Book Review: "Let It Snow - Three Holiday Romances"

I'm sure you guys all remember my Lauren Myracle phase, where I barrelled through just about every book she wrote in a few months' time. ...Except this one, because our library's copy was ALWAYS checked out. Well, I finally got a hold of it (a couple of years later), and while I was anticipating it to be your typical, run of the mill collection of short stories, it does fit that bill...but more.

You see, these aren't just any holiday-themed short stories. You don't realize it going into it on the first one, but every detail is important, as all three of these stories are intertwined and connected (and pulled together especially at the end of the third story). It's done VERY expertly and really cutely, in my opinion. I found myself starting to fangirl every time the stories started to crossover on each other and link together, and it happens with increasing intensity the further it goes on, until you just feel like you know this close-knit small community in full. A nice quality to embody in a Christmas-themed story, if you ask me. Ranking this one 4 stars!

Book Review: "Diva (The Flappers, #3)"

I know I should have read this series in sequence, but I just couldn't help myself -- I was so in love with the cover of this one that I read it first. ;) (I'm going to backtrack and read the other two though.) Anyhow, Diva, the third book in Jillian Larkin's The Flapper series, is a perfectly marvelous romance/drama/mystery about the 1920's, right in the height of the same era as The Great Gatsby. The author certainly did her homework in terms of fashion, slang, popular locations, you name it... I was absolutely thrilled to see this. The book is really about three miniature stories all in one book, all intertwined and running parallel to each other. Each chapter is labeled with which woman it involves, so once you realize that, the book is far easier to follow. I don't know how much I can truly say here about the plot without giving it all away, so I'm going to just leave that part a mystery for you to find out if you should choose to read it. ;) Anyway, I absolutely adored this book and I'm rating it 5 stars!

Book Review: "Annie On My Mind"

It's long been established that Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden is basically considered to be essential reading material among the LGBT crowd. That said, it took me many years to track down the book in its physical format (I once found it in ebook form, but I have a hard time staying focused with ebooks -- I digress). And I'm glad that I finally got a chance to read this classic.

The story of Liza and Annie is quite an honest look not only at teenage love, but at finding oneself during those tumultuous teenage years -- made invariably more difficult when struggling with defining one's sexuality at the same time. It's a confusing, scary, secretive time (and one that I know all too well from first-hand experience) with more layers to it than an onion. And this story explores many of them. (Not all -- everybody's story is different -- but a lot that are fairly universal among the LGBT community.) Add in the additional factor of one of the girls going to an uppity private school and all hell breaking loose for it, being treated as some sort of social perversion (another thing that I identify first-hand with) and you've got an interesting, honest look at what quite a few of us have gone through. I only wish I had known this book existed back when I was a teenager, when it would've make me feel so much better to know I wasn't the only one.

The wrap-up of the story at the ending goes by far too quickly, and I wish it would have delved more into how it got from point A to point B, so I do knock this book down a few pegs for that, but ultimately, it's well-written and I still highly recommend it. 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: "The Undomestic Goddess"

The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella is a classic story of a prim and polished high-powered businesswoman being plunked suddenly into a lifestyle of which she is completely unprepared to handle. Not that she planned it that way, anyhow. But she learns to cope, and as she does, it's not long before she adjusts and this becomes her new way of living - even when her old life is offered back to her on a silver platter.

While I didn't enjoy this book quite as much as I did Twenties Girl, it's still pretty good. Probably half my problem is that it's all about the world of lawyers, which I have little to no interest nor knowledge in, so a lot of that went sailing over my head. I can appreciate the lifestyle and the way it's portrayed, though. So I can't really dock any points away for that. Still, some parts of the story did seem to drag on a little dryly, whereas with Twenties Girl, I couldn't put the book down for two seconds practically. I'm going to go ahead and rate this book 4 stars though, as it's still a very good story and you'll probably enjoy it. :)

Book Review: "The Boy Next Door"

I've heard mention of Meg Cabot many, many times over the years, and for some inexplicable reason, had never actually picked up one of her novels. I'm not sure why, but I figured it was about high time that I fixed that. And now I'm so glad that I did.

