The [...]]]> Now we all know that February is the month of “true wuv” and all that good mushyness, however for me it’s the first month of me participating in the themed challenge on the Romance Readers Reading Challenge group on GoodReads. This months challenge deals with the Leap Year, and of course Valentines Day.

The premise of the monthly challenge is that there are 10 categories and you can read 3/5/8 or all 10 of the categories.

The categories for this month were:
1. ’F” is for February: Read a book that starts with ‘F’ or a book whose author’s first or last name starts with ‘F’.
2. Happy Birthday!: Read a book from a February birthday celebrant’s GR bookshelf whose name/nickname starts with the same letter as yours.
3. Geography: Read a book whose author, character or setting is from Arizona.
4. Leap Year: Read a book that is the fourth in a series, has four words in the title or whose page count is divisible by four.
5. Make A Friend Day-Feb. 11: Read a book from a Goodreads friend’s shelf, or recommended by any friend, or borrowed from any friend or from any RRRC member’s shelf (and maybe make a new friend).
6.Valentine’s Day: Read a book with a heart/candy/flowers/cupid on cover or has one of those words in the title.
7. National Weatherman’s Day-Feb. 5/National Umbrella Day- Feb. 10: Read a book with either precipitation (snow, rain, mist, etc.), lightning, or an umbrella on the cover or a story where someone can control the elements or a character who has sorely misjudged a situation or character.
8. Judy Blume’s Birthday- Feb.12: Read a book by this author or a book found on a banned list.
9. National Cherry Month: Read a book with a virgin H/h or a book with a red cover.
10. Reader’s Choice: Read any book of your choice.

Since it is my first time attempting this sort of challenge, I’ve gone with the middle of the road and stuck with 5 of the 10 categories. So without further ado, the books I’m committing to reading for February  are:

Flat Out Sexy by Erin McCarthy
Category #1: “F” is for February

About: Independent single mother Tamara Briggs wanted to find a new, sexy, no-strings-attached man just not one as young as NASCAR driver Elec Monroe. But he sure does get her heart racing. And after she’s tricked into a blind date with him, Tamara gives in to her passion. Things screech to a halt, though, when he asks to meet her children. Whatever happened to wham-bam-thank-you ma’am? Suddenly Tamara has to decide how much risk she’s willing to take to experience the power of true love

Anyway You Want It by Kathy Love
Category #2: Happy Birthday!

About:Is That A Treble Clef In Your Pocket– Or Are You Just Glad To See Me?
Maggie Gallagher spends her nights with lots of men. Of course, they’re all dead composers, but why nitpick? Her love life is just like the musical compositions she researches–undiscovered. It’s time for Maggie to let loose and go wild. In a dive bar on Bourbon Street, Maggie makes a real find in the house band’s keyboard player. He’s hot. Sexy. Flirtatious. Soulful. And she could swear he’s playing an unknown piece she’s been researching, which is impossible, unless he’s dead…

Centuries before he was a badass vampire with a rock-star wardrobe and Big Easy charm, Ren was Renauldo D’Antoni, a composer on the verge of great success until he was betrayed. No one could ever know that, but tonight, the shy strawberry blonde with the big eyes and obviously borrowed outfit actually seemed to recognize his long-lost composition. Now, she wants to know about the composition, and Ren wants to know her…intimately. But what starts as attraction–and distraction–just might lead to the biggest discovery of their lives…

Say No to Joe by Lori Foster
Category #4: Leap Year

About: Joe Winston has a routine with women: he exists; they swoon; roll credits. With his smoldering looks, macho style, and irrepressible charm, Joe can have any woman — except the one he really wants. Secretly, Luna Clark may lust after Joe, but she’s made it clear that she’s too smart to fall for him. He can just keep holding his breath, thank you very much. But now, Luna’s inherited two kids who need more than she alone can give in a small town that seems hell-bent on driving them away. She needs someone to help out…someone who can’t be intimidated…someone just like Joe. Becoming an instant family wasn’t exactly what Joe had in mind, but hey, it’s a start, and you can’t blame a guy for trying every angle.

After all, where there’s a Joe, there’s a way…straight into a woman’s heart.

