Caro Catches Up - Reading Log 2013

This is my fourth year on Club Read. I've been very slow to kick this off this year hence my catch up title.

My 2010 thread here
My 2011 thread here
My 2012 thread here

A quick check shows an ever-declining count of quality reads and an ever increasing amount of bubblegum reads! In 2010 (most of which was pre-daughter as she arrived in August) I read 56 books. In 2011, 66 books. In 2012 it was 125 in total but that contains such a huge wodge of pulpy romance that I'm almost embarassed to list them!

My favourite reads of 2012 were
Clarissa Dickson Wright - Spilling the Beans Autobiography of one half of the two fat ladies.
Douglas Hulick - Among Thieves Best of the fantasy reads this year.
R T Kaelin - Progeny LT author. Gets a mention for a really good first fantasy book.
Ben Aaronovich - Rivers of London High quality fantasy historical fairytale mix-up.
Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash Classy read but does have a weak ending.
Bill Willingham - Fables Very nicely drawn and written series of fairy tale characters living under aliases in the modern world, exiled from fairyland.
Anne Stuart - Lord of Danger Best of the historical romances

I didn't read enough popular science to state a favourite. I used to read more of those and I also note that my not reading any hasn't stopped me buying/ picking up more of them for the TBR stack all year long. My hopes for this year are therefore to read a few more of those and cut into "TBR towers". I would also like the try and log all my reading more regularly this year as I basically stopped in November and didn't keep on top of this at all. Partly that was due to house move and real life taking up time but hopefully 2013 will be more settled.

Last year a kindle arrived in my life which has been both excellent and terrible. It is wonderful for travelling. Sites such as ereaderiq, which sends daily lists of 0 EUR books on amazon and amazons own kindle daily deals mean I have masses of unread books there. I have 6 ebooks that I picked up on ER here on LT over the last months and haven't read/ reviewed yet. I have 9 kindle books that I've read this year, 3 of which I'd normally bin and not register. I already did bin one- Tile grouting cleaning by Groutman. It was very short and basically content-free although I did take away the message that I will probably get someone in to deal with our tiles and not do it myself as it's a huge job. I also read a lot with my daughter and don't ever log those, hopefully I can at least note each month which her current nightly favourites are, she normally has 2-4 books read each night so it won't be possible to log all that.

1. Alan Moore - Watchmen
Genre Classic Graphic Novel. Complex and dark plot which is more like a novel than a caped crusaders save the world epic. The cold war threat dates this a little bit (it's from 1986) but there is a lot to like still. 3-dimensional characters and a lot of attention to detail make this a stand out.

2.Charlie Brooker - I can make you hate
Writer, Journalist, Cartoonist, Broadcaster. Series of his writings which are from TV review columns, TV show scripts and newspaper commentary. It covers a range from 2009-2012 and can form an easy aide memoire to what was considered relevant all those many months ago. Charlie has a very amusing wit, he is a professional synonym-wrangler and I often laughed out loud at these.

3. Kelly McCullough Broken Blade
Well written fantasy. Proving that fantasy books don't only come in 3-part, 600 page mountains, this is a tightly written book and very good. Aral Kingslayer was a Blade of Namara but his goddess has been murdered and his trade was outlawed so he hides among the thieves, thugs and smugglers. He has a familiar, Triss a form of shadow. There are two more to this set that I need to read next.

Seconding your comments about wonderful/terrible Kindle - I just got one for Christmas. I have found the 'free first chapter' service very useful though - I've been downloading a few for wishlisted books, and have read 5 so far - one resulted in the book being bumped up the wishlist, but three of the others ended up deleted from the wishlist. Seems like a good ratio to me (as my wishlist is several hundred books long)!

Welcome to 2013 : ) I loved reading to my kids when they were two. I can no longer use your suggestions, but I'm curious what books your are reading to your daughter.

The IreaderQ daily list now means I can pick up 1-4 books a DAY free (of money, if not guilt in making a backlog that cannot be climbed out from)... My kindle is jammed full now and I'm way behind on reviews. It's a sorry state and I'm not even out of January yet!

This month my daughter has had a few favourites that are requested by name.
Peace at Last by Jill Murphy. This has been a favourite for at least 6 months now. Mr Bear can't get to sleep so keeps trying out different rooms/ places of the house. She can parrot all the first 3 pages verbatim and joins in very heartily when Mr Bear finally does get to bed and says "Peace at Last!".

The Highway Rat by Julia Donaldson (words) and Axel Shaeffler (pics). The mean highway rat steals food from all the travellers until a duck fools him with an echoey cave. This is a lovely book which uses the same riding - riding - repetition that the famous highwayman poem by Alfred Noyes uses. My Austrian husband didn't like that (repetition) and used to leave it out when he read this to Kate! He has been requested to leave it in. Axel Shaeffler did the UK Christmas stamps this year. I managed to get 3 of them from cards/ letters sent to us but didn't get examples of all 5.

The Snorgh and the Sailor by Will Buckingham. A grumpy Snorgh (very like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh stories) likes his routine- living in a house on the marsh/ eating samphire soup and then a cheerful rabbit/ hare sailor jolts him out of this to go on an adventure.

As well as this she has an English Pooh Bear Lullaby book that she likes to go through all 6 songs, especially "I see the moon" and a German one with about 10 in (can't put it on LT as it's a sort of piano toy thing that plays the songs) in which the two favourites are "Kommt ein Vogel geflogen" where a bird brings a letter from mama/ oma and "Summ, Summ, Summ" which is about bees buzzing around- but they won't hurt you.

She also likes the Willi Busch, Max und Moritz stories plus the hippo/ rhino stories. We have a giant compendium of those that was actually originally my German Grandfathers. My husband tends to read her those though as my German remains basic but I'll attempt them sometimes while he winces at my pronunciation and parsing!

Bedtimes are taking longer and longer to get through!

So, Kindle update for January part 1.

4. Pocket Linguist by Gregg Miller
Short and I mostly skimmed this guide to learning languages. Mostly it's obvious things like radio/ TV/ actually practice! but there are some useful weblinks that I will try. I have been trying Duolingo but I think it is not very suitable for beginners- it tends to only offer you sentences from the web that have a lot of English words in the first place. Also, I checked a few of my translations with my husband, who has native level German, and he thought several of the pieces they offered to translate were so coloquial and slangy that it was not a great idea to learn it that way either.

5. Top 100 cruising tips for beginners by K Abiasi
I got this Kindle freebie as I was curious as to why people take cruises. I've done a short cruise in Norway down a fjord round to Bergen that didn't include overnight and a 2-day cruise up the Nile and neither time felt it was something I'd do again. I do like boats though so I got this to see if there were things I was missing. It was an interesting insight but I don't think I'm a natural cruiser.

6. A most Unsuitable Earl by Ruth Ann Nordin
Regency Romance. Reasonable. Marriage-averse Lord claims an engagement to avoid women and his mother forces him to follow through on it.

7. Demon Possession (Shadowquest 1) by Kiersten Fay
Kindle freebie that was good enough to get me to pay for the next two books. Paranormal romance/ space adventure. Sebastien and Anya storyline. Very few people have this on LT which is a surprise as if you dig this genre, it's a good example. It also doesn't really have a cliffhanger, just continuation points so you could just get this and wait/ hope the others go to free at some point!

8. Aliens love Christmas too by Barry J McDonald
Can't add to LT. Freebie. Had sweet pictures but only average rhymes.

9. Captured by Erica Stevens
Aria, daughter of the revolutionary leader is captured by the vampire overlords and made a blood slave to Prince Braith. He is blind except when she is near. This ended on an irritating cliffhanger and I'm not inclined to get the next book.

10. Demon Slave Shadowquest 2 by Kiersten Fay
Paranormal romance/ space adventure part 2. Marik and Nadua. This was quite good, she was queen of the ice peoples and had ac tual things to do. In fact all the women in these were (mostly) useful and not just decorative.

11. Demon Retribution by Kiersten Fay
Paranormal romance/ space adventure part 3. Oh no, there is visiting-earth awfulness. Cale and Kyra story. Two pieces of the story not handled well; the limits on Cale from his previous wife and the horrific deus ex machina to get the (useless) vapid human friend a skill of some sort. Those didn't work for me at all. It was mildly nice to see the rest of the characters that I had got to know and like in the previous two books but this wasn't up to the same standards at all.

C4RO, just ducking in to say thanks for them mention in post #1. :)

About ready to sign with an agent (finally) and start shopping the book to traditional publishers. Keep you fingers crossed for me.

Hi C4RO - This is my first year in Club Read. I found your comments about of quality vs. bubblegum reads funny. I've been thinking a lot about that lately as my reading has changed so much in the last four years since I retired and continues to change. Probably be a good discussion for a whole thread. I could relate because I have four kids and wow does that effect your reading right! and as for retirement? When I was working I had a lot of reading of textbooks and papers as I was teaching, so for there wasn't much time for "leisure" reading. When there was, I wanted to something that did NOT make me think, just helped me relax awhile. Lots of mysteries, rarely some quality fiction but because I was always looking for novels that addressed different ethnic groups for a course I taught. When I retired I binged on lots of mysteries, and it was only about my third year I think of retirement that I started to settle down and development an appreciation for better quality. I read Tolstoy Anna Karenina for the first time and was blown away. Couldn't put it down. Now I still read plenty of junk, but then I find myself longing for something of better quality - it's weird - I guess again an agrument for letting kids read anything.

Read my first graphic novel about a year ago and THAT was eye opening. I was SHOCKED by the depth of emotion and learning brought on by the illustrations! I had no idea! Now I am hooked.

Enjoyed your beginning.

Merrikay

Hi RT- more power to your writing arm too! Congratulations on the agent/ publishing, its excellent news.

