Showing posts with label HF14 book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HF14 book. Show all posts

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Week 51 Reviews: Midsummer's Knight, A Dark Champion


From Goodreads:
Dear Avon Books,

Where are my heroes? Whenever I'm reading a book by one of my favorite authors I find I'm falling for the wrong guy -- not the hero, but the other man -- and what I really want is for him to have his own story.

Like Jake Linley, from Someone to Watch Over Me by Lisa Kleypas… that doctor could sit by my bedside if I ever got sick. And Ned Blydon in Splendid by Julia Quinn...he makes me want to learn to waltz! I never thought living in a drafty castle would be much fun until Simon of Ravenswood in Master of Desire by Kinley MacGregor came along.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that these are my men -- when do they get their stories?

Sincerely,
A Romance Fan

From Goodreads:
Fearless men, their allegiance is to one another, to the oppressed, and to the secret society known as the Brotherhood of the Sword—and they must never surrender to the passionate yearnings of their noble hearts.

A Lady of Love

Beautiful, peace-loving Rowena knows that Stryder of Blackmoor is a warrior, and is therefore a man to be shunned.

But something burns in the eyes of this powerful knight that she has never seen in others of his kind: a tenderness, and a need to love and be loved. Yet to enter his world would be madness—against every principle by which she has lived her life—so she must resist the yearning that would draw her into his arms.

A Man of War

Duty bound to battle for right, Stryder has never desired the comforts of home and hearth—until he gazed upon the exquisite face and form of the incomparable Rowena. He dares not succumb to her sensuous charms, for Stryder is a man sworn to know no love. But when treachery and danger threaten, the noble knight must stand as the unsuspecting lady's champion—though his actions could cost him his honor, his heart. . . and his forbidden dream of happiness.

My first review of Midsummer's Knight, A Dark Champion
My Review:
I am really enjoying reading this series in order! It's just so good! And things are making a whole lot more sense! Especially since I read Midsummer's Knight before A Dark Champion! Seeing as it happens before!

I just loved the relationships, they are just so good! They worked so well together, Simon and Kenna, Stryder and Rowena, they're both such couples! I just wanted to know more about them, like why Simon thinks that he's just a ghost, and more about the family curse of the Blackmoor, seeing as he's not a Blackmoor in the first place!

I had forgotten that Kit was Styrder's brother, and the revelation that he's his full brother, that Stryder really isn't a Blackmoor, but then the thing I'm thinking about is, how are they connected to the brother that kicked Kit out?

The whole thing with Elizabeth, and Kit, being assassins? That Kit was the one that Stryder thought was dead? That was just so not fun for them to find out! And that they are adopting the son who already thinks Stryder is his dad? So cute! And the scene where they go to kill Strdyer because he had said previously that he'd rather be dead then married! So cute!

Really enjoyed both of these so much, so good!

Author: Kinley MacGregor
Series: MacAllister/Brotherhood of the Sword #4.5, 5
First Read: July 5th, 2012, July 28th, 2012
Read: December 16th, 2014
Source: Own
Reason Why: Rereading! And they're Historical Fiction 2014 Book and a Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2014 Book!
Publisher: Avon
Published: October 13th 2009, April 27th 2004

Midsummer's Knight:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books

5/5 Stars








A Dark Champion:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books

5/5 Stars


Week 51 Reviews: Bridge of Snow, The Winner's Curse


From Goodreads: 
Ignore the stirrings of war. Let the carriage to a royal ball wait. There is a story to be told: of a starless night, a mother and her sick son, and a mortal who falls in love with the snow god, and will do anything to have her...

From Goodreads:
Winning what you want may cost you everything you love...

As a general's daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions. 

One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin's eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It's not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin. 

But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined. 

Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.

My Review:
So when I was reading these, I had no idea that they were written by the same author that wrote The Shadow Society. So yeah, that was a nice tidbit to find out! And yeah, it retroactively adds more "loved it" to these!

