NICHOLAS by Cheryl Holt

PUBLISHER: Samhain, 7/2012
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: England, 1814
MY GRADE: B-

SYNOPSIS: Captain Nicholas Price is a man with a plan. As the newly minted Lord Stafford, he is determined to have the best of everything. Clothes, horses, women. Miss Emeline Wilson is a woman on a mission. Forced into penury by the cruel estate manager of the indifferent Lord Stafford, Emeline is determined to confront the new Lord with his callous ways. When they finally meet, sparks fly, and Nicholas finds himself knocked for a loop by the feisty, intelligent, and definitely not high-born Miss.

MY THOUGHTS: Emeline is twenty-four and responsible for her ten year old twin sisters. She’s definitely down on her luck when she encounters the hero, Nicholas. Nicholas is thirty years old. He’s beyond uncaring and is unsympathetic and isn’t very likeable. He thinks he’s above anyone else…at first. He redeems himself a bit when he helps Emeline with something that’s important to her.

The story started out interesting but I lost interest halfway through. This book seemed short and their relationship with each other was underdeveloped. Nicholas didn’t seem too into Emeline so when he confessed his love for her, I had to roll my eyes and wonder what the author was thinking.

Nicholas has a younger brother, Stephen. I liked Stephen but didn’t see the point in him having a young daughter. It didn’t add to the story and another young character wasn’t necessary since Emeline’s sisters were already in it. His affair with Josephine was mildly interesting and the author clearly wanted to make this story a 2-for-1 by making it about not just Nicholas but his brother too.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

TEMPING FORTUNE by Jo Beverley

Pub. Info: Zebra, July 2012
Original Pub: Zebra, 3/1995
Setting: England, 1761
Series? Yes, book 2
My Grade: C

SYNOPSIS: Portia St. Claire’s brother has gambled and lost once too often, thrusting her into the hands of ruthless men. To keep his life he must give up his sister’s virtue, to be auctioned off in London’s most notorious brothel.

To retrieve an incriminating letter, Bryght Malloren once broke into a house where he was greeted at pistol point by a resolute woman…a woman he could swear stands before him, masked and trembling, on a madam’s auction block.

Unable to leave Portia to such a cruel fate, Bryght turns the private wager into a very public game of seduction, one that confirms his reputation as a shameless rake and keeps all of London society breathless with anticipation. But on a night shimmering with destiny, truth, and passion, those who tempt fortune risk losing everything…including their hearts.

MY THOUGHTS: Well, the story started out really interesting. Portia and Bryght had a really interesting first meeting and the story flowed nicely. I’m not sure why Bryght was so into wanting to mary Portia. Nerissa is Portia’s married, whoring cousin and she’s quite evil and greedy. I like those type of characters so I liked her. I feel as though Portia is cowardly where her half brother is concerned. Really she has no backbone. The problem for me is that about halfway through, the story got real boring and it became a chore to finish it. Honestly, I can’t recommend this to anyone.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

It Ain’t All About The Cookin’ by Paula Deen with Sherry Cohen

PUBLISHER: Simon and Schuster
GENRE: Nonfiction/Memoir
MY GRADE: B

SYNOPSIS: Do you know the real Paula Deen? You may think you know the butter-loving, finger-licking, joke-cracking queen of melt-in-your-mouth Southern cuisine. You may have even visited The Lady & Sons to taste for yourself the down-home delicacies that made her famous and even heard some version of her Cinderella story (a single mom with two teenage sons started a brown-bag lunch business with $200 and wound up with a thriving restaurant, a fairy-tale second marriage, and wildly popular television shows), but you have never heard the intimate details of her often bumpy road to fame and fortune.

Courageously honest, downright inspiring, and just a little bit saucy, Paula shares the highs and lows of her life in the inimitable charming and irreverent style that you know from her television shows and personal appearances. She talks about long childhood summers spent in a bathing suit and roller skates and hard years living in the back of her father's gas station; a buzzing high school social life of sleepovers, parties, cheerleading, and boys; and a difficult marriage. The death of her beloved parents precipitated a debilitating agoraphobia that crippled her for years. But even when the going got tough, Paula never lost the good grace and sense of humor that would eventually help carry her to success and stardom. Of course, you can't get by on charm alone: as Paula has learned, you need plenty of willpower, hard work, and, above all, the love and support of family and friends to finance, sustain, and run a successful restaurant.

MY THOUGHTS: I enjoyed reading about someone I find to be highly entertaining. I've been a fan of her and her Food Network cooking show since soon after it began in late 2002. I first knew of her a few years before that when her first cook book was sold on QVC.

The one thing that bothered me most was how she dropped the bomb about being molested on the school bus when she was little but didn't say how often that was or anything. She mentioned it and was off onto another topic when I wanted to know more about this.

In her Foodography episode on Food Network in 2007, around the time this book was published, I thought it was real strange her ex-husband Jimmy, and father of her two sons, was mentioned only once. In her book he's talked about a lot; he's a verbally abusive piece of garbage who could never keep a job. She never mentioned if she ever sees him or if they have anything to do with each other these days. I do not like the fact that her oldest son Jamie bought him a home. I wish Jimmy had been interviewed

Overall I was happy with this autobiography but wish she had gone more in depth with certain things. I think the recipes that were peppered throughout should have been saved for the end.