I Need a Hero by Emma Bennet

A feel-good book about how searching for the perfect man can blind you to the good guy next door! “If you read one romance novel this summer, choose “I Need a Hero,” it’s witty, fun, and completely addictive.” Ann Abrams
A lovely summer romance read that you won’t want to put down
Romance writer Bronte Huntington has vowed she will never settle for anything less than ‘the one.’ When pleasant red-haired dentist Ryan moves in next door he just doesn't fit the bill. They have plenty in common but Bronte wants nothing more than friendship with him.
Then it looks like Bronte’s dreams have finally come true when dashing Sebastian Fairfax rescues her on his horse after she has an accident in the countryside around her idyllic little cottage. Sebastian is tall, dark, handsome, and heir to a massive country estate!
But is Sebastian the one? Or will Bronte’s romantic dreams of the perfect hero turn out to be as fictional as her novels? And will Bronte's temperamental cat ever stop getting in the way?!  From Goodreads.

This was okay but I like Ryan a lot more than Bronte. A cosy afternoon's read.

This book qualifies for:

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2015

Romance Readers Reading Challenges: Word Hunt 2015

Wacky Reading Challenges: Word Search 2015

Wacky Reading Challenges: Mini Challenge 2015

The Challenge Factory: Scavenger Hunt Part XVI

Rawk-A-Tiers: Getting Acquainted

Rawk-A-Tiers: Scavenger Hunt

Rawk-A-Tiers: Companion Challenge 2015

Rawk-A-Tiers: Reading by the Numbers

A Million More Pages: Scavenger 2015

Wacky Reading Challenges: Autumn Fun

A Million More Pages Hogwarts: Pick One For Me

A Million More Pages Hogwarts: Dragon Nursery

A Million More Pages Hogwarts: Backpacking Around The Globe

Wacky Reading Challenges: Animal House

Crazy Challenge Connection: Monopoly

Crazy Challenge Connection: Scrabble, anyone?

What Once Was Perfect by Zoe York

She shuttered her heart and walked away...
Heading home always stirs up mixed emotions for Laney Calhoun. Twelve years ago she left for graduate school, broken-hearted. She's found professional success, but positive personal relationships have proved elusive. Running into her ex-boyfriend fans flames she thought long extinguished, and causes a renewed interest in love. Not with Kyle, of course. Never again. But as sparks fly and items of clothing disappear, she scrambles to keep her emotions in check.
...Now he has a second chance to get it right.
Kyle Nixon let Laney slip away once. Their chemistry together is undeniable, but steamy sex is not enough to convince her to let him back into her heart. Even if she did trust him again, her career as a paediatric surgeon is five hundred kilometers away from the hometown that he loves, and the life he once chose over her.
Come home to Wardham. Come home to love. From Goodreads.

This was okay, not great but okay. A cosy, easy to read second chance romance.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2015
Dewey's Read-a-Thon October 2015
Wacky Reading Challenges: Word Search 2015
The Challenge Factory: Scavenger Hunt Part XVI
Rawk-A-Tiers: Scavenger Hunt
Rawk-A-Tiers: House Games
Rawk-A-Tiers: Reading by the Numbers
A Million More Pages: Scavenger 2015
A Million More Pages Hogwarts: Dragon Nursery
A Million More Pages Hogwarts: Backpacking Around The Globe
Wacky Reading Challenges: Animal House
Wacky Reading Challenges: Character Names, A-Z
Wacky Reading Challenges: Locations A-Z
Crazy Challenge Connection: Scrabble, anyone?

