Kissing Kelli (A Texas Legacy Romantic Comedy #1) - Kathy Carmichael

This one was a freebie for the Kindle.  I almost didn't get it due to the cover.  It's a cartoon for goodness sakes!  I read the description and decided not to judge the book by its cover.

Kelli is a vet who loves her sisters.  Lori is one of the sisters who used to be very close to Kelli, but now jealousy has changed all that.  When Lori brings Bobby Gray (don't call him just Bobby - very Walton's) to the annual family Fourth of July celebration, he finds himself attracted to Kelli, enraging Lori.  Lori storms off and Kelli decides she needs to distance herself as far as possible from Bobby Gray as she can even though she finds herself drawn to him.  Bobby Gray doesn't give up easily though.

I thought that this book was cute.  It wasn't a laugh-out-loud comedy or anything, but it was truly a good read and was very clean.  I didn't blush once!  The author has another book in the series, Stuck On You, but it appears to have a paranormal aspect to it, making it highly unlikely that I would read it.  Kissing Kelli was pretty good though and I recommend it.

A Love of Her Own (Heart of the West #3) - Maggie Brendan

This Kindle book was on my watch list and dropped to $5.59.  I decided to pick it up.  No Place for a Lady had turned up free quite a while ago and I bought the second one, The Jewel of His Heart, as a DTB since it was a bargain book from Amazon.  I liked both of those so I bought this one.

April is the sister of Josh (hero from book 2) and is racing to get to his wedding in Montana.  Being the daughter of a cattle baron in Colorado, she is spoiled and used to getting her own way.  She makes it in time to make the wedding and then has to make it on her own in town while her brother is on his honeymoon.

April sets everyone back with her snotty attitude and her holier than thou treatment of everyone.  She meets Wes, who starts to show her the error of her thinking.  She refuses to even think of giving her heart since he is a poor man who seems to have no concept of tidiness at his own home.  After a time, she comes to understand that she has been treating others badly, Wes in particular.

I liked this book and don't feel the least bad about buying it.  I am glad that it came up at a lowered price.  The interactions between the people were believable and the whole happy ending is all I require in a book that I love.  Good book!

Torrent (River of Time #3) - Lisa T. Bergren

I was totally hooked to this series so I paid for not one, but two of them, $7.99 each.  First time in a long time that I have done that, so I'm proud of myself for that.

Book 3 of the River of Time series (see Waterfall and Cascade for books 1 and 2), this can be a wrap-up to the story OR not.  I noticed in the author's notes at the end that people were asking her for more, and she has been considering exploring Lia and Luca's love story, but it is still undecided at this time.  I personally would be happy to see that happen.

In this installment, Gabi's father comes back with the others and gets to adjust to medieval life.  Marcello's brother is still being held captive by the Firenze and will only be exchanged for Gabi and Lia, the She-Wolves of Siena.  When the "neutral" exchange doesn't go quite as planned, Gabi has to search her heart and her strength to follow the right path.

I really liked the series.  There were a few times that the language in it pointed to the "young adult" classification for this book.  "Dude.  I. Am. There."  That kind of colorful language that you can tell a teenager would be using.  I thought the author did an awesome job with the interactions of the characters and the action.  I finished it in a little over a day, because I HAD to know what happened.  Great series!

Stars Collide - Janice Thompson

This review will be short because I didn't finish this book.  Realistically, I only got about 10% into it.  I kept looking to see how far I was and was disappointed to see how much I had left.  I think it's the first time I gave up this early in a while, but give up I did.

Kat is the granddaughter of a star from long ago.  Scott is her co-star on a show where they are hiding their love.  Apparently they are doing the same for real life.  When a power outage reveals their true feelings, the grandmother decides to get involved and let everyone know what's going on.

I'm not sure I can pinpoint exactly what turned me off this book so soon.  I think the overwhelming presence of the grandmother had something to do with it.  It seemed to be as much about her (if not more) than Kat.  It has been removed.

Love Finds You in Homestead, Iowa - Melanie Dobson

This one was free and it looked like the Christian Amish books that I don't read, but since it was Amana, I decided to give it a shot and try to learn something new.

