Jane Porter – Flirting with Forty

A stand alone novel, published September 7, 2006.
Genre: women’s fiction
Cover: fun



He got the second home and the Porsche. She got the kids and a broken heart. Now Jackie Laurens, post-divorce and heading toward the big 4-0, is on vacation in sunny Hawaii and facing her upcoming birthday – alone. But not for long. She’s soon falling for Kai, her gorgeous, much younger surf instructor, and their wild passionate fling becomes the biggest surprise of her life.
Back home in Seattle, Jackie has to struggle with single parenthood and her memories. Kai hasn’t forgotten her, yet thousands of miles of ocean and an age difference that feels even bigger lie between them. And, of course, Jackie’s friends disapprove. When a choice must be made, can she, will she risk everything for her chance at happiness?


I am not a big fan of woman’s fiction, but I met Jane Porter at LLC Berlin 2014, and so I wanted to read one of her books. I found this one second hand, and as I am around this age myself, I just had to read it.
I have to admit I did struggle with it some times, as Jackie is going through some severe depression and gets lots of critique from her friends. She is divorced, because her husband cheated on her, and they had grown apart. Jackie has two young children to take care of, the housework of course, and has her own career in decorating other people’s houses. She lives in Seattle. One of her best friends convinces her to go on a vacation, just the two of them, to celebrate Jackie’s 40th birthday. But when Jackie is waiting in the airport (the kids are with their father and his girlfriend), her friend calls that she can’t make it, as her husband is suddenly very ill. (The same husband who never wants her to do anything that does not involve him). And so Jackie goes to Hawaii alone.
At first she is at a loss what to do, making a schedule and sitting at the hotel’s swimming pool pretending to read a book. But a persistent man who thinks she will be a good fit to be his fourth wife drives her away. And the very attractive young surf instructor captures her attention ... When she keeps running into him, and he offers to teach her how to surf, to her own astonishment, she agrees. Jackie is very self conscious though, how can he admire her with her sagging body when all those young tight girls in itty bitty bikinis are throwing themselves at him? But there is just something between them, and they end up spending a lot of time together.

Back home in Seattle, Jackie can’t stop thinking of Kai, and when he calls her, she is determined to go back soon. Her friends disapprove, he was just a vacation fling, they live thousands of miles apart, and nothing can come of it. But Jackie is learning to do what she wants and needs, and not to be subjected to other people’s wishes and expectations of her. Her ex-husband of course finds out as well, and he ridicules her. But Jackie doesn’t care about that, there is a reason they are divorced.

And so Jackie lives her life in Seattle, and travels to Hawaii a few times. Until her daughter is in a car accident with the sitter she hired (against her ex-husband’s wishes) and she can’t get back soon enough. After that, she is so guild ridden, that she decides to give up on Kai. He will get over her soon enough ...


Jackie is a woman who lives mainly for her children. She has some good friends, who are all still married, and also live for their husband and children. She has a nice house, a nice car, and her own small business, her husband derogated all the time. Her little hobby. But Jackie wants more out of life, she wants to be happy. Her friends don’t understand that, they are content with their lives as they are.
The book is a lot about the feelings Jackie is having, she does love her kids to pieces, but she wants more. Eventually they will be grown up and living their own lives, and where will that leave her? She is reasonably pretty and has kept in good shape. When she hires a part-time nanny, that will give her more time for the job she enjoys, and land some new clients. But still.

Finding Kai in Hawaii changes her life, she starts questioning things she has always taken for granted. That you have to have things, a nice job, a nice house, a nice car, nice friends, and of course nice kids. Kai takes life easier; he came from a background like hers, so he knows what he has left behind. He loves the easy and relaxed life in Hawaii. He is a professional surfer in winter, and a surf instructor in summer. I like how he makes Jackie feel more confident about her self, and how he takes her all over the island. She is more to him than just a short fling, but Jackie doesn’t dare to believe in that, even though she has never had better sex in her life. She is very much hung up on the age difference, but I liked it.

Even though it sometimes felt like it took soooo long, and I got a bit tired of Jackie continuously questioning herself and her feelings and her thoughts, she grew a lot in this book, and I am proud that she choose herself, and happiness instead of settling for what she had. And I am sooo glad that the book has a happy ending, a truly good ending and one that I did not really see coming or expected. So I was happy when I closed the book, and it will make me read the other Jane Porter book I have, The Frog Prince.

7 stars.

