Weekly Hotboy - Australian Edition

In honour of Australia Day, which was last Wednesday for the unbelievers here's some Aussie manflesh, hot - just the way we like 'em!

First up is Ryan Kwanten, he's best known in America for True Blood, Summerland, but in Australia, he'll always be Vinnie to us! Okay, maybe not to me, I've watched him in TRue Blood mainly, which is the perfect place to watch him really - he often gets nekkid! Then there's Flicka, he's just so darn cute in it, not to mention Tim McGraw and hello, pony show!

Then there's Chris Hemsworth, another Home and Awayer, he was Capt. Kirk's papa and now he's Thor, the preview of which is fantastic - check it out.
Until next time, enjoy the hotness and stay classy

C.

December 2010 reading

This is way late I know and I still need to finish my best of 2010. In some ways 2010 was an awesome reading year, there were some great new authors, I managed to complete two of my reading challenges, one whipped my butt - I'm looking at you 1010 challenge, ( I managed a dismal 62, I blame the books, they kept sidetracking me dammit).

Here's my December books list, which took my total to 144 books read for 2010. Not all of them have reviews, cause I wanted to finish posting this on LibraryThing - that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

115. Call me Mrs. Miracle by Debbie Macomber

I thought I’d start December off with some Christmas spirit and my first Debbie Macomber. As expected this is light fluff, enjoyable, but a rather predictable, by the numbers book. It’s the sequel to Mrs. Miracle, both of which have been made into movies. Even though it’s nothing new this is an easy read, perfect for some Christmas reading. I’ve been meaning to try Macomber before this and I’ll end up reading some of the Blossom Street stories, but to be honest I’m not going to be running out because I have to read it ‘right now’.

116. That Perfect Someone by Johanna Lindsey

This is the 10th in the Malory series, set in Regency England. Julia and Richard are the reluctant lovers, who’ve been betrothed to each other since early childhood. The problem being – they detest each other and at their last meeting 9 years ago they both vowed that if they ever saw each other again, they’d kill each other. So it’s no surprise that on their next meeting there’s fisticuffs and just a little bit of seduction, as you do. This was a fun read, I don’t read a lot of regency romance, but I did enjoy Johanna Lindsey’s writing and her characters, obviously explored more in the other Malory novels.

117. Private by James Patterson

Mike as a character is not particularly likeable, sure he’s dealing with shit from his past, but he doesn’t treat the ladies in his life very nicely. Over all, I did enjoy the story, it was a fast paced, if slightly predictable, thriller. And what up with all the James Patterson AND ……. I don’t really get the new phenomenon of authors writing with other authors, it can get kinda meh, and at least they’re not related. Don’t get me started on offspring who write. *hulk*

118. Family Ties by Danielle Steel

Ugh. Here's what I learnt from this book:

1. A woman must sacrifice everything for children, you can't have a career AND children - it's too hard.

2. Relationships between different cultures don't work, (the one in this was between a non- practicing Christian and Muslim) - they're just TOO hard.

3. All people who have tattoos and piercing are bad bad people who spread AIDS and Hepatitis.

4. It's ok to be an indiviual and go your own way, as long as you learn your lesson and realise that you have to be the same as everyone else by the end of the book.

Harsh I know, but I was really pissed off by the end of this and don't get me started on the repetative, descriptive paragraphs. Enough said, moving along. And swearing to never read DS again.

119. Burning Up by Susan Anderson

OMG! How awesome was this!! Way awesome I tell you. This was lots of fun to read and my first book by Susan Anderson, but it definitely won’t be my last. I think fire fighters are the new vampire/werewolves. This is the third series I know about featuring fire fighters hot enough to scorch the words right of the page. It features one very bad girl, one super hot fire fighter, a hunky Irish rocker and a not so good primary school teacher *gasp*, with lots of steamy situations, flirting, and fried chicken (very tasty – I made it for tea on the weekend).

120. Obsession by Karen Robards

121. The Ugly Duckling by Martin Powell

122. Don’t Blink by James Patterson

123. Angel: After the Fall by Joss Whedon, Brian Lynch & Franco Urru

124. Dreaming of Dior by Charlotte Smith & Grant Cowan

Beautiful vintage dresses, the downside – I wish the illustrations, beautiful as they are, were photos. I would’ve loved to have seen more detail.

125. Classic Tales of Horror by Various

This was a collection of 19 stories. Some were quite dry, not very scary and a bit meh. I did enjoy The Brazilian Cat by Arthur Conan Doyle – Cousin tries to kill his cuj to inherit the families wealth. The Corpse Light by Dick Donovan – ghost wanting to get his body discovered. The Lame Priest by S. Carleton – warewolves. The Eyes of the panther by Ambrose Bierce.

