Naughty Lisa & An Unexpected Client by Kathi Honeycutt

Erotica Short Story

Naughty Lisa & An Unexpected Client by Kathi Honeycutt is an erotic, short story approximately 20 pages in length and takes less about 30 minutes to read.

I downloaded the eVersion of Naughty Lisa & An Unexpected Client to my Kindle from Amazon for free a few years ago and have finally found the time to read it. The following is my unbiased review.

Naughty Lisa & An Unexpected Client is the CHEESIEST erotica read ever! The only redeeming features of this short story were that it was free and took less than 30 minutes for me to read. Naughty Lisa & An Unexpected Client contained a poorly written storyline, underdeveloped characters that I could care less about, and sex, Sex & (you guessed it!!) MORE SEX! 

I like erotica short stories, novellas and novels with more substance to them verses ones with poor storytelling and bad characters. Sex should be part of the story and well executed, but not poorly written drivel like this stuff.

I'm giving Naughty Lisa & An Unexpected Client by Kathi Honeycutt a rating of 1.5 stars out of 10 stars. Until my next post, happy reading!!

The St. Valentine's Day Cookie Massacre by Elisabeth Crabtree

Cozy Mystery eBook Novella

With the Valentine's Day holiday right around the corner, I decided to read a Valentine's Day themed novella titled The St. Valentine's Day Cookie Massacre by Elisabeth Crabtree. This novella is approximately 160 pages in length.

I was able to download The St. Valentine's Day Cookie Massacre by Elisabeth Crabtree for free to my Kindle from Amazon a couple of months ago. The following is my unbiased review of this novella.

Okay, it's no secret, but I really enjoy reading cozy mystery novels/novellas. The St. Valentine's Day Cookie Massacre by Elisabeth Crabtree is a good read. I liked the storyline and characters a lot. There are lots of twists and turns in The St. Valentine's Day Cookie Massacre along with plenty of potential murder suspects to choose from!! 

The following is a book summary of The St. Valentine's Day Cookie Massacre by Elisabeth Crabtree from the Amazon website:

It’s Valentine’s Day in quiet, cozy Hatter’s Cove, Florida and food columnist, Kat Archer, has been assigned the event of the year, the grand opening of Miss Dolly’s Cookie Jar and Sweets Emporium.

What begins as a run of the mill, albeit tasty, assignment turns into something much more dangerous when one of the Cookie Jar’s employees is poisoned.

Now Kat is chasing the biggest story of her life, while trying to catch the eye of her handsome editor and avoid becoming the killer’s next victim.

I'm giving The St. Valentine's Day Cookie Massacre by Elisabeth Crabtree a rating of 8 stars out of 10 stars. Until my next post, happy reading!!

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Paperback Edition

I read the paperback version of The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. This is my second experience with anything written by Neil Gaiman.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a short novel and I had high expectations of this novel when I first began reading it as it seems that more people than not seemed to really enjoy reading this book and/or are HUGE fans of Gaiman's work. 

However, after reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane, I have mixed feelings about it. I felt like the first 40 to 50 pages of this novel were pretty slow going for me and with that said, I'd set the novel aside and began reading other works. I was seriously wondering if I'd ever pick it up again and finish reading it...

I ended up reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane through to the end, as I really wanted to see what all the fuss was about regarding this novel. Thank goodness the storyline picks up for The Ocean at the End of the Lane in chapter five and becomes more entertaining. I'll admit I did like all the imagery presented in this novel, but which genre exactly does this novel fit into??? Is it fantasy?? Magical realism?? What exactly... I'm not sure.

I didn't like not knowing the narrator's name. I didn't like knowing whether what happened to him as a child was real or fantasy or a combination of both... It was all too weird. Good all around imagery was presented in The Ocean at the End of the Lane, but what did it all mean? Too much gray area for me. Overall I just didn't like this novel.

I'm giving The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman a rating of 4 stars out of 10 stars.

The Beekeeper by Juliet Moore

First Novel in a Mystery Series

Earlier this week, I read the ebook version of The Beekeeper by Juliet Moore. The Beekeeper is the first novel in the Detective Elizabeth Stratton Mystery Series and it is also my first experiences with reading anything written by Juliet Moore. The Beekeeper is approximately 147 pages in length.

