Mistress of My Fate (Review and Giveaway)

Mistress of My Fate: The confessions of Henrietta Lightfoot
by Hallie Rubenhold

Book Info:
Set during a period of revolution and turmoil, Mistress of My Fate is the first book in a trilogy about Henrietta Lightfoot, a young woman who was abandoned as a baby and raised alongside her cousins, noble children of a lord and lady. At just sixteen years old, circumstance and a passionate love affair tear Henrietta away from everything she knows, leading to a new life fending for herself on the streets of 18th century London as a courtesan, gambler, and spirited intellect of the city.

Author Info:

Hallie Rubenhold is a British historian. Rubenhold was born in Los Angeles and undertook a BA in History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She then gained an MA in British History and History of Art and an MPhil in History from the University of Leeds, on subject of marriage and child-rearing in the eighteenth century. Having worked in the commercial art world and as an assistant curator for the National Portrait Gallery. In 2005, she wrote an accessible history of Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies and its author in her book The Covent Garden Ladies: Pimp General Jack and the Extraordinary Story of Harris' List, and in 2008 published The Harlot's Handbook: Harris's List, a selection of the directories "funniest, rudest and most surreal entries". The BBC later adapted the material for a documentary, presented by Rubenhold herself.

My review:

My what an enjoyable read this was! This book had such a great writting style. It also had great characters and a great plot. The heroine of this story was a real treat to read so smart and so clever! This book also had really good wit. The combination of all these things are what really made it an enjoyable read (the fact that it was also historical romance doesnt hurt either). It is so refreshing to see smart herorines in novels! I also loved the cover art of this book! I would highly recommend it!

 

 

Giveaway:

I will be holding a giveaway for one copy of this book! Details at the bottom of my blog!

 

I would like to thank Jessica from forever for letting me read and review this novel and also for letting me hold a giveaway.

 

When She Was Wicked (review and giveaway)

When she was wicked
by Anne Barton

Book Info:

SOME RULES SIMPLY BEG TO BE BROKEN

A dressmaker in London's busiest shop, Miss Anabelle Honeycote overhears the ton's steamiest secrets-and (occasionally) uses them to her advantage. It isn't something she's proud of, but the reluctant blackmailer needs the money to care for her gravely ill mother. To make up for her misdeeds, Anabelle keeps to a firm set of rules:

Never request payment from someone who cannot afford it.

Never reveal the secrets of a paying client.

Never enter into any form of social interaction with a client.

Her list keeps her (somewhat) honest-until she encounters Owen Sherbourne, the Duke of Huntford.

Not only does Owen nip Anabelle's extortion plans in the bud, the devilishly handsome Duke soon has the sexy seamstress dreaming of more than silks and satins. With Owen Anabelle enjoys pleasures she never imagined. . . until a scandal from the past resurfaces. Now her rules could mean his family's ruin. Owen's searing kisses carry the promise of passion, but how will he react when Anabelle's most devastating secret is finally revealed?

 

Author Info:

Anne Barton began swiping romance novels off her mom's bookshelf as a teenager, so when she had the chance to spend a semester in London--home to her favorite heroes--she packed her bags and promptly fell in love with the city, its history, and its pubs. She dreamed of writing romance, but somehow ended up a software analyst instead.
Fortunately, a few years and a few careers later, Anne found her way back to writing the stories she loves and in 2011 won the Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart for Regency Historical Romance. She lives in Maryland with her husband (who, sadly, is not a peer of the realm--but a great guy nonetheless) and her three children, who try valiantly not to roll their eyes whenever she quotes Jane Austen. Her weaknesses include reality TV, cute-but-impractical shoes, and caffeinated beverages of all kinds.
Visit Anne's website: www.annebarton.com.

My review:
This was one of the best historical romances I have read in a long time! Great writting and plot makes the book a very enjoyable read! The characters are great, it has a smart, funny, and witty herorine, which is great to see because you dont see that very often in books. The herorine is also a very likeable character which another thing that makes her great! I also really liked the cover of this novel. It was also enjoyable for me because it was a historical rommance which I always like because of my love of history.  I had a great time reading this book it was such a fun and enjoyable read! I would highly recommend this novel!

Giveaway:
I will be holding a giveaway for 1 copy of this book! Details can be found at the bottom of my blog.

I would like to thank Jessica from Forever for letting me read and review this book and holding a giveaway on my blog.

South of Hell and The Little Death (Review & Giveaway)

South of Hell
by P.J. Parrish

Book Info:

Dig up the past. Pay the price.

