Books Read 2016

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Isgrimnur
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Re: Books Read 2016

Post by Isgrimnur »

The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB

A detailed study of the Soviet history of espionage against the West, covering the whole history up through the Soviet bloc collapse. It covers actions against the political leadership, science and technical espionage, Cold War conspiracies, and even actions against religious factions.

The lists of agents without context and some of the political minutia can get a bit dry, but overall, if you're into the topic, it's a good book. 6/8.
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Kasey Chang
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Re: Books Read 2016

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Finished Falling Hard by Blair Babylon Free on Amazon

Surprisingly emotional self-discovery of a girl's sexuality through BDSM and a love triangle without the typical "ingenue seduce by experienced dom" trope. 6 out of 8


Finished The Way You Look Tonight by Bella Andre FREE on Amazon

Burned out PI went back to old lakefront home to restore it, and found the neighbor girl he grew up with is now all woman. The romance is rekindled, but his suspicious cynical nature lead him to darkest moment when he failed to trust her judgment... Personally, I find that as kinda lame darkest hour. 5 out of 8.
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Re: Books Read 2016

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Finished San Francisco Serenade by Ginger Voight a novelette (just over 100 pages)

Sabrina Parsens is an author trying to get over her breakup. Vance Gale is a retired rock star who don't want to engage any one. When they met by chance in San Francisco, they found friendship that quickly leads to something more. But is it enough to drop their barriers?

Kinda sweet as Sabrina worshiped Vance way back and her characters are kinda inspired by Vance, and the current Vance was kinda inspired by her romance novels. 6 out of 8.

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Finished Beauty and the Baller by Abbi Hemp

Austin is a defensive back for the Pro Football Team that wears a half-mask to cover his facial injuries from the accident that also took away his parents. When ambushed by a TV reporter desperate for a scoop, he lashed out, causing the reporter to lose her job. He felt bad, so he recommended her for the video program anchor position at his charity... and got to know her a lot better. But when their relationship became a liability for his career, what sacrifices will each make?

While the story and theme is great, the plot made no f***ing sense. The FMC was fired from two jobs, both of which were awfully arbitrary which just proves she had douchebag bosses. He on the other hand was very easily manipulated... except by the FMC. 4.5 out of 8.

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Finished Hour of Need by Melinda Leigh FREE on Prime Reading

Major Grant Barrett barely survive an ambush in Afghanistan when he got terrible news: his brother Lee and sister-in-law Kate were murdered in Scarlet Falls, their hometown. The career soldier had to go home on emergency leave to care for the orphaned nephew and baby niece... And came to know the neighbor, Ellie Ross, whose daughter Julia babysat the kids all the time, and could have been a couple with Grant... if he were ever settling down. Then Ellie was temporarily kidnapped and forced to find a file that may have been in Lee's possession, about a scandal in town... a teenager was bullied into suicide. What was Lee working on that got him and his wife killed? Can Grant figure it out? Can Ellie afford to tell grant? Who wanted the file? What was in the file? Who ordered Lee and Kate killed? What were they trying to cover up? As Ellie and Grant circle the truth... they can no longer deny their attraction to each other... but can it last? When he will be leaving in a few weeks? Can they find the killer in time?

Nice mystery with a dose of romance and sexy times in the middle. And no, I didn't see the real perp until the end and was surprised. And it was a GOOD twist. 7.5 out of 8.
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Re: Books Read 2016

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Finished Escaping Vegas by Danielle Bourdon FREE on Prime Reading

Madalina Maitland got a small inheritance from her grandpa... 1300 and a little dragon-shaped knickknack. So she heads off to Vegas for a vacation... met a charming guy at the roulette table, almost got kidnapped... and got rescued by the stranger: Cole West. Who is after her and why? As Cole and Madalina are forced into a close alliance, Madalina was comforted by his almost effortless protection... but when passion turned into betrayal, there may be no turning back...

