The Summerhouse by Jude Deveraux

Year Published: 2001

My Rating: 5 stars

416 pages

Have you even wanted to rewrite your past?

Three women on their 21st birthday meet for a very brief day full of hopes and dreams. Starting careers in New York!

Then after 19 years they arrange to meet for their 40th birthday. Each of them encountered different events that changed the courses of their lives.

They are then given a chance to alter their lives and to choose a different future. So what would they choose to change and how would that change alter their lives.

I always asked myself this question, if I ener had a chance to change something in my life and to be given a second chance for another future what would I do?!

I loved this book eminisly .. It was so charming, romantic and full of captivating sense of humor that the girls shared.

I haven't read a Deveraux book in ages and I don't know what made me stop reading them although she is one of my favorite authors. But now I know I will be looking for her titles again, specially the sequel to this book "Return to Summerhouse" which is already on my immediate TBR.

Amazingly wonderful read and regarded as one of my favorites for this year.

Quotes I enjoyed form this book:

I will post this soon!

Roped Into Romance by Alison Kent

Roped Into Romance by Alison Kent

Year Published: 2002

My Rating: 4 stars

53 pages (on Sony Reader)

Lauren and Macy are looking for a place to buy. Anton Neville has a loft to sell. When he meets them to show them the place, Lauren is spellbound.
So now what Lauren wants is Anton and she will do anything to get him.

A very fast fun read which I enjoyed very much .. It was light and full of humor. The first for me by this author and definitely will be the beginning of a lot more TBR's. I will check her other books soon!

Quotes I enjoyed from the book:

Her eyes grew both wide and bright and Anton felt a strange stirring in his gut. An unease that told him he was asking for the sort of trouble that had a good chance of turning his well-ordered life upside down.

"This is so great! Can you imagine a little candlelight, a little wine? A lotta lovin' under the stars? Listening to the traffic below and trying not to get caught?" Lauren hugged her arms around her middle, whirled back to Macy, and said, "I can't wait to try it out!" Only it wasn't Macy standing in the open doorway behind Lauren. It was Anton Neville. And he said, "Neither can I."

Rot by Michele Lee

Rot by Michele Lee

Year Published: 2009

My Rating: 5 stars

56 Pages

Dean just started his security job at Silver Springs Specialty Care Community. A facility specifically built to care for your deceased loved ones.. The ones that are undead actually.. the ones that were turned into zombies by their families because they just couldn't let go. But after a while discover it's not easy to care for these people therefore they put them in this facility to take care of them..

But sometimes things are not what they seem..

When Dean unites with 2 zombies, Amy and Patrick.. they together discover there are some zombies that have mysteriously disappeared. But where they disappear is truly haunting !!

I read this book almost in one sitting.. it was so hard to put down.. I only did so to get the kids ready for school then there I sat till it was over..

I loved it so much although I'm not into zombie books, but this was very captivating.. I will look forward to reading other books by this author.. the writing style was so engrossing and alive..

It reminded me of the importance of letting go.. Since lately I had to learn it the hard way!

Quotes I enjoyed from the book:

"Which would you prefer, Dean? Being one of those things out there, rotted to mindlessness, or being locked in a dead body, knowing that's the future you'll face? Knowing that someone loved you enough not to let go, but didn't love you enough to care for you themselves? Instead, they locked you in here where they didn't have to see or smell you, but could take comfort in the idea that you weren't exactly dead anymore."

It used to be that death, maybe even a long or violent one, would be the worst thing you'd ever have to face. In the few skirmishes I'd served in, other soldiers had taken some comfort in knowing that. But then, that was before they started raising people from the dead.

The world felt empty and full at the same time. The cloudless, cool night gleamed with stars so far from the main lights of the city. It looked like some of them had come aground and gathered in a long circle in the grass. There were rose petals in the center: white, red, pink and yellow. I was unable to find enough of one color so I had grabbed all the little bags of them that I could find. Around the oval of light, lilies, daisies, and orchids were spread along with roses. The candles filled the night air with a miasma of scent: lemon, vanilla, strawberry, pine and cinnamon.

