Review Date: 2/23/2010

I love all of Kerryln Sparks' books I have read. They are romantic and laugh-out-loud funny and charming. I'll be buying all of her books until she stops writing.

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Review Date: 10/30/2013

Helpful Score: 2

I was disappointed in this book, and did not finish it. It gives a sad picture of Ashley's childhood as the non-favorite child of a flighty mother, as her mom and sister pursued their musical careers. The stories about her charity work with abused women and children and refugees were inspiring, but also sad. A rather somber book, not a good read for a rainy day, or a difficult time in your own life. Guess I would have preferred a one-hour documentary on this instead of reading it for hours and hours. Too depressing.

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Review Date: 7/17/2010

Helpful Score: 1

Sweet little book that is very romantic and imaginative. Charmingly innocent, with sex scenes that are left largely up to the imagination, not the graphic anatomy lessons I am used to. I read it once, then immediately read it through again. It has become one of my "keep forever" books.

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Review Date: 10/14/2010

I wanted so badly to love this book. I adore historical novels, and novels set in England, and have enjoyed a couple of Ms. Pilcher's books I have read. But I just couldn't get into it. I would read a few pages and put it down, go for a walk at lunch instead of reading, surf the Net at home instead of reading, etc. It just moved far too slow for me, just dragged along. Plus I thought most of the characters were unbearably self-absorbed, shallow, and silly. I usually read 2-3 books a week, and after a week adn a half I was still only about 90 pages into this one, so I just gave up.

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Review Date: 7/16/2009

Helpful Score: 3

This was my favorite of the three "Otherworldly Men" trilogy by Susan Grant. Like the author, I have a soft spot for "redeemable" villains, who have reasons for their bitterness and hostility. Reef is a cold blooded killer in the first book, but the author showed a few tiny chinks in his armor. In book two I began to get intrigued with the character, and by the end of book three I wanted to cheer him. Loved the whole series, but this one stands out for me.

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Review Date: 4/21/2015

Kerrelyn Sparks is one of my favorite authors, and I have loved all of the Love at Stake series. This was one really good, not as funny as some of the others but introducing intense, sensitive main characters with intriguing personal histories. As always, the author handles the sex scenes tactfully without an excess of grimacing and sweat, but with more of an emphasis on romance, physical attraction and respect. Overall, a very likable novel with very likable characters, both the new main characters, and some old favorites.

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Review Date: 7/20/2010

Helpful Score: 2

A lovely and highly entertaining book. I learned a lot about Elizabethan England from reading this. The author's intense research shows. The characters are more richly developed than in many romances, and the ending, while satisfying, is not what I have come to expect. I think I will enjoy reading more novels by this bright and creative author.

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Review Date: 1/3/2012

Helpful Score: 2

Readers of this series already know the earlier part of Daisy's story, a spoiled wealthy teen with divorced parents, attending an exclusive private school, becomes pregnant at a drunken teen party but rises to the occasion to become a loving and independent mother. She continues her education and leads a busy but lonely life, committed to her son Charlie, but separated always from the love of her life, Julian, while maintaining a pleasant but platonic relationship with Logan, the father of her son. This book has a more intricate plot than many others in this series and almost anything I write about the book after this point becomes a spoiler, so if you dont want to know the plots ups and downs before reading the book, best to stop reading now. Okay, for those who dont mind more information about the book, Julian, product of a broken home and raised in a dangerous neighborhood, soars despite the odds to become an Ivy League graduate and Air Force officer, and after proposing to Daisy most romantically, races off to another continent on a secret mission, which goes tragically wrong, and is suddenly out of Daisy's life and dreams. The funeral scenes for the young soldier were so tragic and sad, they actually had me weeping. After Julian's death, Daisy makes more selfless life decisions and remains unhappy and lonely in a loveless marriage for most of the rest of the book, but don't despair, Susan Wiggs takes pity on her readers and gives us a happy ending to warm our hearts. I'll confess to being so depressed and sad halfway through the novel that I shamelessly read the ending to see if things got better for Daisy before continuing the book, something I almost never do. This book is an emotional roller coaster, and another great addition to a series I have loved.

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Review Date: 10/30/2013

Helpful Score: 1

Great historical romance, shows life how it really was in the Old West - struggling farmers experiencing dangers and heartbreak, not Bonanza. Great characterizations and a good story.

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Review Date: 8/23/2015

This book was on my wish list for over a year, mainly due to the intriguing title. But it is not your traditional diet book, with chapters of incomprehensible scientific research, complicated unappetizing recipes, and photos of dieters who lost tons of weight and went from death's door to fashion models in under a year. It is a very brief and mildly amusing account of an older woman's history of weight gain and motivation for losing weight, and her approach to the problem, which consisted of mainly giving up one unhealthy eating habit at a time. According to her, she achieved results like losing 10 pounds in a couple of weeks by leaving the sugar and cream out of her coffee. Just like a commercial touting totally unbelievable results for a new diet pill or exercise machine, each tiny change in her eating habits resulted in weight loss successes that I can only attain by following a strict low-calorie, low-carbohydrate diet and exercising for hours a week. If the author was able to achieve this kind of success, then more power to her, and I am happy for her, but I remain a skeptic. Reading the book did result in my resolve to try to improve my health by cutting back or cutting out unhealthy eating habits one at a time, which seems a more sensible and tolerable approach than hitting the boiled-eggs-and-cottage-cheese again and weeping when I see a co-worker eating a hamburger, but after decades of dieting, I certainly would not expect to get thin in a few months that way.

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Review Date: 7/10/2010

I found it hard to put this book down, really unusual considering the protagonist is not a very likable person. But the excitement of a rags-to-riches story, together with rich characterizations, makes it irresistible. The books throbs with passion, not just romantic passion, but passion for riches, for achievement, for career, for one's children, and for revenge. I couldnt stop reading it, or thinking about it for a long time afterward.

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Review Date: 9/28/2009

Helpful Score: 1

I read this and the other three available titles in the Guardians of Eternity series. Everyone has their own preferences in paranormal romances. I prefer mine sweet, romantic, and sensitive, with less of the trash-talk, pessimism, sarcastic chick-lit one-liners, and seedy settings. This series was exactly the kind of paranormal I love. I read all four books as soon as I could get my hands on them - paid full price for new copies of the third and fourth books. This book (Dante) and Darkness Everlasting (Styx) were my favorites, and I look forward to the new book that comes out in November. I listed all four books on Sunday, have already had requests for all four, so I know I'm not the only one who thinks Alexandra Ivy is tops!

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