I'm working on not working!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin You know what happens when you've submitted all your grades, ignored work email and read for days on end? 

Answer: You lose track of days. And you don't write. At all. I swear I'm going to get back into the groove and post all the fab books I've read. I've also ventured out and seen a few good movies (okay, not really. I have OnDemand). Stay tuned!

Beta by Jasinda Wilder

So I read the first book, Alpha, and couldn't really connect with the characters. Despite that, I decided to read to see where the story goes and if there was more to this follow-up novel than the first one. 

At first I thought "This one was so much better than Alpha"...and then it wasn't!!!! I don't even know what rating to give it. At first, I wanted to "Four-star" it because there was much more to this story line than the first and with the more action/adventure outside of the bedroom I was intrigued. Then, it ended and I was tempted to throw my Kindle against the wall. Seriously. But not really, because I really like my Kindle. So then, I wanted to one-star this bitch.

If you haven't read Alpha....STOP READING!!

.
.
.
Okay, so if you didn't go away, here's what happens. This story picks up shortly after Alpha ends. Valentine Roth and Kyrie are jet setting...er, yachting around the country. Happy Happy, then Kyrie wakes alone with a note that says "He belongs to me".
Hmm...

Okay, so then comes bodyguard and ultimate bad-ass Harris to the rescue. He figures out what's happening and knows it's connected to Roth's past. Roth has been kidnapped and held captive by some sadistic ex-lover named Gina, the daughter of a crime-boss and drug/gun runner that Roth worked with when he was younger. She's a freakazoid!!  Kidnaps him and takes him back to her place. Proceeds to drug him with some crazy experimental drug that increases his libido and stamina and who knows what else. She ties him up, ultimately, making him have sex with her against his will. Um, last time I checked, that was called RAPE. Not a fan. While I can deal with the overabundance of sex and um, unusual situations and positions (some just seem completely unrealistic. Or maybe I'm just not that adventurous. Or bendy), the drug/rape/torture scenes are not my scene.

Anyhoo - back to the story.

So here comes Harris - he jumps into action, kicks some bad-guy behinds, and recruits others to save Roth. Kyrie meanwhile, is whiney as ever and freaking out over the guns. Listen honey, when bad buys are shooting, you shoot back to save your man. Period. Big girl panties - pull them up!

So, Roth gets saved, bad guys go down, and then....a fricken major cliffhanger! 

Then a note from the author that the story may not continue:
 “WILL there be a book three? The truth? I’m not sure.”
 
WHAT?! Wait, WHAT?? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!!!!

Oh, HELL to the NO!!!!!

I can't do it. I won't do it. I'm out. You can't leave readers hanging with a major story lines unresolved and a hanging plotline and have NO firm plans to continue the storyline. Bad author. Bad.

As The Man says (and quite often): "That's just some bullshit right there!"

Love Hacked by Penny Reid + Scenes from the City

Sandra Fielding is single and a successful Psychotherapist. She tries to date, but only ends up making her suitors cry. She hasn't been kissed (or ahem, anything else) for two years. She can't seem to help it - they open up about their issues, cry, and she sends them on their way with a referral to a colleague for more therapy. She usually ends the night alone. She always schedules her first dates at the local Indian restaurant. She tries to justify that it's because she loves their butter chicken. The reality is that she gets to look at the super sexy waiter, Alex.

Alex is quiet and has an attitude. Arrogant. Young. Somewhat dangerous with a voice that made Sandra swoon. She asked him questions about the menu just to hear him speak. Completely opposite of her usual dates - who are buttoned up, sweater vest duds. After an encounter with a man looks like Professor Honeydew goes bad, Sandra walks her date out the door and returns to her table to find Alex sitting where the melon once was. He tries to figure out what's going on - why does this woman make the men she's meeting cry? 

At first, he thought she was firing them. Then he thought she was breaking up with them. Then, he figured she was delivering bad news to them. When he finally realizes that she's a shrink and that these are actually dates, he's surprised. He accuses her of making her dates cry on purpose, and she freaks! Because she's freaked and now someone annoyed that he actually thinks she's doing this on purpose, she starts drinking the wine at her table. Quickly downing three glasses. After announcing that it's been nearly three long years since she's been kissed, she stumbles off to the ladies room and exits to find Alex standing there. Let's just say...her kiss clock was reset! 

Sandra tries to deny what she feels for Alex because he's younger than her. And he exhibits some strange behaviors. When they finally do get together -- it's ZING! 

This may be my favorite book in the series. Sandra and Alex are hilariously fun. I seriously laughed my ass off at Sandra's t-shirts, and need to scour the interwebs for a few for myself.

Scenes from the City gave an insight into the lengths that Alex would go to make Sandra happy. When he makes good on one of her "Things to Do Before I Have Children Because They Might Get Me Arrested" list, he solidifies that a) he loves her and b) they're both crazy! 