© 2014 Reviews by Aurian

Lisa Shearin – The Grendel Affair

The first book in the SPI Files series, published December 31, 2013.
Genre: urban fantasy
Cover: nice



We're Supernatural Protection & Investigations, known as SPI. Things that go bump in the night, the monsters you thought didn't exist? We battle them and keep you safe. But some supernatural baddies are just too big to contain, even for us…
When I moved to New York to become a world famous journalist, I never imagined that snagging a job at a seedy tabloid would change my career path from trashy reporter to undercover agent. I'm Makenna Fraser, a Seer for SPI. I can see through any disguise, shield, or spell that a paranormal pest can come up with. I track down creatures and my partner, Ian Byrne, takes them out—usually saving my skin in the process.
Our cases are generally pretty routine, but a sickle-wielding serial killer has been prowling the city's subway tunnels. And the murderer's not human. The fiend in question, a descendant of Grendel—yes, that Grendel—shares his ancestor's hatred of parties, revelry, and drunkards. And with New Year's Eve in Times Square only two days away, we need to bag him quickly. Because if we don't find him—and the organization behind him—by midnight, our secret's out and everyone's time is up.


Welcome to a world filled with all the supernatural creatures you have ever read about. They live alongside humans, and often look human enough to be able to mingle in the streets. But this is caused by magic, by a spell or potion or a natural ability and even through modern technology. Makenna Fraser is a rare Seer, someone who can look though a veil, and see the true creature underneath. She grew up knowing about ghouls and vampires and werewolves and more.
She always wanted to be a journalist, but the only paper that hired her in New York, was one of those tabloids that loves outrageous tales, and if there aren’t any, they just make them up. Makenna was good at her job, because she could write about the truth of what she saw, and no one would believe it. But now she has a new job, working for the SPI. It is just the kind of job her family has, and she loves it. And perhaps she has a tiny crush on her partner Ian, who is fully human, a former cop who ran afoul of ghouls who killed his partner.

A new monster has let loose in New York City, with the sole purpose of exposing the preternatural world to humanity, taking over as the biggest predator of the food chain. SPI wants to prevent that from ever happening, and they have been working worldwide for ages to keep the monsters secret from humans. It would mean war between them, and millions will die, and hatred will rule.
The new, unknown monster is very strong and very fast, and also hidden from security cameras and sound. When Mac is on a private mission for a friend, trying to capture a nachtgnome hunting in his pawnshop, she is in more trouble than she thinks. The nachtgnome is more devious and more capable of keeping his liquor than she though, and she really does need Ian’s help. And when they discover there is someone upstairs in the office, and Ollie certainly would not be present, they are almost walking into the monsters paws. And just when they are investigating the crime scene, the normal police shows up, and they have to answer some questions about the presence. Someone must have called it in beforehand, it all just happened a few minutes ago.

The SPI’s most important lawyer quickly has them released though, and takes them in for questioning by the boss lady herself. Mac managed to take some vital evidence from the crime scene though, and soon the scientists have figured out that the monster they are looking for, is a real life Grendel, thought to be extinct by now. They will need the help and expertise from the Scandinavian branch to capture and kill it.
But before they get that far, the boss lady, who is a dragon in disguise, receives a note telling her that the appearance of the Grendel is not a coincidence, but a plan to expose them all on New Year’s Eve, Times Square. The Grendel hates noise and his favourite food is people, and both of those are in abundance at that time in Times Square, when the eyes of the world are focused on the massive celebration.

Time is running out for Mac and Ian and their teams to find the Grendels, and their offspring, especially when they discover a doppelganger has been posing as Mac for a while now, and she has left some nasty surprises in headquarters...

What follows is a fast paced story, filled with action and monsters, and only a few minutes breathing time for Mac to get something to eat.


After falling in love with Lisa Shearin’s Raine Benares series, earlier this year, I was eager to start reading her new series. It certainly did not disappoint me. Although Raine Benares is fantasy/fantasy romance, and this is urban fantasy, it was good. I really liked Mac and her co-workers, and can’t wait for more stories in this fascinating world. Again it is told in first person.

I enjoyed the adventure, the hidden world of tunnels underneath New York is teeming with all kinds of monsters, but so are the streets. The book is fast paced, and I really like that Mac’s co-workers are mostly preternatural, each with their own strengths, and part plain human. Although Mac is a Seer, she has no superpowers whatsoever, and has to rely on her wits and her water pistol filled with tequila. Until her partner confiscates it. And how can they fight a monster they can’t see? And that is too fast to be hit by bullets? Mac will have to make it visible and she does so in a brilliant and fun way.

The Grendel legend was very nicely worked into this story, but no, I have never been tempted to read Beowulf myself. I did like the crazy Scandinavian warriors that came over to hunt the Grendels.

