Jampov

This was my first book by Harper Bliss. She is renowned for erotica and steamy sex scenes, but I found that this book was really much more than this.

I chose to read it for the love story with a big age gap.
I asked myself why I like this kind of romance and my answer is that they highlight femininity in a broader spectrum, its charm has a greater variety, assuming both young and mature colors. Also, in the couple, there's a compensation, a positive influence in values, in thoughts and in actions. When the relationship is harmonious, it's truly a beautiful thing to read.

Seasons of Love is a nice, well written age gap love story between Joy, 29 years old, and Alice, 51.
In addition, there's of a touch of impossible to overcome, because Joy is the daughter of Miranda, Alice's best friend and business associate.
There's sex, there are feelings, there are difficult choices to make, and also angst.

Sex is intense and well written, even if there's much, expecially in the first part, it's never annoying.
In the first part of the novel, the main characters are alone and on holiday in southern Portugal's summer, so the situation is conducive to exploring sexually. Indeed it becomes a sort of sex feast, which is, by the way, much needed by the initially very repressed Alice to open herself back to life.

Angst is generated because Miranda, who is very important to both Joy and Alice cannot accept their relationship and it will take much for her, to relent. A good part of the book deals with this issue.

The biggest flaw of the story, in my opinion, is the developing of the feelings of the couple into love. It lacks depth and proper attention. The passage from initial sex to the feeling of love is given for granted, it's hurried and not described accuratedly. Having great time physically does not automatically provide for so much more as it's hinted here.

However, and on the contrary this is the greatest strength of the book, once it's ascertained that they love each other, they really behave coherently.

Joy is a sort of heroic character. She fights for what is important, with teeth and determination, when needed. Alice is full of doubts and insecurities, but she always does the right thing at last.
They are complementary and they positively influence each other as I was saying above. Joy's life need the solidity provided by Alice. I perceived her late youth as a little void of important things, as she refuges herself in too much wine and light entertainments.
And Alice need to come back to living, after the divorce and many years of solitude and resignation. Joy is an injection of freshness, vitality and color in her life, a spring of happiness, as her very name suggests.

I'm giving 4.5 stars (and round up because I feel happy)

Meh. Conflicting feelings.

I liked the ghost story and the Sixth Sense vibe. Sometimes it was pretty creepy and I enjoyed it.
The first and the last parts of the novel were very engaging, and I was hooked in reading. In the middle, however, I was tempted to abandon it completely, I also started another book. But let’s put the blame on my difficult week, I really didn’t have much head for reading.
I liked Becky’s (the main character) humour. It made me laugh sometimes, even in a thrilling situation.
And the sex was pretty good and hot, even if it was described in a very rhetorical way (you know, stars sparkling more and falling according to the pleasure of the lovers and so on…)

I see a lot of five stars from the reviewers, but in my opinion, this books has some issues.

Let’s face it, the romance is a mess. It has all the worst commonplaces of this genre:
1. It’s instalove. And it isn’t even that Becky falls in love at first sight with Clare because of her. She falls in love because she reminds her of another person. I will return on this point under spoiler.
2. Communication between them is awful. Now I’m going to show the infamous man’s point of view of my nickname, but both the main characters were moody and temperamental. Without any notice, they became angry with each other, offended without justification (er… for what I --a man-- could grasp…) and resentfully silent with each other. Or suddenly distant. I found that creepier than ghosts!
3. They continuously call each other ‘baby’. (I need an Inside Out Disgust’s face here).

Apart from romance, the plot, as I was saying is engaging and it has some nice twists, but it also has holes.
From now on better go under

Basically, the core of the story is that Becky lives a powerful connection with a woman of the past, Ellen, who was the victim of seriously bad happenings, who is the grandmother of Clare, Becky’s new found love, and who was in love with her sister in law Annabel, Clare’s aunt.
Now, Becky and Ellen are two peas in a pod. And Clare and Annabel are two peas in a pod. Seriously? Why?
And now, because Becky dream-lives a sex scene between Ellen and Annabel, she falls for Clare.
SERIOUSLY ?!???
Any explanation to those connections? No. They just happen.

