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April Book Review

Posted on April 17, 2020 Updated on April 17, 2020

Hello Sugarbook Lovers,

We hope that everyone is doing well during this stay-in-place. If you are able to take advantage of some free time, we hope that you are able to sit back, relax, and enjoy TONS of books and not worry about those things that are out of our hands. OK…enough of the levity, now to the books.

This month we decided to read three books….Wish by Mimi Jean Pamiloff, Reaper’s Property (Reaper’s MC book 1) by Joanna Wylde, and Good Intentions (Road to Hell book 1) by Brenda Davies. Why we place this kind of pressure on ourselves, we don’t know but for the most part we did it. We decided to have our meeting with the assistance of Google Hangouts and because of this our reviews will be short, but hopefully giving you something to think about. These reviews will be full of spoilers, so if you plan to read these books and do not want to know key facts, you might want to visit us after you’ve had a chance to read them.

Wish Reaper's Property (Reapers MC, #1) Good Intentions (The Road to Hell, #1)

“Wish” by Mimi Jean Pamiloff, was a very interesting book. This book about Ginnie, a recently badly dumped (he took her money and left her in real debt y’all), and Marus, the “genie” that is not one. The long and short of it is that we felt it would have been a more interesting story if the hero was actually a genie and not an amnesia sufferer who has completely changed his live. We all were convinced that he really was a genie, the way that bottle kept coming back. Now that thing that surprised us was when we found out the sister actually had tried to kill the hero. What did not surprise us was the pregnancy but her leaving and not telling him was a surprise. We gave this book an average of . One reader gave it because she said she felt the book was clever.

“Reaper’s Property” by Joanna Wylde was a selection that came about because one of our members was interested in a good MC book/series and one of our members is an “Old Lady” and a reader of motorcycle novels; this book was the one that immediately came to her mind. This is the story of Marie and Horse and the introduction into the Reaper MC world. This book was met with reviews from either one of the ends of the spectrum. Either we liked it or we didn’t. Those who did not like it had issues with the way the women were treated….why did the women have to be “sweetbutts” or “old ladies” or why did they have to be left out of everything and expected to not ask questions, and seriously why is an old lady considered “property” with a jacket that tells the world that they are someone’s property? Those that liked it realized that it was a culture that is different from the normal social norm. It is not derogatory to be an old lady, and if you are initially assumed to be a sweetbutt, get it straight and you will be fine. Marie’s misunderstanding of the difference of between sweetbutt and old lady was an issue. It seemed that she felt they were one and the same We ALL agreed that there is no way we would have been the “good sister” that Marie was by helping out her brother. He made those bad choices, then he was on his own because in order to help him, Marie had to “sacrifice” herself. Our final thoughts were that the majority of us will continue with the series. We gave this book .

The final book was “Good Intentions” by Brenda Davies. For most of us, this was the last book that was read and one that we really were unsure if we were going to go beyond our required 100 pages. Because 1) it was over 300 pages long and we read three books this month and 2) one of the first reviews on Goodreads was very low with a statement that stuck out that they did not like the couple together. Here’s the thing folks…..don’t believe that review….this book was GOOD. We were able to finish it quickly, it was that good. This is the story of River, a descendant of Lucifer (we told you there is a spoilers in this post) and Kobal, the true ruler of Hell and all demons. The humans of the world have messed up and opened a portal to hell. Kobal and his team are now on earth trying to help us fight the ever-growing number of demons that have been let lose on the world by Satan in his bid to take over the world. It has some high and low points. The lowest was when River had to leave her brothers because HER MOTHER TURNED HER IN and the youngest brother (who was around 2 years old) clung to her and had to be pried away from her. We shed a tear. The high of the book was what made the book great in our opinion and that was that River was not a silly chic that was all “woe is me”. She was placed in her situation and once she realized that her “quarks” were powers that could be strengthened she got to work learning how to strengthen them. Her attraction to Kobal was strong, and when they gave in it was hot. Them as a couple was good, they are were not stupid. Everyone who read the book (the majority of us) will definitely be continuing on with the series. We gave this book .

