Diving In

Diving In

By Stacey Wallace Benefiel

****

Contemporary romance.  Brynn Garrett finds it hard to fit in anywhere.  She tends to opt for the road with speed humps and pot holes.  Trying to avoid a party she decides to hang out on its fringes and see something that effects her deeply and never really gets over.  

While all her school colleagues head off to new adventurous lives at college, Brynn decides to learn the ropes of her family's dry cleaning business.  Her life is lonely and insular until a mishap befalls Gabe Riley's mother's table cloth and a wonderful relationship develops.

I loved this book.  It is a quick read for starters.  The comedy factor is very fresh and nothing is off limits in this regard.  The characters are fully formed and very likeable.  There are a few issues that are revealed which make you think and challenge yourself as to "what would I do?"

I found it highly devy, the level of his injury isn't mentioned but his hands are affected so I would assume that he is a low level quadriplegic.  The author isn't squeamish to go into the details.  Gabe is fantastic and realistic not a depressed character but also not a Pollyanna.  There isn't much sex in the book.  But there is a wonderful build up which has you biting your duvet cover in frustration.

It is one of those books you just wish you could wipe your memory and re-read a fresh again and again.  It is a crime that it has been sitting on my Kindle untouched for so long.  This book isn't going to solve world peace but it sure as heck will entertain you for a few nights.

In The Eye of the Beholder by Beverly Cialone

NO STARS

I really didn't like this book. The female mc was very insipid and weak. She was a thirty year old virgin who considered herself as unattractive. Her actions seem contradictory to the personality the writer had shared with us. In that she is very insecure and self-analytical but yet has confidence to wonder over to a doctor and introduce herself. That just doesn't fit with the rest of her personality.

My main objection is with the male mc. The story opens with him reading a book and leading her around, he is fairly sweet but as the synopsis on the "cover" tells us he is going to be blind so when he drops his "bombshell" we aren't that shocked. But I was shocked as to how completely implausible this character was portrayed. He moved around his environment without any assistance, he managed to read books in the conventional way without any braille or speech apparatus, and carried a pager around with requires sight to read the message.

I wish the author had either just made this a tale about a doctor falling for an ugly duckling or had made far more concessions to the character's disability. I do really hope that, with this book being electronic, she may revisit it at some time and make adjustments to his character.

I could not recommend this to anyone because of the failings of the portrayal of disability being completely inconsequential to a persons life that it is only paid lip service. I sincerely hope that should Beverly Cialone tackle another character with disability, she does research and writes it with more realism.

They Say Love Is Blind

By Pepper Pace
Dev Rating (The first half **** the second  ***)

I really enjoyed this book.  Victoria is an anti heroine, she is overweight, insecure, low self confidence in other words a real woman and not a barbie doll.  She is plodding through her average life, going to work, slobbing in her pj's and trying to shed her unwanted pounds.  On a clumsy bus journey she spots Lee and it is lust at first sight.


Lee was everything I like in a romantic lead.  Hunky, funny, kind and very sexy.  Victoria watches from afar, never believing that he'd ever be remotely attracted to her.... But sparks fly.


Pepper Pace faces Lee's disability head on, with a positivity that brightens up the story.  A couple of places I felt her research was a little too forced fed to the reader and rather than have Tory ask loads of questions we could have had a bit more show not tell.  But saying that I did find it interesting to learn what computer programme he used and was surprised at the cause of his blindness, so much so I had to have a google session.  I really like the discovery of his blindness, to me it was plausible.  I also got a zing out of the early dating sections and after an incident which made him lose confidence but he seemed to recover rather quickly from that.

There were enough story plots to keep me turning the page.  So all in all a very enjoyable read!

Sydney Harbour Hospital: Tom's Redemption

Sydney Harbour Hospital: Tom's Redemption by Fiona Lowe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hayley Grey is a Resident at Sydney Harbour Hospital, she is one exam away from being a qualified Surgeon. She is scared of the dark but other than that a good kick ass female main character. Tom Jordon, a Surgeon, has returned to Sydney from Perth where he had been recuperating for two years following an accident; a car banged into him when he was cycling.

We learn that Tom is gorgeous, a serious person whose focus has been 100% on his carear which is now not an option for him. So he is at the stage in his life where he is looking for what he wants to do now.

Enter Hayley into his life. They develop a friendship which grows to more...

This book is a fast read. I didn't really feel involved in the story which I think was mainly due to the length of the book not giving the author or reader time to really engaged in the story. Likewise, these two fairly interesting characters didn't get room to grow. Their bumps in their relationship seemed to be solved before you got a chance to fret for them.

The medical referencing was just enough to convince me they knew what they were doing without flowing the pages with terminology.

I enjoyed the book but it was just ok.

Wheels of Steel Book 1 (of 3)

Wheels of Steel, Book 1 by Pepper Pace
*** I really enjoyed this book.