You have Jacob, who has lost his job as a banker and basically everything else in the depression, including his wife and baby son.  All he has left is his daughter, Cassie.  Jacob sells everything he can to get train tickets to Washington.  Unfortunately, when they get to the train station, the workers are striking and attacking the trains.  Cassie is sick and Jacob has to get her away from the city.  Climbing into a fleeing freight car, Jacob gets a bad gash in his leg from the workers trying to prevent his escape.  As the journey continues, Cassie gets worse and they have to get off at the next stop, being Homestead, Iowa.  Here the excitement ends for me. 

Leisel is committed to her society in the Amana colonies.  She helps the outsiders and becomes attached to them even though she is engaged.  Battling the accusation of embezzlement, Jacob has a hard time earning the trust of the Elders and convincing them that he really wants to stay.  A flood makes the Elders reconsider their beliefs about Jacob and the end has a happy ending.

I think this book goes in my tolerable category.  I wouldn't read another of these, they are too reminiscent of the Amish books.  For some reason, those always seem the same to me.  Pretty good book if this is your kind of thing.

Code Blue - Richard Mabry

A freebie for my Kindle!  I had some high expectation for this one.  It's a medical thriller by a doctor!  I should learn lots of medical things and be impressed at my increased knowledge at the end.  Well, I was disappointed.  Instead of prioritizing parts of the plot, I felt like he was trying to spread out all his topics equally. 

Cathy returns to her hometown after a broken relationship to try and establish her own practice.  She encounters her old high school flame after a black SUV runs her off the road.  She also has to deal with money troubles that are complicated when the prescription for the banker gets messed up and almost kills him.  Her old flame becomes her lawyer, and a doctor at the hospital is trying to get her to go out with her.  She is also battling the idea that her mother may have had a serious mental issue that makes Cathy doubt her own mental issues.

I felt like I learned more about insurance companies and the money troubles that plague doctors than I was involved in the romance OR the murder plot.   I also didn't increase my medical knowledge at all.  I mean, this SUV tries to run her down at least 3 times, and she doesn't make the connection or report it to the police.  Really?  When we defeat the bad guy at the end, I just felt like, "Oh yeah, there was someone out to harm her."

I appreciated that he included God in the book, but I wasn't real impressed overall.  I have removed the other free one of his that popped up, Medical Error.  This just wasn't my cup of tea.

The Keeper - Ted Dekker - short story

I found this in the Kindle freebies and HAD to have it.  This is a prequel to Forbidden, which came out recently.  Ted Dekker is working with someone new on this book, Tosca Lee.  I'm hopeful that this will work out better than the Erin Healy ones.  Nothing against Erin Healy, I liked The Lost Books, just not the serial killer ones.

Two brothers have secluded themselves away from the world.  As they sit by the fire one night, a man approaches them and tells them that they are already dead.  Confused and scared, they listen as the man reveals he is a scientist that helped develop a virus that has spread without anyone's knowledge.  The virus makes the victims unable to feel anything but fear basically.  He also has a cure.  He has to prove to the brothers that what he says is the truth and convince them to help him with the secret.

I think that I will eventually give Forbidden a chance.  It only took me about 30-45 minutes to read through this short story, so I wasted nothing giving it a chance.  There is mention of Thomas Hunter and the Raison Strain (Circle series) and I really liked that series.  I'm keeping an eye on the price, $11.99 is a little too rich for my blood at the moment.

A Fool Again - Eloisa James

This novella starts out when a woman is at the funeral for her older husband.  Before her marriage, she was on her way to Gretna Green to with someone she met a few hours before that.  On the way, she is deflowered, caught by her father and forced to marry the old man.

The will her husband created stipulated that if she did not marry one of the business partners, she was to get none of the money he had.  One is an older man, the other a man Genevieve believes she is in love with.  The man is a bore, but a handsome one.  She is trying to convince him he loves her too.

Enter Tobias, her dashing, daring man from the past.  Although he deflowered her on the way to Gretna Green and then disappeared, he appears to have lost none of his passion for Genevieve and is convinced he needs to enlighten her to her own feelings.

