Mining ash on a remote planet where temperatures reach hellish degrees doesn't leave Kal (aka Spark) much room for dating. Lucky for this hard-working man, a new corporation Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides is ready to help him find the girl of his dreams. Does it really matter that he lied on his application and really isn’t looking for long term, but rather some fast action?  Earth women better watch out. Things are about to heat up.

Review

This first book in the series is a lot of silly fun. The hero is a sweetheart. I like a sweetheart hero. The humor is slapstick but if you are in the mood for a little awkward hot alien meets earth woman in Vegas, this is a good pick.

Let the romp begin!

Vin (aka Flame) can't believe he's in yet another holding cell. Stupid Earthlings wouldn't know fun if it bit them in the hindquarters. Speaking of fun, the hot little number who claims she's a guard at the jail has been making his body respond in ways he's very happy about. If only she'd get on board with the plan and help him escape back to his ship. First she'd have to believe he's an alien. Right now she's taken to thinking he's crazy. 

Review

This is my favorite of the three books in this little Aliens come to Earth for a vacation trilogy.

The heroine is dedicated to family and works hard. The hero is sweet and steadfast as well as hot. What he says about love is great.

There is slapstick fun and a lot of running around that ends with a grand gesture that anyone would swoon over. Good stuff.

Can a stubborn scientist and a sexy cyborg make love grow?

Green, a cyborg warrior, cares for one being—his plant Windy. When Windy becomes sick, he’ll do anything to heal her, even venture across the universe to visit a worlds-renowned plant doctor.

He doesn’t expect to find love.

Doctor Shelby Cooper is the sole resident of a tiny planet. She prefers to be alone rather than risk caring for another being and then losing him. The curvaceous scientist is determined to resist Green’s patient caresses, his thought-burning kisses, his slow seduction.

She has underestimated the power of a cyborg’s passion.

Review

The hero is super sweet with a major attachment to a plant. His friends are loyal. The heroine is nuts and needs a lot of thearpy which the hero can give her with penis.

It is a lot of insta love and lust with sweet and silly parts. 

This is one of those series: I can't say it's at all well-written, but I can't stop reading it either.  I read Sweet Pepper Hero with the intent of figuring out what it is that keeps me coming back even though the writing drives me just short of crazy.  

The writing is choppy, with short sentences and color commentary added in awkwardly; in many ways, it reads more like a middle school or maybe early ESL level of writing.  This is probably my biggest complaint.  I've always chalked it up to J.J. Cook being a pseudonym for a husband/wife writing team, Joyce and Jim Lavene; I figured something got lost in the team effort.  Sadly, Joyce Lavene passed away a few months ago; if the series continues at all it will be just Jim Lavene's voice and it will be interesting to see if that changes the narrative.

The story starts off oddly: I get the impression that this book was meant to have a different plot when they wrote the cliffhanger into the last book, so the first few chapters of Sweet Pepper Hero were spent rapidly "solving" that mystery.  It was anti-climatic and again...awkward.

There's also some woeful editing/copyediting, including missing words and sentences that just don't make sense.

It should by all rights go in the big black box, but no, it's staying.  In spite of the awkward writing, the Lavene's can create a great story and some solid mystery plotting, although Stella pulls such an insanely off-the-charts TSTL stunt at the end she honestly deserved to get pushed off the side of a mountain.  That move was contrary to the intelligent, stubborn and responsible persona the authors had, up until that moment, built for Stella.  Then there's Eric.  He's a ghost, but if a ghost has to haunt your house, this is the one you want doing the haunting.  He cooks, he cleans, he makes sure the light is on and the door open when you come home at night and he's a strapping 6'5" tall blonde.  Yes please.  

The mystery plotting was really well done and some very nice slight of hand was done that lead me off in a different direction entirely.  The ending was quite dramatic for a cozy too, but it's the characters and the setting that are going to keep these books on the shelf and me buying the fifth book, if a fifth book is coming.  But mostly, it's going to be Eric.  ;)

So I bought a few books this week.

I actually have 11, but I didn't want to create two posts, so I left off Essential Oils for a Clean and Healthy Home by Kasey Schwartz since I've already gone through it, noted which things to try first and reviewed it.

The first two are Folio editions of Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.  They match, although the cover images look different.  I'm feeling a Jane Austen re-read coming on soon.

New cozies arrived today:

Foreign Éclairs - Julie Hyzy:  I'm sad about this one.  I've just read a post from the author that this will be the last in this series.  She created it on a write-for-hire contract and over time she's begun to have a lot of struggles with the company who owns the copyright, so she's hanging up Oliie's whisks. I love this series and it's one of the few that I can say that about anymore.

Copy Cap Murder - Jenn McKinlay:  We'll see.

Daisies For Innocence - Bailey Cattrell:  A new one by an author whose work I've enjoyed in the past.

Sweet Pepper Hero - J.J. Cook:  Another one I'm sort of sad about.  Although maybe for no reason.  This is written by a husband/wife team and the wife half, Joyce Lavene, passed away this year.  It remains to be seen whether the series will continue.  I've had issues with earlier books, but I've had such a crush on the ghost in the book (in a non-creepy kind of way), Eric, that I find I can forgive a lot.

I usually do a cozy cull each year to whittle down the list of series I follow, but I think this year is going to be particularly brutal, as I've come to realise I'm reading a lot of books that don't really ring my bell; I used to do it willingly because buying online, it was hard to justify taking my chances on a new genre/subject I might not like.  Now thanks to BookLikes friends, I don't have to worry about running out of the good stuff; my stacks overfloweth with the good stuff.  I need to get some ALL of the crap cozies out of here and just keep the ones that are actually worth reading.

The last four were impulse/browsing purchases made at my local bookstore while MT was spending a gift voucher he got for Christmas (how does that work?  *I'm* the bookaholic and *he* gets the gift card?!?).

Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb.  It just sounded good.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks has actually been on my "Maybe" shelf forever.  Saw it and bought it.

The Book of the Dead: Lives of the Justly Famous and the Undeservedly Obscure by John Mitchinson and John Lloyd: This promises to be amusing.  Hopefully the flap isn't lying.

My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs by Brian Switek:  Because who doesn't love dinosaurs?  And I've always been bitter about science renaming the Brontosaurus.  Ranks right up there with demoting Pluto.

Total books bought this week:  11

Total books read this week:  7

Total physical TBR: 188