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Little Ray Of Sunshine (41 KP) rated Stranded with the Secret Billionaire in Books
Jan 11, 2019 (Updated Feb 10, 2019)
Book Review | Stranded with the Secret Billionaire by Marion Lennox
Blurb
Jilted heiress Penny Hindmarsh-Firth has set her broken heart on escaping high society city life. But she’s trapped by floods in the Outback, and a handsome stranger on horseback comes to her rescue!
After a betrayal shattered his life Matt Fraser withdrew from the world—but he can’t deny Penny refuge. This secret billionaire is reluctantly intrigued as the society princess begins proving there’s more to her than meets the eye…
Review
The reason I have only given it 3 as it was okay but it just didn't grab me like the other Mills and Boon books I have read in the past. I feel I have grown up and want more out the book. I felt I want more from the characters and see more of their emotions. Doesn't mean I didn't like the plot where she was stranded with a secret billionaire Matt he seemed kind and cared for Penny's safety and respected her.
I loved how he was open he was in a relationship before and had a child with her and he was willing to change the house so he's daughter could stay. Penny brought he's emotion out more and got him fighting to see he's daughter more.
I loved how Penny didn't really care that he's a billionaire she didn't fall in love with him for he's money she just felt safe with him and she can be herself around him. I will read more Mills and Boon books and get back into them.
Check the book out for yourself.
Thanks for reading x
Jilted heiress Penny Hindmarsh-Firth has set her broken heart on escaping high society city life. But she’s trapped by floods in the Outback, and a handsome stranger on horseback comes to her rescue!
After a betrayal shattered his life Matt Fraser withdrew from the world—but he can’t deny Penny refuge. This secret billionaire is reluctantly intrigued as the society princess begins proving there’s more to her than meets the eye…
Review
The reason I have only given it 3 as it was okay but it just didn't grab me like the other Mills and Boon books I have read in the past. I feel I have grown up and want more out the book. I felt I want more from the characters and see more of their emotions. Doesn't mean I didn't like the plot where she was stranded with a secret billionaire Matt he seemed kind and cared for Penny's safety and respected her.
I loved how he was open he was in a relationship before and had a child with her and he was willing to change the house so he's daughter could stay. Penny brought he's emotion out more and got him fighting to see he's daughter more.
I loved how Penny didn't really care that he's a billionaire she didn't fall in love with him for he's money she just felt safe with him and she can be herself around him. I will read more Mills and Boon books and get back into them.
Check the book out for yourself.
Thanks for reading x
ClareR (6106 KP) rated A Throne of Swans in Books
Jan 7, 2020
A Throne of Swans is set in a kingdom where the nobility have the ability to change in to giant birds. Aderyn prematurely takes over the role of Protector of Atratys, a dominion within this kingdom, after her fathers death. Her ancestral bird is a swan, but she finds that she’s no longer able to transform into one, after she and her mother are attacked by hawks - and her mother is murdered. This is a very dangerous position to be in. As one of the flightless, she could have Atratys taken from her, and she could be exiled or, worse still, executed.
Aderyn is dumped into a hotbed of distrust, lies and barely concealed violence, when she is expected to go capital city by order of the King, her uncle. She is wanted by her cousin, the princess, to be one of her bridal party at her upcoming nuptials. All is not as it seems though, and Aderyn finds that both she and her dominion of Atratys are very much at risk of harm.
I love a book with courtly intrigue, and this has loads! Aderyn has to watch every word she says and who she says it to - she can trust no one. She has gone from being a protected, shut away child, to being the one who must protect all of those in her care - she does seem to have the courage for it though. She’s a fighter, that’s evident throughout.
I’m very much looking forward to the second book in this duology - there are some serious loose ends to tie up!
Thanks to Readers First for my copy of this great book to read and review.
Aderyn is dumped into a hotbed of distrust, lies and barely concealed violence, when she is expected to go capital city by order of the King, her uncle. She is wanted by her cousin, the princess, to be one of her bridal party at her upcoming nuptials. All is not as it seems though, and Aderyn finds that both she and her dominion of Atratys are very much at risk of harm.
I love a book with courtly intrigue, and this has loads! Aderyn has to watch every word she says and who she says it to - she can trust no one. She has gone from being a protected, shut away child, to being the one who must protect all of those in her care - she does seem to have the courage for it though. She’s a fighter, that’s evident throughout.
