February reading
Mar. 14th, 2009 05:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksIt's late. My earlier attempt was eaten by the interwebs.
My reading was a little light for the month, mostly because I was on a not-lounging-around vacation. (That sort will come with a week at the beach in the summer.)
Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs. Urban fantasy. This book suffered from being read immediately after Bujold's Horizon, which is the best book of the year for me so far. Enjoyed the wrap up of the story arc begun in Blood Bound, thought the book as a whole could've used some tighter proof-reading. (Hello, a character is 8 years old on one page and 10 on another. Oops.) B+
Mexican Heat by Laura Baumbach and Josh Lanyon. Ebook, mystery, m/m. Was utterly distracted by the horrendous "gatito parvulo", and found some other parts of the story to require massive suspension of disbelief. Felt like the romance and the mystery portions of the book didn't really balance. C-
Love Ahead by Abigail Roux and Madeline Urban. M/m, anthology. Yay for blue collar heroes. Preferred the second story to the first, primarily because the couple in the first story could've solved their problems if they'd actually spoken to each other. B-.
Crossing Borders by Z.A. Maxfield. Ebook, m/m. Went looking for this book after reading Maxfield's St. Nacho's. This is an earlier book, and it shows a bit, being a little less polished than St. Nacho's. Liked the heroes of the book, liked the plot, the author had me up until the end when Tristan pulled the "me or the job" thing on Michael (a cop). I hate reading that in straight romance, and I hated reading it here, because to me that is one partner saying to the other "I love you as you are...except not really, because I want to change this huge piece of you." B+ until the very end when one of my pet peeves appeared.
The Pre-Nup by Beth Kendrick. A blend of chick lit and women's fiction. Loved Kendrick's The Exes and Oh. Not so much here. In fact, I didn't find any of the protagonists to be interesting or sympathetic, or really anything other than cliches. Wasn't interested in reading about the doormat who's husband cheated or the control freak friend, etc. DNF
Above All, Honor by Radclyffe. Romantic suspense, f/f. Hunted up a copy after reading about the series at Slate. Enjoyed the book as I read, but after the fact I realized that the suspense plot was never resolved; just the romance/relationship part. Looked up the rest of the series, and maybe even the romance isn't all that settled. Hmmm. I enjoyed this one enough to check out the next book of the series, so we'll see. B
Shimura Trouble by Sujata Massey. Mystery. The last of the Rei Shimura mysteries, a nice wrap up as I mentioned here. B
The Basque Swallow by Leigh Daniels. Category suspense. Selected for the February TBR Challenge from AAR'd DIK list, this book was definitely not a keeper for me. Never made it past the first few pages, even though I dragged it across the Atlantic on vacation with me. DNF
Man of the Islands by Henrietta Reid. Harlequin Romance -- rather old, discussed here. C
The Concubine by Jade Lee. Blaze Historical. Picked up a copy of this book based on the review over at Dear Author. It was enjoyable -- I appreciate romance novels set outside of the typical places, and the Forbidden City is certainly different. In some ways, it felt like a contemporary plopped down in a historical setting. But I still enjoyed it. The flipping of the usual honor trope (the hero is too honorable to let his desires run away with himself) intrigued me -- the heroine was all about duty and honor here. B
Nacida del fuego by Nora Roberts. Contemporary. This is one of my favorite NR books; I picked up a copy while on vacation. Reading it in a different language -- fine. Learned a few new words and phrases. Did wonder about the noun-adjective order in some of the phrases, must look that up. Re-read -- A.
My reading was a little light for the month, mostly because I was on a not-lounging-around vacation. (That sort will come with a week at the beach in the summer.)
Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs. Urban fantasy. This book suffered from being read immediately after Bujold's Horizon, which is the best book of the year for me so far. Enjoyed the wrap up of the story arc begun in Blood Bound, thought the book as a whole could've used some tighter proof-reading. (Hello, a character is 8 years old on one page and 10 on another. Oops.) B+
Mexican Heat by Laura Baumbach and Josh Lanyon. Ebook, mystery, m/m. Was utterly distracted by the horrendous "gatito parvulo", and found some other parts of the story to require massive suspension of disbelief. Felt like the romance and the mystery portions of the book didn't really balance. C-
Love Ahead by Abigail Roux and Madeline Urban. M/m, anthology. Yay for blue collar heroes. Preferred the second story to the first, primarily because the couple in the first story could've solved their problems if they'd actually spoken to each other. B-.
Crossing Borders by Z.A. Maxfield. Ebook, m/m. Went looking for this book after reading Maxfield's St. Nacho's. This is an earlier book, and it shows a bit, being a little less polished than St. Nacho's. Liked the heroes of the book, liked the plot, the author had me up until the end when Tristan pulled the "me or the job" thing on Michael (a cop). I hate reading that in straight romance, and I hated reading it here, because to me that is one partner saying to the other "I love you as you are...except not really, because I want to change this huge piece of you." B+ until the very end when one of my pet peeves appeared.
The Pre-Nup by Beth Kendrick. A blend of chick lit and women's fiction. Loved Kendrick's The Exes and Oh. Not so much here. In fact, I didn't find any of the protagonists to be interesting or sympathetic, or really anything other than cliches. Wasn't interested in reading about the doormat who's husband cheated or the control freak friend, etc. DNF
Above All, Honor by Radclyffe. Romantic suspense, f/f. Hunted up a copy after reading about the series at Slate. Enjoyed the book as I read, but after the fact I realized that the suspense plot was never resolved; just the romance/relationship part. Looked up the rest of the series, and maybe even the romance isn't all that settled. Hmmm. I enjoyed this one enough to check out the next book of the series, so we'll see. B
Shimura Trouble by Sujata Massey. Mystery. The last of the Rei Shimura mysteries, a nice wrap up as I mentioned here. B
The Basque Swallow by Leigh Daniels. Category suspense. Selected for the February TBR Challenge from AAR'd DIK list, this book was definitely not a keeper for me. Never made it past the first few pages, even though I dragged it across the Atlantic on vacation with me. DNF
Man of the Islands by Henrietta Reid. Harlequin Romance -- rather old, discussed here. C
The Concubine by Jade Lee. Blaze Historical. Picked up a copy of this book based on the review over at Dear Author. It was enjoyable -- I appreciate romance novels set outside of the typical places, and the Forbidden City is certainly different. In some ways, it felt like a contemporary plopped down in a historical setting. But I still enjoyed it. The flipping of the usual honor trope (the hero is too honorable to let his desires run away with himself) intrigued me -- the heroine was all about duty and honor here. B
Nacida del fuego by Nora Roberts. Contemporary. This is one of my favorite NR books; I picked up a copy while on vacation. Reading it in a different language -- fine. Learned a few new words and phrases. Did wonder about the noun-adjective order in some of the phrases, must look that up. Re-read -- A.