There's a good twist but the recovery sucks, and the ending sucks. 5 out of 8. (And there is two more volume of this)

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Finished About That Fling by Tawna Fenske FREE on Prime Reading

Jenna, head PR of Belmont HMO, is having a very bad year. Belmont is having labor issues, and they are bringing in a mediator. Jenna's aunt Gertie, who's secretly a romance writer, told Jenna to take a romp on the wild side. Jenna's best GF Mia is pregnant and getting married to Mark, and can't do girl's night, so Jenna picked up the guy named Adam from the bar... and they had a GREAT night together. They promised to see each other. Next day, they discovered to their horror that Adam was the mediator... and Mia was Adam's Ex with a VERY bitter divorce when Mia strayed, which pushed Adam into a new career as a negotiator. Then Jenna's ex Sean appeared on the scene...

The relationships are surprisingly complex, and EVERYBODY has an ex and a skeleton they're hiding, and Jenna was struggling to hide her relationship with Adam... AND her big secret. Adam was more open, but his parting with Mia was NOT amicable at all. It's a messy situation, and it's 7/8.

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Finished The Substitute by Denise Grover Swank Free on Amazon

Megan Vandemeer grew up under a high pressure mother and was forever disappointing her since birth... including breaking up with her frigid cheating fiancee... but every talk with her mom start with mom mentioning how the wedding is going to be the best ever... that Megan put off the inevitable until she was flying home to Kansas City on the eve of her wedding... and no fiancee. A couple drinks and two Dramamine's later, Megan spilled her sob story to the tall, dark and handsome stranger in the seat next to her... then promptly fell asleep.

Josh McMillian has one week to save his business. Investigations show that their invention was stolen three years ago, and someone patented it a week before they could. The patent was issued to this company in Kansas City, and Josh is flying there trying to secure evidence of wrongdoing to save his company... when fate dumped Megan in his lap. His attempt to help her deplane resulted in him being mistaken for Megan's fiancee... And he realized it was serendipity... Megan's father was a principal in the company that "stole" his invention. He had to play along to the wedding, and perform a public breakup to help Megan... while find evidence to save his company.

But it never was that easy, when Megan's friend and brother try to break them up to "save" Megan from the person Josh is PRETENDING to be, while Megan fell for Josh faster than she can step away from him, even though they "knew" the wedding was not going to happen. Or is it?

Fun and fast read, always something happening, and even in the last moments there's a twist here and there that keep you wondering "OMG, what now?"

7.5 out of 8, rare for a romance, I know.
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Re: Books Read 2016

Post by YellowKing »

Finished:

Famous Crimes the World Forgot: Ten Vintage True Crime Stories Rescued From Obscurity by Jason Lucky Morrow.

I'm a sucker for true crime stuff and history, so this sounded like a sure bet. Pretty interesting read, though naturally some of the crimes (most of them take place in the 40s-50s) are more interesting than others. The crimes run the gamut from murder to arson, and give some perspective on the fact that the days of your grandparents weren't as necessarily as innocent and rosy as they've led you to believe. Nothing here blew my mind, and I'm sure a month from now all of them will be forgotten by me just like they've been forgotten by everyone else. But in an age where most true crime focuses on recent events, it's neat to take a step back and dust off some of these old cases.

The King's Traitor by Jeff Wheeler

This is the third volume in the Kingfountain series, and while it offers a satisfying conclusion to the story, it suffers from - and doubles down on - the same incredibly frustrating habits introduced in the second volume. First and foremost of these is the author's tendency to whip deus ex machinas out of his ass every other chapter. I'm fine with plot twists and unexpected surprises, but only if there is some solid foundation for them. Too many times I felt like enormous plot-changing devices were just casually tossed into the middle of a chapter willy-nilly. The series gets really high reviews on Amazon, so maybe it just didn't click with me personally. I will say that Wheeler is known for his "clean" fantasy, which means no sex or gratuitous violence. This worked just fine in the first volume when his protagonist was a child, and perhaps that's why I thought that book was really entertaining. When the hero grows up, though, and is still treating romance like a middle-school prom date, I guess it just subconsciously nagged at me. What you end up getting as a replacement for "mature" themes is a bunch of convoluted plot gimmicks to drive the story along.