Ok…that’s it for this month. Thanks for taking the time to look at our page. We hope that you are all being safe and healthy during this time. We are still prepping for Lori Foster with hopeful hearts that everything will be good and RAGT will still continue. We will be reading “All Fired Up” and “Sommerset Girls” by Lori Foster.

Smooches,

This entry was posted in Book Club, book review and tagged book review, Brenda Davies, Joanna Wylde, Mimi Jean Pamiloff.

February Book Reveiw

Posted on February 11, 2020 Updated on February 11, 2020

Happy February Sugarbook Lovers,

The book review for this month is over The Goddess Gets Her Guy by Ashlyn Chase. This is the story of Gaia, Mother Nature, and Aaron, a neurosurgeon from Boston. This story was a continuation to several series, but it was not advertised as such. We thought it was a stand-alone; however, there were many secondary stories going on that seemed to assume you knew the history behind them. The book was over 200 pages long and 75% of the book was about Gaia going on dates with other men or the other characters from the previous books. We were not a fan of Gaia, we felt she was a little naïve and clueless for Mother Nature. We expected her to know more of what was going on in the world. The interactions between Gaia and Aaron were short and infrequent, which made it unbelievable that they really cared for each other. The book story felt really farfetched to us in general. With that in mind, we ended up giving this book 1.7 smooches.

A Good Day to Marry a Duke by Betina Krahn was the second book that we discussed. The interaction between Daisy Bumgarten (an American heiress in England to marry “well” so that she and more importantly, her family/younger sisters could be excepted by the “400” in America) and Lord Ashton Graham is instant attraction and something that they both needed to deny. This was something that propelled interest for those of us that stated reading/finished the book. Daisy’s determination to rectify the wrongs that she made with her callous disregard of high society by marry well and taking on the craziness demanded by the elder members of Arthur Graham, Duke of Meridian family was very commendable. Uncle Red, Daisy’s hilarious uncle who is the reason why the family has their wealth (discovered a silver mine in Nevada) was a ton of fun and a great spot of comedy in the story. His recitation of the family history (with a ton of mis-pronounced names) was a highlight in the story. One thing that those of us who read the story all agreed on was that Arthur was a different kind of duke. This was the first book that we can remember reading where the duke was unaware and not in command of his dukedom. This guy was completely clueless about anything other than butterflies and nature. He came across as not really wanting to be the duke at that moment; but he did care about the Dukedom and the people once he paid attention to what was happening around him. Something that did make us wonder was why Ashton was not financially solvent. He was the second son of the duke; don’t they usually have some smaller properties or titles of their own? Had the elders stolen that from him along with the money they were pilfering from the dukedom? It was a decent book and half of us finished it with a few stating that they had plans to finish it because they were curious how it ends. Based on the ratings that those of us who completed the book we give A Good Day to Marry a Duke 3 smooches.

That’s our reviews for this month. Have you had a chance to read either of these books? What were your thoughts?

Next month, we will be discussing Weekend Wife by Erin McCarthy and The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary.

Weekend

Flat

Be sure to check out our review and don’t hesitate to five your opinions about these reads if you get a chance to read them.

Smooches,

This entry was posted in Uncategorized.

January Book Review

Posted on February 3, 2020 Updated on February 3, 2020

Happy New Year Sugarbook Lovers,

We hope that you guys had a great holiday season with your friends and families. Sugarbook Club has started the new year running and this week we are going to review the first two books that we read for January.

The books we read for January are Broken Hero by London James and The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren.

When this writer was taking notes of everyone’s opinion of the books; I found it funny that we tend to go into what we disliked about the book and get stuck there and not what we liked about the book. We can start out giving a high rating of the book, but then after taking notes, I’ll ask “well, why did you give it a high rating if you aren’t able to tell me something that you like about the book?” That then make the ratings change or at least they will come back to give me the positives of the book. It makes for a funny review that needs to be typed, but here we go.

Broken Hero by London James is the story of two people who’s lives are affected by the U.S. Marshall’s office. Baker is a former U.S. Marshall who retired after he lost his partner/lover and almost his life as well. Isla is in the witness protection program after her brother turned witness against a mafia family that he was a bookkeeper for. She was very angry that she was put in that position and never forgave her brother for why she was living “on the run”.

