Cheryl's Book Nook

Review by Nancy It all began with the letters. Sophie Vandercook had been writing back and forth with her half brother, James for several years. Sophie had a plan and nothing could stand in her way. A Hurricane didn’t have a chance against Sophie when she had made up her mind. Nothing would do but she finally travel from her St. Louis home to visit James on the ranch he worked on in Wyoming. When she gets there, the hands are all acting a bit – odd. There is a long story behind Sophie’s letters and no one wants to be the one to let it out. The ramrod of the outfit, Nate Abbott, a grump of the first order won’t give Sophie the time of day, much less a smile. She doesn’t think much of Nate, either. Staying with the ranch owner and his daughter, Edith is an awakening for the all-girls school teacher from Mrs. Forestall’s Academy. Women in Wyoming, just like everywhere else, are treated nicely but not like Sophie has in mind. She wants a marriage of convenience. He in Wyoming ...

I was very excited to want to pick up this book and read it. I was in the mood for a good horror story. Unfortunately for me this book missed the mark. It moved very slowly and the characters were uninteresting to me. I thought the back story about each character in regards to where they came from would help with the story. It would shed light as to what prompted them to do what they did but all it showed me was the children grew up in sad families and then started getting in trouble and being trouble makers. I got about almost half way and then I skimmed the rest of the book. Just so I could find out what happened in the end. This book was more about the drawing out of the characters then it was about the scare factor. This is what I wanted. The scare might have been there but it was subtle. However I do have to give it up to the graphic art department for the creepy book cover. If you hold the book at just the right angle you can see the imprinted embossed words that over lay th...

Review by Nancy Leaving a place is hard if it’s always been your home and the Gold siblings weren’t any different. They have grown up in the Sugar Maple Inn in Connecticut but things were different now: Mom and Dad were both gone and each child has their own interests, yearnings and thoughts. The place had been sold and it was time for the final Sugar Maple Inn Halloween Party – a tradition started by their mother many years ago. This wonderful blend of irony, love and humor is one of my favorite books this year. The characters are so typical of a family: the Politician, the musician and the rest. They bicker, the love each other deeply (although it doesn’t always seem like it) and the band together one last time to make it work. This is the first Michael Baron book I’ve read – the good news it this is the first books featuring the Gold family but not the last. The ending leaves you wanting to know what happened and that’s just screaming for several sequels. Yippee! He’s writi...

Everyone in Dickens Junction is gearing up for Christmas. Zach Benjamin works as a reporter for the magazine, Rainbows. He is in town to write about Dickens Junction. Mervin Roark is the owner of Mervin Enterprises. He is interested in purchasing property in Dickens Junction. Some people are not interested in selling. Mervin has pissed off several people with his bully tactics but who did he piss off enough to want to murder him? The Christmas Carol Murders reminded me some of author, Gail Fraser’s Lumby series. With some of the nutty characters and the town. It made for a fun read. However, it did take be a while to get into this book in the beginning. Also, I felt like the writing was simple in a way. Not that I don’t like simple but sometimes, especially when it comes to a murder mystery, I do want some element of surprise. It felt like the conversations between the characters was simple. Like for example, I don’t really care what the description of the characters are or what...

Mellie Blake lost her mother at a young age and her father’s job as a botanist in the jungle left Mellie as a loner. She is anti-social. It is very hard for Mellie to make friends. Mellie actually prefers it this way. That is until Mellie is instructed to make friends or her ob could be in jeopardy. One of the ways that Mellie makes friends is by being a pen pal to a soldier. The catch is that everyone in the pen pal program is anonymous. Lt. Tom MacGilliver has tried to hide but it is hard when everyone is familiar with your last name. That is why Tom is excited about the pen pal program. He can make friends without anyone knowing who he is. A chance meeting with Mellie might change things. I have read every book by Mrs. Sundin and I am a fan of hers and aviation. So I get the best of both worlds when I read her books. I am excited about her new series. After reading With Every Letter I am more excited then ever to read the next book in this series. I loved every moment of t...

The last thing Lucy Weston remembers is attending the opera with her sister. Then Lucy awakes to find herself cold and hungry. Only her hunger is not for food but for blood. Lucy wonders what has happened to her. She comes upon a house. The house has a library. Lucy picks up a book titled Dracula by Bram Stoker. Lucy proceeds to read the book and discovers that Stoker has written about her. Only Stoker has portrayed Lucy as someone she is not. Lucy goes on the hunt for Stoker to set the facts right. When I read the book summary for this book and saw the book cover I was really excited to read this book. Some because of the vampire aspect. Never really got into the whole Bram Stoker craze. What drew me into the book cover is the whole steam punk aspect. I have recently discovered this genre and am enjoying reading books from this era. So this book was slow to get going. I did have a time or two when I wanted to put this book down and give up but I stuck with it. It did get better...

Review by Nancy Thrones of Desire is a compliation of novellas – 14 in all – with their plots loosely based on swords, thrones, lords and ladies, etc. The 14 stories may titillate a bit but, to me, they all seemed to stop suddenly. Wham, Bam…well, you know. “The Widow’s Man” by Nyla Nox was a fair tale, I like the way it was written, the characters seemed real, although the end was a bit off-putting. The rest of the stories were all right. Overall, I felt a disappointment because I kept reading through each tale hoping for improvement and there was none. About the Author Mitzi Szereto is an author and anthology editor of erotic and multi-genre fiction and nonfiction. She has her own blog, “Errant Ramblings: Mitzi Szereto’s Weblog” (mitziszereto.com/blog), and a Web TV channel, Mitzi TV (mitziszereto.com/tv), which covers the “quirky” side of London. Her books include the controversial Jane Austen sex parody Pride and Prejudice: Hidden Lusts; Red Velvet and Absinthe: P...