SUSAN: BOOK REVIEW - "Butterfly Hunter" by Julie Bozza

SUMMARY:
It started as a simple assignment for Aussie bush guide Dave Taylor – escort a lone Englishman in quest of an unknown species of butterfly. 

However Nicholas Goring is no ordinary tourist, his search is far from straightforward, and it’s starting to look as if the butterflies don’t want to be found. 

As Dave teaches Nicholas everything he needs to survive in the Outback he discovers that he too has quite a bit to learn – and that very often the best way to locate something really important is just not to want to find it…

REVIEW:
Excuse me as I try to type while hugging myself holding this book...

Guess what book just quietly snuck its way on to my FAVORITES shelf – yup...BUTTERFLY HUNTER! 

I loved this book. Sweet and kind and gentle and endearing…with 2 of the most charming MC’s ever – Davey, an Australian tour guide and Nicholas, a son of an English earl, out to find a rumored, yet undiscovered breed of butterfly. Admittedly, it doesn’t sound like the most interesting, captivating story. But think 2 gorgeous MC’s, with Aussie/Brit accents, in a friends-to-lovers (gay-for-you...but don’t let that stop you) romance set against the amazing Outback.

I found the book, from start to finish, utterly delightful. The sex scenes are mostly fade-to-black, but it didn’t bother me (there are some very hot kissing scenes though...:) ). This book is romantic and beautiful and put a smile on my face and a warmth in my heart. 

IN A NUTSHELL:
Might be too sweet for some…but for me, I was enchanted. Now, off to look into Australian vacations…!!!

SUNNY: BOOK REVIEW - "Surrender Your Love" by J.C. Reed

CHARACTERS:
Brooke Stewart
Jett Mayfield

SUMMARY from Goodreads:
Meeting Jett was like lightning. Dangerous. Better left untouched. And better forgotten. But lightning always strikes twice.

Brooke Stewart, a realtor in New York, doesn’t do relationships. When she’s sent to a remote estate to finalize a real estate deal, she discovers her new boss is no other than the guy she left naked in bed.

Sexy, dangerously handsome, and arrogant Jett Mayfield attracts trouble, and women, like a lightning rod. But the night he meets Brooke he gets more than he bargained for. The green-eyed millionaire playboy isn’t used to taking no for an answer, and he isn’t about to start now.

When he proposes two months of no strings sex, Brooke is intrigued and accepts his proposal. Little does she know Jett’s determined to claim the one woman he can’t have, pulling her deeper into his dangerous world.

A man who doesn't take 'no' for an answer.
A woman afraid to surrender to love.Two lives that are about to cross...and secrets laid bare 

REVIEW:
BAM!  Right Between the Eyes

When I was 12, I got hit between the eyes by a baseball while playing catch.  I will never forget that feeling of being disoriented and out of breath.  This is how I felt about the ending of this book.  Surrender Your Love by new author, J.C. Reed, left me breathless.  

It starts as a nice contemporary romance, a plot somewhat familiar made popular by Sylvia Day, E.L. James, Anne Calhoun and Ella Frank, a devastatingly handsome, alpha millionaire falls for an attractive and damaged, young woman and plucks her out of her ordinary existence.  This book leaves out the erotica, but definitely has the sizzling, sex scenes that leaves the reader plenty hot under the collar.  

At first, I was confused because it is unclear why he likes her so much.  In fact, Jett's lack of voice is a little disconcerting through the first third of the book.  Who is this guy? Without that voice, it is difficult to know the character.  But, ah, that's is all a part of the narrative device that brings the reader to a surprising conclusion.  I had no idea this was coming and this little plot twist takes this book from a nice contemporary to an oh-my-Gawd-I-can't-wait-for-the-next-book category.  It goes from a contemporary romance to a romantic suspense, mystery book. Loose ends abound, but I am certain that the next book will help us flush out the characters more.  Luckily, I don't think the wait is too long for 

P.S. This cover is in the "Heavens to Betsy" category of hotness.  My goodness!

IN A NUTSHELL:
This book is going to leave you buzzing and waiting with baited breath for the sequel. 

 I received this ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review. 

SUNNY: BOOK REVIEW - "Thrill Ride" by Julie Ann Walker

CHARACTERS:
Richard "Rock" Babineaux
Vanessa Cordero

SUMMARY:
There is a Burn and Delete notice on Rock Babineaux.  He is labeled a rogue agent by the CIA and he is on the run.  Vanessa Cordero is the Communications Specialist for the Black Knights, Inc (BKI) - a super secret, covert, black op's group working by order of the federal government but only known by a few select officials at the highest level.  It is noted by the other members of BKI that Rock has a secondary job that is secretive and takes him away at a moments notice.  Is Rock guilty of all that the CIA is accusing him of? Or is there something else going on?  And why is he running from the only family he has - the BKI?

