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Review (Another Look): Escaping Reality by Lisa Renee Jones

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ER I know Melpomene reviewed this book earlier in the week but I wanted to offer my take on the book because it’s a bit different from hers since we all have our own opinions!

I wanted to like this book. A lot. I’ve heard good things about the author and her other books but had never gotten around to reading those due to my huge TBR list. But I saw this listed as the New Adult genre and it drew me in as I’m quickly becoming obsessed with all things NA.

Amy is on the run from her past and has help from an unknown benefactor. She gets word she needs to leave her current life that she’d gotten used to over the last 6 years in New York. While on the plane to Denver she meets a handsome man who sweeps her off her feet and happens to live across from her new apartment building. Amy quickly gets caught up in an affair with Liam who is a rich architect. We get glimpses into her past here and there but nothing clear. The book comes to a surprising conclusion.

I just could not get into this book. If Amy was supposed to be on the run why on earth would she fall madly in love with a stranger on a plane? She did a horrible job of keeping things secret. Liam seemed to fit into the oh so popular demanding rich boyfriend trope that I’m getting tired of currently. Amy fit into the helpless I need you but I don’t girl that is so hot right now.

We literally never learn anything in the book about her past so there was a huge cliffhanger. I’m ok with cliffhangers but there was the actual literary cliffhanger and then on top of that the cliffhanger of WTF is up with this girl? Due to that there is no way I’m reading the next book. Why would I when I didn’t find out enough about the main character in this one? Is the author going to wait until the third book to reveal anything? I cannot handle that!!

I also felt that this book didn’t quite fit into the New Adult genre. I’ve read a ton in this genre and this one didn’t seem right to me.
2 stars.

I received this ARC from Netgalley in return for an honest review.
~ Clio

Buy it Now Escaping Reality (New Adult Romance) (The Secret Life of Amy Bensen)

Review: Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight; Narrated by Khristine Hvam

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15776309 I saw this book on a list of books to read before they make it into the theater. I was curious and when I saw it was narrated by my favorite narrator – Khristine Hvam -I checked it out of the library right away.

Kate Baron gets a call from her daughter, Amelia’s, private school explaining that she’s been suspended. By the time she arrives there her daughter is dead, has committed suicide by jumping off of the roof of the building. Kate is devastated and cannot believe that her well behaved and high achieving daughter would ever do such a thing. When she receives an anonymous text message Kate begins the arduous process of attempting to reconstruct Amelia and exactly who her daughter was.

What she discovers during this process is both overwhelming and surprising. During her journey to find the truth of her daughter we get to relive the last 6 weeks of Amelia’s life. We get to see how bullies, love and jealousy all played a large part in the reconstruction of Amelia.

This is told from multiple points of view and multiple points in time as well as in different ways – blog postings, text messages, emails and traditional first person POV as well. Personally, I really enjoy when books use these different ways to tell a story as long as they use them right, and McCreight definitely did. I think that this is also where narration can come in and make a book even better than when simply read.

What I found so great about this book were the many layers of story that it holds. Kate is dealing with being a single, working mother and after Amelia’s death she tries to cope with intense regret and guilt over feeling as if she wasn’t around enough. Amelia is struggling to come of age and to find who she is – whether that is with a new group of friends or a friend who makes her feel badly about herself yet has always been there.

On top of those main storylines are secrets. Everywhere. It’s difficult to know which secret had the potential to bring about the answers that Kate is desperate for. The characters in this book aren’t super likeable but that didn’t bother me – it was very well written, especially for a debut novel.

I’d highly recommend this book – 4 stars for the book and 5 stars for the narration.

~Clio

Review: Finding Colin Firth by Mia March

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imageWarning: when reading this book you will 1) crave pie  and 2) want to have a Colin Firth movie marathon.

This book is chick lit/ women’s fiction. It is about three women at crossroads in their life. Veronica, the baker of amazing pies, moved back to her hometown, Boothbay Harbor, a year ago. At 38, she’s wondering if she will ever find a Mr. Darcy, of her own. Bea, just found out that she’s adopted. She learns that her birth mother lived in  Boothbay Harbor. Bea goes there to find her. Gemma, a reporter, just lost her job. Oh, and she’s just discovered she’s pregnant. But she won’t tell her husband. She goes to Boothbay Harbor, hoping to get a job and a big assignment at the local newspaper.
Guess who’s also coming to Boothbay Harbor to shoot a movie?
The book weaves back and forth between the three women. Woven into their lives is Colin Firth. His movies and personal life are discussed. So they meet him? Will one of the women find a Mr. Darcy of her own? Answers are given, of course, as these women meet, become friends as they try to overcome their challenges, with help from Colin Firth.
Thalia

Buy It Now Finding Colin Firth: A Novel

Review: The Story Guy by Mary Ann Rivers

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imageCarrie is a librarian in her 30’s who is very content with most of her life. She loves her job, loves her friends and loves her family but in the romance department she’s feeling lonely and sick of watching love pass her by.

