My Thoughts: Crave by JR Ward

I love to read. We all know that. For me it's a little bit of an addiction, and sometimes not in a good way. I sometimes need to physically pull myself away from a book, tell myself OK Girlie, no more. So when I read a book and find that it's not all that hard for me not to read it I know something is wrong.

When reading JR Ward's new one in her Fallen Angel series: Crave, I found that it was pretty easy to put down and do other things. Not because I didn't like it (I did to an extent) but simply because it was too long.

I have posted about this woman and her Black Dagger Brotherhood series and how much I looooooove it. Any book in this series could be 1000 pages and it still wouldn't be long enough. However with the Fallen Angel series both books have topped off at over 450 pages, and for a new series, new characters, new everything, it got a little boring at around page 250, especially knowing that there was still 200+ pages to read.

But... Crave was a lot better, story wise, then Covet (book one) was. Maybe it was the second book and I knew what to expect. When I first read Covet I was a little disappointed because the Black Dagger Brotherhood series is soooooo good, and I had high high expectations for this new series. Like really high, and it was meh, a little busy and convoluted. So much in one book, so long. The second was less busy (still pretty convoluted) there was a little less to follow, and I liked the characters more. They were a little more believable, a little less pathetic.

Overall this isn't the greatest series, although it really isn't all that bad either, I'll probably keep reading it. I really love her other series and would rather read more of that then this new one.

My Thoughts: Dreamland by Sarah Dessen

I am currently working my way through my undergraduate degree in Conflict Resolution and Psychology, with the intention of doing some crisis counselling. Helping people is what I am passionate about, and helping someone who really doesn't have any where else to go, or anyone else to turn to is something that has pulled at my heart for a long time now. Victims of abuse, sexual assault, addiction, people who need marriage or grief counselling, doesn't matter their age, those are the kinds of people I want to be there for.

I recently read Sarah Dessen's novel Dreamland, and it really pulled at my desire to reach out to people, to listen and to hear.

This was not like a lot of her other novels (well the one other that I have read).

Dreamland was about a 16 year old girl who tries to find herself after her 18 year old sister runs away. She does find herself, but not in a good way. Caitlin thinks she's found everything she's ever wanted when she first meets Rogerson. He's older and more mature and slightly edgy. Which is exactly what newly independent Caitlin wants. But things go terribly wrong the first time Rogerson hits her.

The first time Rogerson hit Caitlin I knew that is was going to happen, but it still had me bawling my eyes out. My heart was broken, I felt like I could feel everything that this 16 year old was going through, and I wanted to scream at everything that she was losing. This poor girl. Her parents were caught up in the uncharacteristic behaviour or her older sister and and didn't notice Caitlin's free fall into a pretty messed up situation. The girl makes some pretty lousy choices throughout the book.

This story was amazing, truly. It dealt with some pretty heavy material but it had some humour to lighten things up without taking away from the severity of the situation.

The one thing that I wish it had however was some kind of disclaimer, or an announcement about what teens could do when faced with similar circumstances.

My Thoughts: Secrets by Freya North

It would seem that my last post was on Aug 10th, which was a good long time ago. And to be truthful I haven't really been reading anything that's worth talking about. Mostly just rereading books that I have read before. I do however have a book I finished a couple weeks ago (more like a couple months ago) that was pretty good. I actually enjoyed reading it. Secrets by Freya North.

The story starts out with Tess needing to get away from life in London and start new. So she takes her daughter Em, heads north to take a job as a house sitter for Joe. Joe is always away building bridges and needs someone around to take care of his beast of a dog and his monster of a house. So the woman moves into the man's house, and well what do you think happens?

It's a monster of a book at 466 pages, but every page is worth it. It's funny and awkward and completely heartwarming. The characters and the way their relationship matures is believable, which is refreshing because it's not often that you get that.

I would reread this book, and I am looking forward to reading more from Ms. Freya North. This story was one that made you smile when you were done, and that's a good feeling.

My Thoughts: Naked by Megan Hart

Usually I try to think of something witty to name my posts but this time at 1:15 in the morning I have nothing. Maybe because it's so late, or maybe it's because of what I just read and how truly beautiful it was.

I was in Montreal when Naked by Megan Hart came out and I knew I wanted to get it, like right away. But being on vacation in a city where I knew not where the closest bookstore was I was in a bit of a panic. I finally found one and thought that maybe my panic was over; yeah right. Montreal, Quebec a predominantly French speaking city, therefore a predominantly French reading city... Yeah. I was defeated and ready to head back to the hostel. When Voila, an Indigo Books (Which I was sure was going to be an English book store) I was right and promptly went inside to see if they had what I was looking for. I walked out of that store empty handed. Sold out is what I was told. I bawled like a baby on rue Sainte Catherine. So there was no Naked on my vacation.

I got home Sunday and Monday morning I was out the door really fast. I left my local bookstore with Naked and two others. I was a happy girl.

It took me about 30 hours to finish this book, 10 were spent sleeping, and another 4 in a meeting. so really maybe 16. I had a wonderful time reading this book even though sometimes it made me panic.

