overload on hot dads (and cute kids) yet?

But honestly Ethan sounded like he needed a happily ever after, and STAT. The poor guy would be lost once all his kids flew the coop... Now if only he could get over the decade-and-half of defense walls he built up.

One thing, the "language" was a bit jarring. Sometimes it felt weird when Claire would best into 'Jersey' speak...if you know what I mean.

But after a few pages I got used to it. It came with the characters, and I sorta knew what I was signing up for (the story is set in a fictional NJ town and the series is called Jersey Boys).

If you want to know how Ethan and Claire's story ends, you have to pick up Santa's Playbook. I promise it's one Thanksgiving/Christmas story you won't want to wait for until the holidays.

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮✮

(5 stars)

Creatives and Phobia. (Big Dreams Blog Update #25)

Update Day!

Time for me to let you in on how I did this month.

For those of you (which might be many) out of the loop, every last Friday of the month, myself and 13 others on the Do You Have a Goal? blog hop gather around our computers and update on our goal's progress.

Hosted by authors Misha Gericke and Beth Fred, the blog hop is open to one and all. All you do is click this link, scroll down and submit your one big, crazy goal -- even if you have more than one, choose one and stick to it!

For instance, my goal is to reach one million words in finished projects. Along the way I hope this large word count goal will teach me to edit, be more confident in what I produe, and get to know my own quirks as a writer and aspiring/pre-published author.

So far I've been sitting pretty at 191K (or 19%) out of the total 1 million. Not too bad. But one thing I learned this year is that it isn't enough to finish a writing project. That if I want to make writing books my career than I gotta face the pages and self-edit!

I sat down this year and read my first finished novel, making slight edit notes. So far that book is shelved, with plans to re-work in the indeterminate future. More recently -- as in a couple weeks ago -- I picked up my second book, and fourth finished title, and re-read it. Again making minor edit notes, but setting it aside for my current WIP.

I'm 1K into this one, and no, I'm not entering NaNoWriMo this year. It's just too much and I have my own personal reasons for not wanting to load my plate. On the other hand I want to get into the habit of writing daily, so I'm aiming for at least 500/day. Especially while writing my current project.

Even though I'm not entering NaNo officially, just like last year I plan to intend to blog with weekly updates on the writing front, and I also wish to attend more of my local write-ins. So that should be fun. :)

For all you NaNoers, best of luck. Keep your head up. Don't let the fear of not reaching 50K stop you from writing even one sentence more. As a side note, check out this funny and adorably illustrated article about creative-types and the phobia associated with them!

Remember, more than ever carve out your own mark this year.

And Happy All Hallow's Eve.

BOOK REVIEW (85): Lauren's Beach Crush (Crush #1)

BOOK REVIEW:

Lauren's Beach Crush

Beach season is out here in the Northern hemisphere, but like most readers my imagination is big enough to compensate for the chilly temperature. Ultimately I picked up this book because I wanted to read a MG romance. I've been sorely ignoring this genre and age group, just because my TBR pile is never-ending. Also because I love young love. <3

This title, Lauren's Beach Crush is the first book in the Crush series by author (and editor, pretty cool) Angela Darling. And the title makes it pretty straight forward: the story follows the 12-y/o protagonist Lauren who is off to the beach during her summer vacay, and she's got plans to change her 'beach crush' to 'boyfriend'.

Lauren is a planner -- huge, huge planner and I found it adorable when her perfectly-laid plans would blow up in her face. But she could be a bit too much: thankfully we have her friend, Chrissy, balancing her neurotic, over-planner self out. Laid back Chrissy offered those nuggets of wisdom that flew over Lauren's head, particularly where Charlie, her crush, was concerned.

The book has great pacing. It builds up this momentum, and even though I could see some plot points clearly, some made me doubt what the ending would be and that kept me turning the pages of this ~170-page first installment.

Lauren's character is flawed, and it's beautiful. There were some exaggerated moments, but she's 12 -- I was 12 and I thought the universe was hinged on current fashion, school crushes and all that stuff that doesn't mean anything to me now.

Pfft. Kids.
And because I don't have anything else to say, other than GO PICK UP THIS BOOK, I'm going to sign off with this review.

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮✮

(5 stars)

BOOK REVIEW (84): Sweet Gone South (Love Gone South #1)

BOOK REVIEW:

Sweet Gone South

After reading some sexier titles, I decided to move back to some sweeter reads this month. The first novella in this 5-book novella features the intrepid chocolatier Lanie Heaven and smooth-talking, sometimes over-demanded circuit Judge Luke Avery.