Night Moves I by Kiernan Kelly, Matt Brooks, Erastes and Kira Stone

Night Moves I by Kiernan Kelly, Matt Brooks, Erastes and Kira Stone

Year Published: 2008

My Rating: 4 stars

273 pages on Sony Reader

This is an anthology of vampire tales that are quite gay.

Theron's Boys by Kiernan Kelly:
Christian is a newly turned vampire that after only 3 years started to regret his choice and considering finding ways to rebel on the sire that so entranced him in the first place.

Inferno by Matt Brooks:
A vampire in the making having a fast night with a full vampire that offers to help.

Chiaroscuro by Erastes:
An artist is asked to paint someone by his family's provider. When he meets him he almost goes insane.. only to discover he is not just a normal guy.. adventures are to happen in the drawing room :)
I really hope their is a sequel for this one!!

Immortal Steps by Kira Stone:
Tian is a dancer and a very good one too.. He is followed by his most dedicated fan only to discover who his true identity is and what Tian could be if only he wanted.
Marked and hunted, he is running for his life!

This anthology was very good, I was so engrossed in it.. Every story is unique and captivating in itself. Having different vampire lore and legends mixed up.. Very fun read!

The most one I enjoyed was the last one.. :)

Quotes I enjoyed from this book:

Story 1
Actually, when Christian really thought about it, he realized that he’d jumped into his new life (for want of a better word) knowing very little about being a vampire at all. When Theron had first approached him about joining Theron’s Boys, as he’d called his little club, it had sounded like a sweet gig. Zero body fat, heightened senses, vastly increased strength, all the sex you could handle with none of the usual worries over disease, living forever-all tempting little perks that came with membership.

One man in particular drew Christian’s interest. He seemed to be the center of the universe to the men he sat with, the others treating him with a deference that bordered on worship. The very air around him crackled with power, with danger, and with a raw sexual energy that had Christian as hard as iron in no time flat.

Suddenly, the man looked up at Christian. With one long, elegant finger, he lowered his sunglasses down over the bridge of his nose, peeking at Christian from over the frames. A wily, amused smirk creased the man’s cheek as they’d made eye contact.

Story 3:
He took it delicately and the way he moved towards her I was reminded of an old fashioned dance, a gavotte, or a minuet. He dropped to his knees and bent over her hand and after a moment I had to look away, for the kiss he gave her was every bit as sensual as anything he had done to me. His eyes burned as he looked up at her and I felt myself blushing, feeling childishly jealous as I wondered once more what their relationship was.

Story 4:
“Because you mean the world to me,” Kyle admitted.

It wasn’t natural. It couldn’t be. And yet again Tain knew this was right. He soaked it up body, mind, and soul. He welcomed the surging forces at work in his body, let them change him. Let them strip away the last shreds of his humanity and reveal the vampire inside.

Cover Me by L.B. Gregg

Cover Me by L.B. Gregg

Year Published: 2009

My Rating: 3 stars

226 pages

This is the 3rd book in the Men Of Smithfield series.

I bought this book from Aspen Mountain Press as a ebook but be warned it's a Male/Male erotic thing :)

Michael Finnegan is hired to tutor Kyle Douglas in some of his studies during the summer.. But then he has and encounter with Kyle's brother, Maxwell that ended up with him firing Michael 'Finn'.

Devastated and hurt he goes back to his school job trying to forget what happened during the summer..

But fate insists on having their paths cross yet again when the father of one of the students in the school hires Max to keep his son safe.. as a bodyguard.

Now for the safety of the boy they have to unite and ignore their differences.. or is it the hidden passion in them both :)

This is an erotic M/M, so if you are offended by this type of erotica just ignore this book.. I liked it and it was a fast read.. Actually their was a story and it was done good.. I'm gonna check out the first two books in this series.. for the times in between serious reads like now :D

Some quotes I enjoyed from the book:

“Fine. I expect two things while you are here.” His brow hiked. Too bad. I thrust a finger at him, and not the one I wanted to. “One: that you do not use this bullshit superiority complex on me. Just be straight with me and we’ll get along. And two: that you do not question my authority in the dorm or in the classroom. Treat me like an adult colleague because here we are equally in charge. I don’t answer to you-I work with you.”

