Stacia in Progress

Look what came with my Chinese food last night.

*cue Barry White music*

Sayed's body was so close his outer robes brushed her. Her breath came out in a shocked gasp.

I'm waiting for the infomercial advertising an erotic Snuggie. I'll be the first one to order.

Since I can not account for any sort of cultural accuracy, I will skip right on past how correct the story representation was and get right to the heart of the matter - WHERE was the harem? There was a harem mentioned in the book's synopsis. I think that was about the same amount of mention in the book as well. I was wanting to see a man who had a bunch of women at his beck and call. Because I'm weird like that. It sounded kind of cool though, the idea of a story where a man has a ton of women, but notices one who isn't rolling with his crew. Right? 

This man wasn't a player. He didn't even really have pimp skills. Aaliyah called him an alpha, but I didn't see it outside of a few "you will not question me" moments. He was just a normal, nice, and hot guy who happened to be good in the bedroom. Hey, I'm not complaining. I look for these types of men in stories because they are rare breeds...but I think I was expecting something else completely. 

The guy hadn't had sex in 3 years. What??? 

Where was that harem again?

Anyway, back to the story. Sheikh's Scandal was surprisingly a lot of fun. This couple bonded over shots (alcohol, not gunfire) and conversation. I liked how down-to-earth their coupling was. Even though there was a very strange "need you now, even though I just met you" vibe to start, these two took some time to laugh it up and get to know each other, even as they were looking at moving forward to doing the horizontal bed dance. 

I'm sure at least a few of us can relate to that exact scene. Those are some fun times, indeed. Drinks make people looser? Who knew? Oh wait, we all did. 

I'm writing a review for the publisher, so it's probably not in my best interest to mention that I associate Harlequin presents books with standard cheese-of-the-month. But in Sheikh'sdefense, this actually worked in the book's favor, since I knew going into the read to expect a fair amount of cheese. 

The cheese didn't bother me. Fun times can cancel out some of the predictability. Plus, a little cheese can add to the entertainment factor. I like the idea of having a drinking game every time the words "big hands" or "big body" are used.

She'd never heard of brown fire before. (used to describe Sayed's eyes)
Neither had I. Because fire isn't ever brown.

Electric shocks had gone straight to his instant erection. 
Is this supposed to be a good thing? It actually sounds quite painful to me.

"I've never had sex in an elevator," she admitted like it was a deep, dark - even shameful - secret. 
Neither have I. I also haven't had sex on a roller-coaster, OR on the back of a horse. I FEEL SO ASHAMED! Do I get points back for having had sex on top of a hay bale stack or on top of a police car? 

"You were smoother than jazz."
"Smoother than jazz? Really?"
She shrugged. "No music is smoother."
"Perhaps I should be happy you didn't compare me to custard." 
Yep. They did go there.

Desire riding him harder than a runaway camel in the desert. 
No matter how many times I read that sentence, it comes out sounding perverted in my head and I picture the camel riding the guy. 

See? It was all kind of amusing.

All kidding aside, the story was sweet and held my interest. For what it was, I liked the read. The basic theme of falling for a man himself and not his power and position is a love story that will resonate with many readers. I would want to try out this theme again sometime - but ONLY if there's a harem present. 

Thanks Ash for jumping in and reading with me!

This book provided from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All quotes taken from the pre-published version and may be altered or omitted from the final copy.

For the first time in her life, she craved touch worse than dark chocolate during that most inconvenient time of the month.

First off, TMI.

Secondly, here's the very next sentence :

"You are an addiction," he accused.

These two have had all of two minutes together in the book. I'm not even joking. The awkward meet in my last status update led to 30 seconds in an elevator. Addiction...how?

Inexplicably and undeniably drawn to the powerful man, Liyah's feet carried her forward without her conscious thought or volition. It was only when she stood mere feet from the royal sheikh that Liyah came to an abrupt, embarrassed stop.

*shamelessly inserts "that awkward moment" reference* Part of me wonders if anyone's actually walked up to a person of the opposite sex in this manner.

Magical vag strikes again.

