Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Booklikes-opoly | Roll #17!

Booklikes-opoly
@ Booklikes, the book blogging social platform



After an exciting Memorial Day Weekend with extra rolls and all, I finally finished reading all of my books!  It took a little longer than I'd been expecting--all the books I chose were easy books to read, and enjoyable in their own ways.  But then I started reading The Heiress Effect--NOT a BLopoly book! Gasp!!--for whatever reason and got sucked into it, so Once a Thief got set aside; so I made myself finish it before starting a new book, because I wanted to roll again.  =P

So events were as follows:

Memorial Weekend Extra Rolls:

  • Roll #14:  Rolled a 7 and landed on Tomorrowland 33.
    • Read Obsidian Prey for 351 pages = $3.00, increasing bank to $64.00.
    • Obsidian Prey is tagged as 'science fiction' on GR, and the setting is in space.
    • Click on book title above to see my review
  • Roll #15:  Rolled a five and landed on Frontierland 1.
    • Read The Rome Affair for 284 pages = $3.00, increasing bank to $70.00.
    • I finished this book a day after my Roll #16.1 book, Rumor Has It.
    • Title of book begins with a letter found in the word 'Frontier.'
    • There will be a review forthcoming that I think I'm just going to bundle together with the last book in the series.  As far as my thoughts on this book, though, I unfortunately didn't enjoy it as much as I'd been hoping--things could have been better.

Regular Game Play Rolls:


  • Roll #16.1:  Rolled a Double 5 = 10, and landed on Main Street 10.
    • Read Rumor Has It for 281 pages = $3.00, increasing bank to $67.00.
    • I finished this book a day before my Roll #15 book, The Rome Affair.
    • Book's setting is in a small town in the U.S.A.
    • Click book titled to see review.
  • Roll #16.2:  Rolled a 5 and landed on Luxury Tax.
    • Read Once a Thief for 326 pages = $3.00, increasing bank to $73.00.
    • There is a character who is a millionaire/billionaire.
    • There will be a review forthcoming that I want to bundle into a duology series review with the second book, Always a Thief.  Truth be told, this book wasn't that great and I wish it hadn't dragged as much; but since there are so many loose ends, I know I'm going to end up reading the second book--especially since I badly want to post a review titled 'Once a Thief, Always a Thief.'  Priorities, you know...

Since the last game space I had landed on was Luxury Tax, I will move forward from there.


And now Roll #17:

 

Rolling a 6, I landed on BL Square (20), which requires me to roll another die in order to pick one of twelve BL Square Tasks.


Hmm... well, I'm not sure what Monkey's doing...  But I DO know, after uploading this photo, that I've left the right-hand side of the board a little empty, maybe erasing the previous roll stats a little too early... and forgetting to write in my roll date, which is 6/6.  Let's pretend I did.

Anyway...  Moving along...


I rolled a 12 for the BL Task:  "Let the wheel decide - spin the wheel to pick your next "land" and choose any property in the land for your next book!"


Here's a confession:  I've embedded the BL Wheel Decide into my own blog for easy access.  And every time I happen upon my BL-opoly Summary Page to update my progress, I'll scroll to the bottom of the page and spin the wheel... just to see and hear it spin.  I've done this on several occasions because it makes me smile; so imagine how ecstatic I got when I realized I actually got to spin it for real!

Is that strange?

Anyway, as seen above, we've spun the wheel and ended up on Paradise Pier, which is actually really great luck because I've got a whole long list of possible books for all three game squares.  The hard part was actually trying to decide which property to choose and which book I really felt like reading at the moment... and those choices probably amounted to about ten different possible books.


So... I let my nifty Dice Roller App decide, by changing the die to a D3, then assigning the numbers 1, 2, and 3 to each square in order, and letting it roll.  I'm not picturing it here, because it's inconsequential since I was actually quite relieved it gave me a '1', for Paradise Pier 28--if I had ended up rolling a '2' for Paradise Pier 30, it would have been another headache of choosing a book because I've got about 30+ possibilities.

I've landed on Paradise Pier 28 before, and found my first 5-Star Read of 2017, thus leading me to decide to choose the Brothers Sinister series for another challenge that started this month in June.

Long story short:

 

I will be reading the third Brothers Sinister book, The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan, a book that is set during Victoria's reign, opening up in 1867.  Truthfully, for some reason, I'm not looking forward to this book as much as I'd been the previous book, The Heiress Effect (which, as stated above, I successfully devoured in less than 24 hours, thus side-tracking my progress on Once a Thief for a couple days).