With one phone call from a man he barely recalls meeting years ago, South Florida detective Louis Kincaid heads to the Michigan town of his college days to reopen a disturbing cold case -- and finds himself confronting his own painful past secrets...secrets that risk his future with the woman he loves, detective Joe Frye. Ann Arbor police detective Jake Shockey wants Kincaid's help in the case of Jean Brandt, who went missing nine years ago -- and whose husband, Owen, has since been paroled. Now, Owen Brandt's girlfriend appears to be at risk, and Shockey is desperate to get involved. Kincaid soon unearths the deeply personal reasons why...and with Joe Frye assisting, Kincaid links yesterday's jealousies with today's potentially lethal vengeance. It's only a matter of time before one will win out over the other -- and before Kincaid's own shattering revelations will be forced out into the light of day.  The Little Death by P.J. Parrish  Book Info: When the headless corpse of a young man is discovered in glamorous Palm Beach, Louis sets his sights on his most likely suspect—a prominent female U.S. Senator with a history of scandal and a known penchant for sadistic and dangerous sex. Then a second headless body turns up and the trail runs cold, allowing the real killer to slip in dangerously close, intent on making Louis’s best friend the next victim. Beautifully written yet packed with raw power, The Little Death is a suspenseful thriller of the highest order and will satisfy fans of writers such as Ed McBain, James Patterson, and Michael Connolly.

Authors Info:
P.J. Parrish is actually two sisters, Kristy Montee and Kelly Nichols. Their books have appeared on both the New York Times and USA Today best seller lists. The series has garnered 11 major crime-fiction awards, and an Edgar® nomination. Parrish has won two Shamus awards, one Anthony and one International Thriller competition. Her books have been published throughout Europe and Asia. Parrish's short stories have also appeared in many anthologies, including two published by Mystery Writers of America, edited by Harlan Coben and the late Stuart Kaminsky. Their stories have also appeared in Akashic Books acclaimed Detroit Noir, and in Ellery Queen Magazine. Most recently, they contributed an essay to a special edition of Edgar Allan Poe's works edited by Michael Connelly.

My review:
I thought both of these books were very well written thrillers. I like the character of Louis Kincaid alot, he is good and well developed character. I did not have a favorite out of these two books, but I think South of Hell was a little better. I also thought the South of Hell cover was better than the cover for The Little Death.  Plot wise though I wasnt really enthrallled with these books and didnt really enjoy them. I would recommend these books however because I know there are people out there who would love these books.

Giveaway:
I will be holding a giveaway for these two books! See more deatails at the bottom of my blog!

I would like to thank Melissa for letting read and review these books and host a giveaway!

Smut: Two Unseemly Stories

Title: Smut: Two Unseemly Stories
Author: Alan Bennett
Narrator: Alan Bennett
Publisher: Audiogo
Pub. Date: April 14, 2011
Length: 3 hrs 53 mins.

Audio book Info:
This title presents two unexpected tales written and read by the bestselling author of "The Uncommon Reader", "Untold Stories" and "The History Boys", Alan Bennett.
"The Greening of Mrs Donaldson": Mrs Donaldson is a conventional middle-class woman beached on the shores of widowhood after a marriage that had been much like many others: happy to begin with, then satisfactory and finally dull. But when she decides to take in two lodgers, her mundane life becomes much more stimulating...
"The Shielding of Mrs Forbes": Graham Forbes is a disappointment to his mother, who thinks that if he must have a wife, he should have done better. True, her own husband isn't all that satisfactory either. Still, this is Alan Bennett, so what is happening in the bedroom (and in lots of other places too) is altogether more startling, perhaps shocking, and ultimately more true to people's predilections.

Author Info:
Alan Bennett is a renowned playwright and essayist, a succession of whose plays have been staged at the Royal National Theatre and whose screenplay for The Madness of King George was nominated for an Academy Award. He made his first stage appearance with Beyond the Fringe and his latest play was The Lady in the Van with Maggie Smith. Episodes from his award-winning Talking Heads series have been shown on PBS. His first novel, The Clothes They Stood Up In, was published in 2000. He lives in London

My review:
So I have to say I waited very long to received this audio book but it was worth the wait! I enjoyed it so much! Both stories were very funny, unexpected, witty, clever and fun to listen to! My favorite is The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson because I liked her as a character and wanted to know what happened to her in the story. The story was also very fun and unique. Both stories were unique plotwise which I always like that when it comes to any book or audio book that I am reading or listening to.
The narration for this audio book was performed by the author and at first I thought the narattor would be ghastly and dry when I started to listen to it but I was sorely mistake. He was a very fun narrator to listen to for one because of the story and to because he animated his characters (not alot of animation but enough to tell the differences in characters and to keep you listening).
The cover of the box of this audio book was simple but overall I liked it, expecially the background color. I would reccomend this audio book but now it isnt for everyone I think it is mainly for fans of this author or someone who thinks by reading the summaries that they may like this kind of audio book.


I would like to thank Susan at audiobook jukebox for letting me listen to and review this audio book.

