The Master by Kresley Cole
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: February 2015

 

Catarina Marin needs money now. Enough money to start again on the other side of the country. A random sighting of her estranged husband has her on edge and ready to run. Forced to live under the radar and deal with aplenty of people willing to exploit her, she decides to escort to make some quick cash. Her first "client" is a “drop dead gorgeous” Russian billionaire with mafiya connections. The one problem is she is not the girl he requested from the agency. She doesn't even work for the agency and fulfilled her friend's booking.

Cat only has the most basic idea about escorting and would really be doing anything other than catering to snotty rich dude. Max did not get the woman he booked but decides to go outside his comfort zone.  When Max thinks Cat is trying to trap him, he goes full mafiya on her. Now that she has a husband hunting her and a billionaire mad at her, we get a little more of Cat's back story and see how she ended up in her current situation.  We also learn more about Max and his family and why he reacts to her the way he does.  Gradually, we see them growing on each other and realizing that they have feelings for each other.

The Master was an enjoyable read. It gets sexually explicit very fast. Even though the book is called The Master, it isn't really any bondage or BDSM - basically it's not a 50 shades clone.  Compared to the pacing of the rest of the book, the ending seemed a little rushed. Granted the main male character being a billionaire helped the action along as he would have money to get all the loose ends tied up quickly.

Just a note, this is actually the second book in The Game Maker series and has spoilers of the first book in the series. You might want to read the first book to avoid being spoiled and have a full scope of the series.  Although based on the snippet in the book, the first book seems like a pretty good story of its own.

This review copy was provided by the publisher.

Blog Tour: The Doula by Bridget Boland

The Doula by Bridget Boland
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publish Date: September 4, 2012






 Growing up in a family that owns a funeral home, Carolyn Connors chooses to be a doula.  Helping mothers through their childbirth is more to her liking than shuttling people to the gates of death.  When her best friend Mary Grace asks her to be her doula, she gladly moves to Milwaukee to help her despite her premonitions of doom.  Her worst fears come true when Mary Grace dies shortly after giving birth.  The nightmare is only beginning when Mary Grace's husband decides to sue her.

Carolyn lives her life for others.  Her brother Paulie dies when she is 12 and her mother who had just had a miscarriage enters an extended period of depression.  But Carolyn also finds a bottle of pills when her mother miscarries and realizes that her mom probably induced the miscarriage (aka home abortion).  Carolyn takes responsibility for running the family.  She even becomes a nurse and works with her mother.  All the while, Mary Grace and Carolyn's siblings leave the nest and make their own lives.  Carolyn stays at home -  even sleeping in bed with her mom!!! - until the death of one of her patients while she was in nursing school.  So it's not surprising that she would pack up her life and move states to help out her best friend.  Even when Mary Grace sports some unmentioned implants and Mary Grace's husband clearly has some unexplained hostility to her. Carolyn grows over the course of the novel.  I was flabbergasted by the lengths she goes to in order to protect her clearly mentally ill mother and her super unhealthy relationship with her mother.   From allowing everyone to use her a crutch, she stands up for herself literally. 

Bridget Boland's writing is great but Carolyn was a difficult character to get into.  She seems to have some sort of foresight or prescience which she just chooses to ignore.  Even when a colleague advises her to fall back from the Mary Grace situation, she still charges in.  What's the use of ESP if you choose to ignore it?  Almost every conflict in her life is caused by Carolyn making the worst possible decision in every situation.  

**This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.**

Review: Freak by Jennifer Hillier

Freak by Jennifer Hillier
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: August 7, 2012

Freak starts about a year after the events in Creep.  Jerry Isaac, former cop/current private investigator,  is still recovering both physically mentally from his encounter with violent killer Abby Maddox.  With rehab for her sex addiction behind her, Professor Sheila Tao is putting the pieces of her personal and professional life back together.  With Ethan Wolfe dead and gone, the only loose end is his girlfriend, Abby Maddox.  At contention is whether she was his accomplice or the mastermind of the heinous crimes which occurred a year earlier.

