SEVEN NIGHTS IN A ROGUE'S BED by Anna Campbell

PUBLISHER: Grand Central Pub. 9/25/12
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: England, 1826
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: C-

FROM PUBLISHER: Desperate to save her sister's life, Sidonie Forsythe has agreed to submit herself to a terrible fate: Beyond the foreboding walls of Castle Craven, a notorious, hideously scarred scoundrel will take her virtue over the course of seven sinful nights. Yet instead of a monster, she encounters a man like no other. And during this week, she comes to care for Jonas Merrick in ways that defy all logic—even as a dark secret she carries threatens them both.

Ruthless loner Jonas knows exactly who he is. Should he forget, even for a moment, the curse he bears, a mere glance in the mirror serves as an agonizing reminder. So when the lovely Sidonie turns up on his doorstep, her seduction is an even more delicious prospect than he originally planned. But the hardened outcast is soon moved by her innocent beauty, sharp wit, and surprising courage. Now as dangerous enemies gather at the gate to destroy them, can their new, fragile love survive?

MY THOUGHTS: Boy, this was terrible, I'm sorry to say. The opening scene was very gothic, which I liked. I was very excited to read this but soon after the heroine arrived at the hero's home, serious irritation set in. She went to his home of her own free will in her sister's place to pay off her gambling debt. When she got there she decided she didn't want to have sex with him. WTF?! That's the only reason she was there. To try and get out of it, she could have just told him the 'secret' she knew about him. Instead, she kept it to herself for a while when she should have just told him as soon as she arrived.

It took a week for her to finally spend 'seven night's in a rogue's bed' but by then I was already tired of the book. There was over ten pages of a bondage sex scene with the heroine in charge that made me roll my eyes and think, 'you've got to be kidding me!'. After knowing each other for about two weeks the hero was already offering to marry her if she got pregnant. That's just absurd and so typical of romance books. And the heroine said she loves him 'so much' after two weeks.

The author had a terrible habit of repeating words three times in a row throughout the entire story. Example: thud, thud, thud and Let Jonas win, let Jonas win, let Jonas win, just to name a few times.

The stuff that went on with Sidonie's sister and her husband was just uninteresting to me. There wasn't one character in the whole book that I cared about.

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

MY SWEET AUDRINA by V.C. Andrews

PUBLISHER: Pocket Books, 12/2015
ORIGINAL PUB: 1982
GENRE: Contemporary Suspense
SETTING: Virginia, USA
SERIES: Audrina, #1
NARRATION: First person
PURCHASE: link
AUTHOR BIO: link
MY GRADE: C

FROM PUBLISHER: Audrina fiercely desired to be as good as her sister. She knew her father could not love her as he loved that other girl, for her sister was so special, so perfect—and dead.

Upstairs in a locked room awaited her sister’s clothes and dolls, her animals and games—and her sacred rocking chair. Now Audrina will rock and rock and rock to reclaim all of her gone sister’s special gifts.

And then finally she’ll learn the secrets everyone else knows but her.

MY THOUGHTS: This was beyond bizarre. The timespan is about fifteen years and the narration is in first person, told from Audrina Adare's point of view. It was warped, and I  prefer that sort of thing, but this didn't do anything for me. Child gang-rape, miscarriages, a retarded child, a seriously disturbed relative, ect. Not one bit of it was plausible. The story should have been under four-hundred pages, not over five-hundred. I thought it would never end, seriously. It was mostly monotonous.

Vera- A slightly older 'relative' of Audrina's. She should have been the star because she was so screwed up psychologically. She was, by far, the worst character in the novel and the only one I liked. She was rotten to the core. The rest were bland, especially Audrina. I've never figured out who paid for her schooling once she left Whitefern, the mansion she grew up in, along with Audrina.

I didn't like or feel the need for the characters Sylvia or Billie. I didn't like that several deaths took place in the same exact way nor did I like the ending.

There was a ghost-written sequel to this 1982 book, published in 2016 called Whitefern but I'm not interested in reading it.

There was also a 2016 Lifetime film based on this novel and the characters of Sylvia and Billie aren't in it. The film was horrible.

There are some really great reviews for this at GoodReads.

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

LOVE BETWEEN THE LINES: AN ADULT COLORING BOOK FOR BOOK LOVERS by Christina Collie

PUBLISHER: Forever, 11/8/2016
PURCHASE: link
AUTHOR SITE: link
MY GRADE: C

FROM PUBLISHER: Fall in love all over again with this adult coloring book featuring 45 hand-drawn illustrations inspired by romance novels from bestselling writers Colleen Hoover, Anna Todd, S.C. Stephens, Abbi Glines, K. Bromberg, Jodi Ellen Malpas and more. Sit back, grab your pens and markers, and get ready to explore LOVE BETWEEN THE LINES.