I’m very much looking forward to the second book in this duology - there are some serious loose ends to tie up!
Thanks to Readers First for my copy of this great book to read and review.
TT
Troubling the Changing Paradigms: An Educational Philosophy and Theory Early Childhood Reader: Volume IV
Michael A. Peters and Marek Tesar
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Troubling the Changing Paradigms is the fourth volume in the Educational Philosophy and Theory:...
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Giving Up Baby: Safe Haven Laws, Motherhood, and Reproductive Justice
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"Baby safe haven" laws, which allow a parent to relinquish a newborn baby legally and anonymously at...
ClareR (6106 KP) rated Raybearer (Raybearer #1) in Books
Sep 15, 2020 (Updated Sep 15, 2020)
Raybearer is a fantasy set in part in West African myth (which I really wish I knew more about, by the way). Tarisai lives in a big house full of tutors and servants, all training her for one purpose. Her mother rarely visits, and Tarisai wishes she would visit more often - she longs for a mother who will care for her and touch/ hug her. The reason for this becomes very clear as the story progresses.
Tarisai learns that her education has been leading her to one end: to become part of the crowned Prince’s Council of Eleven, and to ultimately kill him. But Tarisai doesn’t want to fulfil her life’s purpose. She doesn’t want to be a murderer, and she actually really likes the Prince.
I shouldn’t be surprised, because I’ve said it often enough myself, but for those uninitiated in YA books, this actually deals with some pretty serious themes: gender roles, and the fact that girls don’t all want their sole life purpose to be that of a child bearer, and parental abuse of children (in this case, physical abuse - eg. hitting). So this isn’t a book for the faint hearted! It’s a beautifully told story though, it has a feel of the fairytale or myth about it, and I definitely think that it was time well spent. To top it off, I see that this is the first book in perhaps a duology or trilogy? I’ll be looking out for the next one, because I’m intrigued to see how this story will develop.
Many thanks to the publisher, Hot Key Books, and to NetGalley for my copy of this book.
Tarisai learns that her education has been leading her to one end: to become part of the crowned Prince’s Council of Eleven, and to ultimately kill him. But Tarisai doesn’t want to fulfil her life’s purpose. She doesn’t want to be a murderer, and she actually really likes the Prince.
I shouldn’t be surprised, because I’ve said it often enough myself, but for those uninitiated in YA books, this actually deals with some pretty serious themes: gender roles, and the fact that girls don’t all want their sole life purpose to be that of a child bearer, and parental abuse of children (in this case, physical abuse - eg. hitting). So this isn’t a book for the faint hearted! It’s a beautifully told story though, it has a feel of the fairytale or myth about it, and I definitely think that it was time well spent. To top it off, I see that this is the first book in perhaps a duology or trilogy? I’ll be looking out for the next one, because I’m intrigued to see how this story will develop.
Many thanks to the publisher, Hot Key Books, and to NetGalley for my copy of this book.
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Heartless (The Privileged of Pembroke High #1) in Books
Dec 18, 2020
210
Kindle
Heartless (The Privileged of Pembroke High book 1)
By Ivy Fox
Review will be completed on Smashbomb once finished link will be placed in comments
I had their love once.
They saw me for the girl I am and the person I yearn to become one day—a woman who thrives in her freedom and dances away in her rightfully earned independence.
They saw all the strong, unafraid parts of me, and coaxed each one of them out, daring me to dream bigger, climb higher.
They never once saw the girl I had been groomed to see in the mirror.
The abandoned daughter of a dead man.
The unwanted child of a woman who despised her.
The broken body formed wrong and built on a shaky foundation, threatening to fall apart and shatter.
They made all the ugliness disappear and left only wonder and promise. The love we shared for each other was probably the only miracle I would be granted in this life, and I knew they felt the same.
Or so I thought.
Everything I held dear has been robbed from me, and I’ve been a victim of theft too many times to mention.
I will not have them steal my pride.
They can keep my heart, for all I care.
The day they became my stepbrothers, it stopped working anyway.
Well that was so much better than I thought it was going to be! I do love Ivy’s books. This was brilliant I didn’t put it down. So much has happened and we haven’t hit the school yet! The epilogue was sooo good!