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma
Category #6: Valentine’s Day

About: Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. Together they have stepped in for their alcoholic, wayward mother to take care of their three younger siblings. As defacto parents to the little ones, Lochan and Maya have had to grow up fast. And the stress of their lives—and the way they understand each other so completely—has also also brought them closer than two siblings would ordinarily be. So close, in fact, that they have fallen in love. Their clandestine romance quickly blooms into deep, desperate love. They know their relationship is wrong and cannot possibly continue. And yet, they cannot stop what feels so incredibly right. As the novel careens toward an explosive and shocking finale, only one thing is certain: a love this devastating has no happy ending.

How to Flirt with A Naked Werewolf by Molly Harper
Category #7: National Weatherman’s Day-Feb. 5/National Umbrella Day- Feb. 10

About:Northern Exposure

Even in Grundy, Alaska, it’s unusual to find a naked guy with a bear trap clamped to his ankle on your porch. But when said guy turns into a wolf, recent southern transplant Mo Wenstein has no difficulty identifying the problem. Her surly neighbor Cooper Graham—who has been openly critical of Mo’s ability to adapt to life in Alaska—has trouble of his own. Werewolf trouble.

For Cooper, an Alpha in self-imposed exile from his dysfunctional pack, it’s love at first sniff when it comes to Mo. But Cooper has an even more pressing concern on his mind. Several people around Grundy have been the victims of wolf attacks, and since Cooper has no memory of what he gets up to while in werewolf form, he’s worried that he might be the violent canine in question.

If a wolf cries wolf, it makes sense to listen, yet Mo is convinced that Cooper is not the culprit. Except if he’s not responsible, then who is? And when a werewolf falls head over haunches in love with you, what are you supposed to do anyway? The rules of dating just got a whole lot more complicated…

So those are the books that I’ve picked as my challenge books for February. If you want to play along in this challenge either sign up over at the Romance Readers Reading Challenge page (you will need a GoodReads account to join!), or comment here and tell me! I would love for you to join me on this challenge.

Whats it About According to GoodReads:

When you’re staring evil in the eye, don’t forget to watch your back . . .

For the first time in [...]]]> Vicious Grace (The Black Suns Daughter #3)
Author: M.L.N Hanover
Publisher: Pocket Books (November 30, 2010)
Paperback: 367 pages
Full Disclosure: Received from publisher for review

Whats it About According to GoodReads:

When you’re staring evil in the eye, don’t forget to watch your back . . .

For the first time in forever, Jayné Heller’s life is making sense. Even if she routinely risks her life to destroy demonic parasites that prey on mortals, she now has friends, colleagues, a trusted lover, and newfound confidence in the mission she inherited from her wealthy, mysterious uncle. Her next job might just rob her of all of them. At Grace Memorial Hospital in Chicago, something is stirring. Patients are going AWOL and research subjects share the same sinister dreams. Half a century ago, something was buried under Grace in a terrible ritual, and it’s straining to be free. Jayné is primed to take on whatever’s about to be let loose. Yet the greatest danger now may not be the huge, unseen force lurking below, but the evil that has been hiding in plain sight all along—taking her ever closer to losing her body, her mind, and her soul. . . .

What I Thought: Out of the books I’ve read so far in this series I think that Vicious Grace shows the most growth for Jayné. She is no longer worrying about what will happen to her, now she is starting to realize that if something goes wrong it will effect all of her friends.

For being someone who in the first two books suffered a lot of turmoil and stress,  Jayné remarkably has it together in this book. She realizes that Aubry’s ex, Kim, isn’t that bad of a person after all. She also realizes that the shiny image she has of her uncle maybe shouldn’t be so shiny after all. I really think that she also started to realize that she had changed as well.

To me the third book in a series is usually where the ball gets dropped, because the author is trying to wrap everything up and not over state things. But that is not the case at all in Vicious Grace, Hanover does a good job of not only wrapping things up, but adding in new things for Jayné and company to deal with. Plus it’s set in a Rose-Red type hospital in Chicago. Chicago is only about 30 minutes away from me and a few times they mentioned things that were even closer to me than that I felt like that was pretty awesome.