One night while perusing the local online personal ads one in particular catches her eye.

“I will meet you on Wednesdays at noon in Celebration Park. Kissing only.”

The picture attached is normal, attractive and looks like an actual person for once. On impulse Carrie responds to the ad and quickly sets up the meeting.

The first Wednesday and first kiss go surprisingly well and sparks fly. Brian seems to be a great guy and Carrie wants to see him outside of the park but he pulls back and insists on Wednesdays and kissing only.

They begin to get closer during their park dates and IM chats when they both can’t sleep . Carrie can tell Brian is withholding important information to him. When she realizes what that is she tries to figure out how to make a possible relationship work with someone so hesitant to share his life with her.

I don’t usually read novellas but this one caught me from the very beginning. I’m a sucker for librarian stories and this was funny and cute from the get go. Carrie as a heroine was excellent – she knew what she wanted and fought for it. She loved her life and I loved that she went after what she wanted – from emailing Brian to set up the initial meeting to IMing him.

Brian was an adorable hero and together they made a great couple. This book felt like a longer novel to me with all of the emotions that I went through reading it. The romance between the two leading characters was strong and I loved the humor throughout as well. The last part of it was particularly touching and made me a little teary eyed.

I would definitely recommend this cute romance. 5 stars.

I was provided this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

~ Clio

Buy It Now The Story Guy (Novella)

Review: Escaping Reality(The Secret Life of Amy Bensen #1), by Lisa Renee Jones

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Cliffhanger??!! I hate cliffhangers!!!!!

So, now I’m not sure what to write. Cliffhangers throw me off…

OK, here goes…..

Amy is running from something or someone. Not sure what exactly. She doesn’t even know. She has little money and no one to help her, really. But she meets this handsome stranger on the plane to her next destination and her life seems to flip around. She falls for him, and him for her.

Liam is your typical controlling alpha male. Their attraction is so fast, I got whiplash. She knows she shouldn’t be with him, cuz she can’t be truthful about her past, and shouldn’t get close to anybody, but she doesn’t seem to care. His past, however, seems strangely familiar, but she can’t quite figure out why.

The people around her seem to be hiding things as well, but I can’t figure out what.

My thoughts are all over the place on this book. I’m not even sure what to write. Sometimes I wanna smack Amy and other times I wanna hold her.

Don’t get me started on the ending. I was shocked and yet not. I gotta know what happens!!!! I will be getting the next one.

See?? I told you cliffhangers throw me off. I can’t wrap my head around this one.

I received this ARC for an honest review.

-Melpomene

Buy it now Escaping Reality (The Secret Life of Amy Bensen) (Volume 1)

Introduction: The 5 Muses

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Welcome to Random Book Muses blog!

There are 5 of us wonderful book Muses floating around who will be providing the book reviews on here. We are voracious readers who are extremely passionate about our love of reading and take it pretty seriously. At any time of day at least half of us are most likely reading a book.

But not only do we love to read books, we love to share our love of reading. Whether a book was wonderful, horrible or just meh, we all enjoy letting others know what we think. All of us write reviews for books so we decided to join forces and create one supersize blog.

Between the 5 of us our interests cover a wide gamut.  Among us we read Young Adult, New Adult, Classics, Non Fiction, Chick Lit, and even some Science Fiction and Fantasy. We read in the Mystery, Suspense genre, True Crimes and definitely just straight Literature. A few of us read Romance books – and the huge variation there is within that genre.

Basically we’re book lovers at the heart. No book snobs here, we read what we want to and review them based on our thoughts and feelings from the book.  All 5 of us have massive TBR piles that never seem to end and wish lists that grow all the time.

Calliope, Clio, Melpomene, Thalia and Urania  – the 5 Muses at your service here – will be posting the reviews.  We hope you enjoy!

Review: Exposed by Laura Griffin (Tracers series)

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After Maddie Callahan finishes her freelance job, she is mugged and her camera is stolen. She is interviewed by both the police and FBI agent Brian Beckmann and his partner. Across the street from where Maddie was doing her shoot, a key witness in a federal investigation was kidnapped.

Maddie is a little agitated with having to answer the questions (again) because she needs to be at a crime scene of a homicide. She’s a forensic photographer for the Delphi Center.

Maddie became a forensic photographer after the tragic death of her young daughter. Her marriage fell apart because of the tragedy. After many years, she’s still grieving, understandably, and unwilling to let anyone close. Especially not someone like Brian, who is younger than her.

