A unique setting (Hawaii), and some steamy but slightly unrealistic sex scenes (how did the surfboard not tip over??). I'm sure this would go out just fine in any library's mass market section, but would be best bought for an eBook lending collection.

Thank you to www.netgalley.com for the ARC.

Lilias and Angelstone see each other across the horrors of the battlfield of Waterloo, then never again for many years. Both have dead lovers; one lost during Waterloo, the other to an assassin. A tangled path of lies and conspiracy bring them together to solve the mysteries surrounding the deaths of their loved ones.

Super fun, fairly hot, and with a more unique spin then the typical romance tropes, I enjoyed reading this!

Super adorable, with lots of fun, geeky references. I'd compare Castle to Jill Shalvis but with a little more nerd cred. I'm also a true sucker for second chance at love stories, so this was a shoe in for me.

On a spoiler-y note, I was very pleased that Sam (the heroine) didn't let the hero get away with dumb shit like being oblivious to an evil ex trying to steal him from her. Go girl. Also, there was cute kitties, and one was named Loki. High five.

This was charming, adorable, and sexy. I love a type-A lady who learns to let go and enjoy life, and I love a sexy, honest, and straightforward Army Vet. Lots of fun, and nice to see characters from the first book in the series. Also, Castle does a great job of making the drama that separates the characters before their HEA believable, not annoying (or based on lies), and just long enough to build the tension. I'll continue to read the rest of the books in this series.

Let's be honest. We ALL want to travel to the Scottish Highlands and meet our very own "Jamie Fraser" type. This book is blatant wish fulfillment at its finest. I enjoyed every minute that I read it, I found the banter and sexual tension funny and hot, and the sexy stuff didn't disappoint. I was a little annoyed with the constant worrying about how the main character dressed as her major flaw and why she couldn't catch a man, but that aside, this was fun.

Also, this cover is terrible. Boo.

Thank you to www.netgalley.com for the ARC.

I really enjoyed [a:Kendra Leigh Castle|1180263|Kendra Leigh Castle|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1387466451p2/1180263.jpg]'s latest contemporaries, so I thought I'd give some of her other books a try. I've never been one for shape shifter romance, but this was pretty ok. I found the premise as believable as it could be, and appreciated the Scottish details and the obvious fact she did her research. I loved that the object of power in this book is the Stone of Destiny, which I just saw while in Edinburgh although according to this tale that stone is a fake, ha. I did find a lack of Scottish accent, minus some thrown around vocab words (lassie, wee, braw), but I had enjoy fun breezing through this to continue the series.

Sigh. The summary, the cover, the title, all made me think I was in for a funny tale of a D-List actress who finds herself falling in love with one of her online admirers. The words "comic masterpiece" are used in the summary.

Alas, I found this tale darkly tragic, and super sad. Perhaps if I wasn't set up for a "comic masterpiece" I would have liked it better, maybe. I'm not sure.

The main character, named Easy, spends the majority of the book reflecting on the terrible turns that led her to be a "home-wrecking whore" knocked up with twins by a man she met online who is still married and already has two children. I didn't ever really feel like this dude was worth Easy's trouble, because as a reader I wasn't given much time or many reasons to care about him or their relationship. I found Easy very interesting and found the story of her two dads compelling (no spoilers here), but again it wasn't really comedic. It was just sad. Also, the ending just fell completely flat for me.

I think this book's marketing may need some tweaking prior to it's publication date in October of 2015. I think there are readers who will love this book, I just was not one of them.

Thanks to a fellow co-worker for sending the ARC on to me!

OK. Based on the title and the cover (I received an eBook edition with a shirtless muscle man on the cover), I thought this would be a bit more salacious. My word, there isn't even ONE

Spoiler

sex scene on page

! What?! I mean, all that repressed tension and then? There was some humor, and the world building of the secret society underneath the city was sort of fun, but nothing I would be compelled to read again, or recommend. Basically an amalgamation of Twilight (the demon LOVES smelling the librarian) and City of Bones, and just about as risque.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

Not my favorite in the Searching For series, but still a delightful read on a super hot summer day. We finally find out more about Arilyn and her cheating, horrible Yogi Teacher lover who she has finally ditched for good, and we get to see her meet and fall in love with brooding, anger management student Officer Stone Petty. Lots of simmering sexual tension, and a lovely ending.

Man, this was not so good for me. I am way to close to the original trilogy films and I could not get over the stilted language and the lack of character development. I'm assuming the ROTJ script got handed to Kahn and he had to write a novel based off of movie he had not even seen? I hope so, because otherwise, woof.

I've read so many EXCELLENT Expanded Universe novels and this did not even come close. Perhaps if I had read this as a kid in 1983 with no other knowledge I would have been OK, because this was a HUGE bestseller in 1983. Huge.

When I read a novelization of a movie, I'm hoping for further insight into the minds of the characters, what they are thinking during moments of action, etc. In this one, the only moments I enjoyed were at the end, when Luke and Vader came to an understanding and we got to see a bit more of what was going through Luke's head during their confrontation. Oddly, Lando Calrissian was the other character I got a little more insight into, which I thought was an odd choice, but ok overall.

The Han/Leia romance was so off. For example:
"Han and Leia turned to each other full of feeling. All they'd struggled for, all they'd dreamed of-gone now...Han had never known love, so enamored of himself was he; Leia had never known love, so wrapped up in social upheaval was she..."
And,
"Han and Leia looked at each other, fixed their gazes deep in each other's eyes, swam there in the wells of their souls for a suspended, eternal moment, during which all was felt, understood, touched, shared."

Where's the charming banter?! Nope. Just too busy staring at each other.

Also, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT do this:
"'Ahrck grah rahr hrowrowhr," Chewbacca agreed.
or
"'Beed doop beep deep,' said Artoo."

Don't do it.

Read for the "year I was born" square on my work Book Bingo Challenge!