Kindle
Heartless (The Privileged of Pembroke High book 1)
By Ivy Fox
Review will be completed on Smashbomb once finished link will be placed in comments
I had their love once.
They saw me for the girl I am and the person I yearn to become one day—a woman who thrives in her freedom and dances away in her rightfully earned independence.
They saw all the strong, unafraid parts of me, and coaxed each one of them out, daring me to dream bigger, climb higher.
They never once saw the girl I had been groomed to see in the mirror.
The abandoned daughter of a dead man.
The unwanted child of a woman who despised her.
The broken body formed wrong and built on a shaky foundation, threatening to fall apart and shatter.
They made all the ugliness disappear and left only wonder and promise. The love we shared for each other was probably the only miracle I would be granted in this life, and I knew they felt the same.
Or so I thought.
Everything I held dear has been robbed from me, and I’ve been a victim of theft too many times to mention.
I will not have them steal my pride.
They can keep my heart, for all I care.
The day they became my stepbrothers, it stopped working anyway.
Well that was so much better than I thought it was going to be! I do love Ivy’s books. This was brilliant I didn’t put it down. So much has happened and we haven’t hit the school yet! The epilogue was sooo good!
ClareR (6106 KP) rated The Night Ship in Books
Dec 12, 2022
The Night Ship is a wonderful story told from two different perspectives: Mayken is travelling to the Dutch East Indies on board the Batavia in 1629; in 1989, Gil is sent to live with his grandfather after he death of his mother. Gil finds out about the shipwreck of the Batavia when he meets some archaeologists, and becomes really interested in what happened.
The story switches between the two children, and I couldn’t wait to read about each perspective. Mayken is a happy, curious child, who is desperate to explore the world below decks - which due to her status, she isn’t supposed to do. So she enlists the help of a cabin boy and disguises herself. Mayken searches for a monster below decks, the Bullebak, as things start to go wrong on the ship. But it soon becomes apparent that the threat doesn’t come from a monster.
Gil doesn’t want to live with his uncommunicative, distant grandfather. He doesn’t want to fish with him either. And her certainly doesn’t want to talk about what happened with his mother. He finds solace in his friendships with an ancient tortoise called Enkidu, and Silvia Zanetti, the wife and mother of his grandfathers enemies, Frank and Roper (the latter sounds like he should be locked up, to be honest).
I absolutely loved this book. Mayken and Gil are both such tragic characters who only need someone to care for them. It’s a magical story, made more so by the imaginations of the two children. It’s a shame that the real world has to encroach on them.
Highly recommended.
The story switches between the two children, and I couldn’t wait to read about each perspective. Mayken is a happy, curious child, who is desperate to explore the world below decks - which due to her status, she isn’t supposed to do. So she enlists the help of a cabin boy and disguises herself. Mayken searches for a monster below decks, the Bullebak, as things start to go wrong on the ship. But it soon becomes apparent that the threat doesn’t come from a monster.
Gil doesn’t want to live with his uncommunicative, distant grandfather. He doesn’t want to fish with him either. And her certainly doesn’t want to talk about what happened with his mother. He finds solace in his friendships with an ancient tortoise called Enkidu, and Silvia Zanetti, the wife and mother of his grandfathers enemies, Frank and Roper (the latter sounds like he should be locked up, to be honest).
I absolutely loved this book. Mayken and Gil are both such tragic characters who only need someone to care for them. It’s a magical story, made more so by the imaginations of the two children. It’s a shame that the real world has to encroach on them.
Highly recommended.
MDCalc Medical Calculators
Medical and Health & Fitness
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Doctor Justabout and the Human body
Education, Games and Stickers
7.0
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Doctor Justabout is a fun and educational app that teaches how the systems and organs of the body...
Debbiereadsbook (1681 KP) rated Dragonslayer (Twitterlight #1) in Books
Sep 25, 2018
creeps up on ya, but so bloody good!
Independent reviewer for Divine Magazine, I was gifted my copy of this book.
Adam, a student, is pulled into a world, a fight, he knows nothing about. A fight involving a sword and a dragon and hero that it seems he is! Faced with four armed beasts, flying lizards, magic and sorcery, fur sprouting lovers, and many more challenging things, Adam must kill the dragon, and return home, or die trying.