Written by two authors under the pen name, Alicia Hunter Pace, the series is set in a small, fictive town, Merritt, AL where the lives of the heroes/heroines of each story intertwine through friendships and kinships.

In this first title, hero Luke finds himself under heroine Lanie's magical spell the way his three-year-old daughter, Emma, is around the older, motherly woman. He doesn't know how Lanie -- a complete stranger at the start of the book -- manages his daughter when it's so difficult handling the fussy toddler on his lonesome.

Any book involving a single mother or father wrenches my heart; I love to see how the other half of the couple interact with their love interest's child/children. Also it acts as great external and internal conflict!

But Luke comes with his own problem package: for one he's a widow with a chip on his shoulder. He can't imagine dating, let alone re-marrying. His wife's memory hangs over his romantic judgments and that's a big no-no for Lanie.

The way Lanie sees it is that she deals with enough already. She has a lot of self-esteem problems, some justified, some not so. There's a lot of walls Luke has to knock down before finding the real Lanie.

I can't say much more!

Other than I loved Lanie and Luke's story. Although I would say it leans more towards sweet romance, the sexual tension is hot, hot! And there is a sex scene! It's pretty romantic for you luva-luvas out there. ;) Oh, and make sure you got your chocolate fix handy! Lots of good treats mentioned in this book... -drool-

BTW, props to the author(s) for the beginning of this book. A terrifically hilarious opening! Just one more reason to pick up Sweet Gone South. Make sure to pick up the box set of all 5 novellas -- much cheaper than getting those books separately.

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮✮

(5 stars)

BOOK REVIEW (83): Lovesick Japan

BOOK REVIEW:

Lovesick Japan

When I picked up this book I was frightened by what lie between the fun book covering.
I liked the idea of exploring actual court cases in Japan with the theme of love and marital discord, but would the details of the cases be too graphic?

Luckily my fear was unfounded.
Mark D. West's Lovesick in Japan doesn't focus on disgusting details. I mean, some of the cases are mentally and emotionally disturbing, but no mention of sacred male parts being cut off and fed to the dogs. And definitely no pictures from the crime scenes.

This nonfiction title focusing on the cultural distinctions of the theme of love, sex and marriage in Japan, as opposed to the author's native U.S. soil. And particularly how these subjects colour the judgments of Japanese judges.

There are a chock-load of cases divided into the three broad subjects, but a lot of it also is intertwined. For instance, sex can be part of love/extramarital affairs but marriages and divorce cases as well.

It wasn't a terrible read. A little dry sometimes with law jargon, but the author offers a lot of breaks with plenty case material and that kept me awake. Considering I had very little expectations going in, other then I expected to learn more about the Japanese law system and philosophies about concupiscence, marriage and divorce, as well as child-rearing and family structures.

I got a sense of that. Maybe not an entire picture, but enough of a taste to want to further develop this with complementary texts on similar subjects.

One thing I would have liked is an updated version of this title, even though it was published recently enough in 2011. The problem was Mark West stretched to find cases. He used a lot of older cases; sometimes 20-30 years ago, sometimes even longer (the oldest being sometime during WWII after West and East clashed in a big way).

If you're a neophyte on the topic of Japanese courts and the theme of a "Japanese-styled love, sex, and marriage", then pick up Lovesick Japan.

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮.5

(4.5 stars)

BOOK REVIEW (82): Grey

BOOK REVIEW:

Grey

I should make this review longer, but E.L. James' Grey is like every other book and I won't give it special attention.

I feel should start with a disclaimer though...I haven't read any of the books in the first trilogy (from heroine Anastasia/Ana Steele's perspective). Not sure if that's a good or bad thing. I do know that I won't have my review filtered through the first book -- since this is more or less a re-write of the events of Book 1 from Christian Grey's POV.

I picked this up because it was written from Christian/the male's perspective. And because there's only one book (as opposed to the original trilogy). Also I've got sorta a background in erotic romance, so I'm not going into this entirely unaware.

Now on to the review.
Well, it took me 12 days to read it. That should say something in and of itself. I paced myself, just because Christian could be a bit too much sometimes. The thing is the book read like a journal. We get detailed descriptions of how he goes about his days (and nights) for about three weeks (from May 19 to June 9).

Let me make this simple for all of us:

What I couldn't stand:

He's pushy. Christian Grey doesn't know the meaning of privacy, and his autonomy is all encompassing. Like other people, namely Ana, don't have a say for how their lives should be, or even simply how one should be able to spend their evening (*cough*outwithfriendsgettingdrunk*cough*)

For a business man, he's really in-eloquent. If he was he wouldn't be sending all these mixed signals to Ana. One second he's all "I'm not a hearts-and-flowers kinda guy, Ana" and the next he's getting his driver/all-around-ninja, Taylor, to make a slow round through Ana's new neighborhood.

