Anne McCaffrey is Dead

This is not what I wanted to read.  I cherished Ms. McCaffrey's books.  I still do.  I loved her Dragonrider series as most beloved series.  I did read her very first book - Restoree.  I remember thinking, wow!  I didn't realize it was published in 1967.  I read it when I was in my late teens. 

I first learned of Ms. McCaffrey's books through her dragon singer trilogy when I was in junior high.  7th grade to be exact...my school librarian, Mrs. Jeffries pointed me in that direction and I never looked back.  She was my favourite librarian who could recommend the best books for me.  It was a lovely new world I could escape into, away from my life.

Soon I read the Crystal Singer series in college and loved them.  They made me ache so badly.  I loved her flawed heroines who still strived to do the best the could do.  I loved pretty much every series I read of hers and could tell you what the book was about.  That is how memorable her books are to me.  For a person like me who has read a few thousands books, that is pretty impressive of her story lines.

While Ms. McCaffrey has passed away at the age of 85 on Nov. 21st, 2011, she leaves behind a legacy for future generations to enjoy.  I will miss new books from the talented Ms. McCaffrey.

Archangel's Blade

Archangel's Blade by Nalini Singh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is my favourite book in the series.  While I enjoyed Raphael and Elena's mating dance, Dmitri's chasing after Honor did it for me.  This book is appropriately named.  Dmitri is Raphael's blade, as his second command.  This story almost feels like a spin off.  There was less Angel politics which was nice.  The Angel's ennui and their evolution has been a bit of a drag.  I'm guessing the next book will deal with that conflict again.  I'm glad for the break.

In this book, Honor is pulling herself together after her two month torture at the hands of vampires.  Due to my reading selections, it is a guilty pleasure for me to read about the torture.  I admire Honor and I think she's the perfect "damaged" person.  She's strong and intelligent, but not flawless.  This is appealing to me in a heroine.  The twist in her was not unanticipated yet it was unfolded in a poignant manner which made my heart bleed a bit for her. 

What it really did was generate sorrow for Dmitri.  I've not really liked Dmitri, thinking him as a hard, calloused asshole.  This story is really all about him, not Honor.  We get to see what made him the way he is today.  And let me tell you, it isn't pretty.  It's brutal and heartbreaking.  The actual plot of what happened to him has been done before in other books by other authors.  What is different is Ms. Singh adds nuances which made it more personal for me.  I felt pulled in, really seeing from Dmitri's perspective.  Her way of describing scenes are in a way that makes it crystal clear for me to picture.  My favourite scene she painted was Ash, Elena and Honor sitting together on the edge.  I could see it so clearly in my mind.  I hope someone with artist ability decides to draw this scene and give to Ms. Singh to share.

This was more than just a paranormal romance with hot sex.  There were two other threads going on with Sorrow and hunting down Honor's torturers.  It was woven together to make a complete picture.  There were no tangents that fizzed anticlimactic or stopped in a dead end.  Instead, every piece of information pulled together in the end for a very satisfying ending.  I recommend this story to my paranormal friends who are hopeless romantics and love the bad boys.  Because Dmitri is definitely naughty.

Butterfly

Butterfly by Kathryn Harvey

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I read this book after my first boyfriend and I ended our relationship.  While I've seen others write that this book is not really erotica or that it's about a poor making it rich story, I'm not really interested in classifying it as either.  I flagged this as erotica only because of the women being satisfied by a club catering to their sexual tastes.

Warning! ~ this is where it gets personal
The reason why I rated this book with 5 stars is because even after close to 20 years, I still remember this book and it had a profound impact in my life.  At just past 16 I experience my first bad break up in a relationships.  As a teen, everything feels more intense.  I was pretty messed up over it and my self esteem had taken a terrible trampling.  While I wasn't exactly suicidal, I was homicidal at times.  I was so angry and I couldn't get out of the cycle.

