No. 52: Lawless

 Lawless by Nora Roberts

I have no idea whether I have read this book before or not. But what I do know is that I liked it! A lot! It is the first of two reprinted novels in one book. But I am counting them as two separate books. Because I can.

This is a historical western (something I like!) and it had an excellent MMC who was loveable even though he thought he was bad for her. But she loved him anyways, because he wasn't bad. This book has so many things I liked - gunslingers, kidnapping, a puppy, a girl fight, a vindictive madam (who really deserved more than a butt kicking) and a lovable drunk. I wished it was longer, or a part of a series. I love older Nora Roberts books - it is why I continue to read her books even if they are not doing it for me anymore. I have hope!

No. 51: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

I am trying a new thing - you can see the link to Amazon in this post. I thought it might be helpful to have a link to get more info about the books I review. Who knows if I will keep it up, but I thought it would be worth a shot.

I read this book today on my lunch break at work. It was really quick and surprisingly good, and surprisingly funny! My favorite passages:

When Alice grew very tall at the bottom of the rabbit hole:
'Come, there's no use crying like that!' said Alice to herself, rather sharply; 'I advise you to leave off this minute!' She generally gave herself very good advice, (although she very seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes; and once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself.

When Alice grew very tall inside the White Rabbit's house:

'Oh my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stickings for you now, dears? I'm sure I shan't be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about you: you must manage the best way you can; -- but I must be kind to them, thought Alice, or perhaps they won't walk the way I want to go! Let me see: I'll give them a new pair of boots every Christmas.' And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it. 'They must go by the carrier,' she thought; 'and how funny it'll seem, sending presents to one's own feet! And how odd the directions will look! ALICE'S RIGHT FOOT, ESQ. HEARTHRUG, NEAR THE FENDER, (WITH ALICE'S LOVE.)



This was another FREE book! I love it when a free book turns out to be a good book as well. I guess there is a reason this book is a classic. I think I will read it to the girls when they get a little older. I can see Ella getting a kick out of it - she has a very vivid imagination, just like Alice.

No. 50: Hot Stuff

Hot Stuff by Janet Evanovich and Leanne Banks

I was about 5 seconds away from buying this book for my kindle - because I thought it was new, when I started to remember the plot. I checked my bookshelf (the dedicated Janet Evanovich shelf of course) and sure enough I already had it. Tricky Amazon, making me think a book was new when really it is a re-re-release.

Anyway, this was a good book. It had mystery, hijinks, Pugg, a hot ex-cop (and you know how I feel about cops - both current and ex) a large dog, and a famous drag queen. All good things. I love Janet Evanovich books when they are funny and wacky and slightly mysterious. She is the best at that.

Also, I got to mention to Aaron how useful it was that I never get rid of any books. Because I already had the book I didn't have to buy it! Handy! My ridiculously huge book collection is starting to pay off.

No. 49: Full House

Full House by Janet Evanovich

I was sick of all the lame free books I have been reading lately so I decided to purchase a book (with money) and I wanted it to be something good. Unfortunately there were no new books out by my 100 favorite authors so I had to go with something I had read before. I had not read this book (or any of the series) in years so I thought it seemed like a good choice.

It was pretty good, but I didn't like it near as much as I like the Stephanie Plum series or her other non-series books. I don't feel compelled to read the rest of the series, which is weird for me. Also the book talked about spiders and I read it right before bed and it freaked me out. Raul really is a bad guy - there is no worse torture than putting spiders in someones house. That is evil and disgusting.

I am going to read more Evanovich now, but probably not the rest of the series. I only vaguely recall there is a talking car and a local newspaper in the rest of it. Something to add to the list, but I am not going to spend money on it now.

No. 48: Baby Bonanza

Baby Bonanza by Maureen Child

There is a genre of romance novel with baby in the title - when I was looking through Amazon the other day I found about 20. In all of them 1 of 2 things happens. (1) One of the main characters wants to have a baby or (2) The FMC gets knocked up and she has to figure out how to make the father deal with it.

