Review - Weekend

Title: Weekend
Author: Christopher Pike
Publishing Date: 1986
Genre: Young Adult/Suspense
Rating: B
Sensuality: Kisses

I chose to read Weekend for my March Re-Read Challenge. It has been damn near close to twenty years since I last read this book. I was only twelve or thirteen at the time and Christopher Pike was one of my favorite authors. I have to be honest I didn't remember much about the plot or the characters in Weekend. When I got the book, I was shocked to see how short it was. It is a little bit smaller than a category romance, ending at 230 pages. I guess when your younger books can seem a lot bigger. I cringe to think of what Harry Potter must look like to middle school aged kids. Anyway, back to the task at hand. I am curious to see what my thoughts are now for the books I when I was younger and less experienced in my reading tastes.

On to the plot: For the seniors of Hoover High School in Santa Barbara California, graduation is almost upon them. Shani along with a group of her closest friends have been invited to spend the weekend in Mexico relaxing seaside at Robin and Lena's vacation home. What was supposed to be a fun weekend with the boys, turns into something more sinister when strange, bad things start to happen.

The first thing that comes to mind for me is that, yes the book is still quite an enjoyable read. The characters are vivid and detailed. Pike does a great job with the dialogue between characters. There is plenty of humor. Some of it might veer on the immature side, but over all I think most adults would be able to relate to it. Where I really think this book excels, is with the subtle approach to creating the atmosphere and slowly revealing the mystery. Every thing is short and to the point, which makes for a fast, entertaining read.

One thing that I thought I remembered from when first reading this book, was that there was more romance to it. After reading it as an adult and reading adult romances, I can see that there really wasn't much to the relationship between Shani and Flynn. To be honest, it was barely touched on at all. The suspense was much more the focus. One other thing that really bothered me was how the villain was punished after the big reveal. The kids decided to take matters into their own hands, and it all seemed very unrealistic.

It was really fun to read a blast from my past and see how it resonates with the "me" of today. It's nice to reach back to that inner child every now and again. I definitely think I will find the time to read another YA book. Seeing as how they are so short, it should make for easy reading.

Review - Dawnkeepers

Title: Dawnkeepers
Author: Jessica Andersen
Publishing Date: 2009
Genre: Paranormal
Rating: C+
Sensuality: Hot

Dawnkeepers is book two in Jessica Andersen's The Final Prophecy series. Finding out that he is a Nightkeeper came as something of a huge shock to Nate Blackhawk. He grew up orphaned and was in and out of foster home after foster home. He even spent some time in juvenile detention and then cleaned up his act and became a success business man, running his own video gaming company. Now, however he is spending his time trying to save the world. To say he doesn't believe in all the prophesy nonsense is an understatement.

Alexis Grey wants desperately to live up to the expectations she has set for herself. She wants to become advisor to the king and she wants to hunt down the seven Mayan artifacts that are going to help the Nightkeepers protect the world from complete annihilation. She and Nate will have to work together for the Nightkeepers to be sucessful, but that is easier said than done. Nate and Alexis don't see eye-to-eye on anything.

I like Jessica Andersen's writing style. She has a way of weaving a story by using good characters who seem all too human. She also crafts multiple story lines that will be converging together at some point in the series. The world building and plotting is top notch and one of the better aspects of the series. However, I still think she is perfecting her craft. There were a few minor things that annoyed me. Everyone in the book refers to having a conversation as a 'convo'. I could see maybe one character calling it that, but all of them? It was too much. Also, the Nightkeepers where having a difficult time deciphering what the prophecy meant, when as a reader I figured out the twist fairly early on. These are intelligent people. Someone else should have been able to figured it out too.

My main problem with this story was Nate. He was a big asshat and Alexis truly deserved better. I suppose by the end of the story he finally wakes up and gets with the program, but until that happened it was brutal. Nate doesn't want to be attracted to Alexis and he doesn't want to be a Nightkeeper. He is in denial, denial, denial and after a while it can grate on a readers nerves. Alexis on the other hand, is constantly allowing Nate the power to hurt her. I just felt like she deserved better and really should have given Nate a proper slap down. I generally prefer my heroes to know what he wants and go after it.

I like that there is almost a ring of truth to this series. It doesn't seem all that far fetched that something like this could happen. With the Mayan calendar and ancient artifacts, it almost makes one wonder. This is an interesting series, I just wish the romance was a little more to my taste. I will keeping my eyes open for the next installment Skykeepers that releases this August.

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April New Releases!

Here are the main books that have caught my eye for the month of April. I am very excited for these releases and I can't wait to read them.


I hardly need to say anything about this one. Lisa Kleypas has been getting phenomenal reviews over her first two contempories in this series for Sugar Daddy and Blue-Eyed Devil. Now, Smooth Talking Stranger has already begun to get rave reviews in the blogosphere and I can't wait to read the next installement in the Travis family series.





Jill Mansell is a new to me author. I recieved an ARC of this book and was pleasantly surprised with it. I have a review that should post sometime this week. It is a light-hearted contemporary, but I would call it more woman's fiction than straight romance.







I read Mary Margret Daughtridge's debut novel SEALed with a Kiss last year and I absolutely loved it. It was one of my top reads from last year. So, of course I would read her follow up novel SEALed with a Promise. I love the idea that her hero, even though he is a SEAL, he is still just a man. He is flawed and doesn't get everything right 100% of the time, but he does still manage to be a hero. I can't wait for more from this author!




Let's face it. I will read anything that Megan Hart has a part in writing. That leads me to her second release of this year, which is a collaboration with her best friend and author Lauren Dane. Call me shallow, but I am not too crazy about the cover. Let's hope what's on the inside is better than on the outside!

Review - Winterbourne

Title: Winterbourne
Author: Susan Carroll
Publishing Date: 1987
Genre: Medieval
Rating: B
Sensuality: Warm

Lady Melyssan has devised a plan to escape from King John's lecherous clutches by pretending to be wed to Lord Jaufre de Macy, better known as the Dark Knight. She sets herself up in his castle, Winterbourne while he is away in France. When he arrives home he goes along with her charade calling her bluff, wanting to see just how far she is willing go on with her deceit.

Lady Melyssan and Lord Jaufre could not be more opposite. Melyssan is sweet and innocent and believes first and foremost the best in everyone. Jaufre, on the other hand quickly jumps to the worst conclusions about everyone and is an angry, disillusioned man. He has good reason to be this way because of some terrible things that have happened in his past. Also, the current political state of affairs are pretty disheartening as well.

Winterbourne had plenty of angst and drama. I like angst but too much can be a drag. Jaufre and Melyssan were very quick to jump to the wrong conclusion and instead of talking through their problems, they just sulked and avoided them. After a while this became troublesome. Even though that bothered me, for the most part this was a very fast read. The characters were well drawn and even though Melyssan was a very sweet person, she wasn't syrupy. Jaufre was your typical medieval man, close-mouthed about his feelings and yet protective of his wife and child.

One thing that you don't see to much of today is books that scan a long period of time. Winterbourne did and it took place over several years. It read like an eighties book with the misunderstandings and the sweeping length, but it didn't come with the negatives the eighties were known for, the rape or the womanizing. Winterbourne wasn't without its problems, but it was a good solid read for me.

Here is what others had to say:

Tracy's Place

Review - Hot Six and Seven Up

Title: Hot Six
Author: Janet Evanovich
Publishing Date: 2000
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B+
Sensuality: Kisses

Hot Six is book six of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum bounty hunter series. In this book Stephanie teams up with vice-cop/boyfriend Joe to find Ranger. Ranger was Stephanie's mentor when she first started her bounty hunter job. Now she is trying to find him and clear his name because he is the number one murder suspect in the death of a local gun runner. Stephanie has more problems than just finding Ranger, though. Her Grandmother has moved in with her and if that's not enough, she has a couple of goons following her around.

After the huge cliff-hanger that ended book five, thank God book six was already published and I could start reading it right away. I don't know how fans would have lasted a year between books. I would have been so mad if I would have had to wait. Anyway, on the review. Basically, this one is more of the same from Stephanie and the gang. This time readers are introduced to Mooner and Dougie, two stoners who went to school with Stephanie. She also gets stuck with Bob, the dog. There were some pretty funny scenes involving Bob. Grandma was in rare form too. I have to say, Hot Six was another solid read.




Title: Seven Up
Author: Janet Evanovich
Publishing Date: 2001
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B
Sensuality: Kisses

Seven Up starts about a month after Hot Six ended. Stephanie is on the case to bring Eddie DeChooch in after he skipped bail for trafficking stolen cigarettes. Eddie turns out to not be such an easy catch. He keeps just one step ahead of her, even though he's her Grandmother's age. He a crazy old coot and Stephanie is getting tired of him shooting at her. Dougie and Mooner go missing and Stephanie knows that something else is going on. Valerie, Stephanie's sister come to the Burg for a visit.

I am beginning to see a pattern developing. Each book in the series has a self contained mystery. A new character or two to add to the zany chaos that always surrounds Stephanie and then the book ends at a big cliff-hanger regarding Stephanie's love life. While I do enjoy the silliness and crazy antics of Stephanie and the gang, it might not be such a good idea to read four of the books back to back. Grandma and Bob, the dog are still cracking me up. There were some pretty funny parts in this book, typical of Evanovich's style. Stephanie's relationship with Ranger and Joe is starting to get complicated and I can see why fans want some sort of closure. Now it looks like it is going to get messy and again the book ended on a big cliff-hanger. I am going to wait at least a week before I start on book eight.

Review - Witch Heart

Title: Witch Heart
Author: Anya Bast
Publication Date: 2009
Genre: Paranormal
Rating: DNF
Sensuality: Hot

Witch Heart is book three of Anya Bast's Elemental Witch series. Claire is a human that has been living as a handmaiden to a demon in another world Eudae, since she was six years old. After Thomas, head of the Chicago witch coven accidentally went through the portal and found himself in Eudae, Claire helped him to escape back to Earth (Book 2, Witch Blood). Claire's demon gifts her with a powerful magical weapon, the Elium which is attached to her core magic. She goes through the portal to Earth because she is being hunted by other demons who will kill her to get the Elium. When Claire arrives on Earth she meets up with Thomas's coven. Thomas assigns Adam, a fire witch, to protect her while they work on a solution to detach the Elium from Claire without killing her.

Okay, Witch Heart was the book I was referring too that sparked the poll on whether or not I should review a book that I was unable to finish. Many of you expressed an interest in hearing why I was unable to finish it and so I will give it my best shot, even though it has been two weeks since I attempted to read it. I did manage to read 200 pages out of 300.

Basically, the problem I had with the book was that there was so much potential for intricate world building, by showing how Claire had to adapt from going from the culture on Eudae to Earth. Unfortunately, there were just brief snippets of information that barely scratched the surface. The book definitely would have benefited and would have been more interesting if this aspect would have been better developed.

Another thing that really bothered me, was that both Adam and Claire were constantly internalizing every thought they had. It wasn't so much what I would call mental lusting, but more of just an internal monologue of their thoughts about the other person and any issues they had - and they did have issues. Adam's issues ranged from dealing with his new feelings for Claire and his old feelings for his dead wife. Claire had issues with having the Elium inside her and not wanting other people around her to get hurt, plus she didn't know how to deal with her attraction to Adam either. All these issues, instead of moving the book forward, seemed to stall the momentum of the plot and it made for some very boring reading. I think the main problem for me was my own expectations and unfortunately, Witch Heart didn't live up to them.

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Review - The Heart Queen

Title: The Heart Queen
Author: Patricia Potter
Publishing Date: 2001
Genre: Historical
Rating: DNF
Sensuality: Kisses

Janet Leslie and Neil Forbes were once young and in love. Neil, the bastard son of the Marquess of Braemoor, having nothing to offer young Janet, plus having the taint of madness in his blood, cruelly leaves Janet to wonder at his abandonment. He told her he loved her and wanted to marry her and then doesn't show up at their meeting point. After he breaks her heart, she marries Alasdair Campbell and she gives him an heir. Her picture perfect life though, isn't so perfect because Alasdair is not a very nice man. He beats her and his children and starves his people. Alasdair is takes ill suddenly and dies without naming a guardian to his son and wife. Janet desperately turns to Neil to help her because there is no one else to turn to.

Okay, I tried, I really did to finish this book. After four days, I made it to page 293 and then I had to call it quits. It was just so very boring. There is not a lot of action in this book. Instead, much of the conflict is internal. Both Janet and Neil often have long internal monologues. It just about bored me to tears and I kept waiting for something to happen, but it just never did. Neil especially irked me because he is a very Beta hero and he was always doubting himself. His indecision and lack of self worth was very off putting. The major consensus was this book was boring, boring boring. (Did I mention I was bored?)


The Heart Queen was March's book for the TBR Challenge. This month's theme was historical romance, fiction or mystery. Does it count if I wasn't able to complete the book? Well, in my mind, at least I get an 'A' for effort.