REVIEW:
What a pleasant surprise! Thrill Ride is book 4 in the Black Knights Inc. series by Julie Ann Walker. I read Hell On Wheels and Rev It Up, both of which I found average at best and painfully awkward at the worst. I choose to read this book because either I'm a glutton for punishment or I feel compelled to finish series.  I'm really happy to say that this book is a vast improvement from my previous reads.

The story is coherent and tightly written.  The characters are highly likable and have depth.  The obstacles confronting the protagonists feel real.  The biggest improvement is the writing.  Whereas in the past, the inner dialogue felt contrived and crass, this feels more in line with the personalities of the characters (I love the phrase "madder than a wet hen in a tote sack." - highly visual and completely appropriate for the story).  Maybe these lines work because the characters are so much more interesting - Rock Babineaux is a Cajun with a tendency towards the heroic (even if he keeps denying it).  Vanessa Cordero is spunky and stubborn.  There is great chemistry between the two and there interactions are sizzling.


My one gripe about this book is some of the off-handed anti-feminist remarks that aren't useful and don't really enhance the story.  For example: "just give me some bubble bath and a tampon.  I think I'm officially part of the estrogen family" and "screw the feminist movement, because right now she was glad she was a woman and he was a man...."  I somehow don't think the feminist movement was advocating a denial of womanhood - this type of comment shows a lack of understanding of the issues and perpetuates a stereotype unnecessarily. 

I noticed that Ms. Walker gives thanks the Catherine Mann in her Acknowledgements.  Catherine Mann is one of my favorite authors.  Based on the improvements I've noted, Ms. Mann's has clearly impacted the quality of this book.  Her influence shows.

IN A NUTSHELL:  If this is the direction of the BKI books, I'll be first in line to buy the next in the series.  Very nice job, Ms. Walker.

Thank you to Sourcebooks and Netgalley for the ARC.

SUNNY: BLOG TOUR - DEATH, DOOM, AND DETENTION BY DARYNDA JONES

It's a Blog Tour! 

Welcome to a stop on the Death, Doom, and Detention Blog Tour.  Have a seat and enjoy my interview with the author, Darynda Jones.  Afterward, stay tuned for a chance to win a copy of Death, Doom, and Detention. Don't forget to scroll down (way down) to enter.

Please welcome the ever-awesome, Darynda Jones!

1.      Hello, Darynda!  Could you please tell us where  Death, Doom, and Detention picks up after Death and the the Girl Next Door?

Sure thing! And thanks for having me, Sunny!

DDD basically picks up with Lorelei trying to come to terms with her powers. They are growing stronger and she is fighting for control. She is seeing things she doesn’t want to see and experiencing things on a completely visceral level. The visions are not just pictures in her mind but a conscious reliving of the actions and events of those around her, whomever she touches, and she is doing her damnedest just to make it through the day. In the meantime, something else has come to Riley’s Switch. Half of the student body is behaving abnormally and some have expressed a desire to see Lorelei dead. So she is coping with all that and the fact that her grandparents have forbade her from seeing Jared. They have asked him, as an honorable being, to keep his distance, and so he has. It’s left Lorelei a hot mess, and when she envisions a tragic shooting at school that involves the death of her favorite teacher, and possibly herself, she has wonders if she is just losing her mind or if her visions are more real than she ever imagined.

2.      How long did you spend writing Death, Doom, and Detention?

Well, I spent probably a week or so on the outline. I’m a big plotter. Writing the book itself took a while. For the first time ever I wrote, scrapped, rewrote, re-scrapped, and rewrote again. I’ve never started and restarted a manuscript like that before, but I couldn't quite get the internal conflict down. Then I met with my editor at a conference and she made a suggestion and a lightbulb went off in my head. The manuscript was rewritten and finished a few weeks later. That woman is a genius. So what normally takes me a couple of months took probably closer to four or five with DDD. It was crazy.

3.      How much of a book have you ever completely erased before finishing the final draft?

Funny you should ask, LOL. Until DDD, not a lot. I always save my deleted scenes. You never know when they’ll come in handy. Normally my deleted scenes come to around 20 or so pages. With DDD, I think I had almost 100 pages of scrapped material. Again, not something I normally do.

4.      Do the names for the characters come first or do your characters scream their names? Do you think names are particularly important to your readers?

I think names are terribly important. Sometimes names come to me pretty easily, but for some reason, my heroines get named and renamed over and over. Lorelei’s name was changed probably 6 or 7 times before settling on it. Cameron was changed a few times too.

5.      Will Cameron find love?

Yep! :)

6.      What do you love about Lorelei?

I think I love her strength and honesty. She is special but she has no intention of taking advantage of that fact. Now if it were up to Brooklyn . . .

