Lesley Davis

I was very disappointed. I thought the premise was a good one but the writing just didn't pan out. The foreshadowing regarding the mystery may as well have been bolded, highlighted, and spelled out in all capitals. There was no element of surprise for the reader at all. The romance aspect of the book was very rushed and the characters, to me, felt flat.

One of my pet peeves - yes, I know, there are many - is having American characters who are so very obviously British. They even had accents in my head because they spoke like no Chicagoan, or any native born American, I've ever met. I've heard that some American readers don't like to read books set in the UK but I would much rather have that and have the characters feel more genuine than having to ignore that they're supposed to live in a major American city down the road from where I'm sitting.

There were some good lines in the story but the things that didn't work - the mystery, the romance, just about anything related to the police procedures - made it impossible for me to enjoy it. The end also screamed series so maybe the author will take care of some of these issues before the next one comes out.… (mehr)

No-- you have something in your eye.

In all seriousness this was an amazing book.

It's about Dante and Takira. Dante is just getting over a hard, very hard break up and is back in her home town, she stops in a new restaurant, Takira's. She runs into an old friend, Trent, and she and Trent (and Trent's wife and their daughter) all catch up.

Takira has just gotten robbed by her previous manager (he then fled) and she needs a new one so that she gets to go back to being the owner/chef of the restaurant. She meets Dante, who would be perfect in the job, oh, and they both fall a little bit in love at first sight too.

But, they both have so much baggage and Takira has also just taken on being a guardian to her nephew can they get past all that?

I'm gonna be honest, this got an extra three fourths of a star because it had real butch lesbians as characters in it. Not lesfic butches, but, real ones where they're not just waiting for the 'right woman' in the story to put them in a dress and change them. What was even cooler was that the novel even dealt with that problem in the world too.

I mean, from cuter than anything Finn and Harley to the twisty, turney plot that had me laughing and with dust in my eyes at different times,to the Disney, oh the Disney! IT was an awesome book!!

I received this book via Netgalley thanks to Bold Strokes Books.… (mehr)

A Sci Fi book with a side of romance and a hint of aliens (or is there really a hint? What else could be going on?). Anyway, it's basically my perfect book, and I thought it was totally awesome.

Emory is a journalist who's staking out Area 51 when suddenly Black Triangle crafts appear out of nowhere and they as well as the saucers they release attack and try to obliterate Area 51. Luckily Emory 's there to save Sofia, a military Captain, who works at Area 51 from being killed or taken by the crafts.

That's how they start their twisting/turning journey to and fro to try and find not only Emory's family, but people (mostly Sofia's people) to help stop the invaders.

They also split up for a bit, Emory going it alone to try and save the world, and Sofia trying to come to terms with what she has actually been doing for the past few years versus what she thinks she had been doing.

It was mostly a slow burn sort of novel, but that was okay, because the mystery of what is happening in the Sci Fi part of the book was totally engrossing, and then adding in the romance too made it really pretty cool. An all around awesome novel!

I got this galley via Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books.… (mehr)

I had really high hopes for this book! It had everything I was looking for in a book - lesbian romance, angels, demons, a serial killer on the loose, etc. And then it kind of fell flat for me. I won't bother with the summary; I'm getting straight to my thoughts.

First, I never connected with either of the main characters. I found Ashley to be rather annoying, and Rafe felt underdeveloped to me (even though, arguably, she is more the "main character" than Ashley). I think part of it has to do with the dialogue; it just felt so unrealistic to me at times and quite stilted. Many of the conversations felt very scripted to me and they didn't flow well. I'm not sure if it's because the author is British and was trying to write in American English or what, but it just came across as odd.

It was also pretty clear who was committing the murders as soon as that character's name was introduced, and it was so blatantly obvious that I wondered why in the heck neither of the two main characters put the dots together.

I also felt that the romance was sloppy. The book really did start out well, but the author reverted to the "there are literal soulmates and we are divinely meant to be together" trope, which translated into there not being much romantic development between the two. They went from barely knowing each other to being ready to Uhaul within a few chapters, with virtually no development in the between.

As I said, I really did have high hopes for this book, but they mostly fell flat. I wavered between a two- and three-star rating, and I ended up going with two and a half stars because it's lesbian fantasy and I freaking love that genre. But I wouldn't recommend this book.… (mehr)