Carved in Stone by Donna McDonald

Even though his sons tease him about not dating, and his ex-wife thinks he is still hung up on her, 53 yr old retired principal and stone sculptor, William Everett Larson, is glad he waited to date until he found 47 yr old high school art teacher, Jessica Anderson. He admires Jessica for her courageous art and for how she has dealt with her life. As far as Will can tell, the only part of Jessica damaged by her past is her heart. Jessica assures Will she is incapable of lasting love, but Will refuses to believe it's true. Yes, it is a problem that the baggage from Jessica's past makes her see dating as merely recreational and men as interchangeable, but when she offers him temporary sexual fidelity, Will decides to take what he can get until he can find a way to convince Jessica she is still capable of love.
Jessica Daniels is mostly happy with her life. Her daughter is graduating college. She is a few years away from retirement. Life is good even though lately she has stopped being interested in both her art and men. Since Jessica has never been the kind of woman looking for that one special man to settle down with, she normally dates and enjoys all the men she wants. What's the harm with doing so suits her? Will is certainly good-looking and charming, but she's not sure he's worth the trouble of an exclusive relationship. She likes riding his motorcycle, seriously admires his art, and thinks he's mostly a great guy. But after thirty years of being single, Jessica knows that most relationships just don't work out for a woman with a past like hers. When Will keeps insisting on sleeping with her, she finally gives in, but Jessica knows in her heart it will never last. From Goodreads.

What I particularly like about this series is the relationship between the father and his adult sons. I have already read the third book in the series and decided that I wanted to start from the beginning.
In this book it is the father that has to find love and it all ends happily after a few misunderstandings involving the ex-wife.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2015
FrightFall RaT 2015
Romance Readers Reading Challenges: Word Hunt 2015
Wacky Reading Challenges: Word Search 2015
Wacky Reading Challenges: Mini Challenge 2015
The Challenge Factory: Scavenger Hunt Part XVI
Rawk-A-Tiers: Scavenger Hunt
Rawk-A-Tiers: Companion Challenge 2015
Rawk-A-Tiers: House Games
Rawk-A-Tiers: Reading by the Numbers
A Million More Pages: Breast Cancer
A Million More Pages: Scavenger 2015
A Million More Pages: Summer Song Shuffle
A Million More Pages Hogwarts: Backpacking Around The Globe
Wacky Reading Challenges: Animal House

Lady Falls by Renee Bernard

Raven Wells is no ordinary girl. Plucked from an orphanage by a scheming earl, she has been raised like a thoroughbred, groomed for one purpose: Revenge. Unfortunately, the Earl of Trent never let her in on the plan, so when she meets the man of her dreams, Sir Phillip Warrick, she has no idea that every lesson, every tutor and every impulsive inch of her was crafted for his seduction and destruction. What she does know is that love is the prize she wants most and that nothing should stand in a woman’s way to getting what she wants.
Phillip Warrick is simply trying to recover his friendship with the earl, unaware that the man has spent years laying the foundation for destroying Phillip’s peace of mind. What he does know is that the earl’s ward, Raven Wells, is mesmerizing, fascinating and apparently without reserve. Witty, beautiful, impulsive and impossible—she is like a siren beckoning him to forget the rules and seize only the pleasures of the moment.
Together, their love will set in motion a series of events that no one can foresee. Revenge creates more than one victim, but also more than one winner. Raven Wells will be transformed into a force of nature the likes of which Victorian London has never experienced before. LADY FALLS is the birth of the Black Rose and the end of innocence. From Goodreads.

I liked both Raven and Phillip but for a historical romance I thought they jumped into bed with each other a bit  fast, as in two days after they met! Also the way their first sexual encounter is described doesn't quite fit with the end of the book. But I liked the story and I am interested in reading the continuation of it.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2015
Wacky Reading Challenges: Word Search 2015
Rawk-A-Tiers: Words With ... Myself!
Rawk-A-Tiers: Troupe Theme Challenges
Rawk-A-Tiers: Getting Acquainted
Rawk-A-Tiers: Scavenger Hunt
A Million More Pages Hogwarts: Backpacking Around The Globe
A Million More Pages Hogwarts: Hogwarts Scavenger Hunt
Wacky Reading Challenges: Animal House 