I think that if the author had spent more time on the characters and less on their passionate feelings, it may have been a better story.  I really didn't understand Felton at all.  One minute he is kissing her, the next he is giving her up for horses.  Apparently these people have NO sense of stealth as Tobias tries to trick him into giving up Genevieve for horses, she is wearing perfume and simply standing behind a screen.  Felton gives up and ta-da!  Tobias and Genevieve can go off and be passionate forever!

I was glad this was just a novella.  Sadly, it wasn't one of my favorites.

The Bride Collector - Ted Dekker - DTB

I think that Ted Dekker is a master of suspense.  Every time I read one of his books, I'm speechless at the end.  It's just..."wow."  I have had The Bride Collector in my possession for quite some time now.  After reading Boneman's Daughters, I kinda had the feeling that this was going to be along the same lines.  I was right.  Just to clarify, in Boneman's Daughters, a serial killer is looking for the perfect daughter.  When a girl makes a mistake, he breaks a bone.  He keeps breaking them until they die.

In The Bride Collector, Quinton is choosing the brides for Christ. Finding the most beautiful, he abducts them.  Once he prepares them with makeup, he glues them to a wall, drills holes in the bottom of their feet to drain their blood and places a veil over their heads.  Brad is the FBI agent sent to find him.  Desperate for answers, he ends up at a place where highly intelligent mentally ill people live.  They become invaluable to the investigation, and eventually, to him.

This book is a thriller.  It addresses the subject of mental illness in a very thought provoking way.  Overall, it reads like Ted Dekker.  The last one that I had read was written with Erin Healy, Kiss, and just seemed to be missing something.  Since this was a solo effort, I wanted to give it a shot.  I wasn't disappointed, but it's not a happily ever after kind of book.  It's more of a good conquers evil kind of book.

I probably won't be keeping this one.  I still favor Dekker's earlier works more than I do the serial killer ones.  There are mentions of the Paradise series.  The girl named Paradise mentions the Roush and has a vision from the others.  I like how there are little details in there that people that have read the others can pick up on, but it blends in so well that if you haven't read the Paradise series it will not make you feel like you're missing something.

Great suspense thriller.  The man is a master, no doubt about it.

The Inheritance - Tamera Alexander - DTB

I got this book from my PaperBack Swap account.  It was on my Kindle watch list, but since it popped up as available, I decided to get it.  Nothing in my gazillion TBR books on my Kindle was calling to me at the time.  I had read Tamera Alexander's Fountain Creek Chronicles and also book 1 of the Timber Ridge Reflections series.  Someday I'm hoping that the other two drop in price or pop up free.  As far as I can tell, this is a stand-alone book and quite a good one at that!

McKenna has been taking care of her brother for quite some time.  The age gap is enough that she has taken over the task of trying to be his mother.  Fleeing her brother's past, they decide to move to where their cousin, almost a sister to McKenna, lives in Colorado.  Her brother is supposed to take a job as a carpenter and McKenna has inherited her father's talent for making saddles.  Unfortunately, untimely deaths force her to take over a ranch and a little girl upon arrival.  Gender roles being what they were, McKenna is forced to work on her saddles in secret, and her brother's rowdy actions put a lot of stress on McKenna.

Enter U.S. Marshal Wyatt.  He steps in to try and protect them, but McKenna fears that he is going to find out about the past and tries to push him away.  He has his own secrets that he is pursuing for the marshals, and McKenna begins to doubt him.  As her brother gets deeper into trouble and the ranch gets deeper in debt, McKenna wants to confide in Wyatt but her trust does not come easy.

I really liked this book.  I hope one day that they price will drop or that it will be free so that I can add it to my digital collection.

Cascade (River of Time #2) - Lisa Bergren

Ok, I'll admit it.  I love this series!  I bought this book ($7.99) because I HAD to know what happened next.  Waterfall was the first in the series and at the end, the girls were back in the present out of necessity.

In Cascade, the girls head back, this time with their mother in tow.  More political drama occurs since the girls are now heralded as the She-Wolves of Siena.  The plague makes an appearance as well.  Love grows everywhere and the question that gets raised is can they save their father who had died a few months before the original time travel?

The timing of the jumps gets a little complicated.  It appears that minutes in the present count as weeks and months in 1300s Italy.  The girls are also changing the past.  When they get back to the future this time, things are there that were not there before.  With Gabi rushing everyone about, they try to find their father and get back to 1300s Italy and back to the men they love.