“You let me worry about weaponry, Michael; you worry about Shakespeare.”

I tightened my lips and then that son of a bitch pulled out the big guns and floored me with a boyish smile that was all charm and mischief.
Oh shit, I was toast.

Tara smiled at me, that fresh young face taking in every speck of my appearance and behavior to better spread tales online as soon as she returned to the dorm. I was relieved no one had taken any pictures to post on Facebook, or upload onto YouTube. I scanned every hand for a cell phone.

“I don’t own a hair dryer. My hair is an inch and half long, Michael.”

Teaser Tuesdays (Oct. 13)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser for this week ..

"Peg started to say something, then changed her mind and took a gulp of her wine. Guilt? This could either be amusing or upsetting. My brother’s idea of a ‘date’ and mine were embarrassingly different. Evan’s goal to find me a long term mate didn’t jibe with my own goal not to get involved. Not now. I’d been burned by what I thought was a true love-hello married-at nineteen."

From "Cover Me" by L.B. Gregg

Bet Me by Lucynda Storey

Bet Me by Lucynda Storey

Year Published: 2006

My Rating: 3 stars

47 pages

Romantic erotica.. so if you are not into this genre just skip this book :)

Sylvia and Lea are lured into a betting game that might end up getting them what they have been wanting for quite a while. It involves Strip Poker and Truth and Dare :)

Fun fast and short.

Quotes I enjoyed from the book:

"What is it turns into," she lowered her voice conspiratorially, "a wild orgy?"
"Then I know it will be the most fun I've had in ages," her friend shot back.

"I wouldn't mind doing the dirty with either one of them. Hell both of them! A woman has needs you know!"

The Awakening (Vampire Diaries Book 1) By Lisa J Smith

The Awakening (Vampire Diaries Book 1) By Lisa J Smith

Year Published: 1991

My Rating: 4 stars

320 pages

This is the first book in the Vampire Diaries series.

I read about the new TV series based on this series and saw part of the first episode and got interested in reading the books so I picked this book and thought I would give it a try.. The book flew!!

It was such a fast read it was amazing..

Elena Gilbert is the famous high school teenager who has everything and gets everything she wants including boys.. Well except Stefan Salvatore who she wants but seems immune to her ways.. well actually he seems to be avoiding her.

Stefan Salvatore is trying to live a normal life with humans and avoid any attachments.. but Elena is becoming a distraction.. who said being a vampire was easy :)

Then strange things start to occur in their small town, people are getting hurt and then a man gets killed.. all the fingers point at one direction.. Stefan!!

Is he innocent? Or is he doing something evil and blacking out?

I have totally enjoyed this book, it's young adult and so much fun, kinda reminded me of Twilight since they are all high school students..
I was so engrossed in the story and time just flew.. I had to peel the book out of my hands because it was getting so late and I had to sleep.. if I let my self go I would have finished it in one night!
So if you are a Twilight fan you might think of giving this a try.. !

Vampires are so COOL ;)

Quotes I enjoyed from the book:

His tutor had often said it: An aristocrat should dress as befits his position. If he does not, he is showing contempt for other. Everyone had a place in the world, and his place had once been among the nobility. Once.

His tutor had had another saying: Evil will never find peace. It may triumph, but it will never find peace.

In that instant, Elena was aware that she was beautiful. It wasn't just the dress, or the way her hair was done. She was beautiful in herself: slender, imperial, a thing made of silk and inner fire. She saw his lips part slightly, reflexively, and then she looked up into his eyes.

This was where she belonged, and she had found it at last. With Stefan, she was home.

Immoral by Brian Freeman

Immoral by Brian Freeman

Year Published: 2005

My Rating: 5 stars

409 pages

This is the debut novel of this author and what a debut!
It's the first book with detective Stride although I read the third book in the series (Stalked) first and that was before I knew it was a series.

