Hikarujen

Emma is a princess of some small European kingdom, and she has been summoned from what sounded like boarding school to marry the King of.... something. I dont remember. Well, in a fit, she runs away to London, where she tries to get access to one of her previous mentors. I think that is who she was trying to get to. Anyhow, on her way she is robbed, and Nick saves her and takes her to the address, only to find her “friend” is out of town.

So, Nick offers her a place to stay for a week, and seeing as how she was robbed, she really has no where else to go. So, 1 week later, they fall in love, she gives up her royal V-card to this guy in the library, those poor books, and then she writes him the most pathetic “thanks for helping me I had to go and I'll never forget you” letter.

Well, needless to say, they run into each other at some ball, thus the rest of the book is Nick convincing Emma that they should get married, even though she is betrothed to a King. Emma's friends try to help, and eventually her sister. The sister helping was SO easy, is it too much to ask for a NOT happily ever after ending? Maybe a mediocre ever after? Insert Mad Max characters yelling “mediocre!” and spraying silver paint in their mouths.

Yeah, so pretty boring book.

2.5 Stars
SO, maybe this wasnt as good as I was expecting because of the impending stormpocalypse known as hurricane Matthew looming over my head. Ah, anyways, this book. it was okay. The main character, Elli, believes she is going to be the most powerful whatever since the stars foretold it..... blah blah. Turns out she wasn't, which was the best part. Then, turns out she IS super special. ::eyeroll:: And of course her beau is another super special snowflake. Who doesn't want to be. MEEEEEEH, probably will skip the rest of this series for now.

4.5-5 Stars!

Wow that was delightful. The first chapter or two was a little rough to get through, gosh the grandfather is an evil bastard. But when Prudence gets herself in a funny little situation, Gideon is all to happy to let her talk herself into circles. The scene with him, Edward, Prudence(obviously), and Great Uncle Oswald at the beginning is hilarious! I read it at least 3 times because it made me giggle like a dork.

Another reason I thoroughly enjoyed this book is that there is no giving away of the nookie right away. YAY! Sometimes it annoys me in romances, when only after knowing each other for a week, the couple sleeps with each other. Not always, but I really enjoy a slow build up to that moment when they finally get it on. I am not crazy, right? I also LOVED the little sisters. Between them, and everything with Phillip, what a LOSER he turned out to be, this romance hit all the right notes for me. I just would have enjoyed if the grandfather hadnt been so harsh, but then, I am no author.

2.5 Stars

Well, actually the story progressed quite nicely surrounding the MC in this book, and I enjoyed the back and forth between Uptown and Holly, I had planned on rating this book 3.5 stars, and rounding up, however, there was something that really pissed me off. In the scene where they have sex, good ol virginal Holly says the MOST ridiculous thing for someone to say in a contemporary setting. Something along the lines of “you dont have to wear the condom with me, I want to feel you.” And well, MAYBE, after dating for a while and sleeping together together for a while, in the heat of the moment, its something you forget, but not your first time. You barely know the guy, but you KNOW he has sex regularly, you want to find out about STD's the hard way? Or get pregnant? Whatever, this really hits a nerve with me though. How stupid can you be. At least he left it on.

I am enjoying the DKMC drama, turns out Digger is up to something. I am curious to find out what since the club found out he was working with Sugar, supposedly a nemesis of theirs. and what will happen when Whale stops showing up to stuff?

Average read.... don't know if I will continue the series. Was curious why it had so many high ratings on amazon.

3.5 Stars.

I liked this book, but I wasnt blown away. Christian catches Lilah stealing some papers from her employer, and he steals them from her, and bribes Lilah to help him. He needs her help to woo the too cool for everyone, Catherine Everleigh. All the while he is flirting with Lilah! The butt hole!

There were some interesting bits, Lilah, or Lily, can take care of herself. She has an interesting background that I really enjoy. I think Catherine had a thing for the Uncle, which is weird, because she met him oh, once. In passing almost.

And there is a bad guy killing all of Christian's loved ones! It is what he uses as an excuse to be an asshole to his mother and sister. Not a good enough excuse in my book. Hes just a big ol jerk, and I dont know why everyone loves him.