He's rude. There's no filter. Really. It hurt to read how quickly he would cuss out those he didn't like: I'm thinking of poor Olivia*, the gynecologist that checked out Ana, and Jose. And as the reader I was stuck in his head. -sigh-

What I liked:

Ana sets Christian straight several times. She's actually a really strong character in Grey. She knows what she wants, and she wants to explore what Christian is offering at her own pace. Haha, girl kept it together when Mr. Powerful Billionaire could not.

Christian is a layered character.

(Okay. Maybe not that layered.)

Even if the prose was annoying, the conflict was strong, and though the book's length could have been pared Christian's motivations/conflicts were solid.

I know lick of the business proceedings mentioned in the book, but Christian Grey wasn't (entirely) useless. I mean he did stuff, even if honestly his business proceedings were mostly like journal filler -- if E.L. James had connected it back to Ana somehow, or even his past (she sorta hinted at Detriot being ground-zero for Christian's troubled past) I could be happier about it. But it's something, at least. I mean wouldn't it have been stupid had be been this big hotshot CEO and he did nothing to prove it on page.

*Spoiler: Olivia gets fired. Sorry. I couldn't help myself. I really felt bad for the girl...especially as I think she was originally represented as Jessica Stanley from Twilight.

My verdict:

✮✮✮.5

(3.5 stars)

BOOK REVIEW (81): A Gay Couple's Journey Through Surrogacy

BOOK REVIEW:

A Gay Couple's Journey Through Surrogacy

I've been sitting on this review for a loooong time.

I finished this book around the beginning of September, and my webcam died so I couldn't post, and then I forgot about it. My blog reviews have been lagging behind my reading.

Since I'm too lazy (and too broke) to replace that webcam, I decided to bring this to you the regular way via an "old-fashioned" blog.

A Gay Couple's Journey through Surrogacy is pretty straightforward nonfiction autobiographical account from author Michael Menichiello's journey to fatherhood with his husband.

Written in telling, honest dialogue that doesn't make the author always shine, I loved this autobiography! I enjoyed the up-down process: fatherhood, especially via surrogacy, is a long-drawn, nerve-wracking process. Menichiello documents the rollercoaster ride from the inception of the notion of surrogacy, to finding a surrogate, and getting from Month 1 to Baby Birthday.

Heads up (if you couldn't already tell that is): this review is going to be short.

I picked up this title for research, and specifically to get an idea of the process of surrogacy for gay parents. It touches a bit on the pros and cons of different routes in the surrogacy journey (e.g. to go with an agency or to go solo), as well as Menichiello details the surrogacy laws -- during 2002-2006 -- in the state of New York, Arizona, California (and a few other states). All very interesting!

So what I didn't like...

Well I wish that the font had been clearer. It was too in-your-face. It hurt my eyes at times.

I would have also enjoyed if the surrogate mother -- who gave her consent to be mentioned in this text -- would have gotten some page time, giving her perspective of the process. Also Menichiello's husband, David could have also had some space where he shared his thoughts rather than the author being a filler for his spouse. In this case there were three sides to the story. BUT I suppose I can hunt down other titles from the surrogate mother's position.

TBH it's hard to rate this title because it details a personal account. If you're at all interested in reading about gay parenting and surrogacy then I'd suggest you pick up A Gay Couple's Journey through Surrogacy. Although it's only one couple's journey (dated back in 2002-3), it certainly was the first time I delved into this life perspective.

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮

(4 stars)

BOOK REVIEW (80): Engaged with the Boss

BOOK REVIEW:

Engaged with the Boss

So this is a first: I'm pretty habitual with the types of books of I read, even within a genre. That's why author Elle James' romantic mystery/suspense, Engaged with the Boss, is my first Harlequin Intrigue.

The story follows Devin Kendall and his executive assistant, Jolie Carson while they team-up in an engagement of convenience to clear the Kendall family name of long-ago murders. I was hooked by the relationship of convenience trope. And I do like me a good mystery... Oh and it helped that it was also a workplace romance -- another of my fav tropes!

So Jolie and Devin are tossed together by external circumstance, but Jolie's always liked Devin. She's harbored a crush on him since he hired her. Devin, on the other hand, is slow to catch up but he demonstrates how valuable Jolie is to his company and career, but to him as a human being.

What I liked about Jolie is that she went for it. She wasn't a wet blanket about the whole thing: the talk of the fake engagement popped up and though it hurt her heart, she decided to go with it. As an "pre-published" author I could see her internal motivation and conflicts clearly.