126. Worst Case by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge

127. Mackenzie’s Mountain by Linda Howard

128. Alpha by Rachel Vincent

129. The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks

This was fang-tastic and a nice move away from all the vampire novels of late (although I now think 'Angels' are the in thing). It features a group of vampires, trying to survive, aided by two humans.

130. Irresistible by Karen Robards

131. The Other 51 Weeks by Lee Welch

132. Fundamentals of children's services by Michael Sullivan

133. Spellbound by Nora Roberts

134. Orchard Valley Grooms by Debbie Macomber

135. Crazy For Love by Victoria Dahl

This was lots of fun, although the male lead was kinda annoying sometimes (he has a need to take care of everyone), which can get annoying sometimes. But this is full of sext sassy writing, just what I've come to love from Dahl. I also enjoyed the side story between the main characters bestie and brother.

136. No Place To Run by Maya Banks

This was brilliant and I gobbled it up, the second in the KGI series, it's a romantic suspense, rather thatn the usual eotica that I read from Maya, but it still has her trademark Southern charm and alpha male hero's. I'm really looking forward to the other brothers stories (there'll be at least 6 books in the series & if we get lucky, we might get some of the side characters from KGI get theri own story). Well written, fast paced and lots of fun.

137. Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard

This wasnt quite what I expected it to be. It tells the story of Elizabeth, Amarican girl, navigating her way around Paris with her French husband Gwendal. How she adapts to life. I wasn't 100% about this when I started it, it's seemed to move quite slowly, but as I kept on reading I got more and more into the story. I love the relationship food played in the book, bringing the characters together despite language barriers, plus there's the added bonus of the recipes at the end of each chapter. This was our last book club book for 2010 and we had a French night for our breakup. One lady made the mini almond meal and raspberry cakes - devine!

138. Trailer Park Zombies by Jason H. Jones

This was one of the better written zombie novels of the year - but not for the faint of heart, it's quite voilent and graphic in it's description of zombie mayhem. So if gore isn't your thing I suggest you stay away, but I thought this was a well written novel and I like the twist in the zombie ethos.

139. One Hundred Great Books in Haiku by David Bader

And with this - finally - I've started my Popular Penguin category for my 1010. This was a lot of fun and amazingly correct descriptions for some of the books.

140. Poems of John Keats by John Keats

What is more lovlier than Keats, ok so I'm being romantic, there are other fantastic poets out there, but Keats is a delight.

141. Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak by writers famous and obscure

An interesting concept, that works suprisingly well.

142. Secrets of a Proper Lady Victoria Alexander

Regency romance, that had me laughing out loud, I'm going to be tracking they others in the series dwon in 2011, perfect fodder for my 11 in 11 challenge!

143. The Bad Widow by Barbara Elsborg

144. Better Late than Never by Savannah Stuart

C.

Oohh 2011 you're all any shiny!

Happy New Year everyone. Hope you Christmas and New Year was brilliant, I had a quite one with family in Adelaide. Perfect beach weather, not too hot. And lots of time for bubbles with friends and some very scary grappa! There was also time for new books :) I was lucky to get my copy of No Place to Run by Maya Banks before I left. Which was fantastic, it's the second in the KGI series, sadly I now have to wait until March for the third one.

I'm going to try mix it up a little here, I'm of teh suckage when posting, especially last year, so I thought if I had stuff I posted each week, it would make me remeber to post, (I'm all about the ideas). What does that mean? It means for starters I'm bringing sexy back. That's right you heard me...Weekly Hotboy is back!! Who's first off the ranks, why it's Matt Dallas, talented actor in the now defunct Kyle XY tv series (which I'm halfway through at the moment - hence the lusting). He was also in Eastwick, but I don't think that lasted long either. But he's got a few things coming out this year, so hopefully we'll get to see a little more of him :)

What else have we got to look forward to this year? Book reviews, movie reviews, Friday 56 and anything else that takes my fancy. I'm heading to Sydney at the end of March for the ARRA (Australian Romance Readers Association) conference, which should be lots of fun. There'll be author talks, signings, a goodie room and I'll be staying at the resort where the conference is held, right on Bondi, hello beach and hello spa days! I can't wait it's going to be awesome!!

Plus I have uni to look forward to, the rate I'm going I'll be going to uni on my zimmer frame. We now have trimesters, so I do an extra subject eact year now, so that should cut down on the time it takes me to complete it...providing I pass everything O.o I've only got one core subject left, then its electives after that. Easy done. Time will fly and I'll finish it all *pep talk*

C.