Then there’s a point where the bad guy (yes, there’s a bad guy who is a veeeeeeeery bad guy, evil personification itself, the most bastard of the bastards) ok what was I saying?
There’s a point where the bad guy possessed Clare. So the reader think. Ok here we have a supernatural bad guy. We have to fight him supernaturally… No way. Just an incident. No explanation.


Many doubts and some enjyoyment.
3.5 stars

I think reviewing Annie on my mind should be a little different than other contemporary lesbian romances.

We should keep in mind that this book was written with a purpose. In the words of the author: "I wrote it to give solace to young gay people, to let them know they were not alone, that they could be happy and well adjusted and also to let heterosexual kids know that we gay people aren't monsters".
We should remember that this book was published in 1982, that it was banned from Kansan City schools and publicly burned.
In other words this is a book of liberty, an instrument for freedom rights, written with heart for oppressed teens and a courage monument.

Its message is very simple. Homosexual people just love like everybody else. And true love is always noble, beautiful, meaningful, precious.

For two thirds of the book, the story is delicate, sweet. Two nice, intelligent seventeen years old girls, Liza and Annie, meet and fall in love.
Feeling between them is immediate, and then these feelings grow and bud into love. They become aware of their own homosexuality, they see it's a good and natural thing for them and gradually come to accept it.
They live their story in the closet, share first kisses and discover sex. There are not sex scenes in the novel, but the reader knows there is sex between them.
What really works well in their relationship (and how it's described) is a mixt of friendship and spontaneity.
I'm a big fan of friendship inside a love relationship, and Liza and Annie keep supporting each others as friends in every phase of their story.
And then they are seventeen years old girls, they behave as such, doing silly and childish things among more serious, adult attitudes. That was so credible and funny.
By the way, I'm asking myself if the term "unicorn" related to lesbians (with so many controversial meanings today), is born with this book as Liza and Annie meet in front of the unicorn tapestries of The Cloisters museum in New York and start to address each other as unicorns.

What comes next is easy to expect, as everything before was hinting that that moment was coming, but I put it under spoiler.

At exactly two thirds of the book they get caught. In Liza's school, attended by socially wealthy pupils, bigotry reigns and that is an ominous sign pending on her head.
While Annie, who frequents a poor school, make it to escape, Liza undergoes the ordeal.
She is forced to come out to her parents (which doesn't come without hurt) and ends up openly exposed to all her school.

As they got caught at the home of two good lesbian teachers they also put them in serious trouble. The two adult teachers, who generously help the two girls, sharing their past experience and problems, are wonderful secundary characters.

Liza falls into a crisis and for some months she has to deal with herself, leaving Annie alone. But at the very end she will accept and overcome everything and Annie, of course, will be there.

Out of the spoiler, there is a clash between ignorance and bigotry on one hand and understanding people on the other. All is so realistic. The MC are not heroes, they are very human. They stumble, fall and get up again. Liza's family will have to struggle, too.
Price will be paid, but at the end love will win.

I've seen in some of the previous reviews that some people (straight of course) minimized as unlikely what happens to them. They say the negative characters are just a caricature.
But I tell you, Italy is just out of the battle for the civil union new law for homesexuals. Those people are real. Bigotry, intollerance, racism, it's all there.
And while the situation is certainly much better since 1982 and I firmly believe the positive forces are winning, still the fight against ignorance must go on.

I loved this little great book, both for its message of hope and for its simplicity and good heart.

This was my first Cari Hunter's book, a very enjoyable reading indeed.

It reminded me of Die Hard, only set in the mountains and with two nice and brave lesbian ladies instead of Bruce Willis.

You know what I mean, one of those stories where the hero (or the heroines in this case) deals with an impossible situation of extreme danger and barely survives with the most terrible physical wounds and unbearable psychological burdens, but at the end finds the way and the time to kick the butts of all the evil guys.

So, more or less, this is Desolation Point, which is a bit predictable, but has a great rhythm and brings adrenalinic fun to the reader.

Also, the evil guys are a little bit too standardized. The classical, violent, hateful bastards, so you're not too worried when they meet their fate at last.

The romance is very well done. The main characters are both nice, intelligent and lovable. A good compromise of strenght and fragility. I'd say butch and femme, even if my impression is that Alex is a quite feminine butch, and Sarah a tough femme, so this is interesting.
They become a couple quickly, but it works because we can see they are kindred spirits and the heavy load both of the past and the present plays an important part in getting them together, connecting fist their survival and then their life.

