I haven't post much comments lately, not because I'm not reading, but because I'm exhausted. My supervisor at the lab is gone, but thanx god, he's coming back on Tuesday. My experiment is not working and I'm hoping it's not because contamination.
So onto my recent reads:
Hmmm. There were a mini-discussion about slutty cover at Romancelover blog and this cover totally qualifies as slutty cover. The inside flap is even worst, cos you have the man in addition ^^; So why did I buy the book? I was curious and bored. By the end of the book, I was no longer curious, but still bored.
This is my first book by Jacquie D'Alessandro and well, it didn't impress me. It couldn't catch my attention at all which means that I pretty much skimmed through the book.
Alexandra is a card reader and is presently the "hot" stuff of the ton. She pretends to be married and is hired at different soirées. At one of the soirée, she sees Colin Oliver, Viscount Sutton, and panics... she doesn't know the man, but recognizes him. Indeed, Alexandra grew up in the less favorable parts of London and was a pickpocket. One night, she met Colin in an alley and tried to steal his watch, but got caught. She successfully ran away, but her cards have predicted that she would meet the man again. Meanwhile, Colin is returning to London to search for a wife after a long retreat at his estate. Then at the soirée, he sees Alexandra and recognizes her. He is relieved, because he never forgot her and often wondered if she was still alive or not. While trying to avoid Colin, Alex runs into a room and overhears two persons planning a murder. She leaves a note to the victim, but he still dies. Then, she becomes a target and Colin decides that it is his duty to protect her.
So, as the grade shows, I didn't really enjoy the book. The whole thing between Alexandra and Colin seems forced. Her fears that he would recognize her as the pickpocket and would tell the ton, ruining her was blown out of proportion and I don't really understand Colin's obsession with Alexandra either. I mean, he admits that he's been worried about her and have gone back to the alley many times to look of her, but to no avail. You also Alexandra's charity cause: every night, at her house, she welcomes little children that have no where to stay, but I think it was mentioned once and then, we never read about it anymore because she didn't stay at home anymore for the duration of the book. What was disappointing is that the author had all the settings ready and she didn't use them effectively: Alexandra's generosity, her being a card reader, the murder, etc. and then, the author focus solely on the romance. It is a romance, true, but instead of playing out all her cards, she goes down the stereotypic road with the jealousy and all. Then, it just took forever for Colin to realize that he was in love with Alexandra. His brother and sister-in-law were dropping hints such as he has found his lady, he should stop looking for a wife, but the guy still doesn't get it... Even when she broke up their affaire, he was still clueless. All he can think about is Alexandra, but he doesn't put one and one together.
So yeah, my advice... skip this one. If you really want to read it, borrow it.
The Sexy series by Linda Francis Lee
I've been looking for good contemporaries lately and had had some difficulties coming up with good books. I stumbled over Jazz's review of Suddenly Sexy at the Sanctuary and so I decided to give it a go. So I put some books aside and started to read Suddenly Sexy and Sinfully Sexy.
Again, hmmm. To get the summary, you should go to Jazz's review. Basically Katie was in love with Jesse Chapman, her childhood friend 4 years her senior. However, he left mostly because he didn't think he was worthy for her. Now he comes back to town, looking for tranquility, because he's losing his game. See, Jesse is a pro golfer who's a favorite to win a PGA tournament, but he lost his game after he saved a woman who was hit by a golf club. So he thinks that going home will help him regain his game; however, once home, old tension between him and his brother resurfaces, his lust for Katie also returns and he finds out he fathered a son 13 years ago. Not really helping.
Meanwhile, Katie was a news anchor, but is now giving her own talk-show. This is because the tv station where she and her two best friends, Julia and Chloe, are working need to increase their ratings and after a survey, viewers think that Katie is stiff, boring, unwielding and yadayadayada. So the talk-show is an attempt for her to get a new image...
The book wasn't so bad, but the whole "Getting Real with Kate" talk-show was boring and her attempts of trying to be someone else too. That's probably what got on my nerve and the book would probably have been a 4 instead of a 3.5. What also disappoints me a bit is that Jesse and Katie's relationship wasn't sweet enough :P Oh, last thing. I usually love kids in books and Travis is no exception... when he took the strawberry ice cream box, that was so cute. However, I think that there were enough family stuff to deal with - Jesse's father and brother, Katie's mother and sister (by the way, Jesse's brother and Katie's sister are married) , that bringing in a kid, no matter how mature and cute, was unnecessary. By the way, Katie had such a hard time and she became the adult and all, what was her sister doing during that time?
So Sinfully Sexy is the second book and Chloe's story. The sad thing about that book is that Katie almost completely disappeared. It seems to me that the author thought: Katie's story is over, don't need to talk about her anymore... so that was a bit of a disappointment. Anyway, let's talk about Chloe.
Chloe took a quizz in a magazine to see how "sexy" she was... and instead of choosing any choices given, she always added her own answer to the multiple choices... so of course, she failed ^^; So one night, when she has to replace Julia at a soirée, she decided to test if she really could be sexy. The result: yes. She ended up in the woman's bathroom of the hotel lobby almost making love with Sterling Prescott, handsome CEO of Prescott Media. However, at the last minute, some ppl are banging at the door and Chloe chickens out so she slips out. Next morning, she has a meeting with some rating analysist from Prescott Media along with Julia and who turns up? Sterling Prescott and his younger brother, Ben (Ben's a cop by the way). So what does Chloe do? She pretends she doesn't know him. Anyway, at the same time, Julia and Chloe mistake Sterling for his employee, Trey Tanner, whom Sterling just fired because of his sudden softness. Sterling wants to clear up the misundertanding, but oups, Chloe doesn't really have a high opinion of "Sterling Prescott" and so, Sterling takes up a challenge to prove her wrong.
Okay, so maybe I'm harsh with the grading of this book, but I didn't like it much. First, Sterling Prescott should be yummy, but he isn't... at least to me. The man is rich and wealthy and privileged I guess, but you're going to tell me he never made coffee or normal stuff? I find that hard to believe given he started his major in microbiology. Just didn't make sense to me... Actually, my biggest difficulty with this character is that he seemed to have multi-personalities... He had so many different traits that put together gave contrary person. I mean, Roarke from the In Death series is a yummy rich, charismatic CEO... Sterling, well, he's confused and not that confident in the end. So hero wasn't quite attractive. Then, there's the whole reality TV show: The catch and his dozen Texan Roses. Urgh. Think the Bachelor. I really dislike watching those shows in real life, but to read about it? No. In addition, the night before production begins, The Catch and one of the rose elope, so who replace them? If your answer was Sterling and Chloe, well bravo. I mean, that was completely stupid... since Sterling and Chloe were already attracted to each other + they were still producers of the show at the same time. So the whole reality tv show was a bummer... and both Chloe and Sterling's family situations weren't interesting read.
So now, there's the last book of the series... Simply Sexy which is Julia's story and her love interest is Ben, Sterling's younger brother, whose facing bad times as one of his undercover work went wrong. So I'll be completely honest and seriously, I don't feel like reading this one... From what I got from the two previous book, I don't really like Julia... so perhaps I'll wait for Jazz's review before reading it.