I must say I was pretty pleased with myself for averaging just under 2 books a month this year. Not too shabby for me, since my reading time is fairly limited. I definitely credit my Kindle Voyage, as that thing is one of the favorite pieces of tech that I own. Next year should be even better, however, as I plan on leaping into audiobooks a lot more aggressively than I did this year (2016 was all about podcasts, but once I finish my current backlog I'm going to ease off of them a bit).
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Re: Books Read 2016

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Finished Some Like It In Handcuffs by Christine Warner[/url] FREE on Prime Reading

Sunny Kennedy is the only female in a family of blue blood male detectives, and was so desperate in proving herself (among so many male protective figures, including Daddy who's also the Police Captain) she takes almost insane risks going undercover as a bartender in bad side of town for a cold case... and got handcuffed back to HQ during a raid by a hunky detective Judson Blackwolf. Daddy's not please, and forced her to work with Judson... or get off the case completely. Judson doesn't think the females should be working alongside the males and take the risks , and working with Captain's daughter, which comes with an implicit "hands-off" policy, did not interest him, but the cold case Sunny was working on was the murder of his one-time mentor's daughter. However, as they started working together, they started getting hints that the murder had angles overlooked in the original investigation... and once they got past that initial hostility... Judson and Sunny like each other very much indeed...

Kinda "mortal enemies into lovers", this romance is tolerable, the murder mystery was actually not bad. I couldn't quite figure out the mood though, was this trying for comedy, romance, or thriller? 5.5 out of 8

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Finished Her Loyal SEAL by Caitlyn O'Leary FREE on Amazon

The "Midnight Delta" SEAL team was sent into the Mexican jungle to rescue the Hidalgo family from the drug cartel to testify against a major kingpin. Upon arrival, they found Lydia Hidalgo severely wounded, and they had to walk... DAYS in the raining jungle to reach extraction, during which Lydia almost died, and bonded with the SEAL carrying her, Clint Archer. Upon rescue, Lydia had to recover, and go under US Marshall service guard. However, when US Marshalls service was compromised, SEAL team took over their protection... and deal with the threats once and for all.

Clearly, the author had not heard of the Posse Comitatus Act (and the navy regulations that has the same effect). A SEAL team taking over witness protection from the Marshals... my ***. The book made less and less sense as it ended with lots of plot points unresolved due to extra characters introduced, like hacker friend "Riley Jones", Lydia's sister Beth, and so on, as they are in later volumes. 3 out of 8 and that's mainly for effort.
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Re: Books Read 2016

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Finished Evan: A Heart Valley Romance by Linsey Lanier FREE on Amazon
Amanda "Mandy" Wynd left Heart Valley and never wanted to go back after Evan McDaniel broke her heart four years ago. He'd never go against his father's wishes. Now she's back in town to help her BFF's investigation service off the ground... and because she got downsized from her New York ad agency job. She's going back to NYC as soon as she can afford to... Until something was discovered on the McDaniels ranch, and brought her back again next to Evan McDaniel.

Evan McDaniel, heir to the McDaniel ranch, cannot forget Mandy, but she left for the big city and never looked back and he'd never hold her back. But when his ranch hands found human remains on their property, he called in the investigation service, and Mandy came back to his life... as beautiful as ever. But she was not going to stay, right?
Mandy seems to be SEVERELY lacking in self-respect, and mentally makes the worst-case assumption regarding herself and runs for the hills. She misunderstood what she overheard four years ago and runs for New York, and she managed to do it AGAIN in the present. And Evan is just magnanimously STUPID to let her run again, until someone talked some sense into him. I guess that counts as a grand gesture. The part about archaeological digs and some hidden family history was nice though.