By chance, I found this book at a used bookstore.  The women being pleased was what caught my eye.  It opened up a new world for me.  It let me know that there were other females out there who have felt as I did.  Even better, they did something about it.  They never let it set them back.  They didn't use it as an excuse to become a shadow of what they could become or settle for something less.  Butterfly relayed to me, that a woman could make stupid mistakes but still overcome them.  With enough hard work and applying herself and forgiving herself, she can ultimate earn what she wants.  While I understand this is a work of fiction, I internalized it.  It helped me pull myself out of a funk and roughly 2 decades later, I assess where I am compared to my bruised 16 year old self.  I'm successful and happy.  Who knows where that asshole ex-bf is?  And now, who cares?  HAH.

For me, this book was a life changing event and a defining moment in my life.  For me, it was personal and touched me.  I recommend this book to other women who have experienced unfortunate circumstances and think it will never get better.  I'm here to tell you, yes it will.  Don't let those bastards win!  Your success and overcoming them makes them lose.

Hour of the Lion

Hour of the Lion by Cherise Sinclair

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I enjoy a good paranormal book.  I'm a bit jaded by the plethora of shifter books lately.  Some of the authors throw in a couple of wolves and recycle the common "understood" of how werewolves and shifters came to be.  I've read Ms. Sinclair's books before and generally found them to be well written with great characters that I like and a story line I can follow.  In addition, she creates conflicts which I can believe and follows each developed thread to a conclusion.  It may not be a happy conclusion, but it's a conclusion.



When I heard she moved to the paranormal genre with shifters, I was nervous.  Would it turn out okay?  Is she just jumping on the band wagon?  With great reluctance, I finally forced myself to read the book.  The first thing I can say after reading the first few pages is, "WHY ON EARTH DID I WAIT SO LONG?"



The first chapter BLEW me away.  We went from zero to sixty in less than a second.  I LOVE IT.  I was captivated from the very first moment when Vic was tied up and under threat of rape and torture.  This world Ms. Sinclair created for the shifters is fabulous.  She's used some of the existing accepted mythology and added her unique twist.  Her book leaves a wide open world for more than just shifters.  She has so many interesting characters I hope she writes several books and this becomes a series.



The erotic categorization of this book for me was the sensual and sexy heat between the three main characters, Vic, Calum and Alec.  The menage was a nice treat.  There was nothing out of this world about the sex, but it was nice each time.  Each sex scene had purpose to enhance the story.  It wasn't a gratuitous sex just for the sake of checking off a list of required sex scenes.



I liked Vic - she's the type of woman I admire.  Smart, loyal and strong cognitive skills and the ability to make a decision and stick to it.  She isn't w/o her flaws.  It's rather sad her flaws and I admit to shedding a tear at her heartache.  Alec and Calum, what can be said about them?  H.A.W.T, sexy, alpha and okay a bit paranoid.  But seriously, is it really paranoid if people are really out to get you?  I wouldn't mind being the meat in that man sandwich. 



The axillary characters were just as charming.  There was a reason for each person's madness.  There was no "just because" explanations.  Did people do bad things?  Yes.  Were they completely bad people?  No.  Each person's motivation was true to that character and help generate believable conflict.  This is what I admire about Ms. Sinclair's storytelling technique. 



I recommend this to all my friends, even those who don't really like paranormal, this is still a well written story.  I'd read it over and over and over and over again.  At this point, Ms. Sinclair should just be an auto-buy for me.

Damaged

Damage by Josephine Hart

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I found this book when I was still in high school.  It was a bad time for me.  At the time I was upset and confused.  Mostly, I was angry at males and the patriarchal society.  I didn't know how to relate as a trained under duress strong female who had suppressed submissive tendencies.



I also thought there was something wrong with me.  The title of this book caught my attention.  Damage.  How true.  I read this book and I was horrified at how a seemingly perfect life could go terribly wrong.  I could understand the desires and wants of the father.  Yet I couldn't understand how he could do this to his family.  His perfect family with the perfect son and daughter. 



