The Corset Diaries (2004)
Katie MacAlister
Rating: 1.75/5
I found the main character really, really annoying.
"I have to wear what?"
No woman in her right mind would consent to wearing a corset for a month. Especially a "skinny-challenged" woman like myself. But dreams of being debt-free danced in my head when I received the offer to appear on a reality TV show.
A Month in the Life of a Victorian Duke is about real people--people like me--pretending to live on an English estate, circa 1879. Sounds fun, no? Well, it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. We're talking no televisions, no cell phones, no PMS medication. And did I mention the corsets? No breathing for a full month. Luckily, when I met the real-life descendant of a duke who was to be my pretend husband, he took my breath away...
In a manor in which everyone must strictly follow the Victorian lifestyle, things were bound to go wrong. Like when some harmless lust turned into that other thing...
Love was definitely not in the contract!
When I first started reading the book, I thought it was well written and funny. Then about 20 pages into it, I realised the main character was supposed to be 39. She acted like a very immature 19 year old. This annoyed me greatly.
She was insensitive, irresponsible, rude, and insecure. She also decided she was in love with someone after only knowing them four days - oh sorry, maybe it was a week.
Oh, did I mention that she was recently widowed? Yeah, but its okay, she has an epiphany while at dinner one night and decides she is “ready to live again.” Uh-huh.
The main characters were actually very similar to those in her Aisling Grey series. At least there was no talking dog demon thing here.
I think the thing that annoyed me was the constant attempts at humour. Which weren't funny. I guess I'm not that into the whole slapstick thing. It just annoying.
Finished: 19/5
Monday, May 28, 2007
Book fifty: The Corset Diaries
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Book forty-eight: Truth or Dare
Lori Foster
Rating: 2/5
Okay.
In the interest of trying to get some sleep, I wouldn’t let myself read a “full” book, so I bought this anthology to try.
Asia Michaels and her friends find themselves tantalized by a quite new arrival in their small town – and by its possibilities. One thing leads to another as truth leads to dare, and Asia’s in the arms of a man who gives her answers to all of the questions she could never ask…
INDULGE MEShy Becky Harte has a private wild side. But she never thought she’d run into to secret crush like George Westin while buying some rather surprising items. George is more than intrigued by her purchases and would love to show the blushing Becky a thing or two. But it’s George who becomes the student when Becky starts calling the shots…
DRIVE ME WILD
Assertive Erica Lee is used to having the upper hand in business, her love life – everything. One a dare, she boldly approaches hunky, mischievous Ian Conrad with a scandalous proposal. Ian isn’t intimated in the least by Erica – and he’s been hoping for just this opportunity. Seems like Erica might have finally met a man who can keep up with her…"
Finished 16/5
Book forty-eight: Murphy’s Law
Lori Foster
Rating: 2.25/5
A follow up to Jude’s Law, this fixing my complaint with that book by concentrating on, then wrapping up the sub plot.
ANYTHING THAT CAN GO WRONG . . .
Nothing is going to go wrong. Ashley Miles has worked too for her independence to let some Bentley-driving hunk named Quinton Murphy interfere with her plans—or her freedom. Yes, the chemistry is phenomenal. Kind of scary, actually. But that’s it. NO emotional commitments.There were things about the plot I really, really didn’t like. But I won’t say what they are because they will ruin the ending. Not that I’m sure by looking at the category, anyone could figure out. I just don’t quite like how they get there. Just the last third really.
Book forty-seven: Something Borrowed
Something Borrowed (2005)
Emily Giffin
Rating: 3/5
Very good.
I know some people don’t like to read novels set in first person, but it has never bothered me before. I always thought that it added a sense of realness that you don’t get in third person. After all, we don’t know what other people are thinking… well, not unless we have some kind of super power, but let’s not get sidetracked.
This is the only book I have ever read that I wish was written in third person. But I will admit, that if it was, it wouldn’t have been half as good as what it is.
I was actually cringing the majority of the time I was reading this. Just waiting for everything to come crashing down.
“Something Borrowed tells the story of Rachel, a young attorney living and working in Manhattan. Rachel has always been the consummate good girl---until her thirtieth birthday, when her best friend, Darcy, throws her a party. 
That night, after too many drinks, Rachel ends up in bed with Darcy's fiancé.
I have found the second Something Blue and look forward to reading it once it reaches somewhere near the top of my TBR pile. Although I’m not sure how she is going to make Darcy likeable enough for me to want to read a whole book about her. Should be interesting.