Lieutenant Stride and his partner Maggie have been investigating a missing teenage girl's case for over a year with no luck and then another teenage girl goes missing.
No signs of running away are detected and no clues to where she could be.. All the evidence points that she was murdered.
So are they looking for a serial killer or is this something family related. Everyone seems to think that the missing girl "Rachel" is a disturbed girl doing an evil trick but is she? Or is she really murdered? With twist and turns to keep you turning the pages as fast as you can.

I really enjoyed this book, with wonderful characters that you just have to love. The investigation was so exciting with all those surprise twists and turns. I've found that I was smiling while reading some passages and really visualizing what I was reading. Amazing writing!!!

I will be sure to start the second book in the series soon!! Very recommended for crime/thriller fans like me :D


Quotes I enjoyed from the book:

"Is that Lieutenant Stride? you sound like you just woke up."
He lay back in bed and closed his eyes. "I did just wake up . And I won't admit to being Stride until I make a pot of coffee. So how about we call this a wrong number?"

"She sounded sharp on the phone. I bet she's a looker."
"Why's that?"
"She's from Vegas. All the girls in Vegas are gorgeous."

She stuck out from the other passengers as loudly as a piece of crystal amid a row of Burger King plastic cups. She was dressed in baby blue leather pants that clung to her long legs link a second skin. A silver chain belt looped around her waist, with the ties dangling between her legs. She wore an undersized white T-shirt that didn't reach far enough to cover the last inch of skin on her flat stomach. Her black leather raincoat draped almost to her ankles. She had glossy black hair, loose and luscious.

She's my little evil twin, her mother used to say about Serena when she was a child, because they looked so much alike.

"Was that real smoke I saw coming off you and Stride in the airport?"

"It was an accidental cigarette burn on a Burberry coat."
"Yes, but you don't smoke."


Another review @ The Mystery Reader

Books Bought During Summer !!

I have been planning on posting the books I bought when I went on vacation to Malaysia and keep postponing it.. Well I'm gonna post it now.. I know it's overdue but it's just something I have to do to keep track of what I bought and from where :)

I didn't buy many books, just 6 so here they are.. with a summary for each from Fantasticfiction

Immoral by Brian Freeman

In Duluth, Minnesota, a young woman, Rachel Stoner, has gone missing. Cop Jonathan Stride, a sharply focused detective despite the stresses of his troubled personal life, is quick to suspect her stepfather of murder. And yet, he has his doubts. Even for a man accustomed to power, the accused seems remarkably convinced he'll go free. Could he be telling the truth? While Stride endeavours to make sense of the conflicting pieces of evidence, a young woman's body lies half-buried deep in the woods. But if it's not the body of Rachel, where is the missing girl? Is she dead, or is the terrible, unexpected fate that awaits Graeme Stoner one he does not deserve? In this dark, involving mystery, nothing is as it seems, and readers will be gripped to the very last page as the shocking truth gradually emerges.

Stripped by Brian Freeman

In this stunning follow-up to Brian Freeman's remarkable debut novel, Immoral, Detective Jonathan Stride discovers that there are only two ways to go in Las Vegas. You can hit the jackpot. Or you can get Stripped... They looked like isolated cases: a hit-and-run and a celebrity murdered during a fling with a prostitute. No one could ever imagine they'd be linked to a brutal crime in Las Vegas's steamy past—and that the race against the clock to corner a determined serial killer would stir up secrets long thought buried with the dead. As detectives Jonathan Stride and Serena Dial are called separately to investigate, they have no idea what they're stepping into: a world where desperate ambition rules and loyalties know no bounds, and where their own uncharted emotions and sexual desires will reach an explosive conclusion. Shocking, twisted, with edge-of-your-seat suspense, Stripped pushes the limits of its heroes and keeps the reader turning ever page until the last plot twist.

The Watcher by Brian Freeman

Lieutenant Jonathan Stride has never forgotten the case that made him decide to join the police force. Back in the 1970s, Laura - sister of Stride's girlfriend - was murdered. The obvious suspect was a vagrant, who slipped through the hands of the police, including Stride's detective hero Roy. Now, though, Stride's looking at the case in a new light. Tish Verdure, an old friend of Laura's, has come home, and she's certain that the killer was a local boy, now an attorney with connections at the highest level. Stride's soon convinced that there was a deliberate decision to direct the investigation towards a simple solution and away from Tish's suggested perpetrator, but he's also sure that Tish is hiding a secret about the past. A secret that could have shattering consequences - including a second murder..