Then the wife, what was wrong with her that she couldn't supply what her husband wanted?  It was so baffling for me and once again validated to my young self that relationships and specifically marriage was a bad bad thing.  There was a line in the book which meant a lot to me.  "Damaged people are dangerous.  They know they can survive."  I felt that to my soul.  I guess I've always felt I was damaged some how due to my perversions. 



When a movie based on this story came out, I saw it.  It was just as devastating for me as the book.  Then again, I'm a fan of Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche.  This is a book with no happily ever afters or happily for now.  Even 20 years later, I still remember this book vividly.

Caged

Caged by Tam Ames

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I expected the worst from this book.  Seriously, a hamster shifter?  WTF?  A GAY HAMSTER SHIFTER?  Double WTF!?!  To my delight, this short story which easily takes less than 10 minutes to read is good.  The writing was tight.  Sticking to one POV was pleasurable.



Marek, er Marcin was so darn funny.  He's a snarky vengeful little bugger.  Hamilton is a sweet sweet guy.  This story felt like tongue in cheek for me the entire time.  I like it!  Maybe Ms. Ames will read this review and write about this storyline the Kindle Smut group has been kicking around...One member came up with a WTF storyline about gay squirrel shifters just looking for a few good nuts.  O_O  Ms. Ames, I hope you're out there giggling over her idea.  Maybe it will ignite a spark in that deliciously wicked sense of humour mind you have.

Thorn Queen

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Killing Time

Killing Time by Elisa Paige

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I LOVED THIS BOOK!  I wasn't sure what to expect.  I did like her previous books I purchased.  I never expected to receive a ARC of this one. I had been eagerly anticipating the release so I could buy it.  Back to my review. 



Killing time pulled me in from the very first chapter.  Ms. Paige did another outstanding job with her heroine, Sephti, also known as Nomad.  Sephti has all the qualities I like in a strong woman, just like Mia in Shadowplay.  There are many parallels in the way Sephti and Mia were raised.  For me, I enjoyed this.  The brutality of Sephti's childhood has my heart bleeding for her.  The strength and independence Sephti demonstrates is admirable.  I felt engaged and vested in Sephti's journey.  The one caution I would advise Ms. Paige is to designing all her heroine in the same manner of traumatic brutal upbringing.  Each of her heroines in the different books do have slightly different personalities.  Still, their pattern is eerily close.



The dynamic between Koda and Sephti was amusingly frustrating.  I really loved how clueless Sephti was in the human world.  Her depth of character made me fall for her very quickly.  Koda and his haughty manner made me want to kick his ass.  I'm glad he finally comes around.



What I like about this story is that bad things happen.  The good guys do not always win and live the next day to save us again.  This pain causes me to enjoy the book more since I feel more.  Killing Time takes place concurrent to the other books which is kind for me because it's like watching events from 4 different perspectives.  I like this because the world Ms. Paige built is more elaborate and complete.  What I like most is her characters are never perfect.  Even when you think something is going to go right, it doesn't always go exactly as planned.



I enjoyed Ms. Paige's interpretation of the fae world.  Her view of the vampire world has been lovely.  In this book, we learn of the Native American mythology.  I do not know much about Native American mythology but what Ms. Paige woven into her story gave me a huge respect for the culture.  I loved this aspect of the story.



There is only one item that confused me.  The last confrontation, how does that fit in the time line with Shadowplay?  I almost have to map out a diagram to figure it out correctly.  Still, I loved this book and I recommend it to everyone.  All of my friends and strangers alike.  There is romance, intrigue, love lost, battles won and lost.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


There are no words for me to describe the impact this book had on me when I read it.  I picked this book up reluctantly back in December of 2000.  It is quite the lengthy book but it wasn't the page count that intimidated me.  I wondered if the reading level was too high for me.  I can only say that I'm glad I read it when I wasn't too far removed when when I used to read at a college level.  Most of the books I read now are written at a sixth grade level or less, even if the content is for 21 and over.

