Review for Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

TITLE: Attachments
AUTHOR: Rainbow Rowell
PUBLICATION DATE: April 14, 2011
PUBLISHER: PENGUIN GROUP Plume
PAGES: 336 pages
FORMAT: E-ARC / Audiobook
SOURCE: Publisher via NetGalley / Borrowed
RATING: 5 bows

Lincoln is the newsroom’s internet security officer. It sounds like a great title and when he applied for the job, he thought he would be building firewalls and securing company data. This, however, is not the case. Lincoln is paid to not only read through any flagged emails, but his boss openly encourages him to snoop through the employees emails and computers anytime the mood strikes, to keep people from wasting valuable time while at work. He absolutely hates it. Then Beth Fremont & Jennifer Scribner-Snyder’s email conversations get flagged and he can’t bring himself to report them. They are witty and heart-felt and enrapturing. By the time he realizes that he is falling for Beth, it’s much too late to just walk up and introduce himself. Is there possible relationship doomed or with Lincoln find a way to make it work?

All the main characters in this novel are equally lovable. Lincoln had adorable geeky nature and an addiction to school, which is an addiction I can completely understand. He can’t stop. He has finally gotten out into the real world with a job and he still finds himself eventually taking more classes at a community college. He just loves to learn, something I think all nerds can relate to. He’s so earnest and sweet and he hates feeling like a peeping tom by reading people’s emails….except with Beth & Jennifer, or maybe even more so with these two, but he can’t stop. The more he reads, the more attached he becomes and the more he wants to learn about these two.

Beth and Jennifer themselves are just as awesome. Beth’s obsession with cinema and her rocker boyfriend keep you wondering and Jennifer’s struggle with her husband’s desire to have a baby when she doesn’t feel ready is wholly relatable to me. Not that I’m at the point when my husband is demanding a baby, just that I wonder if that’s how I’m going to be when it’s really time to start having kids. Kids scare the shit out of me, they can be little monsters. But, that’s beside the point! Jennifer’s struggle makes the novel easier to relate to and Beth’s wit makes it funny. This is a girl who manages to make me laugh out loud with every snide comment. You don’t realize that shit is about to get serious until halfway through when it does start to get serious.

One of the things that was entirely lovable about this story is that it is an awkward romance that isn’t really a romance. The story if largely about Lincoln and Beth and if Lincoln will find a way to confess his feelings to Beth (and if it’ll work out), but you don’t get any of the over the top romance smexy scenes. Now don’t get me wrong, I like a sexy scene just as much as the next romance addict, but it was refreshing to see one focus more on the relationship rather than the bow chicka wow wow. So for all of you romance-phobs, don’t worry, you’ll find no bad euphemisms here.

I started this novel with a little trepidation. It sounded interesting and I really wanted to read it, but it’s my first Rainbow Rowell book and I’ve been told not all of her novels end happily. I like happy endings, in fact, that are required. So the closer I got to the end, the more I worried if this would all work out as beautifully as I imagined. For all those with the same fears, this works out well. It’s exactly the ending you hope for.

The only issue I had with this was a very tiny one. The name bugged me. The whole novel, I was expecting things to be attached to the emails, but nothing ever was. I think there was a singular time that there was an attachment and that bugged me a bunch. I think the meaning of the title was more of the attachments people form, but I just felt a bit mislead because I was expected actual email attachments to at least be mentioned in the novel. I know, it’s a stupid complaint, but it would have made the title that much more perfect.

The bottom line is that I loved this novel, a lot. It kept me smiling and laughing and crying and emoting in general the entire way through. We get to see a lot of ups and a couple of downs from the amazing people who I have formed and attachment to. It was the perfect starter novel in Rainbow’s writing and if I didn’t want to read her novels already, this novel alone would have me adding them to by TBR pile. I don’t know really know how else to articulate that. I loved it, it was amazing, go read it now, k?

****Thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Plume for providing me with an eARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review****

Review for Tears Of Tess (Monsters In The Dark #1) by Pepper Winters

TITLE: Tears Of Tess
SERIES: Monsters In The Dark #1
AUTHOR: Pepper Winters
PUBLICATION DATE: August 28, 2013
PUBLISHER: Independent
PAGES: 377 pages
FORMAT: E-ARC
SOURCE: NetGalley
RATING: 4 bows

****THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS****

Tess Snow is living a relatively perfect life, with a single semester left to go in college and a perfect sweet boyfriend. But when said boyfriend surprises her with a trip to Mexico, everything goes downhill fast. Tess is kidnapped and sold, with no one to rely on for rescue but herself. She’s pushed into a world where women are mere possessions, meant to be used and abused at their owner’s discretion, and she refuses to bow to her new master. She certain of one thing, she will escape this hell and find her way back to Brax, her perfect boyfriend.

If I had any self-control at all, I would never have downloaded this from NetGalley. I have more E-ARC’s than I know what to do with and several books that need to be read and reviewed before February 5th, a fast approaching deadline. But I have no self-control and the book I’m supposed to be reading is boring me, so when I saw this up on NetGalley, I was way too eager to have an excuse to read something else. My sister is in love with this book and has been singing it’s praise for a while now, so I knew it’d be something I would enjoy. So color me happy when I was instantly approved. I started it immediately, so drawn in by this dark world of kidnapping and sex slaves. It is unquestionably addictive. It’s described as a dark romance, but I feel like “dark” isn’t a strong enough term. This novel is brutal and cruel and heartbreaking, especially considering shit like this really happens. But let’s not go there because then this review will digress into a bitter diatribe about the injustices of this world.

Tess starts out as a meek girl with sexual desires above what her boyfriend is willing to give. Now why any red-blooded male would turn down his girl’s offer of more, kinkier sex, I have no idea, but whatever. After she is kidnapped, Tess start showing a stronger side, constantly fight her captors at every turn. In the end, the feisty spirit doesn’t really do any good, but at least she’ll know she did everything she could, right? Because that has to be better than just taking it all passively, right? Then once she arrives to meet her new master, she’s immeasurable terrified and pissed off and maybe just a bit turned on by this possessive, controlling man. He takes control of her life, simultaneously trying keep her fire high while trying to break her spirit. Tess’s reaction to him is a bit disturbing, because although things turn out well, it could easily have not. I get that she desperately desires the while masochistic element in the bedroom, but seriously? In this environment, I can’t believe you were seriously turned on by this jackass. That could have led down a completely different and much more dangerous path, idjit.

Q is someone I want to like, but I don’t think I do. In the beginning, you hate him for obvious reasons. This asshat is her new master and he is borderline abusive towards her, though never fully stepping over that line. By the end we learn that he has spent a fortune on rehabilitating women who have been sold into slavery abused, before returning them to their families, which is fucking wonderful. Seriously, sir, bravo. You are doing the world a great service and it’s appreciated and all that jazz, but I’m not sure that justifies his reaction to Tess. Not only does he treat her like a master would trade his slave, but he also allows bad things to happen to her in his presence. Seriously bad things, and even though he tries to repair the damage, there are some things that can’t be undone. What really pisses me off is how his dark desires are rationalized away at the end. This whole ordeal is forgiven because Tess enjoyed it, which is great for her, but what if she hadn’t? What if she had been repulsed by his advances and felt violated instead of exhilarated? He goes on and on about how this is the first time he has ever given into his urges with a “slave,” like somehow that makes it okay, but I don’t think it does. If a child molester fights his urges for ten years before abusing some poor innocent child, do we commend him for holding out for so long or do we punish him for finally falling prey?

I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it or that I wouldn’t recommend it, just that it pointed out some very disturbing ways it could have went wrong. Really, this novel was stay-up-all-night-to-finish-it addictive and I think I really enjoyed the majority of it. The first half was fascinating and terrifying, following Tess through her kidnapping and captivity in Mexico. The second half was fascinating trying to figure Q out with his multiple personalities. I don’t think we get enough of him to understand completely, but we get enough to throw mental sympathy his way. I’m not sure it’s enough to really excuse his behavior, Tess’s reactions notwithstanding, but enough that I can consider forgiving him.

