Review: Strike Zone by Kate Angell

 

The first in Kate Angell’s BOYS OF SUMMER series, this novel includes three separate romances all revolving around players for the Richmond Rogues, a fictional Major League Baseball team. The couples are: Risk and Jacy; Zen and Stevie; Aaron and Natalie. Though Risk and Jacy are the main couple, the supporting romances get their fair share, making this one sexy novel that entertains from start to finish. And luckily, this is just a taste of more to come as thus far, three of the series novels are available for reader to enjoy! A good thing too as this novel left me hot and wanting more!	The second novel in the series is the story of the BAT PACK, the Rogues’ power hitters who stick together, on and off, the field. As each is suspending for fighting during a media day event, they go off and fall in love with their respective women. The romances are between: Psycho and Keely; Chase and Jen; Romeo and Emerson. Each story held its on and served to keep the romance fresh and interesting. And as always, readers continue to learn about new Rogues’ players and by the end of the book, you will definitely be waiting for the next release in the series	The latest in Angell’s BOYS OF SUMMER series, “Strike Zone” really focuses on two romances, both featuring pitchers from the team who are dating sisters (lucky girls). Bret and Taylor as well as Sloan and Eve will keep you turning the pages of this novel as their stories are captivating, funny in all the right places, series when the need calls, and sexy in most of the remaining ones. Read the review below to find out more about “Strike Zone.”

 

What could possibly be better than watching sexy men in tight pants partake in America’s favorite pastime? Well reading about it, of course! And in author Kate Angell’s sexy Boys of Summer series, readers can do just that.

Review: Blue-Eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas

Sugar Daddy Lisa Kleypas St. Martin’s Press Released March 2007 Liberty Jones & Gage Travis	Blue-Eyed Devil Lisa Kleypas St. Martin’s Press Released March 2008 Haven Travis & Hardy Cates

Last year, I had the fortune of picking up a copy of Lisa Kleypas’ first contemporary novel, “Sugar Daddy.” This was out of the norm for me as the book was first released as a hardcover novel. The price of everything is going up in our world and books are not spared. I tend to buy the paperbacks as they are more economical and easier to carry around with me in my purse. But there are a few authors that I will buy their hardcover novels such as Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Jennifer Crusie. But Lisa Kleypas? Sure, I had seen the name in passing but no work of hers had ever caught my attention. But one trip through Amazon’s upcoming romance titles, the reading of the back blurb, and a few clicks later the book was mine. And after reading “Sugar Daddy,” I immediately went online to Kleypas’ website to learn more about the wonderful novel. And to my other surprise and delight, I found that their would be a sequel. “Blue-Eyed Devil” was set to be released…in a year!

Review: Accidentally Yours by Susan Mallery

 Accidentally Yours //Susan Mallery //January 2008 // HQN Books

This was one of the first titles I read in ‘08 and it definitely started the year off on the right foot. The story of a mother who will go to any lengths to save her son, Accidentally Yours tugged at the heartstrings and reinforced the strong bonds between mothers and their children.

Kerri Sullivan is a single mother struggling to raise her son Cody, who has Gilliar’s disease. If a cure is not found, Kerri knows that her son will die. And she will do anything, anything, to prevent that from happening. In doing her research, she learns that millionaire Nathan King’s son has died from Gilliar’s disease. Hoping that with his resources, King will want to help in getting research on Gilliar’s started again by Dr. Abram Wallace. Dr. Wallace had been close to finding a cure but his lab went up in flames, claiming the lives of some of his researchers and pushing him into a hermit’s life, away from those he feels he disappointed.

Thoughts: What is a book review?

That’s the question I pose here as I begin in this venture to bring my thoughts on today’s romance novels to blog readers around the world. What do you look for in a book review? Is it the knowledge that someone else has read the book you wish to read and has enjoyed it, or not, and therefore it validates your interest in picking it up and trying it out yourself? I know for me, this is how I first used book reviews when I started reading romance novels over ten years ago.

For me, the value in a book review came when the review gave vindication to the book which then allowed me to shell out the five or six dollars it would cost to buy it (and this is before I discovered the great think called The Used Bookstore). If I read a review that completely tarnished the work, then I didn’t feel at all justified in shelling out the money for that novel. They had hated and therefore I probably would too. But as I began to read more and more novels and started to form my own opinions on what was good and what was not, I learned that those choices could only be made if I had read the book in the first place. Never having picked up a certain novel because Reviewer #35 told me it was a piece a trash, I found that I was missing out on the opportunity to form my own opinions on the work.

It got to a point where I almost dreaded reading reviews, especially if I could see that they would not be kind, because then a book I had wanted to enjoy was already placed in the column of one that I wouldn’t.

I think book reviews do potential readers good service when they can give a general plot outline of the novel, characters and story without giving away too many of the good bits, while including a light opinion of the book, the things they liked or may not have liked. Book reviews should never tell potential readers not to try the book themselves because we are all different and we all enjoy different things. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, is the saying.

I hope this site will serve as place where valid discussions of novels can take place as we keep open the thought that what I may enjoy in a novel isn’t necessarily going to “do it” for someone else.

My goal is to post at least three reviews each week while spotlighting an author I enjoy every month. I hope readers of romance novels around the world will join me in this new journey  as I try to open some closed eyes to the books that have come to mean a lot to me over the years.

Yours truly,

Q