Wednesday, December 20, 2006

6 Great Books I read this year!

One of my yahoo groups came up with this idea and it was not easy to narrow it down. :)

Blue Smoke by Nora Roberts
The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseni
The Expected One by Elizabeth McGowan

There they are! Well off to get the kid down for a nap. lol

Little Matchmakers Part 1: The Matchmakers by Debbie Macomber

Dori is a widowed mother of an 11-year-old Danny. But Danny wants to have a daddy around. Dori agrees to look for a father type figure for him but they need to take some time with it. On the way to school that morning, she almost gets into an accident. The guy ends up following her and it turns out to be Gavin Parker, the ex-football player. Dori agrees to pay his dry cleaning bill since he spilled coffee on himself. When he sends her the bill, Danny puts a note in there that Gavin has to come see them. What ensues next is an agreement to look like they’re dating to not only get Danny off of her back but Gavin’s daughter Melissa. The problem is emotions and what will they do if they get too involved?

This is the first story I have read by Debbie Macomber and I loved it! It was cute, clean, and things were taken care of very nicely. Now mind you all books can’t do that but it is nice when it happens. The writing was really good and I enjoyed reading what happened to the characters and the lovely situations that they found themselves in. I laughed and sighed my way through the story.

Dori was my favorite character because of her having a son but also the fact that she is doing what she can to keep her son happy within reason. It is something all parents need to learn how to do but keep a balance so that the kids don’t think they are always going to get what they want in life. I think she did that well until emotions got involved which makes things very tricky. Gavin was a jerk in the beginning but past experiences had left him hardened from relationships. Danny and Melissa were two conniving kids and their ideas had me smiling. Those two kids were pretty smart.

I really enjoyed this holiday story the first in the anthology called Little Matchmakers and hope to read the next one soon! I would definitely give this story a 5/5 but we’ll have to see what I think of the book over all later.

The Secret Heiress by Judith Gould

Ariadne and Nikoletta are twin sisters that were separated by birth. Their father Nikos thought Ariadne was cursed and sent her off to live with another family. Ariadne grew up to be sweet and loveable. Nikoletta had all that she ever wanted and more whenever she wanted it. Once Nikos died, the board of advisors didn’t care for the direction Nikoletta was taking the company Papadaki Private Holdings Limited and decided that they would find her twin sister that Adrian Single knew about. Finding her was not so much of a problem but training her to be her sister Niki is another thing all together. Can she pull it off or will something happen to ruin their entire plan?

I have only read one of her other books so I wasn’t sure what to expect at all. The writing was really good but I just didn’t like all the sex. What is it with steamy novels and me lately? Anyways, I enjoyed how well the characters stood out and I really got a deep feeling of dislike for Niki. My favorite character was Ariadne. As I said before she was sweet and lovable a complete opposite from her twin sister. I also really liked Matt Foster. He was looking out for Adriane’s best interest even when things became complicated.

At first, I really didn’t care for the book but it grew on me. I wanted to see how they would deal with Niki as well as how Ariadne was going to deal with her gut feelings on how to be Niki. I was pleased with how well Judith Gould handled the book. The thing that impressed me the most and I feel silly for not seeing it sooner was what Judith mentioned at the end of the book. But I’ll leave that up to you to read and find out. I don’t want to give anything away. This book was delightful and I really felt for all the characters even Niki in spite of her delusions. I wish that a few things had been taken care of and not left hanging. Yet not much I can do about it. I do recommend this book if you love romance and adventure. It is good with that but if you don’t care to read a lot of sex scenes then this would not be the book for you.

3/5

Now I am working on The Little Matchmakers anthology. It starts with Debbie Macomber's The Matchmakers. It is supposed to be holiday themed. I'll let you know. :)