Do I Recommend: Yes. Start with Unclean Spirits to get the full effect, but I do recommend Vicious Grace

Other Books in this Series:
Unclean Spirits
Darker Angels
Vicious Grace
Killing Rites

Whats it About According to GoodReads:

In the battle between good and evil, there’s no such thing as a fair fight.

When Jayné Heller’s uncle Eric died, she inherited a fortune beyond [...]]]> Darker Angles (Black Suns Daughter #2)
Author: M.L.N Hanover
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher:  Pocket (September 29, 2009)
Full Disclosure: Received from Publisher

Whats it About According to GoodReads:

In the battle between good and evil, there’s no such thing as a fair fight.

When Jayné Heller’s uncle Eric died, she inherited a fortune beyond all her expectations — and a dangerous mission in a world she never knew existed. Reining in demons and supernatural foes is a formidable task, but thankfully Jayné has vast resources and loyal allies to rely on. She’ll need both to tackle a bodyswitching serial killer who’s taken up residence in New Orleans, a city rich in voodoo lore and dark magic.

Working alongside Karen Black, a highly confident and enigmatic ex-FBI agent, Jayné races to track down the demon’s next intended host. But the closer she gets, the more convinced she becomes that nothing in this beautiful, wounded city is exactly as it seems. When shocking secrets come to light, and jealousy and betrayal turn trusted friends into adversaries, Jayné will soon come face-to-face with an enemy that knows her all too well, and won’t rest until it has destroyed everything she loves most….

What I Thought: I felt that Darker Angels moved faster than Unclean Spirits which is a good thing because at the beginning I wasn’t too sure if I could deal with another book with Jayné  acting like a love struck and rebellious teenager. Add the action to the fact that this book was set in a post-Katrina New Orleans and deals with Voodoo and you have a book that I was able to read with little problems.

I like how Darker Angels addressed the fact that some of the Riders might actually be necessary, and I think that it was a major hint as to what is going to happen with the rest of the series.

Another thing that I really liked about Darker Angels is that with the introduction of Karen, Jayné really grew as a character. Karen seems to be everything that Jayné feels she isn’t. Beautiful, graceful, confident and fierce. I really like how it shocked Jayné out of her woe is me attitude  and forced her to not only grow up but to also figure out why she was so jealous of Karen.

There were a couple of things that I didn’t like. I was able to figure out who the bad guy was right away, and felt that it was almost alarmingly obvious.  The other was how easily Ex walked away from Jayné. I have high hopes for Ex and Jayné and really just want Aubry to crawl back into his hole and stay there. (Honestly I cannot figure out for the life of me why Aubry bothers me so much.)

On another note having gone to New Orleans this past summer it was really fun for me to be able to read a book set there and to be able to say “I went there” or “I know what she’s talking about.” Sadly, that’s about all I could do because my trip to New Orleans didn’t involve me fighting ancient Voodoo spirits.

Do I Recommend: Sure do. While I didn’t go into this book with high hopes I ended with them, and since I’ve already finished the 4th book in the series and I know how they all tie together, I feel it’s kind of important to read this one as well. HOWEVER it could work as a stand alone as well, since everything is explained nicely in the first few chapters.

Other Books in this Series:
Unclean Spirits
Darker Angels
Vicious Grace
Killing Rites

Whats it About According to GoodReads:

In a world where magic walks and demons ride, you can’t always play by the rules.

Jayné Heller thinks of herself as a realist, until she [...]]]> Unclean Spirits (Black Suns Daughter #1)
Author: M.L.N Hanover
Paperback: 357 pages
Publisher: Pocket (December  2, 2008)
Full Disclosure: Received from Publisher

Whats it About According to GoodReads:

In a world where magic walks and demons ride, you can’t always play by the rules.

Jayné Heller thinks of herself as a realist, until she discovers reality isn’t quite what she thought it was. When her uncle Eric is murdered, Jayné travels to Denver to settle his estate, only to learn that it’s all hers — and vaster than she ever imagined. And along with properties across the world and an inexhaustible fortune, Eric left her a legacy of a different kind: his unfinished business with a cabal of wizards known as the Invisible College.

