Granada Gold by S A Carney

I'm torn between what rating to give this book. On one hand, I was able to read the entire thing--albeit not without some heavy sighing and eye -rolling. I was interested enough that I wanted to know what was going to happen next, or I should say, when something was going to happen. (Things happened, but the real interesting stuff was told as a quick mention, a mere tossing in of history, so it felt to me.)

The problem is, I fail to see the point of having read this. I was mildly entertained, but did not walk away with any new knowledge. If anything, I question some of the story. Yes, it's historical FICTION, but are we seriously to believe that Columbus's venture was funded on the whim of a spoiled prince, with the mere handing over of a necklace?


True or not, I'd think the lead up to "discovering" the Americas could have used some more "air" time. Instead the story goes on and on about Juana's love for Lord Sales. I understood she adored him the first time it was mentioned. I don't need to be beaten over the head with it throughout the story. She also seems to be in love with her brother and filled with extreme jealousy at the thought of another woman having him. Perhaps this is the trait that made her mad. I thought it a tad sick.

And holy moly, how many times do I need to be told that Isabella is to marry the Portuguese king and that Catalina is now Princess of Wales. Trust me; it doesn't need to be every single time said princesses' names are mentioned.

In the end, it feels like the mundane rambling/daily journal of a spoiled child who happened to live in Granada during this tumultuous times. It focuses more on the above stuff and descriptions of Granada than things that interest me: Columbus's voyage, the Inquisition. Oh the Inquisition was mentioned, but it felt like it was taking a back seat to Lord Sales, the beauty of Granada, and whether or not her brother is going to marry the supposed awful Margaret. It also felt and read like a young adult novel.

Oh and let's not forget the evil Father Adrian. Horrid man, but told a bit OTT. And I find it strange that Juana is the only who sees it. Hm.

The story began getting more intense in the last quarter as her impending marriage loomed and occurred, but by then I was already quite put off by the above quibbles. Perhaps the novel tried to cover too vast a time period and thus did not focus on the things I care about. Nor did I find this heroine remotely strong. Irritating, more like.

I received this via Netgalley.

Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Sari

Book: Tearing the Shroud, Mending the Shroud
Author: J.M. Bray
Heroine: Sari

Sari is introduced in Tearing the Shroud, my novel through Escape Publishing. She then plays a huge role in Mending the Shroud, book two of the series; it’s still in edit. As a child, Sari survives a flood, strapped in a tree by her father while both of her parents are swept into the night by the raging waters. This event plagues her for the rest of her life. The Matriarch takes her to the Cloister of Berdine where she is raised and trained as a Warrior. She develops a close relationship with another orphaned girl, Jolie. Despite losses that could understandably crush someone, by the time she is in her early twenties, Sari is promoted to the rank of Commander in charge of all the military aspects of the Cloister.

This happens in part because of her attention to detail but also due to her ability and desire to see those around her become the best people they can. Sari doesn’t rule with an iron fist, but a soft leather glove. Strong when necessary, but gentle enough to make people shine. She is able to give orders but willing to listen ot the ideas of the lowest Novice. Sari’s relationship with Jolie is source of rumors in the Cloister, are they friends or much more than that? I won’t spoil the story, but will say Sari loves Jolie deeply and is willing to sacrifice herself for Jolie’s happiness, even if that means losing her to someone else.

Blurb:
Fall in love, be possessed, hunt a sorcerer and save the world — and Vincent thought calculus was tough.

1984 — Vincent expected college to be about freedom and girls, but then the nightmares of sorcery, monsters and other worlds began. Not even the surprising attention from his dream girl, Julie, could shake them.

Before he's even nailed his second date with Julie, he's possessed by Coleman, a warrior from another realm. Coleman is hell bent on defeating the monstrous Kafla who threatens to tear into Vincent's reality, changing both his and Coleman's worlds forever. They have one chance to stop them: Vincent must allow Coleman to share his body and wage war against the sorcerer.

Now it's up to them, the women they love, and Vincent's rag-tag bunch of role-playing and gaming friends to save the world, or see 1984 descend into the apocalypse.

Under the Hood by Sally Clements

I was in the mood for something a little light and the idea of an all-girls operating garage appeals to me so I gave this one a go. It's quick, light to the point you most likely will never think of it again, and just entertainment.

