Author: Ambrosia

Book Review: Covet by J.R Ward

- Ambrosia 2 Comments

Redemption isn’t a word Jim Heron knows much about—his specialty is revenge, and to him, sin is all relative. But everything changes when he becomes a fallen angel and is charge with saving the souls of seven people from the seven deadly sins. And failure is not an option. Vin DiPietro long ago sold his soul to his business, and he’s good with that — until fate intervenes in the form of a tough- talking, Harley-riding, self-professed savior. But then he meets a woman who will make him question his destiny, his sanity, and his heart—and he has to work with a fallen angel to win her over and redeem his own soul.

Covet is the first book in the Fallen Angels series and my first trip outside of the Black Dagger Brother hood with author J.R Ward. The setting is once again in Caldwell, New York and my first question when we hit that setting was, where is the Brotherhood? Well while they do not jump out of the pages and say here I am there are some veiled references. We have mention of Zerosum and the reverend, and we even catch a description of one of the Brothers going into a meeting. So alright they are around.

However this book isn’t about them. Jim Heron is your typical military bad ass. He works alone as his license to kill black ops kind of way of being suggests and while hes trying to live in retirement it would seem like has other plans for him. Jim ends up being recruited for another kind of war, the war between good and evil. He is told that he is a player seen by both sides as agreeable on the field and he has to save 7 souls. If he doesn’t well that’s it for existence gone in the blink of an eye. His first soul? His boss one Vin diPietro.

I have to say again while it did take me a little bit to get into this book once I got into it, I could not set it down. The story is gripping and will keep you going “no way” over several things that happen. Of course it is a paranormal so the skies are the limit on what your going to see. I like that while it is obviously a battle of good and evil, good isn’t your typical saintly kind of guys. In fact they are more like guys you wouldn’t bring home to Mom, at first. There is some comedy to lighten the darker moments in the book and I really appreciated those comedy moments. I found myself literally laughing out loud at several parts. If you like paranormal this is a good book for you, if you like The Black Dagger Brotherhood, this is also a good book for you.

My Gemstone Rating:

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WWW Wens 1/23/13

- Ambrosia 2 Comments

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading Covet by J.R Ward, see I said I would! I have not read any of the fallen Angels series before so we will see how this one goes. I love her Black Dagger Brotherhood series so I don’t see why I won’t like the fallen Angels too. Broadening my horizons a bit again in my reading. Feels good to do. So many good books out there.

I just finished reading Front Page Fatality as listed in my review of it yesterday. I did enjoy it even if it only got a 3 gem (really more of a 3.5) and I will be looking for more books in the series to read. I may be keeping my eyes open for books of a similar vein as well.

What I will read next. I have put it in my “currently reading” on deck spot as I call it. When you see me with two books on the currently reading side you can bet the one on top I am actually reading and the one below it is what is up next. So as you can see up next will be Mistress of the Crown. Yes back to historical.


Posted in WWW

Book Review: Front page Fatality by LynDee Walker

- Ambrosia Leave a comment

Release Date Jan 29 2013

Crime reporter Nichelle Clarke’s days can flip from macabre to comical with a beep of her police scanner. Then an ordinary accident story turns extraordinary when evidence goes missing, a prosecutor vanishes, and a sexy Mafia boss shows up with the headline tip of a lifetime.

As Nichelle gets closer to the truth, her story gets more dangerous. Armed with a notebook, a hunch, and her favorite stilettos, Nichelle races to splash these shady dealings across the front page before this deadline becomes her last.

Jumping into a Genre I do not usually read I was given the chance to read Front Page Fatality from Net Gallery. LynDee Walker introduces us to a Lois Lane at heart Nichelle Clarke. She is a very go and get them kind of reporter and of course she does it in fashionable shoes. A girl after my own heart because what girl does not love her Jimmy’s and her Manolo’s? Nichelle like me however is also a deal seeker and gets her lovely shoes off ebay. You really do have to love a girl who can write and find a deal on shoes.

Nichelle soon finds herself up to her eye balls in trouble however as she stumbles upon the story of the year. The bad side of this is that she starts to suspect almost everyone around her of being in on the crime. The hunky sports guy who works with her at the paper Parker, her buddies at the Richmond PD Aaron and Mike and the Deputy Chief of Police. Although who ends up being at the center of what is going on will be a surprise and a swat in the face to most. I know it was to me.