But I made a commitment to finish reading Brothers Sinister for the Can You Read a Series in a Month? Challenge, and so why not make it count for two different challenges?

The Countess Conspiracy is 318 pages, for a reward of $3.00, which will bring my Bank to $76.00, upon completion.


Let's not forget to move Teddy Bear to the proper game square!


Current Bank:   $73.00


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Sunday, June 4, 2017

Quick Thoughts: Rumor Has It

Rumor Has It

by Jill Shalvis
audio book narrated by Karen White
Book 4 of Animal Magnetism

 ~ Goodreads ~

 Rating:  4.0 Stars

He'll help unleash the new woman in her...

 Special Ops soldier Griffin Reid doesn’t exactly have happy memories of growing up in Sunshine, Idaho.  He's only come back to recover from a war injury, and while he refuses to admit he’s in a weakened state, he finds comfort in the last person he'd expect.

 Kate Evans teaches fourth grade science in Sunshine, the place she's always called home.  Dreaming of graduate school and a happily-ever-after, she’s desperate to break out of the monotony of Sunshine.  Luckily, a certain sexy man has just come back into her life.

 To Griffin, Kate as always been his little sister's friend, but now he's finding her to be so much more.  As both attempt to forge their paths, they must decide if their passionate connection can turn into something lasting...


Well, Rumor Has It was definitely a lot more enjoyable than the preceding book in this series, Rescue My Heart, had been.  And then I determined that, it really wasn't just the book itself, but the heroine of Rescue My Heart, Holly Reid, was just plain annoying; case in point, I had an immense problem with her meddling, bossy attitude in this book, even if the story played it off as her being over protective of her best friend.

But this book wasn't about Holly, thank goodness, but her super nerdy (and super cool) best friend, Kate Evans.  Kate teaches elementary school, and has the uncanny bad habit of spouting science facts when she gets really nervous.  So when her long time crush, Griffin Reid comes back into town, she finds herself spouting all sorts of different science facts, whether they are nerdy facts, cool facts, or even some naughty, more lascivious facts.

Kate is like a woman after my own heart, with her no-nonsense personality, and her penchant for seeing good in all people, without letting anyone walk all over her.  But she's also got this strange need to take care of everyone in her orbit, which doesn't exclude Griffin when she learns about the injuries he'd gotten while fighting war overseas.

I definitely love the development of the relationship between Kate and Griffin, even though Griffin could really use a reality check (as could everyone else in the book) about their perception of Kate.  It seems that because Kate is such a sweet, lovable person, everyone and their mothers seemed to think she couldn't handle a one night stand with a man she'd always had a thing for, and I actually DID kind of find it amusing when Griffin clambered over himself to make sure Kate was okay and NOT pining over him after they have sex.  I loved that Kate kind of just put him in his place, with her, "Well, all I wanted was to have a bit of fun.  And that's what we did."

The book progressed very smoothly from one anecdote to another, with an underlying conflict in the background that sort of got a little too emotional for my liking by the time the ending rolled around.  I thought it was a nice touch, except I didn't care for how soap opera it kind of got at the end there with Griffin.

Once again, Thing One and Thing Two are absolutely the coolest names for the two dogs owned by Griffin's father.  I would totally get myself a pair of dogs and name them 'Thing One' and 'Thing Two' if I could handle raising two dogs together.  As it is, our one little puppy drives the family batty enough.

Kate's younger brother Tommy was all kinds of adorable, and I loved how he took after his elder sister so closely--spouting random science facts, trying to take care of or rescue other people, just being a plain weird kid.  And I love how Tommy doesn't seem to really care what the other kids think about him or say about him; he kind of just lets the insults roll off his shoulder, and will sometimes throw something back at the other kids, a phrase or a science fact so strange that no one really knows how to respond.

I wish we could have seen more of some of the previous characters in this series, but we were mainly stuck with Holly and Adam.  And while Adam's presence was a bit more mellow, Holly's frustrating, meddling, annoying personality didn't seem to dim much until a little over halfway through the book.  Even NOT being the main character, Holly managed to make me groan in frustration.

I was actually kind of ecstatic when she and Adam disappeared for part of the book on their honeymoon.

