Book Reviews

MILF: Episode One

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MILF: Episode One By: Lexi Maxxwell

Plot:

Natalie is a desperate mother in hard times. Her family life is barely clinging to livable, and the big bucks her husband isn’t bringing home aren’t helping. Despite every corner cut, every penny pinched, she clings to a ledge of normalcy but constantly dangles above the pit of poverty.

Until a friend approaches her with an offer too naughty to refuse. An opportunity to use her best assets to help her family increase theirs. Natalie is hesitant. Because once you slip into that hole, there’s no coming back out …

Review:

Awesome! Loved this so much.

I’m not a huge erotica reader, though I’ve had my moments. This has the steamy sex scenes and a good plot, something that isn’t always the case. Most of what I’d categorize as Erotica, that I’ve read, is sort of wham bam thank you ma’am. This certainly doesn’t waste any time but it also builds characters.

Definitely reading the next one.

5/5

Of Grave Concern

Of Grave Concern

Of Grave Concern (An Ophelia Wylde Paranormal Mystery #1) By Max McCoy

Plot:

The Civil War is over, and many a young widow has turned to spiritualism to contact their husbands on “the other side.” But Ophelia Wylde won’t be fooled twice. After wasting her money on a phoney psychic, she decides if she can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. She leaves New Orleans and heads West, selling her services as a spiritual medium who speaks to the dead. By the time she reaches Dodge City, business is booming. Except for a handsome but skeptical bounty hunter named Jack Calder, no one suspects Ophelia of running a con game–until an unfortunate “reading” of a girl who’s still living exposes her to a townfull of angry customers. As punishment, the mob drags Ophelia to Boot Hill and buries her alive in a fresh grave overnight. That’s when the dead start speaking. To her. For real. And for dead people, they’ve got lots to say. ..

Review:

I like paranormal books, and recently I’ve been on a cozy mystery kick, so when I saw this was on sale I snatched it up.

First off this is an origin story more than it’s a cozy mystery. The “mystery” is mentioned at the beginning of the book but it’s not pursued until the halfway point. The main point of this book was to introduce you to Ophelia Wylde and get her started on her life of mystery solving.

As a character Ophelia was fully fleshed out and I could see her clearly but I didn’t really like her. For most of the book she was basically a grifter, taking advantage of people. When she was a child she’d had a gift but circumstances caused her to lose the ability. So she took her knowledge and manipulated people.

By the end of the book I liked her a little better. She was trying to be good, but what does it say about a character that they had to be almost killed to reach that point?

It was an interesting idea and I liked the paranormal western approach. Now that her origins are out of the way I’m interested to see what’s next.

3/5

Sprinkle With Murder

sprinkle with murder

Sprinkle With Murder (Cupcake Bakery Mystery #1) By: Jenn McKinlay

Plot:

Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura are finally living out their dream as the proud owners of the Fairy Tale Cupcakes bakery. But their first big client is a nightmare. She’s a bridezilla who wants 500 custom cupcakes for her wedding. When Mel stumbles upon the bride-to-be dead-by-cupcake, she becomes the prime suspect. To save themselves and their business, the ladies need to find the real murderer, before the cupcake killer ices someone else.
Review:

When I read this book I was in a foul mood and yet I still ended up enjoying it. I really liked it. It was mentioned in an issue of Writer’s Digest as a good example of a contemporary cozy mystery. Unfortunately it was not available through my library and it was more expensive than I normally purchase eBook wise. Still after reading the sample I wanted to know more so I begrudgingly spent the $5.99. It was totally worth it. Oddly enough the library has the 3rd, 4th, and 6th in the series. Weird.

Anyway, the story had the perfect amount of everything. The mystery was the main focus but there was also cupcake shop stuff to deal with and just a small amount of romance. The characters were good, though the mother annoyed the crap out of me.

I don’t get mother’s in books. Half the time they’re nonexistent and the other half of the time I want to kill them. So overbearing and nosy and… Maybe I have mommy issues?

Back to the book. I’m really looking forward to this series though I do really wish my library had them because I just don’t have the money to pay $5.99 a book, even though they’re totally worth it. Maybe I can find some money with some creative accounting?

4/5

Three Girls and a Leading Man

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Three Girls and a Leading Man (Three Girls #3) By: Rachel Schurig

Plot:

Annie Duncan has never put much stock in true love. Sure, she loves dating, but she gets more than her share of drama working as a struggling actress—she can live without the romantic kind, thank you very much. Instead, Annie focuses her energy on her two best friends, Jen and Ginny. And now that she finally appears to be getting her big break, Annie couldn’t be happier with the way things are going. When she meets Nate during a weekend away in Vegas, she figures she’ll just have an exhilarating fling—even if he is totally adorable and clearly into her. But when Annie finds herself falling for Nate, she’s faced with a choice she never wanted to make. In Three Girls and a Leading Man, Annie Duncan attempts to chase her dreams and keep her heart under control. Her heart, however, may have different ideas!

Review:

I completely forgot to write this review. Read the book and just moved right on. I felt a little cheated by this series. The first book was really good, the main character had a lot of growth. The two following weren’t as good. This isn’t completely uncommon in books but still not any less disappointing.

Throughout the book I kept thinking can a book later in a series retroactively make the first book worse? I don’t think so in this case. I think what it boiled down to was I wasn’t the market for this book. I don’t consider myself old, I’m only twenty-eight, and the New Adult genre should still be accessible to me, but I was never this young.

It felt like every few pages she was going out drinking or dancing or just staying in home drinking. The book should have had a hangover cure at the end. I realize I’m in the minority when it comes to drinking, I have no problem with it I just don’t see the need to drink until I feel sick the next day.

Anyway, the drinking was just a very small part of the overall story but it perfectly highlighted what I didn’t like about the story. I’ll still read books by Rachel Schurig, in fact I have another of her books purchased and ready to read, I’m just going to give her a little rest first.

3/5

Three Girls and a Wedding

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Three Girls and a Wedding (Three Girls #2) By: Rachel Schurig

Plot:

Jen Campbell loves weddings. In fact, she loves them so much that she became an event planner in the hopes that she would one day get the chance to help women create the fairy tale day of their dreams…Unfortunately, the only thing Jen has been allowed to plan so far are boring restaurant openings and children’s birthday parties. When Jen’s big break finally comes, she realizes that wedding planning is a heck of a lot more complicated than picking out the perfect flowers and cake. Add to the chaos a pair of fighting friends, a totally pressuring mother, and a ridiculously gorgeous (but moody) best man, and Jen has her work cut out for her. In Three Girls and a Wedding, Jen Campbell will try to plan the perfect wedding and maybe—just maybe—create her very own happily-ever-after.

Review:

Wasn’t not too happy with this ending. I felt like there was a whole scene left out. Throughout the book Jen’s work partner has been a total douche bag putting all the work on her and even man handling her at one point. At the same time the clients she’s working for rave about how awesome she is and how they’re going to give her a great review to her bosses. With all that build up I was expecting a scene where the partner and she are brought in front of the bosses and the partner is fired while Jen is offered a promotion. Proving that being a douche doesn’t pay. Instead all that happens to the partner is that Jen thinks he’s alone and nobody loves him. So? I want more than that!

Jen ends of going into business with her client and starting her own event planning business. This would have made the confrontation scene with the bosses even better because she could have been torn. Does she take the promotion and put off opening her own event planning business until she’s in a better financial place or does she take a chance? But nope never happened she just jumps at the opportunity and jumps up and down.

Disappointed in the ending but will continue the series.

3/5