Iced Under by Nadine Doolittle

Stunned by the abrupt end to her marriage, Sara Wolesley abandons her comfortable life in Toronto and with her two daughters, takes possession of a rundown cottage in Quebec. A frozen lake stretches outside their door like green-black cellophane, ice as clear as rain. They can look down to air bubbles frozen in perfect milky orbs and reeds blowing beneath their feet.
But this new secluded life and the cottage do not offer Sara the relief she was seeking. Unable to find a job or keep the plumbing from freezing, she is broke and close to a breakdown when she falls while crossing the ice. In despair, Sara decides to let the cold take her when she sees something moving in the water below.
They got lucky, the police said later. One of them, the older one, said the ice hadn't been that clear in twenty years. He knew Hennessy Lake pretty well but they got lucky. If there'd been snow they might never have found her body.
But they did find her even after Sara lost her bearings and couldn't remember exactly where she saw the little girl floating beneath her feet. They found her caught in a reed bed, her blonde hair drifting about her head, her eyes open and her mouth parted as if to say something. Her name was Oralee Pelletier and she had been missing for five months. From Goodreads.

This was okay but no more. The main character is just too naive and I just didn't connect with her. The most interesting character was Gil Hennessy, a recluse who is rumoured to have killed his entire family decades ago.
The answer to the mystery of the missing girl is basically given 50% into the book and all there is left to uncover is the details. 

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2015
Crazy Challenge Connection A-Z Locations - 2014
Romance Readers Reading Challenges: Word Hunt 201
The Challenge Factory: Scavenger Hunt Part XV
Wacky Reading Challenges: Word Search 2015
Rawk-A-Tiers: Words With ... Myself!
Rawk-A-Tiers: I Spy
Rawk-A-Tiers: Troupe Theme Challenges
Rawk-A-Tiers: Scavenger Hunt
A Million More Pages: Reading Under The Stars
A Million More Pages Hogwarts: Backpacking Around The Globe
Wacky Reading Challenges: Animal House
Wacky Reading Challenges: Character Names, A-Z

Fire at Twilight by Lila Ashe

Grace is a fixer. She's good at it, too. In her acupuncture practice, she fixes the community of Darling Bay, and in her personal life, she's rescued her sister too many times to count. Her love life, though . . . Grace doesn't think she needs help, especially not from a man whose very nickname is unhealthy.
Tox Ellis is the hazmat expert at the Darling Bay Fire Department, and he knows about harmful substances. He knows what gases to keep apart to prevent explosions. Why, then, can't he seem to stay away from Grace, the woman who seems to think he needs fixing?
Is Darling Bay ready for the chemical reaction Grace and Tox generate whenever they're in the same place at the same time? And who will be standing by to put out the flames?
From Goodreads.





This was okay and also funny in places. I wasn't wild about Grace who seem to think she needs to fix everybody that includes telling them what is healthy or not all the time. She pushed both her sister and Tox away before she finally realised she had to let them live their own way.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2015
Romance Readers Reading Challenges: Word Hunt 2015
The Challenge Factory: Scavenger Hunt Part XV
Wacky Reading Challenges: Word Search 2015
Rawk-A-Tiers: Words With ... Myself!
Rawk-A-Tiers: I Spy
Rawk-A-Tiers: Troupe Theme Challenges
Rawk-A-Tiers: Scavenger Hunt
Rawk-A-Tiers: House Games
A Million More Pages: Campfire Cookout
A Million More Pages: Reading Under The Stars
A Million More Pages: Summer Games
A Million More Pages: Summer Song Shuffle
Wacky Reading Challenges: Favorite Album - Away From the Sun 
Wacky Reading Challenges: Autumn Fun
A Million More Pages Hogwarts: Backpacking Around The Globe
Wacky Reading Challenges: Animal House
Crazy Challenge Connection: Scrabble, anyone?

Rasmus - Tales of a Utah Cowboy by Jay Anderson and Beth M. Stephenson

Enjoy the true and less true adventures of a real wild west cowboy, Rasmus Anderson. As a Mormon boy forced into manhood before his whiskers sprouted, he lived at the end of his rope. Whether herding wild mustangs or defending life and limb, his lasso was his lifeline. So curl your bedroll around the campfire and settle in for some yarn spinning like you never had the sense to hope for. From Goodreads.

I wasn't that taken with these cowboy adventures and it was also a bit too religious for my taste. In the epilogue it states that these stories are fiction but they are written around a real person, Rasmus who was a second-generation pioneer. The most interesting for me was that the family originated from Denmark.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2015
Crazy Challenge Connection A-Z Locations - 2014
Romance Readers Reading Challenges: Word Hunt 2015
The Challenge Factory: Scavenger Hunt Part XV
Wacky Reading Challenges: Word Search 2015
Wacky Reading Challenges: Mini Challenge 2015
Rawk-A-Tiers: Words With ... Myself!
Rawk-A-Tiers: I Spy
Rawk-A-Tiers: Get Ready for Autumn!
Rawk-A-Tiers: Troupe Theme Challenges
A Million More Pages: Summer Games
Wacky Reading Challenges: Autumn Fun 
A Million More Pages Hogwarts: Backpacking Around The Globe
Wacky Reading Challenges: Animal House
Wacky Reading Challenges: Character Names, A-Z

Fire Country by David Estes

In a changed world where the sky bleeds red, winter is hotter than hell and full of sandstorms, and summer's even hotter with raging fires that roam the desert-like country, the Heaters manage to survive, barely.
Due to toxic air, life expectancies are so low the only way the tribe can survive is by forcing women to procreate when they turn sixteen and every three years thereafter. It is their duty as Bearers.
Fifteen-year-old Siena is a Youngling, soon to be a Bearer, when she starts hearing rumors of another tribe of all women, called the Wild Ones. They are known to kidnap Youngling girls before the Call, the ceremony in which Bearers are given a husband with whom to bear children with.
As the desert sands run out on her life's hourglass, Siena must uncover the truth about the Wild Ones while untangling the web of lies and deceit her father has masterfully spun. From Goodreads.


I like the way this was written from Siena's point of view but it was a well-known male dominant world. Girls and women are treated whichever way the man of the house decides and at a call they are given to whoever the village elders, who are all male, decide. It is also about wanting to do anything to stay alive and in power and not in a good way.
I liked it but I am not convinced I will continue this series.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2015
Romance Readers Reading Challenges: Word Hunt 2015
Wacky Reading Challenges: Word Search 2015
Wacky Reading Challenges: Mini Challenge 2015
Rawk-A-Tiers: Words With ... Myself!
Rawk-A-Tiers: I Spy
Rawk-A-Tiers: Get Ready for Autumn!
Rawk-A-Tiers: Troupe Theme Challenges
Rawk-A-Tiers: Scavenger Hunt
Rawk-A-Tiers: House Games
A Million More Pages: Campfire Cookout
A Million More Pages: Summer Song Shuffle
Wacky Reading Challenges: Book Tag Challenge #7 
Wacky Reading Challenges: Autumn Fun 
A Million More Pages Hogwarts: Dragon Nursery
A Million More Pages Hogwarts: Backpacking Around The Globe
Wacky Reading Challenges: Animal House
Crazy Challenge Connection: Pick a Theme 2015-2016

Divorced, Desperate and Delicious by Christie Craig

Live . . . Laugh . . . Read . . . with New York Times bestselling author Christie Craig . . .
“Readers who enjoy Jenny Crusie and Janet Evanovich will fall head over heels for Divorced, Desperate and Delicious . . .” —New York Times Bestseller Dianna Love
Ever since photographer Lacy Maguire caught her ex playing Pin the Secretary to the Elevator Wall, she's been content with her dog Fabio, her three cats, and a vow of chastity. But all of that changes when the reindeer-antlered Fabio drags in a very desperate, on-the-run detective who decides to take refuge in her house—a house filled with twinkling lights and a decorated tree. (Okay, so it's February, but she has a broken heart to mend, a Christmas-card shoot to do, and a six-times divorced, match-making mother to appease.) For the first time in a looooong while, Lacy reconsiders her vow. Because sexy Chase Kelly, wounded soul that he may be, would be an oh-so-delicious way of breaking her fast. Now, if she can just keep them both alive and him out of jail . . .  From Goodreads.

This was cute and a bit of fun. The description of Lacy and her animals in Christmas attire was hilarious. I think she took to Chase a bit fast but it was okay. It is a feel good book that of course ends well. I will read more books by Christie Craig.  

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2015
Romance Readers Reading Challenges: Word Hunt 2015
The Challenge Factory: Scavenger Hunt Part XV
Wacky Reading Challenges: Word Search 2015
Rawk-A-Tiers: Words With ... Myself!
Rawk-A-Tiers: I Spy
Rawk-A-Tiers: Get Ready for Autumn!
Rawk-A-Tiers: Troupe Theme Challenges
Rawk-A-Tiers: Scavenger Hunt
A Million More Pages: Reading Under The Stars
A Million More Pages: Summer cAMMP BINGO
A Million More Pages: Summer Song Shuffle
Wacky Reading Challenges: Favorite Album - Away From the Sun
Wacky Reading Challenges: Book Tag Challenge #7  
A Million More Pages Hogwarts: Backpacking Around The Globe
Wacky Reading Challenges: Animal House
Wacky Reading Challenges: Character Names, A-Z

A Cottage by the Sea by Carole Matthews

Grace has been best friends with Ella and Flick forever. The late-night chats, shared heartaches and good times have created a bond that has stood the test of time.
When Ella invites them to stay for a week in her cottage in South Wales, Grace jumps at the chance to see her old friends. She also hopes that the change of scenery will help her reconnect with her distant husband.
Then Flick arrives; loveable, bubbly, incorrigible Flick, accompanied by the handsome and charming Noah.
This is going to be one week which will change all their lives forever... From Goodreads.

I really liked this but because I think some of the ending was very clear in the beginning of the story it only made it up to 3 polar bears. I did like Grace and the way she did things and I absolutely loved the setting on the Welsh seaside. I intend to read more by Carole Matthews.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2015
Romance Readers Reading Challenges: Word Hunt 2015
The Challenge Factory: Scavenger Hunt Part XV
Wacky Reading Challenges: Word Search 2015
Wacky Reading Challenges: Mini Challenge 2015
Rawk-A-Tiers: Words With ... Myself!
Rawk-A-Tiers: I Spy
Rawk-A-Tiers: Getting Acquainted
Rawk-A-Tiers: Scavenger Hunt
Rawk-A-Tiers: House Games
A Million More Pages: Reading Under The Stars
Wacky Reading Challenges: Favorite Album - Away From the Sun
Wacky Reading Challenges: Autumn Fun 
A Million More Pages Hogwarts: Backpacking Around The Globe
Wacky Reading Challenges: Animal House
Wacky Reading Challenges: Character Names, A-Z

The Diving Pool: Three Novellas by Yoko Ogawa

The first major English translation of one of contemporary Japan's bestselling and most celebrated authors. 
From Akutagawa Award-winning author Yoko Ogawa comes a haunting trio of novellas about love, fertility, obsession, and how even the most innocent gestures may contain a hairline crack of cruel intent.

A lonely teenage girl falls in love with her foster brother as she watches him leap from a high diving board into a pool--a peculiar infatuation that sends unexpected ripples through her life.
A young woman records the daily moods of her pregnant sister in a diary, taking meticulous note of a pregnancy that may or may not be a hallucination--but whose hallucination is it, hers or her sister's?
A woman nostalgically visits her old college dormitory on the outskirts of Tokyo, a boarding house run by a mysterious triple amputee with one leg.
Hauntingly spare, beautiful, and twisted, The Diving Pool is a disquieting and at times darkly humorous collection of novellas about normal people who suddenly discover their own dark possibilities. From Goodreads

 

Unfortunately I found these three novellas boring and uninteresting. I only finished them because they were so short. They stories are twisted but neither beautiful nor darkly humorous as described in the blurb. 