I also thought the friendship between Lilah and Catherine was odd, mostly because of Catherine's personality. She didnt seem to care about having a friend or being nice to anyone until it made no sense in the book for her character. But maybe thats how friendships work and are made, in strange and unexpected ways.

Umm. So the Shazi and Tariq seemed to have regressed to 5 year olds in this installment. I was pretty disappointed with the unnecessary name calling. It wasnt clever or cute. It was annoying that everyone had 2 or 3 names, and they would be used in the same page. Pick one and use it. I skimmed quite a lot of the middle of this book. The ending was all tied up in a neat little bow. A little too neat. But at least it was an ending I guess.

This was more fun than I was expecting. It was also suuuuper cheesy. I get why people were throwing around a Buffy feel with it, but since I was never a huge Buffy fan, I am happy to say that I only got a slight Buffy feel, and I to me that is a good thing. Probably because it had college and vampire killing in common, and a vampire boyfriend, but thats where the similarities in book 1 stop. I am pretty sure.

Anywho! This book begins with Cat, being an amateur vampire hunter, and she meets Bones trying to kill him. However, since he is more skilled, and a lot older than most of the vamps she has been killing, she fails. They strike up a bargain to work together to take down vamps, Cat gets some much needed training, and an apparent much needed makeover. This is where the cheese factor comes in, Cat and Bones fall in love. Yay! Bones is just a cheesy dude.

Then things go to hell, and well, Cat has to choose between being with her Mom, or Bones, and she chooses to “save” everyone. Personally I think it was just an easy way out, because she is punishing herself for something that is not her fault. Her Mom is doing the same thing. Annoying.

OK, so I enjoyed the first book, and this one.... not as much. There comes a point when “spanking” becomes abusive, and I just do not enjoy that. I like that Taylor seems to be evolving a little bit, but shes still got no will when it comes to Sebastian. I find myself more and more liking Josh and Monique. I don't know if I will read any more of this series, but hopefully it has a lot more of those two!

3.5 stars
This was a pretty enjoyable and quick read. I do not typically enjoy the whole twins thing, because I would assume that there are certain mannerisms that each twin possess that other people would pick up on. This is about Thorn, the Earl of Netherwood, and Miss Lydall, Olivia. Thorn's twin, Gideon, and Olivia have always been close friends, and Thorn has always been a little jealous of that, and since he is the heir, he has had to act with more modesty.

I was surprised how much I did like their story, there was some awkwardness and a lot of me wondering why doesnt he just tell her who he really is? She eventually figures it out, thankfully. It turns out he has held the torch for her for a while, and the way he reveals that was pretty cute.

I knocked off a few stars because I didnt feel like the scene where they had sex was fluid. I thought it was rushed and it felt like he was not treating her like he loved her. I also didnt like the scene in the Acropolis, with the friends the first time around, when they were reminiscing about old times, it felt dirty. Blegh.

I can't explain why I kept reading this book, I couldn't stand Eleanor, and I don't even know where the relationship between her and Park started. But once it did, omg my heart strings. The kindness that the bullys show her at the end was unexpected. I will also say it's annoying that Park's mom is speaking stereotypical broken English.

UM. Alright, well that was weird. Lots of spoilers ahead.

First off, the why Renzo needs to call Ashley, the ex, to confirm Esther's story is beyond me, they have these little things called DNA tests. They can even be done while pregnant! However, the claim that Ashley took Esther to a neighboring province to get the procedure done with a condom full of Renzo's swimmers is abso-fricken-ridiculous. First of all, condoms are usually coated in spermicide, so they die within hours. Pretending that there was no spermicide, unless crazy pants Ashley kept the condom in a dark and anaerobic condition, they swimmers would have died within a few days. And since we don't really have a timeline for when Ashley took said condom to said doctor, I guess its kind of possible, but improbable. But what freaking doctor would take a sperm sample and simply impregnate a surrogate? There is a lot of paperwork that goes into that kind of stuff.

