The Kari AnnAlysis

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From Goodreads.com:

He never saw her coming…

Spencer Lark already knows too many secrets about Arizona Storm, including the nightmare she survived and her resulting trust issues. But in order to expose a smuggling ring—and continue avenging his own tragic past—the bounty hunter reluctantly agrees to make Arizona a decoy. Yet nothing has equipped him for her hypnotic blend of fragility and bravery, or for the protective instincts she stirs in him.

Arizona wants to reclaim her life, which means acting as bait to lure the enemy into a trap. Sure it’s dangerous, especially with a partner as distractingly appealing as Spencer. But as their plan—and their chemistry—shifts into high gear, Arizona may discover there’s an even greater risk in surrendering her heart to a hero…

Shooo! Lori Foster sure does know how to write about studly male characters! This is the fourth book in the Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor series, the second one I’ve read and boy do I love the men in these books. Dare, Trace, Jackson and Spencer are all hunky, buff, tough knight in shining armor guys and I can’t get enough of them. Luckily for me, Foster just keeps on giving.

The thing I love most about Foster’s books is that they are not your average love stories! They are definitely not pony and butterfly books. They have a hard edge to them, with serious real-life issues. At times you kind of forget that you are reading a love story because you are gunning so much for the characters just to live.

One thing that made me laugh about this book is that over the weekend I was staying with my cousin and reading it and told her before bed that it was on the cusp of getting racy. I continued to read after she fell asleep and I’ll be darned if the next page wasn’t the spicy sex scene. I almost woke her up to tell her about it. *Warning: This is a very steamy book with quite a bit of sexual tension at the beginning that explodes throughout the book*

There were a couple things abouto this book that dug at my nerves. Arizona is a young lady who has been through more in her short 21 years than I have in my life and more than I’ll ever imagine. She’s not one to trust others easily, especially men. And she makes her point about this time and time and time again in the book. Now there is no way for me to relate to her and I imagine if I’d been through what she had been through, I would probably be the same way. Actually, I’d probably be dead because she’s a lot tougher than I am. I just felt like she was trying so hard to prove a point that I was scared she was going to lose what was right in front of her. That brings me to the other thing that wore on me. I am all about pet names and flattery and in this book, Spencer uses the heck out of them on Arizona. Maybe it was just the way they came across on the pages, but I felt like they were forced and everytime I read one, I cringed a little. I wish I could explain why they didn’t melt my heart like pet names normally do, but for some reason, this time they just didn’t. Maybe it was because I knew that Arizona was on edge and leery about being with Spencer and I was afraid that it was too much, too quick for her… that’s the only thing I could come up with!

Now although I wanted to mentally slap Arizona and tell her to move on and let love happen (I said mentally because I was afraid if I said it out loud she would come at me with a knife), I loved that Foster made her so strong. I hope that isn’t too hypocritical of my previous paragraph. I admire Arizona for battling through and wanting to take a stand for other victims and keep them from being in the same position that she was once in. I have read about a lot of very strong willed leading ladies lately, but Arizona brought that character to a new level with her physical and mental toughness.

Foster has come up with such a great cast of characters. There have been characters added all along the way. Now it’s at an even 8 with the ladies and the gents matched up. I am hoping, fingers crossed, ahem Lori, that there are more books coming in this series! I absolutely love them.

I give A Perfect Storm 4 bookmarks.

Click here (or below where it says blog tour) to check out the tour for this book and other reviews!

Click here to read my review on the 3rd book in this series, Trace of Fever

ISBN: 978-0373776566
Released: March 27, 2012
Author Website
Kari read this book for a blog tour 

Camille Hart is a wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend, cancer survivor and match maker. Her family and her job are the most important things in her life, so when she finds out her cancer has returned, she brings her job home. She isn’t given very long to live and wants to find her replacement, someone she can trust to keep family together.

Since she runs a match making business, she already has a few ideas of who to hook her husband up with. He isn’t completely on board, but wants her to be as happy as possible for the remainder of their time together, so he goes with it.

What neither of them expect is that he, instead of she, may find the perfect match for him and it may be the thing that tears them apart, rather than bringing them together when they need it the most.

I was so intrigued by this book from the second I read the description. It’s such an interesting premise. I’m a morbid person and think about death. Think about what my husband’s life would be without me and have thought, minimally, about if anyone in my life would be a good replacement if I wasn’t here. Don’t get freaked out, I don’t sit around and stew about it at night, but it comes up in conversation at times, “You could never marry So and So because ….”. It normally has to do with my husband playing golf But I don’t think I could ever find someone, while I was alive, to take my spot and urge them to get close with my husband. I may be a little of the jealous type. But that’s exactly what Camille does in The Replacement Wife.