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2015
I love Library books 2015
Crazy Challenge Connection A-Z Locations - 2014
Romance Readers Reading Challenges: Word Hunt 2015
The Challenge Factory: Scavenger Hunt Part XV
Wacky Reading Challenges: Word Search 2015
Rawk-A-Tiers: Words With ... Myself!
Rawk-A-Tiers: Rhyme Time
Rawk-A-Tiers: I Spy
Rawk-A-Tiers: Troupe Theme Challenges
Rawk-A-Tiers: Getting Acquainted
Rawk-A-Tiers: Scavenger Hunt
Rawk-A-Tiers: House Games
A Million More Pages: Summer Games
Wacky Reading Challenges: Favorite Album - Away From the Sun
Wacky Reading Challenges: Book Tag Challenge #7
A Million More Pages Hogwarts: Backpacking Around The Globe
Wacky Reading Challenges: Animal House
Crazy Challenge Connection: Read your age

Wacky Reading Challenges - Animal House

Animal House hosted by Wacky Reading Challenges on Goodreads.

Animal House
Date: September 1, 2015-March 31, 2016

National Lampoon's Animal House is a 1978 American comedy film directed by John Landis. The film was a direct spinoff from National Lampoon magazine. It is about a misfit group of fraternity members who challenge the dean of Faber College in 1962.

Challenge Rules:
Books should be at least 125 pages. All formats are acceptable. Re-reads are fine--just be sure to re-read the entire book.
When updating your challenge with books you've read, please include the title, author, and date you finished reading the book.Make sure to tell us which option in each category, you have chosen.

Categories:

1. Read a book set in the 60's OR a book set at a college/university OR features a rivalry of some kind.

2. Read a book that features a sorority/fraternity OR has a character that is a professor/teacher OR a book that was published with 1, 9, 7, or 8 in the year.
Divorced, Desperate and Delicious by Christie Craig (first published November 26th 2007)

3. Read a book that has a character that is a biker OR has a motorcycle on the cover OR a book set in New Hampshire.
Carved in Stone by Donna McDonald  (Male MC will rides a motorbike)

4. Read a book where a character is out for revenge OR has sex with a married person OR tries to steal another's girlfriend/boyfriend.
A Cottage by the Sea by Carole Matthews (One of Grace's friend has sex with her Grace's husband and steals him away)

5. Read a book with a character or author named Larry/Lawrence, Kent, Eric, Greg, Mandy, Barbara, Robert, Douglas, Donald or John (in any form - first or last).

6. Read a book set in Missouri OR a book where a character has a car accident OR a car is on the cover.
Fire at Twilight by Lila Ashe (Female MC's sister is in a car accident)

7. Read a book with a party scene OR a hotel scene OR a scene in a grocery store.
What Once Was Perfect by Zoe York  (engagement party at the end of the book)

8. Read a book with where the characters go on a road trip OR go to court OR a book set in Canada.
Iced Under by Nadine Doolittle (set in Canada)

9. Read a book with an X in the title OR a book with a character that is a womanizer OR overweight.

10. Read a book with a parade scene OR features a house on the cover OR a Series/TBR #7 or 8.
I Need a Hero by Emma Bennet (house on cover)

11. Read a book with a character who has a strange nickname OR with an otter, pinto, stork or flounder mentioned in the story OR on the cover.

12. Read a book with a character that is shy OR a book with a title OR author's first or last name that begins with a B, W or Y.
The Diving Pool: Three Novellas by Yoko Ogawa

13. Read a book with a character that is/has been in the military OR is a president/CEO OR a Series/TBR# 1.
Fire Country by David Estes  (The Country Saga, #1)

14. Read a book with a character that does drugs OR gets kicked out of something OR a book that has horses in the story.
Rasmus - Tales of a Utah Cowboy by Jay Anderson and Beth M. Stephenson (a lot about horses)

15. Read a book a short book (between 150-200 pages) OR a book with a character that is a musician OR has a musical instrument on the cover.
Lady Falls by Renee Bernard (186 pages)

Info from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_H....