Library Loot - August 31

Well, I took back two of the books that I got from the previous library visit that I decided I just don't feel like reading. Here is what I got this time:

Gigolos Get Lonely Too

by Dwayne S. Joseph (Goodreads Author), Roy Glenn (Goodreads Author), Shawn "Jihad" Trump

From Goodreads:

Three men that have a way with the ladies struggle to keep their heads when each finds that love is more important than sex. It's a dream come true for.
Carter's found the woman of his dreams and to keep her, he's all set to change his lifestyle as a gigolo. But all hell breaks loose when he agrees to meet Deanna for what he's decided is going to be his last app ...more Three men that have a way with the ladies struggle to keep their heads when each finds that love is more important than sex. It's a dream come true for.
Carter's found the woman of his dreams and to keep her, he's all set to change his lifestyle as a gigolo. But all hell breaks loose when he agrees to meet Deanna for what he's decided is going to be his last appointment.
Rick has to find a way to make it out the game, when he falls in April. Now he has to find a way to cut loose, Laura, Yvette and Vanessa.
A threesome with two of the finest women in Atlanta. Forget the fact that he's married, or that the two willing women are his estranged sister-in-law and his wife's best friend. Vernon's just out to get his.

Paperback, 288 pages

Published January 1st 2006 by Urban Books

Til It's Gone

by Dwayne S. Joseph

From Goodreads:
Everyone knows it's hard being in a relationship. But have you ever thought about cheating? What would happen if you were ever caught? These are the questions being posed in this dramatic novel by Dwayne S. Joseph.
Danita and Stephen have been together for five years. Things are great between them until an unexpected discovery sends Danita inot a tailspin. With her trust shattered and temptation at her new job, she must decide whether to work things out or move on.
As the boundaries of love and fidelity are tested, can their relationship survive the worst? Or will they not realize what they have until it's gone?

Paperback, 300 pages
Published August 1st 2008 by Urban Books

Eternal Lover

by Hannah Howell, Lynsay Sands, Jackie Kessler (Goodreads Author), Richelle Mead

From Goodreads:
Theirs is a world of ancient desires and forbidden pleasures. They are men of mystery and women of seduction, wild creatures with the power to entrance and enchant, tease and tantalize. Enter their secret world, if you dare...

The Ye

arning by Hannah Howell

Alpin has lived for centuries with a lust that can never be quenched with mere physical pleasure. And then he meets Sophie whose own search for lasting love binds them together in a cloak of shimmering sensuality...

A Hell o

f a Time by Jackie Kessler

Jesse's immortal life as a soul-stealing succubus is over. And now that she is human, she longs to tempt her lover with all her persuasive powers of total sexual seduction...

City of

Demons by Richelle Mead

Seth cannot resist the intense sexual allure of his demon lover Georgina. Yet their love reaches beyond the physical, into a place of complete untamed surrender...

Bit

ten by Lynsay Sands

Keeran's existence as a vampire has taught him to accept a life without love...until he saves Emily from certain death. And suddenly he discovers the soul-searing passion he thought he'd lost forever...

Note: The Yearning by Hannah H owell and Bitten by Lynsay Sands also appear in the anthology His Immortal Embrace (less)

Paperback, 352 pages
Published April 1st 2008 by Kensington

Killing Floor (Jack Reacher Series #1)

by Lee Child

From Goodreads:
From its chilling opening page, you know all is not well in Margrave, Georgia. The sleepy, forgotten town hasn't seen a crime in decades, but within the span of three days it witnesses events that leave everyone stunned. An unidentified man is found beaten and shot to death on a lonely country road. The police chief and his wife are butchered on a quiet Sunday morning. Then a bank executive disappears from his home, leaving his keys on the table and his wife frozen with fear. The easiest suspect is Jack Reacher - an outsider, a man just passing through. But Reacher is not just any drifter. He is a tough ex-military policeman, trained to think fast and act faster. He has lived with and hunted the worst: the hard men of the American military gone bad. When authorities learn the first victim was someone from Reacher's past, and he cannot convince them of his innocence, his patient self-defense becomes a raging crusade of revenge. With two cops who believe in him - a thoughtful black detective and a woman named Roscoe - he closes in on a ruthless conspiracy hiding behind Margrave's rural charm. But closing in on him is a team of killers so careful and efficient they are almost invisible. Step by step, the two teams circle - waiting to see which will be the first to walk onto the killing floor.

