Armchair BEA: Four Books I Can't Wait To Read

As promised, here are a few books which I have not yet read, though each of them are sitting in my galley stack. Note: Not all of them are romance novels. The books are listed in order of release date. Be sure to tell me in the comments which books you are looking forward to!

Title: Sweet Destiny
By: Rochelle Alers
Release date: June 28, 2011
Publisher: Kimani Romance
ISBN: 978-0373862160
Find it on Amazon: Sweet Destiny
Summary from the ARC:  A West Virginia mining community is a long way from Dr. Mia Eaton's Dallas hometown. But trading in her designer duds for flannel and jeans isn't such a major sacrifice. Not when the town has virile, off-the-charts-gorgeous Kenyon Chandler as their sheriff. Too bad he's as arrogant as can be…until the night he's injured in the line of duty.

Ever since they met at her cousin Xavier's wedding, Kenyon hasn't been able to get Mia out of his mind. And once he's under the sultry Southerner's tender loving care, he knows he's lost. Kenyon gives her six months before she hightails it back home for the pampered life she left behind. Unless he can convince her that they are each other's sweet destiny…

Title: By His Majesty's Grace
By: Jennifer Blake
Release date: July 26, 2011
Publisher: Mira
ISBN: 978-0778312437
Find it on Amazon: By His Majesty's Grace
Summary from the ARC: Much to her chagrin, Lady Isabel Milton has been given to Earl Rand Braesford—a reward from the Tudor king for his loyalty to the throne. The lusty nobleman quickly claims his husbandly rights, an experience Isabel  scarcely hoped to enjoy so much. But youth and strength may not save Braesford from his bride’s infamous curse…

Accused of a heinous crime with implications that reach all the way to King Henry himself, Braesford is imprisoned in the Tower, and Isabel is offered her salvation—but for a price. She has the power to seal his fate, have him sent to the executioner and be freed from her marriage bonds. Yet the more Isabel learns of Rand, the less convinced she is of his guilt, and she commits to discover the truth about the enigmatic husband she never expected to love.

Title: The Wild Rose
By: Jennifer Donnelly
Release date: August 2, 2011
Publisher: Hyperion
ISBN: 978-1401301040
Find it on Amazon: The Wild Rose
Summary from the ARC: The vast multi-generational epic that began with The Tea Rose and continued with The Winter Rose now reaches its dramatic conclusion in The Wild Rose.

London, 1914. World War I is looming on the horizon, women are fighting for the right to vote, and global explorers are pushing the limits of endurance at the Poles and in the deserts. into this volatile time, Jennifer Donnelly places her vivid and memorable characters.

Readers who were left clamoring for more after The Winter Rose will be happy to see many characters from the previous novels continue their adventures in The Wild Rose. With myriad twists and turns, thrilling cliffhangers, and fabulous period detail and atmosphere, The Wild Rose provides a highly satisfying conclusion to an unforgettable trilogy. Fans will find the story compelling, exciting, and well worth the wait.

Title: The Ideal Man
By: Julie Garwood
Release date: August 9, 2011
Publisher: Dutton Adult
ISBN: 978-0525952251
Find it on Amazon: The Ideal Man
From the ARC: Dr. Ellie Sullivan has just completed her residency at a large urban hospital. While jogging in a park nearby, she witnesses the shooting of an FBI agent in pursuit of wanted criminals, a couple identified as the Landrys. The only person to see the shooter's face, Ellie is suddenly at the center of a criminal investigation.

Agent Max Daniels takes over the Landry case. A no-nonsense lawman, he's definitely not the ideal man that Ellie has always imagined, yet she's attracted to him in a way she can't explain.

Ellie heads home to Winston Falls, South Carolina, to attend her sister's wedding. Shortly after she arrives, though, she receives a surprise visitor: Max Daniels. The Landrys have been captured, and she'll be called to testify. But they've been captured before, and each time the witnesses are scared into silence-or disappear before they can take the stand. Max vows to be Ellie's shadow until the trial, and it isn't long before sparks fly.

