A Borrowed Scot by Karen Ranney

Title/Author: A Borrowed Scot (The Tulloch Sgàthán Trilogy #3) by Karen Ranney
Publisher/Date published: April 1st 2011 by Avon
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: "Who Is Montgomery Fairfax?
Though she possesses remarkable talents and astonishing insight, Veronica MacLeod knows nothing about the man who appears from nowhere to prevent her from committing the most foolish and desperate act of her life. Recently named Lord Fairfax of Doncaster Hall, the breathtaking, secretive stranger agrees to perform the one act of kindness that can rescue the Scottish beauty from scandal and disgrace — by taking Veronica as his bride.
Journeying with Montgomery Fairfax to his magnificent estate in the Highlands, Veronica knows deep in her heart that this is a man she can truly love — a noble soul, a caring and passionate lover whose touch awakens feelings she's never before known. Yet there are ghosts in Montgomery's shuttered past that haunt him still. Unless Veronica can somehow unlock the enigma that is her new husband, their powerful passion could be undone by the sins and sorrows of yesterday."

This book has one of the pet peeves I should have included on the Top Ten Tuesday list: 'Too Stupid To Live'. In the beginning Veronica seems to fit into this category way too perfectly. We meet her as she's drugged and about to be raped by a group of men part of a secret society. Seriously, how does one get into this kind of situation? And then when she's turned out by her aunt and uncle, she thinks it would be a very good idea to just go around naked looking for someone to take her in.

Yes, this sounds bad. But bear with me and the story. Of course, Montgomery (horrible, horrible first name) saves her and they get married. He is damaged from his past and haunted by the ghosts of said past. He is not a very sociable person, as in he doesn't really talk. When Veronica questions him, he just turns and leaves. The only connection they have is in the marital bed. It was nice to see them grow closer outside of it as well.

Veronica after her moment of brain-loss, is actually a nice, sensible person. She also has the gift of sensing what others are feeling and while for me it wasn't necessary for the storyline, it was interesting.

I'm not really sure why Veronica's family was so nasty to her and it irks me that this wasn't explained. Her cousin was jealous, ok, I can get that. But her aunt and uncle weren't exactly warm and fuzzy either.

There was some wonderful tension and this was an enjoyable read, so I did like it in the end.
My rating: 3 stars

Top Ten Authors That Deserve More Recognition

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the other blog I participate in: The Broke and the Bookish. We are particularly fond of lists, so hop on over and show us yours!

This week's Top Ten:
Your Top Ten Authors That Deserve More Recognition

1. Jill Mansell: she is the queen of chicklit and very popular in Holland, but noone else seems to have heard of her. Really, she writes the absolute best chicklit and when I read one of her books I always feel like I'm talking to one of my friends and I get that feeling of sitting in the sun in the summer even in the middle of winter. She's really good.

2. Monica Furlong: I absolutely LOVED her MG series with the books Juniper, Wise Child and Colman. The women in her books are very strong and she made me want to be a witch. I practically never come across someone who's also read them.

3. Maria V. Snyder: I absolutely love her books and I put every new release of her automatically on my to-read list. Even when like with Inside Out/Outside In the setting isn't really my thing: I never read anything set in space and I made an exception because I love her writing.

4. Alexandra Potter: read and loved 3 of her books, especially Me & Mr. Darcy, sooo cute!

5. Joanne Harris: loved, loved, LOVED Chocolat and The Girl with No Shadow!

6. Patrick Rothfuss: the first two books in his series are some of the best fantasy I've read in years and I absolutely love his Kvothe.

7. Kristin Cashore: LOVED Graceling!! Katsa is such a kick-ass heroine and Po was just perfect.

8. Sophie Jordan: so, a lot of you have probably heard about/read Firelight (which I haven't yet, bad me!), but did you know she writes amazing historical romance novels as well? They are among the best in the genre.

9. Sarah MacLean: same as for Sophie Jordan, she ranks up there on the best of historical romance as well, SO good!

10. Holly Black: I loved White Cat and Red Glove (which is coming out in a couple of days, put it on your lists!), so I'm so surprised I haven't seen more buzz about these books or her other series.