Led by the ruthless Randolph Coin, the Invisible College harnesses demon spirits for their own ends of power and domination. Jayné finds it difficult to believe magic and demons can even exist, let alone be responsible for the death of her uncle. But Coin sees Eric’s heir as a threat to be eliminated by any means — magical or mundane — so Jayné had better start believing in something to save her own life.

Aided in her mission by a group of unlikely companions — Aubrey, Eric’s devastatingly attractive assistant; Ex, a former Jesuit with a lethal agenda; Midian, a two-hundred-year-old man who claims to be under a curse from Randolph Coin himself; and Chogyi Jake, a self-styled Buddhist with mystical abilities — Jayné finds that her new reality is not only unexpected, but often unexplainable. And if she hopes to survive, she’ll have to learn the new rules fast — or break them completely…

What I Thought: At first I wasn’t too sure where this story was going. Jayné (pronounced Zah-Nay) is a college drop out who doesn’t get along with anyone in her family, except for her Uncle Eric, who as luck would have it is dead. When she finds out that Eric has left his estate to her, she figures it’s just a house and a car. Little did she know it was several houses, and more money than she’d know what to do with. However, everything good comes with something bad and it turns out that he’s also left her smack dab in the middle of a magical mess. She has to fight against a group called the Invisible College and their leader, Randolph Cain, who may or may not have a demon riding inside of him.

Armed with only her knowledge of riders and a rag tag crew, Jayné  has to put aside everything she knows as fact and try to expand the way she sees the world.

Honestly, there were several times I was tempted to put down Unclean Spirits. I found Jayné  to be so bland that I couldn’t really connect with her. For me the saving grace was Midian, the 200-year old man who had been cursed by Cain. He was the perfect blend of  witty and even though the reader can’t be sure of where his allegiance lies, mentor.

The other guys that Jayné ends up working with were pretty wonderful as well. Aubry who was not only Eric’s assistant, but a hunky scientist. Ex, who is an ex-Jesuit priest who knows an awful lot about weaponry. Chogyi Jake, a Buddhist with some magical powers  and who honestly reminded me a lot of Mr. Miyagi, because he never gives straight answers.

Of course there is a bit of a love triangle brewing in the group.  Jayné and Aubry end up hooking up but it’s easy to tell that Ex might have a thing for her too. Although she doesn’t see it that way. Personally, I’m rooting for Ex, Aubry just seems skeezy to me and I can’t really put my finger on why.

Do I Recommend: While it starts out slow, I would recommend. I’ve already finished the 3rd book in the series so I know what happens, and reading Unclean Spirits kind of sets up everything else very nicely.

Other Books in the Series:
Unclean Spirits
Darker Angels
Vicious Grace
Killing Rites

What’s it About According to GoodReads:

This time when Sleeping Beauty wakes up, she wants nothing to do with the man who kissed her. Consoling Alex Blackstone, the rejected suitor who is a [...]]]> Utterly Charming
Author: Kristine Grayson
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (Ocotber 1, 2011)
Full Disclosure: Received from Publisher for reivew

What’s it About According to GoodReads:

This time when Sleeping Beauty wakes up, she wants nothing to do with the man who kissed her. Consoling Alex Blackstone, the rejected suitor who is a brilliant magician but inept when it comes to women, falls to modern career woman and lawyer, Nora Barr. Nora now has to deal with Beauty’s evil stepmother, and the discovery that Alex just might be her own personal Prince Charming…

What I Thought: I liked Utterly Charming so much more than Wickedly Charming it’s not even funny. To me Utterly Charming made up for the confusion that I felt while reading Wickedly Charming, and is what’s going to make me pick up the next book in this series. Although I’m hesitant to call this a series because the characters don’t actually interact. It’s more like … a neighborhood of books.

Nora Barr is a no nonsense lawyer. She does everything by the books and while her life is far from perfect it kind of works for her … kind of. See the thing that Nora really doesn’t let on is that her law firm is barely holding on, and if she doesn’t figure something out soon she’s going to have to shut her doors for good.