Paperback, 424 pages

Published April 25th 2006 by Jove (first published March 1997)

Mailbox Monday - August 30

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.
We share what books that we found in our mailboxes last week.
I got 2 books in my mailbox. Here they are:

How to Read the Air

by Dinaw Mengestu

Received this uncorrected proof from Shelf Awareness
This book goes on sale October 14Goodreads Description:
Dinaw Mengestu’s first novel The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears earned the young writer comparisons to Bellow, Fitzgerald, and Naipaul and garnered ecstatic critical praise and awards around the world for its haunting depiction of the immigrant experience in America. Now, he enriches the themes that defined his debut in a story that captures two generations of an immigrant family.

One early September afternoon, Yosef and Mariam, young Ethiopian immigrants who have spent all but their first year of marriage apart, set off on a road trip from their new home in Peoria, Illinois to Nashville, Tennessee, in search of their new identity as an American couple. Just months later, their son Jonas is born in Illinois. Thirty years later, Yosef has died, and Jonas is desperate to make sense of the volatile generational and cultural ties that have forged him. How can he envision his future without knowing what has come before? Leaving behind his marriage and job in New York, Jonas sets out to retrace his parents’ trip and in a stunning display of imagination, weaves together a family history that takes him from the war-torn Ethiopia of his parents’ youth to a brighter vision of his life in the America of today, a story—real or invented—that holds the possibility of reconciliation and redemption.

A heartbreaking literary masterwork about love, family, and the power of imagination, How to Read the Air confirms Dinaw Mengestu's reputation as one of the brightest talents of his generation.

You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know

by Heather Sellers

I received this uncorrected proof from Shelf Awareness
This book goes on sale on October 14

Goodreads Description:
This is an unusual and uncommonly moving family memoir, with a twist that gives new meaning to hindsight, insight, and forgiveness.

Heather Sellers is face-blind -- that is, she has prosopagnosia -- a rare neurological condition that prevents her from reliably recognizing people's faces. Growing up, unaware of the reason for her perpetual confusion and anxiety, she took what cues she could from speech, hairstyle, and gait. But she sometimes kissed a stranger, thinking he was her boyfriend, or failed to recognize even her own father and mother. She feared she must be crazy.

Yet it was her mother who nailed windows shut and covered them with blankets, made her daughter walk on her knees to spare the carpeting, and had her practice secret words to use in the likely event of abduction. Her father went on weeklong ''fishing trips'' (aka benders), took in drifters, and wore panty hose and bras under his regular clothes. Heather clung to a barely coherent story of a ''normal'' childhood in order to survive the one she had.

That fairy tale unraveled two decades later when Heather took the man she would marry home to meet her parents and began to discover the truth about her family and about herself. As she came at last to trust her own perceptions, she learned the gift of perspective: that embracing the past as it is allows us to let it go. She illuminated a deeper truth -- that even in the most flawed circumstances, love may be seen and felt.

Review of Livin Ain't Easy by Peron Long

Livin Ain't Easy (Urban Renaissance)

by Peron Long
Paperback, 288 pages
Published March 1st 2009 by Urban Books

Goodreads Description:

Livin Ain't Easy is a story of self-evaluation, heartache, and renewal-all wrapped up in suspense and murder. The story chronicles approximately seven months of the lives of Devlin Carter and Simone Jackson.

Devlin is a 32-year-old former schoolteacher whose development of a line of educational tools has made him a very wealthy man. His dreams in life had basically been to teach and to help students achieve their maximum potential. He also wanted to be able to provide the finer things in life for his grandmother, who raised him, and for Leslie, the love of his life. Sadly, his grandmother died five years before his financial achievements, and Leslie couldn't wait around for him to become successful. She married another man for his money. In spite of her marriage, though, Leslie has heard of Devlin's new wealth and she's trying to keep their on-again, off-again affair alive.

Simone Jackson is a 31-year-old local television talk show host whose show is in the verge of going national. She is happy about the success she has accomplished in broadcasting, but her dreams of love of and for a man have been nonexistent, due to her sexual orientation. Since her first experience in college ten years earlier, she has lived the life of a lesbian. She is now at a crossroads in her life. She is no longer happy with her personal choices, and when she meets a future guest on her show, Devlin Carter, her interest in him creates feelings she had only dreamed of in the past. At the same time, she's looking to end the relationship with her lover, Trinity.

When Devlin and Simone meet the day his best friend dies, she immediately becomes the friend that he needs, and he becomes the dream she'swished to have for years. As they begin to form a bond, they are both confronted with issues of overbearing, vindictive ex-lovers, as well as the surprising emergence of Devlin's long-absent father. When an attempt is made on Devlin's life and then one of their ex-lovers ends up dead, will it rip them apart, or bring them closer together?

