Hey guys, Rose here.  So I'm updating the haul for this week since I didn't have that many approvals until the end of last week.  And I had well over ten titles, but I"m going to feature only ten since this is usually the thing I do every week.  This is a plethora of books for variety.  As you guys know, I like to mix up my reading a bit and I'm happy to share this bundle with you as well as my schedule for reading them.  Some of these don't release until next year, so some of them I'll be scheduling a bit further out.

 

 

 

 

"Art of Attention" by Erica Jago and Elena Brower

Publisher: Sounds True Publishing

Release Date: 2/1/2016

Rose's Read Date: Week of 1/4/2016

 

Another perfect read for the start of the new year in 2016.  Granted, it's not set to release until a month after I'm reading it, but I think it would be better for me to give this physical movement/mindfulness guide a try and help encourage others to make it a part of their new year goals.  I'm really looking forward to it because I like the approach given in the blurb.

 

 

 

 

"Sugar Skulls" by Lisa Mantchev and Glenn Dallas

Publisher: SkyScape/Amazon Publishing

Release Date: 11/10/2015

Rose's Read Date: Week of 11/5/2015

 

Ye Gods, doesn't Lisa Mantchev have the most eye-catching covers?  I first read her "Eyes Like Stars" and while I was a bit lukewarm about the read, I was still fascinated enough to collect the books in the series (which are gorgeously sitting on my shelf, a few of them unread).  I definitely plan to check into this one, since the cover and the premise intrigue me.  And it's classified as New Adult and Sci-Fi-Fantasy - a rare combo and more of a read I would like to see for the category.  Hoping it's as awesome as it sounds.

 

 

 

"The Wild One: A Brooklyn Girls Novel" by Gemma Burgess

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Release Date: 11/10/2015

Rose's Read Date: Week of 11/5/2015

 

I've been wanting to read the Brooklyn Girls series for a long while.  I also have a few of Burgess's other novels via ARC, so this will definitely be a series I want to read before the turn of November.  I like the idea of a group of friends navigating life's ups and downs together.

 

 

 

"Heir to the Duke" by Jane Ashford

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca

Release Date: 1/5/2016

Rose's Read Date:  Week of 12/28/2015

 

Picking up this read because the author's new to me (yes, I know - I'm so behind) and I could use more historical reads in my palette.  This seems like it might be a read right up my alley, so we'll see how it goes.

 

 

 

"For Love or Magic" by Lucy March

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Release Date: 12/1/2015

Rose's Read Date: Week of 11/23

 

I really enjoyed my first read of Lucy March and this was one I got an invite to read, so I'm super excited about it.  I love magical realism, and if it's in the vein of romance with a bit of other elements in the mix, you can bet I'm intrigued by this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Firsts" by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

Publisher:  St. Martin's Press

Release Date: 1/5/2016

Rose's Read Date: Week of 11/23

 

This was a title that I'd heard about initially through a lot of blogger circles, and I'm over the moon I got an approval for it, because I heard it was in high demand.  Teen girl searches for virgin guy with a responsible focus on sexuality: um, can you say "holy crud?"  That's really rare in the age group, let alone many romances, so I hope it pans out to be a good read.

 

 

 

 

"Fourteen" by Leslie Johnson Nack

Publisher: She Writes Press

Release Date: 10/20/2015

Rose's Read Date:  Week of 10/19

 

I figured a memoir would be a great read and considering this one is set on the sea and is a novel of survival, it was right up my alley for reading. Figure I would wait until the week of release to read it (which is very soon).

 

 

 

"A Bad Boy for Christmas" by Jessica Lemmon

Publisher: Forever (Grand Central Publishing)

Release Date: 9/29/2015

Rose's Read Date: Week of 11/16

 

I'm going to give myself a little time to read this one since it's already released and I need to catch up with the series (I bought the first two books of this series because I love the author and I enjoyed my first few reads from her - Jessica Lemmon is totally awesome.)

 

 

 

 

"Smoke" by Catherine McKenzie

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Release Date: 10/20/2015

Rose's Read Date: Week of 10/19

 

So I haven't read anything from Catherine McKenzie yet, and apparently from what many people in my bookish circles have told me - I'm completely missing out. (Hey, I have my reasons!)   This is a study of how people react in a natural disaster spanning over six days time through multiple perspectives.  I like this kind of novel because I like character studies in intense situations, so I'm making this my first read from the author.  But I definitely plan to read what other works are in her bibliography as well.

 

 

 

"Design Your Day" by Claire Diaz-Ortiz

Publisher: Moody Publishers

Release Date: 1/5/2016

Rose's Read Date: Week of 12/14

 

Last but not least, another read that would prove perfect for the New Year's resolution that people can follow.  I do like organization/productivity books, so I"m naturally curious to see how this book touches on its respective topic.