So, I'm off to check out other people's lists and discover me some new authors :)

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Title/Author: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Publisher/Date published: Scholastic, first published in 2009
How I got this book: bought it at a booksale, yay for booksales!
Why I read this book: I heard really good things about it and though werewolves aren't really my thing, I decided to read it anyway.

Goodreads summary: "the cold.
Grace has spent years watching the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf — her wolf — watches back. He feels deeply familiar to her, but she doesn't know why.
the heat.
Sam has lived two lives. As a wolf, he keeps the silent company of the girl he loves. And then, for a short time each year, he is human, never daring to talk to Grace... until now.
the shiver.
For Grace and Sam, love has always been kept at a distance. But once it's spoken, it cannot be denied. Sam must fight to stay human — and Grace must fight to keep him — even if it means taking on the scars of the past, the fragility of the present, and the impossibility of the future."

I'm not really into werewolves. I'm not sure why, I'm just not. So, even though everyone and their aunt has been raving about this book, I've put off reading it. Until I found it at a booksale and couldn't resist buying it (I have a serious book buying addiction and I can't for the life of me resist a bargain).

It seems that around the blogosphere, this is one of those infamous 'hit-or-miss' reads. And it wasn't for me, I think I actually fell right into the middle. While I didn't love it, I didn't dislike it. And the werewolve thing actually didn't bother me that much, so props to the author for that.

I thought the whole taking the werewolve thing literally (in Dutch it's called a weerwolf, which translates literally as weather-wolf) and making it be the cold that changes them instead of the moon was really interesting. I also appreciated the not going crazy killer of the wolves when they transformed. They just went canine, not killing machine. Definite yay for that.

Grace, though she seems like a nice girl, did not make me care for her. She felt a bit disconnected and even though she thought about how much she loved Sam, I just didn't really feel it myself. Her parents aren't very parental and because of this, Grace had to be the grown up in that family and does not appreciate her parents suddenly trying to tell her what to do when it comes to Sam. The only time I felt connected to her was when she let herself be real about the hurt her parents cause her by being so absent.

A rare thing for me, I actually connected more to Sam. I almost never connect very well to boys, it's easier with girls/women. Sam is a beautiful boy/wolf and I loved that he had lyrics in his head for the things that happened around him. He has huge emotional scars from his past and I felt so sad for him for what he went through. And I loved how he was trying to be such a gentleman around Grace, he seemed almost from another time.

It all went a bit slow for my taste, but the ending had a bit of an unput-downable factor, though not really edge-of-my-seat-oh-my-gosh-shut-up-I'm-reading!! quality. But it was an enjoyable read and I will probably read the sequel.

My rating: 3 stars

The Vampire Voss by Colleen Gleason

Title/Author: The Vampire Voss (Regency Draculia #1) by Colleen Gleason
Publisher/Date published: March 29th 2011 by MIRA books
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: "Regency London - a dizzying whirl of balls and young ladies pursued by charming men. But the Woodmore sisters are hunted by a more sinister breed: Lucifer's own. Voss, also known as Viscount Dewhurst, relishes the sensual pleasures immortality affords. A member of the Dracule - a cabal of powerful, secretive noblemen marked with a talisman that reveals their bartered souls - the mercenary Voss has remained carefully neutral... until Angelica. Angelica Woodmore possesses the Sight, an ability invaluable to both sides of a looming war among the Dracule. Her very scent envelops Voss in a scarlet fog of hunger - for her body and blood. But he is utterly unprepared for the new desire that overcomes him - to protect her."

For some reason, this book just did not do it for me. I don't know what it is exactly, but I really had to push myself to read on and finish the book. I didn't dislike it enough to not finish it, but I didn't really felt the urge to continue it either. Maybe adult paranormal romance is just not for me (I love the YA paranormal romances), the accent for me needs to be more on the paranormal I think.

I've had mixed experiences with books about vampires, Twilight was enjoyable, but the books that came after it were less so and let's just not talk about Breaking Dawn. I did really enjoy Vampire Academy, Rose kicks some serious butt. This one, while not being my thing, had some interesting things to add to common vampire-lore. I really liked that in Gleason's take on it, vampires have something, and it can be anything, that will make them weak. Weak enough to get them killed easily. Even by a mere mortal. I also liked the fact that they have Lucifer's marking on their back and that it hurts when he's displeased with them.