For a voracious reader who can easily read a 400 page book in about 5 to 6 hours, this book was probably a weekend read for me.  So colour me surprised when it took me close to a month to finish this book.  Why did it take so long?  Because the material was just so heavy.  The concepts were intriguing.  The monologues were pieces of art.  The theories were presented in a way that made me feel as if the rug was pulled out from under me.  I felt so much for Dagny.  That was a point in my life where I felt I was Dagny in many ways.  Hank was a person I admired and represented a close friend of mine.  Perhaps this book meant so much more to me than any other book to date, because I could relate in every aspect.  Not only that, but the book called into question many of the concepts I lived by. 

While I don't agree with unions and no matter what Ms. Rand tries to push about unionized intellectuals, I will not succumb to that party of thought.  What I do find alluring is the place where all the people who actually DO work, disappear.  The place they disappear into is like the sci-fi show Eureka.  I remember when Eureka first came out and I thought, wow!  It is kind of like the place I imagined when reading Atlas Shrugged.

I realize people will debate and argue about socialism, capitalism and the ramifications of Ms. Rand's sometimes heavy handed theories.  I think that's good because an author like Ms. Rand would have liked the debate and people talking about her book.  From what I could tell, Ms. Rand was a complex person in real life with some very interesting relationships.

Thorn Queen by Richelle Mead

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Dear Thorn Queen,



*******Warning Spoilers ***************
I'm aghast I waited so long to read your book.  It's amazing.  I liked this book better than the first.  Although, the first one was good.  I am truly puzzled why Kiyo was such a pussy.  Eugenia, you should never had been with him.  He basically has a baby mama.  WTF.  Leave him!  He's no good for you.  AND he won't defend you.  He doesn't understand your power nor is he strong enough for you.  He's pathetic.  He should be with the pussy Willow queen.


Eugenia, you are the STORM QUEEN.  Accept it.  So your father was cruel and evil, get over yourself.  you don't have to be.  I understand why you didn't like what Dorian did, but he is the better one for you.  He may have ulterior motives but it benefited you.  You were always missing a part of yourself.  Now you are whole, part of two different worlds.  He understands you AND he can protect his own.  This squeamishness from being ruthless is unbecoming and I tire of your whiny little confusions about being in two worlds.  You can do it.  If that pussy Kiyo could, so can you.  Learning control over your power is the only smart thing to do, otherwise you are just a loaded gun with no safety trigger in the hands of any person.  Suck it up and start behaving like a queen.  Kill that bitch of a queen who thought it was fine to have you raped multiple times a day for well over a week.  Kill them all.  Show them you shall be feared and you will not be treated with such lack of respect.  Make them fear you.


Roland is a disappointment.  Ignore him.  He can't accept you for who you are.  Remember, a true father of the heart will love a daughter as promising and just as you.  For him not to see how you are just, is his own blindness.  You don't need him.  You have outgrown him.


I loved watching you grow into the Queen you are becoming.  I can't wait to greet you again in the next chapter in your life.  Your powers are amazing and glorious.  I hope you also enjoy kinky BDSM sex with the delicious Dorian. 


I recommend this story to those who have been caught in between two worlds and try to fit in.  I recommend it to the women who want a book affirming that there is life after rape.  You don't need someone to save you; you can save yourself.  I recommend this to people who a heroine who can still kick ass even when she's down.

Kiss of Snow by Nalini Singh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I had been eagerly anticipating this book from Ms. Singh.  I was a bit apprehensive because I was afraid it was going to be a recycle of the other books.  Lately, many of the authors who write series, I can just swap out their book titles and character names and no one would know the difference.  In defense of these authors I cherish, it has to be difficult to bring something fresh each time, especially with building a world full of characters.  How does an author keep track?

I am happy to say, this is probably my favourite book for Ms. Singh.  This book felt more mature than her early books.  The pace was just right.  Nothing was glossed over.  For me, each scene was in the book to explain another scene or build up to an explanation or explosion.  There were no random sex scenes for the sake of putting sex in it.  Every little nugget revealed a back history or explained the changeling and psy world better. 