So I really enjoyed this world, from the story Arin's mom told him, to the fact that while Kestrel's country has conquered Arin's, that there's slavery and all, which is bad, but by the ending, things are changing! So yeah, that was good!

And the whole idea about the winner's curse, someone paying more than it's worth, and regretting it, basically, that whole thing, and that Kestrel's curse is in buying Arin, yeah, that is a bit shiver inducing bad. But again, it all works out pretty well!

You can really feel bad for the both of them, they're living in this world that isn't good for either of them, Kestrel can't walk by herself since she's a woman, and the only way she could would to join the army, like her being trained all her life wasn't enough. And Arin, yeah, slavery of his country? Nuff said.

Really enjoyed both of these so much, and yeah, I can't wait for The Winner's Crime!

Author: Marie Rutkoski
Series: The Winner's Trilogy
Read: December 16th, 16th, 2014
Source: Free, Tuebl/Bought
Reason Why: Sound good, and they're Historical Fiction 2014 Books and Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2014 Books!
Publisher: Tor Books, Farrar Straus Giroux
Published: January 28th 2014, March 4th 2014

Bridge of Snow:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
4/5 Stars










The Winner's Curse:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars

Week 51 Review: The Fall

From Goodreads:
Madeline Usher is doomed.

She has spent her life fighting fate, and she thought she was succeeding. Until she woke up in a coffin.

Ushers die young. Ushers are cursed. Ushers can never leave their house, a house that haunts and is haunted, a house that almost seems to have a mind of its own. Madeline's life—revealed through short bursts of memory—has hinged around her desperate plan to escape, to save herself and her brother. Her only chance lies in destroying the house.

In the end, can Madeline keep her own sanity and bring the house down? The Fall is a literary psychological thriller, reimagining Edgar Allan Poe's classic The Fall of the House of Usher.

My Review:
Wow, I really enjoyed this book! At first I really tried to keep the events in order, but sometimes, it felt like even in the same age, that the scenes were out of order, so yeah, I just let go and embraced the madness!

The idea of how the whole curse came to being, and then how it's affected them ever since, just really creepy! And the idea that it was the guy that brought the curse on them, to be the spirit making the house alive, to move things in the directions that he wanted it to? That was just icky!

The whole Lisbeth diary entries, something about them, yeah, pretty much right away, I guessed that this was Madeline's aunt. Just the way that she describes her sister as an innocent, I could just see the house corrupting that into what Madeline's mom became!

The Emily and the young Doctor who's name I've forgotten, storyline, well, I thought it was going in a different direction-that Emily was going to use that money, for her and the doctor, so that they could be together, and that's why she didn't contact Madeline. But nope, she was killed by the doctor!

I really enjoyed this book, though the ending is weird, we don't know if they're still alive, but Cassandra is! Really hope for a sequel, because I didn't catch when Madeline finally realized the truth about the house, and started to distrust it!

Author: Bethany Griffin
Read: December 14th, 2014
Source: Edelweiss
Reason Why: Sounded really good! And it's a Historical Fiction 2014 Book, SAC 2014 Book and a WoW Book!
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Published: October 7th 2014
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Week 50 Review: Taming the Scotsman

From Goodreads:
To avoid the dreadful fate of marriage to a man she does not love, Nora, niece of Eleanor of Aquitane, implores Ewan MacAllister, a man that both her father and betrothed fear, to help her seek protection with her aunt. Against his better judgement, Ewan agrees to whisk Nora away to England, fully intending to hand her off to his brother. Despite Ewan's tortured past and Nora's perilous situation, they soon find themselves helplessly drawn to each other. Dare they risk the wrath of clansmen of Nora's powerful father, or are they willing to chance all for the promise of true love?

My first review of Taming the Scotsman
My Review:
I enjoyed this book so much! I mean, there's humour, and there are some hard bits, like the situation with his brother, but yeah, the main focus was on Ewan and Nora, and their journey together, it was just so great!

