Catch a Ghost by SE Jakes

4 STARS

Hell or High Water - Book 1

I really enjoyed this! Talk about a couple of complicated and deep MCs! Prophet and Tommy are all that and a bag of chips in all the best of ways. And I'm still not quite sure exactly what happened between them! *LOL* To be honest, I think they're both still a little confused as well and I want to shake them both at times. :)

Catch a Ghost has a bit of a Tom Clancy/Larry Bond techno-thriller feel about it, with undercover operatives, missions, shadowy secondary characters - yes, Cillian, I'm looking at you - and guys so tough and stoic that they put Daniel Craig's James Bond to shame. Often, when the main characters are so wonderfully drawn, the secondary characters suffer, but not in this case. The afore-mentioned Cillian, Doc, Phil and even John are well fleshed out and different from each other.

The plot is good, it's intricate, it doesn't give anything away and there's a logical progression of events, something that many so-called romantic thrillers aren't so great about. There's humour, menace, violence (lots of violence), camaraderie and some very emotional moments. Really good stuff, a nice, juicy story. And the fight and torture scenes? Real and alive on the page. And the sex scenes? Hot, steamy and intense. Yes, there's romance, but it's sure not the hearts and flowers kind.

I screamed at the end of the book, well, quietly and under my breath. All I can say is thank God the sequel comes out in another two weeks! So many questions were answered, but so many not. This is the first in a series of adventures with Prophet and Tommy from what I understand and I am looking forward to reading them all. :)

30 Day Challenge - Day 11

Day 11 - A book you hated.

"Hated" is a very strong word. There have been books I've disliked and Hyperion is one of them. I read it a long while ago, fifteen years at least, but it still pops to mind whenever anyone asks the question. As I remember, I had to do a lot of going back and rereading passages to make sure I understood what was going on and even then, it was "Really? Okay then." with a shrug and a carry on. I know I read through to the very end in the hopes I would 'get it' or at least come to like the characters. Nada. Nope. Rien de tout. It was still awful.

So many folks who read science fiction love this book and praise it as one that every sci-fi fan MUST read, a classic etc... Well, this gal says no. It was one of the most dissatisfying reads I have ever had and sadly, a total waste of my time.

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The only book I have truly hated is Fifty Shades of Grey. Suffice to say that it is the most badly written, filled with abuse, total misinformation about the BDSM lifestyle, purveyor and perpetrator of misogynistic bullshit that I have ever, ever read. And I weep, WEEP for women and girls who think that this shit is romantic. I have a link that I would like to share that explain this far better than I ever could.

50 Shades and Abusive Relationships by Jennifer Armintrout.

30 Day Challenge - Day 10

Day 10 - Favorite classic book.

I read The Three Musketeers for the first time when I was a teenager, many years ago. Many, many. :) My parents had a collection of "The Works of Alexandre Dumas" all leather bound with thin onion skin-like pages and one summer day, with a lack of new books to read, I decided that it was time for me to read the first volume. I was in love after the first chapter. :) Yes, it took a wee bit of time to get used to this different style of writing, it was published in the mid-1800s, after all, but once I found the rhythm, I really couldn't put it down. I remember laying on my bed up in my room and actually reading paragraphs out loud, just to see how they sounded.

Dumas was a popular writer in his day, a mix of Nora Roberts and Tom Clancy, and this book has everything, romance, intrigue, adventure, tragedy, comedy. Once finished, I went on to read others in the series... and yes, it's a series. *LOL* Then The Count of Monte Cristo. What reading The Three Musketeers did for me was show me that reading the classics could be as enjoyable as reading contemporary works, and with that, reading Dickens, for instance, the following school year was nowhere near as intimidating as it might have been.