My thoughts:
I hadn't ever read any books from Urban Books until I saw author Dwayne S. Joseph on Goodreads. I've read quite a few of his books, and came across the author Peron Long. I plan on reading more books from this author and from other Urban Books authors. I really enjoy these books!

Devlin was sleeping with a married woman named Leslie for 5 years. He thought it was perfect. He had someone to have sex when he needed it. He had quit his teaching job and made and sold educational products. Leslie wanted to be with Devlin after he became wealthy from selling these products. He knew that she only wanted him now because of his money. He wanted something more than her.

Simone Jackson thought she was a lesbian, but not until she was in college. She caught her roommate with another female. She became curious. She later kissed a girl and was blown away by how it felt. She began to wonder after years of being with women, if a man could make her feel the same.

Devlin was supposed to be on Simone's talk show, but they met each other in person before that and they both felt sparks. Simone is there to comfort Devlin when his best friend dies. The women in each of their lives don't like what develops

Devlin was truly a gentleman. He wanted to treat Simone right and not move to fast. I'm glad he realized that his relationship with Leslie was not going anywhere and he needed to find a woman who doesn't want him for his money and will treat him right. Simone was a great woman and really was there for Devlin, unlike Leslie.

I really liked this book and want to read more books by this author!

Rating: 5/5

Review of Godchild by Vincent Zandri

Godchild

by Vincent Zandri

I had trouble getting into this book. I really want to read another book by this author. Next by him I will be reading As Catch Can.

Review of The Womanizers by Dwyane S. Joseph

The Womanizers

by Dwayne S. Joseph

published July 1st 2004 by Urban Books

Paperback, 304 pages

Goodreads description:

For best friends Mike, Max, and Ahmad, the bonds of friendship, love and respect, are put to the ultimate test as each one of them is forced to take ...more For best friends Mike, Max, and Ahmad, the bonds of friendship, love and respect, are put to the ultimate test as each one of them is forced to take a long, hard look at themselves, and the women they love. They all said their 'I do's', but did they really understand what it meant?
Mike's a bonafide ladies man. He's smooth, sexy, and he's got all the right moves. There's just one problem- his wife, Mya. She knew what she was getting into when she slipped his ring on her finger, but she'd always hoped that her love would be enough to quench his desire. But now that she's finally admitted that Mike can never be tamed, who will she turn to for comfort? And how will Mike handle it?
Max is a music mogul in the making, and with his wife, Trina's support, he's bound to succeed. Of course that all depends on what happens with Sharon, who could write a book and give seminars on what it is to be a true ghetto queen. Ahmad is a born-again virgin only he can't figure out why. No matter what he does or says, his wife, Shay, refuses to be intimate with him. But what happens when her decision to confide in him is too late?

My thoughts:
Mike is married to Mya. He always comes home to her, but is out having sex with other women. She finds comfort in talking to his friend Ahmad, maybe too much comfort...

Ahmad is married to Shay. He never fools around on her, but hasn't had sex with her in months. She has some emotional issues and is not ready for it, but it is straining their relationship. He is a teacher and one of his students, Maxine tried to kiss him. The principal walked in in threatened to blackmail him unless she sleeps with him. She was threatening his job, but he was not going to have sex with her. He didn't know what to do.

Then there is Max who is married to Trina. He fools around on her with her mom.

There is a lot of drama in this book, but the author really does a great job building the characters and making you feel like you really know them. He really knows how to entertain a reader.

I gave this 5 stars!

Teaser Tuesday - August 24

TEASER TUESDAYS hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. asks you to:

1. Grab your current read.
2. Open to a random page.
3. Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
4. 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!)
5. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given

Godchild

by Vincent Zandri

It was the car I remembered. The car that rammed into my Ford Bronco, sending Fran to her death. The Buick. P.8

Review of Choices Men Make by Dwayne S. Joseph

Choices Men Make

by Dwayne S. Joseph

published: August 1st 2006 by Urban Books (first published 2002)

Mass Market Paperback, 238 pages

Goodreads description:

Have you ever wondered about the choices men make and why they make them? Julie Reed wondered when Vic, her husband of six months, walked out on her f ...more Have you ever wondered about the choices men make and why they make them? Julie Reed wondered when Vic, her husband of six months, walked out on her for no apparent reason. Now he's happily in the arms of another woman.
Roy Burges thought he'd made the right choice, but when his wife Stacey's skeletons came out of the closet, he realizes that what he thought was the right choice, was oh so wrong.
For Colin Ray, choosing a new woman is like going to the grocery store. It's just something you have to do every week. That is until he runs into Emily. She wasn't his type at all... but sometimes you can't control the choices men make.