This is a complicated novel that will most likely make you think more than anything else. After finishing it, I can’t help but wonder if this type of thing will ever truly stop. As long as there are people out there with the cash to make such purchases, it’ll continue and that’s just depressing…and terrifying. No human being is a possession, regardless of their gender. We are all sentient beings with rights and no one on this fucking planet has the power to take that away. It’s a powerful issue and I imagine many people will shy away from reading something that delves so deep into the subject with no qualms about showing the darker side or the things we’d rather not see, like abuse and rape. This is a heart-wrenching portrayal of one woman’s struggle to survive her circumstances and then to figure out what she really wants out of her life. It’s addictive and horrifying. It’s one of the very few dark romances I’ve read and though I tread carefully in this genre, I’m definitely adding Pepper Winters to my authors-to-watch list!

****Thank you to Pepper Winters and Black Firefly for providing me with an eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review****

Review for Star Crossed (Stargazer #1) by Jennifer Echols

TITLE: Star Crossed
SERIES: Stargazer #1
AUTHOR: Jennifer Echols
PUBLICATION DATE: February 26, 2012
PUBLISHER: Pocket Books, A Division Of Simon & Schuster Inc
PAGES: 375 pages
FORMAT: E-book
SOURCE: Borrowed
RATING: 3 bows

Wendy Mann loves her job, but she’s losing it. After her bosses tell her she’s fired, she begs for another chance and they give it to her: rehabilitate teenage rocker Lorelei Vogel before she loses her recording contract. It’s an impossible job, but Wendy is determined to do it. It just becomes more difficult when she realizes Lorelei’s ex is being repped by Daniel Blackstone, her college rival, and they will all be in Vegas together for this particularly hellish week. Daniel cannot believe he’ll be seeing Wendy again. She starred in way too many of his college fantasies, not that she’ll ever know that. But Wendy is an unneeded distraction and soon, he cannot help but pay more attention to her than to his client. With the heat turning past the boiling point for these two, can they still manage to keep their respective stars in line long enough to save Wendy’s career?

I didn’t love this novel the way I’ve loved all the other stories I’ve read by Jennifer Echols. I found Wendy to be too over-the-top and just plain annoying. Yes, we get it. You spent a week as a stripper (but apparently it was a very good week) and you have gorgeous blonde hair. Good for you, but seriously, get on with it. Daniel, wasn’t much better, coming off as high handed and too damn quiet. He laughs at Wendy’s dumb sex jokes, all of which made me cringe. He’s apparently very attractive, but I had a hard time imaging him in my head. The romance between the two felt awkward at best and forced at worst. I understand there are legitimate reasons you two cannot fuck each other’s brains out and get it over with, but I felt like their relationship was just lust and once they are together for a few months, it’ll burn out quickly. The fact that they stupidly got married for a publicity stunt makes it that much worse.

The plotline, at least, was interesting enough. I would actually really love to see more of Lorelei. She is what kept me reading, to see if her storyline would work out. I don’t think we’ll get much more of her in this series and that is just sad since she was the big highlight for me. The novel was decent enough, I supposed, but disappointing because I’ve adored all the Jennifer Echols books I’ve read until now and I hate seeing something I’m excited about fall below my expectations. I am planning on reading the next novel, but I’m not nearly as excited about it was I was before I started this. Hopefully the next heroine won’t be so obnoxious and I won’t dislike her as much.

Review for Lust for Life (WVMP Radio #4) by Jeri Smith-Ready

TITLE: Lust For Life
SERIES: WVMP Radio #4
AUTHOR: Jeri Smith-Ready
PUBLICATION DATE: November 27, 2012
PUBLISHER: Pocket Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster
PAGES: 352 pages
FORMAT: Paperback
SOURCE: From publisher
RATING: 4 stars

Lust For Life is the last book in the WVMP Radio series. Maybe that’s why I was so sad starting it. I don’t want this series to be over. I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of Ciara’s sarcasm and anti-holy powers. Plus, there is Shane. Damn he is fine…even if he’s Catholic. I really can’t say too much about the plot without giving anything away. Most of the things I want to say are uber spoiler-y and I’m just not in the mood to spoil things for anyone. I will say that I don’t think this one was quite as good as the first one. Things are mostly the same formula. Ciara and Shane are happy, something bad happens, someone tries to kill them, they struggle, then defeat the bad guy. Not a bad formula, but it felt a little boring in this one. It was a mite too predictable.

