Hot Off The Press

Must Love Dukes by Elizabeth Michels

 in Books / Fiction / Hot Off The Press by

“Who ever thought a duke would be so daring?”

Summary

She can’t resist a dare.
Lillian Phillips could not imagine how her quiet, simple life had come to this. Blackmailed by the Made Duke of Thornwood into accepting one wild dare after another…all because of a pocket watch. Desperate to recover her beloved father’s pawned timepiece, Lily did something reckless and dangerous and delicious – something that led to a night she’d never forget.

He has a reputation for scandal.
When Devon Grey, Duke of Thornwood, runs into the mesmerizing, intoxicating, thieving woman who literally stole from his bedchamber – with his new pocket watch – Devon plots his revenge. If the daring wench likes to play games, he’s happy to oblige. After all, what’s the use of being the Mad Duke if you can’t have some fun? But the last laugh just might be on him…

-From the back cover

Review

I’m just going to say it outright.

I thought this book was kinda mushy.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love mushy books and such, they are a simple read and fill your head with fluff and make you all warm and fuzzy, but for some reason I didn’t love this book as much as I thought I was going to. I guess I’m not into more….”medieval” romance literature as much as I thought, but I will try more incase maybe it was just this book.

So I’ll present what I liked and what I didn’t like in this book as there were some good things as well.

First off, what I didn’t like. Let’s rip that band-aid off. I didn’t feel like there was a lot of description. There wasn’t a ton of character development and I really dislike how it objectifies women. I’m all for woman empowerment, and I know that a woman wrote this, but it always gets on my nerves when women are treated like cattle, especially in this. The main character talked tough like she would fight back, but she didn’t do anything. She needed the Duke to come in and save her and while the ‘damsel-in-distress’ is good to read and all and many people like it, for this book…I don’t know, I didn’t work for me.

I also felt that the ending was kinda rushed. It was just suddenly all this stuff was happening, all this information was thrown at you, and BAM, the book ended. I was left sitting there like, “WTF…what just happened?”

In addition to this, this is a romance book. Most romance books either are just completely flirting and teasing or there is outright sex. This book I felt was in between. The one or two sex scenes in this book were…kind of lacking in my opinion. The description was fluffy (not saying it should be explicit, but it was too child-like) and it just got on my nerves. I’m not saying that you should use crude language or foul descriptions, but don’t make it all fluffy..it just ruins reading it. Either go for it, or don’t at all. People who usually read these types of books know all about this stuff, so just go for it in my opinion.

Now to the things that I did like.

The story overall was creative on how it progressed and the slow romance between the Duke and Lily, and it had many good qualities of him pursuing her, realizing his feelings for her, and going after her. Then there was the brother Solomon…I just wanted to smack him so much and I love when there is one of those characters. It pushes you to read on to find out if something happens to him in the end.

Overall, I would recommend this book, even though there were downsides. But these downsides pertained to me personally and my overall reading experience. I am sure that many others would like it as it has a classic love story and a male fighting for a womans love. So many would love this book and I say that you give it a shot if you’re interested in this type of stuff.

Let me know what you think and happy reading!

 

Noah’s Knits by Fiona Goble

 in Book Reviews / Books / Hot Off The Press by

Hot off the press is this new book Noah’s Knits by Fiona Goble.  Long time readers of this blog will know that we love Fiona Goble (Here, Here, and Here). She is a really creative lady (just check out ALL the crafty books she has written), and handy with the knitting needles and appears to want to create little worlds in wool. However, even though she has been featured before we haven’t actually reviewed one of her books until today.