Besides that, when Esther and Renzo do hook up, OMG DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DON'T USE? A FREAKING CONDOM. He just says, “I am clean and healthy, I was tested after Ashley”, and Esther says, “Yes please, give me the uncovered sausage I have no experience in this but I am sure it is a great idea, I am already pregnant, so the worst that can happen is some unexpected STI, and you are rich and don't lie because I have known you for 3 weeks.” I think you can all guess how I feel about contemporary romances not using condoms.

/endrant

OMG. I cant even help myself. These are such guilt pleasures at this point. I have tried to tell myself I dont like them, and maybe I didnt at some point. But you know what, I do now. Or at least, this one was great. Angst, sex, a little story, and best of all, it took me out of reality for a few hours. Working 12 hour days really gets to a person after a while.

So, Lara is a school teacher, and she is worried about Chaser's daughter, Kaylee. She is showing up to class drunk, acting up, and Lara wants to have a discussion with Chaser about it. Well... He has something to say about that, with other parts of his body. ::fans myself:: I dont know what it is about desk scenes, but they are a weakness. And damn you Megan Crane, I really did not even want to like this book. Chaser is a jerk, Lara is not my ideal heroine, but sometimes we just need that blissful break from reality. This was it for me. I would definitely suggest this book, even if you havent read the other books in this series. The overall story will be good, even if the biker drama will go over your head.

Wow. This was phenomenal. After reading a few 1 star reviews I was a little worried about the writing style, but honestly, it was awesome. I didnt find it hard to read at all, yes the beginning is a little slow. But I find that is the case with most fantasies.

Mia, the protagonist, is looking for revenge for her fallen family. In the first 2 chapters she murders someone, loses her virginity, and then there is more murder. Yes please! Mia also ends up stabbing someone in the eye when shes 11, so, fun times right? Oh yeah, she has a shadow-cat-not cat-thing, that has a lot of attitude. I like it.

To be honest, I was kind of thinking a lot of this sounded like when Arya was going off to join the many faced god in GoT, but ya know, with actual training in assassin-y type stuff. I also got a HP vibe in the mountain. Edit I think this was jedi mind tricked into my brain when I read JK's review of the book a little bit. Maybe. I dont know.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and if you are feeling skeptical, the worst you can do is borrow it from a library. If you dont like it, dont finish it, but I am glad that the poor reviews that I read didnt scare me off.

So first off, I am a huge fan of the CW show, and comparing the two, the show is definitely better. They are, however, not the same. They have the same generic outline, the same main characters, mostly, and the same plot, so far. There are some spoilers ahead.

But what is missing? Clarke is not the bad ass she is in the tv show. Bellamy is some kind of pushover. Octavia is a child in the book, where as in the show she is 17 I think. Some of the pivotal relationships are different too, which is what I think makes the show so great, they aren't all focused on romances. I was surprised at the amount of pseudo romance in this book. Its a post apocalyptic setting, people are living in space! They are sending down criminal children to the ground 100 years too early to see if the radiation from the nuclear war that killed the rest of civilization is there. This is a GREAT premise! And I felt like it was kind of ruined with the stupid kid romance. Clarke and Bellamy kissing right away. Octavia trying to romance Wells, who is Clarke's ex. Wells is trying to get Clarke back. WTF.

It is hard to separate the show and the book, when I saw the show first and I was so impressed with how well done it was. Normally, I can appreciate that a show, whether a movie or tv show, can be just as good as a book. They have different ways of being entertaining. Here for instance, I have distinct faces when I read Clarke, Bellamy, Octavia, and so on. I like that. I am not sure what the books will bring to me, or if I will continue reading them, but so far I am extremely happy that I began watching the show first. I would not have given the show a chance if I had read the book first.

3.5 stars

So this was a re-read for me. I didn't find the romance all that convincing at the beginning. I did like the way Isadora transformed from a girl who was unsure of herself into a confident woman. I hated the way her family treated her. I don't know what I would have done in her place. The ending was super cute and cheesy.

Still trying to gather my thoughts..... This book was way, way too long.

