blaze

Seducing The HIghlander by Michele Sinclair

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Seducing the Highlander (McTiernay Brothers, #5)
Grade-C
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-No Kink
Series-McTiernay Brothers #5
Genre-Historical
Reviewed by Kay
373 pages

Craig McTiernay is a highlander who is comfortable with his lot in life for the most part. He has a large and wonderful family. He has wealth. He’s good looking and he has his best friend, Meriel.
Meriel is a laird’s daughter and his sister-in-law. They have developed a true friendship since their twins married each other.

This story is about each of them falling in love with one another despite their vehement stance on not marrying. Both are headstrong and stubborn but very passionate about everything. When they finally give into their feelings, it is truly a realistic look at marriage. It’s ups and downs. It’s adjustment periods and the realization that we each have our faults.

My huge problem with this is that I had to wait for two years to get this book. The author, who, in her defense, writes great love scenes, started another series before she finished this one. I HATE that! I read a lot and in great number, so if I have to wait a long time for a book it’s hard for me to remember characters and such. Unfortunately, I never warmed to the book because of not remembering details and it pretty much ruined the series for me. Then I look up to see what the author is writing next and it is a book to the other series and that cemented it for me. Very sad because I love Scottish historical romance and she did it well.

Along Came a Spider by Kate SeRine

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne


Grade: B
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Paranormal, Fairytale
Series: Transplanted Tales #3
Reviewed by Kate
191 pages

 Trish Muffett came over from Make Believe at the same time as Nicky Blue and she immediately felt like she had found her soul mate. But they parted ways with barely a hello. Now Trish is investigating some strange deaths and Nicky has turned vigilante. Their paths meet again when Nicky saves Trish during an attack. But it’s getting impossible to tell who’s on the good side and who’s turned evil.

I really liked the premise of this book. Fairytale and nursery rhyme characters living in today’s world. But they’re not exactly who you think they would be. Miss Muffett (Trish) can’t get rid of her trademark curls, but her fear of spiders isn’t because she saw one while eating her whey. And who can resist a reformed bad boy? Nicky started his life in the Here and Now as a crime boss. But now he’s trying to rid the world of one of the biggest bad guys-Dracula. But Dracula has set his sights on Trish. I did struggle at times, trying to keep all the background characters straight. This may have come from the fact that I haven’t read the first 2 books in this series.

Fast-paced and unique, Along Came a Spider kept me turning pages from beginning to end. I wouldn’t hesitate to read another book in this series. Do you have a fairytale themed series you like?

Unscripted by Jayne Denker

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne


Grade: C
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary

Reviewed by Anne
219 pages
 
Faith is “Faith Freakin’ Sinclair.”  She’s creator/producer/writer of an incredibly popular show in Hollywood.  Well, she was up until that point where she grabbed her boss by the balls, literally, and got herself fired.  She’s waiting for it to blow over, but it’s dragging on a lot longer than she thinks.  The only way she can see herself getting back in with the network is to bring back the star she fired months ago.  Now he’s at a small community college taking acting classes and she’s at the mercy of  Mason, aka Professor Mitchell, aka head of the theater department.  
 
Sometimes expectations really color your view of a book. I went into this one expecting romance to be the focus of the book. There definitely was romance, but I think the focus of the book was Faith’s personal growth. When you add in the first person POV, the pretty much perfect guy paired with the heroine full of flaws, and don’t forget the moments of humiliation… that reads more like Chick Lit to me, and Chick Lit is not my favorite genre.

I felt like there was a lot of time and detail spent on the set up of the story, and it dragged. I could have done without the flashbacks, or at least without most of them – the ones that detailed Faith’s crush on her young star and the embarrassing thing that happened between them.  I’m just not big on wallowing in someone’s humiliation.  And the humiliation wasn’t reserved for the flashbacks.  It was an ongoing thing.

On the plus side, the writing WAS funny. It actually made me smile at times. This would probably work really well for someone who liked chick lit or is a huge Kristan Higgins fan, but it was just ok for me.

One final comment – I really like this cover.  However, both the models on it are much younger than I pictured Faith and Mason.

So, where do you fall on the chick lit scale?  Do you like it or not?