Rock Courtship, di Nalini Singh

Rock Courtship by Nalini Singh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rock Courtship is the second book of the new series by Nalini Singh, Rock Kiss, and it's really good. It's a novella, but very engaging, sweet and sexy. Thea and David are a couple that has all to capture everyone's heart. Their memos, their dialogues, the slow but persistent courting, their way to accept and trust the other, their growing overture to each other are the best traits of an endearing novella. Last but not least, they are Indonesian, specifically Balinese (Thea Arsana) and latin-american (David Rivera), and this is very unusual and appreciated! Make love spread all around the world!

Check an essay about different characters in romances:

http://contemporaryromance.org/2014/05/why-weneeddiversebooks-matters/

*ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

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Thing Good Girls Don't Do, di Codi Gary

Things Good Girls Don't Do by Codi Gary
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Funny, smart and sexy! Not at all what I expected due to the cover: a beautiful surprise. Good characters, interesting story, hilarious moments, delicious happy ending, this book has all to be a precious reading experience.


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Rock Addiction, di Nalini Singh (Release Blitz)

I'm partecipating in the Release Blitz for Rock Addiction by Nalini Singh!

So honoured!

So incredible opportunity!

Excerpt (from chapter 2):

Patience wasn’t Fox’s strong suit, and he’d almost killed himself with it tonight.

Then he’d just about killed David for getting close to her while he kept his distance. Now, finally, he was alone with Molly and all he wanted to do was mess up her hair, kiss her until her lips were swollen and wet.

Then he wanted to do it again. And again.

Fighting the gut-wrenching need that threatened to turn him inside out, he forced himself to lean back lazily against the elevator wall. “You’re Molly.” It came out a rough purr.

Her eyes widened, fingers curling into her palm. “Yes.”

He wanted those fingers on him – any part of him. “Would you mind giving me a ride?”

A large percentage of the women at the party would’ve taken that as the invitation it was and been all over him in one second flat. Molly, however, took a tiny step back. “Don’t you have a driver?”

Abdomen tight, he continued to keep his tone playful, easy, though he was feeling close to feral. “I gave him the night off.”

“A taxi?”

If she took another step back, Fox wasn’t sure he’d be able to restrain his need to put his hands all  over her sweetly feminine flesh, taste her with his mouth. “I don’t know the address I’m going to.”

The elevator dinged at that moment, and he waited as Molly stepped out into the parking garage before following. The skin at her nape looked like cream; he wanted to lick it up, close his hands over her breasts from behind as he did so, press his rigid cock up against her. Yeah, he wasn’t in a patient mood.

“Oh?” It was a husky question. “If you don’t know the address, how do you plan on getting there?”

Unable to resist any longer, he bent to the soft, subtle, maddening scent of her and whispered, “That’s why I need a ride, Molly,” his lip ring brushing the shell of her ear. “I don’t know where you live.”

She dropped her keys.

My review (also shown in Goodreads and NetGalley): 

Rock addiction is the new book by Nalini Singh. It’s the first book in a new series, very different from the others that she is currently writing. It can be defined as New Adult romance, subgenre "famous and troubled boy meets wounded but profound girl“, or, better, the summary can be: "rock star meets normal girl, they have a lot of sex, develop love, surmount obstacles – in the present - and problems – from the past - and live happily”.

Written with Nalini Singh's usual mastery, it’s a contemporary romance about a rock star, Zachary Fox, and a librarian, Molly Webster. The two characters are both young (they are in their twenties), but they have a lot of bad, heavy past experiences that make really difficult for them to love and have faith in another person, save the inner circle of friends. In the story we see these circles: Molly’s best friend and sister, and the guys of Schoolboy Choir, the band. And we have also some glimps about future stories, that obviously will be about these persons.

The setting is from New Zealand to Los Angeles; very interesting the New Zealand part, that is so little present in romances. 

The plot is not so new, but it’s used with freshness and ability. There are some beautiful moments: the first dialogue in the elevator, the visit at the zoo, various moments of revelation and getting over the past. 

Each character has flaws and problems, but also the strenght to confront them and try to do the best thing. 
And each character is well defined and vivid. Fox is really possessive, hard and attractive, but he is not a grown man, he is a young one. His blunt sexual words to Molly are not the words of a lover, but the tentative attemps of a learner. The fear, the blunderings, the bluntness of Molly are not the confidence of a woman, but the searching, by a wounded woman-to-be, of her true self. So, the book is the story of how they can grow and believe in a relationship, making it live, strong and positive. 