Though I still love the garage. I wish there was one in real life. The garage is the coolest aspect of this story. Three women start a garage for women clientele. With a garage such as this, ladies can take their cars in without fear of being patronized, having male mechanics roll their eyes in frustration, or being ripped off. Under the Hood even offers car repair classes for ladies.

Very, very cool.

I wish most of the story focused on that, but it's a romance and I knew that going in, but the conflict of this is just so weak. So he doesn't reveal that he knows more about cars than you think he does. And so what that he's a lawyer of a crappy woman. I felt this heroine was...over dramatic, getting upset over nothing, and that it was a poor conflict/plot. It certainly doesn't get one's heart racing or even add much of an edge of suspense to a story you already know is going to end in HEA. We know how most all romances end, but give us a wild ride there!

Lots of heated awareness of each others' bodies, insta-lust, yadda yadda. Predictable, basically. The writing is ok. He said this. She did that. Pretty simple. But for anyone not looking for deep enlightenment, for merely a way to pass time as you sit in the doctor's office, there's nothing wrong with it. I think were the conflict made a bit more intense and the story expanded into a novel with a lot more about the garage and the troubles the women face running an all-girls' garage, it would be better.

It is ok, but def didn't wow me. It didn't make me laugh, cry, chuckle, or think deeply about anything.

I received this via Netgalley.

Tasty Guest Post & Giveaway: Melting the Ice Queen's Heart by Amy Ruttan

The heroine in MELTING THE ICE QUEEN’S HEART is quite simply, an Ice Queen. 

Dr. Virginia Potter grew up in poverty and worked very hard to be where she is. To become Chief of Surgery at a young age takes a lot of dedication, but her upbringing and work didn’t harden her heart.

A loss of a loved one did that.

So Virginia has a hard time opening up to people. She likes rules. She likes order and regulation, but her only companion lately has been a cactus.

She’s awkward around children and never thought she wanted any for herself. In fact she was positive she didn’t after what happened to her sister.

When I was writing Virginia I pictured Colbie Smulders from How I Met Your Mother. So I was enormously pleased when the cover for the book came through and the woman on the front was a smack almost dead on image for how I pictured Dr. Potter.

Virginia was raised in a large family, in a trailer on the outskirts of De Smet, South Dakota. Though they didn’t have much, her parents gave her a good work ethic and she was loved.

After her sister died though from something that could’ve easily have been prevented had she been able to afford the health care she need, Virginia hardened her heart and worked hard to give back to people.

Though, her job is not easy when a board of directors threatens to take away the pro bono and shut down the trauma unit to make more money in the field of plastics. Virginia’s world is shattering and she’s angry with herself for being caught in a place that won’t help the people she really wants to help.

Dr. Gavin Brice frustrates her as well, because he bucks all the rules in his carefree way.

Maybe he’s exactly what the doctor ordered for her. 

Blurb:
It started with a kiss… 

Having left his humanitarian posting in Africa to raise his two orphaned nieces in San Francisco, Dr. Gavin Brice has enough on his plate without an inconvenient attraction to his new boss! The frosty Dr. Virginia Potter clearly disapproves of his maverick ways - but with one amazing kiss, the ice begins to thaw….

Buy Links

Barnes and Noble

Harlequin

Link to Follow Tour

Author Info

Born and raised on the outskirts of Toronto, Ontario, Amy fled the big city to settle down with the country boy of her dreams. When she's not furiously typing away at her computer, she's a mom to three wonderful children.

Life got in the way, and after the birth of her second child, she decided to pursue her dream of becoming a romance author.

You can find out more about Amy at her website.

Author Links

Website: www.amyruttan.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ruttanamy

Blog: http://amyruttan.blogspot.ca

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amy.ruttan.3

Harlequin Author Link: http://www.harlequin.com/author.html?authorid=2462
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review & Release Day Blast: Scattered Links by M. Weidenbenner

Release Day Tour

Scattered Links is a novel that pulls its characters from the gutters and, in the end, celebrates the tenacity of the human spirit.

Thirteen-year-old Oksana lives on the streets of Russia with her pregnant mama and abusive aunt—both prostitutes. When Mama swells into labor, Oksana makes a decision to save herself from abandonment, a decision that torments her forever. When her plan fails and her aunt dumps her in an orphanage, she never has the chance to say goodbye to her mama or tell her the secret that haunts her.