Shortly after Abby is charged with murder of Diana St. Clair, someone starts killing women who resemble her and carving "FREE ABBY MADDOX" and a counter into their bodies.  Jerry is contacted by his former partner Detective Mike Torrance and asked to visit Abby in prison.  Surprisingly(or not depending on how you look at it) Abby claims to have knowledge of who might be the killer and offers to provide information about the killer in exchange for a transfer to a minimum security prison.  Catching the Free Abby killer is a little too easy and Jerry gets suspicious that they haven't even seen the beginning of what Abby really has planned.  Using her entire repertoire of tricks, Abby manipulates everyone from the prison guards to her lawyer to Jerry and Sheila to accomplish her goals of escaping prison and getting revenge on Sheila for Ethan's death.  Once Abby escapes custody, it's only a matter of time before she finds Sheila and avenges Ethan's death.  When Sheila and Marianne, Jerry's estranged wife, go missing, Jerry and Torrance are racing to find both women before Abby kills them.  In Abby's clutches, Sheila vacillates between begging for the mercy of death and trying to survive Abby's attack.  When a secret accomplice shows up, Sheila starts to give up hope.
In Freak, we get more information about Abby Maddox and continues to try to convince that she was Ethan's victim as well. This just serves to highlight her ultra manipulative nature.  The secret accomplice at the end was kind of paint by numbers.  While it was supposed to be a shock, it was heavily shadowed in the beginning and kind of inevitable.  All in all Freak is a great suspenseful read just like the previous book, Creep.


**This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.**
This should have posted 89.

Review: I'm Kind of A Big Deal: And Other Delusions of Adequacy by Stefanie Wilder-Taylor

I'm Kind of A Big Deal: And Other Delusions of Adequacy by Stefanie Wilder-Taylor
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published Date: June 2011







I'm Kind of a Big Deal: And Other Delusions of Adequacy is Stefanie Wilder-Taylor's memory of her journey through Hollywood.  After initially leaving home for New York, she realizes that California might be a better bet to achieving her dream of being an actress.  Amusing anecdotes of the various jobs she has while trying to audition for acting jobs.  Even more fun when she realizes that her manager's wife auditions for all the prime jobs!  Little does she know that suffering through a dating show cattle call would lead to her promising career in show writing and show running.  Finally, she finds something she enjoys doing that she can earn money and enjoys doing.

Having never read any of Stefanie Wilder-Taylor's other books, I had no idea what to expect.  This book exceeded my expectation. Several parts of the book were chest clutching funny. Her description of her struggle with alcoholism and the details of her relationship with her dad were poignant.  The only part I disliked were the letters to Angelina Jolie at the end of the book.  They kind of dragged the book down for me.

**This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.**

Review: Targets of Opportunity by Jeffrey S. Stephens

Targets of Opportunity by Jeffrey S. Stephens
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publish Date: August 30, 2011








When a senior member of Iranian military group defects, the CIA is wary but hopeful.  Asking for Agent Jordan Sandor does nothing to set the CIA at ease.  Abu Jaber intimates knowledge of a new terror plot afoot. When a plane blows up followed by the takeover of a French surveillance site in the Caribbean, every one starts to take him a little more seriously.  Now everyone is scrambling for the merest inkling of the plot.  Coming up with a plan is difficult when you barely know your opponent and can't ascertain his point - especially when he is a master strategist.

Jaber's wife is picked up by the Iranians and offered the option of finding her husband and turning him over to Iranian authorities.  Not knowing whether he has abandoned her or has a larger plan at work, she jumps at a chance to leave Iran and confront him.  Caught in the crossfire, Jordan and his team begin to ascertain the real puppet master for this plot.  A mystery man from South America renowned for his philosophy and economic theories but rejected for the extreme actions needed to fulfill his ultimate goal.  Once they figure out who is behind the plot all the pieces start coming together and the team is able to aim their limited resources in the most appropriate manner.  The realization that a nuclear weapon is spurs the team into furious action. On a dark and stormy night, everything came to a head.  Only the extremely brave and skillful action s of some Navy Seals avert major disaster.

Having never read a Jordan Sandor novel, I had no idea what to expect.  I got a fast paced action thriller that incorporates ripped from the headlines facts.  Even though the book is over 400 pages, the action was continuous and constant making the story seem way shorter.  The basic plot, a terrorist anti-US alliance between two countries is scarily realistic.  All that being said this book was ridiculous in some ways.  The bad guys all die in really theatrical ways.  Jordan is able to muscle his way out of one of the most surveilled and controlled countries pretty much spur of the moment.  He's always going according to his own plan.  The finale is the perfect storm literally, but everything works out.

**This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.**

Review: Happily Ever After by Harriet Evans

Happily Ever After


Happily Ever After by Harriet Evans
Publisher: Gallery Books Publish date: June 5, 2012

appily Ever After by Harriet Evans is a somewhat typical growing up story. Growing up in the English countryside, Eleanor Bee wants to work in publishing. After several weeks on her friend's couch, she starts to fret that her dream is not going to happen. Chancing on an ad looking for a secretary for Bluebird Publishing, she applies. Luckily, no one else did. Over the course of several years, she progresses in her career at Bluebird, weathering a merger and first love and heartbreak. She makes new friends and gains some lovers. Coming to terms with the true extent of her mother's alcoholism and her own fledgling alcohol problem while running from a complicated "situation", she jumps on an opportunity to move to New York. Despite finding love and success in New York, she still feels like something is missing. A trip home to England in attempt to tie up loose ends leaves her feeling even more adrift. She begins to wonder whether she should leave her New York life, the fantasy she made into her reality, or stay and deal with the longings for something to fill the void in her life. Happily Ever After is in the vein of Bridget Jones' Diary and Something Borrowed If you like those types of books, you'll like this one. The major difference is that Elle is successful in her job and her love life - even as she struggles with the way her success dictates her choices. The choices Elle makes seems true to the character and her actions. I also liked the fact that the book was written as a complete book and not a prequel or part of a continuing series. ** This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.**

