REVIEW: Love in Lingerie by Alessandra Torre

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I hired her to fix my company, to bring Marks Lingerie back to life. I didn’t expect her to become my friend. I didn’t expect to fall in love with her.

The first rule of business is to never touch your employees. I think there is another rule about not falling for your best friend—a rule against imagining the curves of her body, or the way her breathing would change if I pulled down her panties and unzipped my pants.

Now, I can’t wait any longer. I’m tossing out the rules.

Damn the company.

Damn our friendship.

Damn my fears. 

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REVIEW

RATING:

Hmmm...

As far as I’m concerned, AT’s writing is always gonna be exceptional, period; which is why I keep coming back to her. Having said that, there is something happening lately where her stories and I are not jiving. As much as I love her writing and how well she develops her MC’s, I can’t seem to be fully on board with where she takes these MCs. 

Take this story. Trey and Kate’s relationship started as boss-employee that moved to friends-to-lovers in looong slow burn way. And I get it. I get why. What I didn’t get, or I should say agree, is the how they got there.

If you’re not a fan of OM/OW, then this is not for you. I’m not usually either, unless the OM/OW is from the past and is just trying to insert him/herself into the budding relationship and failing at that. Here, OM/OW is very much in the present. And interestingly enough, not in a way that one would expect, at least to me. I almost want to say that the OM/OW here is necessary to show growth in the MCs. Did I agree with it? There lies my issue. I get it, yet I don’t. So I think ultimately, it’ll be a personal take.

Also, I’ve now associated AT with unexpected twists in plots but the kinds of twists here were definitely different, I’d say.

Now if you’re an AT fan, then rest assured, her writing continues to be on point. One of the reasons why I guess I can still say that I enjoyed it enough. I appreciated the sexual tension between H&h. I thought both MCs were well developed. I saw their growth. And while I didn’t agree with some of their decisions, I understood. 

And if I may add, probably not best to think of this as just romance. I don’t think AT knows how to do a straightforward romance that follows your typical arc in the first place, and I meant that in the most complimentary way. So because this is AT, I told myself to think of it more as erotic/romantic fiction. And when I did, things made more sense in my head… if that made sense at all…

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Alessandra Torre is an award-winning New York Times bestselling author of fourteen novels. Her books focus on romance and suspense, all with a strong undercurrent of sexuality. Torre has been featured in such publications as Elle and Elle UK, co-hosted Dirty Sexy Funny with Jenny McCarthy, as well as guest blogged for the Huffington Post and RT Book Reviews. She has also served as the Bedroom Blogger for Cosmopolitan.com.

You can learn more about Alessandra on her website at www.alessandratorre.com, or you can find her on Twitter (@ReadAlessandra) or Facebook.

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Thanks for dropping by!

~Leftie

REVIEW: Jaq with a Q by Jettie Woodruff

RATING:
--

Amazon

Blurb

Subject - Jaq with a Q
* Wrong Number
* Looking for hit-man
* Want's to die
* Lost
* No desire to be found
* Paranoid
* Anxiety
* Released from mental hospital
* Panic attacks
* Nobody would miss her
* In the eye of the beholder

Review

Well, well… where to start with this one…

Hmm… how about this is probably one of those books where I will have no rating because in all honesty, I don’t know how to… even after I’ve given it some more thoughts…

With what I’ve read of Jettie’s works, I know that I will get something I don’t expect. That, at least, is a given here. If I see it from that perspective, I suppose I could give it 5-stars. But the thing is, the whole time I was reading it, I seriously don’t know what to expect at every page turn and right to the end, and that is where my confusion starts.

Jaq and Oliver are 2 very fascinating characters, especially Jaq. She has so many issues; she’s hardly functioning, if that. Oliver has his own issues but it’s almost nothing compared to Jaq’s. Their paths crossed by accident and somehow Oliver felt a pull to her. And so he did everything within his power to be part of her world and find her healing.

With everything they have to deal with, it feels like there’s a lot happening and yet not. On the one hand, if there were more layers added to the story, I felt like it might have been too overpowering. On the other, I felt like I was overwhelmingly underwhelmed by the end... hmmm… I dunno… I really don’t know how I feel about this one…

So I guess I will just leave it at this – Jettie certainly knows how to play with your mind. Trust that she will give you something unexpected and completely left field of where you think you’re going. She doesn’t do boring. She doesn’t do conventional. You will be constantly asking questions. Whether you get the answers or not, whether it will leave you satisfied or not, whether things will make sense or not, that, that’ll entirely depend on you. Now whether I make sense here or not, I’m certain I don’t. O well…

Thanks for dropping by!

~Leftie

BLOG TOUR: Unseen Messages by Pepper Winters

From New York Times Bestseller Pepper Winters comes a timeless love story answering the question of what happens when everything is stripped away.

Blurb

"There is a message for everything. From handwritten to verbal, seen and unseen. Messages exist all around us."

But what if you don't see?
What if you don't understand?
What if, by ignoring the message, your life is never the same again?

Estelle Evermore morphed from nobody to somebody overnight.

Galloway Oak put his past behind him and endeavored to make his fortune using his trade.

Two strangers.
One plane.
Multiple unseen messages.

From sky to island, they find neither fame nor skills can save them. Stripped from society and left alone to survive the elements, the very task of staying alive outweighs all other needs.

Until survival turns to desire.
And desire turns to danger.

   

  Buy Links

Amazon ||  Amazon UK || Amazon AUS || Amazon CAD || iBooks || Barnes & Noble || Kobo || Google Play ||  Goodreads || Paperback

Review

RATING:

Not gonna lie, this was a looooong read… much longer than I anticipated… Did it have to be? I dunno. All I do know is that by the end, I was happy I read it.