Armchair BEA: Best Books of 2011

Today's Armchair BEA topic is Best of 2011 (so far!), and I've decided to stick to books actually published in 2011, or else I will never be able to choose. Four 2011 books stick out in my mind. They are: 

 

The Twisted Tale of Stormy Gale by Christine Bell: a $2.39 ebook, and far and away my favorite story I've read so far this year. It's a steampunk romance, and it's fresh, spunky and fun. Full review coming June 1 or sooner. I'm not sure if I can keep this one to myself for that long!

The Piano Tutor by Anthea Lawson: This also is an ebook — or an estory, rather, as I've taken to calling it. It's about 20 pages, but it's fast and fun. It will only take you about an hour or so to read, probably, but it's happy and leaves you with warm feelings, so it's worth the 99 cents. The review for it was posted yesterday. Check it out.

Ripe for Pleasureby Isobel Carr: I definitely enjoyed this Regency romance about a prostitute and a second son. I was so glad that the heroine was not a virgin, and I loved that the hero didn't share the same importance as a first son, or an heir. It was filled with awesome similes and metaphors, and it was well written. Full review to come on May 30.

Should've Been a Cowboy by Vicki Lewis Thompson: Admittedly, this book is not so great that it would make it on any other top list, but I just finished it last night, it's still in my head, and I love, love, love the cover. I posted the review today.

I'm looking forward to a lot of books this year, too. Perhaps I'll post a BEA spinoff of those later this week. Be sure to check back so you don't miss it!

In the mean time, tell me — which books are on your "Best of 2011" list?

99 cent ebook: The Piano Tutor by Anthea Lawson

Short and sweet, The Piano Tutor by Anthea Lawson is the story of the time when Lady Diana Waverly threw propriety to the goats.

As the short story begins, widow Diana is roused by beautiful sounds of a melodic piano, only to discover that her stepdaughter’s piano teacher has not arrived, but instead has sent a much younger substitute in his place. Diana quickly falls for Nicholas Jameson, offering to him something she hasn’t given to anyone in quite some time…

Before it was published as an ebook, The Piano Tutor was originally featured in The Mammoth Book of Regency Romance, an anthology of Regency short stories. Because of the length of the story — about 20ish pages — it is difficult for Lawson to fully develop the characters. Instead of getting to know Diana and Nicholas, the reader is forced to simply enjoy the pace and movement of the story.

In this instance, it works in Lawson’s favor. She’s paced the story well, filled it out with a lot of beautiful writing and flowery prose, and given the reader a reason to believe in love stories. It’s short and sweet, and there isn’t a whole lot to it — I would call it an estory rather than an ebook — but it likely will leave you smiling at the end.

Title: The Piano Tutor | By: Anthea Lawson | Publisher: Anthea Lawson, 2011 | RLB Grade: B | Find it on Amazon: The Piano Tutor

Chocolate Goodies by Jacquelin Thomas

I really, really wanted to like Chocolate Goodies by Jacquelin Thomas. It just wasn’t meant to be.

Business is good for chocolate-store owner Coco Stanley, who comes from a long line of chocolatiers. But when D-Unit moves in across the street, bringing what Coco judges to be “thugs” to the area, she’s less-than thrilled. That is, until she meets Ransom Winters, the Grammy-award winning songwriter who just happens to be the owner of D-Unit.

Coco quickly discovers that D-Unit is a program for at-risk boys suspended from school. Though she initially dislikes having the “dangerous” boys in her neighborhood, Coco eventually learns to look past the clothes and attitudes while learning what has put the boys in their specific circumstances. Through the boys, Ransom teaches Coco that a person can’t be judged his or her appearance, all while discovering his birth family and convincing her that he is the man for her future…

I loved the premise of this story. Though I personally am not from a broken home, I grew up in an area where broken homes were semi-common. It was normal to hear of classmates who hadn’t been able to finish their homework because they’d been at work to help support their family. It wasn’t uncommon for students to make what appeared to be poor choices out of desperation.

Luckily, I personally never faced any of those types of difficulties, but I saw many friends and classmates with potential ruin their lives because they didn’t know where to turn. Too embarrassed or too proud to ask for help, they struggled along trying the best they could to help their families while watching grades fall, forever changing the futures.

Those friends faced a very different future than I did. For them, it wasn’t about getting good grades and going to college. It was about survival.

