Sixteen-year-old Lina is spending the summer in Italy only because it was her mother's dying wish that she get to know Howard, a father she's never met. Lina just wants to go home, but once she's given a journal that her mother kept when she lived in Italy all those years ago, she seems to uncover the magical side of the country. But why did her mother write “I made the wrong choice”? Luckily she's not on her own to figure that out - her new (and cute) friend Ren is there with her to help her along the way. A cute cover for a cute story. I inhaled this book. I loved the writing. Of course I loved the setting! Italy is so rich with history and gorgeous old buildings and art, and the food is the best. I found the characters to be real and believable. I can't even imagine being in Lina's shoes. I can't wait to get my hands on Love & Luck which is about Lina's best friend Addie.  5/5.

This started off good - Annabelle Elder is an antiques dealer. She collects erotic art, but her life is the complete opposite of steamy. When she attends a New Year's Eve party at Haven Hotel with her best friend she decides to be a little more open-minded, especially when she meets handsome, rich, charming Jared Golden and discovers the pleasure palace he has set up in the hotel. Only those who've received invitations may go and nobody will spill what goes on behind closed doors. I liked the fancy hotel and waiting to see what will happen between Annabelle and Jared, who seemed to be interesting as individuals, but things became soo boring between them. It was the same thing over and over and over with one completely weird scene in the middle that had me wondering things like 'why??' and 'what the fuck???' So much heat in their eyes, their blood, their touch, their everything! To be honest I skimmed the hell out of this book after I managed to get...

This had an interesting premise - newly single Conrad Blunt has his secretary find an escort for him to take to the charity ball.. his sister doesn't like that idea and has her best friend done up to accompany him which he doesn't know and he doesn't remember Emma anyway. But this was boring. It was repetitious. It was like the author went through the thesaurus and used weird words to describe the anticlimactic sex scene between these two. Ugh. Thank God it was short and it was free. I won't be reading more in this series or looking for more from this author. 2/5.

Jackson Ford is a bestselling novelist. He's arrogant and relentless. And he's way behind on his latest novel. His new editor, Ellie Parker, is desperate to get some of his pages to her boss before she loses her job, but Jackson is also stubborn and won't give her what she needs - at least when it comes to his novel. I don't read a whole lot of erotica. The way the sex scenes are written usually have me rolling my eyes. But I thought this one was very well-written. There wasn't one part of this book that I did not like. Ellie was a hard worker, she was a good friend and a good daughter, she followed her heart. I loved the relationship between her and her best friends Bianca and Maggie. When Jackson wasn't being an arsehole he was a great guy! There were lots of cozy vibes - curling up by the fire, drinking tea and reading, watching the snowflakes, staying in a secluded cabin. I'm happy I read this!  5/5.

Ship of Theseus is the final book written by V. M. Straka and published in 1949. It's about a man who has no idea about his past or who he is. He's shanghaied onto a strange ship with a strange crew and thrown onto a perilous journey. The writer himself, Straka, is enigmatic. Nobody knows what he looks like or exactly who he is. Even his translator had never seen him face-to-face. When a young woman named Jen picks up this book, left behind by a stranger, she discovers margin notes. She, too, becomes entranced by the story and responds with notes of her own and leaves the book for its owner. While Jen is a college senior, Eric, the owner of the book, is a disgraced grad student. But they're both facing crucial decisions about who they are and who they want to be. And how much they're willing to trust another person. And they're both trying their hardest to figure out the hidden secrets of Ship of Theseus. Oh. My. God. This book was so good. It's easy to be intim...

The Bodine ranch and resort in western Montana is a family owned business that is home to four generations. Sitting on over thirty thousand acres it's kept busy by lots of vacationers and kept running by a large staff which includes big boss Bodine Longbow. Although the family is very close, Bodine's aunt Alice ran away before she was even born and never came back. She hasn't been heard from in over twenty-five years and she's not often talked about. No one ever imagined that she'd been close by for so long, kept prisoner in a basement, having unimaginable things happen to her. When one of the bartenders from the resort is found dead, it's the first sign that danger is close by. This is a big book! It took me a long time to get into it. It's mostly all about the ranch and resort - what goes on during work days with the horses and who is going to work where on whatever day. There's lots of cooking. I was confused the whole time (and still am) about who ...

Charlotte is waiting for her flight back home to England after spending a semester in New York. Her boyfriend has just ended their relationship and now her flight is cancelled due to a blizzard. To make matters worse it's Christmas Eve. But she's not the only one having a bad day - Anthony, a native New Yorker, is surprising his girlfriend at the airport after spending three months apart. But it's him who's surprised when he gets dumped in the middle of the crowded airport. Anthony doesn't want to go home, and Charlotte isn't able to go home, so together they end up following the steps in a book found in the airport gift shop - Ten Easy Steps for Getting Over Your Ex - in the hopes that their broken hearts will be mended. This is a cute, short read. The story is predictable, of course, and I'm taking it for what it is which is just a fluffy, feel good read. But these two met not even 24 hours ago and they already love each other! Anthony was in a relations...

Sinful Pleasures consists of eleven steamy short stories. The good thing about short stories about sex is that things don't get stale and repetitious. Of course there's probably going to be at least one you don't like but all in all it's fun to read something different and get a glimpse inside someone else's imagination. I really enjoyed The Dream Feeder - I thought it was well-written. The story was weird but in a good way; it was creative. I also enjoyed On The Line - I thought the writing was really good and I liked the two young characters who were inexperienced with each other but were a little bit bolder through the phone. And I also enjoyed Lazy Sunday - there was a lot of depth to their relationship. They don't take what they have for granted, and they're spontaneous and fun even after fifteen years together. And I love that cover!  Thank you to Sinful Press and LibraryThing. 4/5.

Jancy Wilson is broke, unemployed and now she's without a car. Her plans of going to stay with her cousin in Louisiana go up in smoke when her car catches fire in the tiny town of Pick, Texas. She notices a Help Wanted sign in the window of the quaint Strawberry Hearts Diner. She used to live in Pick when she was a teenager and her memories, along with the diner's famous strawberry tarts, draw her in to the diner and into a job. She only wants to save enough money to get a decent car and continue on her way. Her parents moved from place to place, so Jancy doesn't know what it's like to settle in one place. But as the close-knit community, and an old crush, welcome her with open arms, she's beginning to feel as though this little place in Texas could be home. The cover caught my eye, it's gorgeous. And though this isn't the typical type of book I go for, it sounded cute and mushy and I thought I'd give it a try. The writing is good. The setting, the cha...

Rachel Lehmann is a young chambermaid who dreams of working on Hollywood film sets. She's accepted into Toronto Film School, but she needs $35,000 for tuition by the end of summer. Luckily for her there is going to be a big wedding full of famous people at the Inn she works at. She'll just take candid photos of the guests and sell them. But her idea seems even better when she's asked to fill in for a missing bridesmaid, pretending to be the bride's cousin. But she falls head over heels for Mickey McNichol, a talent agent to the stars. He also falls hard for the bride's so-called cousin. He thinks he's finally met a beautiful woman he can trust. But that trust will be broken beyond repair if Rachel sells the wedding pictures. This is a cute little romantic comedy. It has insta-love and is predictable but I found myself totally absorbed in Rachel's star-studded world. I liked all the characters and how their antics added a little drama to the weekend of the we...

Ever since Addison Sullivan has been in an accident, she's been having a hard time concentrating, a hard time sleeping, and she starts talking to a boy that no one else can see. She's worried she's going crazy. She doesn't feel as though she can talk to her parents or her brother, so in order to understand what's going on she visits a local medical facility that promises to help with memory. As she's leaving the clinic she finds out this wasn't her first visit - she's already had certain memories erased. Addison had a boy erased from her memory. Now she's determined to figure out who he was and what happened that she felt like her only option was to have him erased from her life. This was a quick and easy read. It switches between before Addison was in the accident and after. I liked getting glimpses of how things were before. I thought when she started seeing someone no one else could it was going to go a completely different way than it did, but th...

Deb Gardner feels at home when she's at the end of the world. She does her research on the penguins that live there and enjoys the solitude the continent has to offer. Then one day Deb finds her world shifting like the icebergs around her when she meets Keller Sullivan, a dishwasher eager to learn all he can about the penguins Deb is studying. Soon they're spending as much time together as they can before returning to their separate lives up North. With a new research season beginning Deb will be travelling and playing tour guide to the passengers on board the small ship that will take them to their destination. Deb can hardly wait to see Keller again, but he never shows up. Shortly into the journey, Deb learns that Keller is on board the Australis, a massive cruise liner that she can see not far off in the distance from the ship she's on. Deb knows that cruise liner shouldn't be coming this way, and soon the ship receives an emergency signal from the Australis - they...

Cassie Michaels has just lost her mother to cancer. Now she has to leave her friends, her aunt Daisy and sunny California behind to finish her last semester of high school in cold Colorado. She's moving in with her father, her step-mother, her half-brother and her step-brother Culter. Cassie hates Culter, she's hated him since they were kids. But he doesn't hate her, never has. In fact, Culter is in love with Cassie. And Cassie soon finds herself falling in love with Culter. I thought the writing was strong - things never got boring, it had the right amount of smut, the romance wasn't over the top. I liked how true friends stuck together no matter what. The high school drama and cliques felt real and made me happy those days are over for me. 4/5.

Lauren Hall's only wish for Christmas this year is to raise money to build a new, no-kill animal shelter in Sycamore Cove. She will do anything to turn her wish into reality, even if it means daring a man she just met to pop out of a cake and jiggle his junk for the local knitting society. Gabe Nicholson's wish is to get the job of a lifetime working for the Governor. Except his wish may not come true after being dared by his best friend's little sister to preform a striptease. While playing their game of "I Dare You" and trying to hide their hot new romance Lauren's fundraising efforts don't seem to be going so well and Gabe's decent job opportunities are disappearing before his eyes. But maybe Santa can pull off a Christmas miracle for these two this season. I thought the first half of the book was cute and well-written. Then it became a bit repetitious between Lauren and Gabe. And towards the end with Lauren's brother - I hated it! I get t...

Elisa has just visited a beautiful and strange place called Duskland. She finds all its inhabitants interesting and falls in love with Leonhard after just a short time. She is pulled from Duskland to rejoin the living, but she is still not safe here. Her husband wants her dead and will do anything in his power to find her. With the help of new friends Elisa has the strength to fight back and in the end she must choose between living and the afterlife. The book started off slow but once it picked up it was really enjoyable. Duskland was unique and had that eerie/dreamlike quality to it. I loved the Victorian Gothic vibe throughout the whole story. The illustrations are gorgeous. The author has a great imagination!

Debbie de La Fontaine is unhappy with her sex life, so when she meets a witch who can spice up her sex life for her she reluctantly agrees to do what the witch wants her to do - give her her African Violet. The only problem is that she wanted this to work with her boyfriend. Now Debbie is destined to have amazing sex in a place called Sex Hell - a place where she can act out her fantasies no matter how absurd they are, with a "sleazy" man who is not her boyfriend. The only way she can escape Sex Hell is to keep returning there again and again until she can gather enough clues from Carl the demon - a floating head who shows up after the deed is done - to break the spell. This was original and funny. The writing was really good. I found it did drag on a bit towards the end though. I loved Debbie's sarcastic comments. This is the kind of book I wouldn't normally read but I decided to try it anyway and I'm happy I did!

Sixteen-year-old Maya and seventeen-year-old Lochan have to look after their three younger siblings and share household responsibilities while still going to school and doing their homework. Their father left them five years ago and now has a new family and when they do see their mother she's drunk. She usually stays over at her boyfriend's house pretending she doesn't have five children. At school Lochan is socially inept. The one person he considers his best friend is Maya. When Maya goes out on her first date, she doesn't want the guy to kiss her because she's in love with someone else. Lochan and Maya are in love with each other. The author did a good job of taking a taboo subject and creating this story. It wasn't like the brother and sister went at it the whole book. They were in denial, they knew it was wrong and thought of their family and the consequences, they followed their heart. They needed to feel like they were loved and wanted since their parents...

Beth went on a trip to Corsica and fell in love with her trek guide, Jack, and before the trip was over they ended up engaged. When they returned to their everyday lives in the UK, Jack ended their relationship and Beth was left without an explanation and a broken heart. Now, many years later, by sheer coincidence Beth ends up applying for a temporary job at Jack's company. Before her six months are up she finally learns what led Jack to do what he did all those years ago. This is a quick and easy read with a predictable ending, which is why I picked it up. But I started to lose interest at the halfway point. It dragged on and became repetitious. There were lots of grammatical errors.

Maggie puts her family's needs before her own, until one day, spur of the moment, she leaves town. So begins her quest. She meets new people and has a lot of fun along the way. She rediscovers an old passion. And wonders whether or not her marriage is salvageable. Maggie's self-absorbed husband Andrew is furious that Maggie left him alone to look after their two teenagers and the household. He's never bought groceries, cooked, done laundry, fed the pets. And he hasn't spent time with his kids in years. The longer Maggie is away the more he understands what drove her away. He also realizes he loves his family and will do anything to keep them together, but is it too late? I actually enjoyed this more than I thought I would. It's predictable and Maggie's husband is infuriating, but it was a quick and easy read.

Teenager Estella Goodwinn is now in WITSEC after witnessing a violent crime and agreeing to testify against the man who killed her mother's drug dealer. She's taken from her friends and family, and the hustle and bustle of city life and plunked in the middle of nowhere in Nebraska for her own safety. Her name has been changed from Estella to Stella. Really creative, especially since she's now in WITSEC because criminals want to find her and kill her. And she HATES the name Stella. Shut up. She's not a likeable character. She's disrespectful to the woman who takes her in. There were so many things I didn't like... the town's baseball star and everyone's leniency towards his actions; Stella's comment about Inny's baby was ignorant; Stella loves Reed, oh wait, no, Stella loves Chet. Ugh.