Review: My Heart’s Desire by Andrea Kane

Lady Alexandria Cassell feels trapped. Her whole life promises to be a series of balls, entertaining, and perpetual boredom if she remains in London for the Season to find a suitable husband. So she does what any sensible girl would do in her situation….she runs like hell.

Alexandria finds a ship leaving London bound for Canada where her father lives. She stows away on board, but little does she know what adventures await her on the high seas.

Itching to put as many leagues between himself and London, Captain Drake Barrett sets sail when he discovers Alexandria hidden away in his cabin. Though he knows he should turn the ship around immediately and return her to her family….there is something about the unruly beauty that lures him in and forces him to agree to take her with him to Canada.

Drake abhors women of the peerage and society. To him they are all the same. But Drake immediately recognizes that Alexandria is different than most rich, titled girls. She is everything a well brought up girl should NOT be….stubborn, defiant, and as untamable as the sea, not to mention stunningly beautiful.

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Review: Bittersweet Seraphim (Seraphim #2) by Debra Anastasia

Hell can’t seem to keep Satan Jack in….so now it’s earth’s turn to try. What could possibly be worse than being the keeper of Hell?

How about being stuck on earth as a human without the angel he loves?

Satan Jack had been the keeper of Hell for years and he’s good at what he does.

He keeps things running in an orderly fashion….eternity as he knows it is good. He likes Hell. But that was before he met Emma, an angel trying to save the kidnapped God.

When Jack meets Emma, all bets are off…Hell doesn’t stand a chance at keeping Jack so long as Emma is part of his life.

But when Satan Jack’s one true love ends up trapped in Hell because of him, he is cast out back to earth as a human.

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Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

This book takes fatal attraction to a whole new level.

Nick and Amy Dunne have been married for five years when suddenly she’s gone…..no explanation, no note, nothing.  She is simply gone.

Nick does what any sane man would do when his wife ends up missing….he calls the police. When the police come out, they quickly notice that things aren’t adding up. There are signs of a struggle and there are holes in Nick’s story and timeline.

Suddenly Nick finds himself as the prime suspect in Amy’s disappearance.

The evidence is pretty damning and in the court of public opinion….he’s more than guilty of the disappearance if not murder. But is he really?

Nick maintains his innocents but he does have something to hide…..a secret that if revealed could ruin him. But is the secret motivation enough for murder?

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Review: The Tutor’s Daughter by Julie Klassen

High on the cliff tops of Cornwall, the distant sounds of a pianoforte can be heard echoing through Ebbington Manor late at night.

Emma Smallwood and her father have come to Ebbington Manor as live in tutors for Sir Giles Weston and his family. Emma and her father ran a small boarding school where the two eldest Weston boys, Henry and Phillip, attended in their youth.

Emma doesn’t harbor much affection for the eldest brother, Henry. All she remembers of Henry was that he was a bully who always played pranks on her when he was at the school. As for Phillip, Emma remembers him as a kind hearted, friendly boy.

When a letter arrives asking for their presence at Cornwall, Emma and her father quickly accept but Emma is worried she might run into Henry, a thought she does not relish.

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Review: Stabs at Happiness by Todd Grimson (Short Story Collection)

These are the stories of societies taboo outcasts. The characters that polite society would rather ignore. Degenerative and hopeless, these characters help set the tone and paint this collection of short stories the darkest black.

Many of the characters in this collection are drug users/dealers, prostitutes, killers, and transvestites…..but they all have something in common, they are all looking for a little bit of happiness and hope in their own hopeless lives.

Author Todd Grimson effortlessly blends powerful storytelling with gritty prose to create a new provocative approach to contemporary literature.

Grimson’s style has been described as esoteric, and I would agree….I think his style would appeal to a limited audience, however it is an exciting style that I think literary buffs who don’t mind reading a highly intelligent, gritty, modern gothic style story or two should pick this up.

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