The Friend Zone by Kristen Callihan

The Friend Zone (2015) (self-published)
Kristen Callihan
Grade: A-
Genre: New Adult
Sex scenes: hot
Source: own

Game On: (1) The Hook Up, (2) The Friend Zone

Romance RBC 2015: A new adult book

The daughter of a sports agent, Ivy Mackenzie knows better than to get involved with a football star, especially a guy like Gray Grayson who can’t turn around without bumping into another one of his sexual conquests. But what starts out as just harmless banter and texting while Ivy spends a year abroad with her mother quickly becomes much more when Ivy returns home. Not only have Ivy and Gray become the best of friends and each other’s better half through their endless texting, but the irresistible sexual spark that’s constantly been simmering in the background flares to life when they meet in the flesh. It all makes for an irresistible read: while Ivy is insistent that she won’t follow the cliché and just become another notch on Gray’s bedpost, Gray is similarly determined to seduce the pants off of Ivy – Game On.

Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde

Something Rotten (2004) (Hodder)
Jasper Fforde
Grade: A-
Genre: fiction / crime / alternate reality
Source: own
Thursday Next: (1) The Eyre Affair, (2) Lost in a Good Book, (3) The Well of Lost Plots, (4) Something Rotten

TBR RBC 2015: A book by Jasper Fforde 

After two years as the ‘Bellman’, head of Jurisfiction in The Well of Lost Plots (the place where all fiction is written), Thursday has decided that she’s had enough. While the work keeps her busy and certainly keeps her busy, she needs to get back to the real world to get her husband, Landen, uneradicated by the mammoth Goliath corporation and let her son grow up in a world out of books. Tasked with acclimatising Hamlet to the real world, evading both her official stalker and the assassin trying to kill her, stopping a coup against President George Formby, trying to save all Danish books from a terrible fate and preventing the end of the world with an awesome game of Superhoop, will Thursday ever have time to fix her own troubles?

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

Prep (2005) (Quality Paperbacks Direct, by arrangement with Picador)
Curtis Sittenfeld
Grade: A-
Genre: young adult
Sex scenes: mild
Source: own

TBR RBC 2015: A classic YA novel 

When 15-year-old Lee Fiora is offered a scholarship at prestigious boarding school Ault, her parents, though puzzled about why she would choose this education, reluctantly allows their eldest child to move away. But boarding school isn’t quite what Lee envisaged after the glossy brochures and her preconceived ideas about what life and classes would be like. Very much an outsider for her four years at Ault, Prep follows Lee as she establishes a tenuous position in the school’s hierarchy, until one thoughtless mistake throws her life into the balance …

Immersed in Pleasure by Tiffany Reisz

Immersed in Pleasure (2012) (Harlequin) (novella)
Tiffany Reisz
Grade: A-
Genre: erotica
Sex scenes: hot

Source: own

The Manhattan Mermaids are said to be the most exclusive, beautiful women in New York, entertaining wealthy and powerful men in an elite club called The Fathoms. As if that wasn’t enough, they’re all virgins. Like many others, Derek Prince doesn’t believe they exist until he meets the tempting and mysterious Xenia. She drives him crazy with desire, but a relationship would mean losing her position at Fathoms. Will Derek wait? But more importantly, will Xenia leave her life and the security of The Fathoms?

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2007) (Phoenix)
Paul Torday
Grade: A-
Genre: fiction
Source: own

General RBC 2015: A book that became a film 

Dr Alfred Jones, a respected fisheries scientist with the National Centre for Fisheries Excellence and an avid fisherman, has been tasked with the impossible: to introduce salmon to the Yemen. Coerced by his boss and political manoeuvring higher-up, Fred takes on the project against his better judgement. But as time passes, he can’t help but be enticed by the conviction of Sheikh Muhammad ibn Zaidi bani Tihama, Yemeni national who is funding the project and who is deeply passionate about bringing fly-fishing to the desert. Working closely with the Sheikh’s agent, Harriet Chetwode-Talbot of Fitzharris & Price, this outlandish task sees Fred out of the comforts of his office and jetting between Scotland and the Yemen, forced to deal with meddling politicians and administrators while working through a particularly rocky time in his 20-year marriage. This project is an upstream battle, defying even common sense, until he can hardly recognise the man he has become …

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

Sweethearts (2008) (Little, Brown)
Sara Zarr
Grade: A-
Genre: young adult
Source: own

General RBC 2015: A classic YA novel 

Once upon a time, Jennifer Harris and Cameron Quick were best friends. Social outcasts at school, they came to depend on each other in a way that only they understood. When one day Cameron doesn’t turn up for school and Jennifer is told that he’s dead, her world is turned upside down. Now in high school, Jennifer Harris is no more. ‘Jenna’ has a happy family after her mum remarried, a close-knit group of friends and a doting boyfriend of three months. When Cameron returns out of the blue, Jenna’s life is thrown out-of-sync – again. As their relationship clicks back into place as if picking up where they left off, they are both forced to remember their shared history and Jenna’s new life suddenly hangs in the balance …

Total Eclipse by Rachel Caine

Total Eclipse (2010) (ROC)
Rachel Caine
Grade: A-
Genre: urban fantasy
Sex scenes: mild
Source: own
Weather Wardens: (1) Ill Wind, (2) Heat Stroke, (3) Chill Factor, (4) Windfall, (5) Firestorm, (6) Thin Air, (7) Gale Force, (8) Cape Storm, (9) Total Eclipse

Romance RBC 2014: A book with magic 

Joanne Baldwin used to be one of the Wardens’ most powerful assets – able to control the Weather, Fire and Earth – but her powers have come at a cost. In a world where a select group of gifted individuals have the ability to manipulate the earth’s elements in order to control natural disasters and save millions of innocent and otherwise ignorant lives, Mother Nature is striking back. The human race has damaged the world beyond repair and Mother Nature is beyond angry. Harnessing the Djinn’s power for her own, forest fires are destroying huge swathes of land, oceans are putting countries under water and in the midst of everything, the human race is becoming desperate …

Panic by Lauren Oliver

Panic (2014) (Hodder)
Lauren Oliver
Grade: A-
Genre: young adult
Source: bookbridgr

Fiction RBC 2014: A book with a mystery

Panic started in the town of Carp, population 12,000, for two reasons: because it was summer, and because there was nothing else to do. Now, Panic has become an institution. Played by recent high school graduates, participants sign up to compete in literal life-or-death challenges for the chance to win $67,000. People have died and two years ago, a girl was left paralysed from the waist down after her car was tampered with so that she would lose at the last hurdle. Still, Panic goes on.

True Betrayals by Nora Roberts

True Betrayals (1995) (Jove Books)
Nora Roberts
Grade: A-
Genre: romantic suspense
Sex scenes: mild
Source: own 
Romance RBC 2014: A book by Nora Roberts

Newly divorced Kelsey Byden has lived a spoiled, pampered life, allowed to indulge her passion for learning and never having to settle with one job for long. All her life, she’s been told that her mother died when she was a baby, and she’s had the loving care of her father, an English Professor at Georgetown University and her stepmother, Candace. Then, Kelsey gets the shock of her life: her mother is alive and well, the owner of Three Willows, a thoroughbred farm in Virginia. The reason for the deception? Naomi was sentenced to prison for murdering her alleged lover.

Every Day by David Levithan

Every Day (2014) (Egmont)
David Levithan
Grade: A-
Genre: young adult
Source: own

Young adult RBC 2014: A book with an epic love story 

A wakes up in a different body every day – A doesn’t identify with any gender and has become used to his abnormal life. Boy or girl, fat or thin, homosexual or straight, athletic or academic, nasty or nice, A has experienced it all. For the purposes of this review, we’ll refer to A as a male. A closes his eyes at night and know that when morning comes, he will be in another body, ready for another day of pretending to be another stranger.

War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

War Horse (1982) (Egmont)
Michael Morpurgo
Grade: A-
Genre: children's
Source: own

Fiction RBC 2014: A best-selling book 

When a young colt is sold at an auction, he doesn’t expect to find a friend and loyal master in Albert, a boy at a Devonshire farm who names his new love, Joey. A beautiful red-bay foal with a distinctive cross on his nose, Joey is forced to become a farm horse by Albert’s father in order to ‘earn his keep.’ When the war breaks out, Joey is sold again to a Captain Nicholls to be used as a war horse, travelling over to France and facing the horrors of the First World War. Finding a friend in another thoroughbred horse, Topthorn, he and Joey lead a cavalry charge towards enemy lines, being captured by the Germans in the process. War Horse tells the story of Joey’s journey across Europe and Albert’s mission to be reunited with the horse he loves.

Roman Holiday: The Complete Adventure by Ruthie Knox

Roman Holiday: The Complete Adventure (2014) (Loveswept) (serial)
Ruthie Knox
Grade: A-
Genre: contemporary romance/funny
Sex scenes: hot
Source: NetGalley

RBC 2014: A funny book 

Ashley Bowman will do anything and everything she can to stop her late grandmother’s Florida Keys holiday resort being knocked down by a developer – even chain herself to a tree on the grounds just as a hurricane is about to hit. Once she meets Roman Diaz, she’s determined to prove to him exactly how his plans are going to affect the elderly community who have been visiting the resort for years – even if it means she has to drag him across the country to do it.

A Dark and Twisted Tide by Sharon Bolton

These past three-and-a-half weeks have been a crazy haze of essay writing, editing, reading and revision. I have pretty much lost all sense of dates and days of the week, but there remains a ticking countdown in my head checking off the days and hours until my degree is finally over. I'm handing in four essays totalling 15,000 words in four days, my first exam starts in five days and the last exam of my academic career is in twelve. As much as I can't wait for the freedom, I also wouldn't mind if another couple of weeks materialised somewhere so I can revise some more!

Anyway, that's the reason why the blog has been dead for a month. A Dark and Twisted Tide was one of my most anticipated books for 2014 and is published today (8 May) and so here's my review. Now, back to the edits and revision ...


A Dark and Twisted Tide (2014) (Bantam Press)
Sharon Bolton
Grade: A-
Genre: gothic thriller crime
Sex scenes: MORE sexual tension
Source: NetGalley
Lacey Flint: (1) Now You See Me, (1.5) If Snow Hadn't Fallen, (2) Dead Scared, (3) Like This, For Ever, (4) A Dark and Twisted Tide

Fiction Reading Bingo Challenge 2014: A book by a female author 

Crime keeps coming to find former detective Lacey Flint. After her last big case, Lacey took the difficult decision of going back into uniform and taking life easy – or so she’d hoped. She’s now part of the Thames Marine Unit, getting used to living on a houseboat and her new peaceful lifestyle, but murder has other ideas. Swimming in the Thames one morning, Lacey comes across a body laboriously wrapped and preserved in some sort of burial ritual that the police are unable to identify. Lacey can’t help but get involved and her former team are more than willing to have her back.

Missing You by Meg Cabot

Missing You (2006) (HarperTempest)

Meg Cabot

Grade: A-

Genre: young adult

Source: own 

Missing: (1) When Lightning Strikes, (2) Code Name Cassandra, (3) Safe House, (4) Sanctuary, (5) Missing You 

Jessica Mastriani is trying to live a normal life. After being hit by lightning when she was sixteen, she developed a power to find missing people that changed her life forever. All Jess wanted to do was find the kids who appeared in the ‘Missing’ ads on the back of milk cartons, but the FBI had other ideas. When she was asked to go to Afghanistan and join the war effort, she couldn’t say no and the experience has left scars that have yet to heal.

Daughter of Camelot by Glynis Cooney

Daughter of Camelot (2013) (Mabon Publishing)
Glynis Cooney
Grade: A-
Genre: young adult / Arthurian legend / fantasy
Source: NetGalley 
YA Reading Bingo Challenge 2014: A book based on a myth

About to celebrate their fourteenth birthdays, twins Deirdre and Rhys are inseparable. In their superstitious community, twins are a sign of bad luck, but they have learnt to ignore the stares and whispers. Her father has always turned a blind eye at Deirdre’s boyish exploits with her brother and best friend Reece, but that’s about to change. Rhys is to embark on the last stage of his training to become a Knight while Deirdre is to accompany her older sister Nia to learn the finer points of etiquette in being a lady.

Court life is much different to what Deirdre had expected. With news of Lancelot and Guinevere’s betrayal fresh on everybody’s lips, kingdoms are quickly taking sides and it is up to Deirdre and Nia to learn all they can in their family’s pledge to support the High King. Court politics are complicated and for Deirdre, dangerous when she overhears a traitorous conversation that wasn’t intended for her ears. She suddenly finds herself in the middle of a conspiracy that she’s determined to topple as part of her bid to thwart Arthur’s destiny …

Lady Sophia's Lover by Lisa Kleypas

Lady Sophia's Lover (2002) (Piatkus)
Lisa Kleypas
Grade: A-
Genre: historical romance
Sex scenes: hot
Source: own 
Bow Street Runners: (1) Someone to Watch Over Me, (2) Lady Sophia's Lover

Sophia Sydney will get her revenge on Sir Ross Cannon. Orphaned at a young age with no money or estate left when their father, the Viscount died, Sophia and her brother John were left to fend for themselves. Sophia eventually landed herself a respectable job as housekeeper for a distant cousin, but John ran off the rails and ended up being sent off on a prison hulk ship, dying of cholera and buried in a mass grave. The man who sent him to his unjust fate? Sir Ross Cannon, Chief Magistrate of the Bow Street Runners, paragon and monk of Bow Street.

The Guild by Felicia Day and Jim Rugg

The Guild (2010) (Dark Horse)
Felicia Day and Jim Rugg
Grade: A-
Genre: graphic novel
Source: library

Cyd Sherman is a violinist in an orchestra (she sits right at the back) with a boyfriend in a band who spends more time trying to make his band ‘unique’ than with her. As if her life wasn’t depressing enough, her gay father has guilt-tripped her into therapy and her therapist thinks that she’s anti-social. The day that she buys her first computer game changes her life irreparably.

Online, Cyd is a whole different person – literally. Under the name of Codex, Cyd can battle dragons, rescue princesses and win gold to buy herself a snazzy new outfit or weapons. With her new friends, Zaboo, Vork, Bladezz, Clara and Tink, they form a Guild called the Knights of Good. As Priestess, Codex can do anything and before long, she becomes immersed in this fantasy world.

The Secret by Julie Garwood

The Secret (1992) (Simon and Schuster)
Julie Garwood
Grade: A-
Genre: medieval romance
Sex scenes: mild
Source: eBay
Highlands' Lairds: (1) The Secret, (2) Ransom

Judith and Frances Catherine became best friends before they even knew they were natural enemies. The English and Scots don’t mix, but four-year-old girls aren’t ones to understand such feuds and by that point, their friendship is too firm to break. Judith lives in England: six months with her wonderful aunt and uncle near the Scottish border, and the other six months with her unloving mother and drunk uncle Tekel. Her time with Aunt Millicent and Uncle Herbert is the time of year she gets to see Frances Catherine, and the happiest time of her life.

When Beauty Tamed the Beast by Eloisa James

When Beauty Tamed the Beast (2011)
Eloisa James
Grade: A-
Genre: historical romance / fairytale-retelling
Sex scenes: a notch hotter than mild
Source: library
Happily Ever After: (1) A Kiss at Midnight, (2) When Beauty Tamed the Beast, (3) The Duke is Mine, (4) The Ugly Duchess

Miss Linnet Berry Thrynne is A Beauty. She takes after her mother (not a good thing) and has the whole Ton at her heels. This has attracted the attention of Prince Augustus and after spotted kissing at a ball, the Ton put this together with her naturally overly-large bosom, and the fact that her dress was particularly voluminous, as if she had something to hide, coming to the scandalous conclusion that she’s pregnant. Her own father doesn’t believe her and overnight, Linnet is no longer the Ton’s pinnacle of innocence.

Making it Last by Ruthie Knox

Making it Last (2013) (novella)
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

Amber Mazzara has been married for ten years, loves her three kids to pieces, but has had enough. After ten years of constantly having to look after at least one child, all her boys are now in school, leaving her bereft as she waits at home for them to finish school; her husband Tony is forced to travel to where the work is as the housing market has yet to pick up, and Amber feels like she’s losing herself.