Fion. Lancelot. Arthur. Mordred. Spin the wheel of fortune, and hope you pick the right man. I probably would have taken Fion right off the bat and would have never gotten a chance to meet the others because I thought he was pretty awesome. The very first guy who takes an interest is a hot, nice, witty guy with an accent, who is also a king? Sold. Story over.

Actually, since Gwen didn't sleep with all of the men, she must have a magical aura instead. 

Spoilers ahead. Yes, I mean it. This time, I'm not going spoiler free. I notice that I tend to want to post spoilers when something is bothering me and I need to write it down for my own sanity, hah. Please don't read on if you don't want the book spoiled. 

Queen of Camelot would have been a solid 4 but there's one thing I can't get over. WTF was up with that foreshadowing prologue? The way it tied in with the end...uh...yeah. 

Gwen had a few moments which made me scratch my head. The reasoning of hers that it was okay to kiss Lancelot on the lips as long as Arthur was around hurt my brain. And don't get me started on the "we're almost about to die" scene where she missed a big opportunity. For the sake of the reader, that loyalty should have been put on the back burner when good ole Lance and Gwen were convinced that they'd never live to see Arthur. I wanted the famous scandal. WHERE WAS THE SCANDAL?!?

Lancelot had a few moments of his own. He started off so swoon-worthy, then the hardcore loyalty sort of fried his brain. Did I detect a few moments of simpering? I think I might have. MAKE ME SWOON, PUPPET. 

Arthur...I don't even know what to say. His faith in Gwen was admirable, if a little stupid. 

But I kid, sort of. My men complaints are so minimal. I felt Lancelot's loyalty, admired Arthur's justice, and yearned alongside Gwen as she longed for both men who were equally brilliant in their own way. 

Do I believe that Arthur was Gwen's soul mate in the end? NO. I believe that she loved and admired him. I believe that she felt him worthy of her undying devotion. However, I had a hard time believing that she shifted all of her focus from Lancelot to Arthur at the end. Why? Because Arthur died? So she can't love Lancelot in close proximity now, even though THEY FLAUNTED IT IN FRONT OF ARTHUR FOR ALL OF THOSE YEARS?

You'd almost think with my capslock ranting that I disliked the book, right?

The writing was beautiful. The emotions were powerful. The story had me by the throat. I honestly loved the book...up until the end sort of pissed me off.

I didn't expect a super happy ending. But the self-sacrificing seemed pointless when there came a time that it wasn't necessary anymore. 

That said, for any story to have me wanting to discuss and hope and speculate like this one did, I do consider it to be a success. There were so many powerful and emotional quotes that I would have liked to have included, but then I would have been here all night copying them. So, no. It's not happening. 

Oh, and mothereffing Mordred. Not that any of his behavior was unexpected. But still.

I'm honestly glad I read the book, and hope to read Galahad's (Lancelot's son) story in the near future. 

Thanks Leea for the buddy read/discussion thread/phone question & answer session!

DNF. Saw the 1.5 novella for the series up on Netgalley and went back to check what book 1 was about before requesting. When I saw that this was set in my town, I had to pick it up.

There was nothing wrong with the story. It was pretty much basic NA CR, and I wasn't in the mood for basic NA CR, so I bowed out.

I'm pretty sure I've already made the Hex Hall meets Sky High comparison, but I can't not bring it up again. This is the kind of comparison which should be perceived as a good one, though. Burn Bright followed a promising (yet shaky) first book and amped up the danger, adventure, and (somewhat) forbidden attraction.

There's still one part superhero sci-fi...

"You just told us the world is ending. I'd like to know how much time I have to prevent it."

And several parts paranormal romance...

"Our first date is not going to include hospitals, Harrowers, apocalyptic predictions, or my mother."

But it's not a confused genre thing which has me liking what's going on. And it's certainly not the hodgepodge of different character traits and plot points that I've seen in other, popular series, because these books are not working with the freshest ideas or most unique story. 

This is simply all about the fact that an author came along and decided to bring the fun and adventure and romance - and it all came in a smartly written package.

I have absolutely no notes in my book copy about stupid decision making or awkward social skills. Imagine that. 

Leon was willing to die for me. It was the sort of thing that sounded romantic in theory; the type of wild, passionate declaration you hear in movies. But this wasn't a vow. It wasn't a promise. It was a fact. Cold, hard, inescapable. And it didn't feel romantic. It felt terrifying.