30 Day Challenge - Day 9

Day 9 - A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving

I picked this book up because a friend had read it and enjoyed it and because it was getting all kinds of positive buzz in the French book community here in Montreal, believe it or not. I worked with a bunch of francophones that love to read. Anyway, I picked it up and began reading it and I was certain after a few chapters that I wasn't going to like it. It was dry, there was too much exposition about Swedish financial things, but I kept reading and kept reading... and I mean I was reading to the point where I was staying up far too late because I couldn't put the darned thing down!

In the end, I really enjoyed this book, loved it even, but I really can't tell you why! :)

30 Day Challenge - Day 8

Day 08 - Most overrated book.

I have tried, over the years, at least 3, maybe 4 times to finish Outlander. I can't. I end up getting frustrated and annoyed before I'm even halfway in. The characters annoy the hell out of me. Both of them. Clare and Jamie. Everyone loves this book and these characters and I just don't get it. I often feel as if they're going to take away my Romance Reader Card or hound me out of Romancelandia because of this. *LOL* I have two books on my DNF shelf. This one and Wicked.

30 Day Challenge - Day 7

Day 7 - Most underrated book.

I don't know that According to Hoyle by Abigail Roux is the most underrated book ever, but I sincerely believe that it is underrated within the genre (M/M) and within Abby's own fandom. :)

Abigail Roux is best known for her Cut & Run series, featuring the adventures of a pair of FBI agents who also become lovers. GREAT books. I love them. There's a whole huge fandom that's been built up around this series and I think that According to Hoyle, which is not part of Cut & Run, suffers and languishes in the afterthoughts of many of Abby's fans.

It's a historical, western in flavour. The characters are full and flawed and very, very human. The story focuses on 4 of them, two US Marshals and two outlaws. Eli and William are the marshals and it's their interaction with the outlaws they're transporting, Dusty and Cage, that enables them to face their deep feelings for each other. And it's a mystery and an adventure and a love story and just so much fun! And Cage? The man is mute. Can't talk. And the way Abby is able to bring him alive is so very amazing. He's fascinating and I want... no NEED to know more about him

I understand the love for Ty and Zane from Cut & Run and the wish for more and more of their adventures and the adventures of their Team Sidewinder buddies, but I keep my fingers crossed for another book about the great characters in According to Hoyle and try not to think that they may have gotten lost beneath the hype of C&R.

Capture and Surrender by L.A. Witt and Aleksandr Voinov

4 STARS

Market Garden - Book 5

Capture & Surrender is the 5th book in the Market Garden Universe and turns the spotlight on the owner of the Market Garden, Frank. One of the best things about Frank? He's in his 40s. :) I love stories that feature a mature man in a lead role. We need more of these! And his love interest? Stefan, the young, handsome, American new rentboy at the club. I liked the feel of these two right off. Stefan was pushy, pushy and so very attractive and Frank was stoic, outwardly calm and so very, very interested. They worked for me. Who else worked for me? Frank's two friends, Geoff and Mike. I love how they take care of Frank, their love and affection just comes pouring off the page.

The love story itself is good. Sweet and bittersweet and very hot and steamy. It hits all the marks for a good tale and then some. I even found myself getting a wee bit choked up a couple of times. :) Small drawbacks were that I did find were that Frank, in the latter, oh, quarter of the book, began to get a little repetitive in his introspection, and that there was more action in the first half of the story than the second. It was almost as if the theme (is that the word I want?) of the book changed lanes from hot and steamy love story to something a little more seriously real. I assume this had to do with the reality of Stefan's past and Frank's past and present and how they were going to deal with it.

I very much enjoy the Market Garden universe and this slice of it was no exception.

30 Day Challenge - Day 6

Day 06 - A book that makes you sad.

I first read Lord of the Flies when I was in Grade 7, back in the day when Grade 7 was the last year of elementary/grade school. I was 12. Unlike The Catcher in the Rye which I found the most incredible tripe, something about this book got under my skin and has stayed with me 'til this day, nearly 45 years later. I have reread the book a few times over the years and it always leaves me sad. Mr. Wallace, the teacher that brought us the book would be proud that it has stuck with me for all this time.