Bookapalooza!!

Here's my November reading - hardly finished anything this month - I've got another 4 or 5 books I started in November, but I got sidetracked. I thought I'd put all my reviews in with this post so sorry it's all a bit random :)

111. The girl who kicked the hornet’s nest by Stieg Larsson

Wow, I’ve finally finished the Millennium Trilogy. The start was a bit slow in this book, but goodness the story really revved up from the middleish onwards. My fave character was Lisbeth, so I was glad when the story focused on her moreso. I was continually getting confused with characters names - which was frustrating, but I don't think took away from my enjoyment. Despite Mikke’s apparent ‘animal magnetism’ to the ladies *snigger* -- I found his jumping into bed with another lady a bit tiresome, (he's journalisms answer to James Bond) and I'm sure a throw back to Larssons inner 14 year old boy - who wouldn't want 'teh ladies' falling all over them. From now on Mikke shall be called LL Cool M. I'm glad I read the series, even with all the hype, I enjoyed them regardless of what everybody thought. Did I think they were the greatest thing ever - no, and I'll probably not read them again, but I did have lots of fun reading them.

112. The Elusive Bride by Stephanie Laurens

This is the 2nd book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood. I quite enjoyed this, although I'm reading it out of order it hasn't been hard to follow the story, when I'd finished The Brazen Bride, I remember reading somewhere that there was too much smexy time in it, but this kinda seemed to have the same amount - the difference being, I think, is that in this story the lady isn't so forward about her liking for the horizontal mambo. As with the third book, there isn't a lot of explanation of who the bad guys are, or what it is they've done, just that they're evil, nefarious and wear lots of black - oohh, maybe they're models! But I did enjoy the action, lots of swashbuckling fun and games.

113. Hot Rocks by Nora Roberts

Laine and Jenny reminded me of Sookie and Loralai from Gilmore Girls and the banter bwtween Laine and Max was well written. This was a good fun read. I'm enjoying going through Roberts' stand alone titles, I've read a few of her older titles, they're light and fluffy and perfect for decompressing my brain between uni reading. It’s somehow part of the In Death series with Det. Eve Dallas – which I don’t quite get since that’s set in the future. Apparently this was previously published as Remember When, Part 1. I did try to work it all out but I was in danger of my head exploding.

114. Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz

The first in the Alex Rider series, I've read the Spy High series, but this was much more enjoyable. Both in plot and character. Obviously there is total suspension of reality - metal eating paste disguised as acne cream - but it was lots of fun to read. I still hold out hope that they’ll make the rest into movies. Either way, I'll happily be finishing the rest of the series!

C.

Let's do the mash! The monster mash!

I've been busy busy lately, trying to finish all my categories for the 1010 and 100 in 2010 on LibraryThing, that I haven't posted any reviews. So I thought I'd have at it and whack a couple on the old blog. Here goes lovelies, gird things and whatnot it's a monster mashup!! Linkage isn't working, cause I'm lazy - also why there are no photo's of covers <--- It actually is, totally using LibraryThing from now on, I don't have to separately add links. Huzzah!

First up is:

65. Love in a Time of Zombies by Paul Gude

I got this for a couple of dollars through my kindle app. A bargain! And well worth it, it was a lot of fun.

Sex and zombies. That's all you really need to know. (That's the very helpful product description on Amazon).

I love this book, so far it's been my favourite zombie book to date. I know the above Sex and Zombies sounds kinda eww, and while there is some boomchica it's mostly between the non infected. (Y'all can rest easy now ;D).

I don't know if it was supposed to be as funny as it was. At the time I was reading this I was playing Zombie Farm on my iPhone a lot. When the zombies are running round the farm they yell out "brains? brains?" All in a tiny high pitched voice. So that's the voice that all the zombies in the book had while I was reading it - the zombies in the book all run around asking "Brains". They stop at crossings, drive cars, anwser the phone and in general - just want hugs! Not quite the usual zombie, but still just as creepy.

The story centers around Roy and Kim, exes who are trying to get outta Seattle without getting dead. They do this with lots of sarcasm, witty banter, smexy flirting, violence and some shop lifting. I think it also helps that they're both a little crazy. In fact, most of the characters that you meet along the way are a little skewed.

The whole infection part of the story is kinda hazy, it's explained a little, but not in any depth. I think this part of the story could've been expanded and the correlation between the infestation and Roy's dreams.

But overall, this was fun, perfect for some breezy holiday reading. And really - who doesn't love some crazy zombie capers.

Next it's a back to Portland...

101. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

I actually really enjoyed this novella, I felt that it was slightly better written and I liked the Bree character, I enjoyed her more than some of the other characters introduced in Breaking Dawn, it's a pity that she gets dead as I think she would've added a nice dynamic to the last book. And although they barely take off, I enjoyed her relationships with both male vampires that befriend her.

This is written as one long chapter, which made for easy reading and gave a nice insight into the newborns and how they were manipulated, it further touched on the dynamics of their group, that you only saw glimpses of in Eclipse. For those that liked the Riley character, it also has a tiny bit more about his relationship with Victoria, (although the character is only referred to as 'She' throught the novella). Although I felt like he was manipulated by Victoria in Eclipse, in the novella it seemed like he knew more about what was happening, so it made me like the character less.

The alternate story unfolding around the events in Eclipse flesh out the original story and compliment it well. Although there is nothing to say this couldn't be read as a stand alone if you didn't want to read the rest of the series.

Obviously, if you like the original series, you'll end up reading this, if you don't continue to feel free to hate on it. I know that this series is wildly popular in both love and hate camps. But when all's said and done, I enjoyed this just like the others, not as anything literary or spectacularly written, just as another wee slice of fun and frivolity and for a change there's no mooning, brooding, creepy stalking and sadly no smexy abs *sigh* (Okay maybe a little brooding, but it wouldn't be Twilighty goodness without it!)

And lastly, but certainly not least - Whedonverse :)

102. Spike: After the Fall by Brian Lynch; art by Franco Urru

It was great to be able to see what had happened to the rest of the gang, post apocalyptic Angel & Co. Vs Wolfram & Hart fight to the death. This takes off after the fight, LA has been transported to Hell, Wesley is dead, Spike and Fred/Illyria have teamed up and are fighting the big bad in Hell, there are cameos from Gunn and Connor/Stephen (I always wondered if the name was picked intentionally with the ‘I know my first name is Stephen’ movie in mind - sorry, tangent!). Angel doesn’t appear (he’s got his own After the Fall series). But I’m assuming that there will be crossover. I don’t love the illustrations, but it was great to see Spike back to his tally ho bad guys days and I like the Fred/Illyria characters slipping between each other. It adds a nice dynamic to the character. And what’s this – could there be romance budding between our two heroes?? Which could be kinda cool, but I don’t know 100% about that yet, cause even though he's dead I'm still a fan of the Fredly combo. I read this over the weekend and was then 'forced' to watch the last episode of Angel, the one where Fred gets infected by Illyria and the puppet episode (just for giggles). Needless I was all a bit crying at the end, remembering the good old days, both Buffy and Angel are still favourites of mine and it’s nice to visit Whedonverse every now and again. I've been constantly impressed with the Buffy/Angel comics, they don't let fans down, IMO.

Enjoy. I know I did. And HELLO! I've made it to the grand old total of 111 read so far, 3 more than last year and am partway through books, 112, 113, & 114 :) I'm so awesome, I'm kicking my own arse!

C.

Dragon Prime by Lora Leigh

He is a Prime Warrior of the Dragon Clan. An alien on Earth. Fighting a battle that could tip the balance between two separate worlds. But now his greatest mission isn’t the battle, or the blood of the enemy. It’s the love of one woman’s heart. One he’s lost once already and vows he will not lose again.

This is another book I've read for my Erotica Romance Reading Challenge 2010. While I do love me some Lora Leigh, this was definately not my fave. This was a little more science fictioney than her breeds series, (don't ask me the difference between shagging an alien or a man/lion hybrid - I know both options aren't a reality, I can't explain it!).

There are the standard - alpha hero that won't let anything stand in the way of getting the woman and the feisty lady who has been running from him. But for some reason this wasn't doing it for me this time. Maybe if I'd read the Wizard Twins books (which are loosely connected0, I may have liked this more. But over all, while this still had Lora's smexy romps and her witty one liners there was no happy ending for moi - unlike our hero & heroine, they go off like nobodies bid'ness!

I would recommend instead you check out her Breeds series if you like your erotica with a science fictioney edge, or her contempory 'Nauti' series. Which is one of her best in my opinion. Her 'Bound Hearts' is another excellent series, although I would say don't read the last two they were nowhere near as good a the earlier ones written for Ellora's Cave.

Happy endings to one and all!

C.

The Friday 56

Well, it's technically Saturday now, but I was busy out getting my drink on last night, so I didn't get around to doing this, so it's catchup time.

This weeks is taken from 'The Digging-est Dog' by Al Perkins. Some little library goer left it behind :(

"They dragged me up out of the pit."

About the Friday 56

• Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
• Turn to page 56.
• Find the fifth sentence.
• Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
• Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
• Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

C.