My thoughts:

I know that when I read one of Dwayne Joseph's books I won't be disappointed. I like how each chapter is dedicated to one character's point of view so you get to see all sides of what everyone is thinking.

Vic didn't want to be with Julie anymore. Vic was a white boy that grew up in a black family. Julie was white, but she just wasn't who he wanted. He really wanted to be with a black woman. Julie had gotten pregnant, so Vic married her (even though it wasn't really in his heart ...more I know that when I read one of Dwayne Joseph's books I won't be disappointed. I like how each chapter is dedicated to one character's point of view so you get to see all sides of what everyone is thinking.

Vic didn't want to be with Julie anymore. Vic was a white boy that grew up in a black family. Julie was white, but she just wasn't who he wanted. He really wanted to be with a black woman. Julie had gotten pregnant, so Vic married her (even though it wasn't really in his heart). She miscarried, so he stayed with her to get through it, but he really had to follow his heart.

His friend is Roy and he is married to Stacey. Stacey was so pissed off at Vic for leaving Julie. Stacey has a secret of her own though.

Finally, there is Colin. He is a ladies man and has the book to prove it. He is set up on a blind date with Emily, who is white. His friends don't tell him that he is being set up with a white girl because they know he would never go for it.

This book was very entertaining and explores the relationships between 3 couples and race preferences that certain people have and also race preferences people think they have, but turns out that maybe what they really want is what they never would have imagined.

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars!

Library Loot - August 19

Here is what I recently got from the library. The last bunch of books I got I didn't even put on my library loot because I flipped through all of them and I just wasn't in the right mood to read them or something I guess.

Harvest

by Tess Gerritsen

From Goodreads:
When Robin Cook wrote Coma in 1977, the idea of hospital patients being incubated for their vital organs sounded like science fiction. Twenty years l ...more When Robin Cook wrote Coma in 1977, the idea of hospital patients being incubated for their vital organs sounded like science fiction. Twenty years later, this gripping thriller about a thriving international black market in human hearts, livers and kidneys could come from tomorrow's "Nightline." Author Gerritsen was an internist before she switched her energies to writing, and her experience shows in every scene. When young surgical resident Dr. Abby DiMatteo assists at her first "harvest" (the removal of living organs from a patient declared legally brain dead) at Boston's posh Bayside Hospital, "she felt vaguely nauseated by the whine of the blade, the smell of bone dust," neither of which seem to bother the veterans. It's obviously a personal memory being mined for good fictional purposes. (Gerritsen wrote paperback romance novels before Harvest: Check out her Keeper of the Bride and Thief of Hearts.)

(I just picked this one up while browsing in the library)
-------------------------------------------

Godchild

by Vincent Zandri

From Goodreads:

He wanted justice, truth, revenge...whichever came first.Prison-warden-turned-P.I. Jack "Keeper" Marconi understands the criminal mind. And he knows what it takes to break a man. His own life came apart the day a black Buick broadsided his car--and his wife died horrifically in the seat beside him.Years later, on the eve of his second marriage, Marconi catches a split-second glimpse of the driver who killed his wife. Suddenly hurtled back into the past, he is determined to take one last shot at hunting him down. That is, until he is offered a job he can't refuse: to bust a beautiful woman out of a hellish Mexican prison. Now Keeper's chase through Mexico follows a trail of bodies and lies back home: to the truth about a woman on the run, to a man sitting behind the wheel of a black Buick, and to a story that someone will kill to bury....

----------------------------------------

As Catch Can

by Vincent Zandri

From Goodreads:

Freelance journalist Vincent Zandri was collaborating on the memoirs of a Sing Sing prison guard when he got the idea for a thriller about a warden who has to solve a crime to keep his job and his self-respect. This solid base of reality plus Zandri's lively writing give As Catch Can a definite edge.

