Dirty Little Mistake (Dirty #2) by Amber Rides

Blurb: At eighteen, Brenna Cooper turned her back on her boyfriend-hopping, drug-addicted mother. She fought her way from poverty and heartache into a life she’s proud to lead. Now twenty-two, Brenna has four years of hard work behind her and a bright future ahead of her. She’s careful and cautious and keeps her nose clean. Always. Or almost always anyway.

Five weeks ago, Brenna received some news that hit her hard and she slipped from the straight-and-narrow path.

It was just one mistake.
One party.
One too many shots of tequila.
One little one-night stand with her muscle-for-brains neighbor, Ian.
And it’s behind her.

Or it would be if it weren’t for the teeny, tiny matter of the positive pregnancy test.

Now, Brenna is terrified of following in her mother’s footsteps. She needs to tell Ian about the baby. Soon. And she needs help finding a way to do it.

Ridley James has a shady, crappy decision filled past. He’s the first to admit that the ages of thirteen to seventeen were nothing to be proud of. He bounced from foster home to foster home, girl to girl, and fake I.D. to fake I.D. Five years ago, though, his terminally ill aunt took him in and helped him turn his life around. Before she died, she made him promise a few things. Ridley would stay on the clean path she’d led him to. He’d stay out of trouble. Most importantly, though, he’d look out for her son – his cousin – Ian.

He was doing well.
Until he and Ian moved into his new house a month and half ago and they met his pretty, sweet – and drunk – neighbor.

Ridley knows his only choice is to pretend Brenna has no effect on him. Especially since she came flying out of Ian’s room the morning after their housewarming party, begging him to forget he ever saw her.

He was doing fine with that, too.
Until Brenna came asking for his help – in becoming Ian’s girlfriend.

Now, Ridley is trying to keep his hands and his feelings to himself, struggling to understand why a girl like Brenna is interested in his cousin at all, and fighting to keep his promises to his aunt.

The closer Brenna gets to Ridley, the farther she gets from making her confession to Ian. The more Ridley gets to know Brenna, the less control he has.

Both are keeping secrets. And neither is prepared for the truth.

5 stars

Even with the unbelievably of the intentional misunderstandings going on ALL over this book for suspenseful purposes, I really loved it.  The author would throw in those deliberate misunderstandings and I would get ready to throw the book, then….she would retreat just a smidgen, giving me a taste of the romance I so wanted to see.  Thereby pulling my attention back in and making me want to finish the book.  

Well played Amber Rides, well played indeed.  

Brenna was so young and naive.  I felt great pity for her, and not in a good way.  I mean, it was expected she had no idea what she was doing since she had no mother figure in her life to teach her, but I don’t think she gave the other people in her life enough credit personally.  She made up for her lack of knowledge in these types of situations by giving in to her uhm…baser desires.  She was a super cute horn dog trying to force a square peg in a round hole and she failed, quite hilariously.  The dialogue in this book is fricking fantastic by the way. And quite possibly saved me from DNF’ing this book on more than one occasion.  

Ridley, man this dude was all kinds of hotness.  Smart, vulnerable, strong, patient, understanding, loyal to his family and did I mention he bakes!  Yes, please!  He was a bit of a glutton for punishment but I’ll be damned if his weakness for helping Brenna didn’t just push right over the edge in love with him.  

I had no idea this was the second in the series and now I want to go back and read the first one.  I’m a fan and will certainly keep my eye out for more books by this author in the future.  

Bossypants by Tina Fey (Author/Narrator)

Blurb: Before Liz Lemon, before “Weekend Update”, before “Sarah Palin”, Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV.
She has seen both of those dreams come true.

At last, Tina Fey’s story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon – from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we’ve all suspected: you’re no one until someone calls you bossy.

3 stars

It was funny. I never noticed the hands on the cover were not hers, LOL.  I think I might like her less after reading this though.  It wasn’t bad, but I wrinkled my nose at some of her beliefs.  She made her views very clear in this book.  I did kinda see what she meant about the sexism in the workplace and adapting to it.  Her way of handling it seems way more diplomatic and subtle than what I’d like to think I would have done.

