A little over a year ago, I read a wonderful book by this author called How I Learned to Love the Walrus, so when the author asked if I wanted to read her newest one, Disengaged, I immediately said yes. I fully realize it’s not fair to compare the two books, but it’s difficult not to. Both are chicklit with some funny parts and a little romance. But that’s where the similarities kind of end. Again, it’s not fair, but this book falls a little short of my expectations for this author. Walrus had an amazing location which Beth was able to turn into a character in and of itself. This one lacks that extra backdrop. It also kind of goes off the rails a bit towards the predictable end.

Having said that, the book itself is not bad. I enjoyed the storyline. While I didn’t like Allie (the main character), I did like most of the supporting cast. The writing is absolutely wonderful, as you would expect and the editing is just as wonderful. I liked the love interest(s) and the humor and quirky nature of the storyline. I felt like the story was perhaps a little over the top at times, but not so much that I rolled my eyes the entire time.

Where this books does really shine is in plot development. The author has a gift to keep the story moving. Unlike so many other chicklit authors that seem to be writing to just simply fill their word quota, Orsoff writes to keep the storyline moving and keep my interest intact.

I’d recommend this for fans of the authors other books and those who enjoy a quirky chicklit book now and then.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Book count for 2012: 8

When this book came to me from the author with a request of review I thought he must be brave. A quick look through my reviews and you’ll notice that while I love short stories, I also hate when they are done badly. Let’s face it, most are done very badly. It’s not enough words to get that deep into the story or the plot and I usually walk away feeling nothing for any of the characters.

Bored one day and in kind of foul mood, I decided to start this “novelette” and hope for the best. Less than hour later, I looked up and realized that I had just read a complete story. A whole one. There was enough information here to have a full story, the author does an amazing job of teaching us about the characters, the place, the situation and the feelings surrounding that with the short amount of writing that he does. It’s truly an excellent job.

My problem with vampire stories that have come out recently is that you have either the cuddle-able cute sparkling vampires or we have the ones that are violent to no end, killing everything in it’s path with no remorse and no storyline to speak of, just blood and teeth and lots of screaming. Seriously? Tell me something instead of just telling me about the dripping blood. This book has neither of these, really – yet, perhaps a little of both.

The author does an amazing job of getting the story set up and quickly getting some traction going. You feel for nearly everyone in the story, even the horrible horrible vampire and you are left wanting more. But not so much that you feel cheated by the story.

Easily one of the best short story/novelettes I’ve read in a very long time.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Book count for 2012: 7

One of my friends chose this for our bookclub book. I will be the first to admit that I was skeptical. I love her dearly (she’s my BFF), but she notoriously picks books that make me want to stick a spoon through my eye. I will also be honest and say that the cover art threw me off. It’s a bit too trite for me. Too… something. I wish I knew what it was that threw me, but it just didn’t gel with me. I am SO glad that she chose this book because I can’t say that I would have found this on my own.

I read a lot of self published books. A lot. Some are good. Some are bad. Some a really really bad and every now and then I run across a gem. This book represents the reason that I keep plodding along doing independent reviews. This type of writing makes me smile. In fact, everyone in our club liked the book. I think this was the first one in a year that we were all in agreement with what a greatly written book it was.

The storyline is engaging. You travel back in time with our main characters, you feel their angst at having to figure things out. You feel them struggling with the change, with how to handle make the past meet the future. The author’s ability to take a piece of historical fiction and throw in a little time travel and a touch of romance and make a group of 12 loud and opinionated women like it… well, that’s remarkable.

Her writing flows off of the page and grabs you by the hair. It drags you along with it and pulls you directly into the early 1900s and you like it. You hold on to the ride for dear life and don’t hold your breath until we reach that fateful day that you’ve been waiting on since you figured out what the time period represented.

The climax of this story takes place onboard the maiden voyage of Titanic. I won’t give anything away here, but I think I read that particular chapter sitting on the edge of my seat with my breath held. I’m pretty sure my kindle has permanent fingernail marks on it. I couldn’t breathe until I knew… the writing is so amazing and I cared so deeply about these characters.

I simply cannot wait until the author releases the next in this series. I love that she ended this book. There was no huge cliffhanger, but it left my appetite open for the next one.

