We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

We Should All Be Feminists (2014) (Fourth Estate)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Grade: A+
Genre: non-fiction
Source: own

Fiction RBC 2014: A book of non-fiction 

Watch the TEDx talk here.

Adapted from her phenomenal TEDx talk of the same name, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie draws upon her experiences growing up in Nigeria and uses her gift for storytelling to put forward a persuasive argument for why we should all be feminists and what every man, woman, boy, girl and parent can do to contribute towards the equality of the sexes.

Harder by Robin York

Harder (2014) (Bantam Dell)
Robin York a.k.a. Ruthie Knox
Grade: A+
Genre: New Adult
Sex scenes: hot
Source: NetGalley
Caroline & West: (1) Deeper, (2) Harder

YA Reading Bingo Challenge 2014: A book without a love triangle

A year ago, Caroline Piasecki’s life was turned upside down when she became a victim of revenge porn. Thanks to her ex-boyfriend, everyone at college suddenly knew who she was, what she looked like naked, and she was receiving daily explicit messages from strangers taking advantage of her plight. A less-than-conventional relationship with campus bad-boy West Leavitt makes her happier than she’s ever been, giving her the confidence to overcome this hurdle in her life – until family circumstances force West to give up his scholarship and return home to Oregon.

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 …

Deeper by Robin York

Deeper (2014) (Bantam Dell)

Robin York a.k.a. Ruthie Knox

Grade: A+

Genre: New Adult

Sex scenes: hot

Source: NetGalley 

Caroline & West: (1) Deeper, (2) Harder

YA Reading Bingo Challenge 2014: A book that made you cry

Warning: intentionally crude language ahead. 

Caroline Piasecki was always the good girl: a good daughter to her widower father, a good student planning to follow her father into the law and a good girlfriend of three years to her high-school boyfriend. That is, until she broke up with Nate the summer before she returned to Putnam for her sophomore year in what she thought was an amicable break-up. When her naked pictures are suddenly all over the Internet attached with her name, home town and college, Caroline’s knows her good girl status is lost forever. Instead, she’s a slut, a whore, a dirty bitch who deserves what’s coming to her. That’s what the anonymous messages all echo and what the refrain in her head drums repeatedly like a broken record: she deserved it.

Blue-Eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas

Blue-Eyed Devil (2008) (Piatkus)
Lisa Kleypas
Grade: A+
Genre: contemporary romance
Sex scenes: hot
Source: own 
Travis family: (1) Sugar Daddy, (2) Blue-Eyed Devil

As the youngest and only daughter of the “market wizard” Churchill Travis and society beauty Ava, Haven has always been a bit of a rebel. Churchill has no qualms about setting one standard for his three sons and another for his only daughter, never scared about giving any of his children a big dose of reality. As a result, Haven has always rebelled against what her parents want and expect of her. Haven meets Nick Tanner while studying at her liberal arts college and when she marries Nick without Churchill’s blessing, she’s quickly disinherited.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 Volume 2: On Your Own by Joss Whedon / Andrew Chambliss / Georges Jeanty etc

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 Volume 2: On Your Own 
(On Your Own Parts 1 & 2, Apart (Of Me) Parts 1, 2 & 3) (2012) (Dark Horse)

Andrew Chambliss (script), Scott Allie (script), Georges Jeanty (pencils), Cliff Richards (pencils), Karl Story (inks), Andy Owens (inks), Dexter Vines (inks), Jo Chen (cover art), Joss Whedon (creator) etc
Grade: B
Genre: Buffy / graphic novel
Source: NetGalley / own
Buffy Season 9: (1) Freefall, (2) On Your Own, (3) Guarded

So, do I reveal the spoiler or not? My initial reaction was ‘yes, of course,’ but that’s my gut reaction to everything: just blurt out whatever’s running through my head. Reviews can get across the message of a book without any spoiler-ing at all, and since that was my frame of mind when I started typing this review, that’s what I’m going with – just to make y’all buy and read the book for yourself. I mean sure, you can probably find the spoiler with the help of our good friend Google without much effort, but I’m just going to be mean and refuse to state it. This is quite possibly my most deliberate spoiler-free review ever.

So at the end of Buffy Season 9 Volume One, Buffy had something of a problem on her hands. It wasn’t something she had ever had a problem with before, or even something she had ever considered. The life of a Slayer is usually too unnaturally short for this to ever become a non-issue, let alone an issue, and so Buffy is completely lost for what to do. Willow is still pissed at her for the whole destroying-magic thing and Dawn is happily settled into life with Xander, and so she turns to her go-to guy when things start getting tough: Spike.

Whitney, My Love by Judith McNaught

Whitney, My Love (1985) (I read the 1999 reissue)
Judith McNaught
Grade: C
Genre: historical romance
Sex scenes: that 80s type; controversial rape/almost-rape scene, depending on which version you read

Source: own, second-hand

The wilful and defiant Whitney Stone has driven her father so completely mad with her unashamed and brazen pursuit of the reluctant Paul Sevarin that he has decided to send her away to Paris with her aunt and uncle. Whitney is distraught; she is convinced that Paul is her one-and-only true love and to be separated from him like this (even though Paul has only ever given the impression that Whitney is a spoilt, childish little girl) ruins all her plans for the future she has planned for them. When it becomes clear that Whitney has no choice in the matter, she becomes determined to come back from Paris such a changed woman so that Paul will be falling at her feet begging her to marry him …

The Siren by Tiffany Reisz

The Siren (2012)
Tiffany Reisz
Grade: A-/B+
Genre: erotica
Sex scenes: S&M, graphically hot and not for the faint-of-heart, but a lot less detailed and fewer and further between than I had been expecting
Source: NetGalley
The Original Sinners (The Red Years): (prequel) Seven Day Loan (1) The Siren, (2) The Angel, (3) The Prince, (4) The Mistress

Tiffany Reisz is not your average erotica author, the corollary being that The Siren is not your average erotica novel. It's been a long time (if there has indeed ever been such an occasion) that a book has simultaneously made me want to cry while thumping it repeatedly against the wall in anger - the latter I might have actually done if I hadn't been reading on my laptop and thus another reason why print reigns supreme. Not that I'm complaining about free galleys.

By day, thirty-three year old Nora Sutherlin is a popular erotica writer; by night she's the most sought-after Dominatrix in New York. She sees clients at her leisure and commands astronomical figures for an hour usually spent beating the shit out of whichever masochist will pay the most - male or female. But Nora hadn't always been this popular; she's a Switch. Until five years ago when she left him, she had belonged to Søren since she was fifteen years old. Nora might currently be New York's number two Dominant, but Søren has always been number one and there's no one that Nora is more afraid of - or more in love with. He's a complete sadist and revered in the Underground for the pain and torture he can inflict on submissives. Griffin (Nora's friend and number seven Dominant) sums it up nicely:

Falling for Rachel by Nora Roberts

Falling for Rachel (1993)
Nora Roberts
Grade: A-
Genre: romantic suspense
Sex scenes: standard mild and dreamy NR
Source: own
Stanislaski series: (1) Taming Natasha

I'm actually quite surprised. With all the stuff that I wrote in my review of Taming Natasha about the majority of later books in NR series being subpar, I've allowed myself the night to reflect and sitting here with my green tea (just plain), I find myself having enjoyed Falling for Rachel just as much as the previous two books in the series.

Rachel is a public defendant, worked off her feet. When she is assigned Nicholas LeBeck's case, she manages to see beyond his tough facade and sees the shaken, vulnerable boy underneath his gang jacket. He may be guilty of burglary and theft, but since he won't give up the names of his fellow gang members, Rachel is determined to save him from jail. So is Zack, Nick's step-brother. he puts up bail, agrees to pay for all the stolen merchandise, not just what was found on Nick, and gives Nick a home and a job at his bar, Lower the Boom.

Judge Beckett agrees to a two-month probationary period to monitor Nick. What Rachel and Zack hadn't counted on was being appointed Nick's co-guardians.