The sexual interaction is abundant, but it doesn’t overtake the development of the story. Unfortunately, I haven’t, in this respect, found the sparkling and sizzling relationships between the characters that it’s the mark of the author. But these characters are other than Psy/Changelings and Archangels, so we have to appreciate them with an open mind. Maybe my difficulty (the lacking of chemistry, the little gooseflesh) is due to the growing matter, maybe it’s due to my unfathomable points of paragon in sexy rock stars, Bono from U2 and Luciano Ligabue. Yes, it’s understandable that nobody else in reality or fiction can be high on comparison. 

So, if you are a lover of New Adult romances, if you can appreciate love stories with a lot of heavy past on the shoulders of the lovers, if you are smoldering for a sexy rock musician, if you are forever fan on Cinderella girls, if you want romances with a lot of sexual interaction, but not too bold or explicit, this is the book that is meant for you. 

For me, it was a good read, and a beautiful, compelling love story.


ARC provided via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Christmas in Cowboy Country, di Janet Dailey

Christmas in Cowboy Country by Janet Dailey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Janet Dailey is an author that I was reading in my youth. So, I have been very pleased to have received a title from her publisher to give back a review.

Janet Dailey has an unquestionable talent, mostly used here to picture the life in a little community, the interactions in family life, the awkward and sometimes difficult first steps in love.

The story is simple, but sweet. The characters are well defined and their relationship develops in a very realistic way. There aren't sizzling, epic moments, but a lot of sweetness and some bantering.

A relaxing read for Christmas time!

*Arc kindly provided by the author and the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

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The Covered Deep, di Brandy Vallance

The Covered Deep by Brandy Vallance
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Covered Deep was my first christian romance. I had high expectations. Some of them have been accomplished, some not.

The book presents an interesting story, with beautiful settings, from Appalachian mountains to London and the British museum (at night!) and to the Holy Land. The characters are well defined and the dialogues vivid and smart.

But I have found that there are some discrepancies or imprecisions.
- For example, in the Holy Land, at 1870, there was presumably no one that spoke hebrew as modern language, as common language, in everyday situations. Eliezer ben Yehudah only in 1881 came to Palestine with the hope to give new birth to hebrew language.
- It’s not possible for a non-Jew to say a prayer in a ritual setting, and it’s formally impossible to change a ritual prayer, as in the book is done by Paul.
- It’s very improbable that a protestant preacher was at England in 1868 in such a famous and public way.
- The Palestine described in the book is more similar to the land pictured in some non-historical films, as Kingdom of Heaven, than to the real places.

The faith and the sense of forgiveness are well shown in the book, and this is the major quality of the story. Faith is not to pray for having patience or becoming worthy, it’s having patience and love, as the characters slowly understand in the book. Paul and Bianca are in a voyage not only to the Holy Land, but to become better persons.

The message of the book is about forgiveness and renewal.

So we have to forgive the author for some mistakes, and have faith that her talent will flourish more and more in the future, since we have so many good signs here.

*ARC provided by the author and the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*



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Il Read a romance month...continua oltre il mese!

La pregevole iniziativa di Bobbi Dumas, il Read a romance month di cui ho già parlato in questo blog, quest'anno non si ferma alla fine di agosto, ma prosegue a settembre con un post al giorno.

http://www.readaromancemonth.com/

I post sono sempre scritti da autrici di romance, che mettono a disposizione dei libri nel giveaway, valido anche internazionalmente!

E' una splendida opportunità per conoscere nuove autrici, leggere dei bei saggi brevi (alcuni ne ho tradotti durante agosto) e magari vincere un libro!

Potete leggere le parole di Bobbi qui:

http://www.readaromancemonth.com/2014/09/lets-keep-celebrating/

E potete partecipare leggendo, commentando, acquistando i gadget del mese e facendo sentire che a voi i romanzi piacciono!

Sheila Athens, Credere nei romanzi d'amore

Credere nei romanzi d’amore

Uno dei rimpianti della mia vita è che non sono cresciuta leggendo romanzi d’amore. Molte lettrici ricevono i primi romanzi da madri o sorelle, ma mia madre, che era una bibliotecaria, questo genere non lo leggeva.