I downloaded The Beekeeper a couple of years ago to my Kindle for free from Amazon. The following is my unbiased review of The Beekeeper. 

I enjoyed reading The Beekeeper quite a bit. I like reading mystery novels where the leading character is a female cop and good at what she does... Elizabeth Stratton is a good female leading character and also a good detective. I like the fact that she isn't perfect, makes mistakes, but works hard to be the best detective she can be.

At the start of The Beekeeper, we met Elizabeth Stratton. She's on suspension from the police force and staying at the Roosevelt Hotel after a hurricane displaced her from her home. Elizabeth comes across the body of a dead woman covered in bees and mouth filled with honey in one of the hotel rooms on a floor of the hotel in need of renovation... She places a call to the police force and eventually lands back on the force to assist with the investigation of the murdered woman... Two more bodies of women murdered found with mouths filled with honey are discovered and it's soon realized a serial murderer is on the loose.

The Beekeeper is a nicely paced mystery novel. I liked the characters and the storyline. I liked the use/imagery of bees in this novel along with honey as part of the murderers killing ritual as it made for a unique read. The writing was decent as well.

Some things didn't seem plausible, like searching for the killer/suspect during a severe hurricane... Or Elizabeth Stratton starting a search without waiting for back up. Otherwise The Beekeeper was a good read. I also liked the red herrings in this novel as it left you guessing to whodunnit.

The following is a book summary of The Beekeeper from Amazon's site:

A trigger-happy young detective becomes immersed in a world of bees and mad honey in order to catch a murderer.

Miami homicide detective Elizabeth Stratton knows she's lucky to still have a job, but she's tired of only getting the easy cases. She'll never be able to regain the respect of her colleagues without a chance to prove she's no longer an anxious mess who shoots at anything that moves.

Her opportunity comes during a routine check at a near-abandoned hotel. While trying to save the living, she finds the dead. In the midst of a bee infestation is the body of a young woman, her mouth filled with honey.

Elizabeth is grudgingly allowed to keep the case, which rapidly becomes compelling when the honey is found to be poisonous and the bees follow her home.

But just when she's closing in on the killer, he targets her new friend and Elizabeth must brave the high winds of a category four hurricane to save her.

I'm giving The Beekeeper by Juliet Moore a rating of 7 stars out of 10 stars. Until my next post, happy reading!

Friday Finds #69

Friday Finds is a book meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Friday Finds is a chance to share and show off the books you discovered during the week and would like to add to your reading list...

Or a place to simply feature the books you've actually purchased throughout the week and have added to your to be read pile!

Well, I was lucky enough to receive a couple of books from other Bookcrossers as follows:

1. Crusader's Cross by James Lee Burke

2. The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel

Plus, I also received two additional free books, which I won through the Goodreads First Reads Giveaway as follows:

1. The First Wife by Erica Spindler (ARC)

2. The Secret Wisdom of the Earth by Christopher Scotton

My goal this year was to not buying books for myself or download and free ebooks from Amazon to my Kindle. But after a month of adhering to my New Year's Resolution, I  broke down and purchased three books:

1. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Audible edition)

2. The Faith of a Writer: Life, Craft, Art by Joyce Carol Oates (Nonfiction hardback used edition)

3. The Scent of God by Beryl Singleton Bissell (Nonfiction hardback used edition)

I am going to a couple of author events/book signings later this month... So, I have the strong feeling that I will be adding more books to my ever growing 'to be read' pile.

The Convenience Boy by Sujata Massey

eBook

I read The Convenience Boy by Sujata Massey in less than an hour. It is a short story approximately 21 pages in length and features sleuth, Rei Shimura. 

Reading The Convenience Boy was my first experience with anything written by Sujata Massey and I liked what I read. I now want to read more novels by Sujata Massey in the future.

What I like about The Convenience Boy is the storyline, the characters, and the unexpected ending! It's kind of difficult to discuss this short story without giving away too much detail. Suffice it to say that the leading character, Miho Haneda, has nightly erotic visits from an unknown character that she finds pleasurable. This person suddenly stops making visits, so Miho Haneda hires Rei Shimura to find the young man who brought her so much sexual pleasure. You're left guessing who the perpetrator is until the very end!!