Finished: 13/5
Book forty-six: Persuading Annie
Persuading Annie (2004)
Melissa Nathan
Rating: 3/5
I love Melissa Nathan’s books The Nanny, The Waitress and The Learning Curve, so I was so excited when I found this at the bookshop in Melbourne.
I really enjoyed this – although I did spend most of the book trying to match the plot to Persuasion, which is my favourite Austen novel.
It was great. I wanted to slap Captain Frederick… I mean, Jake, at the very same moments I wanted to slap him in the original. I wanted to shake Annie at the same moments too. Although it obviously doesn’t have the exact same things occurring, like Clueless did for Emma it perfectly captures the essence of the story.
"It was the perfect opportunity for 'closure'...
Meet Annie Markham. Gentle, sweet and kind. Except for her dark side. A dark side called Jake Mead. Seven years ago he'd been her entire world, even though her godmother had tried to persuade her to dump him. But when the going got tough, Annie's 'tough' got going. Jake's hasty departure from her life proved that a) godmothers are cleverer than they look and b) the only thing reliable about men is that they're totally unreliable.
Now Jake is back in her life. And he's the one man who may just save her family's ailing company.
But what Annie doesn't know is that Jake has an Achilles' heel. An Achilles' heel called Annie Markham. He's never quite got over her treatment of him all those years ago. This is the perfect opportunity for what some may call 'closure'. But what Jake calls, 'revenge'."
This was previously published by another UK publisher, but has been re-realeased by Random House. I hope that her first book, Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field is re-realeased soon as well.
Finished: 12/5
more...
Book forty-five: If You Desire
If You Desire (2007)
Kresley Cole
Rating: 2.5/5
As predicable and well written and entertaining as the first in the series.
Now I just need to read the third, If You Deceive, but I haven’t found it yet.
"How much temptation can a Highlander resist?
He tried to run . . .
In his youth, Hugh MacCarrick foolishly fell in love with a beautiful English lass who delighted in teasing him with her flirtatious ways. Yet he knew he could never marry her because he was a second son with no prospects, shadowed by an accursed family legacy. To avoid temptation, Hugh left home and trained as an assassin.
She tried to forget him . . .
Jane Weyland was devastated when the Highlander she believed would marry her abandoned her instead. Years later, when Hugh MacCarrick is summoned to protect her from her father’s enemies, her heartache has turned to fury—but her desire for him has not waned.
Will passion overwhelm them?
In hiding, Jane torments Hugh with seductive play. He struggles to resist her because of deadly secrets that could endanger her further. But Hugh is no longer a gentle young man—and toying with the fever-pitched desires of a hardened warrior will either get Jane burned . . . or enflame a love that never died."
Finished: 12/5
Book forty-four: If You Dare
Kresley Cole
Rating: 2.5/5
Entirely predictable, yet well written and entertaining.
“Can a Highlander steal his enemy's bride and make her love him?
High in the Pyrenees, a band of mercenaries led by Courtland MacCarrick wages war for General Reynaldo Pascal. When Court turns on the brutal general, Pascal orders him killed. Court narrowly escapes and exacts revenge by kidnapping Pascal’s exquisite Castilian fiancée.
Noble heiress Annalía Tristán Llorente despises her towering, barbaric captor almost as much as she does Pascal. Her inexplicable attraction to the Highlander only fuels her fury. Yet nothing will stop her from returning to Pascal—for if she doesn’t wed him, she signs her brother’s death warrant, as well as her own. Finished: 11/5
Book forty-three: Deep, Dark and Dangerous
Deep, Dark and Dangerous (2006)
Jaid Black
Rating: 2/5
Weird plot. Not much really happens and what does occur I couldn’t really make much sense of. I had had very little sleep when I read it though, so my opinion's probably not valid.
"A star in a world of wealth and privilege....
Fed up with Hollywood backstabbing, famous movie actress Madalyn Simon decided to escape the spotlight. Her new back-to-basics existence in an Alaskan cabin did take getting used to, but at least she was in control of her own destiny -- or so she thought. While snowmobiling on the frigid coast with her sister, the pair is taken hostage by a band of rough men who want them -- for reasons beyond imagining.
A captive in a world of inescapable seductions....
