Fire Lord's Lover

Fire Lord's Lover by Kathryne Kennedy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was pretty impressed with this book. I'm a bit of a sci-fi, fantasy junkie, but usually on the movie screen. Sometimes it's hard to follow in books. Perhaps this was a dumb downed version of fantasy but I sure loved it!

Lady Cassandra marries General Raikes through an arrangement by their fathers. General Raikes' is a powerful soldier and the son of Lord Mor'ded, an elf. Yes, I said an elf. He also has a dragon. Anyway, Lady Cassandra, unbeknownst to the General and the Lord, is a trained assasin. She is part of rebellion in London who intends to take down the evil Lord Mor'ded and end the power and control he has over the humans.

General Raikes, being half elf, has little human emotional feelings but as he spends more time with Lady Cassandra, his heart starts to slowly melt from it's former frigid state. And while Cassandra is dead--set on killing her father-in-law, she also starts to have feelings for the General as well.

Together they learn they have more in common than they ever could have thought possible.

This is certainly a fantasy read, surprisingly, faith in God is certainly a part of this story, and romance, ah, sweet romance too of course. :) What's also kind of neat about this book is the magic each elf, half-elf or any human with some elf heritage has. Yes, I know, but I like these kind of books!

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I read this in January and it's taken me this long to get to reviewing it. I've read many books between then and now, but it's a book that will never leave me. It was that fascinating to me.

I learned a lot from this book. I'm grateful for it too! I learned about a dying black woman who unknowingly gave cancerous cells to the medical and scientific world many, many years ago that have reproduced so many times, it weighs as much as three Empire State Buildings. I learned that many blacks were subjected to harsh medical experiments that were completely hush- hush and little too hush-hush still if you ask me. Why didn't I know this?!

I'm amazed that the family of Henrietta Lacks continues to struggle to get health insurance when their own mother was such a huge and vital part of exploring cures for many diseases with her incredible multiplying cells. While Johns Hopkins Hospital were the ones to cultivate the cells, they cannot pay a cent to the family. It's just so intriguing and strange.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has any interest in American history that is hardly made known as it should be!
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Out of Time

Out of Time by Monique Martin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Started off well. Minimal paranormal, more of a supernatural/sci-fi feel. The paranormal element wasn't introduced until after the second half. About two thirds of the way through I got bored with the story and struggled to want to pick it up again. It would have been 10x better if they stuck to the sci-fi element. The lone vampire was a bit lame. He was a gangster circa 1920's vampire. Just didn't really fit with the whole story.
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Bad romance, bad, get out of my sight! (for just a little while)

I really need to get off the romance's for a while. Sheesh! Even though some of the genre I've been overdosing on is Christian, it's still a bit much.

I will be going back to the monstrously huge, Decision Points by George Bush. It's just that it's so heavy. I've been enjoying reading my Kindle books on my Droid X. I can quite literally read it anywhere...and I have too!

Never a Bride

Never a Bride by Amelia Grey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh la la. This is was a cute, romantic read and I liked the plotline and the banter...to a degree. It was pretty predictable, I figured out whodunit and the would-they-end-up-together pretty easily, but getting there, I will admit, was fun!

One particular thing that bothered me about the main character, Mirabella, was her liberties with the "gentlemen" and her reasons for doing so. It just seemed a little out of character. I mean, I get why she did it, it just was a little silly.

Another mild peeve I had was her ignorance of her own sexuality. Asking her lover, "oohhh, why do I feel like this?", "What is this splendid feeling?". It was pretty comical.

I read it very quickly so obviously it grabbed my attention, but thinking back, it was a little bit flaky. I'll give it four stars.

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Surrender the Heart

Surrender the Heart by M.L. Tyndall

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I really, really liked this book! It was an action packed Christian romance based on historical events. Perfect combo for me.

I am quite often getting the free Kindle books from Amazon and mostly enjoy them, but this one was extra special. While this one was Christian, it didn't lack for romance either.

Set in time leading up to the War of 1812 between The United States and British Empire, we meet Marianne as she is prepping for her arraigned engagement to the insufferable Noah Brenin. Their families have set up the engagement for the benefit of their own families, however neither one wants to be married to the other. She thinks Noah is a boor and a clod. He thinks she's a spoiled rich brat. However, Marianne isn't really rich anymore, she needs to marry someone in order to receive the inheritance her deceased father had set up for her in order to take care of her ailing mother.

Quickly Noah shows his face at the engagement party and quickly departs to sail his merchant ship to England. His hopes are to make enough money and not have to marry the prissy, Marianne. Little does Noah know that taking off as he did from the party has irritated Marianne to no end and she takes off after him to his ship.

A little incident happens and next thing Marianne knows, she is out to sea with no hope of return. Noah is absolutely disgusted knowing he has to spend months at sea with his unwanted fiancée. She wants to return home to her mother but he cannot risk turning back and not making the fortune he hopes to make with his load.

Marianne hatches plans to destroy the inventory but ends up getting the ship into trouble with a British man o'war frigate, The Undefeatable. Several of the crew and Marianne are impressed with the British ship; basically made into slaves.

In this situation, Noah and Marianne see the strength in each other and realize they must start to rely on God to see them through these hard times. They must trust God that he has a plan and they must accept that they do not know His plan, only that there in one.

Through stormy seas, beatings, horrendous surroundings, Marianne, Noah and the rest of Noah's captured crew makes plans to escape. Through a series of action packed events, they come to their moment of escape and it doesn't go as planned. Noah and Marianne are separated and both are heartbroken. Noah vows he will get Marianne back, even risk death as he'd rather die with her, than without her. Awwwwww!!

I won't go on anymore from there, don't want to spoil it! It really was such a fantastic book. I cannot wait to read more from this author.


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Bossypants

Bossypants by Tina Fey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tina Fey is funny. She's about the most realistically funny woman on TV (and now print). When I say realistic, she's not the fake-make-stupid-jokes-no-one-gets funny. Her humor is relatable to everyday life and I get it!

Tina Fey goes on some tangents about improv and how to properly do said improv and I skimmed that chapter as I have no interest in that topic. I felt a little awkward at her liberal views but in the end, I absolutely appreciated every word and thought on her personal and political views. (She's just so darn relatable!)

Mostly I laughed my butt off. Her self-deprecating and sometimes in-your-face humor is so in line with what I think about myself and perhaps other women do too. She claims her hips " look like somebody wrapped Pillsbury dough around a case of soda". She rages about the "Teat Nazis", the successful breast feeding moms who make you feel bad for failing she tells it like it is. She swears like a sailor but is unable to confront her daughters babysitter about cutting her nails to short. She struggles with being a working mom and wondering if she should have the second baby.

I don't think there is a person out there who wouldn't laugh at her antics, whatever your political background! And she does address the Sarah Palin sketches and how her parents are Republicans. Great stuff.

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