Scattered Links is a story of family and the consequences that come from never learning how to love, of a girl’s inability to bond with her adopted family and the frustrations that follow.

How can a child understand the mechanics of forming a healthy relationship when she never had a mother who answered her cries, held her when she was frightened, fed her when she was hungry, or loved her unconditionally?

Only when the child meets a rescued abused horse, and recognizes the pain in his eyes, does she begin to trust again.

***************************************

Scattered Links, (initially titled Love is Just a Word), was the winner of the 2013 Aspiring Writers Competition, sponsored by Write on Con and The Reading Room. Scattered Links was intended to show a glimpse into the life of a child with RAD, reactive attachment disorder, so prevalent in children who never had unconditional love in infancy.

This novel was inspired by Michelle’s journey to Russia to adopt her orphan daughter. Upon seeing the neglect of orphanage children and learning of the effects of RAD in post-institutionalized children, Michelle researched this disorder, committed to giving her daughter the best chance at a healthy life. Sadly, many parents can’t cope with the behavior from kids with RAD and re-home their children like pets.

***My Review***

I appreciate what the author tried to do here. She opened my eyes to poverty in Russia, to what it's like to be transplanted from one country to another, to how very much we in America take for granted. Our dogs get more food than the children in Russian orphanages.


This was a sad story following a girl facing struggle after struggle after struggle, from a mother lost in drink, to an aunt who sells her body and wants to get rid of her nieces too, to the orphanage where kids and caregivers are cruel alike, to a the suddenness of a new home, new country, new family, new language. And nobody understands her, partly because she can't communicate with them. She's had a very different upbringing and never had to report to others. She doesn't understand love or physical touch or communication. She has learned not to trust, ever.

It's a very eye opening read and I didn't realize until after, when I read the above blurb again, that the girl has a very real disorder. RAD. She's attached to a mother who abandoned her and I think it was partly because there was unfinished business btw them.

Again, I appreciate this story and all it opened my eyes to, but I must confess, I couldn't stand the heroine. I felt she was ungrateful, bratty, mean. These people have jumped into parenthood--of a teenager--with no previous experience, provided her a home, food, school, etc, and she just acts out. I completely understood her reasons, yet I had trouble feeling much sympathy as it became one stupid, selfish act after another. I get she's uneducated, but common sense is not taught. The girl acts without thinking over and over. Frankly, I'd have sent her back to Russia after the animal shelter incident. I'm sorry, but I'm being truthful. Not all of us are cut out for children, let alone kids like this one. The American parents in this book deserve medals.

Between the animal shelter, the horse riding, the disappearing acts, I just felt she was too unlikable. I could forgive maybe one incident, but not one thing after another. I just could not come to like her. My dislike of her began to overshadow my sympathy and I very nearly abandoned the book a few times. I so badly wanted to shake her and say, "I'm sorry you went through what you did (I am) but it's time to move on and look around you and be grateful for what you DO have. Your past does not give you license to be horrid now."

The writing is excellent though the sentences are short and choppy, but it's a first-person narrative and the choppiness matches the narrator's personality. So while I found it bothersome at first, it makes sense. The author did a superb job of catching all the different emotions from different people involved in this situation. It was an educational read.

I received this from Promotional Book Tours.

About the author:
Michelle grew up in the burbs of Detroit with five brothers. No sisters. Each time her mom brought the boy bundle home from the hospital Michelle cried, certain her mom liked boys better than girls. But when her brothers pitched in with the cooking, cleaning, and babysitting—without drama, Michelle discovered having brothers wasn’t so bad. They even taught her how to take direct criticism without flinching, which might come in handy with book reviews.

Michelle blogs at Random Writing Rants where she teaches and encourages writers how to get published.

Follow Michelle:

Blog link: http://www.randomwritingrants.com

Random Writing Rants

Teaching adults and teens how to get published



Website link: http://www.mweidenbenner.com

Facebook link: http://www.facebook.com/randomwritingrants

Twitter link: @MWeidenbenner1

Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7171873.M_Weidenbenner





a Rafflecopter giveaway

My Reading Radar (1/18/2014)

Lots of goodies grabbed my attention this last week.

Spotted on NG: The Ballad of Mila by Matteo Strukul.  On my wishlist.

