LILLIAN’S LOVE takes place in Stony Point NY. Our heroine, Lillian owns a bookstore called Lillian’s Love. She’s a recent arrival to Stony Point and plans to rebuild a new life for herself and leave her past behind.  Michael, our hunky hero, is ex-military and now a cop who loves to take risks with his life but never his heart.  However someone is out there killing woman and his next victim is Lillian. Together they need to find the killer and stop him before he kills again.

I truly enjoyed this book. The research for it was impeccable. Ms Henion truly knows her police work.  The characters were real and the story premise fantastic. If you love a good mystery you are going to love LILLIAN’S LOVE.

I had heard from other first time published authors that doing your edits can be stressful. I hate editing to start with so this wasn’t going to be a stroll in the park for me. So I prepared myself with goodies and junk food. I’m a pretty level headed kind of person. So I was pretty shocked when I lost my temper this weekend when my laptop didn’t work well and I ended up breaking it. Yep I broke the darn thing.  In my defence my laptop was purchased used 3 years ago. I had debating replacing it earlier this year but decided to wait a few more months. Well now I have other choice but to purchase a new one. I consulted with the computer tech at work and decided to pick up an HP this time around.

Here’s hoping my new computer will help me go through my edits better.

REDEMPTION is the first book from Carolyn Davidson that I’ve read.  I had read wonderful reviews online and decided when it first came out to pick up a copy. Well it’s been in my to be read pile ever since.

This book is about a strong woman and a war veteran.  Alicia is a plain woman who has been told all her life that she would never marry. You have to understand Alicia isn’t a size 0 but a large boned normal woman. Right on! So she settled for a life of being a teacher until she meets Jason and his father Jake.  Jake lost his legs during the war and his first love a few years ago to sickness. Since then he’s lost his interest in music becomes a recluse. Slowly Alicia gets him to come back to the land of the living by teaching local school children how to play piano.

I liked this book because it wasn’t your ordinary historical. The characters were real and full of life.  I specially like the fact that Alicia had body issues, as most women do and it took the love of the right man to convince her to let them go. I would definitely recommend this book.

WESTERN WEDDING is an anthology by Jillian Hart, Kate Bridges (one of my favourites) and Charlene Sands. I had read books by Ms Sand and Ms Bridges but not Ms Hart.

I have to admit I did have a favourite among the three stories and that is Kate Bridges Shotgun Vows. I loved reading about Milly and Weston’s budding romance in a previous book. I couldn’t wait to read their story and Ms Bridges didn’t disappoint.

 I did however find a new author to add to my to be purchased list (yep another one) and that’s Jill Hart.  I fell in love with her writing style and characters in Rocky Mountain Bride. Savannah and Nate were wonderful characters, I’m looking forward to reading Nate’s brother, Joseph’s story. I’m also hoping his older brother Gabriel will get a story of his own.

In my opinion this is a definite keeper.

This TV season sure has been filled with tons of ups and downs. I watched a lot of the season finales this week and last. Here’s my take on them. 

Medium 

I loved the way everything worked out for Allison and her husband. I didn’t know where they were going with Kelly Preston’s character but you knew he would never cheat on Allison. It also looks like she’s getting her old job back. Yeah!!! 

Ghost Whisperers 

The ending of this year’s season explains last season finale. Remember when Melinda died and her Grandmother told her not to worry and then a man introduced himself as her father but all you saw was a shadow. Everyone assumed the man she thought to be her father had died. Well wrong!It ends up the man she thought was her father and who happens to be Gabriel’s father isn’t hers. She meets and says goodbye to her father. The shock to the ending is when she meets up with Professor Payne, her mother, Jim, Delia and her son. However Professor realizes there are 6 of them but only 5 shadows on the ground. We all know he doesn’t see ghost so it has to be a premonition that one of them will die and soon. I so don’t want it to be Jim, it simply can’t be him. He keeps Melinda grounded however she would grow the most from his death. Who do I think will die if someone has to die? I believe it’ll be Melinda’s mother. We’ll just have to wait until the fall to find out. 