Glow In The Dark by Lisa Teasley

Lost souls, the disenfranchised, the destitute: these are the denizens of Lisa Teasley's stories. There's Magda, the drug-addicted surfer chick, Gita, who juggles sexual relationships, and Boogie, an overweight ten-year-old. Teasley follows her characters deep into the mire. 'Baker' emerged from the 1997 rape and murder of a seven-year-old in a Nevada casino. In 'Holiday Confessional,' a character flees after witnessing a crime to then share the secret with two strangers in a bar. Set in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and Baja, Lisa Teasley's stories illuminate society's darker side.

Rant by Chuck Palahniuk

A high school rebel who always wins (and a childhood murderer?), Rant Casey escapes from his small hometown of Middleton for the big city. He becomes the leader of an urban demolition derby called Party Crashing. On appointed nights participants recognize one another by such designated car markings as “Just Married” toothpaste graffiti and then stalk and crash into each other. Rant Casey will die a spectacular highway death, after which his friends gather testimony needed to build an oral history of his short, violent life. Their collected anecdotes explore the possibility that his saliva caused a silent urban plague of rabies and that he found a way to escape the prison house of linear time.…

Exit Ghost by Philip Roth

The last ordeal of Nathan Zuckerman, the indomitable literary adventurer of Roth's nine Zuckerman books, like Rip Van Winkle returning to his hometown to find that all has changed, Nathan Zuckerman comes back to New York, the city he left eleven years before. Alone on his New England mountain, Zuckerman has been nothing but a writer: no voices, no media, no terrorist threats, no women, no news, no tasks other than his work and the enduring of old age. Walking the streets like a revenant, he quickly makes three connections that explode his carefully protected solitude. One is with a young couple with whom, in a rash moment, he offers to swap homes. They will flee post-9/11 Manhattan for his country refuge, and he will return to city life. But from the time he meets them, Zuckerman also wants to swap his solitude for the erotic challenge of the young woman, Jamie, whose allure draws him back to all that he thought he had left behind: intimacy, the vibrant play of heart and body. The second connection is with a figure from Zuckerman's youth, Amy Bellette, companion and muse to Zuckerman's first literary hero, E. I. Lonoff. The once irresistible Amy is now an old woman depleted by illness, guarding the memory of that grandly austere American writer who showed Nathan the solitary path to a writing vocation. The third connection is with Lonoff's would-be biographer, a young literary hound who will do and say nearly anything to get to Lonoff's “great secret.” Suddenly involved, as he never wanted or intended to be involved again, with love, mourning, desire, and animosity, Zuckerman plays out an interior drama of vivid and poignant possibilities. Haunted by Roth's earlier work The Ghost Writer, Exit Ghost is an amazing leap into yet another phase in this great writer's insatiable commitment to fiction.

Musing Monday's (Oct. 5)

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about books on your wishlist…

Last week we talked about keeping a wishlist. Why not pull out that list and show us some of the books you’ve been eyeing off?

Although I have so many many many books in my TBR either physical or ebooks that are just waiting to be read.. I still have quite a wish list.. Some of it is on Shelfari but I will put some of them here.. in no particular order.


In the Dark by Brian Freeman

EDIT: I discovered that this is the US title for a book called The Watcher which I have already bought. I thought it was a new book and was wondering how come I didn't get to see it in Borders where I bought The Watcher :D Sorry about the confusion ;)

Going Too Far By Jennifer Echols


Killer Summer by Ridley Pearson

Killer Weekend by Ridley Pearson


Killer View by Ridley Pearson


Think No Evil Inside the Story of the Amish Schoolhouse Shooting...and Beyond By Jonas Beiler


I, Alex Cross by James Patterson


The Crime Writer by Gregg Hurwitz


Bitten and Smitten (Immortality Bites Series #1) by Michelle Rowen


So what's on your wishlist?