Those are exactly the type of students that Thomas describes in her novel – the ones with talent, with intelligence, with ability, but with no one to help, no one to care, and no one to put them in line. Because I saw so many classmates in the same situation growing up, I was thrilled to see that Thomas had written a novel to shed some light on the good students who just need a little help; who just need someone to care.

And while I loved the premise, I did not at all love the story. Granted, the boys in the story were not the main storyline, but rather a subplot – but one that added dimension to the story.

And boy did the story need dimension. By the time Coco and Ransom declared their love for one another — ON PAGE 82! — I was ready to quit reading. There is, honestly, no reason to care about either character in this book. They are so one dimensional and so flat that I just could not eek out any feelings for either of them. The chemistry between the two of them is non-existent, and I simply did not care if they got together forever or not.

On top of that, the dialogue is painfully wooden and the prose is merely serviceable. There is no drama, no rising or falling action in this story. It just carries along at a slow, even-keeled pace. There is nothing to evoke emotion whatsoever.

If I had to describe it in one word: Boring.

I did like the theme of the story — essentially don’t judge a book by its cover, first impressions aren’t always what they seem — but it’s just not enough to push me to recommend the book. Even with a premise I loved, this book wasn’t worth it. Skip this one.

Title: Chocolate Goodies | By: Jacquelin Thomas | Publisher: Kimani Press, 2010 | Series: Ransom (Not official name) | ISBN: 978-0373861491 | RLB Grade: D | Find it on Amazon: Chocolate Goodies

The Sheik and the Bought Bride by Susan Mallery

There is just something about a sexy man of the desert that gets me going. Kateb of Susan Mallery’s The Sheik and the Bought Bride is no disappointment.

Victoria, the heroine, however, is disappointing at times. Though she clearly is a strong and motivated character, Victoria just wasn’t convincing for me. Perhaps it was because she developed feelings for Kateb after he offered her an electric outlet to curl her hair.

But I digress – let me start at the beginning. In The Sheik and the Bought Bride, Texan Victoria McCallan is roused from her sleep in the middle of a desert palace after her father has cheated in a game of cards with Prince Kateb. Being the scoundrel that he is, Victoria’s father didn’t have the money to pay up on his wagers, so he offered his daughter, currently an assistant to Prince Nadim, in exchange.

Instead, Kateb plans to throw Victoria’s father in jail. That is, until he learns that Victoria is willing to offer herself in exchange for her father’s freedom. Although Kateb is uncomfortable with the exchange, he feels it is necessary to recognize and honor such a selfless compromise.

Except, Kateb isn’t really interested in Victoria. He doesn’t trust her and believes she’s simply out to marry for money, as she openly admits to trying to attract Prince Nadim for the financial security he would be able to provide. When Kateb discovers that Victoria is not as shallow as he believed, however, he begins to think twice about the arrangement…

As mentioned, Kateb is an awesome character. He’s brooding, dark, handsome, has a strong back-story and is well developed. I love him and instantly felt a connection with him.

My feelings toward Victoria, on the other hand, aren’t quite so cut-and-dry. On one hand, she’s shallow, as her feelings about Kateb her curling iron show. On the other hand, she, too, has a strong and interesting back-story, is multi-dimensional, and in the end, turns out to be the character that, as a reader, I wanted her to be.

I just felt a little bit like Mallery used her along the way to insult the reader somewhat. I mean, really, she recognizes her feelings for Kateb because he offers her electricity to curl her hair? And then to mention it several times throughout the novel? It’s just a little to thin to be believable.

Though I won’t go into detail, the ending of the story is a little unbelievable, as well, but I think it works. I was pleasantly surprised by the twist the ending took. It’s different from typical romance novels, and I kind of enjoyed the additional action. I definitely think it’s worth hanging on for.

So, while I undoubtedly have mixed feelings for Victoria, I still would highly recommend this book. It’s short — 210 pages — and a quick and easy read, but the pacing is great and the depth of the story is enough to keep the reader moving along. The story will be over before you know it!

Title: The Sheik and the Bought Bride | By: Susan Mallery | Series: Desert Rogues, Book 14 | Publisher: Harlequin, 2009 | ISBN: 9780373654819 | RLB Grade: B | Amazon: The Sheik and the Bought Bride (Harlequin Special Edition)