Saving Grace by Julie Garwood

Saving Grace (1993)
Julie Garwood
Grade: A-
Genre: medieval romance
Sex scenes: sweet
Source: own

Married as a child and widowed not long after, Lady Joanna never wanted to marry again. Her husband was a brute of a man, prone to beat and rape her as he liked, channelling his frustration at her barrenness using his fists. He changed the staff every month, so that she would never have the chance to get close to anybody, and her confessor, Bishop Hallwick preached that God viewed women as lower in standing than oxen. Raulf was a favourite of King John, and thus privy to all sorts of damning information – one piece of which Joanna happened to overhear, and could get her killed.

Flirting with Disaster by Ruthie Knox

Flirting with Disaster (2013)
Ruthie Knox
Grade: A-
Genre: contemporary romance
Sex scenes: hot
Source: NetGalley
Camelot series: (1) How to Misbehave, (2) Along Came Trouble, (3) Flirting with Disaster, (4) Making it Last

Katie Clark is recently divorced and finally making something of herself in her hometown of Camelot, Ohio. Married straight out of school, she followed her husband, Levi, as he pursued his dream in Alaska. They couldn’t afford two sets of tuition fees, and so Katie gallantly agreed to work while Levi took classes, waiting her turn. Then, several years went by as Levi started his business and Katie pitched in, and school became a distant dream. When Levi then ran off with all their money, Katie had no choice but to return home, telling no one of what had happened to her.

Icons by Margaret Stohl

Icons (2013)
Margaret Stohl
Grade: B+
Genre: YA / dystopian
Source: NetGalley
Icons: (1) Icons

Nothing was the same after The Day. The Day when the Lords came, causing 13 Icons to fall from the sky, generating a powerful electromagnetic field that halted all electrical activity within a certain radius. The Day when 13 of the world's biggest cities became silent, dependent only upon the electricity generated by the Icons that the Lords permitted them to use. The Day that 1 billion lives came to an end.

Doloria Maria de la Cruz is an Icon Child, marked out as different by the tiny grey dot on her wrist, just “one small circle the color of the sea in the rain … [her] destiny.” Her parents and brothers died on The Day when she was just a baby, and she and her best friend Ro have been brought up together by Padre in the Grasslands, areas outside the cities, untouched by the power of the Icons and the control of the Lords and the Embassies. On the day of her seventeenth birthday, everything changes.

Etiquette for the End of the World by Jeanne Martinet

Etiquette for the End of the World (2012)
Jeanne Martinet
Grade: A
Genre: funny / contemporary / chick lit
Sex scenes: mild
Source: NetGalley

Tess Eliot is 39-years old and has just lost her column in a respected newspaper. Apparently, her recent Tess Knows Best article, with the line “The best way to a man’s heart is through his rib cage, preferably with a hack saw” went too far. Unemployed, with her agent no longer sending out her book proposal for Tess Eliot’s Quick Fixes for Life, Love, and Your Mother-in-Law, Tess is desperate for work.

She stumbles across the World Organisation for Omniscient Solstice Harbingers who are offering an inordinate sum for someone to write an etiquette guide in preparation for the end of the world. A visit to the offices of WOOSH reveals that they really do believe that the world will end on December 21 2012, as the Ancient Mayans had predicted, and they really are serious about paying Tess that much money for effectively a how-to guide. She may think they all need their heads checked out, but these are dire circumstances.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 Volume 3: Guarded by Joss Whedon / Andrew Chambliss / Georges Jeanty etc

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 9 Volume 3: Guarded (2013) (Dark Horse)

Andrew Chambliss (script), Jane Espenson (script), Drew Z. Greenberg (script), Georges Jeanty (art), Joss Whedon (creator) etc

Grade: C+

Genre: Buffy / graphic novel

Source: NetGalley
Buffy Season 9: (1) Freefall, (2) On Your Own, (3) Guarded 

The destruction of the Seed destroyed all magic. Suddenly, hundreds of Slayers were left defunct as the world no longer needed their help. To add insult to injury, vampires are now everyone’s best friend, largely thanks to Harmony’s glamorous reality television show. As might be expected, slayers are finding it difficult to adapt to this new life, and none more so than Buffy, the woman responsible.

Kennedy and her team have taken their shared plight and found an innovative solution. She’s found a way for Slayers to continue to serve and protect: as private bodyguards. For those that can afford it, they’ve got themselves the ultimate protection – and paying through their nose for the privilege. Buffy’s first charge is a high-profile tech entrepreneur, who is hiding from an enemy that Buffy is all too familiar with …

Along Came Trouble by Ruthie Knox

Along Came Trouble (2013)
Ruthie Knox
Grade: A-
Genre: contemporary romance
Sex scenes: hot
Source: NetGalley
Camelot: (1) How to Misbehave, (2) Along Came Trouble, (3) Flirting with Disaster, (4) Making it Last

Ellen Callahan might love her brother to pieces, but the reporters camped out on her driveway and sneaking up to her house from the back woods, are too much to bear for the entertainment-lawyer sister of a world-famous pop star. She has a young son to think of and doesn’t care for the fact that the reporters are making her their subject, second-best for when they can’t get shots of Carly, Ellen’s neighbour. At 7 months pregnant and the recent ex-girlfriend of Jamie Callahan, Carly is hot news, especially since Jamie’s not the father. Jamie might be powerless while he’s in LA, but he’s bringing in reinforcements.

Like This, For Ever by Sharon Bolton

I read and started this review at the end of March, straight after I read If Snow Hadn't Fallen. Yes, it's taken me this long to finish it - whoops. Here you go. Beware of hyperbole.

Like This, For Ever (2013) (Lost in the U.S.) (Bantam Press)
S. J. Bolton
Grade: A
Genre: gothic thriller horror
Sex scenes: n/a, but seriously the most frustrating sexual tension I've ever read
Source: NetGalley
Lacey Flint series: (1) Now You See Me, (1.5) If Snow Hadn't Fallen, (2) Dead Scared, (3) Like This, For Ever

S. J. Bolton scares the living shit out of me.

And yes, that’s exaggerating just a little, but it’s 3:24am, I’ve been reading for something like 5 hours, couldn’t wait to start reviewing and considering how much of my EU essay I’ve neglected, I’m in the exaggerating mood.

In just eight weeks, five young boys between 10 and 11 years old have gone missing around London, and the killer is picking up the pace. The victims are disappearing faster and bodies are turning up quicker; the latest discovery of the bodies of twin brothers Jason and Joshua is just one more reason for parents across the capital to give their sons curfews. It won’t be long before the Met starts getting the blame.

Bring on Summer!

The weather has been perfect this last week, my exams are finished and I'm FREE!

Today has been a productive day. My alarm was set for 6.15 because I was still a little paranoid from the night before that my brain was scarily taking on sieve-like characteristics. I had breakfast while spending a couple of hours of cramming and I was as ready as I would ever be. Law students aren't particularly known for their love of Equity & Trusts, especially since it's not law when compared to everything else we learn, but boy was that a nice exam.

Added to that I had a productive meeting, have organised my whole year's worth of notes within an inch of their lives, ticked three huge items off my to-do list that have been waiting to be done for weeks, and am almost done sending my final round of applications for summer internships.

Reviews are next on the list. I'm still feeling super-productive and motivated and so I might as well jump-in and get them done while I can. BRACE YOURSELVES.

#weallwin