Weekly Round Up

Major Mummy brag to start with this week. My eldest daughter took part in a Taekwondo competition on Saturday and got gold in the sparring and silver in the patterns for her age group (girls 11-17).  She was so chuffed because this is her first competition.

Other than that, it's been a quiet week for me. I've been trying to catch up with stuff, especially housework, after 6 weeks of marking. Sometimes I wish I could afford to hire a cleaner *sigh*.

My Reading Week

Houseboat on the Nile by Tinnean
This spy drama, which in no way reflects real life (think James Bond rather than anything more realistic), follows WBIS agent Mark Vincent, who finds himself attracted to CIA agent Quinton Mann. They may be on the same side but there's no love lost between the agencies and this causes problems for Mark as he fights the attraction for all its worth. This author has a large fan base who came with her from her days as a fan fic/web author and this story was originally written as a serial on her website. It shows. There's a lot of repetition, some of this is due to the style of the book which is written in alternating 1st person POVs and has one character in a situation before changing to see the same situation from the other character's POV. This sometimes worked for me and sometimes not because there was a lot of extraneous detail which could have been cut. Apparently, the author edited heavily for publication but not enough in my opinion. Having said that, I loved the characters and the push/pull of their relationship.It was this aspect which kept me reading and it was a shame that the book ended so suddenly - obviously leading onto the next book in the series. Recommended to those who are looking for a popcorn spy thriller. Grade: Good.

Beholding Beauty by Sam Singer
I'd enjoyed a previous story by this author and, seeing that this new release had a rent boy theme, I couldn't resist buying. 300+ books in my TBR pile and I buy and read a new release instead *sigh*. Anyway, this story follows male escort Craig who gets a new client in Dee. Dee only wants companionship, not sex, and won't allow Craig to see his face. Over the course of a few weeks, Craig comes to care for Dee, but Dee still holds him at arm's length.  Whilst I enjoyed reading this story, and liked both the characters, this turned out to be a rather predictable, if nicely written story. Having read the blurb, I'd got a pretty good idea as to what would happen and it did, in the order I expected it.  I wasn't bored though because the writing drew me in and Craig was a nice guy, but the story didn't stand out as anything that I would remember over time.  If you're looking for a light, easy read with nice characters and a good emotional content this story will be for you. Grade: Good.

Also this week I reviewed the very good Last Stop by Lou Harper, the poor Giving it a Name by Elizabella Gold and the good Like it or Not anthology edited by SL Armstrong and April L'Orange.

Over at BER we've just had the first week of our Canadian fortnight. So far we've interviewed 6 Canadian authors and reviewed stories by them.  We've had lots of interest in the posts, but not so many people leaving comments on the interviews so if you could help out we'd be grateful.

Next week

You'll be pleased to know that I've found my book with the review lists in. Although, it now turns out I've accidentally scheduled two guest posts in a week during September. Oops! This is what happens when my organisational tools go missing!

Next week I shall review Changing Worlds by Cari Z and Graceland by Ally Blue.  My sulking managed to garner some results and so I shall be able to do my post on author reactions to blog tours on Tuesday. thanks to those who emailed me with their opinions. They've been very helpful.  Then on Friday, I'll be here with the round up.

Have a great weekend everyone. I'm at a family party tomorrow to celebrate my in-laws Ruby Wedding Anniversary which should be good. I've bought a new outfit and everything :).