An Unexpected Guest

An Unexpected Guest
by Anne Korkeakivi

Book Info:
Clare Moorhouse, the American wife of a high-ranking diplomat in Paris, is arranging an official dinner crucial to her husband's career. As she shops for fresh stalks of asparagus and works out the menu and seating arrangements, her day is complicated by the unexpected arrival of her son and a random encounter with a Turkish man, whom she discovers is a suspected terrorist.

Like Virginia Woolf did in Mrs. Dalloway, Anne Korkeakivi brilliantly weaves the complexities of an age into an act as deceptively simple as hosting a dinner party.

My review:
I thought this book was good. The plot was clever and the characters were good. I also really liked the cover of this book. This is a good and enjoyable read, its not the happiest of reads or something that will provide you with a wealth of knowledge or a new way of thinking but its a nice read for a cold winters day. I would recommend this book because it is worth a look.

Little Girl Gone

Little Girl Gone
by Drusilla Cambell

Book Info:
Madora was seventeen, headed for trouble with drugs and men, when Willis rescued her. Fearful of the world and alienated from family and friends, she ran away with him and for five years they have lived alone, in near isolation. But after Willis kidnaps a pregnant teenager and imprisons her in a trailer behind the house, Madora is torn between her love for him and her sense of right and wrong. When a pit bull puppy named Foo brings into Madora's world another unexpected person--Django Jones, a brilliant but troubled twelve-year-old boy--she's forced to face the truth of what her life has become.

An intensely emotional and provocative story, Little Girl Gone explores the secret hopes and fears that drive good people to do dangerous things . . . and the courage it takes to make things right.

My review:
This book was ok but thats all. The plot was ok and so were the characters. My favorite character was the dog (even though the dog didnt get that much page time). The problems I had with this book are several. First that I couldnt connect with it which made my enjoyment of this book very low. Also I found this book boring and I almost couldnt finish it. I think it was boring because the plot was not that unique. Also I think this book tried to hard at being a tear jerker which annoys me. I would not recommend this book.

I am Lucky Bird

I am Lucky Bird
by Fluer Philips

Book Info:
Fleur Philips' I AM LUCKY BIRD is an intensely gripping, deeply emotional literary novel, telling the heart-wrenching narrative of its young protagonist, Lucky Bird, after her mother AnnMarie mysteriously vanishes, and her childhood comes to an abrupt end. Left alone to defend herself against her suddenly abusive grandmother, Marian Bird, and forced to endure the twisted predatory game played out by Marian's lover Tom Cressfield, Lucky's life soon descends into a nightmare. Even when she manages to escape, the outside world can't take away the brutal images of her past. Still haunted by her mother's disappearance and the trauma that followed, Lucky is easily led down a path of self-destruction, a path that only the intervention of a handsome young stranger and his family seems to offer any hope of guiding her away from. But first, she will have to confront her demons, and the dark truths that they kept hidden... I Am Lucky Bird has made it onto the 2011 list of finalists for ForeWord Reviews' Book Of The Year Awards- surely only the first of many awards to come!

Author Info:
Fleur Philips is a graduate student at Antioch University in Los Angeles, pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing. She attended the University of Oregon in Eugene where she was awarded placement in the Kidd Tutorial Creative Writing Program. She has a BA in English from the University of Montana. After a short-lived acting career (she was a "featured extra" on Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can), she completed three manuscripts. I Am Lucky Bird is her first novel and was selected as a general fiction finalist for the 2011 Book of the Year Award from ForeWord Reviews. She's currently working on her second novel which will be released in the summer 2013. She lives in Upland, California, and when she's not writing, she's cheering for her son in his athletic endeavors.

My review:
Overall I enjoyed this book. I thought it was a good read with an interesting writting style and interesting characters. I also liked that the title of this book was different and unique. The formating (font etc.) of this book was nice as well. The main character of this book I thought was well developed although she wasnt my favorite. I found that I really didnt have a favorite character in this novel. The only thing I wasnt crazy about was the cover of this book. I liked the background (green) color but I thought the rest of the cover was boring. I did like the plot of this book as well. Like I said before it is a good read and I would recomend it.



I would like to thank Kim from BookSparks for letting me read and review this book.

2013 Challenges

So the new year has began and so has new challenges! I will be participating again in the Audio Book Challenge at Terea's Reading corner. This years level I chose was Going Steady- Listen to 12 Audio Books. I chose this because I listen to more audio books then I thought I would in 2012 so I think 12 is a safe number to go with but I might end up going over that again but who knows we will see.

I am also going to be participating in the YA audiobook challenge again this year! Im chosing easy listening which is 12 because I dont always get that many Y.A. audiobooks but I would be happy to read more as well!