This is a charming little book (80 pages) with the story of Noah and the animals and 16 knitted projects, very helpful instructions showing you how to knit, change wool color, turn around, finish your little piece and add embellishments and finishing touches. The back of the book has an Ark with opening doors and ramp so you can set your animals out for display. How cool is that!!! Interspersed with the patterns is the story of Noah and his Ark and his poor long suffering wife, Mrs. Noah. Animals you can knit include African elephants and lions, Arctic polar bears and penguins and regular barnyard creatures like goats and pigs. As each of the projects is small they should be able to be completed relatively quickly…….of course this depends on knitting ability. Full disclosure – this review is of the book, not the accuracy of the patterns. As it will take a little time to organize time to attempt some of these projects you will have to wait a bit for this!!

With summer just around the corner (for readers in the Norther Hemisphere) this might just be the perfect project for those lazy days. What do you think???

Just in case you aren’t sure if knitting is cool enough for you, just check this out and see what an “in” thing it is!!!!

Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral – Print Version

 in Book Reviews / Books / Creative / Hot Off The Press / Interesting / Young Adult by

This was extremely interesting. Not what I expected at all, and talk about sad. But what beautiful pictures. This is one of the first interactive graphic novels but they also do it in book form (which is what I read.) There is more I believe to the iPad, iPod, and iPhone version. I will be purchasing that because I am curious to see how the two compare but this book was amazing. Such beautiful colors and they presented the book in such an amazing way, just so interesting. The cover of this book was also so cute.

So simple yet so elegant. Also notice with the color how it is not a true color. It is off-color. That was the effect throughout the entire book and it was really a nice touch to the graphic novel.

It was a little confusing because through the entire novel they kept referring to each other as G and F and it got a little confusing during some parts as to who was who but it was quite easy to pick again.

This is a definite checker-outer (if that is a word) and a HOT OFF THE PRESS.

But this book is definitely for older readers as there is some bad language and some sexual topics. But that was like 5 pages in a 200 page book so really minimal.

Also I read this book, wait for it, in 25 minutes flat. That is my all time record. Admittedly,  it was all pictures.

So go and purchase it here for your “i” stuff or go to your local book store/local library or shop around online.

Hope that you enjoy.

And once again, thank you to Omar, my local YA librarian for having it ready to go.

Thanks.

Something To Dip Into

 in Books / Hot Off The Press / Interesting by

Stuck for something to read? Having an attack of the reading blah’s?

You can take a dip into Cinder by Marissa Meyer over at the Guardian (here) who have got the first chapter to read. Cinder is a take on the Cinderella story – except she is a cyborg. And it is set in the future (obviously). And it is SciFi (ditto). Looks interesting. Check it out and see what you think.

 

Fracture by Megan Miranda

 in Book Reviews / Books / Hot Off The Press / Older Readers / Otherworldly / Young Adult by

* Note: This book is an Advance Reading Copy and it will not be out until January 2012.

Summary

“A lot can happen in eleven minutes. Decker can run two miles easily in eleven minutes. I once wrote an English essay in ten. No lie. And God knows Carson Levine can talk a girl out of her clothes in half that time.

Elven minutes might as well be an eternity under water. It only takes three minutes without air for loss of consciousness. Permanent brain damage begins at four minutes. And then, when the oxygen runs out, full cardiac arrest occurs. Death is possible at five minutes. Probably at seven. Definite at then.

Decker pulled me out at eleven.”

-From the back of the book.

Review

Quite a good book. I still have not figured out how the title fits in with the story but you never judge a book by its cover. I thought that the synopsis on the back of the book was quite intriguing. I read it and was instantly intrigued and I wanted to know what happened.

There is not a lot of say about this book just because it was not one of those stories where there were action. The characters were described pretty well and I could visualize them. But it is hard to describe this book. The story was fiction and it was more magical than anything. It was based on earth, but there was a magical quality to it. But I have to say, when this book comes out in January, it is a must read.

The exact date that it comes out (according to the book cover) is January 3rd, 2012 – but this may change.

Obviously,  this cover is not the final one…not too interesting. Hopefully when it is published they will have some great cover art that might link the title to story. This one doesn’t give a clue!

So, when the book comes out get it and give it a read. Hope that you will enjoy it as much as I did.