Go get Scenes from the City NOW. Only a few days left to grab this novella and all proceeds to go Toys for Tots!!  How awesome is that? 

Here are the linkies to get your own copies of Knitting goodness:

Reading Order: 

Neanderthal Meets Human: Amazon / Barnes and Noble  / 

Friends Without Benefits: Amazon  /  Barnes and Noble

Neanderthal Marries Human:  Amazon  /  Barnes and Noble

Love Hacked: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

Beauty and the Mustache:  Amazon  / Barnes and Noble

Order Scenes from the City from Amazon

Friends Without Benefits + Scenes from the City: Penny Reid

In the second installment of the Knitting in the City series, Friends Without Benefits, we get to learn more about Elizabeth. 

Elizabeth Finney is a doctor, and struggles to deal with the losses that occur at work. She loves boy bands, and coming up with names for people. Elizabeth also doesn’t do relationships. According to her, she uses men for sex then tosses them aside when she’s done with them. Although this can include dinners, conversations, and go on for months, she doesn’t see these as real relationships. She believes you can only fall in love once, and she already has. 

Nico Manganiello, although he’s now Nick “The Face” Moretti, former underwear model, comedian, and host of a comedy show, takes his niece to the hospital for respiratory treatment and runs into Elizabeth. They’ve known each other since they were children but she hasn’t seen him in years. Their mothers were friends, and Nico mercilessly teased Elizabeth while they were growing up. While they were teenagers, they shared a friend who developed cancer and died. They also shared one night together, and she snuck out while he was sleeping, running away for over a year. When she returned, he was gone. Now, he’s in her hospital with his niece who needs treatment and he wants her to oversee her care. 

The two decide that they are going to be friends, and Elizabeth is going to help treat his niece. Then they both show up that their high school reunion, and when a gaggle of women try to gab, grab, and grope Nico, Elizabeth goes to his rescue…except it kinda backfires on her. They’re now both thrown into the spotlight, forced to communicate, and to confront their feelings for each other, both old and new. 

While the humor in this book wasn’t as great as the first, I still really enjoyed reading it. When I can really connect with a book, or take something away, I love it. My take-aways from this one:  Underwear models that speak Italian are freaking hot! Oh, and the nickname of “Judgey McJudgerton”. I’m totally using that one when I can!

Scenes from the City: 

Insight into the aftermath of the wedding that Elizabeth cannot remember. She wants to remember, and is pouty about it.  Doesn't matter. Nico fixes everything with just being Nico. Elizabeth and Nico are freaking awesome! She's cranky. He still funny and loves her. 

More Nico. 

More Italian.

 More Swoon. 

GAH!

  

Scandal Season 4:Mid Season Finale. AKA: I ain't your Bitch, Baby!

The Mid-Season Finale, In a nutshell:

• Cyrus has his pictures of him and his man-ho Michael leaked, Olivia solves his problem with a happy ending. Um, oops. Meant a Happily Ever After story.
  
• Cyrus tries to resign in disgrace, and Olivia gets IN HIS FACE and calls him a Bitch Baby, lays the smack down, and makes him get his ass back in the oval office. We all need a friend like Liv to kick our ass when we need it.
  
• Lizzy wants war, goes to Mellie and gets it in a way she didn’t expect. Mellie tells her
  that they share the VP love. And possibly a STD.
  
• Papa Pope is cleaning house and seems like Jake, Quinn, and others have “kill cards” issued on them.
  
• Jake brought Olivia a gun and taught her how to use it. He wants to leave all the dramarama and danger behind and go live in the sun on their isolated beach. Olivia responds:  “The sun went down a long time ago and it’s not coming back up.” Ouch.
  
  
  
• Quinn hooks up with Charlie again, only to find he has a kill card on her. They kick the crap out of each other, then have make-up something or other. Not sure, they’re scary dysfunctional together. Charlie has some secret files so it’s a good thing that Quinn didn’t kill him.
  
• Speaking of files, Huck tries to visit his son, and his baby mama isn’t having any of it. She threatens to call the police, and he begs her to read the files that he’s left on her doorstep. Two boxes full.
  
• Mama Pope is pulled out of captivity, and thinks that Olivia is going to save her. After chatting about Papa Pope, Olivia tells mommy "You have a PhD in his crazy!"
  Mama Pope lashes out, makes Olivia cry, and tells her "Cry me a river...Whatever." All she needed was the hand to the face! Olivia has had it. Tells the men they can't keep her mother as she hasn't been formally charged. So charge her! Liv asks that she be charged with murder, among other things.
  