So I had forgotten most of what happened in this book. Except for the fact that they ended up together, because that's like, a staple in these books! So from Ewan and that he was trying to sleep through the anniversary of his brother's death with alcohol, to how they escaped!

The secret of who her dad is, yeah, that was fun when Ewan found out, that she was related to the king of Scotland, and her dad was a pretty outspoken guy. Which is a bit scary for Ewan, but he's an MacAllister, and they are a pretty strong family!

Such a great ending, with them together, building a house that should be finished before she gives birth, yeah, that was pretty great! And finding out that his brother didn't kill himself, instead he apparently went to the Holy Lands? Yeah, that is pretty important later one, I think I remember!

This was such a great book, I can't wait to reread more, in the right order!

Author: Kinley MacGregor
Series: Brotherhood/MacAllister #4
First Read: February 25th-26th, 2012
Read: December 12th, 2014
Source: Own
Reason Why: Rereading! And it's a Historical Fiction 2014 Book and a Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2014 Book!
Publisher: Avon Books
Published: August 26th 2003
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Week 46 Review: Mortal Heart

From Goodreads:
Annith has watched her gifted sisters at the convent come and go, carrying out their dark dealings in the name of St. Mortain, patiently awaiting her own turn to serve Death. But her worst fears are realized when she discovers she is being groomed by the abbess as a Seeress, to be forever sequestered in the rock and stone womb of the convent. Feeling sorely betrayed, Annith decides to strike out on her own.

She has spent her whole life training to be an assassin. Just because the convent has changed its mind doesn't mean she has... 

My Review:
I loved this book so much! The night after, I had a dream that had a character like Balthazaar/Mortain, that is how much I was thinking about this book afterwards. That was how absorbed I was by it!

I read the ending at the first, so I knew the big twist that was that Balthazaar was Mortain, but when I got to it, yeah, her shock, and her bad feelings about it all, because of of the fact of Annith's parentage-that her dad is not Mortain, but Crunard, who was blackmailing her mom, who it turns out, is the abbess. But that's a good thing, that her dad isn't Mortain, because it'd be so wrong to sleep with your dad! And fall in romantic love with him!

And then there's the things that have happened because of the abbess's lies, like Annith being tested by the Dragonette, for any signs of power from Mortain, and how the abbess used Annith to pick poisoned mushrooms to kill the Dragonette. And how she tried to get Annith to kill her dad. Yeah. Lots of not so good stuff, but Annith's belief and love of Mortain is what sustained him, and put him on the path of falling in love with her!

It was a bit weird at first, to have Annith in love with Mortain, because all her life, she's thought he was her dad, and he is dad to girls that she's thought to be her sisters, and they're her age and older. And now, she's heading towards being their step-mom, and yeah, that's a weird thought to wrap your head around, but once it's there, yeah. It fits!

The author's note, it says "But that is a story for another day..." which I really hope, it turns out that Robin LaFevers writes either a spin off book, or spin off series (more hope on the series!) to have that story, of how Anne was Queen of France twice! I wants that/those stories!!!! Especially since the politics surrounding Anne keeping her duchy was a main part of this series (love how it ended, with the King being shot with the arrow that shot Mortain, to make the King fall in love with Anne!)