I have mixed feelings on the characters in this book. I’ve never been told that I have a very short time to live, so I can’t say what I would do in Camille’s shoes. I have also never been married to someone on their death bed, so I can’t really speak to her husband’s angle either, but some of the decisions that both of them made in this book irked me. Like Camille’s husband not agreeing with her decision to “hook him up” but being ok with finding love on his own. Or Camille urging her husband to move on, but being very unhappy when he finds someone, who wasn’t the one she chose for him. I think they both lived through some serious double standards here.

As sad as the plot sounds, and I obviously had some issues with the characters, there were lights of hope in this book. Little glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel. No matter how you look at this book, you cannont deny the scariness of reality in the words. This book is proof that life can change in an instant. What you are doing that you may think is helping someone may actually be hurting them. But as I’ve always believed, everything happens for a reason.

This book is one that I will not soon forget. I think it is one that throughout my life, through sickness and in health, I will remember and think back to. I know that in my life there will be times when I think about if anything happened to me, who could/would take my place, but I’ll think of this book and how it impacted this couple. I love books like this that I can reflect on and although it’s fiction, it can happen and who knows if it hasnt?

I give The Replacement Wife 4  bookmarks.

ASIN: B00729PV0G
Released: March 27, 2012
Author Website
Kari got this book from NetGalley

Caroline “Rocky” Rhodes has worked very hard to get far away from Last Chance, South Carolina. She has Washington D.C. in her sights, working under a U.S. Senator, but ends back up in Last Chance when an English Baron comes to town.

Hugh DeBracy plans to tear down tourist attraction Golfing for God and build a textile machinery factory. The Senator is all about bringing in business and has Rocky help Hugh out. Problem is, Golfing for God is Rocky’s dad’s pride and joy.

So now she’s back in the small town she despises, during the one time of year she hates the most, the Watermelon Festival, and has to choose between family or career.

Unfortunately for this former Last Chance beauty queen, someone will be hurt no matter her decision and she’ll be the one to live with the last pain.

When I read the description to this book, I was intrigued! It is written in the format of a letter from Rocky’s mom.  It sounded fun and cute and I’m always a fan of books with small town settings. They remind me of home.

The characters in this book are great! They have that small-town charm that you expect from the inn owner, to the beauty shop babes, to the town cop, who happens to be Rocky’s brother, to her old boyfriend who is the reason she left town int he first place. For me, characters make the stories. If they draw me in, there’s a good chance I’ll love the story, no matter what it’s about. I want to know them and know more about them! That’s how I felt about Rocky. This was a big adventure for her. No matter what she did, she had a ton on the line. She worked so hard to get this job, but family is family! What would you do? And it doesn’t help that there’s a hot Baron in the shadows. I couldn’t put the book down because I had to know what happened in Last Chance with the deal and with Rocky. I couldn’t get enough of it!

There’s just something about small town charm that intrigues me. I live in a small town, but it’s not the size of Last Chance. When I think of small towns I think of the Gilmore Girls and Stars Hollow. I am obsessed with quaint little towns that thrive with history. Last Chance is one of those. My town has history coming out the ears, from the legend of the Mothman to Chief Cornstalk. I feel like I can relate with these small towns and they are places I always dream of being.

As always, I get sucked in by a clever summary and pretty cover and don’t pay attention to the fine print that says this is the third book in the series. This book stood alone just fine, but now I feel like I need to go back and read the rest to learn more about Rocky’s family, although I’m sure some of the surprises and secrets I learned in this book would be spoilers to the previous books in the series.

I give Last Chance Beauty Queen 4 bookmarks.

ISBN: 978-0446576086
Released: February 1, 2012
Author Website
Kari got this book from NetGalley

Humans and androids coexist on the streets of New Beijing as scientists try to find a cure for the plague. Cinder is a cyborg. She is a stellar mechanic, who tries to hide her parts. After her father died, she was left in the care of her stepmother and two stepsisters, one of whom she is close with, another who near despises. That’s the same feeling she has for her stepmother.

One day, while in the streets working in her booth, Prince Kai asks for her help on his android, which helped raise him and had very important information that he needs to get his hands on. He and his father, who has the plague, are being pressured by the lunar queen to make a partnership and relationship between herself and Kai. But Kai has other plans. He wants to find one of the queen’s relatives, whom she is accused of killing, but whom rumor has it, is still alive. What Kai doesn’t know is this princess may be living in his kingdom.

So Cinder is helping the Prince and also helping to keep her good stepsister alive after she gets the plague. And when the lunar queen comes to town and sets her sights on Cinder, Cinder must also fight to stay safe and alive.

This is a futuristic take on the classic Cinderella. Obviously, most of us can tell that by the name and the gorg red shoe on the cover. I was so excited to get my hands on this. I loved the fairy tale classic and love when authors can bring them into present day, or the future. It’s author like these that inspire me to keep writing. What an amazing talent.

