COVER REVEAL: Keeping You
How sweet is this cover?!?!
COVER REVEAL: The Pieces that Built Him
BOOK REVIEW: Scozzari by Jaimie Roberts
Every once in awhile there is a book that leaves me fairly confused. Sometimes the plot is good, but the characters are unlikable; sometimes the characters are great but the plot is horrible.
One of my biggest pet peeves is authors who do not fact check or do their research when writing their stories. Don’t get me wrong, I truly admire anyone who can write a novel. However, with Google literally at the fingertips of most people, there is no excuse for having factually inaccurate plot points or settings in a book. Really, it should be an amazing thing; theoretically, a person who has never left the US could write an accurate novel set in Paris. It won’t have the same reality of someone who knows the city personally, but it is possible.
That’s what makes something like Scozzari so frustrating. At the heart of the novel, there is a good story: tattooed bad-boy and love of his life meet again after being separated for a few years. Will they or won’t they? It’s a good plot line, with a subplot involving an obviously unstable admirer and a female lead who has serious baggage to worry about. It should be a great novel.
But it takes place in Virginia, in the suburbs of DC. And the descriptions of the area are completely inaccurate. (I should know; I live near there and am in the area 5 days a week). The descriptions of college are not anything like any college in the US; they’re closer to a small high school, with the attention on the comings and goings of people and bells ringing for classes. So help me, I’m a stickler for accuracy.
There are also a lot of phrases that are clearly British references. The author tries to brush this away by saying that a character has a parent that is British, but that’s kind of ridiculous. A 19-year-old like Jez would not pick up British terms. It’s inconsistent.
That’s another point in this story: the characters often seem like they have experiences that make them much older than late teens. It’s not that teenagers can’t experience bad stuff and become adults before they should. But very often in this book, I just felt like there were inconsistencies in the characters.
End result, I liked the bones of the plot, and there was enough to keep me reading, but faulty facts and locations/institutions annoy me and take me out of the story. And don’t get me started on the thinly-veiled Hannibal Lechter reference to pigs.
Still, decent enough to give it a recommend. See my Goodreads review immediately following.
Scozzari by Jaimie Roberts
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I have
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NEW RELEASE: Cassia by Annelise Reynolds & Dawn Sullivan
I shared the cover reveal for this book a few weeks ago, and I still love how the red pops! Now the book is finally available…yay!
NEW RELEASE: Van by Melanie Moreland
This is one of my favorite series, ever, and you do not want to miss my review for it. This time, it’s personal.
BOOK REVIEW: Van by Melanie Moreland
I’m going to start this one with a disclaimer: I’m going to discuss an event that may give away part of the plot towards the end of this review. I usually don’t like giving things away but I feel strongly about addressing it. So, look for the disclaimer.
I’ve only been writing this blog for a few months, and I’m continually trying to keep up on all of the ARCs I read. In between those, I try and catch up and write reviews of books I have read in the past, especially if they are a part of a series. This is one of those books that fit into both categories.
Van by Melanie Moreland is the fifth in her Vested Interest series. You can read my review of Bentley (the first one – I’ll get to reviewing the others someday). This one follows the same pattern as the others: a partner/member of BAM finds the woman of his dreams. It sounds simplistic, but it isn’t. I always look forward to these books. Ms. Moreland has a particular talent for creating real characters who you want to get to know.
Van is the carpenter/foreman/master of all things construction for BAM; Olivia is the designer. They each have baggage that keeps them apart, but you know it is inevitable. As I have mentioned before, you know it’s going to happen, it’s the WAY it happens that is the fun part.
I love that the characters are always real (although, I can’t say I know anyone exactly like the boys of BAM, but I sure would like to). And I particularly like the female characters in Ms. Moreland’s books, because they are strong, yet vulnerable, and they aren’t afraid to let their men help them when necessary.
The conflict in this story is especially good, as the character who causes it is even more despicable than usual. The description of the person and their actions (trying not to give anything away) made me wish I could punch the person myself, and it’s rare that I have that much of a reaction to a character.