Favourite lines: "As I return to the stables-alone and under reprimand-it occurs to me that if I anger enough of the nuns, perhaps they will beg the abbess to send me out on assignment lest they be tempted to kill me themselves." Morbid humour, but is is humour! "A simple 'Thank you for the rescue' would have sufficed." Well, how does she know that it was a rescue? So hilarious, her taking him down! "The are only horses, demoiselle, and not even flesh-eating ones at that." Debatable! Seeing who's riding them! "'You're smothering me.' 'I'm guarding you.' 'Can't you guard me from farther away?' 'No.'" Funny, how she doesn't mean for him to hear her initial comment! And then there's this. "'Don't you need to sleep?' 'I was sleeping. Until you woke me. And if you'll stop talking I will sleep some more.'" Well, you're the one that woke her up by being there! "If you need a rock or tree to batter yourself against, he is your man." Not the best endorsement, and very weird, but so cute! "If you so much as snicker, I will kill you all." I laughed. I mean, come on, she took him down! "'He's my betrothed.' 'You're what?' 'Praise the Nine! He's finally convinced you, then?'" Love their reactions, and yeah, Ismae and Duvel a re going to get married!!!! "I would not toy with him. Much." Well, it's the much she's worried about, I think! "Or we could play the game my way: If you do not simply answer her question, I will run you through with my sword." Balthazaar is so awesome! "Do I have your promise that you will not somehow manage to kill the prisoner while I sleep?" Because he would so do that! Good planing! "That is when I realize that I have not fallen in love with a mere hellequin, but with Death Himself." Yeah, that might be something of a shock! I'm thinking this is a big moment! "What? Do you think if you ride out on your chargers with shield and banner flying, they will simply confess to you their strategy?" Yeah, like that'll happen! "A small red starburst, Arduinna's bite, they call it, although I do not know why, for she has never bitten anyone as far as I know." Yeah, weird thing to call it! "It is actually Death Himself whom I have taken to my bed."  Which is shocking news to said Death's daughters! "Oh no. Do not start leaking. Ismae, come over her and hug her so we can all pretend it never happened and get on with our lives." Ah, Sybella! So funny! "Normally, you are lurking in the corners or skulking in the shadows, not standing in plain sight." Funny! "Your mortal heart shines like a candle flame and I, like one of those hapless black moths you used to leave as an offering, am helpless before it's lure." The line where the title comes in!!! "You would upend the very nature of Death so that we could be together?" Well, if you belong together, yes! "Quit lurking in the shadows. That is my role, not yours." Not anymore! "Ismae and Duval are playing chess while the rest of us pretend not to watch, for he is trying to teach her and she is most impatient. She does not care for his being so much better than she is at the game, and she spends most of it glaring at him." So loveable! "The king is no help, for whatever point of the contract the duchess's advisers insist on, he agrees to, until his own advisor's throw up their hands in disgust." I love this so much! "I may even let Duval come just so he can storm around the halls, for old times' sake." Getting near the end, but a good wrap up, and so sweet! "'Merely a former god. and you will only have to bow to me a little.' 'Ah, you may be a former god, but you are only a newly made mortal, and I have had far more experience at being mortal than you.'" Nice teasing!

Such a great, wonderful book, a great ending to the series, and yeah, I really hope we get a spin off Anne book!

Author: Robin LaFevers
Series: His Fair Assassin #3
Read: November 11th, 2014
Source: Bought
Reason Why: Love this series so much! And it's a End of Series 2014 Book, Historical Fiction 2014 Book, Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2014 Book and WoW Book!
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Published: November 4th 2014
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Raven: Review

From Goodreads:
This is the complete Steampunk Fantasy novel - all four parts of the serial in one volume! Also includes bonus features not found in the episodes ~ 

Human life has value. 
The poor living in the gutter are as valuable as the rich living in a manor. 
The scoundrel is no less valuable than the saint. 
Because of this, every life a reaper takes must be redeemed. 

Raven has lived by this first tenet since she was trained by her father to become a reaper. But since his death, she’s been spending years redeeming the lives she’s taken. By her count, she’s even and it’s time for that life to end. If she settles down and becomes a wife, she might just feel human again. But on the way to the life she thinks she wants, the baron of New Haven asks her to complete a task which she cannot ignore… Just when Raven decides to give up on her life as an assassin, she’s pulled right back in.

My Review:
So looking above at info about this book, that it was initially published sections at a time, episodes, 4 of them, and then was combined into one full length novel that I read. And I feel sorry for any who read it then, because the wait for each part must've sucked! So ha, ha, I got to read it all in one metaphorical stroke!

