The AAR Seventeen in 17 Reading Challenge – March update
Heading into Spring – in my part of the world, anyway – here’s the chance to keep track of your reading for the Seventeen in 17 Reading Challenge and share your thoughts on the books you read in March.
It’s not too late to sign up – just head on over to the main Challenge page to have a look at the fabulously varied range of prompts that are sure to provide food for thought for everyone, and get stuck in to your TBR pile!
Now it’s over to you Challengers. How many books are you going to knock off the TBR pile in March?
Genre Challenge (5/17):
ROLLER GIRL by Vanessa North (LGBT+ romance): 3.5 out of 5 stars. Reviewed here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1946772748
Letter Q Challenge (8/17):
ARTISTIC LICENSE by Elle Pierson (aka Lucy Parker) [“Quiet”]: 4 out of 5 stars. Reviewed here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1922367871
17 Fun Facts
16) In the US, 17 is the age at which one may watch, rent, or purchase R-rated movies without parental consent.
Read an erotic book, or read a book that was rated as “Hot” or “Burning” at AAR, or a book that you would rate as “Hot” or “Burning”.
Wait For It by M. O’Keefe
#4 in the Everything I Left Unsaid series.
In this book, we reconnect with Tiffany and Blake, who were secondary characters in books 1 and 2. It is a very well-written enemy-to-lovers story. I really liked how once again the author created two complex, nuanced characters, and very distinguishable from the previous heroes and heroines from the previous books. Tiffany’s efforts to understand how to accept help without becoming completely dependent on other people sounded quite real, and Blake’s journey to open up was interesting too. ARR gave this book a B+ grade (https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/wait-for-it-by-m-okeefe/), and I totally agree with it. Another very good story by Molly O’Keefe.
I really liked Wait For It–one of my favorites in that series.
The Cocktail Challenge
Sidecar – Sidecars are used for passengers on motor cycles. Read a book about a biker or someone who works with motorcycles.
Bound Together by Christine Feehan – hero is president of a motorcycle club”: After a very slow start the story picked up. The author put more emphasis on the “brotherly” ties between the hero and the guys (and gals) he’d grown up with vs. his biological brothers. This was mainly to supply enough sequel bait for her upcoming spinoff series. But while it was realistic the hero would have a much closer relationship with these others it was disappointing not to have more page time with the actual Prakenskii brothers. The internal monologues of the characters were very repetitive. The huge continuity error regarding the heroine’s mother kept yanking me out of the story. The conflict between the heroine and her “sisters of the heart” was the same conflict as in several of the books in this series as well as the Drake Sisters series it was spun-off from. As with the last book, the big bad über-villain was entirely too easily dispatched. I had some issues with the plot. But there were a lot of fun moments and it was nice to see all of the Drake sisters again as well as their husbands, even if they weren’t featured as much as I’d hoped. The whole motorcycle club storyline does nothing for me, but I was intrigued enough by a few of the new characters I will at least give the next spin-off series a chance.
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The Breakfast Cereal Challenge: 4 down, 13 to go…
Seventeen Magazine(s)! Challenge: 7 down, 10 to go…
The Alphabet Challenge Variation: 8 down, 9 to go…
The Cocktail Challenge: 9 down, 8 to go…
Simply Seventeen Challenge (The Whittler) – Novellas: 5 down, 12 to go…
The 20th Century Challenge: completed!
Once more with the Cocktail Challenge…
I have a number of Linda Lael Miller books in my TBR pile but have never read her. For this part of the challenge, I pulled out Ragged Rainbows, published in 1986.
Ragged Rainbows is the story of a divorced single mother with a troubling childhood. Shay Kendall is the daughter of a famous actress who is now being cared for in a nursing home, suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s. Luckily, one of Shay’s many stepfathers is footing the bill for her mother’s care, since her mother apparently had little of her own money left. Shay also has a decent job with a car dealership which helps her take care of her six year old son. The only albatross left from Shay’s past is a mansion her mother owned and which she lived in as a child.
Before we get very far into the story, a successful author buys the mansion. Our hero, Mitch Prescott, is looking for a home to settle in after years of travel and research for his successful, non-fiction books on tough topics like the KKK, Nazi war criminals, and Colombian cocaine dealers. Mitch is also divorced and shares custody of his young daughter with his former wife.