One thing that stood out from this was that it didn’t really go past the surface level of the world. Ever interaction the main character had with people or situations within the world were just to reinforce one thing – they were highly sexist race, who would use her ill if she didn’t follow their social order and marry the guy (or should I say “hunter”) who’d claimed her.
The “old language” thing was also annoying. I think it may it hard to decipher what they were saying. Also, I don’t really know that much about ancient whatever-it-was – which is probably why it annoyed me so much – but wouldn’t their language have evolved as our languages has in their isolation? Surely they wouldn’t be using the same words and phrases thousands of years later?
Still, it’s an interesting concept to have this race of people living underground and avoiding everyone on the surface. And maybe Black will use the world she’s created more successfully in the future.
Meanwhile, what’s with the cover? The book was set somewhere near Alaska… no water, only snow.
Finished: 9/5
Book forty-two: Jude’s Law
Jude’s Law (2006)
Lori Foster
Rating: 2/5
I had to go to Melbourne for the last few weeks for work. The only good thing about this was that I found a good bookshop near the office there and felt entitled – due to getting up at 5 am to fly there and working pretty much the whole time I was there that I wasn’t sleeping – to buy as many books as I wanted.
Strangely enough, these were mostly contemporary romances, which for some reason the bookshop there had a whole lot more of than what my local bookshop in the same chain has. I’m not sure if this is due to marketing demographics, or just that I have already read all the ones my bookshop stocks.
Anyway, I had wanted to read a full length book by Lori Foster ever since I read – and was disappointed by – her contribution to an anthology I read a while back. I always hear about how great her books are, and while I can see the influence she has had on other writers I like, I’m not sure if this was the highest quality I have read in this – I guess it’s a sub genre?
There's only so much frustration a guy can handle before he gets a little nutty. For Jude Jamison, his frustration has a name-- May Price. She's everything the former Hollywood bad 
boy actor came to Stillbrook, Ohio, hoping to find: open, honest, lovable, and full of those luscious curves you don't find on stick-figure starlets-- curves May doesn't seem to appreciate in herself.
Every time Jude tries to get close to the skittish business woman, to take her in his arms, she thinks he's joking. Joking? Joking does not involve lots of cold-shower therapy. Time for new tactics. If May can't respond to his sly compliments and sexy innuendos, he'll just have to spell it out for her.
Jude Jamison is going to lay down the law for May Price. And after that, she'll have no delusions about just how much he wants her.
There is this weird sub-plot going on with other characters which really annoyed me when I read it – then I found out there is actually another book that deals with this… which I have since read, and now find I like this book more than when I finished it.
Finished: 8/5
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Book forty-one: Wolf at the Door
Christine Warren
Rating: 2.25/5
Okay, I guess.
I have read the second in this series (not realising it was the second of course), She’s No Fairy Princess and I thought the mystery element wasn’t as strong here.
Sullivan Quinn didn’t travel 3,000 miles from his native Ireland and his wolf pack just to chase rabidly after the most delectable quarry he’s ever seen. Quinn is in America on a mission—to warn his Other brethren of a shadowy group willing to use murder and mayhem to bring them down. But one whiff of this Foxwoman’s delicious honeysuckle fragrance and he knows that she is more than a colleague or a conquest…she is his mate.
Anthropologist Cassidy Poe is a world-renowned authority on social interaction, but the overpowering desire she feels around Quinn defies every ounce of her expertise. Working by his side to uncover The Others’ enemies poses risks she never expected—to her own safety, to those she loves, and to her heart, as every encounter with Quinn proves more blissfully erotic than the last…Now, with no one to trust but each other, Quinn and Cassidy face a foe that’s edging closer every day, threatening to destroy the life they’ve always known, and the passion they’ve just discovered…The whole “someone has kidnapped some vampire’s girlfriend and is threatening to expose the ‘other races’” plot wasn’t that interesting. Nor did it really take up that much space within the book – or the characters thoughts. Not really.
It was still okay though. I’d read the next in the series, which I think came out this month… The Demon You Know.
Finished: 5/5
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Book forty: The Companion
Susan Squires
Rating: 2.25/5
Alright; but I got sick of the flashbacks.
Ian Rufford was captured, enslaved, and then abandoned in the lonely dunes of Egypt’s desert. His tormentor was a woman of magnificent beauty… and the blackest of souls. Now, Ian prays for a death that will not come. Only after his rescue does he begin to realize how he has changed. But he understands very little. Just that he is carrying something strange in his blood known only as “The Companion.”