I really enjoyed this world. It was entertaining, intriguing, and just something that was it's very own thing, because it's not every day you read a steampunk fantasy book with a trying to get out of the game assassin!

These were all really fantastic characters, from Raven trying first to balance out the deaths she's caused with the lives she's saved, and to settle down, to Darius, who was just so cute, and you feel bad for him, seeing as people want to kill him. And then there was Jack, and as we got to know him a bit better, things become better defined, it not a bit more clear and understandable!

I really enjoyed how everything ended with Raven and Jack, it was a pretty good place for an ex-assassin, and the guy who was trying to track her and her assignment, in the beginning! And there were hints of the next book, or at least a book, will be Darius's! And that'll be just great!

Really enjoyed this book, and I can't wait to see where the series'll go from here!

Author: Pauline Creeden
Series: Chronicles of Steel #1
Read: November 12th, 2014
Source: Itching for Books Review Copy
Reason Why: Sounded like a great book, and it's a Historical Fiction 2014 Book and a Prequel & Seqquel Challenge 2014 Book!
Publisher: AitWit Press
Published: October 28th 2014
5/5 Hearts
4/5 Books
4/5 Stars

Bio:
In simple language, Pauline Creeden creates worlds that are both familiar and strange, often pulling the veil between dimensions. She becomes the main character in each of her stories, and because she has ADD, she will get bored if she pretends to be one person for too long.

Pauline is a horse trainer from Virginia, but writing is her therapy.

Armored Hearts, her joint effort with author Melissa Turner Lee, has been a #1 Bestseller in Christian Fantasy and been awarded the Crowned Heart for Excellence by InDtale Magazine.

Her debut novel, Sanctuary, won 1st Place Christian YA Title 2013 Dante Rosetti Award and is now available as an audiobook. #1 Bestseller on Amazon in Christian Sci/Fi and Fantasy (October 2013)

One of Pauline's short stories has won the CCW Short Story contest. Other short stories have been published in Fear & Trembling Magazine, Obsidian River and Avenir Eclectia. An urban fantasy short will appear in The Book of Sylvari: An Anthology of Elves from Port Yonder Press, and a vampire short will appear in Monsters! from Diminished Media Group.

Contact and Buy AKA Links:


The Prospective Princess: Review

From Goodreads:
Giving up the beautiful Lady Brislyn is only the first step toward Commander Marchant saving her from Darkness—and then winning her heart. 

A MAN AMONG PRINCES 

Five years ago Lady Brislyn of Komissa fell in love. Five years ago her heart was broken, never to be mended. But when one careless act finds her abducted by marauders and forcibly betrothed to a seductive enemy prince, there’s only one man she can count on to free her: Her father’s brilliant—and devastatingly handsome—military commander. The very man who rejected her. 

Five years ago, Commander Marchant rebuffed the fifteen-year-old daughter of his duke. Now she is a woman grown, a Gifted musician whose song captured his heart. Yet Brislyn is not so easily reclaimed. To save her from one royal suitor, he must make a show of engaging her to another. Then March will rescue the kidnapped lady or die in the perilous journey to reach her. If he can survive the storms, the pirates, and the princes, he will win back Brislyn’s heart.

My Review:
So, going into this, I didn't know that it was actually book 3 in a linked series, Queen of Jastain, and The Pirate Princess, and while it would've been better if I'd read them first before this one, this one stood by itself nicely. Though The Pirate Princess seems to fit in nicely, seeing as it's the story of the guy that Brislyn was engaged to.

You really feel bad for Marchant, because hey, this 15 year old is saying she loves you, and yet, she's the daughter of your leader, so it's like, I can't have this, even though it's really tempting. So he rejects her, and then yeah, now it'll take rescuing her to win back her heart. Rock, meet hard place, no room for anyone but a splotch of human matter that is no longer alive. Yeah.

This was pretty hilarious, too. I mean, storms, pirates, and princes? That sounds like a walk into a bar joke. And while they cause trouble, it's just too funny to read! Absolutely loved that, because yeah, while it was a hard choice to make, he did hurt Brislyn, and he has to suffer to make up for it!