Plot made no sense. to me. Mostly I just skimmed this. forgettable.

What can I say, I love Beatrice and Gio. I like that he had to work for her affections again.

DNF @50% Some spoilers ahead.

Apparently this is not the first book of this series, its really the 9th. I was reading, wondering WTF was happening for most of the first half. I didnt connect with either Megan or Hamish, and I felt like Megan's character was flimsy. She would say something like, “I am not a fast woman” one moment, but then she was nuzzling up to Hamish, a man whom she has known for all of 10 minutes.

There is also Sir Fletcher, apparently Megan wrote him some love letters and now Fletch has it in his mind that Megan is going to marry him because he cant find anyone else. He is blackmailing her with her letters, and Megan asks Hamish to retrieve them. He does. When he does, and returns them to Megan, her uncle, the Duke of Moreland, finds them kissing. So, Megan asks Hamish to court her. Then in the next freaking chapter, or what it felt like to me, she says, we are basically betrothed, DO MEEEEEEEE. I dont know. I.... I had to put it down after that scene.

CHARLEY! I love her. I hate her. I go back and forth. I hate that she named her body parts, I like that she is not letting people walk all over her, like Reyes and her father, and she has a few issues to deal with. She is having some PTSD with the whole Earl encounter, who can blame her?

Not much to say here besides another great book in this series, looking forward to the next book.

Wow... I despise Lane so much. He is such a spineless character. He doesnt like to give Gin advice on her relationship with Samuel? Why? Whatever. Gin is actually the character I like most. She has a lot of fire, even if she is acting like a 16 year old the whole time so far. I liked Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series, until about book 9, and I believe she is still going with that series. So, I have no doubts there will be a good number of book in this series for the Ward fans out there.

I have been having a real hard time finding a book to get into lately. Since I started working it has been a lot harder to find the time, and energy to sit down and devote brain cells to concentrate.

I must say that this book had a weird beginning, odd middle, and some emotional turmoil towards the end, and then, our full blown cheesy ending which I love in these kinds of books! One of my main issues though, per usual, is how quickly Livvie and Tobias knocked boots. Seriously? She is supposed to be strong willed, spirited, and intelligent. And he is supposed to be cold, and unfeeling. Surely BOTH of them could hold their “lust” in. I mean, I just dont get that situation. Like oh that excuses either of them. Whatever.

Anyways, Livvie's character develops throughout the book, and I did like her friendship with Francie, Tobias's sister, but it took me a while to really start enjoying the book. I still dont like the conflict with Livvie's brother.

There was a point in the book where Livvie said that Tobias was comparing her to a wart, which was probably the highlight of this one for me. Yes, relationships are like warts, lol.

Anyways, I guess overall it wasnt bad but it wasnt great. I definitely remember enjoying The first Wedded by Scandal book more than this one.

I really wanted to love this one, unfortunately it was just another romance among the throng novels I read.

Redgrave is back in London after a 4 year hiatus because his wife recently passed. Hiatus? Good story there. You get bits here and there along the way, he was supposed to marry Lady Abigail, and ends up ditching her 2 weeks before the wedding and marrying Lady Priscilla. So he is back, he needs a new wife because he needs an heir. Who else would he be drawn to but Lady Abigail's younger sister, Lady Mary. Perfect.

I am trying to pinpoint what didn't work for me here, but I can't. I can just tell you that I will forget this book in the near future.

Merged review:

I really wanted to love this one, unfortunately it was just another romance among the throng novels I read.

Redgrave is back in London after a 4 year hiatus because his wife recently passed. Hiatus? Good story there. You get bits here and there along the way, he was supposed to marry Lady Abigail, and ends up ditching her 2 weeks before the wedding and marrying Lady Priscilla. So he is back, he needs a new wife because he needs an heir. Who else would he be drawn to but Lady Abigail's younger sister, Lady Mary. Perfect.

I am trying to pinpoint what didn't work for me here, but I can't. I can just tell you that I will forget this book in the near future.

Wow.... I loved this series so much. I can't believe how emotional I am over the ending to this series. It is definitely going to be a reread one day.