Hi MK. It is interesting that reading changes over time, depending on the time and effort available for it! Which Graphic novels did you try? I don't have lots but occasionally get caught into a series or example. Semi-unfortunately my daughter loves some of mine (Mouseguard and Fables) too and I'm afraid I'm a tiny bit too precious about my copies to let her have them except under supervision. I shouldn't really worry as to date (2 yr 5 mo) she has only destroyed one book- when she was about 4 months old and we were staying with my parents for Christmas, her cotbed was put too close to the bookshelf and she pulled out several books and ripped War and Peace to shreds! In her defence it was a paperback that my mum had cut into 2 or 3 chunks to make it easier for arthritic hands to hold and she had only loosely taped up the spines so it wasn't the feat of strength/ destruction it appears on first telling.

Kindle Update for January, part 2.

12. One More Day by Minx Malone
Modern romance. A girl pretends to be her twin, who is a supermodel and somehow the neighbour millionaire widower doesn't notice. Contains small leavening of crime mystery but utterly average bubble.

13. Beauty and the Beast by Jenni James
Fairytale classic. Fairly straightforward telling. The beast is a talking wolf form. Not much of a nasty side to the prince in this version, it's only fairly mild childhood teasing that he was guilty off and he appears to have just annoyed the old crone when he was being a bit arrogant one day.

14. First Class to New York by A J Harmon
Modern Romance. Oh dear, this was a dud but laughably so and I did finish it. The depictions of first class flights actually made me laugh out loud. I've been lucky enough to fly long haul business a few times intercontinental and it's nice... but the la-di-dah portrayal here was just unwarranted and wrong. Here's a clue, the super rich don't fly on scheduled flights. It was a little bit "pretty woman" in parts. The woman/ MarySue is very clearly described as a dumpy haus-frau, utterly pleasant but with no distinguishing sparkle. For her special treat-week in NY she is climbing into posh frocks, going to animal charity balls and having a super-gorgeous millionaire bachelor chasing after her. Hilarious but not in the way the author intended.

15. Prostitutes by Lynne Sha
Reference, sort of. Another short kindle freebie. I was interested in this as it mentioned geisha in the blurb and they're not really prostitutes so I was interested to see what was said. It has a few short interesting summaries of the lives of famous prostitutes; Aspasia, Nell Gwynne, Phyrne, Ludi Florales and others that takes up the first half of the book. Interesting enough. The second half was then more detail on Geisha and it did make it clear they are not prostitutes and gave more details on the skills they learn- music/ dance and conversation. Quite interesting.

16. Immortalis Carpe Noctem by Katie Salidas
Vampire romance mostly. Alyssa gets attacked one night and Lysander decides to turn her and save her life. Vampires actually kill a few people in this which is somewhat unusual for the romance side of the genre. Lysanders maker Kallisto is chasing him down and the Sanctum are also on the trail. This is still towards the fluffy end of vampire-lit although there is metric tonnes of this sort of stuff out there since twilight. Probably why there is such a lot in the kindle freebie self-publishing sections...

17. Eternal Seduction (A darkness within) by Jennifer Turner
Vampire romance again. Logan is a heroin addict living on the streets and knows vampires exist. Vampires are not supposed to let mortals see them so Logan is taken by a senior gang leader and must join them or die. Still fluffy but had a few nice touches. At least Logan is the polar opposite of Bella Swan I suppose.

18. The LOTR Movie Trilogy interactive quiz game by Edward Stapleton
As described, 25 questions plus a bonus. I scored 13 which sounds quite poor but you would score a lot lower if you had only read the book and it is quite a while since I actually watched the 3 films. EG question, which role did Orlando Bloom originally audition for?

That is all the kindle reads up to date now. The freebies are clearly mostly on the average side and weighted very heavily to the fan fic du jour (vampires). I do prefer the historical romances, especially regency Austen/ Heyer territory and those are some of my favourite reads. I don't think I've read an above average modern romance in years and I think I'll make a point to avoid those now. It's ever-decreasing returns and there are still piles of better options. I've re-read my book 3 and 4 Order of the Stick over the past week too. Those were fun.

Oh boy. I almost don't dare do this. I have 46 books on kindle in the "Read- LT Review" section. Urgh. Need to catch up though, not least as several are outstanding ER/MG ebooks. The kindle has been the main method of reading for the past couple of months as I've had a fair amount of travelling for work- Shanghai, Frankfurt, Amsterdam mostly. Now it is Spring and family are coming to visit. Last weekend was my husbands grandparents 70th wedding anniversary so all the family came over. I've got about 2,000 books and it gets comments from my husbands family, this weekend twice. SIL wanted to borrow the Hunger Games Trilogy... no problem, straight to correct shelf, here it is (she is on a very short approved-borrowers list!). BIL was looking at my books, saw one on Codes and said he'd ready a book recently that described exactly how Private Key-sharing over internet works and although it made total sense at the time, he couldn't remember at all now how it worked. I found a (different book) and the pages that had that on them. He said he thinks he read the exact same book translated in German!

"Thanks to Librarything my books are now shiny and organised"

Now about those reviews... I think I may just have to list most of them except for the ones a proper job is required.
I will be back shortly...

You are so cool! That must have been fun! I love it when my family sees me go straight to a book.

SIL has polished off the Hunger Games trilogy and has now located my Kelley Armstrong books and is working her way through those! She has excellent English and likes WOW/ Fantasy books. She even got a bit miffed with me once when I got her a Fantasy book in German- It was Marcus Heitz though and it's one of the ones that is German origin and that I've read translated to English.
I have now finished my Coursera - Beginners guide to Behavioural Economics by Duke/ Dan Ariely. Managed to get a >85% certificate so quite pleased about it. I've also signed up to some more- the 2 History of Rock ones and some Statistics one that I previously signed up to and forgot about last year.

OK, lets dooooo this catch up thing and tidy up my kindle folders...

19. My cruise holiday from hell - Dennis Champion
Kindle freebie. A chap and his wife take a cruise out of Singapore and the ship sinks after a fire. About a half day later a tanker arrives and takes on all the people from the lifeboats. 13 hours trip back to Penang and back on land. It's OK but not memorable.

20. The Village Idiot Reviews - Pete Sortwell
Kindle freebie. Not as clever as he thinks he is. Format of a set of amazon reviews that describe events happening in a small village. Forgettable.

21. Household Hacks: Cleaning Tips and Tricks - Ben Night
Kindle freebie. Unmemorable.

22. How to Talk to People: The Shy persons quide to confident conversation - Kate Kennedy
Kindle freebie. Some good ideas and techniques. Short and to the point.

23. Black People Don't Tip - Nathaniel Turner
Kindle freebie. Very short, slightly weird book- it's clearly written by a black American guy if you're wondering. He seems almost personally affronted that it's sort of true that 20% lower tips from black people and this could be creating a nasty sort of feedback loop. Oh, this party won't tip me, no point to give good service/ service is crappy, no tip... His final point- "don't be an embarassment to your race, your friends or to yourself, tip!" It's not a meticulously researched piece but it's a curiousity.

24. Private Paradise - Jami Alden
Kindle freebie. Romance set in a luxury Caribbean resort. H is a security chief who left the h heartbroken before. h is the manager apparently. A very contrived hurricane situation strands them alone on the island as all the guests etc. get off on a boat in time. Dullness.

25. Love and the Art of War - Dinah Lee Kung
An ER that I've owed a review for a while on. It took a few false starts before I could get into this. It's a humourous modern romance with a somewhat neglected wife, Jane the librarian, taking an evening class for advice on mending her marriage and getting mistakenly put into a history class reviewing Sun Tzu's Art of War methods. She worked previously in media/ TV and is also not in the right job which gets resolved over the course of the book, with learnings from the course. There is another student working in a family firm and being beaten down by a more successful cousin. It's funny and contains lots of well written phrases. It has very well rounded characters with a lot of facets to their lives which makes for a good backdrops/ details.

Still 47 items to get to. This will need to be digested in a few bites... I'm just sticking them all as read in Apr 2013 as I've no idea which ones were Feb/ Mar/ Apr. I might come back to that but it's not crucial to me.

26. A Knights Temptaton - Catherine Kea
Unmemorable historical romance. Lady Leona and Lord Treynarde. Lost pendant and knighthoods to gain.

27. Pilot Down, Presumed Dead - Marjorie Phleger
Short survival novel. Pilot Steve Ferris forced to land on small island between Mexico/ California. Makes friends with a coyote. Has pictures but isn't true.

28. Highland Surrender - Tracy Brogan
2013 Desert Rose winner. Historical Romance. To seal a truce Fiona Sinclair is traded in marriage to Myles Campbell. OK but quite colour-by-numbers.

29. Long Time Coming - Edie Claire
Modern Romance. Joys childhood friend Jenny was killed in a car accident which her boyfriend Jeff survived. For some not-unpredictable reasons she buried deep, she blamed him for this for a long time and now meets him again and starts to unravel what happened. OK but meh, I prefer the historicals- better scenery.

30. Deception - Faye Cunningham
Short Modern Romance. Journalist Alex pretends to be a nanny to get a story on reclusive millionaire Lucas Fairfax. OK but colour-by-numbers.

31. Unleashed (The Highland Historical Trilogy) - Kerrigan Byrne
Good historical romance. I count them as good when they have any content that deviates from the usual formulas. This does, all the men are beserkers. This is actually 3 novellas. The stories are of Roderick, Connor and Finn and are named Unspoken, Unwilling, Unwanted in their separate novella forms. These were very good.

32. Bugatti Veyron 16.4 - Daniel Turner
Free short set of pics and specs of the pretty supercar.

33. Angel Killer - Andrew Mayne
Thriller. Magician Jessica Blackwood becomes an FBI agent. Seriel killer using magician techniques stages some interesting deaths to be investigated. Pretty good.

34. Srae Iss-Ka-Mala - Chaeya
MG book review.
This is an interesting erotic/ romance/ sci-fi hybird novel. The heroine, Claudia's car breaks down and she ends up meeting an alien who has a sort of pimp/ taxi driver/ trainer who takes her back to his home planet Kir on an alien spacecraft. She is trained on the trip to become a kettul, which are effectively soldiers hookers in a brothels (shenda jiks) but it's not a low rank job in alien society. She can play a special instrument that signifies she has alien ancestory. She is fated to rescue a prince that is held, sleeping beauty-like, in a casket after a previous, failed, coup. Some alien politics, some alien animals, a decent fantasy romance.

