Moving Day

Moving Day is here! From now on, you'll find me at this address:

http://www.alyssasbookblog.com

Please update your links and feeds, and come see the updated look!

Along for the Ride

Michelle M. Pillow's Along for the Ride has been getting some good buzz. Even more importantly, the story sounded intriguing, so I picked it up at the bookstore. It was a terrific find: 4.5 out of 5.

New York City police detective Megan Matthews is cursed with always being right. Her instincts are good, her deductive reasoning even better. She's found her hard-headed ways to be too much for most men, so she's given up trying to find Mr. Right and has settled for arresting Mr. Wrong.

Easy on the eyes crime-scene photographer Ryan Lucas has had a crush on the sexy detective since he first took her photograph by accident at a crime scene. That picture became headline news, and she hasn't talked to him since. He's tried everything to get her attention, but when nothing works he's left with only one option. But is blackmailing a cop into marriage really a good idea?

I've been craving a solid, character-driven romance, and Along for the Ride had just what I wanted. Megan and Ryan are well-drawn characters, so realistic I felt like I knew them. Ryan is a wonderful example of the appeal of beta heroes. He's smitten with Megan from the start, and I loved watching Megan's journey to the realization of her feelings toward him. It was a nice role-reversal from the norm.

This is how erotic romance should be, with love scenes that are always relevant and revealing, and characters who are always engaging. I loved the way Pillow spread the character revelations throughout the story--it kept me turning the pages, anxious to find out what happened next.

I'm on the hunt for more of Pillow's books in the Cheek line. Along for the Ride is apparently part of a series, so I'm going to track down the other books.

Coming Soon

This blog will soon be moving. I recently moved my author site to WordPress, and now I love it. I'm especially fond of the ability to schedule posts in the future. So I'm moving this blog over in a week or so. The look will be similar to this one, with a few added flourishes. I'll post a link once it's ready to go.

That means I've been going in and adding labels to the posts I hadn't gotten to. I don't know if that means these posts will show up again on blog readers. If they do, you'll know why.

I've also decided I need a challenge to get me scrapbooking again. So my goal will be simple--a two-page layout every two weeks. That should be doable, and maybe it will help me get my craft room straightened up a bit as well. I'll post the scrapbook pages here, so this will be my scrapbooking and reading blog.

I've been plodding my way through true-crime book Murdered Innocents, by Corey Mitchell. I think it could have been shortened considerably. Sometimes condensing is a good thing. I'll decide whether to finish it. Maybe I'll just skim to the end.

Surviving Demon Island

I've read Jaci Burton before, so I decided to try the first book in her latest series. Surviving Demon Island turned out to be a very nice read: 4 out of 5.

What's America's top female action star doing on a tropical island shrouded in secrecy? To Gina Bliss, competing in a survival-type reality show is a nice change from fending off on-screen villains. Until she meets real-life action hero Derek Marks. A survival specialist in a tight black T and sexy stubble, he's arousing every bad-boy fantasy she's ever had . . . and testing her survival skills to the max.

Martial arts, jungle warfare--Derek's done it all. But his latest mission is more dangerous than a stick of dynamite. Try telling that to the sexy, adrenaline-pumped acress who's got his libido racing off the charts. As the heat rises between them and real-life violence erupts, suddenly Derek and Gina are on the run . . . and when they uncover a secret so explosive it could blow the lid off their so-called reality show, these two unlikely heroes are about to discover what surviving's really about . . .

In a subgenre--paranormal romance--where you see a lot of the same old thing, Surviving Demon Island offers a fresh look at a demon world. The book starts out simply enough: Gina is offered a chance to participate in a new reality series. We see her desire to do something new and exciting. What she gets is a world different than she ever expected, one that's turned inside-out.

She also gets Derek.

It's clear from the beginning that Derek is in on the secret, that he knows what's going on behind the scenes. There's also the classic man-and-woman-at-odds attraction between them. Still, the story offers some interesting surprises: two in particular toward the end notch up the conflict. And I loved the way Derek and Gina's relationship heats up. :)

This is my favorite of Burton's books (those I've read, anyway), and it's built on a fascinating premise. I'm very excited to read the next book in the series.

TBR Challenge

I've really missed the TBR (to-be-read) Challenges, so I've decided to start having them. It's going to be very informal--no signups or anything like that. If you want to join in, please do. Then post a comment here with a link to the review of the book you read for the challenge. If you don't have a blog but want to participate, feel free to post a review in the comments.

In January, I'm going to read a book with a copyright of 2006 or older. In fact, older is probably better, because I've got several books that have been lying around for quite a while.

If you're one of the lucky folks who doesn't have books from 2006, then go with one that's been in your pile the longest.

Hope you'll join me in the challenge!

I Live in the Stone Age

Back when I started tracking how many books I read each year and keeping a list of books, authors, and ratings, I used an advanced method known as a notebook and pen. Every few months, I'd transfer the information to a spreadsheet I used at the end of the year to come up with my stats. Transferring the info always took a while, so a few years ago I decided to cut out the middle man (the notebook) and just use the spreadsheet.

