Review - Beast

Title: Beast
Author: Judith Ivory
Publishing Date: 1997
Genre: Historical
Rating: B+
Sensuality: Hot

If you haven’t yet guessed, Beast is an adult version of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. Charles d’Harcourt plays the Beast. He is blind in one eye from an infection during his infancy. The doctor lanced the eye and it left permanent scaring. The ingenuity in this tale is that Charles is actually very vain. He uses his scars and muscular physique to woo the ladies. He is quite the accomplished ladies man and is very suave and debonair. He plays them like musical instruments, making them hum.

Louise Vandermeer, an American heiress plays the role of Beauty. She is exquisite; unlike anything Charles has ever seen before. Louise has grown up in a house of love. She has been cherished and above all spoiled. Surprisingly enough, she has a love/hate relationship with her beauty. She likes being beautiful, but she wonders if there is more to her than just her pretty face. Does she have worth outside of her looks? She is young, only eighteen and is trying to discover who she is.

There is a duality to Beast from both characters Charles and Louise, to the flow of the plot in the story. The first part of the book takes place on a ship as Louise is traveling from America to France to meet her Fiancé and marry him. On the ship Charles witnesses Louise flirting with a young lieutenant and concocts up a scheme to woo her without her knowing that he is really her intended. While on the boat Charles is smooth and mysterious, confident that he can seduce Louise. He is more than successful. Louise herself opens up to him like she has never done with another living soul before. At the end of the affair she still doesn’t know who he his and has fallen madly in love with him.

In the second half of the book after Charles and Louise have been formerly introduced the whole tone of the story changes completely. Now Charles has this secret hanging over his head and his sweet loving Louise has become cold and distant. Charles himself changes too. He becomes unsure of himself and vulnerable to Louise. Does she find his scarring repulsive? He looses his confidence and can’t seem to get on even footing with her. At this point since Charles won’t tell his secret, he will have to woo her all over again and that is exactly what he sets out to do.

Judith Ivory has taken a well loved classic and made it fresh and unique. There are so many hidden messages and metaphors that just show the time and effort Ms. Ivory put into crafting this story. While some readers may find the characters selfish and unlikeable, I found them to be very human and complex. The focus is completely on Charles and Louise and their relationship with relatively little outside influence from anything else. There is no mystery. All the conflict revolves around Charles and Louise and how they have affected each other. This was a brilliant story and one that I am sure if reread would reveal hidden meanings I missed the first time through.

Force of Nature

Title: Force of Nature
Author: Suzanne Brockmann
Publishing Date: 2007
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Rating: B+

Force of Nature is Suzanne Brockmann’s tenth book in her Troubleshooter series. Private detective Ric Alvarado, along with his new receptionist Annie Dugan, stumble into a dangerous situation when they take a new case for a client. What they thought was a cut and dry missing person case turns into something more sinister with mob and terrorist dealings. Ric and Annie team up with Jules Cassidy and the FBI on a high profile case to stop a dangerous al-Qaeda terrorist from entering the United States via Gordon Burns, the local mob boss.

Annie and Ric have known each other since they were eleven and fifteen respectively. Secretly, they have been in love with each other. Ric has quit the police force and opened up his own private detective agency. Annie has just recently had her best friend die of cancer. She was living in New England but moves back down to Florida to get away from the memories. She takes a job at Ric’s agency thinking she is his partner, when he thinks she is more like his receptionist. Annie doesn’t want to be a receptionist and sit behind a desk all day pushing papers. To say Ric and Annie don’t see eye to eye would be an understatement. They are constantly at each others throats. Really, their bickering is just a front to hide their true feelings for each other. While most of the time this was funny to read, sometimes it got a little tedious. One thing that I really like about them as a couple though, is that they always talk their problems out. There are no big misunderstandings between them.

The second story arc in this book is between Jules Cassidy and Robin Chadwick. Jules and Robin started their story arc in Hot Target. They have a history together, but haven’t seen each other in years. Their relationship is so bittersweet. They love each other so much but Robin has a slew of problems. He is an actor and doesn’t want to come out of the closet for fear it will ruin his career. He is terribly lonely and drowns his sorrow in alcohol. He won’t admit he has a problem and that he is an alcoholic. Jules knows Robin is bad news, but he can’t help who he loves. As bad as Robin sounds, I still can’t help but like him. He is a very charismatic guy, and very likable. He makes some terrible choices that ultimately end up hurting him and those he loves.

This book is action packed with plenty of suspense. The pacing is fast and doesn’t let up. Force of Nature is another solid book in the Troubleshooter series.