Anyway, Rumor Has It was a pretty enjoyable, sometimes insightful contemporary romance.  Most especially, I loved Kate.  Even though she spends more time taking care of other people instead of herself, never say that she didn't know how to stand up for herself, and keep others from walking all over her.  Griffin was a nice bonus, and the romance was fun, but truth be told, as an individual, Kate was the greatest thing about this book!


***

Booklikes-opoly

Roll #16: (See Also: Roll #16 Activities)
This book is set in a small town.

 Page Count:  281
Cash Award:  +$3.00

 Updated Bank Balance:  $67.00


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Friday, June 2, 2017

Monthly Reading Wrap Up -- May 2017

May reading for me seemed to have picked up immensely!  Whether it's the fact that I had some time off from work, or the ongoing Booklikes-opoly game, or maybe just that I'm not trying to juggle several books all at once, I don't know--I've been moving from one book to another without once hemming and hawing over which book I wanted to continue reading.  Maybe my selection of books has just been pretty decent for the month of May--I certainly had my fair share of enjoyment, and didn't truly find too many books disappointing.

I even netted myself my very first 5-Star Read for the year of 2017!  That has to count for something, right?  I mean, I've had a few 4.5-Star Reads...

May Reads




Also Read:  An X-Ops Christmas by Paige Tyler - short story // no official cover

Books Dropped/Put On Hold


None this month!  Yay!


Currently Reading




May Reading Stats

Total works read: 15
  • 12 print/e-book novels
  • 2 novellas
  • 1 short story

Average rating: 3.50 Stars
  • Highest Rated:  The Duchess War by Courtney Milan // 5.0 Stars
  • Lowest Rated:  Two Guys Detective Agency by Stephanie Bond // 2.0 Stars

Series I started reading:
  • Rarity Cove by Leslie Tentler
  • Two Guys Detective Agency by Stephanie Bond
Series I completed:
  • Aftershock by Jill Sorenson
Series I have made progress on:
  • Brothers Sinister by Courtney Milan
  • Arcane Society by Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick
  • The House of Steele by Addison Fox
  • Lucky Harbor by Jill Shalvis
  • Harmony by Jayne Castle/Jayne Ann Krentz

Favorite reads:  There's no question about my favorite read for the month of May.  The Duchess War was just magnificent.  I loved the characters, I loved the humor, I loved the romance!  In fact, as I already stated, it's my very first 5.0-Star read in 2017!

I would also say that I also enjoyed several other books for the month of May.  Julie James is always a delight, and next to Love Irresistibly, The Thing About Love is probably my next favorite from this author.  Then there's always Jayne Ann Krentz (Running Hot, The Perfect Poison, Obsidian Prey), and Jill Shalvis (Forever and a Day).  In fact, aside from certain characters, I find I'm very much loving the fourth Animal Magnetism book, Rumor Has It, that I'm currently still listening to.

Lots of great books read in May!

Disappointing reads:  A few disappointing reads in May as well.  Two Guys Detective Agency was rather a big disappointment considering how much I'd been looking forward to it--was expecting more after enjoying the Voodoo in Mojo duo last year.  Backwoods and Before the Storm were also somewhat disappointing, despite their mediocre ratings--considering how much I've enjoyed both authors' works in the past.


Reviews & Notable Posts

Reviews Written


Memes

  • Did not Meme this month!

Other Posts



Coming Up In June

Tentative TBR


Other Stuff

With Booklikes-opoly playing in the background, I haven't given much thought to an actual reading list.  Even if I tried to "schedule" some books to read, all of that could change depending on what game square I end up landing on with my next roll.  So I'm just letting the game decide for me what books to read, and if it doesn't, then I let myself decide depending on my mood.  So far, it's been pretty nice.

I even gave up all thoughts of pre-choosing which Reading Assignment book I'd read for June, and will probably do as much for July.  Because, as already mentioned, depending on which BLopoly square I land on, I'd rather go through my Reading Assignment list and see if anything fits.  Sometimes a book takes me more than two days to read, which means that, according to the game rules, by the time I'm done, it's time to roll again and choose another book.

Of course, according to my most recent BLopoly roll, I'm going to able to read one of my Reading Assignment books when June rolls around.  Having extra rolls in observance of Memorial Day Weekend, as well as rolling a double, if I time it right, I can read Once a Thief (currently reading) to fulfill both my Reading Assignment necessity for June, as well as one of the BLopoly game squares.