Well except for the very end which I didn’t see coming at all. Complete shock and what a way to end the series. All in all, it was great, but I am incredibly sad to see this series go. You will be missed.

****Thank you to Pocket Books for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review****

Review for Rainshadow Road (Friday Harbor #2) by Lisa Kleypas

TITLE: Rainbow Road
SERIES: Friday Harber #2
AUTHOR: Lisa Kleypas
PUBLICATION DATE: February 28, 2012
PUBLISHER: St Martin’s Press
PAGES: 308 pages
FORMAT: Paperback
SOURCE: Goodreads First Reads
RATING: 4 stars

I started this novel they way I always start contemporary romances, with trepidation. I’ve read several bad ones and generally try to stick to historical because I just enjoy them more. However, since I loved Lisa Kleypas’s historicals, I’m always willing to try her contemporaries. She doesn’t disappoint. I had read Christmas At Friday Harbor so I was generally aware of the basic characters that would be in this book. My only complaint on that novel was that it was too short. Seriously, this author’s books typically run almost 400 pages so that measly 200 didn’t seem like enough time to fully develop the characters or the plotline. This book definitely rectifies that problem being slightly over 300 pages.

This story follows Lucy Marinn and Sam Nolan in their journey to love and happiness. [cue sappy music now]

Yeah, I know, but it’s a ROMANCE novel, really what did you expect? Battle the Huns for control of a futuristic society? Anyway, Lucy is going through a tough time. Kevin, her boyfriend of 2 years dumps her to be with her self-absorbed younger sister (not to mention they have been sleeping together behind her back for months) and also kicks her out of their house to move said sister in. Lonely and depressed, she moves in with a few friends until she can sort things out. Sam Nolan is happy in his life just the way it is. He is a bachelor who never gets involved beyond the physical and spends way too much time looking after his vineyard and caring for his niece. So when Kevin shows up asking him to take Lucy out on a date to help her move on, he reluctantly agrees. What harm could starting a new relationship do?

The story obviously gets more complicated than that, but that’s the gist of it. I instantly sympathized with Lucy because I’ve experienced several situations in my life where I work my damnedest to accomplish something and then it’s just handed out to people around me like fucking candy. So that feeling of resentment Lucy gets towards Alice (her sister) is something I can relate to completely. I was blown away by Alice’s sheer self-obsession and how she really didn’t see that what she did was truly wrong, saying simple “I did it to make myself happy and since you and Kevin were growing apart, I don’t see why it should bother you. I won’t apologize for working on my happiness.”

Seriously lady?!?!?!? You fucked your sister’s boyfriend and then basically kicked her out of her own house so you could move in! That’s wrong on more levels than I can comprehend. Then Sam shows up claiming her ex is pushing him to date her so she’ll move on and she is beyond enraged…but also charmed by Sam who just radiates charisma. I loved watching them interact and seeing their love spring up and grow despite their best efforts to stay out of an emotional relationship.

I only have one issue with this book. The first is that there are small bits of magic in the book which just felt out of place. Lucy can turn glass into animals when she is highly emotional and Sam can make plants grow and flourish simply by touching them. It’s not something they go into a ton of detail about or is ever really explained. It’s just kind of mentioned off hand and left at that. I felt like this is an adult book so unless we go into to witch and zombie territory, magic should stay out. It didn’t bother me a whole lot, I just felt it would have been better if that wasn’t present.

Anyway, this book is really good and if you like contemporaries or just love Lisa Kleypas’s work in general, this book is for you.

