Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Bed of Roses

Bed of Roses (Bride Quartet, #2)Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I liked VISION IN WHITE, but I loved Nora Robert’s BED OF ROSES more. Thankfully both books are in the same series because I sometimes find series to be very tricky to rate. Both books are full of friendship, romance cheese and casual dating; it’s definitely very much a chick lit and woman’s literature book.



I liked Emma and Jack as a couple, even though Jack wasn’t big on being in a relationship. It’s wasn’t one of those books that had the “instant relationship love connection” pairing going on because the main character pairing both lovers were very close friends before hooking up. They had a lot of sexual tension together and were cute together.



In the series overall, Emma was my third favorite character after Parker and Carter. I really liked that she had a diverse character background compared to most female leads in the romance genre. I could picture her very easily in my mind than her friend Mac. The only thing I didn’t like was that Emma piffed off Jack deliberately.



I have to admit this series is shaping up to be one of my guilty pleasure reads. When I want fluffy with some sex thrown in, this maybe my go to series after I’m done with the last two books. The way Nora Roberts writes her male characters is very good; I love kind, friendly and funny male leading characters (which are hard to find in the current young adult romance market). Other than that I can’t wait until I get the last two books in this series.





View all my reviews

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Vision in White

Vision in White (Bride Quartet, #1)Vision in White by Nora Roberts

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


VISION IN WHITE is the first Nora Roberts book I ever read, so I was not sure on how well the writing was going to be. All I was expecting was a cute fluffy read about a woman and a guy falling in love, but the book was so much more than that. I found it to be very funny and well written for a first book of a series; it’s not my usual genre but I highly enjoyed it because I needed a change of pace from the young adult romance books.



I’m well aware that there are bunches of books about friends running a wedding business together, but the spin that Nora Roberts put on it was wonderful. Even though Roberts didn’t go into graphic detail about the friends, I could believe that they were good friends by the dialogue and actions.



My favorite part of this book was Carter Maguire, the love interest of Mackenzie “Mac” Elliot. This is the first book in a long time that I’ve read that had a genuinely sweet and caring male lead, so this was a big plus for me since I like to read books where nice guys get lovers. I liked Carter and his family; they were adorable.



Apart from that I think Mac’s name threw me for a loop because I thought she was a guy until I read the book flap’s summary right after I read a few pages. I know her nickname is short for Mackenzie, but Mac is a very hyper masculine nickname. I liked her character and could relate to her, and I can’t wait to read the sequels and more Nora Roberts' books.





View all my reviews

Monday, November 14, 2011

Too Broud to be Bought

Too Proud to be BoughtToo Proud to be Bought by Sharon Kendrick

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I've been reading Harlequin books since I was 15 years old, and I thought I had outgrew them when I hit the ripe old age of 21. Today I saw this book for less than 4 dollars, and honestly I was curious to see if this kind of light reading would interest me again, so I bought it. I've been wanting some light fluffy reading because I've been reading a lot of long 600 to 1000 page novels... Pretty much this book was a definite change of pace for me.



This book was a lot better than the last Harlequin book I read. I think the editor did a better job at catching grammar mistakes because I found very few. The only grammar mistakes I could find were not putting commas where they were needed, but I did wonder why some places had overused the same adjective on the same page.



I have to hand it to Sharon Kendrick for writing some occasioanally good dialogue and interesting characters. I could tell which character was speaking at all times without having to reread parts multiple times. Zara was fun to read about; I love strong willed, hard-working and stubborn heriones who mostly don't let men rule over them. I could understand both main characters' motivations for doing the things they did.



For an adult romance book, the sex scenes were written very well and steamy. I liked that those scenes weren't overtly graphic, but they had enough heat to them to make me blush a little. I still felt like I was reading tame book porn though.



I liked the story, but I wished it was longer and more fleshed out. Some parts were cliched, but I still found the reading experience enjoyable. For me this was a fast read.



View all my reviews

Edit: This also posted up on my other blog Reader's Quest.