Elizabeth Rochewell’s home was Egypt. After her father’s death, however, she was sent home to live a conventional life in London. Onboard ship, she finds herself drawn to her mysterious travelling companion, Ian Rufford. He awakens feelings in her that disturb and tantalize her senses. But he hides a shocking secret that Beth can only begin to unravel.By the end of this fairly long book, whenever I saw italics I was groaning. I thought the flashbacks were over-used. I mean, the occasional thought back in time is quite common in the whole “tortured” character thing, but I’d rather be shown how its effecting them in the present, then keep seeing what happened to them in the past.
I also don’t understand how at the beginning of the book, Beth was willing to marry her father’s gay business partner, then about six chapters later was heard to be droning on about how she would Only Marry For Love.
Maybe we were supposed to think she was originally effect by grief?
Anyway, I think this is the start of a series, but I’m not sure if I’d be interested in reading anymore. I’d have to see what they were about.
* Finished: 4/5
Book thirty-nine: Ironside
Holly Black
Rating: 4.5/5
Really interesting plot, great characters and excellent writing as always.
Miserable and convinced she belongs nowhere, Kaye decides to tell her mother the truth—that she is a changeling left in place of the human daughter stolen long ago. Her mother’s shock and horror sends Kaye back to the world of Faerie to find her human counterpart and return her to Ironside. But once back in the faerie courts, Kaye finds herself a pawn in the games of Silarial, queen of the Seelie Court. Silarial wants Roiben’s throne, and she will use Kaye, and any means necessary, to get it. In this game of wits and weapons, can a pixie outplay a queen?The thing I liked most about this book was how it bought together characters from Tithe and Valiant and continued on with their stories rather than repeating them.
I wonder if there is going to be more? I hope so!
* Finished: 2/5
Book thirty-eight: At the Sign of the Sugared Plum
Mary Hooper
Rating: 2.5/5
Short and sweet.
Hannah is excited as she embarks upon her first ever trip to the capital to help sister Sarah in her sweetmeats shop. But she does not get the warm welcome she expected. Sarah is horrified that Hannah did not get her message to stay away – the Plague is taking hold of London…
This book was interesting. I enjoyed reading the descriptions of what went on the in Sweetmeats shop, and how what they sold was made.I found Hannah’s arrogance that she would not be effect by the Plague annoying, but apart from the ending – which obviously leaves the way open for a sequel, in that the book kind of stops half way through – it was an alright book.
* Finished: 1/5
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Book thirty-seven: Fairest
Gail Carson Levin
Rating: 2/5
I was disappointed by this book. There was nothing really wrong with it, it just had a very slow pace, and the world-building was a bit self-conscious.
I had never read anything by this author before, but this book was everywhere I went. In every bookshop I stepped into, there it was, standing out at me on the shelves.
Of course, seeing as it was hardcover, I had never considered buying it before, but this was another purchase from the Myer sale.
Aza was raised by her the owners of the Featherbed Inn where she was abandoned as a baby. Her unique looks are thought to be ugly by Aza and the people visiting the Inn. The only thing she likes about herself is her singing voice. She discovers she has a unique talent: she can mimic the voices of others and make it seem like it is coming from anywhere**.When a frequent vistor to the Inn’s companion falls ill on the way to the royal wedding, Aza must replace her. At the King’s court she is forced to betray the kingdom and risk those she loves.
As I said, it was a bit slow at times. Especially for a book based on a fairytale, when you can kind of work some of the plot points out for yourself, so just spend your whole time waiting for them to happen.
I think the world was a bit self-conscious. It seemed that every time something was mentioned that was unique to this world, it was then explained. Which is fair enough, I suppose. But it just felt like I was constantly being told these things, rather than just shown them.
I wasn’t entirely sold on Aza’s character. She was slightly annoying in her whole “I’m not pretty, so therefore I am worthless” jag. I found it unrealistic, in that we are told time and again that singing is the most important thing in the Kingdom: that it is prized and respected above everything else. Aza can sing well – it is often commented that she has the best voice anyone has heard – so it does not follow that people would shun her for the way she looks. While, it did seem beauty, or rather not being different, was important, it didn’t come across as more important that singing.
And I must admit, I was sick of the sight of the word “sing” by the end of it.
* Finished 29/4
** There are some very Singing in the Rain moments. And with them bursting into song at the slightly provocation, it did at times feel like a cross between that and Disney’s Hercules.