In January, I decided to set a reading goal. It was simple: I
want to read more books in 2012 than I had in 2011.
According to
Goodreads.com, I read 64
books in 2011, so I decided to strive for 80 books this year. As of today, I'm
apparently 10 books ahead of schedule. (I can attribute that tally to the ease
of buying books for my e-reader.)
This week I finished two books. I loved both of them.
*****
TEXAS DESTINY by
Lorraine
Heath
Category: Historical Romance
Hero: Houston Leigh
Heroine: Amelia Carson
Story: This is book one of Heath's Texas Trilogy series. Amelia
Carson, a mail-order bride, arrives at a Fort Worth train station in 1876
expecting her fiancé, Dallas Leigh, to meet her and take her to his ranch.
Dallas, however, breaks his leg before setting out and sends his emotionally
and physically scarred brother Houston in his place. Amelia and Houston bond
over their three-week journey to the ranch, and by the time they arrive at the
ranch, where Dallas is waiting anxiously for his bride, they have fallen in
love. Then they have to decide how to proceed, the importance of promises and
the value of love.
My Thoughts:
Goodreads.com
recommended this book, and based on their last recommendation, which I loved, I
thought I'd try it. I haven`t read a historical western in a long, long time,
so I decided a change of reading focus might be a good thing. I enjoyed this
book. Amelia and Houston both have emotional baggage to help one another
overcome. Houston is a tortured and scarred hero, so this is another
Beauty
and the Beast story (
I love those). I saw some of the other reviews on Goodreads were concerned about the plot and
the way that Dallas` interruption plays out in the story, but for me it worked.
The second half of the book was the test to the love that blossomed in the
first half. Sure, the characters loved one another, but their emotional baggage
hadn`t been resolved by the time they arrived at the ranch and they`d made
promises they felt obliged to fulfill. Both of those issues needed to be resolved for a satisifying happily-ever-after. Heath had me hooked from the first page, and I enjoyed the book
right through to the end.
*****
THE RESTORER by
Amanda Stevens
Category: Contemporary Paranormal with Romantic Elements
Hero: Detective John Devlin (though this isn't a typical romance)
Heroine: Amelia Gray
Story: This is book one of Stevens' Graveyard Queen series. Amelia Gray,
who is a graveyard restorer, sees ghosts, but she has been trained by her
father to ignore the displaced spirits. Unfortunately, when a murder victim is
discovered in one of her restoration projects, she is drawn into ghostly
interactions, primarily through the intriguing and attractive detective, John
Devlin, who is haunted by his dead wife and daughter.
My Thoughts: In early January, I read Amanda Steven's book
Abandoned, which was free on the Kobo.
Abandoned was the prequel for the
Graveyard series. I enjoyed it, and had decided then to look for more books in
the series: the stories are about cemeteries, which I enjoy; there is a
paranormal element, which I enjoy; and, most importantly, Stevens' writing drew
me into the story. In
The Restorer, Stevens' writing is poetic and spooky,
making it even more enchanting than the prequel. The attraction between John
and Amelia is nicely integrated, but it was only one of the many layers of the
novel. I knew that this book was part of a series from the beginning, which is
important for me. (I like to know from the beginning if I should expect all of the
questions to be answered by the end of the book. In a series that is less
important.) Stevens integrated enough larger character questions to keep the story
flowing into the next book in the series, but the major plot questions for this novel were resolved. I
highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a spooky and intriguing ghost
story / murder mystery. According to Amazon, the next book in the Graveyard Queen series is to be release on March 27th! Yay!