This book is the second scenario. The FMC has a week long fling with her boss on a cruise ship, but he didn't know he was her boss, and then when he found out she worked for him he broke up with her and fired her. Then she found out she was pregnant with twins and wants to tell him but he is ignoring her and not responding to her emails or messages. So she goes back on the cruise ship (which the MMC owns) to confront him. But then she realizes that she still has feelings for him. And he does for her. And he finds out about the babies. And I don't want to ruin the book for you, but it turns out he isn't the huge womanizing jerk everyone thought he was! He just needed the love of a good woman and twin babies to make him a nice guy.

I got this book because it was FREE but it was also lame and I hate the baby books. I don't know why I ever get them. I never learn my lesson.

No. 47: The Clayborne Brides

The Clayborne Brides by Julie Garwood

I finally found this book! I have been looking around town for it, and I couldn't get it on the Kindle. I read the first book in this series a while ago, and I guess there is one more to go. I may have to bite the bullet and order it from Amazon.

Anyway, this is 3 books in one, but since I don't know if they are available separately or not, I can't decide how to count them...so I guess I will just go ahead and count them all as one.

The first is One Pink Rose, it is the story of Travis Clayborne, who meets Emily when he is supposed to be escorting her to her fiancee's house. But obviously they fall in love and she marries Travis and not the creepy fiancee/fiancee's brother.

The second is One White Rose, about Douglas who meets Isabel when he comes to buy her horse and instead ends up delivering her baby and living with her for 10 weeks while protecting her from a creepy bad guy who is pretending to be her fiancee. But she falls in love with Douglas instead and they live happily every after.

The third is One Red Rose, about Adam. He meets Genevieve when he finds her sleeping in his bed. Then she runs away and he chases her and there is hymn singing in a saloon, a mysterious bedroll and a shootout. An excellent and kind of funny shootout to be specific. I think Garwood needs to write a book for Daniel Ryan, I am interested in his story.

So that leaves one Clayborne brother left - my favorite, Cole. I will have to figure out what his book is called and get it ASAP. I actually had almost all of Julie Garwood's books when I lived in Iowa but Aaron made me sell them before we moved to Alaska. Something about wanting to be able to fit in our car for the drive up. What a weirdo, books are clearly more important than physical comfort :)

No. 46: Hero at Large

Hero at Large by Janet Evanovich

Oh how I love Janet Evanovich! This is one of her old books - her first ever published book I think - and unlike many author's early works, they are all fantastic. This one is no different. It was very funny, I LOVED the MMC and I thought the Aunt was pretty funny. The FMC was very likable, I especially liked how she kept sending the MMC to the emergency room :) But I did get annoyed when she used her past failed relationship as an excuse - when presented with a super hot, funny, nice guy that obviously really likes you, how many women are going to be like, "but I had a bad experience before!" None is the answer you are looking for. But that didn't bother me too much, you have to get your conflict from somewhere right?

No. 45: Conspiracy in Kiev

Conspiracy in Kiev by Noel Hynd

I got this book for FREE. It took me a few days to get through it though. I don't know if it was long, or just difficult to get into or what. Maybe a combination, because I did have a hard time getting into the story. I could tell - right at the beginning - what the author was setting us up for. It was obvious (to me at least) that something was going to happen to the fiancee. I could also tell that the bad guy Fedrov was not necessarily what he seemed. I also found the FMC to be a little irritating - especially the beginning of part 2. I don't know why I don't have more sympathy, obviously she was very very sad and depressed, but I thought her behavior was not at all in keeping with the character in the rest of the book, so it was annoying.

I actually didn't really get into the whole first part of the book. I thought it should have ended there and part 2 should have been a sequel. Part 2 was much better and more interesting. Although, I felt like we were getting into too much drama and tragedy just for the sake of drama and tragedy and not really to further the plot.

I have another book by this author that I will read at some point - I don't know if it is a totally different book or if it is a series though. I hit the free book jackpot recently so I have a lot to read before I get to it.