So when she the short man, Sancho, and his tall, good looking friend, Alex, skulking around the parking garage of her building offer to hire her, she’s skeptical. She would rather not be an accessory to … whatever it is these two are up too.

Eventually she agrees to watch over Sancho’s VW Mini-Bus and only go near it 10 years to the day. 10 years later  life is much different for Nora, the wolves are no longer at her door, but she refuses to break a contract. So she goes to the storage facility where she had stored the bus 10 years prior. Opening the back door she finds a glass coffin, much to her surprise.

From there on out it is one wild ride. Emma, also known as Sleeping Beauty who was enclosed in the coffin wants nothing to do with Alex, Sancho or even Nora. Although at the end it falls on Nora’s shoulders to keep her safe. Constantly dodging the Emma’s evil step-mother, it leads Nora on an adventure that shows her maybe fairy-tales and happy endings do exist.

Do I Recommend: I do. I think this would be the pefect book to cuddle up with in front of a fire. There’s elements of magic and love and adventure. It worked really well for me.

Other Books in this Series:
Wickedly Charming
Utterly Charming

Since the idea of a small town [...]]]> As fall settles in around the Panhandle of Texas, I’m getting excited about THE COMFORTS OF HOME coming out Tuesday, Nov 1, 2011. My favorite time of year is fall with the cool nights and sometimes rainy days. The perfect weather to curl up with a book.

Since the idea of a small town of Harmony first began to form in my mind, I wanted to write about not only the ‘important’ people in a place who make the community run, but also about the quiet people who live their lives and get lost in their dreams. COMFORTS is a book full of possibilities in love and life. Read it on a cool winter day and I promise it’ll warm your heart.

I love writing and plan to do it as long as stories come. Writing is hard work and I often think the story will never be as bright at it is in my mind. Then I remember that someone asked Mark Twain about his wonderful stories and he said, “You should have seen it in my head.”
So, order, or borrow, or download my story, cuddle up in your favorite chair and come along with me on a journey that will make you feel at home in Harmony.

Jodi Thomas
www.jodithomas.com
www.facebook.com/JodiThomasAuthor

Whats it About According to GoodReads:

Cinderella’s Prince Charming is divorced and at a dead-end in his career, so he opens a bookstore and travels the land ordering books and discovering new authors. Still [...]]]> Wickedly Charming
Author: Kristine Grayson
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (May 1, 2011)
Full Disclosure: Received from Publisher at ALA

Whats it About According to GoodReads:

Cinderella’s Prince Charming is divorced and at a dead-end in his career, so he opens a bookstore and travels the land ordering books and discovering new authors. Still handsome and still charming, he has given up on women, royalty, and anything that smacks of a future.

Mellie is sick and tired of being called the Evil Stepmother. She did her best by her stepdaughter Snow White, but the girl resented her to no end and made all kinds of false accusations.

Neither of them believes in happily ever after anymore, but both of them believe in happily for the moment…

What I Thought: Okay, so I had to re-read the first chapter several times to get an idea of what was going on. It took me a while to realize that the setting was modern times, and that the main character Mellie was a magical being. Once I was able to get past that the story just flew by.

Prince Charming has divorced Cinderella and now lives in the mortal world as a bookseller. I loved that the first time we meet him he’s at a book convention. And hearing him talk about the pains of carrying all the books and swag that one tends to get from those type of conventions really struck home with me, since I’ve been there and all that.

Mellie is a step-mother and she’s trying to stand up for her rights and show that not all of the step-mothers are bad. I really liked that she was a flawed character. She was very temperamental, and once she realized she had feelings for Charming it seemed that it got even worse. She wasn’t an evil character as she has been portrayed in the fairy tales, and I have to say I really really liked that about her.

There wasn’t much in the way of “bad” guys here. Cinderella was kind of a bitch, but than again I’ve always thought that of her not gonna lie. And I liked how the author blended the past fairy tale aspects with modern day aspects.  The story was also very clean, there were no steamy scenes, and I think that it worked out better that way. This book was very tame.

Do I Recommend: I do. I think that if you like retellings or new twists on old favorites than Wickedly Charming will work out well for you.