It was a really great ending, with people pretty happy, and the bad guy pretty much put down, and yeah, it was pretty satisfying to read about! Yeah, things wrapped up pretty nicely, all in all! And maybe some things that could be a 4th book, maybe not!

Really enjoyed this book, it was entertaining and fun, and there were some darker parts, but all in all, a really good book!

Author: Kary Rader
Read: November 12th, 2014
Source: Reading Addictions Review Copy
Reason Why: Sounded good, and it's a Historical Fiction 2014 Book and a SAC 2014 Book!
Publisher: Boroughs Publishing Group
Published: September 23rd 2014
5/5 Hearts
4/5 Books
4/5 Stars

Bio:
Kary Rader is an award-winning author, stay-at-home mom, and part-time Twitter sage, because one shouldn’t have to use more than 140 characters to impart wisdom.

She lives with her husband, three kids, and one low-maintenance kitty cat in Dallas/Ft.Worth Metroplex.

Whether contemporary or fantasy, spicy or sweet, her stories always have true love, romance, and lots of humor.

Contact and Buy AKA Links:


Saturday, November 8, 2014

Week 45 Review: Drums of Autumn

From Goodreads:
The magnificent saga continues....

It began in Scotland, at an ancient stone circle. There, a doorway, open to a select few, leads into the past—or the grave. Claire Randall survived the extraordinary passage, not once but twice. Her first trip swept her into the arms of Jamie Fraser, an eighteenth-century Scot whose love for her became legend—a tale of tragic passion that ended with her return to the present to bear his child. Her second journey, two decades later, brought them together again in frontier America. But Claire had left someone behind in the twentieth century. Their daughter, Brianna....

Now Brianna has made a disturbing discovery that sends her to the stone circle and a terrifying leap into the unknown. In search of her mother and the father she has never met, she is risking her own future to try to change history...and to save their lives. But as Brianna plunges into an uncharted wilderness, a heartbreaking encounter may strand her forever in the past...or root her in the place she should be, where her heart and soul belong...

My Review:
Oh,, how I loved reading this book! We get some more Jamie POV, that isn't just his story of the times that he's away from Claire, like in Voyage, well, technically, some of them, he's not with her, but yeah, we got all 4 of the Fraser's, really, POV's-Claire, of course, Jamie, Brianna, and Rogers. Which was great!

I really enjoyed that Brianna got to met with Jenny's family, her family, because a) I don't think she'll get another chance, and b) Brianna hasn't really met very much family before, and to have a big family for an only child, that seems pretty important!

Jamie seems to have a silly reaction to news about Brianna, making the messenger think his reaction was negative, even if it's positive-her name, and her height! Which is just so cute! I loved it so much! Such an awkward side to Jamie!

Everything that happened with the various Native tribes, for Jamie, Claire, and Young Ian, well, how they pretty much wrapped up, between the one guy taking the scalps of 3 ladies that were their friends, and then having to give up Ian to get back Roger, yeah.

But I loved how in this book, everything came full circle with them being in the city for a friend's hanging, and end up meeting his son at the gathering, years later. And in the middle of that, save another from being hanged, and then he robs them, and then rapes Brianna. But then he gives her the diamond, for money to take care of the baby that may or may not be his, seeing as he raped her 2 days after she married (kinda, but not really, hand-fasting, and they played a bit loose with the rules) Roger. Yeah.