...hums "come on joe you've got 42 to go, come on joe give me 50 words for snow" whilst paging through the still giant kindle backlog of books needing catalogueing/ reviewing from April/ May/ June...
Kate currently likes Wilhelm Busch stories from the giant compendium we have and Again by Emily Gravett. Again is lovely but hard to read- the story is it's a parent dragon, reading a book to a baby dragon (who doesn't want it to stop) half the action is the dragon in the book-within-book slowly going to bed- that bit has words you can read out- and half of it is the little baby dragon that should be going to sleep getting itself wound up until it burns a hole through the last couple of pages of the book-within-a-book. There are no words for those bits and you have to describe/ talk through the action as he shakes his book around, all the characters in his book get jumbled up and finally have to climb out of the book/ through the hole with fire extinguishers in hand. She also likes Bumpus Jumpus Dinosaurumpus - Tony Mitton which is requested a the "Dino-soooook-us" book as she most likes the crocodile/ Deinosuchus spinning around. She now has the patience to have longer books read to her which is nice. She's also just about potty trained now for the daytime.

35. The Warlord Wants Forever - Kresley Cole
Paranormal Romance. Novella. Immortals After Dark 1. Nikolai Wroth (shudders of reminders of the awfully named dagger lot) is a general in the rebel vampire army. Brides can make turned human vampires as powerful as pure-breds. Myst the witch has a talisman jewel. Wroth steals it to bind her to him. Can he let her go/ will she come back to him. Go on, have a guess...

36. Priestess of the Eggstone - Jaleta Clegg
ER review.
Light space opera romance. Unfortunately a sort of love triangle runs through this for a long time. The Firefly-esque fun (losing ships/ being chased by aliens) is good clean running around dodging the aliens fun. The female lead, as far as her skills/ strengths go is well described, has bad luck but isn't incompetent to be in charge of her ship. Amusing things happen although it isn't a straight-out comedy. The straight guy/ bad guy love interests were slightly weak but not poor. From scanning the other reviews this is almost certainly because it's a second book in a series - I gave this another star as I expect that fills out the romance side- for this as a stand-alone book I would give it 3 stars.

37. Everwinter - Elizabeth Baxter
ER review.
Fantasy epic. The lead character Bram in an engineer, dealing with large scale city projects such as tunnels/ sewers. There is a lot of politics, old gods, an everlasting winter freeze starts. This is only the start of the series so it doesn't wrap up everything. Good read.

38. A War Hero Returns - Johnny Ray
ER Review.
Romantic Thriller. A female CIA operator returns to find her mother, suffering with Alzheimers, has sold off her inheritance from her dead father. To the romantic interest. There is a lot of travel and high speed adventure. Good read.

39/ 40 Attack of the Bacon Robots / Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings - Penny Arcade
2 volumes that were in the humble bundle book/ comic bundle that kept giving. These are not ideally fitted to kindle but are better on PC/ larger screen. I still follow the web comic adventures of Gabe and Tycho occasionally.

...come on joe just 52 to go... I'm going to leave it another night for the rest. On the positive side, I think I have actually read all my ER/ MG books now, I just need to work down the list and make the review step.

41 Feyland: the Dark Realm - Anthea Sharp
Fantasy. Game based. Jennett is playing a test game of her fathers design and the game has an effect in the real world. She needs Tam(lin) to be her champion and restore her soul/ missing thingy taken by the dark queen in-game. Very good.

42 Escorted - Claire Kent
Romance. Bald escort hero hired to take virginity of romance writer heroine. OK.

43 Most Dangerous Game - Zach Weiner
Comics. Humble Bundle 1. SMBC - Saturday Morning Breakfast Club. Pretty good. Best ones are the short ones that are very similar to xkcd (annoy a sys admin, annoy a maths major, priests). Good.

44 Race Amazon - Andy Lucas
Thriller. James Pace, ex-RAF helicopter pilot and amateur cameraman, gets shot and during his recovery is recruited to be a video diarist for a charity race, set deep in the Amazon. Standard politics and double-crossings occur and his team gets cut off from help and fighting to survive. Good.

45 The Rake to Ruin Her - Julia Justiss
Romance. Max was a diplomat but has returned home in scandelous disgrace. She wants to be ruined so she can carry on breeding horses in the countryside. Guffacious bit about women in her family dying in childbirth. OK.

46 The Barons Betrothal - Miranda Davis
Regency Romance. Book 2 Horsemen (Dukes Tattoo 1). Baron Clun and Lady Elizabeth. Engaged to each other unseen. OK.

47 Management for Newbies - Keith Finney
Short Kindle Freebie. Actually had a few good parts but in general same-old, same-old.

48 Things to do before you travel - Jack Check
Short Kindle Freebie. Got this as was just off for the week in China so although I am labelling all these June, that was May. More relevant to teens taking off for their 6 month gap-jollies than business travel. OK.

49 101 Funny Facts about Men - Claire Carse
Stereotypical drivel. Not sure why I imagined it wouldn't be! "Men actually like compliments, so go on, make his day!" Sub-little-book of calm platitudes. Dull.

50 Office Life (and Death) - K C Murdarasi
Short Novella. A PA kills her boss but somehow manages to rediary all his workload so that no-one notices.

51 The Convenient Bride - Catherine Winchester
Regency Romance. Max is forced to marry so chooses his ward Lucy Stark. His mistress is furious and interferes. OK.

52 The Supermarket Workers Survival Guide - Misery Checkout
Business. Got this out of curiousity in what goes on in supermarkets. My first job after Uni was a 6 month stint in a shop with pretensions (Peter Jones, London). This was a throwback to my memories of that time... the nasty bitchy co-workers that made my friend cry by calling her Raquel not Rachel, the clueless management (what did giraffes eat when they roamed the earth? Bonus stupid points as that woman had two kids around 6 and 8, clearly never took them to the zoo), the 90% gay male colleagues (all dear-hearts). Made friends there that I still keep in touch with. It was very spacey and unreal though. Good content, poor grammar/ writing.

53 An UNAUTHORIZED Cheating Thieves Guide to the Elder Scrolls V Skyrim - Pedro Vera
Gameguide. I play rogue thief Khaljiits so it was a skim. I really loved Skyrim. Looking back now, I think I preferred the Oblivion storyline/ Daedra. Oblivions potions were a bit better too, Skyrims are a bit rubbish in comparison. I didn't see this mention the very best source for Skyrim stuff either, www.uesp.net which is pretty much the only place you need to go to find anything out for any Elder Scrolls game.

54 The Complicated Earl - Audrey Harrison
Regency Romance. Tom Fullwood sees his mother having an affair. His poor view of marriage is the opposite of Isabelle Crawfords, who has a large dowry attracting the fortune hunters. OK.

55 Fire and Ice - Patty Jansen
Fantasy. ER. I found this book very hard work to get through although the storyline is actually very interesting and novel. The premise of defective/ physically disabled children having most magic potential is interesting. The Eagle Knights were cool. Tandor is a mage but has used the power to make a servitor (remove heart) and is trying to track down all the disabled children the Eagle knights took. Very interesting use of a walrus in this book! OK - Good (3.5)

56 The Governess Affair - Courtney Milan
Regency Romance. Brothers Sinister 0. Novella about the Dukes man of business, Hugo Marshall, having to get rid of a governess. VeryGood.

57 The Duchess War - Courtney Milan
Regency Romance. Brothers Sinister 1. Minerva Lane the wallflower versus Robert Blaisdell. Minnie is escaping her scandal. Good.

58 A Kiss for Midwinter - Courtney Milan
Regency Romance Novella. Brothers Sinister 2. Jonas is a doctor. He lacks social graces and is unusually blunt/ uncharismatic. He chases Lydia who had a scandalous past affair that Jonas knows about as he was assistant doctor at the time. Good.

59 Unraveled - Courtney Milan
Regency Romance. Smite Turner is a magistrate. Miranda Darling is often in trouble. Very Good.

60 Unlocked - Courtney Milan
Regency Romance Novella. Lady Elaine is a wallflower due to Evan Carlton targetting her and embarassing her. Now he wants to apologise. Very Good.

61 The Lady Always Wins - Courtney Milan
Regency Romance. Railway financier who is about to lose all his money and the widow that he should have married. Good.

62 Bear Trap - Edna Curry
Modern Romance, Action. Woman with amnesia found after falling in the river by Spec Ops type. OK.

63 Vaporware - Richard Dansky
Fantasy, Thriller, ER. A video game project is shut down but the main character in it, Blue Lightening, is not happy to be deleted so easily. This was an amusing read with a wide range of believable games programmer characters and their families. Good.

64 Beguiling Bridget - Leah Sanders
Regency Romance. Walzing with the Wallflower Series 2. 4 weeks to win over the wallflower. Good.

65 Taming Wilde - Leah Sanders
Regency Romance. Waltzing with the Wallflower Series 3. Sir Colin attempts to be a rake. Getting weaker. OK.

(Timeless Quills 6 novels in 1)
66 Her Reluctant Groom - Rose Gordon
Regency Romance. Marcus Sinclair, Earl of Sinclair, has lived the last thirteen years as a recluse following an accident that left him heavily scarred. Though a recluse, Marcus has still managed to fall in love. The problem? The woman he's taken with is none other than the sister of the lady he was once betrothed to! Duplicate of a Kindle book I already had. Good.

67 To Walk in the Sun - Jane Charles
Regency Romance. Hiding from a dangerous man, Tess Crawford thought The Wiggons' School for Elegant Young Ladies would be the perfect place to disappear. Vincent Latimer, Viscount Atwood, is not a vampire. A storm thrusts Tess into Vincent's path and destroys the school. Good.

68 A Scandalous Pursuit - Ava Stone
Regency Romance. A very proper English lady has all her plans for the future disrupted when she innocently stumbles headfirst into a compromising situation with a very improper English duke. Good.

69 More than a Governess - Jerrica Knight-Catania
Regency Romance. Becky Thorn has been keeping a secret for more than seven years. A secret that could destroy her. So she leaves London society and accepts a position as a governess for a reclusive Viscount, far away from the ton. Good.