Now I'm curious about the sequel!

If I'd just look at how it is written, this would have been a 5 stars.
The main characters and the dialogue are just great, the story is compelling.

This is a very original, different book. It's somehow vibrant with energy and youth, and it is multifaceted.

There were many moments where I found myself laughing because of the delightful wit and humour. The two girls really are fresh and funny.
Then there were really touching moments between them, even angsty, where I felt for them.
And there was a compelling horror story with the good, bad, monstruous, fanged vampires of old. This is no [b:Twilight|41865|Twilight (Twilight, #1)|Stephenie Meyer|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361039443s/41865.jpg|3212258], it's a bit [b:'Salem's Lot|11590|'Salem's Lot|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327891565s/11590.jpg|3048937].

However.
The blending of all those elements is not so succesful in my opinion. Plus, there are things I really didn't like. And, I feel bad for how it finished.
I think I can't explain myself without spoilering.
But before doing it, let me say that a funny book and a nice romance doesn't blend with the horror vibe. Horror has elements that are the very opposite to romance ones. And that's the problem.

Heavy spoilers ahead.

One star goes because of drugs. Lucia offers Mindy drugs at a party and makes her take it, asking to trust her. She does, and I so didn't like it.

But then, this episode hints at how the book will finish. Lucia cannot be saved from being a monster and, to be together, she drags Mindy down with her in a hinted spiral of horror, violence and vampirism, while Mindy willingly accepts it.

This is commonplace in horror books. They usually don't end well. They finish in a disturbing way. This novel ends likewise, even if with a touch of sarcasm, that doesn't mitigate the matter.
The problem is that the reader is cuddled by romance, by the feelings for both the characters for most of the story. The characters are both good and sensitively sweet. Fun and romance hints at a happy end which doesn't come and is betrayed by the vampire story.

Is the plot and genre twist worth of the reader betrayal? Well, not for me.

I think drama would have been better here. When it became clear that Lucia could not be saved, I would have preferred sacrifice and death for one or both the characters rather than their fall from good persons to monsters.

This book is wonderful, beautiful. At the same time sweet and psychologically rich and intense.

The story begins immediately after [b:Blurred Lines|25787381|Blurred Lines (Cops and Docs, #1)|K.D. Williamson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1435150902s/25787381.jpg|45637926] ending and I’d say the two books are actually only one novel without any gap between them. Blurred Lines ended with no hangover in a pretty relaxed point of Kelli and Nora’s love story, but the general feeling was that their relationship was still imperfect and in an initial phase. Crossing Lines continues the love story tale, expanding it, making it deeper and more charming. Blurred Lines was the bud, Crossing Lines is the open flower.
Things that in the first part seemed just side happenings, now gain importance.

The core, the central theme of the book are the two main characters, Kelli and Nora. They are so well defined and special. They are both very human, each one in her own way, they have their vulnerabilities. Kelli in particular appears to be frailer, in this second book, but that just made her dearer to me.
It’s a book about personal growth, about finding the courage and the strength in the fundamental aspects of life.

Their mutual feelings are so powerful… the story is an emotional roller coaster and the reader is really captivated. Everything is delightfully romantic.

It’s a commonplace in romance that when all seems to be all right, something happens between the two lovers, leading to a sorrowful separation, to be solved later, often just near the end of the story.
Many times I have been perplexed with this sort of happenings. I understand they are necessary to keep the emotional tension in the reader, however often they are often unrealistic about what happens between the two protagonists.
On the contrary, in this book the separation is really interesting and original, both in its context and in the time of the story when it happens.

When it happens, Nora is still frail and uncertain in her choice to open to open up to a relationship and Kelly, due to her family problems, has lost her self-control and lacks of consideration toward her.

Ok, maybe the separation after their argument is a bit too much protracted to be true, considering the sincere loving feelings always present between them, but then the heart of the novel is the rebuilding of their relationship on a steadier, better foundation.
The crisis becomes the very instrument for their personal growth, as individuals even before than as a couple. I really liked how intensely that was described.

