Tag: Rainy's-Reviewz • BookLikes

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review 2013-12-07 19:58

I'm Dreaming of an Undead Christmas ★★★★★

Rainy Day Reader

Audiobook
Author: Molly Harper
Genre: Paranormal
3hrs 43mins

I was just looking through Booklikes posts when I saw that Molly Harper had a free Christmas audio! I downloaded and started listening to it immediately! I love Half Moon Hollow and the Jane Jameson books. I've been waiting on pins and needles for the new Naked Werewolf book to come out at the end of the month. Let's just say I'm a huge Molly Harper fan and leave it at that. This story was about Gigi who if you remember The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires is Iris's younger sister. I'm Dreaming of an Undead Christmas happens approximately 3 years after that book.

Iris has recently been turned into a vampire and is obsessed with giving Gigi a classic Christmas. She's driving Gigi crazy. In addition to that she wants to break up with her long-time boyfriend Ben and is being stalked by a hot vampire. (Can we say new Half Moon Hollow book?) I loved how Molly Harper brought back all the characters from previous books and gave us updates on all of them. I think it's awesome when authors do that for us. I'm Dreaming of an Undead Christmas had me grinning and laughing my butt off for the almost 4 hours that it lasted. It also left me wanting more!

On a side note: Listening to funny audiobooks gets me the strangest looks from my family, just saying.

Source: rainyreviewz.blogspot.com/2013/12/im-dreaming-of-undead-christmas.html

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review 2013-12-05 17:11

Christmas on 4th Street ★★★★☆

Rainy Day Reader

Author: Susan Mallery
Genre: Contemporary Romance
329 pages

This was my first Susan Mallery book. Christmas on 4th Street is book 12.5 in the Fools Gold Series. I won this book in a contest on Goodreads. I got the idea to read all Christmasy books after I got this book in the mail. If you are wondering if it was hard picking up the story after 12 other books I didn't feel like I missed a thing. I know that if I had read the other books I would have at least recognized the other characters but I never felt lost like I usually do when I read something that's in a series I haven't read.

I swear I had a grin on my face through half of this book. Noelle is so funny. Gabriel had his moments but Noelle was my favorite character by far. She was just so peppy and fun. Gabriel was a bit more serious, but that's understandable with all he's been through. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I swear I read it in record time. I just couldn't put it down! The town of Fool's Gold sounds so perfect I want to live there, lol. The synopsis describes the book pretty well so there's no reason for me to go over the plot. My favorite part of the book was when Gabriel finds the cats... especially the second cats. It was so endearing.

This was a sweet story. I loved Gabriel and Noelle. I loved Fool's Gold and all the crazy people in it. I am really looking forward to checking out the other books in this series now that I have had a little taste. I especially want to read Gabriel's brother's book. Susan Mallery did a great job with this story and tying everything in to Christmas. Christmas on 4th Street is about taking chances and being brave enough to love.

Favorite Quotes:

"I'm sorry the lesson you learned from what you've been through is it's not worth taking the chance, because I believe it's all about taking the chance. We are the sum of our experiences and those experiences need to come from a place of wonder and curiosity."

"I look at a sunrise and I see promise. You look at a sunrise and count the hours until sunset. Life is a gift and we need to accept it with gratitude and a full heart."

Contemporary Romance Holiday Rainy's Reviewz

Source: rainyreviewz.blogspot.com/2013/12/christmas-on-4th-street.html

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review 2013-12-04 17:08

A Christmas to Remember ★★★☆☆

Rainy Day Reader

Anthology
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: NetGalley- Forever (Grand Central Publishing)
136 pages

This anthology was worth the read. I enjoyed the stories but skipped the excerpts. I'm not a big fan of excerpts. Once you read the story it's like you're anticipating whatever part you already read.

★★★★☆

Dream a Little Dream:

by Jill Shalvis

According to Jill Shalvis's website Ian has a small part in Always on My Mind which is book 8 in the Lucky Harbor series. In this story Ian is a hunky fireman and Melissa is his friend that he wants to have a relationship with. Melissa has commitment issues and it takes a near death experience to make her realize what she could have had with Ian. This was a really cute story. Melissa trying to reenact things that happened in a dream was so funny. After reading this I would look into more stories by Jill Shalvis.

★★☆☆☆

Every Year:

by Kristen Ashley

This story is 2.5 of the Chaos series. The series is about a motorcycle gang. I'm a fan of Kristen Ashley so I have to say I had higher expectations for her story. I'm sure that someone who has read the 2 books already in the series would most likely enjoy this story. I did not. I found Tabitha thinking "my man" over and over extremely annoying. The story is supposed to be about the two brothers but it barely mentions Landon. A good part of the story was taken up by sex at the end. I doubt I'd pick up the other books in this series if they are in first person, because I didn't like Tabitha very much.

★★★★★

Silent Night:

by Hope Ramsey

This story is set in the same town as Hope Ramsey's Last Chance series. Although Last Chance sounds extremely familiar to me I haven't read anything by Hope Ramsey before. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. To the point where when it ended I was like nooo it can't be over already! Silent Night is about Maryanne and Daniel. Daniel is hope for the holidays to pack up the last of the farm and get it ready to sell when he discovers Maryanne and her baby son Joshua. This was such a sweet and heartbreaking story that had me in tears more than once. I will definitely be looking into more Last Chance stories.