70 The Devil's Daughter - Suzie Grant
Western Romance. Gade Ryder returns to Eden, Texas, after twelve years to investigate a gang of rustlers on the family ranch. OK.

71 The Healing Tree - Amy De Trempe
Regency Romance. Lady Lilian Bliant is determined to thwart her manipulative father's plan to shackle her to a weak-willed man of the ton. Lord Maxwell Warrick is anything but weak-willed, yet Lily wreaks havoc on his heart. OK.

72 By Kings Decree - Shari Anton
Historical Romance. The King grants one year to Gerard of Wilmont and Ardith of Lenvil to ensure an heir will come. OK.

73 Cobweb Bride - Vera Nazarian
Romance, Myth, MG. Based on the Persephone/ Death of legend. Death refuses to take any lives until his bride is found for him. Village girl Percy cannot bear to watch her grandmother suffer in the near-death that this means. She makes the journey to Deaths house alongside other potential brides but not everyone wants his bride to get to him. I really enjoyed this book, well-plotted and engaging. Good+.

74 Prisoner of my Desire - Johanna Lindsey
Historical Romance. Rowena Belleme is forced by her brother to to 'rape' Warrick, a Lord due to her elderly husband dying and the need for an heir. Warrick vows revenge and returns with his army. Good+.

75 The Duchess Hunt - Elizabeth Beacon
Regency Romance. Jack Seaborne, Duke of Dettingham, needs a duchess. House party for this Season’s debutantes to pick one. Jessica Pendle is his aunt’s plain-speaking goddaughter. Good.

76 Agent of Change - Sharon Lee/ Steve Miller
Space Opera. Liaden Universe. Val Con, spy stumbles on retired mercenary bodyguard Miri Robertson and they entangle in a chase away from the mafia and police. Good.

77 The Scarred Earl - Elizabeth Beacon
Regency Romance. Book 2. The H ward is missing, presumed to be in hiding with the h brother. Alexander Forthin, Earl of Calvercombe clashes with Persephone Seaborne. They get caught in a secret midnight tryst. OK.

(To Die For - 8 book kindle set)
78 Unlucky - Jana DeLeon
Modern Paranormal Romance. Royal Flush, Louisiana and Mallory Devereaux is a walking disaster but she can use her talent to cool cards at her uncles casino. Undercover cop gets entangled. OK.

79 Zanes Redemption - Tina Folsom
Vampire Romance. Vampire bodyguard Zane is set to guard a hybrid, a half-vampire, half-human, whose father wants to keep her a virgin. Portia has a serious dilemma: in a few weeks, her body will be set in its final vampire form. To avoid having to live out her immortal life as a virgin, she must find a lover in that short time- which her father hires Zane to prevent. OK

80 The shop of shades and secrets - Colleen Gleason
Paranormal Romance. Fiona Murphy, who is a bit woo, randomly inherits a small antiques shop from an old man she met only once. Odd things begin to happen. H. Gideon Nath, III, is the stiff attorney who helps settle Fiona’s inheritance. OK-.

81 Twenty-eight and a half wishes - Denise Grover Swank
Paranormal Romance. Rose Gardner works at the DMV and has visions. She sees her own death and her murderer. OK-.

82 Catch me if you can - Liliana Hart
Modern Romance. Ex-FBI sniper Shane Quincy is dealing with his wife’s death two years ago that he blames himself for. Rachel Valentine is on the run from her mob familiy. When Shane Quincy saves her life, she has no choice but to tell him who she’s running from. OK-.

83 Stormy Montana Sky - Debra Holland
Western Romance. Schoolteacher Harriet Stanton believes she is in love with newly-married Nick Sanders, until a mysterious stranger rescues her from an accident. Newspaper reporter, Anthony ‘Ant’ Gordon, is chasing Lewis, the man who murdered his sister and kidnapped his nephew, David. Harriet and Ant join forces. Dull.

84 Finding Kate Huntley - Theresa Ragan
Action Romance. During a Caribbean vacation, 15 year old Kate Huntley's father, a scientist, is murdered. Kate grows up alone in Haiti. While looking for a drug lord in Port-au-Prince, Jack Coffey, rookie FBI agent, spots her and is sent to find her and bring her back to the US. Dull.

85 Wounded - Jasinda Wilder
Modern Romance. Iraqi woman named Raina is forced to sell her body in order to survive. During a street battle, she meets a marine (Tucker), and saves him. Quite weird, man is recovering for most of it and so it's her monologue. Dull.

86 Season for Surrender - Theresa Romain
Regency Romance. Alexander Edgware, Lord Xavier, has quite a reputation--for daring, wagering, and wickedness in all its delightful forms. But the wager before him is hardly his preferred sport: Xavier must persuade a proper young lady to attend his famously naughty Christmas house party--and stay the full, ruinous two weeks. Worse, the lady is Louisa Oliver, a doe-eyed bookworm Xavier finds quite charming. Good+.

87 Hidden - Kendra Elliot
Suspense, Romance. The Co-ed Slayer murdered nine Oregon State University students. Lacey Campbell barely escaped but lost her best friend whose remains were never found. She is now a forensic odontologist (teeth and bones). Ex-cop Jack Harper is landlord to the house where the friends remains are found. OK.

88 Renegade - Erica Stevens
Vampire Romance. Captive Series 2. First book was better when Aria was blood slave to Braith. Now they are outside the vampire palace being tracked. OK.

89 Reforming the Viscount - Annie Burrows
Regency Romance. Viscount Rothersthorpe decides to come to London and find a wife. In London he finds Lydia Morgan, his first love, who is now a widow and stepmother. He was quite the jerk during first love so she did not believe his casual marriage proposal. OK.

90 The Sword Dancer - Jeannie Lin
Historical Romance. Sword dancer Li Feng is used to living life on the edge of the law. She is looking to discover the truth about her past, even if that means outwitting the most feared thief-catcher of them all, Han. Good.

91 The Birthday Scandal - Leigh Michaels
Regency Romance. The Duke of Weybridge sets up his extravagant 70th birthday ball. He also plans to set up his nieces and nephew, Emily, Isabel, and Lucien. They expect a generous stipend but he plans to find them their perfect matches. Bachelor Lucien spends more time merrymaking than looking for a proper wife. His sister Emily, broken-hearted when her betrothal ended in disgrace, committed herself to an early spinsterhood. And Isabel’s marriage has been troubled from the moment it began—with a terrible betrayal on her wedding night. OK-.

92 Never Trust a Rake - Annie Burrows
Regency Romance. Henrietta Gibson is a country girl brought up by a scholarly father with 4 brothers. She finally asks for a season age 22 because she wants to follow Richard, who she fancies herself in love with. Lord Deben is accosted by a scheming young lady who wants to trap him and is rescued by Henrietta. Although a jaded rake, he takes an interest in Henrietta. Good+.

93 Chilled - Kendra Elliot
Suspense. Forensic nurse on a search and rescue team, Brynn Nealey braves a dangerous blizzard to find the survivors of a plane crash in the Cascade Mountains. Alex Kinton, former US marshal lies his way onto Brynn’s team to find the man who killed his brother. On reaching the plane’s wreckage, they discover everyone aboard has perished…except for the man Alex is hunting. Good.

94 Buried - Kendra Elliot
Suspense. 18 years ago, Chris Jacobs walked out of the forest, the lone survivor of a school bus load of children who’d vanished two years before. His memory was gone, his body beaten and emaciated.Today, the sad remains of the missing children are discovered alongside evidence they were held captive for years. Investigative reporter Michael Brody’s brother is still missing. Chris is now in hiding and the only lead Michael has is Chris’s sister, Jamie. Good.

95 Knights Lady - Julianne Lee
Time-travel Historical Fantasy Romance, ER. Series 3.
I re-read the first two books directly before reading this as it had been a long time.
First book 4.5 stars. Second book 2.5 stars. Third book 3 or 3.5 stars.
Modern-day US pilot Alex and modern-day reporter Lindsay have been repeatedly sent back in time to 14th century Scotland. Alex becomes a land-owning knight and is highly competent in the historical setting. Over the three books Lindsay switches between competent squire/ knight/ lady of the castle/ reluctant mother/ standard medieval rape-target.
In the second book, the series really sagged as their son, Trefor, is kidnapped by faeries and returned as an adult very similar in age to them (in the historical setting). Trefor is a whiny, sullen, rejected son and Lindsey jarringly becomes rubbish- won't accept her son, dislikes to be in the historical setting, can't be a fighter as discovered to be a woman. Alex remains competent in book 2.
In the third book we are focussed much more on Trefor and Lindsay. Lindsay has been kidnapped by an elf rogue, An Reubair and gets borderline Stockholm syndrome for him too. Trefor bumbles towards rescueing her. Over the course of the second two books, at a couple of points we drift close to the disturbing trope "things happen to Lindsey purely to advance the male characters development and give them motivation" which is not great. Hence the first book being the most fun read of the 3 although the last book is an improvement on the second book of the series.

Still another 22 books on the Kindle to review and also 6 paperbacks on the desk but I'm catching up now.

At the moment we're rearranging the house as I want to get all the bookshelves up onto the landing. My husband is getting a piano for his birthday and since we've tons of space it will probably be an old grand piano. We took a look round a lovely Vienna centre shop last weekend that had something like 30 or 40 pianos to try out- great fun. They had the most awful gaudy Boesendorf "Swarowski" grand piano in which even Liberace would have said needed to be toned down a bit! That one was priced at 1 million Euro. It was behind a sort of screen and I had to resist the urge to plonk out chopsticks on it. We are looking at either the most knackered old bottom-end grand they had in or a nice upright. We go again this weekend as the old piano we were interested in needed a bit of a tune-up and they are doing it this week.

Kate currently rather likes Max and Moritz stories from Willem Busch from her Dad and BumpusJumpusDinosaurumpus from me. She really likes the Deinosuchus (giant crocodile) and really doesn't like that the Stegosaurus' "Clatter". Moon rabbit, Again, Peace at Last and Room on the Broom get occasional goes. As well as the storytime, she likes the finger games "this little piggy went to market" which on a bad night has to be done for both hands and both feet. Also "can you keep a secret" is much loved- although she rarely gets through the first two words before cracking a huge smile and complains bitterly that its far too tickly to be expected to be able to keep a straight face all the way through. This seems to be a particularly joyful time, she will be 3 in 3 weeks time while we are in the UK.