It's another cliffhanger and it's going to be hard to pace myself and try not to buy it right this second.  I need to give my eyes a rest.  These books I devour in about 2 days max.  I think they're great!  I have to say that although this is NOT my type of trilogy, I think this one might change my mind about giving others like it a chance in the future.  It is just that good!

Lye in Wait (A Home Crafting Mystery) - Cricket McRae

This little mystery reminded me a lot of the Psalms 23 mysteries.  I liked those, but there are times when you wonder whether these women are really that dense or they just need to be for the sake of the story line. 

Sophie is a widow that lives with her best friend and her daughter.  When their handyman dies in her workroom, Sophie suspects that something foul has happened.  The only person to believe her is a police detective.  After a few incidents, more people come around to her thinking.  There is also the ex-husband coming in and disrupting her friend's life.  Of course, that ties in later but not quite the way you would think.  Sophie does some really dumb things that make you wonder if people really mess up investigations this way in real life and what happens when real policemen find out.

I kinda found the whole "drinking lye to die" part kinda creepy, but I learned things about lye and making things I would never make.  The budding romance between the detective and Sophie was a little weird in that she had no clue what was going on in her heart.  She felt funny and didn't want him to think she was weird.  I just thought that it could have been developed a little better.  That's the main part I like anyway, but since this was a mystery, I should have focused more on the murder and less on the interactions between those two.  My bad!

I personally was a little impressed that I was not able to figure out the whodunit part of the story until it was revealed.  Did I have parts figured?  Sure, but the total answer was not clear in my mind.  There are recipes in the back for you to make your own bath salts and things.  Not something I would do but might appeal to some.  There are others in the series: Heaven Preserve Us, Spin a Wicked Web, Wined and Died, and Something Borrowed Something Bleu.  If they come up free, I suppose I would pick them up.  I wouldn't buy them though.

Texas Hold Him - Lisa Cooke

This was a freebie that I picked up although it looked a little racy for my prudish sensibilities.  It's not too long and the language wasn't overly bad, but there are cuss words in it.  It's not overwhelming like every other word or anything.  There were about 2 sex scenes that I was able to get through with a little skimming and a blush or two.  Not too bad for me.  Normal people probably wouldn't be phased!

Lottie is in trouble.  She is being blackmailed by someone who claims to have seen her father commit a murder.  Her father's memory not always being that steady these days, Lottie decides to take matters into her own hands when faced with coming up with 15K in a matter of weeks.  An idea forms for her to get on a riverboat, and with NO experience, she plans to win the 25K prize money by acquiring lessons from a successful gambler.  She changes her identity to hide her ladylike upbringing and take a job on the riverboat, and in the end, Lottie and the gambler are more connected than they thought.

I was actually quite surprised that I liked this book.  I smiled a few times at the humor and once laughed out loud.  Lottie has a humorous way of getting her way when the gambler decides he's not going to help her.  And how can you not appreciate a book where the hero's name is Dyer Straights?!

A Hope Undaunted (Winds of Change) - Julie Lessman

This is another freebie that I had been waiting for.  This author kept coming up in my recommendations on Amazon, so I was happy it came up for free.  At first, I thought it was a different author, so I was taken aback by the difference in writing styles.

This book is about Katie, a rich girl that has her life all planned out, including who she is going to marry.  Along comes a "bully" from her past turning her life upside down.  Along the way, there are many complications and by the end I was a little disappointed at the ending even though it was the happy ending I demand from books I love.

The book was a little too long for my tastes.  The additional subplot with Katie's sister and her husband was not needed.  The trust issue that the they deal with doesn't add anything to the main characters and makes the book longer than it needed to be.  I think I skimmed the last 20% of the book on my kindle and that was just to see what happened at the end.

I also didn't like some of the subject matter.  Domestic violence and rape are things that are unfortunate and cruel realities, but I was uncomfortable with them.  Also, there was a group of 3 friends.  The hero, Luke, ends up in the clear, but not unscathed.  One of the other friends ends up with a broken heart and the third is dead by the end of the book.  Hardly the super happy wrap-up.