Bond of Blood

Title: Bond of Blood
Author: Roberta Gellis
Publishing Date: 1965
Genre: Medieval
Rating: B
Sensuality: Warm

This book is a very hard to book for me to grade. It is a very well written and researched book, but some things in it were very hard to swallow. Bond of Blood is one of the first books Roberta Gellis wrote, if not the first. It is a story of two families who come together by marriage. Politics plays a major reason for the marriage. The Earl of Pembroke ultimately wants to kill his son-in-law to gain control of his lands. So he hatches a scheme to wed his daughter Leah to Cain, Lord of Radnor.

Cain and Leah are instantly attracted to one another and are pleased with the arranged marriage. Cain has never had luck with the ladies. He was in love once before, but she was cruel to him and hurt him pretty badly. Cain is unlike other men from his time. He was taught by priests when he was a boy, so he can read and write unlike other men of war. Cain also has a deformed foot. He has made adjustments for it and has over compensated all his life to be a better warrior because of it. He also has emotional scars from people thinking his foot is the mark of the devil. Even his own Father has said this to him.

Cain is very intelligent and Wiley. He easily picks up on traitorous feelings from his father-in-law and takes precautions against him. I really liked Cain. Gellis made him very human, which means he makes a lot of mistakes. Even though, he does some things that are cringe worthy, I still really liked him. He learns from his mistakes and when he did something wrong and he knew it, he would apologize. I found him endearing.

Let’s talk about Leah. Okay, she is fifteen. I know. It goes against everything I like in a romance and yet I still liked this book. Cain is twice her age and yet somehow Gellis made it work. I think the reason for this is that Leah and Cain truly felt like characters from the twelfth century. I could believe that they were a product of the times they lived in and all their decisions and actions remained true to the era. Leah was just precious. She was very obedient and sweet, but when something really mattered to her she could become mulish and take a stand. She was always honest. Thank God, because there were enough lies floating around with all the political intrigue.

That is where the story stumbled for me a little bit. I had a very hard time keeping track of all the different Lords and Ladies and Kings and Queens and who was on who’s side and who was going to stab who in the back. Did I confuse you? That’s because I am still scratching my head over what exactly happened in the book as far as that goes. After thinking on this book for a few days, I must say that I did really enjoy it. It is a lot different from the romances of today, but different in a good way. This book is definitely not for the faint of heart. Leah and Cain have a difficult journey to their “Happily Ever After”, but wow, what a journey.

Tagged and bagged

Jace from the book blog, Jace Scribbles has tagged me for a meme. Unfortunately, I totally suck and have only read one book on the list. Since that was just too boring to post by itself, I have added books that I have read and watched.

Copy the list below.
Mark in bold the movie titles for which you read the book.
Italicize the titles that you’ve watched.

1. Jurassic Park
2. War of the Worlds
3. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
4. I, Robot
5. Contact
6. Congo
7. Cocoon
8. The Stepford Wives
9. The Time Machine
10. Starship Troopers
11. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
12. K-PAX
13. 2010
14. The Running Man
15. Sphere
16. The Mothman Prophecies
17. Dreamcatcher
18. Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?)
19. Dune
20. The Island of Dr. Moreau
21. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
22. The Iron Giant (The Iron Man)
23. Battlefield Earth
24. The Incredible Shrinking Woman
25. Fire in the Sky
26. Altered States
27. Timeline
28. The Postman
29. Freejack (Immortality, Inc.)
30. Solaris
31. Memoirs of an Invisible Man
32. The Thing (Who Goes There?)
33. The Thirteenth Floor
34. Lifeforce (Space Vampires)
35. Deadly Friend
36. The Puppet Masters
37. 1984
38. A Scanner Darkly
39. Creator
40. Monkey Shines
41. Solo (Weapon)
42. The Handmaid’s Tale
43. Communion
44. Carnosaur
45. From Beyond
46. Nightflyers
47. Watchers
48. Body Snatchers
*these are the ones I added*
49. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
50. Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring
51. Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers
52. Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King
53. The Devil Wears Prada
54. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone
55. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
56. Harry Potter the Prisoner of Azkaban
57. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
58. Pride and Prejudice
59. Bram Stoker's Dracula
60. The Da Vinci Code

That is all I can currently think of, but I am sure there are more. If anyone hasn't yet done this meme, feel free to join in and add your own titles as well!