I've always liked Hawke.  He's just so hot.  I can understand his fears and Ms. Singh did a good job of showing why he's a bit messed up.  Sienna is one I've always been interested in too.  When she was a minor character, I kept wondering why she was such a threat.  Now she has her own story.  And wow does she pack a punch.  LOVE HER!  She's smart too.  I have to confess, I am biased where I love the smart people more.  The fact that she is also friends with other strong women is something I like about her too.  Her ties with her female cohorts to cause mischief just made me laugh.  Ms. Singh was so clear in her descriptions of their antics that I could see and hear the bar and dancing.

While Ms. Singh did follow the standard formula of hero or heroine struggles to be in a relationship, it works.  Her usage of this formula was delightful and I enjoyed this very romantic hunt and chase story.  I recommend this to people who love Alpha males.  I recommend it to people who love Alpha females.  Combine this with a happily ever after, it would be hard pressed for anyone not to enjoy this lovely story.

Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Men in Black meets GQ and Stephen Hawkins - does this make you go, Huh?  I saw a blurb on this book and thought, maybe I'd like it.  I borrowed it from the library and to my shame, I left it languishing there for 2 months.  Last night, I forced myself to open the book and read a few pages just to see if I would like it.  I started at 10:30 PM.  At 3:30 AM, I finished the book and said, WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG?

This book contains campy names and just ridiculously hilarious scenarios.  Kitty Katt (roll eyes now) has been unaware of aliens and what her parents really do for a living.  What I love about Kitty is she has MAJOR cognitive skills.  She's a troubleshooter with the best of them. She thinks out of the box which I LOVE!  This is the kind of heroine I'd aspire to be.  Jeff and Christopher are both hot hot sexy aliens.  Both of them want Kitty.  I'm thinking, darn, this isn't an erotic novel.  This is Urban Fantasy so I'm not going to get a menage out of this.  Oh well.  The sexual tension in this book is just enough, not a forced token sex to keep readers interested.

The world Ms. Koch has built is fascinating and just fun.  It makes my inner geek girl squeal with delight.  I loved all the x-men and comic book references.  (I think Ms. Koch is a Marvel girl which is okay.  I just happen to be more of a DC girl. plltt!) 

Ms. Koch's writing style is great.  I really enjoyed it and her sense of humour is out of this world.  There were several scenes where she pulls of tongue in cheek humour in a great way.  This is probably one of my favourite new authors this year.  I am very impressed with this first book.  I recommend this to all my friends who like paranormal romances that have a bit more geekiness to it.

Undercover

Undercover by Lauren Dane

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Undercover is my one of my FAVOURITE books by Ms. Dane.  This book has it all - angst, kinky sex, two HOT alpha doms, a sexy sub and menage scenes that make me melt into a puddle.  I love this new world Ms. Dane created.  I love the sci-fi parts of it.  I really love Ash, Brandt and Sera.  The painful past which becomes a hard future together was pretty impressive.  I felt emotionally attached to each of the characters.  No one was perfect.  Each had flaws which were easily relatable.  With how hot Ash and Brandt are, I would fantasize being Sera.  The fact that they are covert operations in a sci-fi type world really stroked all the places that makes me go mmmm.  I can't wait to read the next book in this series.  LOVE IT!  I recommend this to any woman who enjoys romance with a happily ever after mixed in with a bit of scifi/fantasy and a sexual tension that will spike your temperature.



View all my reviews

A Perfect World: An Erotic Science Fiction Short Story by Kris Cook

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I really enjoyed this short story.  I generally don't like male authors, but Mr. Cook cooked up a hot little story that I enjoyed greatly.  In this futuristic world, it's pretty harsh and it took me a bit to understand what was going on.  Once I understood about the longevity of humans, I really got into the story.  The menage was hot.  I liked it.  The flow of the story was also smooth and other than one minor grammar error, I thought it was very well done.  I enjoyed it enough that I'm going to be looking for more of Mr. Cook's stories.

The Rose of Shanhasson by Joely Sue Burkhart

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I worship Ms. Burkhart.  She is an amazing writer.  Each time I read one of her books, I think, why didn't I read this book earlier?  I am so glad I purchased this book and enjoyed it thoroughly.  Shannari is a literally a warrior princess.  I love this strong yet prim and proper lead female character.  What I enjoy about Ms. Burkhart's writing style is that she doesn't explain her world or tell me how it works. She reveals the world like a rose opening from a bud into full bloom. 