Buried sounds interesting but not as much fun as piano shopping!

>Still another 22 books on the Kindle to review and also 6 paperbacks
Wow, then you're way over 100 so far! Looks like you're finding a bunch of them to be good.

The Supermarket Workers Survival Guide reminds me that I'd like to read the inside-story on a bunch of occupations.

A piano -- what a wonderful thing to shop for.

>28 mkboylan: Many of the low quality reads are directly due to me being a cheapskate and digging out all the 0.00 kindle freebies I can find in the genres I read. There is about a 10-20% hitrate on these freebies that are good enough to warrant digging out more of (and actually paying for!) the authors books. Those 3 Kendra Elliot ones (87/93/94) are in that category. Pretty good reads for the summer beach/ thriller/ crime category.

>28 mkboylan:/29 We went back to the Vienna piano place (http://www.klaviergalerie.at/en/home) last weekend and we will be getting the battered old grand- it's coming next week. It's quite a plain black case, made in Berlin but not a well-known make. I think it has real ivory keys although they are now yellow and need cleaning up. Husband is very happy and has even been playing his violin again over the weekend. The gaudy white-and-crystal Boesendorf has already been sold and will be going to live in Spain somewhere. The sales guy also told us that they are going to start making grand pianos soon (they already make their own uprights). He has put us on the list that in 5 years or so, they will come and talk to us about swapping/ upgrading...

Bill Gates summer reading list looked quite interesting. Hopefully I'm now inspired to read The Box which is a history of shipping containers that I've had for ages but haven't read yet.

Oh yay! That's the piano I was voting for! I have never recovered from caving into pressure from my husband and getting rid of my little grand.

ooh I'll have to look up Bill Gates' list. My husband and I have been interested on cruises to see all the Maersk et al containers. His undergrad was in economics and The Box goes onto the to-gift list for him, thanks!

>31 mkboylan:. I would have preferred a baby grand on the grounds that it's a great compromise between space needed and, well, it's still a grand! They seem quite rare though- there was only one in the shop and they did otherwise have an enormous number of pianos in there. I learned as a child but wasn't any good, Herb is more musical than me by miles and has the patience to keep practicing.

>32 detailmuse:. To save a google- it's on his gates notes blog (http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Personal/Summer-Reading-List-2013). There is a Jared Diamond on it, an interesting decline of Manufacturing in USA and how children succeed I'd also read.

For anyone that likes container ships, there is an annual event you might like to try to get to some day- Wereld haven daag- in September in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. There is a free tour taking several hours that they bus you into the Europoort and let you see up close the manual cradle cranes (and let you have a go in one whilst they move some containers about). That is only for sorting the containers on direct arrival. After that they all move into a no-people area where it is all AGV trains moving the containers round the yard plus the enormous cranes that load/ unload the ships ridiculously fast. I work in Logistics (so interesting to me anyway) but it was a superb day out. Plus all the usual sort of flotilla/ boaty things going on in Rotterdam at the same time.

...skipping lightly over August!...
The new piano, a Bluethner grand, arrived and is getting regular use from DH; it has one temperamental A key that sticks a bit- the rear pad catches the hammer- but they are going to come and sort that out. DH is an engineer so had the keyboard and action bits pulled out and poked about with straight away. Its no use without all the tools though so he will just have to wait for it to be properly fixed.

Kate started Kindergarten 4 weeks ago and it has been a rollercoaster. They didn't sort out the arrangements to let them nap in the afternoon so she was beyond-exhausted for the first two weeks and we had to faff about trying to shorten the day as much as we could (both of us on 40+ hour weeks fulltime work and no local relatives to help out). She is just about into the swing of it now and we have a bridge-childminder fetch her from Kiga and get her some tea.

She likes Mummy did you miss me and Toucan, Toucan't a lot at the moment and the pictures get a lot of debate. She is also watching a fair number of DVD. I've got loads of Disney and Studio Ghibli (which has the better female characters by a million miles), her current favourite is Laputa, Castle in the Sky but Howls moving castle/ Princess Mononoke get an occasional look in.

96 Loves Price - Cheryl Holt
Regency Romance. Lord Trent Series. Sinclairs many illigitimate children. Helen, one of twins becomes a companion to a spoilt difficult girl. OK.

97 Intimate Deception - Laura Landon
Regency Romance. Older spinster due to be married to a man she doesn't want to by rubbish father. Losing virginity the solution. H concerned about pregnancy due to losing 2 wives in childbirth. OK-

98 Trials of Artemis - Sue London
Regency Romance. Haberdashers series 1. Gideon/ Lord Lucifer and Jack Walters. Good

99 Drip Drop Teardrop - Samantha Young
Paranormal Romance Novella. Ferryman of the dead falls in love with girl with dying aunt. YA. OK-

100 Beauty and the Blacksmith - Tessa Dare
Regency Romance. Spindle Cove series. Title says it all, woman prefers the blacksmith to the lords. OK-

101 Any Duchess will Do - Tessa Dare
Regency Romance. Spindle Cover series 4. Duke forced to pick a Duchess by his mother picks the serving girl. Good

102 The Duke and I - Julia Quinn
Regency Romance. Bridgerton Series. Duke Simon has pretend engagement with Daphne to help them both avoid interfering family. Rest of series supposed to be worth getting. Good

103 Her Cyborg Awakes - Melisse Aires
Sci-Fi Romance Novella. Political-harem-wife ends up escaping during coup with her cyborg- normally repressed with chemicals/ maintenance but reverts to his human/ warrior side. Good

104 Lord Greytons Fall from Grace - K R Richards
Romance Novella. Lords of Avalon Series. Probably makes sense as a short backstory if you read the others. OK-

105 Marked - Elisabeth Naughton
Paranormal Romance. The argonaut leader, Theron, finds his soul mate is human. Human has a tie to the princess of whereever-it-was. Not rushing to find the rest of the series. OK-.

106 War Against Error - Lloyd Evans
I got this as an ER/ review copy somehow, not showing on LT so not sure where I got it. Unfortunately very bad formatting in the pdf makes it unreadable. That is aside from the drunk-bloke-in-bar-impressed-with-own-opinion feeling you get from scanning through what you can bear to. It's pretty dire; he is not nearly as funny as he thinks as he plods through tackling some contentious issues with all the subtlety and finesse of a dawn police raid.
Afghans eh? Defeating the Taleban from my armchair...
Autism eh? Because it can't be pinned down to one-simple-thing it must be made up by namby-pamby people that won't beat their children to see sense. This one I found particularly egregious as I have a cousin with Aspergers. There is no way on GGE that he is "making it up" for the free therapy/ laziness reasons LE assumes. DNF but did scan all of it.

You're kidding about the autism, right? Otherwise that's really offensive. People in wheelchairs are probably just really lazy, too, am I right?

>37 RidgewayGirl: I'm sadly not kidding at all, the full title is "war against error, the greatest misconceptions of the 21st century". It's 200 pages of listening to a shouty drunk ramble. Some of the choice contents are;
- The green revolution (load of fuss about nothing! It snowed loads on me last winter ipso facto global warning is a massive con by PEOPLE WITH AN AGENDA)
- Rebalancing the Gender debate (basically we're done- feminism dealt with it all back when women got the vote, you'll be pleased to hear equality is now achieved!- with only a tiny bit of tidying up round the edges now required. Characterises all feminists as the type often described as femi-nazi/ man-haters and believes that men freed women as they were the ones in power and they're the ones that changed the laws, so thats all OK and what are you still shouting at us about? Oh and feminists don't know what they're talking about because they can't agree what they all think about pornography.)
- Autism, what every child wants for Christmas. His arguement is just twofold, (i) Aspergers/austism has a load of vague symptoms that they (the scientists that are PEOPLE WITH AN AGENDA) cannot easily describe; so it's not real and (ii) there are loads and loads of people being diagnosed now compared to 50 years ago; so it can't be real, stands to reason... That's his arguement in a nutshell. Lots of hyperbole, strawmen and general missing-of-point mixed in with that but it's really what he thinks. It's all some sort of massive con being made to cover up naughty children/ bad parenting and give scientists and doctors something to do all day.

Very odd little book. Don't recommend wasting the time to look it up. I'm sure he wouldn't expect every Coldplay fan in the world to agree on the exact same top 10 songs in the same order but apparently all doctors, scientists and feminists ARE all supposed to be able to condense their thinking on complex issues down to one simple catch-all (so that morons like him don't get confused and have to consider several possibly conflicting sides of a point in one go). It's a stunning work of cluelessness on many fronts.

107 Evening Star - Catherine Coulter
Romance. Star Quartet. Giana Van Cleeve is a heiress. She wants to marry a fortune hunter but her mother (self-made shipowner/ magnate) doesn't want that. She goes to Italy to her uncle and is put into a brothel. She is sold on a flower auction and first meets the H, Alex, also big in shipping. They meet again back in London. Good.

108 Wild Star - Catherine Coulter
Romance. Brent is a gambler. Runs a bar in San Francisco. Byrony gets married to a nasty man. He saves her in the end. OK.

109 Heartmate - Robin D Owens
Fantasy Romance. He is a jeweller, she is a lower class but his heartmate. OK

110 Sweet Revenge - Nora Roberts
Romance. Princess thief. Wants to steal a necklace from her father as revenge for the way he treated her mother. OK.

111 The Devils Lady - Deborah Simmons
Historical Romance. The Red Knight is blind after a smash on the head. Aisley is forced to choose a husband so she chooses him, sight unseen. OK.

112 The Serpent Prince - Elizabeth Hoyt
Regency Romance. Prince Trilogy. Viscount Iddlesleigh/ Simon is beaten unconcious and left for dead. Lucy finds him. Good.