I'm giving The Convenience Boy by Sujata Massey a rating of 8 stars out of 10 stars. Until my next post, happy reading!!

Do You Want to Be The Best Book Club Member You Know?

If you belong to or want to belong to a book club, I thought the following article I discovered on the Huffington Post website titled, Here's How To Be The Best Book Club Member You Know by Claire Fallon, was awesome. Gotta love some of the gifs used in this article! Click on above link to read the full story.

Top Ten Tuesday --- Top Ten Books I Can't Believe I Haven't Read From the Classics Genre

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

There are so many classics that I have read and loved... And there are so many classics that I have yet to read, but very much want to read... Narrowing down my list of which classics would make my top ten list was a tough one!

1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy -- I graduated with a Russian language degree, so I'm surprised that I have yet to read this classic novel. 
2. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury -- I'm not a sci-fi fan normally, but I've wanted to read this novel for a while.
3. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain -- I've always wanted to read this novel and have started reading it at two different points in my life, but have never finished reading it.
4. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury -- I'm not a sci-fi fan normally, but I've wanted to read this novel for quite a while.

5. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov -- I've wanted to read this novel, just to see what it is all about.

6. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde -- This sound likes an intriguing novel read.
7. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson -- This has been in my 'to be read' pile and I want to read it... Hopefully, sooner rather than later.
8. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens -- This has also been in my 'to be read' pile for a long time and I want to read it.
9. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas -- Another one of those reads I've put off, mainly due to the length of this novel.
10. The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedman -- I can't believe I haven't read this landmark feminist nonfiction work yet.

I found it interesting that the only classic book written by a woman I've added to my list is Betty Friedman's feminist classic The Feminine Mystique.

Which books did you choose this week?

Must Read Books For Step Moms!

Alright, let me first state that I am not a stepmom, nor have I read any of the books mentioned in the Huffington Post article titled, 6 Must-Read Books for Overwhelmed Stepmoms by Peggy Nolan.

I do know someone who has had a very bad personal experience with a stepchild who was 'hell on wheels'. I only wish this person had access to the list of books mentioned in the article as maybe they would have helped out. 

In Nolan's article, she writes the following:

Are you married to a man with kids from a previous relationship? I bet you never thought how hard being a stepmom is. In the rush of love, when you see the world through gorgeous love goggles, no one tells you that you're going to want to ran away or find a place to hide when his kids are visiting.

Whether you are a new or veteran stepmom, you know that the marriage statistics for second marriages are stacked against remarried couples. The odds of success plummet even further with third marriages.

The good news is you're not alone. There are amazing resources and I want to share with you the six books every overwhelmed stepmom must read.

I've heard plenty of other 'minor' horror stories from women trying to deal with blending families together and trying to make things work. Perhaps these books can help.

Until my next post, happy reading!

10 Football Books For Football Lovers!

I came across an article through Bustle titled 10 Football Books to Get You Into The Super Bowl Spirit (Even If You Couldn't Care Less About The Big Game) by Stephanie Long. In the article, Long writes the following:

Whether you’re a football fan or not, it’s hard to avoid pre-Super Bowl hype. But why would you want to? Super Bowl Sunday brings a lot to the table beyond the delicious finger foods. There are the parties, the commercials, and of course, the half-time show. It’s not just a game; it’s an experience. And yes, the game… this year will be a battle between the defending champions, the Seattle Seahawks, and the always competitive New England Patriots, back for their fourth time in 10 years.

Unless you’re one of the fans frantically trying to book a ticket to Arizona, you could sit back, relax, and ponder Katy Perry’s set list while you wait for February 1 to arrive. But again, why would you want to? There’s no reason to limit your Super Bowl fun to just one day.

As a reader, I recommend turning to books to get in the football spirit. There’s no shortage of material on the nation’s most popular sport, and it’s not all just meant for diehard fans. You can find everything from true accounts of what goes on inside locker rooms to romance novels about fictional players fighting to win the hearts of jock-hating ladies. (Oh, and then there’s that stuff that Tim Riggins wrote.)

Click on the above link to learn, which books are for football fans.

I'm not into football, so will be missing the Superbowl altogether this afternoon. The only thing worthwhile to watch are the commercials and I can always catch those later on YouTube.