Scandalous Desires by Elizabeth Hoyt

Scandalous Desires (2011)
Elizabeth Hoyt
Grade: B+
Genre: historical romance
Sex scenes: not quite as hot as might be expected from Elizabeth Hoyt
Source: library
Maiden Lane: (1) Wicked Intentions, (2) Notorious Pleasures

Widowed Silence Hollingbrook has a history with Charming Mickey O’Connor and it’s not a very pleasant one. A year ago, she spent the night in his bedroom (quite possibly the most innocent night of Mickey’s life) in order to free her husband from a crime he didn’t commit. Though they did nothing but stare at each other all night, neither her husband nor her siblings would believe that Mickey – the most notorious pirate in St. Giles – hadn’t touched her. When William died at sea, Silence moved into the Home for Unfortunate Infants and Foundling Children run by her brother, Winter.

As manageress of the Home, Silence must care for and ensure the safety and well-being of all the children in her care, but one child holds her heart: Mary Darling was left on her doorstep a year ago as a newborn infant and Silence has raised her as her own. When she wakes one day to find Mary Darling missing, Silence goes to the only person who might have a clue where she is: Mickey O’Connor.

Forbidden by Nicola Cornick

Forbidden (2012)
Nicola Cornick
Grade: A-
Genre: historical romance
Sex scenes: hot
Source: NetGalley
Scandalous Women of the Ton: (4) Notorious, (6) Forbidden 

The Earl of Templemore has never given up hope that his granddaughter is still alive; when new evidence arises that Lady Marguerite Catherine Rose Saint-Pierre might be living right under their noses, he sends his godson and current heir to discover the truth. Lord Henry Wardeaux is guaranteed to become penniless if this girl is indeed Lady Marguerite (the Templemore estate being only one of a handful in England that can be inherited through the female line) but Henry involves himself in the investigations anyway and finds himself drawn like a moth to a flame.

Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson

Before I Go To Sleep (2011)
S. J. Watson

Grade: B+

Genre: psychological thriller

Sex scenes: the boring type you get in mainstream fiction

Source: library

There was a lot of hype about Before I Go To Sleep when I was on a work experience at Random, which is how this book was brought to my attention. It was high in the charts and the book club title on Eastenders for that week. The concept sounded interesting and my curiosity was piqued; being a Random book, it was likely deliver. When I saw it at the library, I thought that I might as well go for it, otherwise I would never pick it up again.

Memories are precious things; without them we would have no identity, no links with our fellow humans and nothing to attach us to the world around us. Christine knows what this is like; or, at least, she re-learns what this is like on a daily basis. Every morning, she wakes up lying in a stranger’s bed, next to a married man after a one-night-stand, with no idea where she is. The truth is that she lost her memory in a terrible accident and has to re-learn everything about her life every day before she goes to sleep, only to forget it all again by morning.

A Lady's Lesson in Scandal by Meredith Duran

A Lady’s Lesson in Scandal (2011)

Meredith Duran

Grade: B-

Genre: historical romance

Sex scenes: shy of hot

Source: library

Simon St. Maur, the ninth Earl of Rushden might be titled, but he is completely penniless. The previous Earl made sure that all his money would go to his twin daughters – one of whom has been missing for more than ten years. The recently deceased Earl, however, had never given up hope and Lady Katherine Aubyn will be coming into half of the money when she comes of age. The other half is to go to Lady Cornelia Aubyn, Katherine’s twin, long presumed dead.

Nell Whitby works in a factory and the most exciting thing in her recent existence was standing up to her employers to ask for better working conditions for the girls. Her mother died several months ago and she is living with her abusive brother and his wife, trying to earn enough money to break out on her own. One night on leaving the factory, she and her friend Hannah spot a society picture of the Lady Katherine who bears a remarkable resemblance to Nell herself. Nell thinks nothing of it, but she doesn’t know what this will mean for her future.

Once Upon a Time: Dreamy

Episode 1.14

Yay for Grumpy! Only his name isn’t Grumpy: it’s Dreamy. We’ve seen him a few times in Storybrooke and he was in jail with Snow a few episodes ago. I said then that there’s an interesting take on the seven dwarves and this episode shows how Dreamy/Grumpy, Happy, Bashful, Dopey, Doc, Sleepy and Sneezy got together – oh, and Stealthy too. That’s right, there’s eight dwarves. In this set, at least.

Dwarves are brought into the world in a huge barn-like facility where hundreds of eggs are waiting to be hatched. One egg is visited by the fairy Nova and this seems to have some sort of incubating effect as it hatches early to reveal a very smile-y Grumpy. All these dwarves are destined for the mines and Grumpy is to live and work with his seven brethren. Their task is to mine diamonds and rocks that will be used to make fairydust using special axes that name their owners when they first touch them. That’s how Dreamy became Dreamy.

Once Upon a Time: Fruit of the Poisoned Tree / Skin Deep/ What Happened to Frederick?

Episodes 11, 12 and 13

This is my last 'batch' of Once Upon a Time reviews so I'm now all caught up and don't have any unfinished television reviews hanging over my head. Well, except Dollhouse. And as for book reviews - don't even get me started.

Episode 1.11: Fruit of the Poisoned Tree

It’s now the turn of the genie in the lamp and we begin with the genie being released from his lamp. His newest master is the King (who isn’t a King in fairytaleland?) who also happens to be Snow White’s father and the Evil Queen’s husband. He does a true act of kindness and sets the genie free, useing his second wish to bestow the last wish onto the genie. Back at his castle, it is clear that the King dotes on Snow and still hasn’t got over the death of his first wife; the Evil Queen leads a very morose life and the genie is smitten.

Once Upon a Time: Desperate Souls / True North / 7.15am

I seemed to have missed Desperate Souls in my review document and so had to re-jiggle all the numbers and such when I saw in my notes that the episode names didn't all match up to the former document. It's an important episode too, and so it was lucky that I saw it!

Episode 1.08: Desperate Souls

We’ve seen that Rumpelstiltskin is as pivotal a character in Once Upon a Time as Snow, James and the Evil Queen, but we don’t know much about him. It’s clear that he’s a bad guy, yet he remains the go-to man when people want something done – for a price, of course. Anyway, Desperate Souls shows us how Rumpelstiltskin got hold of his immense powers.

Once Upon a Time: A Still Small Voice / The Shepherd / The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Once Upon a Time episodes 5, 6 and 7

And now for your next Once Upon a Time digest in three manageable bites. Another four? five? episodes are being aired today as I type, so I figured that I should probably finish these round-ups before watching them. Here we go.

Episode 5: A Still Small Voice

We finally get to see Archie’s greater role in the fairytale world. We’ve already seen that he is Henry’s shrink and obeys Regina’s every demand, but we haven’t seen a glimpse of him in the other world. Henry has already told us matter-of-factly that his alter-ego is Jiminy Cricket and this episode explores his life before he becomes a cricket.

Once Upon a Time: The Thing You Love The Most / Snow Falls / The Price of Gold

Or Episodes 2, 3 and 4

We're currently going through something of a Once Upon a Time marathon in my household: so what started as a round-up of one episode has become an amalgamation of something like ten. We're watching them too fast for me to write a single review for each, so this is going to be a really quick round-up. It’s got to the point where I can’t even round-up in a single post anymore because there are too many episodes to do it for.

Beware of some MAJOR spoilers. Had I done individual reviews, I would have probably tried to hold off for as long as possible, but considering all that I've now seen (and how all the episodes are blurring together in my head) it's not really possibly anymore. So here we go.

Episode 2: The Thing You Love the Most

Evil v. Good

Emma is more determined than ever to remain in Storybrooke, Maine (for reasons that I didn't mention in my first post and will still not do so here - much too spoilerific!) despite the Mayor (Evil Queen's) attempts to push her out. The Mayor/Evil Queen is Henry's adopted mum and it's clear that he is very unhappy with his home life and is deeply caught up in the book that everyone else thinks is just a crazy fantasy. His mum has been sending Henry to a shrink for years.

Once Upon a Time: Pilot

This is my newest favourite show. Heroes and Heartbreakers do an episode-by-episode breakdown as the series runs in America and so while I've refrained from reading them, the show has been sitting on my to-be-watched list for a while. About a month ago, I was scrolling through the channel listings on the television and saw it on. There aren't words for how excited I got. Granted, it was two episodes in the middle of the first season (Red-Handed and Heart of Darkness) and while it's not the easiest show to get to grips with if you don't watch from the start, I had enough of the basic gist of the show to mostly understand everything.

I think it's something that I've said before, but I have a thing about re-tellings of fairytales. Beauty by Robin McKinley features somewhere in my top twenty books and Beauty and the Beast is definitely my favourite fairytale to read. I've recently read books two and three in Eloisa James' Happily Ever After series (reviews to come) and they were brilliant. So far, Ms James has covered Cinderella (A Kiss at Midnight), Beauty and the Beast (When Beauty Tamed the Beast), The Princess and the Pea (The Duke is Mine) and The Ugly Duckling (The Ugly Duchess). The last will be released in October and after reading books two and three, the fourth in the series has become one of my most highly anticipated books of 2012. Fairytales are just one of my things.

Linkety Links

These few days, I haven't been doing much except sit in front of the TV and watch the Olympic coverage. An amazing four gold medals today as well as two silver and a bronze - such a shame that Victoria Pendleton didn't make the three golds she'd been hoping for to make her the most decorated female GB Olympian in history. Still, two golds and a silver is nothing to sniff at.

In other news, I've just re-found the excerpt from The Angel, book two in Tiffany Reisz's The Original Sinners series, due to be released in 24 September 2012. When I saw the link on Ms Reisz's website, I got so excited, thinking that this was new and I hadn't read it before. A quick glance shows me that I have (not that I remember this) and it's nothing that I haven't seen before. Still, I'm going to be re-reading it in a sec. Awesome stuff.

The Last Boyfriend by Nora Roberts

The Last Boyfriend (2012) (Piatkus)

Nora Roberts

Grade: C

Genre: contemporary romance

Sex scenes: mild

Source: library
Inn Boonsboro: (1) The Last Goodbye, (2) The Last Boyfriend, (3) The Perfect Hope

Only the last finishing touches are left on the construction side of things at the Inn Boonsboro and the Montgomery brothers are almost ready to step back and allow the women in with the furniture to make the inn start to look like the finished article. With Beckett handling the plans, Ryder the main design work and Owen making sure that all the tiny details are seen to, the Montgomery brothers - under the watchful eye of their mother, Justine - make a formidable team. The Inn had been in a derelict state for years before the Montgomerys added it to their portfolio and soon the building will be fully restored to its former glory, much to the excitement of everyone in the town.

The most awesome thing about Inn Boonsboro is that the rooms are named after famous literary couples. Guests have a choice between Elizabeth and Darcy, Titania and Oberon, Nick and Nora, Marguerite and Percy, Jane and Rochester, Westley and Buttercup, Eve and Roarke and The Penthouse. Each is decorated in its own unique style to match the relevant time period and it sounds lush. Even better is that Inn Boonsboro is an actual place in NR’s actual hometown, making it that tiny bit awesome. I admit to being rather disappointed by the photos of the real thing (Titania and Oberon and Westley and Buttercup look the best) as my imagination had gone rather wild at all the brilliant descriptions in the books, but nevertheless, it’s a great concept for a hotel.

Yay for first Team GB golds!

Well, today was a most productive day at the office.

Out of a regular nine in the main office, there were only four of us and the amount of work we got finished today astounds me - really. We spent ten minutes watching the awesome Helen Glover and Heather Stanning row to victory where they were more than a whole length ahead of the other competitors, and then nearly an hour this afternoon glued to the sofas as Bradley Wiggins became the most decorated Olympic athlete in British history. Mentions also to the mens' eight and Chris Froome who all bagged bronze medals to push Team GB into tenth position in the medals tables - whoo!!!

All this makes up for the fact that (a) I was given the most boring, time-consuming task EVER that I couldn't even finish and (b) that when I tried to watch all the action live on my laptop, it was delayed at least a whole minute because the laptop must be the crappiest one in the whole office. Oh well.

Fingers crossed that our four medals today spurs the rest of Team GB to victory. Off now to watch the mens' individual all-round gymnastic finals - will we manage another?

Forever and a Day by Jill Shalvis

Forever and a Day (2012)

Jill Shalvis

Grade: A

Genre: contemporary romance

Sex scenes: hot

Source: NetGalley
Lucky Harbour series: (4) Lucky in Love, (5) At Last, (6) Forever and a Day

When Grace Brooks was stranded in Eat Me diner, Lucky Harbour during a freak snowstorm several months ago, her plan was never to stay in town for very long. The adopted daughter of a rocket scientist and research biologist, her parents have always had high expectations for their only child. Grace might not have followed them into science, but she has her CPA and is expected to earn a nice salary with a big firm. Instead, she’s living in a B&B, earning money by delivering flowers and modelling for art classes amongst other things. At least she has her new best friends, Amy and Mallory to turn to. And chocolate – can’t forget the chocolate.

Dr Josh Scott has way too much on his plate and not enough hours in the day to cope with it all. A car accident five years ago killed both his parents and left his younger sister Anna in a wheelchair; Anna wants to use her compensation money to go travelling across Europe with her flaky new boyfriend; Josh’s ex-wife deserted him several years ago and he is bringing up their son, Toby, by himself; Anna has just bought Toby a dog and in his excitement, Toby has taken to barking instead of speaking; Josh is torn between the ER and the practice set up by his dad which he's being pressurised to sell and; Tank (the dog) is a nightmare on four legs that Josh only wishes he could get rid of.

Pleasures of a Tempted Lady by Jennifer Haymore

Pleasures of a Tempted Lady (2012)

Jennifer Haymore

Grade: C+

Genre: historical romance/ship

Sex scenes: mild

Source: NetGalley

Everyone had believed Miss Margaret Donovan – Meg to her family – to have drowned eight years ago when she fell overboard during the journey home to Antigua with her twin sister Serena. Serena had been involved in a scandal with Jonathan Dane, Earl of Stratford and the sisters were being sent home in disgrace. Meg’s body had never been found and it was assumed that she was dead.

Meg had been rescued by the pirate Jacob Caversham – a fate worse than drowning. He’s a brutal, selfish and ruthless man and when he discovers that Meg is an English lady, he decides to keep her to teach his (kidnapped) wife how to act amongst polite society. Meg manages to form a lasting friendship with the beautiful but common Sarah, mother of Caversham’s son, Jake. When Sarah dies, Meg takes the chance she’s been waiting for and escapes Caversham’s ship with Jake, heading for her father's family in Ireland.

One Foot in the Grave by Jeaniene Frost

One Foot in the Grave (2008)

Jeaniene Frost

Grade: C

Genre: paranormal romance

Sex scenes: hot

Source: library
Night Huntress series: (1) Halfway to the Grave; (2) One Foot in the Grave, (3) At Grave's End

We open with Cat four years older than we saw her last, entering the house of a Master vampire alone. She heads up the supernatural division of the FBI and trains other men to work with her. At the end of HTTG, her future boss, Don, had used threats of exposure to coerce Cat into taking the position and for the safety of her mother, Cat reluctantly agreed. This meant leaving Bones and she hasn’t seen him since.

Who would have guessed that the Master Cat had been sent to exterminate would be Ian, Bones’ sire? Cat suggests to Ian that she and Bones parted on bad terms because she has no wish for Ian to know of the full extent of their relationship, nor for him to communicate to Bones that she still misses him like crazy. Cat can’t bring herself to kill Ian like ordered because without what he did, she would have never met Bones; instead, she allows Ian to run on the condition that she never sees him again. Little does Cat know that this is exactly what will make her Ian’s greatest prize …