And while I do enjoy hearing opposing views, I guess I just wasn’t feeling it as much as I wanted to. I learned a lot about her life growing up which was interesting. She seemed to have a similar childhood to mine, except of course, my parents weren’t republicans. 🙂 And she knows how to nail a punchline. This chic is hilarious!

This book was released in 2011 and while its not that far in the past I could still see how my views have changed and grown in that time. At any rate I’d read another books by her, if only to laugh at her jokes.

Coffee, Tea or Me by Rich Amooi

Blurb: Susie opens a tea shop next to Jack’s coffee shop and the war begins.

Jack Robbins has a booming coffee business, an eighty-year old customer who can’t keep his clothes on, and a rescue Chihuahua named Chimichanga that likes to kiss on the mouth. Life is good until the new business next door takes a bite out of his sales.

Susie McKenna has the new tea shop everyone is talking about, an over-protective brother, and a stubborn, good-looking neighbor who is trying to steal her customers.

Things really start to percolate when Jack and Susie both volunteer to help plan the downtown festival. They have to work together and soon Jack won’t be able to get by without his daily fix of Susie. But can a coffee lover and a tea devotee put their competition aside to get their happily ever after?

Favorite Quote

“You don’t know if you’re going to be here tomorrow or the day after. Neither do I. Ask her out.” “What if she says no?” “There’s something a thousand times more painful than her telling you no.” “What’s that?” “Regret…”

2.5 stars

This book was cutesy. But I felt it lacked a lot of depth.  A lot.  The potential was there, but the follow through was pretty non-existent.  I was pretty disappointed with the romance portion.  It was pretty flat and one dimensional in that area.  And it kinda went downhill from there.

It was too slow and was missing chemistry.  In a romance, that will kill a book for me in a heartbeat. I didn’t get why they were attracted to each other other than the fact that they were in close proximity to one another and they both had businesses of their own.  Other than that, I didn’t see them as a feasible couple.

Honestly, I felt the secondary characters had more depth and emotion than the main ones.  And I felt the climax was…to put it simply, lame.  I just didn’t get it.

Two Cabins, One Lake (Alaskan Romance #1) by Shaye Marlow

Blurb: Helly is a volatile blonde with a passion for fishing, a grudging tolerance for the fishermen she guides, and a part-time job putting her sexual fantasies in writing. She lives a quiet life in the Alaskan bush, alone on her little lake with only a spooky dog and her gun collection for company.

But then Gary, the most obnoxious man Helly’s ever met, roars into her life. The mysterious helicopter pilot moves into the cabin across the lake with a vengeance. And fire. And karaoke. He’s a despicably early riser with a penchant for public indecency, a talent for trespassing… and he’s handsome as the devil, with abs she’d like to lick.

Helly quickly realizes her little lake isn’t big enough for the two of them. After an initial attempt at being reasonable, and responsible, and mature, she gives up—and gives as good as she gets. What follows is a feud of eardrum-battering intensity; a no-holds-barred water fight to the tune of a screaming chainsaw, with her panties caught in the crossfire.

Just when Helly thinks things couldn’t possibly get any worse, her crazy brothers crash the party. In an unforgiving land where even the wildlife is out for blood, can the pair survive long enough for Gary to capture Helly’s heart, along with her wrists? Or will Gary’s past be the final blow, after Helly loses her boat, her dignity, and what’s left of her ammo?

For lovers of Alaskan romance and romantic comedy, Two Cabins, One Lake is a sexy, standalone contemporary romance novel with action & adventure, a splash of mystery & suspense, and a satisfying conclusion. Take a vacation to Alaska, where everything’s bigger & wilder, and you’ll laugh out loud!

Favorite Quotes: 

Because everything is better with cheese. Life is better with cheese.

How about the simpler ‘Let’s be fuck buddies’? See, that felt pretty good. Fuck buddies, I could do. I’d just tell him not to talk to me unless he was growling dirty nothings in my ear. No conversation outside of sex. I didn’t want to talk to him; I just wanted his body.