Targets of Deception and Targets of Opportunity(Review and Giveaway)

Targets of Opportunity

Book Info:

THE ENEMY HAS A THOUSAND WAYS TO STRIKE. WE HAVE JUST ONE WAY TO RETALIATE. HIS NAME IS JORDAN SANDOR. In Targets of Deception, which suspense master Robert K. Tanenbaum called “a fast-paced thriller,” Jeffrey Stephens introduced CIA agent Jordan Sandor, whom bestselling author Steve Alten praised as “terrific.” Now Sandor is back, playing for bigger stakes and facing deadlier challenges. Whisked from his Manhattan town house to a gabled CIA safe house in Virginia, Sandor faces off with a top terrorist agent from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. In exchange for protection from his own side, Ahmad Jaber is offering the CIA explosive information: word of a secret, unholy alliance forged among operatives in the Middle East, a ruthless South American, and Kim Jong-Il’s North Korea. Jaber claims not to know specific details, only that the strike will target the heart of America. The fanatics stage a stunning diversion in the Caribbean, mercilessly downing a passenger jet and unleashing an assault on a French intelligence installation. Sandor, however, has already moved in a different direction. Leveraging Jaber’s infor-mation, he assembles a small strike force to penetrate North Korea. The team knows they will not all return, but the intel they gather will be vital to American security. What they ultimately discover plunges Sandor into a frantic race against time, struggling to defeat a shadowy figure—a master terrorist with a plan of destruction so perfectly disguised that even with the new knowledge he has gathered, Sandor cannot guess where or how he will strike. As a storm rages in the Gulf of Mexico, word comes that two submarines have penetrated U.S. waters. With the U.S. military hampered by the hurricane, Sandor turns to a few daring U.S. Navy SEALs to duel with the enemy they cannot see . . . for now they know only that there are two nuclear weapons aimed at a target of opportunity whose destruction would change the world order forever. Brilliantly conceived, electrifyingly paced, Targets of Opportunity captures a terrifying twenty-first century reality: terrorists can—and will—try as many times as they need to attack the United States. For the brave men and women who defend our country, failure is not an option.

Targets of Deception:

Book Info:
When Jordan Sandor resigned from active service with the Central Intelligence Agency, it was before 9-11, before the fall of Saddam Hussein, before the world had so dramatically changed. He is reluctantly drawn back into action, when a series of violent events leads him to search out a new al-Qaeda conspiracy to initiate a new wave of cataclysmic assaults with poison gas.

Sandor follows the deadly trail from New York to Florida to Paris and, ultimately, to the small town of Portofino on the Italian Riviera. Never sure who he can trust and who may be an enemy, Jordan relies on his experience, instincts and skills as he risks his life to uncover plans for attacks against the United States and its allies. The terrorist strategy is cunning and far-reaching, with the lives of millions of people at stake. When Sandor discovers a rogue agent behind the plot, he realizes he is the one man who can prevent the catastrophe.

TARGETS OF DECEPTION is a fast-paced thriller that moves from one suspenseful action scene to the next in a contemporary story of the real and present perils of the modern world.

Author Info:
A native New Yorker, Jeffrey Stephens now lives in Greenwich, Connecticut with his wife Nancy, where they raised their two sons, Graham and Trevor. Stephens is the author of the Jordan Sandor thrillers, TARGETS OF DECEPTION and TARGETS OF OPPORTUNITY.

My review:
I thought both or these books were very good and well written thrillers. The characters of these books were also well written but I could not find one I really liked. I have to say overall these books werent my favorite. While I didnt favor them so much I will say they were an ok read. I would reccomend these books to because I think some thriller lovers would really enjoy them.

I am also holding a giveaway here on my blog for these two books! Please see details at the bottom of my blog!

Safe Haven Feature and Giveaway

Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks

When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet self-effacing, Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships: one with Alex, a widowed store owner with a kind heart and two young children; and another with her plainspoken single neighbor, Jo. Despite her reservations, Katie slowly begins to let down her guard, putting down roots in the close-knit community and becoming increasingly attached to Alex and his family.

But even as Katie begins to fall in love, she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts and terrifies her . . . a past that set her on a fearful, shattering journey across the country, to the sheltered oasis of Southport. With Jo's empathic and stubborn support, Katie eventually realizes that she must choose between a life of transient safety and one of riskier rewards . . . and that in the darkest hour, love is the only true safe haven.

So as some of you may now the movie version of this novel is coming out on Valentines Day! To celebrate this there is a really cool event coming up called "A Night with Nicholas Sparks’ Safe Haven: Filmmakers, Author and Stars Bring the Book to Life.” This one-night event will feature a live discussion and Q&A with Nicholas Sparks, appearances by Oscar^®-nominated director Lasse Hallström and stars Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough, and exclusive clips and behind-the-scenes footage of the much anticipated film. If anone is interested in more information about the event they can refer to this link: http://bit.ly/SafeHavenEvent.

In honor of this event I am hosting a giveaway on my blog! Details can be found at the bottom of my blog!