A female lead who gets it? Who knew?

Moms with young teen daughters might enjoy the experience of reading the Dark Star books together. The emphasis on family and loyalty is a positive message set in a story which doesn't feel preachy or disingenuous. 

This would be a cute little movie franchise. Go, Disney, go. 

Book provided from publisher in exchange for an honest review. All quotes taken from the pre-published copy and may be altered or omitted from the final version. 

Anyone else excited for Vikings coming back this week? The season 2 tease has me all kinds of ready.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTzYlqJvzFI

In order to avoid having another P2P conversation, I'm stating upfront that this book was a freebie and I'm not giving a formal star rating. So there. :p

"Ehd?"
"Beh..."
"Ehd..."

Epic conversation #98

On the one hand...

Transcendence was an interesting read. 

On the other hand...

Here we have yet another middling P2P fanfic that's gaining attention.

There are better caveman/primitive man books out there. This isn't the first book of this theme (the reason I picked this book had to do with my recent reading and searching for books with caveman, primitive man, and/or Tarzan retellings). 

I was almost wanting to say a whole hell of a lot more about bandwagoning/GR indie review culture and why the review page for this book had me raising an eyebrow, but we'd probably be veering off into passive-aggressive territory, where my "snark for fun" could end up hurting someone's feelings without me meaning to.

So I'll back away and say this - I do get why people who haven't read this type of story before might be curious and find it interesting.

Because the story was interesting - before it got to be repetitive. Edh REALLY wanted to put a baby in Beh. Multiple times. That's pretty much the gist of the story (although I did really like the family bonding and few snippets of caveman life and survival) Unique though? Not as much as I'd hoped. Edh's voice was something I'd seen others complain about, but I actually appreciated that the author didn't go with a rotating PoV because so many books are doing that at the moment. Sure, it made for some confusion at times when I had to figure out what Edh was getting at, but in a way, that also added to the fun. There were times when Edh was in his head where I saw a few "contemporary romance" terms, but I forgave that much, considering that the author was probably trying to make for easier readability, when Edh was always working without words for most of his interaction with Beh. 

The book wasn't all bad. Honest. But to get so much fanfare? I'm just not seeing the epic. 

If I absolutely had to rate the book, I'd go about 2.5 stars for quality, and about 3.5 stars for enjoyment, so a 3 it is. 

!@#$@#$!#$%!*#$!1!

I really hate to do this to a book, when it seems like the author had good intentions with what he was doing. 

Coming of age tale : check
Poignant moments of self-reflection : check
Personal discovery of one's self : check

So what exactly is the problem, you ask? Here's the deal - every so often, I come across a YA book where I feel like the entire thing is written like it's supposed to appeal to YA readers, but is so out of touch with YA lit culture that it misses the mark. This is one of those times.

I suddenly felt cool as hell. "Yes! Momma's older sister. She's a hoot!"

Uh...no. If you just said the words, "she's a hoot!" you are, in fact, NOT cool as hell.

I can't even classify the book as Adult lit which just happens to have a young protag. The character voices are not going to match up well enough for adult lit either, since the male lead comes across as very young and clueless. 

Where do I start? Can I start with Sam, the kid from Cali who said "Brah" 31 times? What decade are we living in, again? 

Or do I start with Jake, the male lead, who calls his father "The Preacher," and is completely ignorant to life in general?

Or do I start with the "hit you over the head" life lessons which seemed like a bad version of an anti-bullying campaign? 

I get it. The kid is confused. He was raised by a strict, conservative family. I'm sure that in some parts of the country (this would be the U.S.), people are so isolated from normal society that they are bullied into small town thinking and small town ideology. I saw that hideous remake of Footloose, after all (no, I was not serious in actually using Footloose as a real life reference). 

However, the message of the story was so drowned in Jake's sheltered existence that it made me as a reader start to loathe him as a character. He was like a parody of a small-town kid, all fresh from the country and ready to tackle the big city! Never mind that he thought the Sikh kid was Muslim, or spent half of his conversations with other people trying to talk them into why it was or wasn't wrong to be gay, based on his Biblical upbringing. This kid was just painfully awkward - how he made friends was beyond me. He was at Columbia university, hanging out and having new experiences, yet he was SUCH A BUZZKILL.