Quando, da adulta, ho scoperto il genere, è stato perfetto. Era l’ideale per me. Perché anche se non avevo mai letto prima un romanzo d’amore, ho capito subito che coincideva perfettamente con la mia visione del mondo.

Credo nella bontà degli esseri umani.

Credo che ognuno a  modo suo sia speciale.

Credo che le donne siano forti e resilienti.

Credo che gli eroi, in ogni sentiero della vita, siano caratterizzati da nobiltà d’animo, gentilezza e bontà.

Credo che ogni donna possa avere il suo “e vissero felici e contenti”.

Credo che la fiction spessa contenga più verità che tante altre cose nel mondo.

Credo che la tensione sessuale sia uno dei modi migliori per rendere avvincente un libro.

Credo che le persone che popolano i romanzi rappresentino il ricco tessuto degli esseri umani che vivono accanto a noi nella realtà.

Credo che ciascuno dovrebbe poter leggere un libro con personaggi che siano simili a se stesso; apprezzo la differenziazione sempre più marcata all’interno del genere romance.

Credo nel potere dell’amore.

Infine, credo che la vita oggi si basi su delle false premesse. Corporate America ci dice che quello che conta nella vita sono le informazioni, i soldi e l’importanza sociale. Le emozioni vanno tenute al minimo e preferibilmente non mostrate affatto.

Io sono in totale disaccordo con questa visione del mondo.

Invece vedo il mondo nel mondo in cui lo vedono le lettrici di romanzi d’amore: un eroe può essere un miliardario o un muratore. L’amore è più importante del denaro. E l’importanza di una persona ha più a che fare con ciò che c’è nel suo cuore che con la macchina che guida.

Come dice Lisa Cron, autrice di Wired for story: “Le emozioni non sono i punti deboli del sistema. Le emozioni SONO il sistema”.

Le lettrici di romanzi d’amore lo sanno. E il mondo è un posto migliore grazie a loro.

Sheila Athens

http://www.readaromancemonth.com/2014/09/sheila-athens-i-believe-in-romance/

Indecent proposal, di Molly O'Keefe

Indecent Proposal by Molly O'Keefe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*ARC provided by the author and Random House via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Molly O’Keefe is a master of contemporary romance, so also the theme “marriage of convenience” in her hands can bloom in a new and refreshing way.

Harrison/Harry is a politician. (He appears in the previous books of the series, that I haven’t yet read). He has a lot of goals and a demanding agenda. His purpose isn’t only political, but personal. It’s a sort of revenge or redemption for bad things happened in the past.
Ryan (yes, she has this name!) is a bartender, divorcee, alone and estranged from her family; she is smart, self-confident and resilient. She is also sensitive and kind, so when she meets Harry – beautiful and sad – they interweave an interesting dialogue, and from here a connection, an attraction and then…a sexy interlude. They give each other an incredible night…and something else.
Yes, it happens nowadays as well!
When they discover the unexpected, their life must change too.

Nothing is usual or trite in this book. (But yes, there is a happy ending, thanks Molly!).
The characters are uncommon, strong but wounded, in search of their identity and their right place in the world. Each one has issues and problems, a less-than-ideal life, and their interaction is a fundamental step to grow up and to change. This process is accomplished in a natural way: so we can see the change in every day actions and little words and small gestures of affection.

Harrison and Ryan are so well defined that they have conquered my appreciation in despite of my prejudices.
First prejudice is simply explained and I admit it’s a little silly. I’m italian, so for me “politician” and “smart+sexy+young” are oxymoron: in my reality the terms are opposite - always. Ok, Harrison has won! When reading, Harrison morphed in my mind into the young Robert Redford…fantastic.
Second prejudice: Ryan is somewhat too sassy to be loveable for me, and I can’t appreciate a lot of things of her, but she has conquered me with all her strenght and humor.
So I have really liked their story.

Other plus? The secondary characters are realistic and vivid, the dialogues are bright and funny, the turns of the plot are engaging and heart-breaking.

Intense moments, smart dialogues, beautiful characters are enriching a plot that is not new, but is treated with freshness and spirit.
Molly O’Keefe is a great author and definitely I will read her books in this and other series, and you should too!


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