When Shay and Mitch meet, they are attracted to each other, but they also carry baggage from their pasts, their earlier marriages and have conflicting future plans. Most paramount, is that Mitch is talked into writing a book about Shay’s mother by his agent, which could lead him to reveal many details about Shay’s life she doesn’t want told as well as surprises she wasn’t expecting.
Since this book was written in 1986, I was expecting it to be a bit dated, but it held up rather well. At least, initially. Where the book fell down was, first, by relying on that old trope of the characters not talking to each other and, when they do, projecting their old problems onto this new relationship — especially the heroine. Further, the book is only 248 pages, but could have easily been 100 more. In fact, the speed of which events happen is mind boggling. It’s revealed that Shay wants to start a business and almost magically everything falls into line. Mitch reveals something about Shay’s family via his research and magically Shay has a wonderful, “new” family member. Shay decides she doesn’t want to run her business after all and so, she doesn’t. All of these plot lines and more should’ve been stretched out, involving more obstacles and conflict. This story had a lot of potential but was given short shrift. Because of that, I give it a C, or maybe a C+ given the potential.
******
The Cocktail Challenge – 3 down, 7 to go.
Alphabet Challenge – 4 down, 6 to go. (B, G, H, & J)
Simply Seventeen Challenge (The Whittler) – novellas
A Taste for Kandy by Rhian Cahill: The heroine felt her proverbial biological clock ticking but did not have a significant other with which to start a family. After an office Christmas party she’d slept with the hero who just happened to be one of her employees. This happened off page before the story started, so without more details the heroine came off as terribly selfish. The hero had been in love with the heroine for some time, though she had never looked at him as boyfriend material since she was eight years older. I could have done without the hero from the first book in the series acting like such a jerk, but thankfully he then owned up to his poor behavior. The hero made this novella for me. Despite the rocky start it ended up being my favorite story in the Frosty’s Snowmen trilogy.
All is Bright by Addison Fox: The hero was hiding a major secret. I probably should have been more disturbed by the fact he was willing to let the heroine think she’d been hallucinating than admit to being a phoenix, but since the heroine was adamant about what she’d seen it didn’t bother me. He tried to be high handed, but she refused to put up with his attitude, so his efforts came across as humorous. The characters were well matched, their backstories intriguing, and the mystery set up both their internal and external conflicts. The hero had his own character arc, but ultimately this was the heroine’s story. An enjoyable romance.
Heat of a Helios by Karen Whiddon: The hero was the brother of the hero in the above novella. The heroine was a singing star due to start a three month gig at the brothers’ casino in Las Vegas. She’d arrived at the hotel early to have an overdue vacation. I won’t get into spoilers, but there were a large number of both major and minor inconsistencies within the story. On the one hand the novella plotted along from point to point in a very straightforward manner, but on the other hand it lacked cohesion. Overall a very disappointing read.
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The Breakfast Cereal Challenge: 4 down, 13 to go…
Seventeen Magazine(s)! Challenge: 7 down, 10 to go…
The Alphabet Challenge Variation: 8 down, 9 to go…
The Cocktail Challenge: 8 down, 9 to go…
Simply Seventeen Challenge (The Whittler) – Novellas: 5 down, 12 to go…
The 20th Century Challenge: completed!
Continuing with the Cocktail Challenge…
Happily, I had a book in my TBR pile that fits both of this challenge’s requirements. Kate Meader’s Playing with Fire, published in 2015, features both the city of Chicago and firefighters! Perfect.
This book is fourth in a series of novels and novellas. Each one focuses on one member of a firefighting family, who were adopted or fostered by a heroic Chicago fireman/bar owner and his wife. Playing with Fire deals with the explosive romance between a female firefighter, the rough-and-tough Alex Dempsey, and the handsome, dynamic mayor of Chicago, Eli Cooper, who is the scion of a wealthy Chicago family.
First off, I have to say the story might have been slightly more enjoyable if you had already read one or more of the first three stories in the series. Many of the previous heroes and heroines are peppered throughout this book in more than a casual way and, at times, I had to stop and think about who they were in relation to the main couple here. So, not the greatest as a stand-alone story.
But, much else about the book worked for me. I liked Alex’s tough girl with a heart personality and especially her sarcastic comebacks, and I thought Eli was a good foil as a slick, polished politician who has a tough inner core. In fact, as someone who knows something about politics, I thought Meader got that world down pretty well, with believable political conflict. Furthermore, the attraction between the pair leapt off the page and was very sexy.
As the story concluded, I was pretty sure there’d be an HEA — of course — but I wasn’t totally sure what shape it would take. I was a little sorry about one part of the conclusion, but I guess it should’ve been expected.
