Lynsay Sands' "Under a Vampire Moon"

I waited for quite some time for this book.  From his first appearance in the series, I loved Christian Notte.  I was so excited to finally read his story.  Sadly, though, I was disappointed.

(Stop here if you don't like hearing about what happens in a book before you read it.)

The basic premise is this:  a friend drags Carolyn Connor to St. Lucia for a vacation while waiting for her divorce to finalize.  She meets Marguerite, who senses that Carolyn is Christian's lifemate and volunteers his band to come play there so he can find her.  This would have been an intriguing set-up, especially since immortals don't do well with sunny locations, except for one other plot device.  Knowing that Carolyn is bothered by how young Christian seems to be, the family tells her that he's gay and gets her to be his pretend girlfriend as a cover.

I suppose even that wouldn't have bothered me too much if it hadn't lasted for about 50-60% of the book. Seriously.  Carolyn stupidly believes he is gay for over half of the story.  He in no way acts gay.  He even kisses her a couple of times, which she somehow manages to dismiss.  The plot device grew old fast.  It is hard to feel a connection between characters when one of them is so seriously misinformed about the other.  It is also hard to create chemistry, and these two seriously lacked it.  I found myself disliking Carolyn because she was just so oblivious.

Now for the real spoilers.

The end of the book was the worst.  In the last quarter of the story, Christian finally tells Carolyn he isn't gay. Her reaction?  To paraphrase, "I can't believe he lied.  Oh wait, he's hot.  Let's just have sex."  Then she finds out he's an immortal and flees back to her vacation villa.  He comes over, tells her he's not a bad vampire, and she just accepts it.  It almost reads like "I can't believe you're a vampire.  Oh wait, you're hot.  Let's just have sex."

THEN we learn that her friend Bethany, the one who brought her, was trying to get her to commit suicide so that Bethany could hook up with Carolyn's almost-ex after he inherited Carolyn's fortune.  Wait, what?  Where did this even come from?  There were vague hints of this kind of thing, but it doesn't come up until maybe the last 2-3 pages.  Carolyn puts Bethany on the phone with another friend, and then she and Christian just leave.  That's it.  The end.  I literally flipped between pages a few times wondering if part of the ending had been lost, but the preview of her next book was there, so I'm guessing not.

From the awkward interactions between characters to the abrupt, unbelievable ending, I was extremely disappointed by this book.  I typically love Lynsay Sands' work, so it makes me doubly sad to give a book of hers a poor review.  Unless you really can't stand not reading every book in a series, I recommend giving this one a pass.

Free Music Through Amazon!

Hey, guys, if you don't have a lot of spare money for music or like to try an artist before buying a whole album, this deal is for you.  Actually, it is pretty much for anyone who likes music.  Amazon has a $2 MP3 store credit with the code CLOUDMP3 through June 30th.  You can CLICK HERE to get directly to the place where you enter the credit.  I had to enter mine all in lowercase for some reason, but I have two free songs to add to my collection.

Also, if you have multiple devices and are tired of trying to save your music on all of them, give the Amazon Cloud Drive a try.  You get up to 20 gigs of free music storage, and you can access that music from the internet.  There's even a Cloud Player app for Android.  I am totally in love with this service. 

Skin MD Natural, My New Favorite Lotion

First, let me say that I am in no way being paid to write this.  Actually, I don't think the company has any clue that I AM writing this.  I did win this bottle free over at Mommy and Me Giveaways, and I am so glad I did!

Ever since I had my lovely daughter, my hands have been super dry from all of the hand washing / sanitizing.  I've tried all different kinds of lotions with little luck, so when I saw the great review this product got on the Mommy and Me Giveaways site, I was eager to enter.  I tried it out as soon as I got the package.

Let me tell you, I couldn't believe the results.  I wish I'd taken a before picture of my hand so I could give you a visual, but I think this lotion took about 5-10 years off my hands instantly.  The effect didn't go away as soon as I washed my hands, either, though (as per the directions), I did have to reapply it a little more often the first day.  You can bet that as soon as this bottle gets close to running out, I'll be going to the Skin MD Natural website to order more.