I look forward to learning more about it all, and find out what will happen next for Mac.

9 stars.

© 2014 Reviews by Aurian

New additions to my addiction

My 11th new additions post for 2014. Some books have been read and reviewed already, and others are destined to gather dust for a while.

From Bookdepository:
Annie West – An enticing debt to pay
Erin McCarthy – Double Exposure, from every angle
Nora Roberts – The perfect Hope.

Bought at the bookfair:
Christie Ridgway – Then he kissed me
Jennifer Murray – The officer says I do
Jennifer Probst – The marriage mistake
Carolyn Brown – My Give A Damn’s Busted
Carolyn Brown – One lucky cowboy
Jeri Smith-Ready: Shine
Jane Porter – The frog prince
Heather Graham – An angel for Christmas
Secrets Volume 18 – because it has a Larissa Ione story.

Secondhand books:
Anthology: Zombies vs Unicorns

Books I’ve won:
Signed books and bookmarks, with a lovely note, from Jennifer Ashley: Pride Mates and The Queen’s Handmaiden. I am very happy with that last one, as it has been out of sale for years.

© 2014 Reviews by Aurian

Nora Roberts – The last boyfriend

The second book in the Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy series, published May 8, 2012.
Genre: contemporary romance, with a hint of paranormal as there is a ghost in the Inn.
Cover: welcoming, romantic



Owen is the organizer of the Montgomery clan, running the family's construction business with an iron fist - and an even less flexible spreadsheet. And though his brothers bust on his compulsive list-making, the Inn BoonsBoro is about to open right on schedule. The only thing Owen didn't plan for was Avery McTavish...
Avery's popular pizza place is right across the street from the inn, giving her a first-hand look at its amazing renovation - and a newfound appreciation for Owen. Since he was her first boyfriend when they were kids, Owen has never been far from Avery's thoughts. But the attraction she's feeling for him now is far from innocent. As Avery and Owen cautiously take their relationship to another level, the opening of the inn gives the whole town of Boonsboro a reason to celebrate. But Owen's hard work has only begun. Getting Avery to let down her guard is going to take longer than he expected - and so will getting her to realize that her first boyfriend is going to be her last...


I loved going back to Inn Boonsboro, and its cast of characters. I love the friends to lovers trope a lot, and I enjoyed the journey of Owen and Avery. They have been friends for so long, and now (with a little nudge from the ghost) they are looking at each other in a different light. But both are hesitant to take their relationship to the next level. What if it does not work out, will they ruin their friendship?
Both Owen and Avery are very hard workers. Avery owns the pizzeria next door, and the others love to come over for lunch or dinner, and Beckett and Clare’s kids love to play the arcade games. They are all working hard on putting the finishing touches on the Inn, so they can open in time, and their mother has them working on the bakery next door and of course, she has already plans for more. But Avery has plans of herself as well. She has had her eye on the building across the street for a while now, she wants to open up a restaurant and pub in there. It will be very hard work, but with the right staff, she knows she can make it work. But now she has to get Owen and his family’s approval on her business proposal.

Owen finally has some time to devote to finding out who their resident ghost actually was, and Beckett sure had a feeling when he started calling her Elizabeth. Lizzie is waiting for her lover, or perhaps her husband, and she has been for a long time, ever since the civil war. Hope is her descendant through her sister, and to find out all those details was fun.

This is a really nice feel good romance. A description of a lot of hard work, done by all, and a slow building romance. I would love to see the Inn myself, and visit all those amazing rooms. The quest to find out about the ghost fits in nicely.
Avery is more damaged inside than she realizes, when her mother left her and her father when she was just a young girl, and has some major commitment and trust issues. Owen does not have an easy road in capturing her hand, even though she gives him her heart. Or perhaps she did that when they were children already, and that is the reason no boyfriend ever lasted long. And when her mother suddenly shows up again, well, that was a hard thing for her to live with.

When Owen finds out that his widowed mother and Avery’s father are having an affair, he and his brothers are having a hard time wrapping their mind around it. Sure they want their mother to be happy, but to imagine her having a love life is something different altogether. But they like Avery’s dad a lot, he and their father were best friends, and they both still miss their husband/best friend. Grieving together let to something more over the years, but they are happy with this casual relationship.

I look forward to book 3 already, and I am glad it arrived earlier this week. It might even take my attention from Hay Day for a while when I learn more about the last son, Ryder, and Hope, the new Innkeeper.

The three men are brothers, and the three women are best friends, and I love how they all interact each other, support each other and tease when possible. I love Nora Roberts writing style, not every book has to have lots of action and drama, and she writes so vividly I can find my way around town without ever being there.