I would give this story a “B.”
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The Cocktail Challenge – 2 down, 8 to go.
Alphabet Challenge – 4 down, 6 to go. (B, G, H, & J)
As someone who has read the whole series, I am super hesitant to ever recommend them as stand alones. I think Meader wants to demonstrate the communal aspect of the firehouse so strongly that it makes it difficult to dip in and out. So I wonder if you read another one – I wonder if you’ll enjoy that more since you’ll feel more grounded in her world. The series is over, btw, and she’s moving on to ice hockey players. Anyway – good pick for this challenge!
Putting aside The Alphabet Challenge and starting on the Cocktail Challenge…
I’m trying to read books I have in my TBR pile, that were written by authors I’ve never read before, who will also be attending the RT Convention in Atlanta. That way, I’ll know something about the work of more of the authors I’ll be meeting there. For that reason, I jumped to the Cocktail Challenge and pulled out Jenn Bennett’s Bitter Spirits. (In the Alphabet Challenge I had already used up the letter “B”. ;-)
Bitter Spirits is set in 1927 San Francisco (especially Chinatown) during the Prohibition Era. Our heroine, Aida Palmer, is a spiritualist/medium for hire who travels the country doing stage shows where she tries to connect audience members with their dearly departed. She has been living in San Francisco’s Chinatown for a short period, doing her “act,” when she’s called on to help a big time businessman/bootlegger, Winter Magnusson, who is being plagued by ghosts. While helping to rid Winter of both this ghost and a curse that’s been put upon him, Aida finds herself attracted to the man even though he’s essentially running a criminal enterprise under the cover of a legitimate family fishing business. Winter also has emotional ghosts plaguing him, as he was in an auto accident with his wife and parents, all of whom were killed, and which left him with a scar and eye injury. Because of this, he’s kept any meaningful relationships at a distance – other than his younger siblings, family retainers, and employees. Aida is much less encumbered but equally emotionally stunted. She lost her parents as a young child and her brother was taken from her during WWI. After their initial meeting, Aida and Winter try to move on with their lives but they can’t avoid each other because Winter’s hauntings continue and they come to find that this is not limited to him but part of a plot to take over San Francisco’s bootlegging business from all the various gangs and criminals in San Francisco. So, although Aida’s reputation as a medium is growing and she has offers to work in other parts of the country, she finds herself drawn to this man, the friends she has made, and this town that she once knew as a child.
This story has such a colorful and detailed setting that I found myself totally immersed in the world Bennett created – Chinatown, the speakeasies, the underworld, Winter’s family, the Nob Hill types. While Aida is a legitimate medium, her life is a little seedy and on the edge and there was a part of me that rooted for her success as an independent woman. The hero is definitely a problematic character. Although he cares for those he loves and doesn’t harm the innocent, he *is* in an illegal business and does very bad things in order to remain on top. It made me wonder just what would happen after Prohibition ended, leaving aside the fact that our HEA involves a couple whose lives are being supported by a criminal enterprise. As for the paranormal aspects of the book, they were sufficiently creepy without being off putting. Finally, I especially loved the descriptions of the outfits the heroine wore. There’s something sexy about outerwear and lingerie (the garter belts, chemises, and teddies) from that period which definitely heightens the sexual encounters.
I would give this story a “B+.”
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The Cocktail Challenge – 1 down, 9 to go.
Alphabet Challenge – 4 down, 6 to go. (B, G, H, & J)
I didn’t mean to have that whole first paragraph in bold. HTML is not your friend!
17 Fun Facts
17) The fear of the number 17 is called ‘heptadecaphobia’ or ‘heptakaidekaphobia’.
Read a book where one of the main characters gets scared or afraid. Or read a book with a vampire, werewolf, or any character that can be considered “scary”.
One Grave at a Time by Jeaniene Frost
#6 in the Night Huntress series.
Cat and Bones have to vanquish a very evil ghost. At the same time, they need to deal with Madigan, the man who replaced Cat’s uncle Don as the head of the secret government operation that investigates and manages paranormal activities. And… that was basically it… This book was less interesting that the previous ones in the series. It was good to see that Cat and Bones now have a mature relationship – there were no moments of unnecessary drama created by stupid misunderstandings, for instance – but the plot was flat. It almost felt as if this was a side story, or a novella, for instance. I hope the author gets back to the main story arc in the next book in this series.