5 stars!

I loved this book.  I’d seen it advertised on my kindle a few times and thought the blurb was decent.  I tried to find it on my own with no success, then it showed up on my kindle again so I thought, “it’s meant to be read!”  And I snagged that puppy up.  Thank goodness I followed the signs, cause this book was amazing!

I don’t know how I never knew this author before.  She is witty, hilarious and knows how to write revenge…or foreplay, however you want to see it.  😉 She doesn’t pull any punches in her writing and I appreciated that.  Like when describing things that were gross or disgusting, she didn’t sugarcoat it, it was straightforward and refreshing to read someone tell it like it is.

Helly is a a wonderful character.  At first she came off  a a bit masculine for my tastes but as I read on it made her more attractive honestly.  She doesn’t pretend to know all woodsy things but the ones she does know, she knows a lot.  I especially loved how she knew how to fish, gut and shoot like a sniper but couldn’t figure out why her car wouldn’t start.  It wasn’t an all or nothing character if that makes sense.  She had some vulnerability but for the most part she was a vicious defender of her space and no amount of wild animals or men were going to intimidate her or scare her into submission.

Gary is a mans man.  He is broad, agile and knows how to use hand tools and guns. (A man after my own heart!) And he didn’t go easy on Helly just cause she was a girl.  He treated her the same as the other men, well, except for the sexy times. 😉  Which there were  A LOT of.  And each one was more adventurous and hotter than the last.  My goodness, I usually get tired when they put sex in a lot of the story but this was exhibitionist at its best and brightest.

And the brothers!  Oh my gosh these guys picked on their little sister so much, but she gave as good as she got!  They had the best campfire stories about torturing Helly as a kid but when it came to protecting her, they did that with all they had as well.  They were hilarious and original and had their own personality that shined through quite handsomely.  I like Rory myself.

I’m going to immediately read it again because I love this story so much!

Ten Lives by Christian Terry

Blurb: After agreeing to hunt down an ancient relic on an alien world, Mike Wesley may have gotten more than he bargained for: the mark of the hero which gives him the ability to respawn after death, ten times.

Now, between the deadly booby traps and the cute, cuddly murderous cat creatures that inhabit the world of Kelenia, he’ll need each one of his new lives if he wants to make it back to Atlanta in one piece.

 

 

 

Favorite Quote:

“The portal is near a vast underground river that can be accessed through man-sized holes in your thoroughfares,” Ariel said with a flourish. “You’re talking about the sewer, aren’t you?”  “I do not know this word: sewer.”  “Does it stink down by this river?”  “There is the smell of putrescence, yes.”  “You live in the sewer.” 

3.5 stars

This book had some subtle humor in it.  I’m not sure if I am the target audience for this book.  It seemed to be a play on video games.  I don’t really play those that much but I understand the concept.

The story was easy to follow and predictable, a fact which I suspect was the authors intention.  I mean, it follows a game story line pretty good.  And I started to see how it could be a game itself.  Like when they were trapped in that room with the walls closing in, totally a problem solving part of the game.  The characters were something I could see in a game world too, the lovable but clumsy sidekick , the mentor and the love interest. Mike, the MC, was a pretty straightforward guy.  Hard worker, didn’t like drama, and in the habit of helping those in need.

One thing that I really didn’t like was the fact that Louis’ name kept getting changed to Lou or Piggy.  It was done so often that it really stuck out to me.  If you are going to have a nickname, only use the given name in moments of depth that you want to stand out to the reader. Otherwise, the switching of the names becomes tiresome to me and holds no meaning.  Three different names is too much.

I did love the cat though, wish we could have saw more of him. Also, I didn’t understand why Ariel’s daughter hated Mike.  And when he asked, they told him it was complicated and suddenly Mike understood, but I didn’t.  I have been known to be a bit of a dense reader though so maybe that went over my head.

All in all not bad for a debut novel.