Robin is a shy twenty one year old who is getting over the death of her father and readjusting to the new dynamic of her relationship with her mother after the loss of the buffer that kept their squabbles at bay. Having made the choice to move out and live on her own because she refused to go to college, she struggles to make ends meet. A tip from a work colleague sends her down the path of becoming a home care assistant (HCA). Her first client is an old woman who she eventually befriends. Her second client is Jason. Who on the surface is a surly student who has cerebral palsy (CP). Their friendship blooms.

The only thing that I disliked about the book was that there were a few spelling mistakes. I got the feeling that there may have been something wrong with Ms Pace's keyboard as every time she meant "than" we got "then". Also, now that I think of it, I did find the dialogue a bit hard to follow as I wasn't always sure who was speaking as there would be something said but the proceeding action was something of the person being talked to which made it not too clear and required a quick reread.

Now, what I liked about the book. Robin's characterisation was fantastic. A shy nervous girl who disliked crowds and being shouted at. I could really relate and the author conveyed this condition with great understanding. I also loved that although Robin was shy and nervous she had a strong side making her very dynamic. As the book proceeds we see her gaining more and more confidence and growing into herself.

Jason is grumpy when we first encounter him but soon it is explained were this stems from and he becomes a very sympathetic character. The relationship between him and Robin develops in a very natural way, refreshingly realistic and devoid of M&B cliché moves and dialogue. The situation of Robin being a HCA to Jason is handled very well. The author not shying away of dealing with every detail. It was interesting to see how Robin, whose duties involved doing some pretty intimate tasks for Jason, then has to see him in a romantic light.

I also loved the smooth changing of point of view between Robin and Jason. It felt good as a reader to be able to get into both of their heads.

My one big tip would be, have book 2 at the ready as you will want to reach for it as soon as book 1 ends, trust me. I am really looking forward to reading the next two books in this series.


View all my reviews

Love Story

Love Story **
Janine Boissard (Author)
Marilyn Achiron (Translator)

Claudio Roman is a world-famous tenor and perhaps even more well known lothario. His life is the envy of men in all walks of life, until a fateful random attack leaves him a shell of his former self.
Now, three years later and no longer performing opera, he is still a singer in very high demand—but he knows he can’t be too careful about his security. Women still fawn over him too, so it is hard to understand why, when in need of a new aide and publicist to travel and be with him night and day, he would hire a small, average-looking woman who he will later compare to a sparrow.
Laura is surprised the morning after her twenty-sixth birthday party when she is called into the boss’s office and offered the job of accompanying Claudio Roman on his singing engagement—effective immediately. Hesitant at first, she accepts the opportunity and throws herself into it with all the professionalism she can bring. Soon becoming the only one Claudio requests from the agency, her dedication to making sure that Claudio has everything he needs at all times endears her to the singer. She takes her position so seriously, in fact, that she sees the opportunity to play her sincerity against his cynicism and bring him the hope he gave up long ago. As Laura desperately searches for ways to restore his confidence and stature as a premiere opera performer, she awakens feelings in Claudio he thought were lost forever.

I am left feeling like yes this is a really nice love story but it lacks a bit of meat on its bones.

The female lead character is a well written, rounded character, deep, insecure, can be easily identified with.

It is a nice classic love story, beautifully written, I think this is because this piece is translated from French so descriptions have a different angle/point of view than originally English works.

Loved the fact that the book was divided into Her, Him and then Him and Her. - I actually preferred his angst section best but then it wouldn't have worked as well without her section.

The story was missing something. Perhaps it is supposed to be a light love story but I would have liked more of something I cannot put my finger on. Perhaps it was missing more about how he was coping with his blindness. How she adapts to working with his demands.

When reading dev books I do turn down the corners of pages that I really like and although I thought it didn't really spark too much of my dev feelings, looking back after the book had been read there was quite a few ear dogged pages.

*spoiler* He does improve but only in one eye and that is still only usable with thick glasses.

Good holiday read, a posh version of Mills and Boons.

In a Soldier's Arms

In a Soldier's Arms (Harlequin American Romance)

By Marin Thomas

*

Is book is okay but I felt a bit cheated at the focus of the story didn't feel like it was on the romance but rather that was incidental.

It is about a nurse whose mother died and her estranged grandmother writes to her to say she has some of her effects. We then follow Maggie's journey of discover her roots which her mother had told her very little about. So there is her relationship with her gran, her Gran's neighbours, her Gran's patients, the clan and them her relationship with the hero of the piece, who is suffering from PTSS and has lost his leg in battle.

He is far more interesting than the Maggie's character but I felt that he was kept at a distance through the story. Also it ended too suddenly for me. I like the romance books that have a final chapter where the romance issues have been resolved and we get an insight as to how they will be together.

The sex scenes were okay but not to many of them because they weren't together enough. They were explicit but in a poetic way.

It was a good read but just didn't hit the spot. We needed more Abram and less Maggie.

Abram is very insecure about his injury and it does border on annoying and doesn't ring true as he is so self possessed in all areas in his life except for his body image.