This book book is heavy on the action. I was riveted from the start and read this in one sitting. Amidst the action of solving the complicated puzzles of the case, there is a romance between Maddie and Brian that is woven well. Maddie is reluctant and I appreciated Brian’s patience with her. I believed in their HEA.

Exposed is the 7th book in the series. There are recurring characters that work in the Delphi Center but you do not need to read the previous books to understand this one.

This another winner in this series. I look forward to the next one, which I just found out won’t be out until February 2014.

Thalia

Buy it now Exposed (Tracers)

Review: The Man Behind the Pinstripes by Melissa McClone

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Caleb Fairchild is the CEO of Fair Face, a billion-dollar skin care company that his grandparents started. His grandmother, Gertie, wants to start a dog skin care line. He meets the dog wrangler, Becca Taylor, who’s been helping Gertie develop and test the line.

Caleb is very suspicious of Becca when he discovers that Becca is also living Gertie’s estate. He believes that Becca is trying to take advantage of Gertie. To keep an eye on Becca, he reluctantly agrees to be the business consultant for the line even though he is busy with the launch of the baby skin care line.

I enjoyed this sweet romance of Becca and Caleb. They have prejudices of each other that each overcome. They go on dates and get to know each other. They talk. I can see them falling in love.

There are so many things to like about this book: Caleb, Becca, Gertie & the dogs. I hope Ms. McClone will write about Ty or Courtney in a future a book. In the meantime, I have her backlist to explore.

Thalia

Review: Letters From Skye: A Novel by Jessica Brockmole

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74627_597905486915923_2067879884_nI read this book non-stop. Dinner, social media and other distractions were forgotten as I read each letter. David sends Elspeth fan mail, expressing his love for one of her poetry books. David lives in Illinois. Elspeth lives on Isle of Skye, Scotland. They continue to write letters and become friends. David even has a nickname for her. She tells him that she is married but decides that it’s too formal for him to call her Mrs. Dunn. She tells him that he can call her anything that he wishes. He settles on Sue.

With each, the intimacy grows between them. They share their fears and dreams as well as have some laughs. However, things began to change as Great Britain goes to war against Germany.

Next you see letters that Elspeth has written to her daughter Margaret. Elspeth expresses concern that Margaret is falling in love to with her childhood friend, Paul. She cautions Margaret to think through Paul’s proposal.

A bomb nearby causes damage to Elspeth’s bedroom. Margaret goes in and sees that her mother is safe but she is trying to gather up letters that have fallen out the cracked wall. Margaret picks up one letter without her mother noticing. The next day, her mother disappears.

With this one letter, Margaret slowly pieces together what happened in her mother’s past and her relationship with David. With the support of Paul, Margaret unravels the mystery in hopes of locating her mother.

I adore epistolary novels and this one was a delight to read. Spanning two world wars, the letters speak much of love
and family. This book has historical elements. Don’t read this book if you are looking to immerse yourself in WWI and WWII history.

ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley.

– Thalia

Buy It Now Letters from Skye: A Novel

Review: Blackmoore: A Proper Romance by Julianne Donaldson

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This was simply a beautiful book.  The writing was beautiful, I fell in love with Henry, felt agony for Kate and hatred towards her mother. The literary descriptions of the moors, how desolately charming they are and of the Blackmoore estate with how hauntingly ideal they appear to Kate definitely call to mind novels of another era. But in a wonderful way.

Kate grows up feeling smothered in her house due to her overwhelming mother.  Kate witnesses her mother use under handed tactics to get her daughters married off to the best of the best. She has no shame and doesn’t mind blackmail or basically any means. Kate is horrified by the lack of love and doesn’t see marriage as anything to aspire to.

Kate wants nothing more than to be able to escape to Blackmoore- her childhood friend, Henry Delaforte’s estate. She’s heard all about it each summer and thinks it sounds wonderful.  Henry and Kate have played together since they were children, study together and when Kate figures out a way to go to Blackmoore for the summer she grabs it. She’s going to go there and then leave directly for India for adventure with her aunt. Her mother tells her the only way that will happen is if she receives and rejects 3 marriage proposals during her time there. Kate accepts the challenge and sets off to make it happen.

In the books description it says “It is Wuthering Heights meets Little Women with a delicious must-read twist”. I would definitely not say that because I hated Wuthering Heights with a passion, I thought it was boring and dull and this book is anything but that.

I’m not one to cry at book but at the last 20% or so I was on the verge of tears the entire time. Both good and bad tears, just waiting to see what would happen.  I would highly recommend this book.

5 stars to the first book that makes me want to go revisit my favorite classics in a long time.

I received this ARC from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

– Clio

Buy it Now Blackmoore: A Proper Romance