Review: The Taker by Alma Katsu

Title: The Taker by Alma Katsu
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: September 6, 2011
ISBN: 9781439197059
Pages: 448


       In a sleepy New England town, a sheriff drops off a confessed murderer to a hospital for a physical exam before imprisonment.  Dr. Luke Findley is excited yet wary upon seeing the diminutive young patient - nothing exciting happens this far out.  The young lady admits to committing the murder but swears she had good reason and even shows him something unbelievable.  In exchange for helping her escape, the good doctor can hear her mysterious story and learn about her mysterious skills.

     Lanny McIlvrae needs to get away from Maine as soon as possible.  Now that she has convince Luke to help her escape she fulfills her promise to fill him in on her past. Starting from her first meeting with Jonathan St. Andrew which sparks her eternal, unrequited obsession.  For years she pined for him while he tom catted around town even cleaning up the mess caused by one of his more serious entanglements.  So you can imagine her joy when Jonathan finally looked at her as a woman.  Their short interlude leads to a pregnancy, causing her parents to pack her off to a convent till it was born.  Instead of going to the convent, she decides to roam the streets of Boston where she bumps into the charming Adair and his motley crew. 

  Gradually she gets swept in to their world of excess and debauchery and becomes Adair's favorite.  A sudden illness requires extreme action from Adair and Lanny comes to learn of the true bond that keeps this "family" together.  When Adair hears of Jonathan's renowned good looks, he pesters Lanny to invite him to join the household.  Only after Jonathan becomes part of the household does Lanny ascertain Adair's true reason for seeking Jonathan's company.  She and Jonathan imprison Adair and flee creating a life for themselves together and separately across the centuries leading to the events where she meets Luke.

The Taker, Alma Katsu's debut novel,  is part History Channel and part SyFy Channel.  It's a cool play on the concept of immortality that doesn't include vampirism or other typical supernatural creatures.  The villain was greatly developed although I wish the other housemates were more developed. Lanny's devotion/obsession with Jonathan was kind of annoying though.  She still couldn't get that even with centuries passing he wasn't that interested in her and had trouble letting go. 

*The review copy was provided by the publisher Gallery Books in exchange for my honest opinion.*

Review: Groundswell by Katie Lee

  

Title: Groundswell by Katie Lee
Publisher: Free Press
Published: June 21, 2011
ISBN: 9781439183595
Pages: 240

From Amazon:
   . . .
Sometimes the biggest ripples come from the smallest events. Like the day that Emma Guthrie walks into world-famous movie star Garrett Walker’s trailer. When she steps through the door, she’s a novice PA who’s just dropped out of college after losing her scholarship. When she walks out, she’s on her way to becoming Mrs. Emma Walker—wife of an A-list actor. Soon, Emma has made the transition from nobody to red-carpet royalty, trading jeans and flip-flops for closets full of Chanel and Birkin bags, swishing past velvet ropes to attend every lavish party and charity gala on both coasts. With her husband’s encouragement, Emma pens a screenplay based on her life, Fame Tax, which becomes a blockbuster sensation. Through it all, Garrett is her ally and her mentor . . . until their relationship is thrown into question by an incriminating text message that Emma discovers on Garrett’s phone the night of the Met Costume Institute Gala.
Devastated by her husband’s infidelity and hounded mercilessly by the paparazzi, Emma must flee New York City to get away from it all and clear her head. Her destination? A sleepy coastal town in Mexico where no one recognizes her and there is nothing but unspoiled beaches for miles. Here, she meets Ben, a gorgeous, California-born surf instructor, who teaches her about the healing powers of surfing, shows her the joys of the simple life, and ultimately opens her up to the possibility of love........


Groundswell is a great read for the beach or train, plane or car ride.  It's a quick, enjoyable read.  The only downside is that most of the novel talks about her life just before and during her marriage.  It would have been great for her period of self-discovery in Mexico was longer.  All in all, Emma was a realistic character; we were there with her every step of the way..  Cookbooks aren't the only thing Katie Lee can write.

Review: In Stitches by Anthony Youn, M.D.