9 stars.





http://www.bookdepository.com/search?searchTerm=nora+roberts+the+last+boyfriend&search=Find+book

© 2014 Reviews by Aurian

Amanda Cooper – Tempest in a Teapot

The first book in the Teapot Collector Mystery series, published June 3, 2014.
Genre: cozy mystery
Cover: lovely



Tucked away in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York is the charming town of Gracious Grove, where time moves slowly, gossip spreads quickly, and the scones are to die for...
When her fashionable Manhattan restaurant goes under, Sophie Taylor retreats to her grandmother's cozy shop, Auntie Rose's Victorian Teahouse, where serenity is steeped to perfection in one of her many antique teapots. The last thing Sophie expects is a bustling calendar of teahouse events, like her old friend Cissy Peterson's upcoming bridal shower.
Not everyone is pleased with the bride-to-be's choice of venue - like Cissy's grandmother, who owns a competing establishment, La Belle Epoque, and has held a long-simmering grudge against Rose for stealing her beau sixty years ago. Tensions reach a boiling point when Cissy's fiancé's mother dies while sampling scones at La Belle Epoque. Now, to help her friend, Sophie will have to bag a killer before more of the guest list becomes a hit list...


As a child, Sophie loved visiting her grandmother in Gracious Grove, and hang out with the local children, but her jet setting mother detested the place, and insisted she go to an expensive boarding school. Sophie became a cordon blue chef, something her mother never understood, and ran an upscale restaurant in New York for years. But when it went bankrupt, she was at a loss for what to do, so when her grandmother invited her over, she gladly went.

Sophie’s grandmother, Rose Freemont, owns a successful teashop, Auntie Rose’s Victorian Teahouse, which she has been running with her equally elderly employee Laverne. They are very busy, hosting several weekly and monthly events and they serve delicious teas and foods. Her grandmother’s former best friend has also opened a teashop next door, called The Belle Epoque, but she serves frozen and store bought goods, and the cheapest ones she can find. Her elderly employee Gilda has to do almost all the work herself, on a very low budget, especially since Thelma broke her hip a few years ago. It is not as successful as grandmother Rose’s teashop, and Thelma doesn’t like that one bit. She does her best to blacken Rose’s name when she can. And now her beloved granddaughter has told her she wants to have her bridal shower in Auntie Rose’s Victorian Teahouse. That sure does not sit well with Thelma.

But Cissy knows what she wants, and she wants the best this time. But to appease her grandmother, she agrees to an engagement tea party at La Belle Epoque. But now she wishes she never agreed, when her mother-in-law to-be, Vivienne Whittaker is murdered by a yellow frosted cupcake. Who poisoned her?

The local police are stumped, and to help her friend Cissy, Sophie starts looking into things. There is a lot of intrigue going on, with the people who attend the local country club, the new development and the possible annexation of it. Politics, and will the town stay dry or will they finally allow alcohol to be served and sold in town? Vivienne who suspected someone to have taken her money.
There are so many suspects here, the movers and shakers of the town, and even Vivienne’s own family ... and of course Thelma Earnshaw who dislikes all the Whittakers, and even Cissy’s brother Phil Petersen, who wants nothing more desperately than to get alcohol into town.

Sophie really enjoys her time in Gracious Grove, meeting up with her old friends Dana, who works in the bookshop owned by Cissy, and running into her former crush Jason Murphy, who is now an English lit teacher.


I really enjoyed this cozy mysteries, and I loved the little bits about the teapot collection most of the characters own. I do have some 40 of them myself, almost all in cottage shape, forming a village with shops. I had to stop collecting when I ran out of windowsill to display them. Of course mine are all just knick knacks, not worth a penny, unlike the priceless antiques described in this book. I would love to join the Silver Spouts!

The mystery was a good one, there were so many undercurrents running through this book. Al was not well in the Whittaker family, and I did not think Cissy really loved her fiancée Francis. Sophie does her best to create some kind of truce between her grandmother and Cissy’s grandmother, Thelma. The old feud really needs to stop, especially when there is talk of a third and very modern tea room in the street ...
And the politics of the new development and the town’s mayor are certainly well written and thought out, I really did not know where to look for the murderer until it was all revealed in the end.

I liked getting to know Sophie and her family, meeting her old friends and thinking about taking over her grandmother’s tearoom instead of going back to New York. I think she will fit in nicely in this village.

I look forward to the next book.

8 stars.

© 2014 Reviews by Aurian

Recommendations from Maia for July 2014.