Favourite lines: "You're a walking inducement to harlots. Stick by me; I'll protect you." Go, Claire! "She'd draw pictures of sperm on the blackboard, all racing toward this huge egg with leers on their faces." That's weird, Claire! And as Rodger later says, there's a question as to if sperm even have faces! "'What is it that makes every man ye meet want to take off his breeks within five minutes if meetin' ye?' 'Well, if you don't know, my dear, no one does. I seem to have found us a boat. And what have you been up to this morning?'"  Ha, ha! So good! "While I was familiar with the eighteenth-century willingness to eat anything that could be physically overpowered and dragged to the table, I didn't not subscribe to the mania for presenting wild dishes as though they had not in fact undergone the intermediary processes of being killed and cooked before making their appearance at dinner. I thus viewed the large sturgeon with which I sat eyeball-to-eyeball with a marked lack of appetite. Complete not only with eyes but with scales, fins, and tail, the three-foot fish road majestically on waves of roe in aspic, decorated with a vast quantity of tiny spiced crabs, which had been boiled whole and scattered artistically over the platter." I'm with Claire, that doesn't sound very yummy! "But perhaps we should change the subject. After all, speaking of taxes at the Governor's table is rather like talking of rope in the house of the hanged, isn't it?" A bit morbid, but of the times, probably true! "Discretion is the better part of valor. Not that I've ever met a Scot who seemed to think so." I think Jamie is so, sometimes! "...grimly counting sheep-who disobliged me by being Scottish sheep, cantering merrily through a kirkyard, leaping the gravestones with gay abandon." Seeing as that's part of the trouble, not helpful! "He's much sneakier then I thought. Practically Scottish." Hilarious! "She seems to have quite a taste for Camerons. Is there something special about them as a clan-beyond being accident-prone, I mean?" Yeah, at least 3 husbands that are Camerons who have died of accidents! "That's a skunk? Why, that's no but a bittie wee stinkard like a polecate! Phew! And here I thought it was a dangerous huge beastie." We know, you and Jamie went for weapons! So funny! "As all wished to play Savage, Young Jamie, Kitty's husband Georgie and myself were pressed into service as the Highlander regiment, and obliged to suffer attack by Tomahawk (Kitchen spoons and ladles) and other forms of enthusiastic assault, we eassying meanwhile a valiant defence with our broadswords (pieces of lath and willow twigs). I put a stop to the Suggestion that the thatch of the dove-cote be set afire with flaming arrows, but was obliged in the end to submit to being Scalped. I flatter myself that I survived this Operation in better case than did the chickens." This letter that Ian sent, is just so funny! "I waved pleasantly after him, thinking how much I should enjoy sticking a fork into him, when the time came." That would be great-he's coming on to her, even though he knows she's married, and that between their ages, she could've been his mom! "We formed a small island of English in the midst of a sea of swirling Scots." Cool! "I always knew you had a gift for tongues. Didn't know you spoke frog, thought." Strange language to know, Jamie! "If William, Viscount Ashness, ninth Earl of Ellesmere, was not the very last very last person I had ever expected to see in the backwoods of North Carolina, he was certainly next to the last-King George was a trifle less likely to turn up on the doorstep, I supposed." This is funny! "I laid aside a half-finished pair of stockings Jamie was making for himself-striped, the show-off-and pulled out a heavy skein of fresh-dyed blue wool, still redolent with the heavy scents of it's dyeing." Love that a) Jamie and Ian can knit, and b) that Claire can't! "She survived. Not much of a sell point for a vacation spot, is it, though-'If you luck's in, you'll come back alive?'" Yeah, not very! "Claire has been recently much Interested by Conversation-if the term can be used for a Communication limited mostly to Gesticulations and the Making of Faces (she insists that I note here that she does not Make Faces, to which I reply that I am in Better Case to judge of the matter, being able to see the Face in question, which she is not) in Conversation with an old woman of the Indians, much Esteemed in this area as a Healer, who has Given her many such pants. In consequence, her fingers are Purple at present, which I find Most Decorative." Nice letter for Jenny, Jamie! And then, "None of us Died or suffered Ill-effects from Eating of this stew so Claire is likely right, Tomatoes are not Poison." Of course not, but they aren't for everybody! I personally hate them in all but ketchup and tomato sauce of pizza and spaghetti! "Bees? How can you hut bees?" Good question! "No matter how virulent Murchion's grudge might be, or how good his spies, I couldn't see his superiors allowing him to mount an armed expedition more than a hundred miles into the mountains, for the sole purpose of extirpating an illegal distillery whose total output was less than a hundred gallons a year." Yeah, not very cost productive! "'Do you know something, Da?' 'What's that?' 'You can't sing.' 'Aye, that's true. Shall I stop, then?' 'No.' 'D'ye ken something yourself, a leannan?' 'What's that, Da?' 'Ye weigh as much as a full-grown deer.' 'Shall I get off, then?' 'Of course not.'" This is such a sweet exchange! "Thou shalt not uncover thy father's nakedness." Out of context, it's funny. In context, Brianna bringing up Jack Randall, not so much! "I...ah...I...I-have-come-to-express-my-desire-to-ask-for-your-hand-in-the-blessed-sacrament-of-matrimony." Oh, Young Ian! So cute! Idiot Jamie for coming up with you proposing to Brianna!

