Amazon discontinued the ability to create images using their SiteStripe feature and in their infinite wisdom broke all previously created images on 12/31/23. Many blogs used this feature, including this one. Expect my archives to be a hot mess of broken book cover images until I can slowly comb through 20 years of archives to make corrections.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

The Month That Was: June 2008

A lot of readers around Romance Bloglandia post month-end recaps detailing what books they read over the course of the past 30-odd days. I've never done this, mostly because 99.9% of what I read gets reviewed on the blog. No joke. But now that I'm going to have some reviews posted over at Sybil's, I thought a month-end recap would be a good idea. This way a list of my reviews will all be in one place, just in case you missed one. Of course, this is assuming you care.

June was pretty productive for me, and I finished eight books. Hey, I have a full-time job and it's baseball season. Finishing eight books is pretty darn good. Here it goes:

Kidnapped By The Cowboy by Pam Crooks - Review posted at TGTBTU - Final Grade = C

Wendy's Thoughts: To be brief, the characters did things that annoyed me. What really chapped my buns was that the hero didn't understand why everybody shunned him, and nobody liked him. Um, hello?! You confessed to killing a boy you moron! Of course nobody is going to "like" you anymore. Geez.

The Last Rake In London by Nicola Cornick - Review posted at TGTBTU - Final Grade = B

Wendy's Thoughts: I really liked this one. It does have moments of melodrama, but I loved the heroine and the Edwardian London setting. Also, I thought this was one hawt book. Kind of surprising since Harlequin Historicals tend to be PG-reading for me.

Western Weddings by Jillian Hart, Kate Bridges and Charlene Sands - Review posted on TGTBTU - Final Grade = B-

Wendy's Thoughts: The Hart story is the stand out here, which isn't too shocking since she's the reason I wanted to read this anthology in the first place. The Bridges' and Sands' stories were average.

Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain - Random ramblings posted here - Final Grade = A

Wendy's Thoughts: Loved this book. Loved it! That being said, I see a lot of readers having issues with the places Cain chooses to take her characters in this story.

Outlaw Bride by Jenna Kernan - Review posted at TGTBTU - Final Grade = A

Wendy's Thoughts: I love frontier style westerns, and Kernan really seems to have a knack for them. Great heroine, great hero, fabulous book.

Killing Bridezilla
by Laura Levine - No review - Final Grade = B

Wendy's Thoughts: Another entry in the author's Jaine Austen cozy mystery series. More of the same. Wacky antics, great chick-lit-style first person narration, total brain candy. It didn't change my life, but I enjoyed myself while reading it.

Sleeping With The Devil by Vanessa Marlow - Review posted here - Final Grade = B

Wendy's Thoughts: I was very pleasantly surprised by this erotic thriller, and found it compulsively readable. I also found it heads and shoulders above the author's work under the name Cheryl Holt - but that's just me.

The Angel and the Outlaw by Kathryn Albright - Review posted at TGTBTU - Final Grade = B-

Wendy's Thoughts:
A pleasant debut read. I did feel the author had too many secondary characters mucking up the works, but I loved the setting and the heroine.

4 comments:

Kati said...

Wendy - Thanks for the reviews. I find it amazing that not only have I not read a single book on your list, most of the them I've never heard of. It just goes to show the incredible amount of variety out there!

I have heard of Chelsea Cain (Katiebabs is a big fan), and I've been debating reading her first. But I'm a little nervous it'll load me up with a bunch of nightmares...

Katiebabs a.k.a KB said...

So, what makes Sweetheart an A?
Yes, I am fishing as you can see.

Wendy said...

Katie: It's what I call a "white-knuckler." As in, I had a death grip on the book while I was reading it and didn't want to put it down.

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

Okay, I read TGTBTU and I somehow missed that you're reviewing for them now?

I'm embarrassed.