****Thank you to McMillan Publishing for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review****

Reivew for Trouble at the Wedding (Abandoned at the Altar #3) by Laura Lee Guhrke

TITLE: Trouble At The Wedding
SERIES: Abandoned At The Altar #3
AUTHOR: Laura Lee Guhrke
PUBLICATION DATE: December 27, 2011
PUBLISHER: Avon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
PAGES: 384 pages
FORMAT: Paperback
SOURCE: Purchased
RATING: 5 stars

Annabel Wheaton is determined to marry a titled peer to get the respect she has always deserved, so when the Earl of Rumsford proposes, she thinks her prays have been answered. She knows he is marrying her for her ample fortune and is completely okay with it because she is mainly marrying him for his title. A week before the wedding, everything is going divinely, save her uncle constantly nagging her to put more thought into this decision before she makes a big mistake, when Christian Du Quesne, Duke of Scarborough shows up and turns her world upside down. Not only does she feel an instant attraction to him but he starts planting doubts in her mind that weren’t there the week before. The morning of the wedding she must choose, follow the path to become a countess which she has worked so hard to achieve or call off the wedding for a tryst with Christian who is not the marrying kind of man. Sounds like a simple choice, right? But it never is.

Christian is almost out of options. His brother died unexpectedly leaving him to take over as Duke, a job he is far from suitable for, and as soon as the title is changed he learns that they are completely run into the ground. Every property not entailed is mortgaged and the rest don’t earn enough to break even annually much less pay off massive debts. Determined never again to marry for money as he did 12 years ago, he goes to America to try to make his fortune because that seems to be where all men make it big but having no capital to invest in new ventures, he cannot really do much. So when Arthur, Annabel’s uncle, offers him half a million dollars to dissuade his niece from marrying that pompous ass, he accepts immediately. A week before the wedding his insinuates himself into Annabel’s life and starts covertly planting doubts in her mind and mocking her intended.

All this culminates in a passionate kiss the night before the wedding leaving them both off balance. Annabel’s marches on and still makes it to her nuptials fully intending to become the Countess of Rumsford despite Christian’s best efforts and then he shows up and objects to the wedding in the middle of the ceremony, implying that something has happened between Annabel and himself. So what happens next? How do they salvage her possibly ruined reputation? Well, that is one spoiler I won’t give away, and no it isn’t the simple she marries the duke immediately to avoid the scandal approach.

I seriously must be going to a phase of some sort because it seems like I am drooling over every male character I read right now.

St Clair from Anna And The French Kiss, Mr Darcy from Pride And Prejudice, Colin from 20 Times A Lady, Alec from Forbidden, Peeta from The Hunger Games, Loki from Switched, the list goes on and on and on (and on and on and on and on and on). I LOVED Christian. He was cocky and confident and handsome and had a sense of humor and a hiding sense of honor and just DAMN.

…wait, he is fictional and I am married….fuck…ANYWAY, he is the perfect historical romance hero.

Annabel was pretty good too, stubborn and hard headed and kind of the typical American Heiress which I am good with.

I have yet again proven to myself that historical romance novels (written by the proper authors, naturally) are the balm to my soul and I strive to read more of them. Especially when so many YA novels right now end with horrid cliffhangers and have stupid love triangles and have idiot heroines that anger me to the point where…..




…..well you get the picture…..

But that’s a bit off topic. This novel is well written and will definitely make you laugh and probably cry and hope the happily ever after that seems impossible. It was nearly perfect. My only real complaint is that the ending felt rushed. I could have used an extra chapter (or even few paragraphs) to see that they were settled properly before finishing the novel.

Review for Scandal of the Year (Abandoned at the Altar #2) by Laura Lee Guhrke

TITLE: Scandal Of The Year
SERIES: Abandoned At The Altar #2
AUTHOR: Laura Lee Guhrke
PUBLICATION DATE: January 25, 2011
PUBLISHER: Avon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
PAGES: 372 pages
FORMAT: Paperback
SOURCE: Purchased
RATING: 4 stars

::sighs contently::

Why, oh why, have I waited so long to read another historical romance novel? Seriosuly, I know many of you won’t understand it, but it’s like comimg home. I think it’s because no matter what, I know when I start one it will have a happy ending and it will make me laugh and smile and maybe even cry along the way. I vow never to go this long without reading a romance novel ever again.