I just absolutely loved this book so much, and yeah, while I won't read The Fiery Cross next week, because there is a a pretty big gap between each book being published, I really want to read it, so yeah!!

Author: Diana Gabaldon
Series: Outlander #4
Read: November 6th-7th, 2014
Source: Own
Reason Why: Loving this series! And it's a Historical Fiction 2014 Book, Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2014 Book and a WTC Book!
Publisher: Dell
Published: November 10th 1997
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Week 44 Reviews: Claiming the Highlander, Born in Sin


From Goodreads:
To end a long-running feud, proud Scottish lass Maggie convinces her clan's women to refuse their men everything. But can she refuse the attractions of English baron and proud Highland warrior Braden McAllister?

From Goodreads:
Stunning Caledonia MacNeely fights an unfamiliar shiver when she is offered in marriage to the infamous 'Lord Sin'. Though Callie fears this mysterious knight – less for the dark whispers that damn him than for the burning desire he invokes – she is under order of the English King. And with the fate of her troubled clan hanging in the balance, she has little recourse. 

Banished as a child, 'Sin' MacAllister learned to despise his Scottish heritage. Yet now, to unmask King Henry's foes, he must return to the hated Highlands - wedded to a bewitching lass whose flaming red hair matches the fire of her spirit. A cold, hard heart has always been the key to Sin's survival, but this beauty awakens in him a perilous need he's never known.

My first review of Claiming the Highlander, Born in Sin
My Review:
It was just so fantastic to reread these books! I mean, the first time that I did, I didn't read them in the right order, and yeah, that was silly of me! But that was before I really knew that they were a series, really, and I had limited resources on the holiday. Yeah.

Both of these couples, I loved. Braden and Maggie, where she's loved him her whole life, while she's basically been invisible to him besides being his best friend's younger sister. Sin and Callie, strangers who are married, and yeah, fall in love! So good!

I loved Maggie's solution to the problem! Because hey, guys were the ones fighting, and everyone was losing, and giving them some proper motivation in the form of the losses of wives and daughters, everyone female, taking away the 2 main things that guys think about-food and sex. Very smart! Glad how that all turned out!

Sin's life has been hard. First his mom sends him to his dad on the day he was born, without naming him, and then to not show favouritism, his dad ignored him. And then sent him to be the hostage for the English. And then he was the squire for Ravenswood's master. Also known as Draven's dad. And then said monster sells him to their enemies to get passage back. Not fun! But then there's Callie, and while that almost gets him killed, it worked out well, and yeah, so good!

Loved these books so much, and yeah, can't wait to reread more, in the right order!

Author: Kinley MacGregor
Series: MacAllister #2, 3
First Read: April 25th, 2012, February 24th, 2012
Read: October 31st, 31st, 2014
Source: Own
Reason Why: Rereading! And they're Historical Fiction 2014 Books and Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2014 Books!
Publisher: Avon
Published: March 5th 2002, January 1st 2003

Claiming the Highlander:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars










Born in Sin:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars