Cheryl's Book Nook

Review by Nancy Something happened when Iris was fourteen. Something bad, apparently, because since her fourteenth birthday, Iris has been able to see shadows. Not the sun’s going down and you’re casting a shadow type – the scary, mind-numbing type that cause depression, hatred and life changing events. She’s never told her best friends about it but they know she doesn’t do crowds any more and absolutely hates to go places like the Mall. Lexi and Nicole are always supportive, as Iris is to them but things begin to change when Iris gets her first boyfriend and the schematics of her life evolve. Also evolving is her English teacher who is new to the school this year and is a handsome man who seems to understand everything. Could he possibly? This first-person YA novel was a quick one to read but had a lot of thought-provoking ideas as well. Could people’s actions be caused by shadows from places below us? Could they be trying to take control? How do we stop them? What can one 17...

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Review by Nancy When Trond woke up on his skins in 850, he had no clue that he would still be with us now. He had no clue. Period. He was lazy, uncaring and expected all to work out nicely without much input from him. Then he met Mike (aka St Michael, the Archangel) who informed him things had changed – a lot. Oh, he was still a Viking but now he was a Viking Vampire angel working for the Lord. He and his brothers who were all guilty of various sins. Thus begins the second book in a whole new series from Avon called The Deadly Angels and if the first installment is what the rest are like, I’m hooked! Trond in our time is a Navy Seal. After the baddest of the bad, some of whom are inspired to bad deads by Lucifer and his crew. His main nemesis (aside from the Lucifer dudes) is named Nicole Tasso – a woman WEAL (girl SEAL) who distrusted him on sight and has filed many complaints with her commanding officer about him. She knows there’s something “off” but try as she might she ...

Caitlin McIntyre can not believe her eyes or her ears. Her best friend, Kyle Lockhart has just proposed to her. Too bad, it is not for real. Kyle is practicing on Caitlin for when he proposes to his girlfriend, Monica. Caitlin will have to try really hard to put on a happy face. Especially since she has been asked to help Kyle plan the perfect proposal. Will Caitlin speak up before it is too late? Ask Her at Christmas by Christi Barth is part of an anthology titled, Romancing the Holiday. Although this story can be read separately. I am not usually a fan of holiday stories but I thought this book was a good one. It had the feel of a good Christmas story. Also, I felt the chemistry between Caitlin and Kyle. However, I do have to say that Kyle was just like a typical guy and dense in the head. It took him a long time to figure out that Caitlin was the right woman for him. Luckily he did discover it just in the nick of time. How Kyle was able to last with Monica for as long as he did...

Sarah Weston is studying neuromusicology at Thoreau College. She receives a job offer to work at Lobkowicz Palace in Prague located in the Czach Republic. Sarah would be involved in the music of Beethoven. This is a chance that Sarah can not pass up. Once Sarah arrives, she learns that there is more to the Lobkowicz Palace then meets the eye. There is mystery and a murder to be discovered. I have to admit that this book was not boring. In fact, I am still pondering my thoughts on this book. Just because this book to be is part fantasy/part mystery. I liked the mystery part but the fantasy is not to be taken seriously but more a tongue in cheek type of humor. There are many eccentric characters. However the main person, Sarah, I found to be the least most interesting. I found myself leaning more towards the eccentric characters better. Not to say that at times, their antics get to be way over the top and I would grow tried of this as well. Another thing about this book is the pa...

Review by Nancy Micah Jones was the perfect new hire for King Fugitive Apprehension. Almost. There was the one small fact that he was a highly paid assassin on the fun from the FBI. There was the other small fact that he could make shots nobody else would even try, much less succeed at. Micah Jones was Micah Mulligan of “Mulligan’s Stew” assassin squad. When KFA is hired to find the missing ledger from Club Paradise it all gets much more chaotic. They know the place is laundering money but they don’t know how. What about the bookkeeper? Maybe she knows something. Maggie O’Malley is a true Irish maid. Stubborn as she is beautiful and loudly proclaiming her innocence to anyone who’ll listen. She must be innocent. People are now trying to kill her! Maggie’s crazy family and Micah’s crazy dad and uncle versus the world. But there may be enemies in the ranks. It makes for a humorous tale of guns, kisses and romance. You’ll love it for the holidays!

After being cursed by Penn, Lexi, and Thea, Gemma runs off with the three girls. As if Gemma really has a choice. If she didn’t leave then her sister, Harper and her boyfriend Alex would be harmed. Harper will not give up her sister that easy. She, Alex and Daniel are not afraid. They will fight to the bitter end. Harper better hurry as time is time is running out. I have not had the pleasure of reading Wake the prior book to Lullaby. However, I was able to quickly piece together what happened in the prior book to Gemma. I could feel Gemma’s struggle as she tried to learn how to cope to her new life as a mermaid/siren. I liked seeing the change from the two different forms that Gemma and the rest of the girls took. Usually in books, the characters are either one or the other. Harper really cared for Gemma and was willing to do anything to get her back. For this fact, I was cheering her on to succeed. However I thought that Daniel was a bit pushy. So for this fact, I was no...

The Nutcracker is a book to treasure with the whole family. If you are wanting to start a new tradition or continue an old one then you should make sure that The Nutcracker is one of those traditions. This is a classic book. With a great story and breathtaking illustrations. I definitely was cheering for the nutcracker. He was the silent hero and good guy that won. In this book the mouse king and his army were scary. This was with help from the illustrations. I have not had the pleasure of seeing a live performance of the nutcracker by the ballet but from what I have heard it is wonderful. I can see how the ballet could put a production of this story into a live performance. As again it was due to both the author and the illustrator. What I also enjoyed about this book was reading about the story of how the nutcracker became who he was and the battle that he and Marie fought against the mouse king.

Alex Kinton is a formal marshal. He has joined a search and rescue (SAR) team under the pretense of helping them check for any possible survivals in an airplane crash. Alex has other plans of his own. The airplane was a federal plane and it was transporting a dangerous serial killer. A man that Alex has obsessed about and lost his job over. Brynn Nealey is a medical examiner and a team member of SAR. In the beginning, Brynn can not stand Alex but the more time that she spends with him, the more he grows on her. Chilled is the second of the Bone Secrets novels. The first is Hidden. I did read Hidden but I have to say that by far Chilled is way better. I connected with the character more and the story line was more interesting. However, just like the first book, the romance does leave a lot to be desired. It is like the author wants the books to be romantic suspense books but she does not go all the way with the romance. She just teases some with the romantic build up with little ...

1. Fact or Fiction: Thanksgiving is held on the final Thursday of November each year. Fiction. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln designated the last Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving. However, in 1939, after a request from the National Retail Dry Goods Association, President Franklin Roosevelt decreed that the holiday should always be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of the month (and never the occasional fifth, as occurred in 1939) in order to extend the holiday shopping season by a week. The decision sparked great controversy, and was still unresolved two years later, when the House of Representatives passed a resolution making the last Thursday in November a legal national holiday. The Senate amended the resolution, setting the date as the fourth Thursday, and the House eventually agreed. 2. Fact or Fiction: One of America's Founding Fathers thought the turkey should be the national bird of the United States. Fact. In a letter to his daughter sen...

Eliza Gilbert finds herself in a loveless marriage. To make matters worse, her husband has filed for divorce. The divorce will be the ruin of Eliza. She wants to be an upstanding lady and a famous actress. Thus she enrolls in Miss Fanny Kelly’s school. It is here that Eliza meets Mr. Hernandez. Hernandez is Eliza’s dance teacher. He offers Eliza a chance to escape her life and her upcoming divorce trial. She is to meet with someone in France and then travel to Spain. Hernandez’s acquaintance is named Juan de Grimaldi. Eliza decides to take Hernandez up on his offer for a chance to get away and then come back and take London be storm with her new found independence and skills. Eliza leaves London as just a girl but she returns as a new woman with a new name of Lola Montez. I had never heard of Lola Montez until I read this book. I had to look her up and get familiar with her story. Of course, I thought that author; Kit did a good job of portraying Lola’s story. This book was...

Aria Rose should be happy. She is engaged to Thomas Foster. With Aria’s engagement to Thomas, this means that the two feuding families will become one. Just like Romeo and Juliet. It seems that Aria is the only one that is unhappy. Everyone else around her tells her how much Aria and Thomas are good together but Aria has no memories or her and Thomas. This is because Aria’s memories are gone. nter has a secret. He is a mystic. He also helps the key to helping Aria piece her memories back together. But can she trust him? Mystic City is book one in the Mystic City series. I am not usually drawn to book covers but I have to admit that the cover for this book was eye catching. This is the point. This book is way better then I expected it to be. For me this book was not so much about the magical powers that Hunter had as a mystic but it was more about the great storytelling abilities that Mr. Lawrence has. The world that he built for this series is a good one. It was like I was th...

Review by Nancy Girl running from disaster meets girl standing on the edge of a cliff. A match made in heaven! Their families have been linked one way or the other for centuries and all it take is one look at Aurora Lisle for Grania Ryan to decide she’s met the child she was meant to have. The coast of Ireland has many tales and this is one of the better ones. Families intertwined. Centuries of history to discover and a young man back in New York whose soul mate has left him to return home to Ireland. The characters in this book are so well written that you could be sitting in the drawing room watching it all happen. Aurora’s father could well be a vampire or a ghost and her dead mother calls to her at night. The fact that Aurora watched her mother jump from the cliff may have something to do with that! The plot evolves in ways I could not have imagined and this novel from the author of The Orchid House does nothing wrong. As a suspense novel it’s great and, as a love st...

Review by Nancy The last thing Kurt Vetter expected to hear was that Mike was dead. Since he was on a vacation trying to recover from the death of his wife and daughter this was not good news. His older brother, the one who “played by the rules”, worked in Washington and the one Kurt had always looked up to – gone. Stranger than that was the manner of death, run down? In the ‘burbs? Not likely. The more Kurt pokes the worse things get until, with very secret documents that had been mailed to him minutes before Mike’s death in his possession; he travels to England to the one person Mike thought could help. Paranoid secret agents, a plot to end it all for one messed up country. What had Mike been killed for and why are people trying to kill Kurt for Heaven’s sake. The one person who might be able to help, Amanda Carter is polite but more secretive than Mike had ever been. Can Kurt trust her or is she in on the whole thing? I reviewed William Esmont’s first book, Fire: Elements ...

Review by Nancy A period of study in Rome at 17. What could go wrong? If you’ve ever been or raised a 17 yr-old girl you needn’t ask. Axelia only wants to find a “romance in Rome”. What she finds instead is a new life – one filled with terror, blood and loneliness. When she sneaks out of her sponsors’ home to meet a good-looking guy she has o clue she will never return. He knows because it’s all part of his plan. Gelato, sweet mutterings in her ear and then – well, then she dies. It goes according to plan up to a point but Axelia (“Zee”) isn’t stupid and she runs away from him. In the running, she falls into an old well full of blood. And turns instantly. She has no idea how to cope with her new life ever after but there are those willing to help her. Unfortunately there are also those willing to kill her – one being the Empress, ruling vampire of the whole vamp nation. Zee is much more than she was. She is much more than they all know, in fact. Can she make it out of the...

I enjoyed this Mr. Pullman’s “New English Version” of the famed classic Fairy Tales from the Brother’s Grimm. There were actually quite a few stories that I had not heard read before. So this was a nice surprise. What I liked about this collection was that Mr. Pullman tried to stay as true and accurate to the original telling of the stories from the Brothers Grimm. What I found the most intriguing were the references at the end of each tale as to the origin and what the tale represented. It is amazing to see the adaptation that other writers have taken with the fairy tales like Walt Disney. I know that changes are made for the movies as the movies have to be exciting and grand but to see the differences from the original to the ones that readers remember today as the “classic” is as I said before interesting. I thought that some of the tales were darker then what they have been portrayed. Also, the stories that the Brothers Grimm wrote actually carry more meaning then just coming...

Review by Nancy Jane Elizabeth Grey was a friendly, Christian, middle-child. Her older sister was a full-time mom and she adored her children. Her younger sister was “The Princess”, always the cutest, smartest, best at most things. Jane was Jane. She didn’t give an inch and she had had a crush on one of the Columbus Jackets hockey stars for many, many years. Linden “Lindy” Barrett was a tall hunk of a man, and when she finally met him, the sparks flew like angel kisses. But there was one issue: Lindy wasn’t a Christian. Jane has a boyfriend, a lawyer named Paul who adores her. He is devout, kind, gentle and trying to respect Jane’s wish to “wait until marriage.” He cooks, he send flowers, he loves her mother (that’s a bit scary!), her father and everyone else in her life. Mostly. He’s not too fond of her friend Lindy. What’s a girl to do? She has her own career, her own apartment which she adores and two men on the leash. Her best friend forever, Millie, tells her to “get a ...

Review by Nancy When you’re 19 and meet the man you are going to marry, you think you’re set for life. That was Katherine’s plan. She had Steven to cook for, clean for and to obey. That’s right. Kat was very careful to do anything she could to make Steven happy. Anything. It took the death of a young woman to make her sit back and reevaluate her existence. What she saw did not make her happy and suddenly, she knew why her mother had never liked her choice of husband, Steven was an abuser, a dominant personality and, overall, he was an asshole. This small book really caught me up and I was hoping Kat did the right things because the chances of her not being around to tell the tale were pretty good if she didn’t. Human trafficking, spousal abuse, sex slaves -it has it all and in plain black and white for us to judge. Does Kat survive? You’ll have to read it to know and I hope you do because it has such great potential.

Forever Werewolf and Moonkissed by Michelle Hauf Review by Nancy A great deal! Two stories for the price of one! Not to be missed by paranormal lovers all. Forever Werewolf: Born into an elite family, Trystan Hawkes knows nothing of pack life but becomes a quick learner while delivering a package to the leader of the Alpine Pack just before a horrific avalanche. Taking charge, Tryst helps dig out humans and weres alike and makes an impression on the Chatelaine of the Pack, the Leader’s daughter Lexi. The Leader is dying from an unknown issue and what Trystan delivered will either save him or kill him. He isn’t welcomed by all, Lexi’s sister’s fiancé, a brute of man and a monster of a wolf doesn’t like him at all. He has good reason as Tryst is smarter than most and Sven has secrets. All in all, quite a good plot and I like the character of Lexi as she took no crap from anyone or anything. Moonkissed: Hiding from a group of men in an old warehouse isn’t what Belladonna Re...

I am a dog lover. Or course, though my love usually is for the bigger dogs like the Labrador, wolf hybrid, the mutt, and the pit bull. Not to say that I have some of the best smaller dogs have not graced my life as well like the mini daschund and toy poodle. This is why I wanted to check out this book by Alison. This book was different in a good way. With this book, I was just expecting to read about Alison and her West Highland, Carlie. What I was not expecting was to get to a more intimate look into the author’s life through all the dogs that have come and gone in her life. This book is something that I could see myself putting together like a dog journal. A book that remembers all my dogs and my favorite moments with them. So glad that Alison shared her moments with readers with this book. Dog fans will enjoy this book and Carlie.

Natalie Bowen is a control freak. If she is not in control, then she does not know what to do with herself. This includes behind closed doors in the bedroom. Natalie is actually too controlling. She has been told this by a couple guys. Natalie would like to spice up her love life. This is why when a friend of her’s tells her about the Haven, Natalie is all about it. Simon has been assigned to be Natalie’s instructor. Once Simon meets Natalie, he realizes that he is in for a great challenge. One that will involve lots of his personal attention. This book was middle of the road for me. This is not a bad thing but it just means that there was not much going on outside of the sex. Which if you picked up this book, then you should not be surprised. What I just had hoped for was that the story line had been stronger between the two main characters, Natalie and Simon. I thought that Natalie really was stuck up and needs to loosen up more. She did in the end but I mean come on girl, if ...

Review by Nancy This well-written book has all you’d want to keep you reading: great plot, hot men, sexy women and a total misunderstanding which may result in the death of one of the men. A world of mages and ghouls awaits you in Renegade. Valeria Banning was nearly a match for her predecessor. Griffin Dare was a convicted murderer and ex-Sheriff of the Collegium. He knew self-defense, magic, how to make love (oh, yes he does!!) and how to do nearly anything except get his death sentence revoked. He has supporters, among them the Chief Medical Doctor of the group, now hopefully, the current Sheriff. Someone on the High Council is working with the ghouls against the mages. It has to be true because the ghouls always know when to run and many mages are being killed in the battles. Who? It will take both the exiled and current Sheriffs to figure it out and possibly then Griff can fight for his freedom again  

Review by Nancy Logan Calhoun’s dad is the Big Kahuna in Haven. Which means what he says goes. Period. Dad hates vampires, humans and most things in between. He isn’t even horribly fond of his own daughter because she’s bonded to a vamp and is half-vamp herself. Why is dad such a grunch? Haven is a place on its own plane of existence between Heaven and Earth. The only inhabitants are the Pallidans, angels who volunteered to seek out Lucifer’s spawn make send them home. Jessica, hot shot detective, stubborn as Logan and twice as cute is after a killer. Doesn’t really matter which one although the bums who killed her sister would be good. She’s been looking for them for over a year with no luck. No, instead of killers, every time she turns around she bumps into Logan. A prime suspect in several rapes – at least in Jessica’s mind. While she is positive he’s involved she’ll never guess how. Logan and Jess circle each other for a long time. She is involved with another cop. He does...