5 out of 8

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Finished Nellie by Cynthia Woolf

Nellie is a young widow with two children in post-Civil War New York, barely getting by with in-laws that barely tolerate her, and no suitors who want to raise another's children. She sets herself up as mail order bride and went all the way to San Francisco... and become the new bride of Blake Malone, a saloon owner who needed a ready-made family so the city can approve his plans for a family emporium. Surprisingly, Blake took immediately liking to the kids, but when Blake's psycho ex, a manager for the "girls" in his Saloon, chose to make good on her threats to Nellie to "do away with her competition", there will be some trouble ahead for this unlikely couple.

Surprisingly "modern" at times, the story wasn't bad, actually, but ran a bit long with multiple threats: Nellie's former in-laws, Blake's psycho ex, and their romance/love and yes, sex. 6 out of 8

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Finished All At Sea by Tracey Pedersen FREE on Amazon

Jenna is an author who lost her mojo and major writer's block. She also has a bit of a stalker problem as her neighbor James seems bit obsessed about her. So she goes on a whale-watching cruise... and meets Ryan Price. Ryan was taking his mother to a whale-watching cruise. He had no idea why his psycho-ex did to come along, probably by charming his dimentia ridden mother. There was instant attraction between Jenna and Ryan, both with similar problems. When disaster sank the whale-watching boat, Jenna and Ryan was swept out to sea on a dinghy and spent several days stranded on an uncharted island, enjoying each other's company VERY much. When they were rescued though, they broke apart, each believing neither wanted anything to do with the other. But circumstances soon proves that there's a conspiracy at play... and both have been lied to...

The pivot from "castaway" to "deal with two psychos" was deftly done, but the end suffers from way too much "tell not show". 5.5 out of 8
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Re: Books Read 2016

Post by Jeff V »

The Lafayette Sword by Eric Giacometti :binky: :binky: :binky: :binky: :binky: :binky:

The Lafayette Sword is a Masonic puzzle passed through the centuries. The sword itself simply adds to the clues; the story itself concerns that fanciful notion of alchemy and the philosopher's stone -- material that can transmute any metal into gold.

This novel bounces back and forth between modern times and 14th century France. Two modern Freemasons are murdered, and the killer shows every sign of being a high-level member in the cult. Antoine Marcas, a Mason and an investigator with the Paris police, is engaged as a cop, as a friend of one of the murdered, and as a Freemason himself. In parallel, we are also told the story of Nicolas Flamel, a scribe in Paris in 1355. Flamel is brought in by a torturer to record the confession of a young lady who was traveling companion to a Jew burned at the stake. The Jew had a book, a book that contained the secretes of alchemy -- just what a broke France needed to continue during the 100 years war with England.

The story is nicely paced, engaging in both timelines. We wind up in familiar territory, the Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty; both which have been the source of Masonic intrigues in other novels involving this cult. The translation from its original French is superb. A listed coauthor who is grand poobah in the Paris Masonic Temple adds a air of authenticity to the inner workings of this somewhat secretive cult.

This would make a good script for an crime thriller.
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Re: Books Read 2016

Post by Jeff V »

A Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science by Richard Dawkins :binky: :binky: :binky: :binky: :binky: :binky: :binky:

This is the second of Dawkins memoirs to come out since his retirement as an active professor at Oxford University, this book is more about the science that was the focus of his career than his previous life history. He still does a little name dropping, but it's more in sync with professional moments in his career (a final interview with Christopher Hitchens or debates with antagonistic American evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould). He discusses the science that was the foundation behind each of his books, and, of course, still manages to fire a few shots across the bow of Creationism. What I found most interesting is that one of the Microsoft billionaires, Charles Simonyi, endowed a professorship at Oxford for a specific purpose Dawkins was to fill. This started a series of lectures featuring some of the world's leading scientists and philosophers of science. Dawkins discusses this guest speakers of each of these lectures in detail.

Dawkins concludes the book with a poem of his own devising, giving some hope that he's not yet done writing about science. I do hope he still has some books left in him, as a leading Humanist, he is a large voice for the cause.
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Re: Books Read 2016

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The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson:binky: :binky: :binky: :binky: :binky: :binky:

OK, so December comes and I'm some 20 books short of the annual goal of 75. No problem, just pick up a few quick reads and...