Here’s our thoughts on the book. Firstly, this book is a suspense novel and waiting to find out what happens next was a major positive for this book. This is the main reason why we liked it. Now for what we didn’t like. Isla was very selfish and self-righteous. She was angry with her brother for “working for the mob” and aiding them in being able to continue doing dirty; but when she was given the opportunity to pass on information that the U.S. Attorney’s office needed to put an end to them, she refused to give up the information because she was having a snit. We didn’t like she seemed to take charge in the bedroom, being very vocal; it was off-putting. It made Baker seem less “alpha”, when he had been uber-alpha until those moments. We liked Hero’s backstory; it endeared him to us. We felt that Baker was in a better headspace than Isla, so who was the “broken hero”. To end the review, there were two things that left us unsettled. 1) Who was the mole in the U.S. Marshalls office? So much mess happened because of the mole and we wanted him to be exposed and brought to justice. And 2) an error was found in the book. It was stated at one point in the story that Heros house had bulletproof windows in the house; but when the sniper began shooting, the bullets went through the house. All in all, we gave the book 3 smooches.

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren is about Ethan and Olive, siblings of a couple that got married who were lucky or unlucky depending on who you ask to be the only people not to be effected by a sever bout of food poisoning. As a result, they are given the chance to take the honeymoon trip that was non-refundable, non-postponeable, non-transferrable. Olive is the identical twin of Ami, so she assumes her identity so that she can take a much needed vacation at the same time not wasting a free trip. Ethan is the grooms brother and for what-ever-reason, he and heroine do not get along. They end up having to spend a whole lot more time with each other due to unforeseen issues and they come to like each other. Without giving spoilers, things happen and major changes are made in everyone’s lives. This book was written in 1^st person, it was from Olives point-of-view, not a good thing. As a result, we didn’t like her much. Was this because we were stuck in her head? Probably. We really needed to get Ethans point of view. The wedding was annoying….the fact that everything was free… it was too much. And finally, the reason why they weren’t “friends” was annoying and had us saying, “Aahh Man!”; I could see it from the beginning of the book. This book got 1.5 smooches.

That’s our reviews for January. If you’ve read either of these books, let us know what you thought of them. Next month we will be reading A Good Day to Marry a Duke by Betina Krahn and The Goddess Gets Her Guy by Ashlyn Chase.

FYI…we are starting to think about how we might be changing things up with the Sugarbook Club book reviews. Something we are thinking about doing is video recording our some of your meeting and posting it for you guys to see. We can be hilarious at times and our meetings can get a little crazy. It’s hard to translate that to paper. What do you think? Would you be interested in seeing us?

Another thing, we are putting together thoughts about Lori Foster’s RAGT. We have a book club meeting on Thursday in one of the boardrooms. If you are planning on attending the event, come check us out and join in our hilarity.

Until next month,

Smooches

This entry was posted in book review, Books and tagged Ahslyn Chase, Betina Krahn, book review, Bookclub, Christina Lauren, London James.

November Book Review

Posted on November 18, 2019 Updated on November 10, 2019

Hello fellow Sugarbook lovers. Thanks for checking out our last book review for 2019. We hope to have a list of the books we will be reading in January sometime after the 2nd week in December. We may try some new things next year, maybe have some interactive meetings……we won’t make any promises, but we’ll keep you informed. Now on to the reviews for the month. We read Hard to Love by W. Winters and Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams. Let’s begin with the first one that we discussed.

Termed “Hard to Read” by one of our members, Hard to Love was not a favorite… at all.

Of the six of us, four were able to complete it; the other two just could not get into it after making several attempts. This is the story of Jase and Laura who was introduced to most readers in some previous series by the author. The book begins with a scene were they come together after some time apart that is filled with tension. It then goes to their burning hot romance that is new and exciting, but been in the making for quite some time (one can assume). Jase has a crew that is somewhat gansta, but maybe trying to get out of the drug selling part. They’re still keep underground fighting in the mix with the club they are soon to open being the front. They also try to “police” they’re turf from too much drug activity by taking out dealer supply if they get too cocky. Laura loves Jase, but wants to go school and make something more of herself. She is dealing with the grief of losing the grandmother that basically raised her, by staying in her grandmothers house that is in much needed repair. Although Jase and Laura have great love for one-another, the directions that they want to go in are not the same.