Sometimes romances are just superficial. Heart beats for the two leads and that’s all. And yes, from this point of view, Crossing Lines is indeed really enjoyable and entertaining. But while reading, I also found deeper psychological aspects which make it a quality book, in my opinion.

An example is this: sex is showed both as a constructive and a destructive element. It can bring closeness, but also distance in a couple as it happens initially between Kelli and Nora.
Sex is much more relevant in this book than in the previous one. When love is later acknowledged inside by both the women, sex becomes very touching. As it was an obstacle earlier, now it becomes a therapy for their relationship.
Another point is the feeling of protection, described in perspectives I’d define as masculine and feminine independently from the fact the main characters are both women.
Nora feels she is protected by Kelli, because Kelli is a cop, she is strong and brave and she gives her a more physical protection. Kelli feels she is protected by Nora, because Nora never fails to give her support, she is always present, steady and caring with affection.

As I already said about Blurred Lines, again this is not a mistery book, a thriller or an adventure one. The plot is simple, there are not twists nor heroic acts, unless we consider as heroism the dedication to the beloved one in difficult times.
Everything is just in relation to the love story. What happens is not important in itself, but as how the two main characters transform their lives accordingly.

5 loving stars again

I thank the author and the publisher for the ARC received in exchange for an honest review.

I did love this book, yet it left me embittered.

There are so many things that are five stars in this novel.

First of all the romance. I think Jacie's and Nina's story is one of the best I have read so far. Blayne Cooper shows us the blossoming of their love since they were kids, when it was just a special friendship and then there is this delicate, sweet process of transformation as the years pass. While they grow up and become girls and then women, so their love both settles and broadens.
Their feeling is so strong, according to every phase of their age, and even when they meet again after twenty years.
It's really, really touching and heartwarming.

Also, the narration is great and original.
The story is skillfully divided in two lines, one in the present day, when the five former friends decide to meet again, while the other one is set in their previous story along the time from first grade to college, how they started their friendship and all the significant events in different moments of their growth. We see how the happenings of their past are reflected in the present time, going back and forth from the past to the present and vice versa.

And there are misteries to be solved. Misteries in the past. Misteries in the present. Things known to some of them and not to the others. Heavy burdens left buried inside that need to be let free, to heal the wounds. Happenings hidden for years, relating to their lives, with ramifications and consequences.
The reader curiosity is stimulated by a very feminine, sentimental way to write a mistery story. In the mainstream novels, it reminds me of [a:Kate Morton|615274|Kate Morton|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1444262471p2/615274.jpg]. And once again I find myself to think that a lesfic-tagged novel should indeed be a mainstream novel. It would really deserve to be.

Another point, this book it is so rich in feelings.
There is much drama, but there are also funny moments. From a certain point on, angst is ruling. There is a rape scene that is a punch in the stomach as well as plenty of fluffy times.

This is indeed a five stars book.
I'm not giving five stars because of the sadness, the regret, the bitterness pervading this story. Yes there is a happy end, but also the feeling of so much loss because of ignorance, because of secrets, of something kept underground among them.
And somehow this load prevents me from holding this story fully dear.

It's been a ride, now I need to read something lighter. But cheapeau again to Blayne Cooper.

This is one of those books that when you finish them, you feel a little bit lost and then you ask yourself: And now? What can I possibly read after such a book?
This novel can be defined as a perfect blending of a romance and a mistery, with a predominance on romance.
Adele is the tormented heroine and Natalie is the brave counterpart, who becomes the lighthouse in her life.
There's much drama in Adele's life, she suffers losses in family life, in professional credit as well as physical menomation, until Natalie comes back in her life to gradually resurrect her with gentle feelings that naturally grow into mutual love.
The two ladies are wonderful indiviudally, and great with each others. There's great chemistry, attraction. They are both sexy and femmes. Adele is also a little butch, but only inside, which I found nice.
And there's humour, banter between them, important little moments, really great dialogue. Everything is so rich in this book, even details.
And another point, they both behave like adults in the story, and I so much appreciate that!
For example, Adele is bisexual. She has a break up with her husband years before starting her story with Natalie. During the last part of the book it's clear that her husband still loves her and wants her back. But simply, Adele knows that she now wants Natalie and doesn't call anything into question. As simple as that: adult choices.