I have read every book by Hart since Dirty and some I have liked more then others. What I love about her writing is that none of her characters are perfect, nor do they have perfect lives. They have issues, real issues. And through out most of her stories readers get to see how their issues shape the characters and how those personalties make the story what it is. What I also love about her stories are nothing is ever "perfect" in the end. You may get a HEA but it's a real life HEA, with broken people an all.

Take Olivia for instance, the Heroine in Naked. A black woman in her late twenties who comes from a broken home, her mother an Observant Jew and her father a devout Catholic. Crazy eh? On top of that she's also adopted, has been in a relationship with a man who was Gay, and is now inlove with another man who likes both men and women. But don't feel sorry for her, because that's not what this is about, it's about relating to her. Maybe not to her situation, but most definetly to her feelings.

That's what I get from reading Hart's books. Real people, real emotions, and wonderfully beautiful stories. There is such beauty in this woman's writing. It's breath taking. I kid you not, if you are 18 or over (this is a must for this genre) pick up one of her books, you will fall in love.

My Thoughts: Something Wicked by Lesley Anne Cowan

So it would seem that I had another chunk of time off work and decided to spend it doing what I so love to do. Now, I talked about me reading a fairly dull novel in my last post and how it was making me not want to read it; however once I've started something I am afraid that I must finish it. So the other day I finished Something Wicked by Lesley Anne Cowan, and I have to say that I was not at all happy with this story. I felt like it was a huge waste of time.

I hate saying that a book was bad, because I know that a lot of effort goes into writing it, and that if I tried to write a book it would be garbage, so what do I know about what's good and what's bad? But this was a terrible story. It was dull and boring and the main character Melissa made me want to scream, she was annoying and I did not once pity her the way I think the author wanted me to. The overall plot had a lot of potential, but the content lacked any hope for Melissa, that maybe things would look up for her.

This book does fall into the young adult genre, and maybe this is what teenagers are wanting to read, but I don't know. It wasn't something I was interested in at that age.

I spent the night last night finishing up Kate Brallier's The Boundless Deep, which I rather enjoyed. It was kind of spooky, with a little romance and had a mystery that needed to be solved and that was also laced with a bit of humour. It was a lot of fun to read. Compared to what came before, it was a lovely treat. Brallier has another novel out called Seal Island that I wouldn't mind picking up and seeing what it's all about. Perhaps before the summer's out.

Now I move onto classics, lets see where that takes me.

Daggers, Leather and Vampire. What more could a girl need?

I've been on a reader's reading block for the past several days. I've read so many great books this month that I'm a little leery of reading something terrible (actually I am reading something terrible hence the reader's block). It's making me a little sad. In saying that though, I did pick up an old favorite.

The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series by JR Ward.

"In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there's a deadly turf war going on between vampires and their slayers. There also exists a secret band of brothers like no other-six vampire warriors, defenders of their race." (www.jrward.com/bdb/index-books.html)

The only way I can think to describe the series without giving to much away. The first book was published in 2005 and there are a total of eight books and one compendium, with two more books that we know are for sure coming out. I love this series and it's hard for me to wait a year for a new one to be released (for the last little while, it's been one new book per year.)

I started to reread this series earlier in June, and I started with the third book Lover Awakened. Which is Zsadist's story, and although this isn't my favorite of the series it is the one that was the most hopeful, and had the most salvation I think. The brother's in the brotherhood are a sad bunch and needed a lot of work; and because this is a romance series it was up to their females to save them. Zsadist was pretty broken and it was sad: it made me really sad. He thought he was totally ruined and not worth a whole lot. Sigh.

I then moved onto Lover Revealed, the fourth installment and Butch's story. Butch the Brother's human companion and former member of the Caldwell PD also known as the human who fell in love with a female of the vampire race.

I am now reading Dark Lover, the very first book in this series and now as I read it, I find that I am missing all the character's of the stories to come. But meh, I am really enjoying reading the beginning and meeting my old friends again. ha.

I'll probably keep rereading the first couple books as I get bored with other things. I did go to the library the other night and took a few rather interesting novels that I am eager to start reading, I'm sure I'll be writing all about them at some point or another.

Happy Reading!

My Thoughts: Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

When I was 17 I really needed to be saved; I needed someone to come into my life and take charge and help me out. I knew it, and I was okay with that, I did not in any way think that my life was just fine the way it was. Not so for Ruby the main character in Sarah Dessen's Lock and Key.
Ruby is a 17 year old kid who thinks that life with her mom is normal and that she doesn't need any one's help. So when her mom takes off and she goes to live with her older sister (whom she hasn't spoken to in 10 years) and her husband in their posh new home it's not exactly ideal for Ruby.
This was a sweet novel, with just the right amount of cheese. It was easy to read with no awkward bits, and no need for a box of tissue (although I did have to blink every once in a while). It was a nice break from the book I read which still keeps me up at night. This was the PERFECT summer read.
Dessen also wrote How to Deal which I liked as a movie and always thought would make a really great book, so I may read that some day. I really enjoyed this story and I am wondering if it would be a smart thing to go out and read all of her books (maybe this would be a 'to much of a good thing' scenario.) Who knows?