Many times you will read a sequel knowing you didn’t like the first book to that you can find out about another character that you possibly liked or to clear up loose ends. Not so with this book…..knowing the second book could tie up cliffhanger that this book left you with did not entice us to continue with the series. We normally keep the books on our tablet until after the meeting so that we can reference parts of the book if necessary. This time around immediate deletion occurred by the majority of us. Someone stated that it read like a really bad Urban Fiction novel, and that wasn’t a good thing. It just didn’t grab our attention. Jase did not listen to Laura when she said she wanted out of the “life”. Laura just seemed really young although there was only a three year age difference and she had basically been living in the “life” for most of her life…first with her father being a part of it and then being with Jase. When it was all said and done we gave this book And that was really hard to do.

The next book was a lot better. It actually came out the week of our meeting; but surprisingly most of us enjoyed it enough to finish it before the meeting. What does that tell you?

The Bromance Book Club; Paperback; Author - Lyssa Kay Adams

This was the story of Thea and Gavin and a slew of other characters that you really ended up loving. Thea and Gavin are a married couple and parents of 4-year old twin daughter, that have recently separated and Thea has asked for a divorce that Gavin does not want. Enter his best friend and baseball teammate along with some other prominent men from the city to invite him to join their book club. This isn’t any usual book club, this book club reads romance novels to make them better partners to their significant others (spouses, girlfriends, even dates). Gavin can’t believe that a romance novel will help him repair his marriage, but he’s desperate and gives it a shot. Surprise, some of his girly stuff is actually working; but there are demons Gavin and Thea are both facing that causes some bumps in the road.

This book was well liked by all who read it and much anticipation is had for the next book. Admittedly, Thea was not liked until about half-way through the book. The issues that she had made things so much harder. Thea spent so much time waiting for the other shoe to drop, that she sabotaged her marriage. She should have not conformed to what she felt people wanted her to be and been true to herself. It lead to her being frustrated with Gavin. It wasn’t Gavin or her marriage that made her feel fake, it was because she didn’t speak up. She didn’t ask for what se wanted or needed. We were also not a huge fan of the way her sister was so disrespectful to Gavin. This was his house she was living in and she was very snarky and provided more tension than was necessary. We won’t let Gavin get away scott-free either….his pride did lead to some problems. Because he was afraid to say what was on his mind, communication was broken down with both of them. They needed to communicate with each other and stop letting past hurts and negative input way in their decisions. Based on this you would think we didn’t like the book, but nope….we really enjoyed it. When things were working for Thea and Gavin, it was working, The romance story that was Gavin’s guidebook was interesting and his book club members were hilarious. This book received . As stated earlier, the next book in the series will be read even if it’s about the sister, whom we weren’t a fan of until the very end of the book.

That’s all for now. Thanks for taking the time to visit our site. Next month we will not have an official book club meeting, it will be our annual holiday dinner get-together. However, we decided to visit a classic (or so some of us think) written by Kristen Ashley. If you have read any of the books in her Fantasyland series give us your thoughts. We will be reading the first book, Wildest Dreams. It will be a reread for half of us and a first time for the rest. It’s a favorite and one we are looking forward to discussing. We may post our thoughts, but will definitely post what we will be reading in January, Until next time.

Smooches,

This entry was posted in Books and tagged book review, Bookclub, Books, Lyssa Kay Adams, W. Winters.

October Book Review

Posted on November 14, 2019 Updated on November 10, 2019

This month we read three books again….it’s the new trend for Sugarbooks guys. We read Wishful Thinking by Evangeline Anderson, Interception by Alexa Martin, and Haven by Rebekah Witherspoon. So the review of the books this month was interesting. As we were discussing our feelings on the books, our opinions changed as the discussion progressed.

The first book that we discussed was Wishful Thinking by Evangeline Anderson.