In the pages of this book you will find:
· Designs to help you relax and reduce stress
· Hidden images and book quotes
· Each design printed on a separate page
· Elaborate drawings as well as quickie pages for when you just have a few minutes to color

Illustrations inspired by the works of:

Anna Todd, Jodi Ellen Malpas, Colleen Hoover, S.C. Stephens, Abbi Glines, K. Bromberg, Claire Contreras, Jillian Dodd, Amy Harmon, Tiffany King, R.K. Lilley, Molly McAdams, Tara Sivec, Alessandra Torre, Mia Sheridan, J. Sterling, Katy Evans, Emma Chase, S.L. Jennings, K.A. Linde, Beth Ehemann, Tarryn Fisher, Karina Halle, Helena Hunting, Leisa Rayven, Madeline Sheehan, and K. A. Tucker.

Images of three pages that I colored, with close-ups.

Below, three other pages that I like.

Below are three pages that I don't like at all. They're a good example of what the majority of the pages look like- big lettering.

MY THOUGHTS: The book is 9 3/4" square. The paper is good quality, nice and thick, but the pages aren't perforated and it's a bit difficult to rip the pages out cleanly. The pages are too wide to fit fully on a scanner bed, 1" of the left side gets cut off, which is disappointing if you want to post photos of your finished work online, but the pages are a nice size to work with. I tear out the page I want to use and place it on a clipboard.

The artwork is really good, some of which is really intricate, like the 'Reel It In' page above. Unfortunately there are only about ten or eleven pages that are what I'd call feminine, with flowers and such. The rest of the book isn't attractive at all to me. Almost all of the pages have large lettering, which ruins the look of the finished piece.

This isn't a coloring book I'd recommend.

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

ONLY FOR LOVE by Elaine Barbieri

PUBLISHER: Zebra, 8/1994
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: Jamaica, 1772
BODICE RIPPER? Yes, mild
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: B-

FROM PUBLISHER: When Gillian Haige's father dies, his only legacy is a mountain of debts. But never does the eighteen-year-old English beauty dream she'll end up in the dank hold of a ship bound for the Colonies...as an indentured servant! And now her gentle twin lies desperately ill, and will surely perish unless Gillian takes one daring, irrevocable step.

It is a wild scheme, yet from the moment she meets Captain Derek Andrews and feels desire ignite between them, Gillian sees the bargain she can strike: her innocence in exchange for her sister's life. But on a journey that carries Gillian from the shores of America to a new life on a storm-swept island, she will be forced to choose once again...to fight for her freedom or to surrender to the man who has possessed her-body and soul-with his liberating passion...

MY THOUGHTS: Gillian, the heroine, is twenty, as stated on page 48, not eighteen, as the synopsis states. This story begins in England, then in Jamaica. Saying that they're headed for the Colonies made me assume they were talking about the British Colonies in the United States but that's not what they meant.

We got zero background on Derek and weren't even told his age or where he's from. He must have been in his late twenties, at least, since he'd spent some time in prison and is captain of his own ship, Colonial Dawn. He's rude and possessive of Gillian but not verbally, physically, or sexually abusive towards her. He doesn't seem too friendly either.

Gillian is feisty and stands up for herself, which I really like in a heroine. I didn't see the need for her to have a sister since the sister was a pretty weak character and served no purpose to the storyline, as far as I could tell.

I really liked the two main villains: Derek's ex-lover, red-haired and green-eyed Emmaline Dorcett. She was obsessed with having him though she was married to an older man. She was peppered throughout the story but I wanted more of her. I found her to be very interesting and wanted to see what damage she could have done. I really wanted some background on her but we got none, including her age. Her husband Robert said she was very young to his 50+ so I'm guessing she's in her twenties.

John Barrett, who's an agent for the London Transport Company, was in charge of all the indentured servants aboard Derek's ship. He became obsessed with Gillian and hatched a plan to have her. Gillian hated him with a passion and that ate at him and intensified his obsession with having her. John once called Gillian Madame Uppity Bitch!

Another villain early on was an older prostitute named Maggie, who was always called a 'vicious whore' by Jon Barrett. The verbal sparring between them was great! She too became obsessed with Gillian on the ship but I don't understand why she hated her so much. I thought she was going to do harm to her but that didn't happen.

This was published in 1994 but it felt like one older. The heroine had a backbone, the hero was rude, there were terrible villains. Though there's no abuse towards the heroine, I consider this a mild bodice ripper.

The negatives- I wish over half this story didn't take place on a ship. I wish Maggie's character had lasted longer and I wish Emmaline and John had teamed up to do some harm. You wouldn't know by the cover that this is historical and the hero/heroine's hair color isn't quite right.