"I don't know," I said, looking around. "How about 'Holy Cow!' or 'Gosh!' or just go with some deity no one cares about - like Zeus!"

He couldn't have just said that it bothered him when she swore by using the name of JC? What's with the "substitute" swearing cues?

Dude (yes, I can say dude. It's cancelled out by the amount of "Brah-age" going on here), seriously. I grew up in a conservative family. Even I knew how to not be an asshole when I was around non conservatives. For a story that was trying to teach a message of tolerance, I thought Jake was the slowest learner of the whole damn bunch. Even the strict parents were less frustrating.

Because guess what? No one wants an entire story of a person battling what's right and wrong in their head. It's called moderation, folks. A few well-placed chapters would have done the trick. Whining about your struggle to deny, then justify, yourself gets old fast.

It always goes back to my complaint about preachiness. Giving a strong point of view does not necessarily equate to having a plot. Apparently, it was a huge deal for this book to try and reconcile that it's okay to be gay and Christian at the same time because there might be some discrepancies in the Bible. Okay, so that might be interesting if the book was a research or non-fiction book, but not so much when it's plopped down in the middle of a coming-of-age story.

Too bad the entire 'new doctrine' part wasn't mentioned in the synopsis, or I wouldn't have picked up the book. 

For me, I love to read books about religion and spirituality when they're marked as such, and I know what the content is going to be about. This book wasn't marked as such, and so I thought this book was fiction about a kid deciding that it was okay to come out of the closet...maybe because...oh...a person came along who got into this kid's head. Ya know? 

So you decided to embrace your homosexuality? What's next, Jake? 

I WADED THROUGH AN ENTIRE BOOK OF SELF-REFLECTION AND THIS IS WHAT I GET IN THE END? 

Pfft. 

This book provided from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All quotes taken from the pre-published copy and may be altered or omitted from the final copy.

"You're stunning, brah."

If Sam says brah one more time, I am going to have to find a random person on the street and choke them on his behalf.

Star Wars : Episode VII is coming December 18, 2015!

http://starwars.com/news/episode-vii-news/

"You...like this."
Simone smiled at that and ran her tongue along her bottom lip. "Yes, Elliott. I like it."
"Why?"
"Why does anyone like what they like?"

I've said it many times before - Erotica is very much a personal preference. The stories that people connect to are often the ones which fuel a person's own fantasy. Even if a reader is able to be entertained by another person's sexual preferences, there's something about reading the scenes which tickle one's own fancy that turns erotica into a personal experience. 

I've read plenty of BDSM and enjoy it well enough, but it's rare for me to find the type of sexual stories where I say, "that's what I think is hot!" Too often, rougher sex is accompanied by props and routines. I get happy when I stumble upon a writer who is willing to write rough and forceful sex without all of the accompanying instruments. Willing Victim was always my go-to for this type of story, along with a few paranormal romances where mating was often more forceful than vanilla sex. 

Thank you, Megan Hart, for remembering that there is a niche for this type of fantasy. 

Simone likes it rough. She likes to be pinched, spanked, bitten, and man-handled. She has no desire to wear a collar, get beaten with a flogger, or call someone master. She just wants a man who knows how to give her what she wants - that delectable version of sex where pain and pleasure co-mingle into something on another level. 

Elliott wants what Simone wants, but every woman prior to her has been scared off by his aggressive bedroom play.

I was surprised to see that Elliott might have more of a back-story than what was shown in book 1. Maybe I shouldn't be - after all, this is Megan Hart. She isn't really the type to write just sex by itself without some sort of emotional story attached to it. In the case of the Every Parts of You serial, I think it's going to work.

I'm looking forward to seeing what's up next. These characters need to cut loose. When it happens, it's probably going to be a lot of fun to witness.

This short story provided from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Quotes taken from the pre-published copy and may be altered or omitted from the final version.

Holly Black is one of those authors who I struggle with when it comes to putting her style of writing into a category. She's a little bit dark, a little bit snarky, and I get the distinct impression that she's going to write what she wants, the way she wants to, and screw anyone who doesn't like it. 