113 Restless - Neesa Hart
USA Romance. Washington PR and secret-service spying. Jacob and Macon. OK-.

114 A Precious Jewel - Mary Balogh
Historical Romance. Male hero very marriage-avoidant. Meets widow in brothel. Mistress to marriage very swift. OK-.

115 Brash - Nicola Marsh
Modern Romance. Librarian/ exotic dancer and Aussie Shelf. OK-.

116 Beautiful Monster - Bella Forrest
Paranormal Romance. Hollywood stud-muffin Liam gets turned vampire. Hides in school as drama teacher and falls for scholarship student Amy. OK-.

117 Embers - Amy Keen
Paranormal Romance. Scarlett is a young witch and has visions. Jake is the popular kid at school. Sort of Salem witch trials YA read. OK-.

118 Undeniable Rogue - Annette Blair
Regency Romance. Gideon has to marry to get an heir but gets a widow with kids already. Not great period writing. OK-.

119-122 Big Bad Wolf Romance Compilation - Heather Killough-Walden
Paranormal Romance.
The Heat- Lily in Louisiana. Daniel the biker-cop.
The Strip- Malcolm cursed werewolf and Charlie.
The Spell- Lucas Caige and Danni.
The Hunt- Byron Caige and Kat the Hunter.
Overall good set of reads. Good.

123 The Robber Bride - Jerrica Knight-Catania
Regency Romance. Victoria and Phineas. Forgettable. OK-.

124 Loves Promise - Cheryl Holt
Regency Romance. Lord Trent Series. Young illegitimate boy inherits. His aunt Fanny and the new Duke, Michael. OK-.

125 Escape from Paradise - Gwendolyn Field
Modern Romance/ Erotica. Angela gets abducted in Mexico. Forced prostitution and bit of dom/ sub. Colin goes undercover to rescue her. Good.

126 Captive in the Dark - C J Roberts
Modern Romance/ Erotica. Caleb abducts Olivia to train/ sell to a man he wants to close to in order to revenge-kill. Good.

127 Loves Peril - Cheryl Holt
Regency Romance. Lord Trent Series. John Sinclair is a French Pirate, he is trying to ruin families that left his mother destitute. Through gambling with her brother he owns Sarahs house now. Good.

128 Come the Night - Christina Skye
Regency Romance. Dangerous Delameres. Lavender fields. Perfume recipe lost. Highwayman. Good.

129 The Perks of being a Beauty - Manda Collins
Regency Romance Novella. Down on her luck beauty Amelia has second chance at love with second son Quentin. OK.

130 EarthMoves - Lacey Thorn
Fantasy Romance/ Erotica. Warriors looking for new home. Twins (and triplets) find single wife. OK.

Regarding 107 -- a librarian and an exotic dancer? Doesn't every librarian moonlight as a stripper?

and 129 -- she has a second chance at love with her son? Clearly it's been too long since I read romance novels. They have become much more interesting!

131 Breeding Cycle - T A Grey
Paranormal Romance. Sarina is hidden by her father during her breeding cycle but Alpha Vane finds her. Good.

132 Heart of Stone - Cathryn Cade
Sci Fi Romance. Stone is a space pirate. Roses brother is missing. OK.

133 Heart Aflame - Melissa F Hart
Romance 4 book bundle. Really short novellas.
Hunters Heart- Vampire hunting party.
Falling for an Angel- Adrian, messanger angel.
Christmas Choices- Andie picks up a guy just to annoy her ex.
It's not enough- One night stand Jeff.
OK, they are all really short though so not much gets to develop.

134 Vikings Prize - Tanya Anne Crosby
Historical Romance. I think I paid for this! Elienor has second sight and foresees the vikings attack (France). OK-.

135 Heroes Reward - Moira Moore
Fantasy. This was a series that got cancelled before it finished and the last is available only as ebook. It is quite political and suffers (as do the earlier books) from minimal action. The characters are likeable though although around book 4/5 the female lead got a LOT ditzy which was tedious as not part of her character at all. OK+.

>42 RidgewayGirl: Nearly all these are short kindle freebies.
The librarian is mentioned as backstory in sentence 1 and then we're straight into nipple tassles and pole dancing. It's a total shortcut for "sensible girl... not a tart... honest" about the female lead.
My lazy shorthand notes to remind myself of plots did fail a bit there on book 129 :) I was noting that instead of (as is boringly usual) the Duke/ Earl being the romantic interest, this time it's a second son (untitled regency male... Shun!!).

I am oddly disappointed.

136 Heartstrings - Sara Walter Ellwood
Modern Romance. Seth, country music superstar didn't notice he fathered a child, Abigail marries a friend instead. Sorting out the mess. OK-.

137 The Bride and the Brute - Laurel O'Donnell
Medieval Romance Novella. Jayce is afraid of thunder/ lightening (and a sopping-wet blanket). Language all over the place wrong. OK-.

138 The Menace - L C Zingera
Comedy Romance Novella. Hard-man action hero and dyslexic talker-to-coma patients. Daft but not bad. OK+.

139 Deathscape - Dana Marton
Romance Crime Thriller. Broslin Creek. Good but far too many overlaps/ coincidence. Jack is a cop after a serial killer. Ashley an artist with visions and paints/ recognises where a man has been buried. OK+.

140 Bishop's Angel - Tory Richards
Modern Romance Erotica Novella. Angel is cat-sitting at her friends house when that friends older brother, Navy Seal Bishop, comes home. Not a lot of story! OK-

141 The Last Rogue - Connie Mason
Regency Romance. Luc was the last to see Sybil alive, she is pregnant and tries to trap him into marriage. He refuses and is distressed when she suicides the following day. In Cornwall to recover he meets Bliss who is involved in a smuggling ring. OK+.

142 Highland Sons: The Mackay Saga - Meggan Connors, Dawn Ireland
Historical Romance. 2 short novellas. Banes Belief. Scotland, Kenzie a witch is protected from the witch pricker by the laird, Bane MacKay. Wandering Heart. US. Fiona, a con-woman pickpocket takes a ring from Cameron Mackay. OK-

143 The Shipwreck - Glynnis Campbell
Historical Romance Novella. Prequell novella. Viking Brandr washes up alone, Avril was banished for having a half-viking child and wants to take back her castle-home. OK+.

144 Mystery Man - Kristen Ashley
Modern Romance/ Erotica. Unknown bloke turns up in the night to Gwens bed for 18 months! Suspending a lot of disbelief there, rest of story that Gwens sister owes mobs/ motorcycle gangs money. Night-bloke is a SEAL/ Commando type (so presumably would lose his job if convicted of break-and-entry-semi-rape, but, yeah, more than a bit of suspension of disbelief required). OK+.

145 Salt - Amy K Marshall
Romance, Russian Fairy Tale Rewrite. ER.
Updated to include zombies! Youngest son Russian prince is nice-but-dim but his cheerful, hopeful demeanor work bring more success to him than his older brothers more ruthless approaches. Good.

146 Mountains of Ice - Lorina Stephens
Fantasy. ER. While checking my ER wins, I found this review is owed- I read it a while ago now so don't know how it fell through the cracks. I mention this as it's not a fresh review I'm making here. My memories of the book are that it was a very political fantasy- machinations of the world get a lot of detailing and I also remember thinking I would have liked a little more time spent on the bow-making. I used to do archery and competitions so it was why this book appealed to me to request it. OK.

147 The Earls Inconvenient Wife - Ruth Ann Nordin
Regency Romance. Her family force her into marrying and the husband resents it. OK-.

148 A Knight for Love - A M Westerling
Historical Romance. Warin is returning from the crusades and meets a women-disguised-as-man in France. He takes her home. OK+ .

149 Shadow Dreams - Teri Barnett
Paranormal Romance. Bethany lives on another plane to Earth. When her daughter is taken by a cult she needs a drunk cowboy from Earth to help. OK-.

150 The Bluestocking and the Rake - Norma Darcy
Regency Romance. More of a pretend bluestocking and a rake. She makes pamphletts about him and he pursues her a bit more than realistic. OK-.

151 Freedom, The Rake and the Recluse - Jenn LeBlanc
Time-Travel Romance. Book 1 of several. She goes back in time and it's very unmemorable. OK-.

152 Slow Burn - E B Walters
Modern Romance. Crime backstory that somehow Ron and Ashley didn't have any chance to sort out why her parents burned to death in his grandmothers house 10 years ago. OK-.

153 Caressed by Night - Amanda J Greene
Paranormal Romance, Vampires. Book 2, book 1 is a weird sounding historical. Dimitri is the last pure vampire/ king of his clan and supposedly dead for the last 400 years. Kerstyn is an art historian on a run of bad luck- lost her job, car broke down, roommate kicks her out. Her friend Silvie introduces her to Dimitri, place to stay and use of a car for jobhunting. OK-

154 Caressed by a Crimson Moon - Amanda J Greene
Paranormal Romance, Vampires/ Werewolves. Book 3. Vampire Hadrian Lucretius, consumed by madness and tormented by dark memories of blood and death. Eva Maldonado is offered as a sacrifice to the crazed vampire king by her father. OK-

155 The Demons Wife - Rick Hautala
Paranormal Romance. ER. Claire meets and falls for Samael, a demon in a nightclub. He remains mischievous and doesn't easily snap to reformation. They get married as hinted in the title and it's an easy, fun read. OK.

156 Tales of the Slightly Odd - Augustus Gump
Fiction, 5 short stories. All OK, I liked the first two the best. The Y2K was only OK but did give me fond memories of the place I was working at the time and their general stress over it. OK.

157 Super Hot - Vivi Andrews
Paranormal Romance, Erotica, Novella. This had a pretty decent plot for its ilk. Superhero research scientist Eric Eisenmann is pyrokinetic and unstable. Get emotional = burn stuff. Tandy Nightwing has no powers but is from a family normally brimming over with powers. Good.

158 To woo a warrior - Jane Cousins
Paranormal Romance. Hadleigh is a warrior Guardian to the Sanctuary (magic users) and gets sent to work on a paranormal reality tv show which has a self-important handsome star and a team of 7 huge handsome soldiers. Good.