LynDee Walker has truly written a fun, but exciting story. I could not pick out what the ending was going to be while reading, which to me is a good thing. There is nothing worse than reading a mystery and knowing the ending before your at the end. I am glad that this is marked as number one in the series because I will be reading the next one. I had a few issues with the formatting and a couple of spots in the plot to me just didn’t seem to fit with the rest. Otherwise this was a good one and not a bad one to have on your to read list.

My Gemstone Rating:

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Teaser Tuesday 1/22/13

- Ambrosia 2 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

“You can read all about it in the morning,” I grinned at Parker. “And you don’t even have to cough up the 75cents.” Bob did the Chuckle/Wince thing again. ~ Front Page Fatality 43%

Musing Monday 1/21/13

- Ambrosia 4 Comments

Musing Monday is hosted over at Should Be Reading.

 

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
This week I am going to muse about what I am reading right now. I am currently reading Fatality on the Front Page. It is a book that I normally would not have read, because I tend to stay out of the murder/mystery genre. It is not that I do not like mystery’s just for the most they have not appealed to me. I actually chose this one from Net gallery for a very funny reason. It was set in VA. Yes I picked it purely because it was set in my favorite state. Is that bad or what?

However I actually am really enjoying the book and the plot does not strike me as obvious yet. I like that. I would maybe not put it on my all time favorite list but I do really enjoy the book. So thumbs up to that. Welcome to Monday.

Upcoming Blog Tours!

- Ambrosia Leave a comment

I have some upcoming blog tours that I would like to make mention of in a general post and I hope you all will be as excited as I am about it. I love tours for a variety of reasons and one is that I get introduced to Authors I might not normally pick up and read myself.

On tour with I am a reader, not a writer we have…

February 26th will be the tour spot here at Fire & Ice

April 16th Replacing Gentry will be making it’s stop here (I know a bit in the future yet)

and with Jennifer Walker Tours in February I will be doing Spin the plate by Donna Anastasi

I am sure I will have some more coming up too but I am excited about doing these.

The Sunday Salon 1/20/13

- Ambrosia Leave a comment



Another Sunday another coming Monday. I have been bad and not kept up on my Sunday Salon posts but that’s okay as long as I keep up on my reviews I am not going to sweat the small stuff. This week has been busy busy and I am on the go go, as usual right? However I have had some hitches this week too..

I got the flu, that nasty one that has been going around. Not my idea of fun but I am finally feeling better. Of course Mother nature had to add insult to injury and WHAM got the monthly “gift” while with the flu. Talk about a double whammy. My favorite bit of the week was going to the store setting down, midol, chocolate and tampons and the clerk dead pan says “And how is your day?”.

This is my HOW DO YOU THINK IT IS face.

Reading has been plugging along I finished A Rose for the Crown in what I felt was good time for how big the book is and I loved it. Than I decided to venture outside of my usual genre’s and go for a mystery. I guess it could be considered a cozy (if your a cozy reader and it is not you can tell me) because the heroine is a normal gal not a crime fighter, and she wears high heels. <3 and so far I am enjoying the book. I used to be a HUGE HUGE HUGE Crime reader esp the Kay Scarpetta novels, I have not read any in years however maybe I need to try one again sometime. Our reading tastes change as we grow right? They can flux back too. Over at Birth of a Notion I have made the choice that I am going to post the occasional TV and movie review because you just know I have an opinion about that. YOU KNOW I DO! The only good thing about a Monday? Well this Monday James Purefoy’s new show starts, The Following promises to be..good and scary.

Book Review: A Rose for the Crown by Anne Easter Smith

- Ambrosia Leave a comment

In A Rose for the Crown, we meet one of history’s alleged villains through the eyes of a captivating new heroine — the woman who was the mother of his illegitimate children, a woman who loved him for who he really was, no matter what the cost to herself.

As Kate Haute moves from her peasant roots to the luxurious palaces of England, her path is inextricably intertwined with that of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III. Although they could never marry, their young passion grows into a love that sustains them through war, personal tragedy, and the dangerous heights of political triumph.

Anne Easter Smith’s impeccable research provides the backbone of an engrossing and vibrant debut from a major new historical novelist.

I was very eager to read A Rose for the Crown as I have long been curious of Richard III. Of course I know the history and how many regard him as a villain. Some call him a Wife poisoner and others of course accuse him of being a usurper and a killer of his nephews. Historically none of that can be proven of course and you always have to take some things with a grain of salt (Anne Boleyn being a witch anyone?), still I wanted to see what Anne Easter Smiths take on Richard III would be. I would not be disappointed.