For June, however, I DO have a tentative reading list because of the Can You Read a Series in a Month? Challenge.  I chose to read Brothers Sinister for this challenge--I enjoyed the first book so much (first 5-Star Read!!), that I needed to find an excuse to finish the rest of the series.  And there it is!  We'll get to see how well I juggle this with BLopoly.

And in the meantime, COYER Summer Reading List is coming up this month as well, and I am very much considering joining.


2017 Wrap-Ups 

Past Monthly Reading Wrap Ups
See Also: 2015 Reading Wrap-Up posts (scroll to bottom of page)

(updated as year progresses by month)
January | February | March | April | May | June
July | August | September | October | November | December



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Thursday, June 1, 2017

Packaged Thoughts June 2017: All the Books I Will Not Review Individually

There will always be those books that I absolutely would love to express an opinion on, but for one reason or another, it never actually happens.  In which case, I introduce my new feature, the "Packaged Thoughts" bundle reviews, wherein I will talk about a few random books I wanted to talk about, but just didn't really know what to say in an actual review.  (Although chances are, I'll ramble enough material for a full blown review anyway once I get to typing.  So bear with me.)

There will be two of these posts each year, one posted on June 1 to celebrate my birthday, and one posted on December 25 to celebrate Christmas.  My gift to myself and the reading community!

Thank you all for reading!


The Search
by Nora Roberts
Rating:  3.5 Stars

Truth be told, I really, really enjoyed this book a lot.  It had a lot of elements I absolutely enjoyed: the Search and Rescue aspect, the huddle of doggies in every chapter and every page, the slow burn of a sweet little relationship between our couple, the non-standard type of character that our heroine, Fiona, was presented as...

There were so many reasons to love this book.

Simply put, I feel that the only reason I gave The Search a rather mediocre rating is probably because of the disconnect I felt with the main story line.  There was an almost distinct division between the contemporary portions of the book and the suspense portions of the book, and rather than melding together smoothly, the contemporary portions sometimes made you forget that there's a killer lurking in the background.

Also, there were times that Simon came off as kind of a jerk, but then he'd turn around and be a nice guy, so I wasn't sure what to make of him.

I read this book for Romance Bingo 2017, using it for the Free Space (Love).



Tempted Into Danger (ICE: Black Ops Defenders, #1)
by Melissa Cutler
Rating:  4.0 Stars 

Tempted Into Danger was fast-paced and pretty exciting!  I especially liked the first half involving a brief survivalist side plot as Vanessa and Diego trudge through the jungles of Panama to escape danger.  The rest of the book's criminal conspiracy plot ended up feeling a bit tedious, but was a quick read through nonetheless.  I also loved that Vanessa was the nerdy, brainy type with a love for formulas and computers and stuff.

I listened to the audio book version of Tempted into Danger, narrated by Holly Fielding--while it wasn't terrible, it also wasn't my best experience with an audio book narrator, so I will probably just read the print versions for the rest of the trilogy.

I read this for Romance Bingo 2017 for the Interracial Couple square.  Diego is stated to be Puerto Rican; Vanessa is American.



Schoolgirl
by DAZAI Osamu
Rating:  3.0 Stars


The last time I read a human drama genre type story, I didn't know how to review it.  And the truth is, the reason I don't read these types of books is because I don't know how to review them.  As someone who's life experiences have always been pretty boring, I can't say that I can relate to a lot of the things that writers share, depicted in their literary works that make them so memorable.  And I'm probably the last person in the world who is eligible to realize how insightful one's artistic creations are--which is why I simply read what I like, or read what I find interesting.

Truth be told, the writing in Schoolgirl is beautifully done, with a touch of whimsy.  I read some of the other reviews, and some have stated that Schoolgirl is actually a depiction of Dazai-sensei's own thoughts and feelings, his doubts, his sadness, his own stream of conscience, that described his mindset while growing up.

Schoolgirl is surprising to me, to be honest.  Having read another work by Dazai-sensei, No Longer Human, I actually wasn't sure how to feel about it aside from bored and confused.  But Schoolgirl is hard for me to determine as some parts of it are inspirational, while some are a little hard to keep your attention on.  The content is actually a lot more mature than I had expected of a young girl, except that it is written in an almost juvenile voice, with the dramatics of a teenager.

I'm not even sure how old this Schoolgirl is supposed to be.

Booklikes-opoly

I read this book for Booklikes-opoly this 2017 Summer.

Roll #4:  (See Also:  Fourth Roll Activities)
This book takes place in Japan.