Something that really spoke to me in this story was Gregar and Shannari's relationship.  I am reassured that I'm not an anomaly because of how Ms. Burkhart explained Gregar and Shannari's dark ties through dreams.  For years, Shannari and Gregar have been in each other's dreams.  Their dark side, known as shadow, has brought them to love each other deeply yet kill each other.  Sometimes he kills her; sometimes she kills him.  They recognize each other when they finally meet in real life.  The reason why this speaks to me is for years, I've had dreams of the same lover whom I've never seen.  In these dreams, I've been hunted by him, sometimes captured, tortured and killed.  Other times, I've hunted him and had to kill him.  Each time, my heart breaks in my dreams.  The very last time I dreamt of him, he did something different.  He let me go, instead of killing me.  Because he let me go, he was killed by his forces as a traitor.  I remember waking up crying from that dream.  In Ms. Burkhart's story, Gregar and Shannari's doomed love was so similar that my heart broke a bit for Shannari because I could guess the ending between the two.  For Ms. Burkhart to weave this into the story, I'm guessing she's had a similar experience.  Makes me feel not so lonely.

While I loved Shannari's and Gregar's relationship, I loved her relationship with Rhaekhar just as much, in a completely different way.  He is an alpha male with a wicked sense of humour.  He's also amazingly compassionate.  Ms. Burkhart's men are impossible to compete with, in real life.  There are no men who could possibly be like them.  They are everything a strong woman wants in a mate.  Her men make me yearn for things that I thought I'd long forgotten or repressed.

I recommend this book to those who enjoy strong lead characters who aren't afraid to hold themselves to higher standards.  This was truly a romance story which melted my heart.  The surprise menage a trois with the edge of danger makes me shiver.  Love it!

This Side of the Grave by Jeaniene Frost

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Cat and Bones are back!  Bones is still delicious.  He makes me melt.  I want to fuck him so bad.  I want to be the one chained to manacles in his bed.  This book, of course someone dies, and that someone is yet again a pivotal character.  Ms. Frost just LOVES to kill off her characters.  What is wrong with her?

At least this time, it isn't Cat's fault.  I liked her much better in this book.  She seems to have matured and actually thought through her plan before she acted.  She comes up with some good ideas too. 

The sex is once again awesome.  Bones is a dream man.  British accent, sexy body, loyal, devoted and a sex god.  What more good a woman ask for? 

Lovely Wicked by Kari Gregg

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Ever wish to have your cake and eat it too?  Ever fall in love with two different people and try to keep them both?  Mitch, Liv and Sam come together and one would think it's Liv that falls in love with both men.  That would be the wrong assumption.  Ms. Gregg turned it around with Mitch as the main character, wanting to have a love relationship with both Liv and Sam.  This perspective from a male with deviant sexual desires, chasing after two people was intriguing.  The sex scenes were intense and hot.  Flaming hot!  I wanted to jump my DH after reading each scene.

What I didn't expect was all the baggage Mitch carried.  Nor did I expect it to manifest in the way it did, without resolution.  Mitch is too softhearted despite his rugged construction worker persona.  Watching his heartbreak over his losses made my heart bleed a bit for him too.  Watching his relationship with Liv and Sam fall apart just about shattered my heart.  Ms. Gregg appears to have no compassion for her characters.  They never get a single break.  It's one bad incident after another.  At one point, I wanted to just kill myself to get over the sorrow for Mitch.

This is definitely not a HEA book.  It's a HFN and Ms. Gregg better write a sequel with a HEA for Mitch if she knows what is good for her.

Xmas Spark by Delphine Dryden

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This short and sweet book was purchased just so I could complete a book challenge.  I wasn't expecting too much.  I understand why the book is titled, Xmas Spark, but it really should be FLAME.  This is the first story I've read with the violet wand in it.  Now I want a violet wand set.  HOT!  Jack was a dominant man who I would love to submit to.  I thoroughly enjoyed this short story and would recommend it to my friends for a great quick read.  Be careful, you might start researching for violet wand kits after reading this book.  I did.

Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I had been dreading to read this book because of some of the rather bad reviews.  Still, my interest was piqued so I had to try it.  I borrowed this from the library and finally forced myself to read it today.  I really liked it.  It was a nice perspective to read from Alice's point of view.  This story was melancholy for me.  It's a book of lost innocence and love.  Was Mr. Dodgson a pedophile?  Maybe, maybe not.  Visiting Oxford when I lived in London, it was eye opening.  I found this book was quite gentle on him and the perspective different than the nasty rumours.  I did enjoy the speculations of Alice and her other love.  She didn't exactly experience unrequited love, instead, it was forbidden love.



What really stunned me was the book of young girls in dresses and odd poses Mr. Dodgson photographed.  This is rather disturbing.  This is disturbing enough that I wish to borrow this book just to see the pictures.  This will determine for me whether or not he was truly a lover of young girls. 



Still, I thought this was a very well written book mixed with fiction and facts.  I do love the Alice in Wonderland stories and reading this book did not colour my opinion of Mr. Dodgson.  It actually made me want to meet him.  Unfortunately, I well over a century too late.



Here is a website that shows some of his photographs of nude children.  Notice the two of Alice... rather disturbing. 

Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This review is going to be a bit different than my usual.  I'm going to follow in the footsteps of my friend, Mrs. Rhaw.  Some background first - I've never read a book from this author.  I picked up this book only because she created a funny video of her telling people not to read the book.  Her sense of humour was so over the top, I had to see if her writing voice was similar.  Now I'll start my review.

********Forewarning, spoilers may commence.************

I LOATHE YOU TOWN OF WYNETTE!  Y'all are crazy mo-fo who should be shot on sight!  Your sheer pettiness, maliciousness and downright lack of human decency is appalling.  Your lack of right and wrong, what the rest of the world knows as moral behaviour is shocking.  We call amoral people like you, sociopaths.  SHAME ON YOU!  And the women from this little messed up town, I have only one thing to say to you . . . See you next Tuesday!  If this is Southern Hospitality, I'd hate to see what they do to their enemies.

I rate my books by how much emotion can be wringed out of me.  I think I used 1/2 a box of Kleenex; I felt so bad for Meg.  Ted is an asshole and I hope he suffers.  I hoped he has his heart was ripped out and stomped on because I don't care if he's the town's golden boy and if he's a genius.  He is emotionally crippled and could give Spock or Data lessons.

Don't even get me started on Meg's parents and family.  I understand tough love, I really do.  I even use tough love.  I hope they feel guilt for all that Meg went through.  They claim they love and protect her.  Right, if that's love, I'd be interested in seeing how they explain rape, domestic violence and cruelty to animals.

Ms. Phillips did a wonderful job at bringing out the worst traits in humans.  I've never seen a small town portrayed in such a terrible light.  Nor have I ever seen a more terrible lynch mob and a more beaten down, but fighting heroine.  Meg isn't weak; I don't know how she survived this ordeal.  She has to be some kind of masochist.  If it had been me, I would have slaughtered the entire down and walked away laughing.  Meg did not. She brought them together and actually left them better off than when she showed up.

While Ms. Phillips did resolve this in a believable manner, I still feel there should have been more punishment doled out to the towns people, Meg's family and dear old perfect Ted.  I'm not reconciled with the ending because it was too easy for them.  I would have liked to have seen Meg actually raped and ending up in the ER, not just attempted assault.  It would serve those people right.  And it would have made me happy if Meg moved on and Ted was crushed.  Then they could have all known what a great person they lost through their malicious abused.  While many people think Ted is the one "irresistible", for me, it was Meg.  She's amazing.

Year 2011 - reading

This is my new blog which will list the best of books I enjoyed this year.  They are all over the place and sometimes, I may just write about an author I like or don't like.