★★★☆☆

Have Yourself a Messy Little Christmas:

by Molly Cannon

As far as I can tell this story doesn't come from any series but is just a stand-alone short story. Have Yourself a Messy Little Christmas was cute and I enjoyed it but once it ended I actually forgot a few minutes later that I had finished it. The ending was a bit anticlimactic. This story is about Dinah and Lincoln. Dinah is a professional organizer that was hired by Lincoln's mother to organize his house before the holidays. Lincoln likes his life just the way it is but once Dinah is done he misses her picking through everything. Dinah feels she can't have a relationship with a client and resists Lincoln. All in all it was a cute story but even one more page at the end would have made it better. I'd read more Molly Cannon in the future.

★★★★☆

A Family for Christmas:

by Marilyn Pappano

This story is from the Tallgrass series. There are 2 books in that series and I'm not sure where this fits in. A Family for Christmas was a touching story about a widow, Ilena and her son. She meets the new doctor in town, Jared and sparks fly. But Jared is only in contract to work in Tallgrass for 2 years and doesn't plan to stick around. His parents aren't happy with him working at a rural practice and are pressuring him to leave early. Despite everything working against them this was a sweet story and I thought the ending was really cute. I plan to check out the other Tallgrass books as well.

Anthologies Contemporary Romance Holiday Rainy's Reviewz

Source: rainyreviewz.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-christmas-to-remember.html

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review 2013-12-03 14:56

Kissing Under the Mistletoe ★★★★☆

Rainy Day Reader

Author: Bella Andre
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Audiobook
400 pages

I don't normally read contemporary romance. After reading a few during the clean out your e-reader challenge I thought I'd try some more. I'm reading Christmasy books this month and Kissing Under the Mistletoe is my first. I got this book on audio and the narrator did a great job. I didn't realize until after reading the book that this is actually book 10 of The Sullivans series. I'm glad that I didn't know because it might have stopped me from reading it. Actually after spending some time on Bella Andre's website and looking at the family tree I think it's a great place to start. Despite being book 10 it's actually about the start of the Sullivan family.

This book is about Mary and Jack. How they met and their wirlwind romance. I am not used to books that go so in depth with a relationship like this one did. This book took us through the first year. I think that Bella Andre did a great job of capturing the love that Mary and Jack had. I found myself cheering for them. This book made me laugh and made me cry. Mary and Jack's is a great story. I love how she tied Christmas into the story in so many different ways.

Jack is an inventor and is getting ready to launch his invention called the Pocket Planner which I imagine to be like a Palm Pilot. At the beginning of the book he is told that unless he can find a way to advertize his invention that the launch will be put off until after the holidays. That's when he sees Mary who is a model and doing her last photo-shoot. He asks her to become the spokesperson for the Pocket Planner and she agrees. They are both extremely attracted to each other but have decided to keep their relationship professional.

Contemporary Romance Holiday Rainy's Reviewz

Source: rainyreviewz.blogspot.com/2013/12/kissing-under-mistletoe.html

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review 2013-12-01 17:02

Sempre ★★★★☆

Rainy Day Reader

Author: J.M. Darhower
Genre: Contemporary Romance; Young Adult
Source: NetGalley- Gallery Books
530 pages

So much happened in this book I'm not sure where to start. This book encompasses so much. It's not just about human trafficking. It's not just about the mob. It's definitely not just any young adult romance. I feel silly saying it but I had a hard time starting this book. I was expecting something set in South America and that there would be a lot of violence in the book. There was some violence but the story of Haven and Carmine make up for it in spades. There were so many twists, turns and surprises in this book it blew my mind. I found myself getting anxious thinking my gosh what can happen next? By the end I was so totally engrossed with the book that I read for 4 hours straight to finish it.

Haven was born a slave. I thought since reading the synopsis that since she was a slave this book was set in another country because we aren't supposed to have slavery anymore in America. The book starts out in California where haven has lived for her 17 years. Just as there are all kinds of other illegal activities after reading this book I can believe that there are still slaves. That thought is very upsetting. Haven has spent her entire life secluded from the outside word. Her views on things are sometimes very funny in their simplicity. Haven gets taken from the house in California and her mother at the beginning of the book and is taken to a new house in North Carolina to live with the DeMarco's. She has to adjust to a whole different life and her journey was interesting to read.

There are 2 DeMarco sons. Dominick and Carmine. Dominick is your regular high school student. Carmine is just a mess, there's no nicer way to put it. He's seen some terrible things in his 17 years and in addition to that is considered a mafia prince. He drinks and does drugs a lot. He gets into fights with everyone. But he can't understand why Haven doesn't like him. The changes in Carmine once he decides to be nice to Haven and try to get her to like him are great. The relationship between Haven and Carmine is one of the best I've read in a book considered Young Adult.

Why do I say the book is "considered" Young Adult? Well, it might be categorized as that since they are technically both 17 and then 18 in the book but there is drinking, drugs, sex and violence in this book. I would say that it should be considered New Adult despite their ages. The topics that this book covers are something that I'm not sure that many teenagers would be able to understand or enjoy.

When the book finished I thought to myself huh I think there could be a second book... and there will be. Apparently Sempre is book one of the Forever series. Book two is called Sempre Redemption and I'm sure it will be even more action packed than the first book. Its publication date on Goodreads is December 23rd.

Picking a few favorite quotes has been difficult with this book. I highlighted a lot!

Favorite Quotes:

"Colpo di fulmine. The thunderbolt, as Italians call it. When love strikes someone like lightning, so powerful and intense it can't be denied. It's beautiful and messy, cracking a chest open and spilling their soul out for the world to see. It turns a person inside out, and there's no going back from it. Once the thunderbolt hits, your life is irrevocably changed."

"The girl who had never been able to call her life her own taught a boy who had the world at his fingertips exactly what it meant to live."

Contemporary Romance Rainy's Reviewz YA

Source: rainyreviewz.blogspot.com/2013/12/sempre-coyer-book-review.html