J.D Ward "Dark Lover"

A friend of mine got me the first two books in the "Black Dagger Brotherhood". It is a vampire novel and usually I am pretty anal went it comes to Vampire novels. I have loved Vampire novels waaaaayyyy before Twilight became popular, so I'm a bit skeptical when I pick up a Vampire novel at this time because I don't want to read more about sparkly vampires. J.D Ward's book was AMAZING! I totally and completely loved it! I couldn't put this book down! And when I had to all I could think about was getting back to it as soon as possible.

You are introduced to the Black Dagger Brotherhood, who are a group of male vampires who are the strongest of their kind and they fight against the lessers (humans who have sold their soul to Omega (the devil) destined to kill off vampires). It is a fight that has been going on for centuries and it's getting worse since the lessers are becoming insane and  hunting for power. The novel has the gore of vampire novels and has some romance as well. The lead character can sometimes be a bit "emo" but that's forgiven when you see how his character fits into the atmosphere of the brotherhood.

The author includes a very helpful glossary of terms at the beginning of the book. Usually I pay no attention to those and I just fumble through the book. Something about the way that this book is written made me want to know exactly what every word meant. It was nice to be introduced to this whole new world and know exactly what words like shellan, hellren and lessers meaned.

When I first started this series I was a little bit wary considering how much I love vampire novels and I'm pretty snobby -I guess- when it comes to the Vampires attributes and how the author determines what the Vampires' bodies can and cannot do (i.e. some get sparkly in the sunlight....whereas these ones burst into ash). This novel satisfied my snobbiness and has made me want more of the books and the characters. I am so excited to start the next novel of the series.  My only concern is that, this series may have started out strong but it may dwindle into boring drab or the other alternative and become so cruel and revolting.(such as, Anita Blake Series.....a series that I had had so much hope for and now I have stopped reading it since I can't take the grotesque manner of description and the amount of cruelty. I know it's fiction but I shouldn't be wanting to shower after reading something so obscene.)

Unfortunately, I cannot go into more detail about the story line since my two followers of this blog will be reading the book come Christmas break. All I can suggest is....YOU HAVE TO READ IT!

Much Love <3,
Ginger Spudman

Next Book: J.D Ward "Lover Eternal"

"Blue Eyed Devil" "Sugar Daddy" and "Wicked Appetite"

So I am three books behind in posting! My bad!! I will go from oldest to newest.

"Blue Eyed Devil" and "Sugar Daddy" are two novels from the same family. The Travises. I read them in the wrong order but I still managed through. In "Sugar Daddy" you are introduced to Liberty Jones and Hardy Cates, two young people in a texas trailer park. As the story unfolds you really do feel for these two characters who love eachother but Hardy will not allow himself to love her in return. Kinda like star-crossed lovers.... We all know that story! Anyways, Hardy eventually gets out of the trailer park and he's gone for a while, leaving Liberty in the trailer park to take care of her little baby sister, Carrington. After a number of twists and emotional upsets, we meet Gabe Travis. At first he is the biggest asshole and you hate him with everything you have....then of course, he does something romantic and you love him to bits. That's all I'm saying about plot.

Second, "Blue Eyed Devil" is the story of Mr. Hardy Cates and another Travis....the little sister, Haven Travis. At first the reader is thrown off because you are introduced to Haven's boyfriend Nick who seems all romantic and wonderful until she elopes with him. Their relationship becomes severly abusive (it was enough to make me put the book down for a while) until she finally manages to escape to the safety of her brother Gage Travis. Then Hardy Cates strolled back into her life........

I really do enjoy Lisa Kleypas' way of writing. She introduces her reader to a number of interesting characters and makes them have a pivotal role in the story. Not just one of those characters who come in and go and have no impact. Her books are usually around 250-300 word mark and boy does she ever use that space wisely. Everything plays a role in the story, she never just writes something for the sake of writing it....it has an impact. It normally takes me two days to read a Kleypas novel....partly because I want to read it so quickly because I am in love with her characters but also because I don't want to read too quickly and then it all be over. There is no pleasing me when it comes to books :P

Next: Janet Evanovich "Wicked Appetite"

I love Janet Evanovich. I think she is absolutely hilarious and her books are created to pull you into a happy mood. She wrote the Stephanie Plum series....the story of a bounty hunter who is the worst bounty hunter ever. Her travels and experiences are what makes her a badass bounty hunter.
In the Plum series, Evanovich wrote the "In-between-series" which fall between the Plum series but don't exactly have an impact on the orginal series. In the "in-betweens" you meet a character named Diesel. He is an Unmentionable...he has some magic ability but he never talks about it because he is a handsome Unmentionable. 
This novel stars Diesel but instead of Stephanie Plum you are introduced to Lizzy...a fellow Unmentionable who doesn't know she is an Unmentionable, the only thing she knows is that she makes really amazing cupcakes. The story line is a bit hard to follow if you aren't used to Evanovich's style....by that I mean she can be walking in a straight line for about 2 minutes then all of a sudden she has turned to the right and now the whole story line has changed and the reader kinda has to think "wtf?" then go back and re-read a couple of pages.
Personally, I thought this book was really well written and it was really funny but I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone who is not already familiar with her style and characters. I still prefer the Plum Series but I feel that this was a rush job and didn't really tie up properly. The ending kind of just showed up and ta-da it was finished.
I guess I'm not that satisfied with this novel. I still love Evanovich, I'm just glad that I didn't buy this novel.

Next novel : "Dark Lover" by J.D Ward

Much Love <3,
Ginger Spudman

Scandalous

So last night I finished Tilly Bagshawe's "Scandalous".

Usually I love absolutely everything about Bagshawe's style, her characters, dialogue and storyline. This novel is no different except the ending.... I have absolutely no idea where it came from.

When you read a Bagshawe novel you can expect some romance, humor, manipulation, sex (lots of it...some of it is a big kinky) and back stabbing. She introduces you to one or two new characters each chapter and then eventually they all come together and interact with one another. She uses the same style with all of her novels that I have read (Do Not Disturb, Scandalous, Flawless and Showdown) and they are the type of novel that suck you in and you can't put it down.


Scandalous is takes place over a time period of twenty-ish years. A trusted Professor steals from one of his pupils and screws around on his wife. Years later, he has become famous on the stolen work and continues to screw around on his wife. The student on the other hand becomes a successful business woman worth millions. But no matter how successful she becomes...she has a need to screw over the Professor who ruined her youth and science. The book is intriguing and addictive. You can't help but fall in love with some of the characters (not the asshole Professor). Two women unite to screw over a man...so it satisfies the feminist in all of us. But no matter how amazing I thought this book was...the ending ruined the novel for me.

The ending seemed as though Bagshawe ran out of time and threw something together just to tie the loose ends together. After finishing it last night it left me wanting about three more chapters just to close it off properly. I'm thoroughly disappointed with it. I guess I expected much much more than what I got.

I plan on reading some more of Bagshawe's work just so I can make an informed opinion overall. But damn, I was really looking forward to a strong ending.

If anyone wants to read a Bagshawe novel that I think is brilliant...try "Flawless" or "Do Not Disturb"

Lots of Love <3,
Ginger Spudman


Next novel... Lisa Kleypas "Blue Eyed Devil".