This one follows Lady Julia Yardley after her divorce is final. She was stuck in a very bad marriage and to get out of it, she timed things just right so her husband would walk in on her having an affair with Aiden Carr, Duke of Trathen and finally divorce her. After all is said and done, she finds that she though she doesn’t regret her decisions, she is not proud of having used Aiden. Aiden, a gentleman with a high code of honor, cannot get over having done something so unhonorable and yet is still drawn to Julia, obsessed might be a better word. But another affiar with her is out of the question because he is searching for a wife, determined to actually make it to the altar this time, after 2 failed previous attempts. This sets up the basics of the story. We get to watch them flirt, watch him fight his attraction and watch her be amused by it before becoming terrified of it. Things happen and we get our happily ever after. Laura Lee Guhrke has yet to disappoint me in this regard.

I must say that I love Julia because she isn’t your typical historical romance heroine. She smokes, she drinks, she swears, and she truly doesn’t give a damn what society has to say about it. She reminded me a bit of Lily from Then Came You by Lisa Kleypas. I truly enjoyed watching Aiden slowly peel back her layers to see the person she hids underneath the uncaring mask. Aiden, while he may not be my favorite hero, he does the job well. His upstanding character is the perfect compliment to Julia’s wild ways.

Review for The Forever Girl (Forever Girl #1) by Rebecca Hamilton

TITLE: The Forever Girl
SERIES: Forever Girl #1
AUTHOR: Rebecca Hamilton
PUBLICATION DATE: January 26, 2012
PUBLISHER: Immortal Ink Publishing
PAGES: 262 pages
FORMAT: Ebook
SOURCE: From author
RATING: 5 stars

So let me preface this review by saying that this ebook was sent to me by the author and I will be sending her this review, which I assume she will read (::waves:: Hi Rebecca!) so I am rather nervous. I apologize in advance if this one turns out a little more awkward than most. Here we go!

I was a little excited to start this not only because it sounded interesting, but also because it would be the very first novel I read on Luna (my kindle). Yes, I know, I am a dork, but still. It is written in first person, which is always a plus for me. Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop, staying up several hours later than I should have knowing I was going to have to get up at 7 the next morning to get to work.

This novel centers around a girl named Sophia who has some type of supernatural condition that causes a constant whispering sound to fill her head. Sometimes it is overpowering enough that she can’t hear her own thoughts. Add this to the fact that the town’s group of crazy Christian’s is harassing her and the fact that she is struggling to make ends meet and I’d say she has a rather stressful life. After finally deciding she has had enough, she casts a wiccan spell to try to remove the whispering and it only makes it worse. Then her friend Ivory drags her to a club where she meets a strange, very attractive man (named Charles) and then gets chased through woods and attacked (though not by said hot guy). She passes out during the attack and when she awakes, she is thrusted into a world where vampires, shifters, and all manner of supernatural beings exist.

Speaking of the supernatural beings, I loved the lore behind them. I loved the fact that she doesn’t use the term vampire or shifter or were-animal, instead being more creative and creating new terms for them. I won’t try to explain them because I know I’ll just fuck it up, but I really enjoyed that. I also loved that Sophia’s relationship with Charles progresses over a period of time. It’s not that instalove that is so present in writing today. You see them struggle with their attraction to each other and then start dating and then say the L word, in a completely realistic time frame. This novel also had a twist that I didn’t see coming at all. I won’t tell you what it is because I am striving to stay spoiler-free (in this review at least) but I was really shocked.

The only complaint I have is the gaps in time. There are a few times where the novel just skips a month and while I know that if I want my main characters relationship to grow over a period of time, I cannot expect to hear about every moment of it, but I felt like the missing months could have used just a bit more description.
All in all, if you love paranormal romance, this is for you. I really enjoyed it and cannot wait to read the next one!

****Thank you to Rebecca Hamilton for providing me with a digital copy in exchange for an honest review****

Review for 20 Times a Lady (Paperback) by Karyn Bosnak

TITLE: 20 Times A Lady
AUTHOR: Karyn Bosnak
PUBLICATION DATE: June 27, 2007
PUBLISHER: William Morrow Paperbacks, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
PAGES: 352 pages
FORMAT: Paperback
SOURCE: Purchased
RATING: 2 stars

I will preface this by saying that I saw the film way before I read the book and that makes me bias.  For the record I adore the film…but come any film where you get to see this:

multiple times is a film I can’t help but love.  Plus I just love Chris Evans in general.