 

That's all for this week's list of books.  I'll have another set ready to go for next week, probably once I finish catching up with my reading queue.

 

Until next entry,

Rose

 

About half of the book it was everything I look forward in a chick-lit: Abigail was funny, carefree, with funny insightful thoughts, her friends were perfect, her potential love interest just like I want him. And it is a British Chick-lit! I love Brit Chick Lit ("fucknuckle"... how funny is this word?). And every time the girls mentioned their ex's names and they spit over their shoulders.. that was genius.

After being in a relationship for 7 years, Abigail starts dating again. First she is all nervous, but with a little help from his flatmate, Robert, she gains confidence and starts to enjoy being single again.

I loved that she enjoyed her freedom and did not think too much about it after a while. If she did not have fun, she did not return the guy's calls. If she wanted, she could have a date with different guys every night. She was a "bastardette". I loved that she could behave like a guy: just having fun and not worrying about relationships.

And Robert was the perfect new best friend. They kind of reminded me of the movie "Someone like you" (starring Ashley Judd and Hugh Jackman). Robert is, like HJ's character, a womanizer, a bit grumpy but nice. He is amused with Abigail and helps her thru text messages when she is on dates. They quickly become best friends, they have a great chemistry, and Abigail never sees him as a love interest, which was excellent (all girls swoon over him).

But then, between 50% and 75% of the book, the story takes a flop. Abigail gets obsessed over Dave, Robert's BFF. The funny girl we meet in the first half of the story is gone. It is all about Dave this, Dave that. She is unhappy, insecure, clingy, etc. I mean, it is fine that she falls for the wrong guy (of course it was the wrong guy, he was not Robert.. duh) but because we readers know he is a douche-bag makes it worse.

Then when she realizes she likes Robert... MEH. The end... MEH. A bit corny and predictable. With funny moments, but nothing spectacular.

I've been thinking about checking out some of this author's books (umm...somebody warn me if there's any drama or issues associated with her).  Finally borrowed this one from the amazon prime kindle owners lending library.

 

i'm expecting it just to be a humorous, light chicklit read.

 

it's also available free via their Unlimited program (I have trouble just finding my monthly prime borrow -- am no where near ready to do the 30-day free trial of Unlimited, sporadically developing an Unlimited-not-also-in- prime book list and when I think I have a good selection I may try).

I finished reading Gemma Burgess's "The Dating Detox" and promptly bought the next book in her 'London Girls' series. This novel and "The Dating Detox" could be read as standalone novels.

In "A Girl Like You" we have Abigail dealing with being single for the first time in years. Abigail broke up with her long-time boyfriend and quickly moved in with Robert (best friend of her sister's fiancee). With Robert's expertise on how to be single and enjoy it Abigail starts to date and eventually even begins to relish her singleness until she meets "the one."

I really did love the character of Abigail in this novel. To me she was a delightful mess. I can only imagine how weird it would feel to go from a long-term relationship to being single in London. Ms. Burgess is able to delightfully capture all of the characters like Abigail, Robert, Abigail's sister and close friends.

However, I could only give this novel two stars. This was due to a lot of errors I found in this novel and a plot shift that changed the dynamic of the first half of the novel. With regards to the errors I found, several times I would just find a character speaking and all I would see is "," or a character would be "kissging". I don't know if this was because of my Kindle version or not but thought I would let other customers know that it was in my version of this book.

Second, the plot shift was a major issue for me. We have Abigail being happy to be single and free and when the plot shifts she becomes an entirely different character. I struggled to finish the novel once this happened. When the plot re-shifted again I was pretty fed up with Abigail. At this point I was all out of sympathy for the character and was happy when the novel came to a close. I really did love "The Dating Detox" but just did not care for "A Girl Like You" at all.

I have been missing old-school Jane Green, Sophie Kinsella, and others who used to write what I considered some of the best British chick-lit. I love chick-lit novels but they have seemed to fall out of favor over the past couple of years. More and more we have writers either for straight romance or it becomes a women's fiction book.

I really love the tale of one woman taking a detox from dating after having six disastrous break-ups in a row. The main character, Sass, still recovering over her fifth break-up that temporarily scrambled her brains and then dealing with her sixth boyfriend dumping her too has made her call a time-out from dating for at least three months. I could definitely feel the main character as I was reading this since heaven knows I and millions of other women would probably do very well with declaring a dating detox ourselves.

Taking place in London and New York we have Sass trying to be assertive at work as well as in her personal life. With three best friends (Kate, Bloomie,and Mitch) there are several laugh out loud moments that I really enjoyed (I loved the idea of every Mitch party involving a signature drink with blenders).

Having Sass provide readers with details about what went wrong with each guy who has broken up with her and having all of these same guys pop up throughout the entire novel I thought was really good.