I don't know about you, but I read a lot, a LOT, a lot. And much of that reading is within the same genres and I'm happy to be doing all that reading, don't get me wrong. It's just much of the same. And I don't know what I was expecting from this book, but I'm fairly certain I saw the word dragon in the blurb and that did it for me.
This book, right here?? Totally way out of my comfort zone, and it is high fantasy at its very best! I freaking LOVED this book, bar one teeny tiny thing, but I'll come back to that. So bloody good!
Adam is pulled into the twitterlight world, where there is no sun, nor moon, and the world is bathed in this half light. A princess, a warrior, and a child cast out from his people find Adam, and immediately bring him into their quest. And Adam is like " oh, ok, lets get to it then!" He literally just jumps straight in and I loved that he did not question much in the beginning; more so, once he realised that HE was the one meant to kill the dragon, but still, he was mostly " yeah ok!"
Duin, the child cast out from his people but a child no more, creeps into Adam heart, much as he does his bed, and I loved that, while fully aware that such things are not the norm in this twitterlight world, Duin can't keep away from Adam.
I LOVED the twist at the end, I really did not see that one coming!
Which brings me to why I knocked a whole star off, even though I loved this book.
Single
Person
Point
Of
View.
Only Adam gets a voice! And I wanted, no I desperately NEEDED to hear from Duin, I really did! There were to many to mention points along the way that Duin needed to be heard and he wasn't. And that really pissed me off, even though I did LOVE this book! Oh, don't get me wrong, it's a bloody great book, even without Duin's voice, but I WANTED his voice, you know?? It would really have made this a stand out of the year book, for me!
It's billed as Twitterlight book one, but I can't see anything pertaining to future books. I don't know if they will be about Adam and Duin future adventures, or if they will be about other people we have met here. I don't care, I want to read them. This is the first I've read of Matthew Lang, and he is firmly in my crosshairs.
So, ONLY because Duin doesn't get a say
4 stars
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
Adam, a student, is pulled into a world, a fight, he knows nothing about. A fight involving a sword and a dragon and hero that it seems he is! Faced with four armed beasts, flying lizards, magic and sorcery, fur sprouting lovers, and many more challenging things, Adam must kill the dragon, and return home, or die trying.
I don't know about you, but I read a lot, a LOT, a lot. And much of that reading is within the same genres and I'm happy to be doing all that reading, don't get me wrong. It's just much of the same. And I don't know what I was expecting from this book, but I'm fairly certain I saw the word dragon in the blurb and that did it for me.
This book, right here?? Totally way out of my comfort zone, and it is high fantasy at its very best! I freaking LOVED this book, bar one teeny tiny thing, but I'll come back to that. So bloody good!
Adam is pulled into the twitterlight world, where there is no sun, nor moon, and the world is bathed in this half light. A princess, a warrior, and a child cast out from his people find Adam, and immediately bring him into their quest. And Adam is like " oh, ok, lets get to it then!" He literally just jumps straight in and I loved that he did not question much in the beginning; more so, once he realised that HE was the one meant to kill the dragon, but still, he was mostly " yeah ok!"
Duin, the child cast out from his people but a child no more, creeps into Adam heart, much as he does his bed, and I loved that, while fully aware that such things are not the norm in this twitterlight world, Duin can't keep away from Adam.
I LOVED the twist at the end, I really did not see that one coming!
Which brings me to why I knocked a whole star off, even though I loved this book.
Single
Person
Point
Of
View.
Only Adam gets a voice! And I wanted, no I desperately NEEDED to hear from Duin, I really did! There were to many to mention points along the way that Duin needed to be heard and he wasn't. And that really pissed me off, even though I did LOVE this book! Oh, don't get me wrong, it's a bloody great book, even without Duin's voice, but I WANTED his voice, you know?? It would really have made this a stand out of the year book, for me!
It's billed as Twitterlight book one, but I can't see anything pertaining to future books. I don't know if they will be about Adam and Duin future adventures, or if they will be about other people we have met here. I don't care, I want to read them. This is the first I've read of Matthew Lang, and he is firmly in my crosshairs.
So, ONLY because Duin doesn't get a say
4 stars
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**