 Page Count: 50
Cash Award: +$1.00

 Bank Increased to $27.00 with this read.



The Paris Assignment (The House of Steele, #1)
by Addison Fox
Rating:  3.0 Stars

As enjoyable as The Paris Assignment was, this book is simply a romance novel with a suspense plot included, where a beautiful man and a beautiful woman, with some unique characteristics of the author's choosing (geeky computer skills in this one), are thrown together under circumstances, then fall in lust almost immediately, quickly followed up by deeper feelings. Meanwhile, stuff happens in the background.

It's a great, short, fluff piece to devour; and because Addison Fox presents it as such an enjoyable, well-written read, I don't find too much to complain about it.  There were the obligatory romance inclusions: insta-lust, the "you're the only one for me" speech, intimacy at the most inconvenient moments, the obligatory "greatest night of my life" sex scene and morning-after, obligatory angst... and then some.  Maybe some rapid-fire scenes that didn't really make much sense occurs.

Overall a great read.

Booklikes-opoly

I read The Paris Assignment for Boolikes-opoly this 2017 Summer.

 Roll #2: (See Also: Second Roll Book: Decision Made)
This book involves overseas travel from New York to Paris.

 Page Count:  284
Cash Award:  +$3.00

 Bank was increased to $26.00 with this read.



The London Deception (House of Steele, #2)
by Addison Fox
Rating:  4.0 Stars

The London Deception was not too different from my experience reading The Paris Assignment, but I'll admit that I did enjoy it immensely more.  I'm thinking it might have to do more with the characters--I found Finn and Rowan a lot more enjoyable, and their chemistry a lot more palpable than I had found from Campbell and Abby.

Secondly, I have a thing for archaeology, and all the talk about Egypt and going on a dig, and amazing, scholarly historical findings perked my interest more than just another romantic suspense plot hidden in a romance.  I also liked the way the relationship between Rowan and Finn was handled, even if there were a lot of things that came as a frustration to me at certain points.  Nonetheless, from their first meeting as misguided youths, to their subsequent reunion, and then how their relationship grew deeper with each new secret revealed, I thought it was all a nice touch.

A great read, even if I don't really have much else to say about it.

Booklikes-opoly

I read The London Deception for Booklikes-opoly this 2017 Summer.

Roll #11:
This book was published in 2013.

 Page Count:  282
Cash Award:  +$3.00

 Bank was increased to $56.00 with this read.



by Nora Roberts
Rating:  3.5 Stars

 I suppose every author has hits and misses.  I'm not entirely sure what this one was.  On one hand, it was written very well, with all the charm and attractiveness of a southern gentleman.  On the other hand, the book was slow going, like a lazy, hot, summer afternoon... except not as peaceful.

A lot goes on in Carnal Innocence, and if not for the fact that everyone in the book kept talking about the serial murder, you might have forgotten that there was an investigation going on at all.  There were also so many domestic situations, and so many random, banal, day-to-day anecdotes that were exactly like all of this book's small town people's way of having a conversation--by always taking the scenic route before getting to the point.

Truth be told, I found it hard to determine how I really felt about this book, because I like my crime thrillers suspenseful, straight-forward, and exciting.  By all rights, something this slow, and so full of side tangents, and detailing everything from family history to yesterday's gossip wouldn't have held very well for me as a crime thriller.

But somehow, I actually DID find myself enjoying it.  Even if I didn't really care for the characters all that much, though I WILL admit that Caroline is likable, as the sensible and strong type of heroine, though in a subtle way.  Tucker's old-fashioned manly behaviors tended to get on my last nerves, especially when he got overly pushy about butting into Caroline's life.

Truth be told, I always cringe whenever the main male character says things to the effect of, "It's not if we'll end up in bed together, it's when."  Or, "You know we'll end up having sex.  Count on it."  Such arrogance!  And even after the heroine states, on several occasions that it'll never happen, she has no intentions of sleeping with said arrogant prick.  And, honestly, in this day and age, in the real world, also could be considered sexual harassment...

And then the romance felt so lukewarm, though, I wasn't even sure it was really there.

At least there was Useless, the little adorable puppy that Caroline managed to get attached to.  Puppies DO make lots of things better!

Booklikes-opoly

I read this book for Booklikes-opoly this 2017 Summer.

Roll #13:
The authors name fits criteria; initials found in the name 'Tarzan.'

 Page Count:  402
Cash Award:  +$5.00

 Bank was increased to $61.00 with this read.



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