Romance tropes are wonderfully subverted here. The necessary angst is not artificially created by an unlikely, whim-born separation, incompatible whith the nature of the mutual feeling. Instead, it's provided by the mistery narrative line which comes artfully into play with its blows when everything seems to go well romantically.

The mistery line deserves its own discourse.
Being romance the larger part of the story, mistery is somehow limited. But Blayne Cooper is so skilled to manage a perfectly edited, sensible crime story complete with surprising twists and ending surprise. If we cut away all romance, we would still have a really enjoyable, free-standing, crime novella.
Much more as it is part of a larger story and it is functional to it.
When the mistery fades out after its proper conclusion, the author provides a long epilogue where she makes the readers see how the romance evolves happily as Natalie and Adele meet and solve the practical problems still left open, and the book closes as a perfect stand-alone story.

What else can I say? In my opinion this is a little masterpiece.

Should I try to find defects? A bit too much violence suffered by both the leading characters? Maybe, but that made me feel for them, it was worth reading it.
In dialogues sometimes I had to reread because I didn't understand which one was saying what... very minor details.

5 stars

PS: Just to say what I managed to do after reading this book. I started to read another Blayne Cooper's book! [b:Unbreakable|655677|Unbreakable|Blayne Cooper|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1176821074s/655677.jpg|641775]
I'm enjoying it, but this will be another review. :)

Fortunate Sum could have been a light, romantic comedy with a touch of supernatural. Yet it didn't come out that way, it's more a racing pulse romance, nice, but a little too serious in my opinion. A bit more humour could have helped.
It's very well written, though, I was captivated and the reading was flowing and pleasant.

In this story, the author made a brave, unusual choice.
One of the two main characters, Imogene, was just perfect. Sweet, beautiful and sexy (of course!), thoughtful, caring and a good mixture of strong and delicate.
But the other, Catherine, she was... let's say problematic.
To the point of being unpleasant.
For example, what does it mean that you clearly prefer women, but you date men because it's easier...?
And what the author made her do, at a certain point, is on the brink of irreparable.

I have been angry with Catherine, as I think every single reader, because the author choosed so on purpose. And I think Catherine's role was the most leading, even more than Imogene's.
That reflects in many negative reviews I have read: "I cannot stand Catherine".

Could I?
Yes, I sided with her, at last. I really wanted her to be happy, eventually. But hey! it took me a while!
Unexpectedly, it bothered me more that she dated Richard when her heart was for Imogene, than the little relapse for Linda.
At least, that was sincere, even if it was unloyal and mean, and she needed it to understand herself better and to let go her past.
The Richard thing was just... aaarghhh!

So Catherine was in my opinion the originality and both the strong and the weak point of the novel. Yes the author was able to change my feeling for her. But I also disliked her for a good part of the book.

It's a good 4.5, rounded by defect.
(Hey, my first half point!)

Very sexy...

In this charming short story, Jove Belle succesfully wrapped up:
- erotic, classy, hot scenes
- feelings and romance
- indipendence and loyalty themes
- the fading of a love and the blossoming of a new one
Very nice!

This book is not perfect, but it certainly made me feel 5 stars, so it's getting a full 5 stars from me.

Let's start to say what the book could be, but it is not.
It isn't a crime novel.
Somehow I was expecting a crime novel; you know, Cops and Docs series sounds like police cases and legal medicine. Also, hints about Rizzoli & Isles fanfic made me think in that direction.
So I read it with this kind of anticipation.
At the beginning, when Kelli and her partner were shot by some criminals, I thought we were going to search, find and nail them.
Later, when Nora gets in trouble, I thought Kelli was going to be the police superdetective, to solve the matter and be her heroine.
Well, no way. This is not a crime novel at all.

