Carly Phillips' Kiss Me If You Can

Kiss Me If You Can by Carly Phillips was a cute contemporary romance. It had pizazz, sex, thrills, chills, crazy family, a mystery, and the challenges to ensure the love of the two main characters (Sam Cooper and Lexie Davis) will live happily ever after. Phillips, I think, is hit or miss regarding if she goes around the corner and predictable side of contemporary romance, but this novel, Kiss Me If You Can stayed on the straight path to laughter, mystery and love.

I would recommend this novel. It reminded me of Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Victoria Dahl, Christie Ridgeway and so many others out there. I will warn you though to check my blog or Goodreads for Phillips other novels as some may disappoint you.

 

Got Caged? Blog Tour Announcement

The Small Book Blog is going to be part of author Amber Lynn Natusch’s Got Caged? Blog Tour! Natusch will be touring from September 3^rd and runs to October 1^st. Our blog stop will be September 29^th. Natusch will visit us with a guest post, author interview and I will post my review of the first novel in her Caged series, Caged. Feel free to stop in and say hi! For those of you interested in more info here is her link on Goodreads.

Fun Update on author Becky Banks!

As some of you know I am a peer reviewer for author Becky Banks (hopefully all of you remember her or know of her from her first fabulous novel The Legend of Lady MacLaoch) . I am excited to announce Banks’ new novel Forged finally has a publish date! Watch for it as an ebook, soon followed with the paper version, October 26, 2012! Feel free to read my early review of Forged as a teaser or add it to your “to-read” shelf on Goodreads (here's the link). I’m off to harass, oops, I mean ask, Banks to remember us for her next blog tour and giveaways! I’ll keep you posted as I know more.

P.S. There ARE sexy new uses for duct tape...  

Reveal It!

I wanted to drop in and reveal some fun and exciting news, especially since it will absolutely affect The Small Book Blog! First, I am happy to let all you fabulous readers know that I am busy peer reviewing for author Becky Banks upcoming novel, Forged. Forged should be out this fall for us readers to voraciously read and share. It is going to be a high-octane, ultra sexy, thriller- to spice up our long winter nights.  My second bit of news is that I was recently contacted to host a- new to me- author this September or October during her blog tour to promote her new book. That is about all the details (minus who it is and the book series) I have to share at this time.

This is going to be an exciting end of summer/fall. I cannot wait to share all this with you guys. Check in soon for more updates! Have a fun and safe weekend!

Kelley Armstrong's Spell Bound (The Otherworld Series 12)

For fans of The Women of the Otherworld series you will not be disappointed in Spell Bound. Spell Bound is the second to last novel in this fantastic series. Many books that come right before the end are set ups for the big finally and are a letdown, ask more questions than give answers or (I think) have trouble with their character development. Kelley Armstrong does not disappoint on any of those issues. She is continually setting up for the big war to come in her novel Thirteen and while doing that has an entire plot for the novel Spell Bound. Savannah, one of the few characters left waiting to be coupled with her love by the author, continues to grow and develop from the bratty little witch we first met into a bad ass yet caring woman. I am ready for the big show now. I cannot wait to see what Armstrong has in store. For readers of this author and series I give it a rating of:

For readers who are new to this author or series I would suggest started at the beginning and reading your way through her series. Spell Bound would be an awkward first novel to start with. You will enjoy it so much more, especially since you get to meet the various main characters over and over (even if they are not the main players in that novel). Also, Armstrong is hard to become tired of since she is continually shuffling through her characters for each novel, breaking that habit we as readers get sometimes of antsiness to switch around or annoyance because you want to know what is happening with so-and-so. This also allows her plots to change rather than stay completely formulaic. I love this series and absolutely recommend it to anyone interested in supernatural/paranormal romance and suspense. For new reads this novel gets a rating of:

Anne Rice's The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty

I want to warn you, before you delve any farther into this recommendation; it is not a positive one. I read Anne Rice’s erotic novel, The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty. It is the first book in an erotic trilogy. I was lured in because I thought it would be an erotic twist of a beloved fairy tale. Instead I feel almost like a victim for having read it. I want to warn readers out there that this is not another Fifty Shades of Grey meets Sleeping Beauty. Some S&M I was prepared to be okay with. What Rice presents to us goes beyond the comfort level of most (I assume) of the general public. The love slaves (all the Princes and Princesses in the land), including Sleeping Beauty, are continually humiliated, debased, molested, raped, sodomized, forced against their will to do outrageous acts, and brain washed by ALL the Lords and Ladies of the Kingdom. The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty would be a fantastic novel for behavior analysis and victimization profiling. I found myself wishing that the Feds would arrive, busting into the castle and arrest everyone, saving the love slaves from their pain turned into pleasure warped minds. To me, they were treated like todays slave trade but they do not get all the drugs to help them. I am still trying to figure out how Anne Rice could write this novel in such a third person blasé voice. She knows her subject and is very detailed about it. It just, to me, is not erotic. I cannot imagine getting turned on by these books. Prince Alexi’s stories of his beginnings with the Queen were horrific and still make my stomach turn from what he went through.

So, all that said I would not recommend this series. However, if you are looking into victimization, fairy tales gone beyond bad (hopefully for a school paper), behavioral analysis, or are absolutely sure you are okay reading detailed rapings, beatings, and sodomizing scenes then this may be a book for you to read.

Jamie McGuire's Beautiful Disaster

Beautiful Disaster was a fantastic novel that I just stumbled across. I am a member of NetGalley and Beautiful Disaster was a recommendation from them. Generally I do not jump online and download them but I was intrigued by the cover art and book name. I am so happy I downloaded this novel. I read it in 3 days! This book, at its core, is mostly about overcoming your past, the beauty and disaster of love, and hoping you can grow into a new (and better) person than you think you are. I loved how involved the friends are in Abby and Travis’ lives. They definitely needed all the help and support they could get. Reading this novel was a little stressful. I know that Abby and Travis were fighting their emotions and themselves as well as each other. Despite their best efforts they were connected on a level they could not ignore. As a reader, I kept wondering if this novel was going to have a happy ending or a horrible ending. I decided I did not care; I had to know what would be Abby and Travis’ destiny. For fans of the tv show Friends, reading about Abby and Travis was like watching the emotional rollercoaster that was Ross and Rachel.

I absolutely recommend Beautiful Disaster. Abby is a strong, throws the first punch, can’t turn down a bet, kinda gal (I wish I could be sometimes). Travis is a sexy, tattooed, fighter and playboy who just wants love and give love. As friends they are fantastic, as lovers they are hot and steamy, as a couple it definitely is a beautiful disaster.

I should also add, after updating Goodreads, that this is the first book in a series. I wonder what McGuire has in store for us in the next book!

Rachel Gibson's Rescue Me

Rescue Me is the third book in the Lovett, Texas series by Rachel Gibson. Rescue Me is a cute romance about two lost souls (Sadie and Vince) trying to make a positive move towards a happy future but they keep getting “stuck” because of their broken past. Rescue Me is funny, humiliating, frustrating, sexy, and full of love, loss and passion.

I would recommend this novel and this author. For fans of Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Jennifer Cruise, you will love Rachel Gibson as well. She has the perfect blending of humor, sticky situations, quirky characters and how love can save lost souls.