Tag: Ellen-O'Connell • BookLikes

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text 2016-09-26 16:35

A Grand Race (Sutton Family Book 3) by Ellen O'Connell $2.99

A Grand Race (Sutton Family Book 3) - Ellen O'Connell

Caroline Tindell arrives in St. Louis for the thousand-mile 1905 Great Plains Automobile Race expecting a comfortable ride in her cousin's Pierce Great Arrow. Instead, she endures an unsettling encounter with the rogue who broke her heart six years ago, a seat in the back of the automobile with the luggage, and long moments of terror when the speeding Arrow plunges off the road.

Jamie Lenahan's brief conversation with Caroline before the start of the race evokes regret and painful memories. The way she left him years ago didn't surprise him. The effect she still has on him does. At least since her cousin roared off among the pacesetters, Caroline will be safely out of sight, if not out of mind, for the rest of the race.

Caroline is not out of sight, however. There she is, sitting stranded by the side of the road. What can a man do except stop and offer her a ride?

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review 2015-11-01 00:00

Dancing on Coals

A History Nut's Romantic State of Mind

I feel awful about rating this book 2 stars. I don't usually suffer from guilt when I give low ratings.

This book was a VERY interesting read for me. I had no connections to the characters but wanted to read on. Usually I just quit. But I guess the setup is so different from my usual genre that I was compelled to go on.

I have to say I didn't like Katherine. I cannot say that I understand her behaviors and thought process. The plots seemed disconnected to me. I didn't get the romance either. He liked her?? When did that happen? The hero didn't get to any page space until 30% into the book. I am very curious about him as a character but I got a lot of heroine instead, who I didn't like.

I skim-read the last 30%, no longer caring what happened to the characters. I am not certain what went wrong. I wanted to read on but the more I read the more disappointed I was. I wanted to connect with the characters but they keep eluding me. Sigh......it's just not meant to be.

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review 2015-08-10 00:00

Without Words

A History Nut's Romantic State of Mind

I won't rate the book because I have only read 30% of it. It is not a bad read but I cannot find it in me to continue. Maybe I will return to the book later.

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review 2014-11-29 18:41

Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold by Ellen O'Connell

Atunah's Romance Haus

Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold - Ellen O'Connell

I'll have to mull this over some more before being able to write a coherent review.

But what comes to my mind is the word authentic. If felt authentic and real. The characters felt real and the sense of time and places was really strong.

It was also very romantic. There is a lot going on and I enjoyed everything, all the details of life. The difficult and the moments of sunshine. What complicated relationships between the members of the family.

And as quiet of a man Cord is, the way the story is told I get more of a sense of him than some other heroes that talk 10 times as much.

I have had this on my tbr for quite some time and I am really glad I finally moved it up. I am also glad that by now the author has a few other novels penned I can read. :)

When people talk about the gems in self publishing, this is what they mean. I don't re-read often, but I have a feeling I will do so with this one down the road.

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review SPOILER ALERT! 2014-03-01 07:55

Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold

AimeeKim

Conflicted feelings. In fact, I'm kind of pissed this lost its magic for me. I was ready to sing its praise for being the book to break me out of my reading slump these past few weeks. It was still pretty good, though. For the first 60%, I was absolutely loving it. It was 5 star territory for me, seeing the very, very slow development between Cord and Anne, brought together by such horrible circumstances. And I triumphed with them over their small victories and steadfast refusal to give in to everyone's racist treatment and opinions of them. I didn't find out until after that this had been the author's first novel. That would explain the plain uneven and frustrating characterizations of the racist families of both Cord and Anne. They treated Cord and Anne like crap, repeatedly. And even when it seemed like they were going to finally admit they had misjudged the entire situation entirely from the start, they ultimately kept reverting back to their racist and judgmental selves. This happened again and again and again the entire story. I gave up on them long before that, and I would have been completely on board if Cord and Anne just up and left everybody behind in that town already.
There was even more heavy handed emotional manipulation in depicting Anne's father as the absolute demon from hell in order to feel more sorry for her-plus oh gosh, the entire nonsensical, rushed [spoiler] kidnapping plot [/spoiler] leading to the most anticlimactic rescue scene everrr. The ending helped make up for it-until last minute introduction of Cord's long [spoiler] estranged sister [/spoiler] to pack in just a tad bit more drama.

Other than that, this was a great, slow, sweeping romance. Cord absolutely stole my heart, and he is a big reason why I am giving this four stars (3.5 rounded up). And even if the last 20% sucked, I can't quite forget how immersed I was in the first half.

Plus I found that I have a taste for western romances, so I'll be burying myself in this genre a little more. :)