It's taken a while, but I've discovered that doesn't work for me. Updating a spreadsheet every time I finish a book feels too much like work, and I do enough of that during the day.

What this means is that I have no year-in-review to share this time around, but I do have a new goal.

For 2008, I'm going back to the notebook.

Lover Awakened

Long time no write . . . yes, I know. I'm still reading, but now that I'm writing more often, writing reviews sometimes seems like a chore. So I'll just keep on plugging along, doing my thing, and posting when I have the desire to post.

I read J.R. Ward's Dark Lover a while ago and quite enjoyed it. Since then, the hype this series gets has made me a little reluctant to read more. It's almost like reading about the books makes me less interested in reading the books themselves? I don't know. In any case, Zsadist interested me in the first book, so I decided to skip Lover Eternal and go straight to Lover Awakened.

A former blood slave, the vampire Zsadist still bears the scars from a past filled with suffering and humiliation. Renowned for his unquenchable fury and sinister deeds, he is a savage feared by humans and vampires alike. Anger is his only companion and terror his only passion--untl he rescues a beautiful female from the evil Lessening Society.

Bella is instantly entranced by the seething power Zsadist possesses. But even as their desire for each other begins to overtake them, Zsadist's thirst for vengeance against Bella's tormentors drives him to the brink of madness. Now Bella must help her lover overcome the wounds of his tortured past and find a future with her . . .

I loved the main story. Bella and Zsadist--both are terrific. In fact, Zsadist is immensely compelling. I loved every moment he was on the page, and I thought Bella was certainly his match. The singing scene was awesome.

The rest of the story, though . . . I found myself skimming the lesser scenes. There's too much from that POV and not enough of it interested me. Perhaps that's because of my tendency not to like to get the villain's POV.

As for another subplot, I wasn't as affected by it as I could have been because I knew what was coming. This made it a sad development, but I was a bit detached, too. I wonder what I would have thought if I hadn't known about it. Actually, reading that part would have been worse. I tend to like my stories nicely tied up at the end, so knowing what was coming helped in that regard.

I enjoy Lover Awakened, and give it 4 out of 5, but I don't find myself desperate to read the other books. So I guess I'd call myself a casual reader of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series rather than an avid fan.

Did I mention that I love Zsadist? I just wish I'd loved the rest of the book as much as his story.

Christmas Magic

I'm pleased to be part of the Reading Adventures Blog Advent tour. Today is my installment.

For some people, it's the Christmas tree. For others, it's Christmas caroling. The one thing I need to put me in the holiday spirit is going out to see Christmas lights.

As much as I love putting lights on the tree, I love it even more to see the lights in the neighborhood. Sometimes people string up a few lights above the house. Others have several houses that follow a theme.

I took my nieces and nephew out to see the lights one Christmas, and it was a charming experience.





I love stumbling across Christmas lights by accident. A few years ago, I heard that there was a house with "cool lights" in a nearby neighborhood. So I went looking, following curving roads. It took me 10 minutes of wandering to find it.



Christmas lights. Pure magic.

Hope you have whatever makes the holidays magical for you!

You Had Me at Halo

I won Amanda Ashby's You Had Me at Halo in a recent contest. When I read it, I discovered it was a real treat: 4 out of 5.

Holly Evans has just seen her own body laid to rest, and if it had been up to her, she wouldn't have chosen that particular dress for the event. Still, she could live with that (so to speak), if it guaranteed a quick jump to Level 3 of the afterlife, which she hopes will feature both reruns of Friends and reunions with long-lost loved ones.

But Holly has some mortal baggage to unload first, starting with the matter of how she died. Yes, she drowned in her bathtub under suspicious circumstances, but she did not kill herself. Holly had too much to live for, from her recent promotion to taking the next big step in her relationship. OK, her life had a few loose ends, but whose doesn't? Holly's heavenly shrink isn't buying it. He says she has to return to Earth to staighten things out. The problem is, she'll need to borrow someone's body to do so, and the body in questiion to none other than computer geek Vince Murphy. Oh, and although Vince was supposed to have vacated the premises, he apparently never got the memo.

Now Holly has forty-eight hours to resolve her issues while sharing arms, legs, and . . . other things with a guy she barely noticed when she was alive. But the real surprise is what life has to offer when you have only two days to live it.

You Had Me at Halo is a delightful story about Holly's search to discover what happened to her and her struggle to resolve some of the things in her life. As the blurb and cover suggest, this is a story with a lot of humor. The scenes where Holly, in Vince's body, has to convince her friend that she's still alive. Sort of.

There's definitely some humor about what happens when two people share a body. And Vince . . . I simply adored him. What a sweetheart! He's a wonderful illustration of the idea that still waters run deep. He helps her throughout her search for answers.

You may wonder if a happy ending is possible in such a scenario. Wonder no longer: it is. I was generally pleased with the ending (spoiler ahead), although I wished Vince hadn't lost his memory of their time together in the process.

Ashby has created a story that's sweet and fun. I'm looking forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

What I'm Doing This Month

I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month for the third year in a row. Ah, the joy. And sometimes the pain. I've set myself a lofty word-count goal for the day. We'll see how that goes.