A few DNF's

 Title: Lord of the Vampires

Author: Gena Showalter

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Series: Royal House of Shadows #1

Publisher: Harlequin 

Number of Pages 281

 Once upon a time…the Blood Sorcerer vanquished the kingdom of Elden. To save their children, the queen scattered them to safety and the king filled them with a need for vengeance. Only a magical timepiece connects the four royal heirs…and time is running out. Nicolai the Vampire is renowned for his virility, but in a cruel twist of fate “The Dark Seducer” has become a sex slave in the kingdom of Delfina—stripped of his precious timepiece and his memory. All that remains is a primal need for freedom, revenge—and the only woman who can help him. When the wanton vampire summons Jane Parker, she is helpless to obey. She's drawn to his dark sexuality and into his magical realm. But for this human, all is not a fairy tale. For saving Nicolai could mean losing the only man she's ever craved.

This is one of those books I've had on my kindle for a really long time. I've started it several times, and I always stop at the same place.  I really wanted to like this one, but had to sadly face facts that this book wasn't for me. The hardest part for me is that I really couldn't connect with the hero or heroine. I just found the premise of how Nicolai and Jane get together a bit much. I know this is paranormal romance, and anything can happen, but sadly it just wasn't my cup of tea. 

I was really disappointed because I love Gena Showalter's writing and this series seemed like something I could really love. I'm still struggling to understand why this book didn't do it for me when it really should have. I think it was just a combination of  not connecting with the characters, the language and the world it was set in.  I know that one of these days I'll do a re-read of this book and wonder why on earth I had trouble with it now. :) 

Title: Summer of No Regrets

Author: Katherine Grace Bond 

Genre: Young Adult 

Publisher: SourceBooks Fire 

Source: Netgalley  

 Number of Pages: 29o

This was the summer that would change my life.
No more being what everyone expected. No more doing what everyone else wanted. 
So when Luke came into my life, I decided to keep him a secret. Maybe he as a dead-ringer for notorious Hollywood bad boy Trent Yves. And it was possible that everything he told me was a lie. And yes, I was probably asking for trouble. But all I saw was Luke--sweet, funny, caring--someone who would let me be the real me. But which was the real him?

Doesn't the synopsis of the book make this sound like such a fun summer read? My biggest problem with this book was that I was expecting a fun, chick lit Young Adult read with a cute romance. While I really liked Luke, I had the hardest time relating to anything that Briggita did. I really wanted to like her because she wasn't your typical YA heroine. She's home schooled, has a father who stopped being involved in her life after his parents die, and came up with a crazy scheme to have a retreat like place that was eco friendly  for people to come to and was learning to be a shaman. 


I thought it was really cute how Luke and Briggita meet-she saves him from a cougar, but the story quickly went downhill from there. The writing was good, this book was just so different then what I was expecting that I couldn't quite get into the story being told. I think another big problem was that this is one of those YA books that is actually meant for YA and not YA and adults. If I were a teen, I think I would have loved this book. But alas, I'm no longer one and it showed with this book.   


If you know teens who are tired of all the YA paranormal Romances out there, then I think they should try this book just because it's something a little different. 

Title: Chaos Tryst 

Author: Shirin Dubbin 

Genre: Paranormal Romance 

Publisher: Carina Press

Ariana Golde may be known for breaking and entering but she's no thief, she’ s a returner. She retrieves stolen objects and gives them back to their rightful owners. Her latest job: retrieving a statue from the Medveds. But Ari is having an off night, and she's caught red-handed by the three brothers, who don't just get mad—they turn into bears.Maksim Medved is outraged — the statue belongs to his parents. But Ari's returner magick doesn't lie: the heirloom has a new rightful owner. Ari is drawn to the surly, handsome Maks — maybe because he possesses the same chaos magick she does. But while Ariana enjoys a touch of chaos, Maks hates its destructive power.When Ari and Maks team up to find her mystery client, their chaos magicks ignite even faster than their attraction. Can Maks learn to love a little chaos, or will the havoc they cause among the faebled creatures drive him away for good?A chaos magic Goldilocks and a Russian bear-shifter team-up for a rollicking fairytale retelling--and maybe a little romance.

 I love fairytale re-tellings and  I thought that this one with a  Russian bear shifter  paired up with golidlocks would be a lovefest. I also wanted to like this because the heroine was of mixed race and you don't see that enough in romances. While I liked Ariana and Maks a lot, I had trouble with the names. There were just so many characters introduced in a short space of time that I had trouble remembering who was who, especially with Maks brothers. 


The premise of the story is good and unique, but I just had trouble connecting with either of the characters and there was just a lot going on. I think this story would have been better as a full length novel rather then a novella. (it's about 33,000 words) Everything just felt rushed together, which is shame because I really wanted to love this one.