159 Heated Match - Lynne Silver
Paranormal Romance. Loren is a reporter and going to write a story about genetic engineered soldiers. Adam and she have to solve who is kidnapping children and who attacked her brother. OK-

160 Take Me - T A Grey
Paranormal Romance. The Untouchables 1. Dominic Blackmoore is set for marriage and mistakes event planner Felicity Shaw for his bruid. He needs a political wife. OK-

161 A Dark Kiss of Rapture - Sylvia Day
Paranormal Romance. Novella. Related to the renegade angels series. Raze is a vampire hunter of rogues. Kimberly McAdams is Mary-Sue awesome. OK-

162 Reckless - Skye Jordan
Modern Romance. Ridiculously named and be-jobbed H/h. Couture wedding designer Lexi LaCroix (isn't that a porn star name?) and biker/ stuntman/ CEO Jax Chamberlin. OK-

163 Party Naked - Mari Carr
Modern Romance. Novella. Sounds like it should be erotica but isn't. Stephanie runs a bar/ book store with three of her friends. Detective Jarod gives her a parking ticket. OK-

164 Blush - Nicola Marsh
Modern Romance. Adele Radcliff is an ex-burlesque dancer and now an accountant in Vegas. Her friend’s brother Reid Harper is a politician. OK-

165 An Inconvenient Wife - Katy Madison
Modern Romance. Ice dancers pretend marriage. Brandi Yeats needs a new ice dancing partner. Russian Nikolai Petronof is willing to do anything to skate with a strong competitor like Brandi. I have a massive softspot for this particular flavour of bollocks. OK+

That is all of August 2013 finally updated. This is slow work but it's interesting which books are memorable/ are not out of the streams of closely related vampire/ werewolf/ witch/ alien/ historic romance. It's actually easier to grade the books from further away even if some of the content is a bit vague.

You're right about it being easier to rate books later. I find that I frequently adjust my ratings after a few months. I tend to rate high right after reading, then lower it a bit when I look back, although it has occasionally gone the other way.

166 Beloved Killer - Bonnie Dee
Modern Romance. Mob enforcer J is supposed to intimidate bar owner Nikki into letting her dads bar be used for mob purposes. Rival gang attacks. OK

167 Athenas Ordeal - Sue London
Regency Romance. Haberdashers 2. Duke mistakes his friends sister for a cyprian. Sabre fences. OK-

168 Dreaming of You - Lisa Kleypas
Regency Romance. Sara wants to write a novel about brothels and gambling. She saves Derek from footpads, he is the owner of a brothel and she insists to visit and research. OK+

169-174 Wicked Firsts - Six books, Modern Romance.
First Exposure - Elizabeth Naughton. Missing assistant at an exclusive adults resort. Good
First Rapture - Alexandra Ivy. Bad boy grows up in Vegas. OK-
First Taste of Darkness - Cynthia Eden. Forgettable Vampire story. OK-
First Ink - Laura Wright. Rush inks a compass on his first love. OK-
First Surrender - Katie Reus. Hayden ex SEAL bouncer wants Sierra the cassino chef. Good
First Temptation - Joan Swan. Undercover operation in an adult store. OK+

175 Touch Me - Tamara Hogan
Paranormal Romance. Novella. IT genius Bailey undercover security in a club with an incubus. OK-

176 A Hunger Like no Other - Kresley Cole
Paranormal Romance. Immortals After Dark 2. Emmaline half-valkyrie and Lachlain Macrieve werewolf leader being tortured by a vampire. Good.

177 Tied and True - Marie Harte
Modern Erotica. Novella. Lindasy is a logistics officer so I had to read this! She is very pretty and an office wideboy talks smack about her. So she revenge kidnaps him, mild tying up stuff as hinted in the title. Good

178 Lord of Scoundrels - Loretta Chase
Regency Romance. Jessica Trent wants to free her brother from the influence of the Marquis of Dain. She has a russian icon he wants. Good+.

179 Knaves Wager - Loretta Chase
Regency Romance. Julian wants his nephews unsuitable mistress to release him from a promise of marriage. She will, if he will seduce icy Lilith Davenant. Good

180 How to deceive a Duke - Lecia Cornwall
Regency Romance. Meg stands in for her sister Rose and marries Nicholas Hartley. He is a napoleonic war hero. OK

181 Someday Soon - Debbie Macomber
Paranormal Romance. Deliverance Company Prequel to Sooner or Later. Young widow Linette gets involved with mercenary Cain. Side story with injured Tim and his therapist Francine. OK+

182 Wolfs Haven - Ambrielle Kirk
Paranormal Romance. Caedmon Wolves. Tamara escapes her abuser (human) Devin is a loner that should be focussed on taking an alphas role. OK-

183 Carved in Stone - Kate Douglas
Modern Romance. Archaelogist Nate hires photographer Alex to document his new find. OK+

184 Rat Park - Stuart McMillen
Graphic Novel ebook. I remember these experiments from 20 years ago when I did my Biology degree (they are from the 1960s). Some researchers looked at morphine addictions in rats but brought in the unusual step to consider that social structure and habitat could be as important as food/ dull cage/ choice to become an addict. "Rat Park" was a giant sort of rat playground built to allow rats to interact as a group. They then ran various tests on the rats choice of morphine in water with added encouragement (sugar) and deterrent (quinine/ bitter). The rats in the cages would drug themselves to death in most cases. In the park, the rats would go on the morphine if they had to but would also go through withdrawal/ pain to come off it as soon as they didn't have to do it. Very good, nicely drawn.

185 Blank Slate - Tiffany Snow
Modern Romance Thriller. Agent Eric has been tracking cyber criminal Clarissa. Catches her in Colorado in the snow. She loses her memory. Good

186 I married a billionaire - Melanie Marchande
Modern Romance. Maddys marriage of convenience with CEO boss. OK-

187 Beyond Shame - Kit Rocha
Fantasy Romance. Dystopian city exile Noelle is lucky to catch the eye of cage fighter/ enforcer Jax. OK-

188 Taming Angelina - Helen Hardt
Modern Romance. Girls of Bakersville 1. Spoilt Angelina needs to learn to ride or get cut from her fathers will. Rafe teaches her. OK-

189 The first mission - Eve Hathaway
Paranormal Romance. Novella. Splicers 1. Energy splicing. Bad girl splicer and favourite pupil boy splicer get caught on simple training in a cage. Too short to get going but not worth following up on. OK-

190 Malice Striker - Jianne Carlo
Viking Romance. Mortal viking and half goddess kings daughter. Poor but I finished it as I paid for this one.

All of September prior to here. Now October 2013 set.
191 Branded for you - Cheyenne McCray
Modern Cowboy Romance. Riding Tall 1. Megan and Ryan the foreclosing on her parents restaurant cowboy. OK-

192 Waterfall - Lacy Danes
Paranormal Romance. Dragons Fate 1. Four cursed brothers. They must bite a woman and if she lives, she's their mate. Jordan/ water dragon bites Celeste as she was dying and she lives. OK-

193 Open Flame - Lacy Danes
Paranormal Romance. Dragons Fate 2. Madoc is building a time stopping watch. He bit a woman that didn't survive. Fina is a clockmakers daughter. These are sort of Victoriana steampunk paranormal romance really. OK-

194 Vexing Voss - Gail Kroger
Sci fi Romance. Coletti Warlords. Not all these are available on amazon UK there are another 2. These aliens have psychic tracking ability. Zoey is avoiding Voss but teams up with him to find out what happened to her mother. Good

195 Perfect Mate - Mina Carter
Paranormal Romance. Werewolf/ special forces Cpt Jack Harper and Lilian psychiatric hospital manager. OK+

196 Dead Sexy Dragon - Lolita Lopez
Paranormal Romance. Stig needs to go hide in his cave but Cora arrives at the wrong time. OK

197 Enslaved in Shadows - Tigris Eden
Paranormal Romance. Shadow Unit. Jes has a one-night stand with Draven/ werewolf then goes back 5 years later after her husband kidnaps vamps. OK-

198 Grim - M K Eidem
Paranormal Romance. Tornian male aliens searching galaxy for women. Grim finds widowed Lisa and her daughters. Good

199 Tall Dark Handsome Lycan - Anastasia Maltezos
Paranormal Romance. Novella. Samantha a psychic friend of Leos sisters goes to stay for two weeks at the greek summer house while he is there. OK-

200-204 Bodyguards Boxed Set - Various
Taken by the Cowboy - Julianne MacLean. Time Travel Romance. Jessica goes back in time after a car wreck. Kills a man in a saloon and put in gaol by Sherriff Truman Wade. OK-
The Bodyguard - Kathryn Shay. Cord stops an attack on Stacey Webb and insists on being her bodyguard. Unpleasant-past storyline that when he was 18 he slept with her mum (boak). Poor.
His Forbidden Touch - Shelly Thacker. Historic. Disgraced knight must escort princess to her wedding. OK-
Aphrodites Passion - Julie Kenner. Paranormal. Mortal Tracy and her hollywood grannies belt. Superhero Hale must retrieve the belt. OK+
A Burning Touch - Patricia Ryan. Psychic helps cops track down an arsonist. OK-

205 Close Liaisons - Anna Zaires
Paranormal Romance. Krinar Chronicles. Alien Krinar finds human Mia in a NY park at night. Sort of controlling vampire overtones but didn't really work. OK-

206 Pirates Price - Aubrey Ross
Paranormal Romance. Erotica. Princess Rana arranges her own kidnap from wedding by Pirate Vihlok. OK-

207 Rees - Allyson James
Paranormal Erotica. Novella. Tales of Shareem 1. Shareem are manufactured incubi basically. Rees was experimental. Talan is about to be a nun but read a book. OK+

208 Rio - Allyson James
Paranormal Erotica. Novella. Tales of Shareem 2. Rio is L3. He saves abducted Nella from an assassin bot. OK+

209 Calder - Allyson James
Paranormal Erotica. Novella. Tales of Shareem 4 (Aiden and Ky are 3). Medic Katerina treats Shareem. L3 Calder is scarred from a plasma fire and has a sort of warehouse lair thing. Good.