So what is this book?
In two words: pure romance.
But oh, what romance! Psychology is great. I never saw two characters more in tune with each other. They really, affectionately, wholeheartedly like each other.
Attraction, flirting, sweet anticipation, reciprocal consideration (with thoughtful speech and actions), dialogue, friendship, true desire to be together, it's all there.
Now, to state the truth, the whole thing is not very realistic. Indeed it's a bit pushed. Nora's isolation was a bit too much to keep her a healthy human being if it was real. Kelli is a little too perfect. Also Nora's trouble at work sounds a little created as a pretext for romance development.
But hey! The result is wonderful.
Yes, I do have a soft spot for "defrosting ice queens", but Nora was really moving for me. So helpless in her compulsive refusal to get involved in any sort of human relationship and yet we clearly see she is so great and innocent inside. I was totally sold out for her.
And Kelli was so a perfect match for her. All butchy, but with a feminine heart as big as the sea. A very lovely contrast. And her crass speech is so funny and cathartic with bullies!

I'm almost afraid to read the sequel, fearing that some mess may come between those two.

Blurred Lines got to my heart, and goes straight to my favorites.

A short little extra to [b:All the Little Moments|24828900|All the Little Moments|G. Benson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1423049660s/24828900.jpg|44471726], just to meet again the characters we love, in a sweet family picture.
Warm and cozy.

Unpretentious, quite short urban fantasy with a good hearted witch and a sexy demon duchess with some mistery and monster fighting.
Enjoyable characters and writing.
A nice reading overall, and sometimes that's all I ask for.

As a mistery/crime, this book reminded me some of the first Grisham's novels, expecially [b:The Pelican Brief|32499|The Pelican Brief|John Grisham|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389486877s/32499.jpg|490324]. Two journalists against corrupt secret services and a hidden, ambiguous corporation. It has pretty much the same vibe, except maybe for the murders. The author here mitigates a little without showing directly the crimes (but hey! still people vanish... in Mexico...)

The book has all the elements of a soundly good spy story, investigations, pursuits, well dressed male bad guys without a neck, high level political corruption.
The main characters are strong willed and energetic, keenly intuitive and they complete each others as rising, great investigative journalists, starting from the bottom pit of gossip reporting.
The story has a wonderful rythm with the two ladies snooping around, thinking theories, and being dragged in crazy action.
Dialogues are witty and there's humour and flirting.

And of course they like each others.
Catherine Ayers is beautiful. Even if she starts as an "Evil Ice Queen" she's cool and attractive from the beginning. She is such for the readers, because they share Lauren's POV along all the story.
However, apart from a couple of really good kisses and a really hot, sexy night, the author chooses to divide romance from crime. The book has a strong romance component, but it's left aside until after the solving of the mistery. This can be a good choice, because Lauren and Ayers really don't have much time to get into a relationship during the action part.

The last part of the book is then completely left to romance, with its sweet tropes, the angst based (ouch, again!) by the non-communication between the two, and a nice, exciting, wonderful ending.

The story is complete, even if some space for a sequel adventure is left open.

Guaranteed fun.

A real hero is someone who undergoes great troubles without giving up.

Aeron Lorelei has been unjustly accused of a murder at sixteen, condemned by all her town people, abandoned by her family and reclused in a psychiatric institute where her treatment is prolonged over time by a dishonest, corrupt medical doctor.
Not only that. Because of her remarkable medium and telepathic powers, she is generally held up as a freak since her childhood, and later considered as an actual witch, by the nasty town gossip.

She underogoes so much trouble, pain and injustice, that she loses her own self-confidence. Of course, she is hurt, scared and angry. And yet...

And yet, deep inside, she is a generous, innocent person, unable to hate even her persecutors.
She is a wonderful, complex character, full of contrast: frail but also strong, tormented but very sweet.

The adventure begins when the new doctor in charge decides to trust her and to send her back outside the institute. Aeron returns to Oppidum, her little hostile native village, exactly when a vicious serial killer starts to kill women in the area.

By her powers, Aeron is dragged into a powerful empathic connection both with the killer and the victims. She feels in herself their terrible sufferings and she communicates with them after their death.
But of course she is also accused to be the killer by the town, arranging an actual witch hunt.
So she must investigate to solve the mistery and try to save the victims as well as herself.

A sincere new friend, a regretful father and a formidable nanny ghost will be her unexpected allies in this gripping paranormal-mistery adventure.

Romance (lesbian, of course!) is just hinted in this novel, because Aeron really isn't in the right mood for a love story nor she has any time to.
However we have the sweet beginning of a new blooming feeling, and it's really delicate.
Hopefully to be continued in a new adventure of the series...!

Overall, a very pleasant reading.