Pray the cops find you first…

Imagine Elmore Leonard behind the wheel of a car in Grand Theft Autoas one Italian woman sets out to cut the mafia down to size – one limb at a time…

Two perfectly matched gangs are fighting for control of the north-east Italian region of Venetia. But a formidable young woman with vengeance on her mind has plans to upset the balance. Abandoned by her mother and violated by a gang of criminals just after they slaughtered her father, Mila Zago is a cold-blooded killer, a deadly assassin. Brought up by her grandfather on the Sette Comuni plateau under a rigid martial code, she returns home to seek her revenge, conspiring to create a spectacular showdown reminiscent A Fistful of Dollars.

The Ballad of Mila is the first novel in an ongoing series focused on the formidable female Italian bounty hunter Mila Zago, a.k.a. Red Dread.

***

I've read and enjoyed Mary Hart Perry's previous two novels about Queen Victoria's daughters and have been eagerly watching for the third. Coming soon: The Shadow Princess. 

To catch one of history’s most notorious killers, a princess risks losing her family, her life—and her heart…

London, 1888: A year after Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee terror mounts in the city's slums. A killer has butchered two prostitutes, the crimes brutal even by London’s hardened standards. Rumors of the murders reach Princess Vicky, daughter of Queen Victoria and grieving widow of the German Emperor Frederick III. When her niece Princess Maud visits, she brings with her even worse news--the Metropolitan Police have a suspect. It’s Vicky’s nephew, Crown Prince Eddy. Desperate to clear her family's name, Vicky rushes back to England.

Detective Inspector Thomas Edmondson believes there is a royal cover-up behind the killings. He will stop at nothing to expose the truth and bring a murderer to justice before he can kill again. But when Vicky joins him in searching for the man who will become known as Jack the Ripper, neither of them foresee the overpowering attraction that will draw together the royal and the commoner—or the danger their love puts them in.

***

Invited to read this one and I accepted: The Tyrant's Daughter by J.C. Carleson.

From a former CIA officer comes the riveting account of a royal Middle Eastern family exiled to the American suburbs.

When her father is killed in a coup, 15-year-old Laila flees from the war-torn middle east to a life of exile and anonymity in the U.S. Gradually she adjusts to a new school, new friends, and a new culture, but while Laila sees opportunity in her new life, her mother is focused on the past. She’s conspiring with CIA operatives and rebel factions to regain the throne their family lost. Laila can’t bear to stand still as an international crisis takes shape around her, but how can one girl stop a conflict that spans generations?

J.C. Carleson delivers a fascinating account of a girl—and a country—on the brink, and a rare glimpse at the personal side of international politics.

The Forgotten Seamstress by Liz Trenow

This is a time-slip novel, going back and forth between a modern-day heroine in 2008 and the years from 1910 through the Great War and beyond. First, I'd like to say, the back and forth was seamless, well done, and non-jarring.


The modern-day heroine is dealing with so many things. She is easy to relate to as she faces problems we all face every day. She's overwhelmed and finds solace in a quilt left to her by her granny. She's facing job loss, a mother with Alzheimer's--really appreciated this story line as she battles guilt and confusion over whether to take care of her herself...but can she?-- the end of a relationship, the start of a new one, a business venture..etc.

Through an interview, we learn about Maria, the woman who made the quilt, and the story behind each one of the panels...how she came by that material, what the stitches say. It's very fascinating and makes a great story, though I confess I was put off by the interview narrative at first. It took me a while to get into this one.

But once I adjusted, I was hooked. I could not wait to find out what happened to both heroines, though the telling of the modern-day one was more interesting. I think Maria's story could have been better had a different narrative been chosen.

And--oh, how very it was to discredit a woman in them days, to throw her away in order to hide the truth. It truly is a heart-breaking tale and in the end I came to admire Maria for going strong after all she'd been through. A lesser woman would have broken long before.

I can't say this is a novel you read for any type of historical perspective. There is some time spent in the palace and all that and the Great War comes and goes, but this is mostly about entertainment, about getting lost in someone else's story and problems, one in which hopefully good triumphs evil and people try to correct their wrongs in the end.

The beginning was very slow and the ending far too predictable, but I still think this is a another great read from Liz Trenow.

I received this from Netgalley. *Four bikes. I can't get the graphic to load for some reason. LOL