Well, let's just say 2017 will start slow too as I take on a no-shorter second volume, Words of Radiance.

The Way of Kings is the start of a massive epic tale. Common for such things, there's a lot of characters to establish, lore to put their actions in to context, and development of the unearthly elements that make this fantasy and not just some alternate history. While this could be done efficiently with some straight narration, it would probably read like a history book. Instead, Sanderson jumps the time line, using events when they happened to infer impact on the current time. This can be hard to get into, particularly in an audiobook format. I probably should go back and re-listen to the first 10-12 hours of this 48 hour recording just to pick up things I missed as my mind wandered often until I started getting engaged in the story.

Thus far, despite the size of the book, the number of principle characters is rather small. This is no Game of Thrones -- yet. And while that simplifies things for the reader, the story lines for the characters involved move quiet slow as Sanderson pours a lot of information establishing the hows and whys of their actions.

The climax of the story left the sympathetic characters in rather good shape, but the bad guys didn't exactly lose. There are still things not fully understood, I presume we will be enlightened in books to come. One thing that starts to become clear is that the events that unfold through Way of Kings are but a sideshow to something more profound that few of the characters are just beginning to understand. I look forward to the next and future books of the series.

One quick note on the audio production. Several different readers are used, and one of them pronounces a major character's name differently than the others. I'll put this squarely on the producers, who should be aware of such things and correct the reader. I've seen this happen when series changes readers mid-stream, but it's especially disconcerting when it happens within a single book.
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Re: Books Read 2016

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Can you get an audio book on Amazon and have it play directly on your PC? Must you download first?
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Re: Books Read 2016

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Jaymann wrote:Can you get an audio book on Amazon and have it play directly on your PC? Must you download first?
Pretty sure you have to install AudibleManager to have it download properly.

https://audible.custhelp.com/app/answer ... 757/c/3082
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Re: Books Read 2016

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Finished Advance to Contact by CJ Carella, Warp Marines Book 3

Third Volume of the Warp Marines, where United Stars of America is under siege from multiple hostile alien species and Day of Infamy (in Book 1) had seen hundreds of outposts and such attacked. In Book 2, a counter offensive destroyed one of humanity's enemies, but that's a minor league player, mainly due to deployment of new warp fighters. In Book 3, the warp marines are going to meet yet another test... The Tai-Linn, one of the oldest species in the galaxy, has requested the presence of the humans, possibly to negotiate transit rights (right now, they are prohibiting any hostiles through, and their world is a transit nexus) and the United Stars decided to send Secretary of State plus the veteran company of Warp Marines as escort. Once they got there, nothing is as it seems. They were held hostage on the station, along with their worst enemies, the "Lampreys", and the Tai-Linns are keeping them only for entertainment, to staged "Arena" combats where the two companies are to fight each other... and whatever nasty creatures the Tai-Linn think of, while two factions within the Tai-Linn enlist two humans to destroy the other faction... Then humans discover the secrets the Tai-Linn were REALLY hiding...

Warp Marines so far have turned out to be a better military sci-fi series that managed to be fresh without overly rehashing things unlike the other series I've read previously, mainly by changing the environment and the enemies around. 7 out of 8 if you like the genre.

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Finished Dangerous Attraction by Sidney Bristol FREE on Amazon

Ex-SEAL Travis made one mistake... trusting a guy too much, and he got a felony conviction out of it. Only Aegis Group took him in as security consultant, and they are helping FBI to find a serial killer operating around Las Vegas for over a decade... and ran into Bliss Giles, who wanted to report her sister missing but LVPD wasn't very sympathetic. Travis realized Bliss' sister Wendy is the last victim of this serial killer, as Wendy fit the profile perfectly. Travis needed Bliss' help in retracing Wendy's footsteps, and Bliss wanted Travis. But the psychopath has a plan for Wendy, and it does not include meddlesome EX-SEAL and pesky sister...

