65 Books in a Year: Book #2 Twice A Bride

I got this to review from Blogging for Books.

This book is the fourth and final book in a series centered around the Sinclair sisters of Cripple Creek, Colorado.

From reading this book, I suppose the other three books are about:

• They are all married although one got left at the alter.
• They moved to Cripple Creek because their father made them. He moved to Paris.
• Two have children; one really wants a child.
• Miss Hattie takes care of them.
• I think one may have gotten sick.

And, although it was pretty easy to catch on I really disliked the fact that I didn't know going in that this was the 4th a series, as there were still some parts that kept me hanging and annoyed. I appreciate that it is not about a Sinclair sister at all, but about the sister of the pastor's wife (the pastor's wife being one of the sisters), although I think bits of her story are in one of the other books. I suppose we get enough through flashbacks...maybe.

Mona Hodgson is an excellent writer at setting the scene and in terms of creating great characters who trust in God as they head out West, I'll gladly compare her to Janette Oke. Hodgson's characters are likeable and real. I especially like Trenton Van der Veer. His dislike of going to church is truly believable and transcends time. I love that he is a real man with real feelings and Hodgson's let's us know that while he may have a stutter he appreciates women, gets confused by women, and, is a little lost, because of a woman. The scene in the church parlor is just lovely. There are also many other scenes that Hodgson renders so completely that I felt like I was there and, well, I wanted to be.

Pick up this book is you want a romance with a true look at what it means to be a Christian and to trust in the Lord at all times. Pick up this book if you like a good historical romance, I promise you will not be disappointed.

The more I write about this book, the more I realize that I need to give it 4-stars, not my original 3-stars...I think those were based soully on the fact that I wasn't prepared to read the fourth book in a series and it made me a little perturbed. It would seem this book can stand alone pretty well. I am little sad that I don't feel the need to read the other three books, as I feel I've received enough of their stories.

55 Books in a Year: Book #49 The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight

OK, so we've already established that I love romance and schmoopiness and chick-lit...I'd like to share with you one more very important point.

I am an over-the-top, dorkopatamus, hopeless Romantic. This book by Jennifer E. Smith, The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight, totally encapsulates this sentiment.

I could gush on and on about the cover alone with it's perfect hand-writing font and it's adorable drawn-on heart doodle and the black and the white and the red and the airport PDA, but I'd much rather talk about Oliver and Hadley and my favorite place in the world, London, and, you know, my romantic view of airports and my teenage girl dream of meeting a lovely British boy on a plane.

I believe that airports and airplanes are two of the most romantic places in the world. They are brimming over with possibilities and full of stories...hearts being broken and courted and hopes being crushed and dreams being answered. And, I cannot count the amount of times I have sat in my seat hoping that someone would sit next to me and this someone would change my whole life. Of course, that's not how it went at all...but, I still have that dream in my soul. Passionate airport kisses and over-whelming desires to have them were just an added bonus to this dream.

Smith writes her characters in such a way that I totally believe that a girl could meet and fall for a guy in 8 hours. I totally believe that said guy would not feel totally weird about meeting said girl at an awkward time, and would put himself on the line just as much as she would to make sure that they saw one another again.

To add to the layers, Hadley's going to England to be in her father's wedding to a woman she has never met and doesn't want to meet. As Hadley gets to know Oliver more, we, in turn, begin to understand that she isn't very different from her father. And, we begin to understand that there are different types of love and not all of them end in happily ever after. We begin to understand that we have to be true to ourselves and accept the consequences of our actions.

I believe in love at first sight and, I love thinking about the idea that all of this happens because Hadley was running four minutes late. Because what would love at first sight be without fate playing the biggest role of all.

55 Books in a Year: Book #46 On the Island

The following is full of spoilers...I thought I'd tell you just in case you were totally expecting the unexpected you will not find it in this book. Surely, I'm not giving ANYTHING away here. Does that cover look like the kind of book that would kill off its characters in the end?

Great Summer read...glad I wasn't reading it on a plane...wish I could have read it on a beach!

OK, maybe not a beach exactly...

I think I may be a romantic of the sappy variety.

Here are some of the signs:

1. I can watch the Lifetime channel all. day. long.
2. I like my 'Happily Ever Afters'.
3. I like the Hallmark Channel
4. I prefer Sandra Bullock to be in movies where she lives in Chicago and likes men who 'lean'
5. The shows that I love the most are shows that have a hard-core 'shipper' factor...The X-Files, Bones, Castle, sure these seem like murder mystery alien shows, but that's all a guise for the sexual tension.
6. I like sexual tension.
7. I love chick-lit. I don't think chick-lit is a derogatory word. I like my chick-lit in various forms and sizes.
8. When I grow up I want to be Bridget Jones.
9. My reading list this year has so many pinky, reddish, schmoopie colors it almost makes me embarrassed. Almost.

This book, On the Island, should be a sign unto itself. 30 year old woman meets 16, almost 17, year old boy recovering cancer patient. She's his tutor. They crash on an island. He matures. She *cough* matures. They um, well, you know it is an island and they are stranded there together for a long time.

And, the thing is nothing about the above story is creepy, at least Tracey Garvis Graves goes out of her way to make sure that we understand enough about their relationship that we don't find it creepy and she gives us just enough about the two characters that we do buy that he grows into a man and she grows to love him. TJ is probably more ideal than a lot of main male characters out there and he isn't just a puppy following Anna around until she decides to love him. They both learn to accept each other and they learn that they can survive no matter what. I mean there's this scene with a shark that's just wow.

I like that the climax is that they get off the island 3 1/2 years after crash landing and about 2 1/2 days (only slight exaggeration) after they decide to have a relationship. They have to learn to love each other in the real world. Each of them have to decide if the love is real. And, I love that TJ gets it first.

Anyway, every single part of this book is predictable and I loved every single minute of it. I really kinda a lot want to read it again...especially the last 40 pages or so *hubba, hubba*.

It's like Robinson Crusoe meets The Blue Lagoon...yeah, I just did that.

55 Books in a Year: Book #18 Bet Me

It took me a minute to realize that Bet Me is a romance novel for fat people. And, no I don't think fat is an offensive word. IT is just a word, like any other word. This book just happens to be for people above a size 8.

And...I'm not in the "thin people" category.

It did take me a few chapters to get over the blatant way the novel panders (yes, panders) to the not so thin (I guess there's a whole genre of books like this, and this is not the place for me to get on that soapbox)...

Min's boyfriend thinks she 'overweight' and weak. Cal thinks she disarmingly curvy and Cal is hot...and, not regular Soap Opera hot, more like George Clooney hot. Crusie goes out her way to focus on Min's cute haircut, "short loose curls" thick and silky", her lovely toes and great taste in shoes, "'Nice shoes,' he said, and she looked down at her frosted-plastic open-toed heels tied with floppy black bows." (and, those are shoes with cherries for straps on the cover not spoons and cherries...just in case you, like a certain someone else, *cough, cough* thought otherwise). Everyone picks on Min for being overweight this includes her thin, bitchy, younger sister and her even thinner "I haven't eaten real food since the 60s" mother. Both of which would hate it if Min ruined the former's wedding by being too big for her dress.

And, here's what Cal says to it all:

"The reason you can't lose weight is that you're not supposed to lose weight, you're not built that way, and if you did manage through some stupid diet to take the weight off, you'd be like that chicken mess you just made. Some things are supposed to be made with butter. You're one of them." He goes on to say, "You want to be sexy, be sexy. You have assets that skinny women will never have, and you should be enjoying them and dressing like you enjoy them. Or at least dressing so that others can enjoy them. ...You're the kind of woman who looks better naked than dressed. I'm assuming..."

No guys is ever going to talk that way. And, if you've found one, I'd like to meet him just to make sure he's real.

But, once I got over that. Once I turned off my analyzing brain and remembered I was reading a romance novel, everything about this book became marvelous.

First, there are about 20 pairs of shoes that I want to see in person (and, I'm not a shoe person), nothing bad happens, but all the nay-sayers kind of get theirs kind of like in "The Wedding Date", Cal looks like George Clooney circa "One Fine Day", Min loves food and there's this scene with a cupcake that felt like porn, food porn, there's lots and lots Chicken Marsala..and, there's Elvis...Presley. Sigh.

Actually, when I got finished reading this book I, and my curvy, self felt pretty swell.

This is also the first book I read for my Why Buy The Cow? book challenge, as it was free on the Nook for a time, sadly it is not free now.

Here's an adorably cute and spot on review of this book. Love it!

50 Books in a Year: Book #39 Sunday at Tiffany's

OK, so I know I've talked about romance novels enough that you may think that I don't like them. That's not entirely true. I believe a romance novel has a time and a place. I am also willing to read or watch anything romance-y if I am in the mood and I understand that there are different types of romance novels and I understand what a good book in each genre is...even more importantly I understand when I love a book that really isn't the best of its genre. Case in point:  Sunday at Tiffany's by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet...I might premise the rest of this by saying that I am also the girl who will watch most Hallmark movies, getting misty-eyed (and sometimes crying) at the appropriate places...I am, in short, a sap...a sap for a good story (who cares what the package looks like).

Sunday at Tiffany's is a book whose premise is a little thin...really, what if your imaginary friend comes to life at an appropriate age and, although you aren't supposed to, you remember him and he's hot, although when you were like seven you thought of him as more of a father, and you love him, and he helps you become the strong woman that you should've always been to begin with, he helps connect you to your mother and dump your trashy boyfriend, and, while he helps you he becomes more human...which may or may not be a good thing. I love the premise. I love the romance. I love the ease of reading of this book (I'm pretty sure I read it in an hour...while watching the kiddo and the television). I am glad it's a movie that I can buy on DVD if I desire. It will look wonderful sitting next to "Tully", "Enchanted" and "The Notebook".

I'm glad that there are books like this is the world, books that I can go back to and read when feeling down to feel better, to feel happier...to sigh with the knowledge that schmoopy romance can exist. Books don't need to be perfectly written or deeply plotted to be uplifting, sometimes lighter really does mean better.

One thing I don't get...how is this book written by two people?