Lord of the Flies is the tale of a group of British schoolboys stranded on a deserted island during an unidentified wartime. What begins as a grand adventure decays into something horrific as this bunch of boys goes evolves/devolves from civilised and living by rules they've been taught since babyhood, into chaos and barbarism. There is friendship and there is hostility, there are boys being boys and boys being made to think of things and do things that we would never want our children to do or think about. There is violence as only children can be violent and when it escalates into what we would probably term adult violence, it's frightening and all too real.

And that's why this book makes me sad. The veneer of civilisation is very thin in places and when one reads this book, one can see how so many terrible things can be done by humankind if care is not taken.

30 Day Challenge - Day 5

Day 5 - A book that makes me happy.

Jude Devereaux's Highland Velvet makes me happy for many reasons. It's the 2nd in her quartet of books about the original Montgomery brothers, (Yes, I know that The Black Lyon is really the first instance of Montgoermyism, but...), and my very favourite romance of all. I've read it so many times and it always gives me that HEA sigh when I'm finished. I even pick it up sometimes to read passages.

Published in 1982 it falls prey to some of the tropes we're not so fond of these days, but you know what? I don't care! Horrors, I know. The blurb from the back of the book is so full of hyperbole as they were back in the day...

Bronwyn MacArran was a proud Scot. Stephen Montgomery was one of the hated English.

He came to Scotland as a conqueror, saw her beauty and was vanquished. But still she would abhor him. 

She owned a temper hot enough to forge the armors of battle or inflame a valiant soldier's passion. 

Yet still she would resist him. 

She became his reason to live, his reason to love. And still she would deny him. 

But while clan fought clan, while brother took up sword against brother, and the highlands ran with blood -- their destiny was made...and this mighty warrior pledged himself to his woman's pride, her honor and her name -- and made of their love a torch to burn through the ages!

But dammit, I fell in love with Stephen before the first chapter was done. I mean, he's tall, blond and so full of himself. *LOL* I love him. And Bronwyn is just SO very much his equal - and of course, a redhead to boot! Their fights are magnificent and when they fight together, having each other's back.. I could swoon. *LOL* And Bronwyn has a lovely, LOVELY huge dog who loves her as much as Stephen does. Cabal is his name if my old lady memory serves me right.

Ms. Devereaux has written many, many romances over the years but I found that after she began writing her time travel ones, I lost much of the magic. And those are so beloved by most of her legion of fans. But her 80s (and early 90s) books? OMG! My favourites and Highland Velvet is the most favourite of them all!

30 Day Challenge - Day 4

 

Day 4 - Favorite book of your favorite series.

Well, I guess I screwed the pooch yesterday. *LOL* I hadn't re-read the whole list for the month, so had no idea that this would be the next subject on the list. :) Anyhoooo....

My favourite series is the Deryni series which is made up of various trilogies in the same universe, but set different eras. The 'present' era of King Kelson (The Deryni Chronicles, The Histories of King Kelson), the 'long ago' era of Camber (The Legends of Camber of Culdi, The Heirs of Saint Camber) and the near past of The Childe Morgan.

Out of all these, my favourite volume is what is probably the darkest of all Katherine's works, The Harrowing of Gwynedd, book 1 of The Heirs of Saint Camber.. In retrospect, it's the book in which Katherine gets her George R.R. Martin on. The kingdom is in bloody turmoil and the Deryni people are being persecuted, hunted down, proscribed, executed - it's all gone to hell in a handbasket pretty much. I can't tell you how many times my heart gets broken during this book. Weep? Oh, you betcha!

I don't quite know why I'm drawn to this book so strongly. I think it is one of Katherine's best works, but more than that, I think it's that even when things are so horribly dark, so frighteningly bad, there are moments that are uplifting, hope-giving, even happy. :) Not a lot of them, but they are there. And for someone like me who always looks for the silver lining, that's all I need, even when the final chapter is making sob out loud.