210 Braden - Allyson James
Paranormal Erotica. Novella. Tales of Shareem 5. Celibate librarian Elisa and L3 Braden researching ways off the planet. OK-

211 The Charmer - C J Archer
Regency Romance. Assassins Guild 1. Orlando is supposed to kill Susanna but doesn't. She has lots of orange trees/ makes marmelade. OK

Now into November books.
212 Reapers Property - Joanna Wylde
Contemporary Erotica. Maries brother steals from the Reapers MC. Horse takes her in lieu of payment. OK+

213 His at night - Sherry Thomas
Regency Romance. Lord Vere is a spy pretending to be a simpleton. Elissande marries him to escape her uncle and works out he is not dim. Good.

214/5/6 Lords of the Abyss Trilogy - Michelle Pillow
Paranormal Romance. Novella. Wanted to like these as they are about mermen. Not much cop. OK-
The Mighty Hunter- Scientist Bridget and Caderyn the hunter. OK-
Commanding the Tides- Terminally Ill Cassandra and Iason. Poor
Captive of the Deep- Lyra and Rigel the hunter. OK-

217 Misplaced Princess - Mari Carr
Contemporary Romance. Journo Annie has flown to Australia to meet rancher Dylan. He has flown to US but his brother Hunter is there to show her around. OK-

218 Justin - Allyson James
Paranormal Erotica. Novella. Tales of Shareem 6. Justin L2 is looking for his daughter, Deanna the patroller. OK

219 Beastly: Lindys Diary - Alex Flinn
Paranormal Romance. I like Beauty and the beast riffs but this is only an add-on to the main book that I read after reading this. Its for fans only. Poor

220 The Wolf Within - Cynthia Eden
Paranormal Romance. FBI werewolf Duncan and Doctor Kelly. OK-

221 Blood List - Patrick + Philip Freivald
Thriller. ER. Above average thriller. The FBI are trying to catch a hired assassin Paul Renner. He needs to work with them once his own father makes the kill list. Good

222 No Rest for the Wicked - Kresley Cole
Paranormal Romance. Immortals After Dark 3. Valkyrie Kaderin the cold-hearted and vampire Sebastian Wroth compete in the hunt contest. Good+

223 Wicked Deeds on a Winters Night - Kresley Cole
Paranormal Romance. IAD 4. Werewolf Bowen Macrieve and witch Mariketa the awaited. OK+

224 Dark Needs at Nights Edge - Kresley Cole
Paranormal Romance. IAD 5. Mad vampire Conrad Wroth and phantom ballerina Neomi. Worst of the series by an easy margin. OK-

225 Dark Desires after Dusk - Kresley Cole
Paranormal Romance. IAD 6. Rage Demon Cade and halfling Holly. OK.

226 Kiss of a Demon King - Kresley Cole
Paranormal Romance. IAD 7. Demon Rydstrom Woede and Sabine queen of illusions. OK.

227 Deep Kiss of Winter - Kresley Cole
Paranormal Romance. IAD 8 + Alien Huntress 4.5.
Vampire Murdoch Wroth and valkyrie Daniela the ice maiden. OK.
Aleaha shapeshifter and Breean warrier commander. OK-

228 Pleasure of a Dark Prince - Kresley Cole
Paranormal Romance. IAD 9. Werewolf Gareth Macrieve and valkyrie Lucia the huntress. Good.

229 Demon from the Dark - Kresley Cole
Paranormal Romance. IAD 10. Demon Malkom Slaine and witch Carrow. Best in series. Very Good.

230 Dreams of a Dark Warrior - Kresley Cole
Paranormal Romance. IAD 11. Reincarnated warlord Aiden the fierce and Regin the radiant. OK-

231 Lothaire - Kresley Cole
Paranormal Romance. IAD 12. Vampire Lothaire and human Ellie. Very Good.

232 Macrieve - Kresley Cole
Paranormal Romance. IAD 13. Werewolf Uilliam Macrieve and Chloe. OK

233 The Mating - Nicky Charles
Paranormal Romance. Werewolf Elise is traded for pack alliance to alpha Kane when she would have preferred Bryan. Good

234 Prey - Kassanna
Paranormal Romance. Novella. Nae bounty hunter goes after El lion shifter. OK-

235 Motorcycle Man - Kristen Ashley
Contemporary Romance. Dream Man Series. Tyra sleeps with Kane "Tack" Allen awkward when she is due to work in his bike shop. OK+

236 Own the Wind - Kristen Ashley
Contemporary Romance. Chaos MC. Tabitha "Tab" Allen has a not-secret crush on Parker "Shy" Cage. OK

November done. Phew. Just one more month to go!

237 Knight of Ages - A J Dalton
Fantasy Novella. Cursed Knight and squire. Fantasy is so reliant on scene-setting/ world that I don't think it works particularly well in short form. Poor.

238 Untamed Hunger - Aubrey Ross
Paranormal Romance. Novella. Sasha is a guard of a shifter colony. Grayson a white tiger shifter. OK

239/40/41 Alien Abduction Bundle 1-3 - Eve Langlais
Accidental Abduction- Megan is dumped overboard in the sea and collected in an ocean sample by Tren. He is going to sell her but doesn't. Good.
Intentional Abduction- Aylia is on a quest to get pregnant and must kidnap a suitable male warrior. Jaro, Trens brother returns the capturing favour. Good.
Dual Abduction- Friends Brax and Xarn share everything. Louisa and her teenage misfits get found by the pirates. OK

242 Mercenary Abduction - Eve Langlais
Paranormal Romance. Abduction 4. Makl wants to be the best mercenary, meets Olivia at a slave auction and they go on a rampage. OK+

243 C791 - Eve Langlais
Paranormal Romance. Cyborgs 1. Chloe is a medical aide and Joe is a subject. OK+

244 F814 - Eve Langlais
Paranormal Romance. Cyborgs 2. Fiona and Solus on a mining planet. OK

245 B785 - Eve Langlais
Paranormal Romance. Cyborgs 3. Bonnie (Chloes sister) and Einstein the medic. OK

246 Aramus - Eve Langlais
Paranormal Romance. Cyborgs 4. Aramus and Riley the medic. OK+

247 Touching Ice - Laurann Dohner
Paranormal Romance. Cyborg Seduction 4. Android sexbots plus Megan get rescued from a brothel. Good

248/49/50 Furry United Coalition Bundle - Eve Langlais
Paranormal Romance. Not as good as her other series.
Bunny and the Bear- Chase and Miranda of the "monty python" werebunny. OK-
Swan and the Bear- Chases brother Mason. Poor
Croc and the Fox- Viktor the croc. OK

251/2/3 Call of the Lycan Trilogy - Michelle M Pillow
Paranormal Romance. I think her merman series was marginally better.
Call of the Sea- Ian and mermaid Ceana. OK-
Call of the Untamed- Roark and Natasha the etiquette coach. Poor
Call of Temptation- James and Claudia the psychic. Poor

254 Z,2134 - Sean Platt and David Wright
Thriller. Zombie Hunger Games. Jonah, a guard, it put in the Darwin Games in the barrens which is overrun with zombies. They even start next to a pile of weapons... OK-

255 Claimed - Evangeline Anderson
Paranormal Romance. Kindred 1. Olivia is drafted as a Kindred Bride, Baird is beast kindred. Claiming test. Good

256 Hunted - Evangeline Anderson
Paranormal Romance. Kindred 2. Sophia goes to Livs wedding, Sylvan is blood kindred. Their shuttle crashes. Good

257 Sought - Evangeline Anderson
Paranormal Romance. Kindred 3. Kat and twin kindred Deep/ Lock. Twin Moons quest to break their seeking bond. OK+

258 Found - Evangeline Anderson
Paranormal Romance. Kindred 4. Xairn, son of the scourge allfather. Lauren is Liv/ Sophias cousin. OK

259 Revealed - Evangeline Anderson
Paranormal Romance. Kindred 5. Nadiah has the sight and a bad marriage to Y'dex that needs a kindred warrior to challenge for her. Adam Rast. OK-

260 Pursued - Evangeline Anderson
Paranormal Romance. Kindred 6. Elise and Merrick the Blood/ Beast mix. OK+

261 Exiled - Evangeline Anderson
Paranormal Romance. Kindred 7. Lissa and Sabre are touch kindred. Scrolls have been sold to trader on Yonnie 6 (BDSM slave planet). OK+

262 Shadowed - Evangeline Anderson
Paranormal Romance. Kindred 8. Reddix has broken touch sense and feels all emotions around him. He kidnaps Nina. OK+

263 Chained - Evangeline Anderson
Paranormal Romance. Kindred 9. Klutz Maggie ends up on Yonnie 6 and frees Kor. She gets punished for freeing him. Good

264 Crimson Debt - Evangeline Anderson
Paranormal Romance. Born to Darkness 1. Addison is immune to vampire glamours and an auditor. Alec Corbin is 4 star. Her turned friend is gifted and she needs her rescued. Good

265 Scarlet Heat - Evangeline Anderson
Paranormal Romance. Born to Darkness 2. Taylor is the turned friend. Viktor (werewolf) has to take her for a 3 month marriage of convenience. OK+

266 His Purrfect Mate - Georgette St Clair
Paranormal Romance. Shifters Inc. Chloe Novak and the Chamberlins that ruined her family. Panther shifters. OK-

267 Rals Woman - Laurann Dohner
Paranormal Romance. Zorn Warriors 1. Ariel is a prize in a fight. Anzons have them all captive. OK

268 Loves Winsome Warrior - Angela Verdenius
Paranormal Romance. Jonette is a Reeka warrior and shot down on Argon. Rylin is a bodyguard to the ruler on Argon. OK-

269 Kidnapping Casey - Laurann Dohner
Paranormal Romance. Zorn Warriors 2. Casey is hiding from her abusive bf. Argernon takes her home. OK

270 Tempting Rever - Laurann Dohner
Paranormal Romance. Zorn Warriors 3. Brenda was stuck in a bad marriage. Argis is already badly married. OK

... and that is finally that. All of 2013 kindle books removed/ resorted/ summarised away. Time to away and fix up 2014, where I am also miles behind!
2014 http://www.librarything.com/topic/168429