Review - Lord of Midnight

Title: Lord of Midnight
Author: Jo Beverley
Publishing Date: 1998
Genre: Medieval
Rating: B-
Sensuality: Warm

Claire’s father, Clarence of Sommerbourne was a part of a rebellion against the current King. He dies in a fight at the beginning of the story. The winner of that fight, the king’s champion Renald de Lisle is given Clarence’s land and holdings along with the order to wed either his daughter Claire or one of his two sisters. Renald allows the women to choose who will become his bride. One thing leads to another and Claire is the one who stubbornly accepts her duty to her people.

At first Claire is confused about her feelings for Renald. On the one hand, she knows he is a battle hardened warrior unused to her gentle way of life. Her father was more of a scholar than warrior. Claire expects Renald to treat her badly, by groping her or being cruel to her. When he is actually very gentle and kind, she starts to feel an unwanted attraction for him. She is confused by these new feelings he stirs within her and she feels guilty about her new attraction. She wonders if she is being disloyal to her father.

Where I had trouble with this story is that there is a very big secret hanging over Renald and Claire’s relationship. I knew the truth was going to come out, I just didn’t know when and because of this, it made it hard for me to really focus on the development of Renald and Claire’s relationship. Also, most of the conflict is internal and this leads to a slow development of the story. I think I would have enjoyed the story more if things would have moved a little quicker.

I really enjoyed both Renald and Claire’s personality. Renald especially made for a very nice hero. His personality is unusual in a medieval knight. He was very patient with Claire and very kind. When he was angry he was controlled and never cruel. I think readers who enjoy a beta hero would really like Renald.

Review - Lawless

Title: Lawless
Author: Diana Palmer
Publishing Date: 2003
Genre: Contemporary
Rating: D
Sensuality: Warm

Christabel Gaines married Judd Dunn when she was only sixteen years old. It was a marriage in name only so that Judd could protect Christabel and her ranch. Now five years later Chrissy will almost be twenty-one years old and she has strong feelings for Judd and wishes her marriage was more than in name only. With Chrissy experiencing a threat to the ranch and possible danger to her life, Judd takes a more active role in Chrissy’s life. He starts to notice she is not a child any longer and starts to have more than platonic feelings for her. Judd likes the freedom he has and doesn’t want to be tied down.

I had a strong reaction to this book. It seemed like it hit all my hot buttons. First off, there is a huge age difference between Judd and Chrissy, fourteen years to be exact. I have a hard time believing in the validity of the May-December romance. The relationship is too uneven. The older person has more experience and knowledge and it leaves them with too much power over the younger person. I find I am uncomfortable with that. Add that to the fact that Judd is pretty much a big jerk and it becomes even more uncomfortable.

Another thing I can’t stand is when one of the characters decides that they are going to be less than honest with the other person because they know what is best for the other person. In this case, Chrissy decides that she doesn’t need to tell Judd about the trouble at the ranch because he won’t believe her anyway. Judd takes it upon himself to lie to Chrissy too. Uaahhhhhh! That is so annoying. Why can’t they just be honest with each other? There reasons are so noble though (insert eye-roll).

To summarize, I just didn’t like the characters and I didn’t like the plot. So, there wasn’t much I did like about this book. I will say there wasn’t anything wrong with the writing. I actually read the book relatively quickly. So that wasn’t the problem. I think people who like May-December romances might like this book. Beware of big misunderstandings because of LIES.

I heart Shelfari!

Okay, I know I have already blogged about it once, but once just wasn't enough people! I just love Shelfari!!! Let's see how many times I can say that. I have been playing around with it quite a bit the last few weeks and I have just noticed a new feature that I have to brag about it. Did you know that if you click on the members link you can see what other members are currently reading the same books as you? Is that not cool or what? You can even send the messages and chat about the book as you are reading it.

Also, I have been busy uploading reviews. This got me to thinking about the current problem with Amazon and their reviewing system. I know that a lot of fellow bloggers out there used to go to amazon.com and peruse book reviews. But ever since the Deborah MacGillivray incident and others, readers have been leary of the validity of the reviews at Amazon.

Well, I propose that everyone come on over to shelfari. At least at shelfari, you don't have to worry about your review being deleted. On top of that, you also can look at the reviewer's profile, their favorite books, and how they rated their recent reads. So you can match your taste to the reviewers! I think that it would be a lot harder to cheat the system over at Shelfari.

Another cool feature Shelfari has, is that you can ask other members if you should read a certain book or not. You can ask for any book and other members can click yes or no based on the books you have already read or marked as favorites. You can advise other members as well.

Anyway, there are a lot of other cool features but I have spent enough time bragging about Shelfari. Just check it out (if you haven't already) and if you want to be "friends" just ask!