Criminal Minds 

I didn’t even realize that last night’s show was the season final until the end. Yes until the last minute or so when everyone got in their cars and one exploded. Yep one of them will be leaving the show, or so they are leaving us to believe. Who do I think died? I’m not sure I watched the ending twice and tried to determine it but they showed the explosion from a different angle from when everyone got in their cars. Brilliant, but annoying move. I hope it’s not JJ simply because of her condition and I don’t believe it’s Emily since there were tons of vehicles and ambulances parked behind hers and the exploding car didn’t have anything around it. There is one car we didn’t see the characters get in and that Hotchner and the NY FBI lady. It could be their car, but we’ll have to wait until the fall to know for certain.

Here’s hoping the Actor’s strike doesn’t take place this summer and we get our good shows back next season!

If you like a great mystery, lively characters and hot sex scenes then EXOTICA ZONE by C S LeMone is for you.  This book follows the lives of a handful of characters going through changes in their lives.  If have to say Eric and Shannon are my favourite couple.

I like the way CS LeMone linked all the characters together while still keeping their stories separate.  The mystery thread throughout the story was strong and kept me reading.  If you are a lover of a good story then EXOTICA ZONE is the book for you.  I look forward to this author’s next release.

I have to say I had a hard time getting into DANGEROUS GAMES by Lora Leigh. Not because it wasn’t written well or the characters were shallow. It’s the complete opposite really.  It was the subject matter of the book itself that kept me in reserve.  What’s the subject matter? Well BDSM.  I had not read a BDSM book until this one. Every time I let myself get into the book something within the world Ms Leigh described so well in DANGEROUS GAMES would pull me out.  It took me until halfway through the book to get over it. Once I did I truly enjoyed the book and plan to look for her other SEAL titles.  If you enjoy a hot read then I suggest you pick up a copy of DANGEROUS GAMES however if you aren’t a fan of erotic romances then I suggest you pass on this one- for now.

UGLY BETTY last night was soooo good. Wilhelmina is back at Mode creating havoc, Daniel and Alexis at odds – again.  She is the one who hires Wilhelmina back against Daniel and his mother’s objections.

Hilda seems to have found herself a potential winning new boyfriend. Her son certainly seems to approve.  While Amanda discovers Gene Simmons isn’t her real father, but finds her true family with her best friend Marc

Gio kissed Betty.  It certainly woke her up.  She’s mourning the loss of Henry but Gio keeps hinting at being her rebound guy.  He helps her with her new article assignment from the new magazine Hot Flashes. However he has the best line of the show. He floored me when he said to Better “I don’t want to be your rebound guy, I want to be THE guy”. My heart melted.

I can’t wait to see where the relationship between Gio and Betty will go from here. I’m hoping all the way. He pushes, challenges and supports her like none of her other boyfriends have ever done. He is good for her.

What’s a reader to do when part of an anthology she doesn’t like? Should she review each novella separately or just lump it all together into one review because it’s just one book?

Now the book I’m reading has a quite a few big author names in it. I just finished reading the first one and realized I didn’t really like it. Don’t get me wrong the writing itself is good and strong I just couldn’t identify with the story. I’ve read some of her single titles and liked them somewhat. I couldn’t truly identify with the heroine in those books either but more than I did with the on in the anthology.

So my question to you readers if you don’t like the first story in an anthology do you keep reading since the other stories are written by other authors and might be very good or do you simply toss the book and move on to the next one?

Ok for those of you who don’t want to know what’s to happen on Thursday’s UGLY BETTY show or Henry fans read no further. I mean it. No further.

* * * * * SPOILER* * * * *

Ok gang, what everyone who is a Gio fan and have wanted him to get together with Betty will be pleased to know that Gio puts the moves on Betty. Yep while she comes down to his shop he dares her to admit she’s attracted to him and that she wants him to be her rebound guy. Then, the best part, he kisses her.

Yep Gio definitely put the moves on our Betty. What do I think? It’s about darn time. As much as I liked Henry he didn’t know her and her dreams.  Gio did. He figured her out in the first few appearances. He also challenges her to better herself in a way that Henry never did. I think they will be a better mix. I sure hope they put them together – to stay.