This is the second Pepper read for me. I may have had some issues with the storyline in that one, but what I didn’t have issues with is her writing. Her writing is what pushed me to read this one too. That, after seeing the cover, of course, which I love!!!

This really is like the Cast Away movie, only make it about a couple and add children. Just like the movie, it makes you think what a person is really made of when put in a life and death situation. It makes you think what really matters, and how one’s thinking shift when basic survival is the only goal. And just like the movie, the focus is surviving the island and all the emotions that came with it, and what happens after the survival…

Told from dual POV, I had access to both Estelle’s and Galloway’s thoughts. There were times I probably would have liked it seeing from the other person’s POV but nonetheless, I appreciated the thought process they each went through. Galloway had a past that was hard to run away from. That kind of past could shape one’s future forcefully so the burden that Galloway carried on his shoulders was understandable. Estelle was, in a way, a survivor herself of her past and trying to make sense of her present. To manage that inexplicable connection between them while trying to survive and look after 2 children on top of that, it was confusing and challenging to say the least. And speaking of the 2 children, while this is about Estelle and Galloway, those 2 kids just stole my heart.

I suppose with all my gripe I had about the length of the book, I understood its purpose, I think. I was with them through all their trials and tribulations, how they survived and what they survived. And I was with them as they survived, hoped, struggled, despaired, longed, and loved.

So, yes, it may have felt unnecessarily longwinded at times, but in the end, this book made me think, made me fret, made me bawl my eyes out. It made me feel.

What more could have I asked for, right?

"Life was a journey and no one (no matter how wishful, bossy, or opinionated) could change the destination. 

That was fate’s job. Our job was to stop fighting. 

Because only then could we find true happiness."

About Pepper Winters

 

Pepper Winters is a NYT and USA Today International Bestseller. She wears many roles. Some of them include writer, reader, sometimes wife. She loves dark, taboo stories that twist with your head. The more tortured the hero, the better, and she constantly thinks up ways to break and fix her characters. Oh, and sex... her books have sex. She loves to travel and has an amazing, fabulous hubby who puts up with her love affair with her book boyfriends. She's also honoured to wear the IndieReader Badge for being a Top 10 Indie Bestsellers, best BDSM series voted by the SmutClub, and recently signed a two book deal with Grand Central. Her books are currently being translated into numerous languages and will be in bookstores in the near future. To be the first to know of upcoming releases, please join Pepper's Newsletter (she promises never to spam or annoy you.)

NEWSLETTER: http://eepurl.com/120b5

Or follow her on her website www.pepperwinters.com
She loves mail of any kind: pepperwinters@gmail.com

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Thanks for dropping by!

~Leftie

Review: The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman

RATING: 4 napkins

Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.
Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.
A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark. (courtesy of Goodreads.com)

(courtesy of Goodreads)

(Originally posted on Goodreads)

My only exposure to Mr. Gaiman's work, embarrassingly enough, is from the 2 movies that were made from his books; Stardust, which as far as I can glean, is only a Disney version of the book but I did end up liking, and Coraline, which I did like as well. Whether it's a good thing that this is a first Gaiman read for me or not, I'm not really sure. All I know is that I enjoyed this a lot for the vivid story-telling. And this may not make complete sense, but I almost likened the experience to watching the movie, Big Fish, a movie I truly enjoyed. 

It's such a simple story, and yet, not really. It's a childhood story from a memory of an older man. It's a mixture of reality and fantasy (or is it?). The viewpoint of the main character's 7-year old self is older for his age in some regards but then again, it's appropriate in some, keeping in mind this coming from the memory of an older version of the main character.

"What you remembered? Probably. More or less. Different people remember things differently, and you'll not get any two people to remember anything the same, whether they were there or not. You stand two of you lot next to each other, and you could be continents away for all it means anything."

I'm not even sure if there were lessons to be learned, if not learned at all, but I don't think that was the point of the story (or is it? hmmm...). All I know is that I was engrossed with the story the whole time...

"Adults follow paths. Children explore..." 


-Leftie

Review: The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

RATING: 4.5 napkins

In 70 CE, nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on a mountain in the Judean, desert, Masada. Only two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman weaves a spellbinding tale of four extraordinary bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom comes to Masada by a different path. Yael’s mother died in childbirth, and her father, an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death. Revka, a village baker’s wife, watched the horrifically brutal murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers; she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute by their own witness. Aziza is a warrior’s daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow soldier. Shirah, born in Alexandria, is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power.The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege. All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets — about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and who they love. (courtesy of alicehoffman.com)

(via Goodreads)

This is a story about 4 women during a very specific time in Jewish history. I don't have any knowledge about this particular time of Jewish history, but it didn't take away any pleasure from my reading experience at all. Ms. Hoffman did indicate at the end of the book about the type and amount of research that went into this book. Even if she didn't, I probably wouldn't have cared the way she built this specific time and place in my head. The use of practical magic layered with their people's history and faith threw me off a bit in the beginning but the more I read, I thought it further gave texture to the story, added a different dimension.

I thought it was beautifully written. All 4 women were strong in their own way. I love how each of their story wove to form a kind of tapestry. I could easily talk about each one of them in detail, and talk about how each of them came to be, the pivotal things in each of their lives that would forever change them, about love found and lost, but I might as well tell the whole story if that's the case so I won't.

Heading towards the ending, there was no doubt what was to happen and all I could do was brace myself for the impact. It was heart-wrenching. I admit I shed a tear or 2 over the ending. After finishing this book, I had to decompress a little to let these women get out of my head. And seeing that I had to make a conscious effort to let these characters go, that's how I know how much I liked this book. It wasn't an easy read, that's for sure, but for me, it was worth it. Ms. Hoffman can definitely write.

-Leftie