Jack "Keeper" Marconi knows he's in trouble when a cop killer named Eduard Vasquez escapes from his Green Haven Maximum Security Prison in upstate New York after a trip to an outside dentist which he had approved. Keeper is clearly being fitted for a frame by his superiors in the state's penal system--men with whom he shar

ed a baptism of fire as young guards during the bloody riots at Attica 26 years before.
Haunted by these ghosts of his former self and a time when justice seemed more clear-cut, Keeper goes off on his own to see who really helped Vasquez escape. Recently widowed and fogged by too much booze, Keeper could easily have become a rerun of an all-too-familiar genre icon. But Zandri makes both the man and job i

nteresting and original by paying attention to details--from the way the weather affects the prisoners' behavior to the delicate balancing act that governs the relations between guards and prisoners. And there's more than enough creativity and research left over for a promised sequel. --Dick Adler

(Vincent Zandri is a friend on Goodreads and I wanted to actually read some of his books!)

--------------------------------------------------------------

Livin Ain't Easy (Urban Renaissance)

by Peron Long

From Goodreads:

Livin Ain't Easy is a story of self-evaluation, heartache, and renewal-all wrapped up in suspense and murder. The story chronicles approximately seven months of the lives of Devlin Carter and Simone Jackson.
Devlin is a 32-year-old former schoolteacher whose development of a line of educational tools has made him a very wealthy man. His dreams in life had basically been to teach and to help students achieve their maximum potential. He also wanted to be able to provide the finer things in life for his grandmother, who raised hi m, and for Leslie, the love of his life. Sadly, his grandmother died five years before his financial achievements, and Leslie couldn't wait around for him to become successful. She married another man for his money. In spite of her marriage, though, Leslie has heard of Devlin's new wealth and she's trying to keep their on-again, off-again affair alive.
Simone Jackson is a 31-year-old local television talk show host whose show is in the verge of going national. She is happy about the success she has accomplished in broadcasting, but her dreams of love of and for a man have been nonexistent, due to her sexual orientation. Since her first experience in college ten years earlier, s he has lived the life of a lesbian. She is now at a crossroads in her life. She is no longer happy with her personal choices, and when she meets a future guest on her show, Devlin Carter, her interest in him creates feelings she had only dreamed of in the past. At the same time, she's looking to end the relationship with her lover, Trinity.
When Devlin and Simone meet the day his best friend dies, she immediately becomes the friend that he needs, and he becomes the dream she'swished to have for years. As they begin to form a bond, they are both confronted with issues of o verbearing, vindictive ex-lovers, as well as the surprising emergence of Devlin's long-absent father. When an attempt is made on Devlin's life and then one of their ex-lovers ends up dead, will it rip them apart, or bring them closer together?

(I found out about this author through Facebook and author Dwayne S. Joseph)
--------------------------------------------------------

Eight Days to Live: An Eve Duncan Forensics Thriller

by Iris Johansen

From Goodreads:
Eve Duncan and her adopted daughter, Jane Macguire, are pitted against the members of a secretive cult who have targeted Jane and have decided that she will he their ultimate sacrifice. In eight days they will come for her. In eight days, what Jane fears the most will become a reality. In eight days, she will die. It all begins with a painting that Jane, an artist, displays in her Parisian gallery. The painting is called "Guilt" and Jane has no idea how or why she painted the portrait of the chilling face. But the members of a cult that dates back to the time of Christ believe that Jane's blasphemy means she must die. But first. she will lead them to an ancient treasure whose value is beyond price. This elusive treasure, and Jane's death, are all that they need for their power to come co ultimate fruition. With Eve's help, can Jane escape before the clock stops ricking?

(I found out about this book from Booklist Magazine)

Teaser Tuesdays - August 18

TEASER TUESDAYS hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. asks you to:

1. Grab your current read.
2. Open to a random page.
3. Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
4. 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!)
5. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given

(please note, my book looks a little different than the only pictured since mine is a uncorrected proof)

P24:

"He couldn't know, but he did! I mean, that's the whole thing isn't? He couldn't know, but he did! No one could possibly know that the number six fifty-eight would be the number I would think of, but not only did he know it--he knew it at least two days before I did, when he put the damn letter in the mail!"

Review of No Legal Grounds by James Scott Bell

No Legal Grounds

by James Scott Bell

I am not sure what to say about this book. Sam is a lawyer and his friend from college is stalking him. Sam is asking god why this is happening to him. He goes to church. Sam tries to take his stalker Nicky on himself, and endangers his family. Sam is an idiot and so is Nicky. I wanted to tell him to at least tell someone where he went towards the end. I gave it a star because I read it and another star because the basic story was good and the end was good, it was just the in between I didn't like so much. Gave this 2 stars (only because I read it and because I liked the end). I had a bunch of spots marked to talk about, but I just want to be done with this so yeah, i'm done.