Not great but also not bad
Now that the end of the year is in sight, I’m feeling a bit desperate about the volume of average and bad books I’ve read lately. Other than The Wedding Officer, there have been no great new books for me for the month. (Y: the last man doesn't count because I started the series last month.)
Neither of these was great (for me) but they weren't bad.
Pack Challenge by Shelly Laurenston.
What's an Alpha Male to do when he meets the Alpha Female of his dreams? Step one, hide all sharp objects.
All Zach Sheridan ever wanted was to become Alpha Male of his Pack and be left alone. What he definitely didn't need in his life was some needy female demanding his attention. What he never saw coming was the vicious, scarred female who not only demanded his attention but knew exactly how to get it.
Sara Morrighan knew this was the best she could expect from her life. Good friends. A nice place to live. And a safe job. But when Zach rode into her small Texas town with his motorcycle club, Sara knew she wanted more. She knew she wanted him. But after one sexy encounter with her dream biker, everything is starting to change. Her body. Her strength. That new thing she's doing with the snarling. Even her best friends are starting to wonder what's going on with her. But this is only the beginning.
Sara's about to find out her life was meant for so much more. And Zach's about to find true love with the one woman who makes him absolutely insane.
I don’t remember why I picked this one up. Was I looking for were/shifter books? Did I read a recommendation? Can’t recall. Laurenston writes a great sex scene, but otherwise I feel very ~meh~ about this book. It felt as if there was some sort of background or world-building information that I missed out on. What was the mythology of the shifters? What was their biology or their magic? Not really clear and never explained. The conflict that drove the romance was contrived and flimsy, or so it seemed to me since the background world was not established.
I liked that the heroine was a part of a strong trio of friends whom she had no intention of abandoning in favor of the hero. The labeling of them as “bitches” was a bit perplexing to me. Were they trying to claim ownership of a pejorative word? I don’t know. But they struck me as more quarrelsome than bitchy (which is not a negative word for me and connotes more than just stubbornness and/or an argumentative disposition).
More of the Fated Mate ™ thing here. Which means that fewer words were necessary to develop any relationship. Eh. Whatever.
C-
Rock Star by Roslyn Hardy Holcomb
How does a hedonistic, hellbound L.A. sophisticate like bad boy rock star Bryan Spencer woo young, gifted and black sweet home Alabama belle Callie Lawson? What type of magical voodoo draws him to her magnolia-scented bosom? Seduced by the unhurried pace and a lifestyle that is the antithesis of his own, he finds that he cannot break away from the seductive spell of a woman who soothes the deepest recesses of his tortured soul. Bryan, guitar god extraordinaire, is compelled to retreat to the small town when he is devastated by the loss of his best friend and band mate. The peaceful tranquility, not to mention unaccustomed celibacy, is slowly driving him mad until he meets Callie Lawson, budding tycoon, aficionado of black entrepreneurship and owner of the local bookstore. He quickly discovers that Callie is one of the few people he’s met who doesn’t have her own agenda for befriending him. Far from the cloying adulation he is accustomed to, Callie is totally focused on her own career goals and is reluctant to have anything to do with a ‘long-haired rocker from California.’ Bryan overcomes her misgivings with an old-fashioned courtship that belies his L.A. rocker origins. He introduces this Sunday School girl to some truly high-powered sex and decadence. The question is which one wins: Southern Sunday School or L.A. sin? Just when they’re certain everlasting love is firmly in their grasp, they are rent asunder by treachery and betrayal of the most staggering kind. They must defy egregious stereotypes and false perceptions to embrace their own sweet Alabama love.
I checked this book out because I appreciate Holcomb’s web presence: she’s well-spoken and thoughtful when she comments on various blogs.
Loved the cover art - the model is gorgeous and the placement of her eye just above the title is very attention-getting.
What did I like:
• Small town setting and its contrast with the urban settings; both were managed well without vilifying or glorifying either.
• The heroine’s life outside of the hero - it didn’t stop when he arrived. She had plans and goals and no intention of giving up on them.
• The upfront approach to other people’s reactions to interracial dating.
What didn’t I like:
• Yet another near-virgin heroine - because there’s no difference between experience and whoring, apparently, in Romancelandia.
• The heroine seemed very dependent on her family in a way that seemed very juvenile; she was 29, not 17.
There was a little bit of clunkiness in language, IMO, but YMMV. For me, “making business transactions” sounds strange. And lies printed in a tabloid are referred to as slander, which is specific to oral defamation rather than written. Libel, please.
With respect to the physical aspect of the book, I liked the size of the binding. There seem to be a high volume of dropped punctuation, but I am not sure if that is an author issue or a publisher problem: I had this same problem with the last Indigo book I read, too.
The last scene in the book made me curious - are there airports in the US where one can just walk up to the gate and wait for passengers to deplane? I used to be able to greet people at the gate, but in the post 9/11 paranoia, that is not an option at any of the US airports I’ve passed through. I’m sure if I had a health issue or was waiting for a small child, an exception could be made, but generally in order to get to a gate today, you have to have a boarding pass. No? Nit picking, but it yanked me right out of the story.
