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My Sweet Revenge
My Sweet Revenge
Jane Fallon | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
10
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
From the first pages of the book I thought to myself “well this is going to be a good laugh”. And it absolutely was! Paula is an overweight housewife of a well known actor. Accidentally she finds out, that her husband Robert is cheating on her. She doesn’t want just to finish the relationship, she wants to make Robert to fall in love with her again and then ditch him. But it’s not that easy as it might sound. What I really liked about this book was, the way author picked the characters. All the characters were really diverse and very believable. We have an overweight Paula and her opposite, skinny Saskia. We have grumpy Robert and his opposite - sweet and calm Josh. I really enjoyed Paula’s journey in this book, and I’ll tell you that, after reading this novel It made me want to exercise and start eating healthy. If Paula can do it, why I couldn’t? I really enjoyed, that author gave the voice to more than one character in the book. It really helped to understand the characters better and added some fuel to the fire.

When you start reading the book, the whole plot looks a little bit unbelievable. Celebrities, movie shoots sounds not very relatable for common man. But after reading about the author of this book, I understood that this is a perfect insight into filming industry. Author has plenty of experience in this area and I believe that was her way to share it with us. The plot of this book is really well thought through. When you think that it will get boring and repetitive, author throws some well planned turn or twist. They were so unexpected and it kept the whole book like emotional roller coaster. The whole book is really funny and I had that silly smirk on my face while reading it, it lifted my mood. Nevertheless there were some important themes discussed in this book e.g. how weight loss makes you feel or how a divorce can influence you and the ones around you. I loved the ending of the book, it concluded the story very nicely and left me really satisfied. So to conclude, if You like “Bridget Jones”, you will definitely love this light hearted, easy to read and very enjoyable book, with lots of twists and turns and so very sweet revenge.
  
Joint Penetration (Hot Under the Collar #3)
Joint Penetration (Hot Under the Collar #3)
Katherine McIntyre | 2024 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
so freaking good!
I was gifted my copy straight for the author.

Jumping straight in, again!

What this book is, book 3 in the series, is an abso-freaking-lutely brilliantly written, brilliantly told story, of realising what has been in front of you for 15 years, and not questioning, not once, what you really feel for your best friend.

Liam has been in love with Ollie since he was 14. His best friend, his straight MARRIED best friend. He knows he can never have him, but he cannot let go. Ollie announces hi is getting a divorce, and promptly turns to Liam for his shoulder. Not to cry on, though, Ollie just needs Liam close, as always. Making a discovery about Liam that Ollie did not know, sets off a chain reaction, and Ollie sees, really SEES Liam for the first time.

I cannot, and never will be able to, express how much I loved this book of 2 friends falling in love. Of two friends finally seeing what everyone else sees: that they are perfect for each other. I mean, this is another , ANOTHER book that I need to add to myMasterpieces shelf of McIntyre's and she keeps delivering them! I really gotta change my rules for that shelf!

It's steamy, yes, but I loved that Ollie jumped straight in, once he was aware of his feelings and, more importantly, of LIAM'S feelings about them sleeping together. I loved that Ollie didn't really question what he was feeling: he knew, KNEW that Liam was his, and now he would be in all ways, but Ollie questioned WHAT he was feeling when he touched Liam. He never felt anything like this when he touched his ex-wife, so what he was feeling for Liam had to be monumental.

It's super low angst, and it's too freaking cute, and so warm and fuzzies, its off the scale!

I loved that we got to catch up with Liam's group of friends, and the guys from books one and two. We are also introduced to Ollie's brothers, and THEY are the subject of a new series that will feature drop ins from these guys.

I might go on all day, but I'll cut myself short.

READ THE FREAKING BOOK, GUYS! Better yet, read the whole SERIES cos they are all. . .

5 full and shiny stars!