7.      What was your high school experience like and was there a “Mean Girl” club?

I had a pretty good high school experience. Besides my freshman year which was quite the challenge, I loved it, even though I was thrilled to graduate and get out of there. And I encountered the occasional mean girl. I just kind of did my own thing, lived in my own little world. I liked most everyone and got along well with my classmates. But even with all that, I did have a few close calls as far as fights were concerned. Does anyone escape high school uncathed? I wonder sometimes.

8.      What were your favourite books as a teenager?

I found romance novels pretty quickly as a teen. I loved Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, Johanna Lindsey, and Judith McNaught. They were my true loves.

9.      The Charley Davidson series has been published around the world, have the rights to the  Darklight series sold outside the US?

Strangely enough, no. I’ve had so many people asking, so maybe they will some day.

10.   What can readers expect next from you?

Well, right now I’m working on the last in the Darklight Trilogy, Death and the Girl He Loves. It comes out in October, I believe. And Fifth Grave Past the Light, the fifth installment of the Charley Davidson series, comes out July 9th.

Thank you so much for having me!

The Book Blurb 

The normal part of Lorelei MacAlister’s life didn’t just slip away quietly the day Jared Kovach came to town. Nope. The normal part of her life shattered. It exploded. It burst into a gazillion shards of fleeting light.

It went out with a bang.

Goodbye normal.

Hello dark and eerie.

While her best friend, Brooklyn, is focusing all of her energy on helping Lorelei hone her abilities, Lorelei is dealing with the reality that Satan’s second in command has taken up residence inside her body. Oh, and the fact that she has a crush on the Angel of Death. But what a beautiful death it is. If those weren’t bad enough, something sinister has come to town and it wants nothing more than to hear Lorelei’s dying breath as it strangles it out of her. Thank goodness the gang has a supernatural champion. But what happens when the only being who can save them switches sides midstream? How can a group of misfits capture one of the most powerful beings ever created? And will they find out how to bring Jared back to them before it’s too late?

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SUNNY: SERIES REVIEW - Elemental Mysteries by Elizabeth Hunter

SUMMARY from Goodreads:

A HIDDEN FIRE - A phone call from an old friend sets Dr. Giovanni Vecchio back on the path of a mystery he'd abandoned years before. He never expected a young librarian could hold the key to the search, nor could he have expected the danger she would attract. Now he and Beatrice De Novo will follow a twisted maze that leads from the archives of a university library, through the fires of Renaissance Florence, and toward a confrontation they never could have predicted.

THIS SAME EARTH - Beatrice De Novo thought she had left the supernatural world behind…for the most part. But when the past becomes the present, will she leave her quiet life in Los Angeles to follow a mystery she thought had abandoned her? Where has Giovanni Vecchio been, and why has he returned? Giovanni has his own questions, and he’s looking to her for answers.

A FORCE OF WIND -  Giovanni Vecchio and Beatrice De Novo  travel to a hidden island on the far edge of China to seek the help of an ancient immortal court. Can they weave their way through the tangled web of centuries-old alliances and ruthless feuds to find what they’ve been looking for? Friends will be revealed, enemies will find them, and a dangerous secret will come to light.

A FALL OF WATER - Still grieving from their loss in the far East, Giovanni Vecchio and Beatrice De Novo discover that for them, all roads really do lead to Rome. But nothing is quite as it seems in the Eternal City. Joined by Carwyn and Tenzin, unexpected clashes greet them almost immediately, and rivalries churn beneath the glittering facade of the old Roman court. They quickly realize that allies might be enemies, and ancient rivals could hold the key to a deadly secret.


REVIEW:  What can you say about a story that includes the hunt for an ancient manuscript, a 500 year old vampire, a treasure hunt, a spunky, kick-ass librarian, political intrigue and an enduring love story. Can you say fantastic? 

We get to travel to beautiful locations around the world from the US to Europe to Asia and exploring the powers of each of the elements: Fire, Earth, Wind, and Water.  Beatrice and Giovanni chase after an ancient formula that could spell the end of the vampire world.  Supported by very strong secondary characters, this mystery is exciting and heart pounding. 

I have a new favorite male fictional character.  His name is Giovanni Vecchio.  He's a little alpha, a little self-sacrificing, a lotta possessive, a lotta charismatic, and a LOTTA loving! There is something about him that resonates with me.  Maybe it's the way he sacrifices to be with Beatrice, maybe it's the way he cares for her - it is consuming. Oh, did I mention he is also a LOVER OF BOOKS?!

I've decided that anything that Elizabeth Hunter writes, I'm going to read. She really knows how to unwind a story with perfect timing and as they say in the music world - perfect pitch.

IN A NUTSHELL: Beautiful love story, beautiful friendships, intense mystery and drama.  I give this book a five star rating!