Would I ready Holcomb again? Yes.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, but it wouldn’t be a blanket recommendation; it would be to readers with specific tastes. More of a “If you liked...” recommendation, if you will.
B-/C+
Neither of these was great (for me) but they weren't bad.
Pack Challenge by Shelly Laurenston.
What's an Alpha Male to do when he meets the Alpha Female of his dreams? Step one, hide all sharp objects.
All Zach Sheridan ever wanted was to become Alpha Male of his Pack and be left alone. What he definitely didn't need in his life was some needy female demanding his attention. What he never saw coming was the vicious, scarred female who not only demanded his attention but knew exactly how to get it.
Sara Morrighan knew this was the best she could expect from her life. Good friends. A nice place to live. And a safe job. But when Zach rode into her small Texas town with his motorcycle club, Sara knew she wanted more. She knew she wanted him. But after one sexy encounter with her dream biker, everything is starting to change. Her body. Her strength. That new thing she's doing with the snarling. Even her best friends are starting to wonder what's going on with her. But this is only the beginning.
Sara's about to find out her life was meant for so much more. And Zach's about to find true love with the one woman who makes him absolutely insane.
I don’t remember why I picked this one up. Was I looking for were/shifter books? Did I read a recommendation? Can’t recall. Laurenston writes a great sex scene, but otherwise I feel very ~meh~ about this book. It felt as if there was some sort of background or world-building information that I missed out on. What was the mythology of the shifters? What was their biology or their magic? Not really clear and never explained. The conflict that drove the romance was contrived and flimsy, or so it seemed to me since the background world was not established.
I liked that the heroine was a part of a strong trio of friends whom she had no intention of abandoning in favor of the hero. The labeling of them as “bitches” was a bit perplexing to me. Were they trying to claim ownership of a pejorative word? I don’t know. But they struck me as more quarrelsome than bitchy (which is not a negative word for me and connotes more than just stubbornness and/or an argumentative disposition).
More of the Fated Mate ™ thing here. Which means that fewer words were necessary to develop any relationship. Eh. Whatever.
C-
Rock Star by Roslyn Hardy Holcomb
How does a hedonistic, hellbound L.A. sophisticate like bad boy rock star Bryan Spencer woo young, gifted and black sweet home Alabama belle Callie Lawson? What type of magical voodoo draws him to her magnolia-scented bosom? Seduced by the unhurried pace and a lifestyle that is the antithesis of his own, he finds that he cannot break away from the seductive spell of a woman who soothes the deepest recesses of his tortured soul. Bryan, guitar god extraordinaire, is compelled to retreat to the small town when he is devastated by the loss of his best friend and band mate. The peaceful tranquility, not to mention unaccustomed celibacy, is slowly driving him mad until he meets Callie Lawson, budding tycoon, aficionado of black entrepreneurship and owner of the local bookstore. He quickly discovers that Callie is one of the few people he’s met who doesn’t have her own agenda for befriending him. Far from the cloying adulation he is accustomed to, Callie is totally focused on her own career goals and is reluctant to have anything to do with a ‘long-haired rocker from California.’ Bryan overcomes her misgivings with an old-fashioned courtship that belies his L.A. rocker origins. He introduces this Sunday School girl to some truly high-powered sex and decadence. The question is which one wins: Southern Sunday School or L.A. sin? Just when they’re certain everlasting love is firmly in their grasp, they are rent asunder by treachery and betrayal of the most staggering kind. They must defy egregious stereotypes and false perceptions to embrace their own sweet Alabama love.
I checked this book out because I appreciate Holcomb’s web presence: she’s well-spoken and thoughtful when she comments on various blogs.
Loved the cover art - the model is gorgeous and the placement of her eye just above the title is very attention-getting.
What did I like:
• Small town setting and its contrast with the urban settings; both were managed well without vilifying or glorifying either.
• The heroine’s life outside of the hero - it didn’t stop when he arrived. She had plans and goals and no intention of giving up on them.
• The upfront approach to other people’s reactions to interracial dating.
What didn’t I like:
• Yet another near-virgin heroine - because there’s no difference between experience and whoring, apparently, in Romancelandia.
• The heroine seemed very dependent on her family in a way that seemed very juvenile; she was 29, not 17.
There was a little bit of clunkiness in language, IMO, but YMMV. For me, “making business transactions” sounds strange. And lies printed in a tabloid are referred to as slander, which is specific to oral defamation rather than written. Libel, please.
With respect to the physical aspect of the book, I liked the size of the binding. There seem to be a high volume of dropped punctuation, but I am not sure if that is an author issue or a publisher problem: I had this same problem with the last Indigo book I read, too.
The last scene in the book made me curious - are there airports in the US where one can just walk up to the gate and wait for passengers to deplane? I used to be able to greet people at the gate, but in the post 9/11 paranoia, that is not an option at any of the US airports I’ve passed through. I’m sure if I had a health issue or was waiting for a small child, an exception could be made, but generally in order to get to a gate today, you have to have a boarding pass. No? Nit picking, but it yanked me right out of the story.
Would I ready Holcomb again? Yes.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, but it wouldn’t be a blanket recommendation; it would be to readers with specific tastes. More of a “If you liked...” recommendation, if you will.
B-/C+