Tori:

Why Mommy Drinks by Gill Sims
General Fiction/Comedy

I’ve always been a fan of comedic stories about other people’s lives and mommy blogger Gill Sims more then fits the bill as she documents her struggles against the tide of perfect mommies and a demanding family while clutching a wine bottle in one hand and trying to find herself again. Laughter reigns supreme as this epistolary style novel unloads some serious honesty and hits on many fears embraced by women worldwide. The endless need to be seen as the perfect wife, mother, employee, when in fact every day is a race to get everyone ready and everything is done and you consider the day a winner if your shoes match and you didn’t forget to put deodorant on.  My only qualm was there was some repetitive narrative, the stereotypical characterization of the “gay best friend” was disappointing, and I found my attention wandering towards the middle while the heroine, Ellen, finds her groove.

Grade: C+

PowerHouse by Chelsea Camaron
Romance Suspense

The first in a new series (Power Chain) by Chelsea Camaron and Ryan Michele, this romantic suspense revolves around four best friends who bonded while living in an abusive Amish orphanage. These men grew up to be powerful men who work outside the laws of society. A strong beauty and the beast theme helps to set up this antagonistic romance when a family crosses a made man who they shouldn’t have and his reaction is to take a relative as collateral to teach them a lesson. Only, he never saw this woman coming. She fights him every step of the way and soon his anger and distrust turns to lust, then love.

Fast-paced, the story starts out strong but soon unravels as it reveals.  The actual business, the sibling rivalry, etc…was just obvious in its manipulation.  I did enjoy meeting the men and learning how they overcame their childhood but found Oynx too much of an “alpha-hole” to actually like him. Torryn blew so hot an cold I got whiplash. Calling something a dark romance, in my opinion, is often just a way to justify abusive relationships.  And while this relationship isn’t technically physically abusive, is emotionally and mentally abusive with the kidnapping, threats of violence, and dubious consent.  The romance is very sexual but I never bought them falling in love.  It felt more like Stockholm Syndrome. The ending left me blinking my eyes in disbelief. I don’t think this series is going to work for me. Too bad because I think Camaron is extremely talented (I’ve never read Ryan Michele) and I loved her Hellion MC series.

Grade: D

Not That I Could Tell by Jessica Strawser
Mystery Suspense

I picked up this book because of the premise. A woman and her two kids disappear after a neighborhood bonfire the night before.  I thought it would be an amateur like detective mystery with the neighborhood women taking it upon themselves to find their friend and her kids and discover exactly what happened. Only, that’s not what we have here. Instead, the story focuses on two women, Izzy and Clara, and their struggle to understand what happened to their friend while dealing with their own issues. The beginning is strong. Strawser sets up the plotline and introduces the main characters, opening the story with a police detective visits Izzy, explaining her friend Kristen and her kids are missing and her ex-husband was the one who reported them missing. From there, the story flashes between Izzy and Clara, and the mystery slowly unfolds within their thoughts and observations.  Izzy moved into the neighborhood after her sister married Izzy’s best friend and the man she loved.  The man she never had the nerve to tell she loved. Clara loves her kids and her husband but beginning to questions her life and the decisions she made. I hit the 40% mark and realized how bored I was. Lots of talking and watching but little action. I could not connect with any of these characters. I think women’s fiction would have been a better genre to slate this in as it deals more with friendship, love, loss, and acceptance with a very light mystery. I gave up halfway in.

Grade: DNF

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Mandi’s Mini Reviews:

Watching You by Leslie Kelly – I ended up DNFing this one around the 30% mark. The hero really rubbed me the wrong way. He came off very aggressive when he first gets the heroine alone, and it made me feel yucky. I think he was supposed to be alpha and controlling – but he crossed a line for me.

Did he calm down and redeem himself later in the book? Maybe – but his behavior at the beginning was too off-putting for me to find out.

Hot and Badgered by Shelly Laurenston – Tori wrote a full review for this book recently (she loved it) and I decided to try it and it’s SO good!! It’s funny, and action-packed and made me giggle out loud. If you are a fan of Laurenston, you will love this – if you have never read Laurenston – get on it!! The sister relationship is the best thing in this book. I can not recommend this enough. (Sheena loved it too!)

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Kini’s Mini Reviews:

Undone by You by Kate Meader– I have really enjoyed the previous two books in this series. But this book just didn’t work for me and I had to DNF it at the 21% mark. It felt like the characters were only acting on lust and other than physical characteristics I couldn’t figure out why they might like each other. Additionally I am hyper aware of uneven power dynamics and I just couldn’t get over this one.

Love Game by Maggie Wells– This has all the elements that would normally work very well for me, older main characters, heroine who is incredibly competent at her job, slightly rude hero, but by 13% it just wasn’t holding my attention. It took me days to get that far. This isn’t a complete DNF, but rather a DNF for now. I may try to pick it back up at a later date and hope that it works better for me.