I recommend this for just about anyone. Seriously, give it a read.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Book count for 2012: 3

When this book came in my email box (I adopted this author, sight unseen for Adopt An Indie month), I really didn’t know much about it. I knew it was chick lit and the cover looked cool (yeah, I know, but I at least admit that I judge books by their covers!). So, I went into this without any real preconceived notions.

The writing is supremely clean and polished. It flows nicely and was obviously very well edited. The author does an exceptional job of giving each character their own “voice” so that you knew who was talking at all times – none of that awkward “lost in the conversation” stuff going on.

Because the characters did have such distinctive voices, I really really really didn’t like one of them. Quinn. I spent part of my time wanting to reach through my kindle and smack him around a bit and the other part cringing by his complete lack of sense. But, he’s a hot rock star, so I guess we’ll forgive him. But still… sheesh!

I’m not sure that it was entirely accidental that I didn’t like Quinn. I mean, it added to the story because I DID care, but I just didn’t like the guy. I really did like the main female character (George, of course!) though. If a bit of a silly “seriously this is not happening” character, she made an absolutely fabulous lead character with depth.

Look, it’s chick lit. It’s not Pride and Prejudice. I go in knowing that I will probably be annoyed by the love story, but I read it because I love it (gosh, does that make ANY sense?). For me, it’s escapism, I can be somewhere else for a while, usually somewhere fabulous with someone even more fabulous. This book delivers on this promise – and is topped with a really nice plot.

I had already figured out the big reveal at the end of the book, but the mini one before that I had NO idea was coming. *Hat tip* to the author – very few times does that kind of thing slip by me.

I would highly recommend this for chick lit readers. You’ll enjoy it. But ya know, even though just want a quick escape read, you’ll enjoy this too. It’s a great story, give it a shot.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Book count for 2011: 57

If such a rating existed, I would give this one 3.5 stars. I’m rounding up because I like the way the author has laid out the next book in this series of trilogies. She seems to be taking us on a journey to somewhere.

First, let me say that it’s a bit too meandering for me. I kinda wanted her to get to the point, it was really overly wordy. I think a good content editor could have gotten the book down about 10% and it would have been for the better. While I understand these are stand alone trilogies, I still missed the magic of Cain and Felicity. My hope is to follow the author and trust her to make it all okay in the end. *laughing*

The good news is that, at the end of it all, I did honestly care about all of the characters and am interested enough to want to see where the 5th book is going to take us.

I recommend this book for paranormal romance fans, but know it’s quite long, so get ready to settle in. I could see this being great for those long Winter nights of reading.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Book count for 2011: 47

First the bad – the current cover for this book doesn’t do it justice at all and really has very little to do with the content. I must say that had someone not pointed this one out to me, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it, much less purchased it. Yes, I judge books by their covers.

I am really glad that a friend of mine did point it out to me because this book was just what I needed to get me out of a reading slump that I found myself in this Summer. It was reasonably light and beachy, but had enough of a plot line and a few serious issues to keep me interested in the storyline.

I was actually quite surprised by the plot and how the authors managed to weave the serious issues between and with Rod and Judith into a lighter read. In some ways, it was sad, yet also made it feel just a little more real.

The writing was great, I saw one little error where Tammi answered Rod’s phone and then just seemingly a few hours later, he couldn’t use it because it ran out of battery the night before, but if that’s the biggest content edit problem I found, we’re doing pretty good. The grammar was well done and it was overall very well written and edited.

This is highly recommended for those that enjoy chick lit, but also like a little meat with it.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Book count for 2011: 44

I believe this author was giving this book and I saw it on Twitter. Maybe I bought it. I don’t remember how I found it, but I did earlier this month and grabbed it because… okay, because I liked the title, okay? I mean, seriously!

These are a few short stories and all were fun and light and would be perfect to sit out on the beach or by the pool, chill out and read for a bit while ignoring your children and trying to lose yourself in something that makes you forget that you have sand creeping in places that it doesn’t belong.

I won’t go into each story except to say that the title one was my absolute favorite. They are all a little far-fetched, but you get exactly what you are expecting in this quirky little book of short stories.

The only real problem I saw was that a couple of the stories seemed unfinished, even for short stories. I wanted just a little bit more.