Because of this, I have both a love and frustration with her work. Every time I pick up a book of hers, I read it and get caught up in the story. However, every time I pick up a book of hers, I find myself annoyed with at least one of the characters; usually it's the lead female or one of the "sidekicks." Out of the five books I've read from this author, I've always found myself drawn more to the lead males than the females every single time, and it has nothing to do with their sex appeal. It's just that generally the male leads tend to have more dimension to them than the females do. And what is up with these side characters who seem to be weird ass parodies of people? In Tithe, it was Corny (that name still kills me). With this book, it was the strangeling twins (although the way their story ended was a sickeningly good shocker). 

In some way, I feel like I'm doing a disservice to Black's kick-ass style of writing by not rating higher. This chick is a natural-born idea machine. She's also quite clever with her character banter and interaction. But outside the fabulous-ness of the Curse Workers series (which holds a special place in my heart), I find myself closing the pages of a Holly Black book ready to move on, no matter how much the story entertained me.

Where I give Black serious credit is with her bravery to write evil and gore in a genre saturated with a romanticized version of what vampires should be. Heads were rolling, blood was spurting, and the body count piled up. It would have been great to see the author just run with it and make this more of an actual horror story, instead of a romance with some dark elements. 

If you're new to Holly Black and would like to try out her writing, I'd recommend to start with her Curse Workers trilogy. I have a certain fondness for Cassel and his mafia style family who can destroy a person with the touch of an ungloved hand. 

I finished up parts 2 and 3 of the weird ass Druid series thing (there are 8 parts iirc but I'm not paying for the rest of them). 

And true to form, I "technically" did not review the second and third parts, but I did add review notes at the bottom of my original review for part 1 here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/852188282, just in case anyone was curious to see if parts 2 and 3 were any different (to that I say yes and no). 

Rapey. Rapey. Rapey. And a little more rapey - as in "up for a gang bang?" rapey. 

...and not in the implied McGangBang kind of paranormal romance novel writing via Kresley Cole uncomfortable rapey vibes but not actually rape (off topic, but my teenager is obsessed with these sandwiches for some reason).


Uh...no. It was rape. And more rape. And then some attempted rape. 

The most bizarre thing is though, the story was strangely readable in a "train wreck I couldn't look away from" type of deal. 

But yeah. I'm not even gonna rate the story because I don't even know what to say. I went into this as a group read, having been warned that there was non-con, so I can't really go off on a mad tangent if I knew what I was getting into.

The scene with the vampires shrugging off what the sheriff was doing really bothered me, yet there I was a few chapters later thinking that Cole was probably the lesser of all the evils in the book and accepted that he was going to just go ahead and insta-love-bond his way into Rachel's heart...err pants anyway, whether I liked it or not.

Strangely enough, I thought Cole was almost too humanized. This society is down with the gang rape (and the book uses the term several times). So why was Cole almost sort of being pushed as a protector type with no real character development morphing him from bad to good? 

The wtf-ery of not sticking to a "good or bad" ethics system was where the ball was dropped, imo. I say go one way or the other and commit to it. Either be taboo or be romantic. The mashup of cold and warm was a bit odd. 

I didn't like that I had to be told by other people reading the book that the content was rapey. As of Feb. 12, 2014 (this may have changed by the time someone reads my review in the future) I see that on Booklikes the warning is in place, but GR still doesn't have one (and I could be wrong, I'm thinking that this is the book another person complained about not having a disclaimer quite some time ago). I'm sure a librarian could add one, but the author should probably make the request in order to ensure that the warning is to her specifications. 

I wasn't a fan of how the friend was tossed off with no concern. That was a crappy moment which wasn't necessary to the plot in order to show Rachel's individual situation as a breeder.

But I won't deny the strange readability. Because yeah. I was unexpectedly curious to see what would happen next. The story was creepy and weird but it had me turning the pages. Take what you will from that.

I figure there's probably a market for the story, even with the mixed signals. Fans of mate-bonding and super-protective (she's mine!) male types might well enjoy the read if they can get past the graphic rape scenes upfront. Read on at your own risk. O.o

*edit* If you are super curious about parts 2 and 3 (which I didn't review separately, but added to my review for part 1 on Goodreads, you can check out my thoughts at the bottom of this review here : https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/852188282