*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
The fantasy theme was heavy with all four of the stories in the book. The first story is The Widow's Auction by Sabrina Jeffries. In this novella, a young widow is convinced that it is in her favor to auction off one night with her in return for a large sum of money that she can use to benefit her work with a all-boys' school. Of course, she secretly just wants to know what it's like to actually enjoy the bedtime act. In the realm of make-believe, this was quite the enjoyable mix of lust and romance with no negative consequences.
The second story is Luisa's Desire by Emma Holly. In this fascinating read, an immortal woman seeks an alternative to her need for blood to survive in a remote lamasery buried in the Himalayan mountains of Tibet. While she assumes that the answer is a particular form of meditation, what she instead gets is an aspiring monk who possesses a much more fleshly solution to her problem. Reincarnation takes on a whole new meaning in this short story, and I found the different take on vampires in fiction to be well-written.
The third story is Mr. Speedy by Elda Minger. In this plot, an ambitious young woman decides to make herself over into a man in order to sneak into and cover a male-only conference entirely about getting a woman to go to bed with the man. Her genius plan takes a left-turn when she discovers she is rooming with the city's most eligible bachelor coming off of a horrid divorce - whom she is overwhelmingly attracted to. The irony of this story is that the bachelor becomes increasingly interested in her before he is even aware she is in disguise. The humor of this story made it quite charming in a sexy sort of way.
The final story is The Awakening by Christine Feehan. The story begins her series, the Leopard People, with the tale of a young veterinarian lured deep into the jungle to track down her inheritance. Heavy lust and desire take over quite early in the story as the reader discovers that her presence there has been manipulated by a man of the leopard people who has already claimed her for his mate. The intensity and over-dramatization in the writing made this story less enjoyable for me than the others. I was also put off by the man's extreme obsession with the woman and his reluctance to tell her what was happening to her right from the beginning.
  
Among the Ten Thousand Things
Among the Ten Thousand Things
Julia Pierpont | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Review on my <a href="http://justacatandabookatherside.blogspot.com/2016/01/oh-im-becoming-ghost-in-your-life-and.html">blog here</a>.

Jack Shanley is a fairly well-known New York artist. He's a married father of two. He's also an adulterer, who carries on affairs in his New York studio. This comes back to bite him, so to speak, when one of his exes sends his wife a large box chronicling their entire relationship - emails, texts, sexts - all printed and contained in this one box. The box is delivered to Jack's apartment and opened by his eleven-year-old daughter, Kay, and fifteen-year-old son, Simon. They show the box to their mother, Deb, forcing her to confront the many flaws of her husband. Meanwhile, Kay and Simon are (justifiably) traumatized by the box's contents and the possible dissolution of their parents' marriage.

This was an odd book. As a child of divorce, a lot of this book hit home, and I felt myself feeling a great deal of sympathy for Deb, Kay, and Simon - especially as they disappear off to their vacation home, of sorts, to recover. (Alas, no vacation home when I was a child.) Julia Pierpoint is certainly a strong writer and her prose is lovely and well-crafted. Still, the book often just seems a little flat.

The strangest part of this book, to me, as many other reviewers have pointed out - is that is constructed in four parts - parts one and three basically deal with the immediate aftermath of the box's delivery and how the family reacts. Parts two and four tell us what happen to Jack, Deb, Kay, and Simon for their entire lives. It's an odd author tool, and I'm not sure it entirely works. For me, I was caught up enough in Part One's tale and then found Part Two incredibly jarring - even more so to be dumped back into the current story at Part Three. Part Four repeats Two a bit and tells a bit more about what happens to the characters. It's an odd device, and I really would have preferred not to have had Part Two stuck in there at all. I suppose it's an artistic overreach that appeals to critics but not most actual readers.

Overall, I found the book an intriguing look at a family dealing with a father's betrayal. Not a ton happens - it's not that sort of book - but Pierpont's writing is strong, and I liked Simon and Kay. I am not sure the book is one that will leave a lasting impression with me, though.