Enough too-stupid-to-live moments to cringe. Travis tells Bliss "I'm going to check the place out. It will take a while. STAY IN THE CAR." And guess what she does? She drives up to the house when her panic takes over and she goes into the house, alone. In another one, Wendy was told NEVER GO OUTSIDE. But when her housekeeper arrived, she goes outside to help with groceries, only to find the bad guy holding a knife to her housekeeper's throat, i.e. "get in the trunk or I kill her". In another case, Bliss revealed that her sister was wearing a tracking device because she believed she can kill Daniel alone and she doesn't want cops there to mess everything up. (!)

3/8 even though the rest of the book and the plotting actually ain't that bad.

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Finished The Hunter Bride by Cynthia Woolf FREE on Amazon

Josephine "Jo" Shafter's life as bounty hunter was done when she put her father and her brother's killer behind bars, and now her life is without purpose. Nobody in the East will marry a gun-toting foul-mouthed tough woman... So... she married herself all the way out to Montana, to a little town of Hope's Crossing, to the local sheriff Sam Longworth, and hope she can be as womanly as her mother had taught her so long ago.

Sam Longworth has his own problems. He was a bounty hunter until his wife asked him to settle down, so he did and became a pretty miserable sheriff, until his wife decided it's not enough, left on a stage coach... except she never made it. And he blamed himself. So he just needs a wife, a cook, a cleaner, a partner, but not a lover.

Until Jo's nemesis, the person she put behind bars, escaped, and is looking for her... Can both husband and wife, keeping secrets from each other, show some trust before either of them got killed?

Well, that's decided a more interesting take on the typical mail order bride trope of "weak and meek woman". But the occasional tease about the bad guy around town was not balanced well with all the scenes of domestic bliss, i.e. sexy times, cooking a meal, and so on. The chemistry between the two was somewhat lacking. Still, like the idea. 4/8
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Re: Books Read 2016

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Finished Chrismas Lights: 4 novella anthology

Collection of 4 novellas about Christmas, decent collection on different themes, some comedic, some suspense, some just cozy and warm and fuzzy. 5.5 out of 8
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Re: Books Read 2016

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Finished Riding Dirty by Kara Hart

The title actually had nothing to do with the subject. The subject is actually a pretty decently plotted story about a girl escaping from a nasty ex, falls for a Mafia hitman coming into town for a "job", and it turns out his next job was finding her ex. However, the ending kinda sucked. New characters introduced then disappeared, and catching the ex was way too easy. 4/8

Finished Fleetfoot Interstellar by P. Joseph Cherubino

Fleetfoot Interstellar Freight is in trouble. Ship is getting old, crew is getting tired, and captain Drexler Fleetfoot is barely holding together his family legacy. Then he stumbled into a plot that Reptilians are about to invade the Trade Union... Now he's on the run as a Union Spy, but he has some unlikely allies...

Good world building where one of the planet in the Union is entirely Indian (as in from India) with caste system and royalty and such. But the blah blah about Fleetfoot family's other members, esp. Margaret, who married a senator/prince was not explained very well, even to the end, IMHO, something about search for a legendary "Keystone Ship" that Papa Fleetfoot may have made off with a long time ago. And there's going to be sequels, of course. Call this... 5.5 out of 8
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Re: Books Read 2016

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Finished Searching for Glory by Hunter J. Keane

Gloria Star is rich and famous, with a hit TV show, engaged to one of the most eligible bachelors in Hollywood, but she got a letter in the mail to go home, and all the past she tried to hide for ten years came back to haunt her. For Gloria Star used to be simply a Mid-western girl named Glory Stark. The only man she ever loved, Johnny Carter, is asking her to come home... and she cannot refuse, for Johnny saved her life... and her future, by sacrificing himself ten years ago one night. Now Gloria is heading back to Missouri to reconnect with her sister Vic and her four kids... to make amends with Johnny... but the small town does not forget, and her fame causes problem everywhere, esp. her outtakes and tabloid appearances, but a family is forever, and forgiveness paramount, for she must confront her past and deal with her present, in order to secure her future.