Title: In Stitches by Anthony Youn, M.D.
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: April 26, 2011
ISBN: 9781451608441
Pages: 288

    Growing up Anthony Youn was one of two Asian kids in his small Michigan town.  He struggles to fit in and be one of the cool kids -- a mission not made any easier by his immigrant father's commands for him to study to be a doctor (surgeon, not family practitioner), to practice tennis, and to do the yard work.  Even brief periods of coolness by association can't help Anthony in his mission to be a "cool" kid.  He buckles down and works hard to follow his father's directions or at least appear to.  Then, in high school, it happens.  His underbite becomes more and more massive as his jaw refuses to stop growing.  He undergoes surgery to correct his jaw problem and a spark for his eventual career is born.
    Youn goes to college convinced that he will become a doctor and that he will finally get a girl.  He aces his classes and makes friends, but still has trouble meeting girls.  No matter what advice his friends give; he always seems to strike out.  After four years of college, he's ready for medical school but his social life is in an even worse condition.  Not until medical school does Youn finally starts to see being a doctor as a career and not a job where he can make money.  He begins to have more success with the ladies, not without hilarious incidents along the way.  Eventually, he meets his eventual wife.  During his pediatric rotation, he answers a call of a baby that was mauled by its mothers pet raccoon (yeah I know).  Seeing the plastic surgeon planning how to piece the baby's face back together and remembering his own jaw surgery, he feels called to become a reconstructive plastic surgeon.  He begins a mad scramble to become accepted into a plastic surgery program.  He is accepted to his first choice and is on his way to being a plastic surgeon.

In Stitches is a reference both to Dr. Youn's career as a plastic surgeon and the humor in the memoir.  He takes us back through his life detailing his victories and his defeats.  He is self-deprecating, especially in his accounts of his failed "relationships" and dates.  We can see the growth in his relationship with his father.  He realizes that his father is trying to instill a work ethic in him.  The same unfailing work ethic is what took his father from being a poor farm boy in Korea to being a Michigan OB/GYN married to a woman from a higher social class.  His father is able to relax and accept him being any type of doctor and his having a white girlfriend.  After being part of a humiliating verbal attack on his gay roommate, Youn also reevaluates his religion and chooses to practice a Christianity that accepts gay people and encourages tolerance to all of mankind.  The biggest change might be that being a doctor becomes his calling rather than a job that pleases daddy.  He realizes the responsibility he owes to his future patients to help them the same way he was helped.

There is cursing, crude humor, and other foul language in the book.  Something that detracted from the book was the fact that every woman he found intimidating was described as manly.  In addition, any woman that weren't "hot" (blond sorority girls, his eventual wife, and a couple of fiery Latinas) seemed to have been treated as wastes of space.  He routinely critiques his friend's dating choices as less than attractive because they didn't fit the Playboy/Penthouse standard.  It's just a very crude, immature point of view and hopefully he grew out of it.

Blog Tour: The Buterfly's Daughter by Mary Alice Monroe

 

Title: The Butterfly's Daughter by Mary Alice Monroe
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: May 2011
ISBN: 9781439170618
Pages: 400

           Abuela (Grandma) Esperanza raises Luz after her mother dies.  She spends many years in cold Wisconsin far from her Mexican home working to give Luz a good life.  After receiving some news  from her daughter Maria, Esperanza plans a road trip to San Antonio to see her daughter Maria and then to Mexico to take Luz to visit family, see winter home of the monarch butterfly, and complete a family tradition.  Abuela dies before she can complete her mission.
           Truly alone for the first time in her life, Luz decides to go on the trip Abuela planned for them.   Leaving her home and her boyfriend Sully, she drives southward to fulfill this commitment to herself and her Abuela.  Her cross-country trip becomes a journey of self-discovery; she meets people along the way that seem to appear at the perfect time for their mutual growth and progress.
           In San Antonio at her aunt's house, she finds out the real reason for Abuela's urgency in making this "pilgrimage".  The life-altering secret cause her to rethink her Abuela and her upbringing.  Continuing southward to Abuela's birthplace and the winter home of the monarch butterfly, Luz meets family and participates in cultural traditions for the first time. Eventually Luz has to make a decision whether to embrace the future or cling to her past ideas about her life.
            Each chapter of the novel is preceded with a fact about monarch butterfly's life that correlates with the events of that chapter.  The butterflys are the ties that bind all the characters in the book together.   Just like later generations complete the original butterfly's pilgrimage, Luz completes the path set by her ancestors.  Despite all the obstacles, she emerges from her chrysalis (comfort zone) and sees the long, daunting journey through.
         
*This book was provided by the publisher Gallery Books in exchange for my honest opinion.*