Something else I love (from their website):  "Our lotions are made to be free of parabens, petrochemicals, dyes, and other irritating ingredients. They are also vegan, cruelty free, and eco-friendly. We don't participate in animal testing or use any animal products in our lotions and Skin MD Natural is formulated in the United States in a facility that uses 100% solar power."

If you have really dry skin problems, I would highly recommend this lotion.  Great stuff!

Lorraine Heath Book Review

Okay, I know some of you are not romance fans--sorry.  If you do like historical romance novels, you might enjoy Passions of a Wicked Earl (Avon) by Lorraine Heath.  Set in 1853, the book is about a couple whose marriage had been ruined by a misunderstanding on their wedding night.  After three years of isolation on their country estate, Claire returns to London to give her sister a Season and to win back the husband she lost because she'd been an idiot (but hey, she was seventeen when they married).

You may recall from an earlier blog post that I called the start of the book "okay."  It did get off to a slow start, but the emotional intensity builds as the characters get to know one another better.  In retrospect, that actually made sense.  They hardly knew each other when they got married, and the author does a good job of giving the reader that feel.  I found that by the end, I really cared what happened to the characters; I stayed up way too late last night finishing the book. 

Next, I will start the sequel, Pleasures of a Notorious Gentleman (Avon).  I hope it is just as good!  After that... well, I saw on Shiloh's blog that there is a new Mercedes Lackey book out, Finding the Way and Other Tales of Valdemar.  Maybe I'll get on a Fantasy kick next.  :-)

Adventures in Reading

Unfortunately, I can't say a great deal about the book I just finished reading, Must Love Lycans by Michele Bardsley.  Why can't I talk about it?  I got a (very) advanced copy of it when I participated in one of her writing workshops, and the book isn't due out until September 2011.  As I am a person of honor and respect the author, all I will say is: It Is Awesome.  If you've never read anything by Michele Bardsley, check out her website: The Official Website of Michele Bardsley.  I'll post a review of the book closer to its release date.

I had started a book by Dakota Cassidy, You Dropped a Blonde on Me, but it just isn't my thing.  I am saddened by this because I love her other stuff.  She is an excellent author with a very vivid writing style that captures the imagination.  However, I found that to be a problem with this book.  Being pulled into the story of a 40 year-old woman going through a divorce made me feel like...well, a 40 year-old woman going through a divorce.  I stopped reading about a fourth of the way through because I started feeling depressed.  I'm sure the story will turn around and that the protagonist will recover from being broke, desperate, and feeling like crap.  But considering my tendency towards depression already, I don't want to spend the time going through those negative emotions to get there.  I'm sorry, Dakota Cassidy!  I really am a fan!

Last night, I decided to try a historical romance by Lorraine Heath, Passions of a Wicked Earl (Avon).  So far it is okay.  If it doesn't fit my mood, I may go back and read Must Love Lycans again.  So.  Good.

Lynsay Sands' Hungry For You

I guess this isn't so much a "currently reading" as it is a "flew through in under two days."  Let's just say I didn't get much done during Kira's nap time besides reading Lynsay Sands' new book, Hungry For You.  It was fast paced with a good, believable couple.

*Beware: Mild Spoilers*


I thought this was a much lighter book than some of her more recent stuff.  While there was danger, there was much less of the murder-mystery feel than the last few books in the Argeneau series.  This book reminded me a lot of the earlier stories, where the danger was present but didn't lead the plot.  I did like the last few books, but this was a really refreshing change of pace.  Sometimes plots with serious, overriding danger get to be a bit too much for me.  A break from the whole no-fanger conspiracy was nice. 

I'm glad to see that Sam's third sister finds a life mate.  It makes me wonder if there is something genetic that makes a person a good life mate.  Maybe other newly-turned immortals should be pushing relatives at the immortal population.  ;-)   

I guess I'm not giving a lot of plot details, but I don't want to just sit here and repeat what you can read on the back cover of the book.  Cale and Alex are very good together--and now she won't have to find a business manager!

If you haven't read the other books, this won't make sense, but . . . I'm thinking Bricker will be getting a book fairly soon.  He plays the matchmaker / prankster role much like Thomas did, and Thomas got his own story moderately quickly.  I'm still waiting for Christian Notte's book, though.  What's taking Marguerite so long?