Same goes for Devin. He wasn't as interesting as Jolie; you sorta get what you see with him -- but Devin is an important catalyst for all the sexual tension and fun times! Jolie is shy and she doesn't instigate their steamy encounters. Really, I think it was a team effort. Devin begins the fun, and Jolie picks up the ball and helps it roll it along when her vamp-ish side comes out to play. ;)

The mystery is straight-forward -- at least on my part, since I guessed who the troublemaker was -- but there's enough tension between the external conflict and the internal chemistry with Jolie and Devin. My only beef with this story was how stupid the villain was...honestly it felt cliched near the end when they caught the antagonist.

Let's just say s/he put their foot in their own mouth and I was like, OMFGWHYY!?!?!
Heads up with that.

Short review, but pick up Elle James' Engaged with the Boss if you're looking for a good 50/50 on romance and mystery/suspense.

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮.5

(4.5 stars)

BAKING REVIEW (10): Hallowe'en-themed Sugar Cookies

BAKING REVIEW:

Hallowe'en-themed Sugar Cookies

Not quite All Hallow's Day, but I'm in a festive mood and I baked early for the season.

And she recommends you plan the shape and coloring/design style of your cookies on a sheet, which -- now that I haven't taken that advice -- would recommend too. This time around I had a helper. My sister volunteered and it helped make this soooo much easier.

This is where I got the original recipe for the sugar cookies (again click the image itself to reach the Allrecipes site for the full ingredient list):

So this easier batch of sugar cookies came out looking like this for me:

And out of the pan and...onto a plate:

Not as pretty as the original batch, but these taste AMAH-ZING!
And they were SO much fun to design with my sister. Especially since it was the first time for both of us to make sugar cookies, I was super stoked about making a memory with her.
Isn't that what baking is about?

In the end the cookies were great. Only I wish they were a bit less dry, or more moist. I know they're sugar cookies and they aren't exactly supposed to be moist. But maybe I'm used to the warm, melted chocolate chips. Anyways, I plan to dig into these sweet (sorta scary) treats in front of my marathon catch-up to 'Scream Queens'.

BTW, does anyone else get the munchies for sugary treats when watching horror flicks/tv? Or is it just me?

My verdict:

❤❤❤❤

(4 hearts)

BOOK REVIEW (79): Psychic Lies (Wiccan Haus #5)

BOOK REVIEW:

Psychic Lies

Gosh!

Five books already and with each in this series I seem to be digging myself a deeper fan-girl hole.

Book 5: Psychic Lies by author Sara Daniel -- who also wrote Book 2, A Man Worth Fighting For -- features a 'para' couple. Psychics Fiona Vetter and Armando Verdad spend close quarters together as 

I'm totally exaggerating, but Armando is sorta hunting Fiona as a potential suspect for a homicide case. And it just so happens he's extremely invested in this case more so than usual because his job is on the line.

Fiona, on the other hand, knows of her innocence. But in order to set herself free she'll need to part with another bigger secret; a secret she's been keeping to herself for years. And Armando's pretty insistent, so it's looking like that secret is only counting the minutes...

What I loved about Fiona was her attitude -- she knew when to tell Armando (and Cyrus and Rekkus) off when they angered her. She also knew when she wanted Armando, and she went after it. She's pretty strong, but she also showed weakness. A very relatable, "human" weakness": don't we all feel unsure of ourselves in varying degrees sometimes?
Bonus points for the really cool psychic power! You'll have to pick up Psychic Lies to see what I'm talking about though.

And Armando was adorable!

If you read -- and you should read -- Wiccan Haus #1-4, you'll see just how different Armando is. He brings a lot of life to this latest installment of the series. Unlike Justin in Book 2, Hugo in Book 3, and Kaleb in Book 4, Armando is stuck on his honor code and he's super sweet. He doesn't hold too much of a chip on his shoulder, not even at the threat of losing career, which really is more a livelihood as his job details are entwined with his psychic ability. He lives and breathes his line of work, so his biggest romantic fault is learning how to separate his personal life from his professional one.

That's where Fiona comes in to help him out.

Bam-chicka-wow-wow. If you catch my drift. *wink, wink*

The one thing I would have liked to see was some external conflict.

Psychic Lies does wrap up its conflict with a neat bow, but I just wanted more action (à la Book 4) outside the romantic problem.

*Armando's last name, 'Verdad' means 'truth' in Spanish. Haha, the few times I get to thank my high school Spanish courses. :)

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮.5

(4.5 stars)