Family drama AND a bit of unrequited love for, as well as "problem with fame". Tear-jerking at times. 7/8

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Finished Here to Stay by Kristine Raymond FREE on Amazon

In the Old West Arizona, Sam Mackenzie rode into the town of Hidden Springs looking for a home and adventure. He found a job a the Ryan Ranch, and realized the ranch owner is female, who always looks... haunted, yet very helpful to everyone in town. Kate Ryan is a woman determined to make it on her own, but she needed to hire help if she hoped to get her ranch up and running quickly. And she couldn't help but to fall for the handsome stranger who wanted to court her despite having only a few dollars to his name. For she is rich, at least by local standards. But she had to turn him away, because she had a terrible shame she did not dare to reveal to any one...

Frankly, I have no problem with a bit if angst between the two characters, but when the two characters started to make each other miserable for no particular reason I think the author just ran out of ideas and went stupid. In this book, Sam and Kate basically drove each other bonkers by denying themselves and each other and stay away, which leads the other to make all sorts of worst case assumptions (maybe s/he's move on, maybe s/he no longer loves me...) that's just making the book longer, IMHO. And it's not that long of a book! 4/8
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Re: Books Read 2016

Post by Kasey Chang »

Finished Turbulent Intentions by Melody Anne FREE on Prime Reading

The Armstrong Brothers are a fiery rough but rich bunch, but somehow they can never satisfy their father, and thus they won't get the rest of their inheritance until they marry and settle down. Cooper, the oldest, went on to start his own airline, but he also takes cockpit time as one of the pilots, and while cavorting with stewardesses was fun, he could not forget the one-night stand he had with a girl whom he never saw again, that is, until he ran into her, literally, at the airport cafe as the barista. When he next found her as a tenant in his guest house (thanks to his meddling uncle) he knew that's his Cinderella and he is going to do all he can to woo her into his bed... for good this time.

Frankly, having the founder of an airline who also want to take stick time as a pilot is a bit far-fetched, not to mention being as young and handsome as he is. And also, a 757 with one engine can fly just fine, rather than going into a death spiral like in the book. If it really went into a spiral dive like that, it would have torn the damaged engine and the wing off. But then, this is a fantasy. The author was going for miracle on the Hudson albeit in the ocean. The romance parts weren't that bad, actually. 6 out of 8

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Finished The Trouble With Tinsel by Kelly Collins FREE on Amazon

Mandy and Beau had a thing in Bell Mountain, but they both had dreams that didn't include each other. Beau wanted to go into music, and Mandy wanted to go to cooking school. After a breakup where they each believe they sacrificed for each other, they parted. Beau went on to be a rock star... Mandy went to Paris... and came back a single mother with a boy named Tommy. She was doing fine in New York until summoned back by her mom... Mom has injured her wrist and the family sweet business needs a Sawyer to run it. So she's heading back to town... only to find that Beau is due in right after her. Is there a chance to rekindle the flames between Mandy and Beau? Is mom's injury as serious as it seems? What will happen after the holidays?

Not a bad story about going home and face your demons, but again, each is too quick in "I'll sacrifice myself for his/her happiness" without 1) asking is what the other would have wanted or 2) is there another way. I'm getting jaded in seeing stories like this, I guess. 5/8

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Finished A Valentine's Surprise by Melanie James FREE on Amazon

Adam is a cop that raised his sister after death of their parents. Now in his 30's, he hadn't dated for a long while. When he was injured in the line of duty, he reevaluated his life and decided he should find someone for him... and the nurse seem to be the perfect candidate. Amanda was one of those givers who poured her heart into everyone around her, but never of herself. After caring for two parents, and watch both pass away, she went into nursing, always too busy to love... until she met Adam.

A novelette (only 100 pages), the story really didn't have much tension to it, as there's nothing stopping them from getting together. 4/8
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Isgrimnur
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Re: Books Read 2016

Post by Isgrimnur »

Wrong thread. :ninja:
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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