Anyway, this book follows Delilah Darling on her journey to track down all her ex’s to avoid raising the number of men she has slept with.  She reads an article stating that the national average number of lovers women have is 10 and since her number is literally twice that, she starts to have a bit of a breakdown.  She enlists her neighbor to help her track them down and then sets off to drive crosscountry to confront them and see if there is anything redeeming about them.

I was not very impressed with this novel.  I hated Delilah.  HATED.  She is stupid and immature and I just wanted to slap her.  The stupid girl buys a dog just to have an excuse to run into an ex at a dog park.  Maybe I am just a dog nut, but I hate seeing people get a pet that they have no idea how to care for.

It did make me laugh a lot, but it didn’t have anything super special to keep my interest.  Now that I really think about it, it had the things that normally make me love a novel.  It was funny, it has a happy ending, and a decent amount of romance.  I just didn’t love it.  The only parts I really enjoyed were the few scenes between Delilah and Colin.

Review for Wicked Game (WVMP Radio #1) by Jeri Smith-Ready

TITLE: Wicked Game
SERIES: WVMP Radio #1
AUTHOR: Jeri Smith-Ready
PUBLICATION DATE: May 13, 2008
PUBLISHER: Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
PAGES: 361 pages
FORMAT: Paperback
SOURCE: Purchased
RATING: 5 stars

Can I just say that I love this book? Seriously, these is the first book in the WVMP Radio series which is now officially my favorite vampire series (knocking the Sookie Stackhouse series from the spot). I love everything about this book. I seriously can’t think of anything I didn’t like.

This book follows Ciara Griffin (pronounced KEER AH) in her pursuit of a normal life. She fails to find it, in fact she finds a life that just gets stranger. She finds a job at a radio station as a marketing manager and they give her a manual to read to introduce her to the station’s unique world. The manual contains the most basic information about vampires. Ciara, naturally, thinks this is insane and calls to resign immediately because she doesn’t find the prank funny. Boy is she in for a surprise. She soon runs across one of the DJ’s in a bar and learns the hardway that they weren’t fooling her, the DJ’s truly are vampires (all six of them). She takes her job back and comes up with an awesome marketing plan. To keep the station from going under, why not promote the truth as a gimmick to get listeners? Tell the world that, yes, we are a station full of vampires which is why our broadcasts only play at night and each DJ only plays music from a specific period of time (because it is their ‘lifetime’, the period of time in which they were made into vampires and therefore that is where their mentality is stuck).

::blank stares:: …so she wants the real vampires to pretend to be humans pretending to be vampires to get attention for the station?

That would be correct. And it works like a charm until an older vampire decides it is a dumb idea and wants to kill them all if they don’t stop. During all this craziness, Ciara starts to develop a relationship with the youngest DJ, Shane McAllister. Obviously a rocky, interesting relationship since she refuses to be a donor for him to feed off of.

Seriously though, this book is so different than most vampire novels and the main character is so far from the generic heroines that it had me doing mental happy dances. How can you not love a girl who was raised by con artists? And the vampires are all OCD in an incredibly indearing way. Shane’s obsession with alphabetizing things really struck a cord because I am similarly obsessed with how my books/cds/dvds are organized.

Speaking of Shane…::drools:: damn can Mrs Smith-Ready create a leading male character. After reading Shade where she has not one but two amazing male leads, I didn’t think it was possible to have another one I adored this much but I was wrong. Now granted, Shane isn’t perfect and he definitely doesn’t knock Damon from The Vampire Diaries (books not the show) from his perch as favorite male vampire ever (because let’s face it, there is no way a catholic vampire is gonna ever rock my world THAT much given my very athiest religious outlook) but he is definitely high on the list. He’s tall, he plays guitar and sings, and he is hot as hell…need I say more?

Here, this is what I imagined Shane to sound like when I was reading: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FdO4k… Is this because he was described this way or because I have a sick obsession with the one known as Shimon Moore (in the video, he is the blond one)? Well, I’ll never really know, but I’d like to think it’s the former.

So everyone who likes vampires, con artists, rock music, and amazing writing should read this. Seriously. GO BUY IT NOW.

Disclaimer: those with issues with cursing, description sex, or hearing the main character bash Christianity a time or two might want to steer clear.