I recommend this one for the ladies that can laugh, smile and not take their reading too terribly serious. This is fun.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Book count for 2011: 40

Last month, this book showed up in my mailbox along with some others and I kept it to the side because (okay, honest here) I liked the cover. I had read a bit of the author here and there, but the cover art kind of grabbed me. So there, you know I judge books by their covers. So, it went into the “maybe read one day” stack.

A week ago, I was going through the stack and I picked this book up and then flipped it over as I was looking through them. Then I caught the name “Beauchamp”. You see, that is MY last name. Which, of course, meant that I had to read it immediately. I do wish I kept envelopes because I kind of want to know who sent it and if they giggled too.

The book itself is really well written. The writing flows very well, and the grammar is superb. It’s very steady writing, there’s nothing here that’s going to send you screaming for a dictionary. I love that the author took time to give us some good background on the Beauchamp Family while still building her story. It didn’t feel as though it was an aside, just a natural progression.

My only real complaint is that the ending was rushed a bit. She tried to tie everything up in one or two chapters and it was just too many loose ends, in my opinion. I would have rather there not been so many to tie up or perhaps leave a few for the next book.

I also kind of fell in love with the people and places in North Hampton, where the vast majority of the book takes place. It was so vividly described and so well done that I could have sworn I visited there one time.

I recommend this book for those that enjoy a good book with light paranormal elements, a little tiny bit of romance and a dash of mythology. Well worth the read!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Book count for 2011: 35

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before:

Big city girl traipses off to some remote location where she breaks a heel, learns a lesson and falls in love… Yeah, okay, it’s been done before. It will be done again. Repeatedly. It’s a formula that works well, but we all know where it’s going to end.

What set this one apart is that it has a cause behind it, a cause that the author has researched well. Yes, okay, that has been done too, but I didn’t feel like the author was shoving the walruses down my throat. Her characters had depth beyond just their cause. The cause was part of who they were on a larger scale. The author didn’t make these characters one-dimensional at all and different layers of their personalities.

I thought the editing was excellent, I didn’t see any time line or silly spelling/grammar errors. Either I was too wrapped up in what was going on or they didn’t exist. Either way, thank goodness for that! There’s a great mix of dialogue and narrative.

This is an easy breezy read that doesn’t pretend to me anything more than it is. From reading the description, you know exactly what you are going to get.

Without giving too much away the ending was satisfying, if not a little too satisfying. While I like to know a real true ending to a book, I think the author ended it well… but then went and ended it again. And then again. So, while I was happy to not be left hanging, I could have done without all the extra endings (heh, innings, endings, get it?!?!)

This is a great book for those that like chicklit. It’s a little heavier than your standard toss away book. I will forever remember the scene with the baby walrus and the heartbreak that went with it. Well done.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Book count for 2010: 96

What a silly, stupid, and pointless book. …

And I actually stayed up late reading that drivel because I could not put it down.

Seriously, this was a lot of fun! It was very silly and pretty darn pointless, but let’s be real… it’s a book about this cat who swaps bodies with a lady, both of which who have murderous crazy people after them. What I liked most about this book is that it didn’t pretend to be anything more than what it is – just a cute little fun break from reality. There was no trying to explain how it happened or how it could be undone or anything like that. It just was.

Silly. Sassy. While I found the character of Sorcha to be a little annoying and a bit whiny but uh, well, she did get turned into a cat. However, Belle made me want to stab my eyes out with a spoon at times. The neediness and stuck-up-ed-ness really got on my nerves. Yeah, she likes tuna. Move on. Having said that, I also really loved the characters. Yes, that leaves me quite confused. They were very much “love to hate” type of characters.

The author’s writing was fantastic, I didn’t feel bored or felt like it went on too long at any given point in the book. I also loved that I didn’t see any glaring errors (yes, yes, yes, I know, silly pet peeve).

Overall, this was a breath of fresh air. There is absolutely no way I would have picked this book up on my own had the author not contacted me and asked me to review it. In fact, this actually went in my secondary “probably not going to bother reading” pile for reviews. I guess it just goes to show that it’s always worth a second look. I simply grabbed this one because I knew it would be light and I could easily put it down. Yeah, not so much. Sucked me in a bit. It still was easy to put down, but it was interesting enough to get me to pick it back up when I sat down to read again.

This book is recommended to people that don’t take their literature too seriously. It’s reading. It should be downright fun sometimes.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Book count for 2010: 76