In order to bring some more variety to my blog, I have asked some of my bookish friends to tell about the books they have in the past month, and to give us a recommendation. Today’s post is made by Maia from Holland.

Maia:

Last month I've read six books. They were five category romances and one reread of Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh

My top three of this month is:

Annie West - Captive in the spotlight



Jayne Castle - The desperate game



(You can read my review here: http://boeklogboek.blogspot.nl/2014/06/jayne-castle-desperate-game.html)

Jayne Castle - The chilling deception




It has been a while since I’ve been reading category romances by the bushel, like I used to do. When I started reading romance, I bought the Harlequin presents, Candlelight and other series. They were the only kind of romance that was ready available and reasonably priced.

I loved reading them on the train ride from Utrecht, where I was at university to the little town my parents lived. The ride took me about two hours, just enough to read one.

When I started reading in English, I stopped reading most categories, except written by Nora Roberts and Jayne Ann Krentz, because I’m collecting their entire backlist. I started reading them again because of the LoveLetter Conventions. There are category writers present there and I always try to read one or more of the books the LLC authors have written.



That’s how I came to read the books by Annie West. She is an Australian writer, and came to the LLC 2014. I read her book “An enticing debt to pay” and loved it (except for a minor plot point at the end), so I bought more books. She doesn’t have many solo books, a lot of her books are in multi-author series, but I saw a duology and bought it.

“Captive in the spotlight/ Blackmailed bride, Innocent wife” are two great examples of Annie’s writing style. She takes familiar tropes and turns them around. Having read a lot of presents, you got to know how they were constructed. Annie turns that around. You don’t know what will happen. Added to that is a smooth writing style and some humor. You get the POV of the male protagonist and there is character development. All these were things that were mostly lacking in earlier categories I’ve read.

Adding to that, I’ve met her in Berlin and she’s super nice. So I’ll be buying her books now and reading some more category romances. Do you have recommendations for me about what I should read?

Aurian: Thanks for the recommendation Maia! I have read an Annie West book this week as well, and enjoyed it. From the Berlin authors we met, so far I have read a Nancy Warren book, and I really like her writing style as well, so I do recommend those to you.

© 2014 Reviews by Aurian

New books to look forward to for July 2014

This is the list of new releases for the month of July 2014 I am looking forward to:

Catherine Coulter – Power Play – FBI 18 HC
Lorna Barrett – Book Clubbed – Booktown Mystery 8 HC
Lorna Barrett – Not the killing type – Booktown mystery 7 PB
Sara Humphreys – Vampire Trouble – Dead in the City 2
Suzanne Enoch – The rogue with a brogue BD 30-01
Stephanie Laurens – Loving Rose – The redemption of Malcolm Sinclair
Bailey Cates – Some enchanted éclair – Magical Bakery Mystery 04
Ilona Andrews – Magic Breaks – Kate Daniels 7 HC
Jennifer Estep – Poison Promise – Elemental Assassin 11
Jess Haines – Enslaved by the Others – H & W Investigations 6
Jude Deveraux – Nantucket Brides 02 – For all time
Juliet Blackwell – A vision in velvet – Witchcraft Mystery 06
Julie Hyzy – Grace against the clock – Manor House 05
Kim Harrison – The undead pool – Rachel Morgan 12 PB
Michelle Sagara – Cast in Flame – Chronicles of Elantra 10
Shannon Stacey – Falling for Max – Kowalski 9
Tamar Myers – The death of pie – Pennsylvania Dutch Mysteries 19
Victoria Hamilton – Muffin but Murder – Merry Muffin Mystery 02
Yasmine Galenorn – Night’s End – Indigo Court 5
Heather Graham – The Hexed – Krewe of Hunters
Laura Childs – Eggs in a Casket – Cackleberry Club 5
Sherrilyn Kenyon – Born of Fury – League 7 HC

I have read a total of 15 books this month. Very low, but I have become addicted to the Facebook game of Hay Day, so I read little and write even less reviews. As I am sure you all have noticed. I sure hope none of my favourite authors discovers this game, or you.

Did I match my reading solutions for last month? Nope, as usual I have trouble with the books I have won category, so I am going to expand it with books I have received as a gift, or for review. Perhaps that will spur me on more.

I have read 2 cozy mystery/mysteries:
- Jenn McKinlay – Cloche and Dagger
- Amanda Cooper – Tempest in a Teapot

2 books longer than 1 year on my shelf:
- Karen Hawkins – Talk of the Town (re-read)
- Rachel Caine – Kiss of Death

0 books I have won

and for my Kindle freebie/Nora Roberts challenge:
- Nora Roberts – The last boyfriend

© 2014 Reviews by Aurian