Now to the book. It took me a while to get into this. I was a little nervous getting started that I wasn’t going to like it. Cyborgs and androids are a little out of the realm of comfort for me. A little too techie for me to understand at first, but it kind of grew on me and became less foreign language and more of the twist on the classic tale that I was looking for. I ended up loving it, but if it wasn’t a take on a story I already knew and loved, 1) I probably wouldn’t have picked it up in the first place and 2) It probably wouldn’t have meant as much to me.

One of the things I loved most about this book was how Meyer pushed the character limits. She didn’t just make Cinder a damsel in distress, living in horrible circumstances. She made her a strong woman who is not only smart, but for the most part stands up for what she believes in. I also really liked how she put a little secret in Cinder’s life that makes her so much more intriguing and rather important than she believes she is.

I also loved to see Cinder at least have someone on her side for a portion of the book, instead of going at it alone. In the classic, both of the stepsisters were enemies of Cinderella, they talked down to her and treated her like help. But in this book, Cinder does get along with one of her stepsisters. This ends up causing Cinder a lot of pain down the line, but I think I’d rather have someone for a short time, rather than no one at all.

We all know that I am a cover girl. That is actually what turned me onto this book in the first place, before I even realized that it was an adaptation. It’s beautiful and I found myself running my hands over it quite a bit before shedding it to get some reading done. Speaking of covers, I was checking out Marissa Meyer’s blog and saw that her book was recently released in Italy. Yay, good work! But…. the cover completely changes the story for me. I have no idea if Cinderella is a classic over there as it is here, but over here, the cover kind of brings it full circle. We know when we see the cover, “That looks like Cinderella’s slipper.” The cover in Italy has more of a lunar take on it

I’ve been looking at some other reviews on Amazon while preparing my review. Some reviewers brought up some great points about there being some holes and unanswered questions. I agree that there are, including how Cinder became such a good mechanic, but I am hoping that there are premature, considering this is just the beginning of the series. I am not going to hold that against Meyer in this review. Come the end of the series and I still have these questions, it may change my viewpoint, but for now, it’s just something I hope works itself out.

I give Cinder 4 bookmarks and am looking forward to seeing how the others pan out.

ISBN: 978-0312641894
Released: January 3, 2012
Author Website
Kari bought this book

From Goodreads.com:

A hot August afternoon and Midwest Clinic CEO John McNeil has been working late. Working on his latest conquest, that is. Jen Williams is twenty-six, in charge of graphics for the hospital’s PR division–and quite attractive in a healthy, athletic kind of way. She is quick to laugh and a little too quick to fall for guys. She is no virgin. And she is one of three women–including his wife–intimately familiar with McNeil.

When Jen’s youthful body is found with a single stab wound through the heart, suspicion falls on both McNeil’s wife, who insists she is being stalked, and the striking hospital physician with whom he had just ended an affair. Pressure to find the killer falls on Loon Lake Police Chief Lewellyn “Lew” Ferris and Dr. Paul “Doc” Osborne, the retired dentist and forensic dental expert whom she has deputized to help with the investigation–when they are not taking a break for fishing and other personal pursuits. When the mayor demands Lew take early retirement–and Doc has to babysit his teenage granddaughter who won’t stop texting–the frustrations mount.

Desperate for a few hours off–and persuaded by Ray Pradt (a fishing guide who wears a stuffed trout on his head, so they should have known better)–to try fly fishing from kayaks, Doc and Lew find themselves in life-and-death straits on the river. This leads to an unexpected and macabre discovery that just may break the case.

There was so much going on in this book, I tried a couple of times to boil it down, and there were just too many little spider legs to get it all.

Let me start with I am not normally one to pick up a book in the middle of a series, unless I don’t know it’s in the middle of the series. That was the case with this book. I had no idea it was 12th book in the Loon Lake Mystery Series. I normally feel like I’ll be so left out if I start in the middle, but Houston has written this book so well that I was not lost at all.

What I love about this book is the small-town setting. I always love reading about big cities and immersing myself into a different life, but I love even more reading books about small towns, like the one I live in. I feel like I don’t have to do much dreaming, I just imagine it taking place in my town.

This book wasn’t long, but it didn’t need to be. There was such passion behind the crimes committed in this book, it just intensified the plot and kept me turning the pages until I got to the end and finally the criminals were unveiled.

I loved the relationship between the two main characters in this book, Doc and Lew and love the female empowerment of Lew being the police chief and the struggle she faces to be a woman in such a high position. I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do to get up to date on with the releases of this series, but I think it’s definitely worth the catching up on.

And hopefully through this series, I’ll be able to learn a little more about fly fishing, an obsession of my uncle’s. Maybe I can learn enough in this series to go out with him on a trip I love learning about real life in novels and trying to incoporate it. Let’s just hope Houston knows as much about fly fishing as I’m giving her credit for!

I give Dead Tease 4 bookmarks!

ISBN: 978-1440533112
Released: March 17, 2012
Author Website
Kari got this book from Kaye Publicity for review