I highly recommend this book, as well as the rest of the series. This is one of my favorite series, and it’s an excellent addition.
Now I am going to discuss that other part I mentioned at the beginning. So if you don’t want to know a plot point, stop reading NOW!
What really made me love this book is how the author addresses adoption, especially waiting/older child adoption. It is one of the only times that I have been 100% completely able to relate to something in a romance book.
We adopted our son when he had just turned four. Everyone we spoke to going through the same agency wanted babies, but for various reasons, we did not. We went through the lengthy and emotional process, gained our approval, and started receiving the “waiting child” bulletins from the agency.
We had only been looking for about a month when the picture of a little chubby-cheeked boy showed up. Both my husband and I looked at the picture and seemed to instantly know that he should be our son. We went through the next process of requesting and being matched, which was all more complicated since it was international.
The day we were matched is etched in our minds, just like Van describes. We could not wait to travel to Ethiopia to meet him and bring him home. The challenges mentioned in the book sounded so familiar. The emotions described by Van were our emotions. The instant knowledge as to which child to help…it’s all real.
It’s been 10 years this June, but reading Van’s account brought it all back like it was yesterday. I cannot stress enough how much I appreciate the thought and time that the author put into writing these sections. The children who are waiting are the ones who need the most love, and I loved that she wrote Van and Olivia as people who understood that.
Anyway, that’s my personal relation to the book, and the reason that I love it most out of the five in the series.
NEW RELEASE: Delivered by Eva Charles
NEW RELEASE: Turning the Tide by Phoebe Alexander
It’s been, what, a couple of days since a new release? You are going to want to see this one, especially after you read my review.
Look at that silver fox….you are gonna love him!
BOOK REVIEW: Turning the Tide by Phoebe Alexander
If you have read any of my reviews, you know that I am not a fan of coming into the middle of a series, so I love it when I find an author who can write a story that reads well as a stand-alone, but has enough detail that I want to find the previous books. This is one of those cases.
“Turning the Tide” is actually the fifth book in the Eastern Shore Swingers series. It focuses on Luke, an ENT doctor with an absolute shrew of a wife, and Connie, a recent transplant from California. Connie is the sister of Casey (who I gather might be the focus of an earlier story). They meet at “The Factory,” a club for alternative lifestyles.
But this book is much more than another BDSM/swinger novel. Sure there are scenes (and they’re pretty hot) and the romance grows as the two find their way to acknowledge their true natures. But there is also a great subplot involving Luke’s wife that builds throughout the story, culminating in some pretty awesome scenes.
Ultimately the story belongs to Luke and Connie, and it is absolutely fantastic that they are older (40s and 50s). It’s about time that somebody acknowledged and wrote about something other than doe eyed 20 year olds being shocked at a new lifestyle. I loved that these were two mature people who had been around the block and were ready to embrace their new lifestyle. More of this please!
I will definitely be going back and reading the first four in this series, and I look forward to any future books from this author as well. My Goodreads review is below.
Turning the Tide by Phoebe AlexanderMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really, really enjoyed this book. The romance between two older people who have seen a lot of life was a very refreshing break from the usual 20-something year-olds who pledge undying love in romances. Both Luke and Connie knew what they wanted and didn’t stand for games. The suspense part of the plot was well thought out and gave depth to Luke’s decisions. The man was certainly justified in his actions – it’s been a while since I found a character as loathsome as his wife. I especially liked how the author didn’t rely on the draw of the lifestyle to determine the arc of the story. The scenes of the lifestyle were interwoven seamlessly with the suspense plot, and I appreciated that the author presented the characters as normal, every-day people instead of focusing on the darker side like many other novels. This was the fifth in a series, but the first one that I have read. I liked the style of writing and the characters enough to go find the first four in the series. I definitely recommend this book. This review was written based on a complimentary pre-release copy.
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