This book was about Philomena (Phil) Swann and her desire to carefully word her annual birthday wish to Fairy Godmother (FG), finally set a date for her wedding to her fiancé of five years, and leave the job working for someone she can’t stand and finally start law school. What happened was anything but. In an attempt to make a wish so small and insignificant it won’t mess up her life; but instead after a horrible day she accidentally shouts out a wish to speak her mind…and then finds she can’t stop. Between telling everyone exactly what she thinks and trying to deal with her eccentric grandmother who’s been brewing botched love potions to catch herself a man, Phil has her hands full. When she starts finding out some startling things about the people in her life—such as how her hot and hunky co-worker and best friend Josh really feels about her—Phil knows she’s made a wish that will change her world forever.

There were 3 main thoughts that occurred after reading this book….1) We wanted Phil to do better – she had spent her life as a pushover and even when she was able to speak her mind, she still felt guilty for it. REALLY? She never said anything that was hurtful or untrue, so why feel guilt over it. 2) We wanted the “best friend” who could see all of the “fairy things” that no one else could see to be part fairy. The reason why he was able to see it was revealed later on, but we were frustrated with it. It was a let-down for him not to be part fairy or something. 3) Finally, why did they not make a complaint to someone about the FG’s mix-up’s? How long do you put up with the FG’s screw ups?

We thought and thought about what we liked about the book. It was hard to think of anything. We decided that the funny scenes were what made the book…. specifically, the HR scene.

The next book was liked a little better. Interception by Alexa Martin.

This book is about Marlee Harper. She was in a 10-year relationship with her boyfriend who plays for the NFL and has yet to ask Marlee to marry him. After finding out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her once again, she leaves at a time when the guy that she has been fantasizing about for years after a one-night stand. This dude also happens to be the new quarterback for her boyfriend’s team, Gavin Pope. Gavin has remembered Marlee from all those years and wants to jump on the opportunity to make things work with Marlee.

Our thoughts about this book were similar to those we felt for Wishful Thinking with the exception that Marlee had been a doormat for so long and when she got her backbone, she over compensated. She was all about exerting her independence, but how could you be so independent like that and stay with someone like that for that long. So, we liked the story, but was not impressed with the heroine. We liked the ending of the book and how thought provoking it was – we had a lengthy discussion about this book. Mostly we liked Gavin.

The final book had the best review, but was only read by two of our members.

Haven by Rebekah Witherspoon is about Claudia Cade, a city girl, who is attacked along with her brother while they are out camping. She is fleeing for her life when she comes across Shepard Olsen’s home in the woods. Shepard ends up coming to her rescue and kills her assailant. He gets her to the hospital and a bond forms between them. When Claudia returns to the city, she is unable to deal with her former life and eventually returns to the mountains to be with Cade where she finally feels at peace and safe. Cade has his own demons that he is dealing with, mainly in the form that he prefers more of a Dom-Sub relationship and has not been able to find anyone in the small town where he lives that likes the same. His failed attempt at such a relationship with someone in the town has left him looked upon negatively by the townsfolk and he goes to LA once a year to have his “needs” met. Only when he saves Claudia’s life is he begun to be looked at in a more positive light by his fellow town residents. The book is about the growth of their relationship and their individual growth.

We liked this book because although they were both suffering from PTSD, they owned it. They knew they had issues, and they knew that it may construe some of the ends and outs of their relationship, but they wanted the relationship to work. They were mature that way. One reader said that even with it being a genre that she wasn’t a huge fan of, BDSM, she was able to read it and not cringe. Butt plugs have become an option for her. J The only thing that was not liked about the book was the abrupt ending. We wanted more or to know what else happened.

So we guess you are wondering how many smooches we gave each book? Here’s the run down…

Wishful Thinking…..

Interception…..

Haven….

Next month is our last official book discussion of this year as our December meeting will be “holiday dinner”. We will be reading Hard to Love by W. Winters and Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams. Only two books to read, what will we do? Smile Until next time.

Smooches,

This entry was posted in Books and tagged Alexa Martin, book review, Bookclub, Books, Evangeline Anderson, Rebekah Weatherspoon.