This particular book has a very unique style to it. Much like the Internet Girls series, this book jumps the internet bandwagon, although slightly different. Instead of using instant messages, the entire story in this book is told through emails back and forth between the characters. Nothing but. I was a little skeptical as to just how that would work initially, but I'm kind of surprised how telling such emails could be! You've got a love story unfolding, marital drama, a mystery, scandal... lots of elements at play. And of course, humor. And yet, we never see these characters outside of behind their keyboards. I'm very impressed by this. However, one minor detail (that I must dock my review a point for) is that all the emails are written in exactly the same style. In 20+ years of using the internet, this came as a minor pet peeve to me that all these characters would write EXACTLY the same way, with the same literary nuances and such. In reality, everybody has a writing style unique to they and they alone. So this does take away from the realism a bit, and gets a little cringe-worthy with how many "______, I mean"s throughout the book. But other than that, I found this to be an incredibly enjoyable read and highly recommend it! 4 stars.

Book Review: "What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know"

First thing's first: let me start out by saying that I generally don't seek out poetry/prose books. Not that I have anything against them - I don't in the least - it just doesn't usually happen. And I had no idea when I picked up this book that it was written as such. What surprises me more, and is completely new to me, is that this author actually wrote a novel-length story out of their poetry and prose. I've never seen a story written that way, so forgive me if I'm being completely naive here, but I found it to be very refreshing and downright intriguing. I honestly never even occurred to me that an author could do that! So, speaking as a writer who has an incredibly hard time writing so much as one little poem, say nothing of a STORY out of them... I'm in absolute awe of this book.

The story too is also intriguing. You almost forget about the ages of the characters, they're so far ahead of their time. Then again, I might be biased, because in school, I felt I basically was a female version of the main character in this story. A social outcast; an avid fan of classic rock; an artist at heart; a hopeless romantic. I felt so much at home reading this that at times, I nearly felt like I was reading back through old diary entries of my own. I really, really enjoyed this one, and highly recommend it! Big 5 star rating!

Book Review: "Hollyweird"

Hollyweird by Terri Clark is a fun little read that's essentially a new spin on the classic good vs. evil tales. 3 girls win a trip out to LA to meet their favorite actor and idol, Dakota Danvers, and be treated to the whole celebrity treatment while they're there. What they don't know is that their idol...is the son of Satan.

But all hope is not lost. Just as unknowingly as they'd gotten mixed up with hell's minion, one of God's fallen angels, Jameson, is provided to them as a protector. They don't know it right away that he's an angel, but in time, the truth is revealed, as is the knowledge that the supernatural world of demons, vampires, witches, werewolves, etc all exist in the underground. Likewise, it's brought to their attention that much of the celebrity world is part of this preternatural existence. (What an interesting thought that would be if it really did work that way?) But Jameson has been given the assignment of being put in charge of defeating Dakota before he unleashes evil on the entire world...and his plans are coming together faster than anyone could possibly think. The only help in the world that he has is that of which he entrusts in the girls.

There's a lot of aspects of this book that remind me of one of my favorite films ever, Stanley Donen's Bedazzled. Good vs. evil, the 7 deadly sins, etc. It all comes into play here in a fresh, modern spin on a classic tale. It's a quirky, easy read (you could easily read it in one sitting if you were so inclined), and I highly recommend it to just about everybody :) 5 star rating!

Book Review: "City Of Angels (The A-List: Hollywood Royalty #3)"

The final book of Zoey Dean's A-List series has now truly drawn to a close...and I must happily say that I was finally impressed with this off-shoot of the original series. If you've read my reviews of the other two books in this trilogy spin-off, you'll know that I felt the other two books left much to be desired and paled vastly in comparison with its mother series. This book, however, makes me a little sad to see it go so soon now. Why couldn't all three have been written as well as this one?? I'd be rooting and cheering for more if they'd all been like this! (I'm tempted to shoot the author an email, asking if there's any chance there might just be one more story left in her to round out these books...perhaps to tie up loose ends a little more, but I'm sure that it's just not in the cards.)

The characters that I'd more or less resented in the past two books, I finally came to love in this one. Especially when it came to the rockstar romance drama of Daisy and Ash, it truly made me yearn for more. In all honesty, I would be beyond thrilled if there were a series just for them out of all this, as I feel that in this book, they became my favorite characters. Maybe I'm a little bit biased, as I once lived a romance verrrrry similar to the one that was outlined here, but that's neither here nor there. Then there's the drama of Jake with Amelie and Jojo, which made me yearn with every ounce of my being to finally see Jake end up with Jojo and get their own happy ending story. Hell, I even wanted to see Myla and Danny hook back up, once and for all, but that wasn't to be, either. (Insert dramatic sigh here.) I just... I feel like I just now finally got into these books, and now it's all over. :( This really bums me out, because this story was written so well. Please, Zoey Dean, write one more for me?

A big 5 star rating to this one!