The second book in the Winds of Change series deals with Katie's brother and a family friend that fled from her abusive husband in Ireland.  If it ends up being free, I might consider picking it up, but I won't track it on purpose.

A Kiss of Adventure (Treasures of the Heart #1) - Catherine Palmer

This was a refreshing little book.  Most of the books I read seem to be in the United States - old West or general historical, which is my general comfort zone and an almost guaranteed favorite.  This one is set in Kenya and has treasure hunts, romance and adventure.  I ended up really liking the characters and the way it ended.

Tillie is a tree-planting woman.  Usually that would not be a dangerous occupation, but when a young boy gives her a locket, she becomes the target of a man who needs her help to seek a treasure.  Rescued by a man who is NOT her fiance, they are brought together by their common goal of finding the treasure.

I would recommend this book for someone looking for a straight romantic adventure.  It was a light book and just what I needed when I read it!

A Daughter's Inheritance - Tracie Peterson and Judith Pella

This was a freebie that I had been watching for.  Book 1 of the Broadmoor Legacy, I was really excited.  I really like Tracie Peterson.  I look for her books and most of her trilogies are right up my alley.

This book was different.  I'm not sure if it was because of her working with Judith Pella, but the book didn't really tie any loose ends up.  The book focused the most on Fanny, the heiress that her uncle resents.  The man that Fanny loves ends up heading to Alaska to seek his fortune.  I was a little disappointed that the romance between the two was lost in the scheming of the uncle and the backstory foundation being laid for the other two cousins (who are focused on in the other 2 books).  I did a little peeking and found out that everything seems to get wrapped up in the final book.

I personally am not fond of this type of trilogy, so there is little chance of me spending more time or money on it.  I like resolution of one story or at least part of one before commiting myself to another.  While this rarely happens in real life, I don't read to mirror real life.  I read for the enjoyment, and the frustration I feel when finishing a book and knowing that absolutely nothing will be resolved for another two novels gets under my skin.

Waterfall (River of Time #1) - Lisa T Bergren

This book is a time travel romance that is classified as being for young adults, but I really enjoyed it.  At first I was a little uncomfortable with how much love the heroine felt at 17, but I understood it much better by the end.  Heck, I can't say much, I found my true love before that!

Gabi and Lia are sisters that are less than enthused to be stuck in Italy on another archaeology expedition with their mother.  They find a way into the past and lose each other in the process.  Gabi becomes attached to the past, and a particular young man in the process, while trying to find out what happened to her sister and also trying to discover if there is a way to get back to her own time.

The book kept me engaged throughout, and I wanted more at the end.  It's one of those books that you need to find out more.  I plan on eventually progressing through the series.  Cascade is next and Torrent is supposed to be out this week.  If I didn't have a billion things waiting for me on my Kindle, I would have picked up Cascade already!

Barbara Cartland

I decided to take a break from my Kindle and read what I term a "diet book."  These are usually mindless romances for me.  Short, they usually don't take me more than a day and also don't use up the normal number of brain cells.

I have to say that Barbara Cartland is an unusual pick for me.  I saw them when I was a kid at my mom's house and have picked one up here and there.  These were written almost at the dawn of time and they haven't aged well.  A few were made into movies, of which I have one simply for the pleasure of making fun of it.  It cheers me on a depressing day.

The woman herself was incredible.  She wrote 723 books.  That's crazy.  They also were translated into like 38 languages.  On top of that, she actually left behind about 160 unpublished manuscripts.  I don't take anything away from her as an author.  I think it's amazing what she did.  It doesn't seem to make them less mirthful for me, though.

Anyway, I picked up the shortest one that I happened to come across and was laughing out loud by the end of it.  The picture of the author on the back cracks me up as she is resplendent in her white gown with her small white dog on her lap.  Besides the outdated language and the stuttering heroine, the book was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.  I have no idea why, but the women seem to talk like they have to think out each word.

"I...think...that I...might...need to...think...some more."

The heroine talked that way the ENTIRE book.  Personally, I wanted to smack her silly.  I guess that's why I read a diet book only every once in a while.  On the other hand, knowing what I know now about the author, it seems to me that she deserves a chance to be read every once in a while.