Kate Bywood is a fiery young lady who by all accounts is a nobody to the royal houses of England. However thanks to some turns in life that put her in favorable places she as a young girl and throughout her younger days meets Richard Plantagenet. The more the young pair meet one another the more they are attracted on many levels to each other. You can not help but be drawn into their love story as it unfolds. A love that while is passionate and all consuming both know can never be more than what it is. Richard could have as a royal Duke kept Kate in the kind of comfort that many royal Mistresses throughout time (and at that time) were kept in, especially after she bore him both a Daughter and a Son. However Kate valued the privacy more and her values as to not be known publicly as a Mistress. Something in the end that Richard deeply admires.

The story is heart warming and heart breaking all in the same as we follow the couple through life. In the end we all know what happens historically, Richard III was slain and Henry Tudor took the crown. The bastard Son John of Gloucester would also later be killed as a traitor. The book does not end on a bad note however with a new start being laid out for you the reader to go away with some good feelings. Overall this was another beautifully written book and while of course fiction, I dare anyone not to look upon Richard III with a kinder eye once they have read it.

My Gemstone Rating:

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Guest Post: From Milton C. Toby: Books We Read, Books We Use

- Ambrosia 1 Comment


If your house is anything like mine, there are books everywhere. Some shelves even have rows of paperbacks stacked behind other rows of books, which means that I can’t remember which ones are hidden, and couldn’t get to them even if I could recall their titles.

For now, though, let’s concentrate on two areas within easy reach, the reading table beside your bed and the place where you write.

Because I write mostly non-fiction, that’s what I generally read. The stack of books on my bedside table as I write this includes a mix: Cormac McCarthy’s Cities of the Plain; Mark Bowden’s The Finish: The Killing of Osama Bin Laden; Douglas Waller’s Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage; and Lawrence Scanlan’s The Horse God Built: The Untold Story of Secretariat, the World’s Greatest Racehorse.

(Analogous to bedside table books are the audio books on my iPod. I just finished David McCullough’s National Book Award winner The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914 and cued up John Sandford’s Virgil Flowers novel Mad River.)

These are the books I read.

More telling, though, might be the books that I use every day, the ones beside my computer, lined up like soldiers waiting to be called into action:

The two-volume Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (everyone needs a good dictionary, and this is one of the best); The Oxford Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus; The Chicago Manuel of Style (the guide required by my publisher); The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law (the style Bible for people who write for magazines); two different editions of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style (if you’re going to rely on one general usage stylebook, this is the one); Bill Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words; and Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

Which books do you read? Which ones do you use in your writing?

Note from Ambrosia: Made me smile to know I am not the only one with rows of hidden books 🙂

Book Review: Noor by Milton C. Toby

- Ambrosia 2 Comments

While Seabiscuit is perhaps the best-known Thoroughbred in history, Charles S. Howard owned another remarkable racehorse that should never be forgotten. Irish-bred Noor dominated the 1950 racing season, setting world records in victories over Citation and winning the Hollywood Gold Cup by defeating a Triple Crown winner, the Horse of the Year and the previous year’s Kentucky Derby winner. Sadly, that fame faded as he failed to sire champions, and Noor was buried in an unmarked grave in Northern California decades later. Veteran turf writer Milt Toby recounts Noor’s colorful career and the inspiring story of racing enthusiast Charlotte Farmer’s personal mission to exhume the Thoroughbred’s remains for reburial in central Kentucky years after the horse was inducted into the hall of fame.

It is not often that I get to read a book about something that is very close to my heart and that is a real story, Noor by Milton C Toby is one of those books. I was lucky enough to get to read this book through Walker Author tours, but I was drawn to read it because of my love of horse racing and my Great Grandfathers Love of the subject Noor.

I grew up on my Great Grandfather’s knee learning about racing and learning about the Irish bred horses. Being that his side of my family is where I get my half Irish side this came as no surprise. He always favored Irish bred horses, and taught me to, something that holds true at the track for me even today.

Milton C. Toby brings everything to life again in a vivid wash of well put prose. Not only does he cover the life and racing career of Noor, but the journey to find him again. So many people do not understand what can (and often has) happened to a horse that while perhaps well known is not in public graces as much as say Secretariat, when they pass. Often they are put in a little known place and forgotten, much like what happened to Noor.

This book made me both sad at what happened to Noor and then Happy at the fact he was able to find his place in the pantheon of famous racers we can now visit. For all my love of this horse instilled in me by my Great Grandfather I did not know the final end to his story until I read Noor by Milton C. Toby, I am so happy I did. I can happily say I am making a trip to Old Friend’s this summer in honor of my Great Grandfather so see the living legends and those who have passed on. Thanks for the great book Milton!

My Gemstone Rating:

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