• Abby gets a visit from David Rosen, who is questioning her activities. When trying to ascertain where she was one evening, he finds she was with Leo. All night. He’s upset, but dude…really? You can’t be pissed if you’re not going to step up to the plate and someone else takes a swing. 
  
• Olivia gets a visit from dear old dad, who has a gun on the table. Yelling. Blame. Shame. Papa tells Liv "You have no comprehension of love," and no matter how hard she tries to be different, she is exactly like him.
  
  Olivia picks up the gun and pulls the trigger!!!! No bullets. Papa Pope is stunned and outraged that she actually pulled the trigger! “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!”
  I’m surprised as well.
  
  
  
• Jake comes over to Olivia’s place later to find her dancing around to some Stevie. She has their island wine. She’s choosing her. Not Fitz, Not Jake, but herself. She wants to get busy on the piano, so Jake runs to get a pillow and blankie, only to return and find her gone. GONE. The front door is open and no Liv in sight.
  
• The VP goes to Fitz and threatens him with the one thing he cannot live without. Seems like Andrew has something to do with Liv’s disappearance, and he wants his West Angola war. Talk about pushing the president into a corner!  

 Well, now we know who was taking pictures of Olivia and following her around. And we know why. Where is she? We'll have to wait and see.

Scenes from the City: A Wintertime Surprise by Penny Reid - Part uno.

When author Penny Reid announced she was releasing a novella called “Scenes from the City” with updates on the Knitting in the City gals, my first thought was “Hell yah! I love those girls.” 

Then I thought…”wait, maybe I should do a re-read so that I’m totally caught up and ready for these updates.” So that’s what I did. Then, because I’ve told friends to read these books (and they have) and said they would love them as much as I did (and they did), I decided to sit my booty down and write a review on each of the books and tie it to the release of Scenes. 

The Knitting Club meets on Tuesdays to knit, drink wine and margaritas, and gossip. The women include Janie, a financial wiz; Elizabeth, a doctor that is Janie’s best friend, Sandra – Dr. Shrink; Ashely, a nurse practitioner from Tennessee; Fiona, a mechanical engineer taking a hiatus to be a stay-at-home mom, and Marie, a free-lance writer and artist. Rounding out the bunch is Kat, who works as an administrative assistant to the executives at Janie’s former company. 

You need to know this before going into these books. The women make the story. Not because they’re women, and they swoon, and maybe (okay they do) fall in love. But because these women are smart, educated, witty, snarky, support each other, and love each other unconditionally. They remind me of my circle of friends, except without the knitting because we don’t do that.  I love when authors give women real degrees, real careers, and still have real problems – because that’s something that I can really connect with and believe. I’ve devoured these books, and look forward to each new release. 

With Scenes from the City, I felt like I was able to meet up with my best gal pals and catch up on what’s been happening. Hear all about what I’ve missed since the semester started and my life became filled with grading exams, dealing with educational policies, and whiny college students, and they've been busy with their own lives, families, and careers.

 I loved hearing about Janie and Quinn’s honeymoon. Jamie is just a quirky as ever, and Quinn loves her all the same.

Getting reacquainted with freaking Nico and Elizabeth and hearing him speak Italian to her. 

 I mean, seriously? Who doesn't love a man that's smokin' hot and speaks Italian? 

REALLY loved how Alex made Sandra’s birthday wish and check off one of her items on the “Things To Do Before I Have Children Because They Might Bet Me Arrested” list.  

 Most of all, I really loved hearing how Ashley and Drew kept in touch while she was preparing to move from Chicago to Tennessee and they were apart. 

The best part of Scenes from the City: you learn about Fiona and Greg. How they met, and how he instantly fell for her. Greg is awesome!!  He has an inappropriate sense of humor, is offensive, arrogant, and has an accent. An accent! 

“Ask me when I knew” he said.

“When did you know?”

“When I saw you…” he whispered… “ I saw you…and you’d bent over to pick up your pen or some such item…and I thought to myself…I thought, I am going to tap that ass. And other things.”

He's hilarious! Snarky! And he's all kinds of sweet.

So, stay tuned. I’m going to post each review and the Scene’s from the City quotes I love best from the book and the novella.

I encourage you to read the series.

Reading Order: 

Neanderthal Meets Human: Amazon / Barnes and Noble  / 

Friends Without Benefits: Amazon  /  Barnes and Noble

Neanderthal Marries Human:  Amazon  /  Barnes and Noble

Love Hacked: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

Beauty and the Mustache:  Amazon  / Barnes and Noble

Pre-Order Scenes from the City from Amazon

It's only available for two weeks! Two. That's it! Then it goes away so grab your copy now. All proceeds benefit Toys for Tots. 

Because Penny is generous and all kinds of awesomesauce. 

Don't believe me? Just check her out on Facebook
and on Twitter @ReidRomance