Voss isn't very angsty, which was nice. He's a vampire, he can live forever, what else would he be doing but search for pleasure in any way he sees fit? No remorse whatsoever, until he meets Angelica. This is where things start to change and he goes a bit Angel (you know, from Buffy) on us. I don't even know what to say about Angelica, she was a bit bland to me. The only thing I can say for her is that she seems to be a caring sister. I thought her brother was pretty selfish and I didn't like him very much, he just up and left his sisters with a vampire to look after them. Hardly appropriate.

All in all, this was just not for me, I didn't connect with the characters and that's a big thing for me.
My rating: 2 stars

Top Ten Bookish Pet Peeves

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the other blog I participate in: The Broke and the Bookish. We are particularly fond of lists, so hop on over and show us yours!

This week's Top Ten:
Your Top Ten Bookish Pet Peeves
All those things that annoy you as a reader.

1. Endings that don't fit the story: I'm all for happy endings, really, I am. But you can't have the main character during the whole book falling from nasty thing into horrifying event and THEN have them doing happy dances and singing songs at the end. Seriously. That's just wrong. Which is exactly why I thought the Hunger Games' ending worked, it fits the series.

2. Instant-love, just add water: I love me some good romance, but instant love is not believable. Instant attraction is, but not love. That's something that grows over time. Sure you can be soulmates, but you can't tell me you know that after seeing someone for 3 seconds.

3. Deus ex machina endings: if the divine are going to come in and save the day, then WHY was the hero/heroine fighting that hard up until that point?? There's really no point and it kind of ruins the story.
For me this can also apply to anything that makes it to easy to defeat the bad guy, as in: evildoer, you're allergic to cauliflower? How CONVENIENT.

4. Plot holes: big gaping holes of DOOM I get confused over.

5. Instant-knowledge/power/ability: this sort of goes hand in hand with instant-love and deus ex machina, I want to know the characters worked for what they can do. Sure you can have some natural ability, but you don't go from little weakling to all-powerful in the blink of an eye. That's just wrong.

6. Being evil for the sake of evil: this can go for the obvious villains like tyrant leaders to the mean girl in high school: no-one is nasty without a reason. I want the arch-enemies to be 3D as well.

7. Stereotypical characters: yes, I read a lot of romance novels and in those this happens a lot, BUT there's no need for the lady in the novel to be always waiting on the dashing lord to save her. She can do a little fending for herself if she feels so inclined instead of simpering in the corner.

8. Whiny/bratty teenagers: well, whiny characters as a whole, but whiny teenagers make my toes curl in a very bad way.

9. Desciptions of things I don't care about that go on and on and on and on (OMG, it's never going to end!!): I love a little detail, but there is such a thing as taking it too far and getting lost in the merits of an ant crawling across a wall or the whole of Russian politics in the 19th century.

10. Waiting sooooo long for the next book in a series: this one doesn't have to do with the story itself, but OMG, the wait for some books nearly kills me! Seriously. And then the publication date gets pushed further back and I'm tearing my hair out in anticipation. Not pretty.

I actually made it to 10! Tell me if you share some of my pet peeves!

Songs for Saturday (2)

I thought it was time to put the spotlight on some of the songs I love again. I've recently fallen in love with Sara Bareilles' new CD 'Kaleidoscope', it's amazing! I loved her first album 'Little Voices' and saw her perform live, which was so, so beautiful.
The one song that keeps playing in my head over and over again:



Beautiful!

I also discovered she did a really cool cover of Beyonce's Single Ladies, a completely different interpretation.

And I'm going to see this Dutch band on Wednesday, they're fairly new and I think they'll be amazing live!



Any new songs that have caught your attention? Or older ones that still hold a special place in your heart? Please do share! :)

Currently Reading: The Wise Man's Fear

'

No spoilers, I promise, just me raving about the book so far :)

I'm about halfway through and I'm LOVING it!! Rothfuss is an amazing writer and has managed to make me feel part of this world again. I love Kvothe and all the other characters in the book and some I love to hate (Ambrose anyone?).
The only problem I have is that it's heavy. The book is huge, which I love, cause it means more story-goodness. But I can't take it with me as easily as I would like.
But the hardcover is totally pretty, so it's worth it.

Anyway, I'm gonna go and continue reading, this book makes me want to hole up in my house and ignore all other unimportant things like class/hunger/sleepiness.