Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Wedding Day--Pretty, flighty Daisy Devreaux can either go to jail or marry the mystery man her father has chosen for her. Arranged marriages don't happen in the modern world, so how did the irrepressible Daisy find herself in this fix? Alex Markov, as humorless as he is deadly handsome, has no intention of playing the loving bridegroom to a spoiled little featherhead with champagne tastes. He drags Daisy from her uptown life to a broken down traveling circus and sets out to tame her to his ways. But this man without a soul has met his match in a woman who's nothing but heart. Before long, passion will send them flying sky high without a safety net...risking it all in search of a love that will last forever.

My thoughts....

Oh my Goodness! I can't even begin to tell you how much I loved this book. After reading 2 of SEP's books and finding them so-so I was beginning to wonder what all her hype was about. After reading this book I know now.

Phillips has an uncanny ability to take a lady who should, by all accounts, be someone the reader can't like and turn her into someone who the reader is standing up whooping for in record time.

Daisy is just this heroine. I didn't want to like her at first. Rich, spoiled, not too bright and annoying was how she started out in this book. I quickly found out that there was a lot more to Daisy then that. I found myself smiling at her antics and fuming when someone treated her with an unkindness.

Alex was the strong alpha male that I really felt was a mystery through most of the book. It wasn't until over half way through the book that I really got to know him and realize that he also wasn't what he seemed either.

Together Daisy and Alex make for an excellent romantic duo. They were completely opposites of each other but yet complimented each other very well. I am now looking forward to more books by Phillips and hoping that the next book I read will have characters like these that stay with me months after finishing their book.

I would recommend any fan of contemporary romance to go out and get this book and read it. You might want to hang on to the book because you will probably want to re-read it over and over.

Born In Ice by Nora Roberts

Description courtesy of Paperbackswap.com....When the harsh storms of winter descended upon western Ireland, the locals stayed indoors - and visitors stayed away. Brianna Concannon's bed-and-breakfast became a cold and empty place. But that was fine with Brianna. She enjoyed the peace and quiet, even when the icy winds howled at her window. But this year she's expecting an unusual guest - myster writer Grayson Thane of America. A restless wanderer with a painful past, he plans to spend the cold winter alone. But sometimes fate has a plan of its own. Sometimes a fire can be born in ice...

The story of modern-day Ireland's Concannon sisters continues with the tale of Brianna--whose cool beauty hides a heart of fiery passion.

My Thoughts....After reading the first in this trilogy I knew that I was in for a treat with the next two books. I am happy to say Roberts delivered an excellent continuation of the Concannon sisters' stories. Sometimes the second book of a trilogy tends to be fluff and filler but I did not get that at all with Bri's story.

I thought that Brianna might be a little mousy and timid to hold her own in a full length book but her character developed nicely into a woman to recon with. Her interaction with her sister Maggie and her mother was wonderful. I was really able to connect with her even though I have nothing in common with her.

Grayson was a very interesting character also. I really enjoyed the process he took while writing his book. From the walks through the Irish countryside to him locking himself in his room for a week at a time to write....all were fascinating to me.

I thought that this book was better then the first probably because we got to see a little more about what made Bri and Maggies mother tick. I even found myself not hating her as much toward the end of the book. I wouldn't have thought that was possible since after reading the first book I found her to be a horrible person and glad she was fictitious and no one really had to deal with her.

I really liked how Roberts helped me "see" what Ireland was like in the first book and in Born In Ice she now showed me what an Irish Winter was like. It sounded bone cold and wet and not at all charming but she somehow still made me want to visit.

I would recommend that anyone who has not read this book/trilogy do so, sooner rather then later.

You Don't Know Jack by Erin McCarthy

Synopsis: Jamie Peters no longer believes in true love. True idiots, true scumbags, true moochers - these she believes in wholeheartedly, and she's got the checkered dating history to prove it. So, she's more than a little skeptical when her cross-dressing psychic tells her she's about to meet her soul mate - during an accident. Yeah, sounds about right. And then it happens. A knight in shining armour steps between her and a mugger on a subway platform. Just a regular, honest, upright Jack. The kind they don't make anymore...

Jonathon Davidson doesn't believe in destiny - or lying to beautiful women as a rule. But now that Jamie thinks he's just an ordinary guy, how can he possibly tell her that he's really, her roommate's brother, a millionaire to boot, and the jerk who's investigating her application to his grandfather's charitable trust because she may be involved in something illegal? Yeah, rhetorical question. He can't. Not until he knows what's going on. Besides, it would require being able to resist Jamie's luscious curves long enough to say, "Hi, my name is Big Liar. Let's get naked." Sometimes, destiny sucks...

Somewhere between truth and flat-out-let's-talk-about-this-waaay-later fiction, between fate and delicious accidental insanity, lies a whole lot of mind-blowing sex, delirious passion, unfortunate sundresses, fighting, deception, big mistakes and small hopes, and two people are about to discover that everything happens for a reason...

My Thoughts: Although I found this book to be somewhat cute it was middle of the road for me. I couldn't find anything that really stood out to me as spectacular nor did I find anything horrible that rubbed me the wrong way.

I found the two main characters to be unremarkable but did like some of the secondary characters. I loved Jack's gramps and really liked Jamie's cross dressing psychic friend. I really liked that they made more then one appearance in the book and I think that is what brought my opinion of this book from a standard 3 Cup of Coffee rating up to 3.5.

I have read several of McCarthy's books and found this one to be weaker then the others and would recommend borrowing this one from the public library or getting it used. I would also recommend that if you are new to Erin McCarthy books you should not start with this one but one of her other ones.

 

Original TBR Challenge

MizB is also hosting this Challenge. Before the first of the year you need to come up with a list of 12 books that you will read from your TBR pile to read during 2010. You can come up with a list of 12 alternates if you want to give yourself a little choice during the year. You have to read from the list (or alternate list). By the end of the year you will have read 12 books off your TBR Mountain. I linked the title to MizB's original challenge.

This is what MizB had to say.....

For this challenge you should…
** Pick 12 books – one for each month of the year - that you’ve been wanting to read (that have been on your “To Be Read” list) for 6 months or longer, but haven’t gotten around to.
** OPTIONAL: Create a list of 12 “Alternates” (books you could substitute for your challenge books, given that a particular one doesn’t grab you at the time)
** Then, starting January 1, read one of these books from your list each month, ending December 31. )
(for more information, please read the challenge FAQs)
By the end of the year you should’ve knocked 12 books off of your TBR list! (of course, if you’re anything like me, you’ll have added *at LEAST* 12 more to the ever-growing pile by then! LOL).
The good news is, though, that you’ll be making some progress! ;o)
Additional rules/guidelines for this challenge:
* the challenge is to read 12 TBR books in 12 months — you can read those all in one month if you want, or one a month, or however you wanna do it.

* you should have a list posted somewhere for others to see

* you CANNOT change your list after January 1st, of the current year!!!

* you can create an Alternates list of MAXIMUM 12 books, if you want, in order to have options to choose from (you can read these in place of books on your original list).

* audiobooks and e-books ARE allowed

* re-reads are NOT allowed, as they aren’t TRUE “TBRs”

* you CAN overlap with other challenges

* OPTIONAL: you can join the Yahoo! Group created for participants of the TBR Challenge, if you want to have a place to keep your list, or just to share with others about how you’re doing!

Now for my lists.....

List 1

1-Imitation in Death by JD Robb (4 Stars)

2-The Hollows by Nora Roberts

3-Mackenzie's Mountain by Linda Howard (4.5 Stars)

4-Blood Bound by Patricia Biggs

5-Aphrodite's Secret by Julie Kenner

6-The Dead Girls' Dance by Rachel Caine (4 Stars)

7-Unleash The Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon (4.5 stars)

8-Darkling by Yasmine Galenorn

9-A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole

10-She's No Faerie Princess by Christine Warren

11-Sweet Liar by Jude Deveraux

12-Dangerous Tides by Christine Feehan

Alternate List

1-The Nerd Who Loved Me by Vicki Lewis Thompson

2-Your Coffin Or Mine? by Kimber Raye

3-Causing Havoc by Lori Foster (4.5 stars)

4-Dark Celebration by Christine Feehan

5-Dream a Little Dream by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (5 Stars)

6-Master of the Night by Angela Knight (2 stars)

7-Tangled up In You by Rachel Gibson

8-Irresistable by Susan Mallery

9-Evermore by Lynn Viehl

10-Twin of Ice by Jude Deveraux

11-Wild Jinx by Sandra Hill

12-With This Ring by Amanda Quick

Read N' Review challenge for 2010

MizB is also hosting the Read'n'Review challenge for 2010. Her challenge site is linked to the title and I really think this challenge goes hand in hand with her RYOB challenge (see previous post) so I will do both.

The title will link back to her original blog. These are her rules...

* review each book you read between January 1st and December 31st of the current year.
* PLEASE keep your reviews clean & respectful ~ these books we read are the hard work of an author, and we don’t need to be mean. Even if you didn’t like the book, please try to find something you can say that would be encouraging to the author.
* reviews can be as short, or long, as you wish* you MAY overlap with other challenges* eBooks and Audiobooks ARE allowed* if there will be spoilers in your review, please note this in the subject line of your post so that those who don’t want to read them can skip that review. Thank you.

RYOB reading challenge for 2010

MizB is hosting the RYOB Challenge for 2010. The title to this blog will actually take you to her original blog post but for now here is what she had to say....

For 2010, I am planning to continue with the RYOB (Read Your Own Books) challenge! The rules are simple:
Pick a number of books you’d like to read in one year
Choose those books from your OWN collection
Read them between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010
And, that’s it!
Some other guidelines for this challenge:
Re-Reads are NOT allowed (the challenge is to get more of your own books read that have been sitting there waiting!)
Audiobooks & e-books ARE allowed
You do NOT need a blog to participate — you can leave comments on this post with your progress
Stay tuned! On January 1st

So, I am now trying to decide how many books to read from my own collection. Reading from my own stash isn't too hard because I have many to chose from. I don't get many from